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Archibald_Sinclair,_1st_Viscount_Thurso

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Sinclair,_1st_Viscount_Thurso

Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso, (22 October 1890 – 15 June 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a Scottish politician and leader of the Liberal Party. Background and education Sinclair was born in 1890 in Caithness, Scotland. Sinclair was the son of a Scottish father, Clarence Granville Sinclair, and his American wife Mabel Sands, daughter of Mahlon Day Sands, and half-sister of Ethel Sands. His mother died shortly after his birth, and his father in 1895. He was brought up in families including those of his paternal grandfather Sir Tollemache Sinclair, 3rd Baronet, his uncle William Macdonald Sinclair, and Owen Williams, married to his aunt Nina. Educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Sinclair was commissioned into the Life Guards in 1910. In 1912, he succeeded his grandfather as the fourth Baronet of Ulbster. He became one of the largest landowners in the United Kingdom, owning an estate of about 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) in Caithness. His recreations included polo and flying: he was a keen aviator. At this period he made a friend of Winston Churchill. Colin Coote in his memoirs wrote of Sinclair's "irresistible charm, allied to the face and figure of an Adonis". The handsome Sinclair was at this period thought of as a possible husband for Nellie Hozier, younger sister of Clementine Churchill. Military career Sinclair served on the Western Front during the First World War, in 1915 as aide de camp to J. E. B. Seely who commanded the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. He rose to the rank of Major in the Guards Machine Gun Regiment. After Winston Churchill resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty, Sinclair served as his second-in-command when Churchill took up command at the beginning of 1916 of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Churchill arranged the transfer with Douglas Haig, who turned down the request that Seely should be moved too, and also refused him Edward Spears. They were stationed in the Ploegsteert Wood sector of the Western Front. Working with Churchill From 1919 to 1921 Sinclair served as Personal Military Secretary to Churchill, when he returned to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for War, and then accompanied him to the Colonial Office as Private Secretary. Sinclair's duties included acting as liaison for Churchill with the Secret Intelligence Service. He had dealings with George Alexander Hill and Malcolm Wollcombe, agent in the Soviet Union for Mansfield Smith-Cumming. Stewart Menzies who had the official liaison role at the War Office was a personal friend. Sinclair collated humint and technical intelligence for Churchill, for example on Leonid Krasin. He also assisted in the delicate handling of Boris Savinkov, who was brought to London. It was Sinclair who introduced the prominent British agent Sidney Reilly to Nikolai Alekseyev, intelligence chief of the White Russian leader Alexander Guchkov. Political career 1922–1939 In 1922, Sinclair entered the House of Commons as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Caithness and Sutherland, supporting David Lloyd George and defeating the incumbent Liberal supporter of H. H. Asquith. He rose through the Liberal ranks as the party shrank in Parliament, becoming Chief Whip by 1930. At this period he worked on land policy with Lloyd George, including the "Tartan Book" that addressed Scottish devolution. In July 1931, a meeting took place at Sinclair's house, where Oswald Mosley and Harold Nicolson met Churchill, Lloyd George and Brendan Bracken, to discuss a political alliance. About a month later, the Liberal Party joined the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald, with Sinclair appointed Secretary of State for Scotland. He was sworn of the Privy Council at the same time. In 1932, he, together with other Liberal ministers led by Herbert Samuel, resigned from the government in protest at the Ottawa Conference introducing Imperial Preference. In the 1935 general election, Herbert Samuel lost his seat, and Sinclair became the Liberal Party's leader at the head of 20 MPs. During the Abdication Crisis of 1936, his name was put forward as a possible leader of a government that might be formed if Edward VIII held onto the throne against the wishes of the Baldwin administration. Churchill came to support the King's position, and Lord Beaverbrook entertained the idea of Sinclair as Prime Minister. Both Clement Attlee for Labour and Sinclair for the Liberals, however, in late November ruled out forming a government under those circumstances. Sinclair consistently opposed the continental dictatorships and kept the National Liberals at arms length. He supported the League of Nations and collective security. He backed, as did Attlee, Churchill's book Arms and the Covenant. He joined the Anti-Nazi Council of Eugen Spier, with Churchill and Violet Bonham Carter, Margaret Bondfield and Hugh Dalton. Public opinion at this point of the later 1930s by no means agreed, and John Alfred Spender attacked Sinclair in The Times on foreign policy, claiming that he, like the League of Nations Union, wished for war with the Axis Powers. At the time of the Munich Crisis in September 1938, Sinclair was one of the anti-appeasement group who gathered around Churchill, with Leo Amery, Robert Boothby, Robert Cecil, Harold Macmillan and Harold Nicolson. During parliamentary debate over the Munich Agreement he attacked Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for "wilting" to Nazi Germany and tossing "justice and respect for treaties... to the winds." On a personal level, Violet Bonham Carter was a frequent guest of the Sinclairs at Dalnawillan Lodge in the Flow Country, as were Harcourt Johnstone and Lady Gwendoline Churchill, wife of Jack Churchill and Winston's sister-in-law. Bonham Carter was a Liberal activist, close follower of Churchill, anti-appeaser and League of Nations Union member. Second World War When Churchill formed an all-party coalition government in 1940, Sinclair entered the cabinet as Secretary of State for Air. During the May 1940 British war cabinet crisis after the fall of France he sided with Churchill against Lord Halifax's plan to seek a negotiated settlement with Nazi Germany mediated by Fascist Italy. Sinclair's first task was to work with the Royal Air Force in planning the Battle of Britain. Towards the end of the war, he found himself at odds with Churchill, arguing against Bomber Harris's strategy for the Bombing of Dresden and other German cities. He was not a strong political personality: Max Hastings reports that he was often regarded as the "Head of School's fag" to Churchill, and as the political mouthpiece rather than the master of Air Chief Marshals Portal and Harris. However, in 1942 he did convince Churchill and his cabinet not to carry out reprisals on German villages for war atrocities such as the Lidice massacre. Sinclair remained a minister until May 1945, when the coalition ended. In the 1945 general election, he lost his seat. His margin of defeat was narrow: he came in third place, with the victor Eric Gandar Dower having 61 votes more. Last years At the 1950 general election, Sinclair again stood for his old seat, coming second. In 1952, the year of his first stroke, he accepted elevation to the House of Lords as Viscount Thurso of Ulbster in the County of Caithness. A more serious stroke in 1959 left him largely bedridden and in a state of precarious health, until he died at his home in Twickenham in 1970. Family In 1918 Sinclair married Marigold Forbes (1897–1975), daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Stewart Forbes and Lady Angela Forbes. They had four children: Catherine (1919–2007), married 1957 Kazimierz Zielenkiewicz. Elizabeth (1921–1994), married in 1942 Archibald Michael Lyle, son of Sir Archibald Lyle, 2nd Baronet, and was mother of Veronica Linklater. Robin (1922–1995), married 1952 Margaret Beaumont Robertson, and was father of John Sinclair, 3rd Viscount Thurso Angus John (1925–2003), married firstly in 1955 Pamela Karen Bower, daughter of Dallas Bower (dissolved 1967), secondly in 1968 Judith Anne Percy (dissolved 1992), thirdly in 1992 Kate Fry. Legacy The Southern Railway named a Battle of Britain Class Light Pacific steam locomotive "Sir Archibald Sinclair". The ceremonial naming of the locomotive was performed by Sir Archibald himself at Waterloo station on 24 February 1948. The SR number of the locomotive was 21C159 and its British Railways number was 34059. References Bibliography Bouverie, Tim (2019). Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War (1 ed.). New York: Tim Duggan Books. ISBN 978-0-451-49984-4. Violet Bonham Carter, ed. Mark Pottle, Champion Redoubtable: The Diaries of Violet Bonham Carter 1914–1945 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998). Gerard DeGroot, Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair (New York University Press, 1993). Hastings, Max (1979). Bomber Command (1 ed.). Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-1603-8. ed. Ian Hunter, Winston and Archie: The collected correspondence of Winston Churchill and Sir Archibald Sinclair (Politico's, 2005). Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006). External links Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Thurso Sir Archibald Sinclair (Viscount Thurso) 1890–1970 biography from the Liberal Democrat History Group Newspaper clippings about Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW The Papers of Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso held at Churchill Archives Centre

Ethel_Sands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Sands

Ethel Sands (6 July 1873 – 19 March 1962) was an American-born artist and hostess who lived in England from childhood. She studied art in Paris, where she met her life partner Anna Hope Hudson. Her works were generally still lifes and interiors, often of Château d'Auppegard that she shared with Hudson. Sands was a Fitzroy Street Group and London Group member. Her works are in London's National Portrait Gallery and other public collections. In 1916, she became a naturalised British citizen. Although a major art patron and an artist, she is most remembered as a hostess for the cultural elite, including Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry and Augustus John. Early life Ethel Sands was born on 6 July 1873 in Newport, Rhode Island, the first child of Mary Morton (Hartpence) and Mahlon Day Sands, who married in 1872. Mahlon Sands was secretary of the American Free Trade League, who in 1870 advocated for civil service reform and free trade. He was partner of his deceased father's pharmaceutical importing firm, A.B. Sands and Company. Ethel had two younger brothers, Mahlon Alan and Morton Harcourt Sands, who were, respectively, 5 and 11 years younger. In 1874, the family left the United States for England, intending to only visit the country. However, Mahlon Sands and his family stayed in England and travelled among European countries. They also visited the United States annually and were there for an extended visit from 1877 to 1879. They kept their house in Newport, Rhode Island throughout this time. The wealthy Sands circulated among London society, including writer and statesman John Morley, politician William Ewart Gladstone, writer Henry James, artist John Singer Sargent, the Rothschild family, and Henry Graham White. Mahlon's sister, Katherine, was married to journalist and newspaper editor Edwin Lawrence Godkin. They were part of Edward VII, then Prince of Wales', social circle. John Singer Sargent painted the portrait of her mother, who was considered "a famous society beauty of her day." Mary Sands was "much admired" by writer Henry James, who called her "that gracious lady" and based his heroic character "Madame de Mauves" on her. Ethel Sands was raised in a respectable upper-class household in which her parents were "happily married". While her father was considered handsome and her mother beautiful, Anthony Powell states that some people wrote in their diaries and letters that she was plain. In her later years, Powell met her and said that "so great was her elegance, charm, capacity to be amusing in a no-nonsense manner, that I could well believed her to be good-looking in her youth. Her father had ridden horseback through Hyde Park, was thrown from the horse and died an accidental death in 1888. His widow, Mary Sands, raised Ethel and her brothers until her death on 28 July 1896. Art Education Encouraged by artist John Singer Sargent, Sands studied painting in Paris at the Académie Carrière under Eugène Carrière for several years, beginning in 1894. There she met fellow student Nan Hudson, born Anna Hope Hudson in the United States, who became her life partner. During this time, Sands became the guardian of her two younger brothers following her mother's death in 1896. Painting Sands painted still lifes and interior settings. Tate suggests that was inspired by Édouard Vuillard's dry brush technique, colour palette and depiction of "intimate" scenes. Her first exhibition was at Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1904. In 1907, at Walter Sickert's invitation, she became a member and exhibited paintings she made at the Fitzroy Street Group. She also purchased the works of other artists. She was one of the artists that founded the London Group. According to author Kate Deepwell, her works, and those of Vanessa Bell and other women, were evaluated differently at that time from those made by men: The best critique of woman's work at the time would be that they had individuality, but they would not have been considered innovative, modern works like those made by men. In Paris in 1911 she had her first show dedicated to her works. Hudson and Sands had a show at Carfax Gallery in 1912. The next year she was part of the "English Post-Impressionists, Cubists and Others" show in Brighton. Her works were exhibited at Goupil Gallery, and in 1922 she had her initial solo show. She also exhibited often at the Women's International Art Club and the New English Art Club. Hudson purchased Château d'Auppegard near Dieppe, France in 1920, which was the subject of several of Sand's paintings. Some of the interior paintings are A Spare Room, Château d'Auppegard and Double Doors, Château d'Auppegard. Other examples are the landscape Auppegard Church from Château, France and one of her partner, Nan Hudson Playing Patience at Auppegard. Her works are in the collections of Tate museum Government Art Collection, and Fitzwilliam Museum. Socialite and patron Like Lady Sibyl Colefax and Lady Ottoline Morrell, Sands entertained artists and writers with the intention to nurture and discuss ideas relevant to their careers. Lady Ottoline Morrell "took over" Sand's Chelsea house for entertainment after she had to give up her London house at Bedford Square. Affiliated with the Bloomsbury Group, she was best-known as "one of the leading artist hostesses of her time", her lavish affairs were financially possible due to the significant wealth she inherited from her parents. She was mainly at the Oxford, Newington house until 1920, but when in England she also entertained at her London Lowndes Street house, and between 1913 and 1937 at 15 Vale, Chelsea, London house, where she lived near her mother's friend, Henry James. Notable artists Augustus John and Walter Sickert. Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry and Arnold Bennett were among the writers of the "cultural elite" who visited her. Her friends included artist Jacques-Émile Blanche, writer Edith Wharton, poet William Butler Yeats, essayist and critic Logan Pearsall Smith and novelist Howard Overing Sturgis. Lytton Strachey (a founder of the Bloomsbury Group) met at Sands' house and her uncle, Edwin Lawrence Godkin wrote of his upcoming visit to Sands' house in Oxfordshire, "There one fortnight, and then back to "holy wars", patriotism, and buncombe..." She was a patron and collector of works by other contemporary artists. For instance, she commissioned Boris Anrep, a Russian immigrant, to create mosaics and murals in her Vale, Chelsea house. Sands continued to entertain into the 1950s with her friends, including Duncan Grant and Desmond MacCarthy, until he died in 1952. She was described as a "plain woman of immense charm, cultivation and perception, and a painter of considerable talent" in the Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction. It was suggested there that Henry James modelled the character Nanda in The Awkward Age after Sands. World wars Sands tended to soldiers who had been injured in France during World War I, having established a hospital for soldiers near Dieppe with Hudson. It was forced to close down, and they continued their nursing efforts in both France and England. Sands was then in Britain working as a forewoman in a factory that made overalls. In 1916 she became a British citizenship. During World War II, Sands served as a nurse. The house in Chelsea, London was destroyed during The Blitz by a parachute mine, and the house in France was broken into and its contents were stolen or destroyed. The two war-time events resulted in the loss of most of Sands' and Hudson's works. Personal life Sands and Hudson divided their time between England and France to accommodate their lifestyle preferences. Hudson enjoyed living a relatively quiet life in France and Sands liked the London and Oxford social life. Sands entertained people within and outside of the cultural elite throughout her life. When Hudson's health began to fail, Sands nursed her until she died in 1957. Sand continued to entertain after Hudson's death. Her date of death was 19 March 1962. Friend Virginia Woolf wrote a sketch based upon her called "The Lady in the Looking Glass", subtitled "A Reflection", about a time that she saw her come "in from the garden and not reading her letters." The mirror symbolised the way in which art is used to take a snapshot in time, but can also cut. Wendy Baron, an author and art historian, wrote a biography about Sands, partly based upon the letters that Sands exchanged with Hudson and others. Tate Archives now holds the correspondence. Works Among the works that survived World War II plunders and bombings are: Notes References Further reading Wendy Baron. Miss Ethel Sands and her circle. Owen; April 1977, ISBN 0-7206-0304-8 Sarah Bradford; Honor Clerk. The Sitwells and the Arts of the 1920s and 1930s. University of Texas Press; 1994. ISBN 978-0-292-77711-8. p. 45, 64, 68, 204. Lara Feigel; Alexandra Harris. Modernism on Sea: Art and Culture at the British Seaside. Peter Lang; 2009. ISBN 978-1-906165-24-6. p. 62–63, 250, 251. Genevieve Marie Preston. A Modern Setting for a Modern Life: Madame Stringberg, Ethel Sands, and Lady Drogheda's Innovative and Avant-garde Interiors. University of California, Riverside; 1998. External links 20 artworks by or after Ethel Sands at the Art UK site

Anna_Hope_Hudson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Hope_Hudson

Anna Hope Hudson (1869–1957) was an American-born artist who lived and worked in France and England. She was a founding member of the London Group, and the life partner of likewise artist Ethel Sands. Early life Hudson was born 10 September 1869 in New York City. She was the daughter of Colonel Edward McKenny Hudson, who died in 1892; her mother died when she was 9 years old. She lived in the United States until she was 24 when she moved to Europe, preferring France of the places she lived and visited. The inheritance that she received was the result of her grandfather's success as a partner of a banknote engraving organization, which later merged to become the American Bank Note Company. Education Hudson began her studies in Paris in 1892 and met fellow art student Ethel Sands, who became her life partner. Like Sands, Hudson was provided a legacy upon her parents' death. They studied under Eugène Carrière in 1896. Henri Evenepoel, a Flemish painter, was Hudson's art instructor beginning in January 1897. Artist Hudson lived and painted with Ethel Sands, dividing their time between France and England. Sands was a socialite who frequently entertained artists and writers when they were in England. Hudson preferred a quieter lifestyle in France, and it was there that Hudson first established herself as an artist. She made a painting of Giudecca Canal after travelling to Venice to paint. It was shown at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1906. Walter Sickert, who know Hudson through her association with Sands, had not known of her works. Impressed, he shared his opinions about her talent and invited her to the Fitzroy Street Group. Sands also joined the group, where both women sometimes attended and often sent paintings for the Saturday "At Homes" sessions. Walter Sickert, who captured her confident, independent manner in Miss Hudson at Rowlandson House that he made about 1910, described Hudson as "the radiant and dashing horsewoman of a young man's dreams." Virginia Woolf said that she dressed stylishly and was "dour and upstanding." In England, Hudson began exhibiting her works at Leicester Galleries, the New English Art Club and the Allied Artists Association. In 1912, she had a joint show with Sands at the Carfax Gallery. The Fitzroy Street Group and the male member only Camden Town Group} merged in 1913 to become the London Group, of which both Sands and Hudson were founding members. Hudson occasionally exhibited her work there until 1938. She also continued to have works shown at the English Art Club. At Sickert's invitation, Hudson occasionally work in his studios and used his models for subjects of her paintings. Her works, inspired by Édouard Vuillard and Walter Sickert, were in large part destroyed or lost during World War II. There are some remaining works in public collections and one at the Tate. World wars Sands and Hudson established a hospital for soldiers near Dieppe during World War I. It was forced to close down, and they continued their nursing efforts in both France and England. During World War II, Hudson's home was pillaged and Sand's Chelsea home was destroyed during The Blitz by a parachute mine. Personal life Hudson purchased the 17th-century house, the Château d'Auppegard, in 1920. It was located in the countryside about 10 miles from Dieppe. She had it restored and decorated her beloved house over a period of time. Sands and Hudson lived together until her death on 17 September 1957. Works Among the works that survived World War II plunders and bombings are: Château d'Auppegard, after 1927, oil on board, 46.2 x 38.2 cm (estimated) Tate, having been bequeathed by Colonel Christopher Sands in 2000. Harbour, Northern France, Dieppe,oil on board, 35 x 43 cm, Government Art Collection Newington House, Autumn, Oxfordshire, 1913, oil on canvas, 60.8 x 73.1 cm, Derby Museums and Art Gallery The Lamb Inn, Wallingford, 1912 The Visitor, oil on canvas, 37.5 x 24.8 cm, York Museums Trust Notes References External links 4 artworks by or after Anna Hope Hudson at the Art UK site

Argentina_at_the_FIFA_World_Cup

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina_at_the_FIFA_World_Cup

This is a record of Argentina's results at the FIFA World Cup. Argentina is one of the most successful teams in the tournament's history, having won three World Cups: in 1978, 1986, and 2022. Argentina has also been runner-up three times: in 1930, 1990 and 2014. In 18 World Cup tournaments, Argentina has 47 victories in 88 matches. The team was present in all but four of the World Cups, being behind only Brazil and Germany in number of appearances. World Cup record **Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil. World Cup Finals All matches World Cup Finals 1930 v Uruguay The inaugural FIFA World Cup tournament culminated with Argentina facing hosts and current Olympic champions Uruguay. The match was turned twice: Argentina went into half-time with a 2–1 lead in spite of an early goal for Uruguay, but the hosts ultimately won 4–2. Guillermo Stábile, one of Argentina's scorers, became the tournament's top striker with 8 goals total. 1978 v the Netherlands Argentina hosted the 1978 edition of the World Cup and reached the final. The Netherlands had already played the previous final in West Germany 1974 - and also lost to the hosts. Diego Maradona was 17 years old at this point and already a star in his home country, but did not make the squad as coach César Luis Menotti felt he was too inexperienced to handle the pressure of this major tournament. The playmaker position was instead filled by Mario Kempes, who ended up becoming the first Argentinian to win the Golden Ball in addition to being the tournament's top scorer with 6 goals. The Dutch side was missing a superstar of their own: Johan Cruyff did not join the 1978 World Cup squads due to the aftermath of a kidnapping attempt which occurred in 1977. He only disclosed this information 30 years later. The closely contested match was influenced by a hostile atmosphere and ended with the Dutch players refusing to attend the award ceremony after Argentina grabbed the title in extra time. 1986 v West Germany Eight years after the victory on home soil, Argentina won the World Cup title for the second time. Diego Maradona was voted Best Player of the tournament after scoring five goals and assisting the decisive 3-2 by Jorge Burruchaga in the 84th minute of the final. The match was played in front of a record attendance of 114,600 people. 1990 v West Germany In 1990, Argentina faced West Germany in a repeat of the 1986 edition. Pedro Monzón became the first player ever to be sent off in a World Cup final, but was later joined by teammate Gustavo Dezotti. The match was decided by a penalty kick in favour of Germany. 2014 v Germany In 2014, Argentina reached the final for the fifth time and for a third time had to face the German team, making it the most recurrent meeting for a final. In spite of a number of chances on both sides, regular time finished goalless. In the second half of extra time, substitute striker Mario Götze scored the decisive goal for Germany. 2022 v France Argentina opened up the scoring when Messi scored a penalty kick, and doubled their lead with a Di Maria goal in the 36th minute. France made two substitutions in the first half, but went into half-time trailing 0–2. Despite not having a shot until after the 80th minute, France were awarded a penalty as Randal Kolo Muani was brought down in the penalty area. Mbappé scored the penalty, and added a second goal less than two minutes later to equalise the scores. With the scores tied, the match went to extra time. Messi scored again for Argentina in the second extra time half. Mbappé was awarded a second penalty in the 118th minute after his initial shot hit the arm of Gonzalo Montiel. Mbappé scored his third goal, becoming the second player to score a hat-trick in the final of a men's World Cup. With the scores tied at 3–3, the match was completed by a penalty shootout. Argentina won the final after scoring all of their penalties, winning 4–2. Record by opponent Argentina have played a total of 88 FIFA World Cup games through 18 tournaments, facing 39 rivals. Teams in bold denote world cup winners, teams in italics show teams which played its first match ever in a World Cup against Argentina. Teams with a * mark no longer exist. East Germany was annexed to Germany. Soviet Union now plays as Russia. +Played as Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro. Head coaches Through Argentinian team history, several coaches had trained it with different football styles from offensive to defensive tactics. There are two predominant 'football schools' about world champions coaches César Menotti who propagates possession and well-look play and Carlos Bilardo who prioritize results and tactical order. These head coaches divides Argentine fans kindly. Other managers such as Marcelo Bielsa has got his own football style. In another way this list shows records in World Cups and in qualifying stages excluding friendlies. From 1994 towards, three points are given for a win. Previously were two. Against conferences FIFA delegates regional qualification and other organization affairs to continental conferences, so it divides into six differents of them grouped by geographical location. Argentina plays in CONMEBOL conference in South America. Due to World Cup rules that two teams of same confederation can not play in the same group in first round except for UEFA, it commonly faces teams which plays outside its continent most recently from Africa and Asia. Argentine national has never played versus an Oceanian (OFC) squad. Against debutants 'Albiceleste' has played against first-world-cup teams more than other, doing so 17 times, 7 of them being the first World Cup match ever. This list shows records versus those selections including all-debutants 1930 edition. Curiously, Argentina's debut was versus France which previously had played before. Sweden, Bulgaria, Greece, Japan, Ivory Coast, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland played its first time against Argentina.France, Mexico, Chile, United States, Uruguay, Northern Ireland, Haiti, East Germany, Jamaica and Croatia played in its first world cup but after first game. Records and statistics Most appearances Lionel Messi has captained the team in 19 matches. Lionel Messi's total of 26 matches is a record for the side and the most for a player at the FIFA World Cup. Top goalscorers Goalscoring by tournament Awards Team World Champions 1978 World Champions 1986 World Champions 2022 2nd Place 1930 2nd Place 1990 2nd Place 2014 Fair Play Award 1978 Individual Golden Ball 1978: Mario Kempes Golden Ball 1986: Diego Maradona Golden Ball 2014: Lionel Messi Golden Ball 2022: Lionel Messi Silver Ball 1930: Guillermo Stábile Bronze Ball 1990: Diego Maradona Golden Boot 1930: Guillermo Stábile Golden Boot 1978: Mario Kempes Silver Boot 1986: Diego Maradona Silver Boot 1998: Gabriel Batistuta Silver Boot 2006: Hernán Crespo Silver Boot 2022: Lionel Messi Golden Glove 1978: Ubaldo Fillol Golden Glove 1990: Sergio Goycochea (shared with Luis Gabelo Conejo) Golden Glove 2022: Emiliano Martínez Best Young Player 2022: Enzo Fernández Most Player of the Match Awards 2014 (4) and 2022 (5): Lionel Messi Most Player of the Match Awards over various World Cups by a single player (11): Lionel Messi José Pékerman won the FIFA Fair Play Trophy as a coach with Colombia in 2014. Standing alone Most played final against the same team: 3 times versus Germany in 1986, 1990 and 2014. Most played against the same team in same stage: 5 times versus Nigeria in 1994, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018 all in group stage. Last three of them make most times consecutive, too. All won by Argentina by one goal difference. Most played semifinals without losses: 5 times won in 1930 and 1986 while drawn in 1990 and 2014. Although in 1978 there weren't semifinals, Argentina won second round group ahead of Brazil which disputed 3rd place match against Italy. Even more, game against Brazil ended in a 0–0 draw. Most played penalty shoot-outs: 7 (twice in 1990, 1998, 2006, 2014 and twice in 2022). Fewest goals for a finalist: 1990 (5). Youngest coach: Juan José Tramutola aged 27 years and 267 days in 1930. Most hat-tricks scored in multiple editions: Gabriel Batistuta in 1994 against Greece and in 1998 against Jamaica. Shared Most played against the same team: 7 times versus Germany in 1958, 1966, 1986, 1990, 2006, 2010 and 2014. Shared with Germany vs Yugoslavia/Serbia and Brazil vs Sweden. Most won penalty shoot-outs: 6 times (twice in 1990, 1998, 2014 and twice in 2022). Most coached finals: 2 times by Carlos Bilardo in 1986 and 1990. Shared with Italian Vittorio Pozzo (1934-1938), German Helmut Schön (1966-1974), Brazilian Mário Zagallo (1970-1998) German Franz Beckenbauer who faced Bilardo in both 1986 and 1990, and French Didier Deschamps (2018-2022). Miscellaneous Argentina's game versus West Germany in 1958 featured a yellow jersey instead of the traditional light blue and white colors or blue as alternate. This was because both teams wore white jerseys, creating confusion. As the South American side forgot to bring an alternate one, they decided to borrow jerseys from local team club Malmö. Germany won 3–1. In the 1978 France - Hungary match something similar occurred. Both teams arrived to the match with white jerseys, so France was forced to borrow jerseys from Mar del Plata's local club Kimberley. France wore striped green and white keeping the traditional blue shorts and red socks. France won 3–1. The stadium José María Minella is the southernmost World Cup venue located at 38°0′0″S 57°33′0″W. Including France vs. Hungary, several matches of the 1978 World Cup were played in this stadium. Mar del Plata is in the south of Buenos Aires Province. Referees As a major CONMEBOL member, Argentina has been represented by match officials in nearly every tournament. In 2006, Horacio Elizondo refereed the final between France and Italy, where he sent off Zinedine Zidane after a headbutt to an opponent. In 2018, Néstor Pitana did it when France played versus Croatia. They are also the only two who refereed the opening game in the same tournament. See also Disaster of Sweden Argentina at the Copa América South American nations at the FIFA World Cup External links Official website, at the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino's website FIFA world cup all-time table Notes == References ==

Mayor_Max_II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_Max_II

Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II (May 6, 2013 – July 30, 2022) was a golden retriever dog who served as the second unofficial mayor of Idyllwild, part of the census-designated place of Idyllwild–Pine Cove, California. His deputy mayors, Mitzi and Mikey, were his cousins. After his death Mayor Max II was succeeded by his cousin Max III, who was sworn in on December 10, 2022. Mayorality In 2012, the non-profit organization Idyllwild Animal Rescue Friends (ARF) hosted an "election" for mayor of Idyllwild (which, as part of an unincorporated community, has no local government) as part of a fundraising event for the organization. Fourteen dogs and two cats ran, and Max, a Golden Retriever, was elected as Idyllwild's first mayor. On April 2, 2013, Mayor Max died, and Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II, another Golden Retriever, arrived in Idyllwild on July 21 to complete the remainder of the term. In March 2014, as the end of Max's term approached, ARF solicited the town's interest in holding another election. The people overwhelmingly pled for Mayor Max's continuation in perpetuity. Mayor Max was recognized by the County of Riverside, California. The Mayor's duties included visiting with locals and out-of-town visitors, attending business grand openings and other town functions, participating in the town's two annual parades, and promoting Idyllwild. Max's popularity had spread the world over, and he has represented the town through appearances on news programs, talk shows, advertisements, billboards, and a game show. Death Mayor Max died in the city of Temecula on July 30, 2022, after suffering a brief medical issue. He was succeeded by Mayor Max III, who formally took office on December 10, 2022. See also List of individual dogs References External links Mayor Max, Mayor of Idyllwild, California - Official website

Golden_Retriever

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Retriever

The Golden Retriever is a Scottish breed of retriever dog of medium size. It is characterised by a gentle and affectionate nature and a striking golden coat. It is a working dog, and registration is subject to successful completion of a working trial. It is commonly kept as a pet and is among the most frequently registered breeds in several Western countries; some may compete in dog shows or obedience trials, or work as a guide dog. The Golden Retriever was bred by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks at his Scottish estate Guisachan in the late nineteenth century. He cross-bred Flat-coated Retrievers with Tweed Water Spaniels, with some further infusions of Red Setter, Labrador Retriever and Bloodhound. It was recognised by the Kennel Club in 1913, and during the interwar period spread to many parts of the world. History The Golden Retriever was developed in Scotland in the nineteenth century by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks (later to become Baron Tweedmouth) from Flat-coated Retrievers judiciously crossed with Tweed Water Spaniels and some other British dog breeds. Prior to the 1952 publication of the very detailed stud book which had been meticulously maintained by Marjoribanks, a number of romantic tales were published about the origins of the breed. In the 1860s Marjoribanks set out to create what to his mind was the ultimate breed of retriever at his Scottish estate Guisachan. He started by acquiring a yellow-coloured Flat-coated Retriever dog called Nous; Nous had been whelped in June 1864 and was the only yellow pup in an otherwise all black-coloured litter. Whilst uncommon, occasionally liver, brown, golden or yellow-coloured purebred Flat-coated Retriever pups are whelped to matings of two black parents. It is the pedigree of Nous that was the source for the romantic tales of the heritage of the Golden Retriever. One early account claimed Nous was purchased from a Russian circus trainer in Brighton, another claimed he was bought from a cobbler, and yet another claimed a gypsy. The stud book states that Nous was a Flat-coated Retriever bred by Lord Chichester on his Stanmer Park estate near Brighton. In 1868 Nous was mated to a Tweed Water Spaniel bitch named Belle, who is recorded in the stud book as being whelped in 1863 and being of "Ladykirk breeding". The litter from this mating consisted of four yellow pups, Primrose, Ada, Cowslip and Crocus. The best bitch from this litter, Cowslip, was mated to a Tweed Water Spaniel called Tweed with the mating producing a bitch pup called Topsy. Cowslip was subsequently mated to a Red Setter called Sampson; that mating produced a dog pup called Jack. Topsy was mated with a black Flat-coated Retriever called Sambo and a bitch pup from that litter, Zoe, was mated back to Jack and two pups from that mating were retained, a dog called Nous II and a bitch called Gill. Gill was mated to a black Labrador Retriever called Tracer, and a bitch pup from that mating, Queenie, was mated back to Nous II; all Golden Retrievers descend from this mating. The progeny from these various matings varied in colour from pure black to light cream, but it was the golden-coloured ones that were retained and mated to each other, forming the foundation stock of the Golden Retriever breed. Marjoribanks is also known to have used a sandy-coloured Bloodhound and another Labrador in subsequent years of the breeding programme. In 1952 Marjoribanks's great-nephew, Giles Fox-Strangways, 6th Earl of Ilchester, teamed up with Elma Stonex and together they studied Marjoribanks's stud book. In 1960 their research was published, presenting all of the evidence required to counter all tales of Russian ancestry. The stud book, which covers the period from 1868 to 1890, is preserved in the library of the Kennel Club in London. In the early days Golden Retrievers were called the 'Flat-coated Retriever, Golden', Initially the Golden Retriever was considered a colour variety of the former breed. In 1903 the Kennel Club recorded the first examples, listing them in the same register as Flat-coats. In 1904 a Golden Retriever won a field trial and in 1908 the first examples were exhibited at conformation shows. In 1911 a breed club was formed for the breed in England, the Golden Retriever Club, and they were given a new name, the 'Yellow or Golden Retriever'; from this point they were increasingly seen as a separate breed from the Flat-coated Retriever. It was not until 1913 that the Kennel Club began recording them on a separate breed register from the Flat-coated Retriever and in 1920 the 'Yellow or' was dropped from the breed name and they were officially called the 'Golden Retriever'. One early twentieth century enthusiast of the breed, Winifred Charlesworth, was instrumental in the establishment of the breed club as well as its separate Kennel Club recognition. It was she who drew up the first breed standard, which was adopted by the Kennel Club and with only minor amendments and remains largely unchanged. She bred and exhibited the first Golden Retriever Show Champion, was a strong advocate for maintaining the working instincts of the breed, and she is credited with popularising it at field trials and introducing it to shooting sportsmen. In the years after the First World War its popularity increased markedly and in the 1920s and 1930s it spread through much of the Western world. The Canadian Kennel Club recognised the breed in 1927, the American Kennel Club in 1932; the first examples were registered in France in 1934 and Australia in 1937. The worldwide popularity of the breed meant it did not suffer the misfortunes many British dog breeds did during the Second World War due to British wartime restrictions on the breeding of larger dogs, with ample quality breeding stock available globally to ensure none of its characteristics were lost. Since the 1940s its popularity has continued to grow, and it has become one of the most recognised and most frequently registered dog breeds in the Western world. Description Appearance The Golden Retriever is a powerfully built, medium-sized breed of dog; according to the Kennel Club breed standard, dogs stand from 56 to 61 centimetres (22 to 24 in) and bitches from 51 to 56 centimetres (20 to 22 in). Healthy adult examples typically weigh between 25 and 34 kilograms (55 and 75 lb). The Golden Retriever has a broad head with a well-defined stop, with dark eyes set well apart, a wide and powerful muzzle, a large black nose, dark-pigmented and slightly drooping flews, and ears of moderate size set high and hanging with a slight fold. The neck is muscular and fairly long with loose-fitting skin, the shoulders well laid-back and long-bladed, and the body deep through the chest with well-sprung ribs. The back is usually level from withers to croup and the long, straight tail is usually carried flat, roughly in line with the back. The forelegs are straight with good bone, the hind legs are powerful with well bent stifles and muscular thighs, and the feet are cat-like. The double coat is a recognisable and striking feature: the outer coat is long, flat or wavy and has good feathering on the forelegs, while the undercoat is dense and provides weather resistance. The coat can be any shade of cream, yellow or gold; the coat typically becomes paler with age. The Kennel Club breed standard prohibits red or mahogany-coloured coats, but a few white hairs on the chest are permitted. Originally only yellow or golden coloured examples were permitted, this excluded many outstanding cream coloured dogs; to overcome this in 1936 the Kennel Club's standard was amended to include the cream colour. The cream colour, which in more modern times can be almost white, has become the dominant colour and is particularly favoured by conformation show exhibitors. Golden Retrievers that are bred for conformation shows tend to have longer and finer coats than those bred for working as gundogs. The Kennel Club breed standard is accepted by every kennel club in the world except those of Canada and the United States. Breed standards in North America call for a slightly taller dog and the cream colour is not permitted. Temperament The Golden Retriever is considered an intelligent, gentle natured and very affectionate breed of dog. As is typical with retriever breeds, the breed is generally calm and biddable, being very easy to train and extremely keen to please their master. The breed is known to make excellent pets and family dogs, being generally extremely tolerant of children and keen to accompany any member of the family in a range of activities. Due to their affable natures, the breed is often completely devoid of guarding instincts. However, there have also been reports of some very aggressive Golden Retrievers in certain lineages. It has been suggested that these variations in aggression are partially caused by genetic factors. The breed usually retains many of their gundog traits and instincts including an excellent sense of smell and a strong instinct to retrieve; even among those not trained as gundogs it is typical for Golden Retrievers to present their owners with toys or other objects. Compared to other retriever breeds the Golden Retriever is typically quite slow to mature. Use The Golden Retriever is one of the most commonly kept breeds of companion dog in the Western world, and is often among the top ten dog breeds by number of registrations in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and Canada. It is a frequent competitor at dog shows; separate show lines of the breed have been developed. The dogs can be trained as guide dogs and therapy dogs, and may compete in obedience trials and other dog sports. The Golden Retriever is still used as a gundog by sportsmen, both as a hunting companion in the field and for competing in field trials. It is used more for retrieval of land-based gamebirds such as grouse and partridge than for wildfowl hunting. Those used as gundogs are usually from working lines specifically bred for field use; dogs from pet or show lines are rarely suitable. A Golden Retriever with a traditional dense double coat is well suited to working in cold and wet conditions, as the coat provides water resistance and insulation. Compared to other retriever breeds, the Golden Retriever is not a strong swimmer; its long coat causes it to sit low in the water when swimming. The Golden Retriever is much less commonly used by sportsmen as a hunting companion than the Labrador Retriever. One reason is that the breed is generally quite slow to mature, particularly compared to the Labrador; often when a Golden Retriever is still in basic training a Labrador of the same age has already completed a season of hunting. Another is its long coat, which requires more maintenance and grooming than that of the Labrador, particularly after working in muddy conditions or close cover, as their long hair is more prone to picking up dirt and burrs. More Golden Retrievers are bred as pets or for the show ring than for hunting, so it can be hard for sportsmen to find pups bred from proven working lines. Health A 2024 UK study found a life expectancy of 13.2 years for the breed compared to an average of 12.7 for purebreeds and 12 for crossbreeds. A 2024 Italian study found a life expectancy of 10 years for the breed compared to 10 years overall. A 2005 Swedish study found 22% of Golden Retrievers died by the age of 10, less than the overall rate of 35% of dogs dying by the age of 10. The breed is unusually prone to cancer, with one United States study finding cancer to be the cause of death in approximately 50% of the population, the second highest in the study. Several European studies found a much lower prevalence (20–39%), which may reflect the significant genetic divergence between the American and European populations. They are especially prone to hemangiosarcoma and lymphoma, with an estimated lifetime risk of one in five for the former and one in eight for the latter. The high prevalence of cancer deaths among Golden Retrievers may partly represent a lack of other congenital diseases. One UK study found the risk of metastatic neoplasia in the breed to be 4.86 times higher than other dogs. The Golden Retriever has a genetic predisposition to primary hypothyroidism; a review of 5 different studies found Golden Retrievers to make up 17% of cases. Notable Golden Retrievers Liberty, presidential pet of President Gerald R. Ford. Bailey, pet of 2020 US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. Orca, PDSA Gold Medal recipient for bravery. Mayor Max, elected Mayor of Idyllwild, California. Buddy, dog actor (Air Bud) Explanatory notes References == Further reading ==

Hemangiosarcoma

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemangiosarcoma

Hemangiosarcoma is a rapidly growing, highly invasive variety of cancer that occurs almost exclusively in dogs, and only rarely in cats, horses, mice, or humans (vinyl chloride toxicity). It is a sarcoma arising from the lining of blood vessels; that is, blood-filled channels and spaces are commonly observed microscopically. A frequent cause of death is the rupturing of this tumor, causing the patient to rapidly bleed to death. The term "angiosarcoma", when used without a modifier, usually refers to hemangiosarcoma. However, glomangiosarcoma (8710/3) and lymphangiosarcoma (9170/3) are distinct conditions (in humans). Dogs Hemangiosarcoma is quite common in dogs, and more so in certain breeds including German Shepherds and Golden Retrievers. It also occurs in cats, but much more rarely. Dogs with hemangiosarcoma rarely show clinical signs until the tumor has become very large and has metastasized. Typically, clinical signs are due to hypovolemia after the tumor ruptures, causing extensive bleeding. Owners of the affected dogs often discover that the dog has hemangiosarcoma only after the dog collapses. The tumor most often appears on the spleen, right heart base, or liver, although varieties also appear on or under the skin or in other locations. It is the most common tumor of the heart, and occurs in the right atrium or right auricular appendage. Here it can cause right-sided heart failure, arrhythmias, pericardial effusion, and cardiac tamponade. Hemangiosarcoma of the spleen or liver is the most common tumor to cause hemorrhage in the abdomen. Hemorrhage secondary to splenic and hepatic tumors can also cause ventricular arrhythmias. Hemangiosarcoma of the skin usually appears as a small red or bluish-black lump. It can also occur under the skin. It is suspected that in the skin, hemangiosarcoma is caused by sun exposure. Occasionally, hemangiosarcoma of the skin can be a metastasis from visceral hemangiosarcoma. Other sites the tumor may occur include bone, kidneys, the bladder, muscle, the mouth, and the central nervous system. Clinical features Presenting complaints and clinical signs are usually related to the site of origin of the primary tumor or to the presence of metastases, spontaneous tumor rupture, coagulopathies, or cardiac arrhythmias. More than 50% of patients are presented because of acute collapse after spontaneous rupture of the primary tumor or its metastases. Some episodes of collapse are a result of ventricular arrhythmias, which are relatively common in dogs with splenic or cardiac HSA. Most common clinical signs of visceral hemangiosarcoma include loss of appetite, arrhythmias, weight loss, weakness, lethargy, collapse, pale mucous membranes, and/or sudden death. An enlarged abdomen is often seen due to hemorrhage. Metastasis is most commonly to the liver, omentum, lungs, or brain. A retrospective study published in 1999 by Ware, et al., found a five times greater risk of cardiac hemangiosarcoma in spayed vs. intact female dogs and a 2.4 times greater risk of hemangiosarcoma in neutered dogs as compared to intact males. The validity of this study is in dispute. Clinicopathologic findings Hemangiosarcoma can cause a wide variety of hematologic and hemostatic abnormalities, including anemia, thrombocytopenia (low platelet count), disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC); presence of nRBC, schistocytes, and acanthocytes in the blood smear; and leukocytosis with neutrophilia, left shift, and monocytosis. Diagnosis A definitive diagnosis requires biopsy and histopathology. Cytologic aspirates may be inconclusive with studies reporting various specificity, and negative results may not correlate with absence of disease, as one study concludes "cytological diagnosis of splenic neoplasia is reliable, but a negative result cannot be used to exclude the possibility of splenic neoplasia." This is because of frequent blood contamination and poor exfoliation. Surgical biopsy is the typical approach in veterinary medicine. Imaging modalities may include one ore more of ultrasound, CT, MRI and FDG-PET/CT. FGD-PET/CT may show some benefit over traditional CT for staging and detection of metastasis. Symptoms Dogs rarely show symptoms of hemangiosarcoma until after the tumor ruptures, causing extensive bleeding. Then symptoms can include short-term lethargy, loss of appetite, enlarged abdomen, weakness in the back legs, paled colored tongue and gums, rapid heart rate, and a weak pulse. Treatments Treatment includes chemotherapy and, where practical, removal of the tumor with the affected organ, such as with a splenectomy. Splenectomy alone gives an average survival time of 1–3 months. The addition of chemotherapy, primarily comprising the drug doxorubicin, alone or in combination with other drugs, can increase the average survival time by 2–4 months beyond splenectomy alone. A 2012 paper published the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, in dogs treated with a compound derived from the Coriolus versicolor (commonly known as "Turkey Tail") mushroom showed a favorable response to the agent compared to historical controls of dogs treated with splenectomy and Doxorubicin .:. A controlled, randomized study in 101 dogs was later conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School which showed that the Coriolus versicolor mushroom did not have the same outcome noted in the 2012 paper with 15 dogs. In the 2022 paper by Gednet et al. dogs treated with splenectomy followed by Doxorubicin did better then dogs treated with splenectomy and mushroom agent. Combination of Doxorubicin with the Turkey Tail mushroom also did not improve survival when compared to Doxorubicin alone. However, as noted in the 2012 study, the Turkey Tail mushroom extract did not cause any systemic adverse reactions, even when combined with Doxorubicin.:. Immune therapy based on cultivation of tumor tissue is being developed for dogs. A preventive vaccine based on several proteins commonly found in dog cancers, including hemangiosarcomas, is also being developed. In the skin, it can be cured in most cases with complete surgical removal as long as there is not visceral involvement. Median survival times for stage I is 780 days, where more advanced stages can range from 172 to 307 days. References External links "Heart hemangiosarcoma in Cats and Dogs". Pet Cancer Center. "Hemangiosarcoma". Canine Cancer Awareness. - includes links to current studies "Hemangiosarcoma". Mar Vista Animal Medical Center. Archived from the original on 2004-02-03. Retrieved 2004-01-27. "Hemangiosarcoma in Cats and Dogs". Pet Cancer Center.

Chemotherapy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard regimen. Chemotherapy may be given with a curative intent (which almost always involves combinations of drugs), or it may aim only to prolong life or to reduce symptoms (palliative chemotherapy). Chemotherapy is one of the major categories of the medical discipline specifically devoted to pharmacotherapy for cancer, which is called medical oncology. The term chemotherapy now means the non-specific use of intracellular poisons to inhibit mitosis (cell division) or to induce DNA damage (so that DNA repair can augment chemotherapy). This meaning excludes the more-selective agents that block extracellular signals (signal transduction). Therapies with specific molecular or genetic targets, which inhibit growth-promoting signals from classic endocrine hormones (primarily estrogens for breast cancer and androgens for prostate cancer), are now called hormonal therapies. Other inhibitions of growth-signals, such as those associated with receptor tyrosine kinases, are targeted therapy. The use of drugs (whether chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or targeted therapy) is systemic therapy for cancer: they are introduced into the blood stream (the system) and therefore can treat cancer anywhere in the body. Systemic therapy is often used with other, local therapy (treatments that work only where they are applied), such as radiation, surgery, and hyperthermia. Traditional chemotherapeutic agents are cytotoxic by means of interfering with cell division (mitosis) but cancer cells vary widely in their susceptibility to these agents. To a large extent, chemotherapy can be thought of as a way to damage or stress cells, which may then lead to cell death if apoptosis is initiated. Many of the side effects of chemotherapy can be traced to damage to normal cells that divide rapidly and are thus sensitive to anti-mitotic drugs: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles. This results in the most common side-effects of chemotherapy: myelosuppression (decreased production of blood cells, hence that also immunosuppression), mucositis (inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract), and alopecia (hair loss). Because of the effect on immune cells (especially lymphocytes), chemotherapy drugs often find use in a host of diseases that result from harmful overactivity of the immune system against self (so-called autoimmunity). These include rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, vasculitis and many others. Treatment strategies There are a number of strategies in the administration of chemotherapeutic drugs used today. Chemotherapy may be given with a curative intent or it may aim to prolong life or to palliate symptoms. Induction chemotherapy is the first line treatment of cancer with a chemotherapeutic drug. This type of chemotherapy is used for curative intent.: 55–59  Combined modality chemotherapy is the use of drugs with other cancer treatments, such as surgery, radiation therapy, or hyperthermia therapy. Consolidation chemotherapy is given after remission in order to prolong the overall disease-free time and improve overall survival. The drug that is administered is the same as the drug that achieved remission.: 55–59  Intensification chemotherapy is identical to consolidation chemotherapy but a different drug than the induction chemotherapy is used.: 55–59  Combination chemotherapy involves treating a person with a number of different drugs simultaneously. The drugs differ in their mechanism and side-effects. The biggest advantage is minimising the chances of resistance developing to any one agent. Also, the drugs can often be used at lower doses, reducing toxicity.: 55–59 : 17–18  Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is given prior to a local treatment such as surgery, and is designed to shrink the primary tumor.: 55–59  It is also given for cancers with a high risk of micrometastatic disease.: 42  Adjuvant chemotherapy is given after a local treatment (radiotherapy or surgery). It can be used when there is little evidence of cancer present, but there is risk of recurrence.: 55–59  It is also useful in killing any cancerous cells that have spread to other parts of the body. These micrometastases can be treated with adjuvant chemotherapy and can reduce relapse rates caused by these disseminated cells. Maintenance chemotherapy is a repeated low-dose treatment to prolong remission.: 55–59  Salvage chemotherapy or palliative chemotherapy is given without curative intent, but simply to decrease tumor load and increase life expectancy. For these regimens, in general, a better toxicity profile is expected.: 55–59  All chemotherapy regimens require that the recipient be capable of undergoing the treatment. Performance status is often used as a measure to determine whether a person can receive chemotherapy, or whether dose reduction is required. Because only a fraction of the cells in a tumor die with each treatment (fractional kill), repeated doses must be administered to continue to reduce the size of the tumor. Current chemotherapy regimens apply drug treatment in cycles, with the frequency and duration of treatments limited by toxicity. Effectiveness The effectiveness of chemotherapy depends on the type of cancer and the stage. The overall effectiveness ranges from being curative for some cancers, such as some leukemias, to being ineffective, such as in some brain tumors, to being needless in others, like most non-melanoma skin cancers. Dosage Dosage of chemotherapy can be difficult: If the dose is too low, it will be ineffective against the tumor, whereas, at excessive doses, the toxicity (side-effects) will be intolerable to the person receiving it. The standard method of determining chemotherapy dosage is based on calculated body surface area (BSA). The BSA is usually calculated with a mathematical formula or a nomogram, using the recipient's weight and height, rather than by direct measurement of body area. This formula was originally derived in a 1916 study and attempted to translate medicinal doses established with laboratory animals to equivalent doses for humans. The study only included nine human subjects. When chemotherapy was introduced in the 1950s, the BSA formula was adopted as the official standard for chemotherapy dosing for lack of a better option. The validity of this method in calculating uniform doses has been questioned because the formula only takes into account the individual's weight and height. Drug absorption and clearance are influenced by multiple factors, including age, sex, metabolism, disease state, organ function, drug-to-drug interactions, genetics, and obesity, which have major impacts on the actual concentration of the drug in the person's bloodstream. As a result, there is high variability in the systemic chemotherapy drug concentration in people dosed by BSA, and this variability has been demonstrated to be more than ten-fold for many drugs. In other words, if two people receive the same dose of a given drug based on BSA, the concentration of that drug in the bloodstream of one person may be 10 times higher or lower compared to that of the other person. This variability is typical with many chemotherapy drugs dosed by BSA, and, as shown below, was demonstrated in a study of 14 common chemotherapy drugs. The result of this pharmacokinetic variability among people is that many people do not receive the right dose to achieve optimal treatment effectiveness with minimized toxic side effects. Some people are overdosed while others are underdosed. For example, in a randomized clinical trial, investigators found 85% of metastatic colorectal cancer patients treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) did not receive the optimal therapeutic dose when dosed by the BSA standard—68% were underdosed and 17% were overdosed. There has been controversy over the use of BSA to calculate chemotherapy doses for people who are obese. Because of their higher BSA, clinicians often arbitrarily reduce the dose prescribed by the BSA formula for fear of overdosing. In many cases, this can result in sub-optimal treatment. Several clinical studies have demonstrated that when chemotherapy dosing is individualized to achieve optimal systemic drug exposure, treatment outcomes are improved and toxic side effects are reduced. In the 5-FU clinical study cited above, people whose dose was adjusted to achieve a pre-determined target exposure realized an 84% improvement in treatment response rate and a six-month improvement in overall survival (OS) compared with those dosed by BSA. In the same study, investigators compared the incidence of common 5-FU-associated grade 3/4 toxicities between the dose-adjusted people and people dosed per BSA. The incidence of debilitating grades of diarrhea was reduced from 18% in the BSA-dosed group to 4% in the dose-adjusted group and serious hematologic side effects were eliminated. Because of the reduced toxicity, dose-adjusted patients were able to be treated for longer periods of time. BSA-dosed people were treated for a total of 680 months while people in the dose-adjusted group were treated for a total of 791 months. Completing the course of treatment is an important factor in achieving better treatment outcomes. Similar results were found in a study involving people with colorectal cancer who have been treated with the popular FOLFOX regimen. The incidence of serious diarrhea was reduced from 12% in the BSA-dosed group of patients to 1.7% in the dose-adjusted group, and the incidence of severe mucositis was reduced from 15% to 0.8%. The FOLFOX study also demonstrated an improvement in treatment outcomes. Positive response increased from 46% in the BSA-dosed group to 70% in the dose-adjusted group. Median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) both improved by six months in the dose adjusted group. One approach that can help clinicians individualize chemotherapy dosing is to measure the drug levels in blood plasma over time and adjust dose according to a formula or algorithm to achieve optimal exposure. With an established target exposure for optimized treatment effectiveness with minimized toxicities, dosing can be personalized to achieve target exposure and optimal results for each person. Such an algorithm was used in the clinical trials cited above and resulted in significantly improved treatment outcomes. Oncologists are already individualizing dosing of some cancer drugs based on exposure. Carboplatin: 4  and busulfan dosing rely upon results from blood tests to calculate the optimal dose for each person. Simple blood tests are also available for dose optimization of methotrexate, 5-FU, paclitaxel, and docetaxel. The serum albumin level immediately prior to chemotherapy administration is an independent prognostic predictor of survival in various cancer types. Types Alkylating agents Alkylating agents are the oldest group of chemotherapeutics in use today. Originally derived from mustard gas used in World War I, there are now many types of alkylating agents in use. They are so named because of their ability to alkylate many molecules, including proteins, RNA and DNA. This ability to bind covalently to DNA via their alkyl group is the primary cause for their anti-cancer effects. DNA is made of two strands and the molecules may either bind twice to one strand of DNA (intrastrand crosslink) or may bind once to both strands (interstrand crosslink). If the cell tries to replicate crosslinked DNA during cell division, or tries to repair it, the DNA strands can break. This leads to a form of programmed cell death called apoptosis. Alkylating agents will work at any point in the cell cycle and thus are known as cell cycle-independent drugs. For this reason, the effect on the cell is dose dependent; the fraction of cells that die is directly proportional to the dose of drug. The subtypes of alkylating agents are the nitrogen mustards, nitrosoureas, tetrazines, aziridines, cisplatins and derivatives, and non-classical alkylating agents. Nitrogen mustards include mechlorethamine, cyclophosphamide, melphalan, chlorambucil, ifosfamide and busulfan. Nitrosoureas include N-Nitroso-N-methylurea (MNU), carmustine (BCNU), lomustine (CCNU) and semustine (MeCCNU), fotemustine and streptozotocin. Tetrazines include dacarbazine, mitozolomide and temozolomide. Aziridines include thiotepa, mytomycin and diaziquone (AZQ). Cisplatin and derivatives include cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin. They impair cell function by forming covalent bonds with the amino, carboxyl, sulfhydryl, and phosphate groups in biologically important molecules. Non-classical alkylating agents include procarbazine and hexamethylmelamine. Antimetabolites Anti-metabolites are a group of molecules that impede DNA and RNA synthesis. Many of them have a similar structure to the building blocks of DNA and RNA. The building blocks are nucleotides; a molecule comprising a nucleobase, a sugar and a phosphate group. The nucleobases are divided into purines (guanine and adenine) and pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine and uracil). Anti-metabolites resemble either nucleobases or nucleosides (a nucleotide without the phosphate group), but have altered chemical groups. These drugs exert their effect by either blocking the enzymes required for DNA synthesis or becoming incorporated into DNA or RNA. By inhibiting the enzymes involved in DNA synthesis, they prevent mitosis because the DNA cannot duplicate itself. Also, after misincorporation of the molecules into DNA, DNA damage can occur and programmed cell death (apoptosis) is induced. Unlike alkylating agents, anti-metabolites are cell cycle dependent. This means that they only work during a specific part of the cell cycle, in this case S-phase (the DNA synthesis phase). For this reason, at a certain dose, the effect plateaus and proportionally no more cell death occurs with increased doses. Subtypes of the anti-metabolites are the anti-folates, fluoropyrimidines, deoxynucleoside analogues and thiopurines. The anti-folates include methotrexate and pemetrexed. Methotrexate inhibits dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), an enzyme that regenerates tetrahydrofolate from dihydrofolate. When the enzyme is inhibited by methotrexate, the cellular levels of folate coenzymes diminish. These are required for thymidylate and purine production, which are both essential for DNA synthesis and cell division.: 55–59 : 11  Pemetrexed is another anti-metabolite that affects purine and pyrimidine production, and therefore also inhibits DNA synthesis. It primarily inhibits the enzyme thymidylate synthase, but also has effects on DHFR, aminoimidazole carboxamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase and glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase. The fluoropyrimidines include fluorouracil and capecitabine. Fluorouracil is a nucleobase analogue that is metabolised in cells to form at least two active products; 5-fluourouridine monophosphate (FUMP) and 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine 5'-phosphate (fdUMP). FUMP becomes incorporated into RNA and fdUMP inhibits the enzyme thymidylate synthase; both of which lead to cell death.: 11  Capecitabine is a prodrug of 5-fluorouracil that is broken down in cells to produce the active drug. The deoxynucleoside analogues include cytarabine, gemcitabine, decitabine, azacitidine, fludarabine, nelarabine, cladribine, clofarabine, and pentostatin. The thiopurines include thioguanine and mercaptopurine. Anti-microtubule agents Anti-microtubule agents are plant-derived chemicals that block cell division by preventing microtubule function. Microtubules are an important cellular structure composed of two proteins, α-tubulin and β-tubulin. They are hollow, rod-shaped structures that are required for cell division, among other cellular functions. Microtubules are dynamic structures, which means that they are permanently in a state of assembly and disassembly. Vinca alkaloids and taxanes are the two main groups of anti-microtubule agents, and although both of these groups of drugs cause microtubule dysfunction, their mechanisms of action are completely opposite: Vinca alkaloids prevent the assembly of microtubules, whereas taxanes prevent their disassembly. By doing so, they can induce mitotic catastrophe in the cancer cells. Following this, cell cycle arrest occurs, which induces programmed cell death (apoptosis). These drugs can also affect blood vessel growth, an essential process that tumours utilise in order to grow and metastasise. Vinca alkaloids are derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus, formerly known as Vinca rosea. They bind to specific sites on tubulin, inhibiting the assembly of tubulin into microtubules. The original vinca alkaloids are natural products that include vincristine and vinblastine. Following the success of these drugs, semi-synthetic vinca alkaloids were produced: vinorelbine (used in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer), vindesine, and vinflunine. These drugs are cell cycle-specific. They bind to the tubulin molecules in S-phase and prevent proper microtubule formation required for M-phase. Taxanes are natural and semi-synthetic drugs. The first drug of their class, paclitaxel, was originally extracted from Taxus brevifolia, the Pacific yew. Now this drug and another in this class, docetaxel, are produced semi-synthetically from a chemical found in the bark of another yew tree, Taxus baccata. Podophyllotoxin is an antineoplastic lignan obtained primarily from the American mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) and Himalayan mayapple (Sinopodophyllum hexandrum). It has anti-microtubule activity, and its mechanism is similar to that of vinca alkaloids in that they bind to tubulin, inhibiting microtubule formation. Podophyllotoxin is used to produce two other drugs with different mechanisms of action: etoposide and teniposide. Topoisomerase inhibitors Topoisomerase inhibitors are drugs that affect the activity of two enzymes: topoisomerase I and topoisomerase II. When the DNA double-strand helix is unwound, during DNA replication or transcription, for example, the adjacent unopened DNA winds tighter (supercoils), like opening the middle of a twisted rope. The stress caused by this effect is in part aided by the topoisomerase enzymes. They produce single- or double-strand breaks into DNA, reducing the tension in the DNA strand. This allows the normal unwinding of DNA to occur during replication or transcription. Inhibition of topoisomerase I or II interferes with both of these processes. Two topoisomerase I inhibitors, irinotecan and topotecan, are semi-synthetically derived from camptothecin, which is obtained from the Chinese ornamental tree Camptotheca acuminata. Drugs that target topoisomerase II can be divided into two groups. The topoisomerase II poisons cause increased levels enzymes bound to DNA. This prevents DNA replication and transcription, causes DNA strand breaks, and leads to programmed cell death (apoptosis). These agents include etoposide, doxorubicin, mitoxantrone and teniposide. The second group, catalytic inhibitors, are drugs that block the activity of topoisomerase II, and therefore prevent DNA synthesis and translation because the DNA cannot unwind properly. This group includes novobiocin, merbarone, and aclarubicin, which also have other significant mechanisms of action. Cytotoxic antibiotics The cytotoxic antibiotics are a varied group of drugs that have various mechanisms of action. The common theme that they share in their chemotherapy indication is that they interrupt cell division. The most important subgroup is the anthracyclines and the bleomycins; other prominent examples include mitomycin C and actinomycin. Among the anthracyclines, doxorubicin and daunorubicin were the first, and were obtained from the bacterium Streptomyces peucetius. Derivatives of these compounds include epirubicin and idarubicin. Other clinically used drugs in the anthracycline group are pirarubicin, aclarubicin, and mitoxantrone. The mechanisms of anthracyclines include DNA intercalation (molecules insert between the two strands of DNA), generation of highly reactive free radicals that damage intercellular molecules and topoisomerase inhibition. Actinomycin is a complex molecule that intercalates DNA and prevents RNA synthesis. Bleomycin, a glycopeptide isolated from Streptomyces verticillus, also intercalates DNA, but produces free radicals that damage DNA. This occurs when bleomycin binds to a metal ion, becomes chemically reduced and reacts with oxygen.: 87  Mitomycin is a cytotoxic antibiotic with the ability to alkylate DNA. Delivery Most chemotherapy is delivered intravenously, although a number of agents can be administered orally (e.g., melphalan, busulfan, capecitabine). According to a recent (2016) systematic review, oral therapies present additional challenges for patients and care teams to maintain and support adherence to treatment plans. There are many intravenous methods of drug delivery, known as vascular access devices. These include the winged infusion device, peripheral venous catheter, midline catheter, peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC), central venous catheter and implantable port. The devices have different applications regarding duration of chemotherapy treatment, method of delivery and types of chemotherapeutic agent.: 94–95  Depending on the person, the cancer, the stage of cancer, the type of chemotherapy, and the dosage, intravenous chemotherapy may be given on either an inpatient or an outpatient basis. For continuous, frequent or prolonged intravenous chemotherapy administration, various systems may be surgically inserted into the vasculature to maintain access.: 113–118  Commonly used systems are the Hickman line, the Port-a-Cath, and the PICC line. These have a lower infection risk, are much less prone to phlebitis or extravasation, and eliminate the need for repeated insertion of peripheral cannulae. Isolated limb perfusion (often used in melanoma), or isolated infusion of chemotherapy into the liver or the lung have been used to treat some tumors. The main purpose of these approaches is to deliver a very high dose of chemotherapy to tumor sites without causing overwhelming systemic damage. These approaches can help control solitary or limited metastases, but they are by definition not systemic, and, therefore, do not treat distributed metastases or micrometastases. Topical chemotherapies, such as 5-fluorouracil, are used to treat some cases of non-melanoma skin cancer. If the cancer has central nervous system involvement, or with meningeal disease, intrathecal chemotherapy may be administered. Adverse effects Chemotherapeutic techniques have a range of side effects that depend on the type of medications used. The most common medications affect mainly the fast-dividing cells of the body, such as blood cells and the cells lining the mouth, stomach, and intestines. Chemotherapy-related toxicities can occur acutely after administration, within hours or days, or chronically, from weeks to years.: 265 Immunosuppression and myelosuppression Virtually all chemotherapeutic regimens can cause depression of the immune system, often by paralysing the bone marrow and leading to a decrease of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Anemia and thrombocytopenia may require blood transfusion. Neutropenia (a decrease of the neutrophil granulocyte count below 0.5 x 109/litre) can be improved with synthetic G-CSF (granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor, e.g., filgrastim, lenograstim, efbemalenograstim alfa). In very severe myelosuppression, which occurs in some regimens, almost all the bone marrow stem cells (cells that produce white and red blood cells) are destroyed, meaning allogenic or autologous bone marrow cell transplants are necessary. (In autologous BMTs, cells are removed from the person before the treatment, multiplied and then re-injected afterward; in allogenic BMTs, the source is a donor.) However, some people still develop diseases because of this interference with bone marrow. Although people receiving chemotherapy are encouraged to wash their hands, avoid sick people, and take other infection-reducing steps, about 85% of infections are due to naturally occurring microorganisms in the person's own gastrointestinal tract (including oral cavity) and skin.: 130  This may manifest as systemic infections, such as sepsis, or as localized outbreaks, such as Herpes simplex, shingles, or other members of the Herpesviridea. The risk of illness and death can be reduced by taking common antibiotics such as quinolones or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole before any fever or sign of infection appears. Quinolones show effective prophylaxis mainly with hematological cancer. However, in general, for every five people who are immunosuppressed following chemotherapy who take an antibiotic, one fever can be prevented; for every 34 who take an antibiotic, one death can be prevented. Sometimes, chemotherapy treatments are postponed because the immune system is suppressed to a critically low level. In Japan, the government has approved the use of some medicinal mushrooms like Trametes versicolor, to counteract depression of the immune system in people undergoing chemotherapy. Trilaciclib is an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 approved for the prevention of myelosuppression caused by chemotherapy. The drug is given before chemotherapy to protect bone marrow function. Neutropenic enterocolitis Due to immune system suppression, neutropenic enterocolitis (typhlitis) is a "life-threatening gastrointestinal complication of chemotherapy." Typhlitis is an intestinal infection which may manifest itself through symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, a distended abdomen, fever, chills, or abdominal pain and tenderness. Typhlitis is a medical emergency. It has a very poor prognosis and is often fatal unless promptly recognized and aggressively treated. Successful treatment hinges on early diagnosis provided by a high index of suspicion and the use of CT scanning, nonoperative treatment for uncomplicated cases, and sometimes elective right hemicolectomy to prevent recurrence. Gastrointestinal distress Nausea, vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and constipation are common side-effects of chemotherapeutic medications that kill fast-dividing cells. Malnutrition and dehydration can result when the recipient does not eat or drink enough, or when the person vomits frequently, because of gastrointestinal damage. This can result in rapid weight loss, or occasionally in weight gain, if the person eats too much in an effort to allay nausea or heartburn. Weight gain can also be caused by some steroid medications. These side-effects can frequently be reduced or eliminated with antiemetic drugs. Low-certainty evidence also suggests that probiotics may have a preventative and treatment effect of diarrhoea related to chemotherapy alone and with radiotherapy. However, a high index of suspicion is appropriate, since diarrhoea and bloating are also symptoms of typhlitis, a very serious and potentially life-threatening medical emergency that requires immediate treatment. Anemia Anemia can be a combined outcome caused by myelosuppressive chemotherapy, and possible cancer-related causes such as bleeding, blood cell destruction (hemolysis), hereditary disease, kidney dysfunction, nutritional deficiencies or anemia of chronic disease. Treatments to mitigate anemia include hormones to boost blood production (erythropoietin), iron supplements, and blood transfusions. Myelosuppressive therapy can cause a tendency to bleed easily, leading to anemia. Medications that kill rapidly dividing cells or blood cells can reduce the number of platelets in the blood, which can result in bruises and bleeding. Extremely low platelet counts may be temporarily boosted through platelet transfusions and new drugs to increase platelet counts during chemotherapy are being developed. Sometimes, chemotherapy treatments are postponed to allow platelet counts to recover. Fatigue may be a consequence of the cancer or its treatment, and can last for months to years after treatment. One physiological cause of fatigue is anemia, which can be caused by chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy, primary and metastatic disease or nutritional depletion. Aerobic exercise has been found to be beneficial in reducing fatigue in people with solid tumours. Nausea and vomiting Nausea and vomiting are two of the most feared cancer treatment-related side-effects for people with cancer and their families. In 1983, Coates et al. found that people receiving chemotherapy ranked nausea and vomiting as the first and second most severe side-effects, respectively. Up to 20% of people receiving highly emetogenic agents in this era postponed, or even refused potentially curative treatments. Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) are common with many treatments and some forms of cancer. Since the 1990s, several novel classes of antiemetics have been developed and commercialized, becoming a nearly universal standard in chemotherapy regimens, and helping to successfully manage these symptoms in many people. Effective mediation of these unpleasant and sometimes debilitating symptoms results in increased quality of life for the recipient and more efficient treatment cycles, due to less stoppage of treatment due to better tolerance and better overall health. Hair loss Hair loss (alopecia) can be caused by chemotherapy that kills rapidly dividing cells; other medications may cause hair to thin. These are most often temporary effects: hair usually starts to regrow a few weeks after the last treatment, but sometimes with a change in color, texture, thickness or style. Sometimes hair has a tendency to curl after regrowth, resulting in "chemo curls." Severe hair loss occurs most often with drugs such as doxorubicin, daunorubicin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and etoposide. Permanent thinning or hair loss can result from some standard chemotherapy regimens. Chemotherapy induced hair loss occurs by a non-androgenic mechanism, and can manifest as alopecia totalis, telogen effluvium, or less often alopecia areata. It is usually associated with systemic treatment due to the high mitotic rate of hair follicles, and more reversible than androgenic hair loss, although permanent cases can occur. Chemotherapy induces hair loss in women more often than men. Scalp cooling offers a means of preventing both permanent and temporary hair loss; however, concerns about this method have been raised. Secondary neoplasm Development of secondary neoplasia after successful chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment can occur. The most common secondary neoplasm is secondary acute myeloid leukemia, which develops primarily after treatment with alkylating agents or topoisomerase inhibitors. Survivors of childhood cancer are more than 13 times as likely to get a secondary neoplasm during the 30 years after treatment than the general population. Not all of this increase can be attributed to chemotherapy. Infertility Some types of chemotherapy are gonadotoxic and may cause infertility. Chemotherapies with high risk include procarbazine and other alkylating drugs such as cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, busulfan, melphalan, chlorambucil, and chlormethine. Drugs with medium risk include doxorubicin and platinum analogs such as cisplatin and carboplatin. On the other hand, therapies with low risk of gonadotoxicity include plant derivatives such as vincristine and vinblastine, antibiotics such as bleomycin and dactinomycin, and antimetabolites such as methotrexate, mercaptopurine, and 5-fluorouracil. Female infertility by chemotherapy appears to be secondary to premature ovarian failure by loss of primordial follicles. This loss is not necessarily a direct effect of the chemotherapeutic agents, but could be due to an increased rate of growth initiation to replace damaged developing follicles. People may choose between several methods of fertility preservation prior to chemotherapy, including cryopreservation of semen, ovarian tissue, oocytes, or embryos. As more than half of cancer patients are elderly, this adverse effect is only relevant for a minority of patients. A study in France between 1999 and 2011 came to the result that embryo freezing before administration of gonadotoxic agents to females caused a delay of treatment in 34% of cases, and a live birth in 27% of surviving cases who wanted to become pregnant, with the follow-up time varying between 1 and 13 years. Potential protective or attenuating agents include GnRH analogs, where several studies have shown a protective effect in vivo in humans, but some studies show no such effect. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) has shown similar effect, but its mechanism of inhibiting the sphingomyelin apoptotic pathway may also interfere with the apoptosis action of chemotherapy drugs. In chemotherapy as a conditioning regimen in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, a study of people conditioned with cyclophosphamide alone for severe aplastic anemia came to the result that ovarian recovery occurred in all women younger than 26 years at time of transplantation, but only in five of 16 women older than 26 years. Teratogenicity Chemotherapy is teratogenic during pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, to the extent that abortion usually is recommended if pregnancy in this period is found during chemotherapy. Second- and third-trimester exposure does not usually increase the teratogenic risk and adverse effects on cognitive development, but it may increase the risk of various complications of pregnancy and fetal myelosuppression. Female patients of reproductive potential should use effective contraception during chemotherapy and for a few months after the last dose (e.g. 6 month for doxorubicin). In males previously having undergone chemotherapy or radiotherapy, there appears to be no increase in genetic defects or congenital malformations in their children conceived after therapy. The use of assisted reproductive technologies and micromanipulation techniques might increase this risk. In females previously having undergone chemotherapy, miscarriage and congenital malformations are not increased in subsequent conceptions. However, when in vitro fertilization and embryo cryopreservation is practised between or shortly after treatment, possible genetic risks to the growing oocytes exist, and hence it has been recommended that the babies be screened. Peripheral neuropathy Between 30 and 40 percent of people undergoing chemotherapy experience chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a progressive, enduring, and often irreversible condition, causing pain, tingling, numbness and sensitivity to cold, beginning in the hands and feet and sometimes progressing to the arms and legs. Chemotherapy drugs associated with CIPN include thalidomide, epothilones, vinca alkaloids, taxanes, proteasome inhibitors, and the platinum-based drugs. Whether CIPN arises, and to what degree, is determined by the choice of drug, duration of use, the total amount consumed and whether the person already has peripheral neuropathy. Though the symptoms are mainly sensory, in some cases motor nerves and the autonomic nervous system are affected. CIPN often follows the first chemotherapy dose and increases in severity as treatment continues, but this progression usually levels off at completion of treatment. The platinum-based drugs are the exception; with these drugs, sensation may continue to deteriorate for several months after the end of treatment. Some CIPN appears to be irreversible. Pain can often be managed with drug or other treatment but the numbness is usually resistant to treatment. Cognitive impairment Some people receiving chemotherapy report fatigue or non-specific neurocognitive problems, such as an inability to concentrate; this is sometimes called post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment, referred to as "chemo brain" in popular and social media. Tumor lysis syndrome In particularly large tumors and cancers with high white cell counts, such as lymphomas, teratomas, and some leukemias, some people develop tumor lysis syndrome. The rapid breakdown of cancer cells causes the release of chemicals from the inside of the cells. Following this, high levels of uric acid, potassium and phosphate are found in the blood. High levels of phosphate induce secondary hypoparathyroidism, resulting in low levels of calcium in the blood. This causes kidney damage and the high levels of potassium can cause cardiac arrhythmia. Although prophylaxis is available and is often initiated in people with large tumors, this is a dangerous side-effect that can lead to death if left untreated.: 202 Organ damage Cardiotoxicity (heart damage) is especially prominent with the use of anthracycline drugs (doxorubicin, epirubicin, idarubicin, and liposomal doxorubicin). The cause of this is most likely due to the production of free radicals in the cell and subsequent DNA damage. Other chemotherapeutic agents that cause cardiotoxicity, but at a lower incidence, are cyclophosphamide, docetaxel and clofarabine. Hepatotoxicity (liver damage) can be caused by many cytotoxic drugs. The susceptibility of an individual to liver damage can be altered by other factors such as the cancer itself, viral hepatitis, immunosuppression and nutritional deficiency. The liver damage can consist of damage to liver cells, hepatic sinusoidal syndrome (obstruction of the veins in the liver), cholestasis (where bile does not flow from the liver to the intestine) and liver fibrosis. Nephrotoxicity (kidney damage) can be caused by tumor lysis syndrome and also due direct effects of drug clearance by the kidneys. Different drugs will affect different parts of the kidney and the toxicity may be asymptomatic (only seen on blood or urine tests) or may cause acute kidney injury. Ototoxicity (damage to the inner ear) is a common side effect of platinum based drugs that can produce symptoms such as dizziness and vertigo. Children treated with platinum analogues have been found to be at risk for developing hearing loss. Other side-effects Less common side-effects include red skin (erythema), dry skin, damaged fingernails, a dry mouth (xerostomia), water retention, and sexual impotence. Some medications can trigger allergic or pseudoallergic reactions. Specific chemotherapeutic agents are associated with organ-specific toxicities, including cardiovascular disease (e.g., doxorubicin), interstitial lung disease (e.g., bleomycin) and occasionally secondary neoplasm (e.g., MOPP therapy for Hodgkin's disease). Hand-foot syndrome is another side effect to cytotoxic chemotherapy. Nutritional problems are also frequently seen in cancer patients at diagnosis and through chemotherapy treatment. Research suggests that in children and young people undergoing cancer treatment, parenteral nutrition may help with this leading to weight gain and increased calorie and protein intake, when compared to enteral nutrition. Limitations Chemotherapy does not always work, and even when it is useful, it may not completely destroy the cancer. People frequently fail to understand its limitations. In one study of people who had been newly diagnosed with incurable, stage 4 cancer, more than two-thirds of people with lung cancer and more than four-fifths of people with colorectal cancer still believed that chemotherapy was likely to cure their cancer. The blood–brain barrier poses an obstacle to delivery of chemotherapy to the brain. This is because the brain has an extensive system in place to protect it from harmful chemicals. Drug transporters can pump out drugs from the brain and brain's blood vessel cells into the cerebrospinal fluid and blood circulation. These transporters pump out most chemotherapy drugs, which reduces their efficacy for treatment of brain tumors. Only small lipophilic alkylating agents such as lomustine or temozolomide are able to cross this blood–brain barrier. Blood vessels in tumors are very different from those seen in normal tissues. As a tumor grows, tumor cells furthest away from the blood vessels become low in oxygen (hypoxic). To counteract this they then signal for new blood vessels to grow. The newly formed tumor vasculature is poorly formed and does not deliver an adequate blood supply to all areas of the tumor. This leads to issues with drug delivery because many drugs will be delivered to the tumor by the circulatory system. Resistance Resistance is a major cause of treatment failure in chemotherapeutic drugs. There are a few possible causes of resistance in cancer, one of which is the presence of small pumps on the surface of cancer cells that actively move chemotherapy from inside the cell to the outside. Cancer cells produce high amounts of these pumps, known as p-glycoprotein, in order to protect themselves from chemotherapeutics. Research on p-glycoprotein and other such chemotherapy efflux pumps is currently ongoing. Medications to inhibit the function of p-glycoprotein are undergoing investigation, but due to toxicities and interactions with anti-cancer drugs their development has been difficult. Another mechanism of resistance is gene amplification, a process in which multiple copies of a gene are produced by cancer cells. This overcomes the effect of drugs that reduce the expression of genes involved in replication. With more copies of the gene, the drug can not prevent all expression of the gene and therefore the cell can restore its proliferative ability. Cancer cells can also cause defects in the cellular pathways of apoptosis (programmed cell death). As most chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells in this manner, defective apoptosis allows survival of these cells, making them resistant. Many chemotherapy drugs also cause DNA damage, which can be repaired by enzymes in the cell that carry out DNA repair. Upregulation of these genes can overcome the DNA damage and prevent the induction of apoptosis. Mutations in genes that produce drug target proteins, such as tubulin, can occur which prevent the drugs from binding to the protein, leading to resistance to these types of drugs. Drugs used in chemotherapy can induce cell stress, which can kill a cancer cell; however, under certain conditions, cells stress can induce changes in gene expression that enables resistance to several types of drugs. In lung cancer, the transcription factor NFκB is thought to play a role in resistance to chemotherapy, via inflammatory pathways. Cytotoxics and targeted therapies Targeted therapies are a relatively new class of cancer drugs that can overcome many of the issues seen with the use of cytotoxics. They are divided into two groups: small molecule and antibodies. The massive toxicity seen with the use of cytotoxics is due to the lack of cell specificity of the drugs. They will kill any rapidly dividing cell, tumor or normal. Targeted therapies are designed to affect cellular proteins or processes that are utilised by the cancer cells. This allows a high dose to cancer tissues with a relatively low dose to other tissues. Although the side effects are often less severe than that seen of cytotoxic chemotherapeutics, life-threatening effects can occur. Initially, the targeted therapeutics were supposed to be solely selective for one protein. Now it is clear that there is often a range of protein targets that the drug can bind. An example target for targeted therapy is the BCR-ABL1 protein produced from the Philadelphia chromosome, a genetic lesion found commonly in chronic myelogenous leukemia and in some patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This fusion protein has enzyme activity that can be inhibited by imatinib, a small molecule drug. Mechanism of action Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of cells coupled with malignant behaviour: invasion and metastasis (among other features). It is caused by the interaction between genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. These factors lead to accumulations of genetic mutations in oncogenes (genes that control the growth rate of cells) and tumor suppressor genes (genes that help to prevent cancer), which gives cancer cells their malignant characteristics, such as uncontrolled growth.: 93–94  In the broad sense, most chemotherapeutic drugs work by impairing mitosis (cell division), effectively targeting fast-dividing cells. As these drugs cause damage to cells, they are termed cytotoxic. They prevent mitosis by various mechanisms including damaging DNA and inhibition of the cellular machinery involved in cell division. One theory as to why these drugs kill cancer cells is that they induce a programmed form of cell death known as apoptosis. As chemotherapy affects cell division, tumors with high growth rates (such as acute myelogenous leukemia and the aggressive lymphomas, including Hodgkin's disease) are more sensitive to chemotherapy, as a larger proportion of the targeted cells are undergoing cell division at any time. Malignancies with slower growth rates, such as indolent lymphomas, tend to respond to chemotherapy much more modestly. Heterogeneic tumours may also display varying sensitivities to chemotherapy agents, depending on the subclonal populations within the tumor. Cells from the immune system also make crucial contributions to the antitumor effects of chemotherapy. For example, the chemotherapeutic drugs oxaliplatin and cyclophosphamide can cause tumor cells to die in a way that is detectable by the immune system (called immunogenic cell death), which mobilizes immune cells with antitumor functions. Chemotherapeutic drugs that cause cancer immunogenic tumor cell death can make unresponsive tumors sensitive to immune checkpoint therapy. Other uses Some chemotherapy drugs are used in diseases other than cancer, such as in autoimmune disorders, and noncancerous plasma cell dyscrasia. In some cases they are often used at lower doses, which means that the side effects are minimized, while in other cases doses similar to ones used to treat cancer are used. Methotrexate is used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis and multiple sclerosis. The anti-inflammatory response seen in RA is thought to be due to increases in adenosine, which causes immunosuppression; effects on immuno-regulatory cyclooxygenase-2 enzyme pathways; reduction in pro-inflammatory cytokines; and anti-proliferative properties. Although methotrexate is used to treat both multiple sclerosis and ankylosing spondylitis, its efficacy in these diseases is still uncertain. Cyclophosphamide is sometimes used to treat lupus nephritis, a common symptom of systemic lupus erythematosus. Dexamethasone along with either bortezomib or melphalan is commonly used as a treatment for AL amyloidosis. Recently, bortezomid in combination with cyclophosphamide and dexamethasone has also shown promise as a treatment for AL amyloidosis. Other drugs used to treat myeloma such as lenalidomide have shown promise in treating AL amyloidosis. Chemotherapy drugs are also used in conditioning regimens prior to bone marrow transplant (hematopoietic stem cell transplant). Conditioning regimens are used to suppress the recipient's immune system in order to allow a transplant to engraft. Cyclophosphamide is a common cytotoxic drug used in this manner and is often used in conjunction with total body irradiation. Chemotherapeutic drugs may be used at high doses to permanently remove the recipient's bone marrow cells (myeloablative conditioning) or at lower doses that will prevent permanent bone marrow loss (non-myeloablative and reduced intensity conditioning). When used in non-cancer setting, the treatment is still called "chemotherapy", and is often done in the same treatment centers used for people with cancer. Occupational exposure and safe handling In the 1970s, antineoplastic (chemotherapy) drugs were identified as hazardous, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) has since then introduced the concept of hazardous drugs after publishing a recommendation in 1983 regarding handling hazardous drugs. The adaptation of federal regulations came when the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) first released its guidelines in 1986 and then updated them in 1996, 1999, and, most recently, 2006. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been conducting an assessment in the workplace since then regarding these drugs. Occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs has been linked to multiple health effects, including infertility and possible carcinogenic effects. A few cases have been reported by the NIOSH alert report, such as one in which a female pharmacist was diagnosed with papillary transitional cell carcinoma. Twelve years before the pharmacist was diagnosed with the condition, she had worked for 20 months in a hospital where she was responsible for preparing multiple antineoplastic drugs. The pharmacist did not have any other risk factor for cancer, and therefore, her cancer was attributed to the exposure to the antineoplastic drugs, although a cause-and-effect relationship has not been established in the literature. Another case happened when a malfunction in biosafety cabinetry is believed to have exposed nursing personnel to antineoplastic drugs. Investigations revealed evidence of genotoxic biomarkers two and nine months after that exposure. Routes of exposure Antineoplastic drugs are usually given through intravenous, intramuscular, intrathecal, or subcutaneous administration. In most cases, before the medication is administered to the patient, it needs to be prepared and handled by several workers. Any worker who is involved in handling, preparing, or administering the drugs, or with cleaning objects that have come into contact with antineoplastic drugs, is potentially exposed to hazardous drugs. Health care workers are exposed to drugs in different circumstances, such as when pharmacists and pharmacy technicians prepare and handle antineoplastic drugs and when nurses and physicians administer the drugs to patients. Additionally, those who are responsible for disposing antineoplastic drugs in health care facilities are also at risk of exposure. Dermal exposure is thought to be the main route of exposure due to the fact that significant amounts of the antineoplastic agents have been found in the gloves worn by healthcare workers who prepare, handle, and administer the agents. Another noteworthy route of exposure is inhalation of the drugs' vapors. Multiple studies have investigated inhalation as a route of exposure, and although air sampling has not shown any dangerous levels, it is still a potential route of exposure. Ingestion by hand to mouth is a route of exposure that is less likely compared to others because of the enforced hygienic standard in the health institutions. However, it is still a potential route, especially in the workplace, outside of a health institute. One can also be exposed to these hazardous drugs through injection by needle sticks. Research conducted in this area has established that occupational exposure occurs by examining evidence in multiple urine samples from health care workers. Hazards Hazardous drugs expose health care workers to serious health risks. Many studies show that antineoplastic drugs could have many side effects on the reproductive system, such as fetal loss, congenital malformation, and infertility. Health care workers who are exposed to antineoplastic drugs on many occasions have adverse reproductive outcomes such as spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, and congenital malformations. Moreover, studies have shown that exposure to these drugs leads to menstrual cycle irregularities. Antineoplastic drugs may also increase the risk of learning disabilities among children of health care workers who are exposed to these hazardous substances. Moreover, these drugs have carcinogenic effects. In the past five decades, multiple studies have shown the carcinogenic effects of exposure to antineoplastic drugs. Similarly, there have been research studies that linked alkylating agents with humans developing leukemias. Studies have reported elevated risk of breast cancer, nonmelanoma skin cancer, and cancer of the rectum among nurses who are exposed to these drugs. Other investigations revealed that there is a potential genotoxic effect from anti-neoplastic drugs to workers in health care settings. Safe handling in health care settings As of 2018, there were no occupational exposure limits set for antineoplastic drugs, i.e., OSHA or the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) have not set workplace safety guidelines. Preparation NIOSH recommends using a ventilated cabinet that is designed to decrease worker exposure. Additionally, it recommends training of all staff, the use of cabinets, implementing an initial evaluation of the technique of the safety program, and wearing protective gloves and gowns when opening drug packaging, handling vials, or labeling. When wearing personal protective equipment, one should inspect gloves for physical defects before use and always wear double gloves and protective gowns. Health care workers are also required to wash their hands with water and soap before and after working with antineoplastic drugs, change gloves every 30 minutes or whenever punctured, and discard them immediately in a chemotherapy waste container. The gowns used should be disposable gowns made of polyethylene-coated polypropylene. When wearing gowns, individuals should make sure that the gowns are closed and have long sleeves. When preparation is done, the final product should be completely sealed in a plastic bag. The health care worker should also wipe all waste containers inside the ventilated cabinet before removing them from the cabinet. Finally, workers should remove all protective wear and put them in a bag for their disposal inside the ventilated cabinet. Administration Drugs should only be administered using protective medical devices such as needle lists and closed systems and techniques such as priming of IV tubing by pharmacy personnel inside a ventilated cabinet. Workers should always wear personal protective equipment such as double gloves, goggles, and protective gowns when opening the outer bag and assembling the delivery system to deliver the drug to the patient, and when disposing of all material used in the administration of the drugs. Hospital workers should never remove tubing from an IV bag that contains an antineoplastic drug, and when disconnecting the tubing in the system, they should make sure the tubing has been thoroughly flushed. After removing the IV bag, the workers should place it together with other disposable items directly in the yellow chemotherapy waste container with the lid closed. Protective equipment should be removed and put into a disposable chemotherapy waste container. After this has been done, one should double bag the chemotherapy waste before or after removing one's inner gloves. Moreover, one must always wash one's hands with soap and water before leaving the drug administration site. Employee training All employees whose jobs in health care facilities expose them to hazardous drugs must receive training. Training should include shipping and receiving personnel, housekeepers, pharmacists, assistants, and all individuals involved in the transportation and storage of antineoplastic drugs. These individuals should receive information and training to inform them of the hazards of the drugs present in their areas of work. They should be informed and trained on operations and procedures in their work areas where they can encounter hazards, different methods used to detect the presence of hazardous drugs and how the hazards are released, and the physical and health hazards of the drugs, including their reproductive and carcinogenic hazard potential. Additionally, they should be informed and trained on the measures they should take to avoid and protect themselves from these hazards. This information ought to be provided when health care workers come into contact with the drugs, that is, perform the initial assignment in a work area with hazardous drugs. Moreover, training should also be provided when new hazards emerge as well as when new drugs, procedures, or equipment are introduced. Housekeeping and waste disposal When performing cleaning and decontaminating the work area where antineoplastic drugs are used, one should make sure that there is sufficient ventilation to prevent the buildup of airborne drug concentrations. When cleaning the work surface, hospital workers should use deactivation and cleaning agents before and after each activity as well as at the end of their shifts. Cleaning should always be done using double protective gloves and disposable gowns. After employees finish up cleaning, they should dispose of the items used in the activity in a yellow chemotherapy waste container while still wearing protective gloves. After removing the gloves, they should thoroughly wash their hands with soap and water. Anything that comes into contact or has a trace of the antineoplastic drugs, such as needles, empty vials, syringes, gowns, and gloves, should be put in the chemotherapy waste container. Spill control A written policy needs to be in place in case of a spill of antineoplastic products. The policy should address the possibility of various sizes of spills as well as the procedure and personal protective equipment required for each size. A trained worker should handle a large spill and always dispose of all cleanup materials in the chemical waste container according to EPA regulations, not in a yellow chemotherapy waste container. Occupational monitoring A medical surveillance program must be established. In case of exposure, occupational health professionals need to ask for a detailed history and do a thorough physical exam. They should test the urine of the potentially exposed worker by doing a urine dipstick or microscopic examination, mainly looking for blood, as several antineoplastic drugs are known to cause bladder damage. Urinary mutagenicity is a marker of exposure to antineoplastic drugs that was first used by Falck and colleagues in 1979 and uses bacterial mutagenicity assays. Apart from being nonspecific, the test can be influenced by extraneous factors such as dietary intake and smoking and is, therefore, used sparingly. However, the test played a significant role in changing the use of horizontal flow cabinets to vertical flow biological safety cabinets during the preparation of antineoplastic drugs because the former exposed health care workers to high levels of drugs. This changed the handling of drugs and effectively reduced workers' exposure to antineoplastic drugs. Biomarkers of exposure to antineoplastic drugs commonly include urinary platinum, methotrexate, urinary cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide, and urinary metabolite of 5-fluorouracil. In addition to this, there are other drugs used to measure the drugs directly in the urine, although they are rarely used. A measurement of these drugs directly in one's urine is a sign of high exposure levels and that an uptake of the drugs is happening either through inhalation or dermally. Available agents There is an extensive list of antineoplastic agents. Several classification schemes have been used to subdivide the medicines used for cancer into several different types. History The first use of small-molecule drugs to treat cancer was in the early 20th century, although the specific chemicals first used were not originally intended for that purpose. Mustard gas was used as a chemical warfare agent during World War I and was discovered to be a potent suppressor of hematopoiesis (blood production). A similar family of compounds known as nitrogen mustards were studied further during World War II at the Yale School of Medicine. It was reasoned that an agent that damaged the rapidly growing white blood cells might have a similar effect on cancer. Therefore, in December 1942, several people with advanced lymphomas (cancers of the lymphatic system and lymph nodes) were given the drug by vein, rather than by breathing the irritating gas. Their improvement, although temporary, was remarkable. Concurrently, during a military operation in World War II, following a German air raid on the Italian harbour of Bari, several hundred people were accidentally exposed to mustard gas, which had been transported there by the Allied forces to prepare for possible retaliation in the event of German use of chemical warfare. The survivors were later found to have very low white blood cell counts. After WWII was over and the reports declassified, the experiences converged and led researchers to look for other substances that might have similar effects against cancer. The first chemotherapy drug to be developed from this line of research was mustine. Since then, many other drugs have been developed to treat cancer, and drug development has exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry, although the principles and limitations of chemotherapy discovered by the early researchers still apply. The term chemotherapy The word chemotherapy without a modifier usually refers to cancer treatment, but its historical meaning was broader. The term was coined in the early 1900s by Paul Ehrlich as meaning any use of chemicals to treat any disease (chemo- + -therapy), such as the use of antibiotics (antibacterial chemotherapy). Ehrlich was not optimistic that effective chemotherapy drugs would be found for the treatment of cancer. The first modern chemotherapeutic agent was arsphenamine, an arsenic compound discovered in 1907 and used to treat syphilis. This was later followed by sulfonamides (sulfa drugs) and penicillin. In today's usage, the sense "any treatment of disease with drugs" is often expressed with the word pharmacotherapy. In terms of metaphorical language, 'chemotherapy' can be paralleled with the idea of a 'storm', as both can cause distress but afterwards may have a healing/cleaning effect. Research Targeted delivery vehicles Specially targeted delivery vehicles aim to increase effective levels of chemotherapy for tumor cells while reducing effective levels for other cells. This should result in an increased tumor kill or reduced toxicity or both. Antibody-drug conjugates Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) comprise an antibody, drug and a linker between them. The antibody will be targeted at a preferentially expressed protein in the tumour cells (known as a tumor antigen) or on cells that the tumor can utilise, such as blood vessel endothelial cells. They bind to the tumor antigen and are internalised, where the linker releases the drug into the cell. These specially targeted delivery vehicles vary in their stability, selectivity, and choice of target, but, in essence, they all aim to increase the maximum effective dose that can be delivered to the tumor cells. Reduced systemic toxicity means that they can also be used in people who are sicker and that they can carry new chemotherapeutic agents that would have been far too toxic to deliver via traditional systemic approaches. The first approved drug of this type was gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg), released by Wyeth (now Pfizer). The drug was approved to treat acute myeloid leukemia. Two other drugs, trastuzumab emtansine and brentuximab vedotin, are both in late clinical trials, and the latter has been granted accelerated approval for the treatment of refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma and systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Nanoparticles Nanoparticles are 1–1000 nanometer (nm) sized particles that can promote tumor selectivity and aid in delivering low-solubility drugs. Nanoparticles can be targeted passively or actively. Passive targeting exploits the difference between tumor blood vessels and normal blood vessels. Blood vessels in tumors are "leaky" because they have gaps from 200 to 2000 nm, which allow nanoparticles to escape into the tumor. Active targeting uses biological molecules (antibodies, proteins, DNA and receptor ligands) to preferentially target the nanoparticles to the tumor cells. There are many types of nanoparticle delivery systems, such as silica, polymers, liposomes and magnetic particles. Nanoparticles made of magnetic material can also be used to concentrate agents at tumor sites using an externally applied magnetic field. They have emerged as a useful vehicle in magnetic drug delivery for poorly soluble agents such as paclitaxel. Electrochemotherapy Electrochemotherapy is the combined treatment in which injection of a chemotherapeutic drug is followed by application of high-voltage electric pulses locally to the tumor. The treatment enables the chemotherapeutic drugs, which otherwise cannot or hardly go through the membrane of cells (such as bleomycin and cisplatin), to enter the cancer cells. Hence, greater effectiveness of antitumor treatment is achieved. Clinical electrochemotherapy has been successfully used for treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors irrespective of their histological origin. The method has been reported as safe, simple and highly effective in all reports on clinical use of electrochemotherapy. According to the ESOPE project (European Standard Operating Procedures of Electrochemotherapy), the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for electrochemotherapy were prepared, based on the experience of the leading European cancer centres on electrochemotherapy. Recently, new electrochemotherapy modalities have been developed for treatment of internal tumors using surgical procedures, endoscopic routes or percutaneous approaches to gain access to the treatment area. Hyperthermia therapy Hyperthermia therapy is heat treatment for cancer that can be a powerful tool when used in combination with chemotherapy (thermochemotherapy) or radiation for the control of a variety of cancers. The heat can be applied locally to the tumor site, which will dilate blood vessels to the tumor, allowing more chemotherapeutic medication to enter the tumor. Additionally, the tumor cell membrane will become more porous, further allowing more of the chemotherapeutic medicine to enter the tumor cell. Hyperthermia has also been shown to help prevent or reverse "chemo-resistance." Chemotherapy resistance sometimes develops over time as the tumors adapt and can overcome the toxicity of the chemo medication. "Overcoming chemoresistance has been extensively studied within the past, especially using CDDP-resistant cells. In regard to the potential benefit that drug-resistant cells can be recruited for effective therapy by combining chemotherapy with hyperthermia, it was important to show that chemoresistance against several anticancer drugs (e.g. mitomycin C, anthracyclines, BCNU, melphalan) including CDDP could be reversed at least partially by the addition of heat. Other animals Chemotherapy is used in veterinary medicine similar to how it is used in human medicine. See also References External links Chemotherapy, American Cancer Society Hazardous Drug Exposures in Health Care, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health NIOSH List of Antineoplastic and Other Hazardous Drugs in Healthcare Settings, 2016, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Wikiversity page for the International Ototoxicity Management Group: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/International_Ototoxicity_Management_Group_(IOMG)

Mustard_gas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustard_gas

Mustard gas or sulfur mustard are names commonly used for the organosulfur chemical compound bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, which has the chemical structure S(CH2CH2Cl)2, as well as other species. In the wider sense, compounds with the substituents −SCH2CH2X or −N(CH2CH2X)2 are known as sulfur mustards or nitrogen mustards, respectively, where X = Cl or Br. Such compounds are potent alkylating agents, making mustard gas acutely and severely toxic. Mustard gas is a carcinogen. There is no preventative agent against mustard gas, with protection depending entirely on skin and airways protection, and no antidote exists for mustard poisoning. Also known as mustard agents, this family of compounds comprises infamous cytotoxins and blister agents with a long history of use as chemical weapons. The name mustard gas is technically incorrect; the substances, when dispersed, are often not gases but a fine mist of liquid droplets that can be readily absorbed through the skin and by inhalation. The skin can be affected by contact with either the liquid or vapor. The rate of penetration into skin is proportional to dose, temperature and humidity. Sulfur mustards are viscous liquids at room temperature and have an odor resembling mustard plants, garlic, or horseradish, hence the name. When pure, they are colorless, but when used in impure forms, such as in warfare, they are usually yellow-brown. Mustard gases form blisters on exposed skin and in the lungs, often resulting in prolonged illness ending in death. History as chemical weapons Sulfur mustard is a type of chemical warfare agent. As a chemical weapon, mustard gas was first used in World War I, and has been used in several armed conflicts since then, including the Iran–Iraq War, resulting in more than 100,000 casualties. Sulfur-based and nitrogen-based mustard agents are regulated under Schedule 1 of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, as substances with few uses other than in chemical warfare. Mustard agents can be deployed by means of artillery shells, aerial bombs, rockets, or by spraying from aircraft. Adverse health effects Mustard gases have powerful blistering effects on victims. They are also carcinogenic and mutagenic alkylating agents. Their high lipophilicity accelerates their absorption into the body. Because mustard agents often do not elicit immediate symptoms, contaminated areas may appear normal. Within 24 hours of exposure, victims experience intense itching and skin irritation. If this irritation goes untreated, blisters filled with pus can form wherever the agent contacted the skin. As chemical burns, these are severely debilitating. If the victim's eyes were exposed, then they become sore, starting with conjunctivitis (also known as pink eye), after which the eyelids swell, resulting in temporary blindness. Extreme ocular exposure to mustard gas vapors may result in corneal ulceration, anterior chamber scarring, and neovascularization. In these severe and infrequent cases, corneal transplantation has been used as a treatment option. Miosis, when the pupil constricts more than usual, may also occur, which may be the result of the cholinomimetic activity of mustard. If inhaled in high concentrations, mustard agents cause bleeding and blistering within the respiratory system, damaging mucous membranes and causing pulmonary edema. Depending on the level of contamination, mustard agent burns can vary between first and second degree burns. They can also be as severe, disfiguring, and dangerous as third degree burns. Some 80% of sulfur mustard in contact with the skin evaporates, while 10% stays in the skin and 10% is absorbed and circulated in the blood. The carcinogenic and mutagenic effects of exposure to mustard gas increase the risk of developing cancer later in life. In a study of patients 25 years after wartime exposure to chemical weaponry, c-DNA microarray profiling indicated that 122 genes were significantly mutated in the lungs and airways of mustard gas victims. Those genes all correspond to functions commonly affected by mustard gas exposure, including apoptosis, inflammation, and stress responses. The long-term ocular complications include burning, tearing, itching, photophobia, presbyopia, pain, and foreign-body sensations. Medical management In a rinse-wipe-rinse sequence, skin is decontaminated of mustard gas by washing with liquid soap and water, or an absorbent powder. The eyes should be thoroughly rinsed using saline or clean water. A topical analgesic is used to relieve skin pain during decontamination. The blistering effects of mustard gas can be neutralized by decontamination solutions such as "DS2" (2% NaOH, 70% diethylenetriamine, 28% 2-methoxyethanol). For skin lesions, topical treatments, such as calamine lotion, steroids, and oral antihistamines are used to relieve itching. Larger blisters are irrigated repeatedly with saline or soapy water, then treated with an antibiotic and petroleum gauze. Mustard agent burns do not heal quickly and (as with other types of burns) present a risk of sepsis caused by pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The mechanisms behind mustard gas's effect on endothelial cells are still being studied, but recent studies have shown that high levels of exposure can induce high rates of both necrosis and apoptosis. In vitro tests have shown that at low concentrations of mustard gas, where apoptosis is the predominant result of exposure, pretreatment with 50 mM N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) was able to decrease the rate of apoptosis. NAC protects actin filaments from reorganization by mustard gas, demonstrating that actin filaments play a large role in the severe burns observed in victims. A British nurse treating soldiers with mustard agent burns during World War I commented: They cannot be bandaged or touched. We cover them with a tent of propped-up sheets. Gas burns must be agonizing because usually the other cases do not complain, even with the worst wounds, but gas cases are invariably beyond endurance and they cannot help crying out. Mechanism of cellular toxicity Sulfur mustards readily eliminate chloride ions by intramolecular nucleophilic substitution to form cyclic sulfonium ions. These very reactive intermediates tend to permanently alkylate nucleotides in DNA strands, which can prevent cellular division, leading to programmed cell death. Alternatively, if cell death is not immediate, the damaged DNA can lead to the development of cancer. Oxidative stress would be another pathology involved in mustard gas toxicity. In the wider sense, compounds with the structural element BC2H4X, where X is any leaving group and B is a Lewis base, are known as mustards. Such compounds can form cyclic "onium" ions (sulfonium, ammonium, etc.) that are good alkylating agents. Other such compounds are bis(2-haloethyl)ethers (oxygen mustards), the (2-haloethyl)amines (nitrogen mustards), and sesquimustard, which has two α-chloroethyl thioether groups (ClC2H4S−) connected by an ethylene bridge (−C2H4−). These compounds have a similar ability to alkylate DNA, but their physical properties vary. Formulations In its history, various types and mixtures of mustard gas have been employed. These include: H – Also known as HS ("Hun Stuff") or Levinstein mustard. This is named after the inventor of the "quick but dirty" Levinstein Process for manufacture, reacting dry ethylene with disulfur dichloride under controlled conditions. Undistilled mustard gas contains 20–30% impurities, which means it does not store as well as HD. Also, as it decomposes, it increases in vapor pressure, making the munition it is contained in likely to split, especially along a seam, releasing the agent to the atmosphere. HD – Codenamed Pyro by the British, and Distilled Mustard by the US. Distilled mustard of 95% or higher purity. The term "mustard gas" usually refers to this variety of mustard. HT – Codenamed Runcol by the British, and Mustard T- mixture by the US. A mixture of 60% HD mustard and 40% O-mustard, a related vesicant with lower freezing point, lower volatility and similar vesicant characteristics. HL – A blend of distilled mustard (HD) and lewisite (L), originally intended for use in winter conditions due to its lower freezing point compared to the pure substances. The lewisite component of HL was used as a form of antifreeze. HQ – A blend of distilled mustard (HD) and sesquimustard (Q) (Gates and Moore 1946). Yellow Cross – any of several blends containing sulfur mustard and sometimes arsine agents, along with solvents and other additives. Commonly-stockpiled mustard agents (class) History Development Mustard gases were possibly developed as early as 1822 by César-Mansuète Despretz (1798–1863). Despretz described the reaction of sulfur dichloride and ethylene but never made mention of any irritating properties of the reaction product. In 1854, another French chemist, Alfred Riche (1829–1908), repeated this procedure, also without describing any adverse physiological properties. In 1860, the British scientist Frederick Guthrie synthesized and characterized the mustard agent compound and noted its irritating properties, especially in tasting. Also in 1860, chemist Albert Niemann, known as a pioneer in cocaine chemistry, repeated the reaction, and recorded blister-forming properties. In 1886, Viktor Meyer published a paper describing a synthesis that produced good yields. He combined 2-chloroethanol with aqueous potassium sulfide, and then treated the resulting thiodiglycol with phosphorus trichloride. The purity of this compound was much higher and consequently the adverse health effects upon exposure were much more severe. These symptoms presented themselves in his assistant, and in order to rule out the possibility that his assistant was suffering from a mental illness (psychosomatic symptoms), Meyer had this compound tested on laboratory rabbits, most of which died. In 1913, the English chemist Hans Thacher Clarke (known for the Eschweiler-Clarke reaction) replaced the phosphorus trichloride with hydrochloric acid in Meyer's formulation while working with Emil Fischer in Berlin. Clarke was hospitalized for two months for burns after one of his flasks broke. According to Meyer, Fischer's report on this accident to the German Chemical Society sent the German Empire on the road to chemical weapons. Mustard gas can have the effect of turning a patient's skin different colors, including shades of red, orange, pink, and in unusual cases, blue. The German Empire during World War I relied on the Meyer-Clarke method because 2-chloroethanol was readily available from the German dye industry of that time. Use Mustard gas was first used in World War I by the German army against British and Canadian soldiers near Ypres, Belgium, on July 12, 1917. Later also against the French Second Army. Yperite is "a name used by the French, because the compound was first used at Ypres." The Allies did not use mustard gas until November 1917 at Cambrai, France, after the armies had captured a stockpile of German mustard shells. It took the British more than a year to develop their own mustard agent weapon, with production of the chemicals centred on Avonmouth Docks (the only option available to the British was the Despretz–Niemann–Guthrie process). This was used first in September 1918 during the breaking of the Hindenburg Line. Mustard gas was originally assigned the name LOST, after the scientists Wilhelm Lommel and Wilhelm Steinkopf, who developed a method of large-scale production for the Imperial German Army in 1916. Mustard gas was dispersed as an aerosol in a mixture with other chemicals, giving it a yellow-brown color. Mustard agent has also been dispersed in such munitions as aerial bombs, land mines, mortar rounds, artillery shells, and rockets. Exposure to mustard agent was lethal in about 1% of cases. Its effectiveness was as an incapacitating agent. The early countermeasures against mustard agent were relatively ineffective, since a soldier wearing a gas mask was not protected against absorbing it through his skin and being blistered. A common countermeasure was using a urine-soaked mask or facecloth to prevent or reduce injury, a readily available remedy attested by soldiers in documentaries (e.g. They Shall Not Grow Old in 2018) and others (such as forward aid nurses) interviewed between 1947 and 1981 by the British Broadcasting Corporation for various World War One history programs; however, the effectiveness of this measure is unclear. Mustard gas can remain in the ground for weeks, and it continues to cause ill effects. If mustard agent contaminates one's clothing and equipment while cold, then other people with whom they share an enclosed space could become poisoned as contaminated items warm up enough material to become an airborne toxic agent. An example of this was depicted in a British and Canadian documentary about life in the trenches, particularly once the "sousterrain" (subways and berthing areas underground) were completed in Belgium and France. Towards the end of World War I, mustard agent was used in high concentrations as an area-denial weapon that forced troops to abandon heavily contaminated areas. Since World War I, mustard gas has been used in several wars and other conflicts, usually against people who cannot retaliate in kind: United Kingdom against the Red Army in 1919 Alleged British use in Mesopotamia in 1920 Spain against the Rifian resistance in Morocco during the Rif War of 1921–27 (see also: Spanish use of chemical weapons in the Rif War) Italy in Libya in 1930 The Soviet Union in Xinjiang, Republic of China, during the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang against the 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) in 1934, and also in the Xinjiang War (1937) in 1936–37 Italy against Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1935-1936 The Japanese Empire against China in 1937–1945 The US military conducted experiments with chemical weapons like lewisite and mustard gas on Japanese American, Puerto Rican and African Americans in the US military in World War II to see how non-white races would react to being mustard gassed, with Rollin Edwards describing it as "It felt like you were on fire, Guys started screaming and hollering and trying to break out. And then some of the guys fainted. And finally they opened the door and let us out, and the guys were just, they were in bad shape." and "It took all the skin off your hands. Your hands just rotted". After World War II, stockpiled mustard gas was dumped by South African military personnel under the command of William Bleloch off Port Elizabeth, resulting in several cases of burns among local trawler crews. The United States Government tested effectiveness on US Naval recruits in a laboratory setting at The Great Lakes Naval Base, June 3, 1945 The 2 December 1943 air raid on Bari destroyed an Allied stockpile of mustard gas on the SS John Harvey, killing 83 and hospitalizing 628. Egypt against North Yemen in 1963–1967 Iraq against Kurds in the town of Halabja during the Halabja chemical attack in 1988 Iraq against Iranians in 1983–1988 Possibly in Sudan against insurgents in the civil war, in 1995 and 1997. In the Iraq War, abandoned stockpiles of mustard gas shells were destroyed in the open air, and were used against Coalition forces in roadside bombs. By ISIS forces against Kurdish forces in Iraq in August 2015. By ISIS against another rebel group in the town of Mare' in 2015. According to Syrian state media, by ISIS against the Syrian Army during the battle in Deir ez-Zor in 2016. The use of toxic gases or other chemicals, including mustard gas, during warfare is known as chemical warfare, and this kind of warfare was prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925, and also by the later Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. The latter agreement also prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, and sale of such weapons. In September 2012, a US official stated that the rebel militant group ISIS was manufacturing and using mustard gas in Syria and Iraq, which was allegedly confirmed by the group's head of chemical weapons development, Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, who has since been captured. Development of the first chemotherapy drug As early as 1919 it was known that mustard agent was a suppressor of hematopoiesis. In addition, autopsies performed on 75 soldiers who had died of mustard agent during World War I were done by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania who reported decreased counts of white blood cells. This led the American Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) to finance the biology and chemistry departments at Yale University to conduct research on the use of chemical warfare during World War II. As a part of this effort, the group investigated nitrogen mustard as a therapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of lymphoma and leukemia, and this compound was tried out on its first human patient in December 1942. The results of this study were not published until 1946, when they were declassified. In a parallel track, after the air raid on Bari in December 1943, the doctors of the U.S. Army noted that white blood cell counts were reduced in their patients. Some years after World War II was over, the incident in Bari and the work of the Yale University group with nitrogen mustard converged, and this prompted a search for other similar chemical compounds. Due to its use in previous studies, the nitrogen mustard called "HN2" became the first cancer chemotherapy drug, chlormethine (also known as mechlorethamine, mustine) to be used. Chlormethine and other mustard gas molecules are still used to this day as an chemotherapy agent albeit they have largely been replaced with more safe chemotherapy drugs like cisplatin and carboplatin. Disposal In the United States, storage and incineration of mustard gas and other chemical weapons were carried out by the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency. Disposal projects at the two remaining American chemical weapons sites were carried out near Richmond, Kentucky, and Pueblo, Colorado. Although not yet declassified, toxicology specialists who dealt with the accidental puncturing of World War I gas stockpiles add that Air Force bases in Colorado have been made available to assist veterans of the 2003 American war with Iraq in which many Marines were exposed to gas as caches of up to 25,000 lb (11,000 kg). The United Nations definition of a weapon of mass destruction for mustard gas is 30,000 lb (14,000 kg), typically the Marines and other coalition allies discovered caches of 25,000 pounds (11,000 kg) located across a road from 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) caches as multiple memoirs attest. These were discovered by the assistance of host country allies, or through leaks affecting personnel in an area with a weapon and gas cache called an ASP. New detection techniques are being developed in order to detect the presence of mustard gas and its metabolites. The technology is portable and detects small quantities of the hazardous waste and its oxidized products, which are notorious for harming unsuspecting civilians. The immunochromatographic assay would eliminate the need for expensive, time-consuming lab tests and enable easy-to-read tests to protect civilians from sulfur-mustard dumping sites. In 1946, 10,000 drums of mustard gas (2,800 tonnes) stored at the production facility of Stormont Chemicals in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, were loaded onto 187 boxcars for the 900 miles (1,400 km) journey to be buried at sea on board a 400 foot (120 m) long barge 40 miles (64 km) south of Sable Island, southeast of Halifax, at a depth of 600 fathoms (1,100 m). The dump location is 42 degrees, 50 minutes north by 60 degrees, 12 minutes west. A large British stockpile of old mustard agent that had been made and stored since World War I at M. S. Factory, Valley near Rhydymwyn in Flintshire, Wales, was destroyed in 1958. Most of the mustard gas found in Germany after World War II was dumped into the Baltic Sea. Between 1966 and 2002, fishermen have found about 700 chemical weapons in the region of Bornholm, most of which contain mustard gas. One of the more frequently dumped weapons was "Sprühbüchse 37" (SprüBü37, Spray Can 37, 1937 being the year of its fielding with the German Army). These weapons contain mustard gas mixed with a thickener, which gives it a tar-like viscosity. When the content of the SprüBü37 comes in contact with water, only the mustard gas in the outer layers of the lumps of viscous mustard hydrolyzes, leaving behind amber-colored residues that still contain most of the active mustard gas. On mechanically breaking these lumps (e.g., with the drag board of a fishing net or by the human hand) the enclosed mustard gas is still as active as it had been at the time the weapon was dumped. These lumps, when washed ashore, can be mistaken for amber, which can lead to severe health problems. Artillery shells containing mustard gas and other toxic ammunition from World War I (as well as conventional explosives) can still be found in France and Belgium. These were formerly disposed of by explosion undersea, but since the current environmental regulations prohibit this, the French government is building an automated factory to dispose of the accumulation of chemical shells. In 1972, the U.S. Congress banned the practice of disposing of chemical weapons into the ocean by the United States. 29,000 tons of nerve and mustard agents had already been dumped into the ocean off the United States by the U.S. Army. According to a report created in 1998 by William Brankowitz, a deputy project manager in the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, the army created at least 26 chemical weapons dumping sites in the ocean offshore from at least 11 states on both the East Coast and the West Coast (in Operation CHASE, Operation Geranium, etc.). In addition, due to poor recordkeeping, about one-half of the sites have only their rough locations known. In June 1997, India declared its stock of chemical weapons of 1,044 tonnes (1,151 short tons) of mustard gas. By the end of 2006, India had destroyed more than 75 percent of its chemical weapons/material stockpile and was granted extension for destroying the remaining stocks by April 2009 and was expected to achieve 100 percent destruction within that time frame. India informed the United Nations in May 2009 that it had destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons in compliance with the international Chemical Weapons Convention. With this India has become the third country after South Korea and Albania to do so. This was cross-checked by inspectors of the United Nations. Producing or stockpiling mustard gas is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention. When the convention entered force in 1997, the parties declared worldwide stockpiles of 17,440 tonnes of mustard gas. As of December 2015, 86% of these stockpiles had been destroyed. A significant portion of the United States' mustard agent stockpile was stored at the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Approximately 1,621 tons of mustard agents were stored in one-ton containers on the base under heavy guard. A chemical neutralization plant was built on the proving ground and neutralized the last of this stockpile in February 2005. This stockpile had priority because of the potential for quick reduction of risk to the community. The nearest schools were fitted with overpressurization machinery to protect the students and faculty in the event of a catastrophic explosion and fire at the site. These projects, as well as planning, equipment, and training assistance, were provided to the surrounding community as a part of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP), a joint program of the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Unexploded shells containing mustard gases and other chemical agents are still present in several test ranges in proximity to schools in the Edgewood area, but the smaller amounts of poison gas (4 to 14 pounds (1.8 to 6.4 kg)) present considerably lower risks. These remnants are being detected and excavated systematically for disposal. The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency oversaw disposal of several other chemical weapons stockpiles located across the United States in compliance with international chemical weapons treaties. These include the complete incineration of the chemical weapons stockpiled in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, and Oregon. Earlier, this agency had also completed destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile located on Johnston Atoll located south of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The largest mustard agent stockpile, at approximately 6,200 short tons, was stored at the Deseret Chemical Depot in northern Utah. The incineration of this stockpile began in 2006. In May 2011, the last of the mustard agents in the stockpile were incinerated at the Deseret Chemical Depot, and the last artillery shells containing mustard gas were incinerated in January 2012. In 2008, many empty aerial bombs that contained mustard gas were found in an excavation at the Marrangaroo Army Base just west of Sydney, Australia. In 2009, a mining survey near Chinchilla, Queensland, uncovered 144 105-millimeter howitzer shells, some containing "Mustard H", that had been buried by the U.S. Army during World War II. In 2014, a collection of 200 bombs was found near the Flemish villages of Passendale and Moorslede. The majority of the bombs were filled with mustard agents. The bombs were left over from the German army and were meant to be used in the Battle of Passchendaele in World War I. It was the largest collection of chemical weapons ever found in Belgium. A large amount of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, was found in a neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The cleanup was completed in 2021. Post-war accidental exposure In 2002, an archaeologist at the Presidio Trust archaeology lab in San Francisco was exposed to mustard gas, which had been dug up at the Presidio of San Francisco, a former military base. In 2010, a clamming boat pulled up some old artillery shells of World War I from the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Island, New York. Multiple fishermen suffered from blistering and respiratory irritation severe enough to require hospitalization. WWII-era tests on men From 1943 to 1944, mustard agent experiments were performed on Australian service volunteers in tropical Queensland, Australia, by Royal Australian Engineers, British Army and American experimenters, resulting in some severe injuries. One test site, the Brook Islands National Park, was chosen to simulate Pacific islands held by the Imperial Japanese Army. These experiments were the subject of the documentary film Keen as Mustard. The United States tested sulfur mustards and other chemical agents including nitrogen mustards and lewisite on up to 60,000 servicemen during and after WWII. The experiments were classified secret and as with Agent Orange, claims for medical care and compensation were routinely denied, even after the WWII-era tests were declassified in 1993. The Department of Veterans Affairs stated that it would contact 4,000 surviving test subjects but failed to do so, eventually only contacting 600. Skin cancer, severe eczema, leukemia, and chronic breathing problems plagued the test subjects, some of whom were as young as 19 at the time of the tests, until their deaths, but even those who had previously filed claims with the VA went without compensation. African American servicemen were tested alongside white men in separate trials to determine whether their skin color would afford them a degree of immunity to the agents, and Nisei servicemen, some of whom had joined after their release from Japanese American Internment Camps were tested to determine susceptibility of Japanese military personnel to these agents. These tests also included Puerto Rican subjects. Detection in biological fluids Concentrations of thiodiglycol in urine have been used to confirm a diagnosis of chemical poisoning in hospitalized victims. The presence in urine of 1,1'-sulfonylbismethylthioethane (SBMTE), a conjugation product with glutathione, is considered a more specific marker, since this metabolite is not found in specimens from unexposed persons. In one case, intact mustard gas was detected in postmortem fluids and tissues of a man who died one week post-exposure. See also Bis(chloromethyl) ether Chlorine gas Keen as Mustard Phosgene oxime Poison gas in World War I Rawalpindi experiments Selenium mustard References Notes Further reading Cook, Tim. "‘Against God-Inspired Conscience’: The Perception of Gas Warfare as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, 1915–1939." War & Society 18.1 (2000): 47-69. Dorsey, M. Girard. Holding Their Breath: How the Allies Confronted the Threat of Chemical Warfare in World War II (Cornell UP, 2023) online. Duchovic, Ronald J., and Joel A. Vilensky. "Mustard gas: its pre-World War I history." Journal of chemical education 84.6 (2007): 944. online Feister, Alan J. Medical defense against mustard gas: toxic mechanisms and pharmacological implications (1991). online Fitzgerald, Gerard J. "Chemical warfare and medical response during World War I." American journal of public health 98.4 (2008): 611-625. online * Freemantle M (2012). Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! How Chemistry Changed the First World War. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-6601-9. Geraci, Matthew J. "Mustard gas: imminent danger or eminent threat?." Annals of Pharmacotherapy 42.2 (2008): 237-246. online Ghabili, Kamyar, et al. "Mustard gas toxicity: the acute and chronic pathological effects." Journal of applied toxicology 30.7 (2010): 627-643. online Jones, Edgar. "Terror weapons: The British experience of gas and its treatment in the First World War." War in History 21.3 (2014): 355-375. online MacPherson WG, Herringham WP, Elliott TR, et al. (1923). Medical Services: Diseases of the War: Including the Medical Aspects of Aviation and Gas Warfare and Gas Poisoning in Tanks and Mines. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. II. London: HMSO. OCLC 769752656. Retrieved October 19, 2014. Padley, Anthony Paul. "Gas: the greatest terror of the Great War." Anaesthesia and intensive care 44.1_suppl (2016): 24-30. online Rall, David P., and Constance M. Pechura, eds. Veterans at risk: The health effects of mustard gas and lewisite (1993). online Richter D (1994). Chemical Soldiers. Leo Cooper. ISBN 0850523885. Schummer, Joachim. "Ethics of chemical weapons research: Poison gas in World War One." Ethics of Chemistry: From Poison Gas to Climate Engineering (2021) pp. 55-83. online Smith, Susan I. Toxic Exposures: Mustard Gas and the Health Consequences of World War II in the United States (Rutgers University Press, 2017) online book review Wattana, Monica, and Tareg Bey. "Mustard gas or sulfur mustard: an old chemical agent as a new terrorist threat." Prehospital and disaster medicine 24.1 (2009): 19-29. online External links Mustard gas (Sulphur Mustard) (IARC Summary & Evaluation, Supplement7, 1987). Inchem.org (1998-02-09). Retrieved on 2011-05-29. Institute of Medicine (1993). "History and Analysis of Mustard Agent and Lewisite Research Programs in the United States". Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite. National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-04832-3. Textbook of Military Medicine – Intensive overview of mustard gas Includes many references to scientific literature Detailed information on physical effects and suggested treatments Iyriboz Y (2004). "A Recent Exposure to Mustard Gas in the United States: Clinical Findings of a Cohort (n = 247) 6 Years After Exposure". MedGenMed. 6 (4): 4. PMC 1480580. PMID 15775831. Shows photographs taken in 1996 showing people with mustard gas burns. UMDNJ-Rutgers University CounterACT Research Center of Excellence A research center studying mustard gas, includes searchable reference library with many early references on mustard gas. Clayton W, Howard AJ, Thomson D (May 25, 1946). "Treatment of Mustard Gas Burns". British Medical Journal. 1 (4455): 797–799. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4455.797. PMC 2058956. PMID 20786722. surgical treatment of mustard gas burns UK Ministry of Defence Report on disposal of weapons at sea and incidents arising

Jenny_Shipley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Shipley

Dame Jennifer Mary Shipley (née Robson; born 4 February 1952) is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 36th prime minister of New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. She was the first female prime minister of New Zealand, and the first woman to have led the National Party. Shipley was born in Gore, Southland. She grew up in rural Canterbury, and attended Marlborough Girls' College and the Christchurch College of Education. Before entering politics, she worked as a schoolteacher and was involved with various community organisations. Shipley was elected to Parliament at the 1987 election, winning the Ashburton electorate (later renamed Rakaia). When the National Party returned to power in 1990, she was appointed to Cabinet under Jim Bolger. Shipley subsequently served as Minister of Social Welfare (1990–1996), Minister for Women's Affairs (1990–1996), Minister of Health (1993–1996), and Minister of Transport (1996–1997). Shipley chafed at the government's slow pace, and in December 1997 convinced her National colleagues to support her as leader. Bolger resigned as Prime Minister rather than face being voted out, and Shipley was elected as his replacement unopposed. She inherited an uneasy coalition with New Zealand First, led by Winston Peters. The coalition was dissolved in August 1998, but Shipley was able to remain in power with the aid of Mauri Pacific, an NZ First splinter group. At the 1999 election, her government was defeated by the Labour Party, led by Helen Clark. Shipley continued as Leader of the Opposition until October 2001. Shipley involved herself with business and charitable interests since leaving politics, and is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders. She was found liable for $9 million for her role in the financial failure of Mainzeal, a construction company. Early life Born in Gore, New Zealand, Shipley was one of four sisters. Her father was Rev. Leonard Cameron Robson, a Presbyterian minister. After attending Marlborough Girls' College, she qualified in 1971 as a teacher through the Christchurch College of Education and taught in New Zealand primary schools until 1976. In 1973 she married Burton Shipley and settled in Ashburton. Member of Parliament Having joined the National Party in 1975, Shipley successfully stood in Ashburton, a safe National seat in the country areas surrounding Christchurch, in the 1987 election. Entering parliament at age 35, she was one of parliament's youngest members. Cabinet minister Shipley rose quickly in the National caucus. In February 1990, while still in her first term, party leader Jim Bolger named her the party's spokeswoman on social welfare. When Bolger led the National Party to victory in the 1990 general election, Shipley was reelected in Rakaia, essentially a reconfigured Ashburton. She became Minister of Social Welfare, and also served as Minister for Women's Affairs (1990–1996). In her role as Minister of Social Welfare, Shipley presided over sharp cutbacks to state benefits. Later, when she became Minister of Health in 1993, she caused further controversy by attempting to reform the public health service, introducing an internal market. National won another term at the 1996 election, but was forced into a coalition with New Zealand First. Shipley left the Women's Affairs portfolio and took on several others, including responsibility for state-owned enterprises and transport. In 1993, Shipley was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal. Prime Minister (1997–1999) Shipley grew increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with the cautious pace of National's leader, Jim Bolger, and with what she saw as the disproportionate influence of New Zealand First. She began gathering support to replace Bolger in mid-1997. Later that year, while Bolger attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Shipley convinced a majority of her National Party colleagues to back her bid for the leadership. Bolger returned to New Zealand and discovered that he no longer had the support of his party. Rather than face being voted out, he resigned, and Shipley replaced him. As leader of the governing party, she became Prime Minister on 8 December 1997. On 21 May 1998 Shipley was appointed to the Privy Council and became The Right Honourable Jenny Shipley. Despite continued economic growth, the Shipley government became increasingly politically unstable. In particular, the relationship between National and New Zealand First deteriorated. While Bolger had been able to maintain good relations with New Zealand First and with its leader, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, the alliance became strained after Shipley rose to power. Finally, on 14 August 1998, Shipley sacked Peters from Cabinet. Shipley was nicknamed "the perfumed steamroller," when she first became prime minister. During a later interview with Guyon Espiner, Shipley stated that female politicians were labelled differently in the media; she uses the example that male politicians are called bold where female politicians are called vindictive; although she notes that this is an observation, not something that hurts her personally. Shipley's ascension to the leadership marked a shift to the right politically with subtle returns to the neo-liberal policies of the first term of the Bolger government. This was labelled by some commentators (usually critically) as "Jennycide", a portmanteau of "Jenny" and "genocide". Shipley, along with the New Zealand Tourism Board, backed the quasi-national emblem of the silver fern on a black background as a possible alternative flag, along the lines of the Canadian flag, but she took pains to publicly dissociate herself from Bolger's support for republicanism. As the debate continued in 1999, the Princess Royal visited New Zealand, and Shipley stated, "I am an unashamed royal supporter, along with many New Zealanders". However, the debate was muted by the controversy surrounding Tourism Board contracts going to the public-relations firm Saatchi & Saatchi, whose World CEO Kevin Roberts, also an advocate of the silver fern flag, was a good friend of Shipley. The APEC Summit was hosted in Auckland in September 1999. Shipley met with the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, in one of only two state visits to New Zealand by a US President. Shipley was the first Prime Minister to attend the gay and lesbian Hero Parade, being the first National Party leader to seek to make electoral overtures to the gay and lesbian voting public. She advocated lowering the alcohol purchase age from 20 to 18 and achieved this in 1999. This was part of her expressed desire to expand the traditional National Party voting base. Shipley became a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers. Defeat and resignation Shipley led the National Party into the 1999 election, hoping to become the first woman to be elected prime minister in her own right. However, she was defeated by the Labour Party, also led by a woman, Helen Clark. This election was a significant moment in history for New Zealand as it was the first New Zealand election in which the leaders of both major parties were women. Shipley served as the Leader of the Opposition until October 2001, when Bill English took over as National Party leader. She retired from Parliament in January 2002. In the 2003 New Year Honours, Shipley was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services as a Member of Parliament. Health Shipley suffered a heart attack in 2000, leading to an emergency angioplasty procedure. She made modifications to her lifestyle and lost weight, though she was diagnosed with diabetes in 2004. She underwent gastric bypass surgery in late 2007. Life after politics After leaving politics, Shipley involved herself with business and charitable interests. In 2007, she joined the financial services firm Source Sentinel, and from 2009 to 2018 was chair of the Genesis Energy Limited board. As of 2012, she was on the board of the New Zealand branch of the state-owned China Construction Bank. She resigned from the Bank's Board after being prosecuted for her role in the collapse of construction company Mainzeal. Prosecution for insolvency of Mainzeal In December 2012, Shipley resigned from the board of directors of Mainzeal Property & Construction (MPCL), which went into receivership on 6 February 2013. At mid-day on 5 February 2013 she was one of four independent directors who resigned from the board of Mainzeal Group Ltd. MPCL and Mainzeal Group Limited are part of the Richina group, controlled and majority owned by Yan Ci Lang (also known as Richard Yan). Mainzeal went into liquidation on 28 February 2013, owing some NZ$110 million. In May 2015, the receiver of Mainzeal, BDO, filed a civil lawsuit against the former Mainzeal directors, including Shipley, for an alleged breach of directors' duties. In February 2019, the High Court of New Zealand found that the Mainzeal directors had breached their duty to avoid reckless trading and assessed their total liability at NZ$36 million, of which Shipley's share was assessed at NZ$6 million. Within a week of the Court delivering its verdict, Shipley resigned from her Chair of the China Construction Bank New Zealand. An appeal against this judgment was filed along with a counter claim brought by the original plaintiffs for a vastly higher award against the Directors. Both appeals failed. In August 2023 New Zealand's Supreme Court upheld the long-contested judgements, determining "“Mainzeal was balance sheet insolvent from 2005, albeit this was not apparent from its financial statements” and ordered the four directors, of whom Shipley was one, to pay $39.8m together with interest, although the liability of Shipley is limited to $6.6m plus interest. Honours Shipley accepted redesignation as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit on 14 August 2009, following the reintroduction of titular honours by the Fifth National Government. Reality TV Appearances Also in 2009, Shipley appeared on an episode of the television reality/travel show Intrepid Journeys, where she visited Namibia. She later started a charity to help a school she came across on that trip called the Namibian Educational Trust. Shipley chaired Global Women NZ until 2015, and was replaced as Patron of the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre by Graeme Dingle in 2019, and was the New Zealand National Heart Foundation's campaign "Go Red for Women". References External links Prime Minister's Office biography, primeminister.govt.nz; accessed 18 June 2015. Profile, GlobalWomen.org.nz; accessed 18 June 2015. Scherer, Karyn (4 February 2008). "The prime of Mrs Jenny Shipley". The New Zealand Herald.

Helen_Clark

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Clark

Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was New Zealand's fifth-longest-serving prime minister, and the second woman to hold that office. Clark was brought up on a farm outside Hamilton. She entered the University of Auckland in 1968 to study politics and became active in the New Zealand Labour Party. After graduating she lectured in political studies at the university. Clark entered local politics in 1974 in Auckland but was not elected to any position. Following one unsuccessful attempt, she was elected to Parliament in 1981 as the member for Mount Albert, an electorate she represented until 2009. Clark held numerous Cabinet positions in the Fourth Labour Government, including minister of housing, minister of health and minister of conservation. She was the 11th deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 1989 to 1990 serving under prime ministers Geoffrey Palmer and Mike Moore. After Labour's narrow defeat in the 1993 election, Clark challenged Moore for leadership of the party and won, becoming the leader of the Opposition. Following the 1999 election, Labour formed a governing coalition, and Clark was sworn in as prime minister on 10 December 1999. Clark led the Fifth Labour Government, which implemented several major economic initiatives including Kiwibank, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and KiwiSaver. Her government also introduced the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, which caused major controversy. In foreign affairs, Clark sent troops to the Afghanistan War, but did not contribute combat troops to the Iraq War, and ordered deployment to the 2006 East Timorese crisis. She was ranked by Forbes as the 20th-most powerful woman in the world in 2006. She advocated a number of free-trade agreements with major trading partners, including becoming the first developed nation to sign such an agreement with China. After three successive electoral victories, her government was defeated in the 2008 election; Clark resigned as Prime Minister and party leader on 19 November 2008. She was succeeded as prime minister by John Key of the National Party, and as leader of the Labour Party by Phil Goff. Clark resigned from Parliament in April 2009 to become the first female head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In 2016, she stood for the position of secretary-general of the United Nations, but was unsuccessful. She left her UNDP administrator post on 19 April 2017 at the end of her second four-year term and was succeeded by Achim Steiner. In 2019, Clark became the patron of the Helen Clark Foundation. Early life Clark was the eldest of four daughters of a farming family at Te Pahu, west of Hamilton, in the Waikato. Her mother, Margaret McMurray, of Irish birth, was a primary school teacher. Her father, George, was a farmer. Clark studied at Te Pahu Primary School, at Epsom Girls' Grammar School in Auckland and at the University of Auckland, where she majored in politics and graduated with an MA (Honours) in 1974. Her thesis focused on rural political behaviour and representation. As a teenager Clark became politically active, protesting against the Vietnam War and campaigning against foreign military bases in New Zealand. Clark has worked actively in the New Zealand Labour Party for most of her life. In 1971 she assisted Labour candidates to the Auckland City Council, three of whom were elected. Following this, she stood for the Auckland City Council herself in 1974 and 1977. While generally polling well, she never won a seat, missing out by only 105 votes in the latter. Clark was a junior lecturer in political studies at the University of Auckland from 1973 to 1975. In 1974 she sought the nomination for the Auckland Central electorate, but lost to Richard Prebble. She instead stood for Piako, a National safe seat. Clark studied abroad on a University Grants Committee post-graduate scholarship in 1976, and then lectured in political studies at Auckland again while undertaking her PhD (which she never completed) from 1977 until her election to Parliament in 1981. Her father supported the National Party in that election. Clark served as a member of Labour's national executive committee from 1978 until September 1988, and again from April 1989. She chaired the University of Auckland Princes Street branch of the Labour Party during her studies, becoming active alongside future Labour politicians including Richard Prebble, David Caygill, Margaret Wilson and Richard Northey. Clark held the positions of president of the Labour Youth Council, executive member of the party's Auckland Regional Council, secretary of the Labour Women's Council and member of the Policy Council. In 1980 she stood as a candidate for the position of junior vice-president. However, on the second day of the party conference, she withdrew her candidacy, allowing union secretary Dan Duggan to be elected unopposed. She represented the New Zealand Labour Party at the congresses of the Socialist International and of the Socialist International Women in 1976, 1978, 1983 and 1986, at an Asia-Pacific Socialist Organisation Conference held in Sydney in 1981, and at the Socialist International Party Leaders' Meeting in Sydney in 1991. Member of Parliament Clark did not contest the 1978 election, but in 1980 she put her name forward to replace long serving MP Warren Freer in the safe Labour seat of Mount Albert. She beat six other contenders including electorate chairman Keith Elliot, former MP Malcolm Douglas and future MP Jack Elder for the nomination. Clark was duly elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives in the 1981 general election, as one of eight female members in the 40th Parliament. In winning the Mount Albert electorate in Auckland, she became the second woman elected to represent an Auckland electorate, and the seventeenth woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament. Her first parliamentary intervention, on taking her seat was on 12 April 1982 to give notice, she would move a motion condemning the US Navy's deployment of nuclear cruise missiles in the Pacific Two weeks later in her maiden speech, with unusual emphasis on defence policy and the arms race, Clark again condemned the deployment of cruise, Pershing and SS20 and the global ambitions of both superpowers navies, but claimed the Soviet admirals did not plough New Zealand's waters and expressed particular concern about the expansion of the 1965 memo of ANZUS understanding for the resupply of weapons to New Zealand to include nuclear weapon resupply. During her first term in the House (1981–1984), Clark became a member of the Statutes Revision Committee. In her second term (1984–1987), she chaired the Select committee on Foreign Affairs and the Select Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control, both of which combined with the Defence Select Committee in 1985 to form a single committee. In 1983 she was appointed as Labour's spokesperson for Overseas Aid and Disarmament. Cabinet minister In 1987, Clark became a Cabinet minister in the Fourth Labour Government, led by David Lange (1984–1989), Geoffrey Palmer (1989–1990) and Mike Moore (1990). She served as Minister of Conservation from August 1987 until January 1989 and as Minister of Housing from August 1987 until August 1989. She became Minister of Health in January 1989 and took on additional portfolios as Minister of Labour and Deputy Prime Minister in August 1989. As Health Minister, Clark introduced a series of legislative changes that allowed midwives to practice autonomously. She also introduced the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990, a law which restricted smoking in places such as workplaces and schools. As Deputy Prime Minister, Clark chaired the Cabinet Social Equity Committee and was a member of several other important Cabinet committees, such as the Policy Committee, Economic Development and Employment Committee, and Domestic and External Security Committee. Leader of the Opposition From October 1990 until December 1993 Clark held the posts of Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow spokesperson for Health and Labour, and member of the Social Services Select Committee and of the Labour Select Committee. After the National Party won the 1993 general election with a majority of one seat, Clark successfully challenged Mike Moore for the leadership of the parliamentary party. She was particularly critical of Moore for delivering blurred messages during the 1993 election campaign, and accused him of failing to re-brand Labour as a centre-left party which had jettisoned Rogernomics. Clark became the Leader of the Opposition on 1 December 1993. She led the Labour Party in opposition to the National-led government of Jim Bolger (1990–1997) and Jenny Shipley (1997–1999). Clark announced her first shadow cabinet on 13 December 1993, but the ousted Moore refused any portfolios. There were frequent changes after several party defections took place during the parliamentary term in the lead up to the new MMP voting system. At one reshuffle, in June 1995, Clark herself took the shadow foreign affairs portfolio. The Labour Party rated poorly in opinion polls in the run-up to the 1996 general election, and Clark suffered from a low personal approval rating. At one point polls suggested that New Zealand First of Winston Peters would even poll 30% and Labour would be beaten into third place. However, she survived an attempted leadership coup by senior members who favoured Phil Goff. Labour lost the election in October 1996, but Clark remained as Opposition leader. Clark was seen as having convincingly won the election debates which led to Labour doing better than predicted. Shortly before the election she also achieved a rapprochement with Moore (who was previously thinking of setting up his own party) who accepted the foreign affairs and overseas trade portfolios, calming internal tensions. During the 1998 Waitangi Day celebrations, Clark was prevented from speaking on the marae by activist Titewhai Harawira in protest over Clark's being allowed to speak in direct contradiction of traditional Māori protocol. The ensuing argument saw Clark being reduced to tears on national television. In 1999, Clark was involved in a defamation case in the High Court of New Zealand with Auckland orthopaedic surgeon Joe Brownlee, resulting in Clark's making an unreserved apology. The case centred on a press statement issued by Clark criticising Brownlee, triggered by a constituent's complaint over the outcome of a hip replacement. Clark admitted the criticism was unjustified in that the complication suffered by her constituent was rare, unforeseen and unavoidable. Prime Minister (1999–2008) Under Clark's leadership, Labour became the largest party in parliament from 1999 to 2008. Clark became the second woman to serve as Prime Minister of New Zealand, and the first to have won office at an election. She also served as the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage throughout her premiership. She had additional ministerial responsibility for the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and for Ministerial Services. During her period in office, women held a number of prominent elected and appointed offices in New Zealand, such as the Governor-General, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief Justice—these major offices of state were simultaneously occupied by women between March 2005 and August 2006. As a female head of government, Clark was a member of the Council of Women World Leaders. Clark entered office just three years after the adoption of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system, which had produced an unstable National-led government under Bolger and Shipley. Clark negotiated the formation of successive coalition governments. Political scientist Bryce Edwards identified Clark's ability to lead stable governments as her most significant achievement, arguing that her ability to work with a variety of coalition partners—including the Alliance, Jim Anderton's Progressive Party, Green, United Future and New Zealand First—consolidated public support for MMP. Clark's particular interests included social policy and international affairs. A strong supporter of nuclear disarmament, Clark pursued a policy of peace-making within the Pacific region. She set herself the task of making New Zealand the first ecologically sustainable nation, describing this as "central to New Zealand's unique national identity". Her government's major policy achievements include the Working for Families package, increasing the minimum wage 5% a year, interest-free student loans, creation of District Health Boards, the introduction of a number of tax credits, overhauling the secondary school qualifications by introducing NCEA, and the introduction of fourteen weeks’ parental leave. Commentators praised Clark (along with Michael Cullen, the Minister of Finance) for overseeing a period of sustained and stable economic growth, with an increase in employment that saw a gradual lowering of the unemployment rate to a record low of 3.6% (in 2005). Clark made every attempt to make sure that gender was not an issue in politics. However, Bryce Edwards states that others did. Clark was portrayed as bloodsucking, cold, and humourless. Clark says herself that when her male counterparts spoke in the media, they looked strong and determined, whereas when she portrayed the same characteristics, the media made it to look like she was "tough" and "nagging." In 2006 Clark was 20th in Forbes magazine's ranking of the world's 100 most powerful women. By the time she left office in 2008 this had fallen to 56th. First term: 1999–2002 The 1999 general election produced a historic moment for New Zealand; for the first time, two women, Clark and Shipley, campaigned against each other as leaders of the country's two major parties. Clark repeatedly stated her desire to "govern alone" rather than as part of a coalition. However, in the lead up to the election, Labour made overtures to the left-wing Alliance. Clark addressed the Alliance's annual conference in August 1998. On polling day Labour returned 49 seats, an increase of 12, ahead of National's 39 seats. The first Clark-led Cabinet linked Labour with the Alliance and supported by the Green Party. Alliance leader Jim Anderton served as Deputy Prime Minister under Clark until 2002. The full ministerial team, and portfolios, was announced on 9 December—12 days after the election—and the new government was sworn in the following day. The coalition partners pioneered "agree to disagree" procedures to manage policy differences. Such procedures lessened the chances of Cabinet becoming publicly divided and running the risk of losing the confidence of the House of Representatives. In January 2000, the then Police Commissioner, Peter Doone, resigned after The Sunday Star-Times alleged he had prevented the breath testing of his partner Robyn, who had driven the car they occupied, by telling the officer "that won't be necessary". Both Doone and the officer involved denied this happened. Doone sued the Sunday Star-Times for defamation in 2005, but the paper revealed they had checked the story with Clark. She confirmed this, but denied that she had made attempts to get Doone to resign and defended being the source as "by definition I cannot leak". Clark also responded by saying that National supporters had funded Doone's defamation-suit. Opinion on the significance of this incident varied. In 2000, Labour MP Chris Carter investigated the background of one of Clark's Cabinet colleagues, Māori Affairs Minister Dover Samuels, regarding allegations of historic statutory rape. Ex-convict John Yelash claimed that Carter had approached him to help with the investigation; a claim that Carter denied. Clark backed her MP, referring to Yelash as a "murderer" when he had in fact been convicted of manslaughter, a less serious offence. Yelash sued Clark for defamation, resulting in an out-of-court settlement. In April 2001, Clark met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin during an official visit to Beijing. Jiang referred to the Prime Minister as an "old friend". He stated that China hoped to "establish bilateral long-term and stable overall cooperative relations [with New Zealand]". Clark strongly supported China's entry into the World Trade Organization. In March 2002, Clark made her first visit to the United States as Prime Minister. She visited "Ground Zero", the former site of the World Trade Center, where the New York City Police Department presented her with a New Zealand flag that had been recovered from the rubble after the September 11 attacks. On 26 March, Clark visited the Pentagon and Washington, D.C., where she met with American officials, including a private meeting with President George W. Bush. Most of the agenda for Clark's visit focused on the joint counter-terrorism campaign (dubbed the "War on Terror"). As Opposition Leader in 1998, Clark signed her name to a canvas that had been painted on by another artist. The painting was subsequently auctioned to charity. After the act came to light in April 2002, the opposition National Party referred the matter to the Police. A police report found evidence for a prima facie case of forgery, but determined that it was not in the public interest to prosecute Clark. In June 2002, Clark apologised on behalf of New Zealand for aspects of the country's treatment of Samoa during the colonial era. Clark's apology was made in Apia during the 40th anniversary of Samoa's independence and televised live to New Zealand where Samoans applauded the Prime Minister's gesture. The Alliance split in 2002 over the Government's commitment of New Zealand troops to the War in Afghanistan, leading to the imminent dissolution of Labour's coalition with that party. Consequently, Clark called for an early election to be held on 27 July. Political opponents claimed that Clark could have continued to govern, and that a snap election was called to take advantage of Labour's strong position in opinion polls. In opinion surveys conducted during the election campaign, Clark scored high approval ratings and was far ahead of other party leaders as "preferred Prime Minister". A major issue during the 2002 election campaign was the end of a moratorium on genetic engineering, strongly opposed by the rival Green Party. The debate was reignited when investigative journalist Nicky Hager published a book, Seeds of Distrust, in which he alleged that Clark's government had covered up a contamination of genetically modified corn plants in 2000. A television interview with John Campbell was terminated by Clark when she was taken by surprise by the allegations, which she claimed to have known nothing about prior to the interview. The affair was dubbed "Corngate" by the media. Second term: 2002–2005 Clark won a second term in the 2002 general election—her party increased both its share of the vote and number of seats. Labour subsequently entered into a coalition with Jim Anderton's Progressive Party (a spin-off of the Alliance), with parliamentary confidence and supply coming from United Future, and a good-faith agreement with the Green Party. Michael Cullen, who served as Minister of Finance, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister by Clark, replacing Anderton. I think it's inevitable that New Zealand will become a republic and that would reflect the reality that New Zealand is a totally sovereign-independent 21st century nation 12,000 miles from the United Kingdom A republican, Clark stated in 2002 that she thought it was "inevitable" that New Zealand would become a republic in the near future. Her term in office saw a number of alleged moves in this direction, under her government's policy of building national identity. Examples include the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council in London and the foundation of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, the abolition of titular Knighthood and Damehood honours (restored in 2009), and the abolition of the title "Queen's Counsel" (replaced by "Senior Counsel", restored in 2012). In 2003, Clark criticised the Invasion of Iraq without an explicit United Nations mandate, and her government opposed New Zealand military action in the Iraq War. Her government did not send combat troops to Iraq, although some medical and engineering units were sent. Clark's foreign policy reflected the priorities of liberal internationalism, especially the promotion of democracy and human rights; the strengthening of the role of the United Nations; the advancement of antimilitarism and disarmament; and the encouragement of free-trade. In March 2003, referring to the US-led coalition's actions in Iraq, Clark told the newspaper The Sunday Star-Times that, "I don't think that 11 September under a Gore presidency would have had this consequence for Iraq." She later sent a letter to Washington apologising for any offence that her comment may have caused. On 17 July 2004, a motorcade involving police, Diplomatic Protection Squad, and Ministerial Services staff reached speeds of up to 172 km/h when taking Clark and Cabinet Minister Jim Sutton from Waimate to Christchurch Airport so she could attend a rugby union match in Wellington. The courts subsequently convicted the drivers involved for driving offences, but appeals resulted in the quashing of these convictions in December 2005 and August 2006. Clark said that she was busy working in the back seat and had no influence or role in the decision to speed and did not realise the speed of her vehicle. In November 2004, Clark announced that negotiations with China had commenced for a free-trade agreement, eventually signing a comprehensive agreement in July 2008. It was New Zealand's largest trade deal since the 1983 Closer Economic Relations agreement with Australia. Third term: 2005–2008 In 2005, following that year's general election, Labour and the Progressive Party renewed their coalition, with confidence and supply arrangements with both New Zealand First and United Future in exchange for giving the leaders of those parties ministerial positions outside Cabinet. Greens were excluded from the resulting coalition, due to a refusal by United Future and NZ First to work with the Greens in cabinet. They were, however, able to negotiate a cooperation agreement which saw limited input into the budget and broad consultation on policy. Both co-leaders were appointed as government spokespeople outside cabinet, responsible for Energy Efficiency and for the Buy Kiwi Made campaign. Clark became the first Labour leader to win three consecutive elections. Clark won 66% of her electorate's votes, or 20,918 votes with a 14,749 majority. On Armistice Day, 11 November 2006, Clark attended a service in Hyde Park, London, where a monument commemorating New Zealand's war dead was unveiled. During her visit she met Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. On 26 May 2006, Clark ordered a military deployment to the 2006 East Timorese crisis alongside international partners. Clark's major overseas visit of her third term was a trip to the United States in March 2007, where she met with George W. Bush in Washington. Despite her strained relationship with the President, they agreed on many issues, including working cooperatively in foreign affairs, commerce and the need for both nations to work toward energy security. On 8 February 2008, Clark was recognised as the longest-serving leader of the Labour Party in its history (although some uncertainty exists over the exact date when Harry Holland became party leader), having served for 14 years, 69 days. By 26 October 2008 she had passed Holland's longest possible term and her position as longest-serving Labour leader was put beyond doubt. By the end of her tenure in office, Clark had come to be seen as a divisive figure, going from a Herald-DigiPoll popularity rating of nearly 60% in 2005 to 42% at the time of the 2008 general election. Portrayals of Clark as controlling and manipulative after the 2005 election increased when she abandoned her consensus-managerial approach, such as during the New Zealand foreshore and seabed controversy, and her support of the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007 (the so-called anti-smacking law). She was accused of having a "nanny state" approach to social issues, a perception captured by the pejorative term 'Helengrad'. Labour had been consistently behind the National Party in opinion polls since 2006, and the gap widened significantly in early 2007. On 5 August 2008 the Treasury announced that the New Zealand economy had entered a recession. Clark's personal popularity was eclipsed by John Key soon after the latter's election as National Party Leader in November 2006. In the final media polls prior to the 2008 election Key was ahead of Clark in preferred prime minister polls by eight points in the Fairfax Media Nielsen poll and four points in the One News Colmar Brunton poll. In the 2008 election campaign, Clark attacked the National Party as "insincere" in its promise to maintain many of her government's flagship projects, such as KiwiSaver and Kiwibank. National overtook Labour as the largest party following the 2008 election. Labour did not have the numbers to ally with smaller parties and no viable path to government; Clark conceded defeat to Key and announced that she was standing down as party leader. On 11 November 2008 Clark was succeeded by Phil Goff as Leader of the Labour Party. In the first Labour Party conference after its defeat Phil Goff acknowledged that Clark's government had become identified with "nanny-state" policies in the public mind, and said that the party wanted to "draw a line under the past and say, yes, we made mistakes, we didn't listen." Reputation and legacy Early in her career, Clark gained a reputation as a capable advocate of nuclear disarmament and public health policy. As party leader, Clark denounced Rogernomics as "a ghastly period" and won the 1999 election by abandoning its legacy. However, biographer Denis Welch has argued that she did not do enough to repudiate the paradigm created by Rogernomics, instead allowing Labour and National to become "increasingly hard to tell apart" on many issues. Clark's government was pragmatic, managerial, concerned with stability, and focused on incremental changes over grand projects. Political scientist Bryce Edwards argues that Clark was never a "conviction politician" and set out to be a "successful" rather than "great" politician, leaving behind a legacy of incremental reforms of New Zealand and good management of the status quo, but no bold ambitions. Likewise, commentator John Armstrong, while praising Clark, describes her as a "technocratic" prime minister "who will be remembered more for her management abilities than a capacity to inspire". In January 2009, two months after losing office, Clark was voted 'Greatest Living New Zealander' in an opt-in website poll run by The New Zealand Herald. In a close race she received 25 per cent of the vote, ahead of Victoria Cross recipient Willie Apiata at 21 per cent. Then Prime Minister John Key said he was not surprised by the poll, saying "she is well thought of as a New Zealand Prime Minister." Forbes magazine ranked Clark the 22nd most powerful woman in the world in 2016, down from 20th in 2006. Post-prime ministerial career Clark was the first defeated Labour Prime Minister to immediately resign the party leadership rather than lead it in Opposition. She served as the shadow foreign affairs spokesperson in the Shadow Cabinet of Phil Goff for several months before retiring from Parliament in April 2009 to accept a position with the United Nations (UN). United Nations Development Programme Clark became the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on 17 April 2009, and was the first woman to lead the organisation. She was also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues. The New Zealand Government strongly supported her nomination, along with Australia, the Pacific Island nations and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown. She also received the support of the five countries on the bureau of the UNDP board (Iran, Haiti, Serbia, The Netherlands and Tanzania) and was unanimously confirmed by the General Assembly on 31 March. She was sworn in by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 27 April 2009. In this position, Forbes deemed her the 23rd most powerful woman in the world. In 2013, Forbes upgraded her position to 21st most powerful woman in the world after she was appointed to administer UNDP for a second term and for her potential future as UN Secretary General. She was the only New Zealander to make the list. Clark was recognised for her managerial style of leadership. During her tenure, she was an advocate of China's Belt and Road Initiative. She worked to reform the administration and bureaucracy of UNDP, with an emphasis on greater transparency in the organisation. The Publish What You Fund campaign ranked UNDP as the most transparent aid organisation in the world in 2015 and 2016, under Clark's administration. In February 2015, Clark visited Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to express solidarity with those working to prevent the spread of Ebola. During her tenure, the ratio of women to men at UNDP reached 50%, including at the most senior level of the organisation. On 24 May 2016, a Foreign Policy article alleged that Clark's tenure as Administrator had "left a trail of embittered peers and subordinates", and accused her of "undercutting the UN's promotion of human rights". The article centred on an allegation that her senior staff retaliated against a critical report of the UNDP by forcing out an official who had participated in the investigation. Both the UNDP and Clark have denied the claims. On 26 January 2017, Clark announced that she would not seek re-election as UNDP Administrator after the completion of her four-year term. She said it had been an "honour and privilege" to have served in the role. She left UNDP on 19 April 2017. United Nations Secretary-General selection In January 2014, a Guardian interview with Clark raised the possibility that she could take over as UN Secretary-General after Ban Ki-moon's retirement in 2016. She did not confirm her interest, but commented: "There will be interest in whether the UN will have a first woman because they're looking like the last bastions, as it were." She also said in the same interview that: "If there's enough support for the style of leadership that I have, it will be interesting." In response, Prime Minister John Key said the New Zealand Government would support a bid, but cautioned that it would be a tough task to get the job. On 4 April 2016, Helen Clark officially submitted her nomination as New Zealand's candidate for the 2016 UN Secretary-General selection. In an interview on the same day, Clark stressed that she was running as the gender-neutral best candidate and not "on the basis of being a woman." The UN's role in the Haiti cholera outbreak has been widely discussed and criticised. There has been indisputable evidence that the UN is the proximate cause for bringing cholera to Haiti. Peacekeepers sent to Haiti from Nepal were carrying asymptomatic cholera and they did not treat their waste properly before dumping it into Haiti's water stream. When asked about compensation for victims, Clark has declined to take a position, calling it "legal issues." Another issue that received attention during Clark's candidacy was allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers. This gross problem was brought to light after Anders Kompass exposed the sexual assault of children by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic. During the United Nations Secretary General Candidate informal dialogues, Clark said that the UN needed to deal quickly with sexual exploitation and abuse, and gender-based violence by peacekeepers. Straw polls were taken by secret ballot in October 2016. Clark finished fifth place in the sixth poll; her candidacy was effectively vetoed when three of the permanent Security Council members voted against her. Clark's bid for Secretary-General is the topic of a documentary film, My Year With Helen, directed by Gaylene Preston, which premiered in February 2018. World Health Organization On 9 July 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) appointed Clark as co-chair of a panel reviewing the WHO's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the response of governments to the outbreak. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) examined how the outbreak occurred and how future pandemics can be prevented. She served in the role alongside former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and of her appointment Clark said she hesitated before accepting because she felt the panel's task was "mission impossible". Clark's appointment to this panel drew criticism from UN Watch's Executive Director Hillel Neuer, who criticised her close ties with the pro-Beijing UN Goodwill Ambassador James Chau and her previous endorsement of Cuba for sending medical personnel abroad. On 11 November, Neuer called on Clark to resign, claiming that her alleged favouritism towards China and the WHO, would affect the investigation into China's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clark responded that she had no ties with China. On 19 January, the independent panel concluded that Chinese officials could have moved faster in January 2020 to curb the initial COVID-19 outbreak, and criticised the WHO for not declaring an international emergency until 30 January 2020. In the final report published in May 2021, the panel concluded that the pandemic could have been prevented if countries had taken a more proactive approach in February 2020; Clark said "so many countries chose to wait and see". Personal life Clark was brought up as a Presbyterian, attending Sunday school weekly. When she was Prime Minister she described herself as an agnostic. She married sociologist Peter Davis in 1981, shortly before she was elected to Parliament. Davis had been Clark’s partner for 5 years but she had come under pressure from some Labour members to marry for political purposes, despite her personal reservations about marriage. Davis is currently a professor in medical sociology and was director of COMPASS (Centre of Methods and Policy Application in the Social Sciences) at the University of Auckland. After the 1981 elections Clark said: "It was a difficult campaign". In an essay for the book Head and Shoulders in 1984 she said: "As a single woman I was really hammered. I was accused of being a lesbian, of living in a commune, having friends who were Trotskyites and gays...". In March 2001, Clark referred to National MP Wyatt Creech as a "scumbag" and a "sleazeball" for having raised the issue of a potential conflict of interest involving Davis, who was leading an academic research team studying government health reforms. Clark is a keen hiker and mountaineer. In August 2008, an expedition group that included Clark and her husband became stranded on the Two Thumb Range, a spur of the Southern Alps, when their guide (and Clark's friend), Gottlieb Braun-Elwert, collapsed and died from a suspected heart attack. Views and positions Social media During her tenure as UNDP administrator and afterwards, Clark's presence on social media and avid use of Twitter has attracted positive attention in news media. She has called for greater regulation of social media platforms, and supports the Christchurch Call. Cannabis reform During the 2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Clark publicly supported the "Yes" vote campaign to decriminalise recreational cannabis, arguing that prohibition did not work. She also featured in the "We Do" campaign supporting the proposed "Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill." Israeli–Palestinian conflict During the 2023 Israel-Hamas War, Clark criticised the decision by New Zealand and several other Western governments to halt their aid contributions to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East) following allegations that several UNRWA workers had participated in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. She said it was "most regrettable that countries have acted in this precipitous way to defund the organisation on the basis of allegations". While Clark acknowledged that the allegations against UNRWA were serious, she said that "defunding the agency without knowing the outcome of the investigation was not the right decision." AUKUS In April 2024, Clark criticised the National-led coalition government's interest in associate membership of AUKUS, stating that New Zealand foreign policy towards its Western allies was lurching away from "hitherto bipartisan settings." She described this shift as "profoundly undemocratic". Clark also said "that New Zealand has worked on a bipartisan basis for decades to balance its economic interests, democratic values, and nuclear-free and independent foreign policy." She expressed concerns about the country getting drawn into geopolitical games. In July 2024, Clark joined former National and ACT leader Don Brash in criticising the Government's perceived pro-US shift in New Zealand foreign policy. This came in response to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's remarks that the Government would be more willing to disclose cases of Chinese espionage in New Zealand and participating in AUKUS Pillar 2. Awards and honours For almost nine years, Helen Clark shouldered both the powers and responsibilities of being Prime Minister confidently and adeptly. That only four other New Zealanders (Seddon, Massey, Holyoake, and Fraser) have held the Office for longer speaks much of Helen Clark's acumen, abilities and judgement. In 1986, Clark was awarded the annual Peace Prize of the Danish Peace Foundation for her work in promoting peace and nuclear disarmament. In 1990, Clark received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal. In 1993, Clark was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal. In 2002, she was presented with the Nuclear-Free Future Award, for "installing New Zealand at the forefront of the world political movement to rid the earth of nuclear weapons". In 2005, the government of the Solomon Islands awarded Clark (with John Howard) the Star of the Solomon Islands in recognition of New Zealand's role in restoring law and order in the Solomon Islands. This award allows her to use the post-nominal letters "SSI". In January 2008, Clark won the United Nations Environment Programme Champions of the Earth award in recognition of the government's promotion of sustainability initiatives. In April 2009, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Auckland, her alma mater. In the 2010 New Year Honours, Clark was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest honour, for services to New Zealand. She was recognised as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2013. In September 2017, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards In December 2017, she was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun. In June 2024, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of St Andrews, exactly half a century since her graduation. Patronage Clark is the patron for The Helen Clark Foundation. Clark is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. She was the patron of the New Zealand Rugby League between 2002 and 2011, and has served as the patron of the Mount Albert Lions rugby league club for over 20 years. In popular culture In 1996, Clark guest starred as herself in popular New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. A satirical book, later adapted as a play, titled On the Conditions and Possibilities of Helen Clark Taking Me as Her Young Lover, by Richard Meros, was published by Lawrence and Gibson in 2005. Clark has also guest-starred on bro'Town, the New Zealand animated television series. In 2020, the Eden Park Trust Board requested the right to stage six concerts a year, without having to seek individual planning permission – a process that had forced it to drop past concert plans. Clark said concerts at Eden Park stadium would "represent a home invasion of noise" and told a planning hearing the bid for six gigs a year should be rejected. Clark lives four streets from the stadium and told the independent planning commission "one's home is one's sanctuary". The former prime minister moved into her home in 1981 when Eden Park was a venue for daytime cricket and rugby. See also Electoral history of Helen Clark List of Nuclear-Free Future Award recipients Politics of New Zealand Notes References Bibliography East, Roger; Thomas, Richard (2003). Profiles of People in Power: The World's Government Leaders. Psychology Press. ISBN 9781857431261. Archived from the original on 25 November 2017. Eyley, Claudia Pond; Salmon, Dan (2015). Helen Clark: Inside Stories. Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-77558-820-7. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2016. Further reading Boston, Jonathan (2000). Left Turn: The New Zealand general election of 1999. Victoria University Press. Boston, Jonathan; et al. (2004). New Zealand Votes: The 2002 General Election. Victoria University Press. ISBN 9780864734686. Clark, Helen (2018). Women, Equality, Power: selected speeches from a life of leadership. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-98854-705-3. Edwards, Brian (2001). Helen: Portrait of A Prime Minister. Auckland: Exisle Publishing. ISBN 978-0-908988-20-4. Harvey, John; Edwards, John (2019). Annette King: The Authorised Biography. Auckland: Upstart Press. ISBN 978-1-988516-37-0. Kerr, Allan R. (c. 2006). Helen Clark: Prime Minister of New Zealand (3rd ed.). Masterton, NZ: Capital Letters Pub. ISBN 978-1-877177-57-6. This is a book intended for children. Levine, Stephen and Nigel S. Roberts, eds. (2007). The Baubles of Office: The New Zealand General Election of 2005. Victoria University Press. Levine, Stephen and Nigel S. Roberts, eds. (2010). Key to Victory: The New Zealand General Election of 2008. Victoria University Press. Miller, Raymond; Mintrom, Michael (eds.) (c. 2006). Political leadership in New Zealand. Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-86940-358-4. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help) Russell, Marcia (1996). Revolution:New Zealand from Fortress to Free Market. Hodder Moa Beckett. ISBN 1869584287. Skard, Torild (2014). "Helen Clark" in Women of Power: Half a century of female presidents and prime ministers worldwide, Bristol: Policy Press. ISBN 978-1-44731-578-0 Welch, Denis (2009). Helen Clark: A Political Life. Penguin Books. Williams, Tony (2006). 101 ingenious Kiwis: how New Zealanders changed the world. Auckland: Reed. ISBN 978-0-7900-1110-3. Helen Clark is profiled in a chapter entitled: "Helen Clark: first elected woman prime minister." External links Biography of the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (2009–2017) Archived 1 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine on UNDP Brief biography on the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage's 'NZHistory' website Rt Hon Helen Clark on Parliament.nz Helen Clark at IMDb

Jacinda_Ardern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacinda_Ardern

Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( jə-SIN-də ar-DURN; born 26 July 1980) is a former New Zealand politician who served as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023. She was a Labour member of Parliament (MP) as a list MP from 2008 to 2017, and for Mount Albert from 2017 to 2023. Born in Hamilton, Ardern grew up in Morrinsville and Murupara. She joined the New Zealand Labour Party at the age of 17. After graduating from the University of Waikato in 2001, Ardern worked as a researcher in the office of Prime Minister Helen Clark. She later worked in London as an adviser in the Cabinet Office during Tony Blair's premiership. In 2008, Ardern was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth. Ardern was first elected as an MP in the 2008 general election, when Labour lost power after nine years. She was later elected to represent the Mount Albert electorate in a by-election on 25 February 2017. Ardern was unanimously elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party on 1 March 2017, after the resignation of Annette King. Exactly five months later, with an election due, Labour's leader Andrew Little resigned after a historically low opinion polling result for the party, with Ardern elected unopposed as leader in his place. Labour's support increased rapidly after Ardern became leader, and she led her party to gain 14 seats at the 2017 general election on 23 September, winning 46 seats to the National Party's 56. After negotiations, New Zealand First chose to enter a minority coalition government with Labour, supported by the Green Party, with Ardern as prime minister. She was sworn in by the governor-general on 26 October 2017. She became the world's youngest female head of government at age 37. Ardern gave birth to her daughter on 21 June 2018, making her the world's second elected head of government to give birth while in office (after Benazir Bhutto). Ardern describes herself as a social democrat and a progressive. The Sixth Labour Government faced challenges from the New Zealand housing crisis, child poverty, and social inequality. In March 2019, in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, Ardern reacted by rapidly introducing strict gun laws, winning her wide recognition. Throughout 2020 she led New Zealand's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, for which she won praise for New Zealand being one of the few Western nations to successfully contain the virus. It is estimated that her government's actions saved as many as 80,000 lives. Ardern moved the Labour Party further to the centre towards the October 2020 general election, promising to cut spending during the remainder of the COVID-19 recession. She led the Labour Party to a landslide victory, gaining an overall majority of 65 seats in Parliament, the first time a majority government had been formed since the introduction of a proportional representation system in 1996. On 19 January 2023, Ardern announced she would resign as Labour leader. Following the unopposed election of Chris Hipkins as her successor, she resigned as leader of the Labour Party on 22 January and submitted her resignation as prime minister to the governor-general on 25 January. Early life and education Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern was born on 26 July 1980 in Hamilton, New Zealand. She grew up in Morrinsville and Murupara, where her father, Ross Ardern, worked as a police officer, and her mother, Laurell Ardern (née Bottomley), worked as a school catering assistant. She has an older sister named Louise. Ardern was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and her uncle, Ian S. Ardern, is a general authority in the church. In 1994, she began studying at Morrinsville College, and later she was the student representative on the school's board of trustees. Whilst still at school, she found her first job, working at a local fish-and-chip shop. She joined the Labour Party at the age of 17. Her aunt, Marie Ardern, a longstanding member of the Labour Party, recruited the teenaged Ardern to help her with campaigning for New Plymouth MP Harry Duynhoven during his re-election campaign at the 1999 general election. Ardern attended the University of Waikato, graduating in 2001 as a Bachelor of Communication Studies in politics and public relations, a specialist three-year degree. She took a semester abroad at Arizona State University in 2001. After graduating from university, she spent time working in the offices of Phil Goff and of Helen Clark as a researcher. After a period of time in New York City, United States, where she volunteered at a soup kitchen and worked on a workers' rights campaign, Ardern moved to London, England, in 2006, where she became a senior policy adviser in an 80-person policy unit of the United Kingdom Cabinet Office under prime minister Tony Blair. (She did not meet Blair in person while in London, but later at an event in New Zealand in 2011 she questioned him about the 2003 invasion of Iraq). Ardern was also seconded to the United Kingdom Home Office to help with a review of policing in England and Wales. Early political career President of International Union of Socialist Youth On 30 January 2008, at 27, Ardern was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) at their world congress in the Dominican Republic for a two-year term until 2010. The role saw her spend time in several countries, including Hungary, Jordan, Israel, Algeria and China. It was mid-way through her presidency term that Ardern became a list MP for the Labour Party. She then continued to manage both roles for the next 15 months. Member of Parliament Ahead of the 2008 election, Ardern was ranked 20th on Labour's party list. This was a very high placement for someone who was not already a sitting MP, and virtually assured her of a seat in Parliament. Accordingly, Ardern returned from London to campaign full-time. She also became Labour's candidate for the safe National electorate of Waikato. Ardern was unsuccessful in the electorate vote, but her high placement on Labour's party list allowed her to enter Parliament as a list MP. Upon election, she became the youngest sitting MP in Parliament, succeeding fellow Labour MP Darren Hughes, and remained the youngest MP until the election of Gareth Hughes on 11 February 2010. Opposition leader Phil Goff promoted Ardern to the front bench, naming her Labour's spokesperson for Youth Affairs and as associate spokesperson for Justice (Youth Affairs). She made regular appearances on TVNZ's Breakfast programme as part of the "Young Guns" feature, in which she appeared alongside National MP (and future National leader) Simon Bridges. Ardern contested the seat of Auckland Central for Labour in the 2011 general election, standing against incumbent National MP Nikki Kaye for National and Greens candidate Denise Roche. She lost to Kaye by 717 votes. However, she returned to Parliament via the party list, on which she was ranked 13th. Ardern maintained an office within the electorate while she was a list MP based in Auckland Central. After Goff resigned from the Party leadership following his defeat at the 2011 election, Ardern supported David Shearer over David Cunliffe. She was elevated to the fourth-ranking position in his Shadow Cabinet on 19 December 2011, becoming a spokesperson for social development under the new leader. Ardern stood again in Auckland Central at the 2014 general election. She again finished second though increased her own vote and reduced Kaye's majority from 717 to 600. Ranked 5th on Labour's list, Ardern was still returned to Parliament where she became Shadow spokesperson for Justice, Children, Small Business, and Arts & Culture under new leader Andrew Little. In 2014 Ardern was also selected, attended and graduated from the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Forum of Young Global Leaders, founded by Klaus Schwab, which takes place in Switzerland. She remains involved publicly as a part of the Young Global Leaders Alumni Community, and speaks at WEF events. Mount Albert by-election Ardern put forward her name for the Labour nomination for the Mount Albert by-election to be held in February 2017 following the resignation of David Shearer on 8 December 2016. When nominations for the Labour Party closed on 12 January 2017, Ardern was the only nominee and was selected unopposed. On 21 January, Ardern participated in the 2017 Women's March, a worldwide protest in opposition to Donald Trump, the newly inaugurated president of the United States. She was confirmed as Labour's candidate at a meeting on 22 January. Ardern won a landslide victory, gaining 77 per cent of votes cast in the preliminary results. Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Following her win in the by-election, Ardern was unanimously elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party on 7 March 2017, following the resignation of Annette King, who was intending to retire at the next election. Ardern's vacant list seat was taken by Raymond Huo. Leader of the Opposition On 1 August 2017, just seven weeks before the 2017 general election, Ardern assumed the position of leader of the Labour Party, and consequently became leader of the Opposition, following the resignation of Andrew Little. Little stood down due to the party's historically low polling. Ardern was unanimously confirmed in an election to choose a new leader at a caucus meeting the same day. At 37, Ardern became the youngest leader of the Labour Party in its history. She is also the second female leader of the party after Helen Clark. According to Ardern, Little had previously approached her on 26 July and said he thought she should take over as Labour leader then, as he was of the opinion he could not turn things around for the party, although Ardern declined and told him to "stick it out". At her first press conference, after her election as leader, she said that the forthcoming election campaign would be one of "relentless positivity". Immediately following her appointment, the party was inundated with donations by the public, reaching NZ$700 per minute at its peak. After Ardern's ascension to the leadership, Labour rose dramatically in opinion polls. By late August, the party had reached 43 per cent in the Colmar Brunton poll (having been 24 per cent under Little's leadership) as well as managing to overtake National in opinion polls for the first time in over a decade. Detractors observed her positions were substantially similar to those of Andrew Little, and suggested that Labour's sudden increase in popularity were due to her youth and good looks. In mid-August, Ardern stated that a Labour government would establish a tax working group to explore the possibility of introducing a capital gains tax but ruled out taxing family homes. In response to negative publicity, Ardern abandoned plans to introduce a capital gains tax during the first term of a Labour government. Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson later clarified that Labour would not introduce new taxes until after the 2020 election. The policy shift accompanied strident allegations by Minister of Finance Steven Joyce that Labour had an $11.7 billion "hole" in its tax policy. The Labour and Green parties' proposed water and pollution taxes also generated criticism from farmers. On 18 September 2017, the farming lobby group Federated Farmers staged a protest against the taxes in Ardern's hometown of Morrinsville. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters attended the protest to campaign but was jeered at by the farmers because they suspected he was also in favour of the taxes. During the protest, one farmer displayed a sign calling Ardern a "pretty communist". This was criticised as misogynistic by former prime minister Helen Clark. In the final days of the general election campaign, the opinion polls narrowed with National taking a slight lead. 2017 general election During the general election held on 23 September 2017, Ardern retained her Mount Albert electorate seat by a margin of 15,264 votes. Labour increased its vote share to 36.89 per cent while National dropped back to 44.45. Labour gained 14 seats, increasing its parliamentary representation to 46 seats, the best result for the party since losing power in 2008. The rival Labour and National parties lacked sufficient seats to govern alone and held talks with the Greens and New Zealand First parties about forming a coalition. Under the country's mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system, New Zealand First held the balance of power and chose to be part of a coalition government with Labour. Prime minister (2017–2023) First term (2017–2020) On 19 October 2017, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters agreed to form a coalition with Labour, making Ardern the next prime minister. This coalition received confidence and supply from the Green Party. Ardern named Peters as deputy prime minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. She also gave New Zealand First five posts in her government, with Peters and three other ministers serving in Cabinet. The next day, Ardern confirmed that she would hold the ministerial portfolios of National Security and Intelligence; Arts, Culture and Heritage; and Vulnerable Children; reflecting the shadow positions she held as Leader of the Opposition. Her position as Minister for Vulnerable Children was later replaced with the role of Minister for Child Poverty Reduction, while New Zealand First MP Tracey Martin took on the role of Minister for Children. She was officially sworn in by Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy on 26 October, alongside her ministry. Upon taking office, Ardern said that her government would be "focused, empathetic and strong". Ardern is New Zealand's third female prime minister after Jenny Shipley (1997–1999) and Helen Clark (1999–2008). She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders. Entering office aged 37, Ardern is also the youngest individual to become New Zealand's head of government since Edward Stafford, who became premier in 1856 also aged 37. On 19 January 2018, Ardern announced that she was pregnant, and that Winston Peters would take the role of acting prime minister for six weeks after the birth. Following the birth of a daughter, she took her maternity leave from 21 June to 2 August 2018. Domestic affairs Ardern promised to halve child poverty in New Zealand within a decade. In July 2018, Ardern announced the start of her government's flagship Families Package. Among its provisions, the package gradually increased paid parental leave to 26 weeks and introduced a $60 per-week universal BestStart Payment for low and middle-income families with young children. The Family Tax Credit, Orphans Benefit, Accommodation Supplement, and Foster Care Allowance were all substantially increased as well. In 2019, the government began the roll-out of a school lunches pilot programme to assist in reducing child poverty numbers; this was then extended to support 200,000 children (about 25 per cent of school rolls) in low decile schools. Other efforts to reduce poverty have included increases to main welfare benefits, expanding free doctor's visits, providing free menstrual hygiene products in schools and adding to state housing stock. However, as of 2022 critics say rising housing costs are continuing to cripple families and systemic changes are needed to ensure any gains are lasting. Economically, Ardern's government has implemented steady increases to the country's minimum wage and introduced the Provincial Growth Fund to invest in rural infrastructure projects. The National Party's planned tax cuts were cancelled, saying instead it would prioritise expenditure on healthcare and education. The first year of post-secondary education was made free from 1 January 2018 and, after industrial action, the government agreed to increase primary teachers' pay by 12.8 (for beginning teachers) and 18.5 per cent (for senior teachers without other responsibilities) by 2021. Despite the Labour Party campaigning on a capital gains tax for the last three elections, Ardern pledged in April 2019 that the government would not implement a capital gains tax under her leadership. However, since then the period for which capital gain on rental properties sold is taxed has increased from five to ten years since purchase. Ardern travelled to Waitangi in 2018 for the annual Waitangi Day commemoration; stayed in Waitangi for five days, an unprecedented length. Ardern became the first female prime minister to speak from the top marae. Her visit was largely well received by Māori leaders, with commentators noting a sharp contrast with the acrimonious responses received by several of her predecessors. On 24 August 2018, Ardern removed Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran from Cabinet after she failed to disclose a meeting with a broadcaster outside of parliamentary business, which was judged to be a conflict of interest. Curran remained a minister outside Cabinet, and Ardern was criticised by the Opposition for not dismissing Curran from her portfolio. Ardern later accepted Curran's resignation. In 2019, she was criticised for her handling of an allegation of sexual assault against a Labour Party staffer. Ardern said she had been told the allegation did not involve sexual assault or violence before a report about the incident was published in The Spinoff. Media questioned her account, with one journalist stating that Ardern's claim was "hard to swallow". Ardern opposes criminalising people who use cannabis in New Zealand, and pledged to hold a referendum on the issue. A non-binding referendum to legalise cannabis was held in conjunction with the 2020 general election on 17 October 2020. Ardern admitted to past cannabis use during a televised debate prior to the election. In the referendum, voters rejected the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill by 51.17 per cent. A retrospective article published in a medical journal suggested that Ardern's refusal to publicly back the 'yes' campaign "may have been a decisive factor in the narrow defeat". In September 2020, Ardern announced that her government had abandoned plans to make tertiary education tuition free. Foreign affairs On 5 November 2017, Ardern made her first official overseas trip to Australia, where she met Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the first time. Relations between the two countries had been strained in the preceding months because of Australia's treatment of New Zealanders living in the country, and shortly before taking office, Ardern had spoken of the need to rectify this situation, and to develop a better working relationship with the Australian government. Turnbull described the meeting in cordial terms: "we trust each other...The fact we are from different political traditions is irrelevant". On 12 November 2017, Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Ardern announced that the government would continue participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations despite opposition from the Green Party. New Zealand ratified the revised agreement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she described as being better than the original TPP agreement. Ardern attended the 2017 APEC summit in Vietnam, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018 in London (featuring a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II) and a United Nations summit in New York City. After her first formal meeting with Donald Trump she reported that the US president showed "interest" in New Zealand's gun buyback programme. In 2018, Ardern raised the issue of Xinjiang internment camps and human-rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in China. Ardern has also raised concerns over the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. Ardern travelled to Nauru, where she attended the 2018 Pacific Islands Forum. Media and political opponents criticised her decision to travel separately from the rest of her contingent, costing taxpayers up to NZ$100,000, so that she could spend more time with her daughter. At a 2018 United Nations General Assembly meeting, Ardern became the first female head of government to attend with her infant present. Her address to the General Assembly praised the United Nations for its multilateralism, expressed support for the world's youth, called for immediate attention to the effects and causes of climate change, for the equality of women, and for kindness as the basis for action. On 24 September 2019, Ardern met with United States President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting. During the 25-minute meeting, the two leaders discussed various issues including tourism, the Christchurch mosque shooting, and bilateral trade. During the meeting, Trump expressed an interest in New Zealand's gun buy-back scheme. The two leaders had earlier met briefly at the 2017 East Asia Summit, the 2017 APEC Summit, and during an exclusive party following the 2018 UN General Assembly meeting. In late February 2020, Ardern met Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Sydney. During her visit, she criticised Australia's policy of deporting New Zealanders, many of whom had lived in Australia but had not taken up Australian citizenship, as "corrosive" and damaging to Australia–New Zealand relations. Christchurch mosque shootings On 15 March 2019, 51 people were fatally shot and 49 injured in two mosques in Christchurch. In a statement broadcast on television, Ardern offered condolences and stated that the shootings had been carried out by suspects with "extremist views" that have no place in New Zealand, or anywhere else in the world. She also described it as a well-planned terrorist attack. Announcing a period of national mourning, Ardern was the first signatory of a national condolence book that she opened in the capital, Wellington. She also travelled to Christchurch to meet first responders and families of the victims. In an address at the Parliament, she declared she would never say the name of the attacker: "Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them ... he will, when I speak, be nameless." Ardern received international praise for her response to the shootings, and a photograph of her hugging a member of the Christchurch Muslim community with the word "peace" in English and Arabic was projected onto the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. A 25-metre (82 ft) mural of this photograph was unveiled in May 2019. In response to the shootings, Ardern announced her government's intention to introduce stronger firearms regulations. She said that the attack had exposed a range of weaknesses in New Zealand's gun law. Less than one month after the attack, the New Zealand Parliament passed a law that bans most semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles, parts that convert guns into semiautomatic guns, and higher capacity magazines. Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron co-chaired the 2019 Christchurch Call summit, which aimed to "bring together countries and tech companies in an attempt to bring to an end the ability to use social media to organise and promote terrorism and violent extremism". COVID-19 pandemic On 14 March 2020, Ardern announced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand that the government would be requiring anyone entering the country from midnight 15 March to isolate themselves for 14 days. She said the new rules will mean New Zealand has the "widest ranging and toughest border restrictions of any country in the world". On 19 March, Ardern stated that New Zealand's borders would be closed to all non-citizens and non-permanent residents, after 11:59 pm on 20 March (NZDT). Ardern announced that New Zealand would move to alert level 4, including a nationwide lockdown, at 11:59 pm on 25 March. National and international media covered the government response led by Ardern, praising her leadership and swift response to the outbreak in New Zealand. The Washington Post's Fifield described her regular use of interviews, press conferences and social media as a "masterclass in crisis communication". Alastair Campbell, a journalist and adviser in Tony Blair's British government, commended Ardern for addressing both the human and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. In mid-April 2020, two applicants filed a lawsuit at the Auckland High Court against Ardern and several government officials including Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield, claiming that the lockdown imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic infringed on their freedoms and was made for "political gain". The lawsuit was dismissed by Justice Mary Peters of the Auckland High Court. On 5 May 2020, Ardern, her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison and several Australian state and territorial leaders agreed that they would collaborate to develop a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone that would allow residents from both countries to travel freely without travel restrictions as part of efforts to ease coronavirus restrictions. Post-lockdown opinion polls showed the Labour Party with nearly 60 per cent support. In May 2020, Ardern rated 59.5 per cent as 'preferred prime minister' in a Newshub-Reid Research poll—the highest score for any leader in the Reid Research poll's history. The number of lives saved by the response Ardern spearheaded was estimated as up to 80,000 by a team led by Shaun Hendy. Second term (2020–2023) In the 2020 general election, Ardern led her party to a landslide victory, winning an overall majority of 65 seats in the 120-seat House of Representatives, and 50 per cent of the nationwide party vote (moreover Labour won the party vote in 71 out of the 72 electorates). She also retained the Mount Albert electorate by a margin of 21,246 votes. Ardern credited her victory to her government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic impacts it has had. In 2022, domestic popularity for Ardern and her policies fell considerably, with polling on whether people “think the country is going in the right direction” tracking down from a high of 70% in early 2021 to 30% at the end of 2022. The last polls of 2022 had Labour at about 33%, similar to party polling when she first took over in 2017, and her approval rating dropped to 29%. Domestic affairs On 2 December 2020, Ardern declared a climate change emergency in New Zealand and pledged that the Government would be carbon neutral by 2025 in a parliamentary motion. As part of this commitment towards carbon neutrality, the public sector will be required to buy only electric or hybrid vehicles, the fleet will be reduced over time by 20 per cent, and all 200 coal-fired boilers in public service buildings will be phased out. This motion was supported by the Labour, Green, and Māori parties but was opposed by the opposition National and ACT parties. However, climate activist Greta Thunberg said about Ardern: "It's funny that people believe Jacinda Ardern and people like that are climate leaders. That just tells you how little people know about the climate crisis ... the emissions haven't fallen." In response to worsening housing affordability issues, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Megan Woods announced new reforms. These reforms included the removal of the interest rate tax-deduction, lifting Housing Aid for first home buyers, renewed allocation of infrastructure funds (named Housing Acceleration Fund) for district councils, an extension of the Bright Line Test from five to ten years. On 14 June 2021, Ardern confirmed that the New Zealand Government would formally apologise for the Dawn Raids at the Auckland Town Hall on 26 June 2021. The Dawn Raids were a series of police raids which disproportionately targeted members of the Pasifika diaspora in New Zealand during the 1970s and early 1980s. In September 2022, Ardern led the nation's tributes following the death of New Zealand's longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Ardern described her as an "incredible woman", and a "constant in our lives". She also described the Queen as a "much admired and respected" monarch. Ardern also stated that republicanism was currently not on the agenda but believed that the country would head in that direction in the future. In mid-December 2022, Ardern was recorded on a hot mic calling the leader of the ACT Party, David Seymour, an "arrogant prick" during Parliament's Question Time. Since New Zealand parliamentary debates are televised, the comment was aired on television during Question Time. Ardern later texted Seymour to apologise for her comment. The two politicians subsequently reconciled and joined forces to raise NZ$60,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation by auctioning a signed and framed copy of the Prime Minister's remark. COVID-19 and vaccination programme On 17 June 2020, Prime Minister Ardern met with Bill Gates and Melinda Gates via a teleconference in a meeting requested by Bill Gates. In the meeting, Ardern was asked by Melinda Gates to "speak up" in support of a collective approach to a COVID-19 vaccine. Ardern said she'd be happy to assist, an Official Information Act request response has shown. A month earlier in May, Ardern's Government had pledged $37 million to help find a COVID-19 vaccine, which included $15 million to CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum among others, and $7 million to GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), also founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. During the meeting Gates noted this contribution. Ardern had also met the Gateses the year before in New York. On 12 December 2020, Ardern and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown announced that a travel bubble between New Zealand and the Cook Islands would be established in 2021, allowing two-way quarantine-free travel between the two countries. On 14 December, Prime Minister Ardern confirmed that the New Zealand and Australian Governments had agreed to establish a travel bubble between the two countries the following year. On 17 December, Ardern also announced that the Government had purchased two more vaccines from the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Novavax for New Zealand and its Pacific partners in addition to the existing stocks from Pfizer/BioNTech and Janssen Pharmaceutica. On 26 January 2021, Ardern stated that New Zealand's borders would remain closed to most non-citizens and non-residents until New Zealand citizens have been "vaccinated and protected". The COVID-19 vaccination programme began in February 2021. An outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in August 2021 prompted the government to enact a nationwide lockdown again. By September, the number of new community infections began to fall again; comparisons were made with an outbreak in neighbouring Australia, which was unable to contain a Delta variant outbreak at the same time. On 29 January 2022, Ardern entered into self-isolation after she was identified as a close contact of a COVID-19 case on an Air New Zealand flight from Kerikeri to Auckland on 22 January. In addition, Governor-General Cindy Kiro and chief press secretary Andrew Campbell, who were aboard the same flight, also went into self-isolation. During a routine school visit by Ardern, protestors gathered outside. As the demonstrators pushed down the school’s drive, Ardern was bundled into a van and driven away, chased by protesters screaming profanities and abuse. The previous month, Ardern’s vehicle was chased and forced on to a curb by anti-vaccination protesters calling her a Nazi and yelling obscenities. Asked about the incident at the time, Ardern said it was “just another day”. On 14 May 2022, Ardern tested positive for COVID-19. Her partner Gayford had tested positive for COVID-19 several days earlier on 8 May. Foreign affairs In early December 2020, Ardern expressed support for Australia during a dispute between Canberra and Beijing over Chinese Foreign Ministry official Zhao Lijian's Twitter post alleging that Australia had committed war crimes against Afghans. She described the image as not being factual and incorrect, adding that the New Zealand Government would raise its concerns with the Chinese Government. On 9 December 2020, Ardern delivered a speech virtually at the Singapore FinTech Festival, applauding the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) among New Zealand, Chile and Singapore as "the first important steps" to achieve the regulatory alignment to facilitate businesses. On 16 February 2021, Ardern criticised the Australian Government's decision to revoke dual New Zealand–Australian national Suhayra Aden's Australian citizenship. Aden had migrated from New Zealand to Australia at the age of six and acquired Australian citizenship. She subsequently travelled to Syria to live in the Islamic State as a ISIS bride in 2014. On 15 February 2021, Aden and two of her children were detained by Turkish authorities for illegal entry. Ardern accused the Australian Government of abandoning its obligations to its citizens and also offered consular support to Aden and her children. In response, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended the decision to revoke Aden's citizenship, citing legislation stripping dual nationals of their Australian citizenship if they were engaged in terrorist activities. Following a phone conversation, the two leaders agreed to work together to address what Ardern described as "quite a complex legal situation". In response to the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, Ardern stated on 17 May that New Zealand "condemned both the indiscriminate rocket fire we have seen from Hamas and what looks to be a response that has gone well beyond self-defence on both sides." She also stated that Israel had the "right to exist" but Palestinians also had a "right to a peaceful home, a secure home." In late May 2021, Ardern hosted Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a state visit at Queenstown. The two heads of governments issued a joint statement affirming bilateral cooperation on the issues of COVID-19, bilateral relations, and security issues in the Indo-Pacific. Ardern and Morrison also raised concerns about the South China Sea dispute and human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. In response to the joint statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin criticised the Australian and New Zealand governments for interfering in Chinese domestic affairs. In early December 2021, Ardern participated in the virtual Summit for Democracy that was hosted by US President Joe Biden. In her address, she talked about bolstering democratic resilience in the age of COVID-19 followed by panel discussions. Ardern also announced that New Zealand would contribute an additional NZ$1 million to supporting Pacific countries' anti-corruption efforts, as well as contributing to UNESCO's Global Media Defence Fund and the International Fund for Public Interest Media. In April 2022, Ardern was banned from entering Russia along with 129 other parliamentarians and senior government officials after the New Zealand Parliament unanimously imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. In late May 2022, Ardern led a trade and tourism mission to the United States. During her trip, she urged the Biden Administration to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement which the previous Trump Administration had abandoned in 2017. While attending the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Ardern also condemned the Robb Elementary School shooting and advocated stronger gun control measures, citing New Zealand's ban on semi-automatic firearms following the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. On 27 May, Ardern gave the annual commencement address at Harvard University, speaking about gun reform and democracy. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate in law. On 28 May, Ardern signed a memorandum of understanding with Governor of California Gavin Newsom formalising bilateral cooperation between New Zealand and California in climate change mitigation and research. On 1 June 2022, Ardern met with US President Joe Biden and Vice-president Kamala Harris to reaffirm bilateral relations between the two countries. The two leaders also issued a joint statement reaffirming bilateral cooperation on various issues including the South China Sea dispute, support for Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion, Chinese tensions with Taiwan, and alleged human-rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry official Zhao Lijian accused New Zealand and the United States of seeking to spread disinformation about China's engagement with Pacific Islands countries, interfering in Chinese internal affairs, and urged New Zealand to adhere to its stated "independent foreign policy". On 10 June 2022, Ardern visited the newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The two leaders discussed a range of issues including Australia's controversial Section 501 deportation policy, Chinese influence in the Pacific region, climate change, and working with Pacific neighbours. In response to Ardern's concerns, Albanese stated that he would explore ways of addressing New Zealand's concerns about the adverse impact of its deportation policies on New Zealanders residing in Australia. In late June 2022, Ardern attended the NATO's Leader Summit, which marked the first time that New Zealand had formally addressed a NATO event. During her speech, she emphasised New Zealand's commitment to peace and human rights. Ardern also criticised China for challenging international norms and rules in the South Pacific. She also alleged that Russia was conducting a disinformation campaign targeting New Zealand due to its support for Ukraine. In response, the Chinese Embassy defended China's engagement with the South Pacific region, claiming that China was only interested in promoting regional development and did not seek to militarise the region. On 30 June 2022, Ardern spoke by telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Though Zelensky had earlier invited Ardern to visit Ukraine during her European trade mission, Ardern had declined due to scheduling issues. During the conversation, Ardern reassured Zelensky that New Zealand would continue imposing sanctions on Russia. Zelensky also thanked New Zealand for providing aid to Ukraine and called for assistance in rebuilding Ukraine. In early August 2022, Ardern led a delegation of New Zealand political leaders, officials, civil society leaders, and journalists including National Party and opposition leader Christopher Luxon, Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni and Pacific Peoples Minister William Sio on a state visit to Samoa to marked the 60th anniversary of Samoa's independence. This visit preceded an earlier visit to New Zealand in June 2022 by Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa. On 2 August, Ardern met with Fiame to discuss issues of concern to bilateral relations including climate change, economic resilience, COVID-19, health and Samoan seasonal workers in New Zealand. Ardern also confirmed that New Zealand would commit NZ$15 million in aid to support Samoa's climate change mitigation efforts and NZ$12m to rebuild Apia's historical Savalalo Market. In September 2022, Ardern along with her fiancé Clarke Gayford and their daughter Neve attended Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. During the funeral, she wore a traditional Māori cloak designed by Māori fashion designer Kiri Nathan. In late October 2022, Ardern and Gayford visited New Zealand's Antarctica base Scott Base to mark the research base's 65th anniversary. The Government had already committed NZ$344 million to the redevelopment of Scott base. After Ardern's C-130 Hercules aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force broke down, she and her entourage returned to Christchurch on an Italian C-130 Hercules aircraft. In mid-November 2022, Ardern attended the East Asia Summit in Cambodia where she condemned the Myanmar military regime's execution of political prisoners and called for consensus in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the East Asia Summit, she met with US President Biden to discuss New Zealand milk company A2 Milk's efforts to supply infant formula to help address the infant formula milk shortage in the United States. On 30 November, Ardern hosted Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, which marked the first visit by a Finnish head of government to New Zealand. During her visit, the two leaders discussed bilateral trade relations, the global economic situation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and human rights in Iran. During the ensuing press conference, Ardern rebuffed a suggestion by a journalist that the two heads of government had met because they were of a similar age and gender. Resignation On 19 January 2023, at the Labour Party's summer caucus retreat, Ardern announced she would resign as Labour leader and prime minister by 7 February and leave Parliament by the 2023 general election. She cited a desire to spend more time with her partner and daughter and an inability to commit to another four years. Ardern had indicated in November 2022 that she would seek a third term as prime minister. Speaking to the press during the caucus retreat as she announced her resignation plan, Ardern said, "I know what this job takes and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple. We need a fresh set of shoulders for that challenge." Ardern's announcement prompted reactions from across the New Zealand political establishment. The opposition National and ACT parties' leaders Christopher Luxon and David Seymour thanked Ardern for her service while expressing disagreement with her government's policies. Green Party co-leader James Shaw credited Ardern with fostering a constructive working relationship between their parties while fellow co-leader Marama Davidson praised Ardern for her compassion and determination to promote a "fairer and safer" Aotearoa. Similar sentiments were echoed by the Māori Party's co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, who praised her leadership qualities and contributions to New Zealand society. New Zealand First leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters attributed Ardern's resignation to her government's failure to deliver on promises and targets during the 2020–2023 parliamentary term. Prominent New Zealanders, including actor Sam Neill, comedian and writer Michèle A'Court, and Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, expressed gratitude for Ardern's service. Overseas, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and several state leaders paid tribute to Ardern. In several opinion polls, Ardern's domestic popularity had reached all-time lows as of 19 January 2023, although she denied this would affect the Labour Party's chances of winning the next election. Ardern's final event as prime minister was a birthday celebration for Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana, a Māori prophet. At the event, Ardern called her work as the Prime Minister the "greatest privilege" and stated that she loved the country and its people. On 25 January 2023, she was succeeded as prime minister and leader of the New Zealand Labour Party by Chris Hipkins, who had been elected unopposed during the Labour Party leadership election. Post-prime ministerial career On 4 April 2023 Ardern was announced as a trustee of the Earthshot Prize. Ardern was selected for the post by Prince William, who stated that Ardern had a life-long commitment to supporting sustainable and environmental solutions. According to the Prince, Ardern was one of the first people to encourage him to establish the prize. That same day, Prime Minister Hipkins appointed Ardern as Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call, which she had established following the Christchurch mosque shootings to combat online extremist content. During her valedictory speech, Ardern called on political leaders and parties in New Zealand to take the politics out of climate change while highlighting her role in getting cross-party support for the passage of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act. Ardern accepted dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School for a semester beginning in fall 2023, to serve as the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and as a Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership, where she intends to share and learn leadership and governance skills. She will also work with Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society as its first Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow during that period where she will focus on the study of online extremism. In mid June 2024, the Center for American Progress Active Fund announced that Ardern would be leading the Field Fellowship programme for training new "emerging leaders." On 21 August 2024, Ardern endorsed US Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign. Ardern also spoke at the Global Progress Action Luncheon during the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where she likened Harris' campaign to Labour's campaign during the 2017 New Zealand general election. She also talked about women in politics and positive campaigning. Political views Ardern has described herself as a social democrat, a progressive, a republican, and a feminist, citing Helen Clark as a political hero. She has described the extent of child poverty and homelessness in New Zealand as a "blatant failure" of capitalism. Asked by reporters to comment on the 2021 Budget, Ardern stated to "have always described myself as a Democratic Socialist", but she does not consider the term to be useful in New Zealand, as it is not commonly used in the political sphere. The leftist magazine Jacobin asserts that, despite identifying as socialist, her government was effectively neoliberal. Referring to New Zealand's distinctive nuclear-free policy, she described taking action on climate change as "my generation's nuclear-free moment". Ardern has spoken in support of same-sex marriage, and she voted for the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013 which legalised it. In 2018, she became the first New Zealand prime minister to march in a pride parade. Ardern supported the removal of abortion from the Crimes Act 1961. In March 2020, she voted for the Abortion Legislation Act that amends the law to decriminalise abortion. Ardern voted in favour of legalising cannabis in the 2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, though she refused to reveal her position on legalisation until after the referendum had concluded. With regard to the future of the Māori electorates—a contentious topic in New Zealand politics—Ardern believes the retention or abolition of the electorates (seats) should be decided by Māori, stating, "[Māori] have not raised the need for those seats to go, so why would we ask the question?" She supports compulsory study of the Māori language in schools. In September 2017, Ardern said she wanted New Zealand to debate removing the monarch of New Zealand as head of state. During her announcement on 24 May 2021 of the appointment of Dame Cindy Kiro as the governor-general, Ardern said she believed that New Zealand would become a republic within her lifetime. She has, however, met regularly with members of the Royal Family over the years and said that, "My particular views do not change the respect that I have for Her Majesty and for her family and for the work that they've done for New Zealand. I think you can hold both views, and I do." Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Ardern reaffirmed her support for republicanism but stated that official moves towards New Zealand becoming a republic was not "on the agenda anytime soon." Ardern advocates a lower rate of immigration, suggesting a drop of around 20,000–30,000. Calling it an "infrastructure issue", she argues that "there hasn't been enough planning about population growth, we haven't necessarily targeted our skill shortages properly"; however, she wants to increase the intake of refugees. In foreign affairs, Ardern has voiced support for a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She condemned the Israeli killing of Palestinians during protests at the Gaza border. Following the Supreme Court's landmark Make It 16 Incorporated v Attorney-General ruling in November 2022, Ardern has voiced support for lowering the voting age to 16 years. She announced that the Government would introduce legislation lowering the voting age to 16 years; with such legislation requiring a 75 per cent majority. Public image Ardern was frequently described, often critically, as a "celebrity politician". After becoming the Labour Party leader, Ardern received positive coverage from many sections of the media, including international outlets such as CNN, with commentators referring to a "Jacinda effect" and "Jacindamania". Jacindamania was cited as a factor behind New Zealand gaining global attention and media influence in some reports, including the Soft Power 30 index. In a 2018 overseas trip, Ardern attracted much attention from international media, particularly after delivering a speech at the United Nations in New York. She contrasted with contemporary world leaders, being cast as an "antidote to Trumpism". Writing for Stuff, Tracy Watkins said Ardern made a "cut-through on the world stage" and her reception was as a "torch carrier for progressive politics as a young woman who breaks the mold in a world where the political strongman is on the rise. She is a foil to the muscular diplomacy of the likes of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin." A year after Ardern formed her government, The Guardian's Eleanor Ainge Roy reported that Jacindamania was waning in the population, with not enough of the promised change visible. When Toby Manhire, the editor of The Spinoff, reviewed the decade in December 2019, he praised Ardern for her leadership following the Christchurch mosque shootings and the Whakaari / White Island eruption, saying that "Ardern ... revealed an empathy, steel and clarity that in the most appalling circumstances brought New Zealanders together and inspired people the world over. It was a strength of character that showed itself again this week following the tragic eruption at Whakaari." Towards the end of her tenure Ardern faced decreased levels of popularity domestically and increased levels of criticism from across the political spectrum. Part of the reason was the country's economic downturn in the early 2020s. Ardern, along with several other politicians, experienced abuse from anti-vaxxers, anti-government protestors, and right-wing populist protestors. Conspiracy theorist Richard Sivell contributed to the violent rhetoric in 2021-22 and was convicted of threatening to kill Ardern. Honours Ardern was one of fifteen women selected to appear on the cover of the September 2019 issue of British Vogue, by guest editor Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Forbes magazine has consistently ranked her among the 100 most powerful women in the world, placing her 34th in 2021. She was included in the 2019 Time 100 list and shortlisted for Time's 2019 Person of the Year. The magazine later incorrectly speculated that she might win the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize among a listed six candidates, for her handling of the Christchurch mosque shootings. In 2020, she was listed by Prospect as the second-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era. On 19 November 2020, Ardern was awarded Harvard University's 2020 Gleitsman International Activist Award; she contributed the US$150,000 (NZ$216,000) prize money to New Zealanders studying at the university. In 2021, New Zealand zoologist Steven A. Trewick named the flightless wētā species Hemiandrus jacinda in honour of Ardern. A spokesperson for Ardern said that a beetle (Mecodema jacinda), a lichen (Ocellularia jacinda-arderniae), and an ant (Crematogaster jacindae, found in Saudi Arabia) had also been named after her. In mid-May 2021, Fortune magazine gave Ardern the top spot on their list of world's 50 greatest leaders, citing her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as her handling of the Christchurch mosque shootings and the Whakaari / White Island eruption. On 26 May 2022, Ardern was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Harvard University for contributions that "shape the world". In the 2023 King's Birthday and Coronation Honours, Ardern was appointed a Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (GNZM), for services to the State. Personal life Religious views Raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand, Ardern left the church in 2005 at age 25 because, she said, it conflicted with her personal views, in particular her support for gay rights. In January 2017, Ardern identified as agnostic, saying "I can't see myself being a member of an organised religion again". As prime minister in 2019, she met the president of the LDS Church, Russell M. Nelson. Family Ardern is a second cousin of Hamish McDouall, former mayor of Whanganui. She is also a distant cousin of former National MP for Taranaki-King Country Shane Ardern. Shane Ardern left Parliament in 2014, three years before Jacinda Ardern became prime minister. Ardern's husband is television presenter Clarke Gayford. The couple first met in 2012 when they were introduced by mutual friend Colin Mathura-Jeffree, a New Zealand television host and model, but they did not spend time together until Gayford contacted Ardern regarding a controversial Government Communications Security Bureau bill. Ardern and Gayford were living together when she became prime minister, and on 3 May 2019, it was reported that they were engaged to be married. The wedding was scheduled for January 2022 but was postponed due to an outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. Ardern and Gayford married eventually on 13 January 2024, at Craggy Range Winery near Havelock North in Hawke's Bay. On 19 January 2018, Ardern announced that she was expecting her first child in June, making her New Zealand's first prime minister to be pregnant in office. Ardern was admitted to Auckland City Hospital on 21 June 2018, and gave birth to a girl the same day, becoming only the second elected head of government to give birth while in office (after Benazir Bhutto in 1990). Her daughter's given names are Neve Te Aroha. Neve is an anglicised form of the Irish name Niamh, meaning 'bright'; Aroha is Māori for 'love', and Te Aroha is a rural town west of the Kaimai Range, near Ardern's former home town of Morrinsville. After growing rumours that Gayford was under police investigation for criminal offences, in 2018 both Ardern and the Police Commissioner Mike Bush took the unusual step of confirming that Gayford was not, and had not been, under any such investigations. See also List of New Zealand governments Politics of New Zealand Paddles (cat), Ardern's former pet cat References External links Jacinda Ardern's Archived 2 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine profile on the New Zealand Parliament website Jacinda Ardern at the New Zealand Labour Party Appearances on C-SPAN

Maastricht_Treaty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maastricht_Treaty

The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced "a new stage in the process of European integration" chiefly in provisions for a shared European citizenship, for the eventual introduction of a single currency, and (with less precision) for common foreign and security policies, and a number of changes to the European institutions and their decision taking procedures, not least a strengthening of the powers of the European Parliament and more majority voting on the Council of Ministers. Although these were seen by many to presage a "federal Europe", key areas remained inter-governmental with national governments collectively taking key decisions. This constitutional debate continued through the negotiation of subsequent treaties (see below), culminating in the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon. In the wake of the Eurozone debt crisis unfolding from 2009, the most enduring reference to the Maastricht Treaty has been to the rules of compliance – the "Maastricht criteria" – for the currency union. Against the background of the end of the Cold War and the re-unification of Germany, and in anticipation of accelerated globalisation, the treaty negotiated tensions between member states seeking deeper integration and those wishing to retain greater national control. The resulting compromise faced what was to be the first in a series of EU treaty ratification crises. Overview Having "resolved to continue the process of creating an ever closer union among the people of Europe", the Treaty proposes "further steps to be taken in order to advance European integration" under seven titles. Title I, Common Provisions, establishes the European Union (EU) on the foundation of the three, already partially merged, European Communities: the European Economic Community (EEC), the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). It confirms among its objectives are "the introduction of a citizenship of the Union" common to the nationals of the Member States; "economic and monetary union, ultimately including a single currency"; and "a common foreign and security policy including the eventual framing of a common defence". Title II, Provisions Amending the Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community, reformulates the EEC as the central "pillar" of the Union. It amends the EEC's Treaty of Rome constitution, renaming it the European Community to reflect the Union's broader ambition. Amendments incorporate (as detailed in attached protocols) a staged progression toward monetary union including the price-stability-first criteria for adoption of the single currency and for the operations of the prospective European Central Bank (ECB). Other amendments create the office of European Ombudsman, expand the Structural Fund assistance to the poorer EU regions; and broaden Community competencies in education, culture, public health, consumer protection, trans-European networks, industry and the environment. In these and other areas which do not fall within Community's "exclusive competence", in accordance with "the principle of subsidiarity" action is to be taken only if, "by reason of the scale or effects", the objectives cannot be more "efficiently" achieved by the Member States themselves. In several of these areas, the Treaty seeks to enhance the "democratic functioning" of the institutions by conceding the directly elected European Parliament rights not only of consultation but also of co-decision on some categories of European legislation. It also grants the Parliament the power to confirm (and therefore to veto) the Council's nominations for the European Commission, the Community's executive. Titles III and IV amend the treaties establishing the ECSC and Euratom to complete their absorption into the structure of European Community. Title V and VI extend existing intergovernmental consultations on foreign-policy, security and defence matters, and on "cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs". In both cases, Member States are to "inform and consult one another within the Council [of Ministers]", but otherwise cooperate independently of Community institutions. Title VII, Final Provisions, covers a number of anomalous issues. Provided that all Member States ratify, it rules that the Treaty should come into force on 1 January 1993. Articles within the Treaty were referred to by using the letters A to S. Annexed to the Treaty is a Protocol, and an Agreement, on Social Policy. With a view to ensuring that the dynamic of the European single market respect certain minimum social and employment protections, these allow the Council of Ministers to approve relevant proposals from the European Commission on the basis of a qualified majority rather than unanimous consent. The United Kingdom was not a party of the Agreement on Social Policy and secured an "opt out" from the protocol. It was to do the same with respect to the obligation to enter the final, single-currency, stage of monetary union (the UK would not have to give up the Pound sterling). Procedural history Signatories The signatory nations were represented by: Mark Eyskens and Philippe Maystadt (Belgium) Uffe Ellemann-Jensen and Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Denmark) Roland Dumas and Pierre Bérégovoy (France) Antonis Samaras and Efthymios Christodoulou (Greece) Gerry Collins and Bertie Ahern (Ireland) Gianni De Michelis and Guido Carli (Italy) Jacques Poos and Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg) Hans van den Broek and Wim Kok (Netherlands) João de Deus Pinheiro and Jorge Braga de Macedo (Portugal) Francisco Fernández Ordóñez and Carlos Solchaga (Spain) Douglas Hurd and Francis Maude (United Kingdom) Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Theo Waigel (Germany) In consequence of the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Communities during the previous six months of negotiation, the Treaty was signed in the Netherlands, in the city of Maastricht. The twelve members of the European Communities signing the Treaty on 7 February 1992 were Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Ratification The Treaty noted that it should be "ratified by the High Contracting Parties in accordance with their respective constitutional requirement". In the cases of Denmark, France and Ireland this required referendums. In the first Danish referendum, on 2 June 1992, the treaty was rejected by a margin of 50.7% to 49.3%. Concessions secured by the end of year in Edinburgh including, critically, the same exemption secured by Britain from the single currency (Denmark would not have to give up the krone), allowed for a second referendum. On 18 May 1993, the Maastricht Treaty was endorsed by a vote of 56.7%. In Ireland, the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution, allowing the state to ratify the Treaty, was approved in a referendum held on 18 June 1992 with the support of 69.1% of votes cast. In September 1992, a referendum in France narrowly supported the ratification of the treaty, with 50.8% in favour. This narrow vote for ratification in France, known at the time as the 'petit oui', led Jacques Delors to comment that "Europe began as an elitist project in which it was believed that all that was required was to convince the decision-makers. That phase of benign despotism is over." In the United Kingdom parliament ratification did not command a clear majority. In protest against the social-policy opt out, Labour opposed, while "anti-federalists" split the governing Conservatives. Prime Minister John Major was able to face down his "Maastricht Rebels" only by tying ratification to the survival of the government in a vote of confidence. (Researchers and observers suggest that, in the United Kingdom, the Maastricht Treaty represented "a critical turning point" in terms of divisions within the Conservative Party over European integration and the ruling party' ultimate fragmentation in 2016 into Leave and Remain factions). In Germany, the Maastricht Treaty passed the Bundestag on December 2, 1992, with a majority of 543 out of 562, and the Bundesrat with unanimity. The Bundestag was required to amend the Grundgesetz (German Basic Law) to “legalize Germany’s membership in the European Union (Article 23) as well as to install a European Monetary Union (Article 88).” The ratification was delayed by challenges at the German Federal Constitutional Court, the complainants claiming the amendments transferring sovereign competencies to the European Union violated democratic principles (Article 20 and 38(1)) of the Grundgesetz that were unamendable (Article 79(3)); hence the Maastricht Treaty should be inadmissible. The court delivered its judgment on October 12, 1993 ruling the Maastricht Treaty compatible with the Grundgesetz, but provided that the European Union could not endow itself with more powers without the Bundestag’s approval. The court also confirmed its Solange II decision accepting the supremacy of European Court of Justice decisions while retaining the power to review secondary community law as to guarantee basic rights protection in close cooperation with the European Court of Justice. Germany was the last member state to ratify the treaty and it entered into force on November 1, 1993. Citizenship of the European Union From the establishment of the European Economic Community in 1957, integrationists argued the free movement of workers was the logical corollary of the free movement of capital, goods and services and integral to the establishment of a common (and later single) European market. In time, the tension between the transferred worker as "a mobile unit of production" contributing to the success of the single market, and the reality of the Community migrants as individuals, seeking to exercise "a personal right" to live and work in another state for their own, and their families', welfare, asserted itself. The Treaty built on the growing suggestion that there was a Community-wide basis for citizenship rights. The Treaty rules that "every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union". This common and parallel citizenship accords the Member State migrants not only the civil right to take up residence and employment, but also, and for the first time, political rights. In a new EU country of residence Member-State nationals have the right to vote, and to stand, in both local and European elections. Unresolved in the Treaty is the question of their access to social rights. Political debate continued as to who should have access to public services and welfare systems funded by taxation. Economic and monetary union Franco-German agreement French President François Mitterrand was forced to abandon the centrepiece of his Socialist programme in 1983, a job creating reflation, due to speculation against the franc. Since then, Mitterrand had been committed to drawing Germany into a currency partnership. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in late 1989, Germany sought re-unification. France, the UK, and the rest of Europe expressed their concerns over re-unification. When German Chancellor Helmut Kohl asked for re-unification in 1990, Mitterrand would only accept in the event Germany would abandon the Deutsche Mark and adopt a common currency. Without consulting Karl Otto Pöhl, President of the Bundesbank, Kohl accepted the deal. Despite this win for France, it was widely perceived that the cost of German cooperation was German dictation of the rules for a single currency. The Bundesbank had signalled that Germany's economic success would come before being "a good european". The ERM crises In the UK, the Maastricht rebellion drew on the experience of Black Wednesday. On 16 September 1992 the British government had been forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), after a failed and costly attempt to keep the pound above its mandated exchange rate limit. Sterling's exit from the ERM was the defining failure of John Major's government; a huge boost to Euro-scepticism; and made currency traders like George Soros rich. The ERM was the centrepiece of the European Monetary System (EMS), set up on voluntary basis in 1978 to reduce the "barrier" that exchange-rate volatility presented for intra-Community commerce (and for the management of payments under the Common Agricultural Policy). Britain had signed up to the ERM in 1990 as a token of the government's commitment to control inflation (then running at three times the rate of Germany). From the beginning of 1990, high German interest rates, set by the Bundesbank to counteract inflationary impact of the expenditure on German reunification, caused significant stress across the whole of the ERM. By the time of their own ratifications debates, France and Denmark also found themselves under pressure in foreign exchange markets, their currencies trading close to the bottom of their ERM bands. The Maastricht criteria Having "resolved to achieve the strengthening and the convergence and to establish an economic and monetary union including,... a single and stable currency", the Treaty ruled that "Member States shall regard their economic policies as a matter of common concern", and that the obligations assumed should be a matter for "mutual surveillance." Commonly known as the Maastricht criteria, these obligations represented the performance thresholds for member states to progress toward the third stage of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the adoption the common currency (designated at the 1995 Madrid European as the Euro). The four "convergence criteria", as detailed in attached protocols, impose control over inflation, public debt and the public deficit, exchange rate stability and domestic interest rates. With limited leeway granted in exceptional circumstances, the obligations are to maintain: 1. Inflation at a rate no more than 1.5 percentage points higher than the average of the three best performing (lowest inflation) Member States; 2. a "budgetary position" that avoids "excessive" government deficits defined in ratios to gross domestic product (GDP) of greater than 3% for annual deficits and 60% for gross government debt; 3. the exchange rate of the national currency within "the normal fluctuation margins by the exchange-rate mechanism of the European Monetary System without severe tensions for at least the last two years"; and 4. nominal long-term interest rates no more than 2 percentage points higher than in the three Member States with the lowest inflation. The European Central Bank mandate These criteria in turn dictated the mandate of the European System of Central Banks comprising the national central banks, but to include the prospective currency-issuing European Central Bank. As envisaged by the Treaty, the ECB replaced its shadow European Monetary Institute on 1 June 1998, and began exercising its full powers with the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999. The Treaty dedicates the EU central banking system to price stability, and gives it "a degree of independence from elected officials" greater even "than that of its putative model, the German Bundesbank". Whereas the Bundesbank, under article 12 of its constitution, is "bound to support the general economic policy of the [German] Federal Government", the obligation of the ECB to "support the general economic policies in the Community" is to be "without prejudice" to price stability, the Bank's "primary objective". It is further conditioned by the express understanding that "neither the ECB, nor a national central bank, nor any member of their decision-making bodies, shall seek or take instructions from Community institutions or bodies from any Government of a Member State or from any other body." Seeming to further preclude any possibility of the single-currency banking system being used to regulate European financial markets in support of potentially inflationary policies, the Treaty expressly prohibits the ECB or any Member State central extending "overdraft facilities or any other type of credit facility" to "Community institutions or bodies, central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of Member States", or the purchase from them debt instruments. The Maastricht economic-policy model Critics felt that, in limiting the role of the future ECB and euro in national, or Union-coordinated, reflationary policies, Maastricht affirmed what by the late 1980s was the general economic-policy orthodoxy within the Community. This has been described as a "reversed Keynesianism": macro-economic policy not to secure a full-employment level of demand, but, through the restrictive control of monetary growth and public expenditure, to maintain price and financial market stability; micro economic policy, not to engineer income and price controls in support of fiscal expansion, but to encourage job creation by reducing barriers to lower labour costs. The commitment to monetary union and the convergence criteria denied member states the resort to currency deflation to ease balance-of-payments constraints on domestic spending, and left labour market "flexibility" as the main mean of coping with asymmetric economic shocks. These constraints were to become the focus of political scrutiny and public protest in the new-century European debt crisis. Beginning in 2009 with Greece, the governments of several Euro-zone countries (Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Cyprus) declared themselves unable to repay or refinance their government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks without assistance from third parties. The "austerity" they had subsequently to impose as a condition of assistance from Germany and other of their trade-surplus EU partners, raised calls for new arrangements to better manage payment imbalances between member states, and ease the burden of adjustment upon wage-, and benefit-, dependent households. Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis credited the Maastricht criteria with framing of a union of deflation and unemployment. Taking issue in defence of the Maastricht criteria, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble argued that "the old way to stimulate growth will not work." There is a real "moral hazard" in allowing Member States to accumulate higher debts within the Eurozone – higher debts which, ultimately, have no relationship to higher growth. The Maastricht criteria, he insisted, were correct in placing the onus for growth on "competitiveness, structural reforms, investment, and sustainable financing". Foreign and security policy, justice and home affairs Set alongside the European Community, the cooperation proposed in the Maastricht Treaty on foreign and security policy, and on justice and home affairs, were characterised in official commentary as the second and third "pillars" of the Union. The Treaty, however, proposed no significant departures in these areas. Coordination in foreign and security policy had taken place since the beginning of the 1970s under the name of European Political Cooperation (EPC), which had been first written into the treaties by the 1987 Single European Act. Cooperation on law enforcement, criminal justice, asylum, and immigration and other judicial matters was being pursued under the 1990 Schengen Agreement and Convention. The new provisions called on governments to "inform and consult one another within the Council of Ministers", but otherwise continued cooperation on the basis of intergovernmental liaison outside of the EC and its institutions. The West European Union, an until recently moribund club within NATO, is described as "an integral part of the development of the Union", and asked it to help "elaborate and implement decisions and actions of the Union which have defence implications. Yet it is clear that nothing is to be construed as systematically constraining the foreign or defence policies of the individual Member States. "Failing a Council decision", which would require unanimity, a Member State is free to take such action as it considers "necessary". This, in part, was a concession to United Kingdom which continued to insist on the sufficiency of the North Atlantic alliance (supported by the non-aligned Member States, Ireland and Austria, at the 1997 Amsterdam summit, the UK prevented a merger of the WEU and the EU), Subsidiarity and co-decision As an implicit presumption subsidiarity may have been considered a check upon the supranational development of the EEC. But in making it an explicit constitutional principle the Maastricht Treaty opened up "debates about whether this strengthened the states, regions or local government vis-à-vis the EU or vice versa". Subsidiarity can be read as a federalising principle. For every endeavour it poses the question of whether national or Community policy is the most effective means, and elevates simple utility above any deference to national or local feeling, albeit with a presumption that action will be taken at European level only where national efforts cannot achieve the objective in question. Sceptics note that the Treaty offers no legally actionable definition of subsidiarity. Rather there are "a series of tentative indications for Community action in a document full of imprecise concepts: 'sufficiently', 'better achieved', 'what is necessary', 'to achieve the objectives', subjective notions which leave the way wide open for interpretation or practical developments." Jacques Santer, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, conceded that consensus around the principle of subsidiarity had been possible only because "it conceals different interpretations". The 1992 Treaty may have introduced a more consequential constitutional principle in its promotion "co-decision". It introduced procedures that made the European Parliament "co-legislator with the Council of Ministers" and have since been developed and extended to nearly all areas where the Council decides on legislation by qualified majority voting. The "foundations of co-decision in the Maastricht Treaty" have led to ways to reconcile differences between the Parliament and the Council, formally through a "conciliation procedure" and informally through "trialogues" involving negotiations between the European Parliament, Council and Commission, which have become standard in most legislative procedures. Amending Treaties In establishing the European Union the Maastricht Treaty amended the treaties that had established the European Communities in the 1950s. Following the EU accessions of Austria, Finland, and Sweden, it was in turn amended by the treaties of Amsterdam (1997), and Nice (2001). Following the accession of a further twelve states, ten from the former Eastern Bloc – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia – plus Cyprus and Malta, and an aborted Treaty on a European Constitution, the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community (TEC) were more comprehensively revisited. The 2007 Treaty of Lisbon amends both again and renames the TEC as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Timeline Since the end of World War II, sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty) in an increasing number of areas, in the European integration project or the construction of Europe (French: la construction européenne). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from the European Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of the Schuman Declaration. See also Treaties of the European Union Treaty on European Union Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union Notes Further reading External links Works related to Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union at Wikisource Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union at EUR-Lex Treaty on European Union, signed at Maastricht on 7 February 1992 – Original version Maastricht Treaty (7 February 1992) CVCE Proposed 1962 treaty establishing a "European Union" CVCE The Treaty on European Union – Current consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (in PDF)

Netherlands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands

The Netherlands, informally Holland, is a country located in Northwestern Europe with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. It shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium. The official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. Dutch, English, and Papiamento are official in the Caribbean territories. Netherlands literally means "lower countries" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with 26% situated below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders, are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. In the Republican period, which began in 1588, the Netherlands entered a unique era of political, economic, and cultural greatness, ranked among the most powerful and influential in Europe and the world; this period is known as the Dutch Golden Age. During this time, its trading companies, the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, established colonies and trading posts all over the world. With a population of over 17.9 million people, all living within a total area of 41,850 km2 (16,160 sq mi)—of which the land area is 33,500 km2 (12,900 sq mi)—the Netherlands is the 33rd most densely populated country, with a density of 535 people per square kilometre (1,390 people/sq mi). Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture, and inventiveness. The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and the nominal capital, though the primary national political institutions are located in the Hague. The Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation (separation of citizens into groups by religion and political beliefs) and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised prostitution and euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919 and was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy has the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet, and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest in Europe. Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the fourth busiest in Europe. Being a developed country, the Netherlands is a founding member of the European Union, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD, and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are in The Hague. Etymology Netherlands and the Low Countries The countries that comprise the region called the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) all have comparatively the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nedre, Nether, Lage(r) or Low(er) (in Germanic languages) and Bas or Inferior (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior. Thus, in the case of the Low Countries and the Netherlands, the geographical location of this lower region is more or less downstream and near the sea, compared to that of the upper region of Germania Superior. The designation 'Low' returned in the 10th-century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, which covered much of the Low Countries. The Dukes of Burgundy used the term les pays de par deçà ("the lands over here") for the Low Countries. Under Habsburg rule, this became pays d'embas ("lands down-here"). This was translated as Neder-landen in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, Niderlant was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. From the mid-sixteenth century, the "Low Countries" and the "Netherlands" lost their original deictic meaning. In most Romance languages, the term "Low Countries" is officially used as the name for the Netherlands. Holland The term Holland has frequently been used informally to refer to the whole of the modern country of the Netherlands in various languages, including Dutch and English. In some languages, Holland is used as the formal name for the Netherlands. However, Holland is a region within the Netherlands that consists of the two provinces of North and South Holland. Formerly these were a single province, and earlier the County of Holland, which included parts of present-day Utrecht. The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland a pars pro toto for the entire country. Many Dutch people object to the country being referred to as Holland instead of the Netherlands, on much the same grounds as many Welsh or Scottish people object to the United Kingdom being referred to as England. In particular, those from regions other than Holland find it undesirable or misrepresentative to use the term Holland for the whole country, as the Holland region only comprises two of the twelve provinces, and 38% of Dutch citizens. As of 2019, the Dutch government officially has preferred the Netherlands instead of Holland when talking about the country. Often Holland or Hollanders is used by the Flemish to refer to the Dutch in the Netherlands, and by the Southern Dutch (Dutch living "below the great rivers", a natural cultural, social and religious boundary formed by the rivers Rhine and Meuse) to refer to the Northern Dutch (Dutch living North of these rivers). In the Southern province of Limburg, the term is used for the Dutch from the other 11 provinces. The use of the term in this context by the Southern Dutch is in a derogatory fashion. Dutch Dutch is used as the adjective for the Netherlands, as well as the demonym. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz, Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning "popular" or "of the people", akin to Old Dutch Dietsch or Old English þeodisc, meaning "(of) the common (Germanic) people". At first, the English language used Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages. Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had the most contact with. History Prehistory (before 800 BC) The oldest human (Neanderthal) traces in the Netherlands, believed to be about 250,000 years old, were found near Maastricht. At the end of the Ice Age, the nomadic late Upper Palaeolithic Hamburg culture (13,000–10,000 BC) hunted reindeer in the area, using spears. The later Ahrensburg culture (11,200–9,500 BC) used bow and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC), the world's oldest canoe was found in Drenthe. Indigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture (c. 5600 BC), related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture, were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to adopt from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practice of animal husbandry, and between 4300 and 4000 BC agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture (4300–2800 BC) erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe. There was a quick transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture (c. 2950 BC). In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture—related to the Vlaardingen culture (c. 2600 BC)—survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture. The subsequent Bell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BC) introduced metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened new international trade routes, reflected in copper artefacts. Finds of rare bronze objects suggest that Drenthe was a trading centre in the Bronze Age (2000–800 BC). The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC) and later the Elp culture (1800–800 BC), a Middle Bronze Age culture marked by earthenware pottery. The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC). Celts, Germanic tribes and Romans (800 BC–410 AD) From 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing the Hilversum culture. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in Western Europe. The deteriorating climate in Scandinavia from 850 BC and 650 BC might have triggered the migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons. The Weser–Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones) extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. These tribes would eventually develop into the Salian Franks. The Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC to the Roman conquest) expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Nordwestblock culture. The first author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the geographer Pytheas, who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men." During the Gallic Wars, the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. Under Augustus, the Roman Empire would conquer the entirety of the modern day Netherlands, incorporating it into the province of Germania Antiqua in 7 BC, but would be repelled back across the Rhine after the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, with the Rhine becoming fixed as Rome's permanent northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. In the first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule, while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry. The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged in the first half of the third century. Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as foederati in Texandria. Early Middle Ages (411–1000) After the Roman government in the area collapsed in roughly the year 406, the Franks expanded their territories into numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul. During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south (modern territory of France and Walloon part of Belgium) eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population. A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in the north (i.e. the southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish, which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch. A Dutch-French language boundary hence came into existence. To the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period Saxons, the closely related Angles, Jutes, and Frisii settled the coast. Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons, but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian. Frisian was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. By the seventh century, a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Traiectum (Utrecht) as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity and established the Archdiocese of Utrecht. However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in 754. The Frankish Carolingian empire controlled much of Western Europe. In 843, it was divided into three parts—East, Middle, and West Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject to numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprised territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. Around 850, Lothair I of Middle Francia acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia. When the kingdom of Middle Francia was partitioned in 855, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and subsequently were named Lotharingia. After he died in 869, Lotharingia was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia, the latter comprising the Low Countries that became part of East Francia in 870. Around 879, another Viking expedition led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia, raided the Frisian lands. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that laid the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles was Gerolf of Holland, who assumed lordship in Frisia, and Viking rule came to an end. High Middle Ages (1000–1384) The Holy Roman Empire ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, Gelre, Brabant, and Utrecht were in a state of almost continual war or paradoxically formed personal unions. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch). Around 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders, and later Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign. Around 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible. The title of Count of Holland was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy to conquer Holland. Burgundian, Habsburg and Spanish Habsburg Netherlands (1384–1581) Most of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule the Low Countries from 1384 to 1581. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region. Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained. Under Habsburg Charles V, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report: On more than one occasion men were seen hanging their own brothers, who had been taken prisoners in the enemy's ranks... A Spaniard had ceased to be human in their eyes. On one occasion, a surgeon at Veer cut the heart from a Spanish prisoner, nailed it on a vessel's prow, and invited the townsmen to come and fasten their teeth in it, which many did with savage satisfaction. The Duke of Alba attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were "burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive" by his "Blood Council" and Spanish soldiers. Bodies were displayed along roads to terrorise the population into submission. Alba boasted of having executed 18,600; this figure does not include those who perished by war and famine. The first great siege was Alba's effort to capture Haarlem and thereby cut Holland in half. It dragged on from December 1572 to the next summer, when Haarlemers finally surrendered on 13 July upon the promise that the city would be spared from being sacked. It was a stipulation Don Fadrique was unable to honour, when his soldiers mutinied, angered over pay owed and the miserable conditions of the campaign. On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios seized Antwerp and subjected it to the worst pillage in the Netherlands' history. The citizens resisted but were overcome; seven thousand were killed and a thousand buildings were torched. Following the sack of Antwerp, delegates from Catholic Brabant, Protestant Holland and Zeeland agreed to join Utrecht and William the Silent in driving out Spanish troops and forming a new government for the Netherlands. Don Juan of Austria, the new Spanish governor, was forced to concede initially, but within months returned to active hostilities. The Dutch looked for help from the Protestant Elizabeth I of England, but she initially stood by her commitments to the Spanish in the Treaty of Bristol of 1574. When the next large-scale battle occurred at Gembloux in 1578, the Spanish forces won easily. In light of the defeat at Gembloux, the southern states of the Seventeen Provinces distanced themselves from the rebels in the north with the 1579 Union of Arras. Opposing them, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht in which they committed to support each other against the Spanish. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands. Spanish troops sacked Maastricht in 1579, killing over 10,000 civilians. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II. Against the rebels Philip could draw on the resources of the Spanish Empire. Elizabeth I sympathised with the Dutch struggle and sent an army of 7,600 soldiers to aid them. English forces faced the Spanish in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma in a series of largely indecisive actions that tied down significant numbers of Spanish troops and bought time for the Dutch to reorganise their defences. The war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became de facto colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire. Dutch Republic (1581–1795) Following the declaration of independence, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland entered into a confederation. All these duchies, lordships and counties enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy and was governed by its own administrative body known as the States-Provincial. The confederal government, known as the States General, was headquartered in The Hague and comprised representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe was part of the republic, albeit not considered a province in its own right. Moreover, during the Eighty Years' War, the Republic came to occupy a number of Generality Lands located in Flanders, Brabant and Limburg. These areas were primarily inhabited by Roman Catholics and lacked a distinct governmental structure of their own. They were utilized as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands. In the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers. Science, military and art (especially painting) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company established colonies and trading posts all over the world. The Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname). In Asia, the Dutch established a presence in India, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), Formosa (now Taiwan), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima. During the period of Proto-industrialisation, the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire. Many economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country. In early modern Europe, it had the wealthiest trading city in Amsterdam, and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as phenomena such as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636–1637, and the world's first bear raider, Isaac le Maire. In 1672 – known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) – the Dutch Republic was attacked by France, England and three German Bishoprics simultaneously, in what would become known as the Franco-Dutch War. At sea, it could successfully prevent the English and French navies from blockading the western shores. On land, however, it was almost taken over by the advancing French and German armies from the east. It managed to turn the tide by inundating parts of Holland. From 1672 to 1712, the Republic, led by William III of Orange and Anthonie Heinsius would regularly clash with France in what some historians have come to call the Forty Years' War. In the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession, the Republic was at the centre of anti-French coalitions. The Dutch ultimately successfully defended the Spanish Netherlands, established a barrier there, and their troops proved central to the alliance which halted French territorial expansion in Europe until a new cycle began in 1792 with the French Revolutionary Wars. However, the wars left them effectively bankrupt, and inflicted permanent damage on the Dutch merchant navy; while they remained the dominant economic power in the Far East, Britain took over as the pre-eminent global commercial and maritime power. Between 1590 and 1713, the United Provinces consistently possessed one of Europe's largest and most capable armies. However, following the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession, other major powers such as Prussia, Austria, Britain, and Russia significantly expanded their military forces. The Republic struggled to match these developments, and gradually assumed the status of a mid-tier power. However, historians have sometimes overstated the extent of this decline, especially when considering the period up to the 1750s. Batavian Republic and Kingdom (1795–1890) In the 18th century the Dutch Republic had seen a state of a general decline, with economic competition from England and long-standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the republican Staatsgezinden and the supporters of the stadtholder the Prinsgezinden as main political factions. With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. From 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until November 1813, when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig. William Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled. The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by the Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess. The Belgian Revolution and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient. The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Enslaved people in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873. World wars and beyond (1890–present) The Netherlands remained neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz forced most of the Dutch army to surrender. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were transported to Nazi extermination camps; only a few survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labour in Germany, civilians who resisted were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS. Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB, the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies. In 1944–45, the First Canadian Army liberated much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day, the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia. Decolonisation In 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure as a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation. The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao and Dependencies and the European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945. Suriname followed in 1975. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of Benelux and NATO. In the 1950s, the Netherlands became one of the six founding countries of the European Communities, following the 1952 establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community, and subsequent 1958 creations of the European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy Community. In 1993, the former two were incorporated into the European Union. Government-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de-pillarisation. Students and other youth rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women's rights, sexuality, disarmament and environmental issues. In 2002 the euro was introduced as fiat money, and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Referendums were held on each island. As a result, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were incorporated as special municipalities upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands. Geography The European Netherlands has a total area of 41,543 km2 (16,040 sq mi), including water bodies, and a land area of 33,481 km2 (12,927 sq mi). The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of 328 km2 (127 sq mi) It lies between latitudes 50° and 54° N, and longitudes 3° and 8° E. The Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population below sea level. The European part of the country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 322 m (1,056 ft) at the Vaalserberg, and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation. Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations. Much of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine (Rijn), the Meuse (Maas) and the Scheldt (Schelde), as well as their tributaries. The south-western part of the Netherlands is a river delta of these rivers, the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. The European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. These rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their "Great Rivers" (de Grote Rivieren). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Lake IJssel, the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language). Geology The Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and aeolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods. Almost the entire west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary. In the east of the Netherlands, remains are found of the last ice age, which ended approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed moraine forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine remained in the form of a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built on these hills. Floods Over the centuries, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of natural disasters and human intervention. On 14 December 1287, St. Lucia's flood affected the Netherlands and Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the 72 km2 (28 sq mi) Biesbosch tidal floodplains. The huge North Sea flood of February 1953 caused the collapse of several dikes in the southwest Netherlands; more than 1,800 people drowned. The Dutch government subsequently instituted a large-scale programme, the "Delta Works", to protect the country against future flooding, which was completed over a period of more than 40 years. The impact of disasters was, to an extent, increased through human activity. Relatively high-lying swampland was drained to be used as farmland. The drainage caused the fertile peat to contract and ground levels to drop; groundwater levels were lowered to compensate, causing the underlying peat to contract further. Additionally, until the 19th century peat was mined, dried, and used for fuel, further exacerbating the problem. Even in flooded areas, peat extraction continued through turf dredging. To guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium AD, villages and farmhouses were built on hills called terps. Later, these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called "waterschappen" ("water boards") or "hoogheemraadschappen" ("high home councils") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods; these agencies continue to exist. As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. By the 13th century windmills had come into use to pump water. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders. In 1932 the Afsluitdijk ("Closure Dike") was completed, blocking the former Zuiderzee (Southern Sea) from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling 2,500 square kilometres (965 sq mi) were reclaimed from the sea. The Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climate change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow. Delta Works After the 1953 disaster, the Delta Works was constructed, which is a comprehensive set of civil works throughout the Dutch coast. The project started in 1958 and was largely completed in 1997 with the completion of the Maeslantkering. Since then, new projects have been periodically started to renovate and renew the Delta Works. The main goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in South Holland and Zeeland. This was achieved by raising 3,000 km (1,900 mi) of outer sea-dikes and 10,000 km (6,200 mi) of the inner, canal, and river dikes, and by closing off the sea estuaries of Zeeland. New risk assessments occasionally show problems requiring additional Delta project dike reinforcements. The Delta project is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. It is anticipated that global warming will result in a rise in sea level. The Netherlands is actively preparing for a sea-level rise. A politically neutral Delta Commission has formulated an action plan to cope with a sea-level rise of 1.10 m (4 ft) and a simultaneous land height decline of 10 cm (4 in). The plan encompasses the reinforcement of existing coastal defences like dikes and dunes with 1.30 m (4.3 ft) of additional flood protection. Climate change will not only threaten the Netherlands from the coast, but could also alter rainfall patterns and river run-off. To protect the country from river flooding, another programme is already being executed. The Room for the River plan grants more flow space to rivers, protects the major populated areas and allows for periodic flooding of indefensible lands. The few residents who lived in these so-called "overflow areas" have been moved to higher ground, with some of that ground having been raised above anticipated flood levels. Climate change The Netherlands is already affected by climate change. The average temperature in the Netherlands rose by more than 2 °C from 1901 to 2020. Climate change has resulted in increased frequency of droughts and heatwaves. Because significant portions of the Netherlands have been reclaimed from the sea or otherwise are very near sea level, the Netherlands is very vulnerable to sea level rise. The Netherlands has the fourth largest greenhouse gas emissions per capita of the European Union, in part due to the large number of cows. The Dutch government has set goals to lower emissions in the next few decades. The Dutch response to climate change is driven by a number of unique factors, including larger green recovery plans by the European Union in the face of the COVID-19 and a climate change litigation case, State of the Netherlands v. Urgenda Foundation, which created mandatory climate change mitigation through emissions reductions 25% below 1990 levels. In 2021 CO2 emissions were down 14% compared to 1990 levels. The goal of the Dutch government is to reduce emissions in 2030 by 49%. Nature The Netherlands has 21 national parks and hundreds of other nature reserves. Most of these are owned by Staatsbosbeheer, the national department for forestry and nature conservation and Natuurmonumenten, a private organisation that buys, protects and manages nature reserves. The Wadden Sea in the north, with its tidal flats and wetlands, is rich in biological diversity, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Nature Site. The Eastern Scheldt, formerly the northeast estuary of the river Scheldt was designated a national park in 2002, making it the largest national park in the Netherlands at an area of 370 km2 (140 sq mi). Phytogeographically, the European Netherlands is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the European territory of the Netherlands belongs to the ecoregion of Atlantic mixed forests. In 1871, the last old original natural woods were cut down. These woods were planted on anthropogenic heaths and sand-drifts (overgrazed heaths) (Veluwe). The Netherlands had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 0.6/10, ranking it 169th globally out of 172 countries. Nitrogen pollution is a problem. The number of flying insects in the Netherlands has dropped by 75% since the 1990s. Caribbean islands In the Lesser Antilles islands of the Caribbean, the territories of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have a constituent country status within the wider Kingdom of the Netherlands. Another three territories which make up the Caribbean Netherlands are designated as special municipalities. The Caribbean Netherlands have maritime borders with Anguilla, Curaçao, France (Saint Barthélemy), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela. The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands enjoy a tropical climate with warm weather all year round. Within this island group: Bonaire is part of the ABC islands within the Leeward Antilles island chain off the Venezuelan coast. The Leeward Antilles have a mixed volcanic and coral origin. Saba and Sint Eustatius are part of the SSS islands within the Leeward Islands. They are located east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The locals (French, Spanish, Dutch and the locally spoken English) consider them part of the Windward Islands, although in the international English language, the Windward Islands refer to other islands further south. These two islands are of volcanic origin and hilly, leaving little ground suitable for agriculture. The highest point is Mount Scenery, 887 m (2,910 ft), on Saba. This is the highest point in the country and in the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands. Government and politics The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815 and a parliamentary democracy since 1848. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues. The Netherlands was ranked as the 17th best electoral democracy in the world by V-Dem Democracy indices in 2023 and 9th most democratic country in the world by the Democracy Index (The Economist) in 2022. The monarch is the head of state, at present King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with limited powers due to ministerial responsibility. The executive power is formed by the government that includes the monarch and the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the Dutch cabinet. The cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of state secretaries. One to three ministers are ministers without portfolio. The council of ministers is presided over by the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who often is the leader of the largest party of the coalition. The Prime Minister is a primus inter pares, with no explicit powers beyond those of the other ministers. Dick Schoof has been Prime Minister since July 2024, succeeding the longest-serving Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The cabinet is responsible to the bicameral parliament, the States General, which also has legislative powers. The 150 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house, are elected in direct elections on the basis of party-list proportional representation. These are held every four years, or sooner in case the cabinet falls. The provincial assemblies, the States Provincial, are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect the 75 members of the Senate, the upper house, which has the power to reject laws, but not amend them. Political culture Both trade unions and employers organisations are consulted in policymaking in the financial, economic and social areas. They meet regularly with the government in the Social-Economic Council. The Netherlands has a tradition of social tolerance. In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of pillarisation, in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government. Protection for LGBT and abortion rights are enshrined within the Netherlands' foreign aid policy. No single party has held a majority in parliament since the 19th century, and as a result, coalition cabinets had to be formed. Since suffrage became universal in 1917, the Dutch political system has been dominated by three families of political parties: Christian Democrats (currently the CDA), Social Democrats (currently the PvdA), and Liberals (currently the VVD). In November 2023, the right-wing populist Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders was the winner of a general election, securing 37 out of 150 seats. A cabinet was inaugurated in July 2024, and Dick Schoof succeeded Mark Rutte as prime minister. Administrative divisions The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner. All provinces are divided into municipalities (gemeenten), of which there are 342 (2023). The country is subdivided into 21 water districts, governed by a water board (waterschap or hoogheemraadschap), each having authority in matters concerning water management. The creation of water boards pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. The Dutch water boards are among the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. Direct elections of the water boards take place every four years. Within the Dutch town of Baarle-Nassau, are 22 Belgian exclaves and within those are 8 Dutch enclaves. The administrative structure on the three BES islands, collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands, is outside the twelve provinces. These islands have the status of openbare lichamen (public bodies). In the Netherlands these administrative units are often referred to as special municipalities. Foreign relations The history of Dutch foreign policy has been characterized by its neutrality. According to the 2024 Global Peace Index, Netherlands is the 18th most peaceful country in the world. Since World War II, the Netherlands has become a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the UN, NATO and the EU. The foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. One of the more controversial international issues surrounding the Netherlands is its liberal policy towards soft drugs. The historical ties inherited from its colonial past in Indonesia and Suriname still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. Many with heritage from these countries now live permanently in the Netherlands. Military The Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in Europe; it was first established in the late 1500s. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Dutch army was transformed into a conscription army. The Netherlands abandoned its neutrality in 1948 when it signed the Treaty of Brussels, and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. The Dutch military was therefore part of the NATO strength in Cold War Europe. In 1983 the (ceremonial) function of commander of chief of the monarch was transferred to the government, which means the monarch (nominal head of state) has no formal military function. In 1996 conscription was suspended, and the Dutch army was once again transformed into a professional army. Since the 1990s the Dutch army has been involved in the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War, it held a province in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and it was engaged in Afghanistan. The Netherlands has ratified many international conventions concerning war law. The Netherlands decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The military is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix Koninklijke (Royal): Koninklijke Marine (KM), the Royal Netherlands Navy, including the Naval Air Service and Marine Corps; Koninklijke Landmacht (KL), the Royal Netherlands Army; Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu), the Royal Netherlands Air Force; Koninklijke Marechaussee (KMar), the Royal Marechaussee (Military Police), tasks include military police and border control. The submarine service opened to women on 1 January 2017. The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is almost impossible for a woman to become a commando. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs more than 70,000 personnel, including over 20,000 civilians and over 50,000 military personnel. Economy Since the 16th century, shipping, fishing, agriculture, trade, and banking have been leading sectors of the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has a high level of economic freedom. The Netherlands is one of the top countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report (2nd in 2016), and was ranked the fifth most competitive economy in the world by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2017. The country was ranked the 8th most innovative nation in the world in the 2024 Global Innovation Index down from 2nd in 2018. As of 2020, the key trading partners of the Netherlands were Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, China and Russia. The Netherlands is one of the world's 10 leading exporting countries. Foodstuffs form the largest industrial sector. Other major industries include chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, trade, services and tourism. Examples of international Dutch companies operating in the Netherlands include Randstad, Heineken, KLM, financial services (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank), chemicals (DSM, AKZO), petroleum refining (Shell plc), electronic machinery (Philips, ASML), and satellite navigation (TomTom). The Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 11th in GDP (nominal) per capita. The Netherlands has low income inequality, but wealth inequality is relatively high. Despite ranking 11th in GDP per capita, UNICEF ranked the Netherlands 1st in child well-being in rich countries, both in 2007 and in 2013. Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX), part of Euronext, is the world's oldest stock exchange and is one of Europe's largest bourses. As a founding member of the euro, the Netherlands replaced (for accounting purposes) its former currency, the "gulden" (guilder), on 1 January 1999. Actual euro coins and banknotes followed on 1 January 2002. One euro was equivalent to 2.20371 Dutch guilders. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the United States dollar is used instead. The Netherlands is a "conduit country" that helps to funnel profits from high-tax countries to tax havens. It has been ranked as the 4th largest tax haven in the world. The Dutch location gives it prime access to markets in the United Kingdom and Germany, with the Port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are international trade, banking and transport. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. Amsterdam is the 5th-busiest tourist destination in Europe, with more than 4.2 million international visitors. Since the enlargement of the EU, large numbers of migrant workers have arrived in the Netherlands from Central and Eastern Europe. The Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States. The economy experienced a slowdown in 2005, but in 2006 recovered to the fastest pace in six years on the back of increased exports and strong investment. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007. The Netherlands is the fourth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report. Energy Beginning in the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered huge natural gas resources. The sale of natural gas generated enormous revenues for the Netherlands for decades, adding, over sixty years, hundreds of billions of euros to the government's budget. However, the unforeseen consequences of the country's huge energy wealth impacted the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy, leading to the theory of Dutch disease. The field is operated by government-owned Gasunie and output is jointly exploited by the government, Royal Dutch Shell, and ExxonMobil. Gas production caused earthquakes which damaged housing. After a large public backlash, the government decided to phase out gas production from the field. The Netherlands has made notable progress in its transition to a carbon-neutral economy. Thanks to increasing energy efficiency, energy demand shows signs of decoupling from economic growth. The share of energy from renewable sources doubled from 2008 to 2019, with especially strong growth in offshore wind and rooftop solar. However, the Netherlands remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels and has a concentration of energy- and emission-intensive industries that will not be easy to decarbonise. Its 2019 Climate Agreement defines policies and measures to support the achievement of Dutch climate targets and was developed through a collaborative process involving parties from across Dutch society. As of 2018, the Netherlands had one of the highest rates of carbon dioxide emissions per person in the European Union. Agriculture and natural resources The Netherlands' biocapacity totals only 0.8 global hectares per person in 2016, 0.2 of which are dedicated to agriculture. The Dutch biocapacity per person is just about half of the 1.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person available worldwide. In contrast, in 2016, the Dutch used on average 4.8 global hectares of biocapacity - their ecological footprint of consumption. As a result, the Netherlands was running a biocapacity deficit of 4.0 global hectares per person in 2016. The Dutch waste more food than any other EU citizen, at over three times the EU average. The Dutch agricultural sector is highly mechanised, and has a strong focus on international exports. It employs about 4% of the Dutch labour force but produces large surpluses in the food-processing industry and accounts for 21% of the Dutch total export value. The Dutch rank first in the European Union and second worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind only the United States, with agricultural exports earning €80.7 billion in 2014, up from €75.4 billion in 2012. In 2019 agricultural exports were worth €94.5 billion. In an effort to reduce agricultural pollution, the Dutch government is imposing strict limits on the productivity of the farming sector, triggering Dutch farmers' protests. One-third of the world's exports of chilis, tomatoes, and cucumbers go through the country. The Netherlands exports one-fifteenth of the world's apples. A significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports consists of fresh-cut plants, flowers, and flower bulbs, with the Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total. Demographics The Netherlands had an estimated population of 17,947,406 as of 31 November 2023. It is the 6th most densely populated country in Europe and the 33rd most densely populated country in the world with a density of 424 per square kilometre (1,100/sq mi). Between 1900 and 1950, the country's population almost doubled from 5.1 to 10 million. From 1950 to 2000, the population further increased, to 15.9 million. The fertility rate in the Netherlands is 1.78 children per woman (2018 estimate), which is high compared with many other European countries, but below the rate of 2.1 children per woman required for natural population replacement. The Netherlands has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.7 years. Life expectancy is high in the Netherlands: 84.3 years for newborn girls and 79.7 for boys (2020 estimate). The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, by nationality, with an average height of 1.81 metres (5 ft 11.3 in) for men and 1.67 metres (5 ft 5.7 in) for women in 2009. The average height of young men in the Netherlands increased from 5 feet, 4 inches to approximately 6 feet between the 1850s until the early 2000s. The country has a migration rate of 1.9 migrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The majority of the population of the Netherlands is ethnically Dutch. In 2022, the population was 74.8% ethnically Dutch, 8.3% other European, 2.4% Turkish, 2.4% Moroccan, 2.0% Indonesian, 2.0% Surinamese, and 8.1% others. Some 150,000 to 200,000 people living in the Netherlands are expatriates, mostly concentrated in and around Amsterdam and The Hague, now constituting almost 10% of the population of these cities. Significant minorities in the country include Frisians 700,000, Jews 41,000-45,000 and the Roma and the Sinti 40,000. According to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.8 million foreign-born residents in the Netherlands, corresponding to 11.1% of the total population. Of these, 1.4 million (8.5%) were born outside the EU and 0.43 million (2.6%) were born in another EU Member State. On 21 November 2016, there were 3.8 million residents in the Netherlands with at least one foreign-born parent. Over half the young people in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have a non-western background. Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in South Africa and the United States. The Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of about 8.2 million inhabitants and is the 5th largest metropolitan area in Europe. According to Dutch Central Statistics Bureau, in 2015, 28 per cent of the Dutch population had a spendable income above 45,000 euros (which does not include spending on health care or education). Language The official language of the Netherlands is Dutch, which is spoken by the vast majority of inhabitants. The dialects most spoken in the Netherlands are the Brabantian-Hollandic dialects. Besides Dutch, West Frisian is recognised as a second official language in the northern province of Friesland (Fryslân in West Frisian). West Frisian has a formal status for government correspondence in that province. Four other languages are protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The first of these recognised regional languages is Low Saxon (Nedersaksisch in Dutch). Low Saxon consists of several dialects of the Low German language spoken in the north and east of the Netherlands, like Tweants in the region of Twente, and Drents in the province of Drenthe. Limburgish is recognised as a regional language. It consists of Dutch varieties of Meuse-Rhenish and is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg. Yiddish and the Romani language were recognised in 1996 as non-territorial languages. English has a formal status in the special municipalities of Saba and Sint Eustatius. It is widely spoken on these islands. Papiamento has a formal status in the special municipality of Bonaire. The Netherlands has a long tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Dutch education laws. Some 90% of the total population are able to converse in English, 70% in German, and 29% in French. English is a mandatory course in all secondary schools. In most lower level secondary school educations (vmbo), one additional modern foreign language is mandatory during the first two years. In higher level secondary schools (havo and vwo), the acquisition of two additional modern foreign language skills is mandatory. Besides English, the standard modern languages are French and German, although schools can replace one of these with Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Turkish or Arabic. Additionally, schools in Friesland teach and have exams in West Frisian. Religion Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the Netherlands for more than 1,200 years, and by the middle of the sixteenth century the country was strongly Protestant (Calvinist). The population was predominantly Christian until the late 20th century. Although significant religious diversity remains, there has been a decline of religious adherence. In 2020, Statistics Netherlands found that 55% of the total population declared itself non-religious. Groups that represent the non-religious in the Netherlands include Humanistisch Verbond. Catholics comprised 19.8% of the total population, Protestants (14.4%). Muslims comprised 5.2% of the total population and followers of other Christian denominations and other religions (like Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism) comprised the remaining 5.1%. A 2015 survey from another source found that Protestants outnumbered Catholics. The southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg have historically been strongly Catholic, and some residents consider the Catholic Church as a base for their cultural identity. Protestantism in the Netherlands consists of a number of churches within various traditions. The largest of these is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), a united church which is Calvinist and Lutheran in orientation. It was formed in 2004 as a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and a smaller Lutheran Church. Several orthodox Calvinist and liberal churches did not merge into the PKN. Although Christianity has become a minority in the Netherlands, it contains a Bible Belt from Zeeland to the northern parts of the province Overijssel, in which Protestant beliefs remain strong. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and the Ascension of Jesus). Islam is the second largest religion in the state. The Muslim population increased from the 1960 as a result of large numbers of migrant workers. This included migrant workers from Turkey and Morocco, as well as migrants from former Dutch colonies, such as Surinam and Indonesia. During the 1990s, Muslim refugees arrived from countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan. Since 2000 there has been raised awareness of religion, mainly due to Islamic extremism. Another religion practised is Hinduism, with around 215,000 adherents (slightly over 1% of the population). Most of these are Indo-Surinamese. There are sizeable populations of Hindu immigrants from India and Sri Lanka, and Western adherents of Hinduism-orientated new religious movements such as Hare Krishnas. The Netherlands has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people strongly attracted to this religion, mainly ethnic Dutch people. There are about 30,000 Jews in the Netherlands, though the Institute for Jewish Policy Research estimates range from 30,000 to 63,000, depending on how the number is calculated. The Constitution of the Netherlands guarantees freedom of education, which means that all schools that adhere to general quality criteria receive the same government funding. This includes schools based on religious principles by religious groups (especially Catholic and Protestant). Three political parties in the Dutch parliament, (CDA, and two small parties, ChristianUnion and SGP) are based upon the Christian belief. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus). A survey in December 2014 concluded that for the first time there were more atheists (25%) than theists (17%) in the Netherlands, while the remainder of the population was agnostic (31%) or ietsistic (27%). In 2015, a vast majority of the inhabitants of the Netherlands (82%) said they had never or almost never visited a church, and 59% stated that they had never been to a church. Of all the people questioned, 24% saw themselves as atheist, an increase of 11% compared to the previous study done in 2006. The expected rise of spirituality has come to a halt according to research in 2015. In 2006, 40% of respondents considered themselves spiritual; in 2015 this has dropped to 31%. The number who believed in the existence of a higher power fell from 36% to 28% over the same period. Education Education in the Netherlands is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. If a child does not have a "starting qualification" (HAVO, VWO or MBO 2+ degree) they are still forced to attend classes until they achieve such a qualification or reach the age of 18. Children in the Netherlands attend elementary school from (on average) ages 4 to 12. It has eight grades and the first is facultative. Based on an aptitude test, the eighth grade teacher's recommendation and the opinion of the pupil's parents or caretakers, a choice is made for one of the three main streams of secondary education. The VMBO has four grades and is subdivided over several levels. Successfully completing the VMBO results in a low-level vocational degree that grants access to the MBO. The MBO (middle-level applied education) is a form of education that primarily focuses on teaching a practical trade or a vocational degree. With the MBO certification, a student can apply for the HBO. The HAVO has 5 grades and allows for admission to the HBO. The HBO (higher professional education) are universities of professional education (applied sciences) that award professional bachelor's degrees; similar to polytechnic degrees. An HBO degree gives access to the university system. The VWO (comprising atheneum and gymnasium) has 6 grades and prepares for studying at a research university. Universities offer a three-year bachelor's degree, followed by a one or two-year master's degree, which in turn can be followed by a doctoral degree programme. Doctoral candidates in the Netherlands are generally non-tenured employees of a university. All Dutch schools and universities are publicly funded and managed with the exception of religious schools. Dutch universities have a tuition fee of about 2,000 euros a year for students from the Netherlands and the EU, and 15,000 euros for non-EU students. Healthcare In 2016, the Netherlands maintained its position at the top of the annual Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI), which compares healthcare systems in Europe, scoring 916 of a maximum 1,000 points. The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005. On 48 indicators such as patient rights and information, accessibility, prevention and outcomes, the Netherlands secured its top position among 37 European countries for six years in a row. The Netherlands was ranked first in a study in 2009 comparing the health care systems of the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand. According to the Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP), patients have a great degree of freedom from where to buy their health insurance, to where they get their healthcare. Healthcare decisions are made in dialogue between patients and healthcare professionals. Healthcare in the Netherlands is split 3 ways: in somatic and mental health care and in 'cure' (short term) and 'care' (long term). Home doctors (huisartsen, comparable to general practitioners) form the largest part of the first level. Being referred by a member of the first level is mandatory for access to the second and third level. The health care system is in comparison to other Western countries, effective but not the most cost-effective. Healthcare is financed by a dual system that came into effect in January 2006. Long-term treatments, especially those that involve semi-permanent hospitalisation, and disability costs such as wheelchairs, are covered by a state-controlled mandatory insurance. In 2009 this insurance covered 27% of all health care expenses. Other sources of health care payment are taxes (14%), out of pocket payments (9%), additional optional health insurance packages (4%) and a range of other sources (4%). Health insurance in the Netherlands is mandatory. Healthcare in the Netherlands is covered by two statutory forms of insurance: Zorgverzekeringswet (ZVW), often called "basic insurance", covers common medical care. Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten (AWBZ) covers long-term nursing and care. While Dutch residents are automatically insured by the government for AWBZ, everyone has to buy their own basic healthcare insurance, except those under 18 who are automatically covered under their parents. Insurance companies are obliged to provide a package with a defined set of insured treatments. This insurance covers 41% of all health care expenses. Insurers have to offer a universal package for everyone over 18, regardless of age or state of health – it is illegal to refuse an application or impose special conditions. The funding burden for all short-term health care coverage is carried 50% by employers, 45% by the insured person and 5% by the government. Those on low incomes receive compensation to help them pay their insurance. Premiums paid by the insured are about €135 per month. Transport Mobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport. Road transport The Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world. The Netherlands has a relatively high uptake of electric vehicles, as the government implemented ambitious policy on both charging infrastructure and tax benefits. As of 2019, the Netherlands hosts approximately 30% of all recharging stations in the European Union. Moreover, newly sold cars in the Netherlands have on average the lowest CO2 emissions in the EU. Public transport About 13% of all distance is travelled by public transport, the majority of which is by train. The Dutch rail network of 3,013 km route is also rather dense. The network is mostly focused on passenger rail services and connects all major cities, with over 400 stations. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on lesser lines, two to four trains per hour on average, and up to eight trains an hour on the busiest lines. The Dutch national train network includes the HSL-Zuid, a high-speed line between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border for trains running from Paris and London, to the Netherlands. Cycling Cycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport. Almost as many kilometres are covered by bicycle as by train. The Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million bicycles, which makes more than one per capita, and twice as many as the circa 9 million motor vehicles on the road. In 2013, the European Cyclists' Federation ranked the Netherlands and Denmark as the most bike-friendly countries in Europe. Cycling infrastructure is extensive. Busy roads have received some 35,000 km of dedicated cycle tracks, physically segregated from motorised traffic. Busy junctions are often equipped with bicycle-specific traffic lights. There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centres and train stations. Water transport The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the largest port outside East Asia, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream. As of 2022, Rotterdam was the world's tenth largest container port. The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. The Volkeraksluizen between Rotterdam and Antwerp are the biggest sluices for inland navigation in terms of tonnage. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, was completed. Amsterdam is Europe's 4th largest port. The inland shipping fleet of the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. Passenger boats in the Netherlands includes a ferry network in Amsterdam, and waterbusses and taxis in Rotterdam. Air transport Schiphol Airport, just southwest of Amsterdam, is the main international airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest airport in Europe by number of passengers. Schiphol is the main hub for KLM, the nation's flag carrier and the world's oldest airline. In 2016, the Royal Schiphol Group airports handled 70 million passengers. All air traffic is international and Schiphol Airport is connected to over 300 destinations worldwide, more than any other European airport. The airport is a major freight hub as well, processing 1.44 million tonnes of cargo in 2020. Smaller international airports are located in or near Eindhoven, Rotterdam, Maastricht and Groningen. Air transport is of vital significance for the Caribbean part of the Netherlands, with all islands having their own airport. This includes the shortest runway in the world on Saba. Culture Art, architecture and philosophy The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. In the Middle Ages Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder were leading Dutch pioneers. During the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch Republic was prosperous and witnessed a flourishing artistic movement. The "Dutch Masters", spanning this 17th century era, included Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, and Jacob van Ruisdael. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century included Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondrian. Literature flourished during the Dutch Golden Age, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the poor treatment of the natives in the Dutch colony. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is the most translated book from Dutch. Other important 20th century authors include Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Hella Haasse, Willem Frederik Hermans, Cees Nooteboom and Gerard Reve. Various architectural styles can be distinguished in the Netherlands. The Romanesque architecture was built between 950 and 1250. Gothic architecture was used from about 1230. Gothic buildings had large windows, pointed arches and were richly decorated. Brabantine Gothic originated with the rise of the Duchy of Brabant and spread throughout the Burgundian provinces. Dutch Baroque architecture (1525–1630) and classicism (1630–1700) is especially evident in the west. Other architectural styles are Art Nouveau, Expressionism, De Stijl, Traditionalism and Brutalism. Erasmus and Spinoza were famous Dutch philosophers. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–95) discovered Saturn's moon Titan, argued that light travelled as waves, invented the pendulum clock, and was the first physicist to use mathematical formulae. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope. Windmills, tulips, clogs, cheese, and cannabis have grown to symbolize the Netherlands, especially among tourists. Dutch value system The Dutch are proud of their cultural heritage, rich history in art, and involvement in international affairs. A predominant attitude in the Netherlands is to think of the nation as being "both tolerant and cosmopolitan." A Dutch saying indicating their sense of national pride in their reclamation of land from the sea and marshes is "God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands." Dutch manners are open and direct with a no-nonsense attitude—informality combined with adherence to basic behaviour. "Dealing with the Dutch" by Jacob Vossestein states: "Dutch egalitarianism is the idea that people are equal, especially from a moral point of view, and accordingly, causes the somewhat ambiguous stance the Dutch have towards hierarchy and status." The Netherlands is one of the most secular countries of Europe, and religion in the Netherlands is generally considered as a personal matter which is not supposed to be propagated in public, although it often remains a discussion subject. Music The Netherlands has multiple music traditions. Traditional Dutch music is a genre known as "Levenslied", meaning Song of life. These songs typically have a simple melody and rhythm, and a straightforward structure of verses and choruses. Themes can be light, but are often sentimental and include love, death and loneliness. Traditional musical instruments such as the accordion and the barrel organ are a staple of levenslied music, though in recent years many artists use synthesisers and guitars. Contemporary Dutch rock and pop music (Nederpop) originated in the 1960s, heavily influenced by popular music from the United States and Britain. Bands such as Shocking Blue, Golden Earring, Tee Set, George Baker Selection and Focus enjoyed international success. From the 1980s, more and more pop musicians started working in the Dutch language, partly inspired by the huge success of the band Doe Maar. Current symphonic metal bands Epica, Delain, ReVamp, The Gathering, Asrai, Autumn, Ayreon and Within Temptation as well as jazz and pop singer Caro Emerald are having international success. Metal bands like Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned, Izegrim, Asphyx, Textures, Heidevolk, and Slechtvalk are popular guests at the biggest metal festivals in Europe. Contemporary local stars include pop singer Anouk, country pop singer Ilse DeLange, Limburgish dialect singing folk band Rowwen Hèze, rock band BLØF and duo Nick & Simon. Early 1990s Dutch and Belgian house music came together in Eurodance project 2 Unlimited. Selling 18 million records, the two singers in the band are the most successful Dutch music artists to this day. Tracks like "Get Ready for This" are still popular themes of U.S. sports events. In the mid-1990s Dutch language rap and hip hop (Nederhop) came to fruition and has become popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. Since the 1990s, Dutch electronic dance music (EDM) gained widespread popularity in the world in many forms. Some of the world's best known dance music DJs hail from the Netherlands, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Dash Berlin, Julian Jordan, Nicky Romero, W&W, Don Diablo, Ummet Ozcan, Headhunterz, Sander van Doorn, and Afrojack; the first four of which have been ranked as best in the world by DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is the world's leading electronic music conference and the biggest club festival for the many electronic subgenres on the planet. The Netherlands has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first edition in 1956, and has won five times. In classical music, Jan Sweelinck is a famous Dutch composer, with Louis Andriessen among the best known contemporary Dutch classical composers. Ton Koopman is a Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. Notable violinists are Janine Jansen and André Rieu. Film and television Some Dutch films – mainly by director Paul Verhoeven – have received international distribution and recognition, such as Turkish Delight ("Turks Fruit", 1973), Soldier of Orange ("Soldaat van Oranje", 1977), Spetters (1980), and The Fourth Man ("De Vierde Man", 1983). Verhoeven then went on to direct big Hollywood movies like RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), and Basic Instinct (1992), and returned with Dutch film Black Book ("Zwartboek", 2006). Other well-known Dutch film directors are Jan de Bont, Anton Corbijn, Dick Maas, Fons Rademakers, and documentary makers Bert Haanstra and Joris Ivens. Film director Theo van Gogh achieved international notoriety in 2004 when he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in the streets of Amsterdam after directing the short film Submission. Directors of photography from the Netherlands include Hoyte van Hoytema and Theo van de Sande. Internationally successful Dutch actors include Famke Janssen, Carice van Houten, Rutger Hauer, and Jeroen Krabbé. The Netherlands has a well developed television market, with both multiple commercial and public broadcasters. Imported TV programmes, as well as interviews with responses in a foreign language, are virtually always shown with the original sound and subtitled. Only foreign shows for children are dubbed. TV exports from the Netherlands mostly take the form of specific formats and franchises, most notably was the internationally active TV production conglomerate Endemol, founded by Dutch media tycoons John de Mol and Joop van den Ende. Endemol and its subsidiaries created and ran reality, talent, and game show franchises worldwide, including Big Brother and Deal or No Deal. Endemol merged with Shine Group in 2015, and again with Banijay in 2020. Sports Approximately 4.5 million of the 16.8 million people in the Netherlands are registered in one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two-thirds of the population between 15 and 75 participate in sports weekly. Football is the most popular team sport, followed by field hockey and volleyball. Tennis, gymnastics and golf are the three most widely engaged in individual sports. Organisation of sports began at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Federations for sports were established, rules were unified and sports clubs came into existence. A Dutch National Olympic Committee was established in 1912. The national football team was runner-up in the World Cup of 1974, 1978, and 2010, and won the European Championship of 1988. Of SI's 50 greatest footballers of all time, Johan Cruyff (#5), Marco van Basten (#19), Ruud Gullit (#25), and Johan Neeskens (#36) are Dutch. The women's national team was runner-up in 2019 World Cup and won the European Championship of 2017. The Netherlands women's field hockey team won 9 out of 15 World Cups. The Netherlands baseball team have won the European championship 24 times out of 33 events. The volleyball national women's team won the European Championship in 1995 and the World Grand Prix in 2007. The Netherlands has won 266 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and 110 at the Winter Olympic Games. Joop Zoetemelk won the 1979 Vuelta a Espana, the 1980 Tour de France, and the 1985 UCI World Championship. Jan Janssen won the 1968 Tour de France, Tom Dumoulin the 2017 Giro d'Italia. Max Verstappen, the youngest Formula 1 driver to make his debut and to win a race, was the first Dutchman to win a Grand Prix and a Formula One World Drivers Championship. Dutch K-1 kickboxers have won the K-1 World Grand Prix 15 times out of 19 tournaments. Cuisine Dutch cuisine is simple and straightforward, and contains many dairy products. Breakfast and lunch are typically bread with toppings, with cereal for breakfast as an alternative. Traditionally, dinner consists of potatoes, meat, and vegetables. The Dutch diet was high in carbohydrates and fat, reflecting the dietary needs of the labourers whose culture moulded the country. During the twentieth century this diet changed and became more cosmopolitan, with most global cuisines being represented in the major cities. In early 2014, Oxfam ranked the Netherlands as the country with the most nutritious, plentiful and healthy food. Modern culinary writers distinguish between three regional forms of Dutch cuisine: northeast, west and south: The regions in the northeast are the least populated areas of the Netherlands. The late 18th century introduction of large scale agriculture means the cuisine is known for its meats. The relative lack of farms allowed for an abundance of game and husbandry, though dishes near the coastal regions include a large amount of fish. The various dried sausages, belonging to the metworst-family of Dutch sausages are found throughout this region. Smoked sausages are common, of which (Gelderse) rookworst is the most renowned. Larger sausages are eaten alongside stamppot, hutspot, or zuurkool (sauerkraut); whereas smaller ones are eaten as a street food. The provinces are home to hard textured rye bread, pastries and cookies. As a coastal region, Friesland is home to low-lying grasslands, and thus has a cheese production in common with the Western cuisine. Cookies are produced in great number and contain a lot of butter and sugar. The traditional alcoholic beverages are beer (strong pale lager) and Jenever, a high proof juniper-flavoured spirit, that came to be known in England as gin. An exception within the traditional Dutch alcoholic landscape, Advocaat, a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, is native to this region. In the West, the abundance of water and flat grasslands, mean the area is known for its dairy products, which include prominent cheeses such as Gouda, Leyden (spiced cheese with cumin), and Edam (traditionally in small spheres) as well as Leerdammer and Beemster, while the adjacent Zaanstreek in North Holland has since the 16th century been known for its mayonnaise and typical whole-grain mustards. A by-product of the butter-making process, karnemelk (buttermilk), is considered typical for this region. Seafood such as soused herring, mussels, eels, oysters and shrimps are widely available and typical for the region. The Southern Dutch cuisine consists of the cuisines of the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Flemish Region in Belgium. It is renowned for its rich pastries, soups, stews and vegetable dishes. It is the only Dutch culinary region that developed an haute cuisine. Pastries are abundant, often with rich fillings of cream, custard or fruits. Cakes, such as the Vlaai from Limburg and the Moorkop and Bossche Bol from Brabant, are typical pastries. Savoury pastries abound, with the worstenbroodje (a roll with a sausage of ground beef, literally translates into sausage bread) being the most popular. The alcoholic beverage of the region is beer, there are many local brands, ranging from Trappist to Kriek. See also Outline of the Netherlands Notes References Sources External links Netherlands from UCB Libraries GovPubs Netherlands at Curlie I am Expat – General information about the Netherlands Netherlands profile from the BBC News Wikimedia Atlas of Netherlands Geographic data related to Netherlands at OpenStreetMap Key Development Forecasts for the Netherlands from International Futures Government Government.nl – official Dutch government web site Statistics Netherlands (CBS) – Key figures from the Dutch bureau of statistics "Provinces of Netherlands". Statoids. Travel Holland.com – English website of the Netherlands tourist office Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions – Organisation responsible for promoting the Netherlands nationally and internationally

Red_Stripe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Stripe

Red Stripe is a 4.7% ABV pale lager brewed by Desnoes & Geddes in Jamaica and the Netherlands. It was first introduced in 1928 from a recipe developed by Paul H. Geddes and Bill Martindale. In 1993, Guinness Brewing Worldwide, now Diageo, acquired a controlling interest in Desnoes & Geddes, and took over international distribution in many markets. In 2015, Heineken acquired Diageo's stake and stated it would launch an offer for the shares it did not own. History Red Stripe was first produced in the early 1930s by Galena Brewing Company in Galena, Illinois, US. The company sold the recipe to British investors after facing financial troubles. The investors brought the brand and recipe to Jamaica. Red Stripe was brewed under license in the UK from Desnoes and Geddes by the Bedford-based brewers, Charles Wells from 1976 until 2014, when Diageo made alternative supply arrangements. For part of the Charles Wells era, they brewed a stronger variant, the 9% ABV Crucial Brew, with branding in red and black. In 1993, 51 per cent ownership in Desnoes & Geddes Limited was purchased by Guinness Brewing Worldwide, now Diageo, an acquisition that significantly increased the international distribution of both Red Stripe and Dragon Stout. A new Red Stripe Light has also been added, which is brewed and bottled in Jamaica and imported by Guinness USA of Stamford, Connecticut. United States Red Stripe was first imported to the United States in 1985, with poor initial results. Seeking to mimic the success of Heineken, Red Stripe for export was packaged in green standard 12 U.S. fl oz (355 mL; 12.5 imp fl oz) bottles. American consumers exposed to Red Stripe through their travels to Jamaica, as well as Jamaican expatriates, were reluctant to try the brand in the States since it was not packaged in its distinctive squat brown bottle and painted label. This marketing issue was resolved only to have shipments temporarily suspended in January 1989 due to cannabis smuggling in shipping containers discovered in the Port of Miami. Red Stripe recovered and rode the popularity of dance hall and reggae in the early 1990s to well over a million cases of annual distribution. Red Stripe is a significant sponsor of reggae, ska, and other music events, including the annual Reggae Sumfest hosted in Montego Bay. Diageo introduced canned Red Stripe, brewed under contract by Moosehead in New Brunswick, to the United States market in 2009. In the U.S. in 2010, the bottling size was reduced from a typical 12 oz. per serving to 11.2 oz. per serving which is equivalent to the typical metric serving of 0.33 litre. In 2012, Diageo moved production of the U.S. supply of Red Stripe from Jamaica to the U.S., contract-brewed for it by City Brewing Co. of La Crosse, Wisconsin, at its Latrobe Brewing Company facility in Pennsylvania. Desnoes & Geddes still made Red Stripe for Jamaica, Brazil, Canada and Europe. Lack of consumer acceptance of U.S.-brewed Red Stripe resulted in brewing for the States returning to Jamaica. On 7 September 2016 the company celebrated the shipment of the first container of Red Stripe to be exported to the United States from Jamaica in 4 years. The company said this historic move was core to the company's mission of re-establishing Jamaica as the global hub for the Jamaican brand. It was still being imported to the U.S. in 2023, from Jamaica in bottles, and the Netherlands in kegs and cans. Advertising In North America, a television advertising campaign launched in 2001 features Dorrel Salmon playing a comedic take on a Jamaican man, using variations on the catchphrase, "Hooray, beer!" In the UK, the advertising campaign plays on the 'easy vibe' of Jamaican Beer, with catchphrases such as "easy now." Sponsorship Red Stripe has been an intermittent sponsor of the Jamaica national bobsled team. In February 2018, following turmoil within the Jamaica Olympic women's bobsled team, Red Stripe stepped in at the last minute to sponsor a new bobsled so that the team could compete in the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics as planned. Other major sporting sponsorship activities have included a commitment as the Caribbean regional sponsor for the 2007 Cricket World Cup and a J$100 million sponsorship commitment to the Jamaican Football Federation in support of the national team's regional qualifying efforts for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In 2007, under the guidance of brand manager Jonny Kirkham, Red Stripe initiated a campaign in the UK to support new music by sponsoring events such as the Camden Crawl and The Great Escape festivals, as well as hosting a number of free music events with artists such as The View and The Rifles. Recent work with new bands puts this initiative in direct competition with the likes of Carling as a featured sponsor of the underground music scene. In support of this promotional strategy, the Red Stripe Music Awards were initiated between 2007 and 2010, with the winner of the award receiving featured billing at two music festivals, Blissfields and The Great Escape, and the opportunity to tour with a high-profile act. Winners of the award included The Runners, Ben Howard, Klaus Says Buy The Record, and The Laurel Collective, while judges ranged from musicians such as Guy Garvey, music journalists and brand representatives from Red Stripe. As a result, brand sales grew significantly with Red Stripe becoming available throughout Camden, Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton and in key music venues across the UK. During this period, Red Stripe continued to be the unofficial beer of the Notting Hill Carnival which it has been since 1976. Writer and music festival PR Alex Lee Thomson also presented a series of web-based interviews for the brand during their sponsorship periods of Camden Crawl and The Great Escape festivals in the UK, while editing their music-based website. Red Stripe sponsors sports talk television program Pardon the Interruption during the summer months, alternating with Guinness. Also recently Red Stripe began sponsoring the International Festival of Thumb Wrestling held annually in Mason City, Iowa. Red Stripe also sponsored Ignite Urban competition along with SUM Entertainment. Red Stripe Light has also been announced as the official beer category Major Sponsor for the 2010 Zwack Air Hockey World Championships taking place in July 2010 in Houston, Texas. See also Jamaican cuisine References External links Official Jamaican website German Shop Website US Official Website UK Official Website Red Stripe Sumfest

Swedish_Match

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Match

Swedish Match AB is a Swedish multinational tobacco company headquartered in Stockholm. The company manufactures snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff, tobacco- and nicotine-free pouch products, chewing tobacco, chew bags, tobacco bits, cigars, matches, lighters, and other fire products with operations in Sweden, Denmark, the United States, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, the Netherlands, and the Philippines. The company's origins can be traced back to 1868, and Ivar Kreuger. Swedish Match has played an important part in Sweden's industrial development. In May 2022, Philip Morris launched a takeover bid for Swedish Match. Despite some shareholder resistance, by late November 2022 Philip Morris had acquired over 90% ownership, allowing it to begin the compulsory purchase of remaining shares and de-list Swedish Match from the stock market. History The operations of Swedish Match originate from two companies: Svenska Tobaksmonopolet, a tobacco monopoly owned by the Swedish state and founded in 1915, and Svenska Tändsticks Aktiebolaget (STAB), a match manufacturing company founded in 1917 by Ivar Kreuger (also known as the ”Match King”) in connection with the acquisition of Jönköpings Tändsticksfabrik. In 1992, the tobacco and lights operations were joined in the Procordia Group. Two years later, they were merged into an independent company named Swedish Match, which became publicly listed in 1996. During parts of its existence, most recently between 2010 and 2015, the company has been headquartered in the so-called Matchstick Palace, commissioned by Ivar Kreuger in the late 1920s. Svenska Tändsticks AB (STAB) In 1917, Ivar Kreuger founded Svenska Tändsticks Aktiebolaget (STAB) in Jönköping (also known as "City of the matches"). It was a merger between Aktiebolaget Förenade Tändsticksfabriker and Jönköpings & Vulcans Tändsticksfabriksaktiebolag. By expanding through acquisition of government-created monopolies by lending money to the governments, and through mergers with for instance the British match company Bryant and May in 1927, it became the world's largest match manufacturer. A year later, STAB was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. In 1930, the company controlled 60 percent of the world's match production and was the sole owner of match companies in 33 countries. Following the death of Ivar Kreuger in 1932, the ownership structure in STAB changed and a number of factories were liquidated. During 1938, STAB's share of the world's matchmaking fell to 20 percent. When the match market declined sharply in the 1950s, STAB looked for new business ventures and acquired more than 50 companies between 1968 and 1976. In 1980, Svenska Tändsticks AB changed its name to Swedish Match to create unity throughout the group. In 1988 the company was acquired by Stora AB and was sold two years later to Nederlight. After another two years, Procordia acquired Swedish Match. AB Svenska Tobaksmonopolet In 1915, the Swedish government founded AB Svenska Tobaksmonopolet and nationalized all Swedish tobacco production plants. The monopoly was introduced in order to give the government funds to finance the country's military defense and a new national pension system. During the 1960s, the monopoly on production, import and sale of tobacco was abolished in Sweden. Svenska Tobaksmonopolet was converted to a new state-owned company named Svenska Tobaks AB. In 1971, the ownership of the tobacco group was transferred to Statsföretag, the Swedish Sovereign Wealth Fund, which in 1984 was renamed Procordia. As a result of the monopoly being abolished and in order to broaden the market, the Dutch cigar company Elisabeth Bas/La Paz (EBAS), the American tobacco manufacturer Pinkerton Tobacco Company (maker of Red Man, a chewing tobacco brand introduced in the U.S. in 1904) and the Dutch cigar producer Willem II were acquired between 1968 and 1989. In 1989, Procodia was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Volvo acquired part of Procordia in 1990 and became the principal owner together with the Swedish government. To complement the tobacco business, Procordia, in 1992, acquired the match and lighter company Swedish Match from Nederlight. Swedish Match AB In 1992, the listed company Procordia acquired the match and lighter business named Swedish Match. The operations of Swedish Match were integrated with Procordia United Brands, one of Procordia's business operations, and was renamed Swedish Match to take advantage of international name recognition. In 1994, Swedish Match functioned as an independent company and was later, in 1996, listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm AB and on Nasdaq. In 1999, the company sold its cigarette manufacturing to Austria Tabak but is still active as a distributor of cigarettes on the Swedish market. In the same year, Swedish Match expanded its cooperation with PT. Java Match Factory (Jamafac), the biggest safety matches manufacturer in Indonesia, to a joint venture agreement in order to strengthen its position within lights and matches in Southeast Asia. Jamafac was divested in 2005 and now has a license agreement with Swedish Match to produce matches and distribute Cricket Lighters in Indonesia. In 2009, Swedish Match entered an agreement with Philip Morris International and formed the joint venture company SMPM International, with equal stakes owned by each of the two partners, for exploring and developing new markets for snus and other smokefree tobacco products outside Scandinavia and the United States. The collaboration placed test markets in Tel Aviv, Israel; St. Petersburg, Russia; Taiwan; and nationwide Canada. The joint venture was, however, dissolved in 2015. In 2010, Swedish Match and Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) formed a new company specialized in cigars. Swedish Match brought its entire cigar business (with the exception of U.S. mass market cigars) and pipe tobacco into the new company, while STG transferred all of its tobacco business. The new company took over the name Scandinavian Tobacco Group. Swedish Match became a partner with 49 percent of the company, and the remaining shares were owned by Skandinavisk Holding A/S. In 2016, STG became publicly listed, and Swedish Match sold most of its shares in the company. In 2017, Swedish Match acquired V2 Tobacco, a producer of chew bags and snus, and in 2018, Oliver Twist, a producer of tobacco bits. Both companies are Danish and now fully owned by Swedish Match. Also in 2018, Swedish Match bought a 95 percent stake in the Swedish company Gotlandssnus, which produces snus. In 2022, Swedish Match's shares hit record high as Philip Morris International (PMI) closed a $16 billion dollar deal with the company. PMI completed the acquisition and eventually delisted Swedish Match. Operations Snus, moist snuff, cigars, chewing tobacco, chew bags, tobacco bits, matches and lighters are the main products made by Swedish Match. The company also sells complementary products, such as razors, batteries and light bulbs, on the Brazilian market. Organization The organizational structure consists of three divisions, along with corporate functions. Europe division The Europe division develops, manufactures, markets and sells snus, nicotine pouches and other smokeless products. The geographic scope is international except North America, with a focus on Europe. US division The US Division produces chewing tobacco, cigars, moist snuff and nicotine pouches for the American market. It is also responsible for sales and marketing in the United States. Lights division The Lights division manufactures and markets matches and lighters, with production in Brazil, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Sweden. The main markets are Europe, Asia, Brazil and parts of Africa. The division also sells complementary products, mainly in Brazil. Operating locations and factories Swedish Match operates in eleven countries and has production units in seven of those: Brazil, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sweden and the US. The company has 15 factories. The table below presents an overview of Swedish Match's operations as of 2021: Production of matches and lightersThe matches produced by Swedish Match are safety matches and are manufactured in Sweden and Brazil. The entity that produces matches in Sweden, Swedish Match Industries AB, is since 2009 certified according to the Forest Stewardship Council chain of custody standard and the standard for controlled wood. The matches are manufactured according to the European match standards EN 1783:1997. 40 percent of the production is sold in Europe and 60 percent to Africa, Central America, The Caribbean, Oceania and the Middle East. The Swedish manufacturing facilities are located in Tidaholm and Vetlanda. In Brazil, 95% of the wood consumption for safety matches and matchboxes is from Swedish Match's own plantations. Swedish Match produces lighters in the Philippines, the Netherlands and Brazil. Market While today's Swedish Match still produces matches, the majority of its sales and operating profits comes from its smokeless tobacco products such as snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff and chewing tobacco. In 2021, these smokeless products accounted for 67 percent of sales and 74 percent of Swedish Match's operating profit, whereas matches and lighters accounted for 7 percent of sales and 4 percent of operating profit. Swedish Match's cigars accounted for 26 percent of sales and 23 percent of the operating profit. Swedish Match generates most of its sales in Scandinavia and the US(93 percent of company sales in 2021) but also has a significant worldwide presence through its matches and lighters businesses. Smokefree products Scandinavia and the US are the primary markets for Swedish Match's smokefree products. The company is market leader in snus in both Sweden and Norway. In 2021, the operating profit for smokefree products (chew bags, tobacco bits, snus, moist snuff, nicotine pouches and chewing tobacco) increased to 5,998 MSEK (5,142 MSEK in 2021). The market for Scandinavian snus and the US moist snuff/snus is approximately 1.745 billion cans per year (345 million cans in Scandinavia and 1.4 billion cans in the US). The snus market in the US is about $175 million, and Swedish Match has about 10 percent of the market. Cigars In 2014, the US cigar market was estimated to more than 5 billion cigars (excluding little cigars) of which Swedish Match produced 1.1 billion sticks of cigars. The cigar market grew 9 percent compared to 2013 in terms of volume. Swedish Match's share was even greater in the recent past, as a series of acquisitions between 1999 and 2010 including General Cigar and Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) which is the world's largest cigar producer and manufactures more than 50 percent of the world's pipe tobacco. Control of major brands such as Macanudo, Punch, Cohiba, CAO and La Gloria Cubana gave Swedish Match nearly 1/3 of the US premium cigar market in addition to its strong position in machine-made cigars. However, in 2014 Swedish Match, having reorganized its premium-cigar businesses under the STG umbrella, spun off STG as a public company. Swedish Match's cigar business is now limited to machine-made mass-production brands such as White Owl and Garcia y Vega. Matches and lighters Swedish Match supplies matches worldwide. The main markets for matches are Europe, Asia and the Americas. For lighters, the most important markets are Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Scandinavia, France and UK. In 2021, 59 billion matchsticks were produced and 325 million lighters. Sales for matches and lighters was 1,338 MSEK (1,149 MSEK in 2020) and the operating profit increased by 0.8 percent to 1,453 MSEK (1,382 MSEK in 2020). Main brands Below are Swedish Match's main brands along with market information as of 2021: Swedish Match is also active on the Brazilian market with disposable razors, batteries, light bulbs and toothpicks under the Fiat Lux brand. Market position and competition In 2019, cigarettes made up 88 percent of the global tobacco market by value, smokeless products 2 percent and other products, which includes e-cigarettes, 10 percent. Swedish Match is active in the smokeless products category, with several types of smokeless products, as well as in the other products category, with cigars. In the United States For nicotine pouches in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in the U.S. market, with 84 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were BAT (Reynolds American) and Altria. For moist snuff in 2019, Swedish Match was number three in the U.S. market, with 8 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were Altria (USSTC) and BAT (Reynolds American). For chewing tobacco in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in the U.S. market, with 41 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were National Tobacco, Swisher, and BAT (Reynolds American). For mass market cigars, excluding little cigars, in 2019, Swedish Match was number two in the U.S. market, with 22 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were Swisher, Altria (Middleton), and Imperial Brands (ITG Brands). In Scandinavia For snus in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in both the Swedish and Norwegian markets, with 61 and 55 percent, respectively. For nicotine pouches in 2019, Swedish Match was number two in the Swedish market and number three in the Norwegian market, with 26 and 15 percent, respectively. For snus and nicotine pouches combined in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in both the Swedish and Norwegian markets, with 60 and 49 percent, respectively. In Sweden, the main competitors, in descending order, were Imperial Brands, BAT, and Japan Tobacco International. In Norway, the main competitors, in descending order, were Imperial Brands and BAT. Swedish Match in the US In the US, Swedish Match produces and distributes the Longhorn, Timber Wolf and Red Man brands of moist snuff. The company also expanded into the United States premium cigar business by purchasing General Cigar Company Inc. (producer of non-Cuban versions of Macanudo, Partagas and Punch) from Edgar Cullman and El Credito Cigar Company (producer of La Gloria Cubana and El Rico Habano) from Ernesto Perez-Carrillo. In October 2010, the company transferred its US premium cigar and European cigar businesses, as well as its pipe tobacco and accessories businesses, to a new company named Scandinavian Tobacco Group, while receiving a 49 percent ownership stake in the new company. In an effort to expand its snus business outside of Sweden and Norway, the company has, since 2009, been selling its Scandinavian market leading brand of snus, General, at tobacco retailers in the US. The distribution of General snus has increased over the years, from being sold in approximately 10,000 stores in 2012 to more than 24,000 stores by the end of 2014. For the US, snus is a relatively new category while the main smokeless category is moist snuff. Moist snuff is made using fermentation. Snus is made using a steam heat process (much like pasteurisation) and is usually placed under the upper lip, which means that spitting is not necessary. Key people Swedish Match's board after the annual general meeting in 2021: President and CEO:Lennart Sundén, 1998–2004Sven Hindrikes, 2004–2008Conny Karlsson (born 1955) is chairman of the board since 2007 and board member since 2006.Lars Dahlgren (born 1970) is president and CEO of Swedish Match since 2008. Ownership structure In 2021, 78,3 percent of Swedish Match was owned by foreign investors. See also List of cigar brands Snus Matches Lighter Cricket Lighters Tobacco industry John Dalli References External links Official website Swedish Match Industries

Miami_Book_Fair_International

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Book_Fair_International

The Miami Book Fair is an annual street fair and literary festival organized by Miami Dade College. More than 300 national and international authors attend the week-long gathering every year which features pavilions for comics, children, and young adults, among others. History Miami Book Fair International, originally known as "Books by the Bay," was founded in 1984 by Miami Dade College President Eduardo J. Padrón, Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan, Craig Pollock of BookWorks, and other local bookstore owners in cooperation with the Miami-Dade Public Library System. The two primary organizers of the inaugural 1984 Book Fair from the Miami-Dade Public Library System were Head of Community Relations Margarita Cano and Wolfsonian campus librarian Juanita Johnson. In 2020, the book fair added virtual content. Community Partners and Sponsors Florida Center for the Literary Arts (FCLA) The Florida Center for the Literary Arts is the parent organization of the Miami Book Fair International. The literary center was conceived to advance the college's literary traditions. A permanent endowment was established with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Full programming began in January 2002. As a department of Miami Dade College, FCLA generates programs to support authors and writing, journalism, play and screen writing, reading and literacy, as well as the Miami Book Fair International. Outreach consist of reading campaigns and book discussions, writing workshops, author presentations, panel discussions, and master classes. The Center collaborates with a number of Florida-based cultural institutions and other partners in order to advance literary initiatives. Events Festival of Authors Typically more than 300 authors from around the world take part in the Fair's international Festival of Authors. Writers come from all over the United States, and in previous years, the Fair has welcomed authors from countries like Argentina, Bosnia, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, England, France, Finland, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, Israel, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Trinidad, and other nations. Evenings With...Series The Evenings With… series features readings by world-renowned writers every evening for six consecutive festival days. In past years, guest authors have included recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Casa de las Americas Prize, Pushcart Prize, O'Henry Award, National Magazine Award, Commonwealth Prize, MacArthur Fellowship, and Edgar Award. Street Fair The three-day outdoor festival gathers hundreds of booksellers and exhibitors from major publishing houses, small presses, scholarly imprints, and foreign publishers. Sellers of used books – including signed first editions, original manuscripts, and other collectibles – also have booths. Millions of books in multiple languages can be found, along with book signings and musical entertainment, during the weekend Fair activity. Comix Galaxy Comic Galaxy is a Fair program offering information on graphic novels and the comics world, and celebrates their place in United States literary life, as well as their recent rise in popularity and integration into mainstream literature, culture, and even education. A prominent part of Comic Galaxy, The School of Comics is a day-long program that includes six sessions for teachers, librarians, parents, and others who are interested in the format. There also exists training for creators of the genre. Children's Alley Children's Alley, tailored for young readers, features storytelling, puppets, theatrical performances, educational games, and hands-on activities. Generation Genius is a program hosting thousands of school-aged children each year. As a part of Generation Genius programming, Miami Book Fair International also offers workshops and presentations to local teachers, librarians, and educators. Programs are provided in cooperation with Miami Art Museum, HistoryMiami, Miami Children's Museum, Miami Science Museum, Early Learning Coalition of Miami Dade/Monroe, and Florida Blue. Ibero-American Authors Ibero-American Authors is Miami Book Fair International's Spanish Language author program that is presented solely in Spanish or Portuguese. More than 50 authors from various Latin American countries are featured during the eight-days of the Fair. Readings take place every evening during the week and all day during the weekend. Twilight Tastings and the Kitchen Miami Book Fair International also includes as part of its list of events hors d'oeuvre, complimentary cocktails, and nightly entertainment before the weeknight author presentations. The Kitchen combines cooking demonstrations and author readings by featured cookbook authors and chefs in an intimate, culinary setting as they recreate recipes from their books. LGBTQIA+ Topics Authors writing on LGBTQIA+ topics are represented throughout the festival with titles in fiction, non-fiction, memoir, and erotica. Many who appear are Lambda Award winners or finalists. Miami Writer's Institute Center for Literature and Theatre faculty, authors, and agents provide workshops pertaining to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and publishing. The Center offers one and three-day workshops, with several taking place in Spanish as well. Recent-Year Highlights 2014 In 2014, the Miami Book Fair International partnered with the National Book Foundation to provide programming centered around 2014 National Book Award nominees and winners. A sampling of additional authors appearing at Miami Book Fair International 2014 follows: Robert Baer – "The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins" Richard Blanco – "The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood" John Cleese – "So Anyway..." Andy Cohen – "The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look At A Shallow Year" Michael DeForge – "Ant Colony" Angela DiTerlizzi – "Some Bugs" Tony DiTerlizzi – "Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight" Sheila E – "The Beat of My Own Drum: A Memoir" Grace Ellis – "Lumberjanes" Annabelle Gurwitch – "See You Made An Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50" James W. Hall – "The Big Finish: A Thorn Novel" Ben Hatke – "The Return of Zita the Spacegirl" Kazu Kibuishi – "Amulet#6" Nicholas Kristof – "A Path Appears" Norman Lear – "Even This I Get To Experience" Brad Meltzer – "I Am Rosa Parks" Lauren Miller – "Free to Fall" Susan Minot – "Thirty Girls: A Novel" George O'Connor – "If I Had A Raptor" Lauren Oliver – "Rooms: A Novel" Ann Patchett – "This is the Story of a Happy Marriage" Ed Piskor – "Hip Hop Family Tree Vol 2: 1981-1983" Valerie Plame – "Burned" Questlove – "The World According to Questlove" Anne Rice – "Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles" Tavis Smiley – "Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year" Raina Telgemeier – "Sisters" John Waters – "Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America" Cornel West – "Black Prophetic Fire" Eveline Pierre "The Secret to Winning Big" 2013 To commemorate 500 years since Juan Ponce de León first landed in Florida, the 30th edition of the Fair celebrated the culture and literature of Spain. Spanish writers and artists shared the language, culture and literature of Spain. A sampling of authors who appeared at Miami Book Fair International 2013 follows: Jeff Abbott – Downfall Mitch Albom – The First Phone Call from Heaven: A Novel Reza Aslan – Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth Paul Auster – Report From the Interior Holly Black – Doll Bones Stanley Crouch – Kansas City Lighting: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker Kwame Dawes – Duppy Conqueror: New and Selected Poems Delia Ephron – Sister Mother Husband Dog: Etc. Ana Fuentes – From the Dragon's Mouth: Ten True Stories That Reveal the True China Nikki Giovanni – Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid Doris Kearns Goodwin – The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism Dr. Carl Hart – High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society John Heilemann – Double Down: Game Change 2012 Anjelica Huston – A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York Andrew Kaufman – I'm in Miami, Bitch!: The Disappearing Street Art of Wynwood Gordon Korman – The Hypnotists: Book 1 Diane Ladd – A Bad Afternoon for a Piece of Cake: A Collection of Ten Short Stories Wally Lamb – We Are Water: A Novel Adam Mansbach – The Dead Run Chris Matthews – Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked D.T. Max – Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace Terry McMillan – Who Asked You? Brad Meltzer – History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time David N. Meyer – The Bee Gees: The Biography Jacquelyn Mitchard – What We Saw at Night 2012 The featured country of 2012's Miami Book Fair International was Paraguay. Paraguayan culture was displayed through film, dance, and fine and folkloric arts. A sampling of authors who appeared at Miami Book Fair International 2012 follows: Martin Amis – Lionel Asbo: State of England Nate Berkus – The Things That Matter Justin Cronin – The Twelve Aline Crumb – Drawn Together: The Collected Works of Aline & R. Crumb Andre Debus III – Townie: A Memoir Junot Diaz – This is How You Lose Her Emma Donoghue – Room Tim Dorsey – Pineapple Grenade Carolina Garcia-Aguilera – Magnolia Chris Hayes – Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy Mark Helprin – In Sunlight and In Shadow Jamal Joseph – Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion & Reinvention Daniel Kirk – Library Mouse: A Museum Adventure Anne Lamott – Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers Jessica Martinez – The Space Between Us Diana McCaulay – Huracan Andrew McCarthy – The Longest Way Home Christopher Pike – Witch World Bill O'Reilly – Killing Kennedy Lemony Snicket – A Series of Unfortunate Events Jake Tapper – The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor Jeffrey Toobin – The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court Irvine Welsh – Skagboys Sherri Winston – President of the Whole Fifth Grade Tom Wolfe – Back to Blood 2011 Miami Book Fair International 2011 included demonstrations of Chinese culture and art and discussions of social issues facing contemporary China. An international symposium on Chinese language, culture, and communication was held. A sampling of authors who participated in Miami Book Fair International 2011 follows: Dr. Arthur Agatston – The South Beach Wake-Up Call Tom Angleberger – Darth Paper Strikes Back David Brooks – The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement Dan Clowes – The Death-Ray John Connolly – The Infernals Bob Edwards – My Life in Radio Jeffrey Eugenides – The Marriage Plot Cristina García – Dreams of Significant Girls Dr. Paul George – Florida's 11th Circuit Court Lev Grossman – The Magician King Sandra Gutierrez – The New Southern-Latino Table Ellen Hopkins – Perfect Jeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid Megan McDonald – Judy Moody, Girl Detective Michael Moore – Here Comes Trouble Elizabeth Nunez – Boundaries Susan Orlean – Rin Tin Tin Chuck Palahniuk – Damned Christopher Paolini – Inheritance Karen Russell – Swamplandia! Esmeralda Santiago – Conquistadora Jon Scieszka – SPHDZ Book 3 Touré – Post Blackness Calvin Trillin – Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin Belle Yang – Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale 2010 For the first time this year, the fair dedicated its international space to one country, Mexico, in celebration of the bicentennial of the Central American nation's independence and the centennial of its 1910 revolution. Featured were literary feasts served as fiestas, with author presentations and roundtables on subjects such as Mexican boleros. Ballet performances, art and photography exhibitions, a movie series, and theater performances also honored the country of Mexico. The following is a sampling of authors who participated in Miami Book Fair International 2010 activities: Maha Akhtar – La Nieta de la Maharaní Kim Anthony – Unfavorable Odds Dan Archer – The Honduran Coup: A Graphic History Ann Beattie – The New Yorker Stories Susanna Daniel – Stiltsville Edwidge Danticat – Create Dangerously: Immigrant Artists at Work Kate DiCamillo – Bink & Gollie Tony DiTerlizzi – The Search for Wondla Dave Eggers – Zeitoun Jonathan Franzen – Freedom Willie Geist – American Freak Show: The Completely Fabricated Stories of Our New National Treasures James W. Hall – Silencer Vicki Hendricks – Florida Gothic Stories Sebastian Junger – War Chip Kidd – Shazam! Hari Kunzru – Writing on the Edge: Great Contemporary Writers on the Frontline of Crisis Meghan McCain – Dirty Sexy Politics Ben Mezrich – The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook Walter Mosley – The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey Beatriz Rivera – When a Tree Falls Scott Turow – Innocent Lisa Unger – Fragile Judith Viorst – Lulu and the Brontosaurus Scott Westerfeld – Behemoth Simon Winchester – The Atlantic: Biography of an Ocean 2009 Environmental issues were in the forefront of Miami Book Fair International 2009, from author presentations to green activities to making ecologically sound choices in Fair logistics. The college used native plants on stages as well as entrances. These native plants were then planted in the community to help offset the carbon emissions of the book fair. Miami Book Fair International and MDC's Earth Ethics Institute procured the plants from local nursery. Bike Valet parking service was available to each cyclist, and numerous rethink, reduce, reuse, and, recycle educational programs were promoted. The following is a sampling of authors who appeared at Miami Book Fair International 2009: Lidia Bastianich – Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy Edna Buchanan – The Corpse Had a Familiar Face Meg Cabot – Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls Susie Essman – What Would Susie Say? Dan Goldman – 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail Al Gore – Our Choice Senator Bob Graham – America: The Owner's Manual Heather Graham – Unhallowed Ground James Grippando – Intent to Kill Dr. Sanjay Gupta – Cheating Death John Hodgman – More Information Than You Require Gwen Ifill – The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama Sid Jacobson – Che: A Graphic Biography Wally Lamb – Wishin' and Hopin' Peter Lerangis – The 39 Clues Jonathan Lethem – Chronic City Tao Lin – Shoplifting from American Apparel Jeff Lindsay – Dexter By Design Ralph Nader – Only the Super Rich Can Save Us Joyce Carol Oates – Little Bird of Heaven Iggy Pop – The Stooges: An Authorized and Illustrated Story Sherman Alexie – War Dances Luis Alberto Urrea – Into the Beautiful North: A Novel Larry Wilmore – I'd Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts See also Florida literature Books in the United States References External links Official website The Center for Literature and Theatre @ Miami Dade College Tumblr Page Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College YouTube Page Miami Book Fair International History on C-SPAN 2 Book TV Major Book Fairs in the US New York Times Article A Book Fair That Grew, Propelling the Arts in Miami

Miami_Dade_College

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Dade_College

Miami Dade College (MDC) is a public college located in Miami, Florida. Established in 1959, it operates eight campuses and numerous outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. It is the largest institution in the Florida College System. MDC serves a significant number of minority students, particularly Hispanic students, enrolling more than any other institution in Florida. History Founded as Dade County Junior College in 1960, MDC began on a high school farm and became desegregated in 1962, opening its doors to students of all races. Over the decades, MDC expanded by launching several campuses, including Kendall, Wolfson, and Hialeah, and established a Medical Center to support students in health programs. In 1973, the college changed its name to Miami-Dade Community College. During the 1980s, outreach programs were developed to assist the increasing number of Cuban exiles and other immigrants. As state education budgets declined, MDC continued to grow and relied on its foundation to support operations. In the 1990s and 2000s, the college established its Honors College, offering rigorous academic programs across its largest campuses. In 2003, the college changed its name to "Miami Dade College" and began offering four-year degree programs. Campuses Miami Dade College operates eight campuses and two outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. The North Campus, established in 1960, focuses on emergency services and entertainment technology programs. Kendall Campus, opened in 1967, is home to MDC's athletic teams and offers community service programs. Wolfson Campus, in downtown Miami, hosts the Miami Book Fair and houses the Culinary Institute. The Medical Campus, opened in 1977, offers nursing and health programs with a simulation hospital. Homestead Campus, built in 1990, features an FAA-approved aviation program. Eduardo J. Padrón Campus specializes in bilingual education and community-focused programs. Hialeah Campus offers English programs and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Management. West Campus in Doral provides innovative programs like the Tesla START program. Academics MDC offers a wide variety of associate and baccalaureate degrees, as well as vocational and technical certificates. The college is known for its strong programs in liberal arts, nursing, business, allied health professions, and computer information systems. Students can also pursue degrees in newer fields like cybersecurity. The Honors College provides scholarships and specialized curricula for high-achieving students, with opportunities for transfer to prestigious universities, including a partnership with the University of Miami. Dual-enrollment and virtual learning options are available for high school and home-educated students. Athletics MDC participates in the Southern Conference of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and competes in five sports: men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball, with soccer teams being added in 2024. MDC teams have won 35 NJCAA national titles, making it a hub for talented athletes and MLB scouts. Arts and culture MDC has an extensive art collection of over 1,600 works, including paintings, sculptures, and installations. The Wolfson Campus hosts the Miami Book Fair International, the largest literary festival in the U.S. Notable achievements In 2018, MDC was recognized by the Aspen Institute for its focus on economic and social mobility, winning the Aspen Prize. Notable alumni Notable faculty Joanna Falco-Leshin, professor of English and Humanities Gallery References External links Official website

Kentucky_Women_Writers_Conference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_Women_Writers_Conference

The Kentucky Women Writers Conference had its beginnings in 1979 as a celebration of women writers at the University of Kentucky (UK). That first year featured Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Ruth Stone, Alice Walker, and Ruth Whitman. Since then, it has become the longest-running annual festival of women writers in the US. UK History faculty Nancy Dye had suggested using surplus funds from Undergraduate Studies to bring women writers to campus. A 16-member committee from the departments of English, Honors, Undergraduate Studies, and Special Collections, along with members of the Lexington community, produced the conference. In 1984–1985 the conference was directed by UK English faculty Jane Gentry Vance, who later served as Kentucky's Poet Laureate. In 1985–1993, the conference was affiliated with Continuing Education for Women/University Extension and directed by Betty Gabehart. In 1994–1996, the conference was affiliated with the Women's Studies Program and directed by Jan Oaks, faculty in English and Gender and Women's Studies. In 1997, former Conference assistant Patti DeYoung served as director. In 1998, the conference lost university funding when it was unable to find a sponsoring department, and its advisory board established itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Its new home became the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in downtown Lexington, and it was renamed the Kentucky Women Writers Conference. Its director during those years, 1998–2002, was Jan Isenhour, also director of the Carnegie Center, and its work was carried out by a volunteer board. In 2002, President Lee Todd reinstated support for the conference to demonstrate the university's commitment to women's programming and community events. Since then, the Conference leadership has continued cultivating wide community support through many partnerships and the committed efforts of its board and volunteers. UK provides staff salaries, office space, and the majority of KWWC's operating expenses. Financial support from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, LexArts, the Kentucky Arts Council, the Kentucky Humanities Council, businesses, and individual patrons remains critical to our ability to attract writers of the highest caliber. Directors since then have been Brenda Weber (2003) and Rebecca Gayle Howell (2004–2006). Howell launched several free community events that have become signature offerings of the conference, including the Gypsy Slam, the Sonia Sanchez Series, and the Hardwick/Jones keynote reading on mentorship and collaboration. In 2007, Julie Kuzneski Wrinn became Conference director. The 38th annual conference was held September 15–16, 2017 in Lexington, Kentucky. References External links Official website

University_of_Kentucky

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Kentucky

The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state's two land-grant universities (the other being Kentucky State University). It is the institution with the highest enrollment in the state, with 32,710 students in the fall of 2022. The institution comprises 16 colleges, a graduate school, 93 undergraduate programs, 99 master programs, 66 doctoral programs, and 4 professional programs. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, Kentucky spent $476.5 million on research and development in 2022, ranking it 61st in the nation. The University of Kentucky has seven libraries on campus. The largest is the William T. Young Library, a federal depository that hosts subjects related to social sciences, humanities, and life sciences collections. Since 1997, the university has focused expenditures increasingly on research, following a compact formed by the Kentucky General Assembly. The directive mandated that the university become a "Top 20" public research institution, in terms of an overall ranking to be determined by the university itself, by 2020. Two alumni from the university have won Nobel Prizes. History University origins In the early commonwealth of Kentucky, higher education was limited to children from prominent families, disciplined apprentices, and young men seeking entry into clerical, legal, and medical professions. As the first university in the territory that would become Kentucky, Transylvania University was the primary center for education. After a merger it became "Kentucky University". John Bryan Bowman was appointed head of the new "Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky" (called "A&M"), a department of Kentucky University. It received federal support through the Morrill Land-Grant Act in 1865. In 1866 it opened with 190 students and 10 professors, on the campus at Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate. In 1869 James Kennedy Patterson replaced Bowman and the first degree was awarded. In 1876, the university began to offer master's degree programs. In 1878 A&M separated from Kentucky University, which reverted to its original name Transylvania University. For the new school, Lexington donated a 52-acre (210,000 m2) park and fair ground, which became the core of UK's present campus. A&M was initially a male-only institution, but began to admit women in 1880. In 1892, the official colors of the university, royal blue and white, were adopted. An earlier color set, blue and light yellow, was adopted earlier at a Kentucky-Centre College football game on December 19, 1891. The particular hue of blue was determined from a necktie, which was used to demonstrate the color of royal blue. On February 15, 1882, Administration Building was the first building of three to be completed on the present campus. Three years later, the college formed the Agricultural Experiment Station, which researches issues relating to agribusiness, food processing, nutrition, water and soil resources and the environment. This was followed up by the creation of the university's Agricultural Extension Service in 1910, which was one of the first in the United States. The extension service became a model of the federally mandated programs that were required beginning in 1914. Coeducational school: modern period Patterson Hall, the school's first women's dormitory, was constructed in 1904. Residents had to cross a swampy depression, where the now demolished Student Center later stood, to reach central campus. Four years later, the school's name was changed to the "State University, Lexington, Kentucky" upon reaching university status, and then to the "University of Kentucky" in 1916. The university led to the creation of the College of Home Economics in 1916, and Mary E. Sweeney was promoted from chair of the Department of Home Economics to dean of the college. (Later renamed the College of Human Environmental Sciences, this educational unit was folded into the College of Agriculture in 2003 as the School of Human Environmental Sciences). The College of Commerce was established in 1925, known today as the Gatton College of Business and Economics. In 1929, Memorial Hall was completed, dedicated to the 2,756 Kentuckians who died in World War I. This was followed up by the new King Library, which opened in 1931 and was named for a long-time library director, Margaret I. King. On March 15, 1948, Lyman T. Johnson applied to the University of Kentucky Graduate School for a doctorate degree in the Philosophy of History. Johnson was subsequently denied admission, with the registrar citing the previously passed Day Law. Johnson, citing Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 filed suit against the university for wrongful discrimination and failure to maintain equal learning intuitions. On April 27, 1949, Hiram Church Ford presided over the court case. After one day of testimony, Ford determined that the Commonwealth had failed to establish a graduate school with equal opportunity and educational quality as the graduate students offered to whites. Citing the Fourteenth amendment, Ford ruled that all qualified individuals, regardless of race, be allowed to attend the university's graduate program until an equally academically acceptable institution is established for the use of African Americans. The university's graduate and professional programs became racially integrated in 1949 when Lyman T. Johnson, an African American, won a lawsuit to be admitted to the graduate program. Blacks were not allowed to attend as undergraduates until 1954, following the US Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. In 1939, Governor Happy Chandler appointed the first woman trustee on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, Georgia M. Blazer of Ashland. She served from 1939 to 1960. In 1962, Blazer Hall was opened as the Georgia M Blazer Hall for Women in tribute to her. Ground was broken for the Albert B. Chandler Hospital in 1955, when Kentucky Governor Happy Chandler recommended that the Kentucky General Assembly appropriate $5 million for the creation of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and a medical center at the university. This was completed after a series of studies were conducted that highlighted the health needs of the citizens, as well as the need to train more physicians. Five years later, the College of Medicine and College of Nursing opened, followed by the College of Dentistry in 1962. Nine years after the founding of The Northern Extension Center in Covington, representing the Ashland Independent School Board of Education, Ashland attorney Henderson Dysard and Ashland Oil & Refining Company founder and CEO Paul G. Blazer presented a proposal to President Dickey and the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees for the university to take over the day-to-day operations and curriculum of the Ashland [municipal] Junior College, creating the Ashland Center of the University of Kentucky in 1957. University of Kentucky Extension Centers in Fort Knox (1958), Cumberland (1960), and Henderson (1960) followed. In 1959, the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce opened and began training professionals at the master's and doctoral level for careers in international affairs. Authorized by the Kentucky General Assembly and signed by Governor Bert Combs on March 6, 1962, a mandate was placed upon the University of Kentucky to form a community college system. Two years later, the board of trustees implemented the legislation and established the Community College System, creating centers in Covington, Ashland, Fort Knox, Cumberland, Henderson and Elizabethtown. In 1969, the Patterson Office Tower was completed, currently the tallest building on campus. In May 1970, students at the university began protesting the shootings at Kent State University. In response, Governor Louie Nunn deferred to the National Guard in an attempt to disperse the protesters. A ROTC building was destroyed by fire. The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries has 13 oral history interviews with participants in the protests, university officials as well as former governor Nunn. Nine years later, the Singletary Center for the Arts opened, named in honor of former university president Otis Singletary. Contemporary history In 1997, the Kentucky General Assembly reorganized the community college system, withdrawing the university's jurisdiction from all but the Lexington Community College. The other colleges were merged with the Kentucky Technical College system and were placed under a separate board of control. On April 3, 1998, work began on the William T. Young Library, which was the largest university project at the time of completion. The six-level William T. Young Library was constructed on south campus and the largest book endowment among all public university libraries in the country. William T. Young got his fortune from selling his peanut butter company to Procter & Gamble in 1955. Nine years after the completion of the William T. Young Library, on April 13, 2007, an entire city block of neighborhood homes were demolished and ground was broken for the Biological Pharmaceutical Complex Building, the largest academic building in the state of Kentucky, and one of the largest in the United States. The Biological Pharmaceutical Complex Building complements the adjacent Biomedical Biological Science Research Building, and is expected to be part of the new university research campus. Other recent announcements include the construction of the new $450 million Albert B. Chandler Hospital, which will was one of the largest projects in the state's history in terms of size and economic impact. In 1997, the Kentucky General Assembly formed a compact with the university. The Top 20 Plan mandates that the University of Kentucky becomes a Top 20 public research university by 2020. According to the compact, states with "Top 20" universities feature higher average household incomes, higher education attainments, healthier lives and more financial security. The plan would also spur technological advancements due to university-based research and increase the marketability of the state to investors. The plan produced some results, Enrollment increased. The six-year graduation rate increased from 59.5 percent in 1998 to 61.2 percent in 2007. Research expenditures increased from $124.8 million in 1996 to $297.6 million in 2003. It dipped slightly to $274 million for 2005. It is currently ranked 28th among public universities in sponsored research. Endowment increased from $195.1 million in 1997 to $538.4 million in 2005. In 2000, the university launched "The Campaign for the University of Kentucky", a $600 million fundraising effort that was used to "enhance facilities, academic programs, public service, and scholarships." It passed that goal and the effort was raised to $1 billion. In March 2007, $1.022 billion was raised, months before the fundraising effort was set to end. As of 2019, The University of Kentucky has an endowment of 1.407 billion. Prior endowments were $831.8 in 2007, $538.4 million in 2005, and $195.1 million in 1997, the rapid increases partially attributed to the "Top 20" Plan. Currently, the William T. Young Library book endowment is the largest among public universities in the United States. In 2018, the new Gatton Student Center was opened on North Campus. The 378,000-square-foot facility contains a cinema, several dining facilities, ballrooms, a bookstore, bank, offices, and more. Academics Departments Students are divided into 16 colleges, a graduate school, 93 undergraduate programs, 99 master programs, 66 doctoral programs, and 4 professional programs. The University of Kentucky has fifteen libraries on campus. The largest is William T. Young Library, a federal depository, hosting subjects related to social sciences, humanities and life sciences collections. In recent years, the university has focused expenditures increasingly on research, following a compact formed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1997. The directive mandated that the university become a Top 20 public research institution, in terms of an overall ranking to be determined by the university itself, by 2020. The university is ranked tied for 132nd in National Universities and tied for 60th among public universities in the 2020 U.S. News & World Report rankings. According to the U.S. News & World Report 2023 ranking table, UK Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences is ranked 6th in the nation whereas the Graduate School of Medicine (Research) is ranked 64th (tie). Students are divided into several colleges based on their interests and specializations: College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, founded 1908 College of Arts and Sciences, founded 1908 Gatton College of Business and Economics, founded 1925 (originally as the College of Commerce) College of Communication & Information, founded 1976 College of Dentistry, founded 1962 College of Design, founded 1964 (originally as the College of Architecture) College of Education, founded 1923 Pigman College of Engineering, founded 1918 (through a merger of the original Colleges of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Mines and Metals) College of Fine Arts, founded 1976 College of Health Sciences, founded 1966 (originally as the College of Allied Health Personnel) J. David Rosenberg College of Law, founded 1908 College of Medicine, founded 1954 College of Nursing, founded 1956 College of Pharmacy, founded 1947 (originally established in 1870 in Louisville) College of Public Health, founded 2004 College of Social Work, founded 1968 University of Kentucky Graduate School, founded 1912 Martin School of Public Policy and Administration Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Other colleges no longer in existence at the University of Kentucky include the College of Library Science (separating out of the College of Arts & Sciences in 1968 and incorporated in 2003 into what is now the College of Communication and Information) and the College of Home Economics (created in 1916 and whose founding dean was Mary E. Sweeney) now a School of Human Environmental Sciences located within the College of Agriculture. Lewis Honors College The Honors Program at the University of Kentucky began in 1958. It offers interdisciplinary, seminar-style classes of 15–20 students each as well as "H-section" classes that accelerate common course offerings such as chemistry, biology, and physics. In October 2015, the University of Kentucky received the largest single gift in its history, $23.5 million from alumnus, longtime donor and successful entrepreneur Thomas W. Lewis and his wife Jan to create the Lewis Honors College. The Lewis Honors College was transitioned from the Honors Program at UK in 2015. From 2017, the Honors Program became the Lewis Honors College. On July 10, 2017, Christian Brady was announced as the inaugural dean of the college. Its headquarters are in Lewis Hall, which also serves as one of several residence halls for Honors College students. Student life Students The University of Kentucky strives for a diverse and international student population, with a selective admissions process. In fall 2014, there were 30,000 students enrolled for the first time. This is due in part by the high number of out-of-state students. The percentage mix of students at this time were 62% in state and 38% out-of-state. During this time, the freshman class was recorded at 5,000 students. Student government The University of Kentucky Student Government Association (UKSGA) represents all undergraduate, graduate and professional students enrolled at the university in several critical ways. UKSGA exists to increase student influence over academic policy and to provide many helpful, creative and necessary student services. UKSGA also exists to protect and expand student substantive and procedural rights with the university and surrounding municipalities. Finally, UKSGA exists to better represent the student body in relations with faculty, administration, Board of Trustees and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. UKSGA includes an Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch. Executive Branch: oversees day-to-day operations, manages budget, and facilitates major programs. Legislative Branch: includes the Student Senate. There are 46 legislators in this branch. Their goal is to allocate funds, approve presidential appointments, facilitate legislative changes, and represent the larger student voice. Judicial: composed of one chief justice and six Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of legislation, handles claims levied against SGA officials, hears any election rules violation complaints and validates election results. Several of their current programs include: Kentucky Wildcab: a late night transportation service designed to enhance the safety efforts of the university and surrounding community in partnership with UK Transportation. Wildcat Wardrobe: provides UK students with free professional dress clothing for interviews and jobs Safe CATS: provides UK students with a safer way to travel around campus by having SafeCats team members escort students to their destinations on-foot or by golf cart Student Legal Services: free on-site consultation for any legal issue by a local attorney Childcare Grants: available for part-time and full-time UK students, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, who need financial assistance for day-care service for their children. Scholarships Student Organization Funding: General Funding Grants, Club Sports Grants, Service Grants, Academic/Professional Conferences, and Senate Special Projects Several distinguished student body presidents include Governor Steve Beshear. Theater In the early twentieth century, a group called The Strollers consisted of performers either studying or employed at the university or nearby. They performed regularly at the Lexington Opera House. In 1910, their first production there was the 1839 historical play Richelieu. At the end of the spring semester in 1918, as World War I was nearing its end, they performed several skits about war life and then projected large photographic images "showing actual battle scenes" and the humanitarian work of the Red Cross. University girls dressed as nurses served as ushers. The first theater on UK grounds was the Campus Theater. In 1922, the university bought the Consolidated Baptist Church, a historically black congregation. The church's pastor had been Peter Vinegar. A group of performers and their benefactors, led by Carol M. Sax, raised more money to make the church into a theater, calling it Romany. They performed The Miracle of Sister Beatrice by Maurice Maeterlinck in 1927. In 1928, it was renamed Guignol Theater, after Théâtre du Grand Guignol in Paris, a theater on the Rue Chaptal from 1897 to 1962, housed in a former chapel and with seats for 293. After leaving Lexington, Sax staged Arthur Wilmurt's The Guest Room on Broadway in 1931; it ran for a respectable 67 shows. Eleanor Roosevelt attended opening night of his production of I.J. Golden's Re-Echo in New York in 1934; it ran for only 5 shows. Frank C. Fowler was the second director of the Kentucky Guignol; he had received his master's degree from Brown University in 1928 and was hired by UK that same year. He was followed by Wallace Briggs. The fire that gutted UK's Guignol in 1947 is captured on film. In the 1930s and 1940s, one-act plays written by students were performed annually. A new Guignol Theater was opened in the Fine Arts Building in February, 1950 with a production of Medea. Two Blind Mice, a political satire by Samuel and Bella Spewack, followed after Medea. During the 1950s, plays performed at the Guignol would often go on tour throughout Kentucky in the summer months. Student media The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department was the home of one of the earliest college amateur radio stations in the United States, beginning with W4JP that began continuous operation prior to World War I. In 1927, the station was relicensed as 9JL (later W9JL). Students currently run two independent FM stations. The first, 91.3 FM WUKY, is a Triple-A station and was the first university-owned FM radio station in the United States and Kentucky's first public radio station. The operations started on October 17, 1940, as WBKY out of Beattyville, although the station moved five years later to Lexington. In 1971, WBKY was one of the first to carry NPR's "All Things Considered" and helped debut National Public Radio, changing its call letters to WUKY in 1989 to better reflect its affiliation with the university. In 2007, it became the first Lexington radio station to broadcast in high-definition digital radio. The second is 88.1 FM WRFL which has been in operation since 1988. WRFL is operated by students and broadcasts live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and features music that is spread across most genres. The campus is also served by the Kentucky Kernel, a student-run, financially independent daily newspaper, with the first issue published in 1915. The official yearbook of the University of Kentucky is the Kentuckian, first published in 1906. The Kentuckian was preceded by at least one previous book, the Echo. Black Student Union The University of Kentucky Black Student Union (BSU) was established on February 17, 1968. They were the first organization on campus that was created to support and protect students of color. Their goal was to fight for change on campus for diverse students. They work closely with other organizations on campus such as the Student Activities Board, Student Government Association and various fraternities. Their main mission is to educate the campus community on Black American students and to assist incoming minority students. Jim Embry, born in Richmond, Kentucky, was the founding member of the organization, as well as, the first elected president. 51 years later, Embry is still fighting for progress in the social injustices and systemic racism on campus. Greek life Nineteen sororities and twenty-three fraternities representing over 3,000 students. There are also non-Greek organizations on campus, like Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity and Tau Beta Sigma, a band fraternity. In 2007, the UK paper The Kentucky Kernel unleashed criticism and gained national attention for an editorial cartoon that depicted an African American pledge being auctioned; it was a comment on racial segregation in UK's Greek system. Farmhouse's chapter was suspended in 2021 for four years by the university, after a pledge died while attending a party in the fraternity's house. In 2023, Phi Tau was suspended for misuse of alcohol and other violations of law. Athletics University of Kentucky student-athletes compete as the Wildcats under colors Kentucky blue and white. Beginning in the 1890s, students at the A&M scheduled football games with neighboring colleges. In 1902, the women's basketball program began on campus, and the men's team was added one year later. The "Wildcats" became associated with the university shortly after a football victory over Illinois on October 9, 1909. The then-chief of the military department, Commandant Carbuiser, stated that the team had "fought like wildcats." The slogan was later adopted by the university, and a costumed mascot debuted in 1976. In 1930, then-high school coach Adolph Rupp was hired as a basketball coach and worked in that capacity for 42 years, retiring 1972. During his tenure, he led the men's basketball team to four NCAA championships in 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1958. The Wildcats later won a fifth championship under Joe B. Hall in 1978, another in 1996 under Rick Pitino and the next under Orlando "Tubby" Smith in 1998. In 2007, the University of Kentucky named Billy Gillispie as the head coach of the men's basketball team and on March 30, 2009, the university named John Calipari as the head coach of the Wildcats. Calipari coached the team to its eighth national title in 2012. The university boasts of numerous national championships, with its latest coming in 2012 when the men's basketball team won its eighth national title. UK also boasts of a cross country national team championship (women's, 1988), eight individual championships in gymnastics, an Olympic medalist in track and field, and 24 national championships in cheerleading. (Not an NCAA recognized championship) After defeating number-one ranked Oklahoma 13–7 in the Sugar Bowl under legendary coach Bear Bryant, Kentucky was also a co-national champion for the 1950 season. The University of Kentucky Dance team was ranked fifth in the nation in Hip Hop and seventh in Pom in 2015. Other athletic programs sponsored at the varsity level include baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country running, football, men's and women's golf, women's gymnastics, the coeducational sport of rifle, men's and women's soccer, women's softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field and women's volleyball. The school also has a popular club-level men's ice hockey team and a rugby program that competes at the Division 1 level. The University of Kentucky football coach is Mark Stoops, named the successor to Joker Phillips, who was the first African American football coach in Kentucky's history. Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement, convocation and athletic games is the University of Kentucky fight song: On, On, U of K. Additionally, the song Kentucky Fight is played before games. In April 2024, a Title IX sexual violence lawsuit was filed against the University of Kentucky which alleged that there was a "toxic, sexually hostile environment" within the university swim program during the time Lars Jorgensen was swim coach between 2013 and 2023. The lawsuit further accused the university of "complicity" with Jorgensen and allowed him "to prey on, sexually harass, and commit horrific sexual assaults and violent rapes against young female coaches and collegiate athletes who were reliant on him." Esports University of Kentucky partnered up with South Korean Esport Organisation Gen.G Esports and International Studies Abroad (ISA) to launch an international esports exchange programme in Seoul, South Korea. Campus The University of Kentucky offers seven main dining facilities, 23 residence halls, and numerous recreation facilities spread between three distinct campuses: north, south, and central. It is also home to more than 250 student-run organizations. The university campus is home to numerous notable structures, such as Main Building, a four-story administration building dating to 1882, which was gutted by fire on May 15, 2001. The Patterson Office Tower is the tallest building on campus. The University of Kentucky once operated 14 community colleges with more than 100 extended sites, centers and campuses under the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, but relinquished control under the Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997. The network of community colleges is now known as the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). Adjoining Lexington Community College, despite the reorganization of the community colleges, remained integrated with the university, but separated from the University of Kentucky in 2004 and became a part of KCTCS; it is now known as Bluegrass Community and Technical College. The College of Engineering currently operates a satellite campus in Paducah, located on the campus of West Kentucky Community and Technical College. Campus libraries The University of Kentucky is home to seven campus libraries. Among them is the William T. Young Library, which houses a general undergraduate collection and social sciences, humanities, business, biology, and agricultural materials. The library is also a Federal Depository Library and a public library for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Campus landmarks The University of Kentucky has several noteworthy landmarks: Kroger Field Memorial Coliseum Memorial Hall Singletary Center for the Arts University of Kentucky Art Museum University of Kentucky/Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Arboretum University of Kentucky Research and Education Center Botanical Garden William T. Young Library Notable faculty Kimberly W. Anderson, Chemist, Gill Eminent Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associate Dean for Administration and Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering John Clubbe, expert on Byron, Guggenheim Fellow Gary Ferland, Astrophysicist Lori Stewart Gonzalez, speech pathologist and 23rd president of Ohio University Arthur G. Hunt, American plant and soils scientist Milena Minkova, Latinist specializing in Neo-Latin studies and spoken Latin Melynda Price, Professor of Law, Director of African American and Africana Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences Juan Trigos, composer and conductor Terence Tunberg, Latinist specialising in Neo-Latin studies and spoken Latin Ronald Werner-Wilson (born 1962), Chair of the Family Studies Department and Kathryn Louise Chellgren Endowed Professor for Research in Family Studies Notable alumni The university has more than 140,246 alumni in the state of Kentucky, 216,737 in the United States, and 1,119 internationally. The University of Kentucky Alumni Association is the primary affiliation for former students and faculty, and is located at the corner of Rose Street and Euclid Avenue. The building, dedicated in 1963, is named for Helen G. King, the first permanent director of the association and a former "Miss University of Kentucky". The association also meets at Spindletop Hall, a large mansion along Iron Works Pike, which serves as a central alumni gathering point. The University of Kentucky boasts seven governors, including four former Governors of Kentucky: Steve Beshear, Ernie Fletcher, Paul E. Patton, and Albert "Happy" Chandler; Chandler was also a former U.S. Senator, and was the Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1945 to 1951. Rounding out the other seven are the former Governor of Ohio Ted Strickland, former Governor of North Carolina Beverly Perdue, and former Governor of Arkansas Tom Jefferson Terral. Former U.S. Representative Ken Lucas from the commonwealth's fourth congressional district, and current U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell are other government officials that called the university home. Kelly Craft (née Guilfoil), former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and United States Ambassador to Canada, attended the university. The United Methodist Bishop Alfred W. Gwinn also attended the university. Carol Martin “Bill” Gatton, an automobile dealer executive, was the donor of the largest gift ever to the university, and is the namesake for the Gatton College of Business and Economics and the Gatton Student Center. Paul Chellgren, Chairman and CEO of Ashland Inc., also attended the university, and is the namesake for Chellgren Hall, formerly known as Woodland Glen I. The university was also the home of Thomas Hunt Morgan, a scientist and winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and William Lipscomb, 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Doris Yvonne Wilkinson was the first African American to graduate from the university as an undergraduate student in 1958, and Joyce Hamilton Berry, a former clinical psychologist, was the first female African American to earn a Ph.D. from UK in 1970. Journalist and Miss USA 2021 Elle Smith, an African American, also attended the university. Actresses such as Miss Elizabeth, Ashley Judd, and Adunni Ade also attended the university. Randall Cobb, a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers; Josh Hines-Allen, a defensive end for the Jacksonville Jaguars; Anthony Davis, a power forward and center for Los Angeles Lakers; and Derek Bryant, a former outfielder for the Oakland Athletics from 1973 to 1981, are a few sports alumni from the university. Tyrese Maxey is a point guard for the 76ers. See also Education in Kentucky List of forestry universities and colleges Notes References Further reading Bashaw, Carolyn Terry. “ ‘To serve the people of the state of Kentucky': Sarah Gibson Blanding and the development of administrative skill, 1923–1941." Filson Club History Quarterly (1991) 65#2 pp. 281–301. Blanding was the innovative Dean of Women. Birdwhistell, Terry L., and Deirdre A. Scaggs. Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880–1945 (University Press of Kentucky, 2020) online Birdwhistell, Terry L. "Divided We Fall: State College and the Normal School Movement in Kentucky, 1880–1910." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 88.4 (1990): 431–456. online Cone, Carl B. The University of Kentucky: A pictorial history (University Press of Kentucky, 2014) online. Ellis, William E. A history of education in Kentucky (University Press of Kentucky, 2011). excerpt; also see complete text online, the major scholarly survey; also see online book review Gooden, Susan H. "Tuning the Local Network to a National Channel: Educational Leadership and the College of Education at the University of Kentucky, 1917–27." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 93.3 (1995): 307–332. online Groves, John Russell Jr. "An examination of major initiatives in campus planning at the University of Kentucky, 1919–1991" (PhD dissertation, University of Kentucky; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1992. 9233608). Kaleidoscope University of Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship. Lexington, KY: Office of Undergraduate Research, University of Kentucky, 2002. Print. Kiesel, Linda Raney. "Kentucky's land-grant legacy: An analysis of the administration of John Bryan Bowman and James Kennedy Patterson, 1865–1890" (PhD dissertation, University of Kentucky ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2003. 3074495). Laws, Federal and State, Incorporating, Regulating and Endowing State University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky. Lexington, Ky. : University of Kentucky: N.p., 1913. Print. McVey, Frank L. The Gates Open Slowly: A History of Education in Kentucky (1949), older scholarly survey. online Morelock, Kolan. Taking the town: Collegiate and community culture in the Bluegrass, 1880-1917 (University Press of Kentucky, 2008) online. Moyen, Eric. Frank L. McVey and the University of Kentucky: A progressive president and the modernization of a southern university (University Press of Kentucky, 2011) online. Newberry, Anthony L. "The University of Kentucky community college system: History, current status, and future challenges." Community College Journal of Research and Practice 20.6 (1996): 519–538. Russell, Mark W. "Beyond Blue and White: University of Kentucky Presidents and Desegregation, 1941–1987" (PhD dissertation, . University of Kentucky, 2014) online. Sports Baker, S. Zebulon. " 'On the Opposite Side of the Fence': The University of Kentucky and the Racial Desegregation of the Southeastern Conference." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 115.4 (2017): 561–610. online Nelli, Humbert S. "Herman L. Donovan and the Emergence of 'Big-Time' Athletics at the University of Kentucky." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 88.2 (1990): 163–182. online Nelli, Humbert S. The Winning Tradition: A History of Kentucky Wildcat Basketball (1984) online Nelli, Humbert S. "Adolph Rupp, the Kentucky Wildcats, and the Basketball Scandal of 1951." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society' 84.1 (1986): 51–75. online Stanley, Gregory Kent. Before big blue: Sports at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1940 (University Press of Kentucky, 2014) online. Stanley, Gregory Kent. " '... And Not to Make Athletes of Them': Banning Women's Sports at the University of Kentucky, 1902–24." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 93.4 (1995): 422–445. Fierce debates led in 1924 to ending all varsity competition for women for the next fifty years. Stanley, Gregory Kent. " 'Not conducive to the best interests of this institution': President James Kennedy Patterson, the Board of Trustees, and University of Kentucky Athletics, 1890–1910," Filson Club History Quarterly (1995) 69#2 pp, 159–170. President Patterson said football was too dangerous and not conducive to moral character. The Board overruled him in response to popular demand. Pratt, Mike, and Tom Leach. “2010.” Kentucky Basketball: Two Decades Behind the Scenes, University Press of Kentucky, 2021, pp. 49–56. JSTOR,. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023. External links Official website University of Kentucky Athletics website Digitized images of the University of Kentucky from the Glass plate negative collection, 1898–1918 housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center

Eli_Capilouto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Capilouto

Eli Capilouto (born August 22, 1949) is an American academic. He serves as the 12th president of the University of Kentucky. He was elected president by the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees in 2011, after serving as provost of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Under his leadership, the Commonwealth's flagship and land-grant research university has grown from $2.7 billion to $6.8 billion in total operations and has gained significant momentum in fulfilling its multi-faceted mission of teaching, research, service and health care. Early life and education Capilouto is a native of Alabama. He obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine and master's degree in epidemiology at UAB. He joined the UAB faculty in 1975. In 1991, Capilouto received a doctorate in health policy and management from Harvard School of Public Health. Academic and administrative career Capilouto served as dean of the UAB School of Public Health from 1994 to 2001 before he returned to his research and faculty appointment as professor. He was named acting provost in 2002, and he assumed the post permanently in 2005. On May 4, 2011, Capilouto was selected to succeed Lee Todd, Jr., the eleventh president of the University of Kentucky (UK). He was hired under a five-year contract with a base annual salary of $500,000, plus $125,000 in benefits and a possible bonus of up to $50,000. During his time at UK, Capilouto has been dedicated to enhancing the lives of students and the commonwealth of Kentucky. Under his leadership, UK-PURPOSE (Plan for Unprecedented Research, Purposeful and Optimal Service and Education) was released in 2021 as UK's strategic plan. It prioritizes five principles: Putting Students First Taking Care of Our People Inspiring Ingenuity Ensuring Greater Trust, Transparency and Accountability Bringing Together Many People; One Community Capilouto has led expansionary efforts in improving campus infrastructure, health care, research and the university budget. Since assuming his position, the budget has grown by more than $4 billion. During his tenure, employees have received pay raises nearly every year, and tuition and mandatory fees have increased, on average, below inflation for the past four years. Capilouto is committed to revitalizing the university's campus. Since he arrived, the university has invested $4 billion in infrastructure. In recent years, UK launched UK LEADS (Leveraging Economic Affordability for Developing Success) to retain students who would otherwise have to leave due to financial burdens. This innovative approach to recruitment and retention was awarded the EDGE Commendation for Innovation in Undergraduate Education. Capilouto announced the Kentucky Can Campaign in 2018 which has, in large part, funded this initiative. The Kentucky Can Campaign has raised more than $2.1 billion towards the university's endowment. Capilouto has emphasized the university's land-grant mission as vital. In 2020, he established the vice president of land-grant engagement. This effort promotes engagement throughout campus and the state, particularly through its Cooperative Extension Service in all 120 Kentucky counties. The university's commitment to research and discovery grows every year. He designated eight research priority areas (Cancer; Cardiovascular Diseases; Diabetes & Obesity; Energy; Neuroscience; Substance Use Disorder; Diversity and Inclusion; and Materials Science) as a focused attempt to address Kentucky's biggest challenges. Under Capilouto's leadership the university and medical facilities have received many national awards and rankings. In 2023, Forbes ranked UK as the best employer in Kentucky and ranked as the 6th best large employer in the nation. Additionally, in 2023, UK's Markey Cancer Center became the first and only NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the state. Also, UK has been ranked in the top 30 of the Directors’ Cup for 11 straight years (not including 2019–20). Leaning on his background in epidemiology and health policy and management, Capilouto in collaboration with the university's provost led the START (Screening, Testing and Tracing, to Accelerate Restart and Transition) Team. They worked intensely to reimagine UK's approach to education, research, service and care amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, the START Team mobilized Kroger Field as a vaccine clinic administering nearly 250,000 doses. Controversy In 2017, the university sued its student newspaper, The Kentucky Kernel, to appeal an open records dispute with the Kentucky Attorney General regarding a sexual harassment case involving students and a faculty member. The judge upheld the appeal, stating that the student records in the case are protected under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The newspaper appealed the decision, and in 2021, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in favor of the student newspaper. In 2020, the university furloughed 1,700 employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Capilouto proposed giving 10 percent of his salary for the 2020–21 academic year to the employee assistance fund established by the university's Department of Human Resources to support the furloughed employees, and it was approved the UK Board of Trustees. Personal life Capilouto is married to Mary Lynne Capilouto, who is also a Doctor of Dental Medicine and former dean of the School of Dentistry at UAB. After serving as dean from 1997 to 2004, she retired, returned to part-time teaching and practicing dentistry and currently holds the rank of dean emeritus at the school. She engages in a variety of community and philanthropic works. The couple is Jewish and has one daughter, Emily. References External links President's page at uky.edu

Madeline_Pumariega

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeline_Pumariega

Madeline Pumeriega is the fifth president of Miami Dade College in Miami, Florida. She is the first female to hold the post. Biography Pumariega attended Hialeah High School in Hialeah, Florida. She attended Miami Dade College and University of Central Florida as an undergraduate and received a bachelor's degree from St. Thomas University. Pumariega began her career at Miami Dade College in 1992 as the Dean of Students Services and later was Dean of Student and Administration Services. In 2011 Pumariega became President of MDC's Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami and held the position for nearly two years. In 2013, Pumariega became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Take Stock in Children, a non-profit. In 2015, Florida Department of Education Commissioner Pam Stewart announced the appointment of Pumariega as Chancellor of the Florida College System. She was the first woman and first Hispanic FCS Chancellor. In 2019, Pumariega was named executive vice president and provost of Tallahassee Community College. She also served as Affiliate Professor of Leadership at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. On November 17, 2020, Pumariega was appointed the fifth president of Miami Dade College. == References ==

Doctor_Who_series_1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_series_1

The first series of the 2005 revival of the British science fiction programme Doctor Who began on 26 March 2005 with the episode "Rose". This marked the end of the programme's 16 year absence from episodic television following its cancellation in 1989, and the first new televised Doctor Who story since the broadcast of the television movie starring Paul McGann in 1996. The finale episode, "The Parting of the Ways", was broadcast on 18 June 2005. The show was revived by longtime Doctor Who fan Russell T Davies, who had been lobbying the BBC since the late 1990s to bring the show back. The first series comprised 13 episodes, eight of which Davies wrote. Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young served as executive producers, Phil Collinson as producer. The show depicts the adventures of a mysterious and eccentric Time Lord known as the Doctor, who travels through time and space in his time machine, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s British police box. With his companions, he explores time and space, faces a variety of foes and saves civilizations, helping people and righting wrongs. The first series features Christopher Eccleston as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor, his only series in the role, accompanied by Billie Piper, as his first and main companion Rose Tyler, whom he plucks from obscurity on planet Earth, and to whom he grows increasingly attached. He also travels briefly with unruly boy-genius Adam Mitchell, played by Bruno Langley, and with 51st-century con man and former "Time Agent" Captain Jack Harkness, portrayed by John Barrowman. Episodes in the series form a loose story arc, based upon the recurring phrase "Bad Wolf", the significance of which goes unexplained until the two-part series finale. Alongside the "Bad Wolf" arc, the revived era re-introduces the Doctor as the sole survivor of an event known as the Time War, which the Doctor claims wiped out all of the Time Lords and the Daleks. The series premiere was watched by 10.81 million viewers, and four days after the premiere episode was broadcast, Doctor Who was renewed for a Christmas special as well as a second series. The series was well received by both critics and fans, winning a BAFTA Award for the first time in Doctor Who's history. The approval from Michael Grade, who had previously forced an 18-month hiatus on the show in 1985, and had postponed Doctor Who out of personal dislike on several occasions, was cited as a factor in the show's resurgence. The show's popularity ultimately led to a resurgence in family-orientated Saturday night drama. Episodes Unlike the classic era of the series that ended in 1989, the plan with the new series was to have each episode as a standalone story, with no serials. Of the thirteen episodes in the series, seven of them followed this format; the remaining six were grouped together into three two-part stories. Also, for the first time since The Gunfighters in the third season, each episode was given an individual title, which was the case with the standalone and two-part stories. Cast Main cast The production team was tasked with finding a suitable actor for the role of the Doctor. Most notably, they approached film stars Hugh Grant and Rowan Atkinson for the role. By the time Mal Young had suggested actor Christopher Eccleston to Davies, Eccleston was one of only three left in the running for the role: the other two candidates are rumoured in the industry to have been Alan Davies and Bill Nighy. His involvement in the programme was announced on 20 March 2004 following months of speculation. In the April 2004 issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Davies announced that Eccleston's Doctor would indeed be the Ninth Doctor, relegating Richard E. Grant's Shalka Doctor to non-official status. Russell T Davies revealed that Eccleston asked for the role in an e-mail. After the announcement that the show would be returning, Davies revealed that the new companion would "probably" be called Rose Tyler in an edition of Doctor Who Magazine published in November 2003. This name was confirmed in March 2004, and it was announced at the same time that former pop star Billie Piper was being considered for the role. Piper was announced as portraying Rose Tyler on 24 May, a character which fulfilled the role of permanent companion during the series, and was welcomed by fans of the show. Actress Georgia Moffett, daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison and who would later appear as the title role in the fourth series episode "The Doctor's Daughter", also auditioned for the role. The original conception of Tyler was slightly different. Paul Abbott was scheduled to write an episode for the series which would have revealed that Rose's entire life had been manipulated by the Doctor in order to mould her into an ideal companion. Davies eventually wrote "Boom Town" to replace it when Abbott, after months of development, realised he was too busy to work on the script. The first series was Christopher Eccleston's only series in the role of the Doctor. Eccleston's contract was for a single year because at the time it was uncertain whether the show would continue beyond a single revival series. Eccleston's intent to leave was revealed on 30 March 2005, shortly after the broadcast of the first episode. The BBC released a statement, attributed to Eccleston, saying that he had decided to leave because he feared becoming typecast. On 4 April, the BBC revealed that Eccleston's "statement" was falsely attributed and released without his consent. The BBC admitted that they had broken an agreement made in January not to disclose publicly that he only intended to do one season. In a 2010 interview, Eccleston revealed that he left the show because he "didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that [they], the cast and crew, had to work in", but that he was proud of having played the role. Recurring and guest cast The character of Adam Mitchell was first conceived, along with Henry van Statten, during Davies' pitch to the BBC, in a story heavily based on Robert Shearman's audio play Jubilee called "Return of the Daleks". The production team had always intended for Adam to join the TARDIS after Rose developed a liking for him. To play this role, Bruno Langley was chosen, previously known for his role on Coronation Street as Todd Grimshaw. It was never intended for Adam to be a long-term companion, Davies wanted to show that not everyone is suitable to join the TARDIS crew and dubbed him "The Companion That Couldn't", he "always wanted to do a show with someone who was a rubbish companion". John Barrowman appears as Captain Jack Harkness, a character introduced in "The Empty Child", where he joined the TARDIS crew for the final five episodes of the series. In naming the character, Davies drew inspiration from the Marvel Comics character Agatha Harkness. Jack's appearances were conceived with the intention of forming a character arc in which Jack is transformed from a coward to a hero, and Barrowman consciously minded this in his portrayal of the character. Following on that arc, the character's debut episode would leave his morality as ambiguous, publicity materials asking, "is he a force for good or ill?" Barrowman himself was a key factor in the conception of Captain Jack. Barrowman says that at the time of his initial casting, Davies and co-executive producer, Julie Gardner had explained to him that they "basically wrote the character around [John]". On meeting him, Barrowman tried out the character using his native Scottish accent, his normal American accent, and an English accent; Davies decided it "made it bigger if it was an American accent". Barrowman recounts Davies as having been searching for an actor with a "matinée idol quality", telling him that "the only one in the whole of Britain who could do it was you". David Tennant had been offered the role of the Doctor when he was watching a pre-transmission copy of Casanova with Davies and Gardner. Tennant initially believed the offer was a joke, but after he realised they were serious, he accepted the role and first appeared in the series finale "The Parting of the Ways". Tennant was announced as Eccleston's replacement on 16 April 2005. Other recurring characters for the series included Camille Coduri as Rose's mother Jackie Tyler, and Noel Clarke as Rose's boyfriend Mickey Smith. Other actors and television presenters who appeared in the series included Mark Benton, Zoë Wanamaker, Simon Callow, Eve Myles, Penelope Wilton, Annette Badland, David Verrey, Matt Baker, Andrew Marr, Corey Johnson, Simon Pegg, Anna Maxwell-Martin, Tamsin Greig, Shaun Dingwall, Florence Hoath, Richard Wilson, Jo Joyner, Davina McCall, Paterson Joseph, Anne Robinson, Trinny Woodall, and Susannah Constantine. Production Development During the late-90s, Davies, a lifelong Doctor Who fan, lobbied the BBC to revive the show from its hiatus and reached the discussion stages in late 1998 and early 2002. His proposals would update the show to be better suited for a 21st-century audience, including the transition from videotape to film, doubling the length of each episode from twenty-five minutes to fifty, keeping the Doctor primarily on Earth in the style of the Third Doctor UNIT episodes, and removing "excess baggage" such as Gallifrey and the Time Lords. His pitch competed against three others: Dan Freedman's fantasy retelling, Matthew Graham's Gothic-styled pitch, and Mark Gatiss, Clayton Hickman and Gareth Roberts' reboot, which would make the Doctor the audience surrogate character, instead of his companions. In August 2003, the BBC had resolved the issues regarding production rights that had surfaced as a result of the jointly produced Universal Studios–BBC–Fox 1996 Doctor Who film, leading the Controller of BBC One Lorraine Heggessey and Controller of Drama Commissioning Jane Tranter to approach Gardner and Davies to create a revival of the series to air in a primetime slot on Saturday nights, as part of the BBC's plan to devolve production to its regional bases. By mid-September, they accepted the deal to produce the series alongside Casanova. We were told that bringing it back would be impossible, that we would never capture this generation of children. But we did it. Following Scream of the Shalka, an animated episode which was shown on the Doctor Who website, the 'real' return of Doctor Who was announced on 26 September 2003 in a press release from the BBC. Davies voluntarily wrote a pitch for the series, the first time he had done so; he previously chose to jump straight to writing pilot episodes because he felt that a pitch would "feel like [he's] killing the work". The fifteen-page pitch outlined a Doctor who was "your best friend; someone you want to be with all the time"; the eighteen-year-old Rose Tyler as a "perfect match" for the new Doctor; avoidance of the forty-year back story "except for the good bits"; the retention of the TARDIS, sonic screwdriver, and Daleks; removal of the Time Lords; and also a greater focus on humanity. His pitch was submitted for the first production meeting in December 2003, with a series of thirteen episodes obtained by pressure from BBC Worldwide and a workable budget from Julie Gardner. By early 2004, the show had settled into a regular production cycle. Davies, Gardner, and BBC Controller of Drama Mal Young took posts as executive producers, although Young vacated the role at the end of the series. Phil Collinson, an old colleague from Granada, took the role of producer. Keith Boak, Euros Lyn, Joe Ahearne, Brian Grant and James Hawes directed the series. Davies' official role as head writer and executive producer, or "showrunner", consisted of laying a skeletal plot for the entire series, holding "tone meetings" to correctly identify the tone of an episode, often being described in one word—for example, the "tone word" for Moffat's "The Empty Child" was "romantic"—and overseeing all aspects of production. During early production the word "Torchwood", an anagram of "Doctor Who", was used as a title ruse for the series while filming its first few episodes and on the daily rushes to ensure they were not intercepted. The word "Torchwood" was later seeded in Doctor Who and became the name of the spin-off series Torchwood. Davies was interested in making an episode that would serve as a crossover with Star Trek: Enterprise, and involve the TARDIS landing on board the NX-01. The idea was officially discussed, but the plans were abandoned following the cancellation of Enterprise in February 2005. Writing The first series of Doctor Who featured eight scripts by Davies, the remainder being allocated to experienced drama writers and previous writers for the show's ancillary releases: Steven Moffat penned a two-episode story, while Mark Gatiss, Robert Shearman, and Paul Cornell each wrote one script. Davies also approached his friend Paul Abbott and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling to write for the series, but both declined due to existing commitments. Shortly after securing writers for the show, Davies stated that he had no intention to approach writers for the old series; the only writer he would have wished to work with was Robert Holmes, who died in May 1986, halfway through writing his contribution to The Trial of a Time Lord. Elwen Rowlands and Helen Raynor served as script editors for the series. They were hired simultaneous, marking the first time Doctor Who had female script editors. Rowlands left after the first series for Life on Mars. Compared to the original series the role of the script editors was significantly diminished, with the head writer taking most of those responsibilities. Unlike the original series they do not have the power to commission scripts. Instead, they act as liaisons between the production staff and the screenwriter, before passing their joint work to the head writer for a "final polish". Raynor said that the job is not a creative one, "you are a part of it, but you aren't driving it." Under producer Davies, the new series had a faster pace than those of the classic series. Rather than four to six-part serials of 25-minute episodes, most of the Ninth Doctor's stories consisted of individual 45-minute episodes, with only three stories out of ten being two-parters. The thirteen episodes were, however, loosely connected in a series-long story arc which brought their disparate threads together in the series finale. Davies took cues from American fantasy television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Smallville, most notably Buffy's concepts of series-long story arcs and the "Big Bad". Also, like the original series, stories often flowed directly into one another or were linked together in some way. Notably, in common only with the seventh and twenty-sixth seasons of the original series, every story of the season takes place on or near Earth. This fact is directly addressed in the original novel The Monsters Inside, in which Rose and the Doctor joke about the fact that all their adventures to date have taken place on Earth or on neighbouring space stations. The stories of the series varied quite significantly in tone, with the production team showcasing the various genres inhabited by Doctor Who over the years. Examples include the "pseudo-historical" story "The Unquiet Dead"; the far-future whodunnit of "The End of the World"; Earthbound alien invasion stories in "Rose" and "Aliens of London"/"World War Three"; "base under siege" in "Dalek"; and horror in "The Empty Child". Even the spin-off media were represented, with "Dalek" taking elements from writer Rob Shearman's own audio play Jubilee and the emotional content of Paul Cornell's "Father's Day" drawing on the tone of Cornell's novels in the Virgin New Adventures line. Davies had asked both Shearman and Cornell to write their scripts with those respective styles in mind. The episode "Boom Town" included a reference to the novel The Monsters Inside, becoming the first episode to acknowledge (albeit in a subtle way) spin-off fiction. Music Murray Gold composed the music for this series, which was entirely synthesised. Filming Principal photography for the series began on 18 July 2004 on location in Cardiff for "Rose". The series was filmed across South East Wales, mostly in or around Cardiff. Each episode took about two weeks to film. The start of filming created stress among the production team because of unseen circumstances: several scenes from the first block had to be re-shot because the original footage was unusable; the Slitheen prosthetics for "Aliens of London", "World War Three", and "Boom Town" were noticeably different from their computer-generated counterparts; and, most notably, the BBC came to a gridlock with the Terry Nation estate to secure the Daleks for the sixth episode of the series, to be written by Rob Shearman. After the first production block, which Davies described as "hitting a brick wall", the show's production was markedly eased as the crew familiarised themselves. Filming concluded on 23 March 2005. David Tennant, who was cast as Eccleston's replacement, recorded his appearance at the end of "The Parting of the Ways" on 21 April 2005 with a skeleton crew. Production blocks were arranged as follows: Release Promotion The new logo was revealed on the BBC website on 18 October 2004. The first official trailer was released as part of BBC One's Winter Highlights presentation on 2 December 2004 and subsequently posted on the Internet by the BBC. A media blitz including billboards and posters across the UK started early March 2005. Television trailers started showing up on 5 March and radio advertisements started two weeks before the series premiere and ran till the second episode aired. The official Doctor Who website was launched with exclusive content such as games and new Ninth Doctor information. Leak An early edit of the premiere was leaked onto the Internet three weeks before the scheduled series premiere. This attracted much media attention and discussion amongst fans, and caused interest in the show to skyrocket. The BBC released a statement that the source of the leak appeared to be connected to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which responded by stating that they "are looking into it. That's all I can say at this point because we don't know exactly what happened. It certainly wasn't done intentionally." Asa Bailey, founder of the Viral Advertising Association, said that the BBC hired them for viral marketing strategies, and that he told them "they should release things before their time", to create a "cool factor". Both the BBC and CBC denied any involvement, but Bailey believes that to be disingenuous, saying that it is "the best viral advert they could have done". The leak was ultimately traced to a third-party company in Canada which had a legitimate preview copy. The employee responsible was fired by the company. Broadcast "Rose" finally saw transmission on schedule on 26 March 2005 at 7 pm on BBC One, the first regular episode of Doctor Who since Part Three of Survival on 6 December 1989. To complement the series, BBC Wales also produced Doctor Who Confidential, a 13-part documentary series with each episode broadcast on BBC Three immediately after the end of the weekly instalment on BBC One. Both the series and documentary aired for 13 consecutive weeks, with the finale episode, "The Parting of the Ways", airing on 18 June 2005 along with its documentary counterpart. Davies had requested that the two first episodes be broadcast back-to-back, but the request was given to the BBC just two weeks before transmission, at which point everything was already set. In some regions, the first few minutes of the original BBC broadcast of "Rose" on 26 March were marred by the accidental mixing of a few seconds of sound from Graham Norton hosting Strictly Dance Fever. In the United States, the Sci Fi Channel originally passed on the new series as it found it lacking and believed it did not fit in its schedule, but the network later changed its mind. After it was announced that the first series would start in March 2006, Sci Fi Channel executive vice president Thomas Vitale called Doctor Who "a true sci-fi classic", with creative storytelling and colorful history, and was excited to add it to its line up. The network also took an option on the second series. Candace Carlisle from BBC Worldwide found the Sci Fi Channel the perfect home for Doctor Who. Doctor Who finally debuted in the U.S. on the Sci Fi Channel on 17 March 2006 with the first two episodes airing back-to-back, one year after the Canadian and UK showings. The series concluded its initial U.S. broadcast on 9 June 2006. Home media DVD and Blu-ray releases The series was first released in volumes; the first volume, containing the first three episodes, was released in Region 2 on 16 May 2005. The second, with "Aliens of London", "World War Three", and "Dalek", followed on 13 June 2005. "The Long Game", "Father's Day", "The Empty Child", and "The Doctor Dances" were released in the third volume on 1 August 2005 and the final three episodes were released in the fourth volume on 5 September 2005. The entire series was then released in a boxset on 21 November 2005 in Region 2. Aside from the 13 episodes it included commentaries on every episode, a video diary from Davies during the first week of filming, as well as other featurettes. The boxset was released in Region 1 on 4 July 2006. All releases are for DVD unless otherwise indicated: (D) indicates a DVD release for a specific date (B) indicates a Blu-ray release UMD releases In print Reception Ratings "Rose" received average overnight ratings of 9.9 million viewers, peaking at 10.5 million, respectively 43.2% and 44.3% of all viewers at that time. The final figure for the episode, including video recordings watched within a week of transmission, was 10.81 million, making it the third highest for BBC One that week and seventh across all channels. The opening episode was the highest rated episode of the first series. The penultimate episode, "Bad Wolf", received the lowest viewers of the series with just 6.81 million viewers. The series also garnered the highest audience Appreciation Index of any non-soap drama on television. Besides the second episode, "The End of the World", which garnered a 79% rating, the lowest of the series, all episodes received an AI above 80%. The series finale "The Parting of the Ways" was the highest rated episode with an AI of 89%. The success of the launch saw the BBC's Head of Drama Jane Tranter confirming on 30 March that the series would return both for a Christmas Special in December 2005 and a full second series in 2006. The initial Sci Fi Channel broadcasts of the series attained an average Nielsen Rating of 1.3, representing 1.5 million viewers in total. Although these ratings were less than those reached by Sci Fi's original series Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, they reflect a 44% increase in ratings and a 56% increase in viewership over the same timeslot in the second quarter of 2005, as well as increases of 56% and 57% in two key demographics. Critical reception Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes offers an 83% approval from 12 critic reviews, and an average rating of 8.6/10. In April 2004, Michael Grade returned to the BBC, this time as the Chairman of the Board of Governors, although this position does not involve any commissioning or editorial responsibilities. Although he had previously disliked the show and imposed an eighteen-month hiatus on it during the Sixth Doctor era, he eventually wrote an e-mail to the Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson in June 2005, after the successful new first series, voicing approval for its popularity. He also declared, "[I] never dreamed I would ever write this. I must be going soft!" The revival also impressed former Doctor Sylvester McCoy, who praised Eccleston and Piper as well as their characters, and the pacing of the first episode. His only criticism was about the new TARDIS interior, though he did comment that he was "also a bit dismayed that more wasn't made of the show's incidental music, which seemed fairly anonymous in the background". Robin Oliver of The Sydney Morning Herald praised Davies for taking "an adult approach to one of television's most famous characters" that children would appreciate, and that he reinvented it in a way that would be "competitive in a high-tech market". Oliver also wrote that older viewers would find Eccleston "easily the best time lord since Tom Baker". Reviewing the first episode, The Stage's Harry Venning hailed it as a "fabulous, imaginative, funny and sometimes frightening reinvention" and particularly praised Rose for being an improvement upon previous female companions who were "fit only to scream or be captured". However, he found Eccleston to be "the show's biggest disappointment" as he looked "uncomfortable playing fantasy". Digital Spy's Dek Hogan found the final episode anticlimactic, but overall said that the series was "excellent Saturday night telly of the kind that many of us thought the BBC had forgotten how to make". He praised Eccleston's performance and named "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" as the best episodes. Arnold T Blumburg of Now Playing gave the series a grade of A−, praising its variety. However, he was critical of Davies' "annoying tendency to play to the lowest common denominator with toilet humor", but felt that from "Dalek" on the series was more dramatic and sophisticated. DVD Talk's John Sinnott rated the first series four and a half out of five stars, writing that it "keeps a lot of the charm and excitement of the original (as well as the premise), while making the series easily accessible for new viewers". Sinnott praised the faster pace and the design changes that made it feel "fresh", as well as Eccleston's Doctor. However, he felt that Piper only did a "credible" job as Eccleston eclipsed her, and said that the writing was "uneven" with many of the episodes "just slightly flawed". Looking back on the series in 2011, Stephen Kelly of The Guardian wrote, "Eccleston's Doctor may have had many faults – looking like an EastEnders extra and bellowing "FANTASTIC!" at every opportunity being two of them – but he was merely a reflection of a show that, at the time, still didn't know what it wanted to be. The first series of the revived Doctor Who – which featured farting aliens – was a world away from the intelligent, populist science-fiction we know it as now. But then, it is thanks to Eccleston that it got this far at all – a big, respectable name who laid the foundations for Tennant to swag away with the show." However, not everyone was pleased with the new production. Some fans criticised the new logo and perceived changes to the TARDIS model. According to various news sources, members of the production team even received hate mail and death threats. "The Unquiet Dead" was criticised by parents, who felt that the episode was "too scary" for their young children; the BBC dismissed the complaints, saying that it had never been intended for the youngest of children. Awards and nominations Soundtrack Selected pieces of score from the first series, second series, and "The Runaway Bride", as composed by Murray Gold, were released on 4 December 2006 by Silva Screen Records. The cues from the first series were re-recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the original music having been created using orchestral samples. Gold's arrangement of the main theme featured samples from the 1963 original with further elements added: an orchestral sound of low horns, strings and percussion and part of the Dalek ray-gun and TARDIS materialisation sound effects. Included on the album are two versions of the theme: the 44-second opening version, as arranged by Gold, and a longer arrangement that includes the middle eight, after Gold omitted the "middle eight" from both the opening and closing credits. Gold has said that his interpretation was driven by the title visual sequence he was given to work around. Often erroneously cited as being the same as the end credits version, this second version is in fact a new arrangement and recording. References Bibliography Aldridge, Mark; Murray, Andy (30 November 2008). T is for Television: The Small Screen Adventures of Russell T Davies. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 978-1-905287-84-0. Russell, Gary (2006). Doctor Who: The Inside Story. London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-48649-7. External links Official website Doctor Who at IMDb Doctor Who at epguides.com

Skylark_(rocket)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylark_(rocket)

Skylark was a family of British sounding rockets. It was operational between 1957 and 2005. Development of the Skylark begun during the early 1950s at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), which approached the Royal Society with an offer for it to carry scientific experiments. During early 1955, the British government agreed to provide £100,000 to support the programme's operations for four years. Development of the Skylark, initially known as the CTV.5 Series 3, was pursued at a rapid pace, with hopes that initial launches could take place during the latter half of 1956. On 7 April 1956, the existence of the Skylark rocket was publicly revealed under the early name of Gassiot vehicle. Launch facilities were established at the existing Woomera missile range in Australia; the Skylarks were produced in Britain and flown to Australia for final assembly, testing, and launching. The Skylark was first launched on 13 February 1957; the first scientific mission occurred during April 1958, quickly becoming regarded as a valuable platform for various fields of research. The vast majority of launches would be performed from Woomera, although other launch sites would later be used at sites across Europe and South America. The British government opted to terminate its support of the programme in 1977, with responsibility for Skylark being turned over to British Aerospace. It continued to be operated for decades more. The 441st and final launch of the Skylark took place from Esrange, Sweden, on 2 May 2005. Launches had been carried out from various purposes, with some military missions being flown, users extended far beyond the UK to include NASA, the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), and German and Swedish space organizations. History Development The origins of the Skylark can be traced back to decisions made in the aftermath of the Second World War. Unlike some powers, the United Kingdom had not opted to immediately proceed with work on long-range rocketry; however, the Ministry of Supply did work on defensive guided weaponry, leading to the arrival of surface-to-air missiles such as the Bloodhound during the 1950s. To conduct these programmes, the ministry developed a series of test missiles for research and development. During May 1953, amid the preparations for a major conference in Oxford on rocket-based exploration of the upper atmosphere, the Ministry of Supply approached the Gassiot Committee of the Royal Society with an offer of using ministry rockets for scientific research. This offer, while positively received, was quickly realised to far exceed what would be affordable to the universities. During February 1954, a group of scientists enthusiastically responded to a closed briefing on a Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) project, the CTV.5 Series 3 rocket (which would later adopt the name Skylark). The CTV series of rockets had originally been used to investigate aerodynamic control of missiles, yet the Skylark was stated to be capable of carrying a payload of 100 lb to an altitude of 200 km (124 mi). The Royal Society promptly approached HM Treasury with a request for £100,000 to fund upper atmospheric rocket research over the course of four years. There was considerable interest in exploring the ionosphere, which was relatively unknown at that time, and Skylark would be a revolutionary tool for its study. During April 1955, following the approval of funding, the research programme formally commenced; roughly half of the £100,000 was spent on the vehicles themselves, while the remainder covered the costs of scientific instruments and technical staff. Various university groups were responsible for the design and construction of the scientific instruments carried, as well as post-mission analysis; all other aspects were the responsibility of the Ministry of Supply. A subcommittee of the Gassiot Committee coordinated the overall programme. In addition to its scientific role, Skylark was also to serve a military purpose, being available to the RAE's research programme, including in the development of ballistic missiles; in return, the RAE provided considerable assistance in the rocket's design, manufacture, preparation, and firing. Numerous RAE personnel were allocated to the Skylark initiative. A relatively ambitious target date for the first launch was set for the summer of 1956 during the International Geophysical Year, necessitating development to be completed in little over a year. Additional support for the Skylark programme was sourced from the Rocket Propulsion Establishment (RPE) at Westcott with the development and testing of the Raven 1 rocket engine. On 7 April 1956, the existence of the Skylark rocket was publicly revealed under the early name of Gassiot vehicle. Even before this announcement, it had been decided that Skylark would be fired from the Woomera rocket range in Australia. While work did proceed at a fast pace on the project, an ignition problem encountered during the RPE's proof testing forced the postponement of the first launch past a November 1956 slot and, partially due to the Woomera's range's closure for Christmas, was delayed until the following year. On 13 February 1957, the Skylark performed its first launch from Woomera; for this initial test flight, it carried no experimental payload save for RAE test instrumentation to monitor the rocket's performance. It was the first long range vehicle to be launched from Woomera. Operations During April 1958, scientific use of the Skylark commenced, marking the programme's attainment of true operational status. Unlike the majority of missile/rocket programmes, which would only temporarily be based at Woomera until they matured, Skylark continued to operate at Woomera as its long term home. This arrangement necessitated an international supply chain between Britain and South Australia; early Skylarks were transported by plane, along with a kit of parts that were locally assembled by a mostly Australian workforce. Once assembled, the rockets would be transported a further 270 miles to the actual range for roughly two weeks of final preparation ahead of launching. After multiple rounds of testing, the rocket would be mounted on a trailer and taken to the launch platform, usually two days prior to the launch date; the launch itself was overseen by Australian Weapons Research Establishment personnel from an underground control room at the edge of the concrete apron. The pace of launches climbed rapidly in the first four years of the programme; while eight Skylarks were launched in 1958, this rose to 17 during 1961. The good performance record and value of the Skylark programme was recognised by the British government's Advisory Council on Scientific Policy in 1961. Yet, there were figures within the RAE that felt that the overall success rate of the programme of 40% was far beneath that of the rocket itself, which had a 90% success rate; this was speculated to have been due to the somewhat informal administrative process of the programme and a lack of funding. Some funding had been made available for improvements, such as the continuous development of the Raven rocket motor. During the 1960s, Skylark proved itself to be an excellent platform for space astronomy, possessing the ability to point at the Sun, Moon, or a star. It was used to obtain the first good-quality X-ray images of the solar corona. In 1963 alone, a total of 14 experiments relating to solar physics were conducted using the Skylark. Within the UK national programme, the frequency of Skylark launches peaked at 20 during 1965 (from Woomera), a total of 198 flights took place between 1957 and 1978 alone. During the mid-1960s, a key improvement in the form of the stabilised payload system was introduced; as Skylark was designed as a fin-stabilised rocket, there was no guidance once outside of the atmosphere, causing the vehicle to tumble and spin. The new stabilisation system used a pair of gyroscopes connected to thermionic amplifiers to appropriately actuate a series of control valves; it was first deployed in 1961 and became routine by the end of the decade. One rejected enhancement around this time was the construction of a second launch platform at Woomera. By February 1967, the tenth anniversary of the Skylark's first launch, 157 launches had been performed, carrying in excess of 300 scientific experiments. The first X-ray surveys of the sky in the Southern Hemisphere were provided by Skylark launches. Multiple Skylarks were used with atypically high precision during September and October 1972 in an effort to locate the optical counterpart of X-ray source GX3+1 by lunar occultation. As early as June 1965, Australia made informal requests to have use of several Skylark launches; these requests were complicated by their informal nature and a lack of budget for such endeavours. Occasionally, Australian scientific experiments were flown on Skylarks being used for RAE tests, as these did not typically make much use of the payload capability. During 1975, the Federal Republic of Germany through the DFVLR (now German Aerospace Center or DLR) agreed with Australia to cooperate on the launch of a Skylark rocket at Woomera for scientific purposes. This launch took place on 14 March 1975. This was followed by three more, launched on 22 February, 13 March 1979, and 24 August 1987. Skylarks were constructed in quantity into the late 1970s, up until the British government decided to terminate the programme in 1977, having concluded that future "low weight" research would be carried out using NASA's Space Shuttle instead. Furthermore, by the 1970s, sounding rockets in general were facing increasing competition from scientific satellites, which could conduct missions for far longer terms and across a greater geographical range. The Skylark programme was transferred to British Aerospace, who subsequently sold it to Matra Marconi Space. While the number of launches declined substantially during the late 1970s and the 1980s, the scientific payloads being carried by Skylarks were becoming increasingly complex and ambitious. During 1999, Marconi sold the programme to a small private company, Sounding Rocket Services, based in Bristol. Beginning in 2018, Skyrora, a British aerospace & launch company, has developed and launched a new series of "Skylark" sounding rockets, reviving the name. They have launched from northern Scotland, where Shetland spaceport and Sutherland spaceport are being built, and also from Iceland. They plan to also develop a satellite launch vehicle which will launch from the UK, which will be a first for the country, which previously only launched satellites from Woomera, Australia. Description The basic Skylark is 7.6 metres (25 ft) long, 0.44 metres (17 in) in diameter and has a fin span of 0.96 metres (38 in). Booster stages can increase the height to 12.8 metres (42 ft). The original version was propelled by 840 kilograms (1,850 lb) of solid fuel, which enabled 45 kilograms (99 lb) to be launched to an altitude of over 200 kilometres (120 mi). Improvements were made to the engine and the use of a booster increased the payload to 200 kilograms (440 lb) in 1960. Skylark 12, from 1976, could lift 200 kilograms (440 lb) to 575 kilometres (357 mi) altitude. Due to its small mass and low thrust, the original version of the Skylark had to be launched from a 25 metres (82 ft) tilting tower to overcome the effects of the wind. Later versions only required a simple trailer. On display Skylark Rockets are on display in the following locations: University of Leicester, Department of Physics and Astronomy. (Skylark Raven (c. 1957)). National Space Centre in Leicester. (Skylark Goldfinch Raven). Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Surrey, England. (Skylark 7 (Goldfinch II, Raven XI)). Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Visitor Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Skylark Nosecone only). Rocketry Museum, Woomera, Australia (Skylark Nosecone only). Woomera Missile Park, Woomera, Australia (Cuckoo, Raven). The Euro Space Center in Belgium (Replica). QVMAG, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Aerospace Bristol, Filton, Bristol, England. In the possession of Mexborough & Swinton Astronomical Society in South Yorkshire, England. Solna strandvag 86, Stockholm, Sweden. (Partly viewable from the waterfront). South Australian Aviation Museum Port Adelaide, Australia Skylark (Raven), Skylark (Cuckoo, Raven) and Skylark Instrument section. See also Black Arrow Black Knight Blue Streak (missile) Skylark launch tower Skyrora Skylark References Citations Bibliography Brand, Robin H. (2014). Britain's First Space Rocket – The story of the Skylark (1st ed.). YPD Books. ISBN 978-0-9929896-0-6. External links Skylark sounding rockets BBC News article on final launch

Kodansha_Manga_Award

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodansha_Manga_Award

The Kodansha Manga Award (講談社漫画賞, Kōdansha Manga Shō) is one of Japan's major manga awards. The event is sponsored by publisher Kodansha. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1977. Categories The award is currently awarded in three categories: shōnen, shōjo, and general. The awards began in 1977, initially with categories for shōnen and shōjo. The first award for the general category was in 1982, and the first children's category's award was in 2003. The children's category was merged into the shōnen and shōjo categories starting in 2015. Each winning work will be honored with a bronze statuette, a certificate, and a prize of 1 million yen (about US$7,500). Recipients See also List of manga awards References Joel Hahn. "Kodansha Manga Awards". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved March 19, 2008. 過去の受賞者一覧 : 講談社漫画賞 : 講談社「おもしろくて、ためになる」出版を (in Japanese). Kodansha. Archived from the original on July 25, 2010. Retrieved August 21, 2007. External links Official website (in Japanese)

List_of_Attack_on_Titan_chapters

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Attack_on_Titan_chapters

Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. The story is set in a world where humanity lives inside cities surrounded by enormous walls due to the Titans, gigantic humanoid creatures who devour humans seemingly without reason. The story centers around Eren Yeager, alongside his childhood friends, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert, whose lives are changed forever after the appearance of a Colossus Titan brings about the destruction of their home town and the death of Eren's mother. Vowing revenge and to reclaim the world from the Titans, Eren, Mikasa and Armin join the Survey Corps, an elite group of soldiers who fight Titans outside the walls. The series began serialization in Kodansha's monthly publication Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in its October 2009 issue and ended in its May 2021 issue. The first tankōbon volume was released in March 2010, and the 34th and final volume was released in June 2021. In North America, the series is published in English by Kodansha USA, that first published the first volume on June 19, 2012, with a three or four-month interval between each release until mid-2013, when subsequent volumes started being released on a monthly basis to catch up faster with the original Japanese releases, which they did at the end of that year, subsequently returning to the previous schedule. The series has also been adapted into an anime television series by IG Port's Wit Studio (seasons 1 to 3) and MAPPA (season 4), with the first episode airing on April 7, 2013, on MBS. The anime is also being streamed by both Funimation and Crunchyroll on their respective websites. Manga Attack on Titan Chapters in the Kodansha USA publications are numbered as episodes. Junior High Attack on Titan: Junior High (進撃!巨人中学校, Shingeki! Kyojin Chūgakkō) is a parody manga written and illustrated by Saki Nakagawa, serialized in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine since its May 2012 issue. The first tankōbon volume was released April 9, 2013, and the eleventh and last was released on August 9, 2016. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, who published the first volume on March 11, 2014 and the fifth and last on July 31, 2018. Before the Fall Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (進撃の巨人 Before the fall) is a spinoff manga illustrated by Satoshi Shiki, based on the prequel light novel series of the same name written by Ryō Suzukaze. The series has been serialized in Monthly Shōnen Sirius from August 26, 2013 to March 26, 2019, and was collected in seventeen volumes. The first tankōbon volume was released on December 9, 2013 and the last on April 9, 2019. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, who published the first volume on March 11, 2014. No Regrets Attack on Titan: No Regrets (進撃の巨人 悔いなき選択, Shingeki no Kyojin Kuinaki Sentaku) is a spinoff manga written by Gun Snark and illustrated by Hikaru Suruga, serialized in the Aria magazine from its start in the November 28, 2013 issue to June 28, 2014. The manga is an adaptation of the visual novel of the same name. It focuses on the origin story of Levi, before he was a part of the Survey Corps Special Operations Squad. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, which released both volumes in 2014. Spoof on Titan Sungeki no Kyojin (寸劇の巨人, "Titan Short Skits") is a comedic yonkoma manga written and illustrated by Hounori, released on Kodansha's Manga Box smartphone and tablet application from December 2013 to December 30, 2014, in both Japanese and English. The first tankōbon volume was published on August 8, 2014, and the second on April 9, 2015. Lost Girls A manga adaptation by Ryōsuke Fuji of the light novel of the same name, that began serialization in Kodansha's magazine Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine on August 9, 2015. The series ended in the June 2016 issue of the magazine on May 9, 2016. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, which released the volumes in 2016 and 2017. Novels Before the Fall Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (進撃の巨人 Before the fall) is a light novel written by Ryō Suzukaze and illustrated by Thores Shibamoto. It initially follows the story of Angel, the blacksmith who develops the first prototypes of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, before focusing on a young man who was found as a baby in the stomach of a Titan. Three volumes of Before the Fall were published between December 2, 2011, and June 29, 2012. Vertical licensed the light novels in October 2013 for distribution in English. Harsh Mistress of the City Attack on Titan: Harsh Mistress of the City (進撃の巨人　隔絶都市の女王, Shingeki no Kyojin Kakuzetsu Toshi no Joō) is written by Ryō Kawakami and illustrated by Range Murata. It depicts the aftermath of the fall of Wall Maria first shown at the beginning of the manga. The first volume was published on August 1, 2014 and the second and last on May 1, 2015. Vertical released both volumes in English in 2015. Lost Girls Attack on Titan: Lost Girls (進撃の巨人 Lost Girls) is written by Hiroshi Seko. It comprises three short stories featuring Mikasa Ackerman and Annie Leonhart, titled "Lost in the cruel world", "Wall Sina, Goodbye". It was published in Japan on December 9, 2014, and in North America on June 28, 2016, by Vertical. Garrison Girl Garrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel was written by American author Rachel Aaron and published by Quirk Books on August 7, 2018. It is centered on Rosalie Dumarque, who defies her family to join the military garrison. A Japanese translation by Izuki Kogyoku was published in Japan on April 7, 2019 under the title Attack on Titan: Roses on the Wall. Notes References External links Official manga website (in Japanese) Attack on Titan at Kodansha Comics Attack on Titan at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Attack on Titan (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

University_of_Illinois_Urbana-Champaign

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Illinois_Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. It is the flagship institution of the University of Illinois system and was established in 1867. With over 59,000 students, the University of Illinois is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the United States. The university contains 16 schools and colleges and offers more than 150 undergraduate and over 100 graduate programs of study. The university holds 651 buildings on 6,370 acres (2,578 ha) and its annual operating budget in 2016 was over $2 billion. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also operates a Research Park home to innovation centers for over 90 start-up companies and multinational corporations. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". In fiscal year 2019, research expenditures at Illinois totaled $652 million. The campus library system possesses the fourth-largest university library in the United States by holdings. The university also hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Illinois athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Fighting Illini. They are members of the Big Ten Conference and have won the second-most conference titles. Illinois Fighting Illini football won the Rose Bowl Game in 1947, 1952, 1964 and a total of five national championships. Illinois athletes have won 29 medals in Olympic events. The alumni, faculty members, or researchers of the university include 30 Nobel laureates, 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, two Fields medalists, and two Turing Award winners. History Illinois Industrial University (1867–1885) The University of Illinois, originally named "Illinois Industrial University", was one of the 37 universities created under the first Morrill Land-Grant Act, which provided public land for the creation of agricultural and industrial colleges and universities across the United States. Among several cities, Urbana was selected in 1867 as the site for the new school. From the beginning, President John Milton Gregory's desire to establish an institution firmly grounded in the liberal arts tradition was at odds with many state residents and lawmakers who wanted the university to offer classes based solely around "industrial education". The university opened for classes on March 2, 1868, and had two faculty members and 77 students. The Library, which opened with the school in 1868, started with 1,039 volumes. Subsequently, President Edmund J. James, in a speech to the board of trustees in 1912, proposed to create a research library. It is now one of the world's largest public academic collections. In 1870, the Mumford House was constructed as a model farmhouse for the school's experimental farm. The Mumford House remains the oldest structure on campus. The original University Hall (1871) was the fourth building built; it stood where the Illini Union stands today. University of Illinois (1885–1977) In 1885, the Illinois Industrial University officially changed its name to the "University of Illinois", reflecting its agricultural, mechanical, and liberal arts curriculum. During his presidency, Edmund J. James (1904–1920) set the policy of building a massive research library. He also laid the foundation for the large Chinese international student population on campus. James established ties with China through the Chinese Minister to the United States Wu Ting-Fang. Class rivalries and Bob Zuppke's winning football teams contributed to campus morale. Alma Mater, a prominent statue on campus created by alumnus Lorado Taft, was unveiled on June 11, 1929. It was funded from donations by the Alumni Fund and the classes of 1923–1929. The Great Depression in the United States slowed construction and expansion on the campus. The university replaced the original university hall with Gregory Hall and the Illini Union. After World War II, the university experienced rapid growth. The enrollment doubled and the academic standing improved. This period was also marked by large growth in the Graduate College and increased federal support of scientific and technological research. During the 1950s and 1960s the university experienced the turmoil common on many American campuses. Among these were the water fights of the 1950s and 1960s. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1977–present) By 1967, the University of Illinois system consisted of a main campus in Champaign-Urbana and two Chicago campuses, Chicago Circle (UICC) and Medical Center (UIMC), and people began using "Urbana-Champaign" or the reverse to refer to the main campus specifically. The university name officially changed to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by 1977 (although the word "at" was later dropped for marketing purposes by all U of I System campuses by 2021). While this was a reversal of the commonly used designation for the metropolitan area (Champaign-Urbana), a majority of the campus is located in Urbana. The name change established a separate identity for the main campus within the University of Illinois System, which today includes separate institutions at the University of Illinois Chicago (formed by the merger of UICC and UIMC) and University of Illinois Springfield. In 1998, the Hallene Gateway Plaza was dedicated. The Plaza features the original sandstone portal of University Hall, which was originally the fourth building on campus. In recent years, state support has declined from 4.5% of the state's tax appropriations in 1980 to 2.28% in 2011, a nearly 50% decline. As a result, the university's budget has shifted away from relying on state support with nearly 84% of the budget coming from other sources in 2012. On March 12, 2015, the Board of Trustees approved the creation of a medical school, the first college created at Urbana-Champaign in 60 years. The Carle Illinois College of Medicine began classes in 2018. Philanthropy Over the last twenty years state funding for the university has fallen. Private philanthropy increasingly supplements revenue from tuition and state funding, providing about 19% of the annual budget in 2012. Notable among significant donors, alumnus entrepreneur Thomas M. Siebel has committed nearly $150 million to the university, including $36 million to build the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science, $25 million to build the Siebel Center for Design, and $50 million to support the renamed Department of Computer Science to become Siebel School of Computing and Data Science. Furthermore, the Grainger Foundation (founded by alumnus W. W. Grainger) has contributed more than $300 million to the university over the last half-century, including donations for the construction of the Grainger Engineering Library. Larry Gies and his wife Beth donated $150 million in 2017 to the shortly thereafter renamed Gies College of Business. Campus The main research and academic facilities are divided almost evenly between the twin cities of Urbana and Champaign, which form part of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area. Some parts are in Urbana Township. Four main quads compose the center of the university and are arranged from north to south. The Beckman Quadrangle and the John Bardeen Quadrangle occupy the center of the Engineering Campus. Boneyard Creek flows through the John Bardeen Quadrangle, parallel to Green Street. The Beckman Quadrangle, named after Arnold Orville Beckman, is primarily composed of research units and laboratories, and features a large solar calendar consisting of an obelisk and several copper fountains. The Main Quadrangle and South Quadrangle follow immediately after the John Bardeen Quad. The former makes up a large part of the Liberal Arts and Sciences portion of the campus, while the latter comprises many of the buildings of the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES) spread across the campus map. Additionally, the research fields of the College of ACES stretch south from Urbana and Champaign into Savoy and Champaign County. The university also maintains formal gardens and a conference center in nearby Monticello at Allerton Park. The campus is known for its landscape and architecture, as well as distinctive landmarks. It was identified as one of 50 college or university "works of art" by T.A. Gaines in his book The Campus as a Work of Art. The campus also has a number of buildings and sites on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places including Harker Hall, the Astronomical Observatory, Louise Freer Hall, the Main Library, the Experimental Dairy Farm Historic District, and the Morrow Plots. University of Illinois Willard Airport is one of the few airports owned by an educational institution. Sustainability In 2008, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign became a signatory of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, binding the campus to the goal of carbon neutrality as soon as possible. In 2010, the first Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) was written to chart a path to this goal. The iCAP is a strategic framework for meeting the university's Climate Leadership Commitments to be carbon-neutral by 2050 or sooner and build resilience with its local community. Since then, the iCAP has been rewritten every five years to track the university's progress. In December 2013, the University of Illinois launched the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) on the Urbana-Champaign campus. The institute, under the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, leads an interdisciplinary approach to researching solutions for the world's most pressing sustainability, energy, and environmental needs. In addition, iSEE has engaged students, faculty, staff, and campus leadership in the iCAP process — especially in the areas of zero waste and conservation of energy, food, water, land, and natural resources — as well as sustainability outreach and immersive educational programs. In her remarks on being named Director of iSEE in 2022, Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics Madhu Khanna explained: "We aim to position campus to play a transformative role in moving us all to a more sustainable future." In 2022, new solar and geothermal energy projects, a reduction in water use, and wide-ranging sustainability research helped the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign earn its fifth consecutive gold certification in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). Illinois has consistently achieved gold certification since it began reporting data through STARS in 2013, and the 2022 score was one of its highest to date. Currently, the campus features 27 LEED-certified buildings. Academics Undergraduate admissions The overall first-year admit rate for 2023 is 43.7%, which differ greatly among UIUC colleges — whereas the overall first-choice admit rate is 34.7%, the Grainger College of Engineering has an admit rate of 22.3%. Certain in-demand majors like Computer Science, including Computer Science + X, of which the program being ranked consistently 5th nationwide can be extremely competitive, with an acceptance rate of less than 6.8% in 2022, and average freshman ACT composite score of 33.7. In 2009, an investigation by The Chicago Tribune reported that some applicants "received special consideration" for acceptance between 2005 and 2009, despite having sub-par qualifications. This incident became known as the University of Illinois clout scandal. Academic divisions The university offers more than 150 undergraduate and 100 graduate and professional programs in over 15 academic units, among several online specializations such as Digital Marketing and an online MBA program launched in January 2016. In 2015, the university announced its expansion to include an engineering-based medical program, which would be the first new college created in Urbana-Champaign in 60 years. The university also offers undergraduate students the opportunity for graduation honors. University Honors is an academic distinction awarded to the highest achieving students. To earn the distinction, students must have a cumulative grade point average of a 3.5/4.0 within the academic year of their graduation and rank within the top 3% of their graduating class. Their names are inscribed on a Bronze Tablet that hangs in the Main Library. Online learning In addition to the university's Illinois Online platform, in 2015 the university entered into a partnership with the Silicon Valley educational technology company Coursera to offer a series of master's degrees, certifications, and specialization courses, currently including more than 70 joint learning classes. In August 2015, the Master of Business Administration program was launched through the platform. On March 31, 2016, Coursera announced the launch of the Master of Computer Science in Data Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. At the time, the university's computer-science graduate program was ranked fifth in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. On March 29, 2017, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign launched their Master's in Accounting (iMSA) program, now called the Master of Science in Accountancy (iMSA) program. The iMSA program is led through live sessions, headed by UIUC faculty. Similar to the university's on-campus admission policies, the online master's degrees offered by The University of Illinois through Coursera also has admission requirements. All applicants must hold a bachelor's degree, and have earned a 3.0 GPA or higher in the last two years of study. Additionally, all applicants must prove their proficiency in English. The University of Illinois also offers online courses in partnership with Coursera, such as Marketing in a Digital World, which focuses on how digital tools like internet, smartphone and 3D printers are changing the marketing landscape. Rankings In the 2021 U.S. News & World Report "America's Best Colleges" report, UIUC's undergraduate program was ranked tied for 47th among national universities and tied for 15th among public universities, with its undergraduate engineering program ranked tied for 6th in the U.S. among schools whose highest degree is a doctorate. Washington Monthly ranked UIUC 18th among 389 national universities in the U.S. for 2020, based on its contribution to the public good as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service. Kiplinger's Personal Finance rated Illinois 12th in its 2019 list of 174 Best Values in Public Colleges, which "measures academic quality, cost and financial aid." The Graduate Program in Urban Planning at the College of Fine and Applied Arts was ranked 3rd nationally by Planetizen in 2015. The university was also listed as a "Public Ivy" in The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (2001) by Howard and Matthew Greene. The Princeton Review ranked Illinois 1st in its 2016 list of top party schools. Internationally, UIUC engineering was ranked 13th in the world in 2016 by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the university 38th in 2019; the university was also ranked 48th globally by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in 2020 and 75th in the world by the QS World University Rankings for 2020. The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) has ranked University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the 20th best university in the world for 2019–20. UIUC is also ranked 32nd in the world in Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings for 2018. Research The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is often regarded as a world-leading magnet for engineering and sciences (both applied and basic). According to the National Science Foundation, the university spent $625 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 37th in the nation. It is also listed as one of the Top 25 American Research Universities by The Center for Measuring University Performance. Beside annual influx of grants and sponsored projects, the university manages an extensive modern research infrastructure. The university has been a leader in computer based education and hosted the PLATO project, which was a precursor to the internet and resulted in the development of the plasma display. Illinois was a 2nd-generation ARPAnet site in 1971 and was the first institution to license the UNIX operating system from Bell Labs. National Center for Supercomputing Applications The university hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which created Mosaic, the first graphical web browser, the Apache HTTP server, and NCSA Telnet. The Parallel@Illinois program hosts several programs in parallel computing, including the Universal Parallel Computing Research Center. The university contracted with Cray to build the National Science Foundation-funded supercomputer Blue Waters. The system also has the largest public online storage system in the world with more than 25 petabytes of usable space. The university celebrated January 12, 1997, as the "birthday" of HAL 9000, the fictional supercomputer from the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey; in both works, HAL credits "Urbana, Illinois" as his place of operational origin. Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology supports interdisciplinary collaborative research in the broad areas of intelligent systems, neuroscience, molecular science and engineering, and biomedical imaging. Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology supports research in genomics and related areas of biology. Prairie Research Institute The Prairie Research Institute is located on campus and is the home of the Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, and the Illinois State Archeological Survey. Researchers at the Prairie Research Institute are engaged in research in agriculture and forestry, biodiversity and ecosystem health, atmospheric resources, climate and associated natural hazards, cultural resources and history of human settlements, disease and public health, emerging pests, fisheries and wildlife, energy and industrial technology, mineral resources, pollution prevention and mitigation, and water resources. The Illinois Natural History Survey collections include crustaceans, reptiles and amphibians, birds, mammals, algae, fungi, and vascular plants, with the insect collection is among the largest in North America. The Illinois State Geological Survey houses the legislatively mandated Illinois Geological Samples Library, a repository for drill-hole samples in Illinois, as well as paleontological collections. ISAS serves as a repository for a large collection of Illinois archaeological artifacts. One of the major collections is from the Cahokia Mounds. Research Park Located in the southwest part of campus, Research Park opened its first building in 2001 and has grown to encompass 13 buildings. Ninety companies have established roots in research park, employing over 1,400 people. Tenants of the Research Park facilities include prominent Fortune 500 companies Capital One, John Deere, State Farm, Caterpillar, and Yahoo, Inc. Companies also employ about 400 total student interns at any given time throughout the year. The complex is also a center for entrepreneurs, and has over 50 startup companies stationed at its EnterpriseWorks Incubator facility. In 2011, Urbana, Illinois was named number 11 on Popular Mechanics' "14 Best Startup Cities in America" list, in a large part due to the contributions of Research Park's programs. The park has gained recognition from other notable publications, such as inc.com and Forbes magazine. For the 2011 fiscal year, Research Park produced an economic output of $169.5M for the state of Illinois. Technology Entrepreneur Center The Technology Entrepreneur Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a permanent center established to provide students with resources for their entrepreneurial ideas. The center offers classes, venture and product competitions, and workshops to introduce students to technology innovation and market adoption. Events and programs hosted by the TEC include the Cozad New Venture Challenge, Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship Workshop, Illinois I-Corps, and SocialFuse. The campus-wide Cozad New Venture Challenge has been held annually since 2000. Participants are mentored in the phases of venture creation and attend workshops on idea validation, pitching skills, and customer development. In 2019, teams competed for $250,000 in funding. The Silicon Valley Workshop is a week-long workshop, occurring annually in January. Students visit startups and technology companies in the Silicon Valley and network entrepreneurial alumni from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Students are exposed to technology entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. The trip features corporate leaders, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs in various stages of a startup lifecycle. Illinois I-Corps teaches National Science Foundation grantees how to learn to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and gain skills in entrepreneurship through training in customer discovery and guidance from established entrepreneurs. The program is a collaboration between the Technology Entrepreneur Center and EnterpriseWorks, with participation from the Office of Technology Management and IllinoisVentures. The program consists of three workshops over six weeks, where teams work to validate the market size, value propositions, and customer segments of their innovations. SocialFuse is a recurring pitching and networking event where students can pitch ideas, find teammates, and network. Center for Plasma-Material Interactions The Center for Plasma-Material Interactions was established in 2004 by Professor David N. Ruzic to research the complex behavior between ions, electrons, and energetic atoms generated in plasmas and the surfaces of materials. CPMI encompasses fusion plasmas in its research. Accolades In Bill Gates' February 24, 2004, talk as part of his Five Campus Tour (Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Carnegie-Mellon and Illinois) titled "Software Breakthroughs: Solving the Toughest Problems in Computer Science," he mentioned Microsoft hires more graduates from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign than from any other university in the world. Alumnus William M. Holt, a senior vice-president of Intel, also mentioned in a campus talk on September 27, 2007, entitled "R&D to Deliver Practical Results: Extending Moore's Law" that Intel hires more PhD graduates from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign than from any other university in the country. In 2007, the university-hosted research Institute for Condensed Matter Theory (ICMT) was launched, with the director Paul Goldbart and the chief scientist Anthony Leggett. ICMT is currently located at the Engineering Science Building on campus. The University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), which recognizes excellence in both individual and institutional achievements, has awarded two awards to U of I. Discoveries and innovation Natural sciences BCS theory – John Bardeen, in collaboration with Leon Cooper and his doctoral student John Robert Schrieffer, proposed the standard theory of superconductivity known as the BCS theory. They shared the Nobel Prize in Physics 1972 for their discovery. Sweet corn – John Laughnan produced corn with higher-than-normal levels of sugar while he was a professor at the university. Computer & applied sciences ILLIAC I – Illinois Automatic Computer, a pioneering computer built in 1952 by the University of Illinois, was the first computer built and owned entirely by a US educational institution. Lejaren Hiller, in collaboration with Leonard Issacson, programmed the ILLIAC I computer to generate compositional material for his String Quartet No. 4. ILLIAC Suite – is a 1957 composition for string quartet which is generally agreed to be the first score composed by an electronic computer. LLVM – compiler infrastructure project (formerly Low Level Virtual Machine). Vikram Adve and Chris Lattner started development as a research assistant and M.Sc. student. Mosaic – The first successful consumer web browser was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1993. NAMD - molecular dynamics simulation code pioneered by Klaus Schulten and colleagues in the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. PLATO – Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations was the first generalized computer assisted instruction system. Starting in 1960, it ran on the University of Illinois' ILLIAC I computer. By the late 1970s, it supported several thousand graphics terminals distributed worldwide, running on nearly a dozen different networked mainframe computers. Many modern concepts in multi-user computing were developed on PLATO, including forums, message boards, online testing, e-mail, chat rooms, picture languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multiplayer video games. Touchscreens and Plasma displays – developed by Donald Bitzer in the 1960s. Talkomatic is an online chat system that facilitates real-time text communication among a small group of people. Created by Doug Brown and David R. Woolley in 1973 on the PLATO System. Synchronized Sound-on-film – Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner publicly demonstrated for the first time a motion picture with a soundtrack optically recorded directly onto the film June 9, 1922. Companies & entrepreneurship UIUC alumni and faculty have founded numerous companies and organizations, some of which are shown below. Student life Student body As of spring 2018, the university had 45,813 students. As of 2015, over 10,000 students were international students, and of them 5,295 were Mainland Chinese. The university also recruits students from over 100 countries among its 32,878 undergraduate students and 10,245 graduate and professional students. The gender breakdown is 55% men, 45% women. UIUC in 2014 enrolled 4,898 students from China, more than any other American university. They comprise the largest group of international students on the campus, followed by South Korea (1,268 in fall 2014) and India (1,167). Graduate enrollment of Chinese students at UIUC has grown from 649 in 2000 to 1,973 in 2014. Student organizations The university has over 1,000 active registered student organizations, showcased at the start of each academic year during Illinois's "Quad Day." Registration and support is provided by the Student Programs & Activities Office, an administrative arm established in pursuit of the larger social, intellectual, and educative goals of the Illini Student Union. The Office's mission is to "enhance ... classroom education," "meet the needs and desires of the campus community," and "prepare students to be contributing and humane citizens." Beyond student organizations, The Daily Illini is a student-run newspaper that has been published for the community of since 1871. The paper is published by Illini Media Company, a not-for-profit which also prints other publications, and operates WPGU 107.1 FM, a student-run commercial radio station. The Varsity Men's Glee Club is an all-male choir at the University of Illinois that was founded in 1886. The Varsity Men's Glee Club is one of the oldest glee clubs in the United States as well as the oldest registered student organization at the University of Illinois. As of 2018, the university also has the largest chapter of Alpha Phi Omega with over 340 active members. Greek life There are 59 fraternities and 38 sororities on campus. Of the approximately 30,366 undergraduates, 3,463 are members of sororities and 3,674 are members of fraternities. The Greek system at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a system of self-government. While staff advisors and directors manage certain aspects of the Greek community, most of the day-to-day operations of the Greek community are governed by the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council. A smaller minority of fraternities and sororities fall under the jurisdiction of the Black Greek Council and United Greek Council; the Black Greek Council serves historically black Greek organizations while the United Greek council comprises other multicultural organizations. Many of the fraternity and sorority houses on campus are on the National Register of Historic Places. Student government U of I has an extensive history of past student governments. Two years after the university opened in 1868, John Milton Gregory and a group of students created a constitution for a student government. Their governance expanded to the entire university in 1873, having a legislative, executive, and judicial branch. For a period of time, this government had the ability to discipline students. In 1883, however, due to a combination of events from Gregory's resignation to student-faculty infighting, the government formally dissolved itself via plebiscite. It was not until 1934, when the Student Senate, the next university-wide student government, was created. A year before, future U of I Dean of Students, Fred H. Turner and the university's Senate Committee on Student Affairs gave increased power to the Student Council, an organization primarily known for organizing dances. A year after, the Student Council created a constitution and became the Student Senate, under the oversight of the Committee on Student Affairs. This Student Senate would last for 35 years. The Student Senate changed its purpose and name in 1969, when it became the Undergraduate Student Association (UGSA). It ceased being a representational government, becoming a collective bargaining agency instead. It often worked with the Graduate Student Association to work on various projects In 1967, Bruce A. Morrison and other U of I graduate founded the Graduate Student Association (GSA). GSA would last until 1978, when it merged with the UGSA to form the Champaign-Urbana Student Association (CUSA). CUSA lasted for only two years when it was replaced by the Student Government Association (SGA) in 1980. SGA lasted for 15 years until it became the Illinois Student Government (ISG) in 1995. ISG lasted until 2004. The current university student government, created in 2004, is the Illinois Student Senate, a combined undergraduate and graduate student senate with 54 voting members. The student senators are elected by college and represent the students in the Urbana-Champaign Senate (which comprises both faculty and students), as well as on a variety of faculty and administrative committees, and are led by an internally elected executive board of a President, External Vice President, Internal Vice President, and Treasurer. As of 2012, the executive board is supported by an executive staff consisting of a Chief of Staff, Clerk of the Senate, Parliamentarian, Director of Communications, Intern Coordinator, and the Historian of the Senate. Residence halls The university provides housing for undergraduates through 24 residence halls in both Urbana and Champaign. Incoming freshmen are required to live in student housing (campus or certified) their first year on campus. The university also maintains two graduate residence halls, which are restricted to students who are sophomores or above, and three university-owned apartment complexes. Some undergraduates choose to move into apartments or the Greek houses after their first year. There are a number of private dormitories around campus, as well as 15 private, certified residences that partner with the university to offer a variety of different housing options, including ones that are cooperatives, single-gender or religiously affiliated. The university is known for being one of the first universities to provide accommodations for students with disabilities. In 2015, the University of Illinois announced that they would be naming its newest residence hall after Carlos Montezuma also known as Wassaja. Wassaja is the first Native American graduate and is believed to be one of the first Native Americans to receive a medical degree. Libraries and museums Among universities in North America, only the collections of Harvard are larger. Currently, the University of Illinois' 20+ departmental libraries and divisions hold more than 24 million items, including more than 12 million print volumes. As of 2012, it had also the largest "browsable" university library in the United States, with 5 million volumes directly accessible in stacks in a single location. University of Illinois also has the largest public engineering library (Grainger Engineering Library) in the country. In addition to the main library building, which houses numerous subject-oriented libraries, the Isaac Funk Family Library on the South Quad serves the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center serves the College of Engineering on the John Bardeen Quad. Residence Hall Library System is one of three in the nation. The Residence Hall Libraries were created in 1948 to serve the educational, recreational, and cultural information needs of first- and second-year undergraduate students residing in the residence halls, and the living-learning communities within the residence halls. The collection also serves University Housing staff as well as the larger campus community. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) is one of the Special collections units within the University Library. The RBML is one of the largest special collections repositories in the United States. The university has several museums, galleries, and archives which include Krannert Art Museum, Sousa Archives and Center for American Music and Spurlock Museum. Gallery and exhibit locations include Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and at the School of Art and Design. The Illinois Open Publishing Network (IOPN) is hosted and coordinated by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library, offering publishing services to members of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign community, to disseminate open access scholarly publications. Recreation The campus has two main recreation facilities, the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) and the Campus Recreation Center – East (CRCE). Originally known as the Intramural Physical Education Building (IMPE) and opened in 1971, IMPE was renovated in 2006 and reopened in August 2008 as the ARC. The renovations expanded the facility, adding 103,433 square feet to the existing structure and costing $54.9 million. This facility is touted by the university as "one of the country's largest on-campus recreation centers." CRCE was originally known as the Satellite Recreation Center and was opened in 1989. The facility was renovated in 2005 to expand the space and update equipment, officially reopening in March 2005 as CRCE. Transportation The bus system that operates throughout the campus and community is operated by the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. The MTD receives a student-approved transportation fee from the university, which provides unlimited access for university students, faculty, and staff. Daily Amtrak trains through Illinois Terminal connect Champaign-Urbana with Chicago and Carbondale, Illinois. This includes the corridor service Illini and Saluki and the long-distance City of New Orleans, which provides a direct route to Memphis, Tennessee; Jackson, Mississippi; and New Orleans, Louisiana southbound, in addition to Chicago northbound. Willard Airport, opened in 1954 and is named for former University of Illinois president Arthur Cutts Willard. The airport is located in Savoy. Willard Airport is home to University research projects and the university's Institute of Aviation, along with flights from American Airlines. Security The University of Illinois has a dedicated police department, UIPD, which operates independently from CPD, the department that serves the surrounding Champaign area. On June 9, 2017, Yingying Zhang, a Chinese international student, was abducted and murdered in a case that made national headlines at the time. The university subsequently announced plans to install additional, high-definition, security cameras across the campus. On April 18, 2022, Sayed A. Quraishi, a 23-year old man who had recently graduated from the university, assaulted a Jewish student outside of the campus' Hillel building during an anti-Israel protest organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Quraishi was subsequently charged with a hate crime. In July 2022, the university announced that it was partnering with local businesses to invest $300,000 to combat violent crime in Champaign County. In September 2022, the City of Champaign transferred responsibility for a large swath of Campustown from CPD (Champaign Police Department) to UIPD, claiming that doing so would reduce response times and improve the quality of service. As part of the jurisdictional reforms, the city agreed to pay a substantial portion of the cost to hire seven new officers to patrol the new coverage area. Violent crime fell sharply in 2022 compared to the year prior, with shootings and homicides declining by 50 and 47 percent, respectively. The city attributed the decrease in crime to improved staffing levels and the installation of automatic license plate readers. Athletics U of I's Division of Intercollegiate Athletics fields teams for ten men's and eleven women's varsity sports. The university participates in the NCAA's Division I. The university's athletic teams are known as the Fighting Illini. The university operates a number of athletic facilities, including Memorial Stadium for football, the State Farm Center for men's and women's basketball, and the Atkins Tennis Center for men's and women's tennis. The men's NCAA basketball team had a dream run in the 2005 season, with Bruce Weber's Fighting Illini tying the record for most victories in a season. Their run ended 37–2 with a loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the national championship game. Illinois is a member of the Big Ten Conference. Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement and convocation, and athletic games are: Illinois Loyalty, the school song; Oskee Wow Wow, the fight song; and Hail to the Orange, the alma mater. On October 15, 1910, the Illinois football team defeated the University of Chicago Maroons with a score of 3–0 in a game that Illinois claims was the first homecoming game, though several other schools claim to have held the first homecoming as well. On November 10, 2007, the unranked Illinois football team defeated the No. 1 ranked Ohio State football team in Ohio Stadium, the first time that the Illini beat a No. 1 ranked team on the road. The University of Illinois Ice Arena is home to the university's club college ice hockey team competing at the ACHA Division I level and is also available for recreational use through the Division of Campus Recreation. It was built in 1931 and designed by Chicago architecture firm Holabird and Root, the same firm that designed the University of Illinois Memorial Stadium and Chicago's Soldier Field. It is located on Armory Drive across from the Armory. The structure features four rows of bleacher seating in an elevated balcony that runs the length of the ice rink on either side. These bleachers provide seating for roughly 1,200 fans, with standing room and bench seating available underneath. Because of this set-up the team benches are actually directly underneath the stands. In 2015, the university began Mandarin Chinese broadcasts of its American football games as a service to its Chinese international students. Mascot Chief Illiniwek, also referred to as "The Chief", was from 1926 to 2007 the official symbol of the University of Illinois in university intercollegiate athletic programs. The Chief was typically portrayed by a student dressed in Sioux regalia. Several groups protested that the use of a Native American figure and indigenous customs in such a manner was inappropriate and promoted ethnic stereotypes. In August 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association expressed disapproval of the university's use of a "hostile or abusive" image. While initially proposing a consensus approach to the decision about the Chief, the board in 2007 decided that the Chief, its name, image and regalia should be officially retired. Nevertheless, the controversy continues on campus with some students unofficially maintaining the Chief. Complaints continue that indigenous students feel insulted when images of the Chief continue to be present on campus. The effort to resolve the controversy has included the work of a committee, which issued a report of its "critical conversations" that included over 600 participants representing all sides. Notable alumni and faculty Notable University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni include: Twenty-seven alumni and faculty members of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have won a Pulitzer Prize. As of 2019, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni, faculty, and researchers include 30 Nobel laureates (including 11 alumni). In particular, John Bardeen is the only person to have won two Nobel prizes in physics, having done so in 1956 and 1972 while on faculty at the university. In 2003, two faculty members won Nobel prizes in different disciplines: Paul C. Lauterbur for physiology or medicine, and Anthony Leggett for physics. The alumni of the university have created companies and products such as Netscape Communications (formerly Mosaic) (Marc Andreessen), AMD (Jerry Sanders), PayPal (Max Levchin), Playboy (Hugh Hefner), National Football League (George Halas), Siebel Systems and C3.ai (Thomas Siebel), Mortal Kombat (Ed Boon), CDW (Michael Krasny), YouTube (Steve Chen and Jawed Karim), THX (Tomlinson Holman), Andreessen Horowitz (Marc Andreessen), Oracle (Larry Ellison and Bob Miner), Lotus (Ray Ozzie), Yelp! (Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons), Safari (Dave Hyatt), Firefox (Joe Hewitt), W. W. Grainger (William Wallace Grainger), Delta Air Lines (C. E. Woolman), Beckman Instruments (Arnold Beckman), BET (Robert L. Johnson) and Tesla Motors (Martin Eberhard). Alumni and faculty have invented the LED and the quantum well laser (Nick Holonyak, B.S. 1950, M.S. 1951, Ph.D. 1954), DSL (John Cioffi, B.S. 1978), JavaScript (Brendan Eich, M.S. 1986), the integrated circuit (Jack Kilby, B.S. 1947), the transistor (John Bardeen, faculty, 1951–1991), the pH meter (Arnold Beckman, B.S. 1922, M.S. 1923), MRI (Paul C. Lauterbur), the plasma screen (Donald Bitzer, B.S. 1955, M.S. 1956, Ph.D. 1960), color plasma display (Larry F. Weber, B.S. 1968 M.S. 1971 Ph.D. 1975), the training methodology called PdEI and the coin counter (James P. Liautaud, B.S. 1963), the statistical algorithm called Gibbs sampling in computer vision and the machine learning technique called random forests (Donald Geman, B.A. 1965), and are responsible for the structural design of such buildings as the Willis Tower, the John Hancock Center, and the Burj Khalifa. Mathematician Richard Hamming, known for the Hamming code and Hamming distance, earned a PhD in mathematics from the university's Mathematics Department in 1942. Primetime Emmy Award-winning engineer Alan Bovik (B.S. 1980, M.S. 1982, Ph.D. 1984) invented neuroscience-based video quality measurement tools that pervade television, social media and home cinema. Structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan earned two master's degrees, and a PhD in structural engineering from the university. Alumni have also led several companies, including McDonald's, Goldman Sachs, BP, Kodak, Shell, General Motors, AT&T, and General Electric and others. Alumni have founded many organizations, including the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Project Gutenberg, and have served in a wide variety of government and public interest roles. Rafael Correa, President of The Republic of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017, secured his M.S. and PhD degrees from the university's Economics Department in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Nathan C. Ricker attended U of I and in 1873 was the first person to graduate in the United States with a certificate in architecture. Mary L. Page, the first woman to obtain a degree in architecture, also graduated from U of I. Disability rights activist and co-organizer of the 504 Sit-in, Kitty Cone, attended during the 1960s, but left six hours short of her degree to continue her activism in New York. In sports, baseball pitcher Ken Holtzman was a two-time All Star major leaguer, and threw two no-hitters in his career. In sports entertainment, David Otunga became a two-time WWE Tag Team Champion. Eta Kappa Nu (ΗΚΝ) was founded at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the national honor society for electrical engineering in 1904. Maurice LeRoy Carr (B.S. 1905) and Edmund B. Wheeler (B.S. 1905) were part of the founding group of ten students and they served as the first and second national presidents of ΗΚΝ. The Eta Kappa Nu organization is now the international honor society for IEEE as the IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-ΗΚΝ). The U of I collegiate chapter is known as the Alpha Chapter of ΗΚΝ. Lowell P. Hager was the head of the Department of Biochemistry from 1969 until 1989 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1995. Notes References Further reading Hoddeson, Lillian. No Boundaries: University of Illinois Vignettes. (University of Illinois Press, 2004; ISBN 9780252072031) Johnson, Jr., Henry C. and Erwin V. Johanningmeier. Teachers for the Prairie: The University of Illinois and the Schools, 1868–1945 (University of Illinois Press, 1972) Kanfer, Alaina. Illini Loyalty: The University of Illinois. (University of Illinois Press, 2011; ISBN 9780252035005) Scheinman, Muriel. A Guide to Art at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign, Robert Allerton Park, and Chicago (University of Illinois Press, 1995) online Solberg, Winton U. The University of Illinois, 1894-1904: an intellectual and cultural history. (University of Illinois Press, 2000; ISBN 9780252025792) online Tate, Lex; Franch, John. An Illini Place - Building the University of Illinois Campus. (University of Illinois Press, 2017; ISBN 9780252041112) Williamson, Ann Joy. Black Power on Campus - The University of Illinois, 1965-75. (University of Illinois Press, 2003; ISBN 9780252095801) online External links Official website Official website of University of Illinois Athletics "Illinois, University of" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. "Illinois, University of" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

Hugh_Hefner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Hefner

Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles. Hefner extended the Playboy brand into a world network of Playboy Clubs. He also resided in luxury mansions where Playboy Playmates shared his wild partying life, fueling media interest. Early life and education Hefner was born in Chicago, on April 9, 1926, the first child of Glenn Lucius Hefner (1896–1976), an accountant, and his wife Grace Caroline (Swanson) Hefner (1895–1997) who worked as a teacher. His parents were from Nebraska. He had a younger brother, Keith (1929–2016). His mother was of Swedish ancestry, and his father was German and English. Through his father's line, Hefner was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. He described his family as "conservative, Midwestern, [and] Methodist". His mother had wanted him to become a missionary. He attended Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School, then served from 1944 to 1946 as a United States Army writer for a military newspaper. Hefner graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a double minor in creative writing and art, having earned his degree in two and a half years. After graduation, he took a semester of graduate courses in sociology at Northwestern University, but dropped out soon after. Career In January 1952, Hefner left his job as a copywriter for Esquire after he was denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he took out a mortgage loan of $600 and raised $8,000 from 45 investors (including $1,000 from his mother—"not because she believed in the venture," he told E! in 2006, "but because she believed in her son") to launch Playboy, which was initially going to be called Stag Party. The first issue was published in December 1953 and featured Marilyn Monroe from a 1949 nude calendar shoot she did under a pseudonym. That first issue sold more than 50,000 copies, but Monroe was not paid by Playboy or Hefner for the photos. (Hefner never met Monroe, but he bought the crypt next to hers at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in 1992 for $75,000.) Esquire magazine rejected Charles Beaumont's science fiction story "The Crooked Man" in 1955, so Hefner agreed to publish it in Playboy. The story highlighted straight men being persecuted in a world where homosexuality was the norm. The magazine received angry letters, so Hefner responded, "If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too." In 1961, Hefner watched Dick Gregory perform at the Herman Roberts Show Bar in Chicago, and he hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club. Gregory attributed the launch of his career to that night. Hefner promoted a bon vivant lifestyle in his magazine and in the television shows that he hosted Playboy's Penthouse (1959–1960) and Playboy After Dark (1969–1970). He was also the chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, the publishing group which operates the magazine. On June 4, 1963, Hefner was arrested for promoting obscene literature after he published an issue of Playboy featuring nude shots of Jayne Mansfield in bed with a man present. The case went to trial and resulted in a hung jury. In the 1960s, Hefner created "private key" clubs that were racially diverse. During the civil rights movement in 1966, Hefner sent Alex Haley to interview American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, much to Rockwell's shock because Haley was black. Rockwell agreed to meet with Haley only after gaining assurance that he was not Jewish, although Rockwell kept a handgun on the table throughout the interview. In Roots: The Next Generations (1979), the interview was recreated with James Earl Jones as Haley and Marlon Brando as Rockwell. Haley had also interviewed Malcolm X in 1963 and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966 for the newly established 1962 "playboy interview". In 1970, Hefner stated that "militant feminists" are "unalterably opposed to the romantic boy-girl society that Playboy promotes" and ordered an article in his magazine against them. In his later years, Hefner's star dimmed, but he remained a well-known personality, often appearing in cameo roles. In the 1993 The Simpsons episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled", Hefner voiced himself. In 1999, Hefner financed the Clara Bow documentary Discovering the It Girl. "Nobody has what Clara had," he said. "She defined an era and made her mark on the nation". Hefner guest-starred as himself in the 2000 Sex and the City episode "Sex and Another City". In 2005, he guest-starred on the HBO shows Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. He guest-starred as himself in a 2006 episode of Seth Green's Robot Chicken on the late-night programming block Adult Swim. In the 2007 Family Guy episode "Airport '07", he voiced himself. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television and made several movie appearances as himself. In 2009, he was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance as himself in Miss March. On his official Twitter account, he joked about this nomination: "Maybe I didn't understand the character." Brigitte Berman's documentary Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel was released on July 30, 2010. He had previously granted full access to documentary filmmaker and television producer Kevin Burns for the A&E Biography special Hugh Hefner: American Playboy in 1996. Hefner and Burns later collaborated on numerous other television projects, most notably on The Girls Next Door, a reality series that ran for six seasons (2005–2009) and 90 episodes. Hefner also made a voice-only appearance as himself in the 2011 film Hop. In 2012, Hefner announced that his youngest son Cooper would succeed him as the public face of Playboy. Personal life Hefner was known to friends and family simply as "Hef". He married Northwestern University student Mildred ("Millie") Williams in 1949. They had a daughter named Christie (b. 1952) and a son, David (b. 1955). Before the wedding, Mildred confessed that she'd had an affair while he was away in the army. He called the admission "the most devastating moment of my life." A 2006 E! True Hollywood Story profile of Hefner revealed that Mildred allowed him to have sex with other women, out of guilt for her own infidelity and in the hope that it would preserve their marriage. The couple divorced in 1959. Hefner remade himself as a bon vivant and man about town, a lifestyle that he promoted in his magazine and TV shows. He admitted to being "'involved' with maybe eleven out of twelve months' worth of Playmates" during some years. Donna Michelle, Marilyn Cole, Lillian Müller, Shannon Tweed, Barbi Benton, Karen Christy, Sondra Theodore, and Carrie Leigh were a few of his many lovers; Leigh filed a $35 million palimony suit against him. In 1971, he acknowledged that he experimented in bisexuality. Also in 1971, he established a second residence in Los Angeles with the acquisition of Playboy Mansion West, and moved there permanently from Chicago in 1975. On March 7, 1985, Hefner had a minor stroke at age 58, whereupon he re-evaluated his lifestyle, making several changes. He toned down the wild, all-night parties, and his daughter Christie took over the operation of Playboy's commercial operations in 1988. The following year, he married Playmate of the Year Kimberley Conrad; they were 36 years apart in age. The couple had sons Marston Glenn (b. 1990) and Cooper (b. 1991). The E! True Hollywood Story profile noted that the Playboy Mansion had been transformed into a family-friendly homestead. He and Conrad separated in 1998, after which she moved into the house next door to the mansion. Hefner filed for divorce from Conrad in 2009 after an 11-year separation, citing irreconcilable differences. He stated that he only remained nominally married to her for the sake of their children, and their youngest child had just turned 18. The divorce was finalized in 2010. Hefner became known for moving an ever-changing coterie of young women into the Playboy Mansion, including twins Mandy and Sandy Bentley. He dated as many as seven women concurrently. He also dated Brande Roderick, Izabella St. James, Tina Marie Jordan, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson. Madison, Wilkinson, and Marquardt appeared on The Girls Next Door depicting their lives at the Playboy Mansion. In October 2008, all three of them decided to leave the mansion. In January 2009, Hefner began a relationship with Crystal Harris; she joined the Shannon Twins after his previous "number one girlfriend" Holly Madison had ended their seven-year relationship. On December 24, 2010, he became engaged to Harris, but she broke off their engagement on June 14, 2011, five days before their planned wedding. The July issue of Playboy reached store shelves and customers' homes within days of the wedding date; it featured Harris on the cover, and in a photo spread as well. The headline on the cover read "Introducing America's Princess, Mrs. Crystal Hefner". Hefner and Harris subsequently reconciled and married on December 31, 2012. Hefner was very distantly related to the 41st and 43rd presidents of the United States, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, respectively. Hefner's brother Keith died at age 87 on April 8, 2016, one day before Hefner's 90th birthday. Playboy Mansion In January 2016, the Playboy Mansion was put on the market for $200 million, on condition that Hugh Hefner would continue to work and live in the mansion. Later that year it was sold to Daren Metropoulos, a principal at private equity firm Metropoulos & Company, for $100 million. Metropoulos planned to reconnect the Playboy Mansion property with a neighboring estate that he purchased in 2009, combining the two for a 7.3 acre (3-hectare) compound as his own private residence. In May 2017, Eugena Washington was the last Playmate of the Year to be announced by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. Politics and philanthropy Hefner debated The Playboy Philosophy with William F. Buckley Jr., on Firing Line in Episode 26, recorded on September 12, 1966. The Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award was created by Christie Hefner "to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in the vital effort to protect and enhance First Amendment rights for Americans." He donated and raised money for the Democratic Party. In 2011, he referred to himself as an independent due to dissatisfaction with both the Democratic and Republican parties. Nonetheless, in 2012, he supported Barack Obama's reelection campaign. In 1978, Hefner helped organize fund-raising efforts that led to the restoration of the Hollywood Sign. He hosted a gala fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion and contributed $27,000 (or 1/9 of the total restoration costs) by purchasing the letter Y in a ceremonial auction. Hefner stated in a 2000 interview with Playboy, "It's perfectly clear to me that religion is a myth. It's something we have invented to explain the inexplicable." Lee Strobel, a Christian author who interviewed Hefner regarding his theological positions, later described Hefner as having a "very minimalistic, deistic view of God." Hefner donated $100,000 to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts to create a course called "Censorship in Cinema", and $2 million to endow a chair for the study of American film. In 2007, the university's audiovisual archive at the Norris Theater received a donation from Hefner and was renamed to the Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive in his honor. Both through his charitable foundation and individually, Hefner also contributed to charities and other organizations outside the sphere of politics and publishing, throwing fundraiser events for Much Love Animal Rescue as well as Generation Rescue, an anti-vaccinationist campaign organization supported by Jenny McCarthy. On November 18, 2010, Children of the Night founder and president Dr. Lois Lee presented Hefner with the organization's first-ever Founder's Hero of the Heart Award in appreciation for his unwavering dedication, commitment and generosity. On April 26, 2010, Hefner donated the last $900,000 sought by a conservation group for a land purchase needed to stop the development of the vista of the Hollywood Sign. Sylvilagus palustris hefneri, an endangered subspecies of marsh rabbit, is named after him in honor of financial support that he provided. The Barbi Twins, who are among a notable cohort of celebrity Playmates, including Pamela Anderson and Hefner's third wife Crystal Harris, praised the publishing icon for providing centerfolds and extended members of the Playboy family with a platform for activism and advocacy on behalf of animal populations in need. Hefner supported legalizing same-sex marriage, calling it "a fight for all our rights. Without it, we will turn back the sexual revolution and return to an earlier, puritanical time." Death Hefner died at the Playboy Mansion on September 27, 2017, at the age of 91. The cause was sepsis brought on by an E. coli infection. He is interred at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, in the crypt beside Marilyn Monroe, for which he paid $75,000 in 1992. "Spending eternity next to Marilyn is an opportunity too sweet to pass up," Hefner had told the Los Angeles Times in 2009. Reputation Suzanne Moore wrote in The Guardian that Hefner threatened to file a lawsuit against her for calling him a "pimp". Defending her position, Moore argued that "he was a man who bought and sold women to other men". She further stated that "part of Hefner's business acumen was to make the selling of female flesh respectable and hip, to make soft porn acceptable." Julie Bindel argued in The Independent that Hefner "caused immeasurable damage by turning porn—and therefore the buying and selling of women's bodies—into a legitimate business." Robin Abcarian wrote in the Los Angeles Times, quoting Wendy Hamilton, that Hefner "probably did more to mainstream the exploitation of women's bodies than any other figure in American history," adding that he "managed to convince many women that taking off their clothes for men's pleasure was not just empowering, but a worthy goal in itself." She further stated that Hefner "embodied the aesthetic notion that images of women—and women themselves—exist to please men." Hefner's former girlfriend Holly Madison said that he "would encourage competition—and body image issues—between his multiple live-in girlfriends. His legacy is full of evidence of the exploitation of women for professional gain." Ed Stetzer wrote in Christianity Today that Hefner would have the residence systematically cleaned whenever Christie Hefner visited in order "to keep the realities from his own daughter". Stetzer further lamented the consequences of Hefner's role as a "general" of the "sexual revolution": It's hard to fathom that anyone would have known what this would have turned into. Parents growing up today are fighting to keep their children pure. Spouses are fighting to keep their marriages intact. And many enslaved and trapped in the adult entertainment industry have been figuratively and literally stripped not only of their clothes, but their very value as people made in the image of God. If this does not concern us, what will? A 12-part television documentary series, Secrets of Playboy, debuted on A&E January 24, 2022, in which Hefner's former male and female employees and partners made claims of systematic sexual misconduct and manipulation, recreational and manipulative drug use, peer pressure, sextortion, blackmail, rape, forced and violent anal sex, sexual assault without consent and/or while victims were in a state of drug-induced stupor or unconsciousness, spying, videotaping without consent, and illegal sex with minors by Hefner and his celebrity friends and guests at the Playboy Mansion and other locations. The PLBY group, now publicly owned, distanced itself from Hefner in a statement released shortly before the first episode was broadcast, saying, "Today's Playboy is not Hugh Hefner's Playboy. We trust and validate these women and their stories and we strongly support those individuals who have come forward to share their experiences." In January 2024, Hefner's widow Crystal, who previously brushed away criticism, wrote a memoir where she alleged she experienced a hostile environment while at the Playboy Mansion, even claiming that she was "imprisoned" while there. Depictions The Amazon original series American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story was released in April 2017. It stars Matt Whelan in the title role, along with Emmett Skilton and Chelsie Preston Crayford. The ten episodes are a combination of interviews, archival footage (including moments found in Hefner's vast personal collection), and cinematic re-enactments that cover the launch of the magazine as well as the next six decades of Hefner's personal life and career. The series was filmed in Auckland. In October 2017, Playboy Enterprises announced that a Hugh Hefner biopic directed by Brett Ratner with the screenplay by Jeff Nathanson was greenlit with Jared Leto rumored to play Hefner. In November 2017, it was indefinitely put on hold following sexual harassment allegations against Ratner, and Leto's representatives stated that reports of him being attached to the film at any point were false. Filmography Books Hefner, Hugh Marston (1963). The Playboy Philosophy. HMH Publishing Company. Further reading Miller, Russell (1985). Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy. London: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-03-063748-3. St. James, Izabella (2006). Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion (Reprint (2009) ed.). Philadelphia: Running Press. ISBN 978-0-7624-3230-1. Vile, John R.; Hudson, David L.; Schultz, David Andrew (2009). Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. p. 564. ISBN 978-0-87289-311-5. References External links Hugh M. Hefner Foundation Archived July 5, 2023, at the Wayback Machine "Hef the Politician: Playboy's History in Politics" Archived July 5, 2023, at the Wayback Machine on Playboy.com Hugh Hefner at IMDb Hugh Hefner on Biography.com Archived November 15, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Hugh Hefner at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

Minyong_Kim

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minyong_Kim

Minyong Kim (Korean: 김민용; sometimes known as Dragon) is an impersonator of Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of North Korea. His impersonation gained attention when he was an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Impersonator career Kim was born in Seoul to a working class family and studied business at the University of Illinois. He first enrolled at the university in 2009, then went back to South Korea for 25 months to complete mandatory military service in the Korean Air Force. He remained in South Korea to work as a teacher and save money, and when he returned to university classes in spring 2013 studied abroad in China which was cheaper for him. In 2014, his Kim Jong Un Halloween costume went viral on Korean social media. He decided to capitalize on his resemblance to Kim Jong Un by gaining weight, buying a black Mao suit, and getting a trapezoidal haircut. Kim told USA Today that he got stopped on the University of Illinois campus more than 100 times per day by people who wanted photos. Several weeks later, he told a reporter the number was "200 to 300 times per day, usually like 40 to 50 times per hour." His reason for impersonating the North Korean leader, he said, is to make people happy. Kim does not agree with Kim Jong Un's politics but he shares the supreme leader's interest in the Chicago Bulls. Because of Kim Jong Un's divisiveness, Minyong Kim said his parents feared he would be kidnapped or assassinated. He told the Champaign News-Gazette, "my girlfriend really abhors this... not only hates it, but abhors." After Kim's graduation in late 2015, he began running an agency that prepares South Korean students for school in the United States. His career goal is to expand affordable education options in South Korea. Film, television, and advertising His resemblance to Kim Jong Un has earned him roles in movies, commercials, soap operas, and music videos. In April 2015, he and a Barack Obama impersonator named Reggie Brown, who also attended the University of Illinois, appeared in commercial for eNuri, a South Korean online marketplace. In a commercial for an air purifier, he acted like he was creating new weapons to destroy germs in the air. In a 2015 YouTube video made by QPark, Kim walked around New York City in full costume. The video got ten million views in its first two months. In April 2015, Kim appeared on a South Korean talk show to startle North Korean defectors, who were on the show discussing their previous lives under the totalitarian dictatorship. External links 10 Hours of Walking in NYC as Kim Jong Un, YouTube video. == References ==

Kalkbrenner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalkbrenner

Kalkbrenner (German: occupational name for a lime burner) is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: Christian Kalkbrenner (1755–1806), German bandmaster Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785–1849), German pianist Fritz Kalkbrenner (born 1981), German musician Paul Kalkbrenner (born 1977), German musician Ryan Kalkbrenner (born 2002), American basketball player

Lime_kiln

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_kiln

A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can take place at anywhere above 840 °C (1,540 °F), but is generally considered to occur at 900 °C (1,650 °F) (at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 1 atmosphere), but a temperature around 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) (at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 3.8 atmospheres) is usually used to make the reaction proceed quickly. Excessive temperature is avoided because it produces unreactive, "dead-burned" lime. Slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) can be formed by mixing quicklime with water. History Pre-pottery Neolithic In plaster, proto-pottery, and mortar Because it is so readily made by heating limestone, lime must have been known from the earliest times, and all the early civilizations used it in building mortars and as a stabilizer in mud renders and floors. According to finds at 'Ain Ghazal in Jordan, Yiftahel in Israel, and Abu Hureyra in Syria dating to 7500–6000 BCE, the earliest use of lime was mostly as a binder on floors and in plaster for coating walls. This use of plaster may in turn have led to the development of proto-pottery, made from lime and ash. In mortar, the oldest binder was mud. According to finds at Catal Hüyük in Turkey, mud was soon followed by clay, and then by lime in the 6th millennium BCE. Lime use in agriculture and coal Knowledge of its value in agriculture is also ancient, but agricultural use only became widely possible when the use of coal made it cheap in the coalfields in the late 13th century, and an account of agricultural use was given in 1523. The earliest descriptions of lime kilns differ little from those used for small-scale manufacture a century ago. Because land transportation of minerals like limestone and coal was difficult in the pre-industrial era, they were distributed by sea, and lime was most often manufactured at small coastal ports. Many preserved kilns are still to be seen on quaysides around the coasts of Britain. Types of kilns Permanent lime kilns fall into two broad categories: "flare kilns" also known as "intermittent" or "periodic" kilns; and "draw kilns" also known as "perpetual" or "running" kilns. In a flare kiln, a bottom layer of coal was built up and the kiln above filled solely with chalk. The fire was alight for several days, and then the entire kiln was emptied of the lime. In a draw kiln, usually a stone structure, the chalk or limestone was layered with wood, coal or coke and lit. As it burnt through, lime was extracted from the bottom of the kiln, through the draw hole. Further layers of stone and fuel were added to the top. Early kilns The common feature of early kilns was an egg-cup shaped burning chamber, with an air inlet at the base (the "eye"), constructed of brick. Limestone was crushed (often by hand) to fairly uniform 20–60 mm (1–2+1⁄2 in) lumps – fine stone was rejected. Successive dome-shaped layers of limestone and wood or coal were built up in the kiln on grate bars across the eye. When loading was complete, the kiln was kindled at the bottom, and the fire gradually spread upwards through the charge. When burnt through, the lime was cooled and raked out through the base. Fine ash dropped out and was rejected with the "riddlings". Only lump stone could be used, because the charge needed to "breathe" during firing. This also limited the size of kilns and explains why kilns were all much the same size. Above a certain diameter, the half-burned charge would be likely to collapse under its own weight, extinguishing the fire. So kilns always made 25–30 tonnes of lime in a batch. Typically the kiln took a day to load, three days to fire, two days to cool and a day to unload, so a one-week turnaround was normal. The degree of burning was controlled by trial and error from batch to batch by varying the amount of fuel used. Because there were large temperature differences between the center of the charge and the material close to the wall, a mixture of underburned (i.e. high loss on ignition), well-burned and dead-burned lime was normally produced. Typical fuel efficiency was low, with 0.5 tonnes or more of coal being used per tonne of finished lime (15 MJ/kg). Industrial scale production Lime production was sometimes carried out on an industrial scale. One example at Annery in North Devon, England, near Great Torrington, was made up of three kilns grouped together in an 'L' shape and was situated beside the Torrington canal and the River Torridge to bring in the limestone and coal, and to transport away the calcined lime in the days before properly metalled roads existed. Sets of seven kilns were common. A loading gang and an unloading gang would work the kilns in rotation through the week. A rarely used kiln was known as a "lazy kiln". Australia In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the town of Waratah in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia produced a majority of the quicklime used in the city of Melbourne as well as around other parts of Gippsland. The town, now called Walkerville, was set on an isolated part of the Victorian coastline and exported the lime by ship. When this became unprofitable in 1926 the kilns were shut down. The present-day area, though having no town amenities as such, markets itself as a tourist destination. The ruins of the lime kilns can still be seen today. Lime burning kilns in Australia A lime kiln also existed in Wool Bay, South Australia. Lime kiln, Wool Bay Ukraine United Kingdom The large kiln at Crindledykes near Haydon Bridge, Northumbria, was one of more than 300 in the county. It was unique to the area in having four draw arches to a single pot. As production was cut back, the two side arches were blocked up, but were restored in 1989 by English Heritage. The development of the national rail network made the local small-scale kilns increasingly unprofitable, and they gradually died out through the 19th century. They were replaced by larger industrial plants. At the same time, new uses for lime in the chemical, steel and sugar industries led to large-scale plants. These also saw the development of more efficient kilns. A lime kiln erected at Dudley, West Midlands (formerly Worcestershire) in 1842 survives as part of the Black Country Living Museum which opened in 1976, although the kilns were last used during the 1920s. It is now among the last in a region which was dominated by coalmining and limestone mining for generations until the 1960s. Limeburning kilns in Great Britain Other countries Modern kilns Shaft kilns The theoretical heat (the standard enthalpy) of reaction required to make high-calcium lime is around 3.15 MJ per kg of lime, so the batch kilns were only around 20% efficient. The key to development in efficiency was the invention of continuous kilns, avoiding the wasteful heat-up and cool-down cycles of the batch kilns. The first were simple shaft kilns, similar in construction to blast furnaces. These are counter-current shaft kilns. Modern variants include regenerative and annular kilns. Output is usually in the range 100–500 tonnes per day. Counter-current shaft kilns The fuel is injected part-way up the shaft, producing maximum temperature at this point. The fresh feed fed in at the top is first dried then heated to 800 °C, where de-carbonation begins, and proceeds progressively faster as the temperature rises. Below the burner, the hot lime transfers heat to, and is cooled by, the combustion air. A mechanical grate withdraws the lime at the bottom. A fan draws the gases through the kiln, and the level in the kiln is kept constant by adding feed through an airlock. As with batch kilns, only large, graded stone can be used, in order to ensure uniform gas-flows through the charge. The degree of burning can be adjusted by changing the rate of withdrawal of lime. Heat consumption as low as 4 MJ/kg is possible, but 4.5 to 5 MJ/kg is more typical. Due to temperature peak at the burners up to 1200 °C in a shaft kiln conditions are ideal to produce medium and hard burned lime. Regenerative kilns These typically consist of a pair of shafts, operated alternately. First, when shaft A is the "primary" and B the "secondary" shaft, the combustion air is added from the top of shaft A, while fuel somewhat below via burner lances. The flame is top-bottom. The hot gases pass downward, cross to shaft B via the so-called "channel" and pass upward to exhaust of shaft B. At same time in both shafts cooling air is added from the bottom to cool the lime and to make exhaust of gases via the bottom of the kiln impossible via maintaining always a positive pressure. The combustion air and cooling air leave the kiln jointly via exhaust on top of shaft B, preheating the stone. The direction of flow is reversed periodically (typically 5–10 times per hour) shaft A and B changing the role of "primary" and "secondary" shaft. The kiln has three zones: preheating zone on the top, burning zone in the middle, and cooling zone close to the bottom. The cycling produces a long burning zone of constant, relatively low temperature (around 950 °C) that is ideal for the production of high quality soft burned reactive lime. With exhaust gas temperatures as low as 120 °C and lime temperature at kiln outlet in 80 °C range the heat loss of the regenerative kiln is minimal, fuel consumption is as low as 3.6 MJ/kg. Due to these features the regenerative kilns are today mainstream technology under conditions of substantial fuel costs. Regenerative kilns are built with 150 to 800 t/day output, 300 to 450 being typical. Annular kilns These contain a concentric internal cylinder. This gathers pre-heated air from the cooling zone, which is then used to pressurize the middle annular zone of the kiln. Air spreading outward from the pressurized zone causes counter-current flow upwards, and co-current flow downwards. This again produces a long, relatively cool calcining zone. Fuel consumption is in 4 to 4.5 MJ/kg range and the lime is typically medium burned. Rotary kilns Rotary kilns started to be used for lime manufacture at the start of the 20th century and now account for a large proportion of new installations if energy costs are less important. The early use of simple rotary kilns had the advantages that a much wider range of limestone size could be used, from fines upwards, and undesirable elements such as sulfur can be removed. On the other hand, fuel consumption was relatively high because of poor heat exchange compared with shaft kilns, leading to excessive heat loss in exhaust gases. Old fashioned "long" rotary kilns operate at 7 to 10 MJ/kg. Modern installations partially overcome this disadvantage by adding a preheater, which has the same good solids/gas contact as a shaft kiln, but fuel consumption is still somewhat higher, typically in range of 4.5 to 6 MJ/kg. In the design shown, a circle of shafts (typically 8–15) is arranged around the kiln riser duct. Hot limestone is discharged from the shafts in sequence, by the action of a hydraulic "pusher plate". Kilns of 1000 tonnes per day output are typical. The rotary kiln is the most flexible of any lime kilns able to produce soft, medium, or hard burned as well as dead-burned lime or dolime. Gas cleaning All the above kiln designs produce exhaust gas that carries an appreciable amount of dust. Lime dust is particularly corrosive. Equipment is installed to trap this dust, typically in the form of electrostatic precipitators or bag filters. The dust usually contains a high concentration of elements such as alkali metals, halogens and sulfur. Carbon dioxide emissions The lime industry is a significant carbon dioxide emitter. The manufacture of one tonne of calcium oxide involves decomposing calcium carbonate, with the formation of 785 kg of CO2 in some applications, such as when used as mortar; this CO2 is later re-absorbed as the mortar goes off. If the heat supplied to form the lime (3.75 MJ/kg in an efficient kiln) is obtained by burning fossil fuel it will release CO2: in the case of coal fuel 295 kg/t; in the case of natural gas fuel 206 kg/t. The electric power consumption of an efficient plant is around 20 kWh per tonne of lime. This additional input is the equivalent of around 20 kg CO2 per ton if the electricity is coal-generated. Thus, total emission may be around 1 tonne of CO2 for every tonne of lime even in efficient industrial plants, but is typically 1.3 t/t. However, if the source of heat energy used in its manufacture is a fully renewable power source, such as solar, wind, hydro or even nuclear; there may be no net emission of CO2 from the calcination process. Less energy is required in production per weight than portland cement, primarily because a lower temperature is required. Other emissions See also List of lime kilns List of lime kilns in the United States Limepit References External links An authoritative discussion of lime and its uses (US context) Lime Kilns at Newport Pembrokeshire West Wales Muspratt's mid-19th century technical description of lime-burning and cement The Lime Physical-Chemical Process Lime Kiln Digital Collection at Sonoma State University Library Wainmans Double Arched Lime Kiln – Made Grade II Listed Building – 1 February 2005 Details & Image: https://web.archive.org/web/20140522012536/http://cowlingweb.co.uk/local_history/history/wainmanslimekiln.asp

Calcium_oxide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_oxide

Calcium oxide (formula: CaO), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term lime connotes calcium-containing inorganic compounds, in which carbonates, oxides, and hydroxides of calcium, silicon, magnesium, aluminium, and iron predominate. By contrast, quicklime specifically applies to the single compound calcium oxide. Calcium oxide that survives processing without reacting in building products, such as cement, is called free lime. Quicklime is relatively inexpensive. Both it and the chemical derivative calcium hydroxide (of which quicklime is the base anhydride) are important commodity chemicals. Preparation Calcium oxide is usually made by the thermal decomposition of materials, such as limestone or seashells, that contain calcium carbonate (CaCO3; mineral calcite) in a lime kiln. This is accomplished by heating the material to above 825 °C (1,517 °F), a process called calcination or lime-burning, to liberate a molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2), leaving quicklime behind. This is also one of the few chemical reactions known in prehistoric times. CaCO3(s) → CaO(s) + CO2(g) The quicklime is not stable and, when cooled, will spontaneously react with CO2 from the air until, after enough time, it will be completely converted back to calcium carbonate unless slaked with water to set as lime plaster or lime mortar. Annual worldwide production of quicklime is around 283 million tonnes. China is by far the world's largest producer, with a total of around 170 million tonnes per year. The United States is the next largest, with around 20 million tonnes per year. Approximately 1.8 t of limestone is required per 1.0 t of quicklime. Quicklime has a high affinity for water and is a more efficient desiccant than silica gel. The reaction of quicklime with water is associated with an increase in volume by a factor of at least 2.5. Hydroxyapatite's free CaO content rises with increased calcination temperatures and longer times. It also pinpoints particular temperature cutoffs and durations that impact the production of CaO, offering information on how calcination parameters impact the composition of the material. Uses The major use of quicklime is in the basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS) process. Its usage varies from about 30 to 50 kilograms (65–110 lb) per ton of steel. The quicklime neutralizes the acidic oxides, SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3, to produce a basic molten slag. Ground quicklime is used in the production of aerated concrete such as blocks with densities of ca. 0.6–1.0 g/cm3 (9.8–16.4 g/cu in). Quicklime and hydrated lime can considerably increase the load carrying capacity of clay-containing soils. They do this by reacting with finely divided silica and alumina to produce calcium silicates and aluminates, which possess cementing properties. Small quantities of quicklime are used in other processes; e.g., the production of glass, calcium aluminate cement, and organic chemicals. Heat: Quicklime releases thermal energy by the formation of the hydrate, calcium hydroxide, by the following equation: CaO (s) + H2O (l) ⇌ Ca(OH)2 (aq) (ΔHr = −63.7 kJ/mol of CaO) As it hydrates, an exothermic reaction results and the solid puffs up. The hydrate can be reconverted to quicklime by removing the water by heating it to redness to reverse the hydration reaction. One litre of water combines with approximately 3.1 kilograms (6.8 lb) of quicklime to give calcium hydroxide plus 3.54 MJ of energy. This process can be used to provide a convenient portable source of heat, as for on-the-spot food warming in a self-heating can, cooking, and heating water without open flames. Several companies sell cooking kits using this heating method. It is known as a food additive to the FAO as an acidity regulator, a flour treatment agent and as a leavener. It has E number E529. Light: When quicklime is heated to 2,400 °C (4,350 °F), it emits an intense glow. This form of illumination is known as a limelight, and was used broadly in theatrical productions before the invention of electric lighting. Cement: Calcium oxide is a key ingredient for the process of making cement. As a cheap and widely available alkali. About 50% of the total quicklime production is converted to calcium hydroxide before use. Both quick- and hydrated lime are used in the treatment of drinking water. Petroleum industry: Water detection pastes contain a mix of calcium oxide and phenolphthalein. Should this paste come into contact with water in a fuel storage tank, the CaO reacts with the water to form calcium hydroxide. Calcium hydroxide has a high enough pH to turn the phenolphthalein a vivid purplish-pink color, thus indicating the presence of water. Paper: Calcium oxide is used to regenerate sodium hydroxide from sodium carbonate in the chemical recovery at Kraft pulp mills. Plaster: There is archeological evidence that Pre-Pottery Neolithic B humans used limestone-based plaster for flooring and other uses. Such Lime-ash floor remained in use until the late nineteenth century. Chemical or power production: Solid sprays or slurries of calcium oxide can be used to remove sulfur dioxide from exhaust streams in a process called flue-gas desulfurization. Carbon capture and storage: Calcium oxide can be used to capture carbon dioxide from flue gases in a process called calcium looping. Mining: Compressed lime cartridges exploit the exothermic properties of quicklime to break rock. A shot hole is drilled into the rock in the usual way and a sealed cartridge of quicklime is placed within and tamped. A quantity of water is then injected into the cartridge and the resulting release of steam, together with the greater volume of the residual hydrated solid, breaks the rock apart. The method does not work if the rock is particularly hard. Disposal of corpses: Historically, it was mistakenly believed that quicklime was efficacious in accelerating the decomposition of corpses. The application of quicklime can, in fact, promote preservation. Quicklime can aid in eradicating the stench of decomposition, which may have led people to the erroneous conclusion. It has been determined that the durability of ancient Roman concrete is attributed in part to the use of quicklime as an ingredient. Combined with hot mixing, the quicklime creates macro-sized lime clasts with a characteristically brittle nano-particle architecture. As cracks form in the concrete, they preferentially pass through the structurally weaker lime clasts, fracturing them. When water enters these cracks it creates a calcium-saturated solution which can recrystallize as calcium carbonate, quickly filling the crack. The thermochemical heat storage mechanism is greatly impacted by the sintering of CaO and CaCO3. It demonstrates that the storage materials become less reactive and denser at increasing temperatures. It also pinpoints particular sintering processes and variables influencing the efficiency of these materials in heat storage. Weapon In 80 BC, the Roman general Sertorius deployed choking clouds of caustic lime powder to defeat the Characitani of Hispania, who had taken refuge in inaccessible caves. A similar dust was used in China to quell an armed peasant revolt in 178 AD, when lime chariots equipped with bellows blew limestone powder into the crowds. Quicklime is also thought to have been a component of Greek fire. Upon contact with water, quicklime would increase its temperature above 150 °C (302 °F) and ignite the fuel. David Hume, in his History of England, recounts that early in the reign of Henry III, the English Navy destroyed an invading French fleet by blinding the enemy fleet with quicklime. Quicklime may have been used in medieval naval warfare – up to the use of "lime-mortars" to throw it at the enemy ships. Substitutes Limestone is a substitute for lime in many applications, which include agriculture, fluxing, and sulfur removal. Limestone, which contains less reactive material, is slower to react and may have other disadvantages compared with lime, depending on the application; however, limestone is considerably less expensive than lime. Calcined gypsum is an alternative material in industrial plasters and mortars. Cement, cement kiln dust, fly ash, and lime kiln dust are potential substitutes for some construction uses of lime. Magnesium hydroxide is a substitute for lime in pH control, and magnesium oxide is a substitute for dolomitic lime as a flux in steelmaking. Safety Because of vigorous reaction of quicklime with water, quicklime causes severe irritation when inhaled or placed in contact with moist skin or eyes. Inhalation may cause coughing, sneezing, and labored breathing. It may then evolve into burns with perforation of the nasal septum, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Although quicklime is not considered a fire hazard, its reaction with water can release enough heat to ignite combustible materials. Mineral Calcium oxide is also a separate mineral species (with the unit formula CaO), named 'Lime'. It has an isometric crystal system, and can form a solid solution series with monteponite. The crystal is brittle, pyrometamorphic, and is unstable in moist air, quickly turning into portlandite (Ca(OH)2). References External links Lime Statistics & Information from the United States Geological Survey Factors Affecting the Quality of Quicklime American Scientist (discussion of 14C dating of mortar) Chemical of the Week – Lime Material Safety Data Sheet CDC – NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards

Rahul_Ligma

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahul_Ligma

Rahul Ligma is a fictional fired Twitter employee, a character played by one of a pair of amateur improvisational actors that pranked multiple major media outlets on October 28, 2022. Ligma, the fictional character's surname, is a reference to the Ligma joke. The spontaneous and intentionally transparent hoax was revealed the same day, after the initial news coverage triggered debate among real Twitter employees about whether or not expected mass layoffs had already started. The Rahul Ligma character next appeared in early November as a recently unemployed FTX employee in the Bahamas. On November 15, Elon Musk, the incoming CEO of Twitter, facetiously offered Ligma and his compatriot their (fictional) old jobs back, and posted a photograph taken with them at Twitter headquarters. Although at least one journalist had publicly apologized for their failure to fact check before reporting the news, several notable media outlets were still oblivious to the running joke, and reported the duo's firing and rehiring as actual news. In social media, the follow-up stunt was widely criticized for lack of sensitivity to actual Twitter employees who had lost their jobs. On November 23, news reports surfaced once again, this time reporting that the actor playing Daniel Johnson had in fact been hired by Twitter for the first time. Background On October 28, 2022, many members of the press were present outside Twitter's San Francisco headquarters on the first day that Elon Musk gained control of the social media company. It had been previously reported that mass layoffs were expected in the coming weeks and months. That day, two individuals identifying as "Rahul Ligma" and "Daniel Johnson" left Twitter's building carrying large cardboard boxes, pretending to be two recently fired employees departing with their belongings. Neither had ever worked for Twitter, but the inventor of the Ligma character regularly exercised in a gymnasium in the same building, and he "thought it would be really funny" if he and a friend "walked out with a [cardboard] box and they fell for it." The prank Rahul Ligma, in character, acted dismayed about his firing, telling a group of reporters his concerns about the "future of their democracy... the future of celebrity conservatorship" (a Britney Spears reference) and lamenting that "this wouldn't have happened under Michelle Obama", while holding up a copy of the former first lady's autobiography. Claiming to be a Tesla owner and a software engineer with Twitter for the past three years, he also identified himself as "a big fan of clean energy, climate change, even free speech too." "Daniel Johnson", also part of the fictional team of fired data engineers, said he had to leave the interview to "touch base with my husband and wife" using a version of the "My wife's son" meme. Although no "Rahul Ligma" exists in Twitter's Slack or email system, nor shows up LinkedIn as an employee, multiple news networks reported the fictional names along with statements, photographs, and video of the pranksters as being of actual ex-employees of Twitter. California State Senator Melissa Melendez tweeted at the time, "This is too funny. Two guys posing as laid-off Twitter employees. They said their names were Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson. Not one reporter thought that was odd. They just ran with the story." CNBC technology reporter Deirdre Bosa tweeted, "It's happening. The entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them. They are visibly shaken. Daniel tells us he owns a Tesla and doesn't know how he will make payments." The San Francisco ABC News affiliate reported that one "was terminated during a Zoom meeting". Based on the visual of the fake employees carrying boxes, two Bloomberg journalists wrote that mass layoffs were already underway at Twitter, but actually it was only top executives that had lost their jobs. Reuters was also among the major media companies fooled by the hoax. Reactions Among Twitter employees, the initial news reports launched a debate about whether or not layoffs had already begun. Later in the day on October 28, Twitter CEO Elon Musk, aware of the joke, continued the crude puns by tweeting about the firing that "Ligma Johnson had it coming", along with eggplant and water splash emojis. The Times of India called the Ligma–Johnson hoax "perfectly-timed" and "one of the greatest pranks on the internet." Blake Shuster wrote for USA Today that the journalists involved were "duped by real-life trolls" and "all it would've taken was 30 seconds to stop and actually do their jobs to avoid the whole news-cycle". He criticized the journalists for not bothering to search for "Daniel Johnson" and "Rahul Ligma" before publishing their stories, and remarked, "it's probably not great that during a time of immense and worrisome change at one of the largest tech platforms...all we're left with is BOFA reporting." On October 31, 2022, CNBC's Bosa apologized and told The Daily Beast, "They got me" and "I didn't do enough to confirm who they were". But NBC, as of December 2022, still had not corrected its October 28 coverage that, "some Twitter employees appeared to have been let go". The Rahul Ligma character resurfaced a few weeks later, apparently having relocated along with his "husband and wife" to the Bahamas to work for the cryptocurrency platform FTX. But when the company suddenly faced financial collapse, on November 11, 2022, he found himself unemployed once again. Again on video with a cardboard box, this time on a sandy beach, Ligma commented, "It's really tough, this is my second job in a month", adding, "Web2 chewed me up and spit me out, I just really thought Web3 was gonna be different." The fictional rehiring On November 15, 2022, Musk changed course and apologized for "firing these geniuses", jokingly saying it was "truly one of [my] biggest mistakes" and offered them their (fictional) jobs back. Calling their October media stunt "one of the best trolls ever", Musk publicized a photograph taken with himself along with "Ligma & Johnson" at Twitter headquarters. Meanwhile, Newsweek reported that "there was widespread criticism of Musk for joking about firings when his employees were losing their jobs in the shake-up", noting that initial reactions were divided among those who thought the prank was "disrespectful" and "cruel to the real employees who were fired", and those who thought that the joke was "top-notch". On November 16, 2022, the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak reported the comic duo's fictional rehiring as an actual news story, continuing to fall for the prank. In a 37-second video, the broadcaster announced, "After the large scale layoff, Elon is realizing his mistake. He is now calling back fired employees and has shared an image with two who have returned." The following day, the Indonesian news website VOI also published the photograph in an article with the caption "Rahul Ligma, Elon Musk, and Daniel Johnson, are back as a team". In the November 17, 2022 edition of Rising, co-host Briahna Joy Gray said that the rehiring proved Musk "actually needs these employees to work for him" and that "the employees didn't look so happy in that photograph" to be back, having been "fired—prematurely". Aftermath On November 23, 2022, The Daily Beast reported that Daniel Francis, the actor who played Daniel Johnson in the hoax, had just been hired by Twitter as a software developer, citing a Business Insider article. In a December 2022 article for TechCrunch reflecting on the absurd nature of tech industry news over the past year, Amanda Silberling commented that because "a herd of reporters did not get the joke" about Rahul Ligma, she had to explain the "ligma" meme on four different podcasts. Also in December 2022, Ligma announced his presidential run in 2024 "to fight for the rights of laid off workers, polygamists, and men who wear gym shorts outside in November." See also Ligma joke References External links AFP News Agency interview excerpt of Ligma & Johnson on YouTube Associated Press archive interview of Ligma & Johnson on YouTube Archive of Ligma-Johnson 2024 presidential campaign website

Elon_Musk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

Elon Reeve Musk (; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and investor known for his key roles in the space company SpaceX and the automotive company Tesla, Inc. Other involvements include ownership of X Corp., the company that operates the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), and his role in the founding of the Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink, and OpenAI. He is one of the wealthiest individuals in the world; as of August 2024 Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$247 billion. Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to Maye (née Haldeman), a model, and Errol Musk, a businessman and engineer. Musk briefly attended the University of Pretoria before immigrating to Canada at the age of 18, acquiring citizenship through his Canadian-born mother. Two years later he matriculated at Queen's University at Kingston in Canada. Musk later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania and received bachelor's degrees in economics and physics. He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University, but dropped out after two days and, with his brother Kimbal, co-founded the online city guide software company Zip2. The startup was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999. That same year Musk co-founded X.com, a direct bank. X.com merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal. In October 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion. Using $100 million of the money he made from the sale of PayPal, Musk founded SpaceX, a spaceflight services company, in 2002. In 2004, Musk was an early investor who provided most of the initial financing in the electric-vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (later Tesla, Inc.), assuming the position of the company's chairman. He later became the product architect and, in 2008, the CEO. In 2006, Musk helped create SolarCity, a solar energy company that was acquired by Tesla in 2016 and became Tesla Energy. In 2013, he proposed a hyperloop high-speed vactrain transportation system. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company. The following year Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company developing brain–computer interfaces, and The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company. In 2018 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Musk, alleging that he had falsely announced that he had secured funding for a private takeover of Tesla. To settle the case Musk stepped down as the chairman of Tesla and paid a $20 million fine. In 2022, he acquired Twitter for $44 billion, merged the company into the newly-created X Corp. and rebranded the service as X the following year. In March 2023, Musk founded xAI, an artificial-intelligence company. Musk has expressed views that have made him a polarizing figure. He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including COVID-19 misinformation, promoting right-wing conspiracy theories, and "endorsing an antisemitic theory"; he later apologized for the last of these. His ownership of Twitter has been controversial because of the layoffs of large numbers of employees, an increase in hate speech, misinformation and disinformation posts on the website, and changes to website features, including Twitter Blue verification. Early life and education Childhood and family Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa's administrative capital. He is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His mother, Maye (née Haldeman), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in South Africa. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and property developer, who partly owned a rental lodge at the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. Elon has a younger brother, Kimbal, and a younger sister, Tosca. Elon has four paternal half-siblings. The family was wealthy during Elon's youth. Despite both Musk and Errol previously stating that Errol was a part owner of a Zambian emerald mine, in 2023, Errol recounted that the deal he made was to receive "a portion of the emeralds produced at three small mines." Errol was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party and has said that his children shared their father's dislike of apartheid. Elon's maternal grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman, was an American-born Canadian who took his family on record-breaking journeys to Africa and Australia in a single-engine Bellanca airplane; Haldeman died when Elon was still a toddler. Elon has recounted trips to a wilderness school ("veldskool") that he described as a "paramilitary Lord of the Flies" where "bullying was a virtue" and children were encouraged to fight over rations. After his parents divorced in 1980, Elon chose to live primarily with his father. Elon later regretted his decision and became estranged from his father. Elon attended Bryanston High School. In one incident, after an altercation with a fellow pupil, Elon was thrown down concrete steps and beaten severely by the boy and his friends, leading to him being hospitalized for his injuries. Elon described his father berating him after he was discharged from the hospital, saying "I had to stand for an hour as he yelled at me and called me an idiot and told me that I was just worthless". Errol denied berating Elon but claimed "The boy had just lost his father to suicide and Elon had called him stupid. Elon had a tendency to call people stupid. How could I possibly blame that child?" After the incident, Elon was enrolled in private school. Elon was an enthusiastic reader of books, later attributing his success in part to having read The Lord of the Rings, the Foundation series, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At age ten, he developed an interest in computing and video games, teaching himself how to program from the VIC-20 user manual. At age twelve, Elon sold his BASIC-based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500. Education Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, Bryanston High School, and then Pretoria Boys High School, where he graduated. Musk was a good but not exceptional student, earning a 61 in Afrikaans and a B on his senior math certification. Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother, knowing that it would be easier to immigrate to the United States this way. While waiting for his application to be processed, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months. Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989, connected with a second cousin in Saskatchewan, and worked odd jobs including at a farm and a lumber mill. In 1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, where he earned two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in physics, and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the university's Wharton School. Although Musk has said that he earned the degrees in 1995, the University of Pennsylvania did not award them until 1997. He reportedly hosted large, ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition, and wrote a business plan for an electronic book-scanning service similar to Google Books. In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley: one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which investigated electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage, and another at Palo Alto–based startup Rocket Science Games. In 1995, he was accepted to a graduate program in materials science at Stanford University, but did not enroll. Musk decided to join the Internet boom, applying for a job at Netscape, to which he reportedly never received a response. Business career Elon Musk has started a number of businesses since 1995, with initial business success and liquidity gained from sales of equity in one business providing the capital for him to start subsequent business enterprises. Musk is widely considered a serial entrepreneur. By the 2020s, several Musk businesses had formed strategic partnerships with some employees playing roles simultaneously in more than one of Musk's companies. Zip2 In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Global Link Information Network, later renamed to Zip2. The company developed an Internet city guide with maps, directions, and yellow pages, and marketed it to newspapers. They worked at a small rented office in Palo Alto, with Musk coding the website every night. Musk and his brother's immigration statuses during this period was described by Musk as a "gray area". Eventually, Zip2 obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. The brothers persuaded the board of directors to abandon a merger with CitySearch; however, Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted. Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999, and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share. X.com and PayPal In March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company with $12 million of the money he made from the Compaq acquisition. X.com was one of the first online banks that was federally insured, and over 200,000 customers joined in its initial months of operation. Musk's friends expressed skepticism about the naming of the online bank, fearing it might have been mistaken for a pornographic site. Musk brushed off their concerns, emphasizing that the name was meant to be straightforward, memorable, and easy to type. Additionally, he was fond of the email addresses derived from it, such as "[email protected]". Even though Musk founded the company, investors regarded him as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year. In 2000, X.com merged with the online bank Confinity to avoid competition, as the latter's money-transfer service PayPal was more popular than X.com's service. Musk then returned as CEO of the merged company. His preference for Microsoft- over Unix-based software caused a rift among the company's employees, and eventually led Confinity co-founder Peter Thiel to resign. With the company suffering from compounding technological issues and the lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000. Under Thiel, the company focused on the money-transfer service and was renamed PayPal in 2001. In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk—PayPal's largest shareholder with 11.7% of shares—received $176 million. In 2017, more than 15 years later, Musk purchased the X.com domain from PayPal for its "sentimental value". In 2022, Musk discussed a goal of creating "X, the everything app". SpaceX In early 2001, Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars. In October of the same year, he traveled to Moscow, Russia with Jim Cantrell and Adeo Ressi to buy refurbished intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the greenhouse payloads into space. He met with the companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras; however, Musk was seen as a novice and the group returned to the United States without an agreement to purchase Russian launch services. In February 2002, the group returned to Russia to look for three ICBMs. They had another meeting with Kosmotras and were offered one rocket for $8 million, which Musk rejected. He instead decided to start a company that could build affordable rockets. With $100 million of his own money, Musk founded SpaceX in May 2002 and became the company's CEO and chief engineer. SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006. Though the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit, it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA. After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk and his companies to go bankrupt, SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008. Later that year, SpaceX received a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract from NASA for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement. In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft. Working towards its goal of reusable rockets, in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 on a land platform. Later landings were achieved on autonomous spaceport drone ships, an ocean-based recovery platform. In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy; the inaugural mission carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload. Since 2019, SpaceX has been developing Starship, a fully-reusable, super-heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to replace the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy. In 2020, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight, the Demo-2, becoming the first private company to place astronauts into orbit and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS. In 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX an $843 million contract to deorbit the ISS at the end of its lifespan. Starlink In 2015, SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide satellite Internet access, with the first two prototype satellites launched in February 2018. A second set of test satellites, and the first large deployment of a piece of the constellation, occurred in May 2019, when the first 60 operational satellites were launched. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in 2020 to be $10 billion. Some critics, including the International Astronomical Union, have alleged that Starlink blocks the view of the sky and poses a collision threat to spacecraft. During the March 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Musk sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine to provide Internet access and communication. In October 2022, Musk stated that about 20,000 satellite terminals had been donated to Ukraine, together with free data transfer subscriptions, which cost SpaceX $80 million. After asking the United States Department of Defense to pay for further units and future subscriptions on behalf of Ukraine, Musk publicly stated that SpaceX would continue to provide Starlink to Ukraine for free, at a yearly cost to itself of $400 million. At the same time, Musk refused to block Russian state media on Starlink, declaring himself "a free speech absolutist". In September 2023, Ukraine asked for the activation of Starlink satellites over Crimea to attack Russian naval vessels located at the port Sevastopol; Musk denied the request, citing concerns that Russia would respond with a nuclear attack. Tesla Tesla, Inc., originally Tesla Motors, was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $6.35 million, became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations. Following a series of escalating conflicts in 2007, and the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Eberhard was ousted from the firm. Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008. A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others. As of 2019, Musk was the longest-tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally. In 2021, Musk nominally changed his title to "Technoking" while retaining his position as CEO. Tesla began delivery of the Roadster, an electric sports car, in 2008. With sales of about 2,500 vehicles, it was the first serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan in 2012. A crossover, the Model X was launched in 2015. A mass-market sedan, the Model 3, was released in 2017. In 2020, the Model 3 became the all-time bestselling plug-in electric car worldwide, and in June 2021 it became the first electric car to sell 1 million units globally. A fifth vehicle, the Model Y crossover, was launched in 2020, and in December 2023, became the best-selling vehicle of any kind, as well as the all-time best-selling electric car. The Cybertruck, an all-electric pickup truck, was unveiled in 2019, and delivered in November 2023. Under Musk, Tesla has also constructed multiple lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle factories, named Gigafactories. Since its initial public offering in 2010, Tesla stock has risen significantly; it became the most valuable carmaker in summer 2020, and it entered the S&P 500 later that year. In October 2021, it reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion, the sixth company in U.S. history to do so. In November 2021, Musk proposed on Twitter to sell 10% of his Tesla stock, since "much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance". After more than 3.5 million Twitter accounts supported the sale, Musk sold $6.9 billion of Tesla stock within a week, and a total of $16.4 billion by year end, reaching the 10% target. In February 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that both Musk and his brother Kimbal were under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for possible insider trading related to the sale. In 2022, Musk unveiled Optimus, a robot being developed by Tesla. In June 2023, Musk met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York City, stating he was interested in investing in India "as soon as humanly possible". SEC and shareholder lawsuits regarding tweets In 2018, Musk was sued by the SEC for a tweet stating that funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private. The lawsuit characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies. Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations. As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $20 million each, and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman but was able to remain as CEO. Shareholders filed a lawsuit over the tweet, and in February 2023, a jury found Musk and Tesla not liable. Musk has stated in interviews that he does not regret posting the tweet that triggered the SEC investigation. In 2019, Musk stated in a tweet that Tesla would build half a million cars that year. The SEC reacted by asking a court to hold him in contempt for violating the terms of the 2018 settlement agreement. A joint agreement between Musk and the SEC eventually clarified the previous agreement details, including a list of topics about which Musk needed preclearance. In 2020, a judge blocked a lawsuit that claimed a tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price ("too high imo") violated the agreement. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-released records showed that the SEC concluded Musk had subsequently violated the agreement twice by tweeting regarding "Tesla's solar roof production volumes and its stock price". SolarCity and Tesla Energy Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. In 2014, Musk promoted the idea of SolarCity building an advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017. It operated as a joint venture with Panasonic until early 2020. Tesla acquired SolarCity for $2 billion in 2016 and merged it with its battery unit to create Tesla Energy. The deal's announcement resulted in a more than 10% drop in Tesla's stock price; at the time, SolarCity was facing liquidity issues. Multiple shareholder groups filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla's directors, stating that the purchase of SolarCity was done solely to benefit Musk and came at the expense of Tesla and its shareholders. Tesla directors settled the lawsuit in January 2020, leaving Musk the sole remaining defendant. Two years later, the court ruled in Musk's favor. Neuralink In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup company, with an investment of $100 million. Neuralink aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI) by creating devices that are embedded in the brain. Such technology could enhance memory or allow the devices to communicate with software. The company also hopes to develop devices with which to treat neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and spinal cord injuries. In 2019, Musk announced work on a device akin to a sewing machine that could embed threads into a human brain. In an October 2019 paper that detailed some of Neuralink's research, Musk was listed as the sole author, which rankled Neuralink researchers. At a 2020 live demonstration, Musk described one of their early devices as "a Fitbit in your skull" that could soon cure paralysis, deafness, blindness, and other disabilities. Many neuroscientists and publications criticized these claims, with MIT Technology Review describing them as "highly speculative" and "neuroscience theater". During the demonstration, Musk revealed a pig with a Neuralink implant that tracked neural activity related to smell. In 2022, Neuralink announced that clinical trials would begin by the end of the year. Neuralink has conducted further animal testing on macaque monkeys at the University of California, Davis' Primate Research Center. In 2021, the company released a video in which a Macaque played the video game Pong via a Neuralink implant. The company's animal trials—which have caused the deaths of some monkeys—have led to claims of animal cruelty. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has alleged that Neuralink's animal trials have violated the Animal Welfare Act. Employees have complained that pressure from Musk to accelerate development has led to botched experiments and unnecessary animal deaths. In 2022, a federal probe was launched into possible animal welfare violations by Neuralink. In September 2023, the Food and Drug Administration approved Neuralink to initiate human trials, and it plans to conduct a six-year study. The Boring Company In 2017, Musk founded The Boring Company to construct tunnels, and revealed plans for specialized, underground, high-occupancy vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) and thus circumvent above-ground traffic in major cities. Early in 2017, the company began discussions with regulatory bodies and initiated construction of a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 50-foot (15 m) long, and 15-foot (4.6 m) deep "test trench" on the premises of SpaceX's offices, as that required no permits. The Los Angeles tunnel, less than two miles (3.2 km) in length, debuted to journalists in 2018. It used Tesla Model Xs and was reported to be a rough ride while traveling at suboptimal speeds. Two tunnel projects announced in 2018, in Chicago and West Los Angeles, have been canceled. However, a tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2021. Local officials have approved further expansions of the tunnel system. Twitter / X Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter as early as 2017, and had questioned the platform's commitment to freedom of speech. Additionally, his ex-wife Talulah Riley had urged him to buy Twitter to stop the "woke-ism". In January 2022, Musk started purchasing Twitter shares, reaching a 9.2% stake by April, making him the largest shareholder. When this was publicly disclosed, Twitter shares experienced the largest intraday price surge since the company's 2013 initial public offering. On April 4, Musk agreed to a deal that would appoint him to Twitter's board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company. However, on April 13, Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter, launching a takeover bid to buy 100% of Twitter's stock at $54.20 per share. In response, Twitter's board adopted a "poison pill" shareholder rights plan to make it more expensive for any single investor to own more than 15% of the company without board approval. Nevertheless, by the end of the month Musk had successfully concluded his bid for approximately $44 billion. This included about $12.5 billion in loans against his Tesla stock and $21 billion in equity financing. Tesla's stock market value sank by over $100 billion the next day in reaction to the deal. He subsequently tweeted to his 86 million followers criticism of Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde's policies, which led to some of them engaging in sexist and racist harassment against her. Exactly a month after announcing the takeover, Musk stated that the deal was "on hold" following a report that 5% of Twitter's daily active users were spam accounts. Although he initially affirmed his commitment to the acquisition, he sent notification of his termination of the deal in July; Twitter's Board of Directors responded that they were committed to holding him to the transaction. On July 12, 2022, Twitter formally sued Musk in the Chancery Court of Delaware for breaching a legally binding agreement to purchase Twitter. In October 2022, Musk reversed again, offering to purchase Twitter at $54.20 per share. The acquisition was officially completed on October 27. Immediately after the acquisition, Musk fired several top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal; Musk became the CEO instead. He instituted a $7.99 monthly subscription for a "blue check", and laid off a significant portion of the company's staff. Musk lessened content moderation, including reinstating accounts like The Babylon Bee. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted that Twitter has verified numerous extremists; hate speech also increased on the platform after his takeover. In December 2022, Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in the leadup to the 2020 presidential election. Comments on these internal documents by journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger and others were posted on Twitter as the Twitter Files. Musk and many Republicans alleged the documents showed the FBI had engaged in government censorship by ordering Twitter to suppress a New York Post story about the laptop. Upon review of the documents, Taibbi said he had found no evidence to support the allegation, and Twitter attorneys denied the allegation in a subsequent court filing. The United States House Committee on the Judiciary held hearings on the Twitter Files on March 9, 2023, at which Taibbi and Shellenberger gave testimony. In late 2022, Musk promised to step down as CEO after a Twitter poll posted by Musk found that a majority of users wanted him to do so. Five months later, Musk stepped down from CEO and placed former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino in the position and transitioned his role to executive chairman and chief technology officer. On November 20, 2023, in a U.S. District Court in Texas, X filed a lawsuit stating that Media Matters "manipulated" the X platform, in that it used accounts that followed major brands, and "resorted to endlessly scrolling and refreshing" the feed until it found ads next to extremist posts. The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2024 that the $13 billion Musk borrowed to buy Twitter "is now considered the worst deal in merger finance that banks have participated in since the 2008 to '09 financial crisis", adding that "the allure of banking Elon Musk, providing capital for him to buy a company, not only would reward them handsomely if things went according to plan" but "you can certainly say things have not gone according to plan." The Washington Post reported in September 2024 that the company had lost $24 billion in equity value, "a vaporization of wealth that has little parallel outside the realm of economic or industry-specific crashes, or devastating corporate scandals." Two years after the acquisition, Fidelity Investments estimated the value of its stake in X that implied the company had lost 79% of its value. Leadership style Musk is often described as a micromanager and has called himself a "nano-manager". The New York Times has characterized his approach as absolutist. Musk does not make formal business plans. He has forced employees to adopt the company's own jargon and launched ambitious, risky, and costly projects against his advisors' recommendations, such as removing front-facing radar from Tesla Autopilot. His insistence on vertical integration causes his companies to move most production in-house. While this resulted in saved costs for SpaceX's rocket, vertical integration (as of 2018) has caused many usability problems for Tesla's internal corporate software. Musk's handling of employees—whom he communicates with directly through mass emails—has been characterized as "carrot and stick", rewarding those "who offer constructive criticism" while also being known to impulsively threaten, swear at, and fire his employees. Musk said he expects his employees to work for long hours, sometimes 80 hours per week. He has his new employees sign strict non-disclosure agreements and often fires in sprees, such as during the Model 3 "production hell" in 2018. In 2022, Musk revealed plans to fire 10 percent of Tesla's workforce, due to his concerns about the economy. That same month, he suspended remote work at SpaceX and Tesla and threatened to fire employees who do not work 40 hours per week in the office. He laid off more than 10 percent of the Tesla workforce in early 2024. Musk's leadership has been praised by some, who credit it with the success of Tesla and his other endeavors, and criticized by others, who see him as callous and his managerial decisions as "show[ing] a lack of human understanding." The 2021 book Power Play contains anecdotes of Musk berating employees. The Wall Street Journal reported that, after Musk insisted on branding his vehicles as "self-driving", he faced criticism from his engineers for putting customer "lives at risk", with some employees resigning in consequence. Other activities Musk Foundation Musk is president of the Musk Foundation he founded in 2001, whose stated purpose is to: provide solar-power energy systems in disaster areas; support research, development, and advocacy (for interests including human space exploration, pediatrics, renewable energy and "safe artificial intelligence"); and support science and engineering educational efforts. As of 2020, the foundation has made 350 donations. Around half of them were made to scientific research or education nonprofits. Notable beneficiaries include the Wikimedia Foundation, his alma mater the University of Pennsylvania, and his brother Kimbal's nonprofit Big Green. From 2002 to 2018, the foundation gave $25 million directly to nonprofit organizations, nearly half of which went to Musk's OpenAI, which was a nonprofit at the time. The Foundation also allocated $100 million of donations to be used to establish a new higher education university in Texas. In 2012, Musk took the Giving Pledge, thereby committing to give the majority of his wealth to charitable causes either during his lifetime or in his will. He has endowed prizes at the X Prize Foundation, including $100 million to reward improved carbon capture technology. Vox said in February 2021, "the Musk Foundation is almost entertaining in its simplicity and yet is strikingly opaque", noting that its website was only 33 words in plain-text. In 2020, Forbes gave Musk a philanthropy score of 1, because he had given away less than 1% of his net worth. In November 2021, Musk donated $5.7 billion of Tesla's shares to charity, according to regulatory filings. However, Bloomberg News noted that all of it went to his own foundation, bringing Musk Foundation's assets up to $9.4 billion at the end of 2021. The foundation disbursed $160 million to nonprofits that year. Reporting by The New York Times found that in 2022, the Musk Foundation gave away $230 million less than the minimum required by law to maintain tax-deductible status, and that in 2021 and 2022 over half the foundation's funds went to causes connected to Musk, his family, or his businesses. Hyperloop In August 2013, Musk announced plans for a version of a vacuum tube train and assigned a dozen engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to establish the conceptual foundations and create initial designs. Later that year, Musk unveiled the concept, which he dubbed the Hyperloop. The alpha design for the system was published in a whitepaper posted to the Tesla and SpaceX blogs. The document scoped out the technology and outlined a notional route where such a transport system could be built between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of $6 billion. The proposal, if technologically feasible at the costs cited, would make Hyperloop travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. Biographer Ashlee Vance noted that Musk hoped Hyperloop would "make the public and legislators rethink the high-speed train" proposal current in California at the time and consider more "creative" ideas. In 2015, Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop pods, to operate on a SpaceX-sponsored mile-long track, for a 2015–2017 Hyperloop pod competition. The track was used in January 2017, and Musk also announced that the company had started a tunnel project, with Hawthorne Municipal Airport as its destination. In July 2017, Musk said that he had received "verbal government approval" to build a Hyperloop from New York City to Washington, D.C., with stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Mention of the projected DC-to-Baltimore leg was removed from The Boring Company website in 2021. The tunnel project to Hawthorne was discontinued in 2022 and is planned to be converted into parking spots for SpaceX workers. Mobility experts have criticized the Hyperloop concept for potential safety issues, planning complexity, low passenger capacity, and extremely high costs. Jose Gomez-Ibanez, a professor of urban planning and public policy at Harvard, said "It gives me pause to think that otherwise intelligent people are buying into this kind of utopian vision". OpenAI and xAI In December 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence intended to be safe and beneficial to humanity. A particular focus of the company was to democratize artificial superintelligence systems, against governments and corporations. Musk pledged $1 billion of funding to OpenAI. In 2023, Musk tweeted that he had ended up giving a total of $100 million to OpenAI. TechCrunch later reported that, according to its own investigation of public records, "only $15 million" of OpenAI's funding could be definitively traced to Musk. Musk subsequently stated that he had donated about $50 million. In 2018, Musk left the OpenAI board to avoid possible future conflicts with his role as CEO of Tesla as Tesla increasingly became involved in AI through Tesla Autopilot. Since then, OpenAI has made significant advances in machine learning, producing neural networks such as ChatGPT (producing human-like text), and DALL-E (generating digital images from natural language descriptions). On July 12, 2023, Elon Musk launched an artificial intelligence company called xAI, which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like ChatGPT. The company hired engineers from Google and OpenAI. Musk obtained funding from investors in SpaceX and Tesla. Tham Luang cave rescue and defamation case In July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a mini-submarine to assist the rescue of children trapped in a flooded cavern in Thailand. Richard Stanton, leader of the international rescue diving team, encouraged Musk to facilitate the construction of the vehicle as a backup in case flooding worsened. However, Stanton later concluded that the mini-submarine would not work and said that Musk's involvement "distracted from the rescue effort". Engineers at SpaceX and The Boring Company built the mini-submarine from a Falcon 9 liquid oxygen transfer tube in eight hours and personally delivered it to Thailand. Thai authorities ultimately declined to use the submarine, stating that it wasn't practical for the rescue mission. In March 2019, Musk was one of the 187 people who received various honors conferred by the King of Thailand for involvement in the rescue effort. Soon after the rescue, Vernon Unsworth, a British recreational caver who had been exploring the cave for the previous six years and played a key advisory role in the operation, criticized the submarine on CNN as amounting to nothing more than a public relations effort with no chance of success, maintaining that Musk "had no conception of what the cave passage was like" and "can stick his submarine where it hurts". Musk asserted on Twitter that the device would have worked and referred to Unsworth as a "pedo guy". He then deleted the tweets, apologized, and deleted his responses to critical tweets from Cher Scarlett, a software engineer, which had caused his followers to harass her. In an email to BuzzFeed News, Musk later called Unsworth a "child rapist" and said that he had married a child. In September, Unsworth filed a defamation suit seeking $190 million in damages. In his defense, Musk argued that "'pedo guy' was a common insult used in South Africa when I was growing up ... synonymous with 'creepy old man' and is used to insult a person's appearance and demeanor". During the trial Musk apologized to Unsworth again for the tweet. In December 2019, the jury found in favor of Musk and ruled he was not liable. 2018 cannabis incident In September 2018, Musk was interviewed on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, during which he appeared to smoke a joint. In 2022, Musk said that he and other SpaceX employees had subsequently been required to undergo random drug tests for about a year following the incident, as required by the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 for Federal contractors. In a 2019 60 Minutes interview, Musk had said, "I do not smoke pot. As anybody who watched that podcast could tell, I have no idea how to smoke pot." Music In March 2019, Musk, through his own label Emo G Records, released a rap track, "RIP Harambe", on SoundCloud. The track refers to the killing of Harambe the gorilla and the subsequent Internet sensationalism surrounding the event. The following year, Musk released an EDM track, "Don't Doubt Ur Vibe", featuring his own lyrics and vocals. While Guardian critic Alexi Petridis described it as "indistinguishable... from umpteen competent but unthrilling bits of bedroom electronica posted elsewhere on SoundCloud", TechCrunch said it was "not a bad representation of the genre". Private jet Musk uses a private jet owned by Falcon Landing LLC, a SpaceX-linked company, and acquired a second jet in August 2020. His heavy use of the jets—which flew over 150,000 miles in 2018 alone—and the consequent fossil fuel usage has received criticism. Musk's flight usage is tracked on social media through ElonJet. After Musk said that his son X AE A-XII had been harassed by a stalker after the account posted the airport at which his jet had landed, Musk banned the ElonJet account on Twitter, as well as the accounts of journalists that posted stories regarding the incident, including Donie O'Sullivan, Keith Olbermann, and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and The Intercept. Musk equated the reporting to doxxing. Police do not believe there is a link between the account and alleged stalker. Musk later took a Twitter poll on whether the journalists' accounts should be reinstated, which resulted in reinstating the accounts. Company towns After 2020, thousands of acres of land just outside Austin, Texas, were acquired by Musk and his companies with a total value of $2.5 billion. The project to build the company town named Snailbrook in Bastrop County, Texas began in 2021 according to reports by the Wall Street Journal. Musk's then-girlfriend Grimes and Kanye West were involved in the planning. The name "Snailbrook" alludes to The Boring Company's stated goal of building a machine that can bore tunnels faster than a snail can move. In 2023 the town had a reported population of 12 people. There are plans to establish a school and a university there. Wealth Musk made $175.8 million when PayPal was sold to eBay in October 2002. He was first listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012, with a net worth of $2 billion. Personal views and Twitter usage Musk credits science fiction writers, particularly Robert A. Heinlein, for inspiring many of his personal views and business ventures, including SpaceX, Grok, and his libertarian inclinations. Since joining Twitter (now known as X) in 2009, Musk has been an active user and has over 163 million followers as of November 2023. He posts memes, promotes business interests, and comments on contemporary political and cultural issues. Musk's statements have provoked controversy, such as for mocking preferred gender pronouns and comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler. The New York Times describes his contributions to international relations as "chaotic", and critics of Musk argue that there is a lack of separation between his opinions and his business interests. As CEO of Twitter, Musk emerged as a source of misinformation and right-wing conspiracy theories, for example by suggesting online details about mass murderer Mauricio Garcia's apparent interest in Nazism could have been planted as part of a psyop. Allegations of him being transphobic appeared as well in response to actions taken by Twitter under his guidance. In September 2024, Rolling Stone described him and the platform as the "biggest purveyors of online misinformation". Finance Musk said that the U.S. government should not provide subsidies to companies, but impose a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The free market, in his view, would achieve the best solution, and producing environmentally unfriendly vehicles should have consequences. Tesla has received billions of dollars in subsidies. As of February 2024, Tesla has made $9 billion from government-initiated systems of zero-emissions credits. Tax credits offered in California, at the United States federal level, and by other governments have enabled Tesla's battery electric vehicles to be price-competitive in comparison with internal combustion engine vehicles and facilitated initial consumer adoption of Tesla vehicles. Musk, a longtime opponent of short-selling, has repeatedly criticized the practice and argued it should be illegal. Wired magazine speculated that Musk's opposition to short-selling stems from how short sellers have an incentive to find and promote unfavorable information about his companies. In early 2021, he encouraged the GameStop short squeeze. In December 2022, Musk sold $3.6 billion of his stock in Tesla, equal to 22 million shares in the company, despite pledging earlier in the year that he would not sell any additional shares. Technology Musk has promoted cryptocurrencies and supports them over traditional government-issued fiat currencies. Given the influence of Musk's tweets in moving cryptocurrency markets, his statements about cryptocurrencies have been viewed as market manipulation by some, such as economist Nouriel Roubini. Musk's social media praising of Bitcoin and Dogecoin was credited for increasing their prices. Consequently, Tesla's 2021 announcement, against the backdrop of Musk's social media behavior, that it bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, raised questions. Tesla's announcement that it would accept Bitcoin for payment was criticized by environmentalists and investors, due to the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining. A few months later, in response to the criticism, Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would no longer accept payments in Bitcoin and would not engage in any Bitcoin transactions until the environmental issues are solved. Despite The Boring Company's involvement in building mass transit infrastructure, Musk has criticized public transport and promoted individualized transport (private vehicles). His comments have been called "elitist" and have sparked widespread criticism from both transportation and urban planning experts, who have pointed out that public transportation in dense urban areas is more economical, more energy efficient, and requires much less space than private cars. Existential threats Musk has been described as believing in longtermism, emphasizing the needs of future populations. Accordingly, Musk has stated that artificial intelligence poses the greatest existential threat to humanity. He has warned of a "Terminator-like" AI apocalypse and suggested that the government should regulate its safe development. In 2015, Musk was a cosignatory, along with Stephen Hawking and hundreds of others, of the Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence, which called for the ban of autonomous weapons. Musk's AI stances have been called alarmist and sensationalist by critics such as computer scientist Yann LeCun and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and led the think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation to award Musk its Annual Luddite Award in 2016. Musk has described climate change as the greatest threat to humanity after AI, and has advocated for a carbon tax. Musk was a critic of President Donald Trump's stance on climate change, and resigned from two presidential business advisory councils following Trump's 2017 decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. Musk has long promoted the colonization of Mars and argues that humanity should become a "multiplanetary species". He has suggested the use of nuclear weapons to terraform Mars. He envisioned establishing a direct democracy on Mars, with a system in which more votes would be required to create laws than remove them. Musk has also voiced concerns about human population decline, saying that "Mars has zero human population. We need a lot of people to become a multiplanet civilization." Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council session in 2021, Musk claimed that the supposedly declining birth rate, and consequent population decline, is one of the biggest risks to human civilization. According to anonymous sources inside SpaceX speaking with The New York Times, Musk has repeatedly volunteered his sperm to help colonize Mars. He later denied the claim. Politics Musk's views are generally described as right-wing and conservative. While previously considered relatively apolitical and moderate, he has since shifted to the right and become more vocal about his views, notably since acquiring Twitter in 2022. He is an outlier among social media executives who typically avoid partisan political advocacy. Musk has shared far-right misinformation and numerous conspiracy theories. Despite this, Musk still describes himself as politically moderate, rejecting the conservative label. Musk was a registered independent voter when he lived in California. Historically, he has donated to both Democrats and Republicans, many of whom are in states in which he has a vested interest; however, beginning in the late 2010s, his political contributions have shifted almost entirely to supporting Republicans. Musk voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Musk endorsed candidate Andrew Yang and expressed support for his proposed universal basic income. He also endorsed Kanye West's 2020 presidential campaign. He said he voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In May 2022, Musk said that he could "no longer support" the Democrats because they are the "party of division & hate", and wrote a tweet encouraging "independent-minded voters" to vote Republican in the 2022 U.S. elections. That fall he gave over $50 million to Citizens for Sanity, a conservative political action committee that ran advertisements about transgender care and illegal immigration in swing states. He has supported Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, giving $10 million to the campaign in 2023, and hosted DeSantis's campaign announcement on a Twitter Spaces event. In August 2023, Musk suggested Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy should be the vice presidential candidate on the Republican ticket. In July 2024, Bloomberg reported that Musk donated an unknown sum to the pro-Donald Trump America PAC, a super PAC; in a later interview, Musk clarified that he created America PAC. After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Musk wished Trump a speedy recovery and endorsed him for president. In a July 2024 post on X, Musk shared a deepfake video of Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's opponent in the 2024 presidential election, which appeared to show Harris saying she was the "ultimate diversity hire" and did not know how to manage the United States. Musk wrote that the video was "amazing" and did not reveal that it was edited, despite X prohibiting "synthetic, manipulated" content "that may deceive". In August 2024, Musk and Trump spoke for over two hours on a livestream on X, in which Musk suggested that Trump create a government efficiency commission which he offered to serve on. Trump said he would "love" to have Musk involved and later said he needed Musk's help to eliminate the Department of Education. In October 2024, Musk joined Trump on stage at a campaign rally. Musk opposes a "billionaire tax", and has argued on Twitter with more left-leaning Democratic politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren. He has raised questions about the Black Lives Matter protests, partially based on the fact that the phrase "Hands up, don't shoot" was made up. Musk also promoted a baseless theory relating to the attack of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, but Musk deleted his tweet. Musk has praised China and has been described as having a close relationship with the Chinese government, allowing access to its markets for Tesla. After Gigafactory Shanghai produced its first batch of vehicles, Musk thanked the Chinese government and Chinese people while criticizing the United States and its people.: 207–208  In 2022, Musk wrote an article for China Cyberspace, the official publication of Cyberspace Administration of China, which enforces Internet censorship in China. His writing the article was described as conflicting with his advocacy for free speech. Musk later advocated for Taiwan to become a "special administrative zone" of China which drew cross-party criticism from Taiwanese lawmakers. In October 2022, Musk posted a Twitter poll and "peace plan" to resolve the Russian invasion of Ukraine by allowing Russia to keep the Crimea Peninsula, while Ukraine would adopt a neutral status and drop the bid to join NATO. It was reported that Musk allegedly spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the proposal, which Musk denied. Musk has repeatedly expressed concern that a protracted war between Russia and Ukraine could lead to the use of nuclear weapons and the outbreak of World War III. In a YouTube podcast interview on November 10, 2023, Musk criticized Israel's retaliatory actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel–Hamas war, saying that Hamas "wanted to commit the worst atrocities that they could in order to provoke the most aggressive response possible from Israel." He added that "if you kill somebody's child in Gaza, you have made at least a few Hamas members who will die just to kill an Israeli." On November 17, 2023, Musk announced a policy change on the X platform, stating that X users who use terms such as "decolonization" and "from the river to the sea," or similar expressions that "necessarily imply genocide" of the Jewish people in Israel, will be suspended. Several weeks later, Musk traveled to Israel by visiting the kibbutz Kfar Aza with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which had been part of the aftermath of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and described it as "jarring." In August 2024, Musk criticized UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer amid the riots taking place in that country, saying "Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?" Responding to a tweet with footage of the disorder that said the riots were due to the "effects of mass migration and open borders", Musk tweeted, "Civil war is inevitable". His comments were condemned by Starmer's official spokesman. Musk had previously restored far-right UK activist Tommy Robinson's account (after Robinson had been banned under Twitter's previous owners) and interacted with him on the platform. Musk went on to refer to Starmer as "two-tier Keir" and ask, "Why aren't all communities protected in Britain?" Musk promoted a conspiracy theory that the UK government was planning to build detainments camps in the Falkland Islands to hold rioters. On September 15, 2024, after the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Musk wrote on X that it was odd that nobody had tried to kill Biden or Kamala Harris. He then deleted the post following widespread condemnation. On September 19, the United States Secret Service announced that the agency was probing the post. Accusations of antisemitism The Israeli government and several media outlets accused Musk of sowing antisemitism due to his promotion of George Soros conspiracy theories, although some Israeli officials defended Musk and denied that his criticism of Soros constituted antisemitism. On November 15, 2023, Twitter user Charles Weber, who identifies as a Jewish conservative, posted a video from StopJewishHate.org condemning the phrase "Hitler was right"; Weber captioned the video: "To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting 'Hitler was right': You got something you want to say? Why don't you say it to our faces". In response, a second user posted "Okay. Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I'm deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is." To this second user, Musk replied "You have said the actual truth." Musk further clarified that he doesn't believe that "all Jewish communities" hate white people, but specifically took aim at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). He added, "You [sic] right that this does not extend to all Jewish communities, but it is also not just limited to ADL". The first tweet was widely regarded as echoing white nationalist sentiments and affirmed another antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews push "hatred against Whites." The following day, Musk made a tweet which critics regarded as supporting white pride. Advertisers distanced themselves from his tweets. At the DealBook Summit on November 29, 2023, after comments from Disney CEO Bob Iger explaining his decision to stop advertising on X after Musk's recent post, journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin questioned Musk about the withdrawal of advertisers. Musk responded, "I hope they stop. Don't advertise" and "If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is."; Musk singled out Iger, saying "Hey Bob, if you're in the audience." Musk acknowledged to Sorkin that one of his tweets—the one affirming an antisemitic conspiracy theory—was a mistake, saying "I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and to those who are antisemitic and for that I am quite sorry." Musk described his tweet as "one of the most foolish, if not the most foolish, thing I've done." In January 2024, Musk visited the Auschwitz concentration camp with European Jewish Association Chairman Rabbi, conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro and Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev. He also spoke on a conference about rising antisemitism. The New York Times described the trip as a part of an image "rehabilitation tour." COVID-19 Musk was criticized for his public comments and conduct related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He spread misinformation about the virus, including promoting a widely discredited paper on the benefits of chloroquine and claiming that COVID-19 death statistics were inflated. In March 2020, Musk stated, "The coronavirus panic is dumb." In an email to Tesla employees, Musk referred to COVID-19 as a "specific form of the common cold" and predicted that confirmed COVID-19 cases would not exceed 0.1% of the U.S. population. On March 19, 2020, Musk predicted that there would be "probably close to zero new cases in [the U.S.] by end of April". Politico labeled this statement one of "the most audacious, confident, and spectacularly incorrect prognostications [of 2020]". Musk also falsely stated that children "are essentially immune" to COVID-19. Musk condemned COVID-19 lockdowns and initially refused to close the Tesla Fremont Factory in March 2020, defying the local shelter-in-place order. In May 2020, he reopened the Tesla factory, defying the local stay-at-home order, and warned workers that they would be unpaid, and their unemployment benefits might be jeopardized, if they did not report to work. In December 2022, Musk called for prosecution of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci. In March 2020, Musk promised that Tesla would make ventilators for COVID-19 patients if there were a shortage. After figures like New York City mayor Bill de Blasio responded to Musk's offer, Musk offered to donate ventilators which Tesla would build or buy from a third party. However, Musk ended up buying and donating BiPAP and CPAP machines, which are devices that support respirations of someone able to breathe on their own, rather than the much more expensive and sought-after mechanical ventilator machines that are able to breathe for a patient entirely. In September 2020, Musk stated that he would not get the COVID-19 vaccine, because he and his children were "not at risk for COVID". Two months later, Musk contracted COVID-19 but suggested his COVID-19 rapid antigen test results were dubious, as he had been tested four times on the same device with the same nurse but had received equal numbers of positive and negative results. Following this, a postdoctoral fellow at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto explained in a Tweet why this result does not undermine the value of the test, referring to Musk as "Space Karen", which then trended on Twitter. In December 2021, Musk said that he and his eligible children had received the vaccine, saying that the science behind the COVID vaccines was "unequivocal" but expressing his opposition to COVID vaccine mandates. Personal life In 2002, Musk became a U.S. citizen. From the early 2000s until late 2020, Musk resided in California, where both Tesla and SpaceX were founded. He then relocated to Austin, Texas, saying that California had become "complacent" about its economic success. While hosting Saturday Night Live in 2021, Musk stated that he has Asperger syndrome, although he has never been medically diagnosed. During a South African safari in late 2000, he contracted malaria and was then hospitalized in an intensive care unit back in California. Musk trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu while preparing for a proposed fight with Mark Zuckerberg. In his leisure time, he plays video games including Quake, Diablo IV, Elden Ring, and Polytopia. Musk has stated he uses prescribed ketamine for occasional depression, while The Wall Street Journal has repeatedly alleged he uses it and other drugs recreationally. Relationships and children Musk has at least 12 children, one of whom is deceased. He met his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, while attending Queen's University in Ontario, Canada; they married in 2000. In 2002, their first child died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 10 weeks. After his death, the couple used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to continue their family; they had twins in 2004 followed by triplets in 2006. The couple divorced in 2008 and shared custody of their children. In 2022, the elder twin officially changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, reflecting her gender identity as a trans woman and using her mother's surname because she no longer wished to be associated with Musk. Musk blamed the estrangement of his daughter on what the Financial Times characterized as "the supposed takeover of elite schools and universities by neo-Marxists", and has said that her gender transition is primarily what sparked his drive to "destroy the woke mind virus". In a July 2024 episode of Jordan Peterson's podcast, Musk said regarding Vivian that he had "lost [his] son [sic], essentially" because of gender-affirming care. He commented: "You know, they call it deadnaming for a reason. The reason it's called deadnaming is because your son [sic] is dead", and went on to state that the eldest twin "is dead, killed by the woke mind virus". Vivian responded publicly, criticizing Musk for lying about her and the circumstances of her transition; claiming that Musk was "cold", "quick to anger", "uncaring and narcissistic”, whose infrequent visits commonly involved him berating her for being feminine. In 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley. They married two years later at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland. In 2012, the couple divorced, before remarrying the following year. After briefly filing for divorce in 2014, Musk finalized a second divorce from Riley in 2016. Musk then dated Amber Heard for several months in 2017; he had reportedly been pursuing her since 2012. In 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes said that they were dating. Grimes gave birth to their son in May 2020. Musk and Grimes originally gave the baby the name "X Æ A-12", which would have violated California regulations as it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet, which they then changed to "“X Æ A-Xii”. They have received criticism for choosing such an impractical and difficult to pronounce name. In December 2021, Grimes and Musk had a second child, a daughter born via surrogacy. Despite the pregnancy, Musk confirmed reports that the couple were "semi-separated" in September 2021; in an interview with Time in December 2021, he said he was single. In March 2022, Grimes said of her relationship with Musk: "I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid." Later that month, Grimes tweeted that she and Musk had broken up again. In September 2023 it was reported that the pair had a third child, a son. In October 2023, Grimes sued Musk over parental rights and custody of their eldest son. In July 2022, Insider published court documents revealing that Musk had had twins via IVF with Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, in November 2021. They were born weeks before Musk and Grimes had their second child via surrogate in December. The news "raise[d] questions about workplace ethics", given that Zilis directly reported to Musk. Their third child together was born in early 2024 via surrogacy. Also in July 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk allegedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in 2021, leading to their divorce the following year. Musk denied the report. Musk also had a relationship with Australian actress Natasha Bassett, who has been described as "an occasional girlfriend." Legal matters after 2020 In May 2022, Business Insider cited an anonymous friend of an unnamed SpaceX contract flight attendant, alleging that Musk engaged in sexual misconduct in 2016. The source stated that in November 2018, Musk, SpaceX, and the former flight attendant entered into a severance agreement granting the attendant a $250,000 payment in exchange for a promise not to sue over the claims. Musk responded, "If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light". He accused the article from Business Insider of being a "politically motivated hit piece". After the release of the article, Tesla's stock fell by more than 6%, and Barron's wrote "...some investors considered key-man risk – the danger that a company could be badly hurt by the loss of one individual." In April 2023, the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands sought to subpoena Musk for documents in a lawsuit alleging that JPMorgan Chase profited from Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation. The efforts to subpoena Musk for documents do not implicate him in any wrongdoing and do not seek to have Musk testify under oath. Musk's former girlfriend Grimes filed a parental relationship petition in late September 2023 as part of a custody dispute. The petition came a month after Grimes openly accused him in a social media post of blocking her access to the youngest of their three children. On July 27, 2024, Grimes' mother accused Musk of withholding the passports of her grandchildren. Ben Brody, a 22-year-old Los Angeles-based college graduate, initiated a defamation lawsuit in October 2023 against Musk for over $1 million. He alleged Musk had falsely identified him as a participant "in a violent street brawl on behalf of a neo-Nazi extremist group" near Portland, Oregon. According to Brody's complaint, one of Musk's X posts promoted conspiracy theories that "Ben Brody's alleged participation in the extremist brawl meant the incident was probably a 'false flag' operation to deceive the American public". The complaint also alleged that Musk's accusations led to Brody and his family being subjected to harassment and threats. In February 2024, Musk was ordered to testify in a deposition for the lawsuit. In the deposition, Musk denied knowing who was suing him and admitted to doing no research on whether his claims were true. Musk attempted to keep the deposition from being made public. In October 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Musk over his refusal to testify a third time in an investigation into whether he violated federal law by purchasing Twitter stock in 2022. Musk claimed the SEC was harassing him. In February 2024, Judge Laurel Beeler ruled that Musk must testify again. In January 2024, Delaware Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled in a 2018 lawsuit that Musk's $55 billion pay package from Tesla be rescinded. McCormick called the compensation granted by the company's board "an unfathomable sum" that was unfair to shareholders. In response to the ruling, Musk posted on X: "Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware." A re-ratification shareholders' vote passed in mid-June 2024, though much follow-up litigation is expected, including a lawsuit filed by a Tesla investor beforehand that alleged Musk employed "coercive tactics" to move the vote in his favor. In June 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported Musk had a "romantic relationship" with a former intern at SpaceX, confirmed with affidavits supplied by the intern's lawyers who also represent Musk, and alleged that he had sexual relations with a woman who directly reported to him there. The article further alleges he also pursued sex with other SpaceX employees, and repeatedly asked an employee who reported directly to him to "have his babies." In the same month, eight ex-employees, the same eight who were previously fired for penning an anti-Musk letter at SpaceX, filed a lawsuit against Musk alleging sexual harassment. Also in June 2024, a former Twitter executive sued Musk for "cheating" him and other ousted executives out of $200 million in severance pay. In August 2024, Musk sued advertisers for a boycott of X (formerly Twitter). Later that month, Olympic boxer Imane Khelif filed a lawsuit for cyber harassment against X over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment", in which Musk was named. Public perception Though his ventures have been highly influential within their separate industries up to current day, Musk only became a public figure in the early 2010s. He has been described as an eccentric who makes spontaneous and impactful decisions, while also often making controversial statements, contrary to other billionaires who prefer reclusiveness to protect their businesses. Biographer Ashley Vance described people's opinions of Musk as polarized due to his "part philosopher, part troll" role on Twitter. Musk was a partial inspiration for the characterization of Tony Stark in the Marvel film Iron Man (2008). Musk also had a cameo appearance in the film's 2010 sequel, Iron Man 2. Musk has made cameos and appearances in other films such as Machete Kills (2013), Why Him? (2016), and Men in Black: International (2019). Television series in which he has appeared include The Simpsons ("The Musk Who Fell to Earth", 2015), The Big Bang Theory ("The Platonic Permutation", 2015), South Park ("Members Only", 2016), Young Sheldon ("A Patch, a Modem, and a Zantac®", 2017), Rick and Morty ("One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty", 2019), and Saturday Night Live (2021). He contributed interviews to the documentaries Racing Extinction (2015) and the Werner Herzog-directed Lo and Behold (2016). Awards for his contributions to the development of the Falcon rockets include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Transportation Award in 2008, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Gold Space Medal in 2010, and the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal in 2012. In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate in engineering and technology from Yale University and an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Honorary Membership. Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018. In February 2022, Musk was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Time has listed Musk as one of the most influential people in the world on four occasions: in 2010, 2013, 2018, and 2021. Musk was selected as Time's "Person of the Year" for 2021. Then Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that "Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too". Notes and references Notes Citations Works cited Further reading Tarnoff, Ben, "Ultra Hardcore" (subscription required) (review of Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk, Simon and Schuster, 2023, 670 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXXI, no. 1 (January 18, 2024), pp. 6, 8, 10. "There is an anti-modern impulse to Musk, a craving for lordship that can't be entirely satisfied within the confines of a capitalist economy. A king doesn't have advertisers or shareholders or customers, and Musk, if he continues on his current trajectory, may very well be abandoned by all three. Aristotle says a good ending should be surprising but inevitable. It's possible to imagine multiple finales for Musk that meet these criteria, but the story always begins the same way. Once upon a time in Pretoria, there was a boy who wanted to be a man." (p. 10.) External links Appearances on C-SPAN

Asperger_syndrome

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome

Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's syndrome or Asperger's, is a term formerly used to describe a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. Asperger syndrome has been merged with other conditions into autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is no longer considered a diagnosis. It was considered milder than other diagnoses which were merged into ASD due to relatively unimpaired spoken language and intelligence. The syndrome was named after the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger, who, in 1944, described children in his care who struggled to form friendships, did not understand others' gestures or feelings, engaged in one-sided conversations about their favorite interests, and were clumsy. In 1994, the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome was included in the fourth edition (DSM-IV) of the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; however, with the publication of DSM-5 in 2013 the syndrome was removed, and the symptoms are now included within autism spectrum disorder along with classic autism and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). It was similarly merged into autism spectrum disorder in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as of 2021. The exact cause of Asperger syndrome is not well understood. While it has high heritability, the underlying genetics have not been determined conclusively. Environmental factors are also believed to play a role. Brain imaging has not identified a common underlying condition. There is no single treatment, and the UK's National Health Service (NHS) guidelines suggest that "treatment" of any form of autism should not be a goal, since autism is not "a disease that can be removed or cured". According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, while co-occurring conditions might require treatment, "management of autism itself is chiefly about the provision of the education, training, and social support/care required to improve the person's ability to function in the everyday world". The effectiveness of particular interventions for autism is supported by only limited data. Interventions may include social skills training, cognitive behavioral therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, parent training, and medications for associated problems, such as mood or anxiety. Autistic characteristics tend to become less obvious in adulthood, but social and communication difficulties usually persist. In 2015, Asperger syndrome was estimated to affect 37.2 million people globally, or about 0.5% of the population. The exact percentage of people affected has still not been firmly established. Autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed in males more often than females, and females are typically diagnosed at a later age. The modern conception of Asperger syndrome came into existence in 1981 and went through a period of popularization. It became a standardized diagnosis in the 1990s and was merged into ASD in 2013. Many questions and controversies about the condition remain. Classification The extent of the overlap between Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism (HFA – autism unaccompanied by intellectual disability) is unclear. The ASD classification is to some extent an artifact of how autism was discovered, and it may not reflect the true nature of the spectrum; methodological problems have beset Asperger syndrome as a valid diagnosis from the outset. In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published in May 2013, Asperger syndrome, as a separate diagnosis, was eliminated and folded into autism spectrum disorder. Like the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, the change was controversial. Subsequently, it was also not included in the ICD-11, which came into effect in 2022. The World Health Organization (WHO) previously defined Asperger syndrome (AS) as one of the pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which are a spectrum of psychological disorders that are characterized by abnormalities of social interaction and communication that pervade the individual's functioning, and by restricted and repetitive interests and behavior. Like other neurodevelopmental conditions, ASD begins in infancy or childhood, has a steady course without remission or relapse, and has impairments that result from maturation-related changes in various systems of the brain. Characteristics As a pervasive developmental disorder, Asperger syndrome is distinguished by a pattern of symptoms rather than a single symptom. It is characterized by qualitative impairment in social interaction, by stereotyped and restricted patterns of behavior, activities, and interests, and by no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or general delay in language. Intense preoccupation with a narrow subject, one-sided verbosity, restricted prosody, and physical clumsiness are typical of the condition, but are not required for diagnosis. Suicidal thoughts and behaviors are a serious concern within the autistic population. One study found that adults with Asperger syndrome exhibited suicidal thoughts at 9 times the rate of the general population. Of autistic study participants, 66% had experienced suicidal ideation, while 35% had planned or attempted suicide. Social interaction A lack of demonstrated empathy affects aspects of social relatability for persons with Asperger syndrome. Individuals with Asperger syndrome experience difficulties in basic elements of social interaction, which may include a failure to develop friendships or to seek shared enjoyments or achievements with others (e.g., showing others objects of interest); a lack of social or emotional reciprocity; and impaired nonverbal behaviors in areas such as eye contact, facial expression, posture, and gesture. People with Asperger syndrome may not be as withdrawn around others, compared with those with other forms of autism; they approach others, even if awkwardly. For example, a person with Asperger syndrome may engage in a one-sided, long-winded speech about a favorite topic, while misunderstanding or not recognizing the listener's feelings or reactions, such as a wish to change the topic of talk or end the interaction. This social awkwardness has been called "active but odd". Such failures to react appropriately to social interaction may appear as disregard for other people's feelings and may come across as rude or insensitive. However, not all individuals with Asperger syndrome will approach others. Some may even display selective mutism, not speaking at all to most people and excessively to specific others. The cognitive ability of children with Asperger syndrome often allows them to articulate social norms in a laboratory context, where they may be able to show a theoretical understanding of other people's emotions; however, they typically have difficulty acting on this knowledge in fluid, real-life situations. People with Asperger syndrome may analyze and distill their observations of social interaction into rigid behavioral guidelines and apply these rules in awkward ways, such as forced eye contact, resulting in a demeanor that appears rigid or socially naïve. A history of failed attempts to establish reciprocal social relationships can cause autistic individuals to isolate themselves and cease attempts to engage; however, autistic people overwhelmingly report a desire for social contact and friendship. Violent or criminal behavior The hypothesis that individuals with Asperger syndrome are predisposed to violent or criminal behavior has been investigated but is not supported by data. More evidence suggests that children diagnosed with Asperger syndrome are more likely to be victims, rather than offenders. A 2008 review found that an overwhelming number of reported violent criminals with Asperger syndrome also had other coexisting psychotic psychiatric disorders such as schizoaffective disorder. Empathy People with an Asperger profile might not be recognized for their empathetic qualities, due to variation in the ways empathy is felt and expressed. Some people feel deep empathy, but do not outwardly communicate these sentiments through facial expressions or language. Some people come to empathy through intellectual processes, using logic and reasoning to arrive at the feelings. People with Asperger profiles may be bullied or excluded by peers, and might as a result be guarded around people, which could appear as lack of empathy. People with Asperger profiles can still be caring individuals; indeed, it is particularly common for those with the profile to feel and exhibit deep concern for individual rights, human welfare, animal rights, environmental protection, and other global and humanitarian causes. Evidence suggests that in the "double empathy problem model, autistic people have a unique interaction style which is significantly more readable by other autistic people, compared to non-autistic people." Restricted and repetitive interests and behavior People with Asperger syndrome can display behavior, interests, and activities that are restricted and repetitive and are sometimes abnormally intense or focused. They may stick to inflexible routines, move in stereotyped and repetitive ways, preoccupy themselves with parts of objects, or engage in compulsive behaviors like lining objects up to form patterns. The pursuit of specific and narrow areas of interest is one of the most striking among possible features of AS. Individuals with AS may collect volumes of detailed information on a relatively narrow topic such as weather data or star names without necessarily having a genuine understanding of the broader topic. For example, a child might memorize camera model numbers while caring little about photography. This behavior is usually apparent by age five or six. Although these special interests may change from time to time, they typically become more unusual and narrowly focused and often dominate social interaction so much that the entire family may become immersed. Because narrow topics often capture the interest of children, this symptom may go unrecognized. Stereotyped and repetitive motor behaviors, called stimming, are a core part of the diagnosis of AS and other ASDs. Stims are believed to be used for self-soothing and regulate sensory input. They include hand movements such as flapping or twisting, and complex whole-body movements. These are typically repeated in longer bursts and look more voluntary or ritualistic than tics, which are usually faster, less rhythmical, and less often symmetrical. Stimming may have a connection with tics, and studies have reported a consistent comorbidity between AS and Tourette syndrome in the range of 8–20%, with one figure as high as 80% for tics of some kind or another, for which several explanations have been put forward, including common genetic factors and dopamine, glutamate, or serotonin abnormalities. According to the Adult Asperger Assessment (AAA) diagnostic test, a lack of interest in fiction and a positive preference towards non-fiction is common among adults with AS. Speech and language Although individuals with Asperger syndrome acquire language skills without significant general delay and their speech typically lacks significant abnormalities, language acquisition and use is often atypical. Abnormalities include verbosity; abrupt transitions; literal interpretations and miscomprehension of nuance; use of metaphor meaningful only to the speaker; auditory perception deficits; unusually pedantic, formal, or idiosyncratic speech; and oddities in loudness, pitch, intonation, prosody, and rhythm. Echolalia has also been observed in individuals with AS. Three aspects of communication patterns are of clinical interest: poor prosody, tangential and circumstantial speech, and marked verbosity. Although inflection and intonation may be less rigid or monotonic than in classic autism, people with AS often have a limited range of intonation: speech may be unusually fast, jerky, or loud. Speech may convey a sense of incoherence; the conversational style often includes monologues about topics that bore the listener, fails to provide context for comments, or fails to suppress internal thoughts. Individuals with AS may fail to detect whether the listener is interested or engaged in the conversation. The speaker's conclusion or point may never be made, and attempts by the listener to elaborate on the speech's content or logic, or to shift to related topics, are often unsuccessful. Children with AS may have a sophisticated vocabulary at a young age and such children have often been colloquially called "little professors" but have difficulty understanding figurative language and tend to use language literally. Children with AS appear to have particular weaknesses in areas of nonliteral language that include humor, irony, teasing, and sarcasm. Although individuals with AS usually understand the cognitive basis of humor, they seem to lack understanding of the intent of humor to share the enjoyment with others. Despite strong evidence of impaired humor appreciation, anecdotal reports of humor in individuals with AS seem to challenge some psychological theories of AS and autism. Motor and sensory perception Individuals with Asperger syndrome may have signs or symptoms that are independent of the diagnosis but can affect the individual or the family. These include differences in perception and problems with motor skills, sleep, and emotions. Individuals with AS often have excellent auditory and visual perception. Children with ASD often demonstrate enhanced perception of small changes in patterns such as arrangements of objects or well-known images; typically this is domain-specific and involves processing of fine-grained features. Conversely, compared with individuals with high-functioning autism, individuals with AS have deficits in some tasks involving visual-spatial perception, auditory perception, or visual memory. Many accounts of individuals with AS and ASD report other unusual sensory and perceptual skills and experiences. They may be unusually sensitive or insensitive to sound, light, and other stimuli; these sensory responses are found in other developmental disorders and are not specific to AS or to ASD. There is little support for increased fight-or-flight response or failure of habituation in autism; there is more evidence of decreased responsiveness to sensory stimuli, although several studies show no differences. Hans Asperger's initial accounts and other diagnostic schemes include descriptions of physical clumsiness. Children with AS may be delayed in acquiring skills requiring dexterity, such as riding a bicycle or opening a jar, and may seem to move awkwardly or feel "uncomfortable in their own skin". They may be poorly coordinated or have an odd or bouncy gait or posture, poor handwriting, or problems with motor coordination. They may show problems with proprioception (sensation of body position) on measures of developmental coordination disorder (motor planning disorder), balance, tandem gait, and finger-thumb apposition. There is no evidence that these motor skills problems differentiate AS from other high-functioning ASDs. Children with AS are more likely to have sleep problems, including difficulty in falling asleep, frequent nocturnal awakenings, and early morning awakenings. AS is also associated with high levels of alexithymia, which is difficulty in identifying and describing one's emotions. Although AS, lower sleep quality, and alexithymia are associated with each other, their causal relationship is unclear. Causes Hans Asperger described common traits among his patients' family members, especially fathers, and research supports this observation and suggests a genetic contribution to Asperger syndrome. Although no specific genetic factor has yet been identified, multiple factors are believed to play a role in the expression of autism, given the variability in symptoms seen in children. Hundreds of genes have been linked to AS, and these genes play crucial role in a multitude of biological processes, exerting influence over the maturation and functioning of the brain. Evidence for a genetic link is that AS tends to run in families where more family members have limited behavioral symptoms similar to AS (for example, some problems with social interaction, or with language and reading skills). Most behavioral genetic research suggests that all autism spectrum disorders have shared genetic mechanisms. There may be shared genes in which particular alleles make an individual vulnerable, and varying combinations result in differing severity and symptoms in each person with AS. A few ASD cases have been linked to exposure to teratogens (agents that cause birth defects) during the first eight weeks from conception. Although this does not exclude the possibility that ASD can be initiated or affected later, it is strong evidence that ASD arises very early in development. Many environmental factors have been hypothesized to act after birth, but none has been confirmed by scientific investigation. These environmental elements can act as independent and significant risk factors, or they can potentially influence pre-existing genetic factors in people who have a genetic predisposition. Mechanism Asperger syndrome appears to result from developmental factors that affect many or all functional brain systems, as opposed to localized effects. Although the specific underpinnings of AS or factors that distinguish it from other ASDs are unknown, and no clear pathology common to individuals with AS has emerged, it is still possible that AS's mechanism is separate from other ASDs. Neuroanatomical studies and the associations with teratogens strongly suggest that the mechanism includes alteration of brain development soon after conception. Abnormal fetal development may affect the final structure and connectivity of the brain, resulting in altered neural circuits controlling thought and behavior. Several theories of mechanism are available; none are likely to provide a complete explanation. General-processing theories One general-processing theory is weak central coherence theory, which hypothesizes that a limited ability to see the big picture underlies the central disturbance in ASD. A related theory—enhanced perceptual functioning—focuses more on the superiority of locally oriented and perceptual operations in autistic individuals. Mirror neuron system (MNS) theory The mirror neuron system (MNS) theory hypothesizes that alterations to the development of the MNS interfere with imitation and lead to Asperger syndrome's core feature of social impairment. One study found that activation is delayed in the core circuit for imitation in individuals with AS. This theory maps well to social cognition theories like the theory of mind, which hypothesizes that autistic behavior arises from impairments in ascribing mental states to oneself and others; or hyper-systemizing, which hypothesizes that autistic individuals can systematize internal operation to handle internal events but are less effective at empathizing when handling events generated by other agents. Diagnosis Standard diagnostic criteria require impairment in social interaction and repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, activities, and interests, without significant delay in language or cognitive development. Unlike the international standard, the DSM-IV-TR criteria also required significant impairment in day-to-day functioning; DSM-5 eliminated AS as a separate diagnosis in 2013, and folded it into the umbrella of autism spectrum disorders. Other sets of diagnostic criteria have been proposed by Szatmari et al. and by Gillberg and Gillberg. Diagnosis is most commonly made between the ages of four and eleven. A comprehensive assessment involves a multidisciplinary team that observes across multiple settings, and includes neurological and genetic assessment as well as tests for cognition, psychomotor function, verbal and nonverbal strengths and weaknesses, style of learning, and skills for independent living. The "gold standard" in diagnosing ASDs combines clinical judgment with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), a semistructured parent interview; and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), a conversation and play-based interview with the child. Delayed or mistaken diagnosis can be traumatic for individuals and families; for example, misdiagnosis can lead to medications that worsen behavior. Underdiagnosis and overdiagnosis may be problems. The cost and difficulty of screening and assessment can delay diagnosis. Conversely, the increasing popularity of drug treatment options and the expansion of benefits has motivated providers to overdiagnose ASD. There are indications AS has been diagnosed more frequently in recent years, partly as a residual diagnosis for children of normal intelligence who are not autistic but have social difficulties. There are questions about the external validity of the AS diagnosis. That is, it is unclear whether there is a practical benefit in distinguishing AS from HFA or PDD-NOS; different screening tools may render different diagnoses for the same person. Differential diagnosis Many children with AS are initially misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Diagnosing adults is more challenging, as standard diagnostic criteria are designed for children and the expression of AS changes with age. Adult diagnosis requires painstaking clinical examination and thorough medical history gained from both the individual and other people who know the person, focusing on childhood behavior. Conditions that must be considered in a differential diagnosis along with ADHD include other ASDs, the schizophrenia spectrum, personality disorders, obsessive–compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder, semantic pragmatic disorder, nonverbal learning disorder, social anxiety disorder, Tourette syndrome, stereotypic movement disorder, bipolar disorder, social-cognitive deficits due to brain damage from alcohol use disorder, and obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). Screening Parents of children with Asperger syndrome can typically trace differences in their children's development to as early as 30 months of age. Developmental screening during a routine check-up by a general practitioner or pediatrician may identify signs that warrant further investigation. The United States Preventive Services Task Force in 2016 found it was unclear if screening was beneficial or harmful among children in whom there are no concerns. Different screening instruments are used to diagnose AS, including the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale (ASDS); Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ); Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST), previously called the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test; Gilliam Asperger's disorder scale (GADS); Krug Asperger's Disorder Index (KADI); and the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ), with versions for children, adolescents, and adults. None have been shown to reliably differentiate between AS and other ASDs. Management Treatment attempts to manage distressing symptoms and to teach age-appropriate social, communication, and vocational skills that are not naturally acquired during development. Intervention is tailored to the needs of the individual based on multidisciplinary assessment. Although progress has been made, data supporting the efficacy of particular interventions are limited. Therapies Managing ASD may involve multiple therapies that address core symptoms of the disorder. While many professionals agree that the earlier the professional support the better, there is no combination that is recommended above others. Professional support for ASD varies depending on the individual; it takes into account the linguistic capabilities, verbal strengths, and nonverbal vulnerabilities of individuals. Many of those diagnosed with ASD or similar disorders advocate against behavioral therapies, like Applied behavior analysis (ABA) and Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), often as part of the autism rights movement, on the grounds that these approaches frequently reinforce the demand on autistic people to mask their neurodivergent characteristics or behaviors to favor a more 'neurotypical' and narrow conception of normality. ABA has faced a great deal of criticism over the years. Recently, studies have shown that ABA may be abusive and can increase PTSD symptoms in patients. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network campaigns against the use of ABA in autism. In the case of CBT and talking therapies, the effectiveness varies, with many reporting that they appeared 'too self-aware' to gain significant benefit, as the therapy was designed with neurotypical people in mind. In autistic children, specifically, they also report that it is only mildly beneficial in aiding with their anxieties. A typical program of professional support generally includes: Applied behavior analysis (ABA) procedures, including positive behavior support (PBS)—or training and support of parents and school faculty in behavior management strategies to use in the home and school, and social skills training for more effective interpersonal interactions. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network campaigns against the use of ABA in autism; Cognitive behavioral therapy to improve stress management relating to anxiety or explosive emotions and to help reduce obsessive interests (although this may produce negative impact by demonising special interests) and repetitive routines; Medication for coexisting conditions such as major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders; Occupational or physical therapy to assist with poor sensory processing and motor coordination; and, Social communication intervention, which is specialized speech therapy to help with the pragmatics and give-and-take of normal conversation. Of the many studies on behavior-based early intervention programs, most are case reports of up to five participants and typically examine a few problem behaviors such as self-injury, aggression, noncompliance, stereotypies, or spontaneous language; unintended side effects are largely ignored. Despite the popularity of social skills training, its effectiveness is not firmly established. A randomized controlled study of a model for training parents in problem behaviors in their children with AS showed that parents attending a one-day workshop or six individual lessons reported fewer behavioral problems, while parents receiving the individual lessons reported less intense behavioral problems in their AS children. Vocational training may be important to teach job interview etiquette and workplace behavior to older children and adults with AS, and organization software and personal data assistants can improve the work and life management of people with AS. Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) is an innovative therapy for AS that aims to restore microbial balance in the patient's gastrointestinal tract by introducing healthy fecal microbiota acquired from people with a diverse microbial composition. This approach attempts to reconstruct the patient's gut microbiota by taking into account the intricate interactions between the human gut and the central nervous system via the gut-brain axis (GBA). Any disruption in gut health has been linked to an increased susceptibility to diverse neurodevelopmental disorders. It is vital to remember that research of AS specifically operates upon the out-dated classification of this syndrome as external to ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Similarly, we should also note that ASD is a spectrum and support varies dramatically depending on the individual. Medications No medications directly treat the core symptoms of AS. Although research into the efficacy of pharmaceutical intervention for AS is limited, it is essential to diagnose and treat comorbid conditions. Deficits in self-identifying emotions or in observing effects of one's behavior on others can make it difficult for individuals with AS to see why medication may be appropriate. Medication can be effective in combination with behavioral interventions and environmental accommodations in treating comorbid symptoms such as anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder, inattention, and aggression. The atypical antipsychotic medications risperidone, olanzapine and aripiprazole have been shown to reduce the associated symptoms of AS; risperidone can reduce repetitive and self-injurious behaviors, aggressive outbursts, and impulsivity, and improve stereotypical patterns of behavior and social relatedness. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, and sertraline have been effective in treating restricted and repetitive interests and behaviors, while stimulant medication, such as methylphenidate, can reduce inattention. In addition, scientists have made a noteworthy finding that oxytocin, a hormone, plays a significant role in shaping human social behavior and the formation of interpersonal connections. Care must be taken with medications, as side effects may be more common and harder to evaluate in individuals with AS, and tests of drugs' effectiveness against comorbid conditions routinely exclude individuals from the autism spectrum. Abnormalities in metabolism, cardiac conduction times, and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes have been raised as concerns with antipsychotic medications, along with serious long-term neurological side effects. SSRIs can lead to manifestations of behavioral activation such as increased impulsivity, aggression, and sleep disturbance. Weight gain and fatigue are commonly reported side effects of risperidone, which may also lead to increased risk for extrapyramidal symptoms such as restlessness and dystonia and increased serum prolactin levels. Sedation and weight gain are more common with olanzapine, which has also been linked with diabetes. Sedative side-effects in school-age children have ramifications for classroom learning. Individuals with AS may be unable to identify and communicate their internal moods and emotions or to tolerate side effects that for most people would not be problematic. Prognosis There is some evidence that children with AS may see a lessening of symptoms; up to 20% of children may no longer meet the diagnostic criteria as adults, although social and communication difficulties may persist. As of 2006, no studies addressing the long-term outcome of individuals with Asperger syndrome are available and there are no systematic long-term follow-up studies of children with AS. Individuals with AS appear to have normal life expectancy, but have an increased prevalence of comorbid psychiatric conditions, such as major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders that may significantly affect prognosis. Although social impairment may be lifelong, the outcome is generally more positive than with individuals with lower-functioning autism spectrum disorders; for example, ASD symptoms are more likely to diminish with time in children with AS or HFA. Most students with AS and HFA have average mathematical ability and test slightly worse in mathematics than in general intelligence. However, mathematicians are at least three times more likely to have autism-spectrum traits than the general population, and are more likely to have family members with autism. Although many attend regular education classes, some children with AS may attend special education classes such as separate classroom and resource room because of their social and behavioral difficulties. Adolescents with AS may exhibit ongoing difficulty with self-care or organization, and disturbances in social and romantic relationships. Despite high cognitive potential, most young adults with AS remain at home, yet some do marry and work independently. The "different-ness" adolescents experience can be traumatic. Anxiety may stem from preoccupation over possible violations of routines and rituals, from being placed in a situation without a clear schedule or expectations, or from concern with failing in social encounters; the resulting stress may manifest as inattention, withdrawal, reliance on obsessions, hyperactivity, or aggressive or oppositional behavior. Depression is often the result of chronic frustration from repeated failure to engage others socially, and mood disorders requiring treatment may develop. Clinical experience suggests the rate of suicide may be higher among those with AS, but this has not been confirmed by systematic empirical studies. Education of families is critical in developing strategies for understanding strengths and weaknesses; helping the family to cope improves outcomes in children. Prognosis may be improved by diagnosis at a younger age that allows for early interventions, while interventions in adulthood are valuable but less beneficial. There are legal implications for individuals with AS as they run the risk of exploitation by others and may be unable to comprehend the societal implications of their actions. Epidemiology Frequency estimates vary enormously. In 2015, it was estimated that 37.2 million people globally are affected. A 2003 review of epidemiological studies of children found autism rates ranging from 0.03 to 4.84 per 1,000, with the ratio of autism to Asperger syndrome ranging from 1.5:1 to 16:1; combining the geometric mean ratio of 5:1 with a conservative prevalence estimate for autism of 1.3 per 1,000 suggests indirectly that the prevalence of AS might be around 0.26 per 1,000. Part of the variance in estimates arises from differences in diagnostic criteria. For example, a relatively small 2007 study of 5,484 eight-year-old children in Finland found 2.9 children per 1,000 met the ICD-10 criteria for an AS diagnosis, 2.7 per 1,000 for Gillberg and Gillberg criteria, 2.5 for DSM-IV, 1.6 for Szatmari et al., and 4.3 per 1,000 for the union of the four criteria. Boys seem to be more likely to have AS than girls; estimates of the sex ratio range from 1.6:1 to 4:1, using the Gillberg and Gillberg criteria. Females with autism spectrum disorders may be underdiagnosed. Comorbidities Anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder are the most common conditions seen at the same time; comorbidity of these in persons with AS is estimated at 65%. Reports have associated AS with medical conditions such as aminoaciduria and ligamentous laxity, but these have been case reports or small studies and no factors have been associated with AS across studies. One study of males with AS found an increased rate of epilepsy and a high rate (51%) of nonverbal learning disorder. AS is associated with tics, Tourette syndrome and bipolar disorder. The repetitive behaviors of AS have many similarities with the symptoms of obsessive–compulsive disorder and obsessive–compulsive personality disorder, and 26% of a sample of young adults with AS were found to meet the criteria for schizoid personality disorder (which is characterised by severe social seclusion and emotional detachment), more than any other personality disorder in the sample. However many of these studies are based on clinical samples or lack standardized measures; nonetheless, comorbid conditions are relatively common. Correlated characteristics Research indicates that individuals with Aspergers have significantly higher rates of LGBT identities and feelings than the general population. They are also significantly more likely to be non-theistic. History Named after the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger (1906–1980), Asperger syndrome is a relatively new diagnosis in the field of autism, though a syndrome like it was described as early as 1925 by Soviet child psychiatrist Grunya Sukhareva (1891–1981), leading some of those diagnosed with Asperger syndrome to instead refer to their condition as 'Sukhareva's Syndrome', in opposition to Hans Asperger's association with Nazism. As a child, Asperger appears to have exhibited some features of the very condition named after him, such as remoteness and talent in language. In 1944, Asperger described four children in his practice who had difficulty in integrating themselves socially and showing empathy towards peers. They also lacked nonverbal communication skills and were physically clumsy. Asperger described this "autistic psychopathy" as social isolation. Fifty years later, several standardizations of AS as a medical diagnosis were tentatively proposed, many of which diverge significantly from Asperger's original work. Unlike today's AS, autistic psychopathy could be found in people of all levels of intelligence, including those with intellectual disability. Asperger defended the value of so-called "high-functioning" autistic individuals, writing: "We are convinced, then, that autistic people have their place in the organism of the social community. They fulfill their role well, perhaps better than anyone else could, and we are talking of people who as children had the greatest difficulties and caused untold worries to their care-givers." Asperger also believed some would be capable of exceptional achievement and original thought later in life. Asperger's paper was published during World War II and in German, so it was not widely read elsewhere. Lorna Wing used the term Asperger syndrome in 1976, and popularized it to the English-speaking medical community in her February 1981 publication of case studies of children showing the symptoms described by Asperger, and Uta Frith translated his paper to English in 1991. Sets of diagnostic criteria were outlined by Gillberg and Gillberg in 1989 and by Szatmari et al. in the same year. In 1992, AS became a standard diagnosis when it was included in the tenth edition of the World Health Organization's diagnostic manual, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). It was added to the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic reference, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), published in 1994. Hundreds of books, articles, and websites now describe AS and prevalence estimates have increased dramatically for ASD, with AS recognized as an important subgroup. Whether it should be seen as distinct from high-functioning autism is a fundamental issue requiring further study, and there are questions about the empirical validation of the DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria. In 2013, DSM-5 eliminated AS as a separate diagnosis, folding it into the autism spectrum on a severity scale. Society and culture People identifying with Asperger syndrome may refer to themselves in casual conversation as aspies (a term first used in print in the Boston Globe in 1998). Some autistic people have advocated a shift in perception of autism spectrum disorders as complex syndromes rather than diseases that must be cured. Proponents of this view reject the notion that there is an "ideal" brain configuration and that any deviation from the norm is pathological; they promote tolerance of neurodiversity. These views are the basis for the autistic rights and autistic pride movements. There is a contrast between the attitude of people with AS, who typically do not want to be cured and are proud of their identity; and parents of children with AS, who typically seek assistance and a cure for their children. Some researchers have argued that AS can be viewed as a different cognitive style, not a disorder, and that it should be removed from the standard Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, much as homosexuality was removed. (In 2013 Asperger Syndrome was indeed eliminated as a separate diagnosis in DSM-5.) In a 2002 paper, Simon Baron-Cohen wrote of those with AS: "In the social world, there is no great benefit to a precise eye for detail, but in the worlds of maths, computing, cataloging, music, linguistics, engineering, and science, such an eye for detail can lead to success rather than failure." Baron-Cohen cited two reasons why it might still be useful to consider AS to be a disability: to ensure provision for legally required special support, and to recognize emotional difficulties from reduced empathy. Baron-Cohen argues that the genes for ASD's combination of abilities have operated throughout recent human evolution and have made remarkable contributions to human history. By contrast, Pier Jaarsma and Welin wrote in 2011 that the "broad version of the neurodiversity claim, covering low-functioning as well as high-functioning autism, is problematic. Only a narrow conception of neurodiversity, referring exclusively to high-functioning autists, is reasonable." They say that "higher functioning" individuals with autism may "not [be] benefited with such a psychiatric defect-based diagnosis ... some of them are being harmed by it, because of the disrespect the diagnosis displays for their natural way of being", but "think that it is still reasonable to include other categories of autism in the psychiatric diagnostics. The narrow conception of the neurodiversity claim should be accepted but the broader claim should not." References Further reading Autistic Empire, Are you Autistic? Take the test – an online version of the Adult Asperger's Assessment developed by Cohen, S. et al. (2005) (see Woodbury-Smith MR, "Screening adults for Asperger Syndrome using the AQ: a preliminary study of its diagnostic validity in clinical practice", in §References). Hus V, Lord C (August 2014). "The autism diagnostic observation schedule, module 4: revised algorithm and standardized severity scores". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 44 (8): 1996–2012. doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2080-3. PMC 4104252. PMID 24590409. A public paper re-calibrating the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule for appropriate assessment of autistic adults, who typically score lower on measures of impairment than autistic children due to compensatory strategies. Royal College of Psychiatrists (2017), Interview Guide for the Diagnostic Assessment of Able Adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorder – based on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R)

List_of_highest-paid_film_actors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-paid_film_actors

While the highest-paid film actors can command multi-million-dollar salaries, actors can potentially earn substantially more by deferring all or part of their salary against a percentage of the film's gross, known within the industry as a "profit participation" deal. Highest earnings for a single production Since not all salaries are made public, this is a non-definitive list of actors who have received $30 million or more as compensation for their services in a single production. Occasionally an actor's fee may cover multiple films, and they are included on the list if the films were filmed as a back-to-back production (for example, Keanu Reeves and the Matrix sequels). The figures are given at their nominal value, since earnings from profit-based deals are accumulated over many years, making it unfeasible to adjust for inflation. Forbes publishes yearly lists of the highest-paid actors and actresses based on total earnings from 1 June the previous year to 1 June the current year. Highest annual earnings Forbes publishes yearly lists of the highest-paid actors and actresses based on total earnings from 1 June the previous year to 1 June the current year. See also List of highest-grossing actors == References ==

Margot_Robbie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margot_Robbie

Margot Elise Robbie ( MAR-goh ROB-ee; born 2 July 1990) is an Australian actress and producer. Her work includes both blockbuster and independent films, and her accolades include nominations for three Academy Awards, six BAFTA Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017, and Forbes named her the world's highest-paid actress in 2023. Born and raised in Queensland, Robbie began her career in 2008 on the television series Neighbours, on which she was a regular until 2011. After moving to the United States, she led the television series Pan Am (2011–2012) and had her breakthrough in 2013 with Martin Scorsese’s comedy film The Wolf of Wall Street. She achieved wider recognition with starring roles as Jane Porter in The Legend of Tarzan (2016), and as Harley Quinn in the DC Extended Universe films beginning with Suicide Squad (2016). Robbie received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of figure skater Tonya Harding in the biopic I, Tonya (2017). This acclaim continued for her performances as Queen Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots (2018), Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and a Fox News employee in Bombshell (2019). The last of these earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Robbie has since starred as an aspiring actress in the period film Babylon (2022) and the titular fashion doll in the fantasy comedy Barbie (2023), which emerged as her highest-grossing release and, as its producer, earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Robbie and her husband, filmmaker Tom Ackerley, co-founded the production company LuckyChap Entertainment in 2014, under which they have produced several films, including I, Tonya, Promising Young Woman (2020), Barbie, and Saltburn (2023), as well as the Hulu series Dollface (2019–2022) and the Netflix miniseries Maid (2021). Early life and education Margot Elise Robbie was born on 2 July 1990 in Dalby, Queensland, to Doug Robbie, a former farm-owner and sugarcane tycoon, and Sarie Kessler, a physiotherapist. She is the second youngest of four; older siblings Anya and Lachlan and younger brother Cameron. Her parents separated when she was five. Robbie and her siblings were raised by their single mother and had minimal contact with their father. The family spent the majority of Robbie's upbringing on her grandparents' Currumbin Valley farm in the Gold Coast hinterland. An energetic child, Robbie often put on shows in her house. She was enrolled in a circus school by her mother, where she excelled in trapeze, in which she received a certificate at age eight. In high school, Robbie studied drama at Somerset College. As a teenager, she worked three jobs: she tended a bar, cleaned houses, and worked at Subway. After graduation, with a few commercials and independent thriller films on her résumé, Robbie relocated to Melbourne to begin acting professionally. Career 2008–2012: Early work and Neighbours Robbie's first acting roles came when she was in high school. She starred in two low-budget independent thriller films, called Vigilante and I.C.U., both released years later. She described the experience of being on a film set as "a dream come true". She made her television debut in a 2008 guest role as Caitlin Brentford in the drama series City Homicide and followed this with a two-episode arc in the children's television series The Elephant Princess, in which she starred alongside Liam Hemsworth. With agent encouragement at the time and as Robbie recalled on The Graham Norton Show, she called FremantleMedia on a daily basis. "One day, I got put through by accident to the casting director for Neighbours," and she said, "I'm in town working on something." The casting director asked how old she was, and she responded "seventeen." She was told, "We're looking for exactly that, come in and audition" for the television soap opera Neighbours. In June 2008, she began playing Donna Freedman, a role that was meant to be a guest character, but Robbie was promoted to the regular cast after she made her debut. In her three-year stint on the soap, she received two Logie Award nominations. Shortly after arriving in America, Robbie landed the role of Laura Cameron, a newly trained flight attendant in the period drama series Pan Am (2011). The series premiered to high ratings and positive reviews but was cancelled after one season due to falling ratings. 2013–2015: Breakthrough Robbie next appeared in Richard Curtis' romantic comedy About Time (2013), co-starring Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams. It tells the story of a young man with the ability to time travel who tries to change his past in hopes of improving his future. To play Gleeson's unattainable teenage love interest, she adopted a British accent. The film was a modest commercial success. Robbie's breakthrough came the same year with the role of Naomi Lapaglia, the wife of protagonist Jordan Belfort, in Martin Scorsese's biographical black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street. In her audition for the role, Robbie improvised a slap on co-star Leonardo DiCaprio during a fight scene which ultimately won her the part. The film and her performance received positive reviews; she was particularly praised for her on-screen Brooklyn accent. Critic Sasha Stone wrote of Robbie's performance, "She's Scorsese's best blonde bombshell discovery since Cathy Moriarty in Raging Bull. Robbie is funny, hard and kills every scene she's in." The Wolf of Wall Street was a box office success, grossing $392 million worldwide, making it Scorsese's highest-grossing film to date. Robbie was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer. She later said that the fame and attention the movie brought her led her to consider quitting acting, but her mother was philosophical about her profession and explained to her that it was probably too late to quit. She fully understood and stuck with it. With the aim to produce more female-driven projects, Robbie and her future husband, Tom Ackerley, and their respective longtime friends Sophia Kerr and Josey McNamara, started their own production company LuckyChap Entertainment. The company was founded in 2014 and its name was inspired by Charlie Chaplin. Robbie appeared in four films released in 2015. The first of these was opposite Will Smith in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's $158.8 million-grossing romantic comedy-drama film Focus. In the film, she played an inexperienced grifter learning the craft from Smith's character; she learned how to pickpocket from Apollo Robbins for the role. Reviews of the film were generally mixed, but Robbie's performance was praised; Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, "Robbie is wow and then some. Even when Focus fumbles, [she] deals a winning hand." She was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 68th British Academy Film Awards. Her next appearance was alongside Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott Thomas in Saul Dibb's war romantic drama Suite Française, a film based on the second part of Irène Némirovsky's 2004 novel of the same name. In the film, she played a woman falling for a German soldier during the German occupation of France during World War II, a role which Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter found "underwritten". She followed this with Craig Zobel's post-apocalyptic drama Z for Zachariah opposite Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in her first leading role. Partially based on Robert C. O'Brien's book of the same name, the film follows Ann Burden (Robbie) as she finds herself in an emotionally charged love triangle with the last known survivors of a disaster that wipes out most of civilization. In preparation for the film, Robbie dyed her hair brown and learned to speak in an Appalachian accent. The film received positive reviews, and Robbie's performance was widely praised, with Drew McWeeny of HitFix asserting that "Robbie's work here establishes her as one of the very best actresses in her age range today." Her fourth release of 2015 was a cameo appearance in Adam McKay's comedy-drama The Big Short, in which she breaks the fourth wall to explain subprime mortgages while in a bathtub. The Big Short was a commercial and critical success and Robbie's cameo became a trending topic six years later, in the wake of the GameStop short squeeze, as her explanation provided reference points for what was happening with the GameStop and related stocks. 2016–2018: Worldwide recognition In 2016, Robbie reunited with Ficarra and Requa, playing a British war correspondent in the film adaptation of The Taliban Shuffle, called Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, co-starring Tina Fey and Martin Freeman. Later that year, Robbie took on the part of Jane Porter in David Yates's adventure film The Legend of Tarzan. She was adamant about not losing weight and ensuring the role was not a damsel in distress like in previous Tarzan adaptations. Reviews of the film were generally unfavourable, but Manohla Dargis of The New York Times credited Robbie for "holding her own" in her supporting role alongside the all-male cast with Alexander Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson. Robbie became the first person to portray DC Comics villain Harley Quinn in live-action when she signed on to David Ayer's 2016 superhero film Suicide Squad alongside an ensemble cast that included Will Smith, Jared Leto and Viola Davis. She admitted to having never read the comics, but felt a huge responsibility to do the character justice and satisfy the fans. Robbie began preparing for the role of the supervillainess six months prior to the film shoot; her schedule consisted of gymnastics, boxing, aerial silk training and learning how to hold her breath underwater for five minutes. She performed the majority of her own stunts in the film. Suicide Squad was a commercial success and was tenth-highest-grossing film of 2016 with global revenues of $746.8 million, and Robbie's performance was considered its prime asset. Writing for Time, Stephanie Zacharek found Robbie to be "a criminally appealing actress, likable in just about every way" despite finding flaws in the character and Christopher Orr of The Atlantic called her performance "genuinely terrific". At the annual People's Choice Awards ceremony, she won the Favorite Action Movie Actress award and was also awarded the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie. In October 2016, Robbie hosted the season 42 premiere of NBC's late-night sketch comedy Saturday Night Live; her appearances included a parody of Ivanka Trump. The series logged its strongest season premiere ratings in eight years. Robbie collaborated with Domhnall Gleeson in Simon Curtis' Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017), a biographical drama about the lives of Winnie-the-Pooh creator A. A. Milne and his family. The film, and her performance, received modest reviews and was a commercial failure. Her final release of 2017 and LuckyChap Entertainment's first release was Craig Gillespie's sports black comedy I, Tonya, based on the life of American figure skater Tonya Harding (Robbie) and her connection to the 1994 assault on rival Nancy Kerrigan. In preparation, Robbie met with Harding, watched old footage and interviews of her, worked with a voice coach to speak in Harding's Pacific Northwest accent and vocal timbre at different ages, and underwent several months of rigorous skating instruction with choreographer Sarah Kawahara. I, Tonya premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. James Luxford of Metro deemed it Robbie's best performance to date, and Mark Kermode of The Observer wrote, "Margot Robbie's performance in this satirical, postmodern tale of the disgraced star is a tour-de-force tornado that balances finely nuanced character development with impressively punchy physicality". She received numerous accolades for her performance, including nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, all for Best Actress. Robbie began 2018 with the voice role of Flopsy Rabbit in Peter Rabbit, an animated comedy from director Will Gluck, which is based on the Beatrix Potter book series. The animated feature was a box office success, grossing $351.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million. Her next two 2018 films—the neo-noir thriller Terminal and comedy-horror Slaughterhouse Rulez—were critical and commercial failures. The historical drama Mary Queen of Scots, directed by Josie Rourke, was her final release of 2018. The film featured Saoirse Ronan as the titular character and Robbie as her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, and it chronicles the 1569 conflict between their two countries. Robbie had initially turned down the role for being "terrified" of not living up to the history of portrayals of the Queen. Before each day of shooting, she spent three hours in the make-up chair while a prosthetic nose, painted on boils and blisters were applied. Critics dismissed the film for its screenplay and several historical inaccuracies, but praised the performances of Robbie and Ronan. Yolanda Machado of TheWrap wrote, "[B]ow down to Ronan and Robbie for taking two legendarily complex characters, [...] and completely owning both roles. Ronan's fiery Mary and Robbie's emotionally complex Elizabeth truly reign divine on screen." For her portrayal, Robbie received nominations for a BAFTA Award and for a Screen Actors Guild Award. 2019–present: Established actress and producer Robbie's first release of 2019 was the LuckyChap Entertainment production Dreamland, a poorly received period crime thriller set during the 1930s Dust Bowl. She began executive producing the comedy series Dollface, which streamed on Hulu from 2019 to 2022. Robbie was filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's only choice to portray the late actress Sharon Tate in his period film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. With the Tate–LaBianca murders serving as a backdrop, the film tells the story of a fading character actor (DiCaprio) and his stunt double (Pitt) as they navigate New Hollywood in 1969 Los Angeles. Feeling "an enormous sense of responsibility", Robbie prepared for the role by meeting Tate's family members and friends, watching all of her films and reading the autobiography by Tate's then-husband, Roman Polanski. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, and was a commercial success with a worldwide gross of $374.3 million. Despite many bemoaning Robbie's lack of lines in the film, Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph highlighted a scene with Robbie in the cinema, which he found to be the film's "most delightful" scene. Also in 2019, she starred as Kayla Pospisil, a composite character based on several Fox News employees, in Jay Roach's drama Bombshell. Co-starring Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman, the film recounts stories of various female personnel at the news network and their sexual harassment by the network's chairman Roger Ailes. Robbie based her character's accent on Katherine Harris. The film received positive reviews; Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Robbie [is] at her best, the arc of her story is so crushing that it stays with you the longest." For her performances in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Bombshell, she received two nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and for the latter she received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award; all in the Best Supporting Actress category. Robbie began the new decade by reprising the role of Harley Quinn in Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey (2020). Determined to make a female ensemble action film, she pitched the idea for the film to Warner Bros. in 2015. Robbie spent the subsequent three years developing the project under her production company, making a concerted effort to hire a female director and screenwriter. Birds of Prey, along with Robbie's performance, gained generally positive reviews; Ian Freer of Empire wrote that "the MVP is Robbie, who lends Harley charming quirk and believable menace, hinting at Harley's inner life without reams of dialogue." She received two nominations at the 46th People's Choice Awards. Robbie served as a producer on Promising Young Woman (2020), a comedy thriller by writer-director Emerald Fennell, starring Carey Mulligan as a woman who seeks to avenge the rape and death of her best friend. The film received acclaim, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2021, Robbie reprised her voice role as Flopsy Rabbit in Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, which received mixed reviews and grossed $153.8 million worldwide. She also made her third outing as Quinn in the standalone sequel The Suicide Squad, written and directed by James Gunn. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was simultaneously released theatrically and on the streaming service HBO Max. Owen Gleiberman praised Robbie's "delectable performance" in it. She also served as an executive producer for the Netflix miniseries Maid. In 2022, Robbie reprised her role as Donna Freedman for the final episode of Neighbours. She starred alongside an ensemble cast in David O. Russell's period comedy Amsterdam, based on the 1933 Business Plot. The film emerged as a critical and commercial failure. In her second film release of the year, she played Nellie LaRoy, an actress inspired by silent movie star Clara Bow, in Damien Chazelle's comedy-drama Babylon. In preparation, she studied the works of Bow and researched her traumatic childhood. She described LaRoy as "the most physically and emotionally draining character I've ever played". The film polarized critics and had poor box office returns, though her performance received praise; Caryn James of BBC Culture opined, "Robbie's bold, charismatic performance makes Nellie a daring, endlessly spiraling, sympathetic figure". She received another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, although the underperformance of her two major releases that year led some commentators to brand her as "box office poison" at the time. In the following year, Robbie had a single scene in Wes Anderson's ensemble comedy film Asteroid City. Chris Hewitt of the Star Tribune described her "impassioned acting in her lone scene" as "perfectly judged". The fantasy comedy Barbie, co-starring Ryan Gosling as Ken, was her next film release. As producer, Robbie bought the rights from Mattel for a film about the eponymous fashion doll in 2018. She hired Greta Gerwig to write and direct the film, and took on the title role herself after Gal Gadot declined her offer. In preparation, Gerwig and Robbie watched old Technicolor musicals such as The Red Shoes (1948) and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Variety reported that Robbie earned $12.5 million for the role, the highest for an actress in Hollywood that year. Vulture's Alison Willmore took note of how much Robbie fit the part, and commended her for combining both "heartbreaking earnestness" and "humor" in her performance. With a worldwide gross of over $1.4 billion, Barbie emerged as Robbie's highest-grossing release. She received further BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for her performance, in addition to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Also in 2023, Robbie produced Fennell's second directorial, Saltburn. The 2024 Sundance Film Festival marked the release of her next production, Megan Park's comedy film My Old Ass. Robbie will next star alongside Colin Farrell in Kogonada's film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey and Jacob Elordi in Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights, adapted from the novel. Personal life Despite significant media attention, Robbie rarely discusses her personal life. Robbie moved from Melbourne to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the early 2010s, having previously shared a flat with Neighbours co-star Ashleigh Brewer. During that period, she became an avid ice hockey fan; she supports the New York Rangers and previously played right wing in an amateur ice hockey league. Robbie met British assistant director Tom Ackerley on the set of Suite Française in 2013. In 2014, she moved to London with Ackerley and LuckyChap Entertainment co-founders Sophia Kerr and Josey McNamara. Later that year, Robbie and Ackerley began a romantic relationship. In December 2016, they married in a private wedding ceremony in Byron Bay, Australia. The couple reside in Venice Beach, California. Her pregnancy was confirmed in July 2024. Other work Robbie has been a vocal supporter of human rights, women's rights, gender equality and LGBT rights. Through LuckyChap Entertainment, she and her co-founders focus on promoting female stories from female storytellers, whether it would be writers, directors, producers or all the above. In 2014, she was part of a fundraising event in support of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which helps people in the film and television industries with limited or no resources; she joined the same event on two other occasions, in 2018 and 2020. In 2015, she helped raise $12 million through the BGC Global Charity Day fundraising event, which donates money to different charities around the world. In 2016, Robbie joined other celebrities and UN Refugee Agency staff in a petition aiming to gather public support for the growing number of families forced to flee conflict and persecution worldwide. Later in the year, she joined Oxfam's "I Hear You" project, which was designed to amplify the personal stories of the world's most vulnerable refugees and donated more than $50.000 to UNICEF's "Children First" campaign, in support of refugee children. In October 2016, while hosting Saturday Night Live, Robbie made a stand for same-sex marriage in her native Australia wearing a T-shirt that read "Say 'I Do' Down Under", with a map of the country in rainbow colors. A year later, she joined fellow actor Chris Hemsworth in advocating for the same purpose. In 2018, she pledged to support the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. In April 2021, Robbie was announced as the recipient of the inaugural RAD Impact Award, for inspiring purpose with her philanthropy. She chose to share the prize with Youngcare, a charity she had previously worked with, and therefore an impact donation was made to fund a project benefiting young people with extensive care needs. Public image Robbie is known for starring in both high-profile, mainstream productions and low-budget independent films, in which she has been able to display both her dramatic and comedic range. For her role in The Wolf of Wall Street, Vanity Fair named her one of its breakthrough actors of 2013. In 2017, she appeared on the annual Forbes 30 Under 30 list, a compilation of the brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers in the world and was included on a similar list compiled by The Hollywood Reporter. That same year, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world; her The Wolf of Wall Street director Martin Scorsese penned the article in the magazine, referring to Robbie as having "a unique audacity that surprises and challenges and just burns like a brand into every character she plays. [...] Margot is stunning in all she is and all she does, and she will astonish us forever." In 2019, Forbes ranked her among the world's highest-paid actresses, with annual earnings of $23.5 million, and The Hollywood Reporter listed her among the 100 most powerful people in entertainment. In 2021, she was named one of the 100 most influential women in entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter. In December 2023, Robbie has been listed in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2023 Women in Entertainment Power 100. In 2024, she was named by Forbes as the world's highest-paid actress in 2023, with earnings of $78 million. Vogue has named her "one of the most glamorous starlets" and she was ranked as one of the best-dressed women in 2018 and 2019 by luxury fashion retailer Net-a-Porter. In 2014 and 2016, she featured on AskMen's Top 99 Women, ranking among the top ten each year. Also in 2016, Robbie was placed at number one on FHM's "100 Sexiest Women in the World" list. Since 2016, she has been chosen as the ambassador for brands such as Calvin Klein, Nissan and Chanel. She was the last brand ambassador picked by Karl Lagerfeld before his death in February 2019. Filmography and awards According to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Robbie's most positively reviewed films are The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Z for Zachariah (2015), Suite Française (2015), I, Tonya (2017), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Birds of Prey (2020), The Suicide Squad (2021), and Barbie (2023). References Further reading Peary, Danny (March–April 2015). "In conversation with: Margot Robbie". Local Focus. Actor Spotlight. Filmink. 10 (1): 42–43. External links Media related to Margot Robbie at Wikimedia Commons Quotations related to Margot Robbie at Wikiquote Margot Robbie at IMDb Margot Robbie at Rotten Tomatoes

The_Wolf_of_Wall_Street_(2013_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf_of_Wall_Street_(2013_film)

The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American epic biographical black comedy film co-produced and directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Terence Winter, based on Jordan Belfort's 2007 memoir of the same name. It recounts Belfort's career as a stockbroker in New York City and how his firm, Stratton Oakmont, engaged in rampant corruption and fraud on Wall Street, leading to his downfall. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort; Jonah Hill as his business partner and friend Donnie Azoff; Margot Robbie as his second wife, Naomi Lapaglia; Matthew McConaughey as his mentor and former boss Mark Hanna; and Kyle Chandler as FBI agent Patrick Denham. It is DiCaprio's fifth collaboration with Scorsese. DiCaprio and Warner Bros. acquired the rights to Belfort's memoir in 2007, but production was halted due to content restrictions. It was later produced by the independent Red Granite Pictures. The film was shot in New York in late 2012, using mostly 35mm film stock. The film premiered in New York City on December 17, 2013, and was released in the United States on December 25, 2013, by Paramount Pictures. It was the first major American film to be released exclusively through digital distribution. It was a major commercial success, grossing $406.9 million worldwide during its theatrical run, becoming Scorsese's highest-grossing film. However, the film initially received considerable controversy for its moral ambiguity and lack of sympathy for victims, as well as its explicit, graphic sexual content, extreme profanity (with at least 500 uses of the swear word "fuck"), depiction of hard drug use, and use of animals during production. The film was initially rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America, but it was shortly appealed for an R rating after Scorsese made slight editorial changes to the film. It set a Guinness World Record for the most instances of swearing in a film. The film's financing became implicated in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad corruption scandal; the U.S. Department of Justice and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigated Red Granite Pictures, and producer Riza Aziz was arrested in 2019. He was discharged in May 2020 on a 1,000,000 Malaysian Ringgit (US$240,000) bail. The film received positive reviews (and some moral censure) from critics and appeared on several "best of the year" lists. It was nominated for several awards, including five at the 86th Academy Awards ceremony: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (for DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (for Hill). DiCaprio won Best Actor – Musical or Comedy at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, where the film was also nominated for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy. Plot In 1987, 22-year-old Jordan Belfort lands a job as a Wall Street stockbroker for L.F. Rothschild, employed under Mark Hanna. He is quickly enticed by the drug-fueled stockbroker culture and Hanna's belief that a broker's only goal is to make money for himself. Jordan loses his job following Black Monday, the largest one-day stock market drop in history after the 1929 stock market crash, and takes a job at Investor's Center, a boiler room brokerage firm on Long Island that specializes in pink sheet penny stocks. He makes a small fortune thanks to his aggressive pitching style and high commissions. Jordan befriends his neighbor Donnie Azoff, and the two start their own boiler room-styled brokerage company. They recruit Jordan's childhood friends Robbie Feinberg, Alden Kupferburg, Nicky Koskoff, Chester Ming, and Toby Welch, as well as local drug pusher Brad Bonick, all of whom Jordan trains in the art of the "hard sell," and set up the company in an abandoned auto repair shop. Jordan's tactics and salesmanship largely contribute to the success of his pump and dump scheme, in which misleading, positive statements inflate a stock's price so it can be sold at an artificially high price. When the scheme's perpetrators sell their overvalued securities, the price plummets, and those who were conned into buying at the inflated price are left with stock that is suddenly worth much less than they paid for it. To cloak this, Jordan gives the firm the respectable-sounding name of Stratton Oakmont in 1989. Soon after, the company becomes immensely successful, moving out of the auto repair shop into a bigger office. An exposé in Forbes, which dubs Jordan "The Wolf of Wall Street" – "a sort of twisted Robin Hood who takes from the rich and gives to himself and his merry band of brokers" – causes hundreds of ambitious young financiers to flock to the company, thus causing them to move into even bigger offices. As all this is happening, Jordan becomes immensely successful, and slides into a decadent lifestyle of prostitutes and drugs. He has an affair with buxom blonde lingerie designer Naomi Lapaglia, and when his wife Teresa finds out about this, Jordan divorces her and marries Naomi in 1991. Meanwhile, the SEC and the FBI begin investigating Stratton Oakmont. In 1993, Jordan illegally makes $22 million in three hours after securing the IPO of Donnie's childhood friend and women's shoes designer Steve Madden, bringing him and his firm further FBI attention. To hide his money, Jordan opens a Swiss bank account with corrupt banker Jean-Jacques Saurel in the name of Naomi's aunt Emma, who lives in London and thus remains outside the immediate reach of American authorities. He uses Brad's Swiss-Slovenian wife Chantalle and her family, who have European passports, to smuggle the cash into Switzerland. Donnie and Brad soon get into a heated argument in public during a money exchange, resulting in Brad's arrest as Donnie escapes. Jordan learns from his private investigator Bo Dietl that the FBI is wiretapping his phones. Fearing for his son, Jordan's father Max advises him to leave Stratton Oakmont and lie low while Jordan's lawyer negotiates a deal to keep him out of prison. In the midst of his farewell speech, Jordan cannot bear to quit and talks himself into staying, to the immense support of his friends and employees. In 1996, Jordan, Donnie, and their wives are on a yacht trip to Italy, when they learn that Emma has died of a heart attack. Jordan proceeds to Switzerland to forge her name and save the account before going to London for the funeral. To bypass the border patrols, he orders his yacht captain Ted to sail to Monaco, but their ship capsizes in a storm. After their rescue, the plane sent to take them to Geneva is destroyed when a seagull flies into the engine; Jordan takes this as a sign from God to address his worsening drug addiction and attempts to sober up. In 1998, Saurel and Koskoff are arrested for an unrelated crime, the former informing the FBI about Jordan as a plea bargain. Since the evidence against him is overwhelming, Jordan agrees to gather evidence from the rest of his colleagues in exchange for leniency. After having sex for the last time, Naomi tells Jordan that she is divorcing him and wants full custody of their daughter and infant son. In a cocaine-fueled rage, Jordan punches Naomi and tries to drive away with his daughter, but crashes his car in the driveway. Later, Jordan wears a wire to work and slips a note to Donnie, warning his old partner. However, Donnie betrays Jordan by giving his note to the FBI, who arrest Jordan, before they raid and shut down Stratton Oakmont. Despite breaching his deal, Jordan receives a reduced sentence of 36 months in a minimum security prison for his testimony, and is released in 2000 after serving 22 months. After his release, Jordan makes a living hosting seminars on sales techniques. Cast In addition, cameos and smaller roles include Bo Dietl as himself, the real Jordan Belfort as the Auckland Straight Line host at the end of the film, Stephanie Kurtzuba as Kimmie Belzer, Thomas Middleditch as a Stratton broker whose goldfish is eaten by Donnie for slacking off, Jake Hoffman as Steve Madden, Fran Lebowitz as The Honorary [sic] Samantha Stogel, Edward Herrmann as the voice over the Stratton Oakmont commercial at the beginning of the film, and an uncredited Spike Jonze as Dwayne, the head of the Long Island brokerage firm who introduces Belfort to the world of penny stocks. Production Development In 2007, DiCaprio and Warner Bros. won a bidding war for the rights to Belfort's memoir The Wolf of Wall Street, with Belfort making $1 million off the deal. Having worked on the film's script, Scorsese was considered to direct the film but abandoned the project to work on Shutter Island (2010). He has said he "wasted five months of [his] life" without getting a green light on production dates from Warner Bros. In 2010, Warner Bros. offered the directorial role to Ridley Scott, with Brad Pitt playing Belfort, but the studio eventually abandoned the project. In 2012, the independent company Red Granite Pictures greenlit the project without content restrictions. Soon after, Scorsese came back on board. Red Granite Pictures also asked Paramount Pictures to distribute the film; Paramount agreed to do so in North America and Japan, but passed on the rest of the international market, with Universal Pictures acquiring the film's international distribution rights. According to Belfort, Random House asked him to tone down or excise the depictions of debauchery in his memoir before publication, especially those relating to his bachelor party, which featured zoophilia, and rampant use of drugs like nitrous oxide; neither the published memoir nor the film contains references to this. In the film, most real-life characters' names have been changed from Belfort's original memoir. Donnie Azoff is based on Danny Porush. The name was changed after Porush threatened to sue the filmmakers. Porush maintains that much of the film is fictional and that Azoff is not an accurate depiction of him. Former Donna Karan Jeanswear CEO Elliot Lavigne does not appear in the film, but an incident recounted in the book, in which Belfort gives Lavigne mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save him from choking to death, is similar to a scene in the film involving Donnie. The FBI agent Patrick Denham is the stand-in for real-life Gregory Coleman, and lawyer Manny Riskin is based on Ira Sorkin. Belfort's first wife, Denise Lombardo, is renamed Teresa Petrillo, and his second wife, Nadine Caridi, is Naomi Lapaglia on-screen. In contrast, Mark Hanna's name remains the same as the LF Rothschild stockbroker who, like Belfort, was convicted of fraud and served time in prison. Belfort's parents Max and Leah Belfort's names remained the same for the film. The role of Aunt Emma was initially offered to Julie Andrews, who declined as she was recovering from an ankle injury, and was replaced by Joanna Lumley. Olivia Wilde auditioned for the role of Naomi, but she was rejected as she was deemed "too old" for the role despite DiCaprio being a decade older than her; the role eventually went to Margot Robbie. In January 2014, Jonah Hill revealed in an interview with Howard Stern that he had made only $60,000 on the film (the lowest possible SAG-AFTRA rate for his amount of work), while DiCaprio (who also produced) received $10 million. Filming Filming began on August 8, 2012, in New York City. Hill announced on Twitter that his first day of shooting was September 4, 2012. Filming also took place in Closter, New Jersey, and Harrison, New York. Vitamin D powder was used as the fake substance for cocaine in the film; Hill was hospitalized with bronchitis due to snorting large quantities during filming. Scorsese's longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who has received seven Academy Award nominations (as well as one win) for Best Film Editing, said the film would be shot digitally instead of on film. Scorsese had been a proponent of shooting on film, but decided to shoot Hugo digitally because it was being photographed in 3D. Despite being filmed in 2D, The Wolf of Wall Street was originally planned to be shot digitally. Schoonmaker expressed her disappointment with the decision: "It would appear that we've lost the battle. I think Marty just feels it's unfortunately over, and there's been no bigger champion of film than him." After extensive comparison tests during pre-production, eventually the majority of the film was shot on film stock, while scenes that used green screen effects or low light (mainly the nighttime scenes) were shot with the digital Arri Alexa camera system. The film contains 400 to 450 VFX shots. Profanity The film set a Guinness World Record for the most instances of swearing in a motion picture. It uses the word "fuck" 506 times, "cunt" three times, "twat" twice, "fuckface" once, and "prick" four times, averaging 2.81 profanities per minute. The previous record holders were Scorsese's previous gangster films Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995), which had respectively had 300 and 422 uses of the word; the 1993 film Menace II Society, which had 305 uses; the 1997 British film Nil by Mouth, which had 428; and the 1999 film Summer of Sam at 435. The record has since been broken by Swearnet: The Movie, which uses the word 935 times, but it still holds the record for a major theatrical release. The film's distributor in the United Arab Emirates cut 45 minutes of scenes of swearing, religious profanity, drug use, sex, and nudity, and "muted" dialogue containing expletives. The National reported that filmgoers in the UAE believed the film should not have been shown rather than being edited so heavily. Release Theatrical The Wolf of Wall Street premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 17, 2013, followed by a wide release on December 25. Its original release date of November 15 was pushed back after cuts were made to reduce the runtime. On October 22, it was reported that the film was set for release that Christmas. On October 29, Paramount officially confirmed that the film would release on Christmas Day, with a runtime of 165 minutes. This was changed to 180 minutes on November 25. It was officially rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for "sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence". In the United Kingdom, the film received an 18 certificate from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) for "very strong language, strong sex [and] hard drug use". The film is banned in Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, and Zimbabwe because of its scenes depicting sex and drugs and excessive profanity, and additional scenes have been cut in the versions playing in India. In Singapore, after cuts were made to a gay orgy scene as well as some religiously profane or denigrating language, the film was passed R21. The release of The Wolf of Wall Street marked a shift in cinema history when Paramount became the first major studio to distribute movies to theaters exclusively in a digital format, eliminating 35mm film entirely. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was the last Paramount production to include a 35mm film version to be shown in theaters. Home media The Wolf of Wall Street was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 25, 2014. On January 27, 2014, it was announced that a four-hour director's cut would be attached to the home release. Paramount later announced that the home release would feature only the original theatrical version. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was released on December 14, 2021. Reception Box office The Wolf of Wall Street grossed $116.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $289 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $406.9 million; it is Scorsese's highest-grossing film. In the United States, the film finished in fifth place in its first weekend with $19.4 million from 3,387 theaters, for a five-day total of $34.2 million. The film made $13.2 million (a drop of 27.9%) and $8.8 million (33%) in its second and third weekends, finishing in fourth place both times. In Australia, it is the highest grossing R-rated film, earning $12.96 million. Critical response On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 289 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Funny, self-referential, and irreverent to a fault, The Wolf of Wall Street finds Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio at their most infectiously dynamic." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine named The Wolf of Wall Street as the third-best movie of 2013, behind 12 Years a Slave and Gravity. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "it is the best and most enjoyable American film to be released this year." Richard Brody of The New Yorker called the film "Olympian", saying that if it was Scorsese's last film it "would rank among the most harshly awe-inspiring farewells of the cinema." The Chicago Sun-Times's Richard Roeper gave the film a B+, calling it "good, not great Scorsese". Dana Stevens of Slate was more critical, calling the film "epic in size, claustrophobically narrow in scope." Marshall Fine of The Huffington Post argued that the story "wants us to be interested in characters who are dull people to start with, made duller by their delusions of being interesting because they are high". Some critics viewed the film as an irresponsible glorification of Belfort and his associates rather than a satirical takedown. DiCaprio defended the film, arguing that it does not glorify the excessive lifestyle it depicts. In 2016, the film was ranked #78 on the BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century list. In 2017, Richard Brody named The Wolf of Wall Street the second-best film of the 21st century so far, behind Jean-Luc Godard's In Praise of Love. In 2019, Brody named The Wolf of Wall Street the best film of the 2010s. Audience response The film received an average grade of C on an A+ to F scale from audiences surveyed by CinemaScore, the lowest rating of any film opening that week. The Los Angeles Times suggested that the film's marketing may have attracted conservative viewers who expected a more moralistic tone than the film presents. Christina McDowell, daughter of Tom Prousalis, who worked closely with Belfort at Stratton Oakmont, wrote an open letter to Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Belfort, criticizing the film for insufficiently portraying the victims of Stratton Oakmont's financial crimes, disregarding the damage done to her family as a result, and giving celebrity status to people (Belfort and his partners, including her father) who do not deserve it. Steven Perlberg of Business Insider saw an advance screening of the film at a Regal Cinemas near the Goldman Sachs building with an audience of finance workers. Perlberg reported cheers from the audience at what he considered all the wrong moments, writing, "When Belfort—a drug addict attempting to remain sober—rips up a couch cushion to get to his secret coke stash, there were cheers." Former Assistant United States Attorney Joel M. Cohen, who prosecuted Belfort, criticized both the film and the book on which it is based. He said that he believes some of Belfort's claims were "invented": for instance, Belfort "aggrandized his importance and reverence for him by others at his firm." He strongly criticized the film for not depicting the "thousands of victims who lost hundreds of millions of dollars", not accepting the filmmakers' argument that it would have diverted attention from the wrongdoers. He deplored the ending—"beyond an insult" to Belfort's victims—in which the real Belfort appears, while showing "a large sign advertising the name of Mr. Belfort's real motivational speaking company", and a positive depiction of Belfort uttering "variants of the same falsehoods he trained others to use against his victims". Top ten lists The Wolf of Wall Street was listed on many critics' top ten lists for films released in 2013, and was chosen as one of the top ten films of the year by the American Film Institute. Metacritic analysis found the film was the ninth-most mentioned film on "best of the year" film rankings and the 22nd-most mentioned on "best of the decade" film rankings. Controversies Use of animals The Wolf of Wall Street uses animals, including a chimpanzee, a lion, a snake, a fish, and dogs. The chimpanzee and the lion were provided by the Big Cat Habitat wildlife sanctuary in Sarasota County, Florida. The four-year-old chimpanzee Chance spent time with DiCaprio and learned to roller skate in three weeks. The sanctuary also provided a lion named Handsome because the trading company depicted in the film used a lion as its symbol. Danny Porush denied that there were any animals in the office, although he admitted to eating an employee's goldfish. In December 2013, before the film premiered, the organization Friends of Animals criticized the use of the chimpanzee and organized a boycott of the film. Variety reported, "Friends of Animals thinks the chimp ... suffered irreversible psychological damage after being forced to act." The Guardian commented on the increasing criticism of Hollywood's use of animals, writing, "The Wolf of Wall Street's use of a chimpanzee arrives as Hollywood comes under ever-increasing scrutiny for its employment of animals on screen". PETA also launched a campaign to highlight mistreatment of ape "actors" and to petition for DiCaprio not to work with great apes. 1MDB scandal In 2015, Red Granite Pictures and the film's financing became implicated in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, a major international corruption scandal that began in Malaysia. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) alleged the film was financed by money producer Riza Aziz stole from the Malaysian 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund. Aziz is the stepson of then-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Aziz was arrested in connection with the scandal and pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges in July 2019. According to court filings, a company owned by fugitive businessman Jho Low gave the film's producers a $9 million advance. Low was given a "special thanks" in the film's credits. The film is part of a broader investigation into these illicit monetary movements, and in 2016 was named in a series of civil complaints the United States Department of Justice filed "for having provided a trust account through which hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to the 1MDB fund were illicitly siphoned". To settle the civil lawsuit, Red Granite Pictures agreed to pay the U.S. government $60 million with no "admission of wrongdoing or liability on the part of Red Granite". This settlement was part of a more expansive U.S. effort to seize approximately $1.7 billion in assets allegedly purchased with funds embezzled from 1MDB. In January 2020, Belfort sued Red Granite for $300 million, also wishing to void his rights deal; he said that he would never have sold the rights to Red Granite if he had known how the film was being financed. Aziz was discharged in May 2020 on a 1,000,000 Malaysian Ringgit (US$240,000) bail. Thematic controversy and debate Various people have criticized the film as materialistic, encouraging greedy behavior, extreme wealth, and advocating for the infamous individuals portrayed in the film. Christina McDowell, whose father, Tom Prousalis, worked in association with Belfort, accused the filmmakers of "exacerbating our national obsession with wealth and status and glorifying greed and psychopathic behavior". She emphasized the gravity and significance of Belfort's crimes, saying that Wolf of Wall Street is a "reckless attempt at continuing to pretend that these sorts of schemes are entertaining, even as the country is reeling from yet another round of Wall Street scandals". After DiCaprio defended himself from criticism, Variety journalist Whitney Friedlander called the film "three hours of cash, drugs, hookers, repeat" and argued that the film is a "celebration of this lifestyle" and implies that short-lived extreme wealth and extraordinary experiences are superior to normal behavior. Nikole TenBrink, vice president of marketing and membership at Risk and Insurance Management Society, has said the film is a "cautionary tale of what can happen when fraud is left unchecked". She describes Belfort's business acumen, his talent in communicating and selling his ideas, and his ability to motivate others as offering "valuable lessons for risk professionals as they seek to avoid similar pitfalls". Belfort's reaction Belfort said of the film's depiction of himself and Stratton Oakmont that it did an excellent job at describing the "overall feeling" of those years, adding, "the camaraderie, the insanity, that was accurate". Of his drug use, Belfort said that his actual habits were "much worse" than is depicted in the film and that he was "on 22 different drugs at the end". Belfort also analyzed the inaccuracies in the film's oversimplification of Stratton Oakmont's gradual transition from advocating for "speculative stocks" in order to "help build America" to committing crimes. He said he "didn't like hearing" overly simplified and blunt depictions of his crimes because "it made me look like I was just trying to rip people off". However, Belfort did acknowledge the cinematic benefits of these oversimplifications as "a very easy way in three hours" to "move the audience emotionally". Nadine Macaluso's reaction On September 28, 2022, Nadine Macaluso, Belfort's ex-wife on whom the character Naomi was based, said that the depiction of Belfort and their relationship was accurate and that she hopes to educate people on signs of domestic abuse and toxic relationships. Accolades The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director for Scorsese, Best Adapted Screenplay for Winter, Best Actor for DiCaprio, and Best Supporting Actor for Hill. It was also nominated for four BAFTAs, including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, and two Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. DiCaprio won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Soundtrack The film's soundtrack features both original and preexisting music tracks. It was released on December 17, 2013, for digital download. More than 60 songs are used in the film, but only 16 are on the official soundtrack. Among the notable exceptions are original compositions by Theodore Shapiro. See also The Wolf of Wall Street (1929 film) Scam 1992 The Big Bull Boiler Room (film) Gordon Gekko Microcap stock fraud List of films that most frequently use the word fuck References Further reading Kring-Schreifels, Jake (December 22, 2023). ""There Is No Limit": The Oral History of the 'Wolf of Wall Street' Minions". The Ringer. Retrieved September 18, 2024. External links Official website The Wolf of Wall Street at IMDb The Wolf of Wall Street at AllMovie The Wolf of Wall Street at Box Office Mojo The Wolf of Wall Street at Rotten Tomatoes

Steve_Carell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Carell

Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Michael Scott in the NBC sitcom The Office (2005–2011, 2013), and also worked at several points as a producer, executive producer, writer, and director. Carell has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for The Office. He was recognized as "America's Funniest Man" by Life. Carell gained recognition as a cast member on The Dana Carvey Show in 1996 and as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1999 to 2005. He went on to star in several comedy films, including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) and its 2013 sequel, as well as The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Evan Almighty (2007), Get Smart (2008), Date Night (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), and The Way, Way Back (2013). He also voice acted in Over the Hedge (2006), Horton Hears a Who! (2008) and the Despicable Me franchise (2010–present). Carell transitioned his career to taking more dramatic roles including his portrayal of John du Pont in Foxcatcher (2014), which earned him nominations for the Academy Award, the Golden Globe Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He also starred in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), The Big Short (2015), and Battle of the Sexes (2017), the last two earning him his eighth and ninth Golden Globe Award nominations, respectively. Other films include Café Society (2016), Last Flag Flying (2017), Vice (2018), Beautiful Boy (2018), and Asteroid City (2023). Carell returned to television as the co-creator of the comedy series Angie Tribeca (2016–2018), which he developed with his wife, Nancy Carell. He starred as morning anchor Mitch Kessler in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show (2019–present), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He also starred in Netflix sitcom Space Force (2020–2022), and the FX on Hulu limited series The Patient (2022). He made his Broadway debut playing the title role in the Lincoln Center Theatre revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya (2024). Early life and education Steven John Carell was born on August 16, 1962 at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, the youngest of four brothers, and raised in nearby Acton, Massachusetts. His father, Edwin A. Carell (1925–2021), was a mechanical engineer, and his mother, Harriet Theresa (née Koch; 1925–2016), was a psychiatric nurse. Carell's maternal uncle, Stanley Koch, worked with scientist Allen B. DuMont to create improved cathode ray tubes. His father was of Italian and German descent and his mother was of Polish ancestry. His father's surname was originally Caroselli but it was changed to Carell in the 1950s. Carell was raised Roman Catholic and was educated at Nashoba Brooks School, The Fenn School, and Middlesex School. He played ice hockey and lacrosse while in high school. He played the fife, performing with other members of his family, and later joined a reenacting group portraying the 10th (North Lincoln) Regiment of Foot. He attributed his interest in history to this, earning a degree in the subject from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, in 1984. While at Denison, Carell was a member of Burpee's Seedy Theatrical Company, a student-run improvisational comedy troupe, and was a goalie on the school's Big Red hockey team for four years. He also spent time as a disc jockey under the name "Sapphire Steve Carell" at WDUB, the campus radio station. Career 1989–2005: Early work and late night Carell stated that he worked as a USPS mail carrier in Littleton, Massachusetts, but quit after seven months because his boss told him he was not very good at the job and needed to be faster. Early in his performing career, Carell acted onstage in a touring children's theater company, later in the comedy musical Knat Scatt Private Eye, and in a television commercial for the restaurant chain Brown's Chicken in 1989. The Dana Carvey Show (1996) In 1991, Carell performed with Chicago troupe The Second City where Stephen Colbert was his understudy for a time. Carell made his film debut in a minor role in Curly Sue. In spring 1996 he was a cast member of The Dana Carvey Show, a short-lived sketch comedy program on ABC. Along with fellow cast member Colbert, Carell provided the voice of Gary, half of The Ambiguously Gay Duo, the Robert Smigel-produced animated short which continued on Saturday Night Live later that year. While the program lasted only seven episodes, The Dana Carvey Show has since been credited with forging Carell's career. He starred in a few short-lived television series, including Come to Papa and Over the Top. He has made numerous guest appearances, including in "Funny Girl," an episode of Just Shoot Me! Additional screen credits include Brad Hall's short-lived situation comedy Watching Ellie (2002–2003) and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda. The Daily Show (1999–2005) Carell was a correspondent for The Daily Show from 1999 to 2005, with several regular segments including "Even Stevphen" with Stephen Colbert and "Produce Pete." 2004–2013: The Office and comedic roles Carell's first major film role was as weatherman Brick Tamland in the 2004 hit comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Struck by Carell's performance in the film, Anchorman producer Judd Apatow approached Carell about creating a film together, and Carell told him about an idea he had involving a middle-aged man who is still a virgin. The result was the 2005 film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which Carell and Apatow developed and wrote together, starring Carell as the title character. The film made $109 million in domestic box office sales and established him as a leading man. It also earned Carell an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance and a WGA Award nomination, along with Apatow, for Best Original Screenplay. In 2005, Carell signed a deal with NBC to star in The Office, a remake of the British TV series of the same name which was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Developed by Greg Daniels this series, shot mockumentary-style, revolves around life at a mid-sized paper supply company. Carell played the role of Michael Scott, the idiosyncratic regional manager of Dunder Mifflin, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Although the first season of the adaptation suffered mediocre ratings, NBC renewed it for another season due to the anticipated success of Carell's film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and the series subsequently became a raging success. Carell won a Golden Globe Award and TCA Award in 2006 for his role in The Office. He received six consecutive Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series nominations for his work in the series (2006–2011). Carell earned approximately US$175,000 per episode of the third season of The Office, twice his salary for the previous two seasons. In an Entertainment Weekly interview, he commented on his salary, saying, "You don't want people to think you're a pampered jerk. Salaries can be ridiculous. On the other hand, a lot of people are making a lot of money off of these shows." Carell played Uncle Arthur, imitating the camp mannerisms of Paul Lynde's original character, in Bewitched, a TV adaptation co-starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. He also voiced Hammy the Squirrel in the 2006 animated film, Over the Hedge and Ned McDodd, the mayor of Whoville, in the 2008 animated film Horton Hears a Who! He starred in Little Miss Sunshine during 2006, as Uncle Frank. His work in the films Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Bewitched established Carell as a member of Hollywood's so-called "Frat Pack," a group of actors who often appear in films together, that also includes Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Vince Vaughn, Paul Rudd, and Luke Wilson. Carell acted as the title character of Evan Almighty, a sequel to Bruce Almighty, reprising his role as Evan Baxter, now a U.S. Congressman. The film received mostly negative reviews. Carell starred in the 2007 film Dan in Real Life, co-starring Dane Cook and Juliette Binoche. Carell played Maxwell Smart in the 2008 film Get Smart, an adaptation of the TV series starring Don Adams. It was successful, grossing over $230 million worldwide. During 2007, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Carell was allowed "flex time" during filming to work on theatrical films. Carell worked on Evan Almighty during a production hiatus during the second season of The Office. Production ended during the middle of the fourth season of The Office because of Carell's and others' refusal to cross the picket line of the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike. Carell, a WGA member, has written two episodes of The Office: "Casino Night" and "Survivor Man." Both episodes were praised, and Carell won a Writers Guild of America Award for "Casino Night." On April 29, 2010, Carell stated he would be leaving the show when his contract expired at the conclusion of the 2010–2011 season because he wanted to focus on his film career. However, according to interviews in The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, Carell did not actually plan to leave at the time and was only "thinking out loud" during the interview, but after his statement failed to elicit a reaction from NBC, he decided it was best to move on. In 2010 Carell starred with Tina Fey in Date Night and voiced Gru, the main character in the Universal CGI film Despicable Me along with Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, and Julie Andrews. He reprised the role in the 2013 sequel Despicable Me 2, the third Despicable Me 3 in 2017, and fourth Despicable Me 4 in 2024. In 2008, Carousel signed a first look deal with Warner Bros. In 2009, his production company Carousel Productions launched a television arm and signed a deal with Universal Media Studios. He has several other projects in the works, including a remake of the 1967 Peter Sellers film The Bobo. He is doing voice-over work in commercials for Wrigley's Extra gum. Carell has launched a television division of his production company, Carousel Productions, which has contracted a three-year overall deal with Universal Media Studios, the studio behind his NBC comedy series. Thom Hinkle and Campbell Smith of North South Prods., former producers on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, were hired to manage Carousel's TV operations. His last episode as a main character, "Goodbye, Michael," aired April 28, 2011, with his final shot showing Michael returning his microphone to the fictional documentary crew, before walking to a Colorado-bound plane to join his fiancée, Holly Flax, in Boulder, Colorado. His final line in this episode, to Pam Beesly, is thus unheard. Although he was invited back for the series finale in 2013, Carell originally declined believing that it would go against his character's arc. Ultimately Carell did reprise the role briefly in the series finale. Also in 2013 Carell acted in the summer coming-of-age comedy The Way, Way Back starring Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, and Allison Janney. Carell was asked about participating in a revival of the series in 2018, during the press day for Welcome to Marwen, Carell told Collider reporter Christina Radish, "I'll tell you, no... The show is way more popular now than when it was on the air. I just can't see it being the same thing, and I think most folks would want it to be the same thing, but it wouldn't be. Ultimately, I think it's maybe best to leave well enough alone and just let it exist as what it was...I just wouldn't want to make the mistake of making a less good version of it. The odds wouldn't be in its favor, in terms of it recapturing exactly what it was, the first time." 2014–2018: Dramatic film roles In 2014, Carell starred in the true crime drama film Foxcatcher alongside Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum in which Carell played the millionaire and convicted murderer John Eleuthère du Pont. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Carell was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor and the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2015, Carell reprised his role as Gru for a cameo appearance in the film Minions. Carell played activist Steven Goldstein in the gay rights drama Freeheld, replacing Zach Galifianakis, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. The film co-stars Julianne Moore, Elliot Page, and Michael Shannon, and was released in October 2015. He followed this with another biographical drama, The Big Short, in which he portrayed banker Steve Eisman, whose name was changed in the film to Mark Baum. Directed by Adam McKay, the film stars Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt, and it was released in December 2015. The film earned Carell a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The following year he replaced Bruce Willis in Woody Allen's Café Society (2016), alongside Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg. The film premiered at the 69th Cannes Film Festival opening the festival. The film's consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads, "Café Society's lovely visuals and charming performances round out a lightweight late-period Allen comedy whose genuine pleasures offset its amiable predictability." In 2017, Carell headlined the biographical comedy-drama Battle of the Sexes, portraying tennis star Bobby Riggs, with Emma Stone co-starring as Billie Jean King. The film earned both Carell and Stone Golden Globe nominations. Carell also starred as Larry "Doc" Shepherd in the war comedy-drama film Last Flag Flying directed by Richard Linklater starring Laurence Fishburne and Bryan Cranston. In 2018, Carell starred in three films. He led the addiction drama Beautiful Boy as real life father David Sheff, whose son Nic (Timothée Chalamet) struggles with drug addiction. He also played Donald Rumsfeld in Adam McKay's political satire, Vice, about the life of former Vice President Dick Cheney (Christian Bale). The film received mixed reviews, and went on to be nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. His third 2018 role was starring as Mark Hogancamp of Marwencol in Robert Zemeckis' Welcome to Marwen. The film received a 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus reading, "Welcome to Marwen has dazzling effects and a sadly compelling story, but the movie's disjointed feel and clumsy screenplay make this invitation easy to decline." The movie was a box office failure, grossing $12.7 million against a budget of around $49 million. 2019–present: Career expansion In 2019, Carell returned to television to star in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show opposite Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. Carell played Mitch Kessler, a morning news show anchor who is struggling to maintain relevance after being fired due to a sexual misconduct accusation. The Morning Show received a two-season order from Apple. The first season premiered in the fall of 2019 and the second season premiered in 2020. For his performance in the first season, Carell was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, his eleventh Emmy nomination overall. Carell had originally signed a one-year deal with Apple to star in the first season only but he signed on to star in the second season in October 2019. Since May 2020, Carell also starred in the Netflix workplace comedy series Space Force, based on the proposed space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces: the United States Space Force. Carell created and produces Space Force with Greg Daniels, who created and produced The Office. Carell also wrote the pilot episode with Daniels. The show was renewed for a second season in November 2020. Carell starred in the political comedy film Irresistible, written and directed by Jon Stewart. The film was initially set for a theatrical release in May 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the film was released on Premium VOD and selected theaters on June 26, 2020. In 2022, Carell reprised his role as Gru in the film Minions: The Rise of Gru. He also starred in (and served as executive producer for) FX on Hulu's ten-episode original series The Patient; in that series, Carell portrays a therapist who is imprisoned by a serial killer who wants to resist the urge to kill. Carell replaced Bill Murray, who contracted COVID-19, in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City (2023). In 2023, it was announced that Carell would be making his Broadway debut as the title role in the Lincoln Center revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. The production will be directed by Lila Neugebauer and Carell will star alongside Alison Pill, William Jackson Harper, Alfred Molina, Anika Noni Rose and Jayne Houdyshell. Personal life On August 5, 1995, Carell married Saturday Night Live cast member Nancy Walls, whom he met when she was a student in an improv class he was teaching at The Second City Training Center. They have a daughter named Elisabeth Anne (born May 2001) and a son named John (born June 2004). Carell and his wife have appeared together in the comedy films The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, as well as the comedy series The Daily Show and The Office. They also co-created the comedy series Angie Tribeca. In February 2009, Carell purchased the Marshfield Hills General Store in Marshfield, Massachusetts. In an interview with 60 Minutes, Carell cited George Carlin, John Cleese, Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, and Peter Sellers as his inspirations for acting and comedy. During the George Floyd protests, Carell donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which bails low-income individuals out of jail. Filmography Film Television Theatre Video games Web series Awards and nominations For his contributions to the film industry, Carell received the 2,570th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016. References External links Steve Carell at the American Film Institute Catalog Steve Carell at IMDb Steve Carell at the TCM Movie Database

IF_(film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IF_(film)

IF is a 2024 American fantasy comedy drama film written, produced, and directed by John Krasinski. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, Krasinski, and Fiona Shaw with supporting roles done by Alan Kim and Liza Colón-Zayas along with the voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., and Steve Carell. Combining live-action and animation, the film follows a young girl (Fleming) who goes through a difficult experience and begins to see everyone's imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life children have grown up. Development of the film began in 2019, with Krasinski set to write and direct and Reynolds attached to star. The rest of the cast joined between October 2021 and January 2022, and filming took place in New York City between August of that year and May 2023. IF was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on May 17, 2024. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $190.3 million worldwide. Plot Twelve-year-old Bea moves into her grandmother Margaret's apartment in New York while her father waits for heart surgery in the same hospital where her mother died of cancer years earlier. One night, Bea sees an unfamiliar creature, following it back to her grandmother's building. The next day, Bea sees it again, accompanied by a man. She follows them to a nearby house where the man, Cal, retrieves a large furry purple creature named Blue. Bea also meets the other creature, a butterfly-like being named Blossom, and faints. Bea awakens in Cal's apartment where she learns that he has been working with imaginary friends (or IFs) to place them with new children as their original children have grown up and forgotten them. Initially reluctant, she eventually decides to help Cal. The next day, Cal takes Bea to Memory Lane Retirement Home, a retirement community for IFs housed underneath a swing ride in Coney Island where he briefly trips over the invisible IF Keith. An elderly teddy bear and the head of the facility named Lewis inspires her to use her imagination to redesign the facility, much to the chagrin of Cal. Bea tries to match one of the IFs with Benjamin, a young patient at the hospital, but he is unable to see any of them. Lewis suggests to Bea that maybe IFs do not need new kids, but rather to reunite with their old ones. Talking with her grandmother, Bea sees a photo of her as a young dancer and recognizes Blossom in the background. Realizing she was her grandmother's IF, she decides to test Lewis' idea. Playing one of her grandmother's records inspires Margaret to dance and she remembers Blossom, instilling Bea with hope. Following a tip, Bea, Cal, and Blue find Blue's original kid Jeremy, now a grown man trying to launch a business. With Bea's help Jeremy remembers Blue, who gives him the confidence he needs for a business presentation. That evening, Bea arrives at Margaret's who frantically informs her granddaughter that there has been a complication with her father's treatment. Comforted by Cal, Bea says she does not want to say goodbye to her dad, so he suggests she tell him a story instead. At the hospital, Bea tells her father a story about how she was pushing herself to act like a grown-up when she is just a child who still needs her father. He wakes up and they hug. When Bea goes outside his hospital room, she sees that all of the IFs, who had accompanied her to the hospital, are gone. Returning to her grandmother's building, Bea goes to thank Cal only to discover that the door to his apartment opens into an old storage room as revealed by the landlady. After her dad is released from the hospital, he and Bea pack up to go home. During this, Bea realizes from an old picture she painted that Cal is actually her own IF, whom she had forgotten after her mother's death. Bea rushes to Calvin's room and thanks him for helping, telling him she will always need him. This allows her to see Cal and the IFs again and they reunite. Some time later, Cal continues reuniting the IFs with their original kids, now grown up. Benjamin meets his IF, a cartoonish bespectacled dragon doctor with a cast and crutch. Bea and her father return home, where the latter trips, then says, "Hey, Keith". Cast Cailey Fleming as Bea, a girl who can see IFs Ryan Reynolds as Cal, Bea's neighbor who can also see IFs John Krasinski as Bea's unnamed father Fiona Shaw as Bea's grandmother Alan Kim as Benjamin, a boy recuperating in the hospital from his injuries Liza Colón-Zayas as Janet, a nurse who watches over Bea's father Bobby Moynihan as Jeremy, a businessman who was the creator of Blue Catharine Daddario as Bea's mother Barbara Andres as the Woman Upstairs, the unnamed elderly landlady of the building that Bea's grandmother lives in. Voices Steve Carell as Blue, a large purple monster IF Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Blossom, a rubber hose-style butterfly-like IF Louis Gossett Jr. as Lewis, an elderly teddy bear IF who runs the Memory Lane Retirement Home Awkwafina as Bubble, an IF composed of a bunch of bubbles that can pop and reconstitute themselves Emily Blunt as Unicorn, a plush unicorn IF with a pink and green mane George Clooney as Spaceman, an astronaut IF Bradley Cooper as Ice, an IF who resemble an anthropomorphic glass of ice water Matt Damon as Flower, an IF who resembles an anthropomorphic sunflower in a plaid suit Bill Hader as Banana, an anthropomorphic banana IF who works as a water aerobics instructor at the Memory Lane Retirement Home Richard Jenkins as Art Teacher, a lay figure IF who works as the art teacher at the Memory Lane Retirement Home Keegan-Michael Key as Slime, an IF who resembles a green slime blob John Krasinski as Marshmallow, an anthropomorphic marshmallow IF whose head is always on fire Blake Lively as Octopuss, an anthropomorphic cat IF who wears an octopus costume Allyson Seeger as Viola, an anthropomorphic viola IF with sunglasses Sebastian Maniscalco as Magician Mouse, an anthropomorphic mouse IF who is dressed like a magician Christopher Meloni as Cosmo, a detective IF with an obscured face Matthew Rhys as Ghost, a crown-wearing ghost IF Sam Rockwell as Guardian Dog, an anthropomorphic dog superhero IF Maya Rudolph as Ally, an anthropomorphic plush alligator IF Amy Schumer as Gummy Bear, a large gummy bear IF Jon Stewart as Robot, an '80s-style toy robot IF in a domed helmet and one large wheel instead of legs Production In October 2019, Paramount Pictures outbid Lionsgate and Sony, among other studios, to win the rights to Imaginary Friends, a project developed by John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds, with Krasinski set to write and direct it. In May 2021, Krasinski's Sunday Night Productions and Reynolds's Maximum Effort signed first-look deals with Paramount. In October 2021, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fiona Shaw joined the cast. In January 2022, Steve Carell, Alan Kim, Cailey Fleming, and Louis Gossett Jr. joined the cast, with the film retitled IF. The film reunites Krasinski and Carell, who both starred in The Office (2005–2013) as Jim Halpert and Michael Scott, respectively. In August 2022, Bobby Moynihan was added to the cast. Principal photography began on August 31, 2022, with Janusz Kamiński as cinematographer, and wrapped by early May 2023. Framestore provided the visual effects and animation. Animation director Arslan Elver and VFX supervisor Chris Lawrence worked alongside Krasinski on set and during pre- and post-production. The film's end credits include Brad Pitt as Keith, an invisible IF with no lines, understood to be just offscreen when other characters trip over him. Pitt's credit is a reference to his cameo as Vanisher in Deadpool 2 (2018), co-starring Reynolds. The film is dedicated to Gossett Jr., who died before its release. Music Michael Giacchino composed the score for the film. The film’s soundtrack includes Tina Turner’s "Better Be Good to Me", Nat King Cole's "L-O-V-E" and the “Adagio for Spartacus and Phyrigia” from Aram Khachaturian’s Spartacus. Release Theatrical IF was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on May 17, 2024, after its originally scheduled release date of November 17, 2023 was first pushed to May 24, 2024, and then shifted forward by one week. Home media The film was released on digital platforms by Paramount Home Entertainment on June 18, 2024. It began streaming on Paramount+ on July 9, 2024, and was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on August 13, 2024. Reception Box office IF grossed $111.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $79.2 million in other territories, for a total of $190.3 million worldwide. Variety estimated the film would need to gross $275 million worldwide in order to break-even. In the United States and Canada, IF was released alongside The Strangers: Chapter 1 and Back to Black, and was originally projected to gross around $40 million from 4,041 theaters in its opening weekend. After making $10.3 million on its first day (including $1.8 million from Thursday night previews), weekend estimates were lowered to $30 million. It went on to debut to $33.7 million, topping the box office. In its second weekend, the film made $16.8 million (a drop of -53%), finishing third behind newcomers Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Garfield Movie. In France, the film made $3.3 million during its opening weekend in 621 cinemas. Critical response On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of 202 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "A sweet ode to rediscovering one's inner child, IF largely works as old-fashioned family entertainment despite an occasionally unfocused and unnecessarily complicated plot." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 46 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it an 84% overall positive score, with 64% saying they would definitely recommend it. Adrian Horton of The Guardian awarded the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing that it "checks the boxes" on the elements of a family-friendly movie, but also noting that it does not "fully conjure the magic" of other films in the genre. Another mixed review was published on NPR by Bob Mondello, who wrote that "mostly the filmmakers detour, decorate and digitize their story rather than telling it, and that doesn't mesh well with the real-world stuff — dad's surgery, for instance, and Bea's wandering all over Brooklyn without her grandma seeming to notice. And yes, I know: IF is a kid-flick, but it still needs grounding. We're in Brooklyn, not Willy Wonkaland." RogerEbert.com reviewer Clint Worthington called the film "a well-intentioned misfire". Tomris Laffly of Variety wrote that the movie was "in desperate need of some coherent world-building", while praising the performance of Cailey Fleming in the lead role. In a more negative review for The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck criticised the film as "plagued by significant tonal shifts and pacing issues". Noah Berlatsky of Chicago Reader was even more dismissive, stating, "IF makes you wish you were watching some other movie. (...) There's a fine line between the whimsical dream logic of Roald Dahl and irritating, incoherent nonsense. Director John Krasinski's new kids film IF is nowhere near that line. Despite the best efforts of the extremely talented child actor Cailey Fleming, IF makes no sense, narratively, emotionally, or visually." Several critics noted the film's sharing some similarities with the Cartoon Network animated series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which itself featured an orphanage that takes care of imaginary friends after their kids outgrow them and they leave after other children adopt them. Notes References External links Official website IF at IMDb IF at AllMovie IF at Box Office Mojo IF at Rotten Tomatoes

University_of_Mississippi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Mississippi

The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university in Oxford, Mississippi, with a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and is the state's largest by enrollment. The Mississippi Legislature chartered the university on February 24, 1848, and it admitted its first 80 students. During the Civil War, the university operated as a Confederate hospital and narrowly avoided destruction by Ulysses S. Grant's forces. In 1962, during the civil rights movement, a race riot occurred on campus when segregationists tried to prevent the enrollment of African American student James Meredith. The university has since taken measures to improve its image. The university is closely associated with writer William Faulkner and owns and manages his former Oxford home Rowan Oak, which with other on-campus sites Barnard Observatory and Lyceum–The Circle Historic District, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ole Miss is classified as "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is one of 33 institutions participating in the National Sea Grant Program and also participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Its research efforts include the National Center for Physics Acoustics, the National Center for Natural Products Research, and the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research. The university operates the country's only federally contracted Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved cannabis facility. It also operates interdisciplinary institutes such as the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Its athletic teams compete as the Ole Miss Rebels in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I Southeastern Conference. The university's alumni, faculty, and affiliates include 27 Rhodes Scholars, 10 governors, 5 US senators, a head of government, and a Nobel Prize Laureate. Other alumni have received accolades in the arts such as Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Pulitzer Prizes. Its medical center performed the first human lung transplant and animal-to-human heart transplant. History Founding and early history The Mississippi Legislature chartered the University of Mississippi on February 24, 1848. Planners selected an isolated, rural site in Oxford as a "sylvan exile" that would foster academic studies and focus. In 1845, residents of Lafayette County donated land west of Oxford for the campus and the following year, architect William Nichols oversaw construction of an academic building called the Lyceum, two dormitories, and faculty residences. On November 6, 1848, the university, offering a classical curriculum, opened to its first class of 80 students, most of whom were children of elite slaveholders, all of whom were white, and all but one of whom were from Mississippi. For 23 years, the university was Mississippi's only public institution of higher learning and for 110 years, its only comprehensive university. In 1854, the University of Mississippi School of Law was established, becoming the fourth state-supported law school in the United States. Early president Frederick A. P. Barnard sought to increase the university's stature, placing him in conflict with the more-conservative board of trustees. The only result of Barnard's hundred-page 1858 report to the board was the university head's title being changed to "chancellor". Barnard was a Massachusetts-born graduate of Yale University; his northern background and Union sympathies made his position contentious—a student assaulted his slave and the state legislature investigated him. Following the election of US President Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Mississippi became the second state to secede; the university's mathematics professor Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar drafted the articles of secession. Students organized into a military company called the "University Greys", which became Company A, 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment in the Confederate States Army. Within a month of the Civil War's outbreak, only five students remained at the university, and by late 1861, it was closed. In its final action, the board of trustees awarded Barnard a doctorate of divinity. Within six months, the campus had been converted into a Confederate hospital; the Lyceum was used as the hospital and a building that had stood on the modern-day site of Farley Hall operated as its morgue. In November 1862, the campus was evacuated as General Ulysses S. Grant's Union forces approached. Although Kansan troops destroyed much of the medical equipment, a lone remaining professor persuaded Grant against burning the campus. Grant's forces left after three weeks and the campus returned to being a Confederate hospital. Over the war's course, more than 700 soldiers were buried on campus. Post-war The University of Mississippi reopened in October 1865. To avoid rejecting veterans, the university lowered admission standards and decreased costs by eliminating tuition and allowing students to live off-campus. The student body remained entirely white: in 1870 the chancellor declared that he and the entire faculty would resign rather than admit "negro" students. In 1882, the university began admitting women but they were not permitted to live on campus or attend law school. In 1885, the University of Mississippi hired Sarah McGehee Isom, becoming the first southeastern US college to hire a female faculty member. Nearly 100 years later, in 1981, the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies was established in her honor. The university's byname "Ole Miss" was first used in 1897, when it won a contest of suggestions for a yearbook title. The term originated as a title domestic slaves used to distinguish the mistress of a plantation from "young misses". Fringe origin theories include it coming from a diminutive of "Old Mississippi", or from the name of the "Ole Miss" train that ran from Memphis to New Orleans. Within two years, students and alumni were using "Ole Miss" to refer to the university. Between 1900 and 1930, the Mississippi Legislature introduced bills aiming to relocate, close, or merge the university with Mississippi State University. All such legislation failed. During the 1930s, the governor of Mississippi Theodore G. Bilbo was politically hostile toward the University of Mississippi, firing administrators and faculty, and replacing them with his friends in the "Bilbo purge". Bilbo's actions severely damaged the university's reputation, leading to the temporary loss of its accreditation. Consequently, in 1944, the Constitution of Mississippi was amended to protect the university's board of trustees from political pressure. During World War II, the University of Mississippi was one of 131 colleges and universities that participated in the national V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a Navy commission. Integration In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Eight years after the Brown decision, all attempts by African American applicants to enroll had failed. Shortly after the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, James Meredith—an African American Air Force veteran and former student at Jackson State University—applied to the University of Mississippi. After months of obstruction by Mississippi officials, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Meredith's enrollment, and the Department of Justice under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy entered the case on Meredith's behalf. On three occasions, either governor Ross R. Barnett or lieutenant governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. physically blocked Meredith's entry to the campus. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held both Barnett and Johnson Jr. in contempt, and issued fines exceeding $10,000 for each day they refused to enroll Meredith. On September 30, 1962, President Kennedy dispatched 127 U.S. Marshals, 316 deputized U.S. Border Patrol agents, and 97 federalized Federal Bureau of Prisons personnel to escort Meredith. After nightfall, far-right former Major General Edwin Walker and outside agitators arrived, and a gathering of segregationist students before the Lyceum became a violent mob. Segregationist rioters threw Molotov cocktails and bottles of acid, and fired guns at federal marshals and reporters. 160 marshals would be injured, with 28 receiving gunshot wounds, and two civilians—French journalist Paul Guihard and Oxford repairman Ray Gunter—were killed by gunfire. Eventually, 13,000 soldiers arrived in Oxford and quashed the riot. One-third of the federal officers—166 men—were injured, as were 40 federal soldiers and National Guardsmen. More than 30,000 personnel were deployed, alerted, and committed in Oxford—the most in American history for a single disturbance. Meredith enrolled and attended a class on October 1. By 1968, Ole Miss had around 100 African American students, and by the 2019–2020 academic year, African Americans constituted 12.5 percent of the student body. Recent history In 1972, Ole Miss purchased Rowan Oak, the former home of Nobel Prize–winning writer William Faulkner. The building has been preserved as it was at Faulkner's death in 1962. Faulkner was the university's postmaster in the early 1920s and wrote As I Lay Dying (1930) at the university powerhouse. His Nobel Prize medallion is displayed in the university library. The university hosted the inaugural Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in 1974. In 1980, Willie Morris became the university's first writer in residence. In 2002, Ole Miss marked the 40th anniversary of integration with a yearlong series of events, including an oral history of the university, symposiums, a memorial, and a reunion of federal marshals who served at the campus. In 2006, the 44th anniversary of integration, a statue of Meredith was dedicated on campus. Two years later, the site of the 1962 riots was designated as a National Historic Landmark. The university also held a yearlong program to mark the 50th anniversary of integration in 2012. The university hosted the first presidential debate of 2008—the first presidential debate held in Mississippi—between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. Ole Miss retired its mascot Colonel Reb in 2003, citing its Confederate imagery. Although a grass-roots movement to adopt Star Wars character Admiral Ackbar of the Rebel Alliance gained significant support, Rebel Black Bear, a reference to Faulkner's short story The Bear, was selected in 2010. The Bear was replaced with another mascot, Tony the Landshark, in 2017. Beginning in 2022, football coach Lane Kiffin's dog Juice became the de facto mascot. In 2015, the university removed the Mississippi State Flag, which included the Confederate battle emblem, and in 2020, it relocated a prominent Confederate monument. Campus Oxford campus The University of Mississippi's Oxford campus is partially located in Oxford and partially in University, Mississippi, a census-designated place. The main campus is situated at an altitude of around 500 feet (150 m), and has expanded from one square mile (260 ha) of land to around 1,200 acres (1.9 sq mi; 490 ha). The campus' buildings are largely designed in a Georgian architectural style; some of the newer buildings have a more contemporary architecture. At the campus' center is "The Circle", which consists of eight academic buildings organized around an ovaloid common. The buildings include the Lyceum (1848), the "Y" Building (1853), and six later buildings constructed in a Neoclassical Revival style. The Lyceum was the first building on the campus and was expanded with two wings in 1903. According to the university, the Lyceum's bell is the oldest academic bell in the United States. Near the Circle is The Grove, a 10-acre (4.0 ha) plot of land that was set aside by chancellor Robert Burwell Fulton c. 1893, and hosts up to 100,000 tailgaters during home games. Barnard Observatory, which was constructed under Chancellor Barnard in 1859, was designed to house the world's largest telescope. Due to the Civil War's outbreak, however, the telescope was never delivered and was instead acquired by Northwestern University. The observatory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The first major building built after the Civil War was Ventress Hall, which was constructed in a Victorian Romanesque style in 1889. From 1929 to 1930, architect Frank P. Gates designed 18 buildings on campus, mostly in Georgian Revival architectural style, including (Old) University High School, Barr Hall, Bondurant Hall, Farley Hall (also known as Lamar Hall), Faulkner Hall, and Wesley Knight Field House. During the 1930s, the many building projects at the campus were largely funded by the Public Works Administration and other federal entities. Among the notable buildings built in this period is the dual-domed Kennon Observatory (1939). Two large modern buildings—the Ole Miss Union (1976) and Lamar Hall (1977)—caused controversy by diverging from the university's traditional architecture. In 1998, the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation donated $20 million to establish the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, which was the first building on campus to be solely dedicated to the performing arts. As of 2020, the university was constructing a 202,000-square-foot (18,800 m2) STEM facility, the largest single construction project in the campus' history. The university owns and operates the University of Mississippi Museum, which comprises collections of American fine art, Classical antiquities, and Southern folk art, as well as historic properties in Oxford. Ole Miss also owns University-Oxford Airport, which is located north of the main campus. North Mississippi Japanese Supplementary School, a Japanese weekend school, is operated in conjunction with Ole Miss, with classes held on campus. It opened in 2008 and was jointly established by several Japanese companies and the university. Many children have parents who are employees at Toyota facilities in Blue Springs. Campus of the University of Mississippi Satellite campuses In 1903, the University of Mississippi School of Medicine was established on the Oxford campus. It offered only two years of medical courses; students had to attend an out-of-state medical school to complete their degrees. This form of medical education continued until 1955, when the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) was established on a 164-acre (66 ha) site in Jackson, Mississippi, and the School of Medicine was relocated there. A nursing school was established in 1956 and since then, other health-related schools have been added. As of 2021, UMMC offers medical and graduate degrees. In addition to the medical center, the university has satellite campuses in Booneville, DeSoto, Grenada, Rankin, and Tupelo. Administration and organization Divisions of the university The University of Mississippi consists of 15 schools. The largest undergraduate school is the College of Liberal Arts. Graduate schools include a law school, a school of business administration, an engineering school, and a medical school. Administration The University of Mississippi's chief administrative officer is the chancellor, a position Glenn Boyce has held since 2019. The chancellor is supported by vice-chancellors who administer areas such as research and intercollegiate athletics. The provost oversees the university's academic affairs, and a dean oversees each school, as well as general studies and the honors college. A faculty senate advises the administration. The board of trustees of the Mississippi State Institutions of Higher Learning is the constitutional governing body that is responsible for policy and financial oversight of the University of Mississippi and the state's other seven public secondary institutions. the board consists of 12 members, who serve staggered nine-year terms and represent the state's three Supreme Court Districts. The board appoints the commissioner of higher education, who administers its policies. Finances As of April 2021, the University of Mississippi's endowment was $775 million. The university's budget for fiscal year 2019 was over $540 million. Less than 13% of operating revenues are funded by the state of Mississippi, and the university relies heavily on private donations. The Ford Foundation has donated nearly $65 million to the Oxford campus and UMMC. Academics and programs The University of Mississippi is the state's largest university by enrollment and is considered the state's flagship university. In 2015, the student-faculty ratio was 19:1. Of its classes, 47.4 percent have fewer than 20 students. The most popular subjects include marketing, education and teaching, accountancy, finance, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration. To receive a bachelor's degree, students must have at least 120 semester hours with passing grades and a cumulative 2.0 GPA. The university also offers graduate degrees such as PhDs and masters of art, science, and fine arts. The university maintains the Mississippi Teacher Corps, a free graduate program that educates teachers for critical-needs public schools. Taylor Medals, which were first awarded in 1905, are presented to exceptional students nominated by the faculty. The medals are named in honor of Marcus Elvis Taylor, who graduated in 1871 and are given to less than one percent of each class. Research Ole Miss is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, the university spent $137 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 142nd in the nation. It is one of the 33 colleges and universities participating in the National Sea Grant Program and participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Since 1948, the university has been a member of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities. In 1963, University of Mississippi Medical Center surgeons, led by James Hardy, performed the world's first human lung transplant, and in 1964 the world's first animal-to-human heart transplant. Because Hardy researched transplantation, consisting of primate studies during the previous nine years, the heart of a chimpanzee was used for the transplant. In 1965, the university established its Medicinal Plant Garden, which the School of Pharmacy uses for drug research. Since 1968, the school has operated the only legal marijuana farm and production facility in the United States. The National Institute on Drug Abuse contracts to the university production of cannabis for use in approved research studies and for distribution to the seven surviving medical marijuana patients grandfathered into the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program. The facility is the only source of marijuana medical researchers can use to conduct Food and Drug Administration-approved tests. The National Center for Physics Acoustics (NCPA), which Congress established in 1986, is located on campus. In addition to conducting research, the NCPA houses the Acoustical Society of America's archives. The university also operates the University of Mississippi Field Station, which includes 223 research ponds and supports long-term ecological research, and hosts the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research and the Mississippi Law Research Institute. In 2012, the university completed Insight Park, a research park that "welcomes companies commercializing University of Mississippi research". Special programs Honors education at the University of Mississippi, consisting of lectures by distinguished academics, began in 1953. In 1974, this program became the University Scholars Program, and in 1983, the University Honors Program was created and honors-core courses were offered. In 1997, Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale and wife Sally donated $5.4 million to establish the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College (SMBHC), which provides a capstone project—a senior thesis—and endowed scholarships. In 1977, the university established its Center for the Study of Southern Culture with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which is housed in the College of Liberal Arts. The center provides for interdisciplinary studies of Southern history and culture. In 2000, the university established the Trent Lott Leadership Institute, which is named after alumnus and then-US Senate majority leader Trent Lott. The institute was funded with large corporate donations from MCI Inc., Lockheed Martin, and other companies. In addition to leadership initiatives, the institute offers a BA degree in Public Policy Leadership. The Center for Intelligence and Security Studies (CISS) delivers academic programming on intelligence analysis and engages in applied research and consortium building with government, private, and academic partners. In 2012, the United States Director of National Intelligence designated CISS as an Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence (CAE), becoming one of 29 such college programs in the United States. Other special programs include the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence—established jointly by the university and Toyota in 2008—and the Chinese Language Flagship Program (simplified Chinese: 中文旗舰项目; traditional Chinese: 中文旗艦項目; pinyin: Zhōngwén Qíjiàn Xiàngmù). The Croft Institute for International Studies, which was founded in 1998, provides the only international studies undergraduate program in Mississippi. The University of Mississippi is a member of the SEC Academic Consortium, which has since been renamed SECU. The collaborative initiative was designed to promote research, scholarship, and achievement among the member universities in the Southeastern Conference. In 2013, the university participated in the SEC Symposium on renewable energy in Atlanta, Georgia, which was organized and led by the University of Georgia and the UGA Bioenergy Systems Research Institute. In 2021, actor Morgan Freeman and Professor Linda Keena donated $1 million to the University of Mississippi to create the Center for Evidence-Based Policing and Reform, which will provide law-enforcement training and seek to improve engagement between law enforcement and communities. Rankings and accolades In U.S. News & World Report's 2023 rankings, the University of Mississippi was tied for 163rd place among national universities and 88th among public universities. In 2023, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the professional MBA program at the School of Business Administration #72 nationally, and the online MBA program in the top 25. As of 2018, all three degree programs at the Patterson School of Accountancy were among the top 10 accounting programs according to the Public Accounting Report. Since 2012, the Chronicle of Higher Education has named the University of Mississippi as one of the "Great Colleges to Work For". In the 2018 results, released in the Chronicle's annual report on "The Academic Workplace", the university was among 84 institutions honored from the 253 colleges and universities surveyed. In 2018, the university's campus was ranked the second-safest in the SEC and one of the safest in the U.S. As of 2019, the university has had 27 Rhodes Scholars. Since 1998, it has 10 Goldwater Scholars, seven Truman Scholars, 18 Fulbright Scholars, one Marshall Scholar, three Udall Scholars, two Gates Cambridge Scholars, one Mitchell Scholar, 19 Boren Scholars, one Boren fellow, and one German Chancellor Fellowship. People Student body As of the 2023–2024 academic year, the student body consists of 18,533 undergraduates and 2,264 in graduate programs. Around 57 percent of the undergraduate student body were female. As of Fall 2023, minorities composed 23.5 percent of the body. The median family income of students is $116,600, and over half of students come from the top 20 percent. According to The New York Times, the University of Mississippi has the seventh-highest share of students from the economic top-one percent among selective public schools. The median starting salary of a graduate is $47,700, according to US News. Although 54 percent of undergraduates are from Mississippi, the student body is geographically diverse. As of late 2020, the university's undergraduates represented all 82 counties in Mississippi, 49 states, the District of Columbia, and 86 countries. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student success and satisfaction, is 85.7 percent. In 2020, the student body included over 1,100 transfer students. Faculty As of the 2020–2021 academic year, there were—excluding those of UMMC—1,092 professors, of whom 424 were tenured. At this time, there were 592 male and 500 female professors. With the early emphasis on classical studies, multiple notable classicists including George Tucker Stainback, Wilson Gaines Richardson, and William Hailey Willis, have held teaching positions at the University of Mississippi. Archeologist David Moore Robinson, who is credited with discovering the ancient city Olynthus, also taught classics at the university. Former Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove was a political science lecturer, and Kyle Duncan was an assistant law professor prior to his appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Landon Garland taught astronomy and philosophy before becoming the first president of Vanderbilt University. Actor James Best, who is best known for his work on The Dukes of Hazzard, was an artist in residence. Robert Q. Marston, director of the National Institutes of Health, served as the dean of the medical school, and Eugene W. Hilgard, considered the father of soil science, taught chemistry at Ole Miss. Other notable scientific faculty include psychologist David H. Barlow and physicist Mack A. Breazeale. Notable alumni In addition to William Faulkner, notable writers who attended the University of Mississippi include Florence Mars, Patrick D. Smith, Stark Young, and John Grisham. Alumni in film include Emmy Award-winning actor Gerald McRaney and Tate Taylor, director of The Help. Musicians who studied at the university include Mose Allison and Grammy Award-winner Glen Ballard. Athlete graduates include 12-time Grand Slam tennis champion Mahesh Bhupathi, NFL quarterbacks Archie Manning and Eli Manning, New York Yankees catcher Jake Gibbs, and Michael Oher, NFL offensive lineman and subject of the film The Blind Side. Additionally, three Miss Americas and one Miss USA are among the alumni. The University of Mississippi's alumni include five US senators and ten governors. Other public servant graduates include Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justices Sydney M. Smith and Bill Waller Jr., US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes, and Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit. Notable academics include Pomona College president E. Wilson Lyon, Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard professor Thomas K. McCraw, and Mercer University president James Bruton Gambrell. Notable physicians include Arthur Guyton, American Medical Association head Edward Hill, and Thomas F. Frist Sr., co-founder of Hospital Corporation of America. Alumnus William Parsons served as director of NASA's Stennis Space Center and later that of Kennedy Space Center. Athletics The University of Mississippi's athletic teams participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Southeastern Conference (SEC), Division I as the Ole Miss Rebels. Women's varsity athletic teams at the University of Mississippi include basketball, cross country, golf, rifle, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. Men's varsity teams are baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, tennis, and track and field. In 1893, professor Alexander Bondurant organized the university's football team. As collegiate athletic teams began to receive names, a contest result selected the name "Mississippi Flood" in 1929. Due to the lasting harm of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, however, the name was changed to the "Rebels" in 1936. The first prime-time telecast of college football was of a 1969 Ole Miss game. The team has won six SEC championships. Major rivals include Louisiana State University and Mississippi State University, which Ole Miss plays against in the Magnolia Bowl and Egg Bowl, respectively. Other rivalries include Tulane and Vanderbilt. Football alumni Archie and Eli Manning, both quarterbacks, are honored on campus with speed limits set to 18 and 10 mph; their respective jersey numbers. Outside football, Ole Miss baseball has won seven overall SEC championships and three SEC Tournaments. They have played in the Men's College World Series six times, and won the 2022 series. The men's tennis team has won five overall SEC championships and has had one NCAA Singles Champion—Devin Britton. The women's basketball team has won one overall SEC championship. Notable former players include Armintie Price, who holds the SEC record for steals in a game and was the third pick in the 2007 WNBA draft, and Jennifer Gillom, 1986 SEC Female Athlete of the Year and 1988 Olympic Gold Medalist. Men's basketball has won two SEC Tournaments. In 2021, Ole Miss women's golf won its first NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship. Student life Traditions A common greeting on campus is "Hotty Toddy!", which is also used in the school chant. The phrase has no explicit meaning and its origin is unknown. The chant was first published in 1926, but "Hotty Toddy" was spelled "Heighty Tighty"; this early spelling has led some to suggest it originated with Virginia Tech's regimental band, The Heighty Tighties. Other proposed origins are "hoity-toity", meaning snobbish, and the alcoholic drink hot toddy. On football game days, the Grove, a 10-acre (4.0 ha) plot of trees, hosts an elaborate tailgating tradition; according to The New York Times, "Perhaps there isn't a word for the ritualized pregame revelry ... 'Tailgating' certainly does not do it justice". The tradition began in 1991 when cars were banned from the Grove. Prior to each game, over 2,000 red-and-blue trash cans are placed throughout the Grove. This event is known as "Trash Can Friday". Each barrel marks a tailgating spot. The spots are claimed by tailgaters, who erect a "tent city" of 2,500 shelters. Many of the tents are extravagant, feature chandeliers and fine china, and typically host meals of Southern cuisine. To accommodate the crowds, the university maintains elaborate portable bathrooms on 18-wheeler platforms known as "Hotty Toddy Potties". Student organizations The University of Mississippi's first sanctioned student organizations, literary societies the Hermaean Society and the Phi Sigma Society, were established in 1849. Weekly meetings, of which attendance was mandatory, were held in the Lyceum until 1853 and then in the chapel. With the university's emphasis on rhetoric, student-organized public orations on the first Monday of every month were popular. Studies were sometimes canceled so students could attend speeches of visiting politicians such as Jefferson Davis and William L. Sharkey. In the 1890s, extracurricular and nonintellectual activities proliferated on campus, and interest in oratory and the now-voluntary literary societies diminished. Turn-of-the-20th-century student organizations included Cotillion Club, the elite Stag Club, and German Club. In the 1890s, the local YMCA began publishing a list of the organizations in the M-Book. As of 2021, the handbook was still provided to students. The Associated Student Body (ASB), which was established in 1917, is the university's student government organization. Students are elected to the ASB Senate in the spring semester and leftover seats are voted on in open-seat elections in the fall. Senators can represent registered student organizations such as the Greek councils and sports clubs, or they can run to represent their academic school. The University of Mississippi's marching band The Pride of the South performs in-concert and at athletic events. The band was formally organized in 1928, but it existed before that date as a smaller organization led by a student director. A Phi Beta Kappa chapter was established in 2001. Amenities Approximately 5,300 students live on campus in thirteen residence halls, two residential colleges, and two apartment complexes. Students are required to live on-campus during their first year. Within residence halls, students designated as community assistants provide information and resolve issues. In the early 20th century, the university provided cottages for married students. In 1947, Vet Village was constructed to room the surge in World War II veteran applicants. The University of Mississippi provides Oxford University Transit, a shuttle system that is free of charge for students, faculty, and staff. In early 2020, Starship Technologies introduced an automated food delivery consisting of a fleet of 30 robots on campus; it was the first such system of any SEC school. On-campus dining services Catering at UM and the Rebel Market are the only Certified Green restaurants in the state of Mississippi. In 2019, the university opened a 98,000-square-foot (9,100 m2) recreation center containing a gym, indoor climbing wall, basketball courts, and other services. Greek life Greek life at the University of Mississippi comprises 33 organizations and around 8,700 affiliated students. Greek societies at the University of Mississippi are housed along Fraternity Row and Sorority Row, which were constructed in the 1930s with federal funds. The Rainbow Fraternity, which was founded at the University of Mississippi in 1848, was the first fraternity to be founded in the South. Other early fraternities established at the university include Delta Kappa Epsilon (1850), Delta Kappa (1853), Delta Psi (1854), and Epsilon Alpha (1855). By 1900, a majority of University of Mississippi students were members of a fraternity or a sorority. Non-member students felt excluded on campus and tensions between members and non-members escalated. The University Magazine denounced the Greek societies as "the most vicious institution that has grown up in any college". In 1902, Lee Russell, a poor student who was rejected by the fraternities, appeared before the board of trustees to criticize the Greek societies. In response, the board threatened to abolish Greek life if non-member students continued to be ostracized. In 1903, rumors Greek-life members and non-member students were preparing to "meet in combat" appeared. Multiple state-legislative investigations were held to address the issue. All Greek life at the university was suspended from 1912 to 1926 due to statewide anti-fraternity legislation. As part of a larger crackdown on embarrassing fraternity incidents, Chancellor Gerald Turner ended the traditional Shrimp and Beer Festival in 1984. In 1988, Phi Beta Sigma, a black fraternity, was preparing to move into a house on the all-white Fraternity Row when arsonists burned their house. An alumnus helped purchase another house and Fraternity Row was integrated two months later. In a 1989 incident, fraternity members dropped naked students painted with racist slurs at the historically black Rust College. In 2014, three fraternity members placed a noose and a Confederate symbol on the Meredith statue, and in 2019, fraternity members posed with guns in front of an Emmett Till historical marker. Media The first student publication at the University of Mississippi was The University Magazine, which was founded in 1856 and published by the literary societies. The rivalry between the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State originated from an 1895 condemnation by The University Magazine of a Mississippi State publication which had written that the University of Mississippi "lacked dignity". The first student newspaper The University Record began publication in 1898; it and the Magazine suffered financially and were suspended in 1902. In 1907, the YMCA and student athletic organization revived the university's newspaper as the Varsity Voice. In 1911, this newspaper was superseded by another student-published newspaper, The Daily Mississippian. The paper is editorially independent and is the only daily college newspaper in the state. The paper is also published online as TheDMonline.com, with supplementary content. NewsWatch, which was established in 1980, is a student-produced, live newscast and the only local newscast in Lafayette County. The University of Mississippi owns and operates WUMS 92.1 Rebel Radio, which began broadcasting in 1989; it is one of a few university-operated commercial FM radio stations in the United States. Notes and references Notes Citations Works cited External links Official website

James_Meredith

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Meredith

James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and United States Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi after the intervention of the federal government (an event that was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement). Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi. His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights for African Americans. The admission of Meredith ignited the Ole Miss riot of 1962 where Meredith's life was threatened and 31,000 American servicemen were required to quell the violence – the largest ever invocation of the Insurrection Act of 1807. In 1966, Meredith planned a solo 220-mile (350-kilometer) March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi; he wanted to highlight continuing racism in the South and encourage voter registration after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He did not want major civil rights organizations involved. The second day, he was shot by a white gunman and suffered numerous wounds. Leaders of major organizations vowed to complete the march in his name after he was taken to the hospital. While Meredith was recovering, more people from across the country became involved as marchers. He rejoined the march and when Meredith and other leaders entered Jackson on June 26, they were leading an estimated 15,000 marchers, in what was the largest civil rights march in Mississippi. During the march, more than 4,000 African Americans registered to vote, and it was a catalyst to continued community organizing and additional registration. In 2002 and again in 2012, the University of Mississippi led year-long series of events to celebrate the 40th and 50th anniversaries of Meredith's integration of the institution. He was among numerous speakers invited to the campus, where a statue of him commemorates his role. The Lyceum-The Circle Historic District at the center of the campus has been designated as a National Historic Landmark for these events. Early life and education Meredith was born in 1933 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the son of Roxie (Patterson) and Moses Meredith. He is of African-American, English Canadian, Scots and Choctaw heritage. His family nickname was "J-Boy". European traders intermarried with some Choctaw during the colonial period. In the 1830s, thousands of Choctaw chose to stay in Mississippi and become United States citizens when most of the tribe left their traditional homeland for Indian Territory during the federally imposed removal. Those in the state had unions with European Americans and African Americans (some of whom were enslaved), adding to the multi-racial population in the developing territory. Meredith completed 11th grade at Attala County Training School (which was segregated as "white" and "colored" under the state's Jim Crow laws) and completed 12th grade at Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, Florida. He graduated from high school in 1951. Then, Meredith enlisted in the United States Air Force. He served from 1951 to 1960. Afterward Meredith attended Jackson State University for two years, achieving good grades. University of Mississippi Challenge to the University In 1961, inspired the day before by U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Meredith started to apply to the University of Mississippi, intending to insist on his civil rights to attend the state-funded university. It still admitted only white students under the state's culture of racial segregation, although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, as they are supported by all the taxpayers. Meredith wrote in his application that he wanted admission for his country, race, family, and himself. He said, Nobody handpicked me...I believed, and believe now, that I have a Divine Responsibility... I am familiar with the probable difficulties involved in such a move as I am undertaking and I am fully prepared to pursue it all the way to a degree from the University of Mississippi. He was twice denied admission. During this time, he was advised by Medgar Evers, who was head of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). On May 31, 1961, Meredith, with backing of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, alleging that the university had rejected him only because of his race, as he had a highly successful record of military service and academic courses. The case went through many hearings, after which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Meredith had the right to be admitted to the state school. The state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which supported the ruling of the appeals court. On September 13, 1962, the District Court entered an injunction directing the members of the Board of Trustees and the officials of the University to register Meredith. The Democratic Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, declared "no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your governor". The state legislature quickly created a plan. They passed a law that denied admission to any person "who has a crime of moral turpitude against him" or who had been convicted of any felony offense or not pardoned. The same day it became law, Meredith was accused and convicted of "false voter registration," in absentia, in Jackson County. The conviction against Meredith was trumped up: Meredith both owned land in northern Mississippi and was registered to vote in Jackson, where he lived. "Later the clerk testified that Meredith was qualified to register and vote in Jackson [where he was registered]." On September 20, the federal government obtained an injunction against enforcement of this Act and of the two state court decrees that had barred Meredith's registration. That day Meredith was rebuffed again by Governor Barnett in his efforts to gain admission, though university officials were prepared to admit him. On September 25, Meredith attempted to register again, but Governor Barnett blocked Meredith’s entry to the College Board office. On September 28, the Court of Appeals, en banc and after a hearing, found the Governor in civil contempt and ordered that he be arrested and pay a fine of $10,000 for each day that he kept up the refusal, unless he complied by October 2. On September 29, Lieutenant Governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. (elected Governor on November 5, 1963) was also found in contempt by a panel of the court, and a similar order was entered against him, with a fine of $5,000 a day. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had a series of phone calls with Governor Barnett between September 27 to October 1. Barnett reluctantly agreed to let Meredith enroll in the university, but secretly bargained with Kennedy on a plan which would allow him to save face. Barnett committed to maintain civil order. Robert Kennedy ordered 127 U.S. Marshals as well as 316 deputized U.S. Border Patrol and 97 Federal Bureau of Prisons officers to accompany Meredith during his arrival and registration. On September 29, President Kennedy issued a proclamation commanding all persons engaged in the obstruction of the laws and the orders of the courts to "cease and desist therefrom and to disperse and retire peaceably forthwith", citing his authority under 10 U.S.C. § 332, § 333, and § 334 to use the militia or the armed forces to suppress any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy. Rioting at the University On September 29, Governor Barnett made a spirited speech at halftime of the Ole Miss-Kentucky football game, firing up the crowd and encouraging people to block Meredith’s entry to the university. He said, in part, "I love Mississippi! I love her people, our customs ... I love and I respect our heritage." The Ole Miss Band waved a large Confederate flag, and the stands were full of students waving Confederate flags. President Kennedy sent federal marshals to Mississippi. On Sunday, September 30, 1962, Governor Barnett called the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, to try to get him to postpone Meredith’s admission to the University. The Attorney General refused. Meredith, accompanied by Mississippi Highway Patrol and 500 federal marshals, moved into his dorm room. Outside the Lyceum building, where Meredith was due to register for classes the next day, a crowd of hostile students formed near the marshals who were protecting the building. At 7:30 p.m., the crowd broke into a riot. The crowd, which numbered 3000, threw bottles and rocks, and the marshals tear-gassed them. More than 300 people were injured in the riot, and two people were killed. Enrollment The day after the riots, on October 1, 1962, after federal and state forces took control, Meredith became the first African-American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Meredith's admission is regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in the United States. Many students harassed Meredith during his two semesters on campus, but others accepted him. According to first-person accounts, students living in Meredith's dorm bounced basketballs on the floor just above his room through all hours of the night. Other students ostracized him: when Meredith walked into the cafeteria for meals, the students eating would turn their backs. If Meredith sat at a table with other students, all of whom were white, the students would immediately get up and go to another table. He persisted through harassment and extreme isolation to graduate on August 18, 1963, with a degree in political science. Education and activism Meredith continued his education, focusing on political science, at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He returned to the United States in 1965. He attended law school through a scholarship at Columbia University and earned an LL.B (law degree) in 1968 In 1966, Meredith organized and led a solo, personal March Against Fear for 220 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, beginning on June 6, 1966. Inviting only black men to join him, he wanted to highlight continuing racial oppression in the Mississippi Delta, as well as to encourage blacks to register and vote following passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which authorized federal oversight and enforcement of rights. Governor Paul Johnson promised to allow the march and provide State Highway Police protection. Meredith wanted blacks in Mississippi to overcome fear of violence. Despite a police presence, on the second day, Meredith was shot and wounded by Aubrey James Norvell, a white man whose motives were never determined, and who pleaded guilty at trial. Meredith was quickly taken to a hospital. Leaders of major organizations rallied at the news and vowed to complete the march in Meredith's name. They struggled to reconcile differing goals, but succeeded in attracting more than 10,000 marchers from local towns and across the country by the end. Norvell pleaded guilty to battery and assault with intent to kill and was sentenced to five years in prison. Meredith suffered from superficial wounds to his neck, legs, head, and right side. He recovered from his wounds, and rejoined the march before it reached Jackson on June 26, when 15,000 marchers entered the city in what had become the largest civil rights march in state history. During the march, more than 4,000 black Mississippians registered to vote. Continued community organizing was catalyzed by these events, and African Americans began to enter the political system again. Political career In 1967, while living and studying in New York, Meredith decided to run as a Republican against incumbent Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a multi-term Democrat, in a special election for the Congressional seat in Harlem. He withdrew from the race and Powell was re-elected. Meredith said later of his campaign, "The Republican Party [of New York] made me an offer: full support in every way, everything." He had full access to top New York Republicans. After returning to Mississippi in 1972, Meredith entered the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat of Democrat James Eastland, who had been the incumbent for 29 years in what had operated as a one-party state. Following provisions of a new state constitution in 1890 that made voter registration extremely difficult, African Americans had been effectively disenfranchised and the Republican Party had been crippled. Meredith conceded that he had little chance of winning unless Governor George Wallace of Alabama entered the presidential race and split the white vote. As it happened, many Republicans in Mississippi were not enthusiastic about the prospect of Meredith as their nominee, and Gil Carmichael, a businessman from Meridian, was recruited to run against him. Meredith received only 21% of the primary vote against Carmichael. An active Republican, Meredith served from 1989 to 1991 as a domestic adviser on the staff of United States Senator Jesse Helms. Faced with criticism from the civil rights community for working for the avowed segregationist, Meredith said that he had applied to every member of the Senate and House offering his services, and only Helms' office responded. He also wanted a chance to do research at the Library of Congress. In 2002, officials at the University of Mississippi celebrated the 40th anniversary of Meredith's historic admission and integration of the institution with a year-long series of events. Of the celebration, Meredith said, It was an embarrassment for me to be there, and for somebody to celebrate it, oh my God. I want to go down in history, and have a bunch of things named after me, but believe me that ain't it. He said he had achieved his main goal at the time by getting the federal government to enforce his rights as a citizen. He saw his actions as "an assault on white supremacy". In 2003, he was far more proud that his son Joseph Meredith graduated as the top doctoral student at the university's graduate business school. Legacy and honors In 2002, the University of Mississippi honored the 40th anniversary of Meredith's admission with numerous events. In 2006, a statue of him was dedicated on campus in his honor. In 2012, the University commemorated the 50th anniversary of the historic admission, featuring a range of speakers, artists, lectures and events during the year. That year Meredith received the Harvard Graduate School of Education 'Medal for Education Impact' and was the school's convocation speaker. Meredith said it was the first award in 50 years he had accepted. Cultural depictions In 2011 miniseries The Kennedys, Meredith was portrayed by Matthew G. Brown in episode five of the series, Life Sentences. Political viewpoint A highly independent man, Meredith has identified as an individual American citizen who demanded and received the constitutional rights held by any American, not as a participant in the Civil Rights Movement. There have been tensions between him and leaders of major organizations of the movement. When interviewed in 2002, the 40th anniversary of his enrollment at University of Mississippi, Meredith said, "Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind." Meredith was a supporter of the unsuccessful 1967 gubernatorial bid of ex-Mississippi Governor (and avowed segregationist) Ross Barnett, who had been responsible for Meredith's not being allowed at the University of Mississippi, as well as the 1991 gubernatorial campaign of Louisiana State Representative and ex-Klansman David Duke. In a 2002 interview with CNN, Meredith said of his efforts to integrate Ole Miss, "I was engaged in a war. I considered myself engaged in a war from Day One. And my objective was to force the federal government—the Kennedy administration at that time—into a position where they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen." Personal life On March 14, 1956, Meredith married Mary June Wiggins. She later worked as a high school English teacher. They had three sons, James, John and Joseph Howard Meredith. Mary June Meredith died of heart failure in December 1979. In 1982, Meredith married Judy Alsobrooks in Gary, Indiana. She had one son, Kip Naylor, from a previous marriage. Jessica Howard Meredith was born to the couple. The couple live in Jackson, Mississippi. Works In 1966, his memoir, Three Years in Mississippi, was published by the Indiana University Press. He has self-published several books on politics and society. See also List of African-American pioneers in desegregation of higher education List of civil rights leaders School integration in the United States References Bibliography Branch, Taylor (1988). Parting the Waters : America in the King Years, 1954–63. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-68742-7. Meredith, James (1966). Three Years in Mississippi. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Meredith, James (1995). Mississippi: A Volume of Eleven Books. Jackson, MS: Meredith Publishing. Further reading Bryant, Nick (Autumn 2006). "Black Man Who Was Crazy Enough to Apply to Ole Miss". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (53): 60–71. JSTOR 25073538. Doyle, William (2001). An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-49969-8. Eagles, Charles W. (2009). The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0807895597. Goudsouzian, Aram (2014). Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Hollingsworth, Bradley S. (2020). "About an Oath: The Mississippi National Guard at the Battle of Ole Miss". US Army School for Advanced Military Studies. Irons, Jenny (2010). Reconstituting Whiteness: The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. Vanderbilt University Press. Hendrickson, Paul (2003). Sons of Mississippi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40461-9. Contains revealing interviews with Meredith conducted by the author. King, Desmond, and Robert C. Lieberman (2021)."'The Latter-Day General Grant': Forceful Federal Power and Civil Rights". Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics 6.3: 529–564. McGee, Meredith Coleman (2013). James Meredith: Warrior and the America That Created Him. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0999322673. OCLC 844940027. Schlesinger, Arthur Jr. (2002) [1978]. Robert Kennedy and His Times. New York: First Mariner Books. ISBN 0-618-21928-5. Stanton, Mary (2003). Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Bust. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-505-4. Watkins, James H. (Spring 2016). "'Returning to Mississippi by Choice' Autobiographical Self-Location and the Performance of Black Masculinity in James Meredith's Three Years in Mississippi". The Mississippi Quarterly 69.2: 253–276. JSTOR 26483824. External links University of Mississippi biography (Archive) James Meredith Collection (MUM00293), University of Mississippi, Archives and Special Collections. James Meredith Small Manuscripts (MUM00594), University of Mississippi.] "Mississippi and Meredith remember", September 30, 2002, CNN Associated Press: "Meredith ready to move on" "On this day in History: 1 October 1962", BBC Facsimiles of letters to the Justice Department and Thurgood Marshall, Kennedy Library James Meredith's Letter to the Justice Department February 7, 1961, 02/07/1961 Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, National Archives James Meredith's oral history video excerpts Archived January 9, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, The National Visionary Leadership Project Appearances on C-SPAN

Gestational_hypertension

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestational_hypertension

Gestational hypertension or pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) is the development of new hypertension in a pregnant woman after 20 weeks' gestation without the presence of protein in the urine or other signs of pre-eclampsia. Gestational hypertension is defined as having a blood pressure greater than 140/90 on two occasions at least 6 hours apart. Signs and symptoms No single diagnostic test currently exists to predict the likelihood of developing gestational hypertension. High blood pressure is the major sign in diagnosing gestational hypertension. Some women with gestational hypertension may present asymptomatic, but a number of symptoms are associated with the condition. Symptoms Edema Sudden weight gain Blurred vision or sensitivity to light Nausea and vomiting Persistent headaches Increased blood pressure Risk factors Maternal causes Obesity Mothers under 20 or over 40 years old Past history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension (particularly gestational hypertension) and renal disease Pre-existing hypertension Thrombophilias (anti-phospholipid syndrome, protein C/S deficiency, factor V Leiden) Having donated a kidney Pregnancy Multiple gestation (twins or triplets, etc.) Placental abnormalities: Hyperplacentosis: Excessive exposure to chorionic villi Placental ischemia Family history Family history of pre-eclampsia Diagnosis Conditions There exist several hypertensive states of pregnancy: Gestational hypertension Gestational hypertension is usually defined as having a blood pressure higher than 140/90 measured on two separate occasions, more than 6 hours apart, without the presence of protein in the urine and diagnosed after 20 weeks of gestation. Pre-eclampsia Pre-eclampsia is gestational hypertension plus proteinuria (>300 mg of protein in a 24-hour urine sample). Severe pre-eclampsia involves a blood pressure greater than 160/110, with additional medical signs and symptoms. HELLP syndrome is a type of pre-eclampsia. It is a combination of three medical conditions: hemolytic anemia, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count. Eclampsia This is when tonic-clonic seizures appear in a pregnant woman with high blood pressure and proteinuria. Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are sometimes treated as components of a common syndrome. Treatment There is no specific treatment, but is monitored closely to rapidly identify pre-eclampsia and its life-threatening complications (HELLP syndrome and eclampsia). Drug treatment options are limited, as many antihypertensives may negatively affect the fetus. ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and direct renin inhibitors are contraindicated in pregnancy as they are teratogenic. Methyldopa, hydralazine, nifedipine, and labetalol are most commonly used for severe pregnancy hypertension. The fetus is at increased risk for a variety of life-threatening conditions, including pulmonary hypoplasia (immature lungs). If the dangerous complications appear after the fetus has reached a point of viability, even though still immature, then an early delivery may be warranted to save the lives of both mother and baby. An appropriate plan for labor and delivery includes selection of a hospital with provisions for advanced life support of newborn babies. Exercise during pregnancy can help prevent hypertension as it can improve not only health for the mother but also the child. Exercise can regulate the energy needs required during pregnancy while also decreasing inflammation. Regular exercise can also lower the increased stress levels associated with pregnancy. Evolutionary considerations Humans Gestational hypertension is one of the most common disorders seen in human pregnancies. Though relatively benign on its own, in roughly half of the cases of gestational hypertension the disorder progresses into pre-eclampsia, a dangerous condition that can prove fatal to expectant mothers. However, gestational hypertension is a condition that is fairly rare to see in other animals. For years, it has been the belief of the scientific community that gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia were relatively unique to humans, although there has been some recent evidence that other primates can also develop similar conditions, albeit due to different underlying mechanisms. The underlying cause of gestational hypertension in humans is commonly believed to be an improperly implanted placenta. Humans have evolved to have a very invasive placenta to facilitate better oxygen transfer from the mother to the fetus, to support the growth of its large brain. Origins of the placenta The origins of gestational hypertension may lie with the development of humans' hemochorial placenta. A hemochorial placenta optimizes the amount of oxygen and nutrients that can be absorbed into the fetal blood supply, while at the same time ensuring rapid diffusion of wastes away from the fetus. This hemochorial placenta differs from lower primates' epitheliochorial placentae in the way that it allows the fetal tissues to interact directly with the mother's blood. The hemochorial placenta thereby promotes more rapid diffusion to and from the fetal blood supply. In animals with epitheliochorial placentae such as horses and pigs, the greatest resistance to maternal blood flow in the vascular system was found within the placenta. However, in animals with hemochorial placental structures such as rodents and primates, the vascular resistance in the placenta was low, leading scientists to the conclusion that the greatest resistance to maternal blood flow is found elsewhere in the maternal vascular system. The high vascular resistance outside of the placenta leads to higher maternal blood pressure throughout the body. The fetal cells that implant into the uterine wall are known as the trophoblast. The hemochorial placenta bathes the fetal trophoblast in maternal blood by forming lacunae, or lakes, of the mother's blood that surround fetal tissue. The lacunae are filled by the spiral arteries, which means that the mother's blood pressure is the driving force behind the introduction of new blood, which contains both oxygen and food for the fetus, to the system. It is thought that humans need the increased diffusion provided by the hemochorial placenta in order to grow the large brains compared to their body size that distinguish them from other primates. Incorrect placental implantation It is thought that "failings" in normal hemochorial placental structure lead to pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension. The human placenta implants "earlier, deeper, and more extensively" into the uterine wall, which can potentially lead to many problems that are found in human pregnancies, but not as much in other animals. Miscarriage and pre-eclampsia are both very rare in other species, but are two of the most common pregnancy-related diseases in humans. The genetic roots of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia are certain, as women with a family history of the condition are three times more likely to develop it when they are pregnant. One of the potential causes of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia is when the trophoblast does not invade far enough into the uterine lining. When the fetus's trophoblast does not fully extend into the uterine wall, the spiral arteries do not become fully converted into low-resistance channels. It has been found that this incomplete conversion of spiral arteries increases the resistance to uterine blood flow during pregnancy, and that this occurrence was associated with gestational hypertension. One potential cause of this incomplete breach of the spiral arteries that leads to gestational hypertension is a mistaken immune response by the maternal tissue, reaction to the alien fetal tissue. Therefore, it is clear that the complication of gestational hypertension has roots in the early implantation of the fetus in the uterine wall, an implantation technique that is unique to humans. The highly invasive placenta that is found in humans is thought to be linked to humans' high circulating levels of the hormones CG and hCG. It has been shown that the higher the levels of these hormones, the deeper the trophoblast's invasion into the uterine wall. Instances of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia have been shown to occur when the invasion of the uterine wall is not deep enough, because of lower CG and hCG levels in the mother. Evolutionary tradeoff Despite these risks for gestational hypertension, the hemochorial placenta has been favored because of its advantages in the way that it aids in diffusion from mother to fetus later in pregnancy. The bipedal posture that has allowed humans to walk upright has also led to a reduced cardiac output, and it has been suggested that this is what necessitated humans' aggressive early placental structures. Increased maternal blood pressure can attempt to make up for lower cardiac output, ensuring that the fetus's growing brain receives enough oxygen and nutrients. The benefits of being able to walk upright and run on land have outweighed the disadvantages that come from bipedalism, including the placental diseases of pregnancy, such as gestational hypertension. Similarly, the advantages of having a large brain size have outweighed the deleterious effects of having a placenta that does not always convert the spiral arteries effectively, leaving humans vulnerable to contracting gestational hypertension. It is speculated that this was not the case with Neanderthals, and that they died out because their cranial capacity increased too much, and their placentae were not equipped to handle the fetal brain development, leading to widespread pre-eclampsia and maternal and fetal death. Gestational hypertension in the early stages of pregnancy (trimester 1) has been shown to improve the health of the child both in its first year of life, and its later life. However, when the disease develops later in the pregnancy (subsequent trimesters), or turns into pre-eclampsia, there begin to be detrimental health effects for the fetus, including low birth-weight. It has been proposed that fetal genes designed to increase the mother's blood pressure are so beneficial that they outweigh the potential negative effects that can come from pre-eclampsia. It has also been suggested that gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia have remained active traits due to the cultural capacity of humans, and the tendency for midwives or helpers to aid in delivering babies. Relevance of evolutionary history It is the goal of evolutionary medicine to find treatments for diseases that are informed by the evolutionary history of a disease. It has been suggested that gestational hypertension is linked to insulin resistance during pregnancy. Both the increase in blood sugar that can lead to gestational diabetes and the increase in blood pressure that can lead to gestational hypertension are mechanisms that mean to optimize the amount of nutrients that can be passed from maternal tissue to fetal tissue. It has been suggested that techniques used to combat insulin insensitivity might also prove beneficial to those with gestational hypertension. Measures to avoid insulin resistance include avoiding obesity before pregnancy, minimizing weight gain during pregnancy, eating foods with low glycemic indices, and exercising. == References ==

Labetalol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labetalol

Labetalol is a medication used to treat high blood pressure and in long term management of angina. This includes essential hypertension, hypertensive emergencies, and hypertension of pregnancy. In essential hypertension it is generally less preferred than a number of other blood pressure medications. It can be given by mouth or by injection into a vein. Common side effects include low blood pressure with standing, dizziness, feeling tired, and nausea. Serious side effects may include low blood pressure, liver problems, heart failure, and bronchospasm. Use appears safe in the latter part of pregnancy and it is not expected to cause problems during breastfeeding. It works by blocking the activation of β- and α-adrenergic receptors. Labetalol was patented in 1966 and came into medical use in 1977. It is available as a generic medication. In 2021, it was the 213th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 2 million prescriptions. Medical uses Labetalol is effective in the management of hypertensive emergencies, postoperative hypertension, pheochromocytoma-associated hypertension, and rebound hypertension from beta blocker withdrawal. It has a particular indication in the treatment of pregnancy-induced hypertension which is commonly associated with pre-eclampsia. It is also used as an alternative in the treatment of severe hypertension. Labetalol is useful in the treatment of acute cardiovascular toxicity (e.g. in overdose) caused by sympathomimetics like amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, ephedrine, and pseudoephedrine. Other beta blockers are also used. However, the controversial yet possible phenomenon of "unopposed α-stimulation" with administration of selective beta blockers to block non-selective sympathomimetics potentially makes dual alpha-1 and beta blockers like labetalol and carvedilol more favorable for such purposes. The rate of unopposed α-stimulation with selective beta blockers has been reported to be 0.4%, whereas no cases of unopposed α-stimulation have been reported with dual alpha and beta blockers like labetalol. Special populations Pregnancy: studies in lab animals showed no harm to the baby. However, a comparable well-controlled study has not been performed in pregnant women. Nursing: breast milk has been shown to contain small amounts of labetalol (0.004% original dose). Prescribers should be cautious in the use of labetalol for nursing mothers. Pediatric: no studies have established safety or usefulness in this population. Geriatric: the elderly are more likely to experience dizziness when taking labetalol. Labetalol should be dosed with caution in the elderly and counseled on this side effect. Side effects Common Neurologic: headache (2%), dizziness (11%) Gastrointestinal: nausea (6%), dyspepsia (3%) Cholinergic: nasal congestion (3%), ejaculation failure (2%) Respiratory: dyspnea (2%) Other: fatigue (5%), vertigo (2%), orthostatic hypotension Low blood pressure with standing is more severe and more common with IV formulation (58% vs 1%) and is often the reason larger doses of the oral formulation cannot be used. Rare Fever Muscle cramps Dry eyes Heart block Hyperkalemia Hepatotoxicity Drug eruption similar to lichen planus Hypersensitivity – which may result in a lethal respiratory distress Contraindications Labetalol is contraindicated in people with overt cardiac failure, greater-than-first-degree heart block, severe bradycardia, cardiogenic shock, severe hypotension, anyone with a history of obstructive airway disease including asthma, and those with hypersensitivity to the drug. Pharmacology Mechanism of action Labetalol is a beta blocker, or an antagonist of the β-adrenergic receptors. It is specifically a non-selective antagonist of the β1- and β2-adrenergic receptors. Labetalol has intrinsic sympathomimetic activity. It is also an antagonist of the α1-adrenergic receptor, and hence is additionally an alpha blocker. The antagonism of the adrenergic receptors by labetalol is competitive against other catecholamines and its actions on the receptors are potent and reversible. Labetalol acts by blocking α- and β-adrenergic receptors, resulting in decreased peripheral vascular resistance without significant alteration of heart rate or cardiac output. Labetalol is about equipotent in blocking β1- and β2-adrenergic receptors. The amount of α to β blockade depends on whether labetalol is administered orally or intravenously (IV). Orally, the ratio of α to β blockade is 1:3. Intravenously, α to β blockade ratio is 1:7. Thus, the labetalol can be thought to be a beta blocker with some α-blocking effects. By comparison, labetalol is a weaker β-adrenergic receptor blocker than propranolol, and has a weaker affinity for α-adrenergic receptors compared to phentolamine. Labetalol's dual α- and β-adrenergic antagonism has different physiological effects in short- and long-term situations. In short-term, acute situations, labetalol decreases blood pressure by decreasing systemic vascular resistance with little effect on stroke volume, heart rate and cardiac output. During long-term use, labetalol can reduce heart rate during exercise while maintaining cardiac output by an increase in stroke volume. Labetalol possesses significant intrinsic sympathomimetic activity (ISA). In particular, it is a partial agonist at β2-adrenergic receptors located in the vascular smooth muscle. Labetalol relaxes vascular smooth muscle by a combination of this partial β2-adrenergic receptor agonism and through α1-adrenergic receptor blockade. Overall, this vasodilatory effect can decrease blood pressure. It was originally reported to lack ISA, but a slight degree of activity was subsequently characterized. Similar to local anesthetics and sodium channel blocking antiarrhythmics, labetalol also has membrane stabilizing activity. By decreasing sodium entry, labetalol decreases action potential firing and thus has local anesthetic activity. Physiological action The physiological effects of labetalol when administered acutely (intravenously) are not predictable solely by their receptor blocking effect, i.e. blocking β1-adrenergic receptors should decrease heart rate, but labetalol does not. When labetalol is given in acute situations, it decreases the peripheral vascular resistance and systemic blood pressure while having little effect on the heart rate, cardiac output and stroke volume, despite its α1-, β1- and β2-adrenergic receptor blocking mechanism. These effects are mainly seen when the person is in the upright position. Long term labetalol use also has different effects from other beta blockers. Other beta blockers, such as propranolol, persistently reduce cardiac output during exercise. The peripheral vascular resistance decreases when labetalol is first administered. Continuous labetalol use further decreases peripheral vascular resistance. However, during exercise, cardiac output remains the same due to a compensatory mechanism that increases stroke volume. Thus, labetalol is able to reduce heart rate during exercise while maintaining cardiac output by the increase in stroke volume. Pharmacokinetics Distribution Labetalol is often classified as a beta blocker with low lipophilicity and hence lower potential for crossing the blood–brain barrier and blood–placenta barrier. This in turn may result in fewer effects in the central nervous system as well as a lower risk of neuropsychiatric side effects. Paradoxically however, labetalol actually shows high lipophilicity. In any case, labetalol, in animals including rats, rabbits, and dogs, was found to cross into the brain in negligible amounts, probably for reasons other than low lipophilicity. On the other hand, the drug has been shown to cross the blood–placenta barrier in humans. Chemistry The minimum requirement for adrenergic agents is a primary or secondary amine separated from a substituted benzene ring by one or two carbons. This configuration results in strong agonist activity. As the size of the substituent attached to the amine becomes greater, particularly with respect to a t-butyl group, then the molecule typically is found to have receptor affinity without intrinsic activity, and is, therefore, an antagonist. Labetalol, with its 1-methyl-3-phenylpropyl substituted amine, is greater in size relative to a t-butyl group and therefore acts predominantly as an antagonist. The overall structure of labetalol is very polar. This was created by substituting the isopropyl group in the standard beta blocker structure with an aralkyl group, including a carboxamide group on the meta position, and by adding a hydroxyl group on the para position. Labetalol has two chiral carbons and consequently exists as four stereoisomers. Two of these isomers, the (S,S)- and (R,S)- forms are inactive. The third, the (S,R)-isomer, is a powerful α1-adrenergic receptor blocker. The fourth isomer, the (R,R)-isomer which is also known as dilevalol, is a mixed non-selective β-adrenergic receptor blocker and selective α1 blocker. Labetalol is typically given as a racemic mixture to achieve both α- and β-adrenergic receptor blocking activity. It is chemically designated in International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) nomenclature as 2-hydroxy-5-[1-hydroxy-2-[(1-methyl-3-phenylpropyl)amino]ethyl]benzamide monohydrochloride. The experimental log P of labetalol is 2.7 to 3.1 and its predicted log P ranges from 1.73 to 3.1. Hence, it has relatively high lipophilicity. History Labetalol was the first drug created that combined both α- and β-adrenergic receptor blocking properties. It was created to potentially fix the compensatory reflex issue that occurred when blocking a single receptor subtype, i.e. vasoconstriction after blocking β-adrenergic receptors or tachycardia after blocking α-adrenergic receptors. Because the reflex from blocking the single receptor subtypes acted to prevent the lowering of blood pressure, it was postulated that weak blocking of both α- and β-adrenergic receptors could work together to decrease blood pressure. == References ==

Grace%27s_High_Falls

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace%27s_High_Falls

Grace's High Falls is a seasonal waterfall in the US state of Alabama, in Little River Canyon National Preserve. The waterfall is Alabama's highest at 133 feet. References External links "Graces High Falls Overlook", National Park Service

List_of_waterfalls_by_height

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_waterfalls_by_height

The following are lists of waterfalls in the world by height, classified into two categories — natural and artificial. Natural waterfalls are further subdivided between overall height and tallest single drop. Each column (Waterfall, Height, Locality, Country) is sortable by using the up/down link in the column headings at the top of each column. World's tallest natural waterfalls By overall height This list consists of waterfalls which are known to have an overall height of at least 600 m (1,969 ft). Underwater falls, such as the 3,505 m (11,499 ft) Denmark Strait cataract, are not included. By tallest single drop This list consists of the waterfalls which are known to have a singular individual step with a vertical drop of at least 450 m (1,476 ft). World's tallest artificial waterfalls See also List of waterfalls List of waterfalls by flow rate List of waterfalls by type References External links World Waterfall Database: Worlds Tallest Waterfalls

2002_Wimbledon_Championships_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_singles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Wimbledon_Championships_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_singles

Lleyton Hewitt defeated David Nalbandian in the final, 6–1, 6–3, 6–2 to win the gentlemen's singles tennis title at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships. It was his second and last major title, after the 2001 US Open. Hewitt became the first Australian to win the title since Pat Cash in 1987. Goran Ivanišević was the reigning champion, but withdrew due to a shoulder surgery. He would not return to Wimbledon until 2004. The tournament was notable for the poor results of the top players. With the exception of Hewitt and world No. 4 Tim Henman, all of the top 17 seeds were eliminated before the fourth round. This granted relatively unknown players an unusually high chance of success, especially as Hewitt and Henman were in the same half of the draw and played each other in the semifinals. In one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history, seven-time champion Pete Sampras was eliminated by George Bastl in the second round, in what would be Sampras' last appearance at Wimbledon. The 1992 champion Andre Agassi suffered a second-round defeat to unseeded Paradorn Srichaphan, while future eight-time champion Roger Federer was defeated in the first round by qualifier Mario Ančić, his last defeat at Wimbledon until the 2008 final, spanning a record-tying five straight Wimbledon titles between 2003 and 2007. This was the last major for 1997 finalist and former world No. 4 Cédric Pioline, losing in the first round to Marat Safin, and the last appearance for 1996 champion Richard Krajicek, reaching the quarterfinals before losing to Xavier Malisse. Seeds Click on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section. The original #5 seed Tommy Haas withdrew for personal reasons before the tournament draw was made. All original seeds from 6-32 moved up one place, and a new #32 seed was added. Qualifying Draw Key Finals Top half Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Bottom half Section 5 Section 6 Section 7 Section 8 References External links Source for the draw at Wimbledon.com "Wimbledon 2002 – Singles Draw". atpworldtour.com. ATP World Tour. Retrieved 23 May 2018. 2002 Wimbledon Championships – Men's draws and results at the International Tennis Federation

Michel_Kratochvil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Kratochvil

Michel Frank Kratochvil (born 7 April 1979) is a former tennis player from Switzerland. He was a member of the Swiss Davis Cup Team between 2000 and 2004 with a singles record 3–9, winning the decider in the first round of the 2003 World Group against Martin Verkerk of Netherlands 1–6, 7–6, 7–6, 6–1. He played doubles alongside Roger Federer in the 2002 Gstaad Open who was the defending champion but lost in the first round this time. He also defeated reigning champion Andre Agassi in the first round 2002 Indian Wells Masters. ATP career finals Singles: 2 (2 runner-ups) ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals Singles: 10 (5–5) Doubles: 4 (0–4) Performance timeline Singles References External links Michel Kratochvil at the Association of Tennis Professionals Michel Kratochvil at the International Tennis Federation Michel Kratochvil at the Davis Cup

Eric_Jubb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Jubb

Eric Jubb (born 17 January 1931), later known as Eric Lamont, is a Canadian former backstroke and freestyle swimmer. He competed in three events at the 1948 Summer Olympics. References External links Eric Jubb at World Aquatics Eric Jubb at Olympedia

Swimming_at_the_1948_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_100_metre_freestyle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_at_the_1948_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_100_metre_freestyle

The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 30 and 31 July at the Empire Pool. There were 41 competitors from 19 nations. Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games. The event was won by Wally Ris, returning the United States to the podium in the event after a one-Games absence broke a seven-Games streak. It was the sixth victory for an American in the 100 metre freestyle, most of any nation. Another American, Alan Ford, took silver. Géza Kádas of Hungary earned bronze, the nation's third medal in four Games. Japan's three-Games medal streak in the event ended with no Japanese swimmers competing due to the nation not being invited after World War II. Background This was the 10th appearance of the men's 100 metre freestyle. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1900 (when the shortest freestyle was the 200 metres), though the 1904 version was measured in yards rather than metres. None of the seven finalists from the pre-World War II 1936 Games returned. Alex Jany, a teenager from France, was the favorite in the event. The American team, including world record holder Alan Ford, was also strong. Ford had beaten Jany's record a month before the Games. Cuba, Iceland, India, and Mexico each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 10th appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date. Competition format The competition used a three-round (quarterfinals, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule was a modification of the one used since 1912, allowing the top swimmers in each race plus one or more wild cards to advance. For this event, the top two in each preliminary heat plus the next four fastest swimmers would advance to the semifinals; the top three in each semifinal plus the next two fastest swimmers would move on to the final. There were 6 heats of between 6 and 8 swimmers, allowing 16 swimmers to advance to the semifinals. The 2 semifinals had 8 swimmers each; 8 advanced to the final. This swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool. Records These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1948 Summer Olympics. Wally Ris equaled the Olympic record in the second semifinal with 57.5 seconds, then beat it with 57.3 seconds in the final. Schedule Results Heats Heat 1 Heat 2 Heat 3 Heat 4 Heat 5 Heat 6 Semifinals Semifinal 1 Semifinal 2 Final Jany led at halfway but fell back into the pack after the turn. Ford led until the 80 metre point, when Ris passed him. Kádas, in a tight race with Ford for second place, crashed into the lane divider just before the end of the race. Results summary == References ==

Sachin_Nag

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachin_Nag

Sachin Nag (Bengali: শচীন নাগ; 5 July 1920 – 19 August 1987) was an Indian swimmer. He won the gold medal in men's 100 m freestyle at the 1951 Asian Games, the first ever gold medal for India at the Asian Games. It remains the only gold medal won by India in Asian Games swimming as of the conclusion of the 2022 Asian Games. He was also a member of the bronze medal-winning Indian teams in the men's 4x100 m freestyle relay and the men's 3x100 m medley relay at the 1951 Asian Games. He competed in the men's 100 m freestyle at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He also competed in the water polo at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. He scored four goals on behalf of India. References External links Sachin Nag at World Aquatics Sachin Nag at Olympedia

Ali_Mustafa_Baghdady

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Mustafa_Baghdady

Ali Ahmed Mustafa Baghdady (Arabic: علي مصطفى بغدادي) (4 December 1922 – 22 January 2005) was the Egyptian Air Force commander from 1969 to 1972. He was also an Olympic swimmer and water polo player, and competed in the London 1948 Olympics. He died in January 2005 due to complications of a stroke. Early life and family Ali Baghdady was born in Cairo, Egypt, to parents Mustafa and Nabaweya. His father ran the Egyptian Post office until the early 1960s. He had three brothers: the late Adli, a prominent judge and deputy minister of justice, the late Ibrahim, the governor of Cairo and intelligence officer, and the late Hassan, an engineer and executive of the Egyptian national sugar factories. His sisters were Nadia, Fayza and Nehal. In 1951 he married Seyada Mashour, and with her he had three sons: Amr, Essam and Tarek. Education and military career He attended the Tawfikeya school in Shubra, Cairo, where he gained a baccalaureate degree. He then joined the Military Academy and graduated as an officer in the Egyptian Armed forces. He then joined the Air Force academy and progressed his career as an officer and pilot in the Egyptian Air Force. He served under King Farouk, President Gamal Abdel Nasser and President Anwar Sadat. In 1969 General Baghdady was appointed the Commander of the Egyptian Air Force (while it was part of the United Arab Republic Air Force). In 1972 he was succeeded by Hosni Mubarak (who was later to become president of Egypt) as the Commander of the air force. In October 2016 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant general by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Sport Ali Baghdady was Egypt's short distance swimming champion and captain of the national water polo team. He represented his country at the 1948 London Olympics. In the 1970s he was also President of the Egyptian squash association, and later went on to play tennis in the over 40s category. Olympic participation Baghdady participated in the following events at the 1948 Summer Olympics for Egypt: Men's 100 metres Freestyle - Scored 4th of 6 in Round One Heat Three Men's 4 × 200 metres Freestyle Relay - Scored 7th of 7 in Round One Heat Two Art Ali Baghdady was a keen artist and carpenter, and was tutored in the 1950s by Italian artist Menotti in oil painting. References Egyptian Armed Forces - Egyptian Air Force Commander - Maj Gen Ali Mustafa Baghdady

Warren_Boyd_(swimmer)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Boyd_(swimmer)

Warren Boyd (23 December 1926 – 17 December 2018) was an Australian swimmer. He competed in the men's 100 metre freestyle at the 1948 Summer Olympics. References External links Warren Boyd at World Aquatics Warren Boyd at Olympedia Warren Boyd at the Australian Olympic Committee

Alberto_Isaac

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Isaac

Alberto Isaac (18 March 1923 – 9 January 1998) was a Mexican freestyle swimmer and later a film director and screenwriter. He competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics and the 1952 Summer Olympics. In 1969, he directed the documentary film The Olympics in Mexico which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In 1980 he was a member of the jury at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1987, he was a member of the jury at the 15th Moscow International Film Festival. References External links Alberto Isaac at World Aquatics Alberto Isaac at Olympedia Alberto Isaac at IMDb

G%C3%A9za_K%C3%A1das

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9za_K%C3%A1das

Géza Kádas (1926–1979) was a Hungarian swimmer and Olympic medalist. He participated at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay, and a bronze medal in 100 metre freestyle in 1948. == References ==

Bonaventure_Cemetery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaventure_Cemetery

Bonaventure Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah, Georgia. The cemetery's prominence grew when it was featured in the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, and in the subsequent movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, based on the book. It is the largest of the city's municipal cemeteries, containing nearly 160 acres (0.65 km2). The entrance to the cemetery is located at 330 Bonaventure Road. Immediately inside the gates is the large and ornate Gaston Tomb, built in memory of William Gaston, a prominent merchant. History The cemetery is located on the former site of Bonaventure Plantation, originally owned by Colonel John Mullryne. On March 10, 1846, Commodore Josiah Tattnall III sold the 600-acre (2.4 km2) plantation and its private cemetery to Peter Wiltberger. The first burials took place in 1850, and three years later, Peter Wiltberger himself was entombed in a family vault. Major William H. Wiltberger, the son of Peter, formed the Evergreen Cemetery Company on June 12, 1868. On July 7, 1907, the City of Savannah purchased the Evergreen Cemetery Company, making the cemetery public and changing the name to Bonaventure Cemetery. In 1867, John Muir began his Thousand Mile Walk to Florida and the Gulf. In October, he sojourned for six days and nights in the cemetery, sleeping upon graves overnight, this being the safest and cheapest accommodation that he could find while he waited for money to be expressed from home. He found the cemetery breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring and wrote a lengthy chapter upon it, "Camping in the Tombs": Part of the grounds was cultivated and planted with live-oak (Quercus virginiana), about a hundred years ago, by a wealthy gentleman who had his country residence here But much the greater part is undisturbed. Even those spots which are disordered by art, Nature is ever at work to reclaim, and to make them look as if the foot of man had never known them. Only a small plot of ground is occupied with graves and the old mansion is in ruins. The most conspicuous glory of Bonaventure is its noble avenue of live-oaks. They are the most magnificent planted trees I have ever seen, about fifty feet high and perhaps three or four feet in diameter, with broad spreading leafy heads. The main branches reach out horizontally until they come together over the driveway, embowering it throughout its entire length, while each branch is adorned like a garden with ferns, flowers, grasses, and dwarf palmettos. But of all the plants of these curious tree-gardens the most striking and characteristic is the so-called Long Moss (Tillandsia usneoides). It drapes all the branches from top to bottom, hanging in long silvery-gray skeins, reaching a length of not less than eight or ten feet, and when slowly waving in the wind they produce a solemn funereal effect singularly impressive. There are also thousands of smaller trees and clustered bushes, covered almost from sight in the glorious brightness of their own light. The place is half surrounded by the salt marshes and islands of the river, their reeds and sedges making a delightful fringe. Many bald eagles roost among the trees along the side of the marsh. Their screams are heard every morning, joined with the noise of crows and the songs of countless warblers, hidden deep in their dwellings of leafy bowers. Large flocks of butterflies, flies, all kinds of happy insects, seem to be in a perfect fever of joy and sportive gladness. The whole place seems like a center of life. The dead do not reign there alone. Bonaventure to me is one of the most impressive assemblages of animal and plant creatures I ever met. I was fresh from the Western prairies, the garden-like openings of Wisconsin, the beech and maple and oak woods of Indiana and Kentucky, the dark mysterious Savannah cypress forests; but never since I was allowed to walk the woods have I found so impressive a company of trees as the tillandsia-draped oaks of Bonaventure. I gazed awe-stricken as one new-arrived from another world. Bonaventure is called a graveyard, a town of the dead, but the few graves are powerless in such a depth of life. The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord’s most favored abodes of life and light. – "Camping in the Tombs," from A Thousand Mile Walk Greenwich Cemetery became an addition to Bonaventure in 1933. Operations Citizens of Savannah and others may purchase interment rights in Bonaventure. The cemetery is open to the public daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. There is no admission fee. Adjacent to Bonaventure Cemetery is the privately owned and newer Forest Lawn Cemetery and Columbarium. Department of Cemeteries The main office of the City of Savannah's Department of Cemeteries is located on the Bonaventure Cemetery grounds in the Bonaventure Administrative Building at the entrance. Bonaventure Historical Society The cemetery became the subject of a non-profit group, the Bonaventure Historical Society, in May 1997. The group has compiled an index of the burials at the cemetery. Bird Girl The cover photograph for the best-selling book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, taken by Jack Leigh, featured an evocative sculpture of a young girl, the so-called Bird Girl, that had been in the cemetery, essentially unnoticed, for over 50 years. After the publication of the book, the sculpture was relocated from the cemetery in 1997 for display in Telfair Museums in Savannah. In late 2014, the statue was moved to a dedicated space in the Telfair Museums' Jepson Center for the Arts on West York Street, in Savannah. Notable burials Samuel B. Adams, interim Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia Conrad Aiken, novelist and poet Robert Houstoun Anderson (1835–1888), 2nd Lieutenant US Army, General CSA Army, Chief of Police City of Savannah Middleton Barnwell, bishop Edythe Chapman, actress Hugh Comer (1842–1900), president of the Georgia Central Railway William B. Hodgson (1801–1871), diplomat and scholar. Although he arranged with (and paid) William H. Wiltberger for burial lot 13 of section D, he was interred in lot 19 of the same section. The family of Noble Jones, including his son Noble Wimberly Jones, occupies lot 13. Anna Colquitt Hunter (1892–1985), co-founder of Historic Savannah Foundation Noble Wimberly Jones (c. 1723–1805), physician and statesman Jack Leigh, photographer, author Hugh W. Mercer, Civil War Army officer and Confederate general Johnny Mercer, singer/songwriter and great-grandson of Hugh W. Mercer James Neill, actor Edward Padelford (1799–1870), businessman for whom Savannah's Padelford Ward is named Marie Louise Scudder Myrick (1854–1934), First Female Owner, Editor, Publisher of a Southern US Newspaper (1895), The Americus Times-Recorder Sonny Seiler (1933–2023), attorney John Stoddard, president of the Georgia Historical Society and the first president of Evergreen Cemetery Company Josiah Tattnall Jr. (1765–1803), Senator, General, and Georgia Governor Josiah Tattnall III (1795–1871), Commodore USN, Captain CSA Navy Edward Telfair, governor Mary Telfair, philanthropist and art collector, daughter of Edward George Tiedeman, mayor of Savannah F. Bland Tucker, Episcopal minister and hymn writer John Walz (1844–1922), sculptor Gracie Watson, famous statue at her gravesite, 6 years old Claudius Charles Wilson (1831–1863), Civil War Confederate brigadier General Rosa Louise Woodberry (1869–1932), journalist, educator Bartholomew Zouberbuhler (1719–1766), early Presbyterian minister Spanish–American War veterans from Worth Bagley Camp #10 in Section K. It is the nation's second-largest area dedicated to those killed in the Spanish–American War Gallery References External links Bonaventure Historical Society Pictures from Bonaventure Cemetery Bonaventure Cemetery at Find a Grave Media related to Bonaventure Cemetery at Wikimedia Commons

Colonial_Park_Cemetery

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Park_Cemetery

Colonial Park Cemetery (locally and informally known as Colonial Cemetery) is a historic cemetery located in downtown Savannah, Georgia. It became a city park in 1896, 43 years after burials in the cemetery ceased. The cemetery was established in 1750, when Savannah was the capital of the British Province of Georgia, last of the Thirteen Colonies. By 1789 it had expanded three times to reach its current six acres bounded by East Oglethorpe Avenue (to the north), Habersham Street (east), East Perry Lane (south) and Abercorn Street (west). Savannah's primary public cemetery throughout its 103 active years, its previous names have included the Old Cemetery, Old Brick Graveyard, South Broad Street Cemetery, and Christ Church Cemetery. History Originally built as the burial ground for the Christ Church Parish, in 1789 it became a cemetery for Savannahians of all denominations. The Gaston Tomb was built in Colonial Park Cemetery in 1844, but was moved to Bonaventure Cemetery in 1873. The cemetery was closed to burials in 1853, some eight years before the start of the American Civil War, so no Confederate soldiers are interred there. After Union troops occupied Savannah on December 24, 1864, the graveyard became a temporary home to "several hundred" Union soldiers. Soldiers allegedly damaged or defaced some of the stone markers (including altering some dates and ages) and sheltered inside vaults, including the Gaston Tomb. Notable burials John Berrien (1759–1815), major in the American Revolution (father of John M. Berrien, senator and attorney general) Archibald Bulloch (1730–1777), governor of Georgia's Provincial Congress Samuel Elbert (1740–1788), Revolutionary soldier and a governor of the state of Georgia Button Gwinnett (1735–1777), a signer of the Declaration of Independence James Habersham (1712–1775), acting royal governor of the Province of Georgia (father of John, Joseph and James Habersham Jr.) John Habersham (1754–1799), member of the Continental Congress (son of James Habersham, brother of Joseph and James Habersham Jr.) Joseph Habersham (1751–1815), Postmaster General of the United States under three presidents (son of James Habersham, brother of John and James Habersham Jr.) Edward Malbone (1777–1807), painter Lachlan McIntosh (1725–1806), major general in the Continental Army William Scarbrough, (1776–1838), sea captain More than 700 victims of Savannah's 1820 yellow fever epidemic are also buried here. The remains of major general Nathanael Greene (1742–1786) reposed in the cemetery's Graham vault between 1786 and 1901, at which point they were reinterred in Johnson Square, along with the remains of his eldest son, George. His remains had shared the vault with those of John Maitland, his arch-rival in the Revolutionary War. Maitland's remains were returned to his native Scotland in 1981. References External links A map of the cemetery Colonial Park Cemetery at Find a Grave

Midnight_in_the_Garden_of_Good_and_Evil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_in_the_Garden_of_Good_and_Evil

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a non-fiction novel by John Berendt. The book, Berendt's first, was published on January 10, 1994, and follows the story of Jim Williams, an antiques dealer on trial for the killing of Danny Hansford. Subtitled A Savannah Story, with an initial printing of 25,000 copies, the book became a New York Times Best-Seller for 216 weeks following its debut and remains one of the longest-standing New York Times Best-Sellers. Berendt combined self-witnessed experiences during his time living in Savannah (roughly four years after the shooting) with stories from the preceding years recounted to him by locals; he catches up with proceedings around the book's mid-point. Williams was a free man during Berendt's five years in Savannah. The author took some liberties with his writing, including creating a relationship between Joe Odom and Nancy Hillis. The character Serena Dawes was based on silent-film actress and heiress Helen Avis Drexel, while voodoo priestess Valerie Boles was the inspiration for Minerva. The book was adapted for Clint Eastwood's 1997 film, with several characters' names changed to protect their privacy. Maybe to "protect the innocent," said Sonny Seiler, Williams's attorney. "Well, I don't know how innocent they were, but he didn't change any of the facts." John Lee Hancock wrote the screenplay, after Berendt favored his script over that of Alfred Uhry. The book's title is shared by the title of chapter 18. Berendt dedicated the book to his parents. Background Berendt gave the finished manuscript to his agent, who enjoyed it but said it was "too local" and that no publisher would take a chance on it. She gave the manuscript back to Berendt, who found another agent. Within a week, she had four major publishers bidding for it. Random House were the successful bidders. It was published in January 1994, fourteen months after Berendt finished writing it. They did not change a word of the manuscript. In tone, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is atmospherically Deep South coastal (Savannah, Georgia, and Beaufort, South Carolina) and Southern Gothic, depicting a wide range of eccentric personalities in and around Savannah. The central narrative concerns the shooting of Danny Hansford, a local male prostitute, characterized as "a good time not yet had by all" by Prentiss Crowe, a Savannah socialite. The perpetrator was respected antiques dealer Jim Williams, who was also his employer and casual sexual partner. Hansford's death resulted in four murder trials, with the final one ending in acquittal after the judge finally agreed to a change of venue to move the case away from the Savannah jury pool. The book describes Williams' version of the killing, which is that it was in "self-defense"—the result of Hansford, who was prone to fits of rage, shooting at Williams with a gun that was on display, and Williams shooting back to protect himself—and not murder, pre-meditated or otherwise, by Williams. The death occurred in Williams' Mercer House home, the ground floor of which is now a museum. The book highlights many other notable Savannah residents, including The Lady Chablis, a local transgender woman, club performer, and entertainer. Chablis provides both a Greek chorus of sorts as well as a light-hearted contrast to the more serious action. Chablis was given a dedicated chapter, as was Emma Kelly, the "Lady of 6,000 Songs." Characters and events The book's plot is based on real-life events that occurred in the 1980s and is classified as non-fiction. Because it reads like a novel (and rearranges the sequence of true events in time), it is sometimes referred to as a "non-fiction novel." Although the book's timeline is set to coincide with the entire saga of Jim Williams' arrest and four trials for murder, in reality Berendt did not meet Williams for the first time until March 1982 — six weeks after the millionaire had been convicted of murder and released pending appeal. Two years later, after Berendt had decided he wanted to write a book, Williams agreed to be interviewed by Berendt in jail. "I might be interested in cooperating with you," he told Berendt. "I really want my story out." Berendt flew down to Savannah. "Jim actually saw very few people in jail. He didn't like to be in such reduced circumstances. He always wanted to be on his own turf, where he could entertain people, and control people." Berendt did not move to Savannah to collect material for his book until 1985 — after Williams' second conviction. Berendt attended the third and fourth trials. Williams was a free man and living in Mercer House during Berendt's five years in Savannah. "He was available to me and very cooperative," Berendt said in 2015. "When I started the book, I knew about the shooting," said Berendt. "It did not happen in the middle of my being there. But I moved it to the middle of the book so that you could meet everybody in Savannah and get to know Savannah before this shocking event happened." "The only fictional character in the book is the narrator, me, until I catch up with myself midway through the book," Berendt said in 1995. "I felt that was a legitimate license to take. The book is 99 percent true and 1 percent exaggeration." In the first chapter, Berendt and Williams are interrupted by Hansford's screaming entrance; this happened prior to Williams and Berendt's first meeting in 1982. "Jim was having drinks with somebody else," explains Berendt. "Jim told me about it and so did somebody else. So I reconstructed it, put myself in there. The first evening in Mercer House is a combination of a lot of stories he told me. Then afterward, I meet all these people — Joe Odom, Chablis, Lee Adler. I met all these people, obviously, after the murder, but they don't impact the murder at all, so I simply put them right after my meeting with Jim, and it seems as though I met them before the shooting and I didn't, but so what? All of those meetings with people were actual meetings. They took place in '85 or later, and they are pretty much verbatim what happened with those people and me." Jim Williams' confession to Berendt before the third trial was recorded on a Dictaphone by the author. "If [Williams] had not died, I don't know what I would have done, because I'm pretty sure he would not have wanted that in the book." Lee Adler initially shunned Berendt after the book's release, claiming he was misrepresented. "At first he wouldn't talk to me; now, he shakes my hand," said Berendt. Nancy Hillis, who appears as Mandy Nichols, later explained that, contrary to Berendt's portrayal of her, she did not meet Joe Odom until he had moved from 16 East Jones Street to 101 East Oglethorpe Avenue. She also clarified that there was no romantic relationship between her and Odom, largely because Odom was gay. The person represented by Serena Dawes (based on Helen Avis Drexel) died in 1974, over twenty years before the book's release. Minerva is based on Valerie Boles, a root doctor from South Carolina. Regarding the high number of eccentric characters in Savannah, Berendt's belief is that it is because gossip was so important during his time in the city. "People in Savannah gossip more than anywhere else," he said. "What do people gossip about? Other people's behavior. The stranger the behavior, the better the gossip. The person that is being gossiped about knows they are being appreciated and attempts to outdo themself on the strangeness." In 2024, Berendt stated that he believed Williams was guilty of murder. Title The title alludes to the hoodoo notion of "midnight," the period between the time for good magic (11:30pm to midnight) and the time for evil magic (midnight to 12:30am). Although Bonaventure Cemetery is the focus in the book, "the garden of good and evil" refers principally to the cemetery off Congress Street in Beaufort, South Carolina, where Dr. Louis Buzzard, the husband of Minerva, the folk-magic practitioner who figures in the story, is buried. It is over his grave that Minerva performed the incantations to ensure a more successful result in the retrial for the case of Jim Williams. (The marriage between Minerva and Dr. Buzzard was the invention of John Berendt. Dr. Buzzard was based on Stephen Robinson, who died in 1947, aged 61 or 62.) Cover The Bird Girl statue, designed both as art and as a birdseed holder, was originally located in Bonaventure Cemetery. A Savannah photographer, Jack Leigh, was commissioned to take a photograph for the cover of the book. The cover image became immediately iconic, with author John Berendt calling it "one of the strongest covers I've ever seen", and the statue became a popular stop for tourists. Owing to rising concerns about the integrity of the statue and the cemetery's privacy, Bird Girl was relocated in 1997 for display in Telfair Museums in Savannah. Legacy In 1993, the year before the book's publication, Savannah had five million visitors, who spent almost $600 million during their time in the city. Two years after the book's release, Savannah was seeing a 46% increase in tourism. Twenty years later, the number of visitors to the city had jumped to 12.5 million, spending $2.2 billion. Joseph Marinelli, president of the Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau, does not attribute the city's popularity growth entirely to Midnight, but that it had a significant impact. Dorothy Kingery, Jim Williams's sister, did not like the book. "She kept everything hush-hush," explained Sonny Seiler, the Williams family attorney, "but now she lets tourists go through Mercer–Williams House. But they cannot talk about the unpleasantness or what went on in that study on the first floor." The story was turned into a musical in 2024 with lyrics and music by Jason Robert Brown and book by Taylor Mac. Awards The book won the 1995 Boeke Prize and was one of the finalists for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. Audiobook Jeff Woodman recorded the audiobook version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. He stated that Berendt's effort, along with that of Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game, was the most challenging to record: "Especially because all the characters in Midnight have the same damned Savannah accent, so you can't toss in a little North Country to help differentiate them!" he said in 2010. References External links "Photos of the first edition of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". Mansion Books. "Booknotes interview with Berendt on Midnight". C-SPAN. August 1997. "Official book site". RandomHouse.com.

Friends

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends

Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six friends in their 20s and early 30s who live in Manhattan, New York City. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Kauffman, and Crane. Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the working title Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the show to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, including title changes to Six of One and Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends. Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions and Warner Bros. Television. The show ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings; it ultimately reached the number-one spot in its eighth season. The series finale aired on May 6, 2004, and was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fifth-most-watched series finale in television history and the most-watched television episode of the 2000s. Friends received acclaim throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular television shows of all time. The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 for its eighth season. The show ranked no. 21 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and no. 5 on Empire magazine's The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 1997, the episode "The One with the Prom Video" was ranked no. 100 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time. In 2013, Friends ranked no. 24 on the Writers Guild of America's 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time, and no. 28 on TV Guide's 60 Best TV Series of All Time. The sitcom's cast members returned for Friends: The Reunion, a reunion special which was released on HBO Max on May 27, 2021. Cast and characters Main cast Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green: A fashion enthusiast and Monica Geller's best friend from childhood. Rachel first moves in with Monica in season one after nearly marrying Barry Farber. Rachel and Ross Geller are later involved in an on-again, off-again relationship throughout the series. Rachel dates other men during the series, such as Italian neighbor, Paolo, in season one; Joshua Bergin, a client from Bloomingdale's, in season four; Tag Jones, her assistant, in season seven; and Joey Tribbiani, one of her close friends, in season ten. Rachel's first job is as a waitress at the coffee house Central Perk, but she later becomes an assistant buyer at Bloomingdale's in season three, and a buyer at Ralph Lauren in season five. Rachel and Ross have a daughter named Emma in "The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two" at the end of season eight. In the final episode of the series, Ross and Rachel confess their love for each other, and Rachel gives up a dream fashion job at Louis Vuitton in Paris to be with him. Despite her friendliness, she is often self-centered and refuses to take responsibility for her actions. Courteney Cox as Monica Geller: The "mother hen" of the group and a chef, known for her perfectionist, bossy, competitive, and obsessive-compulsive nature. Monica was overweight as a child. She works as a chef in various restaurants throughout the show. Monica's first serious relationship is with a long-time family friend Richard Burke, who is 21 years her senior. The two maintain a strong relationship for some time until Richard expresses that he does not want to have children. Monica and Chandler, one of her best friends, later start a relationship after spending a night with each other in London in the season four finale, leading to their marriage in season seven and the adoption of twins at the end of the series. A running gag in the show is Chandler's easy-going and humorous nature conflicting with Monica's high-maintenance and compulsive behavior. Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay: A masseuse and self-taught musician. She is usually the rudest member of the group, due to her often sniping comments. As a child, Phoebe lived in upstate New York with her mother, until her mother committed suicide and Phoebe took to the streets. She writes and sings her own strange songs, accompanying herself on the guitar. She has an identical twin named Ursula, who shares few of Phoebe's traits. Phoebe has three serious relationships over the show's run: David, a scientist, in season one, with whom she breaks up when he moves to Minsk on a research grant; Gary, a police officer whose badge she finds, in season five; and an on-and-off relationship with Mike Hannigan in seasons nine and ten. In season nine, Phoebe and Mike break up due to his desire not to marry. David returns from Minsk, leading to the two getting back together, but she eventually rejects him for Mike when both of them propose to her. Phoebe and Mike marry in season ten. Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani: A struggling actor and food lover who becomes famous for his role on soap opera Days of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray. Joey has many short-term girlfriends. Despite his womanizing and his dim-witted, often ignorant, behavior, Joey is innocent and well-intentioned. Joey often uses the catchphrase pick-up line "How you doin'?" in his attempts to win over most of the women he meets. Joey rooms with his best friend Chandler for years, and later with Rachel. He falls in love with Rachel in season eight, but Rachel politely tells Joey that she does not share his feelings. They eventually date briefly in season ten, but after realizing it will not work due to their friendship and Rachel's complicated relationship with Ross, they return to being friends. At the end of the series, he is the only remaining single member of the group, and becomes the main protagonist of the sequel series Joey. Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing: An executive in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration for a large, multinational corporation. Chandler hates this job, although it pays well. He attempts to quit during season one but is lured back with a new office and a pay raise. He eventually quits this job in season nine due to a transfer to Tulsa, Oklahoma. He becomes a junior copywriter at an advertising agency later that season. Chandler has a peculiar family history being the son of an erotic novelist mother and a gay, cross-dressing Las Vegas star father. Chandler is known for his sarcastic sense of humor, bad luck in relationships, and tendency to be the butt of all jokes. Despite this, he is still kind and usually serves as the voice of reason in contrast to his more arrogant and selfish friends. Chandler marries Monica, one of his best friends, in season seven, and they adopt twins at the end of the series. Before his relationship with Monica, Chandler dated Janice Hosenstein in season one and subsequently broke up with her many times. David Schwimmer as Ross Geller: Monica's "geeky" older brother, a PhD-carrying palaeontologist working at the American Museum of Natural History, and later a tenured professor of palaeontology at New York University. Ross is involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Rachel throughout the series. He has three failed marriages during the series: Carol Willick, a lesbian who is also the mother of his son, Ben Geller; Emily Waltham, who divorces him after he accidentally says Rachel's name instead of hers during their wedding vows; and Rachel, as the two drunkenly marry in Las Vegas. His divorces become a running joke within the series. Following a one-night stand, he and Rachel have a daughter, Emma, by the end of season eight. They finally confess that they are still in love with each other in the series finale. James Michael Tyler appears as Gunther, a barista at Central Perk, in every season of the show, but is only ever credited as a guest star. Gunther has a mostly secret profound love for Rachel throughout the entire series. At one point he becomes the manager of the coffee house. It is revealed that Gunther speaks Dutch in addition to English, as well as being a former soap opera actor. In their original contracts for the first season, cast members were paid $22,500 per episode. The cast members received different salaries in the second season, beginning from the $20,000 range to $40,000 per episode. Before their salary negotiations for the third season, the cast decided to enter collective negotiations, despite Warner Bros.' preference for individual deals. The actors were given the salary of the least paid cast member. The stars were each paid $75,000 per episode in season three, $85,000 in season four, $100,000 in season five, $125,000 in season six, $750,000 in seasons seven and eight, and $1 million in seasons nine and ten, making Aniston, Cox, and Kudrow the highest-paid TV actresses of all time. The cast also received syndication royalties beginning in 2000 after renegotiations. At the time, that financial benefit of a piece of the show's lucrative back-end profits had only been given out to stars who had ownership rights in a show, like Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby. Series creator David Crane wanted all six actors to be equally prominent, and the series was lauded as being "the first true 'ensemble' show." The cast members made efforts to keep the ensemble format and not allow one member to dominate; they entered themselves in the same acting categories for awards, opted for collective salary negotiations, and asked to appear together on magazine cover photos in the first season. The cast members also became best friends off-screen, so much so that recurring guest star Tom Selleck reported that he sometimes felt left out. The cast remained good friends after the series run, most notably Cox and Aniston, with Aniston being godmother to Cox and David Arquette's daughter, Coco. In the official farewell commemorative book Friends 'Til the End, each separately acknowledged in interviews that the cast had become their family. Episodes Season 1 The first season introduces the six main characters who live in New York City: Rachel Green, a waitress; professional chef Monica Geller; her paleontologist brother, Ross Geller; free-spirited masseuse Phoebe Buffay; struggling actor Joey Tribbiani; and Ross's college friend, Chandler Bing, whose precise occupation at a corporation is unknown. Rachel arrives at Central Perk, wearing her wedding dress, after leaving her fiancé, Barry, an orthodontist, at the altar. She moves into her high school friend Monica's apartment, and gets a waitress job at Central Perk. Ross, who has had a crush on Rachel since high school, often attempts to declare his feelings for her. However many obstacles stand in his way, including his insecurities, Rachel dating an Italian neighbor named Paolo, and the fact that he is expecting a baby with his lesbian ex-wife, Carol, who gives birth to Ben later in the season. Joey never has a steady girlfriend and constantly sleeps with a variety of women. Phoebe is rather odd and complex, mostly due to her mother's suicide when she was a child and having lived on the streets for a time. However, the gang loves her regardless. Chandler breaks up with his girlfriend, Janice (Maggie Wheeler), only to find himself reconnecting with her throughout the series. Near the end of the season, while Ross is at a paleontology dig in China, Chandler accidentally lets slip that Ross loves Rachel, who then realizes that she also cares for him. The season ends with Rachel waiting at the airport for Ross, who is returning from China. Season 2 Rachel greets Ross at the airport only to discover that he has returned with Julie (Lauren Tom), someone he knew from graduate school. Rachel's attempts to tell Ross that she loves him initially mirror his failed attempts in the first season. After he breaks up with Julie for Rachel, friction between them develops when Rachel discovers Ross's list of the cons of dating her. They eventually begin a relationship after Rachel sees an old home video from her and Monica's prom night and realizes Ross was going to stand in for her prom date who nearly stood her up. Monica is promoted to head chef at the Iridium restaurant, then gets fired for accepting gifts from a supplier, which is against company policy. Needing money, she is forced to take an embarrassing job as a waitress at a 1950s-style diner. She begins dating Richard Burke (Tom Selleck), a recently divorced family friend who is 21 years her senior. They eventually break up when Monica realizes that Richard, already a father, does not want more children. Joey is cast in a fictional version of the soap opera, Days of Our Lives as neurosurgeon Dr. Drake Ramoray. He moves out of his and Chandler's apartment, forcing Chandler to get a new roommate, Eddie (Adam Goldberg). However, Eddie is annoying and somewhat deranged. When Joey claims in a soap opera magazine interview that he writes many of his own lines, offending the show's writer, his character is killed off. No longer able to afford his expensive new apartment, Joey moves back in with Chandler, kicking Eddie out in the process. In the season finale, Chandler talks to an anonymous woman in an online chat room. When they agree to meet in person, the woman turns out to be Janice. Season 3 Season 3 takes on a significantly more serialized format. Chandler and Janice date for several episodes until Joey catches Janice kissing her soon-to-be ex-husband. Not wanting to destroy her family, Chandler urges Janice to go back to her husband, then becomes depressed over the breakup for several episodes. Rachel quits her job at Central Perk and begins working at Bloomingdale's, an upscale department store chain. Ross soon becomes jealous of her colleague Mark and frustrated by Rachel's long work hours. She is tired of his constant jealousy and insecurity, and decides they need a relationship break. Ross, hurt and somewhat drunk, immediately sleeps with Chloe, "the hot girl from the Xerox place," causing Rachel to break up with him completely. Although Phoebe initially believes she has no family except her twin sister Ursula (Lisa Kudrow), she learns she has a half-brother, Frank Jr. (Giovanni Ribisi) and discovers her birth mother, Phoebe Abbott (Teri Garr) over the course of the season. Joey falls in love with his acting partner Kate (Dina Meyer), but is jealous of her dating the director of their play. They begin a brief relationship that ends when she takes an acting job in Los Angeles. Monica dates millionaire Pete Becker (Jon Favreau), despite her initially not being attracted to him. However, she breaks up with Pete after he is seriously hurt trying to become the Ultimate Fighting Champion and refuses to quit. Phoebe sets Ross up on a date with her friend, Bonnie (Christine Taylor), inciting Rachel's jealousy. She tries sabotaging the relationship by coercing Bonnie to shave her head bald, and eventually admits to Ross that she still has feelings for him. The season closes with Ross having to choose between Rachel and Bonnie. Season 4 In the season 4 premiere, after Ross breaks up with Bonnie, he and Rachel briefly reconcile after Ross pretends to read a long letter that Rachel wrote for him. However, Ross continues to insist that the two were on a break when he slept with Chloe, so they break up again. Joey dates Kathy (Paget Brewster), a girl that Chandler has a crush on. Kathy and Chandler later kiss, which causes drama between Chandler and Joey. Joey only forgives Chandler and allows him to date Kathy after Chandler spends Thanksgiving in a box as punishment. Chandler's relationship with Kathy ends after he discovers that she cheated on him due to an argument. Phoebe loses her job as a masseuse after making out with one of her clients and she accompanies Monica, who has become a caterer for hire. They soon start a catering business together but Monica, after negatively reviewing a restaurant, Allesandro's, is offered the position of head chef. Despite initially being pressured by the wrath of her co-workers, Monica eventually asserts her dominance in the kitchen. Phoebe becomes a surrogate for her brother and his wife, Alice (Debra Jo Rupp). Monica and Rachel are forced to switch apartments with Joey and Chandler after losing a bet during a quiz game, but manage to switch back by bribing them with Knicks season tickets and a one-minute kiss (off-screen) between each other. After her boss dies, Rachel is demoted to personal shopping and meets and later dates a customer named Joshua (Tate Donovan). Ross begins dating an English woman named Emily (Helen Baxendale), and they quickly get engaged. Rachel struggles to cope and hastily suggests to Joshua that they marry, after which he rejects her. In the season finale, the group, apart from a heavily pregnant Phoebe and Rachel, travel to Ross and Emily's wedding in London. Chandler and Monica sleep together, and Rachel, realizing that she is still in love with Ross, rushes to London to stop Ross and Emily's wedding, but changes her mind when she sees them happy together. While saying his vows, Ross accidentally says Rachel's name at the altar, shocking his bride and the guests. Season 5 Ross and Emily marry, but an angry and humiliated Emily flees the reception. Rachel soon admits her love for Ross, but realizing how ridiculous this is, advises him to work on his marriage to Emily. She develops a crush on her neighbor Danny and they date briefly, until she realizes that he is too close with his sister. Monica and Chandler try to keep their new relationship a secret from their friends. Phoebe gives birth to triplets in the show's 100th episode. She gives birth to a boy, Frank Jr. Jr., and two girls, Leslie and Chandler, the latter of whom was supposed to be a boy, but was later revealed to be a girl. After weeks of trying to contact her, Emily agrees to reconcile with Ross and move to New York if he breaks off all communication with Rachel. Ross agrees, but later attends a dinner with all his friends, Rachel included. Emily phones Ross, discovers Rachel is there, realizes she does not trust him and ends their marriage. Ross takes out his anger at work, resulting in him being indefinitely suspended from the museum, and he moves in with Chandler and Joey until eventually getting a new apartment across the street from them. Rachel gets a new job at Ralph Lauren. Phoebe has a brief relationship with a police officer, Gary (Michael Rapaport), after finding his badge and using it as her own. Monica and Chandler go public with their relationship, to the surprise and delight of their friends. They decide to get married on a trip to Las Vegas, but change their plans after witnessing Ross and Rachel drunkenly stumbling out of the wedding chapel. Season 6 In the season 6 premiere, Ross and Rachel's marriage turns out to be a drunken mistake that neither remembers until the other friends mention it. Ross promises Rachel he will get them an annulment, then secretly does nothing because he cannot face having three failed marriages. By the time Rachel discovers they are still married, an annulment is impossible due to their history; they are forced to get a divorce. After ignoring the numerous signs that they should get married, Monica and Chandler decide to live together, forcing Rachel to move in with Phoebe. Joey gets a new roommate, Janine (Elle Macpherson). They develop feelings for each other and date briefly until Janine criticizes Monica and Chandler, ending the relationship. After Janine moves out, Joey struggles with paying his bills so he takes a job at Central Perk. He soon lands a role on a cable TV series called Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E., starring alongside a crime-fighting robot. Ross gets a teaching job at New York University. He dates Elizabeth (Alexandra Holden), a student, despite it being against university policy. Elizabeth's father, Paul (Bruce Willis), disapproves of Ross but falls for Rachel, and they start dating. Both relationships soon end: Elizabeth is too immature for Ross, and previously reserved Paul opens up emotionally and is more than Rachel can handle. Phoebe and Rachel's apartment catches fire, and Rachel moves in with Joey, while Phoebe stays with Chandler and Monica, though they later switch. While at a museum that has a two-year wait for weddings, Monica puts her name on the reservation list as a joke. When Chandler intercepts the museum's phone call about a cancellation, he panics; however, Chandler has been planning to propose while pretending he may never want to marry. While dining at a fancy restaurant, Chandler's planned proposal is subverted by Monica's ex-boyfriend Richard Burke, who unexpectedly shows up. Richard later tells Monica he wants to marry her and have children. Monica becomes upset at Chandler, believing his ruse about not wanting to marry. Chandler believes Monica has left him until he comes home to find their apartment decorated with candles and her waiting to propose to him. When she becomes too emotional to continue, Chandler proposes and she accepts. Season 7 The seventh season mainly follows Monica and Chandler as they plan their wedding amid various problems. Joey's television series, Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E is canceled, but he is offered his old role on Days of Our Lives; the show is retconned with the revelation that Dr. Drake Ramoray has been in a four-year coma and is revived with a brain transplant from another character. Phoebe's repaired apartment now has one large bedroom instead of the original two, so Rachel permanently stays at Joey's. Rachel is promoted at Ralph Lauren and impulsively hires a young assistant, Tag Jones (Eddie Cahill), based on his looks, passing over a more qualified woman. Tag discovers her feelings about him at Thanksgiving dinner, and they begin dating, hiding it from co-workers. However, on her 30th birthday, Rachel ends their relationship, realizing Tag is too young and immature, particularly if she intends to follow her marriage schedule. Hours before Monica and Chandler's wedding ceremony, Chandler panics and goes into hiding just as Phoebe and Rachel find a positive pregnancy test in Monica and Chandler's bathroom. They assume Monica is pregnant. Ross and Phoebe find Chandler and convince him to return for the ceremony, though he briefly bolts again after overhearing Phoebe and Rachel discussing the pregnancy test. He quickly returns, embracing the idea of fatherhood. After the ceremony, Monica denies she is pregnant; unbeknown to everyone, the positive pregnancy test is Rachel's. Season 8 Season 8 begins at Monica and Chandler's wedding reception. Phoebe and Monica discover Rachel's pregnancy and persuade her to take another test to confirm it. Phoebe initially claims the test is negative, badly disappointing Rachel, then reveals it is positive, saying Rachel now knows how she really feels about having a baby. Ross is eventually revealed to be the father, and the season revolves around Rachel's pregnancy. Rachel and Ross agree to be co-parents without resuming their romantic relationship; Ross begins dating Mona (Bonnie Somerville), who is Monica's co-worker from Allesandro's. Joey takes Rachel out to quell her fears about motherhood, and realizes he has romantic feelings for her. While suppressing his feelings, he encourages Rachel to stay at Ross's apartment so he can be involved in the pregnancy. The arrangement is too much for Mona, and she breaks up with Ross. Joey tells Ross about his feelings for Rachel. Ross initially is angry, then gives his blessing. Joey tells Rachel that he loves her, but she realizes she does not feel the same way, and they remain friends. When Rachel goes into labor, Ross's mother gives him a family heirloom ring and encourages him to propose to Rachel. Ross hesitates, and puts the ring in his jacket, which he later leaves in Rachel's room. After Monica jokes about having kids, she and Chandler decide to have a baby, starting while they are still at the hospital. After a prolonged labor, during which numerous other expectant mothers, including Janice, are taken to the delivery room, Rachel gives birth to baby Emma. She is left saddened and afraid after Janice later says that Ross may not always be there for her and the baby. When Joey comforts Rachel, the ring falls from Ross's jacket to the floor. Joey kneels to pick it up, and Rachel, believing he is proposing, impulsively says yes. Meanwhile, Ross intends to ask Rachel if she wants to resume their relationship. Season 9 Season nine begins with Ross and Rachel cohabitating with their daughter Emma, after Joey and Rachel clear up the proposal misunderstanding. Monica and Chandler run into obstacles as they try for a baby: Chandler unknowingly agrees to a work transfer to Tulsa just as Monica is offered a head chef job at a new restaurant, Javu, resulting in Chandler commuting back and forth. After being apart from Monica during Christmas, Chandler quits to pursue a new career in advertising, starting as an unpaid intern at an ad agency, and eventually being hired as a junior copywriter. Monica and Chandler discover they are physically incompatible to conceive and after considering multiple options, decide to adopt. Phoebe begins dating Mike Hannigan (Paul Rudd) for most of the season until Mike says that he never wants to marry again. Phoebe dates her ex-boyfriend from season 1, David (Hank Azaria) who plans on proposing to her, but Mike proposes first. Phoebe rejects both proposals but gets back together with Mike, only needing the reassurance that they have a future together. Rachel, believing that her co-worker Gavin (Dermot Mulroney) is trying to steal her job while she is on maternity leave, returns to Ralph Lauren early. She discovers at her birthday party that Gavin has feelings for her. They kiss but do not pursue a relationship due to her history with Ross. Meanwhile, Ross, having seen the kiss, retaliates by dating other women. After realizing that her and Ross's living situation is too weird, Rachel and Emma move in with Joey. Rachel develops a crush on him, only to be disheartened when he starts dating Charlie (Aisha Tyler), a new palaeontology professor to whom Ross is attracted. In the finale, the group travels to Barbados for Ross's keynote speech at a conference. Joey and Charlie break up upon realizing they have nothing in common. Joey then learns about Rachel's feelings for him, but says they cannot pursue this because of Ross. However, upon seeing Ross and Charlie kiss each other, he goes to Rachel's hotel room, and the finale ends with them kissing. Season 10 The tenth season brings several long-running story lines to a close. Joey and Rachel try to contend with Ross's feelings about their relationship, and after disastrous attempts to consummate, decide it is best they remain friends. Charlie breaks up with Ross to get back together with her ex-boyfriend. Mid-season, Joey officiates Phoebe and Mike's wedding outside the Central Perk coffee house after a snow storm paralyzes the city, preventing them and guests getting to the wedding venue. Monica and Chandler are chosen by a pregnant woman named Erica (Anna Faris) to adopt her baby. Following this, Monica and Chandler prepare to move to a house in the suburbs to raise their family, saddening everyone, particularly Joey, who is coping with all the changes in his life. In the series finale, Erica gives birth to fraternal twins, much to Monica and Chandler's surprise. Rachel is fired from Ralph Lauren after her boss overhears her interviewing for a job at Gucci. She encounters her former Bloomingdale co-worker Mark, who offers her a new job at Louis Vuitton in Paris. Ross, believing Rachel wants to stay, tries bribing Mr. Zelner to rehire her until he realizes Rachel wants to go to Paris. When Rachel says a tearful personal goodbye to everyone except Ross at her going away party, a hurt and angry Ross confronts Rachel, and they end up sleeping together. Rachel leaves, and Ross – realizing how much he loves Rachel – chases her to the airport. When he reaches her, Rachel says she has to go to Paris. Before the plane takes off, Rachel calls Ross's home phone and leaves a voice mail, apologizing for the way it ended. While speaking, she realizes that she loves him too, and gets off the plane at the last minute. The series ends with all the friends, plus Monica and Chandler's new babies, leaving the empty apartment together for a final cup of coffee at Central Perk. The show ends first with a shot of everyone's keys to Monica and Chandler's apartment left on the counter top, and then pans to a shot of the apartment's purple door. Production Conception It's about sex, love, relationships, careers, a time in your life when everything's possible. And it's about friendship because when you're single and in the city, your friends are your family. David Crane and Marta Kauffman began developing three new television pilots that would premiere in 1994 after their sitcom Family Album was cancelled by CBS in 1993. Kauffman and Crane decided to pitch the series about "six people in their 20s making their way in Manhattan" to NBC since they thought it would fit best there. (Film director and screenwriter Cameron Crowe has asserted that the concept originated with Warner Bros. Television wanting him to make his 1992 movie Singles into a television show. Crowe alleges that when he refused permission, the idea was then taken over by Crane and Kaufman, who changed some details from the premise of the movie while developing the show.) Crane and Kauffman presented the idea to their production partner Kevin Bright, who had served as executive producer on their HBO series Dream On. The idea for the series was conceived when Crane and Kauffman began thinking about the time when they had finished college and started living by themselves in New York; Kauffman believed they were looking at a time when the future was "more of a question mark." They found the concept to be interesting, as they believed "everybody knows that feeling", and because it was also how they felt about their own lives at the time. The team titled the series Insomnia Cafe and pitched the idea as a seven-page treatment to NBC in December 1993. At the same time, Warren Littlefield, the then-president of NBC Entertainment, was seeking a comedy involving young people living together and sharing expenses after he regretted passing on the Black sitcom Living Single. Littlefield wanted the group to share memorable periods of their lives with friends, who had become "new, surrogate family members." However, Littlefield found difficulty in bringing the concept to life and found the scripts developed by NBC to be terrible. When Kauffman, Crane and Bright pitched Insomnia Cafe, Littlefield was impressed that they knew who their characters were. NBC bought the idea as a put pilot, meaning they risked financial penalties if the pilot was not filmed. Kauffman and Crane took three days to write the pilot script for a show they titled Friends Like Us. Littlefield wanted the series to "represent Generation X and explore a new kind of tribal bonding", but the rest disagreed. Crane argued that it was not a series for one generation, and wanted to produce a series that everyone would enjoy watching. NBC liked the script and ordered the series. They changed the title to Six of One, mainly because they felt Friends Like Us was too similar to the ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine. Casting Once it became apparent that the series was a favored project at NBC, Littlefield reported that he was getting calls from every agent in town, wanting their client to be a part of the series. Auditions for the lead roles took place in New York and Los Angeles. The casting director shortlisted 1,000 actors who had applied for each role down to 75. Those who received a callback read in front of Crane, Kauffman and Bright. At the end of March, the number of potential actors had been reduced to three or four for each part, and these actors were asked to read for Les Moonves, then president of Warner Bros. Television. Having worked with David Schwimmer in the past, the series creators wrote the character of Ross with him in mind, and he was the first actor cast. Cox wanted to play the role of Monica because she liked the "strong" character, but the producers had her in mind to play Rachel because of her "cheery, upbeat energy", which was not how they envisioned Monica; after Cox's audition, though, Kauffman agreed with Cox, and she got the role. When Matt LeBlanc auditioned for Joey, he put a "different spin" on the character. He played Joey more simple-minded than intended and gave the character heart. Although Crane and Kauffman did not want LeBlanc for the role at the time, they were told by the network to cast him. Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow were cast based on their auditions. Perry and Aniston, both still under contract to other shows that year, were cast days before shooting of the pilot began. More changes occurred to the series's storylines during the casting process. The writers found that they had to adjust the characters they had written to suit the actors, and the discovery process of the characters occurred throughout the first season. Kauffman acknowledged that Joey's character became "this whole new being", and that "it wasn't until we did the first Thanksgiving episode that we realized how much fun Monica's neuroses are." Writing In the weeks after NBC's pick up of Friends, Crane, Kauffman and Bright reviewed sent-in scripts that writers had originally prepared for other series, mainly unproduced Seinfeld episodes. Kauffman and Crane hired a team of seven young writers because "When you're 40, you can't do it anymore. The networks and studios are looking for young people coming in out of college." The creators felt that using six equal characters, rather than emphasizing one or two, would allow for "myriad storylines and give the show legs." The majority of the storyline ideas came from the writers, although the actors added ideas. Although the writers originally planned the big love story to be between Joey and Monica, the idea of a romantic interest between Ross and Rachel emerged during the period when Kauffman and Crane wrote the pilot script. During the production of the pilot, NBC requested that the script be changed to feature one dominant storyline and several minor ones, but the writers refused, wanting to keep three storylines of equal weight. NBC also wanted the writers to include an older character to balance out the young ones. Crane and Kauffman were forced to comply and wrote a draft of an early episode that featured "Pat the Cop" who would be used to provide advice to the other characters. Crane found the storyline to be terrible, and Kauffman joked, "You know the kids [sic] book, Pat the Bunny? We had Pat the Cop." NBC eventually relented and dropped the idea. Each summer, the producers would outline the storylines for the subsequent season. Before an episode went into production, Kauffman and Crane would revise the script written by another writer, mainly if something concerning either the series or a character felt foreign. The hardest episodes to write were always "the first one and the last one of each season." Unlike other storylines, the idea for a relationship between Joey and Rachel was decided on halfway through the eighth season. The creators did not want Ross and Rachel to get back together so soon, and while looking for a romantic impediment, a writer suggested Joey's romantic interest in Rachel. The storyline was incorporated into the season; however, when the actors feared that the storyline would make their characters unlikable, the storyline was wrapped up, until it again resurfaced in the season's finale. For the ninth season, the writers were unsure about the amount of storyline to give to Rachel's baby, as they wanted the show neither to revolve around a baby nor pretend there to be none. Crane said that it took them a while to accept the idea of a tenth season, which they decided to do because they had enough stories left to tell to justify the season. Kauffman and Crane would not have signed on for an eleventh season, even if all the cast members had wanted to continue. The episode title format—"The One ..."—was created when the producers realized that the episode titles would not be featured in the opening credits, and therefore would be unknown to most of the audience. Episode titles officially begin with "The One ..." except the title of the pilot episode and the series finale "The Last One". The season 5 episode "The One Hundredth" has the alternative title of "The One With The Triplet". Filming The first season was shot on Stage 5 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. NBC executives had worried that the coffee house setting was too hip and asked for the series to be set in a diner, but eventually consented to the coffee house concept. The opening title sequence was filmed in a fountain at the Warner Bros. Ranch at 4:00 am, while it was particularly cold for a Burbank morning. At the beginning of the second season, production moved to the larger Stage 24, which was renamed The "Friends" Stage after the series finale. Filming for the series began during the summer of 1994 in front of a live audience, who were given a summary of the series to familiarize themselves with the six main characters. A hired comedian entertained the studio audience between takes. Each 22-minute episode took six hours to film—twice the length of most sitcom tapings—mainly due to the several retakes and rewrites of the script. Although the producers always wanted to find the right stories to take advantage of being on location, Friends was never shot in New York. Bright felt that filming outside the studio made episodes less funny, even when shooting on the lot outside, and that the live audience was an integral part of the series. When the series was criticized for incorrectly depicting New York, with the financially struggling group of friends being able to afford huge apartments, Bright noted that the set had to be big enough for the cameras, lighting, and "for the audience to be able to see what's going on". The apartments also needed to provide a place for the actors to execute the actions in the scripts. The fourth-season finale was shot on location in London because the producers were aware of the series' popularity in the UK. The scenes were shot in a studio with three audiences each made up of 500 people. These were the show's largest audiences throughout its run. The fifth-season finale, set in Las Vegas, was filmed at Warner Bros. Studios, although Bright met people who thought it was filmed on location. Series finale The series's creators completed the first draft of the hour-long finale in January 2004, four months before its original airing. Crane, Kauffman and Bright watched the finales of other sitcoms to prepare the episode's outline, paying attention to what worked and what did not. They liked the ones that stayed true to the series, deeming the finale of The Mary Tyler Moore Show to be the gold standard. Crane, Kauffman, and Bright had difficulty writing the finale. They did not want to do "something high concept, or take the show out of the show." The most critical parts of the finale were shot without an audience and with a minimum number of crew members. The main cast enjoyed the finale and were confident that the fans would react similarly: It's exactly what I had hoped. We all end up with a sense of a new beginning and the audience has a sense that it's a new chapter in the lives of all these characters. NBC heavily promoted the series finale, which was preceded by weeks of media hype. Local NBC affiliates organized viewing parties around the U.S., including an event at Universal CityWalk featuring a special broadcast of the finale on an outdoor Astrovision screen. The finale was the subject of two episodes of Dateline NBC, one of which ran for two hours. A one-hour retrospective of clips from previous episodes was shown before the airing of the episode. Following the finale, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was filmed on the set of the Friends' Central Perk coffee house, which featured the cast as guests. The advertising rates for the finale averaged $2 million for 30 seconds of commercial time, breaking the record held by the Seinfeld finale at $1.7 million. In the U.S., 52.5 million viewers watched the finale on May 6, 2004, making it the most-watched entertainment telecast since the Seinfeld finale in 1998. The finale was the fifth most-watched series finale in television history, only behind the finales of M*A*S*H, Cheers, The Fugitive, and Seinfeld, which were respectively watched by 105, 80.4, 78.0 and 76.3 million viewers. The retrospective episode was watched by fewer than 36 million viewers, and the finale was the second most-watched television broadcast of the year in the United States, only behind the Super Bowl. Following the finales of Friends and Frasier, media critics speculated about the fate of the sitcom genre. Opinions varied between a signalling of the end of the sitcom genre, a small decline in the large history of the genre, and a general reduction of scripted television in favor of reality shows. Reunion special On November 12, 2019, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Warner Bros TV was developing a Friends reunion for HBO Max that would feature the whole cast and creators returning. On February 21, 2020, HBO confirmed that the unscripted reunion special, tentatively named "The One Where They Got Back Together", was set to be released in May the same year, along with the 236 original episodes of the series. On March 18, 2020, it was announced that the special, which was set to film on the Friends stage on March 23 and 24, had been postponed indefinitely, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2020, Matthew Perry tweeted that the reunion is set to start filming in March 2021. On May 13, 2021, a teaser trailer was released officially announcing Friends: The Reunion also known as "The One Where They Get Back Together". The reunion special was released on HBO Max on May 27, 2021. Reception Critical reception Early reviews of the series were mixed; the first season holds a Metacritic score of 65 out of 100, based on 24 sampled reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Tom Feran of The Plain Dealer wrote that the series traded "vaguely and less successfully on the hanging-out style of Seinfeld", while Ann Hodges of the Houston Chronicle called it "the new Seinfeld wannabe, but it will never be as funny as Seinfeld." In the Los Angeles Daily News, Ray Richmond named the series as "one of the brighter comedies of the new season", and the Los Angeles Times called it "flat-out the best comedy series of the new season." The Chicago Sun-Times' Ginny Holbert found Joey and Rachel's characters to be underdeveloped, while Richmond commended the cast as a "likeable youth ensemble" with "good chemistry." Robert Bianco of USA Today was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him "terrific." He also praised the female leads, but was concerned that Perry's role as Chandler was "undefined" and that LeBlanc was "relying too much on the same brain-dead stud routine that was already tired the last two times he tried it." The authors of Friends Like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends thought that the cast was "trying just a little too hard"; in particular, Perry and Schwimmer. As the series progressed, reviews became more positive, and Friends became one of the most popular sitcoms of its time. It is now often ranked among the all-time best TV shows. Critics commended the series for having consistently sharp writing and for the chemistry between the main actors. Noel Holston of Newsday, who had dismissed the pilot as a "so-so Seinfeld wannabe" in 1994, repudiated his earlier review after rewatching the episode and felt like writing an apology to the writers. Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com thought that the series "hit its stride" in the second season. Havrilesky found the character-specific jokes and situations "could reliably make you laugh out loud a few times each episode", and the quality of writing allowed the stories to be "original and innovative." Bill Carter of The New York Times called the eighth season a "truly stunning comeback." Carter found that by "generating new hot storylines and high-decibel laughs", the series made its way "back into the hearts of its fans." However, Liane Bonin of Entertainment Weekly felt that the direction of the ninth season was a "disappointing buzzkill", criticizing it for the non-stop celebrity guest spots and going into jump the shark territory. Although disappointed with the season, Bonin noted that "the writing [was] still sharp." Havrilesky thought that the tenth season was "alarmingly awful, far worse than you would ever imagine a show that was once so good could be." Friends was featured on Time's list of "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time", saying, "the well-hidden secret of this show was that it called itself Friends, and was really about family." Reviews of the series finale were mostly positive. USA Today's Robert Bianco described the finale as entertaining and satisfying and praised it for deftly mixing emotion and humor while highlighting each of the stars. Sarah Rodman of the Boston Herald praised Aniston and Schwimmer for their acting, but felt that their characters' reunion was "a bit too neat, even if it was what most of the show's legions of fans wanted." Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant felt that newcomers to the series would be "surprised at how laughless the affair could be, and how nearly every strained gag depends on the sheer stupidity of its characters." Ken Parish Perkins, writing for Fort Worth Star-Telegram, pointed out that the finale was "more touching than comical, more satisfying in terms of closure than knee-slappingly funny." It may have been impossible for any one episode to live up to the hype and expectations built up around the Friends finale, but this hour probably came as close as fans could have reasonably hoped. Ultimately, the two-hour package did exactly what it was supposed to do. It wrapped up the story while reminding us why we liked the show and will miss it. In a 2021 program on ITV, Mr. Bean writer Richard Curtis accused the Friends writers of stealing the joke which involved Joey getting a turkey stuck on his head in "The One with All the Thanksgivings" from the 1992 episode "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean". In that episode, Mr Bean got a turkey stuck on his head after losing his watch while stuffing the turkey and put his head in to try to retrieve it. Rowan Atkinson, however, argued that jokes are meant to be stolen, or to inspire. Awards To maintain the series's ensemble format, the main cast members decided to enter themselves in the same acting categories for awards. Beginning with the eighth season, the actors decided to submit themselves in the lead actor balloting, rather than in the supporting actor fields. The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning six. Aniston and Kudrow are the only main cast members to win an Emmy, while Cox is the only actor not to be nominated. The series won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2002, receiving nominations in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, and 2003. The series also won an American Comedy Award, one GLAAD Media Award, one Golden Globe Award, three Logie Awards, six People's Choice Awards, one Satellite Award, and one Screen Actors Guild Award. Ratings The table below shows the ratings of Friends in the United States, where it consistently ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings. "Rank" refers to how well Friends rated compared to other television series that aired during primetime hours of the corresponding television season. It is shown in relation to the total number of series airing on the then-six major English-language networks in a given season. "Viewers" refers to the average number of viewers for all original episodes, broadcast during the television season in the series' regular timeslot. The "season premiere" is the date that the first episode of the season aired, and the "season finale" is the date that the final episode of the season aired. Following the September 11 attacks, ratings increased 17% over the previous season. Syndication Because of syndication revenue, Friends continues to generate approximately $1 billion each year for Warner Bros. That translates into about $20 million in annual residuals each for Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, who each get 2% of syndication income for Friends. All episodes became available on Netflix on January 1, 2015, introducing a new generation to the show. UK Friends reruns' ratings in 2015 increased by more than 10% annually. The 2016 reruns' US weekly audience, not including streaming, of 16 million would make it a hit on network television were the show still being produced. In the US, the series has a syndication deal through multiple networks, including Nick at Nite, TBS, and Paramount Network. In July 2019, it was announced that from the beginning of 2020, Friends would not be available on Netflix in the US and instead would be shown on Warner Bros. Discovery's video-streaming service HBO Max, which launched in May 2020. Cultural impact Although the producers thought of Friends as "only a TV show", psychologists investigated the cultural impact of Friends during the series' run. Aniston's hairstyle was nicknamed "The Rachel" and copied around the world. Joey's catchphrase, "How you doin'?", became a popular part of Western English slang, often used as a pick-up line or when greeting friends. The series also influenced the English language, according to a study by the University of Toronto that found that the characters used the emphasized word "so" to modify adjectives more often than any other intensifier. Although the preference had already made its way into the American vernacular, usage on the series may have accelerated the change. Chandler's habit of ending a sentence unfinished for sarcasm also influenced viewers' speech. The show's availability on streaming television—it accounted for 4% of all Netflix views in 2018—gave it a large new Gen Z audience. Kauffman reported that her high school daughter's friends thought that Friends was a new period piece about the 1990s. One young fan described the show as "aspirational ... [kids hope] that when they're that age ... they'll have those friends". Friends has been credited in helping non-English speaking students to learn the language. A 2012 poll by Kaplan International English Colleges found that more than a quarter (26%) of its students cited the sitcom as the best show for helping them improve their English. Notable individuals who have also said that the sitcom helped them learn English include Liverpool Football Club manager Jürgen Klopp, South Korean band BTS member RM and Belgian professional golfer Thomas Pieters. Friends developed an alternative family lifestyle by representing young people who live unconventional domestic lives. It presented the idea that "all you need are good friends" and that you can construct families through choice. The audience was able to identify with the program through the troubles seen on weekly episodes. It portrayed a new way of living life and developing relationships which were not normally seen in conventional society. According to a pop-culture expert at the University at Buffalo, Friends is "one of those rare shows that marked a change in American culture." The images of youth and the roles they portray are better defined and represent a lifestyle that centers around creating and sustaining relationships between friends running their own lives and seeking help from each other. Vox stated that Friends had an impact on the creation of other conflictless "hangout sitcoms", with groups of adult friends who are funny and have similar character traits. One example of this is How I Met Your Mother, which The Guardian's TV and radio blog noted also shares its setting (Manhattan) with Friends. Other examples include The Big Bang Theory, New Girl, and Happy Endings. Readers of TV Guide voted the cast of Friends their Best Comedy cast of all time, ranking at 29% of the votes, beating Seinfeld, which registered 18%. A poll undertaken by 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair named Friends the third-greatest sitcom of all time. In 2014, the series was ranked by Mundo Estranho the Best TV Series of All Time. A 2015 survey by The Hollywood Reporter of 2,800 actors, producers, directors, and other industry people named Friends as their No. 1 favorite show. Friends was parodied in the twelfth season Murder, She Wrote episode "Murder Among Friends". In the episode, amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) investigates the murder of a writer for Buds, a fictional television series about the daily lives of a group of city friends. The episode was devised after CBS moved Murder, She Wrote from its regular Sunday night timeslot to a Thursday night timeslot directly opposite Friends on NBC; Angela Lansbury was quoted by Bruce Lansbury, her brother and Murder, She Wrote's supervising producer, as having "a bit of an attitude" about the move to Thursday, but he saw the plot as "a friendly setup, no mean-spiritedness." Jerry Ludwig, the writer of the episode, researched the "flavor" of Buds by watching episodes of Friends. Producers of Married... with Children attempted to create a spinoff series called Enemies, which was intended to act as an antithesis to Friends the same way Married... with Children had been an antithesis to family sitcoms such as The Cosby Show. However, the Fox network declined to pick up the series. Coffee house The Central Perk coffee house, one of the principal settings of the series, is part of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood. People sometimes propose marriage on the couch, and many tourists cry when they sit on it. The coffee house has inspired various imitations worldwide. In 2006, Iranian businessman Mojtaba Asadian started a Central Perk franchise, registering the name in 32 countries. The decor of the coffee houses is inspired by Friends, featuring replica couches, counters, neon signage and bricks. The coffee houses contain paintings of the various characters from the series, and televisions playing Friends episodes. James Michael Tyler, who plays Gunther, the Central Perk manager in the series, attended the grand opening of the Dubai café, where he worked as a waiter. Central Perk was rebuilt as part of a museum exhibit at Warner Bros. Studios and was shown on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in October 2008 when Jennifer Aniston visited the set for the first time since the series finale in 2004. From September 24 to October 7, 2009, a Central Perk replica was on Broadwick Street, Soho, London. The coffee house sold coffee to customers and featured a display of Friends memorabilia and props, such as the Geller Cup from the season three episode "The One with the Football". In Beijing, business owner Du Xin opened a coffee shop named Central Perk in March 2010. In India, there are six Friends-themed cafes which features many icons from the original TV series, including Chandler and Joey's ugly dog statue, the orange sofa, the purple door of Monica and Rachel's apartment, and Phoebe's pink bicycle. One named Central Perk is in Chandigarh, Kolkata; one named F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Cafe in West Bengal, and the others are in Delhi, Gurgaon; Bhubaneswar, Odisha; and Pune, Maharashtra. There are two Friends themed cafes in Pakistan—one in Lahore, Punjab, known as "Friends Cafe" and the other in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa called "Central Perk". Both cafes have an iconic couch, a guitar and foosball table, quotes from the show on the walls and episode reruns on a projector. They're planning to have their own Gunther at the bar. In 2016, a Central Perk replica was opened in Outram, Singapore. It is the only Central Perk replica outside of the United States that has been given intellectual property rights by Warner Bros. The café includes feature walls, replicating the walls of the main characters' apartments and memorabilia and props used on the show. In August 2019, Lego launched a Central Perk Lego set to mark the show's 25 anniversary. Distribution Broadcast United States After the produced pilot lived up to NBC's hopes, the series premiered with the name Friends on September 22, 1994, in the coveted Thursday 8:30 p.m. time slot. The pilot aired between Mad About You and Seinfeld, and was watched by almost 22 million American viewers. The series was a huge success throughout its run and was a staple of NBC's Thursday night line-up, dubbed by the network as Must See TV. When Crane told reporters in 2001 that the ninth season was a possibility, critics believed that he was posturing and that at least two of the cast members would not sign on for another season. When it was confirmed that Friends would return for a ninth season, the news was mainly about the amount of money—$7 million per episode—that it took to bring the series back for another season. After year-long expectations that the ninth season would be the series's last, NBC signed a deal in late December 2002 to bring the series back for a final tenth season. The series' creative team did not want to extend negotiations into the next year and wanted to start writing the rest of the ninth-season episodes and a potential series finale. NBC agreed to pay $10 million to Warner Bros. for the production of each tenth-season episode, the highest price in television history for a 30-minute series. Although NBC was unable to bring in enough advertising revenue from commercials to cover the costs, the series was integral to the Thursday night schedule, which brought high ratings and profits to the other television series. The cast demanded that the tenth season be reduced from the usual 24 episodes to 18 episodes to allow them to work on outside projects. In fall 2001, Warner Bros. Domestic Cable made a deal with sister network TBS (both were owned by Time Warner) to air the series in rerun syndication. Warner Bros. Domestic Cable announced that it had sold additional cable rights to Friends to Nick at Nite which began airing in the fall of 2011 (unlike the TBS and broadcast syndication airings, Nick at Nite broadcasts of the series, which began airing as part of a seven-night launch marathon on September 5, 2011, replace the end credit tag scenes with marginalized credits featuring promotions for the series and other Nick at Nite programs). Warner Bros. was expected to make $200 million in license fees and advertising from the deal. Nick at Nite paid $500,000 per episode to air the episodes after 6 pm. ET for six years through fall 2017. In syndication until 2005, Friends had earned $4 million per episode in cash license fees for a total of $944 million. Comedy Central began airing reruns of Friends in October 2019. International Having already made huge success in the United States, Friends producers decided to air the show in Europe. It premiered in the United Kingdom on April 28, 1995. Season 1 was broadcast until September 1995 on Channel 4 at 9:30 PM on Friday nights, and immediately was a success. The popularity of the show allowed the theme song by the Rembrandts to hit number 3 on the UK Singles Charts in September 1995. The popularity of the show in Britain led to an episode being produced in London at the end of the fourth season, starring British actress Helen Baxendale, who became a leading cast member in seasons four and five during her character's relationship with Ross. The show has since aired on different channels in the UK in their original, unedited international versions prior to their being re-edited for US broadcast and syndication. These versions, with additional footage not seen domestically, have aired on such stations as Channel 4, Sky1, E4, and Comedy Central UK. In September 2011, Friends officially ended on E4 after the channel re-ran the series since 2004. Comedy Central took over the rights to air the program from October 2011. Since 2018 Channel 5 started airing the program. In the Republic of Ireland, each season of the show made its European debut on RTÉ2. After 2004 RTÉ2 began to repeat the series from the start before moving over to TV3 and its digital channel 3e in 2010. As of February 2015, repeats of the show have returned to RTÉ2 while also broadcasting on Comedy Central Ireland. Season 10's finale in the UK, broadcast on May 28, 2004, was on Channel 4. It was broadcast from 9 pm to 10 pm and attracted Friends' largest UK audiences. It attracted almost 10 million viewers, and is currently standing at Number 10 in Channel 4's most-watched shows. Big Brother was moved to 10 pm, which Friends had beaten. Friends got 9.6 million viewers at 9 pm, while Big Brother 5's launch attracted 7.2 million viewers at 10 pm, which is the most-watched premiere on UK TV ever. However, on January 3, 2007, Celebrity Big Brother 5's launch was watched by 7.3 million viewers, and its eviction on January 19, 2007, was watched by 8.7 million viewers. Friends has previously aired in Australia on the Seven Network (season 1), Nine Network (season 2–10), Network Ten (2007–09, repeats), Arena, 111 Hits, 9Gem (2012–2018, repeats), and TVHits. It currently airs on 10 Peach and on pay TV channel Comedy, both of which broadcast the high-definition version of the series. The show is broadcast on TV2 in New Zealand. In Canada, the series was broadcast on Global. In later years, it was syndicated on several of its cable sibling networks, including Slice, DTour, and TVTropolis, its previous incarnation. The series is now syndicated to Bell Media owned CTV Comedy Channel. In Latin America, the first seven seasons aired on Sony, and the remaining seasons on Warner. In Brazil, free-to-air networks RedeTV! and SBT also aired a few seasons. In India, the show is broadcast by Comedy Central at various times. It is the most-watched English language show in the country. In the Philippines, the show was originally aired on ABC-5 from 1996 to 2005 and ETC from 2005 to 2014. In Greece, the show was broadcast on Star Channel. In Cyprus, Friends aired on CyBC 2 while reruns air on TVOne. In November 2019 Croatian television broadcaster RTL2 announced that they will be airing Friends, and to this day they are shown every late night In 2022, Bilibili, iQIYI, Tencent Video, and Youku began distributing edited Friends episodes in China. These edited versions of episodes removed most LGBT content, not edited in original Chinese airings. Chinese fans of the show reacted negatively online. Remaster Beginning in March 2012, high definition versions of all 236 Friends episodes were made available to local broadcast stations, starting with the pilot episode. For the remastered episodes, Warner Bros. restored previously cropped images on the left and right sides of the screen, using the original 35 mm film source, to use the entire 16:9 widescreen frame. Because the show was not originally filmed for widescreen, but rather filmed in 4-perf format and protected for 4:3, some cropping problems arise in some shots where information from the top and bottom of the frame is removed, and some expanded shots reveal unintentional artifacts, including set edges, boom mics and body doubles replacing some of the main cast. In early versions of the HD remasters, there were also a few shots, including chroma effects shots, which were sourced from standard-definition videotape sources, as not all of the footage had been located in time for the remaster. The original film sources for these shots were later rescanned for later broadcast and release. These masters had been airing in New Zealand on TV2 since January 2011, and the earlier HD prints continue to air on Comedy Central in the United Kingdom as of 2020. Netflix added all ten seasons of Friends in high definition to its streaming service in the United States in January 2015 before the platform discontinued the series in late 2019. Home media Streaming In October 2014, Warner Bros. chairman and chief executive officer, Kevin Tsujihara, announced that the company had licensed the North American streaming rights of all ten seasons of Friends to Netflix, in a deal said to be worth around $500,000 an episode, or about $120 million in total. The show became available on Netflix from January 1, 2015. The Netflix airings are the versions aired on NBC rather than the longer international versions, as discussed below. The series left Netflix in the US on January 1, 2020, as it began streaming on HBO Max on May 27, 2020. The series left Netflix in Canada for Crave on December 31, 2020. Blu-ray and DVD All ten seasons have been released on DVD individually and as a box set. Each Region 1 season release contains special features and are presented in their aforementioned original international broadcast versions, although Region 2 releases are as originally aired domestically. For the first season, each episode is updated with color correction and sound enhancement. A wide range of Friends merchandise has been produced by various companies. In September 1995, WEA Records released the first album of music from Friends, the Friends Original TV Soundtrack, containing music featured in previous and future episodes. The soundtrack debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 46, and sold 500,000 copies in November 1995. In 1999, a second soundtrack album entitled Friends Again was released. Other merchandise includes a Friends version of the DVD game "Scene It?", and a quiz video game for PlayStation 2 and PC entitled Friends: The One with All the Trivia. On September 28, 2009, a box set was released in the UK celebrating the show's 15th anniversary. The box set contained extended episodes, an episode guide, and original special features. Warner Home Video released a complete series collection on Blu-ray on November 13, 2012. The collection does not feature the extra deleted scenes and jokes that were included on prior DVD releases, and are therefore presented in their NBC broadcast versions. In Australia, the original DVD releases were fold out box sets which contained three discs, and released as follows: Season 1 and Season 2 on March 13, 2002, Season 3 and Season 4 on July 9, 2002, Season 5, 6 and 7 on July 29, 2002, Season 8 on March 18, 2003, Season 9 on February 11, 2004, and Season 10 on November 24, 2004. Repackaged sets, slimmed into regular DVD cases also containing three discs were released from 2003 to 2004. Collector's Edition sets were released from September 9, 2003, through to February 1, 2006, these sets contains 4 discs, in fat DVD cases, with extra bonus material. On October 4, 2006, the individual seasons were repackaged into regular DVD case sets and marked as "Including Brand New Bonus Disc". Once again each individual season were repackaged with new artwork on March 31, 2010. The first complete series boxset on DVD was released around 2004 or 2005, this was titled 'The One With All Ten Seasons" and the packaging was a black box with a lift up lid and contains exclusive packaging for all ten seasons. The second complete series boxset was released August 21, 2013 and was a red box which contained the 2010 individual season sets inside. On October 1, 2014, was the 20th Anniversary boxset, this was a white box and contained the same 2010 individual releases inside. On October 7, 2015, another boxset was released 'The One With All Ten Seasons", the same name used on the original boxset, however this time slimmed down and contains the 2010 individual releases inside. The outer box is open on insert side for the cases to slide in and out, more of a budget release. In 2016, a repackaged 'The Complete Series' Blu-ray boxset was issued, containing the same 10 individual seasons in the original set, however the box is more cut down and is opened on one side, and also does not include the book that contained the episode guide. The entire series will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 24, 2024. Spin-off After the series finale in 2004, LeBlanc signed on for the spin-off series, Joey, following Joey's move to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. Kauffman and Crane were not interested in the spin-off, although Bright agreed to executive produce the series with Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan. NBC heavily promoted Joey and gave it Friends' Thursday 8:00 pm timeslot. The pilot was watched by 18.6 million American viewers, but ratings continually decreased throughout the series's two seasons, averaging 10.2 million viewers in the first season and 7.1 million in the second. The final broadcast episode on March 7, 2006, was watched by 7.09 million viewers; NBC cancelled the series on May 15, 2006, after two seasons, leaving eight episodes unaired. Bright blamed the collaboration between NBC executives, the studio and other producers for quickly ruining the series: On Friends, Joey was a womanizer, but we enjoyed his exploits. He was a solid friend, a guy you knew you could count on. Joey was deconstructed to be a guy who couldn't get a job, couldn't ask a girl out. He became a pathetic, mopey character. I felt he was moving in the wrong direction, but I was not heard. See also Friends 'Til the End The Friends Experience Music of Friends References Further reading Littlefield, Warren (May 2012). "With Friends Like These". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2019. Articles concerning the cultural influence of the program: Allen, Samantha (September 12, 2014). "The Best Reason to Love 'Friends' Is the One We Never Realized at the Time". Mic. Ihnat, Gwen (August 18, 2014). "How 'Friends' Changed the Sitcom Landscape". The A.V. Club. Harrison, Andrew (September 12, 2014). "The Hunting of the Snark: Friends, 20 Years On". New Statesman. External links Official website Friends at IMDb Friends on Rotten Tomatoes Friends at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

Jennifer_Aniston

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Aniston

Jennifer Joanna Aniston (née Anastasakis; born February 11, 1969) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004, which earned her Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards. Aniston has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses, as of 2023. The daughter of actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow, she began working as an actress at an early age with an uncredited role in the 1988 film Mac and Me. Her first major film role came in the 1993 horror comedy Leprechaun. She has since starred in a string of successful comedy films such as Office Space (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), We're the Millers (2013), Dumplin' (2018), and Murder Mystery (2019). Aniston also starred in the acclaimed independent films The Good Girl (2002), Friends with Money (2006), and Cake (2014). She returned to television in 2019, producing and starring in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show, for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award. Aniston has been included in numerous magazines' lists of the world's most beautiful women. Her net worth is estimated as US$300 million, and her box office gross is over $1.6 billion worldwide. She is the recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is the co-founder of the production company Echo Films, established in 2008. Early life Aniston was born on February 11, 1969, in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles to Greek-born actor John Aniston and actress Nancy Dow. One of her maternal great-grandfathers, Louis Grieco, was from Italy. Her mother's other ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, and a small amount of Greek. Her father's ancestry is from the Greek island of Crete. Aniston has two half-brothers: John Melick, her older maternal half-brother; and Alex Aniston, her younger paternal half-brother. Her godfather was actor Telly Savalas, one of her father's best friends. Her family moved to New York City when she was a child. Despite her father's television career, she was discouraged from watching television, though she found ways around the prohibition. When she was six, she began attending a Waldorf school. Her parents divorced when she was nine. Having discovered acting at age 11 at the Waldorf school, Aniston enrolled in Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she joined the school's drama society, and where Anthony Abeson was her drama teacher. She performed in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Lorraine Hansberry and Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. Career 1988–1993: Beginnings Aniston first worked in off-Broadway productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker's Grave, and supported herself with part-time jobs including work as a telemarketer, waitress and bike messenger. In 1988, she had an uncredited minor role in the critically panned sci-fi adventure film Mac and Me. The next year, she appeared on The Howard Stern Show as a spokesmodel for Nutrisystem, and moved back to Los Angeles. Her first regular television role was in the TV series Molloy in 1990, and she appeared in the television adaptation of the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off; both series were quickly canceled. She starred as a teenage summer camp counselor in the made-for-television film Camp Cucamonga (1990), and as a spoiled teenager followed by a vengeful leprechaun in the horror film Leprechaun (1993). A 2014 retrospective from Entertainment Weekly identified Leprechaun as her worst role, and Aniston herself has expressed embarrassment over it. Aniston also appeared in the two failed television comedy series The Edge and Muddling Through, and guest-starred in Quantum Leap, Herman's Head and Burke's Law. 1994–2004: Friends and worldwide recognition Depressed over her four unsuccessful television shows, Aniston approached TV executive Warren Littlefield at a Los Angeles gas station asking for reassurance. As the head of NBC entertainment, he encouraged her to continue acting, and a few months later helped cast her in Friends, a sitcom set to debut on NBC's 1994–1995 fall lineup. The producer wanted Aniston to audition for the role of Monica Geller, but Courteney Cox was deemed more suitable, and Aniston was cast as Rachel Green. She was also offered a spot as a featured player on Saturday Night Live, but turned it down in favor of Friends. She played Rachel until the show ended in 2004, when Aniston took a 15-year hiatus from television save for occasional guest roles. The program was a massive hit and Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained worldwide recognition. Her character was especially popular. She received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations (two for Supporting Actress, three for Lead Actress), and won for Lead Actress. She was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and won in 2003 as Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Aniston (along with her female co-stars) became the highest-paid television actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck during the final season of Friends. Her character's relationship with Ross Geller, portrayed by David Schwimmer, was widely popular among audiences; they were frequently voted television's favorite couple in polls and magazines. After a four-year hiatus, Aniston returned to film work in 1996, when she performed in the ensemble cast of romantic comedy She's the One. Her first starring film vehicle was Picture Perfect (1997), where she played a struggling young advertising executive opposite Kevin Bacon and Jay Mohr. It received mixed reviews and was only a moderate commercial success; but Aniston's performance was more warmly received, with many critics suggesting that she had screen presence. In 1998, she appeared as a woman who falls for a gay man (played by Paul Rudd) in the romantic comedy The Object of My Affection, and the next year she starred as a restaurant waitress in the cult film Office Space. Aniston appeared in the dramedy Rock Star (2001) opposite Mark Wahlberg and Dominic West. She starred in the independent dramedy The Good Girl (2002) as an unglamorous cashier who cheats on her husband. The film was a commercial success in limited release, taking in over $14 million in North America. Film critic Roger Ebert declared it her breakthrough: After languishing in a series of overlooked movies that ranged from the entertaining Office Space to the disposable Picture Perfect, Jennifer Aniston has at last decisively broken with her Friends image in an independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil. It will no longer be possible to consider her in the same way. Aniston's biggest commercial success in film has been the comedy Bruce Almighty (2003), where she played the girlfriend of a television field reporter (Jim Carrey) offered the chance to be God for one week. With a worldwide box office gross of $484 million, it was the fifth-highest-grossing feature film of the year. Aniston next starred as the old classmate of a tightly wound newlywed in the romantic comedy Along Came Polly (2004) opposite Ben Stiller, which placed number one at the North American box office, earning $27.7 million in its opening weekend; it eventually made $172 million worldwide. 2005–2013: Continued film success In 2005, Aniston appeared as an alluring woman having an affair with an advertising executive in the thriller Derailed, and as an obituary and wedding announcement writer in the romantic comedy Rumor Has It. Both films were moderate box office hits. Aniston took on the role of a single, cash-strapped woman working as a maid in the independent drama Friends with Money (2006), which received a limited release. Her next film was the romantic comedy The Break-Up (2006), alongside Vince Vaughn, in which she starred as one half of a couple having a complicated split when both refuse to move out of the pair's recently purchased home. It received mixed reviews but grossed approximately $39.17 million during its opening weekend and $204 million worldwide. The A.V. Club's Keith Phipps gave the film a negative review, stating, "It's like watching the 'we were on a break' episode of Friends stretched to feature length, and without the blessed relief of commercial breaks or the promise of Seinfeld around the corner." CinemaBlend gave the film a positive review stating, "In an era of formulaic romantic movies that bear no resemblance to reality, The Break-Up offers a refreshing flipside." In 2006, Aniston directed the short film Room 10, set in a hospital emergency room and starring Robin Wright and Kris Kristofferson, as part of Glamour's Reel Moments film series. She noted that she was inspired to direct by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who also directed a short film that year. In 2007, Aniston guest-starred in an episode of Dirt—playing the rival of Courteney Cox's character—and in an episode of 30 Rock, playing a woman who stalks Jack Donaghy. For the latter she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. The 2008 comedy drama Marley & Me, starring Aniston and Owen Wilson as the owners of the titular dog, set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office sales ever with $14.75 million. It earned a total of $51.7 million over the four-day weekend and placed number one at the box office, a position it maintained for two weeks. The total worldwide gross was $242.7 million. Her next film in wide release, the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You (2009), in which she starred opposite Ben Affleck, grossed $178.8 million globally and ranked number one at the United States box office for its opening weekend. While it received mixed reviews, Aniston, along with Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jennifer Connelly, were praised by critics as standouts in the film. Aniston appeared as the former wife of a bounty hunter (Gerard Butler) in the romantic comedy action film The Bounty Hunter (2010). The film was panned by critics, with The Hollywood Reporter writing that "the mishmash ends up as a thoroughly unfunny adult cartoon." Nevertheless, it was a box office success, garnering over $130 million worldwide. A lukewarm box office reception greeted her next film, the romantic comedy The Switch (2010), in which she starred with Jason Bateman as a 30-something single woman who decides to have a child using a sperm bank. The film's opening weekend drew what The Hollywood Reporter dubbed "a dispiriting $8.4 million". The film received generally mixed reviews, with review site Metacritic showing 13 out of 30 critics delivering a positive verdict. In 2010, Aniston was also a guest star on the season two premiere of ABC's sitcom Cougar Town, playing a psychiatrist. Her announcement that she would appear on Cougar Town garnered excitement and was dubbed her return to television. The A.V. Club wrote, "[her role] is a funny bit, and it highlights just how much Jennifer Aniston is built to be a TV star." In 2011, she starred opposite Adam Sandler as an office manager posing as the wife of a plastic surgeon in the romantic comedy Just Go with It, and played a sexually aggressive dentist in Horrible Bosses. Just Go with It and Horrible Bosses both made over $100 million in North America and $200 million worldwide. Aniston appeared in the comedy Wanderlust (2012) with Paul Rudd, with whom she acted in The Object of My Affection and also Friends, as a married couple who join a commune after losing their money and deciding modern life is not for them. The script for Wanderlust, bought by Universal Pictures, was produced by Judd Apatow. Wanderlust received positive reviews but was a box office failure, grossing only $21 million worldwide, against a production budget of $35 million. Aniston starred as a struggling stripper who agrees to pose as a wife for a drug deal, with Jason Sudeikis, in We're the Millers (2013). The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was a financial success, grossing $269 million against a budget of $37 million. 2014–present: film roles and return to television Aniston played the role of a stoic socialite who becomes the target of an ill-planned kidnapping plot in Life of Crime (2014), a film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1978 novel The Switch. The film was released in limited theaters, to positive reviews. Catherine Shoard of The Guardian described her performance as "endearingly comic" and Eric Kohn of IndieWire wrote that "Aniston tops any of her recent performances with a spirited turn that harkens back to her neurotic days on Friends." She also reprised her role for Horrible Bosses 2 (2014). In Cake (2014), Aniston starred as an astringent woman named Claire Simmons who struggles with chronic pain. The film received mixed reviews; nonetheless, Aniston's performance was acclaimed, dubbed by some critics as "Oscar-worthy". The Toronto International Film Festival called her performance "heartbreakingly good", Gregory Ellwood of HitFix stated, "It's really on most people's radar for being a rare dramatic turn for Jennifer Aniston, and she doesn't disappoint." He further stated, "Aniston makes you believe in Claire's pain. She makes you believe this character is at her lowest point and only she can pull herself out of it. ... It's a complete performance from beginning to end and she deserves the appropriate accolades for it." For her performance, Aniston was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress. She was also nominated multiple nominations for its latter seasons. In 2015, Aniston starred as a reluctant therapist in the screwball comedy She's Funny That Way, which received mixed reviews and found a limited release in theaters, but her performance was once again noticed. Wesley Morris of Grantland called her "one of the great screen comedians. ... Most of her scenes here are extraneous, but her vulgarity and tartness are so sharp that the movie needs them. ... This isn't just Aniston having the best stuff. It's her having the most fun with her talent. She's funny in every way." Aniston starred as the recently divorced mother of two children in the romantic comedy Mother's Day (2016), directed by Garry Marshall, and opposite Julia Roberts and Kate Hudson. The film was panned by critics and a moderate commercial success. In 2016, she voiced a workaholic and overprotective mother in the animated film Storks, alongside Andy Samberg and Kelsey Grammer, which was released to mostly positive reviews; it grossed over $183.4 million against a $70 million budget. Her last 2016 film role was that of a frigidly cold head honcho of a company in the comedy Office Christmas Party, directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon and opposite Jason Bateman and Kate McKinnon. It grossed $114.5 million worldwide. In The Yellow Birds, a war drama directed by Alexandre Moors, Aniston portrays the mother of a deceased soldier, alongside Alden Ehrenreich, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston, and Toni Collette. While she said she does not "normally gravitate toward being in war films", she made an exception because the film was "written so beautifully and in such a way [she] had never experienced". The film, first presented at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, received a video on demand release in June 2018. The Los Angeles Times wrote in its review: "Toni Collette and Jennifer Aniston as the soldiers' quite different but equally concerned mothers, deliver uniformly naturalistic performances". In December 2018, Netflix released the musical comedy Dumplin', with Aniston as executive producer and star—marking her first project for a streaming service. That year, she began work on another Netflix project, Murder Mystery, a comedy that reunited her with Adam Sandler, which premiered on June 14, 2019. The two of them reunited for the sequel Murder Mystery 2, which premiered on March 31, 2023. Aniston made her return to television on November 1, 2019, producing and starring alongside Reese Witherspoon in the Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show. It was her first main television role since the conclusion of Friends in 2004. For its first season, Aniston won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and Best Television Series – Drama as a producer. The series' latter seasons earned her multiple additional nominations at Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG awards. She reunited with her Friends cast mates for an HBO Max unscripted television special titled Friends: The Reunion in May 2021. The special earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) for her producing credit. In the media Wealth Aniston is one of the world's highest-paid actresses as of 2018. She has been on the Forbes Top Earning Actresses list for 15 years, every year since 2001—and since then also on its Celebrity 100 list (based on "earnings and fame"), topping it in 2003. According to Forbes, in October 2007, Aniston was the best-selling celebrity face of the entertainment industry. The magazine estimated her net worth at $110 million in 2007, and $200 million in 2017. It listed her earnings as $19.5 million in 2018. Public image The media nicknamed Aniston "America's sweetheart" while the actress was starring on Friends. In 2019, Rachel Simon of NBCNews.com said Aniston "has filled the role of our most beloved celebrity for nearly two and a half decades now, and there are no signs of her being replaced anytime soon", arguing that few celebrities have maintained the "America's sweetheart" title for as long as she has. Aniston has been included in various magazine lists of the world's most beautiful women. In 2005, she became the first GQ (Gentlemen's Quarterly) Woman of the Year. She has frequently appeared on People magazine's annual list of Most Beautiful Women, topping the ranking in 2004 and 2016. She also topped the magazine's Best Dressed List in 2006. She has been a regular on the FHM (For Him Magazine) 100 Sexiest Women in the World list since 1996, most recently ranking at number 79 in 2012. A survey of their patients by two Hollywood plastic surgeons, reported in 2011 by The Daily Telegraph, identified her (alongside Gisele Bündchen and Penélope Cruz) as having one of the most sought-after body shapes. In the same year, readers of Men's Health voted her as the Sexiest Woman of All Time. Men's Health also included her on its 100 Hottest Sex Symbols of All Time list, explaining that "Her down-to-earth persona makes her seem attainable, ... she makes even pieces of flair look good. She rarely plays the airhead, and she seldom overplays a role: she's funny in a quiet, refreshingly human way. And her all-too-human love life off screen inspires sympathy ... throughout her career Aniston has remained sexy, funny, and unmistakably real." Although Aniston disliked the hairstyle she wore during her first two years on Friends, "The Rachel" became very popular. She received a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 22, 2012, located at 6270 Hollywood Boulevard. She was ranked third on Forbes' list of the 100 Most Powerful Actresses in Hollywood in 2013. In July 2016, amidst media speculation over whether she was pregnant, Aniston penned an essay for The Huffington Post condemning the "objectification and scrutiny we put women through". She asserted: "We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. [...] We don't need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own 'happily ever after' for ourselves." The piece was supported by many celebrities and widely covered in the media. After years of aversion to social media, Aniston joined Instagram on October 15, 2019, causing the app to "break" (for hours the "follow" button became inoperable due to an overload of web traffic to her account) with the first picture of the planned Friends cast reunion for HBO Max (whose release was delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). She broke the Guinness World Record for fastest time to reach one million followers on Instagram, by doing so within five hours and sixteen minutes. Personal life Aniston practices Hatha yoga and Budokan karate. In 2014, she spoke of her Transcendental Meditation practice. The following year, she revealed she has dyslexia, which had affected her education and self-esteem, and that after being diagnosed in her twenties, her outlook toward life changed. She stated, "I thought I wasn't smart. I just couldn't retain anything. Now I had this great discovery. I felt like all of my childhood trauma-dies, tragedies, dramas were explained." Aniston donated to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and took part in a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. She endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Aniston does not have any children. In November 2022, she appeared on the cover of Allure for their final print issue. In the accompanying interview, Aniston said she had undergone in vitro fertilization (IVF) to try to have children when she was in her thirties and forties, but the attempts did not result in any pregnancies. She said, "All the years and years and years of speculation... It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it." In July 2024, after comments about "childless cat ladies" that Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance made in 2021 went viral, Aniston stated on social media that: All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day (...) I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too. In 2023, she disclosed that Adam Sandler's family sends her flowers every year on Mother's Day. Relationships Aniston met Brad Pitt in 1998, and their relationship was highly publicized. After two years of dating, they married on July 29, 2000, in a lavish Malibu, California, wedding. For a few years, their marriage was considered a rare Hollywood success. On January 7, 2005, they announced their separation, and finalized their divorce on October 2. During their divorce proceedings, news media speculated that Pitt had been unfaithful to Aniston with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie, with whom he began a relationship soon after the split. In the months following, the public's reaction towards the divorce played out as "Team Aniston" and "Team Jolie" T-shirts appeared throughout the country. Aniston commented on the divorce in a January 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, stating, "Nobody did anything wrong... It was just like, sometimes things [happen]." In 2005, amid reports that their divorce was due to Aniston's refusal to have children with Pitt, Aniston said, "I've never in my life said I didn't want to have children. I did and I do and I will! ... I would never give up that experience for a career." Aniston said the divorce prompted her to reach out to her mother, Nancy, from whom she had been estranged for nearly a decade. Nancy had talked about her daughter on a television show and written From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir (1999). In 2006, Aniston said she had been devastated by the death of her longtime therapist, whom she credited for helping make her separation from Pitt easier. She said she did not regret her relationship with Pitt, describing it as "very intense" and "a beautiful, complicated relationship". Aniston began a relationship with actor, director, and screenwriter Justin Theroux in May 2011. The following January, they purchased a home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles for roughly $22 million. They became engaged on August 10, 2012 and were married on August 5, 2015, at their estate. They separated at the end of 2017. Other ventures Aniston has appeared in commercials and music videos throughout her career. After starting on Friends, Aniston and her co-star Matthew Perry shot a 60-minute instructional video for the release of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. The next year she appeared in commercials for L'Oréal hair products. Under a contract with Elizabeth Arden, Inc., Aniston worked for over a year on her first perfume, which was released in July 2010. Original plans called for the perfume to be named "Lolavie by Jennifer Aniston", but to avoid confusion with a similarly named perfume, the name was changed to simply "Jennifer Aniston". In 2014, she launched her second perfume, named J, followed by Near Dusk (2015), Beachscape (2016), Luxe and Chapter One (both in 2017), Chapter Two (2018), Silver and Solstice Bloom (both in 2020). In 2021, Aniston launched the LolaVie haircare company. Since 2007, she has worked in a publicity campaign for the drink SmartWater; on March 7, 2011, she released a YouTube video for SmartWater, Jennifer Aniston Goes Viral, which tripled online interest in the product within 24 hours of its release. In 2012, Aniston co-founded hair care brand Living Proof and also became its spokeswoman. She left when the company was sold to Unilever in 2016. In January 2013, she became the new spokeswoman of Aveeno Skincare. Aniston is paid "eight figures" for her endorsement. She became the new face of Emirates airline in 2015, which was reportedly a success. For pharmaceutical company Shire, she appeared in a 2016 campaign raising awareness about chronic dry eye. She appeared in the 1996 Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers music video for "Walls", and in Melissa Etheridge's 2001 music video for "I Want to Be in Love". She also appeared in a 2005 Heineken commercial. Along with Brad Pitt and Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount Pictures, Aniston founded the film production company Plan B Entertainment in 2002, although she and Grey withdrew in 2005. In 2008, she and producer Kristin Hahn formed Echo Films. Philanthropy Aniston has been a celebrity advocate for numerous charities and received attention for her own donations. She has appeared in television commercials for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, and hosted September 2008's Stand Up to Cancer show. In the "It Can't Wait" campaign to free Burma, Aniston directed and starred in a video. She is a supporter of Friends of El Faro, a nonprofit organization that helps raise money for Casa Hogar Sion, an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico. On April 14, 2007, Aniston received GLAAD's Vanguard Award for her contributions to increased visibility and understanding of the LGBT community. In 2013, she was named the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) ambassador for the Saks Fifth Avenue Key to the Cure campaign, which raises funds for the EIF Women's Cancer Research Fund. In 2015, she supported the Comic Relief, Inc. charity. Other charities that Aniston has publicly supported include Clothes Off Our Back, Feeding America, EB Medical Research Foundation, Project A.L.S., OmniPeace, and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. Aniston donated $500,000 to Doctors Without Borders, Haitian health care provider Partners in Health and AmeriCares, and also participated in the Hope for Haiti Now telethon. She donated $500,000 to the Red Cross and another $500,000 to the Ricky Martin Foundation in 2017 to help victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. After being honored by SmartWater in 2016 for her ongoing philanthropic work for St. Jude's, Aniston spoke of the importance of philanthropy in her life to InStyle magazine: "We live an extremely beautiful, fortunate life being able to do what we get to do for a living. And so it's a way of being able to be in a position to do something for people who are less able. It's something that makes my heart smile." Acting credits and awards Aniston received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Golden Globe Award nominations, and nine SAG Award nominations for her role in Friends. From these, she won one of each. She also garnered a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her guest appearance in 30 Rock, while her performance in Cake earned her nominations at the Golden Globe and SAG awards. Aniston additionally won a SAG Award and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the first season of The Morning Show, and earned multiple nominations at Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG awards for its latter seasons. As a producer, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. According to review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and the box-office site Box Office Mojo, Aniston's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films are Office Space (1999), The Good Girl (2002), Bruce Almighty (2003), Friends with Money (2006), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), We're the Millers (2013), and Dumplin' (2018). See also List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame References Further reading Marshall, Sarah (2007). Jennifer Aniston: The Biography of Hollywood's Sweetheart. John Blake. ISBN 978-1844544004. Lynette, Rachel (2010). Jennifer Aniston. Lucent Books. ISBN 978-1420502350. Bonner, Mike (2001). Jennifer Aniston. Chelsea House Publications. ISBN 978-0791064658. External links Jennifer Aniston at IMDb Jennifer Aniston at AllMovie Jennifer Aniston on Instagram Jennifer Aniston at Box Office Mojo Jennifer Aniston at Rotten Tomatoes

Courteney_Cox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courteney_Cox

Courteney Bass Cox (born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and filmmaker. She rose to international prominence for playing Monica Geller in the NBC sitcom Friends (1994–2004) and Gale Weathers in the horror film franchise Scream (1996–present). Her accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Award, nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is well known for being one of the most beautiful television actresses of the 90s decade and her down to earth personality. Cox had a recurring role in the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1987–1989), and starred in the FX drama series Dirt (2007–2008), the ABC/TBS sitcom Cougar Town (2009–2015) which she also directed, and the Starz horror comedy series Shining Vale (2022–2023). Her film credits include the action fantasy Masters of the Universe (1987), the comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), the animated comedy Barnyard (2006), the fantasy comedy Bedtime Stories (2008), and the independent drama Mothers and Daughters (2016). Cox owns the production company Coquette Productions, which she founded with her then-husband, David Arquette. She has directed the television drama film TalhotBlond (2012), the black comedy drama film Just Before I Go (2014), and executive produced the game show Celebrity Name Game (2014–2017). Early life Cox was born June 15, 1964, in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised there. She is a daughter of businessman Richard Lewis Cox (1931–2001) and Courteney Copeland (née Bass; 1934–2020). Cox has two older sisters, Virginia and Dorothy, and an older brother, Richard Jr. Her parents divorced in 1974 and her mother then married businessman Hunter Copeland (uncle to music promoter and business manager Ian Copeland and the Police drummer Stewart Copeland). After graduating from Mountain Brook High School, Cox left for Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C. (now part of George Washington University), but did not complete her architecture course, opting instead to pursue a career in modeling and acting. Cox has English and Norman ancestry; researching her family tree for the series Who Do You Think You Are?, Cox discovered she was a direct descendant of William the Conqueror and Edward I of England. Career Early work Cox worked at video game publisher Bethesda Softworks briefly in the 1980s. She was chosen from a casting call by director Brian De Palma to appear in the 1984 music video for Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark", as the young woman pulled onstage at the St. Paul Civic Center to dance with Springsteen. Her early television work includes a starring role as Gloria Dinallo in the short-lived NBC science fiction series Misfits of Science (1985), and guest-starring roles in the ABC comedy-drama series The Love Boat (1986) and the CBS crime drama series Murder, She Wrote (1986). She later had a recurring role as Lauren Miller, the girlfriend of Michael J. Fox's character Alex P. Keaton in the NBC comedy series Family Ties (1987–1989). Cox's early film roles include Masters of the Universe (1987), Cocoon: The Return (1988), and I'll Be Home for Christmas (1988). She also played Jewel Jagger, the tough-as-nails assistant of Larry Burrows (James Belushi), in Mr. Destiny (1990). 1990s: International breakthrough In 1993, Cox co-starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom The Trouble with Larry, alongside Bronson Pinchot and Perry King. The following year, shortly before the debut of the sitcom Friends, Cox starred alongside Jim Carrey in the comedy film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and as Jerry Seinfeld's girlfriend, Meryl, in the Seinfeld episode "The Wife". In 1994, Cox was asked to audition for the starring role of Rachel Green on a new sitcom, Friends; she was cast as Monica Geller instead. At first the most famous cast member of the new show, Cox joined Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) for what became her most famous role, lasting for ten seasons until 2004. The series is commonly referred to as one of the greatest of all sitcoms. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2005), Cox (along with her female co-stars) became the highest-paid TV actress of all time, with her US$1 million-per-episode fee for the final two seasons of Friends. Syndication of the series earned Cox and her co-stars an estimated $20 million in annual residuals. In 1995, she was cast in Toad the Wet Sprocket's music video "Good Intentions". The song was also featured on the Friends soundtrack. Between seasons five and six, she married David Arquette and consequently changed her name to Courteney Cox Arquette. A joke reference to this is made in the opening credits of the episode "The One After Vegas", where the rest of the cast has "Arquette" added to their names. The dedication "For Courteney and David, who did get married" – a reference to Monica and Chandler's decision not to marry in the episode – appears during the fade out to the tag scene. Cox received further recognition and critical acclaim for her starring role as reporter Gale Weathers in the high-profile slasher horror film Scream (1996), and its sequels Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 3 (2000). The series is one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed horror franchises of all time. Cox's character was well known for her "snappy remarks and being brilliantly bossy". She met her future husband, David Arquette, who played her on-screen love interest, Dwight "Dewey" Riley, while filming the first Scream film. Cox also hosted an episode of the variety sketch series Saturday Night Live in July 1995, and appeared in the crime thriller film The Runner (1999). 2000s: Continued success Cox's major films during this period include the crime drama 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) and the comedy The Shrink Is In (2001). In late 2003, Cox and Arquette produced one season of the reality television series Mix It Up. The lifestyle series, which aired on the WE cable channel, struggled with low ratings and was not renewed for a second season. After the conclusion of Friends, Cox was producer Marc Cherry's first choice to be offered a starring role as Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives, but Cox was unavailable due to her pregnancy and the role later went to Teri Hatcher. A few years later, Cox signed a deal with ABC Studios (formerly Touchstone Television) to star in her own series. She starred in the independent drama film November (2005), which had a limited theatrical release. She had a cameo appearance in the big-budget remake The Longest Yard (2005) as Lena, the girlfriend of Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler), and co-starred with Tim Allen in the critically derided Zoom (2006). Cox voiced Daisy the Cow in the animated film Barnyard (2006). A Friends reunion film was rumored to be in production following the success of Sex and the City (2008), but this was later denied by Warner Bros. and others. Cox starred as Lucy Spiller, a cynical tabloid editor, in the FX television drama series Dirt, which premiered in 2007. Cox and her then-husband David Arquette were the executive producers of the series. The series was eventually canceled after the second season in 2008. In July 2008, Entertainment Weekly announced that Cox signed on to star in a three-episode arc for the television medical comedy series Scrubs. Also that year, she starred in the fantasy comedy film Bedtime Stories, reuniting with co-star Adam Sandler. She went to executive produce the short drama film The Butler's in Love, directed by David Arquette. Cox guest-starred in a three-episode story arc on former Friends co-star Lisa Kudrow's web comedy series Web Therapy (2009). Also in 2009, she began her role as the star of the single-camera ABC comedy series Cougar Town, playing a newly single 40-year-old mother on the hunt for new experiences. It is notably Cox's most successful work since Friends, earning her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. The series' third season was set to premiere in November 2011 but moved to February 14, 2012. Cox directed two episodes of the series' fifteen episodes that season. The fourth season premiered on January 8, 2013. The series came to an end on March 31, 2015, after six seasons. 2010s: Directorial debut and expansion Cox reprised her role as Gale Weathers from the Scream trilogy for the sequel Scream 4. The film was released in theaters on April 15, 2011. She made her directorial debut and had a cameo appearance in a Lifetime television drama film TalhotBlond, which premiered on the network on June 23, 2012. In 2014, Cox directed and produced the black comedy film Just Before I Go, starring Seann William Scott and Elisha Cuthbert. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24, 2014, and it was released in select theaters on April 24, 2015. From 2014 to 2017, she executive produced the syndicated game show Celebrity Name Game, hosted by Craig Ferguson. It ended after three seasons. The series earned her a nomination for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show. In 2016, Cox starred in the independent drama film Mothers and Daughters, alongside Susan Sarandon, Mira Sorvino, and Sharon Stone. The film was released to generally negative reviews on May 6, 2016. In 2019, she created and executive produced the Facebook Watch documentary series 9 Months with Courteney Cox, which focuses on "people from across the country of various race, religion, and class as they self-document their 9-month journey of pregnancy". It lasted for three seasons until 2021. 2020s: Current work In 2020, she guest starred in the ABC sitcom Modern Family. Cox reunited with her Friends co-stars for a reunion special titled Friends: The Reunion, which was released on May 27, 2021, on HBO Max. The special earned Cox a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded). In the same year she launched her line of home products, named Homecourt. She also participated in the Celebrity Escape Room special to raise $150,000 for Red Nose Day. Cox reprised her role as Gale Weathers for the fifth Scream film, which was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The film was released on January 14, 2022, to box office success and positive reviews. Also in 2022, she signed on to star alongside Greg Kinnear in the Starz horror comedy series Shining Vale, from creators Sharon Horgan and Jeff Astrof; she plays Patricia "Pat" Phelps, who moves her family "from the 'crazy' of the city to a large, old house in the suburbs where evil and humor collide." Cox again reprised her role as Gale Weathers for the sixth Scream film, which she also executive produced. The film was released on March 9, 2023, to box office success and positive reviews. Also in 2023, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is set to executive produce and star as Brittany Wagner in the Spectrum Originals adaptation of the documentary series Last Chance U. Personal life Cox dated actor Michael Keaton from 1989 to 1995. Cox married her Scream co-star David Arquette on June 12, 1999, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. The couple have a daughter, born in June 2004. Jennifer Aniston is the godmother. Cox revealed that she suffered from postpartum depression six months after the birth of her child. On October 11, 2010, Cox and Arquette announced that they had separated, although they still maintain a close friendship and ongoing business relationship in Coquette Productions. In June 2012, Arquette filed for divorce after nearly two years of separation from Cox. The divorce became final in May 2013. Cox began dating Snow Patrol band member Johnny McDaid in late 2013. The couple announced their engagement in June 2014. Soon afterward they called off the engagement, but they have remained a couple. In 2020, Cox said that she did not remember much about the episode plots of Friends and that she had begun binge-watching the show. Cox is a practitioner of Budokan karate. Filmography Film Television Music videos Awards and honors Accolades Honors 1995: Honored as the Female Discovery of the Year by the Golden Apple Awards. 2010: Honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Women's Image Network. 2010: Honored with the Lucy Award by the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards. 2023: Honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Notes References External links Courteney Cox 1988 Interview with KVUE's Roy Faires about Cocoon: The Return (1988) from Texas Archive of the Moving Image Courteney Cox at IMDb Courteney Cox at People.com Courteney Cox on Twitter Courteney Cox on Instagram

Lisa_Kudrow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Kudrow

Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( KOO-droh; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the American television sitcom Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004. The series earned her Primetime Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Satellite, American Comedy and TV Guide awards. Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time and is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, spawning her successful film career. Kudrow initially appeared in a 1989 episode of the hit sitcom Cheers playing a character named Emily. She also starred in several episodes of the show Mad About You (1993) as Ursula, before auditioning and earning the role of Phoebe on Friends; her character on Mad About You was written into the Friends storyline as Phoebe’s twin. In the late 1990s, Kudrow starred in the cult comedy film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and followed it with an acclaimed performance in the comedy/drama The Opposite of Sex (1998), which won her the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. She created, produced, wrote, and starred in the HBO mockumentary series The Comeback, which initially lasted for one season in 2005 but was revived for a critically acclaimed second and final season in 2014. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for both seasons. In 2007, Kudrow received praise for her starring role in the film Kabluey and appeared in the film P.S. I Love You. She produced and starred in the Showtime program Web Therapy (2011–2015), which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She is a producer on the TLC/NBC reality program Who Do You Think You Are, which has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award five times. She currently is a voice actress on the animated series HouseBroken. Kudrow has also had roles in Analyze This (1999) and its sequel Analyze That (2002), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Bandslam (2008), Hotel for Dogs (2009), Easy A (2010), Neighbors (2014) and its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), The Girl on the Train (2016), The Boss Baby (2017), Long Shot (2019) and Booksmart (2019). Early life Lisa Valerie Kudrow was born in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles on July 30, 1963, the daughter of Nedra, a travel agent, and Lee Kudrow, a doctor who specialized in treating headaches. She has an older sister, Helene, and two brothers, David and Derrick. She was raised in a middle-class Jewish family and had a Bat Mitzvah. She is of Belarusian, German, Hungarian, and Polish Jewish descent. Some of her Belarusian ancestors were from Ilya. Almost all Jews in Ilya were murdered during the Holocaust, including Kudrow's paternal great-grandmother. Her paternal grandmother later left Belarus for Brooklyn, where her father grew up. Kudrow attended Portola Middle School in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. She graduated from Taft High School in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, which was attended at the same time by rapper Eazy-E and actress Robin Wright. She received her BA in biology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, intending to become an expert on headaches like her father. While breaking into acting, she worked for her father for eight years and earned a research credit on his study on the comparative likelihood of left-handed individuals developing cluster headaches. Career 1989–1994: Pre-Friends At the urging of comedian Jon Lovitz, who was a childhood friend of her brother, Kudrow began her comedic career as a member of The Groundlings, an improv and sketch comedy school in Los Angeles. She has credited Cynthia Szigeti, her improv teacher at The Groundlings, for changing her perspective on acting, calling her "the best thing that happened, on so many levels". Briefly, Kudrow joined with Conan O'Brien and director Tim Hillman in the short-lived improv troupe Unexpected Company. She was also the only regular female member of the Transformers Comedy Troupe. She played a role in an episode of the NBC sitcom Cheers. She tried out for Saturday Night Live in 1990, but the show chose Julia Sweeney instead. She had a recurring role as Kathy Fleisher in three episodes of season one of the Bob Newhart sitcom Bob (CBS, 1992–1993), a role she played after taking part in the series finale of Newhart's previous series Newhart. Prior to Friends, she appeared in at least two network-produced pilots: NBC's Just Temporary (also known as Temporarily Yours) in 1989, playing Nicole; and CBS' Close Encounters (also known as Matchmaker) in 1990, playing a Valley girl. Kudrow was cast as Roz Doyle in Frasier, but the role was re-cast with Peri Gilpin during the taping of the pilot episode. In 2000, Kudrow explained that when rehearsals started, "I knew it wasn't working. I could feel it all slipping away, and I was panicking, which only made things worse." Her first recurring television role was Ursula Buffay, the eccentric waitress on the NBC sitcom Mad About You. 1994–2004: Friends and worldwide recognition Kudrow, the oldest actor of the main cast, reprised the character of Ursula on the NBC sitcom Friends, in which she co-starred as massage therapist Phoebe Buffay, Ursula's twin sister. Praised for her performance, Kudrow was the first Friends cast member to win an Emmy Award with her 1998 honor as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her starring role as Phoebe on Friends (NBC, 1994–2004). Kudrow received critical acclaim for playing Phoebe. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2005), Kudrow and co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox became the highest paid TV actresses of all time, earning $1 million per episode for the ninth and tenth seasons of Friends. Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time. Phoebe is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, credited with making her the show's second-most famous cast member, after Jennifer Aniston, and for spawning her successful film career. She played Phoebe until the show ended in 2004. The program was a massive hit and Kudrow, along with her co-stars, gained worldwide recognition. Her character, Phoebe, was especially popular. Entertainment Weekly voted Phoebe on Friends as Kudrow's best performance. During her tenure on Friends, Kudrow appeared in several comedy films such as Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Hanging Up, Marci X, Dr. Dolittle 2, Analyze This and its sequel Analyze That, and dramatic films, such as Wonderland and The Opposite of Sex. She also guest-starred on numerous television series during Friends, including The Simpsons, Hope and Gloria and King of the Hill, and hosted Saturday Night Live. 2004–present: Post-Friends Following Friends, Kudrow starred as protagonist Valerie Cherish on the single-season HBO series The Comeback (premiered June 5, 2005), about a has-been sitcom star trying for a comeback. She also served as co-creator, writer, and executive producer. Nine years after the original season, HBO revived the series in 2014 for an abbreviated second season. Kudrow received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on The Comeback. Her production company is 'Is or Isn't Entertainment'. Kudrow serves as the executive producer for the U.S. version of the British television series Who Do You Think You Are?, in which celebrities trace their family trees. The subjects of the first series included Kudrow herself, in which it was discovered her great-grandmother was murdered in the Holocaust. Kudrow co-created an improvised comedy webseries, Web Therapy on Lstudio.com. The improv series, which launched online in 2008, has earned several Webby nominations and one Outstanding Comedic Performance Webby for Kudrow, who plays therapist Fiona Wallice. She offers her patients three-minute sessions over iChat. In July 2011, a reformatted, half-hour version of the show premiered on Showtime, before being cancelled in 2015 after four seasons. Kudrow has guest starred on multiple television series such as Cougar Town, BoJack Horseman, Angie Tribeca, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Scandal. Kudrow has appeared in multiple comedic films such as Happy Endings, Hotel for Dogs, Easy A, Neighbors and its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Long Shot, and Booksmart. She also appeared in the romantic drama film P.S. I Love You and co-starred in the thriller film The Girl on the Train. In 2020, Kudrow played Hypatia of Alexandria in season 4 episode 12 of The Good Place "Patty", and starred as Maggie Naird in the Netflix comedy series, Space Force. She reunited with her Friends cast mates for an HBO Max unscripted television special titled Friends: The Reunion in May 2021. She is currently, along with Mary McCormack, an executive producer of the syndicated game show, 25 Words or Less; sometimes, Kudrow herself is one of the two celebrity guests playing with a contestant on the show. Personal life Kudrow married French advertising executive Michel Stern on May 27, 1995. The couple reside in Beverly Hills, California, and have a son named Julian who was born on May 7, 1998. Kudrow's pregnancy was written into the fourth season of Friends, with her character having triplets as a surrogate mother for her half-brother and his wife. In addition to her Beverly Hills home, Kudrow maintained a penthouse in Park City, Utah, which she sold in April 2017. She revealed in 2019 that she had experienced body dysmorphic disorder while working on Friends. Filmography Film Television Awards and nominations Kudrow has been honored with numerous accolades over her career. For her role in the sitcom Friends, she received six nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, winning in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Satellite Award, one American Comedy award, and one TV Guide award. In total, she has received fifteen Emmy nominations, with her most recent nomination in the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, twelve nominations and two wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, one win and eight nominations at the American Comedy Awards, one Golden Globe nomination, one Banff Rockie award, one Blockbuster Entertainment award, one Chicago Film Critics Association nomination, one Chlotrudis award, two Critics' Choice Television nominations, one Dorian award, one Gracie award, one Independent Spirit nomination, one MTV Movie & TV nomination, one National Society of Film Critics nomination, one New York Film Critics Circle award, one Nickelodeon Kids' Choice nomination, one Online Film Critics Society nomination, one People Magazine award, five nominations and one win at the Satellite Awards, three nominations and one win at the Teen Choice Awards, two Streamy nominations, two nominations and one win at the TV Guide Awards, one Viewers for Quality Television nomination and seven nominations and four wins at the Webby Awards. References External links Lisa Kudrow at AllMovie Lisa Kudrow at Emmys.com Lisa Kudrow at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television Lisa Kudrow at IMDb Lisa Kudrow on Twitter Lisa Kudrow on Instagram

Matt_LeBlanc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_LeBlanc

Matthew Steven LeBlanc (; born July 25, 1967) is an American actor. He garnered global recognition with his portrayal of Joey Tribbiani in the NBC sitcom Friends and in its spin-off series, Joey. For his work on Friends, LeBlanc received three nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards. He has also starred as a fictionalized version of himself in Episodes (2011–2017), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and received four additional Emmy Award nominations. He co-hosted Top Gear from 2016 to 2019. From 2016 to 2020, he played patriarch Adam Burns in the CBS sitcom Man with a Plan. Early life LeBlanc was born at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. His mother, Patricia (née Di Cillo), was an office manager; his father, Paul LeBlanc, was a mechanic and a veteran of the Vietnam War. His father is of French-Canadian descent and his mother is of Italian ancestry, the daughter of immigrants from Arce, Lazio. He attended Newton North High School, where he graduated in the same year as future comedian Louis C.K. After high school he attended college at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. He dropped out shortly after starting his second semester. LeBlanc moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue a career in modeling, but he was told he was too short to be in the industry. His acting career began after a woman invited him to accompany her to an audition, where he ended up getting signed by her manager. Although he had booked commercials and television and film roles before Friends, he was reportedly down to his last eleven dollars before landing the role of Joey Tribbiani. Career 1987–1994: Early career LeBlanc first appeared in a 1987 Heinz Tomato Ketchup commercial. In 1988, he starred in the television drama TV 101 for one season. In 1991, he had a recurring role on the hit Fox sitcom Married... with Children. He played Vinnie Verducci, a family friend of protagonist Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) who briefly dates his daughter, Kelly (Christina Applegate). He also guest-starred in the first season of Red Shoe Diaries. LeBlanc starred in two short-lived Married... with Children spin-offs: Top of the Heap (1991) and Vinnie & Bobby (1992). He appeared in two Bon Jovi music videos: "Miracle," from the Young Guns II soundtrack in 1990, and "Say It Isn't So" in 2000. He also appeared in videos for Alanis Morissette's single "Walk Away," Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers's "Into The Great Wide Open" and Bob Seger's "Night Moves". 1994–2006: Friends, Joey and film roles LeBlanc found success as the dimwitted but lovable Joey Tribbiani on Friends; he played this character for 12 years — 10 seasons of Friends and two seasons of Joey. Friends was wildly successful, and LeBlanc (along with co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer) gained wide recognition among viewers. This ensemble situation comedy became a major hit for NBC, airing on Thursday nights for ten years. For his performance, LeBlanc received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, three Golden Globe award nominations, and one Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. During this time he also appeared in the films Lookin' Italian (1994), Ed (1996), Lost in Space (1998), Charlie's Angels (2000), and its sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003). Following the cancellation of Joey, LeBlanc announced that he would be taking a one-year hiatus from acting on television, which eventually turned into five years. 2011–present: Career revival From 2011, LeBlanc appeared as a fictionalized version of himself in Episodes, a television series about an American remake of a fictional British television series. The series is written by Friends co-creator David Crane and his partner Jeffrey Klarik. At the 69th Golden Globe Awards in 2012, LeBlanc won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a television series, musical, or comedy, and was nominated for an additional four Primetime Emmy Awards. In February 2012, LeBlanc appeared in the second episode of the eighteenth season of Top Gear, where he set the fastest lap time in the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment in a Kia Cee'd. Lapping at 1:42.1, he beat the show's previous record-holder, Rowan Atkinson, by 0.1 seconds. He also appeared in the fourth episode of the nineteenth season to race the New Kia Cee'd, and beat his previous time. In February 2016, the BBC announced LeBlanc had signed on to become one of the new Top Gear hosts, signing a two-year deal later that year. In May 2018, he announced that he was leaving the series in order to spend more time with his family and friends in the US. He and Rory Reid were replaced by new co-hosts Paddy McGuinness and Andrew Flintoff in the twenty-seventh series in October 2018. LeBlanc played the lead role in the CBS sitcom Man with a Plan, which began airing in 2016 until it was cancelled in 2020. Personal life LeBlanc has an extensive interest in cars, and worked as a carpenter before acting. In the mid-1990s, he dated actress Kate Hudson. He married Melissa McKnight, a British-born American model and a divorced single mother of two children, in May 2003. In 1997, they had been introduced to each other by McKnight's friend, Kelly Phillips (wife of actor Lou Diamond Phillips). LeBlanc proposed to her a year later. Their daughter, born in 2004, began suffering seizures at eight months old. By the time she was two years old, the condition, thought to be due to cortical dysplasia, had mostly subsided. LeBlanc and McKnight divorced in October 2006, citing irreconcilable differences. LeBlanc met actress Andrea Anders in 2004 while she was co-starring as his friend and eventual love interest on Joey and the pair eventually embarked on a relationship which was confirmed in 2006 following LeBlanc's split from his wife Melissa McKnight. After over eight years as a couple, LeBlanc announced at the start of 2015 that he and Anders had been broken up for several months. LeBlanc primarily resides in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles. Filmography Film Television Music videos Awards and nominations References External links Matt LeBlanc at IMDb Matt LeBlanc at Rotten Tomatoes Matt LeBlanc at Emmys.com Matt LeBlanc at TV Guide Matt LeBlanc on Instagram

Matthew_Perry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Perry

Matthew Langford Perry (August 19, 1969 – October 28, 2023) was an American and Canadian actor. He gained international fame for starring as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom Friends (1994–2004). Perry also appeared on Ally McBeal (2002) and received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in The West Wing (2003) and The Ron Clark Story (2006). He played a leading role in the NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–2007), and also became known for his leading film roles in Fools Rush In (1997), Almost Heroes (1998), Three to Tango (1999), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Serving Sara (2002), The Whole Ten Yards (2004), and 17 Again (2009). Perry was co-creator, co-writer, executive producer, and star of the ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine, which ran from February to April 2011. In August 2012, he starred as sportscaster Ryan King on the NBC sitcom Go On. He co-developed and starred in a revival of the CBS sitcom The Odd Couple portraying Oscar Madison from 2015 to 2017. He had recurring roles in the legal dramas The Good Wife (2012–2013), and The Good Fight (2017). Perry portrayed Ted Kennedy in The Kennedys: After Camelot (2017) and appeared as himself in his final television appearance, Friends: The Reunion (2021). He voiced Benny in the video game Fallout: New Vegas (2010). For most of his life, Perry suffered from severe addictions to drugs and alcohol. Through his recovery, he became an advocate for rehabilitation and a spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. In 2013, Perry received the Champion of Recovery Award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. In 2022, he released his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. In 2023, Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine use; the following year, five people were charged in connection with helping him acquire lethal doses of the drug. Early life and education Matthew Langford Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on August 19, 1969. His mother, Suzanne Marie Morrison (née Langford, born 1948), is a Canadian journalist who was press secretary to Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau. His father, John Bennett Perry (born 1941), is an American actor and former model. Perry's parents separated when he was a year old, and his mother married Canadian broadcast journalist Keith Morrison. Perry was mostly raised by his mother in Ottawa, Ontario, but he also lived briefly in Toronto and Montreal. He attended Rockcliffe Park Public School and Ashbury College, a boarding school in Ottawa. He had four younger maternal half-siblings—Caitlin, Emily, Will, and Madeline—as well as a younger paternal half-sister named Maria. His siblings "would stand and applaud" him for early performances. By the time he was 10, Perry started misbehaving. He stole money, smoked, let his grades slip, and beat up fellow student and future Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. Perry later attributed his behavior to his feeling like a family outsider who no longer belonged, once his mother began having children with Morrison. As Perry wrote, "I was so often on the outside looking in, still that kid up in the clouds on a flight to somewhere else, unaccompanied." At age 14, he began consuming alcohol and, by the time he was 18, was drinking every day. Perry practiced tennis, often for 10 hours per day, and became a top-ranked junior player in Canada with the possibility of a tennis career. But his prospects diminished when he moved from Ottawa, at age 15, to live with his father in Los Angeles, where competition was much tougher. At 15, Perry began studying acting at the Buckley School, a college-preparatory school in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, from which he graduated in 1987. While in high school, he took improvisational comedy classes at L.A. Connection in Sherman Oaks. Career 1979–1993: Early roles Perry's first credited role was a small part in 240-Robert in 1979 as a child actor. Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Perry started auditioning for roles. Perry made guest appearances on Not Necessarily the News in 1983, Charles in Charge in 1985, and Silver Spoons in 1986. In 1987 and 1988, he played Chazz Russell in the TV series Second Chance (later called Boys Will Be Boys). Perry made his film debut in 1988 with A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. In 1989, he had a three-episode arc on Growing Pains, portraying Carol Seaver's boyfriend Sandy, who dies in a drunk driving incident. Perry was cast as a regular on the 1990 CBS sitcom Sydney, playing the younger brother of Valerie Bertinelli's character. In 1991, he made a guest appearance on Beverly Hills, 90210 as Roger Azarian. Perry played the starring role in the ABC sitcom Home Free, which aired in 1993. 1994–2004: Breakthrough with Friends Perry's commitment to a pilot for a sitcom called LAX 2194, set in the baggage handling department of Los Angeles Airport 200 years in the future, initially made him unavailable for a role in another pilot, Six of One, later called Friends. After the LAX 2194 pilot fell through, he had the opportunity to read for a part in Six of One and was cast as Chandler Bing. At the age of 24, he was the youngest member of the main cast. After making the pilot and while waiting for the show to air, Perry spent the summer of 1993 performing at the Williamstown Theater Festival alongside Gwyneth Paltrow. Friends was hugely successful, and it made Perry an international celebrity. By 2002, he and his co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer were making $1 million per episode. The program earned him an Emmy nomination in 2002 for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series award. Perry appeared in films such Fools Rush In, Almost Heroes, Three to Tango, The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards, and Serving Sara. In 1995, he and Jennifer Aniston appeared in a 60-minute-long promotional video for Microsoft's Windows 95, released on VHS on August 1. For his performance as Joe Quincy in The West Wing, Perry received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2003 and 2004. He appeared as attorney Todd Merrick in two episodes of Ally McBeal. In 2004, he made his directorial debut and acted in an episode of the fourth season of the comedy-drama Scrubs, an episode which included his father. 2005–2022: Later work Perry starred in the TNT movie The Ron Clark Story, which premiered August 13, 2006, and received a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for his performance. From 2006 to 2007, he appeared in Aaron Sorkin's drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Perry played Matt Albie alongside Bradley Whitford's Danny Tripp, a writer-director duo brought in to help save a failing sketch show. In 2006, Perry began filming Numb, a film based on a man suffering from depersonalization disorder. The release was postponed several times, but it was finally released on DVD on May 13, 2008. Perry also appeared on stage in London in David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago. In 2008, Perry starred in the independent film Birds of America. Showtime passed on a pilot called The End of Steve, a dark comedy starring, written, and produced by Perry and Peter Tolan. In 2009, Perry starred in the film 17 Again playing a 37-year-old man who transforms into his 17-year-old self (Zac Efron) after an accident. The film received mixed reviews and was a box-office success. A review on WRC-TV found Perry miscast in his role, emphasizing the disbelief in Efron growing up to resemble Perry, both physically and behaviorally — a sentiment echoed by other critics. In 2009, Perry was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, when he presented Ellen DeGeneres with an Xbox 360 video game console and a copy of the game Fallout 3. The gesture led to game studio Obsidian Entertainment casting him in Fallout: New Vegas as the voice of Benny. Perry's new comedy pilot, Mr. Sunshine, based on his original idea for the show, was bought by ABC. He played the lead role as a middle-aged man with an identity crisis. ABC canceled the series after nine episodes in 2011. In 2012, Perry starred in the NBC comedy series Go On, written and produced by former Friends writer/producer Scott Silveri. Perry portrayed Ryan King, a sportscaster who tries to move on after the death of his wife through the help of mandatory therapy sessions. In the same year, he guest-starred on the CBS drama The Good Wife as attorney Mike Kresteva. He reprised his role in the fourth season in 2013. In 2014, Perry made his British TV debut in the one-off comedy program The Dog Thrower, which aired on May 1 as part of Sky Arts' Playhouse Presents. He portrayed "a charismatic man" who enchanted onlookers by throwing his dog in the air. From 2015 to 2017, Perry starred in, co-wrote, and served as executive producer of a reboot of the sitcom The Odd Couple on CBS. He played Oscar Madison opposite Thomas Lennon as Felix Unger. Perry played the lead role in the world premiere production of his play The End of Longing, which opened on February 11, 2016, at the Playhouse Theatre in London. Its limited run proved successful despite mixed reviews. Perry restructured the play and appeared alongside Jennifer Morrison in its second off-Broadway production, which opened at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on June 5, 2017. It closed on July 1 after receiving poor reviews. Years later Perry described the play as "a personal message to the world, an exaggerated form of me as a drunk. I had something important to say to people like me, and to people who love people like me." In March 2017, Perry again reprised his role as attorney Mike Kresteva in The Good Fight, a sequel show to the CBS drama The Good Wife. Later that year, he starred as Ted Kennedy in the mini-series The Kennedys: After Camelot. In May 2021, he participated in the special episode Friends: The Reunion. He was meant to have a role in Don't Look Up, but withdrew in 2020 because of CPR-induced broken ribs. Perry published a memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, in October 2022. It became a bestseller on both Amazon and The New York Times charts. Personal life Perry held Canadian and American citizenship. He dated Yasmine Bleeth in 1995, Julia Roberts from 1995 to 1996, and Lizzy Caplan from 2006 to 2012. In November 2020, Perry became engaged to literary manager Molly Hurwitz. Their engagement ended in 2021. Residences owned at some point by Perry included a condo in Sierra Towers purchased from Elton John, a house in Hollywood Hills, a house in Malibu, and a cottage in Pacific Palisades. In 2017, Perry purchased a condo occupying the top floor of The Century in Los Angeles for $20 million, selling it to Nick Molnar for $21.6 million in 2021, who in turn sold it to Rihanna in 2023. In June 2023, Perry purchased a mid-century modern house in Hollywood Hills. Perry had a perfectionist and obsessive personality, spending many hours perfecting his answering machine message. He also believed in God, with whom he had "a very close relationship," calling himself "a seeker." Health and addiction In his memoirs, Perry wrote that by the age of 14, he had become an alcoholic. He became addicted to Vicodin after a jet ski accident in 1997, and completed a 28-day rehab program at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation that year. His weight dropped to 128 pounds (58 kg) as he took as many as 55 Vicodin pills per day. In May 2000, at the age of 30, he was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with alcohol-induced pancreatitis. While Perry said in 2002 that, although he had made an effort not to drink on the set of Friends, he did arrive with extreme hangovers and sometimes would shake or sweat excessively on set. During the later seasons of the series, he was frequently drunk or high on set. His castmates made efforts to help him, even staging an intervention, but were unsuccessful. In February 2001, Perry paused productions of Friends and Serving Sara for two months so that he could enter in-patient rehabilitation for his addictions to Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines, and alcohol. He said later that, due to his substance use disorder, he had no memory of three years of his work on Friends. In 2018, Perry spent five months in a hospital for a gastrointestinal perforation. During the hospital stay, Perry nearly died after his colon burst from opioid abuse. He spent two weeks in a coma and used a colostomy bag for nine months. Upon being admitted to the hospital, doctors told his family that Perry had a 2% chance of survival. He was connected to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine. Two years later, while attending rehab in Switzerland, Perry faked pain to get a prescription for 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone per day and was having daily ketamine infusions. He was given propofol in conjunction with a surgery, which stopped his heart for five minutes. The resulting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) resulted in eight broken ribs. He paid $175,000 for a private jet to take him to Los Angeles to get more drugs. When doctors there refused, Perry spent another $175,000 to take a private jet back to Switzerland. In 2022, he estimated that he had spent $9 million on his addiction, including 14 stomach surgeries, 15 stays in rehab, and therapy twice a week for 30 years and had attended approximately 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Philanthropy and advocacy In July 2011, Perry lobbied the United States Congress as a celebrity spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals in support of funding for drug courts. He received a Champion of Recovery award in May 2013 from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for opening Perry House, a rehab center in his former mansion in Malibu. In 2015, Perry sold the mansion and relocated its services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he launched an apparel line inspired by Friends, with proceeds donated to the World Health Organization's COVID-19 relief fund. Death On October 28, 2023, Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles. He was pronounced dead at 4:17 pm that day at the age of 54. On November 3, 2023, Perry's funeral was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles where he was buried. His father, mother, and stepfather attended, as did his five Friends co-stars. The Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush song "Don't Give Up" was played; Perry was enamored with the song and referenced it in signed copies of his autobiography, released in part to help people suffering from depression or addiction issues. Following Perry's death, the National Philanthropic Trust established the Matthew Perry Foundation to support people suffering from addiction. On December 15, 2023, Perry's death was revealed to have occurred due to acute effects of ketamine. Other circumstances that contributed to his death included the effects of buprenorphine, drowning, and coronary artery disease. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said in a statement that ...at the high levels of ketamine found in his post-mortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression... ...drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness; coronary artery disease contributes due to exacerbation of ketamine induced myocardial effects on the heart. The ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine's half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less. Perry had been receiving ketamine-assisted psychotherapy sessions to treat anxiety at the time of his death, his last known session of which having been the week prior to his death. However, the report stated that the therapy couldn't have resulted in his death. In May 2024, an investigation was opened by the Los Angeles Police Department to determine how Perry obtained the high dose of ketamine that caused his death. On August 15, 2024, indictments and charges were filed against five people: Perry's personal assistant, two doctors, and two drug dealers (including TV director Erik Fleming), alleging involvement in the distribution of ketamine that caused the death of Perry and one other person. Three agreed to plead guilty, with two, Fleming and Perry's former assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, having their guilty pleas entered into court soon after being charged; Iwamasa pled guilty on August 7, 2024, while Fleming would plead guilty on August 8. During a court hearing on August 30, 2024, it was agreed that former doctor Mark Chavez, who had signed a plea agreement but had not yet officially entered it into court, would have his guilty plea accepted, though he will still not officially plead guilty until a later court appearance. Chavez would have his medical license suspended the next month and would officially plead guilty at a court hearing held on October 2, 2024. According to U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, Perry paid the two doctors $55,000 in cash for ketamine in the two months before his death. Iwamasa admitted to obtaining ketamine for Perry and injecting him with the drug, while Fleming admitted to obtaining the ketamine from the supplier and giving it to Iwamasa for Perry to use. Text messages also revealed that the other doctor, who is currently awaiting trial, would purchase the ketamine from Chavez. Acting credits Film Television Theatre Video games Specials Awards and nominations Publications Perry, Matthew (November 1, 2022). Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir. Foreword: Lisa Kudrow. New York: Flatiron Books. ISBN 978-1-250-86644-8. OCLC 1338841699. Notes References External links Matthew Perry at IMDb Matthew Perry at Rotten Tomatoes Matthew Perry discography at Discogs Matthew Perry on Twitter Matthew Perry on Instagram Interviewed on "Q with Tom Power", CBC, November 22, 2022, audio

David_Schwimmer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Schwimmer

David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2 or 12, 1966) is an American actor, director, comedian, and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom Friends, for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1995. While still acting in Friends, his first leading film role was in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by roles in Kissing a Fool; Six Days, Seven Nights; Apt Pupil (all 1998); and Picking Up the Pieces (2000). He was then cast in the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) as Herbert Sobel. Schwimmer began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in theater and speech. After graduation, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company. For much of the late 1980s, he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling, unemployed actor, until he starred in the television movie A Deadly Silence in 1989 and appeared in a number of television roles in the early 1990s, including L.A. Law, The Wonder Years, NYPD Blue, and Monty. After the series finale of Friends in 2004, Schwimmer branched out into film and stage work. He was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama film Duane Hopwood, and voiced Melman the Giraffe in the animated Madagascar film franchise, acted in the dark comedy Big Nothing (2006), and the thriller Nothing but the Truth (2008). Schwimmer made his West End stage debut in the leading role in 2005's Some Girl(s). He made his Broadway debut in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in 2006. His feature film directorial debut followed in 2007 with the comedy Run Fatboy Run, and the following year he made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in Fault Lines. He has also worked as a director, including many episodes of Friends during his time on the series. In 2016, Schwimmer starred as lawyer Robert Kardashian in The People v. O. J. Simpson, for which he received his second Primetime Emmy Award nomination, this time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. Early life Schwimmer was born in 1966 in Flushing, Queens, New York City, to attorneys Arthur (born 1941) and Arlene Coleman-Schwimmer (born 1940). His family is Jewish. His grandfather, Al Schwimmer, was founder of Israel Aerospace Industries. He has an older sister named Ellie Schwimmer (born 1965). His family subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where Schwimmer, at 10, had his first acting experience when he was cast as the fairy godmother in a Jewish version of Cinderella. In 1979, Schwimmer went to a Shakespeare workshop given by English actor Sir Ian McKellen in Los Angeles. He recalls being riveted by the experience. Schwimmer then entered a contest in the Southern California Shakespeare Festival three years in a row, winning two first prizes. Following his mother's successful career as a divorce lawyer, the family moved to Beverly Hills, where Schwimmer attended Beverly Hills High School. His classmates included actor Jonathan Silverman. Schwimmer admitted to feeling like an outsider during his time at the school, recalling, "When I was there I always felt: 'This is not me, I'm surrounded by people with a different value system. And I just wanted to get out of California.'" His best subjects were science and math and he originally wanted to become a doctor. Schwimmer enrolled in a drama class, where he appeared in stage productions. Encouraged by his school drama teacher to further his acting, he flew to Chicago for a summer acting program at Northwestern University. He noted that the experience was both "enlightening and exhilarating". In 1984, Schwimmer graduated from Beverly Hills High and wanted to go straight into acting, but his parents insisted he go to college first so he would have something to fall back on. Schwimmer enrolled in Northwestern University, where he had attended the summer acting program earlier. He had originally intended on becoming a surgeon, having studied various body systems but eventually decided to pursue acting professionally. At the university, he studied theater and was in an improv group with Stephen Colbert, the No-Fun Mud Piranhas. After graduating in 1988, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater and speech, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company. Subsequently, he returned to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Career 1989–1994: Early work After his supporting role debut in the ABC television movie A Deadly Silence (1989), Schwimmer followed this with roles on the legal drama L.A. Law in 1992, and the comedy-drama series The Wonder Years. He made his feature film debut in Flight of the Intruder (1991), had a recurring role as a lawyer-turned-vigilante in NYPD Blue before auditioning, unsuccessfully, for a series pilot called Couples. He landed his first regular series role as the liberal son of a conservative talk show host (Henry Winkler) in the sitcom Monty. 1994–2004: Breakthrough In 1994, Schwimmer was cast as Ross Geller in NBC's situation comedy Friends, a series that revolved around a group of friends who live near each other in Manhattan. He played a hopeless-romantic paleontologist who works at a museum and later becomes a professor at a university. Schwimmer initially turned down the role as Ross, but accepted later. Executive producer Kevin S. Bright said that he had previously worked with Schwimmer, the character of Ross was written with him in mind, and he was the first actor cast. The show debuted on September 22, 1994, and was watched by almost 22 million American viewers. Friends quickly developed a loyal audience, with the show and Schwimmer receiving strong reviews. Much of the Friends success is attributed to the plotline between his character Ross and his on-again-off-again love interest Rachel, which has been described as one of the greatest TV couples of all time by various media outlets. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him "terrific". Variety's television reviewer said: "All six of the principals, especially (Courteney) Cox and Schwimmer, appear resourceful and display sharp sitcom skills". For this performance, he earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1995. Schwimmer starred in his first leading film role in the 1996 romantic comedy film, The Pallbearer with Gwyneth Paltrow. In the film, Schwimmer plays a man asked to deliver the eulogy for a high school friend he cannot remember, and begins an affair with the friend's mother. Critics dismissed The Pallbearer as a poor imitation of the 1967 film The Graduate. Variety's film reviewer complimented the actor, writing that he had enjoyed his performance, stating that he displayed "a winning, if rather deadpan, personality along with good comic timing". It also concluded that Schwimmer had a "promising bigscreen future". Janet Maslin of The New York Times cited that his first film "relegates him to a drab role". When asked why he decided to accept the role, Schwimmer admitted the decision was to "make an effort to find roles that are as far away from the character of Ross as possible." Schwimmer was chosen to play a leading role in the 1997 Men in Black but he turned it down. He later regretted this decision. Ultimately, Will Smith got the role. His next film roles, in 1998, were Kissing a Fool, Six Days, Seven Nights, and Apt Pupil. In Kissing a Fool, a romantic comedy, Schwimmer played Max, a smart-mouthed, but dapper and charming man. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Fans of the sitcom Friends may be surprised by David Schwimmer in Kissing a Fool. [...] Take it from someone who has never seen Friends and comes at Schwimmer with no preconceptions: He does just fine. As a TV sports reporter in Kissing a Fool, he oozes the command and self-satisfaction of a young, successful man." The film was critically and financially unsuccessful. In Six Days, Seven Nights, he played the boyfriend of Anne Heche's character. In Apt Pupil, adapted from a novella of the same name by Stephen King, he had a supporting role as a school guidance counselor. "I was scared of the part", Schwimmer said, "but I wanted to be part of the movie". At the time, he noted it was a "little frustrating" that people would typecast him due to his role on Friends. He subsequently appeared opposite Woody Allen and Sharon Stone in Alfonso Arau's straight-to-cable comedy Picking Up the Pieces (2000). In 2001, Schwimmer played Captain Herbert M. Sobel in Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' HBO World War II miniseries Band of Brothers. The television miniseries is based on the book of the same title written by historian and biographer Stephen Ambrose. Although Band of Brothers was met with largely positive reception, Schwimmer's performance was criticized; the BBC News concluded, "Part of the problem ... may have been the ridiculous fact that Friends favourite David Schwimmer plays the hard and cruel Captain Herbert Sobel. The only thing believable about Schwimmer's acting is when he cowers in the face of true battle. His puppy dog eyes make him appear even more pitiful." Later that year he portrayed Yitzhak Zuckerman in the war drama Uprising, based on the true events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. In March 2004, Schwimmer appeared as himself on HBO's comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm. During the lengthy run of Friends, Schwimmer directed ten of the show's episodes. The show's tenth and final season ended on May 6, 2004. 2004–2010: Directing In 2004, Schwimmer was director and executive producer on Nevermind Nirvana, a sitcom about an Indian American family that was not picked up by NBC. After Friends, Schwimmer starred in the 2005 independent drama Duane Hopwood, as the title character, who is an alcoholic whose life is spiraling downward rapidly after a divorce and is looking to turn his life around. The film received ambivalent reviews. Despite the reception, Schwimmer's performance was favored by critics; Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the role was Schwimmer's "career-transforming performance." Duane Hopwood was screened at a special presentation at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Furthermore, in the same year he voiced Melman, a hypochondriac giraffe, in the animated film Madagascar (2005). The Washington Post noted that Schwimmer is particularly appealing as Melman. Despite the mixed response from critics, the film was a commercial success, earning US$532 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest hits of 2005. Schwimmer starred on the London stage in May 2005, with Catherine Tate, Lesley Manville, Sara Powell, and Saffron Burrows, in Neil LaBute's Some Girl(s) at the Gielgud Theatre. In the production, he plays a teacher who is ready to settle down and marry, but decides to visit four ex-girlfriends first. For his performance, Schwimmer received critical reviews. The Independent wrote that Schwimmer "is not called upon to extend his range nearly as far as one might have expected in Some Girl(s). [...] Schwimmer remains bland, competent, and boyish—though not fatally boyish in the manner that appears to have turned these women on." However, Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph praised Schwimmer, reporting he "proves inspired casting. He takes to the stage with ... his endearing gaucheness seems designed to ensure our continued sympathy. Schwimmer mercilessly lays bare his character's opportunism, casual cruelties, and chronic self-deception." In 2006, he made his Broadway debut in Herman Wouk's two-act play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Schwimmer played the role of Lieutenant Barney Greenwald in the production, which was directed by Jerry Zaks. In an interview with New York magazine, he revealed that he had wanted to try Broadway, however said "a couple of things came up that just never quite felt right. Either because I liked the play but wasn't hot on the director, or there was another star attached that I wasn't jazzed about working with." He further added that when showed a copy of Wouk's novel "...I was shocked at how good the writing was." His next film role was in the 2006 black comedy Big Nothing, in which he played a bitter, unemployed scientist. Schwimmer made his directorial feature debut in the 2007 British comedy film Run Fatboy Run. The film stars Simon Pegg as an out of shape man who signs up for a marathon to convince his former fiancée and five-year-old son that he has turned his life around. When asked why he decided to direct the film, Schwimmer said: "As a director, I was struck by the challenge that I thought the script presented, which was that it was kind of three films in one. You had some great, big physical comedy, and I thought funny dialogue and characters. And then there was some real emotion to it with the relationship between the father and the son and the romance aspect." Run Fatboy Run garnered mixed reception, with the New York Daily News rating it one-and-a-half out of five stars and writing, "Most disappointing is how Schwimmer—who spent 10 seasons on a sitcom filled with hyperverbal characters—manages to bumble 'Fatboy's' tender moments." USA Today, however, was favorable towards Schwimmer, reporting he possesses filmmaking finesse "having wisely chosen strong comic material for his debut behind the camera." For his directorial work, he was nominated for a British Independent Film Award in the category of Best Debut Director. On November 8, 2007, Schwimmer made a guest appearance in the second season of the television series 30 Rock, where he played Greenzo, an NBC environmental mascot. The following year, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Alan Alda, Angela Bassett, and Noah Wyle in the thriller Nothing But the Truth (2008). The movie received generally favorable reviews. The success of Madagascar led Schwimmer to return to the role of Melman in the 2008 sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. The film earned US$603 million at the international box office. Schwimmer took part in directing in-studio segments for Little Britain USA, an American spin-off of the British BBC television series Little Britain. In regard to this, he commented that he had "a good time directing episodes" for the show. In October 2008, Schwimmer made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in Fault Lines at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. The production won a mixed review from the Los Angeles Times, which wrote: "Based on Fault Lines ... we can't really tell whether Schwimmer has much talent as a director. We're surprised he didn't try something more challenging for his debut. If not much else, Schwimmer has encouraged his actors to intense their energy levels and comic timing at all costs". The New York Post, however, noted that Schwimmer "knows a thing or two about freewheeling banter ... and for a good while the play crackles with terrific dialogue, expertly delivered". In February 2009, he returned to theater in a Chicago production of Thornton Wilder's three-act play Our Town as George Gibbs at the Lookingglass Theatre. "Schwimmer ... turns in a poignant, richly textured and demonstrably heartfelt performance as George Gibbs. I've seen a fair bit of Schwimmer's post-Friends stage work in London and New York, and I've never seen him better", commented the Chicago Tribune. On August 2, 2009, Schwimmer played himself in the sixth season of the HBO television series, Entourage. In the episode, Ari Gold's (Jeremy Piven) agency tries to steer his career back to television. Schwimmer directed his second feature, Trust, starring Clive Owen and Catherine Keener. The film, a drama, is about a family whose teenage daughter becomes victim of an online sexual predator. Trust premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. 2010–present: Return to television On January 1, 2011, Schwimmer guest-starred on the British comedy series Come Fly With Me starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams, whom he directed in Little Britain USA. The following year, he returned to voice Melman the Giraffe in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. In 2013, Schwimmer appeared as Josh Rosenthal, a mobster who was brought up by the notorious Roy DeMeo and part of the Gambino Family, alongside Michael Shannon in The Iceman. In 2014, Schwimmer was cast as the lead in the ABC comedy pilot Irreversible, playing "one half of a somewhat eccentric, self-absorbed couple". In 2016, Schwimmer played Robert Kardashian in the first season of the FX anthology series American Crime Story. He received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his performance. In January 2016, Schwimmer and Jim Sturgess were cast to star in the new AMC crime drama Feed the Beast. The series premiered on June 5, 2016, and aired 10 episodes through August before being canceled. In November 2016, it was announced that Schwimmer would star in his first audio series. Gimlet Media's podcast Homecoming began airing on November 16, 2016. In April 2017, Schwimmer helped adapt the films of Sigal Avin for a US audience. The six short features depict sexual harassment at work by men on women. In 2020, Schwimmer was cast as a main character in the British sitcom Intelligence broadcast on Sky One. In the same year, he was a celebrity reader on CBeebies Bedtime Stories, and was signed as the face of British banking chain TSB. Schwimmer featured in Jews Don't Count, a 2022 documentary by British Jewish comedian David Baddiel on the subject of antisemitism. Schwimmer's contribution, in which he said that he has never felt white, was described as "erudite" by Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian. Personal life Schwimmer dated singer-songwriter Natalie Imbruglia in the late 1990s. Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston admitted to having crushes on each other early on while filming Friends during HBO Max's Friends: The Reunion. Schwimmer began a relationship with British artist Zoë Buckman in 2007 and they married on June 4, 2010. Their child Cleo Buckman Schwimmer was born in 2011. The couple announced in April 2017 that they were "taking some time apart". They divorced later that year. Schwimmer and his ex-wife are on good terms and continue to co-parent their child amicably. He tends to keep his personal life away from the media to preserve his daughter's childhood. Schwimmer primarily lives in East Village, Manhattan. He previously had a loft in Near West Side, Chicago as well as a house in Hancock Park, Los Angeles. In June 2006, Schwimmer won a US$400,000 defamation lawsuit against Aaron Tonken, a former charity fundraiser. Tonken claimed Schwimmer had demanded Rolex watches in order to appear at his own charity event, a claim that Schwimmer had denied. Schwimmer is an active director of the Rape Treatment Center in Santa Monica, which specializes in helping victims of date rape and child rape. He has also campaigned for legislation to ban drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB. In November 2011, he gave the Scottish charity Children 1st permission to screen his film Trust to commemorate World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse and Violence against Children. In 2012, he rebutted two longstanding rumors: one that he appeared as a soldier on a train in Biloxi Blues (1988), saying, "No. I don't know why that's on IMDb, but I never was in that" (the credit has since been removed), and the other that he is related to dancer Lacey Schwimmer, saying, "No, not at all. Please set the record straight. I guess it's a natural assumption because we have the same last name, but no. I've never even met her". Filmography Film Television Director/producer Awards and nominations See also Back Stage West Garland Awards, for his Lookingglass Theatre Company, production of Arabian Nights References External links David Schwimmer at IMDb David Schwimmer on Instagram Lawrence, Will. "David Schwimmer: From Central Perk to the East End." The Daily Telegraph. August 31, 2007. Accessed June 10, 2009. Greenstreet, Rosanna. "Q&A: David Schwimmer." The Guardian. September 8, 2007. Accessed June 10, 2009. Pratt, Steve. "New direction." The Northern Echo. September 8, 2007. Accessed June 10, 2009.

1912_Summer_Olympics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Summer_Olympics

The 1912 Summer Olympics (Swedish: Olympiska sommarspelen 1912), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad (Swedish: Den V olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, between 6 July and 22 July 1912. The opening ceremony was held on 6 July. Twenty-eight nations and 2,408 competitors, including 48 women, competed in 102 events in 14 sports. With the exception of tennis (starting on 5 May) and football and shooting (both starting on 29 June), the games were held within a month with an official opening on 6 July. It was the last Olympics to issue solid gold medals and, with Japan's debut, the first time an official team from an Asian nation participated. Stockholm was the only bid for the games, and was selected in 1909. The games were the first to have art competitions, women's diving, women's swimming, and the first to feature both the decathlon and the new pentathlon, both won by the American Jim Thorpe. Electric timing was introduced in athletics, while the host country disallowed boxing. Figure skating was rejected by the organizers because they wanted to promote the Nordic Games. The United States won the most gold medals (26), while hosts Sweden won the most medals overall (65). These were the final Olympic Games for eight years due to the disruption of the First World War. The next Olympic Games were held in 1920 in Antwerp. Host selection Following the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, authorities in Sweden immediately sought to ensure that the next games would be held there. There were two Swedish members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the time, Viktor Balck and Clarence von Rosen. The pair proposed the idea to the Swedish governing bodies of athletics and gymnastics in order to ensure that they backed any potential bid. Support was given by the national associations on 18 April 1909 for a bid to host the Olympics in Stockholm on the basis that suitable financial arrangements could be made. King Gustaf V was petitioned on 6 May 1909 following the publication of preliminary plans for the Stockholm bid that the expected cost of hosting the Games would be 415,000 kronor (£23,050 or $115,250). The Government accepted the petition on behalf of the King and supported the bid. On 28 May, at the meeting of the IOC in Berlin, the Swedish representatives declared that they had full financial support for hosting the next Games in Stockholm. A deal was made with the German IOC representative on the basis that Berlin would host the 1916 Summer Olympics. Pierre de Coubertin spoke at the meeting about his concerns that Sweden should ensure that the Games take place, as he did not want a repeat of the problems with Great Britain hosting the 1908 Games. He also expressed a desire that "the Games must be kept more purely athletic; they must be more dignified, more discreet; more in accordance with classic and artistic requirements; more intimate, and, above all, less expensive." The Games were duly awarded to Sweden to host in Stockholm as the only nominated host city for the 1912 Summer Olympics. Organization The news that Stockholm was to host the 1912 Olympics was received with enthusiasm by the Swedish public. The organizing committee took de Coubertin's words to heart, and aimed to achieve an Olympic Games which removed those elements which detracted from earlier Games. The committee was elected in the autumn of 1909, with Balck voted as the President of the committee, and Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf selected as Honorary President. The committee's first meeting took place on 7 October, and on 11 October they delegated the arrangements for the individual branches of sports to the relevant governing bodies in Sweden. There were four exceptions to this, with the game shooting, modern pentathlon and mountain ascents retained by the Olympic committee, and the horse riding competitions being organized by Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland, who was the inspector of the Swedish cavalry. Altogether there were 187 members of these committees. The official invitation to compete in the Games was issued on 18 November 1910 to 27 countries, either directly or through their representative on the IOC. A further 15 countries were to have been invited, but as they had no IOC representatives, the Swedish authorities were unsure how to proceed. Once the organizing committee for the Games received confirmation of the athletic associations in each of the 15 countries, they too were sent invitations. Some 61,800 entry forms were printed for the use of the various nations. Free transport was arranged for the invited nations' equipment, and a discount of 50 percent was arranged for competitors and delegates on the state run railway. A daily newspaper which only covered the Olympics was arranged to be published during the Games, in both English and Swedish. Further arrangements were made for the general arrival of visitors in order to entertain them whilst they were not at the Games; a pleasure garden was opened north of the Olympic Stadium, and a series of indoor tennis courts were converted into a restaurant. Venues Twelve sports venues were used in the 1912 Summer Olympics. This marked the first time that more than one venue would be used for the football tournament, which has been the case ever since. Stockholm Olympic Stadium served as one of the equestrian venues for the 1956 Summer Olympics. Råsunda Stadium served as a venue for the 1958 FIFA World Cup and the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup. In the initial bid document it was identified that a new stadium would be needed, initially envisaged as being located in the Östermalm Athletic Grounds. In order to save funds, it was expected that only one of the stadium's stands would be permanent, with the other three made of wood and dismantled following the Games. The cost of that stadium was estimated at 235,000 Kronor. Arrangements were made with the individual national committees to provide the use of Östermalm Athletic Grounds and Traneberg. The cycling road race was held around Mälaren, the third largest lake in Sweden. The water events, including the swimming and the rowing, were held at Djurgårdsbrunnsviken, where a stadium was built. Kaknäs was already used as a shooting range, but alterations were needed to accommodate shooting events. Although it was not used as the Olympic stadium as originally intended, Östermalm hosted the lawn tennis and fencing competitions after a tennis pavilion was moved there from another location. Five other locations were considered in addition to the Östermalm Athletic Grounds to locate the Olympic Stadium. The Stockholm Olympic Stadium was built on the site of the former Stockholm Athletic Grounds in order to retain the other locations for other uses during the Games. By placing it to the north of the city, the Olympic Stadium was within the immediate vicinity of other pre-existing sporting venues. Initial funding was given to the sum of 400,000 Kr for a timber stadium but Torben Grut, the architect, also drew up alternative plans for a stone stadium. Following discussions with the Swedish Central Association for the Application of Athletics, it was decided that the stone version should be built, and further funds were made available through a national lottery once guarantees were made that no further funding was to be asked for in order to build the stadium. However it was found that the original estimate for the stone stadium would still be too expensive, and the plans were once more modified in order to simplify the design and reduce costs. An agreement was entered into with a contractor on 2 November 1910 that it would be transferred complete by 25 May 1912. Opening ceremony The Games of the V Olympiad were opened on 6 July 1912. The Swedish Royal Family left Stockholm Palace at 10:40am, and were received at the Olympic Stadium by members of the IOC. Three thousand competing athletes had already assembled in the nearby Östermalm Athletic Grounds, and began to enter the stadium in alphabetical order by nation according to the Swedish spelling. The Swedish team entered last, but unlike the later tradition, the Greek team did not enter first. A hymn was sung, a traditional Swedish chant was conducted and prayers were read first in Swedish and then in English. Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf addressed the King on behalf of the Swedish Olympic Association. King Gustav V then declared the Games officially open by a long speech: It is with legitimate joy and pride that we Swedes see athletes from every part of the world gathered here with us. It is a great honour for Sweden that Stockholm has been chosen as the scene of the Fifth Olympiad, and I bid all of you, athletes and friends of athletics, a most hearty welcome to this friendly contest of the nations. May the grand thought that found expression in the Olympic Games in classic times be so held in honour by our age too, that these competitions may become a powerful means to promote the physical health and development of every people. With these words, I herewith declare the Olympic Games of Stockholm opened. Afterwards a trumpet fanfare was played and the Crown Prince called for cheers for the King. The athletes in their national groups marching out of the stadium in order ended the ceremony. Events The Swedish delegation at the IOC meeting in Berlin on 28 May 1909 had proposed a simple Olympic schedule containing only "pure" athletics, swimming, gymnastics and wrestling. However other countries requested that the schedule be more comprehensive, and with that in mind they put forward a further programme at the IOC meeting in 1911 which was met with approval. The sports which were added were the tug of war, cycling, fencing, football, horse riding, lawn tennis, rowing, shooting, skating and yacht racing. The question of adding skating to the programme was discussed once more on 7 February 1910, with the decision being made to drop it from the schedule. It was felt to be unsuitable because it was a winter sport, and it was to be part of the Nordic Games the following year. Boxing was removed from the programme as it was unappealing to the Swedes. Art competitions were considered at a further meeting on 14 February 1910, and were subsequently added to the programme, but now art competitions are no longer regarded as official Olympic events by the International Olympic Committee. As a result, now the 1912 Summer Olympics programme considered composed of 14 sports encompassing 18 disciplines and 102 events. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses. Baseball, glima and Gotland sports were unofficial demonstration sports. This was also the first year art competitions were held at the Olympics. Athletics The athletic events saw the introduction of a fully automatic timing system developed by R. Carlstedt. It involved attaching electromagnets to chronometers in a system which attached a control lamp to the starting gun for each race. This resulted in the firing of the gun starting a timer which was then stopped by one of the judges at the finishing line. The final of the men's 100 metres was expected to be a mostly American affair, and it ended up with six athletes, only one of whom was not from the United States. It suffered from seven false starts before the athletes finally got away, with Ralph Craig winning the gold medal by 60 centimetres (24 in) in front of second place Alvah Meyer. Donald Lippincott won bronze, 15 cm behind second man. Kanakuri Shizō, a Japanese marathon runner, went missing during the race. He lost consciousness by heatstroke and a farming family helped him to stop at a party taking place in a villa on the marathon route in order to quench his thirst, then caught a train to Stockholm and left the country the next day. He returned to Japan without notifying race officials. 50 years later, after being invited back by the Swedish authorities, he completed the race with an (unofficial) time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds. Portuguese Francisco Lázaro died from heat exhaustion while running the marathon, the only athlete to die during the running of an Olympic marathon. American Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and the newly created decathlon. Thorpe's gold medals were stripped by the International Olympic Committee in 1913, after the IOC learned that Thorpe had taken expense money for playing baseball, violating contemporary Olympic amateurism rules, before the 1912 Games. This moved everyone else up in the rankings. In 1982, the IOC was convinced that the disqualification had been improper, as no protest against Thorpe's eligibility had been brought within the required 30 days, and reinstated Thorpe's medals. The replicas were presented to his children in 1983, 30 years after Thorpe's death. Finally, in 2022, the IOC posthumously declared Thorpe as the sole winner of the pentathlon and decathlon events after extensive consultations with his former competitors' families who said they had always viewed Thorpe as the winner. New Olympic records were set in the majority of track and field events, with only the men's 200 metres, 10 km walk, standing high jump, standing broad jump, hop, step and jump, and the hurdle competitions failing to have new records set. Tell Berna captured a gold for the 3000m and Henry S. "Harry" Babcock took gold for the pole vault, setting an Olympic Record at 3.95m. Hannes Kolehmainen was the most successful in setting records at the games, with new Olympic Records set in the 5,000, 10,000 metre and cross country races. Cycling The cycling events at the 1912 Games were limited to a road race around Lake Mälaren, which had already been a successful route for a yearly cycling race. Although not originally in the schedule, several countries requested that track cycling be added; however, the organizing committee stuck by their plans not to build a new track cycling stadium as the only one in Stockholm had been destroyed in order for the Olympic Stadium to be built. In addition, Germany had specifically requested Cycle-Polo and Figure-Cycling to be added to the programme, both of which requests were turned down by the committee. It was decided to hold the road race as a time trial, and to outlaw any non-competitive cyclists acting as pacemakers. Nineteen nations entered 151 athletes into the competition, which was a greater number than expected by the committee. The largest group was from Great Britain, who had entered twelve competitors from England, another twelve from Scotland, and a further nine from Ireland. The race began on 7 July, with the athletes leaving in groups. The first group left at 2am, with the remaining groups leaving at intervals of two minutes. The distance raced was 318 kilometres (198 mi), with South African Rudolph Lewis winning the gold medal in the individual race. Frederick Grubb of Great Britain won the silver medal, and Carl Schutte of the United States won the bronze. However, the average positions of the Swedish team were better than their competitors', and so the Swedish team won the gold medal for the team competition. The silver and bronze medals followed the individual victories, going to Great Britain and the United States respectively – giving Grubb and Schutte a second medal each of the same varieties. Diving All of the medals in the men's competitions were split between the diving teams of the Swedish and German teams. The men's high dive was a Swedish white out, with Swedish divers taking all three medal positions. Erik Adlerz took the gold medal, and proceeded to take the gold medal for Sweden in the 10 metre platform too. Albert Zürner took the silver for Germany, and Gustaf Blomgren won the bronze medal for Sweden. Another white out occurred in the 3 metre springboard with all three medals going to the German team, with Paul Günther taking gold, Hans Luber in the silver medal position and Kurt Behrens in bronze. A 10-metre platform event also took place for women, with Sweden taking two more medals, Greta Johansson in gold and Lisa Regnell in silver. Great Britain's Isabelle White won the bronze medal. The remaining finalists were all from Sweden. Equestrian Equestrian made its first appearance at a modern Olympics in the 1912 Games. Although competitions involving horse riding had been included in the programme of 1900, this was the first appearance of modern Olympic staples such as dressage, eventing and show jumping. It was expected that the competitors would be military personnel as they would have had the cavalry experience to compete. The competition was split between the military competitions, prize riding and prize jumping. In the military competition, seven countries put forward competitors for the individual and team eventing. Each nation put forward four athletes with the exception of Denmark, which only put forward three. Some of the countries also nominated reserves in addition to their main athletes. The total length of the course was 55 kilometres (34 mi) with the start and finish both in the grounds of the Field Riding Club. The heat was such on the day of the event that competitors lost as much as 4.5 pounds (2.0 kg)in weight. Swede Axel Nordlander won the individual competition, and led the Swedish eventing team to victory as well, earning himself two gold medals. In second place in the individual competition was German Friedrich von Rochow, who also earned a second silver medal as the team from Germany placed second overall. Only the bronze medals were split up between nationalities, with the American team taking the bronze for the team event while Frenchman Jacques Cariou won the individual medal. Two additional countries entered for the dressage, although only Sweden entered the maximum number of competitors. The event resulted in Sweden taking all three medals, with the gold going to Carl Bonde, the silver to Gustaf Adolf Boltenstern and the bronze to Hans von Blixen-Finecke. The individual show jumping competition was the only individual equestrian event at the 1912 Olympics in which Sweden won no medals, with the gold medal instead going to Cariou of the French to add to his bronze medal from the dressage, Rabod von Kröcher taking the silver for Germany, and Emmanuel de Blommaert winning the bronze for Belgium. The team event saw Sweden take another gold medal, with the French team second and the German team, featuring Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, in the bronze medal position. Fencing The foil competition became a full Olympic event, having appeared at the 1908 Games as a demonstration sport. Nedo Nadi and Pietro Speciale of Italy took the gold and silver medals respectively, and Richard Verderber of Austria placed third. There were individual and team events in both épée and sabre. The épée team event saw Belgium take the gold medal and Great Britain and the Netherlands in second and third place respectively. A member of the Belgian team went on to take the individual title as well, with Paul Anspach taking the gold medal. Ivan Joseph Martin Osiier of Denmark took the silver medal, and another Belgian who was not in the team event, Philippe le Hardy de Beaulieu, won the bronze medal. The sabre competition was dominated by the competitors from Hungary, with their team taking the gold medal over Austria and the Netherlands. The individual competition saw a shut out by Hungarian athletes with Jenő Fuchs winning the overall competition, Béla Békessy in second and Ervin Mészáros in third. Football Thirteen countries signalled their intention to enter football teams for the 1912 Olympics. A standard cup tie system was implemented, with the final deciding the gold and silver medallists and a third/fourth position playoff deciding the bronze medal winner. Only FIFA affiliated teams were allowed to take part, with the public draw for the tournament taking place on 18 June 1911. The tournament itself started on 29 June. In the first round Finland defeated Italy 3–2, Austria beat Germany 5–1 and the Netherlands emerged victorious over Sweden 4–3. The team from Great Britain, who had won the gold medal at the 1908 Summer Games, were given a bye to the second round, where they faced Hungary and won 7–0. Finland also won their match, defeating Russia 2–1. Denmark matched the British scoreline, winning 7–0 against Norway, and the Netherlands won against Austria 3–1. The semi final matches pitted Great Britain against Finland, where they won 4–0, and Denmark against the Netherlands, ending in a 4–1 victory for Denmark. The Netherlands won the third/fourth place playoff by the biggest scoreline of the tournament, beating Finland 9–0. Later on the same day the final was played in the Olympic Stadium, where Great Britain retained its gold medal against Denmark in front of 25,000 spectators. Goals from Harold Walden, Arthur Berry and two from Gordon Hoare helped Britain to win by a margin of 4–2. Gymnastics The gymnastic competition at the 1912 Games featured a single individual competition and three team events in addition to a variety of displays by the various teams. The Swedish team naturally won the Gymnastics event of the Swedish system, referred to in the programme as "Team Competition I", with fellow Scandinavian teams Denmark and Norway taking the second and third positions. The all around team competition came second, with Italy taking the gold. In addition, one of the Italian team members, Alberto Braglia, won the individual gold for the same event. Louis Ségura of the French team won the individual silver, while another member of the Italian team, Adolfo Tunesi, won the individual bronze. The all around team competition saw Hungary take the silver medal and the team from Great Britain in third place. The final team competition allowed for a free choice of movements and apparatus. This was another all Scandinavian affair, with the Norwegian team emerging victorious, Finland in second and Denmark in the bronze medal position. Modern pentathlon Modern pentathlon was competed for at the 1912 Games, marking its first appearance in the Olympics. It was for these games that the five events of shooting, swimming, equestrian, fencing and cross country running were decided to make up the pentathlon. The competition was spread out across five days from 7 through to 12 July, ending with the cross country race. Only men participated in the event, although a woman named Helen Preece was briefly enrolled to compete until the organizing committee ultimately denied her entry. For the shooting element, each competitor was allowed to bring their own pistol. The American competitor George S. Patton (later better known as the Second World War US Army General) used a Colt revolver, while the Danish competitors preferred the Danish Army service pistol, the Germans and Norwegians used the Luger P08 pistol and the Swedes used a target practice pistol by Smith & Wesson. The shooting part of the competition was won by Gösta Åsbrink, with Georg de Laval and Gösta Lilliehöök in second and third place respectively, all three representing Sweden. The swimming event was three lengths, each of 100 metres (330 ft), with the athletes split into eight heats and times going forward to calculate positions. Ralph Clilverd of Great Britain won this event, with Edmond Bernhardt of Austria in second and de Laval in third. The fencing competition saw each competitor face off against each other. Several opponents were noted for their particular skill in the event with Åke Grönhagen of Sweden coming first with 24 wins, Jean de Mas Latrie of France second with 23, Sidney Stranne of Sweden in third with 21 and Patton of the United States close behind with 20. Thirteen of the competitors cleared the equestrian course without any penalties, with Grönhagen winning the event, Bror Mannström of Sweden in second and de Laval third. The cross country run was over 4,000 metres and started in the Olympic Stadium itself. The event was run as a time trial with competitors leaving one minute apart. As this was the final event, the winning competitors were announced after the race, with Lilliehöök winning the gold medal, Åsbrink taking silver and de Laval, bronze. The highest placed non-Swedish competitor was Patton, who finished fifth. Rowing The rowing events at the 1912 Olympics did not prove popular with the public. This was put down to the "fatigue" of the public due to the volume of sporting events. The eight competition was split into heats, with two teams in each heat. The two British crews were lucky not to be drawn against each other, with the team from Leander Club facing New College, Oxford in the final. Leander won by a length with a time of 6:15. The coxed four followed a similar format to the eights, with the German team from Ludwigshafener Ruderverein defeating Britain's Thames Rowing Club in the final. The competition for the coxed four, inriggers was much smaller, with only four nations competing. The Danish team defeated Sweden in the final. The single sculls heats proved controversial with the first round race between Mart Kuusik and Alfred Heinrich being re-run after a protest by Heinrich. In addition, Cecil McVilly was disqualified in the first round after colliding with the boat of Martin Stahnke. Wally Kinnear of Great Britain defeated Polydore Veirman of Belgium in the final, with Kinnear winning the matchup easily. Sailing The yachts for the sailing competition assembled at Nynäshamn on 19 July, along with the other vessels that were to take part in an Olympic regatta. The racing itself started the following day with the 12 metre class. There were only three nations and yachts competing in this event, the hosts Sweden, as well as Norway and Finland. Norway won the gold medal, Sweden the silver and Finland came in last place, winning bronze. The 10 metre class had the same number of countries entering it, although this time Sweden entered two yachts and Russia competed instead of Norway. The Swedish yacht Kitty was the winning vessel, with the Finnish boat in second and the Russians coming third. A slightly improved field was featured in the 8 metre class, with four countries entering two yachts each. The medals were awarded to exactly the same nations as the 12 metre class, another all Scandinavian affair. The 6 metre class saw the most diverse field of any of the sailing events at the 1912 Olympics: six countries entered a total of nine yachts. France and Denmark competed in their only sailing event, along with Sweden, sending two yachts each. Those three nations were the successful in the event, with the French yacht Mac Miche taking the gold, the Danish Nurdug II taking silver and the Swedish Kerstin placing third. Shooting There were eighteen shooting events at the 1912 Olympics, of which eight were team events. The competition was split predominantly into three sections: military rifle shooting, shooting with miniature rifles, pistols and revolvers, and clay bird and running deer shooting. The Swedish and American competitors were the most successful at the competition, with seven gold medals each, although Sweden won a total of seventeen medals while the United States team won fourteen. 64-year-old Oscar Swahn, part of the Swedish single shot running deer team, is still the oldest gold medal winner in Olympic history. Swimming In swimming, Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku won the 100 metre freestyle for the United States, who also saw Harry Hebner win gold in the 100 metre backstroke. The Canadian team also took two gold medals, both by George Hodgson in the 400 and 1,500 metre events. The German swimming team won all three medals in the 200 metre breaststroke, with the gold going to Walter Bathe, who won a further gold in the 400 metre breaststroke. The Australasian team was victorious in the men's relay, with the United States finishing in the silver medal position and Great Britain placing third. The 1912 Games saw the implementation of swimming events for women, with the 100 metre freestyle and 400 metre team relay taking place. Fanny Durack won the individual contest, breaking the world record for the distance in the fourth heat. Her fellow Australian Mina Wylie won the silver medal, and Jennie Fletcher of Great Britain came third to take the bronze medal. The British team had further success in the women's relay, winning the team relay with the German team in second place and the Austrian team in third. Because only four countries entered the relay there were no heats; only a final was held. The United States did not field a women's team. New Olympic Records were set in all swimming events at the 1912 Games. Tennis Tennis on covered courts was agreed initially for the 1912 Games, with competitions run for gentlemen's singles and doubles, ladies' singles, and mixed doubles. The outdoor tournament was confirmed once the Östermalm Athletic Grounds were completed in late 1911, with the plans modified to have both indoor and outdoor tournaments. Six countries sent players for the covered court competitions, with representatives from Sweden, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Australasia, and Bohemia appearing. Included in this lineup was Australasia's only competitor, Anthony Wilding from New Zealand, who was also the reigning Wimbledon gentlemen's champion. The indoor knockout competition started on 5 May, and continued as expected until the semi-final round where Wilding was beaten by Britain's Charles P. Dixon. The British player met Frenchman André Gobert in the final, but Gobert was victorious over the Englishman in straight sets. Wilding took the bronze medal in a playoff against another British player, Arthur Lowe. The outdoors tennis competition saw 70 players enter from 12 nations. However, Great Britain did not enter any competitors as the dates of the outdoor competition clashed with the 1912 Wimbledon Championships, despite attempts by the British authorities to convince the Olympic organizing committee to change the dates. Other noted tennis players refused to compete at the Olympics and instead attended Wimbledon. The gold and silver medals in the gentlemen's singles ended up being decided between two South Africans, with Charles Winslow and Harold Kitson playing each other. Winslow won the match and the gold medal, 7–5, 4–6, 10–8, 8–6. The duo also competed as a pair in the gentlemen's doubles and took the gold medal, beating the Austrians Felix Pipes and Arthur Zborzil. Marguerite Broquedis of France defeated Dorothea Koring of Germany in the ladies' singles for the gold medal. In the mixed doubles Koring teamed up with Heinrich Schomburgk to win the gold, the duo defeating Sigrid Fick and Gunnar Setterwall of Sweden in the final. Tug of war The tug of war competition was scheduled to take place between 7 and 12 July, with two matches taking place each day. However, out of the five countries which elected to enter the competition, only two actually appeared. Great Britain arrived for its match against Bohemia, but the opposition team was nowhere to be found. Britain was duly declared the winner. The same thing happened once more for the second match, with the Swedish team, made up of policemen from Stockholm, arriving to find that the Austrian team had not arrived. Sweden was announced as the winners of the match in the Austrians' absence. On the second day of the competition, Great Britain took on Sweden, the only occasion where both teams actually turned up for the bout. The British team were made up of the winners of the gold medal in the same event at the 1908 Games, with the exception of John Sewell and Mathias Hynes. As the British team also consisted of policemen, the bout ended up effectively being between the City of London Police and the Stockholm Police, with the Swedish team winning 2–0. Due to the non-appearance of the team from Luxembourg, that one match ended up being the entire tug of war event at the 1912 Olympics. Sweden was awarded the gold medal and Great Britain the silver. Water polo The water polo tournament was set up on a modified elimination system as there were six teams entered. The first round saw the British team defeating the Belgian team, Sweden defeating the French team and Austria defeating Hungary. Lots were drawn to determine which match would take place in the second round as there were three teams left in the competition. Great Britain were drawn to face Sweden, who they defeated. Austria automatically qualified for the final against the winner of the Britain-Sweden matchup. Great Britain won the gold medal in the event, defeating Austria 8–0. Playoff matches were then played between each pair of defeated teams in order to decide the second and third places. Sweden and Belgium played off after a further three matches to decide the silver and bronze medal positions, with Sweden emerging victorious 4–2. Wrestling The nations at the 1912 Games entered a total of 267 wrestlers, although the actual competitors who appeared in Sweden were fewer, with 171 actually turning up to compete. Greco-Roman wrestling was the only style of wrestling competed for at the Games. The bouts took place in the open air in an area of the Olympic stadium, with the wrestlers split according to weight into five divisions: featherweight, lightweight, middleweight A (later referred to as middleweight), middleweight B (later referred to as light heavyweight) and heavyweight. The skills of the competitors from Finland were noted in the featherweight competition, with Kaarlo Koskelo taking the gold medal, while German Georg Gerstäcker took silver and a further medal went to Finland with Otto Lasanen taking bronze. The lightweight class drew the most attention from the public, with Emil Väre winning gold after beating all of his opponents by pin rather than by points. Swedish wrestlers Gustaf Malmström and Edvin Mattiasson took the silver and bronze medals respectively. Claes Johanson won Sweden's only gold medal in the middleweight competition, with his fellow finalist from Russia, Martin Klein, retiring before fighting Johanson in the final. This was due to the semi-final match between Klein and Alfred Asikainen of Finland lasting 11 hours and forty minutes, although they took breaks for refreshments every half-hour. Klein was awarded the silver medal and Asikainen the bronze. The light heavyweight competition saw another marathon length match, with the bout between Anders Ahlgren of Sweden and Ivar Böhling of Finland for the gold medal lasting more than nine hours. The match was then declared a draw with both athletes being awarded the silver medal as neither won the match. The bronze medal went to Hungary's Béla Varga, who was defeated by Ahlgren in the semi-final match. Yrjö Saarela of Finland was victorious in the heavyweight competition after having placed second in the light heavyweight event at the 1908 Games. Johan Olin took another medal for Finland with the silver and Søren Marinus Jensen repeated his bronze medal at the 1908 Olympics with another for Denmark. Art competitions The 1912 Summer Olympics saw the introduction of art competitions at the Summer Olympics. Events were implemented for literature, sculpture, painting, architecture and music. Walter Winans won the gold medal for his sculpture, An American Trotter, which added to his previous gold medal for the running deer (double shot) competition at the 1908 Olympics and the silver medal in the running deer competition in 1912. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, President of the IOC and founder of the modern Olympic movement, won the gold medal for literature. He actually entered the competition under the pseudonyms of Georges Hohrod and Martin Eschbach from Germany. With the exception of the sculpture competition, only gold medals were issued. Italian Riccardo Barthelemy won the medal for music with his Olympic Triumphal March, and fellow countryman Giovanni Pellegrini won the gold for painting. The Swiss architects Eugène-Edouard Monod and Alphonse Laverrière shared the gold for their stadium design. The sole silver medal, for sculpture, went to Frenchman Georges Dubois for his Model of the entrance to a modern stadium. Demonstration sports In the evening of 7 July, demonstrations took place in the Olympic Stadium of sports from the Swedish island of Gotland. These began at 7:30pm with a demonstration of Pärk, a type of tennis with seven players a side. At the same time, at the other end of the stadium, a type of Icelandic wrestling called Glima was demonstrated. Once those displays had concluded, further demonstrations were made of the Swedish sport varpa, similar to quoits, and stångstörtning, a version of the caber toss. Baseball was also demonstrated at the Games. A game was played between the United States, the nation where the game was developed, and Sweden, the host nation. The game was held on Monday, 15 July 1912 and started at 10 a.m. on the Ostermalm Athletic Grounds in Stockholm. The Americans were represented by various members of the American Olympic track and field athletics delegation, while the Swedish team was the Vesterås Baseball Club, which had been formed in 1910 as the first baseball club in Sweden. Four of the Americans played for Sweden, as the Swedish pitchers and catchers were inexperienced. One Swede eventually relieved Adams and Nelson, the American pitchers. Six innings were played, with the Americans not batting in the sixth and allowing the Swedes to have six outs in their half of the inning. The game was umpired by George Wright, a retired American National League baseball player. Participating nations Twenty-eight nations competed at the 1912 Games. Egypt participated for the first time, as did Luxembourg, Iceland, Portugal, and Serbia. Japan also made their Olympic debut, marking the first appearance of an Asian country at an Olympic Games. Chile made its first appearance as a national team, with fourteen athletes attending the Games, although it had previously entered one individual at the 1896 Games. This was also the first time that athletes from Armenia had competed in the Olympics, as part of the team from Turkey (the officially recognised name for the Ottoman Empire). Serbia's appearance was the only time it attended an Olympic Games as an independent nation until the 2008 Summer Olympics, almost one hundred years later. The only nation that participated in the previous games in London 1908 but was absent in Stockholm 1912 was Argentina. Austria and Hungary competed as two sovereign countries. The polity known as Austria-Hungary is mistakenly considered a single sovereign country, while in reality was two sovereign states in real union with a single monarch who was titled both emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. At the time, Australasia (Australia and New Zealand), Canada and South Africa were all part of the British Empire. Bohemia was part of Austria. Iceland was part of Denmark. Finland was part of Russia. And Egypt was de jure under the control of Turkey, but had been de facto run by the British since 1882. This was the last Olympics that allowed "private entries", i.e. individual athletes that were not part of a country's officially selected team. Arnold Jackson was one such private entry; he won the 1500 metres by 0.1 seconds, ahead of an American trio, in what was acclaimed at the time to be "the greatest race ever run". His medal is still credited to the United Kingdom, however. Number of athletes by National Olympic Committees Medal count These are the top 10 nations that won medals at the 1912 Games. The medals themselves included solid gold medals, the last time these were given out. See also List of IOC country codes References External links "Stockholm 1912". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Swedish Olympic Committee (1913). Erik Bergvall (ed.). The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912 (PDF). Stockholm: Wahlstrom and Widstrand. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-04-10.

Pep_Guardiola

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pep_Guardiola

Josep Guardiola Sala (born 18 January 1971), commonly known as Pep Guardiola (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈpɛb ɡwəɾðiˈɔlə]), is a Catalan professional football manager and former player from Spain, who is currently the manager of Premier League club Manchester City. Guardiola is the only manager to win the continental treble twice, the youngest manager to win the UEFA Champions League, and he holds the record for the most consecutive league games won in La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League. He is considered to be one of the greatest managers of all time. Guardiola was a defensive midfielder who usually played in a deep-lying playmaker's role. He spent the majority of his career with Barcelona, forming a part of Johan Cruyff's Dream Team that won the club's first European Cup in 1992, and four successive Spanish league titles from 1991 to 1994. He captained the team from 1997 until his departure from Barcelona in 2001. Guardiola then had stints with Brescia and Roma in Italy, Al-Ahli in Qatar and Dorados in Mexico. He was capped 47 times for the Spanish national team and appeared at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, as well as at UEFA Euro 2000. He also played friendly matches for Catalonia. After retiring as a player, Guardiola briefly managed Barcelona B, with whom he won a Tercera División title. He took charge of the first team in 2008. In his first season, he led Barcelona to the continental treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League, becoming the youngest manager to win the latter competition. He was named the FIFA World Coach of the Year in 2011 after leading the club to another La Liga and Champions League double in the 2010–11 season. Guardiola ended his four-year Barcelona stint in 2012 with 14 honours, a club record. After a sabbatical period, Guardiola joined Bayern Munich in 2013 and won the Bundesliga in each of the three seasons, including two domestic doubles. He left the club for Manchester City in 2016 and guided them to the Premier League title in his second season in charge, breaking numerous domestic records as the team became the first to attain 100 points in a single season. He led City to a domestic treble in 2018–19, their first Champions League final in 2020–21, and their first Champions League title as part of another continental treble in 2022–23. Club career 1988–2001: Barcelona Born in Santpedor, Barcelona, Catalonia, Guardiola joined La Masia at age 13 from Gimnàstic de Manresa and rose through the ranks of Barcelona's youth academy for six years, making his debut in 1990 against Cádiz. As Phil Ball writes in Morbo, In his first week at the club, Johan Cruyff turned up unannounced at the Mini Estadi, a venue just down the road from Camp Nou used by Barcelona B. Just before half-time he wandered into the dug-out and asked Charly Rexach, the youth team manager at the time, the name of the young lad playing on the right side of midfield. "Guardiola – good lad," came the reply. Cruyff ignored the comment and told Rexach to move him into the middle for the second half, to play as pivot. It was a difficult position to adapt to and one not used by many teams in Spain at the time. Guardiola adjusted immediately, as Cruyff had suspected he would, and when he moved to the first-team in 1990, he became the pivot of the Dream Team. Guardiola became a first-team regular in the 1991–92 season, and at only 20 years old was a key component of a side that won La Liga and the European Cup. The Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo heralded Guardiola as the finest player in the world under the age of 21. Cruyff's "Dream Team" went on to retain La Liga title in the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons. The side again reached the 1994 UEFA Champions League final, but were beaten 4–0 by Fabio Capello's AC Milan side in Athens. Cruyff left in 1996, with Barcelona finishing fourth in the 1994–95 season and third in the 1995–96 season, but Guardiola retained his position at the centre of Barcelona's midfield. In the 1996–97 season, Barcelona, this time led by Bobby Robson, won three cups: the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de España, and the European Cup Winners' Cup. In 1997, Guardiola was named as Barcelona captain under new manager Louis van Gaal, but a calf muscle injury ruled Guardiola out of most of the 1997–98 season, in which Barcelona won a league and cup double. At the end of the season, Barcelona rejected offers from Roma and Parma (of around 300 million pesetas) for Guardiola. After prolonged and complicated contract talks, he signed a new contract with Barcelona that extended his stay until 2001. Guardiola returned to action the following season and Barcelona once again won La Liga. On 8 June 1998, Guardiola underwent surgery to try to resolve his lingering calf injury, which had caused him to miss the 1998 FIFA World Cup for Spain. A largely disappointing 1999–2000 season again ended in surgery, with Guardiola missing the last three months of the season with a serious ankle injury. On 11 April 2001, Barcelona's captain announced his intention to leave the club after 17 years of service. He stated that it was a personal decision and, in part, a response to what he perceived as football heading in a new, more physical, direction. On 24 June 2001, Guardiola played his last match with Barcelona in the final game of the season against Celta Vigo. Guardiola played 479 games in 12 seasons for the first team, winning 16 trophies. At the press conference after the Celta game, he said: "It's been a long journey. I'm happy, proud, happy with the way people treated me and I have made many friends. I cannot ask for more. I have had many years in the elite. I did not come to make history but to make my own history." A number of future Barcelona midfielders, including Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Cesc Fàbregas, have hailed Guardiola as their role model and hero. 2001–2006: Later career After leaving Barcelona in 2001 at age 30, Guardiola joined Serie A side Brescia as Andrea Pirlo's replacement in the deep-lying playmaker role, where he played alongside Roberto Baggio under manager Carlo Mazzone. Following his stint at Brescia, Guardiola transferred to Roma. His time in Italy, however, was unsuccessful and included a four-month ban for testing positive for nandrolone (he was cleared of all charges in 2009). After his career with Brescia and Roma, in 2003, Guardiola played in Qatar with Al-Ahli from Doha in the Qatar Stars League. In 2005–06, he turned down offers from a number of European clubs, as he felt his playing career was coming to a close. In 2006, Juan Manuel Lillo was appointed the manager of Mexican club Dorados. Lillo recruited Guardiola to play for the club while he was in managing school in Axocopán, Atlixco, Puebla. Guardiola played with Dorados for six months, but was limited to ten appearances due to injuries, before retiring. He scored one goal for the club. International career Spain On 14 October 1992, Guardiola debuted for the Spain national football team in a friendly match against Northern Ireland. The same year, he served as Spain when they won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games. That same year he won the Bravo Award, which recognises the world's best player under the age of 21. Guardiola was a member of the Spanish team during the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals, losing 2–1 to Italy. Due to disagreements, he fell out of favour with Spain coach Javier Clemente and missed out on UEFA Euro 1996. Guardiola suffered a career-threatening injury in 1998 which kept him out of the year's World Cup, but later played at Euro 2000, where Spain reached another quarter-final, this time losing to France by the same margin of 2–1. He continued to play in the Spanish midfield until his final appearance on 14 November 2001, in a 1–0 victory in a friendly match against Mexico. Guardiola scored his last international goal against Sweden in a 1–1 friendly draw during his 45th appearance. Catalonia Guardiola has played for and advocated on behalf of the Catalonia football team. Between 1995 and 2005, he played seven friendly matches for Catalonia. Player profile Style of play Guardiola was a highly creative, hard-working, nimble, and elegant player, with good anticipation, tactical awareness, and an ability to read the game; throughout his career, he was usually deployed as either a central or defensive midfielder in front of his team's back-line, although he was also capable of playing in more attacking midfield roles. Although he was competent defensively and able to press opponents to break up play and win the ball effectively through his team-work and defensive positioning, he also had a tendency to give away many fouls; as such, and also in part due to his slender physical build, he usually functioned as a deep-lying playmaker in front of the defence, where he excelled courtesy of his technical ability and intelligent, efficient, precise passing game. He would also occasionally drop deeper to act as an additional centre-back in Cruyff's fluid 3–4–3 formation at Barcelona. Despite his lack of notable pace, dribbling ability, aerial prowess, or strong physical or athletic attributes, Guardiola was highly regarded throughout his career for his vision, close control, passing range, positional sense, and calm composure on the ball, as well as his speed of thought, which enabled him to retain possession under pressure and either set the tempo of his team's play in midfield with quick and intricate short first-time exchanges, or switch the play or create chances with longer passes. His role has also been likened to that of a metodista ("centre-half", in Italian football jargon), due to his ability to dictate play in midfield as well as assist his team defensively. Guardiola was capable of being an offensive threat, due to his ability to make attacking runs or strike accurately from distance; he was also effective at creating chances or shooting on goal from set-pieces. Having served as captain of both Barcelona and the Spanish national side, he also stood out for his leadership throughout his career. Despite his playing ability, he was also known to be injury prone throughout his career. Reception Guardiola's playing style, which relied on creativity, technique and ball movement, rather than physicality and pace, inspired several future diminutive Spanish playmaking midfielders, such as Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, and Cesc Fàbregas, with the latter describing him as his "idol". Pirlo instead described Guardiola as the "model" for the position which he himself occupied deep in midfield. Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta once described Guardiola as "the best central midfielder in our history." Johan Cruyff considered him to be one of the best midfielders of his generation, a view echoed by Richard Jolly of FourFourTwo and Marco Frattino, the latter of whom stated in 2018: "Twenty years ago, [...] Pep Guardiola was one of the best midfielders in the world." In 2001, his agent Josè Maria Orobitg described him as the best in the world at dictating the tempo and rhythm of his team's play. Miguel Val of Marca considered Guardiola to be one of the greatest Spanish players of all time, describing him as the "brains of Barcelona's Dream Team under Johan Cruyff" in 2020. Federico Aquè described him as one of the best deep-lying playmakers in European football in his prime, while Lee Bushe of 90min.com even included him in his list of "The Best Deep-Lying Playmakers of All Time" in 2020. Managerial career Barcelona B team Guardiola was appointed manager of Barcelona B on 21 June 2007 with Tito Vilanova as his assistant. Under his guidance, the team subsequently won their Tercera División group and qualified for the 2008 Segunda División B playoffs, which the team won, thereby achieving promotion. Barcelona President Joan Laporta announced in May 2008 that Guardiola would be appointed manager of the senior Barcelona squad to replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the 2007–08 season. 2008–09: First season with first team and historic treble Upon being appointed, Guardiola made headlines by announcing that stars such as Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto'o were not part of his plans for the coming season, though Eto'o was in the end allowed to remain. In association with Barcelona Director of Sport Txiki Begiristain, several new signings were made by Guardiola – Dani Alves and Seydou Keita arrived from Sevilla; Martín Cáceres from Villarreal by way of Recreativo; Gerard Piqué returned from Manchester United; and Alexander Hleb was signed from Arsenal. Along with the new signings, Guardiola promoted canteranos Sergio Busquets, Pedro and Jeffrén to the first-team squad. In interviews with the press, Guardiola stressed a harder work ethic than before, but also a more personal approach during training and a closer relationship with his players. Guardiola's first competitive game as manager was in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, in which Barcelona comfortably beat Polish club Wisła Kraków 4–0 in the first leg at home. They then lost 1–0 in the second leg, but progressed with a 4–1 aggregate victory. Promoted Numancia also defeated Barcelona in the opening matchday of the 2008–09 La Liga, but the team then went on an undefeated streak for over 20 matches to move to the top of the league. Barcelona maintained their spot atop La Liga's table, securing their first league title since 2006 when rivals Real Madrid lost at Villarreal on 16 May 2009. The most important match, however, was on 2 May when they defeated Real Madrid 6–2 at the Santiago Bernabéu. The league title was the second piece of silverware in Guardiola's first season at the club. Earlier, on 13 May, Barcelona won the 2008–09 Copa del Rey, beating Athletic Bilbao 4–1 in the 2009 Copa del Rey final. In the final of the Champions League, Barcelona beat Manchester United 2–0. In doing so, they became the first Spanish club to win the domestic cup, the league, and the European club titles (the treble) in the same season. Guardiola became the youngest man to manage a Champions League winning team, at age 37. The treble-winning season is regarded as one of the club's finest in its history. 2009–10: Six trophies in a calendar year Guardiola's second season as manager began with defeats of Athletic Bilbao in the Supercopa de España and Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Super Cup. On 25 September 2009, Barcelona gave him his 50th professional victory, away against Málaga and on 19 December, they were crowned FIFA Club World Cup champions for the first time in their history. Guardiola finished the calendar year with a record six trophies, the Spanish League, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup and Club World Cup, becoming the first manager in history to do so. In January 2010, he became Barcelona's longest serving Spanish manager, overtaking the record previously held by Josep Samitier. He agreed to a one-year contract extension to keep him with Barcelona until the end of the 2010–11 season. In February 2010, Guardiola managed his 100th match for Barcelona's first team. His record stood at 71 wins, 19 draws and 10 losses, with 242 goals for and 76 against. On 10 April 2010, he became the first manager in Barcelona's history to beat Real Madrid four times in a row in El Clásico. Barcelona reached the semi-finals of the 2009–10 Champions League, but lost 3–2 on aggregate to José Mourinho's Inter Milan. Despite this, they managed to win their 20th La Liga title with 99 points by beating Real Valladolid 4–0 at home. At the time, this was the highest points total ever gained amongst any of Europe's major leagues. The La Liga title was Guardiola's seventh trophy as manager of the club, tying Ferdinand Daučík for second behind Johan Cruyff and his 11 trophies. 2010–11: Second Champions League title On 21 August, Barcelona beat Sevilla 5–3 on aggregate to win the 2010 Supercopa de España, his second in a row. On 29 November 2010, Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5–0, giving Guardiola five straight wins in El Clásico. On 8 February 2011, Guardiola accepted the club's offer for a one-year deal extension, signing a contract until June 2012. On 11 May 2011, Barcelona won the La Liga title and the club's third in a row after a 1–1 draw with Levante. On 28 May, Barcelona beat Manchester United 3–1 at Wembley in the 2011 Champions League final. 2011–12: Final season The season started with a 5–4 aggregate win over Real Madrid for the Supercopa de España. Barcelona won their second trophy of the season on 26 August, beating Porto 2–0 in the 2011 UEFA Super Cup. With the trophy won against Porto, he became all-time record holder of most titles won as a manager at Barcelona, with 12 trophies in only three years. November of the same year saw Guardiola manager his 200th match for Barcelona's first team. His record stood at 144 wins, 39 draws and 17 losses with 500 goals for and 143 against. Barcelona ended the 2011 calendar year winning the Club World Cup, beating Brazilian club Santos 4–0 in the final, the widest margin in an Intercontinental Cup/Club World Cup final since changing to a single match format. This was Guardiola's 13th title of only 16 tournaments played. On 9 January 2012, he was named FIFA World Coach of the Year. On his 41st birthday, he led his side to a 2–1 victory over arch-rivals Real Madrid in El Clásico, ensuring that he remained unbeaten against Real Madrid in regular time as a manager. On 21 April, Guardiola conceded the league title to leaders Real Madrid after they beat Barcelona 2–1 and extended their lead in the table to seven points with four matches remaining. On 24 April, a 2–2 draw at home against Chelsea in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final knocked Barcelona out of the competition on a 2–3 aggregate score. That effectively left the team with only the Copa del Rey to play for. Guardiola had faced criticism over his recent tactics and squad selections. On 27 April 2012, he announced he would step down as Barcelona's manager at the end of the 2011–12 season. He had been on a rolling contract that was renewed annually during his tenure as manager. Citing tiredness as the main reason for his decision, he also commented that four years at a club like Barcelona felt like an eternity. Guardiola continued to lead Barcelona to wins in the remaining La Liga games of the season, followed by a 3–0 win in the Copa del Rey final. His record of 14 trophies in four seasons has made him the most successful manager in Barcelona's history. Barcelona announced that he would be succeeded by Tito Vilanova, who would begin leading the first team at the start of the 2012–13 season. Sabbatical After his time at Barcelona came to an end, Guardiola took a year's sabbatical in New York City. On 7 January 2013, he came in third place for the 2012 FIFA World Coach of the Year, behind the winner Vicente del Bosque and runner-up José Mourinho. While at a news conference at the 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or gala in Zürich, Guardiola said: "I have taken a decision to return to coaching but beyond that no decision has been taken. I don't have a team to go to but I would like to go back to coaching." Bayern Munich 2013–2015: Consecutive Bundesliga titles On 16 January 2013, it was announced that Guardiola would take over as manager of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich after the 2012–13 season, replacing Jupp Heynckes for the following season. He addressed his first press conference at Bayern, on 24 June 2013, in German, and had his first training session two days later. His first official match was the German Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund, with Bayern losing 4–2. His first trophy with Bayern was the 2013 UEFA Super Cup, defeating longtime adversary José Mourinho, who had just returned to manage at Chelsea. Bayern beat ten-man Chelsea in a shoot-out after Manuel Neuer saved Romelu Lukaku's kick. In December 2013, Guardiola won his third Club World Cup after beating Raja Casablanca in Morocco. On 25 March 2014, he led Bayern to their 23rd Bundesliga title by beating Hertha Berlin 3–1 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. With seven matches remaining in the season, it was the earliest the championship had been won in Bundesliga history, breaking the record Heynckes' Bayern had set in the previous season. Guardiola broke Karl-Heinz Feldkamp's record for the longest winning streak to start his tenure at a Bundesliga club. The streak ended at 28 when Augsburg defeated Bayern 1–0 on matchday 29. The streak also ended Bayern's 53–match undefeated streak. Bayern were drawn against Real Madrid in the semi–finals of Champions League. Bayern lost the first leg 1–0 and the second leg 4–0. The first leg was also Guardiola's first defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu. He finished the 2013–14 season by winning the DFB-Pokal 2–0 in extra–time. In the 2014-15 season, Bayern lost the German Super Cup 2–0 to Borussia Dortmund. On 11 March 2015, Bayern defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 7–0, tying their largest win in Champions League history. In Guardiola's 100th match as manager, Bayern defeated Porto 6–1. With the win, Bayern reached their fourth-straight Champions League semi-final. On 28 April 2015, Bayern were knocked out of the German Cup in a penalty shoot-out. Bayern had missed all four of their shots. In his first competitive match against Barcelona, Bayern lost 3–0. Bayern failed to get a shot on target in the match. For the first time in his career, he lost four in a row (including the shoot-out loss). 2015–16: Second domestic double and final season The 2015–16 season started on 1 August 2015 when Bayern lost in a shoot-out to Wolfsburg in the German Super Cup. In the league, Bayern won their first ten matches. The first time they dropped points in the league was on 30 October 2015 in a 0–0 scoreline against Eintracht Frankfurt and their first loss in the league was on 5 December 2015 in a 3–1 scoreline to Borussia Mönchengladbach. In the Champions League group stage, Bayern won Group F, winning five out of the six matches. Bayern's only loss in the Champions League group stage was against Arsenal on 20 October. This was Bayern's first loss in all competitions during the 2015–16 season. On 20 December, Bayern confirmed that Guardiola was leaving the club after his contract expired at the end of the season, with Carlo Ancelotti his replacement for the 2016–17 season. On 3 May 2016, Guardiola's Bayern Munich lost to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals stage, thereby ending his final chance of winning a Champions League title with the Bavarian club. Guardiola's final match was on 21 May 2016, with Bayern defeating Borussia Dortmund in a shootout. He finished with a record of 82 wins, eleven draws and nine losses in the Bundesliga; a record of 14 wins, three draws and no losses in the DFB-Pokal; a record of 23 wins, five draws and eight losses in the UEFA Champions League. He also went a combined two wins, two draws, and two losses in the FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and the German Super Cup. In non–official competitions, he went a combined six wins, one draw, and one loss. Manchester City 2016–17: Adjustment to England and first season On 1 February 2016, Manchester City signed Guardiola to a three-year contract for the start of the 2016–17 season. Guardiola brought in several significant players in the summer, including midfielders İlkay Gündoğan from Borussia Dortmund and Nolito from Celta Vigo, winger Leroy Sané from Schalke 04 and defender John Stones from Everton. He also controversially replaced long-serving City starting goalkeeper Joe Hart with Claudio Bravo from his former club Barcelona; Hart would never make another appearance for the club. On 13 August 2016, Guardiola earned victory in his first match of the Premier League season, as City defeated Sunderland 2–1. On 11 September, Guardiola won his first Manchester derby as a manager in a 2–1 City victory at Old Trafford; this was also his sixth win against his "rival" manager José Mourinho. City were leaders going into the international break, but their form declined thereafter. Manchester City lost to Everton 0–4 on 15 January 2017; this was Guardiola's biggest-ever managerial defeat in a domestic competition. In Europe, City were eliminated in the Champions League round of 16 by Monaco on away goals after a 6–6 aggregate draw. The second leg of the tie was Guardiola's 100th game as a manager in European competition, and he arrived at that mark with the best record of any manager, having earned 61 wins and 23 draws (one draw better than the previous record holder, Guardiola's former manager at Barcelona, Louis van Gaal). Following a loss to Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-finals, Guardiola finished the season without a trophy for the first time in his managerial career. 2017–18: "Centurions" and first Premier League title Guardiola identified the defensive areas which required improvement for Manchester City in the summer transfer window to challenge for the league title, particularly in the goalkeeper and full-back positions. Due to Bravo's struggles the previous season, Ederson was brought in as the new first-choice goalkeeper. Wing-backs Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker were also signed, while dispensing of all the previous senior full-backs at the club in Aleksandar Kolarov, Gaël Clichy, Bacary Sagna and Pablo Zabaleta. Additionally, Bernardo Silva and Danilo were also acquired from Monaco and Real Madrid, respectively. On 25 February 2018, City won the 2017–18 EFL Cup after beating Arsenal 3–0 in the final, which was Guardiola's first trophy with the club. On 15 April, City were confirmed as 2017–18 Premier League champions following Manchester United's 1–0 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion. After finishing the league season with a record-breaking 100 points, Guardiola signed a new contract with City until 2021. 2018–2020: Domestic treble and Champions League disappointment During Guardiola's third season as manager, Manchester City signed Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City for a fee of £60 million. On 5 August 2018, City kicked off the season with a 2–0 victory over FA Cup holders Chelsea in the 2018 FA Community Shield. On 24 February 2019, Guardiola's side played Chelsea in the EFL Cup final held at Wembley. The match ended 0–0 after extra time, and Manchester City won 4–3 on penalties to retain the trophy for the second year in a row. On 9 April, City faced Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-finals, held at Tottenham's new stadium. The game ended in a 0–1 defeat for City. The second leg was held at the Etihad Stadium on 17 April, where Guardiola's side beat Tottenham 4–3, with City's last-minute fifth goal having been controversially disallowed. Due to the aggregate score being a 4–4 draw, Tottenham went through to the semi-finals on away goals. On 12 May, Guardiola secured a second consecutive Premier League title. His side finished on 98 points, one point above Liverpool, after a 4–1 victory at Brighton & Hove Albion in the final match of the season. On 18 May, City beat Watford 6–0 in the final of the FA Cup, becoming the first ever men's team in England to win a domestic treble. Guardiola made two major acquisitions during the summer transfer window of 2019 in defender João Cancelo from Juventus for £27.4m plus Danilo and midfielder Rodri from Atlético Madrid for a fee of £62.8 million, a club record. These signings meant that the value of the City squad had exceeded €1 billion, becoming the first football club in the world to assemble a squad with this value. On 4 August 2019, City began the season with a penalty shoot-out victory against Liverpool in the Community Shield, claiming the trophy for the second straight year. During the match, Guardiola also became the first Premier League manager to receive a yellow card from the referee. On 1 March, Manchester City beat Aston Villa 2–1 in the 2020 EFL Cup final, winning the competition for a third successive season. City finished second in the 2019–20 Premier League after a spring hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After defeating Real Madrid in the 2019–20 Champions League round of 16, Guardiola's side faced Lyon in the single-elimination quarter-finals on 15 August 2020. City lost the match 1–3 and was eliminated at the quarter-final stage for the third season in a row. 2020–present: Premier League four-peat, Champions League win and continental treble The 2020–21 season saw City's defence greatly improve compared to the last campaign, conceding just one goal in twelve matches played. On 19 November 2020, Guardiola signed a new two-year contract with Manchester City until summer 2023. He won his 500th game as manager after City beat Sheffield United 1–0 at home in the Premier League on 31 January 2021; it was the ninth game City had won in January, becoming the team with the most wins in a single month in the top four tiers of English football since the Football League began in 1888. Following a 3–1 victory over Swansea City in the FA Cup on 10 February, Guardiola's side broke the record for the longest winning run in English top-flight football history, with fifteen straight victories for City in all competitions. Guardiola won his third Premier League title on 11 May after Manchester United's home defeat to Leicester City, two weeks after beating Tottenham Hotspur 1–0 in the 2021 EFL Cup final to claim that trophy for the fourth successive time. On 29 May, Manchester City played in the Champions League final for the first time in their history, losing to Chelsea 0–1. Following the match, Guardiola was criticised for his team selection and not starting a defensive midfielder. Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel also admitted that he was surprised not to see midfielder Fernandinho in the City starting line-up. During the summer transfer window of 2021, Manchester City broke the British transfer record by signing Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish for £100m. On 25 September, he surpassed Les McDowall as the manager with the most wins in Manchester City history following their 1–0 away victory over Chelsea in the Premier League. On 22 May 2022, Manchester City won the Premier League with a 3–2 victory over Aston Villa. This was Guardiola's fourth title at the club, placing him second on the list of managers with the most Premier League titles. During the 2022–23 season, Manchester City won their third consecutive Premier League title, their fifth under Guardiola. On 23 November 2022, Guardiola signed a new two-year contract with Manchester City until summer 2025. On 3 June 2023, the club won their second FA Cup under Guardiola after a 2–1 victory over rivals Manchester United in the final to achieve another domestic double. On 10 June 2023, he led the club to their first Champions League title, and his personal third, after a 1–0 win against Inter Milan in the final, which completed their continental treble. On 16 August 2023, Guardiola won a record-equaling fourth UEFA Super Cup title, also becoming the first-ever manager to win the trophy with three different clubs, as the Mancunian side defeated Sevilla 5–4 on penalties following a 1–1 draw. On 22 December, Guardiola guided City to their first FIFA Club World Cup trophy, as they beat Fluminense 4–0 in the final, and became the first English club to win five titles in a calendar year. With this achievement, Guardiola became the first manager in history to win four FIFA Club World Cup titles. Following the match, Guardiola stated that he "had the feeling [...] would close the chapter, we won all the titles, there's nothing else to win. I had a feeling the job was done, it was over". Man City's Champions League defence was ended in the quarter finals following a 4–3 loss on penalties after a 4—4 aggregate draw to Real Madrid who Man City beat 5–1 in the semi finals of the previous Champions League which ended Man City's hope of consecutive continental trebles. On 19 May 2024, Man City beat West Ham 3-1 on the final day of the season to win their fourth straight Premier league title after a season long battle against Arsenal and Liverpool, becoming the first English club to win four top flight league titles in a row. A week later, Man City lost the FA Cup Final to Manchester United 2–1 which ended their chance of a consecutive domestic double. Manager profile Tactics Although much emphasis is placed on retaining possession of the ball and dictating play, with the intent to have the opposing side's defence chase the ball for extended periods of play, Guardiola's teams are recognised for pressing off the ball. Players press and harry the opposition collectively in an attempt to win back possession of the ball. This collective press is only conducted in the starting third of the opposition's pitch where less space exists and defenders and/or the goalkeeper may not be as good at dribbling or passing the ball as a midfielder. As high pressing became prominent, Guardiola sought to counteract it with goalkeepers and defenders comfortable with controlling the ball and both long and short ball distribution, with goalkeepers such as Victor Valdés and Manuel Neuer also acting as sweeper-keepers at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, rushing off their line to prevent counter-attacks, and playing out from the back. At Manchester City, Ederson routinely played accurate long balls up-field when City were pressed high, at times taking the entire opposition out-of-play and creating 1-on-1 situations for City forwards. To avoid getting caught by long-range passing from City's defensive-third, the opposition defence would cautiously drop deep despite the forward line's high-press, hence creating space in the middle of the pitch. Guardiola has stated he tries to constantly evolve his tactics. After learning the style analogous with Total Football under Johan Cruyff, Guardiola was particularly influenced by his time as a player in Mexico under his friend and manager at Dorados, Juan Manuel Lillo. Guardiola also sought help of Marcelo Bielsa to learn from him. His editorials for El Pais during the 2006 World Cup in praise of Luis Aragonés' Spanish side and Ricardo La Volpe's Mexican side reveal the extent of his reverence for possession-based, attacking football, with defenders along with the goal-keeper playing it out from the back, which Guardiola later cited as a major inspiration on multiple occasions. In one of his editorials, he called Zinedine Zidane France's best defender, pointing out how recycling possession in itself is a key defensive tactic, something that Guardiola teams would later become synonymous with. Philipp Lahm, who played for Guardiola at Bayern Munich, pointed out that Guardiola's tactics were majorly "an offensive Sacchi", modelled after the Arrigo Sacchi's Milan team of the late 1980s, emphasising fluid movement, quick recoveries, and keeping possession of the ball, which was in sharp contrast to the strictly-defensive Catenaccio–inspired style employed effectively by José Mourinho and later by Diego Simeone; and that Guardiola has evolved his approach that seemingly was now a mix of both those styles. Tactics employed by Guardiola have been likened to Gegenpressing invented by Ralf Rangnick and used to great effect by Jürgen Klopp. His tactics have influenced approaches of managers such as Maurizio Sarri, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, and Luis Enrique; as well as those of other sports such as rugby. Guardiola admitted that he had to adapt his style to German and English leagues, but his "football education comes from [Catalunya]" which is possession-based, and distinct from Gegenpressing. While several pundits have often linked Guardiola's attacking–minded tactics at Barcelona – centred around quick passing, ball possession, movement, a high defensive line, and heavy pressing – to the tiki-taka style employed by the Spanish national side under Aragonés at Euro 2008, Guardiola himself has refuted this claim, and has even been critical of the system, commenting in 2014: "I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiki-taka. It's so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition's goal. It's not about passing for the sake of it." Guardiola has been praised by pundits for his flexibility as a coach, and has used several formations throughout his career. At Barcelona, he often used a 4–3–3 formation with inverted wingers and attacking full-backs who would overlap and provide width to the team, as well as a 3–4–3 formation on occasion; he also later used these formations at Bayern Munich and Manchester City. In the 3–4–3 formation, defensive midfielders Sergio Busquets at Barcelona and Xabi Alonso at Bayern Münich would occasionally drop back into the back-line to act as an additional defender; this role was similar to the one Guardiola himself played under Cruyff at Barcelona. At Bayern Münich, he also used full-backs Phillip Lahm and Joshua Kimmich in midfield. Guardiola also began to use a false 9 during his time at Barcelona, fielding Lionel Messi in the centre of the team's attacking line, who would drop deep into midfield to give the team a numerical advantage in the middle of the pitch. At Manchester City, after experimenting with several formations, he used a modern version of the 3–2–2–3 formation during the 2022–23 treble–winning season, which was likened to the past WM formation. He deployed centre-back John Stones in a hybrid defensive and creative role in midfield, which Jonathan Wilson of The Guardian likened to both the libero and wing-half roles in 2023. Guardiola also used inverted full-backs who moved inside to occupy central areas of the pitch, while he also played in a more physical and direct style than in previous seasons, utilising Erling Haaland as a traditional striker. Reception Considered by pundits to be one of the greatest managers of all time, Guardiola is often linked with the successes of the Spanish and German national teams in 2010s, both of whom had many first-team players that were coached by him. Jürgen Klopp credits Guardiola with building the toughest teams he has ever faced, stating: "I could say City are the toughest opponent I've ever had but it wasn't much easier when I faced Pep's Bayern [..] We push each other to insane levels." In 2017, Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini was critical of Guardiola's philosophy, however, and expressed his belief that the popularisation of possession-based playing styles, associated with Barcelona under Guardiola, and the increasing focus on developing defenders who are comfortable with the ball at their feet from a young age in Italy, had in fact had a negative impact on their overall defensive quality. He commented: "Guardiolismo [a term he coined for "the Guardiola way"] has ruined a generation of Italian defenders a bit – now everyone is looking to push up, defenders know how to set the tone of play and they can spread the ball, but they don't know how to mark." Several of Guardiola's former players, teammates, and coaching staff members, such as Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Luis Enrique, Erik ten Hag, and Mikel Arteta, have pursued coaching careers, and have cited Guardiola as an inspiration. Personal life Guardiola was born to Dolors and Valentí. He has two older sisters and a younger brother, Pere Guardiola, a football agent. He is an atheist. Guardiola met his wife Cristina Serra when he was 18. They married on 29 May 2014. They have three children named Maria, Màrius and Valentina. Following his tenure as Barcelona's manager, he stated that he would move to the United States to live in Manhattan, New York, for a year, until he had decided on his future. To prepare for his position as the manager of Bayern Munich, Guardiola studied German for four to five hours each day. Guardiola supports the political independence of Catalonia. In 2015, he confirmed that he would participate in the pro-independence coalition, Junts pel Sí, in that year's regional parliamentary election. On 24 May 2023, Guardiola made a cameo appearance in Ted Lasso, in which Ted Lasso's (played by Jason Sudeikis) team, AFC Richmond, play against Manchester City and win. Guardiola gives Lasso a handshake following City's defeat and gives Lasso a word of advice, to which Lasso responds positively. Guardiola reportedly is a fan of the show and enjoys watching it with his wife and daughter. Guardiola was one of the 13 sports personalities named in the Pandora Papers published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). He had an account open in the principality of Andorra until 2012, exploiting the tax amnesty that Mariano Rajoy's conservative government had enacted in Spain to regularise his fiscal situation. Until that point, he had not declared the funds held in that account to the Spanish Tax Agency. Career statistics Club International Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Guardiola goal Managerial As of match played 5 October 2024 Honours Player Barcelona B Segunda División B: 1990–91 Barcelona La Liga: 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1997–98, 1998–99 Copa del Rey: 1996–97, 1997–98 Supercopa de España: 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996 European Cup: 1991–92 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1996–97 European Super Cup: 1992 Spain U23 Olympic gold medal: 1992 Individual Bravo Award: 1992 Olympics – Spain Best Player: 1992 UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 2000 Manager Barcelona B Tercera División: 2007–08 Barcelona La Liga: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 Copa del Rey: 2008–09, 2011–12 Supercopa de España: 2009, 2010, 2011 UEFA Champions League: 2008–09, 2010–11 UEFA Super Cup: 2009, 2011 FIFA Club World Cup: 2009, 2011 Bayern Munich Bundesliga: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16 DFB-Pokal: 2013–14, 2015–16 UEFA Super Cup: 2013 FIFA Club World Cup: 2013 Manchester City Premier League: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24 FA Cup: 2018–19, 2022–23 EFL Cup: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21 FA Community Shield: 2018, 2019, 2024 UEFA Champions League: 2022–23 UEFA Super Cup: 2023 FIFA Club World Cup: 2023 Individual Don Balón Award: 2009, 2010 Miguel Muñoz Trophy: 2008–09, 2009–10 Onze d'Or Coach of the Year: 2009, 2011, 2012 World Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year: 2009, 2011 IFFHS World's Best Club Coach: 2009, 2011, 2023 UEFA Team of the Year Best Coach: 2008–09, 2010–11 La Liga Coach of the Year: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 FIFA World Coach of the Year: 2011 Globe Soccer Awards Coach Career Award: 2013 Globe Soccer Awards Coach of the Century: 2020 Premier League Manager of the Month: February 2017, September 2017, October 2017, November 2017, December 2017, February 2019, April 2019, January 2021, February 2021, November 2021, December 2021 Premier League Manager of the Season: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2020–21, 2022–23, 2023–24 LMA Manager of the Year: 2017–18, 2020–21, 2022–23 LMA Premier League Manager of the Year: 2017–18, 2020–21, 2022–23, 2023–24 League Managers Association (LMA) Hall of Fame UEFA Men's Coach of the Year: 2022–23 The Best FIFA Football Coach: 2022-23 Decorations Gold Medal Royal Order of Sports Merit: 2010 Catalan of the Year Award: 2009 See also List of La Liga winning managers List of Bundesliga winning managers List of English football championship-winning managers List of FA Cup winning managers List of European Cup and UEFA Champions League winning managers List of UEFA Super Cup winning managers Notes References Citations Bibliography External links Pep Guardiola on Twitter Josep Guardiola manager profile at BDFutbol Josep Guardiola – UEFA coaching record (archived) Josep Guardiola – UEFA competition record (archived) Pep Guardiola – FIFA competition record (archived) Pep Guardiola at National-Football-Teams.com Pep Guardiola at Olympedia Josep Guardiola Sala at Olympics.com

Manchester_City_F.C.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_City_F.C.

Manchester City Football Club, commonly referred to as Manchester City, Man City or simply City, is a professional football club based in Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894. The club's home ground is the City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester, to which they moved in 2003, having played at Maine Road since 1923. Manchester City adopted their sky blue home shirts in 1894, the first season with the current name. Over the course of its history, the club has won 10 league titles, seven FA Cups, eight League Cups, seven FA Community Shields, one UEFA Champions League, one European Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Super Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup. Manchester City joined the Football League in 1892, and won their first major honour, the FA Cup, in 1904. The club had its first major period of success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, winning the league title, FA Cup, League Cup, and European Cup Winners Cup under the management of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. After losing the 1981 FA Cup final, Manchester City went through a period of decline, culminating in relegation to the third tier of English football for the only time in their history in 1998. They since regained promotion to the top tier in 2001–02 and have remained a fixture in the Premier League since 2002–03. Manchester City received considerable financial investment both in playing staff and facilities following their takeover by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan through the Abu Dhabi United Group in August 2008. This started a new era of unprecedented success, with the club winning the FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League in 2012, both their first since the 1960s, followed by another league title in 2014. Under the management of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City won the Premier League in 2018, becoming the only team in the competition history to attain 100 points in a single season. In 2018–19, they won four trophies, completing an unprecedented sweep of all domestic titles in England and becoming the first English men's team to win the domestic treble. This was followed by four consecutive Premier League titles in 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23 and 2023–24, as well as the club's first-ever Champions League final in 2021, which they lost to Chelsea. The 2022–23 season saw Manchester City win their maiden European Cup and complete the continental treble in the process, becoming the second English club to do so. The club is ranked first in the UEFA coefficient standings as of 2023. Manchester City were listed in the Deloitte Football Money League at the end of the 2022–23 season, making them the football club with the second highest revenue in the world, approximated at €825 million. In 2022, Forbes estimated the club was the sixth-most valuable in the world, worth $4.250 billion. Manchester City are owned by City Football Group Limited, a holding company valued at £3.73 ($4.8) billion in November 2019 and majority-owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group. History Early years and first trophies City gained their first honours by winning the Second Division in 1899; with it came promotion to the highest level in English football, the First Division. They went on to claim their first major honour on 23 April 1904, beating Bolton Wanderers 1–0 at Crystal Palace to win the FA Cup; the Blues narrowly missed out on a League and Cup double that season after finishing runners-up in the league campaign, but they still became the first club in Manchester to win a major honour.: 32  In the seasons following the FA Cup triumph, the club was dogged by allegations of financial irregularities, culminating in the suspension of seventeen players in 1906, including captain Billy Meredith, who subsequently moved across town to Manchester United.: 59–65  A fire at Hyde Road destroyed the main stand in 1920, and in 1923 the club moved to their new purpose-built stadium at Maine Road in Moss Side. In the 1930s, Manchester City reached two consecutive FA Cup finals, losing to Everton in 1933, before claiming the Cup by beating Portsmouth in 1934.: 31–33  During the 1934 run, the club broke the record for the highest home attendance of any club in English football history, as 84,569 fans packed Maine Road for a sixth-round FA Cup tie against Stoke City – a record which stood until 2016. The club won the First Division title for the first time in 1937, but were relegated the following season, despite scoring more goals than any other team in the division. Twenty years later, a City team inspired by a tactical system known as the Revie Plan reached consecutive FA Cup finals again, in 1955 and 1956; just as in the 1930s, they lost the first one, to Newcastle United, and won the second. The 1956 final, in which the Blues defeated Birmingham City 3–1, saw City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann continuing to play on after unknowingly breaking his neck. First golden era and subsequent decline After being relegated to the Second Division in 1963, the future looked bleak with a record low home attendance of 8,015 against Swindon Town in January 1965.: 57  In the summer of 1965, the management team of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison was appointed. In the first season under Mercer, Manchester City won the Second Division title and made important signings in Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell.: 27–36  The 1965-66 season also saw City field a Black player for the first time when Stan Horne made his debut on 22 September 1965 in an away game against Leicester City. Two seasons later, in 1967–68, City claimed the league championship for the second time, beating their close neighbours Manchester United to the title on the final day of the season with a 4–3 victory at Newcastle United.: 37–56  Further trophies followed: City won the FA Cup in 1969 and a year later triumphed in the European Cup Winners' Cup, defeating Górnik Zabrze 2–1 in the 1970 final. This was the club's only European honour until their triumph in the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League. The Blues also won the League Cup that year, becoming the second English team to win a European trophy and a domestic trophy in the same season. The club continued to challenge for honours throughout the 1970s, finishing one point behind the league champions on two occasions and reaching the final of the 1974 League Cup.: 410–420  One of the matches from this period that is most fondly remembered by supporters of Manchester City is the final match of the 1973–74 season against arch-rivals Manchester United, who needed to win to have any hope of avoiding relegation. Former United player Denis Law scored with a backheel to give City a 1–0 win at Old Trafford and confirm the relegation of their rivals.: 70  The final trophy of the club's most successful period of the 20th century was won in 1976, when Newcastle United were beaten 2–1 in the League Cup final. A long period of decline followed the success of the 1960s and 1970s. Malcolm Allison rejoined the club to become manager for the second time in 1979, but squandered large sums of money on several unsuccessful signings, such as Steve Daley. A succession of managers then followed – seven in the 1980s alone. Under John Bond, City reached the 1981 FA Cup final but lost in a replay to Tottenham Hotspur. The club were twice relegated from the top flight in the 1980s (in 1983 and 1987), but returned to the top flight again in 1989 and finished fifth in 1991 and 1992 under the management of Peter Reid.: 68  However, this was only a temporary respite, and following Reid's departure Manchester City's fortunes continued to fade. City were co-founders of the Premier League upon its creation in 1992, but after finishing ninth in its first season they endured three years of struggle before being relegated in 1996. After two seasons in the First Division, City fell to the lowest point in their history, becoming the second ever European trophy winners to be relegated to their country's third-tier league after 1. FC Magdeburg of Germany. Recovery and two takeovers After relegation, the club underwent off-the-field upheaval, with new chairman David Bernstein introducing greater fiscal discipline. Under manager Joe Royle, City were promoted at the first attempt, achieved in dramatic fashion in the Second Division play-off final against Gillingham. A second successive promotion saw City return to the top division, but this proved to have been a step too far for the recovering club, and in 2001 City were relegated once more. Kevin Keegan replaced Royle as manager in the close season, and achieved an immediate return to the top division as the club won the 2001–02 First Division championship, breaking club records for the number of points gained and goals scored in a single season in the process.: 265  The 2002–03 season was the last at Maine Road and included a 3–1 derby victory over rivals Manchester United, ending a 13-year run without a derby win. Additionally, City qualified for European competition for the first time in 25 years via UEFA fair play ranking. In the close 2003–04 season, the club moved to the new City of Manchester Stadium. The first four seasons at the stadium all resulted in mid-table finishes. Former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson became the club's first foreign manager when appointed in 2007. After a bright start, performances faded in the second half of the season, and Eriksson was sacked on 2 June 2008; he was replaced by Mark Hughes two days later. By 2008, Manchester City were in a financially precarious position. Thaksin Shinawatra had taken control of the club the year before, but his political travails saw his assets frozen. Then, in August 2008, City were purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group. The takeover was immediately followed by a flurry of bids for high-profile players; the club broke the British transfer record by signing Brazilian international Robinho from Real Madrid for £32.5 million. There was not a huge improvement in performance compared to the previous season despite the influx of money however, with the team finishing tenth, although they did well to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. During the summer of 2009, the club took transfer spending to an unprecedented level, with an outlay of over £100 million on players Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez, and Joleon Lescott. In December 2009, Mark Hughes – who had been hired shortly before the change in ownership but was originally retained by the new board – was replaced as manager by Roberto Mancini. City finished the season in fifth position in the Premier League, narrowly missing out on a place in the Champions League but qualifying for the UEFA Europa League. The second golden era and continued success under Pep Guardiola Continued investment in players followed in successive seasons, and results began to match the upturn in player quality. City reached the FA Cup final in 2011, their first major final in over 30 years, after defeating derby rivals Manchester United in the semi-finals, the first time they had knocked their rival out of a cup competition since 1975. The Blues defeated Stoke City 1–0 in the final, securing their fifth FA Cup and the club's first major trophy since winning the 1976 League Cup. On the last day of the 2010–11 season, City beat out Arsenal for the third place, thereby securing qualification directly into the Champions League group stage. Strong performances continued to follow in the 2011–12 season, including a 5–1 victory over Tottenham at White Hart Lane and a record-equalling 6–1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford, but a poor run of form in the second half of the season left City in second place, eight points behind United with only six games left to play. At this point, United suffered their own loss of form, dropping eight points in the space of four games, while City began a run of successive wins which saw both teams level on points with two games to go. Despite the Blues only needing a home win against Queens Park Rangers, a team in the relegation zone, they fell 1–2 behind by the end of normal time. However, two goals in injury time – the second by Sergio Agüero in the fourth added minute – settled the title in City's favour, making them the first team to win the Premier League on goal difference alone. The following season, City were unable to replicate the previous year's success. After finishing second in the league, eleven points behind Manchester United, and losing the FA Cup final 0–1 to relegated Wigan Athletic, Mancini was sacked. He was replaced by Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini. In Pellegrini's first year in charge, City won the League Cup and regained the Premier League title on the last matchday of the season. The team's league form then slowly declined over the next couple of years, as the Blues finished second in 2014–15 and then dropped to fourth in 2015–16, although the 2015–16 season would see City win another League Cup title and reach the Champions League semi-finals for the first time. Pep Guardiola, former head coach of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, was confirmed to become Manchester City's new manager on 1 February 2016, with the announcement having been made several months before Manuel Pellegrini left his position. Guardiola's first season in Manchester would end trophyless, with the Blues placing third in the league standings, but the following season proved far more successful, as City won the Premier League title with the highest points total in history and broke numerous other club and English league records along the way. This would prove to be the start of a period of unprecedented success for Manchester City under Guardiola. Between the 2017–18 and 2023–24 Premier League seasons, City won six out of possible seven league titles, only finishing second behind Liverpool in the 2019–20 season. Guardiola also guided the Blues to silverware in domestic cup competitions, highlighted by four consecutive League Cup triumphs in 2018–2021. During the 2018–19 season, City completed an unprecedented domestic treble of English men's titles. Apart from winning all three of the major English football tournaments, they also won the Community Shield, the first time any team has ever held all four of England's primary football trophies at the same time. On the continental stage, the club achieved breakthrough in 2020–21, reaching their first-ever Champions League final. In an all-English affair, City lost 0–1 to Chelsea at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto. The 2022–23 season turned out to be the greatest in the club's history, as Manchester City won their third consecutive Premier League title, the FA Cup final against rivals Manchester United, and their maiden Champions League title at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul against Inter Milan, thereby assembling a rare feat – the continental treble. The road to the Champions League victory included wins over European giants Bayern Munich, who were defeated 4–1 on aggregate, and Real Madrid, who suffered a 1–5 aggregate loss at the hands of City. The following season saw less success for Manchester City, yet they became the first English men's club to win four consecutive league titles, and prior to that the 2023 UEFA Super Cup and the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup. Manchester City's era of sustained competitive excellence coincided with charges of breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. In 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that sanctions placed on the club by UEFA were not justified, overturning City's two-year European ban. In 2023, the Premier League announced its own investigation of the allegations levied against Manchester City, charging the club with 115 breaches of its FFP rules up to the 2017–18 season. In 2024, Manchester City initiated legal action against the Premier League. The club claims that the league's Associated Party Transaction rules are unlawful and are seeking damages from the league. League history Club badge and colours Manchester City's home colours are sky blue and white. Traditional away kit colours have been either maroon or (from the 1960s) red and black; however, in recent years several colours have been used. The origins of the club's home colours are unclear, but there is evidence that the club has worn blue since 1892 or earlier. A booklet entitled Famous Football Clubs – Manchester City published in the 1940s indicates that West Gorton (St. Marks) originally played in scarlet and black, and reports dating from 1884 describe the team wearing black jerseys bearing a white cross, showing the club's origins as a church side.: 14–15  The infrequent yet recurrent use of red and black away colours comes from former assistant manager Malcolm Allison's belief that adopting the colours of AC Milan would inspire City to glory. Allison's theory seemingly took effect, with City winning the 1969 FA Cup final, 1970 League Cup final, and 1970 Cup Winners' Cup final in red and black stripes as opposed to the club's home kit of sky blue. City had previously worn three other badges on their shirts, prior to their current badge being implemented in 2016. The first, introduced in 1970, was based on designs which had been used on official club documentation since the mid-1960s. It consisted of a circular badge which used the same shield as the present badge (including a ship, based on the City of Manchester coat of arms), inside a circle bearing the name of the club. In 1972, this was replaced by a variation which replaced the lower half of the shield with the red rose of Lancashire. In 1976, a heraldic badge was granted by the College of Arms to the English Football League for use by City. The badge consisted of the familiar ship above a red rose but on a circular device instead of a shield (blazoned as "A roundel per fess azure and argent in chief a three masted ship sails set pennons flying or in base a rose gules barbed and seeded proper"). On occasions when Manchester City played in a major cup final, the club wore shirts bearing the City of Manchester coat of arms, as a symbol of pride in representing the city at a major event. This practice originated from a time when the players' shirts did not normally bear a badge of any kind.: 21  The club has since abandoned the practice; for the 2011 FA Cup final, its first in the 21st century, City used the usual badge with a special legend, but the Manchester coat of arms was included as a small monochrome logo in the numbers on the back of players' shirts. A new club badge was adopted in 1997, as a result of the previous badge being ineligible for registration as a trademark. This badge was based on the arms of the city of Manchester, and consisted of a shield in front of a golden eagle. The eagle is an old heraldic symbol of the city of Manchester; a golden eagle was added to the city's badge in 1958 (but had since been removed), representing the growing aviation industry. The shield featured a ship on its upper half representing the Manchester Ship Canal, and three diagonal stripes in the lower half symbolised the city's three rivers – the Irwell, the Irk and the Medlock. The bottom of the badge bore the motto "Superbia in Proelio", which translates as "Pride in Battle" in Latin. Above the eagle and shield were the three stars, added for decorative purposes. On 15 October 2015, following years of criticism from the fans over the design of the 1997 badge, the club announced they intended to carry out a fan consultation on whether to discontinue the current badge and institute a new design. After the consultation, the club announced in late November 2015 the badge would be replaced in due course by a new version which would be designed in the style of the older, circular variants. A design purporting to be the new badge was unintentionally leaked two days early prior to the official unveiling on 26 December 2015 by the IPO when the design was trademarked on 22 December. The new badge was officially unveiled at Manchester City's home match against Sunderland on 26 December. Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors Kit deals Players First-team squad As of 27 August 2024 Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. EDS and Academy The following players have previously made appearances or have appeared on the substitutes bench for the first team. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Out on loan Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Retired numbers Since 2003, Manchester City have not issued the squad number 23. It was retired in memory of Marc-Vivien Foé, who was on loan to the club from Lyon at the time of his death on the field of play while playing for Cameroon in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Club captains This is a list of City's official club captains, who are currently appointed via a vote of players and staff. Other players (vice-captains) have led the team on the pitch when the club captain is not playing or not available. Some players have been made captain on a one-off basis to celebrate or commemorate an event, e.g. Oleksandr Zinchenko captained the team in their 2021–22 FA Cup fifth round tie at Peterborough United in support of his country during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Player of the Year Each season since the end of the 1966–67 season, the members of the Manchester City Official Supporters Club have voted by ballot to choose the player on the team they feel is the most worthy of recognition for his performances during that season. The following table lists the recipients of this award since 2000. Sources: Halls of Fame Manchester City Hall of Fame The following former Manchester City players and managers have been inducted into the Manchester City F.C. Hall of Fame, and are listed according to the year of their induction: National Football Museum Hall of Fame The following former Manchester City players and managers have been inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame (a.k.a. the National Football Museum Hall of Fame), and are listed according to the year of their induction within the various categories: Premier League Hall of Fame The following former Manchester City players have been inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame. Inaugurated in 2020, but delayed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hall of Fame is intended to recognise and honour players that have achieved great success and made a significant contribution to the league since its founding in 1992. Scottish Football Museum Hall of Fame The following former Manchester City players and managers have been inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame (a.k.a. the Scottish Football Museum Hall of Fame), and are listed according to the year of their induction within the various categories: Welsh Sports Hall of Fame The following former Manchester City players have been inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame, and are listed according to the year of their induction: Non-playing staff Executive Coaching Source: Notable managers Manchester City managers to have won major honours. Table correct as of 5 October 2024 Supporters Since moving to the City of Manchester Stadium, the club's average attendances have been in the top six in England, usually in excess of 40,000. Even in the late 1990s, when City were relegated twice in three seasons and playing in the third tier of English football (then the Second Division, now the EFL League One), home attendances were in the region of 30,000, compared to an average of fewer than 8,000 for the division. Research carried out by Manchester City in 2005 estimated a fanbase of 886,000 in the United Kingdom and a total in excess of 2 million worldwide, although since the purchase of the club by Sheikh Mansour, and City's recent achievements, that figure has since ballooned to many times that size. Manchester City's officially recognised supporters club is the Manchester City F.C. Supporters Club (1949), formed by a merger of two existing organisations in 2010: the Official Supporters Club (OSC) and the Centenary Supporters Association (CSA). City fans' song of choice is a rendition of "Blue Moon", which despite its melancholic theme is belted out with gusto as though it were a heroic anthem. City supporters tend to believe that unpredictability is an inherent trait of their team, and label unexpected results "typical City". Events that fans regard as "typical City" include the club being the only reigning English champions ever to be relegated (in 1938), the only team to score and concede over 100 goals in the same season (1957–58), or the more recent example where Manchester City were the only team to beat Chelsea in the latter's record-breaking 2004–05 Premier League season, yet in the same season City were knocked out of the FA Cup by Oldham Athletic, a team two divisions lower. In the late 1980s, City fans started a craze of bringing inflatable objects to matches, primarily oversized bananas. One disputed explanation for the phenomenon is that in a match against West Bromwich Albion, chants from fans calling for the introduction of Imre Varadi as a substitute mutated into "Imre Banana". Terraces packed with inflatable-waving supporters became a frequent sight in the 1988–89 season, as the craze spread to other clubs (inflatable fish were seen at Grimsby Town), with the craze reaching its peak at City's match at Stoke City on 26 December 1988, a game declared by fanzines as a fancy dress party. In 2010, Manchester City supporters adopted an exuberant dance, dubbed The Poznań, from fans of Polish club Lech Poznań that they played in the Europa League. In 2022, Manchester City proposed the release of the Connected Scarf, that would contain a sensor tracking physiological and emotional data of the wearer, for supporters in 2023. Rivalries Manchester City's biggest rivalry is with neighbours Manchester United, against whom they contest the Manchester derby. Before the Second World War, when travel to away games was rare, many Mancunian football fans regularly watched both teams even if considering themselves "supporters" of only one. This practice continued into the early 1960s but as travel became easier, and the cost of entry to matches rose, watching both teams became unusual and the rivalry intensified. A common stereotype is that City fans come from Manchester proper, while United fans come from elsewhere. A 2002 report by a researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University found that while it was true that a higher proportion of City season ticket holders came from Manchester postcode areas (40% compared to United's 29%), there were more United season ticket holders, the lower percentage being due to United's higher overall number of season ticket holders (27,667 compared to City's 16,481). The report noted that since the compiling of data in 2001, the number of both City and United season ticket holders had risen; expansion of United's ground and City's move to the City of Manchester Stadium have caused season ticket sales to increase further. Over the last few years, Manchester City has also developed a notable rivalry with Liverpool, currently considered one of the biggest in association football. Though the two clubs had been involved in a title race in the 1976–77 season, Liverpool and City's modern rivalry began in the 2010s, with the Blues beating Liverpool to the 2013–14 title by just two points on the final day of the season. In the final of the 2015–16 League Cup, City defeated Liverpool on penalties after a 1–1 draw. The two clubs met in European competition for the first time in the 2017–18 Champions League quarter-finals, where Liverpool won 5–1 on aggregate, ultimately reaching the final and then winning the competition a year later. In the 2018–19 season, City again won the title on the final day, with the Blues' 98 points and Liverpool's 97 being the third- and fourth-highest Premier League points totals ever. The following season, Liverpool clinched the title, recording 99 points (the second-highest Premier League total ever after Manchester City's 100 in 2017–18) to finish 18 points above runners-up City. The Blues then regained the title in 2020–21 and outgunned Liverpool in another closely-fought title race in 2021–22, to finish with 93 points to Liverpool's 92. The success of the two teams in the 2010s and 2020s has led to the development of a rivalry between Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, the managers of Liverpool and Manchester City, with the two previously having been the respective managers of Der Klassiker rivals Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. At the end of the 2018–19 season, Guardiola described his relationship with Klopp as a "beautiful rivalry" and called Klopp's Liverpool team "the strongest opponents I have faced in my career as a manager". In September 2019, Klopp hailed Guardiola for being his 'greatest rival ever', after both were nominated for the FIFA Men's Coach of the Year award in 2019, which Klopp ultimately won. In a 2019 survey, City fans answered that Liverpool, and not Manchester United, are the club's biggest rivals. Manchester City also have long established local rivalries with Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic, and Stockport County, and more recent competitive Premier League rivalries with Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Arsenal. Ownership and finances The holding company of Manchester City F.C., Manchester City Limited, is a private limited company, with approximately 54 million shares in issue. The club has been in private hands since 2007, when the major shareholders agreed to sell their holdings to UK Sports Investments Limited (UKSIL), a company controlled by former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. UKSIL then made a formal offer to buy the shares held by several thousands of small shareholders. Prior to the Thaksin takeover, the club was listed on the specialist independent equity market PLUS (formerly OFEX), where it had been listed since 1995. On 6 July 2007, having acquired 75% of the shares, Thaksin de-listed the club and re-registered it as a private company. By August, UKSIL had acquired over 90% of the shares and exercised its rights under the Companies Act to "squeeze out" the remaining shareholders, and acquire the entire shareholding. Thaksin Shinawatra became chairman of the club and two of Thaksin's children, Pintongta and Oak Chinnawat became directors. Former chairman John Wardle stayed on the board for a year, but resigned in July 2008 following Nike executive Garry Cook's appointment as executive chairman in May. The club made a pre-tax loss of £11m in the fiscal year ending 31 May 2007, the final year for which the club published accounts as a public company. Thaksin's purchase prompted a period of transfer spending at the club, in total around £30 million, whereas over the several previous seasons Manchester City's net spending had been among the lowest in the Premier League. A year later, this investment was dwarfed by an influx of money derived from the club's takeover. On 1 September 2008, Abu Dhabi-based Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited completed the takeover of Manchester City. The deal, worth a reported £200 million, was announced on the morning of 1 September. It sparked various transfer "deadline-day" rumours and bids such as the club's attempt to gazump Manchester United's protracted bid to sign Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham Hotspur for a fee in excess of £30 million. Minutes before the transfer window closed, the club signed Robinho from Real Madrid for a British record transfer fee of £32.5 million. The wealth of the new owners meant that, in the summer of 2009, City were able to finance the purchase of experienced international players prior to the new season, spending more than any other club in the Premier League. City Football Group Created in the 2013–14 season to manage the global footballing interests of the Abu Dhabi United Group, City Football Group (CFG) is an umbrella corporation owning stakes in a network of global clubs for the purposes of resource sharing, academy networking and marketing. CFG ownership Through City Football Group, Manchester City owns stakes in a number of clubs: Melbourne City FC (2014–present) On 23 January 2014, it was announced that Manchester City had partnered with the Australian rugby league franchise Melbourne Storm, purchasing a majority stake in A-League team Melbourne City FC. On 5 August 2015, CFG bought out the Storm and acquired full ownership of the team. Yokohama F. Marinos (2014–present) On 20 May 2014, it was announced that Manchester City had partnered with the Japanese Automotive company Nissan to become a minority shareholder in Yokohama based J-League side, Yokohama F. Marinos. New York City FC (2015–present) On 21 May 2013, it was announced that Manchester City had partnered with the American baseball franchise the New York Yankees to introduce the 20th Major League Soccer expansion team, New York City FC as its majority shareholder. The club began play in the 2015 Major League Soccer season. Montevideo City Torque (2017–present) On 5 April 2017, CFG confirmed the purchase of Uruguayan second division team Montevideo City Torque. Girona FC (2017–present) On 23 August 2017, it was announced that CFG had acquired 44.3% of Segunda División (second tier) side Girona FC. Another 44.3% was held by the Girona Football Group, led by Pere Guardiola, brother of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. Shenzhen Peng City (2019–present) On 20 February 2019, it was announced that CFG as well as UBTECH and China Sports Capital had acquired Sichuan Jiuniu F.C. Mumbai City FC (2019–present) CFG was announced as majority stakeholder of Mumbai City FC on Thursday 28 November 2019 after acquiring 65% of the club. Mumbai City is the professional football club based in Mumbai, competing in the Indian Super League. Lommel S.K. (2020–present) CFG was announced as a majority stakeholder of Lommel S.K. on Monday 11 May 2020, acquiring the majority (unspecified) of the club's shares. Lommel S.K. is a professional football club based in Lommel, competing in the Belgian First Division B (second tier). Troyes AC (2020–present) On 3 September 2020, CFG announced that they had purchased the shares of Daniel Masoni, the former owner of Ligue 2 (second tier) club Troyes AC, making them the majority shareholder of the French club. Palermo FC (2022–present) On 4 July 2022, Italian Serie B (second tier) club Palermo announced that CFG had acquired an 80% majority stake in their ownership. Bahia (2023–present) On 3 December 2022, CFG acquired 90% of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Bahia. The deal was finalised on 4 May 2023. Partner clubs Club Bolívar (2021–present) On 12 January 2021, CFG announced Bolivian club Club Bolívar as its first partner club. Vannes OC (2021–present) On 18 February 2021, CFG announced that French Championnat National 2 (tier 4) club Vannes OC would be its second partner club. Stadium The City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester, known as the Etihad Stadium since 2011 for sponsorship reasons, is on a 200-year lease from Manchester City Council to Manchester City. It has been the club's home since the end of the 2002–03 season, when City moved from Maine Road. Before moving to the stadium, the club spent in excess of £30 million to convert it to football use: the pitch was lowered, adding another tier of seating around it, and a new North Stand was constructed. The inaugural match at the new stadium was a 2–1 win over Barcelona in a friendly match. A 7,000-seat third tier on the South Stand was completed in time for the start of the 2015–16 football season, increasing the stadium's capacity to 55,097. A North Stand third tier is in development, potentially increasing capacity to around 61,000. After playing home matches at five stadiums between 1880 and 1887, the club settled at Hyde Road Football Stadium, its home for 36 years. A fire destroyed the Main Stand in 1920, and the club moved to the 84,000 capacity Maine Road three years later. Maine Road, nicknamed the "Wembley of the North" by its designers, hosted the largest-ever crowd at an English club ground when 84,569 attended an FA Cup tie against Stoke City on 3 March 1934. Though Maine Road was redeveloped several times over its 80-year lifespan, by 1995 its capacity was restricted to 32,000, prompting the search for a new ground which culminated in the move to the City of Manchester Stadium in 2003; it was renamed the Etihad Stadium in 2011. Honours Based on trophy count, Manchester City are one of the most successful teams in England. Their thirty-six major domestic, european and worldwide honours rank them fourth on the list of most decorated sides in England, ahead of Chelsea with 34. The club's first major trophy was the 1904 FA Cup, though they had previously won three regional Manchester Cups before that point. Their first top division league title came in the 1936–37 season, with the first Charity Shield won in the following August. City's first League Cup and European trophy both came at the end of the 1969–70 season, the two trophies also constituting the team's first double of any kind. In the 2018–19 season, City became the first team to claim all of the major English trophies available in a single season, winning not just the Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup, but also the Community Shield. The 1970 Cup Winners' Cup victory remained City's only European trophy until their triumph in the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League. They have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League four times overall, losing in 2016, then winning en route to their first-ever final in 2021, losing in 2022, and winning en route to their maiden European Cup title in 2023. They are only the second English club to complete a Continental Treble, in the 2022–23 season; and in 2023–24 became the first English club to win four consecutive league titles. Manchester City used to hold the record for most second division titles, having won the league on seven occasions. Man City's first victory was in 1898–99, and the most recent in 2001–02. The record was broken by Leicester City after they clinched their eighth title in 2023–24. Doubles and Trebles Doubles League and FA Cup (2): 2018–19, 2022–23 League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1969–70 Domestic treble League, FA Cup, and League Cup (1): 2018–19 Continental treble League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League (1): 2022–23 Club records Record league victory – 11–3 vs Lincoln City (23 March 1895, most goals scored); 10–0 vs Darwen (18 February 1899, widest margin of victory): 509  Record FA Cup victory – 12–0 vs Liverpool Stanley (4 October 1890): 511  Record European victory – 7–0 vs Schalke 04, UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg (12 March 2019); 7–0 vs RB Leipzig UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg (14 March 2023) Record league defeat – 0–8 vs Burton Wanderers (26 December 1894); 0–8 vs Wolverhampton Wanderers (23 December 1933); 1–9 vs Everton (3 September 1906); 2–10 vs Small Heath (17 March 1893): 509  Record FA Cup defeat – 0–6 vs Preston North End (30 January 1897); 2–8 vs Bradford Park Avenue (30 January 1946): 511  Record European defeat – 0–4 vs Barcelona, UEFA Champions League group stage (19 October 2016) Highest home attendance – 84,569 vs Stoke City, FA Cup sixth round (3 March 1934): 524  Most league appearances – 561 + 3 sub, Alan Oakes, 1958–76: 155  Most European appearances – 59 + 16 sub, Fernandinho, 2013–22 Most appearances overall – 676 + 4 sub, Alan Oakes, 1958–76: 155  Most goals scored overall – 260, Sergio Agüero, 2011–21 Most goals scored in a season – 52, Erling Haaland, 2022–23: 112  Record transfer fee paid – £100 million to Aston Villa for Jack Grealish, August 2021 Record transfer fee received – £82 million, with £64 million upfront and the rest in add-ons, from Atletico Madrid for Julián Álvarez, August 2024. See also List of Manchester City F.C. managers List of Manchester City F.C. players List of Manchester City F.C. records and statistics List of Manchester City F.C. seasons Manchester City F.C. in international football Manchester City W.F.C. City Football Group References Notes Citations External links Official website Independent websites Manchester City F.C. on BBC Sport: Club news – Recent results and fixtures Manchester City at Sky Sports Manchester City FC at Premier League Manchester City FC at UEFA

City_Football_Group

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Football_Group

City Football Group Limited (CFG) is a British-based holding company that administers association football clubs. The group is owned by three organisations, of which 81% is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi United Group, 18% by the American firm Silver Lake, and 1% by Chinese firms China Media Capital and CITIC Capital. The Abu Dhabi United Group is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates. The group derives its name from Manchester City, its flagship football club, and acts as the club's parent company. CFG also owns stakes in clubs in the United States, Australia, India, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, China, Belgium, France, Italy and Turkey. History Founded in 2013, City Football Group is the realisation of a business vision by former Barcelona Economy Vice President Ferran Soriano. Soriano first conceived of the ideal of a global football entity while at the Catalan club, beginning with the creation of Barca-branded overseas academies. Soriano contacted Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber about creating a Barcelona-branded MLS franchise, and the pair progressed as far as looking into several locations to place the team, but ultimately these plans were curtailed when Soriano and seven other members of Barcelona's board chose to resign in protest of then-President Joan Laporta's leadership. After a four-year break from football management, Soriano was hired in late 2012 to replace Garry Cook as CEO of Manchester City following the latter's resignation. Soriano revived his ambitions of creating a global football business entity, beginning by resuming dialogues with Garber. Their discussions resulted in the announcement of New York City as MLS' 20th expansion side less than one year later in May 2013. In the process of managing the creation of a second football team City Football Group was created, designed to be the holding company to which both Manchester City and NYCFC belonged. CFG expanded at the start of 2014 when it partnered with Rugby league side Melbourne Storm to acquire a controlling stake in A-League franchise Melbourne Heart for 12 million Australian dollars. The club would subsequently be rebranded to Melbourne City, and their badge changed as part of CFG's early attempts to synergise their investments with Manchester City as a brand, and the club's colours would slowly be changed to sky blue with their red-and-white stripes retained as away colours. In the weeks following their purchase of Melbourne City, CFG indicated their intentions of investing in women's football by rebranding Manchester City's female affiliate as Manchester City Women's Football Club, and successfully lobbied for the team to be added to the top tier of the FA Women's Super League, promising to invest in women's football on a scale never before seen in England. Later the following year, CFG would grow again with the purchase of a 20% in Japanese side Yokohama F Marinos, the traditional company team of group sponsor Nissan. In April 2017, after a near three-year pause in its expansion, City Football Group announced the Uruguayan second-tier side Club Atletico Torque, who would later be renamed Montevideo City Torque. Several months later, Torque would be followed in by Spanish second division club Girona, a club with ownership links to incumbent Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. 2019 saw the beginning of an increase in CFG's activity. The purchase of Chinese third division club Shenzhen Peng City (known as Sichuan Jiuniu F.C. at that time) was followed towards the end of the year by a second venture in Asia, when the group bought a controlling stake in Indian Super League franchise Mumbai City. 2020 similarly would see two club purchases in European football, first of Lommel of Belgium and then of Troyes of France, with both moves notably seeing the purchased clubs rescued from financial difficulties and linked to the economic damages wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same year they would also expand their business interests by taking sole control of US-based five-a-side football business Goals Soccer Centers, a business they had previously invested in, following the near-collapse of the company's owners due to an internal scandal. In March 2022, Dutch second-tier side NAC Breda announced that following an investigation into the best bidders to sell the club's shares, the shareholders of the club had agreed to a sale to CFG. In response, the club's fans held protests both in Breda and also Manchester and Lommel. A month later, a group of shareholders with key voting rights announced that, in light of the backlash, they had elected instead to sell their shares to a local consortium. Principles and interests Since its inception, commenters have drawn parallels between City Football Group and Ferran Soriano's ideas spelled out in his 2011 book Goal: The Ball Doesn't Go In By Chance, in which Soriano remarked that the natural evolution of club brands was to expand globally, and that doing so could include the creation of franchise clubs in foreign leagues. His book continued to expound upon the notion that appealing to foreign fans who had no strongly-ingrained non-domestic allegiances was an important facet of business growth of sporting brands, and that giving those fans a domestic side to support alongside and affiliated to their European club could encourage more loyalty from them. This idea would be termed "Disneyfication" by Professor Simon Chadwick, an expert in Eurasian sport at Emlyon Business School and himself a confidant of Soriano. Branding and player development Early growth in the group focused on teams sharing a common identity and an associated brand, which aligned with the traditional identity of Manchester City and was viewed as a key way of helping the Manchester club build up its foreign support. This also matched Soriano's well-reported interest in placing City Football Group as a lynchpin in the opening-up of national markets in which association football has not previously been able to secure a strong presence, through the operation of and investment in franchises in those countries. The first entity to join CFG was the newly created New York City, with the club announcing that they would sport the familiar sky blue kit with white shorts which Manchester City have traditionally been associated with, and the rebranded Melbourne City (originally named Melbourne Heart) similarly switched to sky blue after defeating challenges from fellow A-League club Sydney. With the purchase of Mumbai City and the renaming of Club Atletico Torque to Montevideo City Torque, five teams in the group feature the word "City" in their name, and similarly all five wear sky blue kits. NYCFC's circular badge style would also be mimicked by Manchester City, Melbourne City, Mumbai City and Torque. Following from these changes, it was reported that the company's aim was to own a team on each continent with the "City" brand in its name. However, they have aggressively defended the City brand such as issuing a cease and desist letter against the Chilean side Santiago City FC for using a club crest similar to Manchester City's. Developments within Manchester City's academy would ultimately lead to a shift in strategy and focus of the group. Efforts to continue their success in bringing through youth talent led to the buying of promising players in the early teenage years, many of whom would go on to be sold for a large profit. This prompted Soriano and CFG's executive management to change their ambitions to put more emphasis on purchasing smaller clubs in strong existing football markets, with the intention of turning them into specialists centres for acquiring and training future stars from their local areas. Collaboration between clubs One of the core philosophies of City Football Group since its inception has been the mutual supporting of clubs through combined scouting and player sharing. While virtually all large European clubs operate an international scouting network, financial demands make it impossible to access local knowledge in foreign countries to the same extent as a domestic club could. CFG clubs therefore provide invaluable services to each other by using their own local scouting networks to share information on players between clubs. With their combined knowledge, the group claims to have extensive information on half a million players around the world. Possessing such a network then allows the local clubs to sign players early in their development, safe in the knowledge that the range of clubs CFG owns means that they can be placed at any of a number of sides as their development continues and the need for other challenges arises. The player-sharing element of the City network was first evident with the high-profile transfer of Aaron Mooy from Melbourne City to Manchester City – an early case of utilising the network to support revenue generation – with the 2020–21 season seeing Manchester City send 14 foreign-sourced youth players out on loan, predominantly to other group clubs. In addition to internal player movements, CFG has also sought to foster movements of coaching staff within their network also; among the most notable relocations are French manager Eric Mombaerts, who has worked with Yokohama F. Marinos, Melbourne City and Troyes, Manchester City Women manager Nick Cushing transferring to New York and English coach Liam Manning transferring from the NYCFC academy to take over management of Lommel's first team. The second of CFG's core philosophies regarding club collaboration is on- and off-pitch technical information sharing. Based around the tactics of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola – long coveted for the Manchester job by Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain after their experience working with him in Barcelona – all of City Football Group's clubs are given access to extensive databases of Manchester City's tactics and coaching methods, enabling them all to follow the group directive to use the same style of football, a style occasionally referred to as "the City Way". This synergy of tactical style extends beyond their first teams to the academies and women's sections. In addition to this, the clubs also share other information, such as medical, performance monitoring and player management. Investment in women's football Four of City Football Group's ten clubs sport women's teams, with Montevideo City Torque expected to launch a women's team in 2021 and New York City having previously held discussions about an affiliation with Sky Blue in 2014. In both Manchester and Melbourne, CFG (re)launched new women's sides in 2014 and 2015, promising to invest in women's football in unprecedent ways. In both cities, the women's teams would ultimately be given bespoke facilities which, in contrast to the standard for football clubs, shared training locations with their affiliated men's teams. Similarly, both cities would see returns for their investment, with Manchester City Women repeatedly finishing amongst the top two and winning a series of domestic trophies while Melbourne City's unprecedented investment in Australian women's football – an area which had previously been underfunded and largely forgotten in the country – earned the side plaudits for their forward-thinking and would see their female side crowned Grand Final winners four times in five seasons. Esports Looking to capitalise on the growth of esports, and for City Football Group to be seen as always being at the forefront of innovation, CFG made their first venture into digital gaming in June 2016 when they signed Kieran "Kez" Brown to represent Manchester City at FIFA tournaments and fan events, as well as to make digital content for their media profiles. Over the following years, CFG expanded their esports footprint as most of their clubs signed players to represent them in FIFA tournaments, with most clubs keeping one PlayStation player and one Xbox player on their books to represent them at all times. By early 2021, CFG would have a total of 16 professional esports players across their various clubs. In 2021, Manchester City became the first CFG club to expand beyond FIFA when they signed Aiden "Threats" Mong to represent them in Fortnite tournaments. Unlike the other CFG teams, Manchester City would also go on to create separate esports teams in China and South Korea to compete in Asia-localised tournaments. In addition to having their own esports players, CFG have also collaborated with existing teams. In 2019, Manchester City announced a partnership with FaZe Clan which would see the two run various esports competitions and merchandising lines, as well as allowing City's and FaZe's FIFA players to share facilities and train together. In 2022, CFG announced that it was sponsoring Blue United eFC, in a move which would see Blue United wear CFG-style sky blue shirts at competitive events. CFG-owned clubs UEFA Manchester City F.C. Manchester City W.F.C. Girona FC Girona FC Femení A Palermo F.C. Palermo Women ES Troyes AC Lommel SK CONCACAF New York City FC New York City FC II AFC Mumbai City FC Melbourne City FC Melbourne City Women Yokohama F. Marinos Shenzhen Peng City F.C. CONMEBOL Montevideo City Torque Esporte Clube Bahia CFG partner clubs Club Bolivar It was announced on 12 January 2021 that Club Bolivar had become the first partner club for the group. Club Bolivar is the most successful Bolivian club, having won 30 domestic titles since it was founded in La Paz on 12 April 1925. The owner of the club, Marcelo Claure, is also part of the ownership group of Inter Miami CF alongside David Beckham, as well as being COO of SoftBank Group with Masayoshi Son (CEO of Softbank) as well as Jorge Mas and Jose Mas from MasTec respectively. Honours after partnership : División de Fútbol Profesional (1): 2022-A Vannes It was announced on 17 February 2021 that French fourth tier side Vannes had become the latest partner club for the group. The two clubs were already linked after Vannes' President Maxime Ray had joined CFG to become a minority shareholder in Troyes as part of the 2020 purchase, though he agreed to have no operational role at Troyes as part of the takeover. Geylang International It was announced on 1 February 2023 that Singapore Premier League club Geylang International had become the first Southeast Asian partner club for the group. The agreement is set to be an initial, highly targeted collaboration between both entities with the potential to evolve into a broader, more comprehensive strategic partnership in the future. İstanbul Başakşehir It was revealed on 18 February 2024 that Turkish Süper Lig club İstanbul Başakşehir signed an agreement with the group in order to improve their football strategy, recruitment, scouting and coaching methodology. Businesses Goals Soccer Centers On 25 July 2017, City Football Group signed a joint venture partnership with Goals Soccer Centres, a 5-a-side football pitch operator, to invest capital into the US operations of the company in order to expand across North America. On 3 February 2020, CFG purchased the remaining 50% to take full ownership of the joint venture – operating under the Americanised name Goals Soccer Centers – following the near-collapse of their partner as a result of historic fraud allegations. See also Manchester City F.C. ownership and finances == References ==

Abu_Dhabi_United_Group

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi_United_Group

The Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment (ADUG; Arabic: مجموعة أبوظبي الاتحاد للتنمية والاستثمار) is a United Arab Emirates (UAE) based private equity company. It is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family and Vice President of the UAE. Leaks of internal documents show that the Abu Dhabi government manages the accounts belonging to ADUG. ADUG insists it is separate from the Abu Dhabi government. The primary interest of the group is its 81% majority ownership of City Football Group, a worldwide organisation most notably controlling Manchester City, Mumbai City, Melbourne City and New York City, as well as several other international football clubs. However, it also holds interests in various other endeavours outside of the sporting world with an extensive property portfolio in the United Arab Emirates and Manchester. City Football Group The Group was founded in the summer of 2008, as Sheikh Mansour looked to take over Manchester City Football Club from the former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra and signed off the deal on 1 September 2008, with due diligence completed on 23 September the same year. Sulaiman Al-Fahim was the public face of ADUG during the initial phase of the takeover - a larger-than-life figure often described as the "Donald Trump of Abu Dhabi". On completion of the takeover, Al-Fahim generated considerable attention in the footballing world with promises of grandiose spending plans to capture the world's greatest footballing talents. Although he did bring in the Brazilian Robinho from Real Madrid on the same day on which the takeover was agreed, one week after ADUG took control of the club Al-Fahim was removed from his role to be replaced by Khaldoon al-Mubarak, who remains in position to the present day. In 2011, Manchester City qualified for the Champions League and won the FA Cup, providing the club their first success in over three decades following ADUG's support. In 2012, the club won the Premier League, their first league title in forty-four years. Following the success of the Manchester club, ADUG began investment into other football clubs. After founding the MLS side New York City and purchasing the A-League franchise Melbourne Heart (shortly afterwards renamed Melbourne City), it was deemed necessary to create a new infrastructure to manage the various worldwide footballing ventures, and to keep them separate from non-footballing business. For this purpose, City Football Group was created in 2014 to oversee all of the teams under their control, acting as holding company not only to the football teams but to several businesses designed to market football services to the wider market. In return, ADUG became the holding company for CFG. ADUG have diluted their shareholding the City Football Group on two occasions in 2015 and 2019 to the approximate value of £654 million. As of 2020, they own 78% of the City Football Group. Since July 2021, CFG has been managed under Newton Investment and Development LLC, another company wholly owned by Sheikh Mansour. Other business interests ADUG also have an extensive property portfolio in the United Arab Emirates and abroad. Aside from Manchester City, ADUG have amassed investments totalling nearly £1 billion in Manchester, mainly in property and higher education sectors. Aside from purchasing assets for their own control, ADUG signed a ten-year partnership with Manchester City Council to revamp the east end of the city - not coincidentally the same area in which Manchester City are based - creating the Manchester Life Development Company in conjunction with the council in order to build 6,000 affordable houses in the area. Criticism According to Human Rights Watch, ADUG's investment in Manchester City enabled Abu Dhabi to "construct a public relations image of a progressive, dynamic Gulf state, which deflects attention from what is really going on in the country". Manchester City was accused of receiving £30 million from an unknown figure from the United Arab Emirates, that was supposed to come from the sponsor. The £30 million payments are expected to be one of the 115 Premier League's financial charges against Manchester City. The report also claimed that the payments were actually disguised equity funding that came from the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice president of the UAE. According to the report, during UEFA disciplinary hearing, the Manchester City’s lawyer named the unknown person as Jaber Mohamed, claiming that he is a businessman providing financial and brokering services in the UAE. See also Manchester City F.C. ownership and finances City Football Group == References ==

United_Arab_Emirates

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal, elective monarchy composed of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi as its capital. It shares land borders with Oman to the east and northwest, and with Saudi Arabia to the southwest; as well as maritime borders in the Persian Gulf with Qatar and Iran, and with Oman in the Gulf of Oman. As of 2024, the UAE has an estimated population of over 10 million, of which 11% are Emiratis; Dubai, is the most populous city, and is an international hub. Islam is the official religion and Arabic is the official language, while English is the most spoken language and the language of business. The United Arab Emirates' oil and natural gas reserves are the world's seventh and seventh-largest, respectively. Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the country's first president, oversaw the development of the Emirates by investing oil revenues into healthcare, education, and infrastructure. The country has the most diversified economy among the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In the 21st century, the UAE has become less reliant on oil and gas and is economically focusing on tourism and business. The UAE is considered a middle power. It is also a member of the United Nations, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OPEC, Non-Aligned Movement, World Trade Organization, and BRICS. The UAE is also a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Human rights organisations consider the UAE substandard on human rights, ranking only 6.06 in the human freedom index, citing reports of government critics being imprisoned and tortured, families harassed by the state security apparatus, and cases of forced disappearances. Individual rights such as the freedoms of assembly, association, expression, and the freedom of the press are severely repressed. History Antiquity Stone tools recovered reveal a settlement of people from Africa some 127,000 years ago and a stone tool used for butchering animals discovered on the Arabian coast suggests an even older habitation from 130,000 years ago. In time lively trading links developed with civilisations in Mesopotamia, Iran and the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley. This contact persisted and became wider, probably motivated by the trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, which commenced around 3,000 BCE. Sumerian sources talk of the Magan civilisation, which has been identified as encompassing the modern UAE and Oman. There are six periods of human settlement with distinctive behaviours in the region before Islam, which include the Hafit period from 3,200 to 2,600 BCE, the Umm Al Nar culture from 2,600 to 2,000 BCE, and the Wadi Suq culture from 2,000 to 1,300 BCE. From 1,200 BCE to the advent of Islam in Eastern Arabia, through three distinctive Iron Ages and the Mleiha period, the area was variously occupied by the Achaemenids and other forces, and saw the construction of fortified settlements and extensive husbandry thanks to the development of the falaj irrigation system. Islam The spread of Islam to the northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula is thought to have followed directly from a letter sent by the Islamic prophet Muhammad to the rulers of Oman in 630 CE. This led to a group of rulers travelling to Medina, converting to Islam and subsequently driving a successful uprising against the unpopular Sassanids, who dominated the coast at the time. Following the death of Muhammad, the new Islamic communities south of the Persian Gulf threatened to disintegrate, with insurrections against the Muslim leaders. Caliph Abu Bakr sent an army from the capital Medina which completed its reconquest of the territory (the Ridda Wars) with the Battle of Dibba in which 10,000 lives are thought to have been lost. This assured the integrity of the Caliphate and the unification of the Arabian Peninsula under the newly emerging Rashidun Caliphate. In 637, Julfar (in the area of today's Ras Al Khaimah) was an important port that was used as a staging post for the Islamic invasion of the Sasanian Empire. The area of the Al Ain/Buraimi Oasis was known as Tu'am and was an important trading post for camel routes between the coast and the Arabian interior. The earliest Christian site in the UAE was first discovered in the 1990s, an extensive monastic complex on what is now known as Sir Bani Yas Island and which dates back to the seventh century. Thought to be Nestorian and built in 600 CE, the church appears to have been abandoned peacefully in 750 CE. It forms a rare physical link to a legacy of Christianity, which is thought to have spread across the peninsula from 50 to 350 CE following trade routes. Certainly, by the fifth century, Oman had a bishop named John – the last bishop of Oman being Etienne, in 676 CE. Portuguese era The harsh desert environment led to the emergence of the "versatile tribesman", nomadic groups who subsisted due to a variety of economic activities, including animal husbandry, agriculture and hunting. The seasonal movements of these groups led not only to frequent clashes between groups but also to the establishment of seasonal and semi-seasonal settlements and centres. These formed tribal groupings whose names are still carried by modern Emiratis, including the Bani Yas and Al Bu Falah of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Liwa, and the west coast; the Dhawahir, Awamir, Al Ali, and Manasir of the interior; the Sharqiyin of the east coast; and the Qawasim to the north. With the expansion of European colonial empires, Portuguese, English and Dutch forces appeared in the Persian Gulf region. By the 18th century, the Bani Yas confederation was the dominant force in most of the area now known as Abu Dhabi, while the Northern Al Qawasim (Al Qasimi) dominated maritime commerce. The Portuguese maintained an influence over the coastal settlements, building forts in the wake of the bloody 16th-century conquests of coastal communities by Albuquerque and the Portuguese commanders who followed him – particularly on the east coast at Muscat, Sohar and Khor Fakkan. The southern coast of the Persian Gulf was known to the British as the "Pirate Coast", as boats of the Al Qawasim federation harassed British-flagged shipping from the 17th century into the 19th. The charge of piracy is disputed by modern Emirati historians, including the current ruler of Sharjah, Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi, in his 1986 book The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf. British expeditions to protect their Indian trade routes led to campaigns against Ras Al Khaimah and other harbours along the coast, including the Persian Gulf campaign of 1809 and the more successful campaign of 1819. The following year, Britain and a number of local rulers signed a maritime truce, giving rise to the term Trucial States, which came to define the status of the coastal emirates. A further treaty was signed in 1843 and, in 1853 the Perpetual Maritime Truce was agreed. To this was added the 'Exclusive Agreements', signed in 1892, which made the Trucial States a British protectorate. Under the 1892 treaty, the trucial sheikhs agreed not to dispose of any territory except to the British and not to enter into relationships with any foreign government other than the British without their consent. In return, the British promised to protect the Trucial Coast from all aggression by sea and to help in case of land attack. British maritime policing meant that pearling fleets could operate in relative security. However, the British prohibition of the slave trade meant an important source of income was lost to some sheikhs and merchants. In 1869, the Qubaisat tribe settled at Khor Al Adaid and tried to enlist the support of the Ottomans. Khor Al Adaid was claimed by Abu Dhabi at that time, a claim supported by the British. In 1906, the British Political Resident, Percy Cox, confirmed in writing to the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan ('Zayed the Great') that Khor Al Adaid belonged to his sheikhdom. British era and discovery of oil During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the pearling industry thrived, providing both income and employment to the people of the Persian Gulf. The First World War had a severe impact on the industry, but it was the economic depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, coupled with the invention of the cultured pearl, that wiped out the trade. The remnants of the trade eventually faded away shortly after the Second World War, when the newly independent Government of India imposed heavy taxation on imported pearls. The decline of pearling resulted in extreme economic hardship in the Trucial States. In 1922, the British government secured undertakings from the rulers of the Trucial States not to sign concessions with foreign companies without their consent. Aware of the potential for the development of natural resources such as oil, following finds in Persia (from 1908) and Mesopotamia (from 1927), a British-led oil company, the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), showed an interest in the region. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC, later to become British Petroleum, or BP) had a 23.75% share in IPC. From 1935, onshore concessions to explore for oil were granted by local rulers, with APOC signing the first one on behalf of Petroleum Concessions Ltd (PCL), an associate company of IPC. APOC was prevented from developing the region alone because of the restrictions of the Red Line Agreement, which required it to operate through IPC. A number of options between PCL and the trucial rulers were signed, providing useful revenue for communities experiencing poverty following the collapse of the pearl trade. However, the wealth of oil which the rulers could see from the revenues accruing to surrounding countries remained elusive. The first bore holes in Abu Dhabi were drilled by IPC's operating company, Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) Ltd (PDTC) at Ras Sadr in 1950, with a 13,000-foot-deep (4,000-metre) bore hole taking a year to drill and turning out dry, at the tremendous cost at the time of £1 million. The British set up a development office that helped in some small developments in the emirates. The seven sheikhs of the emirates then decided to form a council to coordinate matters between them and took over the development office. In 1952, they formed the Trucial States Council, and appointed Adi Al Bitar, Dubai's Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum's legal advisor, as secretary general and legal advisor to the council. The council was terminated once the United Arab Emirates was formed. The tribal nature of society and the lack of definition of borders between emirates frequently led to disputes, settled either through mediation or, more rarely, force. The Trucial Oman Scouts was a small military force used by the British to keep the peace. In 1953, a subsidiary of BP, D'Arcy Exploration Ltd, obtained an offshore concession from the ruler of Abu Dhabi. BP joined with Compagnie Française des Pétroles (later Total) to form operating companies, Abu Dhabi Marine Areas Ltd (ADMA) and Dubai Marine Areas Ltd (DUMA). A number of undersea oil surveys were carried out, including one led by the famous marine explorer Jacques Cousteau. In 1958, a floating platform rig was towed from Hamburg, Germany, and positioned over the Umm Shaif pearl bed, in Abu Dhabi waters, where drilling began. In March, it struck oil in the Upper Thamama rock formation. This was the first commercial discovery of the Trucial Coast, leading to the first exports of oil in 1962. ADMA made further offshore discoveries at Zakum and elsewhere, and other companies made commercial finds such as the Fateh oilfield off Dubai and the Mubarak field off Sharjah (shared with Iran). Meanwhile, onshore exploration was hindered by territorial disputes. In 1955, the United Kingdom represented Abu Dhabi and Oman in their dispute with Saudi Arabia over the Buraimi Oasis. A 1974 agreement between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia seemed to have settled the Abu Dhabi-Saudi border dispute, but this has not been ratified. The UAE's border with Oman was ratified in 2008. PDTC continued its onshore exploration away from the disputed area, drilling five more bore holes that were also dry. However, on 27 October 1960, the company discovered oil in commercial quantities at the Murban No. 3 well on the coast near Tarif. In 1962, PDTC became the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company. As oil revenues increased, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, undertook a massive construction program, building schools, housing, hospitals and roads. When Dubai's oil exports commenced in 1969, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, was able to invest the revenues from the limited reserves found to spark the diversification drive that would create the modern global city of Dubai. Independence By 1966, it had become clear the British government could no longer afford to administer and protect the Trucial States, what is now the United Arab Emirates. British Members of Parliament (MPs) debated the preparedness of the Royal Navy to defend the sheikhdoms. On 24 January 1968, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced the government's decision, reaffirmed in March 1971 by Prime Minister Edward Heath, to end the treaty relationships with the seven trucial sheikhdoms. Days after the announcement, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, fearing vulnerability, tried to persuade the British to honour the protection treaties by offering to pay the full costs of keeping the British Armed Forces in the Emirates. The British Labour government rejected the offer. After Labour MP Goronwy Roberts informed Sheikh Zayed of the news of British withdrawal, the nine Persian Gulf sheikhdoms attempted to form a union of Arab emirates, but by mid-1971 they were still unable to agree on terms of union even though the British treaty relationship was to expire in December of that year. Fears of vulnerability were realised the day before independence. An Iranian destroyer group broke formation from an exercise in the lower Gulf, sailing to the Tunb islands. The islands were taken by force, civilians and Arab defenders alike allowed to flee. A British warship stood idle during the course of the invasion. A destroyer group approached the island of Abu Musa as well. But there, Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed Al Qasimi had already negotiated with the Iranian shah, and the island was quickly leased to Iran for $3 million a year. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia laid claim to swathes of Abu Dhabi. Originally intended to be part of the proposed Federation of Arab Emirates, Bahrain became independent in August, and Qatar in September 1971. When the British-Trucial Sheikhdoms treaty expired on 1 December 1971, both emirates became fully independent. On 2 December 1971, six of the emirates (Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain) agreed to enter into a union named the United Arab Emirates. Ras al-Khaimah joined later, on 10 January 1972. In February 1972, the Federal National Council (FNC) was created; it was a 40-member consultative body appointed by the seven rulers. The UAE joined the Arab League on 6 December 1971 and the United Nations on 9 December. It was a founding member of the Gulf Cooperation Council in May 1981, with Abu Dhabi hosting the first GCC summit. Post-Independence period The UAE supported military operations by the US and other coalition states engaged in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan (2001) and Saddam Hussein in Ba'athist Iraq (2003) as well as operations supporting the Global War on Terror for the Horn of Africa at Al Dhafra Air Base located outside of Abu Dhabi. The air base also supported Allied operations during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and Operation Northern Watch. The country had already signed a military defence agreement with the U.S. in 1994 and one with France in 1995. In January 2008, France and the UAE signed a deal allowing France to set up a permanent military base in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The UAE joined international military operations in Libya in March 2011. On 2 November 2004, the UAE's first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, died. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan was elected as the president of the UAE. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan succeeded Sheikh Khalifa as crown prince of Abu Dhabi. In January 2006, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of the UAE and the ruler of Dubai, died, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum assumed both roles. The first ever national elections were held on 16 December 2006. A number of voters chose half of the members of the Federal National Council. The UAE has largely escaped the Arab Spring, which other countries have experienced; however, 60 Emirati activists from Al Islah were apprehended for an alleged coup attempt and the attempt of the establishment of an Islamist state in the UAE. Mindful of the protests in nearby Bahrain, in November 2012 the UAE outlawed online mockery of its government or attempts to organise public protests through social media. On 29 January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the UAE. Two months later, in March, the government announced the closure of shopping malls, schools, and places of worship, in addition to imposing a 24-hour curfew, and suspending all Emirates passenger flights. This resulted in a major economic downturn, which eventually led to the merger of more than 50% of the UAE's federal agencies. On 29 August 2020, the UAE established normal diplomatic relations with Israel and with the help of the United States, they signed the Abraham Accords with Bahrain. On 9 February 2021, the UAE achieved a historic milestone when its probe, named Hope, successfully reached Mars's orbit. The UAE became the first country in the Arab world to reach Mars, the fifth country to successfully reach Mars, and the second country, after an Indian probe, to orbit Mars on its maiden attempt. On 14 May 2022, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was elected as the UAE's new president after the death of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Geography The United Arab Emirates is situated in the Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, between Oman and Saudi Arabia; it is in a strategic location slightly south of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital transit point for world crude oil. The UAE lies between 22°30' and 26°10' north latitude and between 51° and 56°25′ east longitude. It shares a 530-kilometre (330 mi) border with Saudi Arabia on the west, south, and southeast, and a 450-kilometre (280 mi) border with Oman on the southeast and northeast. The land border with Qatar in the Khor Al Adaid area is about nineteen kilometres (12 miles) in the northwest; however, it is a source of ongoing dispute. Following Britain's military departure from the UAE in 1971, and its establishment as a new state, the UAE laid claim to Iranian-occupied islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and the Lesser Tunbs, when Iran captured them during the British rule, resulting in disputes with Iran that remain unresolved. The UAE also disputes claim on other islands against the neighboring state of Qatar. The largest emirate, Abu Dhabi, accounts for 87% of the UAE's total area, 67,340 square kilometres (26,000 sq mi). The smallest emirate, Ajman, encompasses only 259 km2 (100 sq mi). The UAE coast stretches for nearly 650 km (404 mi) along the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, briefly interrupted by an isolated outcrop of the Sultanate of Oman. Six of the emirates are situated along the Persian Gulf, and the seventh, Fujairah is on the eastern coast of the peninsula with direct access to the Gulf of Oman. Most of the coast consists of salt pans that extend 8–10 km (5.0–6.2 mi) inland. The largest natural harbor is at Dubai, although other ports have been dredged at Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and elsewhere. Numerous islands are found in the Persian Gulf, and the ownership of some of them has been the subject of international disputes with both Iran and Qatar. The smaller islands, as well as many coral reefs and shifting sandbars, are a menace to navigation. Strong tides and occasional windstorms further complicate ship movements near the shore. The UAE also has a stretch of the Al Bāţinah coast of the Gulf of Oman. The Musandam Peninsula, the very tip of Arabia by the Strait of Hormuz, and Madha are exclaves of Oman separated by the UAE. South and west of Abu Dhabi, vast, rolling sand dunes merge into the Rub al-Khali (Empty Quarter) of Saudi Arabia. The desert area of Abu Dhabi includes two important oases with adequate underground water for permanent settlements and cultivation. The extensive Liwa Oasis is in the south near the undefined border with Saudi Arabia. About 100 km (62 mi) to the northeast of Liwa is the Al-Buraimi oasis, which extends on both sides of the Abu Dhabi-Oman border. Lake Zakher in Al Ain is a human-made lake near the border with Oman that was created from treated waste water. Prior to withdrawing from the area in 1971, Britain delineated the internal borders among the seven emirates in order to preempt territorial disputes that might hamper formation of the federation. In general, the rulers of the emirates accepted the British interventions, but in the case of boundary disputes between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and also between Dubai and Sharjah, conflicting claims were not resolved until after the UAE became independent. The most complicated borders were in the Western Hajar Mountains, where five of the emirates contested jurisdiction over more than a dozen enclaves. Biodiversity The UAE contains the following terrestrial ecoregions: Al Hajar montane woodlands and shrublands, Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert, and Al-Hajar foothill xeric woodlands and shrublands. The oases grow date palms, acacia and eucalyptus trees. In the desert, the flora is very sparse and consists of grasses and thorn bushes. The indigenous fauna had come close to extinction because of intensive hunting, which has led to a conservation program on Sir Bani Yas Island initiated by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in the 1970s, resulting in the survival of, for example, Arabian Oryx, Arabian camel and leopards. Coastal fish and mammals consist mainly of mackerel, perch, and tuna, as well as sharks and whales. Climate The climate of the UAE is subtropical-arid with hot summers and warm winters. The climate is categorized as desert climate. The hottest months are July and August, when average maximum temperatures reach above 45 °C (113 °F) on the coastal plain. In the Hajar Mountains, temperatures are considerably lower, a result of increased elevation. Average minimum temperatures in January and February are between 10 and 14 °C (50 and 57 °F). During the late summer months, a humid southeastern wind known as Sharqi (i.e. "Easterner") makes the coastal region especially unpleasant. The average annual rainfall in the coastal area is less than 120 mm (4.7 in), but in some mountainous areas annual rainfall often reaches 350 mm (13.8 in). Rain in the coastal region falls in short, torrential bursts during the winter months, sometimes resulting in floods in ordinarily dry wadi beds. The region is prone to occasional, violent dust storms, which can severely reduce visibility. On 28 December 2004, snow was recorded in the UAE for the first time, in the Jebel Jais mountain cluster in Ras al-Khaimah. A few years later, there were more sightings of snow and hail. The Jebel Jais mountain cluster has experienced snow only twice since records began. Government and politics Government The United Arab Emirates is a federal constitutional monarchy made up from a federation of seven hereditary tribal monarchy-styled political units called Sheikhdoms. It is governed by a Federal Supreme Council made up of the ruling Sheikhs of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain. All responsibilities not granted to the federal government are reserved to the individual emirate. A percentage of revenues from each emirate is allocated to the UAE's central budget. The UAE uses the title Sheikh instead of Emir to refer to the rulers of individual emirates. The title is used due to the sheikhdom styled governing system in adherence to the culture of tribes of Arabia, where Sheikh means leader, elder, or the tribal chief of the clan who partakes in shared decision making with his followers. The president and vice president are elected by the Federal Supreme Council. Usually, the Head of the Al Nahyan family, who are based in Abu Dhabi, holds the presidency and the Head of the Al Maktoum family, based in Dubai, the prime ministership. All prime ministers but one have served concurrently as vice president. The federal government is composed of three branches: Legislative: A unicameral Federal Supreme Council and the advisory Federal National Council (FNC). Executive: The President, who is also commander-in-chief of the military, the prime minister and the Council of Ministers. Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts. The UAE e-Government is the extension of the UAE federal government in its electronic form. The UAE's Council of Ministers (Arabic: مجلس الوزراء) is the chief executive branch of the government presided over by the prime minister. The prime minister, who is appointed by the Federal Supreme Council, appoints the ministers. The Council of Ministers is made up of 22 members and manages all internal and foreign affairs of the federation under its constitutional and federal law. In December 2019, the UAE became the only Arab country, and one of only five countries in the world, to attain gender parity in a national legislative body, with its lower house 50 per cent women. The UAE is the only country in the world that has a Ministry of Tolerance, a Ministry of Happiness, and a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence. The UAE also has a virtual ministry called the Ministry of Possibilities, designed to find solutions to challenges and improve quality of life. The UAE also has a National Youth Council, which is represented in the UAE cabinet by the Minister of Youth. The UAE legislative body is the Federal National Council which convenes nationwide elections every four years. The FNC consists of 40 members drawn from all the emirates. Each emirate is allocated specific seats to ensure full representation. Half are appointed by the rulers of the constituent emirates, and the other half are elected. By law, the council members have to be equally divided between males and females. The FNC is restricted to a largely consultative role. The United Arab Emirates is an authoritarian federal monarchy. According to the New York Times, the UAE is "an autocracy with the sheen of a progressive, modern state". The UAE has been described as a "tribal autocracy" where the seven constituent monarchies are led by tribal rulers in an autocratic fashion. There are no democratically elected institutions, and there is no formal commitment to free speech. According to human rights organisations, there are systematic human rights violations, including the torture and forced disappearance of government critics. The UAE ranks poorly in freedom indices measuring civil liberties and political rights. The UAE is annually ranked as "Not Free" in Freedom House's annual Freedom in the World report, which measures civil liberties and political rights. The UAE also ranks poorly in the annual Reporters without Borders' Press Freedom Index. The Bertelsmann Transformation Index describes the UAE as a "moderate monarchy". The country was ranked 91 out of 137 states and is far below the average scoring for development towards a democracy. According to the 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices, the United Arab Emirates is the third least electoral democratic country in the Middle East. Administrative divisions The United Arab Emirates comprises seven emirates. The Emirate of Dubai is the most populous emirate with 35.6% of the UAE population. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has 31.2%, meaning that over two-thirds of the UAE population lives in either Abu Dhabi or Dubai. Abu Dhabi has an area of 67,340 square kilometres (26,000 square miles), which is 86.7% of the country's total area, excluding the islands. It has a coastline extending for more than 400 km (250 mi) and is divided for administrative purposes into three major regions. The Emirate of Dubai extends along the Persian Gulf coast of the UAE for approximately 72 km (45 mi). Dubai has an area of 3,885 square kilometres (1,500 square miles), which is equivalent to 5% of the country's total area, excluding the islands. The Emirate of Sharjah extends along approximately 16 km (10 mi) of the UAE's Persian Gulf coastline and for more than 80 km (50 mi) into the interior. The northern emirates which include Fujairah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, and Umm al-Qaiwain all have a total area of 3,881 square kilometres (1,498 square miles). There are two areas under joint control. One is jointly controlled by Oman and Ajman, the other by Fujairah and Sharjah. There is an Omani exclave surrounded by UAE territory, known as Wadi Madha. It is located halfway between the Musandam peninsula and the rest of Oman in the Emirate of Sharjah. It covers approximately 75 square kilometres (29 square miles) and the boundary was settled in 1969. The north-east corner of Madha is closest to the Khor Fakkan-Fujairah road, barely 10 metres (33 feet) away. Within the Omani exclave of Madha, is a UAE exclave called Nahwa, also belonging to the Emirate of Sharjah. It is about eight kilometres (5.0 miles) on a dirt track west of the town of New Madha. It consists of about forty houses with its own clinic and telephone exchange. Foreign relations The United Arab Emirates has broad diplomatic and commercial relations with most countries and members of the United Nations. It plays a significant role in OPEC, and is one of the founding members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The UAE is a member of the United Nations and several of its specialized agencies (ICAO, ILO, UPU, WHO, WIPO), as well as the World Bank, IMF, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Non-Aligned Movement. Also, it is an observer in the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Most countries have diplomatic missions in the capital Abu Dhabi with most consulates being in UAE's largest city, Dubai. Emirati foreign relations are motivated to a large extent by identity and relationship to the Arab world. The United Arab Emirates has strong ties with Bahrain, China, Egypt, France, India, Jordan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Following the British withdrawal from the UAE in 1971 and the establishment of the UAE as a state, the UAE disputed rights to three islands in the Persian Gulf against Iran, namely Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb. The UAE tried to bring the matter to the International Court of Justice, but Iran dismissed the notion. Pakistan was the first country to formally recognise the UAE upon its formation. The UAE alongside multiple Middle Eastern and African countries cut diplomatic ties with Qatar in June 2017 due to allegations of Qatar being a state sponsor of terrorism, resulting in the Qatar diplomatic crisis. Ties were restored in January 2021. The UAE recognized Israel in August 2020, reaching a historic Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement and leading towards full normalization of relations between the two countries. UAE is the 53rd most peaceful country in the world, according to the 2024 Global Peace Index. Military The armed forces of the United Arab Emirates consist of 44,000 active personnel in the Army, 2,500 personnel and 46 ships in the Navy, 4,500 personnel and 386 aircraft in the Air Force, and 12,000 personnel in the Presidential Guard. In 2022 the country spent US$20.4 billion on defense, which is 4% of its GDP. The UAE is considered to have the most capable military among the Gulf states. Although initially small in number, the UAE armed forces have grown significantly over the years and are presently equipped with some of the most modern weapon systems, purchased from a variety of western military advanced countries, mainly France, the US, and the UK. Most officers are graduates of the United Kingdom's Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, with others having attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Australia, and St Cyr, the military academy of France. France and the United States have played the most strategically significant roles with defence cooperation agreements and military material provision. Some of the UAE military deployments include an infantry battalion to the United Nations UNOSOM II force in Somalia in 1993, the 35th Mechanised Infantry Battalion to Kosovo, a regiment to Kuwait during the Iraq War, demining operations in Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, American-led intervention in Libya, American-led intervention in Syria, and the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen. The active and effective military role, despite its small active personnel, has led the UAE military to be nicknamed as "Little Sparta" by United States Armed Forces Generals and former US defense secretary James Mattis. The UAE intervened in the Libyan Civil War in support of General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army in its conflict with the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA). Examples of the military assets deployed include the enforcement of the no-fly-zone over Libya by sending six UAEAF F-16 and six Mirage 2000 multi-role fighter aircraft, ground troop deployment in Afghanistan, 30 UAEAF F-16s and ground troops deployment in Southern Yemen, and helping the US launch its first airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria. The UAE has begun production of a greater amount of military equipment, in a bid to reduce foreign dependence and help with national industrialisation. Example of national military development include the Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding company (ADSB), which produces a range of ships and is a prime contractor in the Baynunah Programme, a programme to design, develop and produce corvettes customised for operation in the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. The UAE is also producing weapons and ammunition through Caracal International, military transport vehicles through Nimr LLC and unmanned aerial vehicles collectively through Emirates Defence Industries Company. The UAE operates the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon F-16E Block 60 unique variant unofficially called "Desert Falcon", developed by General Dynamics with collaboration of the UAE and specifically for the United Arab Emirates Air Force. The United Arab Emirates Army operates a customized Leclerc tank and is the only other operator of the tank aside from the French Army. The largest defence exhibition and conference in the Middle East, International Defence Exhibition, takes place biennially in Abu Dhabi. The UAE introduced a mandatory military service for adult males, since 2014, for 16 months to expand its reserve force. The highest loss of life in the history of UAE military occurred on Friday 4 September 2015, in which 52 soldiers were killed in Marib area of central Yemen by a Tochka missile which targeted a weapons cache and caused a large explosion. Law The United Arab Emirates has a federal court system, and the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah also have local court systems. The UAE's judicial system is derived from the civil law system and Sharia law. The court system consists of civil courts and Sharia courts. Sharia courts have exclusive jurisdiction in Muslim family law matters, while civil courts deal with all other legal matters. Since September 2020, corporal punishment is no longer a legal form of punishment under UAE federal law. Under the decree, legal forms of punishment are retribution and blood money payments, capital punishment, life imprisonment, temporary imprisonment, indefinite detention, and fines. Article 1 of the Federal Penal Code was amended in 2020 to state that Islamic Law applies only to retribution and blood money punishments; previously the article stated that "provisions of the Islamic Law shall apply to the crimes of doctrinal punishment, punitive punishment and blood money." Before 2020, flogging, stoning, amputation, and crucifixion were technically legal punishments for criminal offences such as adultery, premarital sex, and drug or alcohol use. In recent history, the UAE has declared its intention to move towards a more tolerant legal code, and to phase out corporal punishment altogether in favor of private punishment. With alcohol and cohabitation laws being loosened in advance of the 2020 World Expo, Emirati laws have become increasingly acceptable to visitors from non-Muslim countries. Sharia courts have exclusive jurisdiction over Muslim family law matters such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. Muslim women must receive permission from a male guardian to marry and remarry. This requirement is derived from Sharia law and has been federal law since 2005. It is illegal for Muslim women to marry non-Muslims and is punishable by law. Non-Muslim expatriates were liable to Sharia rulings on marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance, however, federal law was changed to introduce non-Sharia personal status law for non-Muslims. Recently, the emirate of Abu Dhabi opened a civil law family court for non-Muslims and Dubai has announced that non-Muslims can opt for civil marriages. Apostasy is a technically capital crime in the UAE, however, there are no documented cases of apostates being executed. Blasphemy is illegal; expatriates involved in insulting Islam are liable for deportation. Sodomy is illegal and is punishable by a minimum of 6-month imprisonment or a fine or both, but the law does not apply "except on the basis of a complaint from the husband or legal guardian", but the penalty may be suspended if the complaint is waived. In 2013, an Emirati man was on trial for being accused of a "gay handshake". Due to local customs, public shows of affection in certain public places are illegal and could result in deportation, but holding hands is tolerated. Expats in Dubai have been deported for kissing in public. In several cases, the courts of the UAE have jailed women who have reported rape. Federal law in the UAE prohibits swearing on social media. Dancing in public is illegal in the UAE. In November 2020, UAE announced that it decriminalised alcohol, lifted the ban on unmarried couples living together, and ended lenient punishment on honor killing. Foreigners living in the Emirates were allowed to follow their native country's laws on divorce and inheritance. Human rights The state security apparatus in the UAE has been accused of human rights abuses including forced disappearance, arbitrary arrests and torture. The annual Freedom House report on Freedom in the World has listed the United Arab Emirates as "Not Free" every year since 1999, the first year for which records are available on their website. Freedom of association is also severely curtailed. Associations and NGOs are required to register with the government; however twenty non-political groups were reportedly operating in the country without registration. All associations have to be submitted to censorship guidelines and all publications have first to be approved by the government. In its 2013 Annual Report, Amnesty International criticized the UAE's poor record on human rights issues; highlighting restrictions of freedom of speech and assembly, the use of arbitrary arrest and torture, and the use of the death penalty. The UAE has escaped the Arab Spring; and since 2011, human rights organizations claim that the government has increasingly carried out forced disappearances. The Arab Organization for Human Rights obtained testimonies from defendants who claimed being kidnapped, tortured and abused in detention centres; they reported 16 methods of torture including beatings, threats with electrocution and denial of medical care. Repressive measures, including deportation, were applied on foreigners based on allegations of attempts to destabilize the country. The issue of sexual abuse among female domestic workers is another area of concern, particularly given that domestic servants are not covered by the UAE labour law of 1980 or the draft labour law of 2007. Worker protests have been suppressed and protesters imprisoned without due process. Amnesty International reported that Qatari men have been abducted by the UAE government and allegedly withheld information about the men's fate from their families. According to some organizations, over 4,000 Shia expatriates have been deported from the UAE; including Lebanese Shia families for their alleged sympathies for Hezbollah. In 2013, 94 Emirati activists were held in secret detention centres and put on trial for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government; a relative of a defendant was arrested for tweeting about the trial, and sentenced to 10 months in jail. The latest forced disappearance involves three sisters from Abu Dhabi. Sara Jacobs held foreign actors, including the UAE, responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. She expressed her views in March 2024 visit to the refugee camps, stating the children in Sudan are living with extensive trauma. The US representative also claimed that the war could be quickly ended if the involvement of countries like the UAE is stopped. Jacobs also said that the US is morally obligated to take measures and stop the arms to the Emirates, until the UAE stops providing weapons to the RSF. Migrant workers Migrant workers in the UAE are not allowed to join trade unions or go on strike. Those who strike may risk prison and deportation, as seen in 2014 when dozens of workers were deported for striking. The International Trade Union Confederation has called on the United Nations to investigate evidence that thousands of migrant workers in the UAE are treated as slave labour. In 2019, an investigation performed by The Guardian revealed that thousands of migrant construction workers employed on infrastructure and building projects for the UAE's Expo 2020 exhibition were working in an unsafe environment. Some were even exposed to potentially fatal situations due to cardiovascular issues. Long hours in the sun made them vulnerable to heat strokes. A report in January 2020 highlighted that the employers in the United Arab Emirates have been exploiting the Indian labor and hiring them on tourist visas, which is easier and cheaper than work permits. These migrant workers are left open to labor abuse, where they also fear reporting exploitation due to their illegal status. Besides, the issue remains unknown as the visit visa data is not maintained in both the UAE and Indian migration and employment records. In a 22 July 2020 news piece, Reuters reported human rights groups as saying conditions had deteriorated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many migrant workers racked up debt and depended on the help of charities. The report cited salary delays and layoffs as a major risk, in addition to overcrowded living conditions, lack of support and problems linked with healthcare and sick pay. Reuters reported at least 200,000 workers, mostly from India but also from Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nepal, had been repatriated, according to their diplomatic missions. On 2 May 2020, the Consul General of India in Dubai, Vipul, confirmed that more than 150,000 Indians in the United Arab Emirates registered to be repatriated through the e-registration option provided by Indian consulates in the UAE. According to the figures, 25% of applicants lost their jobs and nearly 15% were stranded in the country due to lockdown. Besides, 50% of the total applicants were from the state of Kerala, India. On 9 October 2020, The Telegraph reported that many migrant workers were left abandoned, as they lost their jobs amidst the tightening economy due to COVID-19. Various human rights organisations have raised serious concerns about the alleged abuse of migrant workers by major contractors organising Expo 2020. UAE's business solution provider German Pavilion is also held accountable for abusing migrant workers. Environmental policy The country is a leading oil and gas producer. Its energy consumption per capita is around 370 Gigajoule. The UAE's carbon dioxide emissions per capita are high, ranking sixth among countries globally. Recently, it made efforts to make itself more sustainable. Those include: Setting a target to reduce GHG emissions by 31% in comparison to business scenario by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. Launching a program to make the 3 most emissions-intensive sectors, 40% more energy efficient. Launching some programs related to green building. Retrofitting of 30,000 buildings alone, should cut 1 million tons emissions. Promoting public transport and more. According to official sources, in Dubai, "the share of mass transport in people’s mobility increased from 6 per cent in 2006 to 20.61 per cent in 2022." Together with the USA the country invested 17 billion dollars in sustainable agriculture. Economy The United Arab Emirates has developed from a juxtaposition of Bedouin tribes to one of the world's wealthiest states in only about 50 years, boasting one of the highest GDP (PPP) per capita figures in the world. Economic growth has been impressive and steady throughout the history of this young confederation of emirates with brief periods of recessions only, e.g. in the global financial and economic crisis years 2008–09, and a couple of more mixed years starting in 2015 and persisting until 2019. Between 2000 and 2018, average real gross domestic product (GDP) growth was at close to 4%. It is the second largest economy in the GCC (after Saudi Arabia), with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of US$414.2 billion, and a real GDP of 392.8 billion constant 2010 USD in 2018. Since its independence in 1971, the UAE's economy has grown by nearly 231 times to 1.45 trillion AED in 2013. The non-oil trade has grown to 1.2 trillion AED, a growth by around 28 times from 1981 to 2012. Supported by the world's seventh-largest oil reserves and aided by prudent investments coupled with a resolute commitment to economic liberalism and strong governmental oversight, the UAE has witnessed its real GDP increase by more than three times over the past four decades. Presently, the UAE is among the wealthiest countries globally, with GDP per capita nearly 80% higher than the OECD average. As impressive as economic growth has been in the UAE, the total population has increased from just around 550,000 in 1975 to close to 10 million in 2018. This growth is mainly due to the influx of foreign workers into the country, making the national population a minority. The UAE features a unique labour market system, in which residence in the UAE is conditional on stringent visa rules. This system is a major advantage in terms of macroeconomic stability, as labour supply adjusts quickly to demand throughout economic business cycles. This allows the government to keep unemployment in the country on a very low level of less than 3%, and it also gives the government more leeway in terms of macroeconomic policies – where other governments often need to make trade-offs between fighting unemployment and fighting inflation. Between 2014 and 2018, the accommodation and food, education, information and communication, arts and recreation, and real estate sectors overperformed in terms of growth, whereas the construction, logistics, professional services, public, and oil and gas sectors underperformed. Business and finance The UAE offers businesses a strong enabling environment: stable political and macroeconomic conditions, a future-oriented government, good general infrastructure and ICT infrastructure. Moreover, the country has made continuous and convincing improvements to its regulatory environment and is ranked as the 26th best country in the world for doing business by the Doing Business 2017 Report published by the World Bank Group. The UAE are in the top ranks of several other global indices, such as the World Economic Forum's (WEF), Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), the World Happiness Report (WHR) and 32nd in the Global Innovation Index in 2024. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), for example, assigns the UAE rank two regionally in terms of business environment and 22 worldwide. From the 2018 Arab Youth Survey the UAE emerges as the top Arab country in areas such as living, safety and security, economic opportunities, and starting a business, and as an example for other states to emulate. The weaker points remain the level of education across the UAE population, limitations in the financial and labour markets, barriers to trade and some regulations that hinder business dynamism. The major challenge for the country, though, remains translating investments and strong enabling conditions into innovation and creative outputs. UAE law does not allow trade unions to exist. The right to collective bargaining and the right to strike are not recognised, and the Ministry of Labour has the power to force workers to go back to work. Migrant workers who participate in a strike can have their work permits cancelled and be deported. Consequently, there are very few anti-discrimination laws in relation to labour issues, with Emiratis – and other GCC Arabs – getting preference in public sector jobs despite lesser credentials than competitors and lower motivation. In fact, just over eighty per cent of Emirati workers hold government posts, with many of the rest taking part in state-owned enterprises such as Emirates airlines and Dubai Properties. Western states, including the United Kingdom, were also warned by the Emirati Trade Minister, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, to keep politics separate from trade and the economy, as it dilutes the agreements' main objectives. In 2023, Al Zeyoudi indicated that these countries should "tone down" the human and workers' rights provisions in the trade deals, in order to gain greater market access and business opportunities. The UAE's monetary policy stresses stability and predictability. The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) keeps a peg to the US Dollar (USD) and moves interest rates close to the Federal Funds Rate. According to Fitch Ratings, the decline in property sector follows risks of progressively worsening the quality of assets in possession with UAE banks, leading the economy to rougher times ahead. Even though as compared to retail and property, UAE banks fared well. The higher US interest rates followed since 2016 – which the UAE currency complies to – have boosted profitability. However, the likelihood of plunging interest rates and increasing provisioning costs on bad loans, point to difficult times ahead for the economy. Since 2015, economic growth has been more mixed due to a number of factors impacting both demand and supply. In 2017 and 2018 growth has been positive but on a low level of 0.8 and 1.4%, respectively. To support the economy the government is currently following an expansionary fiscal policy. However, the effects of this policy are partially offset by monetary policy, which has been contractionary. If not for the fiscal stimulus in 2018, the UAE economy would probably have contracted in that year. One of the factors responsible for slower growth has been a credit crunch, which is due to, among other factors, higher interest rates. Government debt has remained on a low level, despite high deficits in a few recent years. Risks related to government debt remain low. Inflation has been picking up in 2017 and 2018. Contributing factors were the introduction of a value added tax (VAT) of 5% in 2018 as well as higher commodity prices. Despite the government's expansionary fiscal policy and a growing economy in 2018 and at the beginning of 2019, prices have been dropping in late 2018 and 2019 owing to oversupply in some sectors of importance to consumer prices. The UAE has an attractive tax system for companies and wealthy individuals, making it a preferred destination for companies seeking tax avoidance. The NGO Tax Justice Network places them in 2021 in the group of the ten largest tax havens. In 2023, the UAE's legal system fell under international scrutiny, as the members of the British Parliament opened an inquiry into how the foreign business executives are treated in the country, in case of accusations of breaking the law. 2024 will be the third consecutive year that the UAE holds first place as the world's leading wealth magnet, as 6,700 wealthy migrants are set to move to the country. VAT The UAE government implemented value-added tax (VAT) in the country from January 1, 2018, at a standard rate of 5%. While the government may still adjust the exact arrangement of the VAT, it is not likely that any new taxes will be introduced in the foreseeable future. Additional taxes would destroy one of the UAE's main enticements for businesses to operate in the country and put a heavy burden on the economy. Energy Oil and gas production is an important part of the economy of the UAE. In 2018, the oil and gas sector contributed 26% to overall GDP. The UAE leadership initiated economic diversification efforts even before the oil price crash in the 1980s, resulting in the UAE having the most diversified economy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at present. Although the oil and gas sector continues to be significant to the UAE economy, these efforts have yielded great resilience during periods of oil price fluctuations and economic turbulence. The introduction of the VAT has provided the government with an additional source of income – approximately 6% of the total revenue in 2018, or 27 billion United Arab Emirates dirham (AED) – affording its fiscal policy more independence from oil- and gas-related revenue, which constitutes about 36% of the total government revenue. The Barakah nuclear power plant is the first on the Arabian peninsula and expected to reduce the carbon footprint of the country. The UAE has solar generation potential, and its energy policy has shifted due to the declining price of solar. The Dubai Clean Energy Strategy aims to provide 7 per cent of Dubai's energy from clean energy sources by 2020. It will increase this target to 25 per cent by 2030 and 75 per cent by 2050. In 2023, ADNOC and its CEO Sultan Al Jaber closed at least 20 business deals worth nearly $100 billion. The state oil firm was alleged of exploiting the UAE’s COP28 presidency to pursue oil and gas deals. As per leaked documents, Al Jaber’s team targeted 16 nations to lobby firms, delegates or ministers on such deals. ADNOC sought deals with companies from 12 countries, which included 11 of the 16 target nations. Al Jaber and senior ADNOC officials openly discussed deals. COP28 organising teams were excluded from meetings and replaced by ADNOC officials, leaving a closed group that made deals. Tourism Tourism acts as a growth sector for the entire UAE economy. Dubai is the top tourism destination in the Middle East. According to the annual MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index, Dubai is the fifth most popular tourism destination in the world. Dubai holds up to 66% share of the UAE's tourism economy, with Abu Dhabi having 16% and Sharjah 10%. Dubai welcomed 10 million tourists in 2013. The UAE has the most advanced and developed infrastructure in the region. Since the 1980s, the UAE has been spending billions of dollars on infrastructure. These developments are particularly evident in the larger emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The northern emirates are rapidly following suit, providing major incentives for developers of residential and commercial property. The inbound tourism expenditure in the UAE for 2019 accounted for 118.6 per cent share of the outbound tourism expenditure. Since 6 January 2020, tourist visas to the United Arab Emirates are valid for five years. It has been projected that the travel and tourism industry will contribute about 280.6 billion United Arab Emirati dirham to the UAE's GDP by 2028. The country's major tourist attraction includes the famous Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest tower in the world; The World archipelago and Palm Jumeirah also in Dubai; Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi; Al Hajar Mountains in Fujairah. The uniqueness of the country's natural desert life, especially with the Bedouins, also facilitates the country's tourist industry. Transport Dubai International Airport became the busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic in 2014, overtaking London Heathrow. Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, and Ras Al Khaimah are connected by the E11 highway, which is the longest road in the UAE. In Dubai, in addition to the Dubai Metro, The Dubai Tram and Palm Jumeirah Monorail also connect specific parts of the city. There is also a bus, taxi, abra (traditional boat) and water taxi network run by RTA. T1, a double-decker tram system in Downtown Dubai, were operational from 2015 to 2019. Salik, meaning "open" or "clear", is Dubai's electronic toll collection system that was launched in July 2007 and is part of Dubai's traffic congestion management system. Each time one passes through a Salik tolling point, a toll is deducted from the drivers' prepaid toll account using advanced Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. There are four Salik tolling points placed in strategic locations in Dubai: at Al Maktoum Bridge, Al Garhoud Bridge, and along Sheikh Zayed Road at Al Safa and Al Barsha. A 1,200 km (750 mi) country-wide railway is under construction which will connect all the major cities and ports. The Dubai Metro is the first urban train network in the Arabian Peninsula. The major ports of the United Arab Emirates are Khalifa Port, Zayed Port, Port Jebel Ali, Port Rashid, Port Khalid, Port Saeed, and Port Khor Fakkan. The Emirates are increasingly developing their logistics and ports in order to participate in trade between Europe and China or Africa. For this purpose, ports are being rapidly expanded and investments are being made in their technology. The Emirates have historically been and currently still are part of the Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast to the south via the southern tip of India to Mombasa, from there through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region and the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its rail connections to Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the North Sea. Telecommunications The United Arab Emirates is served by two telecommunications operators, Etisalat and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company ("du"). Etisalat operated a monopoly until du launched mobile services in February 2007. Internet subscribers were expected to increase from 0.904 million in 2007 to 2.66 million in 2012. The regulator, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, mandates filtering websites for religious, political and sexual content. 5G wireless services were installed nationwide in 2019 through a partnership with Huawei. Competitiveness In June 2024 it was reported, that the UAE has moved up three place to the 7th place among the top 10 countries in the IMD World Competitiveness. This ranking is issued by the World Competitiveness Centre of the Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland. Demographics According to an estimate by the World Bank, the UAE's population in 2020 was 9,890,400. Immigrants accounted for 88.52% while Emiratis made up the remaining 11.48%. This unique imbalance is due to the country's exceptionally high net migration rate of 21.71, the world's highest. UAE citizenship is very difficult to obtain other than by filiation and only granted under very special circumstances. The UAE is ethnically diverse. The five most populous nationalities in the emirates of Dubai, Sharjah, and Ajman are Indian (25%), Pakistani (12%), Emirati (9%), Bangladeshi (7%), and Filipino (5%). Immigrants from Europe, Australia, North America make up 500,000 of the population. 250,000 British nationals live in the country. The rest of the population are from other Arab states. About 88% of the population of the United Arab Emirates is urban. The average life expectancy was 76.7 in 2012, higher than for any other Arab country. With a male/female sex ratio of 2.2 males for each female in the total population and 2.75 to 1 for the 15–65 age group, the UAE's gender imbalance is second highest in the world after Qatar. Largest cities Language Modern Standard Arabic is the national language of the United Arab Emirates. English is the most commonly spoken language, whereas Emirati Arabic, a variety of Gulf Arabic, is spoken natively by Emirati people. Religion Islam is the largest and the official state religion of the United Arab Emirates. The government follows a policy of tolerance toward other religions and rarely interferes in the religious activities of non-Muslims. There are more Sunni than Shia Muslims in the United Arab Emirates, and 85% of the Emirati population are Sunni Muslims. The vast majority of the remainder 15% are Shia Muslims, who are concentrated in the Emirates of Dubai and Sharjah. Although no official statistics are available for the breakdown between Sunni and Shia Muslims among noncitizen residents, media estimates suggest less than 20% of the noncitizen Muslim population are Shia. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is the largest mosque in the country and a major tourist attraction. Ibadi is common among Omanis in the UAE, while Sufi influences exist as well. Christians account for 9% of the total population of the United Arab Emirates, according to the 2005 census; estimates in 2010 suggested a figure of 12.6%. Roman Catholics and Protestants form significant proportions of the Christian minority. The country has over 52 churches in 2023. Many Christians in the United Arab Emirates are of Asian, African, and European origin, along with fellow Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. The United Arab Emirates forms part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia and the Vicar Apostolic Bishop Paul Hinder is based in Abu Dhabi. There is a small Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates. Before 2023, there was only one known synagogue in Dubai, which has been open since 2008 and the synagogue also welcomes visitors. Another synagogue, Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue was completed in 2023 as part of the Abrahamic Family House complex in Abu Dhabi. As of 2019, according to Rabbi Marc Schneier of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, it is estimated that there are about 150 families to 3,000 Jews who live and worship freely in the UAE. South Asians in the United Arab Emirates constitute the largest ethnic group in the country. Over 2 million Indian migrants (mostly from the southern states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Coastal Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) are estimated to be living in the UAE. There are currently three Hindu temples in the country. Other religions also exist in the United Arab Emirates, including Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism, Baháʼís and Druze. The UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Abdullah bin Zayed, announced in 2019 the design and construction plan of the Abrahamic Family House, which will serve as an interfaith complex that houses a synagogue, mosque, and a church on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. Education The education system through secondary level administered by the Ministry of Education in all emirates except Abu Dhabi, where it falls under the authority of the Department of Education and Knowledge. Public schools are divided into primary schools, middle schools and high schools. The public schools are government-funded and the curriculum is created to match the United Arab Emirates' development goals. The medium of instruction in the public school is Arabic with emphasis on English as a second language. There are also many private schools which are internationally accredited. Public schools in the country are free for citizens of the UAE, while the fees for private schools vary. The higher education system is monitored by the Ministry of Higher Education. The ministry also is responsible for admitting students to its undergraduate institutions. The adult literacy rate in 2015 was 93.8%. The UAE has shown a strong interest in improving education and research. Enterprises include the establishment of the CERT Research Centres and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and Institute for Enterprise Development. According to the QS Rankings, the top-ranking universities in the country are the United Arab Emirates University (421–430th worldwide), Khalifa University (441–450th worldwide), the American University of Sharjah (431–440th) and University of Sharjah (551–600th worldwide). United Arab Emirates was ranked 33rd in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, up from 36th in 2019. Health The life expectancy at birth in the UAE is at 76.96 years. Cardiovascular disease is the principal cause of death in the UAE, constituting 28% of total deaths; other major causes are accidents and injuries, malignancies, and congenital anomalies. According to World Health Organization data from 2016, 34.5% of adults in the UAE are clinically obese, with a body mass index (BMI) score of 30 or more. In February 2008, the Ministry of Health unveiled a five-year health strategy for the public health sector in the northern emirates, which fall under its purview and which, unlike Abu Dhabi and Dubai, do not have separate healthcare authorities. The strategy focuses on unifying healthcare policy and improving access to healthcare services at reasonable cost, at the same time reducing dependence on overseas treatment. The ministry plans to add three hospitals to the current 14, and 29 primary healthcare centres to the current 86. Nine were scheduled to open in 2008. The introduction of mandatory health insurance in Abu Dhabi for expatriates and their dependents was a major driver in reform of healthcare policy. Abu Dhabi nationals were brought under the scheme from 1 June 2008 and Dubai followed for its government employees. Eventually, under federal law, every Emirati and expatriate in the country will be covered by compulsory health insurance under a unified mandatory scheme. The country has benefited from medical tourists from all over the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. The UAE attracts medical tourists seeking cosmetic surgery and advanced procedures, cardiac and spinal surgery, and dental treatment, as health services have higher standards than other Arab countries in the Persian Gulf. Culture Emirati culture is based on Arabian culture and has been influenced by the cultures of Persia, India, and East Africa. Arabian and Arabian inspired architecture is part of the expression of the local Emirati identity. Arabian influence on Emirati culture is noticeably visible in traditional Emirati architecture and folk arts. For example, the distinctive wind tower that tops traditional Emirati buildings, the barjeel, has become an identifying mark of Emirati architecture and is attributed to Arabian influence. This influence is derived both from traders who fled the tax regime in Persia in the early 19th century and from Emirati ownership of ports on the Arabian coast, for instance the Al Qassimi port of Lingeh. The United Arab Emirates has a diverse society. Dubai's economy depends more on international trade and tourism, and is more open to visitors, while Abu Dhabi society is more domestic as the city's economy is focused on fossil fuel extraction. Major holidays in the United Arab Emirates include Eid al Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and National Day (2 December), which marks the formation of the United Arab Emirates. Emirati males prefer to wear a kandura, an ankle-length white tunic woven from wool or cotton, and Emirati women wear an abaya, a black over-garment that covers most parts of the body. The earliest known poet in the UAE is Ibn Majid, born between 1432 and 1437 in Ras Al-Khaimah. The most famous Emirati writers were Mubarak Al Oqaili (1880–1954), Salem bin Ali al Owais (1887–1959) and Ahmed bin Sulayem (1905–1976). Three other poets from Sharjah, known as the Hirah group, are observed to have been heavily influenced by the Apollo and Romantic poets. The Sharjah International Book Fair is the oldest and largest in the country. The list of museums in the United Arab Emirates includes some of regional repute, most famously Sharjah with its Heritage District containing 17 museums, which in 1998 was the Cultural Capital of the Arab World. In Dubai, the area of Al Quoz has attracted a number of art galleries as well as museums such as the Salsali Private Museum. Abu Dhabi has established a culture district on Saadiyat Island. Six grand projects are planned, including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Dubai also plans to build a Kunsthal museum and a district for galleries and artists. Emirati culture is a part of the culture of Eastern Arabia. Liwa is a type of music and dance performed locally, mainly in communities that contain descendants of Bantu peoples from the African Great Lakes region. The Dubai Desert Rock Festival is also another major festival consisting of heavy metal and rock artists. The cinema of the United Arab Emirates is minimal but expanding. Media The UAE's media is annually classified as "not free" in the Freedom of the Press report by Freedom House. The UAE ranks poorly in the annual Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders. Dubai Media City is the UAE's main media zone. The UAE is home to some pan-Arab broadcasters, including the Middle East Broadcasting Centre and Orbit Showtime Network. In 2007, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum decreed that journalists can no longer be prosecuted or imprisoned for reasons relating to their work. At the same time, the UAE has made it illegal to disseminate online material that can threaten "public order", and hands down prison terms for those who "deride or damage" the reputation of the state and "display contempt" for religion. Journalists who are arrested for violating this law are often brutally beaten by the police. According to UAE Year Book 2013, there are seven Arabic newspapers and eight English language newspapers, as well as a Tagalog newspaper produced and published in the UAE. New media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are used widely in the UAE by the government entities and by the public as well. The UAE government avails official social media accounts to communicate with public and hear their needs. In recent years, there has been a notable surge in digital media consumption in the UAE, driven by the widespread use of platforms like Snapchat and TikTok among the younger population. Influencers on these platforms play a significant role in shaping trends and promoting various products and services. The government has also implemented digital initiatives to enhance e-Government services and promote smart city concepts, further demonstrating the UAE's commitment to technological advancements. Cuisine The traditional food of the Emirates has always been rice, fish, and meat. The people of the United Arab Emirates have adopted most of their foods from other West and South Asian countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Pakistan and India. Seafood has been the mainstay of the Emirati diet for centuries. Meat and rice are other staple foods, with lamb and mutton preferred to goat and beef. Popular beverages are coffee and tea, which can be complemented with cardamom or saffron to give them a distinctive flavour. Popular cultural Emirati dishes include threed, machboos, khubisa, khameer and chabab bread among others while lugaimat is a famous Emirati dessert. With the influence of western culture, fast food has become very popular among young people, to the extent that campaigns have been held to highlight the dangers of fast food excesses. Alcohol is allowed to be served only in hotel restaurants and bars. All nightclubs are permitted to sell alcohol. Specific supermarkets may sell alcohol, but these products are sold in separate sections. Likewise, pork, which is haram (not permitted for Muslims), is sold in separate sections in all major supermarkets. Although alcohol may be consumed, it is illegal to be intoxicated in public or drive a motor vehicle with any trace of alcohol in the blood. Sports Formula One is particularly popular in the United Arab Emirates, and a Grand Prix is annually held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The race takes place in the evening, and was the first ever Grand Prix to start in daylight and finish at night. Other popular sports include camel racing, falconry, endurance riding, and tennis. The emirate of Dubai is also home to two major golf courses: the Dubai Golf Club and Emirates Golf Club. In the past, child camel jockeys were used, leading to widespread criticism. Eventually, the UAE passed laws banning the use of children for the sport, leading to the prompt removal of almost all child jockeys. Recently robot jockeys have been introduced to overcome the problem of child camel jockeys which was an issue of human rights violations. Ansar Burney is often praised for the work he has done in this area. Football Football is a popular sport in the UAE. Al Nasr, Al Ain, Al Wasl, Sharjah, Al Wahda, and Shabab Al Ahli are the most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The United Arab Emirates Football Association was established in 1971 and since then has dedicated its time and effort to promoting the game, organising youth programmes and improving the abilities of not only its players, but also the officials and coaches involved with its regional teams. The UAE qualified for the FIFA World Cup in 1990, along with Egypt. It was the third consecutive World Cup with two Arab nations qualifying, after Kuwait and Algeria in 1982, and Iraq and Algeria again in 1986. The UAE has won the Gulf Cup Championship twice: the first cup won in January 2007 held in Abu Dhabi and the second in January 2013, held in Bahrain. The country hosted the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. The UAE team went all the way to the semi-finals, where they were defeated by the eventual champions, Qatar. Cricket Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the UAE, largely because of the expatriate population from the SAARC countries, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The headquarters of the International Cricket Council (ICC) have been located in the Dubai Sports City complex since 2005, including the ICC Academy which was established in 2009. There are a number of international cricket venues in the UAE, which are frequently used for international tournaments and "neutral" bilateral series due to the local climate and Dubai's status as a transport hub. Notable international tournaments hosted by the UAE have included the 2014 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, and three editions of the Asia Cup (1984, 1995 and 2018). Notable grounds include the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium in Sharjah, Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, and Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai. The Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) became a member of the ICC in 1990. The UAE national cricket team has qualified for the Cricket World Cup on two occasions (1996 and 2015) and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup on two occasions (2014 and 2022). The national women's team is similarly one of the strongest associate teams in Asia, notably participating in the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier. Following the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team, the UAE served as the de facto home of the Pakistan national cricket team for nearly a decade, as well as hosting the Pakistan Super League. The UAE has also hosted one full edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2020 and two partial editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2014 and 2021. See also List of United Arab Emirates–related topics Outline of the United Arab Emirates Notes References Further reading External links Government portal of the United Arab Emirates Archived 24 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine, (U.AE) The World Government Summit – UAE The 2020 World Exposition in UAE United Arab Emirates. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. United Arab Emirates web resources provided by GovPubs at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries United Arab Emirates at Curlie United Arab Emirates profile from the BBC News. Wikimedia Atlas of United Arab Emirates World Bank Summary Trade Statistics United Arab Emirates Timeline of the United Arab Emirates History from Bronze Age to present day

Economy_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates

The United Arab Emirates is a high-income developing market economy. The UAE's economy is the 4th largest in the Middle East (after Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel), with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$415 billion (AED 1.83 trillion) in 2021-2023. The UAE economy is heavily reliant on revenues from petroleum and natural gas, especially in Abu Dhabi. In 2009, more than 85% of the UAE's economy was based on the oil exports. In 2011, oil exports accounted for 77% of the UAE's state budget. In recent years, there has been some economic diversification, particularly in Dubai. Abu Dhabi and other UAE emirates have remained relatively conservative in their approach to diversification. Dubai has far smaller oil reserves than its counterparts. Tourism is one of the biggest non-oil sources of revenue in the UAE. A massive construction boom, an expanding manufacturing base, and a thriving services sector are helping the country to diversify its economy. Nationwide, there is currently US $350 billion worth of active construction projects. The UAE is a member of the World Trade Organization and OPEC. Economic overview UAE has the second-largest economy in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia), with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$414 billion (AED 1.52 trillion) in 2018. A third of the GDP is from oil revenues. The economy was expected to grow 4–4.5% in 2013, compared to 2.3–3.5% over the previous five years. Since independence in 1971, UAE's economy has grown by nearly 231 times to AED1.45 trillion in 2013. The non-oil trade has grown to AED1.2 trillion, a growth of around 28 times from 1981 to 2012. The UAE's economy is one of the most open worldwide, and its economic history goes back to the times when ships sailed to India, along the Swahili coast, as far south as Mozambique. The UAE economy has been ‘inspected’ by international economic institutions on a regular basis, generally receiving good reports on economic developments. International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected UAE's economic growth to increase to 4.5% in 2015, compared to 4.3% in 2014. The IMF ascribed UAE's potentially strong economic growth in World Economic Outlook Report to the increased contribution of non-petroleum sectors, which registered a growth average of more than 6% in 2014 and 2015. Such contribution includes banking, tourism, commerce and real estate. Increase of Emirati purchasing power and governmental expenditures in infrastructure projects have considerably increased. Internationally, UAE is ranked among the top 20 for global service business, according to AT Kearney, the top 30 on the WEF "most-networked countries" and in the top quarter as a least corrupt country per the TI's corruption index. The government of the United Arab Emirates announced a broad restructuring and merger of more than 50% of its federal agencies, including ministries and departments, in an attempt to deal with and recover from the economic shocks following months-long coronavirus lockdown. Historical background Before independence from the United Kingdom and unification in 1971, each emirate was responsible for its own economy. At the time, pearl diving, seafaring and fishing were together the mainstay of the economy, until the development of Japanese cultured pearls and the discovery of commercial quantities of oil. Previous UAE President Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan is credited with bringing the country forward into the 20th century and using the revenue from oil exports to fund all the necessary development. Likewise, former UAE vice-president Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum had a bold vision for the Emirate of Dubai and foresaw the future in not petroleum alone, but also other industries. In the 1980s Dubai's diversification centred around trade and the creation of shipping and logistics centres, notably Port Rashid and the port and Free Zone of Jebel Ali as well as Dubai International Airport, leading to a number of major global plays in shipping, transportation and logistics (DP World, Emirates, DNATA). Recent history The emergence of Dubai's lively real estate market was briefly checked by the global financial crisis of 2007–8, when Dubai was bailed out by Abu Dhabi. The recovery from the overheated market led to tighter regulation and oversight and a more realistic market for real estate throughout the UAE with many 'on hold' projects restarting. Although the market continues to expand, current market conditions for developers have been characterised as 'tough'. As a result of COVID-19 pandemic, the UAE’s economy shrank by 6.1% in 2020. The country’s account balance dropped to six per cent of GDP in 2020 from 8.5 per cent in 2019 due to the underperformance of both hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon exports mitigated by lower imports. In late 2021, the authority announced that UAE’s banking assets are expected to grow by between 8 per cent and 10 per cent in 2022 as the second-biggest Arab economy continues to recover from the covid-19 pandemic. It was also announced the UAE’s economy might grow at a faster than projected rate, reaching 4.6% in 2022. Data The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2024 (with IMF estimates between 2022-2028). External trade With imports totaling $273.5 billion in 2012, UAE passed Saudi Arabia as the largest consumer market in the region. Exports totaled $314 billion, making UAE the second largest exporter in the region. UAE and India are each other's main trading partners, with the latter having many of its citizens working and living in the former. The trade totals over $75 billion (AED275.25 billion). In 2021, the main export partners of the UAE were India (14.2%), Japan (8.3%), China (mainland) (7.7%), Saudi Arabia (7.5%), Iraq (4.8%), Singapore (4.0%), the European Union (4.0%), Oman (3.8%), Hong Kong (3.4%), and Thailand (3.0%). The main import partners in 2012 were China (17.3%), the European Union (12.1%), India (9.4%), the United States (5.5%), Saudi Arabia (5.2%), the United Kingdom (2.8%), Mali (2.7%), Japan (2.6%), Turkey (2.1%), and Vietnam (2.0%). Diversification of UAE's economy Although UAE has the most diversified economy in the GCC, the UAE's economy remains extremely reliant on oil. With the exception of Dubai, most of the UAE is dependent on oil revenues. Petroleum and natural gas continue to play a central role in the economy, especially in Abu Dhabi. More than 85% of the UAE's economy was based on the oil exports in 2009. While Abu Dhabi and other UAE emirates have remained relatively conservative in their approach to diversification, Dubai, which has far smaller oil reserves, was bolder in its diversification policy. In 2011, oil exports accounted for 77% of the UAE's state budget. Dubai suffered from a significant economic crisis in 2007–2010 and was bailed out by Abu Dhabi's oil wealth. Dubai's current prosperity has been attributed to Abu Dhabi's petrodollars. In 2014, Dubai owed a total of $142 billion in debt. The UAE government has worked towards reducing the economy's dependence on oil exports by 2030. Various projects are underway to help achieve this, the most recent being the Khalifa Port, opened in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi at the end of 2012. The UAE has also won the right to host the World Expo 2020, which is believed to have a positive effect on future growth, although there are some skeptics which mention the opposite. Over the decades, the Emirate of Dubai has started to look for additional sources of revenue. High-class tourism and international finance continue to be developed. In line with this initiative, the Dubai International Financial Centre was announced, offering 55.5% foreign ownership, no withholding tax, freehold land and office space and a tailor-made financial regulatory system with laws taken from best practice in other leading financial centers like New York, London, Zürich and Singapore. A new stock market for regional companies and other initiatives were announced in DIFC. Dubai has also developed Internet and Media free zones, offering 100% foreign ownership, no tax office space for the world's leading ICT and media companies, with the latest communications infrastructure to service them. Many of the world's leading companies have now set up branch offices, and even changed headquarters to, there. Recent liberalization in the property market allowing non citizens to buy freehold land has resulted in a major boom in the construction and real estate sectors, with several signature developments such as the 2 Palm Islands, the World (archipelago), Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Lake Towers, and a number of other developments, offering villas and high rise apartments and office space. Emirates (part of the Emirates Group) was formed by the Dubai Government in the 1980s and is presently one of the few airlines to witness strong levels of growth. Emirates is also the largest operator of the Airbus A380 aircraft. As of 2001, budgeted government revenues were about AED 29.7 billion, and expenditures were about AED 22.9 billion. In addition, to finding new ways of sustaining the national economy, the UAE has also made progress in installing new, sustainable methods of generating electricity. This is evidenced by various solar energy initiatives at Masdar City and by other renewable energy developments in parts of the country. In addition, the UAE is starting to see the emergence of local manufacturing as new source of economic development, examples of significant government-led investments such as Strata in aerospace industry, under Mubadala are successful, while there are also small scale entrepreneurial ventures picking up, such as Zarooq Motors in the automotive industry. In August 2020, the Barakah nuclear power plant, the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world, became operational. In its hard push for economic diversification, the UAE had been increasing its presence in Africa. One of the areas of interest had been clean energy, for which Abu Dhabi’s Masdar built infrastructure, including five wind farms in South Africa, a battery energy storage system in Senegal and solar power facilities in Mauritania. Emirati companies were also investing in fossil fuels, where ADNOC purchased 10% stakes in Mozambique’s Rovuma gas basin. UAE’s e& also established a foothold in around 12 countries across Africa. The Emirati companies also entered the mining sector, where Tahnoun bin Zayed’s International Holding Company expressed investment interests in mines in Kenya, Tanzania and Angola. However, certain investments had also been controversial. Tanzanian authorities were alleged of forcing several Maasai off their land for a safari and hunting project of an Emirati firm. A Dubai-based firm, Blue Carbon signed preliminary agreements in Liberia, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, aiming to generate carbon credits. However, it was accused of attempting to acquire millions of hectares of African forests in a greenwashing attempt. Meanwhile, DP World also invested around $3bn into Africa, and is operating ports from Mozambique in the south to Algeria in the north and Angola on the Atlantic. The Emirates had also been alleged of controversial actions in the war zones in Africa, including in Libya and Sudan. Foreign trade Concerning foreign trade, UAE's market is one of the world's most dynamic markets worldwide, placed among the 16 largest exporters and 20 largest importers of commodities. The top five of the Main Partner Countries of the UAE in 2014 are Iran (3.0%), India (2.9%), Saudi Arabia (1.5%), Oman (1.4%) and Switzerland (1.2%). As for the top five of UAE suppliers are China (7.4%), United States (6.4%), India (5.8%), Germany (3.9%) and Japan (3.5%). In 2014, the United Arab Emirates managed to export 380.4bn dominated by four products which are Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous... (19.8%) Diamonds, whether or not worked, but not mounted... (3.4%) Gold in UAE(3.2%) incl. gold plated with platinum, unwrought...Articles of jewellery and parts thereof, of...(2.8%). In the same year, the United Arab Emirates imported 298.6 bn dominated by five countries which are China (7.4%), United States (6.4%), India (5.8%), Germany (3.9%), Japan (3.5%). On one hand, the United Arab Emirates managed in 2013 to export 17 bn USD services exported in 2013 dominated by travel (67.13%), transportation (28.13%), Government services (4.74%). On the other hand, it imported 63.9 bn USD of services imported services dominated by transportation (70.68%), travel (27.70%) and government services (1.62%). In September 2021, the UAE announced its plans to aggravate its trade ties with other economies, particularly in Asia and Africa. The country indicated that it was looking for inward foreign investments of around $150 billion in the next nine years, that is, by 2030. The Emirates aimed to be one of the world’s ten biggest investment nations. However, it had to face strong competition from its neighbor, Saudi Arabia, creating a broader gap in the once-assumed alliance between the two countries. The Emirati minister of state for foreign trade said, "Let the Saudis increase the competition. It means the pie is going to be bigger and having a bigger pie means that the UAE share out of this pie is going to be bigger." The EU identified that the Emirati firms were involved in direct trade of weapon components to Russia. The EU sanctions targeted two UAE-based companies, I Jet Global and Success Aviation Services, which were exporting dual-use goods. The EU warned that countries that will be used for Russia’s benefit could face a total ban on imports from the EU military and high tech kit. Besides, a trade war with UAE was expected, if it continued trade with Russia. The United Arab Emirates has introduced significant changes to its regulations concerning the promotion and distribution of foreign investment funds within the country. As part of these changes, encapsulated in several decisions by the Securities and Commodities Authority, is that foreign-owned funds can no longer directly advertise or distribute units publicly in the UAE. Instead, these activities are confined to private distribution aimed at Professional Investors and/or Market Counterparties. This shift signifies a strategic move to tighten the circumstances under which foreign funds can interact with UAE-based investors, particularly Retail Customers and Professional Investors, underscoring a push towards a more regulated investment environment. These regulatory updates have also led to changes in the distribution to Professional Investors, as they are now no longer exempt under the Securities and Commodities Authority Rulebook. Only firms licensed by the SCA to conduct the regulated activity of "Promotion" are now permitted to promote such funds, and only on a private placement basis. Furthermore, the promotion or distribution of foreign funds to retail investors is outright prohibited, although reverse solicitation from retail investors is not prohibited in itself. All foreign funds to be distributed in the UAE must be registered with the SCA, barring those that can prove documented reverse solicitation. Three Emirati companies were found involved in trade of Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products, and were sanctioned by the US State Department in June 2024. One of the companies was Sea Route Ship Management FZE, which engaged in transport of Iranian petrochemical products as the commercial manager of the vessel ASTRA. The other two firms, Almanac Ship Management LLC and Al Anchor Ship Management FZE were involved in transport of Iranian petroleum products as the commercial manager of the vessels BERENICE PRIDE and PARINE respectively. In July 2024, Samco Petroleum Energy FZE, located in Hamriyah Free Zone, was put up for sale for $17.7 million, with a promise to provide a turnkey oil trading operation. The sale emerged amidst the US sanctions imposed on several oil traders in the UAE's free trade zones, particularly Hamriyah, for continuing business with Iran and Russia. In November 2023, OFAC sanctioned a dozen companies in various UAE’s free zones for facilitating the sale of Iranian products in third countries through Sepehr Energy, which is affiliated with Iran's Armed Forces General Staff. In March 2023, more companies operating in the UAE were sanctioned for exporting petrochemical products from Iran’s Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries to India and Southeast Asia. The Emirati authorities were also pushed to halt Russian imports and exports via Dubai. In September 2024, the UAE and Australia agreed on a free trade deal, which was expected to increase investment in Australia’s significant mineral and clean energy sectors. The deal was to eliminate tariffs on imports of over 99% of Australian goods. However, Australian unions criticized the deal, highlighting the UAE's poor human rights and labor record, including modern slavery under the kafala system. Michele O'Neil also expressed concerns regarding the exploitation of migrant workers in the UAE, calling it one of the most repressive regimes with which Australia has entered into a bilateral trade deal. Human Resources and Employment Many buildings were built primarily by workers from South Asia and East Asia. This is generally because the current generation of UAE locals prefer governmental jobs and not private sector employment. On 17 June 2008, there were about 7,500 skilled workers employed at the Burj Khalifa construction site. Press reports indicated in 2006 that skilled carpenters at the site earned £4.34 a day, and labourers earned £2.84. According to a BBC investigation and a Human Rights Watch report, the workers were housed in abysmal conditions, and worked long hours for low pay. During construction, only one construction-related death was reported. However, workplace injuries and fatalities in the UAE are "poorly documented", according to Human Rights Watch. In March 2006 about 2,500 workers, upset over buses that were delayed for the end of their shifts, protested and triggered a riot, damaging cars, offices, computers and construction equipment. A Dubai Interior Ministry official said the rioters caused almost £500,000 in damage. Most of the workers involved in the riot returned the following day but refused to work. Workers at Dubai airport also protested. Emiratisation Emiratisation is an initiative by the government of the UAE to employ more UAE Nationals in a meaningful and efficient manner in the public and private sectors. While the program has been in place for more than a decade and results can be seen in the public sector, the private sector is still lagging behind with citizens only representing 0.34% of the private sector workforce. While there is general agreement over the importance of Emiratisation for social, economic and political reasons, there is also some contention as to the impact of localization on organizational efficiency. It is yet unknown whether, and the extent to which, employment of nationals generates returns for MNEs operating in the Middle East. Recent research cautions that localization is not always advantageous for firms operating in the region, and its effectiveness depends on a number of contingent factors. In December 2009 however, a positive impact of UAE citizens in the workplace was identified in a newspaper article citing a yet unpublished study, this advantage being the use of networks within the evolving power structures. Overall, however, uptake in the private sector remains low regardless of significant investments in education, which have reached record levels with education now accounting for 22.5% – or $2.6 billion – of the overall budget planned for 2010. Multiple governmental initiatives are actively promoting Emiratisation by training anyone from high school dropouts to graduates in a multitude of skills needed for the – essentially Western – work environment of the UAE, these initiatives include Tawteen UAE, ENDP or the Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council. There are very few anti-discrimination laws in relation to labour issues, with Emiratis – and other GCC nationals – being given preference when it comes to employment. Unions are generally banned and workers with any labour issues are advised to be in touch with the Ministry of Labour, instead of protesting or refusing to work. Migrant employees often complain of poor workplace safety and wages based on nationality, although this is being slowly addressed. Beyond directly sponsoring educational initiatives, the Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy is funding major research initiatives into Emiratisation through competitive research grants, allowing universities such as United Arab Emirates University or Dubai School of Government to build and disseminate expertise on the topic. Academics working on various aspects of Emiratisation include Paul Dyer[12] and Natasha Ridge from Dubai School of Government, Ingo Forstenlechner[13] from United Arab Emirates University, Kasim Randaree from the British University of Dubai and Paul Knoglinger from the FHWien. In 2020, economy of the United Arab Emirates became vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, witnessing an economic shutdown. Among the Emirates, Dubai was facing extreme situation, where the expat workers were left jobless. Thousands of the Britons working in the city started selling off their possessions to collect money, as the strict visa regulations forced them to return to the UK. According to an April 2021 report published by the Democracy Centre for Transparency on the Discrimination against foreigners and expatriates living in the UAE versus Emirati citizens, despite labor reforms in the UAE, foreigners and skilled or unskilled migrant workers face discrimination and racialization from the citizens of the country. Foreigners and expatriates are often subjected to discrimination at work concerning promotions and wages, or gender inequality. The findings of the DCT concern the organization as the UAE’s economy largely relies on foreign workers and thus fulfills a crucial international role. The organization demands that the UAE abide by universal human rights principles. The 31st edition of World Report 2021 released by Human Rights Watch reiterates that labour abuses driven by an exploitative kafala system are persistent in the UAE. During the Covid-19 pandemic, migrant workers faced massive unemployment issues and were also left stranded in dire conditions without legal residencies. Also, many migrants suffered wage theft and were unable to pay rent or buy food. Investment The stock market capitalization of listed companies in the UAE was valued at $109.9 billion in October 2012 by Bloomberg. Outward investment A investment institutions were created by the government to promote manage investments made by the UAE abroad: Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) Mubadala Development Company (MDC) International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) Dubai World Dubai International Capital (DIC) Inward investment The UAE is in the 17th position in term of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). The report says that the UAE competitiveness stems from "high quality [...] infrastructure" and "highly efficient good markets." Corporate Governance Code The Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) introduced a new corporate governance regulation (the Corporate Governance Code), which applies to all joint stock companies and institutions whose securities are listed on Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) in 2009. Banking On 19 June 2020, rating agency Moody's changed its outlook regarding eight banks in the United Arab Emirates from stable to negative. The change was due to "the potential material weakening in their standalone credit profiles", where the UAE's economy was facing additional challenges amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and low oil prices. The eight banks included Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Emirates NBD, HSBC Bank Middle East, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, National Bank of Fujairah, National Bank of Ras al-Khaimah and Mashreq Bank. The Fitch Ratings in its 22 June 2020 report predicted that the Standalone Credit Profiles of UAE-based banks are to possibly weaken in the following year owing to the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and oil price collapse. As per the Fitch report, despite the implementation of timely measures for supporting the economy, the profitability of banks in the UAE are prone to get affected by a lower non-interest income worsened by a controlled business volume, lower interest rates, and higher loan recovery charges. In addition, the asset quality is expected to weaken, too, following the unbearable impact of the economic downturn that all borrowers may not be able to withstand. Real estate The development in the real estate and infrastructure sectors during the recent year has contributed in making the country a global touristic destination. The contribution of tourism in the Emirati GDP increased from 3% in the mid-1990s to more than 16.5% by the end of 2010. This trend is supported by the huge public investments in touristic projects (47 Billion Dollars per annum) carried mainly to expend airports, increase their capacity, set up new airports and ports. The real estate sector have a positive impact on development, job opportunities, investments and tourism as estate projects were launched to meet the needs of market and the increasing demand for housing and commercial units especially in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The UAE has about 37% of the region's petroleum and gas industries, chemical industries, energy and water and garbage projects. The UAE's government have been injecting huge funds in tourism and real estate projects, especially in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Al Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi and Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest tower in the world, world central near "Jebel Ali" are a point in case of the milestones that have given the UAE its high profile of a global tourist destination. According to 2013–2014 Global Competitiveness Report, the UAE ranked fourth worldwide in terms of infrastructure quality. On 28 November 2020, the Abu Dhabi Media Office announced that the government of United Arab Emirates, ahead of the 49th National Day, granted house loans, land and homes worth $2 billion (7.2 billion dirhams) to their citizens. The package is said to consist 3,099 plots, 2,000 house loans and 601 homes and exempting some families of the deceased citizens and retirees from the repayment of mortgage. The Director General of the Abu Dhabi Housing Society, Basheer Al Mehairbi said the initiative of providing sustainable housing aimed at ensuring a good standard of living for the citizens of the UAE. Real-estate projects Some of the significant real-estate projects are: Burj Khalifa Creek Tower Mohammed bin Rashid City Falcon City of Wonders International City Dubai Marina Jumeirah Beach Residence Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) Business Bay Dubai Hills Dubai South City Walk Al Furjan Dubai Sports City Dubai Motor City Saadiyat Island The World, the Palms and the Palm (artificial islands) Dubai Miracle Garden, the world's largest natural flower garden. Masdar City, a zero carbon, zero waste city. Yas Island, in Abu Dhabi, featuring attractions such as Ferrari World, Yas Marina Financial centers Among the most prominent financial centers in the UAE are: Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), a Dubai-based federal financial free zone Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international financial centre located on Al Maryah Island Regional GDP Data shown are for the year 2023 in nominal numbers. See also Ministry of Finance (United Arab Emirates) Economy of Dubai National Bonds Corporation PJSC List of Free Trade Zones in UAE List of largest companies of the United Arab Emirates Human rights in the United Arab Emirates Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement Notes References External links UAE Economy on the CIA World Factbook United Arab Emirates Economic Development at Curlie Gulf Resources United Arab Emirates World Bank Summary Trade Statistics United Arab Emirates

World%27s_Columbian_Exposition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition

The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, held in Jackson Park, was a large water pool representing the voyage that Columbus took to the New World. Chicago won the right to host the fair over several competing cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American architecture, the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image. The layout of the Chicago Columbian Exposition was predominantly designed by John Wellborn Root, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Charles B. Atwood. It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow Beaux-Arts principles of design, namely neoclassical architecture principles based on symmetry, balance, and splendor. The color of the material generally used to cover the buildings' façades, white staff, gave the fairgrounds its nickname, the White City. Many prominent architects designed its 14 "great buildings". Artists and musicians were featured in exhibits and many also made depictions and works of art inspired by the exposition. The exposition covered 690 acres (2.8 km2), featuring nearly 200 new but temporary buildings of predominantly neoclassical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from 46 countries. More than 27 million people attended the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world's fairs, and it became a symbol of emerging American exceptionalism, much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom. Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World, the fair served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which had destroyed much of the city in 1871. On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a world record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 751,026 people. The debt for the fair was soon paid off with a check for $1.5 million (equivalent to $50.9 million in 2023). Chicago has commemorated the fair with one of the stars on its municipal flag. History Planning and organization Many prominent civic, professional, and commercial leaders from around the United States helped finance, coordinate, and manage the Fair, including Chicago shoe company owner Charles H. Schwab, Chicago railroad and manufacturing magnate John Whitfield Bunn, and Connecticut banking, insurance, and iron products magnate Milo Barnum Richardson, among many others. The fair was planned in the early 1890s during the Gilded Age of rapid industrial growth, immigration, and class tension. World's fairs, such as London's 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition, had been successful in Europe as a way to bring together societies fragmented along class lines. The first American attempt at a world's fair in Philadelphia in 1876 drew crowds, but was a financial failure. Nonetheless, ideas about distinguishing the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing started in the late 1880s. Civic leaders in St. Louis, New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago expressed interest in hosting a fair to generate profits, boost real estate values, and promote their cities. Congress was called on to decide the location. New York financiers J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and William Waldorf Astor, among others, pledged $15 million to finance the fair if Congress awarded it to New York, while Chicagoans Charles T. Yerkes, Marshall Field, Philip Armour, Gustavus Swift, and Cyrus McCormick, Jr., offered to finance a Chicago fair. What finally persuaded Congress was Chicago banker Lyman Gage, who raised several million additional dollars in a 24-hour period, over and above New York's final offer. Chicago representatives not only fought for the world's fair for monetary reasons, but also for reasons of practicality. In a Senate hearing held in January 1890, representative Thomas Barbour Bryan argued that the most important qualities for a world's fair were "abundant supplies of good air and pure water", "ample space, accommodations and transportation for all exhibits and visitors". He argued that New York had too many obstructions, and Chicago would be able to use large amounts of land around the city where there was "not a house to buy and not a rock to blast" and that it would be located so that "the artisan and the farmer and the shopkeeper and the man of humble means" would be able to easily access the fair. Bryan continued to say that the fair was of "vital interest" to the West, and that the West wanted the location to be Chicago. The city spokesmen would continue to stress the essentials of a successful exposition and that only Chicago was fit to fill these exposition requirements. The location of the fair was decided through several rounds of voting by the United States House of Representatives. The first ballot showed Chicago with a large lead over New York, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., but short of a majority. Chicago broke the 154-vote majority threshold on the eighth ballot, receiving 157 votes to New York's 107. The exposition corporation and national exposition commission settled on Jackson Park and an area around it as the fair site. Daniel H. Burnham was selected as director of works, and George R. Davis as director-general. Burnham emphasized architecture and sculpture as central to the fair and assembled the period's top talent to design the buildings and grounds including Frederick Law Olmsted for the grounds. The temporary buildings were designed in an ornate neoclassical style and painted white, resulting in the fair site being referred to as the "White City". The Exposition's offices set up shop in the upper floors of the Rand McNally Building on Adams Street, the world's first all-steel-framed skyscraper. Davis' team organized the exhibits with the help of G. Brown Goode of the Smithsonian. The Midway was inspired by the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition, which included ethnological "villages". Civil rights leaders protested the refusal to include an African American exhibit. Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Irvine Garland Penn, and Ferdinand Lee Barnet co-authored a pamphlet entitled "The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition – The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature" addressing the issue. Wells and Douglass argued, "when it is asked why we are excluded from the World's Columbian Exposition, the answer is Slavery." Ten thousand copies of the pamphlet were circulated in the White City from the Haitian Embassy (where Douglass had been selected as its national representative), and the activists received responses from the delegations of England, Germany, France, Russia, and India. The exhibition did include a limited number of exhibits put on by African Americans, including exhibits by the sculptor Edmonia Lewis, a painting exhibit by scientist George Washington Carver, and a statistical exhibit by Joan Imogen Howard. Black individuals were also featured in white exhibits, such as Nancy Green's portrayal of the character Aunt Jemima for the R. T. Davis Milling Company. Operation The fair opened in May and ran through October 30, 1893. Forty-six nations participated in the fair, which was the first world's fair to have national pavilions. They constructed exhibits and pavilions and named national "delegates"; for example, Haiti selected Frederick Douglass to be its delegate. The Exposition drew over 27 million visitors. The fair was originally meant to be closed on Sundays, but the Chicago Woman's Club petitioned that it stay open. The club felt that if the exposition was closed on Sunday, it would restrict those who could not take off work during the work-week from seeing it. The exposition was located in Jackson Park and on the Midway Plaisance on 630 acres (2.5 km2) in the neighborhoods of South Shore, Jackson Park Highlands, Hyde Park, and Woodlawn. Charles H. Wacker was the director of the fair. The layout of the fairgrounds was created by Frederick Law Olmsted, and the Beaux-Arts architecture of the buildings was under the direction of Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the fair. Renowned local architect Henry Ives Cobb designed several buildings for the exposition. The director of the American Academy in Rome, Francis Davis Millet, directed the painted mural decorations. Indeed, it was a coming-of-age for the arts and architecture of the "American Renaissance", and it showcased the burgeoning neoclassical and Beaux-Arts styles. Assassination of mayor and end of fair The fair ended with the city in shock, as popular mayor Carter Harrison Sr. was assassinated by Patrick Eugene Prendergast two days before the fair's closing. Closing ceremonies were canceled in favor of a public memorial service. Jackson Park was returned to its status as a public park, in much better shape than its original swampy form. The lagoon was reshaped to give it a more natural appearance, except for the straight-line northern end where it still laps up against the steps on the south side of the Palace of Fine Arts/Museum of Science & Industry building. The Midway Plaisance, a park-like boulevard which extends west from Jackson Park, once formed the southern boundary of the University of Chicago, which was being built as the fair was closing (the university has since developed south of the Midway). The university's football team, the Maroons, were the original "Monsters of the Midway." The exposition is mentioned in the university's alma mater: "The City White hath fled the earth, / But where the azure waters lie, / A nobler city hath its birth, / The City Gray that ne'er shall die." Attractions The World's Columbian Exposition was the first world's fair with an area for amusements that was strictly separated from the exhibition halls. This area, developed by a young music promoter, Sol Bloom, concentrated on Midway Plaisance and introduced the term "midway" to American English to describe the area of a carnival or fair where sideshows are located. It included carnival rides, among them the original Ferris Wheel, built by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. This wheel was 264 feet (80 m) high and had 36 cars, each of which could accommodate 40 people. The importance of the Columbian Exposition is highlighted by the use of rueda de Chicago ("Chicago wheel") in many Latin American countries such as Costa Rica and Chile in reference to the Ferris wheel. One attendee, George C. Tilyou, later credited the sights he saw on the Chicago midway for inspiring him to create America's first major amusement park, Steeplechase Park in Coney Island, New York. The fair included life-size reproductions of Christopher Columbus' three ships, the Niña (real name Santa Clara), the Pinta, and the Santa María. These were intended to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the Americas. The ships were constructed in Spain and then sailed to America for the exposition. The celebration of Columbus was an intergovernmental project, coordinated by American special envoy William Eleroy Curtis, the Queen Regent of Spain, and Pope Leo XIII. The ships were a very popular exhibit. Eadweard Muybridge gave a series of lectures on the Science of Animal Locomotion in the Zoopraxographical Hall, built specially for that purpose on Midway Plaisance. He used his zoopraxiscope to show his moving pictures to a paying public. The hall was the first commercial movie theater. The "Street in Cairo" included the popular dancer known as Little Egypt. She introduced America to the suggestive version of the belly dance known as the "hootchy-kootchy," to a tune said to have been improvised by Sol Bloom (and now more commonly associated with snake charmers) which he had composed when his dancers had no music to dance to. Bloom did not copyright the song, putting it immediately in the public domain. Also included was the first moving walkway or travelator, which was designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee. It had two different divisions: one where passengers were seated, and one where riders could stand or walk. It ran in a loop down the length of a lakefront pier to a casino. Although denied a spot at the fair, Buffalo Bill Cody decided to come to Chicago anyway, setting up his Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show just outside the edge of the exposition. Nearby, historian Frederick Jackson Turner gave academic lectures reflecting on the end of the frontier which Buffalo Bill represented. The electrotachyscope of Ottomar Anschütz was demonstrated, which used a Geissler tube to project the illusion of moving images. Louis Comfort Tiffany made his reputation with a stunning chapel designed and built for the Exposition. After the Exposition the Tiffany Chapel was sold several times, even going back to Tiffany's estate. It was eventually reconstructed and restored and in 1999 it was installed at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. Architect Kirtland Cutter's Idaho Building, a rustic log construction, was a popular favorite, visited by an estimated 18 million people. The building's design and interior furnishings were a major precursor of the Arts and Crafts movement. Among the other attractions at the fair, several products that are well-known today were introduced. These products included Juicy Fruit gum, Cream of Wheat, Cracker Jacks, Shredded Wheat cereal, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, among many others. Anthropology There was an Anthropology Building at the World's Fair. Nearby, "The Cliff Dwellers" featured a rock and timber structure that was painted to recreate Battle Rock Mountain in Colorado, a stylized recreation of an American Indian cliff dwelling with pottery, weapons, and other relics on display. There was also an Eskimo display. There were also birch bark wigwams of the Penobscot tribe. Nearby was a working model Indian school, organized by the Office of Indian Affairs, that housed delegations of Native American students and their teachers from schools around the country for weeks at a time. Rail The John Bull locomotive was displayed. It was only 62 years old, having been built in 1831. It was the first locomotive acquisition by the Smithsonian Institution. The locomotive ran under its own power from Washington, DC, to Chicago to participate, and returned to Washington under its own power again when the exposition closed. In 1981 it was the oldest surviving operable steam locomotive in the world when it ran under its own power again. A Baldwin 2-4-2 locomotive was showcased at the exposition, and subsequently the 2-4-2 type was known as the Columbia. An original frog switch and portion of the superstructure of the famous 1826 Granite Railway in Massachusetts could be viewed. This was the first commercial railroad in the United States to evolve into a common carrier without an intervening closure. The railway brought granite stones from a rock quarry in Quincy, Massachusetts, so that the Bunker Hill Monument could be erected in Boston. The frog switch is now on public view in East Milton Square, Massachusetts, on the original right-of-way of the Granite Railway. Transportation by rail was the major mode of transportation. A 26-track train station was built at the southwest corner of the fair. While trains from around the country would unload there, there was a local train to shuttle tourists from the Chicago Grand Central Station to the fair. The newly built Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad also served passengers from Congress Terminal to the fairgrounds at Jackson Park. The line exists today as part of the CTA Green Line. Country and state exhibition buildings Forty-six countries had pavilions at the exposition. Norway participated by sending the Viking, a replica of the Gokstad ship. It was built in Norway and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean by 12 men, led by Captain Magnus Andersen. In 1919, this ship was moved to Lincoln Park. It was relocated in 1996 to Good Templar Park in Geneva, Illinois, where it awaits renovation. Thirty-four U.S. states also had their own pavilions. The work of noted feminist author Kate McPhelim Cleary was featured during the opening of the Nebraska Day ceremonies at the fair, which included a reading of her poem "Nebraska". Among the state buildings present at the fair were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas; each was meant to be architecturally representative of the corresponding states. Four United States territories also had pavilions located in one building: Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah. Visitors to the Louisiana Pavilion were each given a seedling of a cypress tree. This resulted in the spread of cypress trees to areas where they were not native. Cypress trees from those seedlings can be found in many areas of West Virginia, where they flourish in the climate. The Illinois was a detailed, full-scale mockup of an Indiana-class battleship, constructed as a naval exhibit. Guns and artillery The German firm Krupp had a pavilion of artillery, which apparently had cost one million dollars to stage, including a coastal gun of 42 cm in bore (16.54 inches) and a length of 33 calibres (45.93 feet, 14 meters). A breech-loaded gun, it weighed 120.46 long tons (122.4 metric tons). According to the company's marketing: "It carried a charge projectile weighing from 2,200 to 2,500 pounds which, when driven by 900 pounds of brown powder, was claimed to be able to penetrate at 2,200 yards a wrought-iron plate three feet thick if placed at right angles." Nicknamed "The Thunderer", the gun had an advertised range of 15 miles. On this occasion John Schofield declared Krupps' guns "the greatest peacemakers in the world". This gun was later seen as a precursor of the company's World War I Dicke Berta howitzers. Religions The 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions, which ran from September 11 to September 27, marked the first formal gathering of representatives of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions from around the world. According to Eric J. Sharpe, Tomoko Masuzawa, and others, the event was considered radical at the time, since it allowed non-Christian faiths to speak on their own behalf. For example, it is recognized as the first public mention of the Baháʼí Faith in North America; it was not taken seriously by European scholars until the 1960s. Moving walkway Along the banks of the lake, patrons on the way to the casino were taken on a moving walkway designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee, the first of its kind open to the public, called The Great Wharf, Moving Sidewalk, it allowed people to walk along or ride in seats. Horticulture Horticultural exhibits at the Horticultural Hall included cacti and orchids as well as other plants in a greenhouse. Architecture White City Most of the buildings of the fair were designed in the neoclassical architecture style. The area at the Court of Honor was known as The White City. Façades were made not of stone, but of a mixture of plaster, cement, and jute fiber called staff, which was painted white, giving the buildings their "gleam". Architecture critics derided the structures as "decorated sheds.” The buildings were clad in white stucco, which, in comparison to the tenements of Chicago, seemed illuminated. It was also called the White City because of the extensive use of street lights, which made the boulevards and buildings usable at night. In 1892, working under extremely tight deadlines to complete construction, director of works Daniel Burnham appointed Francis Davis Millet to replace the fair's official director of color-design, William Pretyman. Pretyman had resigned following a dispute with Burnham. After experimenting, Millet settled on a mix of oil and white lead whitewash that could be applied using compressed air spray painting to the buildings, taking considerably less time than traditional brush painting. Joseph Binks, maintenance supervisor at Chicago's Marshall Field's Wholesale Store, who had been using this method to apply whitewash to the subbasement walls of the store, got the job to paint the Exposition buildings. Claims this was the first use of spray painting may be apocryphal since journals from that time note this form of painting had already been in use in the railroad industry from the early 1880s. Many of the buildings included sculptural details and, to meet the Exposition's opening deadline, chief architect Burnham sought the help of Chicago Art Institute instructor Lorado Taft to help complete them. Taft's efforts included employing a group of talented women sculptors from the Institute known as "the White Rabbits" to finish some of the buildings, getting their name from Burnham's comment "Hire anyone, even white rabbits if they'll do the work." The words "Thine alabaster cities gleam" from the song "America the Beautiful" were inspired by the White City. Role in the City Beautiful movement The White City is largely credited for ushering in the City Beautiful movement and planting the seeds of modern city planning. The highly integrated design of the landscapes, promenades, and structures provided a vision of what is possible when planners, landscape architects, and architects work together on a comprehensive design scheme. The White City inspired cities to focus on the beautification of the components of the city in which municipal government had control; streets, municipal art, public buildings, and public spaces. The designs of the City Beautiful Movement (closely tied with the municipal art movement) are identifiable by their classical architecture, plan symmetry, picturesque views, and axial plans, as well as their magnificent scale. Where the municipal art movement focused on beautifying one feature in a city, the City Beautiful movement began to make improvements on the scale of the district. The White City of the World's Columbian Exposition inspired the Merchants Club of Chicago to commission Daniel Burnham to create the Plan of Chicago in 1909. Great buildings There were fourteen main "great buildings": 17  centered around a giant reflective pool called the Grand Basin. Buildings included: The Administration Building, designed by Richard Morris Hunt The Agricultural Building, designed by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead & White The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, designed by George B. Post. If this building were standing today, it would rank third in volume (8,500,000m3) and eighth in footprint (130,000 m2) on list of largest buildings. It exhibited works related to literature, science, art and music. The Mines and Mining Building, designed by Solon Spencer Beman The Electricity Building, designed by Henry Van Brunt and Frank Maynard Howe The Machinery Hall, designed by Robert Swain Peabody of Peabody and Stearns The Woman's Building, designed by Sophia Hayden The Transportation Building, designed by Adler & Sullivan The Fisheries Building designed by Henry Ives Cobb: 23  Forestry Building designed by Charles B. Atwood Horticultural Building designed by Jenney and Mundie Anthropology Building designed by Charles B. Atwood Transportation Building Louis Sullivan's polychrome proto-Modern Transportation Building was an outstanding exception to the prevailing style, as he tried to develop an organic American form. Years later, in 1922, he wrote that the classical style of the White City had set back modern American architecture by forty years. As detailed in Erik Larson's popular history The Devil in the White City, extraordinary effort was required to accomplish the exposition, and much of it was unfinished on opening day. The famous Ferris Wheel, which proved to be a major attendance draw and helped save the fair from bankruptcy, was not finished until June, because of waffling by the board of directors the previous year on whether to build it. Frequent debates and disagreements among the developers of the fair added many delays. The spurning of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show proved a serious financial mistake. Buffalo Bill set up his highly popular show next door to the fair and brought in a great deal of revenue that he did not have to share with the developers. Nonetheless, construction and operation of the fair proved to be a windfall for Chicago workers during the serious economic recession that was sweeping the country. Surviving structures Almost all of the fair's structures were designed to be temporary; of the more than 200 buildings erected for the fair, the only two which still stand in place are the Palace of Fine Arts and the World's Congress Auxiliary Building. From the time the fair closed until 1920, the Palace of Fine Arts housed the Field Columbian Museum (now the Field Museum of Natural History, since relocated); in 1933 (having been completely rebuilt in permanent materials), the Palace building re-opened as the Museum of Science and Industry. The second building, the World's Congress Building, was one of the few buildings not built in Jackson Park, instead it was built downtown in Grant Park. The cost of construction of the World's Congress Building was shared with the Art Institute of Chicago, which, as planned, moved into the building (the museum's current home) after the close of the fair. The three other significant buildings that survived the fair represented Norway, the Netherlands, and the State of Maine. The Norway Building was a recreation of a traditional wooden stave church. After the Fair it was relocated to Lake Geneva, and in 1935 was moved to a museum called Little Norway in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. In 2015 it was dismantled and shipped back to Norway, where it was restored and reassembled. The second is the Maine State Building, designed by Charles Sumner Frost, which was purchased by the Ricker family of Poland Spring, Maine. They moved the building to their resort to serve as a library and art gallery. The Poland Spring Preservation Society now owns the building, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The third is The Dutch House, which was moved to Brookline, Massachusetts. The 1893 Viking ship that was sailed to the Exposition from Norway by Captain Magnus Andersen is located in Geneva, Illinois. The ship is open to visitors on scheduled days April through October. The main altar at St. John Cantius in Chicago, as well as its matching two side altars, are reputed to be from the Columbian Exposition. Since many of the other buildings at the fair were intended to be temporary, they were removed after the fair. The White City so impressed visitors (at least before air pollution began to darken the façades) that plans were considered to refinish the exteriors in marble or some other material. These plans were abandoned in July 1894, when much of the fair grounds was destroyed in a fire. Gallery Later criticisms Frank Lloyd Wright later wrote that "By this overwhelming rise of grandomania I was confirmed in my fear that a native architecture would be set back at least fifty years." According to University of Notre Dame history professor Gail Bederman, the event symbolized a male-dominated and Eurocentrist society. In her 1995 text Manliness and Civilization, she writes, "The White City, with its vision of future perfection and of the advanced racial power of manly commerce and technology, constructed civilization as an ideal of white male power." According to Bederman, people of color were barred entirely from participating in the organization of the White City and were instead given access only to the Midway exhibit, "which specialized in spectacles of barbarous races – 'authentic' villages of Samoans, Egyptians, Dahomans, Turks, and other exotic peoples, populated by actual imported 'natives.'" Two small exhibits were included in the White City's "Woman's Building" which addressed women of color. One, entitled "Afro-American" was installed in a distant corner of the building. The other, called "Woman's Work in Savagery," included baskets, weavings, and African, Polynesian, and Native American arts. Though they were produced by living women of color, the materials were represented as relics from the distant past, embodying "the work of white women's own distant evolutionary foremothers." Visitors Helen Keller, along with her mentor Anne Sullivan and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, visited the fair in summer 1893. Keller described the fair in her autobiography The Story of My Life. Early in July, a Wellesley College English teacher named Katharine Lee Bates visited the fair. The White City later inspired the reference to "alabaster cities" in her poem and lyrics "America the Beautiful". The exposition was extensively reported by Chicago publisher William D. Boyce's reporters and artists. There is a very detailed and vivid description of all facets of this fair by the Persian traveler Mirza Mohammad Ali Mo'in ol-Saltaneh written in Persian. He departed from Persia on April 20, 1892, especially for the purpose of visiting the World's Columbian Exposition. Pierre de Coubertin visited the fair with his friends Paul Bourget and Samuel Jean de Pozzi. He devotes the first chapter of his book Souvenirs d'Amérique et de Grèce (1897) to the visit. Swami Vivekananda visited the fair to attend the Parliament of the World's Religions and delivered his famous speech Sisters and Brothers of America!. Kubota Beisen was an official delegate of Japan. As an artist, he sketched hundreds of scenes, some of which were later used to make woodblock print books about the Exhibition. Serial killer H. H. Holmes attended the fair with two of his eventual victims, Annie and Minnie Williams. Bulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov visited the fair and wrote his nonfiction book To Chicago and Back. Souvenirs Examples of exposition souvenirs can be found in various American museum collections. One example, copyrighted in 1892 by John W. Green, is a folding hand fan with detailed illustrations of landscapes and architecture. Charles W Goldsmith produced a set of ten postcard designs, each in full colour, showing the buildings constructed for the exhibition. Columbian Exposition coins were also minted for the event. Electricity The effort to power the Fair with electricity, which became a demonstration piece for Westinghouse Electric and the alternating current system they had been developing for many years, took place at the end of what has been called the War of the currents between DC and AC. Westinghouse initially did not put in a bid to power the Fair but agreed to be the contractor for a local Chicago company that put in a low bid of US$510,000 to supply an alternating current-based system. Edison General Electric, which at the time was merging with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric, put in a US$1.72 million bid to power the Fair and its planned 93,000 incandescent lamps with direct current. After the Fair committee went over both proposals, Edison General Electric re-bid their costs at $554,000 but Westinghouse underbid them by 70 cents per lamp to get the contract. Westinghouse could not use the Edison incandescent lamp since the patent belonged to General Electric and they had successfully sued to stop use of all patent infringing designs. Since Edison specified a sealed globe of glass in his design Westinghouse found a way to sidestep the Edison patent by quickly developing a lamp with a ground-glass stopper in one end, based on a Sawyer-Man "stopper" lamp patent they already had. The lamps worked well but were short-lived, requiring a small army of workmen to constantly replace them.: 140  Westinghouse Electric had severely underbid the contract and struggled to supply all the equipment specified, including twelve 1,000-horsepower single-phase AC generators and all the lighting and other equipment required. They also had to fend off a last-minute lawsuit by General Electric claiming the Westinghouse Sawyer-Man-based stopper lamp infringed on the Edison incandescent lamp patent.: 142  The International Exposition was held in an Electricity Building which was devoted to electrical exhibits. A statue of Benjamin Franklin was displayed at the entrance. The exposition featured interior and exterior light and displays as well as displays of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope, search lights, a seismograph, electric incubators for chicken eggs, and Morse code telegraph.: 22  All the exhibits were from commercial enterprises. Participants included General Electric, Brush, Western Electric, and Westinghouse. The Westinghouse Company displayed several polyphase systems. The exhibits included a switchboard, polyphase generators, step-up transformers, transmission line, step-down transformers, commercial size induction motors and synchronous motors, and rotary direct current converters (including an operational railway motor). The working scaled system allowed the public a view of a system of polyphase power which could be transmitted over long distances, and be utilized, including the supply of direct current. Meters and other auxiliary devices were also present. Part of the space occupied by the Westinghouse Company was devoted to demonstrations of electrical devices developed by Nikola Tesla including induction motors and the generators used to power the system. The rotating magnetic field that drove these motors was explained through a series of demonstrations including an Egg of Columbus that used the two-phase coil in the induction motors to spin a copper egg making it stand on end. Tesla himself showed up for a week in August to attend the International Electrical Congress, being held at the fair's Agriculture Hall, and put on a series of demonstrations of his wireless lighting system in a specially set up darkened room at the Westinghouse exhibit. These included demonstrations he had previously performed throughout America and Europe including using a nearby coil to light a wireless gas-discharge lamp held in his hand. Also at the Fair, the Chicago Athletic Association Football team played one of the first night football games against West Point (the earliest being on September 28, 1892, between Mansfield State Normal and Wyoming Seminary). Chicago won the game, 14–0. The game lasted only 40 minutes, compared to the normal 90 minutes. Music Musicians John Philip Sousa′s Band played for the Exposition dedication celebration in Chicago, 10 October through 21 October 1892. Joseph Douglass, classical violinist, who achieved wide recognition after his performance there and became the first African-American violinist to conduct a transcontinental tour and the first to tour as a concert violinist. Sissieretta Jones, a soprano known as "the Black Patti" and an already-famous opera singer. A paper on African-American spirituals and shouts by Abigail Christensen was read to attendees. There were many other black artists at the fair, ranging from minstrel and early ragtime groups to more formal classical ensembles to street buskers. Scott Joplin, pianist, from Texarkana, Texas; became widely known for his piano playing at the fair. Other music and musicians The first Indonesian music performance in the United States was at the exposition. The gamelan instruments used in the performance were later placed in the Field Museum of Natural History. A group of hula dancers led to increased awareness of Hawaiian music among Americans throughout the country. Stoughton Musical Society, the oldest choral society in the United States, presented the first concerts of early American music at the exposition. The first eisteddfod (a Welsh choral competition with a history spanning many centuries) held outside Wales was held in Chicago at the exposition. A 250-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir competed in the Eisteddfod, taking the second place prize of $1,000. This was the first appearance of the choir outside the Utah Territory. On August 12, 1893, Antonín Dvořák conducted a gala "Bohemian Day" concert at the exposition, besieged by visitors including the conductor of the Chicago Symphony, who arranged for performance of Dvořák's American string quartet, just completed in Spillville, Iowa, during a Dvořák family vacation in a Czech-speaking community there. American composer Amy Beach (1867–1944) was commissioned by the Board of Lady Managers of the fair to compose a choral work (Festival Jubilate, op. 17) for the opening of the Woman's Building. Sousa's Band played concerts in the south bandstand on the Great Plaza, 25 May to 28 June 1893. The University of Illinois Military Band conducted by student leaders Charles Elder and Richard Sharpe played concerts twice daily in the Illinois Building 9 June to 24 June 1893. Soloists were William Sandford, euphonium; Charles Elder, clarinet; William Steele, cornet. The band members slept on cots on the top floor of the building. On June 8, 1893, The Exposition Orchestra, an expanded version of the Chicago Symphony conducted by guest conductor Vojtěch I. Hlaváč, played the American premiere of Modest Mussorgsky's A Night on Bald Mountain as part of a concert of Russian folk music. A pipe organ containing over 3,900 pipes, one of the largest in the world at the time, was built by the Farrand & Votey Organ Company to the specifications of Chicago organist Clarence Eddy. It was one of the first great organs to rely on electrical connections from its keys to its pipes. Musicologist Anna Morsch and composer Charlotte Sporleder presented a program of German music. Composer and pianist Anita Socola Specht won the title "best amateur pianist in the United States," although some of the judges told her, "You are not an amateur, you are an artist!" Art American artists exhibiting Painters Japanese art Japan's artistic contribution was mainly in porcelain, cloisonné enamel, metalwork and embroidery. While 55 paintings and 24 sculptures came from Japan, 271 of the 290 exhibits in the Palace of Fine Arts were Japanese. Artists represented included Miyagawa Kozan, Yabu Meizan, Namikawa Sōsuke, and Suzuki Chokichi. Women artists exhibiting The women artists at the Woman's Building included Anna Lownes, Viennese painter Rosa Schweninger, and many others. American composer Amy Cheney Beach was commissioned by the Board of Lady Managers of the fair to compose a choral work (Festival Jubilate, op. 17) for the opening of the Woman's Building. The Mrs Potts sad-iron system was on display. Ami Mali Hicks' stencil design was selected to adorn the frieze in the assembly room of the Women's Building. Musicologist Anna Morsch and composer Charlotte Sporleder presented a program of German music. The Woman's Building included a Woman's Building Library Exhibit, which had 7,000 books — all by women. The Woman's Building Library was meant to show the cumulative contribution of the world's women to literature. "Greatest Refrigerator on Earth" fire tragedy A large Romanesque structure called "Greatest Refrigerator on Earth" stored thousands of pounds of the Exposition's food and held an ice-skating rink for patrons. The large structure demonstrated artificial freezing, a recent development, and was planned by architect Franklin P. Burnham. The structure's floor space was 130 by 255 feet and its height reached almost 200 feet. On the evening of July 10, 1893, the "Greatest Refrigerator on Earth" caught fire. Two firemen entered, one sliding down a rope and another on a line of hose, and both were trapped in the burning refrigerator. A total of fifteen people died, twelve firefighters and three civilians, in front of a crowd of more than a thousand fairgoers. The only artifact that survived the fire was a twelve-foot copper statue of Christopher Columbus, which was kept as a monument to the men who lost their lives and is kept by the fire museum of Chicago. Notable firsts Concepts Frederick Jackson Turner lectured on his Frontier thesis. The Pledge of Allegiance was first performed at the exposition by a mass of school children lined up in military fashion. Contribution to Chicago's nickname, the "Windy City". Some argue that Charles Anderson Dana of the New York Sun coined the term related to the hype of the city's promoters. Other evidence, however, suggests the term was used as early as 1881 in relation to either Chicago's "windbag" politicians or to its weather. Commemorations United States Mint offered its first commemorative coins: the Columbian Exposition quarter dollar and Columbian Exposition half dollar The United States Post Office Department produced its first picture postcards and Columbian Issue commemorative stamps. Edibles and potables Cream of Wheat The brownie was invented by Bertha Palmer for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Milton Hershey bought a European exhibitor's chocolate manufacturing equipment and added chocolate products to his caramel manufacturing business. Juicy Fruit gum Quaker Oats Shredded Wheat Pabst Blue Ribbon Peanut butter Aunt Jemima pancake mix was widely popularized by spokesperson Nancy Green's pancake cooking and story telling performances. Cracker Jack's new recipe was introduced at the Exposition Vienna Sausage started selling its frankfurters and sausages near one of the entrances to the Midway Plaisance, just outside the Old Vienna Village. The company later became known as Vienna Beef, famously recognized as "Chicago's Hot Dog". Inventions and manufacturing advances A device that made plates for printing books in Braille, unveiled by Frank Haven Hall, who met Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan at the exhibit. Moving walkway, or travelator The third rail giving electric power to elevated trains led directly to its first continuing US use. The "clasp locker", a clumsy slide fastener and forerunner to the zipper was demonstrated by Whitcomb L. Judson Elongated coins (the squashed penny) Ferris Wheel First fully electrical kitchen including an automatic dishwasher Phosphorescent lamps (a precursor to fluorescent lamps) John T. Shayne & Company, the local Chicago furrier helped America gain respect on the world stage of manufacturing Clark cell as a standard for measuring voltage A first prototype of a pressurized aerosol spray, by Francis Davis Millet. The first practical electric automobile, invented by William Morrison. Organizations Congress of Mathematicians, precursor to International Congress of Mathematicians Interfaith dialogue (the Parliament of the World's Religions) First recorded public mention of the Baháʼí Faith in North America Performances The poet and humorist Benjamin Franklin King, Jr. first performed at the exposition. Bodybuilder Eugen Sandow demonstrated feats of strength, promoted by Florenz Ziegfeld. Magician Harry Houdini and his brother Theodore performed their magic act at the Midway. Later years The exposition was one influence leading to the rise of the City Beautiful movement. Results included grand buildings and fountains built around Olmstedian parks, shallow pools of water on axis to central buildings, larger park systems, broad boulevards and parkways and, after the start of the 20th century, zoning laws and planned suburbs. Examples of the City Beautiful movement's works include the City of Chicago, the Columbia University campus, and the National Mall in Washington D.C. After the fair closed, J.C. Rogers, a banker from Wamego, Kansas, purchased several pieces of art that had hung in the rotunda of the U.S. Government Building. He also purchased architectural elements, artifacts and buildings from the fair. He shipped his purchases to Wamego. Many of the items, including the artwork, were used to decorate his theater, now known as the Columbian Theatre. Memorabilia saved by visitors can still be purchased. Numerous books, tokens, published photographs, and well-printed admission tickets can be found. While the higher value commemorative stamps are expensive, the lower ones are quite common. So too are the commemorative half dollars, many of which went into circulation. Although not available for purchase, The George Washington University maintains a small collection of exposition tickets for viewing and research purposes. The collection is currently cared for by GWU's Special Collections Research Center, located in the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library. When the exposition ended the Ferris Wheel was moved to Chicago's north side, next to an exclusive neighborhood. An unsuccessful Circuit Court action was filed against the owners of the wheel to have it moved. The wheel stayed there until it was moved to St. Louis for the 1904 World's Fair. The Columbian Exposition has celebrated many anniversaries since the fair in 1893. The Chicago Historical Society held an exhibition to commemorate the fair. The Grand Illusions exhibition was centered around the idea that the Columbian Exposition was made up of a series of illusions. The commemorative exhibition contained partial reconstructions, a video detailing the fair, and a catalogue similar to the one sold at the World's Fair of 1893. Academic views Henry Adams wrote in his 1907 Education: “The Exposition denied philosophy ... [S]ince Noah’s Ark, no such Babel of loose and ill-jointed, such vague and ill-defined and unrelated thoughts and half-thoughts and experimental out-cries... had ruffled the surface of the Lakes.”: 128  Michel-Rolph Trouillot wrote that the academic aspect of the event was not very important, even though the Harvard Peabody Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and Franz Boas made contributions.: 128 In popular culture The Exposition is portrayed in the 2017 historical film, The Current War, concerning the competition between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison to establish the dominant form of electricity in the United States. 1893: A World's Fair Mystery, an interactive fiction by Peter Nepstad that recreates the Exposition in detail. Against the Day, a fictional novel that takes place during the Exposition during the first act. The Devil in the White City, a non-fiction book intertwining the true tales of the architect behind the Exposition and serial killer H. H. Holmes. Timebound, a time travel novel by Rysa Walker, culminates at the Exposition. Expo: Magic of the White City, a 2005 documentary film about the Exposition by Mark Bussler. The Exposition served as the setting for Against Odds, a novel by Emma Murdock Van Deventer. Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, a graphic novel set in part at the Exposition Wonder of the Worlds, an adventure novel where Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain, and Houdini pursue Martian agents who have stolen a powerful crystal from Tesla at the Exposition. The Will of an Eccentric, an adventure novel by Jules Verne. The Exposition is evoked with admiration in the early chapters. The Exposition appears in the season 1 episode "The World's Columbian Exposition" of the NBC series Timeless. The Exposition is referenced in Sufjan Stevens's song in his album Illinois, "Come On! Feel The Illinoise!", which consists of two parts. Part 1 is titled, "World's Columbian Exposition". The Exposition plays a role in the historical novel, Owen Glen, by Ben Ames Williams. Mystery Train Island, a video game level on Poptropica released in 2011, is based on and is partially set at the Exposition, referred to as the 1893 Chicago World's Fair in the game. BioShock Infinite, a 2013 video game. The floating city-state of Columbia was created at the Exposition and toured across the world to promote American exceptionalism. The exposition is a key setting of the novel The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros. The exposition appears in the travel book by Aleko Konstantinov, To Chicago and Back. The young adult novel Fair Weather by Illinois native author Richard Peck takes thirteen-year-old Rosie Beckett and her family from their downstate family farm to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me, a 2022 video game which was inspired by H. H. Holmes murder castle. The Exposition appears in "1893", the third episode of the second season of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) television series Loki (2023). In the episode, Loki and Mobius M. Mobius attend the Exposition in search of Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes, and encounter Victor Timely, a variant of Kang the Conqueror, whose help they need to save the multiverse. The Exposition also appears in the post-credits scene of the MCU film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), which uses footage from Loki despite being released before it. See also Signal of Peace Kwanusila List of world expositions List of world's fairs Benjamin W. Kilburn, stereoscopic view concession H. H. Holmes, serial killer associated with the 1893 World's Fair St. John Cantius Church (Chicago), whose main altar, as well as its matching two side altars, reputedly originate from the 1893 Columbian Exposition Spectacle Reef Light World's Largest Stove World's Largest Cedar Bucket Fairy lamp, candle sets popularized at Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee were used to illuminate an island at the Expo St. Louis Autumnal Festival Association Notes References Further reading External links Expo 1893 Chicago at Bureau International des Expositions The 1893 World's Fair in Chicago (worldsfairchicago1893.com). A standalone website that covers all aspects of the Exposition Chicago 1893 is a media project about the Exposition which includes a book, film, and augmented reality The Columbian Exposition in American culture. Photographs of the 1893 Columbian Exposition Archived August 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Interactive map of Columbian Exposition The Story of the Columbian Expo Battleship Illinois Bell President Benjamin Harrison: Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America Shapell Manuscript Foundation The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition Reading Room. Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views: Exhibitions 1893. Search results, at New York Public Library Digital Collections The Winterthur Library Overview of an archival collection on the World's Columbian Exposition. Columbian Theatre History and information about artwork from the U.S. Government Building. Photographs and interactive map from the 1893 Columbian Exposition from the University of Chicago Video simulations from the 1893 Columbian Exposition from UCLA's Urban Simulation Team Archived August 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine 1893 Columbian Exposition Concerts Edgar Rice Burroughs' Amazing Summer of '93 – Columbian Exposition International Eisteddfod chair, Chicago, 1893 Photographs of the Exposition from the Hagley Digital Archives Map of Chicago Columbian Exposition from the American Geographical Society Library Interactive Map of the Chicago Columbian Exposition, created in the Harvard Worldmap Platform President Harrison: Worlds Columbian Exposition Shapell Manuscript Foundation Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition Ticket Collection, 1893, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University Archived October 30, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Guide to World's Columbian Exposition resources at Field Museum Library Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition Records 1891–1930 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center

Art_Institute_of_Chicago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Institute_of_Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park. Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, includes works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present curatorial and scientific research. As a research institution, the Art Institute also has a conservation and conservation science department, five conservation laboratories, and Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, one of the nation's largest art history and architecture libraries. The museum's building was constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and, due to the growth of the collection, several additions have occurred since. The Modern Wing, designed by Renzo Piano, is the most recent expansion, and when it opened in 2009 it increased the museum's footprint to nearly one million square feet. This made it the second largest art museum in the United States, after the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Art Institute is associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a leading art school, making it one of the few remaining unified arts institutions in the United States. History 19th century In 1866, a group of 35 artists founded the Chicago Academy of Design in a studio on Dearborn Street, with the intent to run a free school with its own art gallery. The organization was modeled after European art academies, such as the Royal Academy, with Academicians and Associate Academicians. The academy's charter was granted in March 1867. Classes started in 1868, meeting every day at a cost of $10 per month. The academy's success enabled it to build a new home for the school, a five-story stone building on 66 West Adams Street, which opened on November 22, 1870. When the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the building in 1871, the academy was thrown into debt. Attempts to continue despite the loss by using rented facilities failed. By 1878, the academy was $10,000 in debt. Members tried to rescue the ailing institution by making deals with local businessmen, before some finally abandoned it in 1879 to found a new organization, named the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. When the Chicago Academy of Design went bankrupt the same year, the new Chicago Academy of Fine Arts bought its assets at auction. In 1882, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts changed its name to the current Art Institute of Chicago and elected as its first president the banker and philanthropist Charles L. Hutchinson, who "is arguably the single most important individual to have shaped the direction and fortunes of the Art Institute of Chicago".: 5  Hutchinson was a director of many prominent Chicago organizations, including the University of Chicago, and would transform the Art Institute into a world-class museum during his presidency, which he held until his death in 1924. Also in 1882, the organization purchased a lot on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street for $45,000. The existing commercial building on that property was used for the organization's headquarters, and a new addition was constructed behind it to provide gallery space and to house the school's facilities.: 19  By January 1885 the trustees recognized the need to provide additional space for the organization's growing collection, and to this end purchased the vacant lot directly south on Michigan Avenue. The commercial building was demolished, and the noted architect John Wellborn Root was hired by Hutchinson to design a building that would create an "impressive presence" on Michigan Avenue,: 22–23  and these facilities opened to great fanfare in 1887.: 24  With the announcement of the World's Columbian Exposition to be held in 1892–93, the Art Institute pressed for a building on the lakefront to be constructed for the fair, but to be used by the institute afterwards. The city agreed, and the building was completed in time for the second year of the fair. Construction costs were met by selling the Michigan/Van Buren property. On October 31, 1893, the institute moved into the new building. For the opening reception on December 8, 1893, Theodore Thomas and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed. 20th century From the early 1900s to the 1960s the school offered with the Logan Family (members of the board) the Logan Medal of the Arts, an award which became one of the most distinguished awards presented to artists in the U.S. Between 1959 and 1970, the institute was a key site in the battle to gain art and documentary photography a place in galleries, under curator Hugh Edwards and his assistants. As director of the museum starting in the early 1980s, James N. Wood conducted a major expansion of its collection and oversaw a major renovation and expansion project for its facilities. As "one of the most respected museum leaders in the country", as described by The New York Times, Wood created major exhibitions of works by Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh that set records for attendance at the museum. He retired from the museum in 2004. 21st century The institute began construction of "The Modern Wing", an addition situated on the southwest corner of Columbus and Monroe in the early 21st century. The project, designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, was completed and officially opened to the public on May 16, 2009. The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m2) building addition made the Art Institute the second-largest art museum in the United States. The building houses the museum's world-renowned collections of 20th and 21st century art, specifically modern European painting and sculpture, contemporary art, architecture and design, and photography. In its inaugural survey in 2014, travel review website and forum, Tripadvisor, reviewed millions of travelers' surveys and named the Art Institute the world's best museum. The museum received perhaps the largest gift of art in its history in 2015. Collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson donated a "collection [that] is among the world's greatest groups of postwar Pop art ever assembled". The donation includes works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Jeff Koons, Charles Ray, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Roy Lichtenstein and Gerhard Richter. The museum agreed to keep the donated work on display for at least 50 years. In June 2018, the museum received a $50 million donation, the largest single announced unrestricted monetary donation in its history. A $75 million donation in 2024 is to go toward a new galley. Collection The collection of the Art Institute of Chicago encompasses more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world and contains more than 300,000 works of art in 11 curatorial departments, ranging from early Japanese prints to the art of the Byzantine Empire to contemporary American art. It is principally known for one of the United States' finest collection of paintings produced in Western culture. African Art and Indian Art of the Americas The Art Institute's African Art and Indian Art of the Americas collections are on display across two galleries in the south end of the Michigan Avenue building. The African collection includes more than 400 works that span the continent, highlighting ceramics, garments, masks, and jewelry. The Amerindian collection includes Native North American art and Mesoamerican and Andean works. From pottery to textiles, the collection brings together a wide array of objects that seek to illustrate the thematic and aesthetic focuses of art spanning the Americas. American art The Art Institute's American Art collection contains some of the best-known works in the American canon, including Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Grant Wood's American Gothic, and Mary Cassatt's The Child's Bath. The collection ranges from colonial silver to modern and contemporary paintings. The museum purchased Nighthawks in 1942 for $3,000; its acquisition "launched" the painting into "immense popular recognition". Considered an "icon of American culture", Nighthawks is perhaps Hopper's most famous painting, and one of the most recognizable images in American art. Also well known, American Gothic has been in the museum's collection since 1930 and was only loaned outside of North America for the first time in 2016. Wood's painting depicts what has been called "the most famous couple in the world", a dour, rural-American, father and daughter. It was entered into a contest at the Art Institute in 1930, and although not a favorite of some, it won a medal and was acquired by the museum. Ancient and Byzantine The Art Institute's ancient collection spans nearly 4,000 years of art and history, showcasing Greek, Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian sculpture, mosaics, pottery, jewelry, glass, and bronze and a robust and well-maintained collection of ancient coins. There are around 5,000 works in the collection, offering a comprehensive survey of the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world, beginning with the third millennium B.C. and extending to the Byzantine Empire. The collection also holds the mummy and mummy case of Paankhenamun. Architecture and Design The Department of Architecture and Design holds more than 140,000 works, from models to drawings from the 1870s to the present day. The collection covers landscape architecture, structural engineering, and industrial design, including the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier. Asian art The Art Institute's Asian collection spans nearly 5,000 years, including significant works and objects from China, Korea, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and the Near and Middle East. There are 35,000 objects in the collection, showcasing bronzes, ceramics, jades, textiles, screens, woodcuts, and sculptures. One gallery in particular attempts to mimic the quiet and meditative way in which Japanese screens are traditionally viewed. European Decorative Arts The Art Institute's collection of European decorative arts includes some 25,000 objects of furniture, ceramics, metalwork, glass, enamel, and ivory from 1100 AD to the present day. The department contains the 1,544 objects in the Arthur Rubloff Paperweight Collection and the 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms–a collection of miniaturized interiors of a 1:12 scale showcasing American, European, and Asian architectural and furniture styles from the Middle Ages to the 1930s (when the rooms were constructed). Both the paperweights and the Thorne Rooms are located on the ground floor of the museum. European painting and sculptures The museum is most famous for its collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, widely regarded as one of the finest collections outside of France. Highlights include more than 30 paintings by Claude Monet, including six of his Haystacks and a number of Water Lilies. Also in the collection are important works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir such as Two Sisters (On the Terrace), and Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day. Post-Impressionist works include Paul Cézanne's The Basket of Apples, and Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair. At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is another highlight. The pointillist masterpiece, which also inspired a musical and was featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte—1884, is prominently displayed. Additionally, Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River, is an important example of his work. Highlights of non-French paintings of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection include Vincent van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles and Self-portrait, 1887. In the mid-1930s, the Art Institute received a gift of over one hundred works of art from Annie Swan Coburn ("Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection"). The "Coburn Renoirs" became the core of the Art Institute's Impressionist painting collection. The collection also includes the Medieval and Renaissance Art, Arms, and Armor holdings, including the George F. Harding Collection of arms and armor, and three centuries of Old Masters works. Modern and Contemporary Art The museum's collection of modern and contemporary art was significantly augmented when collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson gifted 40 plus master works to the department in 2015. Pablo Picasso's Old Guitarist, Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River, Constantin Brâncuși's Golden Bird, and René Magritte's Time Transfixed are highlights of the modern galleries, located on the third floor of the Modern Wing. The contemporary installation, located on the second floor, contains works by Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Cy Twombly, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, and other significant modern and contemporary artists. Photography The Art Institute did not officially establish a photography collection until 1949, when Georgia O'Keeffe donated a significant portion of the Alfred Stieglitz collection to the museum. Since then, the museum's collection has grown to approximately 20,000 works spanning the history of the artform from its inception in 1839 to the present. Prints and Drawings The print and drawings collection began with a donation by Elizabeth S. Stickney of 460 works in 1887, and was organized into its own department of the museum in 1911. Their holdings have subsequently grown to 11,500 drawings and 60,000 prints, ranging from 15th-century works to contemporary. The collection contains a strong group of the works of Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya, and James McNeill Whistler. Because works on paper are sensitive to light and degrade quickly, the works are on display infrequently in order to keep them in good condition for as long as possible. Textiles The Department of Textiles has more than 13,000 textiles and 66,000 sample swatches in total, covering an array of cultures from 300 BC to the present. From English needlework to Japanese garments to American quilts, the collection presents a diverse group of objects, including contemporary works and fiber art. Architecture The current building complex at 111 South Michigan Avenue is the third address for the Art Institute. Situated in Grant Park, it was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston to host national and international meetings held in conjunction with the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, as the World's Congress Auxiliary Building, with the intent that the Art Institute occupy the space after the close of the fair. The Art Institute's entrance on Michigan Avenue is guarded by two bronze lion statues created by Edward Kemeys. The lions were unveiled on May 10, 1894, each weighing more than two tons. The sculptor gave them unofficial names: the south lion is "stands in an attitude of defiance", and the north lion is "on the prowl". When a Chicago sports team plays in the championships of their respective league (i.e. the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup Finals, not the entire playoffs), the lions are frequently dressed in that team's uniform. Evergreen wreaths are placed around their necks during the Christmas season. The east entrance of the museum is marked by the stone arch entrance to the old Chicago Stock Exchange. Designed by Louis Sullivan in 1894, the Exchange was demolished in 1972, but salvaged portions of the original trading room were brought to the Art Institute and reconstructed. The Art Institute building has the unusual property of straddling open-air railroad tracks. Two stories of gallery space connect the east and west buildings while the Metra Electric and South Shore lines operate below. The lower level of gallery space was formerly the windowless Gunsaulus hall, but is now home to the Alsdorf Galleries showcasing Indian, Southeast Asian and Himalayan Art. During renovation, windows facing north toward Millennium Park were added. The gallery space was designed by Renzo Piano in conjunction with his design of the Modern Wing and features the same window screening used there to protect the art from direct sunlight. The upper level formerly held the modern European galleries, but was renovated in 2008 and now features the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries. In September 2024, the museum announced a gift of $75 million for a new gallery building or wing named for benefactors Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed. The gallery is intended to increase space for 19th century, modern, and contemporary art. The design and placement of the new gallery or gallery building are yet to be decided. Libraries Located on the ground floor of the museum is the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries. The Libraries' collections cover all periods of art, but is most known for its extensive collection of 18th to 20th century architecture. It serves the museum staff, college and university students, and is also open to the general public. The Friends of the Libraries, a support group for the Libraries, offers events and special tours for its members. Modern Wing On May 16, 2009, the Art Institute opened the Modern Wing, the largest expansion in the museum's history. The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m2) addition, designed by Renzo Piano, makes the Art Institute the second-largest museum in the US. The architect of record in the City of Chicago for this building was Interactive Design. The Modern Wing is home to the museum's collection of early 20th-century European art, including Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River, and René Magritte's Time Transfixed. The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection of Surrealist art includes the largest public display of Joseph Cornell's works (37 boxes and collages). The Wing also houses contemporary art from after 1960; new photography, video media, architecture and design galleries including original renderings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Bruce Goff; temporary exhibition space; shops and classrooms; and a cafe. In addition, the Nichols Bridgeway connects a sculpture garden on the roof of the new wing with the adjacent Millennium Park to the north and a courtyard designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol. In 2009, the Modern Wing won at the Chicago Innovation Awards. Selections from the permanent collection Other notable works are in the collection but the following examples are ones in the public domain and for which pictures are available. In 2018, as it redesigned its website, the Art Institute released images of 52,438 of its public domain works, under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence. Paintings Sculptures More highlights from the collection Governance Attendance During 2009, attendance was around 2 million—up 33 percent from 2008—in addition to a total of approximately 100,000 museum memberships. Despite a 25 percent boost in museum admission fees, the Modern Wing was a major catalyst for a rise in visitor traffic. In 2022, the museum welcomed 1.04 million visitors, an increase of 20 percent from 2021, but still well below 2018 attendance (before the COVID-19 pandemic). It was ranked tenth among the most-visited museums in the United States, and was the sixth most-visited U.S. art museum. Finances As of 2011, the Art Institute continues to rebuild its $783 million endowment since the recession. In June 2008, its endowment was $827 million. As of 2012, the museum is rated A1 by Moody's, its fifth-highest grade, in part reflecting the museum's pension and retirement liabilities; Standard & Poor's rates the museum A+, fifth-best. In October 2012, the Art Institute sold about $100 million of taxable and tax-exempt bonds partly to shore-up unfunded pension obligations. The $294 million extension in 2009 was the culmination of a $385 million fundraising campaign—roughly $300 million for design and construction and $85 million for the endowment. Around $370 million were raised primarily from private patrons in Chicago. In 2011, the Art Institute received a $10 million gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation to renovate and expand galleries devoted to Greek, Roman and Byzantine art, and to support acquisitions and special exhibitions of that art. Acquisitions and deaccessioning In 1990, the Art Institute of Chicago sold 11 works at auction, including paintings by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Maurice Utrillo and Edgar Degas, to raise the $12 million purchase price of a bronze sculpture, Golden Bird, by Constantin Brâncuși. At the time, the sculpture was owned by the Arts Club of Chicago, which was selling it to buy a new gallery for its other works. In 2005, the museum sold two paintings by Marc Chagall and Auguste Renoir at Sotheby's. In 2011, it auctioned two Picassos (Sur l'impériale traversant la Seine (1901) and Verre et pipe (1919)), Henri Matisse's Femme au fauteuil (1919), and Georges Braque's Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge) (1938) at Christie's in London. Directors William M.R. French (1885–1914) Newton Carpenter (1914–1916) George Eggers (1918–1921) Robert Harshe (1921–1938) Daniel Catton Rich (1938–1958) Allen McNab (1956–1965) Charles Cunningham (1965–1972) E. Laurence Chalmers (1972–1986) James N. Wood (1980–2004) James Cuno (2004–2011) Douglas Druick (2011–2016) James Rondeau (2016–present) Controversy Management of investments dispute In 2002, the Art Institute of Chicago filed suit alleging fraud by a small Dallas firm called Integral Investment Management, along with related parties. The museum, which put $43 million of its endowment into funds run by the defendants, claimed that it faced losses of up to 90% on the investments after they soured. Construction disputes In 2010, the year after the opening of its massive Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago sued the engineering firm Ove Arup for $10 million over what it said were flaws in the concrete floors and air-circulation systems. The suit was settled out of court. Docent program diversity dispute In 2021, the Art Institute ended its unpaid volunteer docents program to move to a paid model. The Chicago Tribune editorial page criticized the Institute's letter announcing the change and the move to a new model, arguing that "[o]nce you cut through the blather, the letter basically said the museum had looked critically at its corps of docents, a group dominated by mostly (but not entirely) white, retired women with some time to spare, and found them wanting as a demographic." The Chair of the Institute's Board of Trustees, Robert M. Levy, responded in a Tribune op-ed supporting the change, and described the Tribune's editorial as having "numerous inaccuracies and mischaracterizations", noted that the docent program had already been largely on pause for the past 15 months due to the COVID pandemic, and argued that the decision was not about anyone's identity, it was in keeping with changing modern museum practices around the world. Following a volunteerism surge in the late 1940s, the program had been created in 1961 to revitalize and expand "programming for children." Among other matters, since 2014 the program had been trying to attract a more diverse socioeconomic perspective set of art-tour guides, given the unpaid time commitment needed. Looted art In 1996, heirs to Jewish art collectors Louise and Friedrich Gutmann, who died in Nazi concentration camps, sued museum trustee Daniel Searle for the return of the Edgar Degas painting, Landscape with Smokestacks. After years of litigation a settlement was concluded which involved the acquisition of the painting by the Art Institute. A collection of approximately 500 objects from Nepal, India and elsewhere in Asia that was donated to the Art Institute by trustee Marilynn Alsdorf in 1989 was later found to contain several objects that were looted; nine objects have been returned by the museum to Nepal over the years, while some additional items are still being contested. In 2023, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office moved to seize Egon Schiele paintings from several museums on the grounds that they had been looted by the Nazis from Fritz Grünbaum, who was killed in the Holocaust. The paintings included, Russian War Prisoner, a watercolor in the Art Institute. The Art Institute continues to hold the work, as it is contesting the seizure in court. According to its investigation, it acquired the watercolor drawing in 1966 from an American art dealer through a proper provenance from Grünbaum's legal heir, and it also argues that the claim is time-barred because Grünbaum's heirs were aware. In February 2024, the Manhattan District Attorney filed a motion accusing the Art Institute of "blatantly ignoring evidence of an elaborate fraud undertaken to conceal that the artwork had been looted". According to The New York Times, the court filing provided detailed evidence that provenance documents provided by the Swiss art dealer Eberhard Kornfeld contained forged signatures or were altered long after he came into possession of the paintings and sold them to other art dealers in the mid-1950s. Court hearings on the matter are expected in 2024. In popular culture Director John Hughes included a sequence in the Art Institute in his 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which is set in Chicago. During it, the characters are shown viewing A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Hughes had first visited the institute as a "refuge" while in high school. Hughes' commentary on the sequence was used as a reference point by journalist Hadley Freeman in a discussion of the Republican presidential primary candidates in 2011. The paintings used in the 1970 Parker Brothers board game Masterpiece are works held in the Art Institute's collection. See also American Academy of Art Bessie Bennett, early 20th century Curator of Decorative Art Forest Idyll List of largest art museums List of most-visited museums in the United States List of museums and cultural institutions in Chicago Alme Meyvis Visual arts of Chicago Lions (Kemeys) References External links Official website Art Institute's Impressionistic collection, YouTube Virtual tour of the Art Institute of Chicago provided by Google Arts & Culture

John_Hancock_Center

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hancock_Center

The John Hancock Center is a 100-story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018. The skyscraper was designed by Peruvian-American chief designer Bruce Graham and Bangladeshi-American structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). When the building topped out on May 6, 1968, it was the second-tallest building in the world after the Empire State Building, in New York City, and the tallest in Chicago. It is currently the fifth-tallest building in Chicago and the thirteenth-tallest in the United States, behind the Aon Center in Chicago and ahead of the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. When measured to the top of its antenna masts, it stands at 1,500 feet (457 m). The building is home to several offices and restaurants, as well as about 700 condominiums, and at the time of its completion contained the highest residence in the world. The building was named for John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, a developer and original tenant of the building, which itself was named for the U.S. Founding Father John Hancock. In 2018 John Hancock Insurance, years after leaving the building, requested that its name be removed; the owner is seeking another naming rights deal. From the 95th-floor restaurant, which closed in late 2023, diners were able look out at Chicago and Lake Michigan. The observatory (360 Chicago), which competes with the Willis Tower's Skydeck, has a 360° view of the city, up to four states, and a distance of over 80 miles (130 km). 360 Chicago is home to TILT, a moving platform that leans visitors over the edge of the skyscraper to a 30-degree angle, a full bar with local selections, Chicago's only open-air SkyWalk, and also features free interactive high-definition touchscreens in six languages. The 44th-floor sky lobby features the highest indoor swimming pool in the United States. History 20th century The project, which would become the world's second tallest building at opening, was conceived and owned by Jerry Wolman in late 1964. The project was financed by John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company. Construction of the tower was interrupted in 1967 due to a flaw in an innovative engineering method used to pour concrete in stages, that was discovered when the building was 20 stories high. The engineers were getting the same soil settlements for the 20 stories that had been built as what they had expected for the entire 99 stories. This forced the owner to stop development until the engineering problem could be resolved, resulting in a credit crunch. The situation is similar to the one faced during the construction of 111 West Wacker, then known as the Waterview Tower. Wolman's bankruptcy resulted in John Hancock taking over the project, which retained the original design, architect, engineer, and main contractor. The building's first resident was Ray Heckla, the original building engineer, responsible for the residential floors from 44 to 92. Heckla moved his family in April 1969, before the building was completed. The 1988 film Poltergeist III was set at the John Hancock Center and was filmed in early 1987. 21st century On December 10, 2006, the non-residential portion of the building was sold by San Francisco–based Shorenstein Properties for $385 million and was purchased by a joint venture of Chicago-based Golub & Company and the Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds. Shorenstein Properties had bought the building in 1998 for $220 million. Golub defaulted on its debt and the building was acquired in 2012 by Deutsche Bank, who subsequently carved up the building. The venture of Deutsche Bank and New York–based NorthStar Realty Finance paid an estimated $325 million for debt on 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2012 after Shorenstein Properties defaulted on $400 million in loans. The observation deck was sold to Paris-based Montparnasse 56 Group for between $35 million and $45 million in July 2012. That same month, Prudential Real Estate Investors acquired the retail and restaurant space for almost $142 million. In November 2012, Boston-based American Tower Corp affiliate paid $70 million for the antennas. In June 2013, a venture of Chicago-based real estate investment firm Hearn Co., New York–based investment firm Mount Kellett Capital Management L.P. and San Antonio–based developer Lynd Co. closed on the expected acquisition of 875 North Michigan Avenue's 856,000 square feet (79,500 m2) of office space and 710-car parking deck. The Chicago firm did not disclose a price, but sources said it was about $145 million. This was the last step in that piecemeal sale process. In May 2016, Hearn Co. announced that they were seeking buyers for the naming rights with possible signage rights for the building. Hustle up the Hancock is an annual stair climb race up the 94 floors from the Michigan Avenue level to the observation deck. It is held on the last Sunday of February. The climb benefits Respiratory Health Association. The record time as of 2007 is 9 minutes 30 seconds. The building is home to the transmitter of Univision's WGBO-DT (channel 66), while all other full-power television stations in Chicago broadcast from Willis Tower. The City Colleges of Chicago's WYCC (channel 20) transmitted from the building until November 2017, when it departed the air as part of the 2016 FCC spectrum auction. On February 12, 2018, John Hancock Insurance requested that its name and logos throughout the building's interior be removed immediately; John Hancock had not had a naming-rights deal with the skyscraper's owners since 2013. The building's name was subsequently changed to its street address as 875 North Michigan Avenue. Incidents On November 11, 1981, Veterans Day, high-rise firefighting and rescue advocate Dan Goodwin, for the purpose of calling attention to the inability to rescue people trapped in the upper floors of skyscrapers, successfully climbed the building's exterior wall. Wearing a wetsuit and using a climbing device that enabled him to ascend the I-beams on the building's side, Goodwin battled repeated attempts by the Chicago Fire Department to knock him off. Fire Commissioner William Blair ordered Chicago firemen to stop Goodwin by directing a fully engaged fire hose at him and by blasting fire axes through nearby glass from the inside. Fearing for Goodwin's life, Mayor Jane Byrne intervened and allowed him to continue to the top. On December 18, 1997, comedian Chris Farley was found dead in his apartment on the 60th floor of the building. On March 9, 2002, part of a scaffold fell 43 stories after being torn loose by wind gusts around 60 mph (100 km/h) crushing several cars, killing three people in two of them. The remaining part of the stage swung back-and-forth in the gusts repeatedly slamming against the building, damaging cladding panels, breaking windows, and sending pieces onto the street below. On November 21, 2015, a fire broke out in an apartment on the 50th floor of the building. The Chicago Fire Department was able to extinguish the fire after an hour and a half; five people suffered minor injuries. On February 11, 2018, a fire in a car on the seventh floor required approximately 150 firefighters to extinguish. On November 16, 2018, an express elevator cable broke. Initial reports stated that an elevator with six passengers plunged 84 stories from the 95th to 11th floor. Since express elevators are not accessible from floors within the express zone, a team of firefighters had to break through a brick wall from the parking garage to extricate the passengers, none of whom suffered injuries. Elevators to the 95th/96th floor were closed thereafter pending investigation. Subsequent investigation documented only a controlled descent from the 20th floor to the 11th floor. A piece of cladding fell from the building on January 5, 2022. Architecture One of the most famous buildings of the structural expressionist style, the skyscraper's distinctive X-braced exterior shows that the structure's skin is part of its "tubular system". This is one of the engineering techniques which the designers used to achieve a record height; the tubular system is the structure that keeps the building upright during wind and earthquake loads. This X-bracing allows for both higher performance from tall structures and the ability to open up the inside floorplan. Such original features have allowed 875 North Michigan Avenue to become an architectural icon. It was pioneered by Bangladeshi-American structural civil engineer Fazlur Khan and chief architect Bruce Graham. The interior was remodeled in 1995, adding to the lobby travertine, black granite, and textured limestone surfaces. The elliptical-shaped plaza outside the building serves as a public oasis with seasonal plantings and a 12-foot (3.7 m) waterfall. A band of white lights at the top of the building is visible all over Chicago at night, and changes colors for different events. For example, at Christmas time the colors are green and red. When a Chicago-area sports team goes far in the playoffs, the colors are changed to match that team's colors. The building is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers. It has won various awards for its distinctive style, including the Distinguished Architects Twenty-five Year Award from the American Institute of Architects in May 1999. In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the John Hancock Center was selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois) and was recognized by USA Today Travel magazine, as one of AIA Illinois' selections for Illinois 25 Must See Places. The building is only partially protected by a fire sprinkler system, as the residential floors do not have sprinklers. Including its antennas, the building has a height of 1,500 feet (457 m), making it the thirty-third tallest building in the world when measured to pinnacle height. Features 360 Chicago Observation Deck Located on the 94th floor, 360 Chicago Observation Deck is 875 North Michigan Avenue's horizon observatory. The floor of the observatory is 1,030 feet (310 m) above the street-level below. The entrance can be found on the concourse level of 875 North Michigan Avenue, accessible from the Michigan Avenue side of the building. The observatory, previously named John Hancock Observatory, has been independently owned and operated since 2014 by the Montparnasse 56 Group of Paris, France. The elevators are credited as the fastest in the Western Hemisphere, with a top speed of 1,800 ft/min (20.5 mph; 9 m/s). The observatory boasts more floor space than its direct competitor, Skydeck at the Willis Tower. There is a full bar called BAR 94 which stocks local beer and spirits from Revolution Brewing and KOVAL Distillery. The observation deck also features an open-air "skydeck" area. The Observatory elevators of 875 North Michigan Avenue, manufactured by Otis, travel 96 floors at a top speed of 1,800 ft/min (20 mph; 9.1 m/s). It has been said the elevators to the observation deck are the fastest in North America, reaching the 95th floor in 38 seconds if they could run the entire trip at top speed. For several years in the 2010s, during its winter season, the observation deck would feature the "world's highest skating rink", with an artificial ice rink being seasonally installed. At one point, observation deck had a mascot named Seemore Miles. In the summer of 2014, 360 Chicago added its TILT attraction. TILT, which requires an additional fee to experience, features a series of floor-to-ceiling windows that slowly tilt outside the building to 30°. 95th floor restaurant and 96th floor bar Separate from its observatory, 875 Michigan Avenue has a restaurant space on its 95th floor and a bar space on its 96th floor. Prior to 1993, the space was occupied by a restaurant named The 95th. From 1993 until 2023, the 95th floor was home to a restaurant named the Signature Room, with the accompanying bar on the 96th floor being called the Signature Lounge. The name alluded to the famous signature of early American figure John Hancock. The restaurant was an upscale establishment that offered patrons scenic views. It enforced a dress code for patrons. It received numerous awards. In April 2023, the restaurant and bar were listed for sale. In September 2023, the Signature Room abruptly ceased operations, with ownership citing "severe economic hardship" that they attributed to the impact of the earlier COVID-19 pandemic. Retail plaza The building features a two-level outdoor plaza along its Michigan Avenue face. The plaza contains retail and dinning tenants. The top level of the plaza is at street level, while the lower level is sunken below the street level. Current tenants include The Cheesecake Factory and The North Face. Past tenants have included Best Buy. The plaza was originally rectangular in shape. Per the Chicago Tribune, the plaza was modeled after the plaza at New York City's Rockefeller Center. The plaza's design featured a fountain pool that would be turned into an ice rink in colder weather. In 1988, plans were unveiled by the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company (the owners of the building at the time) to replace the plaza with a "$20 million glass and marble three-story atrium". One rationale cited by building's management was they claimed that access to the building's ground level was complicated by the need of pedestrians to circumnavigate around the courtyard in order to reach the street-level entrance to the building's lobby. They also cited a belief that the building's entrance was too understated for a building of its level of prominence. This atrium proposal faced backlash from local residents who felt that such an addition would mar the appearance of the landmark building. In 1989, newly-elected mayor Richard M. Daley criticized the proposed atrium and the plans were ultimately abandoned. In 1994, the plaza was renovated, with the sunken portion transforming from its previous rectangular shape to an elliptical shape. In 1999, Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin wrote that this renovation had made the plaza a more "welcoming" space. This renovation came after the more dramatic late-1980s renovation plans were abandoned. A further $10 million renovation for the plaza was considered by the building's owners in the mid-2010s which would have added features such as video screens and decorative prisms to the plaza. Parking garage Housed within several of the lower levels of the building is a parking garage, which cars enter and depart via a spiral vehicle ramp. Antennas Since its completion, the tower has been topped by two antenna structures. These antenna superstructures support a large number of broadcast antenna equipment. At the time of the tower's completion, both antenna structures were 350 feet (110 metres) in height, and RCA had given the architects of the building an estimate that 700 feet of antenna structure would be required to accommodate all of the city's radio and television stations. In 2002, the eastern antenna tower was extended to a height of 378 feet (115 metres) in order to enable WBBM-TV to add new digital antenna equipment at a height greater than the roof height of the Sears Tower (Willis Tower). Subsequently, the western antenna tower was reduced to a height of 285 feet (87 metres). For a long time, the antenna towers utilized incandescent red lights and a red and white paint scheme to provide a visibility to aviation in compliance with federal regulations. However, in order to forgo the expense and effort of annually reapplying striped paint to the antenna towers, the tower instead installed red strobe lights atop the tower and eliminated the striped paint scheme, as striped paint is not required if structures are topped by such lights. A sizable number of television and radio stations utilize the antenna towers. Many stations maintain broadcast equipment on both the John Hancock Center and the Willis Tower's antenna structures in order to have both a primary and backup broadcasting point. In November 2012, Boston-based American Tower Corp affiliate paid $70 million to acquire ownership of the antennas. 44th floor sky lobby The 44th level skylobby is the floor where the building transitions from offices to residential, with offices occupying floors below and residences occupying floors above. Swimming pool On its 44th floor, the John Hancock Center has a resident swimming pool. The pool area has double-height ceilings. The pool is the highest pool in the United States when measured by distance above ground level. Resident/office tenant grocery store On its 44th floor, the building has a 5,200 square feet (480 m2) grocery store accessible only to apartment residents and office tenants. In 2007, operation of the grocery store was taken over by the local Potash chain of grocery stores. As of February 2023, Potash continues to operate the grocery store. See also Architecture of Chicago List of buildings and structures List of buildings with 100 floors or more List of tallest buildings in the world List of tallest buildings in Chicago List of tallest buildings in the United States List of tallest buildings and structures in the world List of tallest freestanding structures in the world List of tallest freestanding steel structures Footnotes References The Cloudbase Chronicles, Life at the Top - An engineers Tale by Harry W. Budge III External links Official website 360 Chicago, formerly Hancock Observatory 875 North Michigan Avenue on CTBUH Skyscraper Center "875 North Michigan Avenue". Emporis. Archived from the original on January 19, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) John Hancock Center at Structurae John Hancock Center Society of Architectural Historians SAH ARCHIPEDIA entry on John Hancock Center

2019%E2%80%9320_NBA_season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_NBA_season

The 2019–20 NBA season was the 74th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The regular season began on October 22, 2019, and originally was supposed to end on April 15, 2020. The 2020 NBA All-Star Game was played on February 16, at the United Center in Chicago, and was won by Team LeBron, 157–155. The playoffs were originally scheduled to begin on April 18, and end with the NBA Finals in June. On January 26, the season took an abrupt delicate turn when Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who was less than four years into retirement from the league, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others. A number of tributes and memorials were issued, and the All-Star MVP Award was renamed in Bryant's honor. The season was suspended on March 11 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of the suspension, teams had played between 63 and 67 games. On June 4, the NBA Board of Governors approved a plan to restart the season on July 30, and the National Basketball Players Association approved this plan the next day. Under the plan, 22 teams played eight additional regular season games to determine playoff seeding, and 16 teams entered a conventional postseason tournament. All of these games took place in the NBA Bubble, an isolation zone specifically created for NBA operations at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida. On August 26, the season was suspended for a second time by a wildcat strike, to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake and police brutality, during the playoffs. Play resumed three days later on August 29. The Finals ended on October 11, 2020, 355 days after the October 22, 2019, regular season opening day, and 377 days after the first pre-season games on September 30, 2019. This was the longest season in NBA history. Transactions Retirement On March 1, 2019, Channing Frye announced his retirement from the NBA. Frye played 13 seasons in the NBA, winning one championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. On April 9, 2019, Dirk Nowitzki announced his retirement from the NBA. Nowitzki played all his 21 seasons with the Dallas Mavericks franchise, winning one championship and Finals MVP with the Mavericks in 2011, and also led them to a Finals appearance in 2006. On June 10, 2019, Tony Parker announced his retirement from the NBA. He played 18 seasons in the NBA and was a four-time NBA champion and Finals MVP in 2007 with the San Antonio Spurs. On June 28, 2019, Darren Collison announced his retirement from the NBA. He played for five franchises during his 10-year NBA career. On August 29, 2019, Zaza Pachulia announced his retirement from the NBA. He played for six franchises during his 16-year career. He won two championships with the Golden State Warriors. On September 13, 2019, Shaun Livingston announced his retirement from the NBA. He played for ten franchises during his 15-year NBA career. He won three championships with the Golden State Warriors. On October 17, 2019, Luol Deng signed a ceremonial one-day contract with the Chicago Bulls and officially retired as a Bull after playing 15 seasons. He was a two-time All-Star with the Bulls. On November 4, 2019, José Calderón announced his retirement from the NBA. He played for seven franchises during his 14-year NBA career. On December 28, 2019, Zach Randolph announced his retirement from the NBA, Randolph played for five franchises during his 17-year NBA career. He was a two-time All-Star with the Memphis Grizzlies. On February 16, 2020, Marcin Gortat announced his retirement from the NBA. He played for four franchises during his 12-year NBA career. On April 14, 2020, Trevor Booker announced his retirement from the NBA. He played for five franchises during his eight-year NBA career. On June 25, 2020, Vince Carter announced his retirement from the NBA. Carter played for eight franchises during a record 22-year career in the NBA; he is the only player to play in four different decades and was the last active player to have been drafted and played in the 1990s. Free agency Free agency negotiations began on June 30, 2019, at 6 p.m. ET, unlike July 1 from previous seasons. Players officially signed after the July moratorium on July 6 at 12 p.m. ET. Coaching changes Off-season On April 11, 2019, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Larry Drew parted ways after Drew's contract expired after the 2018–19 season. On April 11, 2019, the Memphis Grizzlies fired J. B. Bickerstaff after nearly two seasons. On April 11, 2019, the Sacramento Kings fired Dave Joerger after three seasons. The team missed the playoffs for the thirteenth straight year. On April 12, 2019, the Los Angeles Lakers and head coach Luke Walton parted ways after three seasons. On April 14, 2019, the Sacramento Kings hired Luke Walton as their new head coach. On April 22, 2019, the Phoenix Suns fired Igor Kokoškov after one season. The team missed the playoffs for the ninth straight year. On May 3, 2019, the Phoenix Suns hired Monty Williams as their new head coach. On May 13, 2019, the Cleveland Cavaliers hired John Beilein as their new head coach. On May 13, 2019, the Los Angeles Lakers hired Frank Vogel as their new head coach. On June 11, 2019, the Memphis Grizzlies hired Taylor Jenkins as their new head coach. In-season On December 6, 2019, the New York Knicks fired head coach David Fizdale after a 4–18 start to the season and named Mike Miller as interim head coach. On February 19, 2020, the Cleveland Cavaliers named J. B. Bickerstaff the new head coach of the team after John Beilein resigned from the position. On March 7, 2020, the Brooklyn Nets and head coach Kenny Atkinson mutually agreed to part ways. Jacque Vaughn was named interim head coach. Preseason The preseason began on September 30 and ended on October 18. International games The Indiana Pacers and the Sacramento Kings played two preseason games at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai, India on October 4 and 5, 2019. The Toronto Raptors and the Houston Rockets played two preseason games at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama City, Japan on October 8 and 10, 2019. The Los Angeles Lakers and the Brooklyn Nets played two preseason games in China, in Shanghai on October 10 and in Shenzhen on October 12. The Los Angeles Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks played one preseason game in Canada, at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on October 17. Regular season The 2019–20 schedule was released on August 12, 2019, and the regular season began on October 22, 2019. On March 11, 2020, the season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The reformatted regular season, with 8 more games scheduled for 22 qualified teams going to the NBA Bubble in Orlando, was released on June 26. The regular season resumed play within the bubble on July 30. Eastern Conference Western Conference By conference Notes z – Clinched home court advantage for the entire playoffs/clinched best record c – Clinched home court advantage for the conference playoffs/clinched conference y – Clinched division title x – Clinched playoff spot * – Division winner pi - Clinched play-in spot International games The Charlotte Hornets and the Milwaukee Bucks played at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris, France on January 24, 2020, marking the first NBA regular season game in France. On June 7, 2019, the NBA announced that the Dallas Mavericks, Detroit Pistons, Phoenix Suns, and San Antonio Spurs would play at Mexico City Arena in Mexico City, marking the first time that four NBA teams would play in Mexico City in one regular season. The Mavericks and Pistons played on December 12, 2019, and the Spurs and Suns played on December 14, 2019. Play-in game A play-in game took place in the Western Conference, as the ninth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies finished within four games of the eighth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers. The eighth seed started with a 1–0 lead and needed just one win to advance, while the ninth seed needed to win twice to clinch the final playoff spot. Portland won the play-in game 126–122 to enter the playoffs as the eighth seed. Playoffs The 2020 NBA playoffs began on August 17 and ended with the NBA Finals, which began on September 30 and ended on October 11. Bracket Death of Kobe Bryant On January 26, 2020, less than four weeks after commissioner emeritus David Stern died from a brain hemorrhage at age 77, recently retired Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were tragically killed when the Sikorsky S-76B helicopter that they were on board crashed into a hillside in the city of Calabasas, California, around 30 mi (48 km) northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, while en route from John Wayne Airport to Camarillo Airport. Bryant was 41, the accident left behind no survivors and alongside the Bryants were seven others: baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Keri, their 14-year-old daughter Alyssa, Sarah Chester, her 13-year-old daughter Payton, basketball coach Christina Mauser, and the pilot, Ara Zobayan. All occupants were killed on impact and on January 28, Bryant's identity was officially confirmed using fingerprints. The following day, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner stated that the official cause of death for him and the eight others on the helicopter was blunt force trauma. A year later on February 9, 2021, the cause of the crash was officially determined to be Zobayan experiencing spatial disorientation due to heavy fog in the Los Angeles area that morning. There were eight NBA games that were scheduled to be played on the day of the accident, the first of which being between the Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets, as Pepsi Center (now Ball Arena) was the first NBA arena to acknowledge Bryant's death with the Nuggets holding a brief tribute prior to tip-off and concluding the memorial with the message "Rest in Peace, Mamba". Due to that game tipping off just minutes after the news was revealed for the first time, that game went on as scheduled as Denver defeated Houston, 117–110. There were reportedly conversations held among league authorities on whether or not to cancel any of the other games that day, however every game ultimately went on as planned, partly due to many feeling that Bryant himself would have wanted the games to go on. Of the remaining seven games played that day, beginning with the Toronto Raptors at San Antonio Spurs game, every matchup featured each side intentionally taking either an 8-second violation or a 24-second shot clock violation on their very first possession to start the game, serving as a homage to Bryant's number 8 jersey, which he wore from 1996–2006, and his number 24 jersey, which he donned from 2006–2016. These violation tributes were initially proposed by Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and the rest of the league subsequently followed suit throughout the rest of the Sunday. Notably, Kyrie Irving, who at the time was a member of the Brooklyn Nets, excused himself and left Madison Square Garden prior to tip-off against the New York Knicks, upon learning of Bryant’s death. Irving, who considered Bryant to be a mentor, often trained with Kobe and was and continues to be very close with the Bryant family. The previous evening on January 25, LeBron James passed Bryant for third place on the NBA's all-time scoring list during a road loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in Bryant's hometown. James would eventually surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to stand alone as the NBA's all time leading scorer three years later on February 7, 2023. The Los Angeles Lakers learned of Bryant's death while flying back to Los Angeles from Philadelphia the following day, leaving everyone on board the flight in absolute shock and it was not long until their January 28 meeting with the crosstown rival Los Angeles Clippers was postponed. This marked the first time an NBA game was postponed for any reason since nearly seven years earlier when the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing led to the postponement of a Celtics game. The Lakers did not play a game in the wake of Bryant's death until January 31 when they hosted the Portland Trail Blazers on ESPN. Prior to the commencement of the game, the Lakers conducted a 24-minute long, heavily detailed tribute to Bryant, his daughter and the seven other victims. This tribute began with Usher performing “Amazing Grace” and was capped off by a rendition of the The Star-Spangled Banner by Boyz II Men before being concluded with a speech from James, who initially had a monologue prepared, but quickly tossed his index card onto the hardwood after saying “Laker Nation man, I would be selling y’all short if I read off this shit, so I’m going to go straight from the heart”, as he proceeded to address a sorrowful Staples Center crowd with an emotional, improvised oration, ending his speech with “…so in the words of Kobe Bryant: ‘Mamba out’, but in the words of us: ‘not forgotten’, live on brother”. Following the eulogy, each member of the Lakers’ starting five would be introduced with Bryant’s credentials. Portland won 127–119, in what turned out to be the second most watched NBA broadcast ever in ESPN's history, averaging 4.41 million viewers. The first ever head-to-head meeting between Shaquille O'Neal and Yao Ming in 2003 was the only one with more viewers. The NBA also renamed the NBA All Star Game MVP Award to the NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player award, with Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers being the inaugural recipient, who a few days after the crash revealed that he and Bryant shared the same pilot, Ara Zobayan, who also lost his life in the accident. The 2020 NBA All Star Game saw every player on Team LeBron wear the jersey number two for Gianna and every player on Team Giannis wear the jersey number 24 for Kobe. The All Star Game also temporarily changed to an Echelon-style format starting in 2020 with the leading score at the end of the third quarter plus 24 (Bryant's jersey number from 2006–2016) acting as the target score. This format would be scrapped however in 2023, with that year’s game in Salt Lake City being the final one under this format. The postponed Lakers-Clippers game was originally planned to be made up on April 9, however due to the suspension of the season on March 11, it was made up at the very beginning of the NBA restart on July 30 with the Lakers emerging victorious 103–101. On February 7, Bryant and his daughter were buried in a private funeral in Pacific View Memorial Park in the Corona del Mar neighborhood of Newport Beach, California. A public memorial service was held on February 24 (2/24, marking both Kobe's and Gianna's jersey numbers) at the Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena) with Jimmy Kimmel hosting. Speakers at the service included Bryant's widowed wife Vanessa, Michael Jordan, and Shaquille O'Neal, along with Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi and Geno Auriemma, Taurasi's coach at Connecticut, where Gianna had been aspiring to play. On October 11, 2020, the Lakers defeated the Miami Heat 4–2 in the 2020 NBA Finals to capture their 17th championship in franchise history and would dedicate the victory and their season to Bryant. In his first year of eligibility, Bryant was named a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, just less than three weeks after his death, before being posthumously inducted in April 2020. His formal induction was delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2021, Bryant was honored as one of the league's greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. During the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was one of fifteen members of that honorary team to be posthumously lionized during a halftime ceremony dedicated to that 75th Anniversary Team, with the mention of Bryant inducing one of, if not the loudest crowd reaction of the commemoration. Suspension of season and restart On March 11, 2020, the game between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder was abruptly postponed shortly before tipoff after it was discovered that the Jazz's player Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. That same evening, the game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings was also postponed last minute once it was discovered that a referee for the game, Courtney Kirkland, had worked a Utah Jazz game just two days prior. Kirkland later tested negative for COVID-19. The NBA then suspended the remainder of the 2019–20 season "until further notice" following the completion of games already underway. This was the first time a regular season had been interrupted since the 2011 NBA lockout. The following day, Gobert's teammate Donovan Mitchell also tested positive. On March 14, Detroit Pistons forward Christian Wood became the third NBA player to test positive for the virus, and the first outside of the Jazz. On March 17, four Brooklyn Nets players, including superstar Kevin Durant, tested positive for the virus. On March 19, two players for the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics, tested positive for COVID-19. All players recovered and were cleared by local health officials. On May 23, it was announced that the NBA were in negotiations with The Walt Disney Company about the possibility to finish the season at Walt Disney World's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. On May 29, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and the league office informed Board of Governors that July 31 was the target date for a season return. On June 4, the NBA Board of Governors approved a plan to restart the season on July 31 in Orlando. Under this plan, 13 Western Conference teams and nine Eastern Conference teams, all clubs within six games of a playoff spot, would play eight regular-season "seeding" games. Play-in games for the eighth seed in each conference would then be held if the ninth seed finishes the regular season within four games of the eighth seed. This proposal was then approved by members of the National Basketball Players Association on June 5. Players boycott On August 26, 2020, the Milwaukee Bucks chose not to play in game 5 of the playoff series against the Orlando Magic to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association announced that, in light of the Milwaukee Bucks striking for their game, the following games of the day would be postponed. The Toronto Raptors had also discussed striking for their second-round playoff series with the Boston Celtics in frustration with a lack of social or legislative change after the murder of George Floyd and as a result of Blake's shooting before the Bucks' strike a few days later. Medical protocol for season restart On June 16, 2020, the NBA released a medical protocol to be used during the season restart in the NBA Bubble at Walt Disney World to ensure the health and safety of players, coaches, officials, and staff. This included regular testing for COVID-19 prior to and throughout the season restart, wearing a face covering or mask, and social distancing to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 from occurring. Players and coaches who were deemed "high-risk individuals" by their team, or players who had already suffered season-ending injuries prior to season suspension, were not permitted to play and also did not lose any salary. Any player who was medically cleared could also decline to participate, but as a result lost their corresponding paychecks. Phase 1 of the plan ran from June 16 to 22, consisting of players traveling back to the home cities of their respective teams. In Phase 2 from June 23 to 30, COVID-19 tests began being administered to players every other day. In Phase 3 from July 1 to 11, mandatory individual workouts were conducted at team facilities, but group workouts were prohibited. Phase 4 ran from July 7 to 21, consisting of the teams traveling to Disney World and conducting practices. Any player who tested positive in the previous phases could not travel until he was medically cleared to do so. Once teams arrive in Orlando, players and staff were isolated in their rooms, requiring to pass two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests 24 hours apart before being let out of this quarantine. They were still regularly tested for COVID-19 afterwards. A player who tested positive would be isolated and re-tested in case of a false positive; if COVID-19 was definitely confirmed, he would be quarantined for at least 14 days to recover. Players and staff were not permitted into another's room, nor were they be able to socialize with players on other teams staying at a different hotel building. They had access to food and recreational activities within their hotel's bubble, but they had to wear masks indoors except when eating. Anybody who left the bubble without prior approval had to be quarantined for at least 10 days. During Phase 5 from July 22 to 29, teams played three scrimmages against the other teams staying at the same hotel. During Phase 6, when the regular-season seeding games and playoffs were under way and teams began to be eliminated from contention, players and staff on those clubs had to pass one final COVID-19 test before they could leave Disney World. The NBA also set up an anonymous hotline for players to report protocol violations while in the bubble. Statistics Individual statistic leaders Individual game highs Team statistic leaders Awards Yearly awards While the statistics from the seeding games were counted towards players' regular season totals, the NBA ruled that its end-of-season awards were only based on games through March 11 and excluded the seeding games. Finalist for the major awards were announced during the seeding games. Due to the pandemic, the NBA Awards show held the prior three years was cancelled, and award winners were instead announced on TNT during their coverage of the 2020 playoffs. Players of the Week The following players were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week. Players of the Month The following players were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month. Rookies of the Month The following players were named the Eastern and Western Conference Rookies of the Month. Coaches of the Month The following coaches were named the Eastern and Western Conference Coaches of the Month. Seeding games Awards for seeding games play were also announced, with Damian Lillard named Player of the Seeding Games after averaging 37.6 points per game. Arenas This was the Golden State Warriors' first season at the new Chase Center in San Francisco after playing at Oracle Arena in Oakland from 1971 to 2019. The Warriors played their first game there in a preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers on October 5, 2019. They played their first regular season game there against the Los Angeles Clippers on October 24, 2019. The Cleveland Cavaliers' home arena, formerly known as Quicken Loans Arena, was renamed Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on April 9, 2019. Media This was the fourth year of the current nine-year contracts with ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV. Under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox, the Fox Sports Regional Networks were required to be sold off to third parties by June 18, 2019. Fox also invoked a clause to give Yankee Global Enterprises the rights to buy their stake back in the YES Network, which aired the local broadcasts to the NBA's Brooklyn Nets. Including YES, the Fox Sports Regional Networks held the local TV rights to a combined total of 44 NHL, NBA, and MLB teams. On March 8, YES was sold to a consortium including Yankee Global Enterprises, Amazon, and Sinclair Broadcast Group for $3.5 billion. Then on May 3, Sinclair and Entertainment Studios agreed to purchase the rest of the Fox Sports Regional Networks. The networks continued to temporarily use the Fox Sports name under a transitional license agreement while Sinclair explored re-branding options. Notable occurrences On October 23, 2019, Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets set the record for most points (50) in debut game with new team On October 24, 2019, Vince Carter of the Atlanta Hawks became the first player in NBA history to play 22 seasons. Carter officially checked in the game at 6:52 in the first quarter against the Detroit Pistons. On October 29, 2019, Anthony Davis set the record for most free throws made (18) in a quarter On November 3, 2019, Luka Dončić of the Dallas Mavericks became the youngest player to record consecutive 25-point triple-doubles. On November 19, 2019, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers became the first player in NBA history to record a triple-double against all 30 NBA teams. On November 25, 2019, Carmelo Anthony of the Portland Trail Blazers passed Alex English for 18th on the NBA all-time scoring list. On November 27, 2019, LeBron James became the fourth player in NBA history to reach 33,000 career points. On December 3, 2019, James Harden set a record for the most free throws made (24) in a game with no misses On December 8, 2019, Luka Dončić surpassed the record for the most consecutive games with at least 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. Michael Jordan previously held the record, recording 18 consecutive games with at least 20–5–5 between March 13, 1989, and April 4, 1989. On December 10, 2019, Vince Carter became the fifth player in NBA history to play at least 1,500 games. On December 14, 2019, James Harden became the first player to record back-to-back 50-point games with more than 10 three-pointers On December 28, 2019, Jrue Holiday of the New Orleans Pelicans, in addition to Justin Holiday and Aaron Holiday of the Indiana Pacers, became the first three brothers to play in the same NBA game. On December 29, 2019, LeBron James became the first player in NBA history to record at least 30,000 points, 9,000 rebounds and 9,000 assists. On January 1, 2020, NBA Commissioner Emeritus David Stern died at the age of 77, due to a brain hemorrhage sustained a few weeks prior. For the remainder of the season, all thirty teams wore a black stripe of fabric on the left side of their jerseys in memory of Stern. On January 4, 2020, Vince Carter became the only player in NBA history to have played in four different decades. On January 13, 2020, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder became the youngest player in NBA history to record a 20-rebound triple-double at 21 years and 185 days old. On January 15, 2020, Chandler Parsons of the Atlanta Hawks was hit by a drunk driver, suffering potentially career-ending injuries. On January 17, 2020, Carmelo Anthony of the Portland Trail Blazers became the 18th player in NBA history to reach 26,000 points. On January 20, 2020, Russell Westbrook of the Houston Rockets became the second player to record a triple-double against all 30 NBA teams. On January 22, 2020, Vince Carter moved past Alex English for 19th on the NBA all-time scoring list. On January 25, 2020, LeBron James moved past Kobe Bryant for 3rd on the NBA all-time scoring list. On January 26, 2020, a day after being passed by LeBron James for 3rd on the NBA's all-time scoring list, Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. During the first minute of each game for this day (outside of the first matchup of the day between the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets, which tipped off just minutes after news of the tragedy had broken), players paid tribute by dribbling through the 24-second shot clock violation and the 8-second backcourt violation, referencing the two numbers Bryant wore during his career. In addition to this, the 2020 NBA All-Star Game was played with jersey numbers 24 and 2, the latter to pay tribute to Gianna. On January 27, the NBA announced that they would postpone the January 28 game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center out of respect to Bryant, marking the first time an NBA game was postponed for any reason since the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing led to the postponement of a Celtics game. The game was later originally rescheduled for April 9, but was eventually played as the first game of the NBA restart on July 30 following the suspension of play due to the coronavirus pandemic. On January 29, 2020, Carmelo Anthony moved past Kevin Garnett for 17th on the NBA all-time scoring list. On January 31, 2020, Vince Carter moved up to third place in the NBA all-time games played list with 1,523 passing Dirk Nowitzki in the process. On February 23, 2020, the Milwaukee Bucks clinched the earliest playoff berth with their 137–134 win over the Washington Wizards. On March 1, 2020, Shake Milton tied the record for most consecutive 3-point field goals made (13) over a span of three games; Brent Price and Terry Mills did as well On March 11, 2020, the league suspended the season indefinitely after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, just hours after the WHO declared the disease a pandemic on the same day. Gobert's positive test causes a massive ripple effect, causing a shutdown of the vast majority of the sports world within five days. Vince Carter played in what became his final game, hitting a three-pointer as his final shot in a 136–131 overtime loss to the New York Knicks. On June 4, the NBA Board of Governors approved 29–1 (with the lone dissenter being the Portland Trail Blazers) resuming the 2019–20 season in Orlando, Florida at Walt Disney World, after prior consideration of Las Vegas and Houston as potential spots. On June 16, 2020, the NBA released a medical protocol to be used during the season restart in the bubble to ensure the health and safety of players, coaches, officials, and staff. On June 25, 2020, Vince Carter officially announced his retirement after 22 seasons and four separate decades in the NBA. He is the only player to accomplish both these feats. On July 30, 2020, the regular season resumed in the NBA bubble. On August 8, 2020, Luka Dončić recorded his 17th triple-double of the season, clinching his spot as the youngest player to ever lead the NBA in triple-doubles in a season. On August 10, 2020, Carmelo Anthony moved past John Havlicek and Paul Pierce, respectively, for 16th and 15th on the NBA all-time scoring list. On August 13, 2020, the San Antonio Spurs were eliminated from playoff contention, ending an NBA record-tying 22-year streak. On August 17, 2020, Donovan Mitchell scored 57 points, the third highest in NBA single-game playoff history, against the Denver Nuggets in game 1 of their playoff series. On August 23, 2020, Luka Dončić's performance in game 4 of the Dallas Mavericks playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers, including 43 points, 17 rebounds, 13 assists, and a game-winning buzzer beater, broke a number of records. He became the youngest player to hit a game-winning buzzer beater in the playoffs, one of only three players to make 40-plus points, 15-plus rebounds, and 10-plus assists in a playoff game, one of only five players to make 40-plus points including a buzzer beater in a playoff game, first Dallas Maverick to have a triple-double in the playoffs, among others. On August 23, 2020, Donovan Mitchell scored 51 points and Jamal Murray scored 50 points in a playoff game between the Utah Jazz and the Denver Nuggets, the first time in NBA history that two players scored 50 points in a playoff game. On August 26, 2020, the Milwaukee Bucks decided to boycott Game 5 of their First Round series against the Orlando Magic in order to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake a few days prior. Similar decisions by the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, and Los Angeles Lakers came shortly after. On September 15, 2020, the Denver Nuggets defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference semifinals after initially trailing in the series 3–1. This marked the first time that a team overcame consecutive 3–1 series deficits in a single playoff run, as the Nuggets had previously overcome a 3–1 series deficit to win their first round series against the Utah Jazz. On October 11, 2020, Talen Horton-Tucker became the second-youngest NBA player to win an NBA championship after the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat 106–93 to win the 2020 NBA Finals. Tony Snell had the first 50-50-100 season (min. 100 attempts) in NBA history James Harden became the third player, after Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson, to lead the league in total points and total steals in the same season See also COVID-19 pandemic in Canada COVID-19 pandemic in the United States Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on basketball List of NBA regular season records == References ==

Cut_It

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_It

"Cut It" is a song by American rapper O.T. Genasis featuring fellow American rapper Young Dolph. Produced by ITrezBeats, the song was released on September 25, 2015 by Conglomerate and Atlantic Records, as a single from O.T.'s mixtape Rhythm & Bricks. The song was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) November 17, 2016, for selling over 2,000,000 digital copies in the United States. Music video The song's accompanying music video premiered on October 9, 2015 on O.T. Genasis's YouTube account. Since its release, the music video has received over 220 million views on YouTube. Live performances In 2016 Young Dolph performed his hit single "Cut It" live at the Royal South Central in Atlanta along with Solo Lucci and more to promote his debut album "King of Memphis". The performance was filmed by StayOnGrindTV's Director LookImHD. Commercial performance "Cut It" debuted at number 94 on the US Billboard Hot 100 for the chart dated March 12, 2016 and eventually peaked at number 35, becoming O.T. Genasis's second top 40 hit, after his song "CoCo", which peaked at number 20 in 2014. The song also became Young Dolph's first top 40 entry. "Cut It" was certified platinum by the RIAA on November 17, 2016. Remixes The official remix entitled "Cut It Remix: Part One" features Young Thug and Kevin Gates. The second remix entitled "Cut It Remix: Part Two" features Lil Wayne and T.I. Charts Certifications References External links Music video on YouTube

Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_2016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_2016

The Billboard Hot 100 is a chart that ranks the best-performing singles of the United States. Its data, published by Billboard magazine and compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, is based collectively on each single's weekly physical and digital sales, as well as airplay and streaming. At the end of a year, Billboard will publish an annual list of the 100 most successful songs throughout that year on the Hot 100 chart based on the information. For 2016, the list was published on December 8, calculated with data from December 5, 2015 to November 26, 2016. The 2016 list was dominated by Justin Bieber and Drake, who shared the top four spots, marking the first time two artists took up the top four spots since 2009 with Lady Gaga and The Black Eyed Peas. The list is also notable for being one of five Billboard Year-End lists that featured 14 songs that appeared in the previous year (in this case 2015's) repeat onto to this list. The highest being Adele's "Hello", which with only three weeks being available to count in 2015's chart year, made it on to 2015's list at number 35 and repeat higher at number 7 in 2016's. Only four other year-end lists would repeat the same feat, those being 1997, 2010, 2018 and 2022. For the first time in 10 years, the year-end number-one single was #1 for five weeks or fewer. Year-end list See also 2016 in American music List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 2016 List of Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles in 2016 Notes == References ==

No_Limit_(Usher_song)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Limit_(Usher_song)

"No Limit" is a song by American singer Usher featuring fellow American rapper Young Thug. It was written by the artists alongside producers Rock City, Brandon "B.A.M." Hodge, and Christopher "Talent" Perry. The track gives reference to Master P's song, "Make 'Em Say Uhh", from his 1997 No Limit Records release Ghetto D singing, "Make you say uh, no limit / Got that Master P, no limit baby" It was released by RCA on June 9, 2016, for online streaming through the streaming service Tidal, which Usher co-owns. The following day it was released for paid purchase on digital download and other online streaming services. "No Limit" serves as the lead single off his eighth studio album, Hard II Love. In the US, the song reached number 32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, number nine on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Background and release It had been 4 years since Usher's 2012 album Looking 4 Myself. He has been teasing his eight studio album that was expected to be released in 2014. “Good Kisser”, “She Came To Give It To You” and "I Don't Mind" were released as well as the world tour UR Experience, yet no album was released. In October 2015, Raymond released "Chains", a song about social justice featuring the artist Nas and Bibi Bourelly. Travis Scott released a remix to the song. Critical reception Paper Magazine said "Usher's back at it again with "No Limit," a sultry summer jam". Brian Joseph of Spin describes Usher as an "exceptional of a singer as ever on the luscious beat". Madeline Roth of MTV writes Raymond in "No Limit" channeling Drake's sing-rapping and Ty Dolla $ign's syrupy sweetness. Commercial performance In North America, the song reached number 32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop charts. As of February 2024, "No Limit" has sold 2 million copies in the United States. Music video The music video for "No Limit" was directed by Joey Toman. The video for "No Limit" was uploaded August 5, 2016 exclusively online through the streaming service Tidal, which Usher co-owns. On August 8, 2016 it was released on YouTube and Vevo. It features cameo appearances from Ty Dolla Sign, Boosie, Gucci Mane and internet dancing sensations Kida Burns, Ayo & Teo, Meechie, Yvng Quan, Lil Deedee, kidatz and Mr Hot Spot. In the video, Usher dances in front of an all white background accompanied with his dancers. His choreography was likened to his performance at the 2016 BET Awards. As of August 2024, the music video has over 249 million views on YouTube. Remix The official remix, "No Limit" (G-Mix)" featured New Orleans rapper Master P, Travis Scott, A$AP Ferg, and fellow Atlanta natives 2 Chainz, and Gucci Mane. The song was released on SoundCloud in August 19, 2016, and features reworked production by WondaGurl. Live performances Usher performed the song live for the first time as a part of his headlining set at the BET Experience with other hits including "Yeah!", "U Don't Have to Call", "Love in This Club", "OMG" and many more. Rolling Out declared Usher a leading voice of the past and present R&B generation due to his over 20-year career in music. Mikael Wood of Los Angeles Times described his performance as nothing short of a spectacle. Usher also did the first live televised performance of the song at 2016 BET Awards which took place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California on June 26, 2016. He was dressed in a green windbreaker jacket with the words "Don't Trump America" on the back, two gold chains, black skinny jeans and Air Jordan sneakers. Usher and his backup dancers performed heavily choreographed routines to the song backed with flashing lights and special pyro technics. Usher's performance received positive reviews and was considered by USA Today, Perez Hilton, MTV News, BET.com, New York Daily News and Hollywood Life and many other sources as one of the highlights of the night. Maura Johnston of Rolling Stone described Usher as "the secret weapon of award shows" and declared him as "Award Show King". On September 24, 2016 Usher performed the song live at the iHeartRadio Music Festival 2016 as a part of his set list which he headlined. Usher also performed the song on September 20, 2016, On Jimmy Kimmel Live. He also performed the song at "105.1 Powerhouse 2016" with many other hits which took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn,NY and also at "Hot 97 Hot For The Holidays Concert" which took place at Prudential Center in Newark,NJ. Which he served as the headliner of both events. Cover art On January 13, 2016, Usher has announced then title of his eighth album, Flawed, on friend and artist Daniel Arsham Instagram post. In the video "Usher and Arsham said they’re working on some “Amazing, Incredible, Awesome stuff” for the new album. The single cover art is a sculpture of Usher that was done by Arsham, which he had to stand still for 4 hours for him to complete. Credits and personnel Credits adapted from Tidal. Charts Certifications == References ==

Digimon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digimon

Digimon (Japanese: デジモン, Hepburn: Dejimon, branded as Digimon: Digital Monsters, stylized as DIGIMON), short for "Digital Monsters" (デジタルモンスター Dejitaru Monsutā), is a Japanese media franchise, which encompasses virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films, and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures that inhabit a "Digital World", which is a parallel universe that originated from Earth's various communication networks. The franchise was created in 1997 as a series of digital pets, and it was intended as the masculine counterpart to Tamagotchi. The creatures were first designed to look cute and iconic even on the devices' small screens. Later developments had them created with a harder-edged style, which was influenced by American comics. The franchise gained momentum with an early video game, Digimon World, originally released in Japan in January 1999. Several anime series and films have been released; the video game series has expanded into genres, such as role-playing, racing, fighting, and MMORPGs. The franchise generated over $500 million in sales by 2000. Conception and creation The Digimon franchise began as a series of virtual pets created by WiZ and Bandai, intended as a masculine counterpart to the more female-oriented Tamagotchi pets. It was released in June 1997 with the name Digimon, short for Digital Monster. This device shows to players a virtual pet composed entirely of data and designed to play and fight. In February 1998, the DigiMon fighting game, compatible with Windows 95 and developed by Rapture Technologies, Inc., was announced. The one-shot manga C'mon Digimon, designed by Tenya Yabuno, was published in the Japanese magazine V-Jump by Shueisha in 1997. A second generation of virtual pets was marketed six months after the launch of the first, followed by a third in 1998. Each player starts with a baby-level digital creature that has a limited number of attacks and transformations and to make the creature stronger by training and nourishing the creature; when the player is successful in a workout, the Digimon becomes strong, when the player fails, the Digimon becomes weak. Two devices can be connected, allowing two players to battle with their respective creatures, an innovation at the time, however, the battle is only possible from the moment the creature is in the child level or bigger. Playgrounds and subways were where the majority of users of the apparatus were concentrated; the virtual pet was banned in some Asian schools, being considered by parents and teachers as very noisy and violent. The first Digimon were created by Japanese designer Kenji Watanabe, influenced by American comics, which were beginning to gain popularity in Japan, and as such began to make his characters look stronger and "cool." Other types of Digimon, which until the year 2000 totalled 279, came from extensive discussions and collaborations between the Bandai company members. The original Digital Monster model that was released in 1997 sold 14 million units worldwide, including 13 million units in Japan and 1 million overseas, up until March 2004. By 2005, more than 24 million Digital Monster units had been sold worldwide. Premise Several media in the franchise are contained within their own continuity; however, they all share a similar setting and premise. For instance, most Digimon stories begin with a human child, who comes into contact with a Digimon. This generally occurs either through an accidental entrance into the so-called Digital World or an encounter with a Digimon who has come into the human world. The child or children then often find themselves equipped with a "digivice", which is a device modelled after the series' virtual pets; this device enables them to empower their partner Digimon. While some Digimon act like wild beasts, there are many who form small societies and follow governing bodies. Digimon can change through evolution (or "digivolution" in most English-language dubs), where they absorb additional data that allows them to change forms. This process is normally linear, but there are other methods, depending upon the media within the franchise. For example, "Jogress" (a portmanteau of "joint progress"; "DNA Digivolution" in most English-language dubs) is when two or more Digimon combine into a single being. Though evolution can occur naturally, Digimon can progress into stronger forms more quickly, when they are partnered with a human. Media Anime Television series Multiple Digimon anime series have been produced by Toei Animation since 1999. The first of these was Digimon Adventure; it began as a short film, but after its storyboard was finished, a request for the film to become a television series was made. The film debuted in theaters a day before the series debuted on TV. The first six Digimon series were adapted into English for release in Western markets, with the first four treated as a single show under the collective title Digimon: Digital Monsters. The sixth series, Digimon Fusion, was only partially localized; its third season was never adapted into English. Films Several Digimon featurette films were released in Japan, with some of them seasonal tie-ins for their respective television series. Footage from the first three films was used for the American-produced Digimon: The Movie. OVA Distribution and localization In the United States, the first three series that made up Digimon: Digital Monsters first aired on Fox Kids from August 14, 1999 to June 8, 2002. The localized series was produced by Saban Entertainment, which would be acquired by The Walt Disney Company during the show's Fox Kids run. Some scenes from the original shows were modified or omitted in order to comply with Fox's standards and practices. The show also featured more jokes and added dialogue, along with a completely different musical score. As a cross-promotional stunt, 2001 and 2002 saw Digi-Bowl specials co-produced with Fox Sports; NFL on Fox commentator Terry Bradshaw provided interstitial segments in-between episodes as if the episodes were actually a football game. Disney's acquisition of Saban would result in Digimon airing on Disney's TV networks and programming blocks. Reruns of the show would begin airing on the cable network ABC Family on March 4, 2002, while the fourth series, Digimon Frontier, premiered on UPN's Disney's One Too block. UPN aired the series until late August 2003, when they severed their ties to Disney. Frontier would also air in reruns on ABC Family and on Toon Disney under the Jetix branding. An English version of Digimon Data Squad, produced by Studiopolis, would premiere October 1, 2007, on Toon Disney. Around this time, the remaining Digimon Adventure 02 movie, both Tamers movies and the Frontier movie would also be dubbed and aired on Toon Disney in the US, with most actors from the TV series reprising their roles. The Data Squad/Savers movie however would not get a North American localised English dub produced. In September 2012, Saban Brands, a successor to Saban Entertainment, announced it had acquired the Digimon anime franchise. Saban would announce that they would be producing an English dub for Digimon Xros Wars, retitled Digimon Fusion, for broadcast on Nickelodeon in the United States starting September 7, 2013. Saban Capital Group would later sell most of Saban Brands' entertainment properties to Hasbro in 2018 and shutter the division in July of that year. The Digimon Adventure tri. series would be distributed in North America by Eleven Arts. The English dub would utilize localized names from Saban's original dub, reunite several voice actors from the original cast, and feature a remixed version of the English opening theme, while retaining the original Japanese score. Shout! Factory would acquire the broadcast and home media distribution rights for the films. International In Canada, the English versions of Digimon were broadcast on YTV, with the exception of Data Squad, which aired in Family Channel's Jetix block. YTV would eventually acquire Digimon Fusion, but only the first 26 episodes were shown. In the United Kingdom, Digimon first aired on Fox Kids. ITV's children's slot CITV would broadcast Adventure, Adventure 02 and several episodes of Tamers during after school hours from 2001–2002. The rest of Tamers aired on Fox Kids from 2002–03. Digimon Frontier was originally announced to be broadcast on Jetix, but the series was later dropped. The series eventually saw a release on October 29, 2018. In 2011, Digimon Data Squad aired on Kix!. According to Fox Kids' (2000–03) and Kix's (2010–) BARB Television ratings, Adventure, Adventure 02 & Tamers have been the most popular series'/seasons in the United Kingdom and was consistently in the weekly top 10 broadcasts for both channels for new episodes. Broadcast rights and merchandising sub-licensing rights for Digimon Fusion in the UK have been acquired by ITV Studios Global Entertainment. Digimon Fusion had aired since Spring 2014 on digital terrestrial channel, CITV. In the Philippines, Digimon was first aired on ABS-CBN in Filipino English language from June 2, 2000 to October 21, 2001. And later, it was shift to Filipino in April 6, 2002. Manga Digimon first appeared in narrative form in the one-shot manga C'mon Digimon, released in the summer of 1997. C'mon Digimon spawned the popular Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 manga, written by Hiroshi Izawa, which began serialization on November 21, 1998. The following are the known Digimon manga: Digimon Next Written by Tatsuya Hamazaki and illustrated by Takeshi Okano, Digimon Next (デジモンネクスト, Dejimon Nekusuto) was serialized in Shueisha's magazine V Jump from 2005 to 2008. Shueisha collected its chapters in four tankōbon volumes, released from July 4, 2006, to February 4, 2008. The story follow Tsurugi Tatsuno and his digimon partner, Greymon (later Agumon). Tsurugi makes contact with the Digital World through his virtual pet device called Digimon Mini and a "Battle Terminal", a virtual reality interface. Digimon can use the technology to materialize in the human world as well. Digimon Dreamers In 2021, a manga called Digimon Dreamers was announced. Yuen Wong Yu manhua A Chinese manhua was written and drawn by Yuen Wong Yu (余 遠鍠 Yu Yuen-wong), who based its storyline on the television series. This adaptation covers Digimon Adventure in five volumes, Digimon Adventure 02 in two, Digimon Tamers in four, and Digimon Frontier in three. The original stories are heavily abridged, though on rare occasions events play out differently from the anime. The Chinese-language version was published by Rightman Publishing Ltd. in Hong Kong. Yu also wrote D-Cyber. Two English versions were also released. The first one was published by Chuang Yi in Singapore. The second one, which was adapted by Lianne Sentar, was released by Tokyopop in North America.The three volumes for Digimon Frontier have been released by Chuang Yi in English. These have not been released by TOKYOPOP in North America or Europe. However, the Chuang Yi releases of Digimon Frontier were distributed by Madman Entertainment in Australia. Dark Horse Dark Horse Comics published American-style Digimon comic books, adapting the first thirteen episodes of the English dub of Digimon Adventure in 2001. The story was written by Daniel Horn and Ryan Hill, and illustrated by Daniel Horn and Cara L. Niece. Panini The Italian publishing company, Panini, approached Digimon in different ways in different countries. While Germany created their own adaptations of episodes, the United Kingdom (UK) reprinted the Dark Horse titles, then translated some of the German adaptations of Adventure 02 episodes. Eventually the UK comics were given their own original stories, which appeared in both the UK's official Digimon Magazine and the official UK Fox Kids companion magazine, Wickid. These original stories only roughly followed the continuity of Adventure 02. When the comic switched to the Tamers series the storylines adhered to continuity more strictly; sometimes it would expand on subject matter not covered by the original Japanese anime (such as Mitsuo Yamaki's past) or the English adaptations of the television shows and movies (such as Ryo's story or the movies that remained undubbed until 2005). In a money saving venture, the original stories were later removed from Digimon Magazine, which returned to printing translated German adaptations of Tamers episodes. Eventually, both magazines were cancelled. Video games The Digimon series has inspired various video games, including the Digimon World and Digimon Story sub-series of role-playing games. Other genres have included life simulation, adventure, video card game, strategy, and racing games. By March 2001, Bandai had sold approximately 1 million video games worldwide, including 400,000 in Japan. In February 2010, a website for the MMORPG Digimon Battle Online was launched. On September 22, 2011, online game publisher Joymax announced the release of an MMORPG game called Digimon Masters, which was developed by the Korean publisher DIGITALIC. In June 2021 it was announced that they were developing a new MMORPG titled Digimon Super Rumble. In 2011, a new entry in the Digimon World series was announced after a seven-year hiatus, titled Digimon World Re:Digitize. The game would be released in Japan on July 19, 2012, followed by an enhanced version for Nintendo 3DS released in 2013. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth was first released in Japan in 2015. It would be the first game in the Digimon Story series to be released in North America under its original title; Digimon World DS and Digimon World Dawn and Dusk were originally marketed as entries in the Digimon World series, with the latter game being the last to be released in the West for nine years until Cyber Sleuth's release on February 2, 2016. There have also been several mobile games. Digimon Links was active from March 2016 to July 2019, and was similar to the Story games in that the player raised digimon in a farm and fought enemies using a team of three of their Digimon. It was succeeded by Digimon ReArise, which launched June 2018 in Japan and October 2019 in America. Web novel In February 2023, Bandai announced a web novel titled Digimon Seekers (デジモンシーカーズ, Dejimon Shīkāzu) to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the franchise. The novel will serialize on the Digimon Web website for about a year, starting on April 3, simultaneously in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Webcomic In December 2023, Bandai announced a webcomic titled Digimon Liberator for Spring 2024. Card game The Digimon Collectible Card Game is a card game based on Digimon, first introduced in Japan in 1997 and published by Bandai. The third season (Digimon Tamers) utilized this aspect of the franchise by making the card game an integral part of the season. Versions of the card game are also included in some of the Digimon video games including Digital Card Battle and Digimon World 3. During the fourth anime (Digimon Frontier), Bandai created the D-Tector Card Game to tie in to their own D-Tector virtual pet toys. This was a West-only card game. From February 25, 2011 to September 28, 2012, Digimon Jintrix was an online card game supported by physical card releases. It was followed up by the mobile game Digimon Crusader, which lasted from December 2012 to December 2017. In 2020 a new card game was launched to coincide with Digimon Adventure: using a new system, this was released in the West in January 2021. References External links Official website DigimonFusion, outside-of-Asia series

Digimon_Adventure_(1999_TV_series)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digimon_Adventure_(1999_TV_series)

Digimon Adventure (Japanese: デジモンアドベンチャー, Hepburn: Dejimon Adobenchā), also known as Digimon: Digital Monsters Season 1 in English-speaking territories, is a 1999 Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation in cooperation with WiZ, Bandai and Fuji Television. It is the first anime series in the Digimon media franchise, based on the Digital Monster virtual pet released in 1997. Digimon Adventure began production 1.5 months after the film of the same name was being produced, and it began broadcast in Japan a day after the film's theatrical release on March 7, 1999, airing until its conclusion on March 26, 2000. It was then followed up with the 2000 film Digimon Adventure: Our War Game!. Both films were adapted and released in North America as Digimon: The Movie on October 6, 2000. With the success of Digimon Adventure, a sequel television series, Digimon Adventure 02, was broadcast from 2000 to 2001. For the series' 15th anniversary, a six-part film series titled Digimon Adventure tri. was released between 2015 and 2018, and a final film titled Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna was released in 2020. In 2020, the series was reboot and released under the title Digimon Adventure. Plot On August 1, 1999, seven children are transported into the Digital World by Digivices that appeared before them at summer camp, where they befriend several Digimon (Digital Monsters). The kids' Digivices allow their partner Digimon to Digivolve into stronger forms and combat enemies. As the kids explore to find a way home, they learn that they are "DigiDestined", children chosen to save the Digital World. During their adventure, the DigiDestined are hunted by Devimon, who uses black gears to corrupt various Digimon into attacking the group. After defeating Devimon, the DigiDestined are contacted by Gennai and instructed to reach the Server Continent to retrieve artifacts called Crests, allowing their Digimon partners to Digivolve into their Ultimate forms. During this time, they are targeted by Etemon. After Etemon is defeated, the DigiDestined learn from Gennai that there is an eighth DigiDestined child, who Myotismon is entering the real world to kill. The DigiDestined follow after Myotismon to the real world. After discovering that the eighth child is Tai's younger sister, Kari, and that Myotismon’s lieutenant Gatomon is her Digimon partner, the DigiDestined are able to defeat Myotismon. However, the boundaries between the real world and Digital World are intersecting, forcing them to return to the Digital World. The DigiDestined face the Dark Masters, a quartet of mega-level Digimon who each took control of a part of the Digital World in their absence. In the midst of their battles, they learn that they were chosen to save the real and Digital Worlds from intersecting four years ago. Tension leads to infighting within the group and causes them to temporarily separate. After reflecting, the DigiDestined reunite to defeat the last Dark Master, and confront Apocalymon who attempts to destroy both worlds. Apocalymon destroys their Crests, but the DigiDestined realize the power of their Crests was inside them all along and manage to defeat him. With the Digital World restored, Tai and his friends leave their Digimon partners behind and return to their normal lives. Development In 1999, a short film based on the virtual pets called Digimon Adventure was released. However, shortly after the film's storyboard was completed in 1998, producers at Toei Animation were requested to turn it into a television series. The DigiDestined's character designs were created by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru. The character names are based on kanji related to luck. Media Anime Digimon Adventure was produced by Toei Animation and ran for 54 episodes on Fuji TV between March 7, 1999, and March 26, 2000. The main opening theme for all episodes aired in Japan is "Butter-Fly" by Kōji Wada, which peaked at #47 on the Oricon Weekly Singles Chart. "I Wish" by AiM is used as the ending theme from episodes 1–26, while "Keep On", AiM's fifth single, served as the ending theme from episodes 27–54. The series also uses three insert songs: "Brave Heart" by Ayumi Miyazaki as the Digivolution theme, "Seven" by Kōji Wada, and "Yūki o Tsubasa ni Shite" (勇気を翼にして) by Toshiko Fujita, Tai's voice actress. On August 1, 2014, during the series' 15th anniversary, a Blu-ray Disc box of the original series was announced and set for release in Japan on March 15, 2015. Saban Entertainment licensed the series in North America and produced an English-language version under the title Digimon: Digital Monsters, premiered on Fox Kids Network on August 14, 1999. The series was also broadcast in Canada on YTV. The English version featured an original soundtrack and made changes to character names, as well as edits pertaining to certain aspects such as violence to make the series more suitable for younger audiences. Wendee Lee, Michael Sorich and David Walsh became the voice directors. The original soundtrack of the show was replaced by music composed by Udi Harpaz and Shuki Levy, which recycled several music soundtracks from Starcom: The U.S. Space Force, Princess Sissi, Masked Rider and Spider-Man: The Animated Series. The opening theme for all episodes is "Digimon Theme" by Paul Gordon. "Hey Digimon" by Gordon, an insert song featured in the show, and was released on the original soundtrack of Digimon: The Movie along with "Digimon Theme". The English dub series was released on DVD by Twentieth Century Fox (Saban's parent company) in 2000 and by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in 2002. A complete DVD boxset of the English dub was released by New Video Group on October 9, 2012 in the U.S and was released by Madman Entertainment on June 18, 2014 in Australia. On March 14, 2022, Discotek Media announced a Blu-ray collection. The English dub version, Digimon: Digital Monsters Season 1, was released on December 27, 2022, while the original Japanese version, Digimon Adventure, was released on July 25, 2023. Films Several short films based on the series were released in theaters in Japan. Digimon Adventure was originally released on March 6, 1999. The story focuses on Tai and Kari finding a Digi-egg from their computer, which hatches and quickly Digivolves, culminating in a battle. The film grossed ¥650 million. Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! was originally released on March 4, 2000. In the film, the DigiDestined find a virus Digimon who Digivolves into who infects the Internet. The film introduces DNA Digivolution. The film grossed ¥2.166 billion. Our War Game! later served as the inspiration for director Mamoru Hosoda's film Summer Wars. The two short films were combined with Digimon Adventure 02: Part 1: Digimon Hurricane Landing!! / Part 2: Supreme Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals and was released as Digimon: The Movie in North America on October 6, 2000. Digimon: The Movie was altered from the original script to remove "culturally awkward" Japanese elements and introduced jokes suitable for a North American audience. Originally, scriptwriter Jeff Nimoy wanted to combine Digimon Adventure and Our War Game! while releasing Digimon Hurricane Landing / Supreme Evolution!! The Golden Digimentals as a direct-to-television movie, but the idea was overruled. In order to connect the film's stories, the script was rewritten. Digimon Adventure 3D: Digimon Grand Prix! (デジモンアドベンチャー3D デジモングランプリ!, Dejimon Adobenchā: Dejimon Guran Puri), a stereoscopic 3D short film, was shown at Toei Animation Festival on October 3, 2009 and was later included on a set of DVD works released on February 21, 2010. Video games Characters and Digimon from Adventure appear throughout many video games based on the franchise, such as Digimon Rumble Arena. An RPG based on the original storyline of Adventure developed by Prope and published by Namco Bandai Games, also title Digimon Adventure, was released for the PlayStation Portable on January 17, 2013, part of the line-up of video games of the 15th-anniversary celebration of the franchise. The game covers the entire series as well as the second Japanese film, Bokura no War Game, and sees the return of all the main voice actors. The game also features original story elements and an unlockable dungeon mode featuring sequel protagonists in the franchise. Other media Other media adaptions include a manhua released in 2000 and its sequel. A North American 12 issue adaption of the first arc of the show was published by Dark Horse Comics. A novelization was written by the Digimon Adventure screenwriter, Hiro Masaki and series director Hiroyuki Kakudō. The light novels were separated into three parts. Four Drama CDs were also released between 1999 and 2003. Reception On its initial release, the series found a rather large success in the United States. When it was first released in North America, the series was seen as an attempt to imitate the success of Nintendo's Pokémon franchise. Entertainment Weekly magazine named Digimon as the "Worst Pokémon/Net Crossbreeding Attempt" in 2000. However, audiences eventually noticed that compared to Pokémon, the characters interacted and developed realistically, as well as the integration of more complicated science fiction stories and societal themes. The English dub gradually improved as well, making fewer and fewer alterations to the Japanese original by later episodes. As a result, many young viewers quickly outgrew Pokémon and migrated to Digimon instead. Despite the criticism, it placed first at the start of the May 2000 Nielsen ratings sweeps, surpassing Pokémon: Adventures on the Orange Islands among viewers aged 2–11 and 6–11. Retailers and businesses such as snack food company Jel Sert and toy store chain Toys "R" Us capitalized on the popularity of the series by licensing it for promotion with their own products. Web search engine Lycos listed Digimon as the number five fad of 2000, and it ranked 35th on the list of the year's top searches. On Anime News Network, Luke Carroll gave the Digimon: Digital Monsters - Collection 2 DVD an overall grade of D+. Notes References External links Official website Official sequel website Digimon Adventure (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

List_of_Digimon_Adventure_(1999_TV_series)_episodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Digimon_Adventure_(1999_TV_series)_episodes

Digimon Adventure is an anime series produced by Toei Animation. It began broadcasting in Japan on Fuji Television on March 7, 1999, and ended on March 26, 2000. The series was directed by Hiroyuki Kakudō and produced by Keisuke Okuda, featuring music composition by Takanori Arisawa and character designs by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru. The story revolves around a group of elementary school students known as the DigiDestined, who are transported to a parallel Digital World and find themselves in a quest to save it from evil forces with the help of their partner creatures. The series was followed in 2000 with a sequel titled Digimon Adventure 02. Digimon Adventure was broadcast with English dubbing under the title Digimon: Digital Monsters in the United States on Fox Kids and in Canada on YTV. The series premiered on August 14, 1999, in the United States. Overall licensing of English-language material of the series was managed by Saban Entertainment, which was eventually acquired by The Walt Disney Company. Digimon Adventure has been compiled into DVD box sets by Bandai Visual and Happinet in Japan and by Cinedigm in North America. On August 1, 2013, the show became available for streaming in both its English and Japanese versions on Netflix in North America. Two pieces of theme music were used in the original version of the series. Kōji Wada's song "Butter-Fly" was used as the opening theme for the series, and Ai Maeda's (credited as AiM) songs "I wish" and "Keep on" were used as ending themes. The English opening featured an original composition by Paul Gordon. Digimon Adventure was licensed by Saban Entertainment in North America under the name Digimon: Digital Monsters. The show initially aired on Fox Kids Network and Fox Family Channel before distribution rights were sold to Disney through BVS and ABC Family Worldwide, later airing on Toon Disney from the teenage block Jetix and the rebranded ABC Family. Episode list Volume DVDs Japanese release Digimon Adventure was released as a 9-disc DVD boxed set by Bandai Visual on July 25, 2006, with each disc containing six episodes. Happinet also released its own 9-disc set on December 21, 2007. And an 8-Disc Standard Definition Upscaled Blu-ray set, in March 2015. Each disc contained 7 episodes. Also comes with a limited edition drama CD, and art booklet. North American release The first 13 episodes were released in 1999 & 2000 by Fox Kids Video under license by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The entire first season was released on October 9, 2012 by New Video. An "English Language Version" Blu-ray set featuring the dub was released on December 27, 2022 by Discotek Media with an "Original Japanese Version" released on July 25, 2023. Digimon: Digital Monsters, Volume 1 (Episodes 1–21) Digimon: Digital Monsters, Volume 2 (Episodes 22–39) Digimon: Digital Monsters, Volume 3 (Episodes 40–54) United Kingdom release The first 20 episodes were released on four DVD sets by Maximum Entertainment between 2004–2008. The entire first season was released as one set on October 3, 2016 by Manga Entertainment. Digimon: Digital Monsters – Volume 1 (2004) Digimon: Digital Monsters – Volume 2 (2006) Digimon: Digital Monsters Collection (2007) Digimon: Digital Monsters – Subzero Ice Punch (2008) Digimon: Digital Monsters – Complete Season 1 (2016) Australian release Collection 1, containing 27 episodes was released on the August 17 in Australia by Madman Entertainment. Collection 2, was released on 11 October containing the remaining 27 episodes of the season. See also Digimon List of Digimon Adventure 02 episodes Notes References External links Digimon Adventure official website (in Japanese) Digimon Adventure (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

September_11_attacks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. On that Tuesday morning, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the East Coast to California. The first two teams of hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, while the remaining hijackers aimed the next two flights toward targets in or near Washington, D.C., in an attack on the nation's capital. The third team succeeded in striking the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia, while the fourth plane hijacked by the fourth team crashed in rural Pennsylvania during a passenger revolt. The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history. In response to the attacks, the United States waged the multi-decade global war on terror to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organizations, as well as the foreign governments purported to support them, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and several other countries. Ringleader Mohamed Atta flew American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan at 8:46 a.m. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03, the World Trade Center's South Tower was hit by United Airlines Flight 175. Both 110-story skyscrapers collapsed within an hour and forty-one minutes, bringing about the destruction of the remaining five structures in the WTC complex and damaging or destroying nearby buildings. American Airlines Flight 77 flew towards Washington, D.C. and crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., causing a partial collapse. The fourth and final flight, United Airlines Flight 93, also changed course towards Washington, believed by investigators to target either the United States Capitol or the White House. Alerted to the previous attacks, the passengers revolted against the hijackers who then crashed the aircraft into a Stonycreek Township field, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 am. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered an indefinite ground stop for all air traffic in U.S. airspace at 9:45 am (59 minutes following the first impact), preventing any further aircraft departures until September 13 and requiring all airborne aircraft to return to their point of origin or divert to Canada. The actions undertaken in Canada to support incoming aircraft and their occupants were collectively titled Operation Yellow Ribbon. That evening, the Central Intelligence Agency informed President George W. Bush that its Counterterrorism Center had identified the attacks as having been the work of Al-Qaeda under Osama bin Laden. The United States formally responded by launching the war on terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which rejected the conditions of U.S. terms to expel Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan and extradite its leaders. The U.S.'s invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty—its only usage to date—called upon allies to fight Al-Qaeda. As U.S. and NATO invasion forces swept through Afghanistan, bin Laden eluded them by disappearing into the White Mountains. He denied any involvement until 2004, when excerpts of a taped statement in which he accepted responsibility for the attacks were released. Al-Qaeda's cited motivations included U.S. support of Israel, the presence of U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia and sanctions against Iraq. The nearly decade-long manhunt for bin Laden concluded on May 2, 2011, when he was killed during a U.S. military raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The war in Afghanistan continued for another eight years until the agreement was made in February 2020 for American and NATO troops to withdraw from the country. The last members of the U.S. armed forces left the region on August 30, 2021, after which the Taliban rapidly returned to power. Ayman al-Zawahiri, another planner of the attacks who succeeded bin Laden as leader of Al-Qaeda, was killed by U.S. drone strikes in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 31, 2022. Excluding the hijackers, the attacks killed 2,977 people, injured thousands more and gave rise to substantial long-term health consequences while also causing at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in history as well as the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement personnel in American history, killing 343 and 72 members, respectively. The loss of life stemming from the impact of Flight 11 made it the most lethal multi-plane crash in aviation history followed by the death toll incurred by Flight 175. The destruction of the World Trade Center and its environs seriously harmed the U.S. economy and induced global market shocks. Many other countries strengthened anti-terrorism legislation and expanded their powers of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The total number of deaths caused by the attacks, combined with the death tolls from the conflicts they directly incited, has been estimated by the Costs of War Project to be over 4.5 million. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site (colloquially "Ground Zero") took eight months and was completed in May 2002, while the Pentagon was repaired within a year. After delays in the design of a replacement complex, six new buildings were planned to replace the lost towers, along with a museum and memorial dedicated to those who were killed or injured in the attacks. The tallest building, One World Trade Center, began construction in November 2006; it opened in November 2014. Memorials to the attacks include the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington County, Virginia, and the Flight 93 National Memorial at the Pennsylvania crash site. Background Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda's origins can be traced to 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Soon after the invasion, Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan and helped organize Arab mujahideen (the "Afghan Arabs") to resist the "Communist invaders" (Soviets) until their exit from the country in 1989. In 1984, bin Laden, along with Islamic scholar Abdullah Azzam, formed the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), an organization to support Arab mujahideen who came to join the jihad in Afghanistan. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funnelled several billion dollars worth of weapons to the indigenous Afghan mujahideen resistance, a portion of which bled to the Arab volunteers. However, no direct evidence of U.S. aid to bin Laden or any of his affiliates was ever uncovered. In 1996, bin Laden issued his first fatwā, which declared war against the United States and demanded the expulsion of all American soldiers from the Arabian Peninsula. In a second 1998 fatwā, bin Laden outlined his objections to American foreign policy with respect to the State of Israel, as well as the continued presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War. Bin Laden maintained that Muslims are obliged to attack American targets until the aggressive policies of the U.S. against Muslims were reversed. According to bin Laden, Islamic jurists had "throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries". The Hamburg cell in Germany included Islamists who eventually came to be key operatives in the 9/11 attacks. Mohamed Atta; Marwan al-Shehhi; Ziad Jarrah; Ramzi bin al-Shibh; and Said Bahaji were all members of Al-Qaeda's Hamburg cell. Bin Laden asserted that all Muslims must wage a defensive war against the United States and combat American aggression. He further argued that military strikes against American assets would send a message to the American people, attempting to force the U.S. to re-evaluate its support to Israel, and other aggressive policies. In a 1998 interview with American journalist John Miller, bin Laden stated: We do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians; they are all targets in this fatwa. American history does not distinguish between civilians and military, not even women and children. They are the ones who used bombs against Nagasaki. Can these bombs distinguish between infants and military? America does not have a religion that will prevent it from destroying all people. So we tell the Americans as people and we tell the mothers of soldiers and American mothers in general that if they value their lives and the lives of their children, to find a nationalistic government that will look after their interests and not the interests of the Jews. The continuation of tyranny will bring the fight to America, as [the 1993 World Trade Center bomber] Ramzi [Yousef] yourself and others did. This is my message to the American people: to look for a serious government that looks out for their interests and does not attack others, their lands, or their honor. My word to American journalists is not to ask why we did that but to ask what their government has done that forced us to defend ourselves. Osama bin Laden Bin Laden orchestrated the September 11 attacks. He initially denied involvement, but later recanted his denial. Al Jazeera broadcast a statement by him on September 16, 2001: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation". In November 2001, U.S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. In the video, bin Laden, talking to Khaled al-Harbi, admitted foreknowledge of the attacks. On December 27, 2001, a second video of bin Laden was released in which he, stopping short of admitting responsibility for the attacks, said:It has become clear that the West in general and America in particular have an unspeakable hatred for Islam. ... It is the hatred of crusaders. Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people. ... We say that the end of the United States is imminent, whether Bin Laden or his followers are alive or dead, for the awakening of the Muslim ummah [nation] has occurred. ... It is important to hit the economy (of the United States), which is the base of its military power...If the economy is hit they will become reoccupied. Shortly before the 2004 U.S. presidential election, bin Laden used a taped statement to publicly acknowledge Al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks. He admitted his direct link to the attacks and said they were carried out because: The events that affected my soul in a direct way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that. This bombardment began and many were killed and injured and others were terrorised and displaced. I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood and severed limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses were destroyed along with their occupants, high rises demolished over their residents, rockets raining down on our home without mercy...As I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon, it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor in kind and that we should destroy towers in America so that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children. And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and the intentional killing of innocent women and children is a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and democracy, while resistance is terrorism and intolerance. Bin Laden personally directed his followers to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another video obtained by Al Jazeera in September 2006 showed bin Laden with one of the attacks' chief planners, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, as well as hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, amidst making preparations for the attacks. Bin Laden had been on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Most Wanted List since 1998 for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Al-Qaeda members Journalist Yosri Fouda of the Arabic television channel Al Jazeera reported that in April 2002 Al-Qaeda member Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted his involvement in the attacks, along with Ramzi bin al-Shibh. The 2004 9/11 Commission Report determined that the animosity which Mohammed, the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks, felt towards the United States had stemmed from his "violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel". Mohammed was also an adviser and financier of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the uncle of Ramzi Yousef, the lead bomber in that attack. In late 1994, Mohammed and Yousef moved on to plan a new terrorist attack called the Bojinka plot planned for January 1995. Despite a failure and Yousef's capture by U.S. forces the following month, the Bojinka plot would influence the later 9/11 attacks. In "Substitution for Testimony of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed" from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, five people are identified as having been completely aware of the operation's details. They are bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Abu Turab al-Urduni and Mohammed Atef. Motives Osama bin Laden's declaration of a holy war against the United States, and a 1998 fatwā signed by bin Laden and others that called for the killing of Americans, are seen by investigators as evidence of his motivation. During his interview with Hamid Mir in November 2001, Bin Laden defended the September 11 attacks as retaliatory strikes against American atrocities against Muslims across the world. He also maintained that the attacks were not directed against women and children, asserting that the targets of the strikes were symbols of America's "economic and military power". In bin Laden's November 2002 "Letter to the American people", he explicitly stated that al-Qaeda's motives for the attacks included: U.S. support of Israel Bin Laden's strategy to support and globally expand the Al-Aqsa Intifada Attacks against Muslims by U.S.-led coalition in Somalia U.S. support of the government of Philippines against Muslims in the Moro conflict U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon U.S. support of Russian atrocities against Muslims in Chechnya Pro-American governments in the Middle East (who "act as your agents") being against Muslim interests U.S. support of Indian oppression against Muslims in Kashmir The presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia The sanctions against Iraq Environmental destruction After the attacks, bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri released additional videotapes and audio recordings, some of which repeated the above reasons for the attacks. Two relevant publications were bin Laden's 2002 "Letter to the American people" and a 2004 videotape by bin Laden. As an adherent of Islam, bin Laden believed that non-Muslims are forbidden from having a permanent presence in the Arabian Peninsula. In 1996, bin Laden issued a fatwā calling for American troops to leave Saudi Arabia. In 1998, Al-Qaeda wrote "For over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbours, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighbouring Muslim peoples". In a December 1999 interview, bin Laden said he felt that Americans were "too near to Mecca", and considered this a provocation to the entire Muslim world. One analysis of suicide terrorism suggested that without U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda likely would not have been able to get people to commit to suicide missions. In the 1998 fatwā, Al-Qaeda identified the Iraq sanctions as a reason to kill Americans, condemning the "protracted blockade" among other actions that constitute a declaration of war against "Allah, his messenger, and Muslims". The fatwā declared that "the ruling to kill the Americans and their allies—civilians and military—is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the Al-Aqsa mosque and the holy mosque of Mecca from their grip, and in order for their [the Americans'] armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim". In 2004, bin Laden claimed that the idea of destroying the towers had first occurred to him in 1982 when he witnessed Israel's bombardment of high-rise apartment buildings during the 1982 Lebanon War. Some analysts, including political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, also claimed that U.S. support of Israel was a motive for the attacks. In 2004 and 2010, bin Laden again connected the September 11 attacks with U.S. support of Israel, although most of the letters expressed bin Laden's disdain for President Bush and bin Laden's hope to "destroy and bankrupt" the U.S. Other motives have been suggested in addition to those stated by bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Some authors suggested the "humiliation" that resulted from the Islamic world falling behind the Western world—this discrepancy was rendered especially visible by globalization and a desire to provoke the U.S. into a broader war against the Islamic world in the hope of motivating more allies to support Al-Qaeda. Similarly, others have argued the 9/11 attacks were a strategic move to provoke America into a war that would incite a pan-Islamic revolution. Planning Documents seized during the 2011 operation that killed bin Laden included a few notes handwritten by bin Laden in September 2002 with the heading "The Birth of the Idea of September 11". In these notes, he describes how he was inspired by the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 on October 31, 1999, which was deliberately crashed by co-pilot Gameel Al-Batouti, killing over 200 passengers. "This is how the idea of 9/11 was conceived and developed in my head, and that is when we began the planning" bin Laden continued, adding that no one but Abu Hafs and Abu al-Khair knew about it at the time. The 9/11 Commission Report identified Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the architect of 9/11, but he is not mentioned in bin Laden's notes. The attacks were conceived by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who first presented it to Osama bin Laden in 1996. At that time, bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were in a period of transition, having just relocated back to Afghanistan from Sudan. The 1998 African embassy bombings and bin Laden's February 1998 fatwā marked a turning point of Al-Qaeda's terrorist operation, as bin Laden became intent on attacking the United States. In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden approved Mohammed to go forward with organizing the plot. Mohammed, bin Laden, and Mohammed Atef, bin Laden's deputy, held a series of meetings in early 1999. Atef provided operational support, including target selections and helping arrange travel for the hijackers. Bin Laden overruled Mohammed, rejecting potential targets such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles for lack of time. Bin Laden provided leadership and financial support and was involved in selecting participants. He initially selected Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, both experienced jihadists who had fought in Bosnia. Hazmi and Mihdhar arrived in the United States in mid-January 2000. In early 2000, Hazmi and Mihdhar took flying lessons in San Diego, California. Both spoke little English, performed poorly in flying lessons, and eventually served as secondary "muscle" hijackers. In late 1999, a group of men from Hamburg, Germany, arrived in Afghanistan. The group included Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah, and Ramzi bin al-Shibh. Bin Laden selected these men because they were educated, could speak English, and had experience living in the West. New recruits were routinely screened for special skills and Al-Qaeda leaders consequently discovered that Hani Hanjour already had a commercial pilot's license. Mohammed later said that he helped the hijackers blend in by teaching them how to order food in restaurants and dress in Western clothing. Hanjour arrived in San Diego on December 8, 2000, joining Hazmi.: 6–7  They soon left for Arizona, where Hanjour took refresher training.: 7  Marwan al-Shehhi arrived at the end of May 2000, while Atta arrived on June 3, 2000, and Jarrah arrived on June 27, 2000.: 6  Bin al-Shibh applied several times for a visa to the United States, but as a Yemeni, he was rejected out of concerns he would overstay his visa.: 4, 14  Bin al-Shibh stayed in Hamburg, providing coordination between Atta and Mohammed.: 16  The three Hamburg cell members all took pilot training in South Florida at Huffman Aviation.: 6  In the spring of 2001, the secondary hijackers began arriving in the United States. In July 2001, Atta met with bin al-Shibh in Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain, where they coordinated details of the plot, including final target selection. Bin al-Shibh also passed along bin Laden's wish for the attacks to be carried out as soon as possible. Some of the hijackers received passports from corrupt Saudi officials who were family members or used fraudulent passports to gain entry. There have been a few theories that 9/11 was selected by the hijackers as the date of the attack because it resembled 9-1-1, the phone number used to report emergencies in the United States. However, Lawrence Wright wrote that the hijackers chose the date when John III Sobieski, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, began the battle that turned back the Ottoman Empire's Muslim armies that were attempting to capture Vienna (present-day capital of Austria) on September 11, 1683. During 1683, Vienna was the seat of the Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg monarchy, both major powers in Europe at the time. For Osama bin Laden, this was a date when the West gained some dominance over Islam, and by attacking on this date, he hoped to make a step in Islam "winning" the war for worldwide power and influence. Prior intelligence In late 1999, Al-Qaeda associate Walid bin Attash ("Khallad") contacted Mihdhar and told him to meet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Hazmi and Abu Bara al Yemeni would also be in attendance. The NSA intercepted a telephone call mentioning the meeting, Mihdhar, and the name "Nawaf" (Hazmi); while the agency feared "Something nefarious might be afoot", it took no further action. The CIA had already been alerted by Saudi intelligence about the status of Mihdhar and Hazmi as Al-Qaeda members and a CIA team broke into Mihdhar's Dubai hotel room and discovered that Mihdhar had a U.S. visa. While Alec Station alerted intelligence agencies worldwide about this fact, it did not share this information with the FBI. The Malaysian Special Branch observed the January 5, 2000, meeting of the two Al-Qaeda members and informed the CIA that Mihdhar, Hazmi, and Khallad were flying to Bangkok, but the CIA never notified other agencies of this, nor did it ask the State Department to put Mihdhar on its watchlist. An FBI liaison to Alec Station asked permission to inform the FBI of the meeting but was told: "This is not a matter for the FBI". By late June, senior counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke and CIA director George Tenet were "convinced that a major series of attacks was about to come", although the CIA believed the attacks would likely occur in Saudi Arabia or Israel. In early July, Clarke put domestic agencies on "full alert", telling them, "Something spectacular is going to happen here, and it's going to happen soon". He asked the FBI and the State Department to alert the embassies and police departments, and the Defense Department to go to "Threat Condition Delta". Clarke later wrote: "Somewhere in CIA there was information that two known al Qaeda terrorists had come into the United States. Somewhere in the FBI, there was information that strange things had been going on at flight schools in the United States. [...] They had specific information about individual terrorists from which one could have deduced what was about to happen. None of that information got to me or the White House". On July 13, Tom Wilshire, a CIA agent assigned to the FBI's international terrorism division, emailed his superiors at the CIA's Counterterrorism Center (CTC) requesting permission to inform the FBI that Hazmi was in the country and that Mihdhar had a U.S. visa. The CIA never responded. The same day in July, Margarette Gillespie, an FBI analyst working in the CTC, was told to review material about the Malaysia meeting. She was not told of the participant's presence in the U.S. The CIA gave Gillespie surveillance photos of Mihdhar and Hazmi from the meeting to show to FBI counterterrorism but did not tell her their significance. The Intelink database informed her not to share intelligence material at the meeting with criminal investigators. When shown the photos, the FBI refused more details on their significance, and they were not given Mihdhar's date of birth or passport number. In late August 2001, Gillespie told the INS, the State Department, the Customs Service, and the FBI to put Hazmi and Mihdhar on their watchlists, but the FBI was prohibited from using criminal agents in searching for the duo, hindering their efforts. Also in July, a Phoenix-based FBI agent sent a message to FBI headquarters, Alec Station, and FBI agents in New York alerting them to "the possibility of a coordinated effort by Osama bin Laden to send students to the United States to attend civil aviation universities and colleges". The agent, Kenneth Williams, suggested the need to interview all flight school managers and identify all Arab students seeking flight training. In July, Jordan alerted the U.S. that Al-Qaeda was planning an attack on the U.S.; "months later", Jordan notified the U.S. that the attack's codename was "The Big Wedding" and that it involved aeroplanes. On August 6, 2001, the CIA's Presidential Daily Brief ("PDB"), designated "For the President Only", was entitled Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US. The memo noted that FBI information "indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks". In mid-August, one Minnesota flight school alerted the FBI about Zacarias Moussaoui, who had asked "suspicious questions". The FBI found that Moussaoui was a radical who had travelled to Pakistan, and the INS arrested him for overstaying his French visa. Their request to search his laptop was denied by FBI headquarters due to the lack of probable cause. The failures in intelligence-sharing were attributed to 1995 Justice Department policies limiting intelligence-sharing, combined with CIA and NSA reluctance to reveal "sensitive sources and methods" such as tapped phones. Testifying before the 9/11 Commission in April 2004, then—Attorney General John Ashcroft recalled that the "single greatest structural cause for the September 11th problem was the wall that segregated or separated criminal investigators and intelligence agents". Clarke also wrote: "[T]here were... failures to get information to the right place at the right time". Attacks Early on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers took control of four commercial airliners (two Boeing 757s and two Boeing 767s) en route to California after takeoffs from Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts; Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey; and Washington Dulles International Airport in Loudoun and Fairfax counties in Virginia. Large planes with long flights were selected for hijacking because they would have more fuel. * Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04:00)† Excluding hijackers§ Including emergency workers‡ Including hijackers The four crashes At 7:59 am, American Airlines Flight 11 took off from Logan International Airport in Boston. Fifteen minutes into the flight, five hijackers armed with boxcutters took over the plane, injuring at least three people (and possibly killing one) before forcing their way into the cockpit. The terrorists also displayed an apparent explosive and sprayed mace into the cabin, to frighten the hostages into submission and further hinder resistance. Back at Logan, United Airlines Flight 175 took off at 8:14 am, approximately the same time as Flight 11's hijacking. Hundreds of miles southwest at Dulles International Airport, American Airlines Flight 77 left the runway at 8:20 am. Flight 175's journey proceeded normally for 28 minutes until 8:42 am, when a group of five hijacked the plane, murdering both pilots and stabbing several crew members before assuming control of the aircraft. These hijackers also used bomb threats to instil fear into the passengers and crew, also spraying chemical weapons to disable any opposition. Concurrently, United Airlines Flight 93 departed from Newark International Airport in New Jersey; originally scheduled to pull away from the gate at 8:00 am, the plane was running 42 minutes late. At 8:46 am, Flight 11 was deliberately crashed into the north face of the World Trade Center's North Tower (1 WTC) between the 93rd and 99th floors, although the initial presumption by many was that it was an accident. At 8:51 am, American Airlines Flight 77 was also taken over by another group of five who forcibly entered the cockpit 31 minutes after takeoff. Although the hijackers on this flight were equipped with knives, there were no reports of anyone on board being stabbed, nor did the two people who made phone calls mention the use of mace or a bomb threat. Seventeen minutes after the first plane crashed into the North Tower, Flight 175 was flown into the South Tower's southern facade (2 WTC) between the 77th and 85th floors at 9:03 am, demonstrating that the first crash was not an accident, but rather a deliberate act of terrorism. Four men aboard Flight 93 struck suddenly, killing at least one passenger, after having waited 46 minutes to make their move—a holdup that proved disastrous for the terrorists when combined with the delayed takeoff from the runway; they stormed the cockpit and seized control of the plane at 9:28 am, turning the plane eastbound and setting course for Washington, D.C. Much like their counterparts on the first two flights, the fourth team also used bomb threats and filled the cabin with mace. Nine minutes after Flight 93's hijacking, Flight 77 crashed into the west side of the Pentagon. Because of the two delays, the passengers and crew of Flight 93 had time to be made aware of the previous attacks through phone calls to the ground, and as a result an uprising was hastily organized to take control of the aircraft at 9:57 am. Within minutes, passengers had fought their way to the front of the cabin and began breaking down the cockpit door. Fearing their captives would gain the upper hand, the hijackers rolled the plane and pitched it into a nosedive, crashing into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh, at 10:03 am. The plane was about twenty minutes away from reaching D.C. at the time of the crash, and its target is believed to have been either the Capitol Building or the White House. Some passengers and crew members who called from the aircraft using the cabin air phone service and mobile phones provided details: several hijackers were aboard each plane; they used mace, tear gas, or pepper spray to overcome attendants; and some people aboard had been stabbed. Reports indicated hijackers stabbed and killed pilots, flight attendants, and one or more passengers. According to the 9/11 Commission's final report, the hijackers had recently purchased multi-function hand tools and assorted Leatherman-type utility knives with locking blades (which were not forbidden to passengers at the time), but these were not found among the possessions left behind by the hijackers. A flight attendant on Flight 11, a passenger on Flight 175, and passengers on Flight 93 said the hijackers had bombs, but one of the passengers said he thought the bombs were fake. The FBI found no traces of explosives at the crash sites, and the 9/11 Commission concluded that the bombs were probably fake. On at least two of the hijacked flights—American 11 and United 93—the terrorists claimed over the PA system that they were taking hostages and were returning to the airport to have a ransom demand met, a clear attempt to prevent passengers from fighting back. Both attempts failed, however, as both hijacker pilots in these instances (Mohamed Atta and Ziad Jarrah, respectively) keyed the wrong switch and mistakenly transmitted their messages to ATC instead of the people on the plane as intended, tipping off the flight controllers that the planes had been hijacked. Three buildings in the World Trade Center collapsed due to fire-induced structural failure. Although the South Tower was struck 17 minutes after the North Tower, the plane's impact zone was far lower, at a much faster speed, and into a corner, with the unevenly-balanced additional structural weight causing it to collapse first at 9:59 am,: 80 : 322  having burned for 56 minutes in the fire caused by the crash of United Airlines Flight 175 and the explosion of its fuel. The North Tower lasted another 29 minutes before collapsing at 10:28 am, one hour and forty-two minutes after being struck by American Airlines Flight 11. When the North Tower collapsed, debris fell on the nearby 7 World Trade Center building (7 WTC), damaging the building and starting fires. These fires burned for nearly seven hours, compromising the building's structural integrity, and 7 WTC collapsed at 5:21 pm. The west side of the Pentagon sustained significant damage. At 9:42 am, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all civilian aircraft within the continental U.S., and civilian aircraft already in flight were told to land immediately. All international civilian aircraft were either turned back or redirected to airports in Canada or Mexico, and were banned from landing on United States territory for three days. The attacks created widespread confusion among news organizations and air traffic controllers. Among unconfirmed and often contradictory news reports aired throughout the day, one of the most prevalent claimed a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Another jet (Delta Air Lines Flight 1989) was suspected of having been hijacked, but the aircraft responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio. In an April 2002 interview, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who are believed to have organized the attacks, said Flight 93's intended target was the United States Capitol, not the White House. During the planning stage of the attacks, Mohamed Atta (Flight 11's hijacker and pilot) thought the White House might be too tough a target and sought an assessment from Hani Hanjour (who hijacked and piloted Flight 77). Mohammed said Al-Qaeda initially planned to target nuclear installations rather than the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but decided against it, fearing things could "get out of control". Final decisions on targets, according to Mohammed, were left in the hands of the pilots. If any pilot could not reach his intended target, he was to crash the plane. Casualties The attack on the World Trade Center's North Tower single-handedly made 9/11 the deadliest act of terrorism in world history. Taken together, the four crashes caused the deaths of 2,996 people (including the hijackers) and injured thousands more. The death toll included 265 on the four planes (from which there were no survivors); 2,606 in the World Trade Center and in the surrounding area; and 125 at the Pentagon. Most who died were civilians, as well as 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers, 55 military personnel, and the 19 terrorists. After New York, New Jersey lost the most state citizens. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks. In New York City, more than 90% of the workers and visitors who died in the towers had been at or above the points of impact. In the North Tower, between 1,344 and 1,402 people were at, above or one floor below the point of impact and all died. Hundreds were killed instantly the moment the plane struck. The estimated 800 people who survived the impact were trapped and died in the fires or from smoke inhalation; fell or jumped from the tower to escape the smoke and flames; or were killed in the building's collapse. The destruction of all three staircases in the North Tower when Flight 11 hit made it impossible for anyone from the impact zone upward to escape. 107 people not trapped by the impact died. When Flight 11 struck between floors 93 and 99, the 92nd floor was also rendered inescapable when its crash severed all elevator shafts while debris falling from its impact zone blocked the stairwells, ensuring the deaths of all 69 workers on the floor immediately below the point of impact. In the South Tower, around 600 people were on or above the 77th floor when Flight 175 struck and few survived. As with the North Tower, hundreds were killed at the moment of impact. Unlike those in the North Tower, the estimated 300 survivors of the crash were not technically trapped by the damage done by Flight 175's impact, but most were either unaware that a means of escape still existed or were unable to use it. One stairway, Stairwell A, narrowly avoided being destroyed as Flight 175 crashed through the building, allowing 14 people located on the floors of impact (including Stanley Praimnath, a man who saw the plane coming at him) and four more from the floors above to escape. New York City 9-1-1 operators who received calls from people inside the tower were not well informed of the situation as it rapidly unfolded and as a result, told callers not to descend the tower on their own. In total, 630 people died in the South Tower, fewer than half the number killed in the North Tower. Of the 100–200 people witnessed jumping or falling to their deaths that morning, only three recorded sightings were from the South Tower.: 86  Casualties in the South Tower were significantly reduced because some occupants decided to leave the building immediately following the first crash, and because Eric Eisenberg, an executive at AON Insurance, made the decision to evacuate the floors occupied by AON (floors 92 and 98–105) in the moments following the impact of Flight 11. The 17-minute gap allowed over 900 of the 1,100 AON employees present on-site to evacuate from above the 77th floor before the South Tower was struck; Eisenberg was among the nearly 200 who did not escape. Similar pre-impact evacuations were carried out by companies such as Fiduciary Trust, CSC, and Euro Brokers, all of whom had offices on floors above the point of impact. The failure to order a full evacuation of the South Tower after the first plane crash into the North Tower was described by USA Today as "one of the day's great tragedies". As exemplified in the photograph The Falling Man, more than 200 people fell to their deaths from the burning towers, most of whom were forced to jump to escape the extreme heat, fire and smoke. Some occupants of each tower above the point of impact made their way toward the roof in the hope of helicopter rescue, but the roof access doors were locked. No plan existed for helicopter rescues, and the combination of roof equipment, thick smoke and intense heat prevented helicopters from approaching. At the World Trade Center complex, a total of 414 emergency workers died as they tried to rescue people and fight fires, while another law enforcement officer was separately killed when United 93 crashed. The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) lost 343 firefighters, including a chaplain and two paramedics. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) lost 23 officers. The Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) lost 37 officers. Eight emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics from private emergency medical services (EMS) units were killed. Almost all of the emergency personnel who died at the scene that day were killed as a result of the towers collapsing, with the exception of one who was struck by a civilian falling from the upper floors of the South Tower. Cantor Fitzgerald L.P. (an investment bank on the North Tower's 101st–105th floors) lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer. Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93–100, lost 358 employees, and 175 employees of Aon Corporation were also killed. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) estimated that about 17,400 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks.: xxxiii  Turnstile counts from the Port Authority suggest 14,154 people were typically in the Twin Towers by 8:45 a.m. Most people below the impact zone safely evacuated the buildings. In Arlington County, Virginia, 125 Pentagon workers died when Flight 77 crashed into the building's western side. 70 were civilians and 55 were military personnel, many of whom worked for the United States Army or the United States Navy. The Army lost 47 civilian employees; six civilian contractors; and 22 soldiers, while the Navy lost six civilian employees; three civilian contractors; and 33 sailors. Seven Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) civilian employees died, and one Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) contractor. Lieutenant General Timothy Maude, an Army Deputy Chief of Staff, was the highest-ranking military official killed at the Pentagon. Weeks after the attack, the death toll was estimated to be over 6,000, more than twice the number of deaths eventually confirmed. The city was only able to identify remains for about 1,600 of the World Trade Center victims. The medical examiner's office collected "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead". Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 by workers who were preparing to demolish the damaged Deutsche Bank Building. In 2010, a team of anthropologists and archaeologists searched for human remains and personal items at the Fresh Kills Landfill, where 72 more human remains were recovered, bringing the total found to 1,845. DNA profiling continues in an attempt to identify additional victims. In 2014, three coffin-size cases carrying 7,930 unidentified remains were transferred to a medical examiner's repository located at the same site as the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, but separated from the site by a wall. Victims' families are permitted to visit a private "reflection room" which is closed to the public. The choice to place the remains in an underground area attached to a museum has been controversial; families of some victims have attempted to have the remains instead interred in a separate, above-ground monument. In July 2011, a team of scientists at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner continued efforts to identify remains, in the hope that improved technology will allow them to identify other victims. In August 2017, the 1,641st victim was identified as a result of newly available DNA technology, and a 1,642nd during July 2018. Three more victims were identified in October 2019, two in September 2021 and an additional two in September 2023. As of September 2023, 1,104 victims remain unidentified, amounting to 40% of the deaths in the World Trade Center attacks. On September 25, 2023, the FDNY reported that with the death of EMT Hilda Vannata and retired firefighter Robert Fulco, marking the 342nd and 343rd deaths from 9/11-related illnesses, the department had now lost the same number of firefighters, EMTs, and civilian members to 9/11-related illnesses as it did on the day of the attacks. Damage Along with the 110-floor Twin Towers, numerous other buildings at the World Trade Center site were destroyed or badly damaged, including WTC buildings 3 through 7 and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. The North Tower, South Tower, the Marriott Hotel (3 WTC), and 7 WTC were destroyed. The U.S. Customs House (6 World Trade Center), 4 World Trade Center, 5 World Trade Center, and both pedestrian bridges connecting buildings were severely damaged. All surrounding streets, including Church, Fulton, and Greenwich Streets, plus NY 9A (the West Side Highway), were in ruins. The Deutsche Bank Building (still popularly referred to as the Bankers Trust Building) on 130 Liberty Street was partially damaged and demolished some years later, starting in 2007. Buildings of the World Financial Center also suffered damage. The last fires at the World Trade Center site were extinguished on December 20, exactly 100 days after the attacks. The Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex was later condemned as uninhabitable because of toxic conditions inside the office tower and was deconstructed. The Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway was condemned due to extensive damage from the attacks, and then reopened in 2012. Other neighbouring buildings (including 90 West Street and the Verizon Building) suffered major damage but have been restored. World Financial Center buildings, One Liberty Plaza, the Millenium Hilton, and 90 Church Street had moderate damage and have since been restored. Communications equipment on top of the North Tower was also destroyed, with only WCBS-TV maintaining a backup transmitter on the Empire State Building, but media stations were quickly able to reroute the signals and resume their broadcasts. The PATH train system's World Trade Center station was located under the complex. As a result, the station was demolished when the towers collapsed, and the tunnels leading to Exchange Place station in Jersey City, New Jersey, were flooded with water. The station was rebuilt as the $4 billion World Trade Center Transportation Hub, which reopened in March 2015. The Cortlandt Street station on the New York City Subway's IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line was also in close proximity to the World Trade Center complex, and the entire station, along with the surrounding track, was reduced to rubble. The latter station was rebuilt and reopened to the public on September 8, 2018. The Pentagon was extensively damaged by the impact of American Airlines Flight 77 and the ensuing fires, causing one section of the building to collapse. As the plane approached the Pentagon, its wings knocked down light poles and its right engine hit a power generator before crashing into the western side of the building. The plane hit the Pentagon at the first-floor level. The front part of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, while the mid and tail sections kept moving for another fraction of a second. Debris from the tail section penetrated the furthest into the building, breaking through 310 feet (94 m) of the three outermost of the building's five rings. Rescue efforts The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) deployed more than 200 units (approximately half of the department) to the World Trade Center. Their efforts were supplemented by numerous off-duty firefighters and emergency medical technicians. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) sent its Emergency Service Units and other police personnel and deployed its aviation unit. The NYPD aviation unit assessed the situation and decided that helicopter rescues from the towers were not feasible. Numerous police officers of the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) also participated in rescue efforts. Once on the scene, the FDNY, the NYPD, and the PAPD did not coordinate efforts and performed redundant searches for civilians. As conditions deteriorated, the NYPD aviation unit relayed information to police commanders, who issued orders for personnel to evacuate the towers; most NYPD officers were able to safely evacuate before the buildings collapsed. With separate command posts set up and incompatible radio communications between the agencies, warnings were not passed along to FDNY commanders. After the first tower collapsed, FDNY commanders issued evacuation warnings. Due to technical difficulties with malfunctioning radio repeater systems, many firefighters never heard the evacuation orders. 9-1-1 dispatchers also received information from callers that was not passed along to commanders on the scene. Reactions The 9/11 attacks resulted in immediate responses to the event, including domestic reactions; closings and cancellations; hate crimes; Muslim-American responses to the event; international responses to the attack; and military responses to the events. Shortly after the attacks, a U.S. government fund that was created by an Act of Congress named the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. The purpose of the fund was to compensate the victims of the attacks and their families with the quid pro quo of their agreement not to file lawsuits against the airline corporations involved. Legislation authorizes the fund to disburse a maximum of $7.375 billion, including operational and administrative costs, of U.S. government funds. The fund was set to expire by 2020 but was in 2019 prolonged to allow claims to be filed until October 2090. Immediate response At 8:32 am, FAA officials were notified Flight 11 had been hijacked and they, in turn, notified the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). NORAD scrambled two F-15s from Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts and they were airborne by 8:53 am. Because of slow and confused communication from FAA officials, NORAD had nine minutes' notice, and no notice about any of the other flights before they crashed. After both of the Twin Towers had already been hit, more fighters were scrambled from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia at 9:30 am. At 10:20 am, Vice President Dick Cheney issued orders to shoot down any commercial aircraft that could be positively identified as being hijacked. These instructions were not relayed in time for the fighters to take action. Some fighters took to the air without live ammunition, knowing that to prevent the hijackers from striking their intended targets, the pilots might have to intercept and crash their fighters into the hijacked planes, possibly ejecting at the last moment. For the first time in U.S. history, the emergency preparedness plan called Security Control of Air Traffic and Air Navigation Aids (SCATANA) was invoked, thus stranding tens of thousands of passengers across the world. Ben Sliney, in his first day as the National Operations Manager of the FAA, ordered that American airspace would be closed to all international flights, causing about 500 flights to be turned back or redirected to other countries. Canada received 226 of the diverted flights and launched Operation Yellow Ribbon to deal with the large numbers of grounded planes and stranded passengers. The 9/11 attacks had immediate effects on the American people. Police and rescue workers from around the country took a leave of absence from their jobs and travelled to New York City to help recover bodies from the twisted remnants of the Twin Towers. Blood donations across the U.S. surged in the weeks after 9/11. The deaths of adults in the attacks resulted in over 3,000 children losing a parent. Subsequent studies documented children's reactions to these actual losses and feared losses of life, the protective environment in the attacks' aftermath, and the effects on surviving caregivers. Domestic reactions Following the attacks, President George W. Bush's approval rating increased to 90%. On September 20, 2001, he addressed the nation and a joint session of Congress regarding the events of September 11 and the subsequent nine days of rescue and recovery efforts, and described his intended response to the attacks. New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's highly visible role resulted in praise in New York and nationally. Many relief funds were immediately set up to assist the attacks' victims, with the task of providing financial assistance to the survivors of the attacks and the victims' families. By the deadline for victims' compensation on September 11, 2003, 2,833 applications had been received from the families of those who were killed. Contingency plans for the continuity of government and the evacuation of leaders were implemented soon after the attacks. Congress was not told that the United States had been under a continuity of government status until February 2002. In the largest restructuring of the U.S. government in contemporary history, the United States enacted the Homeland Security Act of 2002, creating the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Congress also passed the USA PATRIOT Act, saying it would help detect and prosecute terrorism and other crimes. Civil liberties groups have criticized the PATRIOT Act, saying it allows law enforcement to invade citizens' privacy and that it eliminates judicial oversight of law enforcement and domestic intelligence. To effectively combat future acts of terrorism, the National Security Agency (NSA) was given broad powers. NSA commenced warrantless surveillance of telecommunications, which was sometimes criticized as permitting the agency "to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications between the United States and people overseas without a warrant". In response to requests by various intelligence agencies, the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court permitted an expansion of powers by the U.S. government in seeking, obtaining, and sharing information on U.S. citizens as well as non-U.S. people from around the world. Hate crimes Six days after the attacks, President Bush made a public appearance at Washington, D.C.'s largest Islamic Center and acknowledged the "incredibly valuable contribution" that millions of American Muslims made to their country and called for them "to be treated with respect". Numerous incidents of harassment and hate crimes against Muslims and South Asians were reported in the days following the attacks. Sikhs were also subject to targeting due to the use of turbans in the Sikh faith, which are stereotypically associated with Muslims. There were reports of attacks on mosques and other religious buildings (including the firebombing of a Hindu temple), and assaults on individuals, including one murder: Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh mistaken for a Muslim, who was fatally shot on September 15, 2001, in Mesa, Arizona. Two dozen members of Osama bin Laden's family were urgently evacuated out of the country on a private charter plane under FBI supervision three days after the attacks. According to an academic study, people perceived to be Middle Eastern were as likely to be victims of hate crimes as followers of Islam during this time. The study also found a similar increase in hate crimes against people who may have been perceived as Muslims, Arabs, and others thought to be of Middle Eastern origin. A report by the South Asian American advocacy group known as South Asian Americans Leading Together documented media coverage of 645 bias incidents against Americans of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent between September 11 and 17, 2001. Various crimes such as vandalism, arson, assault, shootings, harassment, and threats in numerous places were documented. Women wearing hijab were also targeted. Discrimination and racial profiling A poll of Arab-Americans, conducted in May 2002, found that 20% had personally experienced discrimination since September 11. A July 2002 poll of Muslim Americans found that 48% believed their lives had changed for the worse since September 11, and 57% had experienced an act of bias or discrimination. Following the September 11 attacks, many Pakistani Americans identified themselves as Indians to avoid potential discrimination and obtain jobs (Pakistan was created as a result of the partition of India in 1947). By May 2002, there were 488 complaints of employment discrimination reported to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 301 of those were complaints from people fired from their jobs. Similarly, by June 2002, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) had investigated 111 September 11th-related complaints from airline passengers purporting that their religious or ethnic appearance caused them to be singled out at security screenings. DOT investigated an additional 31 complaints from people who alleged they were completely blocked from boarding aeroplanes on the same grounds. Muslim American response Muslim organizations in the United States were swift to condemn the attacks and called "upon Muslim Americans to come forward with their skills and resources to help alleviate the sufferings of the affected people and their families". These organizations included the Islamic Society of North America, American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Circle of North America, and the Shari'a Scholars Association of North America. Along with monetary donations, many Islamic organizations launched blood drives and provided medical assistance, food, and shelter for victims. Interfaith efforts Curiosity about Islam increased after the attacks. As a result, many mosques and Islamic centres began holding open houses and participating in outreach efforts to educate non-Muslims about the faith. In the first 10 years after the attacks, interfaith community service increased from 8 to 20 percent and the percentage of U.S. congregations involved in interfaith worship doubled from 7 to 14 percent. International reactions The attacks were denounced by mass media and governments worldwide. Nations offered pro-American support and solidarity. Leaders in most Middle Eastern countries, as well as Libya and Afghanistan, condemned the attacks. Iraq was a notable exception, with an immediate official statement that "the American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity". The government of Saudi Arabia officially condemned the attacks, but privately many Saudis favored bin Laden's cause. Although Palestinian Authority (PA) president Yasser Arafat also condemned the attacks, there were reports of celebrations of disputed size in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. Palestinian leaders discredited news broadcasters that justified the attacks or showed celebrations, and the Authority claimed such celebrations do not represent the Palestinians' sentiment. Footage by CNN and other news outlets were suggested by a report originating at a Brazilian university to be from 1991; this was later proven to be a false accusation. As in the United States, the aftermath of the attacks saw tensions increase in other countries between Muslims and non-Muslims. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368 condemned the attacks and expressed readiness to take all necessary steps to respond and combat terrorism in accordance with their Charter. Numerous countries introduced anti-terrorism legislation and froze bank accounts they suspected of Al-Qaeda ties. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number of countries arrested alleged terrorists. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the United States. In a speech to Congress nine days after the attacks, which Blair attended as a guest, President Bush declared "America has no truer friend than Great Britain". Subsequently, Prime Minister Blair embarked on two months of diplomacy to rally international support for military action; he held 54 meetings with world leaders. The U.S. set up the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to hold inmates they defined as "illegal enemy combatants". The legitimacy of these detentions has been questioned by the European Union and human rights organizations. On September 25, 2001, Iran's president Mohammad Khatami, meeting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, said: "Iran fully understands the feelings of the Americans about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11". He said although the American administrations had been at best indifferent about terrorist operations in Iran, the Iranians felt differently and had expressed their sympathetic feelings with bereaved Americans in the tragic incidents in the two cities. He also stated that "Nations should not be punished in place of terrorists". According to Radio Farda's website, when the news of the attacks was released, some Iranian citizens gathered in front of the Embassy of Switzerland in Tehran, which serves as the protecting power of the United States in Iran, to express their sympathy, and some of them lit candles as a symbol of mourning. Radio Farda's website also states that in 2011, on the anniversary of the attacks, the United States Department of State published a post on its blog, in which the Department thanked the Iranian people for their sympathy and stated that it would never forget Iranian people's kindness. After the attacks, both the President and the Supreme Leader of Iran condemned the attacks. The BBC and Time magazine published reports on holding candlelit vigils for the victims of Iranian citizens on their websites. According to Politico Magazine, following the attacks, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, "suspended the usual 'Death to America' chants at Friday prayers" temporarily. Military operations At 2:40 pm on September 11, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was issuing orders to his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement. According to notes taken by senior policy official Stephen Cambone, Rumsfeld asked for, "Best info fast. Judge whether they are good enough to hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at the same time. Not only UBL" [Osama bin Laden]. In a meeting at Camp David on September 15 the Bush administration rejected the idea of attacking Iraq in response to the September 11 attacks. Nonetheless, they later invaded the country with allies, citing "Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism". At the time, as many as seven in ten Americans believed the Iraqi president played a role in the 9/11 attacks. Three years later, Bush conceded that he had not. The NATO council declared that the terrorist attacks on the United States were an attack on all NATO nations that satisfied Article 5 of the NATO charter. This marked the first invocation of Article 5, which had been written during the Cold War with an attack by the Soviet Union in mind. Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who was in Washington, D.C., during the attacks, invoked Article IV of the ANZUS treaty. The Bush administration announced a war on terror, with the stated goals of bringing bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to justice and preventing the emergence of other terrorist networks. These goals would be accomplished by imposing economic and military sanctions against states harbouring terrorists, and increasing global surveillance and intelligence sharing. On September 14, 2001, the U.S. Congress passed the Authorization for the use of Military Force Against Terrorists, which grants the President the authority to use all "necessary and appropriate force" against those whom he determined "planned, authorized, committed or aided" the September 11 attacks or who harboured said persons or groups. It is still in effect. On October 7, 2001, the War in Afghanistan began when U.S. and British forces initiated aerial bombing campaigns targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda camps, then later invaded Afghanistan with ground troops of the Special Forces. This eventually led to the overthrow of the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan with the Fall of Kandahar on December 7, 2001, by U.S.-led coalition forces. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who went into hiding in the White Mountains, was targeted by U.S. coalition forces in the Battle of Tora Bora, but he escaped across the Pakistani border and remained out of sight for almost ten years. In an interview with Tayseer Allouni on October 21, 2001, Bin Laden stated: The events proved the extent of terrorism that America exercises in the world. Bush stated that the world has to be divided in two: Bush and his supporters, and any country that doesn't get into the global crusade is with the terrorists. What terrorism is clearer than this? Many governments were forced to support this "new terrorism.".. America wouldn't live in security until we live it truly in Palestine. This showed the reality of America, which puts Israel's interest above its own people's interest. America won't get out of this crisis until it gets out of the Arabian Peninsula, and until it stops its support of Israel. Aftermath Health issues Hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic debris containing more than 2,500 contaminants and known carcinogens were spread across Lower Manhattan when the towers collapsed. Exposure to the toxins in the debris is alleged to have contributed to fatal or debilitating illnesses among people who were at Ground Zero. The Bush administration ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue reassuring statements regarding air quality in the aftermath of the attacks, citing national security, but the EPA did not determine that air quality had returned to pre-September 11 levels until June 2002. Health effects extended to residents, students, and office workers of Lower Manhattan and nearby Chinatown. Several deaths have been linked to the toxic dust, and victims' names were included in the World Trade Center memorial. An estimated 18,000 people have developed illnesses as a result of the toxic dust. There is also scientific speculation that exposure to toxic products in the air may have negative effects on fetal development. A study of rescue workers released in April 2010 found that all those studied had impaired lung function. Years after the attacks, legal disputes over the costs of related illnesses were still in the court system. On October 17, 2006, a federal judge rejected New York City's refusal to pay for health costs for rescue workers, allowing for the possibility of suits against the city. Government officials have been faulted for urging the public to return to lower Manhattan in the weeks shortly after the attacks. Christine Todd Whitman, administrator of the EPA in the attacks' aftermath, was heavily criticized by a U.S. District Judge for incorrectly saying that the area was environmentally safe. Mayor Giuliani was criticized for urging financial industry personnel to return quickly to the greater Wall Street area. The James L. Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (2010) allocated $4.2 billion to create the World Trade Center Health Program, which provides testing and treatment for people with long-term health problems related to the 9/11 attacks. The WTC Health Program replaced preexisting 9/11-related health programs such as the Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program and the WTC Environmental Health Center program. In 2020, the NYPD confirmed that 247 NYPD police officers had died due to 9/11-related illnesses. In September 2022, the FDNY confirmed that 299 firefighters had died due to 9/11-related illnesses. Both agencies believe that the death toll will rise dramatically in the coming years. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD), the law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the World Trade Center, confirmed that four of its police officers have died of 9/11-related illnesses. The chief of the PAPD at the time, Joseph Morris, made sure that industrial-grade respirators were provided to all PAPD police officers within 48 hours and decided that the same 30 to 40 police officers would be stationed at the World Trade Center pile, drastically lowering the number of total PAPD personnel who would be exposed to the air. The FDNY and NYPD had rotated hundreds, if not thousands, of different personnel from all over New York City to the pile without adequate respirators and breathing equipment that could have prevented future diseases. Economic The attacks had a significant economic impact on the US and world markets. The stock exchanges did not open on September 11 and remained closed until September 17. Reopening, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8921, a record-setting one-day point decline. By the end of the week, the DJIA had fallen 1,369.7 points (14.3%), at the time its largest one-week point drop in history. In 2001 dollars, U.S. stocks lost $1.4 trillion in valuation for the week. In New York City, about 430,000 job months and $2.8 billion in wages were lost in the first three months after the attacks. The economic effects were mainly on the economy's export sectors. The city's GDP was estimated to have declined by $27.3 billion for the last three months of 2001 and all of 2002. The U.S. government provided $11.2 billion in immediate assistance to the Government of New York City in September 2001, and $10.5 billion in early 2002 for economic development and infrastructure needs. Also hurt were small businesses in Lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center (18,000 of which were destroyed or displaced), resulting in lost jobs and wages. Assistance was provided by Small Business Administration loans; federal government Community Development Block Grants; and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. Some 31,900,000 square feet (2,960,000 m2) of Lower Manhattan office space was damaged or destroyed. Many wondered whether these jobs would return, and if the damaged tax base would recover. Studies of 9/11's economic effects show the Manhattan office real-estate market and office employment were less affected than first feared, because of the financial services industry's need for face-to-face interaction. North American air space was closed for several days after the attacks and air travel decreased upon its reopening, leading to a nearly 20% cutback in air travel capacity, and exacerbating financial problems in the struggling U.S. airline industry. The September 11 attacks also led to the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as additional homeland security spending, totaling at least $5 trillion. Effects in Afghanistan Most of the Afghan population was already going hungry at the time of the September 11 attacks. In the aftermath of the attacks, tens of thousands of people attempted to flee Afghanistan due to the possibility of military retaliation by the US. Pakistan, already home to many Afghan refugees from previous conflicts, closed its border with Afghanistan on September 17, 2001. Thousands of Afghans also fled to the frontier with Tajikistan but were denied entry. The Taliban leaders in Afghanistan pleaded against military action, saying "We appeal to the United States not to put Afghanistan into more misery because our people have suffered so much", referring to two decades of conflict and the humanitarian crisis attached to it. All United Nations expatriates had left Afghanistan after the attacks and no national or international aid workers were at their post. Workers were instead preparing in bordering countries like Pakistan, China and Uzbekistan to prevent a potential "humanitarian catastrophe", amid a critically low food stock for the Afghan population. The World Food Programme stopped importing wheat to Afghanistan on September 12 due to security risks. Approximately one month after the attacks, the United States led a broad coalition of international forces to overthrow the Taliban regime from Afghanistan for their harboring of Al-Qaeda. Though Pakistani authorities were initially reluctant to align themselves with the US against the Taliban, they permitted the coalition access to their military bases, and arrested and handed over to the U.S. over 600 suspected Al-Qaeda members. In 2011, the U.S. and NATO under President Obama initiated a drawdown of troops in Afghanistan finalized in 2016. During the presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2020 and 2021, the United States alongside its NATO allies withdrew all troops from Afghanistan completing the withdrawal of all regular U.S. troops on August 30, 2021. The withdrawal marked the end of the 2001–2021 War in Afghanistan. Biden said that after nearly 20 years of war, it was clear that the U.S. military could not transform Afghanistan into a modern democracy. Cultural influence Immediate responses to 9/11 included greater focus on home life and time spent with family, higher church attendance, and increased expressions of patriotism such as the flying of American flags. The radio industry responded by removing certain songs from playlists, and the attacks have subsequently been used as background, narrative, or thematic elements in film, music, literature, and humour. Already-running television shows as well as programs developed after 9/11 have reflected post-9/11 cultural concerns. 9/11 conspiracy theories have become a social phenomenon, despite a lack of support from expert scientists, engineers, and historians. 9/11 has also had a major impact on the religious faith of many individuals; for some it strengthened, to find consolation to cope with the loss of loved ones and overcome their grief; others started to question their faith or lose it entirely because they could not reconcile it with their view of religion. The culture of America, after the attacks, is noted for heightened security and an increased demand thereof, as well as paranoia and anxiety regarding future terrorist attacks against most of the nation. Psychologists have also confirmed that there has been an increased amount of national anxiety in commercial air travel. Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose nearly ten-fold in 2001 and have subsequently remained "roughly five times higher than the pre-9/11 rate". Government policies towards terrorism As a result of the attacks, many governments across the world passed legislation to combat terrorism. In Germany, where several of the 9/11 terrorists had resided and taken advantage of that country's liberal asylum policies, two major anti-terrorism packages were enacted. The first removed legal loopholes that permitted terrorists to live and raise money in Germany. The second addressed the effectiveness and communication of intelligence and law enforcement. Canada passed the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act, their first anti-terrorism law. The United Kingdom passed the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 and the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005. New Zealand enacted the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002. In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security was created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to coordinate domestic anti-terrorism efforts. The USA Patriot Act gave the federal government greater powers, including the authority to detain foreign terror suspects for a week without charge; to monitor terror suspects' telephone communications, e-mail, and Internet use; and to prosecute suspected terrorists without time restrictions. The FAA ordered that aeroplane cockpits be reinforced to prevent terrorists from gaining control of planes and assigned sky marshals to flights. Further, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act made the federal government, rather than airports, responsible for airport security. The law created the Transportation Security Administration to inspect passengers and luggage, causing long delays and concern over passenger privacy. After suspected abuses of the USA Patriot Act were brought to light in June 2013 with articles about the collection of American call records by the NSA and the PRISM program, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (of Wisconsin), who introduced the Patriot Act in 2001, said that the NSA overstepped its bounds. Criticism of the war on terror has focused on its morality, efficiency, and cost. According to a 2021 report by the Costs of War Project, the several post-9/11 wars participated in by the United States in its war on terror have caused the displacement, conservatively calculated, of 38 million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and the Philippines. They estimated these wars caused the deaths of 897,000 to 929,000 people directly and cost $8 trillion. In a 2023 report, the Costs of War Project estimated that there have been between 3.6 and 3.7 million indirect deaths in the post-9/11 war zones, with the total death toll being 4.5 to 4.6 million. The report defined post-9/11 war zones as conflicts that included significant United States counter-terrorism operations since 9/11, which in addition to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, also includes the civil wars in Syria, Yemen, Libya and Somalia. The report derived its estimate of indirect deaths using a calculation from the Geneva Declaration of Secretariat which estimates that for every person directly killed by war, four more die from the indirect consequences of war. The U.S. Constitution and U.S. law prohibits the use of torture, yet such human rights violations occurred during the war on terror under the euphemism "enhanced interrogation". In 2005, The Washington Post and Human Rights Watch (HRW) published revelations concerning CIA flights and "black sites", covert prisons operated by the CIA. The term "torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the CIA and other U.S. agencies have transferred suspected terrorists to countries known to employ torture. Legal proceedings As all 19 hijackers died in the attacks, they were never prosecuted. Osama bin Laden was never formally indicted but was after a 10-year manhunt killed by U.S. special forces on May 2, 2011, in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The main trial of the attacks against Mohammed and his co-conspirators Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ammar al-Baluchi, and Mustafa Ahmad al Hawsawi remains unresolved. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested on March 1, 2003, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, by Pakistani security officials working with the CIA. He was then held at multiple CIA secret prisons and Guantanamo Bay, where he was interrogated and tortured with methods including waterboarding. In 2003, Mustafa al-Hawsawi and Abd al-Aziz Ali were arrested and transferred to U.S. custody. Both would later be accused of providing money and travel assistance to the hijackers. During U.S. hearings at Guantanamo Bay in March 2007, Mohammed again confessed his responsibility for the attacks, stating he "was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z" and that his statement was not made under duress. In January 2023, the US government opened up about a potential plea deal, with Biden giving up on the effort in September that year. To date, only peripheral persons have thus been convicted for charges in connection with the attacks. These include: Zacarias Moussaoui who was indicted in December 2001 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in May 2006 by a U.S. federal jury Mounir El Motassadeq who was first convicted in February 2003 by a Federal Court of Justice in Germany and was deported to Morocco in October 2018 after serving his sentence Abu Dahdah who was arrested in November 2001, sentenced by a Spanish High Court and released from prison in May 2013. On July 31, 2024, The New York Times reported that Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for life sentences, avoiding trial and execution. However, on August 2, 2024, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin revoked a plea agreement with Mohammed. Investigations FBI Immediately after the attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation started PENTTBOM, the largest criminal inquiry in US history. At its height, more than half of the FBI's agents worked on the investigation and followed a half-million leads. The FBI concluded that there was "clear and irrefutable" evidence linking Al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks. The FBI quickly identified the hijackers, including leader Mohamed Atta, when his luggage was discovered at Boston's Logan Airport. Atta had been forced to check two of his three bags due to space limitations on the 19-seat commuter flight he took to Boston. Due to a new policy instituted to prevent flight delays, the luggage failed to make it aboard American Airlines Flight 11 as planned. The luggage contained the hijackers' names, assignments, and Al-Qaeda connections. "It had all these Arab-language [sic] papers that amounted to the Rosetta stone of the investigation", said one FBI agent. Within hours of the attacks, the FBI released the names and in many cases the personal details of the suspected pilots and hijackers. Abu Jandal, who served as bin Laden's chief bodyguard for years, confirmed the identity of seven hijackers as Al-Qaeda members during interrogations with the FBI on September 17. He had been jailed in a Yemeni prison since 2000. On September 27, 2001, photos of all 19 hijackers were released, along with information about possible nationalities and aliases. Fifteen of the men were from Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was from Egypt, and one was from Lebanon. By midday, the U.S. National Security Agency and German intelligence agencies had intercepted communications pointing to Osama bin Laden. Two of the hijackers were known to have traveled with a bin Laden associate to Malaysia in 2000 and hijacker Mohamed Atta had previously gone to Afghanistan. He and others were part of a terrorist cell in Hamburg. One of the members of the Hamburg cell in Germany was discovered to have been in communication with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who was identified as a member of Al-Qaeda. Authorities in the United States and the United Kingdom also obtained electronic intercepts, including telephone conversations and electronic bank transfers, which indicated that Mohammed Atef, a bin Laden deputy, was a key figure in the planning of the 9/11 attacks. Intercepts were also obtained of conversations that took place days before September 11 between bin Laden and an associate in Pakistan referring to "an incident that would take place in America on, or around, September 11" and discussing potential repercussions. In another conversation with an associate in Afghanistan, bin Laden discussed the "scale and effects of a forthcoming operation". These conversations did not specifically mention the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, or other specifics. In their annual violent crime index for the year 2001, the FBI recorded the deaths from the attacks as murder, in separate tables so as not to mix them with other reported crimes for that year. In a disclaimer, the FBI stated that "the number of deaths is so great that combining it with the traditional crime statistics will have an outlier effect that falsely skews all types of measurements in the program's analyses". New York City also did not include the deaths in their annual crime statistics for 2001. CIA In 2004, John L. Helgerson, the Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), conducted an internal review of the agency's pre-9/11 performance and was harshly critical of senior CIA officials for not doing everything possible to confront terrorism. According to Philip Giraldi in The American Conservative, Helgerson criticized their failure to stop two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, as they entered the United States and their failure to share information on the two men with the FBI. In May 2007, senators from both major U.S. political parties (the Republican and Democratic parties) drafted legislation to make the review public. One of the backers, Senator Ron Wyden said, "The American people have a right to know what the Central Intelligence Agency was doing in those critical months before 9/11". The report was released in 2009 by President Barack Obama. Congressional inquiry In February 2002, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence formed a joint inquiry into the performance of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Their 832-page report released in December 2002 detailed failings of the FBI and CIA to use available information, including about terrorists the CIA knew were in the United States, to disrupt the plots. The joint inquiry developed its information about possible involvement of Saudi Arabian government officials from non-classified sources. The Bush administration demanded 28 related pages remain classified. In December 2002, the inquiry's chair Bob Graham revealed in an interview that there was "evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States". September 11 victim families were frustrated by the unanswered questions and redacted material from the congressional inquiry and demanded an independent commission. September 11 victim families, members of Congress and the Saudi Arabian government are still seeking the release of the documents. In June 2016, CIA chief John Brennan said that he believes 28 redacted pages of a congressional inquiry into 9/11 will soon be made public, and that they will prove that the government of Saudi Arabia had no involvement in the September 11 attacks. In September 2016, Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act that would allow relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia for its government's alleged role in the attacks. 9/11 Commission The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, popularly known as the 9/11 Commission, chaired by Thomas Kean, was formed in late 2002 to prepare a thorough account of the circumstances surrounding the attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. On July 22, 2004, the commission issued the 9/11 Commission Report, a 585-page report based on its investigations. The report detailed the events leading up to the attacks, concluding that they were carried out by Al-Qaeda. The commission also examined how security and intelligence agencies were inadequately coordinated to prevent the attacks. According to the report, "We believe the 9/11 attacks revealed four kinds of failures: in imagination, policy, capabilities, and management". The commission made numerous recommendations on how to prevent future attacks, and in 2011 was dismayed that several of its recommendations had yet to be implemented. National Institute of Standards and Technology The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) investigated the collapses of the Twin Towers and 7 WTC. The investigations examined why the buildings collapsed and what fire protection measures were in place, and evaluated how fire protection systems might be improved in future construction. The investigation into the collapse of 1 WTC and 2 WTC was concluded in October 2005 and that of 7 WTC was completed in August 2008. NIST found that the fireproofing on the Twin Towers' steel infrastructures was blown off by the initial impact of the planes and that had this not occurred, the towers likely would have remained standing. A 2007 study of the north tower's collapse published by researchers of Purdue University determined that since the plane's impact had stripped off much of the structure's thermal insulation, the heat from a typical office fire would have softened and weakened the exposed girders and columns enough to initiate the collapse regardless of the number of columns cut or damaged by the impact. The director of the original investigation stated that "the towers did amazingly well. The terrorist aircraft didn't bring the buildings down; it was the fire that followed. It was proven that you could take out two-thirds of the columns in a tower and the building would still stand". The fires weakened the trusses supporting the floors, making the floors sag. The sagging floors pulled on the exterior steel columns causing the exterior columns to bow inward. With the damage to the core columns, the buckling exterior columns could no longer support the buildings, causing them to collapse. Additionally, the report found the towers' stairwells were not properly reinforced to provide adequate emergency escape for people above the impact zones. NIST concluded that uncontrolled fires in 7 WTC caused floor beams and girders to heat and subsequently "caused a critical support column to fail, initiating a fire-induced progressive collapse that brought the building down". Alleged Saudi government role In July 2016, the Obama administration released a document compiled by U.S. investigators Dana Lesemann and Michael Jacobson, known as "File 17", which contains a list naming three dozen people, including the suspected Saudi intelligence officers attached to Saudi Arabia's embassy in Washington, D.C., which connects Saudi Arabia to the hijackers. In September 2016, Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. The practical effect of the legislation was to allow the continuation of a longstanding civil lawsuit brought by families of victims of the September 11 attacks against Saudi Arabia for its government's alleged role in the attacks. In March 2018, a U.S. judge formally allowed a suit to move forward against the government of Saudi Arabia brought by 9/11 survivors and victims' families. In 2022, the families of some 9/11 victims obtained two videos and a notepad seized from Saudi national Omar al-Bayoumi by the British courts. The first video showed him hosting a party in San Diego for Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, the first two hijackers to arrive in the U.S. The other video showed al-Bayoumi greeting the cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was blamed for radicalizing Americans and later killed in a CIA drone strike. The notepad depicted a hand-drawn aeroplane and some mathematical equations that, according to a pilot's court statement, might have been used to calculate the rate of descent to get to a target. According to a 2017 FBI memo, from the late 1990s up until the 9/11 attack, al-Bayoumi was a paid cooptee of the Saudi General Intelligence Presidency. As of April 2022 he is believed to be living in Saudi Arabia, which has denied any involvement in 9/11. Rebuilding and memorials Reconstruction On the day of the attacks, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani stated: "We will rebuild. We're going to come out of this stronger than before, politically stronger, economically stronger. The skyline will be made whole again". Within hours of the attack, a substantial search and rescue operation was launched. After months of around-the-clock operations, the World Trade Center site was cleared by the end of May 2002. The damaged section of the Pentagon was rebuilt and occupied within a year of the attacks. The temporary World Trade Center PATH station opened in late 2003 and construction of the new 7 World Trade Center was completed in 2006. Work on rebuilding the main World Trade Center site was delayed until late 2006 when leaseholder Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey agreed on financing. The construction of One World Trade Center began on April 27, 2006, and reached its full height on May 20, 2013. The spire was installed atop the building at that date, putting One WTC's height at 1,776 feet (541 m) and thus claiming the title of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. One WTC finished construction and opened on November 3, 2014. On the World Trade Center site, three more office towers were to be built one block east of where the original towers stood. 4 WTC, meanwhile, opened in November 2013, making it the second tower on the site to open behind 7 World Trade Center, as well as the first building on the Port Authority property. 3 WTC opened on June 11, 2018, becoming the fourth skyscraper at the site to be completed. In December 2022, the Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church fully reopened for regular services followed by the opening of the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center in September 2023. With construction beginning in 2008, 2 World Trade Center remains as of 2023 unfinished. Construction of a 5 World Trade Center is planned to begin in 2024 and be finished by 2029. Memorials In the days immediately following the attacks, many memorials and vigils were held around the world, and photographs of the dead and missing were posted around Ground Zero. A witness described being unable to "get away from faces of innocent victims who were killed. Their pictures are everywhere, on phone booths, street lights, and walls of subway stations. Everything reminded me of a huge funeral, people were quiet and sad, but also very nice. Before, New York gave me a cold feeling; now people were reaching out to help each other". President Bush proclaimed Friday, September 14, 2001, as Patriot Day. One of the first memorials was the Tribute in Light, an installation of 88 searchlights at the footprints of the World Trade Center towers. In New York City, the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was held to design an appropriate memorial on the site. The winning design, Reflecting Absence, was selected in August 2006, and consists of a pair of reflecting pools in the footprints of the towers, surrounded by a list of the victims' names in an underground memorial space. The memorial was completed on September 11, 2011; a museum also opened on site on May 21, 2014. The Sphere by the German sculptor Fritz Koenig is the world's largest bronze sculpture of modern times, and stood between the Twin Towers on the Austin J. Tobin Plaza from 1971 until the attacks. The sculpture, weighing more than 20 tons, was the only remaining work of art to be recovered largely intact from the ruins of the towers. Since then, the work of art, known in the U.S. as The Sphere, has been transformed into a symbolic monument of 9/11 commemoration. After being dismantled and stored near a hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the sculpture was the subject of the 2001 documentary The Sphere by filmmaker Percy Adlon. On August 16, 2017, the work was installed at Liberty Park, close to the new World Trade Center aerial and the 9/11 Memorial. In Arlington County, the Pentagon Memorial was completed and opened to the public on the seventh anniversary of the attacks in 2008. It consists of a landscaped park with 184 benches facing the Pentagon. When the Pentagon was repaired in 2001–2002, a private chapel and indoor memorial were included at the spot where Flight 77 crashed into the building. In Shanksville, a concrete-and-glass visitor center was opened on September 10, 2015, situated on a hill overlooking the crash site and the white marble Wall of Names. An observation platform at the visitor centre and the white marble wall are both aligned beneath the path of Flight 93. New York City firefighters donated a cross made of steel from the World Trade Center and mounted on top of a platform shaped like the Pentagon. It was installed outside the firehouse on August 25, 2008. Many other permanent memorials are elsewhere. Scholarships and charities have been established by the victims' families and by many other organizations and private figures. On every anniversary in New York City, the names of the victims who died there are read out over music. The President of the United States attends a memorial service at the Pentagon, and asks Americans to observe Patriot Day with a moment of silence. Smaller services are held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, which are usually attended by the First Lady. In September 2023, President Joe Biden did not attend services in the affected areas, instead marking the day in Anchorage, Alaska, the first U.S. President to do so since the attacks. See also References Notes Citations Bibliography Further reading External links National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States official commission website List of victims September 11, 2001, Documentary Project from the U.S. Library of Congress, Memory.loc.gov September 11, 2001, Web Archive from the U.S. Library of Congress, Minerva National Security Archive September 11 Digital Archive: Saving the Histories of September 11, 2001, from the Center for History and New Media and the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning DoD: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Verbatim Transcript of Combatant Status Review Tribunal Hearing for ISN 10024, from Wikisource The 9/11 Legacies Project, Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 9/11 at 20: A Week of Reflection, Responsible Statecraft, The Quincy Institute September 11, 2001 collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History Multimedia Day of Terror Video Archive – CNN.com

Prohibition_in_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States

The Prohibition era was the period from 1920 to 1933 when the United States prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and Prohibition was formally introduced nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933. Led by Pietistic Protestants, prohibitionists first attempted to end the trade in alcoholic drinks during the 19th century. They aimed to heal what they saw as an ill society beset by alcohol-related problems such as alcoholism, family violence, and saloon-based political corruption. Many communities introduced alcohol bans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and enforcement of these new prohibition laws became a topic of debate. Prohibition supporters, called "drys", presented it as a battle for public morals and health. The movement was taken up by progressives in the Prohibition, Democratic and Republican parties, and gained a national grassroots base through the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. After 1900, it was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. Opposition from the beer industry mobilized "wet" supporters from the wealthy Catholic and German Lutheran communities, but the influence of these groups receded from 1917 following the entry of the U.S. into the First World War against Germany. The Eighteenth Amendment passed in 1919 "with a 68 percent supermajority in the House of Representatives and 76 percent support in the Senate" and was ratified by 46 out of 48 states. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the federal ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. Not all alcohol was banned; for example, religious use of wine was permitted. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, but local laws were stricter in many areas, some states banning possession outright. By the late 1920s, a new opposition to Prohibition emerged nationwide. The opposition attacked the policy, claiming that it lowered tax revenue at a critical time before and during the Great Depression and imposed "rural" Protestant religious values on "urban" America. The Twenty-first Amendment ended Prohibition, though it continued in some states. To date, this is the only time in American history in which a constitutional amendment was passed for the purpose of repealing another. The overall effects of Prohibition on society are disputed and hard to pin down. Some research indicates that alcohol consumption declined substantially due to Prohibition, while other research indicates that Prohibition did not reduce alcohol consumption in the long term. Americans who wanted to continue drinking alcohol found loopholes in Prohibition laws or used illegal methods to obtain alcohol, resulting in the emergence of black markets and crime syndicates dedicated to distributing alcohol. By contrast, rates of liver cirrhosis, alcoholic psychosis, and infant mortality declined during Prohibition. Because of the lack of uniform national statistics gathered about crime prior to 1930, it is difficult to draw conclusions about Prohibition's impact on crime at the national level. Prohibition had a negative effect on the economy by eliminating jobs dedicated to the then-fifth largest industry in the United States. Support for Prohibition diminished steadily throughout its duration, including among former supporters of Prohibition. History On November 18, 1918, prior to ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, the U.S. Congress passed the temporary Wartime Prohibition Act, which banned the sale of alcoholic beverages having an alcohol content of greater than 1.28%. This act, which had been intended to save grain for the war effort, was passed ten days after the armistice ending World War I was signed, on November 21, 1918. The Wartime Prohibition Act took effect June 30, 1919, with July 1 becoming known as the "Thirsty First". The U.S. Senate proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 18, 1917. Upon being approved by a 36th state on January 16, 1919, the amendment was ratified as a part of the Constitution. By the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later, on January 17, 1920. On October 28, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The act established the legal definition of intoxicating liquors as well as penalties for producing them. Although the Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, the federal government lacked resources to enforce it. Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, cirrhosis death rates, admissions to state mental hospitals for alcoholic psychosis, arrests for public drunkenness, and rates of absenteeism. While many state that Prohibition stimulated the proliferation of rampant underground, organized, and widespread criminal activity, Kenneth D. Rose and Georges-Franck Pinard make the opposite claim that there was no increase in crime during the Prohibition era and that such claims are "rooted in the impressionistic rather than the factual." The highest homicide rate in the United States in the first half of the 20th century occurred during the years of prohibition, decreasing immediately after prohibition ended. By 1925, there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs in New York City alone. Wet opposition talked of personal liberty, new tax revenues from legal beer and liquor, and the scourge of organized crime. On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen–Harrison Act, legalizing beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% (by weight) and wine of a similarly low alcohol content. On December 5, ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. However, United States federal law still prohibits the manufacture of distilled spirits without meeting numerous licensing requirements that make it impractical to produce spirits for personal use. Origins Consumption of alcoholic beverages has been a contentious topic in America since the colonial period. On March 26, 1636, the legislature of New Somersetshire met at what is now Saco, Maine, and adopted a law limiting the sale of "strong liquor or wyne", although carving out exceptions for "lodger[s]" and allowing serving to "laborers on working days for one hower at dinner." In May 1657, the General Court of Massachusetts made the sale of strong liquor "whether known by the name of rum, whisky, wine, brandy, etc." to the Native Americans illegal. In general, informal social controls in the home and community helped maintain the expectation that the abuse of alcohol was unacceptable: "Drunkenness was condemned and punished, but only as an abuse of a God-given gift. Drink itself was not looked upon as culpable, any more than food deserved blame for the sin of gluttony. Excess was a personal indiscretion." When informal controls failed, there were legal options. Shortly after the United States obtained independence, the Whiskey Rebellion took place in western Pennsylvania in protest of government-imposed taxes on whiskey. Although the taxes were primarily levied to help pay down the newly formed national debt, it also received support from some social reformers, who hoped a "sin tax" would raise public awareness about the harmful effects of alcohol. The whiskey tax was repealed after Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party, which opposed the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton, came to power in 1800. Benjamin Rush, one of the foremost physicians of the late 18th century, believed in moderation rather than prohibition. In his treatise, "The Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits upon the Human Body and Mind" (1784), Rush argued that the excessive use of alcohol was injurious to physical and psychological health, labeling drunkenness as a disease. Apparently influenced by Rush's widely discussed belief, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community formed a temperance association in 1789. Similar associations were formed in Virginia in 1800 and New York in 1808. Within a decade, other temperance groups had formed in eight states, some of them being statewide organizations. The words of Rush and other early temperance reformers served to dichotomize the use of alcohol for men and women. While men enjoyed drinking and often considered it vital to their health, women who began to embrace the ideology of "true motherhood" refrained from the consumption of alcohol. Middle-class women, who were considered the moral authorities of their households, consequently rejected the drinking of alcohol, which they believed to be a threat to the home. In 1830, on average, Americans consumed 1.7 bottles of hard liquor per week, three times the amount consumed in 2010. Development of the prohibition movement The American Temperance Society (ATS), formed in 1826, helped initiate the first temperance movement and served as a foundation for many later groups. By 1835 the ATS had reached 1.5 million members, with women constituting 35% to 60% of its chapters. The Prohibition movement, also known as the dry crusade, continued in the 1840s, spearheaded by pietistic religious denominations, especially the Methodists. The late 19th century saw the temperance movement broaden its focus from abstinence to include all behavior and institutions related to alcohol consumption. Preachers such as Reverend Mark A. Matthews linked liquor-dispensing saloons with political corruption. Some successes for the movement were achieved in the 1850s, including the Maine law, adopted in 1851, which banned the manufacture and sale of liquor. Before its repeal in 1856, 12 states followed the example set by Maine in total prohibition. The temperance movement lost strength and was marginalized during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Following the war, social moralists turned to other issues, such as Mormon polygamy and the temperance movement. The dry crusade was revived by the national Prohibition Party, founded in 1869, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), founded in 1874. The WCTU advocated the prohibition of alcohol as a method for preventing, through education, abuse from alcoholic husbands. WCTU members believed that if their organization could reach children with its message, it could create a dry sentiment leading to prohibition. Frances Willard, the second president of the WCTU, held that the aims of the organization were to create a "union of women from all denominations, for the purpose of educating the young, forming a better public sentiment, reforming the drinking classes, transforming by the power of Divine grace those who are enslaved by alcohol, and removing the dram-shop from our streets by law". While still denied universal voting privileges, women in the WCTU followed Frances Willard's "Do Everything" doctrine and used temperance as a method of entering into politics and furthering other progressive issues such as prison reform and labor laws. In 1881 Kansas became the first state to outlaw alcoholic beverages in its Constitution. Arrested over 30 times and fined and jailed on multiple occasions, prohibition activist Carrie Nation attempted to enforce the state's ban on alcohol consumption. She walked into saloons, scolding customers, and used her hatchet to destroy bottles of liquor. Nation recruited ladies into the Carrie Nation Prohibition Group, which she also led. While Nation's vigilante techniques were rare, other activists enforced the dry cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloonkeepers to stop selling alcohol. Other dry states, especially those in the South, enacted prohibition legislation, as did individual counties within a state. Court cases also debated the subject of prohibition. While some cases ruled in opposition, the general tendency was toward support. In Mugler v. Kansas (1887), Justice Harlan commented: "We cannot shut out of view the fact, within the knowledge of all, that the public health, the public morals, and the public safety, may be endangered by the general use of intoxicating drinks; nor the fact established by statistics accessible to every one, that the idleness, disorder, pauperism and crime existing in the country, are, in some degree...traceable to this evil." In support of prohibition, Crowley v. Christensen (1890), remarked: "The statistics of every state show a greater amount of crime and misery attributable to the use of ardent spirits obtained at these retail liquor saloons than to any other source." The proliferation of neighborhood saloons in the post-Civil War era became a phenomenon of an increasingly industrialized, urban workforce. Workingmen's bars were popular social gathering places from the workplace and home life. The brewing industry was actively involved in establishing saloons as a lucrative consumer base in their business chain. Saloons were more often than not linked to a specific brewery, where the saloonkeeper's operation was financed by a brewer and contractually obligated to sell the brewer's product to the exclusion of competing brands. A saloon's business model often included the offer of a free lunch, where the bill of fare commonly consisted of heavily salted food meant to induce thirst and the purchase of drink. During the Progressive Era (1890–1920), hostility toward saloons and their political influence became widespread, with the Anti-Saloon League superseding the Prohibition Party and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as the most influential advocate of prohibition, after these latter two groups expanded their efforts to support other social reform issues, such as women's suffrage, onto their prohibition platform. Prohibition was an important force in state and local politics from the 1840s through the 1930s. Numerous historical studies demonstrated that the political forces involved were ethnoreligious. Prohibition was supported by the dries, primarily pietistic Protestant denominations that included Methodists, Northern Baptists, Southern Baptists, New School Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, Congregationalists, Quakers, and Scandinavian Lutherans, but also included the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America and, to a certain extent, the Latter-day Saints. These religious groups identified saloons as politically corrupt and drinking as a personal sin. Other active organizations included the Women's Church Federation, the Women's Temperance Crusade, and the Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction. They were opposed by the wets, primarily liturgical Protestants (Episcopalians and German Lutherans) and Catholics, who denounced the idea that the government should define morality. Even in the wet stronghold of New York City there was an active prohibition movement, led by Norwegian church groups and African-American labor activists who believed that prohibition would benefit workers, especially African Americans. Tea merchants and soda fountain manufacturers generally supported prohibition, believing a ban on alcohol would increase sales of their products. A particularly effective operator on the political front was Wayne Wheeler of the Anti-Saloon League, who made Prohibition a wedge issue and succeeded in getting many pro-prohibition candidates elected. Coming from Ohio, his deep resentment for alcohol started at a young age. He was injured on a farm by a worker who had been drunk. This event transformed Wheeler. Starting low in the ranks, he quickly moved up due to his deep-rooted hatred of alcohol. He later realized to further the movement he would need more public approval, and fast. This was the start of his policy called 'Wheelerism' where he used the media to make it seem like the general public was "in on" on a specific issue. Wheeler became known as the "dry boss" because of his influence and power. Prohibition represented a conflict between urban and rural values emerging in the United States. Given the mass influx of migrants to the urban centers of the United States, many individuals within the prohibition movement associated the crime and morally corrupt behavior of American cities with their large, immigrant populations. Saloons frequented by immigrants in these cities were often frequented by politicians who wanted to obtain the immigrants' votes in exchange for favors such as job offers, legal assistance, and food baskets. Thus, saloons were seen as a breeding ground for political corruption. Most economists during the early 20th century were in favor of the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition). Simon Patten, one of the leading advocates for prohibition, predicted that prohibition would eventually happen in the United States for competitive and evolutionary reasons. Yale economics professor Irving Fisher, who was a dry, wrote extensively about prohibition, including a paper that made an economic case for prohibition. Fisher is credited with supplying the criteria against which future prohibitions, such as against marijuana, could be measured, in terms of crime, health, and productivity. For example, "Blue Monday" referred to the hangover workers experienced after a weekend of binge drinking, resulting in Mondays being a wasted productive day. But new research has discredited Fisher's research, which was based on uncontrolled experiments; regardless, his $6 billion figure for the annual gains of Prohibition to the United States continues to be cited. In a backlash to the emerging reality of a changing American demographic, many prohibitionists subscribed to the doctrine of nativism, in which they endorsed the notion that the success of America was a result of its white Anglo-Saxon ancestry. This belief fostered distrust of immigrant communities that fostered saloons and incorporated drinking in their popular culture. Two other amendments to the Constitution were championed by dry crusaders to help their cause. One was granted in the Sixteenth Amendment (1913), which replaced alcohol taxes that funded the federal government with a federal income tax. The other was women's suffrage, which was granted after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920; since women tended to support prohibition, temperance organizations tended to support women's suffrage. In the presidential election of 1916, the Democratic incumbent, Woodrow Wilson, and the Republican candidate, Charles Evans Hughes, ignored the prohibition issue, as did both parties' political platforms. Democrats and Republicans had strong wet and dry factions, and the election was expected to be close, with neither candidate wanting to alienate any part of his political base. When the 65th Congress convened in March 1917, the dries outnumbered the wets by 140 to 64 in the Democratic Party and 138 to 62 among Republicans. With America's declaration of war against Germany in April, German Americans, a major force against prohibition, were sidelined and their protests subsequently ignored. In addition, a new justification for prohibition arose: prohibiting the production of alcoholic beverages would allow more resources—especially grain that would otherwise be used to make alcohol—to be devoted to the war effort. While wartime prohibition was a spark for the movement, World War I ended before nationwide Prohibition was enacted. A resolution calling for a Constitutional amendment to accomplish nationwide Prohibition was introduced in Congress and passed by both houses in December 1917. By January 16, 1919, the Amendment had been ratified by 36 of the 48 states, making it law. Eventually, only two states—Connecticut and Rhode Island—opted out of ratifying it. On October 28, 1919, Congress passed enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment when it went into effect in 1920. Start of national prohibition (January 1920) Prohibition began on January 17, 1920, when the Volstead Act went into effect. A total of 1,520 Federal Prohibition agents (police) were tasked with enforcement. Supporters of the Amendment soon became confident that it would not be repealed. One of its creators, Senator Morris Sheppard, joked that "there is as much chance of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment as there is for a humming-bird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail." At the same time, songs emerged decrying the act. After Edward, Prince of Wales, returned to the United Kingdom following his tour of Canada in 1919, he recounted to his father, King George V, a ditty he had heard at a border town: Prohibition became highly controversial among medical professionals because alcohol was widely prescribed by the era's physicians for therapeutic purposes. Congress held hearings on the medicinal value of beer in 1921. Subsequently, physicians across the country lobbied for the repeal of Prohibition as it applied to medicinal liquors. From 1921 to 1930, doctors earned about $40 million for whiskey prescriptions. While the manufacture, importation, sale, and transport of alcohol was illegal in the United States, Section 29 of the Volstead Act allowed wine and cider to be made from fruit at home, but not beer. Up to 200 gallons of wine and cider per year could be made, and some vineyards grew grapes for home use. The Act did not prohibit the consumption of alcohol. Many people stockpiled wines and liquors for their personal use in the latter part of 1919 before sales of alcoholic beverages became illegal in January 1920. Since alcohol was legal in neighboring countries, distilleries and breweries in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean flourished as their products were either consumed by visiting Americans or smuggled into the United States illegally. The Detroit River, which forms part of the U.S. border with Canada, was notoriously difficult to control, especially rum-running in Windsor, Canada. When the U.S. government complained to the British that American law was being undermined by officials in Nassau, Bahamas, the head of the British Colonial Office refused to intervene. Winston Churchill believed that Prohibition was "an affront to the whole history of mankind". Three federal agencies were assigned the task of enforcing the Volstead Act: the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement, the U.S. Treasury's IRS Bureau of Prohibition, and the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Prohibition. Bootlegging and hoarding old supplies As early as 1925, journalist H. L. Mencken believed that Prohibition was not working. Historian David Oshinsky, summarizing the work of Daniel Okrent, wrote that "Prohibition worked best when directed at its primary target: the working-class poor." Historian Lizabeth Cohen writes: "A rich family could have a cellar-full of liquor and get by, it seemed, but if a poor family had one bottle of home-brew, there would be trouble." Working-class people were inflamed by the fact that their employers could dip into a private cache while they, the employees, could not. Within a week after Prohibition went into effect, small portable stills were on sale throughout the country. Before the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect in January 1920, many of the upper classes stockpiled alcohol for legal home consumption after Prohibition began. They bought the inventories of liquor retailers and wholesalers, emptying out their warehouses, saloons, and club storerooms. President Woodrow Wilson moved his own supply of alcoholic beverages to his Washington residence after his term of office ended. His successor, Warren G. Harding, relocated his own large supply into the White House. After the Eighteenth Amendment became law, bootlegging became widespread. In the first six months of 1920, the federal government opened 7,291 cases for Volstead Act violations. In the first complete fiscal year of 1921, the number of cases violating the Volstead Act jumped to 29,114 violations and would rise dramatically over the next thirteen years. Grape juice was not restricted by Prohibition, even though if it was allowed to sit for sixty days it would ferment and turn to wine with a twelve percent alcohol content. Many people took advantage of this as grape juice output quadrupled during the Prohibition era. To prevent bootleggers from using industrial ethyl alcohol to produce illegal beverages, the federal government ordered the denaturation of industrial alcohols, meaning they must include additives to make them unpalatable or poisonous. In response, bootleggers hired chemists who successfully removed the additives from the alcohol to make it drinkable. As a response, the Treasury Department required manufacturers to add more deadly poisons, including the particularly deadly combination referred to (incorrectly) as "methyl alcohol": 4 parts methanol, 2.25 parts pyridine base, and 0.5 parts benzene per 100 parts ethyl alcohol. New York City medical examiners prominently opposed these policies because of the danger to human life. As many as 10,000 people died from drinking denatured alcohol before Prohibition ended. New York City medical examiner Charles Norris believed the government took responsibility for murder when they knew the poison was not deterring consumption and they continued to poison industrial alcohol (which would be used in drinking alcohol) anyway. Norris remarked: "The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol ... [Y]et it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible." Another lethal substance that was often substituted for alcohol was for the Sterno, a denatured form of ethyl alcohol adulterated with methanol and a jelling agent, commonly known as "canned heat". Forcing the substance through a makeshift filter, such as a handkerchief, created a rough liquor substitute; however, the result was poisonous, though not often lethal. Making alcohol at home was common among some families with wet sympathies during Prohibition. Stores sold grape concentrate with warning labels that listed the steps that should be avoided to prevent the juice from fermenting into wine. Some drugstores sold "medical wine" with around a 22% alcohol content. In order to justify the sale, the wine was given a medicinal taste. Home-distilled hard liquor was called bathtub gin in northern cities, and moonshine in rural areas of Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, West Virginia and Tennessee. Making drinkable hard liquor was easier than homebrewing good beer. Since selling privately distilled alcohol was illegal and bypassed government taxation, law enforcement officers relentlessly pursued manufacturers. In response, bootleggers modified their cars and trucks by enhancing the engines and suspensions to make faster vehicles that would improve their chances of outrunning and escaping agents of the Bureau of Prohibition, commonly called "revenue agents" or "revenuers". These cars became known as "moonshine runners" or "'shine runners". Shops with wet sympathies were also known to participate in the underground liquor market, by loading their stocks with ingredients for liquors, including Bénédictine, vermouth, scotch mash, and even ethyl alcohol; anyone could purchase these ingredients legally. In October 1930, just two weeks before the congressional midterm elections, bootlegger George Cassiday—"the man in the green hat"—came forward and told members of Congress how he had bootlegged for ten years. One of the few bootleggers ever to tell his story, Cassiday wrote five front-page articles for The Washington Post, in which he estimated that 80% of congressmen and senators drank. The Democrats in the North were mostly wets, and in the 1932 election, they made major gains. The wets argued that Prohibition was not stopping crime, and was actually causing the creation of large-scale, well-funded, and well-armed criminal syndicates. As Prohibition became increasingly unpopular, especially in urban areas, its repeal was eagerly anticipated. Wets had the organization and the initiative. They pushed the argument that states and localities needed the tax money. President Herbert Hoover proposed a new constitutional amendment that was vague on particulars and satisfied neither side. Franklin Roosevelt's Democratic platform promised repeal of the 18th Amendment. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, many bootleggers and suppliers with wet sympathies simply moved into the legitimate liquor business. Some crime syndicates moved their efforts into expanding their protection rackets to cover legal liquor sales and other business areas. Medical liquor Doctors were able to prescribe medicinal alcohol for their patients. After just six months of prohibition, over 15,000 doctors and 57,000 pharmacists received licenses to prescribe or sell medicinal alcohol. According to Gastro Obscura, Physicians wrote an estimated 11 million prescriptions a year throughout the 1920s, and Prohibition Commissioner John F. Kramer even cited one doctor who wrote 475 prescriptions for whiskey in one day. It wasn't tough for people to write—and fill—counterfeit subscriptions at pharmacies, either. Naturally, bootleggers bought prescription forms from crooked doctors and mounted widespread scams. In 1931, 400 pharmacists and 1,000 doctors were caught in a scam where doctors sold signed prescription forms to bootleggers. Just 12 doctors and 13 pharmacists were indicted, and the ones charged faced a one-time $50 fine. Selling alcohol through drugstores became so much of a lucrative open secret that it is name-checked in works such as The Great Gatsby. Historians speculate that Charles R. Walgreen, of Walgreens fame, expanded from 20 stores to a staggering 525 during the 1920s thanks to medicinal alcohol sales." Enforcement Once Prohibition came into effect, the majority of U.S. citizens obeyed it. Some states like Maryland and New York refused Prohibition. Enforcement of the law under the Eighteenth Amendment lacked a centralized authority. Clergymen were sometimes called upon to form vigilante groups to assist in the enforcement of Prohibition. Furthermore, American geography contributed to the difficulties in enforcing Prohibition. The varied terrain of valleys, mountains, lakes and swamps, as well as the extensive seaways, ports and borders that the United States shared with Canada and Mexico made it exceedingly difficult for Prohibition agents to stop bootleggers given their lack of resources. Ultimately it was recognized with its repeal that the means by which the law was to be enforced were not pragmatic, and in many cases, the legislature did not match the general public opinion. In Cicero, Illinois, (a suburb of Chicago) the prevalence of ethnic communities who had wet sympathies allowed prominent gang leader Al Capone to operate despite the presence of police. The Ku Klux Klan talked a great deal about denouncing bootleggers and threatened private vigilante action against known offenders. Despite its large membership in the mid-1920s, it was poorly organized and seldom had an effect. Indeed, the KKK after 1925 helped disparage any enforcement of Prohibition. Prohibition was a major blow to the alcoholic beverage industry and its repeal was a step toward the amelioration of one sector of the economy. An example of this is the case of St. Louis, one of the most important alcohol producers before prohibition started, which was ready to resume its position in the industry as soon as possible. Its major brewery had "50,000 barrels" of beer ready for distribution from March 22, 1933, and was the first alcohol producer to resupply the market; others soon followed. After repeal, stores obtained liquor licenses and restocked for business. After beer production resumed, thousands of workers found jobs in the industry again. Prohibition created a black market that competed with the formal economy, which came under pressure when the Great Depression struck in 1929. State governments urgently needed the tax revenue alcohol sales had generated. Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 based in part on his promise to end prohibition, which influenced his support for ratifying the Twenty-first Amendment to repeal Prohibition. Repeal Naval Captain William H. Stayton was a prominent figure in the anti-prohibition fight, founding the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment in 1918. The AAPA was the largest of the nearly forty organizations that fought to end Prohibition. Economic urgency played a large part in accelerating the advocacy for repeal. The number of conservatives who pushed for prohibition in the beginning decreased. Many farmers who fought for prohibition now fought for repeal because of the negative effects it had on the agriculture business. Prior to the 1920 implementation of the Volstead Act, approximately 14% of federal, state, and local tax revenues were derived from alcohol commerce. When the Great Depression hit and tax revenues plunged, the governments needed this revenue stream. Millions could be made by taxing beer. There was controversy on whether the repeal should be a state or nationwide decision. On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an amendment to the Volstead Act, known as the Cullen–Harrison Act, allowing the manufacture and sale of 3.2% beer (3.2% alcohol by weight, approximately 4% alcohol by volume) and light wines. The Volstead Act previously defined an intoxicating beverage as one with greater than 0.5% alcohol. Upon signing the Cullen–Harrison Act, Roosevelt remarked: "I think this would be a good time for a beer." According to a 2017 study in the journal Public Choice, representatives from traditional beer-producing states, as well as Democratic politicians, were most in favor of the bill, but politicians from many Southern states were most strongly opposed to the legislation. The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed on December 5, 1933, with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Despite the efforts of Heber J. Grant, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 21 Utah members of the constitutional convention voted unanimously on that day to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment, making Utah the 36th state to do so, and putting the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment over the top in needed voting. In the late 1930s, after its repeal, two fifths of Americans wished to reinstate national Prohibition. Post-repeal The Twenty-first Amendment does not prevent states from restricting or banning alcohol; instead, it prohibits the "transportation or importation" of alcohol "into any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States" "in violation of the laws thereof", thus allowing state and local control of alcohol. There are still numerous dry counties and municipalities in the United States that restrict or prohibit liquor sales. Additionally, many tribal governments prohibit alcohol on Indian reservations. Federal law also prohibits alcohol on Indian reservations, although this law is currently only enforced when there is a concomitant violation of local tribal liquor laws. After its repeal, some former supporters openly admitted failure. For example, John D. Rockefeller Jr., explained his view in a 1932 letter: When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened, and crime has increased to a level never seen before. Some historians claim that alcohol consumption in the United States did not exceed pre-Prohibition levels until the 1960s; others claim that alcohol consumption reached the pre-Prohibition levels several years after its enactment, and has continued to rise. Cirrhosis of the liver, a symptom of alcoholism, declined nearly two-thirds during Prohibition. In the decades after Prohibition, any stigma that had been associated with alcohol consumption was erased; according to a Gallup Poll survey conducted almost every year since 1939, two-thirds of American adults age 18 and older drink alcohol. Shortly after World War II, a national opinion survey found that "About one-third of the people of the United States favor national prohibition." Upon repeal of national prohibition, 18 states continued prohibition at the state level. The last state, Mississippi, finally ended it in 1966. Almost two-thirds of all states adopted some form of local option which enabled residents in political subdivisions to vote for or against local prohibition. Therefore, despite the repeal of prohibition at the national level, 38% of the nation's population lived in areas with state or local prohibition.: 221  In 2014, a CNN nationwide poll found that 18% of Americans "believed that drinking should be illegal". Christian views Prohibition in the early to mid-20th century was mostly fueled by the Protestant denominations in the Southern United States, a region dominated by socially conservative evangelical Protestantism with a very high Christian church attendance. Generally, evangelical Protestant denominations encouraged prohibition, while the Mainline Protestant denominations disapproved of its introduction. However, there were exceptions to this, such as the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (German Confessional Lutherans), which is typically considered to be in scope of evangelical Protestantism. Pietistic churches in the United States (especially Baptist churches, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and others in the evangelical tradition) sought to end drinking and the saloon culture during the Third Party System. Liturgical ("high") churches (Catholic, Episcopal, German Lutheran and others in the mainline tradition) opposed prohibition laws because they did not want the government to reduce the definition of morality to a narrow standard or to criminalize the common liturgical practice of using wine. Revivalism during the Second Great Awakening and the Third Great Awakening in the mid-to-late 19th century set the stage for the bond between Pietistic Protestantism and prohibition in the United States: "The greater prevalence of revival religion within a population, the greater support for the Prohibition parties within that population." Historian Nancy Koester argued that Prohibition was a "victory for progressives and social gospel activists battling poverty". Prohibition also united progressives and revivalists. The temperance movement had popularized the belief that alcohol was the major cause of most personal and social problems and prohibition was seen as the solution to the nation's poverty, crime, violence, and other ills. Upon ratification of the amendment, the evangelist Billy Sunday said that "The slums will soon be only a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs." Since alcohol was to be banned and since it was seen as the cause of most, if not all, crimes, some communities sold their jails. Effects Alcohol consumption According to a 2010 review of the academic research on Prohibition, "On balance, Prohibition probably reduced per capita alcohol use and alcohol-related harm, but these benefits eroded over time as an organized black market developed and public support for [national prohibition] declined." One study reviewing city-level drunkenness arrests concluded that prohibition had an immediate effect, but no long-term effect. And, yet another study examining "mortality, mental health and crime statistics" found that alcohol consumption fell, at first, to approximately 30 percent of its pre-Prohibition level; but, over the next several years, increased to about 60–70 percent of its pre-prohibition level. The Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating beverages, however, it did not outlaw the possession or consumption of alcohol in the United States, which would allow legal loopholes for consumers possessing alcohol. Health Research indicates that rates of cirrhosis of the liver declined significantly during Prohibition and increased after Prohibition's repeal. According to the historian Jack S. Blocker Jr., "death rates from cirrhosis and alcoholism, alcoholic psychosis hospital admissions, and drunkenness arrests all declined steeply during the latter years of the 1910s, when both the cultural and the legal climate were increasingly inhospitable to drink, and in the early years after National Prohibition went into effect." Studies examining the rates of cirrhosis deaths as a proxy for alcohol consumption estimated a decrease in consumption of 10–20%. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism studies show clear epidemiological evidence that "overall cirrhosis mortality rates declined precipitously with the introduction of Prohibition," despite widespread flouting of the law. A 2024 study, which used variations in state legality of alcohol, found that individuals born in the 1930s in wet states had higher later-life mortality than those in dry states, suggesting adverse effects from in utero exposure to alcohol. Crime It is difficult to draw conclusions about Prohibition's effect on crime at the national level, as there were no uniform national statistics gathered about crime prior to 1930. It has been argued that organized crime received a major boost from Prohibition. For example, one study found that organized crime in Chicago tripled during Prohibition. Mafia groups and other criminal organizations and gangs had mostly limited their activities to prostitution, gambling, and theft until 1920, when organized "rum-running" or bootlegging emerged in response to Prohibition. A profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol flourished. Prohibition provided a financial basis for organized crime to flourish. In one study of more than 30 major U.S. cities during the Prohibition years of 1920 and 1921, the number of crimes increased by 24%. Additionally, theft and burglaries increased by 9%, homicides by 13%, assaults and battery rose by 13%, drug addiction by 45%, and police department costs rose by 11.4%. This was largely the result of "black-market violence" and the diversion of law enforcement resources elsewhere. Despite the Prohibition movement's hope that outlawing alcohol would reduce crime, the reality was that the Volstead Act led to higher crime rates than were experienced prior to Prohibition and the establishment of a black market dominated by criminal organizations. A 2016 NBER paper showed that South Carolina counties that enacted and enforced prohibition had homicide rates increase by about 30 to 60 percent relative to counties that did not enforce prohibition. A 2009 study found an increase in homicides in Chicago during Prohibition. However, some scholars have attributed the crime during the Prohibition era to increased urbanization, rather than to the criminalization of alcohol use. In some cities, such as New York City, crime rates decreased during the Prohibition era. Crime rates overall declined from the period of 1849 to 1951, making crime during the Prohibition period less likely to be attributed to the criminalization of alcohol alone. Mark H. Moore claims that contrary to popular opinion, "violent crime did not increase dramatically during Prohibition" and that organized crime "existed before and after" Prohibition. The historian Kenneth D. Rose corroborates historian John Burnham's assertion that during the 1920s "there is no firm evidence of this supposed upsurge in lawlessness" as "no statistics from this period dealing with crime are of any value whatsoever". California State University, Chico historian Kenneth D. Rose writes: Opponents of prohibition were fond of claiming that the Great Experiment had created a gangster element that had unleashed a "crime wave" on a hapless America. The WONPR's Mrs. Coffin Van Rensselaer, for instance, insisted in 1932 that "the alarming crime wave, which had been piling up to unprecedented height" was a legacy of prohibition. But prohibition can hardly be held responsible for inventing crime, and while supplying illegal liquor proved to be lucrative, it was only an additional source of income to the more traditional criminal activities of gambling, loan sharking, racketeering, and prostitution. The notion of the prohibition-induced crime wave, despite its popularity during the 1920s, cannot be substantiated with any accuracy, because of the inadequacy of records kept by local police departments.Along with other economic effects, the enactment and enforcement of Prohibition caused an increase in resource costs. During the 1920s the annual budget of the Bureau of Prohibition went from $4.4 million to $13.4 million. Additionally, the U.S. Coast Guard spent an average of $13 million annually on enforcement of prohibition laws. These numbers do not take into account the costs to local and state governments. Powers of the state According to Harvard University historian Lisa McGirr, Prohibition led to an expansion in the powers of the federal state, as well as helped shape the penal state. According to academic Colin Agur, Prohibition specifically increased the usage of telephone wiretapping by federal agents for evidence collection. Discrimination According to Harvard University historian Lisa McGirr, Prohibition had a disproportionately adverse effect on African-Americans, immigrants, and poor whites, as law enforcement used alcohol prohibition against these communities. Economy Different metrics have led to different assessments of Prohibition's impact on the U.S. economy. Negative assessments Sources describe negative fiscal effects, with loss of tax revenue and increased enforcement costs, as well as economic impact on regulated and adjacent industries. Prohibition caused the loss of at least $226 million per annum in tax revenues on liquors alone; supporters of the prohibition expected an increase in the sales of non-alcoholic beverages to replace the money made from alcohol sales, but this did not happen. Furthermore, "Prohibition caused the shutdown of over 200 distilleries, a thousand breweries, and over 170,000 liquor stores". Finally, it is worth noting that "the amount of money used to enforce prohibition started at $6.3 million in 1921 and rose to $13.4 million in 1930, almost double the original amount". A 2015 study estimated that the repeal of Prohibition had a net social benefit of "$432 million per annum in 1934–1937, about 0.33% of gross domestic product. Total benefits of $3.25 billion consist primarily of increased consumer and producer surplus, tax revenues, and reduced criminal violence costs." When 3.2 percent alcohol beer was legalized in 1933, it created 81,000 jobs within a three-month span. Positive assessments A 2021 study in the Journal of Economic History found that counties that adopted Prohibition early subsequently had greater population growth and an increase in farm real estate values. During the Prohibition era, rates of absenteeism decreased from 10% to 3%. In Michigan, the Ford Motor Company documented "a decrease in absenteeism from 2,620 in April 1918 to 1,628 in May 1918." Other effects As saloons died out, public drinking lost much of its macho connotation, resulting in increased social acceptance of women drinking in the semi-public environment of the speakeasies. This new norm established women as a notable new target demographic for alcohol marketeers, who sought to expand their clientele. Women thus found their way into the bootlegging business, with some discovering that they could make a living by selling alcohol with a minimal likelihood of suspicion by law enforcement. Before prohibition, women who drank publicly in saloons or taverns, especially outside of urban centers like Chicago or New York, were seen as immoral or were likely to be prostitutes. Heavy drinkers and alcoholics were among the most affected groups during Prohibition. Those who were determined to find liquor could still do so, but those who saw their drinking habits as destructive typically had difficulty in finding the help they sought. Self-help societies had withered away along with the alcohol industry. In 1935 a new self-help group called Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was founded. Prohibition also had an effect on the music industry in the United States, specifically with jazz. Speakeasies became very popular, and the Great Depression's migratory effects led to the dispersal of jazz music, from New Orleans going north through Chicago and to New York. This led to the development of different styles in different cities. Due to its popularity in speakeasies and the emergence of advanced recording technology, jazz's popularity skyrocketed. It was also at the forefront of the minimal integration efforts going on at the time, as it united mostly black musicians with mostly white audiences. Alcohol production Making moonshine was an industry in the American South before and after Prohibition. In the 1950s muscle cars became popular and various roads became known as "Thunder Road" for their use by moonshiners. A popular song was created and the legendary drivers, cars, and routes were depicted on film in Thunder Road. As a result of Prohibition, the advancements of industrialization within the alcoholic beverage industry were essentially reversed. Large-scale alcohol producers were shut down, for the most part, and some individual citizens took it upon themselves to produce alcohol illegally, essentially reversing the efficiency of mass-producing and retailing alcoholic beverages. Closing the country's manufacturing plants and taverns also resulted in an economic downturn for the industry. While the Eighteenth Amendment did not have this effect on the industry due to its failure to define an "intoxicating" beverage, the Volstead Act's definition of 0.5% or more alcohol by volume shut down the brewers, who expected to continue to produce beer of moderate strength. In 1930 the Prohibition Commissioner estimated that in 1919, the year before the Volstead Act became law, the average drinking American spent $17 per year on alcoholic beverages. By 1930, because enforcement diminished the supply, spending had increased to $35 per year (there was no inflation in this period). The result was an illegal alcohol beverage industry that made an average of $3 billion per year in illegal untaxed income. The Volstead Act specifically allowed individual farmers to make certain wines "on the legal fiction that it was a non-intoxicating fruit-juice for home consumption", and many did so. Enterprising grape farmers produced liquid and semi-solid grape concentrates, often called "wine bricks" or "wine blocks". This demand led California grape growers to increase their land under cultivation by about 700% during the first five years of Prohibition. The grape concentrate was sold with a "warning": "After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it will turn into wine". The Volstead Act allowed the sale of sacramental wine to priests and ministers and allowed rabbis to approve sales of kosher wine to individuals for Sabbath and holiday use at home. Among Jews, four rabbinical groups were approved, which led to some competition for membership, since the supervision of sacramental licenses could be used to secure donations to support a religious institution. There were known abuses in this system, with impostors or unauthorized agents using loopholes to purchase wine. Prohibition had a notable effect on the alcohol brewing industry in the United States. Wine historians note that Prohibition destroyed what was a fledgling wine industry in the United States. Productive, wine-quality grapevines were replaced by lower-quality vines that grew thicker-skinned grapes, which could be more easily transported. Much of the institutional knowledge was also lost as winemakers either emigrated to other wine-producing countries or left the business altogether. Distilled spirits became more popular during Prohibition. Because their alcohol content was higher than that of fermented wine and beer, spirits were often diluted with non-alcoholic drinks. See also Notes References Further reading External links The Effect of Alcohol Prohibition on Alcohol Consumption (PDF) Hypertext History – U.S. Prohibition Prohibition news page – Alcohol and Drugs History Society About.com: Prohibition (in the U.S.) Archived August 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Did Prohibition Reduce Alcohol Consumption and Crime? Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings on Alcohol Prohibition – 1926 Policy Analysis – Alcohol Prohibition Was A Failure Prohibition in Appalachia: "Little Chicago" The Story of Johnson City, Tennessee Free from the Nightmare of Prohibition Archived February 23, 2006, at the Wayback Machine (by Harry Browne) Historic Images of US Prohibition Collection of newspaper articles during the Prohibition Prohibition: How Dry We Ain't – slideshow by Life magazine "Interview With Dr. James M. Doran". Popular Science Monthly, November 1930, pp. 19–21, 146–147, interview with the Prohibition Commissioner 1930. "How Are You Going to Wet Your Whistle?" as recorded by Billy Murray Report on the Enforcement of the Prohibition Laws of the United States by the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (Wickersham Commission Report on Alcohol Prohibition) See more images by selecting the "Alcohol" subject at the Persuasive Cartography, The PJ Mode Collection, Cornell University Library

Gone_with_the_Wind_(film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind_(film)

Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. The film was produced by David O. Selznick of Selznick International Pictures and directed by Victor Fleming. Set in the American South against the backdrop of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era, the film tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, following her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland), and her subsequent marriage to Rhett Butler (Clark Gable). The film had a troubled production. The start of filming was delayed for two years until January 1939 because Selznick was determined to secure Gable for the role of Rhett, and filming concluded in July. The role of Scarlett was challenging to cast, and 1,400 unknown women were interviewed for the part. Sidney Howard's original screenplay underwent many revisions by several writers to reduce it to a suitable length. The original director, George Cukor, was fired shortly after filming began and was replaced by Fleming, who in turn was briefly replaced by Sam Wood while taking some time off due to exhaustion. Post-production concluded in November 1939, just a month before its premiere. It received generally positive reviews upon its release on December 15, 1939. While the casting was widely praised, the long running-time received criticism. At the 12th Academy Awards, Gone with the Wind received ten Academy Awards (eight competitive, two honorary) from thirteen nominations, including wins for Best Picture, Best Director (Fleming), Best Adapted Screenplay (posthumously awarded to Sidney Howard), Best Actress (Leigh), and Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award). It set records for the total number of wins and nominations at the time. Gone with the Wind was immensely popular when first released. It became the highest-earning film made up to that point and held the record for over a quarter of a century. When adjusted for monetary inflation, it is still the highest-grossing film in history. It was re-released periodically throughout the 20th century and became ingrained in popular culture. Although the film has been criticized as historical negationism, glorifying slavery and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy myth, it has been credited with triggering changes in the way in which African Americans were depicted cinematically. Gone with the Wind is regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, and in 1989, became one of the twenty-five inaugural films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Plot In 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War, Scarlett O'Hara lives at Tara, her family's cotton plantation in Georgia, with her parents, two sisters, and their black slaves. Scarlett is deeply attracted to Ashley Wilkes and learns he is to be married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. At an engagement party the next day at Ashley's home, Twelve Oaks, a nearby plantation, Scarlett makes an advance on Ashley but is rebuffed; however, she catches the attention of another guest, Rhett Butler. The party is disrupted by news of President Lincoln's call for volunteers to fight the South, and the Southern men rush to enlist. Scarlett marries Melanie's younger brother, Charles, to arouse jealousy in Ashley before he leaves to fight. Following Charles's death while serving in the Confederate States Army, Scarlett's mother sends her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta. She creates a scene by attending a charity bazaar in mourning attire and waltzing with Rhett, now a blockade runner for the Confederacy. The tide of war turns against the Confederacy after the Battle of Gettysburg. Many of the men of Scarlett's town are killed. Eight months later, as the Union Army besieges the city in the Atlanta campaign, Melanie gives birth with Scarlett's aid, and Rhett helps them flee the city. Rhett chooses to go off to fight, leaving Scarlett to make her own way back to Tara. She finds Tara deserted, except for her father, sisters, and former slaves, Mammy and Pork. Scarlett learns that her mother has just died of typhoid fever, and her father has lost his mind. With Tara pillaged by Union troops and the fields untended, Scarlett vows to ensure her and her family's survival. With the defeat of the Confederacy, the O'Haras toil in the cotton fields. Ashley returns but finds he is of little help to Tara. When Scarlett begs him to run away with her, he confesses his desire for her and kisses her passionately but says he cannot leave Melanie. Scarlett's father attempts to chase away a carpetbagger from his land but is thrown from his horse and killed. Unable to pay the Reconstructionist taxes imposed on Tara, Scarlett unsuccessfully appeals to Rhett, then dupes her younger sister Suellen's fiancé, the middle-aged and wealthy general store owner Frank Kennedy, into marrying her. Frank, Ashley, Rhett, and several other accomplices make a night raid on a shanty town after Scarlett is attacked while driving through it alone, resulting in Frank's death. Shortly after Frank's funeral, Rhett proposes to Scarlett, and she accepts. Rhett and Scarlett have a daughter whom Rhett nicknames Bonnie Blue, but Scarlett still pines for Ashley and, chagrined at the perceived ruin of her figure, refuses to have any more children or share a bed with Rhett. One day at Frank's mill, Ashley's sister, India, sees Scarlett and Ashley embracing. Harboring an intense dislike of Scarlett, India eagerly spreads rumors. Later that evening, Rhett, having heard the rumors, forces Scarlett to attend Ashley's birthday party. Melanie, however, stands by Scarlett. After returning home, Scarlett finds Rhett downstairs drunk, and they argue about Ashley. Rhett kisses Scarlett against her will, stating his intent to have sex with her that night, and carries the struggling Scarlett to the bedroom. The next day, Rhett apologizes for his behavior and offers Scarlett a divorce, which she rejects, saying it would be a disgrace. When Rhett returns from an extended trip to London, England, Scarlett informs him that she is pregnant, but an argument ensues, resulting in her falling down a flight of stairs and suffering a miscarriage. While recovering, tragedy strikes again when Bonnie dies while attempting to jump a fence with her pony. Scarlett and Rhett visit Melanie, who has suffered complications from a new pregnancy, on her deathbed. As Scarlett consoles Ashley, Rhett prepares to leave Atlanta. Having realized that it was Rhett, and not Ashley, whom she truly loved all along, Scarlett pleads with Rhett to stay, but he rebuffs her and walks away into the morning fog. A distraught Scarlett resolves to return home to Tara, vowing to one day win Rhett back. Cast Production Before the publication of the novel, several Hollywood executives and studios declined to create a film based on it, including Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Pandro S. Berman at RKO Radio Pictures, and David O. Selznick of Selznick International Pictures. Jack L. Warner of Warner Bros. considered purchasing the rights after reading the synopsis, but his biggest star Bette Davis was not interested at the time, and Darryl F. Zanuck of 20th Century-Fox had not offered enough money. However, Selznick changed his mind after his story editor Kay Brown and business partner John Hay Whitney urged him to buy the film rights. In July 1936—a month after it was published—Selznick bought the rights for $50,000. Casting The casting of the two lead roles became a complex, two-year endeavor. For the role of Rhett Butler, Selznick from the start wanted Clark Gable, but Gable was under contract to MGM, which never loaned him to other studios. Gary Cooper was considered, but Samuel Goldwyn—to whom Cooper was under contract—refused to loan him out. Warner offered a package of Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and Olivia de Havilland for lead roles in return for the distribution rights. By this time, Selznick was determined to get Gable, and in August 1938 he eventually struck a deal with his father-in-law, MGM chief Louis B. Mayer: MGM would provide Gable and $1,250,000 for half of the film's budget, and in return, Selznick would have to pay Gable's weekly salary; half the profits would go to MGM while Loew's, Inc—MGM's parent company—would release the film. The arrangement to release through MGM meant delaying the start of production until the end of 1938, when Selznick's distribution deal with United Artists concluded. Selznick used the delay to continue to revise the script and, more importantly, build publicity for the film through their endeavors to cast the role of Scarlett. Selznick began a nationwide casting call interviewing 1,400 unknowns. The effort cost $100,000 and proved useless for the main objective of casting the role, but created "priceless" publicity. Early frontrunners included Miriam Hopkins and Tallulah Bankhead, who were regarded as possibilities by Selznick prior to the purchase of the film rights; Joan Crawford, who was signed to MGM, was also considered as a potential pairing with Gable. After a deal was struck with MGM, Selznick held discussions with Norma Shearer—who was MGM's top female star at the time—but she withdrew herself from consideration after negative feedback from movie fans. Katharine Hepburn lobbied hard for the role with the support of her friend, George Cukor, who had been hired to direct, but she was vetoed by Selznick, who felt she was not right for the part. Many actresses, both known and unknown, were considered, but only thirty, in addition to the eventual choice, Vivien Leigh, were actually tested for the role, including Ardis Ankerson (Brenda Marshall), Jean Arthur, Tallulah Bankhead, Diana Barrymore, Joan Bennett, Nancy Coleman, Frances Dee, Terry Ray (Ellen Drew), Paulette Goddard, Edythe Marrenner (Susan Hayward), Anita Louise, Haila Stoddard, Margaret Tallichet, Lana Turner, and Linda Watkins. Although Margaret Mitchell refused to publicly name her choice, the actress who came closest to winning her approval was Miriam Hopkins, whom Mitchell felt was just the right type of actress to play Scarlett as written in the book. However, Hopkins was in her mid-thirties at the time and was considered too old for the part. Four actresses, including Jean Arthur and Joan Bennett, were still under consideration by December 1938; however, only two finalists, Paulette Goddard, and Vivien Leigh, were tested in Technicolor, both on December 20. Goddard almost won the role, but controversy over her marriage to Charlie Chaplin caused Selznick to change his mind. Selznick had been quietly considering Vivien Leigh, a young English actress who was still little known in America, for the role of Scarlett since February 1938 when Selznick saw her in Fire Over England and A Yank at Oxford. Leigh's American agent was the London representative of the Myron Selznick talent agency (headed by David Selznick's brother, one of the owners of Selznick International), and she had requested in February that her name be submitted for consideration as Scarlett. By the summer of 1938, the Selznicks were negotiating with Alexander Korda, to whom Leigh was under contract, for her services later that year. Selznick's brother arranged for them to meet for the first time on the night of December 10, 1938, when the burning of Atlanta was filmed. In a letter to his wife two days later, Selznick admitted that Leigh was "the Scarlett dark horse", and after a series of screen tests, her casting was announced on January 13, 1939. Just before the shooting of the film, Selznick informed newspaper columnist Ed Sullivan: "Scarlett O'Hara's parents were French and Irish. Identically, Miss Leigh's parents are French and Irish." A pressing issue for Selznick throughout casting was Hollywood's persistent failure to accurately portray Southern accents. The studio believed that if the accent was not accurately depicted, it could prove detrimental to the film's success. Selznick hired Susan Myrick (an expert on Southern speech, manners, and customs recommended to him by Mitchell) and Will A. Price to coach the actors on speaking with a Southern drawl. Mitchell was complimentary about the vocal work of the cast, noting the lack of criticism when the film came out. Screenplay Of the original screenplay writer, Sidney Howard, film historian Joanne Yeck writes, "reducing the intricacies of Gone with the Wind's epic dimensions was a herculean task ... and Howard's first submission was far too long, and would have required at least six hours of film; ... [producer] Selznick wanted Howard to remain on the set to make revisions ... but Howard refused to leave New England [and] as a result, revisions were handled by a host of local writers". Selznick dismissed director George Cukor three weeks into filming and sought out Victor Fleming, who was directing The Wizard of Oz at the time. Fleming was dissatisfied with the script, so Selznick brought in the screenwriter Ben Hecht to rewrite the entire screenplay within five days. Hecht returned to Howard's original draft and, by the end of the week, had succeeded in revising the entire first half of the script. Selznick undertook to rewrite the second half himself but fell behind schedule, so Howard returned to work on the script for one week, reworking several key scenes in part two. "By the time of the film's release in 1939, there was some question as to who should receive screen credit", writes Yeck. "But despite the number of writers and changes, the final script was remarkably close to Howard's version. The fact that Howard's name alone appears on the credits may have been as much a gesture to his memory as his writing, for in 1939, Sidney Howard died at age 48 in a farm-tractor accident, and before the movie's premiere." Selznick, in a memo written in October 1939, discussed the film's writing credits: "[Y]ou can say frankly that of the comparatively small amount of material in the picture which is not from the book, most is my own personally, and the only original lines of dialog which are not my own are a few from Sidney Howard and a few from Ben Hecht and a couple more from John Van Druten. Offhand I doubt that there are ten original words of [Oliver] Garrett's in the whole script. As to construction, this is about eighty per cent my own, and the rest divided between Jo Swerling and Sidney Howard, with Hecht having contributed materially to the construction of one sequence." According to Hecht's biographer William MacAdams, "At dawn on Sunday, February 20, 1939, David Selznick ... and director Victor Fleming shook Hecht awake to inform him he was on loan from MGM and must come with them immediately and go to work on Gone with the Wind, which Selznick had begun shooting five weeks before. It was costing Selznick $50,000 each day the film was on hold, waiting for a final screenplay rewrite, and time was of the essence. Hecht was in the middle of working on the film At the Circus for the Marx Brothers. Recalling the episode in a letter to screenwriter friend Gene Fowler, he said he hadn't read the novel, but Selznick and director Fleming could not wait for him to read it. They acted in scenes based on Sidney Howard's original script, which needed to be rewritten in a hurry. Hecht wrote, "After each scene had been performed and discussed, I sat down at the typewriter and wrote it out. Selznick and Fleming, eager to continue with their acting, kept hurrying me. We worked in this fashion for seven days, putting in eighteen to twenty hours a day. Selznick refused to let us eat lunch, arguing that food would slow us up. He provided bananas and salted peanuts ... thus on the seventh day I had completed, unscathed, the first nine reels of the Civil War epic." MacAdams writes, "It is impossible to determine exactly how much Hecht scripted ... In the official credits filed with the Screen Writers Guild, Sidney Howard was of course awarded the sole screen credit, but four other writers were appended ... Jo Swerling for contributing to the treatment, Oliver H. P. Garrett and Barbara Keon to screenplay construction, and Hecht, to dialogue ..." Filming Principal photography began on January 26, 1939, and ended on July 1, with post-production work continuing until November 11, 1939. Director George Cukor, with whom Selznick had a long working relationship and who had spent almost two years in pre-production on Gone with the Wind, was replaced after less than three weeks of shooting. Selznick and Cukor had already disagreed over the pace of filming and the script, but other explanations put Cukor's departure down to Gable's discomfort at working with him. Emanuel Levy, Cukor's biographer, claimed that Gable had worked Hollywood's gay circuit as a hustler and that Cukor knew of his past, so Gable used his influence to have him discharged. Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland learned of Cukor's firing on the day the Atlanta bazaar scene was filmed, and the pair went to Selznick's office in full costume and implored him to change his mind. Victor Fleming, who was directing The Wizard of Oz, was called in from MGM to complete the film. However, Cukor continued privately to coach Leigh and De Havilland. Another MGM director, Sam Wood, worked for two weeks in May when Fleming temporarily left the production due to exhaustion. Although some of Cukor's scenes were later reshot, Selznick estimated that "three solid reels" of his work remained in the final cut. As of the end of principal photography, Cukor had undertaken eighteen days of filming, Fleming ninety-three, and Wood twenty-four. Cinematographer Lee Garmes began the production, but on March 11, 1939—after a month of shooting footage that Selznick and his associates regarded as "too dark"—was replaced with Ernest Haller, working with Technicolor cinematographer Ray Rennahan. Garmes completed the first third of the film—mostly everything prior to Melanie having the baby—but did not receive a credit. Most of the filming was done on "the back forty" of Selznick International with all the location scenes being photographed in California, mostly in Los Angeles County or neighboring Ventura County. Tara, the fictional Southern plantation house, existed only as a plywood and papier-mâché facade built on the Selznick studio lot. For the burning of Atlanta, new false facades were built in front of the Selznick backlot's many old abandoned sets, and Selznick himself operated the controls for the explosives that burned them down. Sources at the time put the estimated production costs at $3.85 million, making it the second most expensive film made up to that point, with only Ben-Hur (1925) having cost more. Although legend persists that the Hays Office fined Selznick $5,000 for using the word "damn" in Butler's exit line, in fact, the Motion Picture Association board passed an amendment to the Production Code on November 1, 1939, that forbade the use of the words "hell" or "damn" except when their use "shall be essential and required for portrayal, in proper historical context, of any scene or dialogue based upon historical fact or folklore ... or a quotation from a literary work, provided that no such use shall be permitted which is intrinsically objectionable or offends good taste". With that amendment, the Production Code Administration had no further objection to Rhett's closing line. Music Selznick chose Max Steiner to compose the score, with whom he had worked at RKO Pictures in the early 1930s. Warner Bros.—who had contracted Steiner in 1936—agreed to lend him to Selznick. Steiner spent twelve weeks working on the score, the most prolonged period he had ever spent writing one, and at two hours and thirty-six minutes long, it was also the longest he had ever written. Five orchestrators were hired: Hugo Friedhofer, Maurice de Packh, Bernhard Kaun, Adolph Deutsch and Reginald Bassett. The score is characterized by two love themes, one for Ashley and Melanie's sweet love and another that evokes Scarlett's passion for Ashley, though notably, there is no Scarlett and Rhett love theme. Steiner drew considerably on folk and patriotic music, which included Stephen Foster tunes such as "Louisiana Belle", "Dolly Day", "Ringo De Banjo", "Beautiful Dreamer", "Old Folks at Home", and "Katie Belle", which formed the basis of Scarlett's theme; other tunes that feature prominently are: "Marching through Georgia" by Henry Clay Work, "Dixie", "Garryowen", and "The Bonnie Blue Flag." The theme that is most associated with the film today is the melody that accompanies Tara, the O'Hara plantation; in the early 1940s, "Tara's Theme" formed the musical basis of the song "My Own True Love" by Mack David. In all, there are ninety-nine separate pieces of music featured in the score. Due to the pressure of completing on time, Steiner received some assistance in composing from Friedhofer, Deutsch, and Heinz Roemheld, and in addition, two short cues—by Franz Waxman and William Axt—were taken from scores in the MGM library. Release Preview, premiere, and initial release On September 9, 1939, Selznick, his wife, Irene, investor John "Jock" Whitney, and film editor Hal Kern drove out to Riverside, California to preview the film at the Fox Theatre. The film was still a rough cut at this stage, missing completed titles and needing special optical effects. It ran for four hours and twenty-five minutes; it was later cut to under four hours for its proper release. A double bill of Hawaiian Nights and Beau Geste was playing, but after the first feature it was announced that instead of the second bill, the theater would be screening a preview of an unnamed upcoming film; the audience were informed they could leave but would not be readmitted once the film had begun, nor would phone calls be allowed once the theater had been sealed. When the title appeared on the screen, the audience cheered, and after it had ended, the film received a standing ovation. In his biography of Selznick, David Thomson wrote that the audience's response before the film had even started "was the greatest moment of [Selznick's] life, the greatest victory and redemption of all his failings", with Selznick describing the preview cards as "probably the most amazing any picture has ever had". When Selznick was asked by the press in early September how he felt about the film, he said: "At noon I think it's divine, at midnight I think it's lousy. Sometimes I think it's the greatest picture ever made. But if it's only a great picture, I'll still be satisfied". About 300,000 people came out in Atlanta for the film's premiere at the Loew's Grand Theatre on December 15, 1939. It was the climax of three days of festivities hosted by Mayor William B. Hartsfield, which included a parade of limousines featuring stars from the film, receptions, thousands of Confederate flags, and a costume ball. Eurith D. Rivers, the governor of Georgia, declared December 15 a state holiday. An estimated 300,000 Atlanta residents and visitors lined the streets for seven miles to view the procession of limousines that brought stars from the airport. Only Leslie Howard and Victor Fleming chose not to attend: Howard had returned to England due to the outbreak of World War II, and Fleming had fallen out with Selznick and declined to attend any of the premieres. Hattie McDaniel was also absent, as she and the other black cast members were prevented from attending the premiere due to Georgia's Jim Crow laws, which kept them from sitting with their white colleagues. Upon learning that McDaniel had been barred from the premiere, Clark Gable threatened to boycott the event, but McDaniel persuaded him to attend. President Jimmy Carter later recalled it as "the biggest event to happen in the South in my lifetime". Premieres in New York and Los Angeles followed; the latter attended by some of the actresses who had been considered for the part of Scarlett, among them Paulette Goddard, Norma Shearer, and Joan Crawford. From December 1939 to July 1940, the film played only advance-ticket road show engagements at a limited number of theaters at prices upwards of $1—more than double the price of a regular first-run feature—with MGM collecting an unprecedented 70 percent of the box office receipts, as opposed to the typical 30–35 percent of the period. After reaching saturation as a roadshow, MGM revised its terms to a 50 percent cut and halved the prices before it finally entered general release in 1941 at "popular" prices. Including its distribution and advertising costs, total expenditure on the film was as high as $7 million. Later releases In 1942, Selznick liquidated his company for tax reasons and sold his share in Gone with the Wind to his business partner, John Whitney, for $500,000. In turn, Whitney sold it to MGM for $2.8 million; thus, the studio owned the film outright. MGM immediately re-released the film in the spring of 1942, and again in 1947 and 1954. The 1954 reissue was the first time the film was shown in widescreen, compromising the original Academy ratio and cropping the top and bottom to an aspect ratio of 1.75:1. In doing so, several shots were optically re-framed and cut into the three-strip camera negatives, forever altering five shots in the film. A 1961 release of the film commemorated the centennial anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and it also included a gala "premiere" at the Loew's Grand Theater. It was attended by Selznick and many other stars of the film, including Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland; Clark Gable had died the previous year. For its 1967 re-release, the film was blown up to 70mm, and issued with updated poster artwork featuring Gable—with his white shirt ripped open—holding Leigh against a backdrop of orange flames. There were further re-releases in 1971, 1974, and 1989; for the fiftieth-anniversary reissue in 1989, it was given a complete audio and video restoration. It was released in theaters one more time in the United States, in 1998, by Time Warner-owned New Line Cinema. In 2013, a 4K digital restoration was released in the United Kingdom to coincide with Vivien Leigh's centenary. In 2014, special screenings were scheduled over two days at theaters across the United States to coincide with the film's 75th anniversary, and again over three days in 2024, to celebrate its 85th anniversary. Television and home media The film received its U.S. television premiere on the HBO cable network on June 11, 1976, and played on the channel fourteen times throughout the rest of the month. Other cable channels also broadcast the film during June. It made its network television debut in November of that year; NBC paid $5 million for a one-off airing, and it was broadcast in two parts on successive evenings. It became at that time the highest-rated television program ever presented on a single network, watched by 47.5 percent of the households sampled in America, and 65 percent of television viewers, still the record for the highest-rated film to ever air on television. In 1978, CBS signed a deal worth $35 million to broadcast the film twenty times over as many years. Turner Entertainment acquired the MGM film library in 1986, but the deal did not include the television rights to Gone with the Wind, which were still held by CBS. An agreement was struck in which the rights were returned to Turner Entertainment, and CBS's broadcast rights to The Wizard of Oz were extended. The film was used to launch two cable channels owned by Turner Broadcasting System: Turner Network Television (1988) and Turner Classic Movies (1994). The film debuted on videocassette in March 1985, where it placed second in the sales charts, and has since been released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats. Reception Critical response Upon its release, consumer magazines and newspapers generally gave Gone with the Wind excellent reviews; however, while its production values, technical achievements, and scale of ambition were universally recognized, some reviewers of the time found the film to be too long and dramatically unconvincing. Frank S. Nugent for The New York Times best summed up the general sentiment by acknowledging that while it was the most ambitious film production made up to that point, it probably was not the greatest film ever made, but he nevertheless found it to be an "interesting story beautifully told". Franz Hoellering of The Nation was of the same opinion: "The result is a film which is a major event in the history of the industry but only a minor achievement in motion-picture art. There are moments when the two categories meet on good terms, but the long stretches between are filled with mere spectacular efficiency." While the film was praised for its fidelity to the novel, this aspect was also singled out as the main factor contributing to the lengthy running time. John C. Flinn wrote for Variety that Selznick had "left too much in", and that as entertainment, the film would have benefited if repetitious scenes and dialog from the latter part of the story had been trimmed. The Manchester Guardian felt that the film's one serious drawback was that the story lacked the epic quality to justify the outlay of time and found the second half, which focuses on Scarlett's "irrelevant marriages" and "domestic squabbles", mostly superfluous, and the sole reason for their inclusion had been "simply because Margaret Mitchell wrote it that way." The Guardian believed that if "the story had been cut short and tidied up at the point marked by the interval, and if the personal drama had been made subservient to a cinematic treatment of the central theme—the collapse and devastation of the Old South—then Gone With the Wind might have been a really great film". Likewise, Hoellering also found the second half of the film to be weaker than the first half: identifying the Civil War to be the driving force of the first part while the characters dominate in the second part, he concluded this is where the main fault of the film lay, commenting that "the characters alone do not suffice". Despite many excellent scenes, he considered the drama to be unconvincing and that the "psychological development" had been neglected. Much of the praise was reserved for the casting, with Vivien Leigh, in particular, being singled out for her performance as Scarlett. Nugent described her as the "pivot of the picture" and believed her to be "so perfectly designed for the part by art and nature that any other actress in the role would be inconceivable". Similarly, Hoellering found her "perfect" in "appearance and movements"; he felt her acting best when she was allowed to "accentuate the split personality she portrays" and thought she was particularly effective in such moments of characterization like the morning after the marital rape scene. Flinn also found Leigh suited to the role physically and felt she was best in the scenes where she displays courage and determination, such as the escape from Atlanta and when Scarlett kills a Yankee deserter. Leigh won in the Best Actress category for her performance at the 1939 New York Film Critics Circle Awards. Of Clark Gable's performance as Rhett Butler, Flinn felt the characterization was "as close to Miss Mitchell's conception—and the audience's—as might be imagined", a view which Nugent concurred with, although Hoellering felt that Gable did not quite convince in the closing scenes, as Rhett walks out on Scarlett in disgust. Of the other principal cast members, both Hoellering and Flinn found Leslie Howard to be "convincing" as the weak-willed Ashley, with Flinn identifying Olivia de Havilland as a "standout" as Melanie; Nugent was also especially taken with de Havilland's performance, describing it as a "gracious, dignified, tender gem of characterization". Hattie McDaniel's performance as Mammy was singled out for praise by many critics: Nugent believed she gave the best performance in the film after Vivien Leigh, with Flinn placing it third after Leigh's and Gable's performances. Academy Awards At the 12th Academy Awards, Gone with the Wind set a record for Academy Award wins and nominations, winning in eight of the competitive categories it was nominated in, from a total of thirteen nominations. It won for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Editing, and received two further honorary awards for its use of equipment and color (it also became the first color film to win Best Picture). The film's record of eight competitive wins stood until Gigi (1958) won nine, and its overall record of ten was broken by Ben-Hur (1959) which won eleven. Gone with the Wind also held the record for most nominations until All About Eve (1950) secured fourteen. It was the longest American sound film made up to that point, and may still hold the record of the longest Best Picture winner depending on how it is interpreted. The running time for Gone with the Wind is just under 221 minutes, while Lawrence of Arabia (1962) runs for just over 222 minutes; however, including the overture, intermission, entr'acte, and exit music, Gone with the Wind lasts for 234 minutes (although some sources put its full length at 238 minutes) while Lawrence of Arabia comes in slightly shorter at 232 minutes with its additional components. Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to win an Academy Award—beating out her co-star Olivia de Havilland, who was also nominated in the same category—but was racially segregated from her co-stars at the awards ceremony at the Coconut Grove; she and her escort were made to sit at a separate table at the back of the room. Meanwhile, screenwriter Sidney Howard became the first posthumous Oscar winner and Selznick personally received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for his career achievements. Reactions from African-Americans Black commentators have criticized the film since its release for its depiction of black people and "whitewashing" of the issue of slavery. Still, initially, newspapers controlled by white Americans did not report on these criticisms. Carlton Moss, a black dramatist, observed in an open letter that whereas The Birth of a Nation was a "frontal attack on American history and the Negro people", Gone with the Wind was a "rear attack on the same". He went on to characterize it as a "nostalgic plea for sympathy for a still-living cause of Southern reaction". Moss further called out the stereotypical black characterizations, such as the "shiftless and dull-witted Pork", the "indolent and thoroughly irresponsible Prissy", Big Sam's "radiant acceptance of slavery", and Mammy with her "constant haranguing and doting on every wish of Scarlett". Similarly, Melvin B. Tolson, a poet and educator, wrote "Birth of a Nation was such a barefaced lie that a moron could see through it. Gone with the Wind is such a subtle lie that it will be swallowed as truth by millions of whites and blacks alike." Following Hattie McDaniel's Oscar win, Walter Francis White, leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, accused her of being an Uncle Tom. McDaniel responded that she would "rather make seven hundred dollars a week playing a maid than seven dollars being one"; she further questioned White's qualification to speak on behalf of black people since he was light-skinned and only one-eighth black. Opinion in the black community was generally divided upon release, with the film being called by some a "weapon of terror against black America" and an insult to black audiences, and demonstrations were held in various cities. Malcolm X later recalled that "when Butterfly McQueen went into her act, I felt like crawling under the rug". Even so, some sections of the black community recognized McDaniel's achievements to be representative of progress: some African-Americans crossed picket lines and praised McDaniel's warm and witty characterization, and others hoped that the industry's recognition of her work would lead to increased visibility on screen for other black actors. In its editorial congratulation to McDaniel on winning her Academy Award, Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life used the film as a reminder of the "limit" put on black aspiration by old prejudices. Audience response Upon its release, Gone with the Wind broke attendance records everywhere. At the Capitol Theatre in New York alone, it averaged eleven thousand admissions per day in late December, and within four years of its release had sold an estimated sixty million tickets across the United States—sales equivalent to just under half the population at the time. It repeated its success overseas, and was a sensational hit during the Blitz in London, opening in April 1940 and playing for four years at the Little Ritz in Leicester Square. By the time MGM withdrew it from circulation, at the end of 1943, its worldwide distribution had returned a gross rental (the studio's share of the box office gross) of $32 million, making it the most profitable film ever made up to that point. It eventually opened in Japan in September 1952 and became the highest-grossing foreign film there. Even though it earned its investors roughly twice as much as the previous record-holder, The Birth of a Nation, the box-office performances of the two films were likely much closer. The bulk of the earnings from Gone with the Wind came from its roadshow and first-run engagements, where the distributor received 70 percent and 50 percent of the box-office gross, respectively, rather than its general release, which at the time typically saw the distributor's share set at 30–35 percent of the gross. In the case of The Birth of a Nation, its distributor, Epoch, sold off many of its distribution territories on a "states rights" basis—which typically amounted to 10 percent of the box-office gross—and Epoch's accounts are only indicative of its own profits from the film, and not the local distributors. Carl E. Milliken, secretary of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association, estimated that The Birth of a Nation had been seen by fifty million people by 1930. When re-released in 1947, it earned a $5 million rental in the United States and Canada and was one of the year's top ten releases. Successful re-releases in 1954 and 1961 enabled it to retain its position as the industry's top earner, despite substantial challenges from more recent films such as Ben-Hur, but it was finally overtaken by The Sound of Music in 1966. The 1967 reissue was unusual because MGM chose to roadshow it, which turned it into the most successful re-release in the industry's history. It generated a box-office gross of $68 million, making it MGM's most lucrative film after Doctor Zhivago from the latter half of the decade. MGM earned a rental of $41 million from the release, with the U.S. and Canadian share amounting to over $30 million, placing it second only to The Graduate for that year. Including its $6.7 million rental from the 1961 reissue, it was the fourth highest-earner of the decade in the North American market, with only The Sound of Music, The Graduate and Doctor Zhivago making more for their distributors. A further re-release in 1971 allowed it to briefly recapture the record from The Sound of Music, bringing its total worldwide gross rental to about $116 million by the end of 1971—more than trebling its earnings from its initial release—before losing the record again the following year to The Godfather. Across all releases, it is estimated that Gone with the Wind has sold over 200 million tickets in the United States and Canada, generating more theater admissions in that territory than any other film. The film was phenomenally successful in Western Europe too, generating approximately 35 million tickets in the United Kingdom and over 16 million in France, respectively becoming the biggest and sixth-biggest ticket-sellers in those markets. The film's appeal has endured overseas, sustaining a popularity similar to its domestic longevity; in 1975 it played to capacity audiences every night during the first three weeks of its run at London's Plaza 2 Theatre, and in Japan it generated over half a million admissions at twenty theaters during a five-week engagement. In total, Gone with the Wind has grossed over $390 million globally at the box office; in 2007 Turner Entertainment estimated the gross to be equivalent to approximately $3.3 billion when adjusted for inflation to current prices; Guinness World Records arrived at a figure of $3.44 billion in 2014 making it the most successful film in cinema history. The film remains immensely popular with audiences into the 21st century, having been voted the most popular film in two nationwide polls of Americans undertaken by Harris Interactive in 2008, and again in 2014. The market research firm surveyed over two thousand U.S. adults, with the results weighted by age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, and household income, so their proportions matched the composition of the adult population. Critical re-evaluation When revisiting the film in the 1970s, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. believed that Hollywood films generally age well, revealing an unexpected depth or integrity, but in the case of Gone with the Wind time has not treated it kindly. Richard Schickel argued that one measure of a film's quality is to ask what the viewer can remember of it, and the film falls down in this regard: unforgettable imagery and dialogue are simply not present. Stanley Kauffmann, likewise, also found the film to be a largely forgettable experience, claiming he could only remember two scenes vividly. Both Schickel and Schlesinger put this down to it being "badly written", in turn describing the dialogue as "flowery" and possessing a "picture postcard" sensibility. Schickel also believes the film fails as popular art in that it has limited rewatch value—a sentiment that Kauffmann also concurs with, stating that having watched it twice he hopes "never to see it again: twice is twice as much as any lifetime needs". Both Schickel and Andrew Sarris identify the film's main failing is in possessing a producer's sensibility rather than an artistic one: having gone through so many directors and writers the film does not carry a sense of being "created" or "directed", but rather having emerged "steaming from the crowded kitchen", where the main creative force was a producer's obsession in making the film as literally faithful to the novel as possible. Sarris concedes that despite its artistic failings, the film does hold a mandate around the world as the "single most beloved entertainment ever produced". Judith Crist observes that, kitsch aside, the film is "undoubtedly still the best and most durable piece of popular entertainment to have come off the Hollywood assembly lines", the product of a showman with "taste and intelligence". Schlesinger notes that the first half of the film does have a "sweep and vigor" that aspire to its epic theme, but agreed with criticisms of the personal lives taking over in the second half, and how it ends up losing its theme in unconvincing sentimentality. Kauffmann also finds interesting parallels with The Godfather, which had just replaced Gone with the Wind as the highest-grosser at the time: both were produced from "ultra-American" best-selling novels, both live within codes of honor that are romanticized, and both in essence offer cultural fabrication or revisionism. The critical perception of the film has shifted in the intervening years, which resulted in it being ranked 235th in Sight & Sound's prestigious decennial critics poll in 2012, and in 2015 sixty-two international film critics polled by the BBC voted it the 97th best American film. To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Turner Classic Movies in 2014, the channel chose again to screen Gone with the Wind, the first film ever broadcast on TCM. Discussing its re-release into theaters that year, film historian and TCM host Robert Osbourne stated, "The amazing thing to me is that Gone with the Wind has endured and triumphed even in a very changed world 75 years later. It still affects people in the same way as it did then." Industry recognition The film has featured in several high-profile industry polls. It was selected as the greatest film of the past half-century in a 1950 poll conducted by Variety of more than 200 professionals who had worked in the film industry for over 25 years. In 1977 it was voted the most popular film by the American Film Institute (AFI), in a poll of the organization's membership; the AFI also ranked the film fourth on its "100 Greatest Movies" list in 1998, with it slipping down to sixth place in the tenth anniversary edition in 2007. Film directors ranked it 322nd in the 2012 edition of the decennial Sight & Sound poll, and in 2016 it was selected as the ninth best "directorial achievement" in a Directors Guild of America members poll. In 2014, it placed fifteenth in an extensive poll undertaken by The Hollywood Reporter, which balloted every studio, agency, publicity firm and production house in the Hollywood region. Gone with the Wind was one of the twenty-five inaugural films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress in 1989 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Analysis and controversies Historical portrayal Gone with the Wind has been criticized as having perpetuated Civil War myths and black stereotypes. David Reynolds wrote that "The white women are elegant, their menfolk are noble or at least dashing. And, in the background, the black slaves are mostly dutiful and content, clearly incapable of an independent existence." Reynolds likened Gone with the Wind to The Birth of a Nation and other re-imaginings of the South during the era of segregation, in which white Southerners are portrayed as defending traditional values, and the issue of slavery is largely ignored. The film has been described as a "regression" that promotes both the myth of the black rapist and the honorable and defensive role of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction, and as a "social propaganda" film offering a "white supremacist" view of the past. From 1972 to 1996, the Atlanta Historical Society held several Gone with the Wind exhibits, among them a 1994 exhibit which was titled "Disputed Territories: Gone with the Wind and Southern Myths". One of the questions that was explored by the exhibit was "How True to Life Were the Slaves in GWTW?" This section showed that slave experiences were diverse and, as a result, it concluded that the "happy darky" was a myth, as was the belief that all slaves experienced violence and brutality. W. Bryan Rommel Ruiz has argued that despite factual inaccuracies in depicting the Reconstruction period, Gone with the Wind reflects contemporary interpretations of it that were common in the early 20th century. One such viewpoint is reflected in a brief scene in which Mammy fends off a leering freedman: a politician can be heard offering forty acres and a mule to the emancipated slaves in exchange for their votes. The inference is taken to mean that freedmen are ignorant about politics and unprepared for freedom, unwittingly becoming the tools of corrupt Reconstruction officials. While perpetuating some Lost Cause myths, the film makes concessions with regard to others. After the attack on Scarlett in the shanty town, a group of men, including Scarlett's husband Frank, Rhett Butler, and Ashley, raid the town; in the novel, they belong to the Ku Klux Klan, representing the common trope of protecting the white woman's virtue, but the filmmakers consciously neutralize the presence of the Klan in the film by simply referring to it as a "political meeting". Thomas Cripps reasons that in some respects, the film undercuts racial stereotypes; in particular, the film created greater engagement between Hollywood and black audiences, with dozens of films making small gestures in recognition of the emerging trend. Only a few weeks after its initial run, a story editor at Warner wrote a memorandum to Walter Wanger about Mississippi Belle, a script that contained the worst excesses of plantation films, suggesting that Gone with the Wind had made the film "unproducible". More than any film since The Birth of a Nation, it unleashed a variety of social forces that foreshadowed an alliance of white liberals and black people who encouraged the expectation that black people would one day achieve equality. According to Cripps, the film eventually became a template for measuring social change. 21st-century reappraisal In the 21st century, criticism of the film's depictions of race and slavery curtailed its availability. In 2017, Gone with the Wind was pulled from the schedule at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee after a 34-year run of annual showings. On June 9, 2020, the film was removed from HBO Max in response to an op-ed written by screenwriter John Ridley that was published in that day's edition of the Los Angeles Times, which called for the streaming service to temporarily remove the film from its content library. He wrote that "it continues to give cover to those who falsely claim that clinging to the iconography of the plantation era is a matter of 'heritage, not hate.'" A spokesperson for HBO Max said that the film was "a product of its time" and as a result, it depicted "ethnic and racial prejudices" that "were wrong then and are wrong today". It was also announced that the film would return to the streaming service at a later date, although it would incorporate "a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions, but will be presented as it was originally created because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. If we are to create a more just, equitable, and inclusive future, we must first acknowledge and understand our history." The film's removal sparked a debate about political correctness going too far, with film critics and historians criticizing HBO as engaging in censorship. Following its withdrawal, the film reached the top of Amazon's best-sellers sales chart for TV and films, and fifth place on Apple's iTunes Store film chart. HBO Max returned the film to its service later that month, with a new introduction by Jacqueline Stewart. Stewart described the film, in an op-ed for CNN, as "a prime text for examining expressions of white supremacy in popular culture", and said that "it is precisely because of the ongoing, painful patterns of racial injustice and disregard for Black lives that Gone with the Wind should stay in circulation and remain available for viewing, analysis and discussion." She described the controversy as "an opportunity to think about what classic films can teach us." At a political rally in February 2020, President Donald Trump criticized the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, stating that Gone with the Wind and Sunset Boulevard (1950) were more deserving of the award for Best Picture than that year's winner, the South Korean film Parasite. His comments elicited commentary from critics, and a writer for Entropy magazine opined that they had sparked a backlash from pundits across the political spectrum on social media. Depiction of marital rape One of the most notorious and widely condemned scenes in Gone with the Wind depicts what is now legally defined as "marital rape". The scene begins with Scarlett and Rhett at the bottom of the staircase, where he begins to kiss her, refusing to be told "no" by the struggling Scarlett; Rhett ignores her resistance, scolds her and carries her up the stairs to the bedroom, where the audience is left in no doubt that she will "get what's coming to her". The next scene, the following morning, shows Scarlett glowing with barely suppressed sexual satisfaction; Rhett apologizes for his behavior, blaming it on his drinking. The scene has been accused of combining romance and rape by making them indistinguishable from each other, and of reinforcing a notion about forced sex: that women secretly enjoy it, and it is an acceptable way for a man to treat his wife. Film critic Molly Haskell has argued that, nevertheless, for women who are uncritical of the scene, it is by and large consistent with what they have in mind if they fantasize about being raped. Their fantasies revolve around love and romance rather than forced sex; they will assume that Scarlett was not an unwilling sexual partner and wanted Rhett to take the initiative and insist on having sexual intercourse. Legacy In popular culture Gone with the Wind and its production have been explicitly referenced, satirized, dramatized, and analyzed on numerous occasions across a range of media, from contemporaneous works such as Second Fiddle—a 1939 film spoofing the "search for Scarlett"—to current television shows, such as The Simpsons. The Scarlett O'Hara War (a 1980 television dramatization of the casting of Scarlett), Moonlight and Magnolias (a 2007 play by Ron Hutchinson that dramatizes Ben Hecht's five-day re-write of the script), and "Went with the Wind!" (a sketch on The Carol Burnett Show that parodied the film in the aftermath of its television debut in 1976) are among the more noteworthy examples of its enduring presence in popular culture. It was also the subject of a 1988 documentary, The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind, detailing the film's difficult production history. In 1990, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp depicting Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh embracing in a scene from the film. In 2003, Leigh and Gable (as Scarlett and Rhett) were ranked number 95 on VH1's list of the "200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons of All Time". Sequel Following the publication of her novel, Margaret Mitchell was inundated with requests for a sequel, but she claimed not to have a notion of what happened to Scarlett and Rhett, and as a result, she had "left them to their ultimate fate". Until her death in 1949, Mitchell continued to resist pressure from Selznick and MGM to write a sequel. In 1975, her brother, Stephens Mitchell (who assumed control of her estate), authorized a sequel that would be jointly produced by MGM and Universal Studios on a budget of $12 million. Anne Edwards was commissioned to write the sequel as a novel, which would then be adapted into a screenplay and published in conjunction with the film's release. Edwards submitted a 775-page manuscript which was titled Tara, The Continuation of Gone with the Wind, set between 1872 and 1882 and focusing on Scarlett's divorce from Rhett; MGM was not satisfied with the story, and the deal collapsed. The idea was revived in the 1990s when a sequel was finally produced in 1994 in the form of a television miniseries. Scarlett was based on the novel by Alexandra Ripley, itself a sequel to Mitchell's book. British actors Joanne Whalley and Timothy Dalton were cast as Scarlett and Rhett, and the series follows Scarlett's relocation to Ireland after she again becomes pregnant by Rhett. See also List of films and television shows about the American Civil War List of films featuring slavery Explanatory notes References Citations Further reading Bridges, Herb (1999). Gone with the Wind: The Three-Day Premiere in Atlanta. Mercer University Press. ISBN 978-0-86554-672-1. Cameron, Judy; Christman, Paul J (1989). The Art of Gone with the Wind: The Making of a Legend. Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-046740-9. Harmetz, Aljean (1996). On the Road to Tara: The Making of Gone with the Wind. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-3684-3. Lambert, Gavin (1973). GWTW: The Making of Gone with the Wind. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-51284-8. Vertrees, Alan David (1997). Selznick's Vision: Gone with the Wind and Hollywood Filmmaking. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-78729-2. External links Official website Gone with the Wind at IMDb Gone with the Wind at the TCM Movie Database Gone with the Wind at Rotten Tomatoes December 14–15, 1939, Atlanta world premiere events and associated footage at the Atlanta History Center Producing Gone with the Wind web exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center Gone with the Wind article series at The Atlantic

The_Ashes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes

The Ashes is a men's Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Test win on English soil. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". The mythical ashes immediately became associated with the 1882–83 series played in Australia, before which the English captain Ivo Bligh had vowed to "regain those ashes". The English media therefore dubbed the tour the quest to regain the Ashes. After England won two of the three Tests on the tour, a small urn was presented to Bligh in Melbourne. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of a wooden bail, and were humorously described as "the ashes of Australian cricket". It is not clear whether that "tiny silver urn" is the same as the small terracotta urn given to Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) by Bligh's widow after his death in 1927. The Ashes urn has never been the official trophy of the series, having been a personal gift to Bligh, but replicas of the urn have often been held aloft by the winning team as a symbol of their victory. Since the 1998–99 Ashes series, the Ashes Trophy, a Waterford Crystal trophy modelled on the Ashes urn, has been presented to the winners of the series. Irrespective of which side holds the trophy, the original urn remains in the MCC Museum at Lord's. It has been taken to Australia twice to be put on touring display, as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations in 1988 and to accompany the Ashes series in 2006–07. Ashes series have usually consisted of five Tests, hosted in turn by England and Australia approximately every two years. The Ashes are regarded as being held by the team that most recently won the series. If the series is drawn, the team that currently holds the Ashes "retains" the trophy. There have been 73 Ashes series. Australia have won 34 and retained six times from draws (40); England have won 32 and retained once (33). 1882 origins The first Test match between England and Australia was played in Melbourne, Australia, in 1877, though the Ashes legend started later, after the ninth Test, played in 1882. On their tour of England that year the Australians played just one Test, at the Oval in London. It was a low-scoring affair on a difficult wicket. Australia made a mere 63 runs in their first innings, and England, led by A. N. Hornby, took a 38-run lead with a total of 101. In their second innings, Australia, boosted by a spectacular 55 runs off 60 deliveries from Hugh Massie, managed 122, which left England only 85 runs to win. The Australians were greatly demoralised by the manner of their second-innings collapse, but fast bowler Fred Spofforth, spurred on by the gamesmanship of his opponents, in particular W. G. Grace, refused to give in. "This thing can be done," he declared. Spofforth went on to devastate the English batting, taking his final four wickets for only two runs to leave England just eight runs short of victory. When Ted Peate, England's last batsman, came to the crease, his side needed just ten runs to win, but Peate managed only two before he was bowled by Harry Boyle. An astonished Oval crowd fell silent, struggling to believe that England could possibly have lost on home soil. When it finally sank in, the crowd swarmed onto the field, cheering loudly and chairing Boyle and Spofforth to the pavilion. When Peate returned to the pavilion he was reprimanded by his captain for not allowing his partner, Charles Studd (one of the best batsmen in England, having already hit two centuries that season against the colonists), to get the runs. Peate humorously replied, "I had no confidence in Mr Studd, sir, so thought I had better do my best." The momentous defeat was widely recorded in the British press, which praised the Australians for their plentiful "pluck" and berated the Englishmen for their lack thereof. A celebrated poem appeared in Punch on Saturday, 9 September. The first verse, quoted most frequently, reads: On 31 August, in the Charles Alcock-edited magazine Cricket: A Weekly Record of The Game, there appeared a mock obituary: On 2 September a more celebrated mock obituary, written by Reginald Shirley Brooks, appeared in The Sporting Times. It read: Ivo Bligh promised that on the 1882–83 tour of Australia, he would, as England's captain, "recover those Ashes". He spoke of them several times over the course of the tour, and the Australian media quickly caught on. The three-match series resulted in a two-one win to England, notwithstanding a fourth match, won by the Australians, whose status remains a matter of ardent dispute. In the 20 years following Bligh's campaign the term "the Ashes" largely disappeared from public use. There is no indication that this was the accepted name for the series, at least not in England. The term became popular again in Australia first, when George Giffen, in his memoirs (With Bat and Ball, 1899), used the term as if it were well known. The true and global revitalisation of interest in the concept dates from 1903, when Pelham Warner took a team to Australia with the promise that he would regain "the ashes". As had been the case on Bligh's tour 20 years before, the Australian media latched fervently onto the term and, this time, it stuck. Having fulfilled his promise, Warner published a book entitled How We Recovered the Ashes. Although the origins of the term are not referred to in the text, the title served (along with the general hype created in Australia) to revive public interest in the legend. The first mention of "the Ashes" in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack occurs in 1905, while Wisden's first account of the legend is in the 1922 edition. Urn It took many years before the contests between England and Australia were consistently called "The Ashes", and so there was no concept of either a trophy or a physical representation of the ashes. As late as 1925, the following verse appeared in The Cricketers Annual: Nevertheless, several attempts had been made to embody the Ashes in a physical memorial. Examples include one presented to Warner in 1904, another to Australian captain M. A. Noble in 1909, and another to Australian captain W. M. Woodfull in 1934. The oldest, and the one to enjoy enduring fame, was the one presented to Bligh, later Lord Darnley, during the 1882–83 tour. The precise nature of the origin of this urn is a matter of dispute. Based on a statement by Darnley in 1894, it was believed that a group of Victorian ladies, including Darnley's later wife Florence Morphy, made the presentation after the victory in the Third Test in 1883. More recent researchers, in particular Ronald Willis and Joy Munns have studied the tour in detail and concluded that the presentation was made after a private cricket match played over Christmas 1882 when the English team were guests of Sir William Clarke, at his property "Rupertswood", in Sunbury, Victoria. This was before the matches had started. The prime evidence for this theory was provided by a descendant of Clarke. In August 1926 Ivo Bligh (now Lord Darnley) displayed the Ashes urn at the Morning Post Decorative Art Exhibition held in the Central Hall, Westminster. He made the following statement about how he was given the urn: When in the autumn the English Eleven went to Australia it was said that they had come to Australia to "fetch" the ashes. England won two out of the three matches played against Murdoch's Australian Eleven, and after the third match some Melbourne ladies put some ashes into a small urn and gave them to me as captain of the English Eleven. A more detailed account of how the Ashes were given to Ivo Bligh was outlined by his wife, the Countess of Darnley, in 1930 during a speech at a cricket luncheon. Her speech was reported by the Times as follows: In 1882, she said, it was first spoken of when the Sporting Times, after the Australians had thoroughly beaten the English at the Oval, wrote an obituary in affectionate memory of English cricket "whose demise was deeply lamented and the body would be cremated and taken to Australia". Her husband, then Ivo Bligh, took a team to Australia in the following year. Punch had a poem containing the words "When Ivo comes back with the urn" and when Ivo Bligh wiped out the defeat Lady Clarke, wife of Sir W. J. Clarke, who entertained the English so lavishly, found a little wooden urn, burnt a bail, put the ashes in the urn, and wrapping it in a red velvet bag, put it into her husband's (Ivo Bligh's) hands. He had always regarded it as a great treasure. There is another statement which is not totally clear made by Lord Darnley in 1921 about the timing of the presentation of the urn. He was interviewed in his home at Cobham Hall by Montague Grover and the report of this interview was as follows: This urn was presented to Lord Darnley by some ladies of Melbourne after the final defeat of his team, and before he returned with the members to England. He made a similar statement in 1926. The report of this statement in the Brisbane Courier was as follows: The proudest possession of Lord Darnley is an earthenware urn containing the ashes which were presented to him by Melbourne residents when he captained the Englishmen in 1882. Though the team did not win, the urn containing the ashes was sent to him just before leaving Melbourne. The contents of the urn are also problematic; they were variously reported to be the remains of a stump, bail or the outer casing of a ball, but in 1998 Darnley's 82-year-old daughter-in-law said they were the remains of her mother-in-law's veil, casting a further layer of doubt on the matter. However, during the tour of Australia in 2006/7, the MCC official accompanying the urn said the veil legend had been discounted, and it was now "95% certain" that the urn contains the ashes of a cricket bail. Speaking on Channel Nine TV on 25 November 2006, he said x-rays of the urn had shown the pedestal and handles were cracked, and repair work had to be carried out. The urn is made of terracotta and is about 6 inches (150 mm) tall and may originally have been a perfume jar. A label containing a six-line verse is pasted on the urn. This is the fourth verse of a song-lyric published in the Melbourne Punch on 1 February 1883: In February 1883, just before the disputed Fourth Test, a velvet bag made by Mrs Ann Fletcher, the daughter of Joseph Hines Clarke and Marion Wright, both of Dublin, was given to Bligh to contain the urn. During Darnley's lifetime there was little public knowledge of the urn, and no record of a published photograph exists before 1921. The Illustrated London News published this photo in January 1921 (shown above). When Darnley died in 1927 his widow presented the urn to the Marylebone Cricket Club and that was the key event in establishing the urn as the physical embodiment of the legendary ashes. MCC first displayed the urn in the Long Room at Lord's and since 1953 in the MCC Cricket Museum at the ground. MCC's wish for it to be seen by as wide a range of cricket enthusiasts as possible has led to its being mistaken for an official trophy. It is in fact a private memento, and for this reason it is never awarded to either England or Australia, but is kept permanently in the MCC Cricket Museum where it can be seen together with the specially made red and gold velvet bag and the scorecard of the 1882 match. Because the urn itself is so delicate, it has been allowed to travel to Australia only twice. The first occasion was in 1988 for a museum tour as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations; the second was for the 2006/7 Ashes series. The urn arrived on 17 October 2006, going on display at the Museum of Sydney. It then toured to other states, with the final appearance at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery on 21 January 2007. In the 1990s, given Australia's long dominance of the Ashes and the popular acceptance of the Darnley urn as "the Ashes", the idea was mooted that the victorious team should be awarded the urn as a trophy and allowed to retain it until the next series. As its condition is fragile and it is a prized exhibit at the MCC Cricket Museum, the MCC would not agree. Furthermore, in 2002, Bligh's great-great-grandson Lord Clifton, the heir-apparent to the Earldom of Darnley, argued that the Ashes urn should not be returned to Australia because it belonged to his family and was given to the MCC only for safe keeping. As a compromise, the MCC commissioned a larger replica of the urn in Waterford Crystal, known as the Ashes Trophy, to award to the winning team of each series starting with the 1998–99 Ashes. This did little to diminish the status of the Darnley urn as the most important icon in cricket, the symbol of this old and keenly fought contest. Series and matches Quest to "recover those ashes" Later in 1882, following the famous Australian victory at The Oval, Bligh led an England team to Australia, as he said, to "recover those ashes". Publicity surrounding the series was intense, and it was at some time during this series that the Ashes urn was crafted. Australia won the First Test by nine wickets, but in the next two England were victorious. At the end of the Third Test, England were generally considered to have "won back the Ashes" 2–1. A fourth match was played, against a "United Australian XI", which was arguably stronger than the Australian sides that had competed in the previous three matches; this game, however, is not generally considered part of the 1882–83 series. It is counted as a Test, but as a standalone. This match ended in a victory for Australia. 1884 to 1896 After Bligh's victory, there was an extended period of English dominance. The tours generally had fewer Tests in the 1880s and 1890s than people have grown accustomed to in more recent years, the first five-Test series taking place only in 1894–95. England lost only four Ashes Tests in the 1880s out of 23 played, and they won all the seven series contested. There was more chopping and changing in the teams, given that there was no official board of selectors for each country (in 1887–88, two separate English teams were on tour in Australia) and popularity with the fans varied. The 1890s games were more closely fought, Australia taking its first series win since 1882 with a 2–1 victory in 1891–92. But England dominated, winning the next three series to 1896 despite continuing player disputes. The 1894–95 series began in sensational fashion when England won the First Test at Sydney by just 10 runs having followed on. Australia had scored a massive 586 (Syd Gregory 201, George Giffen 161) and then dismissed England for 325. But England responded with 437 and then dramatically dismissed Australia for 166 with Bobby Peel taking 6 for 67. At the close of the second last day's play, Australia were 113–2, needing only 64 more runs. But heavy rain fell overnight and next morning the two slow left-arm bowlers, Peel and Johnny Briggs, were all but unplayable. England went on to win the series 3–2 after it had been all square before the Final Test, which England won by 6 wickets. The English heroes were Peel, with 27 wickets in the series at an average of 26.70, and Tom Richardson, with 32 at 26.53. In 1896, England under the captaincy of W. G. Grace won the series 2–1, and this marked the end of England's longest period of Ashes dominance. 1897 to 1902 Australia resoundingly won the 1897–98 series by 4–1 under the captaincy of Harry Trott. His successor Joe Darling won the next three series in 1899, 1901–02, and the classic 1902 series, which became one of the most famous in the history of Test cricket. Five matches were played in 1902 but the first two were drawn after being hit by bad weather. In the First Test (the first played at Edgbaston), after scoring 376 England bowled out Australia for 36 (Wilfred Rhodes 7/17) and reduced them to 46–2 when they followed on. Australia won the Third and Fourth Tests at Bramall Lane and Old Trafford respectively. At Old Trafford, Australia won by just 3 runs after Victor Trumper had scored 104 on a "bad wicket", reaching his hundred before lunch on the first day. England won the last Test at The Oval by one wicket. Chasing 263 to win, they slumped to 48–5 before Gilbert Jessop's 104 gave them a chance. He reached his hundred in just 75 minutes. The last-wicket pair of George Hirst and Rhodes were required to score 15 runs for victory. When Rhodes joined him, Hirst reportedly said: "We'll get them in singles, Wilfred." In fact, they scored thirteen singles and a two. The period of Darling's captaincy saw the emergence of outstanding Australian players such as Trumper, Warwick Armstrong, James Kelly, Monty Noble, Clem Hill, Hugh Trumble and Ernie Jones. Reviving the legend After what the MCC saw as the problems of the earlier professional and amateur series they decided to take control of organising tours themselves, and this led to the first MCC tour of Australia in 1903–04. England won it against the odds, and Plum Warner, the England captain, wrote up his version of the tour in his book How We Recovered The Ashes. The title of this book revived the Ashes legend and it was after this that England v Australia series were customarily referred to as "The Ashes". 1905 to 1912 England and Australia were evenly matched until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Five more series took place between 1905 and 1912. In 1905, England's captain Stanley Jackson not only won the series 2–0, but also won the toss in all five matches and headed both the batting and the bowling averages. Monty Noble led Australia to victory in both 1907–08 and 1909. Then England won in 1911–12 by four matches to one. Jack Hobbs establishing himself as England's first-choice opening batsman with three centuries, while Frank Foster (32 wickets at 21.62) and Sydney Barnes (34 wickets at 22.88) formed a formidable bowling partnership. England retained the Ashes when it won the 1912 Triangular Tournament, which also featured South Africa. The Australian touring party had been severely weakened by a dispute between the board and players that caused Clem Hill, Victor Trumper, Warwick Armstrong, Tibby Cotter, Sammy Carter and Vernon Ransford to be omitted. 1920 to 1933 After the war, Australia took firm control of both the Ashes and world cricket. For the first time, the tactic of using two express bowlers in tandem paid off as Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald crippled the English batting on a regular basis. Australia recorded overwhelming victories both in England and on home soil. It won the first eight matches in succession including a 5–0 whitewash in 1920–1921 at the hands of Warwick Armstrong's team. The ruthless and belligerent Armstrong led his team back to England in 1921 where his men lost only two games late in the tour to narrowly miss out of being the first team to complete a tour of England without defeat. England won only one Test out of 15 from the end of the war until 1925. In a rain-hit series in 1926, England managed to eke out a 1–0 victory with a win in the final Test at The Oval. Because the series was at stake, the match was to be "timeless", i.e., played to a finish. Australia had a narrow first innings lead of 22. Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe took the score to 49–0 at the end of the second day, a lead of 27. Heavy rain fell overnight, and next day the pitch soon developed into a traditional sticky wicket. England seemed doomed to be bowled out cheaply and to lose the match. In spite of the very difficult batting conditions, however, Hobbs and Sutcliffe took their partnership to 172 before Hobbs was out for exactly 100. Sutcliffe went on to make 161 and England won the game comfortably. Australian captain Herbie Collins was stripped of all captaincy positions down to club level, and some accused him of throwing the match. Australia's ageing post-war team broke up after 1926, with Collins, Charlie Macartney and Warren Bardsley all departing, and Gregory breaking down at the start of the 1928–29 series. Despite the debut of Donald Bradman, the inexperienced Australians, led by Jack Ryder, were heavily defeated, losing 4–1. England had a very strong batting side, with Wally Hammond contributing 905 runs at an average of 113.12, and Hobbs, Sutcliffe and Patsy Hendren all scoring heavily; the bowling was more than adequate, without being outstanding. In 1930, Bill Woodfull led an extremely inexperienced team to England. Bradman fulfilled his promise in the 1930 series when he scored 974 runs at 139.14, which remains a world record Test series aggregate. A modest Bradman can be heard in a 1930 recording saying "I have always endeavoured to do my best for the side, and the few centuries that have come my way have been achieved in the hope of winning matches. My one idea when going into bat was to make runs for Australia." In the Headingley Test, he made 334, reaching 309* at the end of the first day, including a century before lunch. Bradman himself thought that his 254 in the preceding match, at Lord's, was a better innings. England managed to stay in contention until the deciding final Test at The Oval, but yet another double hundred by Bradman, and 7/92 by Percy Hornibrook in England's second innings, enabled Australia to win by an innings and take the series 2–1. Clarrie Grimmett's 29 wickets at 31.89 for Australia in this high-scoring series were also important. Australia had one of the strongest batting line-ups ever in the early 1930s, with Bradman, Archie Jackson, Stan McCabe, Bill Woodfull, Bill Ponsford and Jack Fingleton. It was the prospect of bowling at this line-up that caused England's 1932–33 captain Douglas Jardine to adopt the tactic of fast leg theory, better known as Bodyline. Jardine instructed his fast bowlers, most notably Harold Larwood and Bill Voce, to bowl at the bodies of the Australian batsmen, with the goal of forcing them to defend their bodies with their bats, thus providing easy catches to a stacked leg-side field. Jardine insisted that the tactic was legitimate and called it "leg theory" but it was widely disparaged by its opponents, who dubbed it "Bodyline" (from "on the line of the body"). Although England decisively won the Ashes 4–1, Bodyline caused such a furore in Australia that diplomats had to intervene to prevent serious harm to Anglo-Australian relations, and the MCC eventually changed the Laws of cricket to curtail the number of leg side fielders. Jardine's comment was: "I've not travelled 6,000 miles to make friends. I'm here to win the Ashes". Some of the Australians wanted to use Bodyline in retaliation, but Woodfull flatly refused. He famously told England manager Pelham Warner, "There are two teams out there. One is playing cricket; the other is making no attempt to do so" after the latter had come into the Australian rooms to express sympathy after a Larwood bouncer had struck the Australian skipper in the heart and felled him. 1934 to 1953 On the batting-friendly wickets that prevailed in the late 1930s, most Tests up to the Second World War still gave results. It should be borne in mind that Tests in Australia prior to the war were all played to a finish, with many batting records set during this period. The 1934 Ashes series began with the notable absence of Larwood, Voce and Jardine. The MCC had made it clear, in light of the revelations of the bodyline series, that these players would not face Australia. The MCC, although it had earlier condoned and encouraged bodyline tactics in the 1932–33 series, laid the blame on Larwood when relations turned sour. Larwood was forced by the MCC to either apologise or be removed from the Test side. He went for the latter. Australia recovered the Ashes in 1934 and held them until 1953, though no Test cricket was played during the Second World War. As in 1930, the 1934 series was decided in the final Test at The Oval. Australia, batting first, posted a massive 701 in the first innings. Bradman (244) and Ponsford (266) were in record-breaking form with a partnership of 451 for the second wicket. England eventually faced a massive 707-run target for victory and failed, Australia winning the series 2–1. This made Woodfull the only captain to regain the Ashes and he retired upon his return to Australia. In 1936–37 Bradman succeeded Woodfull as Australian captain. He started badly, losing the first two Tests heavily after Australia were caught on sticky wickets. However, the Australians fought back and Bradman won his first series in charge 3–2. The 1938 series was a high-scoring affair with two high-scoring draws, resulting in a 1–1 result, Australia retaining the Ashes. After the first two matches ended in stalemate and the Third Test at Old Trafford never started due to rain, Australia then scraped home by five wickets inside three days in a low-scoring match at Headingley to retain the urn. In the timeless Fifth Test at The Oval, the highlight was Len Hutton's then world-record score of 364 as England made 903-7 declared. Bradman and Jack Fingleton injured themselves during Hutton's marathon effort, and with only nine men, Australia fell to defeat by an innings and 579 runs, the heaviest in Test history. The Ashes resumed after the war when England toured in 1946–47 and, as in 1920–21, found that Australia had made the better post-war recovery. Still captained by Bradman and now featuring the potent new-ball partnership of Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller, Australia were convincing 3–0 winners. Aged 38 and having been unwell during the war, Bradman had been reluctant to play. He batted unconvincingly and reached 28 when he hit a ball to Jack Ikin; England believed it was a catch, but Bradman stood his ground, believing it to be a bump ball. The umpire ruled in the Australian captain's favour and he appeared to regain his fluency of yesteryear, scoring 187. Australia promptly seized the initiative, won the First Test convincingly and inaugurated a dominant post-war era. The controversy over the Ikin catch was one of the biggest disputes of the era. In 1948, Australia set new standards, completely outplaying its hosts to win 4–0 with one draw. This Australian team, led by Bradman, who turned 40 during his final tour of England, has gone down in history as The Invincibles. Playing 34 matches on tour—three of which were not first-class—and including the five Tests, they remained unbeaten, winning 27 and drawing 7. Bradman's men were greeted by packed crowds across the country, and records for Test attendances in England were set in the Second and Fourth Tests at Lord's and Headingley respectively. Before a record attendance of spectators at Headingley, Australia set a world record by chasing down 404 on the last day for a seven-wicket victory. The 1948 series ended with one of the most poignant moments in cricket history, as Bradman played his final innings for Australia in the Fifth Test at The Oval, needing to score only four runs to end with a career batting average of exactly 100. However, Bradman made a second-ball duck, bowled by an Eric Hollies googly that sent him into retirement with a career average of 99.94. Bradman was succeeded as Australian captain by Lindsay Hassett, who led the team to a 4–1 series victory in 1950–51. The series was not as one-sided as the number of wins suggest, with several tight matches. The tide finally turned in 1953 when England won the final Test at The Oval to take the series 1–0, having narrowly avoided defeat in the preceding Test at Headingley. This was the beginning of one of the greatest periods in English cricket history with players such as captain Len Hutton, batsmen Denis Compton, Peter May, Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, bowlers Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Alec Bedser, Jim Laker, Tony Lock, wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans and all-rounder Trevor Bailey. 1954 to 1971 In 1954–55, Australia's batsmen had no answer to the pace of Frank Tyson and Statham. After winning the First Test by an innings after being controversially sent in by Hutton, Australia lost its way and England took a hat-trick of victories to win the series 3–1. A dramatic series in 1956 saw a record that will probably never be beaten: off-spinner Jim Laker's monumental effort at Old Trafford when he bowled 68 of 191 overs to take 19 out of 20 possible Australian wickets in the Fourth Test. It was Australia's second consecutive innings defeat in a wet summer, and the hosts were in strong positions in the two drawn Tests, in which half the playing time was washed out. Bradman rated the team that won the series 2–1 as England's best ever. England's dominance was not to last. Australia won 4–0 in 1958–59, having found a high-quality spinner of their own in new skipper Richie Benaud, who took 31 wickets in the five-Test series, and paceman Alan Davidson, who took 24 wickets at 19.00. The series was overshadowed by the furore over various Australian bowlers, most notably Ian Meckiff, whom the English management and media accused of illegally throwing Australia to victory. In 1961, Australia won a hard-fought series 2–1, their first Ashes series win in England for 13 years. After narrowly winning the Second Test at Lord's, dubbed "The Battle of the Ridge" because of a protrusion on the pitch that caused erratic bounce, Australia mounted a comeback on the final day of the Fourth Test at Old Trafford and sealed the series with Richie Benaud taking 6-70 during the English runchase. The tempo of the play changed over the next four series in the 1960s, held in 1962–63, 1964, 1965–66 and 1968. The powerful array of bowlers that both countries boasted in the preceding decade moved into retirement, and their replacements were of lesser quality, making it more difficult to force a result. England failed to win any series during the 1960s, a period dominated by draws as teams found it more prudent to save face than risk losing. Of the 20 Tests played during the four series, Australia won four and England three. As they held the Ashes, Australia's captains Bob Simpson and Bill Lawry were happy to adopt safety-first tactics and their strategy of sedate batting saw many draws. During this period, spectator attendances dropped and media condemnation increased, but Simpson and Lawry flatly disregarded the public dissatisfaction. It was in the 1960s that the bipolar dominance of England and Australia in world cricket was seriously challenged for the first time. West Indies defeated England twice in the mid-1960s and South Africa, in two series before they were banned for apartheid, completely outplayed Australia 3–1 and 4–0. Australia had lost 2–1 during a tour of the West Indies in 1964–65, the first time it had lost a series to any team other than England. In 1970–71, Ray Illingworth led England to a 2–0 win in Australia, mainly due to John Snow's fast bowling, and the prolific batting of Geoffrey Boycott and John Edrich. It was not until the last session of what was the 7th Test (one match having been abandoned without a ball bowled) that England's success was secured. Lawry was sacked after the Sixth Test after the selectors finally lost patience with Australia's lack of success and dour strategy. Lawry was not informed of the decision privately and heard his fate over the radio. 1972 to 1987 The 1972 series finished 2–2, with England under Illingworth retaining the Ashes. In the 1974–75 series, with the England team breaking up and their best batsman Geoff Boycott refusing to play, Australian pace bowlers Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee wreaked havoc. A 4–1 result was a fair reflection as England were left shell shocked. England then lost the 1975 series 0–1, but at least restored some pride under new captain Tony Greig. Australia won the 1977 Centenary Test which was not an Ashes contest, but then a storm broke as Kerry Packer announced his intention to form World Series Cricket. WSC affected all Test-playing nations but it weakened Australia especially as the bulk of its players had signed up with Packer; the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) would not select WSC-contracted players and an almost completely new Test team had to be formed. WSC came after an era during which the duopoly of Australian and English dominance dissipated; the Ashes had long been seen as a cricket world championship but the rise of the West Indies in the late 1970s challenged that view. The West Indies would go on to record resounding Test series wins over Australia and England and dominated world cricket until the 1990s. With Greig having joined WSC, England appointed Mike Brearley as its captain and he enjoyed great success against Australia. Largely assisted by the return of Boycott, Brearley's men won the 1977 series 3–0 and then completed an overwhelming 5–1 series win against an Australian side missing its WSC players in 1978–79. Allan Border made his Test debut for Australia in 1978–79. Brearley retired from Test cricket in 1980 and was succeeded by Ian Botham, who started the 1981 series as England captain, by which time the WSC split had ended. After Australia took a 1–0 lead in the first two Tests, Botham was forced to resign or was sacked (depending on the source). Brearley surprisingly agreed to be reappointed before the Third Test at Headingley. This was a remarkable match in which Australia looked certain to take a 2–0 series lead after it had forced England to follow-on 227 runs behind. England, despite being 135 for 7, produced a second innings total of 356, Botham scoring 149*. Chasing just 130, Australia were sensationally dismissed for 111, Bob Willis taking 8–43. It was the first time since 1894–95 that a team following on had won a Test match. Under Brearley's leadership, England went on to win the next two matches before a drawn final match at The Oval. This series became known as 'Botham's Ashes' for his extraordinary feats with both bat and ball, after being dismissed as captain. In 1982–83 Australia had Greg Chappell back from WSC as captain, while the England team was weakened by the enforced omission of their South African tour rebels, particularly Graham Gooch and John Emburey. Australia went 2–0 up after three Tests, but England won the Fourth Test by 3 runs (after a 70-run last wicket stand) to set up the final decider, which was drawn. In 1985, David Gower's England team was strengthened by the return of Gooch and Emburey as well as the emergence at international level of Tim Robinson and Mike Gatting. Australia, now captained by Allan Border, had itself been weakened by a rebel South African tour, the loss of Terry Alderman being a particular factor. England won 3–1. Despite suffering heavy defeats against the West Indies during the 1980s, England continued to do well in the Ashes. Mike Gatting was the captain in 1986–87 but his team started badly and attracted some criticism. Then Chris Broad scored three hundreds in successive Tests and bowling successes from Graham Dilley and Gladstone Small meant England won the series 2–1. 1989 to 2003 The Australian team of 1989 was comparable to the great Australian teams of the past, and resoundingly defeated England 4–0. Well led by Allan Border, the team included the young cricketers Mark Taylor, Merv Hughes, David Boon, Ian Healy and Steve Waugh, who were all to prove long-serving and successful Ashes competitors. England, now led once again by David Gower, suffered from injuries and poor form. During the Fourth Test news broke that prominent England players had agreed to take part in a "rebel tour" of South Africa the following winter; three of them (Tim Robinson, Neil Foster and John Emburey) were playing in the match, and were subsequently dropped from the England side. Australia reached a cricketing peak in the 1990s and early 2000s, coupled with a general decline in England's fortunes. After re-establishing its credibility in 1989, Australia underlined its superiority with victories in the 1990–91, 1993, 1994–95, 1997, 1998–99, 2001 and 2002–03 series, all by convincing margins. Great Australian players in the early years included batsmen Border, Boon, Taylor and Steve Waugh. The captaincy passed from Border to Taylor in the mid-1990s and then to Steve Waugh before the 2001 series. In the latter part of the 1990s Waugh himself, along with his twin brother Mark, scored heavily for Australia and fast bowlers Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie made a serious impact, especially the former. The wicketkeeper-batsman position was held by Ian Healy for most of the 1990s and by Adam Gilchrist from 2001 to 2006–07. In the 2000s, batsmen Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Matthew Hayden became noted players for Australia. But the most dominant Australian player was leg-spinner Shane Warne, whose first delivery in Ashes cricket in 1993, to dismiss Mike Gatting, became known as the Ball of the Century. Australia's record between 1989 and 2005 had a significant impact on the statistics between the two sides. Before the 1989 series began, the win–loss ratio was almost even, with 87 test wins for Australia to England's 86, 74 tests having been drawn. By the 2005 series Australia's test wins had increased to 115 whereas England's had increased to only 93 (with 82 draws). In the period between 1989 and the beginning of the 2005 series, the two sides had played 43 times; Australia winning 28 times, England 7 times, with 8 draws. Only a single England victory had come in a match in which the Ashes were still at stake, namely the First Test of the 1997 series. All others were consolation victories when the Ashes had been secured by Australia. 2005 to 2015 England were undefeated in Test matches through the 2004 calendar year. This elevated them to second in the ICC Test Championship. Hopes that the 2005 Ashes series would be closely fought proved well-founded, the series remaining undecided as the closing session of the final Test began. Experienced journalists including Richie Benaud rated the series as the most exciting in living memory. It has been compared with the great series of the distant past, such as 1894–95 and 1902. The First Test at Lord's was convincingly won by Australia, but in the remaining four matches the teams were evenly matched and England fought back to win the Second Test by 2 runs, the smallest winning margin in Ashes history, and the second-smallest in all Tests. The rain-affected Third Test ended with the last two Australian batsmen holding out for a draw; and England won the Fourth Test by three wickets after forcing Australia to follow-on for the first time in 191 Tests. A draw in the final Test gave England victory in an Ashes series for the first time in 18 years and their first Ashes victory at home since 1985. Australia regained the Ashes on its home turf in the 2006–07 series with a convincing 5–0 victory, only the second time an Ashes series had been won by that margin. Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer retired from Test cricket after that series, while Damien Martyn retired during the series. The 2009 series began with a tense draw in the First Test at SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff, with England's last-wicket batsmen James Anderson and Monty Panesar surviving 69 balls. England then achieved its first Ashes win at Lord's since 1934 to go 1–0 up. After a rain-affected draw at Edgbaston, the fourth match at Headingley was convincingly won by Australia by an innings and 80 runs to level the series. Finally, England won the Fifth Test at The Oval by a margin of 197 runs to regain the Ashes. Andrew Flintoff retired from Test cricket soon afterwards. The 2010–11 series was played in Australia. The First Test at Brisbane ended in a draw, but England won the Second Test, at Adelaide, by an innings and 71 runs. Australia came back with a victory at Perth in the Third Test. In the Fourth Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground, England batting second scored 513 to defeat Australia (98 and 258) by an innings and 157 runs. This gave England an unbeatable 2–1 lead in the series and so it retained the Ashes. England went on to win the series 3–1, beating Australia by an innings and 83 runs at Sydney in the Fifth Test, including their highest innings total since 1938 (644). England's series victory was its first on Australian soil for 24 years. The 2010–11 Ashes series was the only one in which a team had won three Tests by innings margins and it was the first time England had scored 500 or more four times in a single series. England opener Cook scored 766 runs at average 127.66 in the series, the most dominant batsman in an Ashes series since Bradman in 1930. Australia's build-up to the 2013 Ashes series was far from ideal. Darren Lehmann took over as coach from Mickey Arthur following a string of poor results. A batting line-up weakened by the previous year's retirements of former captain Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey was also shorn of opener David Warner, who was suspended for the start of the series following an off-field incident. England won a closely fought First Test by 14 runs, despite 19-year-old debutant Ashton Agar making a world-record 98 for a number 11 in the first innings. England then won a very one-sided Second Test by 347 runs while the rain-affected Third Test, held at a newly refurbished Old Trafford, was drawn, ensuring that England retained the Ashes. England won the Fourth Test by 74 runs after Australia lost their last eight second-innings wickets for only 86 runs. The final Test was drawn, giving England a 3–0 series win. In the second of two Ashes series held in 2013 (the series ended in 2014), this time hosted by Australia, the home team won the series five test matches to nil. This was the third time Australia has completed a clean sweep (or "whitewash") in Ashes history, a feat never matched by England. All six Australian specialist batsmen scored more runs than any Englishman with 10 centuries among them, with only debutant Ben Stokes scoring a century for England. Mitchell Johnson took 37 English wickets at 13.97 and Ryan Harris 22 wickets at 19.31 in the 5-Test series. Only Stuart Broad and all-rounder Stokes bowled effectively for England, with their spinner Graeme Swann retiring due to a chronic elbow injury after the decisive Third Test. Australia came into the 2015 Ashes series in England as favourites to retain the Ashes. Although England won the first Test in Cardiff, Australia won comfortably in the second Test at Lords. In the next two Tests, the Australian batsmen struggled, being bowled out for 136 in the first innings at Edgbaston, with England proceeding to win by eight wickets. This was followed by Australia being bowled out for 60 as Stuart Broad took 8 for 15 in the first innings at Trent Bridge, the quickest – in terms of balls faced – a team has been bowled out in the first innings of a Test match. With victory by an innings and 78 runs on the morning of the third day of the Fourth Test, England regained the Ashes. 2017 to present During the buildup, the 2017–18 Ashes series was regarded as a turning point for both sides. Australia were criticised for being too reliant on captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner, while England was said to have a shoddy middle to lower order. Off the field, England all-rounder Ben Stokes was ruled out of the side indefinitely due to a police investigation. Australia won the first Test match in Brisbane by 10 wickets and the second Test at Adelaide by 120 runs in the first ever day-night Ashes test match. Australia regained The Ashes with an innings and 41 run win in the third Test at Perth; the final Ashes Test at the WACA Ground. Prior to the 2019 Ashes series, both teams were considered to have very strong bowling attacks but struggling batting orders. Australia had its top-order batsmen David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft available for international selection after being banned from international cricket for 9–12 months following the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa, during which time India had won its first ever Test series in Australia. However, Australia recovered to win the Test series against Sri Lanka 2–0. Despite winning the Cricket World Cup in July 2019 for the first time, England had also been criticised for its fragile top-order in Tests. The retirement of opener Alastair Cook in August 2018 ensured potential top-order batsmen Rory Burns, Joe Denly and Jason Roy were able to secure a place in the side. Despite losing a Test series 2–1 in their tour of the West Indies, England then improved to win the one-off Test against Ireland, by 143 runs. The 2019 series was eventually drawn 2–2, with Australia retaining the Ashes. The 2021-22 Ashes series was played from December 2021 through January 2022, and featured the first Ashes Test match to be played in Tasmania, at Hobart's Bellerive Oval. Australia retained the Ashes in the 2021–22 Ashes series, after comfortably beating England 4–0. England were the hosts of the five Test matches of the 2023 Ashes series. The series got off to a good start for Australia as they won the first two Tests to go 0–2 up. The hosts won the third Test to put the series at 1-2 for the visitors. England needed to win the fourth Test in a hope to not only level the series but prevent Australia from retaining the Ashes. The match looked good for England to win, but rain intervened on the last two days and forced a draw, thus Australia retained the Ashes with the series at 1–2 after four Tests. The fifth and final Test was played at The Oval. During the contest Stuart Broad announced that he would retire from cricket at the end of the match. England went on to win the final Test match to draw the series at 2-2. Summary of results and statistics In the 140 years since 1883, Australia have held the Ashes for approximately 84.5 years, and England for 55.5 years: Test results, up to and including 31 July 2023: Series results, up to and including 31 July 2023: A team must win a series to gain the right to hold the Ashes. A drawn series results in the previous holders retaining the Ashes. Ashes series have generally been played over five Test matches, although there have been four-match series (1938 and 1975) and six-match series (1970–71, 1974–75, 1978–79, 1981, 1985, 1989, 1993 and 1997). Australians have made 264 centuries in Ashes Tests, of which 23 have been scores over 200, while Englishmen have scored 212 centuries, of which 10 have been over 200. Australians have taken 10 wickets in a match on 41 occasions, Englishmen 38 times. Match venues The series alternates between England (and Wales) and Australia, and each match of a series is held at a different ground. Australia In Australia, the grounds currently used are The Gabba in Brisbane (first staged an England–Australia Test in the 1932–33 season), Adelaide Oval (1884–85), the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) (1876–77), and the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) (1881–82). A single Test was held at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground in 1928–29. Traditionally, Melbourne hosts the Boxing Day Test and Sydney hosts the New Year's Day Test. Additionally the WACA in Perth (1970–71) hosted its final Ashes Test in 2017–18 and was due to be replaced by Perth Stadium for the 2021–22 series. However, Western Australian border restrictions and quarantine requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic led to a change in venue for the final Ashes Test to Bellerive Oval in Hobart. This was the first Ashes Test match to be held in Tasmania. Cricket Australia proposed that the 2010–11 series consist of six Tests, with the additional game to be played at Bellerive Oval in Hobart. The England and Wales Cricket Board declined and the series was played over five Tests. England In England and Wales, the grounds currently used are: Old Trafford in Manchester (1884), The Oval in Kennington, South London (1884); Lord's in St John's Wood, North London (1884); Headingley in Leeds (1899) and Edgbaston in Birmingham (1902). Additionally Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, Wales (2009); the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street, County Durham (2013) and Trent Bridge at West Bridgford (1899), have been used and one Test was also held at Bramall Lane in Sheffield in 1902. Traditionally the final Test of the series is played at the Oval. Sophia Gardens and the Riverside were excluded as Test grounds between the years of 2020 and 2031 and therefore will not host an Ashes Test until at least 2035. The ECB announced the 2027 and 2031 Ashes series venues will be held at Lord's (2027 and 2031), The Oval (2027 and 2031), Edgbaston (2027), Trent Bridge (2027 and 2031), The Rose Bowl (2027), Old Trafford (2031) and Headingley (2031). Cultural references The popularity and reputation of the cricket series has led to other sports and games using the name "Ashes" for contests between England/Great Britain and Australia. The best-known and longest-running of these events is the rugby league Ashes competition between Great Britain now England and Australia national rugby league teams. Use of the name "Ashes" was suggested by the Australian team when rugby league matches between the two countries commenced in 1908. Other examples included the television game shows Gladiators and Sale of the Century, both of which broadcast special editions containing contestants from the Australian and English versions of the shows competing against each other. The term was further genericised in Australia in the first half of the twentieth century, and was used to describe the most prominent rivalry or competition within a sport even if outside the context of Australia vs England. The Australian rules football interstate carnival, and the small silver casket which served as its trophy, were symbolically known as "the Ashes" of Australian football, and was spoken of as such until at least the 1940s. The soccer rivalry between Australia and New Zealand was described as "the soccer ashes of Australasia" until as late as the 1950s; ashes from cigars smoked by the two countries' captains were put into a casket in 1923 to make the trophy literal. The interstate rugby league rivalry between Queensland and New South Wales was known for a time as Australia's rugby league ashes, and bowls competitions between the two states also regularly used the term. Even some local rivalries, such as southern Western Australia's annual Great Southern Football Carnival, were locally described as "the ashes". This genericised usage is no longer common, and "the Ashes" would today be assumed only to apply to a contest between Australia and England. The Ashes featured in the film The Final Test, released in 1953, based on a television play by Terence Rattigan. It stars Jack Warner as an England cricketer playing the last Test of his career, which is the last of an Ashes series; the film includes cameo appearances of English captain Len Hutton and other players who were part of England's 1953 triumph. Douglas Adams's 1982 science fiction comedy novel Life, the Universe and Everything – the third part of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series – features the urn containing the Ashes as a significant element of its plot. The urn is stolen by alien robots, as the burnt stump inside is part of a key needed to unlock the "Wikkit Gate" and release an imprisoned world called Krikkit. Bodyline, a fictionalised television miniseries based on the "Bodyline" Ashes series of 1932–33, was screened in Australia in 1984. The cast included Gary Sweet as Donald Bradman and Hugo Weaving as England captain Douglas Jardine. In the 1938 film The Lady Vanishes, Charters and Caldicott, played by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne are two cricket fans who are desperate to get home from Europe in order to see the last day's play in the Third Test at Manchester. It is not until they see a newsboy's poster near the end of the film that they discover that the match had been abandoned, due to floods. See also History of Test cricket from 1877 to 1883 History of Test cricket from 1884 to 1889 History of Test cricket from 1890 to 1900 The Women's Ashes Ella-Mobbs Trophy (the Rugby Union equivalent of England-Australia matches) Notes References Further reading Berry, S. (2006). Cricket's Burning Passion. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-413-77627-1. Birley, D. (2003). A Social History of English Cricket. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 1-85410-941-3. Frith, David (1990). Australia versus England: A Pictorial History of Every Test Match Since 1877. Victoria (Australia): Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-90323-X. Frith, David (2002). Bodyline Autopsy: The Full Story of the Most Sensational Test Cricket Series – England v Australia 1932–3. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-8541-0896-8. Gibb, J. (1979). Test Cricket Records From 1877. London: Collins. ISBN 0-00-411690-9. Gibson, A. (1989). Cricket Captains of England. London: Pavilion Books. ISBN 1-85145-395-4. Green, B. (1979). Wisden Anthology 1864–1900. London: M & J/QA Press. ISBN 0-356-10732-9. Harte, Chris (2003). Penguin History of Australian Cricket. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-670-04133-5. Munns, J. (1994). Beyond Reasonable Doubt – Rupertswood, Sunbury – The Birthplace of the Ashes. Australia: Joy Munns. ISBN 0-646-22153-1. Warner, P. (1987). Lord's 1787–1945. London: Pavilion Books. ISBN 1-85145-112-9. Warner, P. (2004). How We Recovered the Ashes: MCC Tour 1903–1904. London: Methuen. ISBN 0-413-77399-X. Willis, R. Cricket's Biggest Mystery: The Ashes Archived 14 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine, The Lutterworth Press (1987), ISBN 978-0-7188-2588-1. Wynne-Thomas, P. (1989). The Complete History of Cricket Tours at Home and Abroad. London: Hamlyn. ISBN 0-600-55782-0. Other Wisden's Cricketers Almanack (various editions) External links Ashes to Ashes An audio history of the first hundred years of the Ashes, narrated by John Arlott Cricinfo's Ashes website The Origin of the Ashes – Rex Harcourt Listen to a young Don Bradman speaking after the 1930 Ashes tour

Shelby_Mustang

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_Mustang

The Shelby Mustang is a high-performance variant of the Ford Mustang built by Shelby American from 1965 to 1967 and by the Ford Motor Company from 1968 to 1970. In 2005, Ford revived the Shelby nameplate for a high-performance model of the fifth-generation Ford Mustang. 1st generation (1965–1970) 1965–1966 Shelby GT350 The GT 350 made its debut in the "sportsroof" fastback model of the first generation Ford Mustang in 1965. Produced through 1966, these were the smallest and lightest of the GT 350 models. Work started at Shelby American when its Ford-powered AC Ace-based, two-seat, 289 AC Cobra sports car production was wrapping up, and the 427 cu in variant was beginning. Both the AC and the Shelby Mustang use the Cobra emblem, a similar paint scheme, and the optional "Cobra" valve covers installed on many GT350s that were part of a marketing tie-in by Shelby, as well as one of his iconic symbols. All 1965–66 cars had the Windsor 289 cu in (4.7 L) HiPo K-Code 271 hp (202 kW; 275 PS) V8 engine, modified with a large 4-barrel Holley 725 CFM carburetor to produce 306 bhp (310 PS; 228 kW) at 6,000 rpm and 329 lb⋅ft (446 N⋅m) of torque at 4,200 rpm. Marketing literature referred to this engine as the "Cobra hi-riser" due to its high-rise intake manifold. Beginning as a stock Mustang with a 4-speed manual transmission and 9-inch live rear axle, the cars were shipped to Shelby American, where they received the high-rise manifolds, Tri-Y headers, and were given larger Ford Galaxie rear drum brakes with metallic-linings and Kelsey-Hayes front disc brakes. The 1965 GT350 was built for the race track, not comfort or ease of driving. A total of 34 race-spec "GT350R" cars were built specifically for competition use under SCCA rules, and the model was the B-Production champion for three straight years. The 1966 GT350 was more comfortable for casual drivers, including a rear seat, optional colors, and an optional automatic transmission. This trend for more options and luxuries continued in the following years, with the cars becoming progressively larger, heavier, and more comfortable, at the cost of their competitiveness. By 1969 Carroll Shelby was no longer involved in the Shelby GT program, and the design was done in-house by Ford, with the 1969 GT350s and GT500s reduced to being largely styling modifications to a stock Mustang. The 1965 and 1966 GT350s were delivered from Ford's San Jose Assembly Plant for modification by Shelby, originally in Venice Beach and later at Los Angeles International Airport. San Jose cars carried an "R" in the Ford VIN denoting that facility. The only year that Shelby Mustangs from the 1960s came from another plant was 1968, where they came from New Jersey, "T" in the VIN, and were modified by A.O. Smith. 1965 GT350 All 1965 GT350s were painted in Wimbledon White with Guardsman Blue rocker stripes. Approximately 28% of the 562 1965 cars built were delivered to the dealer with the optional Le Mans stripes, a pair of broad matching blue stripes that run the length of the entire car from the hood through the roof and the tail. Today, it is difficult to find a GT350 without them.. In subsequent years white stripes were also used with dark colored body paint. Many early 1965 cars had the battery relocated to the trunk, which was changed mid-year due to complaints of fumes, and had over-rider traction bars, relocated A-arms, as well as other modifications. A 4-speed Borg-Warner T10 manual was only transmission available. Dual exhausts exited out the sides via glasspack mufflers (with fourteen cars being equipped with rear-exiting exhausts to meet state regulations for sales in certain areas). For this one year, the GT350 also had special 130 mph (210 km/h)-rated Goodyear "Blue Dot" tires, named for the prominent blue dot on each sidewall. The 1965 GT350 had a full-size spare tire mounted in place of rear seats, making it a 2-seat-only vehicle (to qualify as a "sports car" under SCCA regulations), and rode on either silver-painted steel wheels or special cast-magnesium center "Cragar Shelby" 15-inch rims with chromed center caps marked with a stylized "CS". Total 1965 model year production was 562 units. 1966 GT350 For 1966, the GT350 lost its Mustang tag and was marketed simply as the Shelby GT350. The new model year also saw the introduction of non-white colors, including blue, red, green, and black. Other changes included special rear quarter-panel windows replacing the factory extractor vents, functional brake scoops on each side, and optional SelectShift 3-speed automatic, as well as an optional Paxton supercharger. The battery was no longer relocated to the trunk for 1966, and the over-rider traction bars were discontinued. The normal factory fold-down rear seat was optional. While early 1965 cars had black engine blocks, 1966 and later engines were painted regular factory Ford dark blue. The 1966 models came with a dual-exhaust exiting in the rear. The first 252 GT350s for 1966 began as 1965 Mustang K-Code Fastbacks that had been specifically ordered by Shelby American for conversion into 1966 GT350s; these all had 1965 bodies. They were received in blocks of cars; thus Shelby VINs do not correspond in numerical order to Ford factory VINs. As a promotional move, Ford leveraged its role as the major shareholder of Hertz to persuade the rental car giant to purchase 1,003 fastbacks, including two prototypes. Four "experimental" GT350 convertibles were also built for test purposes in anticipation of a 1967-1/2 convertible offering. A small number of the consumer sales 1966 models were factor fitted with Paxton superchargers, but not the No-Spin limited slip differential, for an additional $670, (~$6,292 in 2023) the engine was rated at 440 hp (328 kW). Total production for 1966 was 2,378 units, including two prototypes and four drag cars, with 1,372 sold to the general public. 1966 Hertz Shelby GT350 The sales arrangement with Hertz for ~1,000 GT350s to be added to its rental fleet included the proviso that after their rental lives were finished the cars would be returned to Ford, refurbished, and sold to the public as "GT350H" models. Most Hertz cars were black with gold LeMans stripes and rocker panel stripes, although a few were white with blue stripes. The first 85 Hertz cars were available with four-speed manual transmissions and Hertz advertised them as "Rent-a-Racer" cars. During rental, these cars were sometimes used as production class cars at SCCA events, and were rumored to have been returned to Hertz with evidence of roll bars being welded in. Ford pushed another 800 models on Hertz with black paint, gold stripes and black interior, as well as automatic transmissions. When the Hertz cars were returned to Ford to be prepared for sale to the public, high-performance racing parts were often "lost" (presumably at the manufacturer) before final sale. 1967-1968 Shelby GT350 / GT500 For 1967, the GT350 carried over the K-Code high performance 289 with a 'COBRA' aluminum valve cover. The GT500 was added to the lineup, equipped with a 428 cu in (7.0 L) "Ford Cobra" FE Series Cobra Jet V8 engine with two 600 CFM Holley four-barrel carburetors mated to a mid-rise aluminum intake manifold. Documented plans to introduce a convertible mid-production year were shelved due to supply, production and financial problems that happened as soon as the first cars started to arrive at Shelby's Los Angeles facility in September. By October 1966, Ford took control of engineering and purchasing. A.O. Smith was tapped to fix the fitting of fiberglass components. In May 1967 the decision was made to terminate the California-based Shelby operation. On August 18, 1967, a small carryover Shelby staff, along with the remaining engineering cars, was sent to Ionia, Michigan; Shelby personnel had substantially less involvement after this time. Notable cars for 1967 include: 0100, the first GT500 built. 0131, the only Shelby GT coupe built ("Little Red'), which was the precursor to the '68 California Special. The original GT500 "L'il Red" was rediscovered in a Texas farm field in March 2018 0139, the only Shelby GT500 convertible built (in 1967. Cars 0100, 0131 and 0139 were the first big block Shelby GT cars ordered and built. One 1967 Fastback was updated to a GT500 equipped with a 427 FE GT40 racing engine producing 650 hp (485 kW), and was known as the "Super Snake" The car was capable of speeds over 150 mph (241 km/h); hitting 170 mph (274 km/h) during a demonstration (by Shelby himself) of Goodyear's Thunderbolt tires. No cars other than the prototype were built due to limited interest. The car sold at Mecum's 2013 Indianapolis auction for $1.3 million. In 1967 Shelby American built 26 K-code Mustang Coupes to the FIA's Group 2 specification. This allowed the cars to race in the SCCA A-Sedan class and the Trans Am series. The 1967 Mustang notchback Group II sedan was Shelby American's competition model for 1967. The same rule that allowed the 1965 GT350 to compete in SCCA's B Production class - no rear seats - effectively kept the Shelby Mustangs out of the Trans-Am series. For 1968, the Cobra name was applied to both models, which were marketed as the Shelby Cobra GT350 and the Shelby Cobra GT 500. The solid lifter K-code engine was discontinued by Ford, so Shelby used the hydraulic lifter 230 hp 302. It produced 250 HP with the high rise intake but was not equipped with Shelby headers in order to make room for power steering. The early 1968 GT500 used the Shelby installed 428 Police Interceptor with a single four-barrel carburetor rated at 360 HP. 1967 Shelby GT350 and 1968 Cobra GT350 The 1967 redesign made for a heavier Mustang, along with a longer, fiberglass hood, and new front and rear fascias. The design of the original 1965 version was evident, but these styling upgrades gave the car a more aggressive appearance and achieved Carroll Shelby's goal of differentiating his car from the Mustang on which it was based. The separate high-beam headlamps in the grille added more character, while a thin, chrome front bumper sat below a mesh grille with the classic "Shelby GT350" logo in place (except for the very early cars). The small hood scoop was there to deliver fresh air to the engine. Shelby also included new, horizontal sequential taillights (sourced from a '67 Cougar in 1967 and a '65 Thunderbird in 1968) and an integrated Kamm-type rear spoiler. Functional rear brake-cooling scoops adorned the rear quarter panels. Ten-spoke, fifteen-inch, cast-aluminum rims were the wheel choice with Goodyear white-lettered radials. The GT350 was available with air conditioning and an AM/FM radio. The steering wheel was a wood-rimmed and satin-trimmed design with the classic Shelby logo in the center. Behind this wheel was a very classy-looking set of gauges. A 140-mph speedometer and a whopping 8,000-rpm tachometer were joined along with a smaller analog clock, fuel level, water temperature, and oil pressure gauges. The 1967 GT350 came with an iron-block, 289-cubic-inch (4.7-liter) V-8 rated at 306 horsepower and 329 lb-foot of torque. For a pushrod design, the GT350 revved relatively high, with the horsepower peak not in full swing until the 6,000-rpm redline. 1967 was well before modern fuel injection came about, and the car used a single Holley four-barrel carburetor. The true dual-exhaust with H-shaped crossover system came standard with low restriction mufflers and chrome exhaust tips. Power was routed to the ground through a sturdy, four-speed manual transmission with a single, dry-disc clutch. A three-speed automatic was made available as an option. Rear-end ratios were 3.89-to-1 for the four-speed manual and 3.50-to-1 for the automatic. Acceleration was impressive, with a 0-to-60 time of around seven seconds and a top speed of 140 miles per hour (230 km/h). Braking duties were handled by 11.3-inch discs up front and drums in the rear. Power assist was standard. The front suspension consisted of unequal-length control arms, coil springs, adjustable tube arms, and an anti-sway bar. Out back was a live axle, with multi-leaf, semi-elliptical springs and tube shocks. The steering was a power-assisted recirculating ball design. In 1968 the 289ci V8 was replaced with a factory 302 V8 using an aluminum Cobra intake manifold and Holley 600 cfm carb. The 302 had less racing parts than the 289 and was rated at 250 hp. A Paxton Supercharger was available. 1967 Shelby GT500 and 1968 Cobra GT500 The 1967 Shelby G.T. 500 was the first model built in the Shelby G.T. 500 range. It is based on the 1967 Mustang and is equipped with a FE 428 cu in (7.0 L) Police-Interceptor V8 engine topped with an aluminum mid-rise intake and 2X4-barrel 600 CFM Holley carburetors producing 355 bhp (360 PS; 265 kW) at 5,400 rpm and 420 lb⋅ft (569 N⋅m) at 3200 rpm of torque. Two thousand forty eight were produced in 1967. Several body parts of the G.T. were made of fiberglass including the front-end, hood, rear tail light panel, deck lid, quarter panel extension, and side scoops. 1968 GT500KR Beginning in April 1968, Ford began factory installing a version of the 428 engine known as the Cobra Jet. This new engine featured a unique, 16-bolt exhaust flange. The GT500 was subsequently known as The Cobra GT500 KR. The initials KR stood for "King of the Road." Ford rated the Cobra jet at 335 hp (250 kW), but with 440 lb⋅ft (597 N⋅m) of torque at 3,400 rpm, although the horsepower was considered significantly underreported. Shelby's KR engine was left stock adding die-cast aluminum valve covers with "Cobra Lemans" to note Ford's FE engine family victory over Ferrari at Le Mans in 1966 and 1967. 1969–1970 GT350 / GT500 The GTs lost their Cobra tag for 1969, and once again were marketed simply as the Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT500. The GT350 and GT500 for the 1969 model year received an extensive face lift, the body alone increasing in length by 4 inches (100 mm) with some reaching 10 inches (250 mm). Ford was involved with design and style decisions, with Shelby having little input. The GT350 was now equipped with a 351 cubic-inch V8. Carroll Shelby terminated his agreement with Ford in the summer of 1969. It was designed by John Chun. No production of 1970 Shelby GT350 and 500 models was undertaken; however, unsold 1969 models were given 1970 vehicle identification numbers under FBI supervision. The 1970 models had two cosmetic changes, a front chin spoiler and two black hood stripes. The rest of the changes had to do with emissions. The GT500 had the carburetor modified and marked "ed" (edited) on tag. The distributor in both the GT 350 and GT500 was changed to a 1970 version. A total of 789 were re-VIN'd. 1971 Shelby Europa Although production of Shelby GTs in the USA had ceased, a total of nine 1971 "Shelby Europa" GT-350 and GT-500 Mustangs were produced under license by Belgian dealer Claude Dubois for the European market. Seven Fastbacks (Ford used the term Sportsroof) and two convertibles were produced; of which seven were M-code and one H-code cars. One 429SCJ J-code Fastback was produced, though its whereabouts today are unknown. Both convertibles and one fastback were modified to GT-500 with 351-HO. Both convertibles are located in Finland. All 1971 Shelby Europas were based on 1971 Mustang. Previously it was believed that 14 cars were produced, but the total production number of nine cars was confirmed in 2014 by cross-check of Claude Dubois' files and Ford Factory Mustang production data. 2nd generation 2005–2009 (S-197 I) Shelby CS6/8 Shelby, along with Paxton, also designed a new variant based on the V6 Mustang. Modifications include a supercharged motor producing 350 hp (261 kW), 20-inch wheels bearing the Shelby name and the Cobra badge on each side and the decklid, a 2-inch drop in suspension, Baer/Shelby 14-inch front and rear brakes, an aggressive front fascia and a dual exhaust. Shelby also created the CS8, a 4.6-liter V8 variant of the CS6. The Shelby CS6/8 was not available as a factory release. However, Shelby had made the CS6/8 kit available for purchase. But then the contract with Hertz GT-H came, and only a handful of CS6/8' were built, making them one of the rarest cars ever built by Shelby. 2006; 2007 Ford Shelby GT-H Ford introduced the Shelby GT-H version of the Mustang at the 2006 New York Auto Show. Like the original GT350H from 1966, the GT-H had gold-on-black paint and was only available at the Hertz car rental agency. Ford Racing Performance Group provided Shelby its FR1 Power Pack to add 25 horsepower to the existing Mustang GT powertrain with an additional 10 ft-lb of torque. The package included a 90mm cold air kit, muffler kit, a new X-pipe and Ford Racing "GTA" axle-back mufflers. The Ford Shelby GT-H also had the Ford Racing Handling Pack (FR3) which included specially tuned dampers, lowering springs, sway bars, strut tower brace, and a Ford Racing 3.55:1 ratio rear axle assembly. A total of 500 cars were built to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original Shelby GT350H. For 2007, a convertible version of the GT-H was offered for rental at Hertz. This time the convertibles came with a custom light bar reminiscent of the 1968 Shelby Mustang convertibles. 2007–2008 Ford Shelby GT The 4.6 liter, 281-cubic-inch, 319 hp (238 kW) Ford Shelby GT slotted between the 300 hp (220 kW) Mustang GT and the Ford Shelby GT500. It is essentially a retail sale version of the Hertz rental-only Ford Shelby GT-H, except a manual transmission is available. The Shelby GT was a unique model in that, just like the Shelby Mustangs of the 60s, the Shelby GT's manufacturing was completed at Shelby Automobiles Inc. in Las Vegas, Nevada after being shipped directly there by Ford Motor Company. Shelby GT's were then sold pre-title to customers. By comparison, GT500 models were manufactured solely by Ford Motor Company in Flat Rock, Michigan. Production of the Shelby GT began in December 2006 and the car went on sale in January 2007. It was originally planned that a limited number of up to 6,000 cars would be built. The Shelby GT's include the deletion of the rear spoiler, a retro Shelby hood scoop, a cold air induction system with performance tuning resulting in a power output of 319 hp (238 kW), a Ford Racing suspension package consisting of upgraded dampers, springs which lowered the vehicle 1.5 inches and sway bars, a high performance exhaust system, interior Shelby sill plates and badges and silver stripes, with the car available in either white or black in 2007 and Vista Blue, Grabber Orange, or Black with red stripes for 2008. Following the 2007 Shelby GT-H convertible rental car, Shelby offered the 2008 Shelby GT as a Vista Blue coupe or convertible also in limited numbers. The Vista Blue models were available as a coupe or convertible 2008 Shelby GT-C (Southern California) The southern California Ford/Shelby dealers requested a California - Shelby GT, These grabber orange only cars were sold in California and some western states. Only 215 of these Carroll Shelby signed GT-C cars were sold. MSRP averaged $42,097. Only available as a coupe, these cars were optioned like the Hertz GT-H. These cars had Shelby serial numbers ranging from #08SGT0001 to #0217 and they were the first cars of the GT production run for 2008. #0001 and #0002 were reserved for Shelby Automotive and were not used. 2008 Barrett-Jackson Shelby GT A total of 100 units of Shelby GT coupe and convertible were named after the Barrett-Jackson auction. They included black exterior with "Barrett-Jackson Red" LeMans Hood and Side Stripes, Barrett Jackson Edition door sill plates, black interior with the Shelby GT serial number plate, special gas cap insert, autographed photo of Carroll Shelby, Craig Jackson, Amy Boylan, and Steve Davis. The vehicle was unveiled at the Arizona International Auto Show. Production versions were sold in Arizona Region Ford dealers with an MSRP of US$38,980 (including $250 donation to the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation). One hundred Barrett Jackson Shelby GTs were built in 2008 that were black with red stripes, also available in coupe or convertible. The Barrett Jackson Shelby GTs were sold exclusively in Arizona. Ford dealers and customers asked for a version of the Shelby GT-H. Like the GT-H, the Shelby GT is modified at Shelby Automotive's factory in Las Vegas, Nevada, while the GT500s are produced entirely by AutoAlliance International. Modifications At the request of owners, a number of Shelby GTs were modified in various ways by Shelby Automobiles in Las Vegas. One of these modifications results in a model known as the Shelby GT/SC (Supercharged). A large number of add-ons could be had including the "Super Snake" brakes, as well as larger wheels and tires which were necessary to accommodate these brakes. Additionally there were three different available superchargers, again installed by Shelby Automobiles or authorized Shelby Mod Shop, that can increase rated horsepower to 550* max H.P.. These include the Ford Racing Whipple and the rare Paxton superchargers. *Superchargers were limited because the 4.6 engine did not have forged internal crankshaft and pistons. 2007-2009 Shelby Terlingua The Terlingua is a V6 Ford Mustang fitted with a Racing Team package that includes performance enhancements and modified cosmetic details by Shelby. The package is applied by Shelby Automobiles in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Terlingua features improvements to the handling with Ford Racing components, and improved braking capabilities that included Baer brakes. The optional supercharger was a Paxton/Vortech blower in either polished or raw. This model also features a deep draw hood designed by Chief R&D at Shelby Vince LaViolette, 20-inch anthracite "Razor" wheels and a comprehensive styling changes including a logo with the Terlingua rabbit on the hood. Specifications Horsepower: 375 hp (280 kW) @ 5,300 rpm Torque: 240 lb⋅ft (325 N⋅m) @ 3,500 rpm 0–60 mph: 5.5 seconds Top speed: 170 mph (274 km/h) 2nd generation 2011–2014 (S-197 II) 2011 Shelby GT350 Coinciding with the 45th anniversary of the original 1965 Shelby GT350, Shelby American unveiled an all new GT350 Mustang at the opening night gala of the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, AZ. Presented in concept form, the new GT350 had a supercharged version of the brand new 5.0-liter V8 engine in the 2011 Mustang GT as well as performance upgrades from Ford Racing, Borla, Cragar, Baer and more. The GT350 was a post-title upgrade available from Shelby. Customers could have their 2011 Mustangs shipped directly to Shelby's Las Vegas facility to be converted or they could deliver the car themselves. Automatic transmission was available for conversion with a naturally aspirated engine, producing up to 430 hp (321 kW), and manual transmission cars had the option of NA or a supercharged engine fitted with a Ford Racing supercharger to produce 525 hp (391 kW), or at the expense of the warranty, 624 hp (465 kW), a Ford Racing suspension system (The first 100 cars were fitted with the Eibach suspension carried over from the GT500 Supersnake), Baer brakes in front and optional in rear, Custom Borla exhaust system, 19-inch Cragar wheels, and more. For the exterior, Shelby installed a new front fascia, front splitter, functional hood scoop, functional brake cooling ducts, tail light trim, rear deck lid filler panel, and a rear fascia with center exhaust exit. Performance White with Guardsman Blue racing stripes were the only available color combination for 2011 models. 2012 models were available in other colors, but lost the 45th Anniversary badge of the 2011. Initial road tests of the GT350 by Motor Trend show the 2011 Shelby GT350 is capable of accelerating from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 3.7 seconds, compared to the 412 horsepower 2011 Mustang GT's time of 4.4 seconds. It is also faster than the 2011 GT500, which needs 4.2 seconds to get to 60 mph (97 km/h) as well as the Shelby Super Snake with 750 hp (559 kW), which takes 4.1 seconds. Weight difference isn't a factor to blame for the better performance than the GT500, considering the GT350 is only 24 lb (11 kg) lighter than the newly lightened GT500. The GT350's quarter mile time is 12 seconds at 121.4 mph (195.4 km/h). NASCAR pace cars Two GT350s were used to pace the 2010 NASCAR race in Las Vegas. They had the prototype front fascia and are now displayed at the Shelby Heritage Museum, being a mainstay for promotional materials and posters. 2011 Shelby GTS 2012 Shelby GT350 After being revealed at Barrett Jackson in 2010 as a celebration of the original 1965 Shelby GT350s 45th anniversary, the 2012 GT350 made its world debut at the 2011 Chicago Auto Show. A convertible version was offered for 2012, the first convertible GT350 since 1970. The 2011 Ford Shelby Mustang GT350 was previously offered only in a white exterior color with Guardsman Blue Le Mans racing stripes running the length of the vehicle, but the 2012 model year saw two new colors in Race Red with white LeMans stripes and Kona Blue with white LeMans stripes. These paint schemes are unique because they are not Factory paint jobs from Ford. The convertible offered a new optional light bar with other options including a one-piece drive shaft and color coordinated billet aluminum engine cap set. The extensive body kit upgrades included a revised front fascia, side rockers with brake ducts, rear bumper, and decklid. New taillights and custom Shelby GT350 badges further distinguish this special model and bring back memories of past models. The serialized dash plate with individual numbering for each GT350 produced was also included. The 2012 Shelby GT350 delivers the same performance numbers as the 2011 model. The addition of a Whipple supercharger and Borla exhaust system have really allowed this V8 to take on a life of its own. An automatic transmission was optional with the naturally aspirated engine. Keeping the powerful engine under control was an upgraded suspension system designed by Shelby to give the Mustang a reduced body roll and more variability to create custom track setups. Custom ERADISPEED rear rotors in conjunction with Bear 6-piston brakes were also included in the package. 2012 Shelby GTS The Shelby GTS was unveiled at the 2012 New York Auto Show, a new model designed to be attainable to the masses. It was available in both V6 and V8 form configurations. "It's a car that reaches a younger buyer while acknowledging the economic realities of our times," said Shelby American president John Luft at the time. Shelby installed new front and rear fascias, a "deep draw" fiberglass hood, black billet grille, Shelby lettering on the trunk lid and finally the signature "Le Mans" dual stripes over the top and triple side stripes with GTS lettering. Shelby also added a short-throw shifter with cue-ball knob, a serial number plaque and Shelby-badged floor mats. The GTS was fitted with the optional 14-inch Baer front brake system. Only 7000 were made. 50th Anniversary Edition To celebrate the foundation of Shelby American, Shelby American released a 50th Anniversary Edition of the Shelby GTS. The car was based on the 2012 Mustang GT and Mustang V6, and was only available in two exterior colors, Black and Performance White. Production was limited to 100 units with 50 being black and 50 Performance White units. 2013 Shelby GT350 Revealed in 2013 as an upgrade kit for the Mustang GT, the Shelby GT350 (S197 II) was built in limited numbers and was offered in both coupe and convertible versions. For the 2013 model year, the GT350 received new color options, visual styling cues, and optional performance enhancements. The 2013 Shelby GT350 is powered by a 5.0 liter V8 engine offered in either a 430 hp (321 kW) naturally aspirated version with an optional upgrade to increase the power output to 450 hp (336 kW), or a 525 hp (391 kW) or 624 hp (465 kW) supercharged versions. The engine could be combined with a manual gearbox with a short throw shifter as standard, or an automatic transmission for the naturally aspirated engine as an option. The 2011 Ford Mustang GT from Shelby was previously only offered in a white exterior color with Guardsman Blue Le Mans racing stripes running the length of the vehicle, and the 2012 model saw the addition of two new colors; Race Red with white LeMans stripes and Kona Blue with white LeMans stripes. The 2013 model year added even more color options in the form of Grabber Blue, Sterling Gray Metallic, "Gotta Have It" Green, Candy Red Tint Coat Metallic, Ingot Silver Metallic, "Deep Impact" Blue Metallic (replaces Kona Blue Metallic), Race Red, Performance White, and Black. These new colors could be combined with Satin Black or Gloss White stripes and a new set of wheels in Satin Black or Bright Silver Metallic. Other styling cues for 2013 included a glass roof option, Recaro Seats, and a modified custom rear valance. Changes for the 2013 model year also included a one piece drive shaft, more powerful brakes, cooling enhancements, and a color coordinated billet aluminum engine cap set. Prototype Demonstrator It was a prototype of GT350 used as a track demonstrator vehicle, which ended up not being used that much as anticipated. It had a 624 hp (465 kW) supercharged V8 engine, premium interior with Recaro seats, gauges, and 6 piston Wilwood brakes in the front and 4 piston calipers in the rear. It was in the 2013 sales literature and is one of the Heritage Center show cars. 2013 Shelby GTS 2014 Shelby GT, Shelby GT/SC The Shelby American version of Shelby GT was based on the 2014 Ford Mustang GT. It was unveiled at the LA Auto Show. Shelby offered a unique set of modifications for the exterior. On the base GT, it got a front splitter conversion with a GT500 rear spoiler and quarter glass covers. The hood was made of fiberglass to save weight and the Le Mans stripes added some style. A separate wide body conversion with the option of rear-only or full all-around wide body wheel arches was also available to spice up the exterior of the 2014 Shelby GT. Among other accessories, Shelby GT front fascia, carbon laminated hood louvers, billet upper grille with Ford running pony emblem and "Powered by Ford" badges on the sides completed the exterior package. The interior of the 2014 Shelby GT had been overhauled to keep up with the latest trends. Unique touches to the interior included an A-pillar gauge pod with boost, and fuel and oil pressure gauges. This modification was only available on the GT/SC conversion. Even the standard GT conversion got the Shelby headrest covers, special GT dash plaque and engine plate. Leather upholstery in black was standard along with electrically adjustable seats. The "Shelby GT Standard" is the base pack with 430 horsepower. The slight bump in power was achieved by fitting a Borla performance exhaust as well as engine tuning. The standard package also included a Barton short shifter. The "Shelby GT/SC" gives 100 more horsepower over the base modification. Shelby Ford Racing Whipple Supercharger kit in either 525 hp or 624 hp configurations, Shelby cooling system and front splitter. Although Shelby did not independently confirm the performance figures, a 0–60 mph (97 km/h) of 3.7 seconds and a quarter-mile in an estimated mid 11-second range has been estimated. The base upgrade package used 20-inch wheels, fitted with BFG G-Force Comp2 tires and a Panhard suspension bar to stiffen up the chassis. Apart from this, the standard upgrade did not offer much in terms of performance or improved handling. Of course, better tires did provide improved grip while the suspension brace resulted in better cornering. Shelby had done a whole lot to improve the dynamics of the Shelby GT/SC starting with an aluminum driveshaft, employed to deliver power to the rear wheels in order to reduce the overall mass. Wilwood brakes — six-pot front and four-piston rear — for added braking performance. The 20-inch rims on the GT/SC were painted black and were lined with Michelin Pilot Supersport tires. Eibach provided stiffer coil-over springs as well as a sway bar kit to improve handling. 3rd generation (2015–) 2015–2016 Shelby GT Shelby American launched the 2015 Shelby GT in 2015. It is a package available for the 2015 Ford Mustang GT and is available with either manual or automatic transmissions. According to Shelby American, the upgrades for the 2015 Shelby GT include a more aggressive style with carbon fiber enhancements: hood, rockers, splitters, spoiler and diffuser. Shelby GT also features cold air intakes, custom 20" WELD Venice wheels with high-grip Michelin tires, Ford Performance supercharger, Wilwood brakes, adjustable rear control arms, dash-mounted 3-gauge pod for track boost, fuel and oil pressure, race seats, roll cage and harness. Shelby GT Ecoboost The Shelby Ecoboost is a Shelby GT package for Ford Mustang Ecoboost launched in 2015. The package is available in North America. The GT EcoBoost's exterior changes are extensive. Many of the upgrades are the same as the ones found on packages offered on Ford Mustang GT. This includes the extensive use of carbon fiber, notable in the front splitter, hood, rear spoiler and rocker panel. The Shelby Ecoboost includes a Ford Performance handling pack upgraded suspension. Like the manual and automatic transmission V8 version, the EcoBoost version of the car is far more than stripes and a badge. The car was refined with a Ford Performance handling pack upgrade, engine tune and a throatier Ford Performance exhaust. The result is over 335 hp (250 kW) on 91 octane fuel and significantly better handling. 2015–2016 Shelby Super Snake Shelby American launched the new Shelby Super Snake in 2015. Due to the discontinuation of Shelby GT500, the 2015 Super Snake lost its GT500 tag, but still have some people called it as GT500 Super Snake. Like the 2015 Shelby GT, it is also based on 2015 Ford Mustang GT. The 2015 Super Snake has a 5.0L V8 equipped with a Shelby/Ford Racing supercharger engine rated at 650+hp (750+hp via Shelby/Whipple Supercharger). According to Shelby, the test car produces 850 hp (634 kW). But the car's 12.3-second, 116 mph (187 km/h) quarter-mile during testing by Road and Track lead them to conclude that the power figure should be much lower. In front is a carbon-fiber Super Snake hood, adorned with a forced-air scoop that rises above the central grille. The grille is also new, with a black anodized material used both in the upper and lower portions of the front intake. Aerodynamically, Shelby added a carbon-fiber front diffuser, which is complemented in the rear by a larger carbon-fiber spoiler. Below the wing there's more carbon fiber used in the new rear diffuser, taillight panel, and rocker panels with side-skirt aero blades just in front of the rear wheels. The composite is also in place for the mirror covers. Finally, there's the requisite Super Snake racing stripes and external badging. The Super Snake includes special CSM badging, Shelby floor mats, sill plates, a dash-mounted gauge pod made from carbon fiber and stuffed with AutoMeter gauges, Ford Performance short-throw shifter, an upholstery upgrade, racing seats, five-point racing harnesses, Shelby valve covers, and a carbon-fiber latch cover. Routing the power are 3.73 gears and new half shafts, both from Ford Performance. The tires are Michelin Pilot Super Sport on 20-inch WELD Racing Super Snake wheels. For the first time, the Super Snake will be available with either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission. Under hood options include an upgraded intercooler and cooling kits for the differential and transmission. Shelby American has for the first time provided right-hand drive version Super Snakes to the UK and Europe through official distributor Bill Shepherd Mustang, and also to Australia, introduced by Mustang Motorsport. 2016 Shelby Terlingua Shelby American offered a limited run of 50 Shelby Terlingua Racing Team Mustangs based on the 2015–16 Ford Mustang GT in 2016. The Shelby Terlingua is Shelby American's most track-inspired Mustang and is built as a tribute to the Terlingua Racing Team and their 1967 Trans Am Championship. Modifications for the Terlingua include a Whipple supercharger mated to the new Mustang GT 5.0 L V8 engine producing over 750 hp (560 kW) and an exclusive Eibach sway bar and adjustable coilovers. The Terlingua also includes Ford Performance's upgrades like halfshafts, a short throw shifter and a Borla Exhaust with black tips. The car also added the Brembo big brake kit for race track proven performance, and with 20-inch WELD racing wheels, tons of Shelby-designed carbon fiber components and the distinct Terlingua Racing Team badging. 2016 Ford Shelby GT-H On the 50th anniversary of the Rent-a-Racer program, Ford, Hertz and Shelby introduced the 2016 Shelby GT-H. Based on the 5.0L V8 Mustang GT, Shelby enhanced the Mustang with Ford Performance components including suspension, exhaust and wheels, along with Shelby design cues like polycarbonate hood and stripes. Beginning Memorial Day, 140 2016 Shelby GT-H's are available for rent as modern-day "Rent-A-Racers" through the Hertz Adrenaline Collection at select U.S. airport locations. There are several logos and emblems spread throughout the body. "GT-H" logos are on the grille, rear faux gas cap, and on the trunk lid. Shelby replaced the standard front splitter and rear spoiler with elements made of carbon-fiber. The hood is also specially crafted with vents and a big bulge at the center, the same as the Shelby GT. It has 19-inch aluminum wheels fitted with Michelin tires (255/40s at the front and 275/40s at the rear. The interior of the new Ford Mustang Shelby GT-H is based on the standard Mustang GT. Only a few features sets the two models' interior styling apart. They include "GT-H" logos on the headrests, customized sill plates with "Hertz Shelby GT-H" lettering and a numbered plaque on the dash. The floor mats also have "GT-H" logos. It also features a cat-back exhaust system from the Ford Performance. This specifically gives the model a throatier sound. A "Shelby-GT-H" engine plaque is also added as well as an engine cap kit. The chassis has also been updated via the Ford Racing Handling Pack which helps deliver a race-like driving experience. The package adds lowered springs, special-tuned dampers and revised sway bars. 2017 Shelby Super Snake 2017 50th Anniversary edition In January 2017, Shelby American introduced the 50th Anniversary edition Shelby Super Snake based on the 2017 Mustang GT and having a limited production run of 500 units. The 50th anniversary edition has different fascia and wheels than that of the Mustang GT version, can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds along with having a quarter mile time of 10.9 seconds. 2017 Shelby GTE Shelby American introduced the Shelby GTE on August 2, 2016. Like the Shelby GT, the GTE (in which the E stands for "Enhanced") is also available with either the V8 or Ecoboost engine, and an automatic or manual transmission. The V8 version produces 456 hp (340 kW), 21 hp (16 kW) more than the standard Mustang GT. The power increases come in part from the Ford Performance catalog, with V8 models getting the factory-approved Power Pack. EcoBoost models, in contrast, get a Shelby-specific engine tune. GTEs also get the Ford Performance Handling Pack and Ford Performance Borla cat-back touring exhaust as well as Ford Performance 19-inch wheels with tires of Shelby's choosing. The GTE also gets its own specific hood, upper and lower front grille, splitter, rocker panels, and rear spoiler. SVT 1st generation GT500 2007–2009 (S-197 I) 2007–2009 Ford Shelby GT500 Shelby and Ford returned for the 2007 model year with the Shelby GT500. Introduced at the 2005 New York International Auto Show, the GT500 uses a supercharged and intercooled Modular 5.4 L; 330.0 cu in (5,408 cc) V8 engine rated at 500 hp (507 PS; 373 kW) at 6,000 rpm and 480 lb⋅ft (651 N⋅m) at 4,500 rpm of torque. Features include the Tremec TR-6060 6-speed manual transmission, suspension tuning, a body kit, and 18-inch wheels. Deliveries of the Shelby GT500 began in May 2006. A collaboration of Ford's SVT and Carroll Shelby, the GT500 was produced in limited quantity for three years (approximately 10,000 units per year) on the line at Ford's Flat Rock, Michigan (AutoAlliance) assembly facility. In 2008, Shelby built a 5.4 L twin-turbo charged prototype from the GT500 under the name Code Red with the help of Nelson Racing Engines. The car had a power output of 1,000 bhp (750 kW), but didn't reach production due to its high cost and extreme nature. 2008–2009 GT500KR The Ford Shelby GT500KR, revealed at the 2007 New York International Auto Show, was released in the spring of 2008. The car is powered by a Modular 5,408 cc (5.4 L; 330.0 cu in) supercharged and intercooled version of the base GT500 V8 engine now upgraded to 540 bhp (547 PS; 403 kW) at 6,250 rpm and 510 lb⋅ft (691 N⋅m) at 4,500 rpm of torque with functional Cold Air Intake and unique calibration. SVT and Shelby announced that 1,000 40th Anniversary Editions would be built for the U.S. in 2008, with another 571 units in 2009. This 1,571 production run matches that of the original 1968 GT500KR. In total, 1,712 units were produced, with the remaining units going to Canada, export markets and military sales. All KRs were built by AutoAlliance International on the normal Mustang production line and then shipped to Shelby Automobiles Incorporated (SAI) where final assembly was completed. The Shelby GT500KR features a carbon fiber composite hood with functional scoops and vents, twist-lock hood pins modeled on the original 1968 KR, a unique carbon fiber splitter, carbon fiber mirror caps, and functional brake cooling ducts. The suspension was tuned by SVT with unique spring rates, dampers, stabilizer bars, and strut tower brace and was sourced from Ford Racing. Unique Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar tires were developed for the KR with a unique compound. With the same tread pattern as the Eagle F1 Supercar tire on the 2007–2009 GT500 they can only be identified by a unique Goodyear "Wingedfoot" emblem on the sidewall. The 2008–09 GT500KR draws on styling cues from the classic 1968 "King of the Road" GT500KR model, and the 2008 model includes "40th Anniversary" badging; both years will have availability of standard GT500 colors with "LeMans" stripes, and Carroll Shelby signature embroidered seats. The GT500KR's starting price was $120,000. The GT500KR features prominently in the Knight Rider television reboot on NBC. One of the main new characters of the show is KITT (voiced by Val Kilmer), an advanced artificial intelligence housed in a GT500KR that was colored black with dark gray stripes, using the GT500KR's hood scoops for its famous red scanner. KARR (once again voiced by Peter Cullen) KITT's evil prototype is also a Ford Mustang GT500KR, although its scanner is yellow, like its own original incarnation. Other specifications 4 seating Displacement 5,408 cc (5.4 L; 330.0 cu in) Power: 540 bhp (547 PS; 403 kW) @ 6,250 rpm Torque: 510 lb⋅ft (691 N⋅m) @ 4,500 rpm 3.73 differential ratio 18 x 9.5" Alcoa wheels with unique Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar tires (front: P255/45ZR18 rear: 285/40/ZR18) 2007-2009 Shelby GT500 Super Snake Starting in 2008, previous 2007 Shelby GT500 Mustangs could be sent to Carroll Shelby's Special Performance Plant in Las Vegas to be rebuilt into a Super Snake, for an additional cost of $27,995. The Super Snake will offer a 605 hp (451 kW) (at the engine) 5.4 L. A Kenne Bell twin-screw supercharged version with "over 725 hp" was also available, without warranty and offered a varied 0–60 mph acceleration time in 3.5 to 3.7 seconds. The Super Snake is inspired by the 1967 GT500 Super Snake, a car made by Carroll Shelby for Goodyear Tires. The Super Snake also comes with a variety of other performance, handling and cosmetic changes. These include badging, new gauge pod, 20-inch Alcoa wheels, fibreglass ram-air Super Snake hood, stripes, carbon fiber front splitter and side skirts, larger 6-piston Baer brakes, front and rear brake cooling ducts, complete track setup suspension, aluminum driveshaft, 3.73 differential gears and cat-back exhaust system. The Super Snake package was also available for 2005–2006 Ford Mustang. Prudhomme Edition Super Snake (2009–2010) The Prudhomme Edition Super Snake is a limited (100 units) drag racing package for the 2007–2010 Ford Shelby GT500 cars, named after Don Prudhomme. The engine is rated at 800 hp (597 kW) on race fuel or 750 hp (559 kW) on 93 octane pump gas. It includes a Kenne Bell supercharger, a modified air intake sticking out of the hood in the tilt front end, a five-point Impact safety harness, a Borla side exhaust system, front and rear adjustable BMR racing suspension and drag tires with optional street tires. The side lower rockers are incorporated. The package has an MSRP of $100,000 (not including the car). The Prudhomme concept car went on sale in 2009 Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas auction. The vehicle was sold with a winning bid price of $275,000 (before buyer premium). SVT 2nd generation GT500 2010-2014 (S-197 II) 2010-2012 Ford Shelby GT500 2010 For the 2010 model year, the Shelby Mustang GT500 was redesigned along with the base Ford Mustang. As with the 2007–09 GT500, the 2010 included unique front and rear fascias, hood with functional vents and unique rear spoiler. The rear spoiler included a functional Gurney flap. Along with new exterior colors, customers had the option of extending the exterior stripes onto the seats. Production was limited to 2000 units. The 5.4 L engine's power output was increased to 540 hp (403 kW) and 510 lb⋅ft (691 N⋅m) of torque with the addition of a cold air intake similar to the 08/09 GT500KR and includes a knock sensor to protect the engine if lower octane fuel is used. The 2010 GT500's fuel efficiency increased by 2 miles per gallon. SVT re-tuned the coupe's suspension and worked with Goodyear on 19" tires with new construction, compound and tread pattern. The coupe's 19-inch wheels are forged for a reduction in unsprung weight. The convertible retained the 18-inch wheels. The 2010 Shelby Mustang GT500 can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 km/h) in 4.19 seconds and has a top speed of 180 mph (290 km/h). The 2010 GT500 can brake from 60–0 mph in 107.0 ft and has a lateral acceleration of 1.00 G. 2011 and 2012 Much like the 2011 V6 and GT Mustangs, the 2011 Shelby GT500 got an engine update with an all-new 5.4 L aluminum engine which was 102 lb (46 kg) lighter than the previous cast-iron engine and uses Ford-patented plasma-coating technology (Plasma transferred wire arc). The inventors of PTWA received the 2009 IPO National Inventor of the Year award. This technology was initially patented and developed by inventors from Flame-Spray. The technology was subsequently improved upon by Ford and Flamespray. With the engine updates, not only has performance improved to 550 bhp (558 PS; 410 kW) at 6,200 rpm and 510 lb⋅ft (691 N⋅m) at 4,500 rpm of torque, but the GT500's gas mileage has improved to 15 mpg‑US (16 L/100 km; 18 mpg‑imp) city and 23 mpg‑US (10 L/100 km; 28 mpg‑imp) highway, which was enough to eliminate the U.S. Gas Guzzler Tax. The final production number of the 2011 Shelby GT500 by the end of the year was 5100 units. Ford also improved upon the handling characteristics of the GT500. The overall stance of the car has been lowered by 11 millimeters in front and 8 millimeters at the rear. The car also features Ford's new Electric Power Assist Steering (EPAS) that improves torque build-up and road feel which delivers quicker and more precise steering, increased effort on the racetrack or winding roads, and reduced effort in low-speed parking maneuvers. The car also has Ford's AdvanceTrac stability control system, which features a sport mode when pressed twice consecutively while stopped with the brakes applied. External improvements include an optional SVT Performance Package, which includes Goodyear EagleF1 SuperCar G: 2 tires, all-new lightweight 19-inch forged-aluminum wheels in front and 20-inch forged-aluminum wheels at the rear, a 3.73 rear axle ratio, and performance tuned front and rear shocks along with stiffer springs. The package includes a unique rear spoiler Gurney Flap for improved handling, slightly revised front and rear fascias, a new pedal box for improved clutch use, slotted brake dust shields for improved brake cooling, standard HID (high-intensity discharge) headlamps, MyKey programmable vehicle key, integrated spotter mirrors, and fold-down rear headrests. Optional is a glass top roof, previously available, starting in 2009, with the Mustang GT. The improvements in handling and performance gives the 2011 Shelby GT500 a skidpad rating of 1.0g, and a Virginia International Raceway lap time of 2:58:48, making it as fast as, and sometimes faster than, cars such as the M3, Audi R8 V10, Dodge Viper SRT-10 and Porsche GT3 around this racetrack. Changes to the 2012 model year Shelby GT500 included a new Recaro seat option. The Sterling Gray color was no longer available. 2011-12 GT500 Super Snake Just like the 2011 Shelby GT500, born on the proving grounds of the drag strip and road course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Shelby American worked with companies like Ford Racing to create an even more aggressive suspension and engine package for the 2011 Super Snake. For the 2011 model year, more power, new anthracite wheels, white stripes and new side scoops are optional. The 2011 Ford Shelby GT500 Super Snake post title package includes: Ford Racing handling pack including dynamic adjustable dampers, lowering springs, tuned stabilizer bars, and front strut tower brace 6-speed manual transmission with 3.73:1 rear axle ratio Shelby/Ford Racing supercharger upgrade producing over 660 HP and 590 ft.-lbs. of torque Either a Shelby/Ford Racing or Shelby/Kenne Bell supercharger kit producing 750 HP with upgraded drive shaft, billet twin 75mm throttle body and exclusive badges Optional Shelby/Kenne Bell 800 horsepower tune on pump gas Borla exhaust system An optional Shelby / Eibach handling pack is also available Shelby-designed Alcoa 20-inch wheels in durabright or anthracite Short-throw shifter Forged Shelby / Baer brakes with 6-piston calipers and cross drilled / vented rotors Front brake cooling ducts and behind the door side scoop Unique fiberglass hood featuring classic Shelby design and pins Shelby signature Super Snake stripes in either matte black or matte white "Shelby" lettering across the rear deck lid "Super Snake" vehicle badges and official Shelby CSM interior plate Optional two-tone leather interior Shelby signature embroidered headrests, floor mats and other Shelby designed components 2012 Limited Edition Full details on the 2012 Shelby GT500 Super Snake were revealed at the New York Auto Show. The package included a unique fiberglass hood featuring the iconic Shelby design and pins, a new Borla exhaust system, the Shelby signature Super Snake stripes that come in either matte black or matte white, and "Super Snake" vehicle badges. An official Shelby CSM interior plate and "Shelby" lettering across the rear deck lid allowed the GT500 to be fully recognizable as a Shelby vehicle, while a set of Shelby designed 20-inch Alcoa wheels that came with a choice of either durabright or anthracite finished off the exterior look. The interior also included Shelby signature embroidered headrests and floor mats, along with other Shelby designed components. These signatures could also be applied to optional two-tone leather. The 2012 Limited Edition Super Snake produces 750 hp (559 kW) and 590 lb⋅ft (800 N⋅m) of torque from its 5.4 L supercharged V8 engine. The power can be taken up to 800 hp (597 kW) with the optional upgrade. The engine is mated to a six-speed manual transmission with 3.73:1 rear axle ratio and short-throw shifter. The car uses forged Shelby/Baer brakes with 6-piston calipers and cross drilled/vented rotors. 2012 50th Anniversary Edition To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Shelby American, 50 black and gold Super Snakes were manufactured. The prototype was used as a promotional vehicle and is considered a highly sought-after car by collectors. The prototype had been reported as sold in 2015. 2011/12 Shelby American Shelby 1000 Unveiled at the 2012 New York International Auto Show, the Shelby 1000 is an upgrade to the 2012 Shelby GT500 and was available in two versions. The Street Legal version produces 920 hp (686 kW), while the Track version delivers 1,100 hp (820 kW). The chassis has been strengthened to handle the additional power. The rear end was replaced with a high performance 9-inch unit; the brakes included 6 pistons in front and 4 pistons out back. The driveshaft was a stronger unit while the suspension included new struts, sway bars and bushings. The hood, rear panel and splitter were functional pieces for performance. 2013-2014 Ford Shelby GT500 First unveiled at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November 2011, Ford Shelby GT500 was the most powerful Mustang at the time. The DOHC 4 valves per cylinder 5,812 cc (5.8 L; 354.7 cu in) supercharged and intercooled V8 engine is certified to produce 662 bhp (671 PS; 494 kW) at 6,500 rpm and 855 N⋅m (631 lb⋅ft) at 4,000 rpm of torque, with a claimed top speed of 202 mph (325 km/h). The new GT500 weighs 3,850 lb (1,746 kg), and was available from May 2012. The 2013 models had various improvements and differences compared to the GT500 of 2012 including new front end sheet metal along with standard HID headlamps, along with a new LED tail light assembly. The new 2013 Shelby GT500 also had no grill, due to the massive amount of cooling required for the vehicle. Performance changes included twin fuel pumps (a Mustang GT's single supply pump, twice over), larger fuel injectors, a grippier and larger-diameter clutch, a larger fan, a three-row intercooler (the previous car used a double-row unit), a beefed-up Tremec TR-6060 six-speed manual transmission with an internal oil pump, and a single-piece carbon-fiber driveshaft. Larger Brembo front disc brakes with six-piston calipers, reinforced axle tubes, and aero tweaks to help the car reach 200 mph (320 km/h)+ safely. According to Ford, the changes have resulted in a 14-percent reduction in drag and a 66-percent increase in front-end downforce. Also new for 2013 was a larger front anti-roll bar and retuned springs. An rpm-adjustable electronic launch-control function was standard, as was a four-mode electronic stability control system. A Performance package was also offered, adding two-mode adjustable Bilstein dampers and a Torsen limited-slip rear differential. In addition to the Performance package, a Track package for road racing could be ordered bringing a transmission cooler, a nose-mounted differential cooler for the Torsen limited-slip unit, and an air-to-oil engine-oil cooler. A Motor Trend magazine May 2012 road test provided a 0–60 mph (97 km/h) acceleration time of 3.5 seconds and a quarter mile time of 11.6 seconds at 125.7 mph (202.3 km/h). By comparison, the '13 GT500 was faster than both the Camaro ZL1 and Corvette Z06. Performance claims include a manufacturer's claim of 202 mph (325 km/h); Car and Driver: 189 mph (304 km/h)). In February 2012, at the Chicago Auto Show, Shelby officially announced that a convertible version of the 2013 GT500 will reach production. The convertible had a limited top speed of 155 miles per hour (249 km/h). No major changes from the previous year 2013 were made for the 2014 model year, however several colors had been discontinued and been made. 2013-2014 Shelby GT500 Super Snake At the Barrett-Jackson auction in 2012, Shelby American announced the release of the GT500 Super Snake. The Super Snake is offered in two supercharged engine packages which have power outputs of 662 hp (494 kW) and 850 hp (634 kW) respectively. The first fifty vehicles sold were available in limited edition colors, either in black with a triple gold stripe or white with a triple gold stripe. The 2013 GT500 Super Snake marked the discontinuation of the Shelby "Alcoa" Super Snake Wheels. New, lightweight forged aluminum wheel were produced and used instead. These wheels were also used on any GT500 (even 2007–2012 models) that entered the Shelby American Facility to be converted into a Super Snake version. The 2013 Super Snake was also offered with a wide body option. WELD Edition concept The WELD edition Super Snake had new wheels designed specifically and exclusively for Shelby and will be used on the next generations of Shelby Mustangs. This car was in the Weld wheels SEMA show display. The hood of this WELD Super Snake is an all carbon fiber Super Snake hood. It also has carbon fiber trim parts, included side rocker panels, rear diffuser, spoiler and rear fenders. Parts that featured WELD are its vinyl strips and Recaro seats. Wide Body Prototype This car was the first of the latest generation wide body Super Snakes. CSM13SS0001P was one of the key development vehicles for the wide body program as well as the Super Snake program for 2013. It appeared on both the wide body and many of the Super Snake promotional materials and displays during this time period. It was previously shown at the Detroit Auto Show in 2013 and the New York Auto Show, as well as many other shows and events all over US. It was also in the Shelby Annual publication. This prototype is currently on display in the Shelby Museum. Demonstrator Edition of Shelby American This demonstrator of Shelby American was used as part of a ride-n-drive to help show drivers the primary difference between the stock GT500 and the GT500 Super Snake. The conversion includes 850HP, courtesy of a 4.0L Whipple Supercharger, and comes with the optional Watts link and upgraded interior. 2013-2014 Shelby 1000 and 1000 S/C The 2013 Shelby 1000 was officially unveiled at the New York International Auto Show, under once again a Street Package, and a Track Package (S/C). The 2013/14 Shelby 1000 had the 5.8 L (1.3 imp gal; 1.5 US gal) V8 engine from the 2013/14 GT500. Upgrades included a full Engine Package using a performance 850 hp fuel system with 72 lb injectors, a Borla Custom 3-inch stainless-steel catback exhaust and new parts such as forged pistons, ported cylinder heads, titanium valve springs and titanium retainers. The engine breathes through a Kenne Bell 3.6L Supercharger using a 4.5-inch inlet pipe feeding an 1850cfm throttle body. A High Performance aluminum flywheel and a twin-clutch assembly is also used. The engine is estimated to produce over 1,200 hp (890 kW). Like the 2012 Shelby 1000, the 2013/14 needed significant under-body and chassis strengthening modifications to handle the extra power from the engine. Driveshaft tunnel braces and billet-aluminium supports and suspension parts were used. A Custom 9" Wavetrac Differential is used to help put power down through the rear wheels. The Exterior received the usual "Shelby 1000" decals and an overlay package with a functional carbon-fiber hood, front lip spoiler, rear bumper and side skirts. A Widebody Version of the car was also offered. Since 2011, Shelby 1000 become a package for 2010-14's Ford Shelby GT500, due to the popularity of the package, Shelby American also received 2013–14 Ford Shelby GT500s to be converted into Shelby 1000s from customers. Ford Performance 3rd generation Shelby GT350 (2015–2020) 2015 Ford Shelby GT350 For 2015, the GT350 has a 5,163 cc (5.2 L; 315.1 cu in) flat-plane crank V8 engine, known as Voodoo producing 526 bhp (533 PS; 392 kW) at 7,500 rpm and 429 lb⋅ft (582 N⋅m) of torque at 4,750 rpm. The GT350 is more track focused than the GT500, and was benchmarked against the Chevrolet Corvette C7, Porsche 911 S and BMW M4. It has a track-focused chassis tuning, wider front fenders housing 295-width Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires, significant aerodynamic changes to include lowering the hood around the engine, active-exhaust, six-piston Brembo brakes with semi-floating rotors, MagneRide damping option (the first MagneRide-equipped Ford), light weight Tremec six speed manual transmission, Recaro seats and various weight reduction efforts. Specifically, it has a carbon fiber reinforced polymer radiator support that directs cooling channels for various components. The GT350 and GT350R were discontinued after model year 2020. GT350R At the 2015 North American International Auto Show a more track-focused, hardcore and limited production version of the GT350 was unveiled called the GT350R, benchmarked against the Chevrolet Camaro Z28 and Porsche 911 GT3. The GT350R retains the GT350's 5.2-liter flat plane crank V8 engine, producing the same power, but grip was significantly increased by the means of wider Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, Carbon Revolution carbon fiber wheels (the first ever fitted to a mass-production road car) each weigh approximately 15 pounds less than the aluminum wheels on the GT350, and significantly more downforce thanks to a larger splitter and carbon-fiber rear wing to keep the car stuck to the ground. Items like the air conditioning, stereo, trunk floorboard, all the carpeting, the rear seats, and the backup camera could be removed from the factory resulting in the GT350R weighing 130 lb (59 kg) less than the GT350. Serial #001 was sold at the 2015 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction for US$1,000,000 (~$1.26 million in 2023) with the proceeds to benefit the JDRF. The GT350R won Road & Track magazine's 2016 "Performance Car of the Year" (PCOTY) and Car and Driver magazine's "10 Best Cars" for 2016. GT350R-C As with previous production-based Mustang race cars, Multimatic Engineering was approached by Ford Performance to develop a complete race-only version of the S550 Shelby GT350R. The resulting competition derivative, the GT350R-C, has safety equipment and roll-over protection homologated to FIA and IMSA specifications; Bosch MS5.0 ECU and ABS controller; MoTeC instrumentation and datalogging; adjustable anti-roll bars; Multimatic DSSV spool-valve dampers and other competition upgrades. Though delayed until the third race of the 2015 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, the GT350R-C was competitive right away: having earned pole position for its debut race, the GT350R-C won the next two rounds, and took three wins overall in its debut season. Success continued into 2016 as privateer team C360R finished behind the sole entry of factory-supported team Multimatic Motorsports for a 1–2 GT350R-C finish in the season-opener at Daytona. The #15 Multimatic Motorsports Shelby GT350R-C driven by Billy Johnson and Scott Maxwell continued on to win 6 out of 10 races as well as the 2016 Team, Driver, and Manufacturers Championships. 2019 Shelby GT350 The GT350 was updated for the 2019 model year. The update includes new suspension, aerodynamics, and bespoke Michelin summer tires. The updated rear wing has an optional Gurney flap, helping downforce without adding too much drag. The other aerodynamics update is out front. The GT350 now gets the grille from the GT350R, which has fewer openings, creating less front-end drag. The GT350 also moved to the 5.2L engine block, cylinder head, and valve train from the GT500 to reduce overall costs. In order to improve corner grip and braking, Ford commissioned a custom set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires that have a model-specific tread pattern and compound. The tires are 295/35R19 front section and 305/35R19 rear section, the same as the previous model. The springs and shocks have been revised — 10 percent softer in the rear and 10 percent firmer in the front. The tuning for the Magneride system, ABS, and electronic power steering system have also been revised. The GT350R also receives the high-tail steering knuckle from the 2020 GT500 as well as a new steering rack. The 2019 GT350 also gets updated in the interior and exterior. Power adjustable seats with faux-suede inserts are available, along with faux suede inserts on the doors. An optional 12-speaker Bang & Olufsen Play sound system is also available as the Tech Packages, which also includes puddle lamps, blind-spot monitoring, and cross-traffic alert The GT350 now comes standard with the 8-inch SYNC 3 touchscreen infotainment and dual-zone climate control. The new colors were also introduced: Velocity Blue and Ford Performance Blue. An exposed carbon fiber dashboard is an available option. The 2019 GT350 went on sale in early 2019. 2020 Shelby GT350 The GT350 only had minor updates for the 2020 model year. These upgrades include updated suspension tuning and new colors (Grabber Lime, Twister Orange (replacing Orange Fury), Iconic Silver, Rapid Red (replacing Ruby Red)). The 2020 also introduced a new option, the Heritage Edition Package celebrating 55 years of track focused Mustang Fastbacks, which includes Wimbledon White paint with Guardsman Blue Over-the-Top racing stripes, unique Guardsman Blue sides stripes not available on other GT350s. 2020 Shelby GT350SE To commemorate 55 years since the first Shelby Mustang, Shelby American created Carroll Shelby Signature Edition versions of the 2015-2020 Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT350R. Ford Performance 3rd generation Shelby GT500 (2020–2022) 2020 Shelby GT500 The 2020 GT500 was unveiled at the January 2019 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. It is powered by a hand-built 5.2-liter "Predator" aluminum-alloy V8 engine with a 2.65-liter roots-type supercharger. The Shelby GT500 produces 760 hp (567 kW; 771 PS) and 625 lb⋅ft (847 N⋅m) of torque. However, it will not arrive to the European market due to the V8 5.2 liter motor being unable to comply with European road regulations, therefore it will only focus on North America and Middle Eastern countries. The Michelin PS4S tires are upgraded to Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 with the GT500 Carbon Fiber Track Pack. In September 2021, the GT500 was introduced in the Philippines, featuring the same 5.2 liter supercharged V8 that produces 760 hp (567 kW) and 625 lbf⋅ft (847 N⋅m) of torque. It is mated to a seven-speed Tremec-sourced DCT. 2020 Shelby GT500 Signature Edition Shelby American released the signature edition of GT500 with an additional 40 horsepower. 2021 Shelby GT500KR On December 15, 2021, Shelby revealed the GT500KR on social media for their 60th Anniversary. The car is limited to 180 units worldwide. 2022 Shelby GT500 Code Red The first experimental car from Shelby which found its way to production. The car has a high-performance 5.2 L V8 boosted by a twin-turbo system, which contributes to a final output of over 1,000 hp (750 kW) with 93-octane fuel and up to 1,300 hp (970 kW) while running on ethanol. Shelby will produce 10 cars per year. Other variants and replicas Eleanor Mustang The Eleanor is a customized Mustang appearing in two movies, Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) and Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). In the 1974 movie, it is a 1971 Ford Mustang that was redressed as 1973 model, while in the 2000 movie it was a custom Dupont Pepper Grey 1967 Mustang Fastback depicted as a Shelby GT500. The 2000 model had a nitrous oxide system. Controversies Unique performance In 2002, Carroll Shelby partnered with Unique Performance which was reported to have been mismanaged and performed poorly with numerous customer complaints regarding false claims as to specifications and parts, poor workmanship and failure to deliver. On November 1, 2007, Unique Performance (constructing both Shelby and Chip Foose licensed Mustangs and Camaros) was raided by the Farmers Branch Police Department due to VIN irregularities (cars which have a number of VINs in various locations had VINs removed and moved illegally) and subsequently declared bankruptcy with all assets including numerous body shells and cars in construction auctioned off ending production. Denice Halicki and Gone in 60 Seconds The 2000 remake of the movie Gone in 60 Seconds had a custom 1967 Mustang 'Eleanor'. Carroll Shelby started to produce his own version of Eleanor, but Denice Halicki, widow of the original Eleanor's creator, filed suit against Carroll Shelby for infringing on the "Eleanor" trademark and copyrighted image. In 2008, Halicki won her case against Carroll Shelby. More recently, in 2022, the Shelby Estate won a case against Halicki, where it was decided "Eleanor" is not a character deserving of copyright protection. See also AC Cobra (Shelby Cobra) Ford Shelby Cobra Concept References Notes Bibliography External links Shelby Automobiles official page

Georges_Pompidou

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Pompidou

Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( POMP-id-oo; French: [ʒɔʁʒ(ə) pɔ̃pidu] ; 5 July 1911 – 2 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 to his death in 1974. He was earlier the longest-ever Prime Minister of France, under President Charles de Gaulle, from 1962 to 1968. In the context of the strong growth of the last years of the Trente Glorieuses, Pompidou continued De Gaulle's policy of modernisation, which was symbolised by the presidential use of the Concorde, the creation of large industrial groups and the launch of the high-speed train project (TGV). The government invested heavily in the automobile, agribusiness, steel, telecommunications, nuclear and aerospace sectors and also created the minimum wage (SMIC) and the Ministry of the Environment. His foreign policy was pragmatic but in line with the Gaullist principle of French independence. It was marked by a warming of relations with Richard Nixon's United States, close relations with Leonid Brezhnev's Soviet Union, the launch of the snake in the tunnel and the relaunching of European construction by facilitating the United Kingdom's entry to the EEC in contrast to de Gaulle's opposition. Pompidou died in office in 1974 of Waldenström's disease, a rare form of blood cancer. An admirer of contemporary art, Pompidou's name remains known worldwide for the Centre Pompidou, which he initiated and was inaugurated in 1977; it subsequently spread the name with its branches in Metz (France), Málaga (Spain), Brussels (Belgium) and Shanghai (China). A Georges Pompidou Museum is also dedicated to him in his hometown. Early life The family of Georges Pompidou was of very modest origins. He was the grandson of farmers of modest means in Cantal on both his father's and his mother's side. His parents were teachers. His case is thus often cited as a typical example of social mobility in the Third Republic because of public schooling. Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was born on 5 July 1911 in the commune of Montboudif, in the department of Cantal, in south-central France. After his hypokhâgne at Lycée Pierre-de-Fermat and his khâgne at Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he befriended the future Senegalese poet and statesman Léopold Sédar Senghor, Pompidou attended the École Normale Supérieure from which he graduated with a degree of agrégation in literature. He first taught literature at the lycée Henri IV in Paris until he was hired in 1953 by Guy de Rothschild to work at Rothschild. In 1956, he was appointed the bank's general manager, a position that he held until 1962. Later, he was hired by Charles de Gaulle to manage the Anne de Gaulle Foundation for Down syndrome (de Gaulle's youngest daughter, Anne, had Down syndrome). Prime minister Jacques Chirac served as an aide to Prime Minister Pompidou and recalled: The man gave the appearance of being secretive, wily, a little cunning—which he was, to a degree. However, it was primarily his intelligence, culture, and competence that conferred indisputable authority on him and commanded respect.... I remember his untamed eyebrows, his penetrating, very kindly gaze, his perceptive smile, full of humour and mischievousness, his voice with its wonderful low, warm, gravelly tone, and a figure that was both powerful and elegant. Naturally reserved, little given to emotional outbursts, Pompidou did not forge very close ties with his colleagues. He served as prime minister of France under de Gaulle after Michel Debré resigned, from 14 April 1962 to 10 July 1968, and to this day is the longest serving French prime minister under the Fifth Republic. His nomination was controversial because he was not a member of the National Assembly. In October 1962, he was defeated in a vote of no-confidence, but de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly. The Gaullists won the legislative election and Pompidou was reappointed as prime minister. In 1964, he was faced with a miners' strike. He led the 1967 legislative campaign of the Union of Democrats for the Fifth Republic to a narrow victory. Pompidou was widely regarded as being responsible for the peaceful resolution of the student uprising of May 1968. His strategy was to break the coalition of students and workers by negotiating with the trade-unions and employers (Grenelle conference). During the events of May 1968, disagreements arose between Pompidou and de Gaulle. Pompidou did not understand why the President did not inform him of his departure to Baden-Baden on 29 May. Their relationship, until then very good, would be strained from then on. Pompidou led and won the 1968 legislative campaign, overseeing a tremendous victory of the Gaullist Party. He then resigned. Nevertheless, in part due to his actions during the May 1968 crisis, he appeared as the natural successor to de Gaulle. Pompidou announced his candidature for the Presidency in January 1969. In social policy, Pompidou's tenure as prime minister witnessed the establishment of the National Employment Fund in 1963 to counter the negative effects on employment caused by industrial restructuring. Presidency After the failure of the 1969 constitutional referendum, de Gaulle resigned and Pompidou was elected president of France. In the general election of 15 June 1969, he defeated the centrist president of the Senate and acting president Alain Poher by a wide margin (58% to 42%). Though a Gaullist, Pompidou was more pragmatic than de Gaulle, notably facilitating the accession of the United Kingdom to the European Community on 1 January 1973. He embarked on an industrialisation plan and initiated the Arianespace project, as well as the TGV project, and furthered the French civilian nuclear programme. He was sceptical about the "New Society" programme of his prime minister, Jacques Chaban-Delmas. In 1972, he replaced Chaban-Delmas with Pierre Messmer, a more conservative Gaullist. While the left-wing opposition organised itself and proposed a Common Programme before the 1973 legislative election, Pompidou widened his presidential majority by including Centrist pro-European parties. In addition, he paid special attention to regional and local needs in order to strengthen his political party, the UDR (Union des Democrates pour la Ve République), which he made a central and lasting force in the Gaullist movement. Foreign affairs The United States was eager to restore positive relations with France after de Gaulle's departure from office. New US President Richard Nixon and his top adviser Henry Kissinger admired Pompidou; the politicians were in agreement on most major policy issues. The United States offered to help the French nuclear programme. Economic difficulties, however, arose following the Nixon Shock and the 1973–1975 recession, particularly over the role of the American dollar as the medium for world trade. Pompidou sought to maintain good relations with the newly independent former French colonies in Africa. In 1971, he visited Mauritania, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Gabon. He brought a message of cooperation and financial assistance, but without the traditional paternalism. More broadly, he made an effort to foster closer relations with North African and Middle Eastern countries in order to develop a hinterland including all nations bordering the Mediterranean. Modernising Paris Pompidou's time in office was marked by constant efforts to modernise France's capital city. He spearheaded construction of a modern art museum, the Centre Beaubourg (renamed Centre Pompidou after his death), on the edge of the Marais area of Paris. Other attempts at modernisation included tearing down the open-air markets at Les Halles and replacing them with the shopping mall of the same name, building the Montparnasse Tower, and constructing an expressway on the right bank of the Seine. Death in office While still in office, Pompidou died on 2 April 1974, at 9 PM in his apartment, from Waldenström macroglobulinemia. His body was buried on 4 April, in the churchyard of Orvilliers, where he had bought an old baker's house which he turned into a weekend home. The official memorial service for him was held at Notre-Dame de Paris with 3,000 dignitaries in attendance (including 28 heads of state and representatives from 82 countries). April 6 was declared a national day of mourning and entertainment and cultural events were canceled, theatres and schools closed. Attendees included: A controversy arose surrounding the secrecy kept over Pompidou's illness, and the political class agreed that future presidents of the Republic would have to provide reports on the state of their health; however, President François Mitterrand, who had pledged during his 1981 campaign to publish regular health bulletins, would also conceal, after his accession to power, the severity of the cancer from which he was suffering. Pompidou's wife Claude Pompidou would outlive him by more than thirty years. The couple had one (adopted) son, Alain Pompidou, who went on to serve as president of the European Patent Office. France withdrew from the Eurovision Song Contest 1974, which took place just four days after Pompidou's death, as a mark of respect. Works Anthologie de la Poésie Française, Livre de Poche/Hachette, 1961 Le Nœud gordien, éd. Plon, 1974 Entretiens et discours, deux vol., éd. Plon, 1975 Pour rétablir une vérité, éd. Flammarion, 1982 Medals Legion of Honour: Chevalier de la Legion of Honour: (France) (1948) Officier de la Legion of Honour: (France) (1957) Grand-croix de la Legion of Honour: 1969, grand-maître de l'ordre (France) (1969–1974, as president of the republic) Grand-croix de l'Ordre national du Mérite (France); Grand Cross of Order of St. Olav (Norway, 1962) Knight Grand Cross Order of St. Sylvester (Vatican City, 1964) Grand Cross of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (1969) Knight Grand Cross Order of the Netherlands Lion (Nederland, 1969) Grand Cordon of Order of Leopold (Belgium, 1972) First Class of the Star of the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesia, 1972) Grand Cross of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau (Luxembourg, 1972) Grand Cordon of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Poland, 1972) Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (United Kingdom, 1972) Grand Cordon of the Order of Independence (Tunisia, 1972) Knight Grand Cross with Collar of Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Italy, 1973) Honors He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Delhi during his tenure as Prime Minister. See also Centre Georges Pompidou Lycée Français International Georges Pompidou – a French school in Dubai and Sharjah, United Arab Emirates France's neocolonialism References Further reading Bell, David et al. eds. Biographical Dictionary of French Political Leaders Since 1870 (1990) pp 346–349. Bell, David. Presidential Power in Fifth Republic France (2000) pp 105–26. Berstein, Serge; Jean-Pierre Rioux (2000). The Pompidou Years, 1969-1974. Cambridge UP. ISBN 9780521580618. Demossier, Marion, et al., eds. The Routledge Handbook of French Politics and Culture (Routledge, 2019). Hibbs, Douglas A.; Vasilatos, Nicholas (1981). "Economics and Politics in France: Economic Performance and Mass Political Support for Presidents Pompidou and Giscard d'Estaing" (PDF). European Journal of Political Research. 9#2 (2): 133–145. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6765.1981.tb00595.x. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 June 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2015. Kolodziej, Edward A. (1974). French international policy under de Gaulle and Pompidou: the politics of grandeur. Cornell Univ Press. Lauber, Volkmar (1983). The political economy of France: from Pompidou to Mitterrand. Trachtenberg, Marc (2011). "The French Factor in US Foreign Policy during the Nixon-Pompidou Period, 1969–1974" (PDF). Journal of Cold War Studies. 13 (1): 4–59. doi:10.1162/JCWS_a_00073. S2CID 57559412. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 April 2013. === Offices and titles ===

Azamat_Satybaldy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azamat_Satybaldy

Azamat Satybaldy (Kazakh: Азамат Сатыбалды; born 2 November 1977) is a Kazakhstani actor of drama theater, cinema, producer, and television presenter. He is an Honored Artist of Kazakhstan (2014). He is also the Dean of Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts (since 14 February 2022). Biography Azamat Satybaldy was born in the settlement of Lugovoye, Jambyl Region, on 2 November 1977. In 1997 Azamat moved to Almaty to study at Zhurgenov Academy of Arts, and in 2000 he was sent to Kostanay Regional Drama Theater named after Omarov to finish his thesis. Having received his diploma in 2001, he joined Kazakh State Academic Drama Theater named after M.O. Auezov. Nearly 20 years after his debut at the main stage, Azamat was appointed Director of Musrepov Kazakh State Academic Theater for Children and Young Adults. In 2017, Azamat established his own theater company and filmmaking studio named "28 Theatre" and "Cinema 28" respectively. Mr. Satybaldy was appointed Dean of Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts in February 2022. From July 2023 to July 2024, he was the President of Kazakhfilm JSC. Filmography Family life Azamat's wife, Karabalina Nazgul Adietovna (b. 1977) is a Kazakh stage actress and producer. Laureate of Daryn State Award. They have a son named Sultan. Awards 2014 — Honored Artist of Kazakhstan 2016 — 25 Years of Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan Medal 2021— Order of Kurmet == References ==

Trace_Gas_Orbiter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trace_Gas_Orbiter

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO or ExoMars Orbiter) is a collaborative project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos agency that sent an atmospheric research orbiter and the Schiaparelli demonstration lander to Mars in 2016 as part of the European-led ExoMars programme. The Trace Gas Orbiter delivered the Schiaparelli lander on 16 October 2016, which crashed on the surface due to a premature release of the parachute. The orbiter began aerobraking in March 2017 to lower its initial orbit of 200 by 98,000 km (120 by 60,890 mi). Aerobraking concluded on 20 February 2018 when a final thruster firing resulted in an orbit of 200 by 1,050 km (120 by 650 mi). Additional thruster firings every few days raised the orbiter to a circular "science" orbit of 400 km (250 mi), which was achieved on 9 April 2018. A key goal is to gain a better understanding of methane (CH4) and other trace gases present in the Martian atmosphere that could be evidence for possible biological activity. The programme was originally intended to follow with the Kazachok lander and the Rosalind Franklin rover in 2022, which would have searched for biomolecules and biosignatures; the TGO would have operated as the communication link for the ExoMars lander and rover and provided communication for other Mars surface probes with Earth. History Investigations with space and Earth-based observatories have demonstrated the presence of a small amount of methane on the atmosphere of Mars that seems to vary with location and time. This may indicate the presence of microbial life on Mars, or a geochemical process such as volcanism or hydrothermal activity. The challenge to discern the source of methane in the atmosphere of Mars prompted the independent planning by ESA and NASA of one orbiter each that would carry instruments in order to determine if its formation is of biological or geological origin, as well as its decomposition products such as formaldehyde and methanol. Origins ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter was born out of the nexus of ESA's Aurora programme ExoMars flagship and NASA's 2013 and 2016 Mars Science Orbiter (MSO) concepts. It became a flexible collaborative proposal within NASA and ESA to send a new orbiter-carrier to Mars in 2016 as part of the European-led ExoMars mission. On the ExoMars side, ESA authorised about half a billion Euros in 2005 for a rover and mini-station; eventually this evolved into being delivered by an orbiter rather than a cruise stage. Attempted collaboration with NASA NASA's Mars Science Orbiter (MSO) was originally envisioned in 2008 as an all-NASA endeavour aiming for a late 2013 launch. NASA and ESA officials agreed to pool resources and technical expertise and collaborate to launch only one orbiter. The agreement, called the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative, was signed in July 2009 and proposed to use an Atlas rocket launcher instead of a Soyuz rocket, which significantly altered the technical and financial setting of the European ExoMars mission. Since the rover was originally planned to be launched along with the TGO, a prospective agreement would require that the rover lose enough weight to fit aboard the Atlas launch vehicle with NASA's orbiter. Instead of reducing the rover's mass, it was nearly doubled when the mission was combined with other projects to a multi-spacecraft programme divided over two Atlas V launches: the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) was merged into the project, carrying a meteorological lander planned for launch in 2016. The European orbiter would carry several instruments originally meant for NASA's MSO, so NASA scaled down the objectives and focused on atmospheric trace gases detection instruments for their incorporation in ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Under the FY2013 budget President Barack Obama released on 13 February 2012, NASA terminated its participation in ExoMars due to budgetary cuts in order to pay for the cost overruns of the James Webb Space Telescope. With NASA's funding for this project cancelled, most of ExoMars' plans had to be restructured. Collaboration with Russia On 15 March 2012, the ESA's ruling council announced it would press ahead with its ExoMars program in partnership with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, which planned to contribute two heavy-lift Proton launch vehicles and an additional entry, descent and landing system to the 2020 rover mission. Under the collaboration proposal with Roscosmos, the ExoMars mission was split into two parts: the orbiter/lander mission in March 2016 that includes the TGO and a 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) diameter stationary lander built by ESA named Schiaparelli, and the Rosalind Franklin rover mission in 2020 (postponed to 2022 ). Both missions are using a Proton-M rocket. Launch The Trace Gas Orbiter and descent module Schiaparelli completed testing and were integrated to a Proton rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in mid-January 2016. The launch occurred at 09:31 UTC on 14 March 2016. Four rocket burns occurred in the following 10 hours before the descent module and orbiter were released. A signal from the spacecraft was received at 21:29 UTC that day, confirming that the launch was successful and the spacecraft were functioning properly. Shortly after separation from the probes, a Brazilian ground telescope recorded small objects in the vicinity of the Briz-M upper booster stage, suggesting that the Briz-M stage exploded a few kilometres away, without damaging the orbiter or lander. Briefing reporters in Moscow, the head of Roscosmos denied any anomaly and made all launch data available for inspection. Status The Schiaparelli lander separated from the TGO orbiter on 16 October 2016, three days before it arrived on Mars, and entered the atmosphere at 21,000 km/h (13,000 mph; 5.8 km/s). Schiaparelli transmitted about 600 megabytes of telemetry during its landing attempt, before it impacted the surface at 540 km/h (340 mph). The TGO was injected into Mars orbit on 19 October 2016 and underwent 11 months of aerobraking (March 2017 to February 2018), reducing its orbital speed by 3,600 km/h (2,200 mph) and its orbit from an initial 98,000 by 200 km (60,890 by 120 mi) down to 1,050 by 200 km (650 by 120 mi). Additional thruster firings through mid-April circularised the spacecraft's orbit to 400 km (250 mi), and full science activities began on 21 April 2018. Specifications Dimensions The central bus is 3.2 m × 2 m × 2 m (10.5 ft × 6.6 ft × 6.6 ft) Propulsion 424 N (95 lbf) bi-propellant main engine, used for Mars orbit insertion and manoeuvres Power 20 m2 (220 sq ft) solar arrays spanning 17.5 m (57 ft) tip-to-tip, and capable of rotating in one axis; generates about 2,000 W of power at Mars Batteries 2 modules of lithium-ion batteries with approximately 5100 watt hours total capacity to provide power during eclipses over the prime mission Communication 2.2 m (7 ft 3 in) X band high-gain antenna with a two-axis pointing mechanism and 65 W RF travelling-wave tube amplifier to communicate with Earth Two Electra UHF band transceivers with a single helical antenna to communicate with spacecraft at Mars Thermal control Spacecraft yaw axis control to ensure the three faces containing the science payload remain cold Mass 3,755 kg (8,278 lb), wet mass of the orbiter 4,332 kg (9,550 lb), wet mass of the orbiter plus Schiaparelli lander Payload 113.8 kg (251 lb) of science instruments Science The TGO separated from the ExoMars Schiaparelli demonstration lander and would have provided it with telecommunication relay for 8 Martian solar days (sols) after landing. Then the TGO gradually underwent aerobraking for seven months into a more circular orbit for science observations and will eventually provide communications relay for the future Rosalind Franklin rover and will continue serving as a relay satellite for future landed missions. The FREND instrument is currently mapping hydrogen levels to a maximum depth of 1 m (3 ft 3 in) beneath the Martian surface. Locations where hydrogen is found may indicate water-ice deposits, which could be useful for future crewed missions. Particularly, the mission is in the process of characterising spatial, temporal variation, and localisation of sources for a broad list of atmospheric trace gases. If methane (CH4) is found in the presence of propane (C3H8) or ethane (C2H6), that would be a strong indication that biological processes are involved. However, if methane is found in the presence of gases such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), that would be an indication that the methane is a byproduct of geological processes. Detection The nature of the methane source requires measurements of a suite of trace gases in order to characterise potential biochemical and geochemical processes at work. The orbiter has very high sensitivity to (at least) the following molecules and their isotopomers: water (H2O), hydroperoxyl (HO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2), ethylene (C2H4), ethane (C2H6), formaldehyde (H2CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbonyl sulfide (OCS), sulfur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen chloride (HCl), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3). Detection sensitivities are at levels of 100 parts per trillion, improved to 10 parts per trillion or better by averaging spectra which could be taken at several spectra per second. Characterisation Spatial and temporal variability: latitude–longitude coverage multiple times in a Mars year to determine regional sources and seasonal variations (reported to be large, but still controversial with present understanding of Mars gas-phase photochemistry) Correlation of concentration observations with environmental parameters of temperature, dust and ice aerosols (potential sites for heterogeneous chemistry) Localisation Mapping of multiple tracers (e.g., aerosols, water vapour, CO, CH4) with different photochemical lifetimes and correlations helps constrain model simulations and points to source/sink regions To achieve the spatial resolution required to localise sources might require tracing molecules at parts-per-billion concentrations Instruments Like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Trace Gas Orbiter is a hybrid science and telecom orbiter. Its scientific payload mass is about 113.8 kg (251 lb) and consists of: The Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) has two infrared and one ultraviolet spectrometer channels. Developed by Belgium. The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) has three infrared spectrometer channels. Developed by Russia. NOMAD and ACS are providing the most extensive spectral coverage of Martian atmospheric processes so far. Twice per orbit, at local sunrise and sunset, they are able to observe the Sun as it shines through the atmosphere. Detection of atmospheric trace species at the parts-per-billion (ppb) level are possible. The Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) is a high-resolution, 4.5 m per pixel (15 ft/pixel), colour stereo camera for building accurate digital elevation models of the Martian surface. It will also be an important tool for characterising candidate landing site locations for future missions. Developed by Switzerland. The Fine-Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector (FREND) is a neutron detector that can provide information on the presence of hydrogen, in the form of water or hydrated minerals, in the top 1 m (3 ft 3 in) of the Martian surface. Developed by Russia. Relay telecommunications Due to the challenges of entry, descent and landing, Mars landers are highly constrained in mass, volume and power. For landed missions, this places severe constraints on antenna size and transmission power, which in turn greatly reduce direct-to-Earth communication capability in comparison to orbital spacecraft. As an example, the capability downlinks on Spirit and Opportunity rovers had only 1⁄600 the capability of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter downlink. Relay communication addresses this problem by allowing Mars surface spacecraft to communicate using higher data rates over short-range links to nearby Mars orbiters, while the orbiter takes on the task of communicating over the long-distance link back to Earth. This relay strategy offers a variety of key benefits to Mars landers: increased data return volume, reduced energy requirements, reduced communications system mass, increased communications opportunities, robust critical event communications and in situ navigation aid. NASA provided an Electra telecommunications relay and navigation instrument to assure communications between probes and rovers on the surface of Mars and controllers on Earth. The TGO will provide the Rosalind Franklin rover with telecommunications relay; it will also serve as a relay satellite for future landed missions. Results The spacecraft took its first photos of the surface of Mars on 15 April 2018. The first year of science operations yielded a wealth of new data and scientific discoveries, including: new observations of the atmospheric composition and structure, water-ice cloud enhancement during a global dust storm, new measurements of the atmospheric thermal structure and density, estimations of the timespan of the climate record of the south polar ice sheet, confirmation of dry-processes being responsible for Recurring Slope Lineae in Gale crater, and high-resolution maps of shallow subsurface Hydrogen, increasing the known amounts of probably near-surface buried water ice. In April 2019, the science team reported their first methane results: TGO had detected no methane whatsoever, even though their data were more sensitive than the methane concentrations found using Curiosity, Mars Express, and ground-based observations. See also References External links ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter at ESA.int ESA ExoMars on Flickr

Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President for award of the Medal or any person selected by the President upon his own initiative," and was created to recognize people who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." The award is not limited to U.S. citizens, and, while it is a civilian award, it can also be awarded to military personnel and worn on the uniform. It was established in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy, superseding the Medal of Freedom that was initially established by President Harry S. Truman in 1945 to honor civilian service. Occasionally, the medal award is further denoted as, "with distinction." There are no specific criteria for receiving the award with distinction; Executive Order 11085 simply specifies that the award should come in two degrees, and hence any decision to award the higher degree is entirely at the discretion of the president. In 2017, President Barack Obama stated that receiving the award with distinction indicates "an additional level of veneration" in a class of individuals already held in the highest esteem. As of June 2024, the medal has been awarded with distinction at least 55 times, amounting to approximately 8% of all awards. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the supreme civilian decoration that can be awarded in discretion of the president, whereas its predecessor, the Medal of Freedom, was inferior in precedence to the Medal for Merit; the Medal of Freedom was awarded by any of three Cabinet secretaries, whereas the Medal for Merit was awarded by the president, as is the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Overview President John F. Kennedy established the presidential version of the decoration in 1963 through Executive Order 11085 (signed February 22, 1963), with unique and distinctive insignia, vastly expanded purpose, and far higher prestige. It was the first U.S. civilian neck decoration and, if awarded with Distinction, is the only U.S. sash and star decoration (the Chief Commander degree of the Legion of Merit—which may only be awarded to foreign heads of state—is a star decoration but without a sash). The executive order calls for the medal to be awarded annually on or around July 4, and at other convenient times as chosen by the president, but it has not been awarded every year (e.g., 2001, 2010). The recipient selection process is not made public, but the Trump administration stated that it included recommendations and nominations from the public, Cabinet, White House senior staff, and other presidential advisory bodies, which were then vetted prior to presentation to the President. The order establishing the medal also expanded the size and the responsibilities of the Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board so it could serve as a major source of such recommendations. The medal may be awarded to an individual more than once. Colin Powell received two awards, his second being with Distinction; Ellsworth Bunker received both of his awards with Distinction. It may also be awarded posthumously; examples include John F. Kennedy, Steve Jobs, Pope John XXIII, Lyndon Johnson, John Wayne, Paul "Bear" Bryant, Thurgood Marshall, Cesar Chavez, Walter Reuther, Roberto Clemente, Jack Kemp, Harvey Milk, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Elouise Cobell, Grace Hopper, Antonin Scalia, Elvis Presley and Babe Ruth. Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, civil rights workers murdered in 1964, were awarded their medals in 2014, 50 years later. In 1970, President Richard Nixon awarded the medal to the entire Apollo 13 mission operations team, as well as to the mission's crew. Athlete and activist Simone Biles is the youngest person to receive this award at the age of 25. Insignia The badge of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is in the form of a golden star with white enamel, with a red enamel pentagon behind it; the central disc bears thirteen gold stars on a blue enamel background (taken from the Great Seal of the United States) within a golden ring. Golden bald eagles with spread wings stand between the points of the star. It is worn around the neck on a blue ribbon having white edge stripes. Women may choose to receive the award as a bow worn on the left chest (as for Margaret Thatcher). A special and rarely granted award, called the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, has a larger version of the same badge, which is worn as a star on the left chest. It comes with a sash that is worn over the right shoulder (similarly to the Grand Cross of an order of chivalry), with its rosette (blue with a white edge, bearing the central disc of the badge at its center) resting on the left hip. When the medal with Distinction is awarded, the star may be presented hanging from a neck ribbon and can be identified by its size, which is larger than the standard badge. In addition to the full-size insignia, the award is accompanied by a service ribbon for wear on military service uniforms, a miniature medal pendant for wear on mess dress or civilian formal wear, and a lapel badge for wear on civilian clothes, all of which comes in the full presentation set. There is a silver bald eagle with spread wings on the miniature and service ribbon, or a golden bald eagle for a medal awarded with Distinction. The Insignia was designed by the Army's Institute of Heraldry, led by Col. Harry Downing Temple. Revocation There is no process for the award to be revoked. This issue has been raised regarding certain recipients, in particular regarding the award given to actor and comedian Bill Cosby. Recipients Gallery See also Awards and decorations of the United States government Awards and decorations of the United States military References External links "Presidential Medal of Freedom" Archived 2009-08-16 at the Wayback Machine, an article (undated) from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum's official website. Accessed August 22, 2009. "Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients", a list of recipients from May 5, 1993, through August 19, 2009, from the U.S. Senate official website. Accessed August 22, 2009. "President Bush Honors Medal of Freedom Recipients", a news release from the White House Press Secretary, December 15, 2006, containing a transcript of President George W. Bush's opening remarks at the December 15, 2006, presentation (with link to individual citations). Hosted on the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration's official website. Accessed August 22, 2009. "Medal of Freedom Ceremony" (August 12, 2009), a news release, August 12, 2009, from the White House Press Secretary at whitehouse.gov, the White House's official website. Accessed August 22, 2009. Sanger, David E. (December 15, 2004). "War Figures Honored With Medal of Freedom". The New York Times.

Nobel_Peace_Prize

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Peace_Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. Since March 1901, it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to people who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The Oxford Dictionary of Contemporary History describes it as "the most prestigious prize in the world." In accordance with Alfred Nobel's will, the recipient is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway. The prize award ceremony is held in Oslo City Hall since 1990, previously in the assembly hall of the University of Oslo (1947 -1989), Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–1946), and the Parliament (1901–1904). Due to its political nature, the Nobel Peace Prize has, for most of its history, been the subject of numerous controversies. The most recent prize was awarded to imprisoned women's rights advocate Narges Mohammadi from Iran for her work in "fighting against the oppression of women in Iran." Background According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who in the preceding year "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses". Alfred Nobel's will further specified that the prize be awarded by a committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian Parliament. Nobel died in 1896 and he did not leave an explanation for choosing peace as a prize category. As he was a trained chemical engineer, the categories for chemistry and physics were obvious choices. The reasoning behind the peace prize is less clear. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, his friendship with Bertha von Suttner, a peace activist and later recipient of the prize, profoundly influenced his decision to include peace as a category. Some Nobel scholars suggest it was Nobel's way to compensate for developing destructive forces. His inventions included dynamite and ballistite, both of which were used violently during his lifetime. Ballistite was used in war and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an Irish nationalist organization, carried out dynamite attacks in the 1880s. Nobel was also instrumental in turning Bofors from an iron and steel producer into an armaments company. There is a well known, but possibly apocryphal, story that in 1888, after the death of his brother Ludvig, several newspapers published obituaries of Alfred by mistake. One French newspaper condemned him for his invention of military explosives and this is said to have brought about his decision to leave a better legacy after his death. The obituary stated, Le marchand de la mort est mort ("The merchant of death is dead"), and went on to say, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." However, it has been questioned whether or not the obituary in question actually existed. It is also unclear why Nobel wished the Peace Prize to be administered in Norway, which was ruled in union with Sweden at the time of Nobel's death. The Norwegian Nobel Committee speculates that Nobel may have considered Norway better suited to awarding the prize, as it did not have the same militaristic traditions as Sweden. It also notes that at the end of the 19th century, the Norwegian parliament had become closely involved in the Inter-Parliamentary Union's efforts to resolve conflicts through mediation and arbitration. Nomination and selection The Norwegian Parliament appoints the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Nomination Each year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee specifically invites qualified people to submit nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. The statutes of the Nobel Foundation specify categories of individuals who are eligible to make nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. These nominators are: Members of national assemblies and governments and members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Court of Justice at the Hague Members of Institut de Droit International Academics at the professor or associate professor level in history, social sciences, philosophy, law, and theology, university rectors, university directors (or their equivalents), and directors of peace research and international affairs institutes Previous recipients, including board members of organizations that have received the prize Present and past members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Former permanent advisers to the Norwegian Nobel Institute The working language of the Norwegian Nobel Committee is Norwegian; in addition to Norwegian the committee has traditionally received nominations in French, German, and English, but today most nominations are submitted in either Norwegian or English. Nominations must usually be submitted to the committee by the beginning of February in the award year. Nominations by committee members can be submitted up to the date of the first Committee meeting after this deadline. In 2009, a record 205 nominations were received, but the record was broken again in 2010 with 237 nominations; in 2011, the record was broken once again with 241 nominations. The statutes of the Nobel Foundation do not allow information about nominations, considerations, or investigations relating to awarding the prize to be made public for at least 50 years after a prize has been awarded. Over time, many individuals have become known as "Nobel Peace Prize Nominees", but this designation has no official standing, and means only that one of the thousands of eligible nominators suggested the person's name for consideration. Indeed, in 1939, Adolf Hitler received a satirical nomination from a member of the Swedish parliament, mocking the (serious but unsuccessful) nomination of Neville Chamberlain. Nominations from 1901 to 1971 have been released in a database. Selection Nominations are considered by the Nobel Committee at a meeting where a shortlist of candidates for further review is created. This shortlist is then considered by permanent advisers to the Nobel institute, which consists of the institute's Director and Research Director, and a small number of Norwegian academics with expertise in subject areas relating to the prize. Advisers usually have some months to complete reports, which are then considered by the committee to select the laureate. The Committee seeks to achieve a unanimous decision, but it is not always possible. The Nobel Committee typically comes to a conclusion in mid-September, but occasionally the final decision has not been made until the last meeting before the official announcement at the beginning of October. Awarding the prize The Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway and the Norwegian royal family on 10 December each year (the anniversary of Nobel's death). The Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize not presented in Stockholm. The Nobel laureate receives a diploma, a medal, and a document confirming the prize amount. The money awarded varies over time, depending on the profitability of the Nobel bequest's investments and the exchange rate to the recipient's local currency. Around 2020, typical awards were on the order of roughly 10 million SEK, which translated to roughly 1 million USD. Since 1990, the ceremony has taken place at Oslo City Hall. From 1947 to 1989, the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony was held in the Atrium of the University of Oslo Faculty of Law, a few hundred meters from Oslo City Hall. Between 1905 and 1946, the ceremony took place at the Norwegian Nobel Institute. From 1901 to 1904, the ceremony took place in the Storting (Parliament). Medal The medal for the Peace Prize was designed by the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland in 1901. Vigeland's profile sculpture of Alfred Nobel differs from Erik Lindberg's profile of Nobel on the chemistry, literature, physics, and physiology or medicine medals. The dies for Vigeland's peace medal were made by Lindberg as Vigeland was not an engraver. The reverse of the medal features three men in a 'fraternal bond' and the inscription "Pro pace et fraternitate gentium" ("For the peace and brotherhood of men"). The edge of the medal is inscribed with the year of its awarding, with the name of its recipient and "Prix Nobel de la Paix". Laureates As of October 2022, the Peace Prize has been awarded to 110 individuals and 27 organizations; 18 women have won the Nobel Peace Prize, more than for any other Nobel Prize. Only two recipients have won multiple Prizes: the International Committee of the Red Cross has won three times (1917, 1944, and 1963) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has won twice (1954 and 1981). Lê Đức Thọ is both the only person who refused to accept the Nobel Peace Prize and as of 2024, the only Vietnamese who has won the prize. Reception Some commentators have suggested that the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded in politically motivated ways for more recent or immediate achievements, or with the intention of encouraging future achievements. Some commentators have suggested that to award a peace prize on the basis of unquantifiable contemporary opinion is unjust or possibly erroneous, especially as many of the judges cannot themselves be said to be impartial observers. Further criticism holds that the Nobel Peace Prize has become increasingly politicized, in which people are awarded for aspirations rather than accomplishments, which has allowed for the prize to be used for political effect but can cause perverse consequences due to the neglect of existing power politics, including the breakdown of fragile peace processes. In 2011, a feature story in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten contended that major criticisms of the award were that the Norwegian Nobel Committee ought to recruit members from professional and international backgrounds, rather than retired members of parliament; that there is too little openness about the criteria that the committee uses when they choose a recipient of the prize; and that the adherence to Nobel's will should be more strict. In the article, Norwegian historian Øivind Stenersen argues that Norway has been able to use the prize as an instrument for nation-building and furthering Norway's foreign policy and economic interests. In another 2011 Aftenposten opinion article, the grandson of one of Nobel's two brothers, Michael Nobel, also criticised what he believed to be the politicisation of the award, claiming that the Nobel Committee has not always acted in accordance with Nobel's will. Author Christopher Hitchens called the Nobel Peace Prize "a huge bore and a fraud" in his memoir Hitch-22. Acclamation Military cemeteries in every corner of the world are silent testimony to the failure of national leaders to sanctify human life. — Yitzhak Rabin, 1994 Nobel Peace Prize lecture Criticism of individual conferments Nobel Peace Prize controversies often reach beyond the academic community. Criticisms that have been levelled against some of the awards include allegations that they were politically motivated, premature, or guided by a faulty definition of what constitutes work for peace. The awards given to Mikhail Gorbachev, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat, Lê Đức Thọ, Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, Abiy Ahmed, and the European Union have all been the subject of controversy. The 1973 award to Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ may have been the most controversial, with two members of the selection committee resigning in protest and widespread derision in the press. Notable omissions Foreign Policy has listed Corazon Aquino, Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, U Thant, Václav Havel, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and Fazle Hasan Abed as people who "never won the prize, but should have." The omission of Mahatma Gandhi has been particularly widely discussed, including in public statements by various members of the Nobel Committee. The committee has confirmed that Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and, finally, a few days before his assassination in January 1948. The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee. Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 said, "The greatest omission in our 106-year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize, whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question." In 1948, following Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the ground that "there was no suitable living candidate" that year. Later, when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that it was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi." See also Gandhi Peace Prize Sakharov Prize References External links "The Nobel Peace Prize" – Official webpage of the Norwegian Nobel Committee "The Nobel Peace Prize" at the official site of the Nobel Prize "All Nobel Laureates in Peace" "The Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies" "National Peace Nobel Prize shares 1901–2009 by citizenship (or home of the organization) at the time of the award." – From J. Schmidhuber (2010): Evolution of National Nobel Prize Shares in the 20th Century at arXiv:1009.2634v1

Tunisian_National_Dialogue_Quartet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_National_Dialogue_Quartet

The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet (Arabic: الرباعي التونسي للحوار الوطني‎, French: Quartet du dialogue national) is a group of four civil society organizations that were central mediators in the effort to consolidate democratic gains and form a lasting constitutional settlement in Tunisia following the unrest and historic regime change of the 2011 Jasmine Revolution.[1] The quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 following a political crisis that halted the constitutional process. As a result of the Quartet's success in bringing the Ennahda-led government to see negotiations through and producing a historic constitution, on 9 October 2015, the quartet was awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. The National Dialogue Quartet comprises the following organizations in Tunisian civil society: The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT, Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail) The Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA, Union Tunisienne de l'Industrie, du Commerce et de l'Artisanat) The Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH, La Ligue Tunisienne pour la Défense des Droits de l'Homme) The Tunisian Order of Lawyers (Ordre National des Avocats de Tunisie) Tunisian civil society in context Following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid in mid-December 2010, Tunisia was beset by proliferating protest movements. The movement was initially catalyzed by rural middle-class workers and youths in the region of Sidi Bouzid, from where Bouazizi hailed, but grew to include diverse swaths of the population. It was never obvious that Tunisian unions would bolster protest efforts. Since independence, the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT) had been politically active, notably in protesting IMF-imposed cuts to subsidies, but had increasingly been repressed by the Ben Ali regime. Events such as the 1978 "Black Thursday" protest in response to consumer price hikes and wage stagnation and the 1985 protests due to further IMF cuts to subsidies and skyrocketing cost of living seemed unlikely to be replicated in Ben Ali's more repressive climate. At the height of this repressive period, the Tunisian Human Rights League had been the lone advocacy NGO formally acknowledged. According to the 2011 Arab Barometer Survey, only three percent of the sample claimed union participation in contrast to Egypt, which had 10 percent of the protesting population holding union affiliation. Despite this, UGTT's reach had been such during the Ben Ali regime that membership exceeded 800,000 with 150 field offices across the state; identification with the union was often seen as synonymous with party opposition. Protest participation steadily increased leading up to December 2010. In 2006 and 2007 alone, 100,000 Tunisians went on strike when Prime Minister Nazif reduced all state worker pay, whereas from 1996 to 2004, no more than 50,000 protested each year. UGTT, responding to perceived failure to mobilize workers during the 2008 Gafsa Riots, was able to successfully navigate the Tunisian Revolution to its advantage. UGTT responded to Bouazizi's self-immolation by calling a strike in Sidi Bouzid and formulating plans for strikes in outer-lying districts. Mouldi Jendoubi, deputy secretary-general of the UGTT, quickly mobilized further strike efforts and eventually called a general strike on 14 January. Converse to the missed opportunity of 2008, UGTT had leveraged its institutional position and historical proximity to the Ben Ali regime to its advantage. The UGTT had assumed a vanguard position for the protest movement and would be a key player in any negotiations to follow. Background to formation Despite Ben Ali's departure, the ruling Troika led by Islamist party Ennahda proved unable to strike a lasting constitutional settlement in the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia. Only having won 89 of 217 parliamentary seats, Ennahda was forced into a tripartite coalition, joining secular parties CPR and Ettakatol. However, the alliance was tenuous, and Ennahda was accused of attempting to impose an Islamist juridical order on the state. On 20 March 2012, protests were held in response to Ennahda's proposed constitutional provisions that would have codified Islam as the official religion of the state. Ennahda had also made clear that women were to be placed in a "complementary" legal position, and not deserving of formal equality. Secularists feared that this legal language would have enabled a path to the future incorporation of sharia law. Initial activities As early as 18 June 2012, UGTT had been calling for Ennahda, Nidaa Tounes, and other relevant parties to come to the table for a convention centered around the constitution and electoral regulations. At this stage in the transition, UGTT was still largely viewed as being beholden to partisan interests, particularly opposition parties decrying Ennahda-led Islamist reform. To this end, UGTT deputy secretary Samir Cheffi had gone on national television on 30 May to assert that the organization would remain in its impartial role in seeking a settlement among all parties. Following this, on 18 June 2012 UGTT announced a "political initiative" seeking national reconciliation. The initiative politically was troubled from its inception as Ennahda sought to exclude centrist party Nidaa Tounes from any negotiation process. In addition, the looming specter of a general strike called by UGTT should Ennahda refuse to comply did not bode well for fruitful discussion. Ennahda had historically been excluded from such unionist campaigns, with Islamist representation in the UGTT having been sparse and Islamist advocates having been silent during Tunisia's period of structural adjustment in the 1980s. The general strike leveraged by UGTT would have mobilized at least 500,000 unionists and thereby brought the Tunisian economy grounding to a halt. It then became apparent that Ennahda and CPR would require other civil society actors to be brought in should the "political initiative" launched by UGTT amount to a more robust national reconciliation. Following a series of internal meetings, UGTT emerged decisively to provide overtures to three distinct national civil society organizations, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, or UTICA, the Tunisian Human Rights League, and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers. In October 2012, the organizations convened, with all parties but Ennahda and CPR represented. The involvement of the Tunisian Union for Industry, or UTICA, was particularly key to the construction of the quartet as they had signed a "Social Contract" with UGTT on 14 January 2013. This contract evinced that UGTT was willing to work hand-in-hand with the historic representatives of Tunisian corporate interests — representing key employers and business interests across the state. Such unions are not without precedent in Tunisian civil society, as UTICA and UGTT had come together in 1956 in concert with Bourguiba's Neo Destour to create a broad-based appeal for the nascent government. Moreover, the inclusion of the Order of Lawyers and the Human Rights League supplied added weight to legitimating the arbitration mandate UGTT sought for the Quartet. The Human Rights League had been in close alignment with the Ben Ali regime with many Ennahda supporters working within its ranks, so its inclusion further bolstered the credentials of the Quartet. Despite these initial political initiatives, a number of high-profile political assassinations threatened to collapse the foundation of the new regime. Political crisis The murder of opposition leaders Chokri Belaid, leader of Watad, and Mohamed Brahmi, founder of the party Mouvement du Peuple, catalyzed a new wave of protests that threatened to halt the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly. In particular, Brahmi's assassination was viewed as a blow to the constitutional process as a number of opposition parties withdrew from the Constituent Assembly altogether. As an immediate result of Brahmi's murder, a secular opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, organized a month-long series of protests in July 2013, culminating in calls for Ennahda to step down. A particular locus of the movement was the Bardo National Museum, where protesters gathered and broadcast calls for government resignation. Calls were made for the government to "irhal" or "leave" in Arabic, similar to calls made during the Egyptian uprising. Ansar Sharia, an Islamist group operating primarily in Libya, was seen as responsible for the assassination of Brahmi, and the Troika correspondingly seen as not taking any retaliatory measures. The Tamarod Movement in Egypt, formed of disparate civil society and political opposition groups, seemed a natural analog to what National Salvation Front activists in Tunisia saw as the correct course of action in deposing the Islamist government. Their proximity to the Ben Ali regime and the largest corporate firms, role in organizing a number of general strikes, and institutional make-up enabled the UGTT to initiate proceedings. Dialogue process Following the assassinations of opposition leader Belaïd in February 2013, UGTT sought to formalize the dialogue structure. However, as accusations of Ennahda's potential involvement in Belaïd's assassination continued, UGTT refused to participate in the second forum convened by Interim President Moncef Marzouki. Following this blow, the second assassination of a prominent opposition figure, that of secular leader Mohamed Brahmi on 25 July 2013 seemed to preclude any further constitutional debate or national dialogue. UGTT seized on this moment by calling a two-day general strike, and according to Ian Hartshorn, were able to mobilize around 50 percent of their membership. The seat of the Constituent Assembly, Bardo Palace, began to immediately draw in thousands of protesters. Sit-ins and explicit calls for the deposition of the Troika were not uncommon. Professor Mohamed-Salah Omri describes this protest following Brahmi's assassination as reaching a "critical mass" when Ennahda appreciated that any potential formal coalition between the Quartet and the political opposition would presage regime collapse. At this juncture, fear of an irreparable civil conflict began to spread, and on 6 August, Constituent Assembly President Moustapha Ben Jaafar halted all legislative proceedings. Therefore, it was only through a third national dialogue convention, convened on 25 October 2013 that any lasting settlement was built. At the outset, the UGTT-led coalition made clear that they sought an apolitical government divorced from the extremism they viewed Ennahda as supplying to Tunisian national politics. In this vein, of the 24 parties invited to the National Dialogue in October 2013, 21 signed a "roadmap" outlining the general aims of the convention. They sought: To appoint an interim president to see Tunisia through the reconciliation process To establish regulations and a timeline for presidential and legislative elections To introduce an impartial electoral commission To finish, approve, and deliver the constitution to the Tunisian Constituent Assembly for ratification As argued by Hèla Yousfi in Trade Unions and Arab Revolutions: The Tunisian Case of UGTT two "guiding principles" emerged to steer the course of the National Dialogue: that of technocratic, apolitical governance to see Tunisia through the transition, and an immediate halt to all state violence and terror threats. Following the assassinations, parties were inclined to avert totalizing political crisis by agreeing to interim governance. In particular, Houcine Abassi, Secretary-General of UGTT, was able to move the process forward at critical junctures and willing to use the elevated bargaining power of the now four-strong coalition to push political parties along the path to constitutional ratification. As reported in Helen Yousfi's work which collected various interviews from those involved in the Dialogue, Abassi was willing to "require representatives from political parties to stay in the room after the meeting if no decision had been made." UTICA and UGTT's insistence on a "unity front" further ensured the success of the Quartet. Reflected in statements by UGTT officials and UTICA president Ouided Bouchamaoui, opening up Tunisia to foreign investment was a key development the Quartet hoped to achieve. While hardline UGTT officials did not share this view, the contingent represented in the Quartet's ability to form a historic pact with UTICA cemented the Quartet's capacity to dominate mediation. Both legislative and presidential elections were scheduled as a result of the Dialogue process. The legislative elections saw Nidaa Tounes, the dominant party of the National Salvation Front coalition, win a plurality of seats in the Assembly of the Representatives on October 26, 2014. Additionally, on 24 November 2014, Nidaa Tounes leader Essebsi defeated Marzouki, CPR leader and willing participant in the now-dissolved Troika. 2015 Nobel Peace Prize On 9 October 2015, the quartet was awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize "for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011". Kaci Kullmann Five, chairwoman of the Nobel Committee remarked of the Quartet: "It established an alternative peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war." The Nobel Committee indicated its hope that Tunisia will serve as an example for other countries experiencing moments of political transition. International reaction Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said the award recognizes the "path of consensus" and "Tunisia has no other solution than dialogue despite ideological disagreements." Mohammed Fadhel Mafoudh, head of the Tunisian Order of Lawyers, said that the award "is the recognition of a whole process. It's a process that started so that Tunisia would have a democratic system … that respects freedoms...It's also a message to the rest of the world, to all countries, to all the people who aspire to democracy and peace..." U.S. President Barack Obama called the Quartet "an inspiring reminder that lasting peace and security can only be achieved when citizens are empowered to forge their own future and "that democracy is possible and necessary in North Africa and the Middle East." German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said that the Nobel Peace Prize is "the deserved reward for working on democracy, for sticking to the idea that a people that has shaken off dictatorship deserves something better than a new dictatorship." U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said to reporters in Geneva: "We need a civil society to help us to move peace processes forward." United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "this recognition belongs to all those who gave birth to the Arab Spring and are striving to safeguard the sacrifices of so many" and "this tribute highlights that lasting progress requires an inclusive process. The Arab Spring began with great hopes that were soon replaced with grave doubts. Tunisia has managed to avoid the disappointment and dashed hopes that have tragically emerged elsewhere." International response and aid The international community widely supported the transition process in Tunisia and provided economic aid through various channels. In particular, the United States and European Union provided impetus for the completion of the Dialogue process by intervening at critical junctures to ensure Ennahda's compliance by way of leveraging economic support. It became clear that IMF and World Bank support for the regime would only come by way of the Troika's resignation and further cooperation with the Dialogue process. A number of financial efforts have been put in place to bolster the continued growth of Tunisian democracy since the Dialogue. Beyond continued USAID and EU support, Tunisia 2020, a forum that courted international and private donors from over 70 countries accrued $14 billion worth of aid to continue growing the economy, bolstering job creation, and enshrining democratic norms. Notably, the European Investment Bank and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development each provided loans worth 3.1 and 1.5 billion, respectively. In a 17 December 2017 interview with the United Nations, UTICA leader during the Quartet and Nobel Prize recipient, Ouided Bouchamaoui, echoed this pro-investment sentiment. Bouchamaoui urged for further liberalization to attract foreign capital:"A number of laws need to be revised. The slow pace of the administration is discouraging investors. Foreign investors are not very motivated because they feel that existing laws are either not clear or not applied."In the Quartet's official speech given upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, they similarly made calls for foreign investment into the state. They recognized that while the Quartet was able to establish frameworks for governance and electoral pluralism, the state continues to face challenges regarding youth unemployment and vocational prospects:"...we have to create the conditions that ensure the return of the Tunisian economy to its normal state, and improve the overall climate for investment, and embark on approving the necessary repairs, with extensive consultation between the Government and the economic and social players, to preserve the interests of all groups and factions." Critiques of the quartet While the process was widely hailed by international observers and non-governmental organizations, the actual National Dialogue was decried by more fervent unionists as betraying elements of the Tunisian working poor. In particular, the inclusion of UTICA, at a juncture when Tunisians were embattled in a fight for wage increases, seemed to certain union activists and working class as reneging on its duty to its membership. Another critique that has often been put forth regarding the Quartet is that it enabled further foreign investment, donor aid, and international economic support at a time when Tunisia was seeking wholesale independence. When the ANC had been suspended in September 2013 and protests were widespread, often centered around Bardo palace, the IMF decided to withhold a loan package of $1.7 billion. It was only following the accession of Jomaa leading the interim government that $500 million of the loan package was provided. IMF involvement has been viewed by Tunisians as enabling foreign, technocratic control at a moment when Tunisian agency had just been achieved. Moreover, various Tunisians viewed the National Dialogue's insistence on imposing technocrats beholden to various party officials as betraying the desires of the Tunisian populace for agency in determining state governance. The IMF and World Bank have continued to herald Tunisia as a model of regime transition, and in 2016 issued an addition $2.9 billion under the Extended Fund Facility to continue bolstering the regime's efforts to cut back public debt. Certain historians have offered critiques that despite the Quartet's ability to bring political actors to the table, the UGTT and UTICA have been unable to push for economic restructuring. Even though these unions enjoyed a privileged position during the transition, critics such as Joel Benin view the economic structure of the state as unchanged. The Foreign Investment Promotion Agency of Tunisia has largely been immune from opposition organizing. While critics acknowledge "a new public discourse," the September 2014 Invest in Tunisia Conference evinced an economic climate amenable to IMF and World Bank aid packages. The Quartet has also been criticized for the elite, technocratic transition bodies it constructed. Certain observers have drawn comparisons between the transition bodies erected in 2011 to oversee the national elections and the bodies created for the drafting of the 2014 constitution. Like the High Authority for Realization of the Objectives of the Revolution, Political Reform and Democratic Transition formed in 2011 to consolidate democratic gains, the Quartet has been viewed as "taking control against the will of the people" through an elite-driven process. Institutional legacy The UGTT had secured a number of key labor victories in the language of the new constitution. This was in stark contrast to the high degree of control the Ben Ali regime had exercised over civil society and the highly limited mobilization of union workers under the auspices of UGTT. In the 2014 constitution, UGTT, working within the Quartet, was able to secure the right to strike and the right to form new unions without constraints. Before the newly ratified constitution, the 1994 labor statute governing the capacity of the UGTT had precluded any strike activity that threatened vital industry. In this way, the success of the National Dialogue enabled the most labor-friendly constitution in Tunisia's history and displayed the UGTT's institutional capacity to arbitrate a national political dispute on the highest stage. A major component of the 2014 constitution were provisions that ensured for transparency in future Tunisian governance, primarily achieved by way of Article 125 which established an anti-corruption government organ. In line with this normative shift, in June 2015 Prime Minister Habib Essid established a National Council of Social Dialogue, composed of representatives from government, UGTT, and UTICA. All three partners praised this tripartite arrangement as "the guarantee of a permanent, regular and comprehensive tripartite dialogue." Pacted transition Political scientists have noted the high degree of involvement between civil society elites, the Troika, and the opposition during the Transition and post-uprising period. Certain observers have viewed the Dialogue an example of pacted transition. Pacted transitions occur when a state is undergoing a period of democratic consolidation and divergent elites can agree upon a shared trajectory governed by common rules. These rules often include a pledge to avoid violence, to work within existing institutions, and to demobilize popular unrest. South Africa's early 1990s transition often serves as the paradigmatic example. While such transitions are contingent on regime type, role of the military, and pre-existing institutions, Tunisia's elite-centered Dialogue has been thought to meet the definition. Gary A. Stradiotto and Sujian Guo define constituent pacts as "a negotiating unit, comprised of incumbent and opposition groups, attempting to bargain the transition away from authoritarian rule to democracy." The National Dialogue process fits this description as both opposition parties, the ruling Troika, and civil society mediators intervened to construct a common path. Certain scholars, however, have noted stark differences with traditional conceptions of pacted transitions and the Tunisian case. A. A. Holmes and K. Koehler argue that unlike Terry Karl's traditional formulation, continued protests and the high polarization that met Ennahda's governance is evidence that the ruling Troika did not demobilize public unrest. This is apparent in UGTT's continued threat to mobilize strikes throughout the Dialogue process, such as that in Toezur in December 2013. In addition, Holmes and Koelher note that the assassinations of Belaid and Brahmi, along with a massive surge in Constituent Assembly resignations from the opposition are evidence that elites often failed to find common ground on transition procedure. Polarization in Tunisia between Islamists and secularists saw a surge between 2011-2013, in which over 60 percent of secularists claimed to have no trust for Tunisian Islamists. Polarization became such that the National Salvation Front included in its coalition in July 2013 a Tunisian Tamarod Movement, of which its analog in Egypt was calling for President Mohamed Morsi's deposition. These events have been cited by political scientists in critiquing the labeling of the Tunisian transition as "pacted." The polarization, continuation of protest during the Quartet's process, and continued threat of elite defection all pose definitional concerns in terming it a pacted transition per Karl's formulation. References External links Media related to Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet at Wikimedia Commons Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet on Nobelprize.org

...Baby_One_More_Time_(song)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...Baby_One_More_Time_(song)

"...Baby One More Time" is the debut single by American singer Britney Spears from her debut studio album of the same name (1999). It was written by Max Martin and produced by Martin and Rami Yacoub. Released on September 29, 1998, by Jive Records, the song became a worldwide success, topping the charts in over 20 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, where it earned quintuple and triple-platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), respectively, and was the latter's best-selling single of 1999. The song is one of the best-selling singles of all time, with over 10 million copies sold. An accompanying music video, directed by Nigel Dick, features Spears as a high-school student who starts to sing and dance around the school, while watching her love interest from afar. In 2010, the music video for "...Baby One More Time" was voted the third most influential video in the history of pop music, in a poll held by Jam!. In 2011, "...Baby One More Time" was voted by Billboard to be the best music video of the 1990s. It has been featured on all of her greatest hits and other compilation albums. In 2020, Rolling Stone named "...Baby One More Time" as the greatest debut single of all time. In 2021, the song was ranked at number 205 on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Spears has performed "...Baby One More Time" in a number of live appearances and during all of her concert tours. The song was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards (2000), and has been included in lists by Blender, Rolling Stone and VH1. It has been noted for redefining the sound of late 1990s music. Spears has named "...Baby One More Time" as one of her favorite songs from her catalog. It was also the final song to be played on the BBC's music programme Top of the Pops in the 1990s. A cover of the song by Windy Wagner was featured in the 2011 dance video game by Ubisoft, Just Dance 3. In 2018, readers of German teen magazine Bravo voted "...Baby One More Time" to be the biggest hit since its first music compilation was released in 1992. Background In June 1997, Spears was in talks with manager Lou Pearlman to join female pop group Innosense. Lynne Spears asked family friend and entertainment lawyer Larry Rudolph for his opinion and submitted a tape of Spears singing over a Whitney Houston karaoke song along with some pictures. Rudolph decided he wanted to pitch her to record labels, therefore she needed a professional demo. He sent Spears an unused song from Toni Braxton; she rehearsed for a week and recorded her vocals in a studio with a sound engineer. Spears traveled to New York with the demo and met with executives from four labels, returning to her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana the same day. Three of the labels rejected her, arguing audiences wanted pop bands such as the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls, and "there wasn't going to be another Madonna, another Debbie Gibson, or another Tiffany." Two weeks later, executives from Jive Records returned calls to Rudolph. Senior vice president of A&R Jeff Fenster stated about Spears's audition that "It's very rare to hear someone that age who can deliver emotional content and commercial appeal. [...] For any artist, the motivation—the 'eye of the tiger'—is extremely important. And Britney had that." They appointed her to work with producer Eric Foster White for a month, who reportedly shaped her voice from "lower and less poppy" delivery to "distinctively, unmistakably Britney." After hearing the recorded material, president Clive Calder ordered a full album. Spears had originally envisioned "Sheryl Crow music, but younger more adult contemporary" but felt alright with her label's appointment of producers, since "It made more sense to go pop, because I can dance to it—it's more me." I had been in studio for about six months listening and recording material, but I hadn't really heard a hit yet. When I started working with Max Martin in Sweden, he played the demo for 'Baby One More Time' for me, and I knew from the start it [was one] of those songs you want to hear again and again. It just felt really right. I went into the studio and did my own thing with it, trying to give it a little more attitude than the demo. In 10 days, I never even saw Sweden. We were so busy. Fenster asked producer Max Martin to meet Spears in New York, after which he returned to Sweden to write her a handful of songs with long-term collaborator Denniz Pop. Pop was ill, so Martin asked producer Rami Yacoub to help. When six songs were ready, Spears flew to Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, where half of the album was recorded in May 1998, nominally produced by Martin, Pop and Yacoub. Pop, however, was too ill to attend any of the recording sessions, and Spears never met him. In his place, Martin was the acting producer. Martin showed Spears and her management a track titled "Hit Me Baby One More Time", which was originally written for American boy band Backstreet Boys and the R&B group TLC, but they both rejected it. The label thought the song would work for the English group Five, but they also passed on it. Spears later said that she felt excited when she heard it and knew it was going to be a hit record. Jive A&R man Steve Lunt recalled, "We at Jive said, 'This is a fuckin' smash'"; but other executives were concerned that the line "Hit Me" would condone domestic violence. The title was revised to "...Baby One More Time". Spears recorded her vocals for the song in May 1998 at Cheiron Studios. She stayed up late the night before listening to Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" ("What a sexy song") to get the growl she wanted: "I wanted my voice to be kind of rusty." Spears revealed that she "didn't do well at all the first day in the studio [recording the song], I was just too nervous. So I went out that night and had some fun. The next day I was completely relaxed and nailed it. You gotta be relaxed singing '... Baby One More Time'." The song was produced by Martin and Rami, and was also mixed by Martin at Cheiron Studios. Thomas Lindberg played the guitar, while Johan Carlberg played the bass guitar. Background vocals were provided by Spears, Martin and Nana Hedin. Denniz Pop was credited as producer even though he was not present for the recording or mixing. Spears also recorded a track called "Autumn Goodbye", written and produced by Eric Foster White, that was released as a B-side to "...Baby One More Time". "Autumn Goodbye" was recorded in 1998 at 4MW East Studios in New Jersey. "...Baby One More Time" was released by Jive as Spears's debut single on October 23, 1998, when she was only 16 years old. Spears said "...Baby One More Time" was one of her favorite songs in her entire catalog, naming "Toxic" and "He About to Lose Me" as the other two. Music and lyrics "...Baby One More Time" is a teen pop and dance-pop song that lasts for three minutes and thirty seconds. The song is composed in the key of C minor and is set in the time signature of 4/4 common time with a moderate tempo of 93 beats per minute. Songwriting and production is largely based on previous Cheiron productions, most notably Robyn's "Show Me Love", which shows similar song scheme, drum patterns, wah guitars and piano hits. Spears's vocal range spans over one octave from E♭3 to C5. The song begins with a three-note motif in the bass range of the piano, an opening that has been compared to many other songs, such as "We Will Rock You" (1977), "Start Me Up" (1981), and the theme song of the 1975 film Jaws due to the fact the track "makes its presence known in exactly one second". According to magazine Blender, "...Baby One More Time" is composed by "wah-wah guitar lines and EKG-machine bass-slaps". Claudia Mitchell and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh, authors of Girl Culture: Studying girl culture: a readers' guide (2008), noted the lyrics of the song "gesture toward [Spears] longing for the return of an ex-boyfriend." Spears said "...Baby One More Time" is a song "every girl can relate to. She regrets it. She wants him back." The lyrics, however, caused controversy in the United States, because the line "Hit me baby one more time" supposedly has sadomasochistic connotations. As a response, the singer said the line "doesn't mean physically hit me. [...] It means just give me a sign, basically. I think it's kind of funny that people would actually think that's what it meant." Music journalist John Seabrook has said "Everybody thought it was some sort of weird allusion to domestic violence or something. But what it really was, was the Swedes using English not exactly correctly. What they really wanted to say was, "hit me up on the phone one more time" or something. But at that point, Max's English wasn't that great. So it came out sounding a little bit weird in English." Critical reception Marc Oxoby, author of The 1990s (2003), noted the song "was derided as vapid by some critics, yet tapped into the same kind of audience to whom the Spice Girls music appealed, young teens and pre-teens." Amanda Murray of Sputnikmusic commented, "[" ... Baby One More Time" is] well-composed, tightly arranged, and even with Spears' vocal limitations it goes straight for the proverbial pop jugular." She also said that the song was a highlight in the pop music genre and added, "There is little doubt that '...Baby One More Time' will be long remembered as one of the cornerstones of pop music in general, and it is a strong front-runner as the prototype for the late 90s pop resurgence." Bill Lamb of About.com considered "...Baby One More Time" as Spears's best song, saying, "the song is full of hooks and a big mainstream pop sound. The accompanying schoolgirl video caused a sensation, and, when the single hit No. 1, Britney was assured of stardom." In a list compiled by Sara Anderson of AOL Radio, "...Baby One More Time" was ranked sixth in a list of Spears's best songs. She noted the singer "somehow made the school girl outfit and pink pom-pom hair-ties trendy again, worn by every tween in the succeeding years." Larry Flick of Billboard wrote, "Produced by famed Euro-popsters Max Martin and Eric Foster, "Baby, One More Time" chugs with an insinuating faux-funk beat and super-shiny synths. Spears has a charming kewpie-doll voice that has a soulful quality that leaves the listener intrigued and wondering where she'll go with time and experience." Beth Johnson of Entertainment Weekly called it a "candy-pop-with-a-funky-edge smash", while Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said the song was "ingenious", Brian Raftery of Blender called it "a perfectly fine, slickly conceived pop tune. [..] At the time, teen-pop was still a boys' club, but while the guys were crooning about crushes, Spears was already planning the sleep-over party". In 2009, Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone called it "some of the best radio pop of the past decade-plus". NME considered "...Baby One More Time" "incredible", commenting that "it's a symphony of teenage lust as fully realised as anything Brian Wilson ever wrote—a truly grand pop song that overwhelms any lingering undercurrent of Lolita paedo-creepiness through the sheer fanatical earnestness of its delivery." "...Baby One More Time" won a Teen Choice Award for Single of the Year and an MTV Europe Music Award for Best Song. Chart performance The song was officially sent to contemporary hit and rhythmic contemporary radio on September 29, 1998. On November 21, 1998, "...Baby One More Time" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 17 and topped the chart two and a half months later for two consecutive weeks, replacing R&B singer Brandy's "Have You Ever?". Simultaneously, it climbed to number one on the Canadian Singles Chart. The song reached the top spot of the Hot 100 Singles Sales and stayed there for four consecutive weeks. This eventually propelled the single to a platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. Though not as strong as its sales tallies, "...Baby One More Time" also experienced considerable airplay, becoming her first top ten hit on the Hot 100 Airplay, peaking at number eight. The single also became an all-around hit on Top 40 radio, going top ten on both the Top 40 Tracks and Rhythmic Top 40, and to number one for five weeks on the Mainstream Top 40. It spent 32 weeks on the Hot 100 and ended up at number five on Billboard's year-end chart. As of June 2012, "...Baby One More Time" has sold 1,412,000 physical singles, with 511,000 paid digital downloads in the United States. It is Spears's best-selling physical single in the country. "...Baby One More Time" debuted on January 31, 1999 at number 20 on the Australian Singles Chart, a month later reached number one and stayed there for nine consecutive weeks. The song eventually became the second highest-selling single of the year, only behind Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5", and was certified three-times platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association for selling over 210,000 copies. In New Zealand, the single spent four non-consecutive weeks at the top of the charts and after shipping over 15,000 units to retailers the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand certified it platinum. The track reached the top spot in the majority of countries in which it charted. "...Baby One More Time" spent two consecutive weeks at number-one on the French Singles Chart and was certified platinum by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique after selling over 500,000 units in the country. Additionally, the song topped the German Singles Chart for six consecutive weeks and sold over 750,000 copies, resulting in a three-times gold certification by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. In the United Kingdom, according to Jive Records, "...Baby One More Time" sold more than 250,000 copies in a mere three days after its February 1999 release. Spears broke a first-week sales record for a female act in the UK at the time when "...Baby One More Time" sold a total of 460,000 copies. Eventually, the British Phonographic Industry certified it two-times platinum on March 26, 1999. The single went on to sell over 1,445,000 units by the end of 1999, making it the highest-selling single of that year and the 8th biggest song of the 1990s. As of 2018, it is the 32nd best-seller of all time in the UK. Additionally, "...Baby One More Time" is the fifth best-selling single by a female artist in the country, behind Cher's "Believe", Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You", Adele's "Someone like You" and Céline Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". "...Baby One More Time" is one of the best-selling singles of all time, with over 10 million copies sold worldwide. As of May 2020, "...Baby One More Time" has generated over 285 million streams in the US. Music video Background The music video was directed by Nigel Dick. After being chosen, Dick received criticism from his colleagues about wanting to work with Spears. He responded saying, "It's a great song. I don't know anything about Britney. I never watched The Mickey Mouse Club. She seems like a great kid and she's very enthusiastic, but I just love the song. It's just a great song". The video's original setup was very different from what eventually became the final product. The plan was to have the video in a cartoon-like environment, a likely attempt to attract an audience of younger children. Spears was unhappy with this, and argued that she wanted her video to reflect the lives of her fans and wanted to set the video in a school. Spears pitched this idea to Dick, and explained she wanted the video to have dance scenes. The original setting was scrapped and replaced with Spears' concept. Dick's first idea for the wardrobe was jeans and a T-shirt, but during the wardrobe fitting Spears asked for a schoolgirl outfit. Dick said that "Every piece of wardrobe in the video came from Kmart, and I was told at the time not one piece of clothing in the video cost more than $17. On that level, it's real. That probably, in retrospect, is a part of its charm." The knotted shirt was Spears' idea, she recollects saying, "The outfits looked kind of dorky, so I was like, 'Let's tie up our shirts and be cute'". About the experience of shooting her first music video, Spears said, "It was a wonderful experience. All these people there, working for you. I had my own trailer. It was an amazing experience". The music video was shot on August 7 and 8, 1998, at Venice High School, the same school used to shoot the 1978 film Grease. The video premiered on MTV and other video stations on November 26, 1998. Synopsis The video begins with Spears appearing bored in class at high school. Her assistant Felicia Culotta played the role of Spears's teacher. When the bell rings, Spears runs out into the hall and begins a choreographed dance in the corridor. After this, Spears is outside, now adorned in a pink athletic outfit, and seen in a car. Along with a couple of other students, she performs a number of gymnastic moves before heading back inside. She is then sitting on the bleachers in the gymnasium watching a basketball game, and she dances in the gymnasium. Her love interest is revealed sitting close to her, played by her real-life cousin Chad. Reception The schoolgirl outfit is considered to be one of Spears's most iconic looks as well as amongst the hallmarks of pop culture. It is on display at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The ensemble caused controversy among parents associations for showing the midriff of a sixteen-year-old. Spears faced the criticism saying, "Me showing my belly? I'm from the South; you're stupid if you don't wear a sports bra [when you] go to dance class, you're going to be sweating your butt off." In 1999, "...Baby One More Time" earned Spears her first three MTV Video Music Award nominations, in the categories of Best Pop Video, Best Choreography, and Best Female Video. In a list compiled by VH1 in 2001, it was listed at number ninety in the best videos of all time. The video was the first of fourteen of her videos to retire on MTV's television series Total Request Live (TRL). On its final episode, a three-hour special aired on November 16, 2008, "...Baby One More Time" was number one in their final countdown as the most iconic music video of all time and was the last video to be played on the show. Wesley Yang in his essay "Inside the Box" in n+1, compared the music video to Britny Fox's "Girlschool" because it featured "a classroom full of Catholic schoolgirls gyrating to the beat in defiance of a stern teacher. [..] But that was a sexist video by a horrible hair metal band that exploited women. Britney Spears was something else—an inflection point in the culture". The music video is also referenced in the 2009 single, "If U Seek Amy". After she comes out of the house dressed as a housewife, her daughter is dressed with a similar schoolgirl outfit while wearing pink ribbons in her hair. The video was ranked at number four on a list of the ten most controversial music videos in pop by AOL on September 29, 2011. Rolling Stone placed "...Baby One More Time" at number 30 on its list of 100 greatest music videos of all time. Live performances The first live performance of the song was at the "Singapore Jazz Festival" in Singapore on May 16, 1998. That day, she also performed the song "Sometimes" for the first time. Britney performed "...Baby One More Time" on several occasions. She performed the song on July 6, 1999, during her appearance at the Woodstock 99 festival. Neil Strauss, from The New York Times, noted that "all the backing music was on tape, and most of the vocals were recorded, with Ms. Spears just reinforcing selected words in choruses and singing an occasional snippet of a verse". It was also performed at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards; after a classroom roll call ended, Spears appeared on the stage and began performing the song. Halfway through, she was joined by Justin Timberlake and the members of NSYNC for a dance routine. Afterwards, the band performed their hit "Tearin' Up My Heart". The song was also performed at the 1999 MTV Europe Music Awards, along with "(You Drive Me) Crazy", the 1999 Billboard Music Awards, the 1999 Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops and the Greenwich Millennium concert on December 31, 1999, she also performed it with broadcasters David Dimbleby and Michael Buerk on 2000 Today. Spears performed the song in a medley with "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" at the 42nd Grammy Awards. Spears was wearing a turtleneck and a full tulle skirt at the beginning of the performance, while dancers surrounded her with enormous hand fans. After singing a shortened version of the song, she then took a few moments to shuffle into a form-fitting red rhinestone outfit (with side cutouts) and emerged onto a stage to perform "...Baby One More Time." Spears was also criticized of lipsynching the song during her performance. Later, in 2003, Spears performed the song in a remixed form at Britney Spears: In the Zone, a concert special that aired in ABC on November 17, 2003. "...Baby One More Time" was also performed at the 2003 NFL Kickoff Live on September 4, 2003, at the National Mall, in a medley with "I'm a Slave 4 U" (2001), which included pyrotechnics. She sported shoulder-length blond hair and was dressed in black football pants, a black-and-white referee halter top and boots from Reebok. Her outfit was later auctioned off to benefit the Britney Spears Foundation. "...Baby One More Time" has been performed in seven of Spears's concert tours since its release. On ...Baby One More Time Tour, the encore consisted of a performance of the song, in which Spears wore a black bra under pink halter, a pink sequined plaid mini-skirt, and black thigh-high stockings. On 2000's Oops!... I Did It Again Tour, "...Baby One More Time" was performed after a dance interlude in which the dancers showed their individual moves while their names appeared on the screens. Spears took the stage in a conservative schoolgirl outfit to perform the song. She ripped it off halfway through the song to reveal a cheerleader ensemble. The song was also the encore of 2001's Dream Within a Dream Tour. It began with a giant projection of a hologram of Spears onto a water screen. The projection gradually shrunk until Spears rose from the stage while wearing a plastic cowboy hat, blue hip-huggers, and a matching bra top. She began performing "...Baby One More Time" in a ballad version until reaching the end of the runway. Pyrotechnics surrounded the stage while the song changed to a more uptempo version with elements of techno. On The Onyx Hotel Tour, after performing "Showdown", a video interlude followed featuring Spears and her friends outside a club. While she was leaving, she noticed a woman dressed in 1930s fashion. She followed her and the woman asked Spears to enter the "Mystic Lounge". Spears reappeared wearing a corset to perform "...Baby One More Time" along with "Oops!...I Did It Again" and "(You Drive Me) Crazy". All of the three were reworked for the show with elements of jazz and blues. "...Baby One More Time" was also performed on the promotional tour made on some House of Blues locations, called The M+M's Tour. The show started with Spears singing a short version of the song dressed in a white go-go boots, a white miniskirt and a sparkling pink bikini top. On The Circus Starring Britney Spears, the song made into the Electro Circ act. It was the final song of the act, performed after "Toxic". The performance consisted on Spears and her dancers performing a remix of the song. On 2011's Femme Fatale Tour, "...Baby One More Time" was performed in a medley with the remix of Rihanna's "S&M" (2010). At Spears's residency show Britney: Piece of Me in Las Vegas, the song was included on its setlist. Cover versions, samples and usage in media "...Baby One More Time" has been covered on numerous occasions. One of the earliest live covers of the song was by the Scottish band Travis, recorded during one of their concerts in Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire, England. The song was later included in the release of their 1999 single, "Turn". Lead singer Francis Healey said, "We did it for a laugh the first time. [..] And as we played it, the irony slipped from my smile. It's a very well-crafted song. It [has] that magic thing." The Guardian said this cover showed a new and more "dark" side of the band, commenting "slowed down to a mournful crawl, it was amazing how ominous the couplet "This loneliness is killing me / Hit me, baby, one more time" sounded". PopWreckoning.com called it "perhaps the most well done cover of Britney's catalyst to eternal fame". Spears heard their version while shopping in a mall and said, "It was so weird. I liked it though, I thought it was cool. It was a very different vibe from what I did". In July 2005, the Dresden Dolls performed a cover during their summer concerts while opening for Panic! at the Disco. On July 18, 2006, frontman Brendon Urie joined the band to perform the song in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. PopWreckoning.com said the cover was "a strange twist to this pop ditty. It's obviously darker and actually tortured as opposed to Britney's school girl despair". On July 13, 2009, Tori Amos covered the song live during her Sinful Attraction Tour at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California. On October 15, that year, Kris Allen covered the song for the first time at a concert in Seton High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. His rendition received positive reviews. The song is heard, prominently but briefly, during the climactic fight-scene in the 2005 animated film Robots. Fender, while wearing a skirt, was busy fighting to the beat of the song. An excerpt was used in the comedy film, but this excerpt was not included on the soundtrack album. In 2000, British death metal cover band Ten Masked Men included a rendition of the song on their Return of the Ten Masked Men album. A cover by Ahmet and Dweezil Zappa was featured in the soundtrack of the 2000 film Ready to Rumble. The song was covered twice in Fearless Records' Punk Goes... compilation album series, first by pop punk band Nicotine for 2002's Punk Goes Pop and then by metalcore band August Burns Red for its 2009 successor, Punk Goes Pop Volume Two. In 2003, the song was covered by American pop punk band Bowling for Soup for the soundtrack of the film Freaky Friday and commented that their version was "really, really, dark and really rock, [..] not the kind of 'pop'-py stuff that we usually do." In 2005, power pop band Fountains of Wayne covered the song for their compilation album Out-of-State Plates. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice highlighted their rendition saying the song is "as redolent and fetching as any of [Fountains of Wayne]'s peaks". In the 2010 Glee episode "Britney/Brittany", the character of Rachel Berry, played by Lea Michele, covered the song using similar outfits to the ones of the music video. Spears also made a cameo, taking the teacher's role, previously played by Cullota. In the 2010 Nickelodeon film, The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, the song was featured in the end credits performed by the actors as their respective characters. Darren Criss also of Glee performed a mash-up of "...Baby One More Time" with "Für Elise" on Sing Out, Raise Hope for the Trevor Project and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in December 2011. In 2012, British singer Ed Sheeran performed an acoustic version of the song NOW 100.5 FM. A year later he covered it on The Elvis Duran Z100 Morning Show and added a rap verse. The song is sung by actresses Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine in Harmony Korine's film Spring Breakers. Swedish singer Tove Styrke released a cover of the song on July 24, 2015. Charli XCX and Troye Sivan referenced the song on their single "1999". Alternative rock band Slothrust recorded a cover of the song as part of their 2017 EP Show Me How You Want It to Be. Anne Marie also references the song on her single "2002". The music video also pays homage to Spears. Both singles were released in 2018. In 2020, Italian symphonic death metal band Fleshgod Apocalypse paid homage to the song in their single "No", slightly interpolating the chorus lines and melody near the end of the track with altered lyrics. The sitcom Superstore also used "Baby, One More Time" in Season 4, Episode 2 ("Baby Shower") to mark the scene with the baby shower opening for one of the main characters in the series. In addition, the song was also used in the trailer of Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard in 2021. In 2022, the song was re-versioned for the Mexican Netflix television series Rebelde. It was performed by Brazilian actress Giovanna Grigio and Mexican actor Alejandro Puente and was included in the soundtrack of the series released on January 5, 2022, by Sony Music Mexico. The song appears in the 2019 Max Martin jukebox musical & Juliet where it was performed by Juliet in Act 1. A rock cover of the song by Tenacious D is featured in the end credits of the 2024 animated film Kung Fu Panda 4, which stars Jack Black in the titular role of Po. Legacy In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the song at number one on a list of the 100 Greatest Debut Singles of All Time. In 2021, the same magazine ranked the song at number 205 on their updated list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Billboard's Robert Kelly observed that Spears's "sexy and coy" vocals on the track "kicked off a new era of pop vocal stylings that would influence countless artists to come." "...Baby One More Time" was listed at number twenty five in the greatest pop songs since 1963, in a list compiled by Rolling Stone and MTV in 2000. Blender listed it at number nine in the 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born. The song was also listed as the 2nd best song of the 1990s by VH1 and in a listing compiled in 2003, ranked at number one in 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 Years. Bill Lamb of About.com ranked "...Baby One More Time" at number one on a compiled list with the Top 40 Pop Songs Of All Time. The music video was voted the third most influential promo in the history of pop music on a poll held by Jam!. "...Baby One More Time" is also one of the best-selling singles of all time, with over 9 million copies sold, and also earned Spears's first nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In April 2005, the British TV network ITV aired a short series called Hit Me, Baby, One More Time hosted by Vernon Kay. The show pitted one-hit wonders who generally had their moments of fame in the 1980s against each other to play their own hits and a currently popular cover song. The favorites were chosen by audience voting. The American version of the show also aired on NBC later in the year, and it was also hosted by Kay. In the 2012 poll created by The Official Chart Company and ITV to discover The Nation's Favourite Number 1 Single of all-time, "...Baby One More Time" was listed as the seventh favorite song by the United Kingdom. In 2018, readers of German teen magazine Bravo voted "...Baby One More Time" to be the biggest hit since its first music compilation was released in 1992. In 2021, Billboard and American Songwriter both ranked the song number two on their lists of the greatest Britney Spears songs. Spears led the teen pop pack of Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore, who were all seen as "pop princesses" gaining chart success in 1999. These four performers had each been developing material in 1998, but "...Baby One More Time" changed the market in December, opening the door for the others. Rolling Stone wrote that Spears "spearheaded the rise of post-millennial teen pop ... Spears early on cultivated a mixture of innocence and experience that generated lots of cash". Barbara Ellen of The Observer has reported: "Spears is famously one of the 'oldest' teenagers pop has ever produced, almost middle aged in terms of focus and determination. Many 19-year-olds haven't even started working by that age, whereas Britney, a former Mouseketeer, was that most unusual and volatile of American phenomena—a child with a full-time career. While other little girls were putting posters on their walls, Britney was wanting to be the poster on the wall. Whereas other children develop at their own pace, Britney was developing at a pace set by the ferociously competitive American entertainment industry". Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork noted: "songs like Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Dr. Dre's "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang", and Britney Spears' " ... Baby One More Time" altered the landscape of pop culture so quickly in large part because they were delivered to all corners of the U.S. simultaneously by MTV. ... MTV's ability to place a song and musician into the pop music conversation was unparalleled at the time, and by the end of the decade that meant absurd levels of both financial and creative commitment to music videos." PopMatters's writer Evan Sawdey commented that Spears's concept for the song's music video was the one responsible for her immediate success, saying that, as a result, the singer "scored a massive No. 1 single, inadvertently started the late '90s teen pop boom, and created a public persona for herself that was simultaneously kid-friendly and pure male fantasy. Her videos got played on both MTV and the Disney Channel at the same time, showing just how well Spears (and her armies of PR handlers) managed to walk that fine line between family-friendly pop idol and unabashed sex object." Accolades Formats and track listings Credits and personnel Credits for "...Baby One More Time" and "Autumn Goodbye" are taken from the single's liner notes. Charts Certifications and sales Release history See also References === Sources ===

List_of_songs_recorded_by_Christina_Aguilera

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_recorded_by_Christina_Aguilera

American singer Christina Aguilera's recording career began in 1994 at the age of thirteen, following the cancellation of The Mickey Mouse Club. Between 1994 and 1995, Aguilera recorded a series of songs, which were eventually released as a demo album under the name Just Be Free (2001). She also moved to Japan and recorded a duet with Japanese singer Keizo Nakanishi titled "All I Wanna Do". She returned to the United States and in 1998, she signed a contract with RCA Records and was chosen to perform the song "Reflection" for the soundtrack of the 1998 Disney animated feature Mulan. She followed this with albums Christina Aguilera (1999), Mi Reflejo (2000), My Kind of Christmas (2000), Stripped (2002), Back to Basics (2006), Bionic (2010), Lotus (2012), Liberation (2018) and Aguilera (2022). She has recorded and released many songs throughout her career, topping the US Billboard Hot 100 various times with the songs "Genie in a Bottle", "What a Girl Wants", "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)", "Lady Marmalade" and "Moves Like Jagger". She has also had various songs reach the top ten on the same chart including "I Turn to You", "Beautiful", "Ain't No Other Man", "Keeps Gettin' Better", "Feel This Moment" and "Say Something". Her songs have been inspired by a wide variety of genres including pop, R&B, soul, hip hop, rock, Latin, jazz, electronic, dance-pop, amongst others. Her song themes have also been diverse and controversial with her song "Dirrty" facing controversy for its sexual nature. The song also reached number one in the United Kingdom. Other songs of Aguilera which have charted on the Hot 100 include, "The Christmas Song", "Fighter", "Can't Hold Us Down", "The Voice Within", "Car Wash", "Hurt", "Candyman", "Not Myself Tonight" and "Your Body". Released songs Unreleased songs See also Christina Aguilera discography Notes == References ==

Genie_in_a_Bottle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_in_a_Bottle

"Genie in a Bottle" is a song by American singer Christina Aguilera from her self-titled debut studio album (1999). It was written by Pam Sheyne, Steve Kipner and David Frank, and produced by Kipner and Frank. The song was released on 22 June 1999, by RCA Records as the album's lead single. It is a soul-pop, teen pop and dance-pop song with elements of R&B. "Genie in a Bottle" uses sexual references to address the themes of self-respect and abstinence. "Genie in a Bottle" received generally favorable reviews, most of which praised the lyrics and Aguilera's vocals. It was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards. The single reached number one on the record charts of 21 countries. In the United States, it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified double platinum, for sales of more than two million copies. The music video was directed by Diane Martel and shot in Malibu, California. The video was well received by media outlets and gained play on music channels including VH1, BET and was featured heavily on the MTV program Total Request Live. "Genie in a Bottle" is one of Aguilera's signature songs, and was credited with establishing her name and for playing a part in the teen pop craze of the late 1990s. A Spanish version of the song titled "Genio Atrapado" was included on Mi Reflejo (2000), and the electropop remake "Genie 2.0" was included on Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits (2008). "Genie in a Bottle" was covered by multiple artists, including Dove Cameron, Darren Criss and Speedway. Background After receiving notification that the final season of The New Mickey Mouse Club (1993–94) would air, cast member Aguilera became determined to release her debut studio album during her senior year in high school. She began recording sessions with producers Roberts Alleca and Michael Brown, but was displeased with the pace of her developing career. Despite being offered free studio time with Alleca and Brown, Aguilera ventured to Japan in an effort to boost her career. While there, the pair offered her the opportunity to collaborate with Japanese pop star Keizo Nakanishi on the track "All I Wanna Do" (1994), though the project failed to achieve commercial success. As her international successes broadened, Aguilera caught the attention of future manager Steve Kurtz; she had previously had a verbal agreement with Ruth Inniss, which was never later formalized. Kurtz spent much of his time devoted to finding Aguilera a record deal, sending demos to multiple companies. Just as communications with RCA Records began, she was offered the chance to record "Reflection", the theme song for the 1998 Disney film Mulan. Its success landed her a multi-album recording contract. RCA's financial state prevented them from contending with major labels at the time. In an attempt to encourage Aguilera to sign with them and maintain the hype surrounding "Reflection", they offered to record and release her debut studio album by January 1999, though such an arrangement ultimately failed to happen. Originally, Aguilera "wasn't too crazy" about the demo recording for "Genie in a Bottle", though she eventually became "proud" of the result. RCA executive Ron Fair sympathized with her reaction to the release and inclusion of the track, finding that the marketing decision would be to release a "sugar candy" number one single, something that was not necessarily a "great song" so that her career could strengthen. Writing and development EMI executive Carla Ondrasik introduced two of her most prominent songwriters, David Frank and Steve Kipner. They began working together, and later collaborated with writer Pamela Sheyne. The evening before their songwriting appointment, Frank awoke with an idea for a song which consisted of an eight-bar loop with "a lot of different changes". When presenting the track to Sheyne, she performed the lyrics "If you want to be with me", which Frank liked. The three writers continued adding lyrics to a "really fast" writing session; they agreed that intellect was an afterthought, with the main intention to create a "hit song". They agreed a female should serve as the lead singer, at which point Frank recommended that Aguilera record the track. Aguilera contributed a spoken hook for the song, saying there "wasn't enough time" between the Mulan soundtrack and Christina Aguilera recording sessions for her to provide lyrical offerings. She later said that she had a substantial role in the production, stating that she adjusted instruments and lyrics after being displeased with its "rough beginnings". Originally presented as "If You Want to Be With Me", Aguilera's management suggested the final name "Genie in a Bottle". The title was conceived to present an Arabian theme, which the label felt they could market with beaded jewelry and clothing to develop the record's theme. Prior to being recorded by Aguilera, the track received much interest from the writers of the up-and-coming girl group Innosense, who felt that the band was more likely to make the song a hit. In an interview, Pam Sheyne said there were three artists interested in the song, Aguilera, Innosence and Paula Abdul. However, Innosense and Paula Abdul did not have completed albums which meant the release of the song would not happen for a while, but Aguilera's debut album was done. The producers and songwriter were told that Aguilera would release the song as her first single from her debut album. RCA Records executive Ron Fair pushed for the track, the writers allowed Aguilera to record the track, and had "no doubt" she was the right performer after she completed the recording. Recording The demo track that the record company had heard was used as a basis for Aguilera's actual recording, as she only replaced the vocals on the demo with her own before the writers and producers edited it for improvement. However, after the first recording was completed they felt her vocals were too "hard" sounding; a second proved to deliver the "softer" quality they were after. During the recording process, co-writer Kipner was impressed by Aguilera's performance of complex R&B lines, something he had only come to expect from older artists, and compared her vocal style to that of Chaka Khan, Etta James, and Mariah Carey. Before Frank had met Aguilera most of "Genie in a Bottle" had already been completed, he had heard a tape delivered by RCA featuring Aguilera's performance of "Reflection" but Frank feared she could not perform in a "hip-hop oriented style". The instrumental for "Genie in a Bottle" was almost complete before the entire composition had been finished, it was only when he was contacted by songwriter Pam Sheyne that they progressed in writing the track and later Frank contacted Steve Kipner, "a good friend" of his, and after agreeing to collaborate the three continued writing "Genie in a Bottle". Composition Reviewers of "Genie in a Bottle" noted the youthful message with The New York Times saying "One of the summer's catchiest singles captures the moment's anxieties about teen-age sex". The track has been described as "blue-eyed-soul" and has been labelled "a skittish dance hit, propelled by indecision "My body's saying let's go [...] but my heart is saying no". The chorus then plays with "bubbly dance beats" as Aguilera metaphorically describes herself as a Genie trapped, and can only be released when rubbed "the right way". She explained "If you listen to the words "My body's saying let's go but my heart is saying no". My heart is saying no. So it's really a song about self-respect and treating me the way I want to be treated before I just give my love away to anybody". Celebrities such as Debbie Gibson spoke out against the song saying she was "horrified" with the lyricism being performed by an 18-year-old; the comment went on to upset Aguilera who found her being a female was restricting what she could perform. Lyricism in the track had sexual references which saw controversy arise, Larry Flick from Billboard commented, "Fueled by a chugging groove and richly layered vocals, the tune is punctuated by a breathy command to 'rub me the right way.'" Aguilera said that "the song is not about sex, It's about self-respect. It's about not giving in to temptation until you're respected." In Malaysia the controversial lyrics gained it a ban which led Aguilera to re-record some of the lyrics such as; "hormones racing" to "heart-beats racing" and "rub the right way" to "treat me the right way". "Genie in a Bottle" is written in the key of F minor with a tempo of 84 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of Fm – E♭ – D♭, and Aguilera's vocals span from F3 to B♭4. According to Billboard's Kenneth Partridge, a thirty-second note bass-drum pattern of the song "mimics the heart palpitations of a teenager in lust." Critical reception Tom Lanham of Entertainment Weekly gave the song a B+ for its predictability after other performers from the Mickey Mouse Club, writing, "Yet another ex-Mouseketeer scampers down the Britney-pop path with a suggestive synth ditty and a husky voice well beyond her 18 years." Lanham wrote that her vocal performance was "uncomfortably adult" but called the track "a sinfully sweet confection". A writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette gave the song a positive review calling it a "smoldering soul-pop" track and described Aguilera's vocals as being "provocative" whilst calling the song a "pleasure" to listen to. In a review for the album Christina Aguilera critic Robert Christgau called the song a "dazzling clever piece of teen self-exploration cum sexploitation". Nana-Adwoa Ofori of the AOL Radio blog listed the song as her top Christina Aguilera song declaring it as her "signature" track. A writer from Daily News found Aguilera to be more capable vocally than the tracks limits but found the track to be "a slice of thumping sensuality". Kenneth Partridge of Billboard simply called it a "great teen-pop song", and praised its musical structure. Chris Malone, also from the Billboard magazine, named "Genie in a Bottle" a "generational touchstone for pop music" in his 2023 retrospective review. Nicole Hogsett of Yahoo! found the song's appeal was due to the catchy chorus but found the song separated her from other pop stars at the time of the single's release. Hogsett found the song quickly "established she was different than your typical pop star". People called the song "sexy" and "pulsating". A writer for The New York Times "got" the song's youthful message and said "One of the summer's catchiest singles captures the moment's anxieties about teenage sex. 'Genie in a Bottle', sung by the blue-eyed former Mouseketeer Christina Aguilera, is a skittish dance hit propelled by indecision". Pier Dominquez, writer of A Star Is Made found the song could be deemed suggestive but stated the track does not promote sex or promiscuity. He found the sensuality of the song came from Aguilera's vocal delivery and found her ad-libbing something that would set her apart from other artists. Eliseo Cardona, CDNow senior editor, was not satisfied with the translation: "...when Aguilera sings her breakout hit "Genie in the Bottle" in a direct Spanish translation, "Genio atrapado", she sounds funny, if not ill at ease. Indeed, the overly literal Spanish lyrics make for both a good laugh and a better yawn." Parry Gettelman of Orlando Sentinel praised her vocals: "Aguilera's powerhouse style works best on the urban-flavored up-tempo numbers. She uses the more attractive lower end of her range on expanses of 'Genio Atrapado'." Sean Piccoli, music writer of Sun-Sentinel, wrote a positive review: "'Genio Atrapado', the opener, is as cheesy-sexy-cool as the original, 'Genie in a Bottle', her first hit. The translation fits the tune, not vice versa, so Aguilera can still revel in her teenage awakening even without a Spanish equivalent of, 'Ya gotta rub me the right way'." The song was voted as the 18th best song of 1999 by Pazz & Jop. It was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards. Commercial performance "Genie in a Bottle" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 61 in the week of July 3, 1999. The following week, it climbed 49 spots to number 12, before entering the top five. The song reached the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated July 31, 1999. Based on strong airplay and CD sales, it stayed at the top spot for five consecutive weeks and became the biggest summer song of 1999. At that point, it had the longest stay at number one for the entire year, tying Ricky Martin's "Livin' la Vida Loca" and Jennifer Lopez's "If You Had My Love", although Carlos Santana would later in the year take the single, "Smooth", to number one on the chart with a ten-week run. According to Billboard, "Genie in a Bottle" was the second best-selling single of 1999, with 1,360,000 units sold, only behind Cher's "Believe" with 1,700,000 copies sold. It also became Aguilera's best-selling physical single to date. The song also crossed over successfully to other Billboard charts, topping the Top 40 Mainstream, Top 40 Tracks and Rhythmic Top 40 charts. The song even managed to reach the Adult Top 40, and the Spanish version of the song, "Genio Atrapado" (English: "Trapped Genie"), was a modest hit on the Latin chart. Strong sales assured the single a platinum certification. "Genie in a Bottle" stayed on Billboard Hot 100 for 25 weeks, and 24 weeks in the United Kingdom. Internationally, a similar chart dominance was seen, as the track went to number one in both the United Kingdom and Canada for multiple weeks. It charted within the top five in every country it charted. Overall, the song is Aguilera's second-highest-charting single, behind "Lady Marmalade", a collaboration with Lil' Kim, Mýa and Pink. "Genie in a Bottle" was certified platinum in Germany for selling over 500,000 units. The single was also certified platinum in Australia for selling over 70,000 units. "Genie in a Bottle" was certified platinum in almost every country it was released in, later ending at No. 7 on the Year-End charts in the United States, and No. 7 on the European Year-End charts. In the United Kingdom, it sold 172,000 copies in the first week, and spent two weeks at number 1. As of October 2021, it was her third biggest song in the country with 1.04 million copies sold, and 37.2 million streams. Music video The music video accompanying the track was directed by Diane Martel in April 1999, who had previously worked on Mariah Carey's "Dreamlover", and was shot in Malibu with surroundings of a beach and a wooden beach house. "I was out on the sand, greased up in, like, baby oil in shorts and a little cut-off top" she recalled. During the video, scenes saw her and others surrounding a campfire and despite this Aguilera recalled the video shoot was "freezing" with crew members all wearing large coats to keep them warm from the cold which Aguilera was struggling with. In most scenes of the video, Aguilera sings and performs a "genie" inspired choreography with her male dancers in front of the beach. As the video advances, the guys (with Christina's love interest in there) join the beach party. Near the end of the video, all the teens go outside and hang out around a bonfire. The video premiered on both MTV and The Box the week ending on June 20, 1999. Analyzing the video, A Star Is Made author Pier Dominquez said: The lighting of the video prominently featured Christina's golden tresses as her best feature, although the singer herself was rather obscured by the dark shadows, suggesting that the record company still did not know what to do with the singer's image. The choreography featured Christina, wearing orange pants and a beaded blouse, with her dance troop behind her, simulating a genie coming out of the bottle. It was filled with symbolism and her dancing was incredible. It received heavy rotation on VH1 and BET and reached top position on the MTV's chart of most played videos. Live performances Aguilera performed the track on the MTV show TRL among other tracks from her self-titled album. The particular day in which she performed the track, host Carson Daly was not present and Aguilera publicly declared she had "missed" him which led to a media frenzy surrounding a rumored romance between Daly and herself. The following month, Aguilera performed on the British television chart show Top of the Pops and during the same episode that her performance was aired on, Mariah Carey performed her track "Heartbreaker" which led Aguilera to announce to the media her appreciation and her willingness to meet the performer. Once again her performance on Top of the Pops had gathered more controversy than she had wished and soon a feud erupted from Carey's team which critics noted was due to the lack of success stemming from her album Rainbow and the consistent comparisons between the pair. Aguilera also performed at the National Building Museum for the Children's National Medical Center in the company of president Bill Clinton; later she performed for WFLZ's Y-2 concert in Florida with 15,000 fans viewing, wearing a silver top and gem studded jeans with a blue-sequined bandana performing the track on both occasions. It was announced by MTV in 1999 that Aguilera would perform live on their New Year's Eve Special. Wearing "tight" leather trousers, Aguilera performed the track live as the first song in her set which was then followed by "What a Girl Wants". "Genie in a Bottle" was also performed during her 2002–03 Justified & Stripped Tour, a concert tour which was held in order to support Aguilera's album Stripped (2002) and Justin Timberlake's Justified (2002). The "Egyptian-turned-metal version" performance featured Aguilera in her pink straps attached to her outfit rolling on a giant "X", which portrayed her contemporary alter ego "Xtina". It included Middle Eastern keyboards and 80's hair-metal guitar, where she slowly released herself as a "genie" as male dancers danced around her. On November 23, 2008, she performed the song while promoting her compilation album Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits, at the 36th Annual American Music Awards. She opened the show with a seven-minute medley of her greatest hits, which also included "Beautiful", "Keeps Gettin' Better", "Dirrty", "Ain't No Other Man" and "Fighter". In July 2021, Aguilera performed the song for two nights at the Hollywood Bowl with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She later performed a gothic-style, rock-inspired rendition of "Genie in a Bottle" during the 47th People's Choice Awards, and sang it again during her Dubai concert, at the Expo 2020. "Genie in a Bottle" was part of Aguilera's setlist at the EuroPride concert in Malta in September 2023. Legacy and media usage "Genie in a Bottle" has been widely regarded as one of Aguilera's signature songs. This song gained her mainstream success and credibility among music critics. It is also credited for redefining the sound of late 1990s music. Rolling Stone says about Aguilera, "Even in her teen-pop "Genie in a Bottle" days, she was modeling her dramatic, melismatic technique on old-school soul heroines like Etta James". It was ranked fifth on Rolling Stone's list of the biggest 1990s summer songs — a sentiment shared by the Billboard magazine in July 2020. It was also ranked #38th on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '90s. In July 2020 a digital publication The Pudding carried out a study on the most iconic songs from the '90s and songs that are most known by Millennials and the people of Generation Z. "Genie in a Bottle" was the twentieth song with the highest recognisability rate. The single was listed in the book titled The 7,500 Most Important Songs of the Rock and Roll Era: 1944–2000 by Bruce Pollock. and two other publications about best of all-time music — Paul Morley's Words and Music: A History of Pop in the Shape of a City, and 2004 of the Best Songs of the Century by Giannis Petridis. Blender ranked the song on its 2005 list of the 500 greatest songs of the 1980s–2000s. Bustle writer Sabienna Bowman called the song "a masterpiece of musical achievement" saying that the song "either about sex or self respect, depending on who you asked — was the anthem of the summer 1999". Bowman added that the song is "still everything that was so good about '90s pop music". Vice writer Nick Levine also agreed that song allowed Aguilera to take on a "full-on pop phenomenon" persona, adding that "[a]longside [Britney] Spears, Aguilera is the most iconic pop star of her era". In 2021, Bustle writers Anneliese Cooper and Jake Viswanath also added that Aguilera changed "the landscape of pop music forever". Rolling Stone writer Anthony Bozza noted that, Aguilera's introduction, "Genie in a Bottle", is sugary pop – once heard, never purged – but it doesn't showcase her vocal strength or control. Unlike most teen poppers, Aguilera can cut it without a multitrack studio. Imagewise, she isn't the typical red-cheeked kid next door, either. She's a teen diva, a kind of legal Lolita, proffering precocious "Oops, did I say that?" innuendo and belting songs like her life depends on it. She comports herself like a pro, as if she were born with a mike in her hand, donning platform booties. In an effort to maintain the "buzz" surrounding both the record and Aguilera, RCA set up a guest spot for her to perform the track on the teen-marketed television show Beverly Hills 90210. The performance saw Aguilera in a bar performing at a birthday party for a character named David. During the 2014 US Open, the song was used whenever Eugenie Bouchard played on the court, Genie being her nickname. In the fifth season of New Girl, Jessica "Jess" Day (played by Zooey Deschanel) sings Schmidt (Max Greenfield) to sleep with the lyrics. Colleen Ballinger performed the song in the Haters Back Off episode "Staring in a Musicall". The song was used in the Off-Broadway adaptation of Cruel Intentions, acted out by Katie Stevens as Kathryn Merteuil. Darren Criss performed the song during his LM/DC Tour. In January 2018 Erika Jayne gave a rendition of "Genie in a Bottle" during the Aguilera-themed episode on Lip Sync Battle. Ewelina Lisowska covered the song in the Polish edition of an interactive talent show Your Face Sounds Familiar (2019). A slowed-down cover version of the song was used in the 2019 comedy-drama film Yes, God, Yes. A Spanish version of the song, titled "Genio Atrapado", was featured in the episode of the third season of Drag Race España, performed by Chanel Anorex and Kelly Roller. The song was mentioned in Prince Harry's 2023 memoir Spare, and was used in the 2024 film The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling. Jason Derulo sampled "Genie in a Bottle" in his 2019 song "Talk with Your Body". A interpolation from the track was included in Lali's and Taichu's single "S.O.S", as well. Kat DeLuna sampled the song in her 2007 track "Love Confusion".. Likewise, it has been sampled by Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Camilla Cabello. Other versions In 2000, Aguilera recorded a Spanish version of "Genie in a Bottle" titled "Genio Atrapado" for her second studio album, Mi Reflejo. The song's lyrics were translated from English to Spanish by Cuban-American producer Rudy Pérez. "Genio Atrapado" peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. The song received a Latin Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the Latin Grammy Awards of 2000, which was awarded to Shakira for "Ojos Así". A music video for the song was directed by Diane Martel, who also directed the visual for "Genie in a Bottle". In the fall of 2001, an unauthorized mashup remix by The Freelance Hellraiser which combined Aguilera's a cappella vocals with the Strokes' 2001 song "Hard to Explain" was released under the title "A Stroke of Genius", receiving considerable attention and some airplay; The Guardian described the remix as having "defined the decade" as an early example of remix culture. Scottish band Speedway covered "A Stroke of Genius" (using the original title "Genie in a Bottle") and released it as their debut single as a double A-side with another song, "Save Yourself", on August 25, 2003. "Genie in a Bottle"/"Save Yourself" reached No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In 2008, Aguilera recorded a remake of "Genie in a Bottle" entitled "Genie 2.0" for her first greatest hits album, Keeps Gettin' Better: A Decade of Hits. "Genie 2.0" is an electropop-oriented song; a reviewer from Rolling Stone compared the song to works by Lady Gaga. The song was released via the iTunes Store in the United States to promote the album. Nick Butler of Sputnikmusic likened the song's style to that of The Eurythmics's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" and called it "awesome". To promote Keeps Gettin' Better, Aguilera performed "Genie 2.0" at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. The remake debuted at number 161 on the UK Singles Chart. In 2016, Dove Cameron covered "Genie in a Bottle" with sanitized lyrics for the Disney Channel short series Descendants: Wicked World. The music video, directed by Jay Martin, has over 300 million plays on VEVO. Cameron's version was received with praise with MTV writer Jessica Norton saying, "Not only does the revived cover satisfy our love of reliving the '90s, it also introduces a whole new generation to the iconic pop track." Cameron's cover peaked at number 11 on Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100. In September 2024, another cover of the song was released on EP titled The 25th Anniversary of Christina Aguilera (Spotify Anniversaries Live). It featured singer and guitarist Machine Gun Kelly. Track listings US CD and cassette single "Genie in a Bottle" – 3:36 "Blessed" – 3:06 German maxi single "Genie in a Bottle" – 3:36 "We're a Miracle" – 4:09 "Don't Make Me Love You" – 4:15 Personnel Credits are adapted from CD liner notes. Charts Speedway version Dove Cameron version Certifications Release history References Bibliography Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits. Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-7677-6. Dominguez, Pier (2003). Christina Aguilera: A Star is Made: The Unauthorized Biography. Amber Communications Group, Inc. ISBN 978-0-970-222-459. External links Christina Aguilera – "Genio Atrapado" on YouTube

Wildlife_of_China

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_of_China

China's vast and diverse landscape is home to a profound variety and abundance of wildlife. As of one of 17 megadiverse countries in the world, China has, according to one measure, 7,516 species of vertebrates including 4,936 fish, 1,269 bird, 562 mammal, 403 reptile and 346 amphibian species. In terms of the number of species, China ranks third in the world in mammals, eighth in birds, seventh in reptiles and seventh in amphibians. Many species of animals are endemic to China, including the country's most famous wildlife species, the giant panda. In all, about one-sixth of mammal species and two-thirds of amphibian species in China are endemic to the country. Wildlife in China share habitat with and bear acute pressure from the world's largest population of humans. At least 840 species are threatened, vulnerable or in danger of local extinction in China, due mainly to human activity such as habitat destruction, pollution and poaching for food, fur and ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. Endangered wildlife is protected by law, and as of 2005, the country has over 2,349 nature reserves, covering a total area of 149.95 million hectares (578,960 square miles), about 15 percent of China's total land area. Mammals Primates China is home to 21 primate species including gibbons, macaques, leaf monkeys, gray langurs, snub-nosed monkeys and lorises. Most of China's primate species are endangered. Both apes and monkeys, particularly gibbons and macaques are prominently featured in Chinese culture, folk religion, art and literature. The monkey is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. The only apes native to China are gibbons. Gibbons are tree dwellers which use their long arms to swing from branches. Gibbons can be recognized by their loud calls, with mating pairs often singing together as a duet. The Hainan black crested gibbon is among the rarest and most endangered apes. Endemic to the island of Hainan, there are fewer than 30 individuals left in the Bawangling National Nature Reserve. Like many other gibbons, male Hainan black crested gibbons are black in color while females are golden brown. The eastern black crested gibbon is nearly as rare with only 20 or so in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region along with 30 in neighboring Vietnam. About 99% of this ape's habitat in China has been lost. The black crested gibbon is found across a greater swath of southwestern China. The Yunnan lar gibbon, a subspecies of the lar or white-handed gibbon, might be extinct in China. The animal was last observed by zoologists in 1988 and its call was last heard by locals in 2002. A survey in November 2007 in the Nangunhe National Nature Reserve yielded no sign of this gibbon. The northern white-cheeked gibbon is nearly extinct in the wilderness of southern Yunnan where they are hunted by local people as charms of good luck and for their bones which are made into weaving instrument and chopsticks. As of 2008, a captive population of eight northern white-cheeked gibbons was living in the Mengyang Nature Reserve. Two of the individuals were released into the wild but still relied on tourists for food. The eastern hoolock gibbon, which are distinguished by white tufts of hair above the eyebrows, are found in western Yunnan, along the border with Myanmar. The western hoolock gibbon might be found in southeastern Tibet. All gibbons in China are Class I protected species. The most commonly found primates in China are macaques, which have oversized cheeks to store food and live in large troops. The range of the rhesus or common macaque extends from as far north as the Taihang Mountains of Shanxi and down to Hainan. Tibetan macaques are often seen at tourist sites such as Mount Emei and Huangshan. Stump-tailed macaques have distinct red faces and live throughout southern China. The Formosan rock macaque is endemic to Taiwan. Assam macaques are found in higher elevation areas of southern Tibet and the Southwest, and the northern pig-tailed macaque in Yunnan. Macaques are Class I protected species in China but their numbers have fallen sharply. Monkey brain is a delicacy in parts of Guangxi and Guangdong, and macaques are often hunted for food. The Monpa and Lhoba people of southern Tibet eat Assam macaques. From 1998 to 2004, the number of rhesus macaques in China fell from 254,000 to about 77,000. Over the same period, the Tibetan macaque population fell by 83% from about 100,000 to only about 17,000. Snub-nosed monkeys are so named because they have only nostrils and virtually no nose. Four of the five species in the world are found in China, including three that are endemic. All live in mountainous forests at elevations of 1,500–3,400 m above sea level. The golden snub-nosed monkey is most famous and most widely distributed, with subspecies in Sichuan, Hubei and Shaanxi. The gray snub-nosed monkey is the most endangered, with about 700 individuals, found only in Guizhou. The black snub-nosed monkey has about 1,700 individuals living in 17 identified groups in Yunnan and eastern Tibet. A small population of Myanmar snub-nosed monkey was found in western Yunnan in 2011. Other Old World monkeys in China include the François' langur, white-headed langur, Phayre's leaf monkey, capped langur and Shortridge's langur, which are collectively categorized as lutungs and the Nepal gray langur, which is considered a true langur. All of these species are endangered. Lutungs, also called leaf monkeys, have relatively short arms, longer legs and long tails along with a hood of hair above their eyes. François' langur is found only in southwest China and northern Vietnam. The range of the white-headed langur is much smaller—only in southern Guangxi and Cát Bà Island in Vietnam. Phayre's leaf monkey is native to Yunnan and a larger swath of Indochina. The capped and Shortridge's langurs live along the Yunnan-Myanmar border. The Nepal gray langur is larger than the lutungs and found in southern Tibet. Whereas apes and monkeys are grouped as haplorhine or "dry nose" primates, lorises are strepsirrhine or "wet nose" primates. Lorises have big eyes, tiny ears, live in trees and are active at night. The pygmy slow loris and Bengal slow loris are both found in southern Yunnan and Guangxi and are Class I protected species. Carnivores Cats China's big cat species include the tiger, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard. The tiger is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, and figures prominently in Chinese culture and history. Tiger bones are used in traditional Chinese medicine and tiger fur is used for decoration. The animal is vulnerable to poaching and habitat loss. Four tiger populations were native to China. All are critically endangered, protected and live in nature reserves. The Siberian tiger occurs in the Northeast, along the border with Russia and North Korea. The Caspian tiger was last seen in the Manasi River Basin of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the 1960s, where this population is now extinct. The South China tiger is an endemic population whose habitat is now confined to the mountain regions of Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong and Fujian. A few Indochinese tigers were known to live in Yunnan where six nature reserves have been established for their protection. Three leopard subspecies are thought to occur in China: Leopards recorded in Qomolangma National Nature Preserve in southern Tibet are subsumed to the Indian leopard. The Indochinese leopard occurs in Yunnan Province of southern China, where the Pearl River is thought to form a barrier to leopard populations farther north. Camera-trap surveys conducted between 2002 and 2009 in 11 nature reserves in southern China recorded leopards only in Changqing National Nature Reserve in the Qinling Mountains, but not in Sichuan's Wolong Nature Reserve and other protected areas in Sichuan. The Amur leopard is native to northern China including the Jilin province along the border with Russia and North Korea, where it has been recorded by camera-traps in Hunchun National Nature Reserve. Leopards cross between China, Russia and North Korea across the Tumen River despite a high and long wire fence marking the international boundary. Contemporary records of leopards exist from protected areas in Hebei, Henan and Shanxi Provinces, and Ningxia Autonomous Region, but not from Gansu Province. Whether leopards still occur in Qinghai Province is uncertain. The species has probably been extirpated in Hunan, Hubei, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi and Jiangxi provinces. It is listed as nationally critically endangered, but receives little attention from Chinese wildlife biologists and conservationists. Fragmented leopard populations in central China have been subsumed to the Amur leopard, as there is no notable geographical barrier to northern China that would have prevented gene flow in the past. The range of the snow leopard extends across the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, Karakorum Mountains, and Tian Shan in western China. The clouded leopard occurs in forest regions south of the Yangtze River. It became locally extinct in Taiwan in 1972. The Chinese mountain cat is endemic to China and lives on the north-eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. It was recorded only in eastern Qinghai and north-western Sichuan. It was photographed by a camera-trap for the first time in 2007. One individual was observed and photographed in May 2015 in the Ruoergai grasslands. The range of the Eurasian lynx includes the Greater Khingan Mountains of Northeast China. Pallas's cat occurs at high altitudes on the Tibetan Plateau and in western China. The Asiatic wildcat is distributed in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia. Within Xinjiang, it has been confined to three southern prefectures: Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Aksu and Hotan. It is declining rapidly in its natural habitat in the Xinjiang desert region of China mainly because of excessive hunting for pelt trade followed by shrinkage of its habitat due to cultivation, oil and gas exploration and excessive use of pesticides. The Asian golden cat and leopard cat have been recorded in the Changqing National Nature Reserve in the Qinling Mountains and in the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve in the Min Mountains. The leopard cat also occurs in the Wolong Nature Reserve and other protected areas in the Qionglai Mountains and Daliang Mountains. Canines The family Canidae has many members in China including the dog, wolf, dhole, red fox, corsac fox, Tibetan sand fox and common raccoon dog. Two subspecies of wolf live in China—the Eurasian wolf, which is found in all of mainland China and the Tibetan wolf, which lives on the Tibetan Plateau. Some of the earliest dogs may have been domesticated in East Asia, and several Chinese dog breeds including the shar-pei and chow chow are among the most ancient in terms of DNA similarity to the gray wolf. Dholes are now found in only six provinces: Gansu, Yunnan, Tibet, Sichuan, and Xinjiang. The red fox, the largest fox species, can be found in every part of China except the northwest. The corsac fox is found in Northeast China and the Tibetan sand fox in Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan. The raccoon dog, one of the few canids that can climb trees, is native to eastern and northeastern China. Pandas, bears The giant panda, perhaps China's most famous wildlife species, lives in six patches of highland valleys of the Min, Qionglai, Liang, Daxiangling, Xiaoxiangling and Qinling mountains of the upper Yangtze River basin, which are spread over 45 counties in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi. Only about 1,600 live in the wild (80% in Sichuan) along with about 300 in captivity in Chinese breeding centers and zoos. The animal is rare and elusive. Though classified as an omnivore, the giant panda's diet is over 90% bamboo. Its black and white coloration provides a degree camouflage in the dense forests, but the adult animal has no natural predators. Giant pandas are notoriously difficult to breed; they have short mating periods, and give birth to only one or two cubs per year. The giant panda cub is the smallest baby, compared in proportion to the parents, of any placental mammal. The giant panda is considered to be a national treasure and is an endangered species protected by state law. Since the 1970s, giant pandas have been given or lent to foreign zoos as gesture of diplomatic goodwill. Other more common bears in China include the Asiatic black bear and the brown bear which are found across much of the country. Sub-species of the brown bear include the Himalayan brown bear and the Tibetan blue bear in Tibet, and the Ussuri brown bear in Northeast China. The sun bear is found in Yunnan. Bears, especially black bears, are also raised in captivity to harvest their bile for use in traditional Chinese medicine. The red panda - which unlike the giant panda is not a bear and more closely resembles a raccoon - is from a separate family by itself (Ailuridae), and is found in Sichuan and Yunnan. Viverridae and Herpestidae The viverrid and mongoose families of small carnivores are represented by numerous members occurring in southern China, including binturong, large Indian civet, small Indian civet, Owston's palm civet, masked palm civet, Asian palm civet, small-toothed palm civet, crab-eating mongoose and small Indian mongoose. Otter, badger, weasel, marten, wolverine The largest family of carnivorous mammals belongs to the otters, badgers, weasels, martens, and wolverines, all of which are found in China. All of these mustelids are short, furry animals with short, rounded ears and thick fur, but they differ markedly in size, habit and habitat. The sable, a species of marten, is prized for its fine fur, which along with ginseng and deer antler velvet, are known as the "three treasures of Manchuria". The sable is found in Manchuria (also called the Northeast) and Altai region of northern Xinjiang. The beech marten of western China and yellow-throated marten of southern China are closely related to the sable. The Siberian weasel, known locally as the "yellow rat wolf", is the most common weasel in China. It is found throughout China proper and Manchuria, and known to steal poultry from farmers but helps to control the rodent population. Hair from the tail of the Siberian weasel is used to make ink brush for traditional Chinese calligraphy. Other weasel species include the least weasel and stoat in the north, yellow-bellied weasel and back-striped weasel in the south, and mountain weasel in the west. The steppe polecat is bigger than the Siberian weasel and found across northern China. In Chinese, the wolverine is called "sable bear" because it is bigger than a sable and smaller than a bear and resembles both animals. The animal lives in caves and dens, which they do not dig but take from other animals such as bears, foxes and bobak marmots. Wolverines are fierce creatures that will fight bears and wolves for food. They are found in the Greater Khingan range of Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia and the Altai Mountains of northern Xinjiang, and number only about 200. The European otter is found throughout much of Eurasia and China. It is nearly extinct on Taiwan though some have been found on the island of Kinmen, off the coast of Fujian. The Oriental small-clawed otter is the smallest otter species and lives in mangrove and freshwater swamps of southern China and Taiwan. The smooth-coated otter is confined to parts of Yunnan and Guangdong. Like sable and martens, otter fur is also used make clothing. Sables and wolverines are Class I protected species. Martens and otters are Class II protected species. Badgers have distinctive white stripes on their faces with one long stripe that extends from nose to tail. The Asian badger is found throughout China proper and the eastern Himalayas. The hog badger has a pig-like snout and has a slightly smaller range than the Asian badger. Ferret-badgers are the smallest badgers and two species live in China. The Chinese ferret-badger is found across much of southern China south of the Yangtze River and the Burmese ferret-badger along Yunnan's border with Laos and Vietnam. Seals, sea lions Pinnipeds are also classified as carnivores and are divided between earless or true seals and eared seals. True seals do not have ears and cannot get their hind flippers underneath their bodies to crawl. Eared seals, which include sea lions, in contrast, have protruding ears and can "walk" with all four limbs on land. True seals in China include the bearded seal which is found along the coast of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong in the East and South China Sea, the ringed seal in the Yellow Sea, and spotted seal, which is primarily found in the Bohai Gulf and the northern Yellow Sea, but have been seen as far south as Guangdong. All seals are Class II protected animal. Sea lions have Class I protection. The spotted seal is the only seal species that breeds in China. Its breeding grounds are found along the rim of Liaodong Bay in the Bohai Gulf, including the estuary at the mouth of the Shuangtaizi River near Panjin and Changxing Island near Dalian, and Baengnyeongdo sanctuary in the Korean exclusive economic zone. These seals have been poached for its fur and genitals, which were used to make an aphrodisiac. Their habitats have also been heavily damaged by land reclamation, fish farming, and petroleum development. A South Korean NGO has been trying to increase public awareness and support for the protection of the seals in China, North Korea and South Korea. Protection stations have been set up to monitor the breeding grounds and wildlife protection authorities compensate fisherman who turn in live seals caught in their nets. In April 2011, the construction of an express highway along the coast was halted due to its adverse impact on the seal breeding ground. Satellite trackings revealed that not only within Yellow Sea, but also seals can migrate even between Primorsky Krai in Russia to Yellow Sea, exceeding 3,300 km in total. Recoveries and recolonizations have been observed recently, such as along the coast of Shandong in 1999, and in the Miaodao Islands of the Bohai Sea since 2000s. The northern fur seal, an eared seal, occasionally appears off the coast of eastern and southern China and southern Taiwan. The largest of the eared seals is the Steller sea lion, who lives primarily in the Arctic but is also seen along the Yellow Sea coast in Jiangsu and Bohai Gulf in Liaoning. Among Yellow Sea – adjacent areas within the Korean EEZ, occurrence can be on locations such as at Jeju Island. Whales, dolphins, porpoises China has cetacean species that live in both freshwater and the sea. The nearly extinct baiji dolphin and Chinese white dolphin are Class I protected species. All other cetaceans in China are Class II protected species. In total, 22 species of smaller cetaceans inhabit within Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong's, and Macau's waters including Baiji. Although being not officially recognized, the presence of Irrawaddy dolphins have been questioned. In ancient China, inscriptions of the whales varied and inscriptions of whales and sharks were occasionally mixed. During the Qing dynasty, certain knowledge on whales had been deepened with the establishment of whaling industries in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan although both oceanic and freshwater dolphins had been classified as different animals from whales. It is said that climate change during the dynasty caused small fish to flourish within Yellow and Bohai Seas and drew large numbers of whales into the basins. The Republic of China was one of the early signatories of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The People's Republic of China signed convention in September 1980 and banned domestic whaling in 1981, and also signed in the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Until recently, observing live cetaceans nonetheless of any species including minke whales and smaller dolphins and porpoises are very rare in Bohai and Yellow Seas within Chinese side, however, increases in confirmation of minke whales and other species have been confirmed in larger part of Yellow Sea basin especially around Changhai County due to improves in water quality and productivity achieved by fishery regulations and creating ocean farms on Zhangzi Island, and local industries have been considered to operate whale watching tours as a future prospect. Modern distributions of cetaceans both on continent and oceanic islands including Taiwan are largely biased on toothed whales due to severe declines of baleen whales. Baiji The baiji dolphin's habit historically covered much of the Yangtze River and its tributaries and lakes, from Yichang to Shanghai. It is mentioned in historical records going back 2,000 years. According to legend, the baiji dolphin is the reincarnation of a princess and called the Goddess of the Yangtze. As recently as the 1950s, there were as many as 6,000 baiji dolphins in China, but their number fell to the hundreds by the 1980s, under 100 in the 1990s and fewer than a dozen since 2000. The Yangtze River catchment area is one of the most densely populated areas in China and the world. The river, China's longest, is also a major highway for ships. Water and noise pollution, commercial fishing, and large propellers of ships are all major threats to the baiji. The building of the Gezhouba Dam in the 1970s and the Three Gorges Dam in the 1990s blocked the access of the dolphins upstream, altered the seasonal flow of the river, and enabled large oceangoing ships to sail on the river. By 1997, a survey of the river found only 13 baiji. A Sino-Swiss joint survey of the river from Yichang to Shanghai in 2006 found no animals and declared the species to be functionally extinct, that is, even if a few individuals continued to survive, their numbers are too few to reproduce. The last sighting confirmed by zoologist was in 2004 when a dead baiji dolphin washed ashore near Nanjing. Nature reserves to protect the baiji dolphin were established along the Yangtze in Hunan, Hubei and Anhui province, along with observation and captive centers. The longest living baiji dolphin in captivity, Qiqi, lived in a dolphinarium in Wuhan from 1980 to 2002. The Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Nature Reserve, created out of an oxbow bend in the Yangtze was designed as a captive breeding area for the baiji. One baiji was sent there in 1995 but died in 1996. The reserve is now a breeding ground for the finless porpoise. Finless porpoise At least two subspecies of finless porpoise are known to inhabit coastal waters such as off Dalian< Nanjing, Nanji Islands Marine Sanctuary, Jiushan Chain IslandsWeizhou Island, and at Matsu Islands. A freshwater subspecies lives in the Yangtze, Gan and Xiang Rivers. Unlike dolphins, they lack a dorsal fin. The freshwater porpoise faces the same threat as the baiji. In April 2012, twelve were found dead in Dongting Lake in a span of 44 days. Construction of the Poyang Lake Dam may cause severe damages on remaining population. As of 2012, the Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Nature Reserve had about 40 finless porpoises with another 85 in Dongting Lake and 300–400 in Poyang Lake. The freshwater finless porpoise, a Class II protected species, is rarer than the giant panda. They are also well present in Gulf of Tonkin. In recent years, small concentrations have been confirmed at the estuaries on the mouth of Yellow River in Lijin County. Stable numbers of porpoises, two subspecies being involved, have been found recently along Chongming Island where the local waters show drastic recovery thanks to efforts to improve water quality. Oceanic dolphins Sousa, the Chinese white dolphin (locally called the Matsu's fish) that was previously considered to be a subspecies of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, lives in the waters off southern China including Wanshan Archipelago, Nanji Islands, the Pearl River Delta, and Hong Kong, Gulf of Tonkin Hainan Island such as around Sanya Bay, Leizhou Peninsula, Paracel Islands, and on Penghu Islands to the western coast of Taiwan, mainland coast along the Formosa Strait such as at Xiamen and Xiapu County, and Nánpēng Islands Marine Sanctuary in Nan'ao County, and Sanniang Bay dolphin sanctuary in Qingzhou. The Chinese white dolphin is a symbol of Hong Kong, and special sanctuary has been declared to protect the species with approaches to co-exist with sustainable dolphin watching, although the local population is in serious peril. Other oceanic dolphin species include the Pacific white-sided, spinner, striped, short-beaked common, long-beaked common, Fraser's, pantropical spotted, rough-toothed, common bottlenose, Indo-Pacific bottlenose, and Risso's dolphin. Risso's dolphins are one of the most common cetaceans along the east coast of Taiwan. Whales Whales were historically abundant in Chinese and Taiwanese waters especially in the winter and spring whene they come to coastal areas to breed and calve, while especially baleen whales other than those which migrated from the outer Pacific and Sea of Japan swam northward to feed in the Yellow and Bohai basins during warmer seasons. Most of the large whales in Taiwan were recorded prior to 1952. In imperial times, villages along the coast of the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong hunted whales and made offerings of whale oil to the emperor in Beijing. On the other hand, however, like among other nations such as in Korea, China, Ebis in Japan, Indonesia, among Indochina including in Vietnam where whales were once well respected, heavenly deities among coastal people, regarded as the "King of the sea", the "Dragon emperor in the ocean", or "Dragon Soldiers" in almost entire coastal regions excluding above mentioned Hainan and Leizhou, as when whales were seen, fishermen and boats had to make ways for them and wait the whales to pass. In Chinese mythology, for example, Yu-kiang, the ruler of the sea, is said to be a whale with arms and legs. Indigenous tribes on Taiwan also recognized the presences of large whales and representing whales in their local myths and folklores. Baleen whales found in the ocean off China's coast include the blue whale, the world's largest animal, as well as the Eden's, Omura's, Bryde's, common minke, fin, sei, and humpback whales. Historically, there had been an endemic, resident population of fin whales from the Yellow and Bohai Sea to the East China Sea. Minke whales are also resident in the same regions. Historically, Bryde's whales were resident near Taiwan and the southern coast. In the Chinese EEZ, critically endangered North Pacific right whales and western gray whales had been sighted in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea only on prior to the 1970s, especially for right whales. There had been records of gray whales and the only record in the 21st century was of a mature female accidentally killed in local fisheries near Pingtan in the Taiwan Strait in 2007. The following statements focus on right and gray whales because their behavioral patterns (high reliance on shallow waters compared to their size, such that they enter river mouths and estuaries regularly, and their curiosity about humans) made it easier for hunters to kill them and they were wiped out faster than other species, but they also apply to the larger whales. Rorquals' situations were similar, but their functional local extinction was caused later in the 20th century by modern Japanese whaling. The biology and natural history of whales in Chinese waters prior to exploitation is unclear because academic studies or approaches to biology of cetaceans was minimal. The local populations of migratory whales appear to have been intensively hunted to the point of near-functional extinction on the main migratory collider (the Japanese archipelago) by Japanese whaling industries. The fates of right whales, for example, were threatened by legal, illegal and research whaling, and the most devastatingly, the Soviet Union's mass illegal whaling in the 1960s and 1970s. Gray whales migrating on the coasts of Japanese were wiped out earlier than their Korean counterparts. Other populations along the Korean Peninsula were targeted later. The most intensive hunts of all times were carried out by Japanese whaling industries in the 20th century; these covered a wide range of east Asian waters including almost entire EEZ of China, North Korea and South Korea. Whaling stations, such as at Daya Bay, were established along the Chinese and Korean coastlines causing virtual, functional extinction of almost all species of larger baleen whales in east and southeast Asian nations. The presence of larger cetaceans has not been confirmed. Toothed whales, excluding dolphins, include the sperm, dwarf sperm, pygmy sperm, Baird's beaked, Longman's beaked, Cuvier's beaked, Blainville's beaked, ginkgo-toothed beaked whales, and the orca and pilot whales (false killer, pygmy killer, melon-headed, short-finned pilot). False killers still remain along coasts of mainland China, and are known to enter rivers regularly in particular regions. Stranding of toothed whales has been common on Taiwanese coasts. Large whales have become very rare on today's Chinese coasts where only tiny remnants of minke whales or several more survived. However, whale watching industries became popular attractions along the east coast of Taiwan, offering excellent opportunities to observe majestic creatures, especially in the summer. Recently, whale watching has been considered in the Yellow Sea based on recoveries whale populations. Larger rorquals have been sighted in pelagic waters occasionally. Whales migrating through Tsushima Strait possibly to Chinese waters are under serious threat of being struck by high-speed vessels. Older and modern whaling records suggest that there had been historical summering and wintering/calving grounds for baleen whales in various areas along coastal China particularly in several locations. Below is a list showing some of those areas corresponding with baleen and few of larger toothed whales, but excluding undiscovered or unstudied regions and species. Baleen whales Right whales – Yellow Sea (especially adjacent to the island of Haiyang Dao where the junction of warmer and colder ocean currents exists nearby and all the modern appearances of the species on mainland coasts of China were concentrated), Shanghai and Zhoushan Islands, Guangdong and Huiyang, and in Taiwan Strait such as along coasts of Fujian (e.g.Pingtan Island), Penghu Islands, and Taiwan, and some reaching Hainan and Leizhou The first documented stranding of the species in China was in Shandong Province between 2000 and 2006. The first sighting in China was at Shenzhen in 2015 although the observation was reported as a humpback, and the first of living animal in Sea of Japan since after the whaling was recorded at Namhae near Busan in February 2015 and this was the first confirmation of the species since after the last record in Korean EEZ in 1974. Since 1901, records have been concentrated to the vicinity of Amami Ōshima including sightings in 1997 and 2014, and the first confirmed whale in west coast of Kyushu strayed into the port of Ushibuka, Kumamoto in 2014. Based on studies to find coastal foraging grounds, wintering distributions may also include areas along the Zhejiang coast. It is unknown if there had been a summer population of this species to in the Yellow and Bohai seas, however copepods within the basins and the geography indicate some whales might have summered there. Gray and humpback whales – Yellow and Bohai Sea such as at Qingdao, Zhoushan Islands, Taiwan, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Nánpēng Islands, Liaonin, Fujian to south of Hailing Bay, Daya Bay, Hong Kong, Hainan, Qizhou Liedao Islands (humpback), Wailuo Harbour, Paracel Islands, and so on. Only about 130 gray whales survive today, but some recent studies indicate that the original Asian population might have been functionally extinct, and those whales seen on Sakhalin and Kamchatka could originate in the well-recovering eastern population. Fossil and catch records suggest there were once wintering/calving areas in Taiwan and adjacent areas. The most recent known record in Korean waters was the sighting of a pair off Bangeojin, Ulsan in 1977. In 2011, gray whales were acoustically detected among pelagic waters in the East China Sea between China and Japan. Historical catches of humpbacks on the southern coasts of the nation were small, hence it is difficult to determine the population before exploitation. There was once a foraging area on the southern coasts along the Bashi Channel around Kenting National Park or near the southern coasts and islands of Taiwan like Xiaoliuqiu Island and Dapeng Bay. Today, their numbers along the east coast of Taiwan are very small despite efforts of whale-watching companies. Sightings, including of a cow-calf pair, have occurred the along east coast of Taiwan. Whales were once abundant near Pingtung County and sporadic individuals have been observed off the east coast, Hualien and at islands such as Green Island and Orchid Island. The first confirmation in Taiwan was of a pair off Hualien in 1994, and there was a successful unentanglement off Taitung in 1999. In 2000 a whale was sighted around Orchid Island and sightings have been reported almost annually at Green Island and Orchid Island, however, relative short stays in these waters indicate that they are not winter foraging grounds. There were documented sightings of humpback whales around Hong Kong in 2009 and 2016. Possibly the first confirmed sighting, in the Yellow Sea, was of three animals including a cow-calf pair off Changhai County in 2015. Few whales now migrate through the Sea of Japan, the Tsushima Strait, and further reaching the Korean Peninsula. Based on historical catches and observations, some gray whales could have occurred year round off China, possibly summering in the Bohai Sea. There had been at least 24 records of gray whales in Chinese waters since 1933 including sightings, strandings, and bycatch. DNA analysis of a 2011 specimen indicates that this female might not originate in the western population. Whether or not humpback whales ever summered within Yellow and Bohai basins is unknown. Bryde's or Eden's whales – Historically residential among Taiwan, Fujian and Guangdong to Hong Kong, Hainan and Leizhou, and Gulf of Tonkin such as off Weizhou and Xieyang Islands. There have been occasional reported sightings in areas within Hong Kong and Macau to the Gulf of Tonkin, and strandings had been reported from areas such as Zhoushan. The number of whales currently migrating through Tsushima Strait is not clear although they have been observed on numerous occasions by the Japan Coast Guard. Twenty-four Bryde's or Eden's whales were caught in the Korean EEZ in the mid-1970s, and one was sighted in the Sea of Japan in 1994. Fin whales – Historically resident in the Yellow and Bohai seas and east to the South China Sea off the Paracel Islands, and at least two other local groups, Sea of Japan residents and a group once migrated along the Pacific side of the Japanese archipelago to Chinese waters The East China Sea group is considered to be either functionally extinct or critically endangered due to being one of main targets of Japanese whaling in the 20th century, and today there have been occasional strandings or findings of deceased individuals along sporadic areas from the Yellow and Bohai seas to other parts including southern shores like at Kam District in Wenchang, Shanghai (although the whale was speculated to have died in offshore waters), and Ningbo. The last confirmed sighting near Taiwan is unknown although some media and tourism operators claim that migrations still occur, and whales might still migrate in pelagic waters. The only modern record among the Ryukyu Islands was of a rotten carcass beached on Ishigaki Island in 2005. The last of known record on the Korean Peninsula was in 1973, but there have been recent by-catches along the coasts. Some whales still live in the Sea of Japan and pass through the Tsushima Strait. There had been congregation areas adjacent to Korean Peninsula such as in East Korea Bay and Ulleungdo, although occurrences in these locations are unclear. Fin whales in the Yellow Sea could have been a unique form from outer Pacific populations due to their smaller size, and breeding season was mainly in winter. Minke whales – Still be present regularly (although very rare to observe live individuals) in the Yellow and Bohai seas (resident group), Zhoushan, and in coastal and oceanic island areas (e.g. Zhoushan, Penghu, and Parcel Archipelagos). Likely to breed in early to mid – summer, and there may be four major migratory routes within the Yellow and Bohai seas such as along Liaoning Bay, Bohai Strait, and Shandong Peninsula. Off Taiwan, recent sightings and entanglements occurred along the east coast such as at San Diego, Taiwan Strait, or at Hualien. Strandings and by-catches have been in higher rates in the Bohai Sea and at the islands of Haiyang and Zhangzi. Blue, sei and Omura's whales – Largely unknown. Blues were known to visit the Yellow and Bohai seas and migrate further south to the Paracel Islands. One was sighted off Weizhou Island in 2017. Blue whales in the coastal northwestern Pacific likely became extinct due to heavy exploitation in the 20th century along southern Japan especially on Wakayama and Shikoku and Miyazaki where the last known catches in the East China Sea (Amami Oshima) were in 1934. The most recent recorded stranding on the Japanese archipelago, other than the Ryukyu Islands, was in the 1950s, and only three blue whales were recorded in Far Eastern Russian waters from 1994 to 2004. Gigantic whales exceeding 20 m in length have been observed in the Tsushima Strait in recent years although their species are unknown. There was a stranding in Wanning in 2005. It is unclear if the whales confirmed in the Bohol Sea in recent years include of the blue whales which had been seen in the Chinese EEZ; it was speculated that these were pygmy blue whales from the Southern Hemisphere. Historic distributions, occurrences, and current statuses of sei, Bryde's (offshore form) and Omura's whales in Chinese and Korean waters are unclear, but their known ranges in Chinese waters reach from the mid to southern coasts facing from the East China Sea and Taiwan to the South China Sea. Scientific confirmation of Omura's whales among continental waters was rather recent. Strandings of Omura's whales have been recorded only south of Zhejiang County. Occasionally, either Bryde's or Omura's whales have been spotted along Taiwan's east coast during whales-watch cruises. There have been sightings along the Taiwanese coast in Hualien and there was a case of re-floating a stranded Bryde's whale near Nantong in 2005. Toothed whales Sperm whales – The only large cetacean still common in the nation's waters were one of the main targets of whale-watching industries along the east coast of Taiwan, as well as islands such as the Xiaoliuqiu and Spratly Islands. Some appear around the Hainan Islands although their current status in this region is unclear. Occasionally whales strand on mainland shores in the Yellow and Bohai regions. They appear seldom in near-shore waters because they feed mostly in deep sea canyons. Sperm whales appear in near-shore waters in some cases; at locations where deep waters approach shores, or some particular individuals or groups have learned to come to rest in shallow bays, straits or along beaches. There were sightings of nine whales in the East China Sea off the Korean Peninsula in 1999, and eight whales off the eastern Korean Peninsula in 2004. The last catches were of five whales off Ulsan in 1911. Baird's beaked whales – The second largest of the Odontoceti are extreme divers second only to sperm whales. Next to nothing about this species' natural history and biology in Chinese waters is clear as the species has been considered not to occur, and the origin of the skeleton at the Zhejiang Museum of natural History is unclear. This species could still be within the Chinese EEZ as some groups on the Japanese archipelago survive, but are under serious danger from commercial whaling. Based on archeological reports, these elusive, friendly whales once were regular among the Yellow and Bohai seas notably around Lingshan Island off Huangdao District or the mouth of Jiaozhou Bay and off Dalian at least until the mid-16th century, but they were seemingly wiped out by Japanese whalers. Southern limits of their distributions in Chinese waters are unclear while a stranding or a catch was recorded in Zhoushan in the 1950s. Twelve whales were caught as bycatch along the eastern Korean Peninsula between 1996 and 2012. Longman's beaked whales and other beaked whales – Being one of newly classified and less known species, their overall distributions have been rather unclear. They are the second largest of beaked whales and third largest of toothed whales that can be seen in the Chinese EEZ. In Chinese waters records of these whales are concentrated on the east coast of Taiwan and surrounding waters including Lanyu and Green Island. Based on studies, presences of other beaked whales, being lesser known as well, have been confirmed to be common around Taiwanese waters, and Taiwan is one of few locations where beaked whales have been observed with regularity during whale watching tours. Stejneger's beaked whales are resident in the Sea of Japan, and are one of the most commonly recorded Ziphiidae species of the Korean Peninsula although their presence within the Yellow Sea is unclear. Orcas – The current status of killer whales along the nation's coasts and surrounding areas is unclear. Sightings are more common along the eastern Taiwanese coasts such as off Chenggong while on the mainland, they occur on almost the entire shoreline from the Bohai and Yellow Sea in the north to Ningbo and Zhoushan Archipelago in the east, and along the southern coasts and islands including Paracel Islands as well. There was a commercial catch newar southern Taiwan in the 1990s. They still occur occasionally in the Korean side of the Yellow Sea or nearby; there was a sighting of pairs in 2001 and five or six whales off Wando (island) within the Dadohaehaesang National Park in 2016. Short-finned pilot whales – The so-called the "Southern Form" of the species ranges within the Chinese waters. Most of records concentrate on the eastern coasts of Taiwan. Mainland distributions are rather unclear as there had been only one stranding record in Hainan, including regularities of occurrences within the Yellow Sea, but occasional strandings have been recorded such as at Taeanhaean National Park and Jeju. There was a mass stranding on the Nanji Islands in 2004. False killer whales – One of few species surviving today in descent numbers on mainland coasts, but in peril; any warmer regions such as Taiwan, Nánpēng Islands, Nanji Island Marine Sanctuary, Matsu Islands, Langyatai on Huangdao District, Dongshan County, Hong Kong, Paracel Islands, and so on. False killer whales along continental China are known to often enter and swim up large rivers in pods or large numbered schools, reaching more than 30 to 50 km, or individuals have traveled 220 to 300 km. Rivers and canals in Xiangshui County such as Guanhe, Jiangsu, Huai, and Tongyu (通榆河) rivers have local legends of "鲸拜龙王" (Worshiped Whale Dragon King), telling that every spring whales gather at river mouths and swim up. In recent years, especially from earlier 2000s, false killer whales have been observed to swim up rivers rather regularly, showing dramatic recoveries and their numbers are rising once again, up to more than 200 whales. Whales occasionally appear in Jiaozhou Bay which was part of the regular range for the species until in the 1980s. Dugongs Dugongs are marine mammals that feed entirely on vegetation such as seagrass. They are related to manatees in the Western Hemisphere, and are only sirenian species found in Asian waters. In China, dugongs are found along the coasts of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where the Hepu Dugong National Nature Reserve, near Beihai, was created in 1992 for their protection, and less frequently in Hainan. Current distributions could be much more restricted than that of pre-exploitation ranges, as once might have been seen in the Yellow sea regions. They are considered regionally extinct in Taiwan. The dugong is a Class I protected species. They were hunted for their meat in the late 1950s and early 1960s during the Great Leap Forward. Dugongs are threatened by the loss of seagrass beds from coastal development. Several areas still possess feasible habitats for dugongs today such as the Dongsha Atoll and the west coasts of Hainan and Leizhou Peninsula, and Chinese government funded to establish a sanctuary designed for dugong and mangrove conservation ranging from Hepu County to Shankou in Guanxi, also to secure local Chinese white dolphins. Individuals distributed among the Beibu Gulf Economic Rim in Gulf of Tonkin face threats of busy-becoming ship-lanes and polluted waters. Elephant Asian elephants once roamed a large swath of China, but are now confined to the Xishuangbanna and Pu'er Prefectures of southern Yunnan. Xishuangbana means 12 elephants in the local Thai language. In recent years, Chinese demand for ivory has led to a sharp increase in elephant poaching around the world. Due to strict enforcement of elephant protection laws with capital punishment for poachers and government financed feeding programs, the population of elephants within China from 1994 to 2014 roughly doubled to nearly 300. Odd-toed ungulates Rhino Records and artwork from antiquity indicate that three species of Asian rhinoceros, the Indian, Javan and Sumatran, more specially the Northern Sumatran rhinoceros have lived in China. During the Shang dynasty, some 3,000 years ago, rhinoceros ranged as far north as Inner Mongolia. By the beginning of the Han dynasty, 2,200 years ago, they had disappeared from the Central Plains of northern China. During the Tang dynasty, about 1,200 years ago, rhinos were found across southern China and the imperial zoo had a captive breeding program that returned some animals to the wild. Cooler climate in northern China may have caused rhinoceros habitat to shrink, but it was demand for rhino horns for use in traditional Chinese medicine, documented in as early as the Song dynasty 1,000 years ago, that drove the animal toward extinction. In the Ming dynasty about 650 years ago, rhinoceros were confined to Yunnan and Guizhou, and by the Qing dynasty to only Yunnan. The Qing government limited the hunting of rhinos to only officials, and some 300 horns were harvested between 1900 and 1910. The collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911 allowed individuals to hunt the animal. The last Sumatran rhino was killed in 1916, the last Indian rhino in 1920 and the last Javan rhino in 1922. In 2010, a herd of nine southern white rhinoceros were imported from South Africa and shipped to Yunnan, where they were kept in a wild animal park for acclimation. In March 2013, seven of the animals were shipped to the Laiyanghe National Forest Park, a habitat where Asian rhinoceros once lived. Two of the African rhinos began the process of being released into the wild on 13 May 2014. Horses and wild asses The Przewalski's horse, the only species of wild horses never to have been domesticated, once roamed free in large parts of northwestern China but became locally extinct in 1957. In the 1980s, herds from Europe have been introduced to habitats in Xinjiang and Gansu. The other odd-toed ungulates in China are the Mongolian wild ass and the Tibetan wild ass (kiang). The former is endangered while the latter is not. Both are Class I protected species. Even-toed ungulates Deer China has a great variety of true deer and its close kin the musk deer. The largest deer species, the elk (known as the moose in North America), is found in the Greater and Lesser Khingan ranges of the northeast. The moose stands at 2 m tall and weighs as much 700 kg. In contrast, the lesser mouse-deer of Yunnan, which is just 45 cm in height and weighs 2 kg, is not much bigger than a rabbit. China also contains the closely related elk and red deer, the second and fourth largest deer species, which until 2004 were considered the same species. The elk (also known as wapiti) has four subspecies in Asia – the Altai wapiti, Tian Shan wapiti, Manchurian wapiti and Alashan wapiti – all of which are present in China. The red deer, though quite common in Europe, has subspecies in China that are endangered. The red deer are the deer that have been most important to human societies. The Yarkand deer lives along the Tarim River in Xinjiang south of the Tian Shan. The Bactrian deer lives north of the Tian Shan in northern Xinjiang and Central Asian Republics. The Tibetan red deer, Gansu red deer, Sichuan deer have been alternatively categorized as subspecies of the elk or the Central Asian red deer. The sambar deer, the third largest deer species, is found throughout southern China, and on the islands of Hainan and Taiwan. They live near water and are called "water deer" in Chinese. They are not to be confused with the Chinese water deer, a smaller deer which are found in the Yangtze Delta region. The water deer is the only species of true deer without antlers. Water deer, tufted deer and muntjacs are small deer with long upper canines that protrude like tusks. Muntjacs are known for their soft hide and tender meat. The Indian muntjac is found throughout southern China. The range of the Reeve's muntjac extends north to Gansu and to Taiwan. Fea's muntjac are found in eastern Tibet and the Gongshan muntjac in neighboring Yunnan. The hairy-fronted muntjac is endemic to the mountains at the juncture of Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian and is a protected species. The tufted deer, a close relative of the muntjac, is found throughout central China. Deer is prized in China for the velvet of their antlers. Antler velvet is rich in growth hormone and is used in traditional Chinese medicine. The most valuable antler velvet comes from the sika deer which is raised on farms. Several subspecies of the sika deer, including the Shanxi sika and the North China sika may have become extinct in the wild and survive exclusively in captivity. The Sichuan sika deer, another subspecies, was discovered in 1978 and lives in mountains of northern Sichuan and southern Gansu. The Formosan sika deer is endemic to Taiwan. Reindeer, which are found in the forests of the Greater Khingan range in northern Inner Mongolia, are domesticated by the ethnic Ewenki and Oroqen people. The Oroqen call themselves, "people who use the reindeer". One branch of the Ewenki rely on reindeer to haul goods through swampy forests. They use reindeer milk and meat for nourishment, hides for clothing and tents, and antlers for medicine and income. The Kyrgyz people, who now reside in Central Asia and western Xinjiang, used to live in northeast Asia and regard the sika deer as a holy animal. According to Kyrgyz legend, the Kyrgyz Bugu tribe descended from a mother deer. The sika deer is protected as a Class I endangered species by the state, though it is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as least concern. Another Class I protected deer is the Thorold's or white-lipped deer. This large deer with a population of about 15,000 that is endemic to Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, Tibet and Yunnan, is considered vulnerable by the IUCN. The Chinese population of Eld's deer, a Class I protected species that is also considered endangered by IUCN, is found only on the island of Hainan. For decades, the Indochinese hog deer was believed to be extinct in China until a fawn was discovered in 2007 in the Yongde Daxueshan National Wildlife Reserve. The Indochinese hog deer is also protected by the state. Perhaps the most remarkable endangered deer species in China is Père David's deer. This deer, colloquially known as the sibuxiang or the "Four-Not-Look-Alike", is said to have the hooves of an ox, antlers of a deer, neck of a camel and tail of a donkey, but does not look like any one animal. According to Chinese legend, this animal helped the ancient sage Jiang Ziya overthrow the tyrant king of the Shang dynasty 4,000 years ago and became a symbol of good fortune. Chinese emperors kept the sibuxiang also called milu in imperial hunting parks, even as the animal became extinct in the wild, perhaps as early as 2,000 years ago. By 1866, when Father Armand David identified the animal, there were only 200–300 remaining in the Nanhaizi Royal Park in Beijing. A few animals were sold to zoos in Europe before 1894, when the park was flooded and some of the animals escaped only to be hunted and eaten. The last of the animals in China died during the chaos of the Boxer Rebellion. In 1898, Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford assembled a herd of 18 animals from European zoos and bred them at his estate, Woburn Abbey in England. In 1985, 22 deer from this herd was reintroduced back to the Nanhaizi Park in Beijing and in 1986 another 39 were sent to Dafeng, in northern Jiangsu on the Yellow Sea. In 1998, eight animals in the latter herd were introduced into wilderness of the Dafeng Milu National Wildlife Reserve. By 2013, the reserve had 196 Père David's deer. The Siberian roe deer, once plentiful in the Northeast and favored as game meat, has also become a protected species. Hunting of roe deer was banned in 2000. Musk deer and mouse-deer resemble small deer but are not true deer. They do not have antlers or facial scent glands. Male musk deer have scent glands that secrete deer musk, which is used for perfume, incense and medicine. Of the seven musk deer species in the world, six are found in China and five are endangered: the Anhui musk deer and dwarf musk deer of central China, the alpine musk deer of western China, the white-bellied musk deer and black musk deer of Tibet. The Siberian musk deer in the northeast is considered vulnerable. The lesser mouse-deer is found in southern Yunnan. Antelope The grasslands, plateau and deserts of northern and western China are home to several species of antelope. The Mongolian gazelle, also known as the Zeren or yellow sheep, can run at speeds of up to 90 km/h and gather in herds by the thousands. They used to be spread over much of northern China but are now confined largely to Inner Mongolia. The Tibetan gazelle or goa antelope, is slightly smaller than the Mongolian gazelle, and lives on the Tibetan Plateau. The Przewalski's gazelle, whose males have distinctive horns that curl outward and then inward at the top, are extremely rare and endemic to a small region around Qinghai Lake on the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau. The goitered gazelle is about the same size as the Mongolian gazelle and is found throughout the Gobi Desert. The Tibetan antelope, also known as chiru, is taller than the gazelles and has longer horns. It is endemic to the Tibetan Plateau and is endangered. The animal is poached for its fine wool, which is made by Kashmiri weavers into the Shahtoosh shawl. The film Kekexili: Mountain Patrol documents efforts to protect the animal from poaching. The Tibetan antelope was one of the mascots for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The saiga antelope's horns are used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a variety of ailments including the common cold. Despite its status as a Class I protected species, the saiga antelope has been poached to extinction in the Dzungar Basin of northern Xinjiang and is critically endangered in Central Asia and Russia. Chinese police routinely interdict large batches of smuggled horns into Xinjiang. Attempts have been made to reintroduce the saiga antelope to habitats in China. Goat antelopes Serows, gorals, and the takin are called antelope by the Chinese, and goat antelope by western taxonomists. The largest of these goat antelope is the takin, a relative of the musk ox. It lives in highlands from the eastern foothills of the Himalayas to the Qinling and shares habitat with the giant panda in Sichuan and Shaanxi. The takin is a Class I protected species. Serows are smaller than takins but significantly larger than gorals. Both serows and gorals live in rainy mountainous regions and are excellent climbers. Serows have shorter and coarser wool than gorals. The mainland serow is spread across southern China. The range of the Chinese goral is even broader, extending to Korea in the northeast. The long-tailed goral lives in the northeast, along the borders with Russia and North Korea. The Himalayan serow, Himalayan goral, and red goral are found in southern Tibet. The Taiwan serow is endemic to Taiwan. Mountain sheep and goat The argali or mountain sheep, the Asian cousin of the North American bighorn sheep has nine subspecies, seven of which are found in northern and western China, including the Marco Polo sheep, which the Venetian traveler reported observing in the Pamir mountains. The Himalayan blue sheep, with much smaller horns than the argali, are agile climbers on Himalayan cliffs. The dwarf blue sheep is found in western Sichuan. The Himalayan tahr, discovered in China in 1974, is a Class I protected species with perhaps only 500 animals in southern Tibet. The Siberian ibex, the largest and heaviest goat, is found in the Tian Shan range of Xinjiang. Cattle, camel, pig There are large numbers of domesticated gaur, yak and Bactrian camel in China but in the wild, they are Class I protected species. The gaur or Indian bison is the tallest species of cattle and found in southern Tibet and Yunnan. Domesticated gaur, called gayal, is raised by farmers in Yunnan. Yaks are the largest animals on the Tibetan Plateau. Wild yaks are larger than domestic yaks and slightly smaller than the gaur. They can tolerate extremely cold climate, climb steep slopes, and ford fierce rapids. Yaks are the imost important animal for Tibetan herders, who eat yak meat and milk for food, burn yak dung as fuel, spin yak hair into fabric, make yak hide leather and use yaks to transport and plow fields. Bactrian camels have two humps and can go a month or longer without drinking water. A thirsty Bactrian camel can drink 135 liters (30 gallons) in only 13 minutes. They can withstand extremely hot and cold weather and have broad hooves that do not sink in desert. Bactrian camels are known as the "boats of desert" – for millennia, they were used to carry goods along the Silk Road. Wild camels are critically endangered and found in the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts. The wild boar, from which the farm-raised pigs was domesticated some 8,000 years ago in China, remains common in the Chinese wilderness. On occasion, boars will interbreed with farm-raised pigs. The Manchurian wild boar is the largest of the wild boar species. The Formosan wild boar is a subspecies endemic to Taiwan. Pangolin The pangolin, a scaly anteater that feed on ants and termites and curl into a ball when threatened, is prized in China for its flesh, which is considered a delicacy and scales, which used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat among other ailments, inadequate lactation in breast-feeding mothers. The Chinese pangolin is found throughout southern China, Hainan and Taiwan and the Sunda pangolin in western Yunnan. In Chinese, the pangolin is called "that which wears mountain armor" and the animal is believed by local shamans to hold magical powers such that hunters must utter incantation before killing them to ward off bad luck. As a Class II protected species, trading of wild pangolins is prohibited, but poaching and illegal trade remains rampant. The pangolin can be farm-raised, but pangolin farms must generally also raise termites to feed the livestock. In recent years, Chinese customs have intercepted large shipments of pangolin from Southeast Asia and Africa. Rodents Porcupine The porcupine, called haozhu or "pig with long thin hair" in Chinese, should not be confused with hedgehog, ciwei or the "thorned creature". Porcupines are rodents and hedgehogs belong to a separate order. Three species of Old World porcupine are found in China: the Asiatic brush-tailed porcupine, Indian crested porcupine, and Malayan porcupine. Many parts of the porcupine including the brain, organs, fat, quills and even the feces can be used to make traditional Chinese medicine. Porcupines are raised on farms. Beaver In the early 20th century, the Eurasian beaver was hunted to near extinction for its fur and castoreum, a scent gland secretion used to make perfume and medicine. Though the global population has rebounded, the animal remains a Class I protected species. The Bulgan Beaver Nature Reserve in Qinggil County of northern Xinjiang, at the source of the Irtysh and Ulungur River along the border with Mongolia, was created in 1980 to protect the beaver. In 2007, there were 145 beaver colonies with an estimated population of 500–600 beavers in the reserve. Squirrels Squirrels are called songshu or "pine rodent" in Chinese but not all species live in trees. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, flying squirrels, ground squirrels, rock squirrels, marmots and chipmunks, which are all found in China, often in great variety. The red squirrel common in Europe and the black giant squirrel of Southeast Asia are found, respectively, in the northern and southern parts of China. Other tree squirrel species include the Pallas's, inornate, Phayre's, Irrawaddy, Anderson's, orange-bellied Himalayan, Perny's long-nosed, red-hipped, Asian red-cheeked, Himalayan striped, Maritime striped, and Swinhoe's striped squirrel. Flying squirrels are found in almost every part of China, from the Himalayas to the tropical island of Hainan to the rural outskirts of Beijing. Flying squirrel species include the groove-toothed, complex-toothed, hairy-footed, particolored, Indochinese, red giant, red and white giant, spotted giant, Indian giant, Chinese giant, Japanese giant, Bhutan giant, Siberian, Yunnan giant (petaurista yunnanensis), and Hodgson's giant. Several are endemic to China. Flying squirrels are timid creatures that are active at nighttime and use the patagium, a membrane connecting the fore and hind limbs to glide from trees. They do not build nests and live in caves or rock crevices. They also defecate at specific locations, which facilitates the harvest of their fecal pellets. The pellets are made into wulingzhi, a traditional Chinese medicine used to facilitate blood flow and ease pain. Flying squirrel pellets can accumulate on the floor of caves for years and not rot. Several species of flying squirrels are farm-raised to produce wulingzhi. The groove-toothed flying squirrel, also known as the North Chinese flying squirrel, is endemic to eastern Hebei Province and the suburbs of Beijing in North China and northern Sichuan. The complex-toothed flying squirrel is endemic to southern China. Ground squirrels, rock squirrels, marmots and chipmunks belong to the same tribe within the squirrel family. In China, ground squirrels are found in arid regions of the north and west where the animals live in burrows. Ground squirrel species include the Alashan, Daurian, red-cheeked, long-tailed and yellow ground squirrel. Two species of rock squirrels are endemic to China, the Père David's rock squirrel, which is found across a wide swath of the country from the mountains around Beijing to Gansu and Sichuan, and the Forrest's rock squirrel, found only in the mountains dividing the Yangtze and Mekong River watershed in northwestern Yunnan. The Siberian chipmunk, the only chipmunk species found outside North America, has six subspecies in China, all in northern parts of the country. The animal is raised as pets and for its tender flesh, fine fur and ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. The marmot, called hanta in Chinese for "land" or "dry otter", is related to ground squirrels but are bigger, have shorter tails and are more social animals. They can grow to be the size of a cat and live in large colonies. Four species are found in China, all along the northern and western periphery of the country: gray, long-tailed, Himalayan, and Tarbagan. Of these, the tarbagan marmot is an endangered, Class III protected species. Marmots are also farm-raised for food and fur. Jumping rodents A wide variety of jumping rodents belonging to the family Dipodidae can be found in China. These include jerboas and jumping mice, called tiaoshu, the "jumping rodent", and the birch mouse, called jueshu, the "falling rodent" or "stomping rodent". Jerboas, jumping mice, and birch mice all have long hind legs which can be used to make leaps from a bipedal stance. Zokors, bamboo rats Zokors and bamboo rats are chubby and furry rodents with short limbs that burrow underground. Zokors have strong front limbs for digging. Zokor bones are used in traditional Chinese medicine and can substitute tiger bones. The Chinese zokor, Rothschild's zokor and Smith's zokor are endemic to China. The range of the Chinese zokor extends across north China from Qinghai to Beijing while that of the Rothschild's and Smith's zokors are confined to Gansu, Shaanxi, Hubei and Qinghai. The false zokor and Transbaikal zokor are found along China's border region with Russia and Mongolia. All four bamboo rat species in the world are found in China: the Chinese bamboo rat south of the Yangtze, hoary bamboo rat in southwest China, large bamboo rat in Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan and lesser bamboo rat and western Yunnan. The large bamboo rat can weigh as much as 5 kg. The flesh of the bamboo rat is rich in protein and low in fat. Bamboo rat oil can be used to treat burn wounds. Both the zokor and bamboo rat are farm-raised for their fur, meat and use in medicine. Hamsters About half of the world's 25 species of hamsters are found in China. Most live in the deserts of Xinjiang, Gansu and Inner Mongolia. Some are named after the specific region in which they are found, such as the Chinese, Mongolian, Gansu, Chinese striped, Tibetan dwarf, Kham dwarf, and Djungarian hamster, and some by their founder, such as Campbell's dwarf, Roborovski, and Sokolov's dwarf. Others include the gray dwarf, long-tailed dwarf, greater long-tailed hamster and black-bellied hamster. The Chinese hamster and Roborovski hamster have been bred as pets and found in homes throughout the world. Eurasian water vole (Arvicola amphibius) Mice and rats Brown rat Chinese dormouse (Chaetocauda sichuanensis) Sichuan niviventer (Niviventer excelsior) Yunnan hadromys (Hadromys yunnanensis) Gerbils Great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) Shrew moles Chinese mole shrew (Anourosorex squamipes) Pikas Glover's pika (Ochotona gloveri) Moles Large mole (Mogera robusta) Gymnures Northern short-tailed gymnure (Hylomys peguensis) Treeshrews Northern treeshrew (Tupaia belangeri) Hedgehogs The Amur hedgehog (Erinaceus amurensis) hails from Manchuria, China. Hares Chinese hare (Lepus sinensis) Hainan hare Manchurian hare Bats Bats, the only mammals capable of sustained flight, are the second largest order of mammals after rodents. They are divided broadly into microbats, which use echolocation to navigate and hunt insects, and megabats, which rely on large eyes and keen smell to feed on fruits and nectar. Bats are found in great abundance and variety throughout China and are considered to be auspicious animals, symbolizing good fortune. Bat feces collected from caves are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Megabats Megabats, also called fruit bats, include flying foxes, which are the largest bat species. Four species are found in China, all in isolated populations: the large flying fox in Shaanxi, Indian flying fox in Qinghai, Ryukyu flying fox in Taiwan, and Lyle's flying fox in Yunnan. The large flying fox can weigh 0.65–1.1 kg (1.4–2.4 lb) and has a wingspan of up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). Geoffroy's rousette and Leschenault's rousette, both dog-faced fruit bats, are the only megabats in China that can echolocate. Unlike microbats, which generate ultrasound with their larynx, rousettes generate sonar sound waves with tongue clicks. Other fruit bat species include the greater and lesser short-nosed fruit bat, Blanford's fruit bat and the cave nectar bat. Fruit bats are sometimes considered pests by fruit farmers, and are hunted and eaten in parts of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan. They also help pollinate certain species of tropical fruit trees. Microbats Vesper bats Vesper or evening bats comprise the largest family of bats with at least 45 species in China. Members include mouse-eared bats, long-eared bats, pipistrelles, noctules and barbastelles. Myotis or mouse-eared bats are delicate and furry bats with pointed ears. Of the 90 or so species in the world, about one-fifth are found in China. The lesser mouse-eared bat, pond bat, Daubenton's bat, Natterer's bat and whiskered bat are spread across Eurasia. Others inhabit either the warmer climes of southern China and Southeast Asia including the large myotis, Szechwan myotis, Burmese whiskered bat and Horsfield's bat or the temperate regions of northern China and Northeast Asia including the Far Eastern myotis, fraternal myotis, and Ikonnikov's bat. Hodgson's bat, known for its distinctive golden fur, has unconnected populations in Afghanistan, India, central China, southeastern China, Manchuria, Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia. The Beijing mouse-eared bat is endemic to eastern China, and the long-footed myotis is endemic to southern China and Hong Kong. Most mouse-eared bats are insectivores. Rickett's big-footed bat, which is distributed across China proper into Laos, lives near water and feeds on fish. The large-footed bat of Taiwan hunts insects on the surface of the water. Pipistrels and their relatives are tiny bats that flutter like butterflies in flight. The common pipistrelle weighs only 3.5 to 8.5 g (0.12 to 0.30 oz) and has a wingspan ranging of 18 to 25 cm (7.1 to 9.8 in). Other pipistrelles found in China include the least pipistrelle, Kelaart's, Mount Popa, Savi's, chocolate black-gilded and the Chinese pipistrelle. In Chinese, pipistrelles are called fuyi meaning "hidden wing". The flesh, blood, brain and feces of pipistrelle can be used to make traditional Chinese medicine. The brain is applied to the skin to treat acne and ingested to improve memory. Noctules are closely related to pipistrelles but can be much larger in size. The Chinese noctule, which is endemic to the southern half of the country and Taiwan, weighs three to four times as much as the Chinese pipistrelle. Known as "mountain bats" in Chinese, noctules live in caves and rock croppings as well as the under the eaves of traditional homes. Noctules droppings are collected for medicinal uses. Other noctule bats in China include the common noctule, lesser noctule, and birdlike noctule. Barbastelles are called wide-eared bats in Chinese. The range of the Asian barbastelle extends from Egypt through China to Japan. In 2001, a Chinese zoologist discovered a new species of barbastelle in the mountains of rural Beijing. This bat was discovered in a cave in Fangshan District where four other bat species—Rickett's big-foot, large mouse-eared, greater horseshoe and greater tube-nosed bats also live. The Beijing barbastelle (Barbastella beijingensis) was distinguished by the distinctiveness of its DNA and recognized as a species on 23 May 2007, the 300th birthday of Carl Linnaeus. As of 2012, no other populations of this species have been found beyond Beijing. Long-eared bats have enormous ears that can grow almost as long as their bodies, and are represented in China by multiple species (e.g. Plecotus kozlovi and Plecotus ognevi). The greater and lesser bamboo bats prefer to roost inside the hollow shoots of giant bamboo through holes eaten by beetles. Because the holes are small, bamboo bats are also tiny. An adult lesser bamboo bat that measures 4 cm (1.6 in) in length and weighs 3.5 to 5.8 g (0.12 to 0.20 oz), is not much bigger than a bumble bee. House bats including the Gobi big brown bat, northern bat, thick-eared bat, serotine bat are also closely related to pipistrelles, noctules and barbastelles. Other relatives within this extensive subfamily include Tickell's bat, great evening bat, harlequin bat, greater Asiatic yellow bat, parti-colored bat and Asian particolored bat. Tube-nosed bats have longer nostrils than other vespers and funnel-shaped ears. Chinese species include the greater, little, round-eared, Hutton's, and dusky tube-nosed bat. The dusky tube-nosed bat is endemic to Heilongjiang and Jilin in northeastern China. The greater tube-nosed bat of Beijing feeds on aerial beetles. The painted bat and Hardwicke's woolly bat, also vesper bats, live in the forests of southern China. Long-winged bats Long-winged bats in China include the common and western bent-winged bats. The common bent-wing bats can form large colonies and migrate hundreds of kilometers. Free-tailed bats Free-tailed bats, unlike other bats, have tails that are detached from their wing membrances. Species include the European free-tailed bat, La Touche's free-tailed bat and the wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bat. False vampire The greater false vampire bat of Guangxi is a carnivorous bat that feeds on rodents, fish, insects and smaller bats. It is smaller than the "true" vampire bats of South America. Sac-winged bats Sac-winged bats have sac-like glands under their wings that carry pheromones, which are released to attract mates. Out of some 51 sac-winged bat species in the world, only the black-bearded tomb bat is found in China. Horseshoe bats Horseshoe bats are called "chrysanthemum bats" in Chinese because they have horseshoe-shaped folds of skin that unfurl on their faces like the petals of a flower. These noseleaves help the horseshoe bat emit ultrasonic signals for echolocation. Species found in China include the greater, least, king, big-eared, rufous, Chinese rufous, little Japanese, Blyth's, Osgood's, Pearson's, Thomas's, and Dobson's. The king and Osgood's horseshoe bats are endemic to southwest China. Scientists believe that the SARS coronavirus may have originated in horseshoe bats in China. Closely related to the horseshoe bats are the roundleaf bats, including the great roundleaf, intermediate roundleaf, Pomona and Pratt's, the East Asian tailless leaf-nosed bat and Stoliczka's trident bat. Birds The avifauna of China includes a total of 1314 species, of which 52 are endemic, two have been introduced by humans, and 55 are rare or accidental. One species listed is extirpated in China and is not included in the species count. Eighty seven species are globally threatened. Pheasants Chinese monal Golden pheasant Cranes and other wading birds Black-necked crane Red-crowned crane Common spoonbill Reptiles China has a big variety of reptiles including the Chinese alligator and the Yangtze giant softshell turtle. Crocodilians Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) Lizards Chinese crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus) Chinese water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) Turtles and tortoises Elongated tortoise (Indotestudo elongata) Cantor's giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii) Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) Snakes Sharp-nosed pit viper (Deinagkistrodon acutus) Dice snake (Natrix tessellata) Twin-spotted ratsnake (Elaphe bimaculata) Mamushi (Gloydius blomhoffii) Grass snake (Natrix natrix) Mountain pitviper (Ovophis monticola) Jerdon's pit viper (Protobothrops jerdonii) Bamboo pit viper (Trimeresurus gramineus) Mangshan pitviper (Trimeresurus mangshanensis) Motuo bamboo pitviper (Trimeresurus medoensis) Stejneger's pit viper (Trimeresurus stejnegeri) Amphibians China is home to 346 species of amphibian. China's amphibian diversity is greater than any other country in the Old World, and it is the 5th in the whole world. China's amphibian fauna includes an important element of widespread, generally non-threatened species though 27.3% of amphibian species are extinct or threatened and because conservation assessments of Chinese amphibians have only started recently, it is likely that the current data on threats to amphibians are insufficient. Several amphibian species in China have very limited geographical distributions. Frogs True frogs (Ranidae) Amolops aniqiaoensis Amolops bellulus Amolops chunganensis Amolops gerbillus Amolops granulosus Amolops hainanensis Amolops jinjiangensis Amolops kangtingensis Amolops liangshanensis Amolops lifanensis Amolops loloensis Amolops mantzorum Amolops medogensis Amolops monticola Amolops ricketti Amolops torrentis Amolops viridimaculatus Amolops wuyiensis Babina adenopleura Babina hainanensis Babina lini Babina pleuraden Chevron-spotted brown frog Eastern golden frog Emei music frog Glandirana minima Glandirana tientaiensis Huanren frog Imienpo Station frog Johns' groove-toed frog Korean brown frog Odorrana andersonii Odorrana anlungensis Odorrana chapaensis Odorrana chloronota Odorrana exiliversabilis Odorrana grahami Odorrana graminea Odorrana hejiangensis Odorrana kuangwuensis Odorrana lungshengensis Odorrana margaretae Odorrana mutschmanni Odorrana schmackeri Odorrana tiannanensis Odorrana versabilis Odorrana wuchuanensis Pelophylax fukienensis Pelophylax hubeiensis Pelophylax lateralis Pelophylax nigromaculatus Pelophylax tenggerensis Pelophylax terentievi Plateau brown frog Rana amurensis Rana chensinensis Rana omeimontis Rana sangzhiensis Rana weiningensis Rana zhengi Dicroglossidae Chinese edible frog Concave-eared torrent frog Doichang frog Fejervarya limnocharis Fejervarya moodiei Fejervarya multistriata Limnonectes longchuanensis Nanorana arnoldi Nanorana blanfordii Nanorana bourreti Nanorana conaensis Nanorana feae Nanorana liebigii Nanorana maculosa Nanorana medogensis Nanorana pleskei Nanorana polunini Nanorana quadranus Nanorana taihangnica Nanorana unculuanus Nanorana ventripunctata Nanorana yunnanensis Northern frog Kuhl's creek frog Quasipaa verrucospinosa Quasipaa boulengeri Quasipaa exilispinosa Quasipaa jiulongensis Quasipaa shini Quasipaa spinosa Quasipaa yei Round-tongued floating frog Ceratobatrachidae Liurana Tree frogs Annam tree frog Common Chinese tree frog Hyla sanchiangensis Hyla zhaopingensis: only in Zhaoping County, Guangxi Hylarana cubitalis Hylarana hekouensis Hylarana latouchii Hylarana macrodactyla Hylarana maosonensis Hylarana menglaensis Hylarana milleti Hylarana nigrovittata Hylarana spinulosa Hylarana taipehensis Japanese tree frog Chinese flying frog Chiromantis vittatus Feihyla palpebralis Gracixalus gracilipes Gracixalus jinxiuensis Gracixalus medogensis Gracixalus nonggangensis Kurixalus naso Kurixalus odontotarsus Kurixalus verrucosus Raorchestes longchuanensis Raorchestes menglaensis Rhacophorus burmanus Rhacophorus chenfui Rhacophorus dorsoviridis Rhacophorus dugritei Rhacophorus feae Rhacophorus hui Rhacophorus hungfuensis Rhacophorus kio Rhacophorus maximus Rhacophorus nigropunctatus Rhacophorus omeimontis Rhacophorus puerensis Rhacophorus rhodopus Rhacophorus tuberculatus Rhacophorus yaoshanensis Romer's tree frog Sylvirana guentheri Microhylidae Calluella yunnanensis Boreal digging frog Kalophrynus interlineatus Kalophrynus menglienicus Kaloula nonggangensis Kaloula rugifera Kaloula verrucosa Microhyla berdmorei Microhyla fissipes Microhyla heymonsi Microhyla pulchra Micryletta inornata Microhyla butleri Litter frogs Brachytarsophrys carinense Brachytarsophrys feae Brachytarsophrys popei Buergeria oxycephala Leptolalax alpinus Leptolalax liui Leptolalax oshanensis Leptolalax sungi Leptolalax tengchongensis Leptolalax ventripunctatus Megophrys binchuanensis Megophrys brachykolos Megophrys cheni Megophrys huangshanensis Megophrys lini Megophrys major Megophrys parva Megophrys sangzhiensis Megophrys shuichengensis Megophrys wawuensis Oreolalax chuanbeiensis Oreolalax granulosus Oreolalax jingdongensis Oreolalax liangbeiensis Oreolalax lichuanensis Oreolalax major Oreolalax multipunctatus Oreolalax nanjiangensis: only in Nanjiang County, Sichuan Oreolalax omeimontis Oreolalax pingii Oreolalax popei Oreolalax puxiongensis Oreolalax rhodostigmatus Oreolalax rugosus Oreolalax schmidti Oreolalax weigoldi Oreolalax xiangchengensis Scutiger boulengeri Scutiger brevipes Scutiger chintingensis Scutiger glandulatus Scutiger gongshanensis Scutiger jiulongensis Scutiger liupanensis Scutiger maculatus Scutiger mammatus Scutiger muliensis: only in Muli, Sichuan Scutiger ningshanensis Scutiger nyingchiensis Scutiger pingwuensis Scutiger sikimmensis Scutiger tuberculatus Scutiger wanglangensis Shrub frogs (Rhacophoridae) Liuixalus hainanus Liuixalus ocellatus Theloderma kwangsiense: only in Dayaoshan Nature Reserve (大瑶山自然保护区), Guangxi Philautus kempii Polypedates impresus Polypedates megacephalus Polypedates mutus Theloderma asperum Theloderma kwangsiense Theloderma moloch Theloderma rhododiscus Salt water frogs China is home to one of only 144 known modern amphibians which can tolerate brief excursions into sea water. Crab-eating frog Toads True toads (Bufo) Ailao toad Asiatic toad Bufo cryptotympanicus Bufo pageoti Bufo tuberculatus Bufo wolongensis: only in Wolong Nature Reserve, Sichuan Korean water toad Pseudepidalea pewzowi Horned toads (Xenophrys) Convex-tailed horned toad Convex-vented horned toad Great piebald horned toad Jingdong horned toad Kuatun horned toad Mangshan horned toad Medog horned toad Mount Dawei horned toad Nankiang horned toad Boettger's horned toad Glandular horned toad Omei horned toad Xenophrys daweimontis: only in Daweishan Nature Reserve (大围山自然保护区), Liuyang, Hunan Spiny-fingered horned toad Wuliangshan horned toad Wushan horned toad Zhang's horned toad Other toads Mongolian toad Bombina maxima Duttaphrynus himalayanus Duttaphrynus melanostictus Leptobrachium ailaonicum Leptobrachium boringii Leptobrachium hainanense Leptobrachium leishanense Leptobrachium liui Little horned toad Ophryophryne microstoma Ophryophryne pachyproctus Oriental fire-bellied toad Rough-skinned horned toad Shaping horned toad Spiny-fingered horned toad Salamanders and newts Amji's salamander Black knobby newt Central Asian salamander Chenggong fire belly newt Chiala mountain salamander Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) Chinese fire belly newt Chinese warty newt Chinhai spiny newt Chuxiong fire-bellied newt Siberian salamander Cynops wolterstorffi: only in Kunming City, Yunnan Dayang newt Fischer's clawed salamander Fuding fire belly newt Guabang Shan salamander Guangxi warty newt Guizhou salamander Hainan knobby newt Hong Kong warty newt Jinfo Mountain salamander Korean salamander Kuankuoshui salamander Pachyhynobius shangchengensis Paramesotriton labiatus Paramesotriton maolanensis Paramesotriton yunwuensis Puxiong salamander Shuicheng salamander Siberian salamander Spot-tailed warty newt Spotted paddle-tail newt Taliang knobby newt Wanggao warty newt Wenxian knobby newt Western Chinese mountain salamander Xingan salamander Yellow-spotted salamander Yiwu salamander Yunnan lake newt Zhijin warty newt Caecilians Banna caecilian (Ichthyophis bannanicus) Fish In freshwater alone, China has more than 1,000 fish species. By far the most diverse order are the cypriniforms, followed by the siluriforms. Yangtze is the richest river basin in the country and it is home to more than 350 strict freshwater fish species (as well as several also found in brackish or saltwater). A high percentage of these are endemic to the country and many are seriously threatened. Among others, it is feared that the Chinese paddlefish, as well as several species from the Yunnan lakes (notably Dian, Erhai, Fuxian and Yilong), already are extinct. China has far more cavefish species than any other country in the world. With a long coastline that ranges from temperate to tropical oceans, China has many marine fish species such as the Pacific cod. Invertebrates Freshwater crabs China is home to more than 250 different species of freshwater crabs (families Potamidae and Gecarcinucidae), many of them endemics. It is thus the country with the highest species richness in freshwater crabs. The most speciose genera are Sinopotamon, Longpotamon, Indochinamon and Nanhaipotamon. Molluscs Butterflies Centipedes Ethmostigmus rubripes Endangered species See also List of endangered and protected species of China Animal welfare and rights in China List of mammals of China List of mammals of Taiwan List of mammals of Hong Kong List of amphibians of China Notes and references External links China Wildlife Conservation Association Archived 11 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine

Macaque

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaque

The macaques () constitute a genus (Macaca) of gregarious Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques inhabit ranges throughout Asia, North Africa, and (in Gibraltar) Europe. Macaques are principally frugivorous (preferring fruit), although their diet also includes seeds, leaves, flowers, and tree bark. Some species such as the long-tailed macaque (M. fascicularis; also called the crab-eating macaque) will supplement their diets with small amounts of meat from shellfish, insects, and small mammals. On average, a southern pig-tailed macaque (M. nemestrina) in Malaysia eats about 70 large rats each year. All macaque social groups are arranged around dominant matriarchs. Macaques are found in a variety of habitats throughout the Asian continent and are highly adaptable. Certain species are synanthropic, having learned to live alongside humans, but they have become problematic in urban areas in Southeast Asia and are not suitable to live with, as they can carry transmittable diseases. Most macaque species are listed as vulnerable to critically endangered on the International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. Description Aside from humans (genus Homo), the macaques are the most widespread primate genus, ranging from Japan to the Indian subcontinent, and in the case of the Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus), to North Africa and Southern Europe. Twenty-three macaque species are currently recognized. Macaques are robust primates whose arms and legs are about the same in length. The fur of these animals is typically varying shades of brown or black and their muzzles are rounded in profile with nostrils on the upper surface. The tail varies among each species, which can be long, moderate, short or totally absent. Although several species lack tails, and their common names refer to them as apes, these are true monkeys, with no greater relationship to the true apes than any other Old World monkeys. Instead, this comes from an earlier definition of 'ape' that included primates generally. In some species, skin folds join the second through fifth toes, almost reaching the first metatarsal joint. The monkey's size differs depending on sex and species. Males from all species can range from 41 to 70 cm (16 to 28 inches) in head and body length, and in weight from 5.5 to 18 kg (12.13 to 39.7 lb). Females can range from a weight of 2.4 to 13 kg (5.3 to 28.7 lb). These primates live in troops that vary in size, where males dominate, however the order of dominance frequently shifts. Female dominance lasts longer and depends upon their genealogical position. Macaques are able to swim and spend most of their time on the ground and spend some time in trees. They have large pouches in their cheeks where they carry extra food. They are considered highly intelligent and are often used in the medical field for experimentation due to their remarkable similarity to humans in emotional and cognitive development. Extensive experimentation has led to the long-tailed macaque being listed as endangered. Distribution and habitat Macaques are highly adaptable to different habitats and climates and can tolerate a wide fluctuation of temperatures and live in varying landscape settings. They easily adapt to human-built environments and can survive well in urban settings if they are able to obtain food. They can also survive in completely natural settings absent of humans. The ecological and geographic ranges of the macaque are the widest of any non-human primate. Their habitats include the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, India, arid mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and temperate mountains in Algeria, Japan, China, Morocco, and Nepal. Some species also inhabit villages and towns in cities in Asia. There is also an introduced population of rhesus macaques in the US state of Florida consisting, essentially, of monkeys abandoned when a failed boat ride-safari was shut down in the mid-20th century. A probable Early Pliocene macaque molar from the Red Crag Formation (Waldringfield, United Kingdom), represents one of the oldest and northernmost records of the genus in Europe reported to date. Ecology and behavior Diet Macaques are mainly frugivorous, although some species have been observed feeding on insects. In natural habitats, they have been observed to consume certain parts of over one hundred species of plants including the buds, fruit, young leaves, bark, roots, and flowers. When macaques live amongst people, they raid agricultural crops such as wheat, rice, or sugarcane; and garden crops like tomatoes, bananas, melons, mangos, or papayas. In human settings, they also rely heavily on direct handouts from people. This includes peanuts, rice, legumes, or even prepared food. Group structure Macaques live in established social groups that can range from a few individuals to several hundred, as they are social animals. A typical social group possess between 20 and 50 individuals of all ages and of both sexes. The typical composition consists of 15% adult males, 35% adult females, 20% infants, and 30% juveniles, though there exists variation in structure and size of groups across populations. Macaques have a very intricate social structure and hierarchy, with different classifications of despotism depending on species. If a macaque of a lower level in the social chain has eaten berries and none are left for a higher-ranking macaque, then the one higher in status can, within this social organization, remove the berries from the other monkey's mouth. Reproduction and mortality The reproductive potential of each species differs. Populations of the rhesus macaque can grow at rates of 10% to 15% per year if the environmental conditions are favorable. However, some forest-dwelling species are endangered with much lower reproductive rates. After one year of age, macaques move from being dependent on their mother during infancy, to the juvenile stage, where they begin to associate more with other juveniles through rough tumble and playing activities. They sexually mature between three and five years of age. Females will usually stay with the social group in which they were born; however, young adult males tend to disperse and attempt to enter other social groups. Not all males succeed in joining other groups and may become solitary, attempting to join other social groups for many years. Macaques have a typical lifespan of 20 to 30 years. As invasive species Certain species under the genus Macaca have become invasive in certain parts of the world, while others that survive in forest habitats remain threatened. The long-tailed macaque (M. fascicularis) is listed as a threat and invasive alien species in Mauritius, along with the rhesus macaques (M. mulatta) in Florida. Despite this, the former is listed as endangered. The long-tailed macaque causes severe damage to parts of its range where it has been introduced because the populations grow unchecked due to a lack of predators. On the island of Mauritius, they have created serious conservation concerns for other endemic species. They consume seeds of native plants and aid in the spread of exotic weeds throughout the forests. This changes the composition of the habitats and allows them to be rapidly overrun by invasive plants. Long-tailed macaques are also responsible for the near extinction of several bird species on Mauritius by destroying the nests of the birds as they move through their native ranges and eat the eggs of critically endangered species, such as the pink pigeon and Mauritian green parrot. They can be serious agricultural pests because they raid crops and gardens and humans often shoot the monkeys which can eliminate entire local populations. In Florida, a group of rhesus macaques inhabit Silver Springs State Park. Humans often feed them, which may alter their movement and keep them close to the river on weekends where high human traffic is present. The monkeys can become aggressive toward humans (largely due to human ignorance of macaque behavior), and also carry potentially fatal human diseases, including the herpes B virus. Relations with humans Several species of macaque are used extensively in animal testing, particularly in the neuroscience of visual perception and the visual system. Nearly all (73–100%) captive rhesus macaques are carriers of the herpes B virus. This virus is harmless to macaques, but infections of humans, while rare, are potentially fatal, a risk that makes macaques unsuitable as pets. Urban performing macaques also carried simian foamy virus, suggesting they could be involved in the species-to-species jump of similar retroviruses to humans. Population control Management techniques have historically been controversial, and public disapproval can hinder control efforts. Previously, efforts to remove macaque individuals were met with public resistance. One management strategy that is currently being explored is that of sterilization. Natural resource managers are being educated by scientific studies in the proposed strategy. Effectiveness of this strategy is estimated to succeed in keeping populations in check. For example, if 80% of females are sterilized every five years, or 50% every two years, it could effectively reduce the population. Other control strategies include planting specific trees to provide protection to native birds from macaque predation, live trapping, and the vaccine porcine zona pellucida (PZP), which causes infertility in females. Cloning In January 2018, scientists in China reported in the journal Cell the first creation of two crab-eating macaque clones, named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, using somatic cell nuclear transfer – the same method that produced Dolly the sheep. Species Prehistoric (fossil) species M. anderssoni Schlosser, 1924 M. jiangchuanensis Pan et al., 1992 M. libyca Stromer, 1920 M. majori Schaub & Azzaroli in Comaschi Caria, 1969 (sometimes included in M. sylvanus) M. florentina Cocchi, 1872 See also B virus Kayabukiya Tavern Macaque brain development timeline References Sources External links Data related to Macaque at Wikispecies Macaque Monkey Brain Atlas Primate Info Net Macaca Factsheets

Elizabeth_Ann

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Ann

Elizabeth Ann (born December 10, 2020) is a black-footed ferret, the first U.S. endangered species to be cloned. The animal was cloned using the frozen cells from Willa, a black-footed female ferret who died in the 1980s and had no living descendants. Black-footed ferrets are the only ferret species native to the United States. The black-footed ferret is one of the most endangered and rarest land mammals in North America; a small pack of them was found in Wyoming in 1981. The limited genetic diversity found among the pack put the species at risk. Scientists sent genetic material from Willa to San Diego Zoo’s Frozen Zoo in 1988. Willa's egg was implanted in a surrogate domestic ferret in November 2020, to avoid putting an endangered ferret at risk. Elizabeth Ann was delivered via c-section on December 10. The efforts were led by Revive & Restore, a biodiversity non-profit. Elizabeth Ann will live in Colorado and be studied for scientific purposes; she will not be released into the wild. As of February 2022, Elizabeth Ann has reached puberty and scientists were looking for a viable mate. A panel discussion, organized by the Draper Natural History Museum in October 2022, informed the public that Elizabeth Ann had a hysterectomy for unspecified reasons, but also that other clones were on their way. In April 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the birth of two new black-footed ferret clones, Noreen and Antonia, who were cloned from the same genetic material as Elizabeth Ann. Noreen was born at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in Colorado, while Antonia resides at the Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia. Both were healthy and reaching expected developmental and behavioral milestones. The Service and its research partners plan to breed Noreen and Antonia once they reach reproductive maturity later in 2024. Elizabeth Ann remained healthy but was unable to breed due to a condition called hydrometra, which is not believed to be linked to cloning. == References ==

Revive_%26_Restore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revive_%26_Restore

Revive & Restore is a nonprofit wildlife conservation organization focused on use of biotechnology in conservation. Headquartered in Sausalito, California, the organization's mission is to enhance biodiversity through the genetic rescue of endangered and extinct species. The organization was founded by Stewart Brand and his wife, Ryan Phelan. Revive & Restore has created a "Genetic Rescue Toolkit" for wildlife conservation – a suite of biotechnology tools adapted from human medicine and commercial agriculture that can improve wildlife conservation outcomes. The toolkit includes biobanking and cell culturing, genetic sequencing, and advanced reproductive technologies, such as cloning. The toolkit complements traditional conservation practices, such as captive breeding and habitat restoration. Revive & Restore has caused controversy. In particular, Brand's work in de-extinction has been characterized as "playing god" and criticized for taking time and money away from traditional conservation efforts. In addition, many are concerned by the concept of cloning, even in the context of conservation. History Revive & Restore was co-founded in 2012 by Stewart Brand and Ryan Phelan with the idea of bringing biotechnology solutions to conservation. The group was incubated by the Long Now Foundation until 2017, when it became an independent 501(c)(3) organization. In 2013 Revive & Restore organized the first public meeting on de-extinction. Their founding projects include the de-extinction of the passenger pigeon, heath hen, and woolly mammoth. Since then, Revive & Restore has established partnerships with research institutions, governmental agencies, and conservation organizations on a broad range of genetic rescue programs. Revive & Restore is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and has long-standing partnerships with the US Fish & Wildlife Service, The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Morris Animal Foundation, and ViaGen Pets & Equine, among others. Programs Advanced Coral Toolkit The Advanced Coral Toolkit supports research teams in the development and field testing of biotechnologies that benefit coral reef management and restoration efforts. Projects include coral cryopreservation methods for large scale biobanking and fieldable devices for measuring genetic information or molecular signals associated with coral stress. Launched in 2019, the program has funded 10 research teams. Wild Genomes Wild Genomes is a funding program to provide genomic tools to field scientists, wildlife managers, and citizens working to protect their local biodiversity. As of 2023, Wild Genomes has funded 30 individual projects. Program categories include Terrestrial Species, Marine Species, Amphibians, and Kelp Ecosystems Cloning for conservation To help mitigate inbreeding depression for two endangered species, the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) and Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii), Revive & Restore facilitates on-going efforts to clone individuals from historic cell lines stored at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Frozen Zoo. On December 10, 2020, the world's first cloned black-footed ferret was born. This ferret, named Elizabeth Ann, marked the first time a U.S. endangered species was successfully cloned. On August 6, 2020, the world's first cloned Przewalski’s horse was born. Since the oocyte used was from a domestic horse, this was an example of interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In 2022, the horse, named Kurt, was paired with a female Przewalski's horse at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Safari Park to learn the behaviors of his species. On February 17, 2023, a second cloned Przewalski's horse was born from the same historic cell line. Kurt and the new foal are genetic twins that may become the first cloned animals to restore lost genetic variation to their species. Intended Consequences Initiative In 2020, Revive & Restore developed a campaign around the concept of "Intended Consequences" – focusing on the benefits of conservation interventions, as opposed to focusing on the fears of unintended consequences. That year, Revive & Restore hosted a virtual workshop that resulted in the publication of a special issue in the journal Conservation Science and Practice. References External links Official website