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Stewart_Brand

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

Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938) is an American project developer and writer, best known as the co-founder and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He has founded a number of organizations, including the WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation. He is the author of several books, most recently Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto. Life Brand was born in Rockford, Illinois, and attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He studied biology at Stanford University, graduating in 1960. As a soldier in the U.S. Army, he was a parachutist and taught infantry skills; he later expressed the view that his experience in the military had fostered his competence in organizing. A civilian again in 1962, he studied design at San Francisco Art Institute, photography at San Francisco State College, and participated in a legitimate scientific study of then-legal LSD with Myron Stolaroff's International Foundation for Advanced Study, in Menlo Park, California. In 1966, he married mathematician Lois Jennings, an Ottawa Native American. Brand has lived in California since the 1960s. He and his second wife live on Mirene, a 64-foot (20 m)-long working tugboat. Built in 1912, the boat is moored in a former shipyard in Sausalito, California. He works in Mary Heartline, a grounded fishing boat about 100 yards (90 metres) away. One of his favorite items is a table on which Otis Redding is said to have written "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (Brand acquired it from an antiques dealer in Sausalito). USCO and Merry Pranksters By the mid-1960s, Brand became associated with New York multimedia group USCO and Bay Area author Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. Brand co-produced the 1966 Trips Festival, an early effort blending rock music and light shows, with Kesey and Ramón Sender Barayón. The Trips Festival was among the first Grateful Dead performances in San Francisco. An estimated 10,000 hippies attended, and Haight-Ashbury soon emerged as the epicenter of an emerging counterculture, with the Summer of Love in 1967. Tom Wolfe includes Brand in his 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. NASA images of Earth In 1966, while on an LSD trip on the roof of his house in North Beach, San Francisco, Brand became convinced that seeing an image of the whole Earth would change how we think about the planet and ourselves. He then campaigned to have NASA release the then-rumored satellite image of the entire Earth as seen from space. He sold and distributed buttons for 25 cents each, asking, "Why haven't we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet?" During this campaign, Brand met Richard Buckminster Fuller, who offered to help Brand with his projects. In 1967, a satellite, ATS-3, took the photo. Brand thought the image of our planet would be a powerful symbol; it adorned the first (Fall 1968) edition of the Whole Earth Catalog. Later in 1968, NASA astronaut Bill Anders took an Earth photo, Earthrise, from Moon orbit, which became the front image of the spring 1969 edition of the Catalog. 1970 saw the first celebration of Earth Day. During a 2003 interview, Brand explained that the image "gave the sense that Earth's an island, surrounded by a lot of inhospitable space. And it's so graphic, this little blue, white, green and brown jewel-like icon amongst a quite featureless black vacuum." Douglas Engelbart In late 1968, Brand assisted electrical engineer Douglas Engelbart with the Mother of All Demos, a presentation of many revolutionary computer technologies (including hypertext, email, and the mouse) to the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. Brand surmised that given the necessary consciousness, information, and tools, human beings could reshape the world they had made (and were making) for themselves into something environmentally and socially sustainable.: 42 Whole Earth Catalog During the late 1960s and early 1970s, about 10 million Americans were involved in living communally. In 1968, using the most basic approaches to typesetting and page layout, Brand and his colleagues created issue number one of the Whole Earth Catalog, employing the subtitle "access to tools". : 48  Early editions of the Whole Earth Catalog were published by the Portola Institute. Brand and his wife, Lois, traveled to communes in a 1963 Dodge truck known as the Whole Earth Truck Store, which moved to a storefront in Menlo Park, California. That first oversized Catalog, and its successors in the 1970s and later, reckoned a wide assortment of things could serve as useful "tools": books, maps, garden implements, specialized clothing, carpenters' and masons' tools, forestry gear, tents, welding equipment, professional journals, early synthesizers, and personal computers. Brand invited "reviews" (written in the form of a letter to a friend) of the best of these items from experts in specific fields. The information also described where these things could be located or purchased. The Catalog's publication coincided with the great wave of social and cultural experimentation, convention-breaking, and "do it yourself" attitude associated with the "counterculture". The Whole Earth Catalog had widespread influence within the rural back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s, and the communities movement within many cities throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia. The 1972 edition sold 1.5 million copies, winning the first U.S. National Book Award in the Contemporary Affairs category. Steve Jobs ended his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University by acknowledging both Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog, quoting its farewell message: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish". CoEvolution Quarterly To continue this work and also to publish full-length articles on specific topics in the natural sciences and invention, in numerous areas of the arts and the social sciences, and on the contemporary scene in general, Brand founded CoEvolution Quarterly in 1974, aimed primarily at educated laypeople. Brand never better revealed his opinions and reason for hope than when he ran, in CoEvolution Quarterly #4, a transcription of technology historian Lewis Mumford's talk "The Next Transformation of Man", in which he stated that "man has still within him sufficient resources to alter the direction of modern civilization, for we then need no longer regard man as the passive victim of his own irreversible technological development". The content of CoEvolution Quarterly often included futurism or risqué topics. Besides giving space to unknown writers with something to say, Brand presented articles by many respected authors and thinkers, including Mumford, Howard T. Odum, Witold Rybczynski, Karl Hess, Orville Schell, Ivan Illich, Wendell Berry, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gregory Bateson, Amory Lovins, Hazel Henderson, Gary Snyder, Lynn Margulis, Eric Drexler, Gerard K. O'Neill, Peter Calthorpe, Sim Van der Ryn, Paul Hawken, John Todd, Kevin Kelly, and Donella Meadows. In the ensuing years, Brand authored and edited a number of books on topics as diverse as computer-based media, the life history of buildings, and ideas about space colonies. He founded the Whole Earth Software Review, a supplement to the Whole Earth Software Catalog, in 1984. It merged with CoEvolution Quarterly to form the Whole Earth Review in 1985. California government From 1977 to 1979, Brand served as "special advisor" to the administration of California Governor Jerry Brown. The WELL In 1985, Brand and Larry Brilliant founded the WELL ("Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link"), a prototypical, wide-ranging online community for informed participants the world over. The WELL won the 1990 Best Online Publication Award from the Computer Press Association. All Species Foundation In 2000, Brand helped launch the All Species Foundation, which aimed to catalog all species of life on Earth. The project ceased functioning in 2007, transferring its mission to the Encyclopedia of Life. Global Business Network During 1986, Brand was a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab. Soon after, he became a private-conference organizer for such corporations as Royal Dutch Shell, Volvo, and AT&T. In 1988, he became a co‑founder of the Global Business Network, which became involved with the evolution and application of scenario thinking, planning, and complementary strategic tools. For fourteen years, Brand was on the board of the Santa Fe Institute (founded in 1984), an organization devoted to "fostering a multidisciplinary scientific research community pursuing frontier science". He has also continued to promote the preservation of tracts of wilderness. Whole Earth Discipline The Whole Earth Catalog implied an ideal of human progress that depended on decentralized, personal, and liberating technological development—so‑called "soft technology". However, in 2005, Brand criticized aspects of the international environmental ideology he had helped to develop. He wrote an article called "Environmental Heresies" in the May 2005 issue of the MIT Technology Review, in which he described what he considered necessary changes to environmentalism. He suggested, among other things, that environmentalists embrace nuclear power and genetically modified organisms as technologies with more promise than risk. Brand later developed these ideas into a book and published Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto in 2009. The book examines how urbanization, nuclear power, genetic engineering, geoengineering, and wildlife restoration can be used as powerful tools in humanity's ongoing fight against global warming. In a 2019 interview, Brand described his perspective as "post-libertarian", indicating that at the time when the Whole Earth Catalog was being written, he did not fully understand the significance of the role of government in the development of technology and engineering. In his environmental position, he self-describes as an "eco-pragmatist". Long Now Foundation Brand is co‑chair and president of the board of directors of the Long Now Foundation and chairs the foundation's Seminars About Long-term Thinking. This series on long-term thinking has presented a range of speakers, including Brian Eno, Neal Stephenson, Vernor Vinge, Philip Rosedale, Jimmy Wales, Kevin Kelly, Clay Shirky, Ray Kurzweil, Bruce Sterling, and Cory Doctorow. The Long Now Foundation has worked with Jeff Bezos to build the 10,000 Year Clock. Brand is the subject of the 2021 documentary film We Are As Gods. Works Stewart Brand is the initiator or was involved with the development of the following: Whole Earth Catalog in 1968 CoEvolution Quarterly in 1974 Whole Earth Software Catalog and Review in 1984 Whole Earth Review in 1985 Point Foundation Global Business Network (co-founder) The WELL in 1985, with Larry Brilliant The Hackers Conference in 1984 Long Now Foundation in 1996, with computer scientist Danny Hillis—one of the foundation's projects is to build a 10,000 year clock, the Clock of the Long Now New Games Tournament (was involved initially but left the project) In April 2015, Brand joined with a group of scholars in issuing An Ecomodernist Manifesto. The other authors included: Barry Brook, Ruth DeFries, Erle Ellis, David Keith, Mark Lynas, Ted Nordhaus, Roger A. Pielke Jr., Michael Shellenberger, and Robert Stone. Publications Books II Cybernetic Frontiers, 1974, ISBN 0-394-49283-8 (hardcover), ISBN 0-394-70689-7 (paperback) The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT, 1987, ISBN 0-670-81442-3 (hardcover); 1988, ISBN 0-14-009701-5 (paperback) How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built, 1994. ISBN 0-670-83515-3 The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility, 1999. ISBN 0-465-04512-X Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, Viking Adult, 2009. ISBN 0-670-02121-0 The Salt Summaries: Seminars About Long-term Thinking, Long Now Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-105-75187-5 (paperback) As editor or co-editor Whole Earth Catalog, 1968–72 (original editor, winner of the National Book Award, 1972) Last Whole Earth Catalog: Access to Tools, 1971 Whole Earth Epilog: Access to Tools, 1974, ISBN 0-14-003950-3 The (Updated) Last Whole Earth Catalog: Access to Tools, 16th edition, 1975, ISBN 0-14-003544-3 Space Colonies, Whole Earth Catalog, 1977, ISBN 0-14-004805-7 As co-editor with J. Baldwin: Soft-Tech, 1978, ISBN 0-14-004806-5 The Next Whole Earth Catalog: Access to Tools, 1980, ISBN 0-394-73951-5; The Next Whole Earth Catalog: Access to Tools, revised 2nd edition, 1981, ISBN 0-394-70776-1 As editor-in-chief: Whole Earth Software Catalog, 1984, ISBN 0-385-19166-9 As editor-in-chief: Whole Earth Software Catalog for 1986, "2.0 edition" of above title, 1985, ISBN 0-385-23301-9 As co-editor with Art Kleiner: News That Stayed News, 1974–1984: Ten Years of CoEvolution Quarterly, 1986, ISBN 0-86547-201-7 (hardcover), ISBN 0-86547-202-5 (paperback) Introduction by Brand: The Essential Whole Earth Catalog: Access to Tools and Ideas, 1986, ISBN 0-385-23641-7 Foreword by Brand: Signal: Communication Tools for the Information Age, editor: Kevin Kelly, 1988, ISBN 0-517-57084-X Foreword by Brand: The Fringes of Reason: A Whole Earth Catalog, editor: Ted Schultz, 1989, ISBN 0-517-57165-X Foreword by Brand: Whole Earth Ecolog: The Best of Environmental Tools & Ideas, editor: J. Baldwin, 1990, ISBN 0-517-57658-9 See also Bright green environmentalism References Further reading Markoff, John. Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand. New York: Penguin, 2022. Binkley, Sam. Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970s. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007. Brokaw, Tom. "Stewart Brand." BOOM! Voices of the Sixties. New York: Random House, 2007. Kirk, Andrew G. Counterculture Green: The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism. Lawrence: Univ. of Kansas Press, 2007. Markoff, John. What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry. New York: Penguin, 2005. Turner, Fred From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. University of Chicago Press. 2006. ISBN 0-226-81741-5. External links Official website Stewart Brand at IMDb Works by Stewart Brand at Open Library Stewart Brand at TED Stewart Brand Papers housed at Stanford University Libraries Appearances on C-SPAN

Dolly_(sheep)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)

Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female Finn-Dorset sheep and the first mammal that was cloned from an adult somatic cell. She was cloned by associates of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using the process of nuclear transfer from a cell taken from a mammary gland. Her cloning proved that a cloned organism could be produced from a mature cell from a specific body part. Contrary to popular belief, she was not the first animal to be cloned. The employment of adult somatic cells in lieu of embryonic stem cells for cloning emerged from the foundational work of John Gurdon, who cloned African clawed frogs in 1958 with this approach. The successful cloning of Dolly led to widespread advancements within stem cell research, including the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells. Dolly lived at the Roslin Institute throughout her life and produced several lambs. She was euthanized at the age of six years due to a progressive lung disease. No cause which linked the disease to her cloning was found. Dolly's body was preserved and donated by the Roslin Institute in Scotland to the National Museum of Scotland, where it has been regularly exhibited since 2003. Genesis Dolly was cloned by Keith Campbell, Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, part of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics, based near Edinburgh. The funding for Dolly's cloning was provided by PPL Therapeutics and the Ministry of Agriculture. She was born on 5 July 1996. She has been called "the world's most famous sheep" by sources including BBC News and Scientific American. The cell used as the donor for the cloning of Dolly was taken from a mammary gland, and the production of a healthy clone, therefore, proved that a cell taken from a specific part of the body could recreate a whole individual. On Dolly's name, Wilmut stated "Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's." Birth Dolly was born on 5 July 1996 and had three mothers: one provided the egg, another the DNA, and a third carried the cloned embryo to term. She was created using the technique of somatic cell nuclear transfer, where the cell nucleus from an adult cell is transferred into an unfertilized oocyte (developing egg cell) that has had its cell nucleus removed. The hybrid cell is then stimulated to divide by an electric shock, and when it develops into a blastocyst it is implanted in a surrogate mother. Dolly was the first clone produced from a cell taken from an adult mammal. The production of Dolly showed that genes in the nucleus of such a mature differentiated somatic cell are still capable of reverting to an embryonic totipotent state, creating a cell that can then go on to develop into any part of an animal. Dolly's existence was announced to the public on 22 February 1997. It gained much attention in the media. A commercial with Scottish scientists playing with sheep was aired on TV, and a special report in Time magazine featured Dolly. Science featured Dolly as the breakthrough of the year. Even though Dolly was not the first animal cloned, she received media attention because she was the first cloned from an adult cell. Life Dolly lived her entire life at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian. There she was bred with a Welsh Mountain ram and produced six lambs in total. Her first lamb, named Bonnie, was born in April 1998. The next year, Dolly produced twin lambs Sally and Rosie; further, she gave birth to triplets Lucy, Darcy and Cotton in 2000. In late 2001, at the age of four, Dolly developed arthritis and began to walk stiffly. This was treated with anti-inflammatory drugs. Death On 14 February 2003, Dolly was euthanised because she had a progressive lung disease and severe arthritis. A Finn Dorset such as Dolly has a life expectancy of around 11 to 12 years, but Dolly lived 6.5 years. A post-mortem examination showed she had a form of lung cancer called ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma, also known as Jaagsiekte, which is a fairly common disease of sheep and is caused by the retrovirus JSRV. Roslin scientists stated that they did not think there was a connection with Dolly being a clone, and that other sheep in the same flock had died of the same disease. Such lung diseases are a particular danger for sheep kept indoors, and Dolly had to sleep inside for security reasons. Some in the press speculated that a contributing factor to Dolly's death was that she could have been born with a genetic age of six years, the same age as the sheep from which she was cloned. One basis for this idea was the finding that Dolly's telomeres were short, which is typically a result of the aging process. The Roslin Institute stated that intensive health screening did not reveal any abnormalities in Dolly that could have come from advanced aging. In 2016, scientists reported no defects in thirteen cloned sheep, including four from the same cell line as Dolly. The first study to review the long-term health outcomes of cloning, the authors found no evidence of late-onset, non-communicable diseases other than some minor examples of osteoarthritis and concluded "We could find no evidence, therefore, of a detrimental long-term effect of cloning by SCNT on the health of aged offspring among our cohort." After her death Dolly's body was preserved via taxidermy and is currently on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Legacy After cloning was successfully demonstrated through the production of Dolly, many other large mammals were cloned, including pigs, deer, horses and bulls. The attempt to clone argali (mountain sheep) did not produce viable embryos. The attempt to clone a banteng bull was more successful, as were the attempts to clone mouflon (a form of wild sheep), both resulting in viable offspring. The reprogramming process that cells need to go through during cloning is not perfect and embryos produced by nuclear transfer often show abnormal development. Making cloned mammals was highly inefficient – in 1996, Dolly was the only lamb that survived to adulthood from 277 attempts. By 2014, Chinese scientists were reported to have 70–80% success rates cloning pigs, and in 2016, a Korean company, Sooam Biotech, was producing 500 cloned embryos a day. Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly, announced in 2007 that the nuclear transfer technique may never be sufficiently efficient for use in humans. Cloning may have uses in preserving endangered species, and may become a viable tool for reviving extinct species. In January 2009, scientists from the Centre of Food Technology and Research of Aragon in northern Spain announced the cloning of the Pyrenean ibex, a form of wild mountain goat, which was officially declared extinct in 2000. Although the newborn ibex died shortly after birth due to physical defects in its lungs, it is the first time an extinct animal has been cloned, and may open doors for saving endangered and newly extinct species by resurrecting them from frozen tissue. In July 2016, four identical clones of Dolly (Daisy, Debbie, Dianna, and Denise) were alive and healthy at nine years old. Scientific American concluded in 2016 that the main legacy of Dolly has not been cloning of animals but in advances into stem cell research. Gene targeting was added in 2000, when researchers cloned female lamb Diana from sheep DNA altered to contain the human gene for alpha 1-antitrypsin. The human gene was specifically activated in the ewe’s mammary gland, so Diana produced milk containing human alpha 1-antitrypsin. After Dolly, researchers realised that ordinary cells could be reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem cells, which can be grown into any tissue. The first successful cloning of a primate species was reported in January 2018, using the same method which produced Dolly. Two identical clones of a macaque monkey, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, were created by researchers in China and were born in late 2017. In January 2019, scientists in China reported the creation of five identical cloned gene-edited monkeys, again using this method, and the gene-editing CRISPR-Cas9 technique allegedly used by He Jiankui in creating the first ever gene-modified human babies Lulu and Nana. The monkey clones were made in order to study several medical diseases. See also In re Roslin Institute (Edinburgh) – US court decision that determined that Dolly could not be patented References External links Dolly the Sheep at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Cloning Dolly the Sheep Dolly the Sheep and the importance of animal research Animal cloning and Dolly Antiques Roadshow, Series 45, Brodie Castle 3, Dolly the Sheep. BBC (3' video clip). 6 April 2023. Episode where several items appertaining to Dolly, including wool from a shearing and scientific instruments, were appraised.

Dolly_Parton

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

Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily for her decades-long career in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album debut in 1967 with Hello, I'm Dolly, which led to success during the remainder of the 1960s (both as a solo artist and with a series of duet albums with Porter Wagoner), before her sales and chart peak arrived during the 1970s and continued into the 1980s. Some of Parton's albums in the 1990s did not sell as well, but she achieved commercial success again in the new millennium and has released albums on various independent labels since 2000, including her own label, Dolly Records. With a career spanning 60 years, Parton has been described as a "country legend" and has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Parton's music includes Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)-certified gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards. She has had 25 singles reach No. 1 on the Billboard country music charts, a record for a female artist (tied with Reba McEntire). She has 44 career Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and she has 110 career-charted singles over the past 40 years. She has composed over 3,000 songs, including "I Will Always Love You" (a two-time U.S. country chart-topper, and an international hit for Whitney Houston), "Jolene", "Coat of Many Colors", and "9 to 5". As an actress, she has starred in the films 9 to 5 in 1980 and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1982 (for each of which she earned Best Actress Golden Globe nominations) as well as Rhinestone in 1984, Steel Magnolias in 1989, Straight Talk in 1992, and Joyful Noise in 2012. Parton has received 11 Grammy Awards (and 50 nominations), including the Lifetime Achievement Award. She has won ten Country Music Association Awards, including Entertainer of the Year. She is one of seven female artists to win the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award. Parton has five Academy of Country Music Awards (including Entertainer of the Year), four People's Choice Awards, and three American Music Awards. She is also in a select group to have received at least one nomination from the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Tony Awards, and Emmy Awards. In 1999, Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2005, she received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2022, she was nominated for and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a nomination she had initially declined but ultimately accepted. Outside of her work in the music industry, she also co-owns The Dollywood Company, which manages a number of entertainment venues including the Dollywood theme park, the Splash Country water park, and a number of dinner theatre venues such as The Dolly Parton Stampede and Pirates Voyage. She has founded a number of charitable and philanthropic organizations, chief among them being the Dollywood Foundation, who manage a number of projects to bring education and poverty relief to East Tennessee, where she was raised. Early life and career Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tennessee. She is the fourth of twelve children born to Avie Lee Caroline (née Owens; 1923–2003) and Robert Lee Parton Sr. (1921–2000). Parton's middle name comes from her maternal great-great-grandmother Rebecca (née Dunn) Whitted. Parton's father, known as "Lee", worked in the mountains of East Tennessee, first as a sharecropper and later tending his own small tobacco farm and acreage. He also worked construction jobs to supplement the farm's small income. Despite her father's illiteracy, Parton has often commented that he was one of the smartest people she had ever known with regard to business and making a profit. Parton's mother cared for their large family. Her 11 pregnancies (the tenth being twins) in 20 years made her a mother of 12 by age 35. Parton attributes her musical abilities to the influence of her mother; often in poor health, she still managed to keep house and entertain her children with Smoky Mountain folklore and ancient ballads. Having Welsh ancestors, Avie Lee knew many old ballads that immigrants from the British Isles brought to southern Appalachia in the 18th and 19th century. Avie Lee's father, Jake Owens, was a Pentecostal preacher, and Parton and her siblings all attended church regularly. Parton has long credited her father for her business savvy, and her mother's family for her musical abilities. When Parton was a young girl, her family moved from the Pittman Center area to a farm up on nearby Locust Ridge. Most of her cherished memories of youth happened there. Today, a replica of the Locust Ridge cabin resides at Parton's namesake theme park Dollywood. The farm acreage and surrounding woodland inspired her to write the song "My Tennessee Mountain Home" in the 1970s. Years after the farm was sold, Parton bought it back in the late 1980s. Her brother Bobby helped with building restoration and new construction. Parton has described her family as being "dirt poor". Parton's father paid missionary Dr. Robert F. Thomas with a sack of cornmeal for delivering her. Parton would write a song about Dr. Thomas when she was grown. She also outlined her family's poverty in her early songs "Coat of Many Colors" and "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)". For six or seven years, Parton and her family lived in their rustic, one-bedroom cabin on their small subsistence farm on Locust Ridge. This was a predominantly Pentecostal area located north of the Greenbrier Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains. Music played an important role in her early life. She was brought up in the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), in a congregation her grandfather, Jake Robert Owens, pastored. Her earliest public performances were in the church, beginning at age six. At seven, she started playing a homemade guitar. When she was eight, her uncle bought her first real guitar. Parton began performing as a child, singing on local radio and television programs in the East Tennessee area. By ten, she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. At 13, she was recording (the single "Puppy Love") on a small Louisiana label, Goldband Records, and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, where she first met Johnny Cash, who encouraged her to follow her own instincts regarding her career. After graduating from Sevier County High School in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville the next day. Her initial success came as a songwriter, having signed with Combine Publishing shortly after her arrival; with her frequent songwriting partner, her uncle Bill Owens, she wrote several charting singles during this time, including two Top 10 hits for Bill Phillips: "Put It Off Until Tomorrow," and "The Company You Keep" (1966), and Skeeter Davis's number 11 hit "Fuel to the Flame" (1967). Her songs were recorded by many other artists during this period, including Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr. She signed with Monument Records in 1965, at age 19; she initially was pitched as a bubblegum pop singer. She released a string of singles, but the only one that charted, "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby", did not crack the Billboard Hot 100. Although she expressed a desire to record country material, Monument resisted, thinking her unique, high soprano voice was not suited to the genre. After her composition "Put It Off Until Tomorrow", as recorded by Bill Phillips (with Parton, uncredited, on harmony), went to number six on the country chart in 1966, the label relented and allowed her to record country. Her first country single, "Dumb Blonde" (composed by Curly Putman, one of the few songs during this era that she recorded but did not write), reached number 24 on the country chart in 1967, followed by "Something Fishy", which went to number 17. The two songs appeared on her first full-length album, Hello, I'm Dolly. Music career 1967–1975: Country music success In 1967, musician and country music entertainer Porter Wagoner invited Parton to join his organization, offering her a regular spot on his weekly syndicated television program The Porter Wagoner Show, and in his road show. As documented in her 1994 autobiography, initially, much of Wagoner's audience was unhappy that Norma Jean, the performer whom Parton had replaced, had left the show, and was reluctant to accept Parton (sometimes chanting loudly for Norma Jean from the audience). With Wagoner's assistance, however, Parton was eventually accepted. Wagoner convinced his label, RCA Victor, to sign her. RCA decided to protect their investment by releasing her first single as a duet with Wagoner. That song, a remake of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind", released in late 1967, reached the country Top 10 in January 1968, launching a six-year streak of virtually uninterrupted Top 10 singles for the pair. Parton's first solo single for RCA Victor, "Just Because I'm a Woman", was released in the summer of 1968 and was a moderate chart hit, reaching number 17. For the next two years, none of her solo efforts – even "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)", which later became a standard – were as successful as her duets with Wagoner. The duo was named Vocal Group of the Year in 1968 by the Country Music Association, but Parton's solo records were continually ignored. Wagoner had a significant financial stake in her future; as of 1969, he was her co-producer and owned nearly half of Owe-Par, the publishing company Parton had founded with Bill Owens. By 1970, both Parton and Wagoner had grown frustrated by her lack of solo chart success. Wagoner persuaded Parton to record Jimmie Rodgers' "Mule Skinner Blues", a gimmick that worked. The record shot to number three, followed closely, in February 1971, by her first number-one single, "Joshua". For the next two years, she had numerous solo hits – including her signature song "Coat of Many Colors" (number four, 1971) – in addition to her duets. Top 20 singles included "The Right Combination" and "Burning the Midnight Oil" (both duets with Wagoner, 1971); "Lost Forever in Your Kiss" (with Wagoner), "Touch Your Woman" (1972), "My Tennessee Mountain Home" and "Travelin' Man" (1973). Although her solo singles and the Wagoner duets were successful, her biggest hit of this period was "Jolene". Released in late 1973, the song topped the country chart in February 1974 and reached the lower regions of the Hot 100 (it eventually also charted in the U.K., reaching number seven in 1976, representing Parton's first U.K. success). Parton, who had always envisioned a solo career, made the decision to leave Wagoner's organization; the pair performed their last duet concert in April 1974, and she stopped appearing on his TV show in mid-1974, although they remained affiliated. He helped produce her records through 1975. The pair continued to release duet albums, their final release being 1975's Say Forever You'll Be Mine. In 1974, her song, "I Will Always Love You", written about her professional break from Wagoner, went to number one on the country chart. Around the same time, Elvis Presley indicated that he wanted to record the song. Parton was interested until Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her that it was standard procedure for the songwriter to sign over half of the publishing rights to any song recorded by Presley. Parton refused. That decision has been credited with helping to make her many millions of dollars in royalties from the song over the years. Parton had three solo singles reach number one on the country chart in 1974 ("Jolene", "I Will Always Love You" and "Love Is Like a Butterfly"), as well as the duet with Porter Wagoner, "Please Don't Stop Loving Me". In a 2019 episode of the Sky Arts music series Brian Johnson: A Life on the Road, Parton described finding old cassette tapes and realizing that she had composed both "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" in the same songwriting session, telling Johnson "Buddy, that was a good night." Parton again topped the singles chart in 1975 with "The Bargain Store". 1976–1986: Pop transition Between 1974 and 1980, Parton had a series of country hits, with eight singles reaching number one. Her influence on pop culture is reflected by the many performers covering her songs, including mainstream and crossover artists such as Olivia Newton-John, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt. Parton began to embark on a high-profile crossover campaign, attempting to aim her music in a more mainstream direction and increase her visibility outside of the confines of country music. In 1976, she began working closely with Sandy Gallin, who served as her personal manager for the next 25 years. With her 1976 album All I Can Do, which she co-produced with Porter Wagoner, Parton began taking more of an active role in production, and began specifically aiming her music in a more mainstream, pop direction. Her first entirely self-produced effort, New Harvest...First Gathering (1977), highlighted her pop sensibilities, both in terms of choice of songs – the album contained covers of the pop and R&B classics "My Girl" and "Higher and Higher" – and production. Though the album was well received and topped the U.S. country albums chart, neither it nor its single "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" made much of an impression on the pop charts. After New Harvest's disappointing crossover performance, Parton turned to high-profile pop producer Gary Klein for her next album. The result, 1977's Here You Come Again, became her first million-seller, topping the country album chart and reaching number 20 on the pop chart. The Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil-penned title track topped the country singles chart, and became Parton's first Top 10 single on the pop chart (no. 3). A second single, the double A-sided "Two Doors Down"/"It's All Wrong, But It's All Right" topped the country chart and crossed over to the pop Top 20. For the remainder of the 1970s and into the early 1980s, many of her subsequent singles moved up on both charts simultaneously. Her albums during this period were developed specifically for pop-crossover success. In 1978, Parton won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her Here You Come Again album. She continued to have hits with "Heartbreaker" (1978), "Baby I'm Burning" (1979) and "You're the Only One" (1979) all of which charted in the pop Top 40 and topped the country chart. "Sweet Summer Lovin'" (1979) became the first Parton single in two years to not top the country chart (though it did reach the Top 10). During this period, her visibility continued to increase, with multiple television appearances. A highly publicized candid interview on a Barbara Walters Special in 1977 (timed to coincide with Here You Come Again's release) was followed by appearances in 1978 on Cher's ABC television special, and her own joint special with Carol Burnett on CBS, Dolly & Carol in Nashville. Parton served as one of three co-hosts (along with Roy Clark and Glen Campbell) on the CBS special Fifty Years of Country Music. In 1979, Parton hosted the NBC special The Seventies: An Explosion of Country Music, performed live at the Ford Theatre in Washington, D.C., and whose audience included President Jimmy Carter. Her commercial success grew in 1980, with three consecutive country chart number-one hits: the Donna Summer-written "Starting Over Again", "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You", and "9 to 5", which topped the country and pop charts in early 1981. She had another Top 10 single that year with "Making Plans", a single released from a 1980 album with Porter Wagoner, released as part of a lawsuit settlement between the pair. The theme song to the 1980 feature film 9 to 5, in which she starred along with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, not only reached number one on the country chart – in February 1981 it reached number one on the pop and the adult-contemporary charts, giving her a triple number-one hit. Parton became one of the few female country singers to have a number-one single on the country and pop charts simultaneously. It also received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Her singles continued to appear consistently in the country Top 10. Between 1981 and 1985, she had twelve Top 10 hits; half of them hit number one. She continued to make inroads on the pop chart as well. A re-recorded version of "I Will Always Love You", from the feature film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) scraped the Top 50 that year and her duet with Kenny Rogers, "Islands in the Stream" (written by the Bee Gees and produced by Barry Gibb), spent two weeks at number one in 1983. In the mid-1980s, her record sales were still relatively strong, with "Save the Last Dance for Me", "Tennessee Homesick Blues", "God Won't Get You" (1984), "Real Love" (another duet with Kenny Rogers), "Don't Call It Love" (1985) and "Think About Love" (1986) all reaching the country Top 10 ("Tennessee Homesick Blues" and "Think About Love" reached number one; "Real Love" also reached number one on the country chart and became a modest crossover hit). However, RCA Records did not renew her contract after it expired in 1986, and she signed with Columbia Records in 1987. 1987–2005: Country and bluegrass period Along with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, she released Trio (1987) to critical acclaim. The album revitalized Parton's music career, spending five weeks at number one on Billboard's Country Albums chart, and also reached the Top 10 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart. It sold several million copies and produced four Top 10 country hits, including Phil Spector's "To Know Him Is to Love Him", which went to number one. Trio won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. After a further attempt at pop success with Rainbow (1987), including the single "The River Unbroken", it ended up a commercial let-down, causing Parton to focus on recording country material. White Limozeen (1989) produced two number one hits in "Why'd You Come in Here Lookin' Like That" and "Yellow Roses". Although Parton's career appeared to be revived, it was actually just a brief revival before contemporary country music came in the early 1990s and moved most veteran artists off the charts. A duet with Ricky Van Shelton, "Rockin' Years" (1991) reached number one, though Parton's greatest commercial fortune of the decade came when Whitney Houston recorded "I Will Always Love You" for the soundtrack of the feature film The Bodyguard (1992). Both the single and the album were massively successful. Parton's soundtrack album from the 1992 film, Straight Talk, however, was less successful. But her 1993 album Slow Dancing with the Moon won critical acclaim and did well on the charts, reaching number four on the country albums chart, and number 16 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It would also become Platinum certified. She recorded "The Day I Fall in Love" as a duet with James Ingram for the feature film Beethoven's 2nd (1993). The songwriters (Ingram, Carole Bayer Sager, and Clif Magness) were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and Parton and Ingram performed the song at the awards telecast. Similar to her earlier collaborative album with Harris and Ronstadt, Parton released Honky Tonk Angels in the fall of 1993 with Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. It was certified as a gold album by the Recording Industry Association of America and helped revive both Wynette and Lynn's careers. Also in 1994, Parton contributed the song "You Gotta Be My Baby" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization. A live acoustic album, Heartsongs: Live from Home, featuring stripped-down versions of some of her hits, as well as some traditional songs, was released in late 1994. Parton's recorded music during the mid-to-late-1990s remained steady and somewhat eclectic. Her 1995 re-recording of "I Will Always Love You" (performed as a duet with Vince Gill), from her album Something Special won the Country Music Association's Vocal Event of the Year Award. The following year, Treasures, an album of covers of 1960s/70s hits was released, and featured a diverse collection of material, including songs by Mac Davis, Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, Cat Stevens, and Neil Young. Her recording of Stevens' "Peace Train" was later re-mixed and released as a dance single, reaching Billboard's dance singles chart. Her 1998 country-rock album Hungry Again was made up entirely of her own compositions. Although neither of the album's two singles, "(Why Don't More Women Sing) Honky Tonk Songs" and "Salt in my Tears", charted, videos for both songs received significant airplay on CMT. A second and more contemporary collaboration with Harris and Ronstadt, Trio II, was released in early 1999. Its cover of Neil Young's song "After the Gold Rush" won a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Parton also was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999. Parton recorded a series of bluegrass-inspired albums, beginning with The Grass Is Blue (1999), winning a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album; and Little Sparrow (2001), with its cover of Collective Soul's "Shine" winning a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. The third, Halos & Horns (2002) included a bluegrass version of the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven". In 2005, she released Those Were The Days consisting of her interpretations of hits from the folk-rock era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, including "Imagine", "Where Do the Children Play?", "Crimson and Clover", and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" 2005–2020: Touring and holiday album Parton earned her second Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Travelin' Thru", which she wrote specifically for the feature film Transamerica. (2005) Due to the song's (and film's) acceptance of a transgender woman, Parton received death threats. She returned to number one on the country chart later in 2005 by lending her distinctive harmonies to the Brad Paisley ballad, "When I Get Where I'm Going". In September 2007, Parton released her first single from her own record company, Dolly Records, titled, "Better Get to Livin'", which eventually peaked at number 48 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. It was followed by the studio album Backwoods Barbie, which was released on February 26, 2008, and reached number two on the country chart. The album's debut at number 17 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart was the highest in her career. Backwoods Barbie produced four additional singles, including the title track, written as part of her score for 9 to 5: The Musical, an adaptation of her feature film. After the death of Michael Jackson, whom Parton knew personally, she released a video in which she somberly told of her feelings on Jackson and his death. On October 27, 2009, Parton released a four-CD box set, Dolly, which featured 99 songs and spanned most of her career. She released her second live DVD and album, Live From London in October 2009, which was filmed during her sold-out 2008 concerts at London's The O2 Arena. On August 10, 2010, with longtime friend Billy Ray Cyrus, Parton released the album Brother Clyde. Parton is featured on "The Right Time", which she co-wrote with Cyrus and Morris Joseph Tancredi. On January 6, 2011, Parton announced that her new album would be titled Better Day. In February 2011, she announced that she would embark on the Better Day World Tour on July 17, 2011, with shows in northern Europe and the U.S. The album's lead-off single, "Together You and I", was released on May 23, 2011, and Better Day was released on June 28, 2011. In 2011, Parton voiced the character Dolly Gnome in the animated film Gnomeo & Juliet. On February 11, 2012, after the sudden death of Whitney Houston, Parton stated, "Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston. I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.'" In 2013, Parton joined Lulu Roman for a re-recording of "I Will Always Love You" for Roman's album, At Last. In 2013, Parton and Kenny Rogers reunited for the title song of his album You Can't Make Old Friends. For their performance, they were nominated at the 2014 Grammy Awards for Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. In 2014, Parton embarked on the Blue Smoke World Tour in support of her 42nd studio album, Blue Smoke. The album was first released in Australia and New Zealand on January 31 to coincide with tour dates there in February, and reached the Top 10 in both countries. It was released in the United States on May 13, and debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 chart, making it her first Top 10 album and her highest-charting solo album ever; it also reached the number two on the U.S. country chart. The album was released in Europe on June 9, and reached number two on the UK album chart. On June 29, 2014, Parton performed for the first time at the UK Glastonbury Festival, singing songs such as "Jolene", "9 to 5" and "Coat of Many Colors" to a crowd of more than 180,000. On March 6, 2016, Parton announced that she would be embarking on a tour in support of her new album, Pure & Simple. The tour was one of Parton's biggest tours within the United States in more than 25 years. 64 dates were planned in the United States and Canada, visiting the most requested markets missed on previous tours. In the fall of 2016 she released "Jolene" as a single with the a cappella group Pentatonix and performed on The Voice with Pentatonix and Miley Cyrus in November 2016. Also in 2016, Parton was one of thirty artists to perform on "Forever Country", a mash-up of the songs, "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On the Road Again" and her own "I Will Always Love You". The song celebrates fifty years of the CMA Awards. At the ceremony itself, Parton was honored with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by Lily Tomlin and preceded by a tribute featuring Jennifer Nettles, Pentatonix, Reba McEntire, Kacey Musgraves, Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride. In 2017, Parton appeared on Rainbow, the third studio album by Kesha performing a duet of "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You". The track had been co-written by Kesha's mother Pebe Sebert. It was previously a hit for Parton and was included on her 1980 album Dolly, Dolly, Dolly. She also co-wrote and provided featuring vocals on the song "Rainbowland" on Younger Now, the sixth album by her goddaughter Miley Cyrus. In July 2019, Parton made an unannounced appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, and performed several songs accompanied by the Highwomen and Linda Perry. In 2020, Parton received worldwide attention after posting four pictures, in which she showed how she would present herself on social media platforms LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The original post on Instagram went viral after celebrities posted their own versions of the so-called Dolly Parton challenge on social media. On April 10, 2020, Parton re-released 93 songs from six of her classic albums: Little Sparrow, Halos & Horns, For God and Country, Better Day, Those Were The Days, and Live and Well. On May 27, 2020, Parton released a brand new song called "When Life Is Good Again". This song was released to help keep the spirits up of those affected by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. She also released a music video for "When Life Is Good Again", which premiered on Time 100 talks on May 28, 2020. In 2019, Parton collaborated with Christian alternative rock duet For King and Country and released a version of their hit "God Only Knows". She followed this by recording a duet with Christian music artist Zach Williams in the song "There Was Jesus". In October 2020, Parton was featured on the single "Pink" alongside Monica, Jordin Sparks, Sara Evans and Rita Wilson. The single was released in aid of Breast Cancer Research. Parton released A Holly Dolly Christmas in October 2020. On December 6, CBS aired a Christmas special, "A Holly Dolly Christmas", where Parton performed songs from her album. Since 2022: Rock album In early 2022, Parton was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Parton initially declined the nomination believing that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was "for the people in rock music", but after learning that this was not the case Parton said she would accept her induction if she were chosen for the honor. In May her induction was announced, and finally on November 5, 2022, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In October 2022 Parton stated in an interview that she would no longer tour, but would continue to play live shows occasionally. On December 31, 2022, Parton co-hosted NBC's New Year's special Miley's New Year's Eve Party. On January 17, 2023, Parton announced she would release her first rock album, titled Rockstar, later that year, during an interview on The View. Lead single "World on Fire" was released on May 11, 2023. It went on to peak at number 1 a week later. The album was released on November 17, 2023, and features collaborations with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Sting, Elton John, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus, and Lizzo, amongst others. The album received generally positive reviews from critics and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, becoming Parton's highest-charting solo studio album as well as topping the Country and Rock Albums charts. The soundtrack single "Gonna Be You" from the movie 80 for Brady was released January 20, 2023. The song was written by Diane Warren, and performed by Dolly Parton, Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry and Gloria Estefan. The official music video shows Parton, Carlisle, Lauper, and Estefan performing while wearing football jerseys similar to the ones worn by the women in the film, interspersed with clips from the film. Public image Parton had turned down several offers to pose nude for Playboy magazine, but did appear on the cover of the October 1978 issue wearing a Playboy bunny outfit, complete with ears (the issue featured Lawrence Grobel's extensive and candid interview with Parton, representing one of her earliest high-profile interviews with the mainstream press). The association of breasts with Parton's public image is illustrated in the naming of Dolly the sheep after her, since the sheep was cloned from a cell taken from an adult ewe's mammary gland. In Mobile, Alabama, the General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge is commonly called "the Dolly Parton Bridge" due to its arches resembling her bust. The thickened appearance of the turret frontal armor of the T-72A main battle tank led to the unofficial Army nickname "Dolly Parton" - and later the T-72BIs got the "Super Dolly Parton" nickname. Parton is known for having undergone considerable plastic surgery. On a 2003 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Winfrey asked what kind of cosmetic surgery Parton had undergone. Parton replied that cosmetic surgery was imperative in keeping with her famous image. Parton has repeatedly joked about her physical image and surgeries, saying, "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap." Her breasts have garnered her mentions in several songs, including "Dolly Parton's Hits" by Bobby Braddock, "Marty Feldman Eyes" by Bruce Baum (a parody of "Bette Davis Eyes"), "No Show Jones" by George Jones and Merle Haggard, and "Make Me Proud" by Drake, featuring Nicki Minaj. When asked about future plastic surgeries, she famously said, "If I see something sagging, bagging or dragging, I'll get it nipped, tucked or sucked." Parton's feminine escapism is acknowledged in her words, "Womanhood was a difficult thing to get a grip on in those hills, unless you were a man." Parton said in 2012 that she had entered a Dolly Parton lookalike contest and lost. Artistry Influences Parton, though influenced by big name stars, often credits much of her inspiration to her family and community. On her own mother Parton, in her 2020 book Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, wrote "So it was just natural for my mom to always be singing. My mother had that old-timey voice, and she used to sing all these songs that were brought over from the Old World. They were English, Irish, Welsh, folk songs where people tell stories." Parton calls her mother's voice "haunting". "Lord you would feel it", she wrote. Her biggest influence however was her Aunt Dorothy Jo: "People often ask me who my influences were, they think I'm going to say some big names, and there were a few 'stars' I was impressed with. But my hero was my aunt Dorothy Jo. Mama's baby sister. She was not only an evangelist, she played banjo, she played guitar, and she wrote some great songs." Of course, fellow singers also had an impact on Parton, describing George Jones as her "all time favorite singer", and recognizing her love for other artists such as Kitty Wells, Roy Acuff, and Rose Maddox. Musicianship Though unable to read sheet music, Parton can play many instruments, including: the dulcimer, autoharp, banjo, guitar, electric guitar, fiddle, piano, recorder, and the saxophone. Reflecting on her multi-instrumental abilities, Parton said, "I play some of everything. I ain't that good at none of it, but I try to sell it. I really try to lay into it." Parton has also used her fingernails as an instrument, most evident on her 1980 song "9 to 5", which she derived the beat from clacking her nails together while backstage on the set of the film of the same name. Other ventures In 1998, Nashville Business ranked her the wealthiest country music star. As of 2017, her net worth is estimated at $500 million. Songwriting Parton is a prolific songwriter, having begun by writing country music songs with strong elements of folk music, based on her upbringing in humble mountain surroundings and reflecting her family's Christian background. Her songs "Coat of Many Colors", "I Will Always Love You", and "Jolene", among others, have become classics. On November 4, 2003, Parton was honored as a BMI Icon at the 2003 BMI Country Awards. Parton has earned over 35 BMI Pop and Country Awards. In 2001, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In a 2009 interview on CNN's Larry King Live, she said she had written "at least 3,000" songs, having written seriously since the age of seven. Parton also said she writes something every day, be it a song or an idea. Parton's songwriting has been featured prominently in several films. In addition to the title song for 9 to 5, she also recorded a second version of "I Will Always Love You" for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). The second version was a number one country hit and also reached number 53 on the pop charts. "I Will Always Love You" has been covered by many country artists, including Ronstadt on Prisoner In Disguise (1975), Kenny Rogers on Vote for Love (1996), and LeAnn Rimes on Unchained Melody: The Early Years (1997). Whitney Houston performed it on The Bodyguard soundtrack and her version became the best-selling hit both written and performed by a female vocalist, with worldwide sales of over twelve million copies. In addition, the song has been translated into Italian and performed by the Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins. As a songwriter, Parton has twice been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, for "9 to 5" and "Travelin' Thru" (2005) from the film Transamerica. "Travelin' Thru" won Best Original Song at the 2005 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards. It was also nominated for both the 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the 2005 Broadcast Film Critics Association Award (also known as the Critics' Choice Awards) for Best Song. A cover of "Love Is Like A Butterfly" by Clare Torry was used as the theme music for the British TV show Butterflies. Stage musicals 9 to 5: The Musical Parton wrote the score (and Patricia Resnick the book) for 9 to 5: The Musical, a musical-theater adaptation of Parton's feature film 9 to 5 (1980). The musical ran at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, in late 2008. It opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre in New York on April 30, 2009, to mixed reviews. The title track of her 2008 album Backwoods Barbie was written for the musical's character Doralee. Although her score (as well as the musical debut of actress Allison Janney) was praised, the show struggled, closing on September 6, 2009, after 24 previews and 148 performances. Parton received nominations for Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics as well as a nomination for Tony Award for Best Original Score. Developing the musical was not a quick process. According to the public-radio program Studio 360 (October 29, 2005), in October 2005 Parton was in the midst of composing songs for a Broadway musical theater adaptation of the film. In late June 2007, 9 to 5: The Musical was read for industry presentations. The readings starred Megan Hilty, Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block, Bebe Neuwirth, and Marc Kudisch. Ambassador Theatre Group announced a 2012 UK tour for Dolly Parton's 9 to 5: The Musical, commencing at Manchester Opera House, on October 12, 2012. Hello, I'm Dolly In June 2024, Parton announced an autobiographical musical about her life and career titled Hello, I'm Dolly (named after her debut album and also a play on Hello, Dolly!), with a goal of opening on Broadway in 2026. The musical, with a co-written book by Parton and Maria S. Schlatter which would feature original songs as well as her more well-known hits. Parton also revealed that she has been working on the musical for the last decade. The Dollywood Company Parton invested much of her earnings into business ventures in her native East Tennessee, notably Pigeon Forge. She is a co-owner of The Dollywood Company, which operates the theme park Dollywood (a former Silver Dollar City), a dinner theater, Dolly Parton's Stampede, the waterpark Dollywood's Splash Country, and the Dream More Resort and Spa, all in Pigeon Forge. Dollywood is the 24th-most-popular theme park in the United States, with three million visitors per year. The Dolly Parton's Stampede business has venues in Branson, Missouri, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A former location in Orlando, Florida, closed in January 2008 after the land and building were sold to a developer. Starting in June 2011, the Myrtle Beach location became Pirates Voyage Fun, Feast and Adventure; Parton appeared for the opening, and the South Carolina General Assembly declared June 3, 2011, as Dolly Parton Day. On January 19, 2012, Parton's 66th birthday, Gaylord Opryland and Dollywood announced plans to open a $50 million water and snow park, a family-friendly destination in Nashville that is open all year. On September 29, 2012, Parton officially withdrew her support for the Nashville park due to the restructuring of Gaylord Entertainment Company after its merger with Marriott International. On June 12, 2015, it was announced that the Dollywood Company had purchased the Lumberjack Feud Dinner Show in Pigeon Forge. The show, which opened in June 2011, was owned and operated by Rob Scheer until the close of the 2015 season. The new, renovated show by the Dollywood Company opened in 2016. Production work Parton was a co-owner of Sandollar Productions, with Sandy Gallin, her former manager. A film and television production company, it produced the documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989), which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; the television series Babes (1990–91) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003); and the feature films Father of the Bride (1991), Father of the Bride: Part II (1995) Straight Talk (1992) (in which Parton starred), and Sabrina (1995), among other shows. In a 2009 interview, singer Connie Francis revealed that Parton had been contacting her for years in an attempt to film the singer's life story. Francis turned down Parton's offers, as she was already in negotiations with singer Gloria Estefan to produce the film, a collaboration now ended. After the retirement of her partner, Sandy Gallin, Parton briefly operated Dolly Parton's Southern Light Productions and in 2015 she announced her new production company would be called Dixie Pixie Productions and produce the movies-of-week in development with NBC Television and Magnolia Hill Productions. Acting career Acting breakthrough In addition to her performing appearances on The Porter Wagoner Show in the 1960s and into the 1970s, her two self-titled television variety shows in the 1970s and 1980s, and on American Idol in 2008 and other guest appearances, Parton has had television roles. In 1979, she received an Emmy award nomination as "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Variety Program" for her guest appearance in a Cher special. During the mid-1970s, Parton wanted to expand her audience base. Although her first attempt, the television variety show Dolly! (1976–77), had high ratings, it lasted only one season, with Parton requesting to be released from her contract because of the stress it was causing on her vocal cords. (She later tried a second television variety show, also titled Dolly (1987–88); it too lasted only one season). In her first feature film, Parton portrayed a secretary in a leading role with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the comedy film 9 to 5 (1980). The movie highlights discrimination against women in the workplace and created awareness of the National Association of Working Women (9–5). She received nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress. Parton wrote and recorded the film's title song. It received nominations for an Academy Award for Best Song and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. Released as a single, the song won both the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and the Grammy Award for Best Country Song. It also reached no. 1 on the Hot 100 chart and it was no. 78 on the "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs" list released by the American Film Institute in 2004. 9 to 5 became a major box office success, grossing over $3.9 million its opening weekend, and over $103 million worldwide. Parton was named Top Female Box Office Star by the Motion Picture Herald in both 1981 and 1982 due to the film's success. In late 1981, Parton began filming her second film, the musical film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). The film earned her a second nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The film was greeted with positive critical reviews and became a commercial success, earning over $69 million worldwide. After a two-year hiatus from films, Parton was teamed with Sylvester Stallone for Rhinestone (1984). A comedy film about a country music star's efforts to mould an unknown into a music sensation, the film was a critical and financial failure, making just over $21 million on a $28 million budget. Continued roles In 1989, Parton returned to film acting in Steel Magnolias (1989), based on the play of the same name by Robert Harling. The film was popular with critics and audiences, grossing over $95 million in the U.S. Parton starred in the television movies A Smoky Mountain Christmas (1986), Wild Texas Wind (1991), Unlikely Angel (1996), portraying an angel sent back to earth after a deadly car crash, and Blue Valley Songbird (1999), where her character lives through her music. She starred with James Woods in Straight Talk (1992), which received mixed reviews, and grossed a mild $21 million at the box office. Parton's 1987 variety show Dolly lasted only one season. She made a cameo appearance as herself in The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), an adaptation of the long-running TV sitcom of the same name (1962–1971). Parton has done voice work for animation for television series, playing herself in Alvin and the Chipmunks (episode "Urban Chipmunk", 1983) and the character Katrina Eloise "Murph" Murphy (Ms. Frizzle's first cousin) in The Magic School Bus (episode "The Family Holiday Special", 1994). She also has guest-starred in several sitcoms, including a 1990 episode of Designing Women (episode "The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century") as herself, the guardian movie star of Charlene's baby. She made a guest appearance on Reba (episode "Reba's Rules of Real Estate") portraying a real-estate agency owner and on The Simpsons (episode "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday", 1999). She appeared as herself in 2000 on the Halloween episode of Bette Midler's short-lived sitcom Bette, and on episode 14 of Babes (produced by Sandollar Productions, Parton and Sandy Gallin's joint production company). She made cameo appearances on the Disney Channel as "Aunt Dolly", visiting Hannah and her family in fellow Tennessean and real-life goddaughter Miley Cyrus's series Hannah Montana (episodes "Good Golly, Miss Dolly", 2006, "I Will Always Loathe You", 2007, and "Kiss It All Goodbye", 2010). She was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Parton appeared as an overprotective mother in the comedy Frank McKlusky, C.I.. (2002) She made a cameo appearance in the comedy film Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, starring Sandra Bullock. She was featured in The Book Lady (2008), a documentary about her campaign for children's literacy. Parton expected to reprise her television role as Hannah's godmother in the musical comedy film Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009), but the character was omitted from the screenplay. Since 2010 Parton had a voice role in the comedy family film Gnomeo & Juliet (2011), an animated film with garden gnomes about William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. She co-starred with Queen Latifah in the musical film Joyful Noise (2012), playing a choir director's widow who joins forces with Latifah's character, a mother of two teens, to save a small Georgia town's gospel choir. Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors, a made-for-TV film based on Parton's song of the same name, and featuring narration by Parton, aired on NBC in December 2015, with child actress Alyvia Alyn Lind portraying the young Parton. Parton also had a cameo in the sequel, which aired in November 2016. In June 2018, Parton announced an eight-part Netflix series, featuring her music career. She is its executive producer and co-star. The series, called Dolly Parton's Heartstrings, aired in November 2019. Parton is the subject of the NPR podcast Dolly Parton's America. It is hosted by Jad Abumrad, who also hosts Radiolab. In December 2019, the biographical documentary Here I Am was added to the catalog of the Netflix streaming service. The documentary, a co-production of Netflix and the BBC, takes its name from Parton's 1971 song. In November 2020, Parton produced and starred in the Netflix musical film Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square, which won her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie. In November 2021, Parton was confirmed to be appearing in the final season of Grace and Frankie in a guest-starring role, reuniting with her 9 to 5 co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. In July 2022, Parton appeared as a simulation of herself on sci-fi show The Orville in the episode "Midnight Blue". In December 2022, Parton appeared in an NBC special titled Dolly Parton's Mountain Magic Christmas. On Thanksgiving 2023, Parton performed songs during halftime at the Washington Commanders and Dallas Cowboys NFL football game. Personal life Family Parton is the fourth of 12 children. Her siblings are Willadeene, David Wilburn, Coy Denver, Robert Lee, Stella Mae, Cassie Nan, Randel Huston (deceased), Larry Gerald (deceased), twins Floyd Estel (deceased) and Frieda Estelle, and Rachel Ann. On May 30, 1966, Parton and Carl Thomas Dean (born July 20, 1942, in Nashville, Tennessee) were married in Ringgold, Georgia. Although Parton does not use Dean's surname professionally, she has stated that her passport reads "Dolly Parton Dean", and she sometimes uses Dean when signing contracts. Dean, who is retired from running an asphalt road-paving business in Nashville, has always shunned publicity, and rarely accompanies his wife to any events. Parton has jokingly said that he has only seen her perform once. She also has said in interviews that even though it appears they spend little time together, it is simply that nobody sees him publicly. She has commented on Dean's romantic side, saying that he does spontaneous things to surprise her, and sometimes even writes poems for her. In 2011, Parton said, "We're really very proud of our marriage. It's the first for both of us. And the last." On May 6, 2016, Parton announced that she and Dean would renew their vows in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary later in the month. While Parton has never had children, she and Dean helped raise several of her younger siblings in Nashville, leading her nieces and nephews to refer to them as "Uncle Peepaw" and "Aunt Granny"; the latter a moniker that later lent its name to one of Parton's Dollywood restaurants. Parton is also the godmother of singer-songwriter and actress Miley Cyrus. Faith Parton says that she is a committed Christian, which has influenced many of her musical releases. She talked about her liberal approach to faith in the January 2024 issue of New Humanist magazine. "I wouldn't even say I'm religious, though I grew up with that background. But I have a lot of faith in myself and I've been so blessed to have been around great people my whole life, my Uncle Bill and my family being supportive, and all the people I met along the way." Philanthropy Since the mid-1980s, Parton has supported many charitable efforts, particularly in the area of literacy, primarily through her Dollywood Foundation. Her literacy program, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, which is a part of the Dollywood Foundation, was founded in honor of her father, who never learned to read or write. It mails one book per month to each enrolled child from the time of their birth until they enter kindergarten. Currently, over 1600 local communities provide the Imagination Library to almost 850,000 children each month across the U.S., Canada, the UK, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. In February 2018, she donated her 100 millionth free book, a copy of Parton's children's picture book Coat of Many Colors, to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. and was honored by the Library of Congress on account of the "charity sending out its 100 millionth book". For her work in literacy, Parton has received various awards, including Association of American Publishers Honors Award (2000), Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval (2001) (the first time the seal had been awarded to a person), American Association of School Administrators – Galaxy Award (2002), National State Teachers of the Year – Chasing Rainbows Award (2002), and Parents as Teachers National Center – Child and Family Advocacy Award (2003). On May 8, 2009, Parton gave the commencement speech at the graduation ceremony for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville's College of Arts and Sciences. During the ceremony, she received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the university. It was only the second honorary degree given by the university, and in presenting the degree, the university's Chancellor, Jimmy Cheek, said, "Because of her career not just as a musician and entertainer, but for her role as a cultural ambassador, philanthropist and lifelong advocate for education, it is fitting that she be honored with an honorary degree from the flagship educational institution of her home state." In 2006, Parton published a cookbook, Dolly's Dixie Fixin's: Love, Laughter and Lots of Good Food. The Dollywood Foundation, funded from Parton's profits, has been noted for bringing jobs and tax revenues to a previously depressed region. Parton also has worked to raise money for several other causes, including the American Red Cross and HIV/AIDS-related charities. In December 2006, Parton pledged $500,000 toward a proposed $90 million hospital and cancer center to be constructed in Sevierville in the name of Robert F. Thomas, the physician who delivered her. She announced a benefit concert to raise additional funds for the project. The concert played to about 8,000 people. That same year, Parton and Emmylou Harris allowed use of their music in a PETA ad campaign that encouraged pet owners to keep their dogs indoors rather than chained outside. In 2003, her efforts to preserve the bald eagle through the American Eagle Foundation's sanctuary at Dollywood earned her the Partnership Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Parton received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution at a ceremony in Nashville on November 8, 2007. In response to the 2016 Great Smoky Mountains wildfires, Parton was one of a number of country music artists who participated in a telethon to raise money for victims of the fires. This was held in Nashville on December 9. In addition, Parton hosted her own telethon for the victims on December 13 and reportedly raised around $9 million. Her fund, the "My People Fund", provided $1,000 a month for six months to over 900 families affected by the wildfires, finally culminating with $5,000 to each home in the final month due to increased fundraising, for a total of $10,000 per family. In 2018, the FBI honored Parton for her wildfire aid work, awarding her the 2018 Director's Community Leadership Award at a ceremony at FBI Headquarters in Washington. The honor was bestowed by Director Christopher Wray and was accepted on the Parton's behalf by David Dotson, the CEO of the Dollywood Foundation. The impact of the fund's financial relief for the 2016 wildfire victims was studied by University of Tennessee College of Social Work professor Stacia West, who examined the impact of cash transfers in poverty alleviation. West surveyed 100 recipients of the emergency relief funds in April 2017 on topics including questions on housing, financial impact, physical and emotional health, and sources of support, with a follow-up survey conducted in December 2017. West found that the "My People Fund", in tandem with traditional disaster response, gave families the ability to make decisions that were most beneficial to them, and concluded that unconditional cash support may be more beneficial for disaster relief than conditional financial support. The report cited the impact of the monthly financial disbursements from the "My People Fund" on residents' emergency savings: "Following the monthly disbursements of unconditional cash assistance, participants were able to return to baseline financial stability reported prior to the wildfire, and improve their ability to set aside savings for hypothetical future emergencies." Parton has been a generous donor to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). Among her gifts was a contribution to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt Pediatric Cancer Program in honor of a friend, Professor Naji Abumrad, and her niece, Hannah Dennison, who was successfully treated for leukemia as a child at Children's Hospital. In the aftermath of 2024's Hurricane Helene, Parton announced a donation of $2 million to relief efforts, $1 million personally and another $1 million through her various businesses and the Dollywood Foundation. LGBTQ+ rights Though often politically neutral, Parton is known for her long history of openly supporting LGBTQ rights. LGBTQ+ magazines LGBTQ Nation and The Advocate have described her as an "LGBTQ+ icon," and it was noted that she first publicly showed support for LGBTQ families in her 1991 song "Family". She also publicly came out in support of same-sex marriage in 2009. Moderna COVID-19 vaccine In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Parton donated $1 million towards research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and encouraged those who can afford it to make similar donations. She said "I'm a very proud girl today to know I had anything at all to do with something that's going to help us through this crazy pandemic." Her donation funded the critical early stages of development of the Moderna vaccine. In March 2021, Parton was vaccinated against COVID-19 at Vanderbilt University. She labeled social media accounts of the occasion "Dolly gets a dose of her own medicine." Parton strongly encouraged everyone to get vaccinated when eligible and performed a song celebrating her vaccination, set to the tune of her song "Jolene". Awards and honors Dolly Parton is one of the most-honored female country performers of all time. The Record Industry Association of America has certified 25 of her single or album releases as either Gold Record, Platinum Record or Multi-Platinum Record. She has had 26 songs reach no. 1 on the Billboard country charts, a record for a female artist. She has 42 career Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and 110 career-charted singles over the past forty years. As of 2012 she had written more than 3,000 songs and sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the best-selling female artists of all time. As of 2021, she had appeared on the country music charts in each of seven decades, the most of any artist. Dolly Parton has earned eleven Grammy Awards (including her 2011 Lifetime Achievement Grammy) and a total of fifty Grammy Award nominations, the second-most nominations of any female artist in the history of the prestigious awards. At the American Music Awards, she has won three awards out of 18 nominations. At the Country Music Association, she has won ten awards out of 42 nominations. At the Academy of Country Music, she has won seven awards and 39 nominations. She is one of only six female artists (including Reba McEntire, Barbara Mandrell, Shania Twain, Loretta Lynn, and Taylor Swift), to win the Country Music Association's highest honor, Entertainer of the Year (1978). She also has been nominated for two Academy Awards and a Tony Award. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her appearance in a 1978 Cher television special. She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her music in 1984, located at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California; a star on the Nashville StarWalk for Grammy winners; and a bronze sculpture on the courthouse lawn in Sevierville. She has called that statue of herself in her hometown "the greatest honor", because it came from the people who knew her. Parton was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1969, and in 1986 was named one of Ms. Magazine's Women of the Year. In 1986, she was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1999, Parton received country music's highest honor, an induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. She received an honorary doctorate degree from Carson-Newman College (Jefferson City, Tennessee) in 1990. This was followed by induction into the National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2002, she ranked no. 4 in CMT's 40 Greatest Women of Country Music. Parton was honored in 2003 with a tribute album called Just Because I'm a Woman: Songs of Dolly Parton. The artists who recorded versions of Parton's songs included Melissa Etheridge ("I Will Always Love You"), Alison Krauss ("9 to 5"), Shania Twain ("Coat of Many Colors"), Meshell Ndegeocello ("Two Doors Down"), Norah Jones ("The Grass is Blue"), and Sinéad O'Connor ("Dagger Through the Heart"). Parton herself contributed a re-recording of the title song, originally the title song for her first RCA album in 1968. Parton was awarded the Living Legend Medal by the U.S. Library of Congress on April 14, 2004, for her contributions to the cultural heritage of the United States. She is also the focus of a Library of Congress collection exploring the influences of country music on her life and career. The collection contains images, articles, sheet music, and more. In 2005, she was honored with the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor given by the U.S. government for excellence in the arts. The award is presented by the U.S. President. On December 3, 2006, Parton received the Kennedy Center Honors from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for her lifetime of contributions to the arts. During the show, some of country music's biggest names came to show their admiration. Carrie Underwood performed "Islands in the Stream" with Rogers, Parton's original duet partner. Krauss performed "Jolene" and duetted "Coat of Many Colors" with Twain. McEntire and Reese Witherspoon also came to pay tribute. On November 16, 2010, Parton accepted the Liseberg Applause Award, the theme park industry's most prestigious honor, on behalf of Dollywood theme park during a ceremony held at IAAPA Attractions Expo 2010 in Orlando, Florida. In 2015, a newly discovered species of lichen found growing in the southern Appalachians was named Japewiella dollypartoniana in honor of Parton's music and her efforts to bring national and global attention to that region. In 2018, Parton received a second star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, inducted alongside Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris in recognition of their work as a trio. Parton was also recognized in the Guinness World Records 2018 Edition for holding records for the Most Decades with a Top 20 hit on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart and Most Hits on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart by a Female Artist. In 2020, Parton received a Grammy award for her collaboration with For King & Country on their song, "God Only Knows". In 2021, she was included on the Time 100, Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The New York Times called her among the three of America's Most Beloved Divas (alongside Patti LaBelle and Barbra Streisand). Parton has turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom twice due to her husband's illness and the ongoing pandemic. In response to a 2021 proposal by the Tennessee legislature to erect a statue of Parton, she released a statement asking the legislature to remove the bill from consideration, saying "Given all that is going on in the world, I don't think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time." In late 2022, Parton received a $100-million Courage and Civility Award from the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. According to Bezos, the award was given to Parton because of her charity work focused on improving children's literacy around the world. In 2023, Parton was awarded American Library Association Honorary Membership. She was ranked at No. 27 on Rolling Stone′s 2023 list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. Hall of Fame honors During her career, Parton has gained induction into numerous Halls of Fame. Those honors include: Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1986) Small Town of America Hall of Fame (1988) East Tennessee Hall of Fame (1988) Country Music Hall of Fame (1999) Songwriters Hall of Fame (2001) Junior Achievement of East Tennessee Business Hall of Fame (2003) The Americana Highway Hall of Fame (2006) Grammy Hall of Fame – "I Will Always Love You – 1974 Recording" (2007) Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame – Songwriter Category (2008) Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2009) Music City Walk of Fame (2009) Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2010) Grammy Hall of Fame – "Jolene – 1974 Recording" (2014) The National Hall of Fame for Mountain Artisans (2014) The Happiness Hall of Fame (2016) East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame (2019) Grammy Hall of Fame – "Coat of Many Colors – 1971 Recording" (2019) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2022) Discography Solo studio albums Collaborative studio albums Filmography Theatrical releases 9 to 5 (1980) The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) Rhinestone (1984) Steel Magnolias (1989) Straight Talk (1992) Frank McKlusky, C.I. (2002) Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) Joyful Noise (2012) Published works Parton, Dolly (1979). Just the Way I Am: Poetic Selections on "Reasons to Live, Reasons to Love and Reasons to Smile" from the Songs of Dolly Parton. Blue Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0883960431. Parton, Dolly (October 1, 1994). Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060177201. Parton, Dolly (January 18, 1996). Coat of Many Colors. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0064434478. Parton, Dolly (2006). Dolly's Dixie Fixin's: Love, Laughter and Lots of Good Food. Viking Studio. ISBN 9780670038145. Parton, Dolly (2009). I Am a Rainbow. G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 9780141330105. Parton, Dolly (2012). Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You. Putnam Pub Group. ISBN 9780399162480. Parton, Dolly; Oermann, Robert K. (2020). Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1797205090. Parton, Dolly; Patterson, James (2022). Run, Rose, Run. Little, Brown & Company. ISBN 978-0-7595-5434-4. Parton, Dolly (2023). Dolly Parton's Billy The Kid Makes It Big. Penguin Workshop. ISBN 9780593661574. Parton, Dolly; Seaver, Rebecca; George-Warren, Holly (2023). Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 9781984862129. Parton, Dolly; Parton-George, Rachel (2024). Good Lookin' Cookin': A Year of Meals - A Lifetime of Family, Friends, and Food. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 9781984863164. Parton, Dolly (2024). Dolly Parton's Billy The Kid Comes Home for Christmas. Penguin Workshop. ISBN 9780593755006. See also Chasing Rainbows Museum List of American film actresses List of American television actresses List of country music performers List of composers of musicals List of music artists by net worth List of people from Tennessee List of philanthropists List of singer-songwriters References Bibliography Parton, Dolly (1994). Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-017720-1. Whitburn, Joel (2005). Top Country Songs 1944–2005. Billboard/Record Research Inc. ISBN 978-0-89820-165-9. Further reading Cash, Johnny (1998). Cash: The Autobiography. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780061013577. Miller, Stephen (2008). Smart Blonde: Dolly Parton. Music Sales Group. ISBN 978-0-85712-007-6. Nash, Alanna (1978). Dolly. Los Angeles: Reed Books. ISBN 978-0-89169-523-3. Pasternak, Judith Mahoney (1998). Dolly Parton. Sterling Publishing. ISBN 978-1-56799-557-2. Parton, Dolly (2012). Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You. Putnam Pub Group. ISBN 9780399162480. Reporter: Morley Safer (June 7, 2009). "Dolly Parton: The Real Queen of All Media". 60 Minutes. CBS. Archived from the original on May 17, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2010. Smarsh, Sarah (October 2020). She Come by It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Woman Who Lived Her Songs. Scribner. ISBN 978-1-9821-5728-9. External links Official website Dolly Parton at the American Film Institute Catalog Dolly Parton at IMDb "Dolly Parton" Archived July 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, inductee page at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

The_Northern_Pikes

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

The Northern Pikes are a Canadian rock band formed in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1984. The original members are Jay Semko, Bryan Potvin, Merl Bryck and Glen Hollingshead, who left the band in 1985 and was replaced by Jay Semko in June 1986. Rob Esch left after the second independent EP Scene In North America (1987?) The band was active until 1993 and toured and recorded again from 1999 through to the present. The Northern Pikes were inducted into the Western Canadian Music Hall of Fame on Sunday, September 30, 2012, in Regina, Saskatchewan. The band released its ninth record of original material, Forest of Love, on June 7, 2019. History The Northern Pikes released two independent EPs before being signed to Virgin Records in 1986, The Northern Pikes (1984) and Scene in North America (1985). They also recorded a song for Saskatchewan After Dark, a 1985 compilation of Saskatchewan-based artists sponsored by the provincial government. Their first album for Virgin, Big Blue Sky, included the Semko-penned "Teenland", the band's first significant hit. The follow-up album Secrets of the Alibi contained three Canadian hits, "Wait for Me", "Let's Pretend" & "Hopes Go Astray". Their 1990 album Snow in June became their biggest seller in Canada and the US. That album's lead single, "She Ain't Pretty", was the band's biggest hit, and was written by Potvin. An innovative music video for that song received heavy play on MuchMusic and was nominated for a Juno Award in 1991. Overall, the band has been nominated for five Juno Awards, but have yet to record a win. In early 1992, the band released the single "Everyone's a Hero" for the Canadian Special Olympics. Later that year, the band released their next album, Neptune. The album's biggest hit, "Believe", was written by Potvin. After touring to support the album, they announced their retirement as a group in July 1993. In 1999, Virgin Records asked the band members for their input on a "greatest hits" package. The band decided to do a short promotional tour following the release of Hits and Assorted Secrets 1984-1993, but found themselves enjoying the more relaxed independence of making their own schedule that they continued touring. They have since released three independent albums, including Truest Inspiration (2001) and It's a Good Life (2003), as well as the aptly titled Live (2000). In 2005, the band struck up a musical collaboration with Les Stroud. Throughout 2005 and 2006 they performed together live several times. A six-song EP born from this collaboration entitled Long Walk Home was released in the spring of 2007, and was credited to "Les Stroud & The Pikes". In 2006, Merl Bryck made the decision to curtail his touring schedule, and left the Northern Pikes. Long-time sideman Ross Nykiforuk joined the band on keyboards as the fourth member onstage from 2006 to 2011. Since then, Semko, Potvin and Schmid have continued touring under the Northern Pikes banner as, in their own words, a "power trio". In 2017, Grapes of Wrath guitarist Kevin Kane joined them for their 30th Anniversary of "Big Blue Sky" Tour, becoming a full-time member of the band in 2018 for the recording of Forest Of Love. The 10-track record is the band's first in 16 years and also features original members Semko, Schmid and Potvin. BlueFrog Studios hosted the band for two official pre-release concerts on June 6, 2019, which were viewed via Facebook Live and YouTube Live. The band began working on a new album in early 2020, which Jay Semko described as a "tribute to Snow in June'" but postponed finishing it due to travel restrictions and difficulty getting together in studio due to the Covid pandemic. They plan to finish it and have it out by 2022. In 2019, Semko recorded a new version of the band's 1987 single "The Things I Do for Money", in collaboration with cellists Theodor and Maximilian Aoki, for the soundtrack to Warren P. Sonoda's feature film Things I Do for Money. Discography Studio albums 1987 – Big Blue Sky 1988 – Secrets of the Alibi 1990 – Snow in June 1992 – Neptune 2001 – Truest Inspiration 2003 – It's a Good Life 2019 – Forest of Love 2023 - Time to Time Independently-released EPs 1984 – The Northern Pikes 1985 – Scene in North America Collaborative EP 2007 – Les Stroud & the Pikes: Long Walk Home Live albums 1993 – Gig 2000 – Live Compilations 1999 – Hits and Assorted Secrets 1984-1993 2007 – Platinum Appearances 1985 – Saskatchewan After Dark (track "Working in My Head") Singles References Citations External links The Northern Pikes Official Site Northern Pikes CanConRox entry The Northern Pikes at MySpace The Northern Pikes[usurped] entry at JAM! The Canadian Pop Encyclopedia The Northern Pikes discography at Discogs The Northern Pikes at IMDb Jay Semko interview discussing The Northern Pikes

Wide_Mouth_Mason

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

Wide Mouth Mason is a Canadian blues-based rock band, consisting of Shaun Verreault (lead vocals, guitar) and Safwan Javed (percussion, backing vocals). Former bassist Earl Pereira was also co-founder of Wide Mouth Mason. The band hails from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and has been active since 1995. Career Wide Mouth Mason took its name from the jar of the same name, and independently released its first album, The Nazarene in 1996. Although only 2,500 copies were pressed, it still drew interest from the major labels. The band would re-record much of The Nazarene at Greenhouse Studios. The re-recorded tracks and new material attracted the attention of Warner Music Canada, who signed the band to a record deal. The new album would be the band's eponymous major-label debut; it was released in 1997 in Canada and the U.S., and a year later in Japan. It established the group's fusion of pop/rock/blues, and yielded the hit singles "Midnight Rain", "My Old Self", and "This Mourning". The album went Gold in Canada, and the band was nominated for Best New Group at the 1998 Juno Awards. Wide Mouth Mason released a new album in 1999 with Where I Started, a continuance of its prior sound, but adding elements of jazz and world music. The band returned to Greenhouse Studios to record and mix the album. The band performed at the Rivoli in Toronto in March that year to publicize the release of the album. The album, like its predecessor, attained Gold status in Canada. Its lead single, "Why", backed with scratches and cuts from childhood friend and DJ Muchi Mambo, was a hit in Canada, and was followed by two other hits, "Companion (Lay Me Down)" and "Sugarcane". In 2000, the band quickly followed up with the album Stew. It was more pop-oriented than the band's previous efforts, but also eclectic, hence the title of the album. The single "Smile" charted well in Canada, the follow-up "Change" was popular on MuchMusic, and the album was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 2001 Junos. From March to May 2001, Wide Mouth Mason opened for AC/DC on their Stiff Upper Lip World Tour. Wide Mouth Mason returned in 2002 with two albums. The first, Rained Out Parade, featured a heavier emphasis on the blues, a deliberate lo-fi production style, and the featured title track. It received a 2003 Juno nomination for Rock Album of the Year. The second album, Greatest Hits, was released exclusively in China. When its contract with Warner expired, the band signed a license agreement with Curve Music in 2004. The following year, the band would again release two albums, this time on the same day. One was The Essentials, a greatest-hits album, and the other was Shot Down Satellites, a new studio release featuring a hard rock-centred style and the single "I Love Not Loving You". The disc was produced by the band and their former co-manager, Ross Damude. In 2006, Shaun Verreault released his solo debut, The Daggerlip Sketches, focusing on acoustic-guitar-based material. It featured new songs and stripped-down versions of familiar material from his band. In early 2008, the Wide Mouth Mason's official website announced that Verreault was releasing a second solo album, titled Two Steel Strings, and that the full band was writing new material for a future release Since then, Earl Pereira left the band to concentrate on his own band, The Steadies (formerly Mobadass), which he has fronted since 2005. In 2010, Wide Mouth Mason supported ZZ Top with Grady/Big Sugar front-man Gordie Johnson on bass. In March 2011, the band announced that Johnson would be joining the band full-time. Wide Mouth Mason recorded their first album in five years in late 2010 with Gordie Johnson producing. The band has been playing many of these unrecorded songs live over the last year. The album entitled "No Bad Days" was released on July 12, 2011. In 2019, the group released the heavily blues-influenced album I Wanna Go with You. The record prominently features Verreault's "Tri-Slide" technique, using three slides on his fretting hand and playing more lap-steel and dobro-style instruments. In 2023, the band released the album Late Night Walking on streaming platforms, CD and vinyl. The album was recorded by Ryan Dahle at his studio on Mayne Island BC, with Gordie Johnson playing bass. Discography The Nazarene (1996) Wide Mouth Mason (1997) Where I Started (1999) Stew (2000) Rained Out Parade (2002) Shot Down Satellites (2005) No Bad Days (2011) I Wanna Go with You (2019) Late Night Walking (2023) See also Music of British Columbia Music of Saskatchewan References External links Wide Mouth Mason Official website CanadianBands.com CanadianBands.com bio

The_Sheepdogs

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

The Sheepdogs are a Canadian rock band formed in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 2004. The Sheepdogs were the first unsigned band to make the cover of Rolling Stone and have gone on to a career featuring multi-platinum album sales and four Juno Awards. Frontman Ewan Currie, the band's primary songwriter, has described the band's guitar-driven blues-rock style as "pure, simple, good-time music"; he's said that the band aims to 'land in the sweet spot in between Led Zeppelin and Crosby, Stills & Nash'. Currie has further credited Creedence Clearwater Revival, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, and The Allman Brothers Band as influences on the band's style. One critic has praised the band's "infectiously catchy, soulful, retro sound with beautiful harmonies and a pinch of southern rock." The Sheepdogs are on the road frequently between recordings. They have headlined tours across Canada and the United States, the United Kingdom, Eastern and Western Europe, and Australia, and have performed at a number of large festivals including South by Southwest, Coachella, Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza. History Early history and formation: The Breaks EP, Trying to Grow, The Big Stand, Learn & Burn (2004–2010) The band formed in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in the summer of 2004, while Ewan Currie, Ryan Gullen, and Sam Corbett were all studying at the University of Saskatchewan. Corbett had an old bass guitar and a gift certificate to a local music store, so they rented a drum kit and started playing in Corbett's parents' basement with Corbett on drums, Gullen playing the bass, and Currie playing a recently purchased electric guitar. The band began with a repertoire of 1970s blues-rock songs as well as newer material, including covers of the early Black Keys and Kings of Leon, while also writing their own music. Currie, Gullen, and Corbett called their trio The Breaks and released an EP in 2006. In the summer of 2006, Currie, Gullen, and Corbett met Leot Hanson, who was playing acoustic guitar at a party. Hanson was playing a Kings of Leon song from Youth & Young Manhood, and the trio joined in. The next day, Hanson joined the band and they changed their name to The Sheepdogs. In 2006, The Sheepdogs independently released their first album Trying to Grow, which they recorded at Cosmic Pad Studios in Saskatoon. Two years later, after almost constant touring, The Sheepdogs returned to Cosmic Pad Studios to record their second album, Big Stand. The first two records were small affairs, including artwork by friends and family, and were mixed by the band. The band released its third studio album, Learn & Burn, in 2010. The band recorded the album on their own, with their own equipment, a circumstance which they appreciated for giving them freedom to explore new sounds and techniques, including a nod to the psychedelic rock of the 1960s. Rolling Stone cover contest: Learn & Burn Deluxe, Five Easy Pieces EP (2011) In early 2011, a music manager that the band had met in Toronto, Ontario submitted a demo tape to Atlantic Records, which resulted in them being one of 16 bands chosen to be part of the Rolling Stone "Choose the Cover" competition. With the new international spotlight on the band and while the band was waiting to find out the results of the contest, Learn & Burn was given a re-release, in May. That summer, the Sheepdogs beat fifteen other bands to win the contest, and were featured on the August 18, 2011, cover of Rolling Stone—the first unsigned act to do so. During the competition, the band made appearances on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival as well as The Osheaga Festival in Montreal, Quebec. The Rolling Stone cover arrived on the heels of the band's Five Easy Pieces EP, which debuted at No. 7 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 3,300 copies. Following the contest win, the band signed with Atlantic Records. In April 2012, the re-released Learn & Burn garnered three Juno Awards—for Rock Album of the Year, Best New Group, and Single of the Year. The band was touring in Australia with John Fogerty at the time and were unable to attend the ceremony. International touring and personnel changes: (The Sheepdogs) (2012–2014) In early 2012 the Sheepdogs began work on a new album which was produced by The Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, recorded during an intensive two-week session at Haptown Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Released on September 4, 2012, the band's self-titled major-label debut garnered them their second platinum sales certification. The album generated international interest, and led to a long stretch of touring, both in Canada and overseas, from 2012 into 2013 including performances at Coachella Music Festival, Lollapalooza, Bonaroo, Edgefest, Glastonbury, and Ottawa Bluesfest. This tour saw Shamus Currie, younger brother of lead singer Ewan Currie, become a touring member of the Sheepdogs, after having previously played trombone on The Big Stand and Learn & Burn. The Sheepdogs earned three Juno nominations for Single of the Year, Rock Album of the Year and Group of the Year, in addition to performing "Feeling Good" live on the broadcast at the 2013 Juno Awards in Regina, Saskatchewan. On November 24, 2013, The Sheepdogs performed at the CFL's 101st Grey Cup live on television. The game saw their home province Saskatchewan Roughriders beat the Hamilton Tiger Cats. In March 2014, director Matt Barnes and the Sheepdogs won the Juno Award for Video of the Year for "Feeling Good." That same year the band played tribute to and inducted Bachman Turner Overdrive into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, performing "Let it Ride" and "Takin’ Care of Business" with BTO live on the Juno Award broadcast. In July 2014, Leot Hanson left the band. Following his departure, Winnipeg guitarist Rusty Matyas, a friend of the band, stepped in as guitarist for the tour promoting The Sheepdogs. This led to Matyas joining the band as a full-time touring and recording member until the fall of 2015. Addition of Jimmy Bowskill: Future Nostalgia (2015–2016) On July 3, 2015, the band released "Downtown," the first single from what would be their fifth studio album Future Nostalgia. The album itself was released on October 2, 2015, via Warner Music Canada and Dine Alone Records. The 18-track record was well received by reviewers and fans, nearing the top of the iTunes Canadian charts. Future Nostalgia was recorded in a rented cottage in Stony Lake, Ontario, engineered by Matt Ross-Spang, and produced by lead singer and songwriter Ewan Currie. Currie explained the choice, saying: "We wanted to cut out all the noise and get back to a place where we could just fully immerse ourselves in music." The band worked on the album full-time in Stony Lake, seeking some middle ground between the informal garage sound of the Learn & Burn and the whirlwind sessions in Nashville with Carney which produced The Sheepdogs. In November 2015, award-winning blues guitarist Jimmy Bowskill from Bailieboro, Ontario, joined the band in advance of the European leg of their Future Nostalgia Tour, playing guitar and pedal steel. Future Nostalgia garnered the Sheepdogs another Juno nomination for Rock Album of the year in 2016. When they were finished recording Future Nostalgia, brothers Ewan and Shamus Currie started working on a side project they called BROS. Their debut LP, titled Vol.1, was released on October 14, 2016, via Dine Alone Records. International expansion: Changing Colours (2017–2019) When it came time to record again, instead of being produced in a concentrated burst, the band's next album, Changing Colours was recorded over an unusually extended period in 2017. The 17-track album was engineered, co-produced, and mixed by Thomas D'Arcy at Taurus Recording in Toronto, with Ewan Currie again in the producer role, and was released in February 2018. "Most of the records we've made have been under a short time constraint," drummer Sam Corbett is quoted as saying. "This one was done over six months, with some songs sitting around for two months. Then we'd come back and try different things, so I think that as a result, some of the songs took a different shape." The Changing Colours sessions also marked the recording debut of guitarist Jimmy Bowskill, performing not only guitar but mandolin, banjo, viola, fiddle, and pedal steel. "He joined us on tour, learned our whole set basically in one rehearsal and has been with us ever since," says bass player Ryan Gullen. The promotion of the album again saw the Sheepdogs embarking on multiple national and international tours, playing over 200 shows in Canada, Europe and the United States. Corbett announced in October 2018 that he would not tour with the band in the United States and Europe after being diagnosed with cancer. He underwent surgery in the summer of that year and began further treatment in the fall. Corbett resumed his post in the band on New Year's Eve for a show in Niagara Falls, Ontario that was broadcast live on CBC Television. Corbett announced his return in a December 22, 2018 Facebook post in which he also announced the birth of his first child. In early 2019, the band continued their promotion and touring of Changing Colours by joining Rival Sons on tour first in Europe and then in the US, including dates at The Bataclan, Paris and The Sheepdogs first Scandinavian shows in Sweden, Denmark and Oslo, Norway. 2019 also saw two Juno Award nominations for the band, this time for "Group of the Year" and for "Rock Album of the Year". Frontman Ewan Currie recorded his debut solo album, Out of My Mind, in San Francisco, California. The album was released via Warner Music Canada on March 29, 2019. In November 2019, the Sheepdogs performed two songs live on television as part of the NHL Heritage Classic at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan. Pandemic adjustments: No Simple Thing EP, Live at Lee's (2020–2021) Coming off the international success of Changing Colours and subsequent busy touring schedule, the Sheepdogs announced in early 2020 that they would be embarking on a 10-date Canadian tour with The Black Keys. It was also announced that the Sheepdogs would appear as part of the 2020 Juno Awards as presenters in their hometown of Saskatoon. In March 2020, the COVID19 pandemic stopped all touring and live performance activities. The Sheepdogs took part in a live CBC Canada Day performance on July 1, 2020, from Montreal, Quebec marking their first performance since the beginning of the pandemic. Following this performance the Sheepdogs stayed in Montreal and began tracking songs at MixART studios, tracking new songs together for the first time since the release of Changing Colours. The songs were recorded all in a room together, live off the floor to a Studer A827 24 2” tape machine. In the summer and fall of 2020 the band performed a series of drive-in performances in Ontario and a concert series in Regina, Saskatchewan playing to hotel room balconies. On April 30, 2021, it was announced that an EP, No Simple Thing would be released. The first single “Keep On Loving You” was released on that day. With touring still not happening in a normal capacity, the Sheepdogs built a makeshift TV studio and filmed a series of performance videos for every song on the album. The album garnered two top 5 singles in Canada. The band played a limited number of live performances in Canada in the summer of 2021 and performed at the halftime show at the annual Saskatchewan Roughrider game the Labour Day Classic at Mosaic Stadium in Regina. In November 2021, coinciding with the return of full capacity indoor shows, the Sheepdogs announced they would be performing four nights at Lee's Palace in Toronto (November 17–20). The four sold-out shows were filmed and recorded. Live at Lee's, the band's first live album, was released in February 2022. Lineup change and new album: Outta Sight (2022–present) In the spring of 2022, the Sheepdogs announced an extensive world tour of nearly 100 dates including stops in the UK, Europe and North America. Shortly after this the band announced that their new album, Outta Sight, would be released in June 2022. The album's first single, "Find the Truth," was released April 2022. In August 2022 the band announced that Jimmy Bowskill would be stepping away from touring with the band for the time being to focus on other projects. Guitarist Ricky Paquette joined the band on the North American tour starting in September 2022. The Sheepdogs released their first Christmas song, “I’m Ready For Christmas,” in December 2022. The Live and Outta Sight Tour concluded in Ottawa January of 2023 with a majority of the dates selling out across North America. In January, following the conclusion, additional dates in Australia were announced to take place in April. Also in January, Outta Sight was nominated for a Juno Award for Rock Album of the year. Band members Current Ewan Currie – lead vocals, guitars, keys, primary songwriter (2004–present) Ryan Gullen – bass, backing vocals (2004–present) Sam Corbett – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2004–present) Shamus Currie – keys, trombone, guitars, backing vocals (2012–present) Ricky Paquette – guitars, backing vocals (2022–present) Former Leot Hanson – guitar, backing vocals (2006–2014) Rusty Matyas – guitar, backing vocals (2014–2015) Jimmy Bowskill – guitars, pedal steel guitar, violin, mandolin, backing vocals (2015–2022) Timeline Side projects Brothers Ewan and Shamus Currie have recorded an album together in a project called BROS. The debut LP, Vol.1, was released in October 2016. A second album, Vol. 2, was released in July 2021. Front man Ewan Currie released his debut solo album, Out of My Mind, in March 2019. In November 2021, guitarist Ricky Paquette released his album Sparks, produced by Big Sugar's Gordie Johnson. In January 2023, it was announced that Shamus Currie would release a fantasy rock concept album The Shepherd and the Wolf was released on February 24, 2023. The first single, “Days of High Adventure,” was released on January 6, 2023. In February 2023, it was announced that Sam Corbett would release a solo effort under the name Nutana, to be released on April 7, 2023. Discography Albums EPs 7-inch vinyl releases Singles Music videos Notes Filmography Film Television Awards and nominations References External links Official website The Sheepdogs CanConRox bio

Cardi_B

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

Belcalis Marlenis Cephus (née Almánzar; born October 11, 1992), known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper and songwriter. Known for her aggressive flow and outspoken clever lyrics, Cardi B has established herself as one of the most successful female artists in contemporary music. Born and raised in New York City, she first gained popularity through videos shared on Vine and Instagram. From 2015 to early 2017, she appeared as a regular cast member on the VH1 reality television series Love & Hip Hop: New York, which depicted her pursuit of her music aspirations, and earned further recognition with the release of her two mixtapes: Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1 (2016) and Vol. 2 (2017). Her first studio album, Invasion of Privacy (2018), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and Billboard ranked it the top female rap album of the 2010s. Critically acclaimed, it made Cardi B the only solo female artist to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and marked the first female rap album in 15 years nominated for Album of the Year. Its singles "Bodak Yellow" and "I Like It" both topped the Billboard Hot 100 and were certified diamond by the RIAA; the former made Cardi B the first female rapper to top the Hot 100 with a solo song in the 21st century and the first to achieve a diamond-certified song, while the latter made her the first with multiple number-one songs. Her third US number-one, the collaboration "Girls Like You" (2018) with Maroon 5, made her the first female rapper to earn multiple RIAA diamond-certified songs. Cardi B released "WAP" (with Megan Thee Stallion) in 2020 and "Up" in 2021, both of which topped the Hot 100 and other charts worldwide. "WAP" became the only female rap collaboration to debut atop the Hot 100, broke several streaming records and made Cardi B the first lead artist to top the Billboard Global 200. Her second studio album will be released in 2024. Recognized by Forbes as one of the most influential female rappers of all time, Cardi B holds various records among women in hip hop; she is the female rapper with the most number-one singles (five) on the Billboard Hot 100, the only female rapper to achieve multiple solo number-ones, and the only to earn number-one singles in two decades (2010s and 2020s). She further is the highest-certified (digital singles) female rapper of all time in the US, the female rapper with the most diamond-certified songs (three) by the RIAA, and has over 100 million certified units sold in the US alone. Additionally, Invasion of Privacy is the most-streamed female rap album on Apple Music and Spotify. Her accolades include a Grammy Award, eight Billboard Music Awards, six Guinness World Records, six American Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, 14 BET Hip Hop Awards and two ASCAP Songwriter of the Year awards. Time listed her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018 and Billboard named her Woman of the Year in 2020. Outside of music, Cardi B served as a judge on the music competition series Rhythm + Flow (2019), appeared in the films Hustlers (2019) and F9 (2021), and had a voice role in Baby Shark's Big Movie! (2023). In 2022, she became the creative director of entertainment magazine Playboy. Early life Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar was born on October 11, 1992, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Her father Carlos is Dominican and her mother Clara is a Trinidadian of African and Spanish descent; Almánzar identifies as an Afro-Latina. Almánzar was raised in the Highbridge neighborhood of the South Bronx, and spent much time at her paternal grandmother's home in Washington Heights, which she credits with giving her "such a thick accent." Almánzar developed the stage name "Cardi B" as a derivation of Bacardi, a rum brand that was formerly her nickname. She has a younger sister, Hennessy Carolina, who was born in 1995. She has said she was a gang member with the Bloods in her youth, since age 16, but stated she would not encourage joining a gang. She attended Renaissance High School for Musical Theater & Technology, a vocational high school on the Herbert H. Lehman High School campus. During her teens, Cardi B was employed at a grocery store in Tribeca. She was fired and became a dancer at a strip club across the street. Cardi B has said that becoming a stripper was positive for her life in many ways: "It really saved me from a lot of things. When I started stripping I went back to school." She stated that she became a stripper to escape poverty and domestic violence, having been in an abusive relationship at the time after being kicked out of her mother's house, and that stripping was her only way to earn enough money to escape the situation and get an education. She attended Borough of Manhattan Community College before eventually dropping out. While stripping, Cardi B lied to her mother by telling her she was making money by babysitting. In 2013, she began to gain publicity due to several of her videos spreading on social media, on Vine and her Instagram page. Career 2015–2016: Career beginnings In 2015, Cardi B joined the cast of the VH1 reality television series Love & Hip Hop: New York, debuting in season six. Jezebel considered her the breakout star of the show's sixth season. The New York Times wrote that she garnered popularity with "her ability to rattle off one-liners". The sixth and seventh seasons chronicle her rise to stardom and her turbulent relationship with her incarcerated fiancé. On December 30, 2016, after two seasons, she announced that she would be leaving the show to further pursue a career in music. In November 2015, Cardi B made her musical debut on Jamaican reggae fusion singer Shaggy's remix to his single "Boom Boom", alongside fellow Jamaican dancehall singer Popcaan. She made her music video debut on December 15, 2015, with the song "Cheap Ass Weave", her rendition of British rapper Lady Leshurr's "Queen's Speech 4". On March 7, 2016, Cardi B released her first full-length project, a mixtape titled Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 1. In November 2016, she was featured on the digital cover of Vibe magazine's "Viva" issue. On September 12, 2016, KSR Group released the compilation Underestimated: The Album, which is a collaboration between KSR Group artists Cardi B, HoodCelebrityy, SwiftOnDemand, Cashflow Harlem, and Josh X. It was previously released only to attendees of their U.S. tour. the label's flagship artist, Cardi B, said: "I wanted to make a song that would make girls dance, twerk and at the same time encourage them to go get that Shmoney," in regard to the compilation's single "What a Girl Likes". She appeared on the December 9, 2015, episode of Uncommon Sense with Charlamagne. On April 6, 2016, she was on the twelfth episode of Khloé Kardashian's Kocktails with Khloé: in this episode, she revealed how she told her mother that she was a stripper. In November 2016, it was announced that she would be joining the cast of the BET series Being Mary Jane. TVLine describes her character, Mercedes, as a "round-the-way beauty with a big weave, big boobs and a big booty to match her oversize, ratchet personality." In 2016, Cardi B was featured in her first endorsement deal with Romantic Depot, a large New York chain of lingerie stores that sell sexual health and wellness products. The ad campaign was featured on radio and cable TV. 2017–2018: Breakthrough with Invasion of Privacy On January 20, 2017, Cardi B released her second mixtape, Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 2. In February 2017, Cardi B partnered with MAC Cosmetics and Rio Uribe's Gypsy Sport for an event for New York Fashion Week. In late February, Cardi B signed her first major record label recording contract with Atlantic Records. On February 25, 2017, Cardi B was the opening act for East Coast hip hop group The Lox's Filthy America... It's Beautiful Tour, alongside fellow New York City-based rappers Lil' Kim and Remy Ma. In April 2017, she was featured in i-D's "A-Z of Music" video sponsored by Marc Jacobs. Cardi guest-starred on the celebrity panel show Hip Hop Squares, appearing on the March 13 and April 3, 2017, episodes. She also released the freestyle "Red Barz". In May 2017, the nominees for the 2017 BET Awards were announced, revealing that Cardi B had been nominated for Best New Artist and Best Female Hip-Hop Artist. Although Chance the Rapper and Remy Ma won those categories, respectively, Cardi B performed at the BET Awards Afterparty show. On June 11, 2017, during Hot 97's annual Summer Jam music festival, Remy Ma brought out Cardi B, along with The Lady of Rage, MC Lyte, Young M.A, Monie Love, Lil' Kim, and Queen Latifah, to celebrate female rappers and perform Latifah's 1993 hit single "U.N.I.T.Y." about female empowerment. In June 2017, it was revealed that Cardi B would be on the cover of The Fader's Summer Music issue for July/August 2017. She performed at MoMA PS1 on August 19 to a crowd of 4,000. On June 16, 2017, Atlantic Records released Cardi B's commercial debut single, "Bodak Yellow", via digital distribution. She performed the single on The Wendy Williams Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live! The song climbed the charts for several months, and, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated September 25, 2017, "Bodak Yellow" reached the number one spot, making Cardi B the first female rapper to do so with a solo single since Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)" debuted atop the chart in 1998. The song stayed atop the charts for three consecutive weeks, tying with American pop singer Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" as the longest running female at the number one spot in 2017. Cardi B became the first person of Dominican descent to reach number one in the history of the Hot 100 since it was launched in 1958. An editor of The New York Times called it "the rap anthem of the summer". Selected by The Washington Post and Pitchfork music critics as the best song of 2017, "Bodak Yellow" was eventually certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song received nominations for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song at the 60th Grammy Awards. It won Single of the Year at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards. With her collaborations "No Limit" and "MotorSport", she became the first female rapper to land her first three entries in the top 10 of the Hot 100, and the first female artist to achieve the same on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In October 2017, Cardi B headlined Power 105.1's annual Powerhouse music celebration, alongside the Weeknd, Migos, and Lil Uzi Vert, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. In December, she released two songs: a collaboration with Puerto Rican singer Ozuna titled "La Modelo", and "Bartier Cardi", the second single from her debut album. On January 3, 2018, Cardi B was featured on the remix of Bruno Mars' single "Finesse", and appeared in the 90s inspired video. It reached the top three on the Hot 100, Canada and New Zealand. On January 18, 2018, Cardi B became the first female rapper to have five top 10 singles simultaneously on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. She released another single, "Be Careful", on March 30, 2018, a week before her album's release. Her debut studio album, Invasion of Privacy, was released on April 6, 2018, to universal acclaim from music critics. Editors from Variety and The New York Times called it "one of the most powerful debuts of this millennium" and "a hip-hop album that doesn't sound like any of its temporal peers," respectively. The album entered at number one in the United States, while she became the first female artist to chart 13 entries simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100, on the chart issue dated April 21. It became the most streamed album by a female artist in a single week in Apple Music, and the largest on-demand audio streaming week ever for an album by a woman. Cardi held the latter record until 2019. The album's title reflects Cardi B's feeling that as she gained popularity her privacy was being invaded in a variety of ways. Following the album's release, during a performance on Saturday Night Live, Cardi B officially announced her pregnancy, after much media speculation. She also co-hosted an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Several months later, in July 2018, the album's fourth single, "I Like It", which features vocals from Bad Bunny and J Balvin, reached number one on the Hot 100; this marked her second number one on the chart and made her the first female rapper to achieve multiple chart-toppers. It received critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone naming it "the best summer song of all time" in 2020. Her collaboration with Maroon 5, "Girls Like You", also reached number one on the Hot 100 chart, extending her record among female rappers and also making her the sixth female artist to achieve three number-one singles on the chart during the 2010s. The song's music video has received more than 3 billion views on YouTube and was the fifth-best selling song of the year globally. With "Girls Like You" following "I Like It" at the top of the Billboard Radio Songs chart, Cardi B became the first female rapper to replace herself at number one on the chart. The single spent seven weeks atop the Hot 100, making Cardi the female rapper with the most cumulative weeks atop the chart, with eleven weeks. It spent 33 weeks in the top 10, tying both Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" and Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower" for the longest top 10 run in the chart's archives at the time. In October 2018, Invasion of Privacy was certified double platinum by the RIAA, and the following year it was updated to triple platinum. With the thirteen tracks, she became the first female artist to have all songs from an album certified gold or higher in the US. Cardi B received the most nominations for the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards with 12 mentions—including for Video of the Year, winning three awards. She tied with Drake for the most nominations at the 2018 American Music Awards. She won three AMAs and performed at the ceremony. Her single "Money" earned her a fourth Video Music Award, with visuals that feature Cardi playing characters in different locations, including in an art museum, a bank and a strip club. Her collaboration with DJ Snake "Taki Taki" topped the charts in a number of Hispanic countries, made Cardi B the first female rapper to top the Spotify Global 50 chart, and has garnered more than 2 billion views. Both singles were certified multiple-platinum by the RIAA. People en Español named her Star of the Year, and Entertainment Weekly deemed her "a pop culture phenomenon", as she was named one of "2018 Entertainers of the Year". On November 30, 2018, Cardi B was honored at Ebony's annual Power 100 Gala. Cardi ranked fifth on the 2018 Billboard Year-End Top Artists chart, while Invasion of Privacy ranked sixth. She achieved the most-streamed album of the year by a female artist globally in Apple Music, and ranked as the most streamed female artist of the year in the United States in Spotify. Editorial staff from Apple Music and Billboard named "I Like It" the best song of 2018, while Time magazine and Rolling Stone named Invasion of Privacy the best album of the year. Also in 2018, Time included her on their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In its decade-end review article, NME stated that the era secured "her crown as the new Queen of Rap." 2019–2020: Hustlers, Rhythm + Flow and "WAP" Cardi B received five nominations at the 61st Grammy Awards, including for Album of the Year, Best Rap Album and Record of the Year ("I Like It"). She became the third female rapper to be nominated for Album of the Year, following Lauryn Hill (1999) and Missy Elliott (2004). On February 10, 2019, she then performed at the award ceremony, where she wore three vintage Thierry Mugler couture looks during the telecast and became the first female rapper to win Best Rap Album as a solo artist. Cardi B led the 2019 Billboard Music Awards nominations, with 21, earning the most nominations in a single year by a female artist and the third most nominations in a year (behind Drake and The Chainsmokers, who both had 22 in a year). She ended up winning six awards, including for Top Hot 100 Song, bringing her career total wins to seven—the most of any female rapper in history. An article by Omaha World-Herald called her "the biggest rapper in the world." On February 15, 2019, Cardi B released "Please Me", a collaboration with Bruno Mars, which became her seventh top-ten song on the Hot 100, reaching number three. The song marked Cardi and Bruno's second collaboration, following "Finesse" in 2018. The official music video was released two weeks later. On March 1, Cardi set a new attendance record at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, with 75,580 fans in the audience. With "Backin' It Up", "Twerk" and "Money", Cardi became the first female artist to occupy the top three on the Billboard Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop airplay chart. Her following single titled "Press" was released on May 31, 2019. The parental-advisory labeled music video marked her directorial debut—being credited as co-director, and was released on June 26, 2019. It had its debut performance at the 2019 BET Awards, where she received the most nominations with seven, and won Album of the Year. During the summer of 2019, she embarked on an arena tour. In September, she led the BET Hip Hop Awards nominations with ten. Cardi B made her film debut in Hustlers directed by Lorene Scafaria, opposite Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, and Lili Reinhart. The film was released on September 13, 2019. Cardi B, along with Chance the Rapper and T.I., were confirmed as judges for the Netflix series Rhythm + Flow, a ten-part hip-hop talent search that premiered on October 9, 2019, which she also executive produced. In December 2019, Cardi B embarked on her first tour of Africa, performing in Nigeria and Ghana. Her collaboration "Clout" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance. She was the most streamed female rapper of 2019 in the US, according to Spotify. Consequence of Sound deemed her "one of the most formidable hip-hop artists of the decade." In March 2020, Cardi B created a reaction video about the coronavirus pandemic. DJ iMarkkeyz, a Brooklyn DJ known for turning memes and online moments into full-length songs, created a track, based on her reaction titled "Coronavirus", which became an internet meme and was released to music platforms. Netflix announced the return of Rhythm + Flow for 2021. Cardi B released the single "WAP" featuring American rapper Megan Thee Stallion on August 7, 2020, as the lead single off her forthcoming second studio album. The song received critical acclaim and was praised for its sex positive messages. The Colin Tilley-directed music video accompanied the song itself, and broke the record for the biggest 24-hour debut for an all-female collaboration on YouTube. She became the only female rap artist to top the Global Spotify chart multiple times. "WAP" debuted at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, garnering Cardi B her fourth chart-topper in the US, extending her record as the female rapper with the most number-one singles, and also making her the first female rapper to achieve Hot 100 number one singles in two different decades (2010s and 2020s). With 93 million streaming units, it became the largest first-week streams for a song, breaking the all-time record held by Ariana Grande's "7 Rings". It has spent four weeks atop the Hot 100. The single has also spent multiple weeks at number one in seven other countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom. Neil Shah of The Wall Street Journal deemed it "a big moment for female rappers" and "a historic sign that women artists are making their mark on hip-hop like never before". "WAP" became the first number one single on the inaugural Billboard Global 200 chart. It became critics' best song of the year according to a compilation of rankings made by the BBC, with publications such as Pitchfork and Rolling Stone placing it at number one. Cardi B won the Billboard Music Award for Top Rap Female Artist for the third time at the 2020 ceremony. In December 2020, Cardi B became the first female rapper to be named Woman of the Year at the Billboard Women in Music Awards. With her win for "WAP" at the American Music Awards, she became the first artist to win the American Music Award for Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Song multiple times, following her win for "Bodak Yellow" in 2018. 2021–present: Upcoming second studio album On February 5, 2021, Cardi B released "Up", the second single from her upcoming studio album. A music video for the single was released alongside it. The song was praised by NME magazine for its lyricism and fresh approach as a successor to "WAP". "Up" debuted at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking the highest debut for a solo female rap song since Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)" in 1998. The song debuted at number one on the Rolling Stone Top 100, becoming both Cardi B's second number-one single and second number-one debut, as well as the first time a female rapper debuts atop the chart with a solo song. Cardi B became the first female artist and first lead artist with consecutive number-one debuts on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and second overall performer following Drake in 2016. "Up" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 after her Grammy Awards performance, making her the only female rapper to reach number one multiple times with solo songs, following "Bodak Yellow", and extended her record as the female rapper with the most number-one songs on the Hot 100 as her fifth chart-topper. Cardi B received a second nomination for the Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist. Cardi B made a last-minute appearance in "Big Paper", from DJ Khaled's album Khaled Khaled released on April 30, 2021. Cardi received two nominations for the BET Award for Video of the Year, for the videos "Up" and "WAP", winning for the latter and becoming the first female rapper to win Video of the Year as a lead artist. This became the 10th time that an artist has had two nominated videos in this category as a lead artist, and the second time for her, following her nominations for "Money" and "Please Me" in 2019. She announced her second pregnancy during the performance of her Migos collaboration "Type Shit" at the 2021 ceremony. She also appeared in F9, which was released on June 25, 2021, by Universal Pictures. On July 16, 2021, Cardi B was featured on the Normani single "Wild Side". Cardi collaborated with Lizzo on "Rumors", which debuted at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Cardi B's tenth top 10 single on the chart, and her seventh number-one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Cardi B received six nominations at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards, including her second nomination for Video of the Year. She also led the nominations for the 2021 BET Hip Hop Awards along with Megan Thee Stallion, with nine each; both rappers won the most awards during the ceremony with three for "WAP", with Cardi becoming the first female artist to win Best Hip Hop Video twice (2019 and 2021). On October 28, 2021, Cardi B previewed her second album to Atlantic Records via her Instagram Story. She captioned "The money people liking the album sounds". On November 2, Cardi B was announced as the host of the 2021 American Music Awards (AMAs). The award show was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on November 21, and marked the most social telecast of the year per interactions across social media. During the ceremony, "Up" won the award for Favorite Hip Hop Song, making Cardi B the first artist to win the category three times. Cardi B featured on Summer Walker's 2021 album Still Over It on the opening track "Bitter". Warner Records released the soundtrack for Halle Berry's directorial debut film Bruised on November 19. Selected by executive producers Berry and Cardi B, the Netflix film's soundtrack features six original songs by female artists, including Cardi, H.E.R., City Girls, Flo Milli, Saweetie, and Latto, and seven additional female rap songs inspired by the film. In March 2022, Cardi B appeared on the extended version of Summer Walker and SZA's collaboration, "No Love". The following month, she featured on rapper Kay Flock's song, "Shake It"; it samples Akon's 2005 song "Belly Dancer (Bananza)". Also in April, Cardi guest-voiced as Sharki B, her "aquatic alter ego", on "The Seaweed Sway" episode of the Nickelodeon animated series Baby Shark's Big Show!—and performed a song of the same name. She appeared alongside Offset and her daughter. On July 1, 2022, Cardi B released "Hot Shit", featuring rappers Kanye West and Lil Durk, as the third single from her upcoming second studio album. The song was first announced during a BET Awards 2022 commercial break. On July 8 and 9, she headlined the 2022 Wireless Festival in London and Birmingham. Cardi B worked with cousin and fellow rapper GloRilla on the remix to her song "Tomorrow", titled "Tomorrow 2", which was released in September 2022. The remix peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Cardi's eleventh top-ten single. HipHopDX listed it as the "Best Hip-Hop Collaboration" of 2022 while it was also the highest-listed song by a female rapper on Billboard's 100 Best Songs of 2022 list. On October 1, Cardi B made a surprise appearance at the Inglewood show of Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny's concert tour, the World's Hottest Tour. In November, she signed with entertainment executive Irving Azoff's Full Stop Management. In December 2022, she gave a 35-minute private performance at the Miami Art Basel for which she was paid $1 million. Later that month, a remix of Spanish artist Rosalía's song "Despechá" featuring Cardi, was released. Cardi B appeared as a surprise performer at the New York City shows of SZA and GloRilla's tours: the SOS Tour and Anyways, Life's Great Tour, in early 2023. In April, she served as one of three headliners of the inaugural Rolling Loud Thailand festival in Pattaya, along with Travis Scott and Chris Brown. In June, she featured on "Put It on da Floor Again", the remix to rapper Latto's "Put It on da Floor". It peaked at number 13 on the Hot 100, becoming Cardi's 20th top-twenty single. On June 4, Cardi B headlined the 2023 Summer Jam festival in Elmont, New York. ln July, she featured on "Point Me 2", the remix to drill rapper FendiDa Rappa's single "Point Me to the Slut's". Later that month, she collaborated with Offset on two tracks of his second solo album, Set It Off (2023): "Freaky" and "Jealousy". The latter was released as the lead single of the record; it samples Three 6 Mafia's "Jealous Ass Bitches". Cardi released "Bongos" featuring Megan Thee Stallion on September 8, 2023, as the fourth single of her upcoming second studio album. The song marks the pair's second collaboration after "WAP" (2020). The music video, directed by Tanu Muino, cost over $2 million. "Bongos" reached number 14 in the US. Cardi led the 2023 BET Hip Hop Awards nominations with 21 Savage, with twelve each. She reprised her voice role as Sharki B for the children's animated film, Baby Shark's Big Movie!, in which ch she appeared alongside Offset and their two children. It premiered in December on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon. Cardi B co-headlined TikTok's inaugural In the Mix festival on December 10 in Mesa, Arizona, which was released as a concert special on Disney+ and Hulu on December 15. She performed at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, accompanied by DJ Gryffin, on December 31, 2023, which aired live for the 2024 edition of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. She released the promotional single "Like What (Freestyle)" on March 1, 2024, with an accompanying music video directed by Offset. Her first solo song since "Up" (2021), it is a freestyle of rapper Missy Elliot's "She's a Bitch" (1999). The track reached the top 40 in the US and became Cardi's 19th top-ten and 11th chart-topper on Hot Rap Songs and Hot Rap Digital Songs. It was followed by "Enough (Miami)" on March 15, which marked her 12th top-ten on the Hot 100 and seventh number-one on the Digital Songs chart. A remix of Flo Milli's "Never Lose Me" was released on the same day, featuring SZA and Cardi B. On March 11, Cardi joined Madonna onstage for a guest appearance at the Inglewood show of her Celebration Tour. She appeared on "Puntería" with Shakira, the opening track and eighth single of the latter's twelfth album Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, released on March 22, 2024. "Puntería" reached number one on the Latin Airplay chart and topped the Latin Pop Airplay chart for nine weeks. On May 21, Cardi B appeared as a surprise performer at the Madison Square Garden show of Megan Thee Stallion's Hot Girl Summer Tour. She featured on the remix of Thee Stallion and GloRilla's "Wanna Be", released on May 31. In June, Cardi featured on "Put Em in the Fridge" from Peso Pluma's fourth album Éxodo. She co-headlined the BET Experience festival at the Crypto.com Arena on June 28. Her collaboration with Rob49, titled "On Dat Money", was released on July 19. In August, Cardi confirmed that her second studio album would be released in late 2024, stating that it was "three-quarters of the way done". Previously iterated for a 2023 release, she revealed that she was "just holding it" because she felt "[the record was] missing a couple of things" and "gotta make sure that everything is just planned out". In October, Cardi will co-headline the 2024 One Musicfest in Atlanta. Artistry Influences In Billboard's "You Should Know" series, Cardi B said the first albums she ever purchased were by American entertainers Missy Elliott and Tweet, respectively. She has credited Puerto Rican rapper Ivy Queen and Jamaican dancehall artist Spice as influences, as well as Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Lil' Kim, Madonna, and Selena. She has mentioned Chicago drill music as an important influence. When asked about the initial direction for her music, Cardi B said in an interview, "When I first started rapping [...] I liked certain songs from Khia and Trina, and they [were] fighting songs. I haven't heard fighting songs for a very long time," crediting the two female rappers for her aggressive rap style. She continued, saying "a lot of girls they cannot afford red bottoms, a lot of girls they cannot afford foreign cars [...] but I know that every girl has beef with a girl [...] I know that every bitch don't like some bitch, and it's like 'that's what I wanna rap about.'" She also credits growing up in the South Bronx and real life experiences as influences for her songwriting; "I wouldn't be able to rap about the things that I rap about now [if I hadn't grown up there]." Musical style Her first studio album, Invasion of Privacy, is primarily a hip hop record, which comprises elements of trap, Latin music, and R&B. Consequence of Sound described her flow as "acrobatic and nimble." AllMusic editor David Jeffries called Cardi B "a raw and aggressive rapper". Stereogum called her voice "a full-bodied New Yawk nasal bleat, the sort of thing that you've heard if someone has ever told you that you stupid for taking too long at swiping your MetroCard." They continued to call her voice "an unabashedly loud and sexual fuck-you New York honk—that translates perfectly to rap." In a 2017 Complex article about her, the editor wrote "unapologetic does not begin to describe the totally unfiltered and sheer Cardi B-ness of Cardi B's personality. She's a hood chick who's not afraid to be hood no matter the setting. Cardi B is Cardi B 24/7, 365, this is why she resonates with people, and that same energy comes out in her music." Her flow has been described as aggressive In 2019, NME described her lyrics as "sexually free" performed with "rapid" flow, and other publications have further described her lyrics as outspoken, while her punchlines have been praised, by such publications as Pitchfork and The Source, as clever and quotable. She possesses a New York-Dominican accent. Cardi B has defended her musical content featuring sexually-charged lyrics—like most contemporary female rappers; she stated that the content "seems like that's what people want to hear", since she faced negative reactions after releasing her more emotional song, "Be Careful". She has declared, "[Drill music] is the type of artist I always wanted to be: I like to rap about the streets, and I like to rap about my pussy. I don't give a fuck about it." She has stated that writing and performing songs about her personal life and relationships initially caused her a "weird and uncomfortable" feeling and shyness. Cardi B employs different vocal styles in her music; in "WAP" her vocal performance has been described as "throaty" and "staccato", while in "Up" she raps with alliteration, a tongue twister-run, and "some classically comedic Cardi" punch lines. Other ventures Products and endorsements In February 2017, she partnered with M.A.C and Rio Uribe's Gypsy Sport for a New York Fashion Week event. Her April appearance in i-D's "A-Z of Music" video was sponsored by designer Marc Jacobs, and she made the cover of The Fader's July/August 2017 Summer Music issue. Tom Ford's Cardi B-inspired lipstick, named after her, was released in September 2018. It sold out within 24 hours. In November, she released a clothing line collection with Fashion Nova. The same month she partnered with Reebok, promoting the brand's Aztrek sneaker. In partnership with Reebok, she released a footwear and apparel collection in 2020, inspired by her personal style and paying homage to "classic 80s styling" and motifs. She released her second collection with Reebok in 2021, titled "Let Me Be...In My World", comprising sneakers, tracksuits, and corsets, inspired by everyday life in New York City. The third collection with the brand, "Mommy & Me", was released in May 2021 in recognition of Mother's Day, which includes Cardi's iteration of Club C shoes for adults, children, and infants. The next, titled "Let Me Be...Enchanted" was released in two parts in June and July 2022; it was revealed to be inspired by "a state of enchantment and euphoria" and included crop tops, faux fur jackets, and leotards along with footwear. The fifth and final collection, "Let Me Be...Next Level Energy", was also released in two parts in September and December 2022, concluding her four-year partnership with Reebok. Inspired by Cardi B's "unmatched energy", the collection consisted of bodysuits, crop tops, footwear, leggings, and woven jackets—of a color palette based on crystals. Cardi B teamed up with Pepsi for three television commercials, which aired during the Super Bowl LIII, the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, and Christmas. In early 2019, Cardi also joined other hip hop artists (including her husband Offset, as part of Migos) in releasing her flavors of snack food Rap Snacks: two flavors of chips, and two of popcorn. The bags' artwork was designed by Jai Manselle and inspired by the cover of Invasion of Privacy. In December 2021, Cardi B partnered with PLBY Group Inc. as creative director in residence for Playboy and founding member of Centerfold, a creator-driven website in the works. The partnership also includes fashion and sexual wellness products. In February 2023, Cardi B and Offset partnered with McDonald's to create the Cardi B and Offset meal, which was launched on Valentine's Day. The meal was first announced in the 2023 McDonald's Super Bowl commercial which the couple appeared in. In October, she fronted the campaign for Skims' Cotton Collection. The campaign generated over $4 million in media impact value (MIV). In December 2023, she made her runway debut at the Balenciaga fall 2024 show in Los Angeles. In February 2024, Cardi B starred in NYX Cosmetics' inaugural Super Bowl commercial for Super Bowl LVIII, titled "Lips Only". An edited version of the advert—centered around the company's Duck Plump lip gloss—was broadcast during the commercial break, due to ribald themes of humor. In May 2024, she appeared alongside sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson in a commercial for the 2024 Summer Olympics. In July, Cardi fronted the Marc Jacobs fall 2024 campaign. Whipshots In collaboration with Starco Brands, Cardi B launched a vodka-infused, vegan whipped cream, called Whipshots, in the US in December 2021. It has sold over five million cans as of March 2024. Cardi Tries She premiered the series Cardi Tries via Facebook Messenger in December 2020, with herself as one of the executive producers. The web series ran for three seasons until April 2023. Philanthropy In 2022, Cardi B donated $100,000 to the elementary school she attended, I.S. 232 in The Bronx. Public image Political statements Cardi B identifies as a feminist. The rapper has been called "unabashedly, directly political" and often uses social media to advocate for causes she believes in, such as gun control. During the 2016 presidential primaries, she warned her fans of Donald Trump's immigration policies and encouraged them to vote for Senator Bernie Sanders. At the Grammy Awards in 2018, she appeared in a video along with Hillary Clinton to narrate a portion of Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff's insider's account of Trump's administration, and stated "Why am I even reading this shit? I can't believe this. I can't believe—this is how he really lives his life?" Early in 2018 she used her social media to demand transparency on tax policy, asking for detailed information on how her taxpayer dollars are being spent in New York state and criticizing the maintenance of its streets, prisons, and public transportation. Cardi B endorsed Sanders once again in his second bid for the presidency in the 2020 United States presidential election, while praising U.S. Representative Tim Ryan. She stated that one of the reasons for her endorsement is Sanders' long-time involvement in supporting underprivileged minorities and "people getting Medicare because he knows they can't afford it," while Politico argued that she "might be one of Bernie's most powerful 2020 allies." She has used her social pages to raise awareness for victims of police brutality, and has encouraged people to vote for mayors, judges and district attorneys in local elections. In a conversation with Democratic candidate Joe Biden for Elle, they discussed Medicare, free college tuition, and racial equality. According to a study published by The Hollywood Reporter, Cardi B ranked as the fifth most influential celebrity, and fourth among Generation Z, for the 2020 presidential election. In November 2023, Cardi B stated that she no longer supports Joe Biden for president, saying that she would "not [be] endorsing no fucking president's no more" as a result of Biden's "spending on wars". She has praised President Franklin D. Roosevelt for advocating for the Social Security program and the New Deal project. She said of Roosevelt, "he helped us get over the Depression, all while he was in a wheelchair. Like, this man was suffering from polio at the time of his presidency, and yet all he was worried about was trying to make America great—make America great again for real. He's the real 'Make America Great Again,' because if it wasn't for him, old people wouldn't even get Social Security." Sanders has praised her for her "leading role" in calling attention to Social Security. Fashion Cardi has a noted affinity for Christian Louboutin heels, a running theme in her song "Bodak Yellow". She has also mentioned her affinity for cheap, fast fashion brands stating "I don't care if it cost $20 or $15. If it looks good on me, it looks good on me". During an interview in early 2017, Cardi B spoke on being rejected by some fashion designers. Cardi wore vintage Thierry Mugler to the 2019 Grammy Awards, with an i-D article stating that the fashion house's "resurgence onto the fashion scene can almost single-handedly be attributed" to the Swarovski crystal-embroidered crinoline sheath gown she wore at the ceremony. Mugler's collaboration with Cardi B marked the second time in 25 years that the Paris house opened its archives to dress a celebrity, the first being Beyoncé for her 2009 concert tour. W magazine credited the "WAP" music video for popularizing the Mugler bodysuit in the mainstream. Cardi has acknowledged Mugler as one of the first designers to "take a major chance on [her]" for their fashion collaborations. Vogue, The Telegraph, Time, and Vibe have referred to her as a fashion icon. An article from Vogue noted she "is famous for her statement getups—whether she's rocking archival Mugler on the red carpet, or dripping in Chanel while sitting courtside at a basketball game." Her over-the-top manicures, designed by nail artist Jenny Bui and studded with Swarovski crystals, has become a part of her signature look. Editor Christian Allaire from the magazine in 2021 commented that her signature "bold" ensembles "create a spectacle" during fashion weeks. In 2018, she became the first female rapper in the US to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, the cover, one of four for the January 2019 issue that included Stella McCartney, features her in a red and white Michael Kors dress and matching red Jimmy Choo shoes, while holding her daughter, Kulture. In 2019, the Council of Fashion Designers of America included her on their list of "28 Black Fashion Forces". Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour commended her fashion sense, declaring that she "completely rethought [her] opinion of Cardi B's style" after the 2019 Met Gala, where the rapper wore a Thom Browne-designed burgundy gown that extends outward in concentric circles for about ten feet and was inspired by the female form. Cardi B became the face of Balenciaga's ad campaign for the winter 2020 season. The campaign includes billboards in several international locations, such as the Louvre museum. Vogue's Brooke Bobb commented, "This is Cardi's first campaign for a luxury fashion house, though she's definitely no stranger to the Parisian style scene", citing her floral printed Richard Quinn ensemble "that literally covered her from head to toe" and her being "a front row fixture" at high fashion shows, adding, "She and her stylist Kollin Carter have been wildly successful in carving out a much-needed space for Cardi within the fashion industry, and they've cultivated a personal style that is all her own while being inspiring to all". In 2020, Cardi B became the first female rapper to be awarded by the FN Achievement Awards when she won the Style Influencer of the Year award, which was presented to her by Christian Louboutin. In a press release for the awards show, she was called an "influence just about everything in pop culture—from music, fashion and style to social media, politics and even public service". In 2022, Rolling Stone ranked her as the second most-stylish woman in music, behind Lady Gaga, and GQ considered her "one of fashion's preeminent risk-takers." Impact Cardi B has been referred to as the "Reigning Queen of Hip Hop" by multiple publications, including Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, Omaha World-Herald, Black Enterprise, Newsweek, and The A.V. Club, and as the "Queen of Rap" by NME, Essence, Harper's Bazaar Malaysia, The Jakarta Post, Uproxx, iHeartRadio, Geo TV, Vanity Fair, Joe, Boston Herald, Refinery 29, France 24, and Nigerian media The Guardian, BBC News, and Daily Trust. Spin staff credited her for opening "the table to a new generation of pop artists remaking American music in their own image and accents," as Cardi B "recognized that POC artists no longer need to pander or soften themselves in order to become household names." Billboard editors stated that with "Bodak Yellow"'s commercial success, "she left an indelible mark on the summer of 2017, not only because she rewrote history, but she gave hope to the have nots...". Several publications have credited "I Like It", the first Latin trap song to reach number one on the Hot 100, for introducing the "musical movement" to a mainstream, massive audience. Billboard's Carl Lamarre considered "WAP"'s achievements "a clever Trojan horse for the myriad ways Cardi influences the culture with every move she makes." The Wall Street Journal's Neil Shah stated in 2020 that her breakthrough and success influenced "today's female-rap renaissance," while Genius staff credited her for "helping jumpstart a new wave of female hip-hop signings and promotion at labels," and NPR Music commented that the "renaissance" of the dynamism of women in rap grew "in enthusiasm and breadth" since Cardi's "first historic run" in 2017. Similarly, Clover Hope's book The Motherlode (2021) stated that Invasion of Privacy "jump-started a new era for women rappers in which success felt much more tangible" as Cardi B "multiplied the wealth of talent and resurrected the idea that numerous women who controlled their own stories could dominate rap at once." The New Yorker has credited her for "changing a genre that has rarely allowed for more than one female superstar at a time." Uproxx noted Cardi B for promoting up-and-coming female rappers; "[she is] choosing to use her position at the height of stardom to open doors for other women to flourish in hip-hop at a greater level than any since the Golden Era and 'Ladies First'," considering it "something of a departure from tradition; for the decade previous to Cardi's precipitous come-up, it seemed hip-hop had an unspoken, Highlander-esque rule in place regarding women." Variety deemed her a "hip-hop icon", and The Independent called her "the people's pop culture icon", writing that she "has become one of the most recognisable cultural figures of the past 10 years". NPR defined "Cardi B effect" as "a branding power rooted in specific authenticity, created and permeated by rapper Cardi B" and noticed that with her breakthrough, "brands finally started to become hip to [her] effect, noticing the cultural markers outside of the rap world that were proving it wasn't limited to clubs, concerts and radio." Business magazine Inc. stated that her success "shows how social media changed everything we knew about traditional marketing and media", which no longer relies on a "well-thought marketing scheme or millions of dollars in advertising." In 2019, a life-sized sculpture of her was on display at the Brooklyn Museum, as part of Spotify's RapCaviar "Pantheon". Bloomberg reported that her data bill helped to boost Ghana's GDP growth in 2019, after it was part of a concert tour. She inspired the creation of the sitcom Partners in Rhyme, executively produced by MC Lyte about a young woman in high school who "aspires to be the next Cardi B." P-Valley creator and executive producer Katori Hall cited her an inspiration for the TV series, and credited her for "helping prepare the public" for its storyline. Several artists have cited Cardi B's work as an inspiration, including Rosalía, Olivia Rodrigo, Jazmine Sullivan, Selena Gomez, Blackpink, Spice, Greta Gerwig, Nathy Peluso, Rubi Rose, María Becerra, and Abigail Asante. Cardi B has been credited for supporting and uniting female rappers in the industry, with a writer from Uproxx considering her co-sign "the new Drake effect" for women in hip hop. Achievements Cardi B is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Grammy Award, eight Billboard Music Awards (including three consecutive Top Rap Female Artist wins), six Guinness World Records, six American Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, six BET Awards (including Album of the Year), and fourteen BET Hip Hop Awards. Invasion of Privacy—which made her the first female rapper to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album as a solo artist—became the first female rap album in fifteen years to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Time included her on their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2018. She received the ASCAP award for Songwriter of the Year in 2019, becoming the first female rapper to win the award. She received the honor for the second time in 2020, making her the first female songwriter to win the award twice. In 2020, Cardi B became the first female rapper to be named Woman of the Year at the Billboard Women in Music Awards. Cardi B is the female rapper with the most Billboard Hot 100 number one singles (5) and the one with the most total weeks on the top position (16). "I Like It" became the first song led by a female rapper to surpass a billion streams on Spotify, making her the first woman in hip hop with multiple billion-streamers on the service, and the female rapper with the second-most, with a total of four so far. With the singles "Taki Taki" and "WAP" she became the only female rapper to top the global Spotify chart multiple times. Since August 2020, "WAP" holds the record of the biggest first-week streams for a song in the United States. Invasion of Privacy was the top female rap album of the 2010s, according to the Billboard 200 decade-end chart. It became the longest-charting album by a female rapper on the Billboard 200, and the most-streamed female rap album on Spotify. Cardi is the female rapper with the most Diamond-certified songs by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) (3): "Bodak Yellow", which made her the first female rapper to have a song certified Diamond; "Girls Like You", which made her the only female rapper to achieve multiple Diamond-certified songs; and "I Like It", a tie for the second-most among women artists. Cardi B has topped twice Pitchfork's annual list of best songs of the year (2017 and 2020). Billboard staff and Rolling Stone ranked her debut album number 13 and 34 on their critics' lists of the best albums of the 2010s respectively, both the highest rank for a female rapper for the decade. Cardi B has become the highest-certified female rapper of all time on the RIAA's Top Artists (Digital Singles) ranking, with 58 million certified units, also being among the highest-certified female artists overall. In October 2022, five years after her major-label debut, she reached 100 million units sold in RIAA certifications, across her album, singles and guest appearances. In the US, Cardi has achieved three times the best-performing song of the year by a female artist—the first act to do so this century—in 2017, 2018, and 2020. As of 2021, "I Like It" is the most-streamed song by a female rapper in the United Kingdom. In August 2021, "Bodak Yellow" made Cardi B the first female rapper to have two videos on her YouTube channel with more than 1 billion views, joining "I Like It", and became the fastest solo female rap song to reach that mark on the platform. She has the most-viewed music videos on YouTube, both as a solo act and feature, among female rappers ("Bodak Yellow"; "Girls Like You"). As of September 2024, she has one music video with over 3 billion views ("Girls Like You"); one video with over 2 billion views ("Taki Taki"); and three videos with over a billion views ("I Like It", "Bodak Yellow", "Girls Like You (Volume 2)") on YouTube. Cardi is the only female rapper ranked on Billboard's Greatest Hot 100 Hits of All Time, with "Girls Like You" at number 30. Personal life Cardi B defined herself as a practicing Catholic. In 2016, Cardi B said that, while working as a stripper during her younger years, she used to drug and rob men to get money. Following controversies on the matter, sparked in 2019, she defended herself by saying that she took money from them because they "wasted her time by falling asleep", and then "kept coming back." In 2024, she spoke on the matter again, saying she "doesn't feel bad" about drugging and robbing men and would do it again. She identifies as bisexual. In connection with the Me Too movement, she has discussed being sexually assaulted in the past while working as a stripper. In a 2018 interview, Cardi B talked about being Afro-Latina and Afro-Caribbean:We are Caribbean people. [...] Some people want to decide if you're black or not, depending on your skin complexion, because they don't understand Caribbean people or our culture. [...] I don't got to tell you that I'm black. I expect you to know about it. When my father taught me about Caribbean countries, he told me that Europeans took over our lands. That's why we all speak different languages. [...] Just like everybody else, we came over here the same way. I hate when people try to take my roots from me. Because we know that there's African roots inside of us. Relationships In early 2017, Cardi B began dating fellow rapper Offset. They became engaged on October 27, 2017. On April 7, 2018, during her second performance on Saturday Night Live, Cardi B revealed her pregnancy; she was about six months (24 weeks) pregnant at the time. On June 25, 2018, TMZ found a marriage license revealing Cardi B and Offset had actually secretly married in September 2017, one month before the public proposal. She later confirmed this in a social media post. Cardi B gave birth to her daughter on July 10, 2018. In December 2018, she announced on Instagram that she and Offset had separated, though the pair later reunited. In February 2019, the couple made a public appearance for the Grammys. He accompanied her onstage during her acceptance speech for Best Rap Album. In September 2020, it was reported that Cardi B had filed for divorce from Offset, but the following month it was revealed they were back together. In June 2021, Cardi B revealed she was pregnant with her second child, a boy. She gave birth to her son on September 4, 2021. On the fifth anniversary of her marriage, Cardi B announced she was planning her official wedding. In December 2023, Cardi shared via Instagram that she had been "single for a minute," confirming that she and Offset were no longer together. However, as of March 2024, the current status of their marriage became unclear as they were still working together, with Offset having directed a music video for Cardi B. In July 2024, Cardi officially filed for divorce from Offset. She announced her third pregnancy the day after. She gave birth to her third child, on September 7, 2024. Legal issues On October 1, 2018, Cardi B was accused of an alleged assault of two female bartenders. The victims claimed that Cardi B and her entourage "threw bottles and alcohol at them." She denied involvement. She was charged with two misdemeanors: assault and reckless endangerment. Cardi B appeared in court for her arraignment on December 7, 2018, after she did not show up for the originally scheduled date due to a scheduling conflict, according to her attorney. On June 21, 2019, a jury indicted Cardi B on 14 charges, including two counts of felony assault with intent to cause serious physical injury, stemming from the incident. She was arraigned on June 25, 2019, and pleaded not guilty on all charges. On September 15, 2022, she pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and second-degree reckless endangerment, resulting in a sentence of 15 days of community service. On January 24, 2022, Cardi won a million-dollar defamation verdict against YouTuber Latasha Kebe (Tasha K) for waging a "malicious campaign" to hurt her reputation by posting false rumors. She stated that the lies had led her to contemplate suicide in 2019. The jury issued a verdict that Cardi B had been defamed and awarded $1.25 million in damages. Further proceedings brought the total fine against Kebe to $3.82 million. On March 25, 2022, Cardi, her sister Hennessy, and Hennessy's girlfriend won a defamation lawsuit filed against them by three men over an incident at a Suffolk County beach. In July 2023, Cardi B threw her microphone into the crowd at a Las Vegas concert of hers after a fan threw a liquid at her. Subsequently, one fan attempted to press charges but the Clark County Police Department following an investigation decided not to move forward with a case. Controversies Cardi B sparked controversy after throwing one of her high heel shoes at and attempting to physically attack fellow rapper Nicki Minaj at a New York Fashion Week after-party in September 2018; bodyguards intervened before she could reach Minaj, leaving her a large bump on her forehead. Following the altercation, she alleged on Instagram that Minaj had previously "liked" social media comments that spoke negatively of Cardi B's ability to take care of her newborn daughter. Minaj denied the allegations on her Queen Radio show and expressed embarrassment at the fight. She accused Cardi B of building "her career off of sympathy and payola" and of bribing DJs and radio outlets with sex to play her records. Minaj also criticized Cardi B's rapping ability, saying, "Do you know what it's like to sit in your room for hours writing raps? You came into my fucking culture. I never had to fuck a DJ to play my songs." Minaj also called Cardi B a "disgusting pig" for allegedly cyberbullying a guest caller on Minaj's show and unearthed posts calling dark-skinned black women "cockroaches", which she had defended earlier by saying that it is a derogatory term in the Bronx used for anyone being disrespectful. Cardi B was on the cover of the 2019 spring fashion issue of Harper's Bazaar, which featured her in a Cinderella-themed photo shoot wearing a red gown and leaving a shoe behind. Some interpreted this as a reference to the incident. After the release of "Girls" in May 2018, a collaboration where she had a featured verse, Cardi B responded to accusations of the song trivializing LGBT relationships; she tweeted, "We never try to cause harm or had bad intentions with the song." She went on to add, "I personally myself had experiences with other women." Discography Invasion of Privacy (2018) Filmography Commercials See also Afro-Caribbean music Black Hispanic and Latino Americans LGBT culture in New York City List of artists who reached number one in the United States List of highest-certified music artists in the United States List of LGBT people from New York City NYC Pride March Dominican Americans Hispanics and Latinos in New York List of most-followed Instagram accounts Notes References Footnotes Further reading Hope, Clover (2021). The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-1-4197-4296-5. External links Official website Cardi B at AllMusic Cardi B discography at Discogs Cardi B at IMDb Cardi B discography at MusicBrainz

Tupac_Shakur

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

Tupac Amaru Shakur ( TOO-pahk shə-KOOR; born Lesane Parish Crooks; June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Considered to be one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, academics regard him as one of the most influential music artists of the 20th century and a prominent political activist for Black America. In addition to his music career, Shakur also wrote poetry and had numerous starring roles in movies. Shakur is among the best-selling music artists, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide. His lyrical content has been noted for addressing social injustice, political issues, and the marginalization of other African-Americans, but he was also synonymous with gangsta rap and violent lyrics. Shakur was born in New York City to parents who were both political activists and Black Panther Party members. Raised by his mother, Afeni Shakur, he relocated to Baltimore in 1984 and to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1988. With the release of his debut album 2Pacalypse Now in 1991, he became a central figure in West Coast hip hop for his conscious rap and political rap lyrics. Shakur achieved further critical and commercial multi-platinum success with his follow-up albums Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... (1993) and Me Against the World (1995). His Diamond certified album All Eyez on Me (1996), the first double-length album in hip-hop history, abandoned his introspective lyrics for volatile gangsta rap. In addition to his music career, Shakur starred roles in Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993), Above the Rim (1994), Bullet (1996), Gridlock'd (1997), and Gang Related (1997). Shakur's most notable songs include "California Love," "Changes," "Dear Mama," "Hail Mary," "Keep Ya Head Up," "Hit 'Em Up," "Ambitionz az a Ridah," "All Eyez on Me," "Ghetto Gospel," "Do for Love," "So Many Tears," "To Live & Die in L.A.," "How Do U Want It," "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted," "Brenda's Got a Baby" and "I Get Around." Alongside his solo career, Shakur was part of the group Thug Life and collaborated with artists like Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and the Outlawz. During the later part of his career, Shakur was shot five times in the lobby of a New York recording studio and experienced legal troubles, including incarceration. He served eight months in prison on sexual abuse charges, but was released pending an appeal of his conviction in 1995. Following his release, he signed to Marion "Suge" Knight's label Death Row Records and became heavily involved in the growing East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry. On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times by an unidentified assailant in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas; he died six days later. Following his murder, Shakur's friend-turned-rival, the Notorious B.I.G., was at first considered a suspect due to their public feud; he was also murdered in another drive-by shooting six months later in March 1997, while visiting Los Angeles. On September 22, 1996, a peace summit was convened at Mosque Maryam by Louis Farrakhan in response to his assassination. Shakur's double-length posthumous album Greatest Hits (1998) is one of his two releases—and one of only nine hip hop albums—to have been certified Diamond in the United States. Five more albums have been released since Shakur's death, including his critically acclaimed posthumous album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996) under his stage name Makaveli, all of which have been certified multi-platinum in the United States. In 2002, Shakur was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Rolling Stone ranked Shakur among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2023, he was awarded a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His influence in music, activism, songwriting, and other areas of culture has been the subject of academic studies. Early life Tupac Amaru Shakur was born on June 16, 1971, in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. While born Lesane Parish Crooks, at age one he was renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur. He was named after Túpac Amaru II, a descendant of the last Incan ruler, who was executed in Peru in 1781 after his revolt against Spanish rule. Shakur's mother Afeni Shakur explained, "I wanted him to have the name of revolutionary, indigenous people in the world. I wanted him to know he was part of a world culture and not just from a neighborhood." Tupac's surname came from Lumumba Shakur, a Sunni Muslim, whom his mother married in November 1968. Their marriage fell apart when it was discovered that Lumumba was not Tupac's biological father. Shakur had an older stepbrother, Mopreme "Komani" Shakur, and a half-sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, two years his junior. Panther heritage Shakur's parents, Afeni Shakur—born Alice Faye Williams in North Carolina—and his biological father, William "Billy" Garland, had been active Black Panther Party members in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A month before Shakur's birth, his mother was tried in New York City as part of the Panther 21 criminal trial. She was acquitted of over 150 charges. Other family members who were involved in the Black Panthers' Black Liberation Army were convicted of serious crimes and imprisoned, including Shakur's stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, who spent four years as one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Mutulu Shakur was apprehended in 1986 and subsequently convicted for a 1981 robbery of a Brinks armored truck, during which police officers and a guard were killed. Shakur's godfather, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, a high-ranking Black Panther, was wrongly convicted of murdering a schoolteacher during a 1968 robbery. After he spent 27 years in prison, his conviction was overturned due to the prosecution's having concealed evidence that proved his innocence. Shakur's godmother, Assata Shakur, is a former member of the Black Liberation Army who was convicted in 1977 of the first-degree murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. Since 2013, she has been in the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list after she escaped prison in 1979. Education In the 1980s, Shakur's mother found it difficult to find work and struggled with drug addiction. In 1984, his family moved from New York City to Baltimore, Maryland. Beginning in 1984 when Shakur was 13, he lived in the Pen Lucy neighborhood with his mother and younger sister at 3955 Greenmount Ave. The home was a two-story rowhouse that had been subdivided into two separate rental units; the Shakur family lived on the first floor. After his death, the block was renamed Tupac Shakur Way. While living in Baltimore, Shakur attended eighth grade at Roland Park Middle School, then ninth grade at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. He transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts in the tenth grade, where he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays—the themes of which he identified in patterns of gang warfare—and as the Mouse King in The Nutcracker ballet. At the Baltimore School for the Arts, Shakur befriended actress Jada Pinkett, who became the subject of some of his poems ("Jada" and "The Tears in Cupid's Eyes"). With his friend Dana "Mouse" Smith as a beatbox, he won competitions for the school's best rapper. Known for his humor, he was popular with all crowds of students. He listened to a diverse range of music that included Kate Bush, Culture Club, Sinéad O'Connor, and U2. Upon connecting with the Baltimore Young Communist League USA, Shakur dated Mary Baldridge, who was the daughter of the director of the local chapter of the Communist Party USA. In 1988, Shakur moved to Marin City, California, an impoverished community in the San Francisco Bay Area. In nearby Mill Valley, he attended Tamalpais High School, where he performed in several theater productions. Shakur did not graduate from high school, but later earned his GED. Music career MC New York Shakur began recording under the stage name MC New York in 1989. That year, he began attending the poetry classes of Leila Steinberg, and she soon became his manager. Steinberg organized a concert for Shakur and his rap group Strictly Dope. Steinberg managed to get Shakur signed by Atron Gregory, manager of the rap group Digital Underground. In 1990, Gregory placed him with the Underground as a roadie and backup dancer. Digital Underground Shakur debuted under the stage name 2Pac on Digital Underground, under a new record label, Interscope Records, on the group's January 1991 single "Same Song". The song was featured on the soundtrack of the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble, starring Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Chevy Chase, and Demi Moore. The song opened the group's January 1991 EP titled This Is an EP Release, while Shakur appeared in the music video. At the request of Steinberg, Digital Underground co-founder Jimi "Chopmaster J" Dright worked with Shakur, Ray Luv and Dize, a DJ, on their earliest studio recordings. Dright recalls that Shakur did not work well as part of a group, and added, "this guy was on a mission. From day one. Maybe he knew he wasn't going to be around seven years later." From 1988 to 1991, Dright and Digital Underground produced Shakur's earliest work with his crew at the time, Strictly Dope. The recordings were rediscovered in 2000 and released as The Lost Tapes: Circa 1989. Afeni Shakur sued to stop the sale of the recordings but the suit was settled in June 2001 and rereleased as Beginnings: The Lost Tapes 1988–1991. Shakur's early days with Digital Underground made him acquainted with Randy "Stretch" Walker, who along with his brother, dubbed Majesty, and a friend debuted with an EP as a rap group and production team, Live Squad, in Queens, New York. Stretch was featured on a track of the Digital Underground's 1991 album Sons of the P. Becoming fast friends, Shakur and Stretch recorded and performed together often. 2Pacalypse Now Shakur's debut album, 2Pacalypse Now—alluding to the 1979 film Apocalypse Now—arrived in November 1991. Some prominent rappers—like Nas, Eminem, Game, and Talib Kweli—cite it as an inspiration. Aside from "If My Homie Calls", the singles "Trapped" and "Brenda's Got a Baby" poetically depict individual struggles under socioeconomic disadvantage. U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle said, "There's no reason for a record like this to be released. It has no place in our society." Tupac, finding himself misunderstood, explained, in part: I just wanted to rap about things that affected young black males. When I said that, I didn't know that I was gonna tie myself down to just take all the blunts and hits for all the young black males, to be the media's kicking post for young black males. 2Pacalypse Now was certified Gold, half a million copies sold. The album addresses urban Black concerns said to remain relevant to the present day. Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... Shakur's second album, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z..., was released in February 1993. A critical and commercial success, it debuted at No. 24 on the pop albums chart, the Billboard 200. An overall more hardcore album, it emphasizes Tupac's sociopolitical views, and has a metallic production quality. The song "Last Wordz" features Ice Cube, co-writer of N.W.A's "Fuck tha Police", who in his own solo albums had newly gone militantly political, and gangsta rapper Ice-T, who in June 1992 had sparked controversy with his band Body Count's track "Cop Killer". In its vinyl release, side A, tracks 1 to 8, is labeled the "Black Side", while side B, tracks 9 to 16, is the "Dark Side". The album carries the single "I Get Around", a party anthem featuring Digital Underground's Shock G and Money-B, which became Shakur's breakthrough, reaching No. 11 on the pop singles chart, the Billboard Hot 100. And it carries the optimistic compassion of another hit, "Keep Ya Head Up", an anthem for women's empowerment. The album was certified Platinum, with a million copies sold. As of 2004, among Shakur albums, including posthumous and compilation albums, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... was 10th in sales at about 1,366,000 copies. Thug Life In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with Tyrus "Big Syke" Himes, Diron "Macadoshis" Rivers, his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, and Walter "Rated R" Burns. Usually, Thug Life performed live without Tupac. Thug Life released its only album, Thug Life, Volume I, on October 11, 1994, which is certified Gold. It carries the single "Pour Out a Little Liquor", produced by Johnny "J" Jackson, who would also produce much of Shakur's album All Eyez on Me. The track also appears on the Above the Rim soundtrack. Due to gangsta rap being under heavy criticism at the time, the album's original version was scrapped, and the album redone with mostly new tracks. Still, along with Stretch, Tupac would perform the first planned single, "Out on Bail", which was never released, at the 1994 Source Awards. The Notorious B.I.G. and Junior M.A.F.I.A. In 1993, while visiting Los Angeles, the Notorious B.I.G. asked a local drug dealer to introduce him to Shakur and they quickly became friends. The pair would socialize when Shakur went to New York or B.I.G. to Los Angeles. During this period, at his own live shows, Shakur would call B.I.G. onto stage to rap with him and Stretch. Together, they recorded the songs "Runnin' from tha Police" and "House of Pain". Reportedly, B.I.G. asked Shakur to manage him, whereupon Shakur advised him that Sean Combs would make him a star. Yet in the meantime, Shakur's lifestyle was comparatively lavish to B.I.G. who had not yet established himself. Shakur welcomed B.I.G. to join his side group Thug Life, but he would instead form his own side group, the Junior M.A.F.I.A., with his Brooklyn friends Lil' Cease and Lil' Kim. Shakur had a falling out with B.I.G. after he was shot at Quad Studios in 1994. Me Against the World Shakur's third album, Me Against the World, was released while he was incarcerated in March 1995. It is now hailed as his magnum opus, and commonly ranks among the greatest, most influential rap albums. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold 240,000 copies in its first week, setting a then record for highest first-week sales for a solo male rapper. The lead single, "Dear Mama", was released in February 1995 with "Old School" as the B-side. It is the album's most successful single, topping the Hot Rap Singles chart, and peaking at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. In July, it was certified Platinum. It ranked No. 51 on the year-end charts. The second single, "So Many Tears", was released in June 1995, reaching No. 6 on the Hot Rap Singles chart and No. 44 on Hot 100. The final single, "Temptations", was released in August 1995. It reached No. 68 on the Hot 100, No. 35 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, and No. 13 on the Hot Rap Singles. Several celebrities showed their support for Shakur by appearing in the music video for "Temptations". Shakur won best rap album at the 1996 Soul Train Music Awards. In 2001, it ranked 4th among his total albums in sales, with about 3 million copies sold in the U.S. All Eyez on Me While Shakur was imprisoned in 1995, his mother was about to lose her house. Shakur had his wife Keisha Morris contact Death Row Records founder Suge Knight in Los Angeles. Reportedly, Shakur's mother promptly received $15,000. After an August visit to Clinton Correctional Facility in northern New York state, Knight traveled southward to New York City to attend the 2nd Annual Source Awards ceremony. Meanwhile, an East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry was brewing between Death Row and Bad Boy Records. In October 1995, Knight visited Shakur in prison again and posted $1.4 million bond. Shakur returned to Los Angeles and joined Death Row with the appeal of his December 1994 conviction pending. Shakur's fourth album, All Eyez on Me, arrived on February 13, 1996. It was rap's first double album—meeting two of the three albums due in Shakur's contract with Death Row—and bore five singles. The album shows Shakur rapping about the gangsta lifestyle, leaving behind his previous political messages. With standout production, the album has more party tracks and often a triumphant tone. Music journalist Kevin Powell noted that Shakur, once released from prison, became more aggressive, and "seemed like a completely transformed person". As Shakur's second album to hit No. 1 on both the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and the pop albums chart, the Billboard 200, it sold 566,000 copies in its first week and was it was certified 5× Multi-Platinum in April. The singles "How Do U Want It" and "California Love" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Death Row released Shakur's diss track "Hit 'Em Up" as the non-album B-side to "How Do U Want It". In this venomous tirade, the proclaimed "Bad Boy killer" threatens violent payback on all things Bad Boy — B.I.G., Sean Combs, Junior M.A.F.I.A., the company — and on any in the East Coast rap scene, like rap duo Mobb Deep and rapper Chino XL, who allegedly had commented against Shakur about the dispute. All Eyez on Me won R&B/Soul or Rap Album of the Year at the 1997 Soul Train Music Awards. At the 1997 American Music Awards, Shakur won Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist. The album was certified 9× Multi-Platinum in June 1998, and 10× in July 2014. Posthumous albums At the time of his death, a fifth solo album was already finished, The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, under the stage name Makaveli. It had been recorded during the summer of 1996 and released that year. The lyrics were written and recorded in three days, and mixing took another four days. In 2005, MTV.com ranked The 7 Day Theory at No. 9 among hip hop's greatest albums ever, and by 2006 a classic album. Its singular poignance, through hurt and rage, contemplation and vendetta, resonate with many fans. According to George "Papa G" Pryce, Death Row Records' then director of public relations, the album was meant to be "underground", and was not intended for release before the artist was murdered. It peaked at No. 1 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and on the Billboard 200, with the second-highest debut-week sales total of any album that year. On June 15, 1999, it was certified 4× Multi-Platinum. Later posthumous albums are archival productions, these albums are: R U Still Down? (1997) Greatest Hits (1998) Still I Rise (1999) Until the End of Time (2001) Better Dayz (2002) Loyal to the Game (2004) Pac's Life (2006) Poetry collection Before and during his hip-hop career, Shakur wrote dozens of poems. Some of the most notable are "Can U C The Pride in The Panther", "If I fail", "Family Tree", and "The Rose that grew from the concrete". In 1993 Tupac played a character named “Lucky” in the film titled Poetic Justice alongside Janet Jackson. Poet and activist Maya Angelou, whom worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the civil rights movement, wrote the poems used in the 1993 film. In April 2022, handwritten poems written by Tupac when he was 11 years old were up for sale for $300,000 USD but only sold for $90,000. The poems were for Jamal Joseph and three other Black Panther Party members while they were incarcerated at Leavenworth Prison. Even at his young age, Shakur's writing dealt with themes such as black liberation, mass incarceration, race, and masculinity. The poems feature a self-portrait of Shakur sleeping, pen in hand, dreaming of the Black Panthers being freed from prison, and signed with a heart and the phrase "Tupac Shakur, Future Freedom Fighter". In October, 2023, sexually explicit poems he wrote to Jada Pinkett Smith while in prison went public in the book "Tupac Shakur: The Authorized Biography." Pinkett Smith celebrated Shakur's 50th birthday by showing a unreleased poem on Instagram called "Lost Soulz." According to Rolling Stone writer Andy Green: “He was also a poet and activist who became one of his era’s most revolutionary voices." Tupac had passion for theater and admiration of William Shakespeare. Years after Tupac's death, Nas said "I put Tupac beyond Shakespeare." Film career Shakur's first film appearance was in the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble, a cameo by the Digital Underground. In 1992, he starred in Juice, in which he plays the fictional Roland Bishop, a militant and haunting individual. Rolling Stone's Peter Travers calls him "the film's most magnetic figure". In 1993, Shakur starred alongside Janet Jackson in John Singleton's romance film, Poetic Justice. Singleton later fired Shakur from the 1995 film Higher Learning because the studio would not finance the film following his arrest. For the lead role in the eventual 2001 film Baby Boy, a role played by Tyrese Gibson, Singleton originally had Shakur in mind. Ultimately, the set design includes a Shakur mural in the protagonist's bedroom, and the film's score includes Shakur's song "Hail Mary". Director Allen Hughes had cast Shakur as Sharif in the 1993 film Menace II Society but replaced him once Shakur assaulted him on set due to a discrepancy with the script. Nonetheless, in 2013, Hughes appraises that Shakur would have outshone the other actors "because he was bigger than the movie". Shakur played a gangster called Birdie in the 1994 film Above the Rim. By some accounts, that character had been modeled after former New York drug dealer Jacques "Haitian Jack" Agnant, who managed and promoted rappers. Shakur was introduced to him at a Queens nightclub. Reportedly, B.I.G. advised Shakur to avoid him, but Shakur disregarded the warning. Through Haitian Jack, Shakur met James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, also a drug dealer who doubled as music manager. Soon after Shakur's death, three more films starring him were released, Bullet (1996), Gridlock'd (1997), and Gang Related (1997). Posthumous rumored roles and Star Wars It was rumored that Shakur was being considered by George Lucas to portray Jedi Master Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel films (1999–2005). According to former Death Row Records chief engineer Rick Clifford, George Lucas was eyeing Tupac to star in his return to the "Star Wars" saga. Clifford talked about how excited Tupac was for the role, "'Pac found out that I worked for Brian Austin Green, who was on 90210, then he found out I [worked on] some movies, so we always talked about his film career and stuff. [...] He was telling me that he was supposed to read for George Lucas and them. They wanted him to be a Jedi. I'm serious. Samuel L. [Jackson] got Tupac's part. [Tupac] said [to me], 'Old man, keep your fingers crossed.' He said, 'I've got three movies coming up. One of them, I've got to read for George Lucas." The Phantom Menace script had begun being written in 1996 and the eventual film seeing release in 1999. Lucas had asked Jackson to ask Shakur to audition but due to Shakur's untimely death the role ultimately went to Samuel L. Jackson. The two had worked on the film Juice together. Personal life In his 1995 interview with Vibe magazine, Shakur listed Jada Pinkett, Jasmine Guy, Treach and Mickey Rourke among the people who were looking out for him while he was in prison. Shakur also mentioned that Madonna was a supportive friend. Madonna later revealed that they had dated in 1994. Shakur became close friends with Jada Pinkett while attending the Baltimore School for the Arts. He helped Pinkett land her first movie role in the film Menace II Society (1993). In turn, Pinkett secured Shakur a guest starring role on the sitcom A Different World in 1993. She appeared in his music videos "Keep Ya Head Up" and "Temptations". She also came up with the concept for his "California Love" music video and had intended to direct it, but removed herself from the project. In 1995, Pinkett contributed $100,000 towards Shakur's bail as he awaited an appeal on his sexual abuse conviction. Pinkett later revealed that she turned down his marriage proposal while he was incarcerated at Rikers Island in 1995. Speaking about Pinkett, Shakur stated: "Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life. We'll be old together. Jada can ask me to do anything and she can have it." Pinkett said Shakur was "one of my best friends. He was like a brother. It was beyond friendship for us. The type of relationship we had, you only get that once in a lifetime". After Shakur was shot in 1994, he recuperated at Jasmine Guy's home. They had met during his guest appearance on the sitcom A Different World in 1993. Guy appeared in his music video "Temptations" and later wrote his mother's 2004 biography, Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary. Shakur befriended Treach when they were both roadies on Public Enemy's tour in 1990. He made a cameo in Naughty by Nature's music video "Uptown Anthem" in 1992. Treach collaborated on Shakur's song "5 Deadly Venomz" and appeared in the music video for Shakur's "Temptations". Treach was also a speaker at a public memorial service for Shakur in 1996. In 1993, during a police raid of Shakur's room at New York City's Parker Meridian Hotel, a videotape was confiscated which showed Shakur having sex with his then-girlfriend Desiree Smith. Officers were attempting to build their case against Shakur for the alleged sodomy of Ayanna Jackson. In 2022, Smith insisted she was neither underage nor intoxicated at the time of their tryst. In 2011, a sex tape featuring Shakur receiving oral sex from a groupie while rapping and dancing along to one of his own unreleased songs, was sold to a private collector. The video, which was filmed in 1993, also features rapper Money B from Digital Underground. Shakur and Mickey Rourke formed a bond while filming the movie Bullet in 1994. Rourke recalled that Shakur "was there for me during some very hard times." Shakur had friendships with other celebrities, including Mike Tyson Chuck D, Jim Carrey, and Alanis Morissette. In April 1996, Shakur said that he, Morrissette, Snoop Dogg, and Suge Knight were planning to open a restaurant together. On April 29, 1995, Shakur married his girlfriend Keisha Morris, a pre-law student. Their marriage was annulled ten months later. In a 1993 interview published in The Source, Shakur criticized record producer Quincy Jones for his interracial marriage to actress Peggy Lipton. Their daughter Rashida Jones responded with an irate open letter. Shakur later apologized to her sister Kidada Jones, whom he began dating in 1996. Shakur and Jones attended Men's Fashion Week in Milan and walked the runway together for a Versace fashion show. Jones was at their hotel in Las Vegas when Shakur was shot. Legal issues Sexual assault case, prison sentence, appeal and release In November 1993, Shakur and two other men were charged in New York with sodomizing a woman in Shakur's hotel room. The woman, Ayanna Jackson, alleged that after she performed oral sex on Shakur at the public dance floor of a Manhattan nightclub, she went to his hotel room on a later day, when Shakur, record executive Jacques "Haitian Jack" Agnant, Shakur's road manager Charles Fuller and an unidentified fourth man apprehended and forced her to perform non-consensual oral sex on each of them. Shakur was also charged with illegal possession of a firearm as two guns were found in the hotel room. Interviewed on The Arsenio Hall Show, Shakur said he was hurt that "a woman would accuse me of taking something from her", as he had been raised in a female household and surrounded by women his whole life. On December 1, 1994, Shakur was acquitted of three counts of sodomy and the associated gun charges, but convicted of two counts of first-degree sexual abuse for "forcibly touching the woman's buttocks" in his hotel room. Jurors have said the lack of evidence stymied a sodomy conviction. Shakur's lawyer characterized the sentence as "out of line" with the groping conviction and the setting of bail at $3 million as "inhumane". Shakur's accuser later filed a civil suit against Shakur seeking $10 million for punitive damages which was subsequently settled. After Shakur had been convicted of sexual abuse, Jacques Agnant's case was separated and closed via misdemeanor plea without incarceration. A. J. Benza reported in New York Daily News Shakur's new disdain for Agnant who Shakur theorized had set him up with the case. Shakur reportedly believed his accuser was connected to and had sexual relations with Agnant and James "Henchman" Rosemond, who he considered to be behind the 1994 Quad Studios shooting. Shakur was unable to post the $3 million bond to keep himself free until sentencing so he surrendered himself to authorities at the Bellevue Hospital Jail Ward in New York City on December 23, 1994. At the time, he was still recovering from injuries he received on November 30, when he was shot five times and robbed at Quad Studios. In January 1995, Shakur was moved to the North Infirmary Command (NIC) on Rikers Island in the Bronx. On February 7, 1995, he was sentenced to 18 months to 4+1⁄2 years in prison by a judge who decried "an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman". In March 1995, Shakur was transferred to Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. While imprisoned, he began reading again, which he had been unable to do as his career progressed due to his marijuana and alcohol habits. Works such as The Prince by Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli and The Art of War by Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu sparked Shakur's interest in philosophy, philosophy of war and military strategy. On April 29, 1995, Shakur married his girlfriend Keisha Morris; the marriage was later annulled. While in prison, Shakur exchanged letters with celebrities such as Jim Carrey and Tony Danza among others. He was also visited by Al Sharpton, who helped Shakur get released from solitary confinement. By October 1995, pending judicial appeal, Shakur was incarcerated in New York. On October 12, he bonded out of the maximum security Dannemora Clinton Correctional Facility in the process of appealing his conviction, once Suge Knight, CEO of Death Row Records, arraigned for posting of his $1.4 million bond. 1993 shooting in Atlanta On October 31, 1993, Shakur was arrested in Atlanta for shooting two off-duty police officers, brothers Mark Whitwell and Scott Whitwell. The Atlanta police claimed the shooting occurred after the brothers were almost struck by a car carrying Shakur while they were crossing the street with their wives. As they argued with the driver, Shakur's car pulled up and he shot the Whitwells in the buttocks and the abdomen. However, there are conflicting accounts that the Whitwells were harassing a black motorist and uttered racial slurs. According to some witnesses, Shakur and his entourage had fired in self-defense as Mark Whitwell shot at them first. Shakur was charged with two counts of aggravated assault. Mark Whitwell was charged with firing at Shakur's car and later with making false statements to investigators. Scott Whitwell admitted to possessing a gun he had taken from a Henry County police evidence room. Prosecutors ultimately dropped all charges against both parties. Mark Whitwell resigned from the force seven months after the shooting. Both brothers filed civil suits against Shakur; Mark Whitwell's suit was settled out of court, while Scott Whitwell's $2 million lawsuit resulted in a default judgment entered against the rapper's estate in 1998. 1994 Quad Studios shooting On November 30, 1994, while in New York recording verses for a mixtape of Ron G, Shakur was repeatedly distracted by his beeper. Music manager James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, reportedly offered Shakur $7,000 to stop by Quad Studios, in Times Square, that night to record a verse for his client Little Shawn. Shakur was unsure, but agreed to the session as he needed the cash to offset legal costs. He arrived with Stretch and one or two others. In the lobby, three men robbed and beat him at gunpoint; Shakur resisted and was shot. Shakur speculated that the shooting had been a set-up. Against medical advice, Shakur checked out of Metropolitan Hospital Center a few hours after surgery and secretly went to the house of the actress Jasmine Guy to recuperate. The next day, Shakur arrived at a Manhattan courthouse bandaged in a wheelchair to receive the jury's verdict for his sexual abuse case. Shakur spent the next few weeks being cared for by his mother and a private doctor at Guy's home. The Fruit of Islam and former members of the Black Panther Party stood guard to protect him. Setup accusations involving the Notorious B.I.G. In a 1995 interview with Vibe, Shakur accused Sean Combs, Jimmy Henchman, and the Notorious B.I.G, – who were at Quad Studios at the time – among others, of setting up or being privy to the November 1994 robbery and shooting. Vibe alerted the names of the accused. The accusations were significant to the East–West Coast rivalry in hip-hop; in 1995, months after the robbery, Combs and B.I.G. released the track "Who Shot Ya?", which Shakur took as a mockery of his shooting and thought they could be responsible, so he released a diss song, "Hit 'Em Up", in which he targeted B.I.G., Combs, their record label, Junior M.A.F.I.A., and at the end of "Hit 'Em Up", he mentions rivals Mobb Deep and Chino XL. In March 2008, Chuck Philips, in the Los Angeles Times, reported on the 1994 ambush and shooting. The newspaper later retracted the article since it relied partially on FBI documents later discovered forged, supplied by a man convicted of fraud. In June 2011, convicted murderer Dexter Isaac, incarcerated in Brooklyn, issued a confession that he had been one of the gunmen who had robbed and shot Shakur at Henchman's order. Philips then named Isaac as one of his own, retracted article's unnamed sources. Other criminal or civil cases 1991 Oakland Police Department lawsuit On October 17, 1991, two Oakland Police Department officers stopped Shakur for jaywalking at a downtown intersection. According to Shakur, officers Alex Boyovic and Kevin Rogers asked him for his ID and pressed him about his name before choking him, throwing him to the ground and slamming his head on the concrete. Shakur filed a $10 million lawsuit against the officers for police brutality. The case was settled for about $43,000. It was later revealed that this incident was the onset of Shakur's autoimmune disease alopecia, which led him to shave his head bald. Misdemeanor assault convictions On April 5, 1993, charged with felonious assault, Shakur allegedly threw a microphone and swung a baseball bat at rapper Chauncey Wynn, of the group M.A.D., at a concert at Michigan State University. Shakur claimed the bat was a part of his show, that he never swung it, and that there was no criminal intent. Nonetheless, on September 14, 1994, Shakur pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, twenty of them suspended on condition that he complete 35 hours of community service. Slated to star as Sharif in the 1993 Hughes Brothers' film Menace II Society, Shakur was replaced by actor Vonte Sweet after allegedly assaulting one of the film's directors, Allen Hughes. In early 1994, Shakur served 15 days in jail after being found guilty of the assault. The prosecution's evidence included a Yo! MTV Raps interview where Shakur boasts that he had "beat up the director of Menace II Society". Concealed weapon case In 1994, Shakur was arrested in Los Angeles, when he was stopped by police on suspicion of speeding. Police found a semiautomatic pistol in the car, a felony offense because a prior conviction in 1993 in Los Angeles for carrying a concealed firearm. On April 4, 1996, Shakur was sentenced to 120 days in jail for violating his release terms and failing to appear for a road cleanup job, but was allowed to remain free awaiting appeal. On June 7, his sentence was deferred via appeals pending in other cases. 1995 wrongful death suit On August 22, 1992, in Marin City, Shakur performed outdoors at a festival. For about an hour after the performance, he signed autographs and posed for photos. A conflict broke out and Shakur allegedly drew a legally carried Colt Mustang but dropped it on the ground. Shakur claimed that someone with him then picked it up when it accidentally discharged. About 100 yards (90 meters) away in a schoolyard, Qa'id Walker-Teal, a boy aged 6 on his bicycle, was fatally shot in the forehead. Police matched the bullet to a .38-caliber pistol registered to Shakur. His stepbrother Maurice Harding was arrested in suspicion of having fired the gun, but no charges were filed. Lack of witnesses stymied prosecution. In 1995, Qa'id's mother filed a wrongful death suit against Shakur, which was settled for about $300,000 to $500,000. C. Delores Tucker lawsuit Civil rights activist and fierce rap critic C. Delores Tucker sued Shakur's estate in federal court, claiming that lyrics in "How Do U Want It" and "Wonda Why They Call U Bitch" inflicted emotional distress, were slanderous, and invaded her privacy. The case was later dismissed. Murder and aftermath On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur was in Las Vegas, Nevada to attend the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match with Suge Knight at the MGM Grand. Afterward in the lobby one of Knight's associates spotted Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, a Southside Compton Crip, and told Shakur he had tried to rob them earlier that year. The hotel's surveillance footage shows the ensuing assault on Anderson. Shakur soon stopped by his hotel room and then headed with Knight to his Death Row nightclub, Club 662, in a black BMW 750iL sedan, part of a larger convoy. At about 11 p.m. on Las Vegas Boulevard, bicycle-mounted police stopped the car for its loud music and lack of license plates. The plates were found in the trunk, and the car was released without a ticket. At about 11:15 p.m. at a stop light, a white, four-door, late-model Cadillac sedan pulled up to the passenger side and an occupant rapidly fired into the car. Shakur was struck four times: once in the arm, once in the thigh, and twice in the chest with one bullet entering his right lung. Shards hit Knight's head. Frank Alexander, Shakur's bodyguard, was not in the car at the time. He would say he had been tasked to drive the car of Shakur's girlfriend, Kidada Jones. Shakur was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada where he was heavily sedated and put on life support. In the intensive-care unit on the afternoon of September 13, 1996, Shakur died from internal bleeding. He was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. The official causes of death are respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest associated with multiple gunshot wounds. Shakur's body was cremated the next day. Members of the Outlawz, recalling a line in his song "Black Jesus", (although uncertain of the artist's attempt at a literal meaning chose to interpret the request seriously) smoked some of his body's ashes after mixing them with marijuana. In 2002, investigative journalist Chuck Philips, after a year of work, reported in the Los Angeles Times that Anderson, a Southside Compton Crip, having been attacked by Suge and Shakur's entourage at the MGM Hotel after the boxing match, had fired the fatal gunshots, but that Las Vegas police had interviewed him only once, briefly, before his death in an unrelated shooting. Philips's 2002 article also alleges the involvement of Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace and several within New York City's criminal underworld. Both Anderson and Wallace denied involvement, while Wallace offered a confirmed alibi. Music journalist John Leland, in The New York Times, called the evidence "inconclusive". In 2011, via the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI released documents related to its investigation which described an extortion scheme by the Jewish Defense League (classified as "a right wing terrorist group" by the FBI) that included making death threats against Shakur and other rappers, but did not indicate a direct connection to his murder. On July 18, 2023, the Las Vegas Police Department executed a search warrant in connection with Shakur's murder. On September 29, 2023, the AP reported that Las Vegas police had arrested a suspect, Duane "Keefe D" Davis, in Shakur's murder. Police had two months previously served a search warrant at his wife's home in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. Davis pleaded not guilty on November 2, 2023, in Las Vegas. Artistry Musical style Shakur's music and philosophical outlook were deeply influenced by a wide range of American, African American, and global influences, including the Black Panther Party, black nationalism, egalitarianism, and the concept of liberty. Moreover, Shakur's artistic sensibilities were enriched by his passion for theater and admiration for the works of William Shakespeare. Notably, he honed his theatrical skills as a student at the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he delved into the psychological complexities inherent in inter-gang warfare and inter-cultural conflicts, reflecting themes explored in Shakespearean dramas. 2Pacalypse Now (1991), showcased his socially conscious perspective. Through powerful tracks like "Brenda's Got a Baby", "Trapped", and "Part Time Mutha", Shakur addressed social injustice, poverty, and police brutality. In doing so, he contributed to the ongoing success of rap groups such as Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, X-Clan, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, while establishing himself as one of the pioneering socially conscious rappers from the West Coast. Continuing his focus on the social challenges faced by African American people, Shakur's second album featured songs like "The Streetz R Deathrow" and "Last Wordz". Simultaneously, he showcased his compassionate side with the empowering anthem "Keep Ya Head Up", and his legendary intensity with the title track from the album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... Additionally, he paid homage to his former group Digital Underground by including them on the playful track "I Get Around". Throughout his career, Shakur's subsequent albums reflected a growing assertiveness in his approach. Shakur's body of work encompassed contrasting themes, including social inequality, injustice, compassion, playfulness, and hope. These elements continued to shape his artistry, exemplified by his explosive 1995 album Me Against the World. The release of All Eyez on Me in 1996 further solidified his reputation, with tracks like "Ambitionz az a Ridah", "I Ain't Mad at Cha", "California Love", "Life Goes On", and "Picture Me Rollin'" being hailed as classics by critics. Shakur described All Eyez on Me as a celebration of life, and the album achieved both critical acclaim and commercial success. According to Eminem, Tupac is the greatest songwriter of all time. Nas said in 2002: "I put Tupac beyond Shakespeare." Vocal style Singers can manipulate different parts of their body to create various sounds. For instance, the "head voice" involves singing high-pitched tones resonating from the head, while the "chest voice" utilizes the chest area. In the documentary "Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel," Greg "Shock G" Jacobs, one of Shakur's early producers, discusses how rappers also utilize different bodily areas to project their voices. According to him, "Slick Rick rhymed from the nasal palate, Nas from the back of his throat, and Pac from the pit of his stomach, which is where his power came from." Shakur's influences stemmed from powerful orators like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Despite not being physically imposing, Shakur's voice carried immense weight and power, reminiscent of these influential speakers. Shakur was also known for his technique of stacking or layering vocals, adding depth and rawness to his voice. This approach, demonstrated notably on tracks like "Dear Mama" from his 1995 album Me Against the World, involves overlaying multiple vocal lines to highlight rhythms and emphasize words and phrases. Mastering this technique requires precision to maintain flow and clarity, as heard in the lyrics "and even though I act crazy/I gotta thank the Lord that you made me," where Shakur's voice transitions from full to husky, underscoring the emotional depth of the lyrics. Despite its difficulty, Shakur's background in jazz, poetry, and theater endowed him with exceptional rhythm control, enabling him to layer vocals seamlessly while preserving cohesion and flow. Legacy and remembrance Shakur is considered one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time. He was listed as one of the greatest artists of all time by Rolling Stone. He is widely credited as an important figure in hip hop culture, and his prominence in pop culture in general has been noted. Dotdash, formerly About.com, while ranking him fifth among the greatest rappers, nonetheless notes, "Tupac Shakur is the most influential hip-hop artist of all time. Even in death, 2Pac remains a transcendental rap figure." Yet to some, he was a "father figure" who, said rapper YG, "makes you want to be better—at every level." In 2023, Billboard ranked Tupac at number 4 among the top 50 rappers of all time. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Shakur as "the unlikely martyr of gangsta rap", with Shakur paying the ultimate price of a criminal lifestyle. Shakur was described as one of the top two American rappers in the 1990s, along with Snoop Dogg. The online rap magazine AllHipHop held a 2007 roundtable at which New York rappers Cormega, citing tour experience with New York rap duo Mobb Deep, commented that B.I.G. ran New York, but Shakur ran America. Shakur emerged as a celebrated artist, earning recognition for his astonishingly prolific output and unwavering commitment to his craft. According to Rolling Stone writer Andy Green: “He was also a poet and activist who became one of his era’s most revolutionary voices." In 2017, American rapper Snoop Dogg called Tupac “the greatest rapper of all time” during his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame tribute. In 2021, Saweetie told Complex that Tupac was “the greatest rapper that ever lived”. According to British writer Rob Marriott, he deemed the act of tying a bandana into rabbit ears as one of the most distinctive and instantly recognizable style choices in the world of hip-hop. Regarded as a sex symbol, his unique style helped shape the fashion landscape of the 1990s and continues to influence artists and fashion enthusiasts to this day. In 2010, writing Rolling Stone magazine's entry on Shakur at No. 86 among the "100 greatest artists", New York rapper 50 Cent appraised: Every rapper who grew up in the Nineties owes something to Tupac. People either try to emulate him in some way, or they go in a different direction because they didn't like what he did. But whatever you think of him, he definitely developed his own style: He didn't sound like anyone who came before him. According to music journalist Chuck Philips, Shakur "had helped elevate rap from a crude street fad to a complex art form, setting the stage for the current global hip-hop phenomenon." Philips writes, "The slaying silenced one of modern music's most eloquent voices—a ghetto poet whose tales of urban alienation captivated young people of all races and backgrounds." Via numerous fans perceiving him, despite his questionable conduct, as a martyr, "the downsizing of martyrdom cheapens its use", academic Michael Eric Dyson concedes. But Dyson adds, "Some, or even most, of that criticism can be conceded without doing damage to Tupac's martyrdom in the eyes of those disappointed by more traditional martyrs." In 2014, BET explained that "his confounding mixture of ladies' man, thug, revolutionary and poet has forever altered our perception of what a rapper should look like, sound like and act like. In 50 Cent, Ja Rule, Lil Wayne, newcomers like Freddie Gibbs and even his friend-turned-rival B.I.G., it's easy to see that Pac is the most copied MC of all time. There are murals bearing his likeness in New York, Brazil, Sierra Leone, Bulgaria and countless other places; he even has statues in Atlanta and Germany. Quite simply, no other rapper has captured the world's attention the way Tupac did and still does." More simply, his writings, published after his death, inspired rapper YG to return to school and get his GED. In 2020, former California Senator and current vice-president Kamala Harris called Shakur the "best rapper alive", which she explained as being because "West Coast girls think 2Pac lives on". According to writer Kevin Powell: "He deserves to be put in the same category as Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, as John Lennon, in terms of his global impact." Tupac is regarded as one of the most influential artists in music and popular culture in general and an icon of activism. Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar, leader and a founding member of DAM, became passionate about hip hop by listening to Tupac saying, “The imagery in Shakur’s videos was similar to our reality in Lod." Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation In 1997, Shakur's mother founded the Shakur Family Foundation. Later renamed the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, or TASF, it launched with a stated mission to "provide training and support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents." The TASF sponsors essay contests, charity events, a performing arts day camp for teenagers, and undergraduate scholarships. In June 2005, the TASF opened the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts, or TASCA, in Stone Mountain, Georgia. It closed in 2015. Academic appraisal In 1997, the University of California, Berkeley, offered a course led by a student titled "History 98: Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur". In April 2003, Harvard University cosponsored the symposium "All Eyez on Me: Tupac Shakur and the Search for the Modern Folk Hero". Where Shakur's influence as both an artist and an activist was analyzed. The papers presented cover his ranging influence from entertainment to sociology. Calling him a "Thug Nigga Intellectual", an "organic intellectual", English scholar Mark Anthony Neal assessed his death as leaving a "leadership void amongst hip-hop artists", as this "walking contradiction" helps, Neal explained, "make being an intellectual accessible to ordinary people." Tracing Shakur's mythical status, Murray Forman discussed him as "O.G.", or "Ostensibly Gone", with fans, using digital mediums, "resurrecting Tupac as an ethereal life force." Music scholar Emmett Price, calling him a "Black folk hero", traced his persona to Black American folklore's tricksters, which, after abolition, evolved into the urban "bad-man". Yet in Shakur's "terrible sense of urgency", Price identified instead a quest to "unify mind, body, and spirit." According to Price, Tupac had surpassed the legacies of John Coltrane and Mahalia Jackson within the tradition of black music. In 2012, the Norwegian University of Oslo organized the course: "Tupac, hiphop og kulturhistorie (Tupac, hip hop and cultural history)." As Knut Aukrust, Norwegian professor and academic scholar of cultural studies at the University of Oslo, puts it:"Tupac Amaru Shakur (1971-1996) is one of the most famous and controversial representatives of hip-hop culture. He has become an icon with saint status far beyond his fans. References to him and his message appear all over the world, from Barack Obama's slogan about "changes", to Palestinians and Israelis longing for peace in the Middle East, to the people of Groruddalen who want their experiences to be taken on board serious. The course highlights how a single person can fit into a wider network of cultural models and how a local storytelling tradition has become an international cultural phenomenon." Jeffrey Ogbonna Green Ogbar, professor of History and Popular Music at the University of Connecticut, described Shakur as "one of the most iconic and influential music artists of the 20th century", and also a "politically conscious activist voice for Black America." Multimedia releases In 2005, Death Row released on DVD, Tupac: Live at the House of Blues, his final recorded live performance, an event on July 4, 1996. In August 2006, Tupac Shakur Legacy, an "interactive biography" by Jamal Joseph, arrived with previously unpublished family photographs, intimate stories, and over 20 detachable copies of his handwritten song lyrics, contracts, scripts, poetry, and other papers. In 2006, the Shakur album Pac's Life was released and, like the previous, was among the recording industry's most popular releases. In 2008, his estate made about $15 million. On April 15, 2012, at the Coachella Music Festival, rappers Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre joined a Shakur "hologram" (Although the media referred to the technology as a hologram, technically it was a projection created with the Musion Eyeliner), and, as a partly virtual trio, performed the Shakur songs "Hail Mary" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted". There were talks of a tour, but Dre refused. Meanwhile, the Greatest Hits album, released in 1998, and which in 2000 had left the pop albums chart, the Billboard 200, returned to the chart and reached No. 129, while also other Shakur albums and singles drew sales gains. Film and stage The documentary film Tupac: Resurrection was released in November 2003. It was nominated for Best Documentary at the 2005 Academy Awards. In 2014, the play Holler If Ya Hear Me, based on Shakur's lyrics, played on Broadway, but, among Broadway's worst-selling musicals in recent years, ran only six weeks. In development since 2013, a Shakur biopic, All Eyez on Me, began filming in Atlanta in December 2015. It was released on June 16, 2017, on Shakur's 46th birthday, albeit to generally negative reviews. In August 2019, a docuseries directed by Allen Hughes, Outlaw: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur, was announced. Awards and honors In 2002, Shakur was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame. In 2004, Shakur was among the honorees at the first Hip Hop Honors. In 2006, Shakur's close friend and classmate Jada Pinkett Smith donated $1 million to their high school alma mater, the Baltimore School for the Arts, and named the new theater in his honor. In 2021, Pinkett Smith honored Shakur's 50th birthday by releasing a never before seen poem she had received from him. In 2009, drawing praise, the Vatican added "Changes", a 1998 posthumous track, to its online playlist. On June 23, 2010, the Library of Congress added "Dear Mama" to the National Recording Registry, the third rap song. In 2015, the Grammy Museum opened an exhibition dedicated to Shakur. In his first year of eligibility, Shakur was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 7, 2017. In January 2022, the exhibition Tupac Shakur: Wake Me When I'm Free opened at The Canvas at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. On May 16, 2023, Oakland City Council voted to name the section of MacArthur Boulevard between Grand Avenue and Van Buren Avenue "Tupac Shakur Way". On June 7, 2023, Shakur received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His half-sister, Sekyiwa "Set" Shakur, accepted the award in his honor. Rankings 2002: Forbes magazine ranked Shakur at 10th among top-earning dead celebrities. 2003: MTV's viewers voted Shakur the greatest MC. 2005: Shakur was voted No.1 on Vibe's online poll of "Top 10 Best of All Time". 2006: MTV staff placed him second on its list of "The Greatest MCs Of All Time". 2012: The Source magazine ranked him No. 5 among "The Top 50 Lyricists". 2007: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame placed All Eyez on Me at No. 90 and Me Against the World at No. 170. 2010: Rolling Stone magazine placed Shakur at No. 86 among the "100 Greatest Artists". 2020: All Eyez on Me was ranked No. 436 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time". 2023: Billboard ranked Shakur at number 4 of the top 50 rappers. Final resting place in Soweto In 2006, on the 10th anniversary of Tupac Shakur's passing, his ashes were laid to rest in Soweto. Shakur's mother Afeni transported them to the "birthplace of his ancestors" and conducted a memorial service in what's considered as one of the most renowned South African townships. Afeni Shakur explained that Soweto had been selected due to its significance as the "birthplace of the South African struggle for democracy and against apartheid." The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality donated a five-acre plot of undeveloped land in the Zola area of Soweto to build a memorial honoring Shakur. A portion of the land was designated to be transformed into a park for the benefit of local children as well as aimed at promoting environmental education, pathways, orphanages, bridges, skateboard ramps and a golf range while plans also included the construction of an amphitheater and a museum showcasing South African music and arts. The project was funded by Johannesburg city authorities and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation. The memorial was hosted by South African musician and actor Zola 7. Singer Macy Gray and members of the Outlawz were amongst the attendees who paid their respects. Discography Studio albums 2Pacalypse Now (1991) Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z... (1993) Me Against the World (1995) All Eyez on Me (1996) Posthumous studio albums The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory (1996) (as Makaveli) R U Still Down? (Remember Me) (1997) Until the End of Time (2001) Better Dayz (2002) Loyal to the Game (2004) Pac's Life (2006) Collaboration albums Thug Life, Volume I with Thug Life (1994) Posthumous collaboration album Still I Rise with Outlawz (1999) Filmography Portrayals in film Documentaries Shakur's life has been explored in several documentaries, most notably the Academy Award-nominated Tupac: Resurrection (2003). 1997: Tupac Shakur: Thug Immortal 1997: Tupac Shakur: Words Never Die (TV) 2001: Tupac Shakur: Before I Wake... 2001: Welcome to Deathrow 2002: Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel 2002: Biggie & Tupac 2002: Tha Westside 2003: 2Pac 4 Ever 2003: Tupac: Resurrection 2004: Tupac vs. 2004: Tupac: The Hip Hop Genius (TV) 2006: So Many Years, So Many Tears 2015: Murder Rap: Inside the Biggie and Tupac Murders 2017: Who killed Tupac? 2017: Who Shot Biggie & Tupac? 2018: Unsolved: Murders of Biggie and Tupac? 2021: The Life & Death of Tupac Shakur 2023: Dear Mama See also List of artists who reached number one in the United States List of awards and nominations received by Tupac Shakur List of best-selling music artists List of highest-certified music artists in the United States List of murdered hip hop musicians List of unsolved murders Lists of Billboard 200 number-one albums Lists of Billboard number-one singles References Further reading Holley, Santi Elijah (2023). An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created. New York: Mariner Books. ISBN 9780358588764. OCLC 1345214629. External links Official website Amaru Shakur Foundation for the Arts at the Wayback Machine (archived September 4, 2023) "Expressing Myself, Silencing the Demons" (Archived September 21, 2013, at the Wayback Machine), interview with Chuck Philips Tupac Shakur at IMDb FBI Records: The Vault – Tupac Shakur at FBI.gov

Lego_Avatar

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

Lego Avatar (stylized as LEGO Avatar) is a Lego theme based on the film series of the same name created by James Cameron. It is licensed from 20th Century Studios, The Walt Disney Company and Lightstorm Entertainment. The theme was first introduced on 1 October 2022. Subsequent sets were released in 2023, alongside the next film, Avatar: The Way of Water. Overview Lego Avatar is based on the James Cameron's Avatar film series. The product line focuses on an epic conflict on Pandora, an inhabited Earth-sized moon of Polyphemus, one of three gas giants orbiting Alpha Centauri A. On Pandora, human colonists and the sentient humanoid indigenous inhabitants of Pandora, the Na'vi, engage in a war over the planet's resources and the latter's continued existence. Lego Avatar aimed to recreate the main characters in Lego form, including Colonel Miles Quaritch, Dr. Grace Augustine, Jake Sully, Jake Sully (Avatar), Neytiri, Norm Spellman, Mo’at, Tsu’tey, and Trudy Chacón. The Na'vi minifigures were modified with extra long legs and other new molds. In December 2022, The Lego Group confirmed that the Lego Avatar’s longer minifigure legs aren’t the same as those used for Lego Toy Story (later known as Lego Disney)'s minifigures in 2010. Development Lego Avatar designer Atticus Tsai-McCarthy discussed the concept of the Lego Avatar theme and said, "That actually emerged fairly early in the concept phase. In certain themes, like Jurassic World as one example, we are designing primarily for young kids who love dinosaurs and vehicles, whereas Avatar is intended for a slightly older demographic. This was my first experience designing for older builders and focusing on displayability was really rewarding, without losing the play value. You can play with the models, but also display them easily on a shelf and even combine them if you have several sets." and continued, "With 75572 Jake & Neytiri’s First Banshee Flight specifically I wanted to give the two ikran a sense of movement when designing the set. I was aiming to create a frozen moment from the movie, without needing a full diorama base." Launch The Lego Avatar theme revealed at the San Diego Comic-Con and was launched in October 2022. The Lego Group had a partnership with 20th Century Studios, The Walt Disney Company and Lightstorm Entertainment. As part of the marketing campaign, The Lego Group released 4 sets based on the James Cameron's Avatar film series. Each set featured different Pandoran beasts, such as Banshees, Thanators, Direhorses, and Toruks. Minifigures were released as well, including Colonel Miles Quaritch, Dr. Grace Augustine, Jake Sully, Jake Sully (Avatar), Neytiri, Norm Spellman, Mo’at, Tsu’tey, and Trudy Chacón. The sets were designed primarily for children with an age rating of 9+ or above. In September 2022, at the D23 Expo, Avatar: The Way of Water producer Jon Landau confirmed in an interview that additional five sets based on Avatar: The Way of Water film will be released in 2023. These sets included 3 new Pandoran beasts, such as the Ilu, Skimwing, and Payakan the Tulkun and minifigures of Tsireya, Tuk, Ronal, Tonowari, Neytiri and Kiri, Spider, Lo'ak and Tsireya, Neteyam, Ao'nung, Recombinant Quaritch and a Crabsuit Driver. Characters Humans Jake Sully: A disabled former Marine who becomes part of the Avatar Program after his twin brother is killed. His military background helps the Na'vi warriors relate to him. Colonel Miles Quaritch: The head of the mining operation's security detail. Fiercely consistent in his disregard for any life not recognized as human, he has a profound disregard for Pandora's inhabitants that is evident in both his actions and his language. Dr. Grace Augustine: An exobiologist and head of the Avatar Program. She is also Sully's mentor and an advocate of peaceful relations with the Na'vi, having set up a school to teach them English. Trudy Chacón: A combat pilot assigned to support the Avatar Program who is sympathetic to the Na'vi. Dr. Norm Spellman: A xenoanthropologist who studies plant and animal life as part of the Avatar Program. He arrives on Pandora at the same time as Jake and operates an avatar. Although he is expected to lead the diplomatic contact with the Na'vi, it turns out that Jake has the personality better suited to win the natives' respect. Miles "Spider" Socorro: The 16-year-old son of Quaritch born on Pandora, who was adopted into Jake and Neytiri's family. Na'vi The Na'vi are humanoid creatures that inhabit Pandora along with other creatures. They use animals ranging from direhorses to even viperwolves. Jake Sully: A disabled former Marine who becomes part of the Avatar Program after his twin brother is killed. After sympathizing with them, Jake rebelled against the RDA. After Quaritch killed his human form, Sully merged with his Na'vi Avatar permanently, and now identifies himself as one of them. Neytiri: The daughter of the leaders of the Omaticaya (the Na'vi clan central to the story). She is attracted to Jake because of his bravery, though frustrated with him for what she sees as his naiveté and stupidity. She serves as Jake's love interest. Mo’at: The Omaticaya's spiritual leader, Neytiri's mother, and consort to clan leader Eytukan. Tsu'tey: The finest warrior of the Omaticaya. He is heir to the chieftainship of the tribe. At the beginning of the film's story, he is betrothed to Neytiri. Ronal: A free diver of the Metkayina and Tonowari's wife, who is pregnant. Tonowari: The chief of the Metkayina clan and Ronal's husband. Kiri: The 14-year-old daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine's Na'vi avatar who was adopted by Jake and Neytiri. Lo'ak: Jake and Neytiri's 14-year-old son. Tuktirey "Tuk": Jake and Neytiri's 8-year-old daughter and their youngest child. Tsireya: A graceful and strong free diver of the Metkayina, Tonowari and Ronal's daughter, and Ao'nung's sister. Ao'nung: A young male hunter and free diver of the Metkayina, Tonowari and Ronal's son, and Tsireya's brother. Toy line According to BrickLink, The Lego Group released a total of nine Lego sets as part of Lego Avatar theme. Avatar sets In 2022, The Lego Group revealed at the Lego Con in 2022 a brand new set named Toruk Makto & Tree of Souls (set number: 75574) was released on 1 October 2022. Additional four sets revealed at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2022 and were released at same time. Neytiri & Thanator vs. AMP Suit Quaritch Neytiri & Thanator vs. AMP Suit Quaritch (set number: 75571) was released on 1 October 2022 and based on James Cameron's Avatar film series. The set consists of 560 pieces with 2 minifigures. The set included Neytiri's Thanator (Palulukan in Na'vi), Pandoran rainforest environment with some glow in the dark pieces and Colonel Miles Quaritch's AMP suit. Colonel Miles Quaritch's AMP suit included a combat knife and an enormous yellow chainsaw. The set included Lego minifigures of Neytiri and Colonel Miles Quaritch. Jake & Neytiri’s First Banshee Flight Jake & Neytiri's First Banshee Flight (set number: 75572) was released on 1 October 2022 and based on James Cameron's Avatar film series. The set consists of 572 pieces with 2 minifigures. The set included two Banshee (Ikran in Na'vi) and Hallelujah Mountains with some glow in the dark pieces. The set included Lego minifigures of Jake Sully and Neytiri. Lego Avatar designer Atticus Tsai-McCarthy discussed about Ikran used plastic wings instead of brick-built wings and explained, "Yes, that was pretty much the reason! Recreating the artistry of these creatures onscreen was very important. We thought it would be really nice to translate the wing shape and patterning as accurately as possible, which meant using the decorated vinyl." Floating Mountains: Site 26 & RDA Samson Floating Mountains: Site 26 & RDA Samson (set number: 75573) was released on 1 October 2022 and based on James Cameron's Avatar film series. The set consists of 887 pieces with 5 minifigures. The set included RDA Samson helicopter, Floating Mountains, Site 26 and Direhorse (Pa'li in Na'vi ). Floating Mountains with some glow in the dark pieces and a Technic pin that allows to connect the RDA Samson helicopter. The set included Lego minifigures of Jake Sully, Dr. Grace Augustine, Trudy Chacon, Jake Sully (Avatar) and Norm Spellman. Toruk Makto & Tree of Souls Toruk Makto & Tree of Souls (set number: 75574) was released on 1 October 2022 and based on James Cameron's Avatar film series. The set consists of 1212 pieces with 4 minifigures. The set included a Toruk (meaning last shadow in Na'vi), 3 rainforest environment builds and the Tree of Souls. The set included Lego minifigures of Jake Sully (Avatar), Neytiri, Mo’at and Tsu’tey. The Toruk is the Great Leonopteryx allow Jake Sully (Avatar) to ride on and become Toruk Makto. The 3 rainforest environment builds included some glow in the dark pieces and a Technic pin that allows to connect the Toruk Makto. Toruk Makto & Tree of Souls (set number: 75574) was designed by Lego Group Designer Woon Tze Chee. Lego Avatar designer Atticus Tsai-McCarthy discussed about Toruk Makto & Tree of Souls (set number: 75574) with a Technic pin and explained, "I think this came about when we were constructing the Floating Mountains or the archway in 75574 Toruk Makto & Tree of Souls, where you can place the leonopteryx. Early on, we were using normal Technic beams in black and figuratively asking builders not to notice them, with the colour contrast." and continued, "However, we later discovered that the Super Mario team was producing something similar to the City scaffolding piece, with Technic pin holes. Given its transparent colours, that was just perfect for Avatar and supporting the floating sections." Avatar: The Way of Water sets In November 2022, five new sets were announced for release on 1 January 2023 and based on Avatar: The Way of Water film, including Ilu Discovery (set number: 75575), Skimwing Adventure (set number: 75576), Mako Submarine (set number: 75577), Metkayina Reef Home (set number: 75578) and Payakan the Tulkun & Crabsuit (set number:75579). Each of the sets included new designed bow and arrow. Ilu Discovery Ilu Discovery (set number: 75575) was released on 1 January 2023 and based on based on Avatar: The Way of Water film. The set consists of 179 pieces with 2 minifigures. The set included Tuk's Ilu and Pandoran coral-reef with a Technic pin that allows to connect the Ilu. The set included Lego minifigures of Tsireya and Tuk. Skimwing Adventure Skimwing Adventure (set number: 75576) was released on 1 January 2023 and based on based on Avatar: The Way of Water film. The set consists of 259 pieces with 2 minifigures. The set included Jake Sully's Skimwing ("Tsurak" in Navi) and Pandoran coral-reef with a Technic pin that allows to connect the Skimwing. The set included Lego minifigures Tonowari and Jake Sully. Mako Submarine Mako Submarine (set number: 75577) was released on 1 January 2023 and based on based on Avatar: The Way of Water film. The set consists of 553 pieces with 4 minifigures. The set included RDA Quaritch's Mako Submarine, stingray and 3 seabeds. The set included Lego minifigures Neteyam, Ao'nung, RDA Quaritch and Spider. Metkayina Reef Home Metkayina Reef Home (set number: 75578) was released on 1 January 2023 and based on based on Avatar: The Way of Water film. The set consists of 179 pieces with 4 minifigures. The set included Metkayina village, a canoe and Pandoran coral reef. The set included Lego minifigures Ronal, Tonowari, Neytiri and Kiri. Payakan the Tulkun & Crabsuit Payakan the Tulkun & Crabsuit (set number:75579) was released on 1 January 2023 and based on based on Avatar: The Way of Water film. The set consists of 761 pieces with 3 minifigures. The set included Payakan the Tulkun, crabsuit submersible and 2 seabeds. The set included Lego minifigures Crabsuit Driver, Lo'ak and Tsireya. Lego BrickHeadz sets Jake Sully & his Avatar Jake Sully & his Avatar (set number: 40542) was released on 1 October 2022 as part of the Lego BrickHeadz theme and based on James Cameron's Avatar film series. The set consists of 246 pieces and 1 baseplate. The set included 2 versions of Jake Sully in his human form with wheelchair and his Avatar form with spear. Web short The product line was accompanied by a series of animated short films that was released on YouTube. Build your bond with LEGO Avatar was an official web short was released on YouTube on 1 January 2023 that inspired by both Lego Avatar sets as well as the James Cameron's Avatar film series. See also Lego Exo-Force Lego Prince of Persia Lego Pirates of the Caribbean Lego The Lone Ranger Lego Disney Lego The Simpsons Lego Ninjago Lego Monkie Kid Lego Nexo Knights Lego Overwatch Lego Minifigures (theme) Lego BrickHeadz Lego DOTS References External links Official website

Avatar_(franchise)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(franchise)

Avatar is an American epic science fiction media franchise created by James Cameron, which began with the eponymous 2009 film. Produced by Lightstorm Entertainment and distributed by 20th Century Studios, it consists of associated merchandise, video games, and theme park attractions. Avatar is set in the mid-22nd century on Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system. The film's central conflict is between the indigenous Na'vi led by Jake Sully and Neytiri, and humans led by Colonel Miles Quaritch from the Resources Development Administration (RDA), a megacorp which has arrived on Pandora to colonize and pillage it for its natural resources. The title of the series refers to the genetically engineered Na'vi body operated from the brain that humans pilot to interact with on Pandora. The first installment, Avatar, was released on December 18, 2009, and is the highest grossing motion picture of all-time when ticket price inflation is not reckoned. The second installment, The Way of Water, was released on December 16, 2022. The planned sequel series was announced by 20th Century Fox on December 11, 2009, one week before Avatar was released to theaters. 20th Century Fox had confirmed the series on January 15, 2010. The Avatar franchise is one of the most expensive franchises undertaken, with the combined budget of the first film and its four sequels estimated at $1 billion. The franchise has grossed over $5.2 billion worldwide; it is the 15th-highest-grossing film series of all time. Like the original film, the four sequels have "fully encapsulated" stand-alone plots that "come to their own conclusions". The four films have an overarching meta-narrative that connects them to create a large interconnected saga. Cameron described the sequels as "a natural extension of all the themes, and the characters, and the spiritual undercurrents" of the first film. However, Cameron eventually acknowledged that series co-producer Jon Landau, who Cameron developed a working relationship with in 1993, was in fact "the heart of the Avatar family" and "the center of gravity of our bubble universe." Films Avatar (2009) Avatar was written and directed by James Cameron, The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, CCH Pounder, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald, Laz Alonso, and Wes Studi, and was set in the year 2154. The story focuses on an epic conflict on Pandora, an inhabited Earth-sized moon of Polyphemus, one of three gas giants orbiting Alpha Centauri A. On Pandora, human colonists and the sentient humanoid indigenous inhabitants of Pandora, the Na'vi, engage in a war over the planet's resources (such as unobtanium) and the latter's continued existence. The film's title refers to the remotely controlled, genetically engineered human-Na'vi bodies used by the film's human characters to interact with the natives. The protagonist, Jake Sully, is a paraplegic young man who travels to Pandora from Earth. Assisting the corporate monolith known as the Resources Development Administration (RDA), he is given an avatar which he uses to interact with the story's heroine, Neytiri, as well as her clan known as the Omatikaya. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) Avatar: The Way of Water was written and directed by James Cameron, The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldaña, Joel David Moore, Sigourney Weaver, CCH Pounder, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Trinity Bliss, Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton, and Jack Champion, and was set 13 years after the first film in the year 2009. Set over a decade after the events of the first film, The Way of Water focuses on the return of the RDA, which prompts Jake's family to seek refuge in the water regions of Pandora in an effort to keep one another safe. Cameron said in an interview that while the first film was about the "awe and wonder", the sequel focuses more on the characters. The film was originally planned for a December 2014 release, but was delayed several times and released on December 16, 2022. Production began in August 2017. It wrapped in September 2020. Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) A third film is planned for release on December 19, 2025. Interviews in mid-2010 suggested that the third film would explore more of the Alpha Centauri system, but the script was not completed until late 2015. Fire and Ash started shooting simultaneously with The Way of Water in New Zealand on September 25, 2017; filming was completed in late December 2020. The film will introduce a new aggressive Na'vi clan known as 'Ash People' who reside near volcanoes. Cameron stated that Avatar: The Seed Bearer is being considered as a possible title for the film, but Landau debunked the rumor in December 2023. Avatar 4 (2029) A fourth film is planned for release on December 21, 2029. Jon Landau said that, due to a six-year time skip in the first act, a third of Avatar 4 has already been filmed to account for the aging of the child actors, and on September 9, 2022, it was announced at the D23 Expo that principal photography had officially begun for Avatar 4. However in January 2024, Cameron said that he will not start filming the remainder of Avatar 4 until after the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash. Cameron stated that Avatar: The Tulkun Rider is being considered as a possible title for the film. Avatar 5 (2031) A fifth and tentatively final film has been announced and is scheduled for December 19, 2031. Jon Landau stated that part of Avatar 5 will take place on Earth, with Neytiri visiting the planet. Cameron stated that Avatar: The Quest for Eywa is being considered as a possible title for the film. Future In December 2022, Cameron revealed that he has plans for a sixth and seventh film, expressing his willingness to create them if there is sufficient demand. In February 2024, Cameron confirmed his intentions for these two follow-up films and stated that he would likely pass the baton off to another director. Cast and characters Production details Reception Box office performance The first film grossed $2.92 billion worldwide and is the highest-grossing film in history. The second film, The Way of Water, has grossed $2.32 billion worldwide and currently ranks as the third highest-grossing film. The third, fourth, and fifth films in the series are expected to have a budget of $250 million. Critical and public response Accolades Music Avatar (Music from the Motion Picture) was scored by James Horner and released on December 15, 2009, by Atlantic Records and Fox Music. Avatar: The Way of Water (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was scored by Simon Franglen and released on December 15, 2022, by Hollywood Records. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Original Game Soundtrack) was scored by Pinar Toprak and released on December 8, 2023, by Lakeshore Records. Singles "I See You (Theme from Avatar)" "Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength)" Other media Video games Novels Following the release of Avatar, Cameron initially planned to write a novel based on the film, "telling the story of the movie, but [going] into much more depth about all the stories that we didn't have time to deal with." In 2013, this plan was superseded by the announcement of four new novels set within the "Avatar expanded universe", to be written by Steven Gould. The books were due to be published by Penguin Random House, although since 2017, but there has been no update on the planned book series. In July 2022, the first graphic novel based on the Avatar franchise was announced. Books The Art of Avatar is a film production art book released on November 30, 2009, by Abrams Books. The World of Avatar: A Visual Exploration Is a book that celebrates, explores, and explains the spectacular world of Pandora. The book was released on May 31, 2022, by DK Books The Art of Avatar The Way of Water takes an exclusive look behind-the-scenes on the production and creative process of James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water. It was released on December 16, 2022, by DK Books Avatar The Way of Water The Visual Dictionary is a visual guide that showcases characters, vehicles, weapons, locations, and more from the movie, as well as many stunning exclusive details. This book was released on December 16, 2022, by DK Books Comic books In October 2015, Dark Horse Comics signed a 10-year partnership to publish Avatar comics. On May 6, 2017, Dark Horse Comics published a Free Comic Book Day one-shot entitled FCBD 2017: James Cameron's Avatar / Briggs Land, which included a short story set in the world of Avatar entitled "Brothers". From January to August 2019, Dark Horse published a six-issue miniseries called Avatar: Tsu'tey's Path. Tsu'tey's Path was collected in trade paperback format on November 27, 2019, with "Brothers" included as supplementary material. Collected editions Live show Toruk – The First Flight is an original stage production by the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil which ran between December 2015 and June 2019. Inspired by Avatar, the story is set in Pandora's past, involving a prophecy concerning a threat to the Tree of Souls and a quest for totems from different tribes. Audience members could download an app in order to participate in show effects. On January 18, 2016, it was announced via the Toruk Facebook page that filming for a DVD release had been completed and was undergoing editing. Exhibition Avatar The Exhibition is a touring exhibition based on the first film. It opened in Chengdu, China on May 1, 2021, and closed on December 31, 2021. It is currently touring Asia with future stops planned around the globe. Theme park attractions Pandora: World of Avatar In 2011, Cameron, Lightstorm, and Fox entered an exclusive licensing agreement with The Walt Disney Company to feature Avatar-themed attractions at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts worldwide, including a themed land for Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The area, known as Pandora – The World of Avatar, opened on May 27, 2017. The themed land is set generations after the events of the films and features two attractions: Avatar Flight of Passage, a flying simulator attraction, and Na'vi River Journey, a boat dark ride. Avatar Land In February 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that a new attraction based on the Avatar films, named the Avatar Experience, would open at Disneyland. In August 2024, it was announced that the Avatar land will be built at Disney California Adventure. The land will be inspired by The Way of Water (2022), its upcoming sequel Fire and Ash (2025), and future Avatar films. Cultural considerations Some indigenous groups, including Native Americans, have called for a boycott of the franchise over "tone-deaf" handling of indigenous cultures and cultural appropriation. Both Avatar films have drawn criticism for casting several white and other non-indigenous actors in the roles of the alien native people. Cameron said he tried to move away from a white savior narrative. The film series was criticized for "romanticization of colonization" and putting forward a monolithic portrayal of Indigenous people. Cameron faced criticism for comments made after the release of the first film. In 2010, Cameron and Avatar actors supported the Xingu peoples in opposing the construction of the Belo Monte Dam. In 2012, Cameron said Avatar is a fictional retelling of the history of North and South America in the early Colonial period, "with all its conflict and bloodshed between the military aggressors from Europe and the indigenous peoples". Notes References External links Official website

The_Conquest_of_Bread

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

The Conquest of Bread (French: La Conquête du Pain; Russian: Хлѣбъ и воля, romanized: Khleb i volja, 'Bread and Freedom'; Хлеб и воля in contemporary spelling) is an 1892 book by the Russian anarchist communist Peter Kropotkin. Originally written in French, it first appeared as a series of articles in the anarchist journal Le Révolté. It was first published in Paris with a preface by Élisée Reclus, who also suggested the title. Between 1892 and 1894, it was serialized in part in the London journal Freedom, of which Kropotkin was a co-founder. In the work, Kropotkin identified what he considered to be the defects of the economic systems of feudalism and capitalism, and argued that these systems thrive on and maintain poverty and scarcity. He proceeded to propose a more decentralized economic system based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation, asserting that the tendencies for this kind of organization already exist, both in evolution and in human society. The Conquest of Bread has become a classic of political anarchist literature. It was heavily influential on both the Spanish Civil War and the Occupy movement. Background In 1886, Kropotkin was released from French prison. Fearful of the anarchist scare that was gripping continental Europe following the assassination of Alexander II and wishing to focus more time on composing theory and arguing for his revolutionary ideals, Kropotkin moved to London in the same year. Following the death of Mikhail Bakunin in 1876, anarchists desired a prominent and respected theorist to explain their ideas and—after the splitting of the First International between Marxists and anarchists—Kropotkin wished to formally explain anarchist communism in a way that would clearly differentiate the anarchists from the Marxists, but also help to correct what he saw as flaws in Bakunin's ideology of collectivist anarchism. With this aim, Kropotkin spent a great deal of time in London writing multiple books and pamphlets, in between his international speaking tours to the United States and Canada. It was during this time of rapid literary output that Kropotkin wrote The Conquest of Bread, which became his most well-known attempt to systematically explain the essential parts of anarchist communism. Kropotkin originally wrote the text in French and published in the French journal Le Révolté, where he served as the primary editor. Following its publication in France, Kropotkin published a serialized version in English in the London anarchist journal Freedom. The book would later be collected and published as a book in France in 1892 and in England in 1906. The publication of the text was a watershed moment in anarchist history, being the first time that a completed and in-depth theoretical work of anarchist communist theory was available to the public. The publication of the text shifted the focus of anarchism from individualist, mutualist and collectivist strains to social and communist tendencies. This shift would prove to be one of the most enduring changes in the history of anarchism as anarchism developed throughout the 20th century with Kropotkin and The Conquest of Bread as firm reference points. Summary Chapters 1–3: The Right to Well-Being Throughout the first three chapters, Kropotkin constructs an argument for the common ownership of all intellectual and useful property due to the collective work that went into creating it. Kropotkin does not argue that the product of a worker's labor should belong to the worker. Instead, Kropotkin asserts that every individual product is essentially the work of everyone since every individual relies on the intellectual and physical labor of those who came before them as well as those who built the world around them. Because of this, Kropotkin proclaims that every human deserves an essential right to well-being because every human contributes to the collective social product: No more of such vague formulae as "The right to work", or "To each the whole result of his labour." What we proclaim is the Right to Well-Being; Well-Being for All! Kropotkin further contends that the central obstacle preventing humanity from claiming this right is the state's violent protection of private property. Kropotkin compares this relationship to feudalism, saying that even if the forms have changed, the essential relationship between the propertied and the landless is the same as the relationship between feudal lords and their serfs. Kropotkin calls for the destruction of the state and the expropriation of all property into the commons, where the right to well-being can be achieved for all people. Chapters 4–11: Anarchist Communist Society Throughout the middle of the book, Kropotkin sketches a picture of what he feels an anarchist communist society could look like. He points to the huge levels of production that modern industrial society achieved in terms of food production, clothing production, and housing production, and he uses this as evidence of the feasibility of an anarchist communist society. More than enough of the essentials are produced for all people, Kropotkin argues; if they were only distributed properly, nobody would have any unmet needs. Kropotkin further argues that with the level of production output being so high people should not have to work more than five hours a day and they should be able to reduce that as much as possible, giving them free time for leisure, socialization, and to work on innovations that would reduce their labor. Near the end of this section, Kropotkin discusses luxury items, recognizing that they are a necessity for a good life and affirming that luxury items would still be produced, even if production was taken under the purview of common need. Kropotkin claims that luxury items would be produced on a collective basis by those most interested in their production. He uses an example of a group of pianists dedicating time to building luxury pianos with the help of a group of collective carpenters. Kropotkin argues that this system of collective production could produce necessary luxury items—on top of the production of the necessities—for everybody to live a fulfilling life. Chapters 12–17: Objections and Conclusion In the final chapters, Kropotkin lays out what he feels will be prominent objections to his theory as well as his responses to them. He figures that many critics will claim that people are naturally lazy and they would not work without a profit incentive, even if it is only for five hours and for basic necessities. Kropotkin counters by saying that people are willing to work in jobs they enjoy and given the necessary free time to work on their own, with the guarantee of material stability, people will work willingly on collective gardens or in collective garment factories. Near the end of the work, Kropotkin cautions against the state centralization of industry, warning people against more authoritarian strands of socialism and claiming that any revolution must guarantee bread and freedom to the workers and revolutionaries. He ends with a long chapter on agriculture, marveling at the many ways in which humans have cultivated and advanced agricultural production, dreaming about the ways that it could be used to feed everybody and guarantee a healthy and happy life for all people. Legacy The Conquest of Bread has made an impact which exceeds Kropotkin's own lifetime. It has played a prominent role in the anarchist militias of the Spanish Civil War as well as inspiring anarchist history, theory and praxis throughout the 20th century. Due to the problems of Marxism–Leninism in the Soviet Union, some thinkers came to regard the book as prophetic, with Kropotkin anticipating the many pitfalls and human rights abuses that would occur given the centralization of industry. After the 2007–2008 financial crisis and the subsequent Occupy movement, Kropotkin's work took on increased prominence. David Graeber, one of the intellectual leaders of the Occupy movement, cited Kropotkin directly as an inspiration for the world the Occupy protesters were attempting to create. In 2015, David Priestland, writing for The Guardian, called for a renewed look at Kropotkin and The Conquest of Bread in the West, given the recent collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the global financial crisis of 2007–2008. Sometimes the subject of leftist memes, it is known as "The Bread Book" colloquially.Since 2018, a loose group of left-leaning YouTube content creators have collectively been referred to as BreadTube, inspired by the title of the book. The term "breadpilled" refers to the act of becoming an anarcho-socialist, alluding to the red pill and blue pill from the 1999 film The Matrix. See also Bread and Freedom Fields, Factories and Workshops Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution Conqueror of Bread References External links The Conquest of Bread at Standard Ebooks The Conquest of Bread at Project Gutenberg The Conquest of Bread public domain audiobook at LibriVox The Conquest of Bread entry at the Anarchy Archives The Conquest of Bread entry at the Anarchist Library

Peter_Kropotkin

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

Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended Page Corps and later served as an officer in Siberia, where he participated in several geological expeditions. He was imprisoned for his activism in 1874 and managed to escape two years later. He spent the next 41 years in exile in Switzerland, France (where he was imprisoned for almost four years) and England. While in exile, he gave lectures and published widely on anarchism and geography. Kropotkin returned to Russia after the Russian Revolution in 1917, but he was disappointed by the Bolshevik state. Kropotkin was a proponent of a decentralized communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations of self-governing communities and worker-run enterprises. He wrote many books, pamphlets and articles, the most prominent being The Conquest of Bread (1892) and Fields, Factories, and Workshops (1899), with Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902) being his principal scientific offering. He contributed the article on anarchism to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition and left an unfinished work on anarchist ethical philosophy. Life Early life Kropotkin was born in Moscow on 9 December 1842, in the Konyushennaya ("Equerries") district. His father, Alexander, was a typical royal officer who owned serfs in three provinces and whose family descended from the Grand Princes of Smolensk. His mother, Ekatarina Sulima, was the daughter of General Nikolai Sulima and a descendant of a Zaporozhian Cossacks leader. Peter, the youngest of her four children, was three years old when she died of tuberculosis. Kropotkin's father remarried two years later. This stepmother was indifferent towards the Kropotkin children and had a streak of jealous vindictiveness, going through great lengths to remove the memory of Kropotkin's mother. With his father mostly absent, Kropotkin and his older brother, Alexander, were raised by their German nurse. Kropotkin developed an enduring compassion for the estate's servants and serfs who cared for him and relayed stories of his mother's kindness. He was raised in the family's Moscow mansion and an estate in Nikolskoye, Kaluga Oblast, outside Moscow. At the age of eight, Kropotkin attended Tsar Nicholas I's Royal Ball. Commending the child's costume, the tsar chose Kropotkin for his Page Corps, an elite school in St. Petersburg that combined military and court education and produced the tsar's imperial attendants. Kropotkin joined the Page Corps as a teenager and began a 14-year epistolary relationship with his brother that charts his intellectual and emotional development. By the time of his arrival, Kropotkin had already shown a populist position towards the emancipation of serfs and a nature of revolt against his father and the school's hazing. Kropotkin began his first underground revolutionary writings at the school, where he advocated for a Russian constitution. He developed an interest in science, reading, and opera. As a top student, Kropotkin became a sergeant-major in 1861 and was thrust into court life, serving as the emperor's personal Page de Chambre. His views of the tsar and court life soured as imperial policy changed over the next year. Privately he was preoccupied with the need to live a societally useful life. Siberia For his tour of service, in 1862 he chose the Amur Cossacks in east Siberia, an undesirable post that would let him study the technical mathematics of artillery, travel, life in nature and financial independence from his father. He developed a firm worldview of compassion for the poor and contrasted the pride and dignity of the yeoman peasant farmers against the indignities of serfdom. He wrote approvingly of the cultivated Transbaikalia governor-general Boleslav Kukel, to whom Kropotkin reported. Kukel engaged Kropotkin in prison reform and city self-governance projects that the central government ultimately denied. The exiled poet and political prisoner Mikhail Larionovitch Mikhailov introduced Kropotkin to anarchism by recommending he read an essay by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Kropotkin's brother came to live with him in Irkutsk. After Kukel's ouster in early 1863, Kropotkin found solace in geographical work. He led a disguised reconnaissance expedition to find a direct route through Manchuria from Chita to Vladivostok the next year. He explored the East Siberian Mountains in the north the year after. The mountain measurements from his 1866 Olekminsk-Vitimsk expedition confirmed his Manchurian hypothesis that the Siberian area from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean was a plateau and not a plain. This discovery of the Patom and Vitim Plateaus won him a gold medal from the Russian Geographical Society and led to the commercialization of the Lena gold fields. A range of mountains in this region was later named for him. Kropotkin covered Siberia for St. Petersburg newspapers since his arrival, including the condition of the Polish political exiles who participated in the unsuccessful 1866 Baikal Insurrection. Kropotkin secured a promise from the governor-general to suspend the prisoners' death sentences, which was reneged. Disillusioned, Kropotkin and his brother resolved to leave the military. His time in Siberia taught him to appreciate peasant social organization and convinced him that administrative reform was an ineffectual means to improve social conditions. After five years in Siberia, Kropotkin and his brother moved to St. Petersburg, where they continued their schooling and academic work. Kropotkin took a position with the Russian interior ministry with no duties. He studied physics, math, and geography at the university. After presenting his Vitim expedition findings, Kropotkin accepted the Russian Geographical Society's part-time offer of its Physical Geography section Secretaryship. Kropotkin translated Herbert Spencer for additional income. He continued to develop a theory, which he considered his best scientific contribution, that the East Siberian mountains were part of a large plateau and not independent ridges. Kropotkin participated in an 1870 polar expedition plan that postulated the existence of what was later discovered as the Franz Josef Land Arctic archipelago. In early 1871, he was commissioned to study the Ice Age in Scandinavian geography, in which Kropotkin developed theories of the glaciation of Europe and the glacial lakes of its northeast. His father died later that year and Kropotkin inherited a wealthy estate in Tambov. Kropotkin turned down the Geographical Society's offer of its general secretary position, instead choosing work on his Ice Age data and interest in bettering the lives of peasants. Anarchism While Kropotkin became increasingly revolutionary in his writings, he was not known for activism. He was spurred by the 1871 Paris Commune and trial of Sergey Nechayev. He and his brother attended meetings on the Franco-Prussian War and revolutionism. Likely at the encouragement of a Swiss extended family member and his own desire to see the socialist worker's movement, Kropotkin set out to see Switzerland and Western Europe in February 1872. Over three months, he met Mikhail Sazhin in Zurich, worked and fell out with Nikolai Utin's Marxist group in Geneva, and was introduced to the Jura Federation's James Guillaume and Adhémar Schwitzguébel. The Jura were the main internal opposition to the Marxist-controlled First International, as followers of Mikhail Bakunin. Kropotkin was quickly impressed and was instantly converted to anarchism by the group's egalitarianism and independence of expression, but narrowly missed meeting the leading anarchist, Bakunin, while there. Kropotkin visited Belgium's movement before returning to Russia in May with contraband literature. Back in St. Petersburg, Kropotkin joined the Chaikovsky Circle, a group of revolutionaries that Kropotkin considered more educational than revolutionary in their activities. Kropotkin believed in the inevitability of social revolution and the need for stateless social organization. His populist revolutionary program for the group focused on urban workers and peasants whereas the group's moderates focused on students. Partially for this reason, he declined to contribute his personal wealth to the group. He viewed professionals as unlikely to forgo their privileges and judged them to not live societally useful lives. His program emphasized federated agrarian communes and a revolutionary party. While he could speak powerfully, Kropotkin was not a successful organizer. Kropotkin's first political memo in November 1873 covered his basic plan for stateless social reconstruction including common property, worker control of factories, shared physical labor towards societal need, and labor vouchers in lieu of money. He emphasized living among commoners and using propaganda to focus mass dissatisfaction. He rejected the Nechayev conspiracy model. Members of the circle began to be arrested in late 1873 and the Third Section secret police came for Kropotkin in March 1874. His arrest for agitation, as a former page de chambre and officer, was scandalous. Kropotkin had just filed his Ice Age report and had been recently elected president of the Geographical Society's Physical and Mathematical Department. At the society's request the tsar granted Kropotkin books to finish his glaciation report. Kropotkin was held in the Peter and Paul Fortress. His brother, who had also radicalized as a follower of Lavrov, was also arrested and exiled in Siberia, where he committed suicide about a decade later. Kropotkin was moved to the House of Detention prison military hospital in St. Petersburg for poor health, with the help of his sister. With assistance from friends, he escaped from the minimal-security prison in June 1876. By way of Scandinavia and England, Kropotkin arrived in Switzerland by the end of the year, where he met Italian anarchists Carlo Cafiero and Errico Malatesta. He visited Belgium and Zurich, where he met French geographer Élisée Reclus, who became a close friend. Exile Kropotkin associated with the Jura Federation and began editing its publication. There he met Ukrainian Jewish student Sophie Kropotkin, and the two were married in 1878. In 1879, he started Le Révolté, a revolutionary fortnightly, in Geneva that published his personal articulation of anarchist communism, the idea of distributing work product communally based on need rather than by work. He became the philosophy's most prominent proponent, despite not creating it. The philosophy became part of the Jura program in 1880 at Kropotkin's advocacy. Le Révolté also published Kropotkin's best known pamphlet, "An Appeal to the Young," in 1880. Switzerland expelled Kropotkin at Russia's behest after the assassination of Alexander II in early 1881. He moved to Thonon-les-Bains, France, near Geneva, so that his wife could finish her Swiss education. Upon learning that the Holy League, a tsarist group, intended to kill him for his alleged association with the assassination, he moved to London, but could only bear to live there for a year. Upon his return in late 1882, the French arrested him for agitation, partly to appease Russia. He was sentenced to five years in Lyons. In early 1883, he was transferred to the Clairvaux Prison, where he continued his academic work. A public campaign of intellectuals and French legislators called for his release. Reclus published Words of a Rebel, a compilation of Kropotkin's Révolté writings while he was in prison, which became a main source of Kropotkin's thoughts on revolution. As Kropotkin's health worsened from scurvy and malaria, France released him in early 1886. He would stay in England through 1917, settling in Harrow, London, apart from brief trips to other European countries. In London in late 1886, he co-founded Freedom, an anarchist monthly and the first English anarchist periodical, which he continued to support for almost three decades. His first and only child, Alexandra Kropotkin, was born the next year. He published multiple books over the next coming years including In Russian and French Prisons and The Conquest of Bread. His intellectual circle in London included William Morris and W. B. Yeats as well as old Russian friends Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky and Nikolai Tchaikovsky. Kropotkin contributed to the Geographical Journal and Nature. After 1890, according to biographers George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumović, Kropotkin became more of a scholarly recluse and less of a propagandist. His works' revolutionary zeal subsided as he turned to social, ethical, and scientific questions. He joined the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He continued to contribute to Freedom but was no longer an editor. Several of Kropotkin's books began as journal articles. His writings on anarchist communist social life were printed in the French successor to Le Révolté and later revised into The Conquest of Bread in 1892. Kropotkin's writings on decentralizing production and industry against the countervailing trend of centralized industrialization were compiled into his Fields, Factories, and Workshops in 1899. His research throughout the 1890s on the animal instinct for cooperation as a counterpoint to Darwinism became a series of articles in Nineteenth Century and, later, the book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, which was widely translated. Following a scientific congress in Toronto in 1897, Kropotkin toured Canada. His experience there led him to advise the Russian Doukhobors who sought to immigrate there. He helped facilitate their emigration in 1899. Kropotkin entered the United States and met John Most, Emma Goldman, and Benjamin Tucker. American publishers published his Memoirs of a Revolutionist and Fields, Factories, and Workshops by the end of the decade. He visited the United States again in 1901 at the invitation of the Lowell Institute to give lectures on Russian literature that were later published. He published The Great French Revolution (1909), The Terror in Russia (1909), and Modern Science and Anarchism (1913). His 70th birthday in 1912 had celebratory gatherings in London and Paris. Kropotkin's support for Western entry into World War I, siding with Britain and France, divided the anarchist movement, which had been anti-war, and damaged his esteem as a luminary of socialism. He exacerbated this by insisting, with returning to Russia, that Russians support the war as well. Return to Russia With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Kropotkin returned to Russia in June 1917. He refused the Petrograd Provisional Government's offer of a cabinet seat. In August, he advocated for defending Russia and the revolution at the National State Conference. Kropotkin applied for a residence in Moscow in 1918, which was personally approved by Vladimir Lenin, head of the Soviet government. Months later, finding life in Moscow difficult in his old age, Kropotkin moved with his family to a friend's home in the nearby town of Dmitrov. In 1919, Emma Goldman visited his family there. Kropotkin met with Lenin in Moscow and corresponded by mail to discuss political questions of the day. He advocated for workers' cooperatives and argued against the Bolsheviks' hostage policy and centralization of authority while simultaneously encouraging Western comrades to stop their governments' military interventions in Russia. Kropotkin ultimately had little impact on the Russian revolution, but his advocacy work for political and anarchist prisoners in Russia and for the Russian revolution, during the last four years of his life replenished some of the goodwill he had lost from his support for Western powers in World War I. Kropotkin died of pneumonia on 8 February 1921. His family refused an offer of a state funeral. With his Moscow funeral, the Bolsheviks permitted the diminished Russian anarchist movement an official, restrained occasion to memorialize their figurehead. It was the last major anarchist demonstration of the period in Russia, as the movement and Kropotkin's writings would be fully suppressed later that year. Philosophy Critique of capitalism Kropotkin critiqued what he considered to be the fallacies of the economic systems of feudalism and capitalism. He believed they create poverty and artificial scarcity and promote privilege. Alternatively, he proposed a more decentralized economic system based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation. He argued that the tendencies for this kind of organization already exist, both in evolution and in human society. Kropotkin disagreed in part with the Marxist critique of capitalism, including the labor theory of value, believing there was no necessary link between work performed and the values of commodities. His attack on the institution of wage labor was based more on the power employers exerted over employees, and not only on the extraction of surplus value from their labor. Kropotkin claimed this power was made possible by the state's protection of private ownership of productive resources. However, Kropotkin believed the possibility of surplus value was itself the problem, holding that a society would still be unjust if the workers of a particular industry kept their surplus to themselves, rather than redistributing it for the common good. Critique of state socialism Kropotkin believed that a communist society could be established only by a social revolution, which he described as, "... the taking possession by the people of all social wealth. It is the abolition of all the forces which have so long hampered the development of Humanity". However, he criticized forms of revolutionary methods (like those proposed by Marxism and Blanquism) that retained the use of state power, arguing that any central authority was incompatible with the dramatic changes needed by a social revolution. Kropotkin believed that the mechanisms of the state were deeply rooted in maintaining the power of one class over another, and thus could not be used to emancipate the working class. Instead, Kropotkin insisted that both private property and the state needed to be abolished together. The economic change which will result from the Social Revolution will be so immense and so profound, it must so change all the relations based today on property and exchange, that it is impossible for one or any individual to elaborate the different social forms, which must spring up in the society of the future. [...] Any authority external to it will only be an obstacle, only a trammel on the organic labor which must be accomplished, and beside that a source of discord and hatred.Kropotkin believed that any post-revolutionary government would lack the local knowledge to organize a diverse population. Their vision of society would be limited by their own vindictive, self-serving, or narrow ideals. To ensure order, preserve authority, and organize production the state would need to use violence and coercion to suppress further revolution, and control workers. The workers would be reliant on the state bureaucracy to organize them, so they would never develop the initiative to self-organize as they needed. This would lead to the re-creation of classes, an oppressed workforce, and eventually another revolution. Thus, Kropotkin wrote that maintaining the state would paralyze any true social revolution, making the idea of a "revolutionary government" a contradiction in terms:We know that Revolution and Government are incompatible; one must destroy the other, no matter what name is given to government, whether dictator, royalty, or parliament. We know that what makes the strength and the truth of our party is contained in this fundamental formula — "Nothing good or durable can be done except by the free initiative of the people, and every government tends to destroy it;" and so the very best among us, if their ideas had not to pass through the crucible of the popular mind, before being put into execution, and if they should become masters of that formidable machine — the government — and could thus act as they chose, would become in a week fit only for the gallows. We know whither every dictator leads, even the best intentioned, — namely to the death of all revolutionary movement.Rather than a centralized approach, Kropotkin stressed the need for decentralized organization. He believed that dissolving the state would cripple counter-revolution without reverting to authoritarian methods of control, writing, "In order to conquer, something more than guillotines are required. It is the revolutionary idea, the truly wide revolutionary conception, which reduces its enemies to impotence by paralyzing all the instruments by which they have governed hitherto." He believed this was possible only through a widespread "Boldness of thought, a distinct and wide conception of all that is desired, constructive force arising from the people in proportion as the negation of authority dawns; and finally -- the initiative of all in the work of reconstruction -- this will give to the revolution the Power required to conquer." Kropotkin applied this criticism to the Bolsheviks' rule following the October Revolution. Kropotkin summarized his thoughts in a 1919 letter to the workers of Western Europe, promoting the possibility of revolution, but also warning against the centralized control in Russia, which he believed had condemned them to failure. Kropotkin wrote to Lenin in 1920, describing the desperate conditions that he believed to be the result of bureaucratic organization, and urging Lenin to allow for local and decentralized institutions. Following an announcement of executions later that year, Kropotkin sent Lenin another furious letter, admonishing the terror which Kropotkin saw as needlessly destructive. Cooperation and competition In 1902, Kropotkin published his book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, which gave an alternative view of animal and human survival. At the time, some proponents of "Social Darwinism" such as Francis Galton proffered a theory of interpersonal competition and natural hierarchy. Instead, Kropotkin argued that "it was an evolutionary emphasis on cooperation instead of competition in the Darwinian sense that made for the success of species, including the human". In the last chapter, he wrote: In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of species live in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian sense – not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a struggle against all natural conditions unfavourable to the species. The animal species [...] in which individual struggle has been reduced to its narrowest limits [...] and the practice of mutual aid has attained the greatest development [...] are invariably the most numerous, the most prosperous, and the most open to further progress. The mutual protection which is obtained in this case, the possibility of attaining old age and of accumulating experience, the higher intellectual development, and the further growth of sociable habits, secure the maintenance of the species, its extension, and its further progressive evolution. The unsociable species, on the contrary, are doomed to decay. Kropotkin did not deny the presence of competitive urges in humans, but did not consider them the driving force of human history. He believed that seeking out conflict proved to be socially beneficial only in attempts to destroy injustice, as well as authoritarian institutions such as the state or the Russian Orthodox Church, which he saw as stifling human creativity and impeding human instinctual drive towards cooperation. Kropotkin claimed that the benefits arising from mutual organization incentivizes humans more than mutual strife. His hope was that in the long run, mutual organization would drive individuals to produce. Anarcho-primitivists and anarcho-communists believe that a gift economy can break the cycle of poverty. They rely on Kropotkin, who believed that the hunter-gatherers he had visited implemented mutual aid. Mutual aid In his 1892 book The Conquest of Bread, Kropotkin proposed a system of economics based on mutual exchanges made in a system of voluntary cooperation. He believed that in a society that is socially, culturally, and industrially developed enough to produce all the goods and services it needs, there would be no obstacle, such as preferential distribution, pricing or monetary exchange, to prevent everyone to take what they need from the social product. He supported the eventual abolition of money or tokens of exchange for goods and services. Kropotkin believed that Mikhail Bakunin's collectivist economic model was just a wage system by a different name and that such a system would breed the same type of centralization and inequality as a capitalist wage system. He stated that it is impossible to determine the value of an individual's contributions to the products of labor and thought that anyone who was placed in a position of trying to make such determinations would wield authority over those whose wages they determined. According to Kirkpatrick Sale, "[w]ith Mutual Aid especially, and later with Fields, Factories, and Workshops, Kropotkin was able to move away from the absurdist limitations of individual anarchism and no-laws anarchism that had flourished during this period and provide instead a vision of communal anarchism, following the models of independent cooperative communities he discovered while developing his theory of mutual aid. It was an anarchism that opposed centralized government and state-level laws as traditional anarchism did, but understood that at a certain small scale, communities and communes and co-ops could flourish and provide humans with a rich material life and wide areas of liberty without centralized control." Self-sufficiency Kropotkin's focus on local production led to his view that a country should strive for self-sufficiency by manufacturing its own goods and growing its own food, thus lessening the need to rely on imports. To these ends, he advocated irrigation and greenhouses to boost local food production. Personal life Kropotkin married Sofia, a Russian Jewish student, in Switzerland in October 1878. She was over a decade younger than Kropotkin. Kropotkin references her as a primary source of criticism and feedback. Her published story, "The Wife of Number 4,237", was based on her own experience with her husband at Clairvaux prison. She created an archive in Moscow dedicated to his works before her death in 1941. Their only child, Alexandra, was born in London in 1887. Kropotkin was reserved about his private life. As an individual, Kropotkin was known for having exceptional integrity and moral character that matched his beliefs. Henry Hyndman, an ideological adversary, recalled Kropotkin's charm and sincerity. These traits, wrote Stepnyak-Kravchinsky, contributed to Kropotkin's power as a public speaker. As a thinker, Kropotkin focused more acutely on issues of morality than of economics or politics and carried himself by his own principles without imposition on others. In practice, this made him more of a "revolutionary humanitarian" than a revolutionist by deed. He was also known for being exceptionally kind and for forgoing material comforts to live a revolutionary, principled life by example. Gerald Runkle wrote that "Kropotkin with his scholarly and saintly ways ... almost brought respectability to the movement." Legacy As the anarchists' leading theorist in his lifetime, Kropotkin wrote their most systematic doctrine and in an accessible way; and led the development of anarchist-communist social doctrine. His works, inventive and pragmatic, were the most read anarchist books and pamphlets, with translations into major European and Eastern languages that influenced revolutionaries (e.g., Nestor Makhno and Emiliano Zapata) and non-anarchist reformers alike (e.g., Patrick Geddes, Ebenezer Howard), as well as a wide range of intellectuals (including the writers Ba Jin and James Joyce). Much of Kropotkin's impact was in his intellectual writings prior to 1914. He had little influence on the Russian revolution, despite returning for it. Emma Goldman regarded Kropotkin as her "great teacher" and as among the greatest minds and personalities of the 19th century. After Kropotkin's 1921 death, the Bolsheviks permitted Kropotkin's Moscow house to become a Kropotkin Museum. This closed in 1938 with his wife's death. Kropotkin is the namesake for multiple regional entities. The Konyushennaya district in Moscow, where Kropotkin was born, is now known by his name, as the Kropotkinsky district, including the Kropotkinskaya metro station. He is the namesake for a large town in the North Caucasus (southwest Russia) and a small town in Siberia. The Kropotkin Range he was first to cross in the Siberian Patom Highlands was named for him, as was a peak in East Antarctica. Works Books In Russian and French Prisons, London: Ward and Downey; 1887. The Conquest of Bread (Paris, 1892) Project Gutenberg e-text, Project LibriVox audiobook The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793 (French original: Paris, 1893; English translation: London, 1909). e-text (in French), Anarchist Library e-text (in English) The Terror in Russia, 1909, RevoltLib e-text Words of a Rebel, 1885, Fields, Factories, and Workshops (London and New York, 1898). Memoirs of a Revolutionist, London: Smith, Elder; 1899. Anarchist Library e-text, Anarchy Archives e-text Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (London, 1902) Project Gutenberg e-text, Project LibriVox audiobook Modern Science and Anarchism, 1903, * Russian Literature: Ideals and Realities (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1905). Anarchy Archives e-text The State: Its Historic Role, published 1946, Ethics: Origin and Development (unfinished). Included as first part of Origen y evolución de la moral (Spanish e-text) Pamphlets Articles See also Maria Leshern von Herzfeld Golets Kropotkin Notes References Bibliography Further reading Books on Kropotkin Butterworth, Alex (9 August 2011). The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists, and Secret Agents. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-38675-5. OCLC 676726867. Cahm, Caroline (1989). Kropotkin and the Rise of Revolutionary Anarchism 1872–1886. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36445-0. OCLC 19553164. Davis, Mike (2018). "The Coming Desert: Kropotkin, Mars and the Pulse of Asia". Old Gods, New Enigmas: Marx's Lost Theory. London: Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78873-217-8. OCLC 1014051592. Engelbert, Arthur (2012). Help! Gegenseitig behindern oder helfen. Eine politische Skizze zur Wahrnehmung heute. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann. ISBN 978-3-8260-5017-6. OCLC 822991908. Joll, James (1980). The Anarchists. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03641-3. OCLC 6016024. Mac Laughlin, Jim (4 November 2023). Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition. London: Pluto Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt19qgdvc. ISBN 9780745335131. JSTOR j.ctt19qgdvc. OCLC 937451696. Maíz, Jordi, ed. (2021). Kropotkin. Cien años después. Madrid: Fundación de Estudios Libertarios Anselmo Lorenzo. ISBN 978-84-123507-1-5. OCLC 1264877365. Miller, Martin A. (1976). Kropotkin. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-52594-5. OCLC 1035901653. Morris, Brian (2004). Kropotkin: The Politics of Community. Oakland, California: PM Press. ISBN 9781629635057. OCLC 1030892242. Walter, Nicolas (2004). "Kropotkin, Peter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/42326. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) Woodcock, George; Avakumović, Ivan (1950). The Anarchist Prince: A Biographical Study of Peter Kropotkin. Kraus Reprint. ISBN 9780805203059. OCLC 242229. Periodical articles Afinogenov, Greg (4 May 2023). "What should the action be?". London Review of Books. Vol. 45, no. 9. ISSN 0260-9592. Alan, Barnard (March 2004). "Mutual Aid and the Foraging Mode of Thought: Re-reading Kropotkin on the Khoisan". Social Evolution & History. 3 (1): 3–21. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.515.4372. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kropotkin, Peter Alexeivich" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 928. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Kropotkin, Peter Alexeivich, Prince" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 31 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 688. Efremenko, Dmitry; Evseeva, Yaroslava (2012). "Studies of Social Solidarity in Russia: Tradition and Modern Trends". The American Sociologist. 43 (4): 349–365. doi:10.1007/s12108-012-9165-2. ISSN 0003-1232. JSTOR 23319618. S2CID 255519594. Gould, S. J. (June 1997). "Kropotkin Was No Crackpot". Natural History. 106: 12–21. "Prince P. A. Kropotkin". Nature. 106 (2675): 735–736. February 1921. Bibcode:1921Natur.106..735.. doi:10.1038/106735a0. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 4292571. External links Works by Peter Kropotkin in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by or about Peter Kropotkin at the Internet Archive Works by Peter Kropotkin at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Kropotkin Museum peterkropotkin.org

Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Aid:_A_Factor_of_Evolution

Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution is a 1902 collection of anthropological essays by Russian naturalist and anarchist philosopher Peter Kropotkin. The essays, initially published in the English periodical The Nineteenth Century between 1890 and 1896, explore the role of mutually beneficial cooperation and reciprocity (or "mutual aid") in the animal kingdom and human societies both past and present. It is an argument against theories of social Darwinism that emphasize competition and survival of the fittest, and against the romantic depictions by writers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who thought that cooperation was motivated by universal love. Instead, Kropotkin argues that mutual aid has pragmatic advantages for the survival of human and animal communities and, along with the conscience, has been promoted through natural selection. Mutual Aid is considered a fundamental text in anarchist communism. It presents a scientific basis for communism as an alternative to the historical materialism of the Marxists. Kropotkin considers the importance of mutual aid for prosperity and survival in the animal kingdom, in indigenous and early European societies, in the medieval free cities (especially through the guilds), and in the late 19th century village, labor movement, and impoverished people. He criticizes the State for destroying historically important mutual aid institutions, particularly through the imposition of private property. Many biologists (including Stephen Jay Gould, one of the most influential evolutionary biologists of his generation) also consider it an important catalyst in the scientific study of cooperation. Reception Daniel P. Todes, in his account of Russian naturalism in the 19th century, concludes that Kropotkin's work "cannot be dismissed as the idiosyncratic product of an anarchist dabbling in biology" and that his views "were but one expression of a broad current in Russian evolutionary thought that pre-dated, indeed encouraged, his work on the subject and was by no means confined to leftist thinkers." Kropotkin emphasizes the distinction between competitive struggle between individual organisms over limited resources and collective struggle between organisms and the environment. He drew from his firsthand observations of Siberia and Northeast Asia, where he saw that animal populations were limited not by food sources, which were abundant, but rather by harsh weather. For example, predatory birds may compete by stealing food from one another while migratory birds cooperate in order to survive harsh winters by traveling long distances. He did not deny the competitive form of struggle but argued that the cooperative counterpart has been under-emphasized: "There is an immense amount of warfare and extermination going on amidst various species; there is, at the same time, as much, or perhaps even more, of mutual support, mutual aid, and mutual defense... Sociability is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle." As a description of biology, Kropotkin's perspective is consistent with contemporary understanding. Stephen Jay Gould admired Kropotkin's observations, noting that cooperation, if it increases individual survival, is not ruled out by natural selection, and is in fact encouraged. Kropotkin's ideas anticipate the now recognized importance of mutualism (a beneficial relationship between two different species) and altruism (when one member of a species aids another) in biology. Examples of altruism in animals include kin selection and reciprocal altruism. Douglas H. Boucher places Kropotkin's book as a precursor to the development of the biological theory of altruism. Editions See also A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution and Cooperation Ethology Evolutionary anthropology Psychological egoism List of books about anarchism References External links Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, the original edition at archive.org Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution at The Anarchist Library Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution at Libcom.org Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution at Standard Ebooks Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution at Project Gutenberg Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution – HTML version at the Anarchy Archives Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution – Plain PDF version at the RevoltLib Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution public domain audiobook at LibriVox Paul Mattick, Kropotkin on Mutual Aid — Review, 1956. Iain McKay, Mutual Aid: An Introduction and Evaluation, AK Press, Edinburgh, 2010.

Ace_Ventura:_Pet_Detective

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Ventura:_Pet_Detective

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is a 1994 American comedy film starring Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura, an animal detective who is tasked with finding the abducted dolphin mascot of the Miami Dolphins football team. The film was directed by Tom Shadyac, who wrote the screenplay with Jack Bernstein and Carrey. The film co-stars Courteney Cox, Tone Loc, Sean Young, and then–Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino and features a cameo appearance from death metal band Cannibal Corpse. Morgan Creek Productions produced the film on a budget of $15 million, and Warner Bros. released the film in February 1994. It grossed $72.2 million in the United States and Canada and $35 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $107.2 million. It received mixed reviews from critics. Carrey's performance led to the film having a cult following among male adolescents. In addition to launching Carrey's film career, it also started a franchise, spawning the sequel film Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), the animated television series Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1995–2000), and later, standalone made-for-television sequel Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective (2009). Plot Ace Ventura, an eccentric and offbeat private detective in Miami, is known for rescuing tame or captive animals. Despite struggles with rent and constant mockery from the Miami Police Department, led by Lieutenant Lois Einhorn, Ventura is hired by Melissa Robinson, the Miami Dolphins' publicist, to find their kidnapped mascot, Bottlenose dolphin Snowflake, just weeks before the upcoming Super Bowl. Investigating the kidnapping, Ventura finds a rare amber stone in Snowflake's tank, leading him to suspect billionaire Ronald Camp, a collector of exotic animals. However, after sneaking into Camp's party and facing a dangerous encounter with a shark, Ventura rules out Camp as the stone in his ring matches the one found but is not missing. Ventura then theorizes that the stone is from a 1984 AFC Championship ring, suggesting a member of the 1984 Dolphins as the culprit, but finds all rings intact. Roger Podacter, the Dolphins' head of operations, dies mysteriously, and Ventura proves murder. His investigation leads him to Ray Finkle, a disgraced former Dolphins placekicker who missed the potentially game-winning kick in the 1984 Super Bowl and blamed quarterback Dan Marino for it. Ventura also learns that Finkle had been committed for homicidal tendencies shortly after the Dolphins released him following the Super Bowl loss. With Marino's subsequent kidnapping, Ventura suspects Finkle is seeking revenge. Disguised as a patient at a psychiatric facility, Ventura discovers that Einhorn is actually Finkle, who had altered his appearance and infiltrated the police - under the assumed identity of a missing hiker - for revenge. On the day of the game, Ventura confronts Einhorn at a yacht storage facility, holding Marino and Snowflake hostage. In a dramatic revelation, Ventura exposes Einhorn as Finkle, leading to his arrest after a physical altercation. The climax unfolds at the Super Bowl's halftime, where Marino and Snowflake are celebrated, and Ventura is hailed as a hero on the jumbotron. The event is capped off by Ventura's scuffle with the Philadelphia Eagles' mascot Swoop over a rare pigeon, earning him a standing ovation. Cast Production The Chairman and CEO of Morgan Creek Productions, James G. Robinson, in the early 1990s, sought to produce a comedy that would have wide appeal. Gag writer Tom Shadyac pitched a rewrite of the script to Robinson and was hired as director for what was his directorial debut. Filmmakers first approached Rick Moranis to play Ace Ventura, but Moranis declined the role. They then considered casting Judd Nelson or Alan Rickman, and they also considered changing Ace Ventura to be female and casting Whoopi Goldberg as the pet detective. David Alan Grier also turned down to play Ace Ventura. Ultimately Robinson noticed Jim Carrey's performance in the sketch comedy show In Living Color and cast him as Ace Ventura. Lauren Holly turned down the role of Melissa Robinson, which eventually went to Courteney Cox. Carrey helped rewrite the script, and filmmakers allowed him to improvise on set. Carrey said of his approach, "I knew this movie was going to either be something that people really went for, or it was going to ruin me completely. From the beginning of my involvement, I said that the character had to be rock 'n' roll. He had to be the 007 of pet detectives. I wanted to be unstoppably ridiculous, and they let me go wild." He said he sought comedic moments that would be unappealing to some, "I wanted to keep the action unreal and over the top. When it came time to do my reaction to kissing a man, I wanted it to be the biggest, most obnoxious, homophobic reaction ever recorded. It's so ridiculous it can't be taken seriously—even though it guarantees that somebody's going to be offended." The death metal band Cannibal Corpse performed their song "Hammer Smashed Face" in the film at the request of Jim Carrey, who personally selected the band for the film; the band originally had scheduling conflicts with a European tour, but the crew adjusted their filming schedule to accommodate the band to be able to participate in the film. Their appearance in the film significantly increased their visibility, attracting a broader audience beyond their typical fan base. The filming took place in Miami, Florida in the second quarter of 1993. The film was produced on a budget of $15 million. Music The film score was composed by Ira Newborn. The soundtrack, produced by Morgan Creek Records, included a variety of songs by other musicians. Release Warner Bros. released Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in 1,750 theaters in the United States and Canada on February 4, 1994. The film grossed $12.1 million on its opening weekend, ranking first at the box office and outperforming other new releases My Father the Hero and I'll Do Anything. Opening-weekend audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on a scale of A to F. For its second weekend, it grossed $9.7 million and ranked first at the box office again, outperforming newcomers The Getaway, Blank Check, and My Girl 2. Variety reported of Ace Ventura's second weekend in box office performance, "The goofball comedy defied dire predictions by trackers, slipping just 20% for a three-day average of $5,075 and $24.6 million in 10 days." The Los Angeles Times reported, "Audiences are responding enthusiastically to Carrey's frenzied antics... [The film] is especially a hit with the 10- to 20-year-old age group it was originally targeted for. Box-office grosses indicate that many fans are going back to see the film again." It grossed $72.2 million in the United States and Canada and $35 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $107.2 million. The film's US box office performance led Variety to label it a "sleeper hit". Its best performance overseas was in Italy. On home video, Ace Ventura sold 4.2 million home videos in its first three weeks, which Los Angeles Times called "just as powerful a draw" as its theatrical run. Carrey also starred in The Mask and Dumb and Dumber later in the year. The three films had a total box office gross of $550 million, which ranked Carrey as the second highest-grossing box office star in 1994, behind Tom Hanks. The Hollywood Reporter said before Ace Ventura, Jim Carrey was "seen mainly as TV talent" and that the film's success "firmly [established] him as a big-screen presence". The film's success also led Morgan Creek Productions to produce the 1995 sequel Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls with Carrey reprising his role. Author Victoria Flanagan wrote that Carrey's performance "generated cult success for the film among adolescent male viewers". The Hollywood Reporter wrote that it "gained a loyal cult following through frequent TV airings". NME wrote in retrospect that the film was a "cult 1990s comedy". Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was released on VHS on June 14, 1994, on DVD on August 26, 1997, and Blu-ray on September 3, 2013 by Warner Home Video. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on Blu-ray for the 25th Anniversary Edition in April 2019. Critical reception The Los Angeles Times reported at the time, "Not many critics have been charmed by Ace Ventura's exploits, and several have charged that the film's humor is mean-spirited, needlessly raunchy and homophobic." A biography on Carrey wrote that "the fans loved him and the critics hated him". Ace Ventura: Pet Detective received "generally unfavorable" reviews from contemporary critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic, which assessed 14 reviews and categorized six as negative, five as positive, and three as mixed. It gave the film an overall score of 37 out of 100. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes assessed a sample of 64 contemporary and retrospective reviews as positive or negative and said 47% of the critics gave positive reviews with an average rating of 4.9/10. In 2019, Rotten Tomatoes wrote of the consensus, "Jim Carrey's twitchy antics and gross-out humor are on full, bombastic display in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, which is great news for fans of his particular brand of comedy but likely unsatisfying for anyone else." Roger Ebert, reviewing for the Chicago Sun-Times, said, "I found the movie a long, unfunny slog through an impenetrable plot." Ebert described the lead role, "Carrey plays Ace as if he's being clocked on an Energy-O-Meter, and paid by the calories expended. He's a hyper goon who likes to screw his mouth into strange shapes while playing variations on the language." Steve Gaydos of Variety praised Carrey's "ceaseless energy and peculiar talents" but reported, "Film sputters and eventually slows to a trot due to the script's inability to give Carrey anything more than a free rein to mug and strut, and a third-act payoff that takes the film's generally inoffensive tastelessness into a particularly brutal and unpleasant stew of homophobia and misogyny." The New York Times film critic Stephen Holden said, "The comic actor Jim Carrey gives one of the most hyperactive performances ever brought to the screen... Only a child could love Mr. Carrey's character, but that may be the point. The movie has the metabolism, logic, and attention span of a peevish 6-year-old." He said of Ace Ventura's animals, "The few scenes of Ace communicating with his animals hint at an endearing wackiness that is abruptly undercut by the movie's ridiculous plot." The Washington Post's film critics Rita Kempley and Desson Howe reviewed the film positively. Kempley said, "A riot from start to finish, Carrey's first feature comedy is as cheerfully bawdy as it is idiotically inventive." She added, "A spoof of detective movies, the story touches all the bases." Howe said that the film "is a mindless stretch of nonsense" and highlighted multiple "Carreyisms along the way". Howe concluded, "There are some unfortunate elements that were unnecessary—a big strain of homophobic jokes for one, profane and sexual situations that rule out the kiddie audience for another. But essentially, Ace is an unsophisticated opportunity to laugh at the mischief Carrey's body parts can get up to." James Berardinelli said, "The comic momentum sputters long before the running time has elapsed." Berardinelli said of Carrey that he "uses his rubber features and goofy personae" that succeeds for a short time but after that, "Carrey's act gradually grows less humorous and more tiresome, and the laughter in the audience seems forced." The critic said the film has "its moments" of humor but considered there to be "a lot of dead screen time" in between. While Michael MacCambridge of Austin American-Statesman named it as an honorable mention of his list of the best films of 1994, Rocky Mountain News's Rober Denerstein listed it as the second worst of the year. Accolades Transgender portrayal In the film, the male ex-football player Finkle disguises himself over an extended period of time as the female police lieutenant Einhorn. Based on Ace Ventura's reaction to an outing of Einhorn as Finkle, the film has been criticized for the way it portrays transgender people. New Vistas outlined the negative portrayal, "...the transgender character was the villain of the film and her body/being attracted to her, made characters physically ill. Additionally, the film showed transphobic behaviours by the main character who ridiculed, humiliated, misgendered, and exposed the body of the trans female character without her consent." Alexandra Gonzenbach Perkins wrote in Representing Queer and Transgender Identity that mainstream representation of transgender identity at the turn of the 21st century was limited, observing that "the representations that did exist tended to pathologize transgender people as mentally unstable". Perkins said Ace Ventura, along with The Crying Game, depicted "transgender characters as murderous villains". In the book Reclaiming Genders, in a chapter focusing on transgender identity, Gordene O. Mackenzie references Ace Ventura as an example of turn-of-the-century films that "illustrate the transphobia implicit in many popular US films". Mackenzie describes the scene in which Ace Ventura retches in the bathroom, following the revelation that the woman he had kissed is trans, as "one of the most memorable and blatantly transphobic/homophobic scenes". In The New York Times in 2016, Farhad Manjoo also wrote about this scene, "There was little culturally suspect then about playing gender identity for laughs. Instead, as in many fictional depictions of transgender people in that era, the scene’s prevailing emotion is of nose-holding disgust." Future In October 2017, Morgan Creek Entertainment announced plans to reboot several films from its library, including Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Its president David Robinson said Morgan Creek's plan was not to simply remake the film but to do a follow-up in which Ace Ventura passes the mantle to a new character, such as a long-lost son or daughter. In 2018, according to Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls co-star Tommy Davidson, Carrey displayed a lack of interest in participating. By March 2021, a sequel film was in development at Amazon Studios with the screenwriters of the 2020 film Sonic the Hedgehog, Pat Casey and Josh Miller, attached. References External links Ace Ventura: Pet Detective at IMDb

Miami_Dolphins

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

The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Greater Miami area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team plays its home games at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, a northern suburb of Miami. The team is owned by Stephen M. Ross. The Dolphins are the oldest professional sports team in Florida. Of the four AFC East teams, the Dolphins are the only team in the division that was not a charter member of the American Football League (AFL). The Dolphins were also one of the first professional football teams in the southeast, along with the Atlanta Falcons. The Dolphins were founded by Joe Robbie, an attorney and politician, and Danny Thomas, an actor and comedian. They began play in the AFL in 1966. The region had not had a professional football team since the days of the Miami Seahawks, who played in the All-America Football Conference in 1946, before becoming the first incarnation of the Baltimore Colts. For the first few years, the Dolphins' full-time training camp and practice facilities were at Saint Andrew's School, a private, boys boarding prep school in Boca Raton. Miami joined the NFL as a result of the 1970 AFL–NFL merger. The team played in its first Super Bowl in Super Bowl VI, losing to the Dallas Cowboys, 24–3. The following year, the Dolphins completed the NFL's only perfect season, culminating in a Super Bowl win, winning all 14 of their regular-season games, and all three of their playoff games, including Super Bowl VII. They were the third NFL team to accomplish a perfect regular season, and remain the only team to do so including playoffs since the AFL-NFL merger, the time known as the Super Bowl era. The next year, the Dolphins won Super Bowl VIII, becoming the first team to appear in three consecutive Super Bowls, and the second team (the first AFL/AFC team) to win back-to-back championships. Miami also appeared in Super Bowl XVII and Super Bowl XIX, losing both games. For most of their early history, the Dolphins were coached by Don Shula, the most successful head coach in professional football history in terms of total games won. Under Shula, the Dolphins posted losing records in only two of his 26 seasons as the head coach. During the period spanning 1983 to the end of 1999, quarterback Dan Marino became one of the most prolific passers in NFL history, breaking numerous league passing records. Marino led the Dolphins to five division titles, 10 playoff appearances, and an appearance in Super Bowl XIX before retiring following the 1999 season. Since Marino's retirement, they have experienced mediocre levels of success and have just six playoff appearances (2000, 2001, 2008, 2016, 2022, and 2023) and two division titles (2000 and 2008) with one playoff win. They currently have the longest postseason win drought in the NFL. Franchise history The Miami Dolphins joined the American Football League (AFL) when an expansion franchise was awarded to lawyer Joseph Robbie and actor Danny Thomas in 1965 for $7.5 million, although Thomas would eventually sell his stake in the team to Robbie. During the summer of 1966, the Dolphins' training camp was in St. Pete Beach with practices in August at Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport. Don Shula The Dolphins were the worst team with a 15–39–2 record in their first four seasons under head coach George Wilson, before Don Shula was hired as head coach. Shula was a Paul Brown disciple who had been lured from the Baltimore Colts, after losing Super Bowl III two seasons earlier to the AFL's New York Jets, and finishing 8–5–1 the following season. Shula got his first NFL coaching job from then-Detroit head coach George Wilson, who hired him as the defensive coordinator. The AFL merged with the NFL in 1970, and the Dolphins were assigned to the AFC East division in the NFL's new American Football Conference. For the rest of the 20th century, the Shula-led Dolphins emerged as one of the most dominant teams in the NFL, with only two losing seasons between 1970 and 1999. They were extremely successful in the 1970s, completing the first complete perfect season in NFL history by finishing with a 14–0 regular-season record in 1972 and winning the Super Bowl that year. It was the first of two consecutive Super Bowl wins and one of three appearances in a row. The 1980s and 1990s were also moderately successful. The early 80s teams made two Super Bowls despite losing both times and saw the emergence of future Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino, who went on to break numerous NFL passing records, holding many of them until the late 2000s. After winning every game against the division rival Buffalo Bills in the 1970s, the two teams gradually developed a competitive rivalry in the 80s and 90s, often competing for AFC supremacy when Jim Kelly emerged as the quarterback for the Bills. The Dolphins have also maintained a strong rivalry with the New York Jets throughout much of their history. Following the retirements of Marino and Shula and the rise of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, the Dolphins suffered a decline in the 2000s and 2010s. During this period, the team's level of play was largely described as mediocre. They have only made the playoffs four times since Marino's retirement and have largely been unable to find a consistent quarterback to replace him. Jimmy Johnson Jimmy Johnson was hired to replace Shula prior to the 1996 season. In his first season at the helm, he led the team to a 8–8 record and missed the postseason. In the 1997, the team improved to a 9–7 mark and made the postseason. The team saw their season end in the Wild Card Round with a 17–3 loss to the New England Patriots. In the 1998 season, the team went 10–6 and made the postseason. The Dolphins defeated the Bills 24–17 in the Wild Card Round before falling to the Denver Broncos 38–3 in the Divisional Round. In the 1999 season, the Dolphins went 9–7 and made the postseason. The team defeated the Buffalo Bills 24–17 in the Wild Card Round before falling 62–7 to the Jacksonville Jaguars in what would be quarterback Dan Marino's final game. Johnson resigned following the season. Dave Wannstedt Going into the 2000 season, the Dolphins named Dave Wannstedt as head coach. In his first season with the Dolphins, he led the team to a 11–5 record and an AFC East title. The team defeated the Indianapolis Colts 23–17 in the Wild Card Round before losing 27–0 to the Oakland Raiders in the Divisional Round. In the 2001 season, the team made the postseason with a 11–5 record and runner-up placement in the AFC East. The team lost to the Baltimore Ravens 20–3 in the Wild Card Round. In the 2002 season, the team failed to make the postseason despite a 9–7 record. In the 2003 season, the team went 10–6 but missed the postseason. Following a 1–8 start in the 2004 season, Wannstedt resigned. Jim Bates finished out the year with a 3–4 mark. Nick Saban Nick Saban coached the Dolphins in the 2005 and 2006 seasons. He went 9–7 and 6–10 in those two seasons, missing the playoffs in both. Saban resigned following the 2006 season to leave for the University of Alabama. Cam Cameron Prior to the 2007 season, the Dolphins hired Cam Cameron has head coach. The team suffered a franchise-worst 1–15 season in 2007. After the 2007 season, the team fired Cameron. Tony Sparano Tony Sparano was named head coach of the Dolphins prior to the 2008 season. In his first season, he led the team to an 11–5 result and an AFC East title. During the season, they became the second team to make a 10-game improvement over the previous season. That same season, the Dolphins upset the New England Patriots on the road during Week 3 thanks to the use of the gimmick Wildcat offense, which handed the Patriots their first regular-season loss since December 10, 2006, in which coincidentally, they were also beaten by the Dolphins. However, this success in 2008 proved to be an outlier during this period in the franchise's history; to date, it is the last season the Dolphins won the AFC East. The team's season ended with a 27–9 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the Wild Card Round. The 2009 and 2010 seasons saw regression with a 7–9 record in both years. After a 4–9 start to the 2011 season, Sparano was fired. Todd Bowles finished the 6–10 season as interim coach. Joe Philbin Prior to the 2012 season, the team hired Joe Philbin as head coach. In his first season at the helm, Philbin led the team to a 7–9 record. In the 2013, the team improved to a 8–8 record but still missed the postseason. In the 2014 season, the team added Bill Lazor as offensive coordinator. The Dolphins once again finished 8–8. After a 1–3 start to the 2015 season, Philbin was fired. Dan Campbell was named as interim coach and finished the year with a 5–7 mark. Adam Gase Prior to the 2016 season, the team hired Adam Gase as head coach. He led the team to a 10–6 record and a postseason berth in the 2016 season. The team's season ended with a 30–12 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card Round. In the 2017 season, the Dolphins regressed to a 6–10 record. In the 2018 season, the Dolphins finished with a 7–9 record. After a cumulative 23–25 record, Gase was fired by the Dolphins. Brian Flores Prior to the 2019 season, the Dolphins hired Brian Flores as head coach. He led the team to a 5–11 record in the 2019 season. The team drafted Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. In the 2020 season, the team improved to a 10–6 mark but still missed the postseason. In the 2021 season, the team went 9–8 but missed the postseason. Following the end of the 2021 season, Flores was fired as head coach. Mike McDaniel Prior to the 2022 season, Mike McDaniel was hired as head coach. In his first season, he led the Dolphins to a 9–8 record and a 34–31 loss to the Bills in the Wild Card Round. In the 2023 season, the team improved to a 11–6 mark but the season again ended in the Wild Card Round with a 26–7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Championships Super Bowl championships AFC championships Rivalries Divisional New England Patriots The Dolphins dominated the New England Patriots during the 1970s and the 1990s, but there were some notable moments as well, including a 1982 game now known as the Snowplow Game. Fortunes changed when Tom Brady became the franchise quarterback for the Patriots, and during his tenure with the Patriots, New England dominated the AFC, especially the AFC East, winning 16 of 17 division titles between 2003 and 2019, with the Dolphins winning the only non-Patriots division title in that time frame when Brady was out due to injury. Miami posed the biggest divisional challenge to the Brady-led Patriots, however, winning more games against them than the Bills or Jets did during that era. Notable wins over New England by the Dolphins include the Miracle in Miami, which involved a dramatic last-minute game-winning touchdown that paralleled "The Night that Courage Wore Orange", where in 2004, the Dolphins, at 2–11, upset the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots 28–29, and handed them the second of their 2 losses that season. The rivalry briefly intensified in 2005 when Nick Saban, Bill Belichick's former Browns defensive coordinator was hired as their new head coach and when Saban nearly signed quarterback Drew Brees, as well as in 2008, when the two teams battled for the AFC East division title. Miami and New England are also the only two franchises to have posted undefeated regular-season records since the NFL-AFL merger, with Miami going 14–0 in 1972 and New England going 16–0 in 2007, but only the 1972 Dolphins were able to win the Super Bowl. As of the 2023 season, the Dolphins lead the all-time series 62–55. Buffalo Bills The Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills have a long-standing rivalry, as there are stark characteristic differences between the cities of Miami and Buffalo, especially in climate and culture. The rivalry was extremely lopsided in favor of Miami during the 1970s, as the Dolphins won all 20 games against the Bills during that decade. Fortunes changed in the 1980s and 1990s when Jim Kelly became the Bills' starting quarterback. Though both teams were extremely dominant during that period, the Bills ultimately held the edge and dominated the Dolphins during their four playoff matchups in the 1990s, with the Dolphins' only playoff win coming after Kelly's retirement. With the rise of Tom Brady and the Patriots during the 2000s and the retirements of Kelly and Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino, the Bills-Dolphins rivalry faded in relevance, but remains somewhat intense to this day. Some former Dolphins have gone to play for the Bills as well, most notably Dan Carpenter, Chris Hogan, and Charles Clay. In the 2020s, the rivalry sharpened, with Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, drafted in 2020, leading a resurgent Dolphins team against the Josh Allen-led Bills, who had gained a streak of success after Brady's departure from the Patriots and the division. Though Allen's career record against Miami currently stands at 11–2, Tagovailoa led the Dolphins to their first win over Bills in 8 games in 2022, and the Dolphins played the Bills tightly in the teams' two other meetings that year despite losing both, including the playoffs. As of the 2023 season, the Dolphins lead the all-time series 62–58–1. New York Jets The New York Jets are perhaps Miami's most bitter rivals. Dolphins fans despise the Jets due to the sheer amount of New York City transplants who have moved to South Florida and the Jets' usual cocky demeanor. Just as the Bills-Dolphins rivalry is motivated by differences, the Dolphins-Jets series is also notable for the differences between New York and Miami. Unlike the former, this rivalry has been more consistent over the years. Some of the more memorable moments in this rivalry include Dan Marino's fake spike, Vinny Testaverde leading the Jets to a notable comeback on Monday Night Football, and former Jets quarterback Chad Pennington signing with the Dolphins and leading them to a divisional title. The two teams have also played in the 1982 AFC Championship, with Miami winning to face the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVII. As of the 2023 season, the Dolphins lead the all-time series 60–56–1. Conference Jacksonville Jaguars The Dolphins have taken part in a minor rivalry with the Jacksonville Jaguars as both teams are the only two AFC franchises located in Florida. The two teams first met during the 1998 NFL season on a Monday Night Football matchup. Both teams later met in the 1999 AFC Divisional Round in what would ultimately be the final career game for Dolphins' hall-of-fame quarterback Dan Marino. The Dolphins entered the game as heavy underdogs as they had finished the 1999 season 9–7, securing the lowest wild card berth. Meanwhile; the Jaguars had boasted an impressive 14–2 campaign under pro-bowl quarterback Mark Brunell; culminating in the Jaguars destroying Miami in a 62–7 blowout loss. The Jaguars managed an improbable upset victory during the 2021 Season as the team had declined severely under controversial head coach Urban Meyer. Despite this; the Jaguars managed a comeback victory against the Dolphins in London during week 6. The teams are tied 5–5 all time, though the Jaguars lead 1–0 in the postseason. Indianapolis Colts When the then-Baltimore Colts were inserted into the AFC East following the AFL/NFL merger, they sparked a heated rivalry with the Dolphins, as a controversy involving the hiring of former Colts coach Don Shula forced Miami to forfeit a first-round draft pick. The Dolphins and Colts faced off several times in the AFC playoffs during the 1970s, including the AFC championship game leading up to Super Bowl VI, which the Dolphins lost to the Dallas Cowboys. The rivalry cooled down in the 1980s after the Colts struggled and moved to Indianapolis, but heated up once again in the late 90s until the Colts were reassigned into the AFC South as a result of the 2002 realignment of the NFL's divisions. As of 2023, the Dolphins lead the all-time series 48–28. Inter Conference Tampa Bay Buccaneers Since the founding of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976, the Dolphins and Buccaneers have shared a mellow in-state rivalry and were the only two teams in Florida until the Jacksonville Jaguars joined the NFL in 1995. As of the 2023 season, the Buccaneers lead the all-time series 7–5. Historic Kansas City Chiefs The Dolphins won a notable pair of games against the Kansas City Chiefs, defeating them in "The Longest Game", the final game in Municipal Stadium, and then the first regular season game at Arrowhead Stadium in 1972. As of the 2023 season, the Chiefs lead the all-time series 17–16. Las Vegas Raiders, San Diego Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers The Dolphins also share historic rivalries with other AFC teams such as the Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, and Pittsburgh Steelers, stemming from often competing against these teams in the playoffs during the Don Shula era. As of the 2023 season, the Raiders lead the all-time series 21–20–1. Facilities Stadiums The Dolphins originally played all home games in the Orange Bowl in Miami. They moved to the new Joe Robbie Stadium after the 1986 season. From 1993 to 2011, the Dolphins shared the stadium with Major League Baseball's Florida Marlins (now known as the Miami Marlins). The venue has had multiple naming rights deals since 1996, carrying the names Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, LandShark Stadium, Sun Life Stadium, New Miami Stadium and, as of August 2016, Hard Rock Stadium. The facility is located in Miami Gardens, a suburb of Miami located approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of downtown Miami. The Miami Dolphins share Hard Rock Stadium with the NCAA Miami Hurricanes. The 2015–2016 season was the first season in the newly renovated Hard Rock Stadium. The Dolphins spent more than two years and over $400 million on a major overhaul to Hard Rock Stadium. Every seat was replaced and the lower-level seats were moved closer to the field. There are roughly 10,000 fewer seats. Training St. Petersburg Beach hosted the Dolphins' first training camp in 1966. St. Andrew's School in Boca Raton hosted training camp in the late 1960s. The Dolphins subsequently trained in Miami Gardens at Biscayne College, later renamed St. Thomas University, from 1970 until 1993. In 1993, the Dolphins opened the Miami Dolphins Training Facility at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. In 2006, the facility added a domed field that allows the team to practice during thunderstorms which are common in the area during the summer. In 2021, the Dolphins opened a new, 135 million training facility, dubbed the Baptist Health Training Complex, the Dolphins will practice in. The complex is located next to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. Franchise information Logos and uniforms Leaping dolphin (1966–2012) The Dolphins logo and uniforms remained fairly consistent from the team's founding through 2012. The team's colors were originally aqua and coral, with the coral color paying tribute to the Miami Seahawks and to the many natural coral reefs in Biscayne Bay. The team's original logo consisted of a sunburst with a leaping dolphin wearing a football helmet bearing the letter M. At their debut in 1966, a lighter & brighter orange was used instead of the deep coral color. The dolphin's head was near the center of the sunburst. In the 1967 season, the dolphin was centered on the sunburst, but it reverted to the original placement between 1968 and 1973. By 1974, the dolphin's body was centered on the sunburst in a slightly smaller logo than the 1967 version. The uniforms featured white pants with aqua and orange stripes, paired with either a white or aqua jersey. On the white jersey, aqua block numbers and names were outlined in orange, with aqua and orange sleeve stripes. Starting with the 1972 perfect season, these uniforms were used as the primary uniforms for road games and daytime home games, due to the extreme heat of South Florida. The team also had an aqua jersey used mainly for night home games or road games in which the opponent chose to wear white. The aqua jersey featured white block numbers and names with an orange outline, and orange and white sleeve stripes. An update was given to the logo in 1997 – the sunburst was simplified and the dolphin was darkened and given a more serious game-face expression. The uniforms remained the same; however, a different block number font was used and navy drop shadows were added. On very rare occasions, an orange jersey was used for primetime games. The uniforms essentially swapped the location of orange and aqua from the aqua jersey. The orange jersey was first used on a Sunday night in 2003 against Washington, a Dolphin win. In 2004, the orange jersey was brought back for an Monday Night Football match pitting the 2–11 Dolphins against the 12–1 defending champion New England Patriots. The Dolphins scored a huge upset win after trailing by 11 points with less than 5 minutes remaining. Due to the unusual orange jerseys, the game has become known within some Dolphin circles as "The Night That Courage Wore Orange". The orange jerseys were used for a 2009 Monday night win against the New York Jets. However, the Dolphins would lose a 2010 Sunday night matchup with the Jets, their first loss in orange, and the orange jerseys in the original style would not be worn again. In 2009, the Dolphins switched to black shoes for the first time since the early 1970s glory days, following a recent trend among NFL teams. However, by 2011, they returned to wearing white shoes. The Dolphins' final game in the original style uniforms with block numbers and the iconic leaping dolphin logo was the final game of the 2012 season, a 28–0 shutout loss to the New England Patriots in Foxboro. The white jerseys were worn for the game, and as rumors of a new look had been swirling, many fans watching knew that it would likely be the last time their team would wear the leaping dolphin logo. Stylized swimming dolphin (2013–present) A new logo and new uniforms were unveiled shortly before the 2013 NFL draft. The new logo features a stylized aqua dolphin swimming in front of a heavily modified version of the orange sunburst. The dolphin in the logo is more vague and artistic, and is not wearing a helmet as it is merely a silhouette of a dolphin cast in aqua and navy. Navy was incorporated as featured color for the first time, with orange becoming greatly de-emphasized. The uniforms feature both white pants and aqua pants, with a white or aqua jersey. The Dolphins continue to wear white at home, just as they had with the previous uniforms, with aqua being used for primetime home games. The white jersey features aqua numbers and names in a unique custom font, with orange and navy outlines on the numbers; however, the names only use navy as an outline color. The aqua jerseys use white numbers with an orange and aqua outline, and white names with a navy outline. The helmets are white with a white facemask, just like the final years of the previous look; however, navy is a prominent color on the helmet stripe, joining aqua and a de-emphasized orange. Both jerseys have large "Dolphins" text above the numbers, written in the team's new script. The pants are either aqua or white, and contain no markings other than a small team wordmark. In 2018, the team made some slight modifications to the logo and uniform set: The shades of orange and aqua were tweaked, and navy blue was removed from the color scheme, only remaining on the logo. Throwback uniforms In 2015, the Dolphins brought back their 1970s aqua uniforms for a few select games. Four years later, they brought back a white version from the same era as a second alternate uniform. The aqua throwbacks were worn during the now-famous 2018 Miracle in Miami play against the Patriots. Color Rush uniform On September 29, 2016, the Dolphins debuted their new Color Rush uniform in a Thursday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The all-orange uniform marked the first time since 2010 that the Dolphins wore an orange uniform. However, the set was only used for that game as the Dolphins immediately retired the uniform soon after. In later years, the Dolphins wore similar all-aqua or all-white uniforms in select games as the NFL gradually relaxed its rules regarding hosiery. Fight song The song was written and composed by Lee Ofman, and has similar instrumentation and lyrics to the fight song of the Houston Oilers. Ofman approached the Dolphins with it before the 1972 season because he wanted music to inspire his favorite team. The fight song would soon serve as a good luck charm for the Dolphins that season. The Dolphins became the first team in NFL history to record an undefeated season, going 17–0 en route to victory over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII. The following season, Miami posted an equally impressive 15–2 record and capped the season with another title, defeating the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl VIII. The back-to-back championship runs, coupled with the popularity of the fight song amongst Dolphins fans, have ensured the song's longevity. The Dolphins revealed a new fight song by T-Pain and Jimmy Buffett featuring Pitbull on August 7, 2009, which was introduced for the 2009 NFL season. The fight song was played during the preseason home opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars on August 17, 2009, but was not played during the second preseason game against the Carolina Panthers on August 22, 2009, after being booed heavily in the first game. Furthermore, the team has preferred to play Buffett's song "Fins" after scores during the 2009 regular season instead of the traditional fight song. Cheerleaders The team's cheerleaders are known collectively as the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders. The company had its debut in 1978 as the Dolphins Starbrites. (The name referred to the co-sponsor, Starbrite Car Polish.) The cheerleaders' founding choreographer was June Taylor, famed colleague of Jackie Gleason, who led the squad until her retirement in 1990. Special Teams/Volunteer Program In April 2010, the Dolphins started the first Volunteer Program in the NFL. Special Teams is a unique volunteer organization created to enlist and mobilize the ongoing services of the community with the Dolphins staff, players and alumni. The mission of the Special Teams is to offer hands-on services to communities and families in need, to partner with existing organizations on worthwhile social, civic and charitable programs, to provide assistance at Miami Dolphins Foundation events, and to support community efforts in times of emergency. This program is headed by Leslie Nixon and Sergio Xiques. Since its inception, Special Teams has given over 250,000 community services hours to the South Florida and Mexico community. Mascots T.D. ("The Dolphin") On Friday, April 18, 1997, the first "official" mascot of the Miami Dolphins was introduced. The 7-foot mascot made his public debut on April 19 at Pro Player Stadium during the team's draft-day party. The team then made a "Name the Mascot" contest that drew over 13,000 entries covering all 50 states and 22 countries. 529 names were suggested. The winning entry was announced at the annual Dolphins Awards Banquet on June 4, 1997. Dolfan Denny Denny Sym cheered on the Miami Dolphins for 33 years as a one-man sideline show, leading Miami crowds in cheers and chants in his glittering coral (orange) and aqua hat from the Dolphins' first game in 1966 until 2000. Sym died on March 18, 2007. He was 72. Flipper From 1966 to 1968, and in the 1970s a live dolphin was situated in a water tank in the open (east) end of the Orange Bowl. He would jump in the tank to celebrate touchdowns and field goals. The tank that was set up in the 1970s was manufactured by Evan Bush and maintained during the games by Evan Bush and Dene Whitaker. Flipper was removed from the Orange Bowl after 1968 to save costs, and in the 1970s due to stress. Radio and television In August 2010, the team launched its own regional TV network to carry preseason games and in-season content such as coach and player shows. The Dolphins Television Network comprises 10 South Florida TV stations that agreed to carry the team-produced coverage. Preseason games are broadcast on television through CBS-owned WFOR-TV in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, WTVX in West Palm Beach, WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, and WRDQ in Orlando. Longtime TV and radio personality Dick Stockton provides play-by-play commentary, with Dolphins Hall-of-Fame QB Bob Griese and former Dolphins WR Nat Moore providing color commentary. The radio broadcast team features Jimmy Cefalo providing play-by-play commentary and Joe Rose providing color commentary during preseason games, along with Griese for regular-season games. Griese replaced longtime color commentator Jim Mandich after his death in 2011, who played for the Dolphins under Don Shula. Radio coverage as of the 2023 season is carried WINZ (940 AM) and WBGG-FM (105.9 FM). Additionally, games can also be heard in Spanish on WNMA (1210 AM), with Raúl Striker Jr. and Joaquin Duro providing play-by-play and color commentary, respectively. CBS-owned WFOR, in addition to preseason telecasts, airs most of the Dolphins' regular season games and Thursday Night Football, with rare home games moved or delayed by hurricanes carried by sister station WBFS-TV due to network conflicts, and some games carried by WSVN when flexed to Fox. When playing on Sunday night, the team's matches will be broadcast on NBC's WTVJ. The Dolphins' radio affiliates: English Spanish Season-by-season records Players Current roster Players of note Miami Dolphins in the Pro Football Hall of Fame The Dolphins currently have ten players, and one coach enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, that have spent the majority (or entirety) of their careers, or made significant contributions with the Miami Dolphins. Three other players and four coaches/contributors that have spent only a "minor portion" of their careers with the Dolphins, have also been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but have been enshrined primarily with other teams. Retired numbers The Miami Dolphins currently have three retired jersey numbers: No. 12 for Bob Griese, which was retired on a Monday Night Football broadcast in 1985. No. 13 for Dan Marino, which was retired on September 17, 2000, during halftime of the "Ravens @ Dolphins" game on Sunday Night Football. No. 39 for Larry Csonka, which was retired on December 9, 2002 (30th anniversary of Miami's "1972 Undefeated Team"), during halftime of the "Bears @ Dolphins" game on Monday Night Football. The Dolphins have other numbers that have currently not been issued to any player, or are currently in reduced circulation, but not yet officially retired. They include: No. 54 for Zach Thomas No. 99 for Jason Taylor Individual award winners Listed below are the individuals who have won the following NFL, Super Bowl, and Pro Bowl MVP awards, the Offensive and Defensive Rookie and Player of the Year awards, the Comeback Player of the Year winners, the winners of the prestigious NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, and the winner of the Coach of the Year Award for the Miami Dolphins. Bold indicates those elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. NFL All-Decade Team and 100th Anniversary All-Time Team selections The following are Miami Dolphins (players and/or coaches) who have been selected to an "All-Decade Team", or the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team by the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee. Bold indicates those elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Pro Bowl selections Many former and current Miami Dolphins players have represented the franchise in the Pro Bowl (or the AFL All-Star Game). Below is a list of current or former players that play or have played for the Miami Dolphins that have been selected to at least five Pro Bowls. 50 greatest players In 2015, to commemorate the Miami Dolphins' 50th NFL season, the Dolphins organization announced through voting from the South Florida Media and Miami Dolphin fans the results of the 50 greatest players in Miami Dolphins franchise history. The results were announced during halftime on Monday Night Football between the Dolphins and the Giants. Here are the 50 greatest Dolphins broken down by position. Bold indicates those elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Offense: QB: Bob Griese, Dan Marino, Earl Morrall HB: Jim Kiick, Mercury Morris, Tony Nathan, Ricky Williams FB: Larry Csonka WR: Mark Clayton, Mark Duper, O.J. McDuffie, Nat Moore, Paul Warfield TE: Bruce Hardy, Keith Jackson, Jim Mandich C: Jim Langer, Mike Pouncey, Dwight Stephenson G: Bob Kuechenberg, Larry Little, Ed Newman, Keith Sims T: Norm Evans, Richmond Webb Defense: DT: Bob Baumhower, Tim Bowens, Manny Fernandez DE: Doug Betters, Vern Den Herder, Bill Stanfill, Jason Taylor, Cameron Wake LB: Kim Bokamper, Bob Brudzinski, Nick Buoniconti, Bryan Cox, A. J. Duhe, John Offerdahl, Zach Thomas CB: Brent Grimes, Sam Madison, Patrick Surtain S: Dick Anderson, Glenn Blackwood, Louis Oliver, Jake Scott Special teams: K: Garo Yepremian P: Reggie Roby ST: Jim Jensen Miami Dolphins Ring of Honor/Honor Roll The Miami Dolphins Ring of Honor, formerly known as the Honor Roll, is a ring around the second tier of Hard Rock Stadium that honors former players, coaches, owners and contributors who have made significant contributions to the franchise throughout their history. Each of these players is honored with a placard on the facing of the upper level around Hard Rock Stadium including team founder-owner Joe Robbie. In place of a jersey number, Shula has the number 347, representing his record number of NFL coaching victories, 274 of them as Dolphins head coach. Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees are additionally denoted by a hall of fame logo next to their names. In 1992, at the 20-year anniversary, Miami's "1972 Undefeated Team" was enshrined into the Honor Roll. At the 40 year anniversary, which enshrined former defensive coordinator Bill Arnsparger into the Honor Roll, his name went on the Honor Roll where the "1972 Undefeated Team" inductee previously and originally was enshrined, and an updated "1972 Perfect Season Team 17–0" inductee was put into one corner of Hard Rock Stadium with special placards of Super Bowl VII and Super Bowl VIII included next to it on each side. The inductees as of 2024 include: Joe Robbie Alumni Plaza Walk of Fame The Joe Robbie Alumni Plaza Walk of Fame was first established in 2011, designed to be all-encompassing and recognize the best of the Miami Dolphins alumni, including those in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Honor Roll, and as well as the many other players who were among the unsung heroes and community leaders that the organization has produced. The "Walk of Fame" is located at the north end of Hard Rock Stadium, with a life-size bronze statue of Joe Robbie, the original founder and owner of the Miami Dolphins from 1966 to 1989. Bold indicates those elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The inductees as of 2018 (by yearly class) are: Class of 2011: Nick Buoniconti, Larry Csonka, Bob Griese, Jim Langer, Larry Little, Joe Robbie, Dan Marino, Don Shula, Dwight Stephenson, Paul Warfield Class of 2012: Tim Bowens, A. J. Duhe, Manny Fernandez, Nat Moore, Earl Morrall, Don Strock Class of 2013: Kim Bokamper, Mercury Morris, O. J. McDuffie, Keith Sims Class of 2014: Jeff Cross, Sam Madison, Tony Nathan, Ed Newman No classes from 2015 to 2017, due to modernization and reconstruction at Hard Rock Stadium Class of 2018: Dick Anderson, Mark Clayton, Mark Duper, Jon Giesler, John Offerdahl, Jason Taylor All-time first-round draft picks Staff Head coaches The Dolphins have had 14 head coaches in franchise history. Current staff References External links Official website Miami Dolphins at the National Football League official website Franchise Encyclopedia at Pro Football Reference

1995_Miami_Dolphins_season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Miami_Dolphins_season

The 1995 Miami Dolphins season was the franchise's 30th season, 26th in the National Football League, and 26th and final under head coach Don Shula. The Dolphins finished 9–7 before losing to the Bills in the playoffs. Until the 2022 NFL season, this marked the last time the Dolphins finished with a top 10 Offense. Offseason NFL Draft 1995 Expansion Draft Transactions July 27: The Miami Dolphins signed Defensive End Steve Emtman Roster Regular season Schedule Standings Playoffs AFC Wild Card Game Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino completed 33 of 64 passes for 422 yards and two touchdowns, but also threw three interceptions. The Bills used an NFL-playoff record 341 rushing yards to gain a 27–0 lead by the start of the fourth quarter. Don Shula's retirement The week after Miami's playoff loss to Buffalo, Shula announced his retirement. His 347 wins as a head coach, including 257 with the Dolphins, are an NFL record. Shula coached in six Super Bowls, winning two, and in 1972 he led the only unbeaten and untied season in NFL history. Shula was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997 and is considered one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. Awards and honors Dan Marino, AFC Pro Bowl Selection Dan Marino, All-Pro Selection Notes and references Miami Dolphins on Pro Football Reference Miami Dolphins on jt-sw.com

1997_Miami_Dolphins_season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Miami_Dolphins_season

The 1997 season was the Miami Dolphins' 32nd season in the National Football League (NFL), their 28th overall, their eighth under general manager Eddie Jones and their second under head coach Jimmy Johnson. The Dolphins improved upon their previous season's output of 8–8, winning nine games. Seven of the team's sixteen games were decided by a field goal or less. This was also the season where the Dolphins released a new logo and new uniforms with a darker aqua and dark navy drop shadow in numbers. The uniforms and logo lasted until the 2012 season. During Week 3, the Dolphins were defeated by the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers for the first time in franchise history. This could be argued as the most cursed of all Dolphins seasons because it offered a turnaround where the New England Patriots defeated the Dolphins 3 times in the 1997 season, sweeping them. This was the first of five consecutive playoff appearances for the Dolphins. This season saw the Patriots return three Marino interceptions for touchdowns in New England (two of them in the 2nd quarter of the week 13 matchup, and one in the Wild Card matchup where the Patriots defeated Miami 17–3). The Wild Card loss came less than a week after the Dolphins lost to the Patriots 14–12 on Monday Night Football in Miami for the AFC East division title. Until 2021, this was the last time the Dolphins swept the New York Jets in back-to-back seasons. Offseason NFL draft Staff Roster Schedule Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. Playoffs Game summaries Week 1: vs Indianapolis Colts Standings == References ==

1998_Miami_Dolphins_season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Miami_Dolphins_season

The 1998 Miami Dolphins season was the team's 33rd overall and 29th as a member of the National Football League (NFL). The Dolphins improved upon their previous season's output of 9–7, winning ten games. The team qualified for the playoffs for the second straight year. The Dolphins defeated the Buffalo Bills 24–17 in the Wild Card round, but lost to the defending and eventual Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos 38–3 in the Divisional Playoff Game. The 2012 Football Outsiders Almanac states that the 1998 Dolphins had the single biggest defensive improvement (from the previous season) from 1991 to 2011. As with the 1985 Bears, the Dolphins defeated a team (the Broncos) widely tipped a few weeks earlier to beat their unbeaten 1972 season, although this time the Dolphins were not defending their status as the only unbeaten team since the Giants had already beaten the Broncos. Because, before the admission of the Texans in 2002, scheduling for NFL games outside a team's division was subject to much greater influence from table position during the previous season, that game was the first time the Dolphins had opposed the Broncos since that same 1985 season. This season marked the last time the Dolphins finished with the #1 Defense in the NFL. Offseason NFL Draft Roster Schedule Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. Playoffs Standings == References ==

1999_Miami_Dolphins_season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Miami_Dolphins_season

The 1999 Miami Dolphins season was the team's 34th campaign, and 30th in the National Football League (NFL). It was the 17th and final season for Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino. Marino suffered an injury on October 17 against the New England Patriots, with Damon Huard taking over at quarterback. The team would go 4–1 under Huard, including a 17–0 victory over the Tennessee Titans. Marino would return on November 25, against the Dallas Cowboys, throwing five interceptions in the 20–0 loss. The Dolphins reached the midway point of the 1999 season with a 7–1 record, but in the second half of the year, the team struggled, finishing out the season 2–6, winning only one game after Marino's return. The team finished the season 9–7, beating out the Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC's last wild card spot via tiebreakers; Miami held a better record against common opponents, going 6–1 to the Chiefs' 5–3. In the Wild Card round, the Dolphins upset the no. 3 seed Seattle Seahawks 20–17. In the Divisional round, the Dolphins were humiliated by the no. 1 seed Jacksonville Jaguars, losing 62–7, the most lopsided playoff loss in the Super Bowl era. Offseason 1999 NFL draft Roster Regular season Schedule Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. Source: Standings Game summaries Week 1 at Denver Broncos The Dolphins opened the season on the road against the defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. The Broncos were without their longtime quarterback John Elway, who announced his retirement during the off-season. Brian Griese, son of former Dolphins quarterback Bob Griese, was Denver's starting quarterback, throwing a 61-yard touchdown pass to Ed McCaffrey early in the 1st quarter. Griese would play inconsistently for the rest of the game and was sacked twice, while Dan Marino was sacked zero times. In the 4th quarter, Griese fumbled the ball, with Jason Taylor recovering it and running it into the end zone for a touchdown. Week 2 vs. Arizona Cardinals The Dolphins' defense picked off Cardinals quarterback Jake Plummer four times during the game. Arizona only scored one touchdown during the game, a 34-yard interception return by Rob Fredrickson in the 2nd quarter. Week 4 at Buffalo Bills Week 5 at Indianapolis Colts The Dolphins were trailing 31–22 in the 4th quarter before staging a furious comeback with just under 3:30 left to play, scoring 12 unanswered points in the span of nearly 3 minutes. The run started with a 43-yard field goal from Olindo Mare with 3:20 left. With 1:54 left, Miami's defense forced Peyton Manning to run out the end zone, resulting in a safety. On the ensuing drive, Dan Marino led the offense down the field, capping it off with a 2-yard pass to Oronde Gadsden for the game-winning score. The Dolphins' defense sealed the game, with Terrell Buckley intercepting a Manning pass on the Colts' final drive of the game. Miami compiled 469 yards of offense and committed no turnovers. Marino threw for 393 yards while two players finished with over 100 yards receiving: Gadsden with 123 yards and Tony Martin with 166. Week 6 at New England Patriots Dan Marino's only completion of the game was on a 8-yard pass that put him over 60,000 passing yards for his career. On Marino's second pass attempt, he was hit by Lawyer Milloy, with Andy Katzenmoyer intercepting the ball and returning it 57 yards for a touchdown. On the following drive, Marino would attempt a short pass that fell short of his intended receiver. Coach Jimmy Johnson would pull Marino from the game due to a possible shoulder injury; in the week heading into the game, Marino thought he might have injured his right trapezius. Marino was replaced by Damon Huard, whose first pass was intercepted by Ty Law and returned 27 yards for a touchdown. Despite the rocky start, Huard would lead the Dolphins to a 31–30 comeback victory, throwing a 5-yard touchdown pass to fullback Stanley Pritchett with 23 seconds left in the game for the game-winning score. Week 7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles With Dan Marino out due to injury, Damon Huard started at quarterback for the Dolphins, his first NFL start. Week 8 at Oakland Raiders Damon Huard started at quarterback for the second week in a row. After having thrown a pick six in each of the previous two games, Huard committed no turnovers against Oakland. Week 9 vs. Tennessee Titans The Dolphins' defense shutout the Titans, picking off Steve McNair three times. This was one of only three games that Tennessee would lose during the regular season. Week 10 at Buffalo Bills Damon Huard struggled throughout the game, only completing 36% of his passes for 65 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. This was the only game of the season Miami would lose with Huard starting at quarterback. Week 11 vs. New England Patriots Miami's defense picked off Drew Bledsoe five times. This was the last game of the season Damon Huard would start at quarterback, as Dan Marino would return for the following game four days later. Miami finished 4–1 with Huard as starter. Week 12 at Dallas Cowboys NFL on Thanksgiving Day Dan Marino's first game after returning from injury was a disaster. Marino threw five interceptions, one of which was returned 46 yards by Dexter Coakley in the 3rd quarter for the first score of the game. The Dolphins' defense tried to help keep the team in the game, shutting out the Cowboys' offense for three quarters. The game's only offensive score came in the 4th, with Troy Aikman throwing a 65-yard touchdown pass to Rocket Ismail. Week 13 vs. Indianapolis Colts The Dolphins trailed 24–10 at halftime, but tied the game twice in the 4th quarter, including a 32-yard field goal from Olindo Mare with 0:36 left in regulation. However, Indianapolis kicker Mike Vanderjagt made a 53-yard field goal as time expired to give the Colts a 37–34 victory. Week 14 at New York Jets The Dolphins had a 13–6 lead at the start of the 4th quarter, but the team collapsed in the final quarter of play. The Jets scored 22 unanswered points in the 4th quarter, including a 67-yard interception return by Omar Stoutmire. Week 15 vs. San Diego Chargers Neither team managed to a score a touchdown during the game. The Dolphins' defense held the Chargers to 186 yards of total offense and forced one turnover. This was the last regular season game Dan Marino would win in his career. Week 16 vs. New York Jets Week 17 at Washington Redskins Dan Marino started at quarterback, but was pulled from the game and replaced by Damon Huard; Marino finished 11-of-24 for 118 yards with one interception. Despite the loss, the Dolphins still qualified for the playoffs as the Chiefs lost earlier in the day to the Raiders. Playoffs AFC Wild Card Playoffs: at (3) Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks played host to their first playoff game since the 1984 season. The Seahawks were dominated by the Dolphins defense, who held them to only 171 yards, with just 32 in the second half, and sacked Seahawks quarterback Jon Kitna six times, three by Trace Armstrong. Although Seattle jumped out to a 17–10 lead in the 3rd quarter, the Dolphins would rally back behind quarterback Dan Marino, who threw for 196 yards and a touchdown, leading his team to their first road playoff win since 1972 in what ultimately proved to be the final game played at The Kingdome (the Seahawks moved into Husky Stadium for the 2000 season) and the final win of Marino's career. The Dolphins were the only away team to win in the wild-card round. AFC Divisional Playoffs: at (1) Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars shredded their in-state rivals the Dolphins with 520 total offensive yards in what became Miami quarterback Dan Marino's last game in the NFL and the most lopsided postseason contest since the Chicago Bears defeated the Redskins 73–0 in the 1940 NFL Championship Game. Their defense forced seven turnovers and held the Dolphins to 131 total yards. Marino was held to just 11 of 25 completions for 95 yards and 1 touchdown, with 2 interceptions and a fumble that was returned for a touchdown in his final game. Marino retired shortly after the season ended. This was also Jimmy Johnson's final game as an NFL head coach; Johnson resigned the day after the game. == Notes and references ==

2000_Miami_Dolphins_season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Miami_Dolphins_season

The 2000 Miami Dolphins season was the franchise's 31st season in the National Football League, the 35th overall and was their first under new head coach Dave Wannstedt who was named the fourth head coach in franchise history on January 16, 2000, the same day that Jimmy Johnson announced his retirement from coaching. For the first season since 1982, Dan Marino was not on the opening day roster, as he announced his retirement prior to the season. Believed by many as the greatest Miami Dolphin of all time, Marino led the Dolphins to ten playoff appearances, one of which ended in Super Bowl XIX, and is the winningest quarterback to have not won a Super Bowl. Jay Fiedler, who left the Jacksonville Jaguars, succeeded Marino as starting quarterback. Damon Huard remained a backup quarterback and started for Fiedler in one game during the season. Although Marino was no longer on the team, the Dolphins hoped to improve from their 9–7 record in the previous season. The Dolphins began the season strong, with a 6–2 record halfway through. Both losses were by small margins. The second loss occurred during a road game dubbed the Monday Night Miracle, against the New York Jets, which scored 30 points in the fourth quarter and then defeated the Dolphins by a field goal in overtime. The Dolphins fared only slightly worse in the second half of the season, winning five games and losing three. The team finished with a record of 11–5, their best record since 1992. This was the Dolphins' fourth consecutive winning season and the first time the club won the AFC East title since 1994. Additionally, this was the Dolphins' fourth consecutive season in which they advanced to the playoffs. In the wild card round, they defeated the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 23–17 in overtime. However, the Dolphins were shut out 27–0 by the Oakland Raiders in the divisional round the following week. As of the 2024 season, this is the last season that Miami has won a playoff game, making it 24 straight years that the Miami Dolphins have failed to win in the playoffs. Until the 2021 season, this marked the last time the Dolphins swept the New England Patriots during the regular season. Seven Dolphins players were selected for the Pro Bowl. Offseason NFL draft Undrafted free agents Staff Roster Preseason Regular season Schedule Games summaries Week 1: vs. Seattle Seahawks Jay Fiedler started as quarterback in the first Miami Dolphins season opener without Dan Marino since 1983. Fiedler threw for 134 yards, completing 15 out of 24 passes, with no turnovers. In contrast, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Jon Kitna was intercepted four times and lost a fumble. Two of the four interceptions were caught by cornerback Sam Madison. Overall, Seattle had six turnovers. Kitna completed 6 out of 13 passes for only 54 yards, before being benched early in the third quarter due to poor performance and being replaced by Brock Huard, brother of Damon Huard. Dolphins running back Lamar Smith rushed for 145 yards. Winning 23–0, Miami caused Seattle to have their first shutout defeat since their 0–19 loss to the Los Angeles Raiders in October 1992. Miami opened the season with a record of 1–0 for the ninth consecutive year. Week 2: at Minnesota Vikings Miami traveled to Minneapolis for their first road game of the season against the Minnesota Vikings on September 10. Although Minnesota dominated Miami in terms of yardage, the game remained close throughout because mistakes by both teams kept them of out the opponent's end zone until the fourth quarter. Fiedler threw for 175 yards, completing only 12 of 31 passes and throwing an interception to Keith Thibodeaux in the third quarter. Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper threw for 355 yards and completed 23-for-37, but had three interceptions. Minnesota scored first during the first quarter with a field goal by Gary Anderson. However, neither team would record another score until the fourth quarter. After another field goal from Anderson and a touchdown pass from Culpepper to Randy Moss, the score was 13–0 in favor of Minnesota with 1:56 left in the game. Miami finally scored with a 2-yard touchdown pass from Fiedler to Thurman Thomas with barely a minute on the clock. After that, the Dolphins attempted an onside kick, but the ball was recovered by Orlando Thomas of the Vikings, effectively ending the game with a 13–7 win for Minnesota. Miami fell to 1–1. Week 3: vs. Baltimore Ravens The Dolphins returned to Miami to play against the Baltimore Ravens on September 17. Fiedler threw 11-for-16 with 160 yards, including a touchdown pass and an interception. In the second half, all seven of his pass attempts were successful. Miami scored in each quarter, with a field goal from Olindo Mare in the first and second periods and a pair of touchdowns by Lamar Smith in the third and fourth quarters. Following the fourth quarter touchdown, Mare missed the extra point, only the second time in his 99 career attempts. On the Ravens team, quarterback Tony Banks threw for 189 yards with 19 out of 31 completions, but was sacked six times, intercepted once, and fumbled twice. Facing constant pressure from the Miami defense, Banks was often forced to throw short passes. Unable to reach the Miami end zone, Baltimore had to settle for two field goals from Matt Stover, one each in the third and fourth quarters. Although the Ravens had four more total yards than the Dolphins, Miami was able to win the game with a score of 19–6. The Dolphins improved to 2–1. During halftime, a 19-minute ceremony was held to honor Dan Marino and retire number 13. The ceremony was begun by former quarterback Bob Griese and included video highlights of Marino's career with the Dolphins. Former head coach Don Shula inducted Marino into the Miami Dolphins Honor Roll. Miami Dolphins president Eddie Jones then presented a life-size statue of Marino on the grounds of Pro Player Stadium. As a result of the ceremony, more than 90 Dolphins alumni were in attendance at this game. Week 4: vs. New England Patriots In the Dolphins first division rivalry game of the season, the New England Patriots traveled to play Miami at home on September 24. Neither team performed exceptionally well in terms of passing, rushing, or scoring. Fiedler completed only 50% of his passes, throwing 12-for-24 with 153 yards, which included one touchdown and two interceptions. The first interception, which occurred late in the first quarter, would allow New England to score first, with a field goal by Adam Vinatieri early in the second quarter. Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe had a slightly worse pass completion percentage than Fiedler and was 16-for-33 with 161 yards at the end of the game. With New England leading 3–0 at 14:43 left in the second quarter, Miami answered with a 53-yard touchdown pass from Fiedler to Bert Emanuel about three minutes later. The Dolphins reinforced their lead with a field goal from Mare with only seconds left in the second quarter. Neither Miami nor New England would score for the rest of the game. The Patriots attempted to force overtime or win the game with a touchdown at just 1:08 left in the fourth quarter. However, the pass from Bledsoe to Eric Bjornson on fourth down at the Miami 5-yard line was incomplete, turning the ball over to Miami with barely a minute on the clock. Thus, the Dolphins won 10–3 and improved to 3–1. The 2000 Miami Dolphins became the first NFL team to allow only one touchdown in the first four games and had only allowed 22 points by the end of this game. Week 5: at Cincinnati Bengals In week 5, Miami traveled to Cincinnati for a match-up against the Bengals on October 1. Fiedler passed 155 yards and completed 14 out of 21, but threw an interception. He also rushed for 45 yards. Bengal quarterback Akili Smith completed 20 out of 38 passes for 178 yards, while rushing for 43 yards. Additionally, Corey Dillon of the Bengals rushed for 110 yards. During the game, Cincinnati held Miami scoreless at 13–0 until near the end of the second quarter. The Dolphins proceeded to score five times from late in the second quarter to early in the fourth quarter, beginning with a field goal by Mare. As the clock ran out during the second quarter, Jason Taylor was able to recover a fumble by Cincinnati and return the ball for a touchdown, ending the first half with a score of 13–10 in favor of Cincinnati. Miami scored two touchdowns in the third quarter, the first an 18-yard rush by Lamar Smith and the second a 7-yard pass from Fiedler to Oronde Gadsden. The Dolphins scored another touchdown early in the fourth quarter, also a reception from Fiedler to Gadsden. About midway through the fourth quarter, the Bengals finally scored again with a field goal by Neil Rackers. Cincinnati was unable to stage a comeback, with Miami winning 31–16. The Dolphins record improved to 4–1. Week 6: vs. Buffalo Bills In week 6, the Miami Dolphins fought the Buffalo Bills at home on October 8. Thurman Thomas, who played for the Bills from 1988–1999, competed against his former team in this game. Fiedler completed 14 out of 24 passes with a total of 142 yards. Rob Johnson, who started this game as quarterback for the Bills, threw 178 yards and went only 11-for-26 on pass completions. Johnson was sacked five times, losing 40 yards. After the tendinitis in Johnson's throwing elbow flared up, he was replaced by Doug Flutie late in the fourth quarter. Flutie would complete three out of six passes for 44 yards, but he was sacked and intercepted once. After both teams each scored a field goal in the first quarter, Miami proceeded to score 12 points before Buffalo scored again in the fourth quarter. Buffalo narrowed the score to 15–13 in favor of Miami and attempted to take the lead late in the final period. However, Bills running back Sammy Morris fumbled on Buffalo's 16 yard line, with the ball being recovered by Madison and returned for a touchdown. Flutie being intercepted with 2:00 left on the clock prevented Buffalo from scoring again. Miami won 22–13 and improved to 5–1. This was the first regular season game since week 2 in 1998 that the Dolphins defeated the Bills. Week 8: at New York Jets Coming off of bye week, the Dolphins traveled to the Giants Stadium to challenge division rival New York Jets on October 23, a Monday Night Football game. Fiedler passed for 250 yards, going 16-for-35 in completions. However, he was intercepted three times. Lamar Smith rushed for 155 yards on 23 attempts, one of which was 68 yards. Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde completed 36 out of 59 completions for 378 yards, but was also intercepted three times. The Dolphins dominated the game for the first three quarters. The Jets did not obtain a first down until 8:04 in the second quarter, by which time the Dolphins already scored 20 points, including two touchdowns and two field goals. Late in the second quarter, New York score a touchdown with a pass from Testaverde to Wayne Chrebet, but Miami responded with another field goal as the first half of the game ended. With 15 seconds remaining in the third quarter, the Dolphins scored another touchdown. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Miami led New York 30–7. The Jets then proceeded to quickly close the 23-point deficit throughout the fourth quarter. By 3:55 left in the game, New York tied the game at 30–30, after scoring three touchdowns and a field goal, with a failed two-point conversion. About 22 seconds later, Miami scored a touchdown to re-take the lead. However, New York answered with another touchdown with 42 seconds left in regulation. Neither team scored again and the game went into overtime because of a 37–37 tie. In the fourth quarter, the Dolphins had only 1 first down versus 20 for the Jets, which was more than 15 other NFL teams had in their entire game in week 8. During overtime, Fiedler was intercepted about one minute in by Marcus Coleman, but Coleman fumbled and Miami recovered. However, Fiedler was soon intercepted again by Coleman; this time, the Dolphins were overturned. The Jets then drove the ball to Miami's 23 yard line. With 8:13 left in overtime, John Hall kicked a field goal, ending the game 40–37 in favor of New York. The Dolphins fell to 5–2. Week 9: vs. Green Bay Packers Miami returned home to play against the Green Bay Packers on October 29. Fiedler went 16-for-25, throwing for 158 yards. Packers quarterback Brett Favre threw 194 yards, completing 21 out of 34 passes. The Packers scored first and by early in the second quarter, they had accumulated 17 points, with two touchdowns and a field goal. Green Bay did not allow Miami any points until 1:15 left in the second quarter, at which time the Dolphins scored a touchdown by a 1-yard rush from Fiedler. In the third quarter, Miami scored three touchdowns, one of which occurred shortly after a fake punt by Larry Izzo, while another was a punt return by Jeff Ogden. Holding Green Bay scoreless in the third quarter, Miami took the lead with a score of 28–17. The Packers scored again in the fourth quarter with a field goal to cut the Dolphins lead to 8 points. However, Green Bay was overturned twice on their final two possessions, first a Brock Marion interception of Favre and later Favre fumbled after being sacked by Trace Armstrong, with the ball being recovered by Kenny Mixon. The game ended with a score of 28–20 in favor of Miami. The Dolphins improved to 6–2. Week 10: at Detroit Lions Miami traveled to Detroit for a game against the Lions on November 5. Fiedler threw 112 yards on 13 out of 18 successful completions. Lions quarterback Charlie Batch went 8-for-16 on pass completions for 95 yards. However, Batch was injured in the third quarter and replaced by Stoney Case, who threw 7 out of 11 passes for 74 yards, with one interception. Miami dominated throughout the game. After Jason Hanson of the Lions kicked off, it was returned to about midfield by Autry Denson. Smith then ran for 46 yards, scoring a touchdown on the first play. Mare's onside kick was recovered by Terrance Shaw of the Dolphins. Miami capitalized on this and scored another touchdown, leaving Detroit losing 0–14 near the middle of the first quarter, having yet to make a single play. In the second and third quarters, Mare kicked a total of three field goals. The Dolphins held the Lions scoreless until early in the fourth quarter, when Detroit made a touchdown and a subsequent 2-point conversion. Neither team scored again in the fourth quarter, causing the game to end 23–8 in favor of Miami. The Dolphins improved to 7–2. Week 11: at San Diego Chargers Miami traveled to San Diego for a match-up against the Chargers on November 12. Fiedler threw 13–for–20 for 160 yards. Miami accumulated 84 rushing yards, with 69 yards from Lamar Smith. San Diego used three quarterbacks. The starter, Moses Moreno, completed 9 out of 21 passes for 67 yards and was intercepted twice, before leaving the game early in the third quarter due to injury. Ryan Leaf also went 9-for-21, throwing 92 yards and was intercepted once. He remained in the game until being injured late in the fourth quarter. Jim Harbaugh then played, throwing 2 out of 5 passes for 19 yards, as well as one interception. Thus, this game was the first since 1993 where three quarterbacks for a team threw interceptions in one game. The Dolphins led in scoring throughout the game, beginning with a touchdown as a result of a 2-yard run from Smith early in the first quarter. Smith rushed 6 yards for another touchdown early in the second quarter. Miami's defense limited San Diego to only 55 offense yards in the first half. In the third quarter, the Dolphins scored again with a field goal by Mare. The Chargers finally scored early in the fourth quarter with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Leaf to Fred McCrary. However, San Diego was unable to complete a comeback and the game ended with a 17–7 win for Miami. The Dolphins improved to 8–2. Week 12: vs. New York Jets After two weeks on the road, Miami returned to Pro Player Stadium for another game against the New York Jets on November 19. Just 12 seconds into the game, Fiedler was sacked by Mo Lewis and suffered an injury that forced him to head for the sideline. Fiedler was replaced by Damon Huard, who went 16–for–29 for 128 yards, but also threw three interceptions. Vinny Testaverde of the Jets performed similarly, completing 14 out of 29 passes for 113 yards and being intercepted twice. The contest remained close until the fourth quarter. In the first half, New York scored two field goals, while Miami had one, ending the half 6–3 for the Jets. Neither team gained points in the third quarter. About halfway through the fourth quarter, New York scored a touchdown with an 18-yard rush from Bernie Parmalee, a former Dolphin. With another rushing touchdown from Parmalee a few minutes later, the Jets sealed their victory with a score of 20–3. Prior to this game, Miami allowed only three touchdowns at home during the 2000 season. New York limited Miami to only 200 yards of offense. The Dolphins fell to 8–3. Week 13: at Indianapolis Colts Week 14: at Buffalo Bills Week 15: vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Week 16: vs. Indianapolis Colts Week 17: at New England Patriots Playoffs AFC Wild Card game vs. Indianapolis Colts Miami advanced to the playoffs after winning the AFC East title. In the Wildcard round they hosted their division rivals, the Indianapolis Colts. Fiedler threw for 185 yards, completing 19 passes from 34 attempts. However, he threw three interceptions, all in the first half of the game. Lamar Smith rushed for 209 yards on 40 attempts, a club record held until Ricky Williams rushed for 42 attempts against the Buffalo Bills during week 3 in 2003. The Dolphins won 23–17 in overtime on a 17-yard run by Smith. This is the most recent post-season win for the Miami Dolphins. Standings Awards and honors Trace Armstrong, AFC Pro Bowl Selection, Larry Izzo, AFC Pro Bowl Selection, Sam Madison, AFC Pro Bowl Selection, Brock Marion, AFC Pro Bowl Selection, Tim Ruddy, AFC Pro Bowl Selection, Jason Taylor, AFC Pro Bowl Selection, Zach Thomas, AFC Pro Bowl Selection, Notes and references External links Miami Dolphins on Pro Football Reference Miami Dolphins on jt-sw.com

2001_Miami_Dolphins_season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Miami_Dolphins_season

The 2001 Miami Dolphins season was the franchise's 32nd season in the National Football League and the 36th season in the AFC division, and their 2nd under the guidance of head coach Dave Wannstedt. The Miami Dolphins finished the season 2nd in the AFC East with a record of 11–5. Their season ended with a resounding 17 point home loss to the defending Super Bowl champions, the Baltimore Ravens, in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. The Miami Dolphins ranked 8th in points scored and 11th in points allowed. While the team finished with a respectable 11-5 record, they engineered embarrassing regular season losses to the New York Jets 24-0 in Miami and 21-17 in New Jersey after blowing a 17 point halftime lead; and blow out losses to the 2001 San Francisco 49ers 21-0 and 2001 St. Louis Rams 42-10. The Dolphins finished the season with a 20-3 home loss to the 2001 Baltimore Ravens. In these five losses, the Dolphins were -19 in turnover differential turning the football over 20 times. For the season the Dolphins gave away the football 41 times for a -13 total turnover differential. Starting quarterback Jay Fiedler led the team in turnovers by throwing 19 interceptions and fumbling six times. The Dolphins did not return to the playoffs until 2008, and would not make back-to-back playoff appearances until 2022 and 2023. After the season, Harry Swayne retired. Offseason NFL draft Undrafted free agents Staff Roster Preseason Regular season Schedule Standings Playoffs Wild Card vs Ravens AFC: Baltimore Ravens 20, Miami Dolphins 3 The Ravens recorded 222 rushing yards, while limiting the Dolphins to 151 total yards and nine first downs, while forcing three turnovers and three sacks. Baltimore running back Terry Allen ran for 109 yards and a touchdown, while quarterback Elvis Grbac completed 12 of 18 passes for 133 yards and a touchdown. Throughout the day, the Dolphins were unable to move the ball on the ground. Running backs Travis Minor and Lamar Smith were held to a combined total of 20 yards on 11 carries, while quarterback Jay Fiedler ended up as the leading rusher with 16 yards. In contrast, the Ravens called 50 running plays, gained 222 rushing yards, and held the ball for 38 minutes. The Dolphins' only score was Olindo Mare's 33-yard field goal just two minutes into the game, after linebacker Tommy Hendricks recovered a fumble from Baltimore's Jermaine Lewis on the opening kickoff. In the second quarter, the Ravens finished a 17-play, 90-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run from Allen to take a 7–3 lead. Baltimore later had a chance to increase their lead before halftime when linebacker Peter Boulware recovered Minor's fumble on the Dolphins 41-yard line, but their ensuing drive ended without points when Matt Stover missed a 40-yard field goal attempt on the last play of the half. Later in the game, Grbac led the Ravens on a 99-yard scoring drive, featuring a 45-yard completion to Travis Taylor on third down and 1. Taylor finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown catch to give the Ravens a 14–3 lead with 1:20 left in the third quarter. Early in the final quarter, Boulware forced a fumble while sacking Fiedler that Ravens lineman Sam Adams recovered on the Dolphins 37-yard line, leading to Stover's 35-yard field goal with 11:26 left in the game. The Dolphins responded with a drive to the Ravens 41. On first and 10, Fiedler's 40-yard pass to James McKnight at the Ravens 5-yard line bounced off the receiver's shoulder and was intercepted by defensive back Duane Starks, who returned the ball 26 yards to the 28-yard line. Baltimore's offense subsequently drove 50 yards and took 6:30 off the clock, including five carries by Jason Brookins for 36 yards, setting up Stover's second field goal to put the game away. Notes == References ==

2008_Miami_Dolphins_season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Miami_Dolphins_season

The 2008 Miami Dolphins season was the franchise's 39th season in the National Football League (NFL), the 43rd overall and the first under new head coach Tony Sparano. During the regular season the Dolphins completed the greatest single-season turnaround in NFL history, going from a 1–15 regular season record in 2007 to an 11–5 record in 2008. The previous record for most improved team one year after a 1–15 season belonged to the 1997 New York Jets, who went 9–7. The 1999 Indianapolis Colts were the only other team to accomplish a 10-game turnaround, winning 13 games after winning 3 in 1998, which was also the first year of the Peyton Manning era. Additionally, Miami won the AFC East, becoming the first team in NFL history to win their division after only having one win the previous season. The division title also snapped the Patriots' 5-year streak of winning the AFC East. Their season would come to an end in the Wild Card round when they were defeated by the Baltimore Ravens, which coincidentally, was also the only team they beat last season in overtime to save the Dolphins from suffering a winless season. With their 11–5 record and division title, the Dolphins had hopes of achieving their first playoff victory since 2000, or to possibly become the first team ever to make the Super Bowl after winning only one game the previous season, similar to how the Carolina Panthers went 1–15 in 2001 and made Super Bowl XXXVIII just two seasons later. The 2008 season was the first with Bill Parcells as executive vice president of football operations, Jeff Ireland as general manager, and Tony Sparano as head coach. With a league-worst 1–15 record in 2007, the Dolphins held the first pick in the 2008 NFL draft and selected Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long. The offseason also saw the departure of two Pro Bowlers and long-time Dolphins with the release of linebacker Zach Thomas and trade of defensive end Jason Taylor. The 2008 season was the last season in which the Miami Dolphins had a winning record and qualified for the playoffs before the 2016 team accomplished the feat. This season was also notable for the Dolphins wide-spread use of the Wildcat offense. Though previously used by other teams in several other seasons, this package was fully installed by the Dolphins by week 3, and led to an upset win over the defending AFC Champion New England Patriots. Until 2019, this was the Dolphins' last road win over the Patriots. Additionally, this was the last season that the AFC East was won by a team other than the Patriots until the 2020 Buffalo Bills snapped the Patriots' streak of 11 straight AFC East championships. Offseason personnel moves Front office On December 27, 2007, Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga hired former NFL head coach and ESPN analyst Bill Parcells as executive vice president of football operations. Parcells signed a four-year deal with the Dolphins less than a day after turning down a similar offer from the Atlanta Falcons. Just a few days after Parcells' hiring, three men were dismissed from the Dolphins' front office. The most notable of which was general manager Randy Mueller, who was hired by the team in 2005. Also dismissed were assistant director of player personnel Mike Baugh and college scouting coordinator Rick Thompson. Three days after Mueller's dismissal, Parcells hired Jeff Ireland as the team's new general manager. Ireland had worked for the Dallas Cowboys the past seven years, including the last three as vice president of college and pro scouting. Ireland had worked with Parcells previously, when the latter was head coach of the Cowboys from 2003 to 2006. Although Ireland was officially given final say on personnel decisions, it was speculated that Parcells was actually in control, and did not hold the title of general manager so that the team may hire a front office executive from another team. On January 15, the Dolphins reeled in another former Cowboys executive when they hired Brian Gaine as assistant director of player personnel. Gaine had previously spent the past three seasons as the Cowboys' assistant director of pro scouting, working with both Parcells and Ireland during that time. Following the 2008 NFL draft, it was reported on May 1 that the Dolphins had fired scouts Ellis Rainsberger, Jack Glowik and Roger Pollard. The team's vice president of media relations, Harvey Greene, said Rainsberger had retired and did not comment on the other two reported firings. Coaches Head coach Just one day after hiring of Jeff Ireland as general manager, the Dolphins fired head coach Cam Cameron after just one season on the job. Cameron led the Dolphins to an NFL worst 1–15 record in 2007, which was also the worst in franchise history. Additionally, all but two members of the coaching staff were dismissed. The only coaches retained were assistant special teams coach Steve Hoffman and linebackers coach George Edwards. Both Hoffman and Edwards were coaches for the Dallas Cowboys during Ireland's tenure with the team. A search for Cameron's replacement began almost immediately after his firing. Various candidates were rumored, many of which had some connection to Parcells and/or Ireland. Rumored candidates included Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel, Dallas Cowboys assistant Tony Sparano, Cowboys secondary coach Todd Bowles, Arizona Cardinals running backs coach Maurice Carthon and Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley. Additionally, Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan and Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier were contacted. The Washington Post suggested that Washington Redskins defensive coordinator Gregg Williams could be a candidate as well. The first interview scheduled was Sparano, who met with the Dolphins on Saturday, January 11. Sparano had previously met with the Atlanta Falcons and Baltimore Ravens regarding their head coaching vacancies. On January 6, it was reported that Sparano would be offered the Dolphins' head coaching job, and that he would accept. The Dolphins denied the report later that day, saying it was an initial interview only and that the team had interviews with others planned over the next few days. However, the addition of quarterbacks coach David Lee, a former Cowboys assistant, fueled speculation that Sparano was indeed going to the next head coach of the Miami Dolphins. The team then proceeded to interview Frazier, Ryan and Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. After the Dallas Cowboys lost to the New York Giants in the divisional round of the 2007 NFL playoffs on January 13, speculation grew that Sparano's hiring was imminent. On January 16, the Dolphins ended their search by naming Sparano the eighth head coach in franchise history. He received a four-year contract believed to be worth between $2.5 and $2.7 million per season. Assistants Parcells and Ireland made their first coaching staff addition on January 7, luring Ole Miss offensive coordinator David Lee to be quarterbacks coach. Lee, who briefly followed Houston Nutt to Ole Miss after serving as his offensive coordinator at Arkansas in 2007, worked with Parcells and Ireland as the Cowboys' quarterbacks coach from 2003 to 2006. The addition fueled speculation that Sparano was indeed going to the next head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Two days after hiring Sparano as their head coach, the Dolphins made their second assistant coach hiring. On January 18, Mike Maser was named the team's new offensive line coach. Maser had previously served in the same capacity for the Carolina Panthers from 2003 to 2006, and worked with Sparano when both were assistants for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2002. Over the next week, the Dolphins filled various positions on Sparano's staff. On January 22, former Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach James Saxon was hired in the same capacity for the Dolphins. Also hired that day was former Atlanta Falcons strength and conditioning coach Evan Marcus, who took the same job with Miami. On January 23, the Dolphins added four more assistant coaches to their staff when they named Paul Pasqualoni as their defensive coordinator, Todd Bowles as assistant head coach/secondary, Kacy Rodgers as defensive line coach and David Corrao as defensive quality control coach. Pasqualoni, Bowles and Rodgers all came from the Dallas Cowboys' staff, while Corrao was most recently linebackers coach at the University of Mississippi. A day later, former UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell was named the team's new wide receivers coach. Five more coaches were added to the staff on January 28 when the Dolphins named John Bonamego as their special teams coordinator, George DeLeone as their tight ends coach, David Puloka as assistant strength and conditioning coach, Jim Reid as outside linebackers coach and Steve Bush as offensive quality control coach. The Dolphins made their final addition to the staff on February 4, hiring Dan Henning as offensive coordinator. Henning, who had most recently served as offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers from 2002 to 2006, had previous worked for the Dolphins under Don Shula as quarterbacks and wide receivers coach in 1979–1980. Staff When the Dolphins' coaching staff was completed with the hiring of offensive coordinator Dan Henning on February 14, only two of the 17 assistant coaches under Sparano (Edwards and Hoffman) were holdovers from the previous season's staff. Three of the new coaches (Bowles, Pasqualoni and Rodgers) had experience with Parcells, Ireland and Sparano in Dallas. The completed staff was as follows: Roster Moves Departures February 11 – Terminated the contracts of quarterback Trent Green, wide receiver Marty Booker, offensive tackle L. J. Shelton and defensive tackle Keith Traylor. February 11 – Waived offensive tackle Anthony Alabi, offensive tackle Marion Dukes, guard Marquay Love, offensive lineman Joe Toledo and defensive tackle Anthony Bryant. February 14 – Released linebacker Zach Thomas. April 24 – Released the following seven players: quarterback Casey Bramlet, linebacker Marcello Church, safety Tuff Harris, cornerback Jereme Perry, wide receiver Kerry Reed, linebacker Mark Washington and wide receiver Chandler Williams. The team also waived safety Cameron Worrell, who tore his ACL in 2007, after he failed a physical. April 29 – Released quarterback Matt Baker and defensive tackle Steve Fifita. May 5 – Waived wide receiver Marcel Reece, defensive end Derreck Robinson, linebacker Abraham Wright and cornerback Aaron Lane. Reece and Lane were signed as undrafted free agents the previous week, while Robinson and Wright were with the Dolphins in 2007. May 16 – Waived offensive lineman Drew Mormino after he failed a physical. Mormino spent the 2007 season on injured reserve with a shoulder injury. June 6 – Released placekicker Dave Rayner. Re-signings January 7 – Re-signed wide receivers Kerry Reed and Chandler Williams, guard Marquay Love and linebacker Marcello Church. All finished the 2007 season on the Dolphins' practice squad. March 3 – Re-signed safety Yeremiah Bell to a one-year, $1.4 million contract. March 5 – Re-signed cornerback Michael Lehan to a three-year, $4.95 million contract. Signings January 30 – Signed quarterback Matt Baker, offensive lineman Trey Darilek and linebacker Junior Glymph. Baker was with the Dallas Cowboys in 2006, while Darilek and Glymph were both in training camp with Dallas in 2007. February 8 – Signed cornerback Joey Thomas. He was originally drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the third round of the 2004 NFL draft and had most recently spent training camp with the Cowboys in 2007. February 28 – Signed wide receiver David Kircus, formerly of the Denver Broncos and Detroit Lions. February 29 – Signed tight end Sean Ryan (Jets) to a one-year deal. February 29 – Signed wide receiver Ernest Wilford (Jaguars) to a four-year, $13 million contract with $6 million guaranteed. March 1 – Signed linebacker Charlie Anderson (Texans) to a three-year contract. March 1 – Signed quarterback Josh McCown (Raiders) to a two-year, $6.25 million contract. March 1 – Signed guard Justin Smiley (49ers) to a five-year, $25 million contract with $9 million guaranteed. March 1 – Signed defensive end Randy Starks (Titans) to a five-year, $21 million contract with $7 million guaranteed. March 1 – Signed linebacker Reggie Torbor (Giants) to a four-contract. March 5 – Signed fullback Boomer Grigsby (Chiefs) to a one-year contract. March 11 – Signed safety Keith Davis (Cowboys) to a two-year contract. March 12 – Signed placekicker Dave Rayner (Chargers) to a one-year contract. March 14 – Signed cornerback Nathan Jones (Cowboys) to a two-year contract. March 16 – Signed wide receiver Tab Perry (Bengals) to a one-year contract. March 28 – Signed safety Chris Crocker (Falcons) to a one-year, $1.15 million contract with a $300,000 signing bonus. April 14 – Signed safety Will Billingsley (North Carolina A&T) as a street free agent. Billingsley was eligible for the 2007 NFL draft but was not drafted and remained unsigned throughout the year. May 19 – Signed offensive lineman Steve McKinney (Texans) to a one-year contract. Trades February 29 – Acquired defensive tackle Jason Ferguson from the Dallas Cowboys for a sixth-round pick in the 2009 NFL draft. The teams also swapped sixth-round picks in the 2008 NFL draft. April 26 – Acquired linebacker Akin Ayodele and tight end Anthony Fasano from the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for the team's fourth-round pick (100th overall) in the 2008 NFL draft. The pick was later traded to the Oakland Raiders and used to select cornerback Tyvon Branch. July 21 – Traded defensive end Jason Taylor to the Washington Redskins in exchange for a second-round pick in 2009 and a sixth-round pick in 2010. Free agency The Dolphins entered free agency $44 million under that year's $116 million salary cap – the highest in the league at the time. The team cleared between $13–15 million by cutting players leading up to free agency. Free agents UFA: Unrestricted free agent, RFA: Restricted free agent, ERFA: Exclusive-rights free agent 2008 NFL draft Due to their league-worst 1–15 record in 2007, the Dolphins secured the first overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft on April 26. The Dolphins used it to draft Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long. Including Long, the Dolphins selected the following nine players in the 2008 NFL Draft: Notes The Dolphins own second-round pick, the first of the round, was the 32nd overall in the draft rather than the 33rd because the New England Patriots forfeited their first-round pick (31st overall) after the Spygate incident. The Dolphins acquired a second-round pick from the San Diego Chargers in a trade that sent wide receiver Chris Chambers to San Diego on October 16, 2007. The Dolphins sent their fifth-round pick to the Kansas City Chiefs in exchange for quarterback Trent Green on June 5, 2007. The Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys swapped sixth-round draft picks in trade that brought defensive tackle Jason Ferguson to Miami. The last of the Dolphins' picks in the sixth and seventh rounds were awarded by NFL due to free agents lost the previous offseason. Draft day trades On the first day of the draft, the Dolphins traded second-year running back Lorenzo Booker to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for a fourth-round pick (115th overall) in the 2008 NFL draft. On the second day of the draft, the Dolphins acquired the Detroit Lions' third-round pick (66th overall) as well as their sixth-round pick (176th overall) in exchange for the Dolphins' third-round pick (64th overall). The Lions used the pick to select running back Kevin Smith, while the Dolphins took defensive end Kendall Langford with the third-round pick and running back Jalen Parmele with the sixth-rounder. Later on Day 2, the Dolphins traded the fourth-round pick acquired from the Eagles, along with a seventh-round pick (208th overall), to the Chicago Bears in exchange for the 110th overall selection. The Dolphins used this pick to select guard Shawn Murphy. The 115th overall pick was eventually dealt by the Bears the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who used it to select defensive tackle Dre Moore. The Bears used the seventh-round pick to select defensive end Ervin Baldwin. Draft pick signings In the weeks leading up to the draft, the Dolphins began contract negotiations with Jake Long. On April 14, Peter King of Sports Illustrated reported that the Dolphins had given Long a deadline to accept their contract offer (believed to be worth less than 2007 No. 1 pick JaMarcus Russell received from the Oakland Raiders); otherwise, they would move on to another prospect. On April 22, the Dolphins officially signed Long to a five-year, $57.75 million contract with $30 million guaranteed, assuring they would take him first overall. On May 19, the Dolphins signed sixth-rounders Jalen Parmele and Lex Hilliard and seventh-rounder Lionel Dotson to contacts. On May 23, sixth-round pick Donald Thomas was signed to a multi-year deal. On July 11, the Dolphins signed third-round pick Kendall Langford to a multi-year deal. Undrafted free agents Following the 2008 NFL draft, the Dolphins signed 18 undrafted free agents. They were: Two failed to survive a week with the team, as the Dolphins released Lane and Reece on May 5. Less than a month after being signed, Robertson decided to retire. On June 9, the Dolphins signed wide receiver John Dunlap (NC State) after he attended a minicamp on a tryout basis. Reserve lists May 27 – Placed defensive tackle Kory Robertson on the reserve/retired list. May 29 – Placed wide receiver Tab Perry on injured reserve with a torn Achilles tendon. Roster Opening camp roster Final preseason roster Roster moves July 25 – Signed second-round pick defensive end Phillip Merling. 25 – Waived wide receiver Justin Wynn. 25 – Signed wide receiver Anthony Armstrong (Desperados). 26 – Placed linebacker Joey Porter on the Active/non-football injury list and cornerback Michael Lehan on the Active/PUP list. 26 – Waived offensive tackles Dan Gore and Julius Wilson. 28 – Activated linebacker Joey Porter (NFI). 28 – Signed second-round pick quarterback Chad Henne. 28 – Signed guard Rueben Riley (Panthers). 30 – Waived cornerback Scorpio Babers. 30 – Signed cornerback Chris Roberson (Jaguars). August 2 – Waived/injured tight end Aaron Halterman and waived guard Rueben Riley. 4 – Placed tight end Aaron Halterman on injured reserve. 11 – Waived/injured linebacker Kelvin Smith. 11 – Signed quarterback Chad Pennington (Jets) and linebacker Maurice Fountain (Blaze) August 12 – Released placekicker Jay Feely. August 12 – Placed linebacker Kelvin Smith on injured reserve. August 15 – Waived linebacker Keith Saunders and wide receivers John Dunlap and Selwyn Lymon. August 18 – Released offensive lineman Steve McKinney. August 18 – Activated cornerback Michael Lehan (PUP). August 20 – Traded cornerback Travis Daniels to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for a seventh-round draft pick in the 2009 NFL draft. August 22 – Waived wide receiver David Kircus and cornerback Chris Roberson. August 25 – Signed undrafted free agent offensive tackle Pedro Sosa (Rutgers). August 27 – Released safety Keith Davis. August 30 – Traded quarterback Josh McCown to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for a seventh-round pick in the 2009 NFL draft. Final cuts On August 30, the Dolphins made 17 roster moves to reach the NFL's 53-player limit. The players released were: Preseason schedule The Dolphins' 2008 preseason schedule was announced on April 3. Preseason recap After losing their preseason opener to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Dolphins won their final three contests to finish the preseason 3–1. Quarterback Chad Pennington was the Dolphins' most efficient passer of the preseason, leading the team in completion percentage (72.0) and passer rating (104.8). Rookie quarterback Chad Henne led the team in passing yards (351) but also in interceptions (2) while matching Pennington in passing touchdowns (1). Running backs Ricky Williams and Jalen Parmele tied for the team lead in rushing yards at 123. Williams, Parmele and Ronnie Brown were the only Dolphins to rush for a touchdown during the preseason, scoring one each. Lex Hilliard and Patrick Cobbs finished fourth and fifth, respectively, on the team in rushing yards. No Dolphins player surpassed 100 receiving yards during the preseason, though wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. came closest at 97. He also tied rookie Davone Bess for the team lead in receptions with eight. Tight ends Anthony Fasano and Sean Ryan were the only Dolphins to catch a touchdown pass. On special teams, rookie placekicker Dan Carpenter converted 7-of-8 field-goal attempts and all six extra-point attempts. Punter Brandon Fields punted 21 times for a 44.1-yard average and two touchbacks. Meanwhile, Davone Bess led the team in punt returns (6) but Ted Ginn Jr. was the only Dolphins player to return a kick or punt for a touchdown. Patrick Cobbs led the team in kick return yards with 106. On defense, Linebackers Akin Ayodele and Reggie Torbor tied for the team lead with 17 tackles, while Ayodele led the team in solo stops with 12. Five others – Yeremiah Bell, Channing Crowder, Renaldo Hill, Nathan Jones, Edmond Miles – also reached double-digits in tackles. Four players – Jason Allen, Renaldo Hill, Michael Lehan, Joey Thomas – recorded an interception during the preseason. The Dolphins also totaled 14 quarterbacks sacks during the preseason. Linebacker Rob Ninkovich and defensive end Randy Starks each record a team-high two sacks, while ten other players each recorded a sack apiece. Channing Crowder, Junior Glymph and Paul Soliai each forced a fumble during the preseason. Regular season Schedule The Dolphins' 2008 regular season schedule was released on April 15, 2008. Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text. Standings Opening day roster Final roster Game summaries Week 1: vs. New York Jets With the loss, the Dolphins began their season 0–1. Week 2: at Arizona Cardinals With the loss, the Dolphins fell to 0–2 and have lost their 5th straight game to NFC Opponents. Week 3: at New England Patriots The Dolphins headed to Foxboro to face the Division rival New England Patriots. Little did New England know that they would be a test for an offensive formation concocted as the Dolphins coaching staff wanted to put running backs Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown onto the field at the same time. David Lee thus revealed the Wildcat to the NFL. Ronnie Brown would take direct snaps and keep it himself or hand it of to another back. The Dolphins decimated the Patriots all day with the Wildcat offense for a 38–13 victory as they put a dent in the Patriots' 21-game regular season winning streak and went on their bye week at 1–2. This was the last time the Dolphins beat the Patriots on the road until 2019. Week 5: vs. San Diego Chargers With the win, the Dolphins improved to 2–2. Week 6: at Houston Texans With the loss, the Dolphins fell to 2–3. Week 7: vs. Baltimore Ravens With the loss, the Dolphins fell to 2–4. Week 8: vs. Buffalo Bills With the win, the Dolphins improved to 3–4. Week 9: at Denver Broncos With the win, the Dolphins improved to 4–4. Week 10: vs. Seattle Seahawks With the win, the Dolphins improved to 5–4 and snapped their 5-game losing streak to NFC Opponents. Week 11: vs. Oakland Raiders With the win, the Dolphins improved to 6–4. Week 12: vs. New England Patriots A week after a 400-yard passing game against the Jets, Matt Cassel threw for 415 yards and three touchdowns for New England, while Chad Pennington threw for 345 yards and two scores; both quarterbacks also ran in a touchdown. The Dolphins Wildcat offense was limited to 27 yards as the Patriots broke open a tight game in the fourth quarter, winning 48–28. With the loss, the Dolphins dropped to 6–5. Week 13: at St. Louis Rams With the win, the Dolphins improved to 7–5. Week 14: at Buffalo Bills With the win, the Dolphins sweep the Bills for the season and improve their record to 8–5. Week 15: vs. San Francisco 49ers With the win, the Dolphins improved to 9–5 and finished 3–1 against the NFC West. Week 16: at Kansas City Chiefs With the win, the Dolphins improved to 10–5. Week 17: at New York Jets The Dolphins clinched the AFC East title as they intercepted Jets quarterback Brett Favre three times (Philip Merling ran in a 25-yard touchdown on a Favre pick) while Charlie Anderson and Patrick Cobbs blocked a Jets punt. The win put the Dolphins into the playoffs for the first time since 2001 as they finished the season with an 11–5 record and locked up the AFC's No. 3 seed. Transactions August 31 – Signed running back Ricky Williams to a one-year contract extension through the 2009 season. 31 – Waived wide receiver Anthony Armstrong, offensive lineman Trey Darilek and linebacker Rob Ninkovich. 31 – Claimed offensive lineman Andy Alleman (Saints), offensive tackle Nate Garner (Jets) and wide receiver Brandon London (Giants) off waivers. September 1 – Signed cornerback Will Billingsley, wide receiver Jayson Foster, offensive tackle Daren Heerspink, running back Lex Hilliard, tight end Matthew Mulligan and linebacker Tyson Smith (Cowboys) to the practice squad. 2 – Released cornerback Joey Thomas. 2 – Signed safety Tyrone Culver (Packer). 2 – Released wide receiver Jayson Foster from the practice squad. 2 – Re-signed wide receiver Anthony Armstrong, linebacker Rob Ninkovich and defensive tackle Anthony Toribio to the practice squad. 9 – Released fullback Boomer Grigsby. 9 – Signed fullback Casey Cramer (Titans). 9 – Placed guard Donald Thomas on injured reserve. 9 – Signed guard Evan Mathis (Panther). 11 – Released tight end Sean Ryan. 11 – Claimed offensive tackle Kirk Barton (Bears) off waivers. 12 – Released offensive tackle Daren Heerspink from the practice squad. 12 – Signed tight end Drew Atchison (Cowboys) to the practice squad. 23 – Waived running back Jalen Parmele. 23 – Released tight end Drew Atchison from the practice squad. 23 – Signed guard Matt McChesney (Jets) to the practice squad. 24 – Signed tight end Joey Haynos off the practice squad of the Green Bay Packers. 25 – Released cornerback Will Billingsley from the practice squad. 25 – Re-signed running back Jalen Parmele to the practice squad. October 4 – Released defensive tackle Anthony Toribio from the practice squad. 4 – Re-signed cornerback Will Billingsley to the practice squad. 6 – Released linebacker Tyson Smith from the practice squad. 6 – Signed linebacker Marc Magro (Rams) to the practice squad. 8 – Released cornerback Will Billingsley from the practice squad. 8 – Re-signed defensive tackle Anthony Toribio to the practice squad. 11 – Released defensive tackle Anthony Toribio from the practice squad. 11 – Re-signed cornerback Will Billingsley to the practice squad. 14 – Released safety Tyrone Culver. 14 – Released linebacker Marc Magro from the practice squad. 14 – Signed linebacker William Kershaw (Saints) to the practice squad. 15 – Waived offensive tackle Kirk Barton. 15 – Signed safety Brannon Condren (Rams). 15 – Signed fullback Lousaka Polite (Bears). 18 – Suspended defensive tackle Paul Soliai for one game. 18 – Released cornerback Will Billingsley from the practice squad. 18 – Re-signed defensive tackle Anthony Toribio to the practice squad. 20 – Lifted suspension of defensive tackle Paul Soliai. 21 – Released safety Chris Crocker. 21 – Re-signed safety Tyrone Culver. 24 – Placed cornerback Michael Lehan on injured reserve. 24 – Re-signed cornerback Joey Thomas. November 4 – Waived wide receiver Derek Hagan. 4 – Released tight end Matthew Mulligan from the practice squad. 4 – Re-signed cornerback Will Billingsley to the practice squad. 5 – Signed offensive tackle Brandon Frye off the practice squad of the Houston Texans. 7 – Waived guard Evan Mathis. 7 – Signed guard Matt McChesney from the practice squad to the active roster. 10 – Waived safety Brannon Condren. 10 – Re-signed safety Courtney Bryan. 10 – Signed wide receiver Todd Lowber (Cowboys) to the practice squad. 11 – Released defensive tackle Anthony Toribio from the practice squad. 11 – Signed offensive tackle Kirk Barton (49ers) to the practice squad. 15 – Placed guard Matt McChesney on injured reserve. 15 – Signed linebacker Rob Ninkovich from the practice squad to the active roster. 18 – Signed defensive tackle Joe Cohen (49ers) to the practice squad. 19 – Waived linebacker Rob Ninkovich. 19 – Claimed linebacker Erik Walden (Chiefs) off waivers. 21 – Released cornerback Will Billingsley from the practice squad. 21 – Re-signed linebacker Rob Ninkovich to the practice squad. 24 – Placed wide receiver Greg Camarillo on injured reserve. 28 – Practice squad offensive tackle Kirk Barton signed by the Cincinnati Bengals. 29 – Signed center Al Johnson (Cardinals). 29 – Re-signed cornerback Will Billingsley to the practice squad. December 2 – Placed guard Justin Smiley on injured reserve. 3 – Claimed wide receiver Chris Hannon off waivers from the San Francisco 49ers. 3 – Practice squad linebacker Rob Ninkovich signed by the New Orleans Saints. 9 – Re-signed offensive tackle Daren Heerspink to the practice squad. 10 – Practice Squad running back Jalen Parmele signed by the Baltimore Ravens. 10 – Signed fullback Chris Brown to the practice squad. 10 – Waived cornerback Michael Lehan from injured reserve. 20 – Waived fullback Casey Cramer. 20 – Signed linebacker William Kershaw from the practice squad to the active roster. 22 – Waived wide receiver Chris Hannon. 22 – Signed linebacker Derek Smith (Chargers). 24 – Re-signed cornerback Scorpio Babers to the practice squad. Awards and honors Coaches After leading the Dolphins to an 11–5 record and an AFC East title in his first year as head coach, Tony Sparano was selected as the NFL Alumni's 2008 Coach of the Year. Sparano was also one of six nominees for the 2008 Motorola NFL Coach of the Year Award. Players The Dolphins landed two players – running back Ronnie Brown and linebacker Joey Porter – on the AFC's Pro Bowl team. Porter recorded 17.5 sacks during the 2008 season and was named as a starter on the AFC's squad. In his first career Pro Bowl season, Brown led the Dolphins with 214 carries, 916 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. He also ranked fourth on the team with 33 catches and sixth with 254 receiving yards. Additionally, Porter was nominated for the GMC Sierra Defensive Player of the Year Award and was a second-team AP All-Pro selection. Quarterback Chad Pennington, guard Justin Smiley and cornerback Will Allen also received votes for the All-Pro team but were not selected. However, Pennington did earn the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award for the second time in his career. Pennington led the NFL with a 67.4 completion percentage and was second in the NFL with a 97.4 passer rating. He threw for a career-high 3,653 yards, 19 touchdowns and just seven interceptions. In January 2009, three Dolphins rookies were selected to the Pro Football Writers Association's All-Rookie Team. Earning selections were offensive tackle Jake Long, defensive end Kendall Langford and placekicker Dan Carpenter. The first overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft, Long started all 16 games for the Dolphins at left tackle. A third-round pick out of Hampton, Langford started 14 of the 16 games in which he played as a rookie and recorded 31 tackles and two sacks. Undrafted out of Montana, Carpenter went 21-for-25 (84 percent) on field goals and made all 40 extra-point attempts. Playoffs Game summaries AFC Wild Card: vs. Baltimore Ravens Entering the postseason as the AFC's No. 3 seed, the Dolphins began their playoff run at home in the AFC Wild Card Round, with a Week 7 rematch against the No. 6 Baltimore Ravens. Miami would deliver the game's first points with rookie kicker Dan Carpenter's 19-yard field goal. The Ravens would later respond with a 23-yard field goal from kicker Matt Stover. Baltimore would take the lead with safety Ed Reed returning a Chad Pennington interception 64 yards for a touchdown. The Ravens would then close out the half with Stover's 31-yard field goal. Baltimore would increase their lead in the third quarter with running back Le'Ron McClain's 8-yard touchdown run. The Dolphins tried to come back in the fourth quarter as Pennington completed a 2-yard touchdown pass to running back Ronnie Brown (with a failed PAT), but the Ravens would pull away as quarterback Joe Flacco got a 5-yard touchdown run. With the loss, Miami's impressive turnaround season ended with an overall record of 11–6. Despite having only 16 turnovers throughout the entire regular season, the Dolphins committed 5 turnovers (4 interceptions and a lost fumble). References External links Miami Dolphins Official Website 2008 Miami Dolphins at Pro-Football-Reference 2008 Regular Season Statistics 2008 Schedule & Results

Katharina_Molitor

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

Katharina Molitor (born 8 November 1983) is a German sportswoman who competes as a javelin thrower and volleyball player. As a javelin thrower, she is a World Champion, having won gold in 2015, and her personal best throw is 67.69 m. As a volleyball player, she represents Bayer Leverkusen in the Erste Volleyball-Bundesliga, the highest tier of German volleyball. She is a two-time Olympian, having competed in the javelin throw for Germany at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She finished eighth in 2008, and improved to sixth in 2012. She won gold at the 2010 German Championships and has since competed in every European and World Championships. Her best result is first place at the 2015 World Championships. Competition record References External links Katharina Molitor at World Athletics Katharina Molitor at European Athletics (archive) Katharina Molitor at Deutscher Leichtathletik-Verband (in German) Katharina Molitor at Olympics.comKatharina Molitor at Olympic.org (archived) Katharina Molitor at Olympedia Katharina Molitor at Team Deutschland (in German) Official website (in German)

2015_World_Championships_in_Athletics_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_javelin_throw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_World_Championships_in_Athletics_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_javelin_throw

The women's javelin throw at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Beijing National Stadium on 28 and 30 August. There were eight automatic qualifiers out of the first round. With the best mark qualifiers, the German team was able to get four into the finals including defending champion Christina Obergföll, the home team was able to get two when Lü Huihui got in with the tenth qualifier. World leader Sunette Viljoen also could not make the automatic but got into the finals while the world record holder Barbora Špotáková did get an automatic. The partisan locals were overjoyed when Lü took over the lead with a 63.80 and three throws later Li Lingwei improved upon that with a 64.10, putting the home team in first and second place. That lead held through the second round as closest anybody could come was Viljoen at 63.09 to take third place. Obergföl started the third round with a new leader 64.61, but Lü came back with an answer of 64.72 which held the lead until the next thrower Katharina Molitor threw it 2 cm further. Špotáková barely made 60 and didn't get to make the last three throws. In the fourth round, Viljoen threw 65.79 to move into the lead and as the fifth round was ending, Lü uncorked a 66.13 to set a new Asian Record and take the lead to a furious ovation. That was the status going into the last throw of the competition. Molitor had seen her leading position drop to third place over the last 2 rounds but found the answer, a 67.69 to let the air out of the crowd. Records Prior to the competition, the records were as follows: Qualification standards Schedule All times are local times (UTC+8) Results Qualification Qualification: 63.50 m (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q). Final The final was started at 18:45 == References ==

Pennsylvania

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

Pennsylvania ( PEN-sil-VAY-nee-ə, lit. 'Penn's forest country'), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Dutch: Pennsilfaani), is a US state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio and the Ohio River to its west, Lake Erie and New York to its north, the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east, and the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest via Lake Erie. Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 through a royal land grant to William Penn, the son of the state's namesake. Prior to that, between 1638 and 1655, a southeast portion of the state was part of New Sweden, a Swedish Empire colony. Established as a haven for religious and political tolerance, the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania was known for its relatively peaceful relations with native tribes, innovative government system, and religious pluralism. Pennsylvania played a vital and historic role in the American Revolution and the ultimately successful quest for independence from the British Empire, hosting the First and Second Continental Congress, leading to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the Continental Army. On December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. The bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, at Gettysburg over three days in July 1863, proved the war's turning point, leading to the Union's preservation. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, the state's manufacturing-based economy contributed to the development of much of the nation's early infrastructure, including key bridges, skyscrapers, and military hardware used in U.S.-led victories in World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. Pennsylvania's geography is highly diverse. The Appalachian Mountains run through the center of the state; the Allegheny and Pocono mountains span much of Northeastern Pennsylvania; close to 60% of the state is forested. While it has no ocean shoreline, it has 140 miles (225 km) of waterfront along Lake Erie and the tidal Delaware River. Pennsylvania is the fifth-most populous state in the United States, with over 13 million residents as of the 2020 United States census. The state is the 33rd-largest by area and has the ninth-highest population density among all states. The largest metropolitan statistical area is the southeastern Delaware Valley, which includes and surrounds Philadelphia, the state's largest and nation's sixth-most populous city. The second-largest metropolitan area, Greater Pittsburgh, is centered in and around Pittsburgh, the state's second-largest city. The state's subsequent five most populous cities are Allentown, Reading, Erie, Scranton, and Bethlehem. The state capital is Harrisburg. History Indigenous settlement Pennsylvania's history of human habitation extends to thousands of years before the foundation of the colonial Province of Pennsylvania in 1681. Archaeologists believe the first settlement of the Americas occurred at least 15,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, though it is unclear when humans first inhabited present-day Pennsylvania. Between 30,000 and 10,500 years ago, Native Americans crossed the two continents, arriving in North America. Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Jefferson Township includes the earliest known signs of human activity in Pennsylvania and perhaps all of North America, including the remains of a civilization that existed over 10,000 years ago and possibly pre-dated the Clovis culture. By 1000 CE, in contrast to their nomadic hunter-gatherer ancestors, the native population of Pennsylvania had developed agricultural techniques and a mixed food economy. By the time European colonization of the Americas began, at least two major Native American tribes inhabited Pennsylvania. The first, the Lenape, spoke an Algonquian language and inhabited the eastern region of the state, then known as Lenapehoking. It included most of present-day New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley and Delaware Valley regions in eastern and southeastern Pennsylvania. The Lenape's territory ended somewhere between the Delaware River in the east and the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania. The second tribe, the Susquehannock, spoke an Iroquoian language and were based in Western Pennsylvania from New York state in the north to West Virginia in the southwest, including the Susquehanna, Allegheny, and Monongahela rivers near present-day Pittsburgh. European disease and constant warfare with several neighbors and groups of Europeans weakened these tribes, and they were grossly outpaced financially as the Hurons and Iroquois blocked them from proceeding west into Ohio during the Beaver Wars. As they lost numbers and land, the Hurons abandoned much of their western territory and moved closer to the Susquehanna River, and the Iroquois and Mohawk tribes moved further north. Northwest of the Allegheny River was the Iroquoian Petun, who were fragmented into three groups during the Beaver Wars: the Petun of New York, the Wyandot of Ohio, and the Tiontatecaga of the Kanawha River in southern West Virginia. South of the Allegheny River was a nation known as Calicua, which may have been part of the Monongahela culture. 17th century In the 17th century, the Dutch and the English each claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their colonial lands in America. The Dutch were the first to take possession. By June 3, 1631, the Dutch began settling the Delmarva Peninsula by establishing the Zwaanendael Colony on the site of present-day Lewes, Delaware. In 1638, Sweden established New Sweden Colony in the region of Fort Christina on the site of present-day Wilmington, Delaware. New Sweden claimed and, for the most part, controlled the lower Delaware River region, including parts of present-day Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but settled few colonists there. On March 12, 1664, King Charles II of England gave James, Duke of York a grant that incorporated all lands included in the original Virginia Company of Plymouth Grant and other lands. This grant was in conflict with the Dutch claim for New Netherland, which included parts of today's Pennsylvania. On June 24, 1664, the Duke of York sold the portion of his large grant that included present-day New Jersey to John Berkeley and George Carteret for a proprietary colony. The land was not yet in British possession, but the sale boxed in the portion of New Netherland on the West side of the Delaware River. The British conquest of New Netherland began on August 29, 1664, when New Amsterdam was coerced to surrender while facing cannons on British ships in New York Harbor. This conquest continued, and was completed in October 1664, when the British captured Fort Casimir in what today is New Castle, Delaware. The Peace of Breda between England, France, and the Netherlands confirmed the English conquest on July 21, 1667, although there were temporary reversions. On September 12, 1672, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch reconquered New York Colony/New Amsterdam, establishing three County Courts, which went on to become original Counties in present-day Delaware and Pennsylvania. The one that later transferred to Pennsylvania was Upland. This was partially reversed on February 9, 1674, when the Treaty of Westminster ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War and reverted all political situations to the status quo ante bellum. The British retained the Dutch Counties with their Dutch names. By June 11, 1674, New York reasserted control over the outlying colonies, including Upland, and the names started to be changed to British names by November 11, 1674. Upland was partitioned on November 12, 1674, producing the general outline of the current border between Pennsylvania and Delaware. On February 28, 1681, Charles II granted a land charter to Quaker leader William Penn to repay a debt of £16,000 (around £2,100,000 in 2008, adjusting for retail inflation) owed to William's father. The transaction represents one of the largest land grants to an individual in history. Penn proposed that the land be called New Wales, but there were objections to that name, so he recommended Sylvania (from the Latin silva: "forest, woods"). The King named it Pennsylvania (literally "Penn's Woods") in honor of Admiral Penn. The younger Penn was embarrassed at this name, fearing that people would think he had named it after himself, but King Charles would not rename the grant. Penn established a government with two innovations that were much copied in the New World: the county commission and freedom of religious conviction. What had been Upland on the Pennsylvania side of the Pennsylvania-Delaware border was renamed as Chester County when Pennsylvania instituted their colonial governments on March 4, 1681. Penn signed a peace treaty with Tamanend, leader of the Lenape, which began a long period of friendly relations between the Quakers and the Indians. Additional treaties between Quakers and other tribes followed. The treaty of William Penn was never violated. 18th century Between 1730 and when the Pennsylvania Colony was shut down by Parliament with the Currency Act in 1764, the Pennsylvania Colony made its own paper money to account for the shortage of actual gold and silver. The paper money was called Colonial Scrip. The Colony issued bills of credit, which were as good as gold or silver coins because of their legal tender status. Since they were issued by the government and not a banking institution, it was an interest free proposition, largely defraying the expense of the government and therefore taxation of the people. It also promoted general employment and prosperity, since the government used discretion and did not issue excessive amounts that inflated the currency. Benjamin Franklin had a hand in creating this currency, whose utility, he said, was never to be disputed. The currency also met with "cautious approval" by Adam Smith. The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1740, becoming one of the nine colonial colleges and the first college established in the state and one of the first in the nation; today, it is an Ivy League university that is ranked one the world's best universities. Dickinson College in Carlisle was the first college founded after the states united. Established in 1773, Dickinson was ratified five days after the Treaty of Paris on September 9, 1783, and was founded by Benjamin Rush and named after John Dickinson. James Smith wrote that in 1763, "the Indians again commenced hostilities, and were busily engaged in killing and scalping the frontier inhabitants in various parts of Pennsylvania. This state was then a Quaker government, and at the first of this war the frontiers received no assistance from the state." The ensuing hostilities became known as Pontiac's War. After the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, delegate John Dickinson of Philadelphia wrote the Declaration of Rights and Grievances. The Congress was the first meeting of the Thirteen Colonies, called at the request of the Massachusetts assembly, but only nine of the 13 colonies sent delegates. Dickinson then wrote Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, To the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, which were published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle between December 2, 1767, and February 15, 1768. When the Founding Fathers convened in Philadelphia in 1774, 12 colonies sent representatives to the First Continental Congress. The Second Continental Congress, which also met in Philadelphia beginning in May 1775, authored and signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, but when Philadelphia fell to the British in the Philadelphia campaign, the Continental Congress moved west, where it met at the Lancaster courthouse on Saturday, September 27, 1777, and then to York. In York, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, largely authored by Pennsylvania delegate John Dickinson, that formed 13 independent States into a new union. Later, the Constitution was written, and Philadelphia was once again chosen to be cradle to the new nation. The Constitution was drafted and signed at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, now known as Independence Hall, the same building where the Declaration of Independence was previously adopted and signed in 1776. On December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania was the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, five days after Delaware became the first. At the time, Pennsylvania was the most ethnically and religiously diverse of the thirteen colonies. Because a third of Pennsylvania's population spoke German, the Constitution was presented in German so those citizens could participate in the discussion about it. Reverend Frederick Muhlenberg, a Lutheran minister and the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, acted as chairman of Pennsylvania's ratifying convention. For half a century, the Pennsylvania General Assembly met at various places in the Philadelphia area before it began meeting regularly in Independence Hall in Philadelphia for 63 years. However, events such as the Paxton Boys massacres of 1763 had made the legislature aware of the need for a central capital. In 1799, the General Assembly moved to the Lancaster Courthouse. 19th century The Pennsylvania General Assembly met in the old Dauphin County Court House until December 1821 when the Federal-style Hills Capitol, named for Lancaster architect Stephen Hills, was constructed on a hilltop land grant of four acres set aside for a seat of state government in Harrisburg by the son and namesake of John Harris, Sr., a Yorkshire native who founded a trading post and ferry on the east shore of the Susquehanna River in 1705. The Hills Capitol burned down on February 2, 1897, during a heavy snowstorm, presumably because of a faulty flue. The General Assembly met at a nearby Methodist Church until a new capitol could be built. Following an architectural selection contest that some alleged had been rigged, Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb was asked to design and build a replacement building. However, the legislature had little money to allocate to the project. When they dubbed the roughly finished somewhat industrial Cobb Capitol building complete, the General Assembly refused to occupy the building. In 1901, political and popular indignation prompted a second contest that was restricted to Pennsylvania architects; Joseph Miller Huston of Philadelphia was chosen to design the present Pennsylvania State Capitol that incorporated Cobb's building into a magnificent public work, finished and dedicated in 1907. James Buchanan, a Franklin County native, served as the 15th U.S. president and was the first president to be born in Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg, the major turning point of the American Civil War, took place near Gettysburg in July 1863. An estimated 350,000 Pennsylvanians served in the Union Army forces, including 8,600 African American military volunteers. The politics of Pennsylvania were for decades dominated by the financially conservative Republican-aligned Cameron machine, established by U.S. Senator Simon Cameron, later the Secretary of War under President Abraham Lincoln. Control of the machine was subsequently passed on to Cameron's son J. Donald Cameron, whose ineffectiveness resulted in a transfer of power to the more shrewd Matthew Quay and finally to Boies Penrose. The post-Civil War era, known as the Gilded Age, saw the continued rise of industry in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was home to some of the largest steel companies in the world. Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Steel Company in Pittsburgh and Charles M. Schwab founded Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem. Other titans of industry, including John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould, also operated in Pennsylvania. In the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. oil industry was born in Western Pennsylvania, which supplied the vast majority of kerosene for years thereafter. As the Pennsylvania oil rush developed, Pennsylvania's oil boom towns, such as Titusville, rose and later fell. Coal mining, primarily in the state's Coal Region in the northeast region of the state, also was a major industry for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1903, Milton S. Hershey began construction on a chocolate factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania; The Hershey Company grew to become the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. Heinz Company was also founded during this period. These huge companies exercised a large influence on the politics of Pennsylvania; as Henry Demarest Lloyd put it, oil baron John D. Rockefeller "had done everything with the Pennsylvania legislature except refine it". Pennsylvania created a Department of Highways and engaged in a vast program of road-building, while railroads continued to see heavy usage. The growth of industry eventually provided middle class incomes to working-class households after the development of labor unions helped them gain living wages. However, the rise of unions also led to a rise of union busting with several private police forces springing up. Pennsylvania was the location of the first documented organized strike in North America, and Pennsylvania was the location of two hugely prominent strikes, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Coal Strike of 1902. The eight-hour day was eventually adopted, and the coal and iron police were banned. 20th century At the beginning of the 20th century, Pennsylvania's economy centered on steel production, logging, coal mining, textile production, and other forms of industrial manufacturing. A surge in immigration to the U.S. during the late 19th and early 20th centuries provided a steady flow of cheap labor for these industries, which often employed children and people who could not speak English from Southern and Eastern Europe. Thousands of Pennsylvanians volunteered during the Spanish–American War. Pennsylvania was an important industrial center in World War I, and the state provided over 300,000 soldiers for the military. On May 31, 1918, the Pittsburgh Agreement was signed in Pittsburgh to declare the formation of the independent state of Czechoslovakia with future Czechoslovak president Tomáš Masaryk. In 1922, 310,000 Pennsylvania miners joined the UMW General coal strike, which lasted 163 days and shut down most coal mines within the state. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge established the Allegheny National Forest under the authority of the Weeks Act of 1911. The forest is located in the northwest part of the state in Elk, Forest, McKean, and Warren Counties for the purposes of timber production and watershed protection in the Allegheny River basin. The Allegheny is the state's only national forest. Pennsylvania manufactured 6.6 percent of total U.S. military armaments produced during World War II, ranking sixth among the 48 states. The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard served as an important naval base, and Pennsylvania produced important military leaders, including George C. Marshall, Hap Arnold, Jacob Devers, and Carl Spaatz. During the war, over a million Pennsylvanians served in the armed forces, and more Medals of Honor were awarded to Pennsylvanians than to individuals from any other state. The Three Mile Island accident was the most significant nuclear accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. The state was hard-hit by the decline and restructuring of the steel industry and other heavy industries during the late 20th century. With job losses came heavy population losses, especially in the state's largest cities. Pittsburgh lost its place among the top ten most populous cities in the United States by 1950, and Philadelphia dropped to the fifth and currently the sixth-largest city after decades of being among the top three. After 1990, as information-based industries became more important in the economy, state and local governments put more resources into the old, well-established public library system. Some localities, however, used new state funding to cut local taxes. New ethnic groups, especially Hispanics and Latinos, began entering the state to fill low-skill jobs in agriculture and service industries. For example, in Chester County, Mexican immigrants brought the Spanish language, increased Catholicism, high birth rates, and cuisine when they were hired as agricultural laborers; in some rural localities, they made up half or more of the population. Stateside Puerto Ricans built a large community in the state's third-largest city, Allentown, where they comprise over 40% of the city's population as of 2000. In the 20th century, as Pennsylvania's historical national and even global leadership in mining largely ceased and its steelmaking and other heavy manufacturing sectors slowed, the state sought to grow its service and other industries to replace the jobs and economic productivity lost from the downturn of these industries. Pittsburgh's concentration of universities has enabled it to be a leader in technology and healthcare. Similarly, Philadelphia has a concentration of university expertise. Healthcare, retail, transportation, and tourism are some of the state's growing industries of the postindustrial era. As in the rest of the nation, most residential population growth has occurred in suburban rather than central city areas, although both major cities have had significant revitalization in their downtown areas. Philadelphia anchors the seventh-largest metropolitan area in the country and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, and Pittsburgh is the center of the nation's 27th-largest metropolitan areas. As of 2020, the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania is the nation's 69th-largest metropolitan area. Pennsylvania also has six additional metropolitan areas that rank among the nation's 200-most populous metropolitan areas. Philadelphia forms part of the Northeast megalopolis and is associated with the Northeastern United States. Pittsburgh is part of the Great Lakes megalopolis and is often associated with the Midwestern United States and Rust Belt. 21st century During the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the small town of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, received worldwide attention after United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township, located 1.75 miles (2.82 km) north of the town. All 40 civilians and 4 Al-Qaeda hijackers on board were killed. The hijackers had intended to crash the plane into either the United States Capitol or The White House. After learning from family members via air phone of the earlier attacks on the World Trade Center, however, Flight 93's passengers revolted against the hijackers and fought for control of the plane, causing it to crash. It was the only one of the four aircraft hijacked that day that never reached its intended target and the heroism of the passengers has been commemorated. Since 2003, the Tekko anime convention has been held annually in Pittsburgh. In October 2018, the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation, a conservative Jewish synagogue, experienced the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, which resulted in 11 fatalities. On July 13, 2024, near Butler, Pennsylvania, an assassination attempt on the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump occurred. Geography Pennsylvania is 170 miles (274 km) north to south and 283 miles (455 km) east to west. Of a total 46,055 square miles (119,282 km2), 44,817 square miles (116,075 km2) are land, 490 square miles (1,269 km2) are inland waters, and 749 square miles (1,940 km2) are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd-largest state in the United States. Pennsylvania has 51 miles (82 km) of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles (92 km) of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Of the original Thirteen Colonies, Pennsylvania is the only state that does not border the Atlantic Ocean. The boundaries of the state are the Mason–Dixon line (39°43' N) to the south, Twelve-Mile Circle on the Pennsylvania-Delaware border, the Delaware River to the east, 80°31' W to the west, and the 42° N to the north, except for a short segment on the western end where a triangle extends north to Lake Erie. The state has five geographical regions: Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Erie Plain. Climate Pennsylvania's diverse topography produces a variety of climates, though the entire state experiences cold winters and humid summers. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, except for the southeastern corner, has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb). The southern portion of the state has a humid subtropical climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa). Summers are generally hot and humid. Moving toward the mountainous interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increases, and snowfall amounts are greater. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches (250 cm) of snowfall annually, and the entire state receives plentiful precipitation throughout the year. The state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into autumn. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, such as 30 recorded tornadoes in 2011; generally speaking, these tornadoes do not cause significant damage. Municipalities Cities in Pennsylvania include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon, and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, and the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton in the central east, known as the Lehigh Valley. The northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Nanticoke, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest. State College is located in the central region. Williamsport is in the north-central region with York, Carlisle, and the state capital Harrisburg on the Susquehanna River in the east-central region of the state. Altoona and Johnstown are in the state's west-central region. The state's three-most populated cities, in order of size, are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Allentown. Adjacent states and province Ontario (Province of Canada) (Northwest) New York (North and Northeast) New Jersey (East and Southeast) Delaware (Extreme Southeast) Maryland (South) West Virginia (Southwest) Ohio (West) Demographics As of the 2020 U.S. census, Pennsylvania had a population of 13,011,844, up from 12,702,379 in 2010. Pennsylvania is the fifth-most populated state in the U.S. after California, Texas, Florida, and New York. In 2019, net migration to other states resulted in a decrease of 27,718, and immigration from other countries resulted in an increase of 127,007. Net migration to Pennsylvania was 98,289. Migration of native Pennsylvanians resulted in a decrease of 100,000 people. 7.2% of the population was foreign-born as of 2021. Pennsylvania's center of population is in Duncannon in Perry County. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 12,691 homeless people in Pennsylvania. Place of origin Among Pennsylvania residents, as of 2020, nearly three out of four, 74.5%, are native to the state and were born in Pennsylvania, 18.4% were born in a different U.S. state, 1.5% were born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or born abroad to American parent(s), and 5.6% were foreign born. Foreign-born Pennsylvanians are largely from Asia (36.0%), Europe (35.9%), and Latin America (30.6%) with the remainder from Africa (5%), North America (3.1%), and Oceania (0.4%). The state's largest ancestry groups, expressed as a percentage of total people who responded with a particular ancestry for the 2010 census, were German 28.5%, Irish 18.2%, Italian 12.8%, African Americans 9.6%, English 8.5%, Polish 7.2%, and French 4.2%. As of 2018, the top countries of origin for Pennsylvania's immigrants were India, the Dominican Republic, China, Mexico, and Vietnam. Race and ethnicity The vast majority of Pennsylvania's population is made up of whites, blacks and Hispanics, with the latter two being minorities and having significant populations. Non-Hispanic Whites make up the majority of Pennsylvania; they are mostly descended from German, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Italian, and English immigrants. Rural portions of South Central Pennsylvania are recognized nationally for their Amish communities. Wyoming Valley, including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, has the highest percentage of white residents of any metropolitan area with a population of 500,000 or above in the U.S.; in Wyoming Valley, 96.2% of the population claim to be white with no Hispanic background. The state's Hispanic or Latino American population grew by 82.6% between 2000 and 2010, marking one of the largest increases in a state's Hispanic population. The significant growth of the Hispanic or Latino population is due to migration to the state mainly from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, and to a lesser extent immigration from countries such as the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and various Central and South American nations and a wave of Hispanic and Latinos leaving New York City and New Jersey for safer and more affordable living. The majority of Hispanic or Latino Americans in Pennsylvania are of Puerto Rican descent. Most of the remaining Hispanic or Latino population is made up of Mexicans and Dominicans, and the majority of Hispanics and Latinos are concentrated in Philadelphia, the Lehigh Valley, and South Central Pennsylvania. The Hispanic or Latino population is greatest in Bethlehem, Allentown, Reading, Lancaster, York, and around Philadelphia. As of 2010, the vast majority of Hispanics and Latino Americans in Pennsylvania, about 85%, live within a 150-mile (240 km) radius of Philadelphia, and about 20% live in the city itself. The Asian population swelled by almost 60%, fueled by Indian, Vietnamese, and Chinese immigration, and many Asian transplants moving to Philadelphia from New York City. The rapid growth of this community has given Pennsylvania one of the largest Asian populations in the nation. The African American population grew by 13%, which was the largest increase in that population among the state's peers of New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan. Pennsylvania has a high in-migration of black and Hispanic people from other nearby states with the eastern and south-central portions of the state seeing the bulk of the increases. Among the state's black population, the vast majority in the state are African American. There are also a growing number of black residents of West Indian, recent African, and Hispanic or Latino origins. Most Blacks live in the Philadelphia area, Pittsburgh, or South Central Pennsylvania. Additionally, in 2020, 31,052 identified as being Native American alone, and 158,112 did in combination with one or more other races. Birth data Note: data for births of White Hispanic origin have not been collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. Age and poverty As of the 2010 census, Pennsylvania had the fourth-highest proportion of elderly (65+) citizens in the nation at 15.4%, compared to a national average of 13.0%. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the state's poverty rate was 12.5% in 2017 compared to 13.4% for the U.S. as a whole. Languages As of 2010, 90.2% (10,710,239) of Pennsylvania residents age five and older spoke English at home as a primary language while 4.1% (486,058) spoke Spanish, 0.9% (103,502) spoke German including Pennsylvania Dutch, and 0.5% (56,052) spoke Chinese, which includes Mandarin of the population over the age of five. In total, 9.9% (1,170,628) of Pennsylvania's population age 5 and older spoke a mother tongue other than English. Pennsylvania Dutch language Pennsylvania German, spoken by nearly one percent of Pennsylvania's population as of 2010, is often misleadingly called Pennsylvania Dutch. The term Dutch was used to mean German, including the Netherlands, before the Latin name for them replaced it. When referring to the language spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch people, Pennsylvania German, it means German. In fact, Germans, in their own language, call themselves Deutsch, (Pennsylvania German: "Deitsch"). Pennsylvania Dutch is a descendant of German in the West Central German dialect family and is closest to Palatine German. Pennsylvania German is still very vigorous as a first language among Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites, principally in the Lancaster County and Berks County areas; it is almost extinct as an everyday language outside the plain communities, though a few words have passed into English usage. Religion Of the original Thirteen Colonies, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island had the most religious freedom. Voltaire, writing of William Penn in 1733, observed: "The new sovereign also enacted several wise and wholesome laws for his colony, which have remained invariably the same to this day. The chief is, to ill-treat no person on account of religion, and to consider as brethren all those who believe in one God." One result of this uncommon freedom was a wide religious diversity, which continues to the present. Pennsylvania's population in 2010 was 12,702,379; of these, 6,838,440 (53.8%) were estimated to belong to some sort of organized religion. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) at Pennsylvania State University, the largest religious bodies in Pennsylvania by adherents were the Catholic Church with 3,503,028 adherents, the United Methodist Church with 591,734 members, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with 501,974 members. Since 2014, among the state's religious population, 73% were Christian, according to Pew Research Center. In 2020, the Public Religion Research Institute estimated 68% of the population identified with Christianity. As of 2014, 47% of all Pennsylvanians identified as Protestants, making Protestantism far and away the most prominent religious affiliation among Pennsylvanians. Among all self-identified Christians in the state, however, 24% identified as Catholics, the most of any Christian religious affiliation. In April 2023, a Franklin & Marshall College poll found that a plurality of Pennsylvania residents were unaffiliated, with the rest predominately being Protestant or Catholic. Pennsylvania, especially the Greater Pittsburgh area, has one of the largest communities of Presbyterians in the nation, the third-highest by percentage of population and the largest outright in membership as Protestant Christians. The American Presbyterian Church, with about 250,000 members and 1,011 congregations, is the largest Presbyterian denomination, and the Presbyterian Church in America is also significant, with 112 congregations and approximately 23,000 adherents; the EPC has around 50 congregations, including the ECO, according to 2010 estimates. The fourth-largest Protestant denomination, the United Church of Christ, has 180,000 members and 627 congregations in the state. The American Baptist Churches USA, also referred to as the Northern Baptist Convention is based in King of Prussia. Pennsylvania was the center state of the German Reformed denomination from the 1700s. Bethlehem is one of the headquarters of the Moravian Church in the U.S. Pennsylvania also has a very large Amish population, second only to Ohio among U.S. states. As of 2000, there was a total Amish population of 47,860 in Pennsylvania and an additional 146,416 Mennonites and 91,200 Brethren. The total Anabapist population including Bruderhof was 232,631, about two percent of the population. While Pennsylvania owes its existence to Quakers, and much of the historic character of Pennsylvania is ideologically rooted in the teachings of the Religious Society of Friends (as they are officially known), practicing Quakers are a small minority of about 10,000 adherents as of 2010. Economy As of 2024, Pennsylvania's gross state product (GSP) of $1.0 trillion is the sixth-largest among all U.S. states behind California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois. If Pennsylvania were an independent country, its economy, as of 2023, would rank as the 20th-largest in the world. On a per capita basis, Pennsylvania's 2021 per capita income of $68,957 ranks 21st among the 50 states. As of 2016, there were 5,354,964 people in employment in Pennsylvania with 301,484 total employer establishments. As of January 2024, the state's unemployment rate is 3.4%. The state has five manufacturing centers: Philadelphia in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, Erie in the northwest, Scranton-Wilkes-Barre in the northeast, and the Lehigh Valley in the east. Pennsylvania is home to 23 of the nation's 500 largest companies that comprise the Fortune 500, including two that rank in the top 100, Cencora (formerly AmeriSource Bergen) in Conshohocken, which is the nation's 11th-largest company, and Comcast in Philadelphia, which is the 29th-largest. Philadelphia is home to six of the Fortune 500 companies, with more located in suburbs like King of Prussia; it is a leader in the financial and insurance industries. Pittsburgh is home to eight Fortune 500 companies, including U.S. Steel, PPG Industries, Heinz, and GE Transportation. Hershey is home to The Hershey Company, one of the world's largest chocolate manufacturers. In eastern Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley has become an epicenter for the growth of the U.S. logistics industry, including warehousing and the intermodal transport of goods. Like many U.S. states, Walmart is the largest private employer in Pennsylvania. The state's second-largest employer is the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League private research university in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania is home to the oldest investor-owned utility company in the U.S., The York Water Company. As of 2018, Pennsylvania ranks first in the nation in a few economic sectors and niches, including barrels of beer produced annually (3.9 million), farmers' markets (over 6,000), food processing companies (2,300), hardwood lumber production (a billion board feet annually), mushroom farms (68), natural gas production, potato chip manufacturing (24 facilities manufacturing one-fourth of the nation's total), and pretzel manufacturing (80 percent of the nation's total). Agriculture Pennsylvania ranks 19th overall among all states in agricultural production. Its leading agricultural products are mushrooms, apples, Christmas trees, layer chickens, nursery, sod, milk, corn for silage, grapes (including juice grapes), and horses production. Pennsylvania ranks eighth in the nation in winemaking. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture worked with private companies to establish "PA Preferred" as a way to brand agricultural products grown or made in the state. The financial impact of agriculture in Pennsylvania includes employment of more than 66,800 people employed by the food manufacturing industry and over $1.7 billion in food product export as of 2011. Banking The first nationally chartered bank in the U.S., the Bank of North America, was founded in 1781 in Philadelphia. After a series of mergers, the Bank of North America is now part of Wells Fargo. Pennsylvania is home to the first nationally-chartered bank under the 1863 National Banking Act. That year, the Pittsburgh Savings & Trust Company received a national charter and renamed itself the First National Bank of Pittsburgh as part of the National Banking Act. That bank is still in existence today as PNC and remains based in Pittsburgh. PNC is currently the state's largest and the nation's sixth-largest bank. Film The Pennsylvania Film Production Tax Credit began in 2004 and stimulated the development of a film industry in the state. Gambling Casino gambling was legalized in Pennsylvania in 2004. As of 2022, there are 16 casinos in the state. Table games such as poker, roulette, blackjack, and craps were approved by the state legislature and signed into law in January 2010. Sports betting saw approval in 2018. Five years in, the state and local governments collected over $500 million in sportsbook tax revenue. Governance Pennsylvania has had five constitutions during its statehood: 1776, 1790, 1838, 1874, and 1968. Before that the province of Pennsylvania was governed for a century by a Frame of Government, of which there were four versions: 1682, 1683, 1696, and 1701. The capital of Pennsylvania is Harrisburg. The legislature meets there in the State Capitol. In a 2020 study, Pennsylvania was ranked as the 19th hardest state for citizens to vote in. Executive The current Governor is Josh Shapiro. The other elected officials composing the executive branch are the Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, Attorney General Michelle Henry, Auditor General Timothy DeFoor, and Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity. The Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a ticket in the general election and are up for re-election every four years during the midterm elections. The elections for Attorney General, Auditor General, and Treasurer are held every four years coinciding with a Presidential election. Legislative Pennsylvania has a bicameral legislature that was established in the Pennsylvania Constitution, which was ratified in 1790. The original Frame of Government of William Penn had a unicameral legislature. The General Assembly includes 50 senators and 203 representatives. Kim L. Ward is currently president pro tempore of the State Senate, Joe Pittman the majority leader, and Jay Costa the minority leader. Joanna McClinton is speaker of the House of Representatives, with Matthew Bradford as majority leader and Bryan Cutler as minority leader. As of 2023, the Republicans hold the majority in the State Senate (28-22) and the Democrats in the State House (102-101). Pennsylvania is one of only two states that currently have divided party control of the state legislature. Judiciary Pennsylvania is divided into 60 judicial districts. With the exception of Philadelphia County, most have district justices and justices of the peace who preside over most preliminary hearings in felony and misdemeanor offenses, all minor (summary) criminal offenses, and small civil claims. Most criminal and civil cases originate in the Courts of Common Pleas, which also serve as appellate court. The Superior Court hears all appeals from the Courts of Common Pleas not expressly designated to the Commonwealth Court or Supreme Court. The Superior Court also has original jurisdiction to review probable cause governmental requests for warrants in wiretap surveillance. The Commonwealth Court is limited to appeals from final orders of certain state agencies and certain designated cases from the Courts of Common Pleas. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the state's final appellate court. All judges in Pennsylvania are elected, and the chief justice of the state's Supreme Court is determined by seniority. Local government Pennsylvania is divided into 67 counties. Counties are further subdivided into municipalities that are either incorporated as cities, boroughs, or townships. The most populous county in Pennsylvania and 24th-most populous county in the United States is Philadelphia County, which includes the city of Philadelphia, with a 2020 population of 1,603,797; the state's least populous county is Cameron with a population of 4,547. There are a total of 56 cities in Pennsylvania, which are classified by population as either first-class, second-class, or third-class cities. Philadelphia, the state's largest city with a population exceeding 1.6 million, is Pennsylvania's only first-class city. Pittsburgh (303,000) and Scranton (76,000) are second-class and second-class 'A' cities, respectively. All of the state's remaining cities including Allentown, the state's third-largest city, and Reading, its fourth-largest, to Parker, the state's smallest city with a population of only 820, are designated as third-class cities. First- and second-class cities are governed by a "strong mayor" form of mayor–council government, whereas third-class cities are governed by either a "weak mayor" form of government or a council–manager government. Pennsylvania boroughs are generally smaller in population than the state's cities, and most of the state's cities were incorporated as boroughs prior to being designated cities. There are 958 boroughs in Pennsylvania, all of which are governed by the "weak mayor" form of mayor-council government. The largest borough in Pennsylvania is State College (40,501) and the smallest is Centralia. Townships are the third type of municipality in Pennsylvania and are classified as either first-class or second-class townships. There are 1,454 second-class townships and 93 first-class townships. Second-class townships can become first-class townships if they have a population density greater than 300 inhabitants per square mile (120/km2) and a referendum is passed supporting the change. Pennsylvania's largest township is Upper Darby Township (85,681), and the smallest is East Keating Township. There is one exception to the types of municipalities in Pennsylvania: Bloomsburg was incorporated as a town in 1870 and is, officially, the only town in the state. In 1975, McCandless Township adopted a home-rule charter under the name of "Town of McCandless", but is, legally, still a first-class township. The state has 56 cities, 958 boroughs, 93 first-class townships, 1,454 second-class townships, and one town (Bloomsburg) for a total of 2,562 municipalities. Taxation Pennsylvania had the 15th-highest state and local tax burden in the nation as of 2012, according to the Tax Foundation. Residents paid a total of $83.7 billion in state and local taxes with a per capita average of $4,589 annually. Residents share 76% of the total tax burden. Many state politicians have tried to increase the share of taxes paid by out-of-state sources. Suggested revenue sources include taxing natural gas drilling as Pennsylvania is the only state without such a tax on gas drilling. Additional revenue prospects include trying to place tolls on interstate highways; specifically Interstate 80, which is used heavily by out of state commuters with high maintenance costs. Sales taxes provide 39% of Pennsylvania's state revenue; personal income taxes 34%; motor vehicle taxes about 12%, and taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages 5%. The personal income tax is a flat 3.07%. An individual's taxable income is based on the following eight types of income: compensation (salary); interest; dividends; net profits from the operation of a business, profession or farm; net gains or income from the dispositions of property; net gains or income from rents, royalties, patents and copyrights; income derived through estates or trusts; and gambling and lottery winnings (other than Pennsylvania Lottery winnings). Counties, municipalities, and school districts levy taxes on real estate. In addition, some local bodies assess a wage tax on personal income. Generally, the total wage tax rate is capped at 1% of income but some municipalities with home rule charters may charge more than 1%. Thirty-two of Pennsylvania's sixty-seven counties levy a personal property tax on stocks, bonds, and similar holdings. With the exception of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, municipalities and school districts are allowed to enact a local earned income tax within the purview of Act 32. Residents of these municipalities and school districts are required to file a local income tax return in addition to federal and state returns. This local return is filed with the local income tax collector, a private collection agency appointed by a particular county to collect the local earned income and local services tax (the latter a flat fee deducted from salaried employees working within a particular municipality or school district). Philadelphia has its own local income taxation system. Philadelphia-based employers are required to withhold the Philadelphia wage tax from the salaries of their employees. Residents of Philadelphia working for an employer are not required to file a local return as long as their Philadelphia wage tax is fully withheld by their employer. If their employer does not withhold the Philadelphia wage tax, residents are required to register with the Revenue Department and file an Earnings Tax return. Residents of Philadelphia with self-employment income are required to file a Net Profits Tax (NPT) return, while those with business income from Philadelphia sources are required to obtain a Commercial Activity License (CAL) and pay the Business Income and Receipts Tax (BIRT) and the NPT. Residents with unearned income except interest from checking and savings accounts are required to file and pay the School Income-tax (SIT). The complexity of Pennsylvania's local tax filing system has been criticized by experts, who note that the outsourcing of collections to private entities is akin to tax farming and that many new residents are caught off guard and end up facing failure to file penalties even if they did not owe any tax. Attempts to transfer local income tax collections to the state level by having a separate local section on the state income tax return, currently the method used to collect local income taxes in New York, Maryland, Indiana, and Iowa, have been unsuccessful. State law enforcement The Pennsylvania State Police is the chief law enforcement agency in the Pennsylvania. Politics Since the latter half of the 20th century, Pennsylvania has been perceived as a powerful swing state, and winning Pennsylvania has since been deemed as essential to U.S. presidential candidates. Only thrice between 1932 and 1988 (1932, 1948, and 1968, with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Richard Nixon, respectively) has a presidential candidate been able to win the White House without carrying Pennsylvania. Between 1992 and 2016, Pennsylvania trended Democratic in presidential elections; Bill Clinton won the state twice by large margins and Al Gore won it by a slightly closer margin in 2000. In the 2004 presidential election, John F. Kerry beat President George W. Bush in Pennsylvania, 2,938,095 (51%) to 2,793,847 (48%). In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican John McCain in Pennsylvania, 3,276,363 (54%) to 2,655,885 (44%). In the 2016 United States presidential election, however, Republican Donald Trump broke the Democratic streak in the state, winning by 2,970,733 (48%) votes to 2,926,441 (47%) votes. The state returned to the Democratic column in 2020 by voting for Joe Biden over Trump, 3,458,229 (50%) to 3,377,674 (49%). The state holds 19 electoral votes. In recent national elections since 1992, Pennsylvania had leaned Democratic. The state voted for the Democratic ticket for president in every election between 1992 and 2012. During the 2008 election campaign, a recruitment drive saw registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by 1.2 million. However, Pennsylvania has a history of electing Republican U.S. senators. From 2009 to 2011, the state was represented by two Democratic senators for the first time since 1947 after Republican Senator Arlen Specter switched party affiliation. In 2010, Republicans recaptured a U.S. Senate seat and a majority of the state's congressional seats, control of both chambers of the state legislature, and the governorship. Democrats won back the governorship, however, four years later in the 2014 election. It was the first time since a governor became eligible for reelection that an incumbent governor had been defeated in a reelection bid. Historically, Democratic strength was concentrated in Philadelphia in the southeast, the Pittsburgh, and Johnstown areas in the southwest, and Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in the northeast. Republican strength was concentrated in the Philadelphia suburbs and the more rural areas in the state's central, northeastern, and western portions, some of which have long been considered among the nation's most conservative areas. Since 1992, however, the Philadelphia suburbs have swung Democratic; the brand of Republicanism there was traditionally moderate. In the 21st century, however, Pittsburgh suburbs, which historically had been Democratic strongholds, have swung more Republican. Democratic political consultant James Carville once pejoratively described Pennsylvania as "Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in the middle", suggesting that political power in the state was based in its two largest cities, which have been reliably Democratic, offset by the state's large rural power base, which has proven equally reliably Republican. Political analysts and editorials refer to central Pennsylvania as the "T" in statewide elections. The state's three valleys (Delaware, Lehigh, and Wyoming Valleys) and Greater Pittsburgh generally vote Democratic, while the majority of the counties in the central part of the state vote Republican. As a result, maps showing the results of statewide elections invariably form a shape that resembles a "T". Pennsylvania retains the death penalty, although there is currently a gubernatorial hold on executions. Federal representation Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators are Bob Casey Jr. and John Fetterman, both of whom are Democrats. Casey would seek reelection in 2024 should he seek another term. Fetterman was elected in 2022 to succeed retiring Republican Pat Toomey. Pennsylvania has 17 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives as of 2023. Education Pennsylvania has 500 public school districts, thousands of private schools, publicly funded colleges and universities, and over 100 private institutions of higher education. Primary and secondary education Under state law, school attendance in Pennsylvania is mandatory for children between ages eight and 17, or until graduation from an accredited high school, whichever is earlier, unless students are homeschooled. As of 2005, 83.8% of Pennsylvania residents age 18 to 24 are high school graduates; Among residents age 25 and over, 86.7% have graduated from high school. The following are the four-year graduation rates for students completing high school in 2016: Among Pennsylvania high school graduates as of 2009, 27.5% of them went on to obtain a bachelor's degree or higher degree. State students consistently do well in standardized testing. In 2007, Pennsylvania ranked 14th in the nation in mathematics, 12th in reading, and 10th in writing for eighth grade students. In 1988, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed Act 169, which allows parents or guardians to homeschool their children as an alternative to compulsory school attendance. The law specifies varying geographic requirements and responsibilities on the part of parents and school districts. Higher education "Pennsylvania has the fourth most higher education institutions of any state," according to Inside Higher Ed, with 250 universities and colleges. The state is ranked 2nd among the nation’s top destinations for freshman out-of-state college students, according to NPR/PBS affiliate WHYY, citing a study by the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania (AICUP). And Pennsylvania is 3rd in the nation for the quantity of "Best Colleges" according to the Wall Street Journal. The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), which includes 14 state-owned universities and colleges, is Pennsylvania's public university system. West Chester University is by far the largest of the 14 with nearly 15,000 students. The Commonwealth System of Higher Education is the organizing body of Pennsylvania's four state-related schools, which include Pennsylvania State University, Lincoln University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Temple University. There are 15 publicly funded two-year community colleges and technical schools in Pennsylvania that are separate from the PASSHE system, and many private two- and four-year technical schools, colleges, and universities. Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pittsburgh are members of the Association of American Universities, an invitation-only organization of leading research universities. Lehigh University is a private research university located in Bethlehem. The Pennsylvania State University is Pennsylvania's land-grant university, Sea Grant College and, Space Grant College. The University of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, is considered the first university in the United States and established the country's first medical school. The University of Pennsylvania, founded in Philadelphia in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin, is Pennsylvania's only Ivy League university, and is the geographically most southern of the nation's eight Ivy League universities. The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) is a private graduate school of medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy with a main campus in Erie, a branch campus located in Greensburg, and two additional campuses outside Pennsylvania. With over 2,200 enrolled medical students, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine is the largest medical school in the United States. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is the first and oldest art school in the United States. Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, now a part of University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, was the first pharmacy school in the United States. Recreation Pennsylvania is home to the nation's first zoo, the Philadelphia Zoo. Other long-accredited AZA zoos include the Erie Zoo and the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. The Lehigh Valley Zoo and ZooAmerica are other notable zoos. Pennsylvania is home to some of the most notable museums in the nation, including the Allentown Art Museum in Allentown, Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh, the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, and several others. One unique museum is the Houdini Museum in Scranton, the only building in the world devoted to the legendary magician. Pennsylvania is also home to the National Aviary, located in Pittsburgh. All 121 state parks in Pennsylvania feature free admission. Pennsylvania's notable amusement parks include Conneaut Lake Park, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom, Dutch Wonderland, DelGrosso's Amusement Park, Great Wolf Lodge, Hersheypark, Idlewild Park, Kalahari Resorts Poconos, Kennywood, Knoebels, Lakemont Park, Sandcastle Waterpark, Sesame Place Philadelphia, and Waldameer Park. The largest indoor waterpark resort on the U.S. East Coast is Splash Lagoon in Erie. The state's notable music festivals include Musikfest, the nation's largest free music festival held annually each August in Bethlehem, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Creation Festival, and Purple Door. The Great Allentown Fair, held annually at the Allentown Fairgrounds since the 19th century, is one of the nation's longest-running annual fairs. There are nearly one million licensed hunters in Pennsylvania. White-tail deer, black bear, cottontail rabbit, squirrel, turkey, and grouse are common game species. Pennsylvania is considered one of the finest wild turkey hunting states in the nation, alongside Texas and Alabama. Sport hunting in Pennsylvania provides a massive boost for the state's economy. A report from The Center for Rural Pennsylvania, a legislative agency of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, reported that hunting, fishing, and furtaking generated a total of $9.6 billion statewide. The Boone and Crockett Club reports that five of the ten largest black bear entries came from the state. The state also has a tied record for the largest hunter shot black bear in the Boone and Crockett record books at 733 lb (332 kg) and a skull of 23 3/16, tied with a bear shot in California in 1993. As of 2007, Pennsylvania has the second highest number of Boone and Crockett-recorded record black bears at 183, behind Wisconsin's 299. Transportation The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, abbreviated as PennDOT, is responsible for transport issues in Pennsylvania. Air Pennsylvania has seven major airports: Philadelphia International, Pittsburgh International, Lehigh Valley International, Harrisburg International, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International, Erie International, and University Park Airport. A total of 134 public-use airports are located in the state. Bus and coach Intercity bus service is provided between cities in Pennsylvania and other major points in the Northeast by Bolt Bus, Fullington Trailways, Greyhound Lines, Martz Trailways, Megabus, OurBus, Trans-Bridge Lines, and various Chinatown bus companies. In 2018, OurBus began offering service from West Chester, Malvern, King of Prussia, and Fort Washington to New York City. Highways and roads PennDOT owns 39,861 miles (64,150 km) of the 121,770 miles (195,970 km) of roadway in the state, making it the fifth-largest state highway system in the United States. The Pennsylvania Turnpike system is 535 miles (861 km) long, with the mainline portion stretching from Ohio to Philadelphia and New Jersey. It is overseen by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. Another major east–west route is Interstate 80, which runs primarily in the northern tier of the state from Ohio to New Jersey at the Delaware Water Gap. Interstate 90 travels the relatively short distance between Ohio and New York through Erie County, in the extreme northwestern part of the state. Primary north–south highways are Interstate 79 from its terminus in Erie through Pittsburgh to West Virginia, Interstate 81 from New York state through Scranton, Lackawanna County and Harrisburg to Maryland and Interstate 476, which begins 7 miles (11 km) north of the Delaware border, in Chester, Delaware County and travels 132 miles (212 km) to Clarks Summit, where it joins I-81. All but 20 miles (32 km) of I-476 is the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The highway south of the Pennsylvania Turnpike is officially called the "Veterans Memorial Highway", but is commonly referred to colloquially as the "Blue Route". Rail SEPTA is the sixth-largest transit agency in the United States and operates the commuter, heavy and light rail transit, and transit bus service in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Pittsburgh Regional Transit is the 25th-largest transit agency and provides transit bus and light rail service in and around Pittsburgh. Intercity passenger rail transit is provided by Amtrak, with the majority of traffic occurring on the Keystone Service in the high-speed Keystone Corridor between Harrisburg and Philadelphia's 30th Street Station before heading north to New York City, and the Northeast Regional, which provides regular high-speed service up and down the Northeast Corridor. The Pennsylvanian follows the same route from New York City to Harrisburg, but extends out to Pittsburgh. The Capitol Limited also passes through Pittsburgh, as well as Connellsville, on its way from Chicago to Washington, D.C. Traveling between Chicago and New York City, the Lake Shore Limited passes through Erie once in each direction. There are 67 short-line, freight railroads operating in Pennsylvania, the highest number in any U.S. state. With more than four million inter-city rail passengers in 2018, Philadelphia's 30th Street Station is Amtrak's third-busiest train station in the nation after Penn Station in Manhattan and Union Station in Washington, D.C., and North America's 12th-busiest train station overall. Water The Port of Pittsburgh is the second-largest inland port in the United States and the 18th-largest port overall; the Port of Philadelphia is the 24th-largest port in the United States. Pennsylvania's only port on the Great Lakes is located in Erie. The Allegheny River Lock and Dam Two is the most-used lock operated by the United States Army Corps of Engineers of its 255 nationwide. The dam impounds the Allegheny River near Downtown Pittsburgh. Culture Food In 2008, author Sharon Hernes Silverman wrote in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that Pennsylvania was the snack food capital of the world. It leads all other states in the manufacture of pretzels and potato chips. In 1861, as the Civil War was beginning, Sturgis Pretzel House in Lititz was first to introduce the pretzel to American consumers. Two other Pennsylvania-based companies, Immergut Hand-Rolled Soft Pretzels in Intercourse and Snyder's of Hanover in Hanover, are leading national pretzel manufacturers. Two of the nation's three leading potato chip companies are based in Pennsylvania: Utz Brands, which started making chips in Hanover in 1921, and Wise Foods, which started making chips in Berwick the same year; the third, Frito-Lay is owned by Plano, Texas-based PepsiCo. Additional Pennsylvania-based companies, including Herr's Snacks in Nottingham, Martin's Potato Chips in Thomasville, are popular chip manufacturers. The Hershey Company in Hershey is a nearly $9 billion a year company and one of the world's leading manufacturers of chocolate; the company was founded in Hershey by Milton S. Hershey in 1894. Gertrude Hawk Chocolates is headquartered in Dunmore. Other notable companies include Just Born in Bethlehem, makers of Hot Tamales, Mike and Ikes, the Easter favorite marshmallow Peeps, and Boyer Brothers of Altoona, which manufacturers Mallo Cups. The pretzel company Auntie Anne's began as a market-stand in Downingtown, and now has corporate headquarters in Lancaster. Traditional Pennsylvania Dutch foods include chicken potpie, ham potpie, schnitz un knepp (dried apples, ham, and dumplings), fasnachts (raised doughnuts), scrapple, pretzels, bologna, chow-chow, and Shoofly pie. Martin's Famous Pastry Shoppe, headquartered in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, specializes in potato bread, another traditional Pennsylvania Dutch food. D.G. Yuengling & Son, America's oldest brewery, has been brewing beer in Pottsville since 1829. Among the regional foods associated with Philadelphia are cheesesteaks, hoagies, soft pretzels, Italian water ice, Irish potato candy, scrapple, Tastykake, and strombolis. In Pittsburgh, tomato ketchup was improved by Henry John Heinz from 1876 to the early 20th century. Famous to a lesser extent than Heinz ketchup is the Pittsburgh's Primanti Brothers Restaurant sandwiches, pierogies, and city chicken. In northeastern Pennsylvania, Italian heritage has popularized a variety of pizza styles. Outside of Scranton, in Old Forge, there are dozens of Italian restaurants specializing in pizza made with thick, light crust, and American cheese. New York–style pizza is popular in Wilkes-Barre. Erie also has its share of foods, including Greek sauce and sponge candy. Sauerkraut along with pork and mashed potatoes is a traditional meal on New Year's Day in Pennsylvania; its tradition began with the Pennsylvania Dutch who believe the meal leads to good luck in the new year to come. Sports Professional sports Pennsylvania is home to eight major league professional sports teams: the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball, the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL, and the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer. Among them, these teams have accumulated seven World Series championships (with the Pirates winning five and Phillies winning two), 16 National League pennants (with the Pirates winning nine and Phillies winning seven), three pre-Super Bowl era NFL championships (all won by the Eagles), seven Super Bowl championships (with the Steelers winning six and the Eagles one), two NBA championships (both won by the 76ers), and seven Stanley Cup championships (with the Penguins winning five and Flyers winning two). With five professional sports teams and some of the most passionate sports fans in the nation, Philadelphia is often described as the “nation's best sports city.” In addition to its two Major League Baseball franchises, Pennsylvania is home to two Triple-A-level teams, the highest level of Minor League Baseball play. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs, affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies, are based in Allentown, where they play at Coca-Cola Park. The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, affiliated with the New York Yankees, are based in Moosic, where they play at PNC Field. Pennsylvania is home to four Double-A level baseball teams: the Altoona Curve, Erie SeaWolves, Harrisburg Senators, and Reading Fightin Phils. Pennsylvania has two collegiate summer baseball teams affiliated with the MLB Draft League: the State College Spikes and Williamsport Crosscutters. In independent baseball, the state has three teams, the Lancaster Barnstormers, Washington Wild Things, and York Revolution. In addition to its two National Hockey League teams, Pennsylvania has three American Hockey League ice hockey teams: the Hershey Bears affiliated with the Washington Capitals, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms affiliated with the Philadelphia Flyers, and the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins affiliated with the Pittsburgh Penguins. It also has an ECHL-level ice hockey team, the Reading Royals, and an Arena Football League team, the Philadelphia Soul. These Pennsylvania-based developmental-level professional teams have accumulated 12 Triple-A and Double-A baseball league titles (Altoona Curve (1) Reading Fightin Phils (4), and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Senators (6)), 3 ArenaBowl championships (Soul), and 11 Calder Cups (Bears). In addition to the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer, Pennsylvania has two lower level professional soccer teams: Philadelphia Union II of MLS Next Pro and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC of the USL Championship. Since 1959, the Little League World Series has been held annually in August in South Williamsport near where Little League Baseball was founded in Williamsport. In professional golf, Arnold Palmer, one of the 20th century's most accomplished professional golfers, comes from Latrobe, and Jim Furyk, a current PGA player grew up near in Lancaster. PGA tournaments in Pennsylvania include the 84 Lumber Classic played at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington and the Northeast Pennsylvania Classic played at Glenmaura National Golf Club in Moosi. Philadelphia is home to LOVE Park across from City Hall, a popular skateboard location that hosted ESPN's X Games in 2001 and 2002. Motorsports In motorsports, the Mario Andretti dynasty of race drivers hails from Nazareth in the Lehigh Valley. Pennsylvania racetracks include Jennerstown Speedway in Jennerstown, Lake Erie Speedway in North East, Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, and Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, which is home to two NASCAR Cup Series races and an IndyCar Series race. The state is also home to Maple Grove Raceway, near Reading, which hosts major National Hot Rod Association-sanctioned drag racing events each year. There are also two motocross race tracks that host a round of the AMA Toyota Motocross Championships in Pennsylvania. High Point Raceway is located in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, and Steel City is located in Delmont, Pennsylvania. Horse racing tracks in Pennsylvania include The Meadows in North Strabane Township, Mohegan Pennsylvania in Wilkes-Barre, Penn National in Grantville, Presque Isle Downs in Summit Township, and Parx Racing, Harrah's Philadelphia in Chester, which was the home course of Smarty Jones, winner of the 2004 Kentucky Derby and 2004 Preakness Stakes. Harrah's Philadelphia also hosts harness racing and Presque Isle Downs also hosts thoroughbred racing. College sports In college football, three Pennsylvania universities compete in NCAA Division I, the highest level of sanctioned collegiate play in the sport: Penn State in the Big Ten Conference, Pitt in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and Temple in the American Athletic Conference. Over their respective college football histories, Penn State claims two national championships (1982 and 1986) and seven undefeated seasons (1887, 1912, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1986, and 1994) and Pitt has won nine national championships (1915, 1916, 1918, 1929, 1931, 1934, 1936, 1937, and 1976) and had eight undefeated seasons (1904, 1910, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1937, and 1976). Penn State plays its home games at Beaver Stadium, a 106,572-capacity stadium that is the second-largest stadium in the nation; the team is coached by James Franklin. Pitt plays its home games at Acrisure Stadium, a 68,400-capacity stadium it shares with the Pittsburgh Steelers; the team is coached by Pat Narduzzi. Over their respective histories, four additional Pennsylvania universities and colleges have won national college football championships: Lafayette in Easton (1896), Villanova in Villanova (2009), Penn in Philadelphia (1895, 1897, 1904, and 1908), and Washington & Jefferson in Washington (1921). In college basketball, five Philadelphia and Philadelphia-area universities, collectively known as the Big Five, have a rich tradition in NCAA Division I basketball. National titles in college basketball have been won by La Salle (1954), Temple (1938), Penn (1920 and 1921), Pitt (1928 and 1930), and Villanova (1985, 2016, and 2018). Pennsylvania has several universities and colleges known as national leaders in college wrestling. Penn State, coached by Cael Sanderson, has won ten NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in its history, second most among all universities and colleges after Oklahoma State. Lehigh in Bethlehem has had 28 NCAA Division I individual champions over its history. Nicknames Since 1802, Pennsylvania has been known as the Keystone State, which remains the state's most popular and widely-used nickname. The nickname "Keystone State" originates with the agricultural and architectural term "keystone", and is based on the central role that Pennsylvania played geographically and functionally among the original Thirteen Colonies from which the nation was established, the important founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, that were signed and ratified in Pennsylvania, and the early central role that Pennsylvania played in the nation's early manufacturing and agricultural economic development. Less commonly, Pennsylvania is sometimes referred to as the Coal State, the Oil State, and the Steel State, each developed in recognition of the important role these respective industries played in the state in the 19th and 20th centuries. The State of Independence appears on several current day road signs entering Pennsylvania from bordering states. Pennsylvania residents and those of surrounding states commonly refer to Pennsylvania by the state's abbreviation, PA. While it is no longer in common use, Pennsylvania was historically sometimes referred to by the nickname Quaker State during the colonial era based on the influential role that William Penn and other Quakers played in establishing the first frame of government constitution for the Province of Pennsylvania that guaranteed liberty of conscience, which was a reflection of Penn's knowledge of the hostility Quakers confronted when they opposed religious rituals, taking oaths, violence, war, and military service, and what they viewed as ostentatious frippery. Notable people Sister regions Matanzas Province, Cuba Rhône-Alpes, France Kedah, Malaysia See also Index of Pennsylvania-related articles Outline of Pennsylvania Notes References Citations Sources Web sources Books External links Official state government site Official state tourism site Pennsylvania: State Resource Guide, from the Library of Congress Geographic data related to Pennsylvania at OpenStreetMap

Robert_D._Heaton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_D._Heaton

Robert Douglas Heaton (July 1, 1873 – June 11, 1933) was 20th Century American businessman and politician who served two terms as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania from 1915 to 1919. Biography Robert D. Heaton was born in Raven Run, Pennsylvania. He moved to Ashland, Pennsylvania, with his parents in 1886. He attended the Canandaigua Academy in Canandaigua, New York, the New York Military Academy at Cornwall, New York, and the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. He is identified with many business enterprises of the State and county. Congress Heaton was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1910, and was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Congresses. He did not seek renomination in 1918, having become a candidate for the Pennsylvania State Senate. Later activities He was a member of the State Senate from 1919 to 1932. He resumed his former business activities, and served as a member of the board of trustees of the Ashland State Hospital. Death and burial He died in Ashland, Pennsylvania, aged 59, and is interred in the family cemetery in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Sources United States Congress. "Robert D. Heaton (id: H000433)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. The Political Graveyard

BomBora_(Lagoon)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BomBora_(Lagoon)

BomBora is a family steel roller coaster currently operating at Lagoon in Farmington, Utah. It is located just outside Lagoon-A-Beach, Lagoon's water park. The name of the coaster comes from an indigenous Australian term for "a submerged reef" or "a turbulent area of sea over such a reef." History Construction started in 2010, after lockers for Lagoon-A-Beach were demolished. The roller coaster opened in 2011. Ride experience The ride starts with a left turn out of the station and into the lift hill. At the top of the lift hill, riders fall down the highest drop in the ride and enter a series of drops and twists, while music by The Beach Boys (or similar surf rock songs) plays, before reaching the final brake run and returning to the station. References External links Official website

Lagoon_(amusement_park)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagoon_(amusement_park)

Lagoon is a family owned amusement park in Farmington, Utah, located about 18 miles north of Salt Lake City. Lagoon is divided into five main areas: The Midway, containing the majority of the rides; Pioneer Village, which has several exhibits displaying pioneer buildings and artifacts; Lagoon-A-Beach, a water park; Kiddie Land, an area with several rides for small children; and X-Venture Zone, featuring more extreme rides that are upcharged. Lagoon also offers an RV park, a campground, and a walking trail outside the park that stays open all year. Every autumn, the park offers Halloween-themed shows and attractions, collectively known as Frightmares. Lagoon has eleven roller coasters, six of which are unique: Colossus the Fire Dragon, one of two remaining Schwarzkopf Double Looping coaster still in operation in the United States; Roller Coaster, one of the oldest coasters in the world, operating since 1921; Wicked, designed by Lagoon's engineering department and Werner Stengel in cooperation with ride manufacturer Zierer; BomBora, a family coaster designed in-house; Cannibal, built in-house with one of the world's steepest drops; and Primordial, an interactive dark ride coaster/3-D shooter game attraction inside an artificial mountain. History 1886–1939 In 1886, the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad built a resort called Lake Park on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. It was one of several resorts built along the lake throughout the late 1800s. In the following years, however, the lake level receded drastically until Lake Park was far from the lake, and the park closed by the end of the 1895 season. Simon Bamberger, who was building his Salt Lake & Ogden Railroad line from Salt Lake City to Ogden, Utah, was vice president of Lake Park. To increase passenger traffic on his line, he bought most of the original Lake Park buildings from the D&RGW and moved them about 3 miles (5 km) east near Farmington, Utah. The resort was named Lagoon for the small body of water located on the original forty acres (162,000 m2) of the park. The original lagoon was enlarged to 9 acres (36,000 m2) by clearing some swampland. Lagoon opened in Farmington on July 12, 1896, and featured live music and restaurants. In 1900, guests began swimming and rowing boats in Lagoon Lake. Over time, rides were added, such as the authentic Herschell-Spillman Carousel and Cagney Miniature Railroad. In 1901, the park hosted a minor league baseball team in the Inter-Mountain League and in 1902, a team in the Utah State League. Lagoon's wooden coaster, Roller Coaster, was designed by John Miller and constructed in 1921. Its highest height is 57 feet (17 m), and it has 2,500 feet (760 m) of track. The ride lasts just under two minutes, and reaches speeds up to 45 mph (72 km/h). In 1927, a 1.5×10^6 US gal (5.7×10^6 L) swimming pool was built north of Lagoon Lake. It was one of the first filtered swimming pools in western North America, and was a cleaner alternative than swimming in the briny Great Salt Lake. Lagoon's popularity grew during the 1920s and 1930s. The park's first Fun House was built in 1929, along with many other midway shows, rides, and games. During the "Big Band" era, many notable musicians played on Lagoon's stage, including Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller. 1940–1970 The park was closed for three seasons during World War II. By 1946, the park was in bad condition and on the brink of permanent closure. The Bamberger family considered razing it. However, Ranch S. Kimball and Robert E. Freed convinced the Bamberger family to lease the park to their newly formed Utah Amusement Corporation. Kimball served as president while Freed served as secretary and assistant manager. The Freed family's Lagoon Corporation later bought the resort outright from the Bamberger family in 1983. When the Utah Amusement Corporation took over the lease of Lagoon, a Farmington town ordinance prohibited African-Americans from using the swimming pool and the ballroom. By the end of the 1940s, Robert Freed had fully opened Lagoon to the black community, and further extended this policy to the Terrace Ballroom (formerly the Rainbow Gardens) in Salt Lake City. The Freed family made several improvements, including an overhaul of the swimming pool in 1949, a rebuilt fun house, the introduction of the "Dodgem Cars" and the "Lakeshore Express" miniature railway in 1951, and a new Ferris wheel in 1953. In November 1953, a fire damaged much of the park, including the fun house, dance pavilion, and the front portion of the Roller Coaster. The Roller Coaster was rebuilt and reopend for the 1954 season. Many rides were restored, rebuilt, or replaced, and a few new rides were added in 1955. In 1956, Mother Gooseland, Lagoon's first themed section, was opened between the Midway and the swimming pool. It featured rides only for children. From the mid-1950s into the 1960s, Lagoon made many improvements. A showboat was added to the lake, and a new fun house was built, which featured such attractions as a multi-lane giant slide, mazes, mirrors, obstacle courses, and mystery rooms. There was also a mini-car ride added in 1960, followed by the "Space Scrambler", spook house, I.Q. Zoo, and shooting gallery in 1961. A Wild Mouse coaster opened in 1965. On the Midway, musicians including the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, the Kingston Trio, and Johnny Cash performed on the bandstand throughout the 1960s. The Beach Boys made mention of the park in the song "Salt Lake City" on their 1965 album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). The 2 ft (610 mm) narrow-gauge Animaland Train began circling Lagoon Lake in 1967. In 1975, authentic steam locomotives built by Crown Metal Products were put into operation around the lake instead, and the railway's name was changed to the Wild Kingdom Train Zoo. 1971–1997 The Opera House Square opened in 1968 and showcased melodramas, musicals, and silent movies. In 1976, Lagoon expanded east by purchasing Pioneer Village, an old west town complete with several historic structures. The buildings were moved to Lagoon and the 2 ft (610 mm) narrow-gauge "Pioneer Village Railroad" (featuring "Old Ironsides", a Crown Metal Products locomotive) circled the town. In addition, the "Lagoon Miniature Railroad" looped around the residential area of Pioneer Village using an original miniature gauge steam locomotive acquired in the early 1900s. A log flume ride was brought in from the defunct Pixieland Park in Oregon. In 1976, the Jet Star 2 roller coaster was added. Before Lagoon purchased it, it was an attraction at Spokane, Washington's Expo '74. Colossus the Fire Dragon came to Lagoon in 1983. It was selected by People magazine in 1984 as one of the top 10 coasters in the country. Colossus was Lagoon's first coaster to feature inversions, with a top speed of 55 mph (89 km/h). With its double inverted loops, Colossus had the most inversions of any coaster at Lagoon for 32 years until the opening of Cannibal in 2015. In the late 1980s, both the old fun house and the "Haunted Shack", a walk-through dark attraction, were closed due to escalating maintenance costs and safety concerns. The swimming pool closed after its fifth decade in 1987. This made way for the $5.5 million Lagoon-A-Beach water park, which was completed in 1989. Its construction required the closure of miniature railroad operations in Pioneer Village, as some of the supports stood in the way of the track. 1997–2009 In 1997, in a major expansion of Pioneer Village, Lagoon added Rattlesnake Rapids, a river rapids ride located in the new Rattlesnake Plaza. In 1998, Lagoon added the Maurer AG Wild Mouse coaster. This ride replaced the wooden Wild Mouse coaster that had been demolished 5 years prior. In 1999, Lagoon opened its first attraction above the height of 200-foot (61 m): The Rocket, an S&S space shot tower with two different ride towers. In 2000, Samurai, a Mondial Top Scan, was built, as well as Double Thunder Raceway. In 2001, a Monidal Top Spin, Cliffhanger, was opened. In 2002, Lagoon expanded its X-Venture Zone by adding Catapult, a reverse bungee ride. Spider, a Maurer AG steel spinning coaster, opened in 2003. In 2004, Lagoon revamped Kiddieland, giving it a garden theme and adding two new rides, Kontiki and Dragon Fly. In 2005, The Bat, an inverted coaster manufactured by Vekoma, was constructed near Lagoon-A-Beach. It is a family-friendly coaster with a minimum height requirement of 42 inches. In 2006, Lagoon expanded Kiddieland further by adding two new rides, Dinosaur Drop and Lady Bug Bop, both of which are Zierer Family Drop Towers.On June 1, 2007, a $10 million roller coaster named Wicked opened. Wicked is a Zierer tower launch coaster, and is powered by linear synchronous motors that launch riders up a 100-foot (30 m) tower at 55 mph (89 km/h) in 2.5 seconds. It has several elements, including an Immelmann turn, a heartline roll, two half-pipe turns, and the signature "lake turn" into a final tunnel before returning to the station. Several improvements were made to the park in 2007 as well. On April 5, 2008, Lagoon opened OdySea, a Zierer "Flying Fish" ride with aquatic theming. OdySea is an interactive ride with a joystick to control the vehicle's height. Arrows blink to direct the rider to dodge jets of water from the sea creatures that attempt to soak the rider as accompanying audio tells a story. On April 4, 2009, Lagoon opened "Jumping Dragon", a Zierer "Dragon Roundabout" ride. 2010–present In 2010, Lagoon revamped their Ferris wheel, Sky Scraper. It was dismantled after the 2009 season, and reopened with a new coat of paint in April 2010. As a result of the economic crisis, Lagoon did not install a new ride that season. Instead, the park improved their entertainment division with several new shows. In 2011, Lagoon installed another family roller coaster, named BomBora. The coaster was created by a group of manufacturers and Lagoon itself, and has a height of 45 feet (14 m), as well as a theme based on 1960s surfing. In 2012, Lagoon installed a ride called Air Race. In 2013, Lagoon began work on a new coaster at the site of the former Top Eliminator. Two new family rides opened for the 2013 season, Tipsey Tea Cups and Red Rock Rally, both of which were manufactured by Zamperla. In 2014, Lagoon continued work on a new coaster, building vertically throughout the entire operating season. With much of its focus on the new coaster, no new rides were added this year. Due to maintenance problems, Lagoon-A-Beach's old Rip-Curl slide was replaced with a new slide of the same name. At a press conference on September 4, 2014, Lagoon officially announced Cannibal, their new roller coaster for the 2015 season. On July 2, 2015, Cannibal opened, featuring a 208-foot (63 m) elevator lift hill, a 116° beyond vertical drop, three inversions, and a top speed of 70 mph. Shortly after its opening, the park began the early planning stages of Primordial. In 2016, Lagoon continued work on Cannibal, with no new rides being added. Extensive work was also done on Spider. In 2017, a mural by Sril Art was created at the park. Two new rides were added to Kiddieland: Flying Tigers and Ruka Safari. In 2018, the Roller Coaster was re-tracked. A new ride opened in Kiddieland called Engine 86 in 2020. On December 18, 2021, a fire broke out at the Carousel Candy shop. The fire rekindled that evening and subsequently destroyed the candy shop and the adjacent Scamper, a miniature bumper cars ride. In 2023, Lagoon opened Primordial, a 4D interactive dark ride roller coaster, after eight years of development and construction. The attraction is located inside an artificial mountain and includes multiple ride endings. Work also continued on the reconstruction of Carousel Candy, which also included the newly announced Peacock Parlour. While nothing was added in 2024, work began on a new themed area on the site of the Log Flume, called The District at Pioneer Village, and work continued on Carousel Candy's replacement. Attractions Roller coasters Lagoon features eleven different roller coasters. The oldest, Roller Coaster, was built in 1921 and is an American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) Roller Coaster Landmark. Thrill rides Dark rides Water rides Family rides Children's rides All of these attractions are located in the park's Kiddieland section. X-Venture Zone Each ride in the X-Venture Zone is an upcharge attraction. Controversy In 2012, Lagoon became the focus of animal welfare groups' protests which called for a boycott of the park, citing USDA inspection reports that suggested poor care of animals in the Wild Kingdom Train Zoo. The Utah Animal Rights Coalition and PETA pointed to a range of USDA citations over a 15-year span that included insufficient living space for and unexplained deaths of animals. While admitting to some problems, a Lagoon spokesman denied any abuse taking place and said veterinarians and staff regularly monitored the animals. Notable incidents In 1989, six-year-old Ryan Beckstead was struck and killed on Puff the Little Fire Dragon after he fell off the ride and stood up in between the track, before being hit in the head by the oncoming train. On August 14, 2021, a 32-year-old man fell 50 feet after dangling from the park's Sky Ride, a chairlift-like ride which transports people from one end of the amusement park to the other. The man succumbed to his injuries in the hospital the next day. In popular culture The Beach Boys reference Lagoon by name in the song Salt Lake City on their 1965 album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!). Movies and TV shows filmed at Lagoon Mirror, Mirror: You and Your Self Image is a 1969 film by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Brigham Young University. The opening scenes are filmed at Lagoon. Lagoon was one of many parks featured in the first roller coaster documentary, America Screams in 1978. An episode of the Werewolf TV series was filmed at Lagoon in fall of 1987, featuring scenes in and around the Dracula's Castle attraction. Some scenes in the 1996 TV movie, Terror in the Family, were filmed at the Roller Coaster and Centennial Screamer. In My Sister's Shadow, a 1997 TV movie, featured a scene on the North Midway. The Luck of the Irish, a 2001 Disney Channel original movie. A few scenes were filmed on the North Midway of Lagoon. The dance festival scene was shot in front of the entrance to the Sky Scraper. Wieners, a movie released in 2008, had a montage featuring scenes filmed at Lagoon in 2007. The name of the park was changed in the film. An episode of The Aquabats featured brief and edited shots of Lagoon. In 2015, Christmas Land was filmed in the Pioneer Village section of the park. Season 3, episode 12 of Andi Mack featured brief and edited shots of Lagoon; including Paratrooper, Cannibal, and Sky Scraper. Notes External links Official Lagoon Park website Lagoon (amusement park) at the Roller Coaster DataBase

Meryl_Streep

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

Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Known for her versatility and adept accent work, she has been described as "the best actress of her generation". She has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over four decades, including a record 21 Academy Award nominations, winning three, and a record 34 Golden Globe Award nominations, winning eight. Streep made her stage debut in 1975 in Trelawny of the Wells, and the following year she received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for a double-bill production of 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and A Memory of Two Mondays. She made her feature film debut in Julia (1977) and received her first Oscar nomination for The Deer Hunter (1978). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a troubled wife in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), followed by the Academy Award for Best Actress for starring as a Holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice (1982). She continued to gain awards and critical acclaim for her film work throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Commercial success varied, with Out of Africa (1985), Death Becomes Her (1992), and The Bridges of Madison County (1995) earning the most money during that period. Streep reclaimed her stardom in the ensuing decades with leading roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Doubt, Mamma Mia! (both 2008), Julie & Julia, It's Complicated (both 2009), and Into the Woods (2014). She won her third Oscar for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011). For her work on television, she won three Primetime Emmy Awards for her roles in the miniseries Holocaust (1978) and Angels in America (2003), as well as the narration in the documentary series Five Came Back (2017). Her other television work include the drama series Big Little Lies (2019) and the comedy-mystery series Only Murders in the Building (2023). Streep has been the recipient of many honorary awards, including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2004, a Gala Tribute from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2008, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2011. President Barack Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 2010 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. In 2003, the French government made her a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. She was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2017. Early life and education Mary Louise Streep was born on June 22, 1949, in Summit, New Jersey to artist Mary Wilkinson Streep and pharmaceutical executive Harry William Streep Jr. She has two younger brothers, Harry William Streep III and Dana David Streep, both actors. Her father was of German and Swiss descent; his lineage traced back to Loffenau, from where Streep's great-great-grandfather, Gottfried Streeb, immigrated to the United States and where one of her ancestors served as mayor (the surname was later changed to "Streep"). Another line of her father's family was from Giswil. Her mother had English, German, and Irish ancestry. Some of Streep's maternal ancestors lived in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, and were descended from 17th-century English immigrants. Her maternal great-great-grandparents, Manus McFadden and Grace Strain, were natives of the Horn Head district of Dunfanaghy in Ireland. Streep's mother, whom she has compared in both appearance and manner to Dame Judi Dench, strongly encouraged her daughter and instilled confidence in her from a very young age. Streep said, "She was a mentor because she said to me, 'Meryl, you're capable. You're so great.' She was saying, 'You can do whatever you put your mind to. If you're lazy, you're not going to get it done. But if you put your mind to it, you can do anything.' And I believed her." Although she was naturally more introverted than her mother, when she later needed an injection of confidence in adulthood, she would consult her mother at times for advice. Streep was raised as a Presbyterian in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and attended Cedar Hill Elementary School and the Oak Street School, which was a junior high school at that time. In her junior high debut, she starred as Louise Heller in the play The Family Upstairs. In 1963, the family moved to Bernardsville, New Jersey, where she attended Bernards High School. Author Karina Longworth described her as a "gawky kid with glasses and frizzy hair", yet noted that she liked to show off in front of the camera in family home movies from a young age. At age 12, Streep was selected to sing at a school recital, leading to her having opera lessons from Estelle Liebling. Despite her talent, she later remarked, "I was singing something I didn't feel and understand. That was an important lesson—not to do that. To find the thing that I could feel through." She quit after four years. Streep had many Catholic school friends, and regularly attended Mass. She was a high school cheerleader for the Bernards High School Mountaineers. She was also chosen as the homecoming queen her senior year. Although Streep appeared in numerous school plays during her high school years, she was uninterested in serious theater until acting in the play Miss Julie at Vassar College in 1969, in which she gained attention across the campus. Vassar drama professor Clinton J. Atkinson noted, "I don't think anyone ever taught Meryl acting. She really taught herself." Streep demonstrated an early ability to mimic accents and to quickly memorize her lines. She received her BA in drama cum laude in 1971, before applying for an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, she supplemented her course fees by working as a waitress and typist, and appeared in over a dozen stage productions per year; at one point, she became overworked and developed ulcers, so she contemplated quitting acting and switching to study law. Streep played a variety of roles on stage, from Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream to an 80-year-old woman in a wheelchair in a comedy written by then-unknown playwrights Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato. She was a student of choreographer Carmen de Lavallade, whom she introduced at the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors. Another of her teachers was Robert Lewis, a co-founder of the Actors Studio. Streep disapproved of some of the acting exercises she was asked to do, remarking that one professor taught the emotional recall technique by delving into personal lives in a way she found "obnoxious". She received her MFA in drama from Yale in 1975. She also enrolled as a visiting student at Dartmouth College in 1970, and received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the college in 1981. Career 1970s: Early work and breakthrough One of Streep's first professional jobs in 1975 was at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, during which she acted in five plays over six weeks. She moved to New York City in 1975, and was cast by Joseph Papp in a production of Trelawny of the Wells at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, opposite Mandy Patinkin and John Lithgow. She went on to appear in five more roles in her first year in New York, including in Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew with Raul Julia, and Measure for Measure opposite Sam Waterston and John Cazale. She entered into a relationship with Cazale at this time, and resided with him until his death three years later. She starred in the musical Happy End on Broadway, and won an Obie for her performance in the off-Broadway play Alice at the Palace. Although Streep had not aspired to become a film actor, Robert De Niro's performance in Taxi Driver (1976) had a profound impact on her; she said to herself, 'That's the kind of actor I want to be when I grow up.' Streep began auditioning for film roles, and underwent an unsuccessful audition for the lead role in Dino De Laurentiis's remake of the action adventure King Kong which was released in 1976. De Laurentiis, referring to Streep as she stood before him, said in Italian to his son: "This is so ugly. Why did you bring me this?" Unknown to Laurentiis, Streep understood Italian, and she remarked, "I'm very sorry that I'm not as beautiful as I should be, but, you know – this is it. This is what you get." She continued to work on Broadway, appearing in the 1976 double bill of Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Arthur Miller's A Memory of Two Mondays. She received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Streep's other Broadway credits include Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill musical Happy End, in which she had originally appeared off-Broadway at the Chelsea Theater Center. She received Drama Desk Award nominations for both productions. Streep's first feature film role came opposite Jane Fonda in the 1977 film Julia, in which she had a small role during a flashback sequence. Most of her scenes were edited out, but the brief time on screen horrified the actress, "I had a bad wig and they took the words from the scene I shot with Jane and put them in my mouth in a different scene. I thought, I've made a terrible mistake, no more movies. I hate this business." However, Streep stated in 2015 that Fonda had a lasting influence on her as an actress, and credited her with opening "probably more doors than I probably even know about". Robert De Niro, who had spotted Streep in her stage production of The Cherry Orchard, suggested that she play the role of his girlfriend in the war film The Deer Hunter (1978). Cazale, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer, was also cast in the film, and Streep took on the role of a "vague, stock girlfriend" to remain with Cazale for the duration of filming. Longworth notes that Streep, "Made a case for female empowerment by playing a woman to whom empowerment was a foreign concept–a normal lady from an average American small town, for whom subservience was the only thing she knew". Pauline Kael, who later became a strong critic of Streep, remarked that she was a "real beauty" who brought much freshness to the film with her performance. The film's success exposed Streep to a wider audience and earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In the 1978 miniseries Holocaust, Streep played the leading role of a German woman married to a Jewish artist played by James Woods in Nazi era Germany. She found the material to be "unrelentingly noble" and professed to have taken on the role for financial gain. Streep travelled to Germany and Austria for filming while Cazale remained in New York. Upon her return, Streep found that Cazale's illness had progressed, and she nursed him until his death on March 12, 1978. With an estimated audience of 109 million, Holocaust brought a wider degree of public recognition to Streep, who found herself "on the verge of national visibility". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance. Despite the awards success, Streep was still not enthusiastic towards her film career and preferred acting on stage. She played the supporting role of Leilah in Wendy Wasserstein's Uncommon Women and Others in a May 1978 "Theater in America" television production for PBS's Great Performances. She replaced Glenn Close, who played the role in the Off-Broadway production at the Phoenix Theatre. Hoping to divert herself from the grief of Cazale's death, Streep accepted a role in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979) as the chirpy love interest of Alan Alda, later commenting that she played it on "automatic pilot". She performed the role of Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew for Shakespeare in the Park. That same year she played a supporting role as the former girlfriend turned lesbian in Manhattan (1979) for Woody Allen. Streep later said that Allen did not provide her with a complete script, giving her only the six pages of her own scenes, and did not permit her to improvise a word of her dialogue. Vincent Canby of The New York Times described her performance as being "beautifully played". In the drama Kramer vs. Kramer, Streep was cast opposite Dustin Hoffman as an unhappily married woman who abandons her husband and child. Streep thought that the script portrayed the female character as "too evil" and insisted that it was not representative of real women who faced marriage breakdown and child custody battles. The makers agreed with her, and the script was revised. In preparing for the part, Streep spoke to her own mother about her life as a wife with a career, and frequented the Upper East Side neighborhood in which the film was set, watching the interactions between parents and children. The director Robert Benton allowed Streep to write her own dialogue in two key scenes, despite some objection from Hoffman, who "hated her guts" at first. Hoffman and producer Stanley R. Jaffe later spoke of Streep's tirelessness, with Hoffman commenting: "She's extraordinarily hard-working, to the extent that she's obsessive. I think that she thinks about nothing else, but what she's doing." The film was controversial among feminists, but it was a role which film critic Stephen Farber believed displayed Streep's "own emotional intensity", writing that she was one of the "rare performers who can imbue the most routine moments with a hint of mystery". For the film, Streep won both the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, which she famously left in the ladies' room after giving her speech. She received awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review and National Society of Film Critics for her collective work in her three film releases of 1979. Both The Deer Hunter and Kramer vs. Kramer were major commercial successes and were consecutive winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture. 1980s: Rise to prominence In 1979, Streep began workshopping Alice in Concert, a musical version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with writer and composer Elizabeth Swados and director Joseph Papp; the show was put on at New York's Public Theater from December 1980. Frank Rich of The New York Times referred to Streep as the production's "one wonder", but questioned why she devoted so much energy to it. By 1980, Streep had progressed to leading roles in films. She was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine with the headline "A Star for the 80s"; Jack Kroll commented, "There's a sense of mystery in her acting; she doesn't simply imitate (although she's a great mimic in private). She transmits a sense of danger, a primal unease lying just below the surface of normal behavior". Streep denounced her fervent media coverage at the time as "excessive hype". The story within a story drama The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) was Streep's first leading role. The film paired Streep with Jeremy Irons as contemporary actors, telling their modern story, as well as the Victorian era drama they were performing. Streep developed an English accent for the part, but considered herself a misfit for the role: "I couldn't help wishing that I was more beautiful". A New York magazine article commented that, while many female stars of the past had cultivated a singular identity in their films, Streep was a "chameleon", willing to play any type of role. Streep was awarded a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work. The following year, she re-united with Robert Benton for the psychological thriller, Still of the Night (1982), co-starring Roy Scheider and Jessica Tandy. Vincent Canby, writing for The New York Times, noted that the film was an homage to the works of Alfred Hitchcock, but that one of its main weaknesses was a lack of chemistry between Streep and Scheider, concluding that Streep "is stunning, but she's not on screen anywhere near long enough". Greater success came later in the year when Streep starred in the drama Sophie's Choice (also 1982), portraying a Polish survivor of Auschwitz caught in a love triangle between a young naïve writer (Peter MacNicol) and a Jewish intellectual (Kevin Kline). Streep's emotional dramatic performance and her apparent mastery of a Polish accent drew praise. William Styron wrote the novel with Ursula Andress in mind for the role of Sophie, but Streep was determined to get the role. Streep filmed the "choice" scene in one take and refused to do it again, finding it extremely painful and emotionally exhausting. That scene, in which Streep is ordered by an SS guard at Auschwitz to choose which of her two children would be gassed and which would proceed to the labor camp, is her most famous scene, according to Emma Brockes of The Guardian who wrote in 2006: "It's classic Streep, the kind of scene that makes your scalp tighten, but defter in a way is her handling of smaller, harder-to-grasp emotions". Among several acting awards, Streep won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, and her characterization was voted the third greatest movie performance of all time by Premiere magazine. Roger Ebert said of her delivery, "Streep plays the Brooklyn scenes with an enchanting Polish-American accent (she has the first accent I've ever wanted to hug), and she plays the flashbacks in subtitled German and Polish. There is hardly an emotion that Streep doesn't touch in this movie, and yet we're never aware of her straining. This is one of the most astonishing and yet one of the most unaffected and natural performances I can imagine". Pauline Kael, on the contrary, called the film an "infuriatingly bad movie", and thought that Streep "decorporealizes" herself, which she believed explained why her movie heroines "don't seem to be full characters, and why there are no incidental joys to be had from watching her". In 1983, Streep played her first non-fictional character, the nuclear whistleblower and labor union activist Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant, in Mike Nichols' biographical film Silkwood. Streep felt a personal connection to Silkwood, and in preparation, she met with people close to the woman, and in doing so realized that each person saw a different aspect of her personality. She said, "I didn't try to turn myself into Karen. I just tried to look at what she did. I put together every piece of information I could find about her ... What I finally did was look at the events in her life, and try to understand her from the inside". Jack Kroll of Newsweek considered Streep's characterization to have been "brilliant", while Silkwood's boyfriend Drew Stephens expressed approval in that Streep had played Karen as a human being rather than a myth, despite Karen's father Bill thinking that Streep and the film had dumbed his daughter down. Pauline Kael believed that Streep had been miscast. Streep next played opposite Robert De Niro in the romance Falling in Love (1984), which was poorly received, and portrayed a fighter for the French Resistance during World War II in the British drama Plenty (1985), adapted from the play by David Hare. For the latter, Roger Ebert wrote that she conveyed "great subtlety; it is hard to play an unbalanced, neurotic, self-destructive woman, and do it with such gentleness and charm ... Streep creates a whole character around a woman who could have simply been a catalogue of symptoms." In 2008, Molly Haskell praised Streep's performance in Plenty, believing it to be "one of Streep's most difficult and ambiguous" films and "most feminist" role. Longworth considers Streep's next release, Out of Africa (1985), to have established her as a Hollywood superstar. In the film, Streep starred as the Danish writer Karen Blixen, opposite Robert Redford's Denys Finch Hatton. Director Sydney Pollack was initially dubious about Streep in the role, as he did not think she was sexy enough, and had considered Jane Seymour for the part. Pollack recalls that Streep impressed him in a different way: "She was so direct, so honest, so without bullshit. There was no shielding between her and me." Streep and Pollack often clashed during the 101-day shoot in Kenya, particularly over Blixen's voice. Streep had spent much time listening to tapes of Blixen, and began speaking in an old-fashioned and aristocratic fashion, which Pollack thought excessive. A significant commercial success, the film won a Golden Globe for Best Picture. It also earned Streep another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, and the film ultimately won Best Picture. Film critic Stanley Kauffmann praised her performance, writing "Meryl Streep is back in top form. This means her performance in Out of Africa is at the highest level of acting in film today." Longworth notes that the dramatic success of Out of Africa led to a backlash of critical opinion against Streep in the years that followed, especially as she was now demanding $4 million a picture. Unlike other stars at the time, such as Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise, Streep "never seemed to play herself", and certain critics felt her technical finesse led people to literally see her acting. Her next films did not appeal to a wide audience; she co-starred with Jack Nicholson in the dramas Heartburn (1986) and Ironweed (1987), in which she sang onscreen for the first time since the "Great Performances" telecast of the Phoenix Theater production of Secret Service (1977). In Evil Angels (1988), she played Lindy Chamberlain, an Australian woman who had been convicted of the murder of her infant daughter despite claiming that the baby had been taken by a dingo. Filmed in Australia, Streep won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, a Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. Streep has said of developing the Australian accent in the film: "I had to study a little bit for Australian because it's not dissimilar [to American], so it's like coming from Italian to Spanish. You get a little mixed up." Vincent Canby of The New York Times referred to her performance as "another stunning performance", played with "the kind of virtuosity that seems to re-define the possibilities of screen acting". In 1989, Streep lobbied to play the lead role in Oliver Stone's adaption of the play Evita, but two months before filming was due to commence, she dropped out, citing "exhaustion" initially, although it was later revealed that there was a dispute over her salary. By the end of the decade, Streep actively looked to star in a comedy. She found the role in She-Devil (1989), a satire that parodied societal obsession with beauty and cosmetic surgery, in which she played a glamorous writer. Though the film was not a success, Richard Corliss of Time wrote that Streep was the "one reason" to see it, and observed that it marked a departure from the dramatic roles she was known to play. Reacting to her string of poorly received films, Streep said: "Audiences are shrinking; as the marketing strategy defines more and more narrowly who they want to reach males from 16 to 25 – it's become a chicken-and-egg syndrome. Which came first? First, they release all these summer movies, then do a demographic survey of who's going to see them." 1990s: Commercial fluctuations Biographer Karen Hollinger described the early 1990s as a downturn in the popularity of Streep's films, attributing this partly to a critical perception that her comedies had been an attempt to convey a lighter image following several serious, but commercially unsuccessful, dramas, and, more significantly, to the lack of options available to an actress in her forties. Streep commented that she had limited her options by her preference to work in Los Angeles, close to her family, a situation that she had anticipated in a 1981 interview when she commented, "By the time an actress hits her mid-forties, no one's interested in her anymore. And if you want to fit a couple of babies into that schedule as well, you've got to pick your parts with great care." At the Screen Actor's Guild National Women's Conference in 1990, Streep keynoted the first national event, emphasizing the decline in women's work opportunities, pay parity, and role models within the film industry. She criticized the film industry for downplaying the importance of women both on screen and off. After roles in the comedy-drama Postcards from the Edge (1990), and the comedy-fantasy Defending Your Life (1991), Streep starred with Goldie Hawn in the farcical black comedy, Death Becomes Her (1992), with Bruce Willis as their co-star. Streep persuaded writer David Koepp to re-write several of the scenes, particularly the one in which her character has an affair with a younger man, which she believed was "unrealistically male" in its conception. The seven-month shoot was the longest of Streep's career, during which she got into character by "thinking about being slightly pissed off all of the time". Due to Streep's allergies to numerous cosmetics, special prosthetics had to be designed to age her by ten years to look 54, although Streep believed that they made her look nearer 70. Longworth considers Death Becomes Her to have been "the most physical performance Streep had yet committed to screen, all broad weeping, smirking, and eye-rolling". Although it was a commercial success, earning $15.1 million in just five days, Streep's contribution to comedy was generally not taken well by critics. Time's Richard Corliss wrote approvingly of Streep's "wicked-witch routine" but dismissed the film as "She-Devil with a make-over" and one which "hates women". Streep later admitted to having disliked filming the scenes involving heavy special effects, and vowed never to work again on a film with heavy special effects. Streep appeared with Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close and Winona Ryder in The House of the Spirits (1993), set in Chile during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. The film was not well received by critics. Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote: "This is really quite an achievement. It brings together Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas, and Vanessa Redgrave and insures that, without exception, they all give their worst performances ever". The following year, Streep starred in The River Wild, as the mother of children on a whitewater rafting trip who encounter two violent criminals (Kevin Bacon and John C. Reilly) in the wilderness. Though critical reaction was generally mixed, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone found her to be "strong, sassy and looser than she has ever been onscreen". Streep's most successful film of the decade was the romantic drama The Bridges of Madison County (1995) directed by Clint Eastwood, who adapted the film from Robert James Waller's novel of the same name. It relates the story of Robert Kincaid (Eastwood), a photographer working for National Geographic, who has a love affair with a middle-aged Italian farm wife Francesca (Streep). Though Streep disliked the novel it was based on, she found the script to be a special opportunity for an actress her age. She gained weight for the part and dressed differently from the character in the book to emulate voluptuous Italian film stars such as Sophia Loren. Both Loren and Anna Magnani were an influence in her portrayal, and Streep viewed Pier Paolo Pasolini's Mamma Roma (1962) prior to filming. The film was a box office hit and grossed over $70 million in the United States. The film, unlike the novel, was warmly received by critics. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that Eastwood had managed to create "a moving, elegiac love story at the heart of Mr. Waller's self-congratulatory overkill", while Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal described it as "one of the most pleasurable films in recent memory". Longworth believes that Streep's performance was "crucial to transforming what could have been a weak soap opera into a vibrant work of historical fiction implicitly critiquing postwar America's stifling culture of domesticity". She considers it to have been the role in which Streep became "arguably the first middle-aged actress to be taken seriously by Hollywood as a romantic heroine". Streep played the estranged sister of Bessie (Diane Keaton), a woman battling leukemia, in Marvin's Room (1996), an adaptation of the play by Scott McPherson. Streep recommended Keaton for the role. Roger Ebert stated that, "Streep and Keaton, in their different styles, find ways to make Lee and Bessie into much more than the expression of their problems." The film was well received, and Streep earned another Golden Globe nomination for her performance. Streep's performance in ...First Do No Harm (1997) garnered her a second Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie. In 1998, Streep first appeared opposite Michael Gambon and Catherine McCormack in Pat O'Connor's Dancing at Lughnasa, another Broadway adaptation, which was entered into the Venice Film Festival in its year of release. Janet Maslin of The New York Times remarked that "Meryl Streep has made many a grand acting gesture in her career, but the way she simply peers out a window in Dancing at Lughnasa ranks with the best. Everything the viewer need know about Kate Mundy, the woman she plays here, is written on that prim, lonely face and its flabbergasted gaze." Later that year, she played a housewife dying of cancer in One True Thing. The film met with positive reviews. Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle declared, "After One True Thing, critics who persist in the fiction that Streep is a cold and technical actress will need to get their heads examined. She is so instinctive and natural – so thoroughly in the moment and operating on flights of inspiration – that she's able to give us a woman who's at once wildly idiosyncratic and utterly believable." Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan noted that her role "is one of the least self-consciously dramatic and surface showy of her career," but she "adds a level of honesty and reality that makes [her performance] one of her most moving". Streep portrayed Roberta Guaspari, a real-life New Yorker who found passion and enlightenment teaching violin to the inner-city kids of East Harlem, in the music drama Music of the Heart (1999). Streep replaced Madonna, who dropped out of the project before filming began due to creative differences with director Wes Craven. Required to play the violin, Streep underwent two months of intense training, five to six hours a day. Streep received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance. Roger Ebert wrote that "Meryl Streep is known for her mastery of accents; she may be the most versatile speaker in the movies. Here you might think she has no accent, unless you've heard her real speaking voice; then you realize that Guaspari's speaking style is no less a particular achievement than Streep's other accents. This is not Streep's voice, but someone else's – with a certain flat quality, as if later education and refinement came after a somewhat unsophisticated childhood." 2000s: Career resurgence and stage work Streep entered the 2000s with a voice cameo in Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), a science fiction film about a childlike android, played by Haley Joel Osment. The same year, Streep co-hosted the annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert with Liam Neeson which was held in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 2001, in honour of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the United Nations and Kofi Annan. In 2001, Streep returned to the stage for the first time in more than twenty years, playing Arkadina in The Public Theater's revival of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, directed by Mike Nichols and co-starring Kevin Kline, Natalie Portman, John Goodman, Marcia Gay Harden, Stephen Spinella, Debra Monk, Larry Pine and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Streep's son, Henry Gummer, later to be known as musician Henry Wolfe, was also featured in the play in the role of Yakov, a hired workman. The same year, Streep began work on Spike Jonze's comedy-drama Adaptation. (2002), in which she portrayed real-life journalist Susan Orlean. Lauded by critics and viewers alike, the film won Streep her fourth Golden Globe in the Best Supporting Actress category. A. O. Scott in The New York Times considered Streep's portrayal of Orlean to have been "played with impish composure", noting the contrast in her "wittily realized" character with love interest Chris Cooper's "lank-haired, toothless charisma" as the autodidact arrested for poaching rare orchids. Streep appeared alongside Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore in Stephen Daldry's The Hours (2002), based on the 1999 novel by Michael Cunningham. Focusing on three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, the film was generally well received and won all three leading actresses a Silver Bear for Best Actress. In 2003, Streep re-united with Mike Nichols to star with Al Pacino and Emma Thompson in the HBO's adaptation of Tony Kushner's six-hour play Angels in America, the story of two couples whose relationships dissolve amidst the backdrop of Reagan era politics. Streep, who was cast in four roles in the miniseries, received her second Emmy Award and fifth Golden Globe for her performance. She appeared in Jonathan Demme's moderately successful remake of The Manchurian Candidate in 2004, co-starring Denzel Washington, playing the role of a woman who is both a U.S. senator and the manipulative, ruthless mother of a vice-presidential candidate. The same year, she played the supporting role of Aunt Josephine in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events alongside Jim Carrey, based on the first three novels in Snicket's book series. The black comedy received generally favorable reviews from critics, and won the Academy Award for Best Makeup. Streep also narrated the film Monet's Palate. Streep was next cast in the comedy film Prime (2005), directed by Ben Younger. In the film, she played Lisa Metzger, the Jewish psychoanalyst of a divorced and lonesome business-woman, played by Uma Thurman, who enters a relationship with Metzger's 23-year-old son (Bryan Greenberg). A modest mainstream success, it eventually grossed US$67.9 million internationally. Roger Ebert noted how Streep had "that ability to cut through the solemnity of a scene with a zinger that reveals how all human effort is, after all, comic at some level". In August and September 2006, Streep starred onstage at The Public Theater's production of Mother Courage and Her Children at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. The Public Theater production was a new translation by playwright Tony Kushner, with songs in the Weill/Brecht style written by composer Jeanine Tesori; veteran director George C. Wolfe was at the helm. Streep starred alongside Kevin Kline and Austin Pendleton in this three-and-a-half-hour play. Around the same time, Streep, along with Lily Tomlin, portrayed the last two members of what was once a popular family country music act in Robert Altman's final film A Prairie Home Companion (2006). A comedic ensemble piece featuring Lindsay Lohan, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline and Woody Harrelson, the film revolves around the behind-the-scenes activities at the long-running public radio show of the same name. The film grossed more than US$26 million, the majority of which came from domestic markets. Commercially, Streep fared better with a role in The Devil Wears Prada (also 2006), a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. Streep portrayed the powerful and demanding Miranda Priestly, fashion magazine editor (and boss of a recent college graduate played by Anne Hathaway). Though the overall film received mixed reviews, her portrayal, of what Ebert calls the "poised and imperious Miranda", drew rave reviews from critics, and earned her many award nominations, including her record-setting 14th Oscar bid, as well as another Golden Globe. On its commercial release, the film became Streep's biggest commercial success to this point, grossing more than US$326.5 million worldwide. She portrayed a wealthy university patron in Chen Shi-zheng's much-delayed feature drama Dark Matter, a film about a Chinese science graduate student who becomes violent after dealing with academic politics at a U.S. university. Inspired by the events of the 1991 University of Iowa shooting, and initially scheduled for a 2007 release, producers and investors decided to shelve Dark Matter out of respect for the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting in April 2007. The drama received negative to mixed reviews upon its limited 2008 release. Streep played a U.S. government official who investigates an Egyptian foreign national suspected of terrorism in the political thriller Rendition (2007), directed by Gavin Hood. Keen to get involved in a thriller film, Streep welcomed the opportunity to star in a film genre for which she was not usually offered scripts, and immediately signed on to the project. Upon its release, Rendition was less commercially successful, and received mixed reviews. In this period, Streep had a short role alongside Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close, and her eldest daughter Mamie Gummer in Lajos Koltai's drama film Evening (2007), based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Susan Minot. Switching between the present and the past, it tells the story of a bedridden woman, who remembers her tumultuous life in the mid-1950s. The film was released to a lukewarm reaction from critics, who called it "beautifully filmed, but decidedly dull [and] a colossal waste of a talented cast". She had a role in Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs (also 2007), a film about the connection between a platoon of United States soldiers in Afghanistan, a U.S. senator, a reporter, and a California college professor. Like Evening, critics felt that the talent of the cast was wasted, and that it suffered from slow pacing, although one critic announced that Streep positively stood out, being "natural, unforced, quietly powerful", in comparison to Redford's forced performance. Streep found major commercial success when she starred in Phyllida Lloyd's Mamma Mia! (2008), a film adaptation of the musical of the same name, based on the songs of Swedish pop group ABBA. Co-starring Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, and Christine Baranski, Streep played a single mother and a former girl-group singer, whose daughter (Seyfried), a bride-to-be who never met her father, invites three likely paternal candidates to her wedding on the idyllic Greek island of Skopelos known in the film as Kalokairi. An instant box office success, Mamma Mia! became Streep's highest-grossing film to date, with box office receipts of US$602.6 million, also ranking it first among the highest-grossing musical films. Nominated for another Golden Globe, Streep's performance was generally well received by critics, with Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe commenting: "The greatest actor in American movies has finally become a movie star." Doubt (also 2008) features Streep with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis. A drama revolving around the stern principal nun (Streep) of a Bronx Catholic school in 1964 who brings accusations of pedophilia against a popular priest (Hoffman), the film became a moderate box office success, and was hailed by many critics as one of the best films of 2008. The film received five Academy Awards nominations, for its four lead actors and for John Patrick Shanley's script. Ebert, who awarded the film the full four stars, highlighted Streep's caricature of a nun, who "hates all inroads of the modern world", while Kelly Vance of The East Bay Express remarked: "It's thrilling to see a pro like Streep step into an already wildly exaggerated role, and then ramp it up a few notches just for the sheer hell of it. Grim, red-eyed, deathly pale Sister Aloysius may be the scariest nun of all time." In 2009, Streep played chef Julia Child in Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia, co-starring with Stanley Tucci, and again with Amy Adams. (Tucci and Streep had worked together earlier in Devil Wears Prada.) The first major motion picture based on a blog, Julie and Julia contrasts the life of Child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell (Adams), who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Longworth believes her caricature of Julia Child was "quite possibly the biggest performance of her career, while also drawing on her own experience to bring lived-in truth to the story of a late bloomer". In Nancy Meyers' romantic comedy It's Complicated (also 2009), Streep starred with Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. She received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for both Julie & Julia and It's Complicated; she won the award for Julie & Julia, and later received her 16th Oscar nomination for it. She also lent her voice to Mrs. Felicity Fox in Wes Anderson's stop-motion film Fantastic Mr. Fox. 2010s: Further critical and commercial success Streep re-teamed with Mamma Mia director Phyllida Lloyd on The Iron Lady (2011), a British biographical film about Margaret Thatcher, which takes a look at the Prime Minister during the Falklands War and her years in retirement. Streep, who attended a session of the House of Commons to see British Members of Parliament (MPs) in action in preparation for her role as Thatcher, called her casting "a daunting and exciting challenge". While the film had a mixed reception, Streep's performance gained rave reviews, earning her Best Actress awards at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, as well as her third win at the 84th Academy Awards. Former advisers, friends, and family of Thatcher criticized Streep's portrayal of her as "inaccurate" and "biased". The following year, after Thatcher's death, Streep issued a formal statement describing Thatcher's "hard-nosed fiscal measures" and "hands-off approach to financial regulation", while praising her "personal strength and grit". Streep re-united with Prada director David Frankel on the set of the romantic comedy-drama film Hope Springs (2012), co-starring Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carell. Streep and Jones play a middle-aged couple, who attend a week of intensive marriage counseling to try to bring back the intimacy missing in their relationship. Reviews for the film were mostly positive, with critics praising the "mesmerizing performances ... which offer filmgoers some grown-up laughs – and a thoughtful look at mature relationships". In 2013, Streep starred alongside Julia Roberts and Ewan McGregor in the black comedy drama August: Osage County (2013) about a dysfunctional family that re-unites into the familial house when their patriarch suddenly disappears. Based on Tracy Letts's Pulitzer Prize-winning eponymous play, Streep received positive reviews for her portrayal of the family's strong-willed and contentious matriarch, who is suffering from oral cancer and an addiction to narcotics. She was subsequently nominated for another Golden Globe, SAG, and Academy Award. In 2014's The Giver, a motion picture adaptation of the young adult novel, Streep played a community leader. Set in 2048, the social science fiction film recounts the story of a post-apocalyptic community without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, where a young boy is chosen to learn the real world. Streep was aware of the book before being offered the role by co-star and producer Jeff Bridges. Upon its release, The Giver was met with generally mixed to negative reviews from critics. Streep also had a small role in the period drama film The Homesman (2014). Set in the 1850s midwest, the film stars Hilary Swank and Tommy Lee Jones as an unusual pair who help three women driven to madness by the frontier to get back East. Streep does not appear until near the end of the film, playing a preacher's wife, who takes the women into care. The Homesman premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival where it garnered largely positive reviews from critics. Directed by Rob Marshall, Into the Woods (also 2014) is a Disney film adaptation of the Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim in which Streep plays a witch. A fantasy genre crossover inspired by the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales, it centers on a childless couple who set out to end a curse placed on them by Streep's vengeful witch. Though the film was dismissed by some critics such as Mark Kermode as "irritating naffness", Streep's performance earned her Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, and Critic's Choice Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. In July 2014, it was announced that Streep would portray Maria Callas in Master Class, but the project was pulled after director Mike Nichols's death in November of the same year. In 2015, Streep starred in Jonathan Demme's Ricki and the Flash, playing a grocery store checkout worker by day who is a rock musician at night, and who has one last chance to reconnect with her estranged family. Streep learned to play the guitar for the semi-autobiographical drama-comedy film, which again featured Streep with her eldest daughter Mamie Gummer. Reviews of the film were generally mixed. Streep's other film of this time was director Sarah Gavron's period drama Suffragette (also 2015), co-starring Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter. In the film, she played the small, but pivotal, role of Emmeline Pankhurst, a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote. The film received mostly positive reviews, particularly for the performances of the cast, though its distributor earned criticism that Streep's prominent position within the marketing was misleading. Following the duties of the president at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in 2016, Streep starred in the Stephen Frears-directed comedy Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), an eponymous biopic about a blithely unaware tone-deaf opera singer who insists upon public performance. Other cast members were Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg. Robbie Collin considered it to be one of her most "human performance" and felt that it was "full of warmth that gives way to heart-pinching pathos". She won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in a Comedy, and received Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA nominations. Streep next starred as the first American female newspaper publisher, Katharine Graham, to Tom Hanks' Ben Bradlee, in Steven Spielberg's political drama The Post (2017), which centers on The Washington Post's publication of the 1971 Pentagon Papers. The film received positive reviews with praise directed to the performances of the two leads. Manohla Dargis wrote that "Streep creates an acutely moving portrait of a woman who in liberating herself helps instigate a revolution". It earned over $177 million against a budget of $50 million. Streep received her 31st Golden Globe nomination and 21st Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 2018, Streep briefly reprised her role in the musical sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. She also played a supporting part in Rob Marshall's Mary Poppins Returns, a musical sequel to the 1964 film Mary Poppins starring Emily Blunt in the titular role. Streep next featured in her first main role in a television series by starring in the second season of the HBO drama series Big Little Lies in 2019. She took on the part of Mary Louise Wright, the mother-in-law of Nicole Kidman's character. Liane Moriarty, author of the novel of the same name, on which the first season is based, wrote a 200-page novella that served as the basis for the second season. Moriarty decided to name the new character Mary Louise, after Streep's legal name. Streep subsequently agreed to the part without reading a script for the first time in her career. Writing for the BBC, Caryn James labeled her performance "delicious and wily" and found her to be the "embodiment of a passive-aggressive granny". She received an Emmy nomination for the show. The same year, Streep then starred in the Steven Soderbergh-directed biographical comedy The Laundromat, about the Panama Papers, opposite Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas. It was the first movie distributed by Netflix in which Streep starred. She also played Aunt March in Greta Gerwig's Little Women, co-starring with Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Timothée Chalamet, and Laura Dern. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised Streep's performance writing, "Streep is clearly having a ball as the imperious snob who snorts with disapproval...[and] does her best to hide her affection for her nieces behind her narrowed gaze and all-purpose disdain". The film received critical acclaim and grossed over $218 million against its $40 million budget. 2020s: Streaming projects In 2020, she voiced a role in the Apple TV+ animated short film Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth. Streep had leading roles in two films, both released by streaming services. She reunited with Nicole Kidman for Netflix, in Ryan Murphy's The Prom (2020), a film adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name. That same year she also reunited with director Steven Soderbergh for his HBO Max comedy film Let Them All Talk (2020). Streep starred alongside Dianne Wiest, Candice Bergen, Lucas Hedges, and Gemma Chan. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair noted, "Streep could, in some senses, be approaching the film as a meta commentary on her own ivied stature as the world's greatest living actor (in some people's estimation, anyway). If that is what's happening, she never betrays her motivations with a wink. It's all played pretty earnestly". The following year, Streep starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence in Don't Look Up (2021), directed by Adam McKay for Netflix. Streep played a comical role as the fictional President of the United States who waves off the fears of climate change. In his mixed review, Peter DeBruge of Variety compared her performance of that of Donald Trump, adding she was "clearly having more fun than we are". Streep served as an executive producer on Sell/Buy/Date (2022), directed by Sarah Jones. She acted in the Apple TV+ anthology series Extrapolations (2023). Later that year, she began playing Loretta Durkin, a struggling actress, from the third season of the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. Leila Latif of The Guardian wrote, "Streep, unsurprisingly, plays Loretta beautifully, truly tapping into the agony of a woman who's faced a lifetime of rejection but somehow kept her dream alive". She received a Golden Globe, and Primetime Emmy Award nomination and won a Critics’ Choice Television Award. Other ventures After Streep starred in Mamma Mia!, her rendition of the titular song rose to popularity on the Portuguese music charts, where it peaked at number eight in October 2008. At the 35th People's Choice Awards, her version of "Mamma Mia" won an award for "Favorite Song From A Soundtrack". In 2008, Streep was nominated for a Grammy Award (her fifth nomination) for her work on the Mamma Mia! soundtrack. Streep has narrated numerous audio books, including three by children's book author William Steig: Brae Irene, Spinky Sulks, and The One and Only Shrek!. Streep is the spokesperson for the National Women's History Museum, to which she has made significant donations (including her fee for The Iron Lady, which was $1 million), and hosted numerous events. On October 4, 2012, Streep donated $1 million to The Public Theater in honor of both its late founder, Joseph Papp, and her friend, the author Nora Ephron. She also supports Gucci's "Chime for Change" campaign that aims to spread female empowerment. In 2014, Streep established two scholarships for students at the University of Massachusetts Lowell – the Meryl Streep Endowed Scholarship for English majors, and the Joan Hertzberg Endowed Scholarship (named for Streep's former classmate at Vassar College) for math majors. In April 2015, it was announced that Streep had funded a screenwriters lab for female screenwriters over forty years old, called the Writers Lab, to be run by New York Women in Film & Television and the collective IRIS. The Lab was the only one of its kind in the world for female screenwriters over forty years old. In 2015, Streep signed an open letter for which One Campaign had been collecting signatures; the letter was addressed to Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, urging them to focus on women as they served as heads of the G7 in Germany and the AU in South Africa, respectively, in setting development funding priorities. Also in 2015, Streep sent each member of the U.S. Congress a letter supporting the Equal Rights Amendment. Each of her letters was sent with a copy of the book Equal Means Equal: Why the Time for the ERA is Now by Jessica Neuwirth, president of the ERA Coalition. When asked in a 2015 interview with Time Out if she was a feminist, Streep replied, "I am a humanist, I am for nice easy balance." In March 2016, Streep, among others, signed a letter asking for gender equality throughout the world, in observance of International Women's Day; this was also organized by One Campaign. In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. On April 25, 2017, Streep publicly backed the campaign to free Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker from Crimea who was subjected to a sham trial by Russia and jailed in Siberia for 20 years in August 2015. She was pictured alongside Ukrainian lawmaker Mustafa Nayyem with a "Free Sentsov" sign in a photograph taken during the PEN America Annual Literary Gala on April 25, at which Sentsov was honoured with a 2017 PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write award. Reception and legacy In 2004, Streep was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award by the board of directors of the American Film Institute. In 2011, she received a Kennedy Center Honors, introduced by Tracey Ullman, and speeches by 2009 Kennedy Center Honoree Robert De Niro and 2003 Kennedy Center Honoree Mike Nichols. Those also to honor Streep included, Kevin Kline, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, and Anne Hathaway. The tribute ended with the whole cast who sang "She's My Pal", a play on "He's My Pal" from Ironweed. In November 2014, President Barack Obama bestowed upon Streep the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. The citation reads as follows, "Meryl Streep is one of the most widely known and acclaimed actors in history. Ms. Streep has captured our imaginations with her unparalleled ability to portray a wide range of roles and attract an audience that has only grown over time, portraying characters who embody the full range of the human experience." In January 2017, Viola Davis presented Streep with the Cecil B. DeMille at the Golden Globes. Davis stated to Streep "You make me proud to be an artist". In her acceptance speech, Streep quoted the recently departed Carrie Fisher, saying, "Take your broken heart and make it into art." Vanity Fair commented that "it's hard to imagine that there was a time before Meryl Streep was the greatest-living actress". Emma Brockes of The Guardian notes that despite Streep's being "one of the most famous actresses in the world", it is "strangely hard to pin an image on Streep", in a career where she has "laboured to establish herself as an actor whose roots lie in ordinary life". Despite her success, Streep has always been modest about her own acting and achievements in cinema. She has stated that she has no particular method when it comes to acting, learning from the days of her early studies that she cannot articulate her practice. She said in 1987, "I have a smattering of things I've learned from different teachers, but nothing I can put into a valise and open it up and say 'Now, which one would you like?' Nothing I can count on, and that makes it more dangerous. But then, the danger makes it more exciting." She has stated that her ideal director is one who gives her complete artistic control, allowing her to have a degree of improvisation and to learn from her mistakes. Karina Longworth notes how "external" Streep's performances are, "chameleonic" in her impersonation of characters, "subsuming herself into them, rather than personifying them". In her early roles such as Manhattan and Kramer vs. Kramer, she was compared to both Diane Keaton and Jill Clayburgh, in that her characters were unsympathetic, which Streep has attributed to the tendency to be drawn to playing women who are difficult to like and lack empathy. Streep has stated that many consider her to be a technical actor, but she professed that it comes down to her love of reading the initial script, adding, "I come ready and I don't want to screw around and waste the first 10 takes on adjusting lighting and everybody else getting comfortable". Mike Nichols, who directed Streep in Silkwood, Heartburn, Postcards from the Edge, and Angels in America, praised Streep's ability to transform herself into her characters, remarking that, "In every role, she becomes a totally new human being. As she becomes the person she is portraying, the other performers begin to react to her as if she were that person." He said that directing her is "so much like falling in love that it has the characteristics of a time which you remember as magical, but which is shrouded in mystery". He also noted that Streep's acting ability had a profound impact on her co-stars, and that "one could improve by 1000% purely by watching her". Longworth believes that in nearly every film, Streep has "sly infused" a feminist point of view in her portrayals. However, film critic Molly Haskell has stated, "None of her heroines are feminist, strictly speaking. Yet, they uncannily embody various crosscurrents of experience in the last twenty years, as women have re-defined themselves against the background of the women's movement". Streep is well known for her ability to imitate a wide range of accents – from Danish in Out of Africa (1985) to British Received Pronunciation in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Plenty (1985), and The Iron Lady (2011); Italian in The Bridges of Madison County (1995); a southern American accent in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979); a Minnesota accent in A Prairie Home Companion (2006); Upstate New York in Ironweed (1987); and a heavy Bronx accent in Doubt (2008). Streep has stated that she grew up listening to artists such as Barbra Streisand, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan, and she learned a lot about how to use her voice, her "instrument", by listening to Barbra Streisand's albums. In the film Evil Angels (1988, released in the U.S. as A Cry in the Dark), in which she portrays a New Zealand transplant to Australia, Streep developed a hybrid of Australian and New Zealand English. Her performance received the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, as well as Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. For her role in the film Sophie's Choice (1982), Streep spoke both English and German with a Polish accent, as well as Polish itself. In The Iron Lady, she reproduced the vocal style of Margaret Thatcher from the time before Thatcher became Britain's Prime Minister, and after she had taken elocution lessons to change her pitch, pronunciation, and delivery. Streep has commented that using accents as part of her acting is a technique she views as an obvious requirement in her portrayal of a character. When questioned in Belfast as to how she reproduces different accents, Streep replied in a reportedly "perfect" Belfast accent: "I listen." Activism and advocacy Politically, Streep has described herself as part of the American Left. She gave a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in support of presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In January 2017, Streep was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 74th Golden Globe Awards, during which she delivered a predominantly political speech that implicitly criticized President-elect Donald Trump. She argued that Trump had a very strong platform and used it inappropriately to mock a disabled reporter, Serge F. Kovaleski, whom, in her words, Trump "outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back". Trump responded by calling Streep "one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood," and "a Hillary flunky who lost big." While promoting Suffragette in 2015, Streep accused the review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes of disproportionately representing the opinions of male film critics, resulting in a skewed ratio that adversely affected the commercial performances of female-driven films. In June 2023, Streep was reported as one of many A-List members of the SAG-AFTRA who signed a letter threatening to strike. Personal life Author Karina Longworth notes that despite her stardom, for decades Streep has managed to maintain a relatively normal personal life. Streep lived with actor John Cazale in the 1970s, caring for him after his lung cancer diagnosis until he died in March 1978. Streep said of his death: I didn't get over it. I don't want to get over it. No matter what you do, the pain is always there in some recess of your mind, and it affects everything that happens afterwards. I think you can assimilate the pain and go on without making an obsession of it. Streep married sculptor Don Gummer six months after Cazale's death. They have four children: musician Henry Wolfe Gummer (born 1979), and actresses Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer (born 1983), Grace Jane Gummer (born 1986), and Louisa Jacobson Gummer (born 1991). In 1985, the family moved into a $1.8-million private estate in Connecticut and lived there until they bought a $3-million mansion in Brentwood, Los Angeles, in 1990. They later moved back to Connecticut. In 2023, it was reported that Streep and Gummer had been separated for more than six years. They were publicly last seen together at the 90th Academy Awards in 2018. Streep is the godmother of Billie Lourd, daughter of fellow actress and close friend Carrie Fisher. Fisher wrote the screenplay for Streep's 1990 film Postcards from the Edge, based on Fisher's book. When asked if religion plays a part in her life in 2009, Streep replied: "I follow no doctrine. I don't belong to a church or a temple or a synagogue or an ashram." In an interview in December 2008, she alluded to her lack of religious belief when she said: So, I've always been really, deeply interested because I think I can understand the solace that's available in the whole construct of religion. But I really don't believe in the power of prayer, or things would have been avoided that have happened, that are awful. So, it's a horrible position as an intelligent, emotional, yearning human being to sit outside of the available comfort there. But I just can't go there. When asked where she draws consolation in the face of aging and death, Streep responded: Consolation? I'm not sure I have it. I have a belief, I guess, in the power of the aggregate human attempt – the best of ourselves. In love and hope and optimism – you know, the magic things that seem inexplicable. Why we are the way we are. I do have a sense of trying to make things better. Where does that come from? Acting credits and awards One of the most prolific actresses of screen and stage since her career's inception in the late 1970s, Streep's most acclaimed and highest-grossing films, according to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, include Julia (1977), The Deer Hunter (1978), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Sophie's Choice (1982), Silkwood (1983), A Cry in the Dark (1988), Postcards from the Edge (1990), Defending Your Life (1991), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), Marvin's Room (1996), Adaptation (2002), The Devil Wears Prada (2007), Mamma Mia (2008), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), The Homesman (2014), Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), Little Women (2019), and Let Them All Talk (2020). Her television projects include the miniseries Holocaust (1978), the television film ...First Do No Harm (1997), the miniseries Angels in America (2003), and the drama series Big Little Lies (2019). Her stage roles include the Broadway theatre productions A Memory of Two Mondays, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (both 1976) and The Cherry Orchard (1977), as well as multiple plays at the Delacorte Theater. Streep has been recognised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the following performances: These nominations make Streep the most Academy Award-nominated performer in history, with 21 in total (17 for Best Actress and four for Best Supporting Actress), as well as one of only 13 performers to win an Oscar in both acting categories and one of only three performers to win three Academy Awards across the two acting categories (with Ingrid Bergman and Jack Nicholson being the only others to achieve this feat). She has also received six Grammy Award nominations, five Primetime Emmy Award nominations (with three wins), and one Tony Award nomination. Streep is one of few performers to be nominated for the Triple Crown of Acting and EGOT. Her other accolades include two BAFTA Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (for The French Lieutenant's Woman and The Iron Lady), nine Golden Globe Awards (as well as the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award), a Silver Bear and Honorary Golden Bear in Berlin International Film Festival, Best Actress, Honorary Palme d'Or in Cannes Film Festival and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Discography The Velveteen Rabbit (1984) A Prairie Home Companion (2006) Mamma Mia! The Movie Soundtrack (2008) Into the Woods (2014) Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again: The Movie Soundtrack (2018) Mary Poppins Returns (2018) The Prom (2020) See also List of Academy Award records List of actors with Academy Award nominations List of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees List of actors with Hollywood Walk of Fame motion picture stars List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame List of wax figures displayed at Madame Tussauds museums List of Yale University people Notes References Sources Further reading Ebert, Roger (December 6, 2011). Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2012. Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4494-2150-2. Santas, Constantine (2002). Responding to Film. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8304-1580-9. External links Meryl Streep at AllMovie Meryl Streep at AllMusic Meryl Streep at IMDb Meryl Streep at Playbill Vault Meryl Streep at the Internet Broadway Database Meryl Streep at the Internet Off-Broadway Database Meryl Streep at the TCM Movie Database Meryl Streep on Charlie Rose

Kramer_vs._Kramer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramer_vs._Kramer

Kramer vs. Kramer is a 1979 American legal drama written and directed by Robert Benton, based on Avery Corman's 1977 novel. The film stars Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry and Jane Alexander. It tells the story of a couple's divorce, its impact on their young son, and the subsequent evolution of their relationship and views on parenting. Kramer vs. Kramer explores the psychology and fallout of divorce, and touches on prevailing or emerging social issues, such as gender roles, fathers' rights, work-life balance, and single parents. Kramer vs. Kramer was theatrically released December 19, 1979, by Columbia Pictures. The film emerged as a major commercial success at the box office, grossing more than $173 million on an $8 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1979 in the United States and Canada. It received widespread critical acclaim upon release, with high praise for its direction, story, screenplay and performances of the cast, with major praise directed towards Hoffman and Streep's performances. Kramer vs. Kramer received a leading 9 nominations at the 52nd Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor (for Henry) and Best Supporting Actress (for Alexander), and won a leading 5 awards – Best Picture, Best Director (for Benton), Best Actor (for Hoffman), Best Supporting Actress (for Streep) and Best Adapted Screenplay. At the 37th Golden Globe Awards, the film received a leading 8 nominations, including Best Director (for Benton), Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture (for Henry) and Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (for Alexander), and won a leading 4 awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama (for Hoffman) and Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (for Streep). It also received 6 nominations at the 34th British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Direction (for Benton), Best Actor in a Leading Role (for Hoffman) and Best Actress in a Leading Role (for Streep). Plot Ted Kramer, a workaholic advertising executive in New York City, has just landed an important account and job promotion. However, when he shares the news with Joanna, his wife of eight years, she shocks him by announcing she is leaving him. She walks out of the apartment without Billy, the couple's seven-year-old son, because she feels she is unfit to be a mother. The next morning when Billy asks about his mother, Ted explains that she went away to be alone for a while. Ted drops Billy at his elementary school by asking him what grade he attends and leaving him with a woman at the entrance, before rushing to work. At the ad agency, Ted confides about the situation to Jim O'Connor, his boss and friend. Jim is understanding, but hopes that Ted's situation will not interfere with his new responsibility as the lead person on the Mid-Atlantic Airlines account. Initially, Ted and Billy struggle to adapt to their new living situation as Billy misses his mother and Ted has to do the extra housework usually done by Joanna. Father and son gradually settle into a routine without Joanna, but Ted’s work suffers. Billy and Ted have a fight one evening in which Billy cries for his mother, but they later reconcile. When Billy worries his mother’s departure is his fault, Ted assures him that Joanna left because she was not happy in the marriage. Meanwhile, Ted has become good friends with divorced neighbor Margaret Phelps, whom Joanna was confidantes with. One day, Billy has an accident when he falls off a jungle gym. Ted rushes him to the hospital, and asks the doctor to let him stay by his son's side as he receives ten stitches. After fifteen months, Ted receives a call from Joanna and meets her at a restaurant. Joanna reveals she is happier after working in California and seeing a therapist. When she states that she is now ready to raise her son and wants Billy to come live with her, Ted becomes furious and leaves. He consults with a divorce attorney John Shaunessy, who cautions that the court usually awards custody to the mother when the child is young. At work, Jim notifies Ted the agency is letting him go because the Mid-Atlantic Airlines executives are displeased with his work. Knowing he has no chance at custody if he is unemployed, Ted doggedly tries to land a job within twenty-four hours, despite few ad firms hiring during the holiday season. He convinces two agency executives to consider his application immediately, and accepts a lower-salaried position for which he is overqualified. The custody hearing begins. In court, Joanne asserts that Ted never abused her or was unfaithful, but she lost her self-esteem as a stay-at-home mother. She insists she has since "become a whole person again" and believes her son needs her more than his father. Ted states he has proven that he can parent as well as Joanna, and insists that taking Billy away from him could cause "irreparable" harm. The legal battle becomes contentious when the attorneys resort to brutal character assassinations. Shaunessy brings Joanna to tears by forcing her to admit that she was part of the marriage's failure. Ted also admits he made mistakes as a father and husband. However, his job loss and Billy's accident are used to discredit him. Ted expresses resentment at Joanna for her attorney's aggressive tactics. Margaret testifies on behalf of Ted and implores Joanna to recognize that he has become a great father. Later, Ted learns Joanna was awarded custody. He decides not to appeal in order to spare Billy the burden of testifying in court. Billy becomes upset as Ted explains that they will still see each other, even though Billy will be living with his mother. On the morning Joanna is scheduled to pick up Billy, she rings the apartment building's intercom and asks to see Ted in the lobby alone. She tearfully reveals that she is relinquishing custody after realizing that she does not want to take Billy away from his home. Ted reassures her as she takes the elevator up to inform her son. Cast Production Producer Stanley R. Jaffe and writer and director Robert Benton read Avery Corman's source novel, and were so moved by the story that they bought the rights to make it into a film. Dustin Hoffman was the only actor they envisioned in the lead role of Ted Kramer. Hoffman, going through a divorce at the time, initially turned down the role. He has since stated that, at that time, he had wanted to quit film acting and return to the stage, due to his depression and distaste for Hollywood. While Jaffe and Benton were courting Hoffman, James Caan was offered the role, but turned it down, as he was concerned the film would be a flop. Al Pacino was offered the role, but felt it was not for him. Jon Voight also turned down the role. Hoffman met with Jaffe and Benton at a London hotel during the making of Agatha (1979), and was convinced to accept the role. Hoffman has credited Benton and this film for rejuvenating his love of film acting, and inspiring the emotional level of many scenes. Hoffman was reminded of his love for children and "got closer being a father by playing a father". Benton and Jaffe selected Justin Henry to play Billy. Hoffman worked extensively with Henry, then 7 years old, in each scene to put him at ease. Benton encouraged Henry to improvise to make his performance more natural. The ice cream scene in which Billy defies Ted by skipping dinner and eating ice cream was all improvised by Hoffman and Henry. Hoffman contributed many personal moments and dialogue; Benton offered shared screenplay credit but Hoffman declined. Kate Jackson was offered the role of Joanna Kramer, but had to turn it down, as producer Aaron Spelling was unable to rearrange the shooting schedule of the TV series Charlie's Angels, in which Jackson was starring. The part was offered to Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda and Ali MacGraw before Meryl Streep was cast. Streep was initially cast as Phyllis (the role eventually taken by JoBeth Williams), but she was able to force her way into auditioning for Joanna in front of Hoffman, Benton and Jaffe. She found the character in the novel and script unsympathetic ("an ogre, a princess, an ass", as she called her), and approached Joanna from a more sympathetic point of view. Hoffman believed the death of Streep's fiancé, John Cazale, only months earlier, gave her an emotional edge and "still-fresh pain" to draw on for the performance. Streep was contracted to work only 12 days on the film. Gail Strickland was first cast as Ted's neighbor Margaret, but departed after a week of filming (due to "artistic differences", according to Columbia Pictures), and was replaced by Jane Alexander. Michael Schulman claims Strickland was so rattled by the intensity of filming with Hoffman that she developed a stammer, making her lines difficult to follow. Strickland disputes this account, saying she couldn't quickly memorize improvised lines Hoffman gave her, which agitated him, and she was fired two days later. Cinematographer Néstor Almendros, a collaborator on numerous François Truffaut films, had been hired with the expectation that Truffaut would direct. Truffaut turned it down, as he was busy with his own projects, and suggested screenwriter Robert Benton direct the film. JoBeth Williams worried about disrobing in the scene with a young Justin Henry. "I was afraid my nudity would traumatize the little boy," she said, but was relieved that he seemed unbothered. Controversy Hoffman has been widely reported to have harassed Streep during the making of the film, and the two had a contentious working relationship. In a 1979 Time magazine interview, Streep claimed that Hoffman groped her breast on their first meeting, although a representative for Streep said the article was not "an accurate rendering of that meeting". When Streep advocated portraying Joanna as more sympathetic and vulnerable than she was written, she received pushback from Hoffman. Such was his commitment to method acting, he would hurl insults and obscenities at Streep, taunt her with the name of her recently deceased fiancé, John Cazale, claiming it was designed to draw a better performance from her. He famously shattered a wine glass against the wall without telling her (although he did inform the cameraman beforehand), sending glass shards into her hair. Her response was, "Next time you do that, I'd appreciate you letting me know." In 2018, Streep claimed that Hoffman slapped her hard without warning while filming a scene. "This was my first film, and it was my first take in my first film, and he just slapped me. And you see it in the film. It was overstepping." Reception Kramer vs. Kramer received widespread critical acclaim upon release, with high praise for its direction, story, screenplay and performances of the cast, with major praise directed towards Hoffman and Streep's performances. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 102 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The website's consensus reads: "The divorce subject isn't as shocking, but Kramer vs. Kramer is still a thoughtful, well-acted drama that resists the urge to take sides or give easy answers." It has a score of 77 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on nine reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars, giving praise to Benton's screenplay. "His characters aren't just talking to each other, they're revealing things about themselves and can sometimes be seen in the act of learning about their own motives. That's what makes Kramer vs. Kramer such a touching film: We get the feeling at times that personalities are changing and decisions are being made even as we watch them." Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it a "fine, witty, moving, most intelligent adaptation of Avery Corman's best-selling novel", with Streep giving "one of the major performances of the year", and Hoffman "splendid in one of the two or three best roles of his career." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film four stars out of four, and wrote, "Kramer vs. Kramer never loses its low-key, realistic touch. You will sit at the end of the film wondering why we don't see more pictures like this. After all, its story is not all that unusual." He thought that Hoffman gave "one of his most memorable performances", and "should win the Academy Award next April". Variety wrote, "Stories on screen about men leaving women, and women leaving men have been abundant as of late, but hardly any has grappled with the issue in such a forthright and honest fashion as Kramer ... While a nasty court battle ensues, the human focus is never abandoned, and it's to the credit of not only Benton and Jaffe, but especially Hoffman and Streep, that both leading characters emerge as credible and sympathetic." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times declared it "as nearly perfect a film as can be", and "a motion picture with an emotional wallop second to none this year." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called the film "a triumph of partisan pathos, a celebration of father-son bonding that astutely succeeds where tearjerkers like The Champ (1979) so mawkishly failed". Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote, "All the people go through expected difficulties the way that runners take the hurdles in a track event: no surprise in it, it's just a question of how they do it. But the actors make it more." Shortly after the film's release, The New York Times and Time magazine published separate articles in which members of the bar and bench criticized the court battle scenes as "legally out of date". According to the legal experts interviewed for the articles, a modern judge would have made use of psychological reports, and also would have considered the wishes of the child. Another criticism was that the option of joint custody was never explored. In 2003, The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list. Box office Kramer vs. Kramer grossed $5,559,722 in its opening week from 534 theaters. It went on to gross $106.3 million in the United States and Canada. In its first 13 weeks overseas, it grossed more than $67 million. It went on to become Columbia's highest-grossing film overseas, with theatrical rentals of $57 million, until surpassed in 1990 by Look Who's Talking (released by Columbia TriStar internationally). Awards and nominations American Film Institute Lists AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated AFI's 10 Top 10 – #3 Courtroom Drama Cultural impact Kramer vs. Kramer reflected a cultural shift that occurred during the 1970s, when ideas about motherhood and fatherhood were changing. The film was widely praised for the way in which it gave equal weight and importance to both Joanna and Ted's points of view. The film made use of the first movement of Antonio Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in C Major, making the piece more familiar among classical music listeners. "Mon fils, ma bataille", the song about a painful divorce and a father's struggle to keep custody of his child, was inspired by Daniel Balavoine's parents' divorce, his guitarist Colin Swinburne's divorce, and by the film Kramer vs. Kramer. Adaptation In 1987, the film was remade in Turkish as Oğulcan, directed and acted by Cüneyt Arkın, in Hindi as Akele Hum Akele Tum in 1995, starring Aamir Khan and Manisha Koirala, and in Urdu as Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hay in 2016, starring Sajal Ali and Feroze Khan. See also Trial film Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) Instructions Not Included (2013) Explanatory notes References External links Kramer vs. Kramer at IMDb Kramer vs. Kramer at AllMovie Kramer vs. Kramer at the TCM Movie Database Kramer vs. Kramer at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films Kramer vs. Kramer at Rotten Tomatoes

Pioneer_11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_11

Pioneer 11 (also known as Pioneer G) is a NASA robotic space probe launched on April 5, 1973, to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, the solar wind, and cosmic rays. It was the first probe to encounter Saturn, the second to fly through the asteroid belt, and the second to fly by Jupiter. Later, Pioneer 11 became the second of five artificial objects to achieve an escape velocity allowing it to leave the Solar System. Due to power constraints and the vast distance to the probe, the last routine contact with the spacecraft was on September 30, 1995, and the last good engineering data was received on November 24, 1995. Mission background History Approved in February 1969, Pioneer 11 and its twin probe, Pioneer 10, were the first to be designed for exploring the outer Solar System. Yielding to multiple proposals throughout the 1960s, early mission objectives were defined as: Explore the interplanetary medium beyond the orbit of Mars Investigate the nature of the asteroid belt from the scientific standpoint and assess the belt's possible hazard to missions to the outer planets. Explore the environment of Jupiter. Subsequent planning for an encounter with Saturn added many more goals: Map the magnetic field of Saturn and determine its intensity, direction, and structure. Determine how many electrons and protons of various energies are distributed along the trajectory of the spacecraft through the Saturn system. Map the interaction of the Saturn system with the solar wind. Measure the temperature of Saturn's atmosphere and that of Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn. Determine the structure of the upper atmosphere of Saturn where molecules are expected to be electrically charged and form an ionosphere. Map the thermal structure of Saturn's atmosphere by infrared observations coupled with radio occultation data. Obtain spin-scan images of the Saturnian system in two colors during the encounter sequence and polarimetry measurements of the planet. Probe the ring system and the atmosphere of Saturn with S-band radio occultation. Determine more precisely the masses of Saturn and its larger satellites by accurate observations of the effects of their gravitational fields on the motion of the spacecraft. As a precursor to the Mariner Jupiter/Saturn mission, verify the environment of the ring plane to find out where it may be safely crossed by the Mariner spacecraft without serious damage. Pioneer 11 was built by TRW and managed as part of the Pioneer program by NASA Ames Research Center. A backup unit, Pioneer H, is currently on display in the "Milestones of Flight" exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Many elements of the mission proved to be critical in the planning of the Voyager program. Spacecraft design The Pioneer 11 bus measures 36 centimeters (14 in) deep and with six 76-centimeter-long (30 in) panels forming the hexagonal structure. The bus houses propellant to control the orientation of the probe and eight of the twelve scientific instruments. The spacecraft has a mass of 259 kilograms. Attitude control and propulsion Orientation of the spacecraft was maintained with six 4.5-N, hydrazine monopropellant thrusters: pair one maintains a constant spin-rate of 4.8 rpm, pair two controls the forward thrust, pair three controls attitude. Information for the orientation is provided by performing conical scanning maneuvers to track Earth in its orbit, a star sensor able to reference Canopus, and two Sun sensors. Communications The space probe includes a redundant system transceivers, one attached to the high-gain antenna, the other to an omni-antenna and medium-gain antenna. Each transceiver is 8 watts and transmits data across the S-band using 2110 MHz for the uplink from Earth and 2292 MHz for the downlink to Earth with the Deep Space Network tracking the signal. Prior to transmitting data, the probe uses a convolutional encoder to allow correction of errors in the received data on Earth. Power Pioneer 11 uses four SNAP-19 radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) (see diagram). They are positioned on two three-rod trusses, each 3 meters (9 feet 10 inches) in length and 120 degrees apart. This was expected to be a safe distance from the sensitive scientific experiments carried on board. Combined, the RTGs provided 155 watts at launch, and decayed to 140 W in transit to Jupiter. The spacecraft requires 100 W to power all systems. Computer Much of the computation for the mission was performed on Earth and transmitted to the probe, where it is able to retain in memory, up to five commands of the 222 possible entries by ground controllers. The spacecraft includes two command decoders and a command distribution unit, a very limited form of a processor, to direct operations on the spacecraft. This system requires that mission operators prepare commands long in advance of transmitting them to the probe. A data storage unit is included to record up to 6,144 bytes of information gathered by the instruments. The digital telemetry unit is then used to prepare the collected data in one of the thirteen possible formats before transmitting it back to Earth. Scientific instruments Pioneer 11 has one additional instrument more than Pioneer 10, a flux-gate magnetometer. Mission profile Launch and trajectory The Pioneer 11 probe was launched on April 6, 1973, at 02:11:00 UTC, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from Space Launch Complex 36A at Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard an Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle, with a Star-37E propulsion module. Its twin probe, Pioneer 10, had been launched on March 3, 1972. Pioneer 11 was launched on a trajectory directly aimed at Jupiter without any prior gravitational assists. In May 1974, Pioneer was retargeted to fly past Jupiter on a north–south trajectory, enabling a Saturn flyby in 1979. The maneuver used 17 pounds (7.7 kilograms) of propellant, lasted 42 minutes and 36 seconds, and increased Pioneer 11's speed by 230 km/h. It also made two mid-course corrections, on April 11, 1973 and November 7, 1974. Encounter with Jupiter Pioneer 11 flew past Jupiter in November and December 1974. During its closest approach, on December 2, it passed 42,828 kilometers (26,612 mi) above the cloud tops. The probe obtained detailed images of the Great Red Spot, transmitted the first images of the immense polar regions, and determined the mass of Jupiter's moon Callisto. Using the gravitational pull of Jupiter, a gravity assist was used to alter the trajectory of the probe towards Saturn and gain velocity. On April 16, 1975, following the Jupiter encounter, the micrometeoroid detector was turned off. Saturn encounter Pioneer 11 passed by Saturn on September 1, 1979, at a distance of 21,000 km (13,000 mi) from Saturn's cloud tops. By this time, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 had already passed Jupiter and were also en route to Saturn, so it was decided to target Pioneer 11 to pass through the Saturn ring plane at the same position that the soon-to-come Voyager probes would use to test the route before the Voyagers arrived. If there were faint ring particles that could damage a probe in that area, mission planners felt it was better to learn about it via Pioneer. Thus, Pioneer 11 was acting as a "pioneer" in a true sense of the word; if danger were detected, then the Voyager probes could be rerouted further away from the rings but missing the opportunity to visit Uranus and Neptune in the process. Pioneer 11 imaged—and nearly collided with—one of Saturn's small moons, passing at a distance of no more than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 mi). The object was tentatively identified as Epimetheus, a moon discovered the previous day from Pioneer's imaging, and suspected from earlier observations by Earth-based telescopes. After the Voyager flybys, it became known that there are two similarly sized moons (Epimetheus and Janus) in the same orbit, so there is some uncertainty about which one was the object of Pioneer's near-miss. Pioneer 11 encountered Janus on September 1, 1979, at 14:52 UTC, at a distance of 2,500 km (1,600 mi). At 16:20 UTC the same day, Pioneer 11 encountered Mimas at a distance of 103,000 km (64,000 mi). Besides Epimetheus, instruments located another previously undiscovered small moon and an additional ring, charted Saturn's magnetosphere and magnetic field, and found its planet-size moon, Titan, to be too cold for life. Hurtling underneath the ring plane, the probe sent back pictures of Saturn's rings. The rings, which normally seem bright when observed from Earth, appeared dark in the Pioneer pictures, and the dark gaps in the rings seen from Earth appeared as bright rings. Interstellar mission On February 25, 1990, Pioneer 11 became the fourth human-made object to pass beyond the orbit of the planets. By 1995, Pioneer 11 could no longer power any of its detectors, so the decision was made to shut it down. On September 29, 1995, NASA's Ames Research Center, responsible for managing the project, issued a press release that began, "After nearly 22 years of exploration out to the farthest reaches of the Solar System, one of the most durable and productive space missions in history will come to a close." It indicated NASA would use its Deep Space Network antennas to listen "once or twice a month" for the spacecraft's signal, until "some time in late 1996" when "its transmitter will fall silent altogether." NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin characterized Pioneer 11 as "the little spacecraft that could, a venerable explorer that has taught us a great deal about the Solar System and, in the end, about our own innate drive to learn. Pioneer 11 is what NASA is all about – exploration beyond the frontier." Besides announcing the end of operations, the dispatch provided a historical list of Pioneer 11 mission achievements. NASA terminated routine contact with the spacecraft on September 30, 1995, but continued to make contact for about two hours every two to four weeks. Scientists received a few minutes of good engineering data on November 24, 1995, but then lost final contact once Earth moved out of view of the spacecraft's antenna. Timeline Current status Due to power constraints and the vast distance to the probe, the last routine contact with the spacecraft was on September 30, 1995, and the last good engineering data was received on November 24, 1995. As of June 24, 2024, Pioneer 11 is estimated to be 113.121 AU (16.9227 billion km; 10.5153 billion mi) from the Earth and 114.089 AU (17.0675 billion km; 10.6052 billion mi) from the Sun. It was traveling at 11.155 km/s (40,160 km/h; 24,950 mph) relative to the Sun and traveling outward at about 2.35 AU per year. The spacecraft is heading in the direction of the constellation Scutum near the current position (June 2024) RA 18h 54m dec -8° 46' (J2000.0), close to Messier 26. In 928,000 years, it will pass within 0.25 parsecs (0.82 light-years) of the K dwarf TYC 992-192-1 and will pass near the star Lambda Aquilae in about four million years. Pioneer 11 has been overtaken by the two Voyager probes launched in 1977. Voyager 1 has become the most distant object built by humans and will remain so for the foreseeable future, as no probe launched since Voyager has the speed to overtake it. Pioneer anomaly Analysis of the radio tracking data from the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft at distances between 20 and 70 AU from the Sun had consistently indicated the presence of a small but anomalous Doppler frequency drift. The drift can be interpreted as due to a constant acceleration of (8.74 ± 1.33) × 10−10 m/s2 directed towards the Sun. Although it was suspected that there was a systematic origin to the effect, none was found. As a result, there has been sustained interest in the nature of this so-called "Pioneer anomaly". Extended analysis of mission data by Slava Turyshev and colleagues determined the source of the anomaly to be asymmetric thermal radiation and the resulting thermal recoil force acting on the face of the Pioneers away from the Sun. Pioneer plaque Pioneer 10 and 11 both carry a gold-anodized aluminum plaque in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent lifeforms from other planetary systems. The plaques feature the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. Commemoration In 1991, Pioneer 11 was honored on one of 10 United States Postage Service stamps commemorating uncrewed spacecraft exploring each of the then nine planets and the Moon. Pioneer 11 was the spacecraft featured with Jupiter. Pluto was listed as "Not yet explored". Gallery See also Exploration of Jupiter Pioneer 10, Jupiter fly-by Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, Jupiter fly-by en route to other outer Solar System fly-bys Galileo, Jupiter orbiter New Horizons, Jupiter flyby en route to Pluto fly-by Juno, Jupiter polar orbiter Exploration of Saturn Cassini–Huygens, Saturn orbiter and Titan lander, respectively List of artificial objects leaving the Solar System List of missions to the outer planets Pioneer anomaly Robotic spacecraft Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes References Bibliography Burrows, W. E. (1990). Exploring Space: Voyages in the Solar System and Beyond (first ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-56983-3. Fimmel, R. O.; Swindell, W.; Burgess, E. (1974). Pioneer Odyssey: Encounter with a Giant. Washington, D.C.: NASA / Ames. ISBN 978-1-493-71200-7. OCLC 3211441. NASA-SP-349/396. Fimmel, R. O.; van Allen, J. A.; Burgess, E. (1980). "Pioneer: First to Jupiter, Saturn, and Beyond" (PDF). NASA Special Publication. 446. Washington, D.C.: NASA / Ames. ASIN B000IRXYN0. Bibcode:1980NASSP.446.....F. NASA-SP-446. Simpson, J. A. (2001). "The Cosmic Radiation". In Johan A. M. Bleeker; Johannes Geiss; Martin C. E. Huber (eds.). The Century of Space Science. Vol. 1. Springer. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-7923-7196-0. External links Pioneer 11 Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration Ted Stryk's Pioneer 11 at Saturn page

The_Seduction_of_Joe_Tynan

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

The Seduction of Joe Tynan is a 1979 American political drama film directed by Jerry Schatzberg, and produced by Martin Bregman. The screenplay was written by Alan Alda, who also played the title role. The film stars Alda, Barbara Harris, and Meryl Streep, with Rip Torn, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Kimbrough, and Carrie Nye. Streep said that she was on "automatic pilot" during filming because she went to work not long after the death of her lover, John Cazale, adding that she got through the process with Alda's support. Plot summary Joe Tynan is a liberal U.S. senator from New York with possible presidential ambitions. For the time being, he is weighing the nomination of a potential Supreme Court justice, with the elderly Sen. Birney urging him strongly to support the nominee. Tynan is married, with two children, and his frequent work-related absence is an occupational hazard tolerated by wife Ellie, who is busy studying for a new career as a therapist. When he travels to Louisiana to investigate the nominated judge, he encounters labor lawyer Karen Traynor, who knows of evidence revealing the nominee to be unfit. As they spend time together, Tynan and Karen (who is also married) begin a romantic affair. While back in Washington, D.C., engaging in a friendly rivalry with Southern senator Kittner and preparing for the party's upcoming national convention, Tynan begins to realize that Sen. Birney is suffering from a form of early dementia. Ellie, meanwhile, discovers Tynan's relationship with Karen, causing considerable friction at home. Tynan breaks off the affair, and makes amends to his wife as he delivers a speech at the convention. Cast Alan Alda as Joe Tynan Barbara Harris as Ellie Tynan Meryl Streep as Karen Traynor Rip Torn as Senator Kittner Melvyn Douglas as Senator Birney Charles Kimbrough as Francis Carrie Nye as Aldena Kittner Michael Higgins as Senator Pardew Blanche Baker as Janet Chris Arnold as Jerry Maureen Anderman as Joe's Secretary John Badila as Reporter on TV Screen Robert Christian as Arthur Briggs Maurice Copeland as Edward Anderson Lu Elrod as Congresswoman at Party Marian Hailey as Sheila Lerner Reception Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Alan Alda's Joe Tynan isn't altogether believable as a politician, but he's a warm, sensitive, intelligent character, around whom an uncommonly well-meaning movie has been fashioned." Dale Pollock of Variety wrote that the film "features a literate script, sensitive direction and a brace of fine performances by Alan Alda, Barbara Harris and Meryl Streep." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "We all know that Alan Alda can act; the revelation in his new film, 'The Seduction of Joe Tynan,' is how well he can write. His script, set in the world of politics, is a pleasure to listen to." Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times stated, "'The Seduction of Joe Tynan' is at least a decent effort to look at the pressures at work on a rising young politician, both from within and without. Years from now, however, it may be best remembered as the first film to give Meryl Streep full rein for her luminous talents." Judith Martin of The Washington Post wrote, "Barbara Harris' superb and rounded characterization is only one of many deliciously funny-sad and authentic touches in this amazingly unstereotyped political satire." David Ansen of Newsweek called the film an "intelligent, beautifully acted cautionary tale about the conflict between the siren call of success and the responsibilities of a private life." On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 75% rating based on 12 reviews. Awards Wins Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards: LAFCA Award, Best Supporting Actor, Melvyn Douglas; Best Supporting Actress, Meryl Streep; 1979. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures: NBR Award, Best Supporting Actress, Meryl Streep; 1979. National Society of Film Critics: NSFC Award, Best Supporting Actress, Meryl Streep; 1979. New York Film Critics Circle Awards: NYFCC Award, Best Supporting Actress, Meryl Streep; 1979. References External links The Seduction of Joe Tynan at IMDb The Seduction of Joe Tynan at the TCM Movie Database

The_Day_of_the_Jackal_(film)

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

The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 political thriller film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth, the film is about a professional assassin known only as the "Jackal" who is hired to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle in the summer of 1963. A co-production of the United Kingdom and France, the film stars Edward Fox as the Jackal, with Michael Lonsdale, Derek Jacobi, Terence Alexander, Michel Auclair, Alan Badel, Tony Britton, Cyril Cusack, Maurice Denham and Delphine Seyrig. The musical score was composed by Georges Delerue. The Day of the Jackal received positive reviews and went on to win the BAFTA Award for Best Editing (Ralph Kemplen), five additional BAFTA Award nominations (including Best Film and Best Direction), two Golden Globe Award nominations, and one Oscar nomination. The film grossed $16,056,255 at the North American box office, returning $8,525,000 in rentals to the studio. The British Film Institute ranked it the 74th greatest British film of the 20th century. Plot On 22 August 1962, the militant underground organisation OAS, infuriated by the French government granting independence to Algeria, attempts to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. The assassination attempt fails, leaving de Gaulle and his entire entourage unharmed. Within six months, OAS leader Jean Bastien-Thiry and several other members are captured and Bastien-Thiry is executed. The remaining OAS leaders, now hiding in Austria, plan another attempt, and hire a British assassin, who goes by the code name "Jackal", for $500,000. The Jackal travels to Genoa and commissions a custom rifle from a gunsmith, and fake identity papers from a forger, whom the Jackal kills in self-defense when the criminal unwisely tries blackmailing him. In Paris, the Jackal duplicates a key to a sixth-floor flat overlooking the Place du 18 juin 1940. The OAS relocate to Rome. The French Action Service kidnap the OAS's chief clerk, Viktor Wolenski. Wolenski dies under interrogation, but not before the agents extract vital information about the plot, including the word "Jackal". The Interior Minister convenes a secret cabinet meeting of the heads of the French security forces. Police Commissioner Berthier recommends his deputy, Claude Lebel, to lead the investigation. Lebel is given special emergency powers, though de Gaulle's refusal to change his planned public appearances complicates matters. Colonel St. Clair, a personal military aide to de Gaulle and a cabinet member, carelessly discloses classified government information to his mistress, Denise, unaware she is an OAS agent. She passes this on to her contact, which, in turn, aids the Jackal. Meanwhile, Lebel determines that British suspect Charles Harold Calthrop (whose name Cha… Cal… suggests chacal, French for jackal) may be travelling under the name Paul Oliver Duggan, who died as a child, and has entered France. Although the Jackal learns the authorities have uncovered the assassination plot, he decides to proceed. While at a hotel, the Jackal meets and seduces the aristocratic Colette de Montpellier. Warned by his contact, the Jackal leaves just before Lebel and his men arrive. After a nearly fatal vehicular accident, the Jackal steals a car and drives to Madame de Montpellier's country estate to hide out. He kills her after discovering the police have already spoken to her. Using an already stolen passport, the Jackal then assumes the identity of a bespectacled Danish schoolteacher named Per Lundquist. After disposing of Duggan's belongings in a river, he catches a train for Paris. Madame de Montpellier's body is discovered and her car is recovered at the railway station. Lebel, no longer hindered by secrecy restrictions, launches a public manhunt. The Jackal picks up a gay man at a Turkish bathhouse and stays at the man's flat. The Jackal kills him after the man sees a TV news broadcast that "Lundquist" is wanted for the murder of Madame de Montpellier. At a meeting with the Interior Minister's cabinet, Lebel says he believes the Jackal will attempt to shoot de Gaulle during the commemoration of the liberation of Paris during World War II, scheduled three days hence. Lebel plays a recording of a phone call in which Denise provides information to an OAS contact. St. Clair apologises for his indiscretion and immediately leaves. When asked how he knew St. Clair was the source of the leak, Lebel says he wiretapped every cabinet member's phone. The French Interior Minister, feeling that the case is now solved, dismisses Lebel from the case. Denise returns to St. Clair's apartment and discovers that he has committed suicide and finds the police awaiting her. Subsequently losing track of the Jackal, the French Interior Minister re-instates Lebel. On Liberation Day, the Jackal, disguised as an elderly veteran amputee on crutches, enters a building using the key he had earlier procured. In an upper apartment overlooking the ceremonial area, he assembles the rifle hidden within his crutch and waits by the window. When Lebel discovers that a policeman allowed a disabled man to pass through the security cordon, the two race to the building. As de Gaulle presents the first medal, the Jackal takes aim, but as he shoots he narrowly misses when the president suddenly leans forward. As he reloads the rifle for another shot, Lebel and the policeman burst in. The Jackal shoots the policeman, but Lebel kills him using the officer's submachine gun. In England, while police are searching Charles Harold Calthrop's flat, the real Calthrop suddenly arrives. He accompanies them to Scotland Yard and is later cleared, leaving the police to wonder about the true identity of the assassin. The Jackal is buried in an unmarked grave, with Lebel as the only witness. Cast Production The Day of the Jackal was originally part of a two-picture deal between John Woolf and Fred Zinnemann, the other being an adaptation of the play Abelard and Heloise by Ronald Millar. Universal Studios initially wanted to cast a major American actor as the Jackal, with Robert Redford and Jack Nicholson flown to Europe to audition. Although Universal favoured Nicholson, Zinnemann ultimately secured a production agreement stipulating that only European actors would be cast. Afterwards, British actors David McCallum, Ian Richardson and Michael York were considered, before Zinnemann cast Edward Fox. Jacqueline Bisset was offered the role of Denise, but had to decline due to scheduling conflicts. Zinnemann wrote that Adrien Cayla-Legrand, the actor who played de Gaulle, was mistaken by several Parisians for the real de Gaulle during filming—though de Gaulle had been dead for two years prior to the film's release. The sequence was filmed during a real parade, leading to confusion; the crowd (many of whom were unaware that a film was being shot) mistook the actors portraying police officers for real officers, and many tried to help them arrest the "suspects" they were apprehending in the crowd. The Day of the Jackal was filmed in studios and on location in France, Britain, Italy and Austria. Zinnemann was able to film in locations usually denied to filmmakers—such as inside the Ministry of the Interior—due in large part to French producer Julien Derode's skill in dealing with authorities. Nevertheless, the opening sequence was not shot in the Élysée courtyard but at the hôtel de Soubise, main office of the French National Archives. The two palaces were both built at the beginning of the 18th century, but the Hôtel de Soubise is more accessible and has less security than the Élysée. During the massive annual 14 July parade down the Champs-Élysées, the company was allowed to film inside the police lines, capturing extraordinary closeup footage of the massing of troops, tanks, and artillery during the final Liberation Day sequence. During the weekend of 15 August, the Paris police cleared a very busy square of all traffic to film additional scenes. Frederick Forsyth later wrote that for the film contract to buy rights for his novel, he was offered two options: £17,500 plus a small percentage of subsequent film profits, or £20,000 and no royalties. He took £20,000, noting that such a payment was already a massive sum to him, but due to his naïveté about finances, he waived rights to a small fortune in royalties given the film's enduring success. List of locations Reception Critical response The film received positive reviews, with a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 32 reviews. The consensus summarizes: "The Day of the Jackal is a meticulously constructed thriller with surprising irreverence and taut direction." Among those who praised the film was Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, who gave it his highest rating of four stars:"Fred Zinnemann’s The Day of the Jackal is one hell of an exciting movie. I wasn’t prepared for how good it really is: it’s not just a suspense classic, but a beautifully executed example of filmmaking. It’s put together like a fine watch. The screenplay meticulously assembles an incredible array of material, and then Zinnemann choreographs it so that the story—complicated as it is—unfolds in almost documentary starkness. The Day of the Jackal is two and a half hours long and seems over in about fifteen minutes."Ebert concluded: "Zinnemann has mastered every detail ... There are some words you hesitate to use in a review, because they sound so much like advertising copy, but in this case I can truthfully say that the movie is spellbinding." Ebert included the film at No. 7 on his list of the Top 10 films of the year for 1973. The Day of the Jackal and the resultant Academy Award nomination were career milestones for Kenneth Ross, the Scottish-American screenwriter. Critics were generally favorably impressed with the film. The paternity of the film is somewhat disputed. The screenplay faithfully adheres to the novel, even as the latter is uncredited in the film. “This is not a bad movie, it races by and entertains, after a fashion. It simply is not as good as it should have been.” The Time film critic appreciated the transition from novel to film: "The Day of the Jackal makes one appreciate anew the wonderful narrative efficiency of the movies. Frederick Forsyth's bestselling novel—essentially what mystery buffs call a police procedural, but blown up to international proportions—kept losing its basically simple story line in the forest of words. The writer required paragraphs to detail the procedures of an international man hunt, not to mention the procedures of the Jackal himself, a hired gun employed by disaffected French army officers to assassinate Charles de Gaulle. This is the kind of material that a good director can give us in the wink of a panning camera's eye.” Due to the masterful cinema and cutting skills of director Fred Zinnemann "what might have been just another expensive entertainment becomes, on a technical level, a textbook on reels in the near-forgotten subject of concise moviemaking. In short, as so often happens, a second-rate fiction has been transformed into a first-rate screen entertainment." Other critics were less effusive. For example: “Day Of The Jackal is not a great film, but it’s a damn good one, one of the very few films released this year that is worth all the trouble and expense of going out to the movies. ... give [director Zinnemann] a good yarn and he tells it without any personal intrusions and attention-getting tics. Jackal is an authentically detailed suspense story with ingenious twists. And you may be surprised, for director Fred (High Noon) Zinnemann and adapter Kenneth Ross have made a curiously depersonalized kind of suspense flick of Frederick Forsyth’s best seller. ..." The script highlights in a suspenseful way the conflict between a relentless “killer’s brain” and the stolid and relentless work of detectives on the hunt for an unknown and elusive quarry. MacLeans Magazine’s critic called it: “.. an authentically detailed suspense story with ingenious twists. “ The movie is an intricate and detailed maze, but is entertaining and never tedious. The interplay between director and author was favorably noted: "Author Frederick Forsyth struck gold right out of the gate with his first fictional work, the 1971 international bestseller The Day of the Jackal, and then had the good fortune to watch it transformed into a motion picture that (unlike too many page-to-screen efforts) steadfastly avoided botching the source material. A largely faithful adaptation of Forsyth’s novel, .... Fred Zinnemann, scripter Kenneth Ross, and editor Ralph Kemplen (earning this film’s sole Oscar nomination) all deserve high marks for ratcheting up the tension in a movie whose outcome is never in doubt (after all, de Gaulle died years later at home, at the age of 79)." Likewise, the film critic for The Spectator opined:"All of this the cinema is properly and effectively equipped to handle. Zinnemann, with the help of an excellent script from Kenneth Ross, has transferred the novel lock, stock, barrel and silencer to the screen. Nothing important has been left out. ..... [The script and the film conveys, the action, conflict, place and denouement. Making it a] “documentary thriller is that it leaves nothing to the imagination.' In other words, for those of you who have read the novel, going to The Day of the Jackal will be curiously like the experience of seeing the same film a second time round or seeing the filmed version of a stage play. For anyone who hasn't read Forsyth's book, the film can be recommended wholeheartedly." The scrupulously researched “pulp thriller” provided “ the perfect template for this exhaustive procedural. In many ways, this outstanding piece of filmmaking marks the apotheosis of a certain style of thriller that has since fallen out of fashion—the mind game. [It is] “Built with the minutiae of a Swiss watch”, without blandishments. The linear plot “is made infinitely complex by the portrayal of this empty vessel of a killer by Fox. ...” An irresistible force is pitted against an immovable object—a conflict facilitated by the script. There is an intricate story “with a parallel structure that details the Jackal's preparations for the assassination” and the prophylactic efforts of the detectives. The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited this movie as one of his 100 favorite films. Box office The film grossed $16,056,255 at the box office earning North American rentals of $8,525,000. Zinnemann was pleased with the film's reception at the box office, telling an interviewer in 1993: "The idea that excited me was to make a suspense film where everybody knew the end - that de Gaulle was not killed. In spite of knowing the end, would the audience sit still? And it turned out that they did, just as the readers of the book did." Awards and nominations Remakes August 1 (1988) - An Indian Malayalam-language film directed by Sibi Malayil, written by S. N. Swamy, and starring Mammootty, Sukumaran, Captain Raju and Urvashi. This adaptation relocates the story to the Indian state of Kerala. The Jackal (1997) - An American film directed by Michael Caton-Jones, written by Chuck Pfarrer, and starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora. Forsyth, Woolf, Zinnemann and Fox opposed the production and filed an injunction to prevent Universal Pictures from using the name of the original novel and film, and it would be marketed as being "inspired by" rather than directly based on Forsyth's novel. The film does not credit Forsyth's novel as source material, and only credits Kenneth Ross with "earlier screenplay." The Day of the Jackal (2024) - A British television drama serial adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth novel of the same name. It is set to star Eddie Redmayne, and be produced by Ronan Bennett and directed by Brian Kirk. See also BFI Top 100 British films References Notes Citations External links The Day of the Jackal at IMDb The Day of the Jackal at the TCM Movie Database The Day of the Jackal at AllMovie The Day of the Jackal at Rotten Tomatoes

Edward_Fox_(actor)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fox_(actor)

Edward Charles Morice Fox (born 13 April 1937) is an English actor and a member of the Fox family. Fox starred in the film The Day of the Jackal (1973), playing the part of a professional assassin, known only as the "Jackal", who is hired to assassinate the French president Charles de Gaulle in the summer of 1963. Fox is also known for his roles in Battle of Britain (1969), The Go-Between (1971), for which he won a BAFTA award, and The Bounty (1984). He also collaborated with director Richard Attenborough, appearing in his films Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Gandhi (1982). Fox portrayed Edward VIII in the British television drama series Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978) and appeared in the historical series Taboo (2017). In addition to film and television work, Fox has received acclaim as a stage actor. Early life and education Fox was born the first of three sons on 13 April 1937 in Chelsea, London, the son of Robin Fox, a theatrical agent, and Angela Muriel Darita Worthington, an actress and writer. He is the father of actors Emilia Fox and Freddie Fox, the elder brother of actor James Fox and film producer Robert Fox, and an uncle of actor Laurence Fox. His paternal great-grandfather was industrialist and inventor Samson Fox, and his paternal grandmother was Hilda Hanbury, sister of stage performer Lily Hanbury. His maternal grandfather was dramatist Frederick Lonsdale, and his maternal grandmother was the daughter of football player and stockbroker Charles Morice. Fox was educated at Harrow School and completed his National Service in the Loyals, having failed to gain a commission in the Coldstream Guards. Career Fox made his theatrical debut in 1958, and his first film appearance was as an extra in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962). He also had a non-speaking part as a waiter in This Sporting Life (1963). Throughout the 1960s he worked mostly on stage, including a turn as Hamlet. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he established himself with roles in major British films, including Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Battle of Britain (1969) and The Go-Between (1971). In The Go-Between, he played the part of Lord Hugh Trimingham, for which he won a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actor. His acting ability also brought him to the attention of director Fred Zinnemann, who was looking for an actor who was not well-known and could be believable as the assassin in the film The Day of the Jackal (1973). Fox won the role, beating other contenders such as Roger Moore and Michael Caine. From then on he was much sought after, appearing in such films as A Bridge Too Far (1977) as Lieutenant General Horrocks, a role he has cited as a personal favourite, and for which he won the Best Supporting Actor award at the British Academy Film Awards. He also starred in Force 10 from Navarone (1978), with Robert Shaw and Harrison Ford. In 1990, he appeared as a contestant on Cluedo, facing off against fellow actor Joanna David. He portrayed King Edward VIII in the television drama Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978). In the film Gandhi (1982), Fox portrayed Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, who was responsible for the Amritsar massacre in India. He then appeared as M in the unofficial Bond film Never Say Never Again (1983), a remake of Thunderball (1965). He also appeared in The Bounty (1984) and Wild Geese II (1985), both opposite Laurence Olivier, and in The Importance of Being Earnest (2002), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), and Stage Beauty (2004). Later stage work Fox consolidated his reputation with regular appearances on stage in London's West End. He was seen in Four Quartets, a set of four poems by T. S. Eliot, accompanied by the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Christine Croshaw. In 2010, Fox performed a one-man show, An Evening with Anthony Trollope, directed by Richard Digby Day. In 2013, he replaced Robert Hardy in the role of Winston Churchill in the premiere of The Audience, after Hardy had to withdraw for health reasons. In 2018, he appeared with his son Freddie Fox in an adaption of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. Awards For his role as Viscount Trimingham in The Go-Between (1971), he won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the following year's British Academy Film Awards. He won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the British Academy Film Awards a second time for his role as Lieutenant General Horrocks in A Bridge Too Far (1977). Honours Fox was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to Drama in the 2003 New Year Honours. Personal life From 1958 until their 1961 divorce, Fox was married to actress Tracy Reed with whom he has a daughter, Lucy Arabella (born 1960), who became the Viscountess Gormanston upon her marriage to Nicholas Preston, Viscount Gormanston. In 1971, he began a relationship with actress Joanna David; they married in July 2004. They have two children together, actors Emilia (born 1974) and Frederick "Freddie" (born 1989). He has two grandchildren through his daughters: Harry Grenfell from Lucy's marriage to David Grenfell, and Rose Gilley from Emilia's relationship with actor Jeremy Gilley. Fox has residences in London and Wareham, Dorset. Views and advocacy Fox spoke at the conference for the Referendum Party ahead of the 1997 general election and was a friend of its leader James Goldsmith. He has also been a patron of the UK Independence Party. In 2002, Fox joined the Countryside March to support hunting rights in the UK. He supported the restoration of the Royal Hall, Harrogate, funded by his great-grandfather Samson Fox. In 2010, Fox gave his support to a local campaign to prevent a supermarket being built close to his home in Dorset, citing the impact it would have upon small and independent businesses in the area. He chronicled the events in an article for The Daily Telegraph. Fox also endorsed the successful "Leave" vote campaign ahead of the referendum to leave the European Union. Filmography Selected theatre performances Harry, Lord Monchensey in The Family Reunion by T S Eliot. Directed by Michael Elliott at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. 1979) Captain in The Dance of Death by August Strindberg. Directed by Kenneth MacMillan at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. (1983) Crichton in The Admirable Crichton by J.M.Barrie at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London. (1989) Other projects and contributions When Love Speaks (2002, EMI Classics) – William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 140" ("Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press"), a compilation album that features interpretations of Shakespeare's sonnets and excerpts from his plays by famous actors and musicians. References External links Edward Fox at IMDb

Roger_Moore

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

Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 1927 – 23 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions/MGM Studios film series, playing the character in seven feature films: Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), and A View to a Kill (1985). Moore's seven appearances as Bond are the most of any actor in the Eon-produced entries. On television, Moore played the lead role of Simon Templar, the title character in the British mystery thriller series The Saint (1962–1969). He also had roles in American series, including Beau Maverick on the Western Maverick (1960–1961), in which he replaced James Garner as the lead, and a co-lead, with Tony Curtis, in the action-comedy The Persuaders! (1971–1972). Continuing to act on screen in the decades after his retirement from the Bond franchise, Moore's final appearance was in a pilot for a new Saint series that became a 2017 television film. Moore was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for services to charity. In 2007, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry. He was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2008. Early life Roger George Moore was born on 14 October 1927 in Stockwell, London. He was the only child of George Alfred Moore (1904–1997), a policeman based in Bow Street, London, and Lillian "Lily" Pope (1904–1986). His mother was born in Calcutta, India, to an English family. He attended Battersea Grammar School, but was evacuated to Holsworthy in Devon during the Second World War, and attended Launceston College in Cornwall. He was further educated at Dr Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. Moore was apprenticed to an animation studio, but he was fired after he made a mistake with some animation cels. When his father investigated a robbery at the home of film director Brian Desmond Hurst, Moore was introduced to the director and hired as an extra for the 1945 film Caesar and Cleopatra. While there, Moore attracted an off-camera female fan following, and Hurst decided to pay Moore's fees at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Moore spent three terms at RADA, where he was a classmate of his future Bond co-star Lois Maxwell, the original Miss Moneypenny. During his time there, he developed the Mid-Atlantic accent and relaxed demeanour that became his screen persona. At 18, shortly after the end of the Second World War, Moore was conscripted for national service. On 21 September 1946, he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps as a second lieutenant. He was an officer in the Combined Services Entertainment section, eventually becoming a captain commanding a small depot in West Germany, where he looked after entertainers for the armed forces passing through Hamburg. Career Early work (1945–1953) Moore made his professional debut in Alexander Korda's Perfect Strangers (1945) alongside actors Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr, and Glynis Johns. Other early uncredited appearances include Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), Gaiety George, Piccadilly Incident (both 1946), and Trottie True (1949), in which he appeared alongside an uncredited Christopher Lee (both actors being cast by Brian Desmond Hurst as stage-door Johnnies). In his book Last Man Standing: Tales from Tinseltown, Moore states that his first television appearance was on 27 March 1949 in The Governess by Patrick Hamilton, a live broadcast (as usual in that era), in which he played the minor part of Bob Drew. Other actors in the show included Clive Morton and Betty Ann Davies. He had uncredited parts in films including Paper Orchid and The Interrupted Journey (both 1949). He was in Drawing-Room Detective on TV and appeared in the films One Wild Oat and Honeymoon Deferred (both 1951). In the early 1950s Moore worked as a model, appearing in print advertisements in the UK for knitwear (earning him the nickname "The Big Knit") and a wide range of other products such as toothpaste. Moore travelled to the United States and began to work in television. He appeared in adaptations of Julius Caesar and Black Chiffon, and in two episodes of Robert Montgomery Presents, as well as the TV movie The Clay of Kings (all 1953). MGM (1954–1956) In March 1954, MGM signed Moore to a seven-year contract. He started his MGM contract with a small role in The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), flirting with Elizabeth Taylor. He appeared in Interrupted Melody, a biographical movie about opera singer Marjorie Lawrence's recovery from polio, in which he was billed third under Glenn Ford and Eleanor Parker as Lawrence's brother Cyril. That same year, he played a supporting role in the swashbuckler The King's Thief starring Ann Blyth, Edmund Purdom, David Niven and George Sanders. In the 1956 film Diane, Moore was billed third again, this time under Lana Turner and Pedro Armendariz, in a 16th-century period piece set in France with Moore playing Prince Henri, the future king. Moore was released from his MGM contract after two years following the film's critical and commercial failure. In his own words, "At MGM, RGM [Roger George Moore] was NBG [no bloody good]." Moore then freelanced for a time, appearing in episodes of Ford Star Jubilee (1956), Lux Video Theatre (1957) and Matinee Theatre (1957). Ivanhoe (1958–1959) Moore's first success was playing the eponymous hero, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, in the 1958–59 series Ivanhoe, a loose adaptation of the 1819 romantic novel by Sir Walter Scott set in the 12th century during the era of Richard the Lionheart, delving into Ivanhoe's conflict with Prince John. Shot mainly in England at Elstree Studios and Buckinghamshire, some of the show was also filmed in California owing to a partnership with Columbia Studios' Screen Gems. Aimed at younger audiences, the pilot was filmed in colour, a reflection of its comparatively high budget for a British children's adventure series of the period, but subsequent episodes were shot in black and white. Christopher Lee and John Schlesinger were among the show's guest stars, and series regulars included Robert Brown (who in the 1980s played M in several James Bond films) as the squire Gurth, Peter Gilmore as Waldo Ivanhoe, Andrew Keir as villainous Prince John, and Bruce Seton as noble King Richard. Moore suffered broken ribs and a battle-axe blow to his helmet while performing some of his own stunts filming a season of 39 half-hour episodes, and later reminisced, "I felt a complete Charlie riding around in all that armour and damned stupid plumed helmet. I felt like a medieval fireman." Warner Bros. (1959–1961) After that, Moore spent a few years mainly doing one-shot parts in television series, including an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1959 titled "The Avon Emeralds". He signed another long-term contract to a studio, this time to Warner Bros. In 1959, he took the lead role in The Miracle, a version of the play Das Mirakel for Warner Bros. showcasing Carroll Baker as a nun. The part had been turned down by Dirk Bogarde. That same year, Moore was directed by Arthur Hiller in "The Angry Young Man", an episode of the television series The Third Man starring Michael Rennie as criminal mastermind Harry Lime, the role portrayed by Orson Welles in the film version. The Alaskans (1959–1960) Moore's next television series involved playing the lead as "Silky" Harris for the ABC/Warner Bros. 1959–60 Western The Alaskans, with co-stars Dorothy Provine as Rocky, Jeff York as Reno, and Ray Danton as Nifty. The show ran for a single season of 37 hour-long episodes on Sunday nights. Though set in Skagway, Alaska, with a focus on the Klondike Gold Rush around 1896, the series was filmed in the hot studio lot at Warner Bros. in Hollywood with the cast costumed in fur coats and hats. Moore found the work highly taxing, and his off-camera affair with Provine complicated matters even more. Moore later referred to the experience as his "most appalling television series." He subsequently appeared as the questionable character "14 Karat John" in the two-part episode "Right Off the Boat" of the ABC/WB crime drama The Roaring 20s—alongside Rex Reason, John Dehner, Gary Vinson, and Dorothy Provine—appearing in a similar role but with a different character name. Maverick (1960–1961) In the wake of The Alaskans, Moore was cast as Beau Maverick, an English-accented cousin of frontier gamblers Bret Maverick (James Garner), Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly), and Brent Maverick (Robert Colbert) in the much more successful ABC/WB Western series Maverick. Moore appeared as the character in 14 episodes after Garner had left the series at the end of the previous season, wearing some of Garner's costumes; while filming The Alaskans, he had already recited much of Garner's dialogue, for the Alaskan series frequently recycled Maverick scripts, changing only the names and locales. He had also filmed a Maverick episode with Garner two seasons earlier, in which Moore played a different character, in a retooling of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 comedy of manners play The Rivals. In the course of the story, Moore and Garner's characters switched names on a bet, with Moore consequently identifying himself as "Bret Maverick" through most of the episode. Moore's debut as Beau Maverick occurred in the first episode of the 1960–61 fourth season, "The Bundle from Britain", one of four episodes in which he shared screen time with cousin Bart (Jack Kelly). Robert Altman wrote and directed "Bolt from the Blue", an episode featuring Will Hutchins as a frontier lawyer similar to his character in the series Sugarfoot, and "Red Dog" found Beau mixed up with vicious bank robbers Lee Van Cleef and John Carradine. Kathleen Crowley was Moore's leading lady in two episodes ("Bullet for the Teacher" and "Kiz"), and others included Mala Powers, Roxane Berard, Fay Spain, Merry Anders, Andra Martin, and Jeanne Cooper. Upon leaving the series, Moore cited a decline in script quality since the Garner era as the key factor in his decision to depart; ratings for the show were also down. Moore was originally slated to appear with both Jack Kelly and Robert Colbert in the series but by the time Colbert starred in his first episode, Moore had already left the series. Numerous early publicity stills of Kelly, Moore and Colbert posing together exist, however. Moore was still under contract with Warners, who cast him in The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961), making love to a nun played by Angie Dickinson, and Gold of the Seven Saints (1961), supporting Clint Walker. He also went to Italy to make the adventure comedy Romulus and the Sabines (1961). The Saint (1962–1969) Lew Grade cast Moore as Simon Templar in a new adaptation of The Saint, based on the novels by Leslie Charteris. Moore said in an interview in 1963 that he wanted to buy the rights to Leslie Charteris's character and the trademarks. The television series was broadcast by ITV in the UK between 1962 and 1969, and its overseas success made Moore a household name. After the strong performance in the US of the first two series in first-run syndication, NBC picked up the show in 1966. By early 1967, Moore had achieved international stardom. The series established his suave, quipping style which he carried forward to James Bond, and it also saw him exhibit his trademark raised eyebrow. Francis Blagburn in The Telegraph writes, The raised eyebrow is perhaps the hardest facial gesture to perfect in the gentleman's arsenal. Get it right and you give the impression of someone who is in total control; get it wrong and you look like, well, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson (and no one wants that). Sir Roger wrote the book in how to raise an eyebrow... as Simon Templar, he coolly infers [sic] that he knows, and he knows that you know that he knows. The Saint ran from 1962 for six seasons and 118 episodes. Moore went on to direct nine episodes of the later series, which moved into colour in 1967. Several episodes were edited together to form two films, The Saint and the Fiction Makers (1968) and Vendetta for the Saint (1969). Post-Saint films and The Persuaders! (1969–1972) He made two films immediately after the series ended: Crossplot (1969), a lightweight 'spy caper' movie, and the more challenging The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970). Directed by Basil Dearden, it gave Moore the opportunity to demonstrate greater versatility than the role of Simon Templar had allowed. In 2004, Moore said of The Man Who Haunted Himself: "It was one of the few times I was allowed to act... Many say my best role was in The Man Who Haunted Himself. Being a modest actor, I won't disagree." Lew Grade lured Moore to star alongside Tony Curtis in The Persuaders!. The show featured the adventures of two millionaire playboys across Europe. Moore was paid the then-unheard-of sum of £1 million for a single series, making him the highest-paid television actor in the world. Lew Grade claimed in his autobiography, Still Dancing, that Moore and Curtis "didn't hit it off all that well". Curtis refused to spend more time on set than was strictly necessary, while Moore was always willing to work overtime. According to the DVD commentary, neither Roger Moore, an uncredited co-producer, nor Robert S. Baker, the credited producer, ever had a contract other than a handshake with Lew Grade. Despite its focus on the UK and US markets, The Persuaders! became more successful in other international markets. On its premiere on the ITV network, it was beaten in the ratings by repeats of Monty Python's Flying Circus on BBC One. It did however place in the Top 20 most-viewed television series in the UK throughout 1971. The lack of success in the US, where it had been sold to ABC, Curtis put down to its showing at the Saturday 10pm slot, but it was successful in continental Europe and Australia. In Germany, where the series was aired under the name Die Zwei ("The Two"), it became a hit through especially amusing dubbing which only barely used translations of the original dialogue. James Bond era (1973–1985) Moore as Bond Moore's Bond was very different from the version created by Ian Fleming and the one portrayed by Connery. Screenwriters such as George MacDonald Fraser provided scenarios in which Moore was cast as a seasoned, debonair playboy who would always have a trick or gadget in stock when he needed it. This was designed to serve the contemporary taste of the 1970s. Moore's version of Bond was also known for his sense of humour and witty one liners as Moore himself said, "My personality is different from previous Bonds. I'm not that cold-blooded-killer type. Which is why I play it mostly for laughs." Live and Let Die (1973) Due to his commitment to several television shows, in particular The Saint, Roger Moore was unavailable for the James Bond films for a considerable time. His participation in The Saint was as actor, producer, and director, and he also became involved in developing the series The Persuaders!. In 1964, he made a guest appearance as James Bond in the comedy series Mainly Millicent. Moore stated in his autobiography My Word Is My Bond (2008) that he had neither been approached to play the character in Dr. No, nor did he feel that he had ever been considered. Only after Sean Connery had declared in 1966 that he would not play Bond any longer did Moore become aware that he might be a contender for the role. After George Lazenby was cast in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Connery was enticed back to the role of Bond again for Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Moore did not consider the possibility until it seemed clear that Connery had stepped down as Bond for good. At that point, Moore was approached, and he accepted producer Albert Broccoli's offer in August 1972. In his autobiography, Moore writes that he had to cut his hair and lose weight for the role. Although he resented having to make those changes, he was finally cast as James Bond in Live and Let Die (1973). Moore then made Gold (1974), based on a novel by Wilbur Smith for producer Michael Klinger and director Peter R. Hunt. He was paid US$200,000 plus a percentage of the profits. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) Moore made his second Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), which was a hit, though less successful than Live and Let Die. It featured Christopher Lee as the main antagonist. Also appearing are Britt Ekland, Herve Villechaize, and Maud Adams. He then made a comedy That Lucky Touch (1975) which was a box office disaster. Moore made an Italian-shot action film Street People (1976), then went back to South Africa for another Klinger-Hunt movie from a Wilbur Smith novel, Shout at the Devil (1976), which was successful in Britain, though less so in the US. Lee Marvin was a main cast member. Ian Holm was also featured, as well as Barbara Parkins. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Moore returned for a third outing as Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), which was a massive box-office success. It also starred Barbara Bach and Richard Kiel in his first appearance as the villain Jaws. He returned to South Africa for a third action movie shot there, The Wild Geese (1978), produced by Euan Lloyd and directed by Andrew V. McLaglen. It was a sizeable hit in Britain and Europe but, like Shout at the Devil, less so in the US. The cast featured Richard Burton, who had top billing, and Richard Harris. Moore played the lead in Escape to Athena (1979) partly financed by Lew Grade. It was a heist adventure set in war-time Greece, and stars Telly Savalas and David Niven, and features mostly American character actors, including Elliott Gould, Stefanie Powers, Richard Roundtree, Sonny Bono, and Italian actress Claudia Cardinale. Roger Moore (with top billing) plays a charming former Austrian antiquities dealer turned crooked camp commandant, asked to guard Greek antiquities desired by the Third Reich, and also guard the collection of archaeologists who are being forced to work to find and recover these objects, but he has other plans for the treasure he guards and for the people under his watch. Moonraker (1979) Moore followed the success of his fourth outing as Bond, Moonraker (1979), with an action film, North Sea Hijack (1980), also known as ffolkes. Moore played a very un-Bond-like hero, opposite Anthony Perkins. The film was a box-office disappointment. Better received was The Sea Wolves (1980), another World War Two adventure which reunited many of the crew from The Wild Geese including Euan Lloyd and McLaglen. It was based on the true story of a March 1943 event in British India and Portuguese Goa, in which a group of retired members of the Calcutta Light Horse, colonelled by David Niven's character, assist regular British Army operatives, played by Moore and Gregory Peck, in destroying German ships in neutral Mormugao harbour, all the time surrounded by German spies and Indian nationalist intrigue. Trevor Howard, Patrick Macnee, and Barbara Kellerman also co-star, with a who's-who lineup of British character actors. Moore was in two all-star comedies: Sunday Lovers (1980), which flopped at the box office, and The Cannonball Run (1981), which was a hit. The latter featured an ensemble cast, including Jackie Chan, Burt Reynolds, Dean Martin, Dom DeLuise, Sammy Davis Jr, and Farrah Fawcett. For Your Eyes Only (1981) Moore returned for his fifth outing as Bond in For Your Eyes Only (1981). Octopussy (1983) Following the film For Your Eyes Only, Moore expressed a desire to leave the role, and other actors were screen tested including James Brolin, but Moore was eventually enticed back for Octopussy (1983). The circumstances around Octopussy's release were highly unusual in that another James Bond film was being released in the same year. Spearheaded by Thunderball producer Kevin McClory (who retained film rights to the property because the antecedent 1961 Ian Fleming novel was based on an unfilmed 1959 screenplay produced under the aegis of McClory, Jack Whittingham and Fleming), the non-Eon production Never Say Never Again featured his predecessor Sean Connery returning to the role of Bond. Although tantamount to a loose remake of Thunderball, it was not set in the continuity of the previous Eon Bond films. This led to the media dubbing the one-time situation the "Battle of the Bonds". He made a cameo as Chief Inspector Clouseau, posing as a famous movie star, in Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) (for which he was credited as "Turk Thrust II"). Then he tried a thriller The Naked Face (1984), written and directed by Bryan Forbes. A View to a Kill (1985) Moore starred in his final Bond film, A View to a Kill (1985). He was the oldest actor to have played Bond – he was 45 in Live and Let Die, and 58 when he announced his retirement on 3 December 1985, having played the part for over 12 years. With 7 films Moore holds the record for playing Bond the most times in the Eon series but is tied with Sean Connery in number of times playing Bond when counting Connery's non-Eon appearance in Never Say Never Again (1983). In 1987, he hosted Happy Anniversary 007: 25 Years of James Bond. Post-James Bond career (1986–2017) Moore did not act on screen for five years after he stopped playing Bond; in 1990, he appeared in several films and in the writer-director Michael Feeney Callan's television series My Riviera and starred in the film Bed & Breakfast which was shot in 1989; and also had a large role in the 1996 film The Quest; in 1997, he starred as the Chief in Spice World. At the age of 73, he played a flamboyant homosexual man in Boat Trip (2002) with Cuba Gooding Jr. The British satirical puppet show Spitting Image had a sketch in which their latex likeness of Moore, when asked to display emotions by an offscreen director, did nothing but raise an eyebrow; Moore himself stated that he thought the sketch was funny and took it in good humour. Indeed, he had always embraced the "eyebrows" gag wholeheartedly, and quipped that he "only had three expressions as Bond: right eyebrow raised, left eyebrow raised, and eyebrows crossed when grabbed by Jaws". Spitting Image continued the joke, featuring a Bond film spoof, The Man with the Wooden Delivery, with Moore's puppet receiving orders from Margaret Thatcher to kill Mikhail Gorbachev. Other comedy shows at that time ridiculed Moore's acting, with Rory Bremner once claiming to have had a death threat from one of his irate fans following one such routine. In a nod to his 1960s TV show, Moore had a vocal cameo in The Saint (1997) as a radio newsreader as Simon Templar drives away at the end of the film. In the year 2000, he played the role of a secret agent in the Christmas special Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings, shown on BBC One on Christmas Day. Filming all his scenes in the London Eye, his mission was to eliminate another agent whose file photo looks like Pierce Brosnan. In 2002 he had a small cameo role in the German police procedural series Tatort (episode 506: "Schatten" – "Shadow", 28 July 2002) as himself signing an autograph on a Unicef card. In the 1981 film The Cannonball Run, Moore played Seymour Goldfarb, a parody of both himself and James Bond, driving an Aston Martin DB5. In support of his charitable work for UNICEF, Moore lent his voice to the character of the magic snowman, Lumi Ukko, for a 1990 feature film produced by Pavlina Ltd/FIT. The film is UNICEF-endorsed and is dedicated to the "world’s children". A recently published audio book entitled, The Magic Snowman and The Rusty Ice Skates features his voice. His daughter, actress Deborah More, narrated the book in honor of her father’s legacy and his work for UNICEF. 20 percent of the book’s proceeds are pledged to the organization. In 2009, Moore appeared in an advertisement for the Post Office. In 2010, he provided the voice of a talking cat called Lazenby in the film Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore which contained several references to, and parodies of, Bond films. In 2011, he co-starred in the film A Princess for Christmas with Katie McGrath and Sam Heughan, and in 2012, he took to the stage for a series of seven 'Evenings with' in UK theatres and, in November, guest-hosted Have I Got News for You. A slightly thinner-faced Moore contributed to a charity song in 2017. His last on-screen performance was in 2017, a brief appearance near the end of the remake of The Saint. In 2015, Moore was named one of GQ's 50 best-dressed British men. In 2015, he read Hans Christian Andersen's "The Princess and the Pea" for the children's fairy tales app GivingTales in aid of UNICEF with other British celebrities, including Michael Caine, Ewan McGregor, Joan Collins, Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, David Walliams, Charlotte Rampling, Paul McKenna, and Michael Ball. Humanitarian work Moore's friend Audrey Hepburn had impressed him with her work for UNICEF, and consequently he became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in August 1991. His character, Simon Templar, made a pitch for UNICEF near the end of "The Revolution Racket", airing 5 November 1964. He was the voice of Father Christmas or 'Santa' in the 2004 UNICEF cartoon The Fly Who Loved Me. Personal life Doorn Van Steyn In 1946, aged 18, Moore married a fellow RADA student, the actress and ice skater Doorn Van Steyn (born Lucy Woodard), who was six years his senior; Moore and Van Steyn lived in Streatham with her family, but tension over money matters and her lack of confidence in his acting ability took their toll on the relationship, during which he allegedly suffered domestic abuse. Dorothy Squires In 1952, Moore met the Welsh singer Dorothy Squires, who was 12 years his senior, and Van Steyn and Moore divorced the following year. Squires and Moore were married in New York. They lived in Bexley, Kent, after their wedding. They moved to the United States in 1954 to develop their careers, but tension developed in their marriage due to their age difference and Moore's infatuation with starlet Dorothy Provine, and they moved back to the United Kingdom in 1961, where they resided in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham. Squires suffered a series of miscarriages during their marriage, and Moore later said the outcome of their marriage might have been different if they had been able to have children. During their tempestuous relationship Squires smashed a guitar over his head, and after learning of his affair with the Italian actress Luisa Mattioli, who became Moore's third wife, Moore said, "She threw a brick through my window. She reached through the glass and grabbed my shirt and she cut her arms doing it...The police came and they said, 'Madam, you're bleeding' and she said, 'It's my heart that's bleeding'." Squires intercepted letters from Mattioli to Moore and planned to include them in her autobiography, but the couple won injunctions against the publication in 1977, which led Squires to unsuccessfully sue them for loss of earnings. The numerous legal cases launched by Squires led her to be declared a vexatious litigant in 1987. Moore paid Squires's hospital bills after her cancer treatment in 1996; she died in 1998. Luisa Mattioli In 1961, while filming The Rape of the Sabine Women in Italy, Moore left Squires for the Italian actress Luisa Mattioli. Squires refused to accept their separation, and sued Moore for loss of conjugal rights, but Moore refused the court's order to return to Squires in 28 days. Squires also smashed windows at a house in France where Moore and Mattioli were living, and unsuccessfully sued actor Kenneth More for libel, as Kenneth More had introduced Moore and Mattioli at a charity event as "Mr Roger Moore and his wife". Moore and Mattioli lived together until 1969, when Squires finally granted him a divorce, after they had been separated for seven years. At Moore's and Mattioli's marriage in April 1969 at the Caxton Hall in Westminster, London, a crowd of 600 people was outside, with women screaming his name. Moore had three children with Mattioli: actress-daughter Deborah (b. 27 October 1963) and two sons, Geoffrey (b. 28 July 1966) and Christian (b. 23 August 1973). Geoffrey is also an actor, and appeared alongside his father in the films Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976) and Fire, Ice and Dynamite (1990). In later life, he co-founded Hush Restaurant in Mayfair, London, with Jamie Barber, and would release a single in 2023 under the name Jaffa Moore called "You and I" which featured vocals from the late Glee actor Naya Rivera and included host of stars in the music video miming along to the song. Geoffrey and his wife Loulou have two daughters. Moore's younger son, Christian, is a film producer and has four children: a daughter from his first marriage to Heidi Moore, and two sons and a daughter from his second marriage to Lara Sidawi. Kristina "Kiki" Tholstrup Moore and Mattioli separated in 1993 after Moore developed feelings for a Swedish-born Danish socialite, Kristina "Kiki" Tholstrup. Moore later described his prostate cancer diagnosis in 1993 as "life-changing", which led him to reassess his life and marriage. Mattioli and Tholstrup had long been friends, but Mattioli was scathing of her in the book she subsequently wrote about her relationship with Moore, Nothing Lasts Forever, describing how she felt betrayed by Tholstrup and discarded by Moore. Moore remained silent on his divorce from Mattioli, later saying that he did not wish to hurt his children by "engaging in a war of words". Moore's children refused to speak to him for a period after the divorce, but they were later reconciled with their father. Mattioli refused to grant Moore a divorce until 2000, when a £10 million settlement was agreed. Moore subsequently married Tholstrup in 2002. Moore said that he loved Tholstrup as she was "organised", "serene", "loving", and "calm", saying, "I have a difficult life. I rely on Kristina totally. When we are travelling for my job, she is the one who packs. Kristina takes care of all that". Moore also said that his marriage to Tholstrup was "a tranquil relationship, there are no arguments". Tholstrup had two children, Hans-Christian Knudsen Jr. and Christina Knudsen, from a previous marriage; Christina described her stepfather as a positive influence, saying, "I was in difficult relationships but that all changed" when her mother met Moore. Christina Knudsen died from cancer on 25 July 2016, at the age of 47; Moore posted on Twitter, "We are heartbroken" and "We were all with her, surrounding her with love, at the end". Political views On politics, Moore stated he was a conservative and thought that conservatism is the way to run a country. He was described as a "lifelong" supporter of the Conservative Party and endorsed the party during the 2001 UK general election. However, Moore also expressed a reluctance to be seen as an overtly political figure and felt his work with UNICEF meant that he could not involve himself directly in politics. In 2011, Moore expressed his support to Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron regarding his policy on the European Union, stating: "I think he's doing absolutely wonderfully well, despite the opposition from many members of his own party. Traitors, I call them. I mean any hardliner within the Conservative Party who speaks out against their leader. You should support your leader." Moore also expressed support for Britain keeping the pound sterling as its national currency and was glad the British government had not joined the single EU currency, stating: "I would have been very upset if we'd had to take the Queen off our currency. They'd probably have to take her off the stamps and everything. I am British and I'm fiercely independent. And I think we should be independent, as Sean Connery is about Scotland." In 2015, Moore criticised what he regarded as excessive political correctness within the film industry and felt that rewriting James Bond's sexuality, gender or ethnicity would be a mistake, arguing "it is not about being homophobic or, for that matter, racist – it is simply about being true to the character." Despite his conservative politics, Moore retained membership of the entertainment and media trade union BECTU (now part of Prospect) until his death, having joined as an apprentice animation technician before his acting career took off. At his death, he was the union's longest-tenured member. In 2007, Moore also voiced his support to workers from the Cadbury chocolate factory at Keynsham who were protesting against the plant's closure. Tax exile Moore became a tax exile from the United Kingdom in 1978, originally to Switzerland, and divided his year between his four homes: an apartment in Monte Carlo, a holiday house in the coastal Tuscan town of Castiglione della Pescaia, a chalet in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, and a home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. Moore became a resident of Monaco, having been appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of Monaco by Prince Albert II for his efforts in internationally promoting and publicising the principality. Moore was scathing of the Russian population in Monaco, saying, "I'm afraid we're overstuffed with Russians. All the restaurant menus are in Russian now." Moore was vocal in his defence of his tax exile status, saying that in the 1970s, with taxes levied on top earners under the Labour government of James Callaghan, he had been urged by his "accountants, agents, and lawyers" to move abroad because, "At that point we were taxed up to 98% on unearned income, so you would never be able to save enough to ensure that you had any sort of livelihood if you didn't work." Moore said in 2011 that his decision to live abroad was "not about tax. That's a serious part of it. I come back to England often enough not to miss it, to see the changes, to find some of the changes good...I paid my taxes at the time that I was earning a decent income, so I've paid my due". Illness and death Moore had a series of diseases during his childhood, including chickenpox, measles, mumps, double pneumonia and jaundice, and had his appendix, tonsils, and adenoids removed. Moore was a long-term sufferer of kidney stones and as a result was briefly hospitalised during the making of Live and Let Die in 1973 and again whilst filming the 1979 film Moonraker. In 1993, Moore was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent successful treatment for the disease. In 2003, Moore collapsed on stage while appearing on Broadway, and was fitted with a pacemaker to treat a potentially deadly slow heartbeat. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2013. Some years before his final cancer illness, a tumour spot was found in his liver. Then, in 2017, during the period that he was treated for cancer, he fell, badly injuring his collarbone. Moore died in the presence of his family at his home in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on 23 May 2017, from cancers of the lung and liver. Former 007 actors Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig paid tribute to Moore. Moore is buried in Monaco Cemetery. Royal circles Moore had friendships with some of Denmark's royal family; Prince Joachim and his then-wife Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, invited Moore and his wife Kiki to attend the christening of their youngest son, Prince Felix. In 2004 he attended the Wedding of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, and Mary Donaldson. On 24 May 2008, Moore and his wife attended the wedding of Prince Joachim to his French fiancée Marie Cavallier. Moore also had a long-standing friendship with Princess Lilian of Sweden, whom he first met on a visit to Stockholm for UNICEF. Moore's wife Kristina, who was born in Sweden, was already a friend of Princess Lilian's through mutual friends. In his autobiography, Moore recalled meeting the princess for tea and dinners whenever his wife and he visited Stockholm. He spoke of his recollections at the princess's memorial service at St Peter and St Sigfrid's Church in Stockholm, on 8 September 2013. On 1 and 2 July 2011, Moore and his wife attended the wedding of Albert II, Prince of Monaco and Charlene Wittstock. Awards and legacy Moore was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1999 New Year Honours and was promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 2003 Birthday Honours for charitable services, especially UNICEF and latterly Kiwanis International, which had dominated his public life for more than a decade. On being knighted, Moore said that the citation "meant far more to me than if I had got it for acting... I was proud because I received it on behalf of UNICEF as a whole and for all it has achieved over the years". On 11 October 2007, three days before he turned 80, Moore was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work on television and in film. Attending the ceremony were family, friends, and Richard Kiel, with whom he had acted in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Moore's star was the 2,350th star installed, and is appropriately located at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard. On 28 October 2008, the French government appointed Moore a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. On 21 November 2012, Moore was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Hertfordshire for his outstanding contributions to the UK film and television industry for over 50 years, in particular film and television productions in Hertfordshire. After his death, the Roger Moore Stage was opened at Pinewood Studios at a ceremony held in October 2017 to celebrate his life and work. His wife and family were in attendance along with Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and guests at the event included Joan Collins, Michael Caine, Stephen Fry, Tim Rice and Stefanie Powers. In the 2018 film My Dinner with Hervé, Moore was portrayed by actor Mark Umbers. For his charity work 2012: UNICEF's UK Lifetime Achievement Award 2007: Dag Hammarskjöld Inspiration Award (UNICEF) 2004: UNICEF's Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award 2003: German Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) for his UNICEF work: 275  2003: Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) 1999: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) Lifetime achievements awards 2008: Commander of the French National Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre national des Arts et des Lettres) 2007: Hollywood Walk of Fame 2004: TELEKAMERA ("Tele Tydzień" Lifetime Achievement Award, Poland) 2002: Monte Carlo TV Festival (Lifetime Achievement Award) 2001: Lifetime achievement award (Filmfestival, Jamaica) 1997: Palm Springs film festival, USA, Lifetime Achievement Award 1995: TELE GATTO (Italian TV; Lifetime Achievement Award) 1991: GOLDEN CAMERA (German TV; lifetime achievement award) 1990: BAMBI (Lifetime Achievement Award from the German magazine BUNTE) For his acting 1981: OTTO (Most popular Film Star; from German Magazine BRAVO) 1980: Golden Globe Henrietta Award for World Film Favorite – Male. 1980: Saturn Award (Most Popular International Performer) 1973: BAMBI (shared with Tony Curtis for "The Persuaders", from the German magazine BUNTE) 1973: BEST ACTOR IN TV, award from the French magazine TELE-7-JOURS, shared with Tony Curtis for "The Persuaders" 1967: ONDAS-AWARD (Spanish TV for "The Saint") 1967: OTTO (Most popular TV-star for "The Saint"; from German magazine BRAVO) In popular culture Roger Moore is contentiously credited with inspiring the Walls Magnum ice cream. In the 1960s, he reportedly said that his one wish would be for a choc ice on a stick. Walls created this product and sent one to Moore. They later launched the Magnum in 1989, which is now the world's top-selling ice cream brand. Filmography Film roles Television roles Publications Moore's book about the filming of Live and Let Die, based on his diaries, titled Roger Moore as James Bond: Roger Moore's Own Account of Filming Live and Let Die, was published in London in 1973, by Pan Books. The book includes an acknowledgment to Sean Connery, with whom Moore was friends for many years: "I would also like to thank Sean Connery – with whom it would not have been possible." Moore's autobiography My Word is My Bond (ISBN 0061673889) was published by Collins in the US, in November 2008 and by Michael O'Mara Books Ltd in the UK, on 2 October 2008 (ISBN 9781843173182). On 16 October 2012, Bond on Bond was published to tie in with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond films. The book, with many pictures, is based on Moore's own memories, thoughts, and anecdotes about all things 007, with some of the profits of the book going to UNICEF. Books Roger Moore as James Bond: Roger Moore's Own Account of Filming Live and Let Die. Pan Books. 1973. ISBN 9780330236539. My Word Is My Bond: The Autobiography. Michael O'Mara. 2008. ISBN 9781843173878. Bond on Bond: The Ultimate Book on 50 Years of Bond Movies. Michael O'Mara. 2012. ISBN 9781843178613. Last Man Standing: Tales from Tinseltown. Michael O'Mara. 2014. ISBN 9781782432074. (published as One Lucky Bastard in the United States) À bientôt …. Michael O'Mara. 2017. ISBN 9781782438618. References External links Official website "Roger Moore interview". ITV Cymru/Wales Archive. 1963. "People: Roger Moore". UNICEF. Archived from the original on 21 March 2016. Retrieved 10 September 2014. Roger Moore at IMDb Roger Moore at the Internet Broadway Database Roger Moore at the BFI's Screenonline

Never_Say_Never_Again

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

Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Fleming. The novel had been previously adapted as the 1965 film Thunderball. Never Say Never Again is the second and most recent James Bond film not to be produced by Eon Productions (the usual producer of the Bond series) but instead by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm, and was distributed by Warner Bros. The film was executive produced by Kevin McClory, one of the original writers of the Thunderball storyline. McClory had retained the filming rights of the novel following a long legal battle dating from the 1960s. Sean Connery played the role of Bond for the seventh and final time, marking his return to the character twelve years after Diamonds Are Forever (1971). The film's title is a reference to Connery's reported declaration in 1971 that he would "never again" play that role. As Connery was 52 at the time of filming, the script makes frequent reference to Bond as aging and past his prime – although ironically, Connery was three years younger than his replacement, Roger Moore. The storyline features Bond being reluctantly brought back into action to investigate the theft of two nuclear weapons by SPECTRE. Filming locations included France, Spain, the Bahamas and Elstree Studios in the United Kingdom. Never Say Never Again was released by Warner Bros. on 7 October 1983, and opened to positive reviews, with the performances of Connery and Klaus Maria Brandauer singled out for praise as more emotionally resonant than the typical Bond films of the day. The film grossed $160 million at the box office, making it a commercial success, although it earned less overall than the Eon-produced Octopussy, released earlier the same year. Plot After MI6 agent James Bond fails a routine training exercise, his superior M orders him to a health clinic outside London to get back into shape. While there, Bond witnesses nurse Fatima Blush giving a sadomasochistic beating to a patient in a nearby room. The man's face is bandaged and after Blush finishes her beating, he uses a machine which scans his eye. Bond is spotted by Blush, who sends assassin Lippe to kill him in the clinic gym. Bond kills Lippe in a fight which destroys a lot of the clinic's furniture and equipment; M is forced to pay for the resulting damages and consequently suspends Bond from active duty. Blush works for SPECTRE, a criminal organisation run by Ernst Stavro Blofeld; her charge is heroin-addicted United States Air Force pilot Jack Petachi. Petachi has undergone an operation on his right eye to make it match the retinal pattern of the US President, which he uses to circumvent security at RAF Station Swadley, an American military base in England. While doing so, he replaces the dummy warheads of two AGM-86B cruise missiles with live W80 nuclear warheads; SPECTRE then steals the warheads, intending to extort billions of dollars from NATO governments. Blush murders Petachi by causing his car to crash and explode, covering SPECTRE's tracks. Foreign Secretary Lord Ambrose orders a reluctant M to reactivate the double-0 section, and Bond is tasked with tracking down the missing weapons. Bond follows a lead to the Bahamas and finds Domino Petachi, Jack's sister, and her wealthy lover Maximillian Largo, who is SPECTRE's top agent. When Largo's yacht heads for Nice, France, Bond goes there and joins forces with his French contact Nicole, and his CIA counterpart, Felix Leiter. Bond goes to a health and beauty centre, posing as an employee. He gives a massage to Domino, who reveals that Largo is hosting an event at a casino that evening. At the charity event, Largo and Bond play a video game called Domination; the losing player of each turn receives electric shocks of increasing intensity in proportion to the amount wagered. After losing a few games, Bond wins, and while dancing with Domino, he informs her that Jack had been killed on Largo's orders. Returning to his villa, Bond finds Nicole killed by Blush. After a chase on his Q-branch motorbike, Bond finds himself in an ambush and is captured by Blush. She admits to being impressed with him, and forces Bond to declare in writing that she is his "Number One" sexual partner. Bond distracts her with promises, then uses his Q-branch fountain pen gun to kill Blush with an explosive dart. Bond and Leiter attempt to board Largo's yacht, the Flying Saucer, in search of the missing nuclear warheads. Bond finds Domino and attempts to make Largo jealous by kissing her in front of a one-way mirror. Enraged, Largo traps Bond and takes him and Domino to Palmyra, Largo's base of operations in North Africa. Largo punishes Domino for her betrayal by selling her to passing Arabs. Bond escapes from his prison and rescues her. Domino and Bond reunite with Leiter on a U.S. Navy submarine. After the first warhead is found and defused in Washington, D.C., they track Largo to the Tears of Allah, a location below a desert oasis on the Ethiopian coast. Bond and Leiter infiltrate the underground facility and a gun battle erupts between Leiter's team and Largo's men in the temple. In the confusion, Largo makes a getaway with the second warhead. Bond catches and fights him underwater. Just as Largo tries to use a spear gun to shoot Bond, he is shot with a spear gun by Domino, taking revenge for Jack's death. Bond then defuses the nuclear bomb underwater, saving the world. Bond retires from duty and returns to the Bahamas with Domino, vowing never again to be a secret agent although Domino doubts his sincerity. Cast Sean Connery as James Bond, MI6 agent 007. Klaus Maria Brandauer as Maximillian Largo, a billionaire businessman and SPECTRE Number 1, SPECTRE's senior-most agent. He is based on the character Emilio Largo in Thunderball Max von Sydow as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. Barbara Carrera as Fatima Blush; SPECTRE Number 12, assigned to hunt down and kill Bond. She is based on Fiona Volpe in Thunderball. Kim Basinger as Domino Petachi, sister of Jack Petachi and girlfriend/mistress of Maximillian Largo. The surname was changed to Petrescu for the Italian release of the film. Bernie Casey as Felix Leiter, Bond's CIA contact and friend. Alec McCowen as "Q" (aka Algy or Algernon), Double-0 section Quartermaster who issues specialised equipment to Bond. Edward Fox as "M", Bond's superior at MI6. Pamela Salem as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary. Rowan Atkinson as Nigel Small-Fawcett, Foreign Office representative in the Bahamas. Saskia Cohen-Tanugi as Nicole, Bond's French contact Valerie Leon as Lady in Bahamas, whom Bond seduces. Milow Kirek as Dr. Kovacs, a nuclear physicist working for SPECTRE. Pat Roach as Lippe, a SPECTRE assassin who tries to kill Bond at the clinic. Anthony Sharp as Lord Ambrose, Foreign Secretary who orders M to reactivate the Double-0 section. Prunella Gee as Nurse Patricia Fearing, a physiotherapist at the clinic. Gavan O'Herlihy as Captain Jack Petachi, a USAF pilot used by SPECTRE to steal the nuclear missiles, and Domino Petachi's brother. Production Never Say Never Again had its origins in the early 1960s, following the controversy over the 1961 Thunderball novel. Fleming had worked with independent producer Kevin McClory and scriptwriter Jack Whittingham on a script for a potential Bond film, to be called Longitude 78 West, which was subsequently abandoned because of the costs involved. Fleming, "always reluctant to let a good idea lie idle", turned this into the novel Thunderball, for which he did not credit either McClory or Whittingham; McClory then took Fleming to the High Court in London for breach of copyright, and the matter was settled in 1963. After Eon Productions started producing the Bond films, it subsequently made a deal with McClory, who would produce Thunderball, and then not make any further version of the novel for a period of ten years, following the release of the Eon-produced version in 1965. In the mid-1970s, McClory again started working on a second adaptation of Thunderball and, with the working title Warhead, he brought writer Len Deighton together with Sean Connery to work on a script. A lawsuit with Eon Productions ended in a ruling that McClory owned the sole rights to SPECTRE and Blofeld, forcing Eon to remove them from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). The script initially focused on SPECTRE shooting down aircraft over the Bermuda Triangle, before taking over Liberty Island and Ellis Island as staging areas for an invasion of New York City through the sewers under Wall Street. The script was purchased by Paramount Pictures in 1978. The script ran into difficulties, after accusations from Danjaq and United Artists that the project had gone beyond copyright restrictions, which confined McClory to a film based only on the novel Thunderball; once again, the project was delayed. Towards the end of the 1970s, developments were reported on the project under the name James Bond of the Secret Service, but when producer Jack Schwartzman became involved in 1980, and cleared a number of the legal issues that still surrounded the project, he decided against using Deighton's script. The project returned to the original nuclear terrorism plot of the original Thunderball, in order to avoid another lawsuit from Danjaq, and after McClory saw Jimmy Carter mention the issue in a 1980 presidential debate with Ronald Reagan. Schwartzman brought on board scriptwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr. to work on the screenplay. Schwartzman wanted him to make the screenplay "somewhere in the middle" between his campier projects such as Batman, and his more serious projects such as Three Days of the Condor. Connery was unhappy with some aspects of the script, and asked Tom Mankiewicz, who had rewritten Diamonds Are Forever, to work on it; however, Mankiewicz declined, as he felt he was under a moral obligation to Albert R. Broccoli. Semple Jr. ultimately left the project, after Irvin Kershner was hired as director, and Schwartzman began cutting out the "big numbers" from his script to save on the budget. Connery then hired British television writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais to undertake re-writes, although they went uncredited for their efforts, despite much of the final shooting script being theirs. This was because of a restriction by the Writers Guild of America. Clement and La Frenais continued rewriting during the production, often altering it from day to day. The film underwent one final change in title: after Connery had finished filming Diamonds Are Forever, he had pledged that he would "never again" play Bond. Connery's wife, Micheline, suggested the title Never Say Never Again, referring to her husband's vow, and the producers acknowledged her contribution by listing on the end credits "Title Never Say Never Again by Micheline Connery". A final attempt by Fleming's trustees to block the film was made in the High Court in London in the spring of 1983, but this was thrown out by the court and Never Say Never Again was permitted to proceed. Cast and crew When producer Kevin McClory had first planned the film in 1964, he held initial talks with Richard Burton for the part of Bond, although the project came to nothing because of the legal issues involved. When the Warhead project was launched in the late 1970s, a number of actors were mentioned in the trade press, including Orson Welles for the part of Blofeld, Trevor Howard to play M and Richard Attenborough as director. In 1978, the working title James Bond of the Secret Service was being used and Connery was in the frame once again, potentially going head-to-head with the next Eon Bond film, Moonraker. By 1980, with legal issues again causing the project to founder, Connery thought himself unlikely to play the role, as he stated in an interview in the Sunday Express: "When I first worked on the script with Len I had no thought of actually being in the film." When producer Jack Schwartzman became involved, he asked Connery to play Bond; Connery agreed, negotiating a fee of $3 million ($9 million in 2023 dollars), casting and script approval, and a percentage of the profits. Subsequent to Connery reprising the role, Semple altered the script to include several references to Bond's advancing years – playing on Connery being 52 at the time of filming – and academic Jeremy Black has pointed out that there are other aspects of age and disillusionment in the film, such as the Shrubland's porter referring to Bond's car ("They don't make them like that anymore"), the new M having no use for the 00 section and Q with his reduced budgets. Originally, Semple wanted to emphasize Bond's age even further, writing the script to include him in semi-retirement working aboard a Scottish fishing trawler hunting Soviet Navy submarines in the North Sea. Connery's casting was formally announced in March 1983.. He trained with Steven Seagal to help get in shape for the production. For the main villain in the film, Maximillian Largo, Connery suggested Klaus Maria Brandauer, the lead of the 1981 Academy Award-winning Hungarian film Mephisto. Through the same route came Max von Sydow as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, although he still retained his Eon-originated white cat in the film. For the femme fatale, director Irvin Kershner selected former model and Playboy cover girl Barbara Carrera to play Fatima Blush – the name coming from one of the early scripts of Thunderball. Carrera said she modeled her performance on the Hindu goddess Kali, and to "mix that in with a little bit of black widow and a little bit of praying mantis." Carrera's performance as Fatima Blush earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, which she lost to Cher for her role in Silkwood. Micheline Connery, Sean's wife, had met up-and-coming actress Kim Basinger at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London and suggested her to Connery; he agreed after Dalila Di Lazzaro refused the Domino role. For the role of Felix Leiter, Connery spoke with Bernie Casey, saying that, as the Leiter role was never remembered by audiences, using a black Leiter might make him more memorable. Others cast included comedian Rowan Atkinson, who would later parody Bond in his role of Johnny English in 2003. Atkinson's character was added by Clement and La Frenais after the production had already started, in order to provide the film with a comic relief. Edward Fox was cast as M in order to portray the character as a young technocrat in contrast to the older portrayal by Bernard Lee, and to parody the Thatcher ministry's budget cuts to government services. Connery wanted to persuade Richard Donner to direct the film, but after their meeting, Donner decided he disliked the script. Former Eon Productions' editor and director of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Peter R. Hunt, was approached to direct the film, but declined due to his previous work with Eon. Irvin Kershner, who had previously worked with Connery on A Fine Madness (1966), and had achieved success in 1980 with The Empire Strikes Back, was then hired. A number of the crew from the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark were also appointed, including first assistant director David Tomblin, director of photography Douglas Slocombe, second unit director Mickey Moore and production designers Philip Harrison and Stephen Grimes. Filming Filming for Never Say Never Again began on 27 September 1982 on the French Riviera for two months, before moving to Nassau, the Bahamas in mid-November, where filming took place at Clifton Pier, which was also one of the locations used in Thunderball. Largo's Palmyran fortress was actually historic Fort Carré in Antibes. Largo's ship, the Flying Saucer, was portrayed by the yacht Kingdom 5KR, then owned by Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi and called Nabila. The underwater scenes were filmed by Ricou Browning, who had coordinated the underwater scenes in the original Thunderball. Principal photography finished at Elstree Studios, where interior shots were filmed. Elstree also housed the Tears of Allah underwater cavern, which took three months to construct, while the Shrublands health spa was filmed at Luton Hoo. Most of the filming was completed in the spring of 1983, although there was some additional shooting during the summer of 1983. Production on the film was troubled, with Connery taking on many of the production duties with assistant director David Tomblin. Director Irvin Kershner was critical of producer Jack Schwartzman, saying that, while he was a good businessman, "he didn't have the experience of a film producer". After the production ran out of money, Schwartzman had to fund further production out of his own pocket, and later admitted he had underestimated the amount the film would cost to make. There was tension on set between Schwartzman and Connery, who at times barely spoke to each other. Connery was unimpressed with the perceived lack of professionalism behind the scenes, and was on record as saying that the whole production was a "bloody Mickey Mouse operation!" Steven Seagal, who was a martial arts instructor for this film, broke Connery's wrist while training. On an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Connery revealed he did not know his wrist was broken until over a decade later. Music James Horner was both Kershner's and Schwartzman's first choice to compose the score, after they were impressed with his work on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Horner, who worked in London for most of the time, was unavailable, according to Kershner, though Schwartzman later claimed Sean Connery vetoed him. Frequent Bond composer John Barry was invited, but declined out of loyalty to Eon. The music for Never Say Never Again was ultimately written by Michel Legrand, who composed a score similar to his work as a jazz pianist. The score has been criticised as "anachronistic and misjudged", "bizarrely intermittent" and "the most disappointing feature of the film". Legrand also wrote the main theme "Never Say Never Again", which featured lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman — who had also worked with Legrand on the Academy Award-winning song "The Windmills of Your Mind" — and was performed by Lani Hall after Bonnie Tyler, who disliked the song, had reluctantly declined. Phyllis Hyman also recorded a potential theme song, with music written by Stephen Forsyth and lyrics by Jim Ryan, but the song — an unsolicited submission — was passed over, given Legrand's contractual obligations with the music. Legal substitutions Many of the elements of the Eon-produced Bond films were not present in Never Say Never Again for legal reasons. These included the gun barrel sequence, where a screen full of 007 symbols appeared instead, and similarly there was no "James Bond Theme" to use, although no effort was made to supply another tune. A pre-credits sequence was filmed but not used; instead, the film opens with the credits running over the top of the sequence of Bond on a training mission. Release and reception Never Say Never Again opened on 7 October 1983 in 1,550 theatres, grossing an October record $10,958,157 over the four-day Columbus Day weekend, which was reported to be "the best opening record of any James Bond film" up to that point, surpassing Octopussy's $8.9 million from June that year. The film had its UK premiere at the Warner West End cinema in Leicester Square on 14 December 1983. Worldwide, Never Say Never Again grossed $160 million, which was a solid return on the budget of $36 million. The film ultimately earned less than Octopussy, which grossed $187.5 million. It was the first James Bond film to be officially released in the Soviet Union, premiering in the summer of 1990 with a gala in Moscow. Warner Bros. released Never Say Never Again on VHS and Betamax in 1984, and on laserdisc in 1995. After Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased the distribution rights in 1997 (see Legacy, below), the company has released the film on both VHS and DVD in 2001, and on Blu-ray in 2009. Contemporary reviews Never Say Never Again was broadly welcomed and praised by the critics: Ian Christie, writing in the Daily Express, said that Never Say Never Again was "one of the better Bonds", finding the film "superbly witty and entertaining, ... the dialogue is crisp and the fight scenes imaginative". Christie also thought that "Connery has lost none of his charm and, if anything, is more appealing than ever as the stylish resolute hero". David Robinson, writing in The Times also concentrated on Connery, saying that: "Connery ... is back, looking hardly a day older or thicker, and still outclassing every other exponent of the role, in the goodnatured throwaway with which he parries all the sex and violence on the way". For Robinson, the presence of Connery and Klaus Maria Brandauer as Maximillian Largo "very nearly make it all worthwhile." The reviewer for Time Out summed up Never Say Never Again by saying: "The action's good, the photography excellent, the sets decent; but the real clincher is the fact that Bond is once more played by a man with the right stuff." Derek Malcolm in The Guardian showed himself to be a fan of Connery's Bond, saying the film contains "the best Bond in the business", but nevertheless did not find Never Say Never Again any more enjoyable than the recently released Octopussy (starring Roger Moore), or "that either of them came very near to matching Dr. No or From Russia with Love". Malcolm's main issue with the film was that he had a "feeling that a constant struggle was going on between a desire to make a huge box-office success and the effort to make character as important as stunts". Malcolm summed up that "the mix remains obstinately the same – up to scratch but not surpassing it". Writing in The Observer, Philip French noted that "this curiously muted film ends up making no contribution of its own and inviting damaging comparisons with the original, hyper-confident Thunderball". French concluded that "like an hour-glass full of damp sand, the picture moves with increasing slowness as it approaches a confused climax in the Persian Gulf". Writing for Newsweek, critic Jack Kroll thought the early part of the film was handled "with wit and style", although he went on to say that the director was "hamstrung by Lorenzo Semple's script". Richard Schickel, writing in Time, praised the film and its cast. He wrote that Klaus Maria Brandauer's character was "played with silky, neurotic charm", while Barbara Carrera, playing Fatima Blush, "deftly parodies all the fatal femmes who have slithered through Bond's career". Schickel's highest praise was saved for the return of Connery, observing "it is good to see Connery's grave stylishness in this role again. It makes Bond's cynicism and opportunism seem the product of genuine worldliness (and world weariness) as opposed to Roger Moore's mere twirpishness." Janet Maslin, writing in The New York Times, was broadly praising of the film, saying she thought that Never Say Never Again "has noticeably more humor and character than the Bond films usually provide. It has a marvelous villain in Largo." Maslin also thought highly of Connery in the role, observing that "in Never Say Never Again, the formula is broadened to accommodate an older, seasoned man of much greater stature, and Mr. Connery expertly fills the bill." Writing in The Washington Post, Gary Arnold was fulsome in his praise, saying that Never Say Never Again is "one of the best James Bond adventure thrillers ever made", going on to say that "this picture is likely to remain a cherished, savory example of commercial filmmaking at its most astute and accomplished." Arnold went further, saying that "Never Say Never Again is the best acted Bond picture ever made, because it clearly surpasses any predecessors in the area of inventive and clever character delineation". The critic for The Globe and Mail, Jay Scott, also praised the film, saying that Never Say Never Again "may be the only installment of the long-running series that has been helmed by a first-rate director." According to Scott, the director, with high-quality support cast, resulted in the "classiest of all the Bonds". Roger Ebert gave the film 3+1⁄2 out of four stars, and wrote that Never Say Never Again, while consisting of a basic "Bond plot", was different from other Bond films: "For one thing, there's more of a human element in the movie, and it comes from Klaus Maria Brandauer, as Largo." Ebert went on to add, "there was never a Beatles reunion ... but here, by God, is Sean Connery as Sir James Bond. Good work, 007." Gene Siskel of The Chicago Tribune also gave the film 3½ out of four stars, writing that the film was "one of the best 007 adventures ever made". Colin Greenland reviewed Never Say Never Again for Imagine, and stated that "Never Say Never Again is a complacent male sexist fantasy, where women can be only femmes fatales or passive victims." Retrospective reviews Because Never Say Never Again is not an Eon-produced film, it has not been included in a number of subsequent reviews. Norman Wilner of MSN said that 1967's Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again "exist outside the 'official' continuity, [and] are excluded from this list, just as they're absent from MGM's megabox. But take my word for it; they're both pretty awful". Nevertheless, retrospective reviews of the film remain positive. Rotten Tomatoes sampled 55 critics and judged 71% of the reviews as positive, with a top critics' rating of 70%. The site's critical consensus reads: "While the rehashed story feels rather uninspired and unnecessary, the return of both Sean Connery and a more understated Bond make Never Say Never Again a watchable retread." The score is still more positive than some of the Eon films, with Rotten Tomatoes ranking Never Say Never Again 16th among all Bond films in 2008. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating generally favourable reviews. Empire gave the film three of a possible five stars, observing that "Connery was perhaps wise to call it quits the first time round". IGN gave Never Say Never Again a score of five out of ten, claiming that the film "is more miss than hit". The reviewer also thought that the film was "marred with too many clunky exposition scenes and not enough moments of Bond being Bond". In 1995, Michael Sauter of Entertainment Weekly rated Never Say Never Again as the ninth best Bond film to that point, after 17 films had been released. Sauter thought the film "is successful only as a portrait of an over-the-hill superhero." He admitted that "even past his prime, Connery proves that nobody does it better". James Berardinelli, in his review of Never Say Never Again, thinks the re-writing of the Thunderball story has led to a film which has "a hokey, jokey feel, [it] is possibly the worst-written Bond script of all". Berardinelli concludes that "it's a major disappointment that, having lured back the original 007, the film makers couldn't offer him something better than this drawn-out, hackneyed story." Critic Danny Peary wrote that "it was great to see Sean Connery return as James Bond after a dozen years". He also thought the supporting cast was good, saying that Klaus Maria Brandauer's Largo was "neurotic, vulnerable ... one of the most complex of Bond's foes" and that Barbara Carrera and Kim Basinger "make lasting impressions." Peary also wrote that the "film is exotic, well acted, and stylishly directed ... It would be one of the best Bond films if the finale weren't disappointing. When will filmmakers realize that underwater fight scenes don't work because viewers usually can't tell the hero and villain apart and they know doubles are being used?" Jim Smith and Stephen Lavington, in their 2002 retrospective Bond Films, lament: "The production chaos is visible on screen, with frequently mediocre editing, direction, stunt work and photography all emerging from the restricted budget. [...] At the time, Never Say Never Again got away with it, thanks to public and critical pleasure at seeing Connery again. Now it is dated, slow and (worst of all) looks cheap, faring badly when compared to even the poorest of the Eon films." Legacy Originally, Never Say Never Again was intended to start a series of Bond films produced by Schwartzman and starring Connery as James Bond, with McClory announcing the next planned film, S.P.E.C.T.R.E, in a February 1984 issue of Screen International. When Connery announced that he would not reprise his role as Bond in another film produced by Schwartzman three weeks before the deadline to purchase the rights to another film for $5 million, Schwartzman said that he was unlikely to make another film without a deal from MGM/UA and Danjaq. In the 1990s, McClory announced plans to make another adaptation of the Thunderball story starring Timothy Dalton entitled Warhead 2000 AD, but the film was eventually scrapped. In 1997, Sony Pictures acquired McClory's rights for an undisclosed amount, and subsequently announced that it intended to make a series of Bond films, as the company also held the rights to Casino Royale. This move prompted a round of litigation from MGM, which was settled out of court, forcing Sony to give up all claims on Bond; McClory still claimed he would proceed with another Bond film, and continued his case against MGM and Danjaq; on 27 August 2001, the court rejected McClory's suit. McClory died in 2006; MGM's acquisition of the rights to Casino Royale finally allowed Eon Productions to make a serious, non-satirical film adaptation of that novel the same year, with Daniel Craig as James Bond. Ultimately, in 2013, McClory's heirs sold the Thunderball rights to Eon, allowing the company to reintroduce Blofeld to the Eon series in the film Spectre. On 4 December 1997, MGM announced that the company had purchased the rights to Never Say Never Again from Schwartzman's company Taliafilm. The company has since handled the release of both the DVD and Blu-ray editions of the film. See also Outline of James Bond References Bibliography External links Never Say Never Again at IMDb Never Say Never Again at AllMovie Never Say Never Again at Rotten Tomatoes Never Say Never Again at Box Office Mojo Never Say Never Again at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Rathmullan

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

Rathmullan (Irish: Ráth Maoláin, meaning 'Maolán's ringfort') is a seaside village and townland on the Fanad Peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland. It is situated on the western shore of Lough Swilly, 11 kilometres (7 mi) north-east of Ramelton and 12 km (7 mi) east of Milford. Rathmullan was the point of departure during the Flight of the Earls in 1607, a major turning point in Irish history. History Evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes court tomb and ringfort sites in the neighbouring townlands of Crevary Upper and Rathmullan and Ballyboe. Within Rathmullan village is a ruined Carmelite friary, dating to 1516, which was built by Eoghan Rua MacSweeney. The friary was sacked by the English garrison from Sligo in 1595. In 1617, the friary was occupied by the Protestant Bishop of Raphoe, Andrew Knox. A subsequent Bishop of Raphoe turned it into a fortified house in anticipation of a possible French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars. On 14 September 1607, 99 aristocrats of the Gaelic Order, including of Clan Ó Néill and Clan Ó Domhnaill, left Rathmullan for the European continent, an episode known as the Flight of the Earls. On 14 September 2007, president Mary McAleese visited the village to mark the 400th anniversary of the event. She unveiled a sculpture by John Behan that represents the plight of the men who were led by the Gaelic aristocrats. There are the remains of a Martello tower or battery in the village which serves as a heritage centre. The fortification was one of six originally built c. 1813 by the British as part of a defence along Lough Swilly against feared Napoleonic invasion. These batteries were manned up until the end of the World War I to protect British warships that were moored in Lough Swilly. Amenities There are three churches in Rathmullan: St. Joseph's Catholic Church, St. Columb's Church of Ireland (Parish of Killygarvan), and the Rathmullan Presbyterian Church. Other facilities in Rathmullan include shops, a resource centre, a spa, a wedding venue (Drumhalla House), and a hotel. Events The annual Lough Swilly Deep Sea Fishing Festival is held locally in June. The 2007 festival took place on Saturday 2 June and Sunday 3 June. Literature Rathmullan is the setting for Australian/British author Brand King's novel An Irish Winter, published in 2020. A number of features of the village are described in the novel, including the local beach. The traditional New Year's Day cold water swim also features, while a number of scenes are set in the Beachcomber Bar and An Bonnan Bui Cafe. Notable people Ian Anderson (1925–2005), former President of the Legislative Council of the Isle of Man. Mary McAlister (1896–1976), Irish-born Scottish nurse who became an MP for the UK Labour Party. Hugh Law (1818–1883), Lord Chancellor of Ireland, died here in 1883. See also List of abbeys and priories in Ireland (County Donegal) List of towns and villages in the Republic of Ireland List of abbeys and priories in the Republic of Ireland == References ==

Flight_of_the_Earls

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

The Flight of the Earls (Irish: Imeacht na nIarlaí) took place in September 1607, when Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, and about ninety followers, left Ulster in Ireland for mainland Europe. Their permanent exile was a watershed event in Irish history, symbolizing the end of the old Gaelic order. Name The event was first named as a "flight" in a book by the Reverend C. P. Meehan that was published in 1868. Historians disagree to what extent the earls wanted to start a war with Spanish help to re-establish their positions, or whether they accepted exile as the best way of coping with their recent loss of status since the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603. Meehan argued that the earls' tenants wanted a new war: "Withal, the people of Ulster were full of hope that O'Neill would return with forces to evict the evictors, but the farther they advanced into this agreeable perspective, the more rapidly did its charms disappear." Background to the exile After the defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tyrconnell traveled to Spain to seek support from Philip III. Unsuccessful, he died in Spain and was succeeded by his younger brother Rory O'Donnell. The O'Neills and O'Donnells retained their lands and titles, although with much-diminished extent and authority. However, the countryside was laid bare in a campaign of destruction in 1602, which induced famine in 1603. Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, was pardoned under the terms of the Treaty of Mellifont in March 1603 and submitted to the crown. When King James VI and I took the English throne in 1603, he quickly proceeded to issue pardons for the Irish lords and their rebel forces. Already reigning as king of Scotland, he had a better understanding of the advantages from working with local chiefs in the Scottish Highlands. However, as in other Irish lordships, the 1603 peace involved O'Neill losing substantial areas of land to his cousins and neighbors, who would be granted freeholds under the English system, instead of the looser arrangements under the former Brehon law system. This was not a new policy but was a well-understood and longstanding practice in the Tudor conquest of Ireland. On 10 September 1602, the Prince of Tyrconnell had already died, allegedly assassinated, in Spain, and his brother succeeded him as 25th Chieftain of the O'Donnell clan. He was later granted the Earldom of Tyrconnell by King James I on 4 September 1603 and restored to a somewhat diminished scale of territories in Tyrconnell on 10 February 1604. In 1605, the new Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Arthur Chichester, began to encroach on the former freedoms of the two Earls and The Maguire, enforcing the new freeholds, especially that granted in North Ulster to the O'Cahan chief. The O'Cahan had formerly been important subjects of the O'Neills and required protection; in turn, Chichester wanted to reduce O'Neill's authority. O'Cahan had also wanted to remove himself from O'Neill's overlordship. An option was to charge O'Neill with treason if he did not comply with the new arrangements. The discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in the same year made it harder for Catholics to appear loyal to both the crown and the papacy. A lengthy legal battle however found in O'Neill's favor. By 1607, O'Neill's allies the Maguires and the Earl of Tyrconnell were finding it hard to maintain their prestige on lower incomes. They planned to seek Spanish support before news of the Battle of Gibraltar arrived. When their ship dropped anchor, O'Neill seems to have joined them on impulse. He had three options: Flee with his friends and hope for a reinvasion by Spain Go to London and stay at court until his grievances were redressed Do nothing and live on a reduced income as a large landowner in Ulster. Fearing arrest, they chose to flee to Continental Europe, where they hoped to recruit an army for the invasion of Ireland with Spanish help. However, earlier in 1607 the main Spanish fleet in Europe had been defeated by the Dutch in the Battle of Gibraltar. But the oft-repeated theory that they were all about to be arrested contradicts writer Tadhg Ó Cianáin, the main historical source on the Flight, who said at the start of his account that O'Neill heard news of the ship anchored at Rathmullen on Thursday 6 September, and "took his leave of the Lord Justice (Chichester) the following Saturday". They had been meeting at Slane for several days, and there is no proof that warrants for his arrest had been drawn up, nor was it a hurried departure. Also, as the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) had been ended by the Treaty of London in 1604, King Philip III of Spain wanted to remain at peace with England under its new Stuart dynasty. As a part of the peace proposals, a Spanish princess was to marry James' son, Henry, though this never happened. Spain had also gone bankrupt in 1598. Tyrone ignored all these realities, remained in Italy, and persisted with his invasion plan until his death in exile in 1616. End of the old Gaelic order The earls left from the town of Rathmullan with some of the leading Gaelic families in Ulster; they traveled down Lough Swilly on a French ship. Their departure was the end of the old Gaelic order, in that the earls were descended from Gaelic clan dynasties that had ruled their parts of Ulster for centuries. The Flight of the Earls was a watershed event in Irish history, as the ancient Gaelic aristocracy of Ulster went into permanent exile. Despite their attachment to and importance in the Gaelic system, the Earls' ancestors had accepted their Earldoms from the English-run Kingdom of Ireland in the 1540s, under the policy of surrender and regrant(Under this policy, Anglo-Irish and Gaelic Irish rulers were to surrender themselves and their lands to Henry VIII, and he would grant their land back to them along with an English title). Some historians argue that their flight was forced upon them by the fallout from the Tudor conquest of Ireland, while others that it was an enormous strategic mistake that cleared the way for the Plantation of Ulster. From 1616, a number of bards outside Ulster had a poetic debate in the "Contention of the bards" and one of the arguments celebrated King James's Gaelic-Irish Milesian ancestry through Malcolm III of Scotland. So it is debatable whether the Gaelic order had ended or was evolving. Journey The Earls set sail from Rathmullan, a village on the shore of Lough Swilly in County Donegal, accompanied by ninety followers, many of them Ulster noblemen, and some members of their families. Several left their wives behind, hoping either to return or retrieve them later. The late Tomás Ó Fiaich, Archbishop of Armagh, gave a lecture at Rathmullan in September 1988 and recounted that the Earl of Tyrone allegedly “had a gold cross which contained a relic of the True Cross, and this he trailed in the water behind the ship, and according to O’Ciainain, it gave some relief from the storm” during the crossing to Quillebeuf-sur-Seine in Normandy, France. They finally reached the Continent on 4 October 1607. This supposed relic of the True Cross was probably a minor relic taken from that kept at Holy Cross Abbey, which they had previously visited en route to Kinsale in 1601. Their destination was Spain, but they disembarked in France. The party proceeded overland to Spanish Flanders, some remaining in Leuven, while the main party continued to Italy. Tadhg Ó Cianáin (sometimes quoted by historians as O'Keenan) subsequently described the journey in great detail. While the party was welcomed by many important officials in the Spanish Netherlands, he makes no mention of any negotiations or planning between the earls and the Spanish to start a new war to regain the earls' properties. Ó Cianáin's diary is important as the only continuous and contemporaneous account of the Flight. Its original title, Turas na dTaoiseach nUltach as Éirinn – the departure of the Chiefs of Ulster from Ireland – has been changed since the creation of the more dramatic phrase "Flight of the Earls" to the latter's modern literal translation, Imeacht na nIarlaí; and, according to Professor Ó Muraíle, turas can also mean a religious pilgrimage. Attainders King James issued "A Proclamation touching the Earles of Tyrone and Tyrconnell" on 15 November 1607, describing their action as treasonous, and therefore preparing the ground for the eventual forfeiture of their lands and titles. No reply that is known of was made to the proclamation Their titles were attainted in 1614, although they continued to be recognized on the Continent. The attainders were not considered legitimate in continental Catholic countries of the day. Even within the context of English and colonial Irish rule, the attainder came about six years after Rory, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, had already died. As accused, for him to have been properly tried, he should have been tried by his peers in the Peerage of Ireland, under the presiding authority of the Lord High Steward of Ireland. However, he was already dead, unable to stand in his own defense, and his title already inherited by his son Hugh “Albert” O'Donnell; therefore in order to attain the title, the trial would have to have been of Hugh “Albert”, who had in fact committed no crime. The 6-year delay in hearing the attainders was unavoidable, as his peers in the Irish House of Lords next sat in 1613, and dealt with the matter in the usual manner. The attainder was however considered a travesty of justice by his supporters, and was considered null and void by many on the Continent. The succession of the Earl of Tyrconnell's son, Hugh Albert O'Donnell, as 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell (1st creation) was therefore recognized as valid in the Spanish Empire, and he was given the same status under a new Spanish title Conde de Tirconnel. Under the Common law, the title granted by King James and accepted by the earl had potentially lapsed as soon as the Earl embarked on the ship without his king's permission to leave Ireland, and when it lapsed it could not then pass down to his descendants without some special waiver. Assuming that Hugh Albert was being punished for a crime he did not commit, and was not being given a hearing, misses the whole point of the law of attainder. Hugh Albert was never issued a Writ of Summons to sit in the Irish House of Lords as his father's heir. Hugh Albert also never came to Dublin in 1614 to argue his case for a waiver, so far as is known, and never accepted James I as his king. Until he did so, his title and his claim to nobility were considered to be "in abeyance". These attainders had a much greater impact on the people of Ulster. The 1603 peace arrangement with the three lords was ended, as they had broken its conditions by leaving the kingdom without permission, and their remaining freehold lands were confiscated. Chichester proposed a new plantation of settlers from England, Wales and Scotland, sponsored in part by the City of London merchants, which became known as the Plantation of Ulster. This had an enormous negative impact on the lower class Gaelic-culture inhabitants of Ulster. Change in Spanish policy In the papal bull Ilius of 1555, the Pope had conferred the title King of Ireland on King Philip II of Spain when he was married to Queen Mary. Philip II made no claim to the kingship of Ireland after Mary's death in 1558. He engaged in a lengthy war from 1585 with her sister Elizabeth I, and he and his successor Philip III supported the Irish Catholic rebels up to the siege of Kinsale in 1601. He had been offered the kingship in 1595 by O'Neill and his allies but turned it down. Given this lengthy support, it was reasonable for O'Donnell and O'Neill to imagine that they might solicit help from Philip III, but Spanish policy was to maintain the recent (1604) Treaty with England, and its European fleet had been weakened from several conflicts, including the Battle of Gibraltar by the Dutch over four months earlier. Therefore, by mid-1607 Spain had neither the desire nor the means to assist an Irish rebellion. While the Flight is often described as a first step in arranging a new war, this must be seen as an emotional and false conclusion, as there were no plans or proposals at all from the Spanish side to support the earls. Spanish policy in the 1590s had been to help the Irish warlords as a nuisance against England, but they had been defeated by 1603. It could not be in any way in the interest of Spain to assist their unsuccessful former allies in 1607. Commemoration on the 400th anniversary The 400th anniversary of the Flight of the Earls was marked on 14 September 2007, throughout Donegal, including a regatta of tall ships, fireworks, lectures, and conferences. The President of Ireland Mary McAleese unveiled a statue by John Behan depicting the Flight at Rathmullan. There is a permanent exhibition dedicated to the Flight of the Earls and the subsequent plantation in Draperstown in Northern Ireland and at the "Flight of the Earls Centre" in the Martello tower at Rathmullan. There were also commemorative postage stamps issued by the Irish post office [1], featuring Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O'Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, and based on original illustrations by Sean O Brogain, made as they were about to sail out of Rathmullan. In 2008 there were also celebrations to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Earls in Rome, with a celebratory performance by the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland in Sant'Ignazio Church in Rome. List of refugees Tadhg Ó Cianáin kept a record of the refugees who participated in the flight. In 1972, Tomás Ó Fiaich and Pádraig de Barra published Imeacht na nIarlaí, which expanded the list of refugees based on extensive research. Ship's Crew John Connor, captain John Rath, pilot O'Neill Clan Family Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone Catherine O'Neill, Countess of Tyrone, his wife Hugh O'Neill, Baron Dungannon, his son Shane O'Neill, his son Brian O'Neill, his son Art Óg O'Neill His wife Brian O'Neill, Hugh O'Neill’s nephew Feardorcha, Hugh O'Neill’s grandson Aodh Óg, Hugh O'Neill’s grand-nephew Maigbheathadh Ó Néill Aodh Mac Éinrí Ó Néill Staff Henry Hovenden, secretary (also O'Neill's foster-brother) Pedro Blanco, footman Muirchearttach Ó Cionne, marshall Christopher Plunkett, master of horse Colmán, priest Hugh O'Neill’s page 2 lackies of O'Neill Seán na bpunta Ó hÁgáin, rent collector His wife Enri Ó hAgáin, possibly a relative O'Donnell Clan Family Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, Hugh Albert O'Donnell, 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell, his son, Cathbarr O'Donnell Rosa O'Donnell, his wife Hugh O'Donnell, his son Nuala O'Donnell Grania O'Donnell, her daughter, Domhnall Óg, son of Rory's half-brother Donal Nechtain O'Donnell, Rory's second cousin Staff Seán Crón MacDaibhid, steward Mathew Tullie, secretary Caecilia O'Gallagher, Hugh Albert O'Donnell's wet nurse Muiris, page 4 servants of O'Donnell’s 3 lackies of O'Donnell’s 3 waiting women Other Nobles Sémus Mac Éimhir MacConnell, son of the Lord of Fermanagh His brother Clergymen Fr. Muiris Ultach, a Franciscan friar Fr. Roibeard Mac Artúir (or Chamberlain) Fr. Tomás Strong Fr. Pádraig Ó Duibh Fr. Pádraig Ó Lorcáin Fr. Pádraig Ó Luchráin Fr. Niallán Mac Thiarnáin Fr. Toirealach Ó Sléibhín Fr. Brian Ó Gormlaigh Fr. Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire Fr Diarmaid Ó Duláin Students Pádraig Mac Éinrí Ó hÁgáin Pádraig Mac Cormaic Ó hÁigáin Éamann Ó Maolchraoibhe Fearghas mac Cathmhaoil Matha Mac Thréanfhir Walter Rath Merchants Richard Weston of Dundalk John Bath of Drogheda Other See also Tudor conquest of Ireland Contention of the bards O'Cahan Tadhg Ó Cianáin "The Hunting of the Earl of Rone" Regiment of Hibernia Notes and References Notes References External links "Stamps commemorate flight of the earls", The Irish Times, Feb 23, 2007, Further reading Turas na dTaoiseach nUltach as Éirinn from Ráth Maoláin to Rome: Tadhg O Cianáin's contemporary narrative of the so-called ‘Flight of the Earls’, 1607–8, Nollaig Ó Muraíle, Four Courts Press, Dublin, October 2007 The Flight of the Earls, An Illustrated History, 2007, by Dr. John McCavitt FRHistS. The Life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Prince of Tyrconnell (Beatha Aodh Ruadh O Domhnaill) by Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh. Edited by Paul Walsh and Colm Ó Lochlainn. Irish Texts Society, vol. 42. Dublin: Educational Company of Ireland, 1948 (original Gaelic manuscript in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin). Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland (Annála Ríoghachta Éireann) by the Four Masters, from the earliest period to the year 1616, compiled during the period 1632–1636 by Brother Michael O’Clery, translated and edited by John O'Donovan in 1856, and re-published in 1998 by De Burca, Dublin. Vicissitudes of Families, by Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms, published by Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, Paternoster Row, London, 1861. (Chapter on O’Donnells, pp. 125–148). The Fate and Fortunes of the Earls of Tyrone (Hugh O’Neill) and Tyrconnel (Rory O’Donel), their flight from Ireland and death in exile, by the Rev. C. P. Meehan, M.R.I.A., 2nd edition, James Duffy, London, 1870. The O’Donnells of Tyrconnell – A Hidden Legacy, by Francis Martin O'Donnell, published by Academica Press LLC in London and Washington, D.C., 2018, (750 pp.) (ISBN 978-1-680534740). Vanishing Kingdoms – The Irish Chiefs and Their Families, by Walter J. P. Curley (former US Ambassador to Ireland), with foreword by Charles Lysaght, published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2004 [ISBN 1-84351-055-3 & ISBN 1-84351-056-1]. (Chapter on O'Donnell of Tyrconnell, p. 59). A View of the Legal Institutions, Honorary Hereditary Offices, and Feudal Baronies established in Ireland, by William Lynch, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Paternoster Row, London, 1830 (O’Donnell: p. 190, remainder to Earl's patent). https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100070.html https://www.forgottenbooks.com/de/download/TheFlightoftheEarls_10554842.pdf External links Earls Heritage Centre, Rathmullan, County Donegal Wild Geese Heritage Museum and Library The Flight of the Earls: escape or strategic regrouping? at History Ireland Mural depicting Flight of the Earls, Belfast Yearlong Commemoration of Flight of the Earls (1607–2007) 2007 – Donegal County Council/County Development Board The Flight Of The Earls Dr John McCavitt FRHistS Information on the Flight of the Earls BBC History article The National Library of Ireland's current exhibition, Strangers to Citizens: the Irish in Europe, 1600–1800 Flight of the Earls?: changing views on O’Neill's departure from Ireland

Charles_Patrick_Meehan

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

Charles Patrick Meehan (12 July 1812 – 14 March 1890) was an Irish Catholic priest, historian and editor. Life Meehan was born at 141 Great Britain Street, Dublin, on 12 July 1812. He received his early education at Ballymahon, County Longford, the native place of his parents. In 1828 he went to the Irish Catholic College, Rome, where he studied until he was ordained a priest in 1834. Returning to Dublin in the same year Meehan was appointed to a curacy at Rathdrum, County Wicklow. After nine months he was transferred to a curacy at the parish church of Saints Michael and John, Dublin. In that position he continued till his death, on 14 March 1890. A friend and confessor to the poet James Clarence Mangan, Meehan encouraged him to write his autobiography. Meehan was also elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Works He wrote poetry for The Nation, a radical nationalist newspaper, under the pen-name 'Clericus'. He wrote signed articles for Duffy's Hibernian Magazine (1860–1865), becoming editor in 1862 when it relaunched as Duffy's Hibernian Sixpence Magazine. From materials gathered while in Wicklow, he compiled a "History of the O'Tooles, Lords Powerscourt", published without his name and long out of print. His other works are: "History of the Confederation of Kilkenny" (1846); "The Geraldines, their Rise, Increase and Ruin" (1847); reprinted 1878. translation of Alessandro Manzoni's "La Monaca di Monza" (1848); "Portrait of a Christian Bishop" (1848); biography of Francis Kirwan, Bishop of Killala, translated from the Latin of John Lynch"; "Lives of the most eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, of the Order of St. Dominic, translated from the Italian of Vincenzo Marchese" (1852); "Fate and Fortunes of the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell" (1868); The Fate and Fortunes of the Earls of Tyrone (Hugh O'Neill) and Tyrconnel (Rory O'Donel), their flight from Ireland and death in exile (1 ed.). Dublin: James Duffy. 1868. OCLC 1045393976. "Rise and Fall of the Irish Franciscan Monasteries and Memoirs of the Irish Hierarchy in the Seventeenth Century" (1870). "Confederation of Kilkenny"; new ed., rev. & enlarged, J. Duffy, Dublin, 1882 Meehan also wrote "Tales for the Young", and translated others which he named "Flowers from Foreign Fields". He edited Thomas Davis's "Literary and Historical Essays" (1883), Mangan's "Essays and Poems" (1884), and Richard Robert Madden's "Literary Remains of the United Irishmen" (1887). He also wrote verse, which is to be found in various anthologies. His book "The Fate and Fortunes of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone and Rory O'Donnel, Earl of Tyrconnel; their flight from Ireland, and death in exile" was highly praised on publication. It gave a new and romantic name, "The Flight of the Earls" to an event that was known in Gaelic as "The Departure of the Chiefs of Ulster". According to a newspaper The Limerick Vindicator - "Father Meehan .... boldly lifts the veil off those foul and treacherous deeds which fill some of the blackest pages in Ireland's disastrous history" He also published a biography of Mangan in 1884. Notes Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilbert, John Thomas (1894). "Meehan, Charles Patrick". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 37. London: Smith, Elder & Co. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Charles Patrick Meehan". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Slush_Puppie

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

Slush Puppie (stylized as SLUSH PUPPiE) is a slush beverage created in 1970, and marketed both directly by the Slush Puppie division of J&J Snack Foods, and through its Slush Puppie distributors in the United States. A Slush Puppie has two major components; the base and the flavoring. The base is made from a special syrup that is mixed with water and then frozen. This creates a mixture resulting in pellets of ice in a sweet liquid. The taste is simply that of the flavored syrup. The brand's mascot is a white puppy named Chilly Dog wearing a blue shirt with the letter "S" and a knit hat. Because of the glycerol, which prevent slushy drinks from freezing, it is not suitable for children under age four says Food Standards Scotland. History Slush Puppie founder Will Radcliff (1939–2014) decided to start the company after seeing a slush-making machine at a Chicago trade fair in 1970. Radcliff, his sister and their mother came up with the name "Slush Puppie" (based on hush puppy) while sitting on their front porch in Cincinnati, Ohio. The business started from a home address in Cincinnati and progressed to a single door small warehouse, to a manufacturing plant/warehouse, to a candy and tobacco distributor, to a front door repair shop, to finally a showplace building that overlooks the city of Cincinnati. As the company expanded, Radcliff added additional product lines, including Thelma's frozen lemonade, Pacific Bay Smooth-E, and Lanikai Frozen Cocktails. Under Radcliff, Slush Puppie grew to $25 million in annual sales. Radcliff sold Slush Puppie to Cadbury Schweppes for $16.6 million in 2000. Slush Puppie was then acquired by J & J Snack Foods, a food manufacturer based in Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, on May 30, 2006. References External links Official U.S. site Official UK site Official Canadian site Official Australian site

Hushpuppy

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

A hush puppy (or hushpuppy) is a small, savory, deep-fried round ball made from cornmeal-based batter. Hushpuppies are frequently served as a side dish with seafood and other deep-fried foods. History The use of ground maize (corn) in cooking originated with Native Americans, who first cultivated the crop. Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole cooking introduced one of its main staples into Southern cuisine: corn, either ground into meal or limed with an alkaline salt to make hominy, in a Native American technology known as nixtamalization. Cornbread was popular during the American Civil War because it was inexpensive and could be made in many different shapes and sizes. It could be fashioned into high-rising, fluffy loaves or simply fried for a quick meal.To a far greater degree than anyone realizes, several of the most important food dishes that the Southeastern Indians live on today is the "soul food" eaten by both black and white Southerners. ... Indian boiled cornbread is present in Southern cuisine as "corn meal dumplings", ... and as "hush puppies"... Some have assigned influence to the founding ceremony of the convent of Ursuline nuns who settled in New Orleans after leaving France, where they served croquettes de maïs (corn croquettes). Hushpuppies are strongly associated with the Southern United States. A southern hushpuppy championship is held annually in Lufkin, Texas, and they are also available throughout the United States at restaurants serving deep-fried seafood. Name The first recorded use of the word "hush-puppy" dates to 1899. The name has no verified origin. Etymology is attributed to a variety of sources. Although there are many possible origins for the dish, it is found to be akin to "red-horse bread", named after the red horse fish of the South Carolina rivers. Associated with former slave chef Romeo Govan, "red horse bread" is said to have been similar in consistency and ingredients. "Red horse bread" of South Carolina then became "hushpuppies" in Georgia around 1927, then gained national traction around 1943 in Florida. Characteristics and preparation Typical hushpuppy ingredients include cornmeal, wheat flour, eggs, salt, baking soda, milk or buttermilk, and water, and may include onion, spring onion (scallion), garlic, whole kernel corn, and peppers. Sometimes pancake batter is used. The batter is mixed well, adjusting ingredients until thick, and dropped a spoonful at a time into hot oil. Many older recipes call for the batter to be cooked in the same oil as the fish it accompanies. The small corn dumplings are fried until crispy golden brown, and cooled. Hushpuppies are often served with seafood or barbecued foods. They are commonly made at home or served in restaurants advertising home-style food. Caribbean In Jamaica, such fried bread dumplings are known as "festivals", and are made from a flour and cornmeal dough, with added salt and sugar, which is then formed into hot-dog roll shapes and deep-fried. They are sweeter than hushpuppies, which often contain onion or garlic. They are served with jerked meats such as pork or chicken. Mostly, it is served with fried or escoveitch (see also escabeche and ceviche) fish. In Puerto Rico, hushpuppies are made in the shape of a short sausage and are called "sorullos" or the diminutive "sorullitos", for smaller sizes. Sugar is added to the cornmeal and can be stuffed with cheddar cheese or cream cheese with guava. They are served with coffee, guava dipping sauce, or fry sauce. See also Cornbread – American bread made with cornmeal Corn dog – Deep-fried, corn-battered hot dog on a stick Corn fritter – Fried cakes of maize dough Croquette – Small breaded, deep-fried food Cuisine of the Southern United States – Regional cuisine of the United States Falafel – Middle Eastern fried bean dish Frikadel – Flat, pan-fried meatballsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets Frikandel – Deep fried meat snack Johnnycake – American cornmeal flatbread Milho frito – Portuguese fried cornmeal dish Pigs in a blanket – Sausage wrapped in pastry List of fried dough foods List of maize dishes List of quick breads List of regional dishes of the United States Sloosh – Variety of cornbread popular during the American Civil War – a form of campfire cornbread made during the American Civil War Takoyaki – Japanese appetizer Vada – Category of savoury fried snacks from India – Indian fried lentil dough snacks, often flatter or disc-shaped == References ==

Moxostoma

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

Moxostoma, the redhorses or jumprocks, is a genus of North American ray-finned fish in the family Catostomidae. Redhorses are variable in size, geographic location, and other ecological traits such as spawning substrate. Several redhorses are long-lived (lifespans greater than 20 years), much like many other catostomid species. The silver redhorse is the longest-lived redhorse known by nearly a decade, with ages exceeding 40 years. Redhorses are broadly of conservation concern, as these long-lived species are highly intolerant to environmental pollution, habitat fragmentation, and are currently subject to unregulated 21st century sport bowfishing which is removing and wantonly wasting several of these species by the ton. Species The following 22 species are recognized in this genus: Additionally, four undescribed species are thought to belong to this genus: Moxostoma sp. 1 "Apalachicola" Undescribed, (Apalachicola Redhorse) Moxostoma sp. 2 "Sicklefin" Undescribed, (Sicklefin Redhorse) Moxostoma sp. 3 "Carolina" Undescribed, (Carolina Redhorse) Moxostoma sp. 4 "Brassy" Undescribed, (Brassy Jumprock) References Georgia Biodiversity Portal. Table of Rare Fishes. June 7, 2022 version. Fishes of North Carolina, Freshwater Fishes of North Carolina, Catostomidae. Freshwater Fishes of North Carolina. 2020 version.

Krampus

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

The Krampus is a horned anthropomorphic figure who, in the Central and Eastern Alpine folkloric tradition, is said to accompany Saint Nicholas on visits to children during the night of 5 December (Krampusnacht; "Krampus Night"), immediately before the Feast of St. Nicholas on 6 December. In this tradition, Saint Nicholas rewards well-behaved children with small gifts, while Krampus punishes badly behaved ones with birch rods. The origin of the figure is unclear; some folklorists and anthropologists have postulated that it may have pre-Christian origins. In traditional parades and in such events as the Krampuslauf ("Krampus run"), young men dressed as Krampus attempt to scare the audience with their antics. Krampus is featured on holiday greeting cards called Krampuskarten. The figure has been imported into American popular culture, and has appeared in movies, TV and games. Etymology Krampus is thought to come from either Bavarian: krampn, meaning "dead", "rotten", or from the German: kramp/krampen, meaning "claw". The Krampus is considered to be a half-goat, half-demon monster in some legends. Its role is to punish bad children or scare them into being good. Origins The Krampus is thought to be inspired by other mythical creatures, such as the Perchten or Straggele, though there are no written sources before the end of the 16th century. Discussing his observations in 1975 while in Irdning, a small town in Styria, anthropologist John J. Honigmann wrote that: The Saint Nicholas festival we are describing incorporates cultural elements widely distributed in Europe. St. Nicholas himself became popular in Germany around the eleventh century. The feast dedicated to this patron of children is only one winter occasion in which children are the objects of special attention, others being Martinmas, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and New Year's Day. Masked devils acting boisterously and making nuisances of themselves are known in Germany since at least the sixteenth century while animal masked devils combining dreadful-comic (schauriglustig) antics appeared in medieval church plays. A large literature, much of it by European folklorists, bears on these subjects. ... Austrians in the community we studied are quite aware of "heathen" elements being blended with Christian elements in the Saint Nicholas customs and in other traditional winter ceremonies. They believe Krampus derives from a pagan supernatural who was assimilated to the Christian devil. The Perchten figures persisted but are unrelated to the Krampus. Krampus is a Perchten and Straggele inspired figure; but has very distinct physical traits that make Krampus unique to his cousins. Krampus is usually featured as a man with horns with one grotesque human foot and one foot of a goat, typically covered in black hair, and unique to Krampus; also a very long snake or dragon like tongue. In the 17th century Krampus had been paired with St. Nicholas as a helper. Because Nicholas is a saint, it wasn’t logical or deemed saintly behavior for Nicholas to deliver punishments. Therefore a helper was assigned to St Nicholas; such as Farmhand Rupert, Smutzli, or Père Fouettard who would go down the chimney or punish the naughty children. Krampus served St Nicholas in the same role. Modern history In the aftermath of the 1932 election in Austria, the Krampus tradition was prohibited by the Dollfuss regime under the clerical fascist Fatherland Front (Vaterländische Front) and the Christian Social Party. In the 1950s, the government distributed pamphlets titled "Krampus Is an Evil Man" for fear that encounters with Krampus might damage children's mental health. Towards the end of the century, a popular resurgence of Krampus celebrations occurred and continues today. The Krampus tradition is being revived in Bavaria as well, along with a local artistic tradition of hand-carved wooden masks. In 2019 there were reports of drunken or disorderly conduct by masked Krampuses in some Austrian towns. Appearance Although Krampus appears in many variations, most share some common physical characteristics. He is hairy, usually brown or black, and has one foot that has the cloven hooves and horns of a goat. His long, pointed tongue drops out, and he has fangs. Krampus carries chains, thought to symbolize the binding of the Devil by the Christian Church. He thrashes the chains for dramatic effect. The chains are sometimes accompanied with bells of various sizes. Krampus will carry a bundle of birch branches with which he occasionally swats children. The birch branches are replaced with a whip in some representations. On Christmas Eve, Krampus travels with a sack or a basket strapped to his back; this is to cart off evil children for drowning, eating, or transport to Hell. Some of the older versions make mention of naughty children being put in the bag and taken away. This quality can be found in other companions of Saint Nicholas such as Zwarte Piet. Jewish physiognomy stereotypes and anti-Semitic undertones Krampus' appearance and features are characterized by horns, hooves, fur, hooked nose, beard, dark hair, fangs, and a long tongue. Scholars have noted that the hooked nose and grotesque features mirror the antisemitic images of Jews in historical central European art. This similarity raises questions about the implicit messages conveyed through Krampus' portrayal. Artistic representations of Krampus alongside Saint Nicholas further emphasize this contrast. For instance, early 20th-century Austrian postcards depict Krampus with a devilish appearance, contrasting sharply with the saintly, Aryan features of Saint Nicholas. This juxtaposition reinforces the "otherness" of Krampus but also subtly aligns his characteristics with historical antisemitic depictions of Jews. Krampusnacht The Feast of St. Nicholas is celebrated in parts of Europe on 6 December. On the preceding evening of 5 December, Krampus Night or Krampusnacht, the wicked hairy devil appears on the streets. Sometimes accompanying St. Nicholas and sometimes on his own, Krampus visits homes and businesses. The Saint usually appears in the Eastern Rite vestments of a bishop, and he carries a golden ceremonial staff. Unlike North American versions of Santa Claus, in these celebrations Saint Nicholas concerns himself only with the good children, while Krampus is responsible for the bad. Nicholas dispenses gifts, while Krampus supplies coal and the Rute. A seasonal play that spread throughout the Alpine regions was known as the Nikolausspiel ("Nicholas play"). Inspired by Paradise plays, which focused on Adam and Eve's encounter with a tempter, the Nicholas plays featured competition for the human souls and played on the question of morality. In these Nicholas plays, Saint Nicholas would reward children for scholarly efforts rather than for good behavior. This is a theme that grew in Alpine regions where the Roman Catholic Church had significant influence. Perchtenlauf and Krampuslauf There were already established pagan traditions in the Alpine regions that became intertwined with Catholicism. People would masquerade as a devilish figure known as Percht, a two-legged humanoid goat with a giraffe-like neck, wearing animal furs. People wore costumes and marched in processions known as Perchtenlaufen, which are regarded as an earlier form of the Krampus runs. Perchtenlaufen were looked at with suspicion by the Catholic Church and banned by some civil authorities. Due to sparse population and rugged environments within the Alpine region, the ban was not effective or easily enforced, rendering the ban useless. Eventually the Perchtenlauf, inspired by the Nicholas plays, introduced Saint Nicholas and his set of good morals. The Percht transformed into what is now known as the Krampus and was made to be subjected to Saint Nicholas' will. It is customary to offer a Krampus schnapps, a strong distilled fruit brandy. These runs may include Perchten, similarly wild pagan spirits of Germanic folklore and sometimes female in representation, although the Perchten are properly associated with the period between winter solstice and 6 January. Criticism of the Krampus run Every year there are arguments during Krampus runs. Occasionally spectators take revenge for whippings and attack Krampuses. In 2013, after several Krampus runs in East Tyrol, a total of eight injured people (mostly with broken bones) were admitted to the Lienz district hospital and over 60 other patients were treated on an outpatient basis. Krampuskarten Europeans have been exchanging greeting cards featuring Krampus since the 19th century. Sometimes introduced with Gruß vom Krampus (Greetings from Krampus), the cards usually have humorous rhymes and poems. Krampus is often featured looming menacingly over children. He is also shown as having one human foot and one cloven hoof. In some, Krampus has sexual overtones; he is pictured pursuing buxom women. Over time, the representation of Krampus in the cards has changed; older versions have a more frightening Krampus, while modern versions have a cuter, more Cupid-like creature. Krampus has also adorned postcards and candy containers. Regional variation Krampus appears in the folklore of Austria, Bavaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Northern Italy (Autonomous Province of Trento, South Tyrol, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia), Slovakia, and Slovenia. In Styria, the Rute is presented by Krampus to families. The twigs are painted gold and displayed year-round in the house—a reminder to any child who has temporarily forgotten Krampus. In smaller, more isolated villages, the figure has other beastly companions, such as the antlered "wild man" figures, and St Nicholas is nowhere to be seen. These Styrian companions of Krampus are called Schabmänner or Rauhen. A toned-down version of Krampus is part of the popular Christmas markets in Austrian urban centres like Salzburg. In these, more tourist-friendly interpretations, Krampus is more humorous than fearsome. North American Krampus celebrations are a growing phenomenon. Similar figures are recorded in neighboring areas. Strohbart in Bavaria, Klaubauf(mann) in Austria and Bavaria, while Bartl or Bartel, Niglobartl, and Wubartl are used in the southern part of the country. Other names include Barrel or Bartholomeus (Styria), Schmutzli (German-speaking Switzerland), Pöpel or Hüllepöpel (Würzburg), Zember (Cheb), Belzmärte and Pelzmärtel (Swabia and Franconia). In most parts of Slovenia, whose culture was greatly affected by Austrian culture, Krampus is called parkelj and is one of the companions of Miklavž, the Slovenian form of St. Nicholas. In many parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, Krampus is described as a devil wearing a cloth sack around his waist and chains around his neck, ankles, and wrists. As a part of a tradition, when a child receives a gift from St. Nicholas he is given a golden branch to represent his good deeds throughout the year; however, if the child has misbehaved, Krampus will take the gifts for himself and leave only a silver branch to represent the child's bad acts. In popular culture The character of Krampus has been imported and modified for various North American media, including print (e.g. Krampus: The Devil of Christmas, a collection of vintage postcards by Monte Beauchamp in 2004; Krampus: The Yule Lord, a 2012 novel by Gerald Brom); Krampus, a comic series from Image Comics in 2013 created by Dean Kotz and Brian Joines, television – both live action ("A Krampus Carol", a 2012 episode of The League) and animation ("A Very Venture Christmas", a 2004 episode of The Venture Bros., "Minstrel Krampus", a 2013 episode of American Dad!)–video games (CarnEvil, a 1998 arcade game, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, a 2014 video game), and film (Krampus, a 2015 Christmas comedy horror movie from Universal Pictures). Biology Protomelas krampus, the freshwater actinopterygian fish, is named after Krampus. Gallery See also Related figures Belsnickel – German Christmas gift-bringer, another West Germanic figure associated with the midwinter period Perchta – German Alpine goddess, a female figure in West Germanic folklore whose procession (Perchtenlauf) occurs during the midwinter period Pre-Christian Alpine traditions Germanic paganism – Traditional religion of Germanic peoples Goatman – a malevolent figure in urban folklore originating in Southern United States, like Maryland Green Man – Architectural motif Holly King and Oak King – Personifications of winter and summer Yule goat – Scandinavian decorative Christmas straw goat, a goat associated with the midwinter period among the North Germanic peoples Mari Lwyd – South Wales Christmas folk custom Namahage – Japanese folklore character associated with new year's ritual Nuuttipukki – Scandinavian holidayPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets – Creature in Finnish folklore Kallikantzaros – Malevolent goblin in Southeastern European and Anatolian folklore – Creature in Balkan folklore Knecht Ruprecht – A companion of Saint Nicholas in Germanic folklore Koliada – Ancient pre-Christian Slavic winter festival, an ancient pre-Christian Slavic festival where participants wear masks and costumes and run around. Turoń – Creature in Polish folklore Ded Moroz – Christmas figure in eastern Slavic cultures Sinterklaas – Legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, celebrated in the Low Countries on 5 or 6 December. He has a companion called Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), who used to punish bad children with a "roe", and kidnap them in bags to Spain. But nowadays they are just as friendly as Sinterklaas ("de Sint"), and give sweets and presents to all children. Kurentovanje – 11-day carnival event in Slovenia Wild man – Mythical figure Silvesterklaus, a Swiss New Year's Eve celebration featuring a musical procession of performers in grotesque costumes. Wendigo – Mythical being in Native American folklore. Other Bogeyman – Mythological Antagonist Demon Horned deity References Bibliography Ridenour, Al (2016). The Krampus and the Old Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House. ISBN 978-1-62731-034-5. External links Roncero, Miguel. "Trailing the Krampus", Vienna Review, 2 December 2013

Coal

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

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is a type of fossil fuel, formed when dead plant matter decays into peat which is converted into coal by the heat and pressure of deep burial over millions of years. Vast deposits of coal originate in former wetlands called coal forests that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and Permian times. Coal is used primarily as a fuel. While coal has been known and used for thousands of years, its usage was limited until the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of the steam engine, coal consumption increased. In 2020, coal supplied about a quarter of the world's primary energy and over a third of its electricity. Some iron and steel-making and other industrial processes burn coal. The extraction and burning of coal damages the environment, causing premature death and illness, and it is the largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide contributing to climate change. Fourteen billion tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted by burning coal in 2020, which is 40% of total fossil fuel emissions and over 25% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. As part of worldwide energy transition, many countries have reduced or eliminated their use of coal power. The United Nations Secretary General asked governments to stop building new coal plants by 2020. Global coal use was 8.3 billion tonnes in 2022, and is set to remain at record levels in 2023. To meet the Paris Agreement target of keeping global warming below 2 °C (3.6 °F) coal use needs to halve from 2020 to 2030, and "phasing down" coal was agreed upon in the Glasgow Climate Pact. The largest consumer and importer of coal in 2020 was China, which accounts for almost half the world's annual coal production, followed by India with about a tenth. Indonesia and Australia export the most, followed by Russia. Etymology The word originally took the form col in Old English, from reconstructed Proto-Germanic *kula(n), from Proto-Indo-European root *g(e)u-lo- "live coal". Germanic cognates include the Old Frisian kole, Middle Dutch cole, Dutch kool, Old High German chol, German Kohle and Old Norse kol. Irish gual is also a cognate via the Indo-European root. Formation of coal The conversion of dead vegetation into coal is called coalification. At various times in the geologic past, the Earth had dense forests in low-lying areas. In these wetlands, the process of coalification began when dead plant matter was protected from oxidation, usually by mud or acidic water, and was converted into peat. The resulting peat bogs, which trapped immense amounts of carbon, were eventually deeply buried by sediments. Then, over millions of years, the heat and pressure of deep burial caused the loss of water, methane and carbon dioxide and increased the proportion of carbon. The grade of coal produced depended on the maximum pressure and temperature reached, with lignite (also called "brown coal") produced under relatively mild conditions, and sub-bituminous coal, bituminous coal, or anthracite coal (also called "hard coal" or "black coal") produced in turn with increasing temperature and pressure. Of the factors involved in coalification, temperature is much more important than either pressure or time of burial. Subbituminous coal can form at temperatures as low as 35 to 80 °C (95 to 176 °F) while anthracite requires a temperature of at least 180 to 245 °C (356 to 473 °F). Although coal is known from most geologic periods, 90% of all coal beds were deposited in the Carboniferous and Permian periods. Paradoxically, this was during the Late Paleozoic icehouse, a time of global glaciation. However, the drop in global sea level accompanying the glaciation exposed continental shelves that had previously been submerged, and to these were added wide river deltas produced by increased erosion due to the drop in base level. These widespread areas of wetlands provided ideal conditions for coal formation. The rapid formation of coal ended with the coal gap in the Permian–Triassic extinction event, where coal is rare. Favorable geography alone does not explain the extensive Carboniferous coal beds. Other factors contributing to rapid coal deposition were high oxygen levels, above 30%, that promoted intense wildfires and formation of charcoal that was all but indigestible by decomposing organisms; high carbon dioxide levels that promoted plant growth; and the nature of Carboniferous forests, which included lycophyte trees whose determinate growth meant that carbon was not tied up in heartwood of living trees for long periods. One theory suggested that about 360 million years ago, some plants evolved the ability to produce lignin, a complex polymer that made their cellulose stems much harder and more woody. The ability to produce lignin led to the evolution of the first trees. But bacteria and fungi did not immediately evolve the ability to decompose lignin, so the wood did not fully decay but became buried under sediment, eventually turning into coal. About 300 million years ago, mushrooms and other fungi developed this ability, ending the main coal-formation period of earth's history. Although some authors pointed at some evidence of lignin degradation during the Carboniferous, and suggested that climatic and tectonic factors were a more plausible explanation, reconstruction of ancestral enzymes by phylogenetic analysis corroborated a hypothesis that lignin degrading enzymes appeared in fungi approximately 200 MYa. One likely tectonic factor was the Central Pangean Mountains, an enormous range running along the equator that reached its greatest elevation near this time. Climate modeling suggests that the Central Pangean Mountains contributed to the deposition of vast quantities of coal in the late Carboniferous. The mountains created an area of year-round heavy precipitation, with no dry season typical of a monsoon climate. This is necessary for the preservation of peat in coal swamps. Coal is known from Precambrian strata, which predate land plants. This coal is presumed to have originated from residues of algae. Sometimes coal seams (also known as coal beds) are interbedded with other sediments in a cyclothem. Cyclothems are thought to have their origin in glacial cycles that produced fluctuations in sea level, which alternately exposed and then flooded large areas of continental shelf. Chemistry of coalification The woody tissue of plants is composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Modern peat is mostly lignin, with a content of cellulose and hemicellulose ranging from 5% to 40%. Various other organic compounds, such as waxes and nitrogen- and sulfur-containing compounds, are also present. Lignin has a weight composition of about 54% carbon, 6% hydrogen, and 30% oxygen, while cellulose has a weight composition of about 44% carbon, 6% hydrogen, and 49% oxygen. Bituminous coal has a composition of about 84.4% carbon, 5.4% hydrogen, 6.7% oxygen, 1.7% nitrogen, and 1.8% sulfur, on a weight basis. The low oxygen content of coal shows that coalification removed most of the oxygen and much of the hydrogen a process called carbonization. Carbonization proceeds primarily by dehydration, decarboxylation, and demethanation. Dehydration removes water molecules from the maturing coal via reactions such as 2 R–OH → R–O–R + H2O Decarboxylation removes carbon dioxide from the maturing coal: RCOOH → RH + CO2 while demethanation proceeds by reaction such as 2 R-CH3 → R-CH2-R + CH4 R-CH2-CH2-CH2-R → R-CH=CH-R + CH4 In these formulas, R represents the remainder of a cellulose or lignin molecule to which the reacting groups are attached. Dehydration and decarboxylation take place early in coalification, while demethanation begins only after the coal has already reached bituminous rank. The effect of decarboxylation is to reduce the percentage of oxygen, while demethanation reduces the percentage of hydrogen. Dehydration does both, and (together with demethanation) reduces the saturation of the carbon backbone (increasing the number of double bonds between carbon). As carbonization proceeds, aliphatic compounds convert to aromatic compounds. Similarly, aromatic rings fuse into polyaromatic compounds (linked rings of carbon atoms). The structure increasingly resembles graphene, the structural element of graphite. Chemical changes are accompanied by physical changes, such as decrease in average pore size. Macerals The macerals are coalified plant parts that retain the morphology and some properties of the original plant. In many coals, individual macerals can be identified visually. Some macerals include: vitrinite, derived from woody parts lipinite, derived from spores and algae inertite, derived from woody parts that had been burnt in prehistoric times huminite, a precursor to vitrinite. In coalification huminite is replaced by vitreous (shiny) vitrinite. Maturation of bituminous coal is characterized by bitumenization, in which part of the coal is converted to bitumen, a hydrocarbon-rich gel. Maturation to anthracite is characterized by debitumenization (from demethanation) and the increasing tendency of the anthracite to break with a conchoidal fracture, similar to the way thick glass breaks. Types As geological processes apply pressure to dead biotic material over time, under suitable conditions, its metamorphic grade or rank increases successively into: Peat, a precursor of coal Lignite, or brown coal, the lowest rank of coal, most harmful to health when burned, used almost exclusively as fuel for electric power generation Sub-bituminous coal, whose properties range between those of lignite and those of bituminous coal, is used primarily as fuel for steam-electric power generation. Bituminous coal, a dense sedimentary rock, usually black, but sometimes dark brown, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material. It is used primarily as fuel in steam-electric power generation and to make coke. Known as steam coal in the UK, and historically used to raise steam in steam locomotives and ships Anthracite coal, the highest rank of coal, is a harder, glossy black coal used primarily for residential and commercial space heating. Graphite, a difficult to ignite coal which is mostly used in pencils, or powdered for lubrication. Cannel coal (sometimes called "candle coal"), a variety of fine-grained, high-rank coal with significant hydrogen content, which consists primarily of liptinite. It is related to boghead coal. There are several international standards for coal. The classification of coal is generally based on the content of volatiles. However the most important distinction is between thermal coal (also known as steam coal), which is burnt to generate electricity via steam; and metallurgical coal (also known as coking coal), which is burnt at high temperature to make steel. Hilt's law is a geological observation that (within a small area) the deeper the coal is found, the higher its rank (or grade). It applies if the thermal gradient is entirely vertical; however, metamorphism may cause lateral changes of rank, irrespective of depth. For example, some of the coal seams of the Madrid, New Mexico coal field were partially converted to anthracite by contact metamorphism from an igneous sill while the remainder of the seams remained as bituminous coal. History The earliest recognized use is from the Shenyang area of China where by 4000 BC Neolithic inhabitants had begun carving ornaments from black lignite. Coal from the Fushun mine in northeastern China was used to smelt copper as early as 1000 BC. Marco Polo, the Italian who traveled to China in the 13th century, described coal as "black stones ... which burn like logs", and said coal was so plentiful, people could take three hot baths a week. In Europe, the earliest reference to the use of coal as fuel is from the geological treatise On Stones (Lap. 16) by the Greek scientist Theophrastus (c. 371–287 BC): Among the materials that are dug because they are useful, those known as anthrakes [coals] are made of earth, and, once set on fire, they burn like charcoal [anthrakes]. They are found in Liguria ... and in Elis as one approaches Olympia by the mountain road; and they are used by those who work in metals. Outcrop coal was used in Britain during the Bronze Age (3000–2000 BC), where it formed part of funeral pyres. In Roman Britain, with the exception of two modern fields, "the Romans were exploiting coals in all the major coalfields in England and Wales by the end of the second century AD". Evidence of trade in coal, dated to about AD 200, has been found at the Roman settlement at Heronbridge, near Chester; and in the Fenlands of East Anglia, where coal from the Midlands was transported via the Car Dyke for use in drying grain. Coal cinders have been found in the hearths of villas and Roman forts, particularly in Northumberland, dated to around AD 400. In the west of England, contemporary writers described the wonder of a permanent brazier of coal on the altar of Minerva at Aquae Sulis (modern day Bath), although in fact easily accessible surface coal from what became the Somerset coalfield was in common use in quite lowly dwellings locally. Evidence of coal's use for iron-working in the city during the Roman period has been found. In Eschweiler, Rhineland, deposits of bituminous coal were used by the Romans for the smelting of iron ore. No evidence exists of coal being of great importance in Britain before about AD 1000, the High Middle Ages. Coal came to be referred to as "seacoal" in the 13th century; the wharf where the material arrived in London was known as Seacoal Lane, so identified in a charter of King Henry III granted in 1253. Initially, the name was given because much coal was found on the shore, having fallen from the exposed coal seams on cliffs above or washed out of underwater coal outcrops, but by the time of Henry VIII, it was understood to derive from the way it was carried to London by sea. In 1257–1259, coal from Newcastle upon Tyne was shipped to London for the smiths and lime-burners building Westminster Abbey. Seacoal Lane and Newcastle Lane, where coal was unloaded at wharves along the River Fleet, still exist. These easily accessible sources had largely become exhausted (or could not meet the growing demand) by the 13th century, when underground extraction by shaft mining or adits was developed. The alternative name was "pitcoal", because it came from mines. Cooking and home heating with coal (in addition to firewood or instead of it) has been done in various times and places throughout human history, especially in times and places where ground-surface coal was available and firewood was scarce, but a widespread reliance on coal for home hearths probably never existed until such a switch in fuels happened in London in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Historian Ruth Goodman has traced the socioeconomic effects of that switch and its later spread throughout Britain and suggested that its importance in shaping the industrial adoption of coal has been previously underappreciated.: xiv–xix  The development of the Industrial Revolution led to the large-scale use of coal, as the steam engine took over from the water wheel. In 1700, five-sixths of the world's coal was mined in Britain. Britain would have run out of suitable sites for watermills by the 1830s if coal had not been available as a source of energy. In 1947 there were some 750,000 miners in Britain, but the last deep coal mine in the UK closed in 2015. A grade between bituminous coal and anthracite was once known as "steam coal" as it was widely used as a fuel for steam locomotives. In this specialized use, it is sometimes known as "sea coal" in the United States. Small "steam coal", also called dry small steam nuts (DSSN), was used as a fuel for domestic water heating. Coal played an important role in industry in the 19th and 20th century. The predecessor of the European Union, the European Coal and Steel Community, was based on the trading of this commodity. Coal continues to arrive on beaches around the world from both natural erosion of exposed coal seams and windswept spills from cargo ships. Many homes in such areas gather this coal as a significant, and sometimes primary, source of home heating fuel. Composition Coal consists mainly of a black mixture of diverse organic compounds and polymers. Of course, several kinds of coals exist, with variable dark colors and variable compositions. Young coals (brown coal, lignite) are not black. The two main black coals are bituminous, which is more abundant, and anthracite. The % carbon in coal follows the order anthracite > bituminous > lignite > brown coal. The fuel value of coal varies in the same order. Some anthracite deposits contain pure carbon in the form of graphite. For bituminous coal, the elemental composition on a dry, ash-free basis of 84.4% carbon, 5.4% hydrogen, 6.7% oxygen, 1.7% nitrogen, and 1.8% sulfur, on a weight basis. This composition reflects partly the composition of the precursor plants. The second main fraction of coal is ash, an undesirable, noncombustable mixture of inorganic minerals. The composition of ash is often discussed in terms of oxides obtained after combustion in air: Of particular interest is the sulfur content of coal, which can vary from less than 1% to as much as 4%. Most of the sulfur and most of the nitrogen is incorporated into the organic fraction in the form of organosulfur compounds and organonitrogen compounds. This sulfur and nitrogen are strongly bound within the hydrocarbon matrix. These elements are released as SO2 and NOx upon combustion. They cannot be removed, economically at least, otherwise. Some coals contain inorganic sulfur, mainly in the form of iron pyrite (FeS2). Being a dense mineral, it can be removed from coal by mechanical means, e.g. by froth flotation. Some sulfate occurs in coal, especially weathered samples. It is not volatilized and can be removed by washing. Minor components include: As minerals, Hg, As, and Se are not problematic to the environment, especially since they are only trace components. They become however mobile (volatile or water-soluble) when these minerals are combusted. Uses While most coal is used as fuel, other large-scale applications exist. Coke Coke is a solid carbonaceous residue derived from coking coal (a low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal, also known as metallurgical coal), which is used in manufacturing steel and other iron-containing products. Coke is made when coking coal is baked in an oven without oxygen at temperatures as high as 1,000 °C, driving off the volatile constituents and fusing together the fixed carbon and residual ash. Metallurgical coke is used as a fuel and as a reducing agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. The carbon monoxide produced by its combustion reduces hematite (an iron oxide) to iron. 2Fe2O3 + 6 CO → 4Fe + 6 CO2) Pig iron, which is too rich in dissolved carbon, is also produced. The coke must be strong enough to resist the weight of overburden in the blast furnace, which is why coking coal is so important in making steel using the conventional route. Coke from coal is grey, hard, and porous and has a heating value of 29.6 MJ/kg. Some coke-making processes produce byproducts, including coal tar, ammonia, light oils, and coal gas. Petroleum coke (petcoke) is the solid residue obtained in oil refining, which resembles coke but contains too many impurities to be useful in metallurgical applications. Production of chemicals Chemicals have been produced from coal since the 1950s. Coal can be used as a feedstock in the production of a wide range of chemical fertilizers and other chemical products. The main route to these products was coal gasification to produce syngas. Primary chemicals that are produced directly from the syngas include methanol, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide, which are the chemical building blocks from which a whole spectrum of derivative chemicals are manufactured, including olefins, acetic acid, formaldehyde, ammonia, urea, and others. The versatility of syngas as a precursor to primary chemicals and high-value derivative products provides the option of using coal to produce a wide range of commodities. In the 21st century, however, the use of coal bed methane is becoming more important. Because the slate of chemical products that can be made via coal gasification can in general also use feedstocks derived from natural gas and petroleum, the chemical industry tends to use whatever feedstocks are most cost-effective. Therefore, interest in using coal tended to increase for higher oil and natural gas prices and during periods of high global economic growth that might have strained oil and gas production. Coal to chemical processes require substantial quantities of water. Much coal to chemical production is in China where coal dependent provinces such as Shanxi are struggling to control its pollution. Liquefaction Coal can be converted directly into synthetic fuels equivalent to gasoline or diesel by hydrogenation or carbonization. Coal liquefaction emits more carbon dioxide than liquid fuel production from crude oil. Mixing in biomass and using CCS would emit slightly less than the oil process but at a high cost. State owned China Energy Investment runs a coal liquefaction plant and plans to build 2 more. Coal liquefaction may also refer to the cargo hazard when shipping coal. Gasification Coal gasification, as part of an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal-fired power station, is used to produce syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2) gas to fire gas turbines to produce electricity. Syngas can also be converted into transportation fuels, such as gasoline and diesel, through the Fischer–Tropsch process; alternatively, syngas can be converted into methanol, which can be blended into fuel directly or converted to gasoline via the methanol to gasoline process. Gasification combined with Fischer–Tropsch technology was used by the Sasol chemical company of South Africa to make chemicals and motor vehicle fuels from coal. During gasification, the coal is mixed with oxygen and steam while also being heated and pressurized. During the reaction, oxygen and water molecules oxidize the coal into carbon monoxide (CO), while also releasing hydrogen gas (H2). This used to be done in underground coal mines, and also to make town gas, which was piped to customers to burn for illumination, heating, and cooking. 3C (as Coal) + O2 + H2O → H2 + 3CO If the refiner wants to produce gasoline, the syngas is routed into a Fischer–Tropsch reaction. This is known as indirect coal liquefaction. If hydrogen is the desired end-product, however, the syngas is fed into the water gas shift reaction, where more hydrogen is liberated: CO + H2O → CO2 + H2 Electricity generation Energy density The energy density of coal is roughly 24 megajoules per kilogram (approximately 6.7 kilowatt-hours per kg). For a coal power plant with a 40% efficiency, it takes an estimated 325 kg (717 lb) of coal to power a 100 W lightbulb for one year. 27.6% of world energy was supplied by coal in 2017 and Asia used almost three-quarters of it. Precombustion treatment Refined coal is the product of a coal-upgrading technology that removes moisture and certain pollutants from lower-rank coals such as sub-bituminous and lignite (brown) coals. It is one form of several precombustion treatments and processes for coal that alter coal's characteristics before it is burned. Thermal efficiency improvements are achievable by improved pre-drying (especially relevant with high-moisture fuel such as lignite or biomass). The goals of precombustion coal technologies are to increase efficiency and reduce emissions when the coal is burned. Precombustion technology can sometimes be used as a supplement to postcombustion technologies to control emissions from coal-fueled boilers. Power plant combustion Coal burnt as a solid fuel in coal power stations to generate electricity is called thermal coal. Coal is also used to produce very high temperatures through combustion. Early deaths due to air pollution have been estimated at 200 per GW-year, however they may be higher around power plants where scrubbers are not used or lower if they are far from cities. Efforts around the world to reduce the use of coal have led some regions to switch to natural gas and electricity from lower carbon sources. When coal is used for electricity generation, it is usually pulverized and then burned in a furnace with a boiler (see also Pulverized coal-fired boiler). The furnace heat converts boiler water to steam, which is then used to spin turbines which turn generators and create electricity. The thermodynamic efficiency of this process varies between about 25% and 50% depending on the pre-combustion treatment, turbine technology (e.g. supercritical steam generator) and the age of the plant. A few integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants have been built, which burn coal more efficiently. Instead of pulverizing the coal and burning it directly as fuel in the steam-generating boiler, the coal is gasified to create syngas, which is burned in a gas turbine to produce electricity (just like natural gas is burned in a turbine). Hot exhaust gases from the turbine are used to raise steam in a heat recovery steam generator which powers a supplemental steam turbine. The overall plant efficiency when used to provide combined heat and power can reach as much as 94%. IGCC power plants emit less local pollution than conventional pulverized coal-fueled plants; however the technology for carbon capture and storage (CCS) after gasification and before burning has so far proved to be too expensive to use with coal. Other ways to use coal are as coal-water slurry fuel (CWS), which was developed in the Soviet Union, or in an MHD topping cycle. However these are not widely used due to lack of profit. In 2017 38% of the world's electricity came from coal, the same percentage as 30 years previously. In 2018 global installed capacity was 2TW (of which 1TW is in China) which was 30% of total electricity generation capacity. The most dependent major country is South Africa, with over 80% of its electricity generated by coal; but China alone generates more than half of the world's coal-generated electricity. Maximum use of coal was reached in 2013. In 2018 coal-fired power station capacity factor averaged 51%, that is they operated for about half their available operating hours. Coal industry Mining About 8,000 Mt of coal are produced annually, about 90% of which is hard coal and 10% lignite. As of 2018 just over half is from underground mines. The coal mining industry employs almost 2.7 million workers. More accidents occur during underground mining than surface mining. Not all countries publish mining accident statistics so worldwide figures are uncertain, but it is thought that most deaths occur in coal mining accidents in China: in 2017 there were 375 coal mining related deaths in China. Most coal mined is thermal coal (also called steam coal as it is used to make steam to generate electricity) but metallurgical coal (also called "metcoal" or "coking coal" as it is used to make coke to make iron) accounts for 10% to 15% of global coal use. As a traded commodity China mines almost half the world's coal, followed by India with about a tenth. Australia accounts for about a third of world coal exports, followed by Indonesia and Russia, while the largest importers are Japan and India. Russia is increasingly orienting its coal exports from Europe to Asia as Europe transitions to renewable energy and subjects Russia to sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. The price of metallurgical coal is volatile and much higher than the price of thermal coal because metallurgical coal must be lower in sulfur and requires more cleaning. Coal futures contracts provide coal producers and the electric power industry an important tool for hedging and risk management. In some countries, new onshore wind or solar generation already costs less than coal power from existing plants. However, for China this is forecast for the early 2020s and for southeast Asia not until the late 2020s. In India, building new plants is uneconomic and, despite being subsidized, existing plants are losing market share to renewables. In many countries in the Global North, there is a move away from the use of coal and former mine sites are being used as a tourist attraction. Market trends Of the countries which produce coal, China mines by far the most, almost half the world's coal, followed by less than 10% by India. China is also by far the largest consumer of coal. Therefore, international market trends depend on Chinese energy policy. Although the government effort to reduce air pollution in China means that the global long-term trend is to burn less coal, the short and medium term trends may differ, in part due to Chinese financing of new coal-fired power plants in other countries. Major producers Countries with an annual production higher than 300 million tonnes are shown. Major consumers Countries with an annual consumption higher than 500 million tonnes are shown. Shares are based on data expressed in tonnes oil equivalent. Major exporters Exporters are at risk of a reduction in import demand from India and China. Major importers Damage to human health The use of coal as fuel causes health problems and deaths. The mining and processing of coal causes air and water pollution. Coal-powered plants emit nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate pollution, and heavy metals, which adversely affect human health. Coal bed methane extraction is important to avoid mining accidents. The deadly London smog was caused primarily by the heavy use of coal. Globally coal is estimated to cause 800,000 premature deaths every year, mostly in India and China. Burning coal is a major contributor to sulfur dioxide emissions, which creates PM2.5 particulates, the most dangerous form of air pollution. Coal smokestack emissions cause asthma, strokes, reduced intelligence, artery blockages, heart attacks, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, mercury poisoning, arterial occlusion, and lung cancer. Annual health costs in Europe from use of coal to generate electricity are estimated at up to €43 billion. In China, improvements to air quality and human health would increase with more stringent climate policies, mainly because the country's energy is so heavily reliant on coal. And there would be a net economic benefit. A 2017 study in the Economic Journal found that for Britain during the period 1851–1860, "a one standard deviation increase in coal use raised infant mortality by 6–8% and that industrial coal use explains roughly one-third of the urban mortality penalty observed during this period." Breathing in coal dust causes coalworker's pneumoconiosis or "black lung", so called because the coal dust literally turns the lungs black. In the US alone, it is estimated that 1,500 former employees of the coal industry die every year from the effects of breathing in coal mine dust. Huge amounts of coal ash and other waste is produced annually. Use of coal generates hundreds of millions of tons of ash and other waste products every year. These include fly ash, bottom ash, and flue-gas desulfurization sludge, that contain mercury, uranium, thorium, arsenic, and other heavy metals, along with non-metals such as selenium. Around 10% of coal is ash. Coal ash is hazardous and toxic to human beings and some other living things. Coal ash contains the radioactive elements uranium and thorium. Coal ash and other solid combustion byproducts are stored locally and escape in various ways that expose those living near coal plants to radiation and environmental toxics. Damage to the environment Coal mining, coal combustion wastes, and flue gas are causing major environmental damage. Water systems are affected by coal mining. For example, the mining of coal affects groundwater and water table levels and acidity. Spills of fly ash, such as the Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill, can also contaminate land and waterways, and destroy homes. Power stations that burn coal also consume large quantities of water. This can affect the flows of rivers, and has consequential impacts on other land uses. In areas of water scarcity, such as the Thar Desert in Pakistan, coal mining and coal power plants contribute to the depletion of water resources. One of the earliest known impacts of coal on the water cycle was acid rain. In 2014, approximately 100 Tg/S of sulfur dioxide (SO2) was released, over half of which was from burning coal. After release, the sulfur dioxide is oxidized to H2SO4 which scatters solar radiation, hence its increase in the atmosphere exerts a cooling effect on the climate. This beneficially masks some of the warming caused by increased greenhouse gases. However, the sulfur is precipitated out of the atmosphere as acid rain in a matter of weeks, whereas carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Release of SO2 also contributes to the widespread acidification of ecosystems. Disused coal mines can also cause issues. Subsidence can occur above tunnels, causing damage to infrastructure or cropland. Coal mining can also cause long lasting fires, and it has been estimated that thousands of coal seam fires are burning at any given time. For example, Brennender Berg has been burning since 1668, and is still burning in the 21st century. The production of coke from coal produces ammonia, coal tar, and gaseous compounds as byproducts which if discharged to land, air or waterways can pollute the environment. The Whyalla steelworks is one example of a coke producing facility where liquid ammonia was discharged to the marine environment. Emission intensity Emission intensity is the greenhouse gas emitted over the life of a generator per unit of electricity generated. The emission intensity of coal power stations is high, as they emit around 1000 g of CO2eq for each kWh generated, while natural gas is medium-emission intensity at around 500 g CO2eq per kWh. The emission intensity of coal varies with type and generator technology and exceeds 1200 g per kWh in some countries. Underground fires Thousands of coal fires are burning around the world. Those burning underground can be difficult to locate and many cannot be extinguished. Fires can cause the ground above to subside, their combustion gases are dangerous to life, and breaking out to the surface can initiate surface wildfires. Coal seams can be set on fire by spontaneous combustion or contact with a mine fire or surface fire. Lightning strikes are an important source of ignition. The coal continues to burn slowly back into the seam until oxygen (air) can no longer reach the flame front. A grass fire in a coal area can set dozens of coal seams on fire. Coal fires in China burn an estimated 120 million tons of coal a year, emitting 360 million metric tons of CO2, amounting to 2–3% of the annual worldwide production of CO2 from fossil fuels. In Centralia, Pennsylvania (a borough located in the Coal Region of the U.S.), an exposed vein of anthracite ignited in 1962 due to a trash fire in the borough landfill, located in an abandoned anthracite strip mine pit. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful, and it continues to burn underground to this day. The Australian Burning Mountain was originally believed to be a volcano, but the smoke and ash come from a coal fire that has been burning for some 6,000 years. At Kuh i Malik in Yagnob Valley, Tajikistan, coal deposits have been burning for thousands of years, creating vast underground labyrinths full of unique minerals, some of them very beautiful. The reddish siltstone rock that caps many ridges and buttes in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and in western North Dakota is called porcelanite, which resembles the coal burning waste "clinker" or volcanic "scoria". Clinker is rock that has been fused by the natural burning of coal. In the Powder River Basin approximately 27 to 54 billion tons of coal burned within the past three million years. Wild coal fires in the area were reported by the Lewis and Clark Expedition as well as explorers and settlers in the area. Climate change The largest and most long-term effect of coal use is the release of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes climate change. Coal-fired power plants were the single largest contributor to the growth in global CO2 emissions in 2018, 40% of the total fossil fuel emissions, and more than a quarter of total emissions. Coal mining can emit methane, another greenhouse gas. In 2016 world gross carbon dioxide emissions from coal usage were 14.5 gigatonnes. For every megawatt-hour generated, coal-fired electric power generation emits around a tonne of carbon dioxide, which is double the approximately 500 kg of carbon dioxide released by a natural gas-fired electric plant. In 2013, the head of the UN climate agency advised that most of the world's coal reserves should be left in the ground to avoid catastrophic global warming. To keep global warming below 1.5 °C or 2 °C hundreds, or possibly thousands, of coal-fired power plants will need to be retired early. Pollution mitigation Economics In 2018 US$80 billion was invested in coal supply but almost all for sustaining production levels rather than opening new mines. In the long term coal and oil could cost the world trillions of dollars per year. Coal alone may cost Australia billions, whereas costs to some smaller companies or cities could be on the scale of millions of dollars. The economies most damaged by coal (via climate change) may be India and the US as they are the countries with the highest social cost of carbon. Bank loans to finance coal are a risk to the Indian economy. China is the largest producer of coal in the world. It is the world's largest energy consumer, and coal in China supplies 60% of its primary energy. However two fifths of China's coal power stations are estimated to be loss-making. Air pollution from coal storage and handling costs the US almost 200 dollars for every extra ton stored, due to PM2.5. Coal pollution costs the €43 billion each year. Measures to cut air pollution benefit individuals financially and the economies of countries such as China. Subsidies Subsidies for coal in 2021 have been estimated at US$19 billion, not including electricity subsidies, and are expected to rise in 2022. As of 2019 G20 countries provide at least US$63.9 billion of government support per year for the production of coal, including coal-fired power: many subsidies are impossible to quantify but they include US$27.6 billion in domestic and international public finance, US$15.4 billion in fiscal support, and US$20.9 billion in state-owned enterprise (SOE) investments per year. In the EU state aid to new coal-fired plants is banned from 2020, and to existing coal-fired plants from 2025. As of 2018, government funding for new coal power plants was supplied by Exim Bank of China, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Indian public sector banks. Coal in Kazakhstan was the main recipient of coal consumption subsidies totalling US$2 billion in 2017. Coal in Turkey benefited from substantial subsidies in 2021. Stranded assets Some coal-fired power stations could become stranded assets, for example China Energy Investment, the world's largest power company, risks losing half its capital. However, state-owned electricity utilities such as Eskom in South Africa, Perusahaan Listrik Negara in Indonesia, Sarawak Energy in Malaysia, Taipower in Taiwan, EGAT in Thailand, Vietnam Electricity and EÜAŞ in Turkey are building or planning new plants. As of 2021 this may be helping to cause a carbon bubble which could cause financial instability if it bursts. Politics Countries building or financing new coal-fired power stations, such as China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey and Bangladesh, face mounting international criticism for obstructing the aims of the Paris Agreement. In 2019, the Pacific Island nations (in particular Vanuatu and Fiji) criticized Australia for failing to cut their emissions at a faster rate than they were, citing concerns about coastal inundation and erosion. In May 2021, the G7 members agreed to end new direct government support for international coal power generation. Cultural usage Coal is the official state mineral of Kentucky, and the official state rock of Utah and West Virginia. These US states have a historic link to coal mining. Some cultures hold that children who misbehave will receive only a lump of coal from Santa Claus for Christmas in their stockings instead of presents. It is also customary and considered lucky in Scotland and the North of England to give coal as a gift on New Year's Day. This occurs as part of first-footing and represents warmth for the year to come. See also Notes References Sources Gençsü, Ipek (June 2019). "G20 coal subsidies" (PDF). Overseas Development Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 August 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2019. Further reading Freese, Barbara (2003). Coal: A Human History. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-7382-0400-0. OCLC 51449422. Thurber, Mark (2019). Coal. Polity Press. ISBN 978-1509514014. Paxman, Jeremy (2022). Black Gold : The History of How Coal Made Britain. William Collins. ISBN 9780008128364. External links Coal Transitions World Coal Association Coal – International Energy Agency Coal Online – International Energy Agency Archived 19 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine CoalExit European Association for Coal and Lignite Coal news and industry magazine Global Coal Plant Tracker Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air "Coal" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 574–93. "Coal" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905. "Coal" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.

Wood

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

Wood is a structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic material – a natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin that resists compression. Wood is sometimes defined as only the secondary xylem in the stems of trees, or more broadly to include the same type of tissue elsewhere, such as in the roots of trees or shrubs. In a living tree it performs a support function, enabling woody plants to grow large or to stand up by themselves. It also conveys water and nutrients between the leaves, other growing tissues, and the roots. Wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, woodchips, or fiber. Wood has been used for thousands of years for fuel, as a construction material, for making tools and weapons, furniture and paper. More recently it emerged as a feedstock for the production of purified cellulose and its derivatives, such as cellophane and cellulose acetate. As of 2020, the growing stock of forests worldwide was about 557 billion cubic meters. As an abundant, carbon-neutral renewable resource, woody materials have been of intense interest as a source of renewable energy. In 2008, approximately 3.97 billion cubic meters of wood were harvested. Dominant uses were for furniture and building construction. Wood is scientifically studied and researched through the discipline of wood science, which was initiated since the beginning of the 20th century. History A 2011 discovery in the Canadian province of New Brunswick yielded the earliest known plants to have grown wood, approximately 395 to 400 million years ago. Wood can be dated by carbon dating and in some species by dendrochronology to determine when a wooden object was created. People have used wood for thousands of years for many purposes, including as a fuel or as a construction material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, artworks, and paper. Known constructions using wood date back ten thousand years. Buildings like the longhouses in Neolithic Europe were made primarily of wood. Recent use of wood has been enhanced by the addition of steel and bronze into construction. The year-to-year variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives clues to the prevailing climate at the time a tree was cut. Physical properties Growth rings Wood, in the strict sense, is yielded by trees, which increase in diameter by the formation, between the existing wood and the inner bark, of new woody layers which envelop the entire stem, living branches, and roots. This process is known as secondary growth; it is the result of cell division in the vascular cambium, a lateral meristem, and subsequent expansion of the new cells. These cells then go on to form thickened secondary cell walls, composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Where the differences between the seasons are distinct, e.g. New Zealand, growth can occur in a discrete annual or seasonal pattern, leading to growth rings; these can usually be most clearly seen on the end of a log, but are also visible on the other surfaces. If the distinctiveness between seasons is annual (as is the case in equatorial regions, e.g. Singapore), these growth rings are referred to as annual rings. Where there is little seasonal difference growth rings are likely to be indistinct or absent. If the bark of the tree has been removed in a particular area, the rings will likely be deformed as the plant overgrows the scar. If there are differences within a growth ring, then the part of a growth ring nearest the center of the tree, and formed early in the growing season when growth is rapid, is usually composed of wider elements. It is usually lighter in color than that near the outer portion of the ring, and is known as earlywood or springwood. The outer portion formed later in the season is then known as the latewood or summerwood. There are major differences, depending on the kind of wood. If a tree grows all its life in the open and the conditions of soil and site remain unchanged, it will make its most rapid growth in youth, and gradually decline. The annual rings of growth are for many years quite wide, but later they become narrower and narrower. Since each succeeding ring is laid down on the outside of the wood previously formed, it follows that unless a tree materially increases its production of wood from year to year, the rings must necessarily become thinner as the trunk gets wider. As a tree reaches maturity its crown becomes more open and the annual wood production is lessened, thereby reducing still more the width of the growth rings. In the case of forest-grown trees so much depends upon the competition of the trees in their struggle for light and nourishment that periods of rapid and slow growth may alternate. Some trees, such as southern oaks, maintain the same width of ring for hundreds of years. On the whole, as a tree gets larger in diameter the width of the growth rings decreases. Knots As a tree grows, lower branches often die, and their bases may become overgrown and enclosed by subsequent layers of trunk wood, forming a type of imperfection known as a knot. The dead branch may not be attached to the trunk wood except at its base and can drop out after the tree has been sawn into boards. Knots affect the technical properties of the wood, usually reducing tension strength, but may be exploited for visual effect. In a longitudinally sawn plank, a knot will appear as a roughly circular "solid" (usually darker) piece of wood around which the grain of the rest of the wood "flows" (parts and rejoins). Within a knot, the direction of the wood (grain direction) is up to 90 degrees different from the grain direction of the regular wood. In the tree a knot is either the base of a side branch or a dormant bud. A knot (when the base of a side branch) is conical in shape (hence the roughly circular cross-section) with the inner tip at the point in stem diameter at which the plant's vascular cambium was located when the branch formed as a bud. In grading lumber and structural timber, knots are classified according to their form, size, soundness, and the firmness with which they are held in place. This firmness is affected by, among other factors, the length of time for which the branch was dead while the attaching stem continued to grow. Knots materially affect cracking and warping, ease in working, and cleavability of timber. They are defects which weaken timber and lower its value for structural purposes where strength is an important consideration. The weakening effect is much more serious when timber is subjected to forces perpendicular to the grain and/or tension than when under load along the grain and/or compression. The extent to which knots affect the strength of a beam depends upon their position, size, number, and condition. A knot on the upper side is compressed, while one on the lower side is subjected to tension. If there is a season check in the knot, as is often the case, it will offer little resistance to this tensile stress. Small knots may be located along the neutral plane of a beam and increase the strength by preventing longitudinal shearing. Knots in a board or plank are least injurious when they extend through it at right angles to its broadest surface. Knots which occur near the ends of a beam do not weaken it. Sound knots which occur in the central portion one-fourth the height of the beam from either edge are not serious defects. Knots do not necessarily influence the stiffness of structural timber; this will depend on the size and location. Stiffness and elastic strength are more dependent upon the sound wood than upon localized defects. The breaking strength is very susceptible to defects. Sound knots do not weaken wood when subject to compression parallel to the grain. In some decorative applications, wood with knots may be desirable to add visual interest. In applications where wood is painted, such as skirting boards, fascia boards, door frames and furniture, resins present in the timber may continue to 'bleed' through to the surface of a knot for months or even years after manufacture and show as a yellow or brownish stain. A knot primer paint or solution (knotting), correctly applied during preparation, may do much to reduce this problem but it is difficult to control completely, especially when using mass-produced kiln-dried timber stocks. Heartwood and sapwood Heartwood (or duramen) is wood that as a result of a naturally occurring chemical transformation has become more resistant to decay. Heartwood formation is a genetically programmed process that occurs spontaneously. Some uncertainty exists as to whether the wood dies during heartwood formation, as it can still chemically react to decay organisms, but only once. The term heartwood derives solely from its position and not from any vital importance to the tree. This is evidenced by the fact that a tree can thrive with its heart completely decayed. Some species begin to form heartwood very early in life, so having only a thin layer of live sapwood, while in others the change comes slowly. Thin sapwood is characteristic of such species as chestnut, black locust, mulberry, osage-orange, and sassafras, while in maple, ash, hickory, hackberry, beech, and pine, thick sapwood is the rule. Some others never form heartwood. Heartwood is often visually distinct from the living sapwood and can be distinguished in a cross-section where the boundary will tend to follow the growth rings. For example, it is sometimes much darker. Other processes such as decay or insect invasion can also discolor wood, even in woody plants that do not form heartwood, which may lead to confusion. Sapwood (or alburnum) is the younger, outermost wood; in the growing tree it is living wood, and its principal functions are to conduct water from the roots to the leaves and to store up and give back according to the season the reserves prepared in the leaves. By the time they become competent to conduct water, all xylem tracheids and vessels have lost their cytoplasm and the cells are therefore functionally dead. All wood in a tree is first formed as sapwood. The more leaves a tree bears and the more vigorous its growth, the larger the volume of sapwood required. Hence trees making rapid growth in the open have thicker sapwood for their size than trees of the same species growing in dense forests. Sometimes trees (of species that do form heartwood) grown in the open may become of considerable size, 30 cm (12 in) or more in diameter, before any heartwood begins to form, for example, in second growth hickory, or open-grown pines. No definite relation exists between the annual rings of growth and the amount of sapwood. Within the same species the cross-sectional area of the sapwood is very roughly proportional to the size of the crown of the tree. If the rings are narrow, more of them are required than where they are wide. As the tree gets larger, the sapwood must necessarily become thinner or increase materially in volume. Sapwood is relatively thicker in the upper portion of the trunk of a tree than near the base, because the age and the diameter of the upper sections are less. When a tree is very young it is covered with limbs almost, if not entirely, to the ground, but as it grows older some or all of them will eventually die and are either broken off or fall off. Subsequent growth of wood may completely conceal the stubs which will remain as knots. No matter how smooth and clear a log is on the outside, it is more or less knotty near the middle. Consequently, the sapwood of an old tree, and particularly of a forest-grown tree, will be freer from knots than the inner heartwood. Since in most uses of wood, knots are defects that weaken the timber and interfere with its ease of working and other properties, it follows that a given piece of sapwood, because of its position in the tree, may well be stronger than a piece of heartwood from the same tree. Different pieces of wood cut from a large tree may differ decidedly, particularly if the tree is big and mature. In some trees, the wood laid on late in the life of a tree is softer, lighter, weaker, and more even textured than that produced earlier, but in other trees, the reverse applies. This may or may not correspond to heartwood and sapwood. In a large log the sapwood, because of the time in the life of the tree when it was grown, may be inferior in hardness, strength, and toughness to equally sound heartwood from the same log. In a smaller tree, the reverse may be true. Color In species which show a distinct difference between heartwood and sapwood the natural color of heartwood is usually darker than that of the sapwood, and very frequently the contrast is conspicuous (see section of yew log above). This is produced by deposits in the heartwood of chemical substances, so that a dramatic color variation does not imply a significant difference in the mechanical properties of heartwood and sapwood, although there may be a marked biochemical difference between the two. Some experiments on very resinous longleaf pine specimens indicate an increase in strength, due to the resin which increases the strength when dry. Such resin-saturated heartwood is called "fat lighter". Structures built of fat lighter are almost impervious to rot and termites, and very flammable. Tree stumps of old longleaf pines are often dug, split into small pieces and sold as kindling for fires. Stumps thus dug may actually remain a century or more since being cut. Spruce impregnated with crude resin and dried is also greatly increased in strength thereby. Since the latewood of a growth ring is usually darker in color than the earlywood, this fact may be used in visually judging the density, and therefore the hardness and strength of the material. This is particularly the case with coniferous woods. In ring-porous woods the vessels of the early wood often appear on a finished surface as darker than the denser latewood, though on cross sections of heartwood the reverse is commonly true. Otherwise the color of wood is no indication of strength. Abnormal discoloration of wood often denotes a diseased condition, indicating unsoundness. The black check in western hemlock is the result of insect attacks. The reddish-brown streaks so common in hickory and certain other woods are mostly the result of injury by birds. The discoloration is merely an indication of an injury, and in all probability does not of itself affect the properties of the wood. Certain rot-producing fungi impart to wood characteristic colors which thus become symptomatic of weakness. Ordinary sap-staining is due to fungal growth, but does not necessarily produce a weakening effect. Water content Water occurs in living wood in three locations, namely: in the cell walls in the protoplasmic contents of the cells as free water in the cell cavities and spaces, especially of the xylem In heartwood it occurs only in the first and last forms. Wood that is thoroughly air-dried (in equilibrium with the moisture content of the air) retains 8–16% of the water in the cell walls, and none, or practically none, in the other forms. Even oven-dried wood retains a small percentage of moisture, but for all except chemical purposes, may be considered absolutely dry. The general effect of the water content upon the wood substance is to render it softer and more pliable. A similar effect occurs in the softening action of water on rawhide, paper, or cloth. Within certain limits, the greater the water content, the greater its softening effect. The moisture in wood can be measured by several different moisture meters. Drying produces a decided increase in the strength of wood, particularly in small specimens. An extreme example is the case of a completely dry spruce block 5 cm in section, which will sustain a permanent load four times as great as a green (undried) block of the same size will. The greatest strength increase due to drying is in the ultimate crushing strength, and strength at elastic limit in endwise compression; these are followed by the modulus of rupture, and stress at elastic limit in cross-bending, while the modulus of elasticity is least affected. Structure Wood is a heterogeneous, hygroscopic, cellular and anisotropic (or more specifically, orthotropic) material. It consists of cells, and the cell walls are composed of micro-fibrils of cellulose (40–50%) and hemicellulose (15–25%) impregnated with lignin (15–30%). In coniferous or softwood species the wood cells are mostly of one kind, tracheids, and as a result the material is much more uniform in structure than that of most hardwoods. There are no vessels ("pores") in coniferous wood such as one sees so prominently in oak and ash, for example. The structure of hardwoods is more complex. The water conducting capability is mostly taken care of by vessels: in some cases (oak, chestnut, ash) these are quite large and distinct, in others (buckeye, poplar, willow) too small to be seen without a hand lens. In discussing such woods it is customary to divide them into two large classes, ring-porous and diffuse-porous. In ring-porous species, such as ash, black locust, catalpa, chestnut, elm, hickory, mulberry, and oak, the larger vessels or pores (as cross sections of vessels are called) are localized in the part of the growth ring formed in spring, thus forming a region of more or less open and porous tissue. The rest of the ring, produced in summer, is made up of smaller vessels and a much greater proportion of wood fibers. These fibers are the elements which give strength and toughness to wood, while the vessels are a source of weakness. In diffuse-porous woods the pores are evenly sized so that the water conducting capability is scattered throughout the growth ring instead of being collected in a band or row. Examples of this kind of wood are alder, basswood, birch, buckeye, maple, willow, and the Populus species such as aspen, cottonwood and poplar. Some species, such as walnut and cherry, are on the border between the two classes, forming an intermediate group. Earlywood and latewood In softwood In temperate softwoods, there often is a marked difference between latewood and earlywood. The latewood will be denser than that formed early in the season. When examined under a microscope, the cells of dense latewood are seen to be very thick-walled and with very small cell cavities, while those formed first in the season have thin walls and large cell cavities. The strength is in the walls, not the cavities. Hence the greater the proportion of latewood, the greater the density and strength. In choosing a piece of pine where strength or stiffness is the important consideration, the principal thing to observe is the comparative amounts of earlywood and latewood. The width of ring is not nearly so important as the proportion and nature of the latewood in the ring. If a heavy piece of pine is compared with a lightweight piece it will be seen at once that the heavier one contains a larger proportion of latewood than the other, and is therefore showing more clearly demarcated growth rings. In white pines there is not much contrast between the different parts of the ring, and as a result the wood is very uniform in texture and is easy to work. In hard pines, on the other hand, the latewood is very dense and is deep-colored, presenting a very decided contrast to the soft, straw-colored earlywood. It is not only the proportion of latewood, but also its quality, that counts. In specimens that show a very large proportion of latewood it may be noticeably more porous and weigh considerably less than the latewood in pieces that contain less latewood. One can judge comparative density, and therefore to some extent strength, by visual inspection. No satisfactory explanation can as yet be given for the exact mechanisms determining the formation of earlywood and latewood. Several factors may be involved. In conifers, at least, rate of growth alone does not determine the proportion of the two portions of the ring, for in some cases the wood of slow growth is very hard and heavy, while in others the opposite is true. The quality of the site where the tree grows undoubtedly affects the character of the wood formed, though it is not possible to formulate a rule governing it. In general, where strength or ease of working is essential, woods of moderate to slow growth should be chosen. In ring-porous woods In ring-porous woods, each season's growth is always well defined, because the large pores formed early in the season abut on the denser tissue of the year before. In the case of the ring-porous hardwoods, there seems to exist a pretty definite relation between the rate of growth of timber and its properties. This may be briefly summed up in the general statement that the more rapid the growth or the wider the rings of growth, the heavier, harder, stronger, and stiffer the wood. This, it must be remembered, applies only to ring-porous woods such as oak, ash, hickory, and others of the same group, and is, of course, subject to some exceptions and limitations. In ring-porous woods of good growth, it is usually the latewood in which the thick-walled, strength-giving fibers are most abundant. As the breadth of ring diminishes, this latewood is reduced so that very slow growth produces comparatively light, porous wood composed of thin-walled vessels and wood parenchyma. In good oak, these large vessels of the earlywood occupy from six to ten percent of the volume of the log, while in inferior material they may make up 25% or more. The latewood of good oak is dark colored and firm, and consists mostly of thick-walled fibers which form one-half or more of the wood. In inferior oak, this latewood is much reduced both in quantity and quality. Such variation is very largely the result of rate of growth. Wide-ringed wood is often called "second-growth", because the growth of the young timber in open stands after the old trees have been removed is more rapid than in trees in a closed forest, and in the manufacture of articles where strength is an important consideration such "second-growth" hardwood material is preferred. This is particularly the case in the choice of hickory for handles and spokes. Here not only strength, but toughness and resilience are important. The results of a series of tests on hickory by the U.S. Forest Service show that: "The work or shock-resisting ability is greatest in wide-ringed wood that has from 5 to 14 rings per inch (rings 1.8-5 mm thick), is fairly constant from 14 to 38 rings per inch (rings 0.7–1.8 mm thick), and decreases rapidly from 38 to 47 rings per inch (rings 0.5–0.7 mm thick). The strength at maximum load is not so great with the most rapid-growing wood; it is maximum with from 14 to 20 rings per inch (rings 1.3–1.8 mm thick), and again becomes less as the wood becomes more closely ringed. The natural deduction is that wood of first-class mechanical value shows from 5 to 20 rings per inch (rings 1.3–5 mm thick) and that slower growth yields poorer stock. Thus the inspector or buyer of hickory should discriminate against timber that has more than 20 rings per inch (rings less than 1.3 mm thick). Exceptions exist, however, in the case of normal growth upon dry situations, in which the slow-growing material may be strong and tough." The effect of rate of growth on the qualities of chestnut wood is summarized by the same authority as follows: "When the rings are wide, the transition from spring wood to summer wood is gradual, while in the narrow rings the spring wood passes into summer wood abruptly. The width of the spring wood changes but little with the width of the annual ring, so that the narrowing or broadening of the annual ring is always at the expense of the summer wood. The narrow vessels of the summer wood make it richer in wood substance than the spring wood composed of wide vessels. Therefore, rapid-growing specimens with wide rings have more wood substance than slow-growing trees with narrow rings. Since the more the wood substance the greater the weight, and the greater the weight the stronger the wood, chestnuts with wide rings must have stronger wood than chestnuts with narrow rings. This agrees with the accepted view that sprouts (which always have wide rings) yield better and stronger wood than seedling chestnuts, which grow more slowly in diameter." In diffuse-porous woods In the diffuse-porous woods, the demarcation between rings is not always so clear and in some cases is almost (if not entirely) invisible to the unaided eye. Conversely, when there is a clear demarcation there may not be a noticeable difference in structure within the growth ring. In diffuse-porous woods, as has been stated, the vessels or pores are even-sized, so that the water conducting capability is scattered throughout the ring instead of collected in the earlywood. The effect of rate of growth is, therefore, not the same as in the ring-porous woods, approaching more nearly the conditions in the conifers. In general, it may be stated that such woods of medium growth afford stronger material than when very rapidly or very slowly grown. In many uses of wood, total strength is not the main consideration. If ease of working is prized, wood should be chosen with regard to its uniformity of texture and straightness of grain, which will in most cases occur when there is little contrast between the latewood of one season's growth and the earlywood of the next. Monocots Structural material that resembles ordinary, "dicot" or conifer timber in its gross handling characteristics is produced by a number of monocot plants, and these also are colloquially called wood. Of these, bamboo, botanically a member of the grass family, has considerable economic importance, larger culms being widely used as a building and construction material and in the manufacture of engineered flooring, panels and veneer. Another major plant group that produces material that often is called wood are the palms. Of much less importance are plants such as Pandanus, Dracaena and Cordyline. With all this material, the structure and composition of the processed raw material is quite different from ordinary wood. Specific gravity The single most revealing property of wood as an indicator of wood quality is specific gravity (Timell 1986), as both pulp yield and lumber strength are determined by it. Specific gravity is the ratio of the mass of a substance to the mass of an equal volume of water; density is the ratio of a mass of a quantity of a substance to the volume of that quantity and is expressed in mass per unit substance, e.g., grams per milliliter (g/cm3 or g/ml). The terms are essentially equivalent as long as the metric system is used. Upon drying, wood shrinks and its density increases. Minimum values are associated with green (water-saturated) wood and are referred to as basic specific gravity (Timell 1986). The U.S. Forest Products Laboratory lists a variety of ways to define specific gravity (G) and density (ρ) for wood: The FPL has adopted Gb and G12 for specific gravity, in accordance with the ASTM D2555 standard. These are scientifically useful, but don't represent any condition that could physically occur. The FPL Wood Handbook also provides formulas for approximately converting any of these measurements to any other. Density Wood density is determined by multiple growth and physiological factors compounded into "one fairly easily measured wood characteristic" (Elliott 1970). Age, diameter, height, radial (trunk) growth, geographical location, site and growing conditions, silvicultural treatment, and seed source all to some degree influence wood density. Variation is to be expected. Within an individual tree, the variation in wood density is often as great as or even greater than that between different trees (Timell 1986). Variation of specific gravity within the bole of a tree can occur in either the horizontal or vertical direction. Because the specific gravity as defined above uses an unrealistic condition, woodworkers tend to use the "average dried weight", which is a density based on mass at 12% moisture content and volume at the same (ρ12). This condition occurs when the wood is at equilibrium moisture content with air at about 65% relative humidity and temperature at 30 °C (86 °F). This density is expressed in units of kg/m3 or lbs/ft3. Tables The following tables list the mechanical properties of wood and lumber plant species, including bamboo. See also Mechanical properties of tonewoods for additional properties. Wood properties: Bamboo properties: Hard versus soft It is common to classify wood as either softwood or hardwood. The wood from conifers (e.g. pine) is called softwood, and the wood from dicotyledons (usually broad-leaved trees, e.g. oak) is called hardwood. These names are a bit misleading, as hardwoods are not necessarily hard, and softwoods are not necessarily soft. The well-known balsa (a hardwood) is actually softer than any commercial softwood. Conversely, some softwoods (e.g. yew) are harder than many hardwoods. There is a strong relationship between the properties of wood and the properties of the particular tree that yielded it, at least for certain species. For example, in loblolly pine, wind exposure and stem position greatly affect the hardness of wood, as well as compression wood content. The density of wood varies with species. The density of a wood correlates with its strength (mechanical properties). For example, mahogany is a medium-dense hardwood that is excellent for fine furniture crafting, whereas balsa is light, making it useful for model building. One of the densest woods is black ironwood. Chemistry The chemical composition of wood varies from species to species, but is approximately 50% carbon, 42% oxygen, 6% hydrogen, 1% nitrogen, and 1% other elements (mainly calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, iron, and manganese) by weight. Wood also contains sulfur, chlorine, silicon, phosphorus, and other elements in small quantity. Aside from water, wood has three main components. Cellulose, a crystalline polymer derived from glucose, constitutes about 41–43%. Next in abundance is hemicellulose, which is around 20% in deciduous trees but near 30% in conifers. It is mainly five-carbon sugars that are linked in an irregular manner, in contrast to the cellulose. Lignin is the third component at around 27% in coniferous wood vs. 23% in deciduous trees. Lignin confers the hydrophobic properties reflecting the fact that it is based on aromatic rings. These three components are interwoven, and direct covalent linkages exist between the lignin and the hemicellulose. A major focus of the paper industry is the separation of the lignin from the cellulose, from which paper is made. In chemical terms, the difference between hardwood and softwood is reflected in the composition of the constituent lignin. Hardwood lignin is primarily derived from sinapyl alcohol and coniferyl alcohol. Softwood lignin is mainly derived from coniferyl alcohol. Extractives Aside from the structural polymers, i.e. cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin (lignocellulose), wood contains a large variety of non-structural constituents, composed of low molecular weight organic compounds, called extractives. These compounds are present in the extracellular space and can be extracted from the wood using different neutral solvents, such as acetone. Analogous content is present in the so-called exudate produced by trees in response to mechanical damage or after being attacked by insects or fungi. Unlike the structural constituents, the composition of extractives varies over wide ranges and depends on many factors. The amount and composition of extractives differs between tree species, various parts of the same tree, and depends on genetic factors and growth conditions, such as climate and geography. For example, slower growing trees and higher parts of trees have higher content of extractives. Generally, the softwood is richer in extractives than the hardwood. Their concentration increases from the cambium to the pith. Barks and branches also contain extractives. Although extractives represent a small fraction of the wood content, usually less than 10%, they are extraordinarily diverse and thus characterize the chemistry of the wood species. Most extractives are secondary metabolites and some of them serve as precursors to other chemicals. Wood extractives display different activities, some of them are produced in response to wounds, and some of them participate in natural defense against insects and fungi. These compounds contribute to various physical and chemical properties of the wood, such as wood color, fragnance, durability, acoustic properties, hygroscopicity, adhesion, and drying. Considering these impacts, wood extractives also affect the properties of pulp and paper, and importantly cause many problems in paper industry. Some extractives are surface-active substances and unavoidably affect the surface properties of paper, such as water adsorption, friction and strength. Lipophilic extractives often give rise to sticky deposits during kraft pulping and may leave spots on paper. Extractives also account for paper smell, which is important when making food contact materials. Most wood extractives are lipophilic and only a little part is water-soluble. The lipophilic portion of extractives, which is collectively referred as wood resin, contains fats and fatty acids, sterols and steryl esters, terpenes, terpenoids, resin acids, and waxes. The heating of resin, i.e. distillation, vaporizes the volatile terpenes and leaves the solid component – rosin. The concentrated liquid of volatile compounds extracted during steam distillation is called essential oil. Distillation of oleoresin obtained from many pines provides rosin and turpentine. Most extractives can be categorized into three groups: aliphatic compounds, terpenes and phenolic compounds. The latter are more water-soluble and usually are absent in the resin. Aliphatic compounds include fatty acids, fatty alcohols and their esters with glycerol, fatty alcohols (waxes) and sterols (steryl esters). Hydrocarbons, such as alkanes, are also present in the wood. Suberin is a polyester, made of suberin acids and glycerol, mainly found in barks. Fats serve as a source of energy for the wood cells. The most common wood sterol is sitosterol, and less commonly sitostanol, citrostadienol, campesterol or cholesterol. The main terpenes occurring in the softwood include mono-, sesqui- and diterpenes. Meanwhile, the terpene composition of the hardwood is considerably different, consisting of triterpenoids, polyprenols and other higher terpenes. Examples of mono-, di- and sesquiterpenes are α- and β-pinenes, 3-carene, β-myrcene, limonene, thujaplicins, α- and β-phellandrenes, α-muurolene, δ-cadinene, α- and δ-cadinols, α- and β-cedrenes, juniperol, longifolene, cis-abienol, borneol, pinifolic acid, nootkatin, chanootin, phytol, geranyl-linalool, β-epimanool, manoyloxide, pimaral and pimarol. Resin acids are usually tricyclic terpenoids, examples of which are pimaric acid, sandaracopimaric acid, isopimaric acid, abietic acid, levopimaric acid, palustric acid, neoabietic acid and dehydroabietic acid. Bicyclic resin acids are also found, such as lambertianic acid, communic acid, mercusic acid and secodehydroabietic acid. Cycloartenol, betulin and squalene are triterpenoids purified from hardwood. Examples of wood polyterpenes are rubber (cis-polypren), gutta percha (trans-polypren), gutta-balatá (trans-polypren) and betulaprenols (acyclic polyterpenoids). The mono- and sesquiterpenes of the softwood are responsible for the typical smell of pine forest. Many monoterpenoids, such as β-myrcene, are used in the preparation of flavors and fragrances. Tropolones, such as hinokitiol and other thujaplicins, are present in decay-resistant trees and display fungicidal and insecticidal properties. Tropolones strongly bind metal ions and can cause digester corrosion in the process kraft pulping. Owing to their metal-binding and ionophoric properties, especially thujaplicins are used in physiology experiments. Different other in-vitro biological activities of thujaplicins have been studied, such as insecticidal, anti-browning, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-proliferative and anti-oxidant. Phenolic compounds are especially found in the hardwood and the bark. The most well-known wood phenolic constituents are stilbenes (e.g. pinosylvin), lignans (e.g. pinoresinol, conidendrin, plicatic acid, hydroxymatairesinol), norlignans (e.g. nyasol, puerosides A and B, hydroxysugiresinol, sequirin-C), tannins (e.g. gallic acid, ellagic acid), flavonoids (e.g. chrysin, taxifolin, catechin, genistein). Most of the phenolic compounds have fungicidal properties and protect the wood from fungal decay. Together with the neolignans the phenolic compounds influence on the color of the wood. Resin acids and phenolic compounds are the main toxic contaminants present in the untreated effluents from pulping. Polyphenolic compounds are one of the most abundant biomolecules produced by plants, such as flavonoids and tannins. Tannins are used in leather industry and have shown to exhibit different biological activities. Flavonoids are very diverse, widely distributed in the plant kingdom and have numerous biological activities and roles. Uses Production Global production of roundwood rose from 3.5 billion m³ in 2000 to 4 billion m³ in 2021. In 2021, wood fuel was the main product with a 49 percent share of the total (2 billion m³), followed by coniferous industrial roundwood with 30 percent (1.2 billion m³) and non-coniferous industrial roundwood with 21 percent (0.9 billion m³). Asia and the Americas are the two main producing regions, accounting for 29 and 28 percent of the total roundwood production, respectively; Africa and Europe have similar shares of 20–21 percent, while Oceania produces the remaining 2 percent. Fuel Wood has a long history of being used as fuel, which continues to this day, mostly in rural areas of the world. Hardwood is preferred over softwood because it creates less smoke and burns longer. Adding a woodstove or fireplace to a home is often felt to add ambiance and warmth. Pulpwood Pulpwood is wood that is raised specifically for use in making paper. Construction Wood has been an important construction material since humans began building shelters, houses and boats. Nearly all boats were made out of wood until the late 19th century, and wood remains in common use today in boat construction. Elm in particular was used for this purpose as it resisted decay as long as it was kept wet (it also served for water pipe before the advent of more modern plumbing). Wood to be used for construction work is commonly known as lumber in North America. Elsewhere, lumber usually refers to felled trees, and the word for sawn planks ready for use is timber. In Medieval Europe oak was the wood of choice for all wood construction, including beams, walls, doors, and floors. Today a wider variety of woods is used: solid wood doors are often made from poplar, small-knotted pine, and Douglas fir. New domestic housing in many parts of the world today is commonly made from timber-framed construction. Engineered wood products are becoming a bigger part of the construction industry. They may be used in both residential and commercial buildings as structural and aesthetic materials. In buildings made of other materials, wood will still be found as a supporting material, especially in roof construction, in interior doors and their frames, and as exterior cladding. Wood is also commonly used as shuttering material to form the mold into which concrete is poured during reinforced concrete construction. Flooring A solid wood floor is a floor laid with planks or battens created from a single piece of timber, usually a hardwood. Since wood is hydroscopic (it acquires and loses moisture from the ambient conditions around it) this potential instability effectively limits the length and width of the boards. Solid hardwood flooring is usually cheaper than engineered timbers and damaged areas can be sanded down and refinished repeatedly, the number of times being limited only by the thickness of wood above the tongue. Solid hardwood floors were originally used for structural purposes, being installed perpendicular to the wooden support beams of a building (the joists or bearers) and solid construction timber is still often used for sports floors as well as most traditional wood blocks, mosaics and parquetry. Engineered products Engineered wood products, glued building products "engineered" for application-specific performance requirements, are often used in construction and industrial applications. Glued engineered wood products are manufactured by bonding together wood strands, veneers, lumber or other forms of wood fiber with glue to form a larger, more efficient composite structural unit. These products include glued laminated timber (glulam), wood structural panels (including plywood, oriented strand board and composite panels), laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and other structural composite lumber (SCL) products, parallel strand lumber, and I-joists. Approximately 100 million cubic meters of wood was consumed for this purpose in 1991. The trends suggest that particle board and fiber board will overtake plywood. Wood unsuitable for construction in its native form may be broken down mechanically (into fibers or chips) or chemically (into cellulose) and used as a raw material for other building materials, such as engineered wood, as well as chipboard, hardboard, and medium-density fiberboard (MDF). Such wood derivatives are widely used: wood fibers are an important component of most paper, and cellulose is used as a component of some synthetic materials. Wood derivatives can be used for kinds of flooring, for example laminate flooring. Furniture and utensils Wood has always been used extensively for furniture, such as chairs and beds. It is also used for tool handles and cutlery, such as chopsticks, toothpicks, and other utensils, like the wooden spoon and pencil. Other Further developments include new lignin glue applications, recyclable food packaging, rubber tire replacement applications, anti-bacterial medical agents, and high strength fabrics or composites. As scientists and engineers further learn and develop new techniques to extract various components from wood, or alternatively to modify wood, for example by adding components to wood, new more advanced products will appear on the marketplace. Moisture content electronic monitoring can also enhance next generation wood protection. Art Wood has long been used as an artistic medium. It has been used to make sculptures and carvings for millennia. Examples include the totem poles carved by North American indigenous people from conifer trunks, often Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata). Other uses of wood in the arts include: Woodcut printmaking and engraving Wood can be a surface to paint on, such as in panel painting Many musical instruments are made mostly or entirely of wood Sports and recreational equipment Many types of sports equipment are made of wood, or were constructed of wood in the past. For example, cricket bats are typically made of white willow. The baseball bats which are legal for use in Major League Baseball are frequently made of ash wood or hickory, and in recent years have been constructed from maple even though that wood is somewhat more fragile. National Basketball Association courts have been traditionally made out of parquetry. Many other types of sports and recreation equipment, such as skis, ice hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and archery bows, were commonly made of wood in the past, but have since been replaced with more modern materials such as aluminium, titanium or composite materials such as fiberglass and carbon fiber. One noteworthy example of this trend is the family of golf clubs commonly known as the woods, the heads of which were traditionally made of persimmon wood in the early days of the game of golf, but are now generally made of metal or (especially in the case of drivers) carbon-fiber composites. Bacterial degradation Little is known about the bacteria that degrade cellulose. Symbiotic bacteria in Xylophaga may play a role in the degradation of sunken wood. Alphaproteobacteria, Flavobacteria, Actinomycetota, Clostridia, and Bacteroidota have been detected in wood submerged for over a year. See also Sources This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 (license statement/permission). Text taken from World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023​, FAO, FAO. References Hoadley, R. Bruce (2000). Understanding Wood: A Craftsman's Guide to Wood Technology. Taunton Press. ISBN 978-1-56158-358-4. External links The Wood in Culture Association (archived 27 May 2016) The Wood Explorer: A comprehensive database of commercial wood species (Archived April 7, 2015, at the Wayback Machine) APA – The Engineered Wood Association (archived 14 April 2011)

Waterville,_Maine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterville,_Maine

Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. A college town, the city is home to Colby College, a NESCAC college, and Thomas College. It is also home to the headquarters of HealthReach Community Health Centers. As of the 2020 census the population was 15,828. Along with Augusta, Waterville is one of the principal cities of the Augusta-Waterville, ME Micropolitan Statistical Area. History The area now known as Waterville was once inhabited by the Canibas tribe of the Abenaki people. Called "Taconnet" after Chief Taconnet, the main village was located on the east bank of the Kennebec River at its confluence with the Sebasticook River at what is now Winslow. Known as "Ticonic" by English settlers, it was burned in 1692 during King William's War, after which the Canibas tribe abandoned the area. Fort Halifax was built by General John Winslow in 1754, and the last skirmish with indigenous peoples occurred on May 18, 1757. The township would be organized as Kingfield Plantation, then incorporated as Winslow in 1771. When residents on the west side of the Kennebec found themselves unable to cross the river to attend town meetings, Waterville was founded from the western parts of Winslow and incorporated on June 23, 1802. In 1824 a bridge was built joining the communities. Early industries included fishing, lumbering, agriculture and ship building, with larger boats launched in spring during freshets. By the early 1900s, there were five shipyards in the community. Ticonic Falls blocked navigation farther upriver, so Waterville developed as the terminus for trade and shipping. The Kennebec River and Messalonskee Stream provided water power for mills, including several sawmills, a gristmill, a sash and blind factory, a furniture factory, and a shovel handle factory. There was also a carriage and sleigh factory, boot shop, brickyard, and tannery. On September 27, 1849, the Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad opened to Waterville. It would become part of the Maine Central Railroad, which in 1870 established locomotive and car repair shops in the thriving mill town. West Waterville (renamed Oakland) was set off as a town in 1873. Waterville was incorporated as a city on January 12, 1888. The Ticonic Water Power & Manufacturing Company was formed in 1866 and soon built a dam across the Kennebec. After a change of ownership in 1873, the company began construction on what would become the Lockwood Manufacturing Company, a cotton textile plant. A second mill was added, and by 1900 the firm dominated the riverfront and employed 1,300 workers. Lockwood Mills survived until the mid-1950s. The iron Waterville-Winslow Footbridge opened in 1901, as a means for Waterville residents to commute to Winslow for work in the Hollingsworth & Whitney Co. and Wyandotte Worsted Co. mills, but in less than a year was carried away by the highest river level since 1832. Rebuilt in 1903, it would be called the Two Cent Bridge because of its toll. In 1902, the Beaux-Arts style City Hall and Opera House designed by George Gilman Adams was dedicated. In 2002, the C.F. Hathaway Company, one of the last remaining factories in the United States producing high-end dress shirts, was purchased by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company and was closed after over 160 years of operation in the city. Waterville also developed as an educational center. In 1813, the Maine Literary and Theological Institution was established. It would be renamed Waterville College in 1821, then Colby College in 1867. Thomas College was established in 1894. The Latin School was founded in 1820 to prepare students to attend Colby and other colleges, and was subsequently named Waterville Academy, Waterville Classical Institute, and Coburn Classical Institute; the Institute merged with the Oak Grove School in Vassalboro in 1970, and remained open until 1989. The first public high school was built in 1877, while the current Waterville Senior High School was built in 1961. Geography Waterville is in northern Kennebec County, in central Maine, at 44°33′07″N 69°38′45″W. Its northern boundary is the Somerset County line. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 14.05 square miles (36.39 km2), of which 13.58 square miles (35.17 km2) is land and 0.47 square miles (1.22 km2), or 3.36%, is water. Situated beside the Kennebec River, Waterville is drained by the Messalonskee Stream. Waterville is served by Interstate 95, U.S. Route 201, and Maine State Routes 137 and 104. It is bordered by Fairfield on the north in Somerset County, Winslow on the east, Sidney on the south and Oakland on the west. Climate This climatic region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Waterville has a humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps. Demographics 2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 15,722 people, 6,370 households, and 3,274 families living in the city. The population density was 1,157.7 inhabitants per square mile (447.0/km2). There were 7,065 housing units at an average density of 520.3 per square mile (200.9/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 93.9% White, 1.1% African American, 0.6% Native American, 1.2% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.8% from other races, and 2.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.4% of the population. There were 6,370 households, of which 24.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.9% were married couples living together, 13.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.8% had a male householder with no wife present, and 48.6% were non-families. Of all households 38.9% were made up of individuals, and 15.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.80. The median age in the city was 36.8 years. 17.9% of residents were under the age of 18; 18.9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 21.7% were from 25 to 44; 24.7% were from 45 to 64; and 16.7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 46.8% male and 53.2% female. 2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 15,605 people, 6,218 households, and 3,370 families living in the city. The population density was 1,148.7 inhabitants per square mile (443.5/km2). There were 6,819 housing units at an average density of 501.9 per square mile (193.8/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 95.81% White, 0.78% African American, 0.56% Native American, 1.03% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.42% from other races, and 1.36% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.10% of the population. 32% reported French and French Canadian ancestry, 18% English, 11% Irish, and 6% German. There were 6,218 households, out of which 26.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.2% were married couples living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.8% were non-families. Of all households 38.6% were made up of individuals, and 16.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.84. In the city, the population was spread out, with 19.7% under the age of 18, 18.5% from 18 to 24, 24.1% from 25 to 44, 19.5% from 45 to 64, and 18.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 85.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.7 males. The median income for a household in the city was $26,816, and the median income for a family was $38,052. Males had a median income of $30,086 versus $22,037 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,430. 19.2% of the population and 15.1% of families were below the federal poverty level. Statewide, 10.9% of the population was below the poverty level. In Kennebec County, 11.1% of the population was below the federal poverty level. Thus, although the county poverty rate was close to the state poverty rate, the poverty rate for Waterville was higher—typical for a regional center whose suburbs had grown in population. Out of the total population, 29.7% of those under the age of 18 and 14.7% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. Economy and redevelopment Like many other towns in Maine and in the United States, Waterville has seen development in the suburbs and the decline of the downtown area. There have been new businesses and new facilities built by Inland Hospital on Kennedy Memorial Drive. Walmart, Home Depot, and a small strip mall of other stores have been built in the northern part of the city as part of an open-air shopping center. Because of this growth, the existing and now-neighboring Elm Plaza shopping center has recently had its exterior renovated and filled most or all of its previous vacancies. In contrast, the downtown area has had its share of hardships due to chain store growth in the city. Stores that had a long history in the downtown area have closed in recent decades, including Levine's, Butlers, Sterns, Dunhams, Alvina and Delias, and LaVerdieres. The large vacancy in The Concourse shopping center that once housed the Ames, Zayre department store, as well as Brooks Pharmacy is struggling to find tenants; as is the now vacant Main Street location of a CVS pharmacy (it moved to a brand new building on Kennedy Memorial Drive). Organizations like Waterville Main St continue their efforts to revitalize downtown. Colby College has built a new dormitory for students on Main Street, and the boutique Lockwood Hotel opened in August 2022. The Paul J. Schupf Art Center is currently under construction. Developer Paul Boghossian has converted the old Hathaway Mill to retail, office, and residential use. MaineGeneral Health agreed at the end of June 2007 to become the first tenant. Waterville's top employers include MaineGeneral Medical Center, Colby College, HealthReach Community Health Centers, Northern Light Inland Hospital, Hannaford Supermarket, Shaw's Supermarket, Wal-Mart, Mount St. Joseph Nursing Home, Kennebec Valley Community Action Program, Thomas College, City of Waterville, The Woodlands Residential Care, and Central Maine Newspapers. Government Local government Waterville has a mayor and council-manager form of government, led by a mayor and a seven-member city council. The city council is the governing board, and the city manager is the chief administrative officer of the city, responsible for the management of all city affairs. Waterville adopted a city charter in the 1970s. For some 40 years, the city had a "strong mayor" system in which the mayor enjoyed broad executive powers, including the power to veto measures passed by the city council and to line-item veto budget items passed by the council. In 2005, the charter was substantially revised, changing the city government to a "weak mayor" council-manager system. Under the present system, the city manager is the chief executive. The charter revision was approved by city voters by a 4–1 margin. The city is currently divided into seven geographic wards, each of which elects one member of the Waterville City Council and one member of the Waterville School Board. Since 1970, the following people have served as mayor of Waterville: Richard "Spike" Carey (1970–1978), Paul Laverdiere (Republican, 1978–1982); Ann Gilbride Hill (Democrat, 1982–1986); Thomas Nale (1986–1987); Judy C. Kany (Democrat, 1988–1989); David E. Bernier (1990–1993); Thomas J. Brazier (1994–1995); Nelson Megna (1995–1996); Ruth Joseph (Democrat, 1996–1998); Nelson Madore (Democrat, 1999–2004); Paul R. LePage (Republican, 2004–2011); Dana W. Sennett (Democrat, 2011); Karen Heck (independent, 2012–2014); Nicholas Isgro (Republican, 2015–2020); Jay Coelho (2021–present). In 2018, Isgro faced a recall election after he made a Twitter post insulting a gun control activist present during the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. The recall effort was backed by former Mayor Karen Heck, a Democrat who had previously endorsed Isgro. Isgro later made his Twitter feed private and said that he had deleted the post. During the recall effort, Isgro asserted that outside interests and the City Council were plotting to oust him over disputes over the city budget and taxation. After an acrimonious recall campaign, Waterville voters defeated the recall attempt, with 1,563 "no" votes (51%) to 1,472 "yes" votes (49%). Political makeup Waterville is considered a Democratic stronghold in Maine's 1st congressional district. Barack Obama received 70% of Waterville's votes in the 2008 presidential election. Voter registration Transportation Robert LaFleur Airport Interstate 95 US Route 201 State Route 100A State Route 137 State Route 32 State Route 137 Business State Route 11 State Route 104 Pan Am Railways – Waterville Intermodal Facility Education Waterville Public Schools provides the city primary and secondary education. It was a part of Kennebec Valley Consolidated Schools (AOS92) from 2009 to 2018. Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield is the local public community college. Colby College and Thomas College are private 4-year colleges located in the city. Colby is the third highest ranked liberal arts college in Maine, according to U.S. News. Media Waterville is home to one daily newspaper, the Morning Sentinel, and a weekly college newspaper, The Colby Echo. The city is also home to Fox affiliate WPFO and Daystar rebroadcaster WFYW-LP, both serving the Portland market, and to several radio stations, including Colby's WMHB, country WEBB, and MPBN on 91.3 FM. The 2001 satirical comedy movie Wet Hot American Summer is set in a fictional summer camp near Waterville, with some scenes taking place in the city. The movie was filmed in Pennsylvania, but signs displaying "Waterville Maine Est. 1802 Pop. 17,173" and "Waterville C.B. Radio Supply Inc." are shown in these scenes. Gary, a character played by A. D. Miles, asks, "Hey, guys, how was Waterville?" after the group returns to camp from the city. Sister cities Kotlas, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia Sites of interest Colby College Colby College Museum of Art Thomas College Atlantic Music Festival Maine International Film Festival Old Waterville High School Old Waterville Post Office Perkins Arboretum Waterville Historical Society - Redington Museum Waterville Public Library Waterville Opera House Waterville Main Street Waterville – Winslow Footbridge (Two Cent Bridge) Notable people See also List of mayors of Waterville, Maine References External links City of Waterville official website

Kennebec_County,_Maine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennebec_County,_Maine

Kennebec County is a county located in the South-central portion of the U.S. state of Maine. At the 2020 census, the population was 123,642. Its county seat is Augusta, the state capital. The county was established on February 20, 1799, from portions of Cumberland and Lincoln Counties. The name Kennebec comes from the Eastern Abenaki /kínipekʷ/, meaning "large body of still water, large bay." Kennebec County comprises the Augusta–Waterville, ME Micropolitan Statistical Area. In 2010, the center of population of Maine was in Kennebec County, in the city of Augusta. Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 951 square miles (2,460 km2), of which 868 square miles (2,250 km2) is land and 84 square miles (220 km2) (8.8%) is water. The county is nearly bisected by the Kennebec River, which also forms parts of the county line in the north and south of the county. The county is also dotted by many lakes and ponds, as well as the Kennebec Highlands in the northwest part of the county. Adjacent counties Somerset County – north Waldo County – east Sagadahoc County – south Lincoln County – south Androscoggin County – southwest Franklin County – northwest Major highways I-95 I-295 US 201 US 202 SR 8 SR 9 SR 11 SR 17 SR 23 SR 27 SR 32 SR 41 SR 100 SR 104 SR 105 SR 126 SR 132 SR 133 SR 135 SR 139 SR 194 SR 197 SR 226 Demographics 2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 117,114 people, 47,683 households, and 31,327 families living in the county. The population density was 135 people per square mile (52 people/km2). There were 56,364 housing units at an average density of 65 per square mile (25/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 97.45% White, 0.34% Black or African American, 0.40% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.18% from other races, and 1.02% from two or more races. 0.73% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 20.6% were of English, 17.4% French, 13.4% French Canadian, 10.9% United States or American and 9.9% Irish ancestry. 92.5% spoke only English at home, while 5.48% spoke French. There were 47,683 households, out of which 31.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.60% were married couples living together, 10.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.30% were non-families. 27.60% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.89. In the county, the population was spread out, with 23.80% under the age of 18, 8.50% from 18 to 24, 28.60% from 25 to 44, 24.90% from 45 to 64, and 14.20% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 94.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.80 males. The median income for a household in the county was $36,498, and the median income for a family was $43,814. Males had a median income of $32,279 versus $24,032 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,520. About 8.50% of families and 11.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.20% of those under age 18 and 10.20% of those age 65 or over. 2010 census As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 122,151 people, 51,128 households, and 32,368 families living in the county. The population density was 140.8 inhabitants per square mile (54.4/km2). There were 60,972 housing units at an average density of 70.3 units per square mile (27.1 units/km2). The racial makeup of the county was % from other races, and % from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up % of the population. In terms of ancestry, 24.2% were English, 17.0% were Irish, 8.3% were German, 7.7% were French Canadian, 5.7% were American, and 5.4% were Scottish. The median income for a household in the county was $45,973 and the median income for a family was $56,853. Males had a median income of $42,176 versus $32,471 for females. The per capita income for the county was $24,656. About 7.8% of families and 12.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.9% of those under age 18 and 9.6% of those age 65 or over. Micropolitan statistical area The United States Office of Management and Budget has designated Kennebec County as the Augusta–Waterville, ME Micropolitan Statistical Area (μSA). As of the 2010 U.S. Census the micropolitan area ranked the most populous in the State of Maine and also the only micropolitan area within the state. The area also ranks 14th most populous in the United States with a population of 125,540 as of July 2022. Economy Kennebec County's economy has traditionally been industrial. A large amount of paper and textiles were produced, and mills sprung up along the Kennebec river. The median household income is $36,498. The unemployment rate is 4.2%. Education There are three colleges: Colby College and Thomas College (both in Waterville), and the University of Maine at Augusta. There are 19 school districts (however, 4 are consolidated ones). In China Maine, there is no public high school, but a private school (Erskine Academy) exists, and the town pays for students tuition if they choose to attend. Students from Vassalboro can pick from one of four school districts (Cony in Augusta, Erskine, Winslow, or Waterville). However, many towns have local public high schools. K-12 school districts include: Politics Kennebec County has consistently voted for Democrats in recent elections, until 2016 when it voted for Republican Donald Trump, the first time it had voted Republican since 1988. While the more rural areas support the Republican Party, the urban areas are strongly Democratic. Kennebec County is the only county in Maine that is split between Maine's two congressional districts. The larger, southern portion of the county is in the 1st Congressional District, while the northern, smaller portion is in the 2nd Congressional District. Historically, the county was more Democratic-leaning than the rest of the state in presidential elections. The county voted for Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 even as Republican Wendell Willkie carried Maine, and it voted for Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976 as Republican Gerald Ford won the state. In more recent elections, the county voted in-line with the state, voting for the statewide winner in every election from 1980 to 2012. In 2016, Kennebec voted for Republican Donald Trump even as Democrat Hillary Clinton carried Maine. In 2020, it was the closest county in the state, with Democrat Joe Biden defeating Trump by just 181 votes. Voter registration Communities Cities Augusta (county seat) Gardiner Hallowell Waterville Towns Unorganized territory Unity Census-designated places Clinton Farmingdale Oakland Winthrop Other unincorporated villages China Village East Vassalboro East Winthrop Libby Hill North Monmouth North Vassalboro South China See also National Register of Historic Places listings in Kennebec County, Maine Footnotes Further reading Samuel Lane Boardman, History of the Agriculture of Kennebec County, Maine. New York: Blake, 1892. Raymond Stevens Finley, The History of Secondary Education in Kennebec County in Maine. Orono, ME: University of Maine at Orono Press, 1941. Rufus Matthew Jones, The Society of Friends in Kennebec County, Maine. New York: H.W. Blake and Co., 1892. Henry D. Kingsbury and Simeon L. Deyo (eds.), Illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine: 1625-1799-1892. New York: H.W. Blake and Co., 1892. Cynthia MacAlman McCausland, Index to Kingsbury and Deyo's illustrated history of Kennebec County, Maine. Camden, ME: Picton Press, 1996. George J. Varney (1881), "Kennebec County", Gazetteer of the State of Maine, Boston: B.B. Russell – via Internet Archive George W. Walton, History of the Town of Wayne, Kennebec County, Maine, From Its Settlement to 1898. Augusta, ME: Maine Farmer Publishing Co., 1898. Edwin Carey Whittemore, The Centennial History of Waterville, Kennebec County, Maine, Including the Oration, the Historical Address and the Poem Presented at the Celebration of the Centennial Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town, June 23d, 1902. Waterville, ME: Executive Committee of the Centennial Celebration, 1902. External links Official Site of Kennebec County, Maine Digital Maine Repository. Items related to Kennebec County Core.ac.uk. Assorted items related to Kennebec County Digital Public Library of America. Assorted materials related to Kennebec County

Canadian_Museum_of_History

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

The Canadian Museum of History (French: Musée canadien de l’histoire) is a national museum on anthropology, Canadian history, cultural studies, and ethnology in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. The purpose of the museum is to promote the heritage of Canada, as well as support related research. The museum is based in a 75,000-square-metre-building (810,000 sq ft) designed by Douglas Cardinal. The museum originated from a museum established by the Geological Survey of Canada in 1856, which later expanded to include an anthropology division in 1910. In 1927, the institution was renamed the National Museum of Canada. The national museum was later split into several separate institutions in 1968, with the anthropology and human history departments forming the National Museum of Man. The museum relocated to its present location in Gatineau in 1989 and adopted the name Canadian Museum of Civilization (French: Musée canadien des civilisations) the following year. In 2013, the museum adopted its current name, the Canadian Museum of History, and modified its mandate to emphasize Canadian identity and history. The museum's collection contains over three million artifacts and documents, with some on display in the museum's permanent exhibitions. The museum also hosts and organizes a number of temporary, travelling, and online exhibitions, like the Virtual Museum of New France. History Early museum (1856–1968) The Canadian Museum of History originates from the collecting efforts of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), an organization established in 1842 in Montreal. In 1856 the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada passed an act that enabled the GSC to establish a museum to exhibit items found from its geological and archaeological field trips; with the museum initially established in Montreal on Great St. James Street (now Saint Jacques Street). The museum held its first ethnological exhibit from 1862 to 1863, showcasing stone implements and fragments of pottery by First Nations. In 1877, the museum mandate was formally expanded to include the study of modern fauna and flora, in addition to human history, languages, and traditions. In 1881, the museum relocated from Montreal to downtown Ottawa to what is now referred to as Former Geological Survey of Canada Building; although space in the new facility soon proved to be inadequate, with the Royal Society of Canada petitioning the federal government to build a new building for the museum by 1896. Preliminary plans for a new building were drawn up by 1899, although work on the building did not begin until 1906. In the following year, management of the museum was handed over from the GSC to the Department of Mines, with the mandate formally expanded to include anthropological studies. The new museum building, the Victoria Memorial Museum Building, was also completed in 1910, although it was not opened to the public until 1911. Under the Department of Mines, the museum formally established an anthropology division under the direction of Edward Sapir in 1910. Another anthropologist, Marius Barbeau, was also hired by the museum in the following year to assist Sapir. The anthropology division was charged with the preservation of the cultural heritage of people in Canada and assembling objects related to these cultures. Under Sapir's direction, the institution's research initially focused on Aboriginal communities across Canada they believed were imperilled by rapid acculturation. The museum's first anthropological exhibits were organized by Sapir and his protege, Franz Boas. Since this period, the museum had become a centre for Canadian anthropology, having attracted notable anthropologists including Diamond Jenness after the Second World War. In 1927, the museum division of the Department of Mines was renamed the National Museum of Canada. Management of the National Museum is transferred from the Department of Mines to the Department of Resources and Development in 1950. In 1965, the museum was split into two branches, one focused on natural history and another on human history. The mandate of the museum further expanded in the following decades, with the museum assuming the management of the Canadian War Museum in 1958, and its human history branch establishing a history division in 1964. Museum of anthropology and history (1968–present) On 1 April 1968, the branches of the National Museum of Canada were formally split into separate museums. The Canadian Museum of History originated from the human history branch of the museum, initially incorporated as the National Museum of Man. The natural history branch of the former National Museum of Canada became the National Museum of Natural Sciences (later renamed the Canadian Museum of Nature), while the science and technology branch became the National Museum of Science and Technology (later renamed the Canada Science and Technology Museum). The National Museums of Canada Corporation was formed by the federal government in order to manage these national museums, in addition to the National Gallery of Canada. Although the institutions were split, the National Museum of Man and the National Museum of Natural History continued to share the Victoria Memorial building; with the National Museum of Man occupying the western half of the building. In April 1972, the National Museum of Man established a Communications Division in order to provide media communications regarding the museum's education and information programs. During the 1970s, the staff of the institution adopted a philosophy that stressed public access to its heritage collection. Because the Victoria Memorial Museum building had insufficient space to exhibit the museum's growing collection, the museum's collection and staff were scattered across 17 buildings, with these buildings acting as decentralized units of the museum. In 1980, management of the National Museums of Canada Corporation is transferred to the Department of Communications. The following year in June 1981, the cabinet of Canada approved several plans concerning several national museums of Canada, including moving the National Museum of Man into a new structure. The plan was formally announced to the public in February 1982. After a study of potential locations saw four sites in Ottawa and one in Gatineau. A site acquired by the National Capital Commission (NCC) from the E.B Eddy Company in Gatineau was chosen as the site for the new museum; due to it already being public land, being linked to Confederation Boulevard, and because it was prominently visible from the Ottawa River. The site was also selected because the NCC had desired to develop Hull, and incorporate it into the design of the capital region; while officials in Gatineau had similar desires to develop the area into an urban park. On 10 February 1983, the site for the new museum was announced to the public; and Douglas Cardinal Architect Limited was named as the project's design architect, in association with Montreal-based architectural firm Tétreault, Parent, Languedoc et Associés. The design created by Cardinal was approved in 1983 by the Cabinet of Canada. In an effort to avoid stereotypes in languages, the name of the museum was changed to the Canadian Museum of Civilization in 1986. In 1988, the institution absorbed the museum operated by the department of the Minister responsible for Canada Post Corporation, although its philatelic collection was transferred to the National Archives of Canada. The museum opened its new building in Gatineau in 1989. However, the building opened with only two permanent exhibitions, Canada Hall and the exhibitions on the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, as budgetary shortfalls prevented the museum from opening the exhibitions it had originally planned for the museum. In 1990, the Museum Act was passed by the federal government, replacing the defunct National Museums of Canada Corporation and forming several new entities to manage the national museums of Canada; with the Canadian Museum of Civilization corporation formed on 1 July 1990 to manage the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and the Canadian War Museum. 21st century In 2007, the museum organized a temporary exhibition, Treasures from China, in partnership with the National Museum of China. The partnership saw artifacts leave China to be exhibited only at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. As a part of the agreement, the Canadian Museum of Civilization prepared Indigenous Canadian artifacts for its own exhibition, First Peoples of Canada: Masterworks from the Canadian Museum of Civilization, at the Palace Museum in Beijing. In October 2012, James Moore, the minister of Canadian Heritage announced the ministry would provide $25 million to overhaul the museum and renovate Canada Hall. The government later announced plans to update and reopen the gallery in 2017, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of Canada. Approximately 24,000 people from across nine Canadian cities were surveyed about the updates to the exhibition. The museum consulted a women's history committee, an indigenous history committee, and three historic time-period committees. In December 2013, the Canadian Museum of History Act received Royal Assent, which shifted the museum's mandate from developing a collection with a "special but not exclusive reference to Canada," to one that enhanced the knowledge of Canadian history and identity; and expanding the museum's focus to include social and political history. The Act also changed the institution's name from the Canadian Museum of Civilization to the Canadian Museum of History. The Canadian Postal Museum, a department of the Canadian Museum of Civilization corporation that operated from within the institution was shut down in 2012 as a result of the museum's transition into the Canadian Museum of History. Some have criticized the new mandate and updating of Canada Hall as a part of a wider plan by the incumbent Conservative government to redirect public historical understanding to emphasize aspects of Canadian military history and monarchism; as well as elide problematic elements of Canadian history in favour of achievements. However, the museum contended that new exhibits planned for the museum will include a range of themes and topics, and will also explore the country's "dark episodes". The updated gallery was completed at approximately $30 million and was opened on Canada Day in 2017 by Charles, Prince of Wales and Mélanie Joly, the minister of Canadian Heritage. Partisan concerns were alleviated after Canadian History Hall was unveiled to the public. Site The museum is situated on a 9.6-hectare (23.7-acre) plot of land, formerly known as Parc Laurier. The museum site is the first Canadian national museum to be located on the Gatineau side of the National Capital Region, and the first to be located adjacent to the Ottawa River. The site is bounded by the western access point for the Alexandra Bridge, the Ottawa River to the east, a paper production plant to the south, and Laurier Street to the west. The median of the property extends 235 metres (771 ft) from Laurier Street to the river. From Laurier Street, the property descends towards the Ottawa River at a 5.5 per cent grade; with the portion of the property closest to Laurier Street at an elevation of 53.5 metres (176 ft), while the riverfront is at an elevation of 41 metres (135 ft). Because of the property's low elevation, the construction of the museum building was limited to the portion of the property closer to Laurier Street. The site includes a museum building with two wings. The two wings wrap around and are connected by a large hemispherical entrance plaza which contains its food services, lounge, library, and underground parking. The parkland and open space between the two wings are intended to represent the "plains over which mankind migrated" over millennia. A large staircase east of the entrance plaza descends to the museum's lower plaza and gardens adjacent to the riverside park. A pedestrian and cycling pathway is situated on the riverfront portion of the property, with the pathways continuing north into Jacques-Cartier Park, a municipal park north of the property. Building The 75,000 square metres (810,000 sq ft) structure was designed by Douglas Cardinal. The building's infrastructure includes approximately 56,000 square metres (600,000 sq ft) of concrete, and 7,300 tonnes of steel. Cardinal sought to create form a "sculptural icon" for the country, encouraged by then-prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, to develop a symbol that "enshrined our cultures". As a result, the building was the first structure in the National Capital Region that incorporates Indigenous architectural designs. Cardinal's design for the building was largely influenced by his understanding of how geography helped shaped Canada's history and culture. The museum building has over 25,000 square metres (270,000 sq ft) of exhibition space, more than any other museum in Canada. In addition to exhibition space, the building also contains three restaurants, a boutique store, and two live performance theatres, including a 500-seat theatre for live performances. The building also has a 295-seat 3D theatre that uses a Barco digital projector. Before the installation of the Barco projector in 2016, the 3D theatre used a IMAX projector and was branded as an IMAX theatre. Water is drawn from the Ottawa River to heat and cool the building. The building's energy needs are met by two substations in Gatineau, with two additional backup generators also available if both substations fail. Exterior The building's exterior is clad with 30,000 square metres (320,000 sq ft) of Tyndall stone; with the material being selected because of its durability and its relationship with glaciers. Cardinal sought to build a structure that appeared to be "flowing with the contours of the land," and simple lines and forms could be used to display the idea of movement. The building's design draws upon Art Nouveau styles to illustrate Canada's geography at the end of the Last Glacial Period when the landscape was largely uniform; with certain elements of the building evoking igloos earth lodges, and longhouses. The building includes a cantilevered northern/curatorial wing and a southern wing that houses most of the museum's public facilities, including its galleries, and theatres. The curatorial wing was designed to evoke outcroppings of the Canadian Shield, while the southern public wing with its glass-fronted Grand Hall, was intended to evoke an image of a melting glacier. The southern wing's copper roof represents vegetation's recolonization of the lands once covered by glacial till. The copper roof is nearly 11,000 square metres (120,000 sq ft) and weighs approximately 90 tonnes. Both wings are curvaceous on their river sides to blend into their landscapes, although their street-side façade is more angular. The NCC placed several restrictions on the building design, that the building does not obstruct the view of the Ottawa River, and that the building does not obstruct delineated "viewing cones" of Parliament Hill from the Gatineau side of the river. Because of these restrictions, the buildings were designed with a low-profile, to avoid obscuring the view for buildings across the street. From certain angles, the building appears as two separate pavilions, with an opening between these two sections providing an unobstructed view of Parliament Hill from Laurier Street. Considerations also needed to be taken to protect artifacts displayed in the building. Windows were triple-glazed and coated with a film that helps contain radiant heat and reduce solar ultraviolet rays, and the southern wing's Grand Hall was intentionally designed to face direct sunlight only in the morning. The building was designed to create an "ever-changing pattern" of shadows across the structure's surface, with most of the building's exterior lighting kept below 30 lux to allow viewers to see deeper shadows at night. Exhibitions The museum hosts several permanent and temporary exhibitions on anthropology, ethnology, and history. Artifacts from the museum's collection are exhibited in these exhibitions. In addition, travelling exhibitions are occasionally held at the museum. The museum has also created several online exhibitions, like the Virtual Museum of New France. Permanent exhibitions include First Peoples Hall, Canadian History Hall, the Canadian Children's Museum, the Canadian Stamp Collection, and two exhibitions on the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast in the building's Grand Hall. First Peoples Hall is situated on the first floor of the building, whereas the Canada Hall is situated on the third level of the building. First Peoples Hall is situated next to the Grand Hall, with its exhibitions located on the ground floor. Many of the exhibits that were designed in the 1980s for the new building were influenced by the director of the museum, George F. MacDonald, his personal admiration for Pacific Northwest Coast art and culture, and the communication theories of his mentor, Marshall McLuhan. Merging exhibits detailing the Indigenous peoples of Canada with other Canadian historical exhibits were considered by the exhibition design team when plans were being made to move the museum in the 1980s. However, it was later decided to depict both topics as separate exhibitions, resulting in both exhibitions being planned by different teams with separate budgets. This decision was later reversed in 2017 when the museum reopened the Canadian History Hall exhibition with Indigenous exhibits incorporated throughout its exhibit. First Peoples Hall First Peoples Hall is an exhibition opened in 2003, that explores Canada's First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. The exhibition occupies 3,300 square metres (35,000 sq ft) of space on the ground floor of the building. The hall contains more than 2,000 objects on display. Most of the exhibition space is devoted to changing exhibits, to keep up with contemporary views on traditional cultures and current issues. However, First Peoples Hall does have some space devoted to long-term exhibits. These long-term exhibits explore topics that are less subject to changing interpretations; like ancient history, Indigenous languages, and the history of the relationship between Indigenous and European cultures. The exhibition is organized into several sections, such as the "Ways of Knowing", "An Ancient Bond with the Land", and "The Arrival of Strangers". The exhibition was designed to "deconstruct and supersede" histories that visitors are familiar with. Exhibits were designed to address issues of stereotyping Indigenous identity, and the diversity and cultural distinctiveness between Indigenous nations; with many of the exhibits linking identity to Indigenous land claims in Canada. Additionally, exhibits were designed to portray Indigenous peoples as living peoples in the modern world. Archaeological exhibits in First Peoples Hall are themed to reinforce the fact that the Indigenous peoples of Canada have occupied the land since time immemorial, and that Canadian history has a long and complex history preceding European colonization. Additionally, many of these archaeological exhibits are designed to confront the notion of Eurasian technological supremacy at the time of first contact with the Americas. The exhibition concludes with contemporary issue exhibits, which explore recent clashes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada over land and resources. The curatorial model used to develop the exhibition conformed to the suggestions provided in the 1992 recommendations from the federal Task Force on Museums and First Peoples. The content and messaging of First Peoples Hall were determined in consultation with indigenous communities across Canada. Acting upon the task force's recommendation to establish partnerships with First Nation representatives whose cultures were being exhibited, an advisory committee of 15 Indigenous members was formed to help define the exhibition's thematic structure and messaging. As a result, exhibits in First Peoples Hall take a "multivocal" approach, where different perspectives can be distinguished within the exhibition; and explanatory fields like archaeology, ethnology and traditional Indigenous knowledge are juxtaposed, and contestatory with one another in some cases. Canadian History Hall Canadian History Hall is an exhibition that explores Canadian history. Canadian History Hall is approximately 4,690 square metres (50,500 sq ft), and includes over 14 projectors and 58 screens used in the exhibition. The exhibition includes three galleries and a long curved walkway that serves as the entrance to the three galleries. The entrance walkway is decorated with 101 silhouettes of Canadian cultural symbols and activities, as well as national landmarks. Canadian History Hall's galleries centre around a hub that was designed by Douglas Cardinal to resemble Chaudière Falls. The hub features a large 15.5 by 9.5 metres (51 ft × 31 ft) image of Canada on the floor. The image of Canada is made up of 121 satellite photos taken by the Canadian Space Agency, that were stitched together to form a single image. The exhibition summarizes over 15,000 years of history and is divided into three era-centric galleries, Early Canada: From Earliest Times to 1763, Colonial Canada: 1763 to 1914, and Modern Canada: 1914 to the Present Day. The first two galleries are located on the same floor, while the third gallery occupies the mezzanine above the two galleries. The galleries are designed to showcase events and "turning points" in each respective era through the multimedia presentations and the artifacts on display. Each gallery is further organized into six separate "vignettes" that are thematically different, but interconnected with one another. The vignettes are primarily organized temporally, although some are specifically focused on a specific aspect of Canadian history. The exhibition takes a largely didactic approach with its subject and is particularly focused on the country's political and economic history, as well as the experience of Indigenous peoples. According to the exhibit team's head, David Morrison, Indigenous peoples and their relationship with newcomers will serve as an important overarching theme of Canadian History Hall. Early Canada explores provides a summary of Indigenous history prior to the arrival of the Europeans as well as early Canadian colonies like New France. The gallery includes Indigenous artifacts, narrative recounts of Indigenous interactions between Norse, English and French explorers, and detailed accounts on the North American fur trade, the spread of disease within Indigenous populations, and the Beaver Wars. Colonial Canada explores Canada under British rule since the conquest of New France, as well as post-Confederation Canada to 1914. Modern Canada explores Canada's recent history, up to the arrival of Syrian refugees in the 2010s. The latter two galleries provide detailed histories on the Seven Years' War, treaties signed between various Indigenous groups and the Crown, the push for responsible government, Canadian Confederation, the world wars, the Canadian Indian residential school system, Quebec nationalism, and multiculturalism in Canada. There are over 1,500 artifacts on display in Canadian History Hall. Historic artifacts include a 3,600 to 3,900 years old ivory carving believed to be the oldest representation of a human face found in Canada; James Wolfe coat; and handcuffs worn by Louis Riel prior to his execution; Maurice Richard's hockey jersey; Terry Fox's T-shirt; Tommy Douglas's hat; the table on which the proclamation of the Constitution Act, 1982 was signed by Queen Elizabeth II in 1982; Randy Bachman's guitar, and the sewing machine which Joan O'Malley sewed the first Maple Leaf flag. There are 40 linear films shown at the exhibition, including Origin Stories, a film that illustrates how the Anishinaabe believed the earth was formed. Origin Stories is displayed along the curved wall of the Canadian History Hall's entrance. The modular structure of the exhibits enables the museum to swap segments easier. The number of exhibits in the galleries may also expand, with the museum having reserved enough space to allow for the addition of new exhibits in the three galleries. Pre-2017 exhibition Canadian History Hall's predecessor, Canada Hall, opened as an inaugural exhibit at the museum in 1989. The original exhibition was divided into 23 modules that were arranged chronologically, beginning with the Norse colonization of North America. The gallery aimed to promote Canadian multiculturalism, having portrayed a social history that depicted a "march of immigrants" from east to west, and the success of different groups in Canada. However, these modules provided little in-depth consideration for pre-colonial Indigenous cultures, which were only explored in the museum's other exhibitions prior to Canada Hall's updates in the 2010s. The original design of Canada Hall recreated historical settings with period rooms and full-scale historical buildings incorporated into the exhibition; reflecting McLuhan's theories, and innovations adopted by entertainment pavilions like Disney's Epcot. Canada Hall was closed to the public in September 2014 to enable renovations and significant updates to the exhibition. The exhibition reopened in 2017 significantly changed from its original design. Nearly all of the life-sized dioramas were dismantled as a part of the exhibition's update. St. Onuphrius Church, an original early-20th-century Ukrainian church from the Canadian Prairies that was later relocated to the museum, is the only remaining life-sized diorama in the exhibition. Canadian Children's Museum The Canadian Children's Museum is Canada's largest exhibition centre designed specifically for children with over 3,000 square metres (32,000 sq ft) of space. The museum uses more than 15,000 artifacts, props, and hands-on items for use in its exhibitions and programs. These items include art, clothing, games, photographs, and toys. The museum includes an International Village, as well as Canadian-themed attractions that were added into the exhibition in 2007. In 2018, the museum announced it would undertake a renewal project in January 2020. The museum announced the revamp would reflect how children play and learn, and will remove more dated exhibits from the exhibition, like the post office and telephone booth. It reopened in May 2022. Canadian Stamp Collection The Canadian Stamp Collection is a stamp collection of more than 3,000 stamps and includes every Canadian stamp issued since 1851. The stamp collection was housed at the Canadian Postal Museum until 2012 when the postal museum closed and its stamp collection relocated to the Canadian Museum of History. The Canadian Museum of History opened a permanent exhibition for the collection in 2014 in partnership with Canada Post. Stamps that are exhibited in the exhibition are showcased with artifacts that either inspired its creation or were used to make the stamp. Grand Hall exhibitions Grand Hall features two permanent exhibitions on the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, First Peoples of the Northwest Coast and From Time Immemorial — Tsimshian Prehistory. The exhibits include totem poles and other artifacts. The exhibitions were developed as a collaboration between the museum's curators and Indigenous cultural specialists in the 1980s. In 1993, a large mural titled Morning Star was added to the domed ceiling of the Grand Hall. The mural was created by Alex Janvier and is symbolic of Indigenous life and history. In addition to the two permanent exhibitions, the Grand Hall is also used to host other major events. In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the Grand Hall has also been used to host temporary exhibitions. Collections As of June 2021, the Canadian Museum of History's permanent collection includes more than three million artifacts, documents, works of art, and other specimens. This includes over one million photographs, 72,000 sound recordings and 18,000 films and videotapes. The collection takes up approximately 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) of shelf space. Approximately 218,000 artifacts have been digitized and made accessible online by the museum. The museum's permanent collection dates back to the collection established by the Geological Survey of Canada in the 1860s. The museum's collection of artifacts has expanded through the institution's research programs. The first collection representing Indigenous peoples was established by the Geological Survey of Canada, with other parts of the collection having been acquired by government officials and missionaries working outside Ottawa. The collection continued to expand after the anthropology department was established in 1910, and the museum began a systematic program of documenting Indigenous cultures and lineages. The museum's collection of Indigenous items is the largest in Canada and is the only major collection with a national scope in the country. The museum also possesses the world's largest collection of totem poles. The Sacred Materials Project was created by the museum to help maintain Indigenous sacred items, and facilitate the repatriation of select items to their respective communities. The project provides funds for Indigenous representatives to view the museum's collections and discuss the repatriation of identified sacred items, as well as identify other objects in the collection that require ritualistic care. The museum's permanent collection contains several smaller collections, like the Windfield Farm Collection. The Windfield Farm Collection was acquired by the museum in 2013 and contains documents, photographs, memorabilia and trophies, including the Kentucky Derby trophy won by Northern Dancer. The museum's collection of flags is also the largest in the country. Other notable items in the museum's permanent collection includes a Contempra phone, the first telephone to be designed and manufactured in Canada; cough syrup from the 1918 influenza pandemic; the original plaster for Bill Reid's Spirit of Haida Gwaii; ten large heraldic sculptures known as The Queen's Beasts; and royal gown worn by Elizabeth II during her royal tours of Canada. The museum also contains a number of ice hockey artifacts, including game-used National Hockey League sticks, hockey cards, and the world's oldest existing ice hockey stick. The ice hockey stick dates back to the mid-1830s and was acquired by the museum in 2015 for $300,000. In addition to its permanent collection, the Canadian Museum of History also co-manages collections with other institutions. In July 1999, the museum entered an agreement with the Canadian Nursing Association (CNA), the Canadian War Museum, and the National Archives of Canada to create the Canadian Nursing History Collection. This collection includes over 9,000 photographs, 1,600 audiovisual materials, and over 35 metres (115 ft) of textual records from the CNA, the Nursing Sisters Association of Canada, and the Helen Mussallem Collection. Approximately 950 documented artifacts from this collection are deposited at the Canadian Museum of History. Items from the collection at the Canadian Museum of History include 167 nurses' caps, dating from 1895 to 1983. In June 2005, the museum opened a temporary exhibition that focused on this collection. In 2021, the Canadian Museum of History entered into an agreement to house and maintain artifacts from Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. Library and archives The museum's resource centre operates a library and archives. As of 2015, the museum's library has more than 60,000 books, over 2,000 journals and magazines, and over 1,000 DVDs, CDs, and video tapes. The museum's rare and old books collection includes Paul-Émile Borduas's Refus Global (1948) and Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix's Histoire et description générale de la Nouvelle-France (1744). Research The museum's collection is used to support research in anthropology, archaeology, Indigenous people in Canada, linguistics, material culture, multicultural communities, social and political history and museology in Canada. The museum also publishes its own academic journal, the Mercury Series; on history, archaeology, and anthropology. The journal has been published in partnership with the University of Ottawa Press since 2012. The museum has also published the academic journal Material Culture Review in partnership with the Canada Science and Technology Museum since the 1970s. The journal provides a forum for research on historical artifacts collected by Canadian museums. Management The Canadian Museum of History is managed by a federal Crown corporation of the same name under the Department of Canadian Heritage's portfolio. The museum is one of two national museums managed by the corporation, the other being the Canadian War Museum. The corporation also administers the Virtual Museum of New France, a virtual museum and online exhibition of the Canadian Museum of History; and the Virtual Museum of Canada, an administrative program that supports the development of online projects for museums and heritage organizations across Canada. The Virtual Museum of Canada was an online portal for virtual exhibits in Canada until 2020, when the Virtual Museum of Canada's website was decommissioned, and the project was reoriented into a support program. Management of the corporation is conducted through an 11-member board of trustees. Trustees are appointed by the Minister of Canadian Heritage, with approval from the Governor-in-Council. In turn, the board appoints the corporation's president and chief executive officer. The corporation reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. The corporation's mandate is defined under the Museums Act. The corporation was established as the Canadian Museum of Civilization in June 1990 through the Museums Act; an Act that was later amended in 2014. The corporation adopted its current name in 2013. The Crown corporation was one of several that succeeded the defunct National Museums of Canada Corporation, a Crown corporation that managed most of the country's national museums until its dissolution in 1988. See also List of museums in Ottawa List of museums with major collections in ethnography and anthropology National museums of Canada Notes References Further reading Bates, Christina; Dodd, Dianne; Rousseau, Nicole (2005). On All Frontiers: Four Centuries of Canadian Nursing. University of Ottawa Press. ISBN 9780776616674. Brady, M.; Aronczyk, Melissa (2015). "Branding History at the Canadian Museum of Civilization". Canadian Journal of Communication (40): 165–184. Dean, David; Rider, Peter E. (2005). "Museums, Nation and Political History in the Australian National Museum and the Canadian Museum of Civilization". Museum and Society. 3 (1): 35–50. doi:10.29311/mas.v3i1.63. ISSN 1479-8360. Laforet, Andrea (2014). "Good Intentions and the Public Good: Intangible cultural heritage in a Canadian national museum". Ethnologies. 36 (1–2): 235–257. doi:10.7202/1037608ar. ISSN 1481-5974. McGhee, Robert (1997). "Presenting Indigenous History: The First Peoples Hall at the Canadian Museum of Civilization". In Nicholas, George; Andrews, Thomas (eds.). At the Crossroads: Archaeology and First Peoples in Canada. pp. 235–239. ISBN 9780864911810. Phillips, Ruth B. (2006). "Disrupting Past Paradigms: The National Museum of the American Indian and the First Peoples Hall at the Canadian Museum of Civilization". The Public Historian. 28 (2): 75–80. doi:10.1525/tph.2006.28.2.75. Phillips, Ruth B.; Phillips, Mark Salber (2005). "Double take: Contesting time, place, and nation in the First Peoples Hall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization". American Anthropologist. 104 (4): 694–704. doi:10.1525/aa.2005.107.4.694. Pilon, Jean-Luc; Prince, Nicholette, eds. (2013). First Peoples of Canada: Masterworks from the Canadian Museum of Civilization. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442626126. Richard, Mallory Allyson (2014). "The Colonial Past as "Usable History": Presenting Critical History in Museums". In Segall, Avner; Trofanenko, Brenda (eds.). Beyond Pedagogy: Reconsidering the Public Purpose of Museums. pp. 37–56. ISBN 9789462096325. Vodden, Christy; Dyck, Ian (2006). A World Inside: A 150-year History of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Canadian Museum of Civilization. ISBN 9780660195582. External links Official website

National_Gallery_of_Canada

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

The National Gallery of Canada (French: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up 46,621 square metres (501,820 sq ft), with 12,400 square metres (133,000 sq ft) of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the largest art museums in North America by exhibition space. The institution was established in 1880 at the Second Supreme Court of Canada building, and moved to the Victoria Memorial Museum building in 1911. In 1913, the Government of Canada passed the National Gallery Act, formally outlining the institution's mandate as a national art museum. The Gallery was moved to the Lorne Building in 1960. In 1988, the Gallery was relocated to a new building designed for this purpose. The National Gallery of Canada is situated in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive, with a notable view of Canada's Parliament Buildings on Parliament Hill. The building was designed by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie and opened in 1988. The Gallery's permanent collection includes more than 93,000 works by European, American, Asian, Canadian, and Indigenous artists. In addition to exhibiting works from its permanent collection, the Gallery also organizes and hosts a number of travelling exhibitions. History The Gallery was first formed in 1880 by Canada's Governor General, John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll in conjunction with the establishment of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. In 1882, moved into its first home on Parliament Hill, housed in the Second Supreme Court of Canada building. Eric Brown was named the first director in 1910. In 1911, the Gallery moved to the Victoria Memorial Museum building, sharing it with the National Museum of Natural Sciences. In 1913, the first National Gallery Act was passed, outlining the Gallery's mandate and resources. During the 1920s, the building was expanded. The art gallery was given four floors, and a separate entrance was created for the art museum. In addition, a firewall was built between the Natural Sciences Museum and the National Gallery. But, the Gallery was still in temporary space in the Victoria Memorial Museum building. Longterm plans were to move it to a new permanent location, with spaces dedicated to the viewing of art. By the 1950s, the space in the Victoria Memorial Museum building had grown inadequate for the Gallery's collections. In 1952, the Gallery launched a design contest for architects to design a permanent home for the gallery. But the Gallery failed to garner support from the government of Louis St. Laurent, resulting in the Gallery having to abandon the winning bid. To provide a workable compromise for the National Gallery, St. Laurent's government offered the National Gallery the eight-storey Lorne Building for its use. The National Gallery moved into the nondescript office building on Elgin Street. The Lorne Building has since been demolished and replaced by a 17-storey office building to house the Federal Finance Department. In 1962, Charles Comfort, the Gallery's director, was criticized after half of the works on display at an exhibition for Walter Chrysler's European works were exposed as forgeries by American journalists. Comfort had allowed the Gallery to host the exhibition, despite being warned about the works by the director of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The National Museums of Canada Corporation (NMC) absorbed the National Gallery of Canada in 1968. During the 1970s, the NMC diverted funds from the National Gallery to form regional galleries. The Gallery completed renovations to the Lorne Building in 1976. By 1980, it had become apparent that the National Gallery would need to relocate, given the poor condition of the building, historical use of asbestos there, and inadequate exhibition areas that provided only enough space for two per cent of the collection to be exhibited at any given time. After the Canada's Constitution was patriated in 1982, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced a shift in policy focus towards the "creation of a nation," with priority given to the arts in an effort to enrich Canadian identity. In that same year, Minister of Communications Francis Fox declared the government's commitment to erect new permanent buildings for its national museums, including the National Gallery, and the Museum of Man within five years. The director of the National Gallery, Jean Sutherland Boggs, was chosen by Trudeau to oversee construction of the National Gallery and museums. The Gallery began construction for its permanent museum building on Sussex Drive in 1985, and was opened in May 1988. The diversion of funds by the NMC to help fund regional museums was ended in 1982, and the National Museums of Canada formally dissolved in 1987. As a result of this dissolution, the National Gallery reacquired its institutional independence, along with the mandate and powers outlined in its formative legislative act prior to 1968. The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (CMCP), formerly the Stills Photography Division of the National Film Board of Canada, was an affiliated institution of the National Gallery, and was established in 1985. In 1988, the CMCP's administration was amalgamated with that of the National Gallery's. The CMCP later moved to its new location at 1 Rideau Canal, and continued to operate there until its closure in 2006. Its collection was later absorbed into the National Gallery's in 2009. In December 2000, the National Gallery announced it suspected approximately 100 works from its collection was plunder stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War. The Gallery posted images of works suspected of being stolen art online, permitting its last legal owners to examine and possibly lay claim to the works. In 2006, the Gallery returned a painting by Édouard Vuillard that had been looted by the Nazis from Alfred Lindon in 1942, The Salon of Madame Aron, to Lindon's heirs. In December 2009, the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Alberta issued a joint press release announcing a three-year partnership, which saw the use of the Art Gallery of Alberta's galleries to exhibit works from the National Gallery's collection. The program was the first "satellite program" between the National Gallery of Canada, and another institution, with similar initiatives launched at other Canadian art galleries in the following years. Marc Mayer was named the Gallery's director, succeeding Pierre Théberge, on 19 January 2009. On 19 April 2019, he was succeeded by Alexandra Suda, who was appointed the 11th Director and chief executive officer of the National Gallery of Canada. Under Sasha Suda, the Gallery underwent a major re-branding, dubbed Ankosé, to be more inclusive and work towards reconciliation. After only three years, Suda resigned. Angela Cassie was then appointed interim Director and CEO in July 2022. Building The Gallery's present building was designed by Moshe Safdie & Associates, with construction beginning in 1985, and the building opening in 1988. The building has a total floor area of 46,621 square metres (501,820 sq ft). In 2000, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada chose the National Gallery as one of the top 500 buildings produced in Canada during the last millennium. The National Gallery of Canada is housed in a building on Sussex Drive, adjacent to the ByWard Market district. The building is the fourth edifice to house the art museum. An independent Crown corporation, the Canadian Museums Construction Corporation was established to build the Gallery, with a budget of C$185 million. Following the 1984 Canadian federal election, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney dissolved the corporation. However, because the groundwork for the building was already completed, Mulroney chose to continue funding construction for the Gallery, albeit at a reduced total budget of C$162 million. Exterior The building's northern, eastern, and western exterior facade is made up of pink-granite walls, or glass-windows. The southern exterior facade features an elongated glass wall, supported by concrete pylons grouped in fours. The profile of the southern facade was designed to mimic a cathedral, with the concrete pylons being used similarly to the flying buttresses found on Gothic cathedrals. The eastern portion of the building's southern facade transitions into a low-levelled crystalline glass cupola, which holds the museum's main entrance; and its western portion, which features a three-tiered glass cupola. The three-tiered glass cupola is formed out of rectangular glass and narrow steel supports. The second tier of the cupola is formed out of rectangles and equilateral triangles that are further subdivided into eight or twelve smaller equilateral triangles. All these glass pieces are joined by steel struts. The third tier of the cupola is formed with similar designs, although the triangular glass panes are isosceles triangles. The isosceles triangles converge upwards, with its apexes towards the centre. The building's three-tiered cupola is positioned in a manner in which the cupola would be flanked by the Peace Tower and the Library of Parliament to the west when approaching the museum from the east. Interior The interior entrance lobby is floored with pink-granite, and includes a straight four metres (13 ft) wide ramp which slopes upward towards the west. Safdie noted the importance of the ramp in his design, stating that one should "go through some kind of procession to make your way into something as important as the National Gallery," and that it gave the visitor the feeling of making an ascent to a ritual, a ceremony. The walls of the entrance lobby are lined with rectangular cut pink granite, excluding the southern wall, which is part of the glass-walled exterior facade. A glass and steel ceiling reminiscent of Gothic cathedral architecture, extends the entire way of the ramp. However, as opposed to most Gothic cathedrals, the ceiling has several concrete columns spaced out to support the roof. The summit of the ramp leads towards the Great Hall of the building, situated in the three-storey glass cupola. The interior courtyard of the building includes the Taiga Garden. The garden was designed by Cornelia Oberlander, who modelled the painting Terre Sauvage by A. Y. Jackson; a painting in the National Gallery's permanent collection. The garden attempts to mimic the landscape depicted in the painting, the Canadian shield; although limestone is substituted in place of the granite typically found at the Canadian shield. Collection As of October 2018, the National Gallery of Canada's permanent collection holds more than 93,625 works, representing several artistic movements and eras in art history. The Gallery has a large and varied collection of paintings, works on paper, sculptures and photographs. The earliest works acquired by the museum were from Canadian artists, with Canadian art remaining the focus of the institution. However, its collection also includes several works from artists around the world. The Gallery's collection has been built up through purchases and donations. The Gallery organizes its own travelling exhibitions to exhibit its collection, travelling across Canada and abroad. The National Gallery is the largest lender of art in Canada, sending out approximately 800 works a year. The Gallery's prints and drawings collection includes 27,000 works on paper, dating from the 15th century to the present day. The prints and drawing collection includes 10,000 works on paper by Canadian artists; more than 800 of these prints and drawings being crafted by Inuit artists. The prints and drawing collection also includes 2,500 drawings and 10,000 prints by American, Asian, and European artists. The Gallery also has approximately 400 works from Asian artists, dating from 200 CE to the 19th century. The Gallery's Asian collection began in the early 20th century, with a number of works originating from the collection of Nasli Heeramaneck. The Gallery also has a collection of photographs. A number of the photographs in the collection originated from the defunct Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. Until the mid-1980s, the Gallery's mandate did not include collecting art by Indigenous peoples. This has been much critiqued, and led to important changes at the Gallery from the 1980s onwards. Despite a major re-hang in 2003 of the Canadian galleries to include Indigenous art for the first time, the Gallery continues to work towards more equitable representation of Indigenous art, particularly in its historical galleries. The largest work in the Gallery is the entire interior of the Rideau Street Chapel, which formed part of the Convent of Our Lady Sacred Heart, The interior decorations of the Rideau Street Chapel were designed by Georges Couillon in 1887. The chapel interior was acquired by the Gallery in 1972, when the convent was slated for demolition. The 1,123-piece interior was dismantled, stored and reconstructed within the Gallery as a work of art in 1988. Canadian and Indigenous works The Gallery's Canadian collection includes works dating from the 18th century New France, to the 1990s. The collection includes paintings from pre-Confederation; abstract paintings and other postwar art; and the Henry Birks Collection of Canadian Silver. Early pre-Confederation paintings were among the first items in the Canadian collections, with the National Gallery's earliest works originating from Canadian artists at the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. The Gallery's Canadian collection holds a large number of works by the Group of Seven. The Gallery also holds a large collection of works by Tom Thomson, with The Jack Pine added to its collection in 1918. The Gallery also holds the largest collection of works by Alex Colville. Other artists featured in the collection include William Berczy, Jack Bush, Paul-Émile Borduas, Emily Carr, Robert Field, Vera Frenkel, Theophile Hamel, Joseph Légaré, Cornelius Krieghoff, Fernand Leduc, Alexandra Luke, Ken Lum, James Wilson Morrice, John O'Brien, Antoine Plamondon, William Raphael, Jean-Paul Riopelle, William Ronald, Michael Snow, Lisa Steele, Jeff Wall, Joyce Wieland, Paul Wong, and members of the Regina Five. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Canada in 2017, the Gallery undertook a C$7.4 million renovation to open the Canadian and Indigenous Art: From Time Immemorial to 1967 gallery. This gallery displays the progression of Canadian art and history, exhibiting Canadian and Indigenous works side by side. These works are exhibited in a manner which examines the intertwined relations between the two groups of people. The Indigenous collection includes works by Indigenous artists around the world, although it has an emphasis on works by the Indigenous peoples of Canada. The Gallery collection acquired its first works by First Nations and Metis artists in the early 20th century. However, the makers of these works were often not acknowledged as Indigenous, because the Gallery's mandate did not include the collection of art by Indigenous peoples until the 1980s. The Gallery acquired its first Inuit works in 1956, crafted by artists in Nunavik. The Gallery's acquisition of Inuit works, at a time when it was not actively collecting art by other Indigenous peoples, is related to the Government's promotion of Inuit art to create jobs in the North and to assert Canadian sovereignty there. In 1979, Henry Birks bequeathed a large collection to NGC consisting primarily of Quebecois pre-confederation silver; this bequest of more than 12,000 objects included around 16 works by Indigenous artists. In 1989 and 1992, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development bequeathed 570 works by Inuit artists. A number of Indigenous artists whose works are featured in the collection include Kenojuak Ashevak, Kiawak Ashoona, Qaqaq Ashoona, Carl Beam, Faye HeavyShield, Osuitok Ipeelee, Rita Letendre, Norval Morrisseau, Shelley Niro, David Ruben Piqtoukun, Abraham Anghik Ruben, Lucy Tasseor Tutsweetok, Jeffrey Thomas, John Tiktak, and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. Contemporary The Gallery's contemporary collection includes 1,500 works from artists since the 1990s. The collection features a number of works from Canadian, and its Indigenous artists. The first Indigenous Canadian contemporary artwork acquired by the National Gallery was in 1987, a piece by Anishinaabe artist Carl Beam. In 2017, Bob Rennie donated a contemporary art collection to the National Gallery in honour of Canada' 150th anniversary. The collection includes 197 paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media pieces with most of it originating from Vancouver-based artists including Geoffrey Farmer, Rodney Graham, Brian Jungen, and Ian Wallace. The Rennie collection also includes some international contemporary works, including from Doris Salcedo. In 1990 the Gallery bought Barnett Newman's Voice of Fire for $1.8 million, igniting a storm of controversy. However, since that time its value has appreciated to approximately C$40 million as of 2014. In 1999, the Gallery acquired a sculpture of a giant spider, Maman, by Louise Bourgeois for a cost of C$3.2 million. The sculpture was installed on the plaza in front of the Gallery. In 2011 the Gallery installed Canadian sculptor Joe Fafard's Running Horses next to the Sussex Drive entrance, and American artist Roxy Paine's stainless steel sculpture One Hundred Foot Line at Kìwekì Point behind the gallery. Other contemporary artists whose works are featured in the National Gallery's collection include David Altmejd, Lee Bul, Janet Cardiff, Bharti Kher, Christian Marclay, Elizabeth McIntosh, Chris Ofili, Paine, Ugo Rondinone, and Joanne Tod. European, American, and Asian The European, American, and Asian collection area includes most of the Gallery's works by non-Canadian artists. The Gallery acquired its first European work in 1907: the painting Ignatius Sancho by Thomas Gainsborough. Conversely, the Gallery did not begin to develop its collection of American art until the 1970s. The Gallery's collection includes American and European works dating from the Renaissance through the 20th century. In addition to Western art, the collection also has 400 works from India, Nepal, and Tibet. The Gallery's European collection has since expanded either through acquisitions or gifts. Such works include La Tour Eiffel by Marc Chagall, acquired by the Gallery in 1956 for $C16,000. In 2018, the Gallery planned to sell the work to fund other acquisitions, but abandoned those plans after the decision was found to be unpopular with the public. In 2005, the Gallery acquired a painting by Italian Renaissance painter Francesco Salviati for $4.5 million. In 2018, the Gallery acquired The Partie Carée by James Tissot from the collection of David R. Graham, putting it on display in December 2018. It is the third work by Tissot to be acquired by the museum since 1921. Other works from the collection include The Death of General Wolfe by Anglo-American artist Benjamin West. Other artists featured in the museum's European collection includes Alejo Fernández, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Gustav Klimt, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Henri Matisse, Charles Meynier, Claude Monet, Rembrandt, and Vincent van Gogh. Library and archives The library and archives of the National Gallery of Canada hold an extensive collection of literature on Canadian art. The library and archives was established alongside the Gallery in 1880, and contains documents on western art from the Late Middle Ages to the present day. The collection includes 275,000 books, exhibition catalogues, and periodicals; 76,000 documentation files; and 95,000 microforms. The archives serves as the institutional archive for the Gallery. The library and archives' special collections includes over 50,000 auction catalogues, in addition to 182,000 slides and 360,000 research photographs. The Library and Archives' Exceptional Materials and Notable Subject Collections contains a number of rare imprints, books, and bookplates on Canadian artists, as well as items relating to historians of Canadian art. Management The federal government assumed responsibility for the Gallery in 1913, with the enactment of the National Gallery of Canada Act. The Gallery became a Crown corporation on 1 July 1990 with the proclamation of the Museums Act. The Museums Act serves as the museum's governing legislation. It empowers a board of trustees to serve as the Gallery's governing body, with the board, through the Chair, being accountable to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, who is ultimately responsible for the Museum. The Director and CEO is charged with the day-to-day management of the Gallery. The Gallery is affiliated with several associations, including the Canadian Museums Association, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries, the Canadian Heritage Information Network, and the Virtual Museum of Canada. Directors The following is a list of directors of the National Gallery of Canada: Selected works Canadian collection European and American collection Prints and drawings collection See also Kathleen Fenwick, first gallery curator, from 1929 to 1968 List of art museums List of largest art museums List of museums in Ontario List of national galleries National museums of Canada Notes References Further reading Dymond, Anne (2019). Diversity Counts: Gender, Race, and Representation in Canadian Art Galleries. McGill-Queen's Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-5673-7. Newland, Anne (1991). "The National Gallery of Canada's Theme Rooms: Exploring the Educational Exhibition". Canadian Journal of Education. 16 (3): 361–370. doi:10.2307/1494884. JSTOR 1494884. Ord, Douglas (2003). The National Gallery of Canada: Ideas, Art, Architecture. McGill-Queen's Press. ISBN 0-7735-2509-2. Rybczynski, Witold (1992). "A National Gallery". Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture. Toronto: HarperCollins. pp. 159–166. Retrieved 2021-09-09. External links Media related to National Gallery of Canada at Wikimedia Commons Official website National Gallery of Canada at Structurae National Gallery of Canada within Google Arts & Culture

Lee_Jae-won_(footballer,_born_1992)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Jae-won_(footballer,_born_1992)

Lee Jae-won (born June 2, 1992) is a South Korean football player. Playing career Lee Jae-won played for J3 League club; Kataller Toyama in 2015 season. References External links Lee Jae-won at J.League (archive) (in Japanese)

2015_J3_League

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_J3_League

The 2015 Meiji Yasuda J3 League (2015 明治安田生命J3リーグ) was the 19th season of the third tier in Japanese football, and the 2nd season of the professional J3 League. Clubs To participate, a club must have held an associate membership, or have submitted an application before 30 June 2014, and then passed an inspection to obtain a participation license issued by J.League Council. J.League has confirmed the following clubs participating in the 2015 J3 season: Competition rules The league is played in three rounds, each team playing a total of 36 matches. J.League U-22 Selection played all their matches on the road. Each team must have at least 3 players holding professional contracts. Two foreign players are allowed per team, plus 1 more from the ASEAN partner country of J. League. The matchday roster will consist of 16 players, and up to 5 substitutes will be allowed in a game. Promotion and relegation Rules for promotion to J2 are largely similar to those of Japan Football League in the recent seasons: to be promoted, a club must hold a J2 license and finish in top 2 of the league. The U-22 team is not eligible for promotion regardless of their final position. The champions will be promoted directly, in exchange with 22nd-placed J2 club, and the runners-up will participate in the playoffs with 21st J2 club. If either or both top 2 finishers are ineligible for promotion, the playoffs and/or direct exchange will not be held in accordance to the exact positions of promotion-eligible clubs. No relegation to JFL is planned. Up to 2 clubs may be promoted if they are licensed by J. League for J3 participation and finish in top 4 of JFL. Personnel and kits Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Managerial changes Foreign players Note: ^1 A special team, composed of best J1 and J2 youngsters to prepare them for the 2016 Olympics League table Results Rounds 1–13 Rounds 14–26 Rounds 27–39 Promotion/relegation playoffs 2015 J2/J3 Play-Offs (2015 J2・J3入れ替え戦) Machida Zelvia was promoted to J2 League.Oita Trinita was relegated to J3 League. Top scorers Updated to games played on 23 November 2015Source: Meiji Yasuda J3 League Stats & Data - Ranking:Goals Attendances == References ==

Kataller_Toyama

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

Kataller Toyama (カターレ富山, Katāre Toyama) is a football club based in Toyama, Capital of Toyama Prefecture. The club currently plays in J3 League, Japanese third tier of professional football. History The idea of a merged club had been discussed by the Toyama Prefectural Football Association as early as 2005, but discussions had come to nothing at the time. On September 10, 2007, YKK (owner of YKK AP SC) and Hokuriku Electric Power Company (owner of ALO's Hokuriku), agreed with merging their clubs to aim promotion to the J.League in response of eager request by the TPFA. According to Tulip TV, local broadcasting company, over twenty companies informally promised to invest in the new club. In the media briefing, the governor of Toyama Prefecture also participated. TPFA has founded an organisation named "Civic Football Club Team of Toyama Prefecture (富山県民サッカークラブチーム)" with two major economic organisation and representatives of Hokuriku Electric Power Company and YKK. The Japan Football League confirmed that the merged club would compete in the JFL from the 2008 season. They applied for J.League Associate Membership in January 2008, then their application was accepted at the board meeting of J.League on February 19, 2008. On November 23 they secured qualification for promotion to the J2 League, and on December 1 promotion was made official by J.League. In 2014, after a six-year stint at the J2, Kataller Toyama was relegated to the J3 ahead of the 2015 season after a J2 bottom-place finish. The club has since then played at the J3 and will play their tenth consecutive season at Japan's third division. Name and crest The word "kataller" is a portmanteau of the phrase katare (勝たれ) which in Toyama dialect means "to win", and the French aller, "to go". The phrase is also intended to be a pun of Italian cantare, "to sing", and of native Japanese katare (語れ), "to talk" (written with a different kanji character). The crest is shaped in the form of a tulip, the official Toyama Prefecture flower. League & cup record Key Current squad As of 10 August 2024. Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Club officials Managerial history Kit and colours Colours Kataller Toyama's main colour is blue. Kit evolution References External links Official site (in Japanese)

University_of_Oxford

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

The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It grew rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk, some Oxford academics fled northeast to Cambridge, where, in 1209, they established the University of Cambridge. The two English ancient universities share many common features and are jointly referred to as Oxbridge. The University of Oxford is made up of 43 constituent colleges, consisting of 36 semi-autonomous colleges, four permanent private halls and three societies (colleges that are departments of the university, without their own royal charter), and a range of academic departments which are organised into four divisions. Each college is a self-governing institution within the university, controlling its own membership and having its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college. The university does not have a main campus, but its buildings and facilities are scattered throughout the city centre. Undergraduate teaching at Oxford consists of lectures, small-group tutorials at the colleges and halls, seminars, laboratory work and occasionally further tutorials provided by the central university faculties and departments. Postgraduate teaching is provided in a predominantly centralised fashion. Oxford operates the Ashmolean Museum, the world's oldest university museum; Oxford University Press, the largest university press in the world; and the largest academic library system nationwide. In the fiscal year ending 31 July 2023, the university had a total consolidated income of £2.92 billion, of which £789 million was from research grants and contracts. Oxford has educated a wide range of notable alumni, including 31 prime ministers of the United Kingdom and many heads of state and government around the world. As of October 2022, 73 Nobel Prize laureates, 4 Fields Medalists, and 6 Turing Award winners have matriculated, worked, or held visiting fellowships at the University of Oxford, while its alumni have won 160 Olympic medals. Oxford is the home of numerous scholarships, including the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the oldest international graduate scholarship programmes. History Founding The University of Oxford's foundation date is unknown. In the 14th century, the historian Ranulf Higden wrote that the university was founded in the 10th century by Alfred the Great, but this story is apocryphal. It is known that teaching at Oxford existed in some form as early as 1096, but it is unclear when the university came into being. Scholar Theobald of Étampes lectured at Oxford in the early 1100s. It grew quickly from 1167 when English students returned from the University of Paris. The historian Gerald of Wales lectured to such scholars in 1188, and the first known foreign scholar, Emo of Friesland, arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of chancellor from at least 1201, and the masters were recognised as a universitas or corporation in 1231. The university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King Henry III. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to Cambridge, later forming the University of Cambridge. The students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two 'nations', representing the North (northerners or Boreales, who included the English people from north of the River Trent and the Scots) and the South (southerners or Australes, who included English people from south of the Trent, the Irish and the Welsh). In later centuries, geographical origins continued to influence many students' affiliations when membership of a college or hall became customary in Oxford. In addition, members of many religious orders, including Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians, settled in Oxford in the mid-13th century, gained influence and maintained houses or halls for students. At about the same time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were William of Durham, who in 1249 endowed University College, and John Balliol, father of a future King of Scots; Balliol College bears his name. Another founder, Walter de Merton, a Lord Chancellor of England and afterwards Bishop of Rochester, devised a series of regulations for college life; Merton College thereby became the model for such establishments at Oxford, as well as at the University of Cambridge. Thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses. In 1333–1334, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new university at Stamford, Lincolnshire, was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King Edward III. Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London; thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, which was unusual in large western European countries. Renaissance period The new learning of the Renaissance greatly influenced Oxford from the late 15th century onwards. Among university scholars of the period were William Grocyn, who contributed to the revival of Greek language studies, and John Colet, the noted biblical scholar. With the English Reformation and the breaking of communion with the Roman Catholic Church, recusant scholars from Oxford fled to continental Europe, settling especially at the University of Douai. The method of teaching at Oxford was transformed from the medieval scholastic method to Renaissance education, although institutions associated with the university suffered losses of land and revenues. As a centre of learning and scholarship, Oxford's reputation declined in the Age of Enlightenment; enrolments fell and teaching was neglected. In 1636, William Laud, the chancellor and Archbishop of Canterbury, codified the university's statutes. These, to a large extent, remained its governing regulations until the mid-19th century. Laud was also responsible for the granting of a charter securing privileges for the University Press, and he made significant contributions to the Bodleian Library, the main library of the university. From the beginnings of the Church of England as the established church until 1866, membership of the church was a requirement to graduate as a Bachelor of Arts, and "dissenters" were only permitted to be promoted to Master of Arts in 1871. The university was a centre of the Royalist party during the English Civil War (1642–1649), while the town favoured the opposing Parliamentarian cause. Wadham College, founded in 1610, was the undergraduate college of Sir Christopher Wren. Wren was part of a brilliant group of experimental scientists at Oxford in the 1650s, the Oxford Philosophical Club, which included Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. This group, which has at times been linked with Boyle's "Invisible College", held regular meetings at Wadham under the guidance of the college's Warden, John Wilkins, and the group formed the nucleus that went on to found the Royal Society. Modern period Students Before reforms in the early 19th century, the curriculum at Oxford was notoriously narrow and impractical. Sir Spencer Walpole, a historian of contemporary Britain and a senior government official, had not attended any university. He said, "Few medical men, few solicitors, few persons intended for commerce or trade, ever dreamed of passing through a university career." He quoted the Oxford University Commissioners in 1852 stating: "The education imparted at Oxford was not such as to conduce to the advancement in life of many persons, except those intended for the ministry." Nevertheless, Walpole argued: Among the many deficiencies attending a university education there was, however, one good thing about it, and that was the education which the undergraduates gave themselves. It was impossible to collect some thousand or twelve hundred of the best young men in England, to give them the opportunity of making acquaintance with one another, and full liberty to live their lives in their own way, without evolving in the best among them, some admirable qualities of loyalty, independence, and self-control. If the average undergraduate carried from University little or no learning, which was of any service to him, he carried from it a knowledge of men and respect for his fellows and himself, a reverence for the past, a code of honour for the present, which could not but be serviceable. He had enjoyed opportunities... of intercourse with men, some of whom were certain to rise to the highest places in the Senate, in the Church, or at the Bar. He might have mixed with them in his sports, in his studies, and perhaps in his debating society; and any associations which he had this formed had been useful to him at the time, and might be a source of satisfaction to him in after life. Out of the students who matriculated in 1840, 65% were sons of professionals (34% were Anglican ministers). After graduation, 87% became professionals (59% as Anglican clergy). Out of the students who matriculated in 1870, 59% were sons of professionals (25% were Anglican ministers). After graduation, 87% became professionals (42% as Anglican clergy). M. C. Curthoys and H. S. Jones argue that the rise of organised sport was one of the most remarkable and distinctive features of the history of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was carried over from the athleticism prevalent at the public schools such as Eton, Winchester, Shrewsbury, and Harrow. All students, regardless of their chosen area of study, were required to spend (at least) their first year preparing for a first-year examination that was heavily focused on classical languages. Science students found this particularly burdensome and supported a separate science degree with Greek language study removed from their required courses. This concept of a Bachelor of Science had been adopted at other European universities (London University had implemented it in 1860) but an 1880 proposal at Oxford to replace the classical requirement with a modern language (like German or French) was unsuccessful. After considerable internal wrangling over the structure of the arts curriculum, in 1886 the "natural science preliminary" was recognised as a qualifying part of the first year examination. At the start of 1914, the university housed about 3,000 undergraduates and about 100 postgraduate students. During the First World War, many undergraduates and fellows joined the armed forces. By 1918 virtually all fellows were in uniform, and the student population in residence was reduced to 12 per cent of the pre-war total. The University Roll of Service records that, in total, 14,792 members of the university served in the war, with 2,716 (18.36%) killed. Not all the members of the university who served in the Great War were on the Allied side; there is a remarkable memorial to members of New College who served in the German armed forces, bearing the inscription, 'In memory of the men of this college who coming from a foreign land entered into the inheritance of this place and returning fought and died for their country in the war 1914–1918'. During the war years the university buildings became hospitals, cadet schools and military training camps. Reforms Two parliamentary commissions in 1852 issued recommendations for Oxford and Cambridge. Archibald Campbell Tait, a former headmaster of Rugby School, was a key member of the Oxford Commission; he wanted Oxford to follow the German and Scottish model in which the professorship was paramount. The commission's report envisioned a centralised university run predominantly by professors and faculties, with a much stronger emphasis on research. The professional staff should be strengthened and better paid. For students, restrictions on entry should be dropped, and more opportunities given to poorer families. It called for an enlargement of the curriculum, with honours to be awarded in many new fields. Undergraduate scholarships should be open to all Britons. Graduate fellowships should be opened up to all members of the university. It recommended that fellows be released from an obligation for ordination. Students were to be allowed to save money by boarding in the city, instead of in a college. The system of separate honour schools for different subjects began in 1802, with Mathematics and Literae Humaniores. Schools of "Natural Sciences" and "Law, and Modern History" were added in 1853. By 1872, the last of these had split into "Jurisprudence" and "Modern History". Theology became the sixth honour school. In addition to these B.A. Honours degrees, the postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) was, and still is, offered. The mid-19th century saw the impact of the Oxford Movement (1833–1845), led among others by the future Cardinal John Henry Newman. Administrative reforms during the 19th century included the replacement of oral examinations with written entrance tests, greater tolerance for religious dissent, and the establishment of four women's colleges. Privy Council decisions in the 20th century (e.g. the abolition of compulsory daily worship, dissociation of the Regius Professorship of Hebrew from clerical status, diversion of colleges' theological bequests to other purposes) loosened the link with traditional belief and practice. Furthermore, although the university's emphasis had historically been on classical knowledge, its curriculum expanded during the 19th century to include scientific and medical studies. The University of Oxford began to award doctorates for research in the first third of the 20th century. The first Oxford DPhil in mathematics was awarded in 1921. The list of distinguished scholars at the University of Oxford is long and includes many who have made major contributions to politics, the sciences, medicine, and literature. As of October 2022, 73 Nobel laureates and more than 50 world leaders have been affiliated with the University of Oxford. Women's education The university passed a statute in 1875 allowing examinations for women at roughly undergraduate level; for a brief period in the early 1900s, this allowed the "steamboat ladies" to receive ad eundem degrees from the University of Dublin. In June 1878, the Association for the Education of Women (AEW) was formed, aiming for the eventual creation of a college for women in Oxford. Some of the more prominent members of the association were George Granville Bradley, T. H. Green and Edward Stuart Talbot. Talbot insisted on a specifically Anglican institution, which was unacceptable to most of the other members. The two parties eventually split, and Talbot's group founded Lady Margaret Hall in 1878, while T. H. Green founded the non-denominational Somerville College in 1879. Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville opened their doors to their first 21 students (12 at Somerville, 9 at Lady Margaret Hall) in 1879, who attended lectures in rooms above an Oxford baker's shop. There were also 25 women students living at home or with friends in 1879, a group which evolved into the Society of Oxford Home-Students and in 1952 into St Anne's College. These first three societies for women were followed by St Hugh's (1886) and St Hilda's (1893). All of these colleges later became coeducational, starting with Lady Margaret Hall and St Anne's in 1979, and finishing with St Hilda's, which began to accept male students in 2008. In the early 20th century, Oxford and Cambridge were widely perceived to be bastions of male privilege; however, the integration of women into Oxford moved forward during the First World War. In 1916 women were admitted as medical students on a par with men, and in 1917 the university accepted financial responsibility for women's examinations. On 7 October 1920 women became eligible for admission as full members of the university and were given the right to take degrees. In 1927 the university's dons created a quota that limited the number of female students to a quarter that of men, a ruling which was not abolished until 1957. However, during this period Oxford colleges were single sex, so the number of women was also limited by the capacity of the women's colleges to admit students. It was not until 1959 that the women's colleges were given full collegiate status. In 1974, Brasenose, Jesus, Wadham, Hertford and St Catherine's became the first previously all-male colleges to admit women. The majority of men's colleges accepted their first female students in 1979, with Christ Church following in 1980, and Oriel becoming the last men's college to admit women in 1985. Most of Oxford's graduate colleges were founded as coeducational establishments in the 20th century, with the exception of St Antony's, which was founded as a men's college in 1950 and began to accept women only in 1962. By 1988, 40% of undergraduates at Oxford were female; in 2016, 45% of the student population, and 47% of undergraduate students, were female. In June 2017, Oxford announced that starting the following academic year, history students may choose to sit a take-home exam in some courses, with the intention that this will equalise rates of firsts awarded to women and men at Oxford. That same summer, maths and computer science tests were extended by 15 minutes, in a bid to see if female student scores would improve. The detective novel Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers, herself one of the first women to gain an academic degree from Oxford, is largely set in the all-female Shrewsbury College, Oxford (based on Sayers' own Somerville College), and the issue of women's education is central to its plot. Social historian and Somerville College alumna Jane Robinson's book Bluestockings: A Remarkable History of the First Women to Fight for an Education gives a very detailed and immersive account of this history. Buildings and sites Map Main sites The university is a "city university" in that it does not have a main campus; instead, colleges, departments, accommodation, and other facilities are scattered throughout the city centre. The Science Area, in which most science departments are located, is the area that bears closest resemblance to a campus. The ten-acre (4-hectare) Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in the northwest of the city is currently under development. Iconic university buildings include the Radcliffe Camera, the Sheldonian Theatre used for music concerts, lectures, and university ceremonies, and the Examination Schools, where examinations and some lectures take place. The University Church of St Mary the Virgin was used for university ceremonies before the construction of the Sheldonian. In 2012–2013, the university built the controversial one-hectare (400 m × 25 m) Castle Mill development of 4–5-storey blocks of student flats overlooking Cripley Meadow and the historic Port Meadow, blocking views of the spires in the city centre. The development has been likened to building a "skyscraper beside Stonehenge". Parks The University Parks are a 70-acre (28 ha) parkland area in the northeast of the city, near Keble College, Somerville College and Lady Margaret Hall. It is open to the public during daylight hours. There are also various college-owned open spaces open to the public, including Bagley Wood and most notably Christ Church Meadow. The Botanic Garden on the High Street is the oldest botanic garden in the UK. It contains over 8,000 different plant species on 1.8 ha (4+1⁄2 acres). It is one of the most diverse yet compact major collections of plants in the world and includes representatives of over 90% of the higher plant families. The Harcourt Arboretum is a 130-acre (53 ha) site six miles (9.7 km) south of the city that includes native woodland and 67 acres (27 hectares) of meadow. The 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) Wytham Woods are owned by the university and used for research in zoology and climate change. Organisation Colleges arrange the tutorial teaching for their undergraduates, and the members of an academic department are spread around many colleges. Though certain colleges do have subject alignments (e.g., Nuffield College as a centre for the social sciences), these are exceptions, and most colleges will have a broad mix of academics and students from a diverse range of subjects. Facilities such as libraries are provided on all these levels: by the central university (the Bodleian), by the departments (individual departmental libraries, such as the English Faculty Library), and by colleges (each of which maintains a multi-discipline library for the use of its members). Central governance The university's formal head is the Chancellor, currently Lord Patten of Barnes (due to retire in 2024), though as at most British universities, the Chancellor is a titular figurehead and is not involved with the day-to-day running of the university. The Chancellor is elected by the members of Convocation, a body comprising all graduates of the university, and may hold office until death. The Vice-Chancellor, currently Irene Tracey, is the de facto head of the university. Five pro-vice-chancellors have specific responsibilities for education; research; planning and resources; development and external affairs; and personnel and equal opportunities. Two university proctors, elected annually on a rotating basis from any two of the colleges, are the internal ombudsmen who make sure that the university and its members adhere to its statutes. This role incorporates student discipline and complaints, as well as oversight of the university's proceedings. The university's professors are collectively referred to as the Statutory Professors of the University of Oxford. They are particularly influential in the running of the university's graduate programmes. Examples of statutory professors are the Chichele Professorships and the Drummond Professor of Political Economy. The University of Oxford is only a "public university" in the sense that it receives some public money from the government, but it is a "private university" in the sense that it is entirely self-governing and, in theory, could choose to become entirely private by rejecting public funds. Colleges To be a member of the university, all students, and most academic staff, must also be a member of a college or hall. The first college was founded in 1249, when William of Durham endowed University College. There are thirty-nine colleges of the University of Oxford and four permanent private halls (PPHs), each controlling its membership and with its own internal structure and activities. Not all colleges offer all courses, but they generally cover a broad range of subjects. The colleges are: The permanent private halls were founded by different Christian denominations. One difference between a college and a PPH is that whereas colleges are governed by the fellows of the college, the governance of a PPH resides, at least in part, with the corresponding Christian denomination. The four current PPHs are: Blackfriars Hall Campion Hall Regent's Park College Wycliffe Hall The PPHs and colleges join as the Conference of Colleges, which represents the common concerns of the several colleges of the university, to discuss matters of shared interest and to act collectively when necessary, such as in dealings with the central university. The Conference of Colleges was established as a recommendation of the Franks Commission in 1965. Teaching members of the colleges (i.e. fellows and tutors) are collectively and familiarly known as dons, although the term is rarely used by the university itself. In addition to residential and dining facilities, the colleges provide social, cultural, and recreational activities for their members. Colleges have responsibility for admitting undergraduates and organising their tuition; for graduates, this responsibility falls upon the departments. Finances In 2017–18, the university had an income of £2,237m; key sources were research grants (£579.1m) and academic fees (£332.5m). The colleges had a total income of £492.9m. While the university has a larger annual income and operating budget, the colleges have a larger aggregate endowment: over £6.4bn compared to the university's £1.2bn. The central University's endowment, along with some of the colleges', is managed by the university's wholly-owned endowment management office, Oxford University Endowment Management, formed in 2007. The university used to maintain substantial investments in fossil fuel companies. However, in April 2020, the university committed to divest from direct investments in fossil fuel companies and to require indirect investments in fossil fuel companies be subjected to the Oxford Martin Principles. The total assets of the colleges of £6.3 billion also exceed total university assets of £4.1 billion. The college figure does not reflect all the assets held by the colleges as their accounts do not include the cost or value of many of their main sites or heritage assets such as works of art or libraries. The university was one of the first in the UK to raise money through a major public fundraising campaign, the Campaign for Oxford. The current campaign, its second, was launched in May 2008 and is entitled "Oxford Thinking – The Campaign for the University of Oxford". This is looking to support three areas: academic posts and programmes, student support, and buildings and infrastructure; having passed its original target of £1.25 billion in March 2012, the target was raised to £3 billion. The campaign had raised a total of £2.8 billion by July 2018. Funding criticisms The university has faced criticism for some of its sources of donations and funding. In 2017, attention was drawn to historical donations including All Souls College receiving £10,000 from slave trader Christopher Codrington in 1710, and Oriel College having receiving taken £100,000 from the will of the imperialist Cecil Rhodes in 1902. In 1996 a donation of £20 million was received from Wafic Saïd who was involved in the Al-Yammah arms deal, and taking £150 million from the US billionaire businessman Stephen A. Schwarzman in 2019. The university has defended its decisions saying it "takes legal, ethical and reputational issues into consideration". The university has also faced criticism, as noted above, over its decision to accept donations from fossil fuel companies having received £21.8 million from the fossil fuel industry between 2010 and 2015, £18.8 million between 2015 and 2020 and £1.6 million between 2020 and 2021. The university accepted £6 million from The Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust in 2021. Former racing driver Max Mosley said he set up the trust "to house the fortune he inherited" from his father, Oswald Mosley, who was founder of two far right groups: Union Movement and the British Union of Fascists. Affiliations Oxford is a member of the Russell Group of research-led British universities, the G5, the League of European Research Universities, and the International Alliance of Research Universities. It is also a core member of the Europaeum and forms part of the "golden triangle" of highly research intensive and elite English universities. Academic profile Admission In common with most British universities, prospective undergraduate students apply through the UCAS application system, but prospective applicants for the University of Oxford, along with those for medicine, dentistry, and University of Cambridge applicants, must observe an earlier deadline of 15 October. The Sutton Trust maintains that Oxford University and Cambridge University recruit undergraduates disproportionately from 8 schools which accounted for 1,310 Oxbridge places during three years, contrasted with 1,220 from 2,900 other schools. To allow a more personalised judgement of students, who might otherwise apply for both, undergraduate applicants are not permitted to apply to both Oxford and Cambridge in the same year. The only exceptions are applicants for organ scholarships and those applying to read for a second undergraduate degree. Oxford has the lowest offer rate of all Russell Group universities. Most applicants choose to apply to one of the individual colleges. For undergraduates, these colleges work with each other to ensure that the best students gain a place somewhere at the university regardless of their college preferences. For postgraduates, all applicants who receive an offer from the university are guaranteed a college place, even if they do not receive a place at their chosen college. Undergraduate shortlisting is based on achieved and predicted exam results, school references, and, in some subjects, written admission tests or candidate-submitted written work. Approximately 60% of applicants are shortlisted, although this varies by subject. If a large number of shortlisted applicants for a subject choose one college, then students who named that college may be reallocated randomly to under-subscribed colleges for the subject. The colleges then invite shortlisted candidates for interview, where they are provided with food and accommodation for around three days in December. Most undergraduate applicants will be individually interviewed by academics at more than one college. In 2020 interviews were moved online, and they will remain online until at least 2027. Undergraduate offers are sent out in early January, with each offer usually being from a specific college. One in four successful candidates receives an offer from a college that they did not apply to. Some courses may make "open offers" to some candidates, who are not assigned to a particular college until A Level results day in August. The university has come under criticism for the number of students it accepts from private schools; for instance, Laura Spence's rejection from the university in 2000 led to widespread debate. In 2016, the University of Oxford gave 59% of offers to UK students to students from state schools, while about 93% of all UK pupils and 86% of post-16 UK pupils are educated in state schools. However, 64% of UK applicants were from state schools and the university notes that state school students apply disproportionately to oversubscribed subjects. The proportion of students coming from state schools has been increasing. From 2015 to 2019, the state proportion of total UK students admitted each year was: 55.6%, 58.0%, 58.2%, 60.5% and 62.3%. Oxford University spends over £6 million per year on outreach programs to encourage applicants from underrepresented demographics. In 2018 the university's annual admissions report revealed that eight of Oxford's colleges had accepted fewer than three black applicants in the past three years. Labour MP David Lammy said, "This is social apartheid and it is utterly unrepresentative of life in modern Britain." In 2020, Oxford had increased its proportion of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students to record levels. The number of BAME undergraduates accepted to the university in 2020 rose to 684 students, or 23.6% of the UK intake, up from 558 or 22% in 2019; the number of Black students was 106 (3.7% of the intake), up from 80 students (3.2%). UCAS data also showed that Oxford is more likely than comparable institutions to make offers to ethnic minority and socially disadvantaged pupils. Teaching and degrees Undergraduate teaching is centred on the tutorial, where 1–4 students spend an hour with an academic discussing their week's work, usually an essay (humanities, most social sciences, some mathematical, physical, and life sciences) or problem sheet (most mathematical, physical, and life sciences, and some social sciences). The university itself is responsible for conducting examinations and conferring degrees. Undergraduate teaching takes place during three eight-week academic terms: Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity. (These are officially known as 'Full Term': 'Term' is a lengthier period with little practical significance.) Internally, the weeks in a term begin on Sundays, and are referred to numerically, with the initial week known as "first week", the last as "eighth week" and with the numbering extended to refer to weeks before and after term (for example "noughth week" precedes term). Undergraduates must be in residence from Thursday of 0th week. These teaching terms are shorter than those of most other British universities, and their total duration amounts to less than half the year. However, undergraduates are also expected to do some academic work during the three holidays (known as the Christmas, Easter, and Long Vacations). Scholarships and financial support There are many opportunities for students at Oxford to receive financial help during their studies. The Oxford Opportunity Bursaries, introduced in 2006, are university-wide means-based bursaries available to any British undergraduate, with a total possible grant of £10,235 over a 3-year degree. In addition, individual colleges also offer bursaries and funds to help their students. For graduate study, there are many scholarships attached to the university, available to students from all sorts of backgrounds, from Rhodes Scholarships to the relatively new Weidenfeld Scholarships. Oxford also offers the Clarendon Scholarship which is open to graduate applicants of all nationalities. The Clarendon Scholarship is principally funded by Oxford University Press in association with colleges and other partnership awards. In 2016, Oxford University announced that it is to run its first free online economics course as part of a "massive open online course" (Mooc) scheme, in partnership with a US online university network. The course available is called 'From Poverty to Prosperity: Understanding Economic Development'. Students successful in early examinations are rewarded by their colleges with scholarships and exhibitions, normally the result of a long-standing endowment, although since the introduction of tuition fees the amounts of money available are purely nominal. Scholars, and exhibitioners in some colleges, are entitled to wear a more voluminous undergraduate gown; "commoners" (originally those who had to pay for their "commons", or food and lodging) are restricted to a short, sleeveless garment. The term "scholar" in relation to Oxford therefore has a specific meaning as well as the more general meaning of someone of outstanding academic ability. In previous times, there were "noblemen commoners" and "gentlemen commoners", but these ranks were abolished in the 19th century. "Closed" scholarships, available only to candidates who fitted specific conditions such as coming from specific schools, were abolished in the 1970s and 1980s. Libraries The university maintains the largest university library system in the UK, and, with over 11 million volumes housed on 120 miles (190 km) of shelving, the Bodleian group is the second-largest library in the UK, after the British Library. The Bodleian is a legal deposit library, which means that it is entitled to request a free copy of every book published in the UK. As such, its collection is growing at a rate of over three miles (five kilometres) of shelving every year. The buildings referred to as the university's main research library, The Bodleian, consist of the original Bodleian Library in the Old Schools Quadrangle, founded by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1598 and opened in 1602, the Radcliffe Camera, the Clarendon Building, and the Weston Library. A tunnel underneath Broad Street connects these buildings, with the Gladstone Link, which opened to readers in 2011, connecting the Old Bodleian and Radcliffe Camera. The Bodleian Libraries group was formed in 2000, bringing the Bodleian Library and some of the subject libraries together. It now comprises 28 libraries, a number of which have been created by bringing previously separate collections together, including the Sackler Library, Law Library, Social Science Library and Radcliffe Science Library. Another major product of this collaboration has been a joint integrated library system, OLIS (Oxford Libraries Information System), and its public interface, SOLO (Search Oxford Libraries Online), which provides an electronic catalogue covering all member libraries, as well as the libraries of individual colleges and other faculty libraries, which are not members of the group but do share cataloguing information. A new book depository opened in South Marston, Swindon, in October 2010, and recent building projects include the remodelling of the New Bodleian building, which was renamed the Weston Library when it reopened in 2015. The renovation is designed to better showcase the library's various treasures (which include a Shakespeare First Folio and a Gutenberg Bible) as well as temporary exhibitions. The Bodleian engaged in a mass-digitisation project with Google in 2004. Notable electronic resources hosted by the Bodleian Group include the Electronic Enlightenment Project, which was awarded the 2010 Digital Prize by the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Museums Oxford maintains a number of museums and galleries, open for free to the public. The Ashmolean Museum, founded in 1683, is the oldest museum in the UK, and the oldest university museum in the world. It holds significant collections of art and archaeology, including works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Turner, and Picasso, as well as treasures such as the Scorpion Macehead, the Parian Marble and the Alfred Jewel. It also contains "The Messiah", a pristine Stradivarius violin, regarded by some as one of the finest examples in existence. The University Museum of Natural History holds the university's zoological, entomological and geological specimens. It is housed in a large neo-Gothic building on Parks Road, in the university's Science Area. Among its collection are the skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops, and the most complete remains of a dodo found anywhere in the world. It also hosts the Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science, currently held by Marcus du Sautoy. Adjoining the Museum of Natural History is the Pitt Rivers Museum, founded in 1884, which displays the university's archaeological and anthropological collections, currently holding over 500,000 items. It recently built a new research annexe; its staff have been involved with the teaching of anthropology at Oxford since its foundation, when as part of his donation General Augustus Pitt Rivers stipulated that the university establish a lectureship in anthropology. The Museum of the History of Science is housed on Broad Street in the world's oldest-surviving purpose-built museum building. It contains 15,000 artefacts, from antiquity to the 20th century, representing almost all aspects of the history of science. In the Faculty of Music on St Aldate's is the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, a collection mostly of instruments from Western classical music, from the medieval period onwards. Christ Church Picture Gallery holds a large collection of old master paintings and drawings. Publishing The Oxford University Press is the world's second oldest and currently the largest university press by the number of publications. More than 6,000 new books are published annually, including many reference, professional, and academic works (such as the Oxford English Dictionary, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, the Oxford World's Classics, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and the Concise Dictionary of National Biography). Reputation and ranking Due to its age and its social and academic status, the University of Oxford is considered to be one of Britain's most prestigious or elite universities and to form, along with the University of Cambridge, a top two that stand above other UK universities in this regard. Oxford is regularly ranked within the top five universities in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, as well as the Forbes's World University Rankings. It held the number one position in the Times Good University Guide for eleven consecutive years, and the medical school has also maintained first place in the "Clinical, Pre-Clinical & Health" table of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for the past seven consecutive years. In 2021, it ranked sixth among the universities around the world by SCImago Institutions Rankings. The THE has also recognised Oxford as one of the world's "six super brands" on its World Reputation Rankings, along with Berkeley, Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. The university is fourth worldwide on the US News ranking. Its Saïd Business School came 13th in the world in Financial Times Global MBA Ranking. Oxford was ranked 13th in the world in 2022 by the Nature Index, which measures the largest contributors to papers published in 82 leading journals. It is ranked fifth best university worldwide and first in Britain for forming CEOs according to the Professional Ranking World Universities, and first in the UK for the quality of its graduates as chosen by the recruiters of the UK's major companies. In the 2018 Complete University Guide, all 38 subjects offered by Oxford rank within the top 10 nationally meaning Oxford was one of only two multi-faculty universities (along with Cambridge) in the UK to have 100% of their subjects in the top 10. Computer Science, Medicine, Philosophy, Politics and Psychology were ranked first in the UK by the guide. According to the QS World University Rankings by Subject, the University of Oxford also ranks as number one in the world for four Humanities disciplines: English Language and Literature, Modern Languages, Geography, and History. It also ranks second globally for Anthropology, Archaeology, Law, Medicine, Politics & International Studies, and Psychology. Student life Traditions Academic dress is required for examinations, matriculation, disciplinary hearings, and when visiting university officers. A referendum held among the Oxford student body in 2015 showed 76% against making it voluntary in examinations – 8,671 students voted, with the 40.2% turnout the highest ever for a UK student union referendum. This was widely interpreted by students as being a vote not so much on making subfusc voluntary, but rather, in effect, on abolishing it by default, in that if a minority of people came to exams without subfusc, the rest would soon follow. In July 2012 the regulations regarding academic dress were modified to be more inclusive to transgender people. 'Trashing' is a tradition of spraying those who just finished their last examination of the year with alcohol, flour and confetti. The sprayed student stays in the academic dress worn to the exam. The custom began in the 1970s when friends of students taking their finals waited outside Oxford's Examination Schools where exams for most degrees are taken. Other traditions and customs vary by college. For example, some colleges have formal hall six times a week, but in others this only happens occasionally, or even not at all. Balls are major events held by colleges; the largest, held triennially in ninth week of Trinity Term, are called commemoration balls; the dress code is usually white tie. Many other colleges hold smaller events during the year that they call summer balls or parties. Clubs and societies The Oxford Union (not to be confused with the Oxford University Student Union) is an independent debating society which hosts weekly debates and high-profile speakers. Party political groups include Oxford University Conservative Association and Oxford University Labour Club. Most academic areas have student societies of some form, for example the Scientific Society. There are two weekly student newspapers: the independent Cherwell and OUSU's The Oxford Student. Other publications include the Isis magazine, the satirical Oxymoron, the graduate Oxonian Review, the Oxford Political Review, and the online only newspaper The Oxford Blue. The student radio station is Oxide Radio. Sport is played between college teams, in tournaments known as cuppers (the term is also used for some non-sporting competitions). In particular, much attention is given to the termly intercollegiate rowing regattas: Christ Church Regatta, Torpids, and Summer Eights. In addition, there are higher standard university wide teams. Significant focus is given to annual varsity matches played against Cambridge, the most famous of which is The Boat Race, watched by a TV audience of between five and ten million viewers. A blue is an award given to those who compete at the university team level in certain sports. Music, drama, and other arts societies exist both at the collegiate level and as university-wide groups, such as the Oxford University Dramatic Society and the Oxford Revue. Most colleges have chapel choirs. The Oxford Imps, a comedy improvisation troupe, perform weekly at The Jericho Tavern during term time. Private members' clubs for students include Vincent's Club (primarily for sportspeople) and The Gridiron Club. A number of invitation-only student dining clubs also exist, including the Bullingdon Club. Student union and common rooms The Oxford University Student Union, formerly better known by its acronym OUSU and now rebranded as Oxford SU, exists to represent students in the university's decision-making, to act as the voice for students in the national higher education policy debate, and to provide direct services to the student body. Reflecting the collegiate nature of the University of Oxford itself, OUSU is both an association of Oxford's more than 21,000 individual students and a federation of the affiliated college common rooms, and other affiliated organisations that represent subsets of the undergraduate and graduate students. The importance of collegiate life is such that for many students their college JCR (Junior Common Room, for undergraduates) or MCR (Middle Common Room, for graduates) is seen as more important than OUSU. JCRs and MCRs each have a committee, with a president and other elected students representing their peers to college authorities. Additionally, they organise events and often have significant budgets to spend as they wish (money coming from their colleges and sometimes other sources such as student-run bars). Notable alumni Throughout its history, a sizeable number of Oxford alumni, known as Oxonians, have become notable in many varied fields, both academic and otherwise. A total of 70 Nobel prize-winners have studied or taught at Oxford, with prizes won in all six categories. More information on notable members of the university can be found in the individual college articles. An individual may be associated with two or more colleges, as an undergraduate, postgraduate and/or member of staff. Politics Thirty-one British prime ministers have attended Oxford, including William Gladstone, H. H. Asquith, Clement Attlee, Harold Macmillan, Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. Of all the post-war prime ministers, only Gordon Brown was educated at a university other than Oxford (the University of Edinburgh), while Winston Churchill, James Callaghan and John Major never attended a university. Over 100 Oxford alumni were elected to the House of Commons in 2010. This includes former Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband, and numerous members of the cabinet and shadow cabinet. Additionally, over 140 Oxonians sit in the House of Lords. At least 30 other international leaders have been educated at Oxford. This number includes Harald V of Norway, Abdullah II of Jordan, William II of the Netherlands, five Prime Ministers of Australia (John Gorton, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Tony Abbott, and Malcolm Turnbull), six Prime Ministers of Pakistan (Liaquat Ali Khan, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Sir Feroz Khan Noon, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and Imran Khan), two Prime Ministers of Canada (Lester B. Pearson and John Turner), two Prime Ministers of India (Manmohan Singh and Indira Gandhi, though the latter did not finish her degree), S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike (Prime Minister of Ceylon), Eric Williams (Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago), Abhisit Vejjajiva (Prime Minister of Thailand), Norman Manley (Premier of Jamaica), Haitham bin Tariq Al Said (Sultan of Oman), and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (President of Peru). Bill Clinton is the first President of the United States to have attended Oxford; he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Arthur Mutambara (Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe), was a Rhodes Scholar in 1991. Seretse Khama, first president of Botswana, spent a year at Balliol College. Festus Mogae (former president of Botswana) was a student at University College. The Burmese democracy activist and Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, was a student of St Hugh's College. Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the current reigning Druk Gyalpo (Dragon King) of Bhutan, was a member of Magdalen College. The world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai, completed a BA degree in philosophy, politics and economics. Sports and adventures Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, who had been at Exeter College and Merton College, ran the first sub-four-minute mile in Oxford. Some 150 Olympic medal-winners have academic connections with the university, including Sir Matthew Pinsent, quadruple gold-medallist rower. Oxford students have also excelled in other sports, such as Imran Khan, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Bill Bradley and Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi. Three of the most well-known adventurers and explorers who attended Oxford are Walter Raleigh, one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era; T. E. Lawrence, whose life was the basis of the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia; and Thomas Coryat. The latter, the author of "Coryat's Crudities hastily gobbled up in Five Months Travels in France, Italy, &c'" (1611) and court jester of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, is credited with introducing the table fork and umbrella to England and being the first Briton to do a Grand Tour of Europe. Other notable figures include Gertrude Bell, an explorer, archaeologist, cartographer and spy who, along with T. E. Lawrence, helped establish the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan and Iraq and played a major role in establishing and administering the modern state of Iraq; Law Oxford has produced a large number of distinguished jurists, judges and lawyers around the world. Lords Bingham and Denning, commonly recognised as two of the most influential English judges in the history of the common law, both studied at Oxford. Within the United Kingdom, five of the current justices of the Supreme Court are Oxford-educated: Robert Reed (President of the Supreme Court),Michael Briggs, Lord Sales, Lord Hamblen, Lord Burrows, and Lady Rose; retired Justices include David Neuberger (President of the Supreme Court 2012–2017), Jonathan Mance (Deputy President of the Supreme Court 2017–2018), Alan Rodger, Jonathan Sumption, Mark Saville, John Dyson, Simon Brown, and Nicholas Wilson. The twelve Lord Chancellors and nine Lord Chief Justices that have been educated at Oxford include Stanley Buckmaster, Thomas More, Thomas Wolsey, Gavin Simonds. The twenty-two Law Lords count amongst them Lennie Hoffmann, Kenneth Diplock, Richard Wilberforce, James Atkin, Nick Browne-Wilkinson, Robert Goff, Brian Hutton, Jonathan Mance, Alan Rodger, Mark Saville, Leslie Scarman, Johan Steyn; Master of the Rolls Wilfrid Greene; Lord Justices of Appeal include John Laws, Brian Leveson and John Mummery. The British Government's Attorneys General have included Dominic Grieve, Nicholas Lyell, Patrick Mayhew, John Hobson, Reginald Manningham-Buller, Lionel Heald, Frank Soskice, David Maxwell Fyfe, Donald Somervell, William Jowitt; Directors of Public Prosecutions include Sir Thomas Hetherington QC, Dame Barbara Mills QC and Sir Keir Starmer KC. In the United States, two of the nine incumbent Justices of the Supreme Court are Oxonians, namely Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch; retired Justices include John Marshall Harlan II, David Souter, Stephen Breyer, and Byron White. Internationally, Oxonians Sir Humphrey Waldock served in the International Court of Justice; Akua Kuenyehia, sat in the International Criminal Court; Sir Nicolas Bratza and Paul Mahoney sat in the European Court of Human Rights; Kenneth Hayne, Dyson Heydon, as well as Patrick Keane sat in the High Court of Australia; both Kailas Nath Wanchoo, A. N. Ray served as Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of India; Cornelia Sorabji, Oxford's first female law student, was India's first female advocate; in Hong Kong, Aarif Barma, Thomas Au and Doreen Le Pichon currently serve in the Court of Appeal (Hong Kong), while Charles Ching and Henry Litton both served as Permanent Judges of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong; Laurie Ackermann and Edwin Cameron served on South Africa's Constitutional Court; six Puisne Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada and a chief justice of the now defunct Federal Court of Canada were also educated at Oxford. The list of noted legal scholars includes H. L. A. Hart, Ronald Dworkin, Andrew Burrows, Sir Guenter Treitel, Jeremy Waldron, A. V. Dicey, William Blackstone, John Gardner, Robert A. Gorman, Timothy Endicott, Peter Birks, John Finnis, Andrew Ashworth, Joseph Raz, Paul Craig, Leslie Green, Tony Honoré, Neil MacCormick and Hugh Collins. Other distinguished practitioners who have attended Oxford include Lord Pannick KC, Geoffrey Robertson KC, Amal Clooney, Lord Faulks KC, and Dinah Rose KC. Mathematics and sciences Four Oxford mathematicians, Michael Atiyah, Daniel Quillen, Simon Donaldson and James Maynard, have won Fields Medals, often called the "Nobel Prize for mathematics". Andrew Wiles, who proved Fermat's Last Theorem, was educated at Oxford and is currently the Regius Professor and Royal Society Research Professor in Mathematics at Oxford. Marcus du Sautoy and Roger Penrose are both currently mathematics professors, and Jackie Stedall was a professor of the university. Stephen Wolfram, chief designer of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha studied at the university, along with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, Edgar F. Codd, inventor of the relational model of data, and Tony Hoare, programming languages pioneer and inventor of Quicksort. The university is associated with 11 winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, six in physics, and 16 in medicine. Scientists who performed research in Oxford include chemist Dorothy Hodgkin who received her Nobel Prize for "determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances", Howard Florey who shared the 1945 Nobel prize "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases", and John B. Goodenough, who shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 "for the development of lithium-ion batteries". Both Richard Dawkins and Frederick Soddy studied at the university and returned for research purposes. Robert Hooke, Edwin Hubble, and Stephen Hawking all studied at Oxford. Robert Boyle, a founder of modern chemistry, never formally studied or held a post within the university, but resided within the city to be part of the scientific community and was awarded an honorary degree. Notable scientists who spent brief periods at Oxford include Albert Einstein developer of general theory of relativity and the concept of photons; and Erwin Schrödinger who formulated the Schrödinger equation and the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment. Structural engineer Roma Agrawal, responsible for London's Shard, attributes her love of engineering to a summer placement during her undergraduate physics degree at Oxford. Economists Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, E. F. Schumacher, and Amartya Sen all spent time at Oxford. Literature, music, and drama Writers associated with Oxford include Kingsley and Martin Amis, Vera Brittain, A. S. Byatt, Lewis Carroll, Penelope Fitzgerald, John Fowles, Theodor Geisel, Robert Graves, Graham Greene, Joseph Heller, Christopher Hitchens, Aldous Huxley, Samuel Johnson, Nicole Krauss, C. S. Lewis, Thomas Middleton, Iris Murdoch, V. S. Naipaul, Philip Pullman, Dorothy L. Sayers, Vikram Seth, J. R. R. Tolkien, Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde, the poets Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Donne, A. E. Housman, Gerard Manley Hopkins, W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, and Philip Larkin, and seven poets laureate: Thomas Warton, Henry James Pye, Robert Southey, Robert Bridges, Cecil Day-Lewis, Sir John Betjeman, and Andrew Motion. Composers Hubert Parry, George Butterworth, John Taverner, William Walton, James Whitbourn, and Andrew Lloyd Webber have all been involved with the university. Actors Rowan Atkinson, Kate Beckinsale, Gemma Chan, Hugh Grant, Felicity Jones, Terry Jones, Dudley Moore, Michael Palin, Rosamund Pike, Anna Popplewell, and Emma Watson studied at the university, as did filmmakers Ken Loach and Richard Curtis. Religion Oxford has also produced at least 12 saints, 19 English cardinals, and 20 Archbishops of Canterbury, the most recent Archbishop being Rowan Williams, who studied at Wadham College and was later a Canon Professor at Christ Church. Duns Scotus' teaching is commemorated with a monument in the University Church of St. Mary. Religious reformer John Wycliffe was an Oxford scholar, for a time Master of Balliol College. John Colet, Christian humanist, Dean of St Paul's, and friend of Erasmus, studied at Magdalen College. Several of the Caroline Divines e.g. in particular William Laud as President of St. John's and Chancellor of the university, and the Non-Jurors, e.g. Thomas Ken had close Oxford connections. The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, studied at Christ Church and was elected a fellow of Lincoln College. Britain's first woman to be an ordained minister, Constance Coltman, studied at Somerville College. The Oxford Movement (1833–1846) was closely associated with the Oriel fellows John Henry Newman, Edward Bouverie Pusey and John Keble. Other religious figures were Mirza Nasir Ahmad, the third Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Shoghi Effendi, one of the appointed leaders of the Baháʼí Faith, and Joseph Cordeiro, the first Pakistani Catholic cardinal. Philosophy Oxford's philosophical tradition started in the medieval era, with Robert Grosseteste and William of Ockham, commonly known for Occam's razor, among those teaching at the university. Thomas Hobbes, Jeremy Bentham and the empiricist John Locke received degrees from Oxford. Though the latter's main works were written after leaving Oxford, Locke was heavily influenced by his twelve years at the university. Oxford philosophers of the 20th century include Richard Swinburne, a leading philosopher in the tradition of substance dualism; Peter Hacker, philosopher of mind, language, anthropology, and he is also known for his critique of cognitive neuroscience; J. L. Austin, a leading proponent of ordinary-language philosophy; Gilbert Ryle, author of The Concept of Mind; and Derek Parfit, who specialised in personal identity. Other commonly read modern philosophers to have studied at the university include A. J. Ayer, Elizabeth Anscombe, Paul Grice, Mary Midgley, Iris Murdoch, Thomas Nagel, Bernard Williams, Robert Nozick, Onora O'Neill, John Rawls, Michael Sandel, and Peter Singer. John Searle, presenter of the Chinese room thought experiment, studied and began his academic career at the university. Likewise, Philippa Foot, who mentioned the trolley problem, studied and taught at Somerville College. Oxford in literature and popular media The University of Oxford is the setting for numerous works of fiction and was mentioned as early as 1400 when Chaucer, in Canterbury Tales, referred to a "Clerk [student] of Oxenford". Mortimer Proctor argues the first campus novel was The Adventures of Oxymel Classic, Esq; Once an Oxford Scholar (1768). It is filled with violence and debauchery, with obnoxious, foolish dons becoming easy prey for cunning students. Proctor argues that by 1900, "novels about Oxford and Cambridge were so numerous that they clearly represent a striking literary phenomenon." By 1989, 533 novels based in Oxford had been identified and the number continues to rise. Non-fiction works include Oxford by Jan Morris. Famous literature based on Oxford ranges from Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, which in 1981 was adapted as a television serial, to the trilogy His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, which features an alternative-reality version of the university and was adapted for film in 2007 and as a BBC television series in 2019. Other notable examples include: Zuleika Dobson (1911) by Max Beerbohm, a satire about undergraduate life. Gaudy Night (1935) by Dorothy L. Sayers, herself a graduate of Somerville College, a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novel. The Inspector Morse detective novels (1975–1999) by Colin Dexter, adapted for television as Inspector Morse (1987–2000), the spin-off Lewis (2006–2015), and the prequel Endeavour (2012–2023). True Blue (1996), a film about the mutiny at the time of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race of 1987. The History Boys (2004) by Alan Bennett, alumnus of Exeter College, a play about a group of grammar school boys in Sheffield in 1983 applying to read history at Oxford and Cambridge. It premiered at the National Theatre and was adapted for film in 2006. Posh (2010), a play by Laura Wade, and its film adaptation The Riot Club (2014), about a fictionalised equivalent of the Bullingdon Club. Testament of Youth (2014), a drama film based on the memoir of the same name written by Somerville alumna Vera Brittain. Saltburn (2023), a film about an Oxford student, by Emerald Fennell, alumna of Greyfriars, Oxford. See also Notes References Citations Sources External links Official website 'The University of Oxford', A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 3: The University of Oxford (1954), pp. 1–38 Archived 16 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine Works by or about University of Oxford at the Internet Archive

Stephen_Hawking

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

Stephen William Hawking, (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between 1979 and 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world. Hawking was born in Oxford into a family of physicians. In October 1959, at the age of 17, he began his university education at University College, Oxford, where he received a first-class BA degree in physics. In October 1962, he began his graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where, in March 1966, he obtained his PhD degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specialising in general relativity and cosmology. In 1963, at age 21, Hawking was diagnosed with an early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease that gradually, over decades, paralysed him. After the loss of his speech, he communicated through a speech-generating device, initially through use of a handheld switch, and eventually by using a single cheek muscle. Hawking's scientific works included a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Initially, Hawking radiation was controversial. By the late 1970s, and following the publication of further research, the discovery was widely accepted as a major breakthrough in theoretical physics. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Hawking achieved commercial success with several works of popular science in which he discussed his theories and cosmology in general. His book A Brief History of Time appeared on the Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2002, Hawking was ranked number 25 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. He died in 2018 at the age of 76, having lived more than 50 years following his diagnosis of motor neurone disease. Early life Family Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 in Oxford to Frank and Isobel Eileen Hawking (née Walker). Hawking's mother was born into a family of doctors in Glasgow, Scotland. His wealthy paternal great-grandfather, from Yorkshire, over-extended himself buying farm land and then went bankrupt in the great agricultural depression during the early 20th century. His paternal great-grandmother saved the family from financial ruin by opening a school in their home. Despite their families' financial constraints, both parents attended the University of Oxford, where Frank read medicine and Isobel read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Isobel worked as a secretary for a medical research institute, and Frank was a medical researcher. Hawking had two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward Frank David (1955–2003). In 1950, when Hawking's father became head of the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research, the family moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire. In St Albans, the family was considered highly intelligent and somewhat eccentric; meals were often spent with each person silently reading a book. They lived a frugal existence in a large, cluttered, and poorly maintained house and travelled in a converted London taxicab. During one of Hawking's father's frequent absences working in Africa, the rest of the family spent four months in Mallorca visiting his mother's friend Beryl and her husband, the poet Robert Graves. Primary and secondary school years Hawking began his schooling at the Byron House School in Highgate, London. He later blamed its "progressive methods" for his failure to learn to read while at the school. In St Albans, the eight-year-old Hawking attended St Albans High School for Girls for a few months. At that time, younger boys could attend one of the houses. Hawking attended two private (i.e. fee-paying) schools, first Radlett School and from September 1952, St Albans School, Hertfordshire, after passing the eleven-plus a year early. The family placed a high value on education. Hawking's father wanted his son to attend Westminster School, but the 13-year-old Hawking was ill on the day of the scholarship examination. His family could not afford the school fees without the financial aid of a scholarship, so Hawking remained at St Albans. A positive consequence was that Hawking remained close to a group of friends with whom he enjoyed board games, the manufacture of fireworks, model aeroplanes and boats, and long discussions about Christianity and extrasensory perception. From 1958 on, with the help of the mathematics teacher Dikran Tahta, they built a computer from clock parts, an old telephone switchboard and other recycled components. Although known at school as "Einstein", Hawking was not initially successful academically. With time, he began to show considerable aptitude for scientific subjects and, inspired by Tahta, decided to study mathematics at university. Hawking's father advised him to study medicine, concerned that there were few jobs for mathematics graduates. He also wanted his son to attend University College, Oxford, his own alma mater. As it was not possible to read mathematics there at the time, Hawking decided to study physics and chemistry. Despite his headmaster's advice to wait until the next year, Hawking was awarded a scholarship after taking the examinations in March 1959. Undergraduate years Hawking began his university education at University College, Oxford, in October 1959 at the age of 17. For the first eighteen months, he was bored and lonely – he found the academic work "ridiculously easy". His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said, "It was only necessary for him to know that something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did it." A change occurred during his second and third years when, according to Berman, Hawking made more of an effort "to be one of the boys". He developed into a popular, lively and witty college-member, interested in classical music and science fiction. Part of the transformation resulted from his decision to join the college boat-club, the University College Boat Club, where he coxed a rowing-crew. The rowing-coach at the time noted that Hawking cultivated a daredevil image, steering his crew on risky courses that led to damaged boats. Hawking estimated that he studied about 1,000 hours during his three years at Oxford. These unimpressive study habits made sitting his finals a challenge, and he decided to answer only theoretical physics questions rather than those requiring factual knowledge. A first-class degree was a condition of acceptance for his planned graduate study in cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Anxious, he slept poorly the night before the examinations, and the result was on the borderline between first- and second-class honours, making a viva (oral examination) with the Oxford examiners necessary. Hawking was concerned that he was viewed as a lazy and difficult student. So, when asked at the viva to describe his plans, he said, "If you award me a First, I will go to Cambridge. If I receive a Second, I shall stay in Oxford, so I expect you will give me a First." He was held in higher regard than he believed; as Berman commented, the examiners "were intelligent enough to realise they were talking to someone far cleverer than most of themselves". After receiving a first-class BA degree in physics and completing a trip to Iran with a friend, he began his graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in October 1962. Post-graduate years Hawking's first year as a doctoral student was difficult. He was initially disappointed to find that he had been assigned Dennis William Sciama, one of the founders of modern cosmology, as a supervisor rather than the noted astronomer Fred Hoyle, and he found his training in mathematics inadequate for work in general relativity and cosmology. After being diagnosed with motor neurone disease, Hawking fell into a depression – though his doctors advised that he continue with his studies, he felt there was little point. His disease progressed more slowly than doctors had predicted. Although Hawking had difficulty walking unsupported, and his speech was almost unintelligible, an initial diagnosis that he had only two years to live proved unfounded. With Sciama's encouragement, he returned to his work. Hawking started developing a reputation for brilliance and brashness when he publicly challenged the work of Hoyle and his student Jayant Narlikar at a lecture in June 1964. When Hawking began his doctoral studies, there was much debate in the physics community about the prevailing theories of the creation of the universe: the Big Bang and Steady State theories. Inspired by Roger Penrose's theorem of a spacetime singularity in the centre of black holes, Hawking applied the same thinking to the entire universe; and, during 1965, he wrote his thesis on this topic. Hawking's thesis was approved in 1966. There were other positive developments: Hawking received a research fellowship at Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge; he obtained his PhD degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specialising in general relativity and cosmology, in March 1966; and his essay "Singularities and the Geometry of Space–Time" shared top honours with one by Penrose to win that year's prestigious Adams Prize. Career 1966–1975 In his work, and in collaboration with Penrose, Hawking extended the singularity theorem concepts first explored in his doctoral thesis. This included not only the existence of singularities but also the theory that the universe might have started as a singularity. Their joint essay was the runner-up in the 1968 Gravity Research Foundation competition. In 1970, they published a proof that if the universe obeys the general theory of relativity and fits any of the models of physical cosmology developed by Alexander Friedmann, then it must have begun as a singularity. In 1969, Hawking accepted a specially created Fellowship for Distinction in Science to remain at Caius. In 1970, Hawking postulated what became known as the second law of black hole dynamics, that the event horizon of a black hole can never get smaller. With James M. Bardeen and Brandon Carter, he proposed the four laws of black hole mechanics, drawing an analogy with thermodynamics. To Hawking's irritation, Jacob Bekenstein, a graduate student of John Wheeler, went further—and ultimately correctly—to apply thermodynamic concepts literally. In the early 1970s, Hawking's work with Carter, Werner Israel, and David C. Robinson strongly supported Wheeler's no-hair theorem, one that states that no matter what the original material from which a black hole is created, it can be completely described by the properties of mass, electrical charge and rotation. His essay titled "Black Holes" won the Gravity Research Foundation Award in January 1971. Hawking's first book, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, written with George Ellis, was published in 1973. Beginning in 1973, Hawking moved into the study of quantum gravity and quantum mechanics. His work in this area was spurred by a visit to Moscow and discussions with Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich and Alexei Starobinsky, whose work showed that according to the uncertainty principle, rotating black holes emit particles. To Hawking's annoyance, his much-checked calculations produced findings that contradicted his second law, which claimed black holes could never get smaller, and supported Bekenstein's reasoning about their entropy. His results, which Hawking presented from 1974, showed that black holes emit radiation, known today as Hawking radiation, which may continue until they exhaust their energy and evaporate. Initially, Hawking radiation was controversial. By the late 1970s and following the publication of further research, the discovery was widely accepted as a significant breakthrough in theoretical physics. Hawking was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1974, a few weeks after the announcement of Hawking radiation. At the time, he was one of the youngest scientists to become a Fellow. Hawking was appointed to the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1974. He worked with a friend on the faculty, Kip Thorne, and engaged him in a scientific wager about whether the X-ray source Cygnus X-1 was a black hole. The wager was an "insurance policy" against the proposition that black holes did not exist. Hawking acknowledged that he had lost the bet in 1990, a bet that was the first of several he was to make with Thorne and others. Hawking had maintained ties to Caltech, spending a month there almost every year since this first visit. 1975–1990 Hawking returned to Cambridge in 1975 to a more academically senior post, as reader in gravitational physics. The mid-to-late 1970s were a period of growing public interest in black holes and the physicists who were studying them. Hawking was regularly interviewed for print and television. He also received increasing academic recognition of his work. In 1975, he was awarded both the Eddington Medal and the Pius XI Gold Medal, and in 1976 the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Maxwell Medal and Prize and the Hughes Medal. He was appointed a professor with a chair in gravitational physics in 1977. The following year he received the Albert Einstein Medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford. In 1979, Hawking was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. His inaugural lecture in this role was titled: "Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics?" and proposed N = 8 supergravity as the leading theory to solve many of the outstanding problems physicists were studying. His promotion coincided with a health-crisis which led to his accepting, albeit reluctantly, some nursing services at home. At the same time, he was also making a transition in his approach to physics, becoming more intuitive and speculative rather than insisting on mathematical proofs. "I would rather be right than rigorous", he told Kip Thorne. In 1981, he proposed that information in a black hole is irretrievably lost when a black hole evaporates. This information paradox violates the fundamental tenet of quantum mechanics, and led to years of debate, including "the Black Hole War" with Leonard Susskind and Gerard 't Hooft. Cosmological inflation – a theory proposing that following the Big Bang, the universe initially expanded incredibly rapidly before settling down to a slower expansion – was proposed by Alan Guth and also developed by Andrei Linde. Following a conference in Moscow in October 1981, Hawking and Gary Gibbons organised a three-week Nuffield Workshop in the summer of 1982 on "The Very Early Universe" at Cambridge University, a workshop that focused mainly on inflation theory. Hawking also began a new line of quantum-theory research into the origin of the universe. In 1981 at a Vatican conference, he presented work suggesting that there might be no boundary – or beginning or ending – to the universe. Hawking subsequently developed the research in collaboration with Jim Hartle, and in 1983 they published a model, known as the Hartle–Hawking state. It proposed that prior to the Planck epoch, the universe had no boundary in space-time; before the Big Bang, time did not exist and the concept of the beginning of the universe is meaningless. The initial singularity of the classical Big Bang models was replaced with a region akin to the North Pole. One cannot travel north of the North Pole, but there is no boundary there – it is simply the point where all north-running lines meet and end. Initially, the no-boundary proposal predicted a closed universe, which had implications about the existence of God. As Hawking explained, "If the universe has no boundaries but is self-contained... then God would not have had any freedom to choose how the universe began." Hawking did not rule out the existence of a Creator, asking in A Brief History of Time "Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own existence?", also stating "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God"; in his early work, Hawking spoke of God in a metaphorical sense. In the same book he suggested that the existence of God was not necessary to explain the origin of the universe. Later discussions with Neil Turok led to the realisation that the existence of God was also compatible with an open universe. Further work by Hawking in the area of arrows of time led to the 1985 publication of a paper theorising that if the no-boundary proposition were correct, then when the universe stopped expanding and eventually collapsed, time would run backwards. A paper by Don Page and independent calculations by Raymond Laflamme led Hawking to withdraw this concept. Honours continued to be awarded: in 1981 he was awarded the American Franklin Medal, and in the 1982 New Year Honours appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). These awards did not significantly change Hawking's financial status, and motivated by the need to finance his children's education and home-expenses, he decided in 1982 to write a popular book about the universe that would be accessible to the general public. Instead of publishing with an academic press, he signed a contract with Bantam Books, a mass-market publisher, and received a large advance for his book. A first draft of the book, called A Brief History of Time, was completed in 1984. One of the first messages Hawking produced with his speech-generating device was a request for his assistant to help him finish writing A Brief History of Time. Peter Guzzardi, his editor at Bantam, pushed him to explain his ideas clearly in non-technical language, a process that required many revisions from an increasingly irritated Hawking. The book was published in April 1988 in the US and in June in the UK, and it proved to be an extraordinary success, rising quickly to the top of best-seller lists in both countries and remaining there for months. The book was translated into many languages, and as of 2009, has sold an estimated 9 million copies. Media attention was intense, and a Newsweek magazine-cover and a television special both described him as "Master of the Universe". Success led to significant financial rewards, but also the challenges of celebrity status. Hawking travelled extensively to promote his work, and enjoyed partying into the late hours. A difficulty refusing the invitations and visitors left him limited time for work and his students. Some colleagues were resentful of the attention Hawking received, feeling it was due to his disability. He received further academic recognition, including five more honorary degrees, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1985), the Paul Dirac Medal (1987) and, jointly with Penrose, the prestigious Wolf Prize (1988). In the 1989 Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH). He reportedly declined a knighthood in the late 1990s in objection to the UK's science funding policy. 1990–2000 Hawking pursued his work in physics: in 1993 he co-edited a book on Euclidean quantum gravity with Gary Gibbons and published a collected edition of his own articles on black holes and the Big Bang. In 1994, at Cambridge's Newton Institute, Hawking and Penrose delivered a series of six lectures that were published in 1996 as "The Nature of Space and Time". In 1997, he conceded a 1991 public scientific wager made with Kip Thorne and John Preskill of Caltech. Hawking had bet that Penrose's proposal of a "cosmic censorship conjecture" – that there could be no "naked singularities" unclothed within a horizon – was correct. After discovering his concession might have been premature, a new and more refined wager was made. This one specified that such singularities would occur without extra conditions. The same year, Thorne, Hawking and Preskill made another bet, this time concerning the black hole information paradox. Thorne and Hawking argued that since general relativity made it impossible for black holes to radiate and lose information, the mass-energy and information carried by Hawking radiation must be "new", and not from inside the black hole event horizon. Since this contradicted the quantum mechanics of microcausality, quantum mechanics theory would need to be rewritten. Preskill argued the opposite, that since quantum mechanics suggests that the information emitted by a black hole relates to information that fell in at an earlier time, the concept of black holes given by general relativity must be modified in some way. Hawking also maintained his public profile, including bringing science to a wider audience. A film version of A Brief History of Time, directed by Errol Morris and produced by Steven Spielberg, premiered in 1992. Hawking had wanted the film to be scientific rather than biographical, but he was persuaded otherwise. The film, while a critical success, was not widely released. A popular-level collection of essays, interviews, and talks titled Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays was published in 1993, and a six-part television series Stephen Hawking's Universe and a companion book appeared in 1997. As Hawking insisted, this time the focus was entirely on science. 2000–2018 Hawking continued his writings for a popular audience, publishing The Universe in a Nutshell in 2001, and A Briefer History of Time, which he wrote in 2005 with Leonard Mlodinow to update his earlier works with the aim of making them accessible to a wider audience, and God Created the Integers, which appeared in 2006. Along with Thomas Hertog at CERN and Jim Hartle, from 2006 on Hawking developed a theory of top-down cosmology, which says that the universe had not one unique initial state but many different ones, and therefore that it is inappropriate to formulate a theory that predicts the universe's current configuration from one particular initial state. Top-down cosmology posits that the present "selects" the past from a superposition of many possible histories. In doing so, the theory suggests a possible resolution of the fine-tuning question. Hawking continued to travel widely, including trips to Chile, Easter Island, South Africa, Spain (to receive the Fonseca Prize in 2008), Canada, and numerous trips to the United States. For practical reasons related to his disability, Hawking increasingly travelled by private jet, and by 2011 that had become his only mode of international travel. By 2003, consensus among physicists was growing that Hawking was wrong about the loss of information in a black hole. In a 2004 lecture in Dublin, he conceded his 1997 bet with Preskill, but described his own, somewhat controversial solution to the information paradox problem, involving the possibility that black holes have more than one topology. In the 2005 paper he published on the subject, he argued that the information paradox was explained by examining all the alternative histories of universes, with the information loss in those with black holes being cancelled out by those without such loss. In January 2014, he called the alleged loss of information in black holes his "biggest blunder". As part of another longstanding scientific dispute, Hawking had emphatically argued, and bet, that the Higgs boson would never be found. The particle was proposed to exist as part of the Higgs field theory by Peter Higgs in 1964. Hawking and Higgs engaged in a heated and public debate over the matter in 2002 and again in 2008, with Higgs criticising Hawking's work and complaining that Hawking's "celebrity status gives him instant credibility that others do not have." The particle was discovered in July 2012 at CERN following construction of the Large Hadron Collider. Hawking quickly conceded that he had lost his bet and said that Higgs should win the Nobel Prize for Physics, which he did in 2013. In 2007, Hawking and his daughter Lucy published George's Secret Key to the Universe, a children's book designed to explain theoretical physics in an accessible fashion and featuring characters similar to those in the Hawking family. The book was followed by sequels in 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2016. In 2002, following a UK-wide vote, the BBC included Hawking in their list of the 100 Greatest Britons. He was awarded the Copley Medal from the Royal Society (2006), the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is America's highest civilian honour (2009), and the Russian Special Fundamental Physics Prize (2013). Several buildings have been named after him, including the Stephen W. Hawking Science Museum in San Salvador, El Salvador, the Stephen Hawking Building in Cambridge, and the Stephen Hawking Centre at the Perimeter Institute in Canada. Appropriately, given Hawking's association with time, he unveiled the mechanical "Chronophage" (or time-eating) Corpus Clock at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in September 2008. During his career, Hawking supervised 39 successful PhD students. One doctoral student did not successfully complete the PhD. As required by Cambridge University policy, Hawking retired as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 2009. Despite suggestions that he might leave the United Kingdom as a protest against public funding cuts to basic scientific research, Hawking worked as director of research at the Cambridge University Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. On 28 June 2009, as a tongue-in-cheek test of his 1992 conjecture that travel into the past is effectively impossible, Hawking held a party open to all, complete with hors d'oeuvres and iced champagne, but publicised the party only after it was over so that only time-travellers would know to attend; as expected, nobody showed up to the party. On 20 July 2015, Hawking helped launch Breakthrough Initiatives, an effort to search for extraterrestrial life. Hawking created Stephen Hawking: Expedition New Earth, a documentary on space colonisation, as a 2017 episode of Tomorrow's World. In August 2015, Hawking said that not all information is lost when something enters a black hole and there might be a possibility to retrieve information from a black hole according to his theory. In July 2017, Hawking was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Imperial College London. Hawking's final paper – A smooth exit from eternal inflation? – was posthumously published in the Journal of High Energy Physics on 27 April 2018. Personal life Marriages Hawking met his future wife, Jane Wilde, at a party in 1962. The following year, Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. In October 1964, the couple became engaged to marry, aware of the potential challenges that lay ahead due to Hawking's shortened life expectancy and physical limitations. Hawking later said that the engagement gave him "something to live for". The two were married on 14 July 1965 in their shared hometown of St Albans. The couple resided in Cambridge, within Hawking's walking distance to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). During their first years of marriage, Jane lived in London during the week as she completed her degree at Westfield College. They travelled to the United States several times for conferences and physics-related visits. Jane began a PhD programme through Westfield College in medieval Spanish poetry (completed in 1981). The couple had three children: Robert, born May 1967, Lucy, born November 1970, and Timothy, born April 1979. Hawking rarely discussed his illness and physical challenges—even, in a precedent set during their courtship, with Jane. His disabilities meant that the responsibilities of home and family rested firmly on his wife's shoulders, leaving him more time to think about physics. Upon his appointment in 1974 to a year-long position at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, Jane proposed that a graduate or post-doctoral student live with them and help with his care. Hawking accepted, and Bernard Carr travelled with them as the first of many students who fulfilled this role. The family spent a generally happy and stimulating year in Pasadena. Hawking returned to Cambridge in 1975 to a new home and a new job, as reader. Don Page, with whom Hawking had begun a close friendship at Caltech, arrived to work as the live-in graduate student assistant. With Page's help and that of a secretary, Jane's responsibilities were reduced so she could return to her doctoral thesis and her new interest in singing. Around December 1977, Jane met organist Jonathan Hellyer Jones when singing in a church choir. Hellyer Jones became close to the Hawking family and, by the mid-1980s, he and Jane had developed romantic feelings for each other. According to Jane, her husband was accepting of the situation, stating "he would not object so long as I continued to love him". Jane and Hellyer Jones were determined not to break up the family, and their relationship remained platonic for a long period. By the 1980s, Hawking's marriage had been strained for many years. Jane felt overwhelmed by the intrusion into their family life of the required nurses and assistants. The impact of his celebrity status was challenging for colleagues and family members, while the prospect of living up to a worldwide fairytale image was daunting for the couple. Hawking's views of religion also contrasted with her strong Christian faith and resulted in tension. After a tracheotomy in 1985, Hawking required a full-time nurse and nursing care was split across three shifts daily. In the late 1980s, Hawking grew close to one of his nurses, Elaine Mason, to the dismay of some colleagues, caregivers, and family members, who were disturbed by her strength of personality and protectiveness. In February 1990, Hawking told Jane that he was leaving her for Mason and departed the family home. After his divorce from Jane in 1995, Hawking married Mason in September, declaring, "It's wonderful – I have married the woman I love." In 1999, Jane Hawking published a memoir, Music to Move the Stars, describing her marriage to Hawking and its breakdown. Its revelations caused a sensation in the media but, as was his usual practice regarding his personal life, Hawking made no public comment except to say that he did not read biographies about himself. After his second marriage, Hawking's family felt excluded and marginalised from his life. For a period of about five years in the early 2000s, his family and staff became increasingly worried that he was being physically abused. Police investigations took place, but were closed as Hawking refused to make a complaint. In 2006, Hawking and Mason quietly divorced, and Hawking resumed closer relationships with Jane, his children, and his grandchildren. Reflecting on this happier period, a revised version of Jane's book, re-titled Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, appeared in 2007, and was made into a film, The Theory of Everything, in 2014. Disability Hawking had a rare early-onset, slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease (MND; also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease), a fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects the motor neurones in the brain and spinal cord, which gradually paralysed him over decades. Hawking had experienced increasing clumsiness during his final year at Oxford, including a fall on some stairs and difficulties when rowing. The problems worsened, and his speech became slightly slurred. His family noticed the changes when he returned home for Christmas, and medical investigations were begun. The MND diagnosis came when Hawking was 21, in 1963. At the time, doctors gave him a life expectancy of two years. In the late 1960s, Hawking's physical abilities declined: he began to use crutches and could no longer give lectures regularly. As he slowly lost the ability to write, he developed compensatory visual methods, including seeing equations in terms of geometry. The physicist Werner Israel later compared the achievements to Mozart composing an entire symphony in his head. Hawking was fiercely independent and unwilling to accept help or make concessions for his disabilities. He preferred to be regarded as "a scientist first, popular science writer second, and, in all the ways that matter, a normal human being with the same desires, drives, dreams, and ambitions as the next person". His wife Jane later noted: "Some people would call it determination, some obstinacy. I've called it both at one time or another." He required much persuasion to accept the use of a wheelchair at the end of the 1960s, but ultimately became notorious for the wildness of his wheelchair driving. Hawking was a popular and witty colleague, but his illness, as well as his reputation for brashness, distanced him from some. When Hawking first began using a wheelchair he was using standard motorised models. The earliest surviving example of these chairs was made by BEC Mobility and sold by Christie's in November 2018 for £296,750. Hawking continued to use this type of chair until the early 1990s, at which time his ability to use his hands to drive a wheelchair deteriorated. Hawking used a variety of different chairs from that time, including a DragonMobility Dragon elevating powerchair from 2007, as shown in the April 2008 photo of Hawking attending NASA's 50th anniversary; a Permobil C350 from 2014; and then a Permobil F3 from 2016. Hawking's speech deteriorated, and by the late 1970s he could be understood by only his family and closest friends. To communicate with others, someone who knew him well would interpret his speech into intelligible speech. Spurred by a dispute with the university over who would pay for the ramp needed for him to enter his workplace, Hawking and his wife campaigned for improved access and support for those with disabilities in Cambridge, including adapted student housing at the university. In general, Hawking had ambivalent feelings about his role as a disability rights champion: while wanting to help others, he also sought to detach himself from his illness and its challenges. His lack of engagement in this area led to some criticism. During a visit to CERN on the border of France and Switzerland in mid-1985, Hawking contracted pneumonia, which in his condition was life-threatening; he was so ill that Jane was asked if life support should be terminated. She refused, but the consequence was a tracheotomy, which required round-the-clock nursing care and caused the loss of what remained of his speech. The National Health Service was ready to pay for a nursing home, but Jane was determined that he would live at home. The cost of the care was funded by an American foundation. Nurses were hired for the three shifts required to provide the round-the-clock support he required. One of those employed was Elaine Mason, who was to become Hawking's second wife. For his communication, Hawking initially raised his eyebrows to choose letters on a spelling card, but in 1986 he received a computer program called the "Equalizer" from Walter Woltosz, CEO of Words Plus, who had developed an earlier version of the software to help his mother-in-law, who also had ALS and had lost her ability to speak and write. In a method he used for the rest of his life, Hawking could now simply press a switch to select phrases, words or letters from a bank of about 2,500–3,000 that were scanned. The program was originally run on a desktop computer. Elaine Mason's husband, David, a computer engineer, adapted a small computer and attached it to his wheelchair. Released from the need to use somebody to interpret his speech, Hawking commented that "I can communicate better now than before I lost my voice." The voice he used had an American accent and is no longer produced. Despite the later availability of other voices, Hawking retained this original voice, saying that he preferred it and identified with it. Originally, Hawking activated a switch using his hand and could produce up to 15 words per minute. Lectures were prepared in advance and were sent to the speech synthesiser in short sections to be delivered. Hawking gradually lost the use of his hand, and in 2005 he began to control his communication device with movements of his cheek muscles, with a rate of about one word per minute. With this decline there was a risk of him developing locked-in syndrome, so Hawking collaborated with Intel Corporation researchers on systems that could translate his brain patterns or facial expressions into switch activations. After several prototypes that did not perform as planned, they settled on an adaptive word predictor made by the London-based startup SwiftKey, which used a system similar to his original technology. Hawking had an easier time adapting to the new system, which was further developed after inputting large amounts of Hawking's papers and other written materials and uses predictive software similar to other smartphone keyboards. By 2009, he could no longer drive his wheelchair independently, but the same people who created his new typing mechanics were working on a method to drive his chair using movements made by his chin. This proved difficult, since Hawking could not move his neck, and trials showed that while he could indeed drive the chair, the movement was sporadic and jumpy. Near the end of his life, Hawking experienced increased breathing difficulties, often resulting in his requiring the usage of a ventilator, and being regularly hospitalised. Disability outreach Starting in the 1990s, Hawking accepted the mantle of role model for disabled people, lecturing and participating in fundraising activities. At the turn of the century, he and eleven other humanitarians signed the Charter for the Third Millennium on Disability, which called on governments to prevent disability and protect the rights of disabled people. In 1999, Hawking was awarded the Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society. In August 2012, Hawking narrated the "Enlightenment" segment of the 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony in London. In 2013, the biographical documentary film Hawking, in which Hawking himself is featured, was released. In September 2013, he expressed support for the legalisation of assisted suicide for the terminally ill. In August 2014, Hawking accepted the Ice Bucket Challenge to promote ALS/MND awareness and raise contributions for research. As he had pneumonia in 2013, he was advised not to have ice poured over him, but his children volunteered to accept the challenge on his behalf. Plans for a trip to space In late 2006, Hawking revealed in a BBC interview that one of his greatest unfulfilled desires was to travel to space. On hearing this, Richard Branson offered a free flight into space with Virgin Galactic, which Hawking immediately accepted. Besides personal ambition, he was motivated by the desire to increase public interest in spaceflight and to show the potential of people with disabilities. On 26 April 2007, Hawking flew aboard a specially-modified Boeing 727–200 jet operated by Zero-G Corp off the coast of Florida to experience weightlessness. Fears that the manoeuvres would cause him undue discomfort proved incorrect, and the flight was extended to eight parabolic arcs. It was described as a successful test to see if he could withstand the g-forces involved in space flight. At the time, the date of Hawking's trip to space was projected to be as early as 2009, but commercial flights to space did not commence before his death. Death Hawking died at his home in Cambridge on 14 March 2018, at the age of 76. His family stated that he "died peacefully". He was eulogised by figures in science, entertainment, politics, and other areas. The Gonville and Caius College flag flew at half-mast and a book of condolences was signed by students and visitors. A tribute was made to Hawking in the closing speech by IPC President Andrew Parsons at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. His private funeral took place on 31 March 2018, at Great St Mary's Church, Cambridge. Guests at the funeral included The Theory of Everything actors Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May, and model Lily Cole. In addition, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who played Stephen Hawking in Hawking, astronaut Tim Peake, Astronomer Royal Martin Rees and physicist Kip Thorne provided readings at the service. Although Hawking was an atheist, the funeral took place with a traditional Anglican service. Following the cremation, a service of thanksgiving was held at Westminster Abbey on 15 June 2018, after which his ashes were interred in the Abbey's nave, between the graves of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Inscribed on his memorial stone are the words "Here lies what was mortal of Stephen Hawking 1942–2018" and his most famed equation. He directed, at least fifteen years before his death, that the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy equation be his epitaph. In June 2018, it was announced that Hawking's words, set to music by Greek composer Vangelis, would be beamed into space from a European space agency satellite dish in Spain with the aim of reaching the nearest black hole, 1A 0620-00. Hawking's final broadcast interview, about the detection of gravitational waves resulting from the collision of two neutron stars, occurred in October 2017. His final words to the world appeared posthumously, in April 2018, in the form of a Smithsonian TV Channel documentary entitled, Leaving Earth: Or How to Colonize a Planet. One of his final research studies, entitled A smooth exit from eternal inflation?, about the origin of the universe, was published in the Journal of High Energy Physics in May 2018. Later, in October 2018, another of his final research studies, entitled Black Hole Entropy and Soft Hair, was published, and dealt with the "mystery of what happens to the information held by objects once they disappear into a black hole". Also in October 2018, Hawking's last book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, a popular science book presenting his final comments on the most important questions facing humankind, was published. On 8 November 2018, an auction of 22 personal possessions of Hawking, including his doctoral thesis (Properties of Expanding Universes, PhD thesis, Cambridge University, 1965) and wheelchair, took place, and fetched about £1.8 million. Proceeds from the auction sale of the wheelchair went to two charities, the Motor Neurone Disease Association and the Stephen Hawking Foundation; proceeds from the other items went to his estate. In March 2019, it was announced that the Royal Mint would issue a commemorative 50p coin, only available as a commemorative edition, in honour of Hawking. The same month, Hawking's nurse, Patricia Dowdy, was struck off the nursing register for "failures over his care and financial misconduct." In May 2021 it was announced that an Acceptance-in-Lieu agreement between HMRC, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Cambridge University Library, Science Museum Group, and the Hawking Estate, would see around 10,000 pages of Hawking's scientific and other papers remain in Cambridge, while objects including his wheelchairs, speech synthesisers, and personal memorabilia from his former Cambridge office would be housed at the Science Museum. In February 2022 the "Stephen Hawking at Work" display opened at the Science Museum, London as the start of a two-year nationwide tour. Personal views Philosophy is unnecessary At Google's Zeitgeist Conference in 2011, Stephen Hawking said that "philosophy is dead". He believed that philosophers "have not kept up with modern developments in science", "have not taken science sufficiently seriously and so Philosophy is no longer relevant to knowledge claims", "their art is dead" and that scientists "have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge". He said that philosophical problems can be answered by science, particularly new scientific theories which "lead us to a new and very different picture of the universe and our place in it". His view was both praised and criticised. Future of humanity In 2006, Hawking posed an open question on the Internet: "In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?", later clarifying: "I don't know the answer. That is why I asked the question, to get people to think about it, and to be aware of the dangers we now face." Hawking expressed concern that life on Earth is at risk from a sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, global warming, or other dangers humans have not yet thought of. Hawking stated: "I regard it as almost inevitable that either a nuclear confrontation or environmental catastrophe will cripple the Earth at some point in the next 1,000 years", and considered an "asteroid collision" to be the biggest threat to the planet. Such a planet-wide disaster need not result in human extinction if the human race were to be able to colonise additional planets before the disaster. Hawking viewed spaceflight and the colonisation of space as necessary for the future of humanity. Hawking stated that, given the vastness of the universe, aliens likely exist, but that contact with them should be avoided. He warned that aliens might pillage Earth for resources. In 2010 he said, "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans." Hawking warned that superintelligent artificial intelligence could be pivotal in steering humanity's fate, stating that "the potential benefits are huge... Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. It might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks." He feared that "an extremely intelligent future AI will probably develop a drive to survive and acquire more resources as a step toward accomplishing whatever goal it has", and that "The real risk with AI isn't malice but competence. A super-intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren't aligned with ours, we're in trouble". He also considered that the enormous wealth generated by machines needs to be redistributed to prevent exacerbated economic inequality. Hawking was concerned about the future emergence of a race of "superhumans" that would be able to design their own evolution and, as well, argued that computer viruses in today's world should be considered a new form of life, stating that "maybe it says something about human nature, that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. Talk about creating life in our own image." Religion and atheism Hawking was an atheist. In an interview published in The Guardian, Hawking regarded "the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail", and the concept of an afterlife as a "fairy story for people afraid of the dark". In 2011, narrating the first episode of the American television series Curiosity on the Discovery Channel, Hawking declared: We are each free to believe what we want and it is my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realisation. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful. Hawking's association with atheism and freethinking was in evidence from his university years onwards, when he had been a member of Oxford University's humanist group. He was later scheduled to appear as the keynote speaker at a 2017 Humanists UK conference. In an interview with El Mundo, he said: Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation. What I meant by 'we would know the mind of God' is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn't. I'm an atheist. In addition, Hawking stated: If you like, you can call the laws of science 'God', but it wouldn't be a personal God that you would meet and put questions to. Politics Hawking was a longstanding Labour Party supporter. He recorded a tribute for the 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, called the 2003 invasion of Iraq a "war crime", campaigned for nuclear disarmament, and supported stem cell research, universal health care, and action to prevent climate change. In August 2014, Hawking was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue. Hawking believed a United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit) would damage the UK's contribution to science as modern research needs international collaboration, and that free movement of people in Europe encourages the spread of ideas. Hawking said to Theresa May, "I deal with tough mathematical questions every day, but please don't ask me to help with Brexit." Hawking was disappointed by Brexit and warned against envy and isolationism. Hawking was greatly concerned over health care, and maintained that without the UK National Health Service, he could not have survived into his 70s. Hawking especially feared privatisation. He stated, "The more profit is extracted from the system, the more private monopolies grow and the more expensive healthcare becomes. The NHS must be preserved from commercial interests and protected from those who want to privatise it." Hawking blamed the Conservatives for cutting funding to the NHS, weakening it by privatisation, lowering staff morale through holding pay back and reducing social care. Hawking accused Jeremy Hunt of cherry picking evidence which Hawking maintained debased science. Hawking also stated, "There is overwhelming evidence that NHS funding and the numbers of doctors and nurses are inadequate, and it is getting worse." In June 2017, Hawking endorsed the Labour Party in the 2017 UK general election, citing the Conservatives' proposed cuts to the NHS. But he was also critical of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, expressing scepticism over whether the party could win a general election under him. Hawking feared Donald Trump's policies on global warming could endanger the planet and make global warming irreversible. He said, "Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it's one we can prevent if we act now. By denying the evidence for climate change, and pulling out of the Paris Agreement, Donald Trump will cause avoidable environmental damage to our beautiful planet, endangering the natural world, for us and our children." Hawking further stated that this could lead Earth "to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid". Hawking was also a supporter of a universal basic income. He was critical of the Israeli government's position on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, stating that their policy "is likely to lead to disaster." Appearances in popular media In 1988, Hawking, Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan were interviewed in God, the Universe and Everything Else. They discussed the Big Bang theory, God and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. At the release party for the home video version of the A Brief History of Time, Leonard Nimoy, who had played Spock on Star Trek, learned that Hawking was interested in appearing on the show. Nimoy made the necessary contact, and Hawking played a holographic simulation of himself in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1993. The same year, his synthesiser voice was recorded for the Pink Floyd song "Keep Talking", and in 1999 for an appearance on The Simpsons. Hawking appeared in documentaries titled The Real Stephen Hawking (2001), Stephen Hawking: Profile (2002) and Hawking (2013), and the documentary series Stephen Hawking, Master of the Universe (2008). Hawking also guest-starred in Futurama and had a recurring role in The Big Bang Theory. Hawking allowed the use of his copyrighted voice in the biographical 2014 film The Theory of Everything, in which he was portrayed by Eddie Redmayne in an Academy Award-winning role. Hawking was featured at the Monty Python Live (Mostly) show in 2014. He was shown to sing an extended version of the "Galaxy Song", after running down Brian Cox with his wheelchair, in a pre-recorded video. Hawking used his fame to advertise products, including a wheelchair, National Savings, British Telecom, Specsavers, Egg Banking, and Go Compare. In 2015, he applied to trademark his name. Broadcast in March 2018 just a week or two before his death, Hawking was the voice of The Book Mark II on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series, and he was the guest of Neil deGrasse Tyson on StarTalk. The 2021 animated sitcom The Freak Brothers features a recurring character, Mayor Pimco, who is apparently modelled after Stephen Hawking. On 8 January 2022, Google featured Hawking in a Google Doodle on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Awards and honours Hawking received numerous awards and honours. Already early in the list, in 1974 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). At that time, his nomination read: Hawking has made major contributions to the field of general relativity. These derive from a deep understanding of what is relevant to physics and astronomy, and especially from a mastery of wholly new mathematical techniques. Following the pioneering work of Penrose he established, partly alone and partly in collaboration with Penrose, a series of successively stronger theorems establishing the fundamental result that all realistic cosmological models must possess singularities. Using similar techniques, Hawking has proved the basic theorems on the laws governing black holes: that stationary solutions of Einstein's equations with smooth event horizons must necessarily be axisymmetric; and that in the evolution and interaction of black holes, the total surface area of the event horizons must increase. In collaboration with G. Ellis, Hawking is the author of an impressive and original treatise on "Space-time in the Large". The citation continues, "Other important work by Hawking relates to the interpretation of cosmological observations and to the design of gravitational wave detectors." Hawking was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1984), the American Philosophical Society (1984), and the United States National Academy of Sciences (1992). Hawking received the 2015 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences shared with Viatcheslav Mukhanov for discovering that the galaxies were formed from quantum fluctuations in the early Universe. At the 2016 Pride of Britain Awards, Hawking received the lifetime achievement award "for his contribution to science and British culture". After receiving the award from Prime Minister Theresa May, Hawking humorously requested that she not seek his help with Brexit. The Hawking Fellowship In 2017, the Cambridge Union Society, in conjunction with Hawking, established the Professor Stephen Hawking Fellowship. The fellowship is awarded annually to an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the STEM fields and social discourse, with a particular focus on impacts affecting the younger generations. Each fellow delivers a lecture on a topic of their choosing, known as the 'Hawking Lecture'. Hawking himself accepted the inaugural fellowship, and he delivered the first Hawking Lecture in his last public appearance before his death. Medal for Science Communication Hawking was a member of the advisory board of the Starmus Festival, and had a major role in acknowledging and promoting science communication. The Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication is an annual award initiated in 2016 to honour members of the arts community for contributions that help build awareness of science. Recipients receive a medal bearing a portrait of Hawking by Alexei Leonov, and the other side represents an image of Leonov himself performing the first spacewalk along with an image of the "Red Special", the guitar of Queen musician and astrophysicist Brian May (with music being another major component of the Starmus Festival). The Starmus III Festival in 2016 was a tribute to Stephen Hawking and the book of all Starmus III lectures, "Beyond the Horizon", was also dedicated to him. The first recipients of the medals, which were awarded at the festival, were chosen by Hawking himself. They were composer Hans Zimmer, physicist Jim Al-Khalili, and the science documentary Particle Fever. Publications Popular books A Brief History of Time (1988) Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993) The Universe in a Nutshell (2001) On the Shoulders of Giants (2002) God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History (2005) The Dreams That Stuff Is Made of: The Most Astounding Papers of Quantum Physics and How They Shook the Scientific World (2011) My Brief History (2013) Hawking's memoir. Brief Answers to the Big Questions (2018) Co-authored The Nature of Space and Time (with Roger Penrose) (1996) The Large, the Small and the Human Mind (with Roger Penrose, Abner Shimony and Nancy Cartwright) (1997) The Future of Spacetime (with Kip Thorne, Igor Novikov, Timothy Ferris and introduction by Alan Lightman, Richard H. Price) (2002) A Briefer History of Time (with Leonard Mlodinow) (2005) The Grand Design (with Leonard Mlodinow) (2010) Forewords Black Holes & Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy (Kip Thorne, and introduction by Frederick Seitz) (1994) The Physics of Star Trek (Lawrence Krauss) (1995) Children's fiction Co-written with his daughter Lucy. George's Secret Key to the Universe (2007) George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt (2009) George and the Big Bang (2011) George and the Unbreakable Code (2014) George and the Blue Moon (2016) Films and series A Brief History of Time (1992) Stephen Hawking's Universe (1997) Hawking – BBC television film (2004) starring Benedict Cumberbatch Horizon: The Hawking Paradox (2005) Masters of Science Fiction (2007) Stephen Hawking and the Theory of Everything (2007) Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe (2008) Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking (2010) Brave New World with Stephen Hawking (2011) Stephen Hawking's Grand Design (2012) The Big Bang Theory (2012, 2014–2015, 2017) Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Mine (2013) The Theory of Everything – Feature film (2014) starring Eddie Redmayne Genius by Stephen Hawking (2016) Selected academic works S. W. Hawking; R. Penrose (27 January 1970). "The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology". Proceedings of the Royal Society A. 314 (1519): 529–548. Bibcode:1970RSPSA.314..529H. doi:10.1098/RSPA.1970.0021. ISSN 1364-5021. S2CID 120208756. Zbl 0954.83012. Wikidata Q55872061. S. W. Hawking (May 1971). "Gravitational Radiation from Colliding Black Holes". Physical Review Letters. 26 (21): 1344–1346. Bibcode:1971PhRvL..26.1344H. doi:10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.26.1344. ISSN 0031-9007. Wikidata Q21706376. Stephen Hawking (June 1972). "Black holes in general relativity". Communications in Mathematical Physics. 25 (2): 152–166. Bibcode:1972CMaPh..25..152H. doi:10.1007/BF01877517. ISSN 0010-3616. S2CID 121527613. Wikidata Q56453197. Stephen Hawking (March 1974). "Black hole explosions?". Nature. 248 (5443): 30–31. Bibcode:1974Natur.248...30H. doi:10.1038/248030A0. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 4290107. Zbl 1370.83053. Wikidata Q54017915. Stephen Hawking (September 1982). "The development of irregularities in a single bubble inflationary universe". Physics Letters B. 115 (4): 295–297. Bibcode:1982PhLB..115..295H. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(82)90373-2. ISSN 0370-2693. Wikidata Q29398982. J. B. Hartle; S. W. Hawking (December 1983). "Wave function of the Universe". Physical Review D. 28 (12): 2960–2975. Bibcode:1983PhRvD..28.2960H. doi:10.1103/PHYSREVD.28.2960. ISSN 1550-7998. Zbl 1370.83118. Wikidata Q21707690. Stephen Hawking; C J Hunter (1 October 1996). "The gravitational Hamiltonian in the presence of non-orthogonal boundaries". Classical and Quantum Gravity. 13 (10): 2735–2752. arXiv:gr-qc/9603050. Bibcode:1996CQGra..13.2735H. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.339.8756. doi:10.1088/0264-9381/13/10/012. ISSN 0264-9381. S2CID 10715740. Zbl 0859.58038. Wikidata Q56551504. S. W. Hawking (October 2005). "Information loss in black holes". Physical Review D. 72 (8). arXiv:hep-th/0507171. Bibcode:2005PhRvD..72h4013H. doi:10.1103/PHYSREVD.72.084013. ISSN 1550-7998. S2CID 118893360. Wikidata Q21651473. Stephen Hawking; Thomas Hertog (April 2018). "A smooth exit from eternal inflation?". Journal of High Energy Physics. 2018 (4). arXiv:1707.07702. Bibcode:2018JHEP...04..147H. doi:10.1007/JHEP04(2018)147. ISSN 1126-6708. S2CID 13745992. Zbl 1390.83455. Wikidata Q55878494. See also List of things named after Stephen Hawking On the Origin of Time, a book by Thomas Hertog about Hawking's theories Notes References Citations Sources External links Official website Professor Stephen Hawking Collection on In Our Time at the BBC "Archival material relating to Stephen Hawking". UK National Archives. Stephen Hawking publications indexed by Google Scholar Stephen Hawking collected news and commentary at The New York Times Stephen Hawking's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required) O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Stephen Hawking", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews Stephen Hawking collected news and commentary at The Guardian Stephen Hawking discography at Discogs Stephen Hawking at IMDb Lecture at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem - 2006

Albert_Einstein_Medal

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

The Albert Einstein Medal is an award presented by the Albert Einstein Society in Bern. First given in 1979, the award is presented to people for "scientific findings, works, or publications related to Albert Einstein" each year. Recipients Source: Einstein Society See also Albert Einstein Award, Lewis and Rosa Strauss Memorial Fund Albert Einstein World Award of Science, World Cultural Council Einstein Prize, American Physical Society List of physics awards UNESCO Albert Einstein medal, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization == References ==

Peter_Cook_(architect)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cook_(architect)

Sir Peter Cook (born 22 October 1936) is an English architect, lecturer and writer on architectural subjects. He was a founder of Archigram, and was knighted in 2007 by the Queen for his services to architecture and teaching. He is also a Royal Academician and a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic. His achievements with Archigram were recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2004, when the group was awarded the Royal Gold Medal. Early life and education Cook was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex and studied architecture at Bournemouth College of Art from 1953–58. He then entered the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, graduating in 1960. Career Cook was a director of London's Institute of Contemporary Arts (1970-1972) and chair of architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London (1990–2006), and has been director of Art Net in London and curator of the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. He continues to curate, organise and exhibit around the world: in Seoul, LA, Cyprus, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Design Museum, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, as well as in castles, sheds and garages. He is a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, London. Cook's professorships include those of the Royal Academy, University College, London and the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste (Städelschule) in Frankfurt-Main, Germany. Cook has built in Osaka, Nagoya, Berlin and Madrid. However it was construction of his arts building in 2003, the Kunsthaus Graz (aka 'The Friendly Alien') in Graz, Austria (with Colin Fournier), that brought his work to a wider public. He practiced from 2007 to 2019 with Gavin Robotham at CRAB (Cook Robotham Architectural Bureau Ltd). In 2013 he completed the Vienna University of Economics and Business's new law faculty and Australia's newest school of architecture, the Abedian School of Architecture at Bond University on the Gold Coast. Cook was awarded a knighthood in the Queen's 2007 Birthday Honours List, for services to architecture. His first building in the UK, a new drawing studio at the Arts University Bournemouth was opened by Zaha Hadid in March 2016. He also built the innovation studio at the Arts University Bournemouth, which was opened by Odile Decq in 2021. Cook currently practices with Erlend Blakstad Haffner and Branko Belaćević at CHAP (Cook Haffner Architecture Platform Ltd). CHAP has offices in London, Belgrade and Oslo. Awards and honours 1960 – Henry Florence Student A.A. (Building Centre research Scholar) 1961 – Piccadilly Circus competition (Mention) 1962 – Gas Council House Design (First Prize) 1965 – Selected as one of "Young British Designers" Sunday Times exhibition 1996 – Jean Tschumi Medal, International Union of Architects 1969 – Grant awarded by Graham Foundation, Chicago, for Instant City 2002 – Annie Spink Award, jointly awarded to David Greene (for contribution to architectural education) by the RIBA 2002 – Royal Gold Medal (with Archigram) by RIBA 2003 – Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the France Republic 2004 – Finalist for Stirling Prize for Kunsthaus Graz (with Colin Fournier) 2007 – Knighted in Queen's Honours' list (for services in architecture) 2008 – Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, London 2010 – Mario Pani Award for Architecture, Mexico City 2010 – Honorary Doctorate of Technology, Lund University, Sweden Success in architectural competitions 1970 – Monte Carlo Entertainments Centre (with Archigram) 1990 – Solar Housing, Landstuhl, Germany (with Christine Hawley) 1992 – Museum of Antiquities, Austria (with Christine Hawley) 2000 – Kunsthaus Graz (with Colin Fournier) 2006 – New Theatre Verbania, Italy (with Gavin Robotham) 2009 – Faculty of Law (D3) and Central Administration (AD), Vienna Business and Economics University (with Gavin Robotham) 2010 – 2nd prize in the Taiwan Tower international competition (with Gavin Robotham) 2011 – Soheil Abedian School of Architecture, Bond University on the Gold Coast, Australia (with Gavin Robotham and Brit Andresen) 2013 – Finalist in the National Stadium of Israel (CRAB + POPULOUS) 2013 – Finalist in the Gold Coast Cultural Precinct Current appointments Professor Emeritus at University College London Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts Life Professor at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste (Städelschule) Frankfurt-Main Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art, London Honorary Fellow of the Arts University Bournemouth Member of the Hessische Architektenkammer Member of the RIBA, Architects Registration Board (ARB) Fellow of University College London Exhibitions Archigram exhibition – 1994 onwards: Vienna, Paris, New York, London, Pasadena, Chicago, Milan, Hamburg, Seoul, Mito, Taipei, Winnipeg, Zurich, Cracow, Zaragoza, Brussels, Rotterdam. Curator of Venice Biennale of Architecture British Pavilion 2004, Cyprus Pavilion 2006 Personal exhibitions – various dates: Los Angeles, Tokyo, Oslo, Berlin, Osaka, Frankfurt, Publications 1967 – Architecture: Action and Plan. London: Studio Vista. 1970 – Experimental Architecture. London/New York: Studio Vista/Universal Books. 1972 – Archigram. London: Studio Vista/Reinhold, Birkhauser 1975 – Melting Architecture. London: Peter Cook, (published to accompany Art Net exhibition). 1976 – Art Net The Rally: Forty London Architects. London: Art Net/Peter Cook, (published to accompany Art Net exhibition). 1976 – Arcadia: The Search for the Perfect Suburb. London: Art Net/Peter Cook. 1980 – Six Houses (with Christine Hawley). London: AA Publications, (published to accompany exhibition at the Architectural Association). 1983 – Los Angeles Now (with Barbara Goldstein). London: AA Publications, (published to accompany exhibition at the Architectural Association). 1985 – Peter Cook – 21 Years, 21 Ideas. Chrisine Hawley; foreword by Reyner Banham. Architectural Association exhibition catalogue. London: AA Publications. 1985 – Lebbeus Woods (editor; with Olive Brown); Architectural Association exhibition catalogue. London: AA Publications, 1985. 1987 – Cities (with Christine Hawley); exhibition catalogue. London: Fisher Fine Arts. 1989 – Peter Cook 1961–89. A+U. 1991 – New Spirit in Architecture (with Rosie Llewellyn-Jones). New York: Rizzoli. 1993 – Six Conversations. London: Academy Editions, Architectural Monographs Special Issue, No. 28. 1996 – Primer. London: Academy Editions. 1999 – Archigram. London/New York: Princeton Architectural Press (with Japanese, German, and Chinese translations) 1999 – Zvi Hecker, House of the Book (contributor, with John Hedjuk and Helene Binet). . London: Black Dog. 1999 – The Power of Contemporary Architecture (with Neil Spiller). London: Academy Editions. 2000 – Bartlett Book of Ideas. London: Bartlett School of Architecture. 2001 – The Paradox of Contemporary Architecture (contributor). Chichester: Wiley-Academy. 2003 – The City, Seen As A Garden Of Ideas. New York: Monacelli. 2008 – Drawing: The Motive Force of Architecture. Chichester: Wiley. 2nd edition publiished 2014. 2016 – Architecture Workbook: Design through Motive. Chichester: Wiley. 2021 – Lives in Architecture: Peter Cook. London: RIBA Publishing. References External links The Bartlett: Peter Cook Archived 29 July 2003 at archive.today Arcspace: Kunsthaus Graz Knighthood: Peter Cook (06/2007) Archinect interview (06/2008) Architectural Record interview (2007) RA interview (2005) Designboom interview (09/2002) Design Museum: Archigram CHAP El País (spanish journal) interview (2011) Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections Interview with Peter Cook about - What is architecture?, 2014 Interview with Peter Cook on Archinect – Conversation with Peter Cook on the State of Things Simon Sadler, Archigram: Architecture without Architecture, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2005 [1] Archived 24 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Interview with Designboom

A._G._Cook

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._G._Cook

Alexander Guy Cook (born 23 August 1990) is an English music producer and the head of the UK record label PC Music. Cook released his first solo singles in 2014. He has also collaborated with PC Music artists such as Hannah Diamond, GFOTY, EASYFUN, Danny L Harle and felicita. He formed the one-off project QT with musician Sophie and performance artist Hayden Dunham, producing the 2014 single "Hey QT". Cook came into the public eye as Charli XCX's creative director and has served as executive producer on her mixtapes Number 1 Angel and Pop 2 (both 2017), and albums Charli (2019), How I'm Feeling Now (2020), and Brat (2024). Cook was named #12 in the Dazed 100 for "redefining style and youth culture in 2015 and beyond". Cook released his two debut albums, 7G and Apple, and received the Variety Hitmakers Innovator of The Year Award in 2020. In 2022, he co-produced the song "All Up in Your Mind" from Beyoncé's album Renaissance, which earned him a nomination for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Since founding PC Music in August 2013, Cook's label has represented over 20 artists releasing music within a similar style, in which tropes from mainstream 1990s and 2000s pop music are amplified. This style of exaggerated pop tropes grew to serve as the foundation of the hyperpop genre, which Cook is credited for developing and popularising. Early life Alexander Guy Cook is the son of English architect Sir Peter Cook and Israeli architect Yael Reisner. He attended Goldsmiths, University of London, where he studied music. It was at Goldsmiths he reconnected with Danny L Harle, with whom he had gone to school as a teen. The two bonded over their shared musical tastes and interest in comedy duo Tim & Eric. This grew into a musical project called Dux Content. Career 2011–2013: Career beginnings Since they did not have a vocalist, Dux Content focused on musical experiments like compound metres and changes in tempo. One of their earlier works was a collection of compositions for the Disklavier, released with Spencer Noble and Tim Phillips under the name "Dux Consort". Cook created Gamsonite, a "pseudo-label" collecting his early collaborations. Dux Content released its songs with strange renderings of digital avatars for promotional artwork. They contributed to the score for Alicia Norman's animated film Heart of Death and began considering a children's television show titled Dux Content's Jungle Jam. Cook and Harle explored how to build rhythms out of a vocalist's natural singing tempo and released the results as "Dux Kidz". The project was noticed by producer Sophie, who later worked with PC Music's acts. Cook began working on building flashy websites with Hannah Diamond and decided to focus on using websites to promote music. 2013–2015: Foundation of PC Music In August 2013, Cook founded PC Music as a way of embracing an A&R role, with the aim of "recording people who don't normally make music and treating them as if they're a major label artist." In January 2014, Cook released "Keri Baby" as his first solo single, with vocals by Diamond. The track uses pop clichés and glitchy vocals to depict Diamond as a digital entity on a screen. His follow-up single "Beautiful" was released in June. "Beautiful" is a pastiche of Eurodance, featuring high, pitch-shifted vocals and donk sounds. Fact magazine called it PC Music's "de-facto anthem", and the song received a remix from Scottish producer Rustie. Cook worked with Sophie to produce a song for QT, a pop singer portrayed by American performance artist Hayden Dunham. She found Cook through his work online and wanted to use a song to market a QT energy drink. Their resulting collaboration "Hey QT" was released in August 2014 on XL Recordings. On 22 December 2014, A. G. Cook released "What I Mean" from his "Personal Computer Music" mix as a single. The single was made available as a free download via radio presenter Annie Mac's "Free Music Monday" SoundCloud channel. Opening with muffled dialogue, the song incorporates robotic vocals and a sample of R&B artist Chuckii Booker. Its organ-based arrangement was a more soulful take on Cook's usual style of dance-pop. After discussing a collaboration on a Charli XCX album, Cook contributed an official remix of her single "Doing It" featuring Rita Ora. Cook's work received recognition on year-end lists for 2014. "Keri Baby" was listed at number 5 of Dummy magazine's "20 Best Tracks of 2014", and BuzzFeed's "13 Obscure Tracks of 2014", number 1 on Gorilla vs. Bear's, "Favourite Tracks of 2014", number 2 on Dazed & Confused's "Top 20 Tracks of 2014". Pitchfork Media ranked "Beautiful" number 30 on its list of "The 100 Best Tracks of 2014". March 2015 saw Cook's PC Music head to the US to showcase all 11 of his label's talent at the Empire Garage in Austin, Texas as part of SXSW. The showcase received positive reviews, with The Guardian saying "AG Cook's entire thundering set [shows] this is a label refusing to be confined by definitions of genre or good taste." On 8 May 2015, Cook performed as part of a PC Music show at BRIC House in Brooklyn, New York as part of the Red Bull Music Academy Festival. The show was billed as the premiere of Pop Cube, "a multimedia reality network". "Superstar", Cook's fifth single, was released via PC Music on 13 July 2016. On the day of its release, Cook revealed via Twitter that "Superstar" had been in the works for over two years prior, originally beginning as a "topline pitch" for electro house DJ Zedd. In April 2016, experimental music producer Oneohtrix Point Never posted a cryptic video to his Instagram that appeared to show Cook working on a remix of "Sticky Drama", a single from his 2015 album Garden of Delete. The remix was later surprise-released on 16 December 2016. 2017–2020: Charli XCX, Jonsi and other ventures In March 2017, Charli XCX's mixtape Number 1 Angel was released, prominently featuring production by Cook and others, including PC Music artists and affiliates SOPHIE, Danny L Harle, Life Sim and EASYFUN, who created the project EasyFX with Cook. This was followed by the mixtape Pop 2, also featuring production by Cook and others. Pitchfork Media gave Pop 2 a rating of 8.4 out of 10, calling it "a vision of what pop music could be" and "the best full-length work of both Charli and PC Music's respective careers". In November 2018, A. G. Cook contributed to Tommy Cash's second studio album ¥€$. Cook is credited as the producer on 5 tracks on the record, including lead single "X-RAY" which he co-produced with Danny L Harle. Cook was announced as the co-executive producer for Charli XCX's third studio album Charli, which was released on 13 September 2019. Cook has produced six of the album's seven singles, including Gone, the third single from the album, which features Christine and the Queens. The song was awarded "Best New Track" by Pitchfork and best song of the week by Stereogum. On 6 April 2020, Cook and BJ Burton were announced as co-executive producers for Charli XCX's quarantine album How I'm Feeling Now, which was written in an open-source style, sharing the production process online and utilizing fan input/content. Cook produced the song "Exhale" by Jónsi, his first solo music in a decade, released on 23 April 2020. In July 2020 it was revealed Cook served as executive producer on Shiver, Jónsi's new album which was released on 2 October 2020. On 30 July 2020, Cook announced an upcoming studio album 7G. On 7 August 2020, he held a virtual concert featuring Caroline Polachek, Thy Slaughter and GRRL titled 7 by 7 over Zoom. The album was released through PC Music on 12 August, comprising 49 tracks split over seven discs. On 20 August 2020, Cook announced another studio album, Apple. The announcement came with the release of the single "Oh Yeah". The album was released through PC Music on 18 September 2020. Leading up to the release of his second album, Apple, Cook hosted another free livestream festival across Zoom, Bandcamp and Twitch entitled 'Appleville'. The festival featured intimate online performances from 100 gecs, Cali Cartier, Alaska Reid, Amnesia Scanner, Astra King, Baseck, Charli XCX, Clairo, Danger Inc, Dorian Electra, Felicita, Fraxiom, Hannah Diamond, Jimmy Edgar, Kero Kero Bonito, Namasenda, Ö, Oklou, Palmistry, Planet 1999 and Quiet Local. The event was described by Cook as "a pastoral escape in the comfort of your own home, an infinite green field where you can sit back and watch some of your favourite musicians grapple with the limitations of time & space". VIP tickets for the livestream were sold on Bandcamp and included access to select recordings from the concert. All proceeds from the ticket sales were donated to Mermaids and Black Cultural Archives. After 5 years of collaborating with Charli XCX, in November 2020 the pair was awarded the Variety Hitmakers Innovator of The Year Award. In December 2020, Cook took part in LUCKYME Records 12 Alternative Futures Advent Calendar Project. Baauer & A. G. Cook's "Planet's Mad" Remix was released on 10 December. 2021–2022: 7G, Apple, Hikaru Utada and Beyoncé Cook has also collaborated with Japanese American singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada, co-producing the movie's theme song "One Last Kiss", the soundtrack of the Japanese animated science fiction film Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time. The song was released on 9 March 2021, and reached #1 on the Japanese Japanese singles charts. He also co-produced another song with Utada, called Kimi ni Muchuu, which reached #1 on Japanese singles charts, and remixed Utada's song "Face My Fears" for her album Bad Mode. Beginning in April 2021, Cook began releasing remixes of songs from his two 2020 albums. Cook later announced that they would be included on a 21-track joint remix album titled Apple vs. 7G. The album was released on 28 May and features remixes from PC artists Easyfun and Hannah Diamond as well as Caroline Polachek, Charli XCX and No Rome. Cook released the remixed version of No Rome's "Spinning", featuring Charli XCX and the 1975, in May 2021. In June 2021, Cook hosted and curated his first show in a 4 part residency on BBC Radio 6 music as part of the 'Lose Yourself with...' series. Cook contributed to Lady Gaga's Chromatica remix album, providing a remix for the track "911" alongside Charli XCX. The album, titled Dawn of Chromatica was released in September 2021 and featured remixes from Dorian Electra and Rina Sawayama. In October 2021, Cook partnered with Apple Inc. to release "Start Up", a song that incorporates sounds from Apple products from the past 45 years. It was used as the intro music for an Apple media event that same month. In 2022, he worked with Beyoncé co-writing and co-producing the song "All Up in Your Mind", which was included on her seventh studio album Renaissance. It earned his first Grammy Award nomination for Album of the Year. 2023–present: Closure of PC Music, Troye Sivan, Thy Slaughter and Britpop Cook lent additional production to "Lick the light out", featuring Madonna, on Christine and the Queens' Paranoïa, Angels, True Love. Cook also produced the majority of Alaska Reid's album Disenchanter, which released in July 2023. He worked again with Hikaru Utada, in a new song called “Gold -Mata Au Hi Made-” (Gold – Till the day we see each other again), the theme song of the movie KINGDOM: The Flame of Destiny, released July 28. Cook also contributed to the score of 2023 film Bottoms, and produced "How to Stay With You" from Troye Sivan's Something to Give Each Other album. In July 2023, Cook announced that PC Music would cease to release any further new material after the end of 2023. Some of the label's final releases include felicita's Spalarkle, Hannah Diamond's Perfect Picture, and Thy Slaughter's debut album Soft Rock. Thy Slaughter is a collaboration project between Cook and labelmate EASYFUN, and the album includes features from Charli XCX, Alaska Reid, Caroline Polachek, and Ellie Rowsell. On January 1, 2024, Cook released the single "Silver Thread Golden Needle", his first release following the dissolution of PC Music. He announced his next album Britpop on 23 February with the release of its title track featuring vocals by Charli XCX. After working on the Charli XCX singles "Club Classics" and "B2B", he released the Britpop single "Soulbreaker" on 17 April. Britpop was released on 10 May 2024 under Cook's newly set up record label New Alias. In May 2024 Hikaru Utada released a re-recorded version of "Simple and Clean" with Cook credited as a producer. He worked with Kesha for her her upcoming album. Artistry Cook's style of music amplifies the clichés of mainstream pop music from the 1990s and 2000s. He follows the work of "mega-producers" such as Max Martin and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Cook references Scritti Politti's album Cupid & Psyche 85 for its "conscious decision to take pop music and make it as shiny and detailed as possible". He cites Korean and Japanese pop music as influences, as well as gyaru subculture. Cook begins constructing tracks by constructing chords and melodies note by note. He prefers the sounds of virtual instruments and avoids sound design early in the process, giving his music a deadpan simplicity. He experiments with combining dissonant sounds, and the resulting dense, multi-layered arrangements are influenced by the Black MIDI techniques. Cook's arrangements are inspired by the mechanized music of composer Conlon Nancarrow. When collaborating with other artists, he prepares an extensive demo so that they can complete lyrics and record vocals straight away. Cook thoroughly processes the vocals, chopping them to use as a rhythmic element atop the melody. In contrast to most of the artists on PC Music, Cook wears plain clothing. GFOTY jokingly characterised his style as normcore. PC Music PC Music is a record label founded by A. G. Cook in 2013. Its first song was made available on SoundCloud the same year. PC Music is known for its surreal or exaggerated take on pop music, often featuring pitch-shifted, feminine vocals and bright, synthetic textures. Artists on its roster include Hannah Diamond, Easyfun, Namasenda and Danny L Harle. The label has been characterized as embracing the aesthetics of advertising, consumerism and corporate branding. Its artists often present devised personas inspired by cyberculture. The label has inspired both praise and criticism from journalists and has been called "polarizing". In 2019 it was described by Dazed as one of the 'most exhilarating record labels of the 2010s.' In more recent years it has been noted for its influence on mainstream pop due to the production work by PC Music signees for artists such as Kim Petras, Charli XCX and Jónsi. Personal life Cook moved to Los Angeles in 2019. Discography 7G (2020) Apple (2020) Britpop (2024) Filmography Film Music videos Notes References External links PC Music official site A. G. Cook discography at Discogs A. G. Cook on Twitter A. G. Cook on Instagram

1988_World_Indoor_Bowls_Championship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_World_Indoor_Bowls_Championship

The 1988 Embassy World Indoor Bowls Championship was held at Alexandra Palace, London, England, from 5 to 13 March 1988. The event moved to the newly rebuilt Alexandra Palace from the Coatbridge indoor bowling club. Seeds were introduced for the first time. Hugh Duff won the title beating Wynne Richards in the final five games to one (7-0, 7-1, 2-7, 7-6, 7-4, 7-4). The 1988 Midland Bank World Indoor Pairs Championship was held at the Bournemouth International Centre from 5 to 13 December 1987+.(+ Held in Dec 1987 to avoid a clash with the 1988 World Outdoor Championships). Ian Schuback & Jim Yates won the title defeating Andy Thomson & Gary Smith 5-1 in the final (6-3, 7-5, 5-7, 8-2, 7-5, 7-5). The 1988 Inaugural Women's Championship was held at the Llanelli Indoor Bowling Club from April 29 to 1 May 1. Margaret Johnston won the title beating Edna Bessell in the final 7-3 5-7 7-6 7-2. Winners Draw and results Men's singles Men's Pairs Women's singles Group stages Group A Results Group B Results Medal round References External links Official website

Ian_Schuback

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

Ian David "Shooey" Schuback (born 4 September 1952) is an Australian former lawn and indoor bowler, and the only player from outside the United Kingdom to ever win the World Indoor Bowls Championship. Biography Schuback bowled for the Coolangatta club in Queensland and was also a former professional tennis coach. He started bowling in 1980 after watching the Melbourne World Outdoor Championships. Schuback claimed a Men's Singles silver medal at the 1986 Commonwealth Games and then won the 1988 World Indoor Bowls Championship and the 1990 Commonwealth Games Pairs titles. He won the 1992 World Indoor Bowls Championships Singles, the 1994 World Indoor Bowls Championship Pairs and the 1996 World Indoor Bowls Championship Pairs. He won two silver medals at the 1991 Asia Pacific Bowls Championships, in Kowloon, Hong Kong. In the 2009 Australia Day Honours he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for "service to lawn bowls as a coach, competitor and commentator". He was also awarded the Australian Sports Medal on 23 August 2000. Bibliography Books Bowls: Unbiased and uncensored == References ==

Jim_Yates_(bowls)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Yates_(bowls)

Jim Yates is a former Australian lawn and indoor bowler and coach, born in Corowa, New South Wales on 11 October 1934. Bowls career Yates partnered Ian Schuback when he won the 1988 World Indoor Bowls Championship Pairs. He won the Australian Singles Championship in 1979 and the Adelaide Masters in 1983, 1984 and 1987. Additionally he has won ten Club Singles Championships and played 211 games for the Victorian State team. == References ==

Illinois_(fireboat)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_(fireboat)

The Illinois was a fireboat operated by the Chicago Fire Department. She was commissioned in 1888, and she was then described as the most powerful fireboat afloat. She was one of the first fireboats to have a steel hull at a time when other fireboats were built of wood. The Illinois was struck by falling debris while fighting a massive fire in 1908, and sunk in 20 feet of water in the Chicago River. She was however quickly refloated, and put back into service. == References ==

Illinois

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

Illinois ( IL-in-OY) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash and Ohio rivers to its south. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth-largest population, and the 25th-most land area. Its capital is Springfield. Present-day Illinois was inhabited by Indigenous cultures for thousands of years. The French were the first Europeans to arrive, settling near the Mississippi and Illinois River in the 17th century as part of the sprawling colony of New France. Following U.S. independence in 1783, American settlers began arriving from Kentucky via the Ohio River. Illinois was part of the United States' oldest territory, the Northwest Territory, and in 1818 it achieved statehood. The Erie Canal brought increased commercial activity in the Great Lakes, and the invention of the self-scouring steel plow by Illinoisan John Deere turned the state's rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmland, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. In the mid-19th century, the Illinois and Michigan Canal and a sprawling railroad network facilitated trade, commerce, and settlement, making the state a transportation hub for the nation. By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois became one of America's most industrialized states and remains a major manufacturing center. The Great Migration from the South established a large Black community, particularly in Chicago, which became a leading cultural, economic, and population center; its metropolitan area, informally referred to as Chicagoland, holds about 65% of the state's 12.8 million residents. Two World Heritage Sites are in Illinois, the ancient Cahokia Mounds, and part of the Wright architecture site. Major centers of learning include the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, and Northwestern University. A wide variety of protected areas seek to conserve Illinois' natural and cultural resources. Three U.S. presidents have been elected while residents of Illinois: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Barack Obama; additionally, Ronald Reagan was born and raised in the state. Illinois honors Lincoln with its official state slogan Land of Lincoln. The state is the site of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield and the future home of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Illinois has a highly diverse economy, with the global city of Chicago in the northeast, major industrial and agricultural hubs in the north and center, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south. Owing to its central location and favorable geography, the state is a major transportation hub: the Port of Chicago has access to the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway and to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River via the Illinois Waterway. Chicago has been the nation's railroad hub since the 1860s, and its O'Hare International Airport has been among the world's busiest airports for decades. Illinois has long been considered a microcosm of the United States and a bellwether in American culture, exemplified by the phrase Will it play in Peoria?. Etymology "Illinois" is the modern spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers' name for the Illinois Native Americans, a name that was spelled in many different ways in the early records. American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant 'man' or 'men' in the Miami-Illinois language, with the original iliniwek transformed via French into Illinois. This etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for "man" is ireniwa, and plural of "man" is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also been said to mean 'tribe of superior men', which is a false etymology. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa 'he speaks the regular way'. This was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe· (pluralized as ilinwe·k). The French borrowed these forms, spelling the /we/ ending as -ois, a transliteration of that sound in the French of that time. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, when French colonists had settled in the western area. The Illinois's name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. History Pre-European American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. The Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation. Cahokia, the largest regional chiefdom and Urban Center of the Pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, was located near present-day Collinsville, Illinois. They built an urban complex of more than 100 platform and burial mounds, a 50-acre (20 ha) plaza larger than 35 football fields, and a woodhenge of sacred cedar, all in a planned design expressing the culture's cosmology. Monks Mound, the center of the site, is the largest Pre-Columbian structure north of the Valley of Mexico. It is 100 ft (30 m) high, 951 ft (290 m) long, 836 ft (255 m) wide, and covers 13.8 acres (5.6 ha). It contains about 814,000 cu yd (622,000 m3) of earth. It was topped by a structure thought to have measured about 105 ft (32 m) in length and 48 ft (15 m) in width, covered an area 5,000 sq ft (460 m2), and been as much as 50 ft (15 m) high, making its peak 150 ft (46 m) above the level of the plaza. The finely crafted ornaments and tools recovered by archaeologists at Cahokia include elaborate ceramics, finely sculptured stonework, carefully embossed and engraved copper and mica sheets, and one funeral blanket for an important chief fashioned from 20,000 shell beads. These artifacts indicate that Cahokia was truly an urban center, with clustered housing, markets, and specialists in toolmaking, hide dressing, potting, jewelry making, shell engraving, weaving and salt making. The civilization vanished in the 15th century for unknown reasons, but historians and archeologists have speculated that the people depleted the area of resources. Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare. According to Suzanne Austin Alchon, "At one site in the central Illinois River valley, one third of all adults died as a result of violent injuries." The next major power in the region was the Illinois Confederation or Illini, a political alliance. Around the time of European contact in 1673, the Illinois confederation had an estimated population of over 10,000 people. As the Illini declined during the Beaver Wars era, members of the Algonquian-speaking Potawatomi, Miami, Sauk, and other tribes including the Fox (Meskwaki), Iowa, Kickapoo, Mascouten, Piankeshaw, Shawnee, Wea, and Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) came into the area from the east and north around the Great Lakes. European exploration and settlement prior to 1800 French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored the Illinois River in 1673. Marquette soon after founded a mission at the Grand Village of the Illinois in Illinois Country. In 1680, French explorers under René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Henri de Tonti constructed a fort at the site of present-day Peoria, and in 1682, a fort atop Starved Rock in today's Starved Rock State Park. French Empire Canadiens came south to settle particularly along the Mississippi River, and Illinois was part of first New France, and then of La Louisiane until 1763, when it passed to the British with their defeat of France in the Seven Years' War. The small French settlements continued, although many French migrated west to Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis, Missouri, to evade British rule. A few British soldiers were posted in Illinois, but few British or American settlers moved there, as the Crown made it part of the territory reserved for Indians west of the Appalachians, and then part of the British Province of Quebec. In 1778, George Rogers Clark claimed Illinois County for Virginia. In a compromise, Virginia (and other states that made various claims) ceded the area to the new United States in the 1780s and it became part of the Northwest Territory, administered by the federal government and later organized as states. 19th century Prior to statehood The Illinois-Wabash Company was an early claimant to much of Illinois. The Illinois Territory was created on February 3, 1809, with its capital at Kaskaskia, an early French settlement. During the discussions leading up to Illinois's admission to the Union, the proposed northern boundary of the state was moved twice. The original provisions of the Northwest Ordinance had specified a boundary that would have been tangent to the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Such a boundary would have left Illinois with no shoreline on Lake Michigan at all. However, as Indiana had successfully been granted a 10 mi (16 km) northern extension of its boundary to provide it with a usable lakefront, the original bill for Illinois statehood, submitted to Congress on January 23, 1818, stipulated a northern border at the same latitude as Indiana's, which is defined as 10 miles north of the southernmost extremity of Lake Michigan. However, the Illinois delegate, Nathaniel Pope, wanted more, and lobbied to have the boundary moved further north. The final bill passed by Congress included an amendment to shift the border to 42° 30' north, which is approximately 51 mi (82 km) north of the Indiana northern border. This shift added 8,500 sq mi (22,000 km2) to the state, including the lead mining region near Galena. More importantly, it added nearly 50 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and the Chicago River. Pope and others envisioned a canal that would connect the Chicago and Illinois rivers and thus connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. The State of Illinois prior to the Civil War In 1818, Illinois became the 21st U.S. state. The capital remained at Kaskaskia, headquartered in a small building rented by the state. In 1819, Vandalia became the capital, and over the next 18 years, three separate buildings were built to serve successively as the capitol building. In 1837, the state legislators representing Sangamon County, under the leadership of state representative Abraham Lincoln, succeeded in having the capital moved to Springfield, where a fifth capitol building was constructed. A sixth capitol building was erected in 1867, which continues to serve as the Illinois capitol today. Though it was ostensibly a "free state", there was nonetheless slavery in Illinois. The ethnic French had owned black slaves since the 1720s, and American settlers had already brought slaves into the area from Kentucky. Slavery was nominally banned by the Northwest Ordinance, but that was not enforced for those already holding slaves. When Illinois became a state in 1818, the Ordinance no longer applied, and about 900 slaves were held in the state. As the southern part of the state, later known as "Egypt" or "Little Egypt", was largely settled by migrants from the South, the section was hostile to free blacks. Settlers were allowed to bring slaves with them for labor, but, in 1822, state residents voted against making slavery legal. Still, most residents opposed allowing free blacks as permanent residents. Some settlers brought in slaves seasonally or as house servants. The Illinois Constitution of 1848 was written with a provision for exclusionary laws to be passed. In 1853, John A. Logan helped pass a law to prohibit all African Americans, including freedmen, from settling in the state. The winter of 1830–1831 is called the "Winter of the Deep Snow"; a sudden, deep snowfall blanketed the state, making travel impossible for the rest of the winter, and many travelers perished. Several severe winters followed, including the "Winter of the Sudden Freeze". On December 20, 1836, a fast-moving cold front passed through, freezing puddles in minutes and killing many travelers who could not reach shelter. The adverse weather resulted in crop failures in the northern part of the state. The southern part of the state shipped food north, and this may have contributed to its name, "Little Egypt", after the Biblical story of Joseph in Egypt supplying grain to his brothers. In 1832, the Black Hawk War was fought in Illinois and present-day Wisconsin between the United States and the Sauk, Fox (Meskwaki), and Kickapoo Indian tribes. It represents the end of Indian resistance to white settlement in the Chicago region. The Indians had been forced to leave their homes and move to Iowa in 1831; when they attempted to return, they were attacked and eventually defeated by U.S. militia. The survivors were forced back to Iowa. By 1832, when the last Indian lands in Illinois were ceded to the United States, the indigenous population of the state had been reduced by infectious diseases, warfare, and forced westward removal to only one village with fewer than 300 inhabitants. By 1839, the Latter Day Saints had founded a utopian city called Nauvoo, formerly called Commerce. Located in Hancock County along the Mississippi River, Nauvoo flourished and, by 1844, briefly surpassed Chicago for the position of the state's largest city. But in that same year, the Latter Day Saint movement founder, Joseph Smith, was killed in the Carthage Jail, about 30 miles away from Nauvoo. Following a succession crisis, Brigham Young led most Latter Day Saints out of Illinois in a mass exodus to present-day Utah; after close to six years of rapid development, Nauvoo quickly declined afterward. After it was established in 1833, Chicago gained prominence as a Great Lakes port, and then as an Illinois and Michigan Canal port after 1848, and as a rail hub soon afterward. By 1857, Chicago was Illinois's largest city. With the tremendous growth of mines and factories in the state in the 19th century, Illinois was the ground for the formation of labor unions in the United States. In 1847, after lobbying by Dorothea L. Dix, Illinois became one of the first states to establish a system of state-supported treatment of mental illness and disabilities, replacing local almshouses. Dix came into this effort after having met J. O. King, a Jacksonville, Illinois businessman, who invited her to Illinois, where he had been working to build an asylum for the insane. With the lobbying expertise of Dix, plans for the Jacksonville State Hospital (now known as the Jacksonville Developmental Center) were signed into law on March 1, 1847. Civil War and after During the American Civil War, Illinois ranked fourth in soldiers who served (more than 250,000) in the Union Army, a figure surpassed by only New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Beginning with President Abraham Lincoln's first call for troops and continuing throughout the war, Illinois mustered 150 infantry regiments, which were numbered from the 7th to the 156th regiments. Seventeen cavalry regiments were also gathered, as well as two light artillery regiments. The town of Cairo, at the southern tip of the state at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, served as a strategically important supply base and training center for the Union army. For several months, both General Grant and Admiral Foote had headquarters in Cairo. During the Civil War, and more so afterwards, Chicago's population skyrocketed, which increased its prominence. The Pullman Strike and Haymarket Riot, in particular, greatly influenced the development of the American labor movement. From Sunday, October 8, 1871, until Tuesday, October 10, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire burned in downtown Chicago, destroying four sq mi (10 km2). 20th century At the turn of the 20th century, Illinois had a population of nearly 5 million. Many people from other parts of the country were attracted to the state by employment caused by the expanding industrial base. Whites were 98% of the state's population. Bolstered by continued immigration from southern and eastern Europe, and by the African-American Great Migration from the South, Illinois grew and emerged as one of the most important states in the union. By the end of the century, the population had reached 12.4 million. The Century of Progress World's fair was held at Chicago in 1933. Oil strikes in Marion County and Crawford County led to a boom in 1937, and by 1939, Illinois ranked fourth in U.S. oil production. Illinois manufactured 6.1 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking seventh among the 48 states. Chicago became an ocean port with the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959. The seaway and the Illinois Waterway connected Chicago to both the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. In 1960, Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's franchise in Des Plaines, which was demolished in 1984. In 1985 a replica was built on the same site to recreate how the original one looked. Though this replica was demolished in 2017, due to repeated flooding of the building. Illinois had a prominent role in the emergence of the nuclear age. In 1942, as part of the Manhattan Project, the University of Chicago conducted the first sustained nuclear chain reaction. In 1957, Argonne National Laboratory, near Chicago, activated the first experimental nuclear power generating system in the United States. By 1960, the first privately financed nuclear plant in the United States, Dresden 1, was dedicated near Morris. In 1967, Fermilab, a national nuclear research facility near Batavia, opened a particle accelerator, which was the world's largest for over 40 years. With eleven plants currently operating, Illinois leads all states in the amount of electricity generated from nuclear power. In 1961, Illinois became the first state in the nation to adopt the recommendation of the American Law Institute and pass a comprehensive criminal code revision that repealed the law against sodomy. The code also abrogated common law crimes and established an age of consent of 18. The state's fourth constitution was adopted in 1970, replacing the 1870 document. The first Farm Aid concert was held in Champaign to benefit American farmers, in 1985. The worst upper Mississippi River flood of the century, the Great Flood of 1993, inundated many towns and thousands of acres of farmland. 21st century Illinois entered the 21st century under Republican Governor George Ryan. Near the end of his term in January 2003, following a string of high-profile exonerations, Ryan commuted all death sentences in the state. The 2002 election brought Democrat Rod Blagojevich to the governor's mansion. It also brought future president Barack Obama into a committee leadership position in the Illinois Senate, where he drafted the Health Care Justice Act, a forerunner of the Affordable Care Act. Obama's election to the presidency in Blagojevich's second term set off a chain of events culminating in Blagojevich's impeachment, trial, and subsequent criminal conviction and imprisonment, making Blagojevich the second consecutive Illinois governor to be convicted on federal corruption charges. Blagojevich's replacement Pat Quinn was defeated by Republican Bruce Rauner in the 2014 election. Disagreements between the governor and legislature over budgetary policy led to the Illinois Budget Impasse, a 793-day period stretching from 2015 to 2018 in which the state had no budget and struggled to pay its bills. On August 28, 2017, Rauner signed a bill into law that prohibited state and local police from arresting anyone solely due to their immigration status or due to federal detainers. Some fellow Republicans criticized Rauner for his action, claiming the bill made Illinois a sanctuary state. In the 2018 election, Rauner was replaced by J. B. Pritzker, returning the state government to a Democratic trifecta. In January 2020 the state legalized marijuana. On March 9, 2020, Pritzker issued a disaster proclamation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He ended the state of emergency in May 2023. Geology During the early part of the Paleozoic Era, the area that would one day become Illinois was submerged beneath a shallow sea and located near the Equator. Diverse marine life lived at this time, including trilobites, brachiopods, and crinoids. Changing environmental conditions led to the formation of large coal swamps in the Carboniferous. Illinois was above sea level for at least part of the Mesozoic, but by its end was again submerged by the Western Interior Seaway. This receded by the Eocene Epoch. During the Pleistocene Epoch, vast ice sheets covered much of Illinois, with only the Driftless Area remaining exposed. These glaciers carved the basin of Lake Michigan and left behind traces of ancient glacial lakes and moraines. Geography Illinois is located in the Midwest region of the United States and is one of the eight states in the Great Lakes region of North America (which also includes Ontario, Canada). Boundaries Illinois's eastern border with Indiana consists of a north–south line at 87° 31′ 30″ west longitude in Lake Michigan at the north, to the Wabash River in the south above Post Vincennes. The Wabash River continues as the eastern/southeastern border with Indiana until the Wabash enters the Ohio River. This marks the beginning of Illinois's southern border with Kentucky, which runs along the northern shoreline of the Ohio River. Most of the western border with Missouri and Iowa is the Mississippi River; Kaskaskia is an exclave of Illinois, lying west of the Mississippi and reachable only from Missouri. The state's northern border with Wisconsin is fixed at 42° 30′ north latitude. The northeastern border of Illinois lies in Lake Michigan, within which Illinois shares a water boundary with the state of Michigan, as well as Wisconsin and Indiana. Topography Though Illinois lies entirely in the Interior Plains, it does have some minor variation in its elevation. In extreme northwestern Illinois, the Driftless Area, a region of unglaciated and therefore higher and more rugged topography, occupies a small part of the state. Southern Illinois includes the hilly areas around the Shawnee National Forest. Charles Mound, located in the Driftless region, has the state's highest natural elevation above sea level at 1,235 ft (376 m). Other highlands include the Shawnee Hills in the south, and there is varying topography along its rivers; the Illinois River bisects the state northeast to southwest. The floodplain on the Mississippi River from Alton to the Kaskaskia River is known as the American Bottom. Divisions Illinois has three major geographical divisions. Northern Illinois is dominated by Chicago metropolitan area, or Chicagoland, which is the city of Chicago and its suburbs, and the adjoining exurban area into which the metropolis is expanding. As defined by the federal government, the Chicago metro area includes several counties in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and has a population of over 9.8 million. Chicago itself is a cosmopolitan city, densely populated, industrialized, the transportation hub of the nation, and settled by a wide variety of ethnic groups. The city of Rockford, Illinois's third-largest city and center of the state's fourth largest metropolitan area, sits along Interstates 39 and 90 some 75 mi (121 km) northwest of Chicago. The Quad Cities region, located along the Mississippi River in northern Illinois, had a population of 381,342 in 2011. The midsection of Illinois is the second major division, called Central Illinois. Historically prairie, it is now mainly agricultural and known as the Heart of Illinois. It is characterized by small towns and medium–small cities. The western section (west of the Illinois River) was originally part of the Military Tract of 1812 and forms the conspicuous western bulge of the state. Agriculture, particularly corn and soybeans, as well as educational institutions and manufacturing centers, figure prominently in Central Illinois. Cities include Peoria; Springfield, the state capital; Quincy; Decatur; Bloomington-Normal; and Champaign-Urbana. The third division is Southern Illinois, comprising the area south of U.S. Route 50, including Little Egypt, near the juncture of the Mississippi River and Ohio River. Southern Illinois is the site of the ancient city of Cahokia, as well as the site of the first state capital at Kaskaskia, which today is separated from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River. This region has a somewhat warmer winter climate, different variety of crops (including some cotton farming in the past), more rugged topography (due to the area remaining unglaciated during the Illinoian Stage, unlike most of the rest of the state), as well as small-scale oil deposits and coal mining. The Illinois suburbs of St. Louis, such as East St. Louis, are located in this region, and collectively, they are known as the Metro-East. The other somewhat significant concentration of population in Southern Illinois is the Carbondale-Marion-Herrin, Illinois Combined Statistical Area centered on Carbondale and Marion, a two-county area that is home to 123,272 residents. A portion of southeastern Illinois is part of the extended Evansville, Indiana, Metro Area, locally referred to as the Tri-State with Indiana and Kentucky. Seven Illinois counties are in the area. In addition to these three, largely latitudinally defined divisions, all of the region outside the Chicago metropolitan area is often called "downstate" Illinois. This term is flexible, but is generally meant to mean everything outside the influence of the Chicago area. Thus, some cities in Northern Illinois, such as DeKalb, which is west of Chicago, and Rockford—which is actually north of Chicago—are sometimes incorrectly considered to be 'downstate'. Climate Illinois has a climate that varies widely throughout the year. Because of its nearly 400-mile distance between its northernmost and southernmost extremes, as well as its mid-continental situation, most of Illinois has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa), with hot, humid summers and cold winters. The southern part of the state, from about Carbondale southward, has a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa), with more moderate winters. Average yearly precipitation for Illinois varies from just over 48 in (1,219 mm) at the southern tip to around 35 in (889 mm) in the northern portion of the state. Normal annual snowfall exceeds 38 in (965 mm) in the Chicago area, while the southern portion of the state normally receives less than 14 in (356 mm). The all-time high temperature was 117 °F (47 °C), recorded on July 14, 1954, at East St. Louis, and the all-time low temperature was −38 °F (−39 °C), recorded on January 31, 2019, during the January 2019 North American cold wave at a weather station near Mount Carroll, and confirmed on March 5, 2019. This followed the previous record of −36 °F (−38 °C) recorded on January 5, 1999, near Congerville. Prior to the Mount Carroll record, a temperature of −37 °F (−38 °C) was recorded on January 15, 2009, at Rochelle, but at a weather station not subjected to the same quality control as official records. Illinois averages approximately 51 days of thunderstorm activity a year, which ranks somewhat above average in the number of thunderstorm days for the United States. Illinois is vulnerable to tornadoes, with an average of 35 occurring annually, which puts much of the state at around five tornadoes per 10,000 sq mi (30,000 km2) annually. While tornadoes are no more powerful in Illinois than other states, some of Tornado Alley's deadliest tornadoes on record have occurred in the state. The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 killed 695 people in three states; 613 of the victims died in Illinois. Urban areas Chicago is the largest city in the state and the third-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 2,746,388 in 2020. Furthermore, over 7 million residents of the Chicago metropolitan area reside in Illinois. The U.S. Census Bureau currently lists seven other cities with populations of over 100,000 within the state. This includes the Chicago satellite towns of Aurora, Joliet, Naperville, and Elgin, as well as the cities of Rockford, the most populous city in the state outside of the Chicago area; Springfield, the state's capital; and Peoria. The most populated city in the state south of Springfield is Belleville, with 42,000 residents. It is located in the Metro East region of Greater St. Louis, the second-most populous urban area in Illinois with over 700,000 residents. Other major urban areas include the Peoria metropolitan area, Rockford metropolitan area, Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area (home to the University of Illinois), Springfield metropolitan area, the Illinois portion of the Quad Cities area, and the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area. Demographics The United States Census Bureau found that the population of Illinois was 12,812,508 in the 2020 United States census, moving from the fifth-largest state to the sixth-largest state (losing out to Pennsylvania). Illinois' population slightly declined in 2020 from the 2010 United States census by just over 18,000 residents and the overall population was quite higher than recent census estimates.Illinois is the most populous state in the Midwest region. Chicago, the third-most populous city in the United States, is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area or Chicagoland, as this area is nicknamed. Although the Chicago metropolitan area comprises only 9% of the land area of the state, it contains 65% of the state's residents, with 21.4% of Illinois' population living in the city of Chicago itself as of 2020. The losses of population anticipated from the 2020 census results do not arise from the Chicago metro area; rather the declines are from the Downstate counties. As of the 2020 census, the state's geographic mean center of population is located at 41° 18′ 43″N 88° 22 23″W in Grundy County, about six miles northwest of Coal City. Illinois is the most racially and ethnically diverse state in the Midwest. By several metrics, including racial and ethnic background, religious affiliation, and percentage of rural and urban divide, Illinois is the most representative of the larger demography of the United States. Race and ethnicity 2020 Census 2022 American Community Survey According to 2022 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, Illinois' population was 61.1% White, 13.4% Black or African American, 0.1% Native American or Alaskan Native, 6.0% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 7.9% Some Other Race, and 10.9% from two or more races. The white population continues to remain the largest racial category in Illinois. Hispanics are allocated amongst the various racial groups and primarily identify as Some Other Race (41.2%) or Multiracial (39.5%) with the remainder identifying as White (14.2%), Black (1.3%), American Indian and Alaskan Native (3.3), Asian (0.3%), and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (0.2%). By ethnicity, 18.3% of the total population is Hispanic-Latino (of any race) and 81.7% is Non-Hispanic (of any race). If treated as a separate category, Hispanics are the largest minority group in Illinois. As of 2022, 50% of Illinois's population younger than age 4 were minorities (Note: Children born to white Hispanics or to a sole full or partial minority parent are counted as minorities). The state's most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, has declined from 83.5% in 1970 to 58.5% in 2022. Almost 60% of Illinois' minority population, including over 67% of the black population, lives in Cook County, while the county includes around 40% of the state's total population. Cook County, which is home to Chicago, is the only majority-minority county within Illinois, with non-Hispanic whites making up a plurality of 40.4% of the population. In 2020, 96,498 identified as being Native American alone, while 184,487 did in combination with one or more other races. Over half of this demographic also identified as being Hispanic or Latino. Ancestry According to 2022 estimates from the American Community Survey, 16% of the population had German ancestry, 14% had Mexican ancestry, 10.4% had Irish ancestry, 7.1% had English ancestry, 6.2% had Polish ancestry, 5.2% had Italian ancestry, 3.4% listed themselves as American, 2.3% had Indian ancestry, 1.7% had Puerto Rican ancestry, 1.7% had Swedish ancestry, 1.4% had Filipino ancestry, 1.4% had French ancestry, and 1.2% had Chinese ancestry. The state also has a large population of African-Americans, making up 15.3% of the population alone or in combination. This table displays all self-reported ancestries with over 50,000 members in Illinois, alone or in combination, according to estimates from the 2022 American Community Survey. Hispanic groups are not distinguished between total and partial ancestry: Immigration At the 2022 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 1,810,100 foreign-born inhabitants of the state or 14.4% of the population, with 37.8% from Mexico or Central America, 31% from Asia, 20.2% from Europe, 4.3% from South America, 4.2% from Africa, 1% from Canada, and 0.2% from Oceania. Of the foreign-born population, 53.5% were naturalized U.S. citizens, and 46.5% were not U.S. citizens. The top countries of origin for immigrants in Illinois were Mexico, India, Poland, the Philippines and China in 2018. Age and sex In 2022, 11.2% of Illinois's population was reported as being under the age of 9, 12.9% were between 10 and 19 years old, 13.4% were 20–29 years old, 13.6% were 30–39 years old, 12.6% were 40–49 years old, 12.7% were 50–59 years old, 11.9% were 60–69 years old, 7.7% were 70–79 years old, and 4% were over the age of 80. The median age in Illinois is 39.1 years. Females made up approximately 50.5% of the population, while males made up 49.5%. According to a 2022 study from the Williams Institute, an estimated 0.44% of adults in Illinois identify as transgender, a rate slighly lower than the national estimate of 0.52%. According to a Gallup survey from 2019, 4.3% of adults in Illinois identify as LGBTQ. Socioeconomics As of 2022, the per-capita income in Illinois is $43,317, and the median income for a household in the state is $76,708, slightly higher than the national average. 11.9% of the population lives below the poverty line, including 16% of children under 18 and 10% of those over the age of 65. There are 5,056,360 households in Illinois, with an average size of 2.4 people per household. 90.4% of the adult population has a high school diploma, and 37.7% of the population over 25 has a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to a national average of 35.7%. In 2021, Illinois scored 0.929 on the UN's Human Development Index, placing it in the category of "very high" Human Development and slighly higher than the US average of 0.921. According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 9,212 homeless people in Illinois. Birth data by race/ethnicity Births do not add up, because Hispanics are counted both by ethnicity and by race. Since 2016, data for births of Hispanic origin are not collected by race, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. Languages The official language of Illinois is English, although between 1923 and 1969, state law gave official status to "the American language". Nearly 80% of people in Illinois speak English natively, and most of the rest speak it fluently as a second language. A number of dialects of American English are spoken, ranging from Inland Northern American English and African-American English around Chicago, to Midland American English in Central Illinois, to Southern American English in the far south. Over 23% of Illinoians speak a language other than English at home, of which Spanish is by far the most widespread, at more than 13% of the total population. A sizeable number of Polish speakers is present in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. Illinois Country French has mostly gone extinct in Illinois, although it is still celebrated in the French Colonial Historic District. Religion Christianity Roman Catholics constitute the single largest religious denomination in Illinois; they are heavily concentrated in and around Chicago and account for nearly 30% of the state's population. However, taken together as a group, the various Protestant denominations comprise a greater percentage of the state's population than do Catholics. In 2010, Catholics in Illinois numbered 3,648,907. The largest Protestant denominations were the United Methodist Church with 314,461 members and the Southern Baptist Convention with 283,519. Illinois has one of the largest concentrations of Missouri Synod Lutherans in the United States. Illinois played an important role in the early Latter Day Saint movement, with Nauvoo becoming a gathering place for Mormons in the early 1840s. Nauvoo was the location of the succession crisis, which led to the separation of the Mormon movement into several Latter Day Saint sects. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest of the sects to emerge from the Mormon schism, has more than 55,000 adherents in Illinois today. Other Abrahamic religious communities A significant number of adherents of other Abrahamic faiths can be found in Illinois. Largely concentrated in the Chicago metropolitan area, followers of the Muslim, Baháʼí, and Jewish religions all call the state home. Muslims constituted the largest non-Christian group, with 359,264 adherents. Illinois has the largest concentration of Muslims by state in the country, with 2,800 Muslims per 100,000 citizens. The largest and oldest surviving Baháʼí House of Worship in the world is located on the shores of Lake Michigan in Wilmette, Illinois, one of eight continental Baháʼí House of Worship. It serves as a space for people of all backgrounds and religions to gather, meditate, reflect, and pray, expressing the Baháʼí principle of the oneness of religions. The Chicago area has a very large Jewish community, particularly in the suburbs of Skokie, Buffalo Grove, Highland Park, and surrounding suburbs. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was the Windy City's first Jewish mayor. Other religions Chicago is also home to a very large population of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists. Economy As of 2022, the gross state product for Illinois reached US$1.0 trillion. As of February 2019, the unemployment rate in Illinois reached 4.2%. Illinois's minimum wage will rise to $15 per hour by 2025, making it one of the highest in the nation. Agriculture Illinois's major agricultural outputs are corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle, dairy products, and wheat. In most years, Illinois is either the first or second state for the highest production of soybeans, with a harvest of 427.7 million bushels (11.64 million metric tons) in 2008, after Iowa's production of 444.82 million bushels (12.11 million metric tons). Illinois ranks second in U.S. corn production with more than 1.5 billion bushels produced annually. With a production capacity of 1.5 billion gallons per year, Illinois is a top producer of ethanol, ranking third in the United States in 2011. Illinois is a leader in food manufacturing and meat processing. Although Chicago may no longer be "Hog Butcher for the World", the Chicago area remains a global center for food manufacture and meat processing, with many plants, processing houses, and distribution facilities concentrated in the area of the former Union Stock Yards. Illinois also produces wine, and the state is home to two American viticultural areas. In the area of The Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway, peaches and apples are grown. The German immigrants from agricultural backgrounds who settled in Illinois in the mid- to late 19th century are in part responsible for the profusion of fruit orchards in that area of Illinois. Illinois's universities are actively researching alternative agricultural products as alternative crops. Manufacturing Illinois is one of the nation's manufacturing leaders, boasting annual value added productivity by manufacturing of over $107 billion in 2006. As of 2011, Illinois is ranked as the 4th-most productive manufacturing state in the country, behind California, Texas, and Ohio. About three-quarters of the state's manufacturers are located in the Northeastern Opportunity Return Region, with 38 percent of Illinois's approximately 18,900 manufacturing plants located in Cook County. As of 2006, the leading manufacturing industries in Illinois, based upon value-added, were chemical manufacturing ($18.3 billion), machinery manufacturing ($13.4 billion), food manufacturing ($12.9 billion), fabricated metal products ($11.5 billion), transportation equipment ($7.4 billion), plastics and rubber products ($7.0 billion), and computer and electronic products ($6.1 billion). Services By the early 2000s, Illinois's economy had moved toward a dependence on high-value-added services, such as financial trading, higher education, law, logistics, and medicine. In some cases, these services clustered around institutions that hearkened back to Illinois's earlier economies. For example, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a trading exchange for global derivatives, had begun its life as an agricultural futures market. Other important non-manufacturing industries include publishing, tourism, and energy production and distribution. Investments Venture capitalists funded a total of approximately $62 billion in the U.S. economy in 2016. Of this amount, Illinois-based companies received approximately $1.1 billion. Similarly, in FY 2016, the federal government spent $461 billion on contracts in the U.S. Of this amount, Illinois-based companies received approximately $8.7 billion. Energy Illinois is a net importer of fuels for energy, despite large coal resources and some minor oil production. Illinois exports electricity, ranking fifth among states in electricity production and seventh in electricity consumption. Coal The coal industry of Illinois has its origins in the middle 19th century, when entrepreneurs such as Jacob Loose discovered coal in locations such as Sangamon County. Jacob Bunn contributed to the development of the Illinois coal industry and was a founder and owner of the Western Coal & Mining Company of Illinois. About 68% of Illinois has coal-bearing strata of the Pennsylvanian geologic period. According to the Illinois State Geological Survey, 211 billion tons of bituminous coal are estimated to lie under the surface, having a total heating value greater than the estimated oil deposits in the Arabian Peninsula. However, this coal has a high sulfur content, which causes acid rain, unless special equipment is used to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. Many Illinois power plants are not equipped to burn high-sulfur coal. In 1999, Illinois produced 40.4 million tons of coal, but only 17 million tons (42%) of Illinois coal was consumed in Illinois. Most of the coal produced in Illinois is exported to other states and countries. In 2008, Illinois exported three million tons of coal and was projected to export nine million in 2011, as demand for energy grows in places such as China, India, and elsewhere in Asia and Europe. As of 2010, Illinois was ranked third in recoverable coal reserves at producing mines in the nation. Most of the coal produced in Illinois is exported to other states, while much of the coal burned for power in Illinois (21 million tons in 1998) is mined in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. Mattoon was chosen as the site for the Department of Energy's FutureGen project, a 275-megawatt experimental zero emission coal-burning power plant that the DOE just gave a second round of funding. In 2010, after a number of setbacks, the city of Mattoon backed out of the project. Petroleum Illinois is a leading refiner of petroleum in the American Midwest, with a combined crude oil distillation capacity of nearly 900,000 bbl/d (140,000 m3/d). However, Illinois has very limited crude oil proved reserves that account for less than 1% of the U.S. total reserves. Residential heating is 81% natural gas compared to less than 1% heating oil. Illinois is ranked 14th in oil production among states, with a daily output of approximately 28,000 bbl (4,500 m3) in 2005. Nuclear power Nuclear power arguably began in Illinois with the Chicago Pile-1, the world's first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in the world's first nuclear reactor, built on the University of Chicago campus. There are six operating nuclear power plants in Illinois: Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities. With the exception of the single-unit Clinton plant, each of these facilities has two reactors. Three reactors have been permanently shut down and are in various stages of decommissioning: Dresden-1 and Zion-1 and 2. Illinois ranked first in the nation in 2010 in both nuclear capacity and nuclear generation. Generation from its nuclear power plants accounted for 12 percent of the nation's total. In 2007, 48% of Illinois's electricity was generated using nuclear power. The Morris Operation is the only de facto high-level radioactive waste storage site in the United States. Wind power Illinois has seen growing interest in the use of wind power for electrical generation. Most of Illinois was rated in 2009 as "marginal or fair" for wind energy production by the U.S. Department of Energy, with some western sections rated "good" and parts of the south rated "poor". These ratings are for wind turbines with 50 m (160 ft) hub heights; newer wind turbines are taller, enabling them to reach stronger winds farther from the ground. As a result, more areas of Illinois have become prospective wind farm sites. As of September 2009, Illinois had 1116.06 MW of installed wind power nameplate capacity with another 741.9 MW under construction. Illinois ranked ninth among U.S. states in installed wind power capacity and sixteenth by potential capacity. Large wind farms in Illinois include Twin Groves, Rail Splitter, EcoGrove, and Mendota Hills. As of 2007, wind energy represented only 1.7% of Illinois's energy production, and it was estimated that wind power could provide 5–10% of the state's energy needs. Also, the Illinois General Assembly mandated in 2007 that by 2025, 25% of all electricity generated in Illinois is to come from renewable resources. Biofuels Illinois is ranked second in corn production among U.S. states, and Illinois corn is used to produce 40% of the ethanol consumed in the United States. The Archer Daniels Midland corporation in Decatur, Illinois, is the world's leading producer of ethanol from corn. The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC), the world's only facility dedicated to researching the ways and means of converting corn (maize) to ethanol is located on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is one of the partners in the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a $500 million biofuels research project funded by petroleum giant BP. Taxes Tax is collected by the Illinois Department of Revenue. State income tax is calculated by multiplying net income by a flat rate. In 1990, that rate was set at 3%, but in 2010, the General Assembly voted for a temporary increase in the rate to 5%; the new rate went into effect on January 1, 2011; the personal income rate partially sunset on January 1, 2015, to 3.75%, while the corporate income tax fell to 5.25%. Illinois failed to pass a budget from 2015 to 2017, after the 736-day budget impasse, a budget was passed in Illinois after lawmakers overturned Governor Bruce Rauner's veto; this budget raised the personal income rate to 4.95% and the corporate rate to 7%. There are two rates for state sales tax: 6.25% for general merchandise and 1% for qualifying food, drugs, and medical appliances. The property tax is a major source of tax revenue for local government taxing districts. The property tax is a local—not state—tax imposed by local government taxing districts, which include counties, townships, municipalities, school districts, and special taxation districts. The property tax in Illinois is imposed only on real property. On May 1, 2019, the Illinois Senate voted to approve a constitutional amendment that would have stricken language from the Illinois Constitution requiring a flat state income tax, in a 73–44 vote. If approved, the amendment would have allowed the state legislature to impose a graduated income tax based on annual income. The governor, J. B. Pritzker, approved the bill on May 27, 2019. It was scheduled for a 2020 general election ballot vote and required 60 percent voter approval to effectively amend the state constitution. The amendment was not approved by Illinoisans, with 55.1% of voters voting "No" on approval and 44.9% voting "Yes". As of 2017 Chicago had the highest state and local sales tax rate for a U.S. city with a populations above 200,000, at 10.250%. The state of Illinois has the second highest rate of real estate tax: 2.31%, which is second only to New Jersey at 2.44%. Toll roads are a de facto user tax on the citizens and visitors to the state of Illinois. Illinois ranks seventh out of the 11 states with the most miles of toll roads, at 282.1 miles. Chicago ranks fourth in most expensive toll roads in America by the mile, with the Chicago Skyway charging 51.2 cents per mile. Illinois also has the 11th highest gasoline tax by state, at 37.5 cents per gallon. Culture Museums Illinois has numerous museums; the greatest concentration of these are in Chicago. Several museums in Chicago are ranked as some of the best in the world. These include the John G. Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Adler Planetarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry. The modern Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield is the largest and most attended presidential library in the country. The Illinois State Museum boasts a collection of 13.5 million objects that tell the story of Illinois life, land, people, and art. The ISM is among only 5% of the nation's museums that are accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Other historical museums in the state include the Polish Museum of America in Chicago; Magnolia Manor in Cairo; Easley Pioneer Museum in Ipava; the Elihu Benjamin Washburne; Ulysses S. Grant Homes, both in Galena; and the Chanute Air Museum, located on the former Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul. The Chicago metropolitan area also hosts two zoos: The Brookfield Zoo, located about ten miles west of the city center in suburban Brookfield, contains more than 2,300 animals and covers 216 acres (87 ha). The Lincoln Park Zoo is located in Lincoln Park on Chicago's North Side, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the Loop. The zoo accounts for more than 35 acres (14 ha) of the park. Illinois Museums Music Illinois is a leader in music education, having hosted the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference since 1946, as well being home to the Illinois Music Educators Association (ILMEA, formerly IMEA), one of the largest professional music educator's organizations in the country. Each summer since 2004, Southern Illinois University Carbondale has played host to the Southern Illinois Music Festival, which presents dozens of performances throughout the region. Past featured artists include the Eroica Trio and violinist David Kim. Chicago, in the northeast corner of the state, is a major center for music in the midwestern United States where distinctive forms of blues (greatly responsible for the future creation of rock and roll), and house music, a genre of electronic dance music, were developed. The Great Migration of poor black workers from the South into the industrial cities brought traditional jazz and blues music to the city, resulting in Chicago blues and "Chicago-style" Dixieland jazz. Notable blues artists included Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Howlin' Wolf and both Sonny Boy Williamsons; jazz greats included Nat King Cole, Gene Ammons, Benny Goodman, and Bud Freeman. Chicago is also well known for its soul music. In the early 1930s, Gospel music began to gain popularity in Chicago due to Thomas A. Dorsey's contributions at Pilgrim Baptist Church. In the 1980s and 1990s, heavy rock, punk, and hip hop also became popular in Chicago. Orchestras in Chicago include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Chicago Sinfonietta. Movies John Hughes, who moved from Grosse Pointe to Northbrook, based many films of his in Chicago, and its suburbs. Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Home Alone, The Breakfast Club, and all his films take place in the fictional Shermer, Illinois (the original name of Northbrook was Shermerville, and Hughes's High School, Glenbrook North High School, is on Shermer Road). Most locations in his films include Glenbrook North, the former Maine North High School, the Ben Rose House in Highland Park, and the famous Home Alone house in Winnetka, Illinois. Sports Major league sports As one of the United States' major metropolises, all major sports leagues have teams headquartered in Chicago. Two Major League Baseball teams are located in the state. The Chicago Cubs of the National League play in the second-oldest major league stadium, Wrigley Field, and went the longest length of time without a championship in all of major American sport, from 1908 to 2016, when they won the World Series. The Chicago White Sox of the American League won the World Series in 2005, their first since 1917. They play on the city's south side at Guaranteed Rate Field. The Chicago Bears football team has won nine total NFL Championships, the last occurring in Super Bowl XX on January 26, 1986. The Chicago Bulls of the NBA is one of the most recognized basketball teams in the world, largely as a result of the efforts of Michael Jordan, who led the team to six NBA championships in eight seasons in the 1990s. The Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL began playing in 1926 and became a member of the Original Six once the NHL dropped to that number of teams during World War II. The Blackhawks have won six Stanley Cups, most recently in 2015. Chicago Fire FC is a member of MLS and has been one of the league's most successful and best-supported clubs since its founding in 1997, winning one league and four Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cups in that timespan. The team played in Bridgeview, adjacent to Chicago from 2006 to 2019. The team now plays at Soldier Field in Chicago. The Chicago Red Stars have played at the top level of U.S. women's soccer since their formation in 2009, except in the 2011 season. The team currently plays in the National Women's Soccer League, playing at SeatGeek Stadium, the Bridgeview venue it formerly shared with Fire FC. The Chicago Sky have played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) since 2006. The Sky won their first WNBA Championship in 2021. They play at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The Chicago Bandits of the NPF, a women's softball league, have won four league titles, most recently in 2016. They play at Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, Illinois, in the Chicago area. Minor league sports Many minor league teams also call Illinois their home. They include: The Bloomington Edge of the Indoor Football League The Bloomington Flex of the Midwest Professional Basketball Association The Chicago Dogs of the American Association of Professional Baseball Chicago Fire FC II of MLS Next Pro The Chicago Wolves are an AHL team playing in the suburb of Rosemont The Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League in Sauget, Illinois The Kane County Cougars of the American Association The Joliet Slammers of the Frontier League The Peoria Chiefs of the Midwest League The Peoria Rivermen are an SPHL team The Rockford Aviators of the Frontier League The Rockford IceHogs of the AHL The Schaumburg Boomers of the Frontier League The Southern Illinois Miners based out of Marion in the Frontier League The Windy City Bulls, playing in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, of the NBA G League The Windy City ThunderBolts of the Frontier League College sports The state features 13 athletic programs that compete in NCAA Division I, the highest level of U.S. college sports. The two most prominent are the Illinois Fighting Illini and Northwestern Wildcats, both members of the Big Ten Conference and the only ones competing in one of the so-called "Power Five conferences". The Fighting Illini football team has won five national championships and three Rose Bowl Games, whereas the men's basketball team has won 17 conference seasons and played five Final Fours. Meanwhile, the Wildcats have won eight football conference championships and one Rose Bowl Game. The Northern Illinois Huskies from DeKalb, Illinois, compete in the Mid-American Conference, having won four conference championships and earning a bid in the Orange Bowl along with producing Heisman candidate Jordan Lynch at quarterback. The Huskies are the state's only other team competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of NCAA football. Four schools have football programs that compete in the second level of Division I football, the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Illinois State Redbirds (Normal, adjacent to Bloomington) and Southern Illinois Salukis (representing Southern Illinois University's main campus in Carbondale) are members of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) for non-football sports and the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC). The Eastern Illinois Panthers (Charleston) and Western Illinois Leathernecks (Macomb) are members of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC). The city of Chicago is home to four Division I programs that do not sponsor football. The DePaul Blue Demons, with main campuses in Lincoln Park and the Loop, are members of the Big East Conference. The Loyola Ramblers, with their main campus straddling the Edgewater and Rogers Park community areas on the city's far north side, compete in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The UIC Flames, from the Near West Side next to the Loop, are in the MVC. The Chicago State Cougars, from the city's south side, compete in the Northeast Conference. Finally, two non-football Division I programs are located downstate. The Bradley Braves (Peoria) are MVC members, and the SIU Edwardsville Cougars (in the Metro East region across the Mississippi River from St. Louis) compete in the OVC. Motor racing Motor racing oval tracks at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, the Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero and the Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, near St. Louis, have hosted NASCAR, CART, and IRL races, whereas the Sports Car Club of America, among other national and regional road racing clubs, have visited the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, the Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit and the former Meadowdale International Raceway in Carpentersville. Illinois also has several short tracks and dragstrips. The dragstrip at Gateway International Raceway and the Route 66 Raceway, which sits on the same property as the Chicagoland Speedway, both host NHRA drag races. Golf Illinois features several golf courses, such as Olympia Fields, Medinah, Midlothian, Cog Hill, and Conway Farms, which have often hosted the BMW Championship, Western Open, and Women's Western Open. Also, the state has hosted 13 editions of the U.S. Open (latest at Olympia Fields in 2003), six editions of the PGA Championship (latest at Medinah in 2006), three editions of the U.S. Women's Open (latest at The Merit Club), the 2009 Solheim Cup (at Rich Harvest Farms), and the 2012 Ryder Cup (at Medinah). The John Deere Classic is a regular PGA Tour event played in the Quad Cities since 1971, whereas the Encompass Championship is a Champions Tour event since 2013. Previously, the LPGA State Farm Classic was an LPGA Tour event from 1976 to 2011. Parks and recreation The Illinois state parks system began in 1908 with what is now Fort Massac State Park, becoming the first park in a system encompassing more than 60 parks and about the same number of recreational and wildlife areas. Areas under the protection of the National Park Service include: the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor near Lockport, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail, the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail, the American Discovery Trail, the Pullman National Monument, and New Philadelphia Town Site. The federal government also manages the Shawnee National Forest and the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Law and politics In a 2020 study, Illinois was ranked as the 4th easiest state for citizens to vote in. State government The government of Illinois, under the Constitution of Illinois, has three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive branch is split into several statewide elected offices, with the governor as chief executive. Legislative functions are granted to the Illinois General Assembly. The judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court and lower courts. The executive branch is composed of six elected officers and their offices as well as numerous other departments. The six elected officers are: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller, and Treasurer. The government of Illinois has numerous departments, agencies, boards and commissions, but the so-called code departments provide most of the state's services. The Illinois General Assembly is the state legislature, composed of the 118-member Illinois House of Representatives and the 59-member Illinois Senate. The members of the General Assembly are elected at the beginning of each even-numbered year. The Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) are the codified statutes of a general and permanent nature. The Judiciary of Illinois is the unified court system of Illinois. It consists of the Supreme Court, Appellate Court, and Circuit Courts. The Supreme Court oversees the administration of the court system. The administrative divisions of Illinois are counties, townships, precincts, cities, towns, villages, and special-purpose districts. The basic subdivision of Illinois are the 102 counties. Eighty-five of the 102 counties are in turn divided into townships and precincts. Municipal governments are the cities, villages, and incorporated towns. Some localities possess home rule, which allows them to govern themselves to a certain extent. Party balance In modern national and state politics, Illinois is a Democratic stronghold. Historically, Illinois was a political swing state, with near-parity existing between the Republican and the Democratic parties. However, in recent elections, the Democratic Party has gained ground, and Illinois has come to be seen as a solid "blue" state in both presidential and congressional campaigns. Illinois's Democratic tendencies are mostly attributable to Cook County and Chicago, by far the state's largest county and city, respectively, which have long been strongly Democratic. The collar counties, affluent suburban counties that surround Cook County, were ancestrally Republican and helped keep the state competitive; however, they have swung toward the left in recent elections as the national Republican Party has become increasingly conservative, which has cemented Democratic dominance in state politics. Outside of the Chicago metropolitan area, the state's rural areas are heavily Republican. The dominance of the Chicago area in state elections is so overwhelming that it has influenced a secessionist movement in the downstate region. Illinois was long seen as a national bellwether, supporting the winner in every election in the 20th century, except for 1916 and 1976. Since the 1992 election, however, Illinois has trended more toward the Democratic Party and is part of the "blue wall" of states that have consistently voted Democratic in the last six presidential elections. In 2000, George W. Bush became the first Republican to win the presidency without carrying either Illinois or Vermont, with Donald Trump repeating the feat in 2016. Illinois has not elected a Republican to the Senate since Mark Kirk won in 2010; the last Republicans to hold statewide office were Governor Bruce Rauner and Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Sanguinetti, who both left office in 2019. History of corruption Politics in the state have been infamous for highly visible corruption cases, as well as for crusading reformers, such as governors Adlai Stevenson and James R. Thompson. In 2006, former governor George Ryan was convicted of racketeering and bribery, leading to a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence. On December 7, 2011, former governor Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegations that he conspired to sell the vacated Senate seat left by President Barack Obama to the highest bidder. Blagojevich had earlier been impeached and convicted by the legislature, resulting in his removal from office. In the late 20th century, Congressman Dan Rostenkowski was imprisoned for mail fraud; former governor and federal judge Otto Kerner, Jr. was imprisoned for bribery; Secretary of State Paul Powell was investigated and found to have gained great wealth through bribes, and State Auditor of Public Accounts (Comptroller) Orville Hodge was imprisoned for embezzlement. In 1912, William Lorimer, the GOP boss of Chicago, was expelled from the U.S. Senate for bribery, and in 1921, Governor Len Small was found to have defrauded the state of a million dollars. U.S. presidential elections Illinois has shown a strong presence in presidential elections. Three presidents have claimed Illinois as their political base when running for president: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and most recently Barack Obama. Lincoln was born in Kentucky, but he moved to Illinois at age 21. He served in the General Assembly and represented the 7th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives before his election to the presidency in 1860. Ulysses S. Grant was born in Ohio and had a military career that precluded settling down, but on the eve of the Civil War and approaching middle age, he moved to Illinois and thus utilized the state as his home and political base when running for president. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and made Illinois his home after graduating from law school, and later represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate. He then became president in 2008, running as a candidate from his Illinois base. Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois, in the city of Tampico, raised in Dixon, Illinois, and educated at Eureka College, outside Peoria. Reagan later moved to California during his young adulthood. He then became an actor, and later became California's Governor before being elected president. Hillary Clinton was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago and became the first woman to represent a major political party in the general election of the U.S. presidency. Clinton ran from a platform based in New York State. African-American U.S. senators Twelve African-Americans have served as members of the United States Senate. Of which three have represented Illinois, the most of any single state: Carol Moseley-Braun, Barack Obama, and Roland Burris, who was appointed to replace Obama after his election to the presidency. Moseley-Braun was the first African-American woman to become a U.S. Senator. Political families Three families from Illinois have played particularly prominent roles in the Democratic Party, gaining both statewide and national fame. Stevenson The Stevenson family, initially rooted in central Illinois and later based in the Chicago metropolitan area, has provided four generations of Illinois officeholders. Adlai Stevenson I (1835–1914) was a Vice President of the United States, as well as a Congressman Lewis Stevenson (1868–1929), son of Adlai, served as Illinois Secretary of State. Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965), son of Lewis, served as Governor of Illinois and as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; he was also the Democratic party's presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956, losing both elections to Dwight Eisenhower. Adlai Stevenson III (1930–2021), son of Adlai II, served ten years as a United States Senator. Daley The Daley family's powerbase was in Chicago. Richard J. Daley (1902–1976) served as Mayor of Chicago from 1955 to his death. Richard M. Daley (born 1942), son of Richard J, was Chicago's longest-serving mayor, in office from 1989 to 2011. William M. Daley (born 1948), another son of Richard J, is a former White House Chief of Staff and has served in a variety of appointed positions. Pritzker The Pritzker family is based in Chicago and have played important roles in both the private and the public sectors. Jay Pritzker (1922–1999), co-founder of Hyatt Hotel based in Chicago. Penny Pritzker (born 1959), 38th United States Secretary of Commerce under President Barack Obama. J. B. Pritzker (born 1965), current and 43rd governor of Illinois and co-founder of the Pritzker Group. Education Illinois State Board of education The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is autonomous of the governor and the state legislature, and administers public education in the state. Local municipalities and their respective school districts operate individual public schools, but the ISBE audits performance of public schools with the Illinois School Report Card. The ISBE also makes recommendations to state leaders concerning education spending and policies. Primary and secondary schools Education is compulsory for ages 7–17 in Illinois. Schools are commonly, but not exclusively, divided into three tiers of primary and secondary education: elementary school, middle school or junior high school, and high school. District territories are often complex in structure. Many areas in the state are actually located in two school districts—one for high school and the other for elementary and middle schools. And such districts do not necessarily share boundaries. A given high school may have several elementary districts that feed into it, yet some of those feeder districts may themselves feed into multiple high school districts. Colleges and universities Using the criterion established by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, there are eleven "National Universities" in the state. As of 19 August 2010, six of these rank in the "first tier" among the top 500 National Universities in the nation, as determined by the U.S. News & World Report rankings: the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Loyola University Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Technology, DePaul University, University of Illinois Chicago, Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Northern Illinois University. The University of Chicago is continuously ranked as one of the world's top ten universities on various independent university rankings, and its Booth School of Business, along with Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management consistently rank within the top five graduate business schools in the country and top ten globally. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is often ranked among the best engineering schools in the world and United States. Illinois also has more than twenty additional accredited four-year universities, both public and private, and dozens of small liberal arts colleges across the state. Additionally, Illinois supports 49 public community colleges in the Illinois Community College System. School financing Schools in Illinois are funded primarily by property taxes, based on state assessment of property values, rather than direct state contributions. Scholar Tracy Steffes has described Illinois public education as historically "inequitable", a system where one of "the wealthiest of states" is "the stingiest in its support for education". There have been several attempts to reform school funding in Illinois. The most notable attempt came in 1973 with the adoption of the Illinois Resource Equalizer Formula, a measure through which it was hoped funding could be collected and distributed to Illinois schools more equitably. However, opposition from affluent Illinois communities who objected to having to pay for the less well-off school districts (many of them Black majority communities, produced by redlining, white flight, and other "soft" segregation methods) resulted in the formula's abolition in the late 1980s. Infrastructure Transportation Because of its central location and its proximity to the Rust Belt and Grain Belt, Illinois is a national crossroads for air, auto, rail, and truck traffic. Airports From 1962 until 1998, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) was the busiest airport in the world, measured both in terms of total flights and passengers. While it was surpassed by Atlanta's Hartsfield in 1998 (as Chicago splits its air traffic between O'Hare and Midway airports, while Atlanta uses only one airport), with 59.3 million domestic passengers annually, along with 11.4 million international passengers in 2008, O'Hare consistently remains one of the two or three busiest airports globally, and in some years still ranks number one in total flights. It is a major hub for both United Airlines and American Airlines, and a major airport expansion project is currently underway. Midway Airport (MDW), which had been the busiest airport in the world at one point until it was supplanted by O'Hare as the busiest airport in 1962, is now the secondary airport in the Chicago metropolitan area and still ranks as one of the nation's busiest airports. Midway is a major hub for Southwest Airlines and services many other carriers as well. Midway served 17.3 million domestic and international passengers in 2008. Rail Illinois has an extensive passenger and freight rail transportation network. Chicago is a national Amtrak hub and in-state passengers are served by Amtrak's Illinois Service, featuring the Chicago to Carbondale Illini and Saluki, the Chicago to Quincy Carl Sandburg and Illinois Zephyr, and the Chicago to St. Louis Lincoln Service. Currently there is trackwork on the Chicago–St. Louis line to bring the maximum speed up to 110 mph (180 km/h), which would reduce the trip time by an hour and a half. Nearly every North American railway meets at Chicago, making it the largest and most active rail hub in the country. Extensive heavy rail service is provided in the city proper and some immediate suburbs by the Chicago Transit Authority's 'L' system. One of the largest suburban commuter rail system in the United States, operated by Metra, uses existing rail lines to provide direct commuter rail access for hundreds of suburbs to the city and beyond. Waterways In addition to the state's rail lines, the Mississippi River and Illinois River provide major transportation routes for the state's agricultural interests. Lake Michigan gives Illinois access to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Interstate highway system The Interstate Highways in Illinois are all segments of the Interstate Highway System that are owned and maintained by the state. Illinois has the distinction of having the most primary (two-digit) interstates pass through it among all the 50 states with 13. Illinois also ranks third among the fifty states with the most interstate mileage, coming in after California and Texas, which are much bigger states in area. Major U.S. Interstate highways crossing the state include: Interstate 24 (I-24), I-39, I-41, I-55, I-57, I-64, I-70, I-72, I-74, I-80, I-88, I-90, and I-94. U.S. highway system The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is responsible for maintaining the U.S Highways in Illinois. The system in Illinois consists of 21 primary highways. Among the U.S. highways that pass through the state, the primary ones are: US 6, US 12, US 14, US 20, US 24, US 30, US 34, US 36, US 40, US 41, US 45, US 50, US 51, US 52, US 54, US 60, US 62, and US 67. Intercity buses Due to its central location, Illinois sees numerous intercity bus services primarily connecting east and west. The Chicago Bus Station is the busiest intercity bus station in the state. The following carriers provide scheduled service: Amtrak Thruway, Barons Bus Lines, Burlington Trailways, Flixbus, Greyhound Lines, Indian Trails, Miller Transportation (Hoosier Ride), Peoria Charter Coach Company, Van Galder Bus Company, and Wisconsin Coach Lines. Local buses Gallery See also Index of Illinois-related articles List of people from Illinois Outline of Illinois USS Illinois, 4 ships Notes References Further reading External links Official website Illinois: State Resource Guide, from the Library of Congress Archived August 10, 2022, at the Wayback Machine Geographic data related to Illinois at OpenStreetMap Illinois Office of Tourism Archived July 13, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Illinois - State Energy Profile Overview Archived June 28, 2021, at the Wayback Machine U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) State Fact Sheets: Illinois Archived July 12, 2021, at the Wayback Machine USDA's Economic Research Service USGS Central Midwest Water Science Center Archived July 12, 2021, at the Wayback Machine

Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1985

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1985

This is a list of Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 singles of 1985. See also 1985 in music List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1985 List of Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles in 1985 == References ==

Wham!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wham!

Wham! (known in the US as Wham! UK) were an English pop duo formed in Bushey in 1981 consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They were one of the most successful pop acts during the 1980s, selling more than 30 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986. Associated with the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US, the singles "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Everything She Wants" and "Careless Whisper" all topped the US Billboard Hot 100. Influenced by funk and soul music and presenting themselves as disaffected youth, Wham!'s 1983 debut album Fantastic addressed the United Kingdom's unemployment problem and teen angst over adulthood. Their second studio album Make It Big in 1984 was a worldwide pop smash hit, charting at number one in both the UK and the United States. In 1985, Wham! made a highly publicised ten-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group. The event was seen as a major watershed moment in increasing friendly bilateral relations between China and the West. In 1986, Wham! disbanded. Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more sophisticated adult market rather than the duo's primarily teenage audience. Before going their separate ways, they released a farewell single, "The Edge of Heaven", and a greatest-hits album titled The Final, along with a farewell concert entitled the Final. History Michael and Ridgeley met at Bushey Meads School in Bushey near the town of Watford in Hertfordshire. The two at first performed in a short-lived ska band called the Executive, alongside former school friends David Mortimer (later known as David Austin), Andrew Leaver, Tony Bywaters, Jamie Gould and Paul Ridgeley. When this group split, Michael and Ridgeley eventually formed Wham!. Ridgeley explained that the name originated from a need for "something that captured the essence of what set us apart—our energy and our friendship—and then it came to us: Wham! Wham! was snappy, immediate, fun and boisterous too." British graphic design studio Stylorouge was credited with adding the exclamation mark to the name of the band. Ridgeley and Michael worked persistently to get a foot in the door with recording executives. Ridgeley would frequently run into Mark Dean from Innervision Records at the Three Crowns Public House in Bushey Heath Hertfordshire, and hand him the band's demo tape. In February 1982, Dean met with Michael and Ridgeley and offered them a recording deal. "I'm going to offer Wham! a deal with my new label Innervision," Dean said. "It's not a huge thing, I'm taking a punt. I'd like you to have a crack at recording a single or two and we'll see what happens from there." Initially the pair wrote songs such as "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" and "Club Tropicana" together, but part way through the recording of their debut album Fantastic, the pair agreed that Michael was the stronger songwriter, and would take creative control. Still teenagers, they promoted themselves as hedonistic youngsters, proud to live a carefree life without work or commitment. This was reflected in their earliest singles which, part-parody, part-social comment, briefly earned Wham! a reputation as a dance protest group. The debut record to be released by the band was "Wham Rap!" in June 1982. The song charted at only No. 105. In September 1982, "Young Guns (Go for It)" was issued. Initially, it also stalled outside the UK Top 40 but the band got lucky when the BBC programme Top of the Pops scheduled them after another act unexpectedly pulled out of the show. Increasing success Wham!'s first manager was Bryan Morrison. The effect of Wham! on the public was felt from the moment they finished their debut performance of "Young Guns (Go for It)" on Top of the Pops. Michael and Ridgley wore white espadrilles sockless, an open suede jacket and polo shirt, and rolled-up denim jeans. Ridgeley stood behind him, flanked by backing singers Dee C. Lee and Shirlie Holliman. Afterwards, the song shot into the Top 40 at No. 24 and peaked at No. 3 in December. The following year, Dee C. Lee began her work with Paul Weller in the Style Council, and was replaced by Helen 'Pepsi' DeMacque. Holliman and DeMacque would later record as Pepsi & Shirlie. Wham! followed up "Young Guns (Go for It)" with a reissue of "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)", "Bad Boys" and "Club Tropicana". By the end of 1983, Wham! were competing against pop rivals Culture Club and Duran Duran as one of Britain's biggest pop acts. Their debut album Fantastic spent two weeks at No. 1 in the UK album charts in 1983, but the album achieved only modest success in the US. Legal disputes with Innervision Soon after this, Ridgeley became conscious of legal problems with their initial contract at Innervision. While the legal battle raged, Innervision released a medley of non-single album tracks from Fantastic, entitled "Club Fantastic Megamix". Wham! publicly denounced the release. After all the legal wrangling, Innervision settled out of court. Switch to Epic and continued success Now signed to Epic Records, except in the US and a few other countries on Epic's sister label Columbia Records, Wham! returned in 1984 with a new album and an updated pop image. These changes helped to propel Wham!'s next single, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", into the top ten of several countries around the world. It became their first US and UK No. 1 single, accompanied by a video of the duo with Pepsi and Shirlie, all wearing Katharine Hamnett T-shirts with the slogans "CHOOSE LIFE" and "GO GO". The next single was "Careless Whisper", featuring only Michael in the music video. In certain markets, the single was promoted as "Wham! featuring George Michael", and in other markets, including the UK, it was credited to Michael as a solo act but, unlike any Wham! single except "Wham Rap!" and "Club Tropicana", it was also co-written with Ridgeley. The song, about a remorseful two-timer, had more emotional depth than previous releases. It reached No. 1, selling over 1.3 million copies in the UK. "Careless Whisper" marked a new phase in Michael's career, as his label Columbia/Epic began to somewhat distance him from the group Wham!'s playboy image. The next single was "Freedom" and was simply promoted as a Wham! single. Wham! used a video edited together from footage of their tour in China for "Freedom"'s single release in the US, which was in July 1985. Their second album, Make It Big, climbed to No. 1 on the album charts and the band set off on an arena tour at the end of 1984. The double A-side single "Last Christmas" / "Everything She Wants" became the highest-selling single ever to peak at No. 2 in the UK charts. It stayed at No. 2 for five weeks and, as of February 2020, was the 10th best-selling single of all time in the United Kingdom, selling over 1.9 million copies in the UK. Wham! donated all their royalties from the single to the Ethiopian famine appeal to coincide with the fund-raising intentions of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", the song which kept them out of the top spot. Nevertheless, Band Aid's success meant that Michael had achieved No. 1 status in the UK within three separate entities in 1984—as a solo artist, as one half of a duo, and as part of a charity ensemble. At the end of 1985, the US Billboard charts listed "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" as the No. 3 song and "Careless Whisper" as the No. 1 song of the year. China (1985) In March 1985, Wham! took a break from recording to embark on a lengthy world tour, including a ground-breaking 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group. The China excursion was a publicity scheme devised by Simon Napier-Bell (one of their two managers; Jazz Summers being the other). It began with a concert at the Peoples' Gymnasium in Beijing in front of 12,000 people. They also played a concert in front of 5,000 in Canton. The two concerts were played without compensation. Wham!'s visit to China attracted huge media attention across the world. Napier-Bell later admitted that he used cunning tactics to sabotage the efforts of rock band Queen to be the first to play in China: he made two brochures for the Chinese authorities; one featuring Wham! fans as pleasant middle-class youngsters and one portraying Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in typically flamboyant poses. The Chinese opted for Wham!. British director Lindsay Anderson was engaged to accompany Wham! to China and make a documentary film about the visit. Anderson called his one-hour and 18 minute film If You Were There. In the final stages of editing, Anderson was dismissed by Wham!'s management, the editing team quit, and the film was re-edited, renamed and released as Wham! in China: Foreign Skies. According to a 2006 interview with The Independent, Andy Stephens, manager for Michael, said that the film [Anderson's version] was simply not good enough to be shown in public: "It's a dreadful film ... It's 20 years old and it's rubbish. Why on earth should we allow it to be shown?", although after viewing it in 2008 critic and journalist John Harris described it as "a rich, poetic, panoramic portrait of China's strangeness to the eyes of outsiders". Live Aid (1985) Sporting a beard, Michael appeared with Ridgeley onstage at Live Aid on 13 July 1985 (although they did not perform as Wham!). Michael sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with Elton John, while Ridgeley joined Kiki Dee in the row of backing singers. In November, Wham! released the single "I'm Your Man" which went to No. 1 in the UK charts. Around this time, Ridgeley began a relationship with Keren Woodward of Bananarama, and also took up the hobby of rally driving. "Last Christmas" was re-issued for the festive season and again made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 6, while Michael took up offers he was starting to receive to add his voice to other artists' songs. He performed backing vocals for David Cassidy ("The Last Kiss"), and also for Elton John on his successful singles "Nikita" (UK No. 3) and "Wrap Her Up" (UK No. 12), on which he sang co-lead vocals. Break-up (1986) Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more sophisticated adult market rather than the duo's primarily teenage audience, and therefore, he and Ridgeley officially announced the break-up of Wham! in the spring of 1986. Before going their separate ways, a farewell single "The Edge of Heaven", and a greatest hits album titled The Final would be forthcoming, along with a farewell concert entitled the Final. Announcing the break-up, Michael said: "I think it should be the most amicable split in pop history." The farewell single reached No. 1 in June 1986. "Where Did Your Heart Go?" was the group's final single in the United States. The song, originally recorded by Was (Not Was), was a gloomy and sombre affair. The duo's last release was a double-LP collection of all the singles to date, including some extended versions. This was released in North America as the severely pared-down Music from the Edge of Heaven with alternate tracks. At London's Wembley Stadium on 28 June 1986, Wham! bid goodbye to their fans and each other with an emotional embrace at the end of its final concert. 72,000 people attended the eight-hour event, which included support artists, on a scorching hot day in London. The duo had been together for five years, selling over 28 million records and 15 million singles. Foreign Skies, the documentary of their tour of China, received its world premiere as part of the festivities. Post-Wham! and Michael's death In January 1991, Ridgeley joined Michael on stage for a few songs at the encore of his performance at the Rock in Rio event at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On 21 November 2009, there was a Wham!-themed night on television's The X Factor in the UK. Michael later appeared on the show's final episode, performing a duet of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with finalist and eventual winner Joe McElderry. In 2012, Michael said that there was no truth in speculation that he and Ridgeley were set for a Wham! reunion to mark the 30th anniversary of the group's first album. Michael died from heart and liver disease at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on Christmas Day 2016, at the age of 53. Upon hearing of Michael's death, Ridgeley paid his respects on Twitter, saying, "Heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend Yog." Michael was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in November 2023, with Ridgeley as the induction presenter. Discography Fantastic (1983) Make It Big (1984) Music from the Edge of Heaven (1986) Filmography Wham! in China: Foreign Skies (1986) Wham! (2023) Tours Club Fantastic Tour (1983) The Big Tour (1984–1985) Whamamerica! (1985) The Final (1986) References External links Official website Wham! at AllMusic Wham! discography at Discogs

I_Want_to_Know_What_Love_Is

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

"I Want to Know What Love Is" is a power ballad by the British-American rock band Foreigner. It was released in November 1984 as the love theme and lead single from their fifth album, Agent Provocateur. The song reached number one in both the United Kingdom and the United States and is the group's biggest hit to date. "I Want to Know What Love Is" remains one of Foreigner's best-known songs and most enduring radio hits, charting in the top 25 in 2000, 2001, and 2002 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Recurrents chart. The song has continued to garner critical acclaim, and is listed as one of Rolling Stone magazine's greatest songs of all time at number 476 in 2004 and at number 479 in 2010. Song information "I Want to Know What Love Is" was the first single released from Foreigner's album Agent Provocateur (1984). It is credited to Mick Jones, although former Foreigner frontman Lou Gramm asserts that he contributed to the song and should be credited to its creation, (somewhere between 5% according to Jones and 35% according to Gramm). It was produced by Jones and Alex Sadkin. The song features backing vocals from the New Jersey Mass Choir affiliated with the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Dreamgirls star Jennifer Holliday, and featured keyboard work by Thompson Twins frontman Tom Bailey. The choir also appears in the song's music video. According to Gramm, Jones was originally reluctant to let Gramm hear his initial rough version of the song. Gramm speculated that the song was emotional to Jones because it "represented things in his own life that he hadn't been able to resolve, and he wasn't too sure he wanted to have millions of people hear about it. Cash Box reviewed the single, calling it "a highly dramatic and ultimately very touching song which amply displays Foreigner's musical talents and versatility." Cash Box specifically praised the band's performances, especially that of lead singer Gramm, who they said "delivers a moving and personal quality which captures the essence of the lyrics. Billboard said that the "dramatic mood piece grows out of quiet introspection into a full-blown production number with choir." "I Want to Know What Love Is" reached number one on the UK Singles Chart on January 15, 1985, displacing Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", staying there for three weeks, and knocked Madonna's long-running "Like a Virgin" out of number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 2, 1985. It was Foreigner's first and only pop chart-topper in either country, although the band had four number one Mainstream Rock hits and a number one adult contemporary radio hit in the US. This was the band's third of four number one singles on the Mainstream Rock chart. The song spent five weeks at number one in Australia and also hit the top of the charts in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, while peaking at number two in Switzerland and South Africa. The song has received positive retrospective reviews from critics, with Bret Adams of AllMusic writing: "It's not hard to see why it became Foreigner's first number one single. Its dreamy, hypnotic feel is due in part to Lou Gramm's soulful lead vocals and the New Jersey Mass Choir's background vocals." The song was also issued as a 12-inch single with a longer running time of 6:23. This version contains a slightly longer intro and an extended vocal chorus/fadeout ending. The single's B-side, "Street Thunder (Marathon Theme)," is an instrumental track originally appearing on The Official Music of the XXIII Olympiad – Los Angeles 1984 and later on the band's 2-CD compilation Jukebox Heroes: The Foreigner Anthology (2000). Soon after Foreigner's single topped the charts, the New Jersey Mass Choir released its own similar-sounding version of the song on an album also titled I Want to Know What Love Is. The choir's single peaked at number 37 on the then-Hot Black Singles chart and number 12 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart. "I Want to Know What Love Is" was ranked as the number four Billboard Hot 100 single of 1985. It was the band's third platinum single in the US and their first and only gold single in the UK. It was certified double-platinum in the UK in 2023. Jones has rated it as one of his 11 favorite Foreigner songs. Originally consisting of three verses, a pre-chorus and a chorus, the song was extended with a bridge written by original songwriter Mick Jones specifically for Tina Arena's cover in 1998. Personnel Foreigner Lou Gramm – lead vocals Mick Jones – keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals Rick Wills – bass, backing vocals Dennis Elliott – drums Personnel Produced by Mick Jones and Alex Sadkin Mixed by Frank Filipetti Guest Musicians Tom Bailey – synthesizers Don Harper – backing vocals Jennifer Holliday – backing vocals and arrangements New Jersey Mass Choir of the GMWA – backing vocals Charts Certifications Tina Arena version "I Want to Know What Love Is" was covered by Australian singer Tina Arena and her recording was released as a single in 1998 from her album In Deep. Arena's version of the song was produced by Foreigner band member Mick Jones, who wrote the song. This version of the song includes a previously unrecorded bridge between the second and third choruses, specifically written for Tina Arena by Mick Jones. Track listings European Maxi Single "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Single Edit) "I Want to Know What Love Is" (R & B Mix) "I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You" (G-Vo Extended Mix) "Not For Sale" Australian CD1 Maxi Single "I Want To Know What Love Is" (Single Edit) "Now I Can Dance" (Spanglish Version) "Now I Can Dance" (Live) "If I Didn't Love You" (Remix) Australian CD2 Maxi Single – The Remixes "I Want to Know What Love Is" (R'n'B Mix) "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Urban Mix) "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Extended Urban Mix) "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Single Edit) Charts Certifications Wynonna Judd version "I Want to Know What Love Is" was covered by American country singer Wynonna Judd and her recording was released on August 24, 2004, from her album What the World Needs Now Is Love as fourth single. Wynonna's version of the song was produced by Narada Michael Walden, known for his work with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin and George Michael, and Wynonna. This version of the song was included in a popular Brazilian soap opera, Senhora do Destino. Personnel Track listings Digital download "I Want to Know What Love Is" – 5:41 Remixes "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Piper Remix) – 4:05 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Piper Club Mix) – 7:42 Charts In the US, the song peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. On the Hot Dance Club Songs of Billboard, it debuted at number 50 and peaked at number 12. It is also her first single to chart in Sweden, where it debuted at number 67 and peaked at number 15. Release history Mariah Carey version "I Want to Know What Love Is" was covered by American singer Mariah Carey and released as the second single on September 22, 2009, from her twelfth studio album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009). The single, produced by Carey, C. "Tricky" Stewart and James "Big Jim" Wright, was sent to European radio stations on August 28 and first impacted US radio on September 14, 2009. Mick Jones said of her version: "I think she's actually retained the integrity of the song. You know, the arrangement is very similar to the original. They haven't tampered with the song too much. She's captured a certain emotional thing, a feeling." The remixes of her rendition were released on October 20, 2009. Critical reception The single was generally well received by critics; Australian magazine Rhyme & Reason stated that "[While Carey stayed] [...] true to the original, this piano-led remake is less an overhaul of the classic '80s hit than it is a modest but impressive update." Bill Lamb from About.com said that "Mariah Carey's new version could leave you speechless. The diversity of vocal coloring expressed in this recording is stunning. While the single 'Obsessed' remains disappointing, this single is a reminder of just how formidable Carey's talents are given a strong production and arrangement". Writing in a Los Angeles Times music blog, Todd Martens said, "[T]ackling a well-known power ballad seems like a safe choice. It's a comfortable fall-back plan after "Obsessed" performed well, but did far from blockbuster numbers. It will undoubtedly be a hit, but it's giving me more reason to fear Imperfect Angel." Performances and promotion Carey debuted "I Want to Know What Love Is" at her Live at the Pearl concerts in the Pearl Arena at The Palms Casino & Resort, Las Vegas, on September 11 and 12, 2009. Carey performed the song live on The Oprah Winfrey Show on September 18. A New York radio station contest featured as its prize a mini concert by Carey at the P.C. Richard Theater in TriBeCa, New York on October 5, where she sang the song as well as "Obsessed" and "H.A.T.E.U.", also from the album. Carey performed the single on X Factor Italia in Italy on November 11, 2009. Carey performed the single on The X Factor in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2009. Carey performed the song on the Angels Advocate Tour, solely in Brazil, due to her version's massive success there. Again in Brazil, Carey performed the song as an encore in both concerts she did in the country in 2024, in São Paulo, on September 20,2024, and Rock in Rio, on September 22,2024. Music video Carey filmed a music video for "I Want to Know What Love Is" in September 2009 in New York City, directed by Hype Williams. The video premiered on Mariah's official website on November 13, 2009. The video features Carey singing in Yankee Stadium, intercut with shots of the audience, often accompanied by loved ones, and some glimpses into the tough times in their past, as they grow emotional from the song's performance. A gospel choir joins Carey at the center of the stadium at the video's end. Carey wears the signature curly hairstyle from the initial stages of her career circa 1990–1993, maintaining the Memoirs theme of the album. Formats and track listings Digital download "I Want to Know What Love Is" (album version) – 3:27 UK bundle "I Want to Know What Love Is" (album version) – 3:27 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Moto Blanco Club Edit) – 3:25 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Chew Fu Radio Fix) – 3:51 European CD single "I Want to Know What Love Is" – 3:37 "Obsessed" (Cahill Club Mix) – 6:23 Digital maxi-single "I Want to Know What Love Is" (album version) – 3:27 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Moto Blanco Club Edit) – 3:25 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Chriss Ortega Club Edit) – 3:36 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Cutmore's Club Shakedown) – 6:44 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Donni Hotwheel Tempo Mix) – 3:05 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Low Sunday Tempo Mix) – 3:14 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Chew Fu Radio Fix) – 3:51 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Nu Addiction Club Edit) – 3:29 I Want to Know What Love Is (The Remixes) "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Donni Hotwheel Tempo Mix) – 3:06 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Low Sunday Tempo Mix) – 3:16 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Moto Blanco Club Edit) – 3:25 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Cutmore's Radio Shakedown) – 3:13 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Chew Fu Radio Fix) – 3:52 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Chriss Ortega Club Edit) – 3:36 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Nu Addiction Club Edit) – 3:30 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Moto Blanco Club Mix) – 6:53 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Cutmore's Club Shakedown) – 6:45 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Chew Fu Club Fix) – 6:03 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Chriss Ortega Club Mix) – 6:05 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Nu Addiction Club Mix) – 6:54 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Moto Blanco Dub) – 6:23 "I Want to Know What Love Is" (Nu Addiction Dub) – 8:43 Credits and personnel Adapted from CD liner notes. Recording locations Recorded at The Boom Boom Room (Burbank, California), The Setai (Miami, Florida) and Honeywest Studios (New York City). Additional background vocals and mixing at Soapbox Studios (Atlanta). Personnel Chart performance The song peaked on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart at number 10 bringing Carey's total number of Top Ten hits on that chart to 20, one short of Celine Dion's record. She has since surpassed this and is now tied with Celine Dion after her single "Oh Santa!" reached number one in 2010. However, it only peaked at #60 on the US Hot 100. On the UK Singles Chart, the song debuted at number 19 on the week ending November 29, 2009, becoming her highest debuting and peaking song since 2008's "Touch My Body", which peaked at number five. "I Want to Know What Love Is" was also a successful hit on the Dance Club Songs chart, peaked at #2 on the week of December 19, 2009. The song debuted at number six in France, selling 1,910 CDs in its first week. "I Want To Know What Love Is" particularly found massive success in Brazil. Boosted by its inclusion in the international soundtrack for the popular telenovela Viver a Vida, the song stayed at number one for 27 consecutive weeks on the airplay chart, becoming the longest running number one song ever in the country. The song has since been certified Diamond in Brazil and has been performed by Carey in her concerts in the country, always as an encore. Charts Certifications and sales Release history See also List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1985 == References ==

Out_of_Touch

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

"Out of Touch" is a song by American duo Daryl Hall & John Oates from their twelfth studio album Big Bam Boom (1984). The song was released as the lead single from Big Bam Boom on Thursday, October 4, 1984, by RCA Records. This song was their last Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, topping the chart for two weeks in December 1984. It also became the duo's fourteenth consecutive top 40 hit since 1980. The song often segued from "Dance on Your Knees", which is the opening song of the Big Bam Boom album. The accompanying music video for "Out of Touch", featuring a gigantic drum kit, also contains the "Dance on Your Knees" intro, which segues into an edit of the 12-inch remix version. According to John Oates, he came up with the chorus while randomly playing around with a synthesizer that he did not know how to use. He thought it could be a song for the Stylistics, having a Philly sound. But in the studio the next day a co-producer told him it should be a hit for Hall & Oates themselves. Oates and Hall then co-wrote the verse. Track listing and formats US 7-inch vinyl single "Out of Touch" — 3:55 "Cold, Dark and Yesterday" — 4:35 US 12-inch vinyl single "Out of Touch" (Club Version) — 7:36 "Out of Touch" (Dub Version) — 7:24 "Cold, Dark and Yesterday" — 4:35 UK 12-inch vinyl single "Out of Touch" (Video Mix) "Dance on Your Knees" (Extended Mix) "Everytime You Go Away" (Remix Version) Credits Daryl Hall – lead vocals and backing vocals, rhythm guitar John Oates – synthesizers and backing vocals G. E. Smith – lead guitar and backing vocals Tom Wolk – bass and backing vocals Wells Christy – synthesizer Clive Smith – sampler Jimmy Bralower – drum machine Charts Certifications Music video A video was made for the song, including scenes in which Hall and Oates were inside a gigantic drum set, which Oates bangs an equally gigantic bass drum pedal into, and from which at the end of the video, both Hall and Oates escape. The video also features the word boom in gigantic letters, with Hall and Oates dancing inside the two big O letters. Uniting Nations version English dance music act Uniting Nations covered "Out of Touch" and released it as their debut single on November 15, 2004. This version peaked at number seven on the UK Singles Chart in January 2005 and remained in the top 75 for 21 weeks. Elsewhere, the cover reached number one in Romania—where it was the most successful single of 2005—and became a top-10 hit in Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway. The vocals on the recording were done by vocalist and session artist Jinian Wilde. Music video The music video for the song features actors Paul Spicer, Charleene Rena, Hayley-Marie Coppin, Sophie Lovell Anderson, Daniela Martins, a participant of French Big Brother Secret Story, and one unidentified woman playing strip poker. The women realise Spicer is cheating by wearing an in-ear monitor which leads to a CCTV room with cameras watching the girls and their cards. The video continues with the women getting their own back, and Spicer losing his trousers during the poker game. The video ends with Spicer running out the room with his hair ruffled in his briefs, looking embarrassed, while the girls pop champagne corks and continue partying. Track listings UK CD single "Out of Touch" (radio mix) – 2:46 "Out of Touch" (extended mix) – 6:16 "Out of Touch" (Skylab Remix) – 7:03 "Out of Touch" (Tyrrell Remix) – 6:50 "Out of Touch" (The Vanden Plas Remix) – 7:20 "Out of Touch" (Paul Roberts Remix) – 6:55 "Out of Touch" (video) UK 12-inch single A1. "Out of Touch" (extended mix) – 6:16 A2. "Out of Touch" (Hardfaze Remix) – 7:55 B1. "Out of Touch" (Skylab Remix) – 7:03 B2. "Out of Touch" (Tyrell Remix) – 6:50 Australian and New Zealand CD single "Out of Touch" (Love You So Much radio mix) – 3:31 "Out of Touch" (extended mix) – 6:16 "Out of Touch" (radio edit with Vox filter intro) – 2:46 "Out of Touch" (Skylab Remix) – 7:03 "Out of Touch" (Outsiderz Remix) – 7:05 "Out of Touch" (Paul Roberts Remix) – 6:55 Charts Certifications Release history See also Hall & Oates discography List of Romanian Top 100 number ones of the 2000s List of Billboard Hot 100 singles of 1984 List of number-one dance singles of 1984 (U.S.) References External links Video on VH1 Classic (Listed as "No longer available" prior to 3/10)

Everybody_Wants_to_Rule_the_World

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

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a song by English pop rock band Tears for Fears from their second studio album Songs from the Big Chair (1985). It was written by Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley, and Chris Hughes and produced by Hughes. It was released on 22 March 1985 by Phonogram, Mercury, and Vertigo Records as the third single from the album. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a new wave and synth-pop song with lyrics that detail the desire humans have for control and power and centre on themes of corruption. An international success, the song peaked at number two in Ireland, Australia, and the United Kingdom and at number one in Canada, New Zealand, and on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Cashbox. It was certified gold by both Music Canada (MC) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Retrospectively, music critics have praised "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", with some ranking the song among the decade's best. Along with "Shout" (1984), it is one of the band's signature songs. A music video received promotion from MTV. The year of the song's release, it was featured in the ending to the science fiction comedy film Real Genius. In 1986, the song won Best Single at the Brit Awards, and was re-recorded by the band as a charity single for the Sport Aid campaign the same year. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" has been covered extensively since its release, most notably by New Zealand singer Lorde for the soundtrack to the film adaptation of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Background and release "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was written by Roland Orzabal, Ian Stanley and Chris Hughes, and produced by Hughes. The song was a "last-minute" addition during recording sessions of Songs from the Big Chair (1985). The decision to include the song in the album came after Orzabal played two chords on his acoustic guitar for Hughes. It was recorded in two weeks and added as the final track on the album. According to Orzabal, the final line in the song's chorus, originally written as "Everybody wants to go to war", contributed to his indifference towards the track. In an interview with Mix magazine, Hughes said that "as a piece of recording history, [the song is] bland as hell". Orzabal's unimpressed reaction to the track during their songwriting sessions prompted Hughes to convince him to record it, in a calculated effort to garner American chart success. After completing their sessions at 6 p.m., they would spend an hour reviewing each recording many times; this helped Orzabal to create the song's guitar figure and change its title. Orzabal acknowledged that the shuffle beat used in the song was "alien" to their way of writing music, stating it was "jolly rather than square and rigid in the manner of "Shout", but it continued the process of becoming more extrovert." Curt Smith, the song's lead singer, said the themes were "quite serious – it's about everybody wanting power, about warfare and the misery it causes." "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was first released on 22 March 1985 through Phonogram, Mercury and Vertigo Records as the third single from Songs from the Big Chair. The song was released for sale (as a 7-inch, 10-inch and 12-inch vinyl set) which included its B-side, interviews from the band and different versions of the song. To accommodate the vinyl release, a CD video set was also distributed and included the song's music video along with audios of bonus tracks. Composition and lyrical interpretation "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is a new wave and synth-pop song. The song is set in the key of D major with a 128 time signature and a tempo of 112 beats per minute. The band stated that the driving shuffle rhythm was influenced by Simple Minds' 1983 song "Waterfront", and Linx's 1981 song "Throw Away the Key". "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" incorporates synthesizers, guitar, a shuffle groove, two guitar solos, and keyboards. According to Joe Strummer (of The Clash) in a 1988 interview, he was in a restaurant and saw Orzabal, whereupon he told him that "you owe me a fiver", explaining that the title of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was an exact lift of the first line of the middle eight in "Charlie Don't Surf". According to Strummer, Orzabal simply reached into his pocket and gave him a five pound note, confirming that this had been the case. The song's lyrics detail the desire humans have for control and power. In 2017, Tal Rosenberg of Pitchfork stated that its lyrics could be applied in different scenarios such as the environment ("Turn your back on mother nature"), short-lived financial success ("Help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure/Nothing ever lasts forever"), dictatorial rule ("Even while we sleep/We will find you"), and the Cold War ("Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down"). The song's lyrics have elicited different political interpretations. A writer for The Economist called the track "a Cold War anthem" and noted its "timeless message", stating that "the song's lyrics speak to the anxieties of every age". Marc Ambinder from The Atlantic used the lyrics "Say that you'll never, never, never need it / One headline, why believe it? / Everybody wants to rule the world" in his article about the United States government's use of "original classified authority" and the abuse of power between the branches of government. Dominic Pino of National Review described the track as a "conservative pop song", noting the lyrics' tension between "personal ambition" and "channeling that personal ambition to good ends", comparing these themes to James Madison's concerns about private interest in the Federalist Papers. Curt Smith challenged this interpretation. Tears for Fears revisited the song and its message in a 2017 interview with Yahoo! Music, stating that the song's themes were still "just as poignant" as they were when they first wrote it. They mentioned that they discussed the Cold War with "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and Songs from the Big Chair but that was the "U.S. and Russia then, and now the concern is more with the U.S. and [North] Korea." Reception Consequence of Sound editor Michael Roffman praised the group for being able to produce a "timeless and influential composition" with minimal effort. Roffman also noted that "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was appropriate when it was first released, calling it a "meditative commentary on an era that was so corrupt economically and spiritually." AllMusic's Stanton Swihart expressed in his retrospective review that the group "perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the mid-'80s while impossibly managing to also create a dreamy, timeless pop classic." Pitchfork called it a song with "near-universal appeal", as well as a staple for "classic-rock radio, pharmacies, bars, and parties". In their review for the best albums of the 1980s, Eric Henderson from Slant Magazine stated that the song "seems like one of the great indictments of the materialism and false triumphalism of the decade." "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was voted the 25th best single in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll for 1985 with 17 points, sharing the spot with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985) and Sade's "Smooth Operator" (1984). Pitchfork placed the song at number 82 on their list for the best songs of the 80s expressing that "underneath the synth-pop sheen, its vague message" and its lesson in how power-driven society could be, the song was able to reach "Reagan and Margaret-era youth fed up with political greed". Kevin Korber from Spectrum Culture ranked the song at 24 on his 80s decade list, calling the song a "testament to how much of a free-for-all the pop landscape was in the 1980s". Korber dismissed the song's vague lyrics but praised its complex melodic structure, saying it was "both the perfect representation of its time and a timeless composition". Treble included the song at number 49 on their decade list. In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 319 in their updated list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 1986, the song won "Best Single" at the Brit Awards. Band member and co-writer Roland Orzabal argued that the song deserved to win the Ivor Novello International Hit of the Year award, claiming that the winner—"19" by Paul Hardcastle—was not an actual song, but only a "dialogue collage". In 2015, 30 years after its release, the song was honoured at the annual BMI Awards in London for achieving 6 million radio airplays. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is regarded as the group's signature song, along with "Shout" (1984). "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was banned for broadcast by the BBC for the duration of the first Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991) due to the song's political themes. The song was used as the title theme for Dennis Miller during the first several seasons of his HBO talk show, Dennis Miller Live. It was later replaced due to costs associated with licensing the song. The song was also featured in the 2008 video game Saints Row 2. Commercial performance In the United Kingdom, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" debuted at number 16 on the UK Singles Chart, in the issue dated 24 March 1985. On the week of 14 April 1985, the song peaked at number two, where it stayed for an additional week, both times being blocked from the top spot by "We Are the World" by USA for Africa. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" received a gold certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 13 April 2018 for 500,000 sales and re-entered the UK Singles Chart in 2022 and 2023. In addition, as of May 2023, is the 12th most streamed song from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s by British artists in the United Kingdom. The song peaked at number three in Belgium, and at number two in both the Netherlands and Ireland. In the United States, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" debuted at number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the issue dated 16 March 1985. On the week of 27 April 1985, the song rose to number 18. On the week of 8 June 1985, the song moved 2–1, replacing Wham!'s "Everything She Wants" (1984) as the number one on the chart; it would spend a total of two weeks in this position. The song was a commercial success in other American markets, peaking at number two on the Adult Contemporary and Top Rock Tracks and charting at number one on the Hot Dance Club Play, Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales, and Cash Box charts. It ranks as the 345th best-charting single of all time in the United States. In Canada, the song reached the number one spot, earning a gold certification from Music Canada (MC) for 40,000 sales shipments on 1 May 1985. In Australia, the song reached the number two position. On the report dated 19 May 1985, the song debuted at number four on the New Zealand Top 40 Singles chart; it would later peak at number one. It was certified Gold by the Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ) for sales of 10,000. B-side: "Pharaohs" "Pharaohs" is the B-side to the "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" single. It samples a recording of BBC Radio 4 announcer Brian Perkins reading the Shipping Forecast for the North Sea region of the United Kingdom. The title of the song has an identical enunciation to the Faroe Islands ("Faroes"), one of the places referenced in the forecast. Orzabal, Ian Stanley, Curt Smith and Hughes share writing credits. "Pharaohs" is included on the Groove Armada compilation album Back to Mine (2000). Chris Hughes wrote about the song in the liner notes of Saturnine Martial & Lunatic (1996), saying: No matter how horrifying the conditions may really be, the voice reading the shipping forecast is deliberately calm and relaxed. Recorded at the Wool Hall for the B-side of 'Everybody' in a calm and relaxed way. "Pharaohs" shipping forecast read by Brian Perkins: Music video The video for "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was directed by Nigel Dick. It was filmed in Los Angeles, Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, and Cabazon, California. Curt Smith admitted to Pitchfork that the video shoot was a "disaster"; Dick was "in tears" on the second night of shooting. Smith also mentioned that there was an accident while filming the "dirt bikes and four-wheel [sic] off-road vehicles" scene, with one child flying out of a vehicle and smashing his head, leaving him unconscious. The video begins with Smith driving a vintage Austin-Healey 3000 sports car while a toddler points toy guns in Smith's direction. The car is then seen driving through a desert, on Interstate 10, this scene is intercut with the band performing the song in a studio. Smith parks the car at the Wheel Inn diner and makes a call from a telephone booth. The camera pans to show a statue of a prospector and his donkey in the foreground. Smith leaves the diner in the car while singing the song's lyrics. The following scene shows two men in suits performing synchronised dance movements in front of two gas pumps. Shots of young people riding three-wheeled ATVs and dirt bikes through desert sand dunes are also shown. Smith is then shown singing in the desert wearing black sunglasses as many of the dirt bike and ATV riders approach from behind him and pass to either side. The music video promoted the group in America, due to "heavy rotation" on the music video channel MTV. HuffPost editor Daryl Deino ranked the video at number three on their year-end list for best music videos of 1985 stating that the video "represents pure Americana as it was in 1985". Deino also mentioned that the video "proves that at times, artists were able to do so much with so little." Formats and track listings Credits and personnel Credits adapted from the original album liner notes, the liner notes of Saturnine Martial & Lunatic, Reverb Machine, and Mix. Tears for Fears Roland Orzabal – electric and acoustic guitars, guitar solo (first), Yamaha DX7 and Prophet T-8 synthesizers, backing vocals Curt Smith – PPG Wave synth-bass, lead vocals Ian Stanley – Yamaha DX7 and Fairlight CMI synthesizers, LinnDrum and Oberheim DMX programming Manny Elias – drums, Oberheim DMX programming Additional personnel Neil Taylor – electric and acoustic guitars, guitar solo (second) Chris Hughes – producer, Oberheim DMX and MIDI programming Dave Bascombe – engineer Charts Certifications Covers and re-releases Everybody Wants to Run the World "Everybody Wants to Run the World" is a re-recording of the band's song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". The reworked single was released in May 1986 as the theme song for the Sport Aid campaign, a charitable event held to raise money for famine relief in Africa. It was a success in the UK Singles Chart, becoming the band's sixth top 5 hit, peaking at number 5 in June 1986. The song also reached number 4 in Ireland. Lorde version New Zealand singer Lorde recorded a cover of the song for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013). The cover was produced by Peter Shurkin and Joel Little with arrangement by Michael A. Levine and Lucas Cantor. Orzabal praised Lorde for reinventing the cover, stating that the group finds it interesting when artists take what they do and reinterpret it. For their Rule the World Tour, the duo uses this version to launch their show. Critics were positively receptive to the cover, some praised it for its darker atmosphere mood although others criticized it for stripping away the song's original upbeat composition. David Haglund from Slate stated that while the song "doesn't top the great original, it does memorably reinvent it". Sam Lansky from Idolator called the cover "haunting and melodramatic". Conversely, Stereogum editor Nate Patrin criticized the chorus and production but praised the "aloof strangeness" in Lorde's vocals for being able to carry the song "past the usual Dramatic Reenvisionings". Paste and Exclaim! included the cover in their respective 2013 year-end lists for covers, while the former ranked it 13th on their decade-end list for covers. Her cover appeared on the New Zealand Singles Chart at number 14. It reached number 53 in Australia, number 65 in the United Kingdom, number 93 in France, and number 27 on the U.S. Hot Rock Songs chart. Other versions Ted Leo and the Pharmacists covered the song in 2010 for the inaugural episode of The A.V. Club's A.V. Undercover web series. Relient K recorded a version of the song for their 2011 cover album Is for Karaoke. Weezer covered the song on their 2019 self-titled cover album. They were joined by Orzabal and Smith to perform the song live at Coachella 2019 on April 14, and again two days later on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The song was interpolated by Miley Cyrus for a remix of "Black Skinhead" by Kanye West which leaked online in January 2016. The song appears at the end of Despicable Me 4, when Gru and Maxime Le Mal are in prison putting on a talent show for all of the prisoners. The cover version, performed by the film's cast, also appears on the movie's soundtrack. See also List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1985 List of Cash Box Top 100 number-one singles of 1985 List of number-one dance singles of 1985 (U.S.) List of number-one singles of 1985 (Canada) List of number-one singles from the 1980s (New Zealand) == References ==

West_Midlands_(county)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midlands_(county)

West Midlands is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the larger West Midlands region of England. A landlocked county, it is bordered by Staffordshire to the north and west, Worcestershire to the south, and is surrounded by Warwickshire to the east. The largest settlement is the city of Birmingham. The county is almost entirely urban, with an area of 902 km2 (348 sq mi) and a population of 2,919,600, making it the second most populous county in England after Greater London. After Birmingham (1,144,919) the largest settlements are the cities of Coventry (345,324) and Wolverhampton (263,700), Solihull (126,577), and Sutton Coldfield (109,899). Nearly all of the county's settlements belong to the West Midlands and Coventry built-up areas, though the 'Meriden Gap' between them is rural. For local government purposes West Midlands comprises seven metropolitan boroughs: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, and Wolverhampton. They collaborate through the West Midlands Combined Authority. The county was historically part of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. The west of the county encloses the valley of the River Tame and its tributaries; the highest point of the surrounding area is Turners Hill, at 271 metres (889 ft). West Midlands contains the Sutton Park Site of Special Scientific Interest, which has an area of 970 hectares (2,400 acres) and is one of the largest urban parks in Europe. The area between Solihull and Coventry is part of the Forest of Arden, and the rivers Sowe and Sherbourne flow through Coventry. Status The metropolitan county exists in law, as a geographical frame of reference, and as a ceremonial county. As such it has a Lord Lieutenant and a High Sheriff. Between 1974 and 1986, the West Midlands County Council was the administrative body covering the county; this was abolished on 31 March 1986, and the constituent metropolitan boroughs effectively became unitary authorities. A new administrative body for the county (and some of the district surrounding it as Non-Constituent members), the West Midlands Combined Authority, was created in June 2016. Since May 2017, the authority has been headed by a directly elected Mayor of the West Midlands, a position currently held by Richard Parker of the Labour Co-op. Other county-wide bodies include the West Midlands Police, the West Midlands Fire Service and Transport for West Midlands. The county is sometimes described as the "West Midlands metropolitan area" or the "West Midlands conurbation" or "Greater Birmingham", although these have different, less clearly defined, boundaries. The main conurbation or urban area does not include Coventry, for example. The name "West Midlands" is also used for the much larger West Midlands region, which sometimes causes confusion. Geographically the county is on the eastern side of the region, the western side comprising Shropshire and Herefordshire and the southern side comprising Worcestershire and Warwickshire. History Although the modern county has only existed since 1974, the settlements of the West Midlands have long been important centres of commerce and industry as well as developing a good local infrastructure. Coventry was one of England's most important cities during the Middle Ages, with its prosperity built upon wool and cloth manufacture. Birmingham and Wolverhampton have a tradition of industry dating back to the 16th century, when small metal-working industries developed. Birmingham was known for its manufacture of small arms, whereas Wolverhampton became a centre of lock manufacture and brass working. The coal and iron ore deposits of the Black Country area provided a ready source of raw materials. The area grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution, and by the 20th century had grown into one large conurbation. Coventry was slower to develop, but by the early 20th century it had become an important centre of bicycle and car manufacture. 1966 saw a substantial reform in the local government of the area as the patchwork of county boroughs with municipal boroughs and urban district councils in between was replaced by a core of county boroughs covering a contiguous area, roughly as follows: Birmingham, which remained substantially unaltered Dudley, which absorbed all Brierley Hill, most of Coseley and Sedgley, and part of Amblecote, Tipton and Rowley Regis Solihull, which remained substantially unaltered Walsall, which absorbed all Darlaston, most of Willenhall, and parts of Wednesbury, Coseley, Wednesfield and Bilston Warley, which was created by amalgamating most of Smethwick, Oldbury and Rowley Regis, and parts of Dudley, Tipton, West Bromwich and Halesowen West Bromwich, which absorbed most of Wednesbury and Tipton, and parts of Bilston, Oldbury, Smethwick and Walsall Wolverhampton, which absorbed most of Bilston, Wednesfield and Tettenhall, and parts of Sedgley, Coseley and Willenhall Near the area, three other towns remained separate (Halesowen, Stourbridge and Sutton Coldfield), while Aldridge and Brownhills joined to form a single unit, called Aldridge-Brownhills. In the same year, a single West Midlands Constabulary was formed for the Black Country county boroughs, whilst Birmingham retained its Birmingham City Police and Solihull continued being policed by the Warwickshire Constabulary. The West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority was established in 1968. County creation In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 came into effect, creating the metropolitan county of West Midlands. This area was based on the seven county boroughs and the other non-county boroughs and urban districts around the fringe of the conurbation. The new area consisted of seven new metropolitan boroughs, with Aldridge-Brownhills added to Walsall; Halesowen and Stourbridge to Dudley and Sutton Coldfield to Birmingham. A new borough of Sandwell was formed by the merger of West Bromwich and Warley. The actual designation of Warley itself was abolished and the three towns of Smethwick, Oldbury and Rowley Regis reinstated as component parts of Sandwell, although these areas formed the Warley postal district. Solihull took in much of the suburban fringe to the east of Birmingham, including the former villages of Chelmsley Wood and Castle Bromwich, also Birmingham Airport, and the area of countryside between Solihull and Coventry, whilst Coventry itself received only small changes and Wolverhampton was unaltered. This led to (apart from in the east, with Coventry and the Meriden Gap) quite a tightly defined metropolitan border, excluding such places as Burntwood, Bromsgrove, Cannock, Kidderminster, Lichfield and Wombourne which had been considered for inclusion in the West Midlands metropolitan area by the Redcliffe-Maud Report. The 1974 reform created the West Midlands County Council that covered the entire area and dealt with strategic issues. A new West Midlands Police service was formed covering the entire area, with the West Midlands Constabulary and Birmingham City Police abolished, and also taking over responsibility from the county forces. West Midlands was also established as a new ceremonial county, with the offices of Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff created. Its constituent components had previously been, for ceremonial purposes, under the equivalent offices of Warwickshire (Birmingham CB, Coventry CB, Solihull CB, Sutton Coldfield MB and Meriden RD), Staffordshire (Wolverhampton CB, Walsall CB, West Bromwich CB, Dudley CB and Aldridge-Brownhills UD) and Worcestershire (Warley CB, Stourbridge MB and Halesowen MB). West Midlands County Council Between 1974 and 1986, the county had a two-tier system of local government, and the seven districts shared power with the West Midlands County Council. However, the Local Government Act 1985 abolished the metropolitan county councils, and the West Midlands County Council ceased to exist in 1986. Most of its functions were devolved to the West Midland boroughs, which effectively became unitary authorities, with responsibility for most local authority functions. Following the abolition of the county council, some county-wide bodies continued to exist, which were administered by various joint-boards of the seven districts, among these were the West Midlands Police, the West Midlands Fire Service and the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive. Boundary changes In 1994, the western/southern shores of Chasewater, plus the adjacent Jeffreys Swag, were transferred from the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall to the District of Lichfield, Staffordshire. Further boundary changes came into effect in 1995, when part of the Hereford and Worcester parish of Frankley (including the south-west part of Bartley Reservoir) was transferred to Birmingham and became part of the county. West Midlands Combined Authority On 17 June 2016, a new administrative body, the West Midlands Combined Authority was created for the county, under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, which created several other combined authorities in England. The new body has powers over transport, economic development, skills and planning. A new directly elected position of Mayor of the West Midlands was created in 2017 to chair the new body. The first Mayoral election was held in May 2017, and the position was won by Andy Street of the Conservative Party. Geography The West Midlands is a landlocked county that borders the counties of Warwickshire to the east, Worcestershire to the south, and Staffordshire to the north and west. The West Midlands County is one of the most heavily urbanised counties in the UK. Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Black Country and Solihull together form the third most populous conurbation in the United Kingdom with a combined population of around 2.44 million. However, the West Midlands is not entirely urban; Coventry is separated from the West Midlands conurbation by a stretch of green belt land approximately 13 miles (21 km) across, known as the "Meriden Gap", which retains a strongly rural character. A smaller piece of green belt between Birmingham, Walsall and West Bromwich includes Barr Beacon and the Sandwell Valley. The highest point in the West Midlands is Turners Hill, with a height of 271 m (889 ft). The hill is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Barr Beacon is another hill in the West Midlands, located on the border of Birmingham and Walsall, with a height of 227 metres (745 ft). There are 23 Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the county. One of these SSSIs is Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield, which has an area of 970 hectares (2,400 acres). As a result, it is one of the largest urban parks in Europe, and the largest outside of a capital city in Europe. The park also has national nature reserve status. There are numerous rivers that pass through the county, including the River Tame. The river basin is the most urbanised basin in the United Kingdom, with approximately 42% of the basin being urbanised. The River Tame is fed by the River Rea, River Anker, and the River Blythe, which in turn is fed by the River Cole. The River Sowe and River Sherbourne both flow through Coventry. The River Stour flows through the west of the West Midlands county. Like other metropolitan counties, the West Midlands is divided into districts called metropolitan boroughs. There are seven boroughs in the West Midlands, six of which are named after the largest settlement in their administrative area. The West Midlands is unusual amongst the metropolitan counties in that three of its boroughs have city status; Coventry is a city by ancient prescriptive usage, Birmingham was granted city status in 1889, and Wolverhampton in 2000 as a "Millennium City". Demography Economy In Central Birmingham The Insolvency Service's Intelligence and Enforcement Directorate. Stamp Duty Land Tax and stamp duty on shares National Debtline The Solicitors Regulation Authority H. Samuel, jewellers. J Hudson & Co the world's largest producer of whistles make Acme Whistles. Mobico Group and CrossCountry in transport. Car manufacturers Land Rover main factory Jaguar Cars, Peugeot UK and Citroen UK & Ireland have a large manufacturing plant at Castle Bromwich Assembly making the XJ, XF and XK. Nearest Birmingham Cadbury's main plant and Cadbury World remains in Bournville, Birmingham; since 2012. B Mason & Sons produce rolled copper and cupronickel alloy precision strips; applications include submarine communication cables. Kiepe Electric UK (former Vossloh-Kiepe) Goodyear Tyres Dunlop Aircraft Tyres manufacture and retread Claire's (accessories) European head office is at Erdington. Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents in training, surveying and policy advice. Outskirts of County HiQ, tyre merchants. UK Mail Genting Group UK casinos Dana Traction Technologies make axles (including that of the Ford Transit and Range Rover). TIMET UK. Goodrich Engine Controls make engine control systems for jet engines Pilkington Automotive make Triplex Safety Glass Alcoa plant Small-scale production of MG by Nanjing Automobile Group on part of the former MG Rover Group site Schaeffler Group UK (inc. INA) make timing belts and wheel bearings) for wind turbines, passenger cars and aircraft The Works (retailer) distribution centre, books, puzzles, toys and games The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (former Defence Estates) Eaton Electric make residual-current devices National Highways National Traffic Control Centre Ishida Europe makes industrial multihead weighers and food processing equipment Aisin Europe Manufacturing Keiper UK automotive seating Near other main towns Severn Trent (water) Saint-Gobain UK is based at Binley Business Park. Coventry Building Society nearby Jewson, is in the east of the city at Binley. Chartered Institute of Housing RICS UK Bladon Jets develop micro gas turbines and were the first to develop an axial flow micro example in 1994. Halfords Autocentre Axeon UK distributes lithium-ion batteries Morgan Advanced Materials Composites and Defence Systems, make the British Army's helmet – the Mk 7 helmet and electronics for the Cougar MRAP, as well as body armour for the police. Bystronic UK makes laser cutting equipment Stadco UK design division The Education and Skills Funding Agency, and National Apprenticeship Service. AAH Pharmaceuticals and Lloyds Pharmacy, owned by Celesio. Sainsbury's: TU clothing distribution. British Chambers of Commerce, a representative and awards-giving corporate membership organisation. Walkers (snack foods) within their corn and wheat products ranges Gefco UK (owned by Peugeot); Co-op National Distribution Centre for the bulk of England The Forensic Science Service, Linpac, Lafarge Cement UK and IMI plc are on the Birmingham Business Park in Bickenhill. The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is just north. ZF Lemförder UK's site at Bickenhill makes axle modules for Land Rover. Newey and Eyre, Britain's largest electrical wholesaler, is at Sheldon. Neopost UK is off the A452. Goodrich UK is in Shirley. TRW Conekt have a main automotive engineering research centre at The Green Business Park in Shirley Heath. The Mormons (Latter Day Saints) have their European HQ in Solihull. The UK's VAT Registration Service, for Value Added Tax is at HMRC in Wolverhampton. Flint Ink UK in the east of the town centre, was the largest ink supplier in the British Empire, before being bought in 1998. Turner Powertrain Systems is the world market leader for transmissions for backhoe loaders, mini excavators telescopic handlers, and site dumpers is further south, near Dunstall Hill. Tata Steel (former site of British Steel Seamless Tubes until 1995) have their Wednesfield Steelpark (built in 1999) on the Walsall boundary. Essar Steel UK in west Dudley, is the largest independent steel toll processor in the UK. Hadley Group near the Soho Foundry is the largest cold roll forming manufacturer in the UK. Caparo Precision Tubes in Oldbury, is the UK's largest producer of electric resistance welded (ERW) steel tubes, and Wellman Group make boilers to the west. Metsec, east of Oldbury, is one of the UK's largest cold roll-forming companies. The AA have a main office in Rounds Green, west of Oldbury. 2 Sisters Food Group, Britain's largest processor of chicken, is based in the West Midlands. The national headquarters of One Stop is in Brownhills, at Clayhanger. Poundland is in Willenhall. Wedge Group, based in Willenhall, is the largest hot dip galvanising company in the UK. Assa Abloy UK (and Yale UK, former Yale & Towne), is also in Willenhall, as the town is known for manufacture of locks. A.F. Blakemore, supplies most of the SPAR shops in the UK. Places of interest Ackers Adventure, Birmingham, Aston Hall, Birmingham Bantock House Museum and Park, Wolverhampton Bescot Stadium (Walsall F.C.) Bilston Craft Gallery, Wolverhampton Birmingham Botanical Gardens Birmingham Bullring Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Birmingham Hippodrome Black Country Living Museum, Dudley Blakesley Hall, Birmingham Cadbury World, Bournville, Birmingham Castle Bromwich Hall, Solihull Coventry Cathedral Coventry SkyDome Arena Coventry Transport Museum Dudley Castle Dudley Zoo Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham International Convention Centre (including Symphony Hall), Birmingham Merry Hill Shopping Centre, Dudley Molineux Stadium (Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.) Moseley Old Hall, Wolverhampton National Exhibition Centre National Indoor Arena (NIA), Birmingham Sea Life Centre, Birmingham Netherton Tunnel, Dudley The New Art Gallery Walsall, Walsall Perrott's Folly, Birmingham Red House Glass Cone, Stourbridge Ricoh Arena (Coventry City Football Club) Sandwell Valley Country Park, West Bromwich Sarehole Mill, Birmingham St Andrew's (Birmingham City Football Club) St Peter's Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton Star City The Hawthorns (West Bromwich Albion Football Club) Thinktank Millennium Point, Birmingham Tyseley Locomotive Works, Birmingham University of Birmingham Villa Park (Aston Villa Football Club) Walsall Art Gallery West Park, Wolverhampton Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton Winterbourne Botanic Garden, Birmingham Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Wolverhampton Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton Wolverhampton Racecourse, Wolverhampton Education The West Midlands contains ten universities, seven of which are located in Birmingham: Aston University University of Birmingham Birmingham City University University College Birmingham BPP University University of Law Newman University Both of Coventry University and the University of Warwick are located in Coventry whilst University of Wolverhampton is located in Wolverhampton with campuses in Telford and Walsall. Each of the local authorities has at least one further education college for students aged over 16, and since September 1992 all of the local authorities have operated traditional 5–7 infant, 7–11 junior, and 11-16/18 secondary schools for students in compulsory education. This followed the demise of 5–8 first, 8–12 middle and 12-16/18 secondary schools in the Sutton Coldfield area. For 18 years before September 1990, Dudley had operated 5–8 first, 8–12 middle, and 12-16/18 secondary schools before then, while Halesowen (September 1972 until July 1982) and Aldridge-Brownhills (September 1972 until July 1986) had both operated 5–9 first, 9–13 middle and 13-16/18 secondary schools. Many local authorities still have sixth form facilities in secondary schools, though sixth form facilities had been axed by most secondary schools in Dudley since the early 1990s (and in Halesowen in 1982) as the local authorities changed direction towards further education colleges. All secondary state education in Dudley and Sandwell is mixed comprehensive, although there are a small number of single sex and grammar schools existing in parts of Birmingham, Solihull, Wolverhampton and Walsall. In August 2009, Matthew Boulton College and Sutton Coldfield College merged to become Birmingham Metropolitan College, one of the largest further and higher education institutions in the country. Plans are afoot for the construction of a new campus in the Perry Barr area of Birmingham. Media Television The area is served by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central which both broadcast from Birmingham, the local based-television station TalkBirmingham also covers the area. Television signals are received from the Sutton Coldfield TV transmitter. Radio BBC Local In terms of BBC Local Radio, the area is served by BBC Radio WM and BBC CWR covering Coventry. Commercial Commercial radio stations include Hits Radio Birmingham, Capital Midlands, Capital Mid-Counties, Heart West Midlands, Hits Radio Coventry & Warwickshire, Smooth West Midlands, Greatest Hits Radio Birmingham & The West Midlands, and Greatest Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire. Community Community radio stations include: The Bridge 102.5 (Stourbridge) Big City Radio (Birmingham) Radio Plus and Hillz FM in (Coventry) WCR FM and Gorgeous Radio (Wolverhampton) Black Country Radio (Black Country) Sport The West Midlands is home to numerous sports teams. In rugby union, the West Midlands is home to various clubs including Wasps RFC, Birmingham Barbarians, Sutton Coldfield RFC, Moseley Rugby Football Club, Birmingham & Solihull RFC, and Coventry RFC. In rugby league, the Midlands Hurricanes are the only team from the county playing in the professional ranks, currently in the third tier League 1. In association football, there are six Premier League and Football League teams in the county of which two, Aston Villa, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, play in the Premier League. The following clubs are often referred to as the West Midlands "Big Six": The West Midlands is also home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club, who are based at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, which also hosts Test matches and One Day Internationals. The Birmingham Panthers basketball team replaced the Birmingham Bullets and are currently based at a facility provided by the University of Wolverhampton in Walsall. The West Midlands has its own Quidditch team, West Midlands Revolution (after its part in the Industrial Revolution), which won the Quidditch Premier League in 2017. See also List of ceremonial counties in England by gross value added List of conservation areas in the West Midlands Evolution of Worcestershire county boundaries Notes References External links Photographs of Birmingham and the West Midlands Identity in the West Midlands West Midlands Joint Committee Images of West Midlands Archived 2 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine at the English Heritage Archive West Midlands (county) at Curlie

Metropolitan_Borough_of_Dudley

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

The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley is a metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England. It was created in 1974 following the Local Government Act 1972, through a merger of the existing Dudley County Borough with the municipal boroughs of Stourbridge and Halesowen. The borough's main settlement is Dudley but it also includes the outlying towns of Brierley Hill, Halesowen, Kingswinford, Lye, Netherton, Sedgley, and Stourbridge. The borough borders Sandwell to the east, the city of Birmingham to the south east, Bromsgrove to the south in Worcestershire, South Staffordshire District to the west, and the city of Wolverhampton to the north. History The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley was created in 1974 from the existing boroughs of Dudley, the Municipal Borough of Stourbridge and the Municipal Borough of Halesowen. This followed an earlier reorganisation in 1966, as per the provisions of the Local Government Act 1958, which saw an expansion of the three boroughs from the abolition of the surrounding urban districts of Amblecote, Brierley Hill, Coseley, and Sedgley; and the municipal boroughs of Tipton, Oldbury, and Rowley Regis. Initially the borough had a two-tier system of local government, with the borough council sharing power with the West Midlands County Council. In 1986 metropolitan county councils were abolished under the Local Government Act 1985, and Dudley effectively became a unitary authority. Government Dudley Council has its main offices in Dudley town centre (where Dudley Council House is located), along with additional smaller offices throughout the borough. The council is made up of 72 councillors representing 24 wards. On its formation in 1974, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley was controlled by the Labour Party. Since then the controlling party has frequently changed, sometimes with no political party having a clear majority. Following the local elections in May 2024 the council returned to no overall control. Mayor The Mayor of the Borough acts as the Borough's first citizen attending many civic and ceremonial functions to represent the Council. They are elected at the Annual Meeting of the Council and serves for the whole of the Municipal Year until the next Annual Meeting. As part of the West Midlands Combined Authority, Dudley is also served by the Mayor of the West Midlands. Wards The 24 wards of the Dudley Borough are each represented by 3 councillors. Demography At the 2021 Census, the total population of Dudley Metropolitan Borough was 323,488, an increase of 10,563 from the 2011 Census. The population density was 3,320.4 residents per square km compared to the West Midlands region population density was 457.8 residents per square km. 84.9% of Dudley's population identified as White, with 82.4% identifying as White British, 0.3% as White Irish, and 2.1% as Other White. The second largest ethnic group was Asian and British Asian, making up 8.4% of the population (an increase from 2011 where the figure was 6.1%). Black and Black British people comprised 2.5% of the population of the borough (an increase from 2011 where the figure was 1.5%). Statistics on religious beliefs show that 49.3% of the population identify as Christian (65.3% in 2011), with the second largest religious group being Muslim, at 6.2% (4.1% in 2011). 36% identified as having no religion. Unemployment amongst those aged 16 and over in the borough stood at 3.8%, slightly higher than the national average of 3.5%. 41.1% of those aged 16 and over were economically inactive, consisting of 24.3% retired, 5.2% looking after homes or family, 4.5% long-term sick or disabled, 4.2% students and 3.0% other economically inactive. Economy A part of the Black Country, Dudley traditionally has been an industrial centre of manufacturing, quarrying, and mining, although this has declined in more recent years, with a shift in focus towards the service sector (accounting for 79.1% of employment) and tourism. Despite this, there are still numerous large industrial sites around the borough, such as the Pensnett Trading Estate, with the manufacturing industries making up 15.3% of employment. Tourism is of increasing importance to the local economy, with approximately 6,600 people employed within the sector. Attractions such as the Black Country Living Museum and Dudley Zoo bring in hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.The Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Brierley Hill is one of the largest shopping centres in the UK and is the main retail centre of the borough, with an average of 23.5 million visitors a year, and houses branches of several large retailers including Primark, Marks & Spencer, and Next. Other large employers in the borough include JCDecaux UK, which has its Birmingham area office in Halesowen, Rentokil Initial, and Midtherm Engineering. Tourism and visitor economy Dudley borough has an increasing tourism offer, with attractions such as the Black Country Geopark being recognised in 2020 and the Stourbridge Glass Museum due to open in 2022. Tourism and the visitor economy is an important sector to the borough, supporting approximately 8,000 jobs. Many of the borough's tourist attractions draw on the industrial heritage of the area. For example, the Red House Glass Cone is an original structure from the 18th Century glass making industry in Stourbridge. The site includes designer-maker studios, galleries and hot glass studio. The Stourbridge Glass Quarter locality is also home to The Lace Guild, Glasshouse Heritage Centre and hosts the International Festival of Glass every 2 years, most recently in 2019 with the 2021 festival postponed to 2022 due to the covid-19 pandemic. The Caste Hill area of Dudley is also a hub of visitor attractions including the Black Country Living Museum and the Canal and Tunnel Trust. Dudley Zoological Gardens, which is also in this area, is the second most visited paid visitor attraction in the West Midlands. The Archives and Local History Centre is now also the home of the council run Dudley Museum. The museum is also the headquarters of the Black Country Geopark. Along with sites recognised as part of the Geopark, the borough has seven nature reserves and many parks contributing to its green spaces. In 2021, the Green Flag award was obtained by seven of the boroughs sites (Buffery Park, Huntingtree Park, Mary Stevens Park, Priory Park, The Leasowes, Wrens Nest National Nature Reserve and Saltwells National Nature Reserve). Mary Stevens Park and Priory Park were also awarded Green Heritage Site status, with Abbey Road Allotments recognised with a Green Flag Community Award. Despite not being in the bounds of Dudley borough, Himley Hall and Park is owned and run by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. In addition to the 180 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped parkland, the Hall has a gallery exhibition space and is a wedding venue. Regeneration Large public and private sector developments have taken place in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley since its creation in 1974. The closure of Round Oak Steelworks in December 1982 paved the way for the creation of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre on nearby farmland between 1985 and 1989. The Waterfront leisure and commercial complex was developed on the site of the steelworks itself between 1989 and 1995. Pensnett Trading Estate in Kingswinford has been developed since the 1960s for mostly light industry and services. A major redevelopment of Halesowen town centre took place in 2007/08, when the bus station was rebuilt and a section of the 1960s shopping area demolished to make way for a new Asda superstore. A similar redevelopment of Stourbridge town centre in 2011/12 saw most of the Crown Centre completely rebuilt to incorporate a new Tesco superstore. There are currently several major regeneration projects throughout the borough. Significant infrastructure projects include the new Dudley Transport Interchange and the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill West Midlands Metro extension. The 11km metro extension will connect Dudley, Merry Hill and Brierley Hill with the metro network and so to the proposed HS2 line. The first phase to Dudley town centre is expected to open for passenger services in 2024. The second phase will then extend to Brierley Hill, terminating in Cottage Street in the town centre following an additional £60million funding from central government. Regeneration projects around the Castle Hill area are combining innovation and education. The Black Country and Marches Institute of Technology opened in September 2021 and focuses delivery on higher level courses in manufacturing and engineering, medical engineering, modern construction methodologies and digital technologies. The Very Light Rail (VLR) National Innovation Centre will provide a research facility for the development of VLR technologies and projects. The centre will redevelop the former Dudley Railway Station and reconnect the town with the National Rail Network. The DY5 Business and Innovation Enterprise Zone was launched in 2017 with the ambition to create 7,000 new jobs over 25 years. The zone is centred around the Brierley Hill area. The Dudley Townscape Heritage programme is on ongoing programme of work improving historical buildings in Dudley town centre. Phase 1 ran from 2008-2015, phase 2 from 2017-2023. Phase 2 started following a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £1.2 million. As part of the programme historic buildings were identified, repaired or restored. Heritage trails and open days were also developed. In addition, further development of the former Dudley Museum and Art Gallery site has been proposed as part of a £4million scheme. The former Sessions Court in the same complext of buildings been converted into Brookes Bistro restaurant. Named for Brooke Robinson who was a former MP and coroner for Dudley and left a bequest which led to the building for the former Museum and Art Gallery, Town Hall and Coroners Court. Housing Relatively little new council housing has been built in the borough since the early 1980s, with almost all of the new social housing developments since then being built by housing associations. Most of the older private housing in the borough has been renovated rather than demolished during this time. However, there have been a number of redevelopment programmes involving 20th century council housing. In July 1999, four of the borough's tower blocks (two at Eve Hill in Dudley and two at Tanhouse in Halesowen) were demolished on consecutive weekends in controlled explosions. Two years later, two more tower blocks at Queens Cross in Dudley were demolished using the same method. Four tower blocks in Netherton are scheduled for demolition in 2017/18. In 2009, 266 homes on the predominantly 1930s Priory Estate in Dudley were demolished and the land later redeveloped with new housing. In the mid-1990s, the neighbouring Wren's Nest Estate underwent extensive refurbishment as well as improved community facilities in a multimillion-pound project funded by the European Single Budget. Four blocks of low-rise flats on the estate were demolished as part of the regeneration. Since 2017 small developments of council housing have been built, including bungalows, housing and low-rise flats. Some properties have been designed to accommodate those with specific physical needs or those in need of supported living. The homes have been built across the borough (Brierley Hill, Coseley, Dudley, Halesowen, Kingswinford, Lower Gornal, Sedgley and Stourbridge). During this period Dudley Council have also built a number of homes for private sale. In November 2021 Dudley Council was named homebuilder of the year (organisations with 16,000 homes or more category) at the Inside Housing UK Housing Awards. Education Tertiary education There are two further education colleges in the Dudley Borough: Dudley College of Technology, Halesowen College. The borough is also home to the King Edward VI sixth form college in Stourbridge, originally a grammar school established in 1552, converting to a sixth form centre in 1976. A small number of secondary schools in the borough offer sixth form facilities, while several others did so until the beginning of the 1990s when the local authority decided to concentrate post-16 education in further education colleges. In March 2011 Eton College and Star Academies announced their intention to open one of three sixth form colleges in Dudley, subject to funding through the Department for Education’s Free Schools Programme. Since the University of Wolverhampton closed its Dudley campus in 2002, the metropolitan borough is the largest district in the UK without its own university. Several projects in the Castle Hill area of the Dudley are now linking with local universities. The Black Country & Marches Institute of Technology opened in September 2021, with a focus on higher level engineering courses, it partners Dudley College of Technology, University of Wolverhampton, University of Worcester, In-Comm Training Services Limited and Avensys UK Limited. A Higher Education Centre for Health & Care is proposed as a partnership between Dudley College of Technology and University of Worcester and expected to be open for Autumn 2024. Primary and secondary education There are 104 Dudley Council schools: 78 Primary, 40 of which include a Nursery Unit (24 Primary Academy); 19 Secondary (of which 15 are Secondary Academy Schools) and 7 Special Schools. Pupils transfer to secondary school at the age of 11, although between 1972 and 1990 pupils in the north of borough transferred to secondary school at the age of 12, and from 1972 to 1982 there was a three-tier education system in Halesowen where pupils entered first school at 5, middle school at 9 and secondary school at 13. The borough had well over 30 secondary schools on its creation, although this was quickly reduced as a result of the introduction of the comprehensive system a year later, which resulted in a number of schools being merged or closed. By September 1990, however, the number of secondary schools in the borough had fallen to 22 as a result of the closure of Gilbert Claughton and Mons Hill Schools and the merger of High Park and Longlands Schools in Stourbridge to form Ridgewood High. A year earlier, Castle High had been formed in the town centre of Dudley from a merger of The Dudley School and Blue Coat School; this new school also took in some of the former Gilbert Claughton and Mons Hill pupils. The 1980s had also seen the closure of some the borough's less popular and smaller primary schools, with the older buildings mostly being demolished and the more modern ones being converted for community use. The closure of Cradley High School in Halesowen in July 2008 saw the number of secondary schools in the borough fall to 21, dropping to 20 with the closure of Pensnett High School in July 2012, and to 19 when the Coseley School closed five years later. When the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley was formed, many primary schools were existed as separate infant and junior or first and middle schools, but by 1990 virtually all of the separate schools had been merged to create full circle primary schools, the last separate infant and junior schools to merge being Red Hall in Lower Gornal in January 1997. There are no grammar schools in the borough, with all state schools being comprehensive, a system which has been universal in the borough since the mid-1970s. The former grammar schools in the borough were Dudley's Boys Grammar and Girls High Schools (merged with Park Secondary Modern School in 1975 to form The Dudley School, which in turn merged with The Blue Coat School to form Castle High in 1989), Sir Gilbert Claughton Grammar School in Dudley (which adopted comprehensive status in 1975 before closing in 1990), Brierley Hill Grammar School (actually situated in Kingswinford; it has been known as the Crestwood School since adopting comprehensive status), King Edward VI Boys Grammar School in Stourbridge (which is now a mixed sixth form college), Stourbridge Girls High School (which merged with the Boys Grammar School and Valley Road Secondary Modern School to form Redhill School), Halesowen Grammar School (which merged with Halesowen Technical School to form Earls High School) and High Arcal Grammar School in Sedgley (which survived as a comprehensive school). The sole independent school in the borough is the Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School in Stourbridge, which follows the Steiner Waldorf curriculum. The Old Swinford Hospital school in Stourbridge is one of only 34 state-funded boarding schools in England, with education being funded by the local education authority (LEA). Healthcare The main NHS hospital serving the borough is Russells Hall Hospital, situated to the south of Dudley town centre. Following a major expansion of the hospital in 2005, all inpatient services were transferred to the site from smaller hospitals around the borough, resulting in the closure of Wordsley Hospital, and the downgrading of the Guest Hospital and Corbett hospitals into outpatient centres. Psychiatric care is offered at the Bushey Fields Hospital, located adjacent to Russells Hall Hospital. See also Healthcare in West Midlands. Localities See List of areas in Dudley Freedom of the Borough The following people, military units and Organisations and Groups have received the Freedom of the Borough of Dudley. The Roll of Freeman is displayed in the Council House on wood panelling at the entrance to the Council Chamber. Individuals William Humble, Earl of Dudley: 10 January 1899 Brooke Robinson: 11 September 1906 Sir Gilbert Henry Claughton, Baronet: 9 November 1912 Edwin John Thompson: 24 November 1936 John Harry Molyneux: 24 February 1959 John Collcott Price : 23 April 1963 Harry Clifford Whitehouse: 23 April 1963 Percy Dale Wadsworth: 25 April 1973 Bert Bissell: 19 February 1981 William Eley Homer: 9 March 1989 John Thomas Wilson: 9 March 1989 John James Curley: 23 January 1992 Frederick Stuart Hunt: 18 May 2000 Sir Lenny Henry: 25 February 2013. David Murray Caunt: 13 July 2015 David Sparks: 13 July 2015 Jordanne Whiley: 30 November 2015. Roy Richardson: 4 December 2017 Hilary Bills: 20 May 2021 Les Jones: 20 May 2021 Ian Marshall Kettle: 20 May 2021 Military Units The Worcestershire Regiment: 8 April 1961 The Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's): 29 April 1967 The Mercian Regiment: 15 October 2007 The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry: 22 February 2010 Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry (TA): 30 June 2012 RAF Cosford: 4 December 2017 63 Company, 6 Battalion Military Intelligence Company Intelligence Corps: 18 February 2019. Organisations and Groups National Health Service, Public Health, Adult Services, Children's Services, Bereavement Services and Care Sector Workers: 23 July 2020 See also Evolution of Worcestershire county boundaries South Staffordshire Line References External links Dudley Borough Wards

Sandwell

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

Sandwell is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands county in England. The borough is named after the Sandwell Priory, and spans a densely populated part of the West Midlands conurbation. Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council defines the borough as the six amalgamated towns of Oldbury, Rowley Regis, Smethwick, Tipton, Wednesbury and West Bromwich. Rowley Regis includes the towns of Blackheath and Cradley Heath. Sandwell's Strategic Town Centre is designated as West Bromwich, the largest town in the borough, while Sandwell Council House (the headquarters of the local authority) is situated in Oldbury. In 2019 Sandwell was ranked 12th most deprived of England's 317 boroughs. Bordering Sandwell is the City of Birmingham to the east, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley to the south and west, the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall to the north, and the City of Wolverhampton to the north-west. Spanning the borough are the parliamentary constituencies of West Bromwich West, West Bromwich East, Warley, and part of Halesowen and Rowley Regis, which crosses into the Dudley borough. The borough covers an area of 86 square kilometres (33 sq mi). At the 2011 census, it had a population of 309,000. History and culture The Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell was formed on 1 April 1974 as an amalgamation of the county boroughs of Warley (ceremonially within Worcestershire) and West Bromwich (ceremonially within Staffordshire), under the Local Government Act 1972. Warley had been formed in 1966 by a merger of the county borough of Smethwick with the municipal boroughs of Rowley Regis and Oldbury; at the same time, West Bromwich had absorbed the boroughs of Tipton and Wednesbury. For its first 12 years of existence, Sandwell had a two-tier system of local government; Sandwell Council shared power with the West Midlands County Council. In 1986 the county council was abolished, and Sandwell effectively became a unitary authority. The borough is divided into 24 wards and is represented by 72 ward councillors on the borough council. The borough was named after Sandwell Priory, the ruins of which are located in Sandwell Valley. Gaining widespread acceptance for the identity of Sandwell and unifying the distinct communities within the borough has been a protracted affair. The local council has considered changing its name over confusion outside the West Midlands as to the whereabouts of the borough. A survey of borough residents in June 2002 found that 65 per cent of respondents favoured retaining the name. Landmarks and attractions in Sandwell include Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery, Bishop Asbury Cottage, West Bromwich Manor House, Oak House, West Bromwich, and Sandwell Valley Country Park. It is also the home of West Bromwich Albion F.C. Sandwell used to be a popular hotspot for car cruising. In 2015 a High Court order was introduced to ban car cruising in the area. An extension has been secured to run until at least 2021. Politics Since the council election in 2021, the political composition of the council has been as follows: From the borough's creation in 1974 until 2010, all Members of Parliament (MPs) within its boundaries were Labour. However, in the 2010 general election, Conservative party candidate James Morris was elected to the Halesowen and Rowley Regis seat which incorporates the Sandwell communities of Rowley Regis, Blackheath and Cradley Heath, and the neighbouring area of Halesowen which is situated within Dudley's borders. This was the first time any part of Sandwell had elected a Conservative MP – or indeed an MP from any party other than Labour. In the December 2019 general election, however, Conservative candidates Nicola Richards and Shaun Bailey were elected to represent West Bromwich East and West Bromwich West respectively. This was the first time since the borough's creation that West Bromwich has returned any Conservative MPs to Parliament, and the first time that a constituency fully within the boundaries of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council has been represented by a Tory MP. The election of both Richards and Bailey has been marked as a significant milestone in the political history of the borough and marked the end to decades of control by Labour MPs. Wards The Sandwell Borough is divided into 24 electoral wards, with each one represented by 3 councillors on the borough council: Education Sandwell is home to nearly 100 primary schools, 25 secondary schools, 4 special schools and 1 college. Sandwell College, the only further education college in the borough, was opened in September 1986 following the merger of Warley College and West Bromwich College. It was originally based in the old Warley College buildings on Pound Road, Oldbury, and the West Bromwich College buildings on West Bromwich High Street, as well as a building in Smethwick town centre, but moved into a new single site campus in West Bromwich town centre in September 2012. In 2004, a debt-ridden Sandwell College was subject to a police investigation. Media Television The area is served by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the Sutton Coldfield TV transmitter. Radio Radio stations for the area are: BBC Local Radio BBC Radio WM Independent Radio Heart West Midlands Smooth West Midlands Greatest Hits Radio Birmingham & The West Midlands Capital Midlands Hits Radio Birmingham Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire Community Radio Black Country Radio Newspapers Local newspapers for the area are: Express & Star Oldbury Weekly News Smethwick Telephone Tipton Herald Wednesbury Herald West Bromwich Chronicle Notable people See Category:People from Sandwell (district) Localities The six towns that comprise Sandwell and localities within each include: Oldbury Brandhall Langley Green Oakham Rood End Rowley Regis Blackheath Cradley Heath Old Hill Tividale Smethwick Albion Estate Black Patch & Soho Bearwood Cape Hill Londonderry North Smethwick Uplands West Smethwick Tipton Dudley Port Great Bridge Horseley Heath Ocker Hill Princes End Summer Hill West Bromwich Charlemont and Grove Vale Great Barr (although some areas are part of Birmingham and Walsall) Guns Village Hamstead Hill Top Newton Stone Cross Yew Tree Greets Green Hateley Heath Wednesbury Friar Park Woods Estate Mesty Croft Wood Green Old Park Church Hill Brunswick Myvod Local places of interest The Public, West Bromwich Sandwell Aquatics Centre Sandwell Priory Sandwell Valley Sandwell Valley Country Park RSPB Sandwell Valley Sheepwash Urban Park The Hawthorns Sandwell General Hospital Sandwell College Holly Lodge High School Warley Woods Twin towns and cities Sandwell is twinned with: Le Blanc Mesnil, France Amritsar, India Zalau, Romania See also Wednesbury Central railway station Wednesbury bus station Wednesbury Town railway station Healthcare in West Midlands References External links Sandwell MBC Research Sandwell Archived 25 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine Sandwell Trends – a Local Intelligence System for Sandwell Sandwell Building Schools for the Future Sandwell Lions Club Archived 7 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine

Metropolitan_Borough_of_Solihull

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

The Metropolitan Borough of Solihull is a metropolitan borough in West Midlands county, England. It is named after its largest town, Solihull, from which Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is based. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG32) and is one of seven boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region. Much of the large residential population in the north of the borough centres on the communities of Castle Bromwich, Kingshurst, Marston Green and Smith's Wood as well as the towns of Chelmsley Wood and Fordbridge. In the south are the towns of Shirley and Solihull, as well as the large villages of Knowle, Dorridge, Meriden and Balsall Common. Since 2011, Solihull has formed part of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership along with neighbouring authorities Birmingham, Bromsgrove, Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Lichfield, Redditch, Tamworth and Wyre Forest. History Solihull probably derived its name from a 'miry or muddy' or soily hill. The parish church was built on a hill of stiff red marl, which turned to sticky mud in wet weather. Solihull was an ancient parish, covering the town itself and adjoining rural areas, including Shirley. Solihull was made the centre of a poor law union in 1836, covering eleven parishes: Baddesley Clinton, Balsall, Barston, Elmdon, Knowle, Lapworth, Nuthurst, Packwood, Solihull, Tanworth and Yardley. Yardley was in Worcestershire and the rest of the parishes were in Warwickshire. Such poor law unions formed the basis for later local government areas. In 1872 poor law unions also became rural sanitary districts for the parts of their areas without urban authorities; there were no urban authorities in the Solihull union. In 1894 rural sanitary districts were converted into rural districts with their own elected councils under the Local Government Act 1894. The 1894 Act split districts which straddled county boundaries, and so Yardley became a separate rural district (which was later absorbed into Birmingham in 1911), whilst the Warwickshire parishes from the Solihull poor law union became the Solihull Rural District. The 1894 Act also created parish councils for rural parishes, including Solihull. The Solihull Rural District and the Solihull Parish Council were abolished in 1932. A new urban district of Solihull was created; the parishes of Solihull, Elmdon, Knowle, Nuthurst, Packwood and Sheldon were abolished and most of their combined area became the new urban district, subject to various adjustments to the boundaries with neighbouring parishes. The parts of the old Solihull Rural District not included were added to neighbouring rural districts. Expansion continued and Queen Elizabeth II granted a charter in 1954 making Solihull into a Municipal Borough; ten years later it was given the status of County Borough. Reorganisation of boundaries and council responsibilities in 1974 created the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull by the merger of the Solihull County Borough and most of the Meriden Rural District, which forms the main rural part of the borough and county. It included Balsall Common, Barston, Berkswell, Bickenhill, Castle Bromwich, Chelmsley Wood, Elmdon, Fordbridge, Hampton in Arden, Hockley Heath, Kingshurst, Knowle, Marston Green, Meriden, Olton, Smiths Wood, Solihull, Shirley and Temple Balsall. In 1986 the Solihull borough effectively became a unitary authority when the West Midlands County Council was abolished. It remains part of the West Midlands for ceremonial purposes, and for functions such as police, fire and public transport. There is some support to return the borough to Warwickshire for ceremonial purposes, as was the case when the County of Avon was abolished and Bath was returned to Somerset. There were also complaints that Solihull was not involved in the design of the Warwickshire flag in 2016. Geography The borough is bordered by the M6 and the M40 and split by the M42 which divides the urban centre of the borough from the rural south and east. The borough's transport links have led to a number of established large businesses being based in the borough, such as Land Rover, the National Exhibition Centre and Birmingham Airport. A short automatic light transport system links the airport to the nearby Birmingham International railway station. Around three-quarters of the borough is greenbelt and a large proportion of that is worked farmland. The borough shares its boundaries with Birmingham to the west and north, Coventry to the east, Warwickshire to both the north and south and Worcestershire to the south west. The borough contains a sizeable rural area known as the Meriden Gap (after the village of Meriden) which serves as a green belt separating the Birmingham conurbation from the city of Coventry. Parts of Solihull neighbour the suburbs of Minworth and Hall Green. Parts also lie close to (but not contiguous with) the town of Coleshill and city of Coventry. Council Elections to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council are held in three out of every four years, with one third of the 51 seats on the council being elected at each election. Since the 2011 election The Conservative Party has had a majority on the council. At the 2015 election to the council, the following members were returned: For election purposes the council is divided up into the following wards based on civil parishes. Each ward is represented by three councillors: Bickenhill Blythe Castle Bromwich Chelmsley Wood Dorridge and Hockley Heath Elmdon Kingshurst and Fordbridge Knowle Lyndon Meriden Olton Shirley East Shirley South Shirley West Silhill Smith's Wood St Alphege Coat of arms The constituent parts of the borough's coat of arms are: Battlements, sickles and an oak tree with golden acorns, which represent the rural and agricultural nature of the Forest of Arden. The Black Griffin is taken from the arms of the Earls of Aylesford, who are associated with Meriden. The Silver Fleur-de-lys comes from the Digby family, who were associated with Fordbridge. The Black Greyhound is taken from the arms of the Greswolds, the family who built the 15th century house called the Manor House in the High Street, Solihull. A stylised version of the coat of arms can be seen on the top left of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council's website pages, and the official, heraldic version appears on a dedicated page on the same site – external links below. Economy Solihull is regarded as having one of the strongest subregional economies in the West Midlands, with a significantly higher nominal GVA per capita and Silhillians enjoying considerably higher disposable income rates than both regional and UK averages. Analysis also shows Solihull as having the lowest (and fastest falling) claimant count for Jobseeker's Allowance in the region. The current Flybe airline maintains its head office on the second floor of Diamond House on the property of Birmingham Airport. This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Solihull at current basic prices published (pp. 240–253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. ^1 includes hunting and forestry ^2 includes energy and construction ^3 includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured ^4 Components may not sum to totals due to rounding Settlements in Solihull Localities in the borough include: Balsall, Balsall Common, Barston, Bentley Heath, Berkswell, Bickenhill, Blossomfield Castle Bromwich, Catherine-de-Barnes, Chadwick End, Chelmsley Wood, Cheswick Green, Coleshill Heath, Copt Heath Dickens Heath, Dorridge Elmdon, Elmdon Heath Fordbridge Hampton in Arden, Hockley Heath Kingshurst, Knowle Lyndon Marston Green, Meriden, Monkspath Street Olton Packwood Sharmans Cross, Shirley, Silhill, Smith's Wood, Solihull Temple Balsall, Tidbury Green Whitlock's End Notable people Dorian Yates - IFBB Pro Bodybuilder and six time Mr Olympia winner (1992-1997) born in Solihull. Michael Buerk – BBC news presenter and journalist born and educated in Solihull. Jasper Carrott – Born and lived in the Solihull Area Lucy Davis - Daughter of Jasper Carrott. Born and raised in Solihull Richard Hammond – Top Gear presenter and radio presenter was born in Solihull. Martin Johnson – Rugby World Cup- winning England team captain and later their manager was born in Solihull. John Wyndham – Science fiction author (The Day of the Triffids) was born in Dorridge in the Solihull area. There is a longer list in the article for Solihull town. Freedom of the Borough The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Solihull. Individuals Lance corporal Matthew Croucher: 16 December 2008. Military Units References External links Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council The official tourism website for the Solihull Borough Solihull's coat of arms Solihull Observer, the local Solihull newspaper

Metropolitan_Borough_of_Walsall

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

The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall is a metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Walsall, but covers a larger area which also includes Aldridge, Bloxwich, Brownhills, Darlaston, Pelsall and Willenhall. The borough had an estimated population of 254,500 in 2007. The borough was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It is bounded on the west by the City of Wolverhampton, the south by the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, to the south east by the City of Birmingham, and by the Staffordshire districts of Lichfield, Cannock Chase and South Staffordshire to the east, north and northwest respectively. Most of the borough is highly industrialised and densely populated, but areas around the north and east of the borough are open space. History Prior to 1966, the area that would later become the metropolitan borough of Walsall was governed by five smaller local authorities: Aldridge Urban District Brownhills Urban District Darlaston Urban District Walsall County Borough Willenhall Urban District The four urban districts were all within the administrative county of Staffordshire, in a two-tier structure with Staffordshire County Council providing county-level services. Walsall itself was a self-governing county borough, independent from the county council, but was still deemed to be part of Staffordshire for ceremonial purposes. A review of local government in the West Midlands area was carried out under the Local Government Act 1958, culminating in the West Midlands Review Order 1965, which merged many of the districts in the area with effect from 1 April 1966. Darlaston and Willenhall were both absorbed into the county borough of Walsall, whilst the two urban districts of Brownhills and Aldridge merged to become Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District. At the same time, there were also more minor boundary adjustments with neighbouring areas around the edges of the new districts. The new arrangements were relatively short-lived. Under the Local Government Act 1972, local government in the area was reviewed again, with Walsall County Borough and Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District merging to become the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall on 1 April 1974. On the same date the area became part of the new metropolitan county of West Midlands. For the next twelve years there was a two-tier structure in place, with West Midlands County Council providing higher county-level services. The county council was abolished in 1986. There were adjustments to some of the boundaries between Walsall and its neighbours in 1994. Governance Parliamentary constituencies Since the 2024 general election, the residents of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall have been represented in the UK Parliament by Members of Parliament (MPs) for four separate parliamentary constituencies. Two, Walsall and Bloxwich and Aldridge-Brownhills fall wholly within the borough and are represented by Valerie Vaz (Labour) and Wendy Morton (Conservative) respectively. Parts of the borough are within the constituencies of Wolverhampton North East and Wolverhampton South East, represented by Sureena Brackenridge and Pat McFadden (both Labour) respectively. Prior to Brexit in 2020, the borough was part of the West Midlands constituency in the European Parliament. The West Midlands region elected seven MEPs. Council In 1974, Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council was created to administer the new metropolitan borough. Elections to the council take place in three out of every four years, with one-third of the seats being contested at each election. Between its formation in 1974 and the 2003 election, the council varied between control by the Labour Party, and where no one party had an overall majority. From 2003 to 2011 the Conservative Party then held a majority of councillors. At the 2011 election the Conservative Party lost five seats, while Labour gained eight, and afterwards no party held a majority. At the 2019 election, the Conservative Party regained control of the council. Demography At the time of the United Kingdom Census 2001, according to the Office for National Statistics, the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall had a total resident population of 253,499, of which 123,189 (48.6%) were male and 130,310 (51.4%) were female, with 101,333 households. The Borough occupied 10,395 hectares (40.14 sq mi) at the time of the 2001 census. Its population density was 22.79 people per hectare compared with an average of 28.41 across the West Midlands metropolitan county. The median age of the population was 37, compared with 36 within the West Midlands metropolitan county and 37 across England and Wales. The majority of the population of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall were born in England (91.77%); 1.42% were born elsewhere within the United Kingdom, 0.82% within the rest of the European Union, and 6.00% elsewhere in the world. Data on religious beliefs across the borough in the 2001 census show that 72.1% declared themselves to be Christian, 10.0% said they held no religion, and 5.4% reported themselves as Muslim. Whereas in the 2011 Census 59% declared themselves to be Christian, 26% said they held no religion or did not state their religion, and 8.2% reported themselves as Muslim. Within the Metropolitan Borough, 42.84% of households owned a single car or van, with 31.05% owning none. The average car ownership per household was 1.01, compared with 0.96 across the West Midlands metropolitan county. Population change The table below details the population change in the area since 1801. Although the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall has existed as a metropolitan borough only since 1974, figures have been generated by combining data from the towns, villages, and civil parishes that would later be constituent parts of the borough. Economy At the time of the 2001 census, there were 105,590 people (41.7%) in employment who were resident within Walsall Metropolitan Borough. Of these, 18.60% worked within the wholesale and retail trade, including repair of motor vehicles; 26.44% worked within manufacturing industry; and 9.85% worked within the health and social work sector. At the 2001 UK census, Walsall Metropolitan Borough had 180,623 residents aged 16 to 74. 2.3% of these people were students with jobs, 6.0% looking after home or family, 6.8% permanently sick or disabled and 2.4% economically inactive for other reasons. These figures are roughly in line with the averages for England, though Metropolitan Borough of Walsall has a higher rate of people who are permanently sick and disabled, where the national average is 5.3%. The Metropolitan Borough of Walsall is split between several travel to work areas (TTWA). The central and northern areas of the borough (including the towns of Walsall, Bloxwich and Brownhills) are within the Walsall and Cannock TTWA, whilst the majority of the area west of the M6 motorway (including the towns of Willenhall and Darlaston) is within the Wolverhampton TTWA. The southeast of the Metropolitan Borough (including Streetly) is within the Birmingham TTWA. The entire borough is within the Birmingham Larger Urban Zone. Average house prices in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall were fourth out of the metropolitan boroughs in the West Midlands county, with the average house price within the borough being £131,131 during the period April – June 2009, compared with the average across the Metropolitan County of £128,142. Following transfer from the council in 2003, social housing in the area is primarily managed by WATMOS (consisting of eight Tenant management organisations), and the Walsall Housing Group. Transport The A34 trunk road runs directly through the middle of Walsall . An elevated section of the M6 Motorway built in 1968 half circles around Walsall to the west of the town. There can be increased congestion on the local A roads whenever the motorway is temporarily closed or in a state of serious delay as road users try to bypass the problem. Junctions (North to South) 11, 10, 9 and 7 allow access to and from various parts of the town. The M6 and M5 join at junction 8. The A454 runs through Walsall on its way to Sutton Coldfield from Bridgnorth. The Chase Line is a railway line which runs from Birmingham International via Birmingham New Street and Walsall to Rugeley Trent Valley. The following stations on the line are within the Borough: Bescot Stadium Walsall Bloxwich Bloxwich North Localities See List of areas in Walsall Education 45% of pupils in the Borough of Walsall achieved five GCSEs with grades of A*-C, below the national average of 56%. The borough's education format is a traditional 5–7 infant, 7–11 junior and 11-16/18 secondary school system, with some infant and junior schools being combined single site primary schools, while others have infant and junior schools on separate sites. The towns of Walsall, Bloxwich, Darlaston and Willenhall have always used these age ranges, but the Aldridge, Brownhills and Streetly areas (which became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall in 1974) adopted 5–9 first, 9–13 middle and 13-16/18 secondary schools in September 1972. However, this system was discontinued and replaced with the traditional age ranges in September 1986 to fit in with the other schools in the Walsall borough. Freedom of the Borough The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Borough of Walsall. Individuals Professor Rashid Gatrad: 29 January 2014. Neville John "Noddy" Holder: 24 June 2014. Ian Shires: 17 November 2021. Military units The South Staffordshire Regiment: 1946. The Staffordshire Regiment: 1959. The Mercian Regiment: 2007. == References ==

Birmingham

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

Birmingham ( BUR-ming-əm) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in Britain – commonly referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom – with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper. Birmingham borders the Black Country to its west and, together with the city of Wolverhampton and towns including Dudley and Solihull, forms the West Midlands conurbation. The royal town of Sutton Coldfield is incorporated within the city limits to the northeast. The wider metropolitan area has a population of 4.3 million, making it the largest outside London. Located in the West Midlands region of England, Birmingham is considered to be the social, cultural, financial and commercial centre of the Midlands. It is just west of the traditional centre point of England at Meriden, and is the most inland major city in the country, and lying north of the Cotswolds and east of the Shropshire Hills. Distinctively, Birmingham only has small rivers flowing through it, mainly the River Tame and its tributaries River Rea and River Cole – one of the closest main rivers is the Severn, approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of the city centre. The city does however have numerous canals, collectively named the Birmingham Canal Navigations. Historically a market town in Warwickshire in the medieval period, Birmingham grew during the 18th century during the Midlands Enlightenment and during the Industrial Revolution, which saw advances in science, technology and economic development, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791, it was being hailed as "the first manufacturing town in the world". Birmingham's distinctive economic profile, with thousands of small workshops practising a wide variety of specialised and highly skilled trades, encouraged exceptional levels of creativity and innovation; this provided an economic base for prosperity that was to last into the final quarter of the 20th century. The Watt steam engine was invented in Birmingham. The resulting high level of social mobility also fostered a culture of political radicalism which, under leaders from Thomas Attwood to Joseph Chamberlain, was to give it a political influence unparalleled in Britain outside London and a pivotal role in the development of British democracy. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the city's infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive urban regeneration in subsequent decades. Birmingham's economy is now dominated by the service sector. The city is a major international commercial centre and an important transport, retail, events and conference hub. Its metropolitan economy is the second-largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121.1bn (2014). Its five universities, including the University of Birmingham, make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham's major cultural institutions – the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Library of Birmingham and Barber Institute of Fine Arts – enjoy international reputations, and the city has vibrant and influential grassroots art, music, literary and culinary scenes. Birmingham was the host city for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. In 2021, Birmingham was the third most visited city in the UK by people from foreign nations. Toponymy The name Birmingham comes from the Old English Beormingahām, meaning the home or settlement of the Beormingas – a tribe or clan whose name means 'Beorma's people' and which may have formed an early unit of Anglo-Saxon administration. Beorma, after whom the tribe was named, could have been its leader at the time of the Anglo-Saxon settlement, a shared ancestor, or a mythical tribal figurehead. Place names ending in -ingahām are characteristic of primary settlements established during the early phases of Anglo-Saxon colonisation of an area, suggesting that Birmingham was probably in existence by the early 7th century at the latest. Surrounding settlements with names ending in -tūn ('farm'), -lēah ('woodland clearing'), -worð ('enclosure') and -field ('open ground') are likely to be secondary settlements created by the later expansion of the Anglo-Saxon population, in some cases possibly on earlier British sites. History Pre-history and medieval There is evidence of early human activity in the Birmingham area dating back to around 8000 BC, with Stone Age artefacts suggesting seasonal settlements, overnight hunting parties and woodland activities such as tree felling. The many burnt mounds that can still be seen around the city indicate that modern humans first intensively settled and cultivated the area during the Bronze Age, when a substantial but short-lived influx of population occurred between 1700 BC and 1000 BC, possibly caused by conflict or immigration in the surrounding area. During the 1st-century Roman conquest of Britain, the forested country of the Birmingham Plateau formed a barrier to the advancing Roman legions, who built the large Metchley Fort in the area of modern-day Edgbaston in AD 48, and made it the focus of a network of Roman roads. Birmingham was then later established by the Beormingas around the 6th or 7th century as a small settlement in the then heavily forested Arden region in Mercia. The development of Birmingham into a significant urban and commercial centre began in 1166, when the Lord of the Manor Peter de Bermingham obtained a charter to hold a market at his castle, and followed this with the creation of a planned market town and seigneurial borough within his demesne or manorial estate, around the site that became the Bull Ring. This established Birmingham as the primary commercial centre for the Birmingham Plateau at a time when the area's economy was expanding rapidly, with population growth nationally leading to the clearance, cultivation and settlement of previously marginal land. Within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen. By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire, a position it would retain for the next 200 years. Early modern The principal governing institutions of medieval Birmingham – including the Guild of the Holy Cross and the lordship of the de Birmingham family – collapsed between 1536 and 1547, leaving the town with an unusually high degree of social and economic freedom and initiating a period of transition and growth. By 1700 Birmingham's population had increased fifteen-fold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. The importance of the manufacture of iron goods to Birmingham's economy was recognised as early as 1538, and grew rapidly as the century progressed. Equally significant was the town's emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials and traded and marketed the industry's products. By the 1600s Birmingham formed the commercial hub of a network of forges and furnaces stretching from South Wales to Cheshire and its merchants were selling finished manufactured goods as far afield as the West Indies. These trading links gave Birmingham's metalworkers access to much wider markets, allowing them to diversify away from lower-skilled trades producing basic goods for local sale, towards a broader range of specialist, higher-skilled and more lucrative activities. By the time of the English Civil War Birmingham's booming economy, its expanding population, and its resulting high levels of social mobility and cultural pluralism, had seen it develop new social structures very different from those of more established areas. Relationships were built around pragmatic commercial linkages rather than the rigid paternalism and deference of feudal society, and loyalties to the traditional hierarchies of the established church and aristocracy were weak. The town's reputation for political radicalism and its strongly Parliamentarian sympathies saw it attacked by Royalist forces in the Battle of Birmingham in 1643, and it developed into a centre of Puritanism in the 1630s and as a haven for Nonconformists from the 1660s. The 18th century saw this tradition of free-thinking and collaboration blossom into the cultural phenomenon now known as the Midlands Enlightenment. The town developed into a notable centre of literary, musical, artistic and theatrical activity; and its leading citizens – particularly the members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham – became influential participants in the circulation of philosophical and scientific ideas among Europe's intellectual elite. The close relationship between Enlightenment Birmingham's leading thinkers and its major manufacturers – in men like Matthew Boulton and James Keir they were often in fact the same people – made it particularly important for the exchange of knowledge between pure science and the practical world of manufacturing and technology. This created a "chain reaction of innovation", forming a pivotal link between the earlier Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution that would follow. Industrial Revolution Birmingham's explosive industrial expansion started earlier than that of the textile-manufacturing towns of the North of England, and was driven by different factors. Instead of the economies of scale of a low-paid, unskilled workforce producing a single bulk commodity such as cotton or wool in large, mechanised units of production, Birmingham's industrial development was built on the adaptability and creativity of a highly paid workforce with a strong division of labour, practising a broad variety of skilled specialist trades and producing a constantly diversifying range of products, in a highly entrepreneurial economy of small, often self-owned workshops. This led to exceptional levels of inventiveness: between 1760 and 1850 – the core years of the Industrial Revolution – Birmingham residents registered over three times as many patents as those of any other British town or city. The demand for capital to feed rapid economic expansion also saw Birmingham grow into a major financial centre with extensive international connections. Lloyds Bank was founded in the town in 1765, and Ketley's Building Society, the world's first building society, in 1775. By 1800 the West Midlands had more banking offices per head than any other region in Britain, including London. Innovation in 18th-century Birmingham often took the form of incremental series of small-scale improvements to existing products or processes, but also included major developments that lay at the heart of the emergence of industrial society. In 1709 the Birmingham-trained Abraham Darby I moved to Coalbrookdale in Shropshire and built the first blast furnace to successfully smelt iron ore with coke, transforming the quality, volume and scale on which it was possible to produce cast iron. In 1732 Lewis Paul and John Wyatt invented roller spinning, the "one novel idea of the first importance" in the development of the mechanised cotton industry. In 1741 they opened the world's first cotton mill in Birmingham's Upper Priory. In 1746 John Roebuck invented the lead chamber process, enabling the large-scale manufacture of sulphuric acid, and in 1780 James Keir developed a process for the bulk manufacture of alkali, together marking the birth of the modern chemical industry. In 1765 Matthew Boulton opened the Soho Manufactory, pioneering the combination and mechanisation under one roof of previously separate manufacturing activities through a system known as "rational manufacture". As the largest manufacturing unit in Europe, this came to symbolise the emergence of the factory system. Most significant, however, was the development in 1776 of the industrial steam engine by James Watt and Matthew Boulton. Freeing for the first time the manufacturing capacity of human society from the limited availability of hand, water and animal power, this was arguably the pivotal moment of the entire Industrial Revolution and a key factor in the worldwide increases in productivity over the following century. Regency and Victorian Birmingham rose to national political prominence in the campaign for political reform in the early 19th century, with Thomas Attwood and the Birmingham Political Union bringing the country to the brink of civil war during the Days of May that preceded the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832. The Union's meetings on Newhall Hill in 1831 and 1832 were the largest political assemblies Britain had ever seen. Lord Durham, who drafted the Act, wrote that "the country owed Reform to Birmingham, and its salvation from revolution". This reputation for having "shaken the fabric of privilege to its base" in 1832 led John Bright to make Birmingham the platform for his successful campaign for the Second Reform Act of 1867, which extended voting rights to the urban working class. The original Charter of Incorporation, dated 31 October 1838, was received in Birmingham on 1 November, then read in the Town Hall on 5 November with elections for the first Birmingham Town Council being held on 26 December. Sixteen Aldermen and 48 Councillors were elected and the Borough was divided into 13 wards. William Scholefield became the first Mayor and William Redfern was appointed as Town Clerk. Birmingham Town Police were established the following year. Birmingham's tradition of innovation continued into the 19th century. Birmingham was the terminus for both of the world's first two long-distance railway lines: the 82-mile (132 km) Grand Junction Railway of 1837 and the 112-mile (180 km) London and Birmingham Railway of 1838. Birmingham schoolteacher Rowland Hill invented the postage stamp and created the first modern universal postal system in 1839. Alexander Parkes invented the first human-made plastic in the Jewellery Quarter in 1855. By the 1820s, the country's extensive canal system had been constructed, giving greater access to natural resources and fuel for industries. During the Victorian era, the population of Birmingham grew rapidly to well over half a million and Birmingham became the second largest population centre in England. Birmingham was granted city status in 1889 by Queen Victoria. Joseph Chamberlain, mayor of Birmingham and later an MP, and his son Neville Chamberlain, who was Lord Mayor of Birmingham and later the British Prime Minister, are two of the most well-known political figures who have lived in Birmingham. The city established its own university in 1900. 20th century and contemporary The city suffered heavy bomb damage during World War II's "Birmingham Blitz". The city was also the scene of two scientific discoveries that were to prove critical to the outcome of the war. Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls first described how a practical nuclear weapon could be constructed in the Frisch–Peierls memorandum of 1940, the same year that the cavity magnetron, the key component of radar and later of microwave ovens, was invented by John Randall and Henry Boot. Details of these two discoveries, together with an outline of the first jet engine invented by Frank Whittle in nearby Rugby, were taken to the United States by the Tizard Mission in September 1940, in a single black box later described by an official American historian as "the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores". The city was extensively redeveloped during the 1950s and 1960s. This included the construction of large tower block estates, such as Castle Vale. The Bull Ring was reconstructed and New Street station was redeveloped. In the decades following World War II, the ethnic makeup of Birmingham changed significantly, as it received waves of immigration from the Commonwealth of Nations and beyond. The city's population peaked in 1951 at 1,113,000 residents. 21 people were killed and 182 were injured in a series of bomb attacks in 1974, thought to be carried out by the Provisional IRA. The bombings were the worst terror attacks in England up until the 2005 London bombings and consisted of bombs being planted in two pubs in central Birmingham. Six men were convicted, who became known later as the Birmingham Six and sentenced to life imprisonment, who were acquitted after 16 years by the Court of Appeal. The convictions are now considered one of the worst British miscarriages of justice in recent times. The true perpetrators of the attacks are yet to be arrested. Birmingham remained by far Britain's most prosperous provincial city as late as the 1970s, with household incomes exceeding even those of London and the South East, but its economic diversity and capacity for regeneration declined in the decades that followed World War II as Central Government sought to restrict the city's growth and disperse industry and population to the stagnating areas of Wales and Northern England. These measures hindered "the natural self-regeneration of businesses in Birmingham, leaving it top-heavy with the old and infirm", and the city became increasingly dependent on the motor industry. The recession of the early 1980s saw Birmingham's economy collapse, with unprecedented levels of unemployment and outbreaks of social unrest in inner-city districts. Since the turn of the 21st century, many parts of Birmingham have been transformed, with the redevelopment of the Bullring Shopping Centre, the construction of the new Library of Birmingham (the largest public library in Europe) and the regeneration of old industrial areas such as Brindleyplace, The Mailbox and the International Convention Centre, as well as the rationalisation of the Inner Ring Road. In 1998 Birmingham hosted the 24th G8 summit. The city successfully hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games. On 5 September 2023 Birmingham city council issued a Section 114 notice to say that it could not meet its financial commitments. Effectively this meant the council was bankrupt. A major contributing factor is a £1.1b sum that has been paid out since 2010, for equal pay claims. There is still a bill for £760m, increasing by £14m a month. There are also problems with a new IT system that was projected to cost £19m but is now closer to £100m. In addition there is a projected £87m deficit for the financial year 23/24. Government Birmingham City Council has 101 councillors representing 77 wards as of 2018. Its headquarters are at the Council House in Victoria Square. As of 2023, the council has a Labour Party majority and is led by John Cotton. Labour replaced the previous no overall control status at the May 2012 elections. The honour and dignity of a Lord Mayoralty was conferred on Birmingham by Letters Patent on 3 June 1896. Birmingham's ten parliamentary constituencies are represented in the House of Commons as of 2024 by one Conservative, one Independent and eight Labour MPs. Originally part of Warwickshire, Birmingham expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, absorbing parts of Worcestershire to the south and Staffordshire to the north and west. The city absorbed Sutton Coldfield in 1974 and became a metropolitan borough in the new West Midlands county. A top-level government body, the West Midlands Combined Authority, was formed in April 2016. The WMCA holds devolved powers in transport, development planning, and economic growth. The authority is governed by a directly elected mayor, similar to the Mayor of London. Geography Birmingham is located in the centre of the West Midlands region of England on the Birmingham Plateau – an area of relatively high ground, ranging between 500 and 1,000 feet (150 and 300 metres) above sea level and crossed by Britain's main north–south watershed between the basins of the Rivers Severn and Trent. To the immediate south west of the city lie the Lickey Hills, Clent Hills and Walton Hill, which reach 1,033 feet (315 m) and have extensive views over the city. Birmingham is drained only by minor rivers and brooks, primarily the River Tame and its tributaries the Cole and the Rea. Birmingham is located significantly inland, and its nearest body of sea is at Liverpool Bay. It lies at the same latitude as Lowestoft, Britain's easternmost settlement; it is therefore much more proximate to the western coast of Wales, at Cardigan Bay.The City of Birmingham forms a conurbation with the borough of Solihull to the south east, and with the city of Wolverhampton and the industrial towns of the Black Country to the north west, which form the West Midlands Built-up Area covering 59,972 ha (600 km2; 232 sq mi). Surrounding this is Birmingham's metropolitan area – the area to which it is closely economically tied through commuting – which includes the town of Tamworth and the city of Lichfield in Staffordshire to the north; the city of Coventry and the towns of Nuneaton, Bedworth, Whitnash, Kenilworth, Rugby, Atherstone, Coleshill, Warwick and Leamington Spa to the east in Warwickshire and the Worcestershire towns of Redditch and Bromsgrove to the south west. As the crow flies, Birmingham lies approximately 100 miles (160 km) north-west of London, 85 miles (137 km) north-east of the Welsh capital Cardiff, 45 miles (72 km) south-west of Nottingham, 70 miles (110 km) south of Manchester, and 75 miles (121 km) north-north-east of Bristol. Much of the area now occupied by the city was originally a northern reach of the ancient Forest of Arden and the city remains relatively densely covered by oak in a large number of districts such as Moseley, Saltley, Yardley, Stirchley and Hockley. These places, with names ending in "-ley", deriving from Old English -lēah meaning "woodland clearing", are named after the former forest. Geology Birmingham is dominated by the Birmingham Fault, which runs diagonally through the city from the Lickey Hills in the south west, passing through Edgbaston and the Bull Ring, to Erdington and Sutton Coldfield in the north east. To the south and east of the fault the ground is largely softer Mercia Mudstone, interspersed with beds of Bunter pebbles and crossed by the valleys of the Rivers Tame, Rea and Cole and their tributaries. To the north and west of the fault, between 150 and 600 feet (46 and 183 metres) higher than the surrounding area and underlying much of the city centre, lies a long ridge of harder Keuper Sandstone. The bedrock underlying Birmingham was mostly laid down during the Permian and Triassic periods. The area has evidence of glacial deposits, with prominent erratic boulders becoming a tourist attraction in the early 1900s. Climate Birmingham has a temperate maritime climate (Cfb according to the Köppen climate classification), like much of the British Isles, with average maximum temperatures in summer (July) being around 21.3 °C (70.3 °F); and in winter (January) around 6.7 °C (44.1 °F). Between 1971 and 2000 the warmest day of the year on average was 28.8 °C (83.8 °F) and the coldest night typically fell to −9.0 °C (15.8 °F). Some 11.2 days each year rose to a temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above and 51.6 nights reported an air frost. The highest recorded temperature recorded at the Edgbaston Campus was 37.4 °C (99.3 °F), whilst a temperature of 37.0 °C (98.6 °F) was recorded at Birmingham Airport on the city's eastern edge, both recorded on 19 July 2022. Like most other large cities, Birmingham has a considerable urban heat island effect. During the coldest night recorded, 14 January 1982, the temperature fell to −20.8 °C (−5.4 °F) at Birmingham Airport, but just −14.3 °C (6.3 °F) at Edgbaston, near the city centre. Birmingham is a snowy city relative to other large UK conurbations, due to its inland location and comparatively high elevation. Between 1961 and 1990 Birmingham Airport averaged 13.0 days of snow lying annually, compared to 5.33 at London Heathrow. Snow showers often pass through the city via the Cheshire gap on north westerly airstreams, but can also come off the North Sea from north easterly airstreams. Extreme weather is rare, but the city has been known to experience tornadoes. On 14 June 1931, an extremely damaging T6/F3 tornado struck the city, carving an 11-mile damage path through Hollywood, Hall Green, Sparkbrook, Tyseley, Greet and Small Heath, causing extensive damage and killing 1 woman. On 23 November 1981, during a record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak, two tornadoes touched down within the Birmingham city limits – in Erdington and Selly Oak – with six tornadoes touching down within the boundaries of the wider West Midlands county. More recently, a destructive T6/F3 tornado occurred in July 2005 in the south of the city, damaging homes and businesses in the area. The tornado took an almost parallel path to that of the 1931 tornado. Notable tornadoes have also struck the city in 1923, 1946, 1951, 1998 and 1999, most of which being of T2-T4/F1-F2 intensity. Environment There are 571 parks within Birmingham – more than any other European city – totalling over 3,500 hectares (14 sq mi) of public open space. The city has over six million trees, and 250 miles (400 kilometres) of urban brooks and streams. Sutton Park, which covers 2,400 acres (971 ha) in the north of the city, is the largest urban park in Europe and a national nature reserve. Birmingham Botanical Gardens, located close to the city centre, retains the regency landscape of its original design by J. C. Loudon in 1829, while the Winterbourne Botanic Garden in Edgbaston reflects the more informal Arts and Crafts tastes of its Edwardian origins. Several green spaces within the borough are designated as green belt, as a portion of the wider West Midlands Green Belt. This is a strategic local government policy used to prevent urban sprawl and preserve greenfield land. Areas included are the aforementioned Sutton Park; land along the borough boundary by the Sutton Coldfield, Walmley and Minworth suburbs; Kingfisher, Sheldon, Woodgate Valley country parks; grounds by the Wake Green football club; Bartley and Frankley reservoirs; and Handsworth cemetery with surrounding golf courses. Birmingham has many areas of wildlife that lie in both informal settings such as the Project Kingfisher and Woodgate Valley Country Park and in a selection of parks such as Lickey Hills Country Park, Pype Hayes Park & Newhall Valley, Handsworth Park, Kings Heath Park, and Cannon Hill Park, the latter also housing the mini zoo, Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park. Demographics The 2021 census recorded 1,144,900 people living in Birmingham, an increase of around 6.7% from 2011 when 1,073,045 were recorded. It is the 27th largest city in Europe by population within its city boundary. Birmingham's continuous urban area extends beyond the city's boundaries: the Birmingham Larger Urban Zone, a Eurostat measure of the functional city-region approximated to local government districts, had a population of 2,357,100 in 2004. In addition to Birmingham itself, the LUZ (West Midlands conurbation) includes the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall, along with the districts of Lichfield, Tamworth, North Warwickshire and Bromsgrove. Beyond this is the wider metropolitan area with a population numbering 3,558,916 in 2019 according to Eurostat. Around 305,688 or 26.7% of the population in 2021 were foreign-born, making it a city with one of the largest migrant populations in Europe. Ethnic groups According to figures from the 2021 census, 48.7% of the population was White (42.9% White British, 1.5% White Irish, 4.0% Other White, 0.2% Roma, 0.1% Irish Traveller), 31% were Asian (17.0% Pakistani, 5.8% Indian, 4.2% Bangladeshi, 1.1% Chinese, 2.9% Other Asian), 10.9% were Black (5.8% African, 3.9% Caribbean, 1.2% Other Black), 4.8% of Mixed race (2.2% White and Black Caribbean, 0.4% White and Black African, 1.1% White and Asian, 1.1% Other Mixed), 1.7% Arab and 4.6% of Other ethnic heritage. The 2021 census showed 26.7% of the population were born outside the UK, an increase of 4.5% percentage points from 2011. Figures showed that the five largest foreign-born groups living in Birmingham were born in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Romania and Jamaica. In 2011, 57% of primary and 52% of secondary pupils were from non-White British families. As of 2021, 31.6% of school pupils in Birmingham were White, 37.7% were Asian, 12.6% were Black, 9.7% were Mixed race and 8.4% were Other. There is particularly a large community of Asian descent, especially from Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi backgrounds, as well as Afro-Caribbeans from the Commonwealth, and a solid Chinese presence through migrants from the former colony of Hong Kong. Birmingham also has an older Irish connection, with the city having the largest population of Irish in mainland Britain and home to its only Irish quarter, Digbeth. Age structure and median age In Birmingham, 65.9% of the population were aged between 15 and 64, higher than when compared to the national average of 64.1% in England and Wales. Furthermore, 20.9% of the population were aged under 15, higher than the national average of 17.4% while the population aged over 65 was 13.1%, which was lower than the national average of 18.6% respectively. Birmingham is one of the youngest cities in Europe with 40% of its population below the age of 25 and the median age being 34 years of age, below the national average of 40. Religion Christianity is the largest religion within Birmingham, with 34% of residents identifying as Christians in the 2021 Census. The city's religious profile is highly diverse: outside London, Birmingham has the United Kingdom's largest Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist communities; its second largest Hindu community; and its seventh largest Jewish community. Between the 2001, 2011, and 2021 censuses, the proportion of Christians in Birmingham decreased from 59.1% to 46.1% to 34%, while the proportion of Muslims increased from 14.3% to 21.8% to 29.9% and the proportion of people with no religious affiliation increased from 12.4% to 19.3% to 24.1%. All other religions remained proportionately similar. St Philip's Cathedral was upgraded from church status when the Anglican Diocese of Birmingham was created in 1905. There are two other cathedrals: St Chad's, seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham and the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God and St Andrew. The Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Midlands is also based at Birmingham, with a cathedral under construction. The original parish church of Birmingham, St Martin in the Bull Ring, is Grade II* listed. A short distance from Five Ways the Birmingham Oratory was completed in 1910 on the site of Cardinal Newman's original foundation. There are several Christadelphian meeting halls in the city and the Christadelphian Magazine and Publishing Group has its headquarters in Hall Green. The oldest surviving synagogue in Birmingham is the 1825 Greek Revival Severn Street Synagogue, now a Freemasons' Lodge hall. It was replaced in 1856 by the Grade II* listed Singers Hill Synagogue. Birmingham Central Mosque, one of the largest in Europe, was constructed in the 1960s. During the late 1990s Ghamkol Shariff Masjid was built in Small Heath. The Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha Sikh Gurdwara was built on Soho Road in Handsworth in the late 1970s and the Theravada Buddhist Dhamma Talaka Peace Pagoda near Edgbaston Reservoir in the 1990s. Winners' Chapel also maintains physical presence in Digbeth. Economy Birmingham grew to prominence as a centre of manufacturing and engineering. The economy of Birmingham is dominated by the service sector, which accounted for 88% of the city's employment in 2012. Birmingham is the largest centre in the UK for employment in public administration, education and health; and after Leeds the second-largest centre outside London for employment in financial and other business services. The Gun Quarter is a district of the city that was, for many years, a centre of the world's gun-manufacturing industry. The first recorded gun maker in Birmingham was in 1630, and locally made muskets were used in the English Civil War. The Gun Quarter is an industrial area to the north of the city centre, bounded by Steelhouse Lane, Shadwell Street, and Loveday Street, specialising in the production of military firearms and sporting guns. Many buildings in the area are disused but plans are in place for redevelopment including in Shadwell Street and Vesey Street. The wider metropolitan economy is the second-largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121.1 billion (2014 estimate, PPP). Major companies headquartered in Birmingham include the engineering company IMI plc, Mobico Group, Patisserie Valerie, Claire's, and Mitchells & Butlers; including the wider metropolitan area, the city has the largest concentration of major companies outside London and the South East. hosting headquarters for Gymshark and Severn Trent Water. With major facilities such as the National Exhibition Centre and International Convention Centre, Birmingham attracts 42% of the UK's total conference and exhibition trade. In 2012, manufacturing accounted for 8% of the employment in Birmingham, a figure below the average for the UK as a whole. Major industrial plants in the city include Jaguar Land Rover in Castle Bromwich and Cadbury in Bournville, with large local producers also supporting a supply chain of precision-based small manufacturers and craft industries. More traditional industries also remain: 40% of the jewellery made in the UK is still produced by the 300 independent manufacturers of the city's Jewellery Quarter, continuing a trade first recorded in Birmingham in 1308. Birmingham's GVA was estimated to be £24.8 billion in 2015, economic growth accelerated each successive year between 2013 and 2015, and with an annual growth of 4.2% in 2015, GVA per head grew at the second-fastest rate of England's eight "Core Cities". The value of manufacturing output in the city declined by 21% in real terms between 1997 and 2010, but the value of financial and insurance activities more than doubled. With 16,281 start-ups registered during 2013, Birmingham has the highest level of entrepreneurial activity outside London, while the number of registered businesses in the city grew by 8.1% during 2016. Birmingham was behind only London and Edinburgh for private sector job creation between 2010 and 2013. Economic inequality in Birmingham is greater than in any other major English city, exceeded only by Glasgow in the United Kingdom. Levels of unemployment are among the highest in the country, with 10% of the economically active population unemployed in June 2016. In the inner-city wards of Aston and Washwood Heath, the figure is higher than 30%. Two-fifths of Birmingham's population live in areas classified as in the 10% most deprived parts of England, and overall Birmingham is the most deprived local authority in England in terms of income and employment deprivation. The city's infant mortality rate is high, around 60% worse than the national average. Meanwhile, just 49% of women have jobs, compared to 65% nationally, and only 28% of the working-age population in Birmingham have degree level qualifications in contrast to the average of 34% across other core cities. According to the 2014 Mercer Quality of Living Survey, Birmingham was placed 51st in the world, which was the second-highest rating in the UK. The city's quality of life rating has continued to improve over the years and Birmingham was ranked 49th in the world in the 2019 survey. This is the first time it has featured in the top 50. The Big City Plan of 2008 aims to move the city into the index's top 20 by 2026. An area of the city has been designated an enterprise zone, with tax relief and simplified planning to lure investment. According to 2019 property investment research, Birmingham is rated as the number one location for "the best places to invest in property in the UK". This was attributed to a 5% increase in house prices and local investment into infrastructure. Culture Music The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's home venue is Symphony Hall. Other notable professional orchestras based in the city include the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and Ex Cathedra, a Baroque chamber choir and period instrument orchestra. The Orchestra of the Swan is the resident chamber orchestra at Birmingham Town Hall, where weekly recitals have also been given by the City Organist since 1834. The Birmingham Triennial Music Festivals took place from 1784 to 1912. Music was specially composed, conducted or performed by Mendelssohn, Gounod, Sullivan, Dvořák, Bantock and Edward Elgar, who wrote four of his most famous choral pieces for Birmingham. Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius had its début performance there in 1900. Composers born in the city include Albert William Ketèlbey and Andrew Glover. Jazz has been popular in the city since the 1920s, and there are many regular festivals such as the Harmonic Festival, the Mostly Jazz Festival and the annual International Jazz Festival. Birmingham's other city-centre music venues include Arena Birmingham (previously known as the National Indoor Arena and the Barclaycard Arena), which was opened in 1991, O2 Academy on Bristol Street, which opened in September 2009 replacing the O2 Academy in Dale End, the CBSO Centre, opened in 1997, HMV Institute in Digbeth and the Bradshaw Hall at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. During the 1960s, Birmingham was the home of a music scene comparable to that of Liverpool. It was "a seething cauldron of musical activity", and the international success of groups such as The Move, The Spencer Davis Group, The Moody Blues, Traffic and the Electric Light Orchestra had a collective influence that stretched into the 1970s and beyond. The city was a centre for early heavy metal music, with pioneering metal bands from the late 1960s and 1970s such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and half of Led Zeppelin having come from Birmingham. The next decade saw the metal bands Napalm Death and Godflesh emerge from the city, as well as Benediction and the extreme black death metal act Anaal Nathrakh later. The funeral doom band Esoteric has been operating in the sub-genre since 1992. Birmingham was the birthplace of modern bhangra in the 1960s, and by the 1980s had established itself as the global centre of bhangra culture, which has grown into a global phenomenon embraced by members of the Indian diaspora worldwide from Los Angeles to Singapore. The 1970s also saw the rise of reggae and ska in the city with such bands as Steel Pulse, UB40, Musical Youth, The Beat and Beshara, expounding racial unity with politically leftist lyrics and multiracial line-ups, mirroring social currents in Birmingham at that time. Other popular bands from Birmingham include Duran Duran, Johnny Foreigner, Fine Young Cannibals, Felt, Broadcast, Ocean Colour Scene, The Streets, The Twang, King Adora, Dexys Midnight Runners, and Magnum. Musicians Jeff Lynne, Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, GBH, John Lodge, Roy Wood, Joan Armatrading, Toyah Willcox, Denny Laine, Sukshinder Shinda, Apache Indian, Steve Winwood, Jamelia, Oceans Ate Alaska, Fyfe Dangerfield and Laura Mvula all grew up in the city. Theatre and performing arts Birmingham Repertory Theatre is Britain's longest-established producing theatre, presenting a wide variety of work in its three auditoria on Centenary Square and touring nationally and internationally. Other producing theatres in the city include the Blue Orange Theatre in the Jewellery Quarter; the Old Rep, home stage of the Birmingham Stage Company; and @ A. E. Harris, the base of the experimental Stan's Cafe theatre company, located within a working metal fabricators' factory. Touring theatre companies include the politically radical Banner Theatre, the Maverick Theatre Company and Kindle Theatre. The Alexandra Theatre and the Birmingham Hippodrome host large-scale touring productions, while professional drama is performed on a wide range of stages across the city, including the Crescent Theatre, the Custard Factory, the Old Joint Stock Theatre, the Drum in Aston and the mac in Cannon Hill Park. The Birmingham Royal Ballet is one of the United Kingdom's five major ballet companies and one of three based outside London. It is resident at the Birmingham Hippodrome and tours extensively nationally and internationally. The company's associated ballet school – Elmhurst School for Dance in Edgbaston – is the oldest vocational dance school in the country. The Birmingham Opera Company under artistic director Graham Vick has developed an international reputation for its avant-garde productions, which often take place in factories, abandoned buildings and other found spaces around the city. More conventional seasons by Welsh National Opera and other visiting opera companies take place regularly at the Birmingham Hippodrome. The first dedicated comedy club outside London, The Glee Club, was opened in The Arcadian Centre, city centre, in 1994, and continues to host performances by leading regional, national and international acts. Literature Literary figures associated with Birmingham include Samuel Johnson who stayed in Birmingham for a short period and was born in nearby Lichfield. Arthur Conan Doyle worked in the Aston area of Birmingham whilst poet Louis MacNeice lived in Birmingham for six years. It was whilst staying in Birmingham that American author Washington Irving produced several of his most famous literary works, such as Bracebridge Hall and The Humorists, A Medley which are based on Aston Hall, as well as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. The poet W. H. Auden grew up in the Harborne area of the city and during the 1930s formed the core of the Auden Group with Birmingham University lecturer Louis MacNeice. Other influential poets associated with Birmingham include Roi Kwabena, who was the city's sixth poet laureate, and Benjamin Zephaniah, who was born in the city. The author J. R. R. Tolkien was brought up in the Kings Heath area of Birmingham. He referred to Birmingham as his home town and to himself as a ‘Birmingham man’. There is a dedicated 'Tolkien Trail' across Birmingham which takes those who follow it to the landmarks which are said to have inspired Tolkien's works. The political playwright David Edgar was born in Birmingham, and the science fiction author John Wyndham spent his early childhood in the Edgbaston area of the city. Birmingham has a vibrant contemporary literary scene, with local authors including David Lodge, Jim Crace, Jonathan Coe, Joel Lane and Judith Cutler. The city's leading contemporary literary publisher is the Tindal Street Press, whose authors include prize-winning novelists Catherine O'Flynn, Clare Morrall and Austin Clarke. Art and design The Birmingham School of landscape artists emerged with Daniel Bond in the 1760s and was to last into the mid 19th century. Its most important figure was David Cox, whose later works make him an important precursor of impressionism. The influence of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and the Birmingham School of Art made Birmingham an important centre of Victorian art, particularly within the Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts movements. Major figures included the Pre-Raphaelite and symbolist Edward Burne-Jones; Walter Langley, the first of the Newlyn School painters; and Joseph Southall, leader of the group of artists and craftsmen known as the Birmingham Group. The Birmingham Surrealists were among the "harbingers of surrealism" in Britain in the 1930s and the movement's most active members in the 1940s, while more abstract artists associated with the city included Lee Bank-born David Bomberg and CoBrA member William Gear. Birmingham artists were prominent in several post-war developments in art: Peter Phillips was among the central figures in the birth of Pop Art; John Salt was the only major European figure among the pioneers of photo-realism; and the BLK Art Group used painting, collage and multimedia to examine the politics and culture of Black British identity. Contemporary artists from the city include the Turner Prize winner Gillian Wearing and the Turner Prize shortlisted artists Richard Billingham, John Walker, Roger Hiorns, and conceptual artist Pogus Caesar whose work has been acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Birmingham's role as a manufacturing and printing centre has supported strong local traditions of graphic design and product design. Iconic works by Birmingham designers include the Baskerville font, Ruskin Pottery, the Acme Thunderer whistle, the Art Deco branding of the Odeon Cinemas and the Mini. Museums and galleries Birmingham has two major public art collections. Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is best known for its works by the Pre-Raphaelites, a collection "of outstanding importance". It also holds a significant selection of old masters – including major works by Bellini, Rubens, Canaletto and Claude – and particularly strong collections of 17th-century Italian Baroque painting and English watercolours. Its design holdings include Europe's pre-eminent collections of ceramics and fine metalwork. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Edgbaston is one of the finest small art galleries in the world, with a collection of exceptional quality representing Western art from the 13th century to the present day. Birmingham Museums Trust runs other museums in the city including Aston Hall, Blakesley Hall, the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Soho House and Sarehole Mill. The Birmingham Back to Backs are the last surviving court of back-to-back houses in the city. Cadbury World is a museum showing visitors the stages and steps of chocolate production and the history of chocolate and the company. The Ikon Gallery hosts displays of contemporary art, as does Eastside Projects. Thinktank is Birmingham's main science museum, with a giant screen cinema, a planetarium and a collection that includes the Smethwick Engine, the world's oldest working steam engine. Other science-based museums include the National Sea Life Centre in Brindleyplace, the Lapworth Museum of Geology at the University of Birmingham and the Centre of the Earth environmental education centre in Winson Green. Nightlife Nightlife in Birmingham is mainly concentrated along Broad Street and into Brindleyplace. Although in more recent years, Broad Street has lost its popularity due to the closing of several clubs; the Arcadian now has more popularity in terms of nightlife. Outside the Broad Street area are many stylish and underground venues. The Medicine Bar in the Custard Factory, hmv Institute, Rainbow Pub and Air are large clubs and bars in Digbeth. Around Birmingham Chinatown are areas such as the Arcadian and Hurst Street Gay Village, that abound with bars and clubs. Summer Row, The Mailbox, O2 Academy in Bristol Street, Snobs Nightclub, St Philips/Colmore Row, St Paul's Square and the Jewellery Quarter all have a vibrant night life. There are a number of late night pubs in the Irish Quarter. Outside the city centre is Star City entertainment complex on the former site of Nechells Power Station. Festivals Birmingham is home to many national, religious and cultural festivals, including a St. George's Day party. The city's largest single-day event is its St. Patrick's Day parade (Europe's second largest, after Dublin). The Nowka Bais is a Bengali boat racing festival which takes place annually in Birmingham. It is a leading cultural event in the West Midlands, United Kingdom attracting not only the Bangladeshi diaspora but a variety of cultures. It is also the largest kind of boat race in the United Kingdom. Other multicultural events include the Bangla Mela and the Vaisakhi Mela. The Birmingham Heritage Festival is a Mardi Gras style event in August. Caribbean and African culture are celebrated with parades and street performances by buskers. The Caribbean-style Birmingham International Carnival takes place in odd-numbered years.The UK's largest two-day Gay Pride is Birmingham Pride (LGBT festival), which is typically held over the spring bank holiday weekend in May. The streets of Birmingham's gay district pulsate with a carnival parade, live music, a dance arena with DJs, cabaret stage, women's arena and a community village. Birmingham Pride takes place in the gay village. From 1997 until December 2006, the city hosted an annual arts festival, ArtsFest, the largest free arts festival in the UK at the time. The Birmingham Tattoo is a long-standing military show held annually at the National Indoor Arena. The Birmingham Comedy Festival (since 2001; 10 days in October), has been headlined by such acts as Peter Kay, The Fast Show, Jimmy Carr, Lee Evans and Lenny Henry. Since 2001, Birmingham has been host to the Frankfurt Christmas Market. Modelled on its German counterpart, it has grown to become the UK's largest outdoor Christmas market and is the largest German market outside Germany and Austria, attracting over 3.1 million visitors in 2010 and over 5 million visitors in 2011. The biennial Birmingham International Dance Festival (BIDF) started in 2008, organised by DanceXchange and involving indoor and outdoor venues across the city. Other festivals in the city include the Birmingham International Jazz Festival. Moseley Folk and Arts Festival, and Mostly Jazz Festival. Food and drink Birmingham's development as a commercial town was originally based around its market for agricultural produce, established by royal charter in 1166. Despite the industrialisation of subsequent centuries this role has been retained and the Birmingham Wholesale Markets remain the largest combined wholesale food markets in the country, selling meat, fish, fruit, vegetables and flowers and supplying fresh produce to restaurateurs and independent retailers from as far as 100 miles (161 km) away. Birmingham is the only city outside London to have five Michelin starred restaurants: Simpson's in Edgbaston, Carters of Moseley, and Purnell's, Opheem and Adam's in the city centre. Birmingham based breweries included Ansells, Davenport's and Mitchells & Butlers. Aston Manor Brewery is currently the only brewery of any significant size. Many fine Victorian pubs and bars can still be found across the city, whilst there is also a plethora of more modern nightclubs and bars, notably along Broad Street. The Wing Yip food empire first began in the city and now has its headquarters in Nechells. The Balti, a type of curry, was invented in the city, which has received much acclaim for the 'Balti Belt' or 'Balti Triangle'. Famous food brands that originated in Birmingham include Typhoo tea, Bird's Custard, Cadbury's chocolate and HP Sauce. There is also a thriving independent and artisan food sector in Birmingham, encompassing microbreweries like Two Towers, and collective bakeries such as Loaf. Recent years have seen these businesses increasingly showcased at farmers markets, popular street food events and food festivals including Birmingham Independent Food Fair. Entertainment and leisure Birmingham is home to many entertainment and leisure venues, including Europe's largest leisure and entertainment complex Star City as well as Europe's first out-of-city-centre entertainment and leisure complex Resorts World Birmingham owned by the Genting Group. The Mailbox which caters for more affluent clients is based within the city. Architecture Birmingham is chiefly a product of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries; its growth began during the Industrial Revolution. Consequently, relatively few buildings survive from its earlier history and those that do are protected. There are 1,946 listed buildings in Birmingham and thirteen scheduled ancient monuments. Birmingham City Council also operate a locally listing scheme for buildings that do not fully meet the criteria for statutorily listed status. Traces of medieval Birmingham can be seen in the oldest churches, notably the original parish church, St Martin in the Bull Ring. A few other buildings from the medieval and Tudor periods survive, among them the Lad in the Lane and The Old Crown, the 15th century Saracen's Head public house and Old Grammar School in Kings Norton and Blakesley Hall. A number of Georgian buildings survive, including St Philip's Cathedral, Soho House, Perrott's Folly, the Town Hall and much of St Paul's Square. The Victorian era saw extensive building across the city. Major civic buildings such as the Victoria Law Courts (in characteristic red brick and terracotta), the Council House and the Museum & Art Gallery were constructed. St Chad's Cathedral was the first Roman Catholic cathedral to be built in the UK since the Reformation. Across the city, the need to house the industrial workers gave rise to miles of redbrick streets and terraces, many of back-to-back houses, some of which were later to become inner-city slums. Postwar redevelopment and anti-Victorianism resulted in the loss of dozens of Victorian buildings like New Street station and the old Central Library, often replaced by brutalist architecture. Sir Herbert Manzoni, City Engineer and Surveyor of Birmingham from 1935 until 1963, believed conservation of old buildings was sentimental and that the city did not have any of worth anyway. In inner-city areas too, much Victorian housing was demolished and redeveloped. Existing communities were relocated to tower block estates like Castle Vale. In a partial reaction against the Manzoni years, Birmingham City Council is demolishing some of the brutalist buildings like the Central Library and has an extensive tower block demolition and renovation programme. There has been much redevelopment in the city centre in recent years, including the award-winning Future Systems' Selfridges building in the Bullring Shopping Centre, the Brindleyplace regeneration project, the Millennium Point science and technology centre, and the refurbishment of the iconic Rotunda building. Funding for many of these projects has come from the European Union; the Town Hall for example received £3 million in funding from the European Regional Development Fund. Highrise development has slowed since the 1970s and mainly in recent years because of enforcements imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority on the heights of buildings as they could affect aircraft from the Airport (e.g. Beetham Tower). Demonymy and identity People from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the city's nickname of "Brum", which originates from the city's old name, Brummagem. The Brummie accent and dialect are particularly distinctive. Transport Partly due to its central location, Birmingham is a major transport hub for motorway, railway and canal networks. Roads The city is served by the M5, M6, M40 and M42 motorways, and possibly the most well known motorway junction in the United Kingdom: Spaghetti Junction, a colloquial name for the Gravelly Hill Interchange. The M6 passes through the city on the Bromford Viaduct, which at 3.5 miles (5.6 km) is the longest bridge in the UK. The Middleway (A4540) is a ring road that runs around the city centre. In the past there used to be a smaller ring road in the core of the city named Inner Ring Road. Birmingham introduced a Clean Air Zone from 1 June 2021, which charges polluting vehicles to travel into the city centre. Air Birmingham Airport, located 6 miles (9.7 km) east of the city centre in the neighbouring borough of Solihull, is the seventh busiest airport by passenger traffic in the UK and the third busiest outside the London area, after Manchester and Edinburgh. It is a major base for easyJet, Jet2, Ryanair and TUI Airways. Airline services operate from Birmingham to many destinations in Europe, Africa, the Americas, Middle East, Asia and Oceania. Public transport Birmingham's local public transport network is co-ordinated by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) which is a branch of the West Midlands Combined Authority. Birmingham has a high level of public transport usage; in 2015, 63% of morning peak trips into Birmingham were made by public transport, with the remaining 37% made by private car. Rail was the most popular public transport mode, accounting for 36.4% of journeys, followed by buses at 26.3% and the Metro at 0.3%. There is currently no underground system in Birmingham; it is the largest city in Europe not to have one. In recent years, ideas of an underground system have started to appear, but none so far have been planned in earnest primarily due to the ongoing expansion of the West Midlands Metro tram network being viewed as a higher priority. Railway The main railway station in the city is Birmingham New Street, which is the busiest railway station in the UK outside London, both for passenger entries/exits and for passenger interchanges. It is the national hub for CrossCountry, the most extensive long-distance train network in Britain, and a major destination for Avanti West Coast services from London Euston, Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley. Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill form the northern termini for Chiltern Railways express trains running from London Marylebone. Curzon Street railway station, currently under construction, will be the terminus for trains to the city on High Speed 2, the first phase of which will open around 2030. Birmingham and the surrounding region have a network of local and suburban railways, mostly operated by West Midlands Trains. There are a total of 70 railway stations within the West Midlands county, 34 of which are within Birmingham's city boundaries. Suburban railway lines in Birmingham include the Cross-City Line, the Chase Line, the Snow Hill Lines and the Birmingham loop. In 2016/17, there were nearly 55 million rail passenger journeys within the TfWM area, a big increase over the 23 million back in 2000/01. Tram Historically, Birmingham had a substantial tram system operated by Birmingham Corporation Tramways which was closed in 1953. In 1999, trams returned to the city with the West Midlands Metro (formerly known as the Midland Metro) which operates services to the city of Wolverhampton. Since 2015–2016, after extension work, the tram network runs in the streets of central Birmingham, for the first time since 1953; further expansions of the West Midlands Metro system are underway with extensions and new lines being constructed. Bus and coach Bus networks throughout the city and wider region are widespread. 261 million bus journeys were made in the TfWM area in 2016/17. Bus routes are mainly operated commercially by private companies, although TfWM subsidises socially necessary services. National Express West Midlands, accounts for nearly 80% of all bus journeys in Birmingham, with other companies operating within the city including Arriva Midlands, Diamond Buses, Stagecoach Midlands and other smaller independent operators. The number 11 outer circle bus route, run by National Express West Midlands, which operates in both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions around the outskirts of the city, is the longest urban bus route in Europe, being over 26 miles (42 km) long with 272 bus stops. The headquarters of Mobico Group are located in Digbeth, who own both National Express West Midlands and National Express Coaches, are based in offices above Birmingham Coach Station which also forms the latter's national hub. As well as National Express Coaches, the city is also served by Flixbus, and Megabus. Cycling Sustrans' National Cycle Route 5 goes through central Birmingham, connecting with National Cycle Route 81 at Smethwick. National Cycle Route 535 from Sutton Coldfield terminates just north of Birmingham Snow Hill railway station. In 2021, Transport for West Midlands launched a cycle hire scheme involving over 300 bikes and 43 docking stations across the West Midlands, including central Birmingham. Canals An extensive canal system still remains in Birmingham from the Industrial Revolution. The city has more miles of canal than Venice, though the canals in Birmingham are a less prominent and essential feature due to the larger size of the city and the fact that few of its buildings are accessed by canal. The canals are mainly used today for leisure purposes; canalside regeneration schemes such as Brindleyplace have turned the canals into a tourist attraction. Education Further and higher education Birmingham is home to five universities: Aston University, University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University, University College Birmingham and Newman University. The city also hosts major campuses of the University of Law and BPP University, as well as the Open University's West Midlands regional base. In 2011 Birmingham had 78,259 full-time students from all over the world aged 18–74 resident in the city during term time, more than any other city in the United Kingdom outside London. Birmingham has 32,690 research students, also the highest number of any major city outside London. The Birmingham Business School, established by Sir William Ashley in 1902, is the oldest graduate-level business school in the United Kingdom. Another top business school in the city includes Aston Business School, one of fewer than 1% of business schools globally to be granted triple accreditation, and Birmingham City Business School. Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University, offers professional training in music and acting. Birmingham is an important centre for religious education. St Mary's College, Oscott is one of the three seminaries of the Catholic Church in England and Wales; Woodbrooke is the only Quaker study centre in Europe; and Queen's College, Edgbaston is an ecumenical theological college serving the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church. Birmingham Metropolitan College is one of the largest further education colleges in the country, with fourteen campuses spread across Birmingham and into the Black Country and Worcestershire. South & City College Birmingham has nine campuses spread throughout the city. Bournville College is based in a £66 million, 4.2 acre campus in Longbridge that opened in 2011. Fircroft College is a residential college based in a former Edwardian mansion in Selly Oak, founded in 1909 around a strong commitment to social justice, with many courses aimed at students with few prior formal qualifications. Queen Alexandra College is a specialist college based in Harborne offering further education to visually impaired or disabled students from all over the United Kingdom. Primary and secondary education Birmingham City Council is England's largest local education authority, directly or indirectly responsible for nursery schools, primary schools, secondary schools, special schools, sixth form colleges, further education colleges, and adult education. It provides around 3,500 adult education courses throughout the year. Most of Birmingham's state schools are academy schools, community schools, free schools and voluntary aided schools. Since the 1970s, most secondary schools in Birmingham have been 11-–-16/18 comprehensive schools, while post GCSE students have the choice of continuing their education in either a school's sixth form or at a further education college. King Edward's School, Birmingham, founded in 1552 by King Edward VI, is one of the oldest schools in the city, teaching GCSE and IB, with alumni including J R R Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings books and The Hobbit. Independent schools in the city include the Birmingham Blue Coat School, King Edward VI High School for Girls and Edgbaston High School for Girls. Bishop Vesey's Grammar School was founded by Bishop Vesey in 1527. Public services Library services The former Birmingham Central Library, opened in 1972, was considered to be the largest municipal library in Europe. Six of its collections were designated by the Arts Council England as being "pre-eminent collections of national and international importance", out of only eight collections to be so recognised in local authority libraries nationwide. A new Library of Birmingham in Centenary Square, replacing Central Library, was opened on 3 September 2013. It was designed by the Dutch architects Mecanoo and has been described as "a kind of public forum ... a memorial, a shrine, to the book and to literature". The librar is viewed by the Birmingham City Council as a flagship project for the city's redevelopment. It has been described as the largest public library in the United Kingdom, the largest public cultural space in Europe, and the largest regional library in Europe. 2,414,860 visitors came to the library in 2014 making it the 10th most popular visitor attraction in the UK. There are 41 local libraries in Birmingham, plus a regular mobile library service. The library service has 4 million visitors annually. Emergency services Law enforcement in Birmingham is carried out by West Midlands Police, whose headquarters are at Lloyd House in the city centre. With 87.92 recorded offences per 1000 population in 2009–10, Birmingham's crime rate is above the average for England and Wales, but lower than any of England's other major core cities and lower than many smaller cities such as Oxford, Cambridge or Brighton. Fire and rescue services in Birmingham are provided by West Midlands Fire Service and emergency medical care by West Midlands Ambulance Service. Healthcare There are several major National Health Service hospitals in Birmingham. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, adjacent to the Birmingham Medical School in Edgbaston, is one of the largest teaching hospitals in the United Kingdom with over 1,200 beds. It is a major trauma centre offering services to the extended West Midlands region and houses the largest single-floor critical care unit in the world, with 100 beds. The hospital has the largest solid organ transplantation programme in Europe as well as the largest renal transplant programme in the United Kingdom and it is a national specialist centre for liver, heart and lung transplantation, as well as cancer studies. It is the home of the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine for military personnel injured in conflict zones. Other general hospitals in the city include Heartlands Hospital in Bordesley Green, Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield and City Hospital in Winson Green. There are also many specialist hospitals, such as Birmingham Children's Hospital, Birmingham Women's Hospital, Birmingham Dental Hospital, and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital. Birmingham saw the first ever use of radiography in an operation, and the UK's first ever hole-in-the-heart operation was performed at Birmingham Children's Hospital. Water supply The Birmingham Corporation Water Department was set up in 1876 to supply water to Birmingham, up until 1974 when its responsibilities were transferred to Severn Trent Water. Most of Birmingham's water is supplied by the Elan aqueduct, opened in 1904; water is fed by gravity to Frankley Reservoir, Frankley, and Bartley Reservoir, Bartley Green, from reservoirs in the Elan Valley, Wales. Energy from waste Within Birmingham the Tyseley Energy from Waste Plant, a large incineration plant built in 1996 for Veolia, burns some 366,414 tonnes of household waste annually and produces 166,230 MWh of electricity for the National Grid along with 282,013 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Sport Birmingham has played an important part in the history of modern sport. The Football League – the world's first league football competition – was founded by Birmingham resident and Aston Villa director William McGregor, who wrote to fellow club directors in 1888 proposing "that ten or twelve of the most prominent clubs in England combine to arrange home-and-away fixtures each season". The modern game of tennis was developed between 1859 and 1865 by Harry Gem and his friend Augurio Perera at Perera's house in Edgbaston, with the Edgbaston Archery and Lawn Tennis Society remaining the oldest tennis club in the world. The Birmingham and District Cricket League is the oldest cricket league in the world, and Birmingham was the host for the first ever Cricket World Cup, a Women's Cricket World Cup in 1973. Birmingham was the first city to be named National City of Sport by the Sports Council. Birmingham was selected ahead of London and Manchester to bid for the 1992 Summer Olympics, but was unsuccessful in the final selection process, which was won by Barcelona. Today, the city is home of two of the country's oldest professional football teams: Aston Villa F.C., which was founded in 1874 and plays at Villa Park; and Birmingham City F.C., which was founded in 1875 and plays at St Andrew's. Rivalry between the clubs is fierce and the fixture between the two is called the Second City derby. Aston Villa currently play in the Premier League while Birmingham City currently play in the EFL League One. West Bromwich Albion also draw support within the Birmingham area, being located at The Hawthorns just outside the city boundaries in Sandwell. Rival football team Coventry City also played briefly at St Andrew's for two seasons between 2019 and 2021 due to an ongoing dispute with their landlords over use of the Coventry Building Society Arena. Warwickshire County Cricket Club play at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, which also hosts test cricket and one day internationals and is the largest cricket ground in the United Kingdom after Lord's. Edgbaston was the scene of the highest ever score by a batsman in first-class cricket, when Brian Lara scored 501 not out for Warwickshire in 1994. Birmingham is also home to professional Rugby Union clubs such as Birmingham Moseley and Birmingham & Solihull. The city also has a semiprofessional Rugby League club, the Midlands Hurricanes as well as an amateur club the Birmingham Bulldogs. The city is also home to one of the oldest American football teams in the BAFA National Leagues, the Birmingham Bulls and a baseball club, Birmingham Baseball Club, with two teams, the Metalheads and the Bats. Two major championship golf courses lie on the city's outskirts. The Belfry near Sutton Coldfield is the headquarters of the Professional Golfers' Association and has hosted the Ryder Cup more times than any other venue. The Forest of Arden Hotel and Country Club near Birmingham Airport is also a regular host of tournaments on the PGA European Tour, including the British Masters and the English Open. The AEGON Classic is, alongside Wimbledon and Eastbourne, one of only three UK tennis tournaments on the WTA Tour. It is played annually at the Edgbaston Priory Club, which in 2010 announced plans for a multimillion-pound redevelopment, including a new showcase centre court and a museum celebrating the game's Birmingham origins. The Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr is the headquarters of UK Athletics, and one of only two British venues to host fixtures in the elite international IAAF Diamond League. It is also the home of Birchfield Harriers, which has many international athletes among its members. The National Indoor Arena hosted the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships and the 2003 and 2018 World Indoor Championships, as well as hosting the annual Aviva Indoor Grand Prix – the only British indoor athletics fixture to qualify as an IAAF Indoor Permit Meeting – and a wide variety of other sporting events. Professional boxing, hockey, skateboarding, stock-car racing, greyhound racing and speedway also take place within the city. Since 1994 Birmingham has hosted the All England Open Badminton Championships at Arena Birmingham. Commonwealth Games Birmingham hosted the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which took place between 28 July and 8 August 2022. This was the first time that Birmingham hosted the Commonwealth Games and the 22nd edition of the Commonwealth Games to take place. Alexander Stadium, which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics was renovated, and the capacity was increased to 30,000 seats. The event contributed £1.2 billion to the economy of the United Kingdom. Media Birmingham is home evolving media industry, including news and magazine publishers, radio and television networks, film production and specialist educational media training. Birmingham has several major local newspapers – the daily Birmingham Mail and the weekly Birmingham Post and Sunday Mercury, all owned by Reach plc. Forward is a freesheet produced by Birmingham City Council, which is distributed to homes in the city. Birmingham is also the hub for various national ethnic media, lifestyle magazines, digital news platforms, and the base for two regional Metro editions (East and West Midlands). Birmingham has three mainstream digital-only news publishers, I Am Birmingham, Birmingham Updates and Second City. Birmingham has a long cinematic history; The Electric on Station Street is the oldest working cinema in the UK. Birmingham is the location for several British and international film productions including Felicia's Journey of 1999, which used locations in Birmingham that were used in Take Me High of 1973 to contrast the changes in the city. The BBC has two facilities in the city. The Mailbox, in the city centre, is the national headquarters of BBC English Regions and the headquarters of BBC West Midlands and the BBC Birmingham network production centre. These were previously located at the Pebble Mill Studios in Edgbaston. The BBC Drama Village, based in Selly Oak, is a production facility specialising in television drama. Central/ATV studios in Birmingham was the location for the recording of various programmes for ITV, including Tiswas and Crossroads, until the complex was closed in 1997, and Central moved to its current Gas Street studios. Central's output from Birmingham now consists of only the West and East editions of the regional news programme ITV News Central. The city is served by numerous national and regional radio stations, as well as hyperlocal radio stations. These include Hits Radio Birmingham and Greatest Hits Radio Birmingham & The West Midlands, Capital Midlands, Heart West Midlands, and Smooth West Midlands. The city has a community radio scene, with stations including BRMB, New Style Radio, Brum Radio, Switch Radio, Scratch Radio, Raaj FM, and Unity FM. The Archers, the world's longest running radio soap, is recorded in Birmingham for BBC Radio 4. BBC Birmingham studios additionally produce shows for BBC Radio WM and BBC Asian Network in the city. The late night show Late Night Lycett is filmed in Birmingham. Notable people International relations Birmingham is twinned with: Birmingham also has friendly relations with: Changchun, China (since 1983) Mirpur, Pakistan (since 1993) Nanjing, China (since 2007) See also List of freemen of the City of Birmingham Notes References Citations Sources External links Visitbirmingham.com - tourism website

Coventry

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

Coventry ( KOV-ən-tree or rarely KUV-) is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centuries. Founded in the early Middle Ages, its city status was formally recognised in a charter of 1345. The city is governed by Coventry City Council, and the West Midlands Combined Authority. Formerly part of Warwickshire until 1451, and again from 1842 to 1974, Coventry had a population of 345,324 at the 2021 census, making it the tenth largest city in England and the 13th largest in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest city in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham, from which it is separated by an area of green belt known as the Meriden Gap; it is the third largest in the wider Midlands after Birmingham and Leicester. The city is part of a larger conurbation known as the Coventry and Bedworth Urban Area, which in 2021 had a population of 389,603. Coventry is 19 miles (31 km) east-south-east of Birmingham, 24 miles (39 km) south-west of Leicester, 10 miles (16 km) north of Warwick and 94 miles (151 km) north-west of London. Coventry is also the most central city in England, being only 12 miles (19 km) south-west of the country's geographical centre in Leicestershire. Coventry became an important and wealthy city of national importance during the Middle Ages. Later it became an important industrial centre, becoming home to a large bicycle industry in the 19th century. In the 20th century, it became a major centre of the British motor industry; this made it a target for German air raids during the Second World War, and in November 1940, much of the historic city centre was destroyed by a large air raid. The city was rebuilt after the war, and the motor industry thrived until the mid-1970s. However, by the late-1970s/early-1980s, Coventry was in an economic crisis, with one of the country's highest levels of unemployment due to major plant closures and the collapse of the respective local supply-chain. In recent years, it has seen regeneration and an increase in population. The city also has three universities: Coventry University in the city centre, the University of Warwick on the southern outskirts and the smaller private Arden University with its headquarters close to Coventry Airport. In addition, Coventry was awarded UK City of Culture for 2021. History Origins and toponymy The Romans founded a large fort on the outskirts of what is now Coventry at Baginton, next to the River Sowe, it has been excavated and partially reconstructed in modern times and is known as the Lunt Fort. The fort was probably constructed around AD 60 in connection with the Boudican revolt, and then inhabited sporadically until around 280 AD. The origins of the present settlement are obscure, but Coventry probably began as an Anglo-Saxon settlement. Although there are various theories of the origin of the name, the most widely accepted is that it was derived from Cofa's tree; derived from a Saxon landowner called Cofa, and a tree which might have marked either the centre or the boundary of the settlement. Medieval Around c. AD 700 a Saxon nunnery was founded here by St Osburga, which was later left in ruins by King Canute's invading Danish army in 1016. Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva built on the remains of the nunnery and founded a Benedictine monastery in 1043 dedicated to St Mary. It was during this time that the legend of Lady Godiva riding naked on horseback through the streets of Coventry, to protest against unjust taxes levied on the citizens of Coventry by her husband, was alleged to have occurred. Although this story is regarded as a myth by modern historians, it has become an enduring part of Coventry's identity. A market was established at the abbey gates and the settlement expanded. At the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, Coventry was probably a modest sized town of around 1,200 inhabitants, and its own minster church. Coventry Castle was a motte and bailey castle in the city. It was built in the early 12th century by Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester. Its first known use was during The Anarchy when Robert Marmion, a supporter of King Stephen, expelled the monks from the adjacent priory of Saint Mary in 1144, and converted it into a fortress from which he waged a battle against the Earl. Marmion perished in the battle. It was demolished in the late 12th century. St Mary's Guildhall was built on part of the site. It is assumed the name "Broadgate" comes from the area around the castle gates. The Bishops of Lichfield were often referred to as the Bishops of Coventry and Lichfield, or Lichfield and Coventry (from 1102 to 1541), and in the medieval period Coventry was a major centre of pilgrimage of religion. The Benedictines, Carthusians, Carmelites and Franciscans all had religious houses in the city of Coventry. The Carthusian Priory of St Anne was built between 1381 and 1410 with royal patronage from King Richard II and his queen Anne of Bohemia Coventry has some surviving religious artworks from this time, such as the doom painting at Holy Trinity Church which features Christ in judgement, figures of the resurrected, and contrasting images of Heaven and Hell. By the 13th century, Coventry had become an important centre of the cloth trade, especially blue cloth dyed with woad and known as Coventry blue. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was one of the largest and most important cities in England, which at its Medieval height in the early 15th century had a population of up to 10,000, making it the most important city in the Midlands, and possibly the fourth largest in England behind London, York and Bristol. Reflecting its importance, in around 1355, work began on a defensive city wall, which, when finally finished around 175 years later in 1530, measured 2.25 miles (3.62 km) long, at least 12 feet (3.7 m) high, and up to 9 feet (2.7 m) thick, it had two towers and twelve gatehouses. Coventry's city walls were described as one of the wonders of the late Middle Ages. Today, Swanswell Gate and Cook Street Gate are the only surviving gatehouses and they stand in the city centre framed by Lady Herbert's Garden. Coventry claimed the status of a city by ancient prescriptive usage, and was granted a charter of incorporation and coat of arms by King Edward III in 1345. The motto "Camera Principis" (the Prince's Chamber) refers to Edward, the Black Prince. In 1451 Coventry became a county in its own right, a status it retained until 1842, when it was reincorporated into Warwickshire. Coventry's importance during the Middle Ages was such, that on a two occasions a national Parliament was held there, as well as a number of Great Councils. In 1404, King Henry IV summoned a parliament in Coventry as he needed money to fight rebellion, which wealthy cities such as Coventry lent to him. During the Wars of the Roses, the Royal Court was moved to Coventry by Margaret of Anjou, the wife of Henry VI, as she believed that London had become too unsafe. On several occasions between 1456 and 1459 parliament was held in Coventry, including the so-called Devil's Parliament. For a while Coventry served as the effective seat of government, but this would come to an end in 1461 when Edward IV was installed on the throne. Tudor period In 1506 the draper Thomas Bond founded Bond's Hospital, an almshouse in Hill Street, to provide for 10 poor men and women. This was followed in 1509 with the founding of another almshouse, when the wool merchant William Ford founded Ford's Hospital and Chantry on Greyfriars' Lane, to provide for 5 poor men and their wives. Throughout the Middle Ages Coventry had been home several monastic orders and the city was badly hit by Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries. Between 1539 and 1542, monasteries, priories and other properties belonging to the Carmelites, Greyfriars, Benedictines and Carthusians, were either sold off or dismantled. The greatest loss to the city was of Coventry's first Cathedral, St Mary's Priory and Cathedral which was mostly demolished, leaving only ruins, making it the only English Cathedral to be destroyed during the dissolution. Coventry would not have another Cathedral until 1918, when the parish church of St Michael was elevated to Cathedral status, and it was itself destroyed by enemy bombing in 1940. Coventry therefore has had the misfortune of losing its Cathedral twice in its history. William Shakespeare, from nearby Stratford-upon-Avon, may have witnessed plays in Coventry during his boyhood or 'teens', and these may have influenced how his plays, such as Hamlet, came about. Civil War and aftermath During the English Civil War Coventry became a bastion of the Parliamentarians: In August 1642, a Royalist force led by King Charles I attacked Coventry. After a two-day battle, however, the attackers were unable to breach the city walls, and the city's garrison and townspeople successfully repelled the attack, forcing the King's forces to withdraw. During the Second Civil War many Scottish Royalist prisoners were held in Coventry; it is thought likely that the idiom "sent to Coventry", meaning to ostracise someone, derived from this period, owing to the often hostile attitude displayed towards the prisoners by the city folk. Following the restoration of the monarchy, as punishment for the support given to the Parliamentarians, King Charles II ordered that the city's walls be slighted (damaged and made useless as defences) which was carried out in 1662. Industrial age In the 18th and early 19th centuries, silk ribbon weaving and watch and clock making became Coventry's staple industries. In the 1780s, the silk ribbon weaving industry was estimated to employ around 10,000 weavers in Coventry, and its surrounding towns like Bedworth and Nuneaton. Coventry's growth was aided by the opening of the Coventry Canal in 1769, which gave the city a connection to the growing national canal network. Nevertheless, during the 18th century, Coventry lost its status as the Midlands' most important city to nearby Birmingham, which overtook Coventry in size. During the same period, Coventry became one of the three main British centres of watch and clock manufacture and ranked alongside Prescot, in Lancashire and Clerkenwell in London. By the 1850s, Coventry had overshadowed its rivals to become the main centre of British watch and clock manufacture, which by that time employed around 2,000 people. The watch and clock industry produced a pool of highly skilled craftsmen, who specialised in producing precision components. The ribbon weaving and clock industries however both rapidly collapsed after 1860, due to cheap imports following the Cobden–Chevalier free trade treaty, which flooded the market with cheaper French silks, and Swiss Made clocks and watches. For a while, this caused a devastating slump in Coventry's economy. A second wave of industrialisation, however, began soon after. Coventry's pool of highly skilled workers attracted James Starley, who set up a company producing sewing machines in Coventry in 1861. Within a decade, he became interested in bicycles, and developed the penny-farthing design in 1870. His company soon began producing these bicycles, and Coventry soon became the centre of the British bicycle industry. Further innovation came from Starley's nephew, John Kemp Starley, who developed the Rover safety bicycle, the first true modern bicycle with two equal-sized wheels and a chain drive in 1885. By the 1890s Coventry had the largest bicycle industry in the world, with numerous manufacturers, however bicycle manufacture went into steady decline from then on, and ended entirely in 1959, when the last bicycle manufacturer in the city relocated. By the late-1890s, bicycle manufacture began to evolve into motor manufacture. The first motor car was made in Coventry in 1897, by the Daimler Company. Before long Coventry became established as one of the major centres of the British motor industry. In the early-to-mid 20th century, a number of famous names in the British motor industry became established in Coventry, including Alvis, Armstrong Siddeley, Daimler, Humber, Jaguar, Riley, Rootes, Rover, Singer, Standard, Swift and Triumph. For most of the early-20th century, Coventry's economy boomed; in the 1930s, a decade otherwise known for its economic slump, Coventry was noted for its affluence. In 1937 Coventry topped a national purchasing power index, designed to calculate the purchasing power of the public. Great War (1914–1918) Many Coventry factories switched production to military vehicles, armaments and ammunitions during the Great War. Approximately 35,000 men from Coventry and Warwickshire served during the First World War, so most of the skilled factory workers were women drafted from all over the country. Due to the importance of war production in Coventry it was a target for German zeppelin attacks and defensive anti-aircraft guns were established at Keresley and Wyken Grange to protect the city. In June 1921, the War Memorial Park was opened on the former Styvechale Common to commemorate the 2587 soldiers from the city who lost their lives in the war. The War Memorial was designed by Thomas Francis Tickner and is a Grade II* building. It was unveiled by Earl Haig in 1927, with a room called the Chamber of Silence inside the monument holding the roll of honour. Soldiers who lost their lives in recent conflicts have been added to the roll of honour over the years. Urban expansion and development With many of the city's older properties becoming increasingly unfit for habitation, the first council houses were let to their tenants in 1917. With Coventry's industrial base continuing to soar after the end of the Great War in 1918, numerous private and council housing developments took place across the city in the 1920s and 1930s to provide housing for the large influx of workers who came to work in the city's booming factories. The areas which were expanded or created in this development included Radford, Coundon, Canley, Cheylesmore and Stoke Heath. As the population grew, the city boundaries underwent several expansions, in 1890, 1928, 1931 and 1965, and between 1931 and 1940 the city grew by 36%. The development of a southern by-pass around the city, starting in the 1930s and being completed in 1940, helped deliver more urban areas to the city on previously rural land. In the 1910s plans were created to redevelop Coventry's narrow streets and by the 1930s the plans were put into action with Coventry's medieval street of Butcher Row being demolished. even before the war, the plans had been put in place to destroy the medieval character of Coventry. The London Road Cemetery was designed by Joseph Paxton on the site of a former quarry to meet the needs of the city. German bombing of Coventry Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during the Second World War. The most severe was a massive Luftwaffe air raid that the Germans called Operation Moonlight Sonata. The raid, which involved more than 500 aircraft, started at 7pm on 14 November 1940 and carried on for 11 hours into the morning of 15 November. The raid led to severe damage to large areas of the city centre and to Coventry's historic cathedral, leaving only a shell and the spire. More than 4,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, along with around three quarters of the city's industrial plants. Between 380 and 554 people were killed, with thousands injured and homeless. Aside from London, Hull and Plymouth, Coventry suffered more damage than any other British city during the Luftwaffe attacks, with huge firestorms devastating most of the city centre. The city was probably targeted owing to its high concentration of armaments, munitions, aircraft and aero-engine plants which contributed greatly to the British war effort, although there have been claims that Hitler launched the attack as revenge for the bombing of Munich by the RAF six days before the Coventry Blitz and chose the Midlands city because its medieval heart was regarded as one of the finest in Britain. Following the raids, the majority of Coventry's historic buildings were demolished by a council who saw no need of them in a modern city, although some of them could have been repaired and some of those demolished were unaffected by the bombing. Post-Second World War Redevelopment In the post-war years Coventry was largely rebuilt under the general direction of the Gibson Plan, gaining a new pedestrianised shopping precinct (the first of its kind in Europe on such a scale) and in 1962 Sir Basil Spence's much-celebrated new St Michael's Cathedral (incorporating one of the world's largest tapestries) was consecrated. Its prefabricated steel spire (flèche) was lowered into place by helicopter. Further housing developments in the private and public sector took place after the Second World War, partly to accommodate the growing population of the city and also to replace condemned and bomb damaged properties. Several new suburbs were constructed in the post-war period, including Tile Hill, Wood End, and Stoke Aldermoor. Boom and bust Coventry's motor industry boomed during the 1950s and 1960s and Coventry enjoyed a 'golden age'. In 1960 over 81,000 people were employed in the production of motor vehicles, tractors and aircraft in Coventry. During this period the disposable income of Coventrians was amongst the highest in the country and both the sports and the arts benefited. A new sports centre, with one of the few Olympic standard swimming pools in the UK, was constructed and Coventry City Football Club reached the First Division of English Football. The Belgrade Theatre was also constructed along with the Herbert Art Gallery. Coventry's pedestrianised Precinct shopping area came into its own and was considered one of the finest retail experiences outside London. In 1965 the new University of Warwick campus was opened to students, and rapidly became one of the country's leading higher-education institutions. Coventry's large industrial base made it attractive to the wave of Asian and Caribbean immigrants who arrived from Commonwealth colonies after 1948. In 1950, one of Britain's first mosques—and the very first in Coventry—was opened on Eagle Street to serve the city's growing Pakistani community. The 1970s, however, saw a decline in the British motor industry and Coventry suffered particularly badly, especially towards the end of that decade. By the 1970s, most of Coventry's motor companies had been absorbed and rationalised into larger companies, such as British Leyland and Chrysler which subsequently collapsed. The early 1980s recession dealt Coventry a particularly severe blow: By 1981, Coventry was in an economic crisis, with one in six of its residents unemployed. By 1982, the number of British Leyland employees in the city had fallen from 27,000 at its height, to just 8,000. Other Coventry industrial giants such as the tool manufacturer Alfred Herbert also collapsed during this time. In the late-1970s and early-1980s, Coventry also became the centre of the Two-tone musical phenomena. The two-tone style was multi-racial, derived from the traditional Jamaican music genres of ska, reggae and rocksteady combined with elements of punk rock and new wave. Bands considered part of the genre include the Specials, the Selecter, Madness, the Beat, Bad Manners, the Bodysnatchers and Akrylykz. Most famously the Specials 1981 UK no.1 hit 'Ghost Town' reflected the unemployment and desolation of Coventry at the time. 21st century Some motor manufacturing continued into the early 21st century: The research and design headquarters of Jaguar Cars is in the city at their Whitley plant and although vehicle assembly ceased at the Browns Lane plant in 2004, Jaguar's head office returned to the city in 2011, and is also sited in Whitley. Jaguar is owned by the Indian company, Tata Motors. The closure of the Peugeot factory at Ryton-on-Dunsmore in 2006, ended volume car manufacture in Coventry. By 2008, only one motor manufacturing plant was operational, that of LTI Ltd, producing the popular TX4 taxi cabs. On 17 March 2010 LTI announced they would no longer be producing bodies and chassis in Coventry, instead producing them in China and shipping them in for final assembly in Coventry. Since the 1980s, Coventry has recovered, with its economy diversifying into services, with engineering ceasing to be a mass employer, what remains of manufacturing in the city is driven by smaller more specialist firms. By the 2010s the biggest drivers of Coventry's economy had become its two large universities; the University of Warwick and Coventry University, which between them, had 60,000 students, and a combined annual budget of around £1 billion. In 2021 Coventry became the UK City of Culture. A range of artistic and local history events and projects took place over the next year, including "Coventrypedia" and the creation of the Coventry Atlas local history map. Geography Climate As with the rest of the British Isles and the Midlands, Coventry experiences a maritime climate with cool summers and mild winters. The nearest Met Office weather station is Coundon/Coventry Bablake. Temperature extremes recorded in Coventry range from −18.2 °C (−0.8 °F) in February 1947, to 38.9 °C (102.0 °F) in July 2022. The lowest temperature reading of recent years was −10.8 °C (12.6 °F) during December 2010. City boundaries Coventry forms the largest part of the Coventry and Bedworth Urban Area. The city proper covers an area of almost 100 km2 (39 sq mi). The protected West Midlands Green Belt, which surrounds the city on all sides, has prevented the expansion of the city into both the administrative county of Warwickshire and the metropolitan borough of Solihull (the Meriden Gap), and has helped to prevent the coalescence of the city with surrounding towns such as Kenilworth, Nuneaton, Leamington Spa, Warwick and Rugby as well as the large village of Balsall Common. Panoramic views of Coventry City Centre from the cathedral tower Suburbs and other surrounding areas Compass Places of interest Cathedral The spire of the ruined cathedral forms one of the "three spires" which have dominated the city skyline since the 14th century, the others being those of Christ Church (of which only the spire survives) and Holy Trinity Church (which is still in use). St Michael's Cathedral is Coventry's best-known landmark and visitor attraction. The 14th century church was largely destroyed by German bombing during the Second World War, leaving only the outer walls and spire. At 300 feet (91 metres) high, the spire of St Michael's is claimed to be the third tallest cathedral spire in England, after Salisbury and Norwich. Due to the architectural design (in 1940 the tower had no internal wooden floors and a stone vault below the belfry) it survived the destruction of the rest of the cathedral. The new Coventry Cathedral was opened in 1962 next to the ruins of the old. It was designed by Sir Basil Spence. The cathedral contains the tapestry Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph by Graham Sutherland. The bronze statue St Michael's Victory over the Devil by Jacob Epstein is mounted on the exterior of the new cathedral near the entrance. Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, regarded by some as his masterpiece, was written for the opening of the new cathedral. The cathedral was featured in the 2009 film Nativity!. Coventry Cathedral is also notable for being one of the newest cathedrals in the world, having been built following the Second World War bombing of the ancient cathedral by the Luftwaffe. Coventry has since developed an international reputation as one of Europe's major cities of peace and reconciliation, centred on its cathedral, and holds an annual Peace Month. John Lennon and Yoko Ono planted two acorns outside the cathedral in June 1968 to thank the city for making friends with others. Coventry also has a Baptist church named Queens Road Baptist Church, which was first established in 1723 and moved to its current building in 1884. Cultural institutions The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum is one of the largest cultural institutions in Coventry. Another visitor attraction in the city centre is Coventry Transport Museum, which has the largest public collection of British-made road vehicles in the world. The most notable exhibits are the world speed record-breaking cars, Thrust2 and ThrustSSC The museum received a refurbishment in 2004 which included the creation of a new entrance as part of the city's Phoenix Initiative project. It was a finalist for the 2005 Gulbenkian Prize. Historic Coventry Trust (previously known as The Charterhouse Coventry Preservation Trust) was founded in 2011. The Trust is a social enterprise aiming to regenerate Coventry's historic buildings and landscapes. Their sites across Coventry include the Charterhouse, the two surviving City Gates, Drapers' Hall, London Road Cemetery: Paxton's Arboretum and Priory Row. The £5 million Fargo Village creative quarter shopping precinct was open in 2014 on Far Gosford Street with a mixture of retail units. About four miles (6.4 kilometres) from the city centre and just outside Coventry in Baginton is the Lunt Fort, a reconstructed Roman fort on its original site. The Midland Air Museum is situated just within the perimeter of Coventry on land adjacent to Coventry Airport and near Baginton. Coventry was one of the main centres of watchmaking during the 18th and 19th centuries and as the industry declined, the skilled workers were key to setting up the cycle trade. A group of local enthusiasts founded the Coventry Watch Museum in Spon Street. The city's main police station in Little Park Street also hosts a museum of Coventry's police force. The museum, based underground, is split into two sections—one representing the history of the city's police force, and the other compiling some of the more unusual, interesting and grisly cases from the force's history. The museum is funded from charity donations—viewings can be made by appointment. Coventry City Farm was a small farm in an urban setting. It was mainly to educate city children who might not get out to the countryside very often. The farm closed in 2008 due to funding problems. Demography Coventry has an ethnic minority population which represented 34.5% of the population at the 2021 census. The ethnic minority population is concentrated in the Foleshill and the St Michael's wards. Islam is the largest non-Christian religion, but the composition of the ethnic minority population is not typical of the UK with significant numbers of other South Asians. Both Sikh and Hindu religions are represented significantly higher than in the rest of the West Midlands in general. Coventry has a large student population (approximately 15,000 are non-UK) who are in the UK for 12 months or longer that are included in these figures. According to the 2021 Census, 43.9% (151,577) of residents identified themselves as Christian making Christianity the largest followed religion in the city. Islam was the second most followed religion with 10.4% (35,800) of residents identifying with the religion. 5.0% (17,297) of Coventry's population were Sikh, disproportionately larger than the national average in England of 0.8%. Hindus made up 4.0% (13,724) of the resident population followed by Buddhists at 0.4% (1,257) and Jews at 0.1% (259) respectively. The adherents of other religions made up 0.6% (1,908) of the city's population. Almost a third of Coventry residents, 29.6% (102,338), identified themselves as having no religion and 6.1% did not declare any religion. Government and politics Local and national government Traditionally a part of Warwickshire (although it was a county in its own right for 400 years), Coventry became an independent county borough in 1889. It later became a metropolitan district of the West Midlands county under the Local Government Act 1974, even though it was entirely separate to the Birmingham conurbation area (this is why Coventry appears to unnaturally "jut out" into Warwickshire on political maps of the UK). In 1986, the West Midlands County Council was abolished and Coventry became administered as an effective unitary authority in its own right. Coventry is administered by Coventry City Council, controlled since 2010 by the Labour Party, and led since May 2016 by George Duggins. The city is divided up into 18 Wards each with three councillors. The chairman of the council is the Lord Mayor, who has a casting vote. Certain local services are provided by West Midlands wide agencies including the West Midlands Police, the West Midlands Fire Service and Transport for West Midlands (Centro) which is responsible for public transport. In 2006, Coventry and Warwickshire Ambulance Service was merged with the West Midlands Ambulance Service. The Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance service is based at Coventry Airport in Baginton. Coventry is represented in Parliament by three Members of Parliament (MPs) all of whom are from the Labour Party. They are: Mary Creagh – (Coventry East) Zarah Sultana – (Coventry South) Taiwo Owatemi – (Coventry North West) Up until 1997, Coventry was represented by four Members of Parliament, whereupon the Coventry South West and Coventry South East constituencies were merged to form Coventry South. On Thursday, 19 May 2016, Councillor Lindsley Harvard was inaugurated Lord Mayor of Coventry for 2016–17 as Coventry's 65th Lord Mayor. Councillor Lindsley Harvard has been a Labour Councillor serving on the council for fourteen years, for Earlsdon Ward (1996–2000) and for Longford Ward since 2006. On Thursday, 19 May 2016, Councillor Tony Skipper was inaugurated as the Deputy Lord Mayor of Coventry for 2016–17. He has been a Labour councillor since 1995; representing Earlsdon Ward between 1995 and 2001, and then Radford Ward since 2001. The Bishop of Coventry is Christopher John Cocksworth, who was consecrated on 3 July 2008. Council affiliation In May 2016, it was as follows Twinning with other cities; "city of peace and reconciliation" Coventry and Stalingrad (now Volgograd) were the world's first 'twin' cities when they established a twinning relationship during the Second World War. The relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show their support for the Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The city was also subsequently twinned with Dresden, as a gesture of peace and reconciliation following the Second World War. Each twin city country is represented in a specific ward of the city and in each ward has a peace garden dedicated to that twin city. Coventry is now twinned with 26 places across the world: On 22 March 2022, Coventry City Council voted unanimously to suspend the twinning arrangement with Volgograd in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Arts and culture On 7 December 2017 it was announced that the city would be the 2021 UK City of Culture, being the third such place to hold the title after Derry in 2013 and Hull in 2017. After the financial collapse of the Coventry City of Culture Trust, set up to run legacy projects following Coventry's year as UK City of Culture in 2021, local MP Taiwo Owatemi raised an adjournment debate in the House of Commons. Literature and drama The African American actor Ira Aldridge managed Coventry Theatre after impressing the people of the city with his acting during a tour in 1828. He was born in New York in 1807, but moved to England when he was18, and is considered the UK's first black Shakespearean performer. The poet Philip Larkin was born and brought up in Coventry, where his father was the City Treasurer. During the early 19th century, Coventry was well known due to author George Eliot who was born near Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The city was the model for her famous novel Middlemarch (1871). The Coventry Carol is named after the city of Coventry. It was a carol performed in the play The Pageant of the Shearman and Tailors, written in the 15th century as one of the Coventry Cycle Mystery Plays. These plays depicted the nativity story, the lyrics of the Coventry Carol referring to the Annunciation to the Massacre of the Innocents, which was the basis of the Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. These plays were traditionally performed on the steps of the (old) cathedral. The Belgrade Theatre brought back the Coventry Mystery Plays in 2000 to mark the city's millennium celebrations: the theatre now produces the Mystery Plays every three years. The Belgrade Theatre was Britain's first purpose-built civic theatre, opened in 1958. In 1965 the world's first Theatre-in-Education (TiE) company was formed to develop theatre as a way of inspiring learning in schools. The TiE movement spread worldwide, the theatre still offers a number of programmes for young people across Coventry and has been widely recognised as a leader in the field. It was reopened in 2007 following a period of refurbishment. Novelist Graham Joyce, winner of the O. Henry Award is from Keresley. His World Fantasy Award-winning novel "The Facts of Life" is set in Coventry during the blitz and in the post-war rebuilding period. The playwright Alan Pollock was brought up in Coventry. Other playwrights associated with the city include Nick Walker and Chris O'Connell – founder of the city's Theatre Absolute. Brian Saunders lived in Coventry and was featured, along with his partner Andrew Stuart Sutton and Pete and Les Cardy, in the series A Place In Greece in 2004 and 2005. Music and cinema During the late-1970s and early 1980s, Coventry was the centre of the Two Tone musical phenomenon, with bands such as The Specials and The Selecter coming from the city. The Specials achieved two UK number 1 hit singles between 1979 and 1981, namely "Too Much Too Young" and "Ghost Town". Coventry has a range of music events including an international jazz programme, the Coventry Jazz Festival, and the Godiva Festival. On the Saturday of the Godiva Festival, a carnival parade starts in the city centre and makes its way to War Memorial Park where the festival is held. Coventry's music is celebrated at The Coventry Music Museum, part of the 2-Tone Village complex. In the 1969 film The Italian Job, the famous scene of Mini Coopers being driven at speed through Turin's sewers was actually filmed in Coventry, using what were then the country's biggest sewer pipes, that were accessible because they were being installed. The BBC medical TV drama series Angels, which ran from 1975 to 1983 was filmed at Walsgrave Hospital. More recently various locations in Coventry have been used in the BAFTA nominated film The Bouncer starring Ray Winstone, All in the Game, also starring Ray Winstone (Ricoh Arena), the BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances (Stoke Aldermoor and Binley Woods districts). In August 2006 scenes from "The Shakespeare Code", an episode of the third series of Doctor Who, were filmed in the grounds of Ford's Hospital. The 2013 ITV comedy-drama Love and Marriage was also set in the city. Coventry is home to three major feature films the Nativity! franchise which are all shot and set in the city. These Christmas films have all reached top box office spots on their release in UK cinemas. Their writer and director the Bafta award-winning Debbie Isitt is resident in the city. In 2023, the 10 part TV series Phoenix Rise was set and filmed in Coventry. BBC Radio 1 has announced that its BBC Radio One's Big Weekend will take place in Coventry at the end of May 2022, as part of the closing ceremony for the UK City of Culture. Customs and traditions Coventry Godcakes are a regional delicacy, originating from the 14th century and are still baked today. The Coventry Flag The Coventry Flag, designed by Simon Wyatt, was adopted through a popular vote on 7 December 2018. The Coventry Flag represents the unique identity of the Warwickshire city and its residents. It emerged as the winner in a competition organised by BBC Coventry & Warwickshire and proudly flew during Coventry's tenure as the UK City of Culture in 2021. The design features Lady Godiva, a local heroine, depicted in black on a white pale, symbolising Coventry's history, principles, and its reputation as a city of peace. Sky blue panels on either side of Lady Godiva represent "Coventry Blue," reminiscent of the historic local textile industry and Coventry City Football Club, known as the "Sky Blues." Venues and shopping There are several theatre, art and music venues in Coventry attracting popular sporting events and singing musicians. Along with this, the city has several retail parks located out of the city centre and its own shopping mall in the heart of the city: Warwick Arts Centre: situated at the University of Warwick, Warwick Arts Centre includes an art gallery, a theatre, a concert hall and a cinema. FarGo Village, a creative quarter with various independent businesses. Albany Theatre: is the city's main community theatre. It is housed at what used to be the Butts Centre of City College Coventry. Known as the Butts or College Theatre, it closed in 2009 with the sale of the college to private developers. The theatre re-opened in 2013 as the Albany Theatre, as part of the Premier Inn hotel on the site of the former Butts Technical College and is run as a charitable trust with support from the council. Belgrade Theatre: one of the largest producing theatres in Britain, the 858-seat Belgrade was the first civic theatre to be opened in the UK following the Second World War. The theatre underwent a huge redevelopment and reopened in September 2007; in addition to refurbishing the existing theatre, the redevelopment included a new 250-seat studio auditorium known as B2, a variety of rehearsal spaces and an exhibition space that traces the history of theatre in Coventry. It is surrounded by Belgrade Plaza. Coventry Building Society Arena: located 4 miles (6.4 kilometres) north of the city centre, the 32,600 capacity sports stadium which is home to the city's only professional football team Coventry City, who play in the second tier of English football, and is also used to hold major rock concerts for some of the world's biggest acts, including Oasis, Bon Jovi, Coldplay, Lady Gaga, Rod Stewart, Kings of Leon and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was also one of the venues chosen for the footballing events at the 2012 Olympic Games. The adjacent Jaguar Exhibition Hall is a 6,000-seat events venue for hosting a multitude of other acts. SkyDome Arena, which is a 3,000 capacity sports auditorium, and has played host to artists such as Girls Aloud, Paul Oakenfold and Judge Jules. It is the home ground for Coventry Blaze ice hockey club, and has also hosted professional wrestling events from WWE, TNA and Pro Wrestling Noah War Memorial Park—known by locals simply as the Memorial Park—which holds various festivals including the Godiva Festival and the Coventry Caribbean Festival, every year. It also host the weekly Parkrun event. Butts Park Arena, home of Coventry Rugby Football Club and Coventry Bears Rugby League Club, holds music concerts occasionally. Criterion Theatre, a small theatre, in Earlsdon. Coombe Country Park, although outside the city boundary, Coventry City Council's only country park. It surrounds the former Coombe Abbey which now operates as a hotel. The Wave – an indoor water park and spa, owned and operated by Coventry City Council, was opened in 2019. Herbert Art Gallery and Museum – a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre, media studio and creative arts facility on Jordan Well, Coventry. Coventry Transport Museum – one of the largest motor museums in the UK. Sport On the sporting scene, Coventry Rugby Football Club was consistently among the nation's leading rugby football sides from the early 20th century, peaking in the 1970s and 1980s. Association football, on the other hand, was scarcely a claim to fame until 1967, when Coventry City F.C. finally won promotion to the top flight of English football as champions of the Football League Second Division. They would stay among the elite for the next 34 years, reaching their pinnacle with FA Cup glory in 1987—the first and to date only major trophy in the club's history. Their long stay in the top flight of English football ended in relegation in 2001, and in 2012 they were relegated again to the third tier of English football. Highfield Road, to the east of the city centre, was Coventry City's home for 106 years from 1899. They finally departed from the stadium in 2005 on their relocation to the 32,600-seat Ricoh Arena some three miles (4.8 kilometres) to the north of the city centre, in the Rowleys Green district. Since 2000, the city has also been home to one of the most successful ice hockey teams in the country, the Coventry Blaze who are four time Elite League champions, and play their home games at the SkyDome Arena. Football There are two professional football teams representing the city: Coventry City F.C. of the EFL Championship in men's football and Coventry United L.F.C. of the FA Women's Championship in women's football. Coventry City F.C., formed in 1883 as "Singers F.C.". Nicknamed the Sky Blues, the club competes in the EFL Championship (second tier of English football), but spent 34 years from 1967 to 2001 in the top tier of English football, winning the FA Cup in 1987. They were founder members of the Premier League in 1992. In 2005, Coventry City moved to the 32,600 capacity Ricoh Arena which opened in the Rowleys Green district of the city. The 2013–14 season saw the football club begin a ground share with Northampton Town F.C. at Sixfields Stadium, Northampton, which lasted until their return to the Ricoh Arena in September 2014. The 2019–20 season saw the Sky Blues once again playing their home fixtures out of Coventry, at Birmingham City's St Andrew's Stadium. This arrangement continued until August 2021, when Coventry moved back to the newly renamed Coventry Building Society Arena. Coventry United L.F.C. play at the Butts Park Arena and were originally Coventry City Ladies before the Sky Blues discontinued their women's team, at which point they affiliated with Coventry United, and rose through the divisions to their current position in the second-tier of the women's game. Aside from these clubs, there are several other clubs in the city playing non-league football. Coventry Sphinx, Coventry Alvis, Coventry Copsewood and Coventry United all play in the Midland Football League. Both Coventry University and the University of Warwick compete in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) football competitions. For the 2014–15 season, the Coventry University men's 1st team compete in BUCS Midlands 1a, while the University of Warwick men's 1st team competes in BUCS Midlands 2a. Both institutions' women's 1st teams both play in BUCS Midlands 2a. Rugby Union At the beginning of the 2014–15 season, there were 14 clubs based in Coventry, playing at various levels of the English rugby union system. However, on 21 December 2014, this rose to 15, when Aviva Premiership club Wasps RFC played their first home game at the Ricoh Arena, completing their relocation to the city. This followed Wasps' purchase of Arena Coventry Limited (the company which runs the Ricoh Arena). The club announced that they will build a new 'state of the art' training complex in the area by 2016. Wasps' stay in the City ended in 2022 after the club collapsed into administration and were forced to relinquish their ownership of the arena. As it stands, Wasps currently have no plans to play in Coventry again. Coventry Rugby Football Club play in the RFU Championship, the second tier of the English rugby union system. The club enjoyed national success during the 1950s, the 1960s and 1970s, with many of its players playing for their countries, notable players include Ivor Preece, Peter Jackson, David Duckham, Fran Cotton and Danny Grewcock. From 1921 to 2004, the club played at Coundon Road Stadium. Their current home ground is the Butts Park Arena, which was opened in 2004. Broadstreet R.F.C are the only other club to play in a 'National league' currently playing in National Division 2 North. There are a further 12 clubs playing in the Midland divisions of the English Rugby Union system. In 2015, they included Barkers Butts RFC, Dunlop RFC, Earlsdon RFC, Pinley, Old Coventrians, Coventrians, Coventry Welsh, Stoke Old Boys RFC, Copsewood RFC, Keresley RFC, Old Wheatleyans RFC and Trinity Guild RFC. Both Coventry University and the University of Warwick compete in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Rugby competitions. Rugby League Midlands Hurricanes are the major rugby league team in the city. Originally known as Coventry Bears, the Hurricanes compete in the Betfred League 1, as a semi-professional team in the third tier of the game. They play their home matches at the Butts Park Arena. In 2002, the club won the Rugby League Conference, and took the step up to the national leagues. In 2004, they won the National Division 3 title and have appeared in the Challenge Cup. In 2015 the Bears entered their reserve team into the Conference League South league, a level below the first team under the name Coventry Bears Reserves playing home games at the Xcel Leisure Centre. Both Coventry University and the University of Warwick compete in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Midlands 1a competition. Speedway Coventry Speedway was based at Brandon Stadium (also known as Coventry Stadium). The stadium is located just outside the city in the village of Brandon, Warwickshire (6 miles (9.7 kilometres) to the east of the city). The stadium operated both sides of the Second World War. Before the Second World War speedway also operated for a short time at Foleshill Stadium, off Lythalls Lane in the city. Between 1998 and 2000, Coventry Stadium hosted the Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain. The Coventry Bees started in 1948 and have operated continuously until the end of the 2018 season. They started out in the National League Division Three before moving up to the Second Division and, later to the top flight. The Bees were crowned League Champions on nine occasions (1953, 1968, 1978, 1979, 1987, 1988, 2005, 2007 and 2010). Amongst the top speedway riders who represented Coventry teams were Tom Farndon, Jack Parker, Arthur Forrest, Nigel Boocock, Kelvin Tatum, Chris Harris, Scott Nicholls, Emil Sayfutdinov and World Champions Ole Olsen, Hans Nielsen, Greg Hancock, Billy Hamill, Ronnie Moore and Jack Young. In 2007, the Bees won the domestic speedway treble of Elite League, Knock-out Cup and Craven Shield, while Chris Harris won both the Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain and the British Championship. The Bees retained the Craven Shield in 2008, and Chris Harris added further British Championship victories in both 2009 and 2010. The Elite League Championship Trophy returned to Brandon in 2010 when the Bees convincingly beat Poole Pirates in the play-off finals. The Coventry Storm, an offshoot of the senior team, competed in the National League. In 2017, the stadium became unavailable for motorsports, with new owners Brandon Estates pursuing planning permission for housing – thus, neither Coventry team was able to compete in the leagues, although a number of challenge matches were undertaken on opposition teams' tracks. For 2018, Coventry Bees were entered into the National League, the third tier of British Speedway, riding their home meetings at the Paul Chapman and Sons Arena, Beaumont Park, Leicester – the home of Leicester Lions. The team has not operated since then. Ice hockey The Coventry Blaze are one of the founding teams of the Elite Ice Hockey League. They compete in the Erhardt Conference and play their matches at the SkyDome Arena. In 2002–2003, they won the British National League and Playoffs. They have won the Elite League Championship four times (2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010). The team has twice won the British Challenge Cup, in 2005 & 2007. The 2004–05 EIHL season saw the club win the Grandslam (namely the Championship, the Challenge Cup and the Playoffs). To date, they remain the only team since the formation of the Elite League to achieve this feat. Coventry Blaze celebrated their 10th anniversary season in 2009–10 by winning the Elite League. The club also run a successful academy system, developing the young players of Coventry, Warwickshire and beyond. Scorch the dragon is the official Blaze mascot. The NIHL Coventry Blaze, an offshoot of the senior team and official affiliate of the Blaze, currently compete in the National Ice Hockey League. The Coventry Phoenix is the city's only women's team; currently competing in Division One (North) of the British Women's Leagues. There are also several recreational ice hockey teams (male and female) that play in the city. The Coventry and Warwick Panthers are members of the British Universities Ice Hockey Association. The 'A' team compete in "Checking 1 South", 'B' in "Non-Checking 1 South" and 'C' in "Non-Checking 2 South". Stock car racing Coventry Stadium held BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars from 1954 until 2016, the longest serving track in the UK to race continuously. The first meeting was held on 30 June 1954, the first heat being won by Percy 'Hellcat' Brine, he also won the meeting Final. Up to the end of 2013, the stadium had held 483 BriSCA F1 meetings. It held the BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars World Championship many times since 1960. As with speedway, Stock Car racing ceased in 2017 because of the unavailability of the stadium. Cricket The city's current leading cricket clubs are Standard Cricket Club and Coventry and North Warwickshire Cricket Club. Both clubs are competing in the Premier division of the Warwickshire Cricket League as of 2019, where Standard Cricket Club were Runners up in 2018. Historically, first class county games were played by Warwickshire C.C.C. at the Courtaulds Ground from 1949 up to 1982. After Courtaulds Ground was closed, Warwickshire played several games at Coventry and North Warwickshire Cricket Club at Binley Road. Athletics The Coventry Godiva Harriers, established in 1879, are the leading athletics club in the area. The club has numerous athletes competing for championships both nationally and internationally. Notable members (past and present) include: Basil Heatley; former world record holder for the marathon and silver medalist in the 1964 Summer Olympics. David Moorcroft; Gold medalist in the 1500m at the 1978 Commonwealth Games and in the 5000m at the 1982 Commonwealth Games. He is the former World 5000m record holder and still holds the British 3000m record. Marlon Devonish; individually in his senior career, he won Gold for the 200m at the 2003 World Indoor Championship and silver at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. However, he has had great success as a relay runner in the 4 × 100 m, winning gold medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics, 1998 Commonwealth Games, 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He also won bronze at World and European level at both his distances. Field hockey A field hockey club in the city is Coventry & North Warwickshire Hockey Club, which was established in 1895. Based at the Coventry University Sports Ground, the club runs four men's and two ladies' sides, as well as a junior section. The men's first XI currently compete in Midlands Division 1 of the Midland Regional Hockey Association (MHRA), while the ladies' first XI compete in Warwickshire Women's Hockey League Division 1. Other teams in the city include: Sikh Union: Men's 1st XI – (MHRA West Midlands Premier) Berkswell & Balsall Common Men's 1st XI – (MHRA East Midlands 1); Women's 1st XI – (Warwickshire Women's Hockey League Division 2) The University of Warwick field men's teams both in the MHRA and the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) hockey competitions. They compete in MHRA Midlands 2 and in BUCS Midlands 2b. The women's first XI compete in BUCS Midlands 3a. Coventry University men's first XI play in BUCS Midlands 3b, while the women's first XI compete in BUCS Midlands 2a. Golf Dame Laura Davies DBE was born in Coventry and is among the most successful female golfers from Britain. She has had 87 tournament victories, including major wins at the Belgium Open in 1985, the Ladies British Open in 1986, and the US Women's Open in 1987. From the early 90s she played in 12 consecutive Solheim Cups in the US. Laura has won numerous accolades during her career and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2015. Other In 2005, Coventry became the first city in the UK to host the International Children's Games and three of the city sports teams won significant honours. The Blaze won the treble consisting of Elite League, playoff and Challenge Cup; the Jets won the BAFL Division 2 championship and were undefeated all season; and the Bees won the Elite League playoffs. In 2014 the all-female Coventry City Derby Dolls was founded, now called Coventry Roller Derby (CRD). They were the first roller derby team in Coventry and Warwickshire, train weekly and have a full bout team Economy Historically, Coventry was the most important seat of ribbon-making in the UK. In this industry it competed locally with Norwich and Leicester and internationally with Saint-Étienne in France. Coventry has been a centre of motor and cycle manufacturing. Starting with Coventry Motette, The Great Horseless Carriage Company, Swift Motor Company, Humber, Hillman, Riley, Francis-Barnett and Daimler and the Triumph motorcycle having its origins in 1902 in a Coventry factory. The Massey Ferguson tractor factory was situated on Banner Lane, Tile Hill, until it closed in the late 1990s. Although the motor industry has declined almost to the point of extinction, the Jaguar company has retained its corporate headquarters in the city (at Whitley) and an Advanced R&D team at the University of Warwick, while Peugeot still have a large parts centre in Humber Road despite the closure of its Ryton factory (formerly owned by the Rootes Group) just outside the city in December 2006 with the loss of more than 2,000 jobs – denting the economy of Coventry shortly before the onset of a recession which sparked further economic decline and high unemployment. The Standard Motor Company opened a car factory at Canley in the south of the city in 1918, occupying a former munitions factory. This site was later expanded and produced Triumph cars after the Standard brand was phased out by BMC during the 1960s. In August 1980, however, it was closed down as part of British Leyland's rationalisation process, although the Triumph brand survived for another four years on cars produced at other British Leyland factories. The closure of the Triumph car factory was perhaps the largest blow to Coventry's economy during the early 1980s economic decline. The famous London black cab taxis are produced by Coventry-based LEVC (formerly LTI); until its 2017 relocation from the historic Holyhead Road factory to a new plant at Ansty Park a few miles outside the city, these were the only remaining motor vehicles wholly built in Coventry. The manufacture of machine tools was once a major industry in Coventry. Alfred Herbert Ltd became one of the largest machine tool companies in the world. In later years the company faced competition from foreign machine tool builders and ceased trading in 1983. Other Coventry machine tool manufacturers included A.C. Wickman, and Webster & Bennett. The last Coventry machine tool manufacturer was Matrix Churchill which was forced to close in the wake of the Iraqi Supergun (Project Babylon) scandal. Coventry's main industries include: cars, electronic equipment, machine tools, agricultural machinery, man-made fibres, aerospace components and telecommunications equipment. In recent years, the city has moved away from manufacturing industries towards business services, finance, research, design and development and creative industries. Redevelopment Major improvements continue to regenerate the city centre. The Phoenix Initiative, which was designed by MJP Architects, reached the final shortlist for the 2004 RIBA Stirling Prize and has now won a total of 16 separate awards. It was published in the book 'Phoenix : Architecture/Art/Regeneration' in 2004. Further major developments are potentially afoot, particularly the Swanswell Project, which is intended to deepen Swanswell Pool and link it to Coventry Canal Basin, coupled with the creation of an urban marina and a wide Parisian-style boulevard. A possible second phase of the Phoenix Initiative is also in the offing, although both of these plans are still on the drawing-board. On 16 December 2007, IKEA's first city centre store in the UK was opened, in Coventry. On 4 February 2020, it was announced that IKEA's Coventry city centre store was to close the same year due to changing shopping habits and consistent losses at the store. The River Sherbourne runs under Coventry's city centre; the river was paved over during the rebuilding after the Second World War and is not commonly known. When the new rebuild of Coventry city centre takes place from 2017 onwards, it is planned that river will be re-opened, and a river walk way will be placed alongside it in parts of the city centre. In April 2012, the pedestrianisation of Broadgate was completed. Media Radio Local radio stations include: BBC CWR: 94.8 FM Capital Mid-Counties (formerly Touch FM): 96.2 FM Hits Radio Coventry & Warwickshire (formally known as Mercia Sound, Mercia FM, Mercia and Free Radio Coventry & Warwickshire): 97.0 FM Greatest Hits Radio West Midlands: 1359 AM Fresh West Midlands: DAB Written media The main local newspapers are: Coventry Telegraph: a paid for newspaper printed Monday to Saturday, owned by Reach. Coventry Observer Television news The city is covered on regional TV News by: BBC Midlands Today: run by the British public service broadcaster. ITV News Central Digital-only media HelloCov: an online news website founded in 2018. Coventry Times Public services Emergency services Coventry is covered by West Midlands Police, the West Midlands Fire Service and the West Midlands Ambulance Service. Healthcare Healthcare in Coventry is provided primarily by the National Health Service (NHS); the principal NHS hospital covering the city is the University Hospital Coventry, which was opened in 2006 as a 1,250 bed 'super hospital', funded by a private finance initiative (PFI) scheme. Electricity Electricity was first supplied to Coventry in 1895 from Coventry power station off Sandy Lane adjacent to the canal (now Electric Wharf). A larger 130 MW power station was built at Longford in 1928, this operated until 1976, and was subsequently demolished. Waste management Coventry has an energy from waste incinerator which burns rubbish from both Coventry and Solihull, producing electricity for the National Grid and some hot water that is used locally through the Heatline project. Rubbish is still put into landfill. Many areas of Coventry have kerb-side plastic, metal (tins and cans), and paper recycling. Garden-green rubbish is collected and composted. Waste materials can be taken to the recycling depot, which is adjacent to the incineration unit. There are recycling points throughout the city for paper, glass recycling and metal / tin can recycling. In October 2006, Coventry City Council signed the Nottingham Declaration, joining 130 other UK councils in committing to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the council and to help the local community do the same. Transport Roads Coventry is near the M1, M6, M40, M45 and M69 motorways. The M45, which is situated a few miles to the south-east of the city, was opened in 1959 as a spur to the original section of the M1 motorway, which linked London with the Midlands. This was, in effect, the first motorway to serve Coventry, as the section of the M6 north of the city did not open until 1971 and the M69 between Coventry and Leicester opened five years later. The M40, which is connected to the city via the A46, is 12 miles (19 kilometres) south of the city centre, south of Warwick and gives the city's residents an alternative dual carriageway and motorway route to London. It is served by the A45 and A46 dual carriageways. The A45 originally passed through the centre of the city, but was re-routed in the 1930s on the completion of the Coventry Southern Bypass, with westbound traffic heading in the direction of Birmingham and eastbound traffic in the direction of Northampton. The A46 was re-routed to the east of the city in 1989 on completion of the Coventry Eastern Bypass, which directly leads to the M6/M69 interchange. To the south, it gives a direct link to the M40, making use of the existing Warwick and Kenilworth bypasses. Coventry has a dual-carriageway Ring Road (officially road number A4053) that is 2.25 miles long. It loops around the city centre and roughly follows the lines of the old city walls. The Ring Road began construction in the late 1950s, the first stretch was opened in 1962, and it was finally completed in 1974. Ring Road junctions have all been numbered since the 1980s. The road has a reputation for being difficult to navigate. A single street of Victorian terraces, Starley Road, remains inside the ring road after a campaign by residents prevented its demolition in the 1980s. Phoenix Way, a dual-carriageway running north–south completed in 1995, links the city centre with the M6 motorway. Railways Coventry Railway Station is served by the West Coast Main Line, with services provided by Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and West Midlands Trains. Inter-city rail services between London, Birmingham and Wolverhampton stop here. It is also served by railway lines to Nuneaton via Bedworth. There is a line linking it to Leamington Spa and onwards to the south coast. Avanti West Coast operate fast inter-city services to London, other cities in the West Midlands, north-west England (Preston, Carlisle) and Scotland (Glasgow and Edinburgh). CrossCountry provide services to the south coast of England (Southampton and Bournemouth) and northern England (Manchester). London Northwestern (a trade name of West Midlands Trains) provides stopping services to Liverpool and Rugeley, in addition to London and other towns in between. Coventry has three suburban railway stations at Coventry Arena, Canley and Tile Hill. Coventry Arena, serving the north of city on the Coventry to Nuneaton Line, opened in January 2016 primarily for the Ricoh Arena where football, rugby matches and concerts usually take place. Light rail A light rail system is planned for Coventry, known as Coventry Very Light Rail. The first vehicle came off the production line in March 2021 and the first line, to University Hospital Coventry, was proposed to be operational by 2024. Bus Bus operators in Coventry include National Express Coventry, Arriva Midlands and Stagecoach in Warwickshire. Pool Meadow bus station is the main bus and coach interchange in the city centre. Coventry has a single Park and Ride service from War Memorial Park served by Stagecoach in Warwickshire. From Pool Meadow bus station, there are national coach links to major towns and cities, seaside towns, ferry ports and events with National Express, with four stands (A, B, C and D). Coventry aims to have all of its buses powered by electricity by 2025. Air The nearest major airport is Birmingham Airport, some 11 miles (18 km) to the west of the city. Coventry Airport, located 5 miles (8 km) south of the city centre in Baginton, is now used for general aviation only. Water The Coventry Canal terminates near the city centre at Coventry Canal Basin and is navigable for 38 miles (61 km) to Fradley Junction in Staffordshire. The canal engineer James Brindley was responsible for the initial planning of the canal. The Coventry Canal Society was formed in 1957. Accent Origins Coventry in a linguistic sense looks both ways, towards both the 'West' and 'East' Midlands. One thousand years ago, the extreme west of Warwickshire (what today we would designate Birmingham and the Black Country) was separated from Coventry and east Warwickshire by the forest of Arden, with resulting inferior means of communication. The west Warwickshire settlements too were smaller in comparison to Coventry which, by the 14th century, was England's third city. Even as far back as Anglo-Saxon times Coventry—situated as it was, close to Watling Street—was a trading and market post between King Alfred's Saxon Mercia and Danelaw England with a consequent merging of dialects. Coventry and Birmingham accents Phonetically the accent of Coventry, like the perhaps better known accent of Birmingham, is similar to Northern English with respect to its system of short vowels. For example, it lacks the BATH/TRAP (Cov. /baθ/, Southern /bɑːθ/) and FOOT/STRUT (Cov. /strʊt/, Southern /strʌt/) splits. Yet the longer vowels in the accent also contain traces of Estuary English such as a partial implementation of the London diphthong shift, increasingly so amongst the young since 1950. We also see other Estuary English features, such as a /l/-vocalisation whereby words such as 'milk' come to be pronounced as /mɪʊk/. However, the distinction between Coventry and Birmingham accents is often overlooked. Certain features of the Birmingham accent (e.g. occasional tapping of prevocalic /r/ in words such as 'crack') stop starkly as one moves beyond Solihull in the general direction of Coventry, a possible approximation of the 'Arden Forest' divide perhaps. In any case, Coventry sits right at a dialectal crossroads, very close to isoglosses that generally delineate 'Northern' and 'Southern' dialects, exhibiting features from both sides of the divide. Coventry accent on television The BBC's 2009 documentary The Bombing of Coventry contained interviews with Coventrians. Actress Becci Gemmell, played Coventry character Joyce in the BBC drama Land Girls. Honours A minor planet, 3009 Coventry, discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1973, is named after the city. Education Universities and further education colleges Coventry has two universities; Coventry University is situated on a modern city centre campus while the University of Warwick lies 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) to the south of the city centre. The University of Warwick is one of only five universities never to have been rated outside the top ten in terms of teaching excellence and research and is a member of the prestigious Russell Group. The university won the BBC TV University Challenge trophy in April 2007 and April 2021. Coventry University is one of only a handful of universities to run a degree course in automotive design, which is in its Coventry School of Art and Design. Coventry also has two further education colleges within city boundaries, Coventry College and Hereward College. Schools Many of the secondary schools in and around Coventry are specialist colleges, such as Finham Park School, which is a mathematics and IT college, a teacher training school and the only school in Coventry to offer studying the International Baccalaureate, and Coventry Blue Coat Church of England School which has recently become a specialist college of music, one of only a few in the country. Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School specialises in languages. Bishop Ullathorne RC School became a specialist college in humanities in 2006. Ernesford Grange Community Academy, in the south east, is a specialist science college. Coundon Court School is a Technology College. Pattison College, a private school opened in 1949, specialises in the performing arts. Caludon Castle School is a business and enterprise school, which was rebuilt over 2005–07. Exhall Grange School and Science College is in the north of the city, although, its catchment area is north Warwickshire. There is also Cardinal Newman Catholic School and Community College and Whitley Academy in the city. Coventry has a variety of schools: Two of the oldest secondary schools being President Kennedy School founded in 1966 and located in the north-west of Coventry (currently undergoing rebuilding work) and Sidney Stringer Academy which is located in the centre of the city. It is a co-educational school and has moved into a larger building costing £28 million. The Coventry School Foundation comprises the independent schools King Henry VIII School and Bablake School together with King Henry VIII Preparatory School. The Woodlands Academy and Tile Hill Wood School were the last remaining single sex schools in the city, serving boys and girls respectively. These schools merged onto the Tile Hill Wood site in 2016 before officially being rebranded as West Coventry Academy in 2017. Both Woodlands and Tile Hill shared a joint sixth form along with The Westwood Academy called West Coventry Sixth Form, but in 2018 Westwood left the sixth form and it now operates under the name West Coventry Academy Sixth Form. The Westwood Academy, which is a Technology College, is close to the University of Warwick. It is the only school in Coventry that is a CISCO Academy and has links with other educational establishments, industry and the local community. Sherbourne Fields School is a school for young people with disabilities and is located in the Coundon area. It opened in the 1960s. Notable people associated with Coventry History and politics Coventry is well known for the mythical 11th century exploits of Lady Godiva who, according to legend, rode through the city naked on horseback in protest at high taxes being levied on the city folk by her husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia. Contemporary historians do not dispute that lady Godiva was a real figure, as she was the first woman to be mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086), however her ride is considered mythical. The residents of the city were commanded to look away as she rode, but one man did not and was allegedly struck blind. He became known as Peeping Tom thus originating a new idiom, or metonym, in English. There is a Grade II* listed statue of her in the city centre, which for 18 years had been underneath a Cathedral Lanes shopping centre canopy, removed in October 2008. There is also a bust of Peeping Tom looking out across Hertford Street shopping precinct, and overlooking Broadgate and the statue of Godiva is a clock where, at every hour, Lady Godiva appears on her horse while being watched by Peeping Tom. Pearl Hyde was a Labour councillor, the head of the Coventry Women's Voluntary Service during the Second World War, and became the first female Lord Mayor of Coventry in 1957. The Labour politician Mo Mowlam, who oversaw the talks which led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in her role as Northern Ireland secretary, was educated in Coventry. Trade union organiser Tom Mann and National Socialist Movement leader Colin Jordan came from Coventry. The statesman and founder of modern Australia, Sir Henry Parkes, was born in Canley in 1815. Science, technology and business Coventry has been the home to several pioneers in science and engineering. Samuel Courtauld and Co Ltd's director H.G. Tetley chose Foleshill in Coventry in 1904 as the site of the world's first man-made fibre factory which produced an "artificial silk" later known as viscose rayon. Sir Frank Whittle, the inventor of the jet engine, was from the city. The inventor James Starley founded the Coventry Sewing Machine Company in 1857 and was instrumental in the development of the bicycle. His nephew, J. K. Starley, worked alongside his uncle and went on to found the car company Rover. Sir Alfred Herbert was an industrialist who set up the tool manufacturer Alfred Herbert Limited, and was benefactor to the city, whose legacy lives on in the Herbert Art Gallery. Cyborg scientist Kevin Warwick is also a Coventrian. Sir John Egan, industrialist and former Chief Executive of Jaguar Cars attended Bablake School in the city. Sir Frederick Gibberd, architect and designer, was born in Coventry, and amongst the buildings for which he is best known are Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and Didcot Power Station. Donald Trelford, journalist and academic, was born in Coventry and attended Bablake School. He was editor of The Observer newspaper from 1975 to 1993. Born in Coventry, former King Henry VIII Grammar School pupil Paul Connew became editor of the Sunday Mirror and deputy editor of the Daily Mirror and News of The World – later he became Director of Communications at the children's charity Sparks. Fleur Sexton, founder and joint managing director of Coventry's PET-Xi Training, was crowned Businesswoman of the Year 2017 at the 35th annual Women of the Year Awards. The arts The Shakespearean actor Dame Ellen Terry was born in Coventry in 1847. Other Coventrians in the arts include the poet Philip Larkin, comedy film director and writer Debbie Isitt, comedian Guz Khan, actors Charles Kay, Nigel Hawthorne, Nitin Ganatra, Brendan Price, Robin Parkinson and Clive Owen, actresses Tamla Kari, Sinead Matthews, Billie Whitelaw and Carmen Silvera, musicals star Dave Whillets, and authors Cyril Connolly, Andrew Davies, Wren James, Graham Joyce, Lee Child and Mark Barrowcliffe. Notable musicians originated in Coventry, including yodeller Frank Ifield, Vince Hill, electronic composer Delia Derbyshire, Jerry Dammers, Terry Hall, Neville Staple, Hazel O'Connor, Clint Mansell, Julianne Regan, Lee Dorrian, Jen Ledger of Skillet, VJ Paul King, Taz (lead singer of the band Stereo Nation), and Panjabi MC. Arthur Wills, composer, organist, Director of Music at Ely Cathedral (1958–1990), was born in Coventry. 2 Tone music developed in and around Coventry in the 1970s and two of the genre's most notable bands, The Specials and The Selecter are both from the city. The movement is celebrated at the Coventry Music Museum. Other Coventry bands include Bolt Thrower, Coventry Automatics, The Primitives, Adorable, Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield, King, Jigsaw, The Sorrows, The Enemy and The Ripps. Record producer Pete Waterman is from the city, and is president of Coventry Bears. Theatre producer Dominic Madden, comedian and writer Emma Fryer and ex-model Debee Ashby are Coventrians, as were comedian Reg Dixon, ventriloquist Dennis Spicer and broadcaster Brian Matthew. Former Sky Sports broadcaster Richard Keys is a Coventrian, a product of Whitley Abbey School. The fashion model Neelam Gill is also from Coventry. Sports Notable Coventrians in sports include speedway rider Tom Farndon; Davis Cup tennis player Tony Mottram; footballers Bobby Gould, Graham Alexander, Gary McSheffrey, Callum Wilson and James Maddison; cricketers Tom Cartwright and Ian Bell; rugby union players Ivor Preece, Keith Fairbrother, David Duckham, Neil Back, Danny Grewcock, Geoff Evans, and Tom Wood; MotoGP rider Cal Crutchlow; golfer Dame Laura Davies; sprinter Marlon Devonish; distance runners Brian Kilby and David Moorcroft; darts player Steve Beaton; snooker player Dominic Dale and golfer Laura Davies. Boxer Errol Christie grew up in Coventry. Freedom of the City The following people, military units and organisations and groups have received the Freedom of the City of Coventry: Individuals Alfred Herbert: 15 June 1933. Hugh Richard Farren: 10 December 1936. Alfred Robert Grindlay and George Edward Hodgkinson: 15 November 1962. Edward Langton: 1 May 1969. Arthur James Waugh: 7 April 1982. Mo Mowlam: 26 November 1999. Lord Bhattacharyya: 1 October 2015. Ratan Tata: 1 October 2015. Military units HMS Diamond, RN: 16 October 2014. Organisations and Groups The University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust: 14 July 2022. A register of the names of all the Freemen of the City of Coventry is held by the Council and is kept in the Lord Mayor's Office. See also Grade I listed buildings in Coventry Grade II* listed buildings in Coventry Healthcare in West Midlands Scheduled Ancient Monuments in Coventry Send to Coventry References Sources Fox, Levi (1957). Coventry's Heritage. McGrory, David (1993). Coventry: History and Guide. A. Sutton. ISBN 0-7509-0194-2. Slater, Terry (1981). A History of Warwickshire. Phillimore. ISBN 0-85033-416-0. Walters, Peter (2019). The Little History of Coventry. History Press Limited. ISBN 978-0-7509-8908-4. The Bombing of Coventry. BBC Television. 2009. Further reading Hunt, Cathy. (2018) A History of Women's Lives in Coventry. Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 9781526708526. Smith, Albert, and David Fry. (1991) The Coventry We Have Lost. 2 vols. Berkswell: Simanda Press, 1991, 1993. ISBN 0-9513867-1-9; ISBN 0-9513867-2-7. Walters, Peter. (2013) The Story of Coventry. The History Press Ltd. ISBN 9781860776922. External links Coventry City Council Coventry at Curlie Historic Coventry

Wolverhampton

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

Wolverhampton ( WUUL-vər-HAMP-tən) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England, 13 miles (21 km) northwest of Birmingham. The population in 2021 was 263,700. Historically in Staffordshire, the city grew as a market town specialising in the wool trade. In the Industrial Revolution, it became a major centre for coal mining, steel production, lock making, and automotive manufacturing. The economy of the city is still based on engineering, including a large aerospace industry, as well as the service sector. Toponym The city is named after Wulfrun, who founded the town in 985, from the Anglo-Saxon Wulfrūnehēantūn ("Wulfrūn's high or principal enclosure or farm"). Before the Norman Conquest, the area's name appears only as variants of Heantune or Hamtun; the prefix Wulfrun or similar appearing in 1070 and thereafter. Alternatively, the city may have earned its original name from Wulfereēantūn ("Wulfhere's high or principal enclosure or farm") after the Mercian King, who according to tradition established an abbey in 659, though no evidence of an abbey has been found. The variation Wolveren Hampton is seen in medieval records, e.g. in 1381. History A local tradition states that King Wulfhere of Mercia founded an abbey of St Mary at Wolverhampton in 659. Wolverhampton is recorded as being the site of a decisive battle between the unified Mercian Angles and West Saxons against the raiding Danes in 910, although sources are unclear as to whether the battle itself took place in Wednesfield or Tettenhall. Both places have since been incorporated into Wolverhampton. The Mercians and West Saxons claimed a decisive victory, and the field of Woden is recognised by numerous place names in Wednesfield. In 985, King Ethelred the Unready granted lands at a place referred to as Heantun to Lady Wulfrun by royal charter, and hence founding the settlement. In 994, a monastery was consecrated in Wolverhampton for which Wulfrun granted land at Upper Arley in Worcestershire, Bilston, Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall, Ogley Hay near Brownhills, Hilton near Wall, Hatherton, Kinvaston, Hilton near Wolverhampton, and Featherstone. This became the site for the current St. Peter's Church. A statue of Lady Wulfrun, sculpted by Sir Charles Wheeler, can be seen on the stairs outside the church. Wolverhampton is recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 as being in the Hundred of Seisdon and the county of Staffordshire. The lords of the manor are listed as the canons of St Mary (the church's dedication was changed to St Peter after this date), with the tenant-in-chief being Samson, William the Conqueror's personal chaplain. Wolverhampton at this date is a large settlement of fifty households. In 1179, there is mention of a market held in the town, and in 1204 it had come to the attention of King John that the town did not possess a Royal Charter for holding a market. This charter for a weekly market held on a Wednesday was eventually granted on 4 February 1258 by Henry III. It is held that in the 14th and 15th centuries that Wolverhampton was one of the "staple towns" of the woollen trade, which today can be seen by the inclusion of a woolpack on the city's coat of arms, and by the many small streets, especially in the city centre, called "Fold" (examples being Blossom's Fold, Farmers Fold, Townwell Fold and Victoria Fold), as well as Woolpack Street and Woolpack Alley. In 1512, Sir Stephen Jenyns, a former Lord Mayor of London and a twice Master of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, who was born in the city, founded Wolverhampton Grammar School, one of the oldest active schools in Britain. From the 16th century onwards, Wolverhampton became home to a number of metal industries including lock and key making and iron and brass working. Wolverhampton suffered two Great Fires: the first in April 1590, and the second in September 1696. Both fires started in today's Salop Street. The first fire lasted for five days and left nearly 700 people homeless, whilst the second destroyed 60 homes in the first five hours. This second fire led to the purchase of the first fire engine within the city in September 1703. On 27 January 1606, two farmers, Thomas Smart and John Holyhead of Rowley Regis, were executed on High Green, now Queen Square, for sheltering two of the Gunpowder Plotters, Robert Wintour and Stephen Littleton, who had fled to the Midlands. The pair played no part in the original plot nevertheless suffered a traitor's death of being hanged, drawn and quartered on butcher's blocks set up in the square a few days before the execution of Guy Fawkes and several other plotters in London. There is also evidence that Wolverhampton may have been the location of the first working Newcomen Steam Engine in 1712. 19th century A few years before she began her reign, Queen Victoria visited Wolverhampton in the 1830s and described it as "a large and dirty town" but one which received her "with great friendliness and pleasure". In Victorian times, Wolverhampton grew to be a wealthy town mainly due to the huge amount of industry that occurred as a result of the abundance of coal and iron deposits in the area. The remains of this wealth can be seen in local houses such as Wightwick Manor and The Mount (both built for the prominent varnish and paint manufacturers, the Mander family) as well as Tettenhall Towers. All three are located in the western fringe of Wolverhampton, in the areas known as Wightwick and Tettenhall. Many other houses of similar stature were demolished in the 1960s and 1970s. Wolverhampton gained its first parliamentary representation as part of the Reform Act 1832, when it was one of 22 large towns that were allocated two members of parliament. A local mob attacking electors who voted or intended to vote for the Tory candidate led to the 1835 Wolverhampton riot, with dragoons being called in to end the intimidation. Wolverhampton was incorporated as a municipal borough on 15 March 1848 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 before becoming a county borough in 1889. It was represented politically in Victorian times by Charles Pelham Villiers, a Liberal MP and noted free trade supporter who was also the longest-serving MP in parliamentary history. Lord Wolverhampton, Henry Hartley Fowler was MP for Wolverhampton at the turn of the century. The railways reached Wolverhampton in 1837, with the first station located at Wednesfield Heath, now Heath Town, on the Grand Junction Railway. This station was demolished in 1965, but the area exists as a nature reserve just off Powell Street. Wolverhampton railway works was established in 1849 for the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and became the Northern Division workshop of the Great Western Railway in 1854. In the 19th century, the city saw much immigration from Wales and Ireland, the latter following the Great Famine. In 1866, a statue was erected in memory of Prince Albert the Prince Consort, the unveiling of which brought Queen Victoria back to Wolverhampton. The unveiling of the statue was the first public appearance Queen Victoria made after the funeral of her husband. A 40-foot-tall (12 m) archway made of coal was constructed for the visit. The Queen was so pleased with the statue that she knighted Wolverhampton's mayor at the time, an industrialist named John Morris. Market Square, originally named High Green, was renamed Queen Square in honour of the visit. The statue replaced a Russian cannon captured during the Siege of Sevastopol in 1855, and remains standing in Queen Square. The statue is known locally as "The Man on the Horse". The Stafford Street drill hall was completed in 1890. 20th century Wolverhampton had a prolific bicycle industry from 1868 to 1975, during which time a total of more than 200 bicycle manufacturing companies existed there, but today none exist at all. These manufacturers included Viking, Marston, Sunbeam, Star, Wulfruna and Rudge. The last volume manufacturers of bicycles left Wolverhampton during the 1960s and 1970s – the largest and best-known of which was Viking Cycles Ltd, whose team dominated the UK racing scene in the 1950s (Viking's production of hand-built lightweight racing and juvenile bicycles exceeded 20,000 units in 1965). Closures of other smaller cycle makers followed during the 1980s including such well-known hand-builders as Percy Stallard (the former professional cyclist) and Jack Hateley. Wolverhampton High Level station (the current main railway station) opened in 1852, but the original station was demolished in 1965 and then rebuilt. Wolverhampton Low Level station opened on the Great Western Railway in 1855. The site of the Low Level station, which closed to passengers in 1972 and completely in 1981, has since been redeveloped with much of the original station incorporated into a hotel. An Aldi store opened nearby in 2019. In 1918 at "The Mount" in Tettenhall Wood, the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George announced he was calling a General Election. Lloyd George also made his "Homes fit for heroes" speech at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre in the same year. It was on the idea of "Homes fit for heroes" that Lloyd George was to fight the 1918 "Coupon" General Election. Mass council housing development in Wolverhampton, to rehouse families from slum housing, began after the end of the World War I, with new estates at Parkfields (near the border with Coseley) and Birches Barn (near Bantock Park in the west of Wolverhampton) being built, giving the city some 550 new council houses by 1923, although this was a fraction of the number of new council houses required. The first large council housing development in Wolverhampton was the Low Hill estate to the north-east of the city, which consisted of more than 2,000 new council houses by 1927 and was one of the largest housing estates in Britain at the time. Mass council housing development in Wolverhampton continued into the 1930s, mostly in the north of the city in the Oxley and Wobaston areas and on the new Scotlands Estate in the north-east. However, council house building halted in 1940 following the outbreak of World War II in September the previous year. Wolverhampton St George's (in the city centre) is now the northern terminus for the West Midlands Metro light rail system. An extension to the railway station opened in 2023, the opening being delayed until the new railway station was completed. Wolverhampton was one of the few towns to operate surface contact trams and the only town to use the Lorain Surface Contact System. Trolleybuses appeared in 1923, and in 1930 for a brief period the Wolverhampton trolleybus system was the world's largest trolleybus system. The last Wolverhampton trolleybus ran in 1967, just as the railway line through the High Level station was converted to electric operation. England's first automatic traffic lights could be seen in Princes Square in 1927. The modern traffic lights at this location have the traditional striped poles to commemorate this fact. Princes Square was also the location of the United Kingdom's first pedestrian safety barriers, which were erected in 1934. On 2 November 1927, the A4123 New Road was opened by the then-Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) linking the city with Birmingham. The New Road was designed as an unemployment relief project and was the United Kingdom's first purpose-built intercity highway of the twentieth century. Sir Geoffrey Le Mesurier Mander, a member of the Mander family, was Liberal MP for Wolverhampton East from 1929 to 1945, distinguished for his stance against appeasement and as a supporter of the League of Nations. He was known as "the last of the Midland radicals". More recent members have included the Conservative mavericks Enoch Powell and Nicholas Budgen. Powell was a member of Edward Heath's Tory shadow cabinet from 1964, until he was dismissed in April 1968 following his controversial Rivers of Blood speech in which he warned of massive civil unrest if mass immigration of black and Asian commonwealth inhabitants continued. At the same period, Sikh bus drivers and conductors were demonstrating in Wolverhampton against the Transportation Committee's regulations requiring uniform caps and thus prohibiting turbans. In 2005, former Bilston councillor and MP for Wolverhampton South East, Dennis Turner entered the House of Lords as Lord Bilston. After the end of World War II in 1945, the council erected 400 prefabricated bungalows across Wolverhampton, and built its first permanent postwar houses at the Underhill Estate near Bushbury in the late 1940s. The 1950s saw many new houses and flats built across Wolverhampton as the rehousing programme from the slums continued, as well as the local council agreeing deals with neighbouring authorities Wednesfield Urban District and Seisdon Rural District which saw families relocated to new estates in those areas. The 1960s saw the rehousing programme continue, with multi-storey blocks being built on a large scale across Wolverhampton at locations including Blakenhall, Whitmore Reans and Chetton Green. The later part of the decade saw the Heath Town district almost completely redeveloped with multi-story flats and maisonette blocks. By 1975, by which time Wolverhampton had also taken in the majority of the Borough of Bilston, the Urban Districts of Wednesfield and Tettenhall and parts of Willenhall, Sedgley and Coseley, almost a third of Wolverhampton's population lived in council housing, but since that date social housing has been built on a minimal scale in the area, and some of the 1919–1975 developments have since been demolished. As well as the many new council estates which sprang up around Wolverhampton during the 20th century, several older parts of the town were redeveloped for new council housing during the 1960s and early 1970s. The most notable example is the Heath Town area, where almost all of the 19th-century buildings were demolished during the 1960s and replaced by four tower blocks and several blocks of maisonettes. However, the state housing at Heath Town quickly became unpopular and by the 1980s the area was plagued with crime and unemployment. The first regeneration projects on the estate began during the 1990s, and in 2017 some of the maisonette blocks were demolished. A similar redevelopment took place around the same time in Blakenhall, where new shops and five tower blocks were built in a 1960s redevelopment area. However, all of these buildings were demolished between 2002 and 2011 and have since been replaced with new private and social housing. Large numbers of black and Asian immigrants settled in Wolverhampton in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, mostly settling in the Blakenhall, All Saints, Whitmore Reans and Heath Town areas. Wolverhampton is home to a large proportion of the Pakistani and the Sikh community, who settled there during the period (1935–1975) from the Indian state of Punjab. Today, the Sikh community in Wolverhampton is roughly 9.1% of the city's population. In 1974, as a result of local government reorganisation, Wolverhampton became a metropolitan borough, transferring from Staffordshire into the newly formed West Midlands county. Wolverhampton was granted city status on 31 January 2001 – an honour that had been unsuccessfully applied for in 1953, 1966, 1977, 1985 and 1992 – making it one of three "Millennium Cities". Wolverhampton also made an unsuccessful application for a Lord Mayor in 2002. Many of the city centre's buildings date from the early 20th century and before, the oldest buildings being St Peter's Church (which was built in the 13th century but has been largely extended and refurbished since the 15th century, situated on Lichfield Street) and a framed timber 17th-century building on Victoria Street which is now one of just two remaining in the area which was heavily populated by them until the turn of the 20th century. This building was originally a residential property, but later became the Hand Inn public house. Later becoming Lindy Lou's children’s shop and still called Lindy Lou's by locals. It was completely restored in 1981 after a two-year refurbishment project and has been used by various businesses since then including as a second-hand book shop. On 23 November 1981, an F1/T2 tornado touched down in Fordhouses to the north of Wolverhampton, and later moved over Wolverhampton city centre and surrounding suburbs, causing some damage. The Wolverhampton Ring Road circumnavigates the city centre linking the majority of the city's radial routes. It was constructed in sections between 1960 and 1986, and carries the number A4150, although this is only marked on one road sign. The centre of Wolverhampton has been altered radically since the mid-1960s, with the Mander Centre (plans for which were unveiled on 15 April 1965) being opened in two phases, the first in 1968 and the second in 1971. Several refurbishments have taken place since. The Wulfrun Centre, an open shopping area, was opened alongside the Mander Centre's first phase in 1968, but has been undercover since a roof was added in the late 1990s. Central Wolverhampton police station was built just south of the city centre on Birmingham Road during the 1960s, but operations there were cut back in the early 1990s when a new larger police station was built on Bilston Street on land which became vacant a decade earlier on the demolition of a factory. This was officially opened by Diana, Princess of Wales, on 31 July 1992. The city centre had several cinemas during the 20th century. The last of these was the ABC Cinema (formerly the Savoy), which closed in 1991 after 54 years. It was then converted into a nightclub, with part of the site being converted into the offices of a recruitment agency in 2005. The building was demolished in 2019 to make way for an extension to the City of Wolverhampton College's Metro One campus. A modern landmark in the city centre is the Wolverhampton Combined Court Centre on Pipers Row, which opened in 1990 as the town's first purpose-built crown court. 21st century A few department store chains including Marks & Spencer and Next have stores in the centre of Wolverhampton. Beatties, a House of Fraser store, was announced to close in 2019. Debenhams opened a 3-floor department store in the Mander Centre in 2017, but has now closed. Rackhams had a store on Snow Hill for some 25 years until 1992. This building was then divided between a Netto supermarket and the local archives service, but by 2006 its future was under threat as part of the proposed Summer Row retail development. This led to the closure of the Netto supermarket in June 2007 and the relocation of the archives service to the Molineux Hotel building in 2008. The building has since been demolished toward a development push from the Local Authority at various sites around the city. The site is now home to a relocated outdoor market. Following the closure of the Mander Centre branch of Tesco and relocation of Sainsbury's, the only remaining supermarket in the central shopping area was Iceland. In September 2023 a Tesco Express convenience store opened in Dudley Street replacing a branch of Clinton Cards. Outside the Ring Road were major branches of Sainsbury's, Asda and Waitrose. The Waitrose store, originally a branch of Safeway which Morrisons were forced to sell off as part of the acquisition of the supermarket chain, closed at the end of trading on 31 December 2020. The store was sold to Tesco which opened in June 2021. Aldi have two stores close to the city centre: one just off the A4123 Birmingham Road and a newer branch close to the former Wolverhampton Low Level railway station in Sun Street. In 2021, a blue plaque was erected in memory of British immigrant rights activist Paulette Wilson, a member of the Windrush generation. The plaque was launched with campaigners including Patrick Vernon and Claire Darke at the Wolverhampton Heritage Centre. The Centre is a cornerstone of the area's local Caribbean community and was formerly the constituency office of Enoch Powell where the infamous Rivers of Blood speech was written. Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities On 20 February 2021, it was announced as part of the government's levelling up strategy, that what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities would be the first government department to have a headquarters based outside of London. Five hundred posts, including those of senior civil servants, will be moving to Wolverhampton by 2025. On 23 February 2021, the then Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick, announced he was hopeful that staff would be working in Wolverhampton by the summer of 2021. He also announced that they were considering building a new office development in or around the city centre to house the new headquarters. The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, suggested it should be within walking distance of local newspaper Express & Star, where he previously did work experience. As DLUHC looks set to relocate some 500 members of staff to Wolverhampton, Robert Jenrick officially opened its new Wolverhampton offices at the recently completed i9 office development on 10 September 2021. At the opening of the new office development the Secretary of State was joined by the leader of City of Wolverhampton Council Ian Brookfield and the West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street. Art and culture From the 18th century, Wolverhampton was well known for production of japanned ware and steel jewellery. The renowned 18th- and 19th-century artists Joseph Barney (1753–1832), Edward Bird (1772–1819), and George Wallis (1811–1891) were all born in Wolverhampton and initially trained as japanned ware painters. The School of Practical Art was opened in the 1850s and eventually became a close associate of the Art Gallery. Among its students and teachers were Robert Jackson Emerson (1878–1944), Sir Charles Wheeler (Emerson's most famous pupil and the sculptor of the fountains in Trafalgar Square), Sara Page who established her studio in Paris, and many other artists and sculptors recognised locally and nationally. Wolverhampton Art Gallery was established in 1884, whilst Wolverhampton Grand Theatre was opened in 1894. There is a Creative Industries Quarter in Wolverhampton, just off Broad Street, with facilities ranging from the newly opened Slade Rooms, to the art house cinema the Light House Media Centre (closed in 2022) and the Arena Theatre, which is part of the University of Wolverhampton. Wolverhampton has a strong history in the ornate cast iron safe painting industry from the Victorian era. Numerous companies, such as Chubb Lock and Safe Company, hired, taught and expanded their artistic status to international reputation, whereby a safe became truly a work of art with fine script and hand-painted designs, highly collectible today. Even in the United States, one can find their preserved masterpieces to this day. The building was converted into a National Historic Registered Landmark Treasure in 1992, which now houses a cinema, art galleries, nightclub, business offices and a large stained glass rotunda in its foyer. It is among the few canal street factories so well known in the "Black Country" that has been preserved. Wolverhampton's biggest public art display took place between July and September 2017; Wolves in Wolves saw the installation of 30 wolf sculptures in the city centre and West Park, with the sculptures auctioned off to raise money for charity. Exhibitions As its wealth and influence grew, Wolverhampton both took part in notable exhibitions and hosted them. The Great Exhibition of 1851, at The Crystal Palace, had examples of locks, japanned ware, enamel ware and papier-mâché products all manufactured in Wolverhampton. Following successful exhibitions at Mechanics' Institutes in Manchester and many northern towns, Wolverhampton held an exhibition that was the brain child of George Wallis, an artist employed by the firm of Ryton and Walton. The exhibition was held in the Mechanics' Institute in Queen Street and showed fine art, furniture, and decorated trays, as well as a variety of ironwork, locks and steel toys. On 11 May 1869 The Earl Granville opened the Exhibition of Staffordshire Arts and Industry in a temporary building in the grounds of Molineux House. The largest and most ambitious exhibition was the Arts and Industrial Exhibition which took place in 1902. Although housing only one international pavilion, from Canada, the scope and scale of the exhibition mirrored all the advances in other exhibitions of its time. The exhibition site featured several halls housing machinery, industrial products, a concert hall, two bandstands, a restaurant, and a fun fair with thrill rides and a water chute. Its opening, by the Duke of Connaught, was received with hopeful enthusiasm, unfortunately not matched by the weather, which contributed to a £30,000 loss, equivalent to nearly £2M at today's value. Geography Wolverhampton lies northwest of its larger near-neighbour Birmingham, and forms the second largest part of the West Midlands conurbation. To the north and west lies the Staffordshire and Shropshire countryside. Wolverhampton city centre falls outside of the area traditionally known as the Black Country, although some areas such as the town and former borough of Bilston and Heath Town and the Willenhall side of Wolverhampton fall within the Black Country coalfields, leading to confusion as to whether the entire city falls within the region. Modern usage has tended towards using the term to refer to the western part of the West Midlands county, excluding Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry. Examples would be UK Government regional bodies such as the Black Country Development Corporation, under whose remit the city fell. The city lies upon the Midlands Plateau at 163 metres (535 ft) above sea level. There are no major rivers within the city, although the River Penk and River Tame (tributaries of the River Trent) rise in the city, as does Smestow Brook, a tributary of the River Stour, and thence the River Severn. This means that the city lies astride the main east–west watershed of England. The geology of the city is complex, with a combination of Triassic and Carboniferous geology; specifically Bunter and Keuper sandstone, and Upper and Middle Coal measures. There is also an area of dolerite intrusions. Climate Wolverhampton's climate is oceanic (Köppen Cfb) and therefore quite temperate, with average maximum temperatures in July being around 21 °C (70 °F), and with the maximum daytime temperature in January being around 6.9 °C (44.4 °F). The Met Office's nearest observation station is at Penkridge, about 10 miles (16 km) north of the city. Areas of the city As with much of the locality, the majority of areas in Wolverhampton have names that are of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) origin, with a few exceptions such as Penn (pre-English Brittonic place name) and Parkfields, Park Village, Lanesfield etc. (modern place names of the last couple of hundred years). Localities in the City of Wolverhampton include: Notes †–Partial Municipal Boroughs or Urban Districts added to Wolverhampton County Borough in 1966 and communities within these. These Urban Districts were split between Wolverhampton and other local authorities. Those parts within the present City of Wolverhampton local council area are considered by the ONS to be part of the Wolverhampton Urban sub-division. ††–Areas within the Wolverhampton Urban Sub-division but administered by South Staffordshire District Council. Nearby places Towns Villages Green belt Wolverhampton has green belt within its boundary, as a part of the wider West Midlands Green Belt. This is scattered around the western half of the city, in the form of green wedges, due to it being highly urbanised. The green belt is in place to prevent further urban sprawl, and preserve greenfield areas. Areas covered include: Government The vast majority of Wolverhampton is governed locally by City of Wolverhampton Council, although some smaller parts of the urban area are governed by South Staffordshire District Council. The area administered by the City Council is represented in the national United Kingdom parliament by three MPs representing Wolverhampton West, Wolverhampton South East and Wolverhampton North East constituencies, with the areas administered by South Staffordshire District Council being represented by South Staffordshire constituency. The entire city was part of the West Midlands constituency of the European Parliament. City of Wolverhampton Council The City of Wolverhampton is a metropolitan borough, meaning that its City Council is effectively a unitary authority, and therefore is single-tier and provides all services to the district that a borough and county council would together. South Staffordshire District Council is a two-tier authority, with some services provided by Staffordshire County Council. The council offices are in the Wolverhampton Civic Centre, which is located in St Peter's Square in the city centre. The city council's motto is 'Out of darkness cometh light'. The Labour Party currently control the council and have been in majority on the council since 1974, with the exceptions of 1978–1979, 1987, 1992–1994 and 2008–2010. The Labour party won 18 out of 20 council seats that were up for election in 2016.Labour Councillor Claire Darke was the Mayor of Wolverhampton for 2019–21. Civic history Wolverhampton gained the beginnings of modern local government in 1777, when the Wolverhampton Improvement Act was passed by Parliament. This allowed for the establishment of 125 Town Commissioners who undertook a variety of local improvement work such as punishing bear baiting, improving drainage, widening streets and by the end of the century street lighting had been provided at every street corner and over the doorway of every inn, and water supply had been improved by the sinking of ten new wells and the provision of a great water tank in the market place. Policing had been improved with the appointment of ten watchmen and attempts were also made to regulate the markets and inspect hazardous food. Wolverhampton parliamentary borough was created by the Reform Act 1832, which included areas currently located with the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Walsall and Sandwell such as Wren's Nest, New Invention and Sedgley. It was one of 22 large towns that returned two members of parliament. Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the original borough was replaced by three new single-member constituencies: Wolverhampton East, Wolverhampton South and Wolverhampton West. In 1837, Wolverhampton Borough Police was formed. It was disestablished in 1966, and the larger West Midlands Constabulary, which covered not only Wolverhampton but the County Boroughs of Walsall, Dudley, West Bromwich and Warley took over its duties and was headquartered in the city. This force was then replaced in 1974 with the West Midlands Police. Wolverhampton was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1848 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. and the first meeting of the Council took place on 22 May 1848. The town was then made a County Borough in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888. In 1933, the boundaries of the borough expanded, taking in areas from Cannock Rural District and Seisdon Rural District, with very little of the surrounding urban area being affected, with only Heath Town Urban District being abolished. The bulk of the urban districts of Bilston (a borough itself after 1933), Tettenhall and Wednesfield were added to the borough in 1966, along with the northern section of the urban district of Coseley and parts from the north of Sedgley and the west of Willenhall. The vast majority of these areas were traditionally part of the Parish of Wolverhampton, and were part of the original Parliamentary Borough. Wolverhampton was one of only two County Boroughs (the other being Liverpool) to have no changes made to the boundary during the 1974 reorganisation of local government, the borough already having a population larger than the 250,000 required for education authorities. This contrasted with both the Redcliffe-Maud Report, and the initial White Paper for the 1974 reforms where large areas of the present South Staffordshire district were to be added to the borough. During the 1974 reforms it was placed within the West Midlands Metropolitan County. Wolverhampton was also a Royal Peculiar covering a large area. Police The main police station for Wolverhampton is based on Bilston Street in the city centre. Wolverhampton Borough Police became part of West Midlands Constabulary in 1966. Policing is currently delivered by West Midlands Police. Demography The 2021 Census gives the Wolverhampton Urban Subdivision as the second largest in the West Midlands conurbation. The figure given for Wolverhampton is 263,727. The proportion of females within the city (50.9%) is slightly higher than that of males (49.1%). Wolverhampton has an ethnically diverse population; 60.6% of the city's population were white in the 2021 census, 21.2% were Asian, 9.3% were Black, 5.3% were mixed, and 3.6 were from another ethnic group. Based upon the 2021 census, Wolverhampton has a Christian population of 43.8%. The proportion of Wolverhampton residents professing no religion was 27.8%. Of religious groupings, Sikhism has the second largest following in Wolverhampton, accounting for 12% of the population in 2021, increased from 9.1% in the 2011 census, meaning the city has the largest percentage of Sikhs in England and Wales, and the third largest community numerically. The proportion of people following Islam was 5.5%, whilst Hinduism was followed by 3.7%, the figure for Buddhism was 0.3%. Wolverhampton is within the top 11% of local council areas in England and Wales (excluding London Boroughs) for public transport use for travelling to work at 16% of the total. 63% used private transport, either as a driver or passenger, 13% cycled or travelled on foot, whilst 8% worked from home. Car ownership is lower than the average for England and Wales with 35.2% of households not owning a car, compared with 26.8% nationally. Single car ownership is in line with national averages (Wolverhampton 42.9%, England and Wales 43.8%), while the proportion of households owning more than one car is lower than the national average. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, with Wolverhampton's high British Asian population, the British Muslim, British Hindus and Sikh communities are more numerous than the national average. Population change The tables below detail the population change since 1750, separating that of the city itself and the geographical area now administered by Wolverhampton City Council. Ethnicity of the borough Religion The following table shows the religion of respondents in recent censuses in the city of Wolverhampton. Economy Traditionally, Wolverhampton's economy has been dominated by iron, steel, automobiles, engineering and manufacturing industries. Many of the traditional industries in the city have closed or dramatically downsized over the years. However, by 2008 the economy was dominated by the service sector, with 74.9% of the city's employment being in this area. The major subcomponents of this sector are in public administration, education and health (32.8% of the total employment), while distribution, hotels and restaurants take up 21.1%, and finance and IT takes up 12.7%. The largest non-service industry was that of manufacturing (12.9%), whilst 5.2% of the total employment is related to the tourism industry. The largest single employer within the city is Wolverhampton City Council. which has over 12,000 staff Other large employers within the city include: Banking: Birmingham Midshires (Headquarters) Building materials: Tarmac and Carvers Builders Merchant Education: University of Wolverhampton and City of Wolverhampton College Construction: Carillion (Headquarters). Entered liquidation January 2018. Brewing: Marston's (Headquarters) Aerospace: H S Marston, MOOG and Goodrich Actuation Systems Retail: Beatties (now owned by House of Fraser) (due to close 2019) Manufacturing: Chubb Locks, Jaguar Land Rover (Engine Assembly Plant) National Health Service (NHS): New Cross Hospital Jaguar Land Rover In 2014 Jaguar Land Rover opened a £500 million Engine Assembly Plant at the i54 business park, Wolverhampton. Unveiled by Her Majesty, the plant produces 2.0-litre 4-cylinder Ingenium diesel and petrol engines. Having already been expanded once before, in 2015 it was announced that the factory would be doubling in size to 200,000 sq m (2,152,782 sq ft), costing $450 million. This expansion would see the workforce double from 700 to 1,400. Goodyear Goodyear opened a large factory on Stafford Road, Fordhouses, in 1927. However, it was decided in December 2003 that tyre production at the plant would be discontinued with the loss of more than 400 jobs. This came after some 2,000 job losses at the plant since 1997. The end of production came in 2004 but the factory remained open for tyre moulding and tractor tyre production. Wolverhampton Wanderers The varied success of Wolverhampton Wanderers since the club's formation in 1877 has also contributed to the economy of Wolverhampton. The club's greatest successes came between 1949 and 1960, when it won the league title three times and the FA Cup twice, as well as hosting a series of high-profile friendly matches against Europe's leading club sides, also competing in two early editions of the European Cup. During this era, Wolves frequently attracted crowds of between 40,000 and 50,000. Wolves went on to win the Football League Cup in 1974 and again in 1980, spending all but three seasons outside the top division of English football during the first 35 years of postwar league football, and continued to attract strong crowds but the 1980s saw a sharp decline in the club's fortunes, with three consecutive relegations, a sharp fall in attendances, and debts of more than £2million which almost put the club out of business. This decline also came at a time when the economy of Wolverhampton was struggling due to the early 1980s recession. Wolves enjoyed a surge in the late 1980s with two consecutive promotions, thanks largely to the prolific scoring of striker Steve Bull, and an upturn in attendances which also provided a boost to the local economy – as did the club's increased support during the 1990s, during which time the stadium was extensively rebuilt and its facilities improved, with its new features including a restaurant and office space. In 2018, Wolves won promotion to the FA Premier League for the third time in 15 years, and a year later reached its first FA Cup semi-final since 1998, and further redevelopment of the stadium is planned. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government On 20 February 2021, it was announced as part of the government's levelling up strategy that The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), would be the first government department to have headquarters outside of London. It is expected that 500 posts including Senior Civil Servants would relocate to Wolverhampton by 2025. Tallest buildings Regeneration In recent years, Wolverhampton City Council have embarked on many city improvements and regeneration schemes. One such project was "Summer Row", a new £300 million retail quarter for Wolverhampton city centre. The project would have involved clearing existing buildings, and in 2006 a compulsory purchase order was issued to over 200 owner / occupiers in the surrounding area. Construction of Summer Row was originally earmarked for 2008, with a completion date listed as 2010, but the 2008 recession put the project on hold. In January 2011, the Summer Row project was formally cancelled as the CPO expired before the council found the necessary financial backing for the project. Mander Centre Redevelopment Debenhams, who were listed as the anchor store of Summer Row, announced they were still keen in opening a department store in Wolverhampton. It was revealed they would open an anchor store in a £35 million redevelopment of the Mander Centre. To be completed in 2017, the 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) store would create 120 jobs. The redevelopment would also see the Mander Centre be fully refurbished and reconfigured. A number of larger stores would be created, replacing smaller ones. The reconfiguration saw the relocation of the toilets, escalators and elevators. The lower Central arcade was removed and Tesco and TJ Hughes were demolished to make way for 3-storey Debenhams store. Debenhams closed in January 2020. In 2019 Wilkinson relocated into the Mander Centre, closing a smaller store in Snow Hill. B & M Stores opened in part of the former BHS store at the same time. Wolverhampton Interchange Project Wolverhampton's Interchange Project is a major redevelopment of the city's east side area worth around £120 million. Phase 1, which was completed in 2012, consisted of demolishing the old bus station and replacing it with a new £22.5 million station. This phase also included a new footbridge across the ring road towards the railway station, highway and pedestrian works, new offices for Centro and a Sainsbury's convenience store. Phase 2 which was completed in late 2015, involved the construction of the £10.6 million i10 building adjacent to the new bus station. The building contains 12,400 square feet (1,150 m2) of leisure and retail space on the ground floor and 36,000 sq ft (3,300 m2) of office space above. Phase 3 began in early 2016 on expanding the train station's multi-storey car park. Completed in December 2016, the car park increased in capacity from 450 to over 800 spaces. The expansion of the multi-storey car park will include a new cycle and motorcycle parking, short stay parking, passenger drop off point and a taxi rank adjacent to the car park. A new entrance will be created. Phase 4 involved construction of a new development on the opposite side of Railway Drive to the i10 and is known as i9. The offices are used by the Department for Levelling Up, part of the National Government. Transport Road Wolverhampton city centre forms the main focal point for the road network within the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, and out into the rural hinterland of Staffordshire and Shropshire. The road network within the boundaries of the city council area is entirely maintained by Wolverhampton City Council, whilst those parts of the urban area outside the city council area have their networks maintained by Staffordshire County Council, with the exception of M54 and A449 on the northern fringes of the urban area which are maintained by National Highways. Major historical improvements to the city's road network include Thomas Telford's Holyhead Road (now part of A41), which was constructed between 1819 and 1826 to improve communications between London and Holyhead, and hence to Ireland. The majority of work within the city saw improvement to the contemporary network, though both the Wellington Road in Bilston and the cutting at the Rock near Tettenhall were newly constructed for the road, although the improvements at The Rock were constructed by the local Turnpike Trust rather than Telford himself. In 1927, the A4123 Birmingham-Wolverhampton New Road was constructed as both an unemployment relief project, and to relieve pressure on Telford's road through the Black Country. It was the first purpose built inter-city road in the United Kingdom within the 20th century, and was said to be the longest stretch of new road in Britain since the Romans. It took just three years to complete and cost £600,000. Also in 1927, the first automatic traffic lights in the United Kingdom were installed in Princes Square in the city centre. Princes Square was also the location of the United Kingdom's first pedestrian safety barriers, which were erected in 1934. In 1960, plans were announced to build a Ring Road around the centre of Wolverhampton. By the end of the 1960s, more than half of the Ring Road had been completed, stretching from Snow Hill to Stafford Street (via Penn Road, Chapel Ash and Waterloo Road), followed a few years later by a section between Snow Hill and Bilston Street. However, the final section between Bilston Street and Stafford Street (via Wednesfield Road) was not completed until 1986. An outer ring road was also planned but only a small section was ever built, this being Wobaston Road in Pendeford. Wolverhampton is near to several motorways, with four being located within 7 miles (11 km) of the city centre. The first to be constructed in the area was the M6, which opened in sections between 1966 and 1970, and connects the city with the north-west of England (including Manchester and Liverpool), Scotland as well as Birmingham and Coventry to the east, and London via the M1. Together with the M5, which opened in the area in 1970 and links the city with the south-west of England, and London via the M40, the two motorways form a north–south bypass for the city. The section of M6 motorway nearest to the city is one of the busiest within the UK, and to relieve congestion on this stretch, the M6 Toll which bypasses both the Wolverhampton and Birmingham sections of the M6 motorway was opened in 2003. The M54 motorway forms a northern bypass to the city, passing just within the fringes of the urban area, and links the city with Telford, Shrewsbury and Wales. It opened in 1983. In addition to the motorways presently constructed, there have also been several proposed near to the city that have not been constructed, or have been constructed to a lower standard. Included within these are the Bilston Link Motorway, which was first proposed in the 1960s and was eventually constructed to a lower standard in the 1980s as the A454/A463 Black Country Route; and the Western Orbital or Wolverhampton Western Bypass, which was first proposed in the 1970s as a bypass for the western side of the city and the wider West Midlands conurbation. Currently proposed by the Highways Agency is the M54 to M6 / M6 (Toll) Link Road. The route was initially proposed in the 2000s to relieve the overloaded sections of A460 and A449 near the city, and to replace a section of the cancelled Western Orbital. Whilst it appears in the current roads programme, a date for the start of construction has not been set. Rail Wolverhampton is well connected by rail to other parts of England and Wales. However, while Priestfield and Bilston are connected by a tram line, the suburbs in the south, west and north of Wolverhampton are no longer served by rail - in particular the Tettenhall, Penn and Compton areas and Dunstall Park for the race course. Wednesfield no longer has any rail connections, with Wolverhampton and Bloxwich being its closest railway stations. Wolverhampton's first railway opened in 1837, with the opening of the Grand Junction Railway, the first long-distance line in Great Britain. The main station for the city was, however, not located in the city centre but at Wednesfield Heath, now Heath Town on the east side of the city. This station was considered to be a First Class station, though its location was obviously not ideal and it became a goods station after passenger services ceased in 1873. The station buildings were demolished in 1965, but the main station area is now a nature reserve just off Powell Street, called Station Fields and part of the edge of the northbound platform is still in situ. The track running through the station site is, however, still in use. The first station in the city centre was opened by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway in 1849. This station was only intended to be temporary and was located on the north side of Wednesfield Road, beside Broad Street Basin. The station was constructed as the opening of Wolverhampton High Level was delayed. The station closed in 1852 and was demolished in the mid-1970s. In addition to the temporary station, Wolverhampton Works were also established in 1849 by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and became the Northern Division workshop of the Great Western Railway in 1854. The permanent station on the line finally opened on 24 June 1852 and was initially known as Wolverhampton General; it was renamed as Wolverhampton Queen Street in 1853 and finally Wolverhampton High Level in 1855. The station was initially a joint station between the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway and the London and North Western Railway, though there were problems in the relationships between the two companies; the station became solely LNWR in 1854, before the Wolverhampton and Walsall Railway (later part of the Midland Railway) gained access to the station in 1867. The original High Level station was demolished in 1965, as part of the electification of the West Coast Main Line and was replaced by buildings on the present site which have now been demolished. Two years after the opening of the High Level station, the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway (OWW) opened their city centre station immediately to the east of High Level. Initially called Wolverhampton Joint, it was renamed Wolverhampton Low Level in 1856. As well as the OWW, the station also served the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley Railway and the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway. As the first two companies were supported by the Great Western Railway, broad gauge track was laid to the station, meaning that Wolverhampton Low Level became the most northerly station on the broad gauge network before being converted to standard gauge in 1869. Despite being featured in the second Beeching Report, The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes in February 1965 as being on a line earmarked for further investment, services were withdrawn progressively from Low Level starting in 1967, soon after it had been transferred administratively from the Western Region of British Railways to the London Midland region. London services were transferred to the newly electrified High Level station. Low Level was converted into a Parcels Concentration Depot in 1970 and the final passenger services were withdrawn in 1972. These services (to and from Birmingham Snow Hill) were only suspended and never legally withdrawn by British Rail and so technically the station is still open. There were also a number of suburban stations in Wolverhampton – including Dunstall Park and Bushbury north of the city centre; Tettenhall and Compton to the west side of the city on the GWR's Wombourne Branch Line; Wednesfield and Heath Town on the Wolverhampton and Walsall Railway; Portobello on the Walsall to Wolverhampton Line; Priestfield and Bilston Central on the Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level Line; and Bilston West and Daisy Bank on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line. Today, all of the suburban rail stations within the city have been closed, although Coseley, Codsall and Bilbrook are just outside the boundaries. Also, some of the seven West Midlands Metro tram stations in the city are near or directly replace these former suburban stations. The former High Level station, now simply known as Wolverhampton station, is today one of the principal stations on the West Coast Main Line. It has regular rail services to London Euston, Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly, as well as most other major cities in the UK. In addition to the long-distance services, there are many local services including those on the Cambrian Line into Wales, the Walsall to Wolverhampton Line to Walsall, the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line to Telford and Shrewsbury; and the Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line to Stafford and Coventry. The 1960s buildings of the station have now been demolished, following a lengthy delay, and are being replaced with a more modern station building. Phase 1 opened in spring 2020, which saw the creation of a new entrance. Phase 2 saw the demolition of the remainder but construction of the replacement was delayed due to the COVID-19 restrictions and opened on 28 June 2021. This new station includes a stop on the Metro tram line which opened in September 2023. Buses Buses in the city are run by a number of bus operators, the largest provider of services is National Express West Midlands. As well as serving suburbs of the city, buses from the centre of Wolverhampton also provide a direct link with the city of Birmingham and connections to Walsall, Telford, West Bromwich, Stourbridge, Cannock, Stafford, Sedgley, Bilston, Bloxwich, Bridgnorth and Dudley. Wolverhampton bus station operated by Transport for West Midlands is situated at Pipers Row, near to the railway station, providing an interchange between the three modes of transport (bus, train and tram). The station has recently had a complete rebuild. Its previous Pipers Row incarnation opened on 26 October 1986, just six years after its predecessor of 1981. The station underwent a further upgrade in 1990, which saw the grade II listed Queen's Building incorporated into the bus station. A mild refurbishment took place in 2005/06, with new toilets and the addition of a coach stand. Operators are charged a departure fee to contribute towards the upkeep of the station. In July 2009, plans were unveiled for a complete rebuild of the bus station, which was part of Wolverhampton's Interchange Project. The bus station closed in April 2010 and was demolished; a £22.5 million station opened in July 2011. Colour schemes and branding have been updated over the years, for example the transition from Network West Midlands to TfWM branding. Most bus services are currently operated by National Express West Midlands and Diamond Bus, however a small number are operated by Travel Express, Banga Bus and one Arriva service to Bridgnorth. Due to the quantity of National Express services, the company has a traffic office inside the bus station where traffic officers can monitor disruptions and make alterations if required. West Midlands Metro The West Midlands Metro, a light rail system, currently connects Wolverhampton St George's to Grand Central tram stop via West Bromwich and Wednesbury, mostly following the former Birmingham Snow Hill-Wolverhampton Low Level Line. There were plans for further lines within the city, with both a city centre loop and a line to Walsall via Wednesfield and Willenhall, mostly following the route of the closed Wolverhampton and Walsall Railway, however, these were cancelled in late 2015. All of the seven westernmost stations on the network are in Wolverhampton, with this number increasing to nine now Pipers Row and Wolverhampton station are connected to the network. In 2014/15, Centro announced in a £40 million deal, they would be replacing the entire fleet of the 16 AnsaldoBreda T-69 trams with 21 CAF Urbos 3 trams. The new Urbos 3 trams are 9 metres longer; at 33 metres (108 ft), with the ability of carrying 210 passengers, compared to the 156 from the T69. Additionally with the upgraded trams, Wolverhampton's Metro Line will be expanded. As part of the Wolverhampton Interchange Project; the Metro line will be extended from Wolverhampton St George's to Wolverhampton railway station, creating one stop at Wolverhampton bus station and subsequently ending at the railway station. It was scheduled to open in September 2020. However delays caused by COVID-19 mean the extension is not expected to open until September 2021. The line finally opened in the summer of 2023. In 2021, construction started on a 2 new metro Lines from Brierley Hill to Wolverhampton and Birmingham, one of these lines will terminate in Wolverhampton City Centre and will boost connectivity to the Black Country, this means that the corridor between Wolverhampton and Wednesbury will be served every 3 minutes by trams in peak times. In late September 2021, funding was given for over 4 new metro projects, including a new line from Wolverhampton to New Cross Hospital. This new line will extend the existing line from Wolverhampton Interchange to the hospital, via an old railway line. Another planned but not confirmed extension is from St Georges to the i54. Air Wolverhampton's original airport was at Pendeford, opened in 1938 and closed on 31 December 1970. The current Wolverhampton Airport, renamed from Halfpenny Green, is a small general aviation airfield located 8 miles (12.9 km) southwest of the city. Expansion of the airport has been suggested, but the current owners want to keep it as a General Aviation airfield. The airport hosts various "fly in" events and is an original World War Two airfield. The nearest major airport is Birmingham Airport, approximately 25 miles (40.2 km) away. The airport is easy to reach by train, with a direct express service to it only taking on average 36 minutes. By car, it takes approximately 45 minutes via the M6 or M6 Toll Road. There are direct flights to Amritsar, Delhi, Dubai, Orlando, Dublin, Paris, Bucharest, Frankfurt and Munich Waterways There are no navigable rivers within the city, but there are 17 mi (27 km) of navigable canals. The Birmingham Canal Main Line passes through the city centre, connecting with the remaining portion of the Wednesbury Oak Loop at Deepfields Junction, and the Wyrley & Essington Canal at Horseley Fields Junction, before passing between the railway station and the bus station in the city centre and then descending 132 feet (40 m) through the 21 Wolverhampton Locks and terminating at Aldersley Junction where it meets the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, which in turn connects with the Shropshire Union Canal at Autherley Junction. Cycling Most places in the borough and some of the neighbouring villages in South Staffordshire are within easy reach of the city centre by pedal cycle and terrain is moderately hilly. Climbs tend to be of two to three minutes duration. Cycling benefits from the 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) city centre within the Ring Road and a number of routes that use quieter roads and paths to avoid the ten 'A' roads that radiate from the Ring Road. Wolverhampton is on the Smethwick to Telford section of Sustrans National Cycle Network Route 81. This follows the Birmingham Main Line Canal towpath from Smethwick to Broad Street Basin, Wolverhampton where the route splits in two. The choice here is between riding the 21 locks section of the Birmingham Main Line Canal to Aldersley Junction or taking the Cross-City route braid to visit the city centre, West Park or Smestow Valley Leisure Ride before returning to Aldersley Junction. NCN81 continues to Autherley Junction along the towpath of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and then along the east bank towpath of the Shropshire Union Canal as far as Pendeford Mill Lane before turning to Bilbrook in Staffordshire. The lanes of nearby South Staffordshire and east Shropshire provide ideal cycle touring conditions. Culture Music The rock groups Slade, Sahotas, Cornershop, The Mighty Lemon Drops and Babylon Zoo came from Wolverhampton, as do electronic musician Bibio, soul/R&B singer Beverley Knight, drum and bass guru Goldie, roots reggae maestro Macka B. Kevin Rowland of Dexys Midnight Runners was born in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton. Hip Hop music producer S-X who has worked with T.I., J. Cole, Birdman & Lil Wayne was born and raised and still lives in Wolverhampton. In 2010, Wolverhampton-born singer Liam Payne came third in the British television music show The X Factor with his boy band One Direction, who in March 2012 became the first British group to go straight to the top of the US music charts with their debut album, Up All Night. Wolverhampton has a number of live music venues; the largest occasionally used being the football ground, Molineux Stadium, which was used for a Bon Jovi concert in 2003, but the biggest indoor venue regularly used is Wolverhampton Civic Hall, with a standing capacity of 3,000. Second to that is Wulfrun Hall (part of the same complex as the Civic Hall, which is owned and operated by the City Council) which has a standing capacity of just over 1,100. The Civic Halls complex also has a newer venue, The Slade Rooms (named after the 1970s rock band), which has a capacity of approximately 550 standing. There are also a number of smaller venues with capacities of between 100 and 250, although the longest-established of these, the Wolverhampton Varsity, is now closed, as is the Little Civic. Other venues include the Light Bar in Fryer Street, the 'Numa Bar' and the Dog & Doublet (next to the old Little Civic), although the situation in this area of entertainment remains fluid. The 18th-century St John's Church is a venue for smaller scale classical concerts. The city is also home to Regent Records, a choral and organ music recording company, and Wolf Town DIY, an independent record label that primarily releases punk and alternative music by underground artists. The Midland Box Office is the primary sales point for most of Wolverhampton's venues and is situated in Queen Square. The city's main choral groups include the City of Wolverhampton Choir, (a choral society founded as the Wolverhampton Civic Choir in 1947) and the Choir of St. Peter's Collegiate Church. Arts and museums The Grand Theatre on Lichfield Street is Wolverhampton's largest theatre, opening on 10 December 1894. It was designed by C. J. Phipps and completed within six months. Included amongst the people to have appeared at the theatre are Henry Irving, Charlie Chaplin and Sean Connery. It was also used by politicians including Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George. The theatre was closed between 1980 and 1982. The Arena Theatre on Wulfruna Street, within the University of Wolverhampton is the secondary theatre, seating 150. It hosts both professional and amateur performances. Cinema is catered for by a multiplex Cineworld located at Bentley Bridge, Wednesfield, and a smaller cinema, Light House Media Centre, housed in the former Chubb Buildings on Fryer Street. Cineworld mainly shows Hollywood films, other big-budget films, and some Bollywood films, whilst Light House shows a range of older and subtitled films as well as some selected new releases. Light House has also played host to visual art shows, an International Animation Festival and incorporates a small café. The Lighthouse closed its doors for the final time on 3rd November 2022. The city's Arts & Museums service, run by the council, covers three sites: Wolverhampton Art Gallery, home to England's biggest Pop art collection after that held at the Tate; Bantock House, a fine historic house with Edwardian interior with a museum of Wolverhampton located within Bantock Park; Bilston Craft Gallery with exhibitions of contemporary crafts. The Black Country Living Museum, situated in nearby Dudley, has a large collection of artefacts and buildings from across the Black Country, including an extensive collection associated with the city. Eagle Works Studios and Gallery situated in Chapel Ash, is a self run artists' group. It provides studio accommodation for eighteen visual artists, mostly painters. Its small gallery holds a regular programme of exhibitions to show and promote contemporary art in the city. The National Trust owns two properties on the edge of the city that are open to the public: Wightwick Manor, which is a Victorian manor house and one of only a few surviving examples of a house built and furnished under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement, and Moseley Old Hall, which is famous as one of the resting places of Charles II of England during his escape to France following defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651. English Heritage owns Boscobel House, within Shropshire, another refuge of Charles II. Nearby museums also include the Royal Air Force Museum, at RAF Cosford and the RAF Fire Service Museum at Wolverhampton Airport., whilst Chillington Hall, which boasts of grounds designed by Capability Brown, and Himley Hall are nearby examples of houses open to the public. Libraries Located on the corner of Garrick Street and St George's Parade, Wolverhampton Central Library is a Grade II listed building, designed by architect Henry T. Hare and opened in 1902. It was originally commissioned to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee using funds raised by the Mayor, Alderman S Craddock, and by a grant of £1,000 from Andrew Carnegie. This new library improved public access to information and reading material, replacing its cramped predecessor in the old Garrick Street Police Station. The terracotta exterior has a tripartite theme of related, but distinct façades. The entrance façade is the architect's centrepiece and is decorated with a frieze under the triple window which carries the Royal Coat of Arms and the Wolverhampton Coat of Arms. The other two façades celebrate English literary giants; Chaucer, Dryden, Pope, Shelley, Byron and Spenser on one side and Milton and Shakespeare on the other. An extension for a newsroom and a students' room was added in 1936 followed by a small brick and concrete extension at the rear in the 1970s. Wolverhampton City Council also operate 14 branch libraries within the city. Media Wolverhampton is home to the Express & Star newspaper, which boasts of having the largest circulation of any provincial daily evening newspaper in the UK. Parent company Midland News Association is based in Wolverhampton. Local television news programmes are BBC Midlands Today and ITV News Central. BBC local radio station that covers the city is BBC Radio WM on 95.6 FM. The city was originally home to four radio stations, 107.7 The Wolf which was absorbed into regional station Signal 107, now broadcasting as Greatest Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire from studios in Liverpool, Manchester, London and Birmingham, Beacon Radio absorbed by Orion Media and now laterly Bauer Media broadcasting as Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire from studios in Birmingham and Manchester. The third was Radio WABC, the AM service from Beacon Radio that has since closed following a number of rebrands as Classic Gold Digital, Gold and Free Radio 80s. The fourth, and now the only radio station based in the city, is community radio station WCR FM which broadcasts solely to the Wolverhampton on 101.8FM, online, via the Tune In app and via smart speaker. In December 2005, the BBC commissioned the poet Ian McMillan to write a poem about Wolverhampton, along with four other towns which apparently "had a reputation they didn't deserve". Made in Wolverhampton (2013), an essay documentary feature film by Adam Kossoff, maps out the hidden history and architecture of Wolverhampton from the point of view of a discontented fictional arts lecturer who teaches at the Wolverhampton School of Art. Education The University of Wolverhampton is the main provider of higher education in the city. The university currently has more than 23,000 students. In 1835, the Wolverhampton Mechanics' Institute was founded, and its lineage can be traced via the Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Technical College (1935), to The Polytechnic, Wolverhampton (1969) to today's University of Wolverhampton, given university status in 1992. The main university campus is in the city centre, with other campuses at Compton, and in the nearby towns of Walsall and Telford. Wolverhampton Grammar School was founded in 1512, making it one of the oldest active schools in the UK. Old boys include Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England between July 2003 and 2013, and Sir David Wright, former British Ambassador to Japan. Other notably historic schools include The Royal School, Wolverhampton (founded in 1850), and Tettenhall College (1863), which educated the winner of Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Professor Sir Arthur Harden. City of Wolverhampton College is the main further education college in the city. Wolverhampton Girls' High School is a well known selective school which has produced top of league table results within Wolverhampton. Notable old girls include the former English women's cricket captain Rachael Heyhoe-Flint and Baroness Hayman, first Lord Speaker of the House of Lords, as well as Georgia Elwiss, a member of the current 2015 women's cricket team. St Peter's Collegiate School was founded in 1847 in buildings adjacent to St Peter's Collegiate Church in Wolverhampton town centre. It moved to the present extensive green site at Compton Park in 1965. St Peter's is the oldest established educational institution currently in the state sector in Wolverhampton, with a tradition of academic, cultural and sporting excellence nourished by Christian spiritual and moral values. Previous students include record-breaking goalscoring footballer Arthur Rowley and Ben Godfrey, a TV presenter, and reporter on Midlands Today. Wolverhampton, unlike a number of nearby areas such as Dudley and South Staffordshire, has always had traditional age range schools; 5–7 infants, 7–11 juniors and 11-16/18 secondary schools. Some secondary schools have sixth form facilities for children aged 16+. Sport Football Wolverhampton is represented in the Premier League, the highest tier of English football, by Wolverhampton Wanderers FC. 'Wolves', as they are known, are one of the oldest English football clubs, and were one of the 12 founder members of the Football League. Their most successful period was the 1950s, where they won three Football League Championships (then the highest division) and two FA Cups, and were involved in the earliest European friendlies. They were hailed by the press as 'The Unofficial World Champions' after one of their most famous victories, against Budapest Honvéd FC of Hungary. They were also the first English team to play in the Soviet Union. These victories instigated the birth of the European Cup competition which later evolved into the UEFA Champions' League (see European Cup and Champions League history). In total, they have won three Football League titles (prior to the top division becoming the Premier League), four FA Cups, have two League Cup victories and many other minor honours, including reaching the UEFA Cup Final in 1972, and appearances in the last eight of both the UEFA European Cup, and the European Cup Winners' Cup, but spent just one season in the top division between 1984 and 2009. They are also one of only two clubs, along with Portsmouth, to have won five different league titles; they have championed all four tiers of the professional English league, as well as the long-defunct northern section of the Third Division. Wolves have a long-established rivalry with West Bromwich Albion. Separated by 12 mi (19 km), the two clubs have faced each other over 160 times since 1886. Aston Villa and Birmingham City FC are also close rivals of Wolves, having played them 121 and 136 times respectively. Geographically, Walsall FC are closest to Wolves, but rarely compete at the same level. Since 1886, the two clubs have only played 16 times against each other. Several other Wolverhampton-based clubs play non-league football, notably AFC Wulfrunians and Wolverhampton Sporting Community F.C. in the Midland Football League Premier Division, Wolverhampton Casuals FC, Wednesfield FC, and Bilston Town FC in the West Midlands (Regional) League, and Warstones Wanderers F.C. in the West Midlands (Regional) League – Division Two. Athletics Wolverhampton's Aldersley Leisure Village is also home to Wolverhampton & Bilston Athletics Club, which was formed in 1967 with a merger between Wolverhampton Harriers and Bilston Town Athletic Club. They have won the National League Division One for men from 1975 to 1982, and the Men's National Cup finals in 1976, 1977, 1979 and 1980. It also represented Britain in the European Clubs Cup from 1976 to 1983 with the best finishing position of third. Olympic Medallists in athletics Sonia Lannaman and Tessa Sanderson lived within the city. Cricket There are a number of cricket clubs in the city. These are Wolverhampton Cricket Club, Springhill Cricket Club, Springvale Cricket Club, Fordhouses Cricket Club and Wombourne Cricket Club. Field hockey The city has a few field hockey hockey clubs that compete in the Midlands Hockey League. These are Wolverhampton & Tettenhall Hockey Club and Finchfield Hockey Club. Cycling Wolverhampton Wheelers is the city's oldest cycling club, formed in 1891. It was home to Hugh Porter who won four world championship pursuit titles; and Percy Stallard who has been credited with bringing cycle road racing to Britain when he held the Llangollen to Wolverhampton race on 7 June 1942. Wolverhampton Wheelers make extensive use of the velodrome at Aldersley Stadium. Wolverhampton was also the home of Trevor Gadd, who was a six time British National Cycle champion and two-time silver medallist at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, as well as a fifth-place finisher in the 1977 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Venezuela. Wolverhampton has also hosted the Tour of Britain, with a stage start in 2006, a stage finish in 2007 and a sprint finish in 2008. It is also home to Wednesfield Aces cycle speedway who are based on Ashmore Park. Horse and greyhound racing Wolverhampton Racecourse is located at Dunstall Park, just to the north of the city centre. This was one of the first all-weather horse racing courses in the UK and is Britain's only floodlit horse race track. There is also greyhound racing at Monmore Green. West Park, a large park near the city centre, was converted from a racecourse. A horse by the name of Wolverhampton was among the leading contenders for the 1849 Grand National at Aintree but did not complete the course. Motor sports Sunbeam built many early Grand Prix cars and was the only British make to win a Grand Prix in the first half of the 20th century. Sunbeam also built several holders of the Land speed record, including the first vehicle to travel at over 200 miles per hour (322 km/h), the Sunbeam 1000 hp. AJS was heavily involved in motorcycle racing either side of World War II, which included winning the 1949 World Championship in the 500cc category. Kieft Cars built Formula Three cars in the early 1950s. Their best known driver was Stirling Moss. Wolverhampton Wolves, one of the leading speedway clubs in the UK represents the city, participating in the Elite League at the Monmore Green stadium. Wolverhampton Speedway is one of the oldest speedway tracks in the world that is still in operation being first used, albeit briefly in 1928. The track re-opened in 1950 for a single meeting and in 1952 the Wasps competed in the Third Division on the National League. The track closed early in 1954 and did not re-open until 1961 when the Wolves were introduced to the Provincial League. The track has almost been an ever-present ever since and currently operates in the British Elite League. Ole Olsen (in 1971 and 1975), Sam Ermolenko (in 1993) and Tai Woffinden (in 2013) were riders for the club when they became World Speedway Champions. The Wolves are defending Elite League champions, having defeated the Belle Vue Aces in the 2016 play-off final. Le Mans 24 Hours winner Richard Attwood is from the city. Marathon Wolverhampton is home to the Carver Wolverhampton City Marathon. The marathon is part of a series of events whose main goal is to raise money for charity. Obstacle course race The Tough Guy Race is held annually near Wolverhampton. The race is considered the first civilian obstacle course race. Commonwealth Games The City hosted the Cycling Time Trials for the 2022 Commonwealth Games on August 4, 2022. The start and finish was at West Park, with the route passing through the City Centre before heading out into city suburbs. Places of interest Notable people There are a number of notable people who are associated with Wolverhampton. Political figures associated with Wolverhampton include Enoch Powell MP, Sir Charles Pelham Villiers MP, who holds the record for the longest serving MP, Helene Hayman, Baroness Hayman, who was the first Lord Speaker within the House of Lords, former Cabinet minister Stephen Byers, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, who briefly worked as a writer for the Express & Star, Henry Fowler, 1st Viscount Wolverhampton, a solicitor and Liberal politician, David Wright, a former UK Ambassador to Japan, and Button Gwinnett, who was a signatory of the US Declaration of Independence and briefly served as Governor of Georgia. There are many sportspeople associated with the city, with footballers such as Billy Wright, Steve Bull, Bert Williams and Jimmy Mullen; along with Percy Stallard and Hugh Porter within the world of cycling, the Olympic medallist swimmer Anita Lonsbrough, professional darts player Wayne Jones, racing driver and winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans Richard Attwood as well as athletes such as Tessa Sanderson and Denise Lewis and cricketer Vikram Solanki who grew up here and played for Wolverhampton Cricket Club before joining Worcestershire. 2023 Wimbledon Boys' Singles Champion Henry Searle is from Wolverhampton, also supporting the city's Premier League team Wolverhampton Wanderers. Entertainers include actors Nigel Bennett, Goldie, Frances Barber, Meera Syal and Eric Idle; and musicians Noddy Holder, Dave Hill, Beverley Knight, Dave Holland, Maggie Teyte, Edward Elgar, Robert Plant, Bibio, Paul Raven, trap-metal rapper Scarlxrd, and Liam Payne of the group One Direction; and television presenters Suzi Perry, Mark Rhodes and Mark Speight. The socially conservative future president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, Mary Whitehouse, lived in Wolverhampton between 1939 and the early 1960s before relocating to Shropshire. Within the area of commerce and industry, Sir Alfred Hickman (first Chairman of Tarmac), Sir Geoffrey Mander, John Marston founder of Sunbeam Cycles and Sunbeam Motor Car Company, John 'Iron Mad' Wilkinson (pioneer of Cast iron) and Mervyn King, the former Governor of the Bank of England, are amongst the most notable. Prof Ernest Geoffrey Cullwick, a specialist in electromagnetism and its effects on atomic particles, was born and raised in Wolverhampton. Thief-Taker General, Jonathan Wild (ca.1682–1725) came from the town. List of Freemen of the City of Wolverhampton The following people have been granted the title 'Freeman of Wolverhampton': In addition, on 19 August 2006, freedom was granted to veterans of the Princess Irene Brigade who were members of the Dutch Army stationed at Wrottesley Park during World War II. See also 1835 Wolverhampton riot Wolverhampton power station References External links Wolverhampton City Council Wolverhampton at Curlie

Jos%C3%A9_Mar%C3%ADa_Arizmendiarrieta

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mar%C3%ADa_Arizmendiarrieta

José María Arizmendiarrieta Madariaga (Markina-Xemein, Biscay, Spain, April 22, 1915 – Mondragón, Gipuzkoa, Spain, November 29, 1976) was a Basque Catholic priest and promoter of the cooperative companies of the Mondragon Corporation, originally located in the Basque Country and currently spread throughout the world. As of 2021, it is the second largest social economy business group in Spain, bringing together ninety-eight cooperatives, eight foundations, one mutual, ten coverage entities and seven international delegations, distributed in four areas: finance, industry, distribution and knowledge. Arizmendiarrieta was a seminarian in Vitoria when the Spanish Civil War began in 1936, and consequently he was mobilized by the Basque Government. Due to his knowledge of the Basque language, he was assigned to the editor of the new newspaper Eguna, where he remained until Francisco Franco’s troops entered Bilbao. He was arrested by them, and again mobilized for the Military Government of Burgos until the end of the war. After finishing his studies and his priestly ordination, he was assigned in 1941 as curate of the parish to the industrial town of Mondragon, located in the Gipuzkoan Deba Valley, where he remained until his death. A pragmatic and hard-working priest, with a great sense of social justice and human dignity, he promoted numerous entities and companies for the good of the workers and the community in what he called the "cooperative experience of Mondragon". Thousands of people visit Mondragon every year to analyze Arizmendiarrieta's self-managed cooperative model for job creation and maintenance. He is considered Venerable in the Catholic Church. Biography Early years: 1915–1931 Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta, whose name is often shortened to "Arizmendi", was born on April 22, 1915 in the modest farmhouse called Iturbe, nestled in the Barinaga porch, in the municipality of Markina-Xemein, Biscay. His parents were José Luis and Tomasa. His father had a reputation as a man of peace among his neighbors. Good-natured, cheerful and determined, he had a social life under the wing of fairs and brotherhoods. His mother was a housewife in the spirit of the biblical woman: intelligent, orderly, hard-working and self-sacrificing. She took care of the children's education and the administration of the farmhouse. Jose Maria was the eldest of four brothers, the other three being Maria, Francisco and Jesus. When he was three years old he suffered a fall in front of the farmhouse, causing a severe head injury, and was taken to the doctor at Markina. The physical damage to his sight was irreparable: he lost his left eye, which was replaced by an artificial one. At the age of four he began to go to the rural school attached to the parish, financed by the farmhouses and the neighbourhood residents. The aftermath of the accident influenced José María's future temperament, as well as the over-protection that his mother devoted to him from then on. Given his visual disability and his family upbringing, instead of playing and misbehaving like other children, his character was not very expansive: shy, quiet, and observant. Jose Maria was an intelligent child with little physical strength. The boy consequently began to adopt an austere, modest and practical character, close to his pragmatic mother, who, despite being illiterate, appreciated his penchant for reading and literature, and encouraged him, when he turned twelve, to go to the Minor Seminary of Castillo Elejabeitia. There he started wearing the glasses that hid his handicap, and his priestly vocation was strengthened. In the seminary he discovered a new world, but he remained faithful to his origins, to the peasant land in which he had grown up and where he learned from his mother the value of practical work for subsistence in a modest farmhouse. He had come from a monolingual environment based on the use of the Basque language in all social spheres, but in the seminary he studied above all general culture in the two permitted languages, Spanish and Latin. Four years later, he joined the recently inaugurated Diocesan Seminary of Vitoria. Seminary of Vitoria: 1931–1936 Arizmendiarrieta was at the Seminary at the time of the Second Spanish Republic, precisely when social issues re-emerged. The seminarians, in addition to studying philosophy and theology, studied the social encyclical Quadragessimo Anno by Pius XI. Consequently, he delved into the spirituality of the Priestly Movement of Vitoria, having Joaquin Goikoetxeandia and Juan Thalamas as special tutors. And he assumed the motto of the first: "Be a priest, always and in everything a priest." Great importance was attached to values such as bodily austerity, punctuality, silence, industriousness, hygiene and presentation. In the Seminary there were two groups, the youngest and most unreflective, who played football and Basque pelota, and the mature, serious and responsible group who thought about the problems of the world, about peace and war, or social issues such as hunger and missions. Arizmendiarrieta belonged to the latter. One of the most influential priests was Manuel Lekuona, a professor of languages and art. He defended the view that working for the cultivation of the Basque language was an urgent duty of the diocesan priests, to teach catechesis in the vernacular language. In fact, in 1933 several students in the 2nd year of philosophy decided to found the "Third level of the Kardaberaz Society" (Kardaberaz Bazkunaren hirugarren maila), and they endowed it with the motto "Always forward" (Aurrera beti). They all agreed that the best person to draft its statutes was Arizmendiarrieta, who also drew up his founding manifesto, in which he associated the work of the company with the Renaissance ideology. Likewise, he was appointed deputy director of the Society, that is, the de facto manager, since the Director, known as Lekuona, merely supervised. They held an average of three meetings per month, to which were added ordinary and extraordinary meetings. Both Lekuona and Jose Miguel Barandiaran conveyed to the seminarians the value of critical observation, being reluctant to promote mere study. In this way they countered the monastic romanticism of the Seminary, which tended to cloister the priestly vocation, such that according to Arizmendiarrieta, "from so much talking about the temptations of the world, they were absent and unaware of the real temptations: power and comfort." Civil War and priestly ordination: 1936–1941 At the beginning of the civil war in July 1936, Arizmendiarrieta was in the family farmhouse of Barinaga enjoying his annual vacation from the Seminary, and he remained there until he was mobilized by the new Basque Government of José Antonio Aguirre. But the military medical court certified his incapacity for active military service, and assigned him to an auxiliary corps, specifically to the editorial office of the newspaper Eguna (The Day), where he received a monthly salary as a soldier. The newspaper in Basque had been created in January 1937 by the new government to communicate with the Basque-speaking population, and especially with the soldiers at the front. He was a member of the Bilbao Press Association, and in May and June he also wrote in the bilingual newspaper Gudari (Soldier), aimed directly at the Basque militia battalions. In his articles, the anti-fascist, nationalist and Christian-Democratic ideology of Eguna was maintained. With Arizmendiarrieta worked several comrades from the group “Always forward" of the Vitoria seminary, such as Eusebio Erkiaga and Alejandro Mendizabal. The treatment of information sought to defend the Basque homeland and its most important components, language and religion. All this from a Christian-Democratic political orientation, with insistent references to social justice. In June 1937, the rebel troops invaded Bilbao, and Arizmendiarrieta tried to flee to France. But fearful that they would take reprisals against his family, he returned to Barinaga and was later arrested due to a complaint. He spent a month in jail accused of writing in Eguna and Gudari, and after a summary court-martial against 17 detainees, only 4 were saved from being shot, including Arizmendiarrieta, who declared that he was a soldier and not a journalist. He was finally released without charge, and mobilized by the Francoist army, being posted to the Burgos artillery regiment. He got permission to continue studying theology at the seminary in that city, passing and moving on to a new course. At the end of the year, the Bergara seminary was opened, and Arizmendiarrieta moved there to continue his priestly studies.In September 1939, he returned again to the Vitoria Seminary, under the tutelage of Professor Rufino Aldabalde, who had created some work groups where he considered that, after the upheaval of the civil war, the social question was the burning task for the new generation of priests. The stages of "Kardaberaz" and the work in "Eguna" had finished, and in December Arizmendiarrieta was appointed by Aldabalde director of the group's sheet, which was called "Pax". In March 1940, the sheet changed its name to "Arises", and the Priestly Movement of Vitoria was created, where the social apostolate, especially that of youth and workers, were the two areas of work in which Arizmendiarrieta participated in the months prior to his ordination. On January 1, 1941, he celebrated his first mass in the church of San Pedro de Barinaga in the presence of his parents and relatives. The Perosi mass was sung at the ceremony, as well as the Nun duzu amandrea (Where do you have your grandmother), by the admired president of Euskaltzaindia (Royal Academy of the Basque Language), Resurreccion Maria de Azkue. After which, and although he intended to go to the University of Leuven in Belgium to study sociology, he was assigned as an Assistant Curate to the parish Mondragon, 30 miles from his own home town, which suffered from unusual levels of unemployment and social tensions as a result of the civil war. Assigned to Mondragon: 1941–1954 He arrived in Arrasate (in Spanish, Mondragon) in February 1941, as a 26-year-old newly ordained priest. There, since the Middle Ages, iron was worked in its forges and craft workshops. And at the beginning of the 20th century it had an efficient industrial activity, dedicating the companies to the production of laminates, profiles and sheet metal, screws, locksmiths, hardware, metal furniture, malleable cast iron, household appliances, iron pipe accessories, and office furniture. Upon his arrival, these companies employed 1,500 workers, out of a population of 8,800 inhabitants. The most important company was the Locksmith Union with 800 employees. It was listed on the Stock exchange and had a commissary for its employees and its own School of Apprentices, where Arizmendiarrieta began to teach a social training class for one hour a week, as chaplain of the San Juan Bautista parish. This relationship with young apprentices led him to revitalize Catholic Action as a center for social, cultural and religious leisure. In addition, he created in 1942 new sections such as the Sports Youth, the Academy of Sociology, and the Hallelujah magazine, intended for new military recruits. In his quest for community welfare, he started to focus his efforts on vocational training, such as the school provided by the Locksmith Union, a flagship factory of Mondragon. However, his attempts to enhance and expand the school were not welcomed by the management. And Arizmendiarrieta wanted to socialize knowledge and extend the possibility of training to the children of all the workers of the town. He visited the Professional School opened in Vitoria by Pedro Anitua, and decided to do the same, creating a Professional School in precarious conditions in 1943, in the name of Catholic Action, for which he relied on donations and popular subscription. It was a private, non-cooperative school, initially governed by a Board of Trustees. During the eleven months of the course, the students had a paid job for four hours in the morning in a local company, and in the afternoon they went to class for six hours.In 1945, at the initiative of Arizmendiarrieta and through Sports Youth, the Iturripe stadium was built, financed with contributions from businesses and the local community through pools, raffles, passes for shows, etc. And continuing with his procedure of institutionalizing social projects, he himself drafted its statutes, turning it into a municipal sports society with a Delegated Board that included the main public, ecclesiastical and economic authorities of Mondragon. In the year 1946, Arizmendiarrieta made an important qualitative leap in training, by selecting the best eleven young people who had completed their High Level Vocational Cycle studies, to pursue higher studies in Industrial engineering, but enrolled in the University of Zaragoza, located 200 km away. During the day they worked 55 hours a week at the Locksmith Union, and at night they studied under the guidance of teachers from the Professional School. They were examined in person in July, and all passed the five courses. Among them were the five entrepreneurs of what in 1956 was the first cooperative, ULGOR. In addition, the same year and following his thought of "theology of reality", he managed to create an anti-tuberculosis dispensary in the small Mondragon Community health center. The year 1947 and the following years were socially convulsive, with wage claims from the workers in several companies, with the support and participation of Arizmendiarrieta in the preparation of the writings, as works of social apostolate. All this while maintaining his good relationship with the businessmen, who supported him in the creation of the League of Education and Culture foundation for the promotion of the common good. But over time, clashes arose between the paternalistic leadership of the Locksmith Union and the engineering students. In 1952 the new Zaldispe Professional School promoted by Arizmendiarrieta was inaugurated. He humbly confined himself to the audience, while the Minister of Education, the Civil Governor, the Bishop, the President of the Provincial Council and other authorities were on the platform. In the same act, the first class of Industrial Engineers received their titles from Minister Joaquín Ruiz Jiménez. Within its social projects, in August 1953 the first stone of the new housing complex for workers in the Makatzena neighborhood was laid, after creating the charitable construction entity "Mondragon Home Association". Arizmendiarrieta put his working-class ideology into practice through an austere life: without salaries, traveling by train with a third-class ticket or in friends' cars, and moving around Mondragon with his modest bicycle, as the working class did. Illness and death: 1963–1976 In 1963 he began to suffer health problems, surely the result of his intense activity in the previous years: priestly life, classes, talks, conferences, meetings, visits to work centers, attention to people in his office at the School, trips to the ministries and official entities, trips abroad, and his inveterate dedication to training through extensive study. He did not fully recover, and in February 1967 he suffered a cardiac embolism, for which he underwent surgery in Madrid where an artificial prosthesis was placed in his heart. After several years of normal life, in January 1973 he was hospitalized for heart problems in Bilbao, where a strict recovery regimen was imposed, and after it he came back to Mondragon in a state of some weakness. His condition was, however, irreversible and in February 1974 he had to go back to the hospital to undergo another operation, given that the previously placed artificial valve had become denatured over time and needed to be replaced. The complex operation went well, but over the following days, Arizmendiarrieta suffered as the wounds became infected and did not heal: it was the so-called "sickness of the operating room". In April, he was discharged to return to Mondragon, where his wounds were treated daily. Only his priestly asceticism explains the silence with which he experienced the physical suffering that accompanied him after this last operation. Cures and medications, especially antibiotics, constituted a painful martyrdom that he endured with resignation, while, still weak, he tried to lead a normal life. After several further hospitalizations and discharges, at the beginning of November 1976 he was admitted to the Mondragon Health Center, where the doctors decided against continued treatment of his wounds, to spare him any further suffering. His death came on November 29. His body was able to be viewed for two days, and thousands of people paid homage to him. On December 1, the funeral was held, presided over by the Minister of Labor and officiated by 60 priests. Cooperative enterprises: 1955–1976 Until 1955 Arizmendiarrieta developed his work in four different areas, and in all cases with inter-class cooperation criteria: – Parish church, which included the Catholic Action Center and the Spiritual Exercises Work, – Social, with social health assistance works through anti-tuberculosis and children's clinics, or housing construction through the Mondragon Home Association, – Formative, represented by the Professional School, and – Recreational, oriented towards sport and cinema with the Sports Youth. The business area was pending, with the participation of workers in the capital and management of companies. After thirteen years of creative work in the assistance and training sectors, based more on action than on reflection, and nourished by the social doctrine of the church, Arizmendiarrieta focused his dedication on the creation of social enterprises, which he called the "cooperative experience". Organizational model Arizmendiarrieta promoted an open organizational model without distinction of race, belief, social class or sex, which was both participatory and interdependent. And it had some common elements, but also others specific to each sector of activity. Among the common elements was the General assembly of partners, where the democracy of one person/one vote prevailed, without assessing seniority or the capital owned by the partner. The Assembly elected the members of the Governing Council, equivalent to the Board of Administration, where any member could present their candidacy. The Governing Council elected the managing director, who in turn would elect his own management team. On the other hand, the workers elected the members of the Social Council, equivalent to the workers unions, in a proportion of one representative for every twenty members. Both the Governing Council and the Social Council internally elected their president. Depending on the sector, the composition of the partners changed. Thus, in industrial cooperatives only their workers were members. In credit and research cooperatives, workers and companies were partners. In the consumer cooperatives, the workers and the companies were partners, and the clients were user partners. And in the training cooperatives the workers, the companies, and the students were partners. All the cooperatives were private, self-managed and offering their services to the entire public market. On the other hand, both research and training cooperatives were non-profit. Consumer cooperatives In July 1955 the houses of the "Mondragon Home Association" had already been completed, and Arizmendiarrieta promoted the creation of the San José Consumer Cooperative among his neighbors in the assembly of partners. It was about creating a community alternative to the exclusive company stores, such as that of the Locksmith Union. He organized everything personally: he participated in the list of founding members, collected the necessary documentation to formalize the statutes, looked for theoretical references about cooperativism to familiarize the members with this business model, took care of the steps to acquire premises in the town that served as a store, and drafted the statutes of the company. They included him as a member of the Governing Board, and to finance his purchase, Arizmendiarrieta negotiated interest-free loans with several companies in exchange for them taking advantage of the cooperative as their own commissary. The San Jose Consumer Cooperative also served as a work balance by employing mostly women, since Arizmendiarrieta devoted special attention to promoting women. To do this, he expanded a teaching section in the Professional School, focused on the 400 single female workers who existed in Mondragon. Over the years, more consumer cooperatives were created, and in September 1969, as a result of the merger of the San Jose Cooperative, with several cooperatives based in the towns of Arechavaleta, Amorebieta, Marquina, Guernica, Éibar, Ermua, Matiena and Recaldeberri (Bilbo), the new company Eroski Group was created. Industrial cooperatives At the beginning of 1955, Arizmendiarrieta desisted from making any more attempts to promote worker participation in the capital and management of the Locksmith Union. He encouraged five of his closest collaborators to create a new company, ULGOR (name derived from the initials of the five founders: Luis Usatorre, Jesus Larrañaga, Alfonso Gorroñogoitia, Jose Maria Ormaetxea and Javier Ortubay). The authorization for its creation had to be given by the Government in Madrid, and when this was refused, they decided to buy a company in difficulty in Vitoria in October, with its industrial license to manufacture "appliances for domestic use", essentially cooking oil stoves. In April 1956 Arizmendiarrieta blessed the pavilion where the new company Talleres ULGOR was located in Mondragon, where in addition to continuing to manufacture the previous stoves, they launched a new product: an oil stove copied to the millimeter from an English model unknown in Spain. Likewise, in the summer they obtained a license to manufacture selenium plates under the patent of a German company. Arizmendiarrieta relied on talented young people he knew from the School, under the premise that "to create cooperatives you have to train cooperative members". On the other hand, the new businesses were promoted with a double logic: that they did not previously exist in the Alto Deba Valley, to avoid entering into competition with them, and that they were linked to their professional knowledge acquired in the Locksmith Union and the Professional School. Thus, Usatorre and Larrañaga took charge of the electrical appliances, Ormaetxea of the foundry, and Gorroñogoitia of the electronics. In August they took advantage of the summer holidays to move the machinery and dies from the Vitoria plant to Mondragon, and in November the workshop was officially opened. In 1957, after the good start represented by ULGOR, Arizmendiarrieta, with the participation of former students of the Professional School, promoted the creation in Mondragon of Talleres Arrasate Industrial Cooperative to revive the company Aranzabal Workshop, which was in bankruptcy. The statutes were drawn up by himself in collaboration with two lawyers from Madrid, one of whom was responsible for the National Union of Industrial Cooperatives. The object of the new cooperative company was "the manufacture and sale of machines, tools, punching and tooling". Credit unions In August 1958, Arizmendiarrieta went on an excursion of students and professors from the Polytechnic School to the World Exhibition in Brussels, and took advantage of his first trip abroad to visit different automobile, household appliance and machine tool companies in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany. After the trip, he decided to implement an idea that had been maturing in recent years, the creation of cooperative credit entities. At the beginning of 1959, he drafted two preliminary projects which would materialize in the creation of a financial entity and another assistance entity. Financial entity The objective of the "Labour Bank" (Laboral Kutxa, a credit cooperative financial entity) was to cover the industrial and service cooperatives in their investments and growth, and in turn, channel their profits and the savings of their members. The first office was opened in October 1959, and in addition to its financial function, it activated the Social Welfare service to cover the 314 members of ULGOR and the other industrial cooperative "Talleres Arrasate". In the statutes that he presented for the approval of the Labour Bank, he reinforced mutual cooperation by proposing that the existing cooperatives be members of the credit cooperative and that the new cooperatives be incorporated as members. In this way, they mutually reinforced their solvency. A characteristic of the Labour Bank from its very beginning, and until the creation in 1991 of the Mondragon Corporation, was the existence of two divisions: the Financial Division and the Business Division. While the former performed the ordinary functions of a savings bank, the functions of the Business Division were autonomous. On the one hand, it supported existing cooperatives in matters of internationalization, management and legal advice, and on the other, it promoted the creation of new cooperatives, both in sectors where they already existed and in new ones such as research, the primary sector, and the educational one. In addition to linking employees and industrial cooperatives as partners, Arizmendiarrieta wanted the rest of the population to get involved, and for this he used simple and popular messages. Thus, at the inauguration in 1960 of a new Labour Bank office, his motto was "O notebook, o suitcase", that is, save to invest and create jobs, or emigrate. Mutual assistance Like the financial entity, in June 1959, the EPSV (Voluntary Social Welfare Entity) known as "Lagun Aro" was created to respond to the cooperative members' need for social protection. The reason for this was that being self-employed workers, as opposed to employees, they were excluded from the General Public Social Security Scheme. Its function was, on the one hand, to provide a mixed coverage system that included benefits from the Public Social Security System through the Self-Employed Regime to which the cooperative members were affiliated, and on the other, to enable access to Lagun Aro's own benefits, such as coverage for illness, unemployment in the event that a cooperative was in difficulty, retirement, widowhood, and complementary health care. As in Laboral Kutxa, the cooperatives were members of Lagun Aro. Agricultural cooperative Arizmendiarrieta came from a family of peasants from Barínaga, and did not understand social development without the primary sector. After the first industrial cooperative, he promoted the LANA cooperative, integrating the livestock, agricultural and forestry sectors of the Alto Deba Valley. It would be a mixed cooperative with two types of partners, the producers of the villages, and the workers of the transformation cooperative. After several years of dynamic growth, specialization took place, creating three divisions: dairy, livestock and forestry. Over the years, the first two were integrated into the Erkop agro-food group, and the forestry activity into the Construction Division. Cooperative university At the beginning of 1961, Arizmendiarrieta began to structure the idea of a new Professional School with a higher academic level in the Alto Deba Valley, with opening centers in the three main towns, Mondragon, Bergara and Oñati, which together had a population of 50,000 inhabitants. As an indispensable condition for the development of industrial cooperatives, he wanted students well trained by the best teachers in workshops and laboratories who were close to the levels of research and development of the leading European countries. And this would facilitate the interrelation with companies.In 1963, work began on the new Professional School in Iturripe, designed to house 1,500 students, who would gradually reach the degree of Official, High Level Vocational Cycle Studies, and Technical Engineering, officially inaugurated in 1967. An important peculiarity was that the school's partners belonged to the cooperative and non-cooperative companies of the valley, the teachers, and also the students, having representation in the Assembly and the Governing Council. At that time, he developed the MEDUO University Project, involving the School Association of the University of Oñati, made public in 1965, and taking as its historical inspiration the old Sancti Spiritus University, created in 1545 and in operation until 1902. Its decentralizing approach involved locating engineering related to mechanics, electronics and machine tools in Mondragon, commerce and business administration degrees in Oñati, and chemicals linked to the textile industry in Bergara. In addition, he proposed a 'popular and social' university, which should pay attention to the practical application of the principle of equal educational opportunities, so that it would be a driving force for development through the institutionalization of lifelong learning. The project turned out to be too ambitious for the time, and it was not until 1997 that the current Mondragon University was established. County Cooperative Group In the Laboral Kutxa's Annual report of 1961, Arizmendiarrieta explained his ideas on intra- and inter-cooperative cooperation as an element of solidarity to achieve personal and collective advancement. He proposed an adequate process of capitalization by indirect means, and at the same time an indispensable formula of development through industrial concentration. The directors of ULGOR led and developed the idea, which resulted in the constitution of a co-brand group called Ularco, which included the industrial cooperatives of the Alto Deba Valley. Initially, it would be made up of the industrial companies ULGOR, Arrasate, Copreci and Ederlan, constituting a federal union of cooperatives, with a similar orientation to groups of capitalist companies, with the difference that in these the power was vertical and configured by the arithmetic majority of the capital, while in the Ularco Group the power was rooted in a pact of cession of sovereignty. One of the greatest achievements of collective solidarity of Arizmendiarrieta with the creation of the Group in 1964 was to implement the "reconversion of results" between all the partners of the different cooperative companies, when ULGOR achieved 30% of profits on sales and in Ederlan it was just 3%. The new business group stated in the second article of its regulations that its corporate purpose was to guarantee "the budgets of the modern company with the appropriate technical, financial and commercial deployment". Student's Industrial Cooperative Arizmendiarrieta developed the project to create an industrial cooperative for the students of the Professional School with a double purpose. On the one hand, it would provide students with limited economic resources the possibility of paying for their High Level Vocational Cycle studies. And on the other, it would promote dual training through theoretical and practical classes at the School, and the experience of working in a real company. In November 1965, he began the procedures for the administrative recognition of the company Alecoop (Cooperative School Labor Activity), which became official in April 1966. The industrial purpose of the company was the manufacture and sale of auxiliary tools for mechanical workshops and electrical installations for industrial assemblies, according to commissions or own study projects. The students would work in a cooperative regime for half a day, which had to be compatible with the school demands of the partners. Women's Industrial Cooperative In all cooperatives, women's participation was subject to rights equal to those of men. But in the mid-1960s, Arizmendiarrieta's concern for the labor emancipation of women became more apparent, since the limit of women's participation in work was marriage. In the cooperatives, the institutional associative link was the "partnership contract" and not the usual work contract, so the single members saw it terminated once they got married. For Arizmendiarrieta, marriage was almost a sentence of exile for women, which separated them from social life, and often tended to increase 'couple problems'. To improve the situation, Arizmendiarrieta promoted the construction of a female pavilion for classrooms and laboratories at the School, which would allow young female students to study chemistry and electronics, and, in parallel with this, the creation of a women's industrial cooperative, founding the Auzo Lagun company in November 1967. Its activity is the direct catering service, in which meals are prepared on site for schools, companies, residences and hospitals. Cooperative Research Center Arizmendiarrieta was aware of the technological dependency implied by the acquisition of patents abroad, and more specifically that of electronic semiconductors in Germany and that of electrical appliances in Italy. For this reason, on his trips abroad he analyzed the collaboration networks between companies, universities and research centers as a basis for economic and social development. In 1965, he began to include his ideas on the importance of research and technological development in the weekly talks at the Professional School. He considered that the competition between nations was between the companies that collaborated with the laboratories, so it was necessary to invest in human capital and technology. With his usual pragmatism, he convinced several professors at the School to dedicate part of their time to applied technological research, and after a few years of testing, in 1968 a team was created with partial autonomy from the School and with its own projects. Subsequently, he encouraged the cooperatives of the Alto Deba Valley to contract projects to the research team, and Laboral Kutxa to financially lead the construction of a separate building from the Professional School. The dual objective was to provide it with its own research capacity in the medium and long term in the style of the German Fraunhofers, under the legal tutelage of the Professional School, and eventually to set up the first cooperative company for Applied Research. In 1973 Laboral Kutxa approved the project, and in October 1974 work began on the new building. The tutelage of the teaching center lasted until 1982, when Ikerlan had its own legal personality as a cooperative, with the Valley companies and the researchers themselves being partners. Arizmendiarrieta also involved the Public administration in financing generic projects, being a source of inspiration for public-private collaboration in the field of research in the Basque Country. Cooperative Corporation In February 1966, Arizmendiarrieta spent a week in France visiting laboratories and factories in Paris, Dijon and Grenoble. And in September he made another tour of Germany, visiting different commercial, credit, consumer, and industrial cooperatives in Bonn, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. In both cases, he came back with the idea that Mondragon could also reach the degree of harmonic development that he had seen, for which it was necessary to become competitive in increasingly larger areas. All this served to reinforce his permanent discourse of cooperation. The cooperatives were integrated into Regional Groups such as Ularco, based on their geographical proximity, and it was not until December 1984 that the reorganization pre-congress was undertaken with a more business and less sociological focus, creating the Mondragon Cooperative Group. The process culminated in the first two Congresses of 1987 and 1989, approving the basic principles of what is currently the Mondragon Corporation. Thought and practical principles Precedents Arizmendiarrieta, in his quest for social justice and human dignity, was not a visionary who created business models by intuition. He had extensive historical, business and ideological knowledge based on many years of observation and reading. His uniqueness was that, with a lot of pragmatism, he knew how to help implement his theoretical ideas in concrete creations. Historical Arizmendiarrieta knew well the cooperative precedents of the Basque Country. In fact, the spirit of cooperation has long been deeply rooted among farmers, popularly known as "Auzolan" (Community Work). It is the performance of free work by neighbours that benefits everyone; through a neighborhood assembly, the place, method and people (one member for each farm) who are going to carry it out are decided, mainly the opening and/or maintenance of public roads, churches, hermitages or public buildings, or as and when a neighbor needs it. On the other hand, in the 20th century the first consumer cooperative, promoted by the nationalist union ELA/STV, was created in Bilbao in 1919, followed by others in Vizcaya. These cooperatives were also open to non-members. And they operated according to the cooperative principles of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, founded in 1844 in England, and currently maintained by the ICA – International Co-operative Alliance. In the Vitoria Congress in 1933, the union agreed to strengthen the cooperative movement, and the first production and credit cooperatives were also created. Also, in 1920 the socialist union UGT helped several affiliates, workers of companies in crisis, to achieve self-employment by creating the ALFA cooperative in Eibar. It began manufacturing weapons, and from 1925 also sewing machines. It was the largest industrial cooperative of the time and its managing director, Toribio Echevarria, was admired and loved by Arizmendiarrieta for his professionalism and integrity. Business Since the thirteenth century, the Deba Valley and its seven towns have been linked to forges and metallurgy. Thus, in the 15th century, a large part of the 1,900 inhabitants of Mondragon dedicated themselves to obtaining steel billets, which on the one hand, they sold and exported for the manufacture of weapons, and on the other, they transformed by hand into nails and ironwork. The forges were complex installations that allowed the energy of the water to activate the machinery necessary to produce iron and steel until the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, when blast furnaces were introduced. When Arizmendiarrieta arrived in the depressed post-war Mondragon in 1941, the largest company was the "Locksmith S.A.", created in 1906 from the merger of the companies "Vergarajauregui, Resusta y Cia", from 1869, and "The Guipuzcoan Locksmith", from 1901. It had 850 employees at its foundry and machining plants in Mondragon and Bergara, was listed on the Stock exchange of Madrid, and was the driving force behind several smaller locksmith companies. In mid-1948 it had 2,000 workers. The second most important company in Mondragon was the "Modern Locksmith ELMA", with more than 300 employees. In all the towns of the Deba Valley there were numerous small industrial companies, among which two medium-sized ones stood out. In Bergara there was "La Algodonera San Antonio, S.A.", created in 1846, which had 500 employees and was dedicated to the production of large-scale textiles. In Oñati there was "Hijos de Juan de Garay, S.A.", created in 1864, and dedicated to the production of welded steel tubes, with 400 employees. Ideological Arizmendiarrieta always had a small and austere office in the Professional School, and he was an inveterate reader of unusual topics for a modest priest, such as books by the Labour Party, or the "red bishops" such as Antonio Pildain and Vicente Enrique y Tarancón, or the new Catholic intellectuals of the ecclesia such as the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Iribarren and Rodríguez de Yrre, or the communist manifesto of Marx and Engels. In his search for a religious solution to social questions, he began to elaborate his own thoughts, which were a conjunction of the classical and social-Catholic sources of the Seminary and the new socialist and personalist theories. He bought books by thinkers with the gifts needed to make a real world impact, such as the active Catholic priest Hans Küng, or Jacques Maritain, Emmanuel Mounier, Ortega y Gasset, Jacques Leclerq and the Labor leaders, and gave copies to his disciples. For him, reading was an essential source of inspiration, and he underlined the ideas he thought were most interesting in the hundreds of books in his private library. He rigorously wrote his reflections on "pedestrian humanism" in 10,495 files and writings. After his imprisonment during the civil war he only wrote in Spanish, but in August 1968 he began to use Basque again in the magazine TU Lankide, in a total of up to 57 articles, the last three in 1976. Example in austerity Arizmendiarrieta lived his entire life in personal austerity, as a young man out of family necessity and, after the emergence of the cooperatives, out of personal conviction. He lived with the limited salary of curate of the parish. He never received anything from the cooperatives or the entities that he promoted and he worked in a small office of the Professional School. He did not drink, and ate very little. In Mondragon he traveled by bicycle like the workers, until several cooperative leaders "stole" it, replacing it later with a velosolex (bicycle with a small motor). And for trips outside, he would ask friends for favors or take the cheapest tickets. Despite being the promoter of numerous cooperatives, and often the drafter of the projects and statutes, which he personally defended before the different administrations, he gave up holding any position. In the few individual distinctions that he accepted, he included in them those who had helped him achieve his aims, just as he did in the openings of new pavilions and companies. He never acted for personal interests, and despite the fact that some class-oriented businessmen from Mondragon were detractors of the popular "priest", and were suspicious of the participation of workers in the capital and management of the new business model, Arizmendiarrieta maintained his ideology of social justice. In 1956 he was threatened by the Civil Governor with transfer, and he replied that he would obey the decision of his superior of the diocese, but that he would not become an accommodating priest. Personal closeness Arizmendiarrieta shaped his ideas into concrete achievements involving many people: politicians, businessmen, teachers, young people, etc. And he did it with empathy and respect for everyone. His daily work was based on an exercise of renunciation, of homage, submission, deference, gratitude and a quiet aura of authority. As a young man he moved around the town on a bicycle, out of affinity with the workers. He ate frugally, and when a charge from Madrid visited Mondragon for an event, Arizmendiarrieta would notify the nuns of the college to receive the visitors with a hot broth. In 1958, the Director of Professional Education in Madrid Guillermo Reyna visited Mondragon. He was surprised by the casual way the students treated Arizmendiarrieta, and he wrote to him: “It gave me a bad impression that the students did not get up, greet, or offer the slightest sign of deference towards you, who are their Director, when we passed through the room where several were sitting and others were changing their shoes". Arizmendiarrieta, after apologizing, replied "I don't allow them to treat me as a Director, because I am just one amongst the rest in the School. It has been a procedure that has given me good results so far." In fact, Arizmendiarrieta was never listed as Director. In 1965 the Minister of Labor arrived to award him the gold medal for Merit at Work, and in the speeches, the President of the Mondragon Education League highlighted the desire of the curate to detach his work from any personal interest, "He is still as poor as when he arrived 25 years ago, and just like then, his mother continues to send him beans and potatoes from the farmhouse." To conclude, he said, "He has created a mentality, a way of doing things. People have turned to him for everything, and he always has a free moment, a word of encouragement, an idea to solve a problem." The honoree's answer did not surprise anyone. He had no merit, he always spoke in the plural, losing his individuality in the anonymous work of the hundreds of people who had worked with him in the activities for which he was awarded: “I say without modesty that these merits that have been attributed to me for official purposes are due to each and every one of those who have worked during these past years”. Sowing years From the time Arizmendiarrieta arrived in Mondragon in 1941 with his wooden suitcase, until the first industrial cooperative ULGOR began operating, 15 years of preparation passed. The cycle began with the creation of the precarious Professional School in 1943, where the children of all the workers could study, unlike the Locksmith Union Apprentice School. Arizmendiarrieta did not yet have a defined cooperative model, but he did have a clear idea: that the worker can only emancipate himself through education and his own work. Therefore, he encouraged the spirit of responsibility and cooperation. Other actions of Arizmendiarrieta were the organization of a library for youth, the organization of study circles for older people, and the foundation in June 1943, under his direction, of a Social or Sociology Academy with the inspiration of Catholic Action. The objective of his circles or meetings was "to train future worker leaders." In addition to his teaching at the Professional School, Arizmendiarrieta taught more than two thousand study circles, some for religious and human formation; others for social formation. This is equivalent to saying that he gave at least one conference every 2.7 days, for fifteen consecutive years, not discounting holidays and vacations. In any case, the Professional School was his favorite place of catholic and social apostolate. Every day at two in the afternoon he gave his 20-minute talk in the auditorium to professors and students of the 2nd year of Master's and Technical Engineering. The topics were diverse and unknown to the audience, such as Russian kolkhoz peasant cooperatives, Yugoslav self-management or German co-management. In addition to the content, his talks were difficult to understand, due to his monotonous tone and difficult language. Aware of this, he used short quotes that were easy to remember such as "Knowledge is Power", "knowledge must be socialized to democratize power", "it is easier to educate a young person than to reform a man", or "give a fish to a man and he will eat that day; teach him to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life". In the sermons at his daily mass in the parish he also used short quotations to compensate for his difficult oratory. Once, the parishioners asked the bishopric to replace him because they did not understand him, but the bishop did not agree to do this, valuing his social work more. And in July 1967, when he was invited to Madrid as a speaker in the debates on the future status of Spanish cooperativism, chaired by the General Director of Social Promotion, the attendees listened to him in silence because his oratory was difficult for them. To alleviate the situation, the director told them "Keep in mind that Father Arizmendiarrieta thinks in Basque, and translates it into Spanish." Training and work Arizmendiarrieta led his collaborators by example. His training curriculum vitae, written by himself, shows his dedication to his studies: "Philosophy and Theology" at the Seminary of Vitoria, "Ethical-Social" at the University of Comillas, enrolled in special intensive courses. And "Economics" in intensive courses at the Social School of Vitoria, from 1948 to 1952. He maintained close contact with the Vitoria Seminary, where year after year he attended the courses organized at the Social School. His interests ranged from economics and sociology to philosophy and pedagogy. He understood his own role as chaplain of Catholic Action as someone who spurred others to do good, and above all, as an educator. He made an effort to convince others, especially young people, of the importance of training, and often repeated quotes such as "Teaching and education are the first requirements of a community, if you do not want all kinds of companies to become stagnant or half developed", "Man is made through training", "It is better to light a match than to curse the darkness", or "Sowing in time is professionally training our young people. This is the expense that is transformed into seed that produces a hundredfold." The argument of the profitability of investments made in education appears many times in Arizmendiarrieta's writings. And his insistence on community responsibility for education has two roots. One is his personal experience of the insufficiency of the State, and the other is his general idea that society should tend to self-management in all its forms, solving its own problems on its own. But he advocated dual training, so as not to leave the entire burden of the cost of studies to the community, but rather the student himself had to assume a part. In addition, Arizmendiarrieta was opposed to the division of life into two periods, one of study (at the expense of those who work), and another of work. He thought that study and work, rather than consecutive stages, should constitute combined activities that would last. The young person should combine study and work, and the mature person should have the right and duty to combine work and study. Work and union Arizmendiarrieta created in September 1960 the cooperative magazine that he always edited, "TU-Work and Union", initially called "Cooperation". He said that "Work is the firm basis for development and promotion, the Union is the lever that multiplies the forces of all, and Cooperation is for us a system of solidarity, to make work the appropriate instrument for advancement, personal and collective." Therefore, he insisted on collecting these concepts in the Statutes of the cooperatives. He conceived the magazine as "a constant invitation to dialogue, relationship and cooperation for the practical application of the postulates of social justice in the business environment in a climate of freedom and love, indispensable in a work community". He considered work as a means of personal self-realization and solidarity, of individual improvement and collective improvement, the basis for a more unquestionable humanistic and social conscience. He repeatedly explained that work dignifies people, and that different levels of development in regions and countries depend on work. He noted that a study by experts showed that in the United States, the contribution of nature, land, forests, rivers, seas, and mines to the level of development was estimated at one-eighth, and that the labour factor was seven-eighths. The Deba Valley itself, where Mondragon is located, is not notable for its natural wealth, but its development is driven and created by the work of its inhabitants. As for the union, it was seen as a sign of solidarity in a democracy, so cooperatives should be democratic, with each member having only one vote. At the same time, unity demanded the responsibility of all, because unity is the strength of the weak, and solidarity is a powerful lever that multiplies strength. The reform of the company Arizmendiarrieta sought the dignity of workers through the reform of the company, inspired by the postulates of Christian Social doctrine. As early as 1933, the program of the Basque trade union ELA / STV established that the rights of the worker were not limited to a fair wage, so he demanded his participation in the company, making him share in the profits by issuing shares in the capital, as well as recognising him as a co-manager of the company. After the Civil war of 1936 unions were banned, but the Christian Social doctrine was present in Catholic workers' organizations, gaining further development in the 1960s. In fact, it was the Catholic labour movements in Germany and Belgium that, taking advantage of the post-war reconstruction situation, had more vigorously demanded workers' access to the company's management, profits, and shareholding, with harsh criticism of the predominance of capital over man. In 1956, after fifteen unsuccessful years proposing changes to the leadership of the Locksmith Union, Arizmendiarrieta made the momentous decision to encourage a group of professionally well-trained young people to leave their well-established jobs in the Locksmith Union to create a cooperative. He set out to realize his ideas on the primacy of work over capital, on self-management, and on democracy. Of course, Arizmendiarrieta's relations with some employers worsened markedly, and difficulties arose even in relation to the Professional School, where until then the collaboration had been optimal and generous. After the initial success of the cooperatives, in the following years he wrote that one of the noblest and most spiritual tasks that could be undertaken was to awaken in the people the consciousness of their own potential. It was necessary for the workers to be able to be revitalised with the hope of a true emancipation of their own through work and Christian peace. Henceforth, he stopped alluding explicitly to the reform of the company. Leadership and ascendancy Arizmendiarrieta's working method was based on teaming up with young people he trusted. The teaching work that he carried out in the first Professional School of Zaldispe and the creation of the Sports Youth entity, as well as his participation in Catholic Action, enabled him to get to know many dedicated young people. Thus, in 1946 he selected eleven young people to continue their Industrial engineering studies on their own, but enrolled in the University of Zaragoza, about 200 km. away, and in 1955 five of them who were already outstanding professionals in the Locksmith Union, were encouraged to create the first industrial cooperative, named ULGOR. His success in the creation of new organizations from 1941 to 1955 made the young people involved more secure, paying the mortgage on the houses of newlyweds, so that they would abandon secure jobs in the best company in Mondragon, and embark on an adventure with an uncertain future, but confident in their mentor. In 1959 ULGOR was growing successfully and had established itself in the market. From the beginning, the partners had elected the electronic engineer Alfonso Gorroñogoitia as president of the Governing Council, and in turn the Council had appointed the chemical engineer José María Ormaetxea as managing director. But Arizmendiarrieta had in mind the idea of creating a cooperative credit entity, and after drafting the project and the statutes of the Labour Bank on his own, he managed to get the ministries to approve its creation. To manage it, he sought honesty above all else, and proposed to Ormaetxea that he should be his director, going from managing director of a large company to a modest office on Ferrerías street, where he began working with another employee. Ormaetxea pointed out that "I accepted, despite being completely unaware of the banking business, and barely knowing how to interpret a balance sheet". Likewise, Arizmendiarrieta convinced Gorroñogoitia to combine the two presidencies, given his high position in the Governing and Social Councils of ULGOR. In 1965 Arizmendiarrieta personally promoted the Alecop student industrial cooperative. To finance his installations, he requested subsidies from public bodies and a loan from the Labour Bank, which requested guarantors. Arizmendiarrieta approached several professors of the Professional School for this purpose, one of them being the future founder and director of the Ikerlan Research Center, Manolo Quevedo, "I replied that I would sign, but after obtaining the approval of my wife, because we already had three small daughters. Endorsing a company in which the partners and managers were going to be the students, and the guarantors would not have any connection, was certainly unusual". Controversies Arizmendiarrieta developed his concept of human enterprise through action and practice, which generated controversies that can be grouped into five areas: – In 1941 Arizmendiarrieta arrived in Mondragon with his ideology of the social doctrine of the church, where the worker finds satisfaction in his job as an intelligent and responsible human being. He began his career in the Locksmith Union Apprentice School and in Catholic Action, and at that time he wrote that the workers saw the church at the service of the state: “The Army, the clergy and the Falange (the fascist party of the head of government, the dictator Franco) are the three claws of the capitalist». Likewise, they saw the church on the side of the winners of the civil war. For this reason, he established a catalogue of three virtues for the priest who wanted to act in the working environment: freedom, austerity and diligence. – In 1956 he was about to be deported by the Civil Governor of Gipuzkoa, as he was considered the main person responsible for the workers' strikes of that year. Also, in 1965 and 1969, when students of the Professional School participated in the "Day of the Basque Homeland" (Aberri Eguna), the Governor accused the School of being a focus of politicization and subversion. And also in 1969, the Governor intended to "put the arrogant cooperativists of Mondragon under pressure and get them to surrender at his feet, engaged as they are in unspeakable and dangerous desires for emancipation, whose rebellious attitude could infect the rest of the Basque Country." – In 1960 the first criticisms from local and regional capitalist businessmen began, directly and also through the Official Chamber of Industry of Gipuzkoa, which was suspicious of the growth of the cooperatives. Arizmendiarrieta had an excellent relationship with many businessmen, whom he encouraged to become members of the Professional School, such as Juan Celaya from the Cegasa company in Oñati and José María Altuna from the JMA company in Mondragon. But the critics argued, on the one hand, that there was a transfer of workers from their companies to the new cooperatives, and, on the other, that the fiscal benefits of these were the basic reason for their growth. (The deduction of 10% of corporate tax was dedicated to the Promotion and Employment Fund for the community.) This second argument was recurrent for many years. – In the cooperatives there were no worker' unions, their functions being assumed by the Social Council, and in 1966 the first criticisms from leftist and union sectors began, maintaining that cooperativism was an insufficient solution for society, being socialism "from the inside". These critics accepted as positive certain aspects of cooperativism such as the democratic government of the company through the principle of one partner/one vote rather than control by capital, the imputation of the surplus value of work to the community, and solidarity through limited salary ranges that prevented the formation of privileged classes. But their principal objection was that cooperativism seemed to be a form of submission to the principles of the free market. - In 1970 other criticisms arose from the new Basque Left, linked to the various ETA groups, and their successive splits. They considered that a leading technocratic class had emerged in the cooperatives, directly including Arizmendiarrieta, who called himself a cooperativist but prevented the liberation of the Basque working class. And that, in fact, was one of the reasons why the Ministry of Labor in Madrid had distributed Medals of Merit for Labor to cooperative members. In 1972 there were controversies of this nature in Alecop and in the "Basque School" (Ikastola) of Mondragon. And in June 1974, a cooperative strike took place for the first time at the ULGOR and Fagor Electronic plants, as a result of new job evaluation regulations. After unpleasant incidents, the strike ended with the expulsion of 24 partners, approved in the General Assembly. Several years later they were given the option of readmission, which some of them accepted. - Cooperativism was also criticised for its lack of sensitivity to the Basque question. Influence and legacy – In 1952, after the inauguration of the new Professional School, he received the Commendation of the Civil Order of Alfonso X el Sabio from the Minister of Education, Mr. Ruiz Giménez. – In April 1966, Mondragon paid homage to three figures by naming them adoptive sons of the town: the doctor Don Mariano Briones, the parish priest Don Jose Luis Iñarra and Don Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta. The three honorees were celebrating 25 years of work at Mondragon. – In August 1966, after the Alecoop Student Industrial Cooperative was inaugurated, the Minister of Labor, Romero Gorria personally awarded him the Gold Medal for Work. – The Olandixo Hillside Road, opened in 1972, where Lagun Aro, Ikerlan and Laboral Kutxa are located, is called Paseo Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta. – In 1992 a monument was inaugurated in his honor in the native district of Barinaga in Markina-Xemein. – In 1997 Arizmendi Bakery opened in San Francisco, California, named after Arizmendiarrieta. – On May 6, 2009, the diocesan phase of his canonization process concluded. – On 14 December, 2015, Arizmendiarrieta was decreed to be of heroic virtue by Pope Francis and became Venerable in the Catholic Church. – In April 2016, the Laubide Square in Mondragon was renamed the Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta Square, with a plaque in Basque and Spanish inscribed “Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta (1915–1976). Founder of Arrasate-Mondragon cooperativism. His model for work has spread across the world. Commemorating 100 years since his birth”. See also 127 photos of Arizmendiarrieta Mondragon Corporation Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers ICA-International Cooperative Alliance References External links Friends of the Arizmendiarrieta Association (In Basque) Arizmendiarrieta Christian Foundation (In Basque) Arizmendiarrieta Christian Foundation (In Spanish) Canonization of Arizmendiarrieta Video: Jose Maria Ormaetxea about Arizmendiarrieta (In Spanish) Video: Joxe Azurmendi about Arizmendiarrieta (in Basque) José María Arizmendiarrieta: Archive, writings, photographs (Euskomedia) (in Spanish)

Mondragon_Corporation

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

The Mondragon Corporation is a corporation and federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain. It was founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956 by Father José María Arizmendiarrieta and a group of his students at a technical college he founded. Its first product was paraffin heaters. It is the seventh-largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country. At the end of 2016, it employed 74,117 people in 257 companies and organizations in four areas of activity: finance, industry, retail and knowledge. By 2019, 81,507 people were employed. In 2024, it had over 70,000 workers, 30,660 in the Basque Country, 29,340 in the rest of Spain and around 10,000 abroad. Mondragon cooperatives operate in accordance with the Statement on the Co-operative Identity maintained by the International Co-operative Alliance. History In 1941, as a young Catholic priest, Arizmendiarrieta settled in Mondragón, a town with a population of 7,000 that had not yet recovered from the poverty, hunger, exile, and tension of the Spanish Civil War. In 1943, Arizmendiarrieta established a technical college which became a training ground for managers, engineers and skilled labour for local companies, and primarily for the co-operatives. Arizmendiarrieta spent a number of years educating young people about a form of humanism based on solidarity and participation, in harmony with Catholic social teaching, and the importance of acquiring the necessary technical knowledge before creating the first co-operative. In 1955, he selected five young people to establish the first company of the co-operative and industrial beginning of the Mondragon Corporation. The company was called Talleres Ulgor ("Ulgor workshops"), an acronym derived from the surnames of Usatorre, Larrañaga, Gorroñogoitia, Ormaechea, and Ortubay, known today as Fagor Electrodomésticos (Spanish for "Fagor electric appliances"). In the first 15 years, many co-operatives were established, thanks to the autarky of the market and the awakening of the Spanish economy. During these years, also with the encouragement of Arizmendiarrieta, the Caja Laboral ("Labor savings bank", 1959) and the Social Welfare Body Lagun Aro ("Friend/help time", 1966 were established that played a key role. The first local group was created, Ularco. In 1969, Eroski was founded by merging ten small local consumer co-operatives. During the next 20 years, from 1970 to 1990, the dynamic continued, with a strong increase in new co-operatives promoted by Caja Laboral's Business Division, the promotion of co-operative associations, the formation of local groups, and the founding of the Ikerlan ("Research work") research centre in 1974. With Spain scheduled to join the European Economic Community in 1986, it was decided in 1984 to establish the "Mondragon Co-operative Group", the forerunner of the current corporation. In-service training for managers was strengthened by creating Otalora, dedicated to training, and the dissemination of co-operatives. The Group consisted of 23,130 workers at the end of 1990. International expansion On the international stage, the aim was to respond to growing globalisation, expanding abroad by establishing production plants in a number of countries. The first was the Copreci plant in Mexico in 1990, followed by many others: up to 73 by the end of 2008, and 122 at the end of 2013. The goals were to increase competitiveness and market share, bring component supply closer to customers' plants, especially in the automotive and domestic appliance sectors, and to strengthen employment in the Basque Country by promoting exports of co-operatives' products by means of new platforms. Between 2002 and 2007, Fagor and Eroski issued bonds (aportaciones subordinadas). While they were commercialized as safe deposits, the courts classed them as riskier debt instruments. When the yields fell during the financial crisis, bond-holders sued against the cooperatives. In 2008, the worker-owners of the cooperatives Ampo (metal casting) and Irizar (coaches) voted to leave the corporation. In October 2009, the United Steelworkers announced an agreement with Mondragon to create worker cooperatives in the United States. On 26 March 2012, the USW, Mondragon, and the Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC) announced their detailed union co-op model. The industrial sector ended 2012 with a new record of €4 billion in international sales, beating sales figures from before the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Mondragon opened 11 new production subsidiaries. International sales that year accounted for 69% of all sales, a 26% increase from 2009 to 2012, and with 14,000 employees abroad. Mondragon's share in the BRIC markets increased to 20% compared to the previous year. In 2013, international sales grew by 6.7% and accounted for 71.1% of total sales. On 16 October 2013, domestic appliance company Fagor Electrodomésticos filed for bankruptcy under Spanish law to renegotiate €1,1 billion of debt, after suffering heavy losses during the eurocrisis and the 2008–2014 Spanish real estate crisis putting 5,600 employees at risk of losing their jobs. This was followed by the bankruptcy of the whole Fagor group on 6 November 2013. In July 2014, Fagor was bought by Catalonian company Cata for €42.5 million. Cata pledged to create 705 direct jobs in the Basque Country and to continue the brand names Fagor, Edesa, Aspes, and Splendid. In 2022, the worker-owners of ULMA Group (scaffolding) and Orona (elevators) voted to leave the corporation. Estimated impact of the leave is a workforce drop by 13% and a 15% cut of the group's sales. As successful cooperatives they were contributing 10% of their profit to a common fund supporting ailing cooperatives. They will not contribute to the solidarity fund but they will keep insuring their workers with Lagun Aro and collaborate with Mondragon Unibertsitatea and other cooperatives in the group. Business culture Mondragon co-operatives are united by a humanist concept of business, a philosophy of participation and solidarity, and a shared business culture. The culture is rooted in a shared mission and a number of principles, corporate values and business policies. Over the years, these links have been embodied in a series of operating rules approved on a majority basis by the Co-operative Congresses, which regulate the activity of the Governing Bodies of the corporation (Standing Committee, General Council), the Grassroots Co-operatives and the Divisions they belong to, from the organisational, institutional and economic points of view as well as in terms of assets. This framework of business culture has been structured based on a common culture derived from the 10 Basic Co-operative Principles, in which Mondragon is rooted: Open Admission, Democratic Organisation, the Sovereignty of Labour, Instrumental and Subordinate Nature of Capital, Participatory Management, Payment Solidarity, Inter-cooperation, Social Transformation, Universality and Education. This philosophy is complemented by four corporate values: Co-operation, acting as owners and protagonists; Participation, which takes shape as a commitment to management; Social Responsibility, by means of the distribution of wealth based on solidarity; and Innovation, focusing on constant renewal in all areas. This business culture translates into compliance with a number of Basic Objectives (Customer Focus, Development, Innovation, Profitability, People in Co-operation and Involvement in the Community) and General Policies approved by the Co-operative Congress, which are taken on board at all the corporation's organisational levels and incorporated into the four-year strategic plans and the annual business plans of the individual co-operatives, divisions, and the corporation as a whole. Wage regulation At Mondragon, there are agreed-upon wage ratios between executive work and field or factory work which earns a minimum wage. These ratios range from 3:1 to 9:1 in different cooperatives and average 5:1. That is, the general manager of an average Mondragon cooperative earns no more than 5 times as much as the theoretical minimum wage paid in their cooperative. For most workers, this ratio is smaller because there are few Mondragon worker-owners that earn minimum wages, because most jobs are somewhat specialized and are classified at higher wage levels. The wage ratio of a cooperative is decided periodically by its worker-owners through a democratic vote. Compared to similar jobs at local industries, Mondragon managers' wages are considerably lower (as some companies pay their best paid managers hundreds of times more than the lowest-paid employee of the company) and equivalent for middle management, technical and professional levels. Lower wage levels are on average 13% higher than similar jobs at local businesses. Spain's progressive tax rate further reduces any disparity in pay. These comparatively low wages can make it very difficult to recruit managers from investor-owned firms. Business sectors Mondragon Corporation operates in four areas: finance, industry, retail, and knowledge, with the latter distinguishing Mondragon from other business groups. In 2013, the corporation posted a total revenue of over €12 billion (roughly US$16 billion), and employed 74,061 workers, making it Spain's fourth-largest industrial and tenth-largest financial group. Finance This area includes the banking business of Laboral Kutxa (successor of Caja Laboral), the insurance company Seguros Lagun Aro, and the Voluntary Social Welfare Body Lagun Aro, which had an asset fund totaling €5,566 million at the end of 2014. The yield obtained from this fund is used to cover long-term retirement, widowhood, and invalidity benefits, complementary to those offered by the Spanish social security system. Industry The corporation's companies manufacture consumer goods, capital goods, industrial components, products, and systems for construction, and services. The latter includes very diverse business groups such as Abantail: Adaptive design optimization, Alecop: Engineering training, LKS Consultores: Attorneys etc., KREAN: Architects and engineers. MCCTelecom: Telecommunication engineering. Mondragon Lingua: Translation and language schools, Mondragon Sistemas: Automation, Industrial Computing and Telecommunications. Ondoan: Turnkey projects in the energy and environmental sector. In the leisure and sports area, it manufactures Orbea bicycles, exercise equipment and items for camping, garden and beach. In capital goods, Mondragon posted a turnover of €976 million in 2009 and is the leading Spanish manufacturer of machining (Danobat Group) and sheet metal forming (Fagor Arrasate Group) machine tools. These machines are complemented by automation and control products for machine tools, packaging machinery, machinery for automating assembly processes and processing wood, forklift trucks, electric transformers, integrated equipment for the catering industry, cold stores, and refrigeration equipment. Specifically focusing on the automotive sector, the corporation also manufactures a wide variety of dies, molds and tooling for casting iron and aluminium, and occupies a leading position in machinery for the casting sector. In Industrial Components, Mondragon posted a turnover of €1.5 billion in 2009, a sector in which it operates as an integrated supplier for the leading car manufacturers, offering from the design and development of a part to the industrialization and supply of components and assemblies. It has different business units such as brakes, axles, suspension, transmission, engines, aluminium wheel rims, fluid conduction, and other internal and external vehicle components. It also produces components for the main domestic appliance manufacturers in three business areas: white goods, home comfort, and electronics. And it manufactures flanges and pipe accessories for processing oil-gas, petrochemical plants and power generation, copper and aluminium electrical conductors, and components for conveyors. In construction, sales totaled €974 million in 2009. Mondragon has constructed buildings and important infrastructure projects. It designs and builds large metallic (URSSA), laminated wood and prefabricated concrete structures; supplies prefabricated parts in polymer concrete; offers solutions for formwork and structures (ULMA Group) as well as public works machinery and the industrialization of the construction process, including engineering and assembly services. The ORONA Group produces elevators. In services to business, sales totaled €248 million in 2008, including business consultancy services, architecture and engineering, property consulting, design and innovation (LKS Group), systems engineering for electromechanical installations, and integrated logistics engineering. It also offers a modern language service, manufactures educational equipment, and provides graphic arts services (mccgraphics S.Coop). In 2013, 71.1% of turnover came from international sales. Sales resulting from the export of products abroad and production generated in the 122 subsidiaries located in several different countries: China (15), France (17), Poland (8), Czech Republic (7), Mexico (8), Brazil (5), Germany (4), Italy (4), United Kingdom (3), Romania (3), United States (4), Turkey (2), Portugal (2), Slovakia (2), India (5), Thailand (1) and Morocco (1). Overall, in 2013 these 122 plants provided work for more than 11,000 people. The corporate industrial park in Kunshan, close to Shanghai houses seven subsidiaries. In 2012, it opened 11 new subsidiaries abroad, employing around 14,000 people. Its international sales that year marked a record number of 69% of its total sales (€5.8 billion, with a 2% fall compared to the previous year). Mondragon also participated in 91 international R&D projects. In 2014, the industrial cooperatives created 1,000 jobs, and internationalization continued with 125 production subsidiaries abroad – 3 more than the year before. Retail Mondragon runs Eroski, one of the leading retail groups all over Spain and in southern France, and maintains close contacts with the French group Les Mousquetaires and the German retailer Edeka, with whom it set up the Alidis international purchasing group in 2002. The worker-owners and consumer-members participate in the co-operative's decision-making bodies and management of Eroski. At the end of 2013, Eroski posted a turnover of €6.6 billion, operating 2.069 stores made up of 90 Eroski hypermarkets, 1,211 Eroski/center, Caprabo, Eroski/city, Aliprox, Familia, Onda and Cash & Carry supermarkets, 155 branches of Eroski travel agencies, 63 petrol stations, 39 Forum Sport stores and 221 IF perfume stores. In southern France Eroski had 4 hypermarkets, 16 supermarkets and 17 petrol stations, and 4 perfume stores in Andorra. Retail includes the food group Erkop, for catering, cleaning, stock-breeding, and horticulture with Auzo Lagun, a co-operative in group catering and cleaning of buildings and premises, and integrated service in the health sector. In 2008, worker-members voted to expand the cooperative transformation to the retail group as a whole, turning subsidiaries into co-operatives, and making salaried workers worker-members. Knowledge This area has a dual focus: education-training and innovation, which have both been key elements in the development of the corporation. Training-education is mainly linked to the dynamism of Mondragon University, the significant role that Politeknika Ikastegia Txorierri, Arizmendi Ikastola and Lea Artibai Ikastetxea play in their respective areas and the activity of the Management and Co-operative Development Centre Otalora. Mondragon University is a co-operative university, which combines the development of knowledge, skills, and values, and maintains close relations with business, especially Mondragon co-operatives. Technological innovation is generated through the co-operatives' own R&D departments, the Corporate Science and Technology Plan, the corporation's 12 technology centers and the Garaia Innovation Park. The 15 technology centers play a fundamental role in the development of the sectors of focus. In 2009 they employed 742 people and had a budget of €53.7 million. In 2013 its network of technology centers and R&D units provided employment for 1,700 people and the commitment to R&D&I matters amounted to 136 million Euros, 8.5% of added value. Mondragon has 479 families of Patents for Inventions, which accounts for 25% patents in the Basque Country, participating in more than 30 R&D cooperation projects at the European level. Reactions In 2012, Richard D. Wolff, an American professor of economics, hailed the Mondragon set of enterprises, including the good wages it provides for employees, the empowerment of ordinary workers in decision making, and the measure of equality for female workers, as a major success and cited it as a working model of an alternative to the capitalist mode of production. In an April 2012 interview, Noam Chomsky said that, while Mondragon offers an alternative to capitalism, it was still embedded in a capitalist system which limits Mondragon's decisions: Take the most advanced case: Mondragon. It’s worker-owned, it’s not worker managed, although the management does come from the workforce often, but it’s in a market system and they still exploit workers in South America, and they do things that are harmful to the society as a whole and they have no choice. If you’re in a system where you must make a profit in order to survive, you're compelled to ignore negative externalities, effects on others. Vicenç Navarro wrote that, from a business perspective, Mondragon is successful in matching efficiency with solidarity and democracy. However, he writes that the number of employees who are not owners has increased more rapidly than worker-owners, to a point that in some companies, for example in the supermarket chains owned by Mondragon, the first is a much larger group than the second. In Navarro's view, this establishes a two-tier system – for example, in terms of whom to save in the case the company collapses. In the collapse of Fagor, the relocation of employees to other companies belonging to Mondragon favored those who were worker-owners, which may affect labor relations: Actually, one of the successes of Mondragon was its ability to create a sense of identity among the workers within the company, encouraging an environment of solidarity and collegiality among them, a feeling that also extended (although to a much lesser degree) to non-worker-owners. The connection felt by the latter group has somewhat weakened, however, exposing a vulnerable point for the cooperative. The Mondragon system is one of four case studies analyzed in Capital and the Debt Trap, which summarized evidence claiming that cooperatives tend to last longer and are less susceptible to perverse incentives and other problems of organizational governance than more traditionally managed organizations. The founders of Cooperation Jackson, a network of worker cooperatives in Jackson, Mississippi in the United States, cite Mondragon as a key inspiration. Mondragon in fiction Works of Kim Stanley Robinson In 2312, a science fiction novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, the Mondragon Corporation has evolved into a planned economy system called the Mondragon Accord. The Mondragon Accord is controlled by means of a network of AIs running on quantum computers, and rules large parts of the Solar System, including Mercury and most of the moons of the gas giants; only part of Earth, and its colonies in space, retain remnants of capitalist economies, while Mars has withdrawn from the Accord in the century preceding the story. The Mondragon Corporation already appeared in Robinson's earlier Mars trilogy, as one of the Terran groups involved in the colonization and terraforming of Mars; the coop is also portrayed as the inspiration of both the bogdanovist movement and the libertarian-leaning Praxis Corporation two of the main forces leading the revolution for the independence of Mars. In Robinson's book The Ministry for the Future, the Mondragon Corporation is introduced in chapter 58 as a model for a future, post-capitalist, cooperative economy. See also Cecosesola, association of cooperatives in Venezuela Distributism Horizontalidad John Lewis Partnership List of worker cooperatives Workers' self-management References Further reading Azurmendi, Joxe 1984: El hombre cooperativo Spanish white goods company Fagor seeks protection from creditors (October 2013) Thousands of Fagor employees demand in Mondragon town to keep their jobs (October 2013) White-goods giant Fagor goes into administration (October 2013) Cooperation for Economic Success. The Mondragon Case (2011) in Analyse & Kritik, 33 (1), 157–170 . Ramon Flecha & Iñaqui Santa Cruz.http://www.analyse-und-kritik.net/en/abstracts_current.php#562 Making Mondragon: The Growth and Dynamics of the Worker Cooperative Complex (1991), William Whyte. ISBN 0-87546-182-4 We Build the Road as We Travel: Mondragon, A Cooperative Social System, Roy Morrison. ISBN 0-86571-173-9 The Mondragon Cooperative Experience (1993), J. Ormachea. Cooperation at Work: The Mondragon Experience (1983), K. Bradely & A. Gelb. Values at Work: Employees participation meets market pressure at Mondragon (1999), G. Cheney. Mondragon: An economic analysis (1982), C. Logan & H. Thomas. The Myth of Mondragon: Cooperatives, Politics, and Working-Class Life in a Basque Town (1996), by Sharryn Kasmir, State University of New York Press. From Mondragon to America: Experiments in Community Economic Development (1997), by G. MacLeod, University College of Cape Breton Press. ISBN 0-920336-53-1 "Jobs of Our Own: Building a Stakeholder Society" (1999), by Race Mathews, Pluto Press (Australia) and Comerford & Miller (London). ISBN 1-86403-064-X. US reprint 2009, The Distributist Review Press. ISBN 978-0-9679707-9-0. "Rag Radio: Carl Davidson on Mondragon and Workers' Cooperatives," The Rag Blog, September 15, 2011 Interview by Thorne Dreyer (44:05) Articles about the Mondragon Corporation on The Rag Blog

United_Steelworkers

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

The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a general trade union with members across North America. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, the United Steelworkers represents workers in Canada, the Caribbean, and the United States. The United Steelworkers represent workers in a diverse range of industries, including primary and fabricated metals, paper, chemicals, glass, rubber, heavy-duty conveyor belting, tires, transportation, utilities, container industries, pharmaceuticals, call centers, museums, and health care. The United Steelworkers is currently affiliated with the AFL–CIO in the United States and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) in Canada as well as several international union federations. On July 2, 2008, the United Steelworkers signed an agreement to merge with the United Kingdom and Ireland–based union Unite to form a new global union entity called Workers Uniting. As of 2023, the International President of the United Steelworkers is David McCall, who was installed as president after the death of Tom Conway. Rank-and-file members, as well as representatives, of the United Steelworkers refer to themselves, and are most often referred to, as Steelworkers. The use of the capitalized single word Steelworker or Steelworkers, as opposed to the lowercase two-worded steel worker or steel workers, is also an identifier of those who are part of, or affiliated with, the United Steelworkers International Union rather than being general non-union workers within the steel industry. This distinction is important in North America wherein a vast majority of the steel industry is unionized. For example, some of the most recognizable and largest companies in the business such as United States Steel (USS) and Cleveland-Cliffs, with their combined hourly workforces at facilities in North America being Steelworkers and represented by the USW, including the largest facilities on the continent, like US Steel's Gary Works in Gary, Indiana, Cleveland-Cliffs's Burns Harbor in Burns Harbor, Indiana, Indiana Harbor East and West in Northwest Indiana, and Cleveland Plant in Cleveland, Ohio, all of which are situated on the Great Lakes freshwater system. On the other hand, some steel companies, usually at facilities known as "mini-mills", like Nucor Steel and its facility in Crawfordsville, Indiana, are non-union shops not represented by the United Steelworkers. Origins and history The USW was established May 22, 1942, in Cleveland, Ohio, through the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) by a convention of representatives from the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, after almost six years of divisive struggles to create a new union of steelworkers. The drive to create this union included such violent incidents as the infamous Memorial Day, 1937, when Chicago policemen supporting the rival American Federation of Labor (AFL) fired on workers outside a Republic Steel mill and killed 10 men. The founder and first president of the USW, Philip Murray, led the union through its first organizing drives and its first decade, when the workers of USW went on strike several times to win the right to bargain collectively with steel companies. Significant job actions of the USW include: 1946 US Steel Strike 1952 steel strike Steel strike of 1959 1974 Elliot Lake miners strike Steel strike of 1986 Growth of the union The 46,000 members of the Aluminum Workers of America voted to merge with the budding steelworker union that was the USW in June 1944. Eventually, eight more unions joined the USW as well: the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (1967); the United Stone and Allied Product Workers of America (1971); International Union of District 50, Allied and Technical Workers of the United States and Canada (1972); the Upholsterers International Union of North America (1985); the United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America (URW) (1995); the Aluminum, Brick and Glass Workers Union (ABG) (1996); the Canadian Division of the Transportation Communications International Union (1999); and the American Flint Glass Workers' Union (AFGWU) (2003). In June 2004, the USW announced a merger with the 57,000 member Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers of Canada (IWA Canada), a major Canadian forestry workers union. In 2005 it then announced an even larger merger with the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE). The resulting new union adopted its current name after the PACE merger. In September 2006, the Independent Oil Workers Union of Aruba, which represents refinery workers on the Caribbean island of Aruba, affiliated with the United Steelworkers, becoming the first USW union local outside of the US (including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands) and Canada. In April 2007, the USW also merged with the Independent Steelworkers Union, adding 1,150 members at Arcelor-Mittal's Weirton, West Virginia steel mill. Strategic alliances In addition to mergers, the USW has also formed strategic alliances with several other unions as well as other groups. In April 2005, the USW and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) announced that they had formed a strategic alliance to take on the globalization of the culture industry and to address a range of common issues. In July 2006, the USW announced a similar arrangement with the United Transportation Union (UTU), to address common issues in the transportation industry, including the globalization of the industry. In July 2007, the USW inked yet another strategic alliance with the Canadian Region of the Communications Workers of America. Beyond its affiliations with other unions, in June 2006, the USW announced the formation of a 'Blue-Green Alliance' with the Sierra Club, with the goal of pursuing a joint public policy agenda. In October 2009, the USW announced a framework for collaboration between US and Canadian Steelworkers with Mondragon Internacional, S.A., the world's largest federation of worker cooperatives. 2008 transoceanic merger In April 2007, Amicus, then the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, began discussions with the USW about a possible merger. Amicus subsequently merged with the British Transport and General Workers Union to form the new union Unite. Unite and the USW continued the merger talks initiated by Amicus. In May 2008, the unions announced that they were putting the "finishing touches" on the merger, that the merger had been endorsed by Unite officials, and that the USW would discuss the plan at its forthcoming convention in July. Once completed, the new merged entity would represent more than 3 million workers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean. The unions have further announced that the new entity would target further mergers with labor groups in Australia and in the emerging economies of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. On July 2, 2008, USW and Unite leadership formally signed the merger agreement to create the new entity, to be called Workers Uniting. American politics In the 2006 election, the USW led a political mobilization program that eventually grew to include 350 full-time political organizers in 26 states, a majority of whom were rank and file USW members who took time from work to organize their communities and educate fellow union members. The USW turned out some 5,000 USW volunteers on Election Day, including over 1,000 each in the key states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Exit polls suggested union families made up 23 percent of the total vote and supported Democratic candidates by a substantial 32 percent margin, 65 percent to 33 percent. Based on these numbers, the United Steelworkers, in conjunction with the rest of the labor movement, took substantial credit for the eventual Democratic victory. The USW endorsed Barack Obama's presidential campaign and re-election, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and Joe Biden's presidential campaign. In 2023 and 2024, USW expressed opposition to the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japanese steel company Nippon Steel. USW International President David McCall stated in March 2024 that “Allowing one of our nation’s largest steel manufacturers to be purchased by a foreign-owned corporation leaves us vulnerable when it comes to meeting both our defense and critical infrastructure needs.” Canadian politics The United Steelworkers was a founding partner of the New Democratic Party and continues to be an affiliated union. Philanthropy The USW has contributed to various charitable and philanthropic causes since its creation. The USW has enthusiastically supported The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP), a nonprofit organization that works with brain-injured children. The USW has hosted the IAHP's founder, Glenn Doman, at their annual convention. The USW has also held fundraising events for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. The USW has consistently stated that such charitable causes are important to its mission. Presidents The presidents of the United Steelworkers are: Philip Murray, 1942–1952 David J. McDonald, 1952–1965 I. W. Abel, 1965–1977 Lloyd McBride, 1977–1983 Lynn R. Williams, 1983–1994 George Becker, 1994–2001 Leo Gerard, 2001–2019 Tom Conway, 2019–2023 David McCall, 2023–present See also Arthur Goldberg, general counsel of the USW and later a US Supreme Court associate justice Bernard Kleiman, general counsel of USW from 1965 to 1997 References Further reading Bodnar, John (1977). Immigration and Industrialization: Ethnicity in an American Mill Town, 1870-1940. Brody, David (1965). Labor in Crisis: The Steel Strike of 1919 Archived July 16, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Caballero, Mary Hull (Spring 2006). "Interview with Leo Gerard", The Heinz Journal. Catano, James V. (2001). Ragged Dicks: Masculinity, Steel, and the Rhetoric of the Self-Made Man. Early History of the United Steelworkers Scamehorn, H. Lee (1992). Mill & Mine: The Cf&I in the Twentieth Century. Colorado Steel Company. United Steelworkers of America (1981). Steelworkers handbook on arbitration decisions (1981 ed.). Pittsburgh, Pa.: Pike and Fischer, Inc. p. 1231. OL 3054540M. United Steelworkers of America (1960). Steelworkers handbook on arbitration decisions. Pittsburgh, Pa.: Pike and Fischer, Inc. p. 525. Warne, Colston E., ed. (1963). The Steel Strike of 1919 (primary and secondary documents). External links Official website

Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_group)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_group)

Heaven's Gate was an American new religious movement known primarily for the mass suicides committed by its members in 1997. Commonly designated a cult, it was founded in 1974 and led by Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1927–1985), known within the movement as Do and Ti. Nettles and Applewhite first met in 1972 and went on a journey of spiritual discovery, identifying themselves as the two witnesses of Revelation, attracting a following of several hundred people in the mid-1970s. In 1976, a core group of a few dozen members stopped recruiting and instituted a monastic lifestyle. Scholars have described the theology of Heaven's Gate as a mixture of Christian millenarianism, New Age, and ufology, and has been characterized as a UFO religion. The central belief of the group was that followers could transform themselves into immortal extraterrestrial beings by rejecting their human nature, and they would ascend to heaven, referred to as the "Next Level" or "The Evolutionary Level Above Human". The death of Nettles from cancer in 1985 challenged the group's views on ascension; while they originally believed that they would ascend to heaven while alive aboard a UFO, they came to believe that the body was merely a "container" or "vehicle" for the soul and that their consciousness would be transferred to "Next Level bodies" upon death. On March 26, 1997, deputies of the San Diego County Sheriff's Office discovered the bodies of the 39 active members of the group, including Applewhite, in a house in the San Diego suburb of Rancho Santa Fe. They had participated in a coordinated series of ritual suicides, coinciding with the closest approach of Comet Hale–Bopp. Just before the mass suicide, the group's website was updated with the message: "Hale–Bopp brings closure to Heaven's Gate ...our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion – 'graduation' from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave 'this world' and go with Ti's crew." History The son of a Presbyterian minister and a former soldier, Marshall Applewhite began his foray into Biblical prophecy in the early 1970s. He was fired from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, over an alleged relationship with one of his male students. In March 1972, he met Bonnie Nettles, a 44-year-old married nurse with an interest in theosophy and Biblical prophecy. The circumstances of their meeting are unclear. According to Applewhite's writings, the two met in a hospital where she worked while he was visiting a sick friend. It has been rumored that it was a psychiatric hospital. Another account had Nettles substituting for a nurse working with premature babies in the nursery. Applewhite later recalled that he felt that he had known Nettles for a long time and concluded that they had met in a past life. She told him their meeting had been foretold to her by extraterrestrials, persuading him that he had a divine assignment. Applewhite and Nettles pondered the life of St. Francis of Assisi and read works by Helena Blavatsky, R. D. Laing, and Richard Bach. They kept a King James Bible and studied passages from the New Testament focusing on Christology, asceticism, and eschatology. Applewhite also read science fiction, including works by Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. By June 19, Applewhite and Nettles's beliefs had solidified. They concluded that they had been chosen to fulfill biblical prophecies, and they had been given higher-level minds than other people. They wrote a pamphlet that described Jesus' reincarnation as a Texan, a veiled reference to Applewhite. Furthermore, they concluded that they were the two witnesses described in the Book of Revelation, and occasionally visited churches and spiritual groups to speak of their identities, often referring to themselves as "The Two", or "The UFO Two". They believed they would be killed and then resurrected and, in view of others, transported onto a spaceship. This event, which they referred to as "the Demonstration", was to prove their claims. These ideas were poorly received by other religious groups. The Two would gain their first follower in May 1974: Sharon Morgan, who abandoned her children to join them. A month later, Morgan left The Two and returned to her family. Nettles and Applewhite were arrested and charged with credit card fraud for using Morgan's cards, although she had consented to their use. The charges were dropped. A routine check brought up that Applewhite had stolen a rental car from St. Louis nine months earlier, which he still possessed. Applewhite spent six months in jail primarily in Missouri, and was released in early 1975, rejoining Nettles. Eventually, Applewhite and Nettles resolved to contact extraterrestrials, and they sought like-minded followers. They published advertisements for meetings, where they recruited disciples, called "the crew". At the events, they purported to represent beings from another planet, the Next Level, who sought participants for an experiment. They said that those who agreed to take part in the experiment would be brought to a higher evolutionary level. In April 1975, during a meeting with a group of eighty people in Studio City, Los Angeles, they shared their "simultaneous" revelation that they were the two witnesses in the Bible's story of the end time. According to Benjamin Zeller, while accounts of the meeting differ, all describe it as momentous and agree that Applewhite and Nettles presented themselves as charismatic leaders with an important spiritual message. About 25 individuals joined the group. In September 1975, Applewhite and Nettles preached at a motel hall in Waldport, Oregon. After selling all "worldly" possessions and saying farewell to loved ones, around 20 people vanished from the public eye and joined the group. Later that year, on CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite reported on the disappearances in one of the first national reports on the developing religious group: "A score of persons from a small Oregon town have disappeared. It's a mystery whether they've been taken on a so-called trip to eternity – or simply been taken." In reality, Applewhite and Nettles had arranged for the group to go underground. From that point, "Do" and "Ti" (pronounced "doe" and "tee"), as the two now called themselves, led nearly one hundred members across the country, sleeping in tents and sleeping bags, and begging in the streets. Evading detection by the authorities and media enabled the group to focus on Do and Ti's doctrine of helping members of the crew achieve a "higher evolutionary level" above human, which the leaders claimed to have already reached. Applewhite and Nettles used a variety of aliases over the years, notably "Bo and Peep" and "Do and Ti". The group also had several names prior to the adoption of the name Heaven's Gate. At the time Jacques Vallée studied the group it was known as Human Individual Metamorphosis (HIM). The group re-invented and renamed itself several times. Applewhite believed he was directly related to Jesus, meaning he was an "Evolutionary Kingdom Level Above Human". His writings, which combined aspects of Millennialism, Gnosticism, and science fiction, suggest he believed himself to be Jesus' successor and the "Present Representative" of Christ on Earth. Do and Ti taught early on that Do's bodily "vehicle" was inhabited by the same alien spirit that belonged to Jesus; Ti was presented as God the Father, Do's "older member". The crew used various recruitment methods as they toured the United States in destitution, proclaiming the gospel of higher-level metamorphosis, the deceit of humans by "false-God spirits", envelopment with sunlight for meditative healing, and the divinity of the "UFO Two". In April 1976, the group stopped recruiting and became reclusive, and instituted a rigid set of behavioral guidelines, including banning sexual activity and the use of drugs. Applewhite and Nettles solidified their temporal and religious authority over the group. Benjamin Zeller described the movement as having transformed "from a loosely organized social group to a centralized religious movement comparable to a roving monastery". Some sociologists agree that the popular movement of alternative religious experience and individualism found in collective spiritual experiences during that period helped contribute to the growth of Heaven's Gate. Sheilaism, as it became known, was a way for people to merge their diverse religious backgrounds and coalesce around a shared, generalized faith, which followers of new religious sects like Applewhite's crew found to be an appetizing alternative to traditional dogmas in Judaism, Catholicism and evangelical Christianity. Many of Applewhite and Nettles' crew hailed from these diverse backgrounds; most of them are described by researchers as having been "longtime truth-seekers", or spiritual hippies who had long since believed in attempting to "find themselves" through spiritual means, combining faiths in a sort of cultural environment well into the mid-1980s. Not all of Applewhite's crew were hippies recruited from alternative religious backgrounds – one such recruit early on was John Craig, a respected Republican and ranch owner who came close to winning a 1970 Colorado House of Representatives race. He joined the group in 1975. As its numbers grew in its pre-Internet days, the clan of "UFO followers" seemed to have in common a need for communal belonging to an alternative path to higher existence outside the constraints of institutionalized faith. Identifying themselves by the business name "Higher Source", the group used its website to proselytize and recruit followers beginning in the early 1990s. Rumors began spreading among the group in the following years that the upcoming Comet Hale–Bopp housed the secret to their ultimate salvation and ascent into the kingdom of heaven. Contemporary media coverage Heaven's Gate received coverage in Jacques Vallée's book Messengers of Deception (1979), in which Vallée described an unusual public meeting organized by the group. He expressed concerns about contactee groups' authoritarian political and religious outlooks, and Heaven's Gate did not escape criticism. Known to the media (though largely ignored), Heaven's Gate was better known in UFO circles, and through a series of academic studies by sociologist Robert Balch. In January 1994, LA Weekly ran an article on the group, then known as "The Total Overcomers". Richard Ford, who would play a key role in the 1997 group suicide, discovered Heaven's Gate through this article and eventually joined them, renaming himself Rio DiAngelo. Coast to Coast AM host Art Bell discussed the theory of the "companion object" in the shadow of Hale–Bopp on several programs as early as November 1996. Speculation has been raised as to whether Bell's programs contributed to Heaven's Gate's group suicide. Knowledge Fight host Dan Friesen blames more on Courtney Brown rather than Bell. Louis Theroux contacted Heaven's Gate for his BBC2 documentary series, Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, in early March 1997, weeks before their mass suicide. In response to his e-mail, Theroux was told that Heaven's Gate could not take part in the documentary: "at the present time a project like this would be an interference with what we must focus on." Mass suicide In October 1996, the group rented a large house which they called "The Monastery", a 9,200-square-foot (850 m2) mansion located near 18341 Colina Norte in Rancho Santa Fe, California. They paid the $7,000 per month rent in cash. The same month, the group purchased alien abduction insurance that would cover up to fifty members and would pay out $1 million per person (the policy covered abduction, impregnation, or death by aliens). In June 1995, they had purchased land near Manzano, New Mexico and began creating a compound out of rubber tires and concrete, but had left abruptly in April 1996. During March 19–20, 1997, Marshall Applewhite taped himself in a video entitled Do's Final Exit, speaking of mass suicide and "the only way to evacuate this Earth". After asserting that Comet Hale–Bopp was the sign that the group had been looking for, as well as the speculation that an unidentified flying object (UFO) may have been trailing the comet, Applewhite and his 38 followers prepared for ritual suicide, coinciding with the closest approach of the comet, so their souls could reach the Next Level before the closure of "Heaven's Gate". Members believed that after their deaths a UFO would take their souls to another "level of existence above human", which was described as being both physical and spiritual. Their preparations included most members videotaping a farewell message. To kill themselves, members took phenobarbital mixed with apple sauce or pudding, and washed it down with vodka. After ingesting the mix, they secured plastic bags around their heads to induce asphyxiation. All 39 were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike Decades athletic shoes, and armband patches reading "Heaven's Gate Away Team" (one of many instances of the group's use of the terms of Star Trek). Each member carried a five-dollar bill and three quarters in their pockets. According to former members, this was standard for members leaving the home for jobs and "a humorous way to tell us they all had left the planet permanently"; the five-dollar bill was for covering the cost of vagrancy laws and the quarters were for calling home from pay phones. Another former member stated that it was a reference to a Mark Twain story, which said $5.75 was "the cost to ride the tail of a comet to heaven." No such passage from the writings of Twain is known to exist. After a member died, a living member would arrange the body by removing the plastic bag from the person's head, followed by posing the body so that it lay neatly in its own bed, with faces and torsos covered by a square purple cloth, for privacy. In a 2020 interview with Harry Robinson, two members who were not in Rancho Santa Fe when the suicides happened said that the identical clothing was a uniform representing unity for the mass suicide, while the Nike Decades were chosen because the group "got a good deal on the shoes". Applewhite was also a fan of Nikes "and therefore everyone was expected to wear and like Nikes" within the group. Heaven's Gate had a saying, "Just Do it", echoing Nike's slogan, but pronouncing "Do" as "Doe", to reflect Applewhite's nickname. The 39 adherents – 21 women and 18 men between the ages of 26 and 72 – are believed to have died in three groups over three successive days, with the remaining participants cleaning up after each prior group's deaths. The suicides occurred in groups of 15, 15, and 9, between approximately March 22 and March 26; sources disagree as to the exact dates, with some stating that all three groups committed suicide on March 22, that the groups committed suicide on March 22–24, or on March 24–26. Among the dead was Thomas Nichols, brother of the actress Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Uhura in the original television series of Star Trek. Applewhite was the third to last member to die; two people remained after him, and were the only ones found with bags over their heads and not having purple cloths covering their top halves. Before the last of the suicides, similar sets of packages were sent to numerous Heaven's Gate affiliated (or formerly affiliated) individuals, and at least one media outlet, the BBC department responsible for Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, for which Heaven's Gate had earlier declined participation. Among those on the list of recipients was Rio DiAngelo. The package DiAngelo received on the evening of March 25, as other packages sent had, contained two VHS videotapes, one with Do's Final Exit, and the other with the "farewell messages" of group followers. It also contained a letter stating that, among other things, "we have exited our vehicles just as we entered them." DiAngelo informed his boss of the contents of the packages, and received a ride from him from Los Angeles to the Heaven's Gate home so he could verify the letter. DiAngelo found a back door intentionally left unlocked, and used a video camera to record what he found. After leaving the house, DiAngelo's boss, who had waited outside, encouraged him to make calls alerting the authorities. The San Diego County Sheriff's Office received an anonymous tip through 911 at 3:15 p.m. on March 26, suggesting they "check on the welfare of the residents". Days after the suicides, the caller was revealed to be DiAngelo. Caller: Yes, I need to report an anonymous tip, who do I talk to? Sheriff's Department: Okay, this is regarding what? Caller: This is regarding a mass suicide, and I can give you the address [...] The lone deputy who first responded to the call entered the home through a side door, saw ten bodies, and was nearly overcome by a "pungent odor". (The bodies were already decomposing in the hot Southern California spring.) After a cursory search by two more deputies found no one alive, they retreated until a search warrant could be procured. All 39 bodies were ultimately cremated. Aftermath The Heaven's Gate deaths were widely publicized in the media as an example of mass suicide. When the news broke of its relation to Comet Hale–Bopp, the co-discoverer of the comet, Alan Hale, was drawn into the story. Hale's phone "never stopped ringing the entire day". He chose not to respond until the next day at a press conference, after researching the details of the incident. Speaking at the Second World Skeptics Congress in Heidelberg, Germany on July 24, 1998: Dr. Hale discussed the scientific significance and popular lore of comets and gave a personal account of his discovery. He then lambasted the combination of scientific illiteracy, willful delusions, a radio talk show's deception about an imaginary spacecraft following the comet, and a cult's bizarre yearnings for ascending to another level of existence that led to the Heaven's Gate mass suicides. Hale said that well before Heaven's Gate, he had told a colleague: "We are probably going to have some suicides as a result of this comet." The sad part is that I was really not surprised. Comets are lovely objects, but they don't have apocalyptic significance. We must use our minds, our reason. News of the mass suicide motivated the copycat suicide of a 58-year-old man living near Marysville, California. The man left a note dated March 27, which said, "I'm going on the spaceship with Hale–Bopp to be with those who have gone before me," and imitated some of the details of the Heaven's Gate suicides as they had then been reported. The man was found dead by a friend on March 31, and had no known connection with Heaven's Gate. At least three former members of Heaven's Gate died by suicide in the months following the mass suicide. On May 6, 1997, Wayne Cooke and Chuck Humphrey (known as "Rkkody" within the group) attempted suicide in a hotel in a manner similar to that used by the group. Cooke died but Humphrey survived, who was saved by authorities. Another former member, James Pirkey Jr., died by suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound on May 11. In February 1998, Humphrey killed himself in Arizona. His body was found carrying a five dollar bill and four quarters in his pocket; next to him, a note: "do not revive". Although most people considered the event a mass suicide, sociologist and former member of a cult, Janja Lalich, referred to the event as "murder". UCLA psychiatrist Louis J. West described the dead members as "victims of a hoax [...] There was villainy here." Two former members, Marc and Sarah King of Phoenix, Arizona, operating as the TELAH Foundation, are believed to maintain the group's website. Belief system Scholars disagree over whether the theology of Heaven's Gate is fundamentally either New Age or Christian in nature. Benjamin Zeller has argued that the theology of Heaven's Gate was primarily rooted in Evangelicalism but with New Age elements. Scholars have described the theology of Heaven's Gate as a mixture of Christian millenarianism, New Age, and ufology, and as such it has been mainly characterized as a UFO religion. The group adopted the ancient astronaut hypothesis, which was prominent at the time of the group's formation due to the then-recent publication of works like Erich Von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods?. The term "ancient astronauts" is used to refer to various forms of the concept that extraterrestrials visited Earth in the distant past. Applewhite and Nettles took part of this concept and taught it as the belief that "aliens planted the seeds of current humanity millions of years ago, and have to come to reap the harvest of their work in the form of spiritually evolved individuals who will join the ranks of flying saucer crews. Only a select few members of humanity will be chosen to advance to this transhuman state. The rest will be left to wallow in the spiritually poisoned atmosphere of a corrupt world." Only individuals who joined Heaven's Gate, follow Applewhite and Nettle's belief system, and make the sacrifices required by membership would be allowed to escape human suffering. Heaven's Gate, paralleling ancient astronaut theorists like Erich Von Däniken, interpreted the Bible as recording events of extraterrestrial contact. Initially, recruits had been told that they would be biologically and chemically transformed into extraterrestrial beings and would be transported aboard a spacecraft, which would come to Earth and take them to heaven – the "Next Level". When Bonnie Lou Nettles (Ti) died of cancer in 1985, the group's doctrine was confounded because Nettles was "chosen" by the Next Level to be a messenger on Earth, yet her body had died instead of leaving physically to outer space. Their belief system was then revised to include the leaving of consciousness from the body as equivalent to leaving the Earth in a spacecraft. The group declared that they were against suicide, as they defined suicide in their own context to mean "to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered", and believed their human bodies were only "vehicles" meant to help them on their journey. Suicide, therefore, would be not allowing their consciousness to leave their human bodies to join the next level; remaining alive instead of participating in the group suicide was considered suicide of their consciousness. In conversation, when referring to a person or a person's body, they routinely used the word "vehicle". The members of the group adopted names consisting of three letters followed by the suffix -ody to signify themselves as "children of the Next Level". This is mentioned in Applewhite's final video, Do's Final Exit, filmed March 19–20, 1997, just days prior to the suicides. They believed that "to be eligible for membership in the Next Level, humans would have to shed every attachment to the planet". This meant all members had to give up all human-like characteristics, such as family, friends, gender, sexuality, individuality, jobs, money, and possessions. "The Evolutionary Level Above Human" (TELAH) was a "physical, corporeal place", another world in our universe, where residents live in pure bliss and nourish themselves by absorbing pure sunlight. At the next level, beings do not engage in sexual intercourse, eating or dying, the things that make humans "mammalian". Heaven's Gate believed that what the Bible calls God is a highly developed extraterrestrial. Members of Heaven's Gate believed that evil space aliens – Luciferians – falsely represented themselves to Earthlings as "God" and conspired to keep humans from developing. As technically advanced humanoids, these aliens have spacecraft, space-time travel, telepathy, and increased longevity. They use holograms to fake miracles. They are carnal beings with gender, and they stopped training to achieve the Kingdom of God thousands of years ago. Heaven's Gate believed that all existing religions on Earth had been corrupted by these aliens. Although these basic beliefs of the group stayed generally consistent over the years, "the details of their ideology were flexible enough to undergo modification over time". There are examples of the group's adding to or slightly changing their beliefs, such as: modifying the way one can enter the Next Level, changing the way they described themselves, placing more importance on the idea of Satan, and adding several other New Age concepts. One of these concepts was the belief of extraterrestrial walk-ins; when the group began, "Applewhite and Nettles taught their followers that they were extraterrestrial beings [...] after the notion of walk-ins became popular within the New Age subculture, the Two changed their tune and began describing themselves as extraterrestrial walk-ins." A walk-in can be defined as "an entity who occupies a body that has been vacated by its original soul". Heaven's Gate came to believe an extraterrestrial walk-in is "a walk-in that is supposedly from another planet". The concept of walk-ins aided Applewhite and Nettles in personally starting from what they considered to be "clean slates". In this clean slate, they were no longer considered to be the people they had been prior to the start of the group, but had taken on a new life; this concept gave them a way to "erase their human personal histories as the histories of souls who formerly occupied the bodies of Applewhite and Nettles". Over time, Applewhite revised his identity in the group to encourage the belief that the "walk-in" that was inhabiting his body was the same that had done so to Jesus 2,000 years ago. Similar to Nestorianism, this belief stated that the personage of Jesus and the spirit of Jesus were separable. This meant that Jesus was simply the name of the body of an ordinary man that held no sacred properties, that was taken over by an incorporeal sacred entity to deliver "next level" information. Techniques to enter the next level According to Heaven's Gate, once the individual has perfected himself through the "process", there were four methods to enter or "graduate" to the next level: Physical pickup onto a TELAH spacecraft and transfer to a next level body aboard that craft. In this version, what Professor Zeller calls a "UFO" version of the "Rapture", an alien spacecraft would descend to Earth and collect Applewhite, Nettles, and their followers, and their human bodies would be transformed through biological and chemical processes to perfected beings. Natural death, accidental death, or death from random violence. Here, the "graduating soul" leaves the human container for a perfected next-level body. Outside persecution that leads to death. After the deaths of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, and the events involving Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Applewhite was afraid the American government would murder the members of Heaven's Gate. Willful exit from the body in a dignified manner. Near the end, Applewhite had a revelation that they might have to abandon their human bodies and achieve the next level as Jesus had done. This occurred when 39 members died by suicide and "graduated". Animals were said to have souls, and a soul in an animal could enter the next level, a human soul, if it becomes a servant of humans, such as in a guide dog, and "sees itself as a family member in that human family". Structure The group is only open to adults over the age of 18. Members gave up their possessions and lived an ascetic life devoid of indulgences. The group was tightly knit, and everything was communally shared. In public, each member of the group always carried a five-dollar bill and a roll of quarters. 8 men in the group, including Applewhite, voluntarily underwent castration as an extreme means of maintaining the ascetic lifestyle. The group initially attempted castration by having one of its members, a former nurse, perform the castration, but this almost resulted in the patient's death, and caused at least one member to leave Heaven's Gate. Every castration that followed was done in a hospital. The group earned revenue by offering professional website development under the business name Higher Source. The cultural theorist Paul Virilio described the group as a cybersect, due to its heavy reliance on computer-mediated communication prior to its collective suicide. In popular culture In 1979, Gary Sherman produced the made-for-TV movie Mysterious Two for NBC, based on the exploits of Applewhite and Nettles, then relatively unknown, which aired in 1982. In its first live episode following the mass suicide, Saturday Night Live aired a sketch where the cult members made it to space. It was followed by a commercial parody for Keds, featuring the tagline, "Worn by level-headed Christians," as well as footage of the Nike-clad corpses of the Heaven's Gate members. In 2018, rapper Lil Uzi Vert posted a concept album art for their then-upcoming album, Eternal Atake. Soon after, they were threatened with legal action by Marc and Sarah King, the couple responsible for maintaining the group's website and intellectual property. A representative for the two wrote "[Uzi] is using and adapting our copyrights and trademarks without our permission and the infringement will be taken up with our attorneys. This is not fair use or parody; it is a direct and clear infringement". The teased cover contained a logo almost identical to the Heaven's Gate logo, with similar text and visuals below. When the album officially released, it would be changed substantially to instead feature three figures standing on the moon, accompanied by a UFO overhead. Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults, a documentary miniseries about the cult, was released on HBO Max in 2020. In 2021, Heaven's Gate was one of the subjects in the first season of Vice Media's documentary television series Dark Side of the 90s entitled "A Tale of Two Cults". Heaven's Gate was the subject of the 10-part podcast of the same name produced by Glynn Washington to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the mass suicide. In February 2023, a movie following the story of Applewhite and Nettles entitled The Leader was introduced during the Berlin Film Festival. In October 2023, it was announced that Michael C. Hall and Grace Caroline Currey had joined the cast. Nike Decades The infamy caused by the mass suicides, limited availability, and their sudden discontinuation have been cited as reasons for the high resale value of Nike Decades. See also UFO religion Peoples Temple Jonestown Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God Order of the Solar Temple Aum Shinrikyo Tokyo subway sarin attack References Bibliography Further reading Balch, Robert W. (1982). "Bo and Peep: A Case Study of the Origins of Messianic Leadership". In Wallis, Roy (ed.). Millennialism and Charisma. Belfast: Queen's University. ISBN 978-0853892168. Balch, Robert W. (1985). "When the Light Goes Out, Darkness Comes: A Study of Defection from a Totalistic Cult". In Stark, Rodney (ed.). Religious Movements: Genesis, Exodus and Numbers. Paragon House Publishers. pp. 11–63. ISBN 978-0-913757-43-7. Balch, Robert W. (1995). "Waiting for the ships: disillusionment and revitalization of faith in Bo and Peep's UFO cult". In Lewis, James R. (ed.). The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds. Albany: SUNY. ISBN 978-0791423295. DiAngelo, Rio (2007). Beyond Human Mind: The Soul Evolution of Heaven's Gate. Rio DiAngelo Press. ISBN 978-1427618559. Theroux, Louis (2005). The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures. Da Capo Press. pp. 207–221. ISBN 978-0-306-81503-4. External links "Heaven's Gate Website". "Profiles: Heaven's Gate Timeline". Archived from the original on March 2, 2013. Ramsland, Katherine. "All about Heaven's Gate cult". The Crime Library. Archived from the original on March 5, 2005. Heaven's Gate Podcast Archived 2018-10-24 at the Wayback Machine providing more in-depth information, including interviews with former members and relatives Heaven's Gate VHS Tapes at Internet Archive College Lecture on Heaven's Gate at Internet Archive

Nike,_Inc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike,_Inc.

Nike, Inc. (stylized as NIKE) is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, United States. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$46 billion in its fiscal year 2022. The company was founded on January 25, 1964, as "Blue Ribbon Sports", by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, and officially became Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1971. The company takes its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Nike markets its products under its own brand, as well as Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike+, Nike Blazers, Air Force 1, Nike Dunk, Air Max, Foamposite, Nike Skateboarding, Nike CR7, and subsidiaries including Air Jordan and Converse. Nike also owned Bauer Hockey from 1995 to 2008, and previously owned Cole Haan, Umbro, and Hurley International. In addition to manufacturing sportswear and equipment, the company operates retail stores under the Niketown name. Nike sponsors many high-profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of "Just Do It" and the Swoosh logo. As of 2024, it employed 83,700 people worldwide. In 2020, the brand alone was valued in excess of $32 billion, making it the most valuable brand among sports businesses. Previously, in 2017, the Nike brand was valued at $29.6 billion. Nike ranked 89th in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. The company ranked 239th in the Forbes Global 2000 companies in 2024. History Nike, originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), was founded by University of Oregon track athlete Phil Knight and his coach, Bill Bowerman, on January 25, 1964. The company initially operated in Eugene, Oregon as a distributor for Japanese shoe maker Onitsuka Tiger, making most sales at track meets out of Knight's automobile. According to Otis Davis, a University of Oregon student-athlete coached by Bowerman and Olympic gold medalist at the 1960 Summer Olympics, his coach made the first pair of Nike shoes for him, contradicting a claim that they were made for Phil Knight. According to Davis, "I told Tom Brokaw that I was the first. I don't care what all the billionaires say. Bill Bowerman made the first pair of shoes for me. People don't believe me. In fact, I didn't like the way they felt on my feet. There was no support and they were too tight. But I saw Bowerman made them from the waffle iron, and they were mine". In its first year in business, BRS sold 1,300 pairs of Japanese running shoes grossing $8,000. By 1965, sales had reached $20,000. In 1966, BRS opened its first retail store at 3107 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California. In 1967, due to increasing sales, BRS expanded retail and distribution operations on the East Coast, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. In 1971, Bowerman used his wife's waffle iron to experiment on rubber to create a new sole for track shoes that would grip but be lightweight and increase the runner's speed. Oregon's Hayward Field was transitioning to an artificial surface, and Bowerman wanted a sole which could grip to grass or bark dust without the use of spikes. Bowerman was talking to his wife about this puzzle over breakfast, when the waffle iron idea came into play. Bowerman's design led to the introduction of the "Moon Shoe" in 1972, so named because the waffle tread was said to resemble the footprints left by astronauts on the Moon. Further refinement resulted in the "Waffle Trainer" in 1974, which helped fuel the explosive growth of Blue Ribbon Sports/Nike. Tension between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger increased in 1971 as the latter attempted a takeover of BRS by extending an ultimatum proposal that would give the Japanese company 51 percent of BRS. In 1972, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger came to an end. BRS prepared to launch its own line of footwear. The previous year, it was already able to place from two Japanese shoe manufacturers the company's first independent order for 20,000, which included 6,000 that had the Nike logo. Runner Jeff Johnson was brought in to help market the new brand and was credited for coining the name “Nike”. It would bear the Swoosh newly designed by Carolyn Davidson. The Swoosh was first used by Nike on June 18, 1971, and was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on January 22, 1974. In 1976, the company hired John Brown and Partners, based in Seattle, as its first advertising agency. The following year, the agency created the first "brand ad" for Nike, called "There is no finish line", in which no Nike product was shown. By 1980, Nike had attained a 50% market share in the U.S. athletic shoe market, and the company went public in December of that year. Wieden+Kennedy, Nike's primary ad agency, has worked with Nike to create many print and television advertisements, and Wieden+Kennedy remains Nike's primary ad agency. It was agency co-founder Dan Wieden who coined the now-famous slogan "Just Do It" for a 1988 Nike ad campaign, which was chosen by Advertising Age as one of the top five ad slogans of the 20th century and enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution. Walt Stack was featured in Nike's first "Just Do It" advertisement, which debuted on July 1, 1988. Wieden credits the inspiration for the slogan to "Let's do it", the last words spoken by Gary Gilmore before he was executed. Nike manufactured its first uniforms for a professional sports team in 1979 when its jersey for the Portland Timbers of the North American Soccer League debuted. Throughout the 1980s, Nike expanded its product line to encompass many sports and regions throughout the world. In 1990, Nike moved into its eight-building World Headquarters campus in Beaverton, Oregon. The first Nike retail store, dubbed Niketown, opened in downtown Portland in November of that year. Phil Knight announced in mid-2015 that he would step down as chairman of Nike in 2016. He officially stepped down from all duties with the company on June 30, 2016. In a company public announcement on March 15, 2018, Nike CEO Mark Parker said Trevor Edwards, a top Nike executive who was seen as a potential successor to the chief executive, was relinquishing his position as Nike's brand president and would retire in August. In October 2019, John Donahoe was announced as the next CEO, and succeeded Parker on January 13, 2020. In November 2019, the company stopped selling directly through Amazon, focusing more on direct relationships with customers. Acquisitions Nike has acquired and sold several apparel and footwear companies over the course of its history. Its first acquisition was the upscale footwear company Cole Haan in 1988, followed by the purchase of Bauer Hockey in 1994. In 2002, Nike bought surf apparel company Hurley International from founder Bob Hurley. In 2003, Nike paid US$309 million to acquire sneaker company Converse. The company acquired Starter in 2004 and soccer uniform maker Umbro in 2007. In order to refocus its business lines, Nike began divesting itself of some of its subsidiaries in the 2000s. It sold Starter in 2007 and Bauer Hockey in 2008. The company sold Umbro in 2012 and Cole Haan in 2013. As of 2020, Nike owns only one subsidiary: Converse Inc. Nike acquired Zodiac, a consumer data analytics company, in March 2018. In August 2019, the company acquired Celect, a Boston-based predictive analytics company. In December 2021, Nike purchased RTFKT Studios, a virtual shoe company that makes NFTs. In February 2021, Nike acquired Datalogue, a New York based company focused on digital sales and machine learning technology. Finance Nike was made a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2013, when it replaced Alcoa. On December 19, 2013, Nike's quarterly profit rose due to a 13 percent increase in global orders for merchandise since April of that year. Future orders of shoes or clothes for delivery between December and April, rose to $10.4 billion. Nike shares (NKE) rose 0.6 percent to $78.75 in extended trading. In November 2015, Nike announced it would initiate a $12 billion share buyback, as well as a two-for-one stock split, with shares to begin trading at the decreased price on December 24. The split will be the seventh in company history. In June 2018, Nike announced it would initiate a $15 billion share buyback over four years, to begin in 2019 upon completion of the previous buyback program. For the fiscal year 2018, Nike reported earnings of US$1.933 billion, with annual revenue of US$36.397 billion, an increase of 6.0% over the previous fiscal cycle. Nike's shares traded at over $72 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$114.5 billion in October 2018. In February 2020, the company said that roughly 75% of Nike stores in Greater China had closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In March 2020, Nike reported a 5% drop in Chinese sales associated with stores' closure. It was the first decrease in six years. At the same time, the company's online sales grew by 36% during Q1 of 2020. Also, the sales of personal training apps grew by 80% in China. Logo evolution Notes Products Sports apparel Nike produces a wide range of sports equipment and apparel. Their first products were track running shoes. Nike Air Max is a line of shoes first released by Nike, Inc. in 1987. Additional product lines were introduced later, such as Air Huarache, which debuted in 1992. The most recent additions to their line are the Nike 6.0, Nike NYX, and Nike SB shoes, designed for skateboarding. Nike has recently introduced cricket shoes called Air Zoom Yorker, designed to be 30% lighter than their competitors'. In 2008, Nike introduced the Air Jordan XX3, a high-performance basketball shoe designed with the environment in mind. Nike's range of products include shoes, jerseys, shorts, cleats, baselayers, etc. for sports activities such as soccer, basketball, track and field, combat sports, tennis, American football, athletics, golf, ice hockey, and cross training for men, women, and children. Nike also sells shoes for activities such as skateboarding, baseball, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, lacrosse, cricket, aquatic activities, auto racing, and other athletic and recreational uses. Nike partnered with Apple Inc. to produce the Nike+ product that monitors a runner's performance via a radio device in the shoe that links to the iPod nano. While the product generates useful statistics, it has been criticized by researchers who were able to identify users' RFID devices from 60 feet (18 m) away using small, concealable intelligence motes in a wireless sensor network. In 2004, Nike launched the SPARQ Training Program/Division. Some of Nike's newest shoes contain Flywire and Lunarlite Foam to reduce weight. The Air Zoom Vomero running shoe, introduced in 2006 and currently in its 11th generation, featured a combination of groundbreaking innovations including a full-length air cushioned sole, an external heel counter, a crashpad in the heel for shock absorption, and Fit Frame technology for a stable fit. In 2023, Nike told ESPN that it would cease using kangaroo skins in its products by the end of that year and debut "a new Nike-only, proprietary synthetic upper, [with] a new material that is a better performance solution and replaces the use of kangaroo leather." Nike Vaporfly The Nike Vaporfly first came out in 2017 and their popularity, along with its performance, prompted a new series of running shoes. The Vaporfly series has a new technological composition that has revolutionized long-distance running since studies have shown that these shoes can improve marathon race time up to 4.2%. The composition of the sole contains a foamy material, Pebax, that Nike has altered and now calls it ZoomX (which can be found in other Nike products as well). Pebax foam can also be found in airplane insulation and is "squishier, bouncier, and lighter" than foams in typical running shoes. In the middle of the ZoomX foam there is a full-length carbon fiber plate "designed to generate extra spring in every step". At the time of this writing Nike had just released its newest product from the Vaporfly line, the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT%, which was marketed as "the fastest shoe we’ve ever made" using Nike's "two most innovative technologies, Nike ZoomX foam and VaporWeave material". Street fashions The Nike brand, with its distinctive "Swoosh" logo, quickly became regarded as a status symbol in modern urban fashion and hip-hop fashion due to its association with success in sport. Beginning in the 1980s, various items of Nike clothing became staples of mainstream American youth fashion, especially tracksuits, shell suits, baseball caps, Air Jordans, Air Force 1's, and Air Max running shoes with thick, air cushioned rubber soles and contrasting blue, yellow, green, white, or red trim. Limited edition sneakers and prototypes with a regional early release were known as Quickstrikes, and became highly desirable items for teenage members of the sneakerhead subculture. By the 1990s and 2000s, American and European teenagers associated with the preppy or popular clique began combining these sneakers, leggings, sweatpants, crop tops, and tracksuits with regular casual chic street clothes such as jeans, skirts, leg warmers, slouch socks, and bomber jackets. Particularly popular were the unisex spandex Nike Tempo compression shorts worn for cycling and running, which had a mesh lining, waterproofing, and, later in the 2000s, a zip pocket for a Walkman or MP3 player. From the late 2000s into the 2010s, Nike Elite basketball socks began to be worn as everyday clothes by hip-hop fans and young children. Originally plain white or black, these socks had special shock absorbing cushioning in the sole plus a moisture wicking upper weave. Later, Nike Elite socks became available in bright colors inspired by throwback basketball uniforms, often with contrasting bold abstract designs, images of celebrities, and freehand digital print to capitalise upon the emerging nostalgia for 1990s fashion. In 2015, a new self-lacing shoe was introduced. Called the Nike Mag, which are replicas of the shoes featured in Back to the Future Part II, it had a preliminary limited release, only available by auction with all proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. This was done again in 2016. Nike have introduced a premium line, focused more on streetwear than sports wear called NikeLab. In March 2017, Nike announced its launch of a plus-size clothing line, which will feature new sizes 1X through 3X on more than 200 products. Another significant development at this time was the Chuck Taylor All-Star Modern, an update of the classic basketball sneaker that incorporated the circular knit upper and cushioned foam sole of Nike's Air Jordans. Collectibles On July 23, 2019, a pair of Nike Inc. running shoes sold for $437,500 at a Sotheby's auction. The so-called "Moon Shoes" were designed by Nike co-founder and track coach Bill Bowerman for runners participating in the 1972 Olympics trials. The buyer was Miles Nadal, a Canadian investor and car collector, who had just paid $850,000 for a group of 99 rare of limited collection pairs of sport shoes. The purchase price was the highest for one pair of sneakers, the previous record being $190,373 in 2017 for a pair of signed Converse shoes in California, said to have been worn by Michael Jordan during the 1984 basketball final of the Olympics that year. Virtual After acquiring RTFKT, Nike launched the Dunk Genesis Cryptokicks collection, which features over 20,000 NFTs. One design by Takashi Murakami was sold for $134,000 in April 2022. Headquarters Nike's world headquarters are surrounded by the city of Beaverton but are within unincorporated Washington County. The city attempted to forcibly annex Nike's headquarters, which led to a lawsuit by Nike, and lobbying by the company that ultimately ended in Oregon Senate Bill 887 of 2005. Under that bill's terms, Beaverton is specifically barred from forcibly annexing the land that Nike and Columbia Sportswear occupy in Washington County for 35 years, while Electro Scientific Industries and Tektronix receive the same protection for 30 years. Nike is planning to build a 3.2 million square foot expansion to its World Headquarters in Beaverton. The design will target LEED Platinum certification and will be highlighted by natural daylight, and a gray water treatment center. Ownership Nike is mainly owned by institutional investors, who hold around 68% of all shares. The 10 largest shareholders of Nike in early 2024 were: Phil Knight (17.4%) Vanguard (7.23%) BlackRock (5.93%) State Street Global Advisors (3.71%) Travis Knight (3.14%) Knight Foundation (1.95%) Capital Research and Management Company (1.94%) Geode Capital Management (1.57%) Wellington Management Company (1.48%) AllianceBernstein (1.32%) Controversies Nike has contracted with more than 700 shops around the world and has offices located in 45 countries outside the United States. Most of the factories are located in Asia, including Indonesia, China, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Philippines, and Malaysia. Nike is hesitant to disclose information about the contract companies it works with. However, due to harsh criticism from some organizations like CorpWatch, Nike has disclosed information about its contract factories in its Corporate Governance Report. Sweatshops In the 1990s, Nike received criticism for its use of sweatshops. Beginning in 1990, many protests occurred in big cities such as Los Angeles, Washington, DC and Boston in order to show public outcry for Nike's use of child labor and sweatshops. Nike has been criticized for contracting with factories (known as Nike sweatshops) in countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico. Vietnam Labor Watch, an activist group, has documented that factories contracted by Nike have violated minimum wage and overtime laws in Vietnam as late as 1996, although Nike claims that this practice has been stopped. As of July 2011, Nike stated that two-thirds of its factories producing Converse products still do not meet the company's standards for worker treatment. A July 2011 Associated Press article stated that employees at the company's plants in Indonesia reported constant abuse from supervisors. Child labor During the 1990s, Nike faced criticism for the use of child labor in Cambodia and Pakistan in factories it contracted to manufacture soccer balls. Although Nike took action to curb or at least reduce the practice, they continue to contract their production to companies that operate in areas where inadequate regulation and monitoring make it hard to ensure that child labor is not being used. In 2001, a BBC documentary uncovered occurrences of child labor and poor working conditions in a Cambodian factory used by Nike. The documentary focused on six girls, who all worked seven days a week, often 16 hours a day. Strike in China factory In April 2014, one of the biggest strikes in mainland China took place at the Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Dongguan shoe factory, producing amongst others for Nike. Yue Yuen did underpay an employee by 250 yuan (40.82 US Dollars) per month. The average salary at Yue Yuen is 3000 yuan per month. The factory employs 70,000 people. This practice was in place for nearly 20 years. Paradise Papers On November 5, 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investment, revealed that Nike is among the corporations that used offshore companies to avoid taxes. Appleby documents detail how Nike boosted its after-tax profits by, among other maneuvers, transferring ownership of its Swoosh trademark to a Bermudan subsidiary, Nike International Ltd. This transfer allowed the subsidiary to charge royalties to its European headquarters in Hilversum, Netherlands, effectively converting taxable company profits to an account payable in tax-free Bermuda. Although the subsidiary was effectively run by executives at Nike's main offices in Beaverton, Oregon—to the point where a duplicate of the Bermudan company's seal was needed—for tax purposes the subsidiary was treated as Bermuda. Its profits were not declared in Europe and came to light only because of a mostly unrelated case in US Tax Court, where papers filed by Nike briefly mention royalties in 2010, 2011 and 2012 totaling $3.86 billion. Under an arrangement with Dutch authorities, the tax break was to expire in 2014, so another reorganization transferred the intellectual property from the Bermudan company to a Dutch commanditaire vennootschap or limited partnership, Nike Innovate CV. Dutch law treats income earned by a CV as if it had been earned by the principals, who owe no tax in the Netherlands if they do not reside there. Colin Kaepernick In September 2018, Nike announced it had signed former American football quarterback Colin Kaepernick, noted for his controversial decision to kneel during the playing of the US national anthem, to a long-term advertising campaign. According to Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports, Kaepernick and Nike agreed to a new contract despite the fact Kaepernick has been with the company since 2011 and said that "interest from other shoe companies" played a part in the new agreement. Robinson said the contract is a "wide endorsement" where Kaepernick will have his own branded line including shoes, shirts, jerseys and more. In response, some people set fire to their own Nike-branded clothes and shoes or cut the Nike swoosh logo out of their clothes, and the Fraternal Order of Police called the advertisement an "insult"; others, such as LeBron James, Serena Williams, and the National Black Police Association, praised Nike for its campaign. The College of the Ozarks removed Nike from all their athletic uniforms in response. During the following week, Nike's stock price fell 2.2%, even as online orders of Nike products rose 27% compared with the previous year. In the following three months, Nike reported a rise in sales. In July 2019, Nike released a shoe featuring a Betsy Ross flag called the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July trainers. The trainers were designed to celebrate Independence Day. The model was subsequently withdrawn after Colin Kaepernick told the brand he and others found the flag offensive because of its association with slavery. Nike's decision to withdraw the product drew criticism from Arizona's Republican Governor, Doug Ducey, and Texas's Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Nike's decision was praised by others due to the use of the flag by white nationalists, but the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism has declined to add the flag to its database of "hate symbols." Hong Kong protests U.S. Vice President Mike Pence criticized Nike for "siding with the Chinese Communist Party and silencing free speech". He claimed that after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey was criticized by the Chinese government for his tweet supporting the 2019 Hong Kong protests, Nike removed Rockets merchandise from its stores in China. On January 31, 2020, the World Athletics issued new guidelines concerning shoes to be used in the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics. These updates came in response to criticisms concerning technology in the Nike Vaporfly running shoes, which had been submitted beginning around 2017–2018. These criticisms stated that the shoes provided athletes with an unfair advantage over their opponents and some critics considered it to be a form of technology doping. According to Nike funded research, the shoes can improve efficiency by up to 4.2% and runners who have tested the shoe are saying that it causes reduced soreness in the legs; sports technologist Bryce Dyer attributes this to the ZoomX and carbon fiber plate since it absorbs the energy and "spring[s] runners forward". Some athletes, scientists, and fans have compared this to the 2008 LAZR swimsuit controversy. Some of the major changes in the guidelines that have come about as a result of these criticisms include that the "sole must be no thicker than 40mm" and that "the shoe must not contain more than one rigid embedded plate or blade (of any material) that runs either the full length or only part of the length of the shoe. The plate may be in more than one part but those parts must be located sequentially in one plane (not stacked or in parallel) and must not overlap". The components of the shoes are not the only thing that had major changes; starting April 30, 2020, "any shoe must have been available for purchase by any athlete on the open retail market (online or in store) for a period of four months before it can be used in competition". Prior to these new guidelines World Athletics reviewed the Vaporfly shoes and "concluded that there is independent research that indicates that the new technology incorporated in the soles of road and spiked shoes may provide a performance advantage" and that it recommends further research to "establish the true impact of [the Vaporfly] technology." Forced Uyghur labor allegations In December 2021, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights filed a criminal complaint in a Dutch court against Nike and other brands, alleging that they benefited from the use of forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang. In July 2023, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise opened an investigation into Nike to probe allegations of forced Uyghur labor in its supply chain. Research of the social democratic party in the European Parliament, the Sheffield Hallam University and further groups accused Nike in 2023 of using forced labor camps exploiting Muslim Uyghurs in China provided by the Anhui Huamao Group Co., Ltd. for production. Environmental record In 2007, New England–based environmental organization Clean Air-Cool Planet ranked Nike among the top three companies (out of 56) in a survey of climate-friendly companies. Recycling Nike has also been praised for its Nike Grind program, which closes the product lifecycle, by groups such as Climate Counts. Since 1993, Nike has worked on its Reuse-A-Shoe program. This program is Nike's longest-running program that benefits both the environment and the community by collecting old athletic shoes of any type in order to process and recycle them. The material that is produced is then used to help create sports surfaces such as basketball courts, running tracks, and playgrounds. Nike France made their Reuse-A-Shoe program available online so that they could make it easier for consumers to send in their old shoes. In 2017, it was estimated that 28,000,000 shoes were collected since its start in 1993. Nike limited the mail-in option of the program because they are aware that the emissions from shipping would offset the good, they are trying to do. They work with the National Recycling Coalition to help limit transportation of recycled shoes. During transportation most of the vehicles that are used are using diesel or fuel oil. Diesel oil emits 22.44 pounds of Carbon Dioxide per gallon. A campaign that Nike began for Earth Day 2008 was a commercial that featured basketball star Steve Nash wearing Nike's Trash Talk Shoe, which had been constructed in February 2008 from pieces of leather and synthetic leather waste from factory floors. The Trash Talk Shoe also featured a sole composed of ground-up rubber from a shoe recycling program. Nike claims this is the first performance basketball shoe that has been created from manufacturing waste, but it only produced 5,000 pairs for sale. Sulfur hexafluoride Sulfur hexafluoride is an extremely potent and persistent greenhouse gas that was used to fill the cushion bags in all "Air"-branded shoes from 1992 to 2006. 277 tons was used during the peak in 1997. Toxic chemicals In 2008, a project through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found workers were exposed to toxic isocyanates and other chemicals in footwear factories in Thailand. In addition to inhalation, dermal exposure was the biggest problem found. This could result in allergic reactions including asthmatic reactions. Water pollution In July 2011, environmental group Greenpeace published a report regarding water pollution impacting the Yangtze River emitted from a major textile factory operated by Nike supplier Youngor Group. Following the report, Nike, as well as Adidas, Puma, and a number of other brands included in the report announced an agreement to stop discharging hazardous chemicals by 2020. However, in July 2016 Greenpeace released a follow-up report which found that Nike "does not take individual responsibility" for eliminating hazardous chemicals, stating that Nike had not made an explicit commitment to riding itself of perfluorinated compounds, and that "Nike does not ensure its suppliers report their hazardous chemical discharge data and has not made a commitment to do so". Back in 2016, Nike started to use water free dyeing materials so that they can help reduce their water use in their Southeast Asian factories. Carbon footprint Nike reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending June 30, 2020 at 317 Kt (+12/+4% y-o-y) and plans to reduce emissions 65% by 2030 from a 2015 base year. This science-based target is aligned with Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. According to a study done in 2017, Nike contributed 3,002,529 metric tons of Carbon Dioxide in 2017 combined from different sectors in the company like retail, manufacturing, management, and more. While emissions of Nike's two corporate jets represent less than 0.1% of its total emissions, they have increased by 20% from 2015 to 2023. Partnership with Newlight In 2021, Nike announced they were working with Newlight Technologies to find more eco-friendly materials for their sneakers. They specifically mentioned Newlight's AirCarbon product which is a bioplastic that can be used to make shoes. The bioplastic is used as a replacement to leather, plastic, and other materials that are like that. Newlight was reported saying that the goal is to reduce Nike's carbon footprint. Sustainability Nike has taken steps to reduce its environmental impact. It has worked to reduce carbon emissions nearly 3% across its value chain from its FY11 baseline, and sourced from fewer, higher-performing contract factories. In 2019, Nike began a program called "Move to Zero" in an effort to achieve zero waste and zero carbon in the organization's supply chain and product lifetime. The men's and women's sections of the collection contain at least 60% organic and recycled materials, including sustainably sourced cotton. Marketing strategy Nike promotes its products through sponsorship agreements with celebrity athletes, professional teams and college athletic teams. Nike has endorsement deals with many top sports players such as LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Serena Williams. Advertising In 1982, Nike aired its first three national television ads, created by newly formed ad agency Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. The Cannes Advertising Festival has named Nike its Advertiser of the Year in 1994 and 2003, making it the first company to receive that honor twice. Nike also has earned the Emmy Award for best commercial in 2000 and 2002. The first was for "The Morning After," a satirical look at what a runner might face on the morning of January 1, 2000, if every dire prediction about the Y2K problem came to fruition. The second was for a 2002 spot called "Move," which featured a series of famous and everyday athletes in a variety of athletic pursuits. Beatles song Nike was criticized for its use of the Beatles song "Revolution" in a 1987 commercial against the wishes of Apple Records, the Beatles' recording company. Nike paid US$250,000 to Capitol Records Inc., which held the North American licensing rights to the recordings, for the right to use the Beatles' rendition for a year. That same year, Apple Records sued Nike Inc., Capitol Records Inc., EMI Records Inc. and Wieden+Kennedy for $15 million. Capitol-EMI countered by saying the lawsuit was "groundless" because Capitol had licensed the use of "Revolution" with the "active support and encouragement of Yoko Ono, a shareholder and director of Apple Records." Nike discontinued airing ads featuring "Revolution" in March 1988. Yoko Ono later gave permission to Nike to use John Lennon's "Instant Karma" in another advertisement. New media marketing Nike was an early adopter of internet marketing, email management technologies, and using broadcast and narrowcast communication technologies to create multimedia marketing campaigns. Minor Threat advertisement In late June 2005, Nike received criticism from Ian MacKaye, owner of Dischord Records, guitarist/vocalist for Fugazi and The Evens, and front man of the defunct punk band Minor Threat, for appropriating imagery and text from Minor Threat's 1981 self-titled album's cover art in a flyer promoting Nike Skateboarding's 2005 East Coast demo tour. On June 27, Nike Skateboarding's website issued an apology to Dischord, Minor Threat, and fans of both and announced that they have tried to remove and dispose of all flyers. They stated that the people who designed it were skateboarders and Minor Threat fans themselves who created the advertisement out of respect and appreciation for the band. The dispute was eventually settled out of court between Nike and Minor Threat. Nike 6.0 As part of the 6.0 campaign, Nike introduced a new line of T-shirts that include phrases such as "Dope", "Get High" and "Ride Pipe" – sports lingo that is also a double entendre for drug use. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino expressed his objection to the shirts after seeing them in a window display at the city's Niketown and asked the store to remove the display. "What we don't need is a major corporation like Nike, which tries to appeal to the younger generation, out there giving credence to the drug issue," Menino told The Boston Herald. A company official stated the shirts were meant to pay homage to extreme sports, and that Nike does not condone the illegal use of drugs. Nike was forced to replace the shirt line. NBA uniform deal In June 2015, Nike signed an 8-year deal with the NBA to become the official uniform supplier for the league, beginning with the 2017–18 season. The brand took over for Adidas, who provided the uniforms for the league since 2006. Unlike previous deals, Nike's logo appear on NBA jerseys – a first for the league. Initially, the Charlotte Hornets, owned by longtime Nike endorser Michael Jordan, were the only team not to sport the Nike swoosh, instead wearing the Jumpman logo associated with Jordan-related merchandise. However, beginning with the 2020–21 season, the Jumpman replaced the swoosh on the NBA's alternate "Statement" uniforms. Sponsorship Nike sponsors top athletes in many sports to use their products and promote and advertise their technology and design. Nike's first professional athlete endorser was Romanian tennis player Ilie Năstase. The first track endorser was distance runner Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine was the prized pupil of the company's co-founder, Bill Bowerman, while he coached at the University of Oregon. Today, the Steve Prefontaine Building is named in his honor at Nike's corporate headquarters. Nike has only made one statue of its sponsored athletes and it is of Steve Prefontaine. Nike has also sponsored many other successful track and field athletes over the years, such as Sebastian Coe, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Michael Johnson and Allyson Felix. The signing of basketball player Michael Jordan in 1984, with his subsequent promotion of Nike over the course of his career, with Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon, proved to be one of the biggest boosts to Nike's publicity and sales. Nike is a major sponsor of the athletic programs at Penn State University and named its first child care facility after Joe Paterno when it opened in 1990 at the company's headquarters. Nike originally announced it would not remove Paterno's name from the building in the wake of the Penn State sex abuse scandal. After the Freeh Report was released on July 12, 2012, Nike CEO Mark Parker announced the name Joe Paterno would be removed immediately from the child development center. A new name has yet to be announced. In the early 1990s, Nike made a strong push into the soccer business making endorsement deals with famous and charismatic players such as Romário, Eric Cantona or Edgar Davids. They continued the growth in the sport by signing more top players including: Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Francesco Totti, Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba, Andrés Iniesta, Wayne Rooney and still have many of the sport's biggest stars under their name, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Neymar, Harry Kane, Eden Hazard and Kylian Mbappé among others. A Barcelona prodigy, Lionel Messi had been signed with Nike since age 14, but transferred to Adidas after they successfully challenged their rival's claim to his image rights in court. Nike has been the official ball supplier for the Premier League since the 2000–01 season. In 2012, Nike carried a commercial partnership with the Asian Football Confederation. In August 2014, Nike announced that they will not renew their kit supply deal with Manchester United after the 2014–15 season, citing rising costs. Since the start of the 2015–16 season, Adidas has manufactured Manchester United's kit as part of a world-record 10-year deal worth a minimum of £750 million. Nike still has many of the top teams playing in their uniforms, including: FC Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Galatasaray S.K. and Liverpool (the latter from the 2020–21 season), and the national teams of Brazil, France, England, Portugal and the Netherlands among many others. Nike has been the sponsor for many top ranked tennis players. Brand's commercial success in the sport went hand in hand with the endorsement deals signed with the biggest and the world's most charismatic stars and number one ranked players of the subsequent eras, including John McEnroe in the 1980s, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in the 1990s and Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova with the start of the 21st century. Nike sponsored Tiger Woods until 2024, and remained on his side amid the controversies that shaped the golfer's career. In January 2013, Nike signed Rory McIlroy, the then No 1 golfer in the world to a 10-year sponsorship deal worth $250 million. Nike has also gone on to sign top players in golf including Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Nelly Korda, Tommy Fleetwood, Tony Finau and Cam Davis. Nike was the official kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team from 2005 to 2020. On February 21, 2013, Nike announced it suspended its contract with South African limbless athlete Oscar Pistorius, due to him being charged with premeditated murder. Nike consolidated its position in basketball in 2015 when it was announced that the company would sign an 8-year deal with the NBA, taking over from the league's previous uniform sponsor, Adidas. The deal required all franchise team members to wear jerseys and shorts with the Swoosh logo, beginning with the 2017/18 season. After the success of partnership with Jordan, which resulted in the creation of the unique Air Jordan brand, Nike has continued to build partnership with the biggest names in basketball. LeBron James was given the Slogan "We are All Witnesses" when he signed with Nike. Similar to "Air Jordan", James' brand became massively popular. Some have had signature shoes designed for them, including Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and more recently, James and Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Paul George and Luka Dončić, among others. Nike recently made signature shoes for WNBA stars as well, as the leagues popularity takes off. Although a dozen women have received signature sneakers in the WNBA's 27-year history, it had been over a decade since a woman had received a signature sneaker. Nike's first signature shoe in the WNBA was with Sheryl Swoops, and since then they have made signature silhouettes for Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Cynthia Cooper, and most recently for Sabrina Ionescu. Caitlin Clark will also receive a signature shoe deal as part of her eight-year, 28 million dollar deal. A news report originating from CNN reported that Nike spent $11.5 billion, nearly a third of its sales, on marketing and endorsement contracts in the year 2018. Nike and its Jordan brand sponsored 85 men's and women's basketball teams in the NCAA tournament. Ties with the University of Oregon Nike maintains strong ties, both directly and through partnerships with Phil Knight, with the University of Oregon. Nike designs the University of Oregon football program's team attire. New unique combinations are issued before every game day. Tinker Hatfield, who also redesigned the university's logo, leads this effort. More recently, the corporation donated $13.5 million towards the renovation and expansion of Hayward Field. Phil Knight has invested substantial personal funds towards developing and maintaining the university's athletic apparatus. His university projects often involve input from Nike designers and executives, such as Tinker Hatfield. Causes In 2012, Nike is listed as a partner of the (PRODUCT)RED campaign together with other brands such as Girl, American Express, and Converse. The campaign's mission is to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. The campaign's byline is "Fighting For An AIDS Free Generation". The company's goal is to raise and send funds, for education and medical assistance to those who live in areas heavily affected by AIDS. In 2023, Nike became the presenting sponsor of Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, which encourages youth in underserved communities to participate in baseball and softball. Program The Nike Community Ambassador Program, allows Nike employees from around the world to go out and give to their community. Over 3,900 employees from various Nike stores have participated in teaching children to be active and healthy. Research In 2016, a study done by RTG Consulting Group reflected that Nike was the 3rd most relevant brand for Gen-Z in China. Roth MKM's 2023 Millennial survey reported in March that millennials with health and wellness concerns in the aftermath of the pandemic ranked brands like Nike, Adidas and Lululemon as their preferred brands for purchases. In January 2023, a study by Rakuten concluded that Nike was the most popular sportswear brand in the US, followed by Lululemon and Adidas. In July 2023, a study by Kantar found that Americans consider Nike as the Most Inclusive Brands (alongside other top brands like Amazon, and Disney). See also Bruce Brenn Dick Donahue Nike timeline Breaking2 – A project by Nike to break the 2 hour marathon barrier. List of companies based in Oregon Notes References Further reading Egan, Timothy (September 13, 1998). "The Swoon of the Swoosh". The New York Times. External links Official website Business data for Nike, Inc.:

Croix_de_guerre_1914%E2%80%931918_(France)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croix_de_guerre_1914%E2%80%931918_(France)

The Croix de guerre 1914–1918 (English: War Cross) was a French military decoration, the first version of the Croix de Guerre. It was created to recognize French and allied soldiers who were cited for valorous service during World War I, similar to the British mentioned in dispatches but with multiple degrees equivalent to other nations' decorations for courage. Soon after the outbreak of World War I, French military officials felt that a new military award had to be created. At that time, the Citation du jour ("Daily Citation") already existed to acknowledge soldiers, but it was just a sheet of paper. Only the Médaille Militaire and Legion of Honour were bestowed for courage in the field, due to the numbers now involved, a new decoration was required in earnest. At the end of 1914, General Boëlle, Commandant in Chief of the French 4th Army Corps, tried to convince the French administration to create a formal military award. Maurice Barrès, the noted writer and parliamentarian for Paris, gave Boëlle support in his efforts. On 23 December 1914, the French parliamentarian Georges Bonnefous proposed a legislative bill to create the Croix de la Valeur Militaire ("Cross of Military Valour") signed by 66 other parliamentarians. Émile Driant, a parliamentarian who served in the war zone during much of this time, became its natural spokesman when he returned to the legislature. On 18 January 1915, Driant submitted this bill but the name of the military award was renamed to Croix de guerre ("War Cross"). After parliamentary discussions, the bill was adopted on 2 April 1915. World War I began in 1914 and ended in 1918, so the final name adopted is "Croix de guerre 1914–1918". Award statute Every Croix de guerre awarded carries at least one citation for gallantry or courage to a member of any rank of the French military or of an allied army. Ribbon devices indicate the importance or degree of the soldier's role during the action cited. The lowest degree is represented by a bronze star and the highest degree is represented by a bronze palm. The cross is only awarded once and subsequent actions worthy of citations will be limited to additional ribbon devices on the originally received insignia. The number of ribbon devices on a Croix de guerre is not limited, some awards, especially to ace fighter pilots, had extremely long ribbons with dozens of stars and palms. The Croix de guerre 1914-1918 was attributed to: French and allied soldiers individually cited for a wartime act of gallantry; Civilians and militarized personnel individually cited for a wartime act of gallantry; Automatically to soldiers and civilians not specifically cited for a Croix de guerre but awarded the Légion d'honneur or Médaille militaire for the highest acts of wartime valour and gazetted in the Official Journal of the French Republic; Collectively, to army units, ships or air squadrons; To cities and villages, martyrs of war, destroyed, ravaged or bombed by the enemy (2952 towns received the Croix de guerre 1914–1918, in this case, always awarded with palm). Soldiers who were/are members of units recognized by a collective unit award of the Croix de guerre may wear the Fourragère of the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 as long as they remain members of that unit. Soldiers who actively took part as members of units during repeated feats of arms recognized by more than one collective award of the Croix de guerre may continue to wear the fourragère even after leaving the meritorious unit. Battle streamers in the colours of the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 are affixed to the colours of recipient units. Award description The cross was designed by the sculptor Paul-Albert Bartholomé. It is 37 mm wide, Florentine bronze cross pattée, with two crossed swords pointing up between the arms. The obverse centre medallion bears the relief image of the French Republic in the form of the bust of a young woman wearing a Phrygian cap surrounded by the circular relief inscription RÉPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE (FRENCH REPUBLIC). Not knowing how long the war would last, the reverse centre medallion bears the dates 1914–1915, 1914–1916, 1914–1917 and finally 1914–1918. The cross is suspended by a ring through a suspension loop cast atop the upper cross arm. It hangs from a 37 mm wide green silk moiré ribbon with seven narrow 1,5 mm wide vertical red stripes evenly spaced and two 1 mm red edge stripes. The lowest degree is represented by a bronze star and the highest degree is represented by a silver palm. The cross was worn with the appropriate attachments to signify the singular or multiple awards of the decoration. Bronze star (étoile de bronze): for those who were mentioned at the regiment, battalion or brigade level. Silver star (étoile d'argent): for those who were cited at the division level. Silver gilt star (étoile vermeil): for those who were cited at the corps level. Bronze palm (palme de bronze): for those who were cited at the army level. Silver palm (palme d'argent): could be worn in lieu of five bronze palms. Award Ribbons Notable French recipients (partial list) General Charles de Gaulle (1 citation) Fighter ace lieutenant Charles Nungesser (30 citations) Fighter ace captain Georges Guynemer (26 citations) General Edgard de Larminat (4 citations) General Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert (7 citations) Colonel Théophile Marie Brébant (4 citations) General Jean Vallette d'Osia (6 citations) General Raoul Salan (1 citation) Fighter ace colonel René Fonck (29 citations) General Marie-Pierre Kœnig (2 citations) General Raoul Magrin-Vernerey (11 citations) Fighter ace lieutenant-colonel Charles Nuville (10 citations) Fighter ace captain Georges Madon (10 citations) Marshal Joseph Joffre (1 citation) General Robert Nivelle (3 citations) Notable foreign recipients (partial list) Brigadier General John William Barker United States Fighter ace Air Marshal William Avery "Billy" Bishop Canada Field Marshal Petar Bojović Kingdom of Serbia Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton United States Lieutenant Stanley Bruce Australia Major General Charles Budworth United Kingdom Corporal Eugene Bullard, French Air Force United States Fighter ace Captain Vernon Castle United Kingdom Carrier Pigeon Cher Ami, Lost Battalion (World War I) United States Fighter ace Air Vice Marshal Raymond Collishaw Canada General Sir Arthur William Currie Canada Fighter ace Major Roderic Dallas Australia Private Herman Davis United States Brigadier General Edward Terence Donnelly United States Brigadier General Lucius Loyd Durfee United States Field Marshal John French, 1st Earl of Ypres United Kingdom Director General Stephen Galatti, American Field Service United States Lieutenant William F. Howe United States Brigadier General Evan M. Johnson United States Sergeant Henry Johnson United States Sergeant George Lawson Keene United States Fighter ace Captain Robert A. Little United Kingdom General Douglas MacArthur United States Lieutenant Giuseppe Franchi Maggi, Royal Italian Army Italy General George C. Marshall United States Fighter ace Major James McCudden United Kingdom Corporal Harry Miner Canada Field Marshal Živojin Mišić Kingdom of Serbia Lieutenant Colonel "Mad" Harry Murray Australia Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Rodney Park New Zealand General George S. Patton United States Sergeant John Ranner 282nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery United Kingdom Captain Eddie Rickenbacker United States Private Needham Roberts United States Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt United States General Sir Archibald Paris United Kingdom Philanthropist Julia Hunt Catlin Park DePew Taufflieb United States Lieutenant Stephen W. Thompson, Lafayette Escadrille United States Sergeant First Class Wilson H Williams (Red) 227th Aero Squadron Toul Sector United States Sergeant Alvin C. York United States Sergeant Milunka Savić Serbia French recipient units (partial list) 1st Infantry Regiment 54th Infantry Regiment 126th Infantry Regiment 2nd Battalions of Light Infantry of Africa 1st Cuirassier Regiment 12th Cuirassier Regiment 6th Dragoon Regiment 9th Hussar Regiment 1st Artillery Regiment 2nd Dragoon Regiment 1st Moroccan Division French battleship Bouvet French battleship Gaulois French submarine Bernouilli Lafayette Escadrille France United States Allied recipient units (partial list) Portuguese Expeditionary Corps 15th Infantry Battalion Portugal Russian Expeditionary Force Russian Legion Battalion Russia The Black Watch United Kingdom Devonshire Regiment United Kingdom 5th Battery R.F.A. United Kingdom 2nd Motorized Field Ambulance United Kingdom 24th Field Ambulance United Kingdom 5th Field Artillery Regiment United States 2nd Infantry Division United States 15th Field Artillery Regiment United States 3rd Infantry Division United States 4th Infantry Division United States 16th Infantry Division United States 26th Infantry Division United States 32nd Infantry Division United States 119th Field Artillery Regiment United States 93rd Infantry Division United States 39th Infantry Regiment United States 39th Infantry Division United States 104th Infantry Regiment United States 369th Infantry Regiment United States 370th Infantry Regiment United States 5th Marine Regiment United States 6th Marine Regiment United States Recipient cities (partial list) Reims Paris Dinant Belgium Montdidier Calais Épernay Lille Nancy Amiens See also Ribbons of the French military and civil awards Croix de guerre 1939–1945 Croix de guerre des théâtres d'opérations extérieures Croix de Guerre (Belgium) References External links France Phaléristique (in French) Museum of the Legion of Honour (in French)

Albert_Bartholom%C3%A9

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bartholom%C3%A9

Paul-Albert Bartholomé was a French painter and sculptor. He was born on 29 August 1848 in Thiverval-Grignon, Yvelines, France, and died in 1928 in Paris. He won the Grand Prize for sculpture at the Exposition Universelle in 1900. He exhibited paintings at the Salon from 1879 to 1886, but thereafter devoted his work to sculpture. Biography He studied law and fought in the Franco-Prussian War in General Bourbaki's army and became a prisoner in Switzerland. In due course he attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he studied painting under Barthélemy Menn and Jean-Léon Gérôme. He then set himself up in a studio in Paris and became a close friend of Edgar Degas. He married the daughter of a marquis, Prospérie de Fleury, but she died at a young age in 1887. Much encouraged by Degas he decided to try his hand at sculpture and executed the moving sculpture which marked his wife's grave in Crépy-en-Valois. He now concentrated exclusively on sculpture and from 1891 onwards he exhibited each year at the yearly Salon of the Société nationale des Beaux-arts. Funerary sculpture was very much in vogue in France at that time and much of Bartholomé's is death related and his masterpiece is the monument in Père Lachaise Cemetery dedicated to all the dead. He was to work on this for ten years and the inauguration took place in 1899. The "Monument the Dead" is disturbing and involves twenty-one larger-than-life-size figures all showing different emotions and reactions to death. There is little sentiment in this composition which is uncompromising, secular and human, although there is an inference that a "light" will defeat the darkness, with the inscription: "Upon those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned". As a painter he was said to be influenced by Jules Bastien-Lepage. Main works Images of the Père-Lachaise – Monument aux morts Main works (continued) Note In 1924 Bartholome executed a monument to Victorien Sardou which was erected by a public fountain in the Place de la Madeleine. In bronze the sculpture depicted a seated Sardou and behind him were allegories of comedy and drama. In 1941 the Germans had the monument dismantled so that the bronze could be melted down and reused. Gallery of images See also War memorials (Aisne)- See Soissons entry War memorials (Oise)-See entry on Monument aux Morts at Crépy-en-Valois In the Conservatory (Bartholomé) References External links Media related to Albert Bartholomé at Wikimedia Commons Albert Bartholomé in Artcyclopedia Albert Bartholomé in American public collections, on the French Sculpture Census website

Chris_Columbus_(filmmaker)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Columbus_(filmmaker)

Chris Joseph Columbus (born September 10, 1958) is an American filmmaker. Born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, Columbus studied film at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where he developed an interest in filmmaking. After writing screenplays for several teen comedies in the mid-1980s, including Gremlins, The Goonies, and Young Sherlock Holmes, he made his directorial debut with a teen adventure, Adventures in Babysitting (1987). Columbus gained recognition soon after with the highly successful Christmas comedy Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). The comedy Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), starring Robin Williams, was another box office success for Columbus. He went on to direct several other films throughout the 1990s, which were mostly met with lukewarm reception. However, he found commercial success again for directing the film adaptations of J. K. Rowling's novels, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and its sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). In addition to directing, Columbus was a producer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), and the drama The Help (2011). He also directed the fantasy Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) and the 3D action comedy Pixels (2015). Columbus is the co-founder of 1492 Pictures, a film production company that has produced some of his films since 1995. More recently, he co-founded another production firm with his daughter in 2014, called Maiden Voyage Pictures. In 2017, he launched ZAG Animation Studios, alongside Michael Barnathan, Haim Saban, and Jeremy Zag. Columbus is also known for his collaboration with composer John Williams, with whom he had worked on the film Home Alone and the film series Harry Potter. Early life Columbus was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, the only child born to Mary Irene (née Puskar), a factory worker, and Alex Michael Columbus, an aluminum plant worker and coal miner. He is of Italian and Czech descent. As a child, he enjoyed drawing storyboards, Marvel Comics and began making 8mm films in high school. After graduating from John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio, he went on to study at New York University's film school at the Tisch School of the Arts, where he was a schoolmate of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and Alec Baldwin. Although he received a scholarship, he forgot to renew it and was forced to take a factory job to pay for schooling. While on shifts, he secretly worked on a 20-page screenplay, which one of his teachers would later use to help him get an agent. Columbus now states that the experience "saved my life" and he was able to acknowledge "the terrifying reality I faced of having to live and work in that factory for the rest of my life in that town if I didn't make it". In 1980, while at NYU, Columbus directed a short film entitled I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here that was later noticed by Steven Spielberg. I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014. Film career 1984–1990: Early success Columbus' professional career began in the early 1980s, as a writer for the screenplay of Reckless (1984). Columbus later said, "it wasn't my best work. I intended it to be semi-biographical ... and the film was based on my attempts to break free. But the director turned it into a clumsy teen sex drama and the experience was so degrading." Dissatisfied, Columbus conceived a new screenplay whilst living in an apartment loft, a comedy-horror titled Gremlins (1984). In late 1981, he eventually received a phone call from Steven Spielberg, who expressed an interest buying the script. Upon release, the film was a critical success. Columbus then moved to Los Angeles to work for Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, writing more scripts including The Goonies and Young Sherlock Holmes (both 1985). After staying in Los Angeles for two years, he said, "There's an unreality to the place, a lack of connection with real people." He decided to move back to New York City. He wrote episodes for the animated series Galaxy High (1986) and received screenwriting credit for Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989). Columbus then started his directing career with the teen comedy Adventures in Babysitting (1987). The film received mixed reviews from critics and was regarded as a "mediocre debut". Next, he wrote and directed Heartbreak Hotel (1988) which is a story about Elvis Presley being kidnapped and finding himself offering counsel and help to a small-town family. The film was a commercial failure at the box office and it also received mixed-to-negative reviews. In the late 1980s, fellow filmmaker John Hughes approached Columbus to direct Home Alone (1990), a comedy film written by Hughes, where eight-year-old Kevin McCallister must defend his home from two burglars. Columbus had left National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation before shooting started, because of a personality clash with actor Chevy Chase, who Columbus said treated him "like dirt". Columbus particularly enjoyed the Christmas theme of the Home Alone script and quickly accepted the offer. Subsequently, Columbus hired Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, and Catherine O'Hara as the principal cast. Filming took four months between February and May 1990 and the film was released to theaters on November 16, 1990, to commercial success. Home Alone grossed $285 million in North America and $190 million elsewhere for a worldwide $476.7 million, against a budget of $18 million. Nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, the film served as Culkin's breakthrough role. Dave Kehr of Chicago Tribune praised Hughes for writing recognizable characters, and Columbus for direction with "wit and warmth". Home Alone has since been regarded as a "classic" to watch during the holiday season. 1991–2000: Comedies and romances In 1991, Columbus wrote and directed the romantic comedy-drama Only the Lonely (1991), with John Hughes serving as co-producer. Starring John Candy, Maureen O'Hara, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Quinn, the film depicts a Chicago policeman who must balance his loyalty between his mother and a shy funeral home employee, a loose adaptation of Marty. The film managed to garner some favourable reviews despite performing tepidly at the box office. In 1992, Columbus returned to direct the sequel to the first film, titled Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Featuring the same principal cast of its predecessor, the plot takes place one year after the events of the first film. The film follows Kevin McCallister as he accidentally boards the wrong flight to New York City and finds himself confronted by the two same burglars in the first film. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was released on November 20, 1992, to mixed reviews, but strong box office results, grossing $359 million worldwide. Janet Maslin for The New York Times wrote that "Home Alone 2 may be lazily conceived, but it is staged with a sense of occasion and a lot of holiday cheer. The return of Mr. Culkin in this role is irresistible, even if this utterly natural comic actor has been given little new to do. Mr. Pesci and Mr. Stern bring great gusto to their characters' stupidity". Columbus' next directorial feature was Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), an adaptation of Anne Fine's novel Alias Madame Doubtfire about an unemployed father who disguises himself as a nanny so he can spend time with his children. Starring Robin Williams, Sally Field and Pierce Brosnan, Williams was given creative freedom to improvise his lines, provoking amusement to all of the cast and crew. The film was released by 20th Century Fox in November 1993 to mixed and positive reception. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 72%, praising Williams. Roger Ebert calls Williams "a mercurial talent who loves to dart in and out of many different characters and voices", but thought Mrs. Doubtfire "has the values and depth of a sitcom". However, the film performed well at the box office, earning $441.3 million worldwide. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Makeup, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Picture. In 1995, Columbus co-founded his own production company, 1492 Pictures, named after the year that Christopher Columbus reached the Americas; a pun on his own name. He then wrote and directed another film, a remake of the French film Neuf mois titled Nine Months (1995), which was produced by 1492 Pictures. A romantic comedy, Nine Months starred Hugh Grant, Julianne Moore, Tom Arnold, Joan Cusack, Jeff Goldblum, and Robin Williams. The story centers on a man who finds out that his longtime girlfriend is pregnant and has to change his lifestyle. Although the film was criticized for being "mismanaged", it was a commercial success, grossing $138.5 million at the box office. Columbus followed up on this effort with Stepmom (1998), a comedy-drama starring Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, and Ed Harris. Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan praises Roberts and Harris' performances despite the script having a "tiny handful of honest moments". With an estimated budget of $50 million, the film grossed a healthy $159.7 million worldwide. Sarandon also earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. Columbus reunited with Robin Williams for his next project, 1999's Bicentennial Man. Based on the novel The Positronic Man, by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg, the film tells the story of a robot who becomes human-like and acquires emotions. The supporting cast included Sam Neill, Embeth Davidtz, Wendy Crewson, and Oliver Platt. The film was released on December 17, 1999, and was a commercial failure, grossing $87.4 million from a budget of $100 million. Critical response to the film were mixed, with Ben Falk of the BBC describing it as "the worst kind of movie – one with no direction, no identity, and above all no heart". Peter Stack of San Francisco Chronicle opined of the film, "It's a bit strange, and strained. More syrupy melodrama than comedy [...] doesn't have much of the usual Williams manic antics", but compliments the computer-generated imagery. Bicentennial Man was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Makeup at the 72nd Academy Awards. 2001–2010: Harry Potter and other film series After reading J. K. Rowling's 1997 fantasy novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Columbus expressed a strong desire to direct the film adaptation. In 2000, he convinced Warner Bros. to select him as director for it. The film is the first installment of the Harry Potter film series and was written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman. The story follows Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and his self-discovery as a famous wizard. Columbus relocated to the United Kingdom with his family to focus on directing. Columbus said the casting process was "very intense", but Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson were eventually picked for the lead roles. Filming began on September 29, 2000, and lasted for 180 days. The film premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on November 4, 2001, to critical and commercial success, grossing $975.1 million worldwide. The film was praised for its sets, costumes, casting, musical score, cinematography and special effects. In addition, it was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Original Score, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. In 2002, Columbus returned to direct the second installment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), based on Rowling's second novel. Featuring much of the same cast from the first film, the story follows Harry Potter's second year at the school when a chamber is opened unleashing a monster. Producer David Heyman said, "Fortunately, we benefited from the experience of the first film ... [the cast] have maintained their enthusiasm, sense of wonder". Columbus also opted to use more handheld cameras for freedom of movement. The film was released to theaters on November 15, 2002. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets shared similar critical acclaim to the first film, and grossed $879 million worldwide. A. O. Scott of The New York Times observed that the film was long but praised it for the special effects and "thrilling" sequences. At the 2003 BAFTA Awards, the film garnered nominations for Best Production Design, Best Sound, and Best Special Visual Effects. In 2004, Columbus wrote and produced Christmas with the Kranks, a Christmas comedy based on the 2001 novel Skipping Christmas by John Grisham; the film was a box office success but received mostly negative reviews. In the same year, Columbus returned for the third installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Physically exhausted from the first two films, he decided not to direct but serve as producer alongside Heyman and director Alfonso Cuarón. The film premiered on May 31, 2004, in the United Kingdom to strong critical praise and earned $796.9 million worldwide. After returning to the United States in 2005, Columbus intended to produce a superhero film, Fantastic Four, but due to disagreements with director Tim Story, he was fired. Next, he directed 2005's Rent, a musical drama adapted from the 1996 Broadway musical of the same name. The film, starring six of the original Broadway cast members, depicts the lives of several Bohemians and their struggles living in East Village of New York City from 1989 to 1990. The film had mixed reviews and a poor box office performance. In 2006, Columbus served as a producer for Night at the Museum, a fantasy film based on the 1993 children's book of the same name by illustrator Milan Trenc, and is the first installment in the Night at the Museum series. The film stars Ben Stiller as Larry Daley, a father who applies for a job at the American Museum of Natural History and subsequently discovers that the exhibits come to life at night. Next, he served as an executive producer for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), a sequel to the first film which was also a commercial success. In 2009, he produced Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, the second installment of the series. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a box office success, earning $413.1 million worldwide. That same year, he directed I Love You, Beth Cooper, a comedy starring Hayden Panettiere and Paul Rust, based on a novel by Larry Doyle. The film was released in July 2009 to negative reviews; Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that Columbus "flattens every joke and sucks the life out of the actors", adding it is "super bad". Despite this setback, Columbus was hired by 20th Century Fox to direct Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), which he also produced. The film is the first installment in the Percy Jackson series and is based on fantasy Greek mythology: the 2005 novel The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Starring an ensemble led by Logan Lerman, the film received mixed reviews (and was panned by fans of the original series) but found box office success upon its release in February. The film grossed $226.4 million worldwide. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times described it as "unadventurous and uninteresting" and criticized screenwriter Craig Titley for changing the original story. The Toronto Star's Linda Barnard praised Columbus' ability to "woo a young audience" but thought the film lacked Harry Potter charm. 2011–present: Focus as a producer and Pixels As early as 2009, Variety magazine reported that Columbus, Michael Barnathan, and Mark Radcliffe were working on a film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help. Released in 2011, the film of the same name was directed by Tate Taylor with Columbus serving as producer. The film and novel recount the story of a young white aspiring journalist, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, and her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, during the Civil Rights Movement. The film received critical and commercial success, earning $216.6 million worldwide. Roger Ebert described it as "involving and wonderfully acted", and Amy Biancolli of the San Francisco Chronicle called it "a film that makes us root for the good guys, hiss at the bad and convulse in laughter when good wreaks vengeance with a smile". At the 84th Academy Awards, Octavia Spencer won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role. The film also received three other nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. The film won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.In 2013, Columbus co-authored the House of Secrets book series with Ned Vizzini. Shortly, Columbus returned to the Percy Jackson series, as an executive producer for the sequel titled Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Directed by Thor Freudenthal, and starring much of the cast from the previous installment, the film grossed $200.9 million worldwide. However, it received a divided critical reaction. Columbus next produced Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, the final installment in the Night at the Museum series. Released in December 2014, the film was a financial success, grossing $363.2 million at the box office. It was also Robin Williams' final film appearance before his death. In 2014, Columbus cofounded production company Maiden Voyage Pictures with his daughter, Eleanor. He also co-founded an animation studio called ZAG Animation Studios with Saban Capital Group and ZAG Entertainment. Columbus directed the science fiction comedy Pixels (2015). He first learned about the project from Adam Sandler; Columbus said "he gave me the Pixels script after we hit it off. My daughter read it and said, 'You have to read this movie. It's completely fun and unexpected'". The film is based on Patrick Jean's 2010 short film of the same name, which depicts aliens who attack the Earth in the form of arcade video games. Principal photography took three months in Toronto, after which computer-generated imagery and visual effects were then applied. Starring Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad and Brian Cox, Pixels was met with mixed reviews but earned $244.9 million at the box office. Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle said the film is "flat-footed and grows tedious after the first hour" but praised the 3D effects which "enhances the action". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film one star out of four, calling it "a 3D metaphor for Hollywood's digital assault on our eyes and brains [...] relentless and exhausting". Also in 2015, Columbus served as a producer for three films: supernatural horror The Witch, Italian drama Mediterranea, and a comedy titled It Had to Be You. During 2016, Columbus produced small-scale and independent features. First, The Young Messiah, a fictional story of a seven-year-old Jesus who tries to discover the truth about his life when he returns to Nazareth from Egypt. Second, Tallulah, a comedy drama starring Elliot Page, Allison Janney, and Tammy Blanchard; the film is about a young woman who takes a baby from its negligent mother and pretends the child is her own. Tallulah premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2016 and was released on Netflix on July 29, 2016. In 2017, Columbus served as an executive producer for Menashe, and a producer for Patti Cake$ and I Kill Giants. Columbus also produced The Christmas Chronicles (2018), a family film directed by Clay Kaytis. In 2018, Columbus was announced as director of a Five Nights at Freddy's film adaptation, but he backed out of the project by September 2021. In 2019, Columbus joined the producers of The Lighthouse, a film directed by Robert Eggers and starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as two lighthouse keepers who lose their sanity. In 2018 it was announced that Columbus would serve as an executive producer for Scoob!, an animated adventure film featuring characters from the Scooby-Doo franchise; it was released on May 15, 2020. He has also directed The Christmas Chronicles 2, a sequel to the film he had co-produced. Upcoming projects Columbus has been attached as a director to a Hello Ghost remake, announced in 2011. In 2017, Columbus said he had written a script for Gremlins 3. On April 18, 2024, it was announced Columbus would direct a film adaptation of the Richard Osman novel The Thursday Murder Club for Amblin Partners. Filmmaking style Columbus's films are often grounded in stories about unconventional and dysfunctional families, and explore characters who lose their loved ones. He is regarded as a "sentimental" filmmaker due to his exploration of contemporary domesticity. "One of the themes I've always been fascinated by is a character facing the potential of losing their family and what that means," Columbus said in 2017. Columbus is also known for creating "emotionally vivid scenes", and admits that he is drawn to extreme emotions. Burhan Wazir of The Guardian states that Columbus prefers characters that are the "everyday American men, women, and children who struggle to uphold family traditions against a changing, sometimes intimidating society". In 1993, Columbus said: "I can understand the validity of showing people the ugliness of the world, but I also think there is a place for movies to leave people with a sense of hope. If your film isn't going to do that, I just don't think it's worth making". Culture website The Take opined that Columbus excels in creating heartwarming family films with untrained child actors, but found box office success without an "incredibly distinct cinematic style" to his work. Personal life Columbus married choreographer Monica Devereux in 1983. The couple have four children. His daughter Eleanor had a non-speaking role as Susan Bones in the first two Harry Potter films. The family resides in San Francisco. Columbus endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election. He is also a partner at Ocean Blue Entertainment, a creative content company focused on film production. He is of no relation to Christopher Columbus. Filmography Critical reception Below are the average ratings of Columbus's films provided by two review aggregator websites: See also Chris Columbus's unrealized projects References External links Chris Columbus at IMDb BBC Movies article about Chris Columbus Chris Columbus biography from The New York Times

Adventures_in_Babysitting

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

Adventures in Babysitting (also known as A Night on the Town in certain countries) is a 1987 American teen comedy film written by David Simkins and directed by Chris Columbus in his directorial debut. It stars Elisabeth Shue, Keith Coogan, Anthony Rapp, and Maia Brewton, and features cameos by blues singer/guitarist Albert Collins and singer-songwriter Southside Johnny Lyon. Plot After her boyfriend Mike Todwell cancels their anniversary date, 17-year-old Chris Parker invites her friend Brenda over to her Oak Park, Illinois, house to cheer her up, but is convinced by her mother to babysit their neighbors' daughter, eight-year-old Sara Anderson, who idolizes the Marvel Comics hero Thor, while the parents attend a party in downtown Chicago. Sara's 15-year-old brother Brad is supposed to spend the night at his friend Daryl Coopersmith's house, but he changes his mind when he discovers that Chris, whom he has a crush on, is babysitting his younger sister. After receiving a frantic phone call from Brenda, who ran away to a downtown bus station, Chris plans to go alone to pick her up, but is coerced by Brad, Sara, and Daryl to take them with her. On the freeway, their station wagon suffers a flat tire and they are picked up by a tow truck driver, "Handsome" John Pruitt, who offers to pay for the tire when Chris realizes she left her purse at the Andersons'. En route, Pruitt receives a call from his boss Dawson with evidence that his wife is cheating on him, and he rushes to his house to confront the infidelity; Chris' mother's car is damaged when Pruitt accidentally shoots out the windshield while aiming to kill his wife's lover with his snubnosed revolver. Chris and the kids hide in the adulterer's Cadillac, which is then stolen by a car thief named Joe Gipp. Reaching their hideout in the South Side, the kids realize they have stumbled upon a large multi-state stolen car operation, and Joe is chided by Graydon, the operation's second-in-command, for bringing witnesses. They are detained in an upstairs office but escape. They enter a blues club where the band on stage refuses to let them leave until they perform a blues number. The group spontaneously recounts their events while accompanied on instrument by Albert Collins, causing the audience to sing along and happily applaud. They leave just as Joe, Graydon, and their boss Bleak arrive in the club, whose owners stall them. Brad tells Chris about his feelings toward her, and is disappointed to learn he is too young for her. After separating Daryl from a streetwalker who is a runaway, Chris is reminded of Brenda. They are found and chased again by Graydon and Bleak but escape on the Chicago "L" train and wind up in the middle of a gang fight. Brad is injured when one of the gang leaders throws a switchblade onto his foot. They take Brad to the university hospital, where he receives a stitch. They run into Pruitt, who is now on the run from his earlier attacks; he tells the kids he replaced the windshield, but Dawson wants $50 for the tire. The kids come across a fraternity house party, and Chris becomes attracted to Dan Lynch, a gentleman who learns of Chris' problem and donates $45. He takes them to Dawson's Garage and drops them off. When they find Dawson, his blond hair and sledgehammer lead Sara to believe he is Thor. He denies them their car because of the $5 shortage, but when Sara offers him her toy Thor helmet, he changes his mind and lets them go. Meanwhile, Joe Gipp tells Bleak about their troubles, and the three are waiting to follow them. The kids find the restaurant where Mike was supposed to take Chris and discover he is with another girl. Sara slips away to look at a toy store while Chris confronts Mike. Brad stands up for Chris, but is reluctant to hit Mike, so Daryl kicks Mike into a table, ruining his dinner and causing a commotion. Bleak spots Sara, and Graydon chases her to an office building where she hides; the others note her disappearance and follow, accidentally coming across the Andersons' party. After Sara climbs out an open window and slides down the building, Chris spots her and they run upstairs to help. After the group pulls Sara from outside the window, Bleak intervenes on them. Joe knocks his boss unconscious, before giving him a Playboy magazine that Daryl had stolen, which contained important notes that the criminals wanted. The kids retrieve Brenda from the bus station and rush home, narrowly avoiding the Andersons on Interstate 290. Once home, Chris cleans up the mess left earlier, settling into place just as the Andersons enter. As Chris says goodnight to the kids, Brad tells her he understands about her not feeling the same way he did about her and tells her that if they see each other at school the next day, it is okay if she ignores him. However, Chris smiles and tells him she does not ignore her friends. Just as Chris is leaving, Dan arrives with one of Sara's missing skates. He says he needs a babysitter and is disappointed when Chris says she is retired; he confesses the babysitter was for him. Chris decides that retirement can wait and gladly agrees to babysit Dan. With Sara's encouragement, Chris and Dan kiss outside as Brad closes the blinds. In a post-credits scene, Graydon is shown standing on the ledge, still trying to find his way to safety. Cast Production For his directorial debut, Columbus said he reviewed 100 scripts. He chose Adventures in Babysitting because he felt comfortable with its scale. Paramount Pictures had a right of first refusal but demanded Molly Ringwald be cast in the lead. Touchstone Pictures agreed to make the film after The Walt Disney Company received $300 million in financing from Silver Screen Partners. Over 150 actresses auditioned for the lead role in Dallas, Florida, New York City, Toronto, Chicago, and Los Angeles, including Valerie Bertinelli. Columbus cast Elisabeth Shue, who was a student at Harvard University at the time. Principal photography began in Toronto on January 5, 1987. Many of the scenes shot there doubled for the film's setting of Chicago. Production designer Todd Hallowell simulated Chicago streets by adding trash, and reconstructed two stories of the Associates Center skyscraper in the city for the film's iconic shot of the characters dangling out of it. However, there would also be some location shots in Chicago at landmarks such as the Chicago "L", Fitzgerald's Nightclub, Lower Wacker Drive, the Chicago Expressway, Wolf Point. Some special effects shots also took place in Los Angeles. Ric Waite later confirmed that he shot the film using techniques similar to a drama rather than a comedy in order to highlight the film's unpredictable tone. Release The film earned $34.4 million in the United States, which the Los Angeles Times attributed to a new ad campaign. Home media Adventures in Babysitting was the first Walt Disney movie to have a PG-13 rating. The film has been released on VHS and Betamax, LaserDisc, DVD and Blu-ray formats. In the United States, it received a VHS release by Touchstone Home Video on July 14, 1988. It was released on DVD for the first time on January 18, 2000, by Touchstone Home Video. A 25th anniversary edition Blu-ray was released on August 7, 2012. Although it may still be referred to as A Night on the Town on television airings in the United Kingdom, the film was released on rental VHS in the UK under its original title. The VHS was re-released on October 21, 2002, in the United Kingdom by Cinema Club and it received a 15 certificate by the BBFC for strong language and sexual references. It was previously released in an edited PG certificate for family viewing. It was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on May 31, 2004, again uncut like the 15 certificate VHS. It has since been reduced to a 12 certificate. The PG version currently streams on Disney+, where a notice advises it has been edited for content, primarily removing strong and offensive language. Soundtrack album In 2015, Intrada Records released an album from the film, featuring the score by Michael Kamen, including unused music and several of the songs heard in the film. It features "Then He Kissed Me" by the Crystals, "Babysitting Blues" by Albert Collins, "Twenty-Five Miles" by Edwin Starr, and "Just Can't Stop" by Percy Sledge. "Babysitting Blues" song In a 2021 interview in New York Magazine, Elisabeth Shue said performing the "iconic Babysitting Blues song," written by pop songwriter Mark Mueller and Robert Kraft, was one of her "favorite experiences of all time." Reception On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 72% based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 6.60 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "Sweet and spry, Adventures in Babysitting gets by on its amiable tone." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave Adventures in Babysitting two-and-a-half out of four stars. He cited the blues club sequence as the movie's best scene, but criticized the film for not doing more with its black characters. He said the movie had "good raw material," but too many "unrealized possibilities." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune rated the film three out of four stars, calling it "a genial, warm-hearted romp." He praised the performances of the young cast and called Elisabeth Shue "earnestly appealing," but criticized the movie for a lack of "social awareness." Both critics compared the film to Risky Business and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Unsold television pilot The film was adapted into an unsold television pilot of the same name for CBS in 1989. The pilot was broadcast on Friday night, July 7 in the 8 p.m. timeslot. It starred Jennifer Guthrie (who would later co-star on Parker Lewis Can't Lose with Maia Brewton) as Chris, Joey Lawrence as Brad, Courtney Peldon as Sara, Brian Austin Green as Daryl, and Ariana Mohit as Brenda. The pilot garnered CBS a 6.9 rating. Cast Remake Disney reportedly planned a remake for release in 2010. Raven-Symoné was to star in the remake, tentatively titled Further Adventures in Babysitting, but withdrew due to other projects. Miley Cyrus was also rumored to be attached to the project, but later denied involvement. According to Variety, Tiffany Paulsen was writing the script. It was presumed that the remake was scrapped due to years of inactivity. However, on January 9, 2015, Disney Channel announced that the remake would go forward, with Sabrina Carpenter and Sofia Carson starring as competing babysitters. The film premiered on Disney Channel in the United States and Canada on June 24, 2016. References External links Adventures in Babysitting at IMDb Adventures in Babysitting at IMDb (unsold TV pilot) Adventures in Babysitting at AllMovie

The_Last_Leg

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

The Last Leg (known during its first series as The Last Leg with Adam Hills and in Australia as Adam Hills: The Last Leg) is a British late-night television humorous talk/sketch show that originally ran alongside the 2012 Summer Paralympics every night following the main coverage on Channel 4. Anchored by Australian comedian Adam Hills and co-hosted by Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker, it gives a review of the week's events. Featuring a mix of comedy, guests and Paralympics highlights, the show received strong reviews and regularly pulled in more than a million viewers each night of the Paralympic Games. It has since become a weekly show giving a humorous alternative look back at the week's events. Outside of the UK, the show is broadcast in Hills' native Australia by the ABC, albeit delayed until the Tuesday of the next week and with a different theme tune. Format Overview The Last Leg is described by main presenter Adam Hills as "Three guys with four legs talking about the week", because Hills was born without a right foot and Brooker had his right leg amputated when he was a baby. The original series, broadcast during the 2012 Paralympics, was a look back at each day's events during the competition, as well as a look at the news that week. Following on from the Paralympics, the series became weekly, and looks at political and other events in the news that week, as well as covering Paralympic matters. The show features guest interviews with Paralympians and celebrities. Originally it was intended to be broadcast on More4 at midnight and was intended to feature Hills alone, hence the original title. However, after a run-through, Channel 4 saw more potential and put the show on at 10 pm every day. During the pilot, which saw Hills alone as presenter and Widdicombe and Brooker merely as guests, producers decided to keep Brooker and Widdicombe as recurring co-presenters. The series is broadcast live and encourages interaction with the viewers at home, holding polls via Twitter using hashtags. A recurring theme in the show is the use of the hashtag #isitok to highlight questions from Twitter users to be asked in the show. Initially it was for asking questions about disability that people felt awkward asking: the broadening of the show's remit is reflected in the questions asked in this stream. The show originally was broadcast from the Riverside Studios in London. It would later move to the ITV London Studios on London's South Bank. From Series 14 it is now made in Studio TC1 at the BBC Studios in Television Centre, West London, which is operated and run by BBC Studioworks, though some 2020 episodes were made at Elstree Studios. In late April 2020 it was announced that The Last Leg would be "Locked Down Under" during the coronavirus lockdown. Hills, Widdicombe and Brooker would be hosting the show from their homes in Melbourne, London and Huddersfield taking social distancing to the extreme and looking at the week's news in a comedic manner. Guests including Miriam Margolyes and Stephen Merchant were featured using video relay, and each episode ended with a song from The Horne Section. The show ran for five episodes from 8 May until 5 June and is available on All 4 after broadcast. The show is currently playing at Television Centre, London. The latest series aired in 2024. Recurring segments Recurring segments in the show include rants or attacks by Hills on certain people and organisations, which has since resulted in the coining of Hills' catchphrase: "Don't be a dick!" Another segment is "The Last 7 Days", in which Widdicombe looks at more comic news items that have occurred during the week, and Brooker's various attempts to qualify for the 2016 Summer Paralympics. Another is the "Bullshit Button", which was first used in a segment in which Brooker interviewed the then-Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg to see if Clegg could persuade him to vote in the 2015 UK general election. Brooker would press a large red buzzer that played an audio recording of him saying the word "Bullshit" if he thought Clegg was lying during the interviews. Since then, the buzzer has been used in various situations whenever the show thinks someone is lying, and additional buzzers during various seasons have been added including phrases like "A shite in shining armor" by Armando Ianucci and "Fuck off" by Brian Cox. Dick of the Year Since January 2014, The Last Leg has presented a mock prize to the "Dick of the Year", awarded for being the biggest dick over the previous year. Nominees are suggested by viewers on Twitter, as well as the hosts. The winner is voted on by the viewers using Twitter with the hashtag #dickoftheyear. In January 2015, journalist Katie Hopkins received the most votes for 2014's "Dick of the Year" but Hills and the team making the show decided not to give Hopkins the prize on the grounds that she would enjoy receiving it. Thus, the prize went to the person with the second-highest number of votes, UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage. In the 2016 Christmas special, the prize was awarded to whole of the year 2016, defeating Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and David Cameron. In 2017, it was announced that the people who have come second and third in the "Dick of the Year" voting will be named "Ballbags of the Year". The "Steaming Turd" award was also created for Harvey Weinstein, who was ruled out of running for the main award on the grounds that it was possible that Weinstein may take "Dick of the Year" as a compliment. In 2019, comedy writer Graham Linehan was the runaway favourite nominee by viewers to be given the award, in light of controversial comments he had made on social media about transgender people. After Linehan expressed interest in winning the award, Hills and the team disqualified him from receiving the award under the precedent set by Hopkins in 2014. Another poll by the show also announced David Cameron as "Dick of the Decade". In 2023 it was decided that multiple time nominee Vladimir Putin would be made a lifetime recipient. In collaboration with YouTubers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners, The Last Leg presented Suella Braverman with her Dick of the Year 2023 award in person by inviting Braverman to a fake boat launch in her constituency. Theme music The theme music is Public Enemy's "Harder Than You Think", which became the show's permanent theme after initially serving as the title music to the whole of Channel 4's 2012 Summer Paralympics coverage. Episodes The first and ninth series were broadcast daily at the end of the day's Paralympics coverage on Channel 4. The second series was broadcast each Friday, with the show moving to Wednesday nights for its third series, before reverting to Friday nights for the fourth and fifth series. In October 2012 it was announced that the show would return for a Christmas special titled The Last Leg of the Year and a second series, which began broadcasting in January 2013. A third and fourth series followed in July 2013 and January 2014 (timed around the 2014 Winter Paralympics) respectively. A fifth series started broadcasting in August 2014, followed by a sixth series in January 2015 and a seventh in June 2015. After the seventh series, a special 2-part series entitled The Last Leg Goes Down Under was broadcast on 29 January and 5 February 2016, and preceded the start of series 8 on 12 February. Starting from series 8, the show was given a brand new set. On 25 March 2016, in a parody of the Boaty McBoatface internet poll controversy, the show released the #renametheLastLeg hashtag on Twitter live on the set to allow viewers to choose a new name for the show. The show brought the number of choices down to the four most popular ones and then they released a Twitter poll to change the name of the programme for next week's final episode of the series. The poll received a total of 3,731 votes with the highest scoring programme name being "Your Mum" with a 30% vote. The last episode of the series aired on 1 April 2016 and was called Your Mum. During one 2016 Summer Paralympics episode on 14 September 2016, host Adam Hills announced that the show was to be renamed again, this time in Paralympic athlete Libby Clegg's honour. The remainder of that show was called The Fast Clegg. The show aired a two-hour special entitled Re-United Kingdom dedicated to MP Jo Cox on 16 June 2017 (the anniversary of her death). Featuring dozens of comedians and politicians, the show aimed to inspire the public to resolve animosity between people they had fallen out with. Politicians appeared in pre-recorded skits where they were stuck in a lift with another politician they disliked, and found common ground; some members of the public who had resolved arguments with each other were shown in a hot tub together. Following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday 8 September 2022, it was announced that there would be no new episode that Friday. This was not due to any regulations, but was rather a choice made by those involved with the show, with Adam Hills breaking the news on Twitter: "It just doesn’t feel right". The show the next week was a tribute to Her Majesty, without the typical broad coverage of the week's news. Reception Adam Hills was quoted as saying "If the Paralympics is covered well, it can change the way Jim Davidson looks at and treats people with disabilities". The Daily Mirror described The Last Leg as "a real success". Veteran TV pundit, the late Clive James said: "Taken as a whole, the Channel 4 coverage of the Paralympics was very good, but almost the best part of it was The Last Leg, the discussion show at the end of each day". The programme provoked a discussion in the media about whether disability and comedy could work together on TV. The Independent described it as "a high risk venture" saying that Hills "reminds us frequently that he has a prosthetic leg, giving him licence to crack jokes that most of us wouldn't dream of." Frances Ryan, for The Guardian, described it as "often tasteless, sometimes awkward, always funny". Damon Rose for BBC News said that "Comedian Adam Hills' late night irreverent Para-chat show The Last Leg – a title reflecting Adam's lack of a segment of his lower limb – has taken mainstream viewers to dark and delightfully surprising places that only disability humour can go. And it has given a sense of permission for regular viewers to talk openly about things they may previously have shied away from". Brooker's 2015 interview with Nick Clegg for the programme was described by political journalist Hugo Rifkind as "a model of how to talk normally to a politician – and make them talk normally back". Awards and nominations Footnotes References External links The Last Leg at IMDb The Last Leg on Channel 4 The Last Leg at British Comedy Guide The Last Leg on Twitter

Harder_Than_You_Think

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

"Harder Than You Think" is the first single from Public Enemy's 20th anniversary album How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul? released in 2007. It was produced by Gary G-Wiz. The song attained popularity during late summer 2007, and became Public Enemy's highest-charting single on the UK Singles Chart in August 2012. The track borrows from Shirley Bassey's 1972 track "Jezahel", a cover of the song "Jesahel" by the Italian prog rock band Delirium. On November 25, 2023, the authors of ''Jesahel'' (Ivano Fossati and Oscar Prudente) together with Universal Music Group sued Public Enemy for plagiarism, since Fossati and Prudente are not recognized as co-authors of "Harder Than You Think" Music video The music video was directed by David C. Snyder, and was uploaded unofficially onto YouTube on August 3, 2007. Following the use of "Harder Than You Think" to soundtrack the UK's Channel 4 coverage of the Summer 2012 Paralympics, a music video including clips from the Channel 4 trailer for the Summer 2012 Paralympics was produced by HWIC Filmworks (founded by John Delserone and David C. Snyder, who directed the original video). A version of the video was also produced for the Dehasse Radio Edit, a dance version of the track remixed for the 2012 re-emergence of the track in the UK charts. Use in media The song was featured in Eric Koston's segment in the 2007 skateboarding video "Fully Flared". The song and its beat were used by ESPN for the 2011 Big East men's basketball tournament. The song is also featured on the soundtrack of the video game Skate 2. The song was later featured heavily in a Fall K-Mart ad as of September 2011. It is also one of the lead songs in the commercials for ESPN's broadcasting of the Winter X Games. The song featured prominently towards the end of the BBC Four 2011 documentary "Public Enemy: Prophets Of Rage" which was screened as the fourth episode of the channel's "Black Music Legends Of The 1980s" series. It also appeared in the trailer for the 2012 film Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap and was also the only track to feature on its soundtrack album which did not appear in the actual film. The song is also featured at the opening of the 2012 film End of Watch. In 2021 it's been used in the NBA commercial about Martin Luther King, Jr Day called "We Must Learn". It is also featured in The Redeem Team documentary film released by Netflix in 2022. The song is also featured in the 6th episode of Succession's fourth season as Kendall walks out to make a speech. In 2023, the song is featured again in the biographical film Gran Turismo during the film's final race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Paralympics In the United Kingdom, it was used as the soundtrack in both the 90-second long trailer and as the theme tune to Channel 4's coverage of the 2012 Summer Paralympics. The song subsequently experienced a surge in sales, peaking at number 4 and thereby becoming Public Enemy's first Top 10 single in the UK and their highest-charting single ever in the nation. A review for The Independent said of its re-release in the UK: "Following its prominent use in Channel 4's Paralympics coverage, great lost 2007 single 'Harder Than You Think' had a sales surge that carried it into the UK Top Five, giving the band their biggest hit to date. It'd be a thrilling piece of work in any era, Chuck delivering a typically apocalyptic call to arms over a backing track which uses a horn sample from Shirley Bassey's 'Jezahel', but to hear it blasting from the radio in the second decade of this century is beyond beautiful." The song also serves as the theme tune to the British TV show The Last Leg, which was originally a show that ran alongside the 2012 Paralympics, but later spun off as an independent show. The song was also used as the theme tune to Channel 4's coverage of the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia; the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and a re-recorded version was used the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing, China, and the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, France. Track listing 12" vinyl Side A "Harder Than You Think" (Clean Mix) "Harder Than You Think" (Instrumental) Side B "Amerikan Gangster" (Dirty Mix) "Amerikan Gangster" (Clean Mix) "Amerikan Gangster" (Instrumental) 2012 digital download "Harder Than You Think" (UK Radio Edit) - 3:10 Other versions "Harder Than You Think" (Album Version) - 4:10 "Harder Than You Think" (Remix) - 4:38 Harder Than You Think (Dehasse Radio Edit) - 3:18 Harder Than You Think (Dehasse Club Mix) - 5:59 Chart performance Certifications Release history References External links "Harder Than You Think" video Channel 4 90 second trailer for Summer 2012 Paralympics using "Harder Than You Think" "Harder Than You Think" video released following its use for the Paralympics "We Must Learn" video for 2021 NBA MLK Day celebration

Fully_Flared

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

Fully Flared is a street skateboarding video by the Lakai footwear company, featuring video parts from its team riders. The film is directed by Ty Evans, Spike Jonze, and Cory Weincheque. In 2007, it won "Best Video of the Year" at the Transworld Skateboarding Awards, while Guy Mariano won both the "Best Street" and "Best Video Part" awards at the same event. It was one of the first skateboarding videos to use high-definition cameras. The film has become a skateboarding culture icon as the apex of professional skateboarding. Introduction feature The introduction features the skateboarders performing tricks in a vacant urban space, consisting of obstacles, blocks, and stair sets, while explosions occur. Presented in slow motion, the introduction feature is accompanied by a soundtrack from electronic music group, M83. Originally, Evans, Jonze, and Howard played with different ideas that were significantly more dangerous than what was eventually featured. The introduction was eventually filmed three weeks prior to the premiere. Production Overall the film took about four years to make. Some team members have a considerable amount of leftover footage, and plan to use it for other videos. Most of the video was filmed with Sony DCR-VX1000 cameras. The Panasonic HVX200 (to which Ty Evans gained access, towards the end of filming) high-definition camera was used for second angles. Filming The main group filming was Aaron Meza and Chris Ray. In Europe, an Italian filmer named Federico Vitetta - who had been living with Oliver Barton in Spain for a year - took on the role. Then was conceptual help from Rick Howard and Spike Jonze. Finally, Johannes Gamble helped with all the effects work. Release The video's release was postponed for about two years, mainly due to important team additions. References External links Lakai.com - Lakai's official website Skatevideosite.com - Fully Flared soundtrack list

Frank_Lampard

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

Frank James Lampard (born 20 June 1978) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently caretaker manager of Premier League club Chelsea. He is widely regarded as one of Chelsea's greatest players ever, and one of the greatest midfielders of his generation. He has the record of the most goals by a midfielder in the Premier League and of scoring the most goals from outside the box (41). He ranked highly on a number of statistics for Premier League players for the ten years from 1 December 2000, including most games and most wins. A box-to-box midfielder, Lampard began his career in 1995 at West Ham United, the club where his father, Frank Lampard Sr., also played. He is best known for his time at London rivals Chelsea, for whom he signed in 2001 for £11 million. In his thirteen years with the club, Lampard established himself as a prolific scorer from midfield, becoming Chelsea's all-time leading goalscorer, with 211 goals scored in all competitions. Lampard won three Premier League titles, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, four FA Cups, and two League Cups. In 2005, he was named FWA Footballer of the Year, and finished runner-up for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year. After leaving Chelsea, Lampard played for league rivals Manchester City and Major League Soccer (MLS) club New York City FC before retiring in 2017. Lampard is one of 11 players, and the only midfielder, to have scored 150 or more goals in the Premier League. He is fourth in the Premier League's all-time assists ranking, with 102 assists. Lampard holds a number of additional Chelsea and Premier League records, and has won PFA Fans' Player of the Year and the FWA Tribute Award. During his career, he was named in the PFA Team of the Year three times, Premier League Player of the Month four times, Premier League Player of the Season once and finished as the Premier League's top assist provider three times, and was named in the FIFPro World XI and a MLS All-Star. After departing, Lampard was named in the Chelsea Team of the Decade as voted for by Chelsea fans, and into the Premier League Hall of Fame. Lampard played 106 matches for the England national team, after making his debut in 1999. He represented his country at three FIFA World Cups – in 2006, 2010 and 2014 – and in UEFA Euro 2004, where he was named in the Team of the Tournament. Lampard scored 29 goals for England, and was voted England Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005. After retiring from international football, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2015 for services to football. After retiring, Lampard served as a team captain on the ITV sport panel show Play to the Whistle from 2015 until 2017. He has also written a number of children's books. Lampard began his managerial career with Derby County in 2018, leading the club to the final of that season's Championship play-offs. He was appointed as Chelsea's head coach a year later, guiding them to fourth place and the FA Cup Final in his first season. However, after a poor run of results, Lampard was dismissed in 2021. Following a spell with Everton, he was re-appointed Chelsea manager on a caretaker basis in 2023. Club career West Ham United Lampard began his career at West Ham United, his father's former club, joining the youth team in 1994, his schoolboy hero being West Ham striker, Frank McAvennie. Lampard joined West Ham when his father was the assistant coach, entering as an apprentice in the youth team in 1994 and signing a professional contract the following year. He went on loan to Second Division club Swansea City in October 1995, debuting in his team's victory 2–0 over Bradford City and scoring his first career goal in a match against Brighton & Hove Albion. Lampard played nine times for Swansea before returning to West Ham in January 1996. 1995–97: Development Lampard made his debut for West Ham on 31 January 1996 against Coventry City coming on as a substitute for John Moncur. His only other game of the season was the season's last, on 5 May 1996, a 1–1 home draw with Sheffield Wednesday when Lampard was used as a substitute for Keith Rowland. The following season Lampard made his first start for West Ham, on 17 August 1996, in a 2–0 away defeat to Arsenal before being substituted for Robbie Slater. Lampard's season ended on 15 March 1997 when he sustained a broken leg during an away, 0–0 draw, against Aston Villa. Carried from the pitch on a stretcher, his 31st-minute substitute was Rio Ferdinand. The game also saw his first booking as a West Ham player. Lampard claims to have been jeered from the pitch by West Ham United supporters, an action which made him consider leaving football. He had made 16 appearances in all competitions for The Hammers. 1997–99: First-team regular From this season Lampard took the number 18 squad number having previously held the number 26 spot. On the first day of the 1997–98 season, West Ham opened their fixtures with an away game against Barnsley who were playing in the top tier of English football for the first time in 110 years. Lampard came on as a 76th-minute substitute for Eyal Berkovic. Barely a minute later he scored what was the winning goal in a 2–1 win for The Hammers having received the ball from Michael Hughes and flicking it past Barnsley goalkeeper David Watson. The season also saw his first hat-trick. On 19 November 1997, West Ham played Walsall in a League Cup, fourth-round game. Lampard's three goals plus another from John Hartson were enough to beat Walsall who responded via a goal from Andy Watson. Lampard made 42 appearances for the 1997–98 season in all competitions scoring nine goals. Lampard was an ever-present for West Ham in the 1998–99 season, helping his team to fifth place in the 1998–99 Premier League and qualification for the UEFA Intertoto Cup. This is the highest West Ham have ever come in the league. 1999–2001: New contract and departure Before the start of the 1999–2000 FA Premier League season, Lampard signed an extension to his contract which would have kept him with the club until 2005. Having qualified for the Intertoto Cup, West Ham's season started early, in July 1999. On 24 July 1999, Lampard scored his first goal in European football in a 1–1 away draw with Finnish side Jokerit. Another goal in the semi-final against Heerenveen put West Ham into the final against Metz. Despite losing the first leg 1–0 in London, West Ham won 3–1 in France on 24 August 1999 with goals from Trevor Sinclair, Paulo Wanchope and Lampard. Winning the competition saw West Ham in the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup. Lampard scored his first goal in this competition on 16 September 1999, in a 3–0 home win against Osijek, a tie which they won 6–1 on aggregate. This season also saw West Ham beat Bradford City 5–4 at Upton Park in February 2000. The game received notoriety for Lampard's fight over the ball with Paolo Di Canio. With West Ham 4–2 down they gained a penalty. Lampard was West Ham's regular penalty taker. Di Canio, however, wanted to take the kick and the two tussled over the ball with Di Canio winning and scoring to make the game 4–3 to West Ham. In the 1999–2000, season he finished as the club's third top scorer, behind Di Canio and Paulo Wanchope, with a total of 14 goals. In the 2000–01 season, West Ham's form suffered. They spent most of the season in the bottom half of the Premier League table. From fifth place the previous season they finished 15th. Despite this Lampard scored 9 goals in 37 games, behind only Frédéric Kanouté and Di Canio. In May 2001, his uncle Harry Redknapp left the club by mutual consent after seven years in the role. His father Frank also left the club and Lampard, under the pressure of being known as "Frank Lampard's son" and the poor treatment of his father by West Ham, decided to move to another club. He left West Ham for Chelsea for £11 million in June 2001, the Hammers having previously declined a £15 million joint bid from Aston Villa for Lampard and Frédéric Kanouté. Chelsea 2001–04: Signing and first-team breakthrough Lampard's Premier League debut with Chelsea came on 19 August 2001 in a 1–1 draw with Newcastle United on the opening day of the 2001-02 season, while his first red card came in a match against Tottenham Hotspur on 16 September 2001. He appeared in all of Chelsea's league matches and scored eight goals in the 2001–02 season. He netted the match-winner in Chelsea's 2002–03 season-opener against Charlton Athletic. The following season, he was selected as the Premier League Player of the Month in September 2003, and the PFA Fans' Player of the Month in October. Chelsea finished second in the 2003–04 Premier League behind unbeaten Arsenal and he was named in the 2004 PFA Team of the Year as he reached double figures in league goals (10) for the first time in his career, in addition to four goals in fourteen UEFA Champions League matches, as Chelsea advanced to the semi-finals. In the semi-final against Monaco he scored, but Chelsea lost 5–3 on aggregate. At the end of the season, he came second behind Thierry Henry for the 2004 FWA Footballer of the Year award. 2004–06: Back-to-back Premier League wins Lampard played in all 38 Premier League matches for the third consecutive season in 2004–05. He finished with 13 goals (19 in all competitions), in addition to leading the league in assists with 18. In August 2004, he scored the winning goal against Southampton in the Premier League, and continued scoring important goals as he scored both in a 2–0 win against Tottenham. In March 2005 he scored a long-range goal from 30 yards against Crystal Palace in the Premier League which Chelsea won 4–1. Lampard continued his season strongly, and his brilliant performances for Chelsea in the Premier League and Champions League further increased his reputation as one of the best midfielders in the world. In the 2004–05 Champions League, he scored one of the goals in Chelsea's famous 4–2 win over Barcelona, helping Chelsea to progress to the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, he scored three goals in two legs against Bayern Munich as Chelsea won 6–5 on aggregate. His second goal in the first leg was a spectacular one; he controlled Claude Makélélé's cross with his chest then turned and swivelled and sent the ball inside the far post with a left-foot half volley. In April 2005, Lampard scored both goals against Bolton Wanderers in a 2–0 win which was the Premier League title-winning match for Chelsea, which also won the first major trophy of his career as Chelsea bagged their first top-flight title in 50 years, by a 12-point margin. He was named as Barclays Player of the Season for 2004–05. Though Chelsea were eliminated in the Champions League semi-finals by league rivals Liverpool, they took home the Football League Cup, in which Lampard scored twice in six matches, which included the opening goal against Manchester United in the League Cup semi-final, which Chelsea won 2–1. He landed his first personal award by being named the 2005 Footballer of the Year. Lampard netted a career-high 16 league goals in 2005–06. In September 2005 he was selected as a member of the inaugural World XI. He finished as runner-up to Ronaldinho for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. His record of consecutive Premier League appearances ended at 164 (five better than previous record-holder David James) on 28 December 2005, when he sat out a match against Manchester City due to illness. Lampard scored 12 goals in his first four months of the 2005–06 season. He scored twice in three separate matches from August to November, including both in a 2–1 win over Aston Villa, making Chelsea the first team to win their first seven matches in the Premier League. He scored twice again, this time against Blackburn Rovers in a 4–2 win, which included a free-kick from 25 yards. After the match, manager José Mourinho hailed Lampard as the "best player in the world". Chelsea eventually won the Premier League for the second time, in which Lampard was Chelsea's topscorer with 16 league goals. In the Champions League group stage, he scored a free-kick against Anderlecht. Chelsea progressed to the first knock-out round to face Barcelona, with Lampard scoring a goal in the second leg, but Chelsea were eliminated 3–2 on aggregate. 2006–11: Domestic and individual success Due to a back injury sustained by John Terry, Lampard spent much of the 2006–07 campaign as team captain in his absence. He enjoyed a streak of seven goals in eight games. He scored both goals in a 2–0 win over Fulham and scored his 77th goal for Chelsea from a long range strike in a 3–2 win over Everton on 17 December, overtaking Dennis Wise as Chelsea's highest scoring midfielder. Then in the UEFA Champions League group stage he scored a goal from an extremely tight angle against Barcelona, at the Camp Nou, the match ended 2–2. Lampard finished with 21 goals in all competitions, including a career-high six FA Cup goals. He scored his first Chelsea hat-trick in the third-round tie against Macclesfield Town on 6 January 2007. He scored two goals to help Chelsea to a quarter-final draw with Tottenham Hotspur after having trailed 3–1, and he was named the FA Cup player-of-the-round for his performance. He gave the assist to Didier Drogba in the 2007 FA Cup Final which was the winning goal in extra-time, as Chelsea won it 1–0. In a post-match interview following Chelsea's FA Cup Final victory over Manchester United, Lampard said he wanted to stay at the club "forever". Lampard's 2007–08 season was hampered by injury. He managed to play 40 matches, 24 of them in the Premier League. This was the fewest league games he had played in a season since 1996–97. On 16 February 2008, Lampard became the eighth Chelsea player to score 100 goals for the club in a 3–1 FA Cup fifth-round win over Huddersfield Town. After the final whistle, Lampard removed his jersey and flashed a T-shirt to the Chelsea fans with "100 Not Out, They Are All For You, Thanks" printed across the front. On 12 March 2008, Lampard scored four goals in a 6–1 rout of Derby County. Then in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final, he scored the winning goal against Fenerbahçe in the 87th minute as Chelsea won 3–2 on aggregate. On 30 April, Lampard, grieving the loss of his mother a week earlier, decided to play in the second leg of Chelsea's Champions League semi-final against Liverpool, who were eliminated on 4–3 aggregate as he took an emotional penalty in the 98th minute of extra-time, which he scored confidently. In the final against Manchester United, he scored an equalising goal in the 45th minute, as Michael Essien's deflected shot found him as he went to the box with his trade-mark late run, and he scored with a left foot finish. The match ended 1–1 after extra-time and Chelsea eventually lost 6–5 on penalties. He was later named UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year. On 13 August 2008, Lampard signed a new five-year contract with Chelsea worth £39.2 million, making him the highest-paid Premier League player. He started the 2008–09 season by scoring five goals in his first eleven league matches. He scored the 150th goal of his club career with a goal against Manchester City in the Premier League. In October 2008, in the Premier League he scored a chipped goal against Hull City with his left foot; he unleashed a chip from 20 yards that curled and swerved and fooled the goalkeeper as it went into the net. FIFA World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said after the game, "It was the best goal I have seen, my vote for World Player of the year award will go to him, only a player with his intelligence could have done that." Lampard scored his hundredth career Premier League goal in a 5–0 victory over Sunderland on 2 November. Eighteen of Lampard's hundred goals were penalties. He was named Premier League Player of the Month for the third time in his career in October. After a streak of matches without scoring, Lampard scored three goals in two games, the first being against West Bromwich Albion and the latter two against Fulham. On 17 January 2009, he made his 400th Chelsea appearance against Stoke City, scoring a stoppage time winner. He again scored a stoppage time winner, this time against Wigan Athletic. Then in the fourth round of the FA Cup, he scored a free-kick from 35 yards against Ipswich Town. He scored twice against Liverpool in the second-leg quarter finals of the Champions League which ended 4–4, but Chelsea won 7–5 on aggregate. Then he provided two assists in the next game against Arsenal in FA Cup semi-finals which Chelsea won 2–1. Lampard finished the season with 20 goals and 19 assists. Lampard's 20th goal of the season was the winning goal in the FA Cup Final against Everton, with a left-foot shot from long-range. He repeated the corner flag celebration his father had done after scoring the winning goal in the 1979–80 FA Cup semi-final second leg against Everton. It was the fourth consecutive season that he scored 20 or more goals. He was later named Chelsea's Player of the Year for the third time. Lampard started the 2009–10 season by scoring against Manchester United, in the 2009 Community Shield, in the 72nd minute. The match ended 2–2, and Lampard scored in its penalty shootout which they won 4–1. He scored his 133rd goal for Chelsea in a Champions League match against Atlético Madrid on 21 October 2009, which moved him up to fifth among the club's all-time goalscorers. He had been struggling to score the number of goals he had in the past seasons, however this soon changed as he scored two goals in the 5–0 defeat of Blackburn on 24 October 2009. On 30 October, he was nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year award for the sixth-straight year. On 16 December, Lampard scored a crucial 79th minute winning goal against Portsmouth and on 20 December, Lampard scored a penalty against his former club West Ham in a 1–1 draw, however he had to take his spot-kick three times due to players running into the box too early, he nonetheless scored all three. In Chelsea's 7–2 thrashing of Sunderland in January 2010, Lampard scored twice to add to his league tally. On 27 January 2010, Lampard again scored two goals, in Chelsea's 3–0 win over Birmingham City in the Premier League. On 27 February, Lampard yet again scored twice against Manchester City but despite his contribution Chelsea went on to lose the game 4–2 at home, for the first time in 38 games. Lampard, for the second time in his career, hit four goals in one match against Aston Villa on 27 March 2010 to bring his goal tally past 20, for the fifth-consecutive season. This also brought him his 151st Chelsea goal, and it put him as the club's third highest scorer ever, overtaking Peter Osgood's record of 150. Lampard scored in a 3–0 win, again over Aston Villa, in the 2010 FA Cup semi-final. Lampard reached 20 Premier League goals for the first time when he scored twice against Stoke City in Chelsea's 7–0 win on 25 April 2010. This milestone also represented the first time he had hit 25 in all competitions in a season. On 2 May, Lampard scored against Liverpool in the second last game of the season to give Chelsea a vital three points that took them to the top of the league by a single point. He scored one and assisted two other goals in the final match of the season where Chelsea thrashed Wigan Athletic 8–0 at Stamford Bridge to win the 2009–10 Premier League title and give him a remarkable 27 goals in the season. Lampard ended his season lifting the 2010 FA Cup as Chelsea beat Portsmouth 1–0 in the final. The 2010–11 season began brightly for Lampard, being an integral part of Chelsea's system as usual. After a match against Stoke in August 2010, which Chelsea won 2–0, it was revealed that Lampard was suffering from a hernia, which was successfully operated on. However, he suffered fresh injuries during training in mid-November, and remained sidelined for a further three weeks. Manager Carlo Ancelotti said that he injured his abductor muscle in his leg in training on 11 November, and would not be fit until December. He finally made his comeback after four months out injured against Tottenham on 12 December, as a substitute in the 75th minute. Lampard scored a penalty in the 3–3 draw between Chelsea and Aston Villa on 2 January 2011, the first after returning from injury. On 9 January, Lampard scored twice and gave one assist in a 7–0 win against Ipswich Town in the FA Cup reaching the landmark of 201 career club goals. On 1 February, Lampard scored a penalty against Sunderland, then produced an assist, with Chelsea ending up winning the game 4–2. Lampard then assisted for Nicolas Anelka in Chelsea's 2–0 victory against Copenhagen, in the Round of 16 match in the Champions League. On 1 March, Lampard scored the winning goal in a crucial 2–1 victory over Manchester United, keeping Chelsea's Premier League title hopes alive. Then in the next game, he scored two goals in Chelsea's 3–1 victory over Blackpool, and also contributed with an assist for John Terry to score. In April 2011, Lampard scored his 11th goal of the season in a 3–0 victory against former club West Ham. Lampard scored again against Manchester United, but it proved to be only a consolation, as Chelsea lost 2–1 at Old Trafford, thus ending Chelsea's title hopes. 2011–13: European triumphs In Chelsea's third Premier League match of the season, Lampard scored his first goal of the season and also provided an assist for José Bosingwa's opening goal, as Chelsea beat Norwich City 3–1. After not featuring in Chelsea's 4–1 win against Swansea City on 24 September, Lampard returned to the starting line-up for their Champions League group stage game against Valencia netting an important opening goal in their 1–1 draw. Lampard continued his fine form by netting his fifth Chelsea hat-trick on 2 October, in a 5–1 thrashing of Bolton Wanderers. In the eleventh round of the Premier League, Lampard scored the only goal of the match against Blackburn Rovers with a diving header, giving Chelsea a win after two consecutive defeats. After starting the game against Manchester City on the bench, Lampard came on in the second half to score the winning goal from the penalty spot in the 82nd minute. Lampard again proved to be the match-winner again as he scored in the 89th minute against Wolverhampton Wanderers, with the match finishing 2–1 to Chelsea. On 25 February 2012, Lampard scored his tenth Premier League goal of the season in Chelsea's 3–0 win against Bolton, becoming the only player to score at least ten goals in nine consecutive seasons in the Premier League and his 149th all-time league goal. Eleven days after the dismissal of manager André Villas-Boas, Chelsea hosted Napoli in the 2011–12 Champions League round of 16-second leg, trailing the Naples side 3–1 from the first leg. Lampard helped Chelsea make a remarkable comeback, assisting John Terry from a corner for the second goal and then equalising the aggregate score from the penalty spot with a powerful shot to the left of the goal. Branislav Ivanović sealed Chelsea's victory in extra-time. In the second leg of the quarter-finals of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League against Benfica, Lampard converted a crucial penalty to give Chelsea a 2–1 win at Stamford Bridge, and helping them advance with an aggregate score of 3–1. He scored the 150th Premier League goal of his career against Fulham in a 1–1 draw on 9 April 2012. In the semi-final of the FA Cup Chelsea defeated Tottenham Hotspur 5–1, in a match that would be remembered for an infamous "goal that never was" awarded to Chelsea's Juan Mata. Lampard assisted Didier Drogba for the first goal, and also scored the fourth goal for the Blues from a free-kick 35 yards from goal. Lampard was pivotal in the semi-finals of the 2011–12 Champions League against the heavily favoured defending champions Barcelona. Bookmakers had Barcelona on the shortest odds to win a second consecutive Champions League title, and various commentators opined that Chelsea would have to produce their best two games of the season – and hope that Barca played their worst two – to upset the Catalan giants. In the first leg at Stamford Bridge, Lampard stripped Lionel Messi off the ball then played a cross-field pass to Ramires, who set up Drogba for the only goal of the game, giving Chelsea a 1–0 advantage. In the second leg at the Camp Nou, Lampard assumed the captaincy after Terry was sent off early in the game. Down 2–0 to Barça just before half-time, Lampard assisted Ramires' goal with a through-pass which levelled the aggregate score at 2–2 while putting Chelsea ahead on away goals. Chelsea teammate Fernando Torres added another goal in stoppage time to give Chelsea a 3–2 victory overall and produce one of the greatest upsets in the history of European football. This set up Chelsea's match with Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in the Champions League final. In the 2012 FA Cup Final, Lampard assisted Didier Drogba's winning goal in 2–1 win over Liverpool, the seventh FA Cup in Chelsea's history as well as the fourth of his career. Lampard captained Chelsea in the 2012 Champions League final against Bayern Munich due to Terry's suspension. It was a match where Chelsea were considered to be the underdogs. After finishing 1–1 in normal time, the game went to a penalty shootout with Lampard successfully converting his team's third spot-kick, helping Chelsea win 4–3 on penalties. As Chelsea's captain for the match, Lampard lifted the trophy with club captain Terry. Lampard ended the 2011–12 season as Chelsea's top scorer with 16 goals in all competitions, along with 10 assists. Lampard missed Euro 2012 with a thigh injury, but did play all of Chelsea's pre-season games, scoring against the MLS All-Stars and Brighton & Hove Albion. In Chelsea's first game of the new Premier League campaign, Lampard converted a penalty won by Eden Hazard as Chelsea brushed aside Wigan 2–0. In Chelsea's second game of the season, three days later against newly promoted Reading, he again converted a penalty won by Hazard as Chelsea cruised to a 4–2 win. On 6 October, he scored his third league goal of the season in a 4–1 win against Norwich City. After six weeks out injured, on 16 December Lampard appeared in the final of the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup with Chelsea losing 1–0 to Brazilian club Corinthians. He marked his 500th appearance in the Premier League by scoring in an 8–0 win against Aston Villa on 23 December. On 30 December 2012, Lampard scored a brace as Chelsea came from a goal down in the game against Everton to win 2–1. In the third round of the FA Cup, Lampard entered in the second half and scored a penalty in Chelsea's victory over Southampton. On 6 January 2013, Lampard's agent Steve Kutner announced that Lampard would not be offered a new contract with Chelsea and would leave when his contract expired in June 2013. On 12 January 2013, Lampard scored a penalty in the 4–0 win over Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. This goal made Lampard Chelsea's second-highest goalscorer of all-time with 194 goals and moved him clear of Kerry Dixon and putting him eight goals behind Bobby Tambling in first. He scored his 199th goal for Chelsea in a 4–0 FA Cup victory over Brentford on 17 February, becoming Chelsea's all-time leading FA Cup goalscorer with 26 goals. Lampard's 200th Chelsea goal came against his former club West Ham on 17 March 2013, heading home an Eden Hazard cross. Lampard equalled Bobby Tambling's record with a long-range goal into the top left corner from just outside the box in the 61st minute in a league match against Aston Villa on 11 May. Then, later on in the 88th minute, he scored a second goal, breaking the record and securing a 2–1 victory for Chelsea. In the UEFA Europa League final on 15 May, Lampard captained the London club to a 2–1 victory over Benfica, securing the 11th major trophy of the Roman Abramovich era. On 16 May 2013, Lampard signed a one-year extension to his contract with Chelsea, stating "I always maintained the dream was to stay at Chelsea." 2013–14: Final season at Chelsea On the opening day of the 2013–14 Premier League season, Lampard scored a free-kick in a 2–0 win against newly promoted Hull City. On 1 October, he scored his 205th goal for Chelsea in a 4–0 win away to Steaua București in the Champions League. On 23 November 2013, Lampard scored his 206th and 207th goals for Chelsea against his former club West Ham in a 3–0 win. Lampard moved to fourth on the all-time Premier League goal-scoring list on 2 December by beating Robbie Fowler's number of 164 goals. On 22 February 2014, Lampard scored a stoppage-time winner against Everton, initially credited to John Terry but awarded to Lampard by the Dubious Goals Committee, keeping Chelsea in first place. In March, in recognition of his contributions, Lampard was given share number 200 by the Chelsea Pitch Owners Association which owns the Stamford Bridge freehold. On 2 April, he played his 100th Champions League match, losing 3–1 to Paris Saint-Germain. On 5 April 2014, Lampard scored the 250th goal of his club career in a 3–0 win against Stoke. On 23 May 2014, Lampard was included on the list of players released by Chelsea. Lampard, however, said that any contract talks with Chelsea would be decided after the 2014 World Cup, with a statement saying "he will meet with Chelsea before any consideration of a move elsewhere". On 3 June 2014, Chelsea confirmed Lampard would leave the club. Manchester City Signing and New York City FC controversy On 24 July 2014, it was claimed that Lampard, as a free agent, had signed a two-year contract with New York City FC (NYCFC) to commence ahead of the 2015 MLS season. It was announced at a live press conference in Brooklyn that he would be joining the club, which would be entering Major League Soccer (MLS) for the 2015 season. Sporting director Claudio Reyna hailed him as "one of the greatest players in world history". NYCFC's parent club, Manchester City, announced on 3 August 2014 that Lampard would join the club on a six-month deal ending in January 2015. Initially reported as a loan, reports emerged on 31 December 2014 that Lampard had signed a short-term contract with the club as a free agent with his MLS contract not to start until the end of his stay in Manchester. The same day, it was announced Lampard would extend his contract with Manchester City until the end of the English season, missing the start of the 2015 MLS season and it was confirmed that Lampard had never been an MLS player with his arrival date in MLS unclear. Lampard extending his stay in Manchester prompted an angry response from fans in New York, with NYCFC being accused of dishonesty for using the player in their promotional material and MLS Commissioner Don Garber being accused of poor leadership and a lack of transparency in handling the affair. On 1 January 2015, Manchester City head coach Manuel Pellegrini hinted that Lampard could extend his stay at Manchester City to a second season. On 9 January, Manchester City admitted that Lampard had never signed a two-year contract with NYCFC, having instead originally signed a non-binding "commitment" to join the team. The same day, Lampard confirmed his intention to join NYCFC at the end of the 2014–15 Premier League season. Around 300 people asked for season ticket refunds in response to the affair, while the 2015 MLS SuperDraft started a chant of "Where's Frank Lampard?" from the crowd. 2014–15: Only season in Manchester Lampard made his Manchester City debut on 13 September in a 2–2 away draw against Arsenal; he received a yellow card and was substituted at half-time for Samir Nasri. He scored his first goal for the club on 21 September with a volley from inside the box against former club Chelsea, having only been on the field for seven minutes as a substitute. Lampard's equalising goal ended Chelsea's perfect winning streak in the season, but it was a goal which he did not celebrate, and he described it as a very emotional day. In Lampard's first League Cup match for City three days later, he scored the first and last goals as the side defeated Sheffield Wednesday 7–0 at home in the third round. On 27 September, Lampard came on in the 71st minute, only to score another goal to make it four goals in four matches and his fourth that week. He made his first Champions League appearance on 30 September in Manchester City's 1–1 draw with Roma. On 1 January 2015, the day after extending his stay with the club, Lampard scored the winner for City in a Premier League encounter against Sunderland. On 14 March 2015, Lampard made his 600th Premier League appearance, becoming the second player to do so after Ryan Giggs, coming on as a substitute during City's 1–0 defeat to Burnley. On 24 May, Lampard captained Manchester City in their final match of the season and the last of his spell with the club. He scored his 177th Premier League goal to give City the lead in an eventual 2–0 win over Southampton at the City of Manchester Stadium and was substituted for Jesús Navas in the 77th minute. New York City FC 2015–16: Final seasons and retirement On 10 January 2015, Lampard signed a pre-contract to play for New York City FC in MLS, beginning on 1 July. Injury delayed his debut until 1 August, when he came on as a 69th-minute substitute for Andrew Jacobson in a 3–2 defeat to the Montreal Impact at Yankee Stadium. In July, Lampard was one of the 22 players to be named to the 2015 MLS All-Star Game roster. On 16 September, he scored his first MLS goal as his team beat Toronto 2–0 to end a three-game losing streak. Eleven days later, Lampard scored the opening goal in a 2–1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps in the 29th minute of play; he was later also fouled in the area in the final minute of stoppage time, which allowed David Villa to convert the match-winning goal from the resulting penalty. On 2 October, he scored New York City's fastest ever goal in MLS history in a 2–1 away defeat to D.C. United. The team finished its debut season outside a place for the MLS Cup Playoffs, which drew criticism from some in the media, who expected more from the club's trio of designated players composed of former Champions League winners Lampard, David Villa and Andrea Pirlo. Having missed the beginning of the season with a calf injury, Lampard made his first appearance in 2016 on 22 May in the New York derby, playing the final 15 minutes; New York City lost the game 7–0, while Lampard was jeered by his side's own fans. However, he then scored in his first start of the season against Philadelphia Union on 18 June and was cheered by the New York fans once again. In his second start, he managed to make it back-to-back goals against Seattle Sounders on 20 June. His fourth goal in five matches came against Sporting Kansas City in a 3–1 defeat on 11 July. Lampard then took his goal tally for the season to five with the third goal in a 3–1 victory over the Montreal Impact on 17 July. On 31 July 2016, Lampard became the first New York City player to score a hat-trick, achieving this feat in a 5–1 win over the Colorado Rapids. Lampard finished his second MLS season with the club with 13 goals and 3 assists in 19 appearances, as New York City finished in second place in the Eastern Conference, and qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time ever, clinching a spot in the Eastern Conference semi-finals. He featured in both legs of the Conference semi-final against Toronto, as New York were eliminated from the Playoffs 7–0 on aggregate. On 14 November 2016, New York City announced that Lampard would leave as soon as his contract expired. Lampard announced his retirement on 2 February 2017 after turning down several offers, and said that he would look to obtain his coaching qualifications after retiring. International career Youth and early career Lampard was capped by England at youth level before making his under-21 debut on 13 November 1997 in a match against Greece. He played for the under-21 side from November 1997 to June 2000, and scored nine goals in 19 appearances, a mark bettered only by Alan Shearer and Francis Jeffers. He was capped once by England B, playing in a 2–1 home defeat to Chile on 10 February 1998. Lampard earned his first cap for England on 10 October 1999 in a 2–1 friendly win over Belgium, and scored his first goal on 20 August 2003 in a 3–1 win over Croatia. He was part of the team at the FA Summer Tournament (Manchester) 2004, which England won. He was overlooked for Euro 2000 and the 2002 World Cup, and had to wait until Euro 2004 to take part in his first international competition. England reached the quarter-finals with Lampard scoring three goals in four matches. He scored against France and Croatia in the group stages, and in the quarter-final he equalised for England in the 112th minute against Portugal, bringing the scoreline to 2–2 but England lost on penalties. He was named in the team of the tournament by UEFA. 2004–10: UEFA Euro 2004 and 2006 FIFA World Cup He became a regular in the squad following the retirement of Paul Scholes, and was voted England Player of the Year by fans in 2004 and 2005. He was England's top-scorer in their 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign, with five goals. He scored two crucial goals in the qualifiers, the first against Austria in a 1–0 win, and the second being the winning goal against Poland. In England's first game of the tournament against Paraguay, Lampard was named man of the match as England won 1–0. Though Lampard played every minute of England's 2006 World Cup matches, he went scoreless as England were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Portugal on penalties, and he was one of the three England players whose penalty was saved alongside Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. He scored in a 2–1 loss to Germany in a friendly at the new Wembley in 2007. He was very disappointing during qualifying for Euro 2008. He was booed by England supporters while coming on as a second-half substitute during England's Euro 2008 qualifying match against Estonia on 13 October 2007. Lampard sent Stipe Pletikosa the wrong way from the spot and finished with one goal (in a 3–2 loss to Croatia on 21 November) as England failed to qualify for the tournament. He scored his first international goal in two years in a 4–0 win over Slovakia in March 2009, and also created another for Wayne Rooney. Lampard's goal was the 500th England goal scored at Wembley. On 9 September 2009, Lampard struck twice in England's 5–1 win against Croatia which secured their place at 2010 World Cup. 2010–12: 2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012 injury In the round-of-16 match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup against rivals Germany, Lampard had a first-half shot at goal that bounced off the crossbar and from TV replays was clearly seen to cross the goal line. If counted, it would have tied the game 2–2. However, neither the referee nor the linesman saw it as a goal, and play was continued. In the second-half, Lampard hit the cross-bar again, with a 30-yard free-kick. The final score was a 4–1 win for Germany, eliminating England from the tournament. As England exited the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Lampard had already achieved the record of having made 37 shots on goal without scoring in a World Cup tournament, more than any other player since 1966. On 8 February 2011, it was announced that Lampard would captain the national team against Denmark in a friendly played the next day after both Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard were absent through injury. In the Euro 2012 qualifiers, Lampard netted two goals for England, both penalties. The first against Wales in a 2–0 win, and the latter vs Switzerland in a 2–2 draw. In November 2011, Lampard captained England to a 1–0 friendly victory over current World Champions Spain, a game in which he scored the only goal. On 31 May 2012, he was ruled out of the Euro 2012 due to a thigh injury. He was subsequently replaced by Jordan Henderson. 2012–14: Final years with England On 14 August 2012, manager Roy Hodgson announced that Lampard would captain the Three Lions in their upcoming friendly against Italy the following day, which England won 2–1. Lampard started England's first game in qualification and starred as England thrashed Moldova 5–0, with Lampard scoring his 24th and 25th England goals. His first goal was England's 100th ever penalty and his second was a header from a cross from Glen Johnson, after Steven Gerrard was substituted he captained the side. On 22 March 2013, he surpassed David Platt as England's highest scoring midfielder when he scored his 28th international goal in a 0–8 win over San Marino. Lampard became only the eighth English player to earn his 100th England cap, doing so in a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine, on 10 September 2013. On 12 May 2014, Lampard was named in the 23-man England squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and a week later he was named vice-captain. On 24 June, for the last game of the group stage, Lampard captained his England side to draw with Costa Rica 0–0. On 26 August 2014, Lampard announced that he had retired from international football. He earned 106 caps, scoring 29 goals. Style of play Regarded by some pundits, managers, and teammates as one of the greatest midfielders of his generation, Lampard was an all-round and versatile box-to-box player, who was capable of playing anywhere in midfield; throughout his career he was deployed as a central midfielder, as an attacking midfielder, as a defensive midfielder, and even as a supporting striker on occasion. He was also deployed as a deep-lying playmaker on occasion, in particular in his later career, due to his ability to build attacks with his passing. A hard-working player, with notable stamina and an ability to read the game, Lampard was also capable of functioning creatively and starting attacking plays or providing assists for teammates after winning back possession, due to his technique, vision, and passing range. In addition to his creative and defensive midfield duties, Lampard also possessed a keen eye for goal, due to his ability to get forward and make late attacking runs from behind into the penalty area, or produce accurate and powerful shots from distance. These attributes enabled him to maintain a prolific goalscoring record throughout his career, despite his deep playing position. Moreover, Lampard was also an accurate set-piece and penalty kick taker, who was known for scoring with powerful, low driving shots from free kicks. Beyond his qualities as a footballer, he also stood out for his leadership throughout his career. In 2017, Gareth Southgate labelled Lampard as one of the group of England's past players who were "very good", but below the likes of the nation's past "top players", such as Gascoigne, Scholes, and Rooney, commenting: "You've got very good players and then there are top players. In my time in the England setup, Paul Gascoigne, Paul Scholes and Rooney just had that little bit more than all the others. And we are talking high‑level people there, players like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and David Beckham." Managerial career Derby County On 31 May 2018, Lampard was appointed as manager of Championship club Derby County on a three-year contract. His first game in charge, on 3 August, resulted in a 2–1 away win for Derby at Reading, with Tom Lawrence scoring a last-minute winner. His first loss as a manager came on 11 August in a 4–1 loss against Leeds United, in his second match in charge. On 25 September, in just his 12th game as a manager, Lampard's Derby County knocked Premier League club Manchester United out of the EFL Cup on penalties, following a 2–2 draw at Old Trafford. After a 2–0 defeat in the return fixture against Leeds United at Elland Road on 11 January 2019 to further Leeds' lead at the top of the Championship table, Lampard was critical of Leeds head coach Marcelo Bielsa, as in the pre-match build-up Bielsa admitted he had sent a spy to the Derby training ground, after reports emerged in the press that a man was spotted the previous day outside the Derby training ground. On 12 January, Leeds United released a statement in response to the incident. Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino described the incident as 'not a big deal' and commonplace in Argentina. In his first season in charge of Derby, Lampard guided the club to the Championship play-offs after helping them finish 6th in the 2018–19 Championship season. In the semi-finals of the play-offs, Derby overturned a 0–1 home loss to win 4–2 away against Leeds United and claim the tie 4–3 on aggregate, setting up an appearance against Aston Villa in the final. Derby lost the play-off final to Aston Villa 2–1. Upon the conclusion of the season, Lampard was heavily linked with the vacant managerial spot at former club Chelsea. On 25 June 2019, Derby granted Lampard permission to hold talks with the Chelsea bosses over said position. Chelsea On 4 July 2019, Lampard was appointed as the new head coach at former club Chelsea on a three-year contract, making him the first English manager to manage the side in over two decades. In Lampard's first competitive game with Chelsea, the club lost 4–0 to Manchester United on the opening day of the 2019–20 Premier League. It was the biggest defeat for a Chelsea manager in their first game since Danny Blanchflower's team was beaten 7–2 by Middlesbrough in December 1978. In Lampard's second competitive game, they lost to Liverpool on penalties in the 2019 UEFA Super Cup. On 24 August 2019, Lampard obtained his first Premier League victory as Chelsea manager, beating Norwich City 2–3 away from home. On 25 September, Chelsea picked up their first home win under Lampard, beating League Two side Grimsby Town 7–1 in the EFL Cup. Lampard's matchday squad against Grimsby featured ten academy graduates, including Reece James and Billy Gilmour, making their first-team debuts. Lampard won Premier League Manager of the Month for October 2019 after Chelsea recorded a perfect record in the league for the month. By doing so, he became the third manager to win Premier League Player of the Month and Manager of the Month, after Gareth Southgate and Stuart Pearce. Lampard eventually guided Chelsea to fourth in the Premier League and the FA Cup Final, where they lost to Arsenal. In the following season, Chelsea made five major acquisitions in the summer transfer window in Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell, Kai Havertz and Édouard Mendy. Chelsea initially started strongly, topping their Champions League group and the Premier League in early December. However, after a run of two wins in eight Premier League matches, Chelsea dropped to ninth and Lampard was dismissed as manager on 25 January 2021. He remained on Chelsea's payroll to see out his contract, "pocketing £75,000" per week in compensation. His dismissal came just 24 hours after Chelsea's 3–1 win over Luton Town in the FA Cup. On 26 January, German coach Thomas Tuchel was announced as his replacement. It was reported Lampard's departure was also influenced by disagreements with the club's transfer policy; Lampard is said to have requested the acquisitions of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Declan Rice, and James Tarkowski, with these moves being blocked by Chelsea's co-director Marina Granovskaia. Lampard also reportedly fell out with or had limited communication with some players, causing former teammate and club advisor Petr Čech to have to serve as an intermediary. Everton Having been out of work for a year, Lampard was appointed manager of Premier League club Everton on 31 January 2022, after the dismissal of Rafael Benítez due to poor results. At the time of his appointment, the club was positioned in 16th place, four points above the relegation zone. With one game remaining in the 2021–22 season, on 19 May Lampard guided Everton to Premier League safety maintaining their 68-year top flight status. Having been 2–0 down at half-time to Crystal Palace Lampard brought on Dele Alli and played a more attacking formation resulting in a 3–2 win for the Merseyside team. Lampard described the night as "one of the greatest nights of my career". The following season saw the club once again fall into a relegation battle, with a run of only 1 win in 11 matches leaving the club 19th in the league by January. Everton owner Farhad Moshiri in an interview with Talksport suggested that Lampard's position at the club remained secure despite this run of form. However, Lampard was sacked a few days later on 23 January 2023, just eight days less than a year into the job, after a 2–0 loss to West Ham. Lampard was replaced by Sean Dyche on 30 January 2023, who remains Everton's current manager. Return to Chelsea On 6 April 2023, Lampard returned to Chelsea by being appointed as caretaker manager until the end of the 2022–23 season, following the dismissal of Graham Potter. Chelsea's form dropped after Lampard took over and produced a first bottom-half finish since 1996 and a record low tally of points and goals scored in the Premier League era. In terms of winning percentage, Lampard also had the worst record (9%) among every Chelsea manager who had led 3 or more matches, achieving just one win in his 11 matches in charge. Media From 2015 until 2017, Lampard served as a team captain on the ITV comedy panel show Play to the Whistle alongside Bradley Walsh. He was a regular pundit for football on BT Sport. For the 2018 World Cup, Lampard was among the BBC's list of pundits as he insisted that it would not affect his managerial duties. Lampard features in EA Sports' FIFA video game series; he was on the cover for the International edition of FIFA 10, alongside Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott. In 2018, Lampard was added as an icon to the Ultimate Team in FIFA 19. On Sunday 9 June 2024, Lampard led England to victory as manager in the annual Soccer Aid game against the rest of the world. Personal life Lampard was born in Romford, London; he has two sisters, Natalie and Claire. He attended Brentwood School between 1989 and 1994, finishing with eleven GCSEs, including an A* in Latin. Lampard belongs to a family of footballers; his father is Frank Lampard, Sr., the former West Ham United player and assistant manager who was still associated with the club when Lampard junior was playing for them. Lampard's uncle is Harry Redknapp and his cousin is Redknapp's son Jamie Redknapp. His mother Pat, a librarian, died in April 2008 aged 58 as a result of pneumonia. Lampard is a Christian, and credits his faith for helping him cope with the death of his mother. Lampard is a supporter of the Conservative Party and was rumoured to be running as a candidate for Kensington upon Malcolm Rifkind's retirement at the 2015 general election. He subsequently denied that he was running to be an MP. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 Birthday Honours. Lampard published his autobiography, Totally Frank, in 2006. He has written a series of children's novels, inspired by his mother and children, related to football. Lampard formerly owned The Pig's Ear, Chelsea's oldest pub, with his father. They sold the business in 2018, and his father then took over the Grade II Nightingale pub in Wanstead in 2019. Lampard has retained the ownership of the freehold at the Old Church Street, Chelsea property. Lampard has had a troubled relationship with his boyhood club West Ham United where he was seen by some fans as a product of nepotism. He claims that he often received negative taunts about his weight, and that during a match as an 18-year-old when he broke his leg in play, he heard cheers from fans. Following his transfer to Chelsea, Lampard turned against his former club and has since stated: "I remember when Joe Cole first came to Chelsea he would turn away in disappointment if West Ham lost. I would smile. That's how deeply I felt. I wanted West Ham to lose. Now I don't even look for their results." Later in his career, Lampard adopted a more mature attitude towards his former club saying that he had complete respect for the club and thanking Harry Redknapp and Tony Carr for the influence at the start of his career. Controversies In 2000, Lampard, Rio Ferdinand and Kieron Dyer appeared on a sex video that was filmed at the holiday resort of Ayia Napa in Cyprus. Channel 4 aired a brief edited clip as part of their 2004 documentary Sex, Footballers and Videotape, claiming it was used to "remind the viewer that this is based on real life." On 23 September 2001, Lampard, along with three other Chelsea players, was fined two weeks' wages by the club for his behaviour whilst on a drinking binge on 12 September. Lampard and the others had abused American tourists at a Heathrow hotel, just 24 hours after the September 11 attacks. A hotel manager stated: "they were utterly disgusting. They just didn't seem to care about what had happened". Lampard apologised over his behaviour when he signed for New York City F.C. in 2014, implying that he did not mean offence and that he was naive and young. In 2021, Lampard was charged with using a mobile phone while driving after being filmed by CyclingMikey holding a takeaway cup in one hand and a mobile phone in the other. Lampard hired Nick Freeman to defend him. The case was later dropped as the Crown Prosecution Service stated it had insufficient evidence. Relationships Lampard lives in Surrey and London. He has two daughters with his former fiancée, Spanish model Elen Rivas. On 24 April 2009, Lampard was involved in a radio confrontation with James O'Brien on the London radio station LBC 97.3. Newspapers had reported that following Lampard's split from Rivas their children were living with her in a small flat while Lampard had converted their family home into a bachelor pad. Lampard phoned in, objecting to criticism and asserting that he had fought "tooth and nail" to keep his family together. Lampard married Christine Bleakley, a Northern Irish broadcaster, on 20 December 2015. They have a daughter born in 2018 and a son born in 2021. Career statistics Club International Scores and results list England's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Lampard goal Managerial statistics As of match played 28 May 2023 Honours Player West Ham United UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1999 Chelsea Premier League: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2009–10 FA Cup: 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2011–12 Football League Cup: 2004–05, 2006–07 FA Community Shield: 2005, 2009 UEFA Champions League: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League: 2012–13 Individual FWA Footballer of the Year: 2005 PFA Fans' Player of the Year: 2005 PFA Merit Award: 2015 FWA Tribute Award: 2010 Premier League Player of the Season: 2004–05 Most assists in the Premier League: 2004–05, 2008–09 (shared), 2009–10 PFA Team of the Year: 2003–04 Premier League, 2004–05 Premier League, 2005–06 Premier League FIFPro World XI: 2005 UEFA Midfielder of the Year: 2008 England Player of the Year: 2004, 2005 ESM Team of the Year: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2009–10 UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 2004 Premier League Player of the Month: September 2003, April 2005, October 2005, October 2008 Chelsea Player of the Year: 2004, 2005, 2009 Premier League 20 Seasons Awards: Premier League 500 Club MLS All-Star: 2015 Globe Soccer Awards Player Career Award: 2015 MLS Player of the Month: July 2016 Premier League Hall of Fame: 2021 Manager Chelsea FA Cup runner-up: 2019–20 Individual Premier League Manager of the Month: October 2019 Orders Officer of the Order of the British Empire: 2015 Bibliography Autobiography Totally Frank: The Autobiography of Frank Lampard (HarperCollins, 2006) ISBN 9780007214723 Children's novels Frankie vs The Pirate Pillagers (Little Brown, 2013) ISBN 9780349001623 Frankie vs The Rowdy Romans (Little Brown, 2013) ISBN 9780349001609 Frankie vs The Cowboy's Crew (Little Brown, 2013) ISBN 9780349001593 Frankie vs The Mummy's Menace (Little Brown, 2014) ISBN 9780349001630 Frankie vs The Knight's Nasties (Little Brown, 2014) ISBN 9780349001616 Frankie and the World Cup Carnival (Little Brown, 2014) ISBN 9780349124438 Frankie and the Dragon Curse (Little Brown, 2014) ISBN 9780349124469 Frankie Saves Christmas (Little Brown, 2014) ISBN 9780349124483 Frankie's New York Adventure (Little Brown, 2015) ISBN 9780349124490 Frankie's Kangaroo Caper (Little Brown, 2015) ISBN 9780349124513 The Grizzly Games (Little Brown, 2015) ISBN 9780349132051 Meteor Madness (Little Brown, 2015) ISBN 9780349132075 The Great Santa Race (Little Brown, 2015) ISBN 9780349132099 Team T. Rex (Little Brown, 2016) ISBN 9780349132112 Deep Sea Dive (Little Brown, 2016) ISBN 9780349132136 Olympic Flame Chase (Little Brown, 2016) ISBN 9781510201101 Elf Express (Little Brown, 2016) ISBN 9781510201118 Mammoth Mayhem (Little Brown, 2016) ISBN 9781510201125 Summer Holiday Showdown (Little Brown, 2017) ISBN 9781510201132 Game Over! (Little Brown, 2018) ISBN 9781510201859 See also List of footballers with 100 or more UEFA Champions League appearances List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps List of men's footballers with the most official appearances References External links Frank Lampard – FIFA competition record (archived) Frank Lampard – UEFA competition record (archived) Frank Lampard at National-Football-Teams.com Frank Lampard at Soccerbase Frank Lampard at Englandstats.com

Melville_Fuller

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

Melville Weston Fuller (February 11, 1833 – July 4, 1910) was an American politician, attorney, and jurist who served as the eighth chief justice of the United States from 1888 until his death in 1910. Staunch conservatism marked his tenure on the Supreme Court, exhibited by his tendency to support unfettered free enterprise and to oppose broad federal power. He wrote major opinions on the federal income tax, the Commerce Clause, and citizenship law, and he took part in important decisions about racial segregation and the liberty of contract. Those rulings often faced criticism in the decades during and after Fuller's tenure, and many were later overruled or abrogated. The legal academy has generally viewed Fuller negatively, although a revisionist minority has taken a more favorable view of his jurisprudence. Born in Augusta, Maine, Fuller established a legal practice in Chicago after graduating from Bowdoin College. A Democrat, he became involved in politics, campaigning for Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 presidential election. During the Civil War, he served a single term in the Illinois House of Representatives, where he opposed the policies of President Abraham Lincoln. Fuller became a prominent attorney in Chicago and was a delegate to several Democratic national conventions. He declined three separate appointments offered by President Grover Cleveland before accepting the nomination to succeed Morrison Waite as chief justice. Despite some objections to his political past, Fuller won Senate confirmation in 1888. He served as chief justice until his death in 1910, gaining a reputation for collegiality and able administration. Fuller's jurisprudence was conservative, focusing strongly on states' rights, limited federal power, and economic liberty. His majority opinion in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895) ruled a federal income tax to be unconstitutional; the Sixteenth Amendment later superseded the decision. Fuller's opinion in United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895) narrowly interpreted Congress's authority under the Commerce Clause, limiting the reach of the Sherman Act and making government prosecution of antitrust cases more difficult. In Lochner v. New York (1905), Fuller agreed with the majority that the Constitution forbade states from enforcing wage-and-hour restrictions on businesses, contending that the Due Process Clause prevents government infringement on one's liberty to control one's property and business affairs. Fuller joined the majority in the now-reviled case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), in which the Court articulated the doctrine of separate but equal and upheld Jim Crow laws. He argued in the Insular Cases that residents of the territories are entitled to constitutional rights, but he dissented when, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), the majority ruled in favor of birthright citizenship. Many of Fuller's decisions did not stand the test of time. His views on economic liberty were squarely rejected by the Court during the New Deal era, and the Plessy opinion was unanimously reversed in Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Fuller's historical reputation has been generally unfavorable, with many scholars arguing that he was overly deferential to corporations and the wealthy. While a resurgence of conservative legal thought has brought Fuller new defenders, an increase in racial awareness has also led to new scrutiny of his vote in Plessy. In 2021, Kennebec County commissioners voted unanimously to remove a statue of Fuller from public land with the aim of dissociating the county from racial segregation. Early life Melville Weston Fuller was born on February 11, 1833, in Augusta, Maine, the second son of Frederick Augustus Fuller and his wife, Catherine Martin (née Weston).: 903  His maternal grandfather, Nathan Weston, served on the Supreme Court of Maine, and his paternal grandfather was a probate judge.: 4  His father practiced law in Augusta.: 1471–1472  Three months after Fuller was born, his mother sued successfully for divorce on grounds of adultery; she and her children moved into Judge Weston's home.: 1472  In 1849, the sixteen-year-old Fuller enrolled at Bowdoin College, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1853.: 120  He studied law in an uncle's office before spending six months at Harvard Law School.: 339  While he did not receive a degree from Harvard, his attendance made him the first chief justice to have received formal academic legal training.: 339  Fuller was admitted to the Maine bar in 1855 and clerked for another uncle in Bangor.: 199  Later that year, he moved back to Augusta to become the editor of The Age, Maine's primary Democratic newspaper, in partnership with another uncle.: 30  Fuller was elected to Augusta's common council in March 1856, serving as the council's president and as the city solicitor.: 1472 Career In 1856, Fuller left Maine for Chicago, Illinois.: 35  The city presented Fuller, a steadfast Democrat, with greater opportunities and a more favorable political climate.: 5  In addition, a broken engagement likely encouraged him to leave his hometown.: 32  Fuller accepted a position with a local law firm, and he also became involved in politics.: 6  Although Fuller opposed slavery, he considered it an issue for the states rather than the federal government.: 41  He supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed Kansas and Nebraska to determine the slavery issue themselves.: 42  Fuller opposed both abolitionists and secessionists, arguing instead for compromise.: 6  He campaigned for Stephen A. Douglas both in his successful 1858 Senate campaign against Abraham Lincoln and in his unsuccessful bid against Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election.: 199  When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Fuller supported military action against the Confederacy.: 6  However, he opposed the Lincoln Administration's handling of the war, and he decried many of Lincoln's actions as unconstitutional.: 199  Fuller was elected as a Democratic delegate to the failed 1862 Illinois constitutional convention.: 7  He helped develop a gerrymandered system for congressional apportionment, and he joined his fellow Democrats in supporting provisions that prohibited African-Americans from voting or settling in the state.: 7  He also advocated for court reform and for banning banks from printing of paper money.: 7  Although the convention adopted many of his proposals, voters rejected the proposed constitution in June 1862.: 7  In November 1862, Fuller was narrowly elected to a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives as a Democrat.: 8  The majority-Democrat legislature clashed with Republican governor Richard Yates and opposed the wartime policies of President Lincoln.: 8  Fuller spoke in opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation, arguing that it violated state sovereignty.: 55–56  He supported the Corwin Amendment, which would have prevented the federal government from outlawing slavery.: 8  Fuller opposed Lincoln's decision to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, believing it violated civil liberties.: 8  Yates ultimately adjourned the legislature over the vehement objections of Fuller and the Democrats.: 56  The frustrated Fuller never sought legislative office again, although he continued taking part in Democratic party politics.: 9  Fuller maintained a successful legal practice, arguing on behalf of many corporations and businessmen.: 11  He represented the city of Chicago in a land dispute with the Illinois Central Railroad.: 11  In 1869, he took on what became his most significant case: defending Chicago clergyman Charles E. Cheney, whom the Episcopal Church was attempting to remove because he disagreed with church teaching on baptismal regeneration.: 69–70  Believing the ecclesiastical court to be biased against Cheney, Fuller filed suit in Chicago Superior Court, arguing that Cheney possessed a property right in his position.: 12  The Superior Court agreed and entered an injunction against the ecclesiastical court's proceedings.: 12  On appeal, the Supreme Court of Illinois reversed the injunction, holding that the civil courts could not review church disciplinary proceedings.: 70  The ecclesiastical court found Cheney guilty, but he refused to leave his pulpit.: 12  The matter returned to the courts, where Fuller argued that only the local congregation had the right to remove Cheney.: 12  The Supreme Court of Illinois ultimately agreed, holding that the congregation's property was not under the purview of Episcopal Church leadership.: 1476  Fuller's defense of Cheney garnered him national prominence.: 13  Beginning in 1871, Fuller also litigated before the Supreme Court of the United States, arguing numerous cases.: 13  His legal practice involved many areas of law, and he became one of Chicago's most highly paid lawyers.: 13–14  He remained involved in the politics of the Democratic Party, serving as a delegate to the party convention in 1872, 1876, and 1880.: 9  Fuller supported a strict construction of the U.S. Constitution.: 14–15  He firmly opposed the printing of paper money,: 77  and he spoke out against the Supreme Court's 1884 decision in Juilliard v. Greenman upholding Congress's power to issue it.: 15  He was a supporter of states' rights and generally advocated for limited government.: 16  Fuller strongly supported President Grover Cleveland, a fellow Democrat, who agreed with many of his views.: 18  Cleveland successively attempted to appoint Fuller to chair the United States Civil Service Commission, to serve as Solicitor General, and to be a United States Pacific Railway Commissioner, but Fuller declined each nomination.: 122 Nomination to Supreme Court On March 23, 1888, Chief Justice Morrison Waite died, creating a Supreme Court vacancy for President Cleveland to fill.: 16  The Senate was narrowly under Republican control, so it was necessary for Cleveland to nominate someone who could obtain bipartisan support.: 16  Cleveland also sought to appoint a candidate who was sixty years of age or younger, since an older nominee would likely be unable to serve for very long.: 104–105  He considered Vermont native Edward J. Phelps, the ambassador to the United Kingdom, but the politically influential Irish-American community, which viewed him as an Anglophile, opposed him.: 885–886  Furthermore, the sixty-six-year-old Phelps was thought to be too old for the job, and the Supreme Court already had one justice from New England.: 106  Senator George Gray was considered, but appointing him would create a vacancy in the closely divided Senate.: 17  Cleveland eventually decided that he wanted to appoint someone from Illinois, both for political reasons and because the court had no justices from the Seventh Circuit, which included Illinois.: 17  Fuller, who had become a confidant of Cleveland, encouraged the President to appoint John Scholfield, who served on the Illinois Supreme Court.: 106–107  Cleveland offered the position to Scholfield, but he declined, apparently because his wife was too rustic for urban life in Washington, D.C.: 107  Fuller was considered because of the efforts of his friends, many of whom had written letters to Cleveland in support of him.: 107–110  At fifty-five years old, Fuller was young enough for the position, and Cleveland approved of his reputation and political views.: 108, 111  In addition, Illinois Republican senator Shelby Cullom expressed support, convincing Cleveland that Fuller would likely receive bipartisan support in the Senate.: 112  Cleveland thus offered Fuller the nomination, which he accepted reluctantly.: 113–114  Fuller was formally nominated on April 30.: 18  Public reaction to Fuller's nomination was mixed: Some newspapers lauded his character and professional career, while others criticized his comparative obscurity and his lack of experience in the federal government.: 19–20  The nomination was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Vermont Republican George F. Edmunds.: 115  Edmunds was displeased that his friend Phelps had not been appointed, so he delayed committee action and endeavored to sink Fuller's nomination.: 20  The Republicans seized upon Fuller's time in the Illinois Legislature, when he had opposed many of Lincoln's wartime policies.: 116  They portrayed him as a Copperhead – an anti-war Northern Democrat – and published a tract claiming that "[t]he records of the Illinois legislature of 1863 are black with Mr. Fuller's unworthy and unpatriotic conduct".: 20  Some Illinois Republicans, including Lincoln's son Robert, came to Fuller's defense, arguing that his actions were imprudent but not an indicator of disloyalty.: 20 : 116–117  Fuller's detractors claimed he would reverse the Supreme Court's ruling in the recent legal-tender case of Juilliard; his defenders replied he would be faithful to precedent.: 20–21  Vague allegations of professional improprieties were levied, but an investigation failed to substantiate them.: 21–22  The Judiciary Committee took no action on the nomination, and many believed that Edmunds was attempting to hold it off until after the 1888 presidential election.: 22  Cullom demanded an immediate vote, fearing that delay on Fuller's nomination could harm Republicans' prospects of winning Illinois.: 22  The committee reported the nomination without recommendation on July 2, 1888.: 33  The full Senate took up Fuller's nomination on July 20.: 22  Several prominent Republican senators, including William M. Evarts of New York, William Morris Stewart of Nevada, and Edmunds, spoke against the nomination, arguing that Fuller was a disloyal Copperhead who would misinterpret the Reconstruction Amendments and roll back the progress made by the Civil War.: 22  Illinois's two Republican senators, Cullom and Charles B. Farwell defended Fuller's actions and character.: 22  Cullom read an anti-Lincoln speech that Phelps, Edmunds's choice for the position, had given.: 120  He accused Edmunds of hypocrisy and insincerity, saying he was simply resentful that Phelps had not been chosen.: 120  The Democratic senators did not participate in the debate, aiming to let the Republicans squabble among themselves.: 120–121  When the matter came to a vote, Fuller was confirmed 41 to 20, with 15 absences. Ten Republicans, including Republican National Committee chair Matthew Quay and two senators from Fuller's home state of Maine, joined the Democrats in supporting Fuller's nomination.: 23  Fuller took the judicial oath on October 8, 1888, formally becoming Chief Justice of the United States.: 24 Chief justice Fuller served twenty-two years as chief justice, remaining in the center chair until his death in 1910. Although he lacked legal genius, his potent administrative skills made him a capable manager of the court's business.: 123 : 372  Hoping to increase the Court's collegiality, Fuller introduced the practice of the justices' shaking hands before their private conferences.: 223  He successfully maintained more-or-less cordial relationships among the justices, many of whom had large egos and difficult tempers.: 61–63  His collegiality notwithstanding, Fuller presided over a divided court: the justices split 5–4 sixty-four times during his tenure, more often than in subsequent years.: 43  Fuller himself, however, wrote few dissents, disagreeing with the majority in only 2.3 percent of cases.: 63  Fuller was the first chief justice to lobby Congress directly in support of legislation, successfully urging the adoption of the Circuit Courts of Appeals Act of 1891.: 134  The act established intermediate appellate courts, which reduced the Supreme Court's substantial backlog and allowed it to decide cases in a timely manner.: 134–135  As chief justice, Fuller was generally responsible for assigning the authorship of the court's majority opinions.: 1499–1500  He tended to use this power modestly,: 43  often assigning major cases to other justices while retaining duller ones for himself.: 1480  According to legal historian Walter F. Pratt, Fuller's writing style was "nondescript";: 219  his opinions were lengthy and contained numerous quotations.: 61  Justice Felix Frankfurter opined that Fuller was "not an opinion writer whom you read for literary enjoyment",: 889  while the scholar G. Edward White characterized his style as "diffident and not altogether successful".: 1497–1498  In 1893, Cleveland offered to appoint Fuller to be secretary of state.: 224  He declined, saying he enjoyed his work as chief justice and contending that accepting a political appointment would harm the Supreme Court's reputation for impartiality.: 45  Remaining on the Court, he accepted a seat on an 1897 commission to arbitrate the Venezuelan boundary dispute, and he served ten years on the Permanent Court of Arbitration.: 224  Fuller's health declined after 1900,: 201  and scholar David Garrow suggests that his "growing enfeeblement" inhibited his work.: 1012  In what biographer Willard King calls "[p]erhaps the worst year in the history of the Court" – the term from October 1909 to May 1910 – two justices died and one became fully incapacitated; Fuller's weakened state compounded the problem.: 309  Fuller died that July.: 309  President William Howard Taft nominated Associate Justice Edward Douglass White to replace him.: 67–68 Jurisprudence Fuller's jurisprudence is generally identified as conservative.: 1–2 : 41  He favored states' rights over federal power, attempting to prevent the national government from asserting broad control over economic matters.: 42  Yet he was also skeptical of the states' powers: he agreed with the concept of substantive due process and used it to strike down state laws that, in his view, unduly encroached upon the free market.: 1481–1482 : 42–43  Fuller took no interest in preventing racial inequality, although his views on other civil rights issues were less definitive.: 372  Much of Fuller's jurisprudence has not stood the test of time: many of his decisions have been reversed by Congress or overruled by later Supreme Court majorities.: 41  Summarizing Fuller's views of the law, scholar Irving Schiffman wrote in 1969 that "he was a conservative, laissez-faire Justice, less reactionary than some of his brethren, more compassionate than others, but a spokesman for what now seems a far-off and bygone judicial age".: 1481 Federal power Income tax According to legal scholar Bernard Schwartz, Fuller's most noteworthy decision was his 1895 opinion in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.: 184  In 1894, Congress passed the Wilson–Gorman Tariff Act, which contained a rider that levied a two-percent tax on incomes exceeding $4,000 a year.: 285  Since it imposed the nation's first peacetime income tax, this provision was deeply controversial, provoking acrimonious debate along geographic, societal, and political lines.: 117–118  Its challengers took the tax to court, where they argued that it was a direct tax that had not been apportioned evenly among the states, in violation of a provision of the Constitution.: 1487  (In practice, apportioning income tax by state would be impossible, so a ruling on this basis would doom federal income taxes.: 118 ) When the matter reached the Supreme Court, it unexpectedly agreed with the challengers and, by a 5–4 vote, struck down the income tax.: 805  The majority opinion, written by Fuller, held that the Framers intended the term "direct tax" to include property and that income was itself a form of property.: 200–203  Fuller thus ruled the entire act to be unconstitutional.: 68  The decision provoked withering criticism from each of the four dissenters, including a paroxysm of ire by Justice John Marshall Harlan that one scholar characterized as "one of the most spectacular displays ever staged by a member of the Court".: 1487 : 68–69  Harlan wrote that the decision "strikes at the very foundation of national authority", while Justice Henry Billings Brown opined it "approaches the proportion of a national calamity".: 68–69  Each dissenter decried the majority's perceived infidelity to precedent.: 162, 173  The Pollock decision was distinctly unpopular.: 173  Much of the public questioned whether Fuller's constitutional analysis was truly in good faith: many felt that the Court was more committed to protecting the wealthy than to following any particular legal philosophy.: 346  Former Oregon governor Sylvester Pennoyer even called for the impeachment of the justices in the majority.: 806  While the public outcry soon waned, support for a federal income tax grew substantially in subsequent years.: 64  The Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1913, abrogated Pollock by allowing Congress to levy income taxes without apportionment;: 1723  it marked only the third time in American history that a Supreme Court decision was reversed via constitutional amendment.: 59  However, the Supreme Court has never formally overruled Pollock's reasoning; to the contrary, Chief Justice John Roberts cited it in the 2012 Affordable Care Act case National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius.: 813  Law professor Erik M. Jensen noted in 2014 that most legal academics agree that Pollock was "obviously dead wrong";: 807  scholar Calvin H. Johnson called the decision "a terrible example of judicial bad behavior" that should be "reverse[d] in full".: 1734  Jensen takes a minority position, agreeing with Pollock: 807  and extending it to argue for the unconstitutionality of flat taxes: 2334, 2407–2414  and wealth taxes. In any event, Fuller's Pollock opinion remains relevant in contemporary public policy.: 8–9 Interstate commerce Fuller was suspicious of attempts to assert broad federal power over interstate commerce.: 186  Questions about the scope of Congress's Commerce Clause authority commonly arose in the context of the Sherman Act, a major 1890 federal antitrust law.: 128–129  In the first such case, United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895), Fuller led the Court in limiting the federal government's powers.: 154–155  The Department of Justice had filed suit under the Sherman Act against the American Sugar Refining Company, arguing that it was a monopoly because it controlled over ninety percent of the American sugar refining market.: 111  Writing for an eight-justice majority, Fuller concluded Congress could not proscribe such monopolies because they only implicated manufacturing and thus did not fall under the Commerce Clause.: 129  Stating that "[c]ommerce succeeds to manufacture and is not a part of it," he maintained that the sugar-refining trust had no direct impact on interstate commerce.: 373  Fuller feared that a broader interpretation of the Commerce Clause would impinge upon states' rights, and he thus held the Sugar Trust could only be broken up by the states in which it operated.: 130  The case displays Fuller's tendency to support a limited federal government.: 130  The legal academy generally views Knight as an unduly restrictive interpretation of the Commerce Clause,: 366–367  although legal scholar Richard Epstein has argued that it aligns with founding-era precedents.: 1399–1400  The Court's expansive Commerce Clause decisions during the New Deal period essentially abrogated Knight.: 134  Fuller participated in several other major antitrust cases.: 129  In the 1904 case of Northern Securities Co. v. United States, a majority broke up the Northern Securities Company, a railroad holding company, believing it to be a monopoly.: 132  Fuller dissented, joining opinions written by Justices Edward Douglass White and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: 336, 341  The dissenters argued that simply holding stock in a company did not count as interstate commerce, and so they would have held that the Sherman Act did not apply to holding companies.: 132–133  The justices were unanimous in Swift & Co. v. United States (1905), which gave the Court's blessing to antitrust enforcement against meat-packing companies.: 133–134  Although meat-packing did not directly involve interstate commerce, the Court held that the Commerce Clause still applied because the meat products would eventually be sold across state lines.: 133–134  Citing Swift and other cases, legal historian James W. Ely has argued that Fuller was not opposed to federal antitrust laws per se, but only to expansive readings of the Commerce Clause.: 134  In another antitrust case, Loewe v. Lawlor (1908), Fuller wrote for a unanimous Court that labor unions were subject to the Sherman Act.: 187  The ruling was commonly thought to evince antipathy toward organized labor.: 218–219  Its broad interpretation of the antitrust laws appeared difficult to reconcile with Knight,: 43  and law professor David P. Currie wrote that the apparent contradiction "suggests that [Fuller] may not have been guided exclusively by neutral legal principles".: 901  Fuller's attempts to limit the national government's power did not always meet with the support of his fellow justices.: 186  He dissented from the Court's 1903 decision in Champion v. Ames, in which five justices upheld a federal ban on transporting lottery tickets across state lines.: 75–76  In his opinion, Fuller demurred that the majority's reasoning gave Congress "the absolute and exclusive power to prohibit the transportation of anything or anybody from one state to another.: 158  He feared that the law violated the principles of federalism and states' rights protected by the Tenth Amendment.: 47  The ruling in Ames was among the first to grant the federal government a de facto police power to protect the welfare of the public.: 45  It proved a historically significant step toward expanding congressional authority, and legal scholar John Semonche wrote that by resisting it, Fuller "sought to put his finger in the dike".: 158  The chief justice also dissented in McCray v. United States, a 1904 case that approved the use of the federal taxing power for regulatory purposes.: 73  McCray effectively allowed Congress to regulate intrastate commercial activity by simply levying taxes on it; the decision curtailed Fuller's opinion in Knight and showed his support for federalism could not always garner the support of a majority of the Court.: 140–141 Substantive due process Fuller's tenure on the Supreme Court, in the words of Schiffman, "witnessed the final passing of judicial tolerance of legislative experimentation and the final acceptance of the doctrine of substantive due process".: 1481  Soon after his arrival on the Court, the chief justice began joining with his colleagues to gradually erode the states' powers to regulate economic activity.: 1481  In Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co. v. Minnesota (1890), for instance, Fuller and five other justices voted to strike down the railroad rates set by a Minnesota commission.: 108  The ruling held that the Due Process Clause contained a substantive component that subjected the states' regulatory decisions to judicial review.: 85  With Fuller's support, the Court in Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897) unanimously expanded that component, concluding the Due Process Clause protected a right to enter into contracts.: 1482 : 115  Allgeyer was the first case in the Court's history in which a state law was struck down on freedom-of-contract grounds,: 1482  and its implications stretched well beyond the insurance context in which it arose.: 96  According to Semonche, the decision heralded a "new and sweeping" interpretation of the Due Process Clause "that would haunt the Justices and American society for the next four decades".: 91  The era of substantive due process reached its zenith in the 1905 case of Lochner v. New York.: 181  Lochner involved a New York law that capped hours for bakery workers at sixty hours a week.: 520  In a decision widely viewed to be among the Supreme Court's worst,: 516  a five-justice majority held the law to be unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause.: 588–589  The opinion, written by Justice Rufus W. Peckham and joined by Fuller, maintained that the liberty protected by that clause included a right to enter labor contracts without being subject to unreasonable governmental regulation.: 1496–1497  Peckham rejected the state's argument that the law was intended to protect workers' health, citing the "common understanding" that baking was not unhealthy.: 590  He maintained that bakers could protect their own health, arguing that the law was in fact a labor regulation in disguise.: 98  In a now-famous dissent, Justice Holmes accused the majority of substituting its own economic opinions for the requirements of the Constitution.: 1500  Most scholars agree that the majority in Lochner engaged in judicial activism, substituting its own views for those of the democratically elected branches of government.: 874  The Fuller Court was not exclusively hostile to labor regulation: in Muller v. Oregon (1908), for example, it unanimously upheld an Oregon law capping women's working hours at ten hours a day.: 100–101  Nonetheless, Fuller's decision to join the majority in the Lochner case, which the Court ultimately abandoned in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (1937),: 541  is a major reason for the low estimation in which history has held him.: 109 Judicial authority Because of his support for property rights, Fuller favored a broad conception of the judicial role, endorsing doctrinal developments that expanded the federal courts' power to issue injunctions.: 185  In the case of In re Debs (1895), for instance, Fuller and his fellow justices bolstered the judiciary's authority to enjoin deprivations of public rights.: 112  The case stemmed from an 1894 strike by the American Railway Union against the Pullman Company.: 260  A Chicago federal court issued an injunction against the union's leaders, ordering them to stop facilitating the strike.: 135 : 260–261  Union president Eugene V. Debs and other union officials defied the order, and the court sentenced them to prison for contempt.: 261  Debs challenged the conviction before the Supreme Court, but it unanimously denied him relief.: 102  Broadly construing the federal government's powers, the Court held the judicial branch had the power to enjoin anything that obstructed interstate commerce.: 261  The Debs case opened the door to injunctions in labor cases,: 49–50  and it substantially expanded the courts' equitable authority.: 112  The case of Ex parte Young (1908) similarly demonstrated Fuller's support for extending the courts' ability to issue injunctions.: 185  The case involved the Eleventh Amendment, which proscribes the federal courts from hearing lawsuits brought against states.: 1110  In Young, Fuller and seven other justices endorsed a way to sidestep that prohibition: suing an official of the state instead of the state itself.: 128  The landmark: 412  decision aided the Fuller Court in its quest to strike down state economic regulations, but its reasoning has permitted the federal judiciary to hear challenges to state laws in a wide variety of other contexts.: 164  Although some modern scholars have criticized the ruling in Young, attorney Rochelle Bobroff noted in 2009 that it "remains one of the most powerful tools to compel states to comply with federal law".: 819–820  Ely characterized the decision as "a milestone in the Fuller Court's transformation of federal judicial power",: 184  and legal historian Edward A. Purcell Jr. said that it "helped create a newly powerful and activist federal judiciary that emerged at the turn of the twentieth century and continued to operate into the twenty-first".: 932  Fuller wrote the majority opinion in United States v. Shipp (1909),: 232  a singular decision in which the justices insisted that the authority of the Court be heeded.: 348  A Tennessee court sentenced Ed Johnson, an African-American man, to death for rape.: 231  His attorneys petitioned the Supreme Court for relief, arguing that racial bias had tainted the jury pool and that the threat of mob violence made the venue unfair.: 231  The Court agreed to issue a stay of execution, which prevented the death sentence from being carried out pending a ruling on Johnson's appeal.: 193–196  But John Shipp, the sheriff, removed almost all the guards from Johnson's prison, allowing a lynch mob to enter the jail and kill Johnson.: 231  Shipp, his deputies, and members of the mob were charged with contempt of court on the basis that they had spurned the Court's stay order.: 185  In the only criminal trial conducted in the Supreme Court's history,: 128  the justices sat as a jury to determine the defendants' guilt. Fuller, writing for a five-justice majority, found Shipp and several other defendants guilty of contempt.: 333–334  In his opinion, the chief justice wrote Shipp had "not only made the work of the mob easy, but in effect aided and abetted it", acting "in utter disregard of this court's mandate and in defiance of this court's orders".: 332–334  While the decision did not signal a sudden benevolence toward civil rights claims,: 128  Mark Curriden and Leroy Phillips write it constituted "the only proactive step the U.S. Supreme Court has ever taken to combat mob rule directly and demand that the public respect its authority and the authority of the rule of law".: 348 Race In the words of legal scholar John V. Orth, Fuller "preside[d] comfortably over a Court that turned a blind eye to racial injustice".: 372  In the infamous: 15  case of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), he joined six of his colleagues in upholding a Louisiana law that required the racial segregation of railroad passengers.: 321, 333 : 35  The majority opinion, penned by Justice Brown, rejected the claim that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause, maintaining instead that "separate but equal" distinctions were constitutional.: 321 : 397  Citing "the nature of things", the majority asserted that equal protection did not require the "commingling" of blacks and whites.: 398  Brown also argued that the Louisiana law did not suggest that blacks were inferior,: 321  stating that it was based on "the established usages, customs and traditions of the people". Justice Harlan dissented, using in the process the now-famous phrase "Our Constitution is color-blind.": 10  The Plessy decision placed the Court's imprimatur on Jim Crow laws.: 24  It instituted a half-century of what Louis H. Pollak called "humiliation-by-law",: 35  which continued until the Court reversed course in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).: 9–10  Fuller's decision to join the majority in Plessy has contributed significantly to his poor historical reputation.: 109  The Fuller Court was no more liberal in other cases involving race: to the contrary, it curtailed even the limited progress toward equality made under Fuller's predecessors.: 198–200  For instance, Fuller joined the unanimous majority in Williams v. Mississippi (1898), which rejected a challenge to poll taxes and literacy tests that in effect disenfranchised Mississippi's African-American population.: 117  Even though a lower court had admitted the arrangement was intended "to obstruct the exercise of suffrage by the negro race", the Supreme Court refused to strike it down, reasoning that the provisions passed constitutional muster because they did not explicitly single out African-Americans.: 96  The Williams majority distanced itself from the Court's previous ruling in Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), in which the Waite Court had struck down a law that, while neutral on its face, discriminated against a racial minority.: 199 : 96–97  In a 2021 book, Vernon Burton and Armand Derfner characterized Williams as one "of the most disgraceful decisions in Supreme Court history", writing it "abandoned Yick Wo" and "erased the Fifteenth Amendment".: 96–97  Fuller was among the seven justices who joined the majority opinion in Berea College v. Kentucky (1908),: 129  a segregation case in which the Court refused to apply its freedom-of-contract principles in defense of racial equality.: 104–106  The decision involved the Commonwealth of Kentucky's Day Law, which required private colleges to segregate their students.: 335, 337  In its challenge to the statute, Berea College cited Lochner and other similar cases to argue the law was "an arbitrary interference with the rights of the people in the conduct of their private business and in the pursuit of their ordinary occupations".: 731  Such reasoning seemed likely to persuade the Court, given its history of striking down laws that interfered with the business decisions of private entities.: 447–448  But the justices were not convinced, upholding the law on the basis that, because corporations had no right to be granted a charter, states could impose otherwise unconstitutional restrictions on them.: 337  Again dissenting, Justice Harlan criticized the law's infringement on the economic-freedom principles that the Court had articulated in other cases.: 732  The majority's reasoning stood in conspicuous conflict with its support for corporate rights in other contexts: 159  and Donald Lively wrote the ruling "illuminated the evolving duality of Fourteenth Amendment standards".: 94 Citizenship, immigration, and the territories As a result of the Spanish–American War, the United States took control of Puerto Rico and the Philippines, raising knotty legal issues about their status under the Constitution.: 430  The Supreme Court addressed these disputes in a series of rulings in the so-called Insular Cases.: 489  In Downes v. Bidwell (1901), a fractured Court ruled 5–4 that the people living in the territories were not entitled to the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.: 225–229  Fuller, writing for the four dissenters, argued that Congress had no power to hold the territories "like a disembodied shade" free from all constitutional limits.: 792  He contended that the Constitution could not tolerate unrestricted congressional power over the territories, writing that it rejected that proposition in a way "too plain and unambiguous to permit its meaning to be thus influenced".: 72  Fuller's opinion was in line both with his strict-constructionist views and his party's opposition to American imperialism.: 176  While the Court has never adopted Fuller's position,: 182  scholars such as Juan R. Torruella have argued that it correctly interpreted the Constitution.: 73, 94–95  Fuller joined the majority in another of the Insular Cases: DeLima v. Bidwell (1901).: 1490  The Court held – again by a 5–4 vote — that Puerto Rico did not constitute a foreign country for purposes of federal tariff law.: 793–794  Put together, Downes and DeLima meant that the territories were neither domestic nor foreign under American law.: 795  The Court was similarly unclear in Gonzales v. Williams (1904).: 7  In a unanimous opinion by Fuller, the Justices ruled that Puerto Ricans were not aliens under federal law, but they refused to decide whether the people of Puerto Rico were American citizens.: 23  In Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States (1890), a case involving Congress's power over the Utah Territory, a six-justice majority upheld an anti-polygamy law that dissolved the charter of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and seized its property.: 109 : 31  Fuller penned a dissent, in which he maintained that Congress had no authority to order the confiscation of property.: 34–35  Rejecting the majority's broader interpretation of federal power, Fuller expressed fear that the decision would afford Congress "absolute power" over the denizens of the territories.: 178 : 35  Ultimately, Fuller's position was vindicated: Congress later passed a joint resolution restoring the church's property.: 148  Fuller was rarely amenable to the claims of Chinese immigrants.: 312  In the 1889 Chinese Exclusion Case, for instance, he joined Justice Stephen Field's opinion: 312  that unanimously rejected a challenge to the Chinese Exclusion Act.: 31  Although treaties with China allowed for immigration, the Court held that Congress was not bound by them, ruling that the Act abrogated all treaty obligations to the contrary.: 31  In Fong Yue Ting v. United States (1893), a majority held Congress had total authority over aliens and that they could be expelled on any basis.: 487–488  Three justices, including Fuller, dissented, arguing that aliens were at least entitled to some Constitutional protections.: 14  According to Ely, Fuller's dissent shows that he "occasionally demonstrated concern over civil liberties".: 187  But he also dissented in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898),: 313  in which the Court ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment ensured birthright citizenship – automatic citizenship for all children born on American soil.: 1248–1249  Writing for himself and Justice Harlan, Fuller claimed Chinese aliens were not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States because they retained allegiance to the Chinese emperor.: 146  Based on that fact, he concluded their children had no claim to American citizenship.: 146  The Wong Kim Ark decision has taken on additional significance as prominent Republican politicians, including Donald Trump, have called for the reversal of birthright citizenship.: 1187–1188 Personal life Fuller was married twice, first to Calista Reynolds, whom he wed in 1858.: 10  They had two children before she died of tuberculosis in 1864.: 199  Fuller remarried in 1866, wedding Mary Ellen Coolbaugh, the daughter of William F. Coolbaugh.: 1475  The couple had an additional eight children,: 904  and they remained married until her death in 1904.: 299  A member of the Chicago Literary Club, Fuller was interested in poetry and other forms of literature; his personal library held over six thousand books.: 199–200  During his confirmation, Fuller's mustache produced what law professor Todd Peppers called "a curious national anxiety".: 147  No Chief Justice had ever before had a mustache, and numerous newspapers debated the propriety of Fuller's facial hair.: 142  The New York Sun praised it as "uncommonly luxuriant and beautiful", while the Jackson Standard quipped that "Fuller's mustache is a good quality for a Democratic politician—it shuts his mouth.": 141–143  After Fuller's confirmation, the Sun switched course: it denounced his "deplorable moustaches", speculating they would distract attorneys and "detract from the dignity" of the Court.: 143–144  The column triggered further debate in the nation's newspapers, with much of the press coming to Fuller's defense.: 144  The commentary notwithstanding, Fuller kept the mustache.: 23–24 Death While at his summer home in Sorrento, Maine, Fuller died on July 4, 1910, of a heart attack.: 224  Upon hearing of his death, President Taft praised Fuller as "a great judge"; Theodore Roosevelt said "I admired the Chief Justice as a fearless and upright judge, and I was exceedingly attached to him personally." James E. Freeman, who later served as the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, conducted the funeral service.: 329  Fuller was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.: 371 Legacy Fuller's time on the Supreme Court has often been roundly criticized: 109  or overlooked altogether.: 150  His support of the widely execrated Plessy and Lochner decisions has been particularly responsible for his low historical reputation.: 109  Many Fuller Court decisions were later overruled;: 205  its positions on economic regulation and labor fared particularly poorly.: 37  Fuller's rulings were often favorable to corporations, and some scholars have claimed that the Fuller Court was biased towards big business and against the working class.: 148–151  Fuller wrote few consequential majority opinions, leading Yale professor John P. Frank to remark that "[i]f the measure of distinction is influence on the life of our own times, Fuller's score is as close to zero as any man's could be who held his high office so long".: 202  In addition, as William Rehnquist – himself a chief justice – noted, Fuller's more assertive colleagues Holmes and Harlan overshadowed him in the eyes of history.: 796  Yet the Fuller Court's jurisprudence was also a key source of the legal academy's criticism.: 37  Asserting that its justices "ignored the Fundamental Law", Princeton professor Alpheus T. Mason argued that "[t]he tribunal Fuller headed was a body dominated by fear—the fear of populists, of socialists, and communists, of numbers, majorities and democracy".: 607  However, the growth of conservative legal thought in the late 20th century has brought Fuller new supporters.: 109  A 1993 survey of judges and legal academics found that Fuller's reputation, while still categorized as "average", had risen from the level recorded in a 1970 assessment.: 402, 428  In a 1995 book, James W. Ely argued that the traditional criticisms of the Fuller Court are flawed, maintaining that its decisions were based on principle instead of partisanship.: 101–02  He noted that Fuller and his fellow justices rendered rulings that generally conformed with contemporaneous public opinion.: 213–14  Both Bruce Ackerman and Howard Gillman defended the Fuller Court on similar grounds, arguing that the justices' decisions fit in with the era's zeitgeist.: 47  Lawrence Reed of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy wrote in 2006 that Fuller was "a model Chief Justice", favorably citing his economic jurisprudence. While these revisionist ideas have become influential in the scholarly academy, they have not attained universal support: many academics continue to favor more critical views of the Fuller Court.: 514  Yale professor Owen M. Fiss, himself sympathetic to the revisionists' views,: 513–14  noted in 1993 that "by all accounts", the Fuller Court "ranks among the worst".: 3  In a 1998 review of Ely's book, law professor John Cary Sims argued that Fuller and his fellow justices failed to fulfill their obligation to go "against the prevailing political winds" instead of simply deferring to the majority.: 102–03  George Skouras, writing in 2011, rejected the ideas of Ely, Ackerman, and Gillman, agreeing instead with the Progressive argument that the Fuller Court favored corporations over vulnerable Americans.: 57–58  Fuller's legacy came under substantial scrutiny amidst racial unrest in 2020, with many condemning him for his vote in Plessy. Statue In 2013, a statue of Fuller, donated by a cousin, was installed on the lawn in front of Augusta's Kennebec County Courthouse. With Black Lives Matter protests and other attention in 2020, focus on the Plessy decision led to debate about the appropriateness of the statue's placement. In August 2020, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court requested that the statue be removed, citing Plessy. Kennebec County commissioners held a public hearing in December; a majority of participants favored the statue's removal. In February 2021, the county commissioners voted unanimously to move the statue from county property, citing a desire to dissociate the county from racial segregation. Commissioners appointed a committee to identify a new home for the statue. In April 2021, the original donor offered to take the statue back, agreeing to pay the costs for removing it. County commissioners accepted the offer later that month; they agreed that the statue could remain in front of the courthouse for up to a year while the original donor attempted to find a new location where it can be displayed. In February 2022, the statue was removed and placed in storage. See also References External links Media related to Melville W. Fuller at Wikimedia Commons Works by or about Melville Fuller at Wikisource

William_Henry_Harrison

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

William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States from March 4 to April 4, 1841, the shortest presidency in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causing a brief constitutional crisis since presidential succession was not then fully defined in the U.S. Constitution. Harrison was the last president born as a British subject in the Thirteen Colonies and was the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd U.S. president. Harrison was born into the Harrison family of Virginia in 1773 as a son of Benjamin Harrison V, a U.S. Founding Father. In 1794, Harrison participated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, an American military victory that ended the Northwest Indian War. In 1811, he led a military force against Tecumseh's confederacy at the Battle of Tippecanoe, where he earned the nickname "Old Tippecanoe". He was promoted to major general in the Army during the War of 1812, and led American infantry and cavalry to victory at the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada. Harrison's political career began in 1798, with an appointment as secretary of the Northwest Territory. In 1799, he was elected as the territory's non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. He became governor of the newly established Indiana Territory in 1801 and negotiated multiple treaties with American Indian tribes, with the nation acquiring millions of acres. After the War of 1812, he moved to Ohio where, in 1816, he was elected to represent the state's 1st district in the House. In 1824, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, though his Senate term was cut short by his appointment as minister plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia in 1828. Harrison returned to private life in Ohio until he was nominated as one of several Whig Party nominees in the 1836 U.S. presidential election, in which he lost to Democratic vice president Martin Van Buren. In the 1840 presidential election, the party nominated him again, with John Tyler as his running mate, under the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", and Harrison defeated Van Buren. Just three weeks after his inauguration, Harrison fell ill and died days later. After resolution of an ambiguity in the constitution regarding succession to the powers and duties of the office, Tyler became president. Harrison is remembered for his Indian treaties, and also his inventive election campaign tactics. He is often omitted in historical presidential rankings because of his brief tenure. Early life and education William Henry Harrison was the seventh and youngest child of Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth (Bassett) Harrison. Born on February 9, 1773, at Berkeley Plantation, the home of the Harrison family of Virginia on the James River in Charles City County, he became the last United States president not born as an American citizen. The Harrisons were a prominent political family of English descent whose ancestors had been in Virginia since the 1630s. His father was a Virginia planter, who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777) and who signed the Declaration of Independence. His father also served in the Virginia legislature and as the fifth governor of Virginia (1781–1784) in the years during and after the American Revolutionary War. Harrison's older brother Carter Bassett Harrison represented Virginia in the House of Representatives (1793–1799). William Henry often referred to himself as a "child of the revolution", as indeed he was, having grown up in a home just 30 mi (48 km) from where Washington won the war against the British in the Battle of Yorktown. Harrison was tutored at home until age 14 when he attended Hampden–Sydney College, a Presbyterian college in Hampden Sydney, Virginia. He studied there for three years, receiving a classical education that included Latin, Greek, French, logic, and debate. His Episcopalian father removed him from the college, possibly for religious reasons, and after brief stays at an academy in Southampton County, Virginia, and with his elder brother Benjamin in Richmond, he went to Philadelphia in 1790. His father died in the spring of 1791, and he was placed in the care of Robert Morris, a close family friend in Philadelphia. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. During his time at Penn, he studied with Doctor Benjamin Rush, a Founding Father of the United States and a Penn professor of chemistry and medicine and William Shippen Sr. His older brother inherited their father's money, so he lacked the funds for his further medical schooling, which he had also discovered he didn't prefer. He therefore withdrew from Penn, though school archives record him as a "non-graduate alumnus of Penn's medical school class of 1793". With the influence of his father's friend, Governor Henry Lee III, he embarked upon a military career. Early military career On August 16, 1791, within 24 hours of meeting Lee, Harrison, age 18, was commissioned as an ensign in the Army and assigned to the First American Regiment. He was initially assigned to Fort Washington, Cincinnati in the Northwest Territory where the army was engaged in the ongoing Northwest Indian War. Biographer William W. Freehling says that young Harrison, in his first military act, rounded up about eighty thrill-seekers and troublemakers off Philadelphia's streets, talked them into signing enlistment papers, and marched them to Fort Washington. Harrison was promoted to lieutenant after Major General "Mad Anthony" Wayne took command of the western army in 1792, following a disastrous defeat under Arthur St. Clair. In 1793, he became Wayne's aide-de-camp and acquired the skills to command an army on the frontier; he participated in Wayne's decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, which ended the Northwest Indian War. He received the following commendation from Wayne for his role in the battle: "I must add the name of my faithful and gallant Aide-de-camp ... Lieutenant Harrison, who ... rendered the most essential service by communicating my orders in every direction ... conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press for victory." Harrison was a signatory of the Treaty of Greenville (1795), as witness to Wayne, the principal negotiator for the U.S. Under the terms of the treaty, a coalition of Indians ceded a portion of their lands to the federal government, opening two-thirds of Ohio to settlement. At his mother's death in 1793, Harrison inherited a portion of his family's Virginia estate, including approximately 3,000 acres (12 km2) of land and several slaves. He was serving in the Army at the time and sold the land to his brother. Harrison was promoted to captain in May 1797 and resigned from the Army on June 1, 1798. Marriage and family Harrison met Anna Tuthill Symmes of North Bend, Ohio in 1795 when he was 22. She was a daughter of Anna Tuthill and Judge John Cleves Symmes, who served as a colonel in the Revolutionary War and as a representative to the Congress of the Confederation. Harrison asked the judge for permission to marry Anna but was refused, so the couple waited until Symmes left on business. They then eloped and were married on November 25, 1795, at the North Bend home of Stephen Wood, treasurer of the Northwest Territory. They honeymooned at Fort Washington, since Harrison was still on military duty. Judge Symmes confronted him two weeks later at a farewell dinner for General Wayne, sternly demanding to know how he intended to support a family. Harrison responded, "by my sword, and my own right arm, sir". The match was advantageous for Harrison, as he eventually exploited his father-in-law's connections with land speculators, which facilitated his departure from the army. Judge Symmes' doubts about him persisted, as he wrote to a friend, "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach, and if he could plow I should be satisfied." Matters eventually became cordial with the father-in-law, who later sold the Harrisons 160 acres (65 ha) of land in North Bend, which enabled Harrison to build a home and start a farm. Anna was frequently in poor health during the marriage, primarily because of her many pregnancies, yet she outlived William by 23 years, dying on February 25, 1864, at 88. The Harrisons had ten children: Elizabeth Bassett (1796–1846) John Cleves Symmes (1798–1830), who married the only surviving daughter of Zebulon Pike Lucy Singleton (1800–1826) William Henry Jr. (1802–1838) John Scott (1804–1878), father of future U.S. president Benjamin Harrison Benjamin (1806–1840) Mary Symmes (1809–1842) Carter Bassett (1811–1839) Anna Tuthill (1813–1865) James Findlay (1814–1817) Professor Kenneth R. Janken, in his biography of Walter Francis White, claims that Harrison had six children by an enslaved African-American woman named Dilsia and gave four of them to a brother before running for president to avoid scandal. The assertion is based on the White family's oral history. In her 2012 biography of Harrison, author Gail Collins describes this as an unlikely story, although White believed it to be true. Political career Harrison began his political career when he temporarily resigned from the military on June 1, 1798, and campaigned among his friends and family for a post in the Northwest Territorial government. His close friend Timothy Pickering was serving as Secretary of State, and along with Judge Symmes' influence, he was recommended to replace Winthrop Sargent, the outgoing territorial secretary. President John Adams appointed Harrison to the position in July 1798. The work of recording the activities of the territory was tedious, and he soon became bored, and sought a position in the U. S. Congress. U.S. Congress Harrison had many friends in the eastern aristocracy and quickly gained a reputation among them as a frontier leader. He ran a successful horse-breeding enterprise that won him acclaim throughout the Northwest Territory. Congress had legislated a territorial policy that led to high land costs, a primary concern for settlers in the Territory; Harrison became their champion to lower those prices. The Northwest Territory's population reached a sufficient number to have a congressional delegate in October 1799, and Harrison ran for election. He campaigned to encourage further migration to the territory, which eventually led to statehood. Harrison defeated Arthur St. Clair Jr. by one vote to become the Northwest Territory's first congressional delegate in 1798 at age 26, and served in the Sixth United States Congress from March 4, 1799, to May 14, 1800. He had no authority to vote on legislative bills, but he was permitted to serve on a committee, to submit legislation, and to engage in debate. He became chairman of the Committee on Public Lands and promoted the Land Act of 1800, which made it easier to buy Northwest Territory land in smaller tracts at a lower cost. Freeholders were permitted to buy smaller lots with a down payment of only five percent, and this became an important factor in the Territory's rapid population growth. Harrison was also instrumental in arranging the division of the Territory into two sections. The eastern section continued to be known as the Northwest Territory and included present-day Ohio and eastern Michigan; the western section was named the Indiana Territory and included present-day Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, a portion of western Michigan, and an eastern portion of Minnesota. The two new territories were formally established by law in 1800. On May 13, 1800, President John Adams appointed Harrison as the governor of the Indiana Territory, based on his ties to the west and his apparent neutral political stances. He served in this capacity for twelve years. His governorship was confirmed by the Senate and he resigned from Congress to become the first Indiana territorial governor in 1801. Indiana territorial governor Harrison began his duties on January 10, 1801, at Vincennes, the capital of the Indiana Territory. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were members of the Democratic-Republican Party, and they reappointed him as governor in 1803, 1806, and 1809. In 1804, Harrison was assigned to administer the civilian government of the District of Louisiana. He conducted the district's affairs for five weeks until the Louisiana Territory was formally established on July 4, 1805, and Brigadier General James Wilkinson assumed the duties of governor. In 1805, Harrison built a plantation-style home near Vincennes that he named Grouseland, in tribute to the birds on the property. The 26-room home was one of the first brick structures in the territory; and it served as a center of social and political life in the territory during his tenure as governor. Harrison founded a university at Vincennes in 1801, which was incorporated as Vincennes University on November 29, 1806. The territorial capital was eventually moved to Corydon in 1813, and Harrison built a second home at nearby Harrison Valley. Harrison's primary responsibility was to obtain title to Indian lands that would allow future settlement and increase the territory's population, a requirement for statehood. He was also eager to expand the territory for personal reasons, as his political fortunes were tied to Indiana's eventual statehood. While benefiting from land speculation on his own behalf, and acquiring two milling operations, he was credited as a good administrator, with significant improvements in roads and other infrastructure. When Harrison was reappointed as the Indiana territorial governor on February 8, 1803, he was given expanded authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the Indians. The 1804 Treaty of St. Louis with Quashquame required the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes to cede much of western Illinois and parts of Missouri. Many of the Sauk resented the loss of lands, especially their leader Black Hawk. Harrison thought that the Treaty of Grouseland (1805) appeased some of the Indians, but tensions remained high along the frontier. The Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809) raised new tensions when Harrison purchased more than 2.5 million acres (10,000 km2) from the Potawatomi, Delaware, Miami, and Eel River tribes. Some Indians disputed the authority of the tribes joining in the treaty. Harrison was also able to conduct matters unquestioned by the government, as the administration changed hands from Jefferson to Madison. He pursued the treaty process aggressively, offering large subsidies to the tribes and their leaders, so as to gain political favor with Jefferson before his departure. Biographer Freehling asserts that the Indians perceived the ownership of land was as common to all, just as the air that is breathed. In 1805, Harrison succeeded in acquiring for the nation as many as 51,000,000 acres from the Indians, after plying five of their chiefs with alcohol, for no more than a dollar per 20,000 acres ($20.35 in 2023), and comprising two-thirds of Illinois and sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri. In addition to resulting tensions with the Indians, Harrison's pro-slavery position made him unpopular with the Indiana Territory's abolitionists, as he tried in vain to encourage slavery in the territory. In 1803, he had lobbied Congress to temporarily suspend for ten years Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance prohibiting slavery in the Indiana Territory. Though Harrison asserted that the suspension was necessary to promote settlement and make the territory economically viable and ready for statehood, the proposal failed. Lacking the suspension of Article VI, in 1807 the territorial legislature, with Harrison's support, enacted laws that authorized indentured servitude and gave masters authority to determine the length of service. President Jefferson, primary author of the Northwest Ordinance, made a secret compact with James Lemen to defeat the nascent pro-slavery movement supported by Harrison. He donated $100 to encourage Lemen with abolition and other good works, and later (in 1808) another $20 ($382.00 in 2023) to help fund the church known as Bethel Baptist Church. In Indiana, the planting of the anti-slavery church led to citizens signing a petition and organizing politically to defeat Harrison's efforts to legalize slavery in the territory. The Indiana Territory held elections to the legislature's upper and lower houses for the first time in 1809. Harrison found himself at odds with the legislature after the abolitionists came to power, and the eastern portion of the Indiana Territory grew to include a large anti-slavery population. The Territory's general assembly convened in 1810, and its anti-slavery faction immediately repealed the indenturing laws previously enacted. After 1809, the Indiana legislature assumed more authority and the territory advanced toward statehood. Army general Tecumseh and Tippecanoe Indian resistance to American expansion came to a head, with the leadership of Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa ("The Prophet"), in a conflict that became known as Tecumseh's War. Tenskwatawa convinced the tribes that they would be protected by the Great Spirit and that no harm could befall them if they rose up against the settlers. He encouraged resistance by telling the tribes to pay white traders only half of what they owed and to give up all the white man's ways, including their clothing, muskets, and especially whiskey. Harrison received word of the resistance through spies he had placed within the tribes, and asked Madison to fund military preparations. Madison dragged his feet, and Harrison attempted to negotiate, sending a letter to Tecumseh saying, "Our Blue Coats (U.S. Army soldiers) are more numerous than you can count, and our hunting shirts (volunteer militiamen) are like the leaves of the forests or the grains of sand on the Wabash." In August 1810, Tecumseh led 400 warriors down the Wabash River to meet with Harrison in Vincennes. They were dressed in war paint, and their sudden appearance at first frightened the soldiers at Vincennes. The leaders of the group were escorted to Grouseland, where they met Harrison. Tecumseh berated the condescending Harrison repeatedly, and insisted that the Fort Wayne Treaty was illegitimate, arguing that one tribe could not sell land without the approval of the other tribes. He asked Harrison to nullify it and warned that Americans should not attempt to settle the lands sold in the treaty. Tecumseh informed Harrison that he had threatened to kill the chiefs who signed the treaty if they carried out its terms and that his confederation of tribes was growing rapidly. Harrison said that the individual tribes were the owners of the land and could sell it as they wished. He rejected Tecumseh's claim that all the Indians formed one nation and said that each tribe could have separate relations with the United States if they chose to do so. Harrison argued that the Great Spirit would have made all the tribes speak one language if they were to be one nation. Tecumseh launched an "impassioned rebuttal", in the words of one historian, but Harrison was unable to understand his language. Tecumseh then began shouting at Harrison and called him a liar. A Shawnee friendly to Harrison cocked his pistol from the sidelines to alert Harrison that Tecumseh's speech was leading to trouble, and some witnesses reported that Tecumseh was encouraging the warriors to kill Harrison. Many of them began to pull their weapons, representing a substantial threat to Harrison and the town, which held a population of only 1,000. Harrison drew his sword, and Tecumseh's warriors backed down when the officers presented their firearms in his defense. Chief Winamac was friendly to Harrison, and he countered Tecumseh's arguments, telling the warriors that they should return home in peace since they had come in peace. Before leaving, Tecumseh informed Harrison that he would seek an alliance with the British if the Fort Wayne Treaty was not nullified. After the meeting, Tecumseh journeyed to meet with many of the tribes in the region, hoping to create a confederation to battle the United States. Harrison was concerned that Tecumseh's actions would endanger the statehood of Indiana, as well as his political future, leaving it "the haunt of a few wretched savages". Tecumseh was traveling in 1811, leaving Tenskwatawa in charge of Indian forces. Harrison saw a window of opportunity in Tecumseh's absence, and advised Secretary of War William Eustis to present a show of force to the Indian confederation. Despite being 13 years removed from military action, Harrison convinced Madison and Eustis to allow him to assume command. He led an army north with 950 men to intimidate the Shawnee into making peace, but the tribes launched a surprise attack early on November 7 in the Battle of Tippecanoe. Harrison countered and defeated the tribal forces at Prophetstown next to the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers; the battle became famous and he was hailed as a national hero. Although his troops had suffered 62 dead and 126 wounded during the battle and the Shawnee just 150 casualties, the Shawnee prophet's vision of spiritual protection had been shattered. Tenskwatawa and his forces fled to Canada, and their campaign to unite the tribes of the region to reject assimilation failed. When reporting to Secretary Eustis, Harrison had informed him of the battle near the Tippecanoe River and that he had anticipated an attack. A first dispatch had not been clear which side had won the conflict, and the secretary interpreted it as a defeat until the follow-up dispatch clarified the situation. When no second attack came, the Shawnee defeat had become more certain. Eustis demanded to know why Harrison had not taken adequate precautions in fortifying his camp against the initial attack, and Harrison said that he had considered the position strong enough. The dispute was the catalyst of a disagreement between Harrison and the Department of War, which continued into the War of 1812. Freehling says that Harrison's rusty skills resulted in his troops setting campfires the night before the battle, exposing their position to a surprise attack and casualties. The press did not cover the battle at first, until one Ohio paper misinterpreted Harrison's first dispatch to mean that he was defeated. By December, however, most major American papers carried stories on the battle victory, and public outrage grew over the Shawnee. Americans blamed the British for inciting the tribes to violence and supplying them with firearms, and Congress passed resolutions condemning the British for interfering in American domestic affairs. Congress declared war on June 18, 1812, and Harrison left Vincennes to seek a military appointment. War of 1812 The outbreak of war with the British in 1812 led to continued conflict with Indians in the Northwest. Harrison briefly served as a major general in the Kentucky militia until the government commissioned him on September 17 to command the Army of the Northwest. He received federal military pay for his service, and he also collected a territorial governor's salary from September until December 28, when he formally resigned as governor and continued his military service. Authors Gugin and St. Clair claim the resignation was forced upon him. Harrison was succeeded by John Gibson as acting governor of the territory. The Americans suffered a defeat in the siege of Detroit. General James Winchester offered Harrison the rank of brigadier general, but Harrison wanted sole command of the army. President James Madison removed Winchester from command in September, and Harrison became commander of the fresh recruits. He received orders to retake Detroit and boost morale, but he initially held back, unwilling to press the war northward. The British and their Indian allies greatly outnumbered Harrison's troops, so Harrison constructed a defensive position during the winter along the Maumee River in northwest Ohio. He named it Fort Meigs in honor of Ohio governor Return J. Meigs Jr. He then received reinforcements in 1813, took the offensive, and led the army north to battle. He won victories in the Indiana Territory as well as Ohio and recaptured Detroit before invading Upper Canada (Ontario). His army defeated the British, and Tecumseh was killed, on October 5, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames. It was considered to be one of the great American victories in the war, second only to the Battle of New Orleans, and secured a national reputation for Harrison. In 1814, Secretary of War John Armstrong divided the command of the army, assigning Harrison to an outlying post and giving control of the front to one of Harrison's subordinates. Armstrong and Harrison had disagreed over the lack of coordination and effectiveness in the invasion of Canada, and Harrison resigned from the army in May. After the war ended, Congress investigated Harrison's resignation and determined that Armstrong had mistreated him during his military campaign and that his resignation was justified. Congress awarded Harrison a gold medal for his services during the war. Harrison and Michigan Territory's Governor Lewis Cass were responsible for negotiating the peace treaty with the Indians. President Madison appointed Harrison in June 1815 to help in negotiating a second treaty with the Indians that became known as the Treaty of Springwells, in which the tribes ceded a large tract of land in the west, providing additional land for American purchase and settlement. Postwar life Ohio politician and diplomat Harrison resigned from the army in 1814, shortly before the conclusion of the War of 1812, and returned to his family and farm in North Bend, Ohio. Freehling claims that his expenses then well exceeded his means and he fell into debt, that Harrison chose "celebrity over duty", as he sought the adulation found at parties in New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, and that he became an office seeker. He was elected in 1816 to complete John McLean's term in the House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 1st congressional district until 1819. He attempted to secure the post as Secretary of War under President Monroe in 1817 but lost out to John C. Calhoun. He was also passed over for a diplomatic post to Russia. He was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1819 and served until 1821, having lost the election for Ohio governor in 1820. He ran in the 1822 election for the United States House of Representatives, but lost to James W. Gazlay. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1824, and was an Ohio presidential elector in 1820 for James Monroe and for Henry Clay in 1824. Harrison was appointed in 1828 as minister plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia, so he resigned from Congress and served in his new post until March 8, 1829. He arrived in Bogotá on December 22, 1828, and found the condition of Colombia saddening. He reported to the Secretary of State that the country was on the edge of anarchy, and that Simón Bolívar was about to become a military dictator. He wrote a letter of polite rebuke to Bolívar, stating that "the strongest of all governments is that which is most free" and calling on Bolívar to encourage the development of democracy. In response, Bolívar wrote that the United States "seem destined by Providence to plague America with torments in the name of freedom", a sentiment that achieved fame in Latin America. Freehling indicates Harrison's missteps in Colombia were "bad and frequent", that he failed to properly maintain a position of neutrality in Colombian affairs, by publicly opposing Bolivar, and that Colombia sought his removal. Andrew Jackson took office in March 1829, and recalled Harrison in order to make his own appointment to the position. Biographer James Hall claims that Harrison found in Colombia a military despotism and that "his liberal opinions, his stern republican integrity, and the plain simplicity of his dress and manners, contrasted too strongly with the arbitrary opinions and ostentatious behaviour of the public officers, to allow him to be long a favourite with those who had usurped the power of that government. They feared that the people would perceive the difference between a real and a pretended patriot, and commenced a series of persecutions against our minister, which rendered his situation extremely irksome." A very similar sentiment of the situation is related by biographer Samuel Burr. Harrison, after leaving his post but while still in the country, wrote his roughly ten-page letter to Bolivar, which is reproduced in full in the Hall and Burr biographies. It left the former struck by Harrison's "deeply imbued principles of liberty". Burr describes the letter as "replete with wisdom, goodness, and patriotism…and the purest of principles". Private citizen Harrison returned to the United States and his North Bend farm, living in relative privacy after nearly four decades of government service. He had accumulated no substantial wealth during his lifetime, and he lived on his savings, a small pension, and the income produced by his farm. Burr references M. Chavalier, who encountered Harrison in Cincinnati at this time, and described Harrison as "poor, with a numerous family, abandoned by the Federal government, yet vigorous with independent thinking". In May 1817, Harrison served as one of the founding vestry members of the Episcopal congregation, Christ Church in downtown Cincinnati (now Christ Church Cathedral). Harrison went on to serve as a vestry member through 1819, and then again in 1824. Local supporters had come to Harrison's relief, by appointing him Clerk of Courts for Hamilton County, where he worked from 1836 until 1840. Chevalier remarked, "His friends back east talk of making him President, while here we make him clerk of an inferior court." He also cultivated corn and established a distillery to produce whiskey, but closed it after he became disturbed by the effects of alcohol on its consumers. In an address to the Hamilton County Agricultural Board in 1831, he said that he had sinned in making whiskey and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and stop the production of liquors. About this time, he met abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor George DeBaptiste who lived in nearby Madison, and the two became friends. Harrison wrote at the time, "we might look forward to a day when a North American sun would not look down upon a slave." DeBaptiste became his valet, and later White House steward. Burr closes his account of Harrison by describing an event, denied by some of his friends—a reception given the general at Philadelphia, in 1836. According to Burr, "Thousands and tens of thousands crowded Chesnut street wharf upon his arrival, and greeted him with continual cheering as he landed. He stepped into the barouche but the crowd pressed forward so impetuously, that the horses became frightened and reared frequently. A rush was made to unharness the animals when the General spoke to several of them and endeavored to prevent it; but the team was soon unmanageable, and it became necessary to take them off. A rope was brought, and attached to the carriage, by which the people drew it to the Marshall House. This act was the spontaneous burst of ten thousand grateful hearts. Pennsylvanians fought under the hero, and they loved him. We speak particularly on this point, because we were eyewitnesses of all that passed." 1836 presidential campaign Harrison was the western Whig candidate for president in 1836, one of four regional Whig party candidates. The others were Daniel Webster, Hugh L. White, and Willie P. Mangum. More than one Whig candidate emerged in an effort to defeat the incumbent Vice President Martin Van Buren, who was the popular Jackson-chosen Democrat. The Democrats charged that, by running several candidates, the Whigs sought to prevent a Van Buren victory in the electoral college, and force the election into the House. In any case the plan, if there was one, failed. In the end, Harrison came in second, and carried nine of the twenty-six states in the Union. Harrison ran in all the non-slave states except Massachusetts, and in the slave states of Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. White ran in the remaining slave states except for South Carolina. Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts, and Mangum in South Carolina. Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes. A swing of just over 4,000 votes in Pennsylvania would have given that state's 30 electoral votes to Harrison and the election would have been decided in the House of Representatives. 1840 presidential campaign Harrison faced incumbent Van Buren as the sole Whig candidate in the 1840 election. The Whigs saw in Harrison a born southerner and war hero, who would contrast well with the aloof, uncaring, and aristocratic Van Buren. He was chosen over more controversial members of the party, such as Clay and Webster; his campaign highlighted his military record and focused on the weak U.S. economy caused by the Panic of 1837. The Whigs blamed Van Buren for the economic problems and nicknamed him "Van Ruin". The Democrats, in turn, ridiculed the elder Harrison by calling him "Granny Harrison, the petticoat general", because he resigned from the army before the War of 1812 ended. They noted for the voters what Harrison's name would be when spelled backwards: "No Sirrah". They cast him as a provincial, out-of-touch old man who would rather "sit in his log cabin drinking hard cider" than attend to the administration of the country. This strategy backfired when Harrison and running mate John Tyler adopted the log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols. Their campaign used the symbols on banners and posters and created bottles of hard cider shaped like log cabins, all to connect the candidates to the "common man". Freehling relates that, "One bitter pro-Van Buren paper lamented after his defeat, 'We have been sung down, lied down and drunk down.' In one sentence, this described the new American political process." Harrison came from a wealthy, slaveholding Virginia family, yet his campaign promoted him as a humble frontiersman in the style popularized by Andrew Jackson, while presenting Van Buren as a wealthy elitist. A memorable example was the Gold Spoon Oration that Pennsylvania's Whig representative Charles Ogle delivered in the House, ridiculing Van Buren's elegant White House lifestyle and lavish spending. The Whigs invented a chant in which people would spit tobacco juice as they chanted "wirt-wirt", and this also exhibited the difference between candidates from the time of the election: The Whigs boasted of Harrison's military record and his reputation as the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. The campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too" became one of the most famous in American politics. While Van Buren campaigned from the White House, Harrison was on the campaign trail, entertaining with his impressions of Indian war whoops, and took people's minds off the nation's economic troubles. In June 1840, a Harrison rally at the site of the Tippecanoe battle drew 60,000 people. The Village of North Bend, Ohio, as well as the alumni of Ohio State University claim that the state's use of the nickname "Buckeyes" began with Harrison's campaign message. Harrison’s campaign was the victim of what is described as the nation’s first "October surprise." Just days before voters went to the polls, Van Buren’s Justice Department alleged that Whig Party officials had committed "the most stupendous and atrocious fraud," when they paid Pennsylvanians to travel to New York to vote for Whig candidates two years earlier. Voter turnout shot to a spectacular 80%, 20 points higher than the previous election. Harrison won a landslide victory in the Electoral College, 234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60. The popular vote margin was much closer, at fewer than 150,000 votes, though he carried nineteen of the twenty-six states. Presidency (1841) Inauguration When Harrison came to Washington, he wanted to show that he was still the steadfast hero of Tippecanoe and that he was a better educated and more thoughtful man than the backwoods caricature portrayed in the campaign. He took the oath of office on Thursday, March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day. He braved the chilly weather and chose not to wear an overcoat or a hat, rode on horseback to the grand ceremony, and then delivered the longest inaugural address in American history at 8,445 words. It took him nearly two hours to read, although his friend and fellow Whig Daniel Webster had edited it for length. Freehling opines that speeches like this were actually common at the time, and that its irony was rich, as Harrison, "a lifelong office seeker, elected by deeply partisan politics, criticized both". The inaugural address was a detailed statement of the Whig agenda, a repudiation of Jackson's and Van Buren's policies, and the first and only formal articulation by Harrison of his approach to the presidency. The address began with Harrison's sincere regard for the trust being placed in him: However strong may be my present purpose to realize the expectations of a magnanimous and confiding people, I too well understand the dangerous temptations to which I shall be exposed from the magnitude of the power which it has been the pleasure of the people to commit to my hands not to place my chief confidence upon the aid of that Almighty Power which has hitherto protected me and enabled me to bring to favorable issues other important but still greatly inferior trusts heretofore confided to me by my country. Harrison promised to re-establish the Bank of the United States and extend its capacity for credit by issuing paper currency in Henry Clay's American system. He intended to rely on the judgment of Congress in legislative matters, using his veto power only if an act were unconstitutional, and to reverse Jackson's spoils system of executive patronage. He promised to use patronage to create a qualified staff, not to enhance his own standing in government, and under no circumstance would he run for a second term. He condemned the financial excesses of the prior administration and pledged not to interfere with congressional financial policy. All in all, Harrison committed to a weak presidency, deferring to "the First Branch", the Congress, in keeping with Whig principles. He addressed the nation's already hotly debated issue of slavery. As a slaveholder himself, he agreed with the right of states to control the matter: The lines, too, separating powers to be exercised by the citizens of one state from those of another seem to be so distinctly drawn as to leave no room for misunderstanding…The attempt of those of one state to control the domestic institutions of another can only result in feelings of distrust and jealousy, the certain harbingers of disunion, violence, and civil war, and the ultimate destruction of our free institutions. As he was about to conclude his remarks, Harrison incorporated his reliance upon the country's freedom of religion while taking pains to present himself as part of the religious mainstream rather than a dissenter or member of a minority faith: I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness; and to that good Being who has blessed us by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over and prospered the labors of our fathers and has hitherto preserved to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any other people, let us unite in fervently commending every interest of our beloved country in all future time. Harrison's lengthy speech offered vague clues about what his presidency would offer to the people of the United States. He declared he would only serve for one term in office and not abuse his veto power. Harrison was against devising financial schemes for the nation, rather he left that wholly to Congress. He was against agitating the Southern United States on the slavery question. He did not discuss the tariff and distribution. He said little of the national bank, except he mentioned he was open to paper money, rather than metallic currency. Harrison's concept of the presidency was very limited. This followed closely with Harrison's Whig political ideology. Following the speech, he rode through the streets in the inaugural parade, stood in a three-hour receiving line at the White House, and attended three inaugural balls that evening, including one at Carusi's Saloon entitled the "Tippecanoe" ball with 1,000 guests who had paid $10 per person (equal to $312 in 2021). The press of patronage Clay was a leader of the Whigs and a powerful legislator, as well as a frustrated presidential candidate in his own right, and he expected to have substantial influence in the Harrison administration. He ignored his own platform plank of overturning the "spoils" system and attempted to influence Harrison's actions before and during his brief presidency, especially in putting forth his own preferences for Cabinet offices and other presidential appointments. Harrison rebuffed his aggression, saying, "Mr. Clay, you forget that I am the President." The dispute escalated when Harrison named as Secretary of State Daniel Webster, Clay's arch-rival for control of the Whig Party. Harrison also appeared to give Webster's supporters some highly coveted patronage positions. His sole concession to Clay was to name his protégé John J. Crittenden to the post of Attorney General. Despite this, the contretemps continued until the president's death. Clay was not the only one who hoped to benefit from Harrison's election. Hordes of office applicants came to the White House, which was then open to any who wanted a meeting with the president. Most of Harrison's business during his month-long presidency involved extensive social obligations and receiving visitors at the White House. He was advised to have an administration in place before the inauguration but declined, wanting to focus on the festivities. As such, job seekers awaited him at all hours and filled the Executive Mansion, with no process for organizing and vetting them. Harrison wrote in a letter dated March 10, "I am so much harassed by the multitude that calls upon me that I can give no proper attention to any business of my own." U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia Alexander Hunter recalled an incident in which Harrison was besieged by office seekers who were preventing him from getting to a cabinet meeting; when his pleas for their consideration were ignored, Harrison finally "accepted their petitions, which filled his arms and pockets". Another anecdote of the time recounted that the halls were so full one afternoon that in order to get from one room to the next, Harrison had to be helped out a window, walked the length of the White House exterior, and then helped in through another window. Harrison took seriously his pledge to reform executive appointments, visiting each of the six cabinet departments to observe its operations and issuing through Webster an order that electioneering by employees would be considered grounds for dismissal. He resisted pressure from other Whigs over partisan patronage. A group arrived in his office on March 16 to demand the removal of all Democrats from any appointed office, and Harrison proclaimed, "So help me God, I will resign my office before I can be guilty of such an iniquity!" His own cabinet attempted to countermand his appointment of John Chambers as Governor of the Iowa Territory in favor of Webster's friend James Wilson. Webster attempted to press this decision at a March 25 cabinet meeting, and Harrison asked him to read aloud a handwritten note, which said simply "William Henry Harrison, President of the United States". Harrison then stood and declared: "William Henry Harrison, President of the United States, tells you, gentlemen, that, by God, John Chambers shall be governor of Iowa!" Harrison's only other official decision of consequence was whether to call Congress into a special session. He and Clay had disagreed over the necessity of such a session, and Harrison's cabinet proved evenly divided, so the president initially vetoed the idea. Clay pressed him on the special session on March 13, but Harrison rebuffed him and told him not to visit the White House again, to address him only in writing. A few days later, however, Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing reported to Harrison that federal funds were in such trouble that the government could not continue to operate until Congress's regularly scheduled session in December; Harrison thus relented, and proclaimed the special session on March 17, in the interests of "the condition of the revenue and finance of the country". The session would have begun on May 31 as scheduled if Harrison had lived. Death and funeral Harrison had been physically worn down by many persistent office seekers and a demanding social schedule. On Wednesday, March 24, 1841, Harrison took his daily morning walk to local markets, without a coat or hat. Despite being caught in a sudden rainstorm, he did not change his wet clothes upon return to the White House. On Friday, March 26, Harrison became ill with cold-like symptoms and sent for his doctor, Thomas Miller, though he told the doctor he felt better after having taken medication for "fatigue and mental anxiety". The next day, Saturday, the doctor was called again, and arrived to find Harrison in bed with a "severe chill", after taking another early morning walk. Miller applied mustard plaster to his stomach and gave him a mild laxative, and he felt better that afternoon. At 4:00 a.m. Sunday, March 28, Harrison developed severe pain in the side and the doctor initiated bloodletting; the procedure was terminated when there was a drop in his pulse rate. Miller also applied heated cups to the president's skin to enhance blood flow. The doctor then gave him castor oil and medicines to induce vomiting, and diagnosed him with pneumonia in the right lung. A team of doctors was called in Monday, March 29, and they confirmed right lower lobe pneumonia. Harrison was then administered laudanum, opium, and camphor, along with wine and brandy. No official announcements were made concerning Harrison's illness, which fueled public speculation and concern the longer he remained out of public view. Washington society had noticed his uncharacteristic absence from church on Sunday. Conflicting and unconfirmed newspaper reports were based on leaks by people with contacts in the White House. A Washington paper reported on Thursday, April 1, that Harrison's health was decidedly better. In fact, Harrison's condition had seriously weakened, and Cabinet members and family were summoned to the White House—his wife Anna had remained in Ohio due to her own illness. According to papers in Washington on Friday, Harrison had rallied, despite a Baltimore Sun report that his condition was of a "more dangerous character". A reporter for the New York Commercial indicated that "the country's people were deeply distressed and many of them in tears." In the evening of Saturday, April 3, Harrison developed severe diarrhea and became delirious, and at 8:30 p.m. he uttered his last words, to his attending doctor, assumed to be for Vice President John Tyler: "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." Harrison died at 12:30 a.m. on April 4, 1841, Palm Sunday, nine days after becoming ill and exactly one month after taking the oath of office; he was the first president to die in office. Harrison's wife Anna was still in Ohio packing for the trip to Washington when she learned of her loss. Anna never moved into the White House. Harrison's daughter-in-law, Jane Irwin Harrison, widow of Harrison's son, had served as hostess of the White House in Anna's place while Harrison was president. The prevailing theory at the time was that his illness had been caused by the bad weather at his inauguration three weeks earlier. Jane McHugh and Philip A. Mackowiak did an analysis in Clinical Infectious Diseases (2014), examining Miller's notes and records showing that the White House water supply was downstream of public sewage, and they concluded that he likely died of septic shock due to "enteric fever" (typhoid or paratyphoid fever). A 30-day period of mourning commenced following the president's death. The White House hosted various public ceremonies, modeled after European royal funeral practices. An invitation-only funeral service was also held on April 7 in the East Room of the White House, after which Harrison's coffin was brought to Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., where it was placed in the Public Vault. Solomon Northup gave an account of the procession in Twelve Years a Slave: The next day there was a great pageant in Washington. The roar of cannon and the tolling of bells filled the air, while many houses were shrouded with crape, and the streets were black with people. As the day advanced, the procession made its appearance, coming slowly through the Avenue, carriage after carriage, in long succession, while thousands upon thousands followed on foot—all moving to the sound of melancholy music. They were bearing the dead body of Harrison to the grave…. I remember distinctly how the window glass would break and rattle to the ground, after each report of the cannon they were firing in the burial ground. That June, Harrison's body was transported by train and river barge to North Bend, Ohio, and he was buried on July 7 at the summit of Mt. Nebo, which is now the William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial. Tyler's accession to office On April 5, Fletcher Webster, the son of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, notified Tyler that Harrison had died in office. Tyler had been visiting family in Williamsburg and returned to Washington on the morning of April 6. That same day, Tyler was sworn into office in front of Harrison's cabinet, officially beginning his presidency. On April 9, Tyler gave a brief inaugural address. In his address to the nation, Tyler did not give any personal consolation to Harrison's widow Anna or family members. Tyler did compliment Harrison by saying Harrison had been elected for a "great work" of purging the federal government of corruption. Tyler and his family moved into the White House one week after Harrison's funeral, before Harrison's 30-day time of mourning was over. The White House state rooms were still hung with black mourning crapes. Impact of Harrison's death Harrison's death called attention to an ambiguity in Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution regarding succession to the presidency. The Constitution clearly provided for the vice president to take over the "Powers and Duties of the said Office" in the event of a president's removal, death, resignation, or inability, but it was unclear whether the vice president formally became president of the United States, or simply temporarily assumed the powers and duties of that office, in a case of succession. Harrison's cabinet insisted that Tyler was "Vice President acting as President". Tyler was resolute in his claim to the title of President and in his determination to exercise the full powers of the presidency. The cabinet consulted with Chief Justice Roger Taney and decided that, if Tyler took the presidential oath of office, he would assume the office of president. Tyler obliged and was sworn into office on April 6, 1841. Congress convened, and on May 31, 1841, after a short period of debate in both houses, passed a joint resolution, which confirmed Tyler as president for the remainder of Harrison's term. The precedent that Congress set in 1841 was followed on seven occasions when an incumbent president died, and it was written into the Constitution in 1967 through Section One of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Legacy Historical reputation Among Harrison's most enduring legacies is the series of treaties that he negotiated and signed with Indian leaders during his tenure as the Indiana territorial governor. As part of the treaty negotiations, the tribes ceded large tracts of land in the west which provided additional acreage for purchase and settlement by the nation. Harrison's long-term impact on American politics includes his campaigning methods, which laid the foundation for modern presidential campaign tactics. Harrison died nearly penniless, and Congress voted his wife Anna a presidential widow's pension of $25,000, one year of Harrison's salary (equivalent to about $738,000 in 2023). She also received the right to mail letters free of charge. Freehling refers to Harrison as "the most dominant figure in the evolution of the Northwest territories into the Upper Midwest today". Harrison, age 68 at the time of his inauguration, was the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency, a distinction he held until 1981, when Ronald Reagan was inaugurated at age 69. Harrison's son John Scott Harrison represented Ohio in the House of Representatives between 1853 and 1857. Harrison's grandson Benjamin Harrison of Indiana served as the 23rd president from 1889 to 1893, making William and Benjamin Harrison the only grandparent-grandchild pair of presidents. Honors and tributes Several monuments and memorial statues have been erected in tribute to Harrison. There are public statues of him in downtown Indianapolis, Cincinnati's Piatt Park, the Tippecanoe County Courthouse, Harrison County, Indiana, and Owen County, Indiana. Numerous counties and towns also bear his name. The village of North Bend, Ohio, honors Harrison every year with a parade to celebrate his birthday. The Gen. William Henry Harrison Headquarters in Franklinton, Ohio, commemorates Harrison. The house was his military headquarters from 1813 to 1814. On February 19, 2009, the U.S. Mint released the ninth coin in the Presidential $1 Coin Program, bearing Harrison's likeness. Notes See also Curse of Tippecanoe List of presidents of the United States List of presidents of the United States by previous experience List of presidents of the United States who died in office Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps Second Party System References Citations Bibliography Further reading Barnhart, John D.; Riker, Dorothy L. (1971). Indiana to 1816, the colonial period. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau. OCLC 154955. Booraem, Hendrik (2012). A Child of the Revolution: William Henry Harrison and His World, 1773–1798. Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-1-6127-7643-9. Borneman, Walter R. (2005). 1812: The War That Forged a Nation. New York: HarperCollins (Harper Perennial). ISBN 978-0-06-053113-3. Cheathem, Mark R. (2018). The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson. ISBN 9781421425986. Ellis, Richard J. (2020). Old Tip vs. the Sly Fox: The 1840 Election and the Making of a Partisan Nation. U of Kansas Press. ISBN 978-0-7006-2945-9. Graff, Henry F. (2002). The Presidents: A Reference History. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. OCLC 1036830795. Jortner, Adam (2012). The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1997-6529-4. Peckham, Howard Henry (2000). William Henry Harrison: Young Tippecanoe. Carmel, IN: Patria Press. ISBN 978-1-8828-5903-0. Retrieved November 10, 2021. Peterson, Norma Lois (1989). The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. U of Kansas Press. Pirtle, Alfred (1900). The Battle of Tippecanoe. Louisville: John P. Morton & Co./ Library Reprints. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-7222-6509-3. as read to the Filson Club. Shade, William G. (2013). "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too: William Henry Harrison and the rise of popular politics". In Silbey, Joel H. (ed.). A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents 1837–1861. pp. 155–72. Skaggs, David Curtis (2014). William Henry Harrison and the Conquest of the Ohio Country: Frontier Fighting in the War of 1812. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0546-9. External links United States Congress. "William Henry Harrison (id: H000279)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. William Henry Harrison Papers – Library of Congress "William Henry Harrison" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. XI (9th ed.). 1880. p. 495. William H. Harrison at Ohio History Central Papers of William Henry Harrison, 1800–1815, Collection Guide, Indiana Historical Society Announcement of William Henry Harrison Impending Death Archived June 10, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Essays on Harrison, each member of his cabinet and First Lady William Henry Harrison Biography and Fact File Biography by Appleton's and Stanley L. Klos "Life Portrait of William Henry Harrison", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, May 10, 1999 In 1841 Anthony Philip Heinrich wrote The President's Funeral March dedicated to President Harrison.

List_of_NBA_career_scoring_leaders

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

This article contains two charts: The first chart is a list of the top 50 all-time scorers in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The list includes only points scored in regular season games. The second chart is a progressive list of the leading all-time NBA scorers. LeBron James is the leading scorer in NBA history. Scoring leaders The following is a list of National Basketball Association players by total career regular season points scored. Statistics accurate as of the 2023–24 NBA season. Progressive list of scoring leaders This is a progressive list of scoring leaders showing how the record increased through the years. Statistics accurate as of the 2023–24 NBA season. See also NBA records Point (basketball) List of NBA annual scoring leaders List of NBA career playoff scoring leaders List of NBA career 3-point scoring leaders List of National Basketball League (United States) scoring leaders List of NBA single-game scoring leaders List of NBA career minutes played leaders Notes References External links Basketball-Reference.com enumeration of NBA career leaders in points scored National Basketball Association official website enumeration of NBA career leaders in points scored

List_of_WNBA_career_scoring_leaders

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

The following is a list of the players who have scored the most points during their WNBA careers. Scoring leaders Statistics accurate as of the 2024 WNBA season. Progressive list of scoring leaders This is a progressive list of scoring leaders showing how the record increased through the years. Statistics accurate as of the 2024 WNBA season. Notes References External links WNBA Career Leaders and Records for Points at Basketball Reference https://stats.wnba.com/alltime-leaders/

Morgan_Rielly

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

Morgan Frederick Rielly (born March 9, 1994) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman and alternate captain for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted by the Maple Leafs in the first round, fifth overall, of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Before being drafted, Rielly played with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League. He has represented Canada internationally on several occasions, most notably at the 2016 World Championship, where he won a gold medal. Playing career Amateur Rielly was selected second overall by the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League (WHL) Bantam Draft in 2009. Before entering the WHL, Rielly played midget hockey for the Notre Dame Hounds in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. In his final season with the Hounds, Rielly was the top-scoring defenceman in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League, with 55 points in 43 games. His team captured Canada's national midget championship. Rielly joined the Warriors for the 2010–11 WHL season, playing in 65 games and recording 28 points. Heading into the 2011–12 WHL season, Rielly was a highly ranked prospect for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. He suffered a serious knee injury, a torn anterior cruciate ligament, causing him to miss most of the season. He returned for the tail end of the Warriors playoff run against the Edmonton Oil Kings. Despite the injury, Rielly still finished the season ranked fifth among North American skaters by the Central Scouting Bureau. Rielly was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, fifth overall, and he signed a contract with the club shortly before the 2012–13 NHL lockout. He spent the 2012–13 season with the Warriors, with a stint in January at the Toronto Maple Leafs training camp, but eventually was returned to finish the season in the WHL. Professional Rielly made his professional debut at the end of the 2012–13 season with the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League (AHL). At the start of the 2013–14 NHL season, Rielly made the Maple Leafs roster out of training camp. He made his NHL debut on October 5, 2013, against the Ottawa Senators. On December 16, 2013, Rielly scored his first NHL goal, against Stanley Cup winner Marc-André Fleury of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Rielly recorded his first multigoal game with two goals against Cam Talbot of the New York Rangers on February 10, 2015. Throughout the 2015–16 season, Rielly earned much praise from Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock, as well as other figures of management. In addition, he would see an increase in ice time, often appearing on the top pairing for the club. He also set career highs in multiple offensive categories such as goals, assists and points. Rielly signed a six-year, $30 million contract on April 13, 2016, carrying an average value of $5 million a season. Before the 2016–17 season, Rielly was named as one of the Maple Leafs' alternate captains, along with teammates Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov, and Matt Hunwick. He had his first career four-point game (1 goal and 3 assists), on November 11, 2016, during a 6–3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers. He spent most of the 2016–17 season with rookie Nikita Zaitsev on the Leafs' shutdown defence pairing, and finished the season with 27 points in 76 games. Rielly was nominated for the Bill Masterton Trophy at the end of the 2016–17 season. During the 2017–18 season, Rielly was injured in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers on January 19, 2018, and was placed on injured reserve on January 22. He was back in the Leafs' lineup on February 3, 2018, after missing six games. Despite his injury, Rielly and fellow defenceman Jake Gardiner became the first two Leafs defenceman to record at least 50 points in a season since Tomáš Kaberle and Bryan McCabe accomplished the feat in 2006–07. He ended the regular season with a career-high 46 assists and 52 points, tying Gardiner for the team points leader amongst Leafs defencemen, and helped propel the Leafs to their second consecutive playoff showing. Despite pushing the Boston Bruins to seven games, the Leafs lost the series in the first round, as Rielly finished the playoffs with five points. During the 2018–19 season, on October 9, 2018, Rielly recorded a career-high four assists in a 7–4 win over the Dallas Stars, bringing him to ten points in his first four games, tying him for the NHL lead in points alongside teammate Auston Matthews. The following game, on October 11 against the Detroit Red Wings, Rielly passed Bobby Orr for most points by a defenceman in a team's first five games, with 12 points. By picking up an assist the next game, he established the longest season-opening point streak by a defenceman in franchise history. On October 14, Rielly was named as one of the NHL's 3 Stars of the Week for the first time in his career. He had an NHL-leading six assists, along with an overtime goal against the Chicago Blackhawks, during a four-game Maple Leafs win streak. He was named as the NHL's second star of the week for his accomplishments. On December 20, during a 6–1 Leafs win over the Florida Panthers, Rielly recorded his second four assist game of the season, becoming the first NHL defenceman that year to reach the 40-point mark. On December 24, Rielly was again named as the 2nd star in the NHL's 3 Stars of the Week. Rielly led the NHL with 3 goals, 6 assists, 9 goals and a +10 rating the previous week to propel the Maple Leafs to a perfect week and into second place in the overall League standings. On January 23, 2019, Rielly became the first Maple Leafs defenceman to post consecutive 50-point seasons since Tomáš Kaberle's 2005–06 and 2007–08 seasons. Rielly reached the 50-point mark while skating in his 49th personal game of 2018-19. Only three other Maple Leafs defencemen have reached the mark faster: Borje Salming (42 GP in 1976-77), Babe Pratt (44 GP in 1943-44), and Bryan McCabe (45 GP in 2005-06). He scored his 20th goal of the season on March 16, 2019, against the Ottawa Senators. With his 20th goal of the season, Rielly became the first Maple Leafs' defenceman to score 20 goals in a season since Al Iafrate in the 1989–90 season. Rielly ended the season with a career-high 20 goals, 52 assists, and 72 points, the first 70+ point season by a Maple Leafs' defenceman since Börje Salming in 1980. He was one of only three defencemen under 25 to score at least 50 points that season, along with Thomas Chabot and Jacob Trouba. On October 29, 2021, Rielly signed an eight-year, $60 million extension with the Maple Leafs. The 2022–23 regular season was considered disappointing for Rielly by his prior standards, even notwithstanding a knee injury that caused him to miss fifteen games in November and December. However, after the team had experienced years of disappointments in the playoffs, serially failing to make it past the first round, Rielly proved critical to the Maple Leafs' success in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs' opening series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Notably, he scored the game-winning overtime goal in Game 3 to give the Leafs the series lead for the first time, and then scored the game-tying goal in the closing minutes of Game 4, which would ultimately allow them to take a 3–1 lead. The Leafs would ultimately win the series four games to two, the franchise's first series win since 2004. On February 10, 2024, at the end of a 5–3 loss to the Ottawa Senators, Rielly received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for cross checking Ridly Greig in the head after Greig took a slap shot to score an empty net goal. Following a league hearing, Rielly was suspended for five games. International play Rielly represents Canada internationally. He started out in regional and age-group competitions. When he was representing Team Pacific at the 2011 World U-17 Hockey Challenge, Rielly scored two goals in five games and helped his team capture a bronze medal. Later that year, Rielly was part of Canada's gold medal winning squad at the 2011 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. Rielly's first experience at an International Ice Hockey Federation sanctioned event was the 2011 IIHF World U18 Championships, where he recorded two goals and one assist in seven games. Canada finished fourth at the tournament. During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Rielly was selected to represent Canada at the 2013 IIHF World U20 Championships, again finishing in fourth place. In 2014, Rielly was named to Canada’s roster for the 2014 IIHF World Championship. Again in 2016, Rielly was named to Canada's roster for the 2016 IIHF World Championship, where he was named one of Canada's most valuable players. Canada would go on to win the tournament with a 2–0 victory over Finland in the final. Throughout the tournament, Rielly recorded the most ice time of any player on Canada. For this accomplishment, he was named to the tournament All-Star team. For the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, Rielly was placed on Team North America, a team of North American hockey players aged 23 or younger. Also on the team was future teammate Auston Matthews. In three games with Team North America, Rielly tallied two points (one goal and one assist). Team North America went 2–1–0 in the tournament, scoring ten goals and conceding eight, suffering elimination following Finland's loss to Russia. Personal life Growing up, Rielly was a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. His paternal family is from Hamilton, Ontario, and are fans of the Maple Leafs. His mother, Shirley, is a cancer researcher and owns a medical company. He has an older brother. He is of Irish descent. Until September 2015, Rielly and teammate Jake Gardiner were roommates. Despite parting ways, the two remained friends and Rielly was a groomsman at Gardiner's wedding. Rielly is married to Canadian Olympic gold medalist ice dancer Tessa Virtue. Morgan and his wife Tessa Virtue have one child, a son, McCormick Rielly. Career statistics Regular season and playoffs International Awards and honours References External links Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or The Internet Hockey Database

Toronto_Maple_Leafs

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

The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. The Maple Leafs compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The club is owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, a company that owns several professional sports teams in the city. The Maple Leafs' broadcasting rights are split between BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications. For the first 14 seasons, the team played its home games at the Mutual Street Arena, before moving to Maple Leaf Gardens in 1931. The Maple Leafs moved to their present home, Scotiabank Arena (originally named Air Canada Centre), in February 1999. The club was founded in 1917, operating simply as Toronto and known then as the Toronto Arenas. Under new ownership, the team was renamed the Toronto St. Patricks in 1919. In 1927, the franchise was purchased by Conn Smythe and renamed the Maple Leafs. A member of the "Original Six", the club was one of six NHL teams to have endured the period of League retrenchment during the Great Depression. The club has won 13 Stanley Cup championships, second only to the 24 championships of the Montreal Canadiens. The Maple Leafs history includes two recognized dynasties, from 1947 to 1951; and from 1962 to 1967. Winning their last championship in the 1966–67 season, the Maple Leafs' 57-season drought between championships is the longest drought in league history. The Maple Leafs have developed rivalries with five NHL franchises: the Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, the Montreal Canadiens, and the Ottawa Senators. The Maple Leafs have retired the use of 13 numbers in honour of 19 players, including the first in professional sports. In addition, several individuals who hold an association with the club have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Maple Leafs are presently affiliated with the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League (AHL). Team history Early years (1917–1927) The National Hockey League was formed in 1917 in Montreal by teams formerly belonging to the National Hockey Association (NHA) that had a dispute with Eddie Livingstone, owner of the Toronto Blueshirts. The owners of the other four clubs—the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Quebec Bulldogs and the Ottawa Senators—wanted to replace Livingstone, but discovered that the NHA constitution did not allow them to simply vote him out of the league. Instead, they opted to create a new league, the NHL, and did not invite Livingstone to join them. They also remained voting members of the NHA, and thus had enough votes to suspend the other league's operations, effectively leaving Livingstone's league with one team. The NHL had decided that it would operate a four-team circuit, made up of the Canadiens, Montreal Maroons, Ottawa, and one more club in either Quebec City or Toronto. Toronto's inclusion in the NHL's inaugural season was formally announced on November 26, 1917, with concerns over the Bulldogs' financial stability surfacing. The League granted temporary franchise rights to the Arena Company, owners of the Arena Gardens. The NHL granted the Arena responsibility of the Toronto franchise for only the inaugural season, with specific instructions to resolve the dispute with Livingstone or transfer ownership of the Toronto franchise back to the League at the end of the season. The franchise did not have an official name but was informally called "the Blueshirts" or "the Torontos" by the fans and press. Although the inaugural roster was made up of players leased from the NHA's Toronto Blueshirts, including Harry Cameron and Reg Noble, the Maple Leafs do not claim the Blueshirts' history as their own. During the inaugural season, the club performed the first trade in NHL history, sending Sammy Hebert to the Senators, in return for cash. Under manager Charlie Querrie, and head coach Dick Carroll, the team won the Stanley Cup in the inaugural 1917–18 season. For the next season, rather than return the Blueshirts' players to Livingstone as originally promised, on October 19, 1918, the Arena Company formed the Toronto Arena Hockey Club, which was readily granted full membership in the NHL. The Arena Company also decided that year that only NHL teams were allowed to play at the Arena Gardens—a move which effectively killed the NHA. Livingstone sued to get his players back. Mounting legal bills from the dispute forced the Arenas to sell some of their stars, resulting in a horrendous five-win season in 1918–19. With the company facing increasing financial difficulties, and the Arenas officially eliminated from the playoffs, the NHL agreed to let the team forfeit their last two games. Operations halted on February 20, 1919, with the NHL ending its season and starting the playoffs. The Arenas' .278 winning percentage that season remains the worst in franchise history. However, the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals ended without a winner due to the worldwide flu epidemic. The legal dispute forced the Arena Company into bankruptcy, and it was forced to sell the team. On December 9, 1919, Querrie brokered the team's purchase by the owners of the St. Patricks Hockey Club (Percy and Fred Hambly), allowing him to maintain an ownership stake in the team. The new owners renamed the team the Toronto St. Patricks (or St. Pats for short), which they used until 1927. Changing the colours of the team from blue to green, the club won their second Stanley Cup championship in 1922. Babe Dye scored four times in the 5–1 Stanley Cup-clinching victory against the Vancouver Millionaires. In 1924, the team's ownership changed again, as movie theatre impresario Nathan Nathanson and mining magnate Jack Bickell purchased the shares of the Hamblys. Bickell invested CA$25,000 in the St. Pats as a favour to his friend Querrie, who needed to financially reorganize his hockey team. Conn Smythe era (1927–1961) After several financially difficult seasons, the St. Patricks' ownership group (Querrie and Nathan Nathanson) seriously considered selling the team to C. C. Pyle for CA$200,000 (equivalent to $3,452,747 in 2023). Pyle sought to move the team to Philadelphia. However, Toronto Varsity Blues coach Conn Smythe put together a group of his own and made a $160,000 CA$160,000 (equivalent to $2,762,198 in 2023)) offer. With the support of minority shareholder Bickell, Smythe persuaded Querrie and Nathanson to accept their bid, arguing that civic pride was more important than money. Bickell would become team president. Smythe took control on February 14, 1927; installing himself as governor and general manager. He immediately renamed the team the Maple Leafs, after the national symbol of Canada. He attributed his choice of a maple leaf for the logo to his experiences as a Canadian Army officer and prisoner of war during World War I. Viewing the maple leaf as a "badge of courage", and a reminder of home, Smythe decided to give the same name to his hockey team, in honour of the many Canadian soldiers who wore it. However, the team was not the first to use the name. A Toronto minor-league baseball team had used the name "Toronto Maple Leafs" since 1895. Although Smythe would not acquire controlling interest in the team until 1947, he would be the franchise's dominant voice for the next four decades. Initial reports were that the team's colours were to be red and white, but the Leafs wore white sweaters with a green maple leaf for their first game on February 17, 1927. On September 27, 1927, it was announced that the Leafs had changed their colour scheme to blue and white. Although Smythe later stated he chose blue because it represents the Canadian skies and white to represent snow, these colours were also used on the trucks for his gravel and sand business. The colour blue was also a colour historically associated with the City of Toronto. The use of blue by top-level Toronto-based sports clubs began with the Argonaut Rowing Club in the 19th century, later adopted by their football team, the Toronto Argonauts, in 1873. Opening of Maple Leaf Gardens (1930s) By 1930, Smythe saw the need to construct a new arena, viewing the Arena Gardens as a facility lacking modern amenities and seating. Finding an adequate number of financiers, he purchased land from the Eaton family, and construction of the arena was completed in five months. The Maple Leafs debuted at their new arena, Maple Leaf Gardens, with a 2–1 loss to the Chicago Black Hawks on November 12, 1931. The opening ceremonies for Maple Leaf Gardens included a performance from the 48th Highlanders of Canada Pipe and Drums. The military band has continued to perform in every subsequent season home opening game, as well as other ceremonies conducted by the hockey club. The debut also featured Foster Hewitt in his newly constructed press box above the ice surface, where he began his famous Hockey Night in Canada radio broadcasts that eventually came to be a Saturday-night tradition. The press box was often called "the gondola", a name that emerged during the Gardens' inaugural season when a General Motors advertising executive remarked how it resembled the gondola of an airship. By the 1931–32 NHL season, the Maple Leafs were led by the "Kid Line" consisting of Busher Jackson, Joe Primeau and Charlie Conacher and coached by Dick Irvin. The team captured their third Stanley Cup that season, vanquishing the Chicago Black Hawks in the first round, the Montreal Maroons in the semifinals, and the New York Rangers in the finals. Smythe took particular pleasure in defeating the Rangers that year. He had been tapped as the Rangers' first general manager and coach for their inaugural season (1926–27) but had been fired in a dispute with Madison Square Garden management before the season had begun. Maple Leafs star forward Ace Bailey was nearly killed in 1933 when Boston Bruins defenceman Eddie Shore checked him from behind at full speed into the boards. Leafs defenceman Red Horner knocked Shore out with a punch, but Bailey, writhing on the ice, had his career ended. The Leafs held the Ace Bailey Benefit Game, the NHL's first All-Star Game, to collect medical funds to help Bailey. His jersey was retired later the same night. The Leafs reached the finals five times in the next seven years but bowed out to the now-disbanded Maroons in 1935, the Detroit Red Wings in 1936, Chicago in 1938, Boston in 1939 and the Rangers in 1940. After the end of the 1939–40 season, Smythe allowed Irvin to leave the team as head coach, replacing him with former Leafs captain Hap Day. The first dynasty (1940s) In the 1942 Stanley Cup Finals, the Maple Leafs were down three games to none in the best-of-seven series against Detroit. Fourth-line forward Don Metz then galvanized the team, to score a hat-trick in game four and the game-winner in game five. Goalie Turk Broda shut out the Wings in game six, and Sweeney Schriner scored two goals in the third period to win the seventh game 3–1, completing the reverse-sweep. The Leafs remain the only team to have successfully performed a reverse-sweep in the Stanley Cup finals. Captain Syl Apps won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy that season, not taking one penalty, and finished his ten-season career with an average of 5 minutes, 36 seconds in penalties a season. Smythe, who reenlisted in the Canadian Army at the outbreak of World War II, was given leave from military duty to view the final game of the 1942 finals. He arrived at the game in full military regalia. Earlier, at the outbreak of war, Smythe arranged for many of his Maple Leafs players and staff to take army training with the Toronto Scottish Regiment. Most notably, the Leafs announced a large portion of their roster had enlisted, including Apps, and Broda, who did not play on the team for several seasons due to their obligations with the Canadian Forces. During this period, the Leafs turned to lesser-known players such as rookie goaltender Frank McCool and defenceman Babe Pratt. The Maple Leafs beat the Red Wings in the 1945 Finals. They won the first three games, with goaltender McCool recording consecutive shutouts. However, in a reversal of the 1942 finals, the Red Wings won the next three games. The Leafs were able to win the series, winning the seventh game by the score of 2–1 to prevent a complete reversal of the series played three years ago. After the end of the war, players who had enlisted were beginning to return to their teams. With Apps and Broda regaining their form, the Maple Leafs beat the first-place Canadiens in the 1947 finals. To bolster their centre depth, the Leafs acquired Cy Thomas and Max Bentley in the following off-season. With these key additions, the Leafs were able to win a second consecutive Stanley Cup, sweeping the Red Wings in the 1948 finals. With their victory in 1948, the Leafs moved ahead of Montreal as the team having won the most Stanley Cups in League history. Apps announced his retirement following the 1948 finals, with Ted Kennedy replacing him as the team's captain. Under a new captaincy, the Leafs managed to make it to the 1949 finals, facing the Red Wings, who had finished the season with the best overall record. However, the Leafs went on to win their third consecutive Cup, sweeping the Red Wings in four games. This brought the total of Detroit's playoff game losses against the Leafs to eleven. The Red Wings were able to end this losing streak in the following postseason, eliminating Toronto in the 1950 NHL playoffs. The Barilko Curse (1950s) The Maple Leafs and Canadiens met again in the 1951 finals, with five consecutive overtime games played in the series. Defenceman Bill Barilko managed to score the series-winning goal in overtime, leaving his defensive position (despite coach Joe Primeau's instructions otherwise) to pick up an errant pass and score. Barilko helped the club secure its fourth Stanley Cup in five years. His glory was short-lived, as he disappeared in a plane crash near Timmins, Ontario, four months later. The crash site was not found until a helicopter pilot discovered the plane's wreckage plane about 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Cochrane, Ontario 11 years later. The Leafs did not win another Cup during the 1950s, with rumours swirling that the team was "cursed", and would not win a cup until Barilko's body was found. The "curse" came to an end after the Leafs' 1962 Stanley Cup victory, which came six weeks before the discovery of the wreckage of Barilko's plane. Their 1951 victory was followed by lacklustre performances in the following seasons. The team finished third in the 1951–52 season and was eventually swept by the Red Wings in the semi-finals. With the conclusion of the 1952–53 regular season, the Leafs failed to make it to the postseason for the first time since the 1945–46 playoffs. The Leafs' poor performance may be attributed partly to a decline in their sponsored junior system (including the Toronto St. Michael's Majors and the Toronto Marlboros). The junior system was managed by Frank J. Selke until his departure to the Canadiens in 1946. In his absence, the quality of players it produced declined. Many who were called up to the Leafs in the early 1950s were found to be seriously lacking in ability. It was only later in the decade that the Leafs' feeder clubs produced prospects that helped them become competitive again. After a two-year drought from the playoffs, the Maple Leafs clinched a berth after the 1958–59 season. Under Punch Imlach, their new general manager and coach, the Leafs made it to the 1959 Finals, losing to the Canadiens in five games. Building on a successful playoff run, the Leafs followed up with a second-place finish in the 1959–60 regular season. Although they advanced to their second straight Cup Finals, the Leafs were again defeated by the Canadiens in four games. New owners and a new dynasty (1961–1971) Beginning in the 1960s, the Leafs became a stronger team, with Johnny Bower as the goaltender, and Bob Baun, Carl Brewer, Tim Horton and Allan Stanley serving as the Maple Leafs' defencemen. To bolster their forward group during the 1960 off-season, Imlach traded Marc Reaume to the Red Wings for Red Kelly. Originally a defenceman, Kelly was asked to make the transition to the role of centre, where he remained for the rest of his career. Kelly helped reinforce a forward group made up of Frank Mahovlich, and team captain George Armstrong. The beginning of the 1960–61 season also saw the debut of rookies Bob Nevin, and Dave Keon. Keon previously played for the St. Michael's Majors (the Maple Leafs junior affiliate), but had impressed Imlach during the Leafs' training camp, and joined the team for the season. Despite these new additions, the Leafs' 1961 playoff run ended in the semifinals against the Red Wings, with Armstrong, Bower, Kelly and others, suffering from injuries. In November 1961, Smythe sold nearly all of his shares in the club's parent company, Maple Leaf Gardens Limited (MLGL), to a partnership composed of his son Stafford Smythe, and his partners, newspaper baron John W. H. Bassett and Toronto Marlboros president Harold Ballard. The sale price was $2.3 million (equivalent to $23,015,000 in 2023), a handsome return on Smythe's original investment 34 years earlier. Initially, Conn Smythe claimed that he knew nothing about his son's partners and was furious with the arrangement (though it is highly unlikely he could have believed Stafford could have financed the purchase on his own). However, he did not stop the deal because of it. Conn Smythe was given a retiring salary of $15,000 per year for life, an office, a secretary, a car with a driver, and seats to home games. Smythe sold his remaining shares in the company, and resigned from the board of directors in March 1966, after a Muhammad Ali boxing match was scheduled for the Gardens. Smythe found Ali's refusal to serve in the United States Army offensive, noting that the Gardens was "no place for those who want to evade conscription in their own country". He had also said that because the Gardens' owners agreed to host the fight they had "put cash ahead of class". Under the new ownership, Toronto won another three straight Stanley Cups. The team won the 1962 Stanley Cup Finals beating the defending champion Chicago Black Hawks on a goal from Dick Duff in Game 6. During the 1962–63 season, the Leafs finished first in the league for the first time since the 1947–48 season. In the following playoffs, the team won their second Stanley Cup of the decade. The 1963–64 season saw certain members of the team traded. With Imlach seeking to reinvigorate the slumping Leafs, he made a mid-season trade that sent Duff, and Nevin to the Rangers for Andy Bathgate and Don McKenney. The Leafs managed to make the postseason as well as the Cup finals. In game six of the 1964 Cup finals, Baun suffered a fractured ankle and required a stretcher to be taken off the ice. He returned to play with his ankle frozen, and eventually scored the game-winning goal in overtime against the Red Wings. The Leafs won their third consecutive Stanley Cup in a 4–0 game 7 victory; Bathgate scored two goals. The two seasons after the Maple Leafs' Stanley Cup victories, the team saw several player departures, including Bathgate, and Brewer, as well as several new additions, including Marcel Pronovost, and Terry Sawchuk. During the 1966–67 season, the team had lost 10 games in a row, sending Imlach to the hospital with a stress-related illness. However, from the time King Clancy took over as the head coach, to Imlach's return, the club was on a 10-game undefeated streak, building momentum before the playoffs. The Leafs made their last Cup finals in 1967. Playing against Montreal, the heavy favourite for the year, the Leafs managed to win, with Bob Pulford scoring the double-overtime winner in game three; Jim Pappin scored the series winner in Game 6. Keon was named the playoff's most valuable player and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy. From 1968 to 1970, the Maple Leafs made it to the playoffs only once. They lost several players to the 1967 expansion drafts, and the team was racked with dissension because of Imlach's authoritative manner, and his attempts to prevent the players from joining the newly formed Players' Association. Imlach's management of the team was also brought into question due to some of his decisions. It was apparent that he was too loyal to aging players who had been with him since 1958. In the 1967–68 season, Mahovlich was traded to Detroit in a deal that saw the Leafs acquire Paul Henderson and Norm Ullman. The Leafs managed to return to the playoffs after the 1968–69 season, only to be swept by the Bruins. Immediately after, Stafford Smythe confronted Imlach and fired him. This act was not without controversy, with some older players, including Horton, declaring that, "if this team doesn't want Imlach, I guess it doesn't want me". The Maple Leafs completed the 1969–70 season out of the playoffs. With their low finish, the Leafs were able to draft Darryl Sittler at the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft. The Leafs returned to the playoffs after the 1970–71 season with the addition of Sittler, as well as Bernie Parent and Jacques Plante, who were both acquired through trades during the season. They were eliminated in the first round against the Rangers. The Ballard years (1971–1990) A series of events in 1971 made Harold Ballard the primary owner of the Maple Leafs. After a series of disputes between Bassett, Ballard and Stafford Smythe, Bassett sold his stake in the company to them. Shortly afterwards, Smythe died in October 1971. Under the terms of Stafford's will, of which Ballard was an executor, each partner was allowed to buy the other's shares upon their death. Stafford's brother and son tried to keep the shares in the family, but in February 1972 Ballard bought all of Stafford's shares for $7.5 million, valuing the company at $22 million (equivalent to $157,817,000 in 2023). Six months later, Ballard was convicted of charges including fraud, and theft of money and goods, and spent a year at Milhaven Penitentiary. By the end of 1971, the World Hockey Association (WHA) began operations as a direct competitor to the NHL. Believing the WHA would not be able to compete against the NHL, Ballard's attitude caused the Maple Leafs to lose key players, including Parent to the upstart league. Undermanned and demoralized, the Leafs finished with the fourth-worst record for the 1972–73 season. They got the fourth overall pick in the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft, and drafted Lanny McDonald. General Manager Jim Gregory also acquired the 10th overall pick from the Philadelphia Flyers, and the 15th overall pick from the Bruins, using them to acquire Bob Neely and Ian Turnbull. In addition to these first-round picks, the Leafs also acquired Borje Salming during the 1973 off-season. Despite acquiring Tiger Williams in the 1974 draft, and Roger Neilson as head coach in the 1977–78 season, the Maple Leafs found themselves eliminated in the playoffs by stronger Flyers or Canadiens teams from 1975 to 1979. Although Neilson was a popular coach with fans and his players, he found himself at odds with Ballard, who fired him late in the 1977–78 season. Nielson was later reinstated after appeals from the players and the public. He continued as Leafs' head coach until after the 1979 playoffs, when he was fired again, alongside Gregory. Gregory was replaced by Imlach as general manager. In the first year of his second stint as general manager, Imlach became embroiled in a dispute with Leafs' captain Darryl Sittler over his attempt to take part in the Showdown series for Hockey Night in Canada. In a move to undermine Sittler's influence on the team, Imlach traded McDonald, who was Sittler's friend. By the end of the 1979–80 season, Imlach had traded away nearly half of the roster he had at the beginning of his tenure as general manager. With the situation between Ballard and Sittler worsening, Sittler asked to be traded. Forcing the Leafs' hand, the club's new general manager, Gerry McNamara, traded Sittler to the Flyers on January 20, 1982. Rick Vaive was named the team's captain shortly after Sittler's departure. The Maple Leafs' management continued in disarray throughout most of the decade, with an inexperienced McNamara named as Imlach's replacement in September 1981. He was followed by Gord Stellick on April 28, 1988, who was replaced by Floyd Smith on August 15, 1989. Coaching was similarly shuffled often after Nielson's departure. Imlach's first choice for coach was his former player Smith, although he did not finish the 1979–80 season after being hospitalized by a car accident on March 14, 1980. Joe Crozier was named the new head coach until January 10, 1981, when he was succeeded by Mike Nykoluk. Nykoluk was head coach until April 2, 1984. Dan Maloney returned as head coach from 1984 to 1986, with John Brophy named head coach from 1986 to 1988. Both coaches had little success during their tenure. Doug Carpenter was named the new head coach to begin the 1989–90 season when the Leafs posted their first season above .500 in the decade. The team did not have much success during the decade, missing the playoffs entirely in 1982, 1984 and 1985. On at least two occasions, they made the playoffs with the worst winning percentages on record for a playoff team. However, in those days, the top four teams in each division made the playoffs, regardless of record. Since the Norris only had five teams in total, this meant only the last-place team in the division missed the postseason. In 1985–86, for instance, they finished with a .356 winning percentage, the fourth worst in the league. However, due to playing in a Norris Division where no team cracked the 90-point mark, the Leafs still made the playoffs because Detroit had the worst record in the league. In 1987–88, they entered the final day of the season with the worst record in the league, but were only one point behind the Minnesota North Stars and thus were still in playoff contention. The Red Wings was the only team in the division with a winning record. However, the Leafs upset the Red Wings in their final game while the North Stars lost to the Flames hours later to hand the Leafs the final spot from the Norris. The low finishes allowed the team to draft Wendel Clark first overall at the 1985 NHL Entry Draft. Clark managed to lead the Leafs to the playoffs from 1986 to 1988, as well as the 1990 playoffs. Ballard died on April 11, 1990. Resurgence (1990–2004) Don Crump, Don Giffin, and Steve Stavro were named executors of Ballard's estate. Stavro succeeded Ballard as chairman of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. and governor of the Maple Leafs. Cliff Fletcher was hired by Giffin to be the new general manager, although this was opposed by Stavro, who told Fletcher that he wanted to appoint his own general manager. Notwithstanding Stavro's initial reluctance with Fletcher's appointment, the Leafs' new ownership would soon earn a reputation for steering clear of exerting undue interference in hockey operations, in stark contrast to Ballard. Fletcher soon set about building a competitive club, hiring Pat Burns as the new coach, and making a series of trades and free-agent acquisitions, such as acquiring Doug Gilmour and Dave Andreychuk, which turned the Leafs into a contender. Assisted by stellar goaltending from minor league call-up Felix Potvin, the team posted a then-franchise-record 99 points. Toronto dispatched the Detroit Red Wings in seven games in the first round, then defeated the St. Louis Blues in another seven games in the Division Finals. Hoping to meet long-time rival Montreal (who was playing in the Wales Conference finals against the New York Islanders) in the Cup finals, the Leafs faced the Los Angeles Kings in the Campbell Conference finals. They led the series 3–2 but dropped game six in Los Angeles. The game was not without controversy, as Wayne Gretzky clipped Gilmour in the face with his stick, but referee Kerry Fraser did not call a penalty, and Gretzky scored the winning goal moments later. The Leafs eventually lost in game seven 5–4. The Leafs had another strong season in 1993–94, starting the season on a 10-game winning streak, and finishing it with 98 points. The team made it to the conference finals again, only to be eliminated by the Vancouver Canucks in five games. At the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, the Leafs packaged Wendel Clark in a multi-player trade with the Quebec Nordiques that landed them Mats Sundin. Missing two consecutive playoffs in 1997 and 1998, the Leafs relieved Fletcher as general manager. New home and a new millennium (1998–2004) On February 12, 1998, MLGL purchased the Toronto Raptors, a National Basketball Association franchise, and the arena the Raptors were building, from Allan Slaight and Scotiabank. With the acquisition, MLGL was renamed Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), acting as the parent company of the two teams. Larry Tanenbaum was a driving force in the acquisition, having bought a 12.5 percent stake in Maple Leaf Gardens Limited (MLGL) in 1996. Curtis Joseph was acquired as the team's starting goalie, while Pat Quinn was hired as the head coach before the 1998–99 season. Realigning the NHL's conferences in 1998, the Leafs were moved from the Western to the Eastern Conference. On February 13, 1999, the Leafs played their final game at the Gardens before moving to their new home at the then-Air Canada Centre. In the 1999 playoffs, the team advanced to the Conference Finals but lost in five games to the Buffalo Sabres. In the 1999–2000 season, the Leafs hosted the 50th NHL All-Star Game. By the end of the season, they recorded their first 100-point season and won their first division title in 37 years. In both the 2000 and 2001 playoffs, the Leafs defeated the Ottawa Senators in the first round and lost to the New Jersey Devils in the second round. In the 2002 playoffs, the Leafs dispatched the Islanders and the Senators in seven games each during the first two rounds, only to lose to the Cinderella-story Carolina Hurricanes in six games in the Conference Finals. The 2001–02 season was particularly impressive in that injuries sidelined many of the Leafs' better players, but the efforts of depth players, including Alyn McCauley, Gary Roberts and Darcy Tucker, led them to the Conference Finals. As Joseph opted to become a free agent during the 2002 off-season, the Leafs signed Ed Belfour as the new starting goaltender. Belfour played well during the 2002–03 season and was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy. The Leafs lost to Philadelphia in seven games during the first round of the 2003 playoffs. In 2003, an ownership change occurred in MLSE. Stavro sold his controlling interest in MLSE to the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) and resigned his position as chairman in favour of Tanenbaum. Quinn remained as head coach but was replaced as general manager by John Ferguson Jr. Before the 2003–04 season, the team held their training camp in Sweden and played in the NHL Challenge against teams from Sweden and Finland. The Leafs went on to enjoy a very successful regular season, leading the NHL at the time of the All-Star Game (with Quinn named head coach of the East's All-Star Team). They finished the season with a then-franchise-record 103 points. They finished with the fourth-best record in the League, and their highest overall finish in 41 years, achieving a .628 win percentage, their best in 43 years, and third-best in franchise history. In the 2004 playoffs, the Leafs defeated the Senators in the first round of the postseason for the fourth time in five years, with Belfour posting three shutouts in seven games, but lost to the Flyers in six games during the second round. After the lockout (2005–2014) Following the 2004–05 NHL lockout, the Maple Leafs experienced their longest playoff drought in the team's history. They struggled in the 2005–06 season; despite a late-season surge (9–1–2 in their final 12 games), led by goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin, Toronto was out of playoff contention for the first time since 1998. This marked the first time the team had missed the postseason under Quinn, who was later relieved as head coach. Quinn's dismissal was controversial since many of the young players who were key contributors to the Leafs' late-season run had been drafted by him before Ferguson's arrival, while Ferguson's signings (Jason Allison, Belfour, Alexander Khavanov, and Eric Lindros) had suffered season-ending injuries. Paul Maurice, who had previously coached the inaugural season of the Maple Leafs' Toronto Marlies farm team, was named as Quinn's replacement. On June 30, 2006, the Leafs bought out fan-favourite Tie Domi's contract. The team also decided against picking up the option year on goaltender Ed Belfour's contract; he became a free agent. However, despite the coaching change, as well as a shuffle in the roster, the team did not make the playoffs in 2006–07. During the 2007–08 season, John Ferguson Jr. was fired in January 2008 and replaced by former Leafs' general manager Cliff Fletcher on an interim basis. The team retained Toronto-based sports lawyer Gord Kirke to begin a search for a new team president and general manager, and negotiate a contract. The Leafs did not qualify for the postseason, marking the first time since 1928 the team had failed to make the playoffs for three consecutive seasons. It was also Sundin's last year with the Leafs, as his contract was due to expire at the end of the season. However, he refused Leafs management's request to waive his no-trade clause for the team to rebuild by acquiring prospects or draft picks. On May 7, 2008, after the 2007–08 season, the Leafs fired Maurice, as well as assistant coach Randy Ladouceur, naming Ron Wilson as the new head coach, and Tim Hunter and Rob Zettler as assistant coaches. On November 29, 2008, the Maple Leafs hired Brian Burke as their 13th non-interim, and the first American, general manager in team history. The acquisition ended the second Cliff Fletcher era and settled persistent rumours that Burke was coming to Toronto. On June 26, 2009, Burke made his first appearance as the Leafs GM at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, selecting London Knights forward Nazem Kadri with the seventh overall pick. On September 18, 2009, Burke traded Toronto's first- and second-round 2010, as well as its 2011 first-round picks, to the Boston Bruins in exchange for forward Phil Kessel. On January 31, 2010, the Leafs made another high-profile trade, this time with the Calgary Flames in a seven-player deal that brought defenceman Dion Phaneuf to Toronto. On June 14, during the off-season, the Leafs named Phaneuf captain after two seasons without one following Sundin's departure. On February 18, 2011, the team traded long-time Maple Leafs defenceman Tomas Kaberle to the Bruins in exchange for prospect Joe Colborne, Boston's first-round pick in 2011, and a conditional second-round draft choice. On March 2, 2012, Burke fired Wilson and named Randy Carlyle the new head coach. However, the termination proved to be controversial as Wilson had received a contract extension just two months before being let go. Changes at the ownership level also occurred in August 2012, when the OTPP completed the sale of their shares in MLSE to BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications. On January 9, 2013, Burke was fired as general manager, and replaced by Dave Nonis. In their first full season under the leadership of Carlyle, Toronto managed to secure a playoff berth in the 2012–13 season (which was shortened again due to another lock-out) for the first time in eight years. However, the Leafs lost in seven games to eventual 2013 Stanley Cup finalist Boston in the first round. Despite the season's success, it was not repeated during the 2013–14 season, as the Leafs failed to make the playoffs. Brendan Shanahan era (2014–present) Following the 2013–14 regular season, Brendan Shanahan was named as the president and an alternate governor of the Maple Leafs. On January 6, 2015, the Leafs fired Randy Carlyle as head coach, and assistant coach Peter Horachek took over on an interim basis immediately. While the Leafs had a winning record before Carlyle's firing, the team eventually collapsed. On February 6, 2015, the Leafs set a new franchise record of 11 consecutive games without a win. At the beginning of February, Shanahan gained the approval of MLSE's board of directors to begin a "scorched earth" rebuild of the club. Both Dave Nonis and Horachek were relieved of their duties on April 12, just one day after the season concluded. In addition, the Leafs also fired several assistant coaches, including Steve Spott, and Rick St. Croix; as well as individuals from the Leafs' player scouting department. On May 20, 2015, Mike Babcock was named as the new head coach, and on July 23, Lou Lamoriello was named the 16th general manager in team history. On July 1, 2015, the Leafs packaged Kessel in a multi-player deal to the Pittsburgh Penguins in return for three skaters, including Kasperi Kapanen, a conditional first-round pick, and a third-round pick. Toronto also retained $1.2 million of Kessel's salary for the remaining seven seasons of his contract. During the following season, on February 9, 2016, the Leafs packaged Phaneuf in another multi-player deal, acquiring four players, as well as a 2017 second-round pick from the Ottawa Senators. The team finished last in the NHL for the first time since the 1984–85 season. They subsequently won the draft lottery and used the first overall pick to draft Auston Matthews. In their second season under Babcock, Toronto secured the final Eastern Conference wildcard spot for the 2017 playoffs. On April 23, 2017, the Maple Leafs were eliminated from the playoffs by the top-seeded Washington Capitals four games to two in the best-of-seven series. Toronto finished the 2017–18 season with 105 points by beating Montreal 4–2 in their final game of the regular season, a franchise-record, beating the previous record of 103 points set in 2004. They faced the Boston Bruins in the First Round and lost in seven games. Following the playoffs, Lamoriello was not renewed as general manager. Kyle Dubas was subsequently named the team's 17th general manager in May 2018. During the 2018 off-season, the Maple Leafs signed John Tavares to a seven-year, $77 million contract. On April 1, the Maple Leafs clinched a division berth for the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Maple Leafs were eliminated in the First Round of the 2019 playoffs on April 23, after losing to the Bruins in a seven-game series. On October 2, 2019, Tavares was named as the team's 25th team captain prior to the Leafs' 2019–20 season opening game. After a 9–10–4 start to the 2019–20 season, the club relieved Babcock as head coach on November 20, with Sheldon Keefe named as his replacement. The Maple Leafs were eliminated in the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers on August 9, after losing a five-game series against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions at the Canada–United States border, the Leafs were temporarily moved to the North Division for the 2020–21 season alongside the NHL's other Canadian teams. During that season, teams only played games against teams in their divisions, in a limited 56-game season. On May 8, 2021, the Leafs clinched the North Division title, giving the Leafs guaranteed home advantage in the first two rounds of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs. Matthews also led the league in goals with 41 goals, becoming the first Maple Leaf to win the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy. However, the Leafs lost in the First Round to their rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, with the Leafs surrendering a 3–1 series lead in the process. Despite the ending to the previous season, the Leafs were poised to make another run, with much of the core roster intact. Aided by the arrival of defenceman Mark Giordano and centre Colin Blackwell from the Seattle Kraken on March 21, the team cruised throughout the regular season. The Maple Leafs broke their franchise record for points in a season, with 115, and wins in a season, with 50, during a 4–2 victory over the New York Islanders on April 17. Despite the achievement, they were unable to match the league-leading Florida Panthers', finishing second in the Atlantic Division During the season, Matthews became the first Leaf in a decade to score 60 goals in a season, and was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy. The Leafs made the playoffs but lost in the First Round to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games. With this loss, the Maple Leafs became the first team in the four major North American sports leagues to lose five consecutive winner-take-all games. The 2022 off-season saw the departure of the Leafs' goalie tandem, Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek, the former signing with Edmonton, the latter being traded to the Blackhawks during the 2022 NHL Draft. Needing a goaltender tandem for the upcoming season, the Leafs acquired Matt Murray through a trade with the Senators, and signed free agent Ilya Samsonov. During the 2022–23 NHL season, the Leafs again fared well in the regular season, achieving an excellent 50–21–11 record and 111 points, one point less than the record achieved the season prior. However, the record-setting Boston Bruins led the division, finishing with 135 points, and leaving the Leafs in second place in the Atlantic. In the First Round of the playoffs, the Leafs defeated the Lightning in a six-game series, marking the first time the Maple Leafs advanced to the second round of the playoff appearance since 2004. During the series with the Lightning, the Leafs became the first NHL team to win three road playoff games in overtime. However, the Leafs lost to the Florida Panthers in the second round in five games. Following the loss, Dubas' contract as general manager was not renewed with the club for the 2023–24 season. Dubas was then replaced by Brad Treliving on May 31. In 2023–2024, the team finished with a 46–26–10 record, good for 102 points and the third seed in the Atlantic Division. Matthews broke his own career and franchise records for goals in a season, with 69, and was awarded his third Rocket Richard Trophy. However, they were again eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, falling to the Bruins in seven games. After the season, Keefe was dismissed as head coach on May 9, with Craig Berube hired as his successor on May 17. Prior to the 2024–25 season, Tavares relinquished his role as captain to Matthews on August 14, 2024, with the latter becoming the 26th overall and first American-born captain in franchise history. Team culture Fan base The price of a Maple Leafs home game ticket is the highest amongst any team in the NHL. Scotiabank Arena holds 18,900 seats for Leafs games, with 15,500 reserved for season ticket holders. Because of the demand for season tickets, their sale is limited to the 10,000 people on the waiting list. As of March 2016, Leafs' season tickets saw a renewal rate of 99.5 percent, a rate that would require more than 250 years to clear the existing waiting list. In a 2014 survey by ESPN The Magazine, the Leafs were ranked last out of the 122 professional teams in the Big Four leagues. Teams were graded by stadium experience, ownership, player quality, ticket affordability, championships won and "bang for the buck"; in particular, the Leafs came last in ticket affordability. Leafs fans have been noted for their loyalty to the team despite their performance. In a study conducted by sports retailer Fanatics in March 2017, the Leafs and the Minnesota Wild were the only two NHL teams to average arena sellouts despite a below league average winning percentage. Conversely, fans of other teams harbour an equally passionate dislike of the team. In November 2002, the Leafs were named by Sports Illustrated hockey writer Michael Farber as the "Most Hated Team in Hockey". Despite their loyalty, there have been several instances where the fanbase voiced their displeasure with the club. During the 2011–12 season, fans attending the games chanted for the dismissal of head coach Ron Wilson, and later general manager Brian Burke. Wilson was let go shortly after the fans' outburst, even though he had been given a contract extension months earlier. Burke alluded to the chants noting "it would be cruel and unusual punishment to let Ron coach another game in the Air Canada Centre". In the 2014–15 season, fans threw Leafs jerseys onto the ice to show their disapproval of the team's poor performances in the past few decades. Similarly, during the later portion of the 2015–16 season, which overlaps with the start of Major League Baseball's regular season of play, fans were heard sarcastically chanting "Let's go Blue Jays!" and clapping alongside the chant as a sign of their farcical shift in priority from an under-performing team to the more successful playoff-bound 2016 Toronto Blue Jays season. Leafs fans also vandalized Mike Babcock's Wikipedia article amid the poor records of the first few months into the 2019–20 season; his article was temporarily semi-protected to minimize further vandalism. In addition to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), many fans live throughout Ontario, including the Ottawa Valley, the Niagara Region, and Southwestern Ontario. As a result, Leafs' away games at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, KeyBank Center in Buffalo, and Little Caesars Arena in Detroit host a more neutral attendance. This is due in part to the Leafs fans in those areas, and those cities' proximity to the GTA. The Leafs are also a popular team in Atlantic Canada. In November 2016, a survey was conducted that found 20 percent of respondents from Atlantic Canada viewed the Leafs as their favourite team, second only to the Montreal Canadiens at 26 percent. The Leafs were found to be the most favoured team in Prince Edward Island, with 24 percent of respondents favouring the Leafs; and the second favourite team in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador (19 and 24 percent respectively, both trailing respondents who favoured the Canadiens by one percent). Rivalries During the 25 years of the Original Six era (1942–67), teams played each other 14 times during the regular season, and with only four teams continuing into the playoffs, rivalries were intense. The Maple Leafs established several rivalries with other teams that played in this era, including the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, and the Montreal Canadiens. In addition to the aforementioned teams, the Maple Leafs have also developed a rivalry with the Ottawa Senators, as well as a minor geographic rivalry with the Buffalo Sabres called the Battle of the QEW after the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW), the freeway that links Buffalo with Toronto along the western edge of Lake Ontario within the Golden Horseshoe. Boston Bruins Both teams are Original Six teams, with their first game played in Boston's inaugural season on December 3, 1924. In the match-up, the St. Patricks earned a 5–3 victory against the Bruins at Mutual Street Arena. The Maple Leafs played their first Stanley Cup playoff series against the Bruins in 1933, winning the series 3–2. From 1933 to 2019, the two teams played in 16 postseason series against one another, including one Stanley Cup Finals. The rivalry has since been renewed from the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs which saw the Bruins rally from a 4–1 third-period deficit to defeat the Maple Leafs in overtime, 5–4, and advance to the second round. In the 2018, 2019, and 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Bruins would again defeat the Maple Leafs in seven games in all three of those years. Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings and the Maple Leafs are both Original Six teams, playing their first game together in 1927. From 1929 to 1993, the teams met each other in the 16 playoff series, as well as seven Stanley Cup Finals. Meeting one another a combined 23 times in the postseason, they have played each other in more playoff series than any other two teams in NHL history except of the Bruins and Canadiens who have played a total of 34 playoff series. Overlapping fanbases, particularly in markets such as Windsor, Ontario, and the surrounding Essex County, have added to the rivalry. The rivalry between the Detroit Red Wings and the Maple Leafs was at its height during the Original Six era. The Leafs and Red Wings met in the playoffs six times during the 1940s, including four Stanley Cup finals. The Leafs beat the Red Wings in five of their six meetings. In the 1950s, the Leafs and Red Wings met one another in six Stanley Cup semifinals; the Red Wings beat the Leafs in five of their six meetings. From 1961 to 1967, the two teams met one another in three playoff series, including two Stanley Cup finals. Within those 25 years, the Leafs and Red Wings played a total of 15 playoff series including six Cup Finals; the Maple Leafs beat the Red Wings in all six Cup Finals. The teams have only met three times in the playoffs since the Original Six era, with their last meeting in 1993. After the Leafs moved to the Eastern Conference in 1998, they faced each other less often, and the rivalry began to stagnate. The rivalry became intradivisional once again in 2013 when Detroit was moved to the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference as part of a realignment. Montreal Canadiens The rivalry between the Montreal Canadiens and the Maple Leafs is the oldest in the NHL, featuring two clubs that were active since the inaugural NHL season in 1917. In the early 20th century, the rivalry was an embodiment of a larger culture war between English Canada and French Canada. The Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups, while the Maple Leafs have won 13, ranking them first and second for most Cup wins, respectively. The height of the rivalry was during the 1960s when the Canadiens and Leafs combined to win all but one Cup. The two clubs had 15 playoff meetings. However, the rivalry has waned with the two having not met in the postseason from 1979 to 2021. It also suffered when Montreal and Toronto were placed in opposite conferences in 1981, with the Leafs in the Clarence Campbell/Western Conference and the Canadiens in the Prince of Wales/Eastern Conference. The rivalry became intradivisional once again in 1998 when the Leafs were moved into the Eastern Conference's Northeast Division. The rivalry's cultural imprint may be seen in literature and art. The rivalry from the perspective of the Canadiens fan is captured in the popular Canadian short story The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier. Originally published in French as "Une abominable feuille d'érable sur la glace" ("An abominable maple leaf on the ice"), it referred to the Maple Leafs sweater a mother forced her son to wear. The son is presumably based on Carrier himself when he was young. This rivalry is also evident in Toronto's College subway station, which displays murals depicting the two teams, one on each platform (the Leafs mural being on the southbound platform), given that when the murals were installed in 1984, the station was the closest to the Leafs' then-home of Maple Leaf Gardens. Ottawa Senators The modern Ottawa Senators entered the NHL in 1992, but the rivalry between the two teams did not begin to emerge until the late 1990s. From 1992 to 1998, Ottawa and Toronto played in different conferences (Prince of Wales / Eastern and Clarence Campbell / Western respectively), which meant they rarely played each other. However, before the 1998–99 season, the conferences and divisions were realigned, with Toronto moved to the Eastern Conference's Northeast Division with Ottawa. From 2000 to 2004, the teams played four postseason series; the Leafs won all four playoff series. Due in part to the number of Leafs fans living in the Ottawa Valley, and in part to Ottawa's relative proximity to Toronto, Leafs–Senators games at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa hold a more neutral audience. Team operations Branding Logo and uniform The team is represented through several images and symbols, including the maple leaf logo found on the club's uniform. The Maple Leafs' jersey has a long history and is one of the best-selling NHL jerseys among fans. The club's uniforms have been altered several times. The club's first uniforms were blue and featured the letter T. The first major alteration came in 1919 when the club was renamed the St. Patricks. The uniforms were green with "Toronto St. Pats" on the logo, lettered in green either on a white "pill" shape or stripes. When the club was renamed the Maple Leafs in the 1927–28 season, the logo was changed, and the team reverted to blue uniforms. The logo was a 48-point maple leaf with the words lettered in white. The home jersey was blue with alternating thin-thick stripes on the arms, legs and shoulders. The road uniform was white with three stripes on the chest and back, waist and legs. For 1933–34, the alternating thin-thick stripes were replaced with stripes of equal thickness. This remained the basic design for the next 40 years. In 1937, veins were added to the leaf and "Toronto" curved downwards at the ends instead of upwards. In 1942, the 35-point leaf was introduced. In 1946, the logo added trimming to the leaf with a white or blue border, while "C" for captain and "A" for alternate captain first appeared on the sweaters. In 1947, the "Toronto Maple Leafs" lettering was in red for a short time. In 1958, a six-eyelet lace and tie were added to the neck and a blue shoulder yoke was added. In 1961, player numbers were added to the sleeves. The fourth major change came in the 1966–67 season when the logo was changed to an 11-point leaf, similar to the leaf on the then-new flag of Canada to commemorate the Canadian Centennial. The simpler leaf logo featured the Futura Display typeface, replacing the previous block letters. The stripes on the sleeves and waistline were also changed, adding a wider stripe in between the two thinner stripes (similar to the stripe patterns on the socks and the early Leafs sweaters). Before the 1970–71 season, the Leafs adopted a new 11-point leaf logo, with a Kabel bold-font "Toronto" going straight across, running parallel to the other words. Other changes to the sweater included the replacement of the arm strips with an elongated yoke that extended to the ends of the sleeves, a solid single stripe on the waist replacing the three waistline stripes, two stripes on the stockings, and a smaller, textless Leaf crest on the shoulders. In 1973, the jersey's neck was a lace tie-down design, before the V-neck returned in 1976. In 1977, the NHL rules were changed to require names on the backs of the uniforms, but Harold Ballard resisted the change. Under Ballard's direction, the team briefly "complied" with the rule by placing blue letters on the blue road jersey for a game on February 26, 1978. With the NHL threatening hefty fines for failing to comply with the spirit of the rule (namely, having the names be legible for the fans and broadcasters in attendance), Ballard reached a compromise with the league, allowing the Leafs to finish the 1977–78 season with contrasting white letters on the road sweaters, and coming into full compliance with the new rule in the 1978–79 season by adding names in blue to the white home sweaters. With the NHL's 75th anniversary season (1991–92 season), the Leafs wore "Original Six" style uniforms similar to the designs used in the 1940s. Because of the fan reaction to the previous season's classic uniforms, the first changes to the Maple Leafs uniform in over 20 years were made. The revised uniforms for 1992–93 featured two stripes on the sleeves and waistline like the classic uniform, but with the 1970 11-point leaf with Kabel text on the front. A vintage-style veined leaf crest was placed on the shoulders. The uniforms would undergo a few modifications over the years. In 1997, Nike acquired the rights to manufacture Maple Leafs uniforms. Construction changes to the uniform included a wishbone collar and pothole mesh underarms, while the player name and number font were changed to Kabel to match the logo. CCM returned to manufacturing the Leafs uniforms in 1999 when Nike withdrew from the hockey jersey market, and kept most of the changes, although in 2000 the Kabel numbers were replaced with block numbers outlined in silver, and a silver-outlined interlocked TML monogram replaced the vintage leaf on the shoulders. Also during this time, the Leafs began wearing a white 1960s-style throwback third jersey featuring the outlined 35-point leaf, blue shoulders, and lace-up collar. With Reebok taking over the NHL jersey contract following the 2004–05 lockout, changes were expected when the Edge uniform system was set to debut in 2007. As part of the Edge overhaul, the TML monograms were removed from the shoulders, and the silver outlines on the numbers were replaced with blue or white outlines (e.g. the blue home jersey featured white numbers with blue and white outlines, rather than blue and silver), and the waistline stripes were removed. In 2010, the two waistline stripes were restored, the vintage leaf returned to the shoulders, and the player names and numbers were changed again, reverting to a simpler single-colour block font. Finally, lace-up collars were brought back to the primary uniforms. The Leafs also brought back the 1967–1970 blue uniform, replacing the white 1960s jersey as their third uniform. For the 2014 NHL Winter Classic, the Leafs wore a sweater inspired by their earlier uniforms in the 1930s. On February 2, 2016, the team unveiled a new logo for the 2016–17 season in honour of its centennial, dropping the use of the Kabel-style font lettering used from 1970; it returns the logo to a form inspired by the earlier designs, with 31 points to allude to the 1931 opening of Maple Leaf Gardens, and 17 veins a reference to its establishment in 1917. 13 of the veins are positioned along the top part in honour of its 13 Stanley Cup victories. The logo was subsequently accompanied by a new uniform design that was unveiled during the 2016 NHL Entry Draft on June 24, 2016. In addition to the new logo, the new uniforms feature a custom block typeface for the player names and numbers. Two stripes remain on the sleeves, with a single stripe at the waistline. The updated design carried over to the Adidas Adizero uniforms adopted by the NHL in 2017. The Maple Leafs have worn historical throwback uniforms for select games, with the club wearing Toronto Arenas or St. Pats-inspired throwback designs. Additionally, the Leafs have also used contemporary "historically inspired" uniforms as an alternate uniform. For the Centennial Classic, each Leafs player wore a blue sweater with bold white stripes across the chest and arms; the white stripe being a tribute to the St. Pats, while a stylized-"T" used by the Arenas featured on their hockey pants. For the 2020–21 season, the Maple Leafs wore "reverse retro" alternate uniforms, which included silver stripes inspired by the uniforms used from 1970 to 1972, while using the club's logo used from 1967 to 1970. Then for the 2022 Heritage Classic, the Maple Leafs donned a modified version of the team's Arenas throwbacks, with blue-on-blue lettering on the "Arenas" wordmark as a nod to the infamous 1978 uniforms. A second "reverse retro" alternate uniform, featuring the blue version of the white road uniforms they wore in 1962, was released. This design added a white shoulder yoke which was absent on the original blue uniform. Other alternate uniforms worn by the team include a white uniform with two blue stripes across the chest and arms, paired this uniform with white pants worn for the 2018 NHL Stadium Series. The uniforms were largely coloured white as a tribute to the Royal Canadian Navy and also included bolder blue outlines to create uniforms more pronounced for outdoor settings. During the 2021–22 season, the Leafs named TikTok, a video-sharing website, as their helmet entitlement partner. Then in the 2022–23 season, the Maple Leafs announced a uniform sponsorship with the Dairy Farmers of Ontario, utilizing the organization's "Milk" insignia. For the 2023–24 season, Pizza Pizza became the team's helmet entitlement partner; however, they were only featured on the home helmets. On March 22, 2022, the Maple Leafs unveiled a new alternate uniform, but for the first time in team history, black served as a base colour with the traditional blue serving as a trim colour. The "Next Gen" uniform features the team crest with a blue and black tie-dye background, along with a subtle black/blue skyline motif serving as sleeve stripes. It also comes with a reversible crest, featuring Canadian singer Justin Bieber's modified drew house insignia inside a yellow Maple Leafs logo and yellow stripes. The black/blue front is normally worn as a game uniform. Mascot The Maple Leafs' mascot is Carlton the Bear, an anthropomorphic polar bear whose name and number (#60) come from the location of Maple Leaf Gardens at 60 Carlton Street, where the Leafs played throughout much of their history. Carlton made his first public appearance on July 29, 1995. He later made his regular season appearance on October 10, 1995. Broadcasting As a result of both Bell Canada and Rogers Communications having an ownership stake in MLSE, Maple Leafs broadcasts are split between the two media companies; with regional TV broadcasts split between Rogers' Sportsnet Ontario and Bell's TSN4. Colour commentary for Bell's television broadcasts is performed by Mike Johnson, while play-by-play is provided by Gord Miller. Colour commentary for Rogers' television broadcasts is performed by Craig Simpson, while play-by-play is provided by Chris Cuthbert; both also serve as the lead broadcast team of Hockey Night in Canada and Sportsnet's national TV broadcasts. From 2001 to 2022, MLSE also operated a specialty channel, the Leafs Nation Network. Like the Maple Leafs television broadcasts, radio broadcasts are split evenly between Rogers' CJCL (Sportsnet 590, The Fan) and Bell's CHUM (TSN Radio 1050). Both Bell and Rogers' radio broadcasts have their colour commentary provided by Jim Ralph, with play-by-play provided by Joe Bowen. Radio broadcasts of games played by the club were started in 1923. The first Leafs hockey game that was televised occurred on November 10, 1952; the broadcast also being the first English-language television broadcast of an NHL game in Canada. Foster Hewitt was the Leafs' first play-by-play broadcaster, providing radio play-by-play from 1927 to 1978. In addition, he provided play-by-play for television from 1952 to 1958, and colour commentary from 1958 to 1961. Originally aired over CFCA, Hewitt's broadcast was picked up by the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (the CRBC) in 1933, moving to CBC Radio (the CRBC's successor) three years later. Home arenas and practice facilities The team's first home was the Arena Gardens, later known as the Mutual Street Arena. From 1912 until 1931, the Arena was ice hockey's premier site in Toronto. The Arena Gardens was the third arena in Canada to feature a mechanically frozen, or artificial, ice surface, and for 11 years was the only such facility in Eastern Canada. The Arena was demolished in 1989, with most of the site converted to residential developments. In 2011, parts of the site were made into a city park, known as Arena Gardens. Within a six months in 1931, Conn Smythe built Maple Leaf Gardens on the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church Street, for C$1.5 million (C$28.7 million in 2024). The arena soon acquired nicknames including the "Carlton Street Cashbox", and the "Maple Leaf Mint", since the team's games were constantly sold out. The Maple Leafs won 11 Stanley Cups while playing at the Gardens. The first annual NHL All-Star Game was also held at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1947. The Gardens opened on November 12, 1931, with the Maple Leafs losing 2–1 to the Chicago Blackhawks. On February 13, 1999, the Maple Leafs played their last game at the Gardens, also suffering a 6–2 loss to the Blackhawks. The building is presently used as a multi-purpose facility, with a Loblaws grocery store occupying retail space on the lower floors, Joe Fresh and LCBO occupying another floor, and an athletics arena for Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) occupying the topmost level. The Maple Leafs presently use two facilities in the City of Toronto. The club moved from the Gardens on February 20, 1999, to their current home arena, Air Canada Centre, later renamed Scotiabank Arena, a multi-purpose indoor entertainment arena on Bay Street in the South Core neighbourhood of Downtown Toronto. The arena is owned by the Maple Leafs' parent company MLSE and is shared with the NBA's Toronto Raptors (another MLSE subsidiary), as well as the National Lacrosse League's Toronto Rock. In addition to the main arena, the Maple Leafs also operate a practice facility at the Ford Performance Centre. The facility was opened in 2009 and operated by the Lakeshore Lions Club until September 2011, when the City of Toronto took over ownership of the facility after the Lions Club faced financial difficulties. The facility now operates as a City of Toronto-controlled corporation. The facility was known as the Mastercard Centre for Hockey Excellence until 2019 when it was renamed the Ford Performance Centre. The facility has three NHL rinks and one Olympic-sized rink. On January 1, 2017, the Maple Leafs played the Detroit Red Wings in a home game at BMO Field, an outdoor multipurpose stadium at Exhibition Place, home to Leafs owner MLSE's other teams: the Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts. Known as the NHL Centennial Classic, the outdoor game served as a celebration for both the centennial season of the franchise and the NHL. Minor league affiliates The Maple Leafs are affiliated with the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, the Marlies play from Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto. The Maple Leafs' parent company has owned the Marlies franchise since 1978. The first AHL affiliate owned by the Maple Leafs was the Rochester Americans, a team the Leafs initially co-owned with the Montreal Canadiens from 1956 to 1959, before MLGL bought out the Canadiens' share in the team. MLGL held sole ownership of the team until it was sold to an investor group in 1966. However, it continued to serve as their minor league affiliate until 1969. The Leafs did not have an AHL affiliate from 1969 to 1978 and relied on placing their drafted players with other team's affiliates. However, after several poor draft picks and having insufficient control over their prospect's development, MLGL opted to reestablish their own farm system; co-founding the Marlies franchise in 1978, and operating the Cincinnati Tigers of the Central Hockey League from 1981 to 1982. The Marlies were initially established as the New Brunswick Hawks, and were later relocated to St. Catherines, Newmarket, and St. John's, before finally moving to Toronto in 2005. The Newfoundland Growlers were the ECHL affiliate of the Maple Leafs from 2018 until 2024, they played from the Mary Brown's Centre in St. John's, Newfoundland. Unlike the Marlies, the Growlers were not owned by the Leafs' parent company but were instead owned by Deacon Sports and Entertainment. The Growlers folded in 2024. The Cincinnati Cyclones signed an agreement to become the ECHL affiliate of the Maple Leafs in July 2024. The Marlies were named after the Toronto Marlboros, a junior hockey team named after the Duke of Marlborough. Founded in 1903, the Marlboros were sponsored by the Leafs from 1927 to 1989. The Marlboros constituted one of two junior hockey teams the Leafs formerly sponsored, the other being the Toronto St. Michael's Majors. The sponsored junior system served as the Leafs primary farm system for young replacement players from the 1940s to 1950s. Formal NHL sponsorship of junior teams ceased in 1966, making all qualifying prospects not already on NHL-sponsored lists eligible for the draft. Ownership The Maple Leafs is one of six professional sports teams owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE). In 2018, Forbes estimated the value of the club at US$1.45 billion, making the Maple Leafs the second most valuable franchise in the NHL, after the New York Rangers. However, MLSE has refuted past valuations made by Forbes. Initially, ownership of the club was held by the Arena Gardens of Toronto, Limited; an ownership group fronted by Henry Pellatt that owned and managed Arena Gardens. The club was named a permanent franchise in the League following its inaugural season, with team manager Charles Querrie, and the Arena Gardens treasurer Hubert Vearncombe as its owners. The Arena Company owned the club until 1919 when litigations from Eddie Livingstone forced the company to declare bankruptcy. Querrie brokered the sale of the Arena Garden's share to the owners of the amateur St. Patricks Hockey Club. Maintaining his shares in the club, Querrie fronted the new ownership group until 1927, when the club was put up for sale. Toronto Varsity Blues coach Conn Smythe put together an ownership group and purchased the franchise for $160,000. In 1929, Smythe decided, amid the Great Depression, that the Maple Leafs needed a new arena. To finance it, Smythe launched Maple Leaf Gardens Limited (MLGL), a publicly traded management company to own both the Maple Leafs and the new arena, which was named Maple Leaf Gardens. Smythe traded his stake in the Leafs for shares in MLGL and sold shares in the holding company to the public to help fund construction for the arena. Although Smythe was the face of MLGL from its founding, he did not gain a controlling interest in the company until 1947. Smythe remained MLGL's principal owner until 1961 when he sold 90 percent of his shares to an ownership group consisting of Harold Ballard, John W. H. Bassett and Stafford Smythe. Ballard became majority owner in February 1972 shortly following the death of Stafford Smythe. Ballard was the principal owner of MLGL until he died in 1990. The company remained a publicly traded company until 1998, when an ownership group fronted by Steve Stavro privatized the company by acquiring more than the 90 percent of stock necessary to force objecting shareholders out. While initially primarily a hockey company, with ownership stakes in several junior hockey clubs including the Toronto Marlboros of the Ontario Hockey Association, the company later branched out to own the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League from the late 1970s to late 1980s (though the company would later sell off the Tiger-Cats). On February 12, 1998, MLGL purchased the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association, who were constructing the then–Air Canada Centre. After MLGL acquired the Raptors, the company changed its name to MLSE. The company's portfolio has since expanded to include the Toronto FC of Major League Soccer, the Toronto Marlies of the AHL, the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, and a 37.5 percent stake in Maple Leaf Square. The present ownership structure emerged in 2012 after the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (the company's former principal owner) announced the sale of its 75 percent stake in MLSE to a consortium made up of telecommunications rivals Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, in a deal valued at $1.32 billion. As part of the sale, two numbered companies were created to jointly hold stock. This ownership structure ensures that, at the shareholder level, Rogers and Bell vote their overall 75 percent interest in the company together and thus decisions on the management of the company must be made by consensus between the two. A portion of Bell's share in MLSE is owned by its pension fund, to make Bell's share in MLSE under 30 percent. This was done so that Bell could retain its existing 18 percent interest in the Montreal Canadiens; as NHL's conflict of interest rules prevent any shareholder that owns more than 30 percent of a team from holding an ownership position in another. The remaining 25 percent is owned by Larry Tanenbaum, who is also the chairman of MLSE. Season-by-season record This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Maple Leafs. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Toronto Maple Leafs seasons Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against Players and personnel Current roster Updated October 9, 2024 Team captains In all, 25 individuals have served as captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ken Randall served as the team's first captain for two years beginning with the inaugural 1917–18 NHL season. John Ross Roach was the first goaltender to be named captain in the NHL, and the only goaltender to serve as the Leafs' captain. He was one of only six goalies in NHL history to have been officially recognized as the team captain. George Armstrong served as captain from 1958 through 1969 and was the longest-serving captain in the team's history. In 1997, Mats Sundin became the first non-Canadian to captain the Maple Leafs. His tenure as captain holds the distinction as the longest captaincy for a non-North American-born player in NHL history. The last player named to the position was Auston Matthews on August 14, 2024. Three captains of the Maple Leafs have held the position at multiple points in their careers. Syl Apps' first tenure as the captain began from 1940 to 1943, before he stepped down and left the club to enlist in the Canadian Army. Bob Davidson served as the Maple Leafs captain until Apps' return from the Army in 1945 and resumed his captaincy until 1948. Ted Kennedy's first tenure as captain was from 1948 to 1955. He announced his retirement from the sport at the end of the 1954–55 season, with Sid Smith succeeding him as captain. Although Kennedy missed the entire 1955–56 season, he came out of retirement to play the second half of the 1956–57 season. During that half-season, Kennedy served his second tenure as the Maple Leafs' captain. Darryl Sittler was the third player to have been named the team's captain twice. As a result of a dispute between Sittler and the Maple Leafs' general manager Punch Imlach, Sittler relinquished the captaincy on December 29, 1979. The dispute was resolved in the following off-season after a heart attack hospitalized Imlach. Sittler arranged talks with Ballard to resolve the issue, eventually resuming his captaincy on September 24, 1980. No replacement captain was named during the interim period. Head coaches The Maple Leafs have had 41 head coaches (including four interim coaches). The franchise's first head coach was Dick Carroll, who coached the team for two seasons. Several coaches have served as the Leafs head coach on multiple occasions. King Clancy was named the head coach on three occasions while Charles Querrie and Punch Imlach served the position on two occasions. Craig Berube is the current head coach. He was named coach on May 17, 2024. Punch Imlach coached the most regular season games of any Leafs' head coach with 770 games, and has the most all-time points with the Maple Leafs, with 865. He is followed by Pat Quinn, who coached 574 games, with 678 points all-time with the Maple Leafs. Both Mike Rodden and Dick Duff, have the fewest points with the Maple Leafs, with 0. Both were interim coaches who coached only two games each in 1927 and 1980 respectively, losing both games. Sheldon Keefe earned the most points of any Leafs head coach in a single season, with 115 points during the 2021–22 season. Five Maple Leafs' coaches have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as players, while four others were inducted as builders. Pat Burns is the only Leafs' head coach to win a Jack Adams Award with the team. Draft picks In the 1963 NHL Amateur Draft, the NHL's inaugural draft, the Maple Leafs selected Walt McKechnie, a centre from the London Nationals with their first pick, sixth overall. Two Maple Leafs captains were obtained through the draft, Darryl Sittler in the 1970 draft; as well as Wendel Clark in the 1985 draft. The Maple Leafs have drafted two players with a first overall draft pick; Clark in the 1985 draft, and Auston Matthews in the 2016 draft. Other notable Maple Leafs draft picks and current players with the team are defenceman Morgan Rielly (fifth overall, 2012), and wingers William Nylander and Mitch Marner (eighth and fourth overall in 2014 and 2015 respectively). The team's most recent first round selection was Easton Cowan, at 28th overall in the 2023 draft. Announcers The Toronto Maple Leafs have had four PA announcers in their history. In addition Harold (Hap) Watson was the Toronto Arenas' announcer in 1929 before the team moved to Maple Leaf Gardens and became the Toronto Maple Leafs. Walter (Red) Barber (1931–1961) Paul Morris (1961–1999) Andy Frost (1999–2016) Mike Ross (2016–present) Team and league honours The Maple Leafs have won 13 Stanley Cups in its history. Toronto's first two Stanley Cups, in 1918 and 1922, took place when the Stanley Cup tournament operated as an interleague competition. Toronto's subsequent 11 Stanley Cups were awarded after 1926 when the Cup was established as the championship trophy of the NHL. The Maple Leafs won their last Stanley Cup in 1967; with the team's 55-season Stanley Cup drought being the longest championship drought in the NHL. The Maple Leafs were also awarded the Prince of Wales Trophy twice, following the 1946–47 season, and the 1962–63 season. The Prince of Wales Trophy was awarded to the club when it was used as NHL's regular season championship trophy. Retired numbers The Maple Leafs have retired the numbers of 19 players; as some players used the same number, only 13 numbers have been retired. Between October 17, 1992, and October 15, 2016, the Maple Leafs took a unique approach to retired numbers. Whereas players who suffered a career-ending injury had their numbers retired, "great" players had their number "honoured". Honoured numbers remained in general circulation for players, however, during Brian Burke's tenure as the Maple Leafs' general manager, the use of honoured numbers required his approval. During this period, only two players met the criteria for retirement, the first being number 6, worn by Ace Bailey and retired on February 14, 1934; and Bill Barilko's number 5, retired on October 17, 1992. The retirement of Bailey's number was the first of its kind in professional sports. It was briefly taken out of retirement after Bailey asked that Ron Ellis be allowed to wear his number. Bailey's number returned to retirement after Ellis's final game on January 14, 1981. The first players to have their numbers honoured were Syl Apps and Ted Kennedy, on October 3, 1993. Mats Sundin was the last player to have his number honoured on February 11, 2012. On October 15, 2016, before the home opening game of the team's centenary season, the Maple Leafs announced they had changed their philosophy on retiring numbers, and that the numbers of those 16 honoured players would now be retired, in addition to the retirement of Dave Keon's number. As well as honouring and retiring the numbers, the club also commissioned statues of former Maple Leafs. The group of statues, known as Legends Row, is a 9.2 metres (30 ft) granite hockey bench with statues of former club players. Unveiled in September 2014, it is located outside Gate 5 of Scotiabank Arena, at Maple Leaf Square. As of October 2017, statues have been made of 14 players with retired numbers. In addition to the 13 numbers retired by the Maple Leafs, the number 99 is also retired from use in the organization. At the 2000 NHL All-Star Game hosted in Toronto, the NHL announced the league-wide retirement of Wayne Gretzky's number 99, retiring it from use throughout all its member teams, including the Maple Leafs. Hall of Fame The Toronto Maple Leafs acknowledge an affiliation with 76 inductees of the Hockey Hall of Fame, including 62 former players as well as 13 builders of the sport. The Maple Leafs have the greatest number of players inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame of any NHL team. The 13 individuals recognized as builders of the sport include former Maple Leafs broadcasters, executives, head coaches, and other personnel relating to the club's operations. Inducted in 2017, Dave Andreychuk was the latest Maple Leafs player to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In addition to players and builders, five broadcasters for the Maple Leafs were also awarded the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 1984, radio broadcaster Foster Hewitt was awarded the Hall of Fame's inaugural Foster Hewitt Memorial Award, an award named after him. Before the award's creation, Hewitt had already been inducted as a builder into the Hall of Fame. Other Maple Leafs broadcasters that received the award include Wes McKnight in 1986, Bob Cole in 2007, Bill Hewitt in 2007 and Joe Bowen in 2018. Players Builders Franchise career leaders These are the top franchise leaders in regular season points, goals, assists, points per game, games played, and goaltending wins as of the end of the 2023–24 season. * – current Maple Leafs player See also List of Toronto Maple Leafs players List of Toronto Maple Leafs general managers Toronto Maple Leafs in popular culture References Footnotes Citations Bibliography Holzman, Morey; Nieforth, Joseph (2002). Deceptions and Doublecross: How the NHL Conquered Hockey. Dundurn Press. ISBN 1-55002-413-2. McNaughton, Scott; Meagher, Ian; Lund, Chris; Keogh, Steve, eds. (2016). Toronto Maple Leafs Media Guide 2016–17. Toronto Maple Leafs. McNaughton, Scott; Lund, Chris; McBride, Colin; Bascom, Kate; Redenbach, Jennifer; Keogh, Steve, eds. (2018). Toronto Maple Leafs Media Guide 2018–19 (PDF). Toronto Maple Leafs. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 21, 2019. Leonetti, Michael (2014). 100 Things Maple Leafs Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. Triumph Books. ISBN 978-1-60078-935-9. Obodiac, Stan (1976). The First 50 Years. McClelland and Stewart Limited. ISBN 0-7710-9064-1. Shea, Kevin; Wilson, Jason (2016). The Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Club: The Official Centennial Publication. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 978-0-7710-7929-0. Ross, J. Andrew (2015). Joining the Clubs: The Business of the National Hockey League to 1945. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-3383-9. Smythe, Conn; Young, Scott (1981). Conn Smythe: If you can't beat 'em in the alley. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland and Stewart. ISBN 0-7710-9078-1. External links Official website

List_of_pharaohs

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

The title "pharaoh" is used for those rulers of Ancient Egypt who ruled after the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by Narmer during the Early Dynastic Period, approximately 3100 BC. However, the specific title was not used to address the kings of Egypt by their contemporaries until the New Kingdom's 18th Dynasty, c. 1400 BC. Along with the title pharaoh for later rulers, there was an Ancient Egyptian royal titulary used by Egyptian kings which remained relatively constant during the course of Ancient Egyptian history, initially featuring a Horus name, a Sedge and Bee (nswt-bjtj) name and a Two Ladies (nbtj) name, with the additional Golden Horus, nomen and prenomen titles being added successively during later dynasties. Egypt was continually governed, at least in part, by native pharaohs for approximately 2500 years, until it was conquered by the Kingdom of Kush in the late 8th century BC, whose rulers adopted the traditional pharaonic titulature for themselves. Following the Kushite conquest, Egypt experienced another period of independent native rule before being conquered by the Achaemenid Empire, whose rulers also adopted the title of pharaoh. The last native pharaoh of Egypt was Nectanebo II, who was pharaoh before the Achaemenids conquered Egypt for a second time. Achaemenid rule over Egypt came to an end through the conquests of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, after which it was ruled by Hellenic Pharaohs of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Their rule, and the independence of Egypt, came to an end when Egypt became a province of Rome in 30 BC. Augustus and subsequent Roman emperors were styled as Pharaoh when in Egypt until the reign of Maximinus Daza in 314 AD. The dates given in this list of pharaohs are approximate. They are based primarily on the conventional chronology of Ancient Egypt, mostly based on the Digital Egypt for Universities database developed by the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, but alternative dates taken from other authorities may be indicated separately. Ancient Egyptian king lists Modern lists of pharaohs are based on historical records and, including Ancient Egyptian king lists and later histories, such as Manetho's Aegyptiaca, as well as archaeological evidence. Concerning ancient sources, Egyptologists and historians alike call for caution in regard to the credibility, exactitude and completeness of these sources, many of which were written long after the reigns they report. An additional problem is that ancient king lists are often damaged, inconsistent with one another and/or selective. The following ancient king lists are known (along with the dynasty under which they were created): Den seal impressions (1st Dynasty); found on a cylinder seal in Den's tomb. It lists all 1st Dynasty kings from Narmer to Den by their Horus names. Palermo Stone (5th Dynasty); carved on an olivine-basalt slab. Broken into pieces and thus today incomplete. Giza writing board (6th Dynasty); painted with red, green and black ink on gypsum and cedar wood. Very selective. South Saqqara Stone (6th Dynasty); carved on a black basalt slab. Very selective. Karnak King List (18th Dynasty); carved on limestone. Very selective. Abydos King List of Seti I (19th Dynasty); carved on limestone. Very detailed, but omitting some of the Kings from First Intermediate Period and all the kings from Second Intermediate Period of Egypt. Abydos King List of Ramesses II (19th Dynasty); carved on limestone. Very selective, today damaged. Ramesseum king list (19th Dynasty); carved on limestone. Contains most of the New Kingdom pharaohs up to Ramesses II. Saqqara Tablet (19th Dynasty), carved on limestone. Very detailed, but omitting most kings of the 1st Dynasty for unknown reasons. Turin King List (19th Dynasty); written with red and black ink on papyrus. Likely the most complete king-list in history, today damaged. Medinet Habu king list (20th Dynasty); carved on limestone and very similar to the Ramesseum king list. Genealogy of Ankhefensekhmet (22nd Dynasty); carved on limestone, today damaged. Manetho's Aegyptiaca (Greek Period); possibly written on papyrus. The original writings are lost today and many anecdotes assigned to certain kings seem fictitious. Predynastic Period The Predynastic Period ends around 3100 BC when Egypt was first unified as a single kingdom. Lower Egypt Lower Egypt geographically consists of the northern Nile and the Nile delta. The following list may be incomplete: Upper Egypt Upper Egypt refers to the region up-river to the south of Lower Egypt. Regrouped here are predynastic rulers of Upper Egypt belonging to the late Naqada III period, sometimes informally described as Dynasty 0: Predynastic rulers: Dynasty 0 Since these kings precede the First Dynasty, they have been informally grouped as "Dynasty 0". The following list of predynastic rulers may be incomplete: Early Dynastic Period The Early Dynastic Period of Egypt stretches from around 3100 to 2686 BC. First Dynasty The First Dynasty ruled from around 3100 to 2890 BC. Second Dynasty The Second Dynasty ruled from 2890 to 2686 BC. Old Kingdom The Old Kingdom of Egypt is the long period of stability and growth following the Early Dynastic Period and preceding the troubled First Intermediate Period. The kingdom spanned from 2686 to 2181 BC. Third Dynasty The Third Dynasty ruled from 2686 to 2613 BC. Fourth Dynasty The Fourth Dynasty ruled from 2613 to 2496 BC. Fifth Dynasty The Fifth Dynasty ruled from 2496 to 2345 BC. Sixth Dynasty The Sixth Dynasty ruled from 2345 to 2181 BC. First Intermediate Period The First Intermediate Period (2183–2060 BC) is a period of disarray and chaos between the end of the Old Kingdom and the advent of the Middle Kingdom. The Old Kingdom rapidly collapsed after the death of Pepi II. He had reigned for more than 64 and likely up to 94 years, longer than any monarch in history. The latter years of his reign were marked by inefficiency because of his advanced age. The union of the Two Kingdoms fell apart and regional leaders had to cope with the resulting famine. The kings of the 7th and 8th Dynasties, who represented the successors of the 6th Dynasty, tried to hold onto some power in Memphis but owed much of it to powerful nomarchs. After 20 to 45 years, they were overthrown by a new line of pharaohs based in Herakleopolis Magna. Some time after these events, a rival line based at Thebes revolted against their nominal Northern overlords and united Upper Egypt. Around 2055 BC, Mentuhotep II, the son and successor of pharaoh Intef III defeated the Herakleopolitan pharaohs and reunited the Two Lands, thereby starting the Middle Kingdom. Seventh and Eighth Dynasties The Seventh and Eighth Dynasties ruled for approximately 20–45 years. They comprise numerous ephemeral kings reigning from Memphis over a possibly divided Egypt and, in any case, holding only limited power owing to the effectively feudal system into which the administration had evolved. The list below is based on the Abydos King List dating to the reign of Seti I and taken from Jürgen von Beckerath's Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen as well as from Kim Ryholt's latest reconstruction of the Turin canon, another king list dating to the Ramesside Era. Ninth Dynasty The Ninth Dynasty ruled from 2160 to 2130 BC. The Turin King List has 18 kings reigning in the Ninth and Tenth Dynasties. Of these, twelve names are missing and four are partial. Tenth Dynasty The Tenth Dynasty was a local group that held sway over Lower Egypt and ruled from 2130 to 2040 BC. Eleventh Dynasty The Eleventh Dynasty originated from a group of Theban nomarchs serving kings of the 8th, 9th or 10th dynasty with roots in Upper Egypt that ruled from 2134 to 1991 BC. The successors of Intef the Elder, starting with Mentuhotep I, became independent from their northern overlords and eventually conquered Egypt under Mentuhotep II. Middle Kingdom The Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2040–1802 BC) is the period from the end of the First Intermediate Period to the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period. In addition to the Twelfth Dynasty, some scholars include the Eleventh, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties in the Middle Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom can be noted for the expansion of trade outside of the kingdom that occurred during this time. Eleventh Dynasty cont. The second part of the Eleventh Dynasty is usually considered to be the beginning of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Enigmatic kings, only attested in Lower Nubia: Twelfth Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty ruled from 1991 to 1802 BC. The position of a possible additional ruler, Seankhibtawy Seankhibra, is uncertain. He may be an ephemeral king, or a name variant of a king of the 12th or 13th Dynasty. Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period (1802–1550 BC) is a period of disarray between the end of the Middle Kingdom, and the start of the New Kingdom. It is best known as when the Hyksos, whose reign comprised the Fifteenth Dynasty, made their appearance in Egypt. The Thirteenth Dynasty was much weaker than the Twelfth Dynasty, and was unable to hold onto the two lands of Egypt. Either at the start of the dynasty, c. 1805 BC or toward the middle of it in c. 1710 BC, the provincial ruling family in Xois, located in the marshes of the eastern Delta, broke away from the central authority to form the Canaanite Fourteenth Dynasty. The Hyksos made their first appearance during the reign of Sobekhotep IV, and around 1720 BC took control of the town of Avaris (the modern Tell el-Dab'a/Khata'na), conquering the kingdom of the 14th dynasty. Sometime around 1650 BC the Hyksos, perhaps led by Salitis the founder of the Fifteenth Dynasty, conquered Memphis, thereby terminating the 13th dynasty. The power vacuum in Upper Egypt resulting from the collapse of the 13th dynasty allowed the 16th dynasty to declare its independence in Thebes, only to be overrun by the Hyksos kings shortly thereafter. Subsequently, as the Hyksos withdrew from Upper Egypt, the native Egyptian ruling house in Thebes set itself up as the Seventeenth Dynasty. This dynasty eventually drove the Hyksos back into Asia under Seqenenre Tao, Kamose and finally Ahmose, first pharaoh of the New Kingdom. Thirteenth Dynasty The Thirteenth Dynasty (following the Turin King List) ruled from 1802 to around 1649 BC and lasted 153 or 154 years according to Manetho. This table should be contrasted with Known kings of the 13th Dynasty: The position of the following kings is uncertain: Fourteenth Dynasty The Fourteenth Dynasty was a local group from the eastern Delta, based at Avaris, that ruled from either 1805 BC or around 1710 BC until around 1650 BC. Some of the contested rulers of the 14th Dynasty (proposed by Kim Ryholt) are commonly identified by Egyptologists as being of Canaanite (Semitic) descent, owing to the distinct origins of the names of some of their kings and princes. However, the dynasty rulers are not referred to as Hyksos in the Turin kings list. It is here given according to Ryholt; however, this reconstruction of the dynasty is heavily debated with the position of the five kings preceding Nehesy highly disputed. The position and identity of the following pharaohs is uncertain: The Turin King List provides additional names, none of which are attested beyond the list. Fifteenth Dynasty The Fifteenth Dynasty arose from among the Hyksos people who emerged from the Fertile Crescent to establish a short-lived governance over much of the Nile region, and ruled from 1674 to 1535 BC. Abydos Dynasty The Second Intermediate Period may include an independent dynasty reigning over Abydos from around 1650 BC until 1600 BC. Four attested kings may be tentatively attributed to the Abydos Dynasty, and they are given here without regard for their (unknown) chronological order: Sixteenth Dynasty The Sixteenth Dynasty was a native Theban dynasty emerging from the collapse of the Memphis-based 13th dynasty around 1650 BC. They were finally conquered by the Hyksos 15th dynasty around 1580 BC. The 16th dynasty held sway over Upper Egypt only. The 16th Dynasty may also have comprised the reigns of pharaohs Sneferankhre Pepi III and Nebmaatre. Their chronological position is uncertain. Seventeenth Dynasty The Seventeenth Dynasty was based in Upper Egypt and ruled from 1650 to 1550 BC: The early 17th Dynasty may also have included the reign of a pharaoh Nebmaatre, whose chronological position is uncertain. New Kingdom The New Kingdom (1550–1077 BC) is the period covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasty of Egypt, from the 16th to the 11th century BC, between the Second Intermediate Period, and the Third Intermediate Period. Through military dominance abroad, the New Kingdom saw Egypt's greatest territorial extent. It expanded far into Nubia in the south, and held wide territories in the Near East. Egyptian armies fought with Hittite armies for control of modern-day Syria. Three of the best known pharaohs of the New Kingdom are Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, whose exclusive worship of the Aten is often interpreted as the first instance of monotheism, Tutankhamun known for the discovery of his nearly intact tomb, and Ramesses II who attempted to recover the territories in modern Israel/Palestine, Lebanon and Syria that had been held in the Eighteenth Dynasty. His reconquest led to the Battle of Qadesh, where he led the Egyptian armies against the army of the Hittite king Muwatalli II. Eighteenth Dynasty The Eighteenth Dynasty ruled from c. 1550 to 1292 BC: Nineteenth Dynasty The Nineteenth Dynasty ruled from 1292 to 1186 BC and includes one of the greatest pharaohs: Ramesses II the Great. Twentieth Dynasty The Twentieth Dynasty ruled from 1190 to 1077 BC: Third Intermediate Period The Third Intermediate Period (1077–664 BC) marked the end of the New Kingdom after the collapse of the Egyptian empire at the end of the Bronze Age. Two dynasties of Libyan origin ruled, giving this period its alternative name of the Libyan Period. Twenty-First Dynasty The Twenty-First Dynasty was based at Tanis and was a relatively weak group. Theoretically, they were rulers of all Egypt, but in practice their influence was limited to Lower Egypt. They ruled from 1077 to 943 BC. Theban High Priests of Amun Though not officially pharaohs, the High Priests of Amun at Thebes were the de facto rulers of Upper Egypt during the Twenty-first dynasty, writing their names in cartouches and being buried in royal tombs. Twenty-Second Dynasty The pharaohs of the Twenty-Second Dynasty were Libyans, ruling from around 943 to 728 BC. Twenty-Third Dynasty The Twenty-Third Dynasty was a local group, again of Libyan origin, based at Herakleopolis and Thebes that ruled from 837 to c. 735 BC. Rudamun was succeeded in Thebes by a local ruler: Twenty-Fourth Dynasty The Twenty-fourth Dynasty was a short-lived rival dynasty located in the western Delta (Sais), with only two pharaohs ruling from 732 to 720 BC. Twenty-Fifth Dynasty Nubians invaded Lower Egypt and took the throne of Egypt under Piye although they already controlled Thebes and Upper Egypt in the early years of Piye's reign. Piye's conquest of Lower Egypt established the Twenty-fifth Dynasty which ruled until 656 BC. They were ultimately driven back into Nubia, where they established a kingdom at Napata (656–590), and, later, at Meroë (590 BC – AD 500). Late Period The Late Period runs from around 664 to 332 BC, and includes periods of rule by native Egyptians and Persians. Twenty-Sixth Dynasty The Twenty-sixth Dynasty ruled from around 664 to 525 BC. The son and successor of Nekau I, Psamtik I, managed to reunify Egypt and is generally regarded as the founder of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Twenty-Seventh Dynasty Egypt was conquered by the Persian Empire in 525 BC by king Cambyses II, the son of Cyrus the Great, and remained Persian satrapy for more than one hundred years until regaining independence in 404 BC. The Achaemenid kings were acknowledged as Pharaohs in this era, forming the 27th Dynasty: Several native rebellions took place during the 27th dynasty: Twenty-Eighth Dynasty The Twenty-eighth Dynasty lasted only 6 years, from 404 to 398 BC, with one pharaoh: Twenty-Ninth Dynasty The Twenty-ninth Dynasty ruled from 398 to 380 BC: Thirtieth Dynasty The Thirtieth Dynasty ruled from 379/8 until Egypt once more came under Persian rule c. 340 BC: Thirty-First Dynasty Egypt again came under the control of the Achaemenid Persians. After the practice of Manetho, the Persian rulers from 340 to 332 BC are occasionally designated as the Thirty-first Dynasty: Native rebellions again took place during the 31st dynasty: Hellenistic period Argead Dynasty The Macedonian Greeks under Alexander the Great ushered in the Hellenistic period with his conquest of Persia and Egypt. The Argeads ruled from 332 to 309 BC: Ptolemaic Dynasty The second Hellenistic dynasty, the Ptolemies, ruled Egypt from 305 BC until Egypt became a province of Rome in 30 BC (whenever two dates overlap, that means there was a co-regency). The most famous member of this dynasty was Cleopatra VII, in modern times known simply as Cleopatra, who was successively the consort of Julius Caesar and, after Caesar's death, of Mark Antony, having children with both of them. Cleopatra strove to create a dynastic and political union between Egypt and Rome, but the assassination of Caesar and the defeat of Mark Antony doomed her plans. Caesarion (Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar) was the last king of the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt, and he reigned jointly with his mother Cleopatra VII of Egypt, from September 2, 47 BC. He was the eldest son of Cleopatra VII, and possibly the only son of Julius Caesar, after whom he was named. Between the alleged death of Cleopatra, on August 12, 30 BC, up to his own alleged death on August 23, 30 BC, he was nominally the sole pharaoh. It is tradition that he was hunted down and killed on the orders of Octavian, who would become the Roman emperor Augustus, but the historical evidence does not exist. Native rebellions also took place under Greek rule: Rome Cleopatra VII had affairs with Roman dictator Julius Caesar and Roman general Mark Antony, but it was not until after her suicide (after Mark Antony was defeated by Octavian, who would later be Emperor Augustus Caesar) that Egypt became a province of the Roman Republic in 30 BC. Subsequent Roman emperors were accorded the title of pharaoh, although exclusively only while in Egypt. The last Roman emperor to be conferred the title of pharaoh was Maximinus Daza (reigned 311–313 AD). See also Egyptian chronology History of Egypt List of Ancient Egyptian Royal Consorts References Further reading Breasted, J. H., History of Egypt from the Earliest Time to the Persian Conquest, 1909 Cerny, J. 'Egypt from the Death of Ramesses III to the End of the Twenty-First Dynasty' in: The Middle East and the Aegean Region c.1380–1000 BC, Cambridge University Press, 1975 ISBN 0-521-08691-4 Clayton, Peter A. (1995). Chronicle of the Pharaohs: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt. The Chronicles Series (Reprinted ed.). London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05074-3. Depuydt, Leo (2006). "Saite and Persian Egypt, 664 BC–332 BC". In Erik Hornung; Rolf Krauss; David A. Warburton (eds.). Ancient Egyptian Chronology (PDF). Leiden: Brill. pp. 265–283. ISBN 978-90-04-11385-5. Depuydt, Leo (2010). "New Date for the Second Persian Conquest, End of Pharaonic and Manethonian Egypt: 340/39 B.C.E.". Journal of Egyptian History. 3 (2): 191–230. doi:10.1163/187416610X541709. Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2004. ISBN 0-500-05128-3 Gardiner, Sir Alan, Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, Third Edition, Revised. London: Oxford University Press, 1964. Excursus A, pp. 71–76. Grimal, Nicolas, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell Books: 1992 Lloyd, Alan B. (1994). "Egypt, 404–332 B.C.". In D.M. Lewis; John Boardman; Simon Hornblower & M. Ostwald (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History VI: The Fourth Century B.C. (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 337–360. ISBN 0-521-23348-8. Murnane, William J. Ancient Egyptian Coregencies, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization. No. 40. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1977 Rice, Michael, Who's Who in Ancient Egypt, Routledge 1999 Ryholt, Kim & Bardrum, Steven, The Late Old Kingdom in the Turin King-list and the Identity of Nitocris. Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 127. 2000. Shaw, Garry. The Pharaoh, Life at Court and on Campaign, Thames and Hudson, 2012. Wilkinson, Toby A. H., Early Dynastic Egypt, Routledge 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1 Ventura Dr. R., Egypt, History & Civilisation Published by Osiris, PO Box 107 Cairo. Verner, Miroslav, The Pyramids – Their Archaeology and History, Atlantic Books, 2001, ISBN 1-84354-171-8 External links Egyptian Royal Genealogy (Old Broken Link) Archived 2009-04-07 at the Wayback Machine Manetho and the King Lists Review of different primary king lists Chronology Table - 0 Dynasty&History Period, by Dariusz Sitek Multi-pages of list of pharaohs in different king lists, without the god kings, in Egyptian hieroglyphs and English Egyptian Journey 2003: History: King Lists Hyperlink texts of the Manetho, Abydos & Turin king lists, without the god-kings Comparing the major Egyptian king lists Compares the Karnak, Adydos and Saqqara king lists Digital Egypt for Universities List of all female Pharaohs

Seti_I

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

Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom period, ruling c. 1294 or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II. The name 'Seti' means "of Set", which indicates that he was consecrated to the god Set (also termed "Sutekh" or "Seth"). As with most pharaohs, Seti had several names. Upon his ascension, he took the prenomen "mn-m3't-r' ", usually vocalized in Egyptian as Menmaatre (Established is the Justice of Re). His better known nomen, or birth name, is transliterated as "sty mry-n-ptḥ" or Sety Merenptah, meaning "Man of Set, beloved of Ptah". Manetho incorrectly considered him to be the founder of the 19th Dynasty, and gave him a reign length of 55 years, though no evidence has ever been found for so long a reign. Reign Background After the enormous social upheavals generated by Akhenaten's religious reform, Horemheb, Ramesses I and Seti I's main priority was to re-establish order in the kingdom and to reaffirm Egypt's sovereignty over Canaan and Syria, which had been compromised by the increasing external pressures from the Hittite state. Seti, with energy and determination, confronted the Hittites several times in battle. Without succeeding in destroying the Hittites as a potential danger to Egypt, he reconquered most of the disputed territories for Egypt and generally concluded his military campaigns with victories. The memory of Seti I's military successes was recorded in some large scenes placed on the front of the temple of Amun, situated in Karnak. A funerary temple for Seti was constructed in what is now known as Qurna (Mortuary Temple of Seti I), on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes while a magnificent temple made of white limestone at Abydos featuring exquisite relief scenes was started by Seti, and later completed by his son. His capital was at Memphis. He was considered a great king by his peers, but his fame has been overshadowed since ancient times by that of his son, Ramesses II. Reign Length Seti I's known accession date is known to be on III Shemu day 24. Seti I's reign length was either 9 or 11 rather than 15 full years. Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen has estimated that it was 15 years, but there are no dates recorded for Seti I after his Year 11 Gebel Barkal stela. As this king is otherwise quite well documented in historical records, other scholars suggest that a continuous break in the record for his last four years is unlikely, although it is technically possible simply that no records have been yet discovered. Peter J. Brand noted that the king personally opened new rock quarries at Aswan to build obelisks and colossal statues in his Year 9. This event is commemorated on two rock stelas in Aswan. However, most of Seti's obelisks and statues such as the Flaminian and Luxor obelisks were only partly finished or decorated by the time of his death, since they were completed early under his son's reign based on epigraphic evidence (they bore the early form of Ramesses II's royal prenomen "Usermaatre"). Ramesses II used the prenomen Usermaatre to refer to himself in his first year and did not adopt the final form of his royal title "Usermaatre Setepenre" until late into his second year. Brand aptly notes that this evidence calls into question the idea of a 15 Year reign for Seti I and suggests that "Seti died after a ten to eleven year reign" because only two years would have passed between the opening of the Rock Quarries and the partial completion and decoration of these monuments. This explanation conforms better with the evidence of the unfinished state of Seti I's monuments and the fact that Ramesses II had to complete the decorations on "many of his father's unfinished monuments, including the southern half of the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak and portions of his father's temples at Gurnah and Abydos" during the very first Year of his own reign. Critically, Brand notes that the larger of the two Aswan rock stelas states that Seti I "has ordered the commissioning of multitudinous works for the making of very great obelisks and great and wondrous statues (i.e. colossi) in the name of His Majesty, L.P.H. He made great barges for transporting them, and ships crews to match them for ferrying them from the quarry." (KRI 74:12-14) However, despite this promise, Brand stresses that there are few obelisks and apparently no colossi inscribed for Seti. Ramesses II, however, was able to complete the two obelisks and four seated colossi from Luxor within the first years of his reign, the two obelisks in particular being partly inscribed before he adopted the final form of his prenomen sometime in [his] year two. This state of affairs strongly implies that Seti died after ten to eleven years. Had he [Seti I] ruled on until his fourteenth or fifteenth year, then surely more of the obelisks and colossi he commissioned in [his] year nine would have been completed, in particular those from Luxor. If he in fact died after little more than a decade on the throne, however, then at most two years would have elapsed since the Aswan quarries were opened in year nine, and only a fraction of the great monoliths would have been complete and inscribed at his death, with others just emerging from the quarries so that Ramesses would be able to decorate them shortly after his accession. ... It now seems clear that a long, fourteen-to fifteen-year reign for Seti I can be rejected for lack of evidence. Rather, a tenure of ten or more likely probably eleven, years appears the most likely scenario. The German Egyptologist Jürgen von Beckerath also accepts that Seti I's reign lasted only 11 Years in a 1997 book. Seti's highest known date is Year 11, IV Shemu day 12 or 13 on a sandstone stela from Gebel Barkal but he would have briefly survived for 2 to 3 days into his Year 12 before dying based on the date of Ramesses II's rise to power. Seti I's accession date has been determined by Wolfgang Helck to be III Shemu day 24, which is very close to Ramesses II's known accession date of III Shemu day 27. More recently, in 2011, the Dutch Egyptologist Jacobus Van Dijk questioned the "Year 11" date stated in the great temple of Amun on the Gebel Barkal stela—Seti I's previously known highest attested date. This monument is quite badly preserved but still depicts Seti I in erect posture, which is the only case occurring since his Year 4 when he started to be depicted in a stooping posture on his stelae. Furthermore, the glyphs "I ∩" representing the 11 are damaged in the upper part and may just as well be "I I I" instead. Subsequently, Van Dijk proposed that the Gebel Barkal stela should be dated to Year 3 of Seti I, and that Seti's highest date more likely is Year 9 as suggested by the wine jars found in his tomb. In a 2012 paper, David Aston analyzed the wine jars and came to the same conclusion since no wine labels higher than Seti I's 8th regnal year were found in his KV17 tomb. Military campaigns Seti I fought a series of wars in western Asia, Libya and Nubia in the first decade of his reign. The main source for Seti's military activities are his battle scenes on the north exterior wall of the Karnak Hypostyle Hall, along with several royal stelas with inscriptions mentioning battles in Canaan and Nubia. In his first regnal year, he led his armies along the "Horus Military road", the coastal road that led from the Egyptian city of Tjaru (Zarw/Sile) in the northeast corner of the Egyptian Nile Delta along the northern coast of the Sinai peninsula ending in the town of "Canaan" in the modern Gaza strip. The Ways of Horus consisted of a series of military forts, each with a well, that are depicted in detail in the king's war scenes on the north wall of the Karnak Hypostyle Hall. While crossing the Sinai, the king's army fought local Bedouins called the Shasu. In Canaan, he received the tribute of some of the city states he visited. Others, including Beth-Shan and Yenoam, had to be captured but were easily defeated. A stele in Beth-Shan testifies to that reconquest; according to Grdsseloff, Rowe, Albrecht et Albright, Seti defeated Asian nomads in war against the Apirus (Hebrews). Dussaud commented Albright's article: "The interest of Professor Albright's note is mainly due to the fact that he no longer objects to the identification of "Apiru" with "Ibri" (i.e. the Hebrews) provided that we grant him that the vocal change has been driven by a popular etymology that brought the term "eber" (formerly 'ibr), that is to say the man from beyond the river." It seems that Egypt extends beyond the river. The attack on Yenoam is illustrated in his war scenes, while other battles, such as the defeat of Beth-Shan, were not shown because the king himself did not participate, sending a division of his army instead. The year one campaign continued into Lebanon where the king received the submission of its chiefs who were compelled to cut down valuable cedar wood themselves as tribute. At some unknown point in his reign, Seti I defeated Libyan tribesmen who had invaded Egypt's western border. Although defeated, the Libyans would pose an ever-increasing threat to Egypt during the reigns of Merenptah and Ramesses III. The Egyptian army also put down a minor "rebellion" in Nubia in the 8th year of Seti I. Seti himself did not participate in it although his crown prince, the future Ramesses II, may have. Capture of Kadesh The greatest achievement of Seti I's foreign policy was the capture of the Syrian town of Kadesh and neighboring territory of Amurru from the Hittite Empire. Egypt had not held Kadesh since the time of Akhenaten. Seti I was successful in defeating a Hittite army that tried to defend the town. He entered the city in triumph together with his son Ramesses II and erected a victory stela at the site which has been found by archaeologists. Kadesh, however, soon reverted to Hittite control because the Egyptians did not or could not maintain a permanent military occupation of Kadesh and Amurru so close to the Hittite homelands. It is unlikely that Seti I made a peace treaty with the Hittites or voluntarily returned Kadesh and Amurru, but he may have reached an informal understanding with the Hittite king Muwatalli on the precise boundaries of their empires. Five years after Seti I's death, however, his son Ramesses II resumed hostilities and made a failed attempt to recapture Kadesh. Kadesh was henceforth effectively held by the Hittites even though Ramesses temporarily occupied the city in his 8th year. The traditional view of Seti I's wars was that he restored the Egyptian empire after it had been lost in the time of Akhenaten. This was based on the chaotic picture of Egyptian-controlled Syria and Palestine seen in the Amarna letters, a cache of diplomatic correspondence from the time of Akhenaten found at Akhenaten's capital at el-Amarna in Middle Egypt. Recent scholarship, however, indicates that the empire was not lost at this time, except for its northern border provinces of Kadesh and Amurru in Syria and Lebanon. While evidence for the military activities of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Horemheb is fragmentary or ambiguous, Seti I has left us an impressive war monument that glorifies his achievements, along with a number of texts, all of which tend to magnify his prowess on the battlefield. Burial Seti's well-preserved tomb (KV17) was found in 1817 by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, in the Valley of the Kings; it proved to be the longest at 446 feet (136 meters) and deepest of all the New Kingdom royal tombs. It was also the first tomb to feature decorations (including the Book of the Heavenly Cow) on every passageway and chamber with highly refined bas-reliefs and colorful paintings – fragments of which, including a large column depicting Seti I with the goddess Hathor, can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum, Florence. This decorative style set a precedent which was followed in full or in part in the tombs of later New Kingdom kings. Seti's mummy itself was discovered by Émil Brugsch on June 6, 1881, in the mummy cache (tomb DB320) at Deir el-Bahri and has since been kept at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. His huge sarcophagus, carved in one piece and intricately decorated on every surface (including the goddess Nut on the interior base), is in Sir John Soane's Museum. Soane bought it for exhibition in his open collection in 1824, when the British Museum refused to pay the £2,000 demanded. On its arrival at the museum, the alabaster was pure white and inlaid with blue copper sulphate. Years of the London climate and pollution have darkened the alabaster to a buff colour and absorbed moisture has caused the hygroscopic inlay material to fall out and disappear completely. A small watercolour nearby records the appearance, as it was. The tomb also had an entrance to a secret tunnel hidden behind the sarcophagus, which Belzoni's team estimated to be 100 meters (330 feet) long. However, the tunnel was not truly excavated until 1961, when a team led by Sheikh Ali Abdel-Rasoul began digging in hopes of discovering a secret burial chamber containing hidden treasures. The team failed to follow the original passage in their excavations, and had to call a halt due to instabilities in the tunnel; further issues with permits and finances eventually ended Sheikh Ali's dreams of treasure, though they were at least able to establish that the passage was over 30 meters (98 feet) longer than the original estimate. In June 2010, a team from Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities led by Dr. Zahi Hawass completed excavation of the tunnel, which had begun again after the discovery in 2007 of a downward-sloping passage beginning approximately 136 meters (446 feet) into the previously excavated tunnel. After uncovering two separate staircases, they found that the tunnel ran for 174 meters (571 feet) in total; unfortunately, the last step seemed to have been abandoned prior to completion and no secret burial chamber was found. Mummy From an examination of Seti's extremely well-preserved mummy, Seti I appears to have been less than forty years old when he died unexpectedly. This is in stark contrast to the situation with Horemheb, Ramesses I and Ramesses II who all lived to an advanced age. The reasons for his relatively early death are uncertain, but there is no evidence of violence on his mummy. His mummy was found decapitated, but this was likely caused by tomb robbers after his death. The Amun priest carefully reattached his head to his body with the use of linen cloths. It has been suggested that he died from a disease which had affected him for years, possibly related to his heart. The latter was found placed in the right part of the body, while the usual practice of the day was to place it in the left part during the mummification process. Opinions vary whether this was a mistake or an attempt to have Seti's heart work better in his afterlife. Seti I's mummy is about 1.7 metres (5 feet 7 inches) tall. In April 2021 his mummy was moved from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization along with those of 17 other kings and 4 queens in an event termed the Pharaohs' Golden Parade. Alleged co-regency with Ramesses II Around Year 9 of his reign, Seti appointed his son Ramesses II as the crown prince and his chosen successor, but the evidence for a coregency between the two kings is likely illusory. Peter J. Brand stresses in his thesis that relief decorations at various temple sites at Karnak, Qurna and Abydos, which associate Ramesses II with Seti I, were actually carved after Seti's death by Ramesses II himself and, hence, cannot be used as source material to support a co-regency between the two monarchs. In addition, the late William Murnane, who first endorsed the theory of a co-regency between Seti I and Ramesses II, later revised his view of the proposed co-regency and rejected the idea that Ramesses II had begun to count his own regnal years while Seti I was still alive. Finally, Kenneth Kitchen rejects the term co-regency to describe the relationship between Seti I and Ramesses II; he describes the earliest phase of Ramesses II's career as a "prince regency" where the young Ramesses enjoyed all the trappings of royalty including the use of a royal titulary and harem but did not count his regnal years until after his father's death. This is due to the fact that the evidence for a co-regency between the two kings is vague and highly ambiguous. Two important inscriptions from the first decade of Ramesses' reign, namely the Abydos Dedicatory Inscription and the Kuban Stela of Ramesses II, consistently give the latter titles associated with those of a crown prince only, namely the "king's eldest son and hereditary prince" or "child-heir" to the throne "along with some military titles." Hence, no clear evidence supports the hypothesis that Ramesses II was a co-regent under his father. Brand stresses that: Ramesses' claim that he was crowned king by Seti, even as a child in his arms [in the Dedicatory Inscription], is highly self-serving and open to question although his description of his role as crown prince is more accurate...The most reliable and concrete portion of this statement is the enumeration of Ramesses' titles as eldest king's son and heir apparent, well attested in sources contemporary with Seti's reign. See also Dorothy Eady List of colossal sculpture in situ Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt family tree References Bibliography External links Seti I - Archaeowiki.org The Karnak Hypostyle Hall Project website The complete titulary of Seti I 360° full-screen photospheric visit of Seti I tomb

Amenmesse

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

Amenmesse (also Amenmesses or Amenmose) was the fifth pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt, possibly the son of Merneptah and Queen Takhat. Others consider him to be one of the innumerable sons of Ramesses II. Very little is known about this pharaoh, who ruled Egypt for only three to four years. Various Egyptologists date his reign between 1202 BC–1199 BC or 1203 BC–1200 BC with others giving an accession date of 1200 BC. Amenmesse means "born of or fashioned by Amun" in Egyptian. Additionally, his nomen can be found with the epithet Heqa-waset, which means "Ruler of Thebes". His royal name was Menmire Setepenre. Usurper It is likely that he was not Merneptah's intended heir. Scholars Kenneth Kitchen and Jürgen von Beckerath have theorized that Amenmesse usurped the throne from Seti-Merneptah, who was Merneptah's son and crown prince and who should have been next in the line of royal succession. It is unclear how this would have happened. Kitchen has written that Amenmesse may have taken advantage of a momentary weakness of Seti-Merneptah or seized power while the crown prince was away in Asia. Seti-Merneptah was most likely the same man as king Seti II, whose reign was traditionally thought to have followed upon Amenmesse's reign. The cartouches of Seti II's tomb in Upper Egypt were deliberately erased and then repainted, suggesting that Seti's rule in Upper Egypt was temporarily interrupted by agents of his half-brother. Confusion generally clouds Amenmesse's reign and its correct position within the succession sequence of the rulers of the Egyptian 19th Dynasty. However, an increasing number of Egyptologists today such as Rolf Krauss and Aidan Dodson maintain that Seti II was in fact the immediate successor of Merneptah "without any intervening rule by Amenmesse." Under this scenario, Amenmesse did not succeed Merneptah on the throne of Egypt and was rather a rival king who usurped power sometime during Years 2 to 4 of Seti II's reign in Upper Egypt and Nubia where his authority is monumentally attested. Amenmesse was documented in power at Thebes during his third and fourth year (and perhaps earlier in Nubia) where Seti II's Year 3 and Year 4 are noticeably unaccounted for. The treatment of Amenmesse as a rival king also best explains the pattern of destruction to Seti II's tomb which was initially ransacked and later restored again by Seti II's officials. This implies that the respective reigns of Amenmesse and Seti II were parallel to one another; Seti II must have initially controlled Thebes in his first and second years during which time his tomb was excavated and partly decorated. Then Seti was ousted from power in Upper Egypt by Amenmesse whose agents desecrated Seti II's tomb. Seti would finally defeat his rival Amenmesse and return to Thebes in triumph whereupon he ordered the restoration of his damaged tomb. Rolf Krauss, followed by Aidan Dodson, suggests that Amenmesse was once a Kushite Viceroy called Messuy. In particular, two representations of Messuy on the temple of Amida allegedly show that a royal uraeus had been added to his brows in a way consistent with other pharaohs such as Horemheb, Merneptah and some of the sons of Rameses III. An inscription at the temple of Amada also calls him "the king's son himself" but this may be merely a figure of speech to emphasize Messuy's high stature as Viceroy under Merneptah. However, Frank Yurco notes that various depictions of Messuy in several Nubian temples were never deliberately defaced by Seti II's agents compared to the damnatio memoriae meted out to all depictions of another Viceroy of Kush, Khaemtir, who had served as Amenmesse's Vizier. This strongly implies that Seti II held no grudge against Messuy, which would be improbable if Messuy was indeed Amenmesse. Yurco also observes that the only objects from Messuy's tomb which identified a Pharaoh all named only Merneptah, Seti II's father, which leads to the conclusion that Messuy died and was buried in his tomb at Aniba, Nubia, during Merneptah's reign, and could not be Amenmesse. There has also been a suggestion that the narrative of the "Tale of Two Brothers", first attested during the reign of Seti II, may contain a veiled reference to the struggle between Amenmesse and Seti II. The records of a court case early in the reign of Seti II also throw some light on the matter. Papyrus Salt 124 records that Neferhotep, one of the two chief workmen of the Deir el-Medina necropolis, had been killed during the reign of Amenmesse (the king's name is written as Msy in the document). Neferhotep was replaced by Paneb his adopted son, against whom many crimes were alleged by Neferhotep's brother Amennakhte in a strongly-worded indictment preserved on a papyrus in the British Museum. If Amennakhte's allegations can be trusted, Paneb had stolen stone for the embellishment of his own tomb from that of Seti II in the course of its completion, besides purloining or damaging other property belonging to that monarch. Also he had allegedly tried to kill Neferhotep in spite of having been educated by him, and after the chief workman had been killed by "the enemy" had bribed the vizier Pra'emhab in order to usurp his place. Whatever the truth of these accusations, it is clear that Thebes was going through very troubled times. There are references elsewhere to a "war" that had occurred during these years, but it is obscure to what this word alludes—perhaps to no more than internal disturbances and discontent. Neferhotep had complained of the attacks upon himself to the vizier Amenmose, presumably a predecessor of Pra'emhab, whereupon Amenmose had Paneb punished. Paneb, however, then successfully brought a complaint before 'Mose'/'Msy' whereupon the latter decided to dismiss Amenmose from office. Evidently this 'Mose'/'Msy' was a person of the highest importance who most probably should be identified with king Amenmesse himself. Family His mother is known to be Queen Takhat, but who she is exactly is a matter of interpretation complicated by inscriptions being revised by Seti II and Amenmesse. Among her titles are "King's Daughter", which would make her a daughter of Merneptah or Ramesses II or possibly a granddaughter of Ramesses. The name Takhat appears in a list of princesses dated to Year 53 of Ramesses II (Louvre 666). If this is the same Takhat, she would be about the same age as Seti II. A monument from Karnak, carved while Amenmesse was in control of the area, includes the relief of a woman titled "King's Daughter" and "King's Mother". The monument was reinscribed from 'Mother' to 'Wife'. Another statue of Seti II (Cairo CG1198) bears Seti's name surcharged over someone else's while the names of Takhat were left alone. This suggests that Takhat was married to Seti as well as mother to Amenmesse. Others such as Frank Yurco believe Takhat was wife to Merneptah making the rivals Seti II and Amenmesse half-brothers. Some assume that Twosret, wife of Seti II, was his sister. Amenmesse's wife was thought to be a woman named Baktwerel since she was buried in the same tomb as Amenmesse, KV10. Three mummies were initially present in this tomb, two women and one man. It is uncertain if any of these remains belong to Amenmesse, Takhat, or Baketwerel. The two females Baketwerel and Takhat could have been buried later. Some people believe that Seti II broke into the tomb and had Amenmesse's remains desecrated since his mummy was never found. Six quartzite statues originally placed along the axis of the hypostyle hall in the Amun Temple at Karnak are thought to be his, although these were defaced and overwritten with the name of Seti II. One of these statues, with the inscription, "the Great Royal Wife Takhat", lends credence to the argument that a Takhat was Amenmesse's wife. Amenmesse was also responsible for restoring a shrine dating from Thutmose III that stands before a temple at El-Tod. There is confusion about the events surrounding his death. His mummy was not amongst those found in the cache at Deir el Bahri, and from the destruction of his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, it is assumed that Seti II took revenge upon his usurping half-brother. Aftermath Amenmesse was buried in a rock-cut tomb in the Valley of the Kings which is now identified as Tomb KV10. However, almost all of its texts and scenes were either erased or usurped by Seti II's agents. No mention of Amenmesse was spared. A number of officials associated with Amenmesse were also attacked or replaced, chief among them being the Theban High Priest of Amun, Roma called Roy, and Khaemtir, a former viceroy of Kush, who may have supported Amenmesse's usurpation. Amenmesse's tomb was looted in antiquity. However the remains of three mummies were found in this tomb, two women and one man, it is uncertain if any of these remains belong to Amenmesse, Takhat or the later Baketwerel without further testing or whether they were later intrusions. It seems more likely, however, that Seti II had Amenmesse's remains desecrated since his mummy was never found "in either of the two great caches of royal mummies found in 1881 and 1901". Surviving inscriptions mentioning Takhat's name along with the wall inscriptions suggest she was buried in Amenmesse's tomb. Artifacts from the tombs of Seti I and Rameses VI were also found in the KV10 tomb adding to the uncertainty. After his death, Seti II also conducted a damnatio memoriae campaign against the memory of Amenmesse's Vizier, Khaemtir. Egyptologist Frank Yurco notes that Seti II's agents erased all of Khaemtir's depictions and inscriptions—even those that were inscribed when Khaemtir served as a Viceroy in Nubia. It is possible that Siptah, the Pharaoh who succeeded Seti II, was the son of Amenmesse and not of Seti II. A statue of Siptah in Munich shows the Pharaoh seated in the lap of another, clearly his father. The statue of the father, however, has been destroyed. Dodson writes: The only ruler of the period who could have promoted such destruction was Amenmesse, and likewise he is the only king whose offspring required such explicit promotion. The destruction of this figure is likely to have closely followed the fall of Bay or the death of Siptah himself, when any short-lived rehabilitation of Amenmesse will have ended. M. Georg and Rolf Krauss find that there are a number of parallels between the story of Amenmesse and the biblical story of Moses in Egypt. Gallery References Bibliography Cardon, Patrick D. “Amenmesse: An Egyptian Royal Head of the Nineteenth Dynasty in the Metropolitan Museum.” MMJ 14 (1979): 5-14. Dodson, Aidan. “The Takhats and Some Other Royal Ladies of the Ramesside Period.” JEA 73 (1987): 224-29. ________. and Dyan Hilton, “The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt“, Thames & Hudson, 2004. ________. “Death after Death in the Valley of the Kings.” In Death and Taxes in the Ancient Near East, ed. Sara E. Orel, 53-59. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992. ________. “Amenmesse in Kent, Liverpool, and Thebes.” JEA 81 (1995): 115-28. ________. "Messuy, Amada and Amenmesse." JARCE 34 (1997): 41-48. Habachi, Labib. “King Amenmesse and Viziers Amenmose and Kha’emtore: Their Monuments and Place in History.” MDAIK 34 (1978): 39-67. Kitchen, Kenneth A. “The Titularies of the Ramesside Kings as Expression of Their Ideal Kingship.” ASAE 71 (1987): 131-41. Krauss, Rolf. “Untersuchungen zu König Amenmesse (1.Teil).” SAK 4 (1976): 161-99. ________. “Untersuchungen zu König Amenmesse (2. Teil).” SAK 5 (1977): 131-74. ________. “Untersuchungen zu König Amenmesse: Nachträge.” SAK 24 (1997): 161-84. Vandersleyen, Claude. ĽÉgypte et la Vallée du Nil. Vol. 2, De la fin de ľAncien Empire á la fin du Nouvel Empire. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995 Wente, Edward and Charles Van Siclen III. "A Chronology of the New Kingdom." In Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes: January 12, 1977, 217-61. Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1976. Yurco, Frank Joseph. “Was Amenmesse the Viceroy of Kush, Messuwy?,” JARCE 34 (1997): 49-56. External links KV-10 at The Theban Mapping Project Amenmesse the Real Moses

Percy_Bysshe_Shelley

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

Percy Bysshe Shelley ( BISH; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered as one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death, and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets, including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats. American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem." Shelley's reputation fluctuated during the 20th century, but since the 1960s he has achieved increasing critical acclaim for the sweeping momentum of his poetic imagery, his mastery of genres and verse forms, and the complex interplay of sceptical, idealist, and materialist ideas in his work. Among his best-known works are "Ozymandias" (1818), "Ode to the West Wind" (1819), "To a Skylark" (1820), "Adonais" (1821), the philosophical essay "The Necessity of Atheism" (1811), which his friend T. J. Hogg may have co-authored, and the political ballad "The Mask of Anarchy" (1819). His other major works include the verse dramas The Cenci (1819), Prometheus Unbound (1820) and Hellas (1822), and the long narrative poems Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude (1815), Julian and Maddalo (1819), Adonais (1821), and The Triumph of Life (1822). Shelley also wrote prose fiction and a quantity of essays on political, social, and philosophical issues. Much of this poetry and prose was not published in his lifetime, or only published in expurgated form, due to the risk of prosecution for political and religious libel. From the 1820s, his poems and political and ethical writings became popular in Owenist, Chartist, and radical political circles, and later drew admirers as diverse as Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi, and George Bernard Shaw. Shelley's life was marked by family crises, ill health, and a backlash against his atheism, political views, and defiance of social conventions. He went into permanent self-exile in Italy in 1818 and over the next four years produced what Zachary Leader and Michael O'Neill call "some of the finest poetry of the Romantic period". His second wife, Mary Shelley, was the author of Frankenstein. He died in a boating accident in 1822 at age 29. Life Early life and education Shelley was born on 4 August 1792 at Field Place, Warnham, Sussex, England. He was the eldest son of Sir Timothy Shelley, 2nd Baronet of Castle Goring (1753–1844), a Whig Member of Parliament for Horsham from 1790 to 1792 and for Shoreham between 1806 and 1812, and his wife, Elizabeth Pilfold (1763–1846), the daughter of a successful butcher. He had four younger sisters and one much younger brother. Shelley's early childhood was sheltered and mostly happy. He was particularly close to his sisters and his mother, who encouraged him to hunt, fish and ride. At age six, he was sent to a day school run by the vicar of Warnham church, where he displayed an impressive memory and gift for languages. In 1802 he entered the Syon House Academy of Brentford, Middlesex, where his cousin Thomas Medwin was a pupil. Shelley was bullied and unhappy at the school and sometimes responded with violent rage. He also began suffering from the nightmares, hallucinations and sleep walking that were to periodically affect him throughout his life. Shelley developed an interest in science which supplemented his voracious reading of tales of mystery, romance and the supernatural. During his holidays at Field Place, his sisters were often terrified at being subjected to his experiments with gunpowder, acids and electricity. Back at school he blew up a paling fence with gunpowder. In 1804, Shelley entered Eton College, a period which he later recalled with loathing. He was subjected to particularly severe mob bullying which the perpetrators called "Shelley-baits". A number of biographers and contemporaries have attributed the bullying to Shelley's aloofness, nonconformity and refusal to take part in fagging. His peculiarities and violent rages earned him the nickname "Mad Shelley". His interest in the occult and science continued, and contemporaries describe him giving an electric shock to a master, blowing up a tree stump with gunpowder and attempting to raise spirits with occult rituals. In his senior years, Shelley came under the influence of a part-time teacher, Dr James Lind, who encouraged his interest in the occult and introduced him to liberal and radical authors. Shelley also developed an interest in Plato and idealist philosophy which he pursued in later years through self-study. According to Richard Holmes, Shelley, by his leaving year, had gained a reputation as a classical scholar and a tolerated eccentric. In his last term at Eton, his first novel Zastrozzi appeared and he had established a following among his fellow pupils. Prior to enrolling for University College, Oxford, in October 1810, Shelley completed Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire (written with his sister Elizabeth), the verse melodrama The Wandering Jew and the gothic novel St. Irvine; or, The Rosicrucian: A Romance (published 1811). At Oxford Shelley attended few lectures, instead spending long hours reading and conducting scientific experiments in the laboratory he set up in his room. He met a fellow student, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, who became his closest friend. Shelley became increasingly politicised under Hogg's influence, developing strong radical and anti-Christian views. Such views were dangerous in the reactionary political climate prevailing during Britain's war with Napoleonic France, and Shelley's father warned him against Hogg's influence. In the winter of 1810–1811, Shelley published a series of anonymous political poems and tracts: Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson, The Necessity of Atheism (written in collaboration with Hogg) and A Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things. Shelley mailed The Necessity of Atheism to all the bishops and heads of colleges at Oxford, and he was called to appear before the college's fellows, including the Dean, George Rowley. His refusal to answer questions put by college authorities regarding whether or not he authored the pamphlet resulted in his expulsion from Oxford on 25 March 1811, along with Hogg. Hearing of his son's expulsion, Shelley's father threatened to cut all contact with Shelley unless he agreed to return home and study under tutors appointed by him. Shelley's refusal to do so led to a falling-out with his father. Marriage to Harriet Westbrook In late December 1810, Shelley had met Harriet Westbrook, a pupil at the same boarding school as Shelley's sisters. They corresponded frequently that winter and also after Shelley had been expelled from Oxford. Shelley expounded his radical ideas on politics, religion and marriage to Harriet, and they gradually convinced each other that she was oppressed by her father and at school. Shelley's infatuation with Harriet developed in the months following his expulsion, when he was under severe emotional strain due to the conflict with his family, his bitterness over the breakdown of his romance with his cousin Harriet Grove, and his unfounded belief that he might have a fatal illness. At the same time, Harriet Westbrook's elder sister Eliza, to whom Harriet was very close, encouraged the young girl's romance with Shelley. Shelley's correspondence with Harriet intensified in July, while he was holidaying in Wales, and in response to her urgent pleas for his protection, he returned to London in early August. Putting aside his philosophical objections to matrimony, he left with the sixteen-year-old Harriet for Edinburgh on 25 August 1811, and they were married there on the 28th. Hearing of the elopement, Harriet's father, John Westbrook, and Shelley's father, Timothy, cut off the allowances of the bride and groom. (Shelley's father believed his son had married beneath him, as Harriet's father had earned his fortune in trade and was the owner of a tavern and coffee house.) Surviving on borrowed money, Shelley and Harriet stayed in Edinburgh for a month, with Hogg living under the same roof. The trio left for York in October, and Shelley went on to Sussex to settle matters with his father, leaving Harriet behind with Hogg. Shelley returned from his unsuccessful excursion to find that Eliza had moved in with Harriet and Hogg. Harriet confessed that Hogg had tried to seduce her while Shelley had been away. Shelley, Harriet and Eliza soon left for Keswick in the Lake District, leaving Hogg in York. At this time Shelley was also involved in an intense platonic relationship with Elizabeth Hitchener, a 28-year-old unmarried schoolteacher of advanced views, with whom he had been corresponding. Hitchener, whom Shelley called the "sister of my soul" and "my second self", became his confidante and intellectual companion as he developed his views on politics, religion, ethics and personal relationships. Shelley proposed that she join him, Harriet and Eliza in a communal household where all property would be shared. The Shelleys and Eliza spent December and January in Keswick where Shelley visited Robert Southey whose poetry he admired. Southey was taken with Shelley, even though there was a wide gulf between them politically, and predicted great things for him as a poet. Southey also informed Shelley that William Godwin, author of Political Justice, which had greatly influenced him in his youth, and which Shelley also admired, was still alive. Shelley wrote to Godwin, offering himself as his devoted disciple. Godwin, who had modified many of his earlier radical views, advised Shelley to reconcile with his father, become a scholar before he published anything else, and give up his avowed plans for political agitation in Ireland. Meanwhile, Shelley had met his father's patron, Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk, who helped secure the reinstatement of Shelley's allowance. With Harriet's allowance also restored, Shelley now had the funds for his Irish venture. Their departure for Ireland was precipitated by increasing hostility towards the Shelley household from their landlord and neighbours who were alarmed by Shelley's scientific experiments, pistol shooting and radical political views. As tension mounted, Shelley claimed he had been attacked in his home by ruffians, an event which might have been real or a delusional episode triggered by stress. This was the first of a series of episodes in subsequent years where Shelley claimed to have been attacked by strangers during periods of personal crisis. Early in 1812, Shelley wrote, published and with Harriet personally distributed in Dublin three political tracts: An Address, to the Irish People; Proposals for an Association of Philanthropists; and Declaration of Rights. He also delivered a speech at a meeting of O'Connell's Catholic Committee in which he called for Catholic emancipation, repeal of the Acts of Union and an end to the oppression of the Irish poor. Reports of Shelley's subversive activities were sent to the Home Secretary. Returning from Ireland, the Shelley household travelled to Wales, then Devon, where they again came under government surveillance for distributing subversive literature. Elizabeth Hitchener joined the household in Devon, but several months later had a falling out with the Shelleys and left. The Shelley household had settled in Tremadog, Wales, in September 1812, where Shelley worked on Queen Mab, a utopian allegory with extensive notes preaching atheism, free love, republicanism and vegetarianism. The poem was published the following year in a private edition of 250 copies, although few were initially distributed because of the risk of prosecution for seditious and religious libel. In February 1813, Shelley claimed he was attacked in his home at night. The incident might have been real, a hallucination brought on by stress, or a hoax staged by Shelley in order to escape government surveillance, creditors and his entanglements in local politics. The Shelleys and Eliza fled to Ireland, then London. Back in England, Shelley's debts mounted as he tried unsuccessfully to reach a financial settlement with his father. On 23 June Harriet gave birth to a girl, Eliza Ianthe Shelley (known as Ianthe), and in the following months the relationship between Shelley and his wife deteriorated. Shelley resented the influence Harriet's sister had over her while Harriet was alienated from Shelley by his close friendship with an attractive widow, Mrs. Harriet de Boinville. Mrs. Boinville had married a French revolutionary émigré and hosted a salon where Shelley was able to discuss politics, philosophy and vegetarianism. Mrs. Boinville became a confidante of Shelley during his marital crisis. During a breakdown, Shelley moved into Mrs. Boinville’s home outside London. In February and March 1814, he became infatuated with her married daughter, Cornelia Turner, age eighteen, and wrote erotic poetry about her in his notebook. Following Ianthe's birth, the Shelleys moved frequently across London, Wales, the Lake District, Scotland and Berkshire to escape creditors and search for a home. In March 1814, Shelley remarried Harriet in London to settle any doubts about the legality of their Edinburgh wedding and secure the rights of their child. Nevertheless, the Shelleys lived apart for most of the following months, and Shelley reflected bitterly on: "my rash & heartless union with Harriet". Elopement with Mary Godwin In May 1814, Shelley began visiting his mentor Godwin almost daily, and soon fell in love with Mary, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Godwin and the late feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft. Shelley and Mary declared their love for each other during a visit to her mother's grave in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church on 26 June. When Shelley told Godwin that he intended to leave Harriet and live with Mary, his mentor banished him from the house and forbade Mary from seeing him. Shelley and Mary eloped to Europe on 28 July, taking Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont with them. Before leaving, Shelley had secured a loan of £3,000 but had left most of the funds at the disposal of Godwin and Harriet, who was again pregnant. The financial arrangement with Godwin led to rumours that he had sold his daughters to Shelley. Shelley, Mary and Claire made their way across war-ravaged France where Shelley wrote to Harriet, asking her to meet them in Switzerland with the money he had left for her. Hearing nothing from Harriet in Switzerland, and unable to secure sufficient funds or suitable accommodation, the three travelled to Germany and Holland before returning to England on 13 September. Shelley spent the next few months trying to raise loans and avoid bailiffs. Mary was pregnant, lonely, depressed and ill. Her mood was not improved when she heard that, on 30 November, Harriet had given birth to Charles Bysshe Shelley, heir to the Shelley fortune and baronetcy. This was followed, in early January 1815, by news that Shelley's grandfather, Sir Bysshe, had died leaving an estate worth £220,000. The settlement of the estate, and a financial settlement between Shelley and his father (now Sir Timothy), however, was not concluded until April the following year. In February 1815, Mary gave premature birth to a baby girl who died ten days later, deepening her depression. In the following weeks, Mary became close to Hogg who temporarily moved into the household. Shelley was almost certainly having a sexual relationship with Claire at this time, and it is possible that Mary, with Shelley's encouragement, was also having a sexual relationship with Hogg. In May Claire left the household, at Mary's insistence, to reside in Lynmouth. In August Shelley and Mary moved to Bishopsgate where Shelley worked on Alastor, a long poem in blank verse based on the myth of Narcissus and Echo. Alastor was published in an edition of 250 in early 1816 to poor sales and largely unfavourable reviews from the conservative press. On 24 January 1816, Mary gave birth to William Shelley. Shelley was delighted to have another son, but was suffering from the strain of prolonged financial negotiations with his father, Harriet and William Godwin. Shelley showed signs of delusional behaviour and was contemplating an escape to the continent. Byron Claire initiated a sexual relationship with Lord Byron in April 1816, just before his self-exile on the continent, and then arranged for Byron to meet Shelley, Mary, and her in Geneva. Shelley admired Byron's poetry and had sent him Queen Mab and other poems. Shelley's party arrived in Geneva in May and rented a house close to Villa Diodati, on the shores of Lake Geneva, where Byron was staying. There Shelley, Byron and the others engaged in discussions about literature, science and "various philosophical doctrines". One night, while Byron was reciting Coleridge's Christabel, Shelley suffered a severe panic attack with hallucinations. The previous night Mary had had a more productive vision or nightmare which inspired her novel Frankenstein. Shelley and Byron then took a boating tour around Lake Geneva, which inspired Shelley to write his "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty", his first substantial poem since Alastor. A tour of Chamonix in the French Alps inspired "Mont Blanc", which has been described as an atheistic response to Coleridge's "Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamoni". During this tour, Shelley often signed guest books with a declaration that he was an atheist. These declarations were seen by other British tourists, including Southey, which hardened attitudes against Shelley back home. Relations between Byron and Shelley's party became strained when Byron was told that Claire was pregnant with his child. Shelley, Mary, and Claire left Switzerland in late August, with arrangements for the expected baby still unclear, although Shelley made provision for Claire and the baby in his will. In January 1817 Claire gave birth to a daughter by Byron who she named Alba, but later renamed Allegra in accordance with Byron's wishes. Marriage to Mary Godwin Shelley and Mary returned to England in September 1816, and in early October they heard that Mary's half-sister Fanny Imlay had killed herself. Godwin believed that Fanny had been in love with Shelley, and Shelley himself suffered depression and guilt over her death, writing: "Friend had I known thy secret grief / Should we have parted so." Further tragedy followed in December when Shelley's estranged wife Harriet drowned herself in the Serpentine. Harriet, pregnant and living alone at the time, believed that she had been abandoned by her new lover. In her suicide letter she asked Shelley to take custody of their son Charles but to leave their daughter in her sister Eliza's care. Shelley married Mary Godwin on 30 December, despite his philosophical objections to the institution. The marriage was intended to help secure Shelley's custody of his children by Harriet and to placate Godwin who had refused to see Shelley and Mary because of their previous adulterous relationship. After a prolonged legal battle, the Court of Chancery eventually awarded custody of Shelley and Harriet's children to foster parents, on the grounds that Shelley had abandoned his first wife for Mary without cause and was an atheist. In March 1817 the Shelleys moved to the village of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where Shelley's friend Thomas Love Peacock lived. The Shelley household included Claire and her baby Allegra, both of whose presence Mary resented. Shelley's generosity with money and increasing debts also led to financial and marital stress, as did Godwin's frequent requests for financial help. On 2 September Mary gave birth to a daughter, Clara Everina Shelley. Soon after, Shelley left for London with Claire, which increased Mary's resentment towards her stepsister. Shelley was arrested for two days in London over money he owed, and attorneys visited Mary in Marlowe over Shelley's debts. Shelley took part in the literary and political circle that surrounded Leigh Hunt, and during this period he met William Hazlitt and John Keats. Shelley's major work during this time was Laon and Cythna, a long narrative poem featuring incest and attacks on religion. It was hastily withdrawn after publication due to fears of prosecution for religious libel, and was re-edited and reissued as The Revolt of Islam in January 1818. Shelley also published two political tracts under a pseudonym: A Proposal for putting Reform to the Vote throughout the Kingdom (March 1817) and An Address to the People on the Death of Princess Charlotte (November 1817). In December he wrote "Ozymandias", which is considered to be one of his finest sonnets, as part of a competition with friend and fellow poet Horace Smith. Italy On 12 March 1818 the Shelleys and Claire left England to escape its "tyranny civil and religious". A doctor had also recommended that Shelley go to Italy for his chronic lung complaint, and Shelley had arranged to take Claire's daughter, Allegra, to her father Byron who was now in Venice. After travelling some months through France and Italy, Shelley left Mary and baby Clara at Bagni di Lucca (in today's Tuscany) while he travelled with Claire to Venice to see Byron and make arrangements for visiting Allegra. Byron invited the Shelleys to stay at his summer residence at Este, and Shelley urged Mary to meet him there. Clara became seriously ill on the journey and died on 24 September in Venice. Following Clara's death, Mary fell into a long period of depression and emotional estrangement from Shelley. The Shelleys moved to Naples on 1 December, where they stayed for three months. During this period Shelley was ill, depressed and almost suicidal: a state of mind reflected in his poem "Stanzas written in Dejection – December 1818, Near Naples". While in Naples, Shelley registered the birth and baptism of a baby girl, Elena Adelaide Shelley (born 27 December), naming himself as the father and falsely naming Mary as the mother. The parentage of Elena has never been conclusively established. Biographers have variously speculated that she was adopted by Shelley to console Mary for the loss of Clara, that she was Shelley's child by Claire, that she was his child by his servant Elise Foggi, or that she was the child of a "mysterious lady" who had followed Shelley to the continent. Shelley registered the birth and baptism on 27 February 1819, and the household left Naples for Rome the following day, leaving Elena with carers. Elena was to die in a poor suburb of Naples on 9 June 1820. In Rome, Shelley was in poor health, probably having developed nephritis and tuberculosis which later was in remission. Nevertheless, he made significant progress on three major works: Julian and Maddalo, Prometheus Unbound and The Cenci. Julian and Maddalo is an autobiographical poem which explores the relationship between Shelley and Byron and analyses Shelley's personal crises of 1818 and 1819. The poem was completed in the summer of 1819, but was not published in Shelley's lifetime. Prometheus Unbound is a long dramatic poem inspired by Aeschylus's retelling of the Prometheus myth. It was completed in late 1819 and published in 1820. The Cenci is a verse drama of rape, murder and incest based on the story of the Renaissance Count Cenci of Rome and his daughter Beatrice. Shelley completed the play in September and the first edition was published that year. It was to become one of his most popular works and the only one to have two authorised editions in his lifetime. Shelley's three-year-old son William died in June 1819, probably of malaria. The new tragedy caused a further decline in Shelley's health and deepened Mary's depression. On 4 August she wrote: "We have now lived five years together; and if all the events of the five years were blotted out, I might be happy".The Shelleys were now living in Livorno where, in September, Shelley heard of the Peterloo Massacre of peaceful protesters in Manchester. Within two weeks he had completed one of his most famous political poems, The Mask of Anarchy, and despatched it to Leigh Hunt for publication. Hunt, however, decided not to publish it for fear of prosecution for seditious libel. The poem was only officially published in 1832. The Shelleys moved to Florence in October, where Shelley read a scathing review of the Revolt of Islam (and its earlier version Laon and Cythna) in the conservative Quarterly Review. Shelley was angered by the personal attack on him in the article which he erroneously believed had been written by Southey. His bitterness over the review lasted for the rest of his life. On 12 November, Mary gave birth to a boy, Percy Florence Shelley. Around the time of Percy's birth, the Shelleys met Sophia Stacey, who was a ward of one of Shelley's uncles and was staying at the same pension as the Shelleys. Sophia, a talented harpist and singer, formed a friendship with Shelley while Mary was preoccupied with her newborn son. Shelley wrote at least five love poems and fragments for Sophia including "Song written for an Indian Air". The Shelleys moved to Pisa in January 1820, ostensibly to consult a doctor who had been recommended to them. There they became friends with the Irish republican Margaret Mason (Lady Margaret Mountcashell) and her common-law husband George William Tighe. Mrs Mason became the inspiration for Shelley's poem "The Sensitive Plant", and Shelley's discussions with Mason and Tighe influenced his political thought and his critical interest in the population theories of Thomas Malthus. In March, Shelley wrote to friends that Mary was depressed, suicidal and hostile towards him. Shelley was also beset by financial worries, as creditors from England pressed him for payment and he was obliged to make secret payments in connection with his "Neapolitan charge" Elena. Meanwhile, Shelley was writing A Philosophical View of Reform, a political essay which he had begun in Rome. The unfinished essay, which remained unpublished in Shelley's lifetime, has been called "one of the most advanced and sophisticated documents of political philosophy in the nineteenth century". Another crisis erupted in June when Shelley claimed that he had been assaulted in the Pisan post office by a man accusing him of foul crimes. Shelley's biographer James Bieri suggests that this incident was possibly a delusional episode brought on by extreme stress, as Shelley was being blackmailed by a former servant, Paolo Foggi, over baby Elena. It is likely that the blackmail was connected with a story spread by another former servant, Elise Foggi, that Shelley had fathered a child to Claire in Naples and had sent it to a foundling home. Shelley, Claire and Mary denied this story, and Elise later recanted. In July, hearing that John Keats was seriously ill in England, Shelley wrote to the poet inviting him to stay with him at Pisa. Keats replied with hopes of seeing him, but instead, arrangements were made for Keats to travel to Rome. Following the death of Keats in 1821, Shelley wrote Adonais, which Harold Bloom considers one of the major pastoral elegies. The poem was published in Pisa in July 1821, but sold few copies. In early July 1820, Shelley heard that baby Elena had died on 9 June. In the months following the post office incident and Elena's death, relations between Mary and Claire deteriorated and Claire spent most of the next two years living separately from the Shelleys, mainly in Florence. That December Shelley met Teresa (Emilia) Viviani, who was the 19-year-old daughter of the Governor of Pisa and was living in a convent awaiting a suitable marriage. Shelley visited her several times over the next few months and they started a passionate correspondence which dwindled after her marriage the following September. Emilia was the inspiration for Shelley's major poem Epipsychidion. In March 1821 Shelley completed "A Defence of Poetry", a response to Peacock's article "The Four Ages of Poetry". Shelley's essay, with its famous conclusion "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world", remained unpublished in his lifetime. Shelley went alone to Ravenna in early August to see Byron, making a detour to Livorno for a rendezvous with Claire. Shelley stayed with Byron for two weeks and invited the older poet to spend the winter in Pisa. After Shelley had heard Byron recite his newly completed fifth canto of Don Juan he wrote to Mary: "I despair of rivalling Byron." In November Byron moved into Villa Lanfranchi in Pisa, just across the river from the Shelleys. Byron became the centre of the "Pisan circle" which was to include Shelley, Thomas Medwin, Edward Williams and Edward Trelawny. In the early months of 1822 Shelley became increasingly close to Jane Williams, who was living with her partner Edward Williams in the same building as the Shelleys. Shelley wrote a number of love poems for Jane, including "The Serpent is shut out of Paradise" and "With a Guitar, to Jane". Shelley's obvious affection for Jane was to cause increasing tension among Shelley, Edward Williams and Mary. Claire arrived in Pisa in April at Shelley's invitation, and soon after they heard that her daughter Allegra had died of typhus in Ravenna. The Shelleys and Claire then moved to Villa Magni, near Lerici on the shores of the Gulf of La Spezia. Shelley acted as mediator between Claire and Byron over arrangements for the burial of their daughter, and the added strain led to Shelley having a series of hallucinations. Mary almost died from a miscarriage on 16 June, her life only being saved by Shelley's effective first aid. Two days later Shelley wrote to a friend that there was no sympathy between Mary and him and if the past and future could be obliterated he would be content in his boat with Jane and her guitar. That same day he also wrote to Trelawny asking for prussic acid. The following week, Shelley woke the household with his screaming over a nightmare or hallucination in which he saw Edward and Jane Williams as walking corpses and himself strangling Mary. During this time, Shelley was writing his final major poem, the unfinished The Triumph of Life, which Harold Bloom has called "the most despairing poem he wrote". Death On 1 July 1822, Shelley and Edward Williams sailed in Shelley's new boat the Don Juan to Livorno where Shelley met Leigh Hunt and Byron in order to make arrangements for a new journal, The Liberal. After the meeting, on 8 July, Shelley, Williams, and their boat boy sailed out of Livorno for Lerici. A few hours later, the Don Juan and its inexperienced crew were lost in a storm. The vessel, an open boat, had been custom-built in Genoa for Shelley. Mary Shelley declared in her "Note on Poems of 1822" (1839) that the design had a defect and that the boat was never seaworthy. The sinking, however, was probably due to the severe storm and poor seamanship of the three men on board. Shelley's badly decomposed body washed ashore at Viareggio ten days later and was identified by Trelawny from the clothing and a copy of Keats's Lamia in a jacket pocket. On 16 August, his body was cremated on a beach near Viareggio and the ashes were buried in the Protestant Cemetery of Rome. The day after the news of his death reached England, the Tory London newspaper The Courier printed: "Shelley, the writer of some infidel poetry, has been drowned; now he knows whether there is God or no." Shelley's ashes were reburied in a different plot at the cemetery in 1823. His grave bears the Latin inscription Cor Cordium (Heart of Hearts), and a few lines of "Ariel's Song" from Shakespeare's The Tempest:Nothing of him that doth fadeBut doth suffer a sea changeInto something rich and strange. Shelley's remains When Shelley's body was cremated on the beach, his presumed heart resisted burning and was retrieved by Trelawny. The heart was possibly calcified from an earlier tubercular infection, or was perhaps his liver. Trelawny gave the scorched organ to Hunt, who preserved it in spirits of wine and refused to hand it over to Mary. He finally relented and the heart was eventually buried either at St Peter's Church, Bournemouth or in Christchurch Priory. Hunt also retrieved a piece of Shelley's jawbone which, in 1913, was given to the Shelley-Keats Memorial in Rome. Family history Shelley's paternal grandfather was Bysshe Shelley (21 June 1731 – 6 January 1815), who, in 1806, became Sir Bysshe Shelley, First Baronet of Castle Goring. On Sir Bysshe's death in 1815, Shelley's father inherited the baronetcy, becoming Sir Timothy Shelley. Shelley was the eldest of several legitimate children. Bieri argues that Shelley had an older illegitimate brother but, if he existed, little is known of him. His younger siblings were: John (1806–1866), Margaret (1801–1887), Hellen (1799–1885), Mary (1797–1884), Hellen (1796–1796, died in infancy) and Elizabeth (1794–1831). Shelley had two children by his first wife Harriet: Eliza Ianthe Shelley (1813–1876) and Charles Bysshe Shelley (1814–1826). He had four children by his second wife Mary: an unnamed daughter born in 1815 who only survived ten days; William Shelley (1816–1819); Clara Everina Shelley (1817–1818); and Sir Percy Shelley, 3rd Baronet (1819–1889). Shelley also declared himself to be the father of Elena Adelaide Shelley (1818–1820), who might have been an illegitimate or adopted daughter. His son Percy Florence became the third baronet of Castle Goring in 1844, following the death of Sir Timothy Shelley. Ancestry Political, religious and ethical views Politics Shelley was a political radical influenced by thinkers such as Rousseau, Paine, Godwin, Wollstonecraft, and Leigh Hunt. He advocated Catholic Emancipation, republicanism, parliamentary reform, the extension of the franchise, freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, an end to aristocratic and clerical privilege, and a more equal distribution of income and wealth. The views he expressed in his published works were often more moderate than those he advocated privately because of the risk of prosecution for seditious libel and his desire not to alienate more moderate friends and political allies. Nevertheless, his political writings and activism brought him to the attention of the Home Office and he came under government surveillance at various periods. Shelley's most influential political work in the years immediately following his death was the poem Queen Mab, which included extensive notes on political themes. The work went through 14 official and pirated editions by 1845, and became popular in Owenist and Chartist circles. His longest political essay, A Philosophical View of Reform, was written in 1820, but not published until 1920. Nonviolence Shelley's advocacy of nonviolent resistance was largely based on his reflections on the French Revolution and rise of Napoleon, and his belief that violent protest would increase the prospect of a military despotism. Although Shelley sympathised with supporters of Irish independence, such as Peter Finnerty and Robert Emmet, he did not support violent rebellion. In his early pamphlet An Address, to the Irish People (1812) he wrote: "I do not wish to see things changed now, because it cannot be done without violence, and we may assure ourselves that none of us are fit for any change, however good, if we condescend to employ force in a cause we think right." In his later essay A Philosophical View of Reform, Shelley did concede that there were political circumstances in which force might be justified: "The last resort of resistance is undoubtably [sic] insurrection. The right of insurrection is derived from the employment of armed force to counteract the will of the nation." Shelley supported the 1820 armed rebellion against absolute monarchy in Spain, and the 1821 armed Greek uprising against Ottoman rule. Shelley's poem "The Mask of Anarchy" (written in 1819, but first published in 1832) has been called "perhaps the first modern statement of the principle of nonviolent resistance". Gandhi was familiar with the poem and it is possible that Shelley had an indirect influence on Gandhi through Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. Religion Shelley was an avowed atheist, who was influenced by the materialist arguments in Holbach's Le Système de la nature. His atheism was an important element of his political radicalism as he saw organised religion as inextricably linked to social oppression. The overt and implied atheism in many of his works raised a serious risk of prosecution for religious libel. His early pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism was withdrawn from sale soon after publication following a complaint from a priest. His poem Queen Mab, which includes sustained attacks on the priesthood, Christianity and religion in general, was twice prosecuted by the Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1821. A number of his other works were edited before publication to reduce the risk of prosecution. Free love Shelley's advocacy of free love drew heavily on the work of Mary Wollstonecraft and the early work of William Godwin. In his notes to Queen Mab, he wrote: "A system could not well have been devised more studiously hostile to human happiness than marriage." He argued that the children of unhappy marriages "are nursed in a systematic school of ill-humour, violence and falsehood". He believed that the ideal of chastity outside marriage was "a monkish and evangelical superstition" which led to the hypocrisy of prostitution and promiscuity. Shelley believed that "sexual connection" should be free among those who loved each other and last only as long as their mutual love. Love should also be free and not subject to obedience, jealousy and fear. He denied that free love would lead to promiscuity and the disruption of stable human relationships, arguing that relationships based on love would generally be of long duration and marked by generosity and self-devotion. When Shelley's friend T. J. Hogg made an unwanted sexual advance to Shelley's first wife Harriet, Shelley forgave him of his "horrible error" and assured him that he was not jealous. It is very likely that Shelley encouraged Hogg and Shelley's second wife Mary to have a sexual relationship. Vegetarianism Shelley converted to a vegetable diet in early March 1812 and sustained it, with occasional lapses, for the remainder of his life. Shelley's vegetarianism was influenced by ancient authors such as Hesiod, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Ovid and Plutarch, but more directly by John Frank Newton, author of The Return to Nature, or, A Defence of the Vegetable Regimen (1811). Shelley wrote two essays on vegetarianism: A Vindication of Natural Diet (1813) and "On the Vegetable System of Diet" (written circa 1813–1815, but first published in 1929). Michael Owen Jones argues that Shelley's advocacy of vegetarianism was strikingly modern, emphasising its health benefits, the alleviation of animal suffering, the inefficient use of agricultural land involved in animal husbandry, and the economic inequality resulting from the commercialisation of animal food production. Shelley's life and works inspired the founding of the Vegetarian Society in England (1847) and directly influenced the vegetarianism of George Bernard Shaw. Reception and influence Shelley's work was not widely read in his lifetime outside a small circle of friends, poets and critics. Most of his poetry, drama and fiction was published in editions of 250 copies which generally sold poorly. Only The Cenci went to an authorised second edition while Shelley was alive – in contrast, Byron's The Corsair (1814) sold out its first edition of 10,000 copies in one day. The initial reception of Shelley's work in mainstream periodicals (with the exception of the liberal Examiner) was generally unfavourable. Reviewers often launched personal attacks on Shelley's private life and political, social and religious views, even when conceding that his poetry contained beautiful imagery and poetic expression. There was also criticism of Shelley's intelligibility and style, Hazlitt describing it as "a passionate dream, a straining after impossibilities, a record of fond conjectures, a confused embodying of vague abstraction". Shelley's poetry soon gained a wider audience in radical and reformist circles. Queen Mab became popular with Owenists and Chartists, and Revolt of Islam influenced poets sympathetic to the workers' movement such as Thomas Hood, Thomas Cooper and William Morris. However, Shelley's mainstream following did not develop until a generation after his death. Bieri argues that editions of Shelley's poems published in 1824 and 1839 were edited by Mary Shelley to highlight her late husband's lyrical gifts and downplay his radical ideas. Matthew Arnold famously described Shelley as a "beautiful and ineffectual angel". Shelley was a major influence on a number of important poets in the following decades, including Robert Browning, Algernon Swinburne, Thomas Hardy and William Butler Yeats. Shelley-like characters frequently appeared in nineteenth-century literature; they include Scythrop in Thomas Love Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey, Ladislaw in George Eliot’s Middlemarch and Angel Clare in Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Twentieth-century critics such as Eliot, Leavis, Allen Tate and Auden variously criticised Shelley's poetry for deficiencies in style, "repellent" ideas, and immaturity of intellect and sensibility. However, Shelley's critical reputation began to rise in the 1960s as a new generation of critics highlighted Shelley's debt to Spenser and Milton, his mastery of genres and verse forms, and the complex interplay of sceptical, idealist, and materialist ideas in his work. American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellects ever to write a poem". According to Donald H. Reiman, "Shelley belongs to the great tradition of Western writers that includes Dante, Shakespeare and Milton". Legacy Shelley died leaving many of his works unfinished, unpublished or published in expurgated versions with multiple errors. Since the 1980s, a number of projects have aimed at establishing reliable editions of his manuscripts and works. Among the most notable of these are: Reiman, D. H. (gen ed), The Bodleian Shelley Manuscripts (23 vols.), New York (1986–2002) Reiman, D. H. (gen ed), The Manuscripts of the Younger Romantics: Shelley (9 vols., 1985–97) Reiman, D. H., and Fraistat, N. (et al.) The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley (3 vols.), 1999–2012, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press Cameron, K. N., and Reiman, D. H. (eds), Shelley and his Circle 1773–1822, Cambridge, Mass., 1961– (8 vols.) Everest K., Matthews, G., et al. (eds), The Poems of Shelley, 1804–1821 (4 vols.), Longman, 1989–2014 Murray, E. B. (ed), The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1, 1811–1818, Oxford University Press, 1995 Shelley's long-lost "Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things" (1811) was rediscovered in 2006 and subsequently made available online by the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Charles E. Robinson has argued that Shelley's contribution to Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein was very significant and that Shelley should be considered her collaborator in writing the novel. Professor Charlotte Gordon and others have disputed this contention. Fiona Sampson has said: "In recent years Percy's corrections, visible in the Frankenstein notebooks held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, have been seized on as evidence that he must have at least co-authored the novel. In fact, when I examined the notebooks myself, I realised that Percy did rather less than any line editor working in publishing today." The Keats–Shelley Memorial Association, founded in 1903, supports the Keats–Shelley House in Rome which is a museum and library dedicated to the Romantic writers with a strong connection with Italy. The association is also responsible for maintaining the grave of Percy Bysshe Shelley in the non-Catholic Cemetery at Testaccio. The association publishes the scholarly Keats–Shelley Review. It also runs the annual Keats–Shelley and Young Romantics Writing Prizes and the Keats–Shelley Fellowship. Selected works Works are listed by estimated year of composition. The year of first publication is given when this is different. Source is Bieri, unless otherwise indicated. Poetry Drama (1819) The Cenci (1820) Prometheus Unbound (1820) Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant (1822) Charles the First (unfinished) (1822) Hellas Fiction (1810) Zastrozzi (1810) St. Irvyne; or, The Rosicrucian (published 1811) Short prose works "The Assassins, A Fragment of a Romance" (1814) "The Coliseum, A Fragment" (1817) "The Elysian Fields: A Lucianic Fragment" (1818) "Una Favola (A Fable)" (1819, originally in Italian) Essays Chapbooks Wolfstein; or, The Mysterious Bandit (1822) Wolfstein, The Murderer; or, The Secrets of a Robber's Cave (1830) Translations The Banquet (or The Symposium) of Plato (1818) (first published in unbowdlerised form 1931) Ion of Plato (1821) Collaborations with Mary Shelley (1817) History of a Six Weeks' Tour (1820) Proserpine (1820) Midas See also List of peace activists Godwin–Shelley family tree Rising Universe – A 1996 water sculpture celebrating the life of Shelley in Horsham, West Sussex, near his birthplace; largely removed in 2016 References Notes Bibliography External links Works by Percy Bysshe Shelley at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Percy Bysshe Shelley at the Internet Archive Works by Percy Bysshe Shelley at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Percy Bysshe Shelley by John Addington Symonds at Project Gutenberg Percy Bysshe Shelley Resources Percy Bysshe Shelley: Profile and Poems at Poets.org Selected Poems of Shelley A Guide to the Percy Bysshe Shelley Manuscript Material in the Pforzheimer Collection A talk on Shelley's politics (MP3) by Paul Foot: part 1, *part 2 A pedigree of the Shelley family Plato's Ion, the Shelley translation The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley "Archival material relating to Percy Bysshe Shelley". UK National Archives. Portraits of Percy Bysshe Shelley at the National Portrait Gallery, London Rossetti, William Michael (1911). "Shelley, Percy Bysshe" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). pp. 827–832. Online exhibition of Shelley's notebooks, objects, letters and drafts alongside artefacts of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley and William Godwin Percy Bysshe Shelley at the British Library Walter Edwin Peck papers (MS 390). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.[1] Fragment of an Address to the Jews – General Library, University of Tokyo

Academy_Award_for_Best_Director

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

The Academy Award for Best Director (officially known as the Academy Award of Merit for Directing) is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of a film director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the film industry. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with the award being split into "Dramatic" and "Comedy" categories; Frank Borzage and Lewis Milestone won for 7th Heaven and Two Arabian Knights, respectively. However, these categories were merged for all subsequent ceremonies. Nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the directors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the academy. For the first eleven years of the Academy Awards, directors were allowed to be nominated for multiple films in the same year. However, after the nomination of Michael Curtiz for two films, Angels with Dirty Faces and Four Daughters, at the 11th Academy Awards, the rules were revised so that an individual could only be nominated for one film at each ceremony. That rule has since been amended, although the only director who has received multiple nominations in the same year was Steven Soderbergh for Erin Brockovich and Traffic in 2000, winning the award for the latter. The Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture have been very closely linked throughout their history. Of the 89 films that won Best Picture and were also nominated for Best Director, 68 won the award. Since its inception, the award has been given to 75 directors or directing teams. As of the 96th Academy Awards ceremony, British-American filmmaker Christopher Nolan is the most recent winner in this category for his work on Oppenheimer. Winners and nominees In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release in Los Angeles County, California; the ceremonies are always held the following year. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31. For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple wins and nominations Age superlatives Records John Ford has received the most awards in this category, with four. Frank Capra and William Wyler won three each. David Lean was the first non-American to win the award when he won in 1958 for The Bridge on the River Kwai. He would repeat this in 1963 with Lawrence of Arabia. This made him the first non-American to win the award twice, it would not be until Ang Lee 49 years later for another non-American to win the award twice. Since then Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro G. Inarritu have added their names to this list. William Wyler has the most nominations, with 12, including a record four years in a row. Martin Scorsese is currently second, with 10. Clarence Brown received the most nominations without a win (6). Alfred Hitchcock and King Vidor each received five nominations without a win. Damien Chazelle is the youngest winner, at the age of 32 for La La Land. John Singleton is the youngest (and first Black) nominee, at age 24 for Boyz n the Hood. Four directing teams have been nominated together (a total of five times): Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978), Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007) and True Grit (2010), and Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). Of these, Wise and Robbins, the Coens (2007), and Kwan and Scheinert won the award. Six directors won the award for their feature film debut: Delbert Mann for Marty (1955), Jerome Robbins for West Side Story (1961), Robert Redford for Ordinary People (1980), James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment (1983), Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves (1990), and Sam Mendes for American Beauty (1999). Only one director won for his only career directing credit: Jerome Robbins for West Side Story. Four directors have twice won for films that did not win Best Picture: Frank Borzage, George Stevens, Ang Lee, and Alfonso Cuarón; John Ford did so three times. The Coen Brothers are the only siblings to have won the award. Lina Wertmüller was the first woman nominated in the category, for Seven Beauties (1976). Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the award, for The Hurt Locker (2009). Francis Ford Coppola is the only director to be nominated for each film of a trilogy, The Godfather trilogy, winning for the second film. John Ford (1940–1941), Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1949–1950), and Alejandro González Iñárritu (2014–2015) are the only directors to have won the award in two consecutive years. Ang Lee was the first Asian director to win the award, for Brokeback Mountain. He won again for Life of Pi (2012). Alfonso Cuarón was the first Mexican (and Latin American) director to win the award, for Gravity. He won again for Roma (2018). Chloé Zhao was the first woman of color to win the award, for Nomadland (2020/21). Notes See also BAFTA Award for Best Direction Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film Golden Globe Award for Best Director Independent Spirit Award for Best Director List of Academy Award–nominated films References Bibliography External links Oscars.org (official Academy site) The Academy Awards Database (official site) Oscar.com Archived March 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine (official ceremony promotional site)

Sam_Mendes

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

Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes (born 1 August 1965) is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. In 2000, Mendes was appointed a CBE for his services to drama, and he was knighted in the 2020 New Years Honours List. In 2000, Mendes was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation in Hamburg, Germany. In 2005, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Directors Guild of Great Britain. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 15 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". Born in Berkshire to a Trinidadian Catholic father and an English Jewish mother, Mendes grew up in North London. He read English at Peterhouse at Cambridge University, and began directing plays there before joining Donmar Warehouse, which became a centre of 1990s London theatre culture. In theatre, he is known for his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1993), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003). He directed an original West End stage musical for the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013). For his work on the London stage, Mendes has received three Laurence Olivier Awards for Company, Twelfth Night and The Ferryman and for his work on Broadway he has earned two Tony Awards for Best Direction of a Play for his work on The Ferryman in 2019, and The Lehman Trilogy in 2022. In film, he made his directorial debut with the drama American Beauty (1999), which earned him the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director. He has since directed the films Road to Perdition (2002), Jarhead (2005), Revolutionary Road (2008), and the James Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015). For the war film 1917 (2019), he received the BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director, as well as his second Academy Award nominations for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Early life Mendes was born on 1 August 1965 in Reading, Berkshire. He is the son of Valerie Mendes (born Barnett), a publisher and author, and Jameson Peter Mendes, a university professor. His father is a Roman Catholic of Portuguese descent from Trinidad and Tobago, and his mother is an English Jew. His grandfather was the Trinidadian writer Alfred Hubert Mendes. Mendes's parents divorced when he was three years old, after which Mendes and his mother settled in Primrose Hill in North London. He attended Primrose Hill Primary School and was in the same class as future Foreign Secretary David Miliband and author Zoë Heller. In 1976, the family relocated to Woodstock near Oxford, where Mendes's mother found work as a senior editor at Oxford University Press. Mendes was educated at Magdalen College School where he met future theatre designer Tom Piper, who went on to work with Mendes on a National Theatre revival of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party. Mendes had an early interest in cinema and applied to the University of Warwick (then the only university in the UK that offered an undergraduate film course), but was turned down. He was then accepted by Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he graduated with first-class honours in English. Having developed a passion for theatre only in his late teens, Mendes became a member of the Marlowe Society at Cambridge and directed several plays. His first play was David Halliwell's Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs, and one of his later productions was Cyrano de Bergerac with Tom Hollander and Jonathan Cake among the cast members. During his time at Cambridge, Mendes also became enthusiastic about cinema in earnest. He cited Paris, Texas, Repo Man and True Stories as three "seminal film moments" that influenced his stage and film career. Mendes was noted as a "brilliant schoolboy cricketer" by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, scoring 1,153 runs at 46 and taking 83 wickets at under 16 for Magdalen College School in 1983 and 1984. He also played cricket for Cambridge University Cricket Club, and in 1997 played for Shipton-under-Wychwood in the final of the Village Cricket Cup, the only winner of the Academy Award for Best Director to have played at Lord's. Stage career Early work After graduating from Cambridge in 1987, Mendes was hired as assistant director at the Chichester Festival Theatre. In September 1987, Mendes made his professional directing debut with a double bill of two Anton Chekhov plays, The Bear and The Proposal. In 1989, he was appointed the inaugural director of the Minerva Theatre. In 1989, following the abrupt departure of director Robin Phillips, Mendes took over a production of Dion Boucicault's London Assurance at Chichester. Later that year, Mendes made his West End debut at the Aldwych with a production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, starring Judi Dench. London Assurance then transferred to the West End following a six-month run at Chichester, opening at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The successes of the plays established Mendes as a theatre director of national renown. Donmar Warehouse (1990–2002) In 1990, Mendes was appointed artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, a Covent Garden studio space previously used by the Royal Shakespeare Company. He spent two years overseeing the redesign of the theatre, which formally opened in 1992 with the British premiere of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. Mendes's tenure at the Donmar saw its transformation into one of the most successful and fashionable playhouses in London. In 1993, Mendes staged an acclaimed revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb's Cabaret starring Jane Horrocks as Sally Bowles and Alan Cumming as Emcee. The production was approached with a fresh concept, differing greatly from both the original 1966 production directed by Harold Prince and the famed film version, directed by Bob Fosse. This production opened at the Donmar and received four Olivier Award nominations including Best Musical Revival, before transferring promptly to Broadway where it played for several years at the Kit Kat Club (i.e. the Stephen Sondheim Theater). The Broadway cast included Cumming once again as Emcee, with Natasha Richardson as Sally, Mary Louise Wilson as Fraulein Schneider, John Benjamin Hickey as Cliff, and Ron Rifkin as Herr Schultz. Cumming, Richardson, and Rifkin all won Tony Awards for their performances. 1994 saw Mendes stage a new production of Lionel Bart's Oliver!, produced by Cameron Mackintosh. Mendes, a longtime fan of the work, worked in close collaboration with Bart and other production team members, William David Brohn, Martin Koch and Anthony Ward, to create a fresh staging of the well-known classic. Bart added new musical material and Mendes updated the book slightly, while the orchestrations were radically rewritten to suit the show's cinematic feel. The cast included Jonathan Pryce (after much persuasion) as Fagin, Sally Dexter as Nancy, and Miles Anderson as Bill Sikes. Mendes, Pryce and Dexter received Olivier Award nominations for their work on Oliver!. Mendes also directed productions of David Hare's The Blue Room in 1998, starring Nicole Kidman; Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain in 1999, with Colin Firth, David Morrissey and Elizabeth McGovern; as well as his farewell duo in 2002, Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night, both headed by Simon Russell Beale, Helen McCrory, Emily Watson and Mark Strong. He stepped down as artistic director of the Donmar in December 2002 and was succeeded by Michael Grandage. After the Donmar (2002–present) In 2003, Mendes directed a revival of the musical Gypsy. Originally, he planned to stage this production in London's West End with an eventual Broadway transfer, but when negotiations fell through, he brought it to New York. The cast included Bernadette Peters as Rose, Tammy Blanchard as Louise and John Dossett as Herbie. Mendes also directed the 2013 Olivier Award-nominated stage adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which ran in London's West End until January 2017. It starred Douglas Hodge as Willy Wonka, followed by Alex Jennings and Jonathan Slinger who later took over the role. In 2014, Mendes directed Simon Russell Beale in King Lear by William Shakespeare at the National Theatre, London. Mendes directed Jez Butterworth's The Ferryman for the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2017, before transferring to the West End later that year and Broadway in 2018, for which he won an Olivier Award and Tony Award for Best Director. In 2018, Mendes directed The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini in an English adaptation by Ben Power for the National Theatre, London starring Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley and Ben Miles. In 2019 the play played a season at the Park Avenue Armory in New York before returning for another London season in the West End. The play made its Broadway transfer in 2020 briefly but was stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The play resumed performances in 2021 and went on to receive eight Tony Award nominations winning five awards including Best Play and Best Director of a Play. Film career American Beauty to Away We Go (1999–2009) In 1999, Mendes made his film directorial debut with American Beauty, starring Kevin Spacey. He had been approached by Steven Spielberg, who was impressed by his productions of Oliver! and Cabaret. The film grossed $356.3 million worldwide. The film won the Golden Globe Award, the BAFTA Award and the Academy Award for Best Picture. Mendes won the Golden Globe Award, Directors Guild of America Award, and the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming the sixth director to earn the Academy Award for his feature film debut. Mendes's second film, in 2002, was Road to Perdition, which grossed US$181 million. As of October 2023, the aggregate review score on Rotten Tomatoes is currently 81%; critics praised Paul Newman for his performance. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Newman; it won for Best Cinematography. In 2003, Mendes established Neal Street Productions, a film, television and theatre production company he would use to finance much of his later work. In 2005, Mendes directed the war film Jarhead, in association with his production company Neal Street Productions. The film received mixed reviews, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 61%, and a gross revenue of US$96.9 million worldwide. The film focused on the boredom and other psychological challenges of wartime. In 2008, Mendes directed Revolutionary Road, starring his then-wife, Kate Winslet, along with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kathy Bates. In a January 2009 interview, Mendes commented, about directing his wife for the first time, "I would open my eyes in the morning and there Kate would be, going, 'Great! You're awake! Now let's talk about the second scene.'" Mendes's comedy-drama Away We Go opened the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film follows a couple (John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph) searching North America for the perfect community in which to settle down and start a family. The film was well received by critics but performed poorly at the box office. In 2010, Mendes co-produced a critically acclaimed documentary film Out of the Ashes that deals with cricket in Afghanistan. On 5 January 2010, news broke that Mendes was employed to direct the 23rd Eon Productions instalment of the James Bond franchise. The film, Skyfall, was subsequently released on 26 October 2012, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Bond films. Mendes had been employed as a consultant on the film when it was in pre-production, and had remained attached to the project during the financial troubles of MGM. The film was a major critical and commercial success, becoming the 14th film to gross over $1 billion worldwide. In 2012, Mendes's Neal Street Productions produced the first series of the BBC One drama series, Call the Midwife, following it with a second season which began transmission in early 2013. Skyfall to Empire of Light (2013–present) After the success of Skyfall, Mendes was asked if he was returning to direct the next Bond film. He responded, "I felt I put everything I possibly could into this film and it was the Bond film I wanted to make. And if I felt I could do the same again, then absolutely I would consider doing another one. But it is a big task and I wouldn't do it unless I knew I could." It was reported that one reason Mendes was reluctant to commit was that one proposal involved making two films back-to-back, based on an idea by Skyfall writer John Logan, which would have resulted in Mendes and other creative personnel being tied up with filming for around four years. It was reported in February 2013 that this idea had since been shelved and that the next two films would be stand-alone. Mendes said in an interview with film magazine Empire in March 2013 that "it has been a very difficult decision not to accept Michael and Barbara's very generous offer to direct the next Bond movie." He cited, amongst other reasons, his commitments to the stage version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and King Lear. However, on 29 May 2013, it was reported that Mendes was back in negotiations with producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli to direct the next Bond film, going back on his previous comments. Wilson and Broccoli were willing to postpone production of the film to ensure Mendes's participation. On 11 July 2013, it was announced that Mendes would direct the 24th James Bond film, Spectre; it was released in October 2015. This made him the first filmmaker since John Glen to direct two Bond films consecutively. In April 2016, Mendes was named as the president of the jury for the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. Mendes's next film, war epic 1917, was released by Universal Pictures on 25 December 2019 in the US and on 10 January 2020 in the UK. Based in part on an account told to Mendes by his paternal grandfather, Alfred Mendes, it chronicles the story of two young British soldiers in the spring of 1917 at a critical point during World War I. Mendes went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Director for his achievement in directing; in his acceptance speech, he saluted his grandfather, as well as acknowledging the contribution to cinema of fellow nominee Martin Scorsese, who was nominated for The Irishman. On 25 January 2020, he won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film, following which he was installed by the press as the favourite to win the Academy Award for Best Director at the then approaching 92nd Academy Awards. However that plaudit went instead to Bong Joon-ho for the South Korean film Parasite. The two directors had shared the honours for directing at the 25th Critics' Choice Awards several weeks prior. In 2022, his next feature was the romantic drama Empire of Light, starring Olivia Colman and Micheal Ward. In February 2024, it was reported that Mendes would produce and direct four separate feature films about each of the members of the Beatles, to be released in 2027. The films will be the first Beatles biopics to have full cooperation from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison. It is reported in June 2024 that the foursome will be portrayed respectively by Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Harris Dickinson and Charlie Rowe. Filmmaking style and techniques Influences Mendes has listed Stanley Kubrick, the Coen brothers, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders, Howard Davies, David Lynch, Peter Brook, Ingmar Bergman, Orson Welles, and Francis Ford Coppola as amongst his cinematic and theatrical influences. He cited Paris, Texas, Repo Man and True Stories as three "seminal film moments" that influenced his stage and film career, and is also heavily influenced by British comedy acts such as Monty Python, The Goons, Tommy Cooper, and Morecambe and Wise. Style and themes Much of his film directing techniques were informed by his background in theatre, which consisted of meticulous attention to detail, slow pacing, pictorialist composition, close collaborations with actors, use of tranquil atmosphere, periods of wordless visual storytelling, and long takes. Even though he was widely known for his use of long takes in Spectre and 1917, he has used them since American Beauty. His first two films established a reputation for him of utilising a visual style that was considered formalist and classical, preferring to shoot and stage scenes with theatrical-style mise-en-scene and use of chiaroscuro. His third film, Jarhead, which would mark the first of a long-time collaboration between him and cinematographer Roger Deakins, served as a stylistic departure from the former two films as it relied heavily on a gritter feel with improvised dialogue and looser handheld close-ups. Despite this, it shared a similar attention to detail and flawed characters. Although he has tackled a variety of genres over the course of his career, Mendes has frequently explored themes of family and isolation in his work. The protagonists in his films are realistically flawed and struggle to fit in a world that is hostile towards them, a theme that was initially established in American Beauty and would be further explored in his subsequent films, including Skyfall and Spectre, and 1917. The exploration of such themes are owed to his early childhood experiences, particularly with his parents, with the most direct being his grandfather and his mother serving as inspirations for the characters of Schofield and Hilary Small in 1917 and Empire of Light, respectively. In an interview in 2014, Mendes explained his reasoning for exploring such themes: "If you are doing a play or a film, you have to have a secret way in if you are directing it. Sometimes it’s big things. American Beauty, for me, was about my adolescence. Road to Perdition was about my childhood. Skyfall was about middle-age and mortality." Personal life Mendes and actress Kate Winslet met in 2001, when Mendes approached her about appearing in a play at the Donmar Warehouse, where he was then artistic director. They married in May 2003, on what they characterised as a whim, while on holiday in Anguilla when Winslet was two months pregnant with their child. Their son was born on 22 December 2003 in New York City. Mendes also had a stepdaughter from Winslet's first marriage to filmmaker Jim Threapleton. Amid intense media speculation of an affair between Mendes and actress Rebecca Hall, he and Winslet announced their separation in 2010 and divorced in 2011. Mendes and Hall were in a relationship from 2011 to 2013. Mendes married trumpeter Alison Balsom in January 2017. Their daughter was born in September 2017. Mendes was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2020 New Years Honours List for services to drama. In 2009, Mendes signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl. Mendes is an opponent of Brexit. In 2017, he stated: "I'm afraid that the winds that were blowing before the First World War are blowing again. There was this generation of men fighting then for a free and unified Europe, which we would do well to remember." Favourite films In 2012, Mendes participated in the Sight & Sound film polls of that year. Held every ten years to select the greatest films of all time, contemporary directors were asked to select ten films of their choice. Filmography Film Director Producer Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) Executive producer Starter for 10 (2006) The Kite Runner (2007) Out of the Ashes (2010) (Documentary) Blood (2012) Television Executive producer Unreleased projects Theatre West End Broadway Awards and honours References Bibliography Wolf, Matt (2003). Sam Mendes at the Donmar: Stepping into Freedom. Lanham: Hal Leonard LLC. ISBN 9780879109820. Lowenstein, Stephen (2003). My First Movie, Take Two: Ten Celebrated Directors Talk About Their First Film. Lanham: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8108-8576-9. External links Sam Mendes at IMDb Charlie Rose interview, 5 June 2009 Brandon Kosters interview, 2 June 2009 The Observer interview, 14 December 2008 Sam Mendes at the Internet Broadway Database