3 (see n-body problem for details). However, the Sundman and Wang series converge so slowly that they are useless for practical purposes; therefore, it is currently necessary to approximate solutions by numerical analysis in the form of numerical integration or, for some cases, classical trigonometric series approximations (see n-body simulation). Atomic systems, e.g. atoms, ions, and molecules, can be treated in terms of the quantum n-body problem. Among classical physical systems, the n-body problem usually refers to a galaxy or to a cluster of galaxies; planetary systems, such as stars, planets, and their satellites, can also be treated as n-body systems. Some applications are conveniently treated by perturbation theory, in which the system is considered as a two-body problem plus additional forces causing deviations from a hypothetical unperturbed two-body trajectory.\n\nSee also\nReferences\nFurther reading\nExternal links\nChenciner, Alain (2007). \"Three body problem\". Scholarpedia. 2 (10): 2111. Bibcode:2007SchpJ...2.2111C. doi:10.4249/scholarpedia.2111.\nPhysicists Discover a Whopping 13 New Solutions to Three-Body Problem (Science)\n3body simulator Archived 2022-11-17 at the Wayback Machine – an example of a computer program that solves the three-body problem numerically","title":"Three-body_problem"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Alexis Claude Clairaut (French: [alɛksi klod klɛʁo]; 13 May 1713 – 17 May 1765) was a French mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist. He was a prominent Newtonian whose work helped to establish the validity of the principles and results that Sir Isaac Newton had outlined in the Principia of 1687. Clairaut was one of the key figures in the expedition to Lapland that helped to confirm Newton's theory for the figure of the Earth. In that context, Clairaut worked out a mathematical result now known as \"Clairaut's theorem\". He also tackled the gravitational three-body problem, being the first to obtain a satisfactory result for the apsidal precession of the Moon's orbit. In mathematics he is also credited with Clairaut's equation and Clairaut's relation.\n\nBiography\nChildhood and early life\nClairaut was born in Paris, France, to Jean-Baptiste and Catherine Petit Clairaut. The couple had 20 children, however only a few of them survived childbirth. His father taught mathematics. Alexis was a prodigy – at the age of ten he began studying calculus. At the age of twelve he wrote a memoir on four geometrical curves and under his father's tutelage he made such rapid progress in the subject that in his thirteenth year he read before the Académie française an account of the properties of four curves which he had discovered. When only sixteen he finished a treatise on Tortuous Curves, Recherches sur les courbes a double courbure, which, on its publication in 1731, procured his admission into the Royal Academy of Sciences, although he was below the legal age as he was only eighteen. He gave a path breaking formulae called the distance formulae which helps to find out the distance between any 2 points on the cartesian or XY plane.\n\nPersonal life and death\nClairaut was unmarried, and known for leading an active social life. His growing popularity in society hindered his scientific work: \"He was focused,\" says Bossut, \"with dining and with evenings, coupled with a lively taste for women, and seeking to make his pleasures into his day to day work, he lost rest, health, and finally life at the age of fifty-two.\" Though he led a fulfilling social life, he was very prominent in the advancement of learning in young mathematicians.\nHe was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London on 27 October 1737.\nClairaut died in Paris in 1765.\n\nMathematical and scientific works\nThe shape of the Earth\nIn 1736, together with Pierre Louis Maupertuis, he took part in the expedition to Lapland, which was undertaken for the purpose of estimating a degree of the meridian arc. The goal of the excursion was to geometrically calculate the shape of the Earth, which Sir Isaac Newton theorised in his book Principia was an ellipsoid shape. They sought to prove if Newton's theory and calculations were correct or not. Before the expedition team returned to Paris, Clairaut sent his calculations to the Royal Society of London. The writing was later published by the society in the 1736–37 volume of Philosophical Transactions. Initially, Clairaut disagrees with Newton's theory on the shape of the Earth. In the article, he outlines several key problems that effectively disprove Newton's calculations, and provides some solutions to the complications. The issues addressed include calculating gravitational attraction, the rotation of an ellipsoid on its axis, and the difference in density of an ellipsoid on its axes. At the end of his letter, Clairaut writes that: \"It appears even Sir Isaac Newton was of the opinion, that it was necessary the Earth should be more dense toward the center, in order to be so much the flatter at the poles: and that it followed from this greater flatness, that gravity increased so much the more from the equator towards the Pole.\" \n\nThis conclusion suggests not only that the Earth is of an oblate ellipsoid shape, but it is flattened more at the poles and is wider at the centre.\nHis article in Philosophical Transactions created much controversy, as he addressed the problems of Newton's theory, but provided few solutions to how to fix the calculations. After his return, he published his treatise Théorie de la figure de la terre (1743). In this work he promulgated the theorem, known as Clairaut's theorem, which connects the gravity at points on the surface of a rotating ellipsoid with the compression and the centrifugal force at the equator. This hydrostatic model of the shape of the Earth was founded on a paper by the Scottish mathematician Colin Maclaurin, which had shown that a mass of homogeneous fluid set in rotation about a line through its centre of mass would, under the mutual attraction of its particles, take the form of an ellipsoid. Under the assumption that the Earth was composed of concentric ellipsoidal shells of uniform density, Clairaut's theorem could be applied to it, and allowed the ellipticity of the Earth to be calculated from surface measurements of gravity. This proved Sir Isaac Newton's theory that the shape of the Earth was an oblate ellipsoid. In 1849 George Stokes showed that Clairaut's result was true whatever the interior constitution or density of the Earth, provided the surface was a spheroid of equilibrium of small ellipticity.\n\nGeometry\nIn 1741, Clairaut wrote a book called Éléments de Géométrie. The book outlines the basic concepts of geometry. Geometry in the 1700s was complex to the average learner. It was considered to be a dry subject. Clairaut saw this trend, and wrote the book in an attempt to make the subject more interesting for the average learner. He believed that instead of having students repeatedly work problems that they did not fully understand, it was imperative for them to make discoveries themselves in a form of active, experiential learning. He begins the book by comparing geometric shapes to measurements of land, as it was a subject that most anyone could relate to. He covers topics from lines, shapes, and even some three dimensional objects. Throughout the book, he continuously relates different concepts such as physics, astrology, and other branches of mathematics to geometry. Some of the theories and learning methods outlined in the book are still used by teachers today, in geometry and other topics.\n\nFocus on astronomical motion\nOne of the most controversial issues of the 18th century was the problem of three bodies, or how the Earth, Moon, and Sun are attracted to one another. With the use of the recently founded Leibnizian calculus, Clairaut was able to solve the problem using four differential equations. He was also able to incorporate Newton's inverse-square law and law of attraction into his solution, with minor edits to it. However, these equations only offered approximate measurement, and no exact calculations. Another issue still remained with the three body problem; how the Moon rotates on its apsides. Even Newton could account for only half of the motion of the apsides. This issue had puzzled astronomers. In fact, Clairaut had at first deemed the dilemma so inexplicable, that he was on the point of publishing a new hypothesis as to the law of attraction.\n\nThe question of the apsides was a heated debate topic in Europe. Along with Clairaut, there were two other mathematicians who were racing to provide the first explanation for the three body problem; Leonhard Euler and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Euler and d'Alembert were arguing against the use of Newtonian laws to solve the three body problem. Euler in particular believed that the inverse square law needed revision to accurately calculate the apsides of the Moon.\nDespite the hectic competition to come up with the correct solution, Clairaut obtained an ingenious approximate solution of the problem of the three bodies. In 1750 he gained the prize of the St Petersburg Academy for his essay Théorie de la lune; the team made up of Clairaut, Jérome Lalande and Nicole Reine Lepaute successfully computed the date of the 1759 return of Halley's comet. The Théorie de la lune is strictly Newtonian in character. This contains the explanation of the motion of the apsis. It occurred to him to carry the approximation to the third order, and he thereupon found that the result was in accordance with the observations. This was followed in 1754 by some lunar tables, which he computed using a form of the discrete Fourier transform.\nThe newfound solution to the problem of three bodies ended up meaning more than proving Newton's laws correct. The unravelling of the problem of three bodies also had practical importance. It allowed sailors to determine the longitudinal direction of their ships, which was crucial not only in sailing to a location, but finding their way home as well. This held economic implications as well, because sailors were able to more easily find destinations of trade based on the longitudinal measures.\nClairaut subsequently wrote various papers on the orbit of the Moon, and on the motion of comets as affected by the perturbation of the planets, particularly on the path of Halley's comet. He also used applied mathematics to study Venus, taking accurate measurements of the planet's size and distance from the Earth. This was the first precise reckoning of the planet's size.\n\nPublications\nTheorie de la figure de la terre, tirée des principes de l'hydrostatique (in French). Paris: Laurent Durand. 1743.\nThéorie de la figure de la terre, tirée des principes de l'hydrostatique (in French). Paris: Louis Courcier. 1808.\n\nSee also\nClairaut's equation\nClairaut's relation\nClairaut's theorem\n\nDifferential geometry\nHuman computer\nIntermolecular force\nSymmetry of second derivatives\n\nNotes\nReferences\nGrier, David Alan, When Computers Were Human, Princeton University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-691-09157-9.\nCasey, J., \"Clairaut's Hydrostatics: A Study in Contrast,\" American Journal of Physics, Vol. 60, 1992, pp. 549–554.\n\nExternal links\n\nChronologie de la vie de Clairaut (1713–1765)\nO'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., \"Alexis Clairaut\", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews\nW.W. Rouse Ball A Short Account of the History of Mathematics","title":"Alexis_Clairaut"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and the time at the current location found from observations of celestial bodies. When first developed in the 18th century, it was a major technical achievement, as accurate knowledge of the time over a long sea voyage was vital for effective navigation, lacking electronic or communications aids. The first true chronometer was the life work of one man, John Harrison, spanning 31 years of persistent experimentation and testing that revolutionized naval (and later aerial) navigation.\nThe term chronometer was coined from the Greek words χρόνος (chronos) (meaning time) and meter (meaning measure). The 1713 book Physico-Theology by the English cleric and scientist William Derham includes one of the earliest theoretical descriptions of a marine chronometer. It has recently become more commonly used to describe watches tested and certified to meet certain precision standards.\n\nHistory\nTo determine a position on the Earth's surface, it is necessary and sufficient to know the latitude, longitude, and altitude. Altitude considerations can naturally be ignored for vessels operating at sea level. Until the mid-1750s, accurate navigation at sea out of sight of land was an unsolved problem due to the difficulty in calculating longitude. Navigators could determine their latitude by measuring the sun's angle at noon (i.e., when it reached its highest point in the sky, or culmination) or, in the Northern Hemisphere, by measuring the angle of Polaris (the North Star) from the horizon (usually during twilight). To find their longitude, however, they needed a time standard that would work aboard a ship. Observation of regular celestial motions, such as Galileo's method based on observing Jupiter's natural satellites, was usually not possible at sea due to the ship's motion. The lunar distances method, initially proposed by Johannes Werner in 1514, was developed in parallel with the marine chronometer. The Dutch scientist Gemma Frisius was the first to propose the use of a chronometer to determine longitude in 1530.\nThe purpose of a chronometer is to measure accurately the time of a known fixed location. This is particularly important for navigation. As the Earth rotates at a regular predictable rate, the time difference between the chronometer and the ship's local time can be used to calculate the longitude of the ship relative to the Prime Meridian (defined as 0°) (or another starting point) if accurately enough known, using spherical trigonometry. Practical celestial navigation usually requires a marine chronometer to measure time, a sextant to measure the angles, an almanac giving schedules of the coordinates of celestial objects, a set of sight reduction tables to help perform the height and azimuth computations, and a chart of the region. With sight reduction tables, the only calculations required are addition and subtraction. Most people can master simpler celestial navigation procedures after a day or two of instruction and practice, even using manual calculation methods. The use of a marine chronometer to determine longitude by chronometer permits navigators to obtain a reasonably accurate position fix. For every four seconds that the time source is in error, the east–west position may be off by up to just over one nautical mile as the angular speed of Earth is latitude dependent.\nThe creation of a timepiece which would work reliably at sea was difficult. Until the 20th century, the best timekeepers were pendulum clocks, but both the rolling of a ship at sea and the up to 0.2% variations in the gravity of Earth made a simple gravity-based pendulum useless both in theory and in practice.\n\nFirst examples\nChristiaan Huygens, following his invention of the pendulum clock in 1656, made the first attempt at a marine chronometer in 1673 in France, under the sponsorship of Jean-Baptiste Colbert. In 1675, Huygens, who was receiving a pension from Louis XIV, invented a chronometer that employed a balance wheel and a spiral spring for regulation, instead of a pendulum, opening the way to marine chronometers and modern pocket watches and wristwatches. He obtained a patent for his invention from Colbert, but his clock remained imprecise at sea. Huygens' attempt in 1675 to obtain an English patent from Charles II stimulated Robert Hooke, who claimed to have conceived of a spring-driven clock years earlier, to attempt to produce one and patent it. During 1675 Huygens and Hooke each delivered two such devices to Charles, but none worked well and neither Huygens nor Hooke received an English patent. It was during this work that Hooke formulated Hooke's law.\n\nThe first published use of the term chronometer was in 1684 in Arcanum Navarchicum, a theoretical work by Kiel professor Matthias Wasmuth. This was followed by a further theoretical description of a chronometer in works published by English scientist William Derham in 1713. Derham's principal work, Physico-theology, or a demonstration of the being and attributes of God from his works of creation, also proposed the use of vacuum sealing to ensure greater accuracy in the operation of clocks. Attempts to construct a working marine chronometer were begun by Jeremy Thacker in England in 1714, and by Henry Sully in France two years later. Sully published his work in 1726 with Une Horloge inventée et executée par M. Sulli, but neither his nor Thacker's models were able to resist the rolling of the seas and keep precise time while in shipboard conditions.\n\nIn 1714, the British government offered a longitude prize for a method of determining longitude at sea, with the awards ranging from £10,000 to £20,000 (£2 million to £4 million in 2024 terms) depending on accuracy. John Harrison, a Yorkshire carpenter, submitted a project in 1730, and in 1735 completed a clock based on a pair of counter-oscillating weighted beams connected by springs whose motion was not influenced by gravity or the motion of a ship. His first two sea timepieces H1 and H2 (completed in 1741) used this system, but he realised that they had a fundamental sensitivity to centrifugal force, which meant that they could never be accurate enough at sea. Construction of his third machine, designated H3, in 1759 included novel circular balances and the invention of the bi-metallic strip and caged roller bearings, inventions which are still widely used. However, H3's circular balances still proved too inaccurate and he eventually abandoned the large machines.\n\nHarrison solved the precision problems with his much smaller H4 chronometer design in 1761. H4 looked much like a large five-inch (12 cm) diameter pocket watch. In 1761, Harrison submitted H4 for the £20,000 longitude prize. His design used a fast-beating balance wheel controlled by a temperature-compensated spiral spring. These features remained in use until stable electronic oscillators allowed very accurate portable timepieces to be made at affordable cost. In 1767, the Board of Longitude published a description of his work in The Principles of Mr. Harrison's time-keeper. A French expedition under Charles-François-César Le Tellier de Montmirail performed the first measurement of longitude using marine chronometers aboard Aurore in 1767.\n\nFurther development\nIn France, 1748, Pierre Le Roy invented the detent escapement characteristic of modern chronometers. In 1766, he created a revolutionary chronometer that incorporated a detent escapement, the temperature-compensated balance and the isochronous balance spring: Harrison showed the possibility of having a reliable chronometer at sea, but these developments by Le Roy are considered by Rupert Gould to be the foundation of the modern chronometer. Le Roy's innovations made the chronometer a much more accurate piece than had been anticipated.\n\nFerdinand Berthoud in France, as well as Thomas Mudge in Britain also successfully produced marine timekeepers. Although none were simple, they proved that Harrison's design was not the only answer to the problem. The greatest strides toward practicality came at the hands of Thomas Earnshaw and John Arnold, who in 1780 developed and patented simplified, detached, \"spring detent\" escapements, moved the temperature compensation to the balance, and improved the design and manufacturing of balance springs. This combination of innovations served as the basis of marine chronometers until the electronic era.\n\nThe new technology was initially so expensive that not all ships carried chronometers, as illustrated by the fateful last journey of the East Indiaman Arniston, shipwrecked with the loss of 372 lives. However, by 1825, the Royal Navy had begun routinely supplying its vessels with chronometers.\nBeginning in 1820, the British Royal Observatory in Greenwich tested marine chronometers in an Admiralty instigated trial or \"chronometer competition\" program intended to encourage the improvement of chronometers. In 1840 a new series of trials in a different format was begun by the seventh Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy. These trials continued in much the same format until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, at which point they were suspended. Although the formal trials ceased, the testing of chronometers for the Royal Navy did not.\nMarine chronometer makers looked to a phalanx of astronomical observatories located in Western Europe to conduct accuracy assessments of their timepieces. Once mechanical timepiece movements developed sufficient precision to allow for adequately accurate marine navigation, these third party independent assessments also developed into what became known as \"chronometer competitions\" at the astronomical observatories located in Western Europe. The Neuchâtel Observatory, Geneva Observatory, Besançon Observatory, Kew Observatory, German Naval Observatory Hamburg and Glashütte Observatory are prominent examples of observatories that certified the accuracy of mechanical timepieces. The observatory testing regime typically lasted for 30 to 50 days and contained accuracy standards that were far more stringent and difficult than modern standards such as those set by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC). When a movement passed the observatory test, it became certified as an observatory chronometer and received a Bulletin de Marche from the observatory, stipulating the performance of the movement.\nIt was common for ships at the time to observe a time ball, such as the one at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, to check their chronometers before departing on a long voyage. Every day, ships would anchor briefly in the River Thames at Greenwich, waiting for the ball at the observatory to drop at precisely 1pm. This practice was in small part responsible for the subsequent adoption of Greenwich Mean Time as an international standard. (Time balls became redundant around 1920 with the introduction of radio time signals, which have themselves largely been superseded by GPS time.) In addition to setting their time before departing on a voyage, ship chronometers were also routinely checked for accuracy while at sea by carrying out lunar or solar observations. In typical use, the chronometer would be mounted in a sheltered location below decks to avoid damage and exposure to the elements. Mariners would use the chronometer to set a so-called hack watch, which would be carried on deck to make the astronomical observations. Though much less accurate (and less expensive) than the chronometer, the hack watch would be satisfactory for a short period of time after setting it (i.e., long enough to make the observations).\n\nRationalizing production methods\nAlthough industrial production methods began revolutionizing watchmaking in the middle of the 19th century, chronometer manufacture remained craft-based much longer and was dominated by British and Swiss manufacturers. Around the turn of the 20th century, Swiss makers such as Ulysse Nardin made great strides toward incorporating modern production methods and using fully interchangeable parts, but it was only with the onset of World War II that the Hamilton Watch Company in the United States perfected the process of mass production, which enabled it to produce thousands of its Hamilton Model 21 and Model 22 chronometers from 1942 onwards for the branches of the United States military and merchant marine as well as other Allied forces during World War II. The Hamilton 21 Marine Chronometer had a chain drive fusee and its second hand advanced in 1⁄2-second increments over a 60 seconds marked sub dial. In Germany, where marine chronometers were imported or used foreign key components, a Drei-Pfeiler Werk Einheitschronometer (three-pillar movement unified chronometer) was developed by a collaboration between the Wempe Chronometerwerke and A. Lange & Söhne companies to make more efficient production possible. The development of a precise and inexpensive Einheitschronometer was a 1939 German naval command and Aviation ministry driven initiative. Serial production began in 1942. All parts were made in Germany and interchangeable. During the course of World War II modifications that became necessary when raw materials became scarce were applied and work was compulsory and sometimes voluntarily shared between various German manufacturers to speed up production. The production of German unified design chronometers with their harmonized components continued until long after World War II in Germany and the Soviet Union, who confiscated the original Einheitschronometer technical drawings, and set up a production line in Moscow in 1949 that produced the first Soviet MX6 chronometers containing German made movements. From 1952 onwards until 1997 MX6 chronometers with minor НИИ ЧАСПРОМ (NII Chasprom — Horological institute of the Soviet era) devised alterations were produced from components all made in the Soviet Union. The German Einheitschronometer ultimately became the mechanical marine timekeeper design produced in the highest volume, with about 58,000 units produced. Of these, less than 3,000 were produced during World War II, about 5,000 after the war in West and East Germany and about 50,000 in the Soviet Union and later post-Soviet Russia. Of the Hamilton 21 Marine Chronometer during and after World War II about 13,000 units were produced. Despite the Einheitschronometer and Hamilton's success, chronometers made in the old way never disappeared from the marketplace during the era of mechanical timekeepers. Thomas Mercer Chronometers was among the companies that continued to make them.\n\nHistorical significance\nShip’s marine chronometers are the most exact portable mechanical timepieces ever produced and in a static environment were only trumped by non-portable precision pendulum clocks for observatories. They served, alongside the sextant, to determine the location of ships at sea. The seafaring nations invested richly in the development of these precision instruments, as pinpointing location at sea gave a decisive naval advantage. Without their accuracy and the accuracy of the feats of navigation that marine chronometers enabled, it is arguable that the ascendancy of the Royal Navy, and by extension that of the British Empire, might not have occurred so overwhelmingly; the formation of the empire by wars and conquests of colonies abroad took place in a period in which British vessels had reliable navigation due to the chronometer, while their Portuguese, Dutch, and French opponents did not. For example: the French were well established in India and other places before Britain, but were defeated by naval forces in the Seven Years' War.\nRating and maintaining marine chronometers was deemed important well into the 20th century, as after World War I the work of the British Royal Observatory’s Chronometer Department became largely confined to rating of chronometers and watches that the Admiralty already owned and providing acceptance testing.\nIn 1937 a workshop was set up for the first time by the Time Department for the repair and adjustment of British armed forces issued chronometers and watches. These maintenance activities had previously been outsourced to commercial workshops.\nFrom about the 1960s onwards mechanical spring detent marine chronometers were gradually replaced and supplanted by chronometers based on electric engineering techniques and technologies. In 1985 the British Ministry of Defence invited bids by tender for the disposal of their mechanical Hamilton Model 21 Marine Chronometers. The US Navy kept their Hamilton Model 21 Marine Chronometers in service as backups to the Loran-C hyperbolic radio navigation system until 1988, when the GPS global navigation satellite system was approved as reliable. At the end of the 20th century the production of mechanical marine chronometers had declined to the point where only a few were being made to special order by the First Moscow Watch Factory 'Kirov' (Poljot) in Russia, Wempe in Germany and Mercer in England.\nThe most complete international collection of marine chronometers, including Harrison's H1 to H4, is at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, UK.\n\nCharacteristics\nThe crucial problem was to find a resonator that remained unaffected by the changing conditions met by a ship at sea. The balance wheel, harnessed to a spring, solved most of the problems associated with the ship's motion. Unfortunately, the elasticity of most balance spring materials changes relative to temperature. To compensate for ever-changing spring strength, the majority of chronometer balances used bi-metallic strips to move small weights toward and away from the centre of oscillation, thus altering the period of the balance to match the changing force of the spring. The balance spring problem was solved with a nickel-steel alloy named Elinvar for its invariable elasticity at normal temperatures. The inventor was Charles Édouard Guillaume, who won the 1920 Nobel Prize for physics in recognition for his metallurgical work.\nThe escapement serves two purposes. First, it allows the train to advance fractionally and record the balance's oscillations. At the same time, it supplies minute amounts of energy to counter tiny losses from friction, thus maintaining the momentum of the oscillating balance. The escapement is the part that ticks. Since the natural resonance of an oscillating balance serves as the heart of a chronometer, chronometer escapements are designed to interfere with the balance as little as possible. There are many constant-force and detached escapement designs, but the most common are the spring detent and pivoted detent. In both of these, a small detent locks the escape wheel and allows the balance to swing completely free of interference except for a brief moment at the centre of oscillation, when it is least susceptible to outside influences. At the centre of oscillation, a roller on the balance staff momentarily displaces the detent, allowing one tooth of the escape wheel to pass. The escape wheel tooth then imparts its energy on a second roller on the balance staff. Since the escape wheel turns in only one direction, the balance receives impulse in only one direction. On the return oscillation, a passing spring on the tip of the detent allows the unlocking roller on the staff to move by without displacing the detent. The weakest link of any mechanical timekeeper is the escapement's lubrication. When the oil thickens through age or temperature or dissipates through humidity or evaporation, the rate will change, sometimes dramatically as the balance motion decreases through higher friction in the escapement. A detent escapement has a strong advantage over other escapements as it needs no lubrication. An impulse from the escape wheel to the impulse roller is nearly dead-beat, meaning little sliding action needing lubrication. Chronometer escape wheels and passing springs are typically gold due to the metal's lower slide friction over brass and steel.\nChronometers often included other innovations to increase their efficiency and precision. Hard stones such as ruby and sapphire were often used as jewel bearings to decrease friction and wear of the pivots and escapement. Diamond was often used as the cap stone for the lower balance staff pivot to prevent wear from years of the heavy balance turning on the small pivot end. Until the end of mechanical chronometer production in the third quarter of the 20th century, makers continued to experiment with things like ball bearings and chrome-plated pivots.\nThe timepieces were normally protected from the elements and kept below decks in a fixed position in a traditional box suspended in gimbals (a set of rings connected by bearings). This keeps the chronometer isolated in a horizontal \"dial up\" position to counter ship inclination (rocking) movements induced timing errors on the balance wheel.\nMarine chronometers always contain a maintaining power which keeps the chronometer going while it is being wound, and a power reserve indicator to show how long the chronometer will continue to run without being wound.\nThese technical provisions usually yield timekeeping in mechanical marine chronometers accurate to within 0.5 second per day.\n\nChronometer rating\nIn strictly horological terms, \"rating\" a chronometer means that prior to the instrument entering service, the average rate of gaining or losing per day is observed and recorded on a rating certificate which accompanies the instrument. This daily rate is used in the field to correct the time indicated by the instrument to get an accurate time reading. Even the best-made chronometer with the finest temperature compensation etc. exhibits two types of error, (1) random and (2) consistent. The quality of design and manufacture of the instrument keeps the random errors small. In principle, the consistent errors should be amenable to elimination by adjustment, but in practice it is not possible to make the adjustment so precisely that this error is completely eliminated, so the technique of rating is used. The rate will also change while the instrument is in service due to e.g. thickening of the oil, so on long expeditions the instrument's rate would be periodically checked against accurate time determined by astronomical observations.\n\nMarine chronometer use today\nSince the 1990s boats and ships can use several Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to navigate all the world's lakes, seas and oceans. Maritime GNSS units include functions useful on water, such as \"man overboard\" (MOB) functions that allow instantly marking the location where a person has fallen overboard, which simplifies rescue efforts. GNSS may be connected to the ship's self-steering gear and Chartplotters using the NMEA 0183 interface, and can also improve the security of shipping traffic by enabling Automatic Identification Systems (AIS).\nEven with these convenient 21st-century technological tools, modern practical navigators usually use celestial navigation using electric-powered time sources in combination with satellite navigation. Small handheld computers, laptops, navigational calculators and even scientific calculators enable modern navigators to \"reduce\" sextant sights in minutes, by automating all the calculation and/or data lookup steps. Using multiple independent position fix methods without solely relying on subject-to-failure electronic systems helps the navigator detect errors. Professional mariners are still required to be proficient in traditional piloting and celestial navigation, which requires the use of a precisely adjusted and rated autonomous or periodically external time-signal corrected chronometer. These abilities are still a requirement for certain international mariner certifications such as Officer in Charge of Navigational Watch, and Master and Chief Mate deck officers, and supplements offshore yachtmasters on long-distance private cruising yachts.\nModern marine chronometers can be based on quartz clocks that are corrected periodically by satellite time signals or radio time signals (see radio clock). These quartz chronometers are not always the most accurate quartz clocks when no signal is received, and their signals can be lost or blocked. However, there are autonomous quartz movements, even in wrist watches, that are accurate to within 5 or 20 seconds per year.\nAt least one quartz chronometer made for advanced navigation utilizes multiple quartz crystals which are corrected by a computer using an average value, in addition to GPS time signal corrections.\n\nSee also\nCelestial navigation\nSextant\nClockmaker\nThomas Earnshaw, inventor of the standard chronometer escapement\nLarcum Kendall\nNoon Gun\nTime ball\nTime signal\nRailroad chronometer\nRupert Gould, author of an important history of the marine chronometer\nRadio-controlled watch\nWatchmaker\nTimeline of invention\nLongitude (book)\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nNational Maritime Museum, Greenwich\nHenri MOTEL n°258 Chronomètre de Marine 40 heures (in French)\nMarine Chronometer Kaliber 100 - Presentation of marine chronometers of \"Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe VEB\" with picture and explanation (in German)\nA working chronometer, National Museum of Australia Archived 2011-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. Short MPEG film showing an 1825 Barraud chronometer in action. (link is outdated)\nMarine chronometer meaning at Wiktionary\nWeb chronometer","title":"Marine_chronometer"},{"idx":3,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"John Harrison (3 April [O.S. 24 March] 1693 – 24 March 1776) was an English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of how to calculate longitude while at sea.\nHarrison's solution revolutionized navigation and greatly increased the safety of long-distance sea travel. The problem he solved had been considered so important following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 that the British Parliament was offering financial rewards of up to £20,000 (equivalent to £3.97 million in 2024) under the 1714 Longitude Act, though Harrison never received the full reward due to political rivalries. He presented his first design in 1730, and worked over many years on improved designs, making several advances in time-keeping technology, finally turning to what were called sea watches. Harrison gained support from the Longitude Board in building and testing his designs. Towards the end of his life, he received recognition and a reward from Parliament. He came 39th in the BBC's 2002 public poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.\n\nEarly life\nJohn Harrison was born in Foulby in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the first of five children in his family. His stepfather worked as a carpenter at the nearby Nostell Priory estate. A house on the site of what may have been the family home bears a blue plaque. Around 1700, the Harrison family moved to the Lincolnshire village of Barrow upon Humber. Following his father's trade as a carpenter, Harrison built and repaired clocks in his spare time. Legend has it that at the age of six, while in bed with smallpox, he was given a watch to amuse himself and he spent hours listening to it and studying its moving parts.\nHe also had a fascination with music, eventually becoming choirmaster for the Church of Holy Trinity, Barrow upon Humber. \nHarrison built his first longcase clock in 1713, at the age of 20. The mechanism was made entirely of wood. Three of Harrison's early wooden clocks have survived: \n\nthe first (1713) is in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers' collection, previously in the Guildhall in London and since 2015 on display in the Science Museum.\nThe second (1715) is also in the Science Museum in London\nthe third (1717) is at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, the face bearing the inscription \"John Harrison Barrow\".\nThe Nostell example, in the billiards room of this stately home, has a Victorian outer case with small glass windows on each side of the movement so that the wooden workings may be inspected.\nOn 30 August 1718, John Harrison married Elizabeth Barret at Barrow-upon-Humber church. After her death in 1726, he married Elizabeth Scott on 23 November 1726, at the same church.\nIn the early 1720s, Harrison was commissioned to make a new turret clock at Brocklesby Hall, North Lincolnshire. The clock still works, and like his previous clocks has a wooden movement of oak and lignum vitae. Unlike his early clocks, it incorporates some original features to improve timekeeping, for example the grasshopper escapement. Between 1725 and 1728, John and his brother James, also a skilled joiner, made at least three precision longcase clocks, again with the movements and longcase made of oak and lignum vitae. The grid-iron pendulum was developed during this period. Of these longcase clocks:\n\nNumber 1 is in a private collection. Until 2004, it belonged to the Time Museum (USA), which closed in 2000.\nNumber 2 is in the Leeds City Museum, as the centrepiece of a permanent display dedicated to John Harrison's achievements. The exhibition, \"John Harrison: The Clockmaker Who Changed the World\", opened on 23 January 2014. It was the first longitude-related event marking the tercentenary of the Longitude Act.\nNumber 3 is in the collection of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers'.\nHarrison was a man of many skills and he used these to systematically improve the performance of the pendulum clock. He invented the gridiron pendulum, consisting of alternating brass and iron rods assembled in such a way that the thermal expansions and contractions essentially cancel each other out. Another example of his inventive genius was the grasshopper escapement, a control device for the step-by-step release of a clock's driving power. Developed from the anchor escapement, it was almost frictionless, requiring no lubrication because the pallets were made from wood. This was an important advantage at a time when lubricants and their degradation were little understood. In his earlier work on sea clocks, Harrison was continually assisted, both financially and in many other ways, by the watchmaker and instrument maker George Graham. Harrison was introduced to Graham by the Astronomer Royal Edmond Halley, who championed Harrison and his work. The support was important to Harrison, as he was supposed to have found it difficult to communicate his ideas in a coherent manner.\n\nLongitude problem\nLongitude fixes the location of a place on Earth east or west of a north–south reference line called the prime meridian. It is given as an angular measurement that ranges from 0° at the prime meridian to +180° eastward and −180° westward. Knowledge of a ship's east–west position is essential when approaching land. Over long voyages, cumulative errors in estimates of position by dead reckoning frequently led to shipwrecks and a great loss of life. Avoiding such disasters became vital in Harrison's lifetime, in an era when trade and the need for accurate navigation were increasing dramatically around the world.\nMany ideas were proposed for how to determine longitude during a sea voyage. Earlier methods attempted to compare local time with the known time at a reference place, such as Greenwich or Paris, based on a simple theory that had first been proposed by Gemma Frisius. The methods relied on astronomical observations that were themselves reliant on the predictable nature of the motions of different heavenly bodies. Such methods were problematic because of the difficulty in maintaining an accurate record of the time at the reference place.\nHarrison set out to solve the problem directly, by producing a reliable clock that could keep the time of the reference place accurately over long intervals without having to constantly adjust it. The difficulty was in producing a clock that was not affected by variations in temperature, pressure, or humidity, resisted corrosion in salt air, and was able to function on board a constantly moving ship. Many scientists, including Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens, doubted that such a clock could ever be built and favoured other methods for reckoning longitude, such as the method of lunar distances. Huygens ran trials using both a pendulum and a spiral balance spring clock as methods of determining longitude, with both types producing inconsistent results. Newton observed that \"a good watch may serve to keep a reckoning at sea for some days and to know the time of a celestial observation; and for this end a good Jewel may suffice till a better sort of watch can be found out. But when longitude at sea is lost, it cannot be found again by any watch\".\n\nFirst three marine timekeepers\nIn the 1720s, the English clockmaker Henry Sully invented a marine clock that was designed to determine longitude: this was in the form of a clock with a large balance wheel that was vertically mounted on friction rollers and impulsed by a frictional rest Debaufre-type escapement. Very unconventionally, the balance oscillations were controlled by a weight at the end of a pivoted horizontal lever attached to the balance by a cord. This solution avoided temperature error due to thermal expansion, a problem which affects steel balance springs. Sully's clock kept accurate time only in calm weather, however, because the balance oscillations were affected by the pitching and rolling of the ship. Still, his clocks were among the first serious attempts to find longitude by improving the accuracy of timekeeping at sea. Harrison's machines, though much larger, are of similar layout: H3 has a vertically mounted balance wheel and is linked to another wheel of the same size, an arrangement that eliminates problems arising from the ship's motion.\nIn 1716, Sully presented his first Montre de la Mer to the French Académie des Sciences and in 1726 he published Une Horloge inventée et executée par M. Sulli. In 1730, Harrison designed a marine clock to compete for the Longitude prize and travelled to London, seeking financial assistance. He presented his ideas to Edmond Halley, the Astronomer Royal, who in turn referred him to George Graham, the country's foremost clockmaker. Graham must have been impressed by Harrison's ideas, for he loaned him money to build a model of his \"Sea clock\". As the clock was an attempt to make a seagoing version of his wooden pendulum clocks, which performed exceptionally well, he used wooden wheels, roller pinions, and a version of the grasshopper escapement. Instead of a pendulum, he used two dumbbell balances which were linked together.\nIt took Harrison five years to build his first sea clock (or H1). He demonstrated it to members of the Royal Society who spoke on his behalf to the Board of Longitude. The clock was the first proposal that the Board considered to be worthy of a sea trial. In 1736, Harrison sailed to Lisbon on HMS Centurion under the command of Captain George Proctor and returned on HMS Orford after Proctor died at Lisbon on 4 October 1736. The clock lost time on the outward voyage. However, it performed well on the return trip: both the captain and the sailing master of the Orford praised the design. The master noted that his own calculations had placed the ship sixty miles east of its true landfall which had been correctly predicted by Harrison using H1.\nThis was not the transatlantic voyage stipulated by the Board of Longitude in their conditions for winning the prize, but the Board was impressed enough to grant Harrison £500 for further development. Harrison had moved to London by 1737 and went on to develop H2, a more compact and rugged version. In 1741, after three years of building and two of on-land testing, H2 was ready, but by then Britain was at war with Spain in the War of the Austrian Succession, and the mechanism was deemed too important to risk falling into Spanish hands. In any event, Harrison suddenly abandoned all work on this second machine when he discovered a serious design flaw in the concept of the bar balances. He had not recognized that the period of oscillation of the bar balances could be affected by the yawing action of the ship (when the ship turned upon its vertical axis, such as when \"coming about\" while tacking). It was this that led him to adopt circular balances in the Third Sea Clock (H3). The Board granted him another £500 and while waiting for the war to end, he proceeded to work on H3.\nHarrison spent seventeen years working on this third \"sea clock\", but despite every effort it did not perform exactly as he had wished. The problem was that, because Harrison did not fully understand the physics behind the springs used to control the balance wheels, the timing of the wheels was not isochronous, a characteristic that affected its accuracy. The engineering world was not to fully understand the properties of springs for such applications for another two centuries. Despite that it had proved a very valuable experiment and much was learned from its construction. Certainly with this machine Harrison left the world two enduring legacies–the bimetallic strip and the caged roller bearing.\n\nLongitude watches\nAfter steadfastly pursuing various methods during thirty years of experimentation, Harrison found to his surprise that some of the watches made by Graham's successor Thomas Mudge kept time just as accurately as his huge sea clocks. It is possible that Mudge was able to do this after the early 1740s thanks to the availability of the new \"Huntsman\" or \"Crucible\" steel first produced by Benjamin Huntsman sometime in the early 1740s, which enabled harder pinions but more importantly a tougher and more highly polished cylinder escapement to be produced.\nHarrison then realized that a mere watch after all could be made accurate enough for the task and was a far more practical proposition for use as a marine timekeeper. He proceeded to redesign the concept of the watch as a timekeeping device, basing his design on sound scientific principles.\n\n\"Jefferys\" watch\nHe had already in the early 1750s designed a precision watch for his own use, which was made for him by the watchmaker John Jefferys c. 1752–1753. This watch incorporated a novel frictional rest escapement and was not only the first to have a compensation for temperature variations but also contained the first miniature going train fusee of Harrison's design which enabled the watch to continue running whilst being wound. These features led to the very successful performance of the \"Jefferys\" watch, which Harrison incorporated into the design of two new timekeepers which he proposed to build. These were in the form of a large watch and another of a smaller size but similar pattern. However, only the larger No. 1 watch (or \"H4\" as it is sometimes called) appears to have ever been finished (see the reference to \"H4\" below). Aided by some of London's finest workmen, he proceeded to design and make the world's first successful marine timekeeper that allowed a navigator to accurately assess his ship's position in longitude. Importantly, Harrison showed everyone that it could be done by using a watch to calculate longitude. This was to be Harrison's masterpiece – an instrument of beauty, resembling an oversized pocket watch from the period. It is engraved with Harrison's signature, marked Number 1 and dated AD 1759.\n\nH4\nHarrison's first \"sea watch\" (now known as H4) is housed in silver pair cases some 5.2 inches (13 cm) in diameter. The clock's movement is highly complex for the period, resembling a larger version of the then-current conventional movement. A coiled steel spring inside a brass mainspring barrel provides 30 hours of power. That is covered by the fusee barrel which pulls a chain wrapped around the conically shaped pulley known as the fusee. The fusee is topped by the winding square (requiring separate key). The great wheel attached to the base of this fusee transmits power to the rest of the movement. The fusee contains the maintaining power, a mechanism for keeping the H4 going while being wound. From Gould: The escapement is a modification of the \"verge\" fitted to... the common watches of Harrison's day. But the modifications are extensive. The pallets are very small, and have their faces set parallel, instead of at the usual angle of 95° or so. Moreover, instead of being steel, they are of diamond, and their backs are shaped to cycloidal curves... The action of this escapement is quite different from that of the verge, which it appears to resemble. In that escapement, the teeth of the crown wheel act only upon the faces of the pallets. But in this, as will be seen from the points of the teeth rest, for a considerable portion of the supplementary arc—from 90° to 145° (limit of banking) past the dead point—upon the backs of the pallets, and tend to assist the balance towards the extreme of its swing and to retard its return. This escapement is obviously a great improvement upon the verge, as the train has far less power over the motions of the balance. The latter is no longer checked in its swing by a force equal to that which originally impelled it, but by the balance spring, assisted only by the friction between the tooth and the back of the pallet.\nIn comparison, the verge's escapement has a recoil with a limited balance arc and is sensitive to variations in driving torque. According to a review by H. M. Frodsham of the movement in 1878, H4's escapement had \"a good deal of 'set' and not so much recoil, and as a result the impulse came very near to a double chronometer action\".\nThe D-shaped pallets of Harrison's escapement are both made of diamond, approximately 2 mm long with the curved side radius of 0.6 mm, a considerable feat of manufacture at the time. For technical reasons the balance was made much larger than in a conventional watch of the period, 2.2 inches (56 mm) in diameter weighing 28+5⁄8 Troy grains (1.85 g) and the vibrations controlled by a flat spiral steel spring of three turns with a long straight tail. The spring is tapered, being thicker at the stud end and tapering toward the collet at the centre. The movement also has centre seconds motion with a sweep seconds hand.\nThe Third Wheel is equipped with internal teeth and has an elaborate bridge similar to the pierced and engraved bridge for the period. It runs at 5 beats (ticks) per second, and is equipped with a tiny 7+1⁄2 second remontoire. A balance-brake, activated by the position of the fusee, stops the watch half an hour before it is completely run down, in order that the remontoire does not run down also. Temperature compensation is in the form of a 'compensation curb' (or 'Thermometer Kirb' as Harrison called it). This takes the form of a bimetallic strip mounted on the regulating slide, and carrying the curb pins at the free end. During its initial testing, Harrison dispensed with this regulation using the slide, but left its indicating dial or figure piece in place. This first watch took six years to construct, following which the Board of Longitude determined to trial it on a voyage from Portsmouth to Kingston, Jamaica. For this purpose it was placed aboard the 50-gun HMS Deptford, which set sail from Portsmouth on 18 November 1761.: 13–14 Harrison, by then 68 years old, sent it on this transatlantic trial in the care of his son, William. The watch was tested before departure by Robertson, Master of the Academy at Portsmouth, who reported that on 6 November 1761 at noon it was 3 seconds slow, having lost 24 seconds in 9 days on mean solar time. The daily rate of the watch was therefore fixed as losing 24⁄9 seconds per day.\nWhen Deptford reached its destination, after correction for the initial error of 3 seconds and accumulated loss of 3 minutes 36.5 seconds at the daily rate over the 81 days and 5 hours of the voyage, the watch was found to be 5 seconds slow compared to the known longitude of Kingston, corresponding to an error in longitude of 1.25 minutes, or approximately one nautical mile.: 56 William Harrison returned aboard the 14-gun HMS Merlin, reaching England on 26 March 1762 to report the successful outcome of the experiment. Harrison senior thereupon waited for the £20,000 prize, but the Board were persuaded that the accuracy could have been just luck and demanded another trial. The Board were also not convinced that a timekeeper which took six years to construct met the test of practicality required by the Longitude Act. The Harrisons were outraged and demanded their prize, a matter that eventually worked its way to Parliament, which offered £5,000 for the design. The Harrisons refused but were eventually obliged to make another trip to Bridgetown on the island of Barbados to settle the matter.\n\nAt the time of this second trial, another method for measuring longitude was ready for testing: the Method of Lunar Distances. The Moon moves fast enough, some thirteen degrees a day, to easily measure the movement from day to day. By comparing the angle between the Moon and the Sun for the day one left for Britain, the \"proper position\" (how it would appear in Greenwich, England, at that specific time) of the Moon could be calculated. By comparing this with the angle of the Moon over the horizon, the longitude could be calculated. During Harrison's second trial of his 'sea watch' (H4), Nevil Maskelyne was asked to accompany HMS Tartar and test the Lunar Distances system. Once again the watch proved extremely accurate, keeping time to within 39 seconds, corresponding to an error in the longitude of Bridgetown of less than 10 miles (16 km).: 60 Maskelyne's measures were also fairly good, at 30 miles (48 km), but required considerable work and calculation in order to use. At a meeting of the Board in 1765 the results were presented, but they again attributed the accuracy of the measurements to luck. Once again the matter reached Parliament, which offered £10,000 in advance and the other half once he turned over the design to other watchmakers to duplicate. In the meantime Harrison's watch would have to be turned over to the Astronomer Royal for long-term on-land testing.\nUnfortunately, Nevil Maskelyne had been appointed Astronomer Royal on his return from Barbados, and was therefore also placed on the Board of Longitude. He returned a report of the watch that was negative, claiming that its \"going rate\" (the amount of time it gained or lost per day) was due to inaccuracies cancelling themselves out, and refused to allow it to be factored out when measuring longitude. Consequently, this first Marine Watch of Harrison's failed the needs of the Board despite the fact that it had succeeded in two previous trials.\nHarrison began working on his second 'sea watch' (H5) while testing was conducted on the first, which Harrison felt was being held hostage by the Board. After three years he had had enough; Harrison felt \"extremely ill used by the gentlemen who I might have expected better treatment from\" and decided to enlist the aid of King George III. He obtained an audience with the King, who was extremely annoyed with the Board. King George tested the watch No. 2 (H5) himself at the palace and after ten weeks of daily observations between May and July in 1772, found it to be accurate to within one third of one second per day. King George then advised Harrison to petition Parliament for the full prize after threatening to appear in person to dress them down. Finally in 1773, when he was 80 years old, Harrison received a monetary award in the amount of £8,750 from Parliament for his achievements, but he never received the official award (which was never awarded to anyone). He was to survive for just three more years.\nIn total, Harrison received £23,065 for his work on chronometers. He received £4,315 in increments from the Board of Longitude for his work, £10,000 as an interim payment for H4 in 1765 and £8,750 from Parliament in 1773. This gave him a reasonable income for most of his life (equivalent to roughly £450,000 per year in 2007, though all his costs, such as materials and subcontracting work to other horologists, had to come out of this). He became the equivalent of a multi-millionaire (in today's terms) in the final decade of his life. Captain James Cook used K1, a copy of H4, on his second and third voyages, having used the lunar distance method on his first voyage. K1 was made by Larcum Kendall, who had been apprenticed to John Jefferys. Cook's log is full of praise for the watch and the charts of the southern Pacific Ocean he made with its use were remarkably accurate. K2 was loaned to Lieutenant William Bligh, commander of HMS Bounty, but it was retained by Fletcher Christian following the infamous mutiny. It was not recovered from Pitcairn Island until 1808, when it was given to Captain Mayhew Folger, and then passed through several hands before reaching the National Maritime Museum in London.\nInitially, the cost of these chronometers was quite high (roughly 30% of a ship's cost). However, over time, the costs dropped to between £25 and £100 (half a year's to two years' salary for a skilled worker) in the early 19th century. Many historians point to relatively low production volumes over time as evidence that the chronometers were not widely used. However, Landes points out that the chronometers lasted for decades and did not need to be replaced frequently–indeed the number of makers of marine chronometers reduced over time due to the ease in supplying the demand even as the merchant marine expanded. Also, many merchant mariners would make do with a deck chronometer at half the price. These were not as accurate as the boxed marine chronometer but were adequate for many. While the Lunar Distances method would complement and rival the marine chronometer initially, the chronometer would overtake it in the 19th century. The more accurate Harrison timekeeping device led to the much-needed precise calculation of longitude, making the device a fundamental key to the modern age. After Harrison, the marine timekeeper was reinvented yet again by John Arnold, who, while basing his design on Harrison's most important principles, at the same time simplified it enough for him to produce equally accurate but far less costly marine chronometers in quantity from around 1783. Nonetheless, for many years even towards the end of the 18th century, chronometers were expensive rarities, as their adoption and use proceeded slowly due to the high expense of precision manufacturing. The expiry of Arnold's patents at the end of the 1790s enabled many other watchmakers including Thomas Earnshaw to produce chronometers in greater quantities at less cost even than those of Arnold.\nBy the early 19th century, navigation at sea without one was considered unwise to unthinkable. Using a chronometer to aid navigation simply saved lives and ships – the insurance industry, self-interest, and common sense did the rest in making the device a universal tool of maritime trade.\n\nDeath and memorials\nHarrison died on 24 March 1776, at the age of eighty-two, just shy of his eighty-third birthday. He was buried in the graveyard of St John's Church, Hampstead, in north London, along with his second wife Elizabeth and later their son William. His tomb was restored in 1879 by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, even though Harrison had never been a member of the Company.\nHarrison's last home was 12 Red Lion Square in the Holborn district of London. There is a blue plaque dedicated to Harrison on the wall of Summit House, a 1925 modernist office block, on the south side of the square. A memorial tablet to Harrison was unveiled in Westminster Abbey on 24 March 2006, finally recognising him as a worthy companion to his friend George Graham and Thomas Tompion, 'The Father of English Watchmaking', who are both buried in the Abbey. The memorial shows a meridian line (line of constant longitude) in two metals to highlight Harrison's most widespread invention, the bimetallic strip thermometer. The strip is engraved with its own longitude of 0 degrees, 7 minutes and 35 seconds West.\nThe Corpus Clock in Cambridge, unveiled in 2008, is a homage by the designer to Harrison's work but is of an electromechanical design. In appearance it features Harrison's grasshopper escapement, the 'pallet frame' being sculpted to resemble an actual grasshopper. This is the clock's defining feature.\nIn 2014, Northern Rail named diesel railcar 153316 as the John 'Longitude' Harrison.\nOn 3 April 2018, Google celebrated his 325th birthday by making a Google Doodle for its homepage.\nIn February 2020, a bronze statue of John Harrison was unveiled in Barrow upon Humber. The statue was created by sculptor Marcus Cornish.\n\nLater history\nAfter World War I, Harrison's timepieces were rediscovered at the Royal Greenwich Observatory by retired naval officer Lieutenant Commander Rupert T. Gould.\nThe timepieces were in a highly decrepit state and Gould spent many years documenting, repairing and restoring them, without compensation for his efforts. Gould was the first to designate the timepieces from H1 to H5, initially calling them No.1 to No.5. Unfortunately, Gould made modifications and repairs that would not pass today's standards of good museum conservation practice, although most Harrison scholars give Gould credit for having ensured that the historical artifacts survived as working mechanisms to the present time. Gould wrote The Marine Chronometer, published in 1923, which covered the history of chronometers from the Middle Ages to the 1920s, and which included detailed descriptions of Harrison's work and the subsequent evolution of the chronometer. The book remains the authoritative work on the marine chronometer. Today the restored H1, H2, H3, and H4 timepieces can be seen on display in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. H1, H2, and H3 still work: H4 is kept in a stopped state because, unlike the first three, it requires oil for lubrication and so will degrade as it runs. H5 is owned by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers of London, and was previously on display at the Clockmakers' Museum in the Guildhall, London, as part of the Company's collection; since 2015 the collection has been displayed in the Science Museum, London.\nIn the final years of his life, John Harrison wrote about his research into musical tuning and manufacturing methods for bells. His tuning system (a meantone system derived from pi), is described in his pamphlet A Description Concerning Such Mechanism ... (CSM). The system challenged the traditional view that harmonics occur at integer frequency ratios and in consequence all music using this tuning produces low-frequency beating. In 2002, Harrison's last manuscript, A true and short, but full Account of the Foundation of Musick, or, as principally therein, of the Existence of the Natural Notes of Melody, was rediscovered in the US Library of Congress. His theories on the mathematics of bell manufacturing (using \"Radical Numbers\") are yet to be clearly understood.\nOne of the controversial claims of his last years was that of being able to build a land clock more accurate than any competing design. Specifically, he claimed to have designed a clock capable of keeping accurate time to within one second over a span of 100 days.: 25–41 At the time, such publications as The London Review of English and Foreign Literature ridiculed Harrison for what was considered an outlandish claim. Harrison drew a design but never built such a clock himself, but in 1970 Martin Burgess, a Harrison expert and himself a clockmaker, studied the plans and endeavored to build the timepiece as drawn. He built two versions, dubbed Clock A and Clock B. Clock A became the Gurney Clock which was given to the city of Norwich in 1975, while Clock B lay unfinished in his workshop for decades until it was acquired in 2009 by Donald Saff. The completed Clock B was submitted to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich for further study. It was found that Clock B could potentially meet Harrison's original claim, so the clock's design was carefully checked and adjusted. Finally, over a 100-day period from 6 January to 17 April 2015, Clock B was secured in a transparent case in the Royal Observatory and left to run untouched, apart from regular winding. Upon completion of the run, the clock was measured to have lost only 5/8 of a second, meaning Harrison's design was fundamentally sound. If we ignore the fact that this clock uses materials such as duraluminium and invar unavailable to Harrison, had it been built in 1762, the date of Harrison's testing of his H4, and run continuously since then without correction, it would now (October 2024) be slow by just 9 minutes and 59 seconds. Guinness World Records has declared Martin Burgess' Clock B the \"most accurate mechanical clock with a pendulum swinging in free air.\"\n\nIn literature, television, drama and music\nIn 1995, inspired by a Harvard University symposium on the longitude problem organized by the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Dava Sobel wrote a book about Harrison's work. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time became the first popular bestseller on the subject of horology. The Illustrated Longitude, in which Sobel's text was accompanied by 180 images selected by William J. H. Andrewes, appeared in 1998. The book was dramatised for UK television by Charles Sturridge in a Granada Productions 4 episode series for Channel 4 in 1999, under the title Longitude. It was broadcast in the US later in the same year by co-producer A&E. The production starred Michael Gambon as Harrison and Jeremy Irons as Gould. Sobel's book was the basis for a PBS NOVA episode entitled Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude.\nHarrison's marine time-keepers were an essential part of the plot in the 1996 Christmas special of long-running British sitcom Only Fools And Horses, entitled \"Time on Our Hands\". The plot concerns the discovery and subsequent sale at auction of Harrison's Lesser Watch H6. The fictional watch was auctioned off at Sotheby's for £6.2 million.\nThe song \"John Harrison's Hands\", written by Brian McNeill and Dick Gaughan, appeared on the 2001 album Outlaws & Dreamers. The song has been covered by Steve Knightley, appearing on his album 2011 Live in Somerset. It was also covered by the British band Show of Hands and appears on their 2016 album The Long Way Home. In 1998, British composer Harrison Birtwistle wrote the piano piece \"Harrison's clocks\" which contains musical depictions of Harrison's various clocks. Composer Peter Graham's piece Harrison's Dream is about Harrison's forty-year quest to produce an accurate clock. Graham worked simultaneously on the brass band and wind band versions of the piece, which received their first performances just four months apart in October 2000 and February 2001 respectively.\n\nWorks\nPrincipes de la montre. Avignon: veuve François Girard & François Seguin. 1767.\n\nSee also\nHistory of longitude\nLunar distance (navigation)\nMarine chronometer\nThe Island of the Day Before – Umberto Eco\n\nReferences\nFurther reading\nLasky, Kathryn (2003). The Man Who Made Time Travel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-34788-8.\nNorth, Thomas (1882). The Church Bells of the County and City of Lincoln. Leicester: Samuel Clark. pp. 60–61.\nSobel, Dava; Andrewes, Willam J.H. (1998). The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. New York: Walker Publishing Co. ISBN 0-8027-1344-0.\nWinchester, Simon (2019). The Perfectionists - How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World. New York: Harper Perennial. pp. 23–52. ISBN 978-0-06-265256-0.\nWolfendale, Arnold, ed. (2006). Harrison in the Abbey. London: Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. Published in Honour of John Harrison on the Occasion of the Unveiling of his Memorial in the Abbey on 24 March 2006\n\nExternal links\n\nJohn Harrison and the Longitude Problem, at the National Maritime Museum site\nPBS Nova Online: Lost at Sea, the Search for Longitude\nJohn 'Longitude' Harrison and musical tuning\nExcerpt from: Time Restored: The Story of the Harrison Timekeepers and R.T. Gould, 'The Man who Knew (almost) Everything'\nUK Telegraph: 'Clock from 1776 just goes on and on'\nAndrew Johnson, Longitude pioneer was not a 'lone genius', The Independent, 31 May 2009\nHarrison's precision pendulum-clock No. 2, 1727, on the BBC's \"A History of the World\" website\nLeeds Museums and Galleries \"Secret Life of Objects\" blog, John Harrison's precision pendulum-clock No. 2\nAccount of John Harrison and his chronometer at Cambridge Digital Library\nBuilding an Impossible Clock Shayla Love, 19 Jan 2016, The Atlantic\nWorks by John Harrison at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)","title":"John_Harrison"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"In physics, specifically classical mechanics, the three-body problem is to take the initial positions and velocities (or momenta) of three point masses that orbit each other in space and calculate their subsequent trajectories using Newton's laws of motion and Newton's law of universal gravitation. \\nUnlike the two-body problem, the three-body problem has no general closed-form solution, meaning there is no equation that always solves it. When three bodies orbit each other, the resulting dynamical system is chaotic for most initial conditions. Because there are no solvable equations for most three-body systems, the only way to predict the motions of the bodies is to estimate them using numerical methods. \\nThe three-body problem is a special case of the n-body problem. Historically, the first specific three-body problem to receive extended study was the one involving the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun. In an extended modern sense, a three-body problem is any problem in classical mechanics or quantum mechanics that models the motion of three particles.\\n\\nMathematical description\\nThe mathematical statement of the three-body problem can be given in terms of the Newtonian equations of motion for vector positions \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n =\\n (\\n \\n x\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n ,\\n \\n y\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n ,\\n \\n z\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n )\\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle \\\\mathbf {r_{i}} =(x_{i},y_{i},z_{i})}\\n \\n of three gravitationally interacting bodies with masses \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n m\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle m_{i}}\\n \\n:\\n\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n ¨\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n =\\n −\\n G\\n \\n m\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n G\\n \\n m\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n ,\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n ¨\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n =\\n −\\n G\\n \\n m\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n G\\n \\n m\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n ,\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n ¨\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n =\\n −\\n G\\n \\n m\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n G\\n \\n m\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n .\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle {\\\\begin{aligned}{\\\\ddot {\\\\mathbf {r} }}_{\\\\mathbf {1} }&=-Gm_{2}{\\\\frac {\\\\mathbf {r_{1}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{2}} }{|\\\\mathbf {r_{1}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{2}} |^{3}}}-Gm_{3}{\\\\frac {\\\\mathbf {r_{1}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{3}} }{|\\\\mathbf {r_{1}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{3}} |^{3}}},\\\\\\\\{\\\\ddot {\\\\mathbf {r} }}_{\\\\mathbf {2} }&=-Gm_{3}{\\\\frac {\\\\mathbf {r_{2}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{3}} }{|\\\\mathbf {r_{2}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{3}} |^{3}}}-Gm_{1}{\\\\frac {\\\\mathbf {r_{2}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{1}} }{|\\\\mathbf {r_{2}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{1}} |^{3}}},\\\\\\\\{\\\\ddot {\\\\mathbf {r} }}_{\\\\mathbf {3} }&=-Gm_{1}{\\\\frac {\\\\mathbf {r_{3}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{1}} }{|\\\\mathbf {r_{3}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{1}} |^{3}}}-Gm_{2}{\\\\frac {\\\\mathbf {r_{3}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{2}} }{|\\\\mathbf {r_{3}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{2}} |^{3}}}.\\\\end{aligned}}}\\n \\nwhere \\n \\n \\n \\n G\\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle G}\\n \\n is the gravitational constant. As astronomer Juhan Frank describes, \\\"These three second-order vector differential equations are equivalent to 18 first order scalar differential equations.\\\" As June Barrow-Green notes with regard to an alternative presentation, if \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n P\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle P_{i}}\\n \\n represent three particles with masses \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n m\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle m_{i}}\\n \\n, distances \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n P\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle P_{i}}\\n \\n\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n P\\n \\n j\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle P_{j}}\\n \\n = \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n i\\n j\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle r_{ij}}\\n \\n, and coordinates \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n q\\n \\n i\\n j\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle q_{ij}}\\n \\n (i,j = 1,2,3) in an inertial coordinate system ... the problem is described by nine second-order differntial equations.: 8 \\nThe problem can also be stated equivalently in the Hamiltonian formalism, in which case it is described by a set of 18 first-order differential equations, one for each component of the positions \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle \\\\mathbf {r_{i}} }\\n \\n and momenta \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n p\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle \\\\mathbf {p_{i}} }\\n \\n:\\n\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n d\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n d\\n t\\n \\n \\n \\n =\\n \\n \\n \\n ∂\\n \\n \\n H\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n ∂\\n \\n \\n p\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n ,\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n d\\n \\n \\n p\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n d\\n t\\n \\n \\n \\n =\\n −\\n \\n \\n \\n ∂\\n \\n \\n H\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n ∂\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n ,\\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle {\\\\frac {d\\\\mathbf {r_{i}} }{dt}}={\\\\frac {\\\\partial {\\\\mathcal {H}}}{\\\\partial \\\\mathbf {p_{i}} }},\\\\qquad {\\\\frac {d\\\\mathbf {p_{i}} }{dt}}=-{\\\\frac {\\\\partial {\\\\mathcal {H}}}{\\\\partial \\\\mathbf {r_{i}} }},}\\n \\n\\nwhere \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n H\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle {\\\\mathcal {H}}}\\n \\n is the Hamiltonian:\\n\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n H\\n \\n \\n =\\n −\\n \\n \\n \\n G\\n \\n m\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n m\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n \\n G\\n \\n m\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n m\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n \\n G\\n \\n m\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n m\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n |\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n +\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n p\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n 2\\n \\n m\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n +\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n p\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n 2\\n \\n m\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n +\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n p\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n 2\\n \\n m\\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n .\\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle {\\\\mathcal {H}}=-{\\\\frac {Gm_{1}m_{2}}{|\\\\mathbf {r_{1}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{2}} |}}-{\\\\frac {Gm_{2}m_{3}}{|\\\\mathbf {r_{3}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{2}} |}}-{\\\\frac {Gm_{3}m_{1}}{|\\\\mathbf {r_{3}} -\\\\mathbf {r_{1}} |}}+{\\\\frac {\\\\mathbf {p_{1}} ^{2}}{2m_{1}}}+{\\\\frac {\\\\mathbf {p_{2}} ^{2}}{2m_{2}}}+{\\\\frac {\\\\mathbf {p_{3}} ^{2}}{2m_{3}}}.}\\n \\n\\nIn this case, \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n H\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle {\\\\mathcal {H}}}\\n \\n is simply the total energy of the system, gravitational plus kinetic.\\n\\nRestricted three-body problem\\nIn the restricted three-body problem formulation, in the description of Barrow-Green,: 11–14 two... bodies revolve around their centre of mass in circular orbits under the influence of their mutual gravitational attraction, and... form a two body system... [whose] motion is known. A third body (generally known as a planetoid), assumed massless with respect to the other two, moves in the plane defined by the two revolving bodies and, while being gravitationally influenced by them, exerts no influence of its own.: 11 Per Barrow-Green, \\\"[t]he problem is then to ascertain the motion of the third body.\\\": 11 \\nThat is to say, this two-body motion is taken to consist of circular orbits around the center of mass, and the planetoid is assumed to move in the plane defined by the circular orbits. (That is, it is useful to consider the effective potential.) With respect to a rotating reference frame, the two co-orbiting bodies are stationary, and the third can be stationary as well at the Lagrangian points, or move around them, for instance on a horseshoe orbit. \\nThe restricted three-body problem is easier to analyze theoretically than the full problem. It is of practical interest as well since it accurately describes many real-world problems, the most important example being the Earth–Moon–Sun system. For these reasons, it has occupied an important role in the historical development of the three-body problem.\\nMathematically, the problem is stated as follows. Let \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n m\\n \\n 1\\n ,\\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle m_{1,2}}\\n \\n be the masses of the two massive bodies, with (planar) coordinates \\n \\n \\n \\n (\\n \\n x\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n ,\\n \\n y\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n )\\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle (x_{1},y_{1})}\\n \\n and \\n \\n \\n \\n (\\n \\n x\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n ,\\n \\n y\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n )\\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle (x_{2},y_{2})}\\n \\n, and let \\n \\n \\n \\n (\\n x\\n ,\\n y\\n )\\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle (x,y)}\\n \\n be the coordinates of the planetoid. For simplicity, choose units such that the distance between the two massive bodies, as well as the gravitational constant, are both equal to \\n \\n \\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle 1}\\n \\n. Then, the motion of the planetoid is given by: \\n\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n d\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n x\\n \\n \\n d\\n \\n t\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n =\\n −\\n \\n m\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n x\\n −\\n \\n x\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n m\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n x\\n −\\n \\n x\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n ,\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n d\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n y\\n \\n \\n d\\n \\n t\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n =\\n −\\n \\n m\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n y\\n −\\n \\n y\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 1\\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n \\n m\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n y\\n −\\n \\n y\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n 3\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n ,\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle {\\\\begin{aligned}{\\\\frac {d^{2}x}{dt^{2}}}=-m_{1}{\\\\frac {x-x_{1}}{r_{1}^{3}}}-m_{2}{\\\\frac {x-x_{2}}{r_{2}^{3}}},\\\\\\\\{\\\\frac {d^{2}y}{dt^{2}}}=-m_{1}{\\\\frac {y-y_{1}}{r_{1}^{3}}}-m_{2}{\\\\frac {y-y_{2}}{r_{2}^{3}}},\\\\end{aligned}}}\\n \\n\\nwhere \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n r\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n =\\n \\n \\n (\\n x\\n −\\n \\n x\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n )\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n +\\n (\\n y\\n −\\n \\n y\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n \\n )\\n \\n 2\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle r_{i}={\\\\sqrt {(x-x_{i})^{2}+(y-y_{i})^{2}}}}\\n \\n. In this form the equations of motion carry an explicit time dependence through the coordinates \\n \\n \\n \\n \\n x\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n (\\n t\\n )\\n ,\\n \\n y\\n \\n i\\n \\n \\n (\\n t\\n )\\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle x_{i}(t),y_{i}(t)}\\n \\n; however, this time dependence can be removed through a transformation to a rotating reference frame, which simplifies any subsequent analysis.\\n\\nSolutions\\nGeneral solution\\nThere is no general closed-form solution to the three-body problem. In other words, it does not have a general solution that can be expressed in terms of a finite number of standard mathematical operations. Moreover, the motion of three bodies is generally non-repeating, except in special cases.\\nHowever, in 1912 the Finnish mathematician Karl Fritiof Sundman proved that there exists an analytic solution to the three-body problem in the form of a Puiseux series, specifically a power series in terms of powers of t1/3. This series converges for all real t, except for initial conditions corresponding to zero angular momentum. In practice, the latter restriction is insignificant since initial conditions with zero angular momentum are rare, having Lebesgue measure zero.\\nAn important issue in proving this result is the fact that the radius of convergence for this series is determined by the distance to the nearest singularity. Therefore, it is necessary to study the possible singularities of the three-body problems. As is briefly discussed below, the only singularities in the three-body problem are binary collisions (collisions between two particles at an instant) and triple collisions (collisions between three particles at an instant).\\nCollisions of any number are somewhat improbable, since it has been shown that they correspond to a set of initial conditions of measure zero. But there is no criterion known to be put on the initial state in order to avoid collisions for the corresponding solution. So Sundman's strategy consisted of the following steps:\\n\\nUsing an appropriate change of variables to continue analyzing the solution beyond the binary collision, in a process known as regularization.\\nProving that triple collisions only occur when the angular momentum L vanishes. By restricting the initial data to L ≠ 0, he removed all real singularities from the transformed equations for the three-body problem.\\nShowing that if L ≠ 0, then not only can there be no triple collision, but the system is strictly bounded away from a triple collision. This implies, by Cauchy's existence theorem for differential equations, that there are no complex singularities in a strip (depending on the value of L) in the complex plane centered around the real axis (related to the Cauchy–Kovalevskaya theorem).\\nFind a conformal transformation that maps this strip into the unit disc. For example, if s = t1/3 (the new variable after the regularization) and if |ln s| ≤ β, then this map is given by \\n \\n \\n \\n σ\\n =\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n e\\n \\n \\n \\n π\\n s\\n \\n \\n 2\\n β\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n −\\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n e\\n \\n \\n \\n π\\n s\\n \\n \\n 2\\n β\\n \\n \\n \\n \\n +\\n 1\\n \\n \\n \\n .\\n \\n \\n {\\\\displaystyle \\\\sigma ={\\\\frac {e^{\\\\frac {\\\\pi s}{2\\\\beta }}-1}{e^{\\\\frac {\\\\pi s}{2\\\\beta }}+1}}.}\\n \\n\\nThis finishes the proof of Sundman's theorem.\\nThe corresponding series converges extremely slowly. That is, obtaining a value of meaningful precision requires so many terms that this solution is of little practical use. Indeed, in 1930, David Beloriszky calculated that if Sundman's series were to be used for astronomical observations, then the computations would involve at least 108000000 terms.\\n\\nSpecial-case solutions\\nIn 1767, Leonhard Euler found three families of periodic solutions in which the three masses are collinear at each instant. \\nIn 1772, Lagrange found a family of solutions in which the three masses form an equilateral triangle at each instant. Together with Euler's collinear solutions, these solutions form the central configurations for the three-body problem. These solutions are valid for any mass ratios, and the masses move on Keplerian ellipses. These four families are the only known solutions for which there are explicit analytic formulae. In the special case of the circular restricted three-body problem, these solutions, viewed in a frame rotating with the primaries, become points called Lagrangian points and labeled L1, L2, L3, L4, and L5, with L4 and L5 being symmetric instances of Lagrange's solution.\\nIn work summarized in 1892–1899, Henri Poincaré established the existence of an infinite number of periodic solutions to the restricted three-body problem, together with techniques for continuing these solutions into the general three-body problem.\\nIn 1893, Meissel stated what is now called the Pythagorean three-body problem: three masses in the ratio 3:4:5 are placed at rest at the vertices of a 3:4:5 right triangle, with the heaviest body at the right angle and the lightest at the smaller acute angle. Burrau further investigated this problem in 1913. In 1967 Victor Szebehely and C. Frederick Peters established eventual escape of the lightest body for this problem using numerical integration, while at the same time finding a nearby periodic solution.\\n\\nIn the 1970s, Michel Hénon and Roger A. Broucke each found a set of solutions that form part of the same family of solutions: the Broucke–Hénon–Hadjidemetriou family. In this family, the three objects all have the same mass and can exhibit both retrograde and direct forms. In some of Broucke's solutions, two of the bodies follow the same path.\\nIn 1993, physicist Cris Moore at the Santa Fe Institute found a zero angular momentum solution with three equal masses moving around a figure-eight shape. In 2000, mathematicians Alain Chenciner and Richard Montgomery proved its formal existence. The solution has been shown numerically to be stable for small perturbations of the mass and orbital parameters, which makes it possible for such orbits to be observed in the physical universe. But it has been argued that this is unlikely since the domain of stability is small. For instance, the probability of a binary–binary scattering event resulting in a figure-8 orbit has been estimated to be a small fraction of a percent.\\nIn 2013, physicists Milovan Šuvakov and Veljko Dmitrašinović at the Institute of Physics in Belgrade discovered 13 new families of solutions for the equal-mass zero-angular-momentum three-body problem.\\nIn 2015, physicist Ana Hudomal discovered 14 new families of solutions for the equal-mass zero-angular-momentum three-body problem.\\nIn 2017, researchers Xiaoming Li and Shijun Liao found 669 new periodic orbits of the equal-mass zero-angular-momentum three-body problem. This was followed in 2018 by an additional 1,223 new solutions for a zero-angular-momentum system of unequal masses.\\nIn 2018, Li and Liao reported 234 solutions to the unequal-mass \\\"free-fall\\\" three-body problem. The free-fall formulation starts with all three bodies at rest. Because of this, the masses in a free-fall configuration do not orbit in a closed \\\"loop\\\", but travel forward and backward along an open \\\"track\\\".\\nIn 2023, Ivan Hristov, Radoslava Hristova, Dmitrašinović and Kiyotaka Tanikawa published a search for \\\"periodic free-fall orbits\\\" three-body problem, limited to the equal-mass case, and found 12,409 distinct solutions.\\n\\nNumerical approaches\\nUsing a computer, the problem may be solved to arbitrarily high precision using numerical integration although high precision requires a large amount of CPU time. There have been attempts of creating computer programs that numerically solve the three-body problem (and by extension, the n-body problem) involving both electromagnetic and gravitational interactions, and incorporating modern theories of physics such as special relativity. In addition, using the theory of random walks, an approximate probability of different outcomes may be computed.\\n\\nHistory\\nThe gravitational problem of three bodies in its traditional sense dates in substance from 1687, when Isaac Newton published his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in which Newton attempted to figure out if any long term stability is possible especially for such a system like that of our Earth, the Moon, and the Sun. Guided by major Renaissance astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler he introduced later generations to the beginning of the gravitational three-body problem. In Proposition 66 of Book 1 of the Principia, and its 22 Corollaries, Newton took the first steps in the definition and study of the problem of the movements of three massive bodies subject to their mutually perturbing gravitational attractions. In Propositions 25 to 35 of Book 3, Newton also took the first steps in applying his results of Proposition 66 to the lunar theory, the motion of the Moon under the gravitational influence of Earth and the Sun. Later, this problem was also applied to other planets' interactions with the Earth and the Sun.\\nThe physical problem was first addressed by Amerigo Vespucci and subsequently by Galileo Galilei, as well as Simon Stevin, but they did not realize what they contributed. Though Galileo determined that the speed of fall of all bodies changes uniformly and in the same way, he did not apply it to planetary motions. Whereas in 1499, Vespucci used knowledge of the position of the Moon to determine his position in Brazil. It became of technical importance in the 1720s, as an accurate solution would be applicable to navigation, specifically for the determination of longitude at sea, solved in practice by John Harrison's invention of the marine chronometer. However the accuracy of the lunar theory was low, due to the perturbing effect of the Sun and planets on the motion of the Moon around Earth.\\nJean le Rond d'Alembert and Alexis Clairaut, who developed a longstanding rivalry, both attempted to analyze the problem in some degree of generality; they submitted their competing first analyses to the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1747. It was in connection with their research, in Paris during the 1740s, that the name \\\"three-body problem\\\" (French: Problème des trois Corps) began to be commonly used. An account published in 1761 by Jean le Rond d'Alembert indicates that the name was first used in 1747.\\nFrom the end of the 19th century to early 20th century, the approach to solve the three-body problem with the usage of short-range attractive two-body forces was developed by scientists, which offered P.F. Bedaque, H.-W. Hammer and U. van Kolck an idea to renormalize the short-range three-body problem, providing scientists a rare example of a renormalization group limit cycle at the beginning of the 21st century. George William Hill worked on the restricted problem in the late 19th century with an application of motion of Venus and Mercury.\\nAt the beginning of the 20th century, Karl Sundman approached the problem mathematically and systematically by providing a functional theoretical proof to the problem valid for all values of time. It was the first time scientists theoretically solved the three-body problem. However, because there was not a qualitative enough solution of this system, and it was too slow for scientists to practically apply it, this solution still left some issues unresolved. In the 1970s, implication to three-body from two-body forces had been discovered by V. Efimov, which was named the Efimov effect.\\nIn 2017, Shijun Liao and Xiaoming Li applied a new strategy of numerical simulation for chaotic systems called the clean numerical simulation (CNS), with the use of a national supercomputer, to successfully gain 695 families of periodic solutions of the three-body system with equal mass.\\nIn 2019, Breen et al. announced a fast neural network solver for the three-body problem, trained using a numerical integrator.\\nIn September 2023, several possible solutions have been found to the problem according to reports.\\n\\nOther problems involving three bodies\\nThe term \\\"three-body problem\\\" is sometimes used in the more general sense to refer to any physical problem involving the interaction of three bodies.\\nA quantum-mechanical analogue of the gravitational three-body problem in classical mechanics is the helium atom,\\nin which a helium nucleus and two electrons interact according to the inverse-square Coulomb interaction. Like the\\ngravitational three-body problem, the helium atom cannot be solved exactly.\\nIn both classical and quantum mechanics, however, there exist nontrivial interaction laws besides the inverse-square force that do lead to exact analytic three-body solutions. One such model consists of a combination of harmonic attraction and a repulsive inverse-cube force. This model is considered nontrivial since it is associated with a set of nonlinear differential equations containing singularities (compared with, e.g., harmonic interactions alone, which lead to an easily solved system of linear differential equations). In these two respects it is analogous to (insoluble) models having Coulomb interactions, and as a result has been suggested as a tool for intuitively understanding physical systems like the helium atom.\\nWithin the point vortex model, the motion of vortices in a two-dimensional ideal fluid is described by equations of motion that contain only first-order time derivatives. I.e. in contrast to Newtonian mechanics, it is the velocity and not the acceleration that is determined by their relative positions. As a consequence, the three-vortex problem is still integrable, while at least four vortices are required to obtain chaotic behavior. One can draw parallels between the motion of a passive tracer particle in the velocity field of three vortices and the restricted three-body problem of Newtonian mechanics.\\nThe gravitational three-body problem has also been studied using general relativity. Physically, a relativistic treatment becomes necessary in systems with very strong gravitational fields, such as near the event horizon of a black hole. However, the relativistic problem is considerably more difficult than in Newtonian mechanics, and sophisticated numerical techniques are required.\\nEven the full two-body problem (i.e. for arbitrary ratio of masses) does not have a rigorous analytic solution in general relativity.\\n\\nn-body problem\\nThe three-body problem is a special case of the n-body problem, which describes how n objects move under one of the physical forces, such as gravity. These problems have a global analytical solution in the form of a convergent power series, as was proven by Karl F. Sundman for n = 3 and by Qiudong Wang for n > 3 (see n-body problem for details). However, the Sundman and Wang series converge so slowly that they are useless for practical purposes; therefore, it is currently necessary to approximate solutions by numerical analysis in the form of numerical integration or, for some cases, classical trigonometric series approximations (see n-body simulation). Atomic systems, e.g. atoms, ions, and molecules, can be treated in terms of the quantum n-body problem. Among classical physical systems, the n-body problem usually refers to a galaxy or to a cluster of galaxies; planetary systems, such as stars, planets, and their satellites, can also be treated as n-body systems. Some applications are conveniently treated by perturbation theory, in which the system is considered as a two-body problem plus additional forces causing deviations from a hypothetical unperturbed two-body trajectory.\\n\\nSee also\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nExternal links\\nChenciner, Alain (2007). \\\"Three body problem\\\". Scholarpedia. 2 (10): 2111. Bibcode:2007SchpJ...2.2111C. doi:10.4249/scholarpedia.2111.\\nPhysicists Discover a Whopping 13 New Solutions to Three-Body Problem (Science)\\n3body simulator Archived 2022-11-17 at the Wayback Machine – an example of a computer program that solves the three-body problem numerically\",\n \"title\": \"Three-body_problem\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Alexis Claude Clairaut (French: [alɛksi klod klɛʁo]; 13 May 1713 – 17 May 1765) was a French mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist. He was a prominent Newtonian whose work helped to establish the validity of the principles and results that Sir Isaac Newton had outlined in the Principia of 1687. Clairaut was one of the key figures in the expedition to Lapland that helped to confirm Newton's theory for the figure of the Earth. In that context, Clairaut worked out a mathematical result now known as \\\"Clairaut's theorem\\\". He also tackled the gravitational three-body problem, being the first to obtain a satisfactory result for the apsidal precession of the Moon's orbit. In mathematics he is also credited with Clairaut's equation and Clairaut's relation.\\n\\nBiography\\nChildhood and early life\\nClairaut was born in Paris, France, to Jean-Baptiste and Catherine Petit Clairaut. The couple had 20 children, however only a few of them survived childbirth. His father taught mathematics. Alexis was a prodigy – at the age of ten he began studying calculus. At the age of twelve he wrote a memoir on four geometrical curves and under his father's tutelage he made such rapid progress in the subject that in his thirteenth year he read before the Académie française an account of the properties of four curves which he had discovered. When only sixteen he finished a treatise on Tortuous Curves, Recherches sur les courbes a double courbure, which, on its publication in 1731, procured his admission into the Royal Academy of Sciences, although he was below the legal age as he was only eighteen. He gave a path breaking formulae called the distance formulae which helps to find out the distance between any 2 points on the cartesian or XY plane.\\n\\nPersonal life and death\\nClairaut was unmarried, and known for leading an active social life. His growing popularity in society hindered his scientific work: \\\"He was focused,\\\" says Bossut, \\\"with dining and with evenings, coupled with a lively taste for women, and seeking to make his pleasures into his day to day work, he lost rest, health, and finally life at the age of fifty-two.\\\" Though he led a fulfilling social life, he was very prominent in the advancement of learning in young mathematicians.\\nHe was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London on 27 October 1737.\\nClairaut died in Paris in 1765.\\n\\nMathematical and scientific works\\nThe shape of the Earth\\nIn 1736, together with Pierre Louis Maupertuis, he took part in the expedition to Lapland, which was undertaken for the purpose of estimating a degree of the meridian arc. The goal of the excursion was to geometrically calculate the shape of the Earth, which Sir Isaac Newton theorised in his book Principia was an ellipsoid shape. They sought to prove if Newton's theory and calculations were correct or not. Before the expedition team returned to Paris, Clairaut sent his calculations to the Royal Society of London. The writing was later published by the society in the 1736–37 volume of Philosophical Transactions. Initially, Clairaut disagrees with Newton's theory on the shape of the Earth. In the article, he outlines several key problems that effectively disprove Newton's calculations, and provides some solutions to the complications. The issues addressed include calculating gravitational attraction, the rotation of an ellipsoid on its axis, and the difference in density of an ellipsoid on its axes. At the end of his letter, Clairaut writes that: \\\"It appears even Sir Isaac Newton was of the opinion, that it was necessary the Earth should be more dense toward the center, in order to be so much the flatter at the poles: and that it followed from this greater flatness, that gravity increased so much the more from the equator towards the Pole.\\\" \\n\\nThis conclusion suggests not only that the Earth is of an oblate ellipsoid shape, but it is flattened more at the poles and is wider at the centre.\\nHis article in Philosophical Transactions created much controversy, as he addressed the problems of Newton's theory, but provided few solutions to how to fix the calculations. After his return, he published his treatise Théorie de la figure de la terre (1743). In this work he promulgated the theorem, known as Clairaut's theorem, which connects the gravity at points on the surface of a rotating ellipsoid with the compression and the centrifugal force at the equator. This hydrostatic model of the shape of the Earth was founded on a paper by the Scottish mathematician Colin Maclaurin, which had shown that a mass of homogeneous fluid set in rotation about a line through its centre of mass would, under the mutual attraction of its particles, take the form of an ellipsoid. Under the assumption that the Earth was composed of concentric ellipsoidal shells of uniform density, Clairaut's theorem could be applied to it, and allowed the ellipticity of the Earth to be calculated from surface measurements of gravity. This proved Sir Isaac Newton's theory that the shape of the Earth was an oblate ellipsoid. In 1849 George Stokes showed that Clairaut's result was true whatever the interior constitution or density of the Earth, provided the surface was a spheroid of equilibrium of small ellipticity.\\n\\nGeometry\\nIn 1741, Clairaut wrote a book called Éléments de Géométrie. The book outlines the basic concepts of geometry. Geometry in the 1700s was complex to the average learner. It was considered to be a dry subject. Clairaut saw this trend, and wrote the book in an attempt to make the subject more interesting for the average learner. He believed that instead of having students repeatedly work problems that they did not fully understand, it was imperative for them to make discoveries themselves in a form of active, experiential learning. He begins the book by comparing geometric shapes to measurements of land, as it was a subject that most anyone could relate to. He covers topics from lines, shapes, and even some three dimensional objects. Throughout the book, he continuously relates different concepts such as physics, astrology, and other branches of mathematics to geometry. Some of the theories and learning methods outlined in the book are still used by teachers today, in geometry and other topics.\\n\\nFocus on astronomical motion\\nOne of the most controversial issues of the 18th century was the problem of three bodies, or how the Earth, Moon, and Sun are attracted to one another. With the use of the recently founded Leibnizian calculus, Clairaut was able to solve the problem using four differential equations. He was also able to incorporate Newton's inverse-square law and law of attraction into his solution, with minor edits to it. However, these equations only offered approximate measurement, and no exact calculations. Another issue still remained with the three body problem; how the Moon rotates on its apsides. Even Newton could account for only half of the motion of the apsides. This issue had puzzled astronomers. In fact, Clairaut had at first deemed the dilemma so inexplicable, that he was on the point of publishing a new hypothesis as to the law of attraction.\\n\\nThe question of the apsides was a heated debate topic in Europe. Along with Clairaut, there were two other mathematicians who were racing to provide the first explanation for the three body problem; Leonhard Euler and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Euler and d'Alembert were arguing against the use of Newtonian laws to solve the three body problem. Euler in particular believed that the inverse square law needed revision to accurately calculate the apsides of the Moon.\\nDespite the hectic competition to come up with the correct solution, Clairaut obtained an ingenious approximate solution of the problem of the three bodies. In 1750 he gained the prize of the St Petersburg Academy for his essay Théorie de la lune; the team made up of Clairaut, Jérome Lalande and Nicole Reine Lepaute successfully computed the date of the 1759 return of Halley's comet. The Théorie de la lune is strictly Newtonian in character. This contains the explanation of the motion of the apsis. It occurred to him to carry the approximation to the third order, and he thereupon found that the result was in accordance with the observations. This was followed in 1754 by some lunar tables, which he computed using a form of the discrete Fourier transform.\\nThe newfound solution to the problem of three bodies ended up meaning more than proving Newton's laws correct. The unravelling of the problem of three bodies also had practical importance. It allowed sailors to determine the longitudinal direction of their ships, which was crucial not only in sailing to a location, but finding their way home as well. This held economic implications as well, because sailors were able to more easily find destinations of trade based on the longitudinal measures.\\nClairaut subsequently wrote various papers on the orbit of the Moon, and on the motion of comets as affected by the perturbation of the planets, particularly on the path of Halley's comet. He also used applied mathematics to study Venus, taking accurate measurements of the planet's size and distance from the Earth. This was the first precise reckoning of the planet's size.\\n\\nPublications\\nTheorie de la figure de la terre, tirée des principes de l'hydrostatique (in French). Paris: Laurent Durand. 1743.\\nThéorie de la figure de la terre, tirée des principes de l'hydrostatique (in French). Paris: Louis Courcier. 1808.\\n\\nSee also\\nClairaut's equation\\nClairaut's relation\\nClairaut's theorem\\n\\nDifferential geometry\\nHuman computer\\nIntermolecular force\\nSymmetry of second derivatives\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nGrier, David Alan, When Computers Were Human, Princeton University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-691-09157-9.\\nCasey, J., \\\"Clairaut's Hydrostatics: A Study in Contrast,\\\" American Journal of Physics, Vol. 60, 1992, pp. 549–554.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nChronologie de la vie de Clairaut (1713–1765)\\nO'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., \\\"Alexis Clairaut\\\", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews\\nW.W. Rouse Ball A Short Account of the History of Mathematics\",\n \"title\": \"Alexis_Clairaut\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and the time at the current location found from observations of celestial bodies. When first developed in the 18th century, it was a major technical achievement, as accurate knowledge of the time over a long sea voyage was vital for effective navigation, lacking electronic or communications aids. The first true chronometer was the life work of one man, John Harrison, spanning 31 years of persistent experimentation and testing that revolutionized naval (and later aerial) navigation.\\nThe term chronometer was coined from the Greek words χρόνος (chronos) (meaning time) and meter (meaning measure). The 1713 book Physico-Theology by the English cleric and scientist William Derham includes one of the earliest theoretical descriptions of a marine chronometer. It has recently become more commonly used to describe watches tested and certified to meet certain precision standards.\\n\\nHistory\\nTo determine a position on the Earth's surface, it is necessary and sufficient to know the latitude, longitude, and altitude. Altitude considerations can naturally be ignored for vessels operating at sea level. Until the mid-1750s, accurate navigation at sea out of sight of land was an unsolved problem due to the difficulty in calculating longitude. Navigators could determine their latitude by measuring the sun's angle at noon (i.e., when it reached its highest point in the sky, or culmination) or, in the Northern Hemisphere, by measuring the angle of Polaris (the North Star) from the horizon (usually during twilight). To find their longitude, however, they needed a time standard that would work aboard a ship. Observation of regular celestial motions, such as Galileo's method based on observing Jupiter's natural satellites, was usually not possible at sea due to the ship's motion. The lunar distances method, initially proposed by Johannes Werner in 1514, was developed in parallel with the marine chronometer. The Dutch scientist Gemma Frisius was the first to propose the use of a chronometer to determine longitude in 1530.\\nThe purpose of a chronometer is to measure accurately the time of a known fixed location. This is particularly important for navigation. As the Earth rotates at a regular predictable rate, the time difference between the chronometer and the ship's local time can be used to calculate the longitude of the ship relative to the Prime Meridian (defined as 0°) (or another starting point) if accurately enough known, using spherical trigonometry. Practical celestial navigation usually requires a marine chronometer to measure time, a sextant to measure the angles, an almanac giving schedules of the coordinates of celestial objects, a set of sight reduction tables to help perform the height and azimuth computations, and a chart of the region. With sight reduction tables, the only calculations required are addition and subtraction. Most people can master simpler celestial navigation procedures after a day or two of instruction and practice, even using manual calculation methods. The use of a marine chronometer to determine longitude by chronometer permits navigators to obtain a reasonably accurate position fix. For every four seconds that the time source is in error, the east–west position may be off by up to just over one nautical mile as the angular speed of Earth is latitude dependent.\\nThe creation of a timepiece which would work reliably at sea was difficult. Until the 20th century, the best timekeepers were pendulum clocks, but both the rolling of a ship at sea and the up to 0.2% variations in the gravity of Earth made a simple gravity-based pendulum useless both in theory and in practice.\\n\\nFirst examples\\nChristiaan Huygens, following his invention of the pendulum clock in 1656, made the first attempt at a marine chronometer in 1673 in France, under the sponsorship of Jean-Baptiste Colbert. In 1675, Huygens, who was receiving a pension from Louis XIV, invented a chronometer that employed a balance wheel and a spiral spring for regulation, instead of a pendulum, opening the way to marine chronometers and modern pocket watches and wristwatches. He obtained a patent for his invention from Colbert, but his clock remained imprecise at sea. Huygens' attempt in 1675 to obtain an English patent from Charles II stimulated Robert Hooke, who claimed to have conceived of a spring-driven clock years earlier, to attempt to produce one and patent it. During 1675 Huygens and Hooke each delivered two such devices to Charles, but none worked well and neither Huygens nor Hooke received an English patent. It was during this work that Hooke formulated Hooke's law.\\n\\nThe first published use of the term chronometer was in 1684 in Arcanum Navarchicum, a theoretical work by Kiel professor Matthias Wasmuth. This was followed by a further theoretical description of a chronometer in works published by English scientist William Derham in 1713. Derham's principal work, Physico-theology, or a demonstration of the being and attributes of God from his works of creation, also proposed the use of vacuum sealing to ensure greater accuracy in the operation of clocks. Attempts to construct a working marine chronometer were begun by Jeremy Thacker in England in 1714, and by Henry Sully in France two years later. Sully published his work in 1726 with Une Horloge inventée et executée par M. Sulli, but neither his nor Thacker's models were able to resist the rolling of the seas and keep precise time while in shipboard conditions.\\n\\nIn 1714, the British government offered a longitude prize for a method of determining longitude at sea, with the awards ranging from £10,000 to £20,000 (£2 million to £4 million in 2024 terms) depending on accuracy. John Harrison, a Yorkshire carpenter, submitted a project in 1730, and in 1735 completed a clock based on a pair of counter-oscillating weighted beams connected by springs whose motion was not influenced by gravity or the motion of a ship. His first two sea timepieces H1 and H2 (completed in 1741) used this system, but he realised that they had a fundamental sensitivity to centrifugal force, which meant that they could never be accurate enough at sea. Construction of his third machine, designated H3, in 1759 included novel circular balances and the invention of the bi-metallic strip and caged roller bearings, inventions which are still widely used. However, H3's circular balances still proved too inaccurate and he eventually abandoned the large machines.\\n\\nHarrison solved the precision problems with his much smaller H4 chronometer design in 1761. H4 looked much like a large five-inch (12 cm) diameter pocket watch. In 1761, Harrison submitted H4 for the £20,000 longitude prize. His design used a fast-beating balance wheel controlled by a temperature-compensated spiral spring. These features remained in use until stable electronic oscillators allowed very accurate portable timepieces to be made at affordable cost. In 1767, the Board of Longitude published a description of his work in The Principles of Mr. Harrison's time-keeper. A French expedition under Charles-François-César Le Tellier de Montmirail performed the first measurement of longitude using marine chronometers aboard Aurore in 1767.\\n\\nFurther development\\nIn France, 1748, Pierre Le Roy invented the detent escapement characteristic of modern chronometers. In 1766, he created a revolutionary chronometer that incorporated a detent escapement, the temperature-compensated balance and the isochronous balance spring: Harrison showed the possibility of having a reliable chronometer at sea, but these developments by Le Roy are considered by Rupert Gould to be the foundation of the modern chronometer. Le Roy's innovations made the chronometer a much more accurate piece than had been anticipated.\\n\\nFerdinand Berthoud in France, as well as Thomas Mudge in Britain also successfully produced marine timekeepers. Although none were simple, they proved that Harrison's design was not the only answer to the problem. The greatest strides toward practicality came at the hands of Thomas Earnshaw and John Arnold, who in 1780 developed and patented simplified, detached, \\\"spring detent\\\" escapements, moved the temperature compensation to the balance, and improved the design and manufacturing of balance springs. This combination of innovations served as the basis of marine chronometers until the electronic era.\\n\\nThe new technology was initially so expensive that not all ships carried chronometers, as illustrated by the fateful last journey of the East Indiaman Arniston, shipwrecked with the loss of 372 lives. However, by 1825, the Royal Navy had begun routinely supplying its vessels with chronometers.\\nBeginning in 1820, the British Royal Observatory in Greenwich tested marine chronometers in an Admiralty instigated trial or \\\"chronometer competition\\\" program intended to encourage the improvement of chronometers. In 1840 a new series of trials in a different format was begun by the seventh Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy. These trials continued in much the same format until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, at which point they were suspended. Although the formal trials ceased, the testing of chronometers for the Royal Navy did not.\\nMarine chronometer makers looked to a phalanx of astronomical observatories located in Western Europe to conduct accuracy assessments of their timepieces. Once mechanical timepiece movements developed sufficient precision to allow for adequately accurate marine navigation, these third party independent assessments also developed into what became known as \\\"chronometer competitions\\\" at the astronomical observatories located in Western Europe. The Neuchâtel Observatory, Geneva Observatory, Besançon Observatory, Kew Observatory, German Naval Observatory Hamburg and Glashütte Observatory are prominent examples of observatories that certified the accuracy of mechanical timepieces. The observatory testing regime typically lasted for 30 to 50 days and contained accuracy standards that were far more stringent and difficult than modern standards such as those set by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC). When a movement passed the observatory test, it became certified as an observatory chronometer and received a Bulletin de Marche from the observatory, stipulating the performance of the movement.\\nIt was common for ships at the time to observe a time ball, such as the one at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, to check their chronometers before departing on a long voyage. Every day, ships would anchor briefly in the River Thames at Greenwich, waiting for the ball at the observatory to drop at precisely 1pm. This practice was in small part responsible for the subsequent adoption of Greenwich Mean Time as an international standard. (Time balls became redundant around 1920 with the introduction of radio time signals, which have themselves largely been superseded by GPS time.) In addition to setting their time before departing on a voyage, ship chronometers were also routinely checked for accuracy while at sea by carrying out lunar or solar observations. In typical use, the chronometer would be mounted in a sheltered location below decks to avoid damage and exposure to the elements. Mariners would use the chronometer to set a so-called hack watch, which would be carried on deck to make the astronomical observations. Though much less accurate (and less expensive) than the chronometer, the hack watch would be satisfactory for a short period of time after setting it (i.e., long enough to make the observations).\\n\\nRationalizing production methods\\nAlthough industrial production methods began revolutionizing watchmaking in the middle of the 19th century, chronometer manufacture remained craft-based much longer and was dominated by British and Swiss manufacturers. Around the turn of the 20th century, Swiss makers such as Ulysse Nardin made great strides toward incorporating modern production methods and using fully interchangeable parts, but it was only with the onset of World War II that the Hamilton Watch Company in the United States perfected the process of mass production, which enabled it to produce thousands of its Hamilton Model 21 and Model 22 chronometers from 1942 onwards for the branches of the United States military and merchant marine as well as other Allied forces during World War II. The Hamilton 21 Marine Chronometer had a chain drive fusee and its second hand advanced in 1⁄2-second increments over a 60 seconds marked sub dial. In Germany, where marine chronometers were imported or used foreign key components, a Drei-Pfeiler Werk Einheitschronometer (three-pillar movement unified chronometer) was developed by a collaboration between the Wempe Chronometerwerke and A. Lange & Söhne companies to make more efficient production possible. The development of a precise and inexpensive Einheitschronometer was a 1939 German naval command and Aviation ministry driven initiative. Serial production began in 1942. All parts were made in Germany and interchangeable. During the course of World War II modifications that became necessary when raw materials became scarce were applied and work was compulsory and sometimes voluntarily shared between various German manufacturers to speed up production. The production of German unified design chronometers with their harmonized components continued until long after World War II in Germany and the Soviet Union, who confiscated the original Einheitschronometer technical drawings, and set up a production line in Moscow in 1949 that produced the first Soviet MX6 chronometers containing German made movements. From 1952 onwards until 1997 MX6 chronometers with minor НИИ ЧАСПРОМ (NII Chasprom — Horological institute of the Soviet era) devised alterations were produced from components all made in the Soviet Union. The German Einheitschronometer ultimately became the mechanical marine timekeeper design produced in the highest volume, with about 58,000 units produced. Of these, less than 3,000 were produced during World War II, about 5,000 after the war in West and East Germany and about 50,000 in the Soviet Union and later post-Soviet Russia. Of the Hamilton 21 Marine Chronometer during and after World War II about 13,000 units were produced. Despite the Einheitschronometer and Hamilton's success, chronometers made in the old way never disappeared from the marketplace during the era of mechanical timekeepers. Thomas Mercer Chronometers was among the companies that continued to make them.\\n\\nHistorical significance\\nShip’s marine chronometers are the most exact portable mechanical timepieces ever produced and in a static environment were only trumped by non-portable precision pendulum clocks for observatories. They served, alongside the sextant, to determine the location of ships at sea. The seafaring nations invested richly in the development of these precision instruments, as pinpointing location at sea gave a decisive naval advantage. Without their accuracy and the accuracy of the feats of navigation that marine chronometers enabled, it is arguable that the ascendancy of the Royal Navy, and by extension that of the British Empire, might not have occurred so overwhelmingly; the formation of the empire by wars and conquests of colonies abroad took place in a period in which British vessels had reliable navigation due to the chronometer, while their Portuguese, Dutch, and French opponents did not. For example: the French were well established in India and other places before Britain, but were defeated by naval forces in the Seven Years' War.\\nRating and maintaining marine chronometers was deemed important well into the 20th century, as after World War I the work of the British Royal Observatory’s Chronometer Department became largely confined to rating of chronometers and watches that the Admiralty already owned and providing acceptance testing.\\nIn 1937 a workshop was set up for the first time by the Time Department for the repair and adjustment of British armed forces issued chronometers and watches. These maintenance activities had previously been outsourced to commercial workshops.\\nFrom about the 1960s onwards mechanical spring detent marine chronometers were gradually replaced and supplanted by chronometers based on electric engineering techniques and technologies. In 1985 the British Ministry of Defence invited bids by tender for the disposal of their mechanical Hamilton Model 21 Marine Chronometers. The US Navy kept their Hamilton Model 21 Marine Chronometers in service as backups to the Loran-C hyperbolic radio navigation system until 1988, when the GPS global navigation satellite system was approved as reliable. At the end of the 20th century the production of mechanical marine chronometers had declined to the point where only a few were being made to special order by the First Moscow Watch Factory 'Kirov' (Poljot) in Russia, Wempe in Germany and Mercer in England.\\nThe most complete international collection of marine chronometers, including Harrison's H1 to H4, is at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, UK.\\n\\nCharacteristics\\nThe crucial problem was to find a resonator that remained unaffected by the changing conditions met by a ship at sea. The balance wheel, harnessed to a spring, solved most of the problems associated with the ship's motion. Unfortunately, the elasticity of most balance spring materials changes relative to temperature. To compensate for ever-changing spring strength, the majority of chronometer balances used bi-metallic strips to move small weights toward and away from the centre of oscillation, thus altering the period of the balance to match the changing force of the spring. The balance spring problem was solved with a nickel-steel alloy named Elinvar for its invariable elasticity at normal temperatures. The inventor was Charles Édouard Guillaume, who won the 1920 Nobel Prize for physics in recognition for his metallurgical work.\\nThe escapement serves two purposes. First, it allows the train to advance fractionally and record the balance's oscillations. At the same time, it supplies minute amounts of energy to counter tiny losses from friction, thus maintaining the momentum of the oscillating balance. The escapement is the part that ticks. Since the natural resonance of an oscillating balance serves as the heart of a chronometer, chronometer escapements are designed to interfere with the balance as little as possible. There are many constant-force and detached escapement designs, but the most common are the spring detent and pivoted detent. In both of these, a small detent locks the escape wheel and allows the balance to swing completely free of interference except for a brief moment at the centre of oscillation, when it is least susceptible to outside influences. At the centre of oscillation, a roller on the balance staff momentarily displaces the detent, allowing one tooth of the escape wheel to pass. The escape wheel tooth then imparts its energy on a second roller on the balance staff. Since the escape wheel turns in only one direction, the balance receives impulse in only one direction. On the return oscillation, a passing spring on the tip of the detent allows the unlocking roller on the staff to move by without displacing the detent. The weakest link of any mechanical timekeeper is the escapement's lubrication. When the oil thickens through age or temperature or dissipates through humidity or evaporation, the rate will change, sometimes dramatically as the balance motion decreases through higher friction in the escapement. A detent escapement has a strong advantage over other escapements as it needs no lubrication. An impulse from the escape wheel to the impulse roller is nearly dead-beat, meaning little sliding action needing lubrication. Chronometer escape wheels and passing springs are typically gold due to the metal's lower slide friction over brass and steel.\\nChronometers often included other innovations to increase their efficiency and precision. Hard stones such as ruby and sapphire were often used as jewel bearings to decrease friction and wear of the pivots and escapement. Diamond was often used as the cap stone for the lower balance staff pivot to prevent wear from years of the heavy balance turning on the small pivot end. Until the end of mechanical chronometer production in the third quarter of the 20th century, makers continued to experiment with things like ball bearings and chrome-plated pivots.\\nThe timepieces were normally protected from the elements and kept below decks in a fixed position in a traditional box suspended in gimbals (a set of rings connected by bearings). This keeps the chronometer isolated in a horizontal \\\"dial up\\\" position to counter ship inclination (rocking) movements induced timing errors on the balance wheel.\\nMarine chronometers always contain a maintaining power which keeps the chronometer going while it is being wound, and a power reserve indicator to show how long the chronometer will continue to run without being wound.\\nThese technical provisions usually yield timekeeping in mechanical marine chronometers accurate to within 0.5 second per day.\\n\\nChronometer rating\\nIn strictly horological terms, \\\"rating\\\" a chronometer means that prior to the instrument entering service, the average rate of gaining or losing per day is observed and recorded on a rating certificate which accompanies the instrument. This daily rate is used in the field to correct the time indicated by the instrument to get an accurate time reading. Even the best-made chronometer with the finest temperature compensation etc. exhibits two types of error, (1) random and (2) consistent. The quality of design and manufacture of the instrument keeps the random errors small. In principle, the consistent errors should be amenable to elimination by adjustment, but in practice it is not possible to make the adjustment so precisely that this error is completely eliminated, so the technique of rating is used. The rate will also change while the instrument is in service due to e.g. thickening of the oil, so on long expeditions the instrument's rate would be periodically checked against accurate time determined by astronomical observations.\\n\\nMarine chronometer use today\\nSince the 1990s boats and ships can use several Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to navigate all the world's lakes, seas and oceans. Maritime GNSS units include functions useful on water, such as \\\"man overboard\\\" (MOB) functions that allow instantly marking the location where a person has fallen overboard, which simplifies rescue efforts. GNSS may be connected to the ship's self-steering gear and Chartplotters using the NMEA 0183 interface, and can also improve the security of shipping traffic by enabling Automatic Identification Systems (AIS).\\nEven with these convenient 21st-century technological tools, modern practical navigators usually use celestial navigation using electric-powered time sources in combination with satellite navigation. Small handheld computers, laptops, navigational calculators and even scientific calculators enable modern navigators to \\\"reduce\\\" sextant sights in minutes, by automating all the calculation and/or data lookup steps. Using multiple independent position fix methods without solely relying on subject-to-failure electronic systems helps the navigator detect errors. Professional mariners are still required to be proficient in traditional piloting and celestial navigation, which requires the use of a precisely adjusted and rated autonomous or periodically external time-signal corrected chronometer. These abilities are still a requirement for certain international mariner certifications such as Officer in Charge of Navigational Watch, and Master and Chief Mate deck officers, and supplements offshore yachtmasters on long-distance private cruising yachts.\\nModern marine chronometers can be based on quartz clocks that are corrected periodically by satellite time signals or radio time signals (see radio clock). These quartz chronometers are not always the most accurate quartz clocks when no signal is received, and their signals can be lost or blocked. However, there are autonomous quartz movements, even in wrist watches, that are accurate to within 5 or 20 seconds per year.\\nAt least one quartz chronometer made for advanced navigation utilizes multiple quartz crystals which are corrected by a computer using an average value, in addition to GPS time signal corrections.\\n\\nSee also\\nCelestial navigation\\nSextant\\nClockmaker\\nThomas Earnshaw, inventor of the standard chronometer escapement\\nLarcum Kendall\\nNoon Gun\\nTime ball\\nTime signal\\nRailroad chronometer\\nRupert Gould, author of an important history of the marine chronometer\\nRadio-controlled watch\\nWatchmaker\\nTimeline of invention\\nLongitude (book)\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nNational Maritime Museum, Greenwich\\nHenri MOTEL n°258 Chronomètre de Marine 40 heures (in French)\\nMarine Chronometer Kaliber 100 - Presentation of marine chronometers of \\\"Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe VEB\\\" with picture and explanation (in German)\\nA working chronometer, National Museum of Australia Archived 2011-10-28 at the Wayback Machine. Short MPEG film showing an 1825 Barraud chronometer in action. (link is outdated)\\nMarine chronometer meaning at Wiktionary\\nWeb chronometer\",\n \"title\": \"Marine_chronometer\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 3,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"John Harrison (3 April [O.S. 24 March] 1693 – 24 March 1776) was an English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of how to calculate longitude while at sea.\\nHarrison's solution revolutionized navigation and greatly increased the safety of long-distance sea travel. The problem he solved had been considered so important following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 that the British Parliament was offering financial rewards of up to £20,000 (equivalent to £3.97 million in 2024) under the 1714 Longitude Act, though Harrison never received the full reward due to political rivalries. He presented his first design in 1730, and worked over many years on improved designs, making several advances in time-keeping technology, finally turning to what were called sea watches. Harrison gained support from the Longitude Board in building and testing his designs. Towards the end of his life, he received recognition and a reward from Parliament. He came 39th in the BBC's 2002 public poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.\\n\\nEarly life\\nJohn Harrison was born in Foulby in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the first of five children in his family. His stepfather worked as a carpenter at the nearby Nostell Priory estate. A house on the site of what may have been the family home bears a blue plaque. Around 1700, the Harrison family moved to the Lincolnshire village of Barrow upon Humber. Following his father's trade as a carpenter, Harrison built and repaired clocks in his spare time. Legend has it that at the age of six, while in bed with smallpox, he was given a watch to amuse himself and he spent hours listening to it and studying its moving parts.\\nHe also had a fascination with music, eventually becoming choirmaster for the Church of Holy Trinity, Barrow upon Humber. \\nHarrison built his first longcase clock in 1713, at the age of 20. The mechanism was made entirely of wood. Three of Harrison's early wooden clocks have survived: \\n\\nthe first (1713) is in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers' collection, previously in the Guildhall in London and since 2015 on display in the Science Museum.\\nThe second (1715) is also in the Science Museum in London\\nthe third (1717) is at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, the face bearing the inscription \\\"John Harrison Barrow\\\".\\nThe Nostell example, in the billiards room of this stately home, has a Victorian outer case with small glass windows on each side of the movement so that the wooden workings may be inspected.\\nOn 30 August 1718, John Harrison married Elizabeth Barret at Barrow-upon-Humber church. After her death in 1726, he married Elizabeth Scott on 23 November 1726, at the same church.\\nIn the early 1720s, Harrison was commissioned to make a new turret clock at Brocklesby Hall, North Lincolnshire. The clock still works, and like his previous clocks has a wooden movement of oak and lignum vitae. Unlike his early clocks, it incorporates some original features to improve timekeeping, for example the grasshopper escapement. Between 1725 and 1728, John and his brother James, also a skilled joiner, made at least three precision longcase clocks, again with the movements and longcase made of oak and lignum vitae. The grid-iron pendulum was developed during this period. Of these longcase clocks:\\n\\nNumber 1 is in a private collection. Until 2004, it belonged to the Time Museum (USA), which closed in 2000.\\nNumber 2 is in the Leeds City Museum, as the centrepiece of a permanent display dedicated to John Harrison's achievements. The exhibition, \\\"John Harrison: The Clockmaker Who Changed the World\\\", opened on 23 January 2014. It was the first longitude-related event marking the tercentenary of the Longitude Act.\\nNumber 3 is in the collection of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers'.\\nHarrison was a man of many skills and he used these to systematically improve the performance of the pendulum clock. He invented the gridiron pendulum, consisting of alternating brass and iron rods assembled in such a way that the thermal expansions and contractions essentially cancel each other out. Another example of his inventive genius was the grasshopper escapement, a control device for the step-by-step release of a clock's driving power. Developed from the anchor escapement, it was almost frictionless, requiring no lubrication because the pallets were made from wood. This was an important advantage at a time when lubricants and their degradation were little understood. In his earlier work on sea clocks, Harrison was continually assisted, both financially and in many other ways, by the watchmaker and instrument maker George Graham. Harrison was introduced to Graham by the Astronomer Royal Edmond Halley, who championed Harrison and his work. The support was important to Harrison, as he was supposed to have found it difficult to communicate his ideas in a coherent manner.\\n\\nLongitude problem\\nLongitude fixes the location of a place on Earth east or west of a north–south reference line called the prime meridian. It is given as an angular measurement that ranges from 0° at the prime meridian to +180° eastward and −180° westward. Knowledge of a ship's east–west position is essential when approaching land. Over long voyages, cumulative errors in estimates of position by dead reckoning frequently led to shipwrecks and a great loss of life. Avoiding such disasters became vital in Harrison's lifetime, in an era when trade and the need for accurate navigation were increasing dramatically around the world.\\nMany ideas were proposed for how to determine longitude during a sea voyage. Earlier methods attempted to compare local time with the known time at a reference place, such as Greenwich or Paris, based on a simple theory that had first been proposed by Gemma Frisius. The methods relied on astronomical observations that were themselves reliant on the predictable nature of the motions of different heavenly bodies. Such methods were problematic because of the difficulty in maintaining an accurate record of the time at the reference place.\\nHarrison set out to solve the problem directly, by producing a reliable clock that could keep the time of the reference place accurately over long intervals without having to constantly adjust it. The difficulty was in producing a clock that was not affected by variations in temperature, pressure, or humidity, resisted corrosion in salt air, and was able to function on board a constantly moving ship. Many scientists, including Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens, doubted that such a clock could ever be built and favoured other methods for reckoning longitude, such as the method of lunar distances. Huygens ran trials using both a pendulum and a spiral balance spring clock as methods of determining longitude, with both types producing inconsistent results. Newton observed that \\\"a good watch may serve to keep a reckoning at sea for some days and to know the time of a celestial observation; and for this end a good Jewel may suffice till a better sort of watch can be found out. But when longitude at sea is lost, it cannot be found again by any watch\\\".\\n\\nFirst three marine timekeepers\\nIn the 1720s, the English clockmaker Henry Sully invented a marine clock that was designed to determine longitude: this was in the form of a clock with a large balance wheel that was vertically mounted on friction rollers and impulsed by a frictional rest Debaufre-type escapement. Very unconventionally, the balance oscillations were controlled by a weight at the end of a pivoted horizontal lever attached to the balance by a cord. This solution avoided temperature error due to thermal expansion, a problem which affects steel balance springs. Sully's clock kept accurate time only in calm weather, however, because the balance oscillations were affected by the pitching and rolling of the ship. Still, his clocks were among the first serious attempts to find longitude by improving the accuracy of timekeeping at sea. Harrison's machines, though much larger, are of similar layout: H3 has a vertically mounted balance wheel and is linked to another wheel of the same size, an arrangement that eliminates problems arising from the ship's motion.\\nIn 1716, Sully presented his first Montre de la Mer to the French Académie des Sciences and in 1726 he published Une Horloge inventée et executée par M. Sulli. In 1730, Harrison designed a marine clock to compete for the Longitude prize and travelled to London, seeking financial assistance. He presented his ideas to Edmond Halley, the Astronomer Royal, who in turn referred him to George Graham, the country's foremost clockmaker. Graham must have been impressed by Harrison's ideas, for he loaned him money to build a model of his \\\"Sea clock\\\". As the clock was an attempt to make a seagoing version of his wooden pendulum clocks, which performed exceptionally well, he used wooden wheels, roller pinions, and a version of the grasshopper escapement. Instead of a pendulum, he used two dumbbell balances which were linked together.\\nIt took Harrison five years to build his first sea clock (or H1). He demonstrated it to members of the Royal Society who spoke on his behalf to the Board of Longitude. The clock was the first proposal that the Board considered to be worthy of a sea trial. In 1736, Harrison sailed to Lisbon on HMS Centurion under the command of Captain George Proctor and returned on HMS Orford after Proctor died at Lisbon on 4 October 1736. The clock lost time on the outward voyage. However, it performed well on the return trip: both the captain and the sailing master of the Orford praised the design. The master noted that his own calculations had placed the ship sixty miles east of its true landfall which had been correctly predicted by Harrison using H1.\\nThis was not the transatlantic voyage stipulated by the Board of Longitude in their conditions for winning the prize, but the Board was impressed enough to grant Harrison £500 for further development. Harrison had moved to London by 1737 and went on to develop H2, a more compact and rugged version. In 1741, after three years of building and two of on-land testing, H2 was ready, but by then Britain was at war with Spain in the War of the Austrian Succession, and the mechanism was deemed too important to risk falling into Spanish hands. In any event, Harrison suddenly abandoned all work on this second machine when he discovered a serious design flaw in the concept of the bar balances. He had not recognized that the period of oscillation of the bar balances could be affected by the yawing action of the ship (when the ship turned upon its vertical axis, such as when \\\"coming about\\\" while tacking). It was this that led him to adopt circular balances in the Third Sea Clock (H3). The Board granted him another £500 and while waiting for the war to end, he proceeded to work on H3.\\nHarrison spent seventeen years working on this third \\\"sea clock\\\", but despite every effort it did not perform exactly as he had wished. The problem was that, because Harrison did not fully understand the physics behind the springs used to control the balance wheels, the timing of the wheels was not isochronous, a characteristic that affected its accuracy. The engineering world was not to fully understand the properties of springs for such applications for another two centuries. Despite that it had proved a very valuable experiment and much was learned from its construction. Certainly with this machine Harrison left the world two enduring legacies–the bimetallic strip and the caged roller bearing.\\n\\nLongitude watches\\nAfter steadfastly pursuing various methods during thirty years of experimentation, Harrison found to his surprise that some of the watches made by Graham's successor Thomas Mudge kept time just as accurately as his huge sea clocks. It is possible that Mudge was able to do this after the early 1740s thanks to the availability of the new \\\"Huntsman\\\" or \\\"Crucible\\\" steel first produced by Benjamin Huntsman sometime in the early 1740s, which enabled harder pinions but more importantly a tougher and more highly polished cylinder escapement to be produced.\\nHarrison then realized that a mere watch after all could be made accurate enough for the task and was a far more practical proposition for use as a marine timekeeper. He proceeded to redesign the concept of the watch as a timekeeping device, basing his design on sound scientific principles.\\n\\n\\\"Jefferys\\\" watch\\nHe had already in the early 1750s designed a precision watch for his own use, which was made for him by the watchmaker John Jefferys c. 1752–1753. This watch incorporated a novel frictional rest escapement and was not only the first to have a compensation for temperature variations but also contained the first miniature going train fusee of Harrison's design which enabled the watch to continue running whilst being wound. These features led to the very successful performance of the \\\"Jefferys\\\" watch, which Harrison incorporated into the design of two new timekeepers which he proposed to build. These were in the form of a large watch and another of a smaller size but similar pattern. However, only the larger No. 1 watch (or \\\"H4\\\" as it is sometimes called) appears to have ever been finished (see the reference to \\\"H4\\\" below). Aided by some of London's finest workmen, he proceeded to design and make the world's first successful marine timekeeper that allowed a navigator to accurately assess his ship's position in longitude. Importantly, Harrison showed everyone that it could be done by using a watch to calculate longitude. This was to be Harrison's masterpiece – an instrument of beauty, resembling an oversized pocket watch from the period. It is engraved with Harrison's signature, marked Number 1 and dated AD 1759.\\n\\nH4\\nHarrison's first \\\"sea watch\\\" (now known as H4) is housed in silver pair cases some 5.2 inches (13 cm) in diameter. The clock's movement is highly complex for the period, resembling a larger version of the then-current conventional movement. A coiled steel spring inside a brass mainspring barrel provides 30 hours of power. That is covered by the fusee barrel which pulls a chain wrapped around the conically shaped pulley known as the fusee. The fusee is topped by the winding square (requiring separate key). The great wheel attached to the base of this fusee transmits power to the rest of the movement. The fusee contains the maintaining power, a mechanism for keeping the H4 going while being wound. From Gould: The escapement is a modification of the \\\"verge\\\" fitted to... the common watches of Harrison's day. But the modifications are extensive. The pallets are very small, and have their faces set parallel, instead of at the usual angle of 95° or so. Moreover, instead of being steel, they are of diamond, and their backs are shaped to cycloidal curves... The action of this escapement is quite different from that of the verge, which it appears to resemble. In that escapement, the teeth of the crown wheel act only upon the faces of the pallets. But in this, as will be seen from the points of the teeth rest, for a considerable portion of the supplementary arc—from 90° to 145° (limit of banking) past the dead point—upon the backs of the pallets, and tend to assist the balance towards the extreme of its swing and to retard its return. This escapement is obviously a great improvement upon the verge, as the train has far less power over the motions of the balance. The latter is no longer checked in its swing by a force equal to that which originally impelled it, but by the balance spring, assisted only by the friction between the tooth and the back of the pallet.\\nIn comparison, the verge's escapement has a recoil with a limited balance arc and is sensitive to variations in driving torque. According to a review by H. M. Frodsham of the movement in 1878, H4's escapement had \\\"a good deal of 'set' and not so much recoil, and as a result the impulse came very near to a double chronometer action\\\".\\nThe D-shaped pallets of Harrison's escapement are both made of diamond, approximately 2 mm long with the curved side radius of 0.6 mm, a considerable feat of manufacture at the time. For technical reasons the balance was made much larger than in a conventional watch of the period, 2.2 inches (56 mm) in diameter weighing 28+5⁄8 Troy grains (1.85 g) and the vibrations controlled by a flat spiral steel spring of three turns with a long straight tail. The spring is tapered, being thicker at the stud end and tapering toward the collet at the centre. The movement also has centre seconds motion with a sweep seconds hand.\\nThe Third Wheel is equipped with internal teeth and has an elaborate bridge similar to the pierced and engraved bridge for the period. It runs at 5 beats (ticks) per second, and is equipped with a tiny 7+1⁄2 second remontoire. A balance-brake, activated by the position of the fusee, stops the watch half an hour before it is completely run down, in order that the remontoire does not run down also. Temperature compensation is in the form of a 'compensation curb' (or 'Thermometer Kirb' as Harrison called it). This takes the form of a bimetallic strip mounted on the regulating slide, and carrying the curb pins at the free end. During its initial testing, Harrison dispensed with this regulation using the slide, but left its indicating dial or figure piece in place. This first watch took six years to construct, following which the Board of Longitude determined to trial it on a voyage from Portsmouth to Kingston, Jamaica. For this purpose it was placed aboard the 50-gun HMS Deptford, which set sail from Portsmouth on 18 November 1761.: 13–14 Harrison, by then 68 years old, sent it on this transatlantic trial in the care of his son, William. The watch was tested before departure by Robertson, Master of the Academy at Portsmouth, who reported that on 6 November 1761 at noon it was 3 seconds slow, having lost 24 seconds in 9 days on mean solar time. The daily rate of the watch was therefore fixed as losing 24⁄9 seconds per day.\\nWhen Deptford reached its destination, after correction for the initial error of 3 seconds and accumulated loss of 3 minutes 36.5 seconds at the daily rate over the 81 days and 5 hours of the voyage, the watch was found to be 5 seconds slow compared to the known longitude of Kingston, corresponding to an error in longitude of 1.25 minutes, or approximately one nautical mile.: 56 William Harrison returned aboard the 14-gun HMS Merlin, reaching England on 26 March 1762 to report the successful outcome of the experiment. Harrison senior thereupon waited for the £20,000 prize, but the Board were persuaded that the accuracy could have been just luck and demanded another trial. The Board were also not convinced that a timekeeper which took six years to construct met the test of practicality required by the Longitude Act. The Harrisons were outraged and demanded their prize, a matter that eventually worked its way to Parliament, which offered £5,000 for the design. The Harrisons refused but were eventually obliged to make another trip to Bridgetown on the island of Barbados to settle the matter.\\n\\nAt the time of this second trial, another method for measuring longitude was ready for testing: the Method of Lunar Distances. The Moon moves fast enough, some thirteen degrees a day, to easily measure the movement from day to day. By comparing the angle between the Moon and the Sun for the day one left for Britain, the \\\"proper position\\\" (how it would appear in Greenwich, England, at that specific time) of the Moon could be calculated. By comparing this with the angle of the Moon over the horizon, the longitude could be calculated. During Harrison's second trial of his 'sea watch' (H4), Nevil Maskelyne was asked to accompany HMS Tartar and test the Lunar Distances system. Once again the watch proved extremely accurate, keeping time to within 39 seconds, corresponding to an error in the longitude of Bridgetown of less than 10 miles (16 km).: 60 Maskelyne's measures were also fairly good, at 30 miles (48 km), but required considerable work and calculation in order to use. At a meeting of the Board in 1765 the results were presented, but they again attributed the accuracy of the measurements to luck. Once again the matter reached Parliament, which offered £10,000 in advance and the other half once he turned over the design to other watchmakers to duplicate. In the meantime Harrison's watch would have to be turned over to the Astronomer Royal for long-term on-land testing.\\nUnfortunately, Nevil Maskelyne had been appointed Astronomer Royal on his return from Barbados, and was therefore also placed on the Board of Longitude. He returned a report of the watch that was negative, claiming that its \\\"going rate\\\" (the amount of time it gained or lost per day) was due to inaccuracies cancelling themselves out, and refused to allow it to be factored out when measuring longitude. Consequently, this first Marine Watch of Harrison's failed the needs of the Board despite the fact that it had succeeded in two previous trials.\\nHarrison began working on his second 'sea watch' (H5) while testing was conducted on the first, which Harrison felt was being held hostage by the Board. After three years he had had enough; Harrison felt \\\"extremely ill used by the gentlemen who I might have expected better treatment from\\\" and decided to enlist the aid of King George III. He obtained an audience with the King, who was extremely annoyed with the Board. King George tested the watch No. 2 (H5) himself at the palace and after ten weeks of daily observations between May and July in 1772, found it to be accurate to within one third of one second per day. King George then advised Harrison to petition Parliament for the full prize after threatening to appear in person to dress them down. Finally in 1773, when he was 80 years old, Harrison received a monetary award in the amount of £8,750 from Parliament for his achievements, but he never received the official award (which was never awarded to anyone). He was to survive for just three more years.\\nIn total, Harrison received £23,065 for his work on chronometers. He received £4,315 in increments from the Board of Longitude for his work, £10,000 as an interim payment for H4 in 1765 and £8,750 from Parliament in 1773. This gave him a reasonable income for most of his life (equivalent to roughly £450,000 per year in 2007, though all his costs, such as materials and subcontracting work to other horologists, had to come out of this). He became the equivalent of a multi-millionaire (in today's terms) in the final decade of his life. Captain James Cook used K1, a copy of H4, on his second and third voyages, having used the lunar distance method on his first voyage. K1 was made by Larcum Kendall, who had been apprenticed to John Jefferys. Cook's log is full of praise for the watch and the charts of the southern Pacific Ocean he made with its use were remarkably accurate. K2 was loaned to Lieutenant William Bligh, commander of HMS Bounty, but it was retained by Fletcher Christian following the infamous mutiny. It was not recovered from Pitcairn Island until 1808, when it was given to Captain Mayhew Folger, and then passed through several hands before reaching the National Maritime Museum in London.\\nInitially, the cost of these chronometers was quite high (roughly 30% of a ship's cost). However, over time, the costs dropped to between £25 and £100 (half a year's to two years' salary for a skilled worker) in the early 19th century. Many historians point to relatively low production volumes over time as evidence that the chronometers were not widely used. However, Landes points out that the chronometers lasted for decades and did not need to be replaced frequently–indeed the number of makers of marine chronometers reduced over time due to the ease in supplying the demand even as the merchant marine expanded. Also, many merchant mariners would make do with a deck chronometer at half the price. These were not as accurate as the boxed marine chronometer but were adequate for many. While the Lunar Distances method would complement and rival the marine chronometer initially, the chronometer would overtake it in the 19th century. The more accurate Harrison timekeeping device led to the much-needed precise calculation of longitude, making the device a fundamental key to the modern age. After Harrison, the marine timekeeper was reinvented yet again by John Arnold, who, while basing his design on Harrison's most important principles, at the same time simplified it enough for him to produce equally accurate but far less costly marine chronometers in quantity from around 1783. Nonetheless, for many years even towards the end of the 18th century, chronometers were expensive rarities, as their adoption and use proceeded slowly due to the high expense of precision manufacturing. The expiry of Arnold's patents at the end of the 1790s enabled many other watchmakers including Thomas Earnshaw to produce chronometers in greater quantities at less cost even than those of Arnold.\\nBy the early 19th century, navigation at sea without one was considered unwise to unthinkable. Using a chronometer to aid navigation simply saved lives and ships – the insurance industry, self-interest, and common sense did the rest in making the device a universal tool of maritime trade.\\n\\nDeath and memorials\\nHarrison died on 24 March 1776, at the age of eighty-two, just shy of his eighty-third birthday. He was buried in the graveyard of St John's Church, Hampstead, in north London, along with his second wife Elizabeth and later their son William. His tomb was restored in 1879 by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, even though Harrison had never been a member of the Company.\\nHarrison's last home was 12 Red Lion Square in the Holborn district of London. There is a blue plaque dedicated to Harrison on the wall of Summit House, a 1925 modernist office block, on the south side of the square. A memorial tablet to Harrison was unveiled in Westminster Abbey on 24 March 2006, finally recognising him as a worthy companion to his friend George Graham and Thomas Tompion, 'The Father of English Watchmaking', who are both buried in the Abbey. The memorial shows a meridian line (line of constant longitude) in two metals to highlight Harrison's most widespread invention, the bimetallic strip thermometer. The strip is engraved with its own longitude of 0 degrees, 7 minutes and 35 seconds West.\\nThe Corpus Clock in Cambridge, unveiled in 2008, is a homage by the designer to Harrison's work but is of an electromechanical design. In appearance it features Harrison's grasshopper escapement, the 'pallet frame' being sculpted to resemble an actual grasshopper. This is the clock's defining feature.\\nIn 2014, Northern Rail named diesel railcar 153316 as the John 'Longitude' Harrison.\\nOn 3 April 2018, Google celebrated his 325th birthday by making a Google Doodle for its homepage.\\nIn February 2020, a bronze statue of John Harrison was unveiled in Barrow upon Humber. The statue was created by sculptor Marcus Cornish.\\n\\nLater history\\nAfter World War I, Harrison's timepieces were rediscovered at the Royal Greenwich Observatory by retired naval officer Lieutenant Commander Rupert T. Gould.\\nThe timepieces were in a highly decrepit state and Gould spent many years documenting, repairing and restoring them, without compensation for his efforts. Gould was the first to designate the timepieces from H1 to H5, initially calling them No.1 to No.5. Unfortunately, Gould made modifications and repairs that would not pass today's standards of good museum conservation practice, although most Harrison scholars give Gould credit for having ensured that the historical artifacts survived as working mechanisms to the present time. Gould wrote The Marine Chronometer, published in 1923, which covered the history of chronometers from the Middle Ages to the 1920s, and which included detailed descriptions of Harrison's work and the subsequent evolution of the chronometer. The book remains the authoritative work on the marine chronometer. Today the restored H1, H2, H3, and H4 timepieces can be seen on display in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. H1, H2, and H3 still work: H4 is kept in a stopped state because, unlike the first three, it requires oil for lubrication and so will degrade as it runs. H5 is owned by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers of London, and was previously on display at the Clockmakers' Museum in the Guildhall, London, as part of the Company's collection; since 2015 the collection has been displayed in the Science Museum, London.\\nIn the final years of his life, John Harrison wrote about his research into musical tuning and manufacturing methods for bells. His tuning system (a meantone system derived from pi), is described in his pamphlet A Description Concerning Such Mechanism ... (CSM). The system challenged the traditional view that harmonics occur at integer frequency ratios and in consequence all music using this tuning produces low-frequency beating. In 2002, Harrison's last manuscript, A true and short, but full Account of the Foundation of Musick, or, as principally therein, of the Existence of the Natural Notes of Melody, was rediscovered in the US Library of Congress. His theories on the mathematics of bell manufacturing (using \\\"Radical Numbers\\\") are yet to be clearly understood.\\nOne of the controversial claims of his last years was that of being able to build a land clock more accurate than any competing design. Specifically, he claimed to have designed a clock capable of keeping accurate time to within one second over a span of 100 days.: 25–41 At the time, such publications as The London Review of English and Foreign Literature ridiculed Harrison for what was considered an outlandish claim. Harrison drew a design but never built such a clock himself, but in 1970 Martin Burgess, a Harrison expert and himself a clockmaker, studied the plans and endeavored to build the timepiece as drawn. He built two versions, dubbed Clock A and Clock B. Clock A became the Gurney Clock which was given to the city of Norwich in 1975, while Clock B lay unfinished in his workshop for decades until it was acquired in 2009 by Donald Saff. The completed Clock B was submitted to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich for further study. It was found that Clock B could potentially meet Harrison's original claim, so the clock's design was carefully checked and adjusted. Finally, over a 100-day period from 6 January to 17 April 2015, Clock B was secured in a transparent case in the Royal Observatory and left to run untouched, apart from regular winding. Upon completion of the run, the clock was measured to have lost only 5/8 of a second, meaning Harrison's design was fundamentally sound. If we ignore the fact that this clock uses materials such as duraluminium and invar unavailable to Harrison, had it been built in 1762, the date of Harrison's testing of his H4, and run continuously since then without correction, it would now (October 2024) be slow by just 9 minutes and 59 seconds. Guinness World Records has declared Martin Burgess' Clock B the \\\"most accurate mechanical clock with a pendulum swinging in free air.\\\"\\n\\nIn literature, television, drama and music\\nIn 1995, inspired by a Harvard University symposium on the longitude problem organized by the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Dava Sobel wrote a book about Harrison's work. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time became the first popular bestseller on the subject of horology. The Illustrated Longitude, in which Sobel's text was accompanied by 180 images selected by William J. H. Andrewes, appeared in 1998. The book was dramatised for UK television by Charles Sturridge in a Granada Productions 4 episode series for Channel 4 in 1999, under the title Longitude. It was broadcast in the US later in the same year by co-producer A&E. The production starred Michael Gambon as Harrison and Jeremy Irons as Gould. Sobel's book was the basis for a PBS NOVA episode entitled Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude.\\nHarrison's marine time-keepers were an essential part of the plot in the 1996 Christmas special of long-running British sitcom Only Fools And Horses, entitled \\\"Time on Our Hands\\\". The plot concerns the discovery and subsequent sale at auction of Harrison's Lesser Watch H6. The fictional watch was auctioned off at Sotheby's for £6.2 million.\\nThe song \\\"John Harrison's Hands\\\", written by Brian McNeill and Dick Gaughan, appeared on the 2001 album Outlaws & Dreamers. The song has been covered by Steve Knightley, appearing on his album 2011 Live in Somerset. It was also covered by the British band Show of Hands and appears on their 2016 album The Long Way Home. In 1998, British composer Harrison Birtwistle wrote the piano piece \\\"Harrison's clocks\\\" which contains musical depictions of Harrison's various clocks. Composer Peter Graham's piece Harrison's Dream is about Harrison's forty-year quest to produce an accurate clock. Graham worked simultaneously on the brass band and wind band versions of the piece, which received their first performances just four months apart in October 2000 and February 2001 respectively.\\n\\nWorks\\nPrincipes de la montre. Avignon: veuve François Girard & François Seguin. 1767.\\n\\nSee also\\nHistory of longitude\\nLunar distance (navigation)\\nMarine chronometer\\nThe Island of the Day Before – Umberto Eco\\n\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nLasky, Kathryn (2003). The Man Who Made Time Travel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-34788-8.\\nNorth, Thomas (1882). The Church Bells of the County and City of Lincoln. Leicester: Samuel Clark. pp. 60–61.\\nSobel, Dava; Andrewes, Willam J.H. (1998). The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time. New York: Walker Publishing Co. ISBN 0-8027-1344-0.\\nWinchester, Simon (2019). The Perfectionists - How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World. New York: Harper Perennial. pp. 23–52. ISBN 978-0-06-265256-0.\\nWolfendale, Arnold, ed. (2006). Harrison in the Abbey. London: Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. Published in Honour of John Harrison on the Occasion of the Unveiling of his Memorial in the Abbey on 24 March 2006\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nJohn Harrison and the Longitude Problem, at the National Maritime Museum site\\nPBS Nova Online: Lost at Sea, the Search for Longitude\\nJohn 'Longitude' Harrison and musical tuning\\nExcerpt from: Time Restored: The Story of the Harrison Timekeepers and R.T. Gould, 'The Man who Knew (almost) Everything'\\nUK Telegraph: 'Clock from 1776 just goes on and on'\\nAndrew Johnson, Longitude pioneer was not a 'lone genius', The Independent, 31 May 2009\\nHarrison's precision pendulum-clock No. 2, 1727, on the BBC's \\\"A History of the World\\\" website\\nLeeds Museums and Galleries \\\"Secret Life of Objects\\\" blog, John Harrison's precision pendulum-clock No. 2\\nAccount of John Harrison and his chronometer at Cambridge Digital Library\\nBuilding an Impossible Clock Shayla Love, 19 Jan 2016, The Atlantic\\nWorks by John Harrison at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)\",\n \"title\": \"John_Harrison\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"In physics, when speaking of classical mechanics, there is an infamous problem that involves taking the initial positions and velocities of three point masses that orbit each other and attempting to calculate their trajectories. There is no general closed-form solution for this infamous problem. French mathematicians in the 18th century focused on solving this problem in regards to astronomical motion, specifically how the Moon rotates on its apsides. Their work led to a solution using Newton's laws of physics and the Discrete Fourier Transformation (DFT), which ultimately changed how sailors were able to determine longitude at sea. The inventor of the device that would revolutionize naval navigation using these new principles and proofs spent how many years testing and perfecting his work?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"31 years (1730-1761)"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":676,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"676"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spans 513,115 square kilometres (198,115 sq mi). Thailand is bordered to the northwest by Myanmar, to the northeast and east by Laos, to the southeast by Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the southwest by the Andaman Sea; it also shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the southeast and Indonesia and India to the southwest. Bangkok is the state capital and largest city.\nThai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 6th to 11th centuries. Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, Khmer Empire, and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang, Sukhothai, Lan Na, and Ayutthaya, which also rivalled each other. European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, which became a regional power by the end of the 15th century. Ayutthaya reached its peak during the 18th century, until it was destroyed in the Burmese–Siamese War. King Taksin the Great quickly reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-lived Thonburi Kingdom (1767–1782), of which he was the only king. He was succeeded in 1782 by Phutthayotfa Chulalok (Rama I), the first monarch of the current Chakri dynasty. Throughout the era of Western imperialism in Asia, Siam remained the only state in the region to avoid colonization by foreign powers, although it was often forced to make territorial, trade, and legal concessions in unequal treaties. The Siamese system of government was centralised and transformed into a modern unitary absolute monarchy during the 1868–1910 reign of Chulalongkorn (Rama V). In World War I, Siam sided with the Allies, a political decision made in order to amend the unequal treaties. Following a bloodless revolution in 1932, it became a constitutional monarchy and changed its official name to Thailand, becoming an ally of Japan in World War II. In the late 1950s, a military coup under Sarit Thanarat revived the monarchy's historically influential role in politics. During the Cold War, Thailand became a major ally of the United States and played an anti-communist role in the region as a member of SEATO, which was disbanded in 1977.\nApart from a brief period of parliamentary democracy in the mid-1970s and 1990s, Thailand has periodically alternated between democracy and military rule. Since the 2000s, the country has been in continual political conflict between supporters and opponents of twice-elected Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra, which resulted in two coups (in 2006 and 2014), along with the establishment of its current constitution, a nominally democratic government after the 2019 Thai general election, and large pro-democracy protests in 2020–2021, which included unprecedented demands to reform the monarchy. Since 2019, it has been nominally a parliamentary constitutional monarchy; in practice, however, structural advantages in the constitution have ensured the military's continued influence in politics.\nThailand is a middle power in global affairs and a founding member of ASEAN. It has the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia and the 23rd-largest in the world by PPP, and it ranks 91st by nominal GDP per capita. Thailand is classified as a newly industrialised economy, with manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism as leading sectors.\n\nEtymology\nThailand was known by outsiders prior to 1939 as Siam. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai (ไทย) means 'free man' in the Thai language, \"differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs\".: 197 According to Chit Phumisak, Thai (ไท) simply means 'people' or 'human being'; his investigation shows that some rural areas used the word \"Thai\" instead of the usual Thai word khon (คน) for people. According to Michel Ferlus, the ethnonyms Thai-Tai (or Thay-Tay) would have evolved from the etymon *k(ə)ri: 'human being'.\nThais often refer to their country using the polite form prathet Thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย). They also use the more colloquial term mueang Thai (Thai: เมืองไทย) or simply Thai; the word mueang, archaically referring to a city-state, is commonly used to refer to a city or town as the centre of a region. Ratcha Anachak Thai (Thai: ราชอาณาจักรไทย) means 'kingdom of Thailand' or 'kingdom of Thai'. Etymologically, its components are: ratcha (Sanskrit: राजन्, rājan, 'king, royal, realm'), ana- (Pali āṇā 'authority, command, power', itself from the Sanskrit आज्ञा, ājñā, of the same meaning), and -chak (from Sanskrit चक्र cakra- 'wheel', a symbol of power and rule). The Thai National Anthem (Thai: เพลงชาติ), written by Luang Saranupraphan during the patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as prathet Thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย). The first line of the national anthem is: prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai (Thai: ประเทศไทยรวมเลือดเนื้อชาติเชื้อไทย), 'Thailand is founded on blood and flesh'.\nThe former name Siam may have originated from Sanskrit श्याम (śyāma, 'dark') or Mon ရာမည (rhmañña, 'stranger'), probably the same root as Shan and Assam. The word Śyâma is possibly not the true origin, but a pre-designed deviation from its proper, original meaning. Another theory is the name derives from the Chinese calling this region 'Xian'.: 8 The ancient Khmers used the word Siam to refer to people settled in the west Chao Phraya River valley surrounding the ancient city of Nakhon Pathom in the present-day central Thailand; it may probably originate from the name of Lord Krishna, which also called Shyam, as in the Wat Sri Chum Inscription, dated 13th century CE, mentions Phra Maha Thera Sri Sattha came to restore Phra Pathommachedi at the city of Lord Krishna (Nakhon Pathom) in the early era of the Sukhothai Kingdom.\n\nThe signature of King Mongkut (r. 1851–1868) reads SPPM (Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha) Mongkut Rex Siamensium (Mongkut, King of the Siamese). This usage of the name in the country's first international treaty gave the name Siam official status, until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand.\nThailand was briefly renamed Siam from 1946 to 1948, after which it again reverted to Thailand.\n\nHistory\nPrehistory and origins\nThere is evidence of continuous human habitation in present-day Thailand from 20,000 years ago to the present day.: 4 The earliest evidence of rice growing is dated at 2,000 BCE.: 4 Areas comprising what is now Thailand participated in the Maritime Jade Road, as ascertained by archeological research. The trading network existed for 3,000 years, between 2000 BCE to 1000 CE. Bronze appeared c. 1,250–1,000 BCE.: 4 The site of Ban Chiang in northeast Thailand currently ranks as the earliest known centre of copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia. Iron appeared around 500 BCE.: 5 The Kingdom of Funan was the first and most powerful Southeast Asian kingdom at the time (2nd century BCE).: 5 The Mon people established the principalities of Dvaravati and Kingdom of Hariphunchai in the 6th century. The Khmer people established the Khmer empire, centred in Angkor, in the 9th century.: 7 Tambralinga, a Malay state controlling trade through the Malacca Strait, rose in the 10th century.: 5 The Indochina peninsula was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India from the time of the Kingdom of Funan to that of the Khmer Empire.\nThe Thai people are of the Tai ethnic group, characterized by common linguistic roots.: 2 Chinese chronicles first mention the Tai peoples in the 6th century BCE. While there are many assumptions regarding the origin of Tai peoples, David K. Wyatt, a historian of Thailand, argued that their ancestors who at present inhabit Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, India, and China came from the Điện Biên Phủ area between the 5th and the 8th century.: 6 Thai people began migrating into present-day Thailand gradually from the 6th to 11th century, which Mon and Khmer people occupied at the time. Thus Thai culture was influenced by Indian, Mon, and Khmer cultures.: 203 Tai people intermixed with various ethnic and cultural groups in the region, resulting in many groups of present-day Thai people. Genetic evidences suggested that ethnolinguistics could not accurately predict the origins of the Thais. Sujit Wongthes argued that Thai is not a race or ethnicity but a culture group.\nAccording to French historian George Cœdès, \"The Thai first enter history of Farther India in the eleventh century with the mention of Syam slaves or prisoners of war in Champa epigraphy\", and \"in the twelfth century, the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat\" where \"a group of warriors\" are described as Syam,: 190–191, 194–195 though Cham accounts do not indicate the origins of Syam or what ethnic group they belonged to. The origins and ethnicity of the Syam remain unclear, with some literature suggesting that Syam refers to the Shan people, the Bru people, or the Brau people. However, mainland Southeast Asian sources from before the fourteenth century primarily used the word Syam as an ethnonym, referring to those who belonged to a separate cultural category different from the Khmer, Cham, Bagan, or Mon. This contrasts with the Chinese sources, where Xian was used as a toponym.\n\nEarly Tai confederate cities: (691 BCE – 13th century CE)\nTheoretically, Tai-Kadai-speaking people formed as early as the 12th century BCE in the middle of the Yangtze basin. Some groups later migrated south to Guangxi. However, after several bloody centuries against Chinese influence in Guangxi from the 333 BCE-11th centuries, hundreds of thousands of Tais were killed,: 5 : 193, 239–249 thus, Tai people began to move southwestward along the rivers and over the lower passes into the mountain north of Southeast Asia and river valleys in present-day Assam of India. Some evidence indicates that the ancestors of Tai people migrated en masse southwestwards out of Yunnan only after the 1253 Mongol invasion of Dali, but not generally accepted.: 38 \nTais defeated indigenous tribes and emerged as the new power in the new region, several Tai city-states were established, scattered from Điện Biên Phủ in present-day northwestern Vietnam and highland Southeast Asia to northeastern India. According to the Simhanavati legend given in several chronicles, the first Tai city-state in northern Thailand, Singhanavati, was found around the 7th century;: 5, 9 however, several modern geology and archaeology studies found that its center, Yonok Nahaphan, dates from 691 BCE–545 CE,: 7 coinciding roughly with the establishment of Shan States, another Tai's federated principalities in the present-day northeast Myanmar. as well as Muang Sua (Luang Prabang) in the east. After Singhanavati was submerged below Chiang Saen Lake due to an earthquake in 545, the survivors then founded a new seat at Wieng–Prueksha, the kingdom lasted for another 93 years.\nIn addition to Singhanavati, another northern principality probably related to the Tai people, Ngoenyang, was established as the successor of Singhanavati in 638 by Lavachakkaraj, also centered in Wieng–Prueksha (present-day Mae Sai District, Chiang Rai).: 8 Its seat was moved to Chiang Mai in 1262 by King Mangrai, which considered the foundation of the Lan Na kingdom. Mangrai unified the surrounding area and also created a network of states through political alliances to the east and north of the Mekong. His dynasty would rule the kingdom continuously for the next two centuries.: 8 Lan Na expanded its territory southward and annexed the Mon Hariphunchai of Dvaravati in 1292.: 208 \nIn the late 10 century, Tai people began to migrate further south to the present-day upper central Thailand.: 46–9, 83–6 Around the 1100s period, several cities in this area, such as Songkwae, Sawankhalok, and Chakangrao, were ruled by the Tai people, and they eventually launched several battles against the pre-existing Mon of Lavo, who had been falling under Chenla and Khmer influences since the 7th century, thus bringing the establishment of the Tai people's independent state, Sukhothai Kingdom, in the upper Chao Phraya River valley in 1238.: 52–3 \nThe earliest conflict between Tai people and the preexisting ethnics was recorded in the mid-4th century when the ruler of Singhanavati, Pangkharat, forcibly lost the seat at Yonok to King Khom from Umongasela (present-day Fang). He then fled to Vieng Si Tuang (เวียงศรีทวง; present-day Wiang Phang Kham, Mae Sai district) but had to send tributes to Yonok annually until his son, Phrom, took back Yonok and expelled King Khom from Umongasela. Phrom also marched the troops south to occupy Chakangrao from the enemy as well as founding the city of Songkwae. Some historians suggest that Lavo's capital, Lopburi, was once seized by Phrom. In contrast, Tai people instead established relationships with Siamese Mon via royal intermarriages.: 46–9, 83–6\n\nMon and Lavo Kingdoms: (5th century CE – 13th century CE)\nAs is generally known, the present-day Thai people were previously called Siamese before the country was renamed Thailand in the mid-20th century. Several genetic studies published in the 21st century suggest that the so-called Siamese people (central Thai) might have had Mon origins since their genetic profiles are more closely related to the Mon people in Myanmar than the Tais in southern China, and they probably later became Tais via cultural diffusion after the arriving of Tai people from the north around the 8th–10th centuries. This is also reflected in the language since over half of the vocabulary in the central Thai language is derived from or borrowed from the Mon language as well as Pali and Sanskrit. Moreover, the Jinakalamali chronicle of Tai's Lan Na also called the southern region occupied by the Mon Haripuñjaya of Dvaravati as Shyam Pradesh (lit. 'the land of Siam people'), which indicates that the ancient Siamese and the Mon people in central Thailand were probably the same ethnolinguistic group.\nThe earliest evidence to mention the Siam people are stone inscriptions found in Angkor Borei of Funan (K.557 and K.600), dated 661 CE, the slave's name is mentioned as \"Ku Sayam\" meaning \"Sayam female slaves\" (Ku is a prefix used to refer to female slaves in the pre-Angkorian era), and the Takéo inscriptions (K.79) written in 682 during the reign of Bhavavarman II of Chenla also mention Siam Nobel: Sāraṇnoya Poña Sayam, which was transcribed into English as: the rice field that was given to the poña (noble rank) who was called Sayam (Siam). The Song Huiyao Jigao (960–1279) indicate Siamese people settled in the west central Thailand and their state was called Xiān guó (Chinese: 暹國), while the eastern plain belonged to the Mon of Lavo (Chinese: 羅渦國), who later fell under the Chenla and Khmer hegemony around the 7th–9th centuries. Those Mon political entities, which also included Haripuñjaya in the north and several city-states in the northeast, are collectively called Dvaravati. However, the states of Siamese Mon and Lavo were later merged via the royal intermarriage and became Ayutthaya Kingdom in the mid-14th century, while the southwestern Isan principalities, centered in Phanom Rung and Phimai, later pledged allegiance to Siamese's Ayutthaya during the reign of Borommarachathirat II (r. 1424–1448). The remaining principal city-states in Isan region became Lan Xang around 1353 after the twin cities of Muang Sua (Luang Prabang) and Vieng Chan Vieng Kham (Vientiane) became independent following the death of the Sukhothai king Ram Khamhaeng.: 51 \nAccording to the Wat Kud Tae inscription (K.1105), dated c. 7th century, during the period that the eastern Mon entity, Lavo, was strongly influenced by the Chenla, the Siamese Mon in the west also established a royal intermarriage with Chenla as Sri Chakatham, prince of Sambhuka (ศามภูกะ, in the present-day Ratchaburi province), married to a princess of Isanavarman I, and two mandalas then became an ally. After Chenla sieged Funan and moved the center to Angkor, both Siamese Mon and the Angkorian eventually marched the troops to attack Vijaya of Champa in 1201 during the reign of Jayavarman VII, as recorded in the Cho-Dinh inscription (C.3).\n\nSukhothai Kingdom (1238 CE – 14th century CE)\nAfter the decline of the Khmer Empire and Kingdom of Pagan in the early 13th century, various states thrived in their place. The domains of Tai people existed from the northeast of present-day India to the north of present-day Laos and to the Malay Peninsula.: 38–9 During the 13th century, Tai people had already settled in the core land of Dvaravati and Lavo Kingdom to Nakhon Si Thammarat in the south. There are, however, no records detailing the arrival of the Tais.: 50–1 \nAround 1240, Pho Khun Bang Klang Hao, a local Tai ruler, rallied the people to rebel against the Khmer. He later crowned himself the first king of Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238.: 52–3 Mainstream Thai historians count Sukhothai as the first kingdom of Thai people. Sukhothai expanded furthest during the reign of Ram Khamhaeng (r. 1279–1298). However, it was mostly a network of local lords who swore fealty to Sukhothai, not directly controlled by it.: 55–6 He is believed have invented Thai script and Thai ceramics were an important export in his era. Sukhothai embraced Theravada Buddhism in the reign of Maha Thammaracha I (1347–1368).\n\nAyutthaya Kingdom (1351–1767)\nAccording to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Ayutthaya Kingdom rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom and Suvarnabhumi with Uthong as its first king. Ayutthaya was a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the King of Ayutthaya under the mandala system.: 355 Its initial expansion was through conquest and political marriage. Before the end of the 15th century, Ayutthaya invaded the Khmer Empire three times and sacked its capital Angkor.: 26 Ayutthaya then became a regional power in place of the Khmer. Constant interference of Sukhothai effectively made it a vassal state of Ayutthaya and it was finally incorporated into the kingdom. Borommatrailokkanat brought about bureaucratic reforms which lasted into the 20th century and created a system of social hierarchy called sakdina, where male commoners were conscripted as corvée labourers for six months a year.: 107 Ayutthaya was interested in the Malay Peninsula, but failed to conquer the Malacca Sultanate which was supported by the Chinese Ming dynasty.: 11, 13 \nEuropean contact and trade started in the early-16th century, with the envoy of Portuguese duke Afonso de Albuquerque in 1511. Portugal became an ally and ceded some soldiers to King Rama Thibodi II. The Portuguese were followed in the 17th century by the French, Dutch, and English. Rivalry for supremacy over Chiang Mai and the Mon people pitted Ayutthaya against the Burmese Kingdom. Several wars with its ruling Taungoo dynasty starting in the 1540s in the reign of Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung were ultimately ended with the capture of the capital in 1570.: 146–7 Then was a brief period of vassalage to Burma until Naresuan proclaimed independence in 1584.: 11 \nAyutthaya then sought to improve relations with European powers for many successive reigns. The kingdom especially prospered during cosmopolitan Narai's reign (1656–1688) when some European travelers regarded Ayutthaya as an Asian great power, alongside China and India.: ix However, growing French influence later in his reign was met with nationalist sentiment and led eventually to the Siamese revolution of 1688.: 185–6 However, overall relations remained stable, with French missionaries still active in preaching Christianity.: 186 \nAfter a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the Siamese \"golden age\", a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the 18th century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were seldom foreign wars, apart from conflict with the Nguyễn lords for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed bloody succession crises, where there were purges of court officials and able generals for many consecutive reigns. In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded it from the north and west.: 250 The Burmese under the new Alaungpaya dynasty quickly rose to become a new local power by 1759. After a 14-month siege, the capital city's walls fell and the city was burned in April 1767.: 218\n\nThonburi Kingdom (1767–1782)\nThe capital and many of its territories lay in chaos after the war. The former capital was occupied by the Burmese garrison army and five local leaders declared themselves overlords, including the lords of Sakwangburi, Phitsanulok, Pimai, Chanthaburi, and Nakhon Si Thammarat. Chao Tak, a capable military leader, proceeded to make himself a lord by right of conquest, beginning with the legendary sack of Chanthaburi. Based at Chanthaburi, Chao Tak raised troops and resources, and sent a fleet up the Chao Phraya to take the fort of Thonburi. In the same year, Chao Tak was able to retake Ayutthaya from the Burmese only seven months after the fall of the city.\nChao Tak then crowned himself as Taksin and proclaimed Thonburi as temporary capital in the same year. He also quickly subdued the other warlords. His forces engaged in wars with Burma, Laos, and Cambodia, which successfully drove the Burmese out of Lan Na in 1775,: 225 captured Vientiane in 1778: 227–8 and tried to install a pro-Thai king in Cambodia in the 1770s. In his final years there was a coup, caused supposedly by his \"insanity\", and eventually Taksin and his sons were executed by his longtime companion General Chao Phraya Chakri (the future Rama I). He was the first king of the ruling Chakri dynasty and founder of the Rattanakosin Kingdom on 6 April 1782.\n\nRattanakosin Kingdom and modernization (1782 –1932)\nUnder Rama I (1782–1809), Rattanakosin successfully defended against Burmese attacks and put an end to Burmese incursions. He also created suzerainty over large portions of Laos and Cambodia. In 1821, Briton John Crawfurd was sent to negotiate a new trade agreement with Siam – the first sign of an issue which was to dominate 19th century Siamese politics. Bangkok signed the Burney Treaty in 1826, after the British victory in the First Anglo-Burmese War.: 281 Anouvong of Vientiane, who mistakenly held the belief that Britain was about to launch an invasion of Bangkok, started the Lao rebellion in 1826 which was suppressed.: 283–5 Vientiane was destroyed and a large number of Lao people were relocated to Khorat Plateau as a result.: 285–6 Bangkok also waged several wars with Vietnam, where Siam successfully regained hegemony over Cambodia.: 290–2 \nFrom the late-19th century, Siam tried to rule the ethnic groups in the realm as colonies.: 308 In the reign of Mongkut (1851–1868), who recognised the potential threat Western powers posed to Siam, his court contacted the British government directly to defuse tensions.: 311 A British mission led by Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong, led to the signing of the Bowring Treaty, the first of many unequal treaties with Western countries. This, however, brought trade and economic development to Siam. The unexpected death of Mongkut from malaria led to the reign of underage King Chulalongkorn, with Somdet Chaophraya Sri Suriwongse (Chuang Bunnag) acting as regent.: 327 \nChulalongkorn (r. 1868–1910) initiated centralisation, set up a privy council, and abolished slavery and the corvée system. The Front Palace crisis of 1874 stalled attempts at further reforms.: 331–3 In the 1870s and 1880s, he incorporated the protectorates up north into the kingdom proper, which later expanded to the protectorates in the northeast and the south.: 334–5 He established twelve krom in 1888, which were equivalent to present-day ministries.: 347 The crisis of 1893 erupted, caused by French demands for Laotian territory east of Mekong.: 350–3 Thailand is the only Southeast Asian state never to have been colonised by a Western power, in part because Britain and France agreed in 1896 to make the Chao Phraya valley a buffer state. Not until the 20th century could Siam renegotiate every unequal treaty dating from the Bowring Treaty, including extraterritoriality. The advent of the monthon system marked the creation of the modern Thai nation-state.: 362–3 In 1905, there were unsuccessful rebellions in the ancient Patani area, Ubon Ratchathani, and Phrae in opposition to an attempt to blunt the power of local lords.: 371–3 \nThe Palace Revolt of 1912 was a failed attempt by Western-educated military officers to overthrow the Siamese monarchy.: 397 Vajiravudh (r. 1910–1925) responded by propaganda for the entirety of his reign,: 402 which promoted the idea of the Thai nation.: 404 In 1917, Siam joined the First World War on the side of the Allies.: 407 In the aftermath Siam had a seat at the Paris Peace Conference, and gained freedom of taxation and the revocation of extraterritoriality.: 408\n\nConstitutional monarchy, World War II and Cold War (1932–1975)\nA bloodless revolution took place in 1932, in which Prajadhipok was forced to grant the country's first constitution, thereby ending centuries of feudal and absolute monarchy. The combined results of economic hardships brought on by the Great Depression, sharply falling rice prices, and a significant reduction in public spending caused discontent among aristocrats.: 25 In 1933, a counter-revolutionary rebellion occurred which aimed to reinstate absolute monarchy, but failed.: 446–8 Prajadhipok's conflict with the government eventually led to abdication. The government selected Ananda Mahidol, who was studying in Switzerland, to be the new king.: 448–9 \nLater that decade, the army wing of Khana Ratsadon came to dominate Siamese politics. Plaek Phibunsongkhram who became premier in 1938, started political oppression and took an openly anti-royalist stance.: 457 His government adopted nationalism and Westernisation, anti-Chinese and anti-French policies.: 28 \nIn 1939, there was a decree changing the name of the country from \"Siam\" to \"Thailand\". In 1941, Thailand was in a brief conflict with Vichy France resulting in Thailand gaining some Lao and Cambodian territories.: 462 \nOn 8 December 1941, the Empire of Japan launched an invasion of Thailand, and fighting broke out shortly before Phibun ordered an armistice. Japan was granted free passage, and on 21 December Thailand and Japan signed a military alliance with a secret protocol, wherein the Japanese government agreed to help Thailand regain lost territories. The Thai government then declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom.: 465 The United Kingdom, whose colony Malaya was under immediate threat from Thai forces, responded in kind, but the United States refused to declare war and ignored Thailand's declaration.: 66 The Free Thai Movement was launched both in Thailand and abroad to oppose the government and Japanese occupation.: 465–6 After the war ended in 1945, Thailand signed formal agreements to end the state of war with the Allies.\n\nIn June 1946, young King Ananda was found dead under mysterious circumstances. His younger brother Bhumibol Adulyadej ascended to the throne. Thailand joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) to become an active ally of the United States in 1954.: 493 Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat launched a coup in 1957, which removed Khana Ratsadon from politics. His rule (premiership 1959–1963) was autocratic; he built his legitimacy around the god-like status of the monarch and by channelling the government's loyalty to the king.: 511 His government improved the country's infrastructure and education.: 514 After the United States joined the Vietnam War in 1961, there was a secret agreement wherein the U.S. promised to protect Thailand.: 523 \nThe period brought about increasing modernisation and Westernisation of Thai society. Rapid urbanisation occurred when the rural populace sought work in growing cities. Rural farmers gained class consciousness and were sympathetic to the Communist Party of Thailand.: 528 Economic development and education enabled the rise of a middle class in Bangkok and other cities.: 534 In October 1971, there was a large demonstration against the dictatorship of Thanom Kittikachorn (premiership 1963–1973), which led to civilian casualties.: 541–3 Bhumibol installed Sanya Dharmasakti (premiership 1973–1975) to replace him, marking the first time that the king had intervened in Thai politics directly since 1932. The aftermath of the event marked a short-lived parliamentary democracy, often called the \"era when democracy blossomed\" (ยุคประชาธิปไตยเบ่งบาน).\n\nContemporary history\nConstant unrest and instability, as well as fear of a communist takeover after the fall of Saigon, made some ultra-right groups brand leftist students as communists.: 548 This culminated in the Thammasat University massacre in October 1976.: 548–9 A coup d'état on that day brought Thailand a new ultra-right government, which cracked down on media outlets, officials, and intellectuals, and fuelled the communist insurgency. Another coup the following year installed a more moderate government, which offered amnesty to communist fighters in 1978.\nFuelled by Indochina refugee crisis, Vietnamese border raids and economic hardships, Prem Tinsulanonda became the Prime Minister from 1980 to 1988. The communists abandoned the insurgency by 1983. Prem's premiership was dubbed \"semi-democracy\" because the Parliament was composed of all elected House and all appointed Senate. The 1980s also saw increasing intervention in politics by the monarch, who rendered two coups in 1981 and 1985 attempts against Prem failed. In 1988 Thailand had its first elected prime minister since 1976.\nSuchinda Kraprayoon, who was the coup leader in 1991 and said he would not seek to become prime minister, was nominated as one by the majority coalition government after the 1992 general election. This caused a popular demonstration in Bangkok, which ended with a bloody military crackdown. Bhumibol intervened in the event and signed an amnesty law, Suchinda then resigned.\nThe 1997 Asian financial crisis originated in Thailand and ended the country's 40 years of uninterrupted economic growth.: 3 Chuan Leekpai's government took an IMF loan with unpopular provisions.\nThe 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami hit the country, mostly in the south, claiming around 5,400 lives in Phuket, Phang Nga, Ranong, Krabi, Trang, and Satun, with thousands still missing.\nThe populist Thai Rak Thai party, led by prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, governed from 2001 until 2006. His policies were successful in reducing rural poverty and initiated universal healthcare in the country. However, Thaksin was viewed as a corrupt populist who was destroying the middle class in order to favor himself and the rural poor. He also faced criticism over his response to a South Thailand insurgency which escalated starting from 2004. Additionally, his recommendations to the rural poor directly conflicted with King Bhumibol's recommendations, drawing the ire of royalists, a powerful faction in Thailand. In response, the royalists made up a story about how Thaskin and his \"advisors gathered in Finland to plot the overthrow of the monarchy\" which dramatically expanded the opposition to the otherwise still popular Thaksin. Meanwhile, massive protests against Thaksin led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) started in his second term as prime minister. Eventually, things reached a boiling point and the military decided they wanted to oust Thaksin. Despite Thailand's military having been forced from power in the 1970s when democracy was born, Thailand's democracy remains grounded in the implicit consent of the military and the monarchy. When the monarchy and the military agree that a democratically elected leader has gone too far, they work together to oust them. In this case, the military first sought permission from the king to oust Thaksin, permission which was denied. But then, the king rejected Thaksin's choice to lead the army, allowing a military leader to be put into power who wanted the coup.1 Then, the army dissolved Thaksin's party with a coup d'état in 2006 and banned over a hundred of its executives from politics. After the coup, a military government was installed which lasted a year. \n\nComing back to democracy was a process that took very active participation of the people. The people frequently stormed government buildings and the military threatened yet another coup. Finally, in 2007, a civilian government led by the Thaksin-allied People's Power Party (PPP) was elected. Another protest led by PAD ended with the dissolution of PPP, and the Democrat Party led a coalition government in its place. The pro-Thaksin United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) protested both in 2009 and in 2010, the latter of which ended with a violent military crackdown causing more than 70 civilian deaths.\nAfter the general election of 2011, the populist Pheu Thai Party won a majority and Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's younger sister, became prime minister. The People's Democratic Reform Committee organised another anti-Shinawatra protest after the ruling party proposed an amnesty bill which would benefit Thaksin. Yingluck dissolved parliament and a general election was scheduled, but was invalidated by the Constitutional Court. The crisis ended with another coup d'état in 2014.\nThe ensuing National Council for Peace and Order, a military junta led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, led the country until 2019. Civil and political rights were restricted, and the country saw a surge in lèse-majesté cases. Political opponents and dissenters were sent to \"attitude adjustment\" camps; this was described by academics as showing the rise of fascism. Bhumibol, the longest-reigning Thai king, died in 2016, and his son Vajiralongkorn ascended to the throne. The referendum and adoption of Thailand's current constitution happened under the junta's rule. The junta also bound future governments to a 20-year national strategy 'road map' it laid down, effectively locking the country into military-guided democracy. In 2019, the junta agreed to schedule a general election in March. Prayut continued his premiership with the support of Palang Pracharath Party-coalition in the House and junta-appointed Senate, amid allegations of election fraud. The 2020–21 pro-democracy protests were triggered by increasing royal prerogative, democratic and economic regression from the Royal Thai Armed Forces supported by the monarchy in the wake of the coup d'état in 2014, dissolution of the pro-democracy Future Forward Party, distrust in the 2019 general election and the current political system, forced disappearance and deaths of political activists including Wanchalearm Satsaksit, and political corruption scandals, which brought forward unprecedented demands to reform the monarchy and the highest sense of republicanism in the country.\nIn May 2023, Thailand's reformist opposition, the progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) and the populist Pheu Thai Party, won the general election, meaning the royalist-military parties that supported Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha lost power. On 22 August 2023, Srettha Thavisin of the populist Pheu Thai party, became Thailand's new prime minister, while the Pheu Thai party's billionaire figurehead Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand after years in self-imposed exile. Thavisin was later dismissed from his prime ministerial role on 14 August 2024 by the Constitutional Court for his \"gross ethics violations.\"\n\nGeography\nTotalling 513,120 square kilometres (198,120 sq mi), Thailand is the 50th-largest country by total area.\nThailand comprises several distinct geographic regions, partly corresponding to the provincial groups. The north of the country is the mountainous area of the Thai highlands, with the highest point being Doi Inthanon in the Thanon Thong Chai Range at 2,565 metres (8,415 ft) above sea level. The northeast, Isan, consists of the Khorat Plateau, bordered to the east by the Mekong River. The centre of the country is dominated by the predominantly flat Chao Phraya river valley, which runs into the Gulf of Thailand. Southern Thailand consists of the narrow Kra Isthmus that widens into the Malay Peninsula.\nThe Chao Phraya and the Mekong River are the indispensable water courses of rural Thailand. Industrial scale production of crops use both rivers and their tributaries. The Gulf of Thailand covers 320,000 square kilometres (124,000 sq mi) and is fed by the Chao Phraya, Mae Klong, Bang Pakong, and Tapi Rivers. It contributes to the tourism sector owing to its clear shallow waters along the coasts in the southern region and the Kra Isthmus. The eastern shore of the Gulf of Thailand is an industrial centre of Thailand with the kingdom's premier deepwater port in Sattahip and its busiest commercial port, Laem Chabang.\nPhuket, Krabi, Ranong, Phang Nga and Trang, and their islands, all lay along the coasts of the Andaman Sea.\n\nClimate\nThailand's climate is influenced by monsoon winds that have a seasonal character (the southwest and northeast monsoon).: 2 Most of the country is classified as Köppen's tropical savanna climate. The majority of the south as well as the eastern tip of the east have a tropical monsoon climate. Parts of the south also have a tropical rainforest climate.\nA year in Thailand is divided into three seasons.: 2 The first is the rainy or southwest monsoon season (mid–May to mid–October), which is caused by southwestern wind from the Indian Ocean.: 2 Rainfall is also contributed by Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and tropical cyclones,: 2 with August and September being the wettest period of the year.: 2 The country receives a mean annual rainfall of 1,200 to 1,600 mm (47 to 63 in).: 4 Winter or the northeast monsoon occurs from mid–October until mid–February.: 2 Most of Thailand experiences dry weather with mild temperatures.: 2, 4 Summer or the pre–monsoon season runs from mid–February until mid–May.: 3 Due to their inland position and latitude, the north, northeast, central and eastern parts of Thailand experience a long period of warm weather, where temperatures can reach up to 40 °C (104 °F) during March to May,: 3 in contrast to close to or below 0 °C (32 °F) in some areas in winter.: 3 Southern Thailand is characterised by mild weather year-round with less diurnal and seasonal variations in temperatures due to maritime influences.: 3 It receives abundant rainfall, particularly during October to November.: 2 \nThailand is among the world's ten countries that are most exposed to climate change. In particular, it is highly vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather events.\n\nBiodiversity and conservation\nNational parks in Thailand are defined as an area that contains natural resources of ecological importance or unique beauty, or flora and fauna of special importance. Thailand's protected areas include 156 national parks, 58 wildlife sanctuaries, 67 non-hunting areas, and 120 forest parks. They cover almost 31 per cent of the kingdom's territory.\nThe parks are administered by the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP), of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE).\nThailand has a mediocre but improving performance in the global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) with an overall ranking of 91 out of 180 countries in 2016. The environmental areas where Thailand performs worst (i.e., highest-ranking) are air quality (167), environmental effects of the agricultural industry (106), and the climate and energy sector (93), the later mainly because of a high CO2 emission per kWh produced. Thailand performs best (i.e., lowest-ranking) in water resource management (66), with some major improvements expected for the future, and sanitation (68). The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 6.00/10, ranking it 88th globally out of 172 countries.\nThe population of elephants, the country's national symbol, has fallen from 100,000 in 1850 to an estimated 2,000. Poachers have long hunted elephants for ivory and hides, and now increasingly for meat. Young elephants are often captured for use in tourist attractions or as work animals, where there have been claims of mistreatment. In 1989 the government banned the use of elephants for logging, leading many elephant owners to move their domesticated animals to the tourism industry.\nPoaching of protected species remains a major problem. Tigers, leopards, and other large cats are hunted for their pelts. Many are farmed or hunted for their meat, which supposedly has medicinal properties. Although such trade is illegal, the well-known Bangkok market Chatuchak is still known for the sale of endangered species. The practice of keeping wild animals as pets affects species such as Asiatic black bear, Malayan sun bear, white-handed lar, pileated gibbon, and binturong.\n\nPolitics and government\nPrior to 1932, Thai kings were feudal or absolute monarchs. During Sukhothai Kingdom, the king was seen as a Dharmaraja or 'king who rules in accordance with Dharma'. The system of government was a network of tributaries ruled by local lords. Modern absolute monarchy and statehood was established by Chulalongkorn when he transformed the decentralized protectorate system into a unitary state. On 24 June 1932, Khana Ratsadon (People's Party) carried out a bloodless revolution which marked the beginning of constitutional monarchy.\nThailand has had 20 constitutions and charters since 1932, including the latest and current 2017 Constitution. All constitutions state that the politics is conducted within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, but the de facto form of government has ranged from military dictatorship to electoral democracy. Thailand's current form of government is part democracy and part dictatorship, with many terms are used to describe it. Thailand has had the fourth-most coups in the world. \"Uniformed or ex-military men have led Thailand for 55 of the 83 years\" between 1932 and 2009. Most recently, the military junta self-titled as the National Council for Peace and Order ruled the country between 2014 and 2019.\n\nGovernment is separated into three branches:\n\nThe legislative branch: the National Assembly is composed of the Senate, the 200-member indirectly elected upper house and House of Representatives, the elected 500-member lower house. Its most recent election is the 2023 general election. The coalition led by Pheu Thai Party currently holds the majority. The 2024 Thai Senate election was the first senate election held under the current constitution in the process criticized as \"the most complicated election in the world.\" The senate is allegedly dominated by Bhumjaithai Party-affiliated senators.\nThe executive branch consisting of the Prime Minister of Thailand, the head of government, and other cabinet members of up to 35 people. The Prime Minister was elected by the National Assembly. The current constitution mandates that prime ministers are to be considered from candidates nominated by political parties before the election. The current prime minister is Paetongtarn Shinawatra, a member of the Pheu Thai Party.\nThe judiciary is supposed to be independent of the executive and the legislative branches, although judicial rulings are suspected of being based on political considerations rather than on existing law.\nMilitary and bureaucratic aristocrats fully controlled political parties between 1946 and the 1980s.: 16 Most parties in Thailand are short-lived.: 246 Between 1992 and 2006, Thailand had a two-party system.: 245 Later constitutions created a multi-party system where a single party cannot gain a majority in the house.\nA hereditary monarch serves as Thailand's head of state. The current King of Thailand is Vajiralongkorn (Rama X), who has reigned since October 2016. The powers of the king are limited by the constitution and he is primarily a symbolic figurehead. However, the monarch still occasionally intervenes in Thai politics, as all constitutions pave the way for customary royal rulings. Some academics outside Thailand, including Duncan McCargo and Federico Ferrara, noted extraconstitutional role of the monarch through a \"network monarchy\" behind the political scenes. The monarchy is protected by the severe lèse majesté law, even though the people's attitude towards the institution varies from one reign to another.\nThe kings are protected by lèse-majesté laws which allow critics to be jailed for three to fifteen years. After the coup d'état in 2014, Thailand had the highest number of lèse-majesté prisoners in the nation's history. Human rights in Thailand has been rated not free on the Freedom House Index since 2014. On August 7, 2024, Thailand's Constitutional Court banned the victors of the 2023 parliamentary elections, the Move Forward Party and all of its leaders from politics for its proposal to reform the lèse-majesté law, arguing it posed a threat to the constitutional order. The Economist criticized the move as an example of \"lawfare\" and pointed to the dissolution of its predecessor party, Future Forward in 2020, as the latest example of how an \"alliance of conservative forces in Thailand—including monarchists, the army and a handful of business tycoons—has sought to suppress opposition\".\nOn the Freedom in the World 2024 Report for Thailand, their status improved from not free to partly free due to competitive parliamentary elections and the formation of a new governing coalition by what had been a major opposition party, though unelected senators ensured that the party with the most votes was excluded.\n\nAdministrative divisions\nThailand is a unitary state; the administrative services of the executive branch are divided into three levels by National Government Organisation Act, BE 2534 (1991): central, provincial and local. Thailand is composed of 76 provinces (จังหวัด, changwat), which are first-level administrative divisions. There are also two specially governed districts: the capital Bangkok and Pattaya. Bangkok is at provincial level and thus often counted as a province. Each province is divided into districts (อำเภอ, amphoe) and the districts are further divided into sub-districts (ตำบล, tambons). The name of each province's capital city (เมือง, mueang) is the same as that of the province. For example, the capital of Chiang Mai Province (Changwat Chiang Mai) is Mueang Chiang Mai or Chiang Mai. All provincial governors and district chiefs, which are administrators of provinces and districts respectively, are appointed by the central government. Thailand's provinces are sometimes grouped into four to six regions, depending on the source.\n\nForeign relations\nSiam's and Thailand's way of conducting foreign relations has long been described as \"bamboo bending with the wind\", of policies that are \"always solidly rooted, but flexible enough to bend whichever way the wind blows in order to survive,\" or adaptable and pragmatic. In order to secure independence, it sought to pit one great power against the others so that it would be dominated by none.\nDuring the Cold War, Thailand sought to prevent the spread of communism so it joined the United States, including participating in SEATO alliance, sending expeditions to Korea and Vietnam, and offering the US to use its base. Thailand is one of the five founding members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), initially to safeguard against communism. The end of Vietnam War was a turning point in Thai foreign policy and afterwards it sought to improve relations with Communist China and its now-Communist neighbours. Thailand remains an active member of ASEAN and seek to project its influence in it. Thailand has developed increasingly close ties with other members, with progressing regional co-operation in economic, trade, banking, political, and cultural matters.\nIn the 2000s, Thailand had taken an active role on the international stage and participated fully in international and regional organisations. It is a major non-NATO ally and Priority Watch List Special 301 Report of the United States. When East Timor gained independence from Indonesia, Thailand contributed troops to the international peacekeeping effort. As part of its effort to increase international ties, Thailand had reached out to such regional organisations as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).\nDuring Thaksin Shinawatra's premiership, negotiations for several free trade agreements with China, Australia, Bahrain, India, and the US were initiated. Thaksin sought to position Thailand as a regional leader, initiating various development projects in poorer neighbouring countries. More controversially, he established close, friendly ties with the Burmese dictatorship. Thailand joined the US-led invasion of Iraq, sending a humanitarian contingent until September 2004. Thailand also had contributed troops to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.\nIn April 2009, the Cambodian–Thai border dispute brought troops on territory immediately adjacent to the 900-year-old ruins of Cambodia's Preah Vihear Hindu temple near the border.\nAfter the 2014 coup, Thailand leaned more towards China. Growing Chinese influence and capital inflow caused some members of parliament to raise the concern about \"economic colony\" under China after many concessions.\nDuring the Israel-Hamas military conflict in 2023, at first Thailand's prime minister stated that his government strongly condemns the attack against Israel and extends its deepest condolences to the government and the people of Israel but the government later changed its position and announced that Thailand adopted a neutral stance in this conflict. 28 Thai nationals were killed in this conflict.\n\nArmed forces\nThe Royal Thai Armed Forces (กองทัพไทย; RTGS: Kong Thap Thai) constitute the military of the Kingdom of Thailand. It consists of the Royal Thai Army (กองทัพบกไทย), the Royal Thai Navy (กองทัพเรือไทย), and the Royal Thai Air Force (กองทัพอากาศไทย). It also incorporates various paramilitary forces.\nThe Thai Armed Forces have a combined manpower of 306,000 active duty personnel and another 245,000 active reserve personnel. The head of the Thai Armed Forces (จอมทัพไทย, Chom Thap Thai) is the king, although this position is only nominal. The armed forces are managed by the Ministry of Defence of Thailand, which is headed by the Minister of Defence (a member of the cabinet of Thailand) and commanded by the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters, which in turn is headed by the Chief of Defence Forces of Thailand. Thai annual defense budget almost tripled from US$1.98 billion in 2005 to US$5.88 billion in 2016, accounting for approximately 1.4% of GDP. Thailand ranked 16th worldwide in the Military Strength Index based on the Credit Suisse report in September 2015.\n\nThe military is also tasked with humanitarian missions, such as escorting Rohingya to Malaysia or Indonesia, ensuring security and welfare for refugees during Indochina refugee crisis.\nAccording to the constitution, serving in the armed forces is a duty of all Thai citizens. Thailand still use active draft system for males over the age of 21. They are subjected to varying lengths of active service depending on the duration of reserve training as Territorial Defence Student and their level of education. Those who have completed three years or more of reserve training will be exempted entirely. The practice has long been criticized, as some media question its efficacy and value. It is alleged that conscripts end up as servants to senior officers or clerks in military cooperative shops. In a report issued in March 2020, Amnesty International charged that Thai military conscripts face institutionalised abuse systematically hushed up by military authorities.\nCritics observed that Thai military's main objective is to deal with internal rather than external threats. Internal Security Operations Command is called the political arm of the Thai military, which has overlapping social and political functions with civilian bureaucracy. It also has anti-democracy mission. The military is also notorious for numerous corruption incidents, such as accusation of human trafficking, and nepotism in promotion of high-ranking officers. The military is deeply entrenched in politics. Most recently, the appointed senators include more than 100 active and retired military.\nThailand is the 75th most peaceful country in the world, according to the 2024 Global Peace Index.\n\nEconomy\nThe economy of Thailand is heavily export-dependent, with exports accounting for more than two-thirds of gross domestic product (GDP). Thailand exports over US$105 billion worth of goods and services annually. Major exports include cars, computers, electrical appliances, rice, textiles and footwear, fishery products, rubber, and jewellery.\nThailand is an emerging economy and is considered a newly industrialised country. Thailand had a 2017 GDP of US$1.236 trillion (on a purchasing power parity basis). Thailand is the second largest economy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Thailand ranks midway in the wealth spread in Southeast Asia as it is the fourth richest nation according to GDP per capita, after Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia.\nThailand functions as an anchor economy for the neighbouring developing economies of Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. In the third quarter of 2014, the unemployment rate in Thailand stood at 0.84% according to Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB).\nIn 2017, the Thai economy grew an inflation-adjusted 3.9%, up from 3.3% in 2016, marking its fastest expansion since 2012. High public spending, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompted the authorities to raise Thailand's public debt ceiling from 60% to 70% of GDP. As of 2024, Thailand struggle with low productivity, poor education, high household debt, low private investment and slow economic growth, with an economic research group forecasted an annual GDP growth of below 2% in the next decades without structural reforms.\n\nIncome and wealth disparities\nThais have median wealth per one adult person of $1,469 in 2016,: 98 increasing from $605 in 2010.: 34 In 2016, Thailand was ranked 87th in Human Development Index, and 70th in the inequality-adjusted HDI.\nIn 2017, Thailand's median household income was ฿26,946 per month.: 1 Top quintile households had a 45.0% share of all income, while bottom quintile households had 7.1%.: 4 There were 26.9 million persons who had the bottom 40% of income earning less than ฿5,344 per person per month.: 5 During the 2013–2014 Thai political crisis, a survey found that anti-government PDRC mostly (32%) had a monthly income of more than ฿50,000, while pro-government UDD mostly (27%) had between ฿10,000 and ฿20,000.: 7 \nIn 2014, Credit Suisse reported that Thailand was the world's third most unequal country, behind Russia and India. The top 10% richest held 79% of the country's assets. The top 1% held 58% of the assets. The 50 richest Thai families had a total net worth accounting to 30% of GDP. Bank of Thailand reported that during 2006–16, Thailand's top 5% largest companies had 85% of all corporate revenue in the nation, and only 6% of the country's companies were in export industries, which made up 60% of the country's GDP.\nIn 2016, 5.81 million people lived in poverty, or 11.6 million people (17.2% of population) if \"near poor\" is included.: 1 The proportion of the poor relative to total population in each region was 12.96% in the Northeast, 12.35% in the South, and 9.83% in the North.: 2 In 2017, there were 14 million people who applied for social welfare (yearly income of less than ฿100,000 was required). In the first quarter of 2023, Thai household debts totaled 14.6 trillion baht or 89.2% of GDP; the average debt per household was approximately 500,000 baht. In 2016, there were estimated 30,000 homeless persons in the country.\n\nExports and manufacturing\nThe economy of Thailand is heavily export-dependent, with exports accounting for more than two-thirds of gross domestic product (GDP). Thailand exports over US$105 billion worth of goods and services annually. Major exports include cars, computers, electrical appliances, rice, textiles and footwear, fishery products, rubber, and jewellery.\nSubstantial industries include electric appliances, components, computer components, and vehicles. Thailand's recovery from the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis depended mainly on exports, among various other factors. As of 2012, the Thai automotive industry was the largest in Southeast Asia and the 9th largest in the world. The Thailand industry has an annual output of near 1.5 million vehicles, mostly commercial vehicles.\nMost of the vehicles built in Thailand are developed and licensed by foreign producers, mainly Japanese and American. The Thai car industry takes advantage of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) to find a market for many of its products. Eight manufacturers, five Japanese, two US, and Tata of India, produce pick-up trucks in Thailand. As of 2012, due to its favorable taxation for 2-door pick-ups at only 3–12% against 17–50% for passenger cars, Thailand was the second largest consumer of pick-up trucks in the world, after the US. In 2014, pick-ups accounted for 42% of all new vehicle sales in Thailand.\n\nTourism\nTourism makes up about 6% of the country's economy. Prior to the pandemic, Thailand was the world's eighth most visited country according to the World Tourism rankings compiled by the United Nations World Tourism Organization. In 2019, Thailand received 39.8 million international tourists, ahead of United Kingdom and Germany and was the fourth highest in international tourism earning 60.5 billion US dollars.\nThailand was the most visited country in Southeast Asia in 2013, according to the World Tourism Organization. Estimates of tourism receipts directly contributing to the Thai GDP of 12 trillion baht range from 9 percent (1 trillion baht) (2013) to 16 percent. When including the indirect effects of tourism, it is said to account for 20.2 percent (2.4 trillion baht) of Thailand's GDP.: 1 \nAsian tourists primarily visit Thailand for Bangkok and the historical, natural, and cultural sights in its vicinity. Western tourists not only visit Bangkok and surrounding areas; many travel to the southern beaches and islands. The north is the chief destination for trekking and adventure travel with its diverse ethnic minority groups and forested mountains. The region hosting the fewest tourists is Isan. To accommodate foreign visitors, a separate tourism police with offices were set up in the major tourist areas and an emergency telephone number.\nThailand ranks as the worlds fifth largest medical tourism destination in spending, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, attracting over 2.5 million visitors in 2018, and is number one in Asia. The country is popular for the growing practice of sex reassignment surgery (SRS) and cosmetic surgery. In 2010–2012, more than 90% of medical tourists traveled to Thailand for SRS.\nProstitution in Thailand and sex tourism also form a de facto part of the economy. Campaigns promote Thailand as exotic to attract tourists. One estimate published in 2003 placed the trade at US$4.3 billion per year or about 3% of the Thai economy. It is believed that at least 10% of tourist dollars are spent on the sex trade.\n\nAgriculture and natural resources\nForty-nine per cent of Thailand's labour force is employed in agriculture. This is down from 70% in 1980. Rice is the most important crop in the country and Thailand had long been the world's leading exporter of rice, until recently falling behind both India and Vietnam. Thailand has the highest percentage of arable land, 27.25%, of any state in the Greater Mekong Subregion. About 55% of the arable land area is used for rice production.\nAgriculture has been experiencing a transition from labour-intensive and transitional methods to a more industrialised and competitive sector. Between 1962 and 1983, the agricultural sector grew by 4.1% per year on average and continued to grow at 2.2% between 1983 and 2007. The relative contribution of agriculture to GDP has declined while exports of goods and services have increased.\nFurthermore, access to biocapacity in Thailand is lower than world average. In 2016, Thailand had 1.2 global hectares of biocapacity per person within its territory, a little less than world average of 1.6 global hectares per person. In contrast, in 2016, they used 2.5 global hectares of biocapacity – their ecological footprint of consumption. This means they use about twice as much biocapacity as Thailand contains, resulting in a deficit.\n\nInformal economy\nThailand has a diverse and robust informal labour sector—in 2012, it was estimated that informal workers comprised 62.6% of the Thai workforce. The Ministry of Labour defines informal workers to be individuals who work in informal economies and do not have employee status under a given country's Labour Protection Act (LPA). The informal sector in Thailand has grown significantly over the past 60 years over the course of Thailand's gradual transition from an agriculture-based economy to becoming more industrialised and service-oriented. Between 1993 and 1995, ten per cent of the Thai labour force moved from the agricultural sector to urban and industrial jobs, especially in the manufacturing sector. It is estimated that between 1988 and 1995, the number of factory workers in the country doubled from two to four million, as Thailand's GDP tripled. While the Asian Financial Crisis that followed in 1997 hit the Thai economy hard, the industrial sector continued to expand under widespread deregulation, as Thailand was mandated to adopt a range of structural adjustment reforms upon receiving funding from the IMF and World Bank. These reforms implemented an agenda of increased privatisation and trade liberalisation in the country, and decreased federal subsidisation of public goods and utilities, agricultural price supports, and regulations on fair wages and labour conditions. These changes put further pressure on the agricultural sector, and prompted continued migration from the rural countryside to the growing cities. Many migrant farmers found work in Thailand's growing manufacturing industry, and took jobs in sweatshops and factories with few labour regulations and often exploitative conditions.\nThose that could not find formal factory work, including illegal migrants and the families of rural Thai migrants that followed their relatives to the urban centres, turned to the informal sector to provide the extra support needed for survival—under the widespread regulation imposed by the structural adjustment programs, one family member working in a factory or sweatshop made very little. Scholars argue that the economic consequences and social costs of Thailand's labour reforms in the wake of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis fell on individuals and families rather than the state: as the country's labour market became increasingly deregulated, the burden and responsibility of providing an adequate livelihood shifted from employers and the state to the workers themselves, whose families had to find jobs in the informal sector to make up for the losses and subsidise the wages being made by their relatives in the formal sector. The weight of these economic changes hit migrants and the urban poor especially hard, and the informal sector expanded rapidly as a result.\n\nToday, informal labour in Thailand is typically broken down into three main groups: subcontracted/self employed/home-based workers, service workers (including those that are employed in restaurants, as street vendors, masseuses, taxi drivers, and as domestic workers), and agricultural workers. Not included in these categories are those that work in entertainment, nightlife, and the sex industry. Individuals employed in these facets of the informal labour sector face additional vulnerabilities, including recruitment into circles of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. A 2012 study found that 64% of informal workers had not completed education beyond primary school. Many informal workers are also migrants, only some of which have legal status in the country. Because the informal labour sector is not recognised under the Labour Protection Act (LPA), informal workers are much more vulnerable to exploitation and unsafe working conditions. While some Thai labour laws provide minimal protections to domestic and agricultural workers, they are often weak and difficult to enforce. Furthermore, Thai social security policies fail to protect against the risks many informal workers face, including workplace accidents and compensation as well as unemployment and retirement insurance. Many informal workers are not legally contracted for their employment, and many do not make a living wage. Tens of thousands of migrants from neighboring countries face exploitation in a few industries, especially in fishing where slave-like conditions have been reported.\n\nScience and technology\nThailand ranked 41st in the Global Innovation Index in 2024. The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation and its agencies oversees the development of science, technology, and research in Thailand. According to the National Research Council of Thailand, the country devoted 1.1% of its GDP to the research and development of science in 2019, with over 166,788 research and development personnel in full-time equivalent that year.\n\nInfrastructure\nTransportation\nThe State Railway of Thailand (SRT) operates all of Thailand's national rail lines. Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal and Bangkok (Hua Lamphong) are the main termini of intercity routes. Phahonyothin and ICD Lat Krabang are the main freight terminals. As of 2024 SRT had 4,507 km (2,801 mi) of track, all of it meter gauge. Nearly all is single-track (2,847.1 km), although some important sections around Bangkok are double (1,089.9 km or 677.2 mi) or triple-tracked (107 km or 66 mi) and there are plans to extend this. Rail transport in Bangkok includes long-distance services, and some daily commuter trains running from and to the outskirts of the city during the rush hour, but passenger numbers have remained low. There are also four rapid transit rail systems in the capital: the BTS Skytrain, MRT, SRT Red Lines and the Airport Rail Link.\nThailand has 390,000 kilometres (240,000 miles) of highways. As of 2017, Thailand has over 462,133 roads and 37 million registered vehicles, 20 million of them motorbikes. A number of undivided two-lane highways have been converted into divided four-lane highways. Within the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, there are a number of controlled-access highways. There are 4,125 public vans operating on 114 routes from Bangkok alone. Other forms of road transport includes tuk-tuks, taxis — with over 80,647 registered taxis nationwide as of 2018, vans (minibus), motorbike taxis and songthaews.\nAs of 2012, Thailand has 103 airports with 63 paved runways, in addition to 6 heliports. The busiest airport in the country is Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.\nIn Bangkok, there were two failed rapid rail projects Lavalin Skytrain and Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System, before Mass Rapid Transit Master Plan in Bangkok Metropolitan Region was endorsed by the cabinet on 27 September 1994 and implemented from 1995 to the present.\n\nEnergy\n75% of Thailand's electrical generation is powered by natural gas in 2014. Coal-fired power plants produce an additional 20% of electricity, with the remainder coming from biomass, hydro, and biogas.\nThailand produces roughly one-third of the oil it consumes. It is the second largest importer of oil in Southeast Asia. Thailand is a large producer of natural gas, with reserves of at least 10 trillion cubic feet. After Indonesia, it is the largest coal producer in Southeast Asia, but must import additional coal to meet domestic demand.\n\nDemographics\nThailand has an estimated population of 65,975,198 as of July 2024; Thailand's first census in 1909 found the population to be 8.2 million. Thailand's population is largely rural, concentrated in the rice-growing areas of the central, northeastern and northern regions. About 44.2% of Thailand's population lived in urban areas as of 2010, slowly increasing from 29.4% in the 1990 census and 31.1% in the 2000 census.\nThailand's government-sponsored family planning program resulted in a dramatic decline in population growth from 3.1% in 1960 to around 0.4% today. In 1970, an average of 5.7 people lived in a Thai household; in 2022, the average Thai household size was 3 people. Now Thailand is an aged society, with more than 20% of its population aged over 60, and has low birth rate, posing economic challenges.\n\nEthnic groups\nAs of 2010, Thai people make up the majority of Thailand's population (95.9%). The remaining 4.1% of the population are Burmese (2.0%), others (1.3%), and unspecified (0.9%).\nAccording to genetic research, the present-day Thai people were divided into three groups: the northern group (Khon Mueang) are closely related to the Tai ethnic groups in southern China, the northeastern group (Isan people) are mixed Tai and several Austroasiatic-speaking ethnic groups, while the central and southern groups (formerly called Siamese) strongly share genetic profiles with the Mon people.\nAccording to the Royal Thai Government's 2011 Country Report to the UN Committee responsible for the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, available from the Department of Rights and Liberties Promotion of the Thai Ministry of Justice,: 3 62 ethnic communities are officially recognized in Thailand. Twenty million Central Thai (together with approximately 650,000 Khorat Thai) made up approximately 20,650,000 (34.1 per cent) of the state's population of 60,544,937 at the time of completion of the Mahidol University Ethnolinguistic Maps of Thailand data (1997).\nThe 2011 Thailand Country Report provides population numbers for mountain peoples ('hill tribes') and ethnic communities in the Northeast and is explicit about its main reliance on the Mahidol University Ethnolinguistic Maps of Thailand data. Thus, though over 3.288 million people in the Northeast alone could not be categorised, the population and percentages of other ethnic communities c. 1997 are known for all of Thailand and constitute minimum populations. In descending order, the largest (equal to or greater than 400,000) are a) 15,080,000 Lao (24.9 per cent) consisting of the Thai Lao (14 million) and other smaller Lao groups, namely the Thai Loei (400–500,000), Lao Lom (350,000), Lao Wiang/Klang (200,000), Lao Khrang (90,000), Lao Ngaew (30,000), and Lao Ti (10,000); b) six million Khon Muang (9.9 per cent, also called Northern Thais); c) 4.5 million Pak Tai (7.5 per cent, also called Southern Thais); d) 1.4 million Khmer Leu (2.3 per cent, also called Northern Khmer); e) 900,000 Malay (1.5%); f) 500,000 Nyaw (0.8 per cent); g) 470,000 Phu Thai (0.8 per cent); h) 400,000 Kuy/Kuay (also known as Suay) (0.7 per cent), and i) 350,000 Karen (0.6 per cent).: 7–13 Thai Chinese, those of significant Chinese heritage, are 14% of the population, while Thais with partial Chinese ancestry comprise up to 40% of the population. Thai Malays represent 3% of the population, with the remainder consisting of Mons, Khmers and various \"hill tribes\".\nIncreasing numbers of migrants from neighbouring Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, as well as from Nepal and India, have pushed the total number of non-national residents to around 3.5 million as of 2009, up from an estimated 2 million in 2008. Some 41,000 Britons and 20,000 Australians live in Thailand.\n\nPopulation centres\nLanguage\nThe official language of Thailand is Thai, a Kra–Dai language closely related to Lao, Shan in Myanmar, and numerous smaller languages spoken in an arc from Hainan and Yunnan south to the Chinese border. It is the principal language of education and government and spoken throughout the country. The standard is based on the dialect of the central Thai people, and it is written in the Thai alphabet, an abugida script that evolved from the Khmer alphabet. Sixty-two languages were recognised by the Royal Thai Government. For the purposes of the national census, four dialects of Thai exist; these partly coincide with regional designations, such as Southern Thai and Northern Thai.\nThe largest of Thailand's minority languages is the Lao dialect of Isan spoken in the northeastern provinces. In the far south, Kelantan-Pattani Malay is the primary language of Malay Muslims. Varieties of Chinese are also spoken by the large Thai Chinese population, with the Teochew dialect best-represented. Numerous tribal languages are also spoken, including many Austroasiatic languages such as Mon, Khmer, and Mlabri; Austronesian languages such as Cham, Moken and Urak Lawoi'; Sino-Tibetan languages like Lawa, Akha, and Karen; and other Tai languages such as Phu Thai, and Saek. Hmong is a member of the Hmong–Mien languages, which is now regarded as a language family of its own.\n\nReligion\nThe country's most prevalent religion is Theravada Buddhism, which is an integral part of Thai identity and culture. Active participation in Buddhism is among the highest in the world. Thailand has the second-largest number of Buddhists in the world after China. According to the 2018 National Statistical Office data, 93.46% of the country's population self-identified as Buddhists.\n\nMuslims constitute the second largest religious group in Thailand, comprising 5.37% of the population in 2018. Islam is concentrated mostly in the country's southernmost provinces: Pattani, Yala, Satun, Narathiwat, and part of Songkhla Chumphon, which are predominantly Malay, most of whom are Sunni Muslims. Christians represented 1.13% of the population in 2018, with the remaining population consisting of Hindus and Sikhs, who live mostly in the country's cities. There is also a small but historically significant Jewish community in Thailand dating back to the 17th century.\nThe constitution does not name an official state religion, and provides for freedom of religion. There have been no widespread reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice. Thai law officially recognizes five religious groups: Buddhists, Muslims, Brahmin-Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians. However, some laws are inspired from Buddhist practices, such as banning alcohol sales on religious holidays.\n\nEducation\nIn 1995, as minister of education, Sukavich Rangsitpollaid out his plans for educational reform in Thailand. The goal of education reform is to realize the potential of Thai people to develop themselves for the better quality of life and to develop the nation for peaceful co-existence in the world community.\nThe reform was considered a landmark movement after nearly 100 years of education under the previous system.\nThailand's youth literacy rate was 98.1% in 2015. Education is provided by a well-organised school system of kindergartens, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools, numerous vocational colleges, and universities. Education is compulsory up to and including age 14, while the government is mandated to provide free education through to age 17. The establishment of reliable and coherent curricula for its primary and secondary schools is subject to rapid changes. Issues concerning university entrance has been in constant upheaval for a number of years. The country is also one of the few that still mandates uniform up to the university years, which is still a subject of ongoing debate.\nIn 2013, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology announced that 27,231 schools would receive classroom-level access to high-speed internet. However, the country's educational infrastructure was still underprepared for online teaching, as smaller and more remote schools were particularly hindered by COVID-19 restrictions.\nThe number of higher education institutions in Thailand has grown over the past decades to 156 officially. The two top-ranking universities in Thailand are Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University. Thai universities' research output is still relatively low, even though the country's journal publications increased by 20% between 2011 and 2016. Recent initiatives, such as the National Research University and Graduate research intensive university: VISTEC, are designed to strengthen Thailand's national research universities.\nThe private sector of education is well developed and significantly contributes to the overall provision of education. Thailand has the second highest number of English-medium private international schools in Southeast Asian Nations. Cram schools are especially popular for university entrance exams.\nStudents in ethnic minority areas score consistently lower in standardised national and international tests.\nThis is likely due to unequal allocation of educational resources, weak teacher training, poverty, and low Thai language skill, the language of the tests. As of 2020, Thailand was ranked 89th out of 100 countries globally for English proficiency.\nThailand is the third most popular study destination in ASEAN. The number of international degree students in Thailand increased by 9.7 times between 1999 and 2012, from 1,882 to 20,309 students. Most of international students come from neighbor countries like China, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.\n\nHealth\nThailand ranks world's sixth, and Asia's first in the 2019 Global Health Security Index of global health security capabilities in 195 countries, making it the only developing country on the world's top ten. Thailand had 62 hospitals accredited by Joint Commission International. In 2002, Bumrungrad became the first hospital in Asia to meet the standard.\nHealth and medical care is overseen by the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), with total national expenditures on health amounting to 4.3 per cent of GDP in 2009. Non-communicable diseases form the major burden of morbidity and mortality, while infectious diseases including malaria and tuberculosis, as well as traffic accidents, are also important public health issues.\nIn December 2018 the interim parliament voted to legalise the use of cannabis for medical reasons, making Thailand the first Southeast Asian country to allow the use of medical cannabis.\n\nCulture\nThai culture and traditions incorporate influences from India, China, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Thailand's national religion, Theravada Buddhism, is central to modern Thai identity. Thai Buddhism has evolved over time to include many regional beliefs originating from Hinduism, animism, as well as ancestor worship. The official calendar in Thailand is based on the Eastern version of the Buddhist Era (BE). Thai identity today is a social construct of the Phibun regime in the 1940s.\nSeveral ethnic groups mediated change between their traditional local culture, national Thai, and global cultural influences. Overseas Chinese also form a significant part of Thai society, particularly in and around Bangkok. Their successful integration into Thai society has allowed them to hold positions of economic and political power. Thai Chinese businesses prosper as part of the larger bamboo network.\n\nRespect for elderly and superiors (by age, position, monks, or certain professions) is Thai mores. As with other Asian cultures, respect towards ancestors is an essential part of Thai spiritual practice. Thais have a strong sense of social hierarchy, reflecting in many classes of honorifics. Elders have by tradition ruled in family decisions or ceremonies. Wai is a traditional Thai greeting, and is generally offered first by a person who is younger or lower in social status and position. Older siblings have duties to younger ones. Thais have a strong sense of hospitality and generosity.\nTaboos in Thai culture include touching someone's head or pointing with the feet, as the head is considered the most sacred and the foot the lowest part of the body.\n\nArt\nThe origins of Thai art were very much influenced by Buddhist art and by scenes from the Indian epics. Traditional Thai sculpture almost exclusively depicts images of the Buddha, being very similar with the other styles from Southeast Asia. Traditional Thai paintings usually consist of book illustrations, and painted ornamentation of buildings such as palaces and temples. Thai art was influenced by indigenous civilisations of the Mon and other civilisations. By the Sukothai and Ayutthaya period, Thai had developed into its own unique style and was later further influenced by the other Asian styles, mostly by Sri Lankan and Chinese. Thai sculpture and painting, and the royal courts provided patronage, erecting temples and other religious shrines as acts of merit or to commemorate important events.\nTraditional Thai paintings showed subjects in two dimensions without perspective. The size of each element in the picture reflected its degree of importance. The primary technique of composition is that of apportioning areas: the main elements are isolated from each other by space transformers. This eliminated the intermediate ground, which would otherwise imply perspective. Perspective was introduced only as a result of Western influence in the mid-19th century. Monk artist Khrua In Khong is well known as the first artist to introduce linear perspective to Thai traditional art.\nThe most frequent narrative subjects for paintings were or are: the Jataka stories, episodes from the life of the Buddha, the Buddhist heavens and hells, themes derived from the Thai versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and scenes of daily life. Some of the scenes are influenced by Thai folklore instead of following strict Buddhist iconography.\n\nArchitecture\nArchitecture is the preeminent medium of the country's cultural legacy and reflects both the challenges of living in Thailand's sometimes extreme climate as well as, historically, the importance of architecture to the Thai people's sense of community and religious beliefs. Influenced by the architectural traditions of many of Thailand's neighbours, it has also developed significant regional variation within its vernacular and religious buildings.\nThe Ayutthaya Kingdom movement was one of the most fruitful and creative periods in Thai architecture. Architecture in the Ayutthaya period is designed to display might and riches so it has great size and appearance. The temples in Ayutthaya seldom built eaves stretching from the masterhead. The dominant feature of this style is sunlight shining into buildings. During the latter part of the Ayutthaya period, architecture was regarded as a peak achievement that responded to the requirements of people and expressed the gracefulness of Thainess.\nBuddhist temples in Thailand are known as \"wats\", from the Pāḷi vāṭa, meaning an enclosure: a temple has an enclosing wall that divides it from the secular world. Wat architecture demonstrates many differences in layout and style, but they all adhere to the same principles.\n\nLiterature\nThai literature has had a long history. Even before the establishment of the Sukhothai Kingdom there existed oral and written works.\nDuring the Sukhothai Kingdom, most literary works were written in simple prose with certain alliteration schemes. Major works include King Ram Khamhaeng Inscription describing life at the time, which is considered the first literary work in Thai script, but some historians questioned its authenticity. Trai Phum Phra Ruang, written in 1345 by King Maha Thammaracha I, expounds Buddhist philosophy based on a profound and extensive study with reference to over 30 sacred texts and could be considered the nation's first piece of research dissertation.\n\nDuring the Ayutthaya Kingdom, new poetic forms were created, with different rhyme schemes and metres. It is common to find a combination of different poetic forms in one poetic work. Lilit Yuan Phai is a narrative poem describing the war between King Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya and Prince Tilokaraj of Lan Na. One literary work is Kap He Ruea composed by Prince Thammathibet in the nirat tradition. Traditionally, the verse is sung during the colourful royal barge procession and has been the model for subsequent poets to emulate. The same prince also composed the greatly admired Kap Ho Khlong on the Visit to Than Thongdaeng and Kap Ho Khlong Nirat Phrabat. The Thonburi period produced Ramakien, a verse drama contributed by King Taksin the Great. The era marked the revival of literature after the fall of Ayutthaya.\nDuring the 18th century Rattanakosin period, which still fought with the Burmese, many of the early Rattanakosin works deal with war and military strategy. Some examples are Nirat Rop Phama Thi Tha Din Daeng, Phleng Yao Rop Phama Thi Nakhon Si Thammarat. In the performing arts, perhaps the most important dramatic achievement is the complete work of Ramakian by King Rama I. In addition, There were also verse recitals with musical accompaniment, such as Mahori telling the story of Kaki, Sepha relating the story of Khun Chang Khun Phaen. Other recitals include Sri Thanonchai. The most important Thai poet in this period was Sunthorn Phu, known as \"the bard of Rattanakosin\" (Thai: กวีเอกแห่งกรุงรัตนโกสินทร์). Sunthorn Phu is best known for his epic poem Phra Aphai Mani, a versified fantasy-adventure novel, a genre of Siamese literature known as nithan kham klon (Thai: นิทานคำกลอน).\nSome of the most well-known modern Thai writers include Kukrit Pramoj, Kulap Saipradit, (penname Siburapha), Suweeriya Sirisingh (penname Botan), Chart Korbjitti, Prabda Yoon and Duanwad Pimwana.\n\nMusic and dance\nAside from folk and regional dances (southern Thailand's Menora and Ramwong, for example), the two major forms of Thai classical dance drama are Khon and Lakhon nai. In the beginning, both were exclusively court entertainments and it was not until much later that a popular style of dance theatre, likay, evolved as a diversion for common folk.\nFolk dance forms include dance theater forms like likay, numerous regional dances (ram), the ritual dance ram muay, and homage to the teacher, wai khru. Both ram muay and wai khru take place before all traditional muay Thai matches. The wai is also an annual ceremony performed by Thai classical dance groups to honor their artistic ancestors.\nThai classical music is synonymous with those stylised court ensembles and repertoires that emerged in their present form within the royal centers of Central Thailand some 800 years ago. These ensembles, while being influenced by older practices are today uniquely Thai expressions. While the three primary classical ensembles, the Piphat, Khrueang sai and Mahori differ in significant ways, they all share a basic instrumentation and theoretical approach. Each employs small ching hand cymbals and krap wooden sticks to mark the primary beat reference. Thai classical music has had a wide influence on the musical traditions of neighboring countries.\n\nEntertainment\nThai films are exported and exhibited in Southeast Asia. Thai cinema has developed its own unique identity and is now being internationally recognized. Films such as Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (2003) and Tom-Yum-Goong (2005), starring Tony Jaa, feature distinctive aspects of Thai martial arts \"Muay Thai\".\nThai horror has always had a significant cult following. Shutter (2004) was one of the best-known Thai horror movies and was recognized worldwide. The Thai heist thriller film Bad Genius (2017) was one of the most internationally successful Thai films; it broke Thai film earning records in several Asian countries, Bad Genius won in 12 categories at the 27th Suphannahong National Film Awards, and also won the Jury Award at the 16th New York Asian Film Festival with a worldwide collection of more than $42 million.\nThailand television dramas, known as Lakorn, have become popular in Thailand and regionally. Many dramas tend to have a romantic focus, such as Khluen Chiwit, U-Prince, Ugly Duckling, The Crown Princess and teen dramas television series, such as 2gether: The Series, The Gifted, Girl From Nowhere, Hormones: The Series.\nThe entertainment industries are estimated to have directly contributed $2.1 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) to the Thai economy in 2011. They also directly supported 86,600 jobs. Amongst several Dance-pop artists who have made internationally successful can be mentioned \"Lisa\" Lalisa Manobal, Violette Wautier, and Tata Young.\n\nCuisine\nThai cuisine is one of the most popular in the world. Thai food blends five fundamental tastes: sweet, spicy, sour, bitter, and salty. Common ingredients include garlic, lemongrass, kaffir lime, galangal, turmeric, coriander, and coconut milk. Each region of Thailand has its specialities: kaeng khiao wan (green curry) in the central region, som tam (green papaya salad) in the northeast, khao soi in the north, and massaman curry in the south.\nIn 2017, seven Thai dishes appeared on a list of the \"World's 50 Best Foods\"— an online worldwide poll by CNN Travel. Thailand had more dishes on the list than any other country. They were: tom yam goong (4th), pad Thai (5th), som tam (6th), massaman curry (10th), green curry (19th), Thai fried rice (24th) and nam tok mu (36th). Two desserts were also listed in CNN's 50 Best Desserts Around The World: mango sticky rice and tub tim krob.\nThe staple food in Thailand is rice, particularly jasmine rice, which forms part of almost every meal. Thailand is a leading exporter of rice, and Thais consume over 100 kg of milled rice per person per year. Thailand is also the world leader in edible insect industry and well known for its street food; Bangkok is sometimes called the street food capital of the world.\n\nUnits of measurement\nThailand generally uses the metric system, but traditional units of measurement for land area are used, and imperial units of measurement are occasionally used for building materials. Years are numbered as B.E. (Buddhist Era) in educational settings, civil service, government, contracts, and newspaper datelines. However, in banking, and increasingly in industry and commerce, standard Western year (Christian or Common Era) counting is the standard practice.\n\nSports\nMuay Thai (lit. \"Thai boxing\") is a combat sport that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. Muay Thai became widespread internationally in the late-20th to 21st century. Famous practitioners include Buakaw Banchamek, Samart Payakaroon, Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn and Apidej Sit-Hirun. Buakaw Banchamek has probably brought more international interest in Muay Thai than any other fighter.\nAssociation football has overtaken Muay Thai as the most widely followed sport in Thailand. The Thailand national football team has played the AFC Asian Cup six times and reached the semifinals in 1972. The country has hosted the Asian Cup twice, in 1972 and in 2007. The 2007 edition was co-hosted together with Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Another widely enjoyed pastime, and once a competitive sport, is kite flying.\nVolleyball is rapidly growing as one of the most popular sports. The women's team has often participated in the World Championship, World Cup, and World Grand Prix Asian Championship. They have won the Asian Championship twice and Asian Cup once. By the success of the women's team, the men's team has been growing as well.\nTakraw is a sport native to Thailand, in which the players hit a rattan ball and are only allowed to use their feet, knees, chest, and head to touch the ball. Sepak takraw is a form of this sport which is similar to volleyball. A rather similar game but played only with the feet is buka ball.\nSnooker has enjoyed increasing popularity in Thailand in recent years, with interest in the game being stimulated by the success of Thai snooker player James Wattana in the 1990s. Other notable Thai players include Ratchayothin Yotharuck, Noppon Saengkham and Dechawat Poomjaeng.\nRugby is also a growing sport in Thailand with the Thailand national rugby union team rising to be ranked 61st in the world. Thailand became the first country in the world to host an international 80 welterweight rugby tournament in 2005. The national domestic Thailand Rugby Union (TRU) competition includes several universities as well as local sports clubs like the British Club of Bangkok, the Southerners Sports Club and the Royal Bangkok Sports Club.\nThailand has been called the golf capital of Asia. The country attracts a large number of golfers from Japan, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and Western countries. The growing popularity of golf, especially among the middle classes and immigrants, is evident as there are more than 200 world-class golf courses nationwide, and some of them are chosen to host PGA and LPGA tournaments, such as Amata Spring Country Club, Alpine Golf and Sports Club, Thai Country Club, and Black Mountain Golf Club.\nBasketball is a growing sport in Thailand, especially on the professional sports club level. The Chang Thailand Slammers won the 2011 ASEAN Basketball League Championship. The Thailand national basketball team had its most successful year at the 1966 Asian Games where it won the silver medal.\nOther sports in Thailand are slowly growing as the country develops its sporting infrastructure. The success in sports like weightlifting and taekwondo at the last two summer Olympic Games has demonstrated that boxing is no longer the only medal option for Thailand.\n\nThe well-known Lumpinee Boxing Stadium originally sited at Rama IV Road near Lumphini Park hosted its final Muay Thai boxing matches on 8 February 2014 after the venue first opened in December 1956. From 11 February 2014, the stadium will relocate to Ram Intra Road, due to the new venue's capacity. Thammasat Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Bangkok, currently used mostly for football matches. It was built for the 1998 Asian Games. Rajamangala National Stadium is the biggest sporting arena in Thailand, with a capacity of 65,000. The stadium was built in 1998 for the 1998 Asian Games and is the home stadium of the Thailand national football team.\n\nSee also\nInternational rankings of Thailand\nOutline of Thailand\n\nNotes\nReferences\nFurther reading\nChachavalpongpun, Pavin, ed. (2020). Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand. Routledge. ISBN 9781138558410. OCLC 1110657073.\nCooper, Robert George (2008). Culture Shock! Thailand: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette. Marshall Cavendish Editions. ISBN 9789814828772. OCLC 1101343921.\nLondon, Ellen (2008). Thailand Condensed: 2000 Years of History & Culture. Marshall Cavendish Editions. ISBN 9789812615206.\nLonely Planet's Best of Thailand. Lonely Planet guidebooks. Footscray, Vic.: Lonely Planet. 2020. OCLC 1312080896.\nMishra, Patit Paban (2010). The History of Thailand. Greenwood. OCLC 548555562.\nMoore, Frank J., ed. (1974). Thailand: Its People, Its Society, Its Culture. HRAF Press. OCLC 722730.\nWyatt, David K. (2003). Thailand: A Short History. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300084757. OCLC 53392823.\nZawacki, Benjamin (2021). Thailand: Shifting ground between the US and a rising China (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury. OCLC 1232148433.\n\nExternal links\n\nGovernment\n\nThaigov.go.th – Government of Thailand\nChief of State and Cabinet Members (archived 10 December 2008)\nMfa.go.th – Ministry of Foreign Affairs\nThailand Internet information – National Electronics and Computer Technology Center\nMinistry of Culture (archived 28 April 2015)\nGeneral information\n\nThailand. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.\nThailand entry in Library of Congress Country Studies. 1987\nThailand from UCB Libraries GovPubs (archived 7 February 2009)\nThailand at Curlie\nThailand from the BBC News\nThailand Encyclopædia Britannica entry\n Wikimedia Atlas of Thailand\nLongdo Map – Thailand maps in English and Thai\nKey Development Forecasts for Thailand from International Futures\n2010 Thailand population census by Economic and Social statistics Bureau (archived 16 January 2013)\nTravel\n\nTourism Authority of Thailand – official tourism website\nOther\n\nThailand Country Fact Sheet from the Common Language Project (archived 31 July 2014)\nSoutheast Asia Visions. \"Browse the Southeast Asia Visions Collection\". Cornell University Library.","title":"Thailand"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Thailand national football team (Thai: ฟุตบอลทีมชาติไทย, RTGS: futbon thim chat thai, pronounced [fút.bɔ̄n tʰīːm t͡ɕʰâːt tʰāj]) represents Thailand in senior international football and is controlled by the Football Association of Thailand.\nIn the regional competition, Thailand is the most successful football team in Southeast Asia with seven ASEAN Championship trophies and nine senior-level gold medals from the Southeast Asian Games, the most of any Southeast Asian country. In higher levels, Thailand achieved the third place in the 1972 AFC Asian Cup where it was the host, and has a total of seven appearances in the AFC Asian Cup so far. Furthermore, the team reached the fourth-place in the 1990 and 1998 Asian Games and participated in the Summer Olympics twice. However, Thailand has failed to obtain higher achievements in the continental and global records. The team obtained first ever win in the AFC Asian Cup in 2007 and had to wait 47 years to finally sneak out of the group stage in 2019. Thailand also advanced to the final round of World Cup qualification twice, in 2002 and 2018, but failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.\n\nHistory\n1915–1995: dynastic establishment\nThe team's predecessor, which operated under the name of Siam, was founded in 1915 and played its first unofficial match against a team of Europeans at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club Stadium on 20 December that year. The team played its first international match in 1930 against the Indochina national team, which included both South Vietnamese and French players.\n\nThailand appeared in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, where their lost to Great Britain 0–9, was the largest to that point, thus failing to advance to the quarter-finals. In 1959, Thailand as the host won silver medals in the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games after losing 1–3 to South Vietnam in the final. In 1965, Thailand harbored its first distinct title: the very first place in the Southeast Asian Games. They made their second and latest appearance at the Summer Olympics in 1968, losing all three matches by at least 3 goals margin to Bulgaria, Guatemala, and Czechoslovakia hence en route to a first-round exit.\nDuring the 1992 AFC Asian Cup qualification, Thailand gained a significant success defeating South Korea 2–1 and Bangladesh 1–0 to top the group and qualify to the 1992 AFC Asian Cup. The team's performance at the final tournament was drawing first two matches with Qatar and eventual 3rd place China then losing 0–4 to Saudi Arabia. In 1994, manager Thawatchai Sartjakul assembled a team that has been denounced as the \"dream team\" with players like Kiatisuk Senamuang, Tawan Sripan and Dusit Chalermsan.\n\n1996–2016: flag bearer of Southeast Asia\nIn 1996, Thailand defeated Malaysia 1–0 and win the ASEAN Football Championship (then called the Tiger Cup) for the first time. Thailand were favorites to regain the crown in 2007, 2008 and 2012 only to lose tight finals to Singapore and Vietnam respectively.\nThe regional 1998 Tiger Cup saw Thailand met Indonesia in a match that ill-hearted players from both team deliberately making actions aimed to avoid facing hosts Vietnam in the semi-finals and undergoing technical burden of moving training bases from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. FIFA fined both teams $40,000 for \"violating the spirit of the game\". Thailand eventually lost the match, inevitably encountered and failed to Vietnam in the semi-finals.\nThailand consecutively qualified to and participated in two AFC Asian Cup final tournaments both held within Western Asia in 1996 and 2000 when their \"dream team\" was beginning its golden period. Coincidentally in both editions, the team's opponents all came from Western Asia and they are Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, with the latter two share the same group with Thailand twice. In both editions, Thailand made two draws and lost the rest, bottomed the group stage of the first and is the worst third-placed team of the second edition.\n\nThe final 2000 AFF Championship match between Thailand and Indonesia, at a sold out Rajamangala, was almost a carbon copy of their group stage's encounter. The War Elephants triumphed 4–1 again with Worrawoot setting up camp at the opponents' goal. The 28-year-old scored twice in their first match and in the final struck a hat-trick in the first 32 minutes. In the final 2002 AFF Cup final, Thailand again met Indonesia (who was now the host) and won the game in penalty shootout despite taking a 2–0 lead.\nThailand again qualified to the Asian Cup in 2004 and was put into a group with Japan, Iran and debutant Oman. Despite vast experiences in the Asian Cup, the team has yet to show a sign of improvement as they lost all matches and became the worst-performed team in the whole tournament.\nThe sign of improving only came in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup when Thailand participated as a well-prepared co-host and was placed with the debutant Australia, Oman, and Iraq. The team manages a draw to Iraq and a historic win over Oman. With 4 points ahead, Thailand's chance to qualify to the next round for the first time since 1972 was all but shattered by the likes of Australia in a 0–4 demolition. The tournament witnessed the end of Thailand's recognizable generation with later retirements of Kiatisuk, Tawan, and Pipat.\nIn September 2008, Thailand signed a four-year contract with the English coach Peter Reid but Reid left his position by mutual consent after only a year in charge as his team fail to clinch the championship of 2008 AFF Championship after 2–3 on aggregate lost to Vietnam in the finals.\n\nIn September 2009, Bryan Robson agreed to coach Thailand in his first foray into international football management and was contracted to manage the team through to the 2014 World Cup. In November, Robson celebrated his first competitive match in charge of the team with an away victory against Singapore in a 2011 Asian Cup qualifying group match but then lose to the same opponent back home. Then, two goalless draws with Jordan and Iran in January 2010 and an 0–1 away lost to Iran in March all effectively ended the chance of qualifying for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. In preparations for the 2010 AFF Championship, Robson led Thailand to victorious run against Singapore and Bob Houghton's India in a series of friendlies. However, when entering the tournament in December, he failed to bring Thailand past group A after managing only draws against Laos and Malaysia and losing to Indonesia.Robson resigned as Thailand's manager on 8 June 2011, citing health problems as the reason and was replaced by Winfried Schäfer, who would be the ninth German person to coach the Thailand team.\nThe new coach called up starlets for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers and have the starting set of matches losing minimal to Australia, defeating Oman 3–0 and drawing Saudi Arabia but did not make it after losing to these teams altogether in the second set. In the 2012 AFF Championship, Thailand topped their group and surpassed Malaysia in semi-finals but handed the crown to Singapore in the finals. In the 2015 Asian Cup qualification, Thailand showed setback with its defensive frailties exposed by Middle Eastern rivals (Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon) when losing all 6 games in the qualifiers, conceding 21 goals in the process.\nIn June 2013, Schäfer cancelled his contract. The FA of Thailand appointed the former player Kiatisuk Senamuang as the new caretaker coach for the national team. His first ride was a friendly against China PR on 15 June, which Thailand surprisingly won 5–1.\n\nIn 2014, Thailand ended a 12-year drought of the AFF Championship title from the late goals by Charyl Chappuis and Chanathip Songkrasin which gave them a dramatic 4–3 aggregate victory over Malaysia in the second leg of the finals at Bukit Jalil. The team did not lose any match up until the second leg of the finals and often featured a tiki-taka playing style, for instance including 27 consecutive passes during the first leg of the finals against Malaysia. Kiatisuk consequently became the first person to win the ASEAN Football Championship as both a player and a coach. Thailand succeeded in protecting AFF Championship reign two years later in 2016, defeating Indonesia 3–2 aggregately despite losing the first leg.\nIn 2015, evasion fuelled hope for both the players and Thailand fans of finally reaching the World Cup tournament and tension is mounting as the national team commenced AFC's second round for 2018 World Cup qualification. Teerasil Dangda, Thailand's renowned striker, rejoined the rank of the national team after his loan with UD Almería ended earlier. Drawn in Group F along with Chinese Taipei, Iraq and Vietnam, who Thailand played first match home against on 24 May and can only be won by a victory goal from a shot 20 yards away. They played a much easier match at the same opponent's home soil, winning 3–0. Thailand won both matches against Chinese Taipei and drew 2–2 both matches against Iraq, allowing them to qualify for the next round as group F winners.\nIn the last round, Kiatisuk's men shared the same group with Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UAE along with previous opponent, Iraq. Again, Thailand was eliminated without winning a match and recorded only two points out of ten matches.\n\n2017–present: Rebuilding to achieve the continental success\nRajevac, Sirisak and Nishino\nSince taking over the administration by Somyot Poompanmoung, FA Thailand aims to drive men's national football team to be one of the leading teams in Asia by which there are concrete 20 years development plans and preparations. After the elimination from World Cup qualifiers, Kiatisuk resigned and Thailand appointed Milovan Rajevac as a coach, thus marked the first non-Brazilian/German/English team's chief. With the new coach, however, Thailand failed to defend its AFF Championship title in 2018 when losing Malaysia in the semi-finals by the away goals rule.\nAhead of 2019 AFC Asian Cup, Thailand was drawn into group A together with the host UAE, Bahrain and India. Rajevac oversaw Thailand in the commencing 1–4 loss to India. The Serbian coach was sacked and his assistant, Sirisak Yodyardthai became the interim coach on 7 January. Sirisak guided Thailand to a 1–0 win over Bahrain and a 1–1 draw with the host UAE, enough to move on to the knockout stage of the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in 47 years. Their success was greeted with congratulation from the FA. Thailand encountered China in the round of sixteen, taking an early lead but eventually lost 2–1 as China make their decisive respond.\n\nAfter finishing in the fourth place of 2019 King's Cup and losing the rival Vietnam in that tournament, Sirisak had resigned and FA Thailand appointed the Japanese coach Akira Nishino, who had brought Japan to the round of 16 of 2018 FIFA World Cup, for replacement. This was the first-ever Asian coach becoming Thailand's head coach. The team was drawn into group G of the second round of 2022 World Cup qualification with other three Southeast Asian rivals: Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia; along with United Arab Emirates. Despite defeating Indonesia 3–0 and UAE 2–1, Thailand failed to revenge Vietnam when getting goalless draws in both legs, while losing Malaysia 1–2 in Bukit Jalil. With these results, Thailand could only get the third place in group G after five qualifying matches. After a one-year disruption due to COVID-19 pandemic, Thailand and other teams in group G had to play their remaining matches in Dubai, UAE. However, the team suffered a huge loss of key players when Chanathip Songkrasin was injured, while Teerasil Dangda and Theerathon Bunmathan refused to participate the qualification due to various reasons. Without these three players, Thailand showed a poor performance in Dubai - drawn the bottom place team Indonesia 2–2, then lost the UAE 1–3 and Malaysia 0–1, respectively; which eventually pushed the team down to the fourth place of the group G. Nishino did not come back to Thailand to explain the team's failure, but unilaterally returning to Japan, which made FA Thailand appoint Anurak Srikerd as the caretaker and consider sacking Nishino in upcoming days. On 29 July 2021, shortly after Nishino came back to Thailand, FA Thailand decided to terminate the contract with Nishino.\n\nAlexandré Pölking\nOn 28 September 2021, Alexandré Pölking was appointed as the head coach of the Thailand national team, replacing Akira Nishino. Pölking's first task was the 2020 AFF Championship in December 2021 held in Singapore. Between 5 December 2021 and 1 January 2022, Polking accomplished the very task as he managed the War Elephants to win 6–2 on aggregate after being held to a 2–2 second-leg draw by Indonesia, guiding Thailand to win the AFF Championship for the sixth time. In the 2022 AFF Championship, Thailand defended their title on 16 January 2023, winning the tournament by a 3–2 aggregate score in the two-legged final against Vietnam to secure their seventh title. In October 2023, Thailand embarked on a European tour playing two friendlies against Georgia and Estonia and with star players like Chanathip Songkrasin, Nicholas Mickelson and Ekanit Panya injured and club team refused to released Teerasil Dangda and Theerathon Bunmathan, Supachok Sarachat, Sarach Yooyen, Pansa Hemviboon for international duties, Thailand have to relies on inexperience international players and also giving the opportunity for new young players a chanced to touched up for the future international matches. On 12 October 2023, Thailand suffered their worst defeat in the 21st century losing against Georgia 8–0 at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium. In the next match against Estonia on 17 October, Jakkapan Praisuwan equalised it for Thailand for a hard fought 1–1 draw at the Lilleküla Stadium.\nThe 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification saw Thailand drawn in group C against South Korea, China and Singapore, with the target to be winning the second place to advance to the final round. However, Thailand would get off to a disastrous start, flopping at home to China 2–1 despite opened the scoring by Sarach Yooyen. This disastrous home loss ultimately sealed Pölking's fate, despite a 3–1 away victory over Singapore later on sent Thailand to second on goal difference; with the Brazilian tactician sacked for failing to live up to the target.\n\nMasatada Ishii\nAfter a hurried attempt, Japanese manager Masatada Ishii was announced as Thailand's temporarily new head coach, with a contract lasted until the end of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup as he faced a daunting prospect of reviving the lacklustre Thai side to reach continental level. His first match, a friendly against his homeland Japan, saw Thailand thrashed 5–0 in the second half after an impressive first half display, increased negative feelings among Thai fans as the War Elephants faced a huge challenge in group F at the Asian Cup, with Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan and Oman on the same boat.\nAmidst drop of a huge pessimism, Thailand started their Asian Cup campaign against Kyrgyzstan to a bright note, winning 2–0 to mark Thailand's first ever win in an Asian Cup opening match. After a 2–0 victory over Kyrgyzstan, Thailand squared up against a far stronger Oman side, which was boosted by bright performances over the past three years and under the Croatian manager Branko Ivanković, an Asian football expert who never lost to Thailand in his coaching career. However, Thailand defied all expectation of an easy Omani triumph, resolutely defended throughout the match and several times created opportunities to end the game with a famous goalless shutout, giving Thailand four points and the country's early progression to the knockout stage. Thailand would then go on to produce its most famous game in their modern Asian Cup history, a brilliant counter-offensive tactic against Asian hegemon Saudi Arabia in the final group stage match, including a famous penalty save by Saranon Anuin as Thailand made a famous goalless draw to the Saudis, ending their losing streak that started in 2012 to the same opponent and, for the first time ever, Thailand gained a shutout record in the Asian Cup group stage. However, Thailand failed to end their miserable knockout stage record in the Asian Cup, losing 2–1 to Uzbekistan in the round of 16 to equal their 2019 result. Despite this exit, Thailand's bright performance in the tournament earned the team significant praises for their resoluteness and ability to adapt to difficult circumstances, and Masatada Ishii was appointed on a permanent basis, with the aim to help Thailand to qualify for the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualification and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.\n\nTeam image\nColours\nIn older days, the primary kits worn are all red.\nThe Thai senior national team used to play with a kit made by local provider FBT. This contract lasted until June 2007.\nIn July 2007, Nike became kit providers, and from October that year, the team played in an all-yellow home kit in honour of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 80th birthday (yellow being the royal color), having used two other yellow kits in friendlies against China on 16 May 2007 and Qatar on 2 July 2007.\nFrom October 2012 through 2016, Nike was replaced by Grand Sport in a deal worth 96M baht (3.1M USD). The new home kit of Thailand reverted to all-red and the away kit to all-blue. However, the order was reversed from the 2014 AFF Championship onward.\nIn September 2016, the national team signed a four-year contract with Warrix Sports to be their kit provider from 2017. On 4 January 2017, the new provider introduced a new pair of Thailand kits that was all black home and all white away, honouring their late King Bhumibol for a year after his passing, with black and white being the traditional Thai colors of mourning.\nIn March 2018, Warrix returned Thailand to the all-blue first, all-red second kits with an addition of a white-black third kit.\nIn December 2018, a new, darker version of blue, red kits and an all white third kit were presented for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup campaign and the rest of 2019. For the 2019 King's Cup in May, Warrix released the kit consisting of a yellow shirt with white shorts and socks – yellow reportedly being the favorite color of the newly crowned King Maha Vajiralongkorn.\n\nRivalries\nNotable rivalries\nThailand has rivalries with Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. These rivalries are rooted in geographical proximity.\n\nThailand's greatest rival is Malaysia, the two teams having played each other 106 times. Before Malaysia fell into football scandal that weakened the country's football development from the 1990s to 2018, Malaysia was Thailand's most annoying and difficult opponent in the region. Despite the football scandal, Thailand have not defeated the Malaysians on their home turf since 1971. Thailand have better records in international football competitions than the Malaysians.\nIndonesia has met Thailand in three finals of the AFF Championship at 2000, 2002 and 2016, and Thailand all triumphed at the expense of Indonesia. It's been said that while Thailand was able to elevate its position to become a more serious Asian competitor, Indonesia fell into mismanagement and matches between two teams also began to lose its importance.\nThe rivalry between Thailand and Singapore is a newer one and its importance can be emphasized by the domination of both countries in the AFF Championship with Thailand winning five times and Singapore winning four. Up until 2012, Singapore and Thailand have been the more dominant forces in Southeast Asian football. Football development in both countries have been different with Thailand relies mostly on its own domestically developed players while Singapore has been reliant on naturalized players.\nThailand's rivalry with Vietnam has developed differently from times. During the time of South Vietnam and North Vietnam, Thailand had a poorer performance with the team only won 5 matches against the South Vietnamese. However, when Vietnam rejoined international football at 1991, Thailand has been more dominant than their eastern rival.\nWhen Myanmar was still a football power, it was Thailand's first-ever rival, owned by the history of the Burmese–Siamese wars which led to a nationalist fervor among Thai fans with its desire to beat the Burmese. But with Myanmar weakened following the reign of Ne Win and junta, Thailand improved and since 1983, holds an undefeated streak over its western rival. The rivalry today only serves mostly in the memoir of Burmese fans who are nostalgic to an era when Myanmar was still a leading football power, while for some Thai fans, they have more important opponents to concentrate on.\n\nHome ground\nMost home matches took place in Rajamangala National Stadium in Bang Kapi District of Bangkok. Built for the 1998 Asian Games, the stadium is the largest sporting facility in Thailand with a capacity of 49,749, all seated. International matches are also occasionally played at Supachalasai Stadium, 700th Anniversary Stadium, 80th Birthday Stadium, Thammasat Stadium, Chang Arena, BG Stadium and Thunderdome Stadium.\n\nResults and fixtures\nThe following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.\n Win\n Draw\n Loss\n Fixture\n\n2023\n2024\nCoaching staff\nCoaching history\nStatistical summary\nAs of 10 September 2024 after the match against Vietnam.\n\nPlayers\nCurrent squad\nThe following 23 players were called up for the 2024 King's Cup on 11 and 14 October 2024 respectively.\nCaps and goals as of 10 September 2024, after the match against Vietnam.\n\nRecent call-ups\nThe following players have been called up within the last 12 months.\n\nPlayer records\nAs of 11 June 2024\nPlayers in bold are still active with Thailand.\n\nMost appearances\nTop goalscorers\nCompetitive record\nFIFA World Cup\nAFC Asian Cup\nASEAN Championship\nOlympic Games\nAsian Games\nSoutheast Asian Games\nNotes\n1 : The title was shared.\n* : Denotes draws including knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.\n\nHead-to-head record\nAs of 10 September 2024\n\nHonours\nContinental\nAFC Asian Cup\n Third place (1): 1972\n\nRegional\nASEAN Championship\n Champions (7): 1996, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2022\n Runners-up (3): 2007, 2008, 2012\nSoutheast Asian Games\n Gold Medal (9): 1965 (shared), 1975, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999\n Silver Medal (4): 1959, 1969, 1977, 1991\n Bronze Medal (5): 1961, 1967, 1971, 1979, 1987\n\nFriendly\nKing's Cup\n Champions (14): 1976 (shared), 1979, 1980 (shared), 1981, 1982, 1984, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2016, 2017\n Runners-up (12): 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2015, 2018, 2023\n Third place (12): 1968, 1973, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2013 (shared), 2022\nChina Cup\n Runners-up (1): 2019\nIndonesian Independence Cup\n Champions (1): 1994\nKorea Cup\n Third place (1): 1977 (shared)\nVFF Vietnam International Friendly Cup\n Champions (2): 2006, 2008\nNehru Cup\n Third place (1): 1995\n3 Nations in Taiwan\n Champions (1): 1971\n4 Nations in Indochina\n Champions (1): 1989\nBrunei Games\n Champions (1): 1990\n\nSee also\nThailand national under-23 football team\nThailand national under-21 football team\nThailand national under-20 football team\nThailand national under-17 football team\nThailand national futsal team\nKing's Cup\nFootball in Thailand\nSport in Thailand\n\nNotes\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nFootball Association of Thailand\nThailand FIFA profile\nThailand AFC profile","title":"Thailand_national_football_team"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spans 513,115 square kilometres (198,115 sq mi). Thailand is bordered to the northwest by Myanmar, to the northeast and east by Laos, to the southeast by Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the southwest by the Andaman Sea; it also shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the southeast and Indonesia and India to the southwest. Bangkok is the state capital and largest city.\\nThai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 6th to 11th centuries. Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, Khmer Empire, and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang, Sukhothai, Lan Na, and Ayutthaya, which also rivalled each other. European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, which became a regional power by the end of the 15th century. Ayutthaya reached its peak during the 18th century, until it was destroyed in the Burmese–Siamese War. King Taksin the Great quickly reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-lived Thonburi Kingdom (1767–1782), of which he was the only king. He was succeeded in 1782 by Phutthayotfa Chulalok (Rama I), the first monarch of the current Chakri dynasty. Throughout the era of Western imperialism in Asia, Siam remained the only state in the region to avoid colonization by foreign powers, although it was often forced to make territorial, trade, and legal concessions in unequal treaties. The Siamese system of government was centralised and transformed into a modern unitary absolute monarchy during the 1868–1910 reign of Chulalongkorn (Rama V). In World War I, Siam sided with the Allies, a political decision made in order to amend the unequal treaties. Following a bloodless revolution in 1932, it became a constitutional monarchy and changed its official name to Thailand, becoming an ally of Japan in World War II. In the late 1950s, a military coup under Sarit Thanarat revived the monarchy's historically influential role in politics. During the Cold War, Thailand became a major ally of the United States and played an anti-communist role in the region as a member of SEATO, which was disbanded in 1977.\\nApart from a brief period of parliamentary democracy in the mid-1970s and 1990s, Thailand has periodically alternated between democracy and military rule. Since the 2000s, the country has been in continual political conflict between supporters and opponents of twice-elected Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra, which resulted in two coups (in 2006 and 2014), along with the establishment of its current constitution, a nominally democratic government after the 2019 Thai general election, and large pro-democracy protests in 2020–2021, which included unprecedented demands to reform the monarchy. Since 2019, it has been nominally a parliamentary constitutional monarchy; in practice, however, structural advantages in the constitution have ensured the military's continued influence in politics.\\nThailand is a middle power in global affairs and a founding member of ASEAN. It has the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia and the 23rd-largest in the world by PPP, and it ranks 91st by nominal GDP per capita. Thailand is classified as a newly industrialised economy, with manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism as leading sectors.\\n\\nEtymology\\nThailand was known by outsiders prior to 1939 as Siam. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai (ไทย) means 'free man' in the Thai language, \\\"differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs\\\".: 197 According to Chit Phumisak, Thai (ไท) simply means 'people' or 'human being'; his investigation shows that some rural areas used the word \\\"Thai\\\" instead of the usual Thai word khon (คน) for people. According to Michel Ferlus, the ethnonyms Thai-Tai (or Thay-Tay) would have evolved from the etymon *k(ə)ri: 'human being'.\\nThais often refer to their country using the polite form prathet Thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย). They also use the more colloquial term mueang Thai (Thai: เมืองไทย) or simply Thai; the word mueang, archaically referring to a city-state, is commonly used to refer to a city or town as the centre of a region. Ratcha Anachak Thai (Thai: ราชอาณาจักรไทย) means 'kingdom of Thailand' or 'kingdom of Thai'. Etymologically, its components are: ratcha (Sanskrit: राजन्, rājan, 'king, royal, realm'), ana- (Pali āṇā 'authority, command, power', itself from the Sanskrit आज्ञा, ājñā, of the same meaning), and -chak (from Sanskrit चक्र cakra- 'wheel', a symbol of power and rule). The Thai National Anthem (Thai: เพลงชาติ), written by Luang Saranupraphan during the patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as prathet Thai (Thai: ประเทศไทย). The first line of the national anthem is: prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai (Thai: ประเทศไทยรวมเลือดเนื้อชาติเชื้อไทย), 'Thailand is founded on blood and flesh'.\\nThe former name Siam may have originated from Sanskrit श्याम (śyāma, 'dark') or Mon ရာမည (rhmañña, 'stranger'), probably the same root as Shan and Assam. The word Śyâma is possibly not the true origin, but a pre-designed deviation from its proper, original meaning. Another theory is the name derives from the Chinese calling this region 'Xian'.: 8 The ancient Khmers used the word Siam to refer to people settled in the west Chao Phraya River valley surrounding the ancient city of Nakhon Pathom in the present-day central Thailand; it may probably originate from the name of Lord Krishna, which also called Shyam, as in the Wat Sri Chum Inscription, dated 13th century CE, mentions Phra Maha Thera Sri Sattha came to restore Phra Pathommachedi at the city of Lord Krishna (Nakhon Pathom) in the early era of the Sukhothai Kingdom.\\n\\nThe signature of King Mongkut (r. 1851–1868) reads SPPM (Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha) Mongkut Rex Siamensium (Mongkut, King of the Siamese). This usage of the name in the country's first international treaty gave the name Siam official status, until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand.\\nThailand was briefly renamed Siam from 1946 to 1948, after which it again reverted to Thailand.\\n\\nHistory\\nPrehistory and origins\\nThere is evidence of continuous human habitation in present-day Thailand from 20,000 years ago to the present day.: 4 The earliest evidence of rice growing is dated at 2,000 BCE.: 4 Areas comprising what is now Thailand participated in the Maritime Jade Road, as ascertained by archeological research. The trading network existed for 3,000 years, between 2000 BCE to 1000 CE. Bronze appeared c. 1,250–1,000 BCE.: 4 The site of Ban Chiang in northeast Thailand currently ranks as the earliest known centre of copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia. Iron appeared around 500 BCE.: 5 The Kingdom of Funan was the first and most powerful Southeast Asian kingdom at the time (2nd century BCE).: 5 The Mon people established the principalities of Dvaravati and Kingdom of Hariphunchai in the 6th century. The Khmer people established the Khmer empire, centred in Angkor, in the 9th century.: 7 Tambralinga, a Malay state controlling trade through the Malacca Strait, rose in the 10th century.: 5 The Indochina peninsula was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India from the time of the Kingdom of Funan to that of the Khmer Empire.\\nThe Thai people are of the Tai ethnic group, characterized by common linguistic roots.: 2 Chinese chronicles first mention the Tai peoples in the 6th century BCE. While there are many assumptions regarding the origin of Tai peoples, David K. Wyatt, a historian of Thailand, argued that their ancestors who at present inhabit Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, India, and China came from the Điện Biên Phủ area between the 5th and the 8th century.: 6 Thai people began migrating into present-day Thailand gradually from the 6th to 11th century, which Mon and Khmer people occupied at the time. Thus Thai culture was influenced by Indian, Mon, and Khmer cultures.: 203 Tai people intermixed with various ethnic and cultural groups in the region, resulting in many groups of present-day Thai people. Genetic evidences suggested that ethnolinguistics could not accurately predict the origins of the Thais. Sujit Wongthes argued that Thai is not a race or ethnicity but a culture group.\\nAccording to French historian George Cœdès, \\\"The Thai first enter history of Farther India in the eleventh century with the mention of Syam slaves or prisoners of war in Champa epigraphy\\\", and \\\"in the twelfth century, the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat\\\" where \\\"a group of warriors\\\" are described as Syam,: 190–191, 194–195 though Cham accounts do not indicate the origins of Syam or what ethnic group they belonged to. The origins and ethnicity of the Syam remain unclear, with some literature suggesting that Syam refers to the Shan people, the Bru people, or the Brau people. However, mainland Southeast Asian sources from before the fourteenth century primarily used the word Syam as an ethnonym, referring to those who belonged to a separate cultural category different from the Khmer, Cham, Bagan, or Mon. This contrasts with the Chinese sources, where Xian was used as a toponym.\\n\\nEarly Tai confederate cities: (691 BCE – 13th century CE)\\nTheoretically, Tai-Kadai-speaking people formed as early as the 12th century BCE in the middle of the Yangtze basin. Some groups later migrated south to Guangxi. However, after several bloody centuries against Chinese influence in Guangxi from the 333 BCE-11th centuries, hundreds of thousands of Tais were killed,: 5 : 193, 239–249 thus, Tai people began to move southwestward along the rivers and over the lower passes into the mountain north of Southeast Asia and river valleys in present-day Assam of India. Some evidence indicates that the ancestors of Tai people migrated en masse southwestwards out of Yunnan only after the 1253 Mongol invasion of Dali, but not generally accepted.: 38 \\nTais defeated indigenous tribes and emerged as the new power in the new region, several Tai city-states were established, scattered from Điện Biên Phủ in present-day northwestern Vietnam and highland Southeast Asia to northeastern India. According to the Simhanavati legend given in several chronicles, the first Tai city-state in northern Thailand, Singhanavati, was found around the 7th century;: 5, 9 however, several modern geology and archaeology studies found that its center, Yonok Nahaphan, dates from 691 BCE–545 CE,: 7 coinciding roughly with the establishment of Shan States, another Tai's federated principalities in the present-day northeast Myanmar. as well as Muang Sua (Luang Prabang) in the east. After Singhanavati was submerged below Chiang Saen Lake due to an earthquake in 545, the survivors then founded a new seat at Wieng–Prueksha, the kingdom lasted for another 93 years.\\nIn addition to Singhanavati, another northern principality probably related to the Tai people, Ngoenyang, was established as the successor of Singhanavati in 638 by Lavachakkaraj, also centered in Wieng–Prueksha (present-day Mae Sai District, Chiang Rai).: 8 Its seat was moved to Chiang Mai in 1262 by King Mangrai, which considered the foundation of the Lan Na kingdom. Mangrai unified the surrounding area and also created a network of states through political alliances to the east and north of the Mekong. His dynasty would rule the kingdom continuously for the next two centuries.: 8 Lan Na expanded its territory southward and annexed the Mon Hariphunchai of Dvaravati in 1292.: 208 \\nIn the late 10 century, Tai people began to migrate further south to the present-day upper central Thailand.: 46–9, 83–6 Around the 1100s period, several cities in this area, such as Songkwae, Sawankhalok, and Chakangrao, were ruled by the Tai people, and they eventually launched several battles against the pre-existing Mon of Lavo, who had been falling under Chenla and Khmer influences since the 7th century, thus bringing the establishment of the Tai people's independent state, Sukhothai Kingdom, in the upper Chao Phraya River valley in 1238.: 52–3 \\nThe earliest conflict between Tai people and the preexisting ethnics was recorded in the mid-4th century when the ruler of Singhanavati, Pangkharat, forcibly lost the seat at Yonok to King Khom from Umongasela (present-day Fang). He then fled to Vieng Si Tuang (เวียงศรีทวง; present-day Wiang Phang Kham, Mae Sai district) but had to send tributes to Yonok annually until his son, Phrom, took back Yonok and expelled King Khom from Umongasela. Phrom also marched the troops south to occupy Chakangrao from the enemy as well as founding the city of Songkwae. Some historians suggest that Lavo's capital, Lopburi, was once seized by Phrom. In contrast, Tai people instead established relationships with Siamese Mon via royal intermarriages.: 46–9, 83–6\\n\\nMon and Lavo Kingdoms: (5th century CE – 13th century CE)\\nAs is generally known, the present-day Thai people were previously called Siamese before the country was renamed Thailand in the mid-20th century. Several genetic studies published in the 21st century suggest that the so-called Siamese people (central Thai) might have had Mon origins since their genetic profiles are more closely related to the Mon people in Myanmar than the Tais in southern China, and they probably later became Tais via cultural diffusion after the arriving of Tai people from the north around the 8th–10th centuries. This is also reflected in the language since over half of the vocabulary in the central Thai language is derived from or borrowed from the Mon language as well as Pali and Sanskrit. Moreover, the Jinakalamali chronicle of Tai's Lan Na also called the southern region occupied by the Mon Haripuñjaya of Dvaravati as Shyam Pradesh (lit. 'the land of Siam people'), which indicates that the ancient Siamese and the Mon people in central Thailand were probably the same ethnolinguistic group.\\nThe earliest evidence to mention the Siam people are stone inscriptions found in Angkor Borei of Funan (K.557 and K.600), dated 661 CE, the slave's name is mentioned as \\\"Ku Sayam\\\" meaning \\\"Sayam female slaves\\\" (Ku is a prefix used to refer to female slaves in the pre-Angkorian era), and the Takéo inscriptions (K.79) written in 682 during the reign of Bhavavarman II of Chenla also mention Siam Nobel: Sāraṇnoya Poña Sayam, which was transcribed into English as: the rice field that was given to the poña (noble rank) who was called Sayam (Siam). The Song Huiyao Jigao (960–1279) indicate Siamese people settled in the west central Thailand and their state was called Xiān guó (Chinese: 暹國), while the eastern plain belonged to the Mon of Lavo (Chinese: 羅渦國), who later fell under the Chenla and Khmer hegemony around the 7th–9th centuries. Those Mon political entities, which also included Haripuñjaya in the north and several city-states in the northeast, are collectively called Dvaravati. However, the states of Siamese Mon and Lavo were later merged via the royal intermarriage and became Ayutthaya Kingdom in the mid-14th century, while the southwestern Isan principalities, centered in Phanom Rung and Phimai, later pledged allegiance to Siamese's Ayutthaya during the reign of Borommarachathirat II (r. 1424–1448). The remaining principal city-states in Isan region became Lan Xang around 1353 after the twin cities of Muang Sua (Luang Prabang) and Vieng Chan Vieng Kham (Vientiane) became independent following the death of the Sukhothai king Ram Khamhaeng.: 51 \\nAccording to the Wat Kud Tae inscription (K.1105), dated c. 7th century, during the period that the eastern Mon entity, Lavo, was strongly influenced by the Chenla, the Siamese Mon in the west also established a royal intermarriage with Chenla as Sri Chakatham, prince of Sambhuka (ศามภูกะ, in the present-day Ratchaburi province), married to a princess of Isanavarman I, and two mandalas then became an ally. After Chenla sieged Funan and moved the center to Angkor, both Siamese Mon and the Angkorian eventually marched the troops to attack Vijaya of Champa in 1201 during the reign of Jayavarman VII, as recorded in the Cho-Dinh inscription (C.3).\\n\\nSukhothai Kingdom (1238 CE – 14th century CE)\\nAfter the decline of the Khmer Empire and Kingdom of Pagan in the early 13th century, various states thrived in their place. The domains of Tai people existed from the northeast of present-day India to the north of present-day Laos and to the Malay Peninsula.: 38–9 During the 13th century, Tai people had already settled in the core land of Dvaravati and Lavo Kingdom to Nakhon Si Thammarat in the south. There are, however, no records detailing the arrival of the Tais.: 50–1 \\nAround 1240, Pho Khun Bang Klang Hao, a local Tai ruler, rallied the people to rebel against the Khmer. He later crowned himself the first king of Sukhothai Kingdom in 1238.: 52–3 Mainstream Thai historians count Sukhothai as the first kingdom of Thai people. Sukhothai expanded furthest during the reign of Ram Khamhaeng (r. 1279–1298). However, it was mostly a network of local lords who swore fealty to Sukhothai, not directly controlled by it.: 55–6 He is believed have invented Thai script and Thai ceramics were an important export in his era. Sukhothai embraced Theravada Buddhism in the reign of Maha Thammaracha I (1347–1368).\\n\\nAyutthaya Kingdom (1351–1767)\\nAccording to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Ayutthaya Kingdom rose from the earlier, nearby Lavo Kingdom and Suvarnabhumi with Uthong as its first king. Ayutthaya was a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the King of Ayutthaya under the mandala system.: 355 Its initial expansion was through conquest and political marriage. Before the end of the 15th century, Ayutthaya invaded the Khmer Empire three times and sacked its capital Angkor.: 26 Ayutthaya then became a regional power in place of the Khmer. Constant interference of Sukhothai effectively made it a vassal state of Ayutthaya and it was finally incorporated into the kingdom. Borommatrailokkanat brought about bureaucratic reforms which lasted into the 20th century and created a system of social hierarchy called sakdina, where male commoners were conscripted as corvée labourers for six months a year.: 107 Ayutthaya was interested in the Malay Peninsula, but failed to conquer the Malacca Sultanate which was supported by the Chinese Ming dynasty.: 11, 13 \\nEuropean contact and trade started in the early-16th century, with the envoy of Portuguese duke Afonso de Albuquerque in 1511. Portugal became an ally and ceded some soldiers to King Rama Thibodi II. The Portuguese were followed in the 17th century by the French, Dutch, and English. Rivalry for supremacy over Chiang Mai and the Mon people pitted Ayutthaya against the Burmese Kingdom. Several wars with its ruling Taungoo dynasty starting in the 1540s in the reign of Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung were ultimately ended with the capture of the capital in 1570.: 146–7 Then was a brief period of vassalage to Burma until Naresuan proclaimed independence in 1584.: 11 \\nAyutthaya then sought to improve relations with European powers for many successive reigns. The kingdom especially prospered during cosmopolitan Narai's reign (1656–1688) when some European travelers regarded Ayutthaya as an Asian great power, alongside China and India.: ix However, growing French influence later in his reign was met with nationalist sentiment and led eventually to the Siamese revolution of 1688.: 185–6 However, overall relations remained stable, with French missionaries still active in preaching Christianity.: 186 \\nAfter a bloody period of dynastic struggle, Ayutthaya entered into what has been called the Siamese \\\"golden age\\\", a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the 18th century when art, literature, and learning flourished. There were seldom foreign wars, apart from conflict with the Nguyễn lords for control of Cambodia starting around 1715. The last fifty years of the kingdom witnessed bloody succession crises, where there were purges of court officials and able generals for many consecutive reigns. In 1765, a combined 40,000-strong force of Burmese armies invaded it from the north and west.: 250 The Burmese under the new Alaungpaya dynasty quickly rose to become a new local power by 1759. After a 14-month siege, the capital city's walls fell and the city was burned in April 1767.: 218\\n\\nThonburi Kingdom (1767–1782)\\nThe capital and many of its territories lay in chaos after the war. The former capital was occupied by the Burmese garrison army and five local leaders declared themselves overlords, including the lords of Sakwangburi, Phitsanulok, Pimai, Chanthaburi, and Nakhon Si Thammarat. Chao Tak, a capable military leader, proceeded to make himself a lord by right of conquest, beginning with the legendary sack of Chanthaburi. Based at Chanthaburi, Chao Tak raised troops and resources, and sent a fleet up the Chao Phraya to take the fort of Thonburi. In the same year, Chao Tak was able to retake Ayutthaya from the Burmese only seven months after the fall of the city.\\nChao Tak then crowned himself as Taksin and proclaimed Thonburi as temporary capital in the same year. He also quickly subdued the other warlords. His forces engaged in wars with Burma, Laos, and Cambodia, which successfully drove the Burmese out of Lan Na in 1775,: 225 captured Vientiane in 1778: 227–8 and tried to install a pro-Thai king in Cambodia in the 1770s. In his final years there was a coup, caused supposedly by his \\\"insanity\\\", and eventually Taksin and his sons were executed by his longtime companion General Chao Phraya Chakri (the future Rama I). He was the first king of the ruling Chakri dynasty and founder of the Rattanakosin Kingdom on 6 April 1782.\\n\\nRattanakosin Kingdom and modernization (1782 –1932)\\nUnder Rama I (1782–1809), Rattanakosin successfully defended against Burmese attacks and put an end to Burmese incursions. He also created suzerainty over large portions of Laos and Cambodia. In 1821, Briton John Crawfurd was sent to negotiate a new trade agreement with Siam – the first sign of an issue which was to dominate 19th century Siamese politics. Bangkok signed the Burney Treaty in 1826, after the British victory in the First Anglo-Burmese War.: 281 Anouvong of Vientiane, who mistakenly held the belief that Britain was about to launch an invasion of Bangkok, started the Lao rebellion in 1826 which was suppressed.: 283–5 Vientiane was destroyed and a large number of Lao people were relocated to Khorat Plateau as a result.: 285–6 Bangkok also waged several wars with Vietnam, where Siam successfully regained hegemony over Cambodia.: 290–2 \\nFrom the late-19th century, Siam tried to rule the ethnic groups in the realm as colonies.: 308 In the reign of Mongkut (1851–1868), who recognised the potential threat Western powers posed to Siam, his court contacted the British government directly to defuse tensions.: 311 A British mission led by Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong, led to the signing of the Bowring Treaty, the first of many unequal treaties with Western countries. This, however, brought trade and economic development to Siam. The unexpected death of Mongkut from malaria led to the reign of underage King Chulalongkorn, with Somdet Chaophraya Sri Suriwongse (Chuang Bunnag) acting as regent.: 327 \\nChulalongkorn (r. 1868–1910) initiated centralisation, set up a privy council, and abolished slavery and the corvée system. The Front Palace crisis of 1874 stalled attempts at further reforms.: 331–3 In the 1870s and 1880s, he incorporated the protectorates up north into the kingdom proper, which later expanded to the protectorates in the northeast and the south.: 334–5 He established twelve krom in 1888, which were equivalent to present-day ministries.: 347 The crisis of 1893 erupted, caused by French demands for Laotian territory east of Mekong.: 350–3 Thailand is the only Southeast Asian state never to have been colonised by a Western power, in part because Britain and France agreed in 1896 to make the Chao Phraya valley a buffer state. Not until the 20th century could Siam renegotiate every unequal treaty dating from the Bowring Treaty, including extraterritoriality. The advent of the monthon system marked the creation of the modern Thai nation-state.: 362–3 In 1905, there were unsuccessful rebellions in the ancient Patani area, Ubon Ratchathani, and Phrae in opposition to an attempt to blunt the power of local lords.: 371–3 \\nThe Palace Revolt of 1912 was a failed attempt by Western-educated military officers to overthrow the Siamese monarchy.: 397 Vajiravudh (r. 1910–1925) responded by propaganda for the entirety of his reign,: 402 which promoted the idea of the Thai nation.: 404 In 1917, Siam joined the First World War on the side of the Allies.: 407 In the aftermath Siam had a seat at the Paris Peace Conference, and gained freedom of taxation and the revocation of extraterritoriality.: 408\\n\\nConstitutional monarchy, World War II and Cold War (1932–1975)\\nA bloodless revolution took place in 1932, in which Prajadhipok was forced to grant the country's first constitution, thereby ending centuries of feudal and absolute monarchy. The combined results of economic hardships brought on by the Great Depression, sharply falling rice prices, and a significant reduction in public spending caused discontent among aristocrats.: 25 In 1933, a counter-revolutionary rebellion occurred which aimed to reinstate absolute monarchy, but failed.: 446–8 Prajadhipok's conflict with the government eventually led to abdication. The government selected Ananda Mahidol, who was studying in Switzerland, to be the new king.: 448–9 \\nLater that decade, the army wing of Khana Ratsadon came to dominate Siamese politics. Plaek Phibunsongkhram who became premier in 1938, started political oppression and took an openly anti-royalist stance.: 457 His government adopted nationalism and Westernisation, anti-Chinese and anti-French policies.: 28 \\nIn 1939, there was a decree changing the name of the country from \\\"Siam\\\" to \\\"Thailand\\\". In 1941, Thailand was in a brief conflict with Vichy France resulting in Thailand gaining some Lao and Cambodian territories.: 462 \\nOn 8 December 1941, the Empire of Japan launched an invasion of Thailand, and fighting broke out shortly before Phibun ordered an armistice. Japan was granted free passage, and on 21 December Thailand and Japan signed a military alliance with a secret protocol, wherein the Japanese government agreed to help Thailand regain lost territories. The Thai government then declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom.: 465 The United Kingdom, whose colony Malaya was under immediate threat from Thai forces, responded in kind, but the United States refused to declare war and ignored Thailand's declaration.: 66 The Free Thai Movement was launched both in Thailand and abroad to oppose the government and Japanese occupation.: 465–6 After the war ended in 1945, Thailand signed formal agreements to end the state of war with the Allies.\\n\\nIn June 1946, young King Ananda was found dead under mysterious circumstances. His younger brother Bhumibol Adulyadej ascended to the throne. Thailand joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) to become an active ally of the United States in 1954.: 493 Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat launched a coup in 1957, which removed Khana Ratsadon from politics. His rule (premiership 1959–1963) was autocratic; he built his legitimacy around the god-like status of the monarch and by channelling the government's loyalty to the king.: 511 His government improved the country's infrastructure and education.: 514 After the United States joined the Vietnam War in 1961, there was a secret agreement wherein the U.S. promised to protect Thailand.: 523 \\nThe period brought about increasing modernisation and Westernisation of Thai society. Rapid urbanisation occurred when the rural populace sought work in growing cities. Rural farmers gained class consciousness and were sympathetic to the Communist Party of Thailand.: 528 Economic development and education enabled the rise of a middle class in Bangkok and other cities.: 534 In October 1971, there was a large demonstration against the dictatorship of Thanom Kittikachorn (premiership 1963–1973), which led to civilian casualties.: 541–3 Bhumibol installed Sanya Dharmasakti (premiership 1973–1975) to replace him, marking the first time that the king had intervened in Thai politics directly since 1932. The aftermath of the event marked a short-lived parliamentary democracy, often called the \\\"era when democracy blossomed\\\" (ยุคประชาธิปไตยเบ่งบาน).\\n\\nContemporary history\\nConstant unrest and instability, as well as fear of a communist takeover after the fall of Saigon, made some ultra-right groups brand leftist students as communists.: 548 This culminated in the Thammasat University massacre in October 1976.: 548–9 A coup d'état on that day brought Thailand a new ultra-right government, which cracked down on media outlets, officials, and intellectuals, and fuelled the communist insurgency. Another coup the following year installed a more moderate government, which offered amnesty to communist fighters in 1978.\\nFuelled by Indochina refugee crisis, Vietnamese border raids and economic hardships, Prem Tinsulanonda became the Prime Minister from 1980 to 1988. The communists abandoned the insurgency by 1983. Prem's premiership was dubbed \\\"semi-democracy\\\" because the Parliament was composed of all elected House and all appointed Senate. The 1980s also saw increasing intervention in politics by the monarch, who rendered two coups in 1981 and 1985 attempts against Prem failed. In 1988 Thailand had its first elected prime minister since 1976.\\nSuchinda Kraprayoon, who was the coup leader in 1991 and said he would not seek to become prime minister, was nominated as one by the majority coalition government after the 1992 general election. This caused a popular demonstration in Bangkok, which ended with a bloody military crackdown. Bhumibol intervened in the event and signed an amnesty law, Suchinda then resigned.\\nThe 1997 Asian financial crisis originated in Thailand and ended the country's 40 years of uninterrupted economic growth.: 3 Chuan Leekpai's government took an IMF loan with unpopular provisions.\\nThe 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami hit the country, mostly in the south, claiming around 5,400 lives in Phuket, Phang Nga, Ranong, Krabi, Trang, and Satun, with thousands still missing.\\nThe populist Thai Rak Thai party, led by prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, governed from 2001 until 2006. His policies were successful in reducing rural poverty and initiated universal healthcare in the country. However, Thaksin was viewed as a corrupt populist who was destroying the middle class in order to favor himself and the rural poor. He also faced criticism over his response to a South Thailand insurgency which escalated starting from 2004. Additionally, his recommendations to the rural poor directly conflicted with King Bhumibol's recommendations, drawing the ire of royalists, a powerful faction in Thailand. In response, the royalists made up a story about how Thaskin and his \\\"advisors gathered in Finland to plot the overthrow of the monarchy\\\" which dramatically expanded the opposition to the otherwise still popular Thaksin. Meanwhile, massive protests against Thaksin led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) started in his second term as prime minister. Eventually, things reached a boiling point and the military decided they wanted to oust Thaksin. Despite Thailand's military having been forced from power in the 1970s when democracy was born, Thailand's democracy remains grounded in the implicit consent of the military and the monarchy. When the monarchy and the military agree that a democratically elected leader has gone too far, they work together to oust them. In this case, the military first sought permission from the king to oust Thaksin, permission which was denied. But then, the king rejected Thaksin's choice to lead the army, allowing a military leader to be put into power who wanted the coup.1 Then, the army dissolved Thaksin's party with a coup d'état in 2006 and banned over a hundred of its executives from politics. After the coup, a military government was installed which lasted a year. \\n\\nComing back to democracy was a process that took very active participation of the people. The people frequently stormed government buildings and the military threatened yet another coup. Finally, in 2007, a civilian government led by the Thaksin-allied People's Power Party (PPP) was elected. Another protest led by PAD ended with the dissolution of PPP, and the Democrat Party led a coalition government in its place. The pro-Thaksin United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) protested both in 2009 and in 2010, the latter of which ended with a violent military crackdown causing more than 70 civilian deaths.\\nAfter the general election of 2011, the populist Pheu Thai Party won a majority and Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's younger sister, became prime minister. The People's Democratic Reform Committee organised another anti-Shinawatra protest after the ruling party proposed an amnesty bill which would benefit Thaksin. Yingluck dissolved parliament and a general election was scheduled, but was invalidated by the Constitutional Court. The crisis ended with another coup d'état in 2014.\\nThe ensuing National Council for Peace and Order, a military junta led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, led the country until 2019. Civil and political rights were restricted, and the country saw a surge in lèse-majesté cases. Political opponents and dissenters were sent to \\\"attitude adjustment\\\" camps; this was described by academics as showing the rise of fascism. Bhumibol, the longest-reigning Thai king, died in 2016, and his son Vajiralongkorn ascended to the throne. The referendum and adoption of Thailand's current constitution happened under the junta's rule. The junta also bound future governments to a 20-year national strategy 'road map' it laid down, effectively locking the country into military-guided democracy. In 2019, the junta agreed to schedule a general election in March. Prayut continued his premiership with the support of Palang Pracharath Party-coalition in the House and junta-appointed Senate, amid allegations of election fraud. The 2020–21 pro-democracy protests were triggered by increasing royal prerogative, democratic and economic regression from the Royal Thai Armed Forces supported by the monarchy in the wake of the coup d'état in 2014, dissolution of the pro-democracy Future Forward Party, distrust in the 2019 general election and the current political system, forced disappearance and deaths of political activists including Wanchalearm Satsaksit, and political corruption scandals, which brought forward unprecedented demands to reform the monarchy and the highest sense of republicanism in the country.\\nIn May 2023, Thailand's reformist opposition, the progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) and the populist Pheu Thai Party, won the general election, meaning the royalist-military parties that supported Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha lost power. On 22 August 2023, Srettha Thavisin of the populist Pheu Thai party, became Thailand's new prime minister, while the Pheu Thai party's billionaire figurehead Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand after years in self-imposed exile. Thavisin was later dismissed from his prime ministerial role on 14 August 2024 by the Constitutional Court for his \\\"gross ethics violations.\\\"\\n\\nGeography\\nTotalling 513,120 square kilometres (198,120 sq mi), Thailand is the 50th-largest country by total area.\\nThailand comprises several distinct geographic regions, partly corresponding to the provincial groups. The north of the country is the mountainous area of the Thai highlands, with the highest point being Doi Inthanon in the Thanon Thong Chai Range at 2,565 metres (8,415 ft) above sea level. The northeast, Isan, consists of the Khorat Plateau, bordered to the east by the Mekong River. The centre of the country is dominated by the predominantly flat Chao Phraya river valley, which runs into the Gulf of Thailand. Southern Thailand consists of the narrow Kra Isthmus that widens into the Malay Peninsula.\\nThe Chao Phraya and the Mekong River are the indispensable water courses of rural Thailand. Industrial scale production of crops use both rivers and their tributaries. The Gulf of Thailand covers 320,000 square kilometres (124,000 sq mi) and is fed by the Chao Phraya, Mae Klong, Bang Pakong, and Tapi Rivers. It contributes to the tourism sector owing to its clear shallow waters along the coasts in the southern region and the Kra Isthmus. The eastern shore of the Gulf of Thailand is an industrial centre of Thailand with the kingdom's premier deepwater port in Sattahip and its busiest commercial port, Laem Chabang.\\nPhuket, Krabi, Ranong, Phang Nga and Trang, and their islands, all lay along the coasts of the Andaman Sea.\\n\\nClimate\\nThailand's climate is influenced by monsoon winds that have a seasonal character (the southwest and northeast monsoon).: 2 Most of the country is classified as Köppen's tropical savanna climate. The majority of the south as well as the eastern tip of the east have a tropical monsoon climate. Parts of the south also have a tropical rainforest climate.\\nA year in Thailand is divided into three seasons.: 2 The first is the rainy or southwest monsoon season (mid–May to mid–October), which is caused by southwestern wind from the Indian Ocean.: 2 Rainfall is also contributed by Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and tropical cyclones,: 2 with August and September being the wettest period of the year.: 2 The country receives a mean annual rainfall of 1,200 to 1,600 mm (47 to 63 in).: 4 Winter or the northeast monsoon occurs from mid–October until mid–February.: 2 Most of Thailand experiences dry weather with mild temperatures.: 2, 4 Summer or the pre–monsoon season runs from mid–February until mid–May.: 3 Due to their inland position and latitude, the north, northeast, central and eastern parts of Thailand experience a long period of warm weather, where temperatures can reach up to 40 °C (104 °F) during March to May,: 3 in contrast to close to or below 0 °C (32 °F) in some areas in winter.: 3 Southern Thailand is characterised by mild weather year-round with less diurnal and seasonal variations in temperatures due to maritime influences.: 3 It receives abundant rainfall, particularly during October to November.: 2 \\nThailand is among the world's ten countries that are most exposed to climate change. In particular, it is highly vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather events.\\n\\nBiodiversity and conservation\\nNational parks in Thailand are defined as an area that contains natural resources of ecological importance or unique beauty, or flora and fauna of special importance. Thailand's protected areas include 156 national parks, 58 wildlife sanctuaries, 67 non-hunting areas, and 120 forest parks. They cover almost 31 per cent of the kingdom's territory.\\nThe parks are administered by the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP), of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE).\\nThailand has a mediocre but improving performance in the global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) with an overall ranking of 91 out of 180 countries in 2016. The environmental areas where Thailand performs worst (i.e., highest-ranking) are air quality (167), environmental effects of the agricultural industry (106), and the climate and energy sector (93), the later mainly because of a high CO2 emission per kWh produced. Thailand performs best (i.e., lowest-ranking) in water resource management (66), with some major improvements expected for the future, and sanitation (68). The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 6.00/10, ranking it 88th globally out of 172 countries.\\nThe population of elephants, the country's national symbol, has fallen from 100,000 in 1850 to an estimated 2,000. Poachers have long hunted elephants for ivory and hides, and now increasingly for meat. Young elephants are often captured for use in tourist attractions or as work animals, where there have been claims of mistreatment. In 1989 the government banned the use of elephants for logging, leading many elephant owners to move their domesticated animals to the tourism industry.\\nPoaching of protected species remains a major problem. Tigers, leopards, and other large cats are hunted for their pelts. Many are farmed or hunted for their meat, which supposedly has medicinal properties. Although such trade is illegal, the well-known Bangkok market Chatuchak is still known for the sale of endangered species. The practice of keeping wild animals as pets affects species such as Asiatic black bear, Malayan sun bear, white-handed lar, pileated gibbon, and binturong.\\n\\nPolitics and government\\nPrior to 1932, Thai kings were feudal or absolute monarchs. During Sukhothai Kingdom, the king was seen as a Dharmaraja or 'king who rules in accordance with Dharma'. The system of government was a network of tributaries ruled by local lords. Modern absolute monarchy and statehood was established by Chulalongkorn when he transformed the decentralized protectorate system into a unitary state. On 24 June 1932, Khana Ratsadon (People's Party) carried out a bloodless revolution which marked the beginning of constitutional monarchy.\\nThailand has had 20 constitutions and charters since 1932, including the latest and current 2017 Constitution. All constitutions state that the politics is conducted within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, but the de facto form of government has ranged from military dictatorship to electoral democracy. Thailand's current form of government is part democracy and part dictatorship, with many terms are used to describe it. Thailand has had the fourth-most coups in the world. \\\"Uniformed or ex-military men have led Thailand for 55 of the 83 years\\\" between 1932 and 2009. Most recently, the military junta self-titled as the National Council for Peace and Order ruled the country between 2014 and 2019.\\n\\nGovernment is separated into three branches:\\n\\nThe legislative branch: the National Assembly is composed of the Senate, the 200-member indirectly elected upper house and House of Representatives, the elected 500-member lower house. Its most recent election is the 2023 general election. The coalition led by Pheu Thai Party currently holds the majority. The 2024 Thai Senate election was the first senate election held under the current constitution in the process criticized as \\\"the most complicated election in the world.\\\" The senate is allegedly dominated by Bhumjaithai Party-affiliated senators.\\nThe executive branch consisting of the Prime Minister of Thailand, the head of government, and other cabinet members of up to 35 people. The Prime Minister was elected by the National Assembly. The current constitution mandates that prime ministers are to be considered from candidates nominated by political parties before the election. The current prime minister is Paetongtarn Shinawatra, a member of the Pheu Thai Party.\\nThe judiciary is supposed to be independent of the executive and the legislative branches, although judicial rulings are suspected of being based on political considerations rather than on existing law.\\nMilitary and bureaucratic aristocrats fully controlled political parties between 1946 and the 1980s.: 16 Most parties in Thailand are short-lived.: 246 Between 1992 and 2006, Thailand had a two-party system.: 245 Later constitutions created a multi-party system where a single party cannot gain a majority in the house.\\nA hereditary monarch serves as Thailand's head of state. The current King of Thailand is Vajiralongkorn (Rama X), who has reigned since October 2016. The powers of the king are limited by the constitution and he is primarily a symbolic figurehead. However, the monarch still occasionally intervenes in Thai politics, as all constitutions pave the way for customary royal rulings. Some academics outside Thailand, including Duncan McCargo and Federico Ferrara, noted extraconstitutional role of the monarch through a \\\"network monarchy\\\" behind the political scenes. The monarchy is protected by the severe lèse majesté law, even though the people's attitude towards the institution varies from one reign to another.\\nThe kings are protected by lèse-majesté laws which allow critics to be jailed for three to fifteen years. After the coup d'état in 2014, Thailand had the highest number of lèse-majesté prisoners in the nation's history. Human rights in Thailand has been rated not free on the Freedom House Index since 2014. On August 7, 2024, Thailand's Constitutional Court banned the victors of the 2023 parliamentary elections, the Move Forward Party and all of its leaders from politics for its proposal to reform the lèse-majesté law, arguing it posed a threat to the constitutional order. The Economist criticized the move as an example of \\\"lawfare\\\" and pointed to the dissolution of its predecessor party, Future Forward in 2020, as the latest example of how an \\\"alliance of conservative forces in Thailand—including monarchists, the army and a handful of business tycoons—has sought to suppress opposition\\\".\\nOn the Freedom in the World 2024 Report for Thailand, their status improved from not free to partly free due to competitive parliamentary elections and the formation of a new governing coalition by what had been a major opposition party, though unelected senators ensured that the party with the most votes was excluded.\\n\\nAdministrative divisions\\nThailand is a unitary state; the administrative services of the executive branch are divided into three levels by National Government Organisation Act, BE 2534 (1991): central, provincial and local. Thailand is composed of 76 provinces (จังหวัด, changwat), which are first-level administrative divisions. There are also two specially governed districts: the capital Bangkok and Pattaya. Bangkok is at provincial level and thus often counted as a province. Each province is divided into districts (อำเภอ, amphoe) and the districts are further divided into sub-districts (ตำบล, tambons). The name of each province's capital city (เมือง, mueang) is the same as that of the province. For example, the capital of Chiang Mai Province (Changwat Chiang Mai) is Mueang Chiang Mai or Chiang Mai. All provincial governors and district chiefs, which are administrators of provinces and districts respectively, are appointed by the central government. Thailand's provinces are sometimes grouped into four to six regions, depending on the source.\\n\\nForeign relations\\nSiam's and Thailand's way of conducting foreign relations has long been described as \\\"bamboo bending with the wind\\\", of policies that are \\\"always solidly rooted, but flexible enough to bend whichever way the wind blows in order to survive,\\\" or adaptable and pragmatic. In order to secure independence, it sought to pit one great power against the others so that it would be dominated by none.\\nDuring the Cold War, Thailand sought to prevent the spread of communism so it joined the United States, including participating in SEATO alliance, sending expeditions to Korea and Vietnam, and offering the US to use its base. Thailand is one of the five founding members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), initially to safeguard against communism. The end of Vietnam War was a turning point in Thai foreign policy and afterwards it sought to improve relations with Communist China and its now-Communist neighbours. Thailand remains an active member of ASEAN and seek to project its influence in it. Thailand has developed increasingly close ties with other members, with progressing regional co-operation in economic, trade, banking, political, and cultural matters.\\nIn the 2000s, Thailand had taken an active role on the international stage and participated fully in international and regional organisations. It is a major non-NATO ally and Priority Watch List Special 301 Report of the United States. When East Timor gained independence from Indonesia, Thailand contributed troops to the international peacekeeping effort. As part of its effort to increase international ties, Thailand had reached out to such regional organisations as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).\\nDuring Thaksin Shinawatra's premiership, negotiations for several free trade agreements with China, Australia, Bahrain, India, and the US were initiated. Thaksin sought to position Thailand as a regional leader, initiating various development projects in poorer neighbouring countries. More controversially, he established close, friendly ties with the Burmese dictatorship. Thailand joined the US-led invasion of Iraq, sending a humanitarian contingent until September 2004. Thailand also had contributed troops to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.\\nIn April 2009, the Cambodian–Thai border dispute brought troops on territory immediately adjacent to the 900-year-old ruins of Cambodia's Preah Vihear Hindu temple near the border.\\nAfter the 2014 coup, Thailand leaned more towards China. Growing Chinese influence and capital inflow caused some members of parliament to raise the concern about \\\"economic colony\\\" under China after many concessions.\\nDuring the Israel-Hamas military conflict in 2023, at first Thailand's prime minister stated that his government strongly condemns the attack against Israel and extends its deepest condolences to the government and the people of Israel but the government later changed its position and announced that Thailand adopted a neutral stance in this conflict. 28 Thai nationals were killed in this conflict.\\n\\nArmed forces\\nThe Royal Thai Armed Forces (กองทัพไทย; RTGS: Kong Thap Thai) constitute the military of the Kingdom of Thailand. It consists of the Royal Thai Army (กองทัพบกไทย), the Royal Thai Navy (กองทัพเรือไทย), and the Royal Thai Air Force (กองทัพอากาศไทย). It also incorporates various paramilitary forces.\\nThe Thai Armed Forces have a combined manpower of 306,000 active duty personnel and another 245,000 active reserve personnel. The head of the Thai Armed Forces (จอมทัพไทย, Chom Thap Thai) is the king, although this position is only nominal. The armed forces are managed by the Ministry of Defence of Thailand, which is headed by the Minister of Defence (a member of the cabinet of Thailand) and commanded by the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters, which in turn is headed by the Chief of Defence Forces of Thailand. Thai annual defense budget almost tripled from US$1.98 billion in 2005 to US$5.88 billion in 2016, accounting for approximately 1.4% of GDP. Thailand ranked 16th worldwide in the Military Strength Index based on the Credit Suisse report in September 2015.\\n\\nThe military is also tasked with humanitarian missions, such as escorting Rohingya to Malaysia or Indonesia, ensuring security and welfare for refugees during Indochina refugee crisis.\\nAccording to the constitution, serving in the armed forces is a duty of all Thai citizens. Thailand still use active draft system for males over the age of 21. They are subjected to varying lengths of active service depending on the duration of reserve training as Territorial Defence Student and their level of education. Those who have completed three years or more of reserve training will be exempted entirely. The practice has long been criticized, as some media question its efficacy and value. It is alleged that conscripts end up as servants to senior officers or clerks in military cooperative shops. In a report issued in March 2020, Amnesty International charged that Thai military conscripts face institutionalised abuse systematically hushed up by military authorities.\\nCritics observed that Thai military's main objective is to deal with internal rather than external threats. Internal Security Operations Command is called the political arm of the Thai military, which has overlapping social and political functions with civilian bureaucracy. It also has anti-democracy mission. The military is also notorious for numerous corruption incidents, such as accusation of human trafficking, and nepotism in promotion of high-ranking officers. The military is deeply entrenched in politics. Most recently, the appointed senators include more than 100 active and retired military.\\nThailand is the 75th most peaceful country in the world, according to the 2024 Global Peace Index.\\n\\nEconomy\\nThe economy of Thailand is heavily export-dependent, with exports accounting for more than two-thirds of gross domestic product (GDP). Thailand exports over US$105 billion worth of goods and services annually. Major exports include cars, computers, electrical appliances, rice, textiles and footwear, fishery products, rubber, and jewellery.\\nThailand is an emerging economy and is considered a newly industrialised country. Thailand had a 2017 GDP of US$1.236 trillion (on a purchasing power parity basis). Thailand is the second largest economy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Thailand ranks midway in the wealth spread in Southeast Asia as it is the fourth richest nation according to GDP per capita, after Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia.\\nThailand functions as an anchor economy for the neighbouring developing economies of Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. In the third quarter of 2014, the unemployment rate in Thailand stood at 0.84% according to Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB).\\nIn 2017, the Thai economy grew an inflation-adjusted 3.9%, up from 3.3% in 2016, marking its fastest expansion since 2012. High public spending, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompted the authorities to raise Thailand's public debt ceiling from 60% to 70% of GDP. As of 2024, Thailand struggle with low productivity, poor education, high household debt, low private investment and slow economic growth, with an economic research group forecasted an annual GDP growth of below 2% in the next decades without structural reforms.\\n\\nIncome and wealth disparities\\nThais have median wealth per one adult person of $1,469 in 2016,: 98 increasing from $605 in 2010.: 34 In 2016, Thailand was ranked 87th in Human Development Index, and 70th in the inequality-adjusted HDI.\\nIn 2017, Thailand's median household income was ฿26,946 per month.: 1 Top quintile households had a 45.0% share of all income, while bottom quintile households had 7.1%.: 4 There were 26.9 million persons who had the bottom 40% of income earning less than ฿5,344 per person per month.: 5 During the 2013–2014 Thai political crisis, a survey found that anti-government PDRC mostly (32%) had a monthly income of more than ฿50,000, while pro-government UDD mostly (27%) had between ฿10,000 and ฿20,000.: 7 \\nIn 2014, Credit Suisse reported that Thailand was the world's third most unequal country, behind Russia and India. The top 10% richest held 79% of the country's assets. The top 1% held 58% of the assets. The 50 richest Thai families had a total net worth accounting to 30% of GDP. Bank of Thailand reported that during 2006–16, Thailand's top 5% largest companies had 85% of all corporate revenue in the nation, and only 6% of the country's companies were in export industries, which made up 60% of the country's GDP.\\nIn 2016, 5.81 million people lived in poverty, or 11.6 million people (17.2% of population) if \\\"near poor\\\" is included.: 1 The proportion of the poor relative to total population in each region was 12.96% in the Northeast, 12.35% in the South, and 9.83% in the North.: 2 In 2017, there were 14 million people who applied for social welfare (yearly income of less than ฿100,000 was required). In the first quarter of 2023, Thai household debts totaled 14.6 trillion baht or 89.2% of GDP; the average debt per household was approximately 500,000 baht. In 2016, there were estimated 30,000 homeless persons in the country.\\n\\nExports and manufacturing\\nThe economy of Thailand is heavily export-dependent, with exports accounting for more than two-thirds of gross domestic product (GDP). Thailand exports over US$105 billion worth of goods and services annually. Major exports include cars, computers, electrical appliances, rice, textiles and footwear, fishery products, rubber, and jewellery.\\nSubstantial industries include electric appliances, components, computer components, and vehicles. Thailand's recovery from the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis depended mainly on exports, among various other factors. As of 2012, the Thai automotive industry was the largest in Southeast Asia and the 9th largest in the world. The Thailand industry has an annual output of near 1.5 million vehicles, mostly commercial vehicles.\\nMost of the vehicles built in Thailand are developed and licensed by foreign producers, mainly Japanese and American. The Thai car industry takes advantage of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) to find a market for many of its products. Eight manufacturers, five Japanese, two US, and Tata of India, produce pick-up trucks in Thailand. As of 2012, due to its favorable taxation for 2-door pick-ups at only 3–12% against 17–50% for passenger cars, Thailand was the second largest consumer of pick-up trucks in the world, after the US. In 2014, pick-ups accounted for 42% of all new vehicle sales in Thailand.\\n\\nTourism\\nTourism makes up about 6% of the country's economy. Prior to the pandemic, Thailand was the world's eighth most visited country according to the World Tourism rankings compiled by the United Nations World Tourism Organization. In 2019, Thailand received 39.8 million international tourists, ahead of United Kingdom and Germany and was the fourth highest in international tourism earning 60.5 billion US dollars.\\nThailand was the most visited country in Southeast Asia in 2013, according to the World Tourism Organization. Estimates of tourism receipts directly contributing to the Thai GDP of 12 trillion baht range from 9 percent (1 trillion baht) (2013) to 16 percent. When including the indirect effects of tourism, it is said to account for 20.2 percent (2.4 trillion baht) of Thailand's GDP.: 1 \\nAsian tourists primarily visit Thailand for Bangkok and the historical, natural, and cultural sights in its vicinity. Western tourists not only visit Bangkok and surrounding areas; many travel to the southern beaches and islands. The north is the chief destination for trekking and adventure travel with its diverse ethnic minority groups and forested mountains. The region hosting the fewest tourists is Isan. To accommodate foreign visitors, a separate tourism police with offices were set up in the major tourist areas and an emergency telephone number.\\nThailand ranks as the worlds fifth largest medical tourism destination in spending, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, attracting over 2.5 million visitors in 2018, and is number one in Asia. The country is popular for the growing practice of sex reassignment surgery (SRS) and cosmetic surgery. In 2010–2012, more than 90% of medical tourists traveled to Thailand for SRS.\\nProstitution in Thailand and sex tourism also form a de facto part of the economy. Campaigns promote Thailand as exotic to attract tourists. One estimate published in 2003 placed the trade at US$4.3 billion per year or about 3% of the Thai economy. It is believed that at least 10% of tourist dollars are spent on the sex trade.\\n\\nAgriculture and natural resources\\nForty-nine per cent of Thailand's labour force is employed in agriculture. This is down from 70% in 1980. Rice is the most important crop in the country and Thailand had long been the world's leading exporter of rice, until recently falling behind both India and Vietnam. Thailand has the highest percentage of arable land, 27.25%, of any state in the Greater Mekong Subregion. About 55% of the arable land area is used for rice production.\\nAgriculture has been experiencing a transition from labour-intensive and transitional methods to a more industrialised and competitive sector. Between 1962 and 1983, the agricultural sector grew by 4.1% per year on average and continued to grow at 2.2% between 1983 and 2007. The relative contribution of agriculture to GDP has declined while exports of goods and services have increased.\\nFurthermore, access to biocapacity in Thailand is lower than world average. In 2016, Thailand had 1.2 global hectares of biocapacity per person within its territory, a little less than world average of 1.6 global hectares per person. In contrast, in 2016, they used 2.5 global hectares of biocapacity – their ecological footprint of consumption. This means they use about twice as much biocapacity as Thailand contains, resulting in a deficit.\\n\\nInformal economy\\nThailand has a diverse and robust informal labour sector—in 2012, it was estimated that informal workers comprised 62.6% of the Thai workforce. The Ministry of Labour defines informal workers to be individuals who work in informal economies and do not have employee status under a given country's Labour Protection Act (LPA). The informal sector in Thailand has grown significantly over the past 60 years over the course of Thailand's gradual transition from an agriculture-based economy to becoming more industrialised and service-oriented. Between 1993 and 1995, ten per cent of the Thai labour force moved from the agricultural sector to urban and industrial jobs, especially in the manufacturing sector. It is estimated that between 1988 and 1995, the number of factory workers in the country doubled from two to four million, as Thailand's GDP tripled. While the Asian Financial Crisis that followed in 1997 hit the Thai economy hard, the industrial sector continued to expand under widespread deregulation, as Thailand was mandated to adopt a range of structural adjustment reforms upon receiving funding from the IMF and World Bank. These reforms implemented an agenda of increased privatisation and trade liberalisation in the country, and decreased federal subsidisation of public goods and utilities, agricultural price supports, and regulations on fair wages and labour conditions. These changes put further pressure on the agricultural sector, and prompted continued migration from the rural countryside to the growing cities. Many migrant farmers found work in Thailand's growing manufacturing industry, and took jobs in sweatshops and factories with few labour regulations and often exploitative conditions.\\nThose that could not find formal factory work, including illegal migrants and the families of rural Thai migrants that followed their relatives to the urban centres, turned to the informal sector to provide the extra support needed for survival—under the widespread regulation imposed by the structural adjustment programs, one family member working in a factory or sweatshop made very little. Scholars argue that the economic consequences and social costs of Thailand's labour reforms in the wake of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis fell on individuals and families rather than the state: as the country's labour market became increasingly deregulated, the burden and responsibility of providing an adequate livelihood shifted from employers and the state to the workers themselves, whose families had to find jobs in the informal sector to make up for the losses and subsidise the wages being made by their relatives in the formal sector. The weight of these economic changes hit migrants and the urban poor especially hard, and the informal sector expanded rapidly as a result.\\n\\nToday, informal labour in Thailand is typically broken down into three main groups: subcontracted/self employed/home-based workers, service workers (including those that are employed in restaurants, as street vendors, masseuses, taxi drivers, and as domestic workers), and agricultural workers. Not included in these categories are those that work in entertainment, nightlife, and the sex industry. Individuals employed in these facets of the informal labour sector face additional vulnerabilities, including recruitment into circles of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. A 2012 study found that 64% of informal workers had not completed education beyond primary school. Many informal workers are also migrants, only some of which have legal status in the country. Because the informal labour sector is not recognised under the Labour Protection Act (LPA), informal workers are much more vulnerable to exploitation and unsafe working conditions. While some Thai labour laws provide minimal protections to domestic and agricultural workers, they are often weak and difficult to enforce. Furthermore, Thai social security policies fail to protect against the risks many informal workers face, including workplace accidents and compensation as well as unemployment and retirement insurance. Many informal workers are not legally contracted for their employment, and many do not make a living wage. Tens of thousands of migrants from neighboring countries face exploitation in a few industries, especially in fishing where slave-like conditions have been reported.\\n\\nScience and technology\\nThailand ranked 41st in the Global Innovation Index in 2024. The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation and its agencies oversees the development of science, technology, and research in Thailand. According to the National Research Council of Thailand, the country devoted 1.1% of its GDP to the research and development of science in 2019, with over 166,788 research and development personnel in full-time equivalent that year.\\n\\nInfrastructure\\nTransportation\\nThe State Railway of Thailand (SRT) operates all of Thailand's national rail lines. Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal and Bangkok (Hua Lamphong) are the main termini of intercity routes. Phahonyothin and ICD Lat Krabang are the main freight terminals. As of 2024 SRT had 4,507 km (2,801 mi) of track, all of it meter gauge. Nearly all is single-track (2,847.1 km), although some important sections around Bangkok are double (1,089.9 km or 677.2 mi) or triple-tracked (107 km or 66 mi) and there are plans to extend this. Rail transport in Bangkok includes long-distance services, and some daily commuter trains running from and to the outskirts of the city during the rush hour, but passenger numbers have remained low. There are also four rapid transit rail systems in the capital: the BTS Skytrain, MRT, SRT Red Lines and the Airport Rail Link.\\nThailand has 390,000 kilometres (240,000 miles) of highways. As of 2017, Thailand has over 462,133 roads and 37 million registered vehicles, 20 million of them motorbikes. A number of undivided two-lane highways have been converted into divided four-lane highways. Within the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, there are a number of controlled-access highways. There are 4,125 public vans operating on 114 routes from Bangkok alone. Other forms of road transport includes tuk-tuks, taxis — with over 80,647 registered taxis nationwide as of 2018, vans (minibus), motorbike taxis and songthaews.\\nAs of 2012, Thailand has 103 airports with 63 paved runways, in addition to 6 heliports. The busiest airport in the country is Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.\\nIn Bangkok, there were two failed rapid rail projects Lavalin Skytrain and Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System, before Mass Rapid Transit Master Plan in Bangkok Metropolitan Region was endorsed by the cabinet on 27 September 1994 and implemented from 1995 to the present.\\n\\nEnergy\\n75% of Thailand's electrical generation is powered by natural gas in 2014. Coal-fired power plants produce an additional 20% of electricity, with the remainder coming from biomass, hydro, and biogas.\\nThailand produces roughly one-third of the oil it consumes. It is the second largest importer of oil in Southeast Asia. Thailand is a large producer of natural gas, with reserves of at least 10 trillion cubic feet. After Indonesia, it is the largest coal producer in Southeast Asia, but must import additional coal to meet domestic demand.\\n\\nDemographics\\nThailand has an estimated population of 65,975,198 as of July 2024; Thailand's first census in 1909 found the population to be 8.2 million. Thailand's population is largely rural, concentrated in the rice-growing areas of the central, northeastern and northern regions. About 44.2% of Thailand's population lived in urban areas as of 2010, slowly increasing from 29.4% in the 1990 census and 31.1% in the 2000 census.\\nThailand's government-sponsored family planning program resulted in a dramatic decline in population growth from 3.1% in 1960 to around 0.4% today. In 1970, an average of 5.7 people lived in a Thai household; in 2022, the average Thai household size was 3 people. Now Thailand is an aged society, with more than 20% of its population aged over 60, and has low birth rate, posing economic challenges.\\n\\nEthnic groups\\nAs of 2010, Thai people make up the majority of Thailand's population (95.9%). The remaining 4.1% of the population are Burmese (2.0%), others (1.3%), and unspecified (0.9%).\\nAccording to genetic research, the present-day Thai people were divided into three groups: the northern group (Khon Mueang) are closely related to the Tai ethnic groups in southern China, the northeastern group (Isan people) are mixed Tai and several Austroasiatic-speaking ethnic groups, while the central and southern groups (formerly called Siamese) strongly share genetic profiles with the Mon people.\\nAccording to the Royal Thai Government's 2011 Country Report to the UN Committee responsible for the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, available from the Department of Rights and Liberties Promotion of the Thai Ministry of Justice,: 3 62 ethnic communities are officially recognized in Thailand. Twenty million Central Thai (together with approximately 650,000 Khorat Thai) made up approximately 20,650,000 (34.1 per cent) of the state's population of 60,544,937 at the time of completion of the Mahidol University Ethnolinguistic Maps of Thailand data (1997).\\nThe 2011 Thailand Country Report provides population numbers for mountain peoples ('hill tribes') and ethnic communities in the Northeast and is explicit about its main reliance on the Mahidol University Ethnolinguistic Maps of Thailand data. Thus, though over 3.288 million people in the Northeast alone could not be categorised, the population and percentages of other ethnic communities c. 1997 are known for all of Thailand and constitute minimum populations. In descending order, the largest (equal to or greater than 400,000) are a) 15,080,000 Lao (24.9 per cent) consisting of the Thai Lao (14 million) and other smaller Lao groups, namely the Thai Loei (400–500,000), Lao Lom (350,000), Lao Wiang/Klang (200,000), Lao Khrang (90,000), Lao Ngaew (30,000), and Lao Ti (10,000); b) six million Khon Muang (9.9 per cent, also called Northern Thais); c) 4.5 million Pak Tai (7.5 per cent, also called Southern Thais); d) 1.4 million Khmer Leu (2.3 per cent, also called Northern Khmer); e) 900,000 Malay (1.5%); f) 500,000 Nyaw (0.8 per cent); g) 470,000 Phu Thai (0.8 per cent); h) 400,000 Kuy/Kuay (also known as Suay) (0.7 per cent), and i) 350,000 Karen (0.6 per cent).: 7–13 Thai Chinese, those of significant Chinese heritage, are 14% of the population, while Thais with partial Chinese ancestry comprise up to 40% of the population. Thai Malays represent 3% of the population, with the remainder consisting of Mons, Khmers and various \\\"hill tribes\\\".\\nIncreasing numbers of migrants from neighbouring Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, as well as from Nepal and India, have pushed the total number of non-national residents to around 3.5 million as of 2009, up from an estimated 2 million in 2008. Some 41,000 Britons and 20,000 Australians live in Thailand.\\n\\nPopulation centres\\nLanguage\\nThe official language of Thailand is Thai, a Kra–Dai language closely related to Lao, Shan in Myanmar, and numerous smaller languages spoken in an arc from Hainan and Yunnan south to the Chinese border. It is the principal language of education and government and spoken throughout the country. The standard is based on the dialect of the central Thai people, and it is written in the Thai alphabet, an abugida script that evolved from the Khmer alphabet. Sixty-two languages were recognised by the Royal Thai Government. For the purposes of the national census, four dialects of Thai exist; these partly coincide with regional designations, such as Southern Thai and Northern Thai.\\nThe largest of Thailand's minority languages is the Lao dialect of Isan spoken in the northeastern provinces. In the far south, Kelantan-Pattani Malay is the primary language of Malay Muslims. Varieties of Chinese are also spoken by the large Thai Chinese population, with the Teochew dialect best-represented. Numerous tribal languages are also spoken, including many Austroasiatic languages such as Mon, Khmer, and Mlabri; Austronesian languages such as Cham, Moken and Urak Lawoi'; Sino-Tibetan languages like Lawa, Akha, and Karen; and other Tai languages such as Phu Thai, and Saek. Hmong is a member of the Hmong–Mien languages, which is now regarded as a language family of its own.\\n\\nReligion\\nThe country's most prevalent religion is Theravada Buddhism, which is an integral part of Thai identity and culture. Active participation in Buddhism is among the highest in the world. Thailand has the second-largest number of Buddhists in the world after China. According to the 2018 National Statistical Office data, 93.46% of the country's population self-identified as Buddhists.\\n\\nMuslims constitute the second largest religious group in Thailand, comprising 5.37% of the population in 2018. Islam is concentrated mostly in the country's southernmost provinces: Pattani, Yala, Satun, Narathiwat, and part of Songkhla Chumphon, which are predominantly Malay, most of whom are Sunni Muslims. Christians represented 1.13% of the population in 2018, with the remaining population consisting of Hindus and Sikhs, who live mostly in the country's cities. There is also a small but historically significant Jewish community in Thailand dating back to the 17th century.\\nThe constitution does not name an official state religion, and provides for freedom of religion. There have been no widespread reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious belief or practice. Thai law officially recognizes five religious groups: Buddhists, Muslims, Brahmin-Hindus, Sikhs, and Christians. However, some laws are inspired from Buddhist practices, such as banning alcohol sales on religious holidays.\\n\\nEducation\\nIn 1995, as minister of education, Sukavich Rangsitpollaid out his plans for educational reform in Thailand. The goal of education reform is to realize the potential of Thai people to develop themselves for the better quality of life and to develop the nation for peaceful co-existence in the world community.\\nThe reform was considered a landmark movement after nearly 100 years of education under the previous system.\\nThailand's youth literacy rate was 98.1% in 2015. Education is provided by a well-organised school system of kindergartens, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools, numerous vocational colleges, and universities. Education is compulsory up to and including age 14, while the government is mandated to provide free education through to age 17. The establishment of reliable and coherent curricula for its primary and secondary schools is subject to rapid changes. Issues concerning university entrance has been in constant upheaval for a number of years. The country is also one of the few that still mandates uniform up to the university years, which is still a subject of ongoing debate.\\nIn 2013, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology announced that 27,231 schools would receive classroom-level access to high-speed internet. However, the country's educational infrastructure was still underprepared for online teaching, as smaller and more remote schools were particularly hindered by COVID-19 restrictions.\\nThe number of higher education institutions in Thailand has grown over the past decades to 156 officially. The two top-ranking universities in Thailand are Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University. Thai universities' research output is still relatively low, even though the country's journal publications increased by 20% between 2011 and 2016. Recent initiatives, such as the National Research University and Graduate research intensive university: VISTEC, are designed to strengthen Thailand's national research universities.\\nThe private sector of education is well developed and significantly contributes to the overall provision of education. Thailand has the second highest number of English-medium private international schools in Southeast Asian Nations. Cram schools are especially popular for university entrance exams.\\nStudents in ethnic minority areas score consistently lower in standardised national and international tests.\\nThis is likely due to unequal allocation of educational resources, weak teacher training, poverty, and low Thai language skill, the language of the tests. As of 2020, Thailand was ranked 89th out of 100 countries globally for English proficiency.\\nThailand is the third most popular study destination in ASEAN. The number of international degree students in Thailand increased by 9.7 times between 1999 and 2012, from 1,882 to 20,309 students. Most of international students come from neighbor countries like China, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.\\n\\nHealth\\nThailand ranks world's sixth, and Asia's first in the 2019 Global Health Security Index of global health security capabilities in 195 countries, making it the only developing country on the world's top ten. Thailand had 62 hospitals accredited by Joint Commission International. In 2002, Bumrungrad became the first hospital in Asia to meet the standard.\\nHealth and medical care is overseen by the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), with total national expenditures on health amounting to 4.3 per cent of GDP in 2009. Non-communicable diseases form the major burden of morbidity and mortality, while infectious diseases including malaria and tuberculosis, as well as traffic accidents, are also important public health issues.\\nIn December 2018 the interim parliament voted to legalise the use of cannabis for medical reasons, making Thailand the first Southeast Asian country to allow the use of medical cannabis.\\n\\nCulture\\nThai culture and traditions incorporate influences from India, China, Cambodia, and the rest of Southeast Asia. Thailand's national religion, Theravada Buddhism, is central to modern Thai identity. Thai Buddhism has evolved over time to include many regional beliefs originating from Hinduism, animism, as well as ancestor worship. The official calendar in Thailand is based on the Eastern version of the Buddhist Era (BE). Thai identity today is a social construct of the Phibun regime in the 1940s.\\nSeveral ethnic groups mediated change between their traditional local culture, national Thai, and global cultural influences. Overseas Chinese also form a significant part of Thai society, particularly in and around Bangkok. Their successful integration into Thai society has allowed them to hold positions of economic and political power. Thai Chinese businesses prosper as part of the larger bamboo network.\\n\\nRespect for elderly and superiors (by age, position, monks, or certain professions) is Thai mores. As with other Asian cultures, respect towards ancestors is an essential part of Thai spiritual practice. Thais have a strong sense of social hierarchy, reflecting in many classes of honorifics. Elders have by tradition ruled in family decisions or ceremonies. Wai is a traditional Thai greeting, and is generally offered first by a person who is younger or lower in social status and position. Older siblings have duties to younger ones. Thais have a strong sense of hospitality and generosity.\\nTaboos in Thai culture include touching someone's head or pointing with the feet, as the head is considered the most sacred and the foot the lowest part of the body.\\n\\nArt\\nThe origins of Thai art were very much influenced by Buddhist art and by scenes from the Indian epics. Traditional Thai sculpture almost exclusively depicts images of the Buddha, being very similar with the other styles from Southeast Asia. Traditional Thai paintings usually consist of book illustrations, and painted ornamentation of buildings such as palaces and temples. Thai art was influenced by indigenous civilisations of the Mon and other civilisations. By the Sukothai and Ayutthaya period, Thai had developed into its own unique style and was later further influenced by the other Asian styles, mostly by Sri Lankan and Chinese. Thai sculpture and painting, and the royal courts provided patronage, erecting temples and other religious shrines as acts of merit or to commemorate important events.\\nTraditional Thai paintings showed subjects in two dimensions without perspective. The size of each element in the picture reflected its degree of importance. The primary technique of composition is that of apportioning areas: the main elements are isolated from each other by space transformers. This eliminated the intermediate ground, which would otherwise imply perspective. Perspective was introduced only as a result of Western influence in the mid-19th century. Monk artist Khrua In Khong is well known as the first artist to introduce linear perspective to Thai traditional art.\\nThe most frequent narrative subjects for paintings were or are: the Jataka stories, episodes from the life of the Buddha, the Buddhist heavens and hells, themes derived from the Thai versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and scenes of daily life. Some of the scenes are influenced by Thai folklore instead of following strict Buddhist iconography.\\n\\nArchitecture\\nArchitecture is the preeminent medium of the country's cultural legacy and reflects both the challenges of living in Thailand's sometimes extreme climate as well as, historically, the importance of architecture to the Thai people's sense of community and religious beliefs. Influenced by the architectural traditions of many of Thailand's neighbours, it has also developed significant regional variation within its vernacular and religious buildings.\\nThe Ayutthaya Kingdom movement was one of the most fruitful and creative periods in Thai architecture. Architecture in the Ayutthaya period is designed to display might and riches so it has great size and appearance. The temples in Ayutthaya seldom built eaves stretching from the masterhead. The dominant feature of this style is sunlight shining into buildings. During the latter part of the Ayutthaya period, architecture was regarded as a peak achievement that responded to the requirements of people and expressed the gracefulness of Thainess.\\nBuddhist temples in Thailand are known as \\\"wats\\\", from the Pāḷi vāṭa, meaning an enclosure: a temple has an enclosing wall that divides it from the secular world. Wat architecture demonstrates many differences in layout and style, but they all adhere to the same principles.\\n\\nLiterature\\nThai literature has had a long history. Even before the establishment of the Sukhothai Kingdom there existed oral and written works.\\nDuring the Sukhothai Kingdom, most literary works were written in simple prose with certain alliteration schemes. Major works include King Ram Khamhaeng Inscription describing life at the time, which is considered the first literary work in Thai script, but some historians questioned its authenticity. Trai Phum Phra Ruang, written in 1345 by King Maha Thammaracha I, expounds Buddhist philosophy based on a profound and extensive study with reference to over 30 sacred texts and could be considered the nation's first piece of research dissertation.\\n\\nDuring the Ayutthaya Kingdom, new poetic forms were created, with different rhyme schemes and metres. It is common to find a combination of different poetic forms in one poetic work. Lilit Yuan Phai is a narrative poem describing the war between King Borommatrailokkanat of Ayutthaya and Prince Tilokaraj of Lan Na. One literary work is Kap He Ruea composed by Prince Thammathibet in the nirat tradition. Traditionally, the verse is sung during the colourful royal barge procession and has been the model for subsequent poets to emulate. The same prince also composed the greatly admired Kap Ho Khlong on the Visit to Than Thongdaeng and Kap Ho Khlong Nirat Phrabat. The Thonburi period produced Ramakien, a verse drama contributed by King Taksin the Great. The era marked the revival of literature after the fall of Ayutthaya.\\nDuring the 18th century Rattanakosin period, which still fought with the Burmese, many of the early Rattanakosin works deal with war and military strategy. Some examples are Nirat Rop Phama Thi Tha Din Daeng, Phleng Yao Rop Phama Thi Nakhon Si Thammarat. In the performing arts, perhaps the most important dramatic achievement is the complete work of Ramakian by King Rama I. In addition, There were also verse recitals with musical accompaniment, such as Mahori telling the story of Kaki, Sepha relating the story of Khun Chang Khun Phaen. Other recitals include Sri Thanonchai. The most important Thai poet in this period was Sunthorn Phu, known as \\\"the bard of Rattanakosin\\\" (Thai: กวีเอกแห่งกรุงรัตนโกสินทร์). Sunthorn Phu is best known for his epic poem Phra Aphai Mani, a versified fantasy-adventure novel, a genre of Siamese literature known as nithan kham klon (Thai: นิทานคำกลอน).\\nSome of the most well-known modern Thai writers include Kukrit Pramoj, Kulap Saipradit, (penname Siburapha), Suweeriya Sirisingh (penname Botan), Chart Korbjitti, Prabda Yoon and Duanwad Pimwana.\\n\\nMusic and dance\\nAside from folk and regional dances (southern Thailand's Menora and Ramwong, for example), the two major forms of Thai classical dance drama are Khon and Lakhon nai. In the beginning, both were exclusively court entertainments and it was not until much later that a popular style of dance theatre, likay, evolved as a diversion for common folk.\\nFolk dance forms include dance theater forms like likay, numerous regional dances (ram), the ritual dance ram muay, and homage to the teacher, wai khru. Both ram muay and wai khru take place before all traditional muay Thai matches. The wai is also an annual ceremony performed by Thai classical dance groups to honor their artistic ancestors.\\nThai classical music is synonymous with those stylised court ensembles and repertoires that emerged in their present form within the royal centers of Central Thailand some 800 years ago. These ensembles, while being influenced by older practices are today uniquely Thai expressions. While the three primary classical ensembles, the Piphat, Khrueang sai and Mahori differ in significant ways, they all share a basic instrumentation and theoretical approach. Each employs small ching hand cymbals and krap wooden sticks to mark the primary beat reference. Thai classical music has had a wide influence on the musical traditions of neighboring countries.\\n\\nEntertainment\\nThai films are exported and exhibited in Southeast Asia. Thai cinema has developed its own unique identity and is now being internationally recognized. Films such as Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (2003) and Tom-Yum-Goong (2005), starring Tony Jaa, feature distinctive aspects of Thai martial arts \\\"Muay Thai\\\".\\nThai horror has always had a significant cult following. Shutter (2004) was one of the best-known Thai horror movies and was recognized worldwide. The Thai heist thriller film Bad Genius (2017) was one of the most internationally successful Thai films; it broke Thai film earning records in several Asian countries, Bad Genius won in 12 categories at the 27th Suphannahong National Film Awards, and also won the Jury Award at the 16th New York Asian Film Festival with a worldwide collection of more than $42 million.\\nThailand television dramas, known as Lakorn, have become popular in Thailand and regionally. Many dramas tend to have a romantic focus, such as Khluen Chiwit, U-Prince, Ugly Duckling, The Crown Princess and teen dramas television series, such as 2gether: The Series, The Gifted, Girl From Nowhere, Hormones: The Series.\\nThe entertainment industries are estimated to have directly contributed $2.1 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) to the Thai economy in 2011. They also directly supported 86,600 jobs. Amongst several Dance-pop artists who have made internationally successful can be mentioned \\\"Lisa\\\" Lalisa Manobal, Violette Wautier, and Tata Young.\\n\\nCuisine\\nThai cuisine is one of the most popular in the world. Thai food blends five fundamental tastes: sweet, spicy, sour, bitter, and salty. Common ingredients include garlic, lemongrass, kaffir lime, galangal, turmeric, coriander, and coconut milk. Each region of Thailand has its specialities: kaeng khiao wan (green curry) in the central region, som tam (green papaya salad) in the northeast, khao soi in the north, and massaman curry in the south.\\nIn 2017, seven Thai dishes appeared on a list of the \\\"World's 50 Best Foods\\\"— an online worldwide poll by CNN Travel. Thailand had more dishes on the list than any other country. They were: tom yam goong (4th), pad Thai (5th), som tam (6th), massaman curry (10th), green curry (19th), Thai fried rice (24th) and nam tok mu (36th). Two desserts were also listed in CNN's 50 Best Desserts Around The World: mango sticky rice and tub tim krob.\\nThe staple food in Thailand is rice, particularly jasmine rice, which forms part of almost every meal. Thailand is a leading exporter of rice, and Thais consume over 100 kg of milled rice per person per year. Thailand is also the world leader in edible insect industry and well known for its street food; Bangkok is sometimes called the street food capital of the world.\\n\\nUnits of measurement\\nThailand generally uses the metric system, but traditional units of measurement for land area are used, and imperial units of measurement are occasionally used for building materials. Years are numbered as B.E. (Buddhist Era) in educational settings, civil service, government, contracts, and newspaper datelines. However, in banking, and increasingly in industry and commerce, standard Western year (Christian or Common Era) counting is the standard practice.\\n\\nSports\\nMuay Thai (lit. \\\"Thai boxing\\\") is a combat sport that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. Muay Thai became widespread internationally in the late-20th to 21st century. Famous practitioners include Buakaw Banchamek, Samart Payakaroon, Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn and Apidej Sit-Hirun. Buakaw Banchamek has probably brought more international interest in Muay Thai than any other fighter.\\nAssociation football has overtaken Muay Thai as the most widely followed sport in Thailand. The Thailand national football team has played the AFC Asian Cup six times and reached the semifinals in 1972. The country has hosted the Asian Cup twice, in 1972 and in 2007. The 2007 edition was co-hosted together with Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. Another widely enjoyed pastime, and once a competitive sport, is kite flying.\\nVolleyball is rapidly growing as one of the most popular sports. The women's team has often participated in the World Championship, World Cup, and World Grand Prix Asian Championship. They have won the Asian Championship twice and Asian Cup once. By the success of the women's team, the men's team has been growing as well.\\nTakraw is a sport native to Thailand, in which the players hit a rattan ball and are only allowed to use their feet, knees, chest, and head to touch the ball. Sepak takraw is a form of this sport which is similar to volleyball. A rather similar game but played only with the feet is buka ball.\\nSnooker has enjoyed increasing popularity in Thailand in recent years, with interest in the game being stimulated by the success of Thai snooker player James Wattana in the 1990s. Other notable Thai players include Ratchayothin Yotharuck, Noppon Saengkham and Dechawat Poomjaeng.\\nRugby is also a growing sport in Thailand with the Thailand national rugby union team rising to be ranked 61st in the world. Thailand became the first country in the world to host an international 80 welterweight rugby tournament in 2005. The national domestic Thailand Rugby Union (TRU) competition includes several universities as well as local sports clubs like the British Club of Bangkok, the Southerners Sports Club and the Royal Bangkok Sports Club.\\nThailand has been called the golf capital of Asia. The country attracts a large number of golfers from Japan, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, and Western countries. The growing popularity of golf, especially among the middle classes and immigrants, is evident as there are more than 200 world-class golf courses nationwide, and some of them are chosen to host PGA and LPGA tournaments, such as Amata Spring Country Club, Alpine Golf and Sports Club, Thai Country Club, and Black Mountain Golf Club.\\nBasketball is a growing sport in Thailand, especially on the professional sports club level. The Chang Thailand Slammers won the 2011 ASEAN Basketball League Championship. The Thailand national basketball team had its most successful year at the 1966 Asian Games where it won the silver medal.\\nOther sports in Thailand are slowly growing as the country develops its sporting infrastructure. The success in sports like weightlifting and taekwondo at the last two summer Olympic Games has demonstrated that boxing is no longer the only medal option for Thailand.\\n\\nThe well-known Lumpinee Boxing Stadium originally sited at Rama IV Road near Lumphini Park hosted its final Muay Thai boxing matches on 8 February 2014 after the venue first opened in December 1956. From 11 February 2014, the stadium will relocate to Ram Intra Road, due to the new venue's capacity. Thammasat Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Bangkok, currently used mostly for football matches. It was built for the 1998 Asian Games. Rajamangala National Stadium is the biggest sporting arena in Thailand, with a capacity of 65,000. The stadium was built in 1998 for the 1998 Asian Games and is the home stadium of the Thailand national football team.\\n\\nSee also\\nInternational rankings of Thailand\\nOutline of Thailand\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nChachavalpongpun, Pavin, ed. (2020). Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand. Routledge. ISBN 9781138558410. OCLC 1110657073.\\nCooper, Robert George (2008). Culture Shock! Thailand: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette. Marshall Cavendish Editions. ISBN 9789814828772. OCLC 1101343921.\\nLondon, Ellen (2008). Thailand Condensed: 2000 Years of History & Culture. Marshall Cavendish Editions. ISBN 9789812615206.\\nLonely Planet's Best of Thailand. Lonely Planet guidebooks. Footscray, Vic.: Lonely Planet. 2020. OCLC 1312080896.\\nMishra, Patit Paban (2010). The History of Thailand. Greenwood. OCLC 548555562.\\nMoore, Frank J., ed. (1974). Thailand: Its People, Its Society, Its Culture. HRAF Press. OCLC 722730.\\nWyatt, David K. (2003). Thailand: A Short History. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300084757. OCLC 53392823.\\nZawacki, Benjamin (2021). Thailand: Shifting ground between the US and a rising China (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury. OCLC 1232148433.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nGovernment\\n\\nThaigov.go.th – Government of Thailand\\nChief of State and Cabinet Members (archived 10 December 2008)\\nMfa.go.th – Ministry of Foreign Affairs\\nThailand Internet information – National Electronics and Computer Technology Center\\nMinistry of Culture (archived 28 April 2015)\\nGeneral information\\n\\nThailand. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.\\nThailand entry in Library of Congress Country Studies. 1987\\nThailand from UCB Libraries GovPubs (archived 7 February 2009)\\nThailand at Curlie\\nThailand from the BBC News\\nThailand Encyclopædia Britannica entry\\n Wikimedia Atlas of Thailand\\nLongdo Map – Thailand maps in English and Thai\\nKey Development Forecasts for Thailand from International Futures\\n2010 Thailand population census by Economic and Social statistics Bureau (archived 16 January 2013)\\nTravel\\n\\nTourism Authority of Thailand – official tourism website\\nOther\\n\\nThailand Country Fact Sheet from the Common Language Project (archived 31 July 2014)\\nSoutheast Asia Visions. \\\"Browse the Southeast Asia Visions Collection\\\". Cornell University Library.\",\n \"title\": \"Thailand\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Thailand national football team (Thai: ฟุตบอลทีมชาติไทย, RTGS: futbon thim chat thai, pronounced [fút.bɔ̄n tʰīːm t͡ɕʰâːt tʰāj]) represents Thailand in senior international football and is controlled by the Football Association of Thailand.\\nIn the regional competition, Thailand is the most successful football team in Southeast Asia with seven ASEAN Championship trophies and nine senior-level gold medals from the Southeast Asian Games, the most of any Southeast Asian country. In higher levels, Thailand achieved the third place in the 1972 AFC Asian Cup where it was the host, and has a total of seven appearances in the AFC Asian Cup so far. Furthermore, the team reached the fourth-place in the 1990 and 1998 Asian Games and participated in the Summer Olympics twice. However, Thailand has failed to obtain higher achievements in the continental and global records. The team obtained first ever win in the AFC Asian Cup in 2007 and had to wait 47 years to finally sneak out of the group stage in 2019. Thailand also advanced to the final round of World Cup qualification twice, in 2002 and 2018, but failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.\\n\\nHistory\\n1915–1995: dynastic establishment\\nThe team's predecessor, which operated under the name of Siam, was founded in 1915 and played its first unofficial match against a team of Europeans at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club Stadium on 20 December that year. The team played its first international match in 1930 against the Indochina national team, which included both South Vietnamese and French players.\\n\\nThailand appeared in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, where their lost to Great Britain 0–9, was the largest to that point, thus failing to advance to the quarter-finals. In 1959, Thailand as the host won silver medals in the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games after losing 1–3 to South Vietnam in the final. In 1965, Thailand harbored its first distinct title: the very first place in the Southeast Asian Games. They made their second and latest appearance at the Summer Olympics in 1968, losing all three matches by at least 3 goals margin to Bulgaria, Guatemala, and Czechoslovakia hence en route to a first-round exit.\\nDuring the 1992 AFC Asian Cup qualification, Thailand gained a significant success defeating South Korea 2–1 and Bangladesh 1–0 to top the group and qualify to the 1992 AFC Asian Cup. The team's performance at the final tournament was drawing first two matches with Qatar and eventual 3rd place China then losing 0–4 to Saudi Arabia. In 1994, manager Thawatchai Sartjakul assembled a team that has been denounced as the \\\"dream team\\\" with players like Kiatisuk Senamuang, Tawan Sripan and Dusit Chalermsan.\\n\\n1996–2016: flag bearer of Southeast Asia\\nIn 1996, Thailand defeated Malaysia 1–0 and win the ASEAN Football Championship (then called the Tiger Cup) for the first time. Thailand were favorites to regain the crown in 2007, 2008 and 2012 only to lose tight finals to Singapore and Vietnam respectively.\\nThe regional 1998 Tiger Cup saw Thailand met Indonesia in a match that ill-hearted players from both team deliberately making actions aimed to avoid facing hosts Vietnam in the semi-finals and undergoing technical burden of moving training bases from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. FIFA fined both teams $40,000 for \\\"violating the spirit of the game\\\". Thailand eventually lost the match, inevitably encountered and failed to Vietnam in the semi-finals.\\nThailand consecutively qualified to and participated in two AFC Asian Cup final tournaments both held within Western Asia in 1996 and 2000 when their \\\"dream team\\\" was beginning its golden period. Coincidentally in both editions, the team's opponents all came from Western Asia and they are Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, with the latter two share the same group with Thailand twice. In both editions, Thailand made two draws and lost the rest, bottomed the group stage of the first and is the worst third-placed team of the second edition.\\n\\nThe final 2000 AFF Championship match between Thailand and Indonesia, at a sold out Rajamangala, was almost a carbon copy of their group stage's encounter. The War Elephants triumphed 4–1 again with Worrawoot setting up camp at the opponents' goal. The 28-year-old scored twice in their first match and in the final struck a hat-trick in the first 32 minutes. In the final 2002 AFF Cup final, Thailand again met Indonesia (who was now the host) and won the game in penalty shootout despite taking a 2–0 lead.\\nThailand again qualified to the Asian Cup in 2004 and was put into a group with Japan, Iran and debutant Oman. Despite vast experiences in the Asian Cup, the team has yet to show a sign of improvement as they lost all matches and became the worst-performed team in the whole tournament.\\nThe sign of improving only came in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup when Thailand participated as a well-prepared co-host and was placed with the debutant Australia, Oman, and Iraq. The team manages a draw to Iraq and a historic win over Oman. With 4 points ahead, Thailand's chance to qualify to the next round for the first time since 1972 was all but shattered by the likes of Australia in a 0–4 demolition. The tournament witnessed the end of Thailand's recognizable generation with later retirements of Kiatisuk, Tawan, and Pipat.\\nIn September 2008, Thailand signed a four-year contract with the English coach Peter Reid but Reid left his position by mutual consent after only a year in charge as his team fail to clinch the championship of 2008 AFF Championship after 2–3 on aggregate lost to Vietnam in the finals.\\n\\nIn September 2009, Bryan Robson agreed to coach Thailand in his first foray into international football management and was contracted to manage the team through to the 2014 World Cup. In November, Robson celebrated his first competitive match in charge of the team with an away victory against Singapore in a 2011 Asian Cup qualifying group match but then lose to the same opponent back home. Then, two goalless draws with Jordan and Iran in January 2010 and an 0–1 away lost to Iran in March all effectively ended the chance of qualifying for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. In preparations for the 2010 AFF Championship, Robson led Thailand to victorious run against Singapore and Bob Houghton's India in a series of friendlies. However, when entering the tournament in December, he failed to bring Thailand past group A after managing only draws against Laos and Malaysia and losing to Indonesia.Robson resigned as Thailand's manager on 8 June 2011, citing health problems as the reason and was replaced by Winfried Schäfer, who would be the ninth German person to coach the Thailand team.\\nThe new coach called up starlets for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers and have the starting set of matches losing minimal to Australia, defeating Oman 3–0 and drawing Saudi Arabia but did not make it after losing to these teams altogether in the second set. In the 2012 AFF Championship, Thailand topped their group and surpassed Malaysia in semi-finals but handed the crown to Singapore in the finals. In the 2015 Asian Cup qualification, Thailand showed setback with its defensive frailties exposed by Middle Eastern rivals (Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon) when losing all 6 games in the qualifiers, conceding 21 goals in the process.\\nIn June 2013, Schäfer cancelled his contract. The FA of Thailand appointed the former player Kiatisuk Senamuang as the new caretaker coach for the national team. His first ride was a friendly against China PR on 15 June, which Thailand surprisingly won 5–1.\\n\\nIn 2014, Thailand ended a 12-year drought of the AFF Championship title from the late goals by Charyl Chappuis and Chanathip Songkrasin which gave them a dramatic 4–3 aggregate victory over Malaysia in the second leg of the finals at Bukit Jalil. The team did not lose any match up until the second leg of the finals and often featured a tiki-taka playing style, for instance including 27 consecutive passes during the first leg of the finals against Malaysia. Kiatisuk consequently became the first person to win the ASEAN Football Championship as both a player and a coach. Thailand succeeded in protecting AFF Championship reign two years later in 2016, defeating Indonesia 3–2 aggregately despite losing the first leg.\\nIn 2015, evasion fuelled hope for both the players and Thailand fans of finally reaching the World Cup tournament and tension is mounting as the national team commenced AFC's second round for 2018 World Cup qualification. Teerasil Dangda, Thailand's renowned striker, rejoined the rank of the national team after his loan with UD Almería ended earlier. Drawn in Group F along with Chinese Taipei, Iraq and Vietnam, who Thailand played first match home against on 24 May and can only be won by a victory goal from a shot 20 yards away. They played a much easier match at the same opponent's home soil, winning 3–0. Thailand won both matches against Chinese Taipei and drew 2–2 both matches against Iraq, allowing them to qualify for the next round as group F winners.\\nIn the last round, Kiatisuk's men shared the same group with Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UAE along with previous opponent, Iraq. Again, Thailand was eliminated without winning a match and recorded only two points out of ten matches.\\n\\n2017–present: Rebuilding to achieve the continental success\\nRajevac, Sirisak and Nishino\\nSince taking over the administration by Somyot Poompanmoung, FA Thailand aims to drive men's national football team to be one of the leading teams in Asia by which there are concrete 20 years development plans and preparations. After the elimination from World Cup qualifiers, Kiatisuk resigned and Thailand appointed Milovan Rajevac as a coach, thus marked the first non-Brazilian/German/English team's chief. With the new coach, however, Thailand failed to defend its AFF Championship title in 2018 when losing Malaysia in the semi-finals by the away goals rule.\\nAhead of 2019 AFC Asian Cup, Thailand was drawn into group A together with the host UAE, Bahrain and India. Rajevac oversaw Thailand in the commencing 1–4 loss to India. The Serbian coach was sacked and his assistant, Sirisak Yodyardthai became the interim coach on 7 January. Sirisak guided Thailand to a 1–0 win over Bahrain and a 1–1 draw with the host UAE, enough to move on to the knockout stage of the AFC Asian Cup for the first time in 47 years. Their success was greeted with congratulation from the FA. Thailand encountered China in the round of sixteen, taking an early lead but eventually lost 2–1 as China make their decisive respond.\\n\\nAfter finishing in the fourth place of 2019 King's Cup and losing the rival Vietnam in that tournament, Sirisak had resigned and FA Thailand appointed the Japanese coach Akira Nishino, who had brought Japan to the round of 16 of 2018 FIFA World Cup, for replacement. This was the first-ever Asian coach becoming Thailand's head coach. The team was drawn into group G of the second round of 2022 World Cup qualification with other three Southeast Asian rivals: Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia; along with United Arab Emirates. Despite defeating Indonesia 3–0 and UAE 2–1, Thailand failed to revenge Vietnam when getting goalless draws in both legs, while losing Malaysia 1–2 in Bukit Jalil. With these results, Thailand could only get the third place in group G after five qualifying matches. After a one-year disruption due to COVID-19 pandemic, Thailand and other teams in group G had to play their remaining matches in Dubai, UAE. However, the team suffered a huge loss of key players when Chanathip Songkrasin was injured, while Teerasil Dangda and Theerathon Bunmathan refused to participate the qualification due to various reasons. Without these three players, Thailand showed a poor performance in Dubai - drawn the bottom place team Indonesia 2–2, then lost the UAE 1–3 and Malaysia 0–1, respectively; which eventually pushed the team down to the fourth place of the group G. Nishino did not come back to Thailand to explain the team's failure, but unilaterally returning to Japan, which made FA Thailand appoint Anurak Srikerd as the caretaker and consider sacking Nishino in upcoming days. On 29 July 2021, shortly after Nishino came back to Thailand, FA Thailand decided to terminate the contract with Nishino.\\n\\nAlexandré Pölking\\nOn 28 September 2021, Alexandré Pölking was appointed as the head coach of the Thailand national team, replacing Akira Nishino. Pölking's first task was the 2020 AFF Championship in December 2021 held in Singapore. Between 5 December 2021 and 1 January 2022, Polking accomplished the very task as he managed the War Elephants to win 6–2 on aggregate after being held to a 2–2 second-leg draw by Indonesia, guiding Thailand to win the AFF Championship for the sixth time. In the 2022 AFF Championship, Thailand defended their title on 16 January 2023, winning the tournament by a 3–2 aggregate score in the two-legged final against Vietnam to secure their seventh title. In October 2023, Thailand embarked on a European tour playing two friendlies against Georgia and Estonia and with star players like Chanathip Songkrasin, Nicholas Mickelson and Ekanit Panya injured and club team refused to released Teerasil Dangda and Theerathon Bunmathan, Supachok Sarachat, Sarach Yooyen, Pansa Hemviboon for international duties, Thailand have to relies on inexperience international players and also giving the opportunity for new young players a chanced to touched up for the future international matches. On 12 October 2023, Thailand suffered their worst defeat in the 21st century losing against Georgia 8–0 at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium. In the next match against Estonia on 17 October, Jakkapan Praisuwan equalised it for Thailand for a hard fought 1–1 draw at the Lilleküla Stadium.\\nThe 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification saw Thailand drawn in group C against South Korea, China and Singapore, with the target to be winning the second place to advance to the final round. However, Thailand would get off to a disastrous start, flopping at home to China 2–1 despite opened the scoring by Sarach Yooyen. This disastrous home loss ultimately sealed Pölking's fate, despite a 3–1 away victory over Singapore later on sent Thailand to second on goal difference; with the Brazilian tactician sacked for failing to live up to the target.\\n\\nMasatada Ishii\\nAfter a hurried attempt, Japanese manager Masatada Ishii was announced as Thailand's temporarily new head coach, with a contract lasted until the end of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup as he faced a daunting prospect of reviving the lacklustre Thai side to reach continental level. His first match, a friendly against his homeland Japan, saw Thailand thrashed 5–0 in the second half after an impressive first half display, increased negative feelings among Thai fans as the War Elephants faced a huge challenge in group F at the Asian Cup, with Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan and Oman on the same boat.\\nAmidst drop of a huge pessimism, Thailand started their Asian Cup campaign against Kyrgyzstan to a bright note, winning 2–0 to mark Thailand's first ever win in an Asian Cup opening match. After a 2–0 victory over Kyrgyzstan, Thailand squared up against a far stronger Oman side, which was boosted by bright performances over the past three years and under the Croatian manager Branko Ivanković, an Asian football expert who never lost to Thailand in his coaching career. However, Thailand defied all expectation of an easy Omani triumph, resolutely defended throughout the match and several times created opportunities to end the game with a famous goalless shutout, giving Thailand four points and the country's early progression to the knockout stage. Thailand would then go on to produce its most famous game in their modern Asian Cup history, a brilliant counter-offensive tactic against Asian hegemon Saudi Arabia in the final group stage match, including a famous penalty save by Saranon Anuin as Thailand made a famous goalless draw to the Saudis, ending their losing streak that started in 2012 to the same opponent and, for the first time ever, Thailand gained a shutout record in the Asian Cup group stage. However, Thailand failed to end their miserable knockout stage record in the Asian Cup, losing 2–1 to Uzbekistan in the round of 16 to equal their 2019 result. Despite this exit, Thailand's bright performance in the tournament earned the team significant praises for their resoluteness and ability to adapt to difficult circumstances, and Masatada Ishii was appointed on a permanent basis, with the aim to help Thailand to qualify for the third round of the 2026 World Cup qualification and the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.\\n\\nTeam image\\nColours\\nIn older days, the primary kits worn are all red.\\nThe Thai senior national team used to play with a kit made by local provider FBT. This contract lasted until June 2007.\\nIn July 2007, Nike became kit providers, and from October that year, the team played in an all-yellow home kit in honour of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 80th birthday (yellow being the royal color), having used two other yellow kits in friendlies against China on 16 May 2007 and Qatar on 2 July 2007.\\nFrom October 2012 through 2016, Nike was replaced by Grand Sport in a deal worth 96M baht (3.1M USD). The new home kit of Thailand reverted to all-red and the away kit to all-blue. However, the order was reversed from the 2014 AFF Championship onward.\\nIn September 2016, the national team signed a four-year contract with Warrix Sports to be their kit provider from 2017. On 4 January 2017, the new provider introduced a new pair of Thailand kits that was all black home and all white away, honouring their late King Bhumibol for a year after his passing, with black and white being the traditional Thai colors of mourning.\\nIn March 2018, Warrix returned Thailand to the all-blue first, all-red second kits with an addition of a white-black third kit.\\nIn December 2018, a new, darker version of blue, red kits and an all white third kit were presented for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup campaign and the rest of 2019. For the 2019 King's Cup in May, Warrix released the kit consisting of a yellow shirt with white shorts and socks – yellow reportedly being the favorite color of the newly crowned King Maha Vajiralongkorn.\\n\\nRivalries\\nNotable rivalries\\nThailand has rivalries with Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. These rivalries are rooted in geographical proximity.\\n\\nThailand's greatest rival is Malaysia, the two teams having played each other 106 times. Before Malaysia fell into football scandal that weakened the country's football development from the 1990s to 2018, Malaysia was Thailand's most annoying and difficult opponent in the region. Despite the football scandal, Thailand have not defeated the Malaysians on their home turf since 1971. Thailand have better records in international football competitions than the Malaysians.\\nIndonesia has met Thailand in three finals of the AFF Championship at 2000, 2002 and 2016, and Thailand all triumphed at the expense of Indonesia. It's been said that while Thailand was able to elevate its position to become a more serious Asian competitor, Indonesia fell into mismanagement and matches between two teams also began to lose its importance.\\nThe rivalry between Thailand and Singapore is a newer one and its importance can be emphasized by the domination of both countries in the AFF Championship with Thailand winning five times and Singapore winning four. Up until 2012, Singapore and Thailand have been the more dominant forces in Southeast Asian football. Football development in both countries have been different with Thailand relies mostly on its own domestically developed players while Singapore has been reliant on naturalized players.\\nThailand's rivalry with Vietnam has developed differently from times. During the time of South Vietnam and North Vietnam, Thailand had a poorer performance with the team only won 5 matches against the South Vietnamese. However, when Vietnam rejoined international football at 1991, Thailand has been more dominant than their eastern rival.\\nWhen Myanmar was still a football power, it was Thailand's first-ever rival, owned by the history of the Burmese–Siamese wars which led to a nationalist fervor among Thai fans with its desire to beat the Burmese. But with Myanmar weakened following the reign of Ne Win and junta, Thailand improved and since 1983, holds an undefeated streak over its western rival. The rivalry today only serves mostly in the memoir of Burmese fans who are nostalgic to an era when Myanmar was still a leading football power, while for some Thai fans, they have more important opponents to concentrate on.\\n\\nHome ground\\nMost home matches took place in Rajamangala National Stadium in Bang Kapi District of Bangkok. Built for the 1998 Asian Games, the stadium is the largest sporting facility in Thailand with a capacity of 49,749, all seated. International matches are also occasionally played at Supachalasai Stadium, 700th Anniversary Stadium, 80th Birthday Stadium, Thammasat Stadium, Chang Arena, BG Stadium and Thunderdome Stadium.\\n\\nResults and fixtures\\nThe following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.\\n Win\\n Draw\\n Loss\\n Fixture\\n\\n2023\\n2024\\nCoaching staff\\nCoaching history\\nStatistical summary\\nAs of 10 September 2024 after the match against Vietnam.\\n\\nPlayers\\nCurrent squad\\nThe following 23 players were called up for the 2024 King's Cup on 11 and 14 October 2024 respectively.\\nCaps and goals as of 10 September 2024, after the match against Vietnam.\\n\\nRecent call-ups\\nThe following players have been called up within the last 12 months.\\n\\nPlayer records\\nAs of 11 June 2024\\nPlayers in bold are still active with Thailand.\\n\\nMost appearances\\nTop goalscorers\\nCompetitive record\\nFIFA World Cup\\nAFC Asian Cup\\nASEAN Championship\\nOlympic Games\\nAsian Games\\nSoutheast Asian Games\\nNotes\\n1 : The title was shared.\\n* : Denotes draws including knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.\\n\\nHead-to-head record\\nAs of 10 September 2024\\n\\nHonours\\nContinental\\nAFC Asian Cup\\n Third place (1): 1972\\n\\nRegional\\nASEAN Championship\\n Champions (7): 1996, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2022\\n Runners-up (3): 2007, 2008, 2012\\nSoutheast Asian Games\\n Gold Medal (9): 1965 (shared), 1975, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999\\n Silver Medal (4): 1959, 1969, 1977, 1991\\n Bronze Medal (5): 1961, 1967, 1971, 1979, 1987\\n\\nFriendly\\nKing's Cup\\n Champions (14): 1976 (shared), 1979, 1980 (shared), 1981, 1982, 1984, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2016, 2017\\n Runners-up (12): 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1993, 1997, 2002, 2004, 2009, 2015, 2018, 2023\\n Third place (12): 1968, 1973, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2013 (shared), 2022\\nChina Cup\\n Runners-up (1): 2019\\nIndonesian Independence Cup\\n Champions (1): 1994\\nKorea Cup\\n Third place (1): 1977 (shared)\\nVFF Vietnam International Friendly Cup\\n Champions (2): 2006, 2008\\nNehru Cup\\n Third place (1): 1995\\n3 Nations in Taiwan\\n Champions (1): 1971\\n4 Nations in Indochina\\n Champions (1): 1989\\nBrunei Games\\n Champions (1): 1990\\n\\nSee also\\nThailand national under-23 football team\\nThailand national under-21 football team\\nThailand national under-20 football team\\nThailand national under-17 football team\\nThailand national futsal team\\nKing's Cup\\nFootball in Thailand\\nSport in Thailand\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nFootball Association of Thailand\\nThailand FIFA profile\\nThailand AFC profile\",\n \"title\": \"Thailand_national_football_team\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"What is the country of origin of the football coach with the first initial \"P\" for the Thailand national men's football team who coached 54 years after the country's name officially changed?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"German."},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":677,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"677"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso, (22 October 1890 – 15 June 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a Scottish politician and leader of the Liberal Party.\n\nBackground and education\nSinclair was born in 1890 in Caithness, Scotland. Sinclair was the son of a Scottish father, Clarence Granville Sinclair, and his American wife Mabel Sands, daughter of Mahlon Day Sands, and half-sister of Ethel Sands. His mother died shortly after his birth, and his father in 1895. He was brought up in families including those of his paternal grandfather Sir Tollemache Sinclair, 3rd Baronet, his uncle William Macdonald Sinclair, and Owen Williams, married to his aunt Nina.\nEducated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Sinclair was commissioned into the Life Guards in 1910. In 1912, he succeeded his grandfather as the fourth Baronet of Ulbster. He became one of the largest landowners in the United Kingdom, owning an estate of about 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) in Caithness. His recreations included polo and flying: he was a keen aviator. At this period he made a friend of Winston Churchill.\nColin Coote in his memoirs wrote of Sinclair's \"irresistible charm, allied to the face and figure of an Adonis\". The handsome Sinclair was at this period thought of as a possible husband for Nellie Hozier, younger sister of Clementine Churchill.\n\nMilitary career\nSinclair served on the Western Front during the First World War, in 1915 as aide de camp to J. E. B. Seely who commanded the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. He rose to the rank of Major in the Guards Machine Gun Regiment.\nAfter Winston Churchill resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty, Sinclair served as his second-in-command when Churchill took up command at the beginning of 1916 of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Churchill arranged the transfer with Douglas Haig, who turned down the request that Seely should be moved too, and also refused him Edward Spears. They were stationed in the Ploegsteert Wood sector of the Western Front.\n\nWorking with Churchill\nFrom 1919 to 1921 Sinclair served as Personal Military Secretary to Churchill, when he returned to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for War, and then accompanied him to the Colonial Office as Private Secretary.\nSinclair's duties included acting as liaison for Churchill with the Secret Intelligence Service. He had dealings with George Alexander Hill and Malcolm Wollcombe, agent in the Soviet Union for Mansfield Smith-Cumming. Stewart Menzies who had the official liaison role at the War Office was a personal friend. Sinclair collated humint and technical intelligence for Churchill, for example on Leonid Krasin. He also assisted in the delicate handling of Boris Savinkov, who was brought to London. It was Sinclair who introduced the prominent British agent Sidney Reilly to Nikolai Alekseyev, intelligence chief of the White Russian leader Alexander Guchkov.\n\nPolitical career 1922–1939\nIn 1922, Sinclair entered the House of Commons as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Caithness and Sutherland, supporting David Lloyd George and defeating the incumbent Liberal supporter of H. H. Asquith. He rose through the Liberal ranks as the party shrank in Parliament, becoming Chief Whip by 1930. At this period he worked on land policy with Lloyd George, including the \"Tartan Book\" that addressed Scottish devolution.\nIn July 1931, a meeting took place at Sinclair's house, where Oswald Mosley and Harold Nicolson met Churchill, Lloyd George and Brendan Bracken, to discuss a political alliance. About a month later, the Liberal Party joined the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald, with Sinclair appointed Secretary of State for Scotland. He was sworn of the Privy Council at the same time. In 1932, he, together with other Liberal ministers led by Herbert Samuel, resigned from the government in protest at the Ottawa Conference introducing Imperial Preference.\nIn the 1935 general election, Herbert Samuel lost his seat, and Sinclair became the Liberal Party's leader at the head of 20 MPs. During the Abdication Crisis of 1936, his name was put forward as a possible leader of a government that might be formed if Edward VIII held onto the throne against the wishes of the Baldwin administration. Churchill came to support the King's position, and Lord Beaverbrook entertained the idea of Sinclair as Prime Minister. Both Clement Attlee for Labour and Sinclair for the Liberals, however, in late November ruled out forming a government under those circumstances.\nSinclair consistently opposed the continental dictatorships and kept the National Liberals at arms length. He supported the League of Nations and collective security. He backed, as did Attlee, Churchill's book Arms and the Covenant. He joined the Anti-Nazi Council of Eugen Spier, with Churchill and Violet Bonham Carter, Margaret Bondfield and Hugh Dalton. Public opinion at this point of the later 1930s by no means agreed, and John Alfred Spender attacked Sinclair in The Times on foreign policy, claiming that he, like the League of Nations Union, wished for war with the Axis Powers.\nAt the time of the Munich Crisis in September 1938, Sinclair was one of the anti-appeasement group who gathered around Churchill, with Leo Amery, Robert Boothby, Robert Cecil, Harold Macmillan and Harold Nicolson. During parliamentary debate over the Munich Agreement he attacked Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for \"wilting\" to Nazi Germany and tossing \"justice and respect for treaties... to the winds.\" On a personal level, Violet Bonham Carter was a frequent guest of the Sinclairs at Dalnawillan Lodge in the Flow Country, as were Harcourt Johnstone and Lady Gwendoline Churchill, wife of Jack Churchill and Winston's sister-in-law. Bonham Carter was a Liberal activist, close follower of Churchill, anti-appeaser and League of Nations Union member.\n\nSecond World War\nWhen Churchill formed an all-party coalition government in 1940, Sinclair entered the cabinet as Secretary of State for Air. During the May 1940 British war cabinet crisis after the fall of France he sided with Churchill against Lord Halifax's plan to seek a negotiated settlement with Nazi Germany mediated by Fascist Italy.\nSinclair's first task was to work with the Royal Air Force in planning the Battle of Britain. Towards the end of the war, he found himself at odds with Churchill, arguing against Bomber Harris's strategy for the Bombing of Dresden and other German cities. He was not a strong political personality: Max Hastings reports that he was often regarded as the \"Head of School's fag\" to Churchill, and as the political mouthpiece rather than the master of Air Chief Marshals Portal and Harris. However, in 1942 he did convince Churchill and his cabinet not to carry out reprisals on German villages for war atrocities such as the Lidice massacre.\nSinclair remained a minister until May 1945, when the coalition ended. In the 1945 general election, he lost his seat. His margin of defeat was narrow: he came in third place, with the victor Eric Gandar Dower having 61 votes more.\n\nLast years\nAt the 1950 general election, Sinclair again stood for his old seat, coming second. In 1952, the year of his first stroke, he accepted elevation to the House of Lords as Viscount Thurso of Ulbster in the County of Caithness. A more serious stroke in 1959 left him largely bedridden and in a state of precarious health, until he died at his home in Twickenham in 1970.\n\nFamily\nIn 1918 Sinclair married Marigold Forbes (1897–1975), daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Stewart Forbes and Lady Angela Forbes. They had four children:\n\nCatherine (1919–2007), married 1957 Kazimierz Zielenkiewicz.\nElizabeth (1921–1994), married in 1942 Archibald Michael Lyle, son of Sir Archibald Lyle, 2nd Baronet, and was mother of Veronica Linklater.\nRobin (1922–1995), married 1952 Margaret Beaumont Robertson, and was father of John Sinclair, 3rd Viscount Thurso\nAngus John (1925–2003), married firstly in 1955 Pamela Karen Bower, daughter of Dallas Bower (dissolved 1967), secondly in 1968 Judith Anne Percy (dissolved 1992), thirdly in 1992 Kate Fry.\n\nLegacy\nThe Southern Railway named a Battle of Britain Class Light Pacific steam locomotive \"Sir Archibald Sinclair\". The ceremonial naming of the locomotive was performed by Sir Archibald himself at Waterloo station on 24 February 1948. The SR number of the locomotive was 21C159 and its British Railways number was 34059.\n\nReferences\nBibliography\nBouverie, Tim (2019). Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War (1 ed.). New York: Tim Duggan Books. ISBN 978-0-451-49984-4.\nViolet Bonham Carter, ed. Mark Pottle, Champion Redoubtable: The Diaries of Violet Bonham Carter 1914–1945 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998).\nGerard DeGroot, Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair (New York University Press, 1993).\nHastings, Max (1979). Bomber Command (1 ed.). Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-1603-8.\ned. Ian Hunter, Winston and Archie: The collected correspondence of Winston Churchill and Sir Archibald Sinclair (Politico's, 2005).\nTorrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006).\n\nExternal links\n\nHansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Thurso\nSir Archibald Sinclair (Viscount Thurso) 1890–1970 biography from the Liberal Democrat History Group\nNewspaper clippings about Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW\nThe Papers of Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso held at Churchill Archives Centre","title":"Archibald_Sinclair,_1st_Viscount_Thurso"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Ethel Sands (6 July 1873 – 19 March 1962) was an American-born artist and hostess who lived in England from childhood. She studied art in Paris, where she met her life partner Anna Hope Hudson. Her works were generally still lifes and interiors, often of Château d'Auppegard that she shared with Hudson. Sands was a Fitzroy Street Group and London Group member. Her works are in London's National Portrait Gallery and other public collections. In 1916, she became a naturalised British citizen. Although a major art patron and an artist, she is most remembered as a hostess for the cultural elite, including Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry and Augustus John.\n\nEarly life\nEthel Sands was born on 6 July 1873 in Newport, Rhode Island, the first child of Mary Morton (Hartpence) and Mahlon Day Sands, who married in 1872. Mahlon Sands was secretary of the American Free Trade League, who in 1870 advocated for civil service reform and free trade. He was partner of his deceased father's pharmaceutical importing firm, A.B. Sands and Company. Ethel had two younger brothers, Mahlon Alan and Morton Harcourt Sands, who were, respectively, 5 and 11 years younger.\nIn 1874, the family left the United States for England, intending to only visit the country. However, Mahlon Sands and his family stayed in England and travelled among European countries. They also visited the United States annually and were there for an extended visit from 1877 to 1879. They kept their house in Newport, Rhode Island throughout this time.\nThe wealthy Sands circulated among London society, including writer and statesman John Morley, politician William Ewart Gladstone, writer Henry James, artist John Singer Sargent, the Rothschild family, and Henry Graham White. Mahlon's sister, Katherine, was married to journalist and newspaper editor Edwin Lawrence Godkin. They were part of Edward VII, then Prince of Wales', social circle. \nJohn Singer Sargent painted the portrait of her mother, who was considered \"a famous society beauty of her day.\" Mary Sands was \"much admired\" by writer Henry James, who called her \"that gracious lady\" and based his heroic character \"Madame de Mauves\" on her.\nEthel Sands was raised in a respectable upper-class household in which her parents were \"happily married\". While her father was considered handsome and her mother beautiful, Anthony Powell states that some people wrote in their diaries and letters that she was plain. In her later years, Powell met her and said that \"so great was her elegance, charm, capacity to be amusing in a no-nonsense manner, that I could well believed her to be good-looking in her youth. Her father had ridden horseback through Hyde Park, was thrown from the horse and died an accidental death in 1888. His widow, Mary Sands, raised Ethel and her brothers until her death on 28 July 1896.\n\nArt\nEducation\nEncouraged by artist John Singer Sargent, Sands studied painting in Paris at the Académie Carrière under Eugène Carrière for several years, beginning in 1894. There she met fellow student Nan Hudson, born Anna Hope Hudson in the United States, who became her life partner. During this time, Sands became the guardian of her two younger brothers following her mother's death in 1896.\n\nPainting\nSands painted still lifes and interior settings. Tate suggests that was inspired by Édouard Vuillard's dry brush technique, colour palette and depiction of \"intimate\" scenes. Her first exhibition was at Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1904.\nIn 1907, at Walter Sickert's invitation, she became a member and exhibited paintings she made at the Fitzroy Street Group. She also purchased the works of other artists. She was one of the artists that founded the London Group. According to author Kate Deepwell, her works, and those of Vanessa Bell and other women, were evaluated differently at that time from those made by men: The best critique of woman's work at the time would be that they had individuality, but they would not have been considered innovative, modern works like those made by men.\nIn Paris in 1911 she had her first show dedicated to her works. Hudson and Sands had a show at Carfax Gallery in 1912. The next year she was part of the \"English Post-Impressionists, Cubists and Others\" show in Brighton. Her works were exhibited at Goupil Gallery, and in 1922 she had her initial solo show. She also exhibited often at the Women's International Art Club and the New English Art Club.\nHudson purchased Château d'Auppegard near Dieppe, France in 1920, which was the subject of several of Sand's paintings. Some of the interior paintings are A Spare Room, Château d'Auppegard and Double Doors, Château d'Auppegard. Other examples are the landscape Auppegard Church from Château, France and one of her partner, Nan Hudson Playing Patience at Auppegard. Her works are in the collections of Tate museum Government Art Collection, and Fitzwilliam Museum.\n\nSocialite and patron\nLike Lady Sibyl Colefax and Lady Ottoline Morrell, Sands entertained artists and writers with the intention to nurture and discuss ideas relevant to their careers. Lady Ottoline Morrell \"took over\" Sand's Chelsea house for entertainment after she had to give up her London house at Bedford Square. Affiliated with the Bloomsbury Group, she was best-known as \"one of the leading artist hostesses of her time\", her lavish affairs were financially possible due to the significant wealth she inherited from her parents. She was mainly at the Oxford, Newington house until 1920, but when in England she also entertained at her London Lowndes Street house, and between 1913 and 1937 at 15 Vale, Chelsea, London house, where she lived near her mother's friend, Henry James. Notable artists Augustus John and Walter Sickert. Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry and Arnold Bennett were among the writers of the \"cultural elite\" who visited her. Her friends included artist Jacques-Émile Blanche, writer Edith Wharton, poet William Butler Yeats, essayist and critic Logan Pearsall Smith and novelist Howard Overing Sturgis.\nLytton Strachey (a founder of the Bloomsbury Group) met at Sands' house and her uncle, Edwin Lawrence Godkin wrote of his upcoming visit to Sands' house in Oxfordshire, \"There one fortnight, and then back to \"holy wars\", patriotism, and buncombe...\"\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nShe was a patron and collector of works by other contemporary artists. For instance, she commissioned Boris Anrep, a Russian immigrant, to create mosaics and murals in her Vale, Chelsea house. Sands continued to entertain into the 1950s with her friends, including Duncan Grant and Desmond MacCarthy, until he died in 1952.\nShe was described as a \"plain woman of immense charm, cultivation and perception, and a painter of considerable talent\" in the Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction. It was suggested there that Henry James modelled the character Nanda in The Awkward Age after Sands.\n\nWorld wars\nSands tended to soldiers who had been injured in France during World War I, having established a hospital for soldiers near Dieppe with Hudson. It was forced to close down, and they continued their nursing efforts in both France and England. Sands was then in Britain working as a forewoman in a factory that made overalls. In 1916 she became a British citizenship. During World War II, Sands served as a nurse. The house in Chelsea, London was destroyed during The Blitz by a parachute mine, and the house in France was broken into and its contents were stolen or destroyed. The two war-time events resulted in the loss of most of Sands' and Hudson's works.\n\nPersonal life\nSands and Hudson divided their time between England and France to accommodate their lifestyle preferences. Hudson enjoyed living a relatively quiet life in France and Sands liked the London and Oxford social life.\nSands entertained people within and outside of the cultural elite throughout her life. When Hudson's health began to fail, Sands nursed her until she died in 1957. Sand continued to entertain after Hudson's death. Her date of death was 19 March 1962.\nFriend Virginia Woolf wrote a sketch based upon her called \"The Lady in the Looking Glass\", subtitled \"A Reflection\", about a time that she saw her come \"in from the garden and not reading her letters.\" The mirror symbolised the way in which art is used to take a snapshot in time, but can also cut.\nWendy Baron, an author and art historian, wrote a biography about Sands, partly based upon the letters that Sands exchanged with Hudson and others. Tate Archives now holds the correspondence.\n\nWorks\nAmong the works that survived World War II plunders and bombings are:\n\nNotes\nReferences\nFurther reading\nWendy Baron. Miss Ethel Sands and her circle. Owen; April 1977, ISBN 0-7206-0304-8\nSarah Bradford; Honor Clerk. The Sitwells and the Arts of the 1920s and 1930s. University of Texas Press; 1994. ISBN 978-0-292-77711-8. p. 45, 64, 68, 204.\nLara Feigel; Alexandra Harris. Modernism on Sea: Art and Culture at the British Seaside. Peter Lang; 2009. ISBN 978-1-906165-24-6. p. 62–63, 250, 251.\nGenevieve Marie Preston. A Modern Setting for a Modern Life: Madame Stringberg, Ethel Sands, and Lady Drogheda's Innovative and Avant-garde Interiors. University of California, Riverside; 1998.\n\nExternal links\n\n20 artworks by or after Ethel Sands at the Art UK site","title":"Ethel_Sands"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Anna Hope Hudson (1869–1957) was an American-born artist who lived and worked in France and England. She was a founding member of the London Group, and the life partner of likewise artist Ethel Sands.\n\nEarly life\nHudson was born 10 September 1869 in New York City. She was the daughter of Colonel Edward McKenny Hudson, who died in 1892; her mother died when she was 9 years old. She lived in the United States until she was 24 when she moved to Europe, preferring France of the places she lived and visited. The inheritance that she received was the result of her grandfather's success as a partner of a banknote engraving organization, which later merged to become the American Bank Note Company.\n\nEducation\nHudson began her studies in Paris in 1892 and met fellow art student Ethel Sands, who became her life partner. Like Sands, Hudson was provided a legacy upon her parents' death. They studied under Eugène Carrière in 1896. Henri Evenepoel, a Flemish painter, was Hudson's art instructor beginning in January 1897.\n\nArtist\nHudson lived and painted with Ethel Sands, dividing their time between France and England. Sands was a socialite who frequently entertained artists and writers when they were in England. Hudson preferred a quieter lifestyle in France, and it was there that Hudson first established herself as an artist.\nShe made a painting of Giudecca Canal after travelling to Venice to paint. It was shown at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1906. Walter Sickert, who know Hudson through her association with Sands, had not known of her works. Impressed, he shared his opinions about her talent and invited her to the Fitzroy Street Group. Sands also joined the group, where both women sometimes attended and often sent paintings for the Saturday \"At Homes\" sessions.\nWalter Sickert, who captured her confident, independent manner in Miss Hudson at Rowlandson House that he made about 1910, described Hudson as \"the radiant and dashing horsewoman of a young man's dreams.\" Virginia Woolf said that she dressed stylishly and was \"dour and upstanding.\"\nIn England, Hudson began exhibiting her works at Leicester Galleries, the New English Art Club and the Allied Artists Association. In 1912, she had a joint show with Sands at the Carfax Gallery. The Fitzroy Street Group and the male member only Camden Town Group} merged in 1913 to become the London Group, of which both Sands and Hudson were founding members. Hudson occasionally exhibited her work there until 1938. She also continued to have works shown at the English Art Club. At Sickert's invitation, Hudson occasionally work in his studios and used his models for subjects of her paintings.\nHer works, inspired by Édouard Vuillard and Walter Sickert, were in large part destroyed or lost during World War II. There are some remaining works in public collections and one at the Tate.\n\nWorld wars\nSands and Hudson established a hospital for soldiers near Dieppe during World War I. It was forced to close down, and they continued their nursing efforts in both France and England.\nDuring World War II, Hudson's home was pillaged and Sand's Chelsea home was destroyed during The Blitz by a parachute mine.\n\nPersonal life\nHudson purchased the 17th-century house, the Château d'Auppegard, in 1920. It was located in the countryside about 10 miles from Dieppe. She had it restored and decorated her beloved house over a period of time.\nSands and Hudson lived together until her death on 17 September 1957.\n\nWorks\nAmong the works that survived World War II plunders and bombings are:\n\nChâteau d'Auppegard, after 1927, oil on board, 46.2 x 38.2 cm (estimated) Tate, having been bequeathed by Colonel Christopher Sands in 2000.\nHarbour, Northern France, Dieppe,oil on board, 35 x 43 cm, Government Art Collection\nNewington House, Autumn, Oxfordshire, 1913, oil on canvas, 60.8 x 73.1 cm, Derby Museums and Art Gallery\nThe Lamb Inn, Wallingford, 1912\nThe Visitor, oil on canvas, 37.5 x 24.8 cm, York Museums Trust\n\nNotes\nReferences\nExternal links\n4 artworks by or after Anna Hope Hudson at the Art UK site","title":"Anna_Hope_Hudson"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso, (22 October 1890 – 15 June 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a Scottish politician and leader of the Liberal Party.\\n\\nBackground and education\\nSinclair was born in 1890 in Caithness, Scotland. Sinclair was the son of a Scottish father, Clarence Granville Sinclair, and his American wife Mabel Sands, daughter of Mahlon Day Sands, and half-sister of Ethel Sands. His mother died shortly after his birth, and his father in 1895. He was brought up in families including those of his paternal grandfather Sir Tollemache Sinclair, 3rd Baronet, his uncle William Macdonald Sinclair, and Owen Williams, married to his aunt Nina.\\nEducated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Sinclair was commissioned into the Life Guards in 1910. In 1912, he succeeded his grandfather as the fourth Baronet of Ulbster. He became one of the largest landowners in the United Kingdom, owning an estate of about 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) in Caithness. His recreations included polo and flying: he was a keen aviator. At this period he made a friend of Winston Churchill.\\nColin Coote in his memoirs wrote of Sinclair's \\\"irresistible charm, allied to the face and figure of an Adonis\\\". The handsome Sinclair was at this period thought of as a possible husband for Nellie Hozier, younger sister of Clementine Churchill.\\n\\nMilitary career\\nSinclair served on the Western Front during the First World War, in 1915 as aide de camp to J. E. B. Seely who commanded the Canadian Cavalry Brigade. He rose to the rank of Major in the Guards Machine Gun Regiment.\\nAfter Winston Churchill resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty, Sinclair served as his second-in-command when Churchill took up command at the beginning of 1916 of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Churchill arranged the transfer with Douglas Haig, who turned down the request that Seely should be moved too, and also refused him Edward Spears. They were stationed in the Ploegsteert Wood sector of the Western Front.\\n\\nWorking with Churchill\\nFrom 1919 to 1921 Sinclair served as Personal Military Secretary to Churchill, when he returned to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for War, and then accompanied him to the Colonial Office as Private Secretary.\\nSinclair's duties included acting as liaison for Churchill with the Secret Intelligence Service. He had dealings with George Alexander Hill and Malcolm Wollcombe, agent in the Soviet Union for Mansfield Smith-Cumming. Stewart Menzies who had the official liaison role at the War Office was a personal friend. Sinclair collated humint and technical intelligence for Churchill, for example on Leonid Krasin. He also assisted in the delicate handling of Boris Savinkov, who was brought to London. It was Sinclair who introduced the prominent British agent Sidney Reilly to Nikolai Alekseyev, intelligence chief of the White Russian leader Alexander Guchkov.\\n\\nPolitical career 1922–1939\\nIn 1922, Sinclair entered the House of Commons as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Caithness and Sutherland, supporting David Lloyd George and defeating the incumbent Liberal supporter of H. H. Asquith. He rose through the Liberal ranks as the party shrank in Parliament, becoming Chief Whip by 1930. At this period he worked on land policy with Lloyd George, including the \\\"Tartan Book\\\" that addressed Scottish devolution.\\nIn July 1931, a meeting took place at Sinclair's house, where Oswald Mosley and Harold Nicolson met Churchill, Lloyd George and Brendan Bracken, to discuss a political alliance. About a month later, the Liberal Party joined the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald, with Sinclair appointed Secretary of State for Scotland. He was sworn of the Privy Council at the same time. In 1932, he, together with other Liberal ministers led by Herbert Samuel, resigned from the government in protest at the Ottawa Conference introducing Imperial Preference.\\nIn the 1935 general election, Herbert Samuel lost his seat, and Sinclair became the Liberal Party's leader at the head of 20 MPs. During the Abdication Crisis of 1936, his name was put forward as a possible leader of a government that might be formed if Edward VIII held onto the throne against the wishes of the Baldwin administration. Churchill came to support the King's position, and Lord Beaverbrook entertained the idea of Sinclair as Prime Minister. Both Clement Attlee for Labour and Sinclair for the Liberals, however, in late November ruled out forming a government under those circumstances.\\nSinclair consistently opposed the continental dictatorships and kept the National Liberals at arms length. He supported the League of Nations and collective security. He backed, as did Attlee, Churchill's book Arms and the Covenant. He joined the Anti-Nazi Council of Eugen Spier, with Churchill and Violet Bonham Carter, Margaret Bondfield and Hugh Dalton. Public opinion at this point of the later 1930s by no means agreed, and John Alfred Spender attacked Sinclair in The Times on foreign policy, claiming that he, like the League of Nations Union, wished for war with the Axis Powers.\\nAt the time of the Munich Crisis in September 1938, Sinclair was one of the anti-appeasement group who gathered around Churchill, with Leo Amery, Robert Boothby, Robert Cecil, Harold Macmillan and Harold Nicolson. During parliamentary debate over the Munich Agreement he attacked Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for \\\"wilting\\\" to Nazi Germany and tossing \\\"justice and respect for treaties... to the winds.\\\" On a personal level, Violet Bonham Carter was a frequent guest of the Sinclairs at Dalnawillan Lodge in the Flow Country, as were Harcourt Johnstone and Lady Gwendoline Churchill, wife of Jack Churchill and Winston's sister-in-law. Bonham Carter was a Liberal activist, close follower of Churchill, anti-appeaser and League of Nations Union member.\\n\\nSecond World War\\nWhen Churchill formed an all-party coalition government in 1940, Sinclair entered the cabinet as Secretary of State for Air. During the May 1940 British war cabinet crisis after the fall of France he sided with Churchill against Lord Halifax's plan to seek a negotiated settlement with Nazi Germany mediated by Fascist Italy.\\nSinclair's first task was to work with the Royal Air Force in planning the Battle of Britain. Towards the end of the war, he found himself at odds with Churchill, arguing against Bomber Harris's strategy for the Bombing of Dresden and other German cities. He was not a strong political personality: Max Hastings reports that he was often regarded as the \\\"Head of School's fag\\\" to Churchill, and as the political mouthpiece rather than the master of Air Chief Marshals Portal and Harris. However, in 1942 he did convince Churchill and his cabinet not to carry out reprisals on German villages for war atrocities such as the Lidice massacre.\\nSinclair remained a minister until May 1945, when the coalition ended. In the 1945 general election, he lost his seat. His margin of defeat was narrow: he came in third place, with the victor Eric Gandar Dower having 61 votes more.\\n\\nLast years\\nAt the 1950 general election, Sinclair again stood for his old seat, coming second. In 1952, the year of his first stroke, he accepted elevation to the House of Lords as Viscount Thurso of Ulbster in the County of Caithness. A more serious stroke in 1959 left him largely bedridden and in a state of precarious health, until he died at his home in Twickenham in 1970.\\n\\nFamily\\nIn 1918 Sinclair married Marigold Forbes (1897–1975), daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Stewart Forbes and Lady Angela Forbes. They had four children:\\n\\nCatherine (1919–2007), married 1957 Kazimierz Zielenkiewicz.\\nElizabeth (1921–1994), married in 1942 Archibald Michael Lyle, son of Sir Archibald Lyle, 2nd Baronet, and was mother of Veronica Linklater.\\nRobin (1922–1995), married 1952 Margaret Beaumont Robertson, and was father of John Sinclair, 3rd Viscount Thurso\\nAngus John (1925–2003), married firstly in 1955 Pamela Karen Bower, daughter of Dallas Bower (dissolved 1967), secondly in 1968 Judith Anne Percy (dissolved 1992), thirdly in 1992 Kate Fry.\\n\\nLegacy\\nThe Southern Railway named a Battle of Britain Class Light Pacific steam locomotive \\\"Sir Archibald Sinclair\\\". The ceremonial naming of the locomotive was performed by Sir Archibald himself at Waterloo station on 24 February 1948. The SR number of the locomotive was 21C159 and its British Railways number was 34059.\\n\\nReferences\\nBibliography\\nBouverie, Tim (2019). Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War (1 ed.). New York: Tim Duggan Books. ISBN 978-0-451-49984-4.\\nViolet Bonham Carter, ed. Mark Pottle, Champion Redoubtable: The Diaries of Violet Bonham Carter 1914–1945 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998).\\nGerard DeGroot, Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair (New York University Press, 1993).\\nHastings, Max (1979). Bomber Command (1 ed.). Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-1603-8.\\ned. Ian Hunter, Winston and Archie: The collected correspondence of Winston Churchill and Sir Archibald Sinclair (Politico's, 2005).\\nTorrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006).\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nHansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Thurso\\nSir Archibald Sinclair (Viscount Thurso) 1890–1970 biography from the Liberal Democrat History Group\\nNewspaper clippings about Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW\\nThe Papers of Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso held at Churchill Archives Centre\",\n \"title\": \"Archibald_Sinclair,_1st_Viscount_Thurso\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Ethel Sands (6 July 1873 – 19 March 1962) was an American-born artist and hostess who lived in England from childhood. She studied art in Paris, where she met her life partner Anna Hope Hudson. Her works were generally still lifes and interiors, often of Château d'Auppegard that she shared with Hudson. Sands was a Fitzroy Street Group and London Group member. Her works are in London's National Portrait Gallery and other public collections. In 1916, she became a naturalised British citizen. Although a major art patron and an artist, she is most remembered as a hostess for the cultural elite, including Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry and Augustus John.\\n\\nEarly life\\nEthel Sands was born on 6 July 1873 in Newport, Rhode Island, the first child of Mary Morton (Hartpence) and Mahlon Day Sands, who married in 1872. Mahlon Sands was secretary of the American Free Trade League, who in 1870 advocated for civil service reform and free trade. He was partner of his deceased father's pharmaceutical importing firm, A.B. Sands and Company. Ethel had two younger brothers, Mahlon Alan and Morton Harcourt Sands, who were, respectively, 5 and 11 years younger.\\nIn 1874, the family left the United States for England, intending to only visit the country. However, Mahlon Sands and his family stayed in England and travelled among European countries. They also visited the United States annually and were there for an extended visit from 1877 to 1879. They kept their house in Newport, Rhode Island throughout this time.\\nThe wealthy Sands circulated among London society, including writer and statesman John Morley, politician William Ewart Gladstone, writer Henry James, artist John Singer Sargent, the Rothschild family, and Henry Graham White. Mahlon's sister, Katherine, was married to journalist and newspaper editor Edwin Lawrence Godkin. They were part of Edward VII, then Prince of Wales', social circle. \\nJohn Singer Sargent painted the portrait of her mother, who was considered \\\"a famous society beauty of her day.\\\" Mary Sands was \\\"much admired\\\" by writer Henry James, who called her \\\"that gracious lady\\\" and based his heroic character \\\"Madame de Mauves\\\" on her.\\nEthel Sands was raised in a respectable upper-class household in which her parents were \\\"happily married\\\". While her father was considered handsome and her mother beautiful, Anthony Powell states that some people wrote in their diaries and letters that she was plain. In her later years, Powell met her and said that \\\"so great was her elegance, charm, capacity to be amusing in a no-nonsense manner, that I could well believed her to be good-looking in her youth. Her father had ridden horseback through Hyde Park, was thrown from the horse and died an accidental death in 1888. His widow, Mary Sands, raised Ethel and her brothers until her death on 28 July 1896.\\n\\nArt\\nEducation\\nEncouraged by artist John Singer Sargent, Sands studied painting in Paris at the Académie Carrière under Eugène Carrière for several years, beginning in 1894. There she met fellow student Nan Hudson, born Anna Hope Hudson in the United States, who became her life partner. During this time, Sands became the guardian of her two younger brothers following her mother's death in 1896.\\n\\nPainting\\nSands painted still lifes and interior settings. Tate suggests that was inspired by Édouard Vuillard's dry brush technique, colour palette and depiction of \\\"intimate\\\" scenes. Her first exhibition was at Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1904.\\nIn 1907, at Walter Sickert's invitation, she became a member and exhibited paintings she made at the Fitzroy Street Group. She also purchased the works of other artists. She was one of the artists that founded the London Group. According to author Kate Deepwell, her works, and those of Vanessa Bell and other women, were evaluated differently at that time from those made by men: The best critique of woman's work at the time would be that they had individuality, but they would not have been considered innovative, modern works like those made by men.\\nIn Paris in 1911 she had her first show dedicated to her works. Hudson and Sands had a show at Carfax Gallery in 1912. The next year she was part of the \\\"English Post-Impressionists, Cubists and Others\\\" show in Brighton. Her works were exhibited at Goupil Gallery, and in 1922 she had her initial solo show. She also exhibited often at the Women's International Art Club and the New English Art Club.\\nHudson purchased Château d'Auppegard near Dieppe, France in 1920, which was the subject of several of Sand's paintings. Some of the interior paintings are A Spare Room, Château d'Auppegard and Double Doors, Château d'Auppegard. Other examples are the landscape Auppegard Church from Château, France and one of her partner, Nan Hudson Playing Patience at Auppegard. Her works are in the collections of Tate museum Government Art Collection, and Fitzwilliam Museum.\\n\\nSocialite and patron\\nLike Lady Sibyl Colefax and Lady Ottoline Morrell, Sands entertained artists and writers with the intention to nurture and discuss ideas relevant to their careers. Lady Ottoline Morrell \\\"took over\\\" Sand's Chelsea house for entertainment after she had to give up her London house at Bedford Square. Affiliated with the Bloomsbury Group, she was best-known as \\\"one of the leading artist hostesses of her time\\\", her lavish affairs were financially possible due to the significant wealth she inherited from her parents. She was mainly at the Oxford, Newington house until 1920, but when in England she also entertained at her London Lowndes Street house, and between 1913 and 1937 at 15 Vale, Chelsea, London house, where she lived near her mother's friend, Henry James. Notable artists Augustus John and Walter Sickert. Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry and Arnold Bennett were among the writers of the \\\"cultural elite\\\" who visited her. Her friends included artist Jacques-Émile Blanche, writer Edith Wharton, poet William Butler Yeats, essayist and critic Logan Pearsall Smith and novelist Howard Overing Sturgis.\\nLytton Strachey (a founder of the Bloomsbury Group) met at Sands' house and her uncle, Edwin Lawrence Godkin wrote of his upcoming visit to Sands' house in Oxfordshire, \\\"There one fortnight, and then back to \\\"holy wars\\\", patriotism, and buncombe...\\\"\\n\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\nShe was a patron and collector of works by other contemporary artists. For instance, she commissioned Boris Anrep, a Russian immigrant, to create mosaics and murals in her Vale, Chelsea house. Sands continued to entertain into the 1950s with her friends, including Duncan Grant and Desmond MacCarthy, until he died in 1952.\\nShe was described as a \\\"plain woman of immense charm, cultivation and perception, and a painter of considerable talent\\\" in the Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction. It was suggested there that Henry James modelled the character Nanda in The Awkward Age after Sands.\\n\\nWorld wars\\nSands tended to soldiers who had been injured in France during World War I, having established a hospital for soldiers near Dieppe with Hudson. It was forced to close down, and they continued their nursing efforts in both France and England. Sands was then in Britain working as a forewoman in a factory that made overalls. In 1916 she became a British citizenship. During World War II, Sands served as a nurse. The house in Chelsea, London was destroyed during The Blitz by a parachute mine, and the house in France was broken into and its contents were stolen or destroyed. The two war-time events resulted in the loss of most of Sands' and Hudson's works.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nSands and Hudson divided their time between England and France to accommodate their lifestyle preferences. Hudson enjoyed living a relatively quiet life in France and Sands liked the London and Oxford social life.\\nSands entertained people within and outside of the cultural elite throughout her life. When Hudson's health began to fail, Sands nursed her until she died in 1957. Sand continued to entertain after Hudson's death. Her date of death was 19 March 1962.\\nFriend Virginia Woolf wrote a sketch based upon her called \\\"The Lady in the Looking Glass\\\", subtitled \\\"A Reflection\\\", about a time that she saw her come \\\"in from the garden and not reading her letters.\\\" The mirror symbolised the way in which art is used to take a snapshot in time, but can also cut.\\nWendy Baron, an author and art historian, wrote a biography about Sands, partly based upon the letters that Sands exchanged with Hudson and others. Tate Archives now holds the correspondence.\\n\\nWorks\\nAmong the works that survived World War II plunders and bombings are:\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nWendy Baron. Miss Ethel Sands and her circle. Owen; April 1977, ISBN 0-7206-0304-8\\nSarah Bradford; Honor Clerk. The Sitwells and the Arts of the 1920s and 1930s. University of Texas Press; 1994. ISBN 978-0-292-77711-8. p. 45, 64, 68, 204.\\nLara Feigel; Alexandra Harris. Modernism on Sea: Art and Culture at the British Seaside. Peter Lang; 2009. ISBN 978-1-906165-24-6. p. 62–63, 250, 251.\\nGenevieve Marie Preston. A Modern Setting for a Modern Life: Madame Stringberg, Ethel Sands, and Lady Drogheda's Innovative and Avant-garde Interiors. University of California, Riverside; 1998.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\n20 artworks by or after Ethel Sands at the Art UK site\",\n \"title\": \"Ethel_Sands\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Anna Hope Hudson (1869–1957) was an American-born artist who lived and worked in France and England. She was a founding member of the London Group, and the life partner of likewise artist Ethel Sands.\\n\\nEarly life\\nHudson was born 10 September 1869 in New York City. She was the daughter of Colonel Edward McKenny Hudson, who died in 1892; her mother died when she was 9 years old. She lived in the United States until she was 24 when she moved to Europe, preferring France of the places she lived and visited. The inheritance that she received was the result of her grandfather's success as a partner of a banknote engraving organization, which later merged to become the American Bank Note Company.\\n\\nEducation\\nHudson began her studies in Paris in 1892 and met fellow art student Ethel Sands, who became her life partner. Like Sands, Hudson was provided a legacy upon her parents' death. They studied under Eugène Carrière in 1896. Henri Evenepoel, a Flemish painter, was Hudson's art instructor beginning in January 1897.\\n\\nArtist\\nHudson lived and painted with Ethel Sands, dividing their time between France and England. Sands was a socialite who frequently entertained artists and writers when they were in England. Hudson preferred a quieter lifestyle in France, and it was there that Hudson first established herself as an artist.\\nShe made a painting of Giudecca Canal after travelling to Venice to paint. It was shown at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1906. Walter Sickert, who know Hudson through her association with Sands, had not known of her works. Impressed, he shared his opinions about her talent and invited her to the Fitzroy Street Group. Sands also joined the group, where both women sometimes attended and often sent paintings for the Saturday \\\"At Homes\\\" sessions.\\nWalter Sickert, who captured her confident, independent manner in Miss Hudson at Rowlandson House that he made about 1910, described Hudson as \\\"the radiant and dashing horsewoman of a young man's dreams.\\\" Virginia Woolf said that she dressed stylishly and was \\\"dour and upstanding.\\\"\\nIn England, Hudson began exhibiting her works at Leicester Galleries, the New English Art Club and the Allied Artists Association. In 1912, she had a joint show with Sands at the Carfax Gallery. The Fitzroy Street Group and the male member only Camden Town Group} merged in 1913 to become the London Group, of which both Sands and Hudson were founding members. Hudson occasionally exhibited her work there until 1938. She also continued to have works shown at the English Art Club. At Sickert's invitation, Hudson occasionally work in his studios and used his models for subjects of her paintings.\\nHer works, inspired by Édouard Vuillard and Walter Sickert, were in large part destroyed or lost during World War II. There are some remaining works in public collections and one at the Tate.\\n\\nWorld wars\\nSands and Hudson established a hospital for soldiers near Dieppe during World War I. It was forced to close down, and they continued their nursing efforts in both France and England.\\nDuring World War II, Hudson's home was pillaged and Sand's Chelsea home was destroyed during The Blitz by a parachute mine.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nHudson purchased the 17th-century house, the Château d'Auppegard, in 1920. It was located in the countryside about 10 miles from Dieppe. She had it restored and decorated her beloved house over a period of time.\\nSands and Hudson lived together until her death on 17 September 1957.\\n\\nWorks\\nAmong the works that survived World War II plunders and bombings are:\\n\\nChâteau d'Auppegard, after 1927, oil on board, 46.2 x 38.2 cm (estimated) Tate, having been bequeathed by Colonel Christopher Sands in 2000.\\nHarbour, Northern France, Dieppe,oil on board, 35 x 43 cm, Government Art Collection\\nNewington House, Autumn, Oxfordshire, 1913, oil on canvas, 60.8 x 73.1 cm, Derby Museums and Art Gallery\\nThe Lamb Inn, Wallingford, 1912\\nThe Visitor, oil on canvas, 37.5 x 24.8 cm, York Museums Trust\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n4 artworks by or after Anna Hope Hudson at the Art UK site\",\n \"title\": \"Anna_Hope_Hudson\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Archibald Sinclair had an American mom who was a half-sister. The half-sister had a life partner who had a painting of her by Walter Sickert. How many words is the title of that painting?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"5 ( Miss Hudson at Rowlandson House)"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":678,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"678"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"This is a record of Argentina's results at the FIFA World Cup. Argentina is one of the most successful teams in the tournament's history, having won three World Cups: in 1978, 1986, and 2022. Argentina has also been runner-up three times: in 1930, 1990 and 2014. In 18 World Cup tournaments, Argentina has 47 victories in 88 matches. The team was present in all but four of the World Cups, being behind only Brazil and Germany in number of appearances.\n\nWorld Cup record\n**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.\n\nWorld Cup Finals\nAll matches\nWorld Cup Finals\n1930 v Uruguay\nThe inaugural FIFA World Cup tournament culminated with Argentina facing hosts and current Olympic champions Uruguay. The match was turned twice: Argentina went into half-time with a 2–1 lead in spite of an early goal for Uruguay, but the hosts ultimately won 4–2. Guillermo Stábile, one of Argentina's scorers, became the tournament's top striker with 8 goals total.\n\n1978 v the Netherlands\nArgentina hosted the 1978 edition of the World Cup and reached the final. The Netherlands had already played the previous final in West Germany 1974 - and also lost to the hosts.\nDiego Maradona was 17 years old at this point and already a star in his home country, but did not make the squad as coach César Luis Menotti felt he was too inexperienced to handle the pressure of this major tournament. The playmaker position was instead filled by Mario Kempes, who ended up becoming the first Argentinian to win the Golden Ball in addition to being the tournament's top scorer with 6 goals.\nThe Dutch side was missing a superstar of their own: Johan Cruyff did not join the 1978 World Cup squads due to the aftermath of a kidnapping attempt which occurred in 1977. He only disclosed this information 30 years later.\nThe closely contested match was influenced by a hostile atmosphere and ended with the Dutch players refusing to attend the award ceremony after Argentina grabbed the title in extra time.\n\n1986 v West Germany\nEight years after the victory on home soil, Argentina won the World Cup title for the second time. Diego Maradona was voted Best Player of the tournament after scoring five goals and assisting the decisive 3-2 by Jorge Burruchaga in the 84th minute of the final. The match was played in front of a record attendance of 114,600 people.\n\n1990 v West Germany\nIn 1990, Argentina faced West Germany in a repeat of the 1986 edition. Pedro Monzón became the first player ever to be sent off in a World Cup final, but was later joined by teammate Gustavo Dezotti. The match was decided by a penalty kick in favour of Germany.\n\n2014 v Germany\nIn 2014, Argentina reached the final for the fifth time and for a third time had to face the German team, making it the most recurrent meeting for a final. In spite of a number of chances on both sides, regular time finished goalless. In the second half of extra time, substitute striker Mario Götze scored the decisive goal for Germany.\n\n2022 v France\nArgentina opened up the scoring when Messi scored a penalty kick, and doubled their lead with a Di Maria goal in the 36th minute. France made two substitutions in the first half, but went into half-time trailing 0–2. Despite not having a shot until after the 80th minute, France were awarded a penalty as Randal Kolo Muani was brought down in the penalty area. Mbappé scored the penalty, and added a second goal less than two minutes later to equalise the scores. With the scores tied, the match went to extra time. Messi scored again for Argentina in the second extra time half. Mbappé was awarded a second penalty in the 118th minute after his initial shot hit the arm of Gonzalo Montiel. Mbappé scored his third goal, becoming the second player to score a hat-trick in the final of a men's World Cup. With the scores tied at 3–3, the match was completed by a penalty shootout. Argentina won the final after scoring all of their penalties, winning 4–2.\n\nRecord by opponent\nArgentina have played a total of 88 FIFA World Cup games through 18 tournaments, facing 39 rivals.\n\nTeams in bold denote world cup winners, teams in italics show teams which played its first match ever in a World Cup against Argentina.\nTeams with a * mark no longer exist. East Germany was annexed to Germany. Soviet Union now plays as Russia.\n+Played as Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro.\n\nHead coaches\nThrough Argentinian team history, several coaches had trained it with different football styles from offensive to defensive tactics. There are two predominant 'football schools' about world champions coaches César Menotti who propagates possession and well-look play and Carlos Bilardo who prioritize results and tactical order. These head coaches divides Argentine fans kindly. Other managers such as Marcelo Bielsa has got his own football style. In another way this list shows records in World Cups and in qualifying stages excluding friendlies.\n\nFrom 1994 towards, three points are given for a win. Previously were two.\n\nAgainst conferences\nFIFA delegates regional qualification and other organization affairs to continental conferences, so it divides into six differents of them grouped by geographical location. Argentina plays in CONMEBOL conference in South America. Due to World Cup rules that two teams of same confederation can not play in the same group in first round except for UEFA, it commonly faces teams which plays outside its continent most recently from Africa and Asia. Argentine national has never played versus an Oceanian (OFC) squad.\n\nAgainst debutants\n'Albiceleste' has played against first-world-cup teams more than other, doing so 17 times, 7 of them being the first World Cup match ever. This list shows records versus those selections including all-debutants 1930 edition. Curiously, Argentina's debut was versus France which previously had played before.\n\nSweden, Bulgaria, Greece, Japan, Ivory Coast, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland played its first time against Argentina.France, Mexico, Chile, United States, Uruguay, Northern Ireland, Haiti, East Germany, Jamaica and Croatia played in its first world cup but after first game.\n\nRecords and statistics\nMost appearances\nLionel Messi has captained the team in 19 matches.\nLionel Messi's total of 26 matches is a record for the side and the most for a player at the FIFA World Cup.\n\nTop goalscorers\nGoalscoring by tournament\nAwards\nTeam\nWorld Champions 1978\nWorld Champions 1986\nWorld Champions 2022\n2nd Place 1930\n2nd Place 1990\n2nd Place 2014\nFair Play Award 1978\n\nIndividual\nGolden Ball 1978: Mario Kempes\nGolden Ball 1986: Diego Maradona\nGolden Ball 2014: Lionel Messi\nGolden Ball 2022: Lionel Messi\nSilver Ball 1930: Guillermo Stábile\nBronze Ball 1990: Diego Maradona\nGolden Boot 1930: Guillermo Stábile\nGolden Boot 1978: Mario Kempes\nSilver Boot 1986: Diego Maradona\nSilver Boot 1998: Gabriel Batistuta\nSilver Boot 2006: Hernán Crespo\nSilver Boot 2022: Lionel Messi\nGolden Glove 1978: Ubaldo Fillol\nGolden Glove 1990: Sergio Goycochea (shared with Luis Gabelo Conejo)\nGolden Glove 2022: Emiliano Martínez\nBest Young Player 2022: Enzo Fernández\nMost Player of the Match Awards 2014 (4) and 2022 (5): Lionel Messi\nMost Player of the Match Awards over various World Cups by a single player (11): Lionel Messi\nJosé Pékerman won the FIFA Fair Play Trophy as a coach with Colombia in 2014.\n\nStanding alone\nMost played final against the same team: 3 times versus Germany in 1986, 1990 and 2014.\nMost played against the same team in same stage: 5 times versus Nigeria in 1994, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018 all in group stage. Last three of them make most times consecutive, too. All won by Argentina by one goal difference.\nMost played semifinals without losses: 5 times won in 1930 and 1986 while drawn in 1990 and 2014. Although in 1978 there weren't semifinals, Argentina won second round group ahead of Brazil which disputed 3rd place match against Italy. Even more, game against Brazil ended in a 0–0 draw.\nMost played penalty shoot-outs: 7 (twice in 1990, 1998, 2006, 2014 and twice in 2022).\nFewest goals for a finalist: 1990 (5).\nYoungest coach: Juan José Tramutola aged 27 years and 267 days in 1930.\nMost hat-tricks scored in multiple editions: Gabriel Batistuta in 1994 against Greece and in 1998 against Jamaica.\n\nShared\nMost played against the same team: 7 times versus Germany in 1958, 1966, 1986, 1990, 2006, 2010 and 2014. Shared with Germany vs Yugoslavia/Serbia and Brazil vs Sweden.\nMost won penalty shoot-outs: 6 times (twice in 1990, 1998, 2014 and twice in 2022).\nMost coached finals: 2 times by Carlos Bilardo in 1986 and 1990. Shared with Italian Vittorio Pozzo (1934-1938), German Helmut Schön (1966-1974), Brazilian Mário Zagallo (1970-1998) German Franz Beckenbauer who faced Bilardo in both 1986 and 1990, and French Didier Deschamps (2018-2022).\n\nMiscellaneous\nArgentina's game versus West Germany in 1958 featured a yellow jersey instead of the traditional light blue and white colors or blue as alternate. This was because both teams wore white jerseys, creating confusion. As the South American side forgot to bring an alternate one, they decided to borrow jerseys from local team club Malmö. Germany won 3–1.\nIn the 1978 France - Hungary match something similar occurred. Both teams arrived to the match with white jerseys, so France was forced to borrow jerseys from Mar del Plata's local club Kimberley. France wore striped green and white keeping the traditional blue shorts and red socks. France won 3–1.\nThe stadium José María Minella is the southernmost World Cup venue located at 38°0′0″S 57°33′0″W. Including France vs. Hungary, several matches of the 1978 World Cup were played in this stadium. Mar del Plata is in the south of Buenos Aires Province.\n\nReferees\nAs a major CONMEBOL member, Argentina has been represented by match officials in nearly every tournament. In 2006, Horacio Elizondo refereed the final between France and Italy, where he sent off Zinedine Zidane after a headbutt to an opponent. In 2018, Néstor Pitana did it when France played versus Croatia. They are also the only two who refereed the opening game in the same tournament.\n\nSee also\nDisaster of Sweden\nArgentina at the Copa América\nSouth American nations at the FIFA World Cup\n\nExternal links\nOfficial website, at the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino's website\nFIFA world cup all-time table\n\nNotes\n\n\n== References ==","title":"Argentina_at_the_FIFA_World_Cup"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible to submit a nomination and vote on the final ballot. The Best Picture category is traditionally the final award of the night and is widely considered the most prestigious honor of the ceremony.\nThe Grand Staircase columns at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where the Academy Awards ceremonies have been held since 2002, showcase every film that has won the Best Picture title since the award's inception. There have been 601 films nominated for Best Picture and 96 winners.\n\nHistory\nCategory name changes\nAt the 1st Academy Awards ceremony held in 1929 (for films made in 1927 and 1928), there were two categories of awards that were each considered the top award of the night: \"Outstanding Picture\" and \"Unique and Artistic Picture\", the former being won by the war epic Wings, and the latter by the art film Sunrise. Each award was intended to honor different and equally important aspects of superior filmmaking. In particular, The Jazz Singer was disqualified from both awards, since its use of synchronized sound made the film a sui generis item that would have unfairly competed against either category, and the Academy granted the film an honorary award instead.\nThe following year, the Academy dropped the Unique and Artistic Picture award, deciding retroactively that the award won by Wings was the highest honor that could be awarded, and allowed synchronized sound films to compete for the award. Although the award kept the title Outstanding Picture for the next ceremony, the name underwent several changes over the years, as seen below. Since 1962, the award has been simply called Best Picture.\n\n1927/28–1928/29: Academy Award for Outstanding Picture\n1929/30–1940: Academy Award for Outstanding Production\n1941–1943: Academy Award for Outstanding Motion Picture\n1944–1961: Academy Award for Best Motion Picture\n1962–present: Academy Award for Best Picture\n\nRecipients\nUntil 1950, this award was presented to a representative of the production company. That year the protocol was changed so that the award was presented to all credited producers. This rule was modified in 1999 to apply a maximum limit of three producers receiving the award, after the five producers of Shakespeare in Love had received the award.\nAs of 2020, the \"Special Rules for the Best Picture of the Year Award\" limit recipients to those who meet two main requirements:\n\nThose with screen credit of \"producer\" or \"produced by\", explicitly excluding those with the screen credit \"executive producer, co-producer, associate producer, line producer, or produced in association with\"\nthose three or fewer producers who have performed the major portion of the producing functions\nThe rules allow a bona fide team of not more than two people to be considered a single \"producer\" if the two individuals have had an established producing partnership as determined by the Producers Guild of America Producing Partnership Panel. Final determination of the qualifying producer nominees for each nominated picture will be made by the Producers Branch Executive Committee, including the right to name any additional qualified producer as a nominee.\nThe Academy can make exceptions to the limit, as when Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack were posthumously included among the four producers nominated for The Reader. As of 2014 the Producers Branch Executive Committee determines such exceptions, noting they take place only in \"rare and extraordinary circumstance[s].\"\nSteven Spielberg currently holds the record for most nominations at thirteen, winning one, while Kathleen Kennedy holds the record for most nominations without a win at eight. Sam Spiegel and Saul Zaentz tie for the most wins with three each. As for the time when the Oscar was given to production companies instead, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer holds the record with five wins and 40 nominations.\n\nBest Picture and Best Director\nThe Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director have been closely linked throughout their history. Of the 96 films that have won Best Picture, 69 have also been awarded Best Director. Only six films have been awarded Best Picture without receiving a Best Director nomination: Wings directed by William A. Wellman (1927/28), Grand Hotel directed by Edmund Goulding (1931/32), Driving Miss Daisy directed by Bruce Beresford (1989), Argo directed by Ben Affleck (2012), Green Book directed by Peter Farrelly (2018), and CODA directed by Sian Heder (2021). The only two Best Director winners to win for films that did not receive a Best Picture nomination were during the early years of the awards: Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Knights (1927/28), and Frank Lloyd for The Divine Lady (1928/29).\n\nNomination limit increased\nOn June 24, 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced that the number of films to be nominated in the Best Picture award category would increase from 5 to 10, starting with the 82nd Academy Awards (2009). Although the Academy never officially said so, many commenters noted the expansion was likely in part a response to public criticism of The Dark Knight and WALL-E (both 2008) (and, in previous years, other blockbusters and popular films) not being nominated for Best Picture. Officially, the Academy said the rule change was a throwback to the Academy's early years in the 1930s and 1940s, when 8 to 12 films were nominated each year. \"Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going to allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,\" AMPAS President Sid Ganis said in a press conference. \"I can't wait to see what that list of 10 looks like when the nominees are announced in February.\"\nAt the same time, the voting system was switched from first-past-the-post to instant runoff voting (also known as preferential voting). In 2011, the Academy revised the rule again so that the number of films nominated was between 5 and 10; nominated films must earn either 5% of first-place rankings or 5% after an abbreviated variation of the single transferable vote nominating process. Bruce Davis, the Academy executive director at the time, said, \"A Best Picture nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit. If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honor in a given year, we shouldn't feel an obligation to round out the number.\" This system lasted until 2021, when the Academy reverted back to a set number of ten nominees from the 94th Academy Awards onward.\n\nLanguage and country of origin\nSeventeen non-English language films have been nominated in the category: La Grande Illusion (French, 1938); Z (French, 1969); The Emigrants (Swedish, 1972); Cries and Whispers (Swedish, 1973); The Postman (Il Postino) (Italian/Spanish, 1995); Life Is Beautiful (Italian, 1998); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Mandarin Chinese, 2000); Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese, 2006, but ineligible for Best Foreign Language Film because it was an American production); Amour (French, 2012); Roma (Spanish/Mixtec, 2018); Parasite (Korean, 2019); Minari (Korean, 2020, but ineligible for Best International Feature Film because it was an American production); Drive My Car (Japanese/Korean/Mandarin Chinese/German/Korean Sign Language, 2021), All Quiet on the Western Front (German, 2022), Anatomy of a Fall (French, 2023), Past Lives (Korean, 2023, but ineligible for Best International Feature Film because it was an American production), and The Zone of Interest (German/Polish/Yiddish, 2023). Parasite became the first film not in English to win Best Picture.\nTen films wholly financed outside the United States have won Best Picture, eight of which were financed, in part or in whole, by the United Kingdom: Hamlet (1948), Tom Jones (1963), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Chariots of Fire (1981), Gandhi (1982), The Last Emperor (1987), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and The King's Speech (2010). The ninth film, The Artist (2011), was financed in France, and the tenth film, Parasite (2019), was financed in South Korea.\n\nRating\nSince 1968, most Best Picture winners have been rated R under the Motion Picture Association's rating system. Oliver! is the only G-rated film and Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated film (what is categorized as an NC-17 film today), so far, to win Best Picture; they won in back-to-back years, 1968 and 1969. The latter has since been changed to an R rating. Eleven films have won with a PG rating: the first was Patton (1970) and the most recent was Driving Miss Daisy (1989). Eleven more films have won with a PG-13 rating (which was introduced in 1984): the first was The Last Emperor (1987) and the most recent was CODA (2021).\n\nGenres and mediums\nThree animated films have been nominated for Best Picture: Beauty and the Beast (1991), Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010). The latter two were nominated after the Academy expanded the number of nominees, but none have won.\nNo comic book film has won, although three have been nominated: Skippy (1931), Black Panther (2018), and Joker (2019).\nTwo fantasy films have won: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Shape of Water (2017), although more have been nominated.\nThe Silence of the Lambs (1991) is the only horror film to win Best Picture. Five others have been nominated for Best Picture: The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), The Sixth Sense (1999), Black Swan (2010), and Get Out (2017).\nSeveral science-fiction films have been nominated for Best Picture, though Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) was the first one to win.\nTitanic (1997) is the only disaster film to win Best Picture, though other such films have been nominated, including Airport (1970) and The Towering Inferno (1974).\nNo documentary feature has been nominated for Best Picture, although Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness was nominated in the Unique and Artistic Picture category at the 1927/28 awards. A Best Documentary Feature category was introduced in 1941.\nSeveral musical adaptations based on material previously filmed in non-musical form have won Best Picture, including Gigi, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver!, and Chicago.\nSeveral epics or historical epic films have won Best Picture, including the first recipient Wings. Others include Cimarron, Cavalcade, Gone with the Wind, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Patton, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Last Emperor, Dances with Wolves, Schindler's List, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, The English Patient, Titanic, Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Oppenheimer.\n\nSequel nominations and winners\nNine films that were presented as direct sequels have been nominated for Best Picture: The Bells of St. Mary's (1945; the sequel to the 1944 winner, Going My Way), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Godfather Part III (1990), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Toy Story 3 (2010), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022).\nToy Story 3, Mad Max: Fury Road and Top Gun: Maverick are the only sequels to be nominated without any predecessors being nominated. The Godfather Part II and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King are the only sequels to have won the award, and their respective trilogies are the only series to have three films nominated. The Godfather series is the only film series with multiple Best Picture winners, with the first film winning the award for 1972 and the second film winning the award for 1974.\nAnother nominee, Broadway Melody of 1936, was a follow-up of sorts to previous winner The Broadway Melody, but beyond the title and some music, the two films have mutually independent stories. The Silence of the Lambs was adapted from the sequel novel to Red Dragon. The latter had been adapted for film as Manhunter by a different studio, and the two films have different casts and creative teams and were not presented as a series.\nThe Lion in Winter features Peter O'Toole as King Henry II, a role he had played previously in the film Becket, but The Lion in Winter is not a sequel to Becket. Similarly, The Queen features Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, a role he had played previously in the television film The Deal. Christine Langan, producer of both productions, described The Queen as not being a direct sequel, only that it reunited the same creative team.\nClint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima was a companion piece to his film Flags of Our Fathers that was released earlier the same year. These two films depict the same battle from the different viewpoints of Japanese and United States military forces; the two films were shot back-to-back.\nIn addition, Black Panther is a continuation of the events that occurred in Captain America: Civil War and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.\n\nRemake nominations and winners\nAlong similar lines to sequels, there have been few nominees and winners that are either remakes or adaptations of the same source materials or subjects.\nBen-Hur, which won Best Picture of 1959, is a remake of the 1925 silent film with a similar title and both were adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The Departed, which won Best Picture of 2006, is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs and is the first remake of a non-English language or international film to win.\nOther nominees include 1963's Cleopatra about the titular last queen of Egypt following the 1934 version, 2018's A Star is Born following the 1937 film of the same name, and 2019's Little Women following the 1933 film of the same name with both being adaptations of the 1868 novel. True Grit, which was nominated for Best Picture of 2010, is the second adaptation of Charles Portis's 1968 novel following the 1969 film of the same name.\nFour of the nominees for the 94th ceremony were based on source material previously made into films: CODA, Dune, Nightmare Alley, and West Side Story. The 2021 version of West Side Story became the second adaptation of the same source material for a previous Best Picture winner to be nominated for the same award after 1962's Mutiny on the Bounty. For that same ceremony, CODA became the second remake of a non-English-language or international film to win.\nThe 2022 German-language All Quiet on the Western Front is the second adaptation of the 1929 novel after the 1930 English-language film, and the third adaptation of the same source material of a previous Best Picture winner.\n\nSilent film winners\nAt the 1st Academy Awards, the Best Picture award (then named \"Academy Award for Outstanding Picture\") was presented to the 1927 silent film Wings.\nThe Artist (2011) was the first essentially silent (with the exception of a single scene of dialogue, and a dream sequence with sound effects) film since Wings to win Best Picture. It was the first silent nominee since 1928's The Patriot. It was the first Best Picture winner to be produced entirely in black-and-white since 1960's The Apartment. (Schindler's List, the 1993 winner, was predominantly black-and-white but contains some color sequences.)\n\nVersion availability\nNo Best Picture winner has been lost, though a few such as All Quiet on the Western Front and Lawrence of Arabia exist only in a form altered from their original, award-winning release form. This has usually been due to editing for reissue (and subsequently partly restored by archivists). Other winners and nominees, such as Tom Jones (prior to its 2018 reissues by The Criterion Collection and the British Film Institute) and Star Wars, are widely available only in subsequently altered versions. The Broadway Melody originally had some sequences photographed in two-color Technicolor. This footage survives only in black and white.\nThe 1928 film The Patriot is the only Best Picture nominee that is lost (about one-third is extant). The Racket, also from 1928, was believed lost for many years until a print was found in Howard Hughes' archives. It has since been restored and shown on Turner Classic Movies. The only surviving complete prints of 1931's East Lynne and 1934's The White Parade exist within the UCLA film archive.\n\nDiversity standards\nThe Academy has established a set of \"representation and inclusion standards\", called Academy Aperture 2025, which a film will be required to satisfy in order to compete in the Best Picture category, starting with the 96th Academy Awards for films released in 2023. There are four general standards, of which a film must satisfy two to be considered for Best Picture: (a) on-screen representation, themes and narratives; (b) creative leadership and project team; (c) industry access and opportunities; and (d) audience development. As explained by Vox, the standards \"basically break down into two big buckets: standards promoting more inclusive representation and standards promoting more inclusive employment\". The standards are intended to provide greater opportunities for employment, in cast, crew, studio apprenticeships and internships, and development, marketing, publicity, and distribution executives, among underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, women, LGBTQ+ people, and persons with cognitive or physical disabilities (not counting developmental disabilities like the autism spectrum), or who are deaf or hard of hearing.\nFor the 94th and 95th Academy Awards (films released in 2021 and 2022), filmmakers were required to submit a confidential Academy Inclusion Standards form to be considered for Best Picture but were not required to fulfill the standards. These standards will only apply to the Best Picture category and do not affect a film's eligibility in other Oscar categories.\n\n2016 ceremony mistake\nAt the 89th Academy Awards on February 26, 2017, presenter Faye Dunaway read La La Land as the winner of the award. However, she and Warren Beatty had mistakenly been given the duplicate envelope for the \"Best Actress in a Leading Role\" award, which Emma Stone had won for her role in La La Land. While accepting the award, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz, who was given the correct envelope, realized the mistake and announced that Moonlight had won the award.\n\nWinners and nominees\nIn the list below, winners are listed first in the gold row, followed by the other nominees. Except for the early years (when the Academy used a non-calendar year), the year shown is the one in which the film first premiered in Los Angeles County, California; normally this is also the year of first release; however, it may be the year after first release (as with Casablanca and, if the film-festival premiere is considered, Crash and The Hurt Locker). This is also the year before the ceremony at which the award is given; for example, a film exhibited theatrically during 2005 was eligible for consideration for the 2005 Best Picture Oscar, awarded in 2006. The number of the ceremony (1st, 2nd, etc.) appears in parentheses after the awards year, linked to the article on that ceremony. Each individual entry shows the title followed by nominee.\nUntil 1950, the Best Picture award was given to the production company; from 1951 on, it has gone to the producer or producers. The Academy used the producer credits of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) until 1998, when all five producers of Shakespeare in Love made speeches after its win. A three-producer limit has been applied some years since. There was controversy over the exclusion of some PGA-credited producers of Crash and Little Miss Sunshine. The Academy can make exceptions to the limit, as when Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack were posthumously among the four nominated for The Reader. However, now any number of producers on a film can be nominated for Best Picture, should they be deemed eligible.\nFor the first ceremony, three films were nominated for the award. For the following three years, five films were nominated for the award. This was expanded to eight in 1933, to ten in 1934, and to twelve in 1935, before being dropped back to ten in 1937. In 1945, it was further reduced to five. This number remained until 2009, when the limit was raised to ten; it was adjusted from 2011 to 2020 to vary between five and ten, but has been a full ten since 2022.\nFor the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. For example, the 2nd Academy Awards presented on April 3, 1930, recognized films that were released between August 1, 1928, and July 31, 1929. Starting with the 7th Academy Awards, held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. This has been the rule every year since except 2020, when the end date was extended to February 28, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2021, which was correspondingly limited to March 1 to December 31.\n\n1920s\n1930s\n1940s\n1950s\n1960s\n1970s\n1980s\n1990s\n2000s\n2010s\n2020s\nIndividuals with multiple wins\nIndividuals with multiple nominations\nProduction companies and distributors with multiple nominations and wins\nColumbia Pictures and United Artists have the most wins with 12, while 20th Century Studios has the most nominations with 64. Focus Features has the most nominations without a win with 12.\n\nSee also\nBAFTA Award for Best Film\nIndependent Spirit Award for Best Film\nCritics' Choice Movie Award for Best Picture\nGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama\nGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy\nProducers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture\nScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture\nList of superlative Academy Award winners and nominees\nList of presenters of the Academy Award for Best Picture\nList of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees\nGolden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture\nList of Academy Award–winning films\nList of Academy Award–nominated films\nList of film production companies\nList of films considered the best\nLists of films\nAcademy Aperture 2025\n\nNotes\nReferences\nExternal links\nOscars.org (official Academy site)\nOscar.com (official ceremony site)\nThe Academy Awards Database (official site)","title":"Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"This is a record of Argentina's results at the FIFA World Cup. Argentina is one of the most successful teams in the tournament's history, having won three World Cups: in 1978, 1986, and 2022. Argentina has also been runner-up three times: in 1930, 1990 and 2014. In 18 World Cup tournaments, Argentina has 47 victories in 88 matches. The team was present in all but four of the World Cups, being behind only Brazil and Germany in number of appearances.\\n\\nWorld Cup record\\n**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.\\n\\nWorld Cup Finals\\nAll matches\\nWorld Cup Finals\\n1930 v Uruguay\\nThe inaugural FIFA World Cup tournament culminated with Argentina facing hosts and current Olympic champions Uruguay. The match was turned twice: Argentina went into half-time with a 2–1 lead in spite of an early goal for Uruguay, but the hosts ultimately won 4–2. Guillermo Stábile, one of Argentina's scorers, became the tournament's top striker with 8 goals total.\\n\\n1978 v the Netherlands\\nArgentina hosted the 1978 edition of the World Cup and reached the final. The Netherlands had already played the previous final in West Germany 1974 - and also lost to the hosts.\\nDiego Maradona was 17 years old at this point and already a star in his home country, but did not make the squad as coach César Luis Menotti felt he was too inexperienced to handle the pressure of this major tournament. The playmaker position was instead filled by Mario Kempes, who ended up becoming the first Argentinian to win the Golden Ball in addition to being the tournament's top scorer with 6 goals.\\nThe Dutch side was missing a superstar of their own: Johan Cruyff did not join the 1978 World Cup squads due to the aftermath of a kidnapping attempt which occurred in 1977. He only disclosed this information 30 years later.\\nThe closely contested match was influenced by a hostile atmosphere and ended with the Dutch players refusing to attend the award ceremony after Argentina grabbed the title in extra time.\\n\\n1986 v West Germany\\nEight years after the victory on home soil, Argentina won the World Cup title for the second time. Diego Maradona was voted Best Player of the tournament after scoring five goals and assisting the decisive 3-2 by Jorge Burruchaga in the 84th minute of the final. The match was played in front of a record attendance of 114,600 people.\\n\\n1990 v West Germany\\nIn 1990, Argentina faced West Germany in a repeat of the 1986 edition. Pedro Monzón became the first player ever to be sent off in a World Cup final, but was later joined by teammate Gustavo Dezotti. The match was decided by a penalty kick in favour of Germany.\\n\\n2014 v Germany\\nIn 2014, Argentina reached the final for the fifth time and for a third time had to face the German team, making it the most recurrent meeting for a final. In spite of a number of chances on both sides, regular time finished goalless. In the second half of extra time, substitute striker Mario Götze scored the decisive goal for Germany.\\n\\n2022 v France\\nArgentina opened up the scoring when Messi scored a penalty kick, and doubled their lead with a Di Maria goal in the 36th minute. France made two substitutions in the first half, but went into half-time trailing 0–2. Despite not having a shot until after the 80th minute, France were awarded a penalty as Randal Kolo Muani was brought down in the penalty area. Mbappé scored the penalty, and added a second goal less than two minutes later to equalise the scores. With the scores tied, the match went to extra time. Messi scored again for Argentina in the second extra time half. Mbappé was awarded a second penalty in the 118th minute after his initial shot hit the arm of Gonzalo Montiel. Mbappé scored his third goal, becoming the second player to score a hat-trick in the final of a men's World Cup. With the scores tied at 3–3, the match was completed by a penalty shootout. Argentina won the final after scoring all of their penalties, winning 4–2.\\n\\nRecord by opponent\\nArgentina have played a total of 88 FIFA World Cup games through 18 tournaments, facing 39 rivals.\\n\\nTeams in bold denote world cup winners, teams in italics show teams which played its first match ever in a World Cup against Argentina.\\nTeams with a * mark no longer exist. East Germany was annexed to Germany. Soviet Union now plays as Russia.\\n+Played as Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro.\\n\\nHead coaches\\nThrough Argentinian team history, several coaches had trained it with different football styles from offensive to defensive tactics. There are two predominant 'football schools' about world champions coaches César Menotti who propagates possession and well-look play and Carlos Bilardo who prioritize results and tactical order. These head coaches divides Argentine fans kindly. Other managers such as Marcelo Bielsa has got his own football style. In another way this list shows records in World Cups and in qualifying stages excluding friendlies.\\n\\nFrom 1994 towards, three points are given for a win. Previously were two.\\n\\nAgainst conferences\\nFIFA delegates regional qualification and other organization affairs to continental conferences, so it divides into six differents of them grouped by geographical location. Argentina plays in CONMEBOL conference in South America. Due to World Cup rules that two teams of same confederation can not play in the same group in first round except for UEFA, it commonly faces teams which plays outside its continent most recently from Africa and Asia. Argentine national has never played versus an Oceanian (OFC) squad.\\n\\nAgainst debutants\\n'Albiceleste' has played against first-world-cup teams more than other, doing so 17 times, 7 of them being the first World Cup match ever. This list shows records versus those selections including all-debutants 1930 edition. Curiously, Argentina's debut was versus France which previously had played before.\\n\\nSweden, Bulgaria, Greece, Japan, Ivory Coast, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland played its first time against Argentina.France, Mexico, Chile, United States, Uruguay, Northern Ireland, Haiti, East Germany, Jamaica and Croatia played in its first world cup but after first game.\\n\\nRecords and statistics\\nMost appearances\\nLionel Messi has captained the team in 19 matches.\\nLionel Messi's total of 26 matches is a record for the side and the most for a player at the FIFA World Cup.\\n\\nTop goalscorers\\nGoalscoring by tournament\\nAwards\\nTeam\\nWorld Champions 1978\\nWorld Champions 1986\\nWorld Champions 2022\\n2nd Place 1930\\n2nd Place 1990\\n2nd Place 2014\\nFair Play Award 1978\\n\\nIndividual\\nGolden Ball 1978: Mario Kempes\\nGolden Ball 1986: Diego Maradona\\nGolden Ball 2014: Lionel Messi\\nGolden Ball 2022: Lionel Messi\\nSilver Ball 1930: Guillermo Stábile\\nBronze Ball 1990: Diego Maradona\\nGolden Boot 1930: Guillermo Stábile\\nGolden Boot 1978: Mario Kempes\\nSilver Boot 1986: Diego Maradona\\nSilver Boot 1998: Gabriel Batistuta\\nSilver Boot 2006: Hernán Crespo\\nSilver Boot 2022: Lionel Messi\\nGolden Glove 1978: Ubaldo Fillol\\nGolden Glove 1990: Sergio Goycochea (shared with Luis Gabelo Conejo)\\nGolden Glove 2022: Emiliano Martínez\\nBest Young Player 2022: Enzo Fernández\\nMost Player of the Match Awards 2014 (4) and 2022 (5): Lionel Messi\\nMost Player of the Match Awards over various World Cups by a single player (11): Lionel Messi\\nJosé Pékerman won the FIFA Fair Play Trophy as a coach with Colombia in 2014.\\n\\nStanding alone\\nMost played final against the same team: 3 times versus Germany in 1986, 1990 and 2014.\\nMost played against the same team in same stage: 5 times versus Nigeria in 1994, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018 all in group stage. Last three of them make most times consecutive, too. All won by Argentina by one goal difference.\\nMost played semifinals without losses: 5 times won in 1930 and 1986 while drawn in 1990 and 2014. Although in 1978 there weren't semifinals, Argentina won second round group ahead of Brazil which disputed 3rd place match against Italy. Even more, game against Brazil ended in a 0–0 draw.\\nMost played penalty shoot-outs: 7 (twice in 1990, 1998, 2006, 2014 and twice in 2022).\\nFewest goals for a finalist: 1990 (5).\\nYoungest coach: Juan José Tramutola aged 27 years and 267 days in 1930.\\nMost hat-tricks scored in multiple editions: Gabriel Batistuta in 1994 against Greece and in 1998 against Jamaica.\\n\\nShared\\nMost played against the same team: 7 times versus Germany in 1958, 1966, 1986, 1990, 2006, 2010 and 2014. Shared with Germany vs Yugoslavia/Serbia and Brazil vs Sweden.\\nMost won penalty shoot-outs: 6 times (twice in 1990, 1998, 2014 and twice in 2022).\\nMost coached finals: 2 times by Carlos Bilardo in 1986 and 1990. Shared with Italian Vittorio Pozzo (1934-1938), German Helmut Schön (1966-1974), Brazilian Mário Zagallo (1970-1998) German Franz Beckenbauer who faced Bilardo in both 1986 and 1990, and French Didier Deschamps (2018-2022).\\n\\nMiscellaneous\\nArgentina's game versus West Germany in 1958 featured a yellow jersey instead of the traditional light blue and white colors or blue as alternate. This was because both teams wore white jerseys, creating confusion. As the South American side forgot to bring an alternate one, they decided to borrow jerseys from local team club Malmö. Germany won 3–1.\\nIn the 1978 France - Hungary match something similar occurred. Both teams arrived to the match with white jerseys, so France was forced to borrow jerseys from Mar del Plata's local club Kimberley. France wore striped green and white keeping the traditional blue shorts and red socks. France won 3–1.\\nThe stadium José María Minella is the southernmost World Cup venue located at 38°0′0″S 57°33′0″W. Including France vs. Hungary, several matches of the 1978 World Cup were played in this stadium. Mar del Plata is in the south of Buenos Aires Province.\\n\\nReferees\\nAs a major CONMEBOL member, Argentina has been represented by match officials in nearly every tournament. In 2006, Horacio Elizondo refereed the final between France and Italy, where he sent off Zinedine Zidane after a headbutt to an opponent. In 2018, Néstor Pitana did it when France played versus Croatia. They are also the only two who refereed the opening game in the same tournament.\\n\\nSee also\\nDisaster of Sweden\\nArgentina at the Copa América\\nSouth American nations at the FIFA World Cup\\n\\nExternal links\\nOfficial website, at the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino's website\\nFIFA world cup all-time table\\n\\nNotes\\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"Argentina_at_the_FIFA_World_Cup\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible to submit a nomination and vote on the final ballot. The Best Picture category is traditionally the final award of the night and is widely considered the most prestigious honor of the ceremony.\\nThe Grand Staircase columns at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, where the Academy Awards ceremonies have been held since 2002, showcase every film that has won the Best Picture title since the award's inception. There have been 601 films nominated for Best Picture and 96 winners.\\n\\nHistory\\nCategory name changes\\nAt the 1st Academy Awards ceremony held in 1929 (for films made in 1927 and 1928), there were two categories of awards that were each considered the top award of the night: \\\"Outstanding Picture\\\" and \\\"Unique and Artistic Picture\\\", the former being won by the war epic Wings, and the latter by the art film Sunrise. Each award was intended to honor different and equally important aspects of superior filmmaking. In particular, The Jazz Singer was disqualified from both awards, since its use of synchronized sound made the film a sui generis item that would have unfairly competed against either category, and the Academy granted the film an honorary award instead.\\nThe following year, the Academy dropped the Unique and Artistic Picture award, deciding retroactively that the award won by Wings was the highest honor that could be awarded, and allowed synchronized sound films to compete for the award. Although the award kept the title Outstanding Picture for the next ceremony, the name underwent several changes over the years, as seen below. Since 1962, the award has been simply called Best Picture.\\n\\n1927/28–1928/29: Academy Award for Outstanding Picture\\n1929/30–1940: Academy Award for Outstanding Production\\n1941–1943: Academy Award for Outstanding Motion Picture\\n1944–1961: Academy Award for Best Motion Picture\\n1962–present: Academy Award for Best Picture\\n\\nRecipients\\nUntil 1950, this award was presented to a representative of the production company. That year the protocol was changed so that the award was presented to all credited producers. This rule was modified in 1999 to apply a maximum limit of three producers receiving the award, after the five producers of Shakespeare in Love had received the award.\\nAs of 2020, the \\\"Special Rules for the Best Picture of the Year Award\\\" limit recipients to those who meet two main requirements:\\n\\nThose with screen credit of \\\"producer\\\" or \\\"produced by\\\", explicitly excluding those with the screen credit \\\"executive producer, co-producer, associate producer, line producer, or produced in association with\\\"\\nthose three or fewer producers who have performed the major portion of the producing functions\\nThe rules allow a bona fide team of not more than two people to be considered a single \\\"producer\\\" if the two individuals have had an established producing partnership as determined by the Producers Guild of America Producing Partnership Panel. Final determination of the qualifying producer nominees for each nominated picture will be made by the Producers Branch Executive Committee, including the right to name any additional qualified producer as a nominee.\\nThe Academy can make exceptions to the limit, as when Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack were posthumously included among the four producers nominated for The Reader. As of 2014 the Producers Branch Executive Committee determines such exceptions, noting they take place only in \\\"rare and extraordinary circumstance[s].\\\"\\nSteven Spielberg currently holds the record for most nominations at thirteen, winning one, while Kathleen Kennedy holds the record for most nominations without a win at eight. Sam Spiegel and Saul Zaentz tie for the most wins with three each. As for the time when the Oscar was given to production companies instead, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer holds the record with five wins and 40 nominations.\\n\\nBest Picture and Best Director\\nThe Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director have been closely linked throughout their history. Of the 96 films that have won Best Picture, 69 have also been awarded Best Director. Only six films have been awarded Best Picture without receiving a Best Director nomination: Wings directed by William A. Wellman (1927/28), Grand Hotel directed by Edmund Goulding (1931/32), Driving Miss Daisy directed by Bruce Beresford (1989), Argo directed by Ben Affleck (2012), Green Book directed by Peter Farrelly (2018), and CODA directed by Sian Heder (2021). The only two Best Director winners to win for films that did not receive a Best Picture nomination were during the early years of the awards: Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Knights (1927/28), and Frank Lloyd for The Divine Lady (1928/29).\\n\\nNomination limit increased\\nOn June 24, 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced that the number of films to be nominated in the Best Picture award category would increase from 5 to 10, starting with the 82nd Academy Awards (2009). Although the Academy never officially said so, many commenters noted the expansion was likely in part a response to public criticism of The Dark Knight and WALL-E (both 2008) (and, in previous years, other blockbusters and popular films) not being nominated for Best Picture. Officially, the Academy said the rule change was a throwback to the Academy's early years in the 1930s and 1940s, when 8 to 12 films were nominated each year. \\\"Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going to allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,\\\" AMPAS President Sid Ganis said in a press conference. \\\"I can't wait to see what that list of 10 looks like when the nominees are announced in February.\\\"\\nAt the same time, the voting system was switched from first-past-the-post to instant runoff voting (also known as preferential voting). In 2011, the Academy revised the rule again so that the number of films nominated was between 5 and 10; nominated films must earn either 5% of first-place rankings or 5% after an abbreviated variation of the single transferable vote nominating process. Bruce Davis, the Academy executive director at the time, said, \\\"A Best Picture nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit. If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honor in a given year, we shouldn't feel an obligation to round out the number.\\\" This system lasted until 2021, when the Academy reverted back to a set number of ten nominees from the 94th Academy Awards onward.\\n\\nLanguage and country of origin\\nSeventeen non-English language films have been nominated in the category: La Grande Illusion (French, 1938); Z (French, 1969); The Emigrants (Swedish, 1972); Cries and Whispers (Swedish, 1973); The Postman (Il Postino) (Italian/Spanish, 1995); Life Is Beautiful (Italian, 1998); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Mandarin Chinese, 2000); Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese, 2006, but ineligible for Best Foreign Language Film because it was an American production); Amour (French, 2012); Roma (Spanish/Mixtec, 2018); Parasite (Korean, 2019); Minari (Korean, 2020, but ineligible for Best International Feature Film because it was an American production); Drive My Car (Japanese/Korean/Mandarin Chinese/German/Korean Sign Language, 2021), All Quiet on the Western Front (German, 2022), Anatomy of a Fall (French, 2023), Past Lives (Korean, 2023, but ineligible for Best International Feature Film because it was an American production), and The Zone of Interest (German/Polish/Yiddish, 2023). Parasite became the first film not in English to win Best Picture.\\nTen films wholly financed outside the United States have won Best Picture, eight of which were financed, in part or in whole, by the United Kingdom: Hamlet (1948), Tom Jones (1963), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Chariots of Fire (1981), Gandhi (1982), The Last Emperor (1987), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and The King's Speech (2010). The ninth film, The Artist (2011), was financed in France, and the tenth film, Parasite (2019), was financed in South Korea.\\n\\nRating\\nSince 1968, most Best Picture winners have been rated R under the Motion Picture Association's rating system. Oliver! is the only G-rated film and Midnight Cowboy is the only X-rated film (what is categorized as an NC-17 film today), so far, to win Best Picture; they won in back-to-back years, 1968 and 1969. The latter has since been changed to an R rating. Eleven films have won with a PG rating: the first was Patton (1970) and the most recent was Driving Miss Daisy (1989). Eleven more films have won with a PG-13 rating (which was introduced in 1984): the first was The Last Emperor (1987) and the most recent was CODA (2021).\\n\\nGenres and mediums\\nThree animated films have been nominated for Best Picture: Beauty and the Beast (1991), Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010). The latter two were nominated after the Academy expanded the number of nominees, but none have won.\\nNo comic book film has won, although three have been nominated: Skippy (1931), Black Panther (2018), and Joker (2019).\\nTwo fantasy films have won: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Shape of Water (2017), although more have been nominated.\\nThe Silence of the Lambs (1991) is the only horror film to win Best Picture. Five others have been nominated for Best Picture: The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), The Sixth Sense (1999), Black Swan (2010), and Get Out (2017).\\nSeveral science-fiction films have been nominated for Best Picture, though Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) was the first one to win.\\nTitanic (1997) is the only disaster film to win Best Picture, though other such films have been nominated, including Airport (1970) and The Towering Inferno (1974).\\nNo documentary feature has been nominated for Best Picture, although Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness was nominated in the Unique and Artistic Picture category at the 1927/28 awards. A Best Documentary Feature category was introduced in 1941.\\nSeveral musical adaptations based on material previously filmed in non-musical form have won Best Picture, including Gigi, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver!, and Chicago.\\nSeveral epics or historical epic films have won Best Picture, including the first recipient Wings. Others include Cimarron, Cavalcade, Gone with the Wind, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, Patton, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Last Emperor, Dances with Wolves, Schindler's List, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, The English Patient, Titanic, Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Oppenheimer.\\n\\nSequel nominations and winners\\nNine films that were presented as direct sequels have been nominated for Best Picture: The Bells of St. Mary's (1945; the sequel to the 1944 winner, Going My Way), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Godfather Part III (1990), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Toy Story 3 (2010), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022).\\nToy Story 3, Mad Max: Fury Road and Top Gun: Maverick are the only sequels to be nominated without any predecessors being nominated. The Godfather Part II and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King are the only sequels to have won the award, and their respective trilogies are the only series to have three films nominated. The Godfather series is the only film series with multiple Best Picture winners, with the first film winning the award for 1972 and the second film winning the award for 1974.\\nAnother nominee, Broadway Melody of 1936, was a follow-up of sorts to previous winner The Broadway Melody, but beyond the title and some music, the two films have mutually independent stories. The Silence of the Lambs was adapted from the sequel novel to Red Dragon. The latter had been adapted for film as Manhunter by a different studio, and the two films have different casts and creative teams and were not presented as a series.\\nThe Lion in Winter features Peter O'Toole as King Henry II, a role he had played previously in the film Becket, but The Lion in Winter is not a sequel to Becket. Similarly, The Queen features Michael Sheen as Tony Blair, a role he had played previously in the television film The Deal. Christine Langan, producer of both productions, described The Queen as not being a direct sequel, only that it reunited the same creative team.\\nClint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima was a companion piece to his film Flags of Our Fathers that was released earlier the same year. These two films depict the same battle from the different viewpoints of Japanese and United States military forces; the two films were shot back-to-back.\\nIn addition, Black Panther is a continuation of the events that occurred in Captain America: Civil War and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.\\n\\nRemake nominations and winners\\nAlong similar lines to sequels, there have been few nominees and winners that are either remakes or adaptations of the same source materials or subjects.\\nBen-Hur, which won Best Picture of 1959, is a remake of the 1925 silent film with a similar title and both were adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The Departed, which won Best Picture of 2006, is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs and is the first remake of a non-English language or international film to win.\\nOther nominees include 1963's Cleopatra about the titular last queen of Egypt following the 1934 version, 2018's A Star is Born following the 1937 film of the same name, and 2019's Little Women following the 1933 film of the same name with both being adaptations of the 1868 novel. True Grit, which was nominated for Best Picture of 2010, is the second adaptation of Charles Portis's 1968 novel following the 1969 film of the same name.\\nFour of the nominees for the 94th ceremony were based on source material previously made into films: CODA, Dune, Nightmare Alley, and West Side Story. The 2021 version of West Side Story became the second adaptation of the same source material for a previous Best Picture winner to be nominated for the same award after 1962's Mutiny on the Bounty. For that same ceremony, CODA became the second remake of a non-English-language or international film to win.\\nThe 2022 German-language All Quiet on the Western Front is the second adaptation of the 1929 novel after the 1930 English-language film, and the third adaptation of the same source material of a previous Best Picture winner.\\n\\nSilent film winners\\nAt the 1st Academy Awards, the Best Picture award (then named \\\"Academy Award for Outstanding Picture\\\") was presented to the 1927 silent film Wings.\\nThe Artist (2011) was the first essentially silent (with the exception of a single scene of dialogue, and a dream sequence with sound effects) film since Wings to win Best Picture. It was the first silent nominee since 1928's The Patriot. It was the first Best Picture winner to be produced entirely in black-and-white since 1960's The Apartment. (Schindler's List, the 1993 winner, was predominantly black-and-white but contains some color sequences.)\\n\\nVersion availability\\nNo Best Picture winner has been lost, though a few such as All Quiet on the Western Front and Lawrence of Arabia exist only in a form altered from their original, award-winning release form. This has usually been due to editing for reissue (and subsequently partly restored by archivists). Other winners and nominees, such as Tom Jones (prior to its 2018 reissues by The Criterion Collection and the British Film Institute) and Star Wars, are widely available only in subsequently altered versions. The Broadway Melody originally had some sequences photographed in two-color Technicolor. This footage survives only in black and white.\\nThe 1928 film The Patriot is the only Best Picture nominee that is lost (about one-third is extant). The Racket, also from 1928, was believed lost for many years until a print was found in Howard Hughes' archives. It has since been restored and shown on Turner Classic Movies. The only surviving complete prints of 1931's East Lynne and 1934's The White Parade exist within the UCLA film archive.\\n\\nDiversity standards\\nThe Academy has established a set of \\\"representation and inclusion standards\\\", called Academy Aperture 2025, which a film will be required to satisfy in order to compete in the Best Picture category, starting with the 96th Academy Awards for films released in 2023. There are four general standards, of which a film must satisfy two to be considered for Best Picture: (a) on-screen representation, themes and narratives; (b) creative leadership and project team; (c) industry access and opportunities; and (d) audience development. As explained by Vox, the standards \\\"basically break down into two big buckets: standards promoting more inclusive representation and standards promoting more inclusive employment\\\". The standards are intended to provide greater opportunities for employment, in cast, crew, studio apprenticeships and internships, and development, marketing, publicity, and distribution executives, among underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, women, LGBTQ+ people, and persons with cognitive or physical disabilities (not counting developmental disabilities like the autism spectrum), or who are deaf or hard of hearing.\\nFor the 94th and 95th Academy Awards (films released in 2021 and 2022), filmmakers were required to submit a confidential Academy Inclusion Standards form to be considered for Best Picture but were not required to fulfill the standards. These standards will only apply to the Best Picture category and do not affect a film's eligibility in other Oscar categories.\\n\\n2016 ceremony mistake\\nAt the 89th Academy Awards on February 26, 2017, presenter Faye Dunaway read La La Land as the winner of the award. However, she and Warren Beatty had mistakenly been given the duplicate envelope for the \\\"Best Actress in a Leading Role\\\" award, which Emma Stone had won for her role in La La Land. While accepting the award, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz, who was given the correct envelope, realized the mistake and announced that Moonlight had won the award.\\n\\nWinners and nominees\\nIn the list below, winners are listed first in the gold row, followed by the other nominees. Except for the early years (when the Academy used a non-calendar year), the year shown is the one in which the film first premiered in Los Angeles County, California; normally this is also the year of first release; however, it may be the year after first release (as with Casablanca and, if the film-festival premiere is considered, Crash and The Hurt Locker). This is also the year before the ceremony at which the award is given; for example, a film exhibited theatrically during 2005 was eligible for consideration for the 2005 Best Picture Oscar, awarded in 2006. The number of the ceremony (1st, 2nd, etc.) appears in parentheses after the awards year, linked to the article on that ceremony. Each individual entry shows the title followed by nominee.\\nUntil 1950, the Best Picture award was given to the production company; from 1951 on, it has gone to the producer or producers. The Academy used the producer credits of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) until 1998, when all five producers of Shakespeare in Love made speeches after its win. A three-producer limit has been applied some years since. There was controversy over the exclusion of some PGA-credited producers of Crash and Little Miss Sunshine. The Academy can make exceptions to the limit, as when Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack were posthumously among the four nominated for The Reader. However, now any number of producers on a film can be nominated for Best Picture, should they be deemed eligible.\\nFor the first ceremony, three films were nominated for the award. For the following three years, five films were nominated for the award. This was expanded to eight in 1933, to ten in 1934, and to twelve in 1935, before being dropped back to ten in 1937. In 1945, it was further reduced to five. This number remained until 2009, when the limit was raised to ten; it was adjusted from 2011 to 2020 to vary between five and ten, but has been a full ten since 2022.\\nFor the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. For example, the 2nd Academy Awards presented on April 3, 1930, recognized films that were released between August 1, 1928, and July 31, 1929. Starting with the 7th Academy Awards, held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. This has been the rule every year since except 2020, when the end date was extended to February 28, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2021, which was correspondingly limited to March 1 to December 31.\\n\\n1920s\\n1930s\\n1940s\\n1950s\\n1960s\\n1970s\\n1980s\\n1990s\\n2000s\\n2010s\\n2020s\\nIndividuals with multiple wins\\nIndividuals with multiple nominations\\nProduction companies and distributors with multiple nominations and wins\\nColumbia Pictures and United Artists have the most wins with 12, while 20th Century Studios has the most nominations with 64. Focus Features has the most nominations without a win with 12.\\n\\nSee also\\nBAFTA Award for Best Film\\nIndependent Spirit Award for Best Film\\nCritics' Choice Movie Award for Best Picture\\nGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama\\nGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy\\nProducers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture\\nScreen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture\\nList of superlative Academy Award winners and nominees\\nList of presenters of the Academy Award for Best Picture\\nList of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees\\nGolden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture\\nList of Academy Award–winning films\\nList of Academy Award–nominated films\\nList of film production companies\\nList of films considered the best\\nLists of films\\nAcademy Aperture 2025\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nOscars.org (official Academy site)\\nOscar.com (official ceremony site)\\nThe Academy Awards Database (official site)\",\n \"title\": \"Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"What movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture the same year that Argentina won its first World Cup?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"The Deer Hunter"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":679,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"679"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II (May 6, 2013 – July 30, 2022) was a golden retriever dog who served as the second unofficial mayor of Idyllwild, part of the census-designated place of Idyllwild–Pine Cove, California. His deputy mayors, Mitzi and Mikey, were his cousins. After his death Mayor Max II was succeeded by his cousin Max III, who was sworn in on December 10, 2022.\n\nMayorality\nIn 2012, the non-profit organization Idyllwild Animal Rescue Friends (ARF) hosted an \"election\" for mayor of Idyllwild (which, as part of an unincorporated community, has no local government) as part of a fundraising event for the organization. Fourteen dogs and two cats ran, and Max, a Golden Retriever, was elected as Idyllwild's first mayor. On April 2, 2013, Mayor Max died, and Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II, another Golden Retriever, arrived in Idyllwild on July 21 to complete the remainder of the term. In March 2014, as the end of Max's term approached, ARF solicited the town's interest in holding another election. The people overwhelmingly pled for Mayor Max's continuation in perpetuity.\nMayor Max was recognized by the County of Riverside, California. The Mayor's duties included visiting with locals and out-of-town visitors, attending business grand openings and other town functions, participating in the town's two annual parades, and promoting Idyllwild. Max's popularity had spread the world over, and he has represented the town through appearances on news programs, talk shows, advertisements, billboards, and a game show.\n\nDeath\nMayor Max died in the city of Temecula on July 30, 2022, after suffering a brief medical issue. He was succeeded by Mayor Max III, who formally took office on December 10, 2022.\n\nSee also\nList of individual dogs\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nMayor Max, Mayor of Idyllwild, California - Official website","title":"Mayor_Max_II"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Golden Retriever is a Scottish breed of retriever dog of medium size. It is characterised by a gentle and affectionate nature and a striking golden coat. It is a working dog, and registration is subject to successful completion of a working trial. It is commonly kept as a pet and is among the most frequently registered breeds in several Western countries; some may compete in dog shows or obedience trials, or work as a guide dog.\nThe Golden Retriever was bred by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks at his Scottish estate Guisachan in the late nineteenth century. He cross-bred Flat-coated Retrievers with Tweed Water Spaniels, with some further infusions of Red Setter, Labrador Retriever and Bloodhound. It was recognised by the Kennel Club in 1913, and during the interwar period spread to many parts of the world.\n\nHistory\nThe Golden Retriever was developed in Scotland in the nineteenth century by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks (later to become Baron Tweedmouth) from Flat-coated Retrievers judiciously crossed with Tweed Water Spaniels and some other British dog breeds. Prior to the 1952 publication of the very detailed stud book which had been meticulously maintained by Marjoribanks, a number of romantic tales were published about the origins of the breed.\nIn the 1860s Marjoribanks set out to create what to his mind was the ultimate breed of retriever at his Scottish estate Guisachan. He started by acquiring a yellow-coloured Flat-coated Retriever dog called Nous; Nous had been whelped in June 1864 and was the only yellow pup in an otherwise all black-coloured litter. Whilst uncommon, occasionally liver, brown, golden or yellow-coloured purebred Flat-coated Retriever pups are whelped to matings of two black parents. It is the pedigree of Nous that was the source for the romantic tales of the heritage of the Golden Retriever. One early account claimed Nous was purchased from a Russian circus trainer in Brighton, another claimed he was bought from a cobbler, and yet another claimed a gypsy. The stud book states that Nous was a Flat-coated Retriever bred by Lord Chichester on his Stanmer Park estate near Brighton.\nIn 1868 Nous was mated to a Tweed Water Spaniel bitch named Belle, who is recorded in the stud book as being whelped in 1863 and being of \"Ladykirk breeding\". The litter from this mating consisted of four yellow pups, Primrose, Ada, Cowslip and Crocus. The best bitch from this litter, Cowslip, was mated to a Tweed Water Spaniel called Tweed with the mating producing a bitch pup called Topsy. Cowslip was subsequently mated to a Red Setter called Sampson; that mating produced a dog pup called Jack. Topsy was mated with a black Flat-coated Retriever called Sambo and a bitch pup from that litter, Zoe, was mated back to Jack and two pups from that mating were retained, a dog called Nous II and a bitch called Gill. Gill was mated to a black Labrador Retriever called Tracer, and a bitch pup from that mating, Queenie, was mated back to Nous II; all Golden Retrievers descend from this mating. The progeny from these various matings varied in colour from pure black to light cream, but it was the golden-coloured ones that were retained and mated to each other, forming the foundation stock of the Golden Retriever breed. Marjoribanks is also known to have used a sandy-coloured Bloodhound and another Labrador in subsequent years of the breeding programme.\n\nIn 1952 Marjoribanks's great-nephew, Giles Fox-Strangways, 6th Earl of Ilchester, teamed up with Elma Stonex and together they studied Marjoribanks's stud book. In 1960 their research was published, presenting all of the evidence required to counter all tales of Russian ancestry. The stud book, which covers the period from 1868 to 1890, is preserved in the library of the Kennel Club in London.\nIn the early days Golden Retrievers were called the 'Flat-coated Retriever, Golden', Initially the Golden Retriever was considered a colour variety of the former breed. In 1903 the Kennel Club recorded the first examples, listing them in the same register as Flat-coats. In 1904 a Golden Retriever won a field trial and in 1908 the first examples were exhibited at conformation shows. In 1911 a breed club was formed for the breed in England, the Golden Retriever Club, and they were given a new name, the 'Yellow or Golden Retriever'; from this point they were increasingly seen as a separate breed from the Flat-coated Retriever. It was not until 1913 that the Kennel Club began recording them on a separate breed register from the Flat-coated Retriever and in 1920 the 'Yellow or' was dropped from the breed name and they were officially called the 'Golden Retriever'.\nOne early twentieth century enthusiast of the breed, Winifred Charlesworth, was instrumental in the establishment of the breed club as well as its separate Kennel Club recognition. It was she who drew up the first breed standard, which was adopted by the Kennel Club and with only minor amendments and remains largely unchanged. She bred and exhibited the first Golden Retriever Show Champion, was a strong advocate for maintaining the working instincts of the breed, and she is credited with popularising it at field trials and introducing it to shooting sportsmen.\nIn the years after the First World War its popularity increased markedly and in the 1920s and 1930s it spread through much of the Western world. The Canadian Kennel Club recognised the breed in 1927, the American Kennel Club in 1932; the first examples were registered in France in 1934 and Australia in 1937. The worldwide popularity of the breed meant it did not suffer the misfortunes many British dog breeds did during the Second World War due to British wartime restrictions on the breeding of larger dogs, with ample quality breeding stock available globally to ensure none of its characteristics were lost.\nSince the 1940s its popularity has continued to grow, and it has become one of the most recognised and most frequently registered dog breeds in the Western world.\n\nDescription\nAppearance\nThe Golden Retriever is a powerfully built, medium-sized breed of dog; according to the Kennel Club breed standard, dogs stand from 56 to 61 centimetres (22 to 24 in) and bitches from 51 to 56 centimetres (20 to 22 in). Healthy adult examples typically weigh between 25 and 34 kilograms (55 and 75 lb).\nThe Golden Retriever has a broad head with a well-defined stop, with dark eyes set well apart, a wide and powerful muzzle, a large black nose, dark-pigmented and slightly drooping flews, and ears of moderate size set high and hanging with a slight fold. The neck is muscular and fairly long with loose-fitting skin, the shoulders well laid-back and long-bladed, and the body deep through the chest with well-sprung ribs. The back is usually level from withers to croup and the long, straight tail is usually carried flat, roughly in line with the back. The forelegs are straight with good bone, the hind legs are powerful with well bent stifles and muscular thighs, and the feet are cat-like.\nThe double coat is a recognisable and striking feature: the outer coat is long, flat or wavy and has good feathering on the forelegs, while the undercoat is dense and provides weather resistance. The coat can be any shade of cream, yellow or gold; the coat typically becomes paler with age. The Kennel Club breed standard prohibits red or mahogany-coloured coats, but a few white hairs on the chest are permitted. Originally only yellow or golden coloured examples were permitted, this excluded many outstanding cream coloured dogs; to overcome this in 1936 the Kennel Club's standard was amended to include the cream colour. The cream colour, which in more modern times can be almost white, has become the dominant colour and is particularly favoured by conformation show exhibitors. Golden Retrievers that are bred for conformation shows tend to have longer and finer coats than those bred for working as gundogs.\nThe Kennel Club breed standard is accepted by every kennel club in the world except those of Canada and the United States. Breed standards in North America call for a slightly taller dog and the cream colour is not permitted.\n\nTemperament\nThe Golden Retriever is considered an intelligent, gentle natured and very affectionate breed of dog. As is typical with retriever breeds, the breed is generally calm and biddable, being very easy to train and extremely keen to please their master. The breed is known to make excellent pets and family dogs, being generally extremely tolerant of children and keen to accompany any member of the family in a range of activities. Due to their affable natures, the breed is often completely devoid of guarding instincts. However, there have also been reports of some very aggressive Golden Retrievers in certain lineages. It has been suggested that these variations in aggression are partially caused by genetic factors.\nThe breed usually retains many of their gundog traits and instincts including an excellent sense of smell and a strong instinct to retrieve; even among those not trained as gundogs it is typical for Golden Retrievers to present their owners with toys or other objects. Compared to other retriever breeds the Golden Retriever is typically quite slow to mature.\n\nUse\nThe Golden Retriever is one of the most commonly kept breeds of companion dog in the Western world, and is often among the top ten dog breeds by number of registrations in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and Canada. It is a frequent competitor at dog shows; separate show lines of the breed have been developed. The dogs can be trained as guide dogs and therapy dogs, and may compete in obedience trials and other dog sports.\nThe Golden Retriever is still used as a gundog by sportsmen, both as a hunting companion in the field and for competing in field trials. It is used more for retrieval of land-based gamebirds such as grouse and partridge than for wildfowl hunting. Those used as gundogs are usually from working lines specifically bred for field use; dogs from pet or show lines are rarely suitable. A Golden Retriever with a traditional dense double coat is well suited to working in cold and wet conditions, as the coat provides water resistance and insulation. Compared to other retriever breeds, the Golden Retriever is not a strong swimmer; its long coat causes it to sit low in the water when swimming.\nThe Golden Retriever is much less commonly used by sportsmen as a hunting companion than the Labrador Retriever. One reason is that the breed is generally quite slow to mature, particularly compared to the Labrador; often when a Golden Retriever is still in basic training a Labrador of the same age has already completed a season of hunting. Another is its long coat, which requires more maintenance and grooming than that of the Labrador, particularly after working in muddy conditions or close cover, as their long hair is more prone to picking up dirt and burrs. More Golden Retrievers are bred as pets or for the show ring than for hunting, so it can be hard for sportsmen to find pups bred from proven working lines.\n\nHealth\nA 2024 UK study found a life expectancy of 13.2 years for the breed compared to an average of 12.7 for purebreeds and 12 for crossbreeds. A 2024 Italian study found a life expectancy of 10 years for the breed compared to 10 years overall. A 2005 Swedish study found 22% of Golden Retrievers died by the age of 10, less than the overall rate of 35% of dogs dying by the age of 10.\nThe breed is unusually prone to cancer, with one United States study finding cancer to be the cause of death in approximately 50% of the population, the second highest in the study. Several European studies found a much lower prevalence (20–39%), which may reflect the significant genetic divergence between the American and European populations. They are especially prone to hemangiosarcoma and lymphoma, with an estimated lifetime risk of one in five for the former and one in eight for the latter. The high prevalence of cancer deaths among Golden Retrievers may partly represent a lack of other congenital diseases. One UK study found the risk of metastatic neoplasia in the breed to be 4.86 times higher than other dogs.\nThe Golden Retriever has a genetic predisposition to primary hypothyroidism; a review of 5 different studies found Golden Retrievers to make up 17% of cases.\n\nNotable Golden Retrievers\nLiberty, presidential pet of President Gerald R. Ford.\nBailey, pet of 2020 US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.\nOrca, PDSA Gold Medal recipient for bravery.\nMayor Max, elected Mayor of Idyllwild, California.\nBuddy, dog actor (Air Bud)\n\nExplanatory notes\nReferences\n\n\n== Further reading ==","title":"Golden_Retriever"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Hemangiosarcoma is a rapidly growing, highly invasive variety of cancer that occurs almost exclusively in dogs, and only rarely in cats, horses, mice, or humans (vinyl chloride toxicity). It is a sarcoma arising from the lining of blood vessels; that is, blood-filled channels and spaces are commonly observed microscopically. A frequent cause of death is the rupturing of this tumor, causing the patient to rapidly bleed to death.\nThe term \"angiosarcoma\", when used without a modifier, usually refers to hemangiosarcoma. However, glomangiosarcoma (8710/3) and lymphangiosarcoma (9170/3) are distinct conditions (in humans).\n\nDogs\nHemangiosarcoma is quite common in dogs, and more so in certain breeds including German Shepherds and Golden Retrievers. It also occurs in cats, but much more rarely. Dogs with hemangiosarcoma rarely show clinical signs until the tumor has become very large and has metastasized. Typically, clinical signs are due to hypovolemia after the tumor ruptures, causing extensive bleeding. Owners of the affected dogs often discover that the dog has hemangiosarcoma only after the dog collapses.\nThe tumor most often appears on the spleen, right heart base, or liver, although varieties also appear on or under the skin or in other locations. It is the most common tumor of the heart, and occurs in the right atrium or right auricular appendage. Here it can cause right-sided heart failure, arrhythmias, pericardial effusion, and cardiac tamponade. Hemangiosarcoma of the spleen or liver is the most common tumor to cause hemorrhage in the abdomen. Hemorrhage secondary to splenic and hepatic tumors can also cause ventricular arrhythmias. Hemangiosarcoma of the skin usually appears as a small red or bluish-black lump. It can also occur under the skin. It is suspected that in the skin, hemangiosarcoma is caused by sun exposure. Occasionally, hemangiosarcoma of the skin can be a metastasis from visceral hemangiosarcoma. Other sites the tumor may occur include bone, kidneys, the bladder, muscle, the mouth, and the central nervous system.\n\nClinical features\nPresenting complaints and clinical signs are usually related to the site of origin of the primary tumor or to the presence of metastases, spontaneous tumor rupture, coagulopathies, or cardiac arrhythmias. More than 50% of patients are presented because of acute collapse after spontaneous rupture of the primary tumor or its metastases. Some episodes of collapse are a result of ventricular arrhythmias, which are relatively common in dogs with splenic or cardiac HSA.\nMost common clinical signs of visceral hemangiosarcoma include loss of appetite, arrhythmias, weight loss, weakness, lethargy, collapse, pale mucous membranes, and/or sudden death. An enlarged abdomen is often seen due to hemorrhage. Metastasis is most commonly to the liver, omentum, lungs, or brain.\nA retrospective study published in 1999 by Ware, et al., found a five times greater risk of cardiac hemangiosarcoma in spayed vs. intact female dogs and a 2.4 times greater risk of hemangiosarcoma in neutered dogs as compared to intact males. The validity of this study is in dispute.\n\nClinicopathologic findings\nHemangiosarcoma can cause a wide variety of hematologic and hemostatic abnormalities, including anemia, thrombocytopenia (low platelet count), disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC); presence of nRBC, schistocytes, and acanthocytes in the blood smear; and leukocytosis with neutrophilia, left shift, and monocytosis.\n\nDiagnosis\nA definitive diagnosis requires biopsy and histopathology. Cytologic aspirates may be inconclusive with studies reporting various specificity, and negative results may not correlate with absence of disease, as one study concludes \"cytological diagnosis of splenic neoplasia is reliable, but a negative result cannot be used to exclude the possibility of splenic neoplasia.\" This is because of frequent blood contamination and poor exfoliation. Surgical biopsy is the typical approach in veterinary medicine.\nImaging modalities may include one ore more of ultrasound, CT, MRI and FDG-PET/CT. FGD-PET/CT may show some benefit over traditional CT for staging and detection of metastasis.\n\nSymptoms\nDogs rarely show symptoms of hemangiosarcoma until after the tumor ruptures, causing extensive bleeding. Then symptoms can include short-term lethargy, loss of appetite, enlarged abdomen, weakness in the back legs, paled colored tongue and gums, rapid heart rate, and a weak pulse.\n\nTreatments\nTreatment includes chemotherapy and, where practical, removal of the tumor with the affected organ, such as with a splenectomy. Splenectomy alone gives an average survival time of 1–3 months. The addition of chemotherapy, primarily comprising the drug doxorubicin, alone or in combination with other drugs, can increase the average survival time by 2–4 months beyond splenectomy alone.\nA 2012 paper published the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, in dogs treated with a compound derived from the Coriolus versicolor (commonly known as \"Turkey Tail\") mushroom showed a favorable response to the agent compared to historical controls of dogs treated with splenectomy and Doxorubicin .:. A controlled, randomized study in 101 dogs was later conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School which showed that the Coriolus versicolor mushroom did not have the same outcome noted in the 2012 paper with 15 dogs. In the 2022 paper by Gednet et al. dogs treated with splenectomy followed by Doxorubicin did better then dogs treated with splenectomy and mushroom agent. Combination of Doxorubicin with the Turkey Tail mushroom also did not improve survival when compared to Doxorubicin alone. However, as noted in the 2012 study, the Turkey Tail mushroom extract did not cause any systemic adverse reactions, even when combined with Doxorubicin.:.\nImmune therapy based on cultivation of tumor tissue is being developed for dogs. A preventive vaccine based on several proteins commonly found in dog cancers, including hemangiosarcomas, is also being developed.\nIn the skin, it can be cured in most cases with complete surgical removal as long as there is not visceral involvement. Median survival times for stage I is 780 days, where more advanced stages can range from 172 to 307 days.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\n\"Heart hemangiosarcoma in Cats and Dogs\". Pet Cancer Center.\n\"Hemangiosarcoma\". Canine Cancer Awareness. - includes links to current studies\n\"Hemangiosarcoma\". Mar Vista Animal Medical Center. Archived from the original on 2004-02-03. Retrieved 2004-01-27.\n\"Hemangiosarcoma in Cats and Dogs\". Pet Cancer Center.","title":"Hemangiosarcoma"},{"idx":3,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard regimen. Chemotherapy may be given with a curative intent (which almost always involves combinations of drugs), or it may aim only to prolong life or to reduce symptoms (palliative chemotherapy). Chemotherapy is one of the major categories of the medical discipline specifically devoted to pharmacotherapy for cancer, which is called medical oncology.\nThe term chemotherapy now means the non-specific use of intracellular poisons to inhibit mitosis (cell division) or to induce DNA damage (so that DNA repair can augment chemotherapy). This meaning excludes the more-selective agents that block extracellular signals (signal transduction). Therapies with specific molecular or genetic targets, which inhibit growth-promoting signals from classic endocrine hormones (primarily estrogens for breast cancer and androgens for prostate cancer), are now called hormonal therapies. Other inhibitions of growth-signals, such as those associated with receptor tyrosine kinases, are targeted therapy.\nThe use of drugs (whether chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or targeted therapy) is systemic therapy for cancer: they are introduced into the blood stream (the system) and therefore can treat cancer anywhere in the body. Systemic therapy is often used with other, local therapy (treatments that work only where they are applied), such as radiation, surgery, and hyperthermia.\nTraditional chemotherapeutic agents are cytotoxic by means of interfering with cell division (mitosis) but cancer cells vary widely in their susceptibility to these agents. To a large extent, chemotherapy can be thought of as a way to damage or stress cells, which may then lead to cell death if apoptosis is initiated. Many of the side effects of chemotherapy can be traced to damage to normal cells that divide rapidly and are thus sensitive to anti-mitotic drugs: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles. This results in the most common side-effects of chemotherapy: myelosuppression (decreased production of blood cells, hence that also immunosuppression), mucositis (inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract), and alopecia (hair loss). Because of the effect on immune cells (especially lymphocytes), chemotherapy drugs often find use in a host of diseases that result from harmful overactivity of the immune system against self (so-called autoimmunity). These include rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, vasculitis and many others.\n\nTreatment strategies\nThere are a number of strategies in the administration of chemotherapeutic drugs used today. Chemotherapy may be given with a curative intent or it may aim to prolong life or to palliate symptoms.\n\nInduction chemotherapy is the first line treatment of cancer with a chemotherapeutic drug. This type of chemotherapy is used for curative intent.: 55–59 \nCombined modality chemotherapy is the use of drugs with other cancer treatments, such as surgery, radiation therapy, or hyperthermia therapy.\nConsolidation chemotherapy is given after remission in order to prolong the overall disease-free time and improve overall survival. The drug that is administered is the same as the drug that achieved remission.: 55–59 \nIntensification chemotherapy is identical to consolidation chemotherapy but a different drug than the induction chemotherapy is used.: 55–59 \nCombination chemotherapy involves treating a person with a number of different drugs simultaneously. The drugs differ in their mechanism and side-effects. The biggest advantage is minimising the chances of resistance developing to any one agent. Also, the drugs can often be used at lower doses, reducing toxicity.: 55–59 : 17–18 \nNeoadjuvant chemotherapy is given prior to a local treatment such as surgery, and is designed to shrink the primary tumor.: 55–59 It is also given for cancers with a high risk of micrometastatic disease.: 42 \nAdjuvant chemotherapy is given after a local treatment (radiotherapy or surgery). It can be used when there is little evidence of cancer present, but there is risk of recurrence.: 55–59 It is also useful in killing any cancerous cells that have spread to other parts of the body. These micrometastases can be treated with adjuvant chemotherapy and can reduce relapse rates caused by these disseminated cells.\nMaintenance chemotherapy is a repeated low-dose treatment to prolong remission.: 55–59 \nSalvage chemotherapy or palliative chemotherapy is given without curative intent, but simply to decrease tumor load and increase life expectancy. For these regimens, in general, a better toxicity profile is expected.: 55–59 \nAll chemotherapy regimens require that the recipient be capable of undergoing the treatment. Performance status is often used as a measure to determine whether a person can receive chemotherapy, or whether dose reduction is required. Because only a fraction of the cells in a tumor die with each treatment (fractional kill), repeated doses must be administered to continue to reduce the size of the tumor. Current chemotherapy regimens apply drug treatment in cycles, with the frequency and duration of treatments limited by toxicity.\n\nEffectiveness\nThe effectiveness of chemotherapy depends on the type of cancer and the stage. The overall effectiveness ranges from being curative for some cancers, such as some leukemias, to being ineffective, such as in some brain tumors, to being needless in others, like most non-melanoma skin cancers.\n\nDosage\nDosage of chemotherapy can be difficult: If the dose is too low, it will be ineffective against the tumor, whereas, at excessive doses, the toxicity (side-effects) will be intolerable to the person receiving it. The standard method of determining chemotherapy dosage is based on calculated body surface area (BSA). The BSA is usually calculated with a mathematical formula or a nomogram, using the recipient's weight and height, rather than by direct measurement of body area. This formula was originally derived in a 1916 study and attempted to translate medicinal doses established with laboratory animals to equivalent doses for humans. The study only included nine human subjects. When chemotherapy was introduced in the 1950s, the BSA formula was adopted as the official standard for chemotherapy dosing for lack of a better option.\nThe validity of this method in calculating uniform doses has been questioned because the formula only takes into account the individual's weight and height. Drug absorption and clearance are influenced by multiple factors, including age, sex, metabolism, disease state, organ function, drug-to-drug interactions, genetics, and obesity, which have major impacts on the actual concentration of the drug in the person's bloodstream. As a result, there is high variability in the systemic chemotherapy drug concentration in people dosed by BSA, and this variability has been demonstrated to be more than ten-fold for many drugs. In other words, if two people receive the same dose of a given drug based on BSA, the concentration of that drug in the bloodstream of one person may be 10 times higher or lower compared to that of the other person. This variability is typical with many chemotherapy drugs dosed by BSA, and, as shown below, was demonstrated in a study of 14 common chemotherapy drugs.\n\nThe result of this pharmacokinetic variability among people is that many people do not receive the right dose to achieve optimal treatment effectiveness with minimized toxic side effects. Some people are overdosed while others are underdosed. For example, in a randomized clinical trial, investigators found 85% of metastatic colorectal cancer patients treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) did not receive the optimal therapeutic dose when dosed by the BSA standard—68% were underdosed and 17% were overdosed.\nThere has been controversy over the use of BSA to calculate chemotherapy doses for people who are obese. Because of their higher BSA, clinicians often arbitrarily reduce the dose prescribed by the BSA formula for fear of overdosing. In many cases, this can result in sub-optimal treatment.\nSeveral clinical studies have demonstrated that when chemotherapy dosing is individualized to achieve optimal systemic drug exposure, treatment outcomes are improved and toxic side effects are reduced. In the 5-FU clinical study cited above, people whose dose was adjusted to achieve a pre-determined target exposure realized an 84% improvement in treatment response rate and a six-month improvement in overall survival (OS) compared with those dosed by BSA.\n\nIn the same study, investigators compared the incidence of common 5-FU-associated grade 3/4 toxicities between the dose-adjusted people and people dosed per BSA. The incidence of debilitating grades of diarrhea was reduced from 18% in the BSA-dosed group to 4% in the dose-adjusted group and serious hematologic side effects were eliminated. Because of the reduced toxicity, dose-adjusted patients were able to be treated for longer periods of time. BSA-dosed people were treated for a total of 680 months while people in the dose-adjusted group were treated for a total of 791 months. Completing the course of treatment is an important factor in achieving better treatment outcomes.\nSimilar results were found in a study involving people with colorectal cancer who have been treated with the popular FOLFOX regimen. The incidence of serious diarrhea was reduced from 12% in the BSA-dosed group of patients to 1.7% in the dose-adjusted group, and the incidence of severe mucositis was reduced from 15% to 0.8%.\nThe FOLFOX study also demonstrated an improvement in treatment outcomes. Positive response increased from 46% in the BSA-dosed group to 70% in the dose-adjusted group. Median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) both improved by six months in the dose adjusted group.\nOne approach that can help clinicians individualize chemotherapy dosing is to measure the drug levels in blood plasma over time and adjust dose according to a formula or algorithm to achieve optimal exposure. With an established target exposure for optimized treatment effectiveness with minimized toxicities, dosing can be personalized to achieve target exposure and optimal results for each person. Such an algorithm was used in the clinical trials cited above and resulted in significantly improved treatment outcomes.\nOncologists are already individualizing dosing of some cancer drugs based on exposure. Carboplatin: 4 and busulfan dosing rely upon results from blood tests to calculate the optimal dose for each person. Simple blood tests are also available for dose optimization of methotrexate, 5-FU, paclitaxel, and docetaxel.\nThe serum albumin level immediately prior to chemotherapy administration is an independent prognostic predictor of survival in various cancer types.\n\nTypes\nAlkylating agents\nAlkylating agents are the oldest group of chemotherapeutics in use today. Originally derived from mustard gas used in World War I, there are now many types of alkylating agents in use. They are so named because of their ability to alkylate many molecules, including proteins, RNA and DNA. This ability to bind covalently to DNA via their alkyl group is the primary cause for their anti-cancer effects. DNA is made of two strands and the molecules may either bind twice to one strand of DNA (intrastrand crosslink) or may bind once to both strands (interstrand crosslink). If the cell tries to replicate crosslinked DNA during cell division, or tries to repair it, the DNA strands can break. This leads to a form of programmed cell death called apoptosis. Alkylating agents will work at any point in the cell cycle and thus are known as cell cycle-independent drugs. For this reason, the effect on the cell is dose dependent; the fraction of cells that die is directly proportional to the dose of drug.\nThe subtypes of alkylating agents are the nitrogen mustards, nitrosoureas, tetrazines, aziridines, cisplatins and derivatives, and non-classical alkylating agents. Nitrogen mustards include mechlorethamine, cyclophosphamide, melphalan, chlorambucil, ifosfamide and busulfan. Nitrosoureas include N-Nitroso-N-methylurea (MNU), carmustine (BCNU), lomustine (CCNU) and semustine (MeCCNU), fotemustine and streptozotocin. Tetrazines include dacarbazine, mitozolomide and temozolomide. Aziridines include thiotepa, mytomycin and diaziquone (AZQ). Cisplatin and derivatives include cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin. They impair cell function by forming covalent bonds with the amino, carboxyl, sulfhydryl, and phosphate groups in biologically important molecules. Non-classical alkylating agents include procarbazine and hexamethylmelamine.\n\nAntimetabolites\nAnti-metabolites are a group of molecules that impede DNA and RNA synthesis. Many of them have a similar structure to the building blocks of DNA and RNA. The building blocks are nucleotides; a molecule comprising a nucleobase, a sugar and a phosphate group. The nucleobases are divided into purines (guanine and adenine) and pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine and uracil). Anti-metabolites resemble either nucleobases or nucleosides (a nucleotide without the phosphate group), but have altered chemical groups. These drugs exert their effect by either blocking the enzymes required for DNA synthesis or becoming incorporated into DNA or RNA. By inhibiting the enzymes involved in DNA synthesis, they prevent mitosis because the DNA cannot duplicate itself. Also, after misincorporation of the molecules into DNA, DNA damage can occur and programmed cell death (apoptosis) is induced. Unlike alkylating agents, anti-metabolites are cell cycle dependent. This means that they only work during a specific part of the cell cycle, in this case S-phase (the DNA synthesis phase). For this reason, at a certain dose, the effect plateaus and proportionally no more cell death occurs with increased doses. Subtypes of the anti-metabolites are the anti-folates, fluoropyrimidines, deoxynucleoside analogues and thiopurines.\nThe anti-folates include methotrexate and pemetrexed. Methotrexate inhibits dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), an enzyme that regenerates tetrahydrofolate from dihydrofolate. When the enzyme is inhibited by methotrexate, the cellular levels of folate coenzymes diminish. These are required for thymidylate and purine production, which are both essential for DNA synthesis and cell division.: 55–59 : 11 Pemetrexed is another anti-metabolite that affects purine and pyrimidine production, and therefore also inhibits DNA synthesis. It primarily inhibits the enzyme thymidylate synthase, but also has effects on DHFR, aminoimidazole carboxamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase and glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase. The fluoropyrimidines include fluorouracil and capecitabine. Fluorouracil is a nucleobase analogue that is metabolised in cells to form at least two active products; 5-fluourouridine monophosphate (FUMP) and 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine 5'-phosphate (fdUMP). FUMP becomes incorporated into RNA and fdUMP inhibits the enzyme thymidylate synthase; both of which lead to cell death.: 11 Capecitabine is a prodrug of 5-fluorouracil that is broken down in cells to produce the active drug. The deoxynucleoside analogues include cytarabine, gemcitabine, decitabine, azacitidine, fludarabine, nelarabine, cladribine, clofarabine, and pentostatin. The thiopurines include thioguanine and mercaptopurine.\n\nAnti-microtubule agents\nAnti-microtubule agents are plant-derived chemicals that block cell division by preventing microtubule function. Microtubules are an important cellular structure composed of two proteins, α-tubulin and β-tubulin. They are hollow, rod-shaped structures that are required for cell division, among other cellular functions. Microtubules are dynamic structures, which means that they are permanently in a state of assembly and disassembly. Vinca alkaloids and taxanes are the two main groups of anti-microtubule agents, and although both of these groups of drugs cause microtubule dysfunction, their mechanisms of action are completely opposite: Vinca alkaloids prevent the assembly of microtubules, whereas taxanes prevent their disassembly. By doing so, they can induce mitotic catastrophe in the cancer cells. Following this, cell cycle arrest occurs, which induces programmed cell death (apoptosis). These drugs can also affect blood vessel growth, an essential process that tumours utilise in order to grow and metastasise.\nVinca alkaloids are derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus, formerly known as Vinca rosea. They bind to specific sites on tubulin, inhibiting the assembly of tubulin into microtubules. The original vinca alkaloids are natural products that include vincristine and vinblastine. Following the success of these drugs, semi-synthetic vinca alkaloids were produced: vinorelbine (used in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer), vindesine, and vinflunine. These drugs are cell cycle-specific. They bind to the tubulin molecules in S-phase and prevent proper microtubule formation required for M-phase.\nTaxanes are natural and semi-synthetic drugs. The first drug of their class, paclitaxel, was originally extracted from Taxus brevifolia, the Pacific yew. Now this drug and another in this class, docetaxel, are produced semi-synthetically from a chemical found in the bark of another yew tree, Taxus baccata.\nPodophyllotoxin is an antineoplastic lignan obtained primarily from the American mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) and Himalayan mayapple (Sinopodophyllum hexandrum). It has anti-microtubule activity, and its mechanism is similar to that of vinca alkaloids in that they bind to tubulin, inhibiting microtubule formation. Podophyllotoxin is used to produce two other drugs with different mechanisms of action: etoposide and teniposide.\n\nTopoisomerase inhibitors\nTopoisomerase inhibitors are drugs that affect the activity of two enzymes: topoisomerase I and topoisomerase II. When the DNA double-strand helix is unwound, during DNA replication or transcription, for example, the adjacent unopened DNA winds tighter (supercoils), like opening the middle of a twisted rope. The stress caused by this effect is in part aided by the topoisomerase enzymes. They produce single- or double-strand breaks into DNA, reducing the tension in the DNA strand. This allows the normal unwinding of DNA to occur during replication or transcription. Inhibition of topoisomerase I or II interferes with both of these processes.\nTwo topoisomerase I inhibitors, irinotecan and topotecan, are semi-synthetically derived from camptothecin, which is obtained from the Chinese ornamental tree Camptotheca acuminata. Drugs that target topoisomerase II can be divided into two groups. The topoisomerase II poisons cause increased levels enzymes bound to DNA. This prevents DNA replication and transcription, causes DNA strand breaks, and leads to programmed cell death (apoptosis). These agents include etoposide, doxorubicin, mitoxantrone and teniposide. The second group, catalytic inhibitors, are drugs that block the activity of topoisomerase II, and therefore prevent DNA synthesis and translation because the DNA cannot unwind properly. This group includes novobiocin, merbarone, and aclarubicin, which also have other significant mechanisms of action.\n\nCytotoxic antibiotics\nThe cytotoxic antibiotics are a varied group of drugs that have various mechanisms of action. The common theme that they share in their chemotherapy indication is that they interrupt cell division. The most important subgroup is the anthracyclines and the bleomycins; other prominent examples include mitomycin C and actinomycin.\nAmong the anthracyclines, doxorubicin and daunorubicin were the first, and were obtained from the bacterium Streptomyces peucetius. Derivatives of these compounds include epirubicin and idarubicin. Other clinically used drugs in the anthracycline group are pirarubicin, aclarubicin, and mitoxantrone. The mechanisms of anthracyclines include DNA intercalation (molecules insert between the two strands of DNA), generation of highly reactive free radicals that damage intercellular molecules and topoisomerase inhibition.\nActinomycin is a complex molecule that intercalates DNA and prevents RNA synthesis.\nBleomycin, a glycopeptide isolated from Streptomyces verticillus, also intercalates DNA, but produces free radicals that damage DNA. This occurs when bleomycin binds to a metal ion, becomes chemically reduced and reacts with oxygen.: 87 \nMitomycin is a cytotoxic antibiotic with the ability to alkylate DNA.\n\nDelivery\nMost chemotherapy is delivered intravenously, although a number of agents can be administered orally (e.g., melphalan, busulfan, capecitabine). According to a recent (2016) systematic review, oral therapies present additional challenges for patients and care teams to maintain and support adherence to treatment plans.\nThere are many intravenous methods of drug delivery, known as vascular access devices. These include the winged infusion device, peripheral venous catheter, midline catheter, peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC), central venous catheter and implantable port. The devices have different applications regarding duration of chemotherapy treatment, method of delivery and types of chemotherapeutic agent.: 94–95 \nDepending on the person, the cancer, the stage of cancer, the type of chemotherapy, and the dosage, intravenous chemotherapy may be given on either an inpatient or an outpatient basis. For continuous, frequent or prolonged intravenous chemotherapy administration, various systems may be surgically inserted into the vasculature to maintain access.: 113–118 Commonly used systems are the Hickman line, the Port-a-Cath, and the PICC line. These have a lower infection risk, are much less prone to phlebitis or extravasation, and eliminate the need for repeated insertion of peripheral cannulae.\nIsolated limb perfusion (often used in melanoma), or isolated infusion of chemotherapy into the liver or the lung have been used to treat some tumors. The main purpose of these approaches is to deliver a very high dose of chemotherapy to tumor sites without causing overwhelming systemic damage. These approaches can help control solitary or limited metastases, but they are by definition not systemic, and, therefore, do not treat distributed metastases or micrometastases.\nTopical chemotherapies, such as 5-fluorouracil, are used to treat some cases of non-melanoma skin cancer.\nIf the cancer has central nervous system involvement, or with meningeal disease, intrathecal chemotherapy may be administered.\n\nAdverse effects\nChemotherapeutic techniques have a range of side effects that depend on the type of medications used. The most common medications affect mainly the fast-dividing cells of the body, such as blood cells and the cells lining the mouth, stomach, and intestines. Chemotherapy-related toxicities can occur acutely after administration, within hours or days, or chronically, from weeks to years.: 265\n\nImmunosuppression and myelosuppression\nVirtually all chemotherapeutic regimens can cause depression of the immune system, often by paralysing the bone marrow and leading to a decrease of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.\nAnemia and thrombocytopenia may require blood transfusion. Neutropenia (a decrease of the neutrophil granulocyte count below 0.5 x 109/litre) can be improved with synthetic G-CSF (granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor, e.g., filgrastim, lenograstim, efbemalenograstim alfa).\nIn very severe myelosuppression, which occurs in some regimens, almost all the bone marrow stem cells (cells that produce white and red blood cells) are destroyed, meaning allogenic or autologous bone marrow cell transplants are necessary. (In autologous BMTs, cells are removed from the person before the treatment, multiplied and then re-injected afterward; in allogenic BMTs, the source is a donor.) However, some people still develop diseases because of this interference with bone marrow.\nAlthough people receiving chemotherapy are encouraged to wash their hands, avoid sick people, and take other infection-reducing steps, about 85% of infections are due to naturally occurring microorganisms in the person's own gastrointestinal tract (including oral cavity) and skin.: 130 This may manifest as systemic infections, such as sepsis, or as localized outbreaks, such as Herpes simplex, shingles, or other members of the Herpesviridea. The risk of illness and death can be reduced by taking common antibiotics such as quinolones or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole before any fever or sign of infection appears. Quinolones show effective prophylaxis mainly with hematological cancer. However, in general, for every five people who are immunosuppressed following chemotherapy who take an antibiotic, one fever can be prevented; for every 34 who take an antibiotic, one death can be prevented. Sometimes, chemotherapy treatments are postponed because the immune system is suppressed to a critically low level.\nIn Japan, the government has approved the use of some medicinal mushrooms like Trametes versicolor, to counteract depression of the immune system in people undergoing chemotherapy.\nTrilaciclib is an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 approved for the prevention of myelosuppression caused by chemotherapy. The drug is given before chemotherapy to protect bone marrow function.\n\nNeutropenic enterocolitis\nDue to immune system suppression, neutropenic enterocolitis (typhlitis) is a \"life-threatening gastrointestinal complication of chemotherapy.\" Typhlitis is an intestinal infection which may manifest itself through symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, a distended abdomen, fever, chills, or abdominal pain and tenderness.\nTyphlitis is a medical emergency. It has a very poor prognosis and is often fatal unless promptly recognized and aggressively treated. Successful treatment hinges on early diagnosis provided by a high index of suspicion and the use of CT scanning, nonoperative treatment for uncomplicated cases, and sometimes elective right hemicolectomy to prevent recurrence.\n\nGastrointestinal distress\nNausea, vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and constipation are common side-effects of chemotherapeutic medications that kill fast-dividing cells. Malnutrition and dehydration can result when the recipient does not eat or drink enough, or when the person vomits frequently, because of gastrointestinal damage. This can result in rapid weight loss, or occasionally in weight gain, if the person eats too much in an effort to allay nausea or heartburn. Weight gain can also be caused by some steroid medications. These side-effects can frequently be reduced or eliminated with antiemetic drugs. Low-certainty evidence also suggests that probiotics may have a preventative and treatment effect of diarrhoea related to chemotherapy alone and with radiotherapy. However, a high index of suspicion is appropriate, since diarrhoea and bloating are also symptoms of typhlitis, a very serious and potentially life-threatening medical emergency that requires immediate treatment.\n\nAnemia\nAnemia can be a combined outcome caused by myelosuppressive chemotherapy, and possible cancer-related causes such as bleeding, blood cell destruction (hemolysis), hereditary disease, kidney dysfunction, nutritional deficiencies or anemia of chronic disease. Treatments to mitigate anemia include hormones to boost blood production (erythropoietin), iron supplements, and blood transfusions. Myelosuppressive therapy can cause a tendency to bleed easily, leading to anemia. Medications that kill rapidly dividing cells or blood cells can reduce the number of platelets in the blood, which can result in bruises and bleeding. Extremely low platelet counts may be temporarily boosted through platelet transfusions and new drugs to increase platelet counts during chemotherapy are being developed. Sometimes, chemotherapy treatments are postponed to allow platelet counts to recover.\nFatigue may be a consequence of the cancer or its treatment, and can last for months to years after treatment. One physiological cause of fatigue is anemia, which can be caused by chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy, primary and metastatic disease or nutritional depletion. Aerobic exercise has been found to be beneficial in reducing fatigue in people with solid tumours.\n\nNausea and vomiting\nNausea and vomiting are two of the most feared cancer treatment-related side-effects for people with cancer and their families. In 1983, Coates et al. found that people receiving chemotherapy ranked nausea and vomiting as the first and second most severe side-effects, respectively. Up to 20% of people receiving highly emetogenic agents in this era postponed, or even refused potentially curative treatments. Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) are common with many treatments and some forms of cancer. Since the 1990s, several novel classes of antiemetics have been developed and commercialized, becoming a nearly universal standard in chemotherapy regimens, and helping to successfully manage these symptoms in many people. Effective mediation of these unpleasant and sometimes debilitating symptoms results in increased quality of life for the recipient and more efficient treatment cycles, due to less stoppage of treatment due to better tolerance and better overall health.\n\nHair loss\nHair loss (alopecia) can be caused by chemotherapy that kills rapidly dividing cells; other medications may cause hair to thin. These are most often temporary effects: hair usually starts to regrow a few weeks after the last treatment, but sometimes with a change in color, texture, thickness or style. Sometimes hair has a tendency to curl after regrowth, resulting in \"chemo curls.\" Severe hair loss occurs most often with drugs such as doxorubicin, daunorubicin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and etoposide. Permanent thinning or hair loss can result from some standard chemotherapy regimens.\nChemotherapy induced hair loss occurs by a non-androgenic mechanism, and can manifest as alopecia totalis, telogen effluvium, or less often alopecia areata. It is usually associated with systemic treatment due to the high mitotic rate of hair follicles, and more reversible than androgenic hair loss, although permanent cases can occur. Chemotherapy induces hair loss in women more often than men.\nScalp cooling offers a means of preventing both permanent and temporary hair loss; however, concerns about this method have been raised.\n\nSecondary neoplasm\nDevelopment of secondary neoplasia after successful chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment can occur. The most common secondary neoplasm is secondary acute myeloid leukemia, which develops primarily after treatment with alkylating agents or topoisomerase inhibitors. Survivors of childhood cancer are more than 13 times as likely to get a secondary neoplasm during the 30 years after treatment than the general population. Not all of this increase can be attributed to chemotherapy.\n\nInfertility\nSome types of chemotherapy are gonadotoxic and may cause infertility. Chemotherapies with high risk include procarbazine and other alkylating drugs such as cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, busulfan, melphalan, chlorambucil, and chlormethine. Drugs with medium risk include doxorubicin and platinum analogs such as cisplatin and carboplatin. On the other hand, therapies with low risk of gonadotoxicity include plant derivatives such as vincristine and vinblastine, antibiotics such as bleomycin and dactinomycin, and antimetabolites such as methotrexate, mercaptopurine, and 5-fluorouracil.\nFemale infertility by chemotherapy appears to be secondary to premature ovarian failure by loss of primordial follicles. This loss is not necessarily a direct effect of the chemotherapeutic agents, but could be due to an increased rate of growth initiation to replace damaged developing follicles.\nPeople may choose between several methods of fertility preservation prior to chemotherapy, including cryopreservation of semen, ovarian tissue, oocytes, or embryos. As more than half of cancer patients are elderly, this adverse effect is only relevant for a minority of patients. A study in France between 1999 and 2011 came to the result that embryo freezing before administration of gonadotoxic agents to females caused a delay of treatment in 34% of cases, and a live birth in 27% of surviving cases who wanted to become pregnant, with the follow-up time varying between 1 and 13 years.\nPotential protective or attenuating agents include GnRH analogs, where several studies have shown a protective effect in vivo in humans, but some studies show no such effect. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) has shown similar effect, but its mechanism of inhibiting the sphingomyelin apoptotic pathway may also interfere with the apoptosis action of chemotherapy drugs.\nIn chemotherapy as a conditioning regimen in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, a study of people conditioned with cyclophosphamide alone for severe aplastic anemia came to the result that ovarian recovery occurred in all women younger than 26 years at time of transplantation, but only in five of 16 women older than 26 years.\n\nTeratogenicity\nChemotherapy is teratogenic during pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, to the extent that abortion usually is recommended if pregnancy in this period is found during chemotherapy. Second- and third-trimester exposure does not usually increase the teratogenic risk and adverse effects on cognitive development, but it may increase the risk of various complications of pregnancy and fetal myelosuppression. \nFemale patients of reproductive potential should use effective contraception during chemotherapy and for a few months after the last dose (e.g. 6 month for doxorubicin).\nIn males previously having undergone chemotherapy or radiotherapy, there appears to be no increase in genetic defects or congenital malformations in their children conceived after therapy. The use of assisted reproductive technologies and micromanipulation techniques might increase this risk. In females previously having undergone chemotherapy, miscarriage and congenital malformations are not increased in subsequent conceptions. However, when in vitro fertilization and embryo cryopreservation is practised between or shortly after treatment, possible genetic risks to the growing oocytes exist, and hence it has been recommended that the babies be screened.\n\nPeripheral neuropathy\nBetween 30 and 40 percent of people undergoing chemotherapy experience chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a progressive, enduring, and often irreversible condition, causing pain, tingling, numbness and sensitivity to cold, beginning in the hands and feet and sometimes progressing to the arms and legs. Chemotherapy drugs associated with CIPN include thalidomide, epothilones, vinca alkaloids, taxanes, proteasome inhibitors, and the platinum-based drugs. Whether CIPN arises, and to what degree, is determined by the choice of drug, duration of use, the total amount consumed and whether the person already has peripheral neuropathy. Though the symptoms are mainly sensory, in some cases motor nerves and the autonomic nervous system are affected. CIPN often follows the first chemotherapy dose and increases in severity as treatment continues, but this progression usually levels off at completion of treatment. The platinum-based drugs are the exception; with these drugs, sensation may continue to deteriorate for several months after the end of treatment. Some CIPN appears to be irreversible. Pain can often be managed with drug or other treatment but the numbness is usually resistant to treatment.\n\nCognitive impairment\nSome people receiving chemotherapy report fatigue or non-specific neurocognitive problems, such as an inability to concentrate; this is sometimes called post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment, referred to as \"chemo brain\" in popular and social media.\n\nTumor lysis syndrome\nIn particularly large tumors and cancers with high white cell counts, such as lymphomas, teratomas, and some leukemias, some people develop tumor lysis syndrome. The rapid breakdown of cancer cells causes the release of chemicals from the inside of the cells. Following this, high levels of uric acid, potassium and phosphate are found in the blood. High levels of phosphate induce secondary hypoparathyroidism, resulting in low levels of calcium in the blood. This causes kidney damage and the high levels of potassium can cause cardiac arrhythmia. Although prophylaxis is available and is often initiated in people with large tumors, this is a dangerous side-effect that can lead to death if left untreated.: 202\n\nOrgan damage\nCardiotoxicity (heart damage) is especially prominent with the use of anthracycline drugs (doxorubicin, epirubicin, idarubicin, and liposomal doxorubicin). The cause of this is most likely due to the production of free radicals in the cell and subsequent DNA damage. Other chemotherapeutic agents that cause cardiotoxicity, but at a lower incidence, are cyclophosphamide, docetaxel and clofarabine.\nHepatotoxicity (liver damage) can be caused by many cytotoxic drugs. The susceptibility of an individual to liver damage can be altered by other factors such as the cancer itself, viral hepatitis, immunosuppression and nutritional deficiency. The liver damage can consist of damage to liver cells, hepatic sinusoidal syndrome (obstruction of the veins in the liver), cholestasis (where bile does not flow from the liver to the intestine) and liver fibrosis.\nNephrotoxicity (kidney damage) can be caused by tumor lysis syndrome and also due direct effects of drug clearance by the kidneys. Different drugs will affect different parts of the kidney and the toxicity may be asymptomatic (only seen on blood or urine tests) or may cause acute kidney injury.\n\nOtotoxicity (damage to the inner ear) is a common side effect of platinum based drugs that can produce symptoms such as dizziness and vertigo. Children treated with platinum analogues have been found to be at risk for developing hearing loss.\n\nOther side-effects\nLess common side-effects include red skin (erythema), dry skin, damaged fingernails, a dry mouth (xerostomia), water retention, and sexual impotence. Some medications can trigger allergic or pseudoallergic reactions.\nSpecific chemotherapeutic agents are associated with organ-specific toxicities, including cardiovascular disease (e.g., doxorubicin), interstitial lung disease (e.g., bleomycin) and occasionally secondary neoplasm (e.g., MOPP therapy for Hodgkin's disease).\nHand-foot syndrome is another side effect to cytotoxic chemotherapy.\nNutritional problems are also frequently seen in cancer patients at diagnosis and through chemotherapy treatment. Research suggests that in children and young people undergoing cancer treatment, parenteral nutrition may help with this leading to weight gain and increased calorie and protein intake, when compared to enteral nutrition.\n\nLimitations\nChemotherapy does not always work, and even when it is useful, it may not completely destroy the cancer. People frequently fail to understand its limitations. In one study of people who had been newly diagnosed with incurable, stage 4 cancer, more than two-thirds of people with lung cancer and more than four-fifths of people with colorectal cancer still believed that chemotherapy was likely to cure their cancer.\nThe blood–brain barrier poses an obstacle to delivery of chemotherapy to the brain. This is because the brain has an extensive system in place to protect it from harmful chemicals. Drug transporters can pump out drugs from the brain and brain's blood vessel cells into the cerebrospinal fluid and blood circulation. These transporters pump out most chemotherapy drugs, which reduces their efficacy for treatment of brain tumors. Only small lipophilic alkylating agents such as lomustine or temozolomide are able to cross this blood–brain barrier.\nBlood vessels in tumors are very different from those seen in normal tissues. As a tumor grows, tumor cells furthest away from the blood vessels become low in oxygen (hypoxic). To counteract this they then signal for new blood vessels to grow. The newly formed tumor vasculature is poorly formed and does not deliver an adequate blood supply to all areas of the tumor. This leads to issues with drug delivery because many drugs will be delivered to the tumor by the circulatory system.\n\nResistance\nResistance is a major cause of treatment failure in chemotherapeutic drugs. There are a few possible causes of resistance in cancer, one of which is the presence of small pumps on the surface of cancer cells that actively move chemotherapy from inside the cell to the outside. Cancer cells produce high amounts of these pumps, known as p-glycoprotein, in order to protect themselves from chemotherapeutics. Research on p-glycoprotein and other such chemotherapy efflux pumps is currently ongoing. Medications to inhibit the function of p-glycoprotein are undergoing investigation, but due to toxicities and interactions with anti-cancer drugs their development has been difficult. Another mechanism of resistance is gene amplification, a process in which multiple copies of a gene are produced by cancer cells. This overcomes the effect of drugs that reduce the expression of genes involved in replication. With more copies of the gene, the drug can not prevent all expression of the gene and therefore the cell can restore its proliferative ability. Cancer cells can also cause defects in the cellular pathways of apoptosis (programmed cell death). As most chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells in this manner, defective apoptosis allows survival of these cells, making them resistant. Many chemotherapy drugs also cause DNA damage, which can be repaired by enzymes in the cell that carry out DNA repair. Upregulation of these genes can overcome the DNA damage and prevent the induction of apoptosis. Mutations in genes that produce drug target proteins, such as tubulin, can occur which prevent the drugs from binding to the protein, leading to resistance to these types of drugs. Drugs used in chemotherapy can induce cell stress, which can kill a cancer cell; however, under certain conditions, cells stress can induce changes in gene expression that enables resistance to several types of drugs. In lung cancer, the transcription factor NFκB is thought to play a role in resistance to chemotherapy, via inflammatory pathways.\n\nCytotoxics and targeted therapies\nTargeted therapies are a relatively new class of cancer drugs that can overcome many of the issues seen with the use of cytotoxics. They are divided into two groups: small molecule and antibodies. The massive toxicity seen with the use of cytotoxics is due to the lack of cell specificity of the drugs. They will kill any rapidly dividing cell, tumor or normal. Targeted therapies are designed to affect cellular proteins or processes that are utilised by the cancer cells. This allows a high dose to cancer tissues with a relatively low dose to other tissues. Although the side effects are often less severe than that seen of cytotoxic chemotherapeutics, life-threatening effects can occur. Initially, the targeted therapeutics were supposed to be solely selective for one protein. Now it is clear that there is often a range of protein targets that the drug can bind. An example target for targeted therapy is the BCR-ABL1 protein produced from the Philadelphia chromosome, a genetic lesion found commonly in chronic myelogenous leukemia and in some patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This fusion protein has enzyme activity that can be inhibited by imatinib, a small molecule drug.\n\nMechanism of action\nCancer is the uncontrolled growth of cells coupled with malignant behaviour: invasion and metastasis (among other features). It is caused by the interaction between genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. These factors lead to accumulations of genetic mutations in oncogenes (genes that control the growth rate of cells) and tumor suppressor genes (genes that help to prevent cancer), which gives cancer cells their malignant characteristics, such as uncontrolled growth.: 93–94 \nIn the broad sense, most chemotherapeutic drugs work by impairing mitosis (cell division), effectively targeting fast-dividing cells. As these drugs cause damage to cells, they are termed cytotoxic. They prevent mitosis by various mechanisms including damaging DNA and inhibition of the cellular machinery involved in cell division. One theory as to why these drugs kill cancer cells is that they induce a programmed form of cell death known as apoptosis.\nAs chemotherapy affects cell division, tumors with high growth rates (such as acute myelogenous leukemia and the aggressive lymphomas, including Hodgkin's disease) are more sensitive to chemotherapy, as a larger proportion of the targeted cells are undergoing cell division at any time. Malignancies with slower growth rates, such as indolent lymphomas, tend to respond to chemotherapy much more modestly. Heterogeneic tumours may also display varying sensitivities to chemotherapy agents, depending on the subclonal populations within the tumor.\nCells from the immune system also make crucial contributions to the antitumor effects of chemotherapy. For example, the chemotherapeutic drugs oxaliplatin and cyclophosphamide can cause tumor cells to die in a way that is detectable by the immune system (called immunogenic cell death), which mobilizes immune cells with antitumor functions. Chemotherapeutic drugs that cause cancer immunogenic tumor cell death can make unresponsive tumors sensitive to immune checkpoint therapy.\n\nOther uses\nSome chemotherapy drugs are used in diseases other than cancer, such as in autoimmune disorders, and noncancerous plasma cell dyscrasia. In some cases they are often used at lower doses, which means that the side effects are minimized, while in other cases doses similar to ones used to treat cancer are used. Methotrexate is used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis and multiple sclerosis. The anti-inflammatory response seen in RA is thought to be due to increases in adenosine, which causes immunosuppression; effects on immuno-regulatory cyclooxygenase-2 enzyme pathways; reduction in pro-inflammatory cytokines; and anti-proliferative properties. Although methotrexate is used to treat both multiple sclerosis and ankylosing spondylitis, its efficacy in these diseases is still uncertain. Cyclophosphamide is sometimes used to treat lupus nephritis, a common symptom of systemic lupus erythematosus. Dexamethasone along with either bortezomib or melphalan is commonly used as a treatment for AL amyloidosis. Recently, bortezomid in combination with cyclophosphamide and dexamethasone has also shown promise as a treatment for AL amyloidosis. Other drugs used to treat myeloma such as lenalidomide have shown promise in treating AL amyloidosis.\nChemotherapy drugs are also used in conditioning regimens prior to bone marrow transplant (hematopoietic stem cell transplant). Conditioning regimens are used to suppress the recipient's immune system in order to allow a transplant to engraft. Cyclophosphamide is a common cytotoxic drug used in this manner and is often used in conjunction with total body irradiation. Chemotherapeutic drugs may be used at high doses to permanently remove the recipient's bone marrow cells (myeloablative conditioning) or at lower doses that will prevent permanent bone marrow loss (non-myeloablative and reduced intensity conditioning). When used in non-cancer setting, the treatment is still called \"chemotherapy\", and is often done in the same treatment centers used for people with cancer.\n\nOccupational exposure and safe handling\nIn the 1970s, antineoplastic (chemotherapy) drugs were identified as hazardous, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) has since then introduced the concept of hazardous drugs after publishing a recommendation in 1983 regarding handling hazardous drugs. The adaptation of federal regulations came when the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) first released its guidelines in 1986 and then updated them in 1996, 1999, and, most recently, 2006.\nThe National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been conducting an assessment in the workplace since then regarding these drugs. Occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs has been linked to multiple health effects, including infertility and possible carcinogenic effects. A few cases have been reported by the NIOSH alert report, such as one in which a female pharmacist was diagnosed with papillary transitional cell carcinoma. Twelve years before the pharmacist was diagnosed with the condition, she had worked for 20 months in a hospital where she was responsible for preparing multiple antineoplastic drugs. The pharmacist did not have any other risk factor for cancer, and therefore, her cancer was attributed to the exposure to the antineoplastic drugs, although a cause-and-effect relationship has not been established in the literature. Another case happened when a malfunction in biosafety cabinetry is believed to have exposed nursing personnel to antineoplastic drugs. Investigations revealed evidence of genotoxic biomarkers two and nine months after that exposure.\n\nRoutes of exposure\nAntineoplastic drugs are usually given through intravenous, intramuscular, intrathecal, or subcutaneous administration. In most cases, before the medication is administered to the patient, it needs to be prepared and handled by several workers. Any worker who is involved in handling, preparing, or administering the drugs, or with cleaning objects that have come into contact with antineoplastic drugs, is potentially exposed to hazardous drugs. Health care workers are exposed to drugs in different circumstances, such as when pharmacists and pharmacy technicians prepare and handle antineoplastic drugs and when nurses and physicians administer the drugs to patients. Additionally, those who are responsible for disposing antineoplastic drugs in health care facilities are also at risk of exposure.\nDermal exposure is thought to be the main route of exposure due to the fact that significant amounts of the antineoplastic agents have been found in the gloves worn by healthcare workers who prepare, handle, and administer the agents. Another noteworthy route of exposure is inhalation of the drugs' vapors. Multiple studies have investigated inhalation as a route of exposure, and although air sampling has not shown any dangerous levels, it is still a potential route of exposure. Ingestion by hand to mouth is a route of exposure that is less likely compared to others because of the enforced hygienic standard in the health institutions. However, it is still a potential route, especially in the workplace, outside of a health institute. One can also be exposed to these hazardous drugs through injection by needle sticks. Research conducted in this area has established that occupational exposure occurs by examining evidence in multiple urine samples from health care workers.\n\nHazards\nHazardous drugs expose health care workers to serious health risks. Many studies show that antineoplastic drugs could have many side effects on the reproductive system, such as fetal loss, congenital malformation, and infertility. Health care workers who are exposed to antineoplastic drugs on many occasions have adverse reproductive outcomes such as spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, and congenital malformations. Moreover, studies have shown that exposure to these drugs leads to menstrual cycle irregularities. Antineoplastic drugs may also increase the risk of learning disabilities among children of health care workers who are exposed to these hazardous substances.\nMoreover, these drugs have carcinogenic effects. In the past five decades, multiple studies have shown the carcinogenic effects of exposure to antineoplastic drugs. Similarly, there have been research studies that linked alkylating agents with humans developing leukemias. Studies have reported elevated risk of breast cancer, nonmelanoma skin cancer, and cancer of the rectum among nurses who are exposed to these drugs. Other investigations revealed that there is a potential genotoxic effect from anti-neoplastic drugs to workers in health care settings.\n\nSafe handling in health care settings\nAs of 2018, there were no occupational exposure limits set for antineoplastic drugs, i.e., OSHA or the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) have not set workplace safety guidelines.\n\nPreparation\nNIOSH recommends using a ventilated cabinet that is designed to decrease worker exposure. Additionally, it recommends training of all staff, the use of cabinets, implementing an initial evaluation of the technique of the safety program, and wearing protective gloves and gowns when opening drug packaging, handling vials, or labeling. When wearing personal protective equipment, one should inspect gloves for physical defects before use and always wear double gloves and protective gowns. Health care workers are also required to wash their hands with water and soap before and after working with antineoplastic drugs, change gloves every 30 minutes or whenever punctured, and discard them immediately in a chemotherapy waste container.\nThe gowns used should be disposable gowns made of polyethylene-coated polypropylene. When wearing gowns, individuals should make sure that the gowns are closed and have long sleeves. When preparation is done, the final product should be completely sealed in a plastic bag.\nThe health care worker should also wipe all waste containers inside the ventilated cabinet before removing them from the cabinet. Finally, workers should remove all protective wear and put them in a bag for their disposal inside the ventilated cabinet.\n\nAdministration\nDrugs should only be administered using protective medical devices such as needle lists and closed systems and techniques such as priming of IV tubing by pharmacy personnel inside a ventilated cabinet. Workers should always wear personal protective equipment such as double gloves, goggles, and protective gowns when opening the outer bag and assembling the delivery system to deliver the drug to the patient, and when disposing of all material used in the administration of the drugs.\nHospital workers should never remove tubing from an IV bag that contains an antineoplastic drug, and when disconnecting the tubing in the system, they should make sure the tubing has been thoroughly flushed. After removing the IV bag, the workers should place it together with other disposable items directly in the yellow chemotherapy waste container with the lid closed. Protective equipment should be removed and put into a disposable chemotherapy waste container. After this has been done, one should double bag the chemotherapy waste before or after removing one's inner gloves. Moreover, one must always wash one's hands with soap and water before leaving the drug administration site.\n\nEmployee training\nAll employees whose jobs in health care facilities expose them to hazardous drugs must receive training. Training should include shipping and receiving personnel, housekeepers, pharmacists, assistants, and all individuals involved in the transportation and storage of antineoplastic drugs. These individuals should receive information and training to inform them of the hazards of the drugs present in their areas of work. They should be informed and trained on operations and procedures in their work areas where they can encounter hazards, different methods used to detect the presence of hazardous drugs and how the hazards are released, and the physical and health hazards of the drugs, including their reproductive and carcinogenic hazard potential. Additionally, they should be informed and trained on the measures they should take to avoid and protect themselves from these hazards. This information ought to be provided when health care workers come into contact with the drugs, that is, perform the initial assignment in a work area with hazardous drugs. Moreover, training should also be provided when new hazards emerge as well as when new drugs, procedures, or equipment are introduced.\n\nHousekeeping and waste disposal\nWhen performing cleaning and decontaminating the work area where antineoplastic drugs are used, one should make sure that there is sufficient ventilation to prevent the buildup of airborne drug concentrations. When cleaning the work surface, hospital workers should use deactivation and cleaning agents before and after each activity as well as at the end of their shifts. Cleaning should always be done using double protective gloves and disposable gowns. After employees finish up cleaning, they should dispose of the items used in the activity in a yellow chemotherapy waste container while still wearing protective gloves. After removing the gloves, they should thoroughly wash their hands with soap and water. Anything that comes into contact or has a trace of the antineoplastic drugs, such as needles, empty vials, syringes, gowns, and gloves, should be put in the chemotherapy waste container.\n\nSpill control\nA written policy needs to be in place in case of a spill of antineoplastic products. The policy should address the possibility of various sizes of spills as well as the procedure and personal protective equipment required for each size. A trained worker should handle a large spill and always dispose of all cleanup materials in the chemical waste container according to EPA regulations, not in a yellow chemotherapy waste container.\n\nOccupational monitoring\nA medical surveillance program must be established. In case of exposure, occupational health professionals need to ask for a detailed history and do a thorough physical exam. They should test the urine of the potentially exposed worker by doing a urine dipstick or microscopic examination, mainly looking for blood, as several antineoplastic drugs are known to cause bladder damage.\nUrinary mutagenicity is a marker of exposure to antineoplastic drugs that was first used by Falck and colleagues in 1979 and uses bacterial mutagenicity assays. Apart from being nonspecific, the test can be influenced by extraneous factors such as dietary intake and smoking and is, therefore, used sparingly. However, the test played a significant role in changing the use of horizontal flow cabinets to vertical flow biological safety cabinets during the preparation of antineoplastic drugs because the former exposed health care workers to high levels of drugs. This changed the handling of drugs and effectively reduced workers' exposure to antineoplastic drugs.\nBiomarkers of exposure to antineoplastic drugs commonly include urinary platinum, methotrexate, urinary cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide, and urinary metabolite of 5-fluorouracil. In addition to this, there are other drugs used to measure the drugs directly in the urine, although they are rarely used. A measurement of these drugs directly in one's urine is a sign of high exposure levels and that an uptake of the drugs is happening either through inhalation or dermally.\n\nAvailable agents\nThere is an extensive list of antineoplastic agents. Several classification schemes have been used to subdivide the medicines used for cancer into several different types.\n\nHistory\nThe first use of small-molecule drugs to treat cancer was in the early 20th century, although the specific chemicals first used were not originally intended for that purpose. Mustard gas was used as a chemical warfare agent during World War I and was discovered to be a potent suppressor of hematopoiesis (blood production). A similar family of compounds known as nitrogen mustards were studied further during World War II at the Yale School of Medicine. It was reasoned that an agent that damaged the rapidly growing white blood cells might have a similar effect on cancer. Therefore, in December 1942, several people with advanced lymphomas (cancers of the lymphatic system and lymph nodes) were given the drug by vein, rather than by breathing the irritating gas. Their improvement, although temporary, was remarkable. Concurrently, during a military operation in World War II, following a German air raid on the Italian harbour of Bari, several hundred people were accidentally exposed to mustard gas, which had been transported there by the Allied forces to prepare for possible retaliation in the event of German use of chemical warfare. The survivors were later found to have very low white blood cell counts. After WWII was over and the reports declassified, the experiences converged and led researchers to look for other substances that might have similar effects against cancer. The first chemotherapy drug to be developed from this line of research was mustine. Since then, many other drugs have been developed to treat cancer, and drug development has exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry, although the principles and limitations of chemotherapy discovered by the early researchers still apply.\n\nThe term chemotherapy\nThe word chemotherapy without a modifier usually refers to cancer treatment, but its historical meaning was broader. The term was coined in the early 1900s by Paul Ehrlich as meaning any use of chemicals to treat any disease (chemo- + -therapy), such as the use of antibiotics (antibacterial chemotherapy). Ehrlich was not optimistic that effective chemotherapy drugs would be found for the treatment of cancer. The first modern chemotherapeutic agent was arsphenamine, an arsenic compound discovered in 1907 and used to treat syphilis. This was later followed by sulfonamides (sulfa drugs) and penicillin. In today's usage, the sense \"any treatment of disease with drugs\" is often expressed with the word pharmacotherapy. In terms of metaphorical language, 'chemotherapy' can be paralleled with the idea of a 'storm', as both can cause distress but afterwards may have a healing/cleaning effect.\n\nResearch\nTargeted delivery vehicles\nSpecially targeted delivery vehicles aim to increase effective levels of chemotherapy for tumor cells while reducing effective levels for other cells. This should result in an increased tumor kill or reduced toxicity or both.\n\nAntibody-drug conjugates\nAntibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) comprise an antibody, drug and a linker between them. The antibody will be targeted at a preferentially expressed protein in the tumour cells (known as a tumor antigen) or on cells that the tumor can utilise, such as blood vessel endothelial cells. They bind to the tumor antigen and are internalised, where the linker releases the drug into the cell. These specially targeted delivery vehicles vary in their stability, selectivity, and choice of target, but, in essence, they all aim to increase the maximum effective dose that can be delivered to the tumor cells. Reduced systemic toxicity means that they can also be used in people who are sicker and that they can carry new chemotherapeutic agents that would have been far too toxic to deliver via traditional systemic approaches.\nThe first approved drug of this type was gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg), released by Wyeth (now Pfizer). The drug was approved to treat acute myeloid leukemia. Two other drugs, trastuzumab emtansine and brentuximab vedotin, are both in late clinical trials, and the latter has been granted accelerated approval for the treatment of refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma and systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma.\n\nNanoparticles\nNanoparticles are 1–1000 nanometer (nm) sized particles that can promote tumor selectivity and aid in delivering low-solubility drugs. Nanoparticles can be targeted passively or actively. Passive targeting exploits the difference between tumor blood vessels and normal blood vessels. Blood vessels in tumors are \"leaky\" because they have gaps from 200 to 2000 nm, which allow nanoparticles to escape into the tumor. Active targeting uses biological molecules (antibodies, proteins, DNA and receptor ligands) to preferentially target the nanoparticles to the tumor cells. There are many types of nanoparticle delivery systems, such as silica, polymers, liposomes and magnetic particles. Nanoparticles made of magnetic material can also be used to concentrate agents at tumor sites using an externally applied magnetic field. They have emerged as a useful vehicle in magnetic drug delivery for poorly soluble agents such as paclitaxel.\n\nElectrochemotherapy\nElectrochemotherapy is the combined treatment in which injection of a chemotherapeutic drug is followed by application of high-voltage electric pulses locally to the tumor. The treatment enables the chemotherapeutic drugs, which otherwise cannot or hardly go through the membrane of cells (such as bleomycin and cisplatin), to enter the cancer cells. Hence, greater effectiveness of antitumor treatment is achieved.\nClinical electrochemotherapy has been successfully used for treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors irrespective of their histological origin. The method has been reported as safe, simple and highly effective in all reports on clinical use of electrochemotherapy. According to the ESOPE project (European Standard Operating Procedures of Electrochemotherapy), the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for electrochemotherapy were prepared, based on the experience of the leading European cancer centres on electrochemotherapy. Recently, new electrochemotherapy modalities have been developed for treatment of internal tumors using surgical procedures, endoscopic routes or percutaneous approaches to gain access to the treatment area.\n\nHyperthermia therapy\nHyperthermia therapy is heat treatment for cancer that can be a powerful tool when used in combination with chemotherapy (thermochemotherapy) or radiation for the control of a variety of cancers. The heat can be applied locally to the tumor site, which will dilate blood vessels to the tumor, allowing more chemotherapeutic medication to enter the tumor. Additionally, the tumor cell membrane will become more porous, further allowing more of the chemotherapeutic medicine to enter the tumor cell.\nHyperthermia has also been shown to help prevent or reverse \"chemo-resistance.\" Chemotherapy resistance sometimes develops over time as the tumors adapt and can overcome the toxicity of the chemo medication. \"Overcoming chemoresistance has been extensively studied within the past, especially using CDDP-resistant cells. In regard to the potential benefit that drug-resistant cells can be recruited for effective therapy by combining chemotherapy with hyperthermia, it was important to show that chemoresistance against several anticancer drugs (e.g. mitomycin C, anthracyclines, BCNU, melphalan) including CDDP could be reversed at least partially by the addition of heat.\n\nOther animals\nChemotherapy is used in veterinary medicine similar to how it is used in human medicine.\n\nSee also\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nChemotherapy, American Cancer Society\nHazardous Drug Exposures in Health Care, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health\nNIOSH List of Antineoplastic and Other Hazardous Drugs in Healthcare Settings, 2016, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health\nWikiversity page for the International Ototoxicity Management Group: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/International_Ototoxicity_Management_Group_(IOMG)","title":"Chemotherapy"},{"idx":4,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Mustard gas or sulfur mustard are names commonly used for the organosulfur chemical compound bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, which has the chemical structure S(CH2CH2Cl)2, as well as other species. In the wider sense, compounds with the substituents −SCH2CH2X or −N(CH2CH2X)2 are known as sulfur mustards or nitrogen mustards, respectively, where X = Cl or Br. Such compounds are potent alkylating agents, making mustard gas acutely and severely toxic. Mustard gas is a carcinogen. There is no preventative agent against mustard gas, with protection depending entirely on skin and airways protection, and no antidote exists for mustard poisoning.\nAlso known as mustard agents, this family of compounds comprises infamous cytotoxins and blister agents with a long history of use as chemical weapons. The name mustard gas is technically incorrect; the substances, when dispersed, are often not gases but a fine mist of liquid droplets that can be readily absorbed through the skin and by inhalation. The skin can be affected by contact with either the liquid or vapor. The rate of penetration into skin is proportional to dose, temperature and humidity. \nSulfur mustards are viscous liquids at room temperature and have an odor resembling mustard plants, garlic, or horseradish, hence the name. When pure, they are colorless, but when used in impure forms, such as in warfare, they are usually yellow-brown. Mustard gases form blisters on exposed skin and in the lungs, often resulting in prolonged illness ending in death.\n\nHistory as chemical weapons\nSulfur mustard is a type of chemical warfare agent. As a chemical weapon, mustard gas was first used in World War I, and has been used in several armed conflicts since then, including the Iran–Iraq War, resulting in more than 100,000 casualties. Sulfur-based and nitrogen-based mustard agents are regulated under Schedule 1 of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, as substances with few uses other than in chemical warfare. Mustard agents can be deployed by means of artillery shells, aerial bombs, rockets, or by spraying from aircraft.\n\nAdverse health effects\nMustard gases have powerful blistering effects on victims. They are also carcinogenic and mutagenic alkylating agents. Their high lipophilicity accelerates their absorption into the body. Because mustard agents often do not elicit immediate symptoms, contaminated areas may appear normal. Within 24 hours of exposure, victims experience intense itching and skin irritation. If this irritation goes untreated, blisters filled with pus can form wherever the agent contacted the skin. As chemical burns, these are severely debilitating. \nIf the victim's eyes were exposed, then they become sore, starting with conjunctivitis (also known as pink eye), after which the eyelids swell, resulting in temporary blindness. Extreme ocular exposure to mustard gas vapors may result in corneal ulceration, anterior chamber scarring, and neovascularization. In these severe and infrequent cases, corneal transplantation has been used as a treatment option. Miosis, when the pupil constricts more than usual, may also occur, which may be the result of the cholinomimetic activity of mustard. If inhaled in high concentrations, mustard agents cause bleeding and blistering within the respiratory system, damaging mucous membranes and causing pulmonary edema. Depending on the level of contamination, mustard agent burns can vary between first and second degree burns. They can also be as severe, disfiguring, and dangerous as third degree burns. Some 80% of sulfur mustard in contact with the skin evaporates, while 10% stays in the skin and 10% is absorbed and circulated in the blood.\nThe carcinogenic and mutagenic effects of exposure to mustard gas increase the risk of developing cancer later in life. In a study of patients 25 years after wartime exposure to chemical weaponry, c-DNA microarray profiling indicated that 122 genes were significantly mutated in the lungs and airways of mustard gas victims. Those genes all correspond to functions commonly affected by mustard gas exposure, including apoptosis, inflammation, and stress responses. The long-term ocular complications include burning, tearing, itching, photophobia, presbyopia, pain, and foreign-body sensations.\n\nMedical management\nIn a rinse-wipe-rinse sequence, skin is decontaminated of mustard gas by washing with liquid soap and water, or an absorbent powder. The eyes should be thoroughly rinsed using saline or clean water. A topical analgesic is used to relieve skin pain during decontamination.\nThe blistering effects of mustard gas can be neutralized by decontamination solutions such as \"DS2\" (2% NaOH, 70% diethylenetriamine, 28% 2-methoxyethanol). For skin lesions, topical treatments, such as calamine lotion, steroids, and oral antihistamines are used to relieve itching. Larger blisters are irrigated repeatedly with saline or soapy water, then treated with an antibiotic and petroleum gauze.\nMustard agent burns do not heal quickly and (as with other types of burns) present a risk of sepsis caused by pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The mechanisms behind mustard gas's effect on endothelial cells are still being studied, but recent studies have shown that high levels of exposure can induce high rates of both necrosis and apoptosis. In vitro tests have shown that at low concentrations of mustard gas, where apoptosis is the predominant result of exposure, pretreatment with 50 mM N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) was able to decrease the rate of apoptosis. NAC protects actin filaments from reorganization by mustard gas, demonstrating that actin filaments play a large role in the severe burns observed in victims.\nA British nurse treating soldiers with mustard agent burns during World War I commented:\n\nThey cannot be bandaged or touched. We cover them with a tent of propped-up sheets. Gas burns must be agonizing because usually the other cases do not complain, even with the worst wounds, but gas cases are invariably beyond endurance and they cannot help crying out.\n\nMechanism of cellular toxicity\nSulfur mustards readily eliminate chloride ions by intramolecular nucleophilic substitution to form cyclic sulfonium ions. These very reactive intermediates tend to permanently alkylate nucleotides in DNA strands, which can prevent cellular division, leading to programmed cell death. Alternatively, if cell death is not immediate, the damaged DNA can lead to the development of cancer. Oxidative stress would be another pathology involved in mustard gas toxicity.\nIn the wider sense, compounds with the structural element BC2H4X, where X is any leaving group and B is a Lewis base, are known as mustards. Such compounds can form cyclic \"onium\" ions (sulfonium, ammonium, etc.) that are good alkylating agents. Other such compounds are bis(2-haloethyl)ethers (oxygen mustards), the (2-haloethyl)amines (nitrogen mustards), and sesquimustard, which has two α-chloroethyl thioether groups (ClC2H4S−) connected by an ethylene bridge (−C2H4−). These compounds have a similar ability to alkylate DNA, but their physical properties vary.\n\nFormulations\nIn its history, various types and mixtures of mustard gas have been employed. These include:\n\nH – Also known as HS (\"Hun Stuff\") or Levinstein mustard. This is named after the inventor of the \"quick but dirty\" Levinstein Process for manufacture, reacting dry ethylene with disulfur dichloride under controlled conditions. Undistilled mustard gas contains 20–30% impurities, which means it does not store as well as HD. Also, as it decomposes, it increases in vapor pressure, making the munition it is contained in likely to split, especially along a seam, releasing the agent to the atmosphere.\nHD – Codenamed Pyro by the British, and Distilled Mustard by the US. Distilled mustard of 95% or higher purity. The term \"mustard gas\" usually refers to this variety of mustard.\nHT – Codenamed Runcol by the British, and Mustard T- mixture by the US. A mixture of 60% HD mustard and 40% O-mustard, a related vesicant with lower freezing point, lower volatility and similar vesicant characteristics.\nHL – A blend of distilled mustard (HD) and lewisite (L), originally intended for use in winter conditions due to its lower freezing point compared to the pure substances. The lewisite component of HL was used as a form of antifreeze.\nHQ – A blend of distilled mustard (HD) and sesquimustard (Q) (Gates and Moore 1946).\nYellow Cross – any of several blends containing sulfur mustard and sometimes arsine agents, along with solvents and other additives.\n\nCommonly-stockpiled mustard agents (class)\nHistory\nDevelopment\nMustard gases were possibly developed as early as 1822 by César-Mansuète Despretz (1798–1863). Despretz described the reaction of sulfur dichloride and ethylene but never made mention of any irritating properties of the reaction product. In 1854, another French chemist, Alfred Riche (1829–1908), repeated this procedure, also without describing any adverse physiological properties. In 1860, the British scientist Frederick Guthrie synthesized and characterized the mustard agent compound and noted its irritating properties, especially in tasting. Also in 1860, chemist Albert Niemann, known as a pioneer in cocaine chemistry, repeated the reaction, and recorded blister-forming properties. In 1886, Viktor Meyer published a paper describing a synthesis that produced good yields. He combined 2-chloroethanol with aqueous potassium sulfide, and then treated the resulting thiodiglycol with phosphorus trichloride. The purity of this compound was much higher and consequently the adverse health effects upon exposure were much more severe. These symptoms presented themselves in his assistant, and in order to rule out the possibility that his assistant was suffering from a mental illness (psychosomatic symptoms), Meyer had this compound tested on laboratory rabbits, most of which died. In 1913, the English chemist Hans Thacher Clarke (known for the Eschweiler-Clarke reaction) replaced the phosphorus trichloride with hydrochloric acid in Meyer's formulation while working with Emil Fischer in Berlin. Clarke was hospitalized for two months for burns after one of his flasks broke. According to Meyer, Fischer's report on this accident to the German Chemical Society sent the German Empire on the road to chemical weapons.\nMustard gas can have the effect of turning a patient's skin different colors, including shades of red, orange, pink, and in unusual cases, blue. The German Empire during World War I relied on the Meyer-Clarke method because 2-chloroethanol was readily available from the German dye industry of that time.\n\nUse\nMustard gas was first used in World War I by the German army against British and Canadian soldiers near Ypres, Belgium, on July 12, 1917. Later also against the French Second Army. Yperite is \"a name used by the French, because the compound was first used at Ypres.\" The Allies did not use mustard gas until November 1917 at Cambrai, France, after the armies had captured a stockpile of German mustard shells. It took the British more than a year to develop their own mustard agent weapon, with production of the chemicals centred on Avonmouth Docks (the only option available to the British was the Despretz–Niemann–Guthrie process). This was used first in September 1918 during the breaking of the Hindenburg Line.\nMustard gas was originally assigned the name LOST, after the scientists Wilhelm Lommel and Wilhelm Steinkopf, who developed a method of large-scale production for the Imperial German Army in 1916.\nMustard gas was dispersed as an aerosol in a mixture with other chemicals, giving it a yellow-brown color. Mustard agent has also been dispersed in such munitions as aerial bombs, land mines, mortar rounds, artillery shells, and rockets. Exposure to mustard agent was lethal in about 1% of cases. Its effectiveness was as an incapacitating agent. The early countermeasures against mustard agent were relatively ineffective, since a soldier wearing a gas mask was not protected against absorbing it through his skin and being blistered. A common countermeasure was using a urine-soaked mask or facecloth to prevent or reduce injury, a readily available remedy attested by soldiers in documentaries (e.g. They Shall Not Grow Old in 2018) and others (such as forward aid nurses) interviewed between 1947 and 1981 by the British Broadcasting Corporation for various World War One history programs; however, the effectiveness of this measure is unclear.\nMustard gas can remain in the ground for weeks, and it continues to cause ill effects. If mustard agent contaminates one's clothing and equipment while cold, then other people with whom they share an enclosed space could become poisoned as contaminated items warm up enough material to become an airborne toxic agent. An example of this was depicted in a British and Canadian documentary about life in the trenches, particularly once the \"sousterrain\" (subways and berthing areas underground) were completed in Belgium and France. Towards the end of World War I, mustard agent was used in high concentrations as an area-denial weapon that forced troops to abandon heavily contaminated areas.\n\nSince World War I, mustard gas has been used in several wars and other conflicts, usually against people who cannot retaliate in kind:\n\nUnited Kingdom against the Red Army in 1919\nAlleged British use in Mesopotamia in 1920\nSpain against the Rifian resistance in Morocco during the Rif War of 1921–27 (see also: Spanish use of chemical weapons in the Rif War)\nItaly in Libya in 1930\nThe Soviet Union in Xinjiang, Republic of China, during the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang against the 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) in 1934, and also in the Xinjiang War (1937) in 1936–37\nItaly against Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1935-1936\nThe Japanese Empire against China in 1937–1945\nThe US military conducted experiments with chemical weapons like lewisite and mustard gas on Japanese American, Puerto Rican and African Americans in the US military in World War II to see how non-white races would react to being mustard gassed, with Rollin Edwards describing it as \"It felt like you were on fire, Guys started screaming and hollering and trying to break out. And then some of the guys fainted. And finally they opened the door and let us out, and the guys were just, they were in bad shape.\" and \"It took all the skin off your hands. Your hands just rotted\".\nAfter World War II, stockpiled mustard gas was dumped by South African military personnel under the command of William Bleloch off Port Elizabeth, resulting in several cases of burns among local trawler crews.\nThe United States Government tested effectiveness on US Naval recruits in a laboratory setting at The Great Lakes Naval Base, June 3, 1945\nThe 2 December 1943 air raid on Bari destroyed an Allied stockpile of mustard gas on the SS John Harvey, killing 83 and hospitalizing 628.\nEgypt against North Yemen in 1963–1967\nIraq against Kurds in the town of Halabja during the Halabja chemical attack in 1988\nIraq against Iranians in 1983–1988\nPossibly in Sudan against insurgents in the civil war, in 1995 and 1997.\nIn the Iraq War, abandoned stockpiles of mustard gas shells were destroyed in the open air, and were used against Coalition forces in roadside bombs.\nBy ISIS forces against Kurdish forces in Iraq in August 2015.\nBy ISIS against another rebel group in the town of Mare' in 2015.\nAccording to Syrian state media, by ISIS against the Syrian Army during the battle in Deir ez-Zor in 2016.\nThe use of toxic gases or other chemicals, including mustard gas, during warfare is known as chemical warfare, and this kind of warfare was prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925, and also by the later Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. The latter agreement also prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, and sale of such weapons.\nIn September 2012, a US official stated that the rebel militant group ISIS was manufacturing and using mustard gas in Syria and Iraq, which was allegedly confirmed by the group's head of chemical weapons development, Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, who has since been captured.\n\nDevelopment of the first chemotherapy drug\nAs early as 1919 it was known that mustard agent was a suppressor of hematopoiesis. In addition, autopsies performed on 75 soldiers who had died of mustard agent during World War I were done by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania who reported decreased counts of white blood cells. This led the American Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) to finance the biology and chemistry departments at Yale University to conduct research on the use of chemical warfare during World War II.\nAs a part of this effort, the group investigated nitrogen mustard as a therapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of lymphoma and leukemia, and this compound was tried out on its first human patient in December 1942. The results of this study were not published until 1946, when they were declassified. In a parallel track, after the air raid on Bari in December 1943, the doctors of the U.S. Army noted that white blood cell counts were reduced in their patients. Some years after World War II was over, the incident in Bari and the work of the Yale University group with nitrogen mustard converged, and this prompted a search for other similar chemical compounds. Due to its use in previous studies, the nitrogen mustard called \"HN2\" became the first cancer chemotherapy drug, chlormethine (also known as mechlorethamine, mustine) to be used. Chlormethine and other mustard gas molecules are still used to this day as an chemotherapy agent albeit they have largely been replaced with more safe chemotherapy drugs like cisplatin and carboplatin.\n\nDisposal\nIn the United States, storage and incineration of mustard gas and other chemical weapons were carried out by the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency. Disposal projects at the two remaining American chemical weapons sites were carried out near Richmond, Kentucky, and Pueblo, Colorado. Although not yet declassified, toxicology specialists who dealt with the accidental puncturing of World War I gas stockpiles add that Air Force bases in Colorado have been made available to assist veterans of the 2003 American war with Iraq in which many Marines were exposed to gas as caches of up to 25,000 lb (11,000 kg). The United Nations definition of a weapon of mass destruction for mustard gas is 30,000 lb (14,000 kg), typically the Marines and other coalition allies discovered caches of 25,000 pounds (11,000 kg) located across a road from 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) caches as multiple memoirs attest. These were discovered by the assistance of host country allies, or through leaks affecting personnel in an area with a weapon and gas cache called an ASP.\nNew detection techniques are being developed in order to detect the presence of mustard gas and its metabolites. The technology is portable and detects small quantities of the hazardous waste and its oxidized products, which are notorious for harming unsuspecting civilians. The immunochromatographic assay would eliminate the need for expensive, time-consuming lab tests and enable easy-to-read tests to protect civilians from sulfur-mustard dumping sites.\nIn 1946, 10,000 drums of mustard gas (2,800 tonnes) stored at the production facility of Stormont Chemicals in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, were loaded onto 187 boxcars for the 900 miles (1,400 km) journey to be buried at sea on board a 400 foot (120 m) long barge 40 miles (64 km) south of Sable Island, southeast of Halifax, at a depth of 600 fathoms (1,100 m). The dump location is 42 degrees, 50 minutes north by 60 degrees, 12 minutes west.\nA large British stockpile of old mustard agent that had been made and stored since World War I at M. S. Factory, Valley near Rhydymwyn in Flintshire, Wales, was destroyed in 1958.\nMost of the mustard gas found in Germany after World War II was dumped into the Baltic Sea. Between 1966 and 2002, fishermen have found about 700 chemical weapons in the region of Bornholm, most of which contain mustard gas. One of the more frequently dumped weapons was \"Sprühbüchse 37\" (SprüBü37, Spray Can 37, 1937 being the year of its fielding with the German Army). These weapons contain mustard gas mixed with a thickener, which gives it a tar-like viscosity. When the content of the SprüBü37 comes in contact with water, only the mustard gas in the outer layers of the lumps of viscous mustard hydrolyzes, leaving behind amber-colored residues that still contain most of the active mustard gas. On mechanically breaking these lumps (e.g., with the drag board of a fishing net or by the human hand) the enclosed mustard gas is still as active as it had been at the time the weapon was dumped. These lumps, when washed ashore, can be mistaken for amber, which can lead to severe health problems. Artillery shells containing mustard gas and other toxic ammunition from World War I (as well as conventional explosives) can still be found in France and Belgium. These were formerly disposed of by explosion undersea, but since the current environmental regulations prohibit this, the French government is building an automated factory to dispose of the accumulation of chemical shells.\nIn 1972, the U.S. Congress banned the practice of disposing of chemical weapons into the ocean by the United States. 29,000 tons of nerve and mustard agents had already been dumped into the ocean off the United States by the U.S. Army. According to a report created in 1998 by William Brankowitz, a deputy project manager in the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, the army created at least 26 chemical weapons dumping sites in the ocean offshore from at least 11 states on both the East Coast and the West Coast (in Operation CHASE, Operation Geranium, etc.). In addition, due to poor recordkeeping, about one-half of the sites have only their rough locations known.\nIn June 1997, India declared its stock of chemical weapons of 1,044 tonnes (1,151 short tons) of mustard gas. By the end of 2006, India had destroyed more than 75 percent of its chemical weapons/material stockpile and was granted extension for destroying the remaining stocks by April 2009 and was expected to achieve 100 percent destruction within that time frame. India informed the United Nations in May 2009 that it had destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons in compliance with the international Chemical Weapons Convention. With this India has become the third country after South Korea and Albania to do so. This was cross-checked by inspectors of the United Nations.\nProducing or stockpiling mustard gas is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention. When the convention entered force in 1997, the parties declared worldwide stockpiles of 17,440 tonnes of mustard gas. As of December 2015, 86% of these stockpiles had been destroyed.\nA significant portion of the United States' mustard agent stockpile was stored at the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Approximately 1,621 tons of mustard agents were stored in one-ton containers on the base under heavy guard. A chemical neutralization plant was built on the proving ground and neutralized the last of this stockpile in February 2005. This stockpile had priority because of the potential for quick reduction of risk to the community. The nearest schools were fitted with overpressurization machinery to protect the students and faculty in the event of a catastrophic explosion and fire at the site. These projects, as well as planning, equipment, and training assistance, were provided to the surrounding community as a part of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP), a joint program of the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Unexploded shells containing mustard gases and other chemical agents are still present in several test ranges in proximity to schools in the Edgewood area, but the smaller amounts of poison gas (4 to 14 pounds (1.8 to 6.4 kg)) present considerably lower risks. These remnants are being detected and excavated systematically for disposal. The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency oversaw disposal of several other chemical weapons stockpiles located across the United States in compliance with international chemical weapons treaties. These include the complete incineration of the chemical weapons stockpiled in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, and Oregon. Earlier, this agency had also completed destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile located on Johnston Atoll located south of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The largest mustard agent stockpile, at approximately 6,200 short tons, was stored at the Deseret Chemical Depot in northern Utah. The incineration of this stockpile began in 2006. In May 2011, the last of the mustard agents in the stockpile were incinerated at the Deseret Chemical Depot, and the last artillery shells containing mustard gas were incinerated in January 2012.\nIn 2008, many empty aerial bombs that contained mustard gas were found in an excavation at the Marrangaroo Army Base just west of Sydney, Australia. In 2009, a mining survey near Chinchilla, Queensland, uncovered 144 105-millimeter howitzer shells, some containing \"Mustard H\", that had been buried by the U.S. Army during World War II.\nIn 2014, a collection of 200 bombs was found near the Flemish villages of Passendale and Moorslede. The majority of the bombs were filled with mustard agents. The bombs were left over from the German army and were meant to be used in the Battle of Passchendaele in World War I. It was the largest collection of chemical weapons ever found in Belgium.\nA large amount of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, was found in a neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The cleanup was completed in 2021.\n\nPost-war accidental exposure\nIn 2002, an archaeologist at the Presidio Trust archaeology lab in San Francisco was exposed to mustard gas, which had been dug up at the Presidio of San Francisco, a former military base.\nIn 2010, a clamming boat pulled up some old artillery shells of World War I from the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Island, New York. Multiple fishermen suffered from blistering and respiratory irritation severe enough to require hospitalization.\n\nWWII-era tests on men\nFrom 1943 to 1944, mustard agent experiments were performed on Australian service volunteers in tropical Queensland, Australia, by Royal Australian Engineers, British Army and American experimenters, resulting in some severe injuries. One test site, the Brook Islands National Park, was chosen to simulate Pacific islands held by the Imperial Japanese Army. These experiments were the subject of the documentary film Keen as Mustard.\nThe United States tested sulfur mustards and other chemical agents including nitrogen mustards and lewisite on up to 60,000 servicemen during and after WWII. The experiments were classified secret and as with Agent Orange, claims for medical care and compensation were routinely denied, even after the WWII-era tests were declassified in 1993. The Department of Veterans Affairs stated that it would contact 4,000 surviving test subjects but failed to do so, eventually only contacting 600. Skin cancer, severe eczema, leukemia, and chronic breathing problems plagued the test subjects, some of whom were as young as 19 at the time of the tests, until their deaths, but even those who had previously filed claims with the VA went without compensation.\n\nAfrican American servicemen were tested alongside white men in separate trials to determine whether their skin color would afford them a degree of immunity to the agents, and Nisei servicemen, some of whom had joined after their release from Japanese American Internment Camps were tested to determine susceptibility of Japanese military personnel to these agents. These tests also included Puerto Rican subjects.\n\nDetection in biological fluids\nConcentrations of thiodiglycol in urine have been used to confirm a diagnosis of chemical poisoning in hospitalized victims. The presence in urine of 1,1'-sulfonylbismethylthioethane (SBMTE), a conjugation product with glutathione, is considered a more specific marker, since this metabolite is not found in specimens from unexposed persons. In one case, intact mustard gas was detected in postmortem fluids and tissues of a man who died one week post-exposure.\n\nSee also\nBis(chloromethyl) ether\nChlorine gas\nKeen as Mustard\nPhosgene oxime\nPoison gas in World War I\nRawalpindi experiments\nSelenium mustard\n\nReferences\nNotes\n\nFurther reading\nCook, Tim. \"‘Against God-Inspired Conscience’: The Perception of Gas Warfare as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, 1915–1939.\" War & Society 18.1 (2000): 47-69.\nDorsey, M. Girard. Holding Their Breath: How the Allies Confronted the Threat of Chemical Warfare in World War II (Cornell UP, 2023) online.\nDuchovic, Ronald J., and Joel A. Vilensky. \"Mustard gas: its pre-World War I history.\" Journal of chemical education 84.6 (2007): 944. online\nFeister, Alan J. Medical defense against mustard gas: toxic mechanisms and pharmacological implications (1991). online\nFitzgerald, Gerard J. \"Chemical warfare and medical response during World War I.\" American journal of public health 98.4 (2008): 611-625. online\n* Freemantle M (2012). Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! How Chemistry Changed the First World War. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-6601-9.\nGeraci, Matthew J. \"Mustard gas: imminent danger or eminent threat?.\" Annals of Pharmacotherapy 42.2 (2008): 237-246. online\nGhabili, Kamyar, et al. \"Mustard gas toxicity: the acute and chronic pathological effects.\" Journal of applied toxicology 30.7 (2010): 627-643. online\nJones, Edgar. \"Terror weapons: The British experience of gas and its treatment in the First World War.\" War in History 21.3 (2014): 355-375. online\nMacPherson WG, Herringham WP, Elliott TR, et al. (1923). Medical Services: Diseases of the War: Including the Medical Aspects of Aviation and Gas Warfare and Gas Poisoning in Tanks and Mines. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. II. London: HMSO. OCLC 769752656. Retrieved October 19, 2014.\nPadley, Anthony Paul. \"Gas: the greatest terror of the Great War.\" Anaesthesia and intensive care 44.1_suppl (2016): 24-30. online\nRall, David P., and Constance M. Pechura, eds. Veterans at risk: The health effects of mustard gas and lewisite (1993). online\nRichter D (1994). Chemical Soldiers. Leo Cooper. ISBN 0850523885.\nSchummer, Joachim. \"Ethics of chemical weapons research: Poison gas in World War One.\" Ethics of Chemistry: From Poison Gas to Climate Engineering (2021) pp. 55-83. online\nSmith, Susan I. Toxic Exposures: Mustard Gas and the Health Consequences of World War II in the United States (Rutgers University Press, 2017) online book review\nWattana, Monica, and Tareg Bey. \"Mustard gas or sulfur mustard: an old chemical agent as a new terrorist threat.\" Prehospital and disaster medicine 24.1 (2009): 19-29. online\n\nExternal links\nMustard gas (Sulphur Mustard) (IARC Summary & Evaluation, Supplement7, 1987). Inchem.org (1998-02-09). Retrieved on 2011-05-29.\nInstitute of Medicine (1993). \"History and Analysis of Mustard Agent and Lewisite Research Programs in the United States\". Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite. National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-04832-3.\nTextbook of Military Medicine – Intensive overview of mustard gas Includes many references to scientific literature\nDetailed information on physical effects and suggested treatments\nIyriboz Y (2004). \"A Recent Exposure to Mustard Gas in the United States: Clinical Findings of a Cohort (n = 247) 6 Years After Exposure\". MedGenMed. 6 (4): 4. PMC 1480580. PMID 15775831. Shows photographs taken in 1996 showing people with mustard gas burns.\nUMDNJ-Rutgers University CounterACT Research Center of Excellence A research center studying mustard gas, includes searchable reference library with many early references on mustard gas.\nClayton W, Howard AJ, Thomson D (May 25, 1946). \"Treatment of Mustard Gas Burns\". British Medical Journal. 1 (4455): 797–799. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4455.797. PMC 2058956. PMID 20786722.\nsurgical treatment of mustard gas burns\nUK Ministry of Defence Report on disposal of weapons at sea and incidents arising","title":"Mustard_gas"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II (May 6, 2013 – July 30, 2022) was a golden retriever dog who served as the second unofficial mayor of Idyllwild, part of the census-designated place of Idyllwild–Pine Cove, California. His deputy mayors, Mitzi and Mikey, were his cousins. After his death Mayor Max II was succeeded by his cousin Max III, who was sworn in on December 10, 2022.\\n\\nMayorality\\nIn 2012, the non-profit organization Idyllwild Animal Rescue Friends (ARF) hosted an \\\"election\\\" for mayor of Idyllwild (which, as part of an unincorporated community, has no local government) as part of a fundraising event for the organization. Fourteen dogs and two cats ran, and Max, a Golden Retriever, was elected as Idyllwild's first mayor. On April 2, 2013, Mayor Max died, and Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II, another Golden Retriever, arrived in Idyllwild on July 21 to complete the remainder of the term. In March 2014, as the end of Max's term approached, ARF solicited the town's interest in holding another election. The people overwhelmingly pled for Mayor Max's continuation in perpetuity.\\nMayor Max was recognized by the County of Riverside, California. The Mayor's duties included visiting with locals and out-of-town visitors, attending business grand openings and other town functions, participating in the town's two annual parades, and promoting Idyllwild. Max's popularity had spread the world over, and he has represented the town through appearances on news programs, talk shows, advertisements, billboards, and a game show.\\n\\nDeath\\nMayor Max died in the city of Temecula on July 30, 2022, after suffering a brief medical issue. He was succeeded by Mayor Max III, who formally took office on December 10, 2022.\\n\\nSee also\\nList of individual dogs\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nMayor Max, Mayor of Idyllwild, California - Official website\",\n \"title\": \"Mayor_Max_II\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Golden Retriever is a Scottish breed of retriever dog of medium size. It is characterised by a gentle and affectionate nature and a striking golden coat. It is a working dog, and registration is subject to successful completion of a working trial. It is commonly kept as a pet and is among the most frequently registered breeds in several Western countries; some may compete in dog shows or obedience trials, or work as a guide dog.\\nThe Golden Retriever was bred by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks at his Scottish estate Guisachan in the late nineteenth century. He cross-bred Flat-coated Retrievers with Tweed Water Spaniels, with some further infusions of Red Setter, Labrador Retriever and Bloodhound. It was recognised by the Kennel Club in 1913, and during the interwar period spread to many parts of the world.\\n\\nHistory\\nThe Golden Retriever was developed in Scotland in the nineteenth century by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks (later to become Baron Tweedmouth) from Flat-coated Retrievers judiciously crossed with Tweed Water Spaniels and some other British dog breeds. Prior to the 1952 publication of the very detailed stud book which had been meticulously maintained by Marjoribanks, a number of romantic tales were published about the origins of the breed.\\nIn the 1860s Marjoribanks set out to create what to his mind was the ultimate breed of retriever at his Scottish estate Guisachan. He started by acquiring a yellow-coloured Flat-coated Retriever dog called Nous; Nous had been whelped in June 1864 and was the only yellow pup in an otherwise all black-coloured litter. Whilst uncommon, occasionally liver, brown, golden or yellow-coloured purebred Flat-coated Retriever pups are whelped to matings of two black parents. It is the pedigree of Nous that was the source for the romantic tales of the heritage of the Golden Retriever. One early account claimed Nous was purchased from a Russian circus trainer in Brighton, another claimed he was bought from a cobbler, and yet another claimed a gypsy. The stud book states that Nous was a Flat-coated Retriever bred by Lord Chichester on his Stanmer Park estate near Brighton.\\nIn 1868 Nous was mated to a Tweed Water Spaniel bitch named Belle, who is recorded in the stud book as being whelped in 1863 and being of \\\"Ladykirk breeding\\\". The litter from this mating consisted of four yellow pups, Primrose, Ada, Cowslip and Crocus. The best bitch from this litter, Cowslip, was mated to a Tweed Water Spaniel called Tweed with the mating producing a bitch pup called Topsy. Cowslip was subsequently mated to a Red Setter called Sampson; that mating produced a dog pup called Jack. Topsy was mated with a black Flat-coated Retriever called Sambo and a bitch pup from that litter, Zoe, was mated back to Jack and two pups from that mating were retained, a dog called Nous II and a bitch called Gill. Gill was mated to a black Labrador Retriever called Tracer, and a bitch pup from that mating, Queenie, was mated back to Nous II; all Golden Retrievers descend from this mating. The progeny from these various matings varied in colour from pure black to light cream, but it was the golden-coloured ones that were retained and mated to each other, forming the foundation stock of the Golden Retriever breed. Marjoribanks is also known to have used a sandy-coloured Bloodhound and another Labrador in subsequent years of the breeding programme.\\n\\nIn 1952 Marjoribanks's great-nephew, Giles Fox-Strangways, 6th Earl of Ilchester, teamed up with Elma Stonex and together they studied Marjoribanks's stud book. In 1960 their research was published, presenting all of the evidence required to counter all tales of Russian ancestry. The stud book, which covers the period from 1868 to 1890, is preserved in the library of the Kennel Club in London.\\nIn the early days Golden Retrievers were called the 'Flat-coated Retriever, Golden', Initially the Golden Retriever was considered a colour variety of the former breed. In 1903 the Kennel Club recorded the first examples, listing them in the same register as Flat-coats. In 1904 a Golden Retriever won a field trial and in 1908 the first examples were exhibited at conformation shows. In 1911 a breed club was formed for the breed in England, the Golden Retriever Club, and they were given a new name, the 'Yellow or Golden Retriever'; from this point they were increasingly seen as a separate breed from the Flat-coated Retriever. It was not until 1913 that the Kennel Club began recording them on a separate breed register from the Flat-coated Retriever and in 1920 the 'Yellow or' was dropped from the breed name and they were officially called the 'Golden Retriever'.\\nOne early twentieth century enthusiast of the breed, Winifred Charlesworth, was instrumental in the establishment of the breed club as well as its separate Kennel Club recognition. It was she who drew up the first breed standard, which was adopted by the Kennel Club and with only minor amendments and remains largely unchanged. She bred and exhibited the first Golden Retriever Show Champion, was a strong advocate for maintaining the working instincts of the breed, and she is credited with popularising it at field trials and introducing it to shooting sportsmen.\\nIn the years after the First World War its popularity increased markedly and in the 1920s and 1930s it spread through much of the Western world. The Canadian Kennel Club recognised the breed in 1927, the American Kennel Club in 1932; the first examples were registered in France in 1934 and Australia in 1937. The worldwide popularity of the breed meant it did not suffer the misfortunes many British dog breeds did during the Second World War due to British wartime restrictions on the breeding of larger dogs, with ample quality breeding stock available globally to ensure none of its characteristics were lost.\\nSince the 1940s its popularity has continued to grow, and it has become one of the most recognised and most frequently registered dog breeds in the Western world.\\n\\nDescription\\nAppearance\\nThe Golden Retriever is a powerfully built, medium-sized breed of dog; according to the Kennel Club breed standard, dogs stand from 56 to 61 centimetres (22 to 24 in) and bitches from 51 to 56 centimetres (20 to 22 in). Healthy adult examples typically weigh between 25 and 34 kilograms (55 and 75 lb).\\nThe Golden Retriever has a broad head with a well-defined stop, with dark eyes set well apart, a wide and powerful muzzle, a large black nose, dark-pigmented and slightly drooping flews, and ears of moderate size set high and hanging with a slight fold. The neck is muscular and fairly long with loose-fitting skin, the shoulders well laid-back and long-bladed, and the body deep through the chest with well-sprung ribs. The back is usually level from withers to croup and the long, straight tail is usually carried flat, roughly in line with the back. The forelegs are straight with good bone, the hind legs are powerful with well bent stifles and muscular thighs, and the feet are cat-like.\\nThe double coat is a recognisable and striking feature: the outer coat is long, flat or wavy and has good feathering on the forelegs, while the undercoat is dense and provides weather resistance. The coat can be any shade of cream, yellow or gold; the coat typically becomes paler with age. The Kennel Club breed standard prohibits red or mahogany-coloured coats, but a few white hairs on the chest are permitted. Originally only yellow or golden coloured examples were permitted, this excluded many outstanding cream coloured dogs; to overcome this in 1936 the Kennel Club's standard was amended to include the cream colour. The cream colour, which in more modern times can be almost white, has become the dominant colour and is particularly favoured by conformation show exhibitors. Golden Retrievers that are bred for conformation shows tend to have longer and finer coats than those bred for working as gundogs.\\nThe Kennel Club breed standard is accepted by every kennel club in the world except those of Canada and the United States. Breed standards in North America call for a slightly taller dog and the cream colour is not permitted.\\n\\nTemperament\\nThe Golden Retriever is considered an intelligent, gentle natured and very affectionate breed of dog. As is typical with retriever breeds, the breed is generally calm and biddable, being very easy to train and extremely keen to please their master. The breed is known to make excellent pets and family dogs, being generally extremely tolerant of children and keen to accompany any member of the family in a range of activities. Due to their affable natures, the breed is often completely devoid of guarding instincts. However, there have also been reports of some very aggressive Golden Retrievers in certain lineages. It has been suggested that these variations in aggression are partially caused by genetic factors.\\nThe breed usually retains many of their gundog traits and instincts including an excellent sense of smell and a strong instinct to retrieve; even among those not trained as gundogs it is typical for Golden Retrievers to present their owners with toys or other objects. Compared to other retriever breeds the Golden Retriever is typically quite slow to mature.\\n\\nUse\\nThe Golden Retriever is one of the most commonly kept breeds of companion dog in the Western world, and is often among the top ten dog breeds by number of registrations in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and Canada. It is a frequent competitor at dog shows; separate show lines of the breed have been developed. The dogs can be trained as guide dogs and therapy dogs, and may compete in obedience trials and other dog sports.\\nThe Golden Retriever is still used as a gundog by sportsmen, both as a hunting companion in the field and for competing in field trials. It is used more for retrieval of land-based gamebirds such as grouse and partridge than for wildfowl hunting. Those used as gundogs are usually from working lines specifically bred for field use; dogs from pet or show lines are rarely suitable. A Golden Retriever with a traditional dense double coat is well suited to working in cold and wet conditions, as the coat provides water resistance and insulation. Compared to other retriever breeds, the Golden Retriever is not a strong swimmer; its long coat causes it to sit low in the water when swimming.\\nThe Golden Retriever is much less commonly used by sportsmen as a hunting companion than the Labrador Retriever. One reason is that the breed is generally quite slow to mature, particularly compared to the Labrador; often when a Golden Retriever is still in basic training a Labrador of the same age has already completed a season of hunting. Another is its long coat, which requires more maintenance and grooming than that of the Labrador, particularly after working in muddy conditions or close cover, as their long hair is more prone to picking up dirt and burrs. More Golden Retrievers are bred as pets or for the show ring than for hunting, so it can be hard for sportsmen to find pups bred from proven working lines.\\n\\nHealth\\nA 2024 UK study found a life expectancy of 13.2 years for the breed compared to an average of 12.7 for purebreeds and 12 for crossbreeds. A 2024 Italian study found a life expectancy of 10 years for the breed compared to 10 years overall. A 2005 Swedish study found 22% of Golden Retrievers died by the age of 10, less than the overall rate of 35% of dogs dying by the age of 10.\\nThe breed is unusually prone to cancer, with one United States study finding cancer to be the cause of death in approximately 50% of the population, the second highest in the study. Several European studies found a much lower prevalence (20–39%), which may reflect the significant genetic divergence between the American and European populations. They are especially prone to hemangiosarcoma and lymphoma, with an estimated lifetime risk of one in five for the former and one in eight for the latter. The high prevalence of cancer deaths among Golden Retrievers may partly represent a lack of other congenital diseases. One UK study found the risk of metastatic neoplasia in the breed to be 4.86 times higher than other dogs.\\nThe Golden Retriever has a genetic predisposition to primary hypothyroidism; a review of 5 different studies found Golden Retrievers to make up 17% of cases.\\n\\nNotable Golden Retrievers\\nLiberty, presidential pet of President Gerald R. Ford.\\nBailey, pet of 2020 US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.\\nOrca, PDSA Gold Medal recipient for bravery.\\nMayor Max, elected Mayor of Idyllwild, California.\\nBuddy, dog actor (Air Bud)\\n\\nExplanatory notes\\nReferences\\n\\n\\n== Further reading ==\",\n \"title\": \"Golden_Retriever\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Hemangiosarcoma is a rapidly growing, highly invasive variety of cancer that occurs almost exclusively in dogs, and only rarely in cats, horses, mice, or humans (vinyl chloride toxicity). It is a sarcoma arising from the lining of blood vessels; that is, blood-filled channels and spaces are commonly observed microscopically. A frequent cause of death is the rupturing of this tumor, causing the patient to rapidly bleed to death.\\nThe term \\\"angiosarcoma\\\", when used without a modifier, usually refers to hemangiosarcoma. However, glomangiosarcoma (8710/3) and lymphangiosarcoma (9170/3) are distinct conditions (in humans).\\n\\nDogs\\nHemangiosarcoma is quite common in dogs, and more so in certain breeds including German Shepherds and Golden Retrievers. It also occurs in cats, but much more rarely. Dogs with hemangiosarcoma rarely show clinical signs until the tumor has become very large and has metastasized. Typically, clinical signs are due to hypovolemia after the tumor ruptures, causing extensive bleeding. Owners of the affected dogs often discover that the dog has hemangiosarcoma only after the dog collapses.\\nThe tumor most often appears on the spleen, right heart base, or liver, although varieties also appear on or under the skin or in other locations. It is the most common tumor of the heart, and occurs in the right atrium or right auricular appendage. Here it can cause right-sided heart failure, arrhythmias, pericardial effusion, and cardiac tamponade. Hemangiosarcoma of the spleen or liver is the most common tumor to cause hemorrhage in the abdomen. Hemorrhage secondary to splenic and hepatic tumors can also cause ventricular arrhythmias. Hemangiosarcoma of the skin usually appears as a small red or bluish-black lump. It can also occur under the skin. It is suspected that in the skin, hemangiosarcoma is caused by sun exposure. Occasionally, hemangiosarcoma of the skin can be a metastasis from visceral hemangiosarcoma. Other sites the tumor may occur include bone, kidneys, the bladder, muscle, the mouth, and the central nervous system.\\n\\nClinical features\\nPresenting complaints and clinical signs are usually related to the site of origin of the primary tumor or to the presence of metastases, spontaneous tumor rupture, coagulopathies, or cardiac arrhythmias. More than 50% of patients are presented because of acute collapse after spontaneous rupture of the primary tumor or its metastases. Some episodes of collapse are a result of ventricular arrhythmias, which are relatively common in dogs with splenic or cardiac HSA.\\nMost common clinical signs of visceral hemangiosarcoma include loss of appetite, arrhythmias, weight loss, weakness, lethargy, collapse, pale mucous membranes, and/or sudden death. An enlarged abdomen is often seen due to hemorrhage. Metastasis is most commonly to the liver, omentum, lungs, or brain.\\nA retrospective study published in 1999 by Ware, et al., found a five times greater risk of cardiac hemangiosarcoma in spayed vs. intact female dogs and a 2.4 times greater risk of hemangiosarcoma in neutered dogs as compared to intact males. The validity of this study is in dispute.\\n\\nClinicopathologic findings\\nHemangiosarcoma can cause a wide variety of hematologic and hemostatic abnormalities, including anemia, thrombocytopenia (low platelet count), disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC); presence of nRBC, schistocytes, and acanthocytes in the blood smear; and leukocytosis with neutrophilia, left shift, and monocytosis.\\n\\nDiagnosis\\nA definitive diagnosis requires biopsy and histopathology. Cytologic aspirates may be inconclusive with studies reporting various specificity, and negative results may not correlate with absence of disease, as one study concludes \\\"cytological diagnosis of splenic neoplasia is reliable, but a negative result cannot be used to exclude the possibility of splenic neoplasia.\\\" This is because of frequent blood contamination and poor exfoliation. Surgical biopsy is the typical approach in veterinary medicine.\\nImaging modalities may include one ore more of ultrasound, CT, MRI and FDG-PET/CT. FGD-PET/CT may show some benefit over traditional CT for staging and detection of metastasis.\\n\\nSymptoms\\nDogs rarely show symptoms of hemangiosarcoma until after the tumor ruptures, causing extensive bleeding. Then symptoms can include short-term lethargy, loss of appetite, enlarged abdomen, weakness in the back legs, paled colored tongue and gums, rapid heart rate, and a weak pulse.\\n\\nTreatments\\nTreatment includes chemotherapy and, where practical, removal of the tumor with the affected organ, such as with a splenectomy. Splenectomy alone gives an average survival time of 1–3 months. The addition of chemotherapy, primarily comprising the drug doxorubicin, alone or in combination with other drugs, can increase the average survival time by 2–4 months beyond splenectomy alone.\\nA 2012 paper published the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, in dogs treated with a compound derived from the Coriolus versicolor (commonly known as \\\"Turkey Tail\\\") mushroom showed a favorable response to the agent compared to historical controls of dogs treated with splenectomy and Doxorubicin .:. A controlled, randomized study in 101 dogs was later conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School which showed that the Coriolus versicolor mushroom did not have the same outcome noted in the 2012 paper with 15 dogs. In the 2022 paper by Gednet et al. dogs treated with splenectomy followed by Doxorubicin did better then dogs treated with splenectomy and mushroom agent. Combination of Doxorubicin with the Turkey Tail mushroom also did not improve survival when compared to Doxorubicin alone. However, as noted in the 2012 study, the Turkey Tail mushroom extract did not cause any systemic adverse reactions, even when combined with Doxorubicin.:.\\nImmune therapy based on cultivation of tumor tissue is being developed for dogs. A preventive vaccine based on several proteins commonly found in dog cancers, including hemangiosarcomas, is also being developed.\\nIn the skin, it can be cured in most cases with complete surgical removal as long as there is not visceral involvement. Median survival times for stage I is 780 days, where more advanced stages can range from 172 to 307 days.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\n\\\"Heart hemangiosarcoma in Cats and Dogs\\\". Pet Cancer Center.\\n\\\"Hemangiosarcoma\\\". Canine Cancer Awareness. - includes links to current studies\\n\\\"Hemangiosarcoma\\\". Mar Vista Animal Medical Center. Archived from the original on 2004-02-03. Retrieved 2004-01-27.\\n\\\"Hemangiosarcoma in Cats and Dogs\\\". Pet Cancer Center.\",\n \"title\": \"Hemangiosarcoma\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 3,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard regimen. Chemotherapy may be given with a curative intent (which almost always involves combinations of drugs), or it may aim only to prolong life or to reduce symptoms (palliative chemotherapy). Chemotherapy is one of the major categories of the medical discipline specifically devoted to pharmacotherapy for cancer, which is called medical oncology.\\nThe term chemotherapy now means the non-specific use of intracellular poisons to inhibit mitosis (cell division) or to induce DNA damage (so that DNA repair can augment chemotherapy). This meaning excludes the more-selective agents that block extracellular signals (signal transduction). Therapies with specific molecular or genetic targets, which inhibit growth-promoting signals from classic endocrine hormones (primarily estrogens for breast cancer and androgens for prostate cancer), are now called hormonal therapies. Other inhibitions of growth-signals, such as those associated with receptor tyrosine kinases, are targeted therapy.\\nThe use of drugs (whether chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or targeted therapy) is systemic therapy for cancer: they are introduced into the blood stream (the system) and therefore can treat cancer anywhere in the body. Systemic therapy is often used with other, local therapy (treatments that work only where they are applied), such as radiation, surgery, and hyperthermia.\\nTraditional chemotherapeutic agents are cytotoxic by means of interfering with cell division (mitosis) but cancer cells vary widely in their susceptibility to these agents. To a large extent, chemotherapy can be thought of as a way to damage or stress cells, which may then lead to cell death if apoptosis is initiated. Many of the side effects of chemotherapy can be traced to damage to normal cells that divide rapidly and are thus sensitive to anti-mitotic drugs: cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract and hair follicles. This results in the most common side-effects of chemotherapy: myelosuppression (decreased production of blood cells, hence that also immunosuppression), mucositis (inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract), and alopecia (hair loss). Because of the effect on immune cells (especially lymphocytes), chemotherapy drugs often find use in a host of diseases that result from harmful overactivity of the immune system against self (so-called autoimmunity). These include rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, vasculitis and many others.\\n\\nTreatment strategies\\nThere are a number of strategies in the administration of chemotherapeutic drugs used today. Chemotherapy may be given with a curative intent or it may aim to prolong life or to palliate symptoms.\\n\\nInduction chemotherapy is the first line treatment of cancer with a chemotherapeutic drug. This type of chemotherapy is used for curative intent.: 55–59 \\nCombined modality chemotherapy is the use of drugs with other cancer treatments, such as surgery, radiation therapy, or hyperthermia therapy.\\nConsolidation chemotherapy is given after remission in order to prolong the overall disease-free time and improve overall survival. The drug that is administered is the same as the drug that achieved remission.: 55–59 \\nIntensification chemotherapy is identical to consolidation chemotherapy but a different drug than the induction chemotherapy is used.: 55–59 \\nCombination chemotherapy involves treating a person with a number of different drugs simultaneously. The drugs differ in their mechanism and side-effects. The biggest advantage is minimising the chances of resistance developing to any one agent. Also, the drugs can often be used at lower doses, reducing toxicity.: 55–59 : 17–18 \\nNeoadjuvant chemotherapy is given prior to a local treatment such as surgery, and is designed to shrink the primary tumor.: 55–59 It is also given for cancers with a high risk of micrometastatic disease.: 42 \\nAdjuvant chemotherapy is given after a local treatment (radiotherapy or surgery). It can be used when there is little evidence of cancer present, but there is risk of recurrence.: 55–59 It is also useful in killing any cancerous cells that have spread to other parts of the body. These micrometastases can be treated with adjuvant chemotherapy and can reduce relapse rates caused by these disseminated cells.\\nMaintenance chemotherapy is a repeated low-dose treatment to prolong remission.: 55–59 \\nSalvage chemotherapy or palliative chemotherapy is given without curative intent, but simply to decrease tumor load and increase life expectancy. For these regimens, in general, a better toxicity profile is expected.: 55–59 \\nAll chemotherapy regimens require that the recipient be capable of undergoing the treatment. Performance status is often used as a measure to determine whether a person can receive chemotherapy, or whether dose reduction is required. Because only a fraction of the cells in a tumor die with each treatment (fractional kill), repeated doses must be administered to continue to reduce the size of the tumor. Current chemotherapy regimens apply drug treatment in cycles, with the frequency and duration of treatments limited by toxicity.\\n\\nEffectiveness\\nThe effectiveness of chemotherapy depends on the type of cancer and the stage. The overall effectiveness ranges from being curative for some cancers, such as some leukemias, to being ineffective, such as in some brain tumors, to being needless in others, like most non-melanoma skin cancers.\\n\\nDosage\\nDosage of chemotherapy can be difficult: If the dose is too low, it will be ineffective against the tumor, whereas, at excessive doses, the toxicity (side-effects) will be intolerable to the person receiving it. The standard method of determining chemotherapy dosage is based on calculated body surface area (BSA). The BSA is usually calculated with a mathematical formula or a nomogram, using the recipient's weight and height, rather than by direct measurement of body area. This formula was originally derived in a 1916 study and attempted to translate medicinal doses established with laboratory animals to equivalent doses for humans. The study only included nine human subjects. When chemotherapy was introduced in the 1950s, the BSA formula was adopted as the official standard for chemotherapy dosing for lack of a better option.\\nThe validity of this method in calculating uniform doses has been questioned because the formula only takes into account the individual's weight and height. Drug absorption and clearance are influenced by multiple factors, including age, sex, metabolism, disease state, organ function, drug-to-drug interactions, genetics, and obesity, which have major impacts on the actual concentration of the drug in the person's bloodstream. As a result, there is high variability in the systemic chemotherapy drug concentration in people dosed by BSA, and this variability has been demonstrated to be more than ten-fold for many drugs. In other words, if two people receive the same dose of a given drug based on BSA, the concentration of that drug in the bloodstream of one person may be 10 times higher or lower compared to that of the other person. This variability is typical with many chemotherapy drugs dosed by BSA, and, as shown below, was demonstrated in a study of 14 common chemotherapy drugs.\\n\\nThe result of this pharmacokinetic variability among people is that many people do not receive the right dose to achieve optimal treatment effectiveness with minimized toxic side effects. Some people are overdosed while others are underdosed. For example, in a randomized clinical trial, investigators found 85% of metastatic colorectal cancer patients treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) did not receive the optimal therapeutic dose when dosed by the BSA standard—68% were underdosed and 17% were overdosed.\\nThere has been controversy over the use of BSA to calculate chemotherapy doses for people who are obese. Because of their higher BSA, clinicians often arbitrarily reduce the dose prescribed by the BSA formula for fear of overdosing. In many cases, this can result in sub-optimal treatment.\\nSeveral clinical studies have demonstrated that when chemotherapy dosing is individualized to achieve optimal systemic drug exposure, treatment outcomes are improved and toxic side effects are reduced. In the 5-FU clinical study cited above, people whose dose was adjusted to achieve a pre-determined target exposure realized an 84% improvement in treatment response rate and a six-month improvement in overall survival (OS) compared with those dosed by BSA.\\n\\nIn the same study, investigators compared the incidence of common 5-FU-associated grade 3/4 toxicities between the dose-adjusted people and people dosed per BSA. The incidence of debilitating grades of diarrhea was reduced from 18% in the BSA-dosed group to 4% in the dose-adjusted group and serious hematologic side effects were eliminated. Because of the reduced toxicity, dose-adjusted patients were able to be treated for longer periods of time. BSA-dosed people were treated for a total of 680 months while people in the dose-adjusted group were treated for a total of 791 months. Completing the course of treatment is an important factor in achieving better treatment outcomes.\\nSimilar results were found in a study involving people with colorectal cancer who have been treated with the popular FOLFOX regimen. The incidence of serious diarrhea was reduced from 12% in the BSA-dosed group of patients to 1.7% in the dose-adjusted group, and the incidence of severe mucositis was reduced from 15% to 0.8%.\\nThe FOLFOX study also demonstrated an improvement in treatment outcomes. Positive response increased from 46% in the BSA-dosed group to 70% in the dose-adjusted group. Median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) both improved by six months in the dose adjusted group.\\nOne approach that can help clinicians individualize chemotherapy dosing is to measure the drug levels in blood plasma over time and adjust dose according to a formula or algorithm to achieve optimal exposure. With an established target exposure for optimized treatment effectiveness with minimized toxicities, dosing can be personalized to achieve target exposure and optimal results for each person. Such an algorithm was used in the clinical trials cited above and resulted in significantly improved treatment outcomes.\\nOncologists are already individualizing dosing of some cancer drugs based on exposure. Carboplatin: 4 and busulfan dosing rely upon results from blood tests to calculate the optimal dose for each person. Simple blood tests are also available for dose optimization of methotrexate, 5-FU, paclitaxel, and docetaxel.\\nThe serum albumin level immediately prior to chemotherapy administration is an independent prognostic predictor of survival in various cancer types.\\n\\nTypes\\nAlkylating agents\\nAlkylating agents are the oldest group of chemotherapeutics in use today. Originally derived from mustard gas used in World War I, there are now many types of alkylating agents in use. They are so named because of their ability to alkylate many molecules, including proteins, RNA and DNA. This ability to bind covalently to DNA via their alkyl group is the primary cause for their anti-cancer effects. DNA is made of two strands and the molecules may either bind twice to one strand of DNA (intrastrand crosslink) or may bind once to both strands (interstrand crosslink). If the cell tries to replicate crosslinked DNA during cell division, or tries to repair it, the DNA strands can break. This leads to a form of programmed cell death called apoptosis. Alkylating agents will work at any point in the cell cycle and thus are known as cell cycle-independent drugs. For this reason, the effect on the cell is dose dependent; the fraction of cells that die is directly proportional to the dose of drug.\\nThe subtypes of alkylating agents are the nitrogen mustards, nitrosoureas, tetrazines, aziridines, cisplatins and derivatives, and non-classical alkylating agents. Nitrogen mustards include mechlorethamine, cyclophosphamide, melphalan, chlorambucil, ifosfamide and busulfan. Nitrosoureas include N-Nitroso-N-methylurea (MNU), carmustine (BCNU), lomustine (CCNU) and semustine (MeCCNU), fotemustine and streptozotocin. Tetrazines include dacarbazine, mitozolomide and temozolomide. Aziridines include thiotepa, mytomycin and diaziquone (AZQ). Cisplatin and derivatives include cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin. They impair cell function by forming covalent bonds with the amino, carboxyl, sulfhydryl, and phosphate groups in biologically important molecules. Non-classical alkylating agents include procarbazine and hexamethylmelamine.\\n\\nAntimetabolites\\nAnti-metabolites are a group of molecules that impede DNA and RNA synthesis. Many of them have a similar structure to the building blocks of DNA and RNA. The building blocks are nucleotides; a molecule comprising a nucleobase, a sugar and a phosphate group. The nucleobases are divided into purines (guanine and adenine) and pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine and uracil). Anti-metabolites resemble either nucleobases or nucleosides (a nucleotide without the phosphate group), but have altered chemical groups. These drugs exert their effect by either blocking the enzymes required for DNA synthesis or becoming incorporated into DNA or RNA. By inhibiting the enzymes involved in DNA synthesis, they prevent mitosis because the DNA cannot duplicate itself. Also, after misincorporation of the molecules into DNA, DNA damage can occur and programmed cell death (apoptosis) is induced. Unlike alkylating agents, anti-metabolites are cell cycle dependent. This means that they only work during a specific part of the cell cycle, in this case S-phase (the DNA synthesis phase). For this reason, at a certain dose, the effect plateaus and proportionally no more cell death occurs with increased doses. Subtypes of the anti-metabolites are the anti-folates, fluoropyrimidines, deoxynucleoside analogues and thiopurines.\\nThe anti-folates include methotrexate and pemetrexed. Methotrexate inhibits dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), an enzyme that regenerates tetrahydrofolate from dihydrofolate. When the enzyme is inhibited by methotrexate, the cellular levels of folate coenzymes diminish. These are required for thymidylate and purine production, which are both essential for DNA synthesis and cell division.: 55–59 : 11 Pemetrexed is another anti-metabolite that affects purine and pyrimidine production, and therefore also inhibits DNA synthesis. It primarily inhibits the enzyme thymidylate synthase, but also has effects on DHFR, aminoimidazole carboxamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase and glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase. The fluoropyrimidines include fluorouracil and capecitabine. Fluorouracil is a nucleobase analogue that is metabolised in cells to form at least two active products; 5-fluourouridine monophosphate (FUMP) and 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine 5'-phosphate (fdUMP). FUMP becomes incorporated into RNA and fdUMP inhibits the enzyme thymidylate synthase; both of which lead to cell death.: 11 Capecitabine is a prodrug of 5-fluorouracil that is broken down in cells to produce the active drug. The deoxynucleoside analogues include cytarabine, gemcitabine, decitabine, azacitidine, fludarabine, nelarabine, cladribine, clofarabine, and pentostatin. The thiopurines include thioguanine and mercaptopurine.\\n\\nAnti-microtubule agents\\nAnti-microtubule agents are plant-derived chemicals that block cell division by preventing microtubule function. Microtubules are an important cellular structure composed of two proteins, α-tubulin and β-tubulin. They are hollow, rod-shaped structures that are required for cell division, among other cellular functions. Microtubules are dynamic structures, which means that they are permanently in a state of assembly and disassembly. Vinca alkaloids and taxanes are the two main groups of anti-microtubule agents, and although both of these groups of drugs cause microtubule dysfunction, their mechanisms of action are completely opposite: Vinca alkaloids prevent the assembly of microtubules, whereas taxanes prevent their disassembly. By doing so, they can induce mitotic catastrophe in the cancer cells. Following this, cell cycle arrest occurs, which induces programmed cell death (apoptosis). These drugs can also affect blood vessel growth, an essential process that tumours utilise in order to grow and metastasise.\\nVinca alkaloids are derived from the Madagascar periwinkle, Catharanthus roseus, formerly known as Vinca rosea. They bind to specific sites on tubulin, inhibiting the assembly of tubulin into microtubules. The original vinca alkaloids are natural products that include vincristine and vinblastine. Following the success of these drugs, semi-synthetic vinca alkaloids were produced: vinorelbine (used in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer), vindesine, and vinflunine. These drugs are cell cycle-specific. They bind to the tubulin molecules in S-phase and prevent proper microtubule formation required for M-phase.\\nTaxanes are natural and semi-synthetic drugs. The first drug of their class, paclitaxel, was originally extracted from Taxus brevifolia, the Pacific yew. Now this drug and another in this class, docetaxel, are produced semi-synthetically from a chemical found in the bark of another yew tree, Taxus baccata.\\nPodophyllotoxin is an antineoplastic lignan obtained primarily from the American mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) and Himalayan mayapple (Sinopodophyllum hexandrum). It has anti-microtubule activity, and its mechanism is similar to that of vinca alkaloids in that they bind to tubulin, inhibiting microtubule formation. Podophyllotoxin is used to produce two other drugs with different mechanisms of action: etoposide and teniposide.\\n\\nTopoisomerase inhibitors\\nTopoisomerase inhibitors are drugs that affect the activity of two enzymes: topoisomerase I and topoisomerase II. When the DNA double-strand helix is unwound, during DNA replication or transcription, for example, the adjacent unopened DNA winds tighter (supercoils), like opening the middle of a twisted rope. The stress caused by this effect is in part aided by the topoisomerase enzymes. They produce single- or double-strand breaks into DNA, reducing the tension in the DNA strand. This allows the normal unwinding of DNA to occur during replication or transcription. Inhibition of topoisomerase I or II interferes with both of these processes.\\nTwo topoisomerase I inhibitors, irinotecan and topotecan, are semi-synthetically derived from camptothecin, which is obtained from the Chinese ornamental tree Camptotheca acuminata. Drugs that target topoisomerase II can be divided into two groups. The topoisomerase II poisons cause increased levels enzymes bound to DNA. This prevents DNA replication and transcription, causes DNA strand breaks, and leads to programmed cell death (apoptosis). These agents include etoposide, doxorubicin, mitoxantrone and teniposide. The second group, catalytic inhibitors, are drugs that block the activity of topoisomerase II, and therefore prevent DNA synthesis and translation because the DNA cannot unwind properly. This group includes novobiocin, merbarone, and aclarubicin, which also have other significant mechanisms of action.\\n\\nCytotoxic antibiotics\\nThe cytotoxic antibiotics are a varied group of drugs that have various mechanisms of action. The common theme that they share in their chemotherapy indication is that they interrupt cell division. The most important subgroup is the anthracyclines and the bleomycins; other prominent examples include mitomycin C and actinomycin.\\nAmong the anthracyclines, doxorubicin and daunorubicin were the first, and were obtained from the bacterium Streptomyces peucetius. Derivatives of these compounds include epirubicin and idarubicin. Other clinically used drugs in the anthracycline group are pirarubicin, aclarubicin, and mitoxantrone. The mechanisms of anthracyclines include DNA intercalation (molecules insert between the two strands of DNA), generation of highly reactive free radicals that damage intercellular molecules and topoisomerase inhibition.\\nActinomycin is a complex molecule that intercalates DNA and prevents RNA synthesis.\\nBleomycin, a glycopeptide isolated from Streptomyces verticillus, also intercalates DNA, but produces free radicals that damage DNA. This occurs when bleomycin binds to a metal ion, becomes chemically reduced and reacts with oxygen.: 87 \\nMitomycin is a cytotoxic antibiotic with the ability to alkylate DNA.\\n\\nDelivery\\nMost chemotherapy is delivered intravenously, although a number of agents can be administered orally (e.g., melphalan, busulfan, capecitabine). According to a recent (2016) systematic review, oral therapies present additional challenges for patients and care teams to maintain and support adherence to treatment plans.\\nThere are many intravenous methods of drug delivery, known as vascular access devices. These include the winged infusion device, peripheral venous catheter, midline catheter, peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC), central venous catheter and implantable port. The devices have different applications regarding duration of chemotherapy treatment, method of delivery and types of chemotherapeutic agent.: 94–95 \\nDepending on the person, the cancer, the stage of cancer, the type of chemotherapy, and the dosage, intravenous chemotherapy may be given on either an inpatient or an outpatient basis. For continuous, frequent or prolonged intravenous chemotherapy administration, various systems may be surgically inserted into the vasculature to maintain access.: 113–118 Commonly used systems are the Hickman line, the Port-a-Cath, and the PICC line. These have a lower infection risk, are much less prone to phlebitis or extravasation, and eliminate the need for repeated insertion of peripheral cannulae.\\nIsolated limb perfusion (often used in melanoma), or isolated infusion of chemotherapy into the liver or the lung have been used to treat some tumors. The main purpose of these approaches is to deliver a very high dose of chemotherapy to tumor sites without causing overwhelming systemic damage. These approaches can help control solitary or limited metastases, but they are by definition not systemic, and, therefore, do not treat distributed metastases or micrometastases.\\nTopical chemotherapies, such as 5-fluorouracil, are used to treat some cases of non-melanoma skin cancer.\\nIf the cancer has central nervous system involvement, or with meningeal disease, intrathecal chemotherapy may be administered.\\n\\nAdverse effects\\nChemotherapeutic techniques have a range of side effects that depend on the type of medications used. The most common medications affect mainly the fast-dividing cells of the body, such as blood cells and the cells lining the mouth, stomach, and intestines. Chemotherapy-related toxicities can occur acutely after administration, within hours or days, or chronically, from weeks to years.: 265\\n\\nImmunosuppression and myelosuppression\\nVirtually all chemotherapeutic regimens can cause depression of the immune system, often by paralysing the bone marrow and leading to a decrease of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.\\nAnemia and thrombocytopenia may require blood transfusion. Neutropenia (a decrease of the neutrophil granulocyte count below 0.5 x 109/litre) can be improved with synthetic G-CSF (granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor, e.g., filgrastim, lenograstim, efbemalenograstim alfa).\\nIn very severe myelosuppression, which occurs in some regimens, almost all the bone marrow stem cells (cells that produce white and red blood cells) are destroyed, meaning allogenic or autologous bone marrow cell transplants are necessary. (In autologous BMTs, cells are removed from the person before the treatment, multiplied and then re-injected afterward; in allogenic BMTs, the source is a donor.) However, some people still develop diseases because of this interference with bone marrow.\\nAlthough people receiving chemotherapy are encouraged to wash their hands, avoid sick people, and take other infection-reducing steps, about 85% of infections are due to naturally occurring microorganisms in the person's own gastrointestinal tract (including oral cavity) and skin.: 130 This may manifest as systemic infections, such as sepsis, or as localized outbreaks, such as Herpes simplex, shingles, or other members of the Herpesviridea. The risk of illness and death can be reduced by taking common antibiotics such as quinolones or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole before any fever or sign of infection appears. Quinolones show effective prophylaxis mainly with hematological cancer. However, in general, for every five people who are immunosuppressed following chemotherapy who take an antibiotic, one fever can be prevented; for every 34 who take an antibiotic, one death can be prevented. Sometimes, chemotherapy treatments are postponed because the immune system is suppressed to a critically low level.\\nIn Japan, the government has approved the use of some medicinal mushrooms like Trametes versicolor, to counteract depression of the immune system in people undergoing chemotherapy.\\nTrilaciclib is an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 approved for the prevention of myelosuppression caused by chemotherapy. The drug is given before chemotherapy to protect bone marrow function.\\n\\nNeutropenic enterocolitis\\nDue to immune system suppression, neutropenic enterocolitis (typhlitis) is a \\\"life-threatening gastrointestinal complication of chemotherapy.\\\" Typhlitis is an intestinal infection which may manifest itself through symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, a distended abdomen, fever, chills, or abdominal pain and tenderness.\\nTyphlitis is a medical emergency. It has a very poor prognosis and is often fatal unless promptly recognized and aggressively treated. Successful treatment hinges on early diagnosis provided by a high index of suspicion and the use of CT scanning, nonoperative treatment for uncomplicated cases, and sometimes elective right hemicolectomy to prevent recurrence.\\n\\nGastrointestinal distress\\nNausea, vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and constipation are common side-effects of chemotherapeutic medications that kill fast-dividing cells. Malnutrition and dehydration can result when the recipient does not eat or drink enough, or when the person vomits frequently, because of gastrointestinal damage. This can result in rapid weight loss, or occasionally in weight gain, if the person eats too much in an effort to allay nausea or heartburn. Weight gain can also be caused by some steroid medications. These side-effects can frequently be reduced or eliminated with antiemetic drugs. Low-certainty evidence also suggests that probiotics may have a preventative and treatment effect of diarrhoea related to chemotherapy alone and with radiotherapy. However, a high index of suspicion is appropriate, since diarrhoea and bloating are also symptoms of typhlitis, a very serious and potentially life-threatening medical emergency that requires immediate treatment.\\n\\nAnemia\\nAnemia can be a combined outcome caused by myelosuppressive chemotherapy, and possible cancer-related causes such as bleeding, blood cell destruction (hemolysis), hereditary disease, kidney dysfunction, nutritional deficiencies or anemia of chronic disease. Treatments to mitigate anemia include hormones to boost blood production (erythropoietin), iron supplements, and blood transfusions. Myelosuppressive therapy can cause a tendency to bleed easily, leading to anemia. Medications that kill rapidly dividing cells or blood cells can reduce the number of platelets in the blood, which can result in bruises and bleeding. Extremely low platelet counts may be temporarily boosted through platelet transfusions and new drugs to increase platelet counts during chemotherapy are being developed. Sometimes, chemotherapy treatments are postponed to allow platelet counts to recover.\\nFatigue may be a consequence of the cancer or its treatment, and can last for months to years after treatment. One physiological cause of fatigue is anemia, which can be caused by chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy, primary and metastatic disease or nutritional depletion. Aerobic exercise has been found to be beneficial in reducing fatigue in people with solid tumours.\\n\\nNausea and vomiting\\nNausea and vomiting are two of the most feared cancer treatment-related side-effects for people with cancer and their families. In 1983, Coates et al. found that people receiving chemotherapy ranked nausea and vomiting as the first and second most severe side-effects, respectively. Up to 20% of people receiving highly emetogenic agents in this era postponed, or even refused potentially curative treatments. Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) are common with many treatments and some forms of cancer. Since the 1990s, several novel classes of antiemetics have been developed and commercialized, becoming a nearly universal standard in chemotherapy regimens, and helping to successfully manage these symptoms in many people. Effective mediation of these unpleasant and sometimes debilitating symptoms results in increased quality of life for the recipient and more efficient treatment cycles, due to less stoppage of treatment due to better tolerance and better overall health.\\n\\nHair loss\\nHair loss (alopecia) can be caused by chemotherapy that kills rapidly dividing cells; other medications may cause hair to thin. These are most often temporary effects: hair usually starts to regrow a few weeks after the last treatment, but sometimes with a change in color, texture, thickness or style. Sometimes hair has a tendency to curl after regrowth, resulting in \\\"chemo curls.\\\" Severe hair loss occurs most often with drugs such as doxorubicin, daunorubicin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide and etoposide. Permanent thinning or hair loss can result from some standard chemotherapy regimens.\\nChemotherapy induced hair loss occurs by a non-androgenic mechanism, and can manifest as alopecia totalis, telogen effluvium, or less often alopecia areata. It is usually associated with systemic treatment due to the high mitotic rate of hair follicles, and more reversible than androgenic hair loss, although permanent cases can occur. Chemotherapy induces hair loss in women more often than men.\\nScalp cooling offers a means of preventing both permanent and temporary hair loss; however, concerns about this method have been raised.\\n\\nSecondary neoplasm\\nDevelopment of secondary neoplasia after successful chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment can occur. The most common secondary neoplasm is secondary acute myeloid leukemia, which develops primarily after treatment with alkylating agents or topoisomerase inhibitors. Survivors of childhood cancer are more than 13 times as likely to get a secondary neoplasm during the 30 years after treatment than the general population. Not all of this increase can be attributed to chemotherapy.\\n\\nInfertility\\nSome types of chemotherapy are gonadotoxic and may cause infertility. Chemotherapies with high risk include procarbazine and other alkylating drugs such as cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, busulfan, melphalan, chlorambucil, and chlormethine. Drugs with medium risk include doxorubicin and platinum analogs such as cisplatin and carboplatin. On the other hand, therapies with low risk of gonadotoxicity include plant derivatives such as vincristine and vinblastine, antibiotics such as bleomycin and dactinomycin, and antimetabolites such as methotrexate, mercaptopurine, and 5-fluorouracil.\\nFemale infertility by chemotherapy appears to be secondary to premature ovarian failure by loss of primordial follicles. This loss is not necessarily a direct effect of the chemotherapeutic agents, but could be due to an increased rate of growth initiation to replace damaged developing follicles.\\nPeople may choose between several methods of fertility preservation prior to chemotherapy, including cryopreservation of semen, ovarian tissue, oocytes, or embryos. As more than half of cancer patients are elderly, this adverse effect is only relevant for a minority of patients. A study in France between 1999 and 2011 came to the result that embryo freezing before administration of gonadotoxic agents to females caused a delay of treatment in 34% of cases, and a live birth in 27% of surviving cases who wanted to become pregnant, with the follow-up time varying between 1 and 13 years.\\nPotential protective or attenuating agents include GnRH analogs, where several studies have shown a protective effect in vivo in humans, but some studies show no such effect. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) has shown similar effect, but its mechanism of inhibiting the sphingomyelin apoptotic pathway may also interfere with the apoptosis action of chemotherapy drugs.\\nIn chemotherapy as a conditioning regimen in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, a study of people conditioned with cyclophosphamide alone for severe aplastic anemia came to the result that ovarian recovery occurred in all women younger than 26 years at time of transplantation, but only in five of 16 women older than 26 years.\\n\\nTeratogenicity\\nChemotherapy is teratogenic during pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, to the extent that abortion usually is recommended if pregnancy in this period is found during chemotherapy. Second- and third-trimester exposure does not usually increase the teratogenic risk and adverse effects on cognitive development, but it may increase the risk of various complications of pregnancy and fetal myelosuppression. \\nFemale patients of reproductive potential should use effective contraception during chemotherapy and for a few months after the last dose (e.g. 6 month for doxorubicin).\\nIn males previously having undergone chemotherapy or radiotherapy, there appears to be no increase in genetic defects or congenital malformations in their children conceived after therapy. The use of assisted reproductive technologies and micromanipulation techniques might increase this risk. In females previously having undergone chemotherapy, miscarriage and congenital malformations are not increased in subsequent conceptions. However, when in vitro fertilization and embryo cryopreservation is practised between or shortly after treatment, possible genetic risks to the growing oocytes exist, and hence it has been recommended that the babies be screened.\\n\\nPeripheral neuropathy\\nBetween 30 and 40 percent of people undergoing chemotherapy experience chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), a progressive, enduring, and often irreversible condition, causing pain, tingling, numbness and sensitivity to cold, beginning in the hands and feet and sometimes progressing to the arms and legs. Chemotherapy drugs associated with CIPN include thalidomide, epothilones, vinca alkaloids, taxanes, proteasome inhibitors, and the platinum-based drugs. Whether CIPN arises, and to what degree, is determined by the choice of drug, duration of use, the total amount consumed and whether the person already has peripheral neuropathy. Though the symptoms are mainly sensory, in some cases motor nerves and the autonomic nervous system are affected. CIPN often follows the first chemotherapy dose and increases in severity as treatment continues, but this progression usually levels off at completion of treatment. The platinum-based drugs are the exception; with these drugs, sensation may continue to deteriorate for several months after the end of treatment. Some CIPN appears to be irreversible. Pain can often be managed with drug or other treatment but the numbness is usually resistant to treatment.\\n\\nCognitive impairment\\nSome people receiving chemotherapy report fatigue or non-specific neurocognitive problems, such as an inability to concentrate; this is sometimes called post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment, referred to as \\\"chemo brain\\\" in popular and social media.\\n\\nTumor lysis syndrome\\nIn particularly large tumors and cancers with high white cell counts, such as lymphomas, teratomas, and some leukemias, some people develop tumor lysis syndrome. The rapid breakdown of cancer cells causes the release of chemicals from the inside of the cells. Following this, high levels of uric acid, potassium and phosphate are found in the blood. High levels of phosphate induce secondary hypoparathyroidism, resulting in low levels of calcium in the blood. This causes kidney damage and the high levels of potassium can cause cardiac arrhythmia. Although prophylaxis is available and is often initiated in people with large tumors, this is a dangerous side-effect that can lead to death if left untreated.: 202\\n\\nOrgan damage\\nCardiotoxicity (heart damage) is especially prominent with the use of anthracycline drugs (doxorubicin, epirubicin, idarubicin, and liposomal doxorubicin). The cause of this is most likely due to the production of free radicals in the cell and subsequent DNA damage. Other chemotherapeutic agents that cause cardiotoxicity, but at a lower incidence, are cyclophosphamide, docetaxel and clofarabine.\\nHepatotoxicity (liver damage) can be caused by many cytotoxic drugs. The susceptibility of an individual to liver damage can be altered by other factors such as the cancer itself, viral hepatitis, immunosuppression and nutritional deficiency. The liver damage can consist of damage to liver cells, hepatic sinusoidal syndrome (obstruction of the veins in the liver), cholestasis (where bile does not flow from the liver to the intestine) and liver fibrosis.\\nNephrotoxicity (kidney damage) can be caused by tumor lysis syndrome and also due direct effects of drug clearance by the kidneys. Different drugs will affect different parts of the kidney and the toxicity may be asymptomatic (only seen on blood or urine tests) or may cause acute kidney injury.\\n\\nOtotoxicity (damage to the inner ear) is a common side effect of platinum based drugs that can produce symptoms such as dizziness and vertigo. Children treated with platinum analogues have been found to be at risk for developing hearing loss.\\n\\nOther side-effects\\nLess common side-effects include red skin (erythema), dry skin, damaged fingernails, a dry mouth (xerostomia), water retention, and sexual impotence. Some medications can trigger allergic or pseudoallergic reactions.\\nSpecific chemotherapeutic agents are associated with organ-specific toxicities, including cardiovascular disease (e.g., doxorubicin), interstitial lung disease (e.g., bleomycin) and occasionally secondary neoplasm (e.g., MOPP therapy for Hodgkin's disease).\\nHand-foot syndrome is another side effect to cytotoxic chemotherapy.\\nNutritional problems are also frequently seen in cancer patients at diagnosis and through chemotherapy treatment. Research suggests that in children and young people undergoing cancer treatment, parenteral nutrition may help with this leading to weight gain and increased calorie and protein intake, when compared to enteral nutrition.\\n\\nLimitations\\nChemotherapy does not always work, and even when it is useful, it may not completely destroy the cancer. People frequently fail to understand its limitations. In one study of people who had been newly diagnosed with incurable, stage 4 cancer, more than two-thirds of people with lung cancer and more than four-fifths of people with colorectal cancer still believed that chemotherapy was likely to cure their cancer.\\nThe blood–brain barrier poses an obstacle to delivery of chemotherapy to the brain. This is because the brain has an extensive system in place to protect it from harmful chemicals. Drug transporters can pump out drugs from the brain and brain's blood vessel cells into the cerebrospinal fluid and blood circulation. These transporters pump out most chemotherapy drugs, which reduces their efficacy for treatment of brain tumors. Only small lipophilic alkylating agents such as lomustine or temozolomide are able to cross this blood–brain barrier.\\nBlood vessels in tumors are very different from those seen in normal tissues. As a tumor grows, tumor cells furthest away from the blood vessels become low in oxygen (hypoxic). To counteract this they then signal for new blood vessels to grow. The newly formed tumor vasculature is poorly formed and does not deliver an adequate blood supply to all areas of the tumor. This leads to issues with drug delivery because many drugs will be delivered to the tumor by the circulatory system.\\n\\nResistance\\nResistance is a major cause of treatment failure in chemotherapeutic drugs. There are a few possible causes of resistance in cancer, one of which is the presence of small pumps on the surface of cancer cells that actively move chemotherapy from inside the cell to the outside. Cancer cells produce high amounts of these pumps, known as p-glycoprotein, in order to protect themselves from chemotherapeutics. Research on p-glycoprotein and other such chemotherapy efflux pumps is currently ongoing. Medications to inhibit the function of p-glycoprotein are undergoing investigation, but due to toxicities and interactions with anti-cancer drugs their development has been difficult. Another mechanism of resistance is gene amplification, a process in which multiple copies of a gene are produced by cancer cells. This overcomes the effect of drugs that reduce the expression of genes involved in replication. With more copies of the gene, the drug can not prevent all expression of the gene and therefore the cell can restore its proliferative ability. Cancer cells can also cause defects in the cellular pathways of apoptosis (programmed cell death). As most chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells in this manner, defective apoptosis allows survival of these cells, making them resistant. Many chemotherapy drugs also cause DNA damage, which can be repaired by enzymes in the cell that carry out DNA repair. Upregulation of these genes can overcome the DNA damage and prevent the induction of apoptosis. Mutations in genes that produce drug target proteins, such as tubulin, can occur which prevent the drugs from binding to the protein, leading to resistance to these types of drugs. Drugs used in chemotherapy can induce cell stress, which can kill a cancer cell; however, under certain conditions, cells stress can induce changes in gene expression that enables resistance to several types of drugs. In lung cancer, the transcription factor NFκB is thought to play a role in resistance to chemotherapy, via inflammatory pathways.\\n\\nCytotoxics and targeted therapies\\nTargeted therapies are a relatively new class of cancer drugs that can overcome many of the issues seen with the use of cytotoxics. They are divided into two groups: small molecule and antibodies. The massive toxicity seen with the use of cytotoxics is due to the lack of cell specificity of the drugs. They will kill any rapidly dividing cell, tumor or normal. Targeted therapies are designed to affect cellular proteins or processes that are utilised by the cancer cells. This allows a high dose to cancer tissues with a relatively low dose to other tissues. Although the side effects are often less severe than that seen of cytotoxic chemotherapeutics, life-threatening effects can occur. Initially, the targeted therapeutics were supposed to be solely selective for one protein. Now it is clear that there is often a range of protein targets that the drug can bind. An example target for targeted therapy is the BCR-ABL1 protein produced from the Philadelphia chromosome, a genetic lesion found commonly in chronic myelogenous leukemia and in some patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This fusion protein has enzyme activity that can be inhibited by imatinib, a small molecule drug.\\n\\nMechanism of action\\nCancer is the uncontrolled growth of cells coupled with malignant behaviour: invasion and metastasis (among other features). It is caused by the interaction between genetic susceptibility and environmental factors. These factors lead to accumulations of genetic mutations in oncogenes (genes that control the growth rate of cells) and tumor suppressor genes (genes that help to prevent cancer), which gives cancer cells their malignant characteristics, such as uncontrolled growth.: 93–94 \\nIn the broad sense, most chemotherapeutic drugs work by impairing mitosis (cell division), effectively targeting fast-dividing cells. As these drugs cause damage to cells, they are termed cytotoxic. They prevent mitosis by various mechanisms including damaging DNA and inhibition of the cellular machinery involved in cell division. One theory as to why these drugs kill cancer cells is that they induce a programmed form of cell death known as apoptosis.\\nAs chemotherapy affects cell division, tumors with high growth rates (such as acute myelogenous leukemia and the aggressive lymphomas, including Hodgkin's disease) are more sensitive to chemotherapy, as a larger proportion of the targeted cells are undergoing cell division at any time. Malignancies with slower growth rates, such as indolent lymphomas, tend to respond to chemotherapy much more modestly. Heterogeneic tumours may also display varying sensitivities to chemotherapy agents, depending on the subclonal populations within the tumor.\\nCells from the immune system also make crucial contributions to the antitumor effects of chemotherapy. For example, the chemotherapeutic drugs oxaliplatin and cyclophosphamide can cause tumor cells to die in a way that is detectable by the immune system (called immunogenic cell death), which mobilizes immune cells with antitumor functions. Chemotherapeutic drugs that cause cancer immunogenic tumor cell death can make unresponsive tumors sensitive to immune checkpoint therapy.\\n\\nOther uses\\nSome chemotherapy drugs are used in diseases other than cancer, such as in autoimmune disorders, and noncancerous plasma cell dyscrasia. In some cases they are often used at lower doses, which means that the side effects are minimized, while in other cases doses similar to ones used to treat cancer are used. Methotrexate is used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis and multiple sclerosis. The anti-inflammatory response seen in RA is thought to be due to increases in adenosine, which causes immunosuppression; effects on immuno-regulatory cyclooxygenase-2 enzyme pathways; reduction in pro-inflammatory cytokines; and anti-proliferative properties. Although methotrexate is used to treat both multiple sclerosis and ankylosing spondylitis, its efficacy in these diseases is still uncertain. Cyclophosphamide is sometimes used to treat lupus nephritis, a common symptom of systemic lupus erythematosus. Dexamethasone along with either bortezomib or melphalan is commonly used as a treatment for AL amyloidosis. Recently, bortezomid in combination with cyclophosphamide and dexamethasone has also shown promise as a treatment for AL amyloidosis. Other drugs used to treat myeloma such as lenalidomide have shown promise in treating AL amyloidosis.\\nChemotherapy drugs are also used in conditioning regimens prior to bone marrow transplant (hematopoietic stem cell transplant). Conditioning regimens are used to suppress the recipient's immune system in order to allow a transplant to engraft. Cyclophosphamide is a common cytotoxic drug used in this manner and is often used in conjunction with total body irradiation. Chemotherapeutic drugs may be used at high doses to permanently remove the recipient's bone marrow cells (myeloablative conditioning) or at lower doses that will prevent permanent bone marrow loss (non-myeloablative and reduced intensity conditioning). When used in non-cancer setting, the treatment is still called \\\"chemotherapy\\\", and is often done in the same treatment centers used for people with cancer.\\n\\nOccupational exposure and safe handling\\nIn the 1970s, antineoplastic (chemotherapy) drugs were identified as hazardous, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) has since then introduced the concept of hazardous drugs after publishing a recommendation in 1983 regarding handling hazardous drugs. The adaptation of federal regulations came when the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) first released its guidelines in 1986 and then updated them in 1996, 1999, and, most recently, 2006.\\nThe National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been conducting an assessment in the workplace since then regarding these drugs. Occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs has been linked to multiple health effects, including infertility and possible carcinogenic effects. A few cases have been reported by the NIOSH alert report, such as one in which a female pharmacist was diagnosed with papillary transitional cell carcinoma. Twelve years before the pharmacist was diagnosed with the condition, she had worked for 20 months in a hospital where she was responsible for preparing multiple antineoplastic drugs. The pharmacist did not have any other risk factor for cancer, and therefore, her cancer was attributed to the exposure to the antineoplastic drugs, although a cause-and-effect relationship has not been established in the literature. Another case happened when a malfunction in biosafety cabinetry is believed to have exposed nursing personnel to antineoplastic drugs. Investigations revealed evidence of genotoxic biomarkers two and nine months after that exposure.\\n\\nRoutes of exposure\\nAntineoplastic drugs are usually given through intravenous, intramuscular, intrathecal, or subcutaneous administration. In most cases, before the medication is administered to the patient, it needs to be prepared and handled by several workers. Any worker who is involved in handling, preparing, or administering the drugs, or with cleaning objects that have come into contact with antineoplastic drugs, is potentially exposed to hazardous drugs. Health care workers are exposed to drugs in different circumstances, such as when pharmacists and pharmacy technicians prepare and handle antineoplastic drugs and when nurses and physicians administer the drugs to patients. Additionally, those who are responsible for disposing antineoplastic drugs in health care facilities are also at risk of exposure.\\nDermal exposure is thought to be the main route of exposure due to the fact that significant amounts of the antineoplastic agents have been found in the gloves worn by healthcare workers who prepare, handle, and administer the agents. Another noteworthy route of exposure is inhalation of the drugs' vapors. Multiple studies have investigated inhalation as a route of exposure, and although air sampling has not shown any dangerous levels, it is still a potential route of exposure. Ingestion by hand to mouth is a route of exposure that is less likely compared to others because of the enforced hygienic standard in the health institutions. However, it is still a potential route, especially in the workplace, outside of a health institute. One can also be exposed to these hazardous drugs through injection by needle sticks. Research conducted in this area has established that occupational exposure occurs by examining evidence in multiple urine samples from health care workers.\\n\\nHazards\\nHazardous drugs expose health care workers to serious health risks. Many studies show that antineoplastic drugs could have many side effects on the reproductive system, such as fetal loss, congenital malformation, and infertility. Health care workers who are exposed to antineoplastic drugs on many occasions have adverse reproductive outcomes such as spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, and congenital malformations. Moreover, studies have shown that exposure to these drugs leads to menstrual cycle irregularities. Antineoplastic drugs may also increase the risk of learning disabilities among children of health care workers who are exposed to these hazardous substances.\\nMoreover, these drugs have carcinogenic effects. In the past five decades, multiple studies have shown the carcinogenic effects of exposure to antineoplastic drugs. Similarly, there have been research studies that linked alkylating agents with humans developing leukemias. Studies have reported elevated risk of breast cancer, nonmelanoma skin cancer, and cancer of the rectum among nurses who are exposed to these drugs. Other investigations revealed that there is a potential genotoxic effect from anti-neoplastic drugs to workers in health care settings.\\n\\nSafe handling in health care settings\\nAs of 2018, there were no occupational exposure limits set for antineoplastic drugs, i.e., OSHA or the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) have not set workplace safety guidelines.\\n\\nPreparation\\nNIOSH recommends using a ventilated cabinet that is designed to decrease worker exposure. Additionally, it recommends training of all staff, the use of cabinets, implementing an initial evaluation of the technique of the safety program, and wearing protective gloves and gowns when opening drug packaging, handling vials, or labeling. When wearing personal protective equipment, one should inspect gloves for physical defects before use and always wear double gloves and protective gowns. Health care workers are also required to wash their hands with water and soap before and after working with antineoplastic drugs, change gloves every 30 minutes or whenever punctured, and discard them immediately in a chemotherapy waste container.\\nThe gowns used should be disposable gowns made of polyethylene-coated polypropylene. When wearing gowns, individuals should make sure that the gowns are closed and have long sleeves. When preparation is done, the final product should be completely sealed in a plastic bag.\\nThe health care worker should also wipe all waste containers inside the ventilated cabinet before removing them from the cabinet. Finally, workers should remove all protective wear and put them in a bag for their disposal inside the ventilated cabinet.\\n\\nAdministration\\nDrugs should only be administered using protective medical devices such as needle lists and closed systems and techniques such as priming of IV tubing by pharmacy personnel inside a ventilated cabinet. Workers should always wear personal protective equipment such as double gloves, goggles, and protective gowns when opening the outer bag and assembling the delivery system to deliver the drug to the patient, and when disposing of all material used in the administration of the drugs.\\nHospital workers should never remove tubing from an IV bag that contains an antineoplastic drug, and when disconnecting the tubing in the system, they should make sure the tubing has been thoroughly flushed. After removing the IV bag, the workers should place it together with other disposable items directly in the yellow chemotherapy waste container with the lid closed. Protective equipment should be removed and put into a disposable chemotherapy waste container. After this has been done, one should double bag the chemotherapy waste before or after removing one's inner gloves. Moreover, one must always wash one's hands with soap and water before leaving the drug administration site.\\n\\nEmployee training\\nAll employees whose jobs in health care facilities expose them to hazardous drugs must receive training. Training should include shipping and receiving personnel, housekeepers, pharmacists, assistants, and all individuals involved in the transportation and storage of antineoplastic drugs. These individuals should receive information and training to inform them of the hazards of the drugs present in their areas of work. They should be informed and trained on operations and procedures in their work areas where they can encounter hazards, different methods used to detect the presence of hazardous drugs and how the hazards are released, and the physical and health hazards of the drugs, including their reproductive and carcinogenic hazard potential. Additionally, they should be informed and trained on the measures they should take to avoid and protect themselves from these hazards. This information ought to be provided when health care workers come into contact with the drugs, that is, perform the initial assignment in a work area with hazardous drugs. Moreover, training should also be provided when new hazards emerge as well as when new drugs, procedures, or equipment are introduced.\\n\\nHousekeeping and waste disposal\\nWhen performing cleaning and decontaminating the work area where antineoplastic drugs are used, one should make sure that there is sufficient ventilation to prevent the buildup of airborne drug concentrations. When cleaning the work surface, hospital workers should use deactivation and cleaning agents before and after each activity as well as at the end of their shifts. Cleaning should always be done using double protective gloves and disposable gowns. After employees finish up cleaning, they should dispose of the items used in the activity in a yellow chemotherapy waste container while still wearing protective gloves. After removing the gloves, they should thoroughly wash their hands with soap and water. Anything that comes into contact or has a trace of the antineoplastic drugs, such as needles, empty vials, syringes, gowns, and gloves, should be put in the chemotherapy waste container.\\n\\nSpill control\\nA written policy needs to be in place in case of a spill of antineoplastic products. The policy should address the possibility of various sizes of spills as well as the procedure and personal protective equipment required for each size. A trained worker should handle a large spill and always dispose of all cleanup materials in the chemical waste container according to EPA regulations, not in a yellow chemotherapy waste container.\\n\\nOccupational monitoring\\nA medical surveillance program must be established. In case of exposure, occupational health professionals need to ask for a detailed history and do a thorough physical exam. They should test the urine of the potentially exposed worker by doing a urine dipstick or microscopic examination, mainly looking for blood, as several antineoplastic drugs are known to cause bladder damage.\\nUrinary mutagenicity is a marker of exposure to antineoplastic drugs that was first used by Falck and colleagues in 1979 and uses bacterial mutagenicity assays. Apart from being nonspecific, the test can be influenced by extraneous factors such as dietary intake and smoking and is, therefore, used sparingly. However, the test played a significant role in changing the use of horizontal flow cabinets to vertical flow biological safety cabinets during the preparation of antineoplastic drugs because the former exposed health care workers to high levels of drugs. This changed the handling of drugs and effectively reduced workers' exposure to antineoplastic drugs.\\nBiomarkers of exposure to antineoplastic drugs commonly include urinary platinum, methotrexate, urinary cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide, and urinary metabolite of 5-fluorouracil. In addition to this, there are other drugs used to measure the drugs directly in the urine, although they are rarely used. A measurement of these drugs directly in one's urine is a sign of high exposure levels and that an uptake of the drugs is happening either through inhalation or dermally.\\n\\nAvailable agents\\nThere is an extensive list of antineoplastic agents. Several classification schemes have been used to subdivide the medicines used for cancer into several different types.\\n\\nHistory\\nThe first use of small-molecule drugs to treat cancer was in the early 20th century, although the specific chemicals first used were not originally intended for that purpose. Mustard gas was used as a chemical warfare agent during World War I and was discovered to be a potent suppressor of hematopoiesis (blood production). A similar family of compounds known as nitrogen mustards were studied further during World War II at the Yale School of Medicine. It was reasoned that an agent that damaged the rapidly growing white blood cells might have a similar effect on cancer. Therefore, in December 1942, several people with advanced lymphomas (cancers of the lymphatic system and lymph nodes) were given the drug by vein, rather than by breathing the irritating gas. Their improvement, although temporary, was remarkable. Concurrently, during a military operation in World War II, following a German air raid on the Italian harbour of Bari, several hundred people were accidentally exposed to mustard gas, which had been transported there by the Allied forces to prepare for possible retaliation in the event of German use of chemical warfare. The survivors were later found to have very low white blood cell counts. After WWII was over and the reports declassified, the experiences converged and led researchers to look for other substances that might have similar effects against cancer. The first chemotherapy drug to be developed from this line of research was mustine. Since then, many other drugs have been developed to treat cancer, and drug development has exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry, although the principles and limitations of chemotherapy discovered by the early researchers still apply.\\n\\nThe term chemotherapy\\nThe word chemotherapy without a modifier usually refers to cancer treatment, but its historical meaning was broader. The term was coined in the early 1900s by Paul Ehrlich as meaning any use of chemicals to treat any disease (chemo- + -therapy), such as the use of antibiotics (antibacterial chemotherapy). Ehrlich was not optimistic that effective chemotherapy drugs would be found for the treatment of cancer. The first modern chemotherapeutic agent was arsphenamine, an arsenic compound discovered in 1907 and used to treat syphilis. This was later followed by sulfonamides (sulfa drugs) and penicillin. In today's usage, the sense \\\"any treatment of disease with drugs\\\" is often expressed with the word pharmacotherapy. In terms of metaphorical language, 'chemotherapy' can be paralleled with the idea of a 'storm', as both can cause distress but afterwards may have a healing/cleaning effect.\\n\\nResearch\\nTargeted delivery vehicles\\nSpecially targeted delivery vehicles aim to increase effective levels of chemotherapy for tumor cells while reducing effective levels for other cells. This should result in an increased tumor kill or reduced toxicity or both.\\n\\nAntibody-drug conjugates\\nAntibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) comprise an antibody, drug and a linker between them. The antibody will be targeted at a preferentially expressed protein in the tumour cells (known as a tumor antigen) or on cells that the tumor can utilise, such as blood vessel endothelial cells. They bind to the tumor antigen and are internalised, where the linker releases the drug into the cell. These specially targeted delivery vehicles vary in their stability, selectivity, and choice of target, but, in essence, they all aim to increase the maximum effective dose that can be delivered to the tumor cells. Reduced systemic toxicity means that they can also be used in people who are sicker and that they can carry new chemotherapeutic agents that would have been far too toxic to deliver via traditional systemic approaches.\\nThe first approved drug of this type was gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg), released by Wyeth (now Pfizer). The drug was approved to treat acute myeloid leukemia. Two other drugs, trastuzumab emtansine and brentuximab vedotin, are both in late clinical trials, and the latter has been granted accelerated approval for the treatment of refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma and systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma.\\n\\nNanoparticles\\nNanoparticles are 1–1000 nanometer (nm) sized particles that can promote tumor selectivity and aid in delivering low-solubility drugs. Nanoparticles can be targeted passively or actively. Passive targeting exploits the difference between tumor blood vessels and normal blood vessels. Blood vessels in tumors are \\\"leaky\\\" because they have gaps from 200 to 2000 nm, which allow nanoparticles to escape into the tumor. Active targeting uses biological molecules (antibodies, proteins, DNA and receptor ligands) to preferentially target the nanoparticles to the tumor cells. There are many types of nanoparticle delivery systems, such as silica, polymers, liposomes and magnetic particles. Nanoparticles made of magnetic material can also be used to concentrate agents at tumor sites using an externally applied magnetic field. They have emerged as a useful vehicle in magnetic drug delivery for poorly soluble agents such as paclitaxel.\\n\\nElectrochemotherapy\\nElectrochemotherapy is the combined treatment in which injection of a chemotherapeutic drug is followed by application of high-voltage electric pulses locally to the tumor. The treatment enables the chemotherapeutic drugs, which otherwise cannot or hardly go through the membrane of cells (such as bleomycin and cisplatin), to enter the cancer cells. Hence, greater effectiveness of antitumor treatment is achieved.\\nClinical electrochemotherapy has been successfully used for treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors irrespective of their histological origin. The method has been reported as safe, simple and highly effective in all reports on clinical use of electrochemotherapy. According to the ESOPE project (European Standard Operating Procedures of Electrochemotherapy), the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for electrochemotherapy were prepared, based on the experience of the leading European cancer centres on electrochemotherapy. Recently, new electrochemotherapy modalities have been developed for treatment of internal tumors using surgical procedures, endoscopic routes or percutaneous approaches to gain access to the treatment area.\\n\\nHyperthermia therapy\\nHyperthermia therapy is heat treatment for cancer that can be a powerful tool when used in combination with chemotherapy (thermochemotherapy) or radiation for the control of a variety of cancers. The heat can be applied locally to the tumor site, which will dilate blood vessels to the tumor, allowing more chemotherapeutic medication to enter the tumor. Additionally, the tumor cell membrane will become more porous, further allowing more of the chemotherapeutic medicine to enter the tumor cell.\\nHyperthermia has also been shown to help prevent or reverse \\\"chemo-resistance.\\\" Chemotherapy resistance sometimes develops over time as the tumors adapt and can overcome the toxicity of the chemo medication. \\\"Overcoming chemoresistance has been extensively studied within the past, especially using CDDP-resistant cells. In regard to the potential benefit that drug-resistant cells can be recruited for effective therapy by combining chemotherapy with hyperthermia, it was important to show that chemoresistance against several anticancer drugs (e.g. mitomycin C, anthracyclines, BCNU, melphalan) including CDDP could be reversed at least partially by the addition of heat.\\n\\nOther animals\\nChemotherapy is used in veterinary medicine similar to how it is used in human medicine.\\n\\nSee also\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nChemotherapy, American Cancer Society\\nHazardous Drug Exposures in Health Care, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health\\nNIOSH List of Antineoplastic and Other Hazardous Drugs in Healthcare Settings, 2016, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health\\nWikiversity page for the International Ototoxicity Management Group: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/International_Ototoxicity_Management_Group_(IOMG)\",\n \"title\": \"Chemotherapy\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 4,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Mustard gas or sulfur mustard are names commonly used for the organosulfur chemical compound bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, which has the chemical structure S(CH2CH2Cl)2, as well as other species. In the wider sense, compounds with the substituents −SCH2CH2X or −N(CH2CH2X)2 are known as sulfur mustards or nitrogen mustards, respectively, where X = Cl or Br. Such compounds are potent alkylating agents, making mustard gas acutely and severely toxic. Mustard gas is a carcinogen. There is no preventative agent against mustard gas, with protection depending entirely on skin and airways protection, and no antidote exists for mustard poisoning.\\nAlso known as mustard agents, this family of compounds comprises infamous cytotoxins and blister agents with a long history of use as chemical weapons. The name mustard gas is technically incorrect; the substances, when dispersed, are often not gases but a fine mist of liquid droplets that can be readily absorbed through the skin and by inhalation. The skin can be affected by contact with either the liquid or vapor. The rate of penetration into skin is proportional to dose, temperature and humidity. \\nSulfur mustards are viscous liquids at room temperature and have an odor resembling mustard plants, garlic, or horseradish, hence the name. When pure, they are colorless, but when used in impure forms, such as in warfare, they are usually yellow-brown. Mustard gases form blisters on exposed skin and in the lungs, often resulting in prolonged illness ending in death.\\n\\nHistory as chemical weapons\\nSulfur mustard is a type of chemical warfare agent. As a chemical weapon, mustard gas was first used in World War I, and has been used in several armed conflicts since then, including the Iran–Iraq War, resulting in more than 100,000 casualties. Sulfur-based and nitrogen-based mustard agents are regulated under Schedule 1 of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, as substances with few uses other than in chemical warfare. Mustard agents can be deployed by means of artillery shells, aerial bombs, rockets, or by spraying from aircraft.\\n\\nAdverse health effects\\nMustard gases have powerful blistering effects on victims. They are also carcinogenic and mutagenic alkylating agents. Their high lipophilicity accelerates their absorption into the body. Because mustard agents often do not elicit immediate symptoms, contaminated areas may appear normal. Within 24 hours of exposure, victims experience intense itching and skin irritation. If this irritation goes untreated, blisters filled with pus can form wherever the agent contacted the skin. As chemical burns, these are severely debilitating. \\nIf the victim's eyes were exposed, then they become sore, starting with conjunctivitis (also known as pink eye), after which the eyelids swell, resulting in temporary blindness. Extreme ocular exposure to mustard gas vapors may result in corneal ulceration, anterior chamber scarring, and neovascularization. In these severe and infrequent cases, corneal transplantation has been used as a treatment option. Miosis, when the pupil constricts more than usual, may also occur, which may be the result of the cholinomimetic activity of mustard. If inhaled in high concentrations, mustard agents cause bleeding and blistering within the respiratory system, damaging mucous membranes and causing pulmonary edema. Depending on the level of contamination, mustard agent burns can vary between first and second degree burns. They can also be as severe, disfiguring, and dangerous as third degree burns. Some 80% of sulfur mustard in contact with the skin evaporates, while 10% stays in the skin and 10% is absorbed and circulated in the blood.\\nThe carcinogenic and mutagenic effects of exposure to mustard gas increase the risk of developing cancer later in life. In a study of patients 25 years after wartime exposure to chemical weaponry, c-DNA microarray profiling indicated that 122 genes were significantly mutated in the lungs and airways of mustard gas victims. Those genes all correspond to functions commonly affected by mustard gas exposure, including apoptosis, inflammation, and stress responses. The long-term ocular complications include burning, tearing, itching, photophobia, presbyopia, pain, and foreign-body sensations.\\n\\nMedical management\\nIn a rinse-wipe-rinse sequence, skin is decontaminated of mustard gas by washing with liquid soap and water, or an absorbent powder. The eyes should be thoroughly rinsed using saline or clean water. A topical analgesic is used to relieve skin pain during decontamination.\\nThe blistering effects of mustard gas can be neutralized by decontamination solutions such as \\\"DS2\\\" (2% NaOH, 70% diethylenetriamine, 28% 2-methoxyethanol). For skin lesions, topical treatments, such as calamine lotion, steroids, and oral antihistamines are used to relieve itching. Larger blisters are irrigated repeatedly with saline or soapy water, then treated with an antibiotic and petroleum gauze.\\nMustard agent burns do not heal quickly and (as with other types of burns) present a risk of sepsis caused by pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The mechanisms behind mustard gas's effect on endothelial cells are still being studied, but recent studies have shown that high levels of exposure can induce high rates of both necrosis and apoptosis. In vitro tests have shown that at low concentrations of mustard gas, where apoptosis is the predominant result of exposure, pretreatment with 50 mM N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) was able to decrease the rate of apoptosis. NAC protects actin filaments from reorganization by mustard gas, demonstrating that actin filaments play a large role in the severe burns observed in victims.\\nA British nurse treating soldiers with mustard agent burns during World War I commented:\\n\\nThey cannot be bandaged or touched. We cover them with a tent of propped-up sheets. Gas burns must be agonizing because usually the other cases do not complain, even with the worst wounds, but gas cases are invariably beyond endurance and they cannot help crying out.\\n\\nMechanism of cellular toxicity\\nSulfur mustards readily eliminate chloride ions by intramolecular nucleophilic substitution to form cyclic sulfonium ions. These very reactive intermediates tend to permanently alkylate nucleotides in DNA strands, which can prevent cellular division, leading to programmed cell death. Alternatively, if cell death is not immediate, the damaged DNA can lead to the development of cancer. Oxidative stress would be another pathology involved in mustard gas toxicity.\\nIn the wider sense, compounds with the structural element BC2H4X, where X is any leaving group and B is a Lewis base, are known as mustards. Such compounds can form cyclic \\\"onium\\\" ions (sulfonium, ammonium, etc.) that are good alkylating agents. Other such compounds are bis(2-haloethyl)ethers (oxygen mustards), the (2-haloethyl)amines (nitrogen mustards), and sesquimustard, which has two α-chloroethyl thioether groups (ClC2H4S−) connected by an ethylene bridge (−C2H4−). These compounds have a similar ability to alkylate DNA, but their physical properties vary.\\n\\nFormulations\\nIn its history, various types and mixtures of mustard gas have been employed. These include:\\n\\nH – Also known as HS (\\\"Hun Stuff\\\") or Levinstein mustard. This is named after the inventor of the \\\"quick but dirty\\\" Levinstein Process for manufacture, reacting dry ethylene with disulfur dichloride under controlled conditions. Undistilled mustard gas contains 20–30% impurities, which means it does not store as well as HD. Also, as it decomposes, it increases in vapor pressure, making the munition it is contained in likely to split, especially along a seam, releasing the agent to the atmosphere.\\nHD – Codenamed Pyro by the British, and Distilled Mustard by the US. Distilled mustard of 95% or higher purity. The term \\\"mustard gas\\\" usually refers to this variety of mustard.\\nHT – Codenamed Runcol by the British, and Mustard T- mixture by the US. A mixture of 60% HD mustard and 40% O-mustard, a related vesicant with lower freezing point, lower volatility and similar vesicant characteristics.\\nHL – A blend of distilled mustard (HD) and lewisite (L), originally intended for use in winter conditions due to its lower freezing point compared to the pure substances. The lewisite component of HL was used as a form of antifreeze.\\nHQ – A blend of distilled mustard (HD) and sesquimustard (Q) (Gates and Moore 1946).\\nYellow Cross – any of several blends containing sulfur mustard and sometimes arsine agents, along with solvents and other additives.\\n\\nCommonly-stockpiled mustard agents (class)\\nHistory\\nDevelopment\\nMustard gases were possibly developed as early as 1822 by César-Mansuète Despretz (1798–1863). Despretz described the reaction of sulfur dichloride and ethylene but never made mention of any irritating properties of the reaction product. In 1854, another French chemist, Alfred Riche (1829–1908), repeated this procedure, also without describing any adverse physiological properties. In 1860, the British scientist Frederick Guthrie synthesized and characterized the mustard agent compound and noted its irritating properties, especially in tasting. Also in 1860, chemist Albert Niemann, known as a pioneer in cocaine chemistry, repeated the reaction, and recorded blister-forming properties. In 1886, Viktor Meyer published a paper describing a synthesis that produced good yields. He combined 2-chloroethanol with aqueous potassium sulfide, and then treated the resulting thiodiglycol with phosphorus trichloride. The purity of this compound was much higher and consequently the adverse health effects upon exposure were much more severe. These symptoms presented themselves in his assistant, and in order to rule out the possibility that his assistant was suffering from a mental illness (psychosomatic symptoms), Meyer had this compound tested on laboratory rabbits, most of which died. In 1913, the English chemist Hans Thacher Clarke (known for the Eschweiler-Clarke reaction) replaced the phosphorus trichloride with hydrochloric acid in Meyer's formulation while working with Emil Fischer in Berlin. Clarke was hospitalized for two months for burns after one of his flasks broke. According to Meyer, Fischer's report on this accident to the German Chemical Society sent the German Empire on the road to chemical weapons.\\nMustard gas can have the effect of turning a patient's skin different colors, including shades of red, orange, pink, and in unusual cases, blue. The German Empire during World War I relied on the Meyer-Clarke method because 2-chloroethanol was readily available from the German dye industry of that time.\\n\\nUse\\nMustard gas was first used in World War I by the German army against British and Canadian soldiers near Ypres, Belgium, on July 12, 1917. Later also against the French Second Army. Yperite is \\\"a name used by the French, because the compound was first used at Ypres.\\\" The Allies did not use mustard gas until November 1917 at Cambrai, France, after the armies had captured a stockpile of German mustard shells. It took the British more than a year to develop their own mustard agent weapon, with production of the chemicals centred on Avonmouth Docks (the only option available to the British was the Despretz–Niemann–Guthrie process). This was used first in September 1918 during the breaking of the Hindenburg Line.\\nMustard gas was originally assigned the name LOST, after the scientists Wilhelm Lommel and Wilhelm Steinkopf, who developed a method of large-scale production for the Imperial German Army in 1916.\\nMustard gas was dispersed as an aerosol in a mixture with other chemicals, giving it a yellow-brown color. Mustard agent has also been dispersed in such munitions as aerial bombs, land mines, mortar rounds, artillery shells, and rockets. Exposure to mustard agent was lethal in about 1% of cases. Its effectiveness was as an incapacitating agent. The early countermeasures against mustard agent were relatively ineffective, since a soldier wearing a gas mask was not protected against absorbing it through his skin and being blistered. A common countermeasure was using a urine-soaked mask or facecloth to prevent or reduce injury, a readily available remedy attested by soldiers in documentaries (e.g. They Shall Not Grow Old in 2018) and others (such as forward aid nurses) interviewed between 1947 and 1981 by the British Broadcasting Corporation for various World War One history programs; however, the effectiveness of this measure is unclear.\\nMustard gas can remain in the ground for weeks, and it continues to cause ill effects. If mustard agent contaminates one's clothing and equipment while cold, then other people with whom they share an enclosed space could become poisoned as contaminated items warm up enough material to become an airborne toxic agent. An example of this was depicted in a British and Canadian documentary about life in the trenches, particularly once the \\\"sousterrain\\\" (subways and berthing areas underground) were completed in Belgium and France. Towards the end of World War I, mustard agent was used in high concentrations as an area-denial weapon that forced troops to abandon heavily contaminated areas.\\n\\nSince World War I, mustard gas has been used in several wars and other conflicts, usually against people who cannot retaliate in kind:\\n\\nUnited Kingdom against the Red Army in 1919\\nAlleged British use in Mesopotamia in 1920\\nSpain against the Rifian resistance in Morocco during the Rif War of 1921–27 (see also: Spanish use of chemical weapons in the Rif War)\\nItaly in Libya in 1930\\nThe Soviet Union in Xinjiang, Republic of China, during the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang against the 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) in 1934, and also in the Xinjiang War (1937) in 1936–37\\nItaly against Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) in 1935-1936\\nThe Japanese Empire against China in 1937–1945\\nThe US military conducted experiments with chemical weapons like lewisite and mustard gas on Japanese American, Puerto Rican and African Americans in the US military in World War II to see how non-white races would react to being mustard gassed, with Rollin Edwards describing it as \\\"It felt like you were on fire, Guys started screaming and hollering and trying to break out. And then some of the guys fainted. And finally they opened the door and let us out, and the guys were just, they were in bad shape.\\\" and \\\"It took all the skin off your hands. Your hands just rotted\\\".\\nAfter World War II, stockpiled mustard gas was dumped by South African military personnel under the command of William Bleloch off Port Elizabeth, resulting in several cases of burns among local trawler crews.\\nThe United States Government tested effectiveness on US Naval recruits in a laboratory setting at The Great Lakes Naval Base, June 3, 1945\\nThe 2 December 1943 air raid on Bari destroyed an Allied stockpile of mustard gas on the SS John Harvey, killing 83 and hospitalizing 628.\\nEgypt against North Yemen in 1963–1967\\nIraq against Kurds in the town of Halabja during the Halabja chemical attack in 1988\\nIraq against Iranians in 1983–1988\\nPossibly in Sudan against insurgents in the civil war, in 1995 and 1997.\\nIn the Iraq War, abandoned stockpiles of mustard gas shells were destroyed in the open air, and were used against Coalition forces in roadside bombs.\\nBy ISIS forces against Kurdish forces in Iraq in August 2015.\\nBy ISIS against another rebel group in the town of Mare' in 2015.\\nAccording to Syrian state media, by ISIS against the Syrian Army during the battle in Deir ez-Zor in 2016.\\nThe use of toxic gases or other chemicals, including mustard gas, during warfare is known as chemical warfare, and this kind of warfare was prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925, and also by the later Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. The latter agreement also prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, and sale of such weapons.\\nIn September 2012, a US official stated that the rebel militant group ISIS was manufacturing and using mustard gas in Syria and Iraq, which was allegedly confirmed by the group's head of chemical weapons development, Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, who has since been captured.\\n\\nDevelopment of the first chemotherapy drug\\nAs early as 1919 it was known that mustard agent was a suppressor of hematopoiesis. In addition, autopsies performed on 75 soldiers who had died of mustard agent during World War I were done by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania who reported decreased counts of white blood cells. This led the American Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) to finance the biology and chemistry departments at Yale University to conduct research on the use of chemical warfare during World War II.\\nAs a part of this effort, the group investigated nitrogen mustard as a therapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of lymphoma and leukemia, and this compound was tried out on its first human patient in December 1942. The results of this study were not published until 1946, when they were declassified. In a parallel track, after the air raid on Bari in December 1943, the doctors of the U.S. Army noted that white blood cell counts were reduced in their patients. Some years after World War II was over, the incident in Bari and the work of the Yale University group with nitrogen mustard converged, and this prompted a search for other similar chemical compounds. Due to its use in previous studies, the nitrogen mustard called \\\"HN2\\\" became the first cancer chemotherapy drug, chlormethine (also known as mechlorethamine, mustine) to be used. Chlormethine and other mustard gas molecules are still used to this day as an chemotherapy agent albeit they have largely been replaced with more safe chemotherapy drugs like cisplatin and carboplatin.\\n\\nDisposal\\nIn the United States, storage and incineration of mustard gas and other chemical weapons were carried out by the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency. Disposal projects at the two remaining American chemical weapons sites were carried out near Richmond, Kentucky, and Pueblo, Colorado. Although not yet declassified, toxicology specialists who dealt with the accidental puncturing of World War I gas stockpiles add that Air Force bases in Colorado have been made available to assist veterans of the 2003 American war with Iraq in which many Marines were exposed to gas as caches of up to 25,000 lb (11,000 kg). The United Nations definition of a weapon of mass destruction for mustard gas is 30,000 lb (14,000 kg), typically the Marines and other coalition allies discovered caches of 25,000 pounds (11,000 kg) located across a road from 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) caches as multiple memoirs attest. These were discovered by the assistance of host country allies, or through leaks affecting personnel in an area with a weapon and gas cache called an ASP.\\nNew detection techniques are being developed in order to detect the presence of mustard gas and its metabolites. The technology is portable and detects small quantities of the hazardous waste and its oxidized products, which are notorious for harming unsuspecting civilians. The immunochromatographic assay would eliminate the need for expensive, time-consuming lab tests and enable easy-to-read tests to protect civilians from sulfur-mustard dumping sites.\\nIn 1946, 10,000 drums of mustard gas (2,800 tonnes) stored at the production facility of Stormont Chemicals in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, were loaded onto 187 boxcars for the 900 miles (1,400 km) journey to be buried at sea on board a 400 foot (120 m) long barge 40 miles (64 km) south of Sable Island, southeast of Halifax, at a depth of 600 fathoms (1,100 m). The dump location is 42 degrees, 50 minutes north by 60 degrees, 12 minutes west.\\nA large British stockpile of old mustard agent that had been made and stored since World War I at M. S. Factory, Valley near Rhydymwyn in Flintshire, Wales, was destroyed in 1958.\\nMost of the mustard gas found in Germany after World War II was dumped into the Baltic Sea. Between 1966 and 2002, fishermen have found about 700 chemical weapons in the region of Bornholm, most of which contain mustard gas. One of the more frequently dumped weapons was \\\"Sprühbüchse 37\\\" (SprüBü37, Spray Can 37, 1937 being the year of its fielding with the German Army). These weapons contain mustard gas mixed with a thickener, which gives it a tar-like viscosity. When the content of the SprüBü37 comes in contact with water, only the mustard gas in the outer layers of the lumps of viscous mustard hydrolyzes, leaving behind amber-colored residues that still contain most of the active mustard gas. On mechanically breaking these lumps (e.g., with the drag board of a fishing net or by the human hand) the enclosed mustard gas is still as active as it had been at the time the weapon was dumped. These lumps, when washed ashore, can be mistaken for amber, which can lead to severe health problems. Artillery shells containing mustard gas and other toxic ammunition from World War I (as well as conventional explosives) can still be found in France and Belgium. These were formerly disposed of by explosion undersea, but since the current environmental regulations prohibit this, the French government is building an automated factory to dispose of the accumulation of chemical shells.\\nIn 1972, the U.S. Congress banned the practice of disposing of chemical weapons into the ocean by the United States. 29,000 tons of nerve and mustard agents had already been dumped into the ocean off the United States by the U.S. Army. According to a report created in 1998 by William Brankowitz, a deputy project manager in the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, the army created at least 26 chemical weapons dumping sites in the ocean offshore from at least 11 states on both the East Coast and the West Coast (in Operation CHASE, Operation Geranium, etc.). In addition, due to poor recordkeeping, about one-half of the sites have only their rough locations known.\\nIn June 1997, India declared its stock of chemical weapons of 1,044 tonnes (1,151 short tons) of mustard gas. By the end of 2006, India had destroyed more than 75 percent of its chemical weapons/material stockpile and was granted extension for destroying the remaining stocks by April 2009 and was expected to achieve 100 percent destruction within that time frame. India informed the United Nations in May 2009 that it had destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons in compliance with the international Chemical Weapons Convention. With this India has become the third country after South Korea and Albania to do so. This was cross-checked by inspectors of the United Nations.\\nProducing or stockpiling mustard gas is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention. When the convention entered force in 1997, the parties declared worldwide stockpiles of 17,440 tonnes of mustard gas. As of December 2015, 86% of these stockpiles had been destroyed.\\nA significant portion of the United States' mustard agent stockpile was stored at the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Approximately 1,621 tons of mustard agents were stored in one-ton containers on the base under heavy guard. A chemical neutralization plant was built on the proving ground and neutralized the last of this stockpile in February 2005. This stockpile had priority because of the potential for quick reduction of risk to the community. The nearest schools were fitted with overpressurization machinery to protect the students and faculty in the event of a catastrophic explosion and fire at the site. These projects, as well as planning, equipment, and training assistance, were provided to the surrounding community as a part of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP), a joint program of the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Unexploded shells containing mustard gases and other chemical agents are still present in several test ranges in proximity to schools in the Edgewood area, but the smaller amounts of poison gas (4 to 14 pounds (1.8 to 6.4 kg)) present considerably lower risks. These remnants are being detected and excavated systematically for disposal. The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency oversaw disposal of several other chemical weapons stockpiles located across the United States in compliance with international chemical weapons treaties. These include the complete incineration of the chemical weapons stockpiled in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, and Oregon. Earlier, this agency had also completed destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile located on Johnston Atoll located south of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The largest mustard agent stockpile, at approximately 6,200 short tons, was stored at the Deseret Chemical Depot in northern Utah. The incineration of this stockpile began in 2006. In May 2011, the last of the mustard agents in the stockpile were incinerated at the Deseret Chemical Depot, and the last artillery shells containing mustard gas were incinerated in January 2012.\\nIn 2008, many empty aerial bombs that contained mustard gas were found in an excavation at the Marrangaroo Army Base just west of Sydney, Australia. In 2009, a mining survey near Chinchilla, Queensland, uncovered 144 105-millimeter howitzer shells, some containing \\\"Mustard H\\\", that had been buried by the U.S. Army during World War II.\\nIn 2014, a collection of 200 bombs was found near the Flemish villages of Passendale and Moorslede. The majority of the bombs were filled with mustard agents. The bombs were left over from the German army and were meant to be used in the Battle of Passchendaele in World War I. It was the largest collection of chemical weapons ever found in Belgium.\\nA large amount of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, was found in a neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The cleanup was completed in 2021.\\n\\nPost-war accidental exposure\\nIn 2002, an archaeologist at the Presidio Trust archaeology lab in San Francisco was exposed to mustard gas, which had been dug up at the Presidio of San Francisco, a former military base.\\nIn 2010, a clamming boat pulled up some old artillery shells of World War I from the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Island, New York. Multiple fishermen suffered from blistering and respiratory irritation severe enough to require hospitalization.\\n\\nWWII-era tests on men\\nFrom 1943 to 1944, mustard agent experiments were performed on Australian service volunteers in tropical Queensland, Australia, by Royal Australian Engineers, British Army and American experimenters, resulting in some severe injuries. One test site, the Brook Islands National Park, was chosen to simulate Pacific islands held by the Imperial Japanese Army. These experiments were the subject of the documentary film Keen as Mustard.\\nThe United States tested sulfur mustards and other chemical agents including nitrogen mustards and lewisite on up to 60,000 servicemen during and after WWII. The experiments were classified secret and as with Agent Orange, claims for medical care and compensation were routinely denied, even after the WWII-era tests were declassified in 1993. The Department of Veterans Affairs stated that it would contact 4,000 surviving test subjects but failed to do so, eventually only contacting 600. Skin cancer, severe eczema, leukemia, and chronic breathing problems plagued the test subjects, some of whom were as young as 19 at the time of the tests, until their deaths, but even those who had previously filed claims with the VA went without compensation.\\n\\nAfrican American servicemen were tested alongside white men in separate trials to determine whether their skin color would afford them a degree of immunity to the agents, and Nisei servicemen, some of whom had joined after their release from Japanese American Internment Camps were tested to determine susceptibility of Japanese military personnel to these agents. These tests also included Puerto Rican subjects.\\n\\nDetection in biological fluids\\nConcentrations of thiodiglycol in urine have been used to confirm a diagnosis of chemical poisoning in hospitalized victims. The presence in urine of 1,1'-sulfonylbismethylthioethane (SBMTE), a conjugation product with glutathione, is considered a more specific marker, since this metabolite is not found in specimens from unexposed persons. In one case, intact mustard gas was detected in postmortem fluids and tissues of a man who died one week post-exposure.\\n\\nSee also\\nBis(chloromethyl) ether\\nChlorine gas\\nKeen as Mustard\\nPhosgene oxime\\nPoison gas in World War I\\nRawalpindi experiments\\nSelenium mustard\\n\\nReferences\\nNotes\\n\\nFurther reading\\nCook, Tim. \\\"‘Against God-Inspired Conscience’: The Perception of Gas Warfare as a Weapon of Mass Destruction, 1915–1939.\\\" War & Society 18.1 (2000): 47-69.\\nDorsey, M. Girard. Holding Their Breath: How the Allies Confronted the Threat of Chemical Warfare in World War II (Cornell UP, 2023) online.\\nDuchovic, Ronald J., and Joel A. Vilensky. \\\"Mustard gas: its pre-World War I history.\\\" Journal of chemical education 84.6 (2007): 944. online\\nFeister, Alan J. Medical defense against mustard gas: toxic mechanisms and pharmacological implications (1991). online\\nFitzgerald, Gerard J. \\\"Chemical warfare and medical response during World War I.\\\" American journal of public health 98.4 (2008): 611-625. online\\n* Freemantle M (2012). Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! How Chemistry Changed the First World War. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-6601-9.\\nGeraci, Matthew J. \\\"Mustard gas: imminent danger or eminent threat?.\\\" Annals of Pharmacotherapy 42.2 (2008): 237-246. online\\nGhabili, Kamyar, et al. \\\"Mustard gas toxicity: the acute and chronic pathological effects.\\\" Journal of applied toxicology 30.7 (2010): 627-643. online\\nJones, Edgar. \\\"Terror weapons: The British experience of gas and its treatment in the First World War.\\\" War in History 21.3 (2014): 355-375. online\\nMacPherson WG, Herringham WP, Elliott TR, et al. (1923). Medical Services: Diseases of the War: Including the Medical Aspects of Aviation and Gas Warfare and Gas Poisoning in Tanks and Mines. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. II. London: HMSO. OCLC 769752656. Retrieved October 19, 2014.\\nPadley, Anthony Paul. \\\"Gas: the greatest terror of the Great War.\\\" Anaesthesia and intensive care 44.1_suppl (2016): 24-30. online\\nRall, David P., and Constance M. Pechura, eds. Veterans at risk: The health effects of mustard gas and lewisite (1993). online\\nRichter D (1994). Chemical Soldiers. Leo Cooper. ISBN 0850523885.\\nSchummer, Joachim. \\\"Ethics of chemical weapons research: Poison gas in World War One.\\\" Ethics of Chemistry: From Poison Gas to Climate Engineering (2021) pp. 55-83. online\\nSmith, Susan I. Toxic Exposures: Mustard Gas and the Health Consequences of World War II in the United States (Rutgers University Press, 2017) online book review\\nWattana, Monica, and Tareg Bey. \\\"Mustard gas or sulfur mustard: an old chemical agent as a new terrorist threat.\\\" Prehospital and disaster medicine 24.1 (2009): 19-29. online\\n\\nExternal links\\nMustard gas (Sulphur Mustard) (IARC Summary & Evaluation, Supplement7, 1987). Inchem.org (1998-02-09). Retrieved on 2011-05-29.\\nInstitute of Medicine (1993). \\\"History and Analysis of Mustard Agent and Lewisite Research Programs in the United States\\\". Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite. National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-04832-3.\\nTextbook of Military Medicine – Intensive overview of mustard gas Includes many references to scientific literature\\nDetailed information on physical effects and suggested treatments\\nIyriboz Y (2004). \\\"A Recent Exposure to Mustard Gas in the United States: Clinical Findings of a Cohort (n = 247) 6 Years After Exposure\\\". MedGenMed. 6 (4): 4. PMC 1480580. PMID 15775831. Shows photographs taken in 1996 showing people with mustard gas burns.\\nUMDNJ-Rutgers University CounterACT Research Center of Excellence A research center studying mustard gas, includes searchable reference library with many early references on mustard gas.\\nClayton W, Howard AJ, Thomson D (May 25, 1946). \\\"Treatment of Mustard Gas Burns\\\". British Medical Journal. 1 (4455): 797–799. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4455.797. PMC 2058956. PMID 20786722.\\nsurgical treatment of mustard gas burns\\nUK Ministry of Defence Report on disposal of weapons at sea and incidents arising\",\n \"title\": \"Mustard_gas\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"What is the other name, beginning and ending with the letter \"d\", for the substance, often deployed by means of artillery shells, which was also instrumental in developing a treatment for a condition that dogs of the same breed as Mayor Max II are unusually prone to?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Distilled mustard"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":680,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"680"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The prime minister of New Zealand is the country's head of government and the leader of the Cabinet, whose powers and responsibilities are defined by convention. Officially, the prime minister is appointed by the governor-general, but by convention, the prime minister must have the confidence of the House of Representatives. The prime minister is always a member of parliament.\nOriginally, prime ministers headed loose coalitions of independents, which were often unstable; since the advent of political parties, the prime minister is usually the leader of the largest party represented in the house. Since 1935, every prime minister has been a member of either the National party or the Labour party, reflecting their domination of New Zealand politics. After the introduction of mixed-member proportional voting in 1996, prime ministers have usually needed to negotiate agreements with smaller parties to maintain a majority in Parliament.\nThe title of the office was originally \"colonial secretary\", which was formally changed to \"premier\" in 1869. That title remained in use almost exclusively for more than 30 years, until Richard Seddon changed it to \"prime minister\" during his tenure in the office; he used the title officially at the 1902 Colonial Conference.\nSome historians regard James FitzGerald as New Zealand's first prime minister, although a more conventional view is that neither he nor his successor (Thomas Forsaith) should properly be given that title, as New Zealand did not yet have responsible government when they served. Most commonly, Henry Sewell, who served during 1856, is regarded as New Zealand's first premier. Beginning with Sewell, 42 individuals have so far held the premiership, not including acting prime ministers. Eight prime ministers have held the position for more than one period in office. Richard Seddon, prime minister for thirteen years between 1893 and 1906, held the office for the longest term. The youngest prime minister was Edward Stafford, who assumed office at age 37, and the oldest was Walter Nash, who left office at age 78. Three prime ministers have been women, a count equalled by Iceland, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom, and only surpassed by Finland and Switzerland.\nThe current prime minister is Christopher Luxon, who assumed office on 27 November 2023.\n\nList of officeholders\nThe parties shown are those to which the heads of government belonged at the time they held office and the electoral districts shown are those they represented while in office. Several prime ministers belonged to parties other than those given and represented other electorates before and after their time in office. A number in brackets indicates the prime minister served a previous term in office.\n\nPolitical parties\n\nSymbols\n† Died in office\n\nTimeline\nSee also\nList of prime ministers of New Zealand by age\nList of prime ministers of New Zealand by place of birth\nList of prime ministers of Queen Victoria\nList of prime ministers of Edward VII\nList of prime ministers of George V\nList of prime ministers of Edward VIII\nList of prime ministers of George VI\nList of prime ministers of Elizabeth II\nList of prime ministers of Charles III\n\n\n== References ==","title":"List_of_prime_ministers_of_New_Zealand"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Dame Jennifer Mary Shipley (née Robson; born 4 February 1952) is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 36th prime minister of New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. She was the first female prime minister of New Zealand, and the first woman to have led the National Party.\nShipley was born in Gore, Southland. She grew up in rural Canterbury, and attended Marlborough Girls' College and the Christchurch College of Education. Before entering politics, she worked as a schoolteacher and was involved with various community organisations. Shipley was elected to Parliament at the 1987 election, winning the Ashburton electorate (later renamed Rakaia). When the National Party returned to power in 1990, she was appointed to Cabinet under Jim Bolger. Shipley subsequently served as Minister of Social Welfare (1990–1996), Minister for Women's Affairs (1990–1996), Minister of Health (1993–1996), and Minister of Transport (1996–1997).\nShipley chafed at the government's slow pace, and in December 1997 convinced her National colleagues to support her as leader. Bolger resigned as Prime Minister rather than face being voted out, and Shipley was elected as his replacement unopposed. She inherited an uneasy coalition with New Zealand First, led by Winston Peters. The coalition was dissolved in August 1998, but Shipley was able to remain in power with the aid of Mauri Pacific, an NZ First splinter group. At the 1999 election, her government was defeated by the Labour Party, led by Helen Clark. Shipley continued as Leader of the Opposition until October 2001. Shipley involved herself with business and charitable interests since leaving politics, and is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders. She was found liable for $9 million for her role in the financial failure of Mainzeal, a construction company.\n\nEarly life\nBorn in Gore, New Zealand, Shipley was one of four sisters. Her father was Rev. Leonard Cameron Robson, a Presbyterian minister. After attending Marlborough Girls' College, she qualified in 1971 as a teacher through the Christchurch College of Education and taught in New Zealand primary schools until 1976. In 1973 she married Burton Shipley and settled in Ashburton.\n\nMember of Parliament\nHaving joined the National Party in 1975, Shipley successfully stood in Ashburton, a safe National seat in the country areas surrounding Christchurch, in the 1987 election. Entering parliament at age 35, she was one of parliament's youngest members.\n\nCabinet minister\nShipley rose quickly in the National caucus. In February 1990, while still in her first term, party leader Jim Bolger named her the party's spokeswoman on social welfare. When Bolger led the National Party to victory in the 1990 general election, Shipley was reelected in Rakaia, essentially a reconfigured Ashburton. She became Minister of Social Welfare, and also served as Minister for Women's Affairs (1990–1996).\nIn her role as Minister of Social Welfare, Shipley presided over sharp cutbacks to state benefits. Later, when she became Minister of Health in 1993, she caused further controversy by attempting to reform the public health service, introducing an internal market. National won another term at the 1996 election, but was forced into a coalition with New Zealand First. Shipley left the Women's Affairs portfolio and took on several others, including responsibility for state-owned enterprises and transport.\nIn 1993, Shipley was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.\n\nPrime Minister (1997–1999)\nShipley grew increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with the cautious pace of National's leader, Jim Bolger, and with what she saw as the disproportionate influence of New Zealand First. She began gathering support to replace Bolger in mid-1997. Later that year, while Bolger attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Shipley convinced a majority of her National Party colleagues to back her bid for the leadership. Bolger returned to New Zealand and discovered that he no longer had the support of his party. Rather than face being voted out, he resigned, and Shipley replaced him. As leader of the governing party, she became Prime Minister on 8 December 1997. On 21 May 1998 Shipley was appointed to the Privy Council and became The Right Honourable Jenny Shipley.\nDespite continued economic growth, the Shipley government became increasingly politically unstable. In particular, the relationship between National and New Zealand First deteriorated. While Bolger had been able to maintain good relations with New Zealand First and with its leader, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, the alliance became strained after Shipley rose to power. Finally, on 14 August 1998, Shipley sacked Peters from Cabinet.\nShipley was nicknamed \"the perfumed steamroller,\" when she first became prime minister. During a later interview with Guyon Espiner, Shipley stated that female politicians were labelled differently in the media; she uses the example that male politicians are called bold where female politicians are called vindictive; although she notes that this is an observation, not something that hurts her personally. Shipley's ascension to the leadership marked a shift to the right politically with subtle returns to the neo-liberal policies of the first term of the Bolger government. This was labelled by some commentators (usually critically) as \"Jennycide\", a portmanteau of \"Jenny\" and \"genocide\".\nShipley, along with the New Zealand Tourism Board, backed the quasi-national emblem of the silver fern on a black background as a possible alternative flag, along the lines of the Canadian flag, but she took pains to publicly dissociate herself from Bolger's support for republicanism. As the debate continued in 1999, the Princess Royal visited New Zealand, and Shipley stated, \"I am an unashamed royal supporter, along with many New Zealanders\". However, the debate was muted by the controversy surrounding Tourism Board contracts going to the public-relations firm Saatchi & Saatchi, whose World CEO Kevin Roberts, also an advocate of the silver fern flag, was a good friend of Shipley.\nThe APEC Summit was hosted in Auckland in September 1999. Shipley met with the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, in one of only two state visits to New Zealand by a US President.\nShipley was the first Prime Minister to attend the gay and lesbian Hero Parade, being the first National Party leader to seek to make electoral overtures to the gay and lesbian voting public. She advocated lowering the alcohol purchase age from 20 to 18 and achieved this in 1999. This was part of her expressed desire to expand the traditional National Party voting base.\nShipley became a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers.\n\nDefeat and resignation\nShipley led the National Party into the 1999 election, hoping to become the first woman to be elected prime minister in her own right. However, she was defeated by the Labour Party, also led by a woman, Helen Clark. This election was a significant moment in history for New Zealand as it was the first New Zealand election in which the leaders of both major parties were women.\nShipley served as the Leader of the Opposition until October 2001, when Bill English took over as National Party leader. She retired from Parliament in January 2002.\nIn the 2003 New Year Honours, Shipley was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services as a Member of Parliament.\n\nHealth\nShipley suffered a heart attack in 2000, leading to an emergency angioplasty procedure. She made modifications to her lifestyle and lost weight, though she was diagnosed with diabetes in 2004. She underwent gastric bypass surgery in late 2007.\n\nLife after politics\nAfter leaving politics, Shipley involved herself with business and charitable interests. In 2007, she joined the financial services firm Source Sentinel, and from 2009 to 2018 was chair of the Genesis Energy Limited board. As of 2012, she was on the board of the New Zealand branch of the state-owned China Construction Bank. She resigned from the Bank's Board after being prosecuted for her role in the collapse of construction company Mainzeal.\n\nProsecution for insolvency of Mainzeal\nIn December 2012, Shipley resigned from the board of directors of Mainzeal Property & Construction (MPCL), which went into receivership on 6 February 2013. At mid-day on 5 February 2013 she was one of four independent directors who resigned from the board of Mainzeal Group Ltd. MPCL and Mainzeal Group Limited are part of the Richina group, controlled and majority owned by Yan Ci Lang (also known as Richard Yan). Mainzeal went into liquidation on 28 February 2013, owing some NZ$110 million. In May 2015, the receiver of Mainzeal, BDO, filed a civil lawsuit against the former Mainzeal directors, including Shipley, for an alleged breach of directors' duties. In February 2019, the High Court of New Zealand found that the Mainzeal directors had breached their duty to avoid reckless trading and assessed their total liability at NZ$36 million, of which Shipley's share was assessed at NZ$6 million. Within a week of the Court delivering its verdict, Shipley resigned from her Chair of the China Construction Bank New Zealand. An appeal against this judgment was filed along with a counter claim brought by the original plaintiffs for a vastly higher award against the Directors. Both appeals failed. In August 2023 New Zealand's Supreme Court upheld the long-contested judgements, determining \"“Mainzeal was balance sheet insolvent from 2005, albeit this was not apparent from its financial statements” and ordered the four directors, of whom Shipley was one, to pay $39.8m together with interest, although the liability of Shipley is limited to $6.6m plus interest.\n\nHonours\nShipley accepted redesignation as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit on 14 August 2009, following the reintroduction of titular honours by the Fifth National Government.\n\nReality TV Appearances\nAlso in 2009, Shipley appeared on an episode of the television reality/travel show Intrepid Journeys, where she visited Namibia. She later started a charity to help a school she came across on that trip called the Namibian Educational Trust. \nShipley chaired Global Women NZ until 2015, and was replaced as Patron of the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre by Graeme Dingle in 2019, and was the New Zealand National Heart Foundation's campaign \"Go Red for Women\".\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nPrime Minister's Office biography, primeminister.govt.nz; accessed 18 June 2015.\nProfile, GlobalWomen.org.nz; accessed 18 June 2015.\nScherer, Karyn (4 February 2008). \"The prime of Mrs Jenny Shipley\". The New Zealand Herald.","title":"Jenny_Shipley"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was New Zealand's fifth-longest-serving prime minister, and the second woman to hold that office.\nClark was brought up on a farm outside Hamilton. She entered the University of Auckland in 1968 to study politics and became active in the New Zealand Labour Party. After graduating she lectured in political studies at the university. Clark entered local politics in 1974 in Auckland but was not elected to any position. Following one unsuccessful attempt, she was elected to Parliament in 1981 as the member for Mount Albert, an electorate she represented until 2009.\nClark held numerous Cabinet positions in the Fourth Labour Government, including minister of housing, minister of health and minister of conservation. She was the 11th deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 1989 to 1990 serving under prime ministers Geoffrey Palmer and Mike Moore. After Labour's narrow defeat in the 1993 election, Clark challenged Moore for leadership of the party and won, becoming the leader of the Opposition. Following the 1999 election, Labour formed a governing coalition, and Clark was sworn in as prime minister on 10 December 1999.\nClark led the Fifth Labour Government, which implemented several major economic initiatives including Kiwibank, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and KiwiSaver. Her government also introduced the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, which caused major controversy. In foreign affairs, Clark sent troops to the Afghanistan War, but did not contribute combat troops to the Iraq War, and ordered deployment to the 2006 East Timorese crisis. She was ranked by Forbes as the 20th-most powerful woman in the world in 2006. She advocated a number of free-trade agreements with major trading partners, including becoming the first developed nation to sign such an agreement with China. After three successive electoral victories, her government was defeated in the 2008 election; Clark resigned as Prime Minister and party leader on 19 November 2008. She was succeeded as prime minister by John Key of the National Party, and as leader of the Labour Party by Phil Goff.\nClark resigned from Parliament in April 2009 to become the first female head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In 2016, she stood for the position of secretary-general of the United Nations, but was unsuccessful. She left her UNDP administrator post on 19 April 2017 at the end of her second four-year term and was succeeded by Achim Steiner. In 2019, Clark became the patron of the Helen Clark Foundation.\n\nEarly life\nClark was the eldest of four daughters of a farming family at Te Pahu, west of Hamilton, in the Waikato. Her mother, Margaret McMurray, of Irish birth, was a primary school teacher. Her father, George, was a farmer. Clark studied at Te Pahu Primary School, at Epsom Girls' Grammar School in Auckland and at the University of Auckland, where she majored in politics and graduated with an MA (Honours) in 1974. Her thesis focused on rural political behaviour and representation. As a teenager Clark became politically active, protesting against the Vietnam War and campaigning against foreign military bases in New Zealand.\nClark has worked actively in the New Zealand Labour Party for most of her life. In 1971 she assisted Labour candidates to the Auckland City Council, three of whom were elected. Following this, she stood for the Auckland City Council herself in 1974 and 1977. While generally polling well, she never won a seat, missing out by only 105 votes in the latter.\nClark was a junior lecturer in political studies at the University of Auckland from 1973 to 1975. In 1974 she sought the nomination for the Auckland Central electorate, but lost to Richard Prebble. She instead stood for Piako, a National safe seat. Clark studied abroad on a University Grants Committee post-graduate scholarship in 1976, and then lectured in political studies at Auckland again while undertaking her PhD (which she never completed) from 1977 until her election to Parliament in 1981. Her father supported the National Party in that election.\nClark served as a member of Labour's national executive committee from 1978 until September 1988, and again from April 1989. She chaired the University of Auckland Princes Street branch of the Labour Party during her studies, becoming active alongside future Labour politicians including Richard Prebble, David Caygill, Margaret Wilson and Richard Northey. Clark held the positions of president of the Labour Youth Council, executive member of the party's Auckland Regional Council, secretary of the Labour Women's Council and member of the Policy Council. In 1980 she stood as a candidate for the position of junior vice-president. However, on the second day of the party conference, she withdrew her candidacy, allowing union secretary Dan Duggan to be elected unopposed.\nShe represented the New Zealand Labour Party at the congresses of the Socialist International and of the Socialist International Women in 1976, 1978, 1983 and 1986, at an Asia-Pacific Socialist Organisation Conference held in Sydney in 1981, and at the Socialist International Party Leaders' Meeting in Sydney in 1991.\n\nMember of Parliament\nClark did not contest the 1978 election, but in 1980 she put her name forward to replace long serving MP Warren Freer in the safe Labour seat of Mount Albert. She beat six other contenders including electorate chairman Keith Elliot, former MP Malcolm Douglas and future MP Jack Elder for the nomination.\nClark was duly elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives in the 1981 general election, as one of eight female members in the 40th Parliament. In winning the Mount Albert electorate in Auckland, she became the second woman elected to represent an Auckland electorate, and the seventeenth woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament. Her first parliamentary intervention, on taking her seat was on 12 April 1982 to give notice, she would move a motion condemning the US Navy's deployment of nuclear cruise missiles in the Pacific Two weeks later in her maiden speech, with unusual emphasis on defence policy and the arms race, Clark again condemned the deployment of cruise, Pershing and SS20 and the global ambitions of both superpowers navies, but claimed the Soviet admirals did not plough New Zealand's waters and expressed particular concern about the expansion of the 1965 memo of ANZUS understanding for the resupply of weapons to New Zealand to include nuclear weapon resupply.\nDuring her first term in the House (1981–1984), Clark became a member of the Statutes Revision Committee. In her second term (1984–1987), she chaired the Select committee on Foreign Affairs and the Select Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control, both of which combined with the Defence Select Committee in 1985 to form a single committee. In 1983 she was appointed as Labour's spokesperson for Overseas Aid and Disarmament.\n\nCabinet minister\nIn 1987, Clark became a Cabinet minister in the Fourth Labour Government, led by David Lange (1984–1989), Geoffrey Palmer (1989–1990) and Mike Moore (1990). She served as Minister of Conservation from August 1987 until January 1989 and as Minister of Housing from August 1987 until August 1989. She became Minister of Health in January 1989 and took on additional portfolios as Minister of Labour and Deputy Prime Minister in August 1989. As Health Minister, Clark introduced a series of legislative changes that allowed midwives to practice autonomously. She also introduced the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990, a law which restricted smoking in places such as workplaces and schools.\nAs Deputy Prime Minister, Clark chaired the Cabinet Social Equity Committee and was a member of several other important Cabinet committees, such as the Policy Committee, Economic Development and Employment Committee, and Domestic and External Security Committee.\n\nLeader of the Opposition\nFrom October 1990 until December 1993 Clark held the posts of Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow spokesperson for Health and Labour, and member of the Social Services Select Committee and of the Labour Select Committee. After the National Party won the 1993 general election with a majority of one seat, Clark successfully challenged Mike Moore for the leadership of the parliamentary party. She was particularly critical of Moore for delivering blurred messages during the 1993 election campaign, and accused him of failing to re-brand Labour as a centre-left party which had jettisoned Rogernomics.\nClark became the Leader of the Opposition on 1 December 1993. She led the Labour Party in opposition to the National-led government of Jim Bolger (1990–1997) and Jenny Shipley (1997–1999). Clark announced her first shadow cabinet on 13 December 1993, but the ousted Moore refused any portfolios. There were frequent changes after several party defections took place during the parliamentary term in the lead up to the new MMP voting system. At one reshuffle, in June 1995, Clark herself took the shadow foreign affairs portfolio.\nThe Labour Party rated poorly in opinion polls in the run-up to the 1996 general election, and Clark suffered from a low personal approval rating. At one point polls suggested that New Zealand First of Winston Peters would even poll 30% and Labour would be beaten into third place. However, she survived an attempted leadership coup by senior members who favoured Phil Goff. Labour lost the election in October 1996, but Clark remained as Opposition leader. Clark was seen as having convincingly won the election debates which led to Labour doing better than predicted. Shortly before the election she also achieved a rapprochement with Moore (who was previously thinking of setting up his own party) who accepted the foreign affairs and overseas trade portfolios, calming internal tensions.\nDuring the 1998 Waitangi Day celebrations, Clark was prevented from speaking on the marae by activist Titewhai Harawira in protest over Clark's being allowed to speak in direct contradiction of traditional Māori protocol. The ensuing argument saw Clark being reduced to tears on national television.\nIn 1999, Clark was involved in a defamation case in the High Court of New Zealand with Auckland orthopaedic surgeon Joe Brownlee, resulting in Clark's making an unreserved apology. The case centred on a press statement issued by Clark criticising Brownlee, triggered by a constituent's complaint over the outcome of a hip replacement. Clark admitted the criticism was unjustified in that the complication suffered by her constituent was rare, unforeseen and unavoidable.\n\nPrime Minister (1999–2008)\nUnder Clark's leadership, Labour became the largest party in parliament from 1999 to 2008. Clark became the second woman to serve as Prime Minister of New Zealand, and the first to have won office at an election. She also served as the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage throughout her premiership. She had additional ministerial responsibility for the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and for Ministerial Services. During her period in office, women held a number of prominent elected and appointed offices in New Zealand, such as the Governor-General, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief Justice—these major offices of state were simultaneously occupied by women between March 2005 and August 2006. As a female head of government, Clark was a member of the Council of Women World Leaders.\nClark entered office just three years after the adoption of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system, which had produced an unstable National-led government under Bolger and Shipley. Clark negotiated the formation of successive coalition governments. Political scientist Bryce Edwards identified Clark's ability to lead stable governments as her most significant achievement, arguing that her ability to work with a variety of coalition partners—including the Alliance, Jim Anderton's Progressive Party, Green, United Future and New Zealand First—consolidated public support for MMP.\nClark's particular interests included social policy and international affairs. A strong supporter of nuclear disarmament, Clark pursued a policy of peace-making within the Pacific region. She set herself the task of making New Zealand the first ecologically sustainable nation, describing this as \"central to New Zealand's unique national identity\". Her government's major policy achievements include the Working for Families package, increasing the minimum wage 5% a year, interest-free student loans, creation of District Health Boards, the introduction of a number of tax credits, overhauling the secondary school qualifications by introducing NCEA, and the introduction of fourteen weeks’ parental leave. Commentators praised Clark (along with Michael Cullen, the Minister of Finance) for overseeing a period of sustained and stable economic growth, with an increase in employment that saw a gradual lowering of the unemployment rate to a record low of 3.6% (in 2005).\nClark made every attempt to make sure that gender was not an issue in politics. However, Bryce Edwards states that others did. Clark was portrayed as bloodsucking, cold, and humourless. Clark says herself that when her male counterparts spoke in the media, they looked strong and determined, whereas when she portrayed the same characteristics, the media made it to look like she was \"tough\" and \"nagging.\"\nIn 2006 Clark was 20th in Forbes magazine's ranking of the world's 100 most powerful women. By the time she left office in 2008 this had fallen to 56th.\n\nFirst term: 1999–2002\nThe 1999 general election produced a historic moment for New Zealand; for the first time, two women, Clark and Shipley, campaigned against each other as leaders of the country's two major parties. Clark repeatedly stated her desire to \"govern alone\" rather than as part of a coalition. However, in the lead up to the election, Labour made overtures to the left-wing Alliance. Clark addressed the Alliance's annual conference in August 1998. On polling day Labour returned 49 seats, an increase of 12, ahead of National's 39 seats. The first Clark-led Cabinet linked Labour with the Alliance and supported by the Green Party. Alliance leader Jim Anderton served as Deputy Prime Minister under Clark until 2002. The full ministerial team, and portfolios, was announced on 9 December—12 days after the election—and the new government was sworn in the following day. The coalition partners pioneered \"agree to disagree\" procedures to manage policy differences. Such procedures lessened the chances of Cabinet becoming publicly divided and running the risk of losing the confidence of the House of Representatives.\nIn January 2000, the then Police Commissioner, Peter Doone, resigned after The Sunday Star-Times alleged he had prevented the breath testing of his partner Robyn, who had driven the car they occupied, by telling the officer \"that won't be necessary\". Both Doone and the officer involved denied this happened. Doone sued the Sunday Star-Times for defamation in 2005, but the paper revealed they had checked the story with Clark. She confirmed this, but denied that she had made attempts to get Doone to resign and defended being the source as \"by definition I cannot leak\". Clark also responded by saying that National supporters had funded Doone's defamation-suit. Opinion on the significance of this incident varied.\nIn 2000, Labour MP Chris Carter investigated the background of one of Clark's Cabinet colleagues, Māori Affairs Minister Dover Samuels, regarding allegations of historic statutory rape. Ex-convict John Yelash claimed that Carter had approached him to help with the investigation; a claim that Carter denied. Clark backed her MP, referring to Yelash as a \"murderer\" when he had in fact been convicted of manslaughter, a less serious offence. Yelash sued Clark for defamation, resulting in an out-of-court settlement.\nIn April 2001, Clark met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin during an official visit to Beijing. Jiang referred to the Prime Minister as an \"old friend\". He stated that China hoped to \"establish bilateral long-term and stable overall cooperative relations [with New Zealand]\". Clark strongly supported China's entry into the World Trade Organization.\n\n \nIn March 2002, Clark made her first visit to the United States as Prime Minister. She visited \"Ground Zero\", the former site of the World Trade Center, where the New York City Police Department presented her with a New Zealand flag that had been recovered from the rubble after the September 11 attacks. On 26 March, Clark visited the Pentagon and Washington, D.C., where she met with American officials, including a private meeting with President George W. Bush. Most of the agenda for Clark's visit focused on the joint counter-terrorism campaign (dubbed the \"War on Terror\").\nAs Opposition Leader in 1998, Clark signed her name to a canvas that had been painted on by another artist. The painting was subsequently auctioned to charity. After the act came to light in April 2002, the opposition National Party referred the matter to the Police. A police report found evidence for a prima facie case of forgery, but determined that it was not in the public interest to prosecute Clark.\nIn June 2002, Clark apologised on behalf of New Zealand for aspects of the country's treatment of Samoa during the colonial era. Clark's apology was made in Apia during the 40th anniversary of Samoa's independence and televised live to New Zealand where Samoans applauded the Prime Minister's gesture.\nThe Alliance split in 2002 over the Government's commitment of New Zealand troops to the War in Afghanistan, leading to the imminent dissolution of Labour's coalition with that party. Consequently, Clark called for an early election to be held on 27 July. Political opponents claimed that Clark could have continued to govern, and that a snap election was called to take advantage of Labour's strong position in opinion polls. In opinion surveys conducted during the election campaign, Clark scored high approval ratings and was far ahead of other party leaders as \"preferred Prime Minister\".\nA major issue during the 2002 election campaign was the end of a moratorium on genetic engineering, strongly opposed by the rival Green Party. The debate was reignited when investigative journalist Nicky Hager published a book, Seeds of Distrust, in which he alleged that Clark's government had covered up a contamination of genetically modified corn plants in 2000. A television interview with John Campbell was terminated by Clark when she was taken by surprise by the allegations, which she claimed to have known nothing about prior to the interview. The affair was dubbed \"Corngate\" by the media.\n\nSecond term: 2002–2005\nClark won a second term in the 2002 general election—her party increased both its share of the vote and number of seats. Labour subsequently entered into a coalition with Jim Anderton's Progressive Party (a spin-off of the Alliance), with parliamentary confidence and supply coming from United Future, and a good-faith agreement with the Green Party. Michael Cullen, who served as Minister of Finance, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister by Clark, replacing Anderton.\n\nI think it's inevitable that New Zealand will become a republic and that would reflect the reality that New Zealand is a totally sovereign-independent 21st century nation 12,000 miles from the United Kingdom\nA republican, Clark stated in 2002 that she thought it was \"inevitable\" that New Zealand would become a republic in the near future. Her term in office saw a number of alleged moves in this direction, under her government's policy of building national identity. Examples include the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council in London and the foundation of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, the abolition of titular Knighthood and Damehood honours (restored in 2009), and the abolition of the title \"Queen's Counsel\" (replaced by \"Senior Counsel\", restored in 2012).\n\nIn 2003, Clark criticised the Invasion of Iraq without an explicit United Nations mandate, and her government opposed New Zealand military action in the Iraq War. Her government did not send combat troops to Iraq, although some medical and engineering units were sent. Clark's foreign policy reflected the priorities of liberal internationalism, especially the promotion of democracy and human rights; the strengthening of the role of the United Nations; the advancement of antimilitarism and disarmament; and the encouragement of free-trade. In March 2003, referring to the US-led coalition's actions in Iraq, Clark told the newspaper The Sunday Star-Times that, \"I don't think that 11 September under a Gore presidency would have had this consequence for Iraq.\" She later sent a letter to Washington apologising for any offence that her comment may have caused.\nOn 17 July 2004, a motorcade involving police, Diplomatic Protection Squad, and Ministerial Services staff reached speeds of up to 172 km/h when taking Clark and Cabinet Minister Jim Sutton from Waimate to Christchurch Airport so she could attend a rugby union match in Wellington. The courts subsequently convicted the drivers involved for driving offences, but appeals resulted in the quashing of these convictions in December 2005 and August 2006.\nClark said that she was busy working in the back seat and had no influence or role in the decision to speed and did not realise the speed of her vehicle.\nIn November 2004, Clark announced that negotiations with China had commenced for a free-trade agreement, eventually signing a comprehensive agreement in July 2008. It was New Zealand's largest trade deal since the 1983 Closer Economic Relations agreement with Australia.\n\nThird term: 2005–2008\nIn 2005, following that year's general election, Labour and the Progressive Party renewed their coalition, with confidence and supply arrangements with both New Zealand First and United Future in exchange for giving the leaders of those parties ministerial positions outside Cabinet. Greens were excluded from the resulting coalition, due to a refusal by United Future and NZ First to work with the Greens in cabinet. They were, however, able to negotiate a cooperation agreement which saw limited input into the budget and broad consultation on policy. Both co-leaders were appointed as government spokespeople outside cabinet, responsible for Energy Efficiency and for the Buy Kiwi Made campaign. Clark became the first Labour leader to win three consecutive elections. Clark won 66% of her electorate's votes, or 20,918 votes with a 14,749 majority.\nOn Armistice Day, 11 November 2006, Clark attended a service in Hyde Park, London, where a monument commemorating New Zealand's war dead was unveiled. During her visit she met Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.\nOn 26 May 2006, Clark ordered a military deployment to the 2006 East Timorese crisis alongside international partners.\n\nClark's major overseas visit of her third term was a trip to the United States in March 2007, where she met with George W. Bush in Washington. Despite her strained relationship with the President, they agreed on many issues, including working cooperatively in foreign affairs, commerce and the need for both nations to work toward energy security.\nOn 8 February 2008, Clark was recognised as the longest-serving leader of the Labour Party in its history (although some uncertainty exists over the exact date when Harry Holland became party leader), having served for 14 years, 69 days. By 26 October 2008 she had passed Holland's longest possible term and her position as longest-serving Labour leader was put beyond doubt.\nBy the end of her tenure in office, Clark had come to be seen as a divisive figure, going from a Herald-DigiPoll popularity rating of nearly 60% in 2005 to 42% at the time of the 2008 general election. Portrayals of Clark as controlling and manipulative after the 2005 election increased when she abandoned her consensus-managerial approach, such as during the New Zealand foreshore and seabed controversy, and her support of the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007 (the so-called anti-smacking law). She was accused of having a \"nanny state\" approach to social issues, a perception captured by the pejorative term 'Helengrad'.\nLabour had been consistently behind the National Party in opinion polls since 2006, and the gap widened significantly in early 2007. On 5 August 2008 the Treasury announced that the New Zealand economy had entered a recession.\nClark's personal popularity was eclipsed by John Key soon after the latter's election as National Party Leader in November 2006. In the final media polls prior to the 2008 election Key was ahead of Clark in preferred prime minister polls by eight points in the Fairfax Media Nielsen poll and four points in the One News Colmar Brunton poll. In the 2008 election campaign, Clark attacked the National Party as \"insincere\" in its promise to maintain many of her government's flagship projects, such as KiwiSaver and Kiwibank.\nNational overtook Labour as the largest party following the 2008 election. Labour did not have the numbers to ally with smaller parties and no viable path to government; Clark conceded defeat to Key and announced that she was standing down as party leader. On 11 November 2008 Clark was succeeded by Phil Goff as Leader of the Labour Party. In the first Labour Party conference after its defeat Phil Goff acknowledged that Clark's government had become identified with \"nanny-state\" policies in the public mind, and said that the party wanted to \"draw a line under the past and say, yes, we made mistakes, we didn't listen.\"\n\nReputation and legacy\nEarly in her career, Clark gained a reputation as a capable advocate of nuclear disarmament and public health policy. As party leader, Clark denounced Rogernomics as \"a ghastly period\" and won the 1999 election by abandoning its legacy. However, biographer Denis Welch has argued that she did not do enough to repudiate the paradigm created by Rogernomics, instead allowing Labour and National to become \"increasingly hard to tell apart\" on many issues.\n\nClark's government was pragmatic, managerial, concerned with stability, and focused on incremental changes over grand projects. Political scientist Bryce Edwards argues that Clark was never a \"conviction politician\" and set out to be a \"successful\" rather than \"great\" politician, leaving behind a legacy of incremental reforms of New Zealand and good management of the status quo, but no bold ambitions. Likewise, commentator John Armstrong, while praising Clark, describes her as a \"technocratic\" prime minister \"who will be remembered more for her management abilities than a capacity to inspire\".\nIn January 2009, two months after losing office, Clark was voted 'Greatest Living New Zealander' in an opt-in website poll run by The New Zealand Herald. In a close race she received 25 per cent of the vote, ahead of Victoria Cross recipient Willie Apiata at 21 per cent. Then Prime Minister John Key said he was not surprised by the poll, saying \"she is well thought of as a New Zealand Prime Minister.\"\nForbes magazine ranked Clark the 22nd most powerful woman in the world in 2016, down from 20th in 2006.\n\nPost-prime ministerial career\nClark was the first defeated Labour Prime Minister to immediately resign the party leadership rather than lead it in Opposition. She served as the shadow foreign affairs spokesperson in the Shadow Cabinet of Phil Goff for several months before retiring from Parliament in April 2009 to accept a position with the United Nations (UN).\n\nUnited Nations Development Programme\nClark became the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on 17 April 2009, and was the first woman to lead the organisation. She was also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues. The New Zealand Government strongly supported her nomination, along with Australia, the Pacific Island nations and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown. She also received the support of the five countries on the bureau of the UNDP board (Iran, Haiti, Serbia, The Netherlands and Tanzania) and was unanimously confirmed by the General Assembly on 31 March. She was sworn in by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 27 April 2009. In this position, Forbes deemed her the 23rd most powerful woman in the world.\n\nIn 2013, Forbes upgraded her position to 21st most powerful woman in the world after she was appointed to administer UNDP for a second term and for her potential future as UN Secretary General. She was the only New Zealander to make the list.\nClark was recognised for her managerial style of leadership. During her tenure, she was an advocate of China's Belt and Road Initiative. She worked to reform the administration and bureaucracy of UNDP, with an emphasis on greater transparency in the organisation. The Publish What You Fund campaign ranked UNDP as the most transparent aid organisation in the world in 2015 and 2016, under Clark's administration.\nIn February 2015, Clark visited Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to express solidarity with those working to prevent the spread of Ebola.\nDuring her tenure, the ratio of women to men at UNDP reached 50%, including at the most senior level of the organisation.\nOn 24 May 2016, a Foreign Policy article alleged that Clark's tenure as Administrator had \"left a trail of embittered peers and subordinates\", and accused her of \"undercutting the UN's promotion of human rights\". The article centred on an allegation that her senior staff retaliated against a critical report of the UNDP by forcing out an official who had participated in the investigation. Both the UNDP and Clark have denied the claims.\nOn 26 January 2017, Clark announced that she would not seek re-election as UNDP Administrator after the completion of her four-year term. She said it had been an \"honour and privilege\" to have served in the role. She left UNDP on 19 April 2017.\n\nUnited Nations Secretary-General selection\nIn January 2014, a Guardian interview with Clark raised the possibility that she could take over as UN Secretary-General after Ban Ki-moon's retirement in 2016. She did not confirm her interest, but commented: \"There will be interest in whether the UN will have a first woman because they're looking like the last bastions, as it were.\" She also said in the same interview that: \"If there's enough support for the style of leadership that I have, it will be interesting.\" In response, Prime Minister John Key said the New Zealand Government would support a bid, but cautioned that it would be a tough task to get the job.\nOn 4 April 2016, Helen Clark officially submitted her nomination as New Zealand's candidate for the 2016 UN Secretary-General selection. In an interview on the same day, Clark stressed that she was running as the gender-neutral best candidate and not \"on the basis of being a woman.\"\nThe UN's role in the Haiti cholera outbreak has been widely discussed and criticised. There has been indisputable evidence that the UN is the proximate cause for bringing cholera to Haiti. Peacekeepers sent to Haiti from Nepal were carrying asymptomatic cholera and they did not treat their waste properly before dumping it into Haiti's water stream. When asked about compensation for victims, Clark has declined to take a position, calling it \"legal issues.\"\nAnother issue that received attention during Clark's candidacy was allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers. This gross problem was brought to light after Anders Kompass exposed the sexual assault of children by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic. During the United Nations Secretary General Candidate informal dialogues, Clark said that the UN needed to deal quickly with sexual exploitation and abuse, and gender-based violence by peacekeepers.\nStraw polls were taken by secret ballot in October 2016. Clark finished fifth place in the sixth poll; her candidacy was effectively vetoed when three of the permanent Security Council members voted against her.\nClark's bid for Secretary-General is the topic of a documentary film, My Year With Helen, directed by Gaylene Preston, which premiered in February 2018.\n\nWorld Health Organization\nOn 9 July 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) appointed Clark as co-chair of a panel reviewing the WHO's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the response of governments to the outbreak. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) examined how the outbreak occurred and how future pandemics can be prevented. She served in the role alongside former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and of her appointment Clark said she hesitated before accepting because she felt the panel's task was \"mission impossible\". Clark's appointment to this panel drew criticism from UN Watch's Executive Director Hillel Neuer, who criticised her close ties with the pro-Beijing UN Goodwill Ambassador James Chau and her previous endorsement of Cuba for sending medical personnel abroad. On 11 November, Neuer called on Clark to resign, claiming that her alleged favouritism towards China and the WHO, would affect the investigation into China's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clark responded that she had no ties with China.\nOn 19 January, the independent panel concluded that Chinese officials could have moved faster in January 2020 to curb the initial COVID-19 outbreak, and criticised the WHO for not declaring an international emergency until 30 January 2020. In the final report published in May 2021, the panel concluded that the pandemic could have been prevented if countries had taken a more proactive approach in February 2020; Clark said \"so many countries chose to wait and see\".\n\nPersonal life\nClark was brought up as a Presbyterian, attending Sunday school weekly. When she was Prime Minister she described herself as an agnostic.\nShe married sociologist Peter Davis in 1981, shortly before she was elected to Parliament. Davis had been Clark’s partner for 5 years but she had come under pressure from some Labour members to marry for political purposes, despite her personal reservations about marriage. Davis is currently a professor in medical sociology and was director of COMPASS (Centre of Methods and Policy Application in the Social Sciences) at the University of Auckland.\nAfter the 1981 elections Clark said: \"It was a difficult campaign\". In an essay for the book Head and Shoulders in 1984 she said: \"As a single woman I was really hammered. I was accused of being a lesbian, of living in a commune, having friends who were Trotskyites and gays...\".\nIn March 2001, Clark referred to National MP Wyatt Creech as a \"scumbag\" and a \"sleazeball\" for having raised the issue of a potential conflict of interest involving Davis, who was leading an academic research team studying government health reforms.\nClark is a keen hiker and mountaineer. In August 2008, an expedition group that included Clark and her husband became stranded on the Two Thumb Range, a spur of the Southern Alps, when their guide (and Clark's friend), Gottlieb Braun-Elwert, collapsed and died from a suspected heart attack.\n\nViews and positions\nSocial media\nDuring her tenure as UNDP administrator and afterwards, Clark's presence on social media and avid use of Twitter has attracted positive attention in news media. She has called for greater regulation of social media platforms, and supports the Christchurch Call.\n\nCannabis reform\nDuring the 2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Clark publicly supported the \"Yes\" vote campaign to decriminalise recreational cannabis, arguing that prohibition did not work. She also featured in the \"We Do\" campaign supporting the proposed \"Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill.\"\n\nIsraeli–Palestinian conflict\nDuring the 2023 Israel-Hamas War, Clark criticised the decision by New Zealand and several other Western governments to halt their aid contributions to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East) following allegations that several UNRWA workers had participated in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. She said it was \"most regrettable that countries have acted in this precipitous way to defund the organisation on the basis of allegations\". While Clark acknowledged that the allegations against UNRWA were serious, she said that \"defunding the agency without knowing the outcome of the investigation was not the right decision.\"\n\nAUKUS\nIn April 2024, Clark criticised the National-led coalition government's interest in associate membership of AUKUS, stating that New Zealand foreign policy towards its Western allies was lurching away from \"hitherto bipartisan settings.\" She described this shift as \"profoundly undemocratic\". Clark also said \"that New Zealand has worked on a bipartisan basis for decades to balance its economic interests, democratic values, and nuclear-free and independent foreign policy.\" She expressed concerns about the country getting drawn into geopolitical games. \nIn July 2024, Clark joined former National and ACT leader Don Brash in criticising the Government's perceived pro-US shift in New Zealand foreign policy. This came in response to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's remarks that the Government would be more willing to disclose cases of Chinese espionage in New Zealand and participating in AUKUS Pillar 2.\n\nAwards and honours\nFor almost nine years, Helen Clark shouldered both the powers and responsibilities of being Prime Minister confidently and adeptly. That only four other New Zealanders (Seddon, Massey, Holyoake, and Fraser) have held the Office for longer speaks much of Helen Clark's acumen, abilities and judgement.\nIn 1986, Clark was awarded the annual Peace Prize of the Danish Peace Foundation for her work in promoting peace and nuclear disarmament.\nIn 1990, Clark received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.\nIn 1993, Clark was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.\nIn 2002, she was presented with the Nuclear-Free Future Award, for \"installing New Zealand at the forefront of the world political movement to rid the earth of nuclear weapons\".\nIn 2005, the government of the Solomon Islands awarded Clark (with John Howard) the Star of the Solomon Islands in recognition of New Zealand's role in restoring law and order in the Solomon Islands. This award allows her to use the post-nominal letters \"SSI\".\nIn January 2008, Clark won the United Nations Environment Programme Champions of the Earth award in recognition of the government's promotion of sustainability initiatives.\nIn April 2009, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Auckland, her alma mater.\nIn the 2010 New Year Honours, Clark was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest honour, for services to New Zealand.\nShe was recognised as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2013.\nIn September 2017, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards\nIn December 2017, she was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.\nIn June 2024, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of St Andrews, exactly half a century since her graduation.\nPatronage\n\nClark is the patron for The Helen Clark Foundation.\nClark is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.\nShe was the patron of the New Zealand Rugby League between 2002 and 2011, and has served as the patron of the Mount Albert Lions rugby league club for over 20 years.\n\nIn popular culture\nIn 1996, Clark guest starred as herself in popular New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. A satirical book, later adapted as a play, titled On the Conditions and Possibilities of Helen Clark Taking Me as Her Young Lover, by Richard Meros, was published by Lawrence and Gibson in 2005. Clark has also guest-starred on bro'Town, the New Zealand animated television series.\nIn 2020, the Eden Park Trust Board requested the right to stage six concerts a year, without having to seek individual planning permission – a process that had forced it to drop past concert plans. Clark said concerts at Eden Park stadium would \"represent a home invasion of noise\" and told a planning hearing the bid for six gigs a year should be rejected. Clark lives four streets from the stadium and told the independent planning commission \"one's home is one's sanctuary\". The former prime minister moved into her home in 1981 when Eden Park was a venue for daytime cricket and rugby.\n\nSee also\nElectoral history of Helen Clark\nList of Nuclear-Free Future Award recipients\nPolitics of New Zealand\n\nNotes\nReferences\nBibliography\nEast, Roger; Thomas, Richard (2003). Profiles of People in Power: The World's Government Leaders. Psychology Press. ISBN 9781857431261. Archived from the original on 25 November 2017.\nEyley, Claudia Pond; Salmon, Dan (2015). Helen Clark: Inside Stories. Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-77558-820-7. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2016.\n\nFurther reading\nBoston, Jonathan (2000). Left Turn: The New Zealand general election of 1999. Victoria University Press.\nBoston, Jonathan; et al. (2004). New Zealand Votes: The 2002 General Election. Victoria University Press. ISBN 9780864734686.\nClark, Helen (2018). Women, Equality, Power: selected speeches from a life of leadership. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-98854-705-3.\nEdwards, Brian (2001). Helen: Portrait of A Prime Minister. Auckland: Exisle Publishing. ISBN 978-0-908988-20-4.\nHarvey, John; Edwards, John (2019). Annette King: The Authorised Biography. Auckland: Upstart Press. ISBN 978-1-988516-37-0.\nKerr, Allan R. (c. 2006). Helen Clark: Prime Minister of New Zealand (3rd ed.). Masterton, NZ: Capital Letters Pub. ISBN 978-1-877177-57-6. This is a book intended for children.\nLevine, Stephen and Nigel S. Roberts, eds. (2007). The Baubles of Office: The New Zealand General Election of 2005. Victoria University Press.\nLevine, Stephen and Nigel S. Roberts, eds. (2010). Key to Victory: The New Zealand General Election of 2008. Victoria University Press.\nMiller, Raymond; Mintrom, Michael (eds.) (c. 2006). Political leadership in New Zealand. Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-86940-358-4. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)\nRussell, Marcia (1996). Revolution:New Zealand from Fortress to Free Market. Hodder Moa Beckett. ISBN 1869584287.\nSkard, Torild (2014). \"Helen Clark\" in Women of Power: Half a century of female presidents and prime ministers worldwide, Bristol: Policy Press. ISBN 978-1-44731-578-0\nWelch, Denis (2009). Helen Clark: A Political Life. Penguin Books.\nWilliams, Tony (2006). 101 ingenious Kiwis: how New Zealanders changed the world. Auckland: Reed. ISBN 978-0-7900-1110-3. Helen Clark is profiled in a chapter entitled: \"Helen Clark: first elected woman prime minister.\"\n\nExternal links\nBiography of the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (2009–2017) Archived 1 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine on UNDP\nBrief biography on the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage's 'NZHistory' website\nRt Hon Helen Clark on Parliament.nz\nHelen Clark at IMDb","title":"Helen_Clark"},{"idx":3,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( jə-SIN-də ar-DURN; born 26 July 1980) is a former New Zealand politician who served as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023. She was a Labour member of Parliament (MP) as a list MP from 2008 to 2017, and for Mount Albert from 2017 to 2023.\nBorn in Hamilton, Ardern grew up in Morrinsville and Murupara. She joined the New Zealand Labour Party at the age of 17. After graduating from the University of Waikato in 2001, Ardern worked as a researcher in the office of Prime Minister Helen Clark. She later worked in London as an adviser in the Cabinet Office during Tony Blair's premiership. In 2008, Ardern was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth. Ardern was first elected as an MP in the 2008 general election, when Labour lost power after nine years. She was later elected to represent the Mount Albert electorate in a by-election on 25 February 2017.\nArdern was unanimously elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party on 1 March 2017, after the resignation of Annette King. Exactly five months later, with an election due, Labour's leader Andrew Little resigned after a historically low opinion polling result for the party, with Ardern elected unopposed as leader in his place. Labour's support increased rapidly after Ardern became leader, and she led her party to gain 14 seats at the 2017 general election on 23 September, winning 46 seats to the National Party's 56. After negotiations, New Zealand First chose to enter a minority coalition government with Labour, supported by the Green Party, with Ardern as prime minister. She was sworn in by the governor-general on 26 October 2017. She became the world's youngest female head of government at age 37. Ardern gave birth to her daughter on 21 June 2018, making her the world's second elected head of government to give birth while in office (after Benazir Bhutto).\nArdern describes herself as a social democrat and a progressive. The Sixth Labour Government faced challenges from the New Zealand housing crisis, child poverty, and social inequality. In March 2019, in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, Ardern reacted by rapidly introducing strict gun laws, winning her wide recognition. Throughout 2020 she led New Zealand's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, for which she won praise for New Zealand being one of the few Western nations to successfully contain the virus. It is estimated that her government's actions saved as many as 80,000 lives. Ardern moved the Labour Party further to the centre towards the October 2020 general election, promising to cut spending during the remainder of the COVID-19 recession. She led the Labour Party to a landslide victory, gaining an overall majority of 65 seats in Parliament, the first time a majority government had been formed since the introduction of a proportional representation system in 1996.\nOn 19 January 2023, Ardern announced she would resign as Labour leader. Following the unopposed election of Chris Hipkins as her successor, she resigned as leader of the Labour Party on 22 January and submitted her resignation as prime minister to the governor-general on 25 January.\n\nEarly life and education\nJacinda Kate Laurell Ardern was born on 26 July 1980 in Hamilton, New Zealand. She grew up in Morrinsville and Murupara, where her father, Ross Ardern, worked as a police officer, and her mother, Laurell Ardern (née Bottomley), worked as a school catering assistant. She has an older sister named Louise. Ardern was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and her uncle, Ian S. Ardern, is a general authority in the church. In 1994, she began studying at Morrinsville College, and later she was the student representative on the school's board of trustees. Whilst still at school, she found her first job, working at a local fish-and-chip shop.\nShe joined the Labour Party at the age of 17. Her aunt, Marie Ardern, a longstanding member of the Labour Party, recruited the teenaged Ardern to help her with campaigning for New Plymouth MP Harry Duynhoven during his re-election campaign at the 1999 general election.\nArdern attended the University of Waikato, graduating in 2001 as a Bachelor of Communication Studies in politics and public relations, a specialist three-year degree. She took a semester abroad at Arizona State University in 2001. After graduating from university, she spent time working in the offices of Phil Goff and of Helen Clark as a researcher. After a period of time in New York City, United States, where she volunteered at a soup kitchen and worked on a workers' rights campaign, Ardern moved to London, England, in 2006, where she became a senior policy adviser in an 80-person policy unit of the United Kingdom Cabinet Office under prime minister Tony Blair. (She did not meet Blair in person while in London, but later at an event in New Zealand in 2011 she questioned him about the 2003 invasion of Iraq). Ardern was also seconded to the United Kingdom Home Office to help with a review of policing in England and Wales.\n\nEarly political career\nPresident of International Union of Socialist Youth\nOn 30 January 2008, at 27, Ardern was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) at their world congress in the Dominican Republic for a two-year term until 2010. The role saw her spend time in several countries, including Hungary, Jordan, Israel, Algeria and China. It was mid-way through her presidency term that Ardern became a list MP for the Labour Party. She then continued to manage both roles for the next 15 months.\n\nMember of Parliament\nAhead of the 2008 election, Ardern was ranked 20th on Labour's party list. This was a very high placement for someone who was not already a sitting MP, and virtually assured her of a seat in Parliament. Accordingly, Ardern returned from London to campaign full-time. She also became Labour's candidate for the safe National electorate of Waikato. Ardern was unsuccessful in the electorate vote, but her high placement on Labour's party list allowed her to enter Parliament as a list MP. Upon election, she became the youngest sitting MP in Parliament, succeeding fellow Labour MP Darren Hughes, and remained the youngest MP until the election of Gareth Hughes on 11 February 2010.\nOpposition leader Phil Goff promoted Ardern to the front bench, naming her Labour's spokesperson for Youth Affairs and as associate spokesperson for Justice (Youth Affairs).\nShe made regular appearances on TVNZ's Breakfast programme as part of the \"Young Guns\" feature, in which she appeared alongside National MP (and future National leader) Simon Bridges.\n\nArdern contested the seat of Auckland Central for Labour in the 2011 general election, standing against incumbent National MP Nikki Kaye for National and Greens candidate Denise Roche. She lost to Kaye by 717 votes. However, she returned to Parliament via the party list, on which she was ranked 13th. Ardern maintained an office within the electorate while she was a list MP based in Auckland Central.\nAfter Goff resigned from the Party leadership following his defeat at the 2011 election, Ardern supported David Shearer over David Cunliffe. She was elevated to the fourth-ranking position in his Shadow Cabinet on 19 December 2011, becoming a spokesperson for social development under the new leader.\nArdern stood again in Auckland Central at the 2014 general election. She again finished second though increased her own vote and reduced Kaye's majority from 717 to 600. Ranked 5th on Labour's list, Ardern was still returned to Parliament where she became Shadow spokesperson for Justice, Children, Small Business, and Arts & Culture under new leader Andrew Little.\nIn 2014 Ardern was also selected, attended and graduated from the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Forum of Young Global Leaders, founded by Klaus Schwab, which takes place in Switzerland. She remains involved publicly as a part of the Young Global Leaders Alumni Community, and speaks at WEF events.\n\nMount Albert by-election\nArdern put forward her name for the Labour nomination for the Mount Albert by-election to be held in February 2017 following the resignation of David Shearer on 8 December 2016. When nominations for the Labour Party closed on 12 January 2017, Ardern was the only nominee and was selected unopposed. On 21 January, Ardern participated in the 2017 Women's March, a worldwide protest in opposition to Donald Trump, the newly inaugurated president of the United States. She was confirmed as Labour's candidate at a meeting on 22 January. Ardern won a landslide victory, gaining 77 per cent of votes cast in the preliminary results.\n\nDeputy Leader of the Labour Party\nFollowing her win in the by-election, Ardern was unanimously elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party on 7 March 2017, following the resignation of Annette King, who was intending to retire at the next election. Ardern's vacant list seat was taken by Raymond Huo.\n\nLeader of the Opposition\nOn 1 August 2017, just seven weeks before the 2017 general election, Ardern assumed the position of leader of the Labour Party, and consequently became leader of the Opposition, following the resignation of Andrew Little. Little stood down due to the party's historically low polling. Ardern was unanimously confirmed in an election to choose a new leader at a caucus meeting the same day. At 37, Ardern became the youngest leader of the Labour Party in its history. She is also the second female leader of the party after Helen Clark. According to Ardern, Little had previously approached her on 26 July and said he thought she should take over as Labour leader then, as he was of the opinion he could not turn things around for the party, although Ardern declined and told him to \"stick it out\".\nAt her first press conference, after her election as leader, she said that the forthcoming election campaign would be one of \"relentless positivity\". Immediately following her appointment, the party was inundated with donations by the public, reaching NZ$700 per minute at its peak. After Ardern's ascension to the leadership, Labour rose dramatically in opinion polls. By late August, the party had reached 43 per cent in the Colmar Brunton poll (having been 24 per cent under Little's leadership) as well as managing to overtake National in opinion polls for the first time in over a decade. Detractors observed her positions were substantially similar to those of Andrew Little, and suggested that Labour's sudden increase in popularity were due to her youth and good looks.\nIn mid-August, Ardern stated that a Labour government would establish a tax working group to explore the possibility of introducing a capital gains tax but ruled out taxing family homes. In response to negative publicity, Ardern abandoned plans to introduce a capital gains tax during the first term of a Labour government. Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson later clarified that Labour would not introduce new taxes until after the 2020 election. The policy shift accompanied strident allegations by Minister of Finance Steven Joyce that Labour had an $11.7 billion \"hole\" in its tax policy.\nThe Labour and Green parties' proposed water and pollution taxes also generated criticism from farmers. On 18 September 2017, the farming lobby group Federated Farmers staged a protest against the taxes in Ardern's hometown of Morrinsville. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters attended the protest to campaign but was jeered at by the farmers because they suspected he was also in favour of the taxes. During the protest, one farmer displayed a sign calling Ardern a \"pretty communist\". This was criticised as misogynistic by former prime minister Helen Clark.\nIn the final days of the general election campaign, the opinion polls narrowed with National taking a slight lead.\n\n2017 general election\nDuring the general election held on 23 September 2017, Ardern retained her Mount Albert electorate seat by a margin of 15,264 votes. Labour increased its vote share to 36.89 per cent while National dropped back to 44.45. Labour gained 14 seats, increasing its parliamentary representation to 46 seats, the best result for the party since losing power in 2008.\nThe rival Labour and National parties lacked sufficient seats to govern alone and held talks with the Greens and New Zealand First parties about forming a coalition. Under the country's mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system, New Zealand First held the balance of power and chose to be part of a coalition government with Labour.\n\nPrime minister (2017–2023)\nFirst term (2017–2020)\nOn 19 October 2017, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters agreed to form a coalition with Labour, making Ardern the next prime minister. This coalition received confidence and supply from the Green Party. Ardern named Peters as deputy prime minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. She also gave New Zealand First five posts in her government, with Peters and three other ministers serving in Cabinet. The next day, Ardern confirmed that she would hold the ministerial portfolios of National Security and Intelligence; Arts, Culture and Heritage; and Vulnerable Children; reflecting the shadow positions she held as Leader of the Opposition. Her position as Minister for Vulnerable Children was later replaced with the role of Minister for Child Poverty Reduction, while New Zealand First MP Tracey Martin took on the role of Minister for Children. She was officially sworn in by Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy on 26 October, alongside her ministry. Upon taking office, Ardern said that her government would be \"focused, empathetic and strong\".\nArdern is New Zealand's third female prime minister after Jenny Shipley (1997–1999) and Helen Clark (1999–2008). She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders. Entering office aged 37, Ardern is also the youngest individual to become New Zealand's head of government since Edward Stafford, who became premier in 1856 also aged 37. On 19 January 2018, Ardern announced that she was pregnant, and that Winston Peters would take the role of acting prime minister for six weeks after the birth. Following the birth of a daughter, she took her maternity leave from 21 June to 2 August 2018.\n\nDomestic affairs\nArdern promised to halve child poverty in New Zealand within a decade. In July 2018, Ardern announced the start of her government's flagship Families Package. Among its provisions, the package gradually increased paid parental leave to 26 weeks and introduced a $60 per-week universal BestStart Payment for low and middle-income families with young children. The Family Tax Credit, Orphans Benefit, Accommodation Supplement, and Foster Care Allowance were all substantially increased as well. In 2019, the government began the roll-out of a school lunches pilot programme to assist in reducing child poverty numbers; this was then extended to support 200,000 children (about 25 per cent of school rolls) in low decile schools. Other efforts to reduce poverty have included increases to main welfare benefits, expanding free doctor's visits, providing free menstrual hygiene products in schools and adding to state housing stock.\nHowever, as of 2022 critics say rising housing costs are continuing to cripple families and systemic changes are needed to ensure any gains are lasting.\nEconomically, Ardern's government has implemented steady increases to the country's minimum wage and introduced the Provincial Growth Fund to invest in rural infrastructure projects. The National Party's planned tax cuts were cancelled, saying instead it would prioritise expenditure on healthcare and education. The first year of post-secondary education was made free from 1 January 2018 and, after industrial action, the government agreed to increase primary teachers' pay by 12.8 (for beginning teachers) and 18.5 per cent (for senior teachers without other responsibilities) by 2021.\nDespite the Labour Party campaigning on a capital gains tax for the last three elections, Ardern pledged in April 2019 that the government would not implement a capital gains tax under her leadership. However, since then the period for which capital gain on rental properties sold is taxed has increased from five to ten years since purchase.\nArdern travelled to Waitangi in 2018 for the annual Waitangi Day commemoration; stayed in Waitangi for five days, an unprecedented length. Ardern became the first female prime minister to speak from the top marae. Her visit was largely well received by Māori leaders, with commentators noting a sharp contrast with the acrimonious responses received by several of her predecessors.\nOn 24 August 2018, Ardern removed Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran from Cabinet after she failed to disclose a meeting with a broadcaster outside of parliamentary business, which was judged to be a conflict of interest. Curran remained a minister outside Cabinet, and Ardern was criticised by the Opposition for not dismissing Curran from her portfolio. Ardern later accepted Curran's resignation. In 2019, she was criticised for her handling of an allegation of sexual assault against a Labour Party staffer. Ardern said she had been told the allegation did not involve sexual assault or violence before a report about the incident was published in The Spinoff. Media questioned her account, with one journalist stating that Ardern's claim was \"hard to swallow\".\nArdern opposes criminalising people who use cannabis in New Zealand, and pledged to hold a referendum on the issue. A non-binding referendum to legalise cannabis was held in conjunction with the 2020 general election on 17 October 2020. Ardern admitted to past cannabis use during a televised debate prior to the election. In the referendum, voters rejected the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill by 51.17 per cent. A retrospective article published in a medical journal suggested that Ardern's refusal to publicly back the 'yes' campaign \"may have been a decisive factor in the narrow defeat\".\nIn September 2020, Ardern announced that her government had abandoned plans to make tertiary education tuition free.\n\nForeign affairs\nOn 5 November 2017, Ardern made her first official overseas trip to Australia, where she met Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the first time. Relations between the two countries had been strained in the preceding months because of Australia's treatment of New Zealanders living in the country, and shortly before taking office, Ardern had spoken of the need to rectify this situation, and to develop a better working relationship with the Australian government. Turnbull described the meeting in cordial terms: \"we trust each other...The fact we are from different political traditions is irrelevant\". \nOn 12 November 2017, Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Ardern announced that the government would continue participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations despite opposition from the Green Party. New Zealand ratified the revised agreement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she described as being better than the original TPP agreement. \nArdern attended the 2017 APEC summit in Vietnam, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018 in London (featuring a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II) and a United Nations summit in New York City. After her first formal meeting with Donald Trump she reported that the US president showed \"interest\" in New Zealand's gun buyback programme. In 2018, Ardern raised the issue of Xinjiang internment camps and human-rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in China. Ardern has also raised concerns over the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.\nArdern travelled to Nauru, where she attended the 2018 Pacific Islands Forum. Media and political opponents criticised her decision to travel separately from the rest of her contingent, costing taxpayers up to NZ$100,000, so that she could spend more time with her daughter. At a 2018 United Nations General Assembly meeting, Ardern became the first female head of government to attend with her infant present. Her address to the General Assembly praised the United Nations for its multilateralism, expressed support for the world's youth, called for immediate attention to the effects and causes of climate change, for the equality of women, and for kindness as the basis for action.\nOn 24 September 2019, Ardern met with United States President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting. During the 25-minute meeting, the two leaders discussed various issues including tourism, the Christchurch mosque shooting, and bilateral trade. During the meeting, Trump expressed an interest in New Zealand's gun buy-back scheme. The two leaders had earlier met briefly at the 2017 East Asia Summit, the 2017 APEC Summit, and during an exclusive party following the 2018 UN General Assembly meeting. \nIn late February 2020, Ardern met Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Sydney. During her visit, she criticised Australia's policy of deporting New Zealanders, many of whom had lived in Australia but had not taken up Australian citizenship, as \"corrosive\" and damaging to Australia–New Zealand relations.\n\nChristchurch mosque shootings\nOn 15 March 2019, 51 people were fatally shot and 49 injured in two mosques in Christchurch. In a statement broadcast on television, Ardern offered condolences and stated that the shootings had been carried out by suspects with \"extremist views\" that have no place in New Zealand, or anywhere else in the world. She also described it as a well-planned terrorist attack.\nAnnouncing a period of national mourning, Ardern was the first signatory of a national condolence book that she opened in the capital, Wellington. She also travelled to Christchurch to meet first responders and families of the victims. In an address at the Parliament, she declared she would never say the name of the attacker: \"Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them ... he will, when I speak, be nameless.\" Ardern received international praise for her response to the shootings, and a photograph of her hugging a member of the Christchurch Muslim community with the word \"peace\" in English and Arabic was projected onto the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. A 25-metre (82 ft) mural of this photograph was unveiled in May 2019.\nIn response to the shootings, Ardern announced her government's intention to introduce stronger firearms regulations. She said that the attack had exposed a range of weaknesses in New Zealand's gun law. Less than one month after the attack, the New Zealand Parliament passed a law that bans most semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles, parts that convert guns into semiautomatic guns, and higher capacity magazines. Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron co-chaired the 2019 Christchurch Call summit, which aimed to \"bring together countries and tech companies in an attempt to bring to an end the ability to use social media to organise and promote terrorism and violent extremism\".\n\nCOVID-19 pandemic\nOn 14 March 2020, Ardern announced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand that the government would be requiring anyone entering the country from midnight 15 March to isolate themselves for 14 days. She said the new rules will mean New Zealand has the \"widest ranging and toughest border restrictions of any country in the world\". On 19 March, Ardern stated that New Zealand's borders would be closed to all non-citizens and non-permanent residents, after 11:59 pm on 20 March (NZDT). Ardern announced that New Zealand would move to alert level 4, including a nationwide lockdown, at 11:59 pm on 25 March.\nNational and international media covered the government response led by Ardern, praising her leadership and swift response to the outbreak in New Zealand. The Washington Post's Fifield described her regular use of interviews, press conferences and social media as a \"masterclass in crisis communication\". Alastair Campbell, a journalist and adviser in Tony Blair's British government, commended Ardern for addressing both the human and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.\nIn mid-April 2020, two applicants filed a lawsuit at the Auckland High Court against Ardern and several government officials including Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield, claiming that the lockdown imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic infringed on their freedoms and was made for \"political gain\". The lawsuit was dismissed by Justice Mary Peters of the Auckland High Court.\nOn 5 May 2020, Ardern, her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison and several Australian state and territorial leaders agreed that they would collaborate to develop a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone that would allow residents from both countries to travel freely without travel restrictions as part of efforts to ease coronavirus restrictions.\nPost-lockdown opinion polls showed the Labour Party with nearly 60 per cent support. In May 2020, Ardern rated 59.5 per cent as 'preferred prime minister' in a Newshub-Reid Research poll—the highest score for any leader in the Reid Research poll's history. The number of lives saved by the response Ardern spearheaded was estimated as up to 80,000 by a team led by Shaun Hendy.\n\nSecond term (2020–2023)\nIn the 2020 general election, Ardern led her party to a landslide victory, winning an overall majority of 65 seats in the 120-seat House of Representatives, and 50 per cent of the nationwide party vote (moreover Labour won the party vote in 71 out of the 72 electorates). She also retained the Mount Albert electorate by a margin of 21,246 votes. Ardern credited her victory to her government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic impacts it has had. \nIn 2022, domestic popularity for Ardern and her policies fell considerably, with polling on whether people “think the country is going in the right direction” tracking down from a high of 70% in early 2021 to 30% at the end of 2022. The last polls of 2022 had Labour at about 33%, similar to party polling when she first took over in 2017, and her approval rating dropped to 29%.\n\nDomestic affairs\nOn 2 December 2020, Ardern declared a climate change emergency in New Zealand and pledged that the Government would be carbon neutral by 2025 in a parliamentary motion. As part of this commitment towards carbon neutrality, the public sector will be required to buy only electric or hybrid vehicles, the fleet will be reduced over time by 20 per cent, and all 200 coal-fired boilers in public service buildings will be phased out. This motion was supported by the Labour, Green, and Māori parties but was opposed by the opposition National and ACT parties. However, climate activist Greta Thunberg said about Ardern: \"It's funny that people believe Jacinda Ardern and people like that are climate leaders. That just tells you how little people know about the climate crisis ... the emissions haven't fallen.\"\nIn response to worsening housing affordability issues, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Megan Woods announced new reforms. These reforms included the removal of the interest rate tax-deduction, lifting Housing Aid for first home buyers, renewed allocation of infrastructure funds (named Housing Acceleration Fund) for district councils, an extension of the Bright Line Test from five to ten years.\nOn 14 June 2021, Ardern confirmed that the New Zealand Government would formally apologise for the Dawn Raids at the Auckland Town Hall on 26 June 2021. The Dawn Raids were a series of police raids which disproportionately targeted members of the Pasifika diaspora in New Zealand during the 1970s and early 1980s.\nIn September 2022, Ardern led the nation's tributes following the death of New Zealand's longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Ardern described her as an \"incredible woman\", and a \"constant in our lives\". She also described the Queen as a \"much admired and respected\" monarch. Ardern also stated that republicanism was currently not on the agenda but believed that the country would head in that direction in the future.\nIn mid-December 2022, Ardern was recorded on a hot mic calling the leader of the ACT Party, David Seymour, an \"arrogant prick\" during Parliament's Question Time. Since New Zealand parliamentary debates are televised, the comment was aired on television during Question Time. Ardern later texted Seymour to apologise for her comment. The two politicians subsequently reconciled and joined forces to raise NZ$60,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation by auctioning a signed and framed copy of the Prime Minister's remark.\n\nCOVID-19 and vaccination programme\nOn 17 June 2020, Prime Minister Ardern met with Bill Gates and Melinda Gates via a teleconference in a meeting requested by Bill Gates. In the meeting, Ardern was asked by Melinda Gates to \"speak up\" in support of a collective approach to a COVID-19 vaccine. Ardern said she'd be happy to assist, an Official Information Act request response has shown. A month earlier in May, Ardern's Government had pledged $37 million to help find a COVID-19 vaccine, which included $15 million to CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum among others, and $7 million to GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), also founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. During the meeting Gates noted this contribution. Ardern had also met the Gateses the year before in New York.\nOn 12 December 2020, Ardern and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown announced that a travel bubble between New Zealand and the Cook Islands would be established in 2021, allowing two-way quarantine-free travel between the two countries. On 14 December, Prime Minister Ardern confirmed that the New Zealand and Australian Governments had agreed to establish a travel bubble between the two countries the following year. On 17 December, Ardern also announced that the Government had purchased two more vaccines from the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Novavax for New Zealand and its Pacific partners in addition to the existing stocks from Pfizer/BioNTech and Janssen Pharmaceutica.\n\nOn 26 January 2021, Ardern stated that New Zealand's borders would remain closed to most non-citizens and non-residents until New Zealand citizens have been \"vaccinated and protected\". The COVID-19 vaccination programme began in February 2021. An outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in August 2021 prompted the government to enact a nationwide lockdown again. By September, the number of new community infections began to fall again; comparisons were made with an outbreak in neighbouring Australia, which was unable to contain a Delta variant outbreak at the same time.\nOn 29 January 2022, Ardern entered into self-isolation after she was identified as a close contact of a COVID-19 case on an Air New Zealand flight from Kerikeri to Auckland on 22 January. In addition, Governor-General Cindy Kiro and chief press secretary Andrew Campbell, who were aboard the same flight, also went into self-isolation.\nDuring a routine school visit by Ardern, protestors gathered outside. As the demonstrators pushed down the school’s drive, Ardern was bundled into a van and driven away, chased by protesters screaming profanities and abuse. The previous month, Ardern’s vehicle was chased and forced on to a curb by anti-vaccination protesters calling her a Nazi and yelling obscenities. Asked about the incident at the time, Ardern said it was “just another day”. \nOn 14 May 2022, Ardern tested positive for COVID-19. Her partner Gayford had tested positive for COVID-19 several days earlier on 8 May.\n\nForeign affairs\nIn early December 2020, Ardern expressed support for Australia during a dispute between Canberra and Beijing over Chinese Foreign Ministry official Zhao Lijian's Twitter post alleging that Australia had committed war crimes against Afghans. She described the image as not being factual and incorrect, adding that the New Zealand Government would raise its concerns with the Chinese Government.\nOn 9 December 2020, Ardern delivered a speech virtually at the Singapore FinTech Festival, applauding the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) among New Zealand, Chile and Singapore as \"the first important steps\" to achieve the regulatory alignment to facilitate businesses.\nOn 16 February 2021, Ardern criticised the Australian Government's decision to revoke dual New Zealand–Australian national Suhayra Aden's Australian citizenship. Aden had migrated from New Zealand to Australia at the age of six and acquired Australian citizenship. She subsequently travelled to Syria to live in the Islamic State as a ISIS bride in 2014. On 15 February 2021, Aden and two of her children were detained by Turkish authorities for illegal entry. Ardern accused the Australian Government of abandoning its obligations to its citizens and also offered consular support to Aden and her children. In response, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended the decision to revoke Aden's citizenship, citing legislation stripping dual nationals of their Australian citizenship if they were engaged in terrorist activities. Following a phone conversation, the two leaders agreed to work together to address what Ardern described as \"quite a complex legal situation\".\nIn response to the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, Ardern stated on 17 May that New Zealand \"condemned both the indiscriminate rocket fire we have seen from Hamas and what looks to be a response that has gone well beyond self-defence on both sides.\" She also stated that Israel had the \"right to exist\" but Palestinians also had a \"right to a peaceful home, a secure home.\"\nIn late May 2021, Ardern hosted Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a state visit at Queenstown. The two heads of governments issued a joint statement affirming bilateral cooperation on the issues of COVID-19, bilateral relations, and security issues in the Indo-Pacific. Ardern and Morrison also raised concerns about the South China Sea dispute and human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. In response to the joint statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin criticised the Australian and New Zealand governments for interfering in Chinese domestic affairs.\nIn early December 2021, Ardern participated in the virtual Summit for Democracy that was hosted by US President Joe Biden. In her address, she talked about bolstering democratic resilience in the age of COVID-19 followed by panel discussions. Ardern also announced that New Zealand would contribute an additional NZ$1 million to supporting Pacific countries' anti-corruption efforts, as well as contributing to UNESCO's Global Media Defence Fund and the International Fund for Public Interest Media.\nIn April 2022, Ardern was banned from entering Russia along with 129 other parliamentarians and senior government officials after the New Zealand Parliament unanimously imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.\n\nIn late May 2022, Ardern led a trade and tourism mission to the United States. During her trip, she urged the Biden Administration to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement which the previous Trump Administration had abandoned in 2017. While attending the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Ardern also condemned the Robb Elementary School shooting and advocated stronger gun control measures, citing New Zealand's ban on semi-automatic firearms following the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. On 27 May, Ardern gave the annual commencement address at Harvard University, speaking about gun reform and democracy. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate in law. On 28 May, Ardern signed a memorandum of understanding with Governor of California Gavin Newsom formalising bilateral cooperation between New Zealand and California in climate change mitigation and research.\nOn 1 June 2022, Ardern met with US President Joe Biden and Vice-president Kamala Harris to reaffirm bilateral relations between the two countries. The two leaders also issued a joint statement reaffirming bilateral cooperation on various issues including the South China Sea dispute, support for Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion, Chinese tensions with Taiwan, and alleged human-rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry official Zhao Lijian accused New Zealand and the United States of seeking to spread disinformation about China's engagement with Pacific Islands countries, interfering in Chinese internal affairs, and urged New Zealand to adhere to its stated \"independent foreign policy\".\nOn 10 June 2022, Ardern visited the newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The two leaders discussed a range of issues including Australia's controversial Section 501 deportation policy, Chinese influence in the Pacific region, climate change, and working with Pacific neighbours. In response to Ardern's concerns, Albanese stated that he would explore ways of addressing New Zealand's concerns about the adverse impact of its deportation policies on New Zealanders residing in Australia.\n\nIn late June 2022, Ardern attended the NATO's Leader Summit, which marked the first time that New Zealand had formally addressed a NATO event. During her speech, she emphasised New Zealand's commitment to peace and human rights. Ardern also criticised China for challenging international norms and rules in the South Pacific. She also alleged that Russia was conducting a disinformation campaign targeting New Zealand due to its support for Ukraine. In response, the Chinese Embassy defended China's engagement with the South Pacific region, claiming that China was only interested in promoting regional development and did not seek to militarise the region.\nOn 30 June 2022, Ardern spoke by telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Though Zelensky had earlier invited Ardern to visit Ukraine during her European trade mission, Ardern had declined due to scheduling issues. During the conversation, Ardern reassured Zelensky that New Zealand would continue imposing sanctions on Russia. Zelensky also thanked New Zealand for providing aid to Ukraine and called for assistance in rebuilding Ukraine.\nIn early August 2022, Ardern led a delegation of New Zealand political leaders, officials, civil society leaders, and journalists including National Party and opposition leader Christopher Luxon, Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni and Pacific Peoples Minister William Sio on a state visit to Samoa to marked the 60th anniversary of Samoa's independence. This visit preceded an earlier visit to New Zealand in June 2022 by Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa. On 2 August, Ardern met with Fiame to discuss issues of concern to bilateral relations including climate change, economic resilience, COVID-19, health and Samoan seasonal workers in New Zealand. Ardern also confirmed that New Zealand would commit NZ$15 million in aid to support Samoa's climate change mitigation efforts and NZ$12m to rebuild Apia's historical Savalalo Market.\nIn September 2022, Ardern along with her fiancé Clarke Gayford and their daughter Neve attended Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. During the funeral, she wore a traditional Māori cloak designed by Māori fashion designer Kiri Nathan.\nIn late October 2022, Ardern and Gayford visited New Zealand's Antarctica base Scott Base to mark the research base's 65th anniversary. The Government had already committed NZ$344 million to the redevelopment of Scott base. After Ardern's C-130 Hercules aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force broke down, she and her entourage returned to Christchurch on an Italian C-130 Hercules aircraft.\nIn mid-November 2022, Ardern attended the East Asia Summit in Cambodia where she condemned the Myanmar military regime's execution of political prisoners and called for consensus in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the East Asia Summit, she met with US President Biden to discuss New Zealand milk company A2 Milk's efforts to supply infant formula to help address the infant formula milk shortage in the United States.\n\nOn 30 November, Ardern hosted Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, which marked the first visit by a Finnish head of government to New Zealand. During her visit, the two leaders discussed bilateral trade relations, the global economic situation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and human rights in Iran. During the ensuing press conference, Ardern rebuffed a suggestion by a journalist that the two heads of government had met because they were of a similar age and gender.\n\nResignation\nOn 19 January 2023, at the Labour Party's summer caucus retreat, Ardern announced she would resign as Labour leader and prime minister by 7 February and leave Parliament by the 2023 general election. She cited a desire to spend more time with her partner and daughter and an inability to commit to another four years. Ardern had indicated in November 2022 that she would seek a third term as prime minister.\nSpeaking to the press during the caucus retreat as she announced her resignation plan, Ardern said, \"I know what this job takes and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple. We need a fresh set of shoulders for that challenge.\"\nArdern's announcement prompted reactions from across the New Zealand political establishment. The opposition National and ACT parties' leaders Christopher Luxon and David Seymour thanked Ardern for her service while expressing disagreement with her government's policies. Green Party co-leader James Shaw credited Ardern with fostering a constructive working relationship between their parties while fellow co-leader Marama Davidson praised Ardern for her compassion and determination to promote a \"fairer and safer\" Aotearoa. Similar sentiments were echoed by the Māori Party's co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, who praised her leadership qualities and contributions to New Zealand society. New Zealand First leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters attributed Ardern's resignation to her government's failure to deliver on promises and targets during the 2020–2023 parliamentary term.\nProminent New Zealanders, including actor Sam Neill, comedian and writer Michèle A'Court, and Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, expressed gratitude for Ardern's service. Overseas, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and several state leaders paid tribute to Ardern.\nIn several opinion polls, Ardern's domestic popularity had reached all-time lows as of 19 January 2023, although she denied this would affect the Labour Party's chances of winning the next election.\nArdern's final event as prime minister was a birthday celebration for Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana, a Māori prophet. At the event, Ardern called her work as the Prime Minister the \"greatest privilege\" and stated that she loved the country and its people. On 25 January 2023, she was succeeded as prime minister and leader of the New Zealand Labour Party by Chris Hipkins, who had been elected unopposed during the Labour Party leadership election.\n\nPost-prime ministerial career\nOn 4 April 2023 Ardern was announced as a trustee of the Earthshot Prize. Ardern was selected for the post by Prince William, who stated that Ardern had a life-long commitment to supporting sustainable and environmental solutions. According to the Prince, Ardern was one of the first people to encourage him to establish the prize.\nThat same day, Prime Minister Hipkins appointed Ardern as Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call, which she had established following the Christchurch mosque shootings to combat online extremist content. During her valedictory speech, Ardern called on political leaders and parties in New Zealand to take the politics out of climate change while highlighting her role in getting cross-party support for the passage of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act.\nArdern accepted dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School for a semester beginning in fall 2023, to serve as the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and as a Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership, where she intends to share and learn leadership and governance skills. She will also work with Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society as its first Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow during that period where she will focus on the study of online extremism.\nIn mid June 2024, the Center for American Progress Active Fund announced that Ardern would be leading the Field Fellowship programme for training new \"emerging leaders.\" \nOn 21 August 2024, Ardern endorsed US Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign. Ardern also spoke at the Global Progress Action Luncheon during the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where she likened Harris' campaign to Labour's campaign during the 2017 New Zealand general election. She also talked about women in politics and positive campaigning.\n\nPolitical views\nArdern has described herself as a social democrat, a progressive, a republican, and a feminist, citing Helen Clark as a political hero. She has described the extent of child poverty and homelessness in New Zealand as a \"blatant failure\" of capitalism. Asked by reporters to comment on the 2021 Budget, Ardern stated to \"have always described myself as a Democratic Socialist\", but she does not consider the term to be useful in New Zealand, as it is not commonly used in the political sphere. The leftist magazine Jacobin asserts that, despite identifying as socialist, her government was effectively neoliberal. Referring to New Zealand's distinctive nuclear-free policy, she described taking action on climate change as \"my generation's nuclear-free moment\".\nArdern has spoken in support of same-sex marriage, and she voted for the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013 which legalised it. In 2018, she became the first New Zealand prime minister to march in a pride parade. Ardern supported the removal of abortion from the Crimes Act 1961. In March 2020, she voted for the Abortion Legislation Act that amends the law to decriminalise abortion.\nArdern voted in favour of legalising cannabis in the 2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, though she refused to reveal her position on legalisation until after the referendum had concluded.\nWith regard to the future of the Māori electorates—a contentious topic in New Zealand politics—Ardern believes the retention or abolition of the electorates (seats) should be decided by Māori, stating, \"[Māori] have not raised the need for those seats to go, so why would we ask the question?\" She supports compulsory study of the Māori language in schools.\nIn September 2017, Ardern said she wanted New Zealand to debate removing the monarch of New Zealand as head of state. During her announcement on 24 May 2021 of the appointment of Dame Cindy Kiro as the governor-general, Ardern said she believed that New Zealand would become a republic within her lifetime. She has, however, met regularly with members of the Royal Family over the years and said that, \"My particular views do not change the respect that I have for Her Majesty and for her family and for the work that they've done for New Zealand. I think you can hold both views, and I do.\" Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Ardern reaffirmed her support for republicanism but stated that official moves towards New Zealand becoming a republic was not \"on the agenda anytime soon.\"\nArdern advocates a lower rate of immigration, suggesting a drop of around 20,000–30,000. Calling it an \"infrastructure issue\", she argues that \"there hasn't been enough planning about population growth, we haven't necessarily targeted our skill shortages properly\"; however, she wants to increase the intake of refugees.\nIn foreign affairs, Ardern has voiced support for a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She condemned the Israeli killing of Palestinians during protests at the Gaza border.\nFollowing the Supreme Court's landmark Make It 16 Incorporated v Attorney-General ruling in November 2022, Ardern has voiced support for lowering the voting age to 16 years. She announced that the Government would introduce legislation lowering the voting age to 16 years; with such legislation requiring a 75 per cent majority.\n\nPublic image\nArdern was frequently described, often critically, as a \"celebrity politician\". After becoming the Labour Party leader, Ardern received positive coverage from many sections of the media, including international outlets such as CNN, with commentators referring to a \"Jacinda effect\" and \"Jacindamania\".\nJacindamania was cited as a factor behind New Zealand gaining global attention and media influence in some reports, including the Soft Power 30 index. In a 2018 overseas trip, Ardern attracted much attention from international media, particularly after delivering a speech at the United Nations in New York. She contrasted with contemporary world leaders, being cast as an \"antidote to Trumpism\". Writing for Stuff, Tracy Watkins said Ardern made a \"cut-through on the world stage\" and her reception was as a \"torch carrier for progressive politics as a young woman who breaks the mold in a world where the political strongman is on the rise. She is a foil to the muscular diplomacy of the likes of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.\"\nA year after Ardern formed her government, The Guardian's Eleanor Ainge Roy reported that Jacindamania was waning in the population, with not enough of the promised change visible. When Toby Manhire, the editor of The Spinoff, reviewed the decade in December 2019, he praised Ardern for her leadership following the Christchurch mosque shootings and the Whakaari / White Island eruption, saying that \"Ardern ... revealed an empathy, steel and clarity that in the most appalling circumstances brought New Zealanders together and inspired people the world over. It was a strength of character that showed itself again this week following the tragic eruption at Whakaari.\"\nTowards the end of her tenure Ardern faced decreased levels of popularity domestically and increased levels of criticism from across the political spectrum. Part of the reason was the country's economic downturn in the early 2020s. Ardern, along with several other politicians, experienced abuse from anti-vaxxers, anti-government protestors, and right-wing populist protestors. Conspiracy theorist Richard Sivell contributed to the violent rhetoric in 2021-22 and was convicted of threatening to kill Ardern.\n\nHonours\nArdern was one of fifteen women selected to appear on the cover of the September 2019 issue of British Vogue, by guest editor Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Forbes magazine has consistently ranked her among the 100 most powerful women in the world, placing her 34th in 2021. She was included in the 2019 Time 100 list and shortlisted for Time's 2019 Person of the Year. The magazine later incorrectly speculated that she might win the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize among a listed six candidates, for her handling of the Christchurch mosque shootings. In 2020, she was listed by Prospect as the second-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era. On 19 November 2020, Ardern was awarded Harvard University's 2020 Gleitsman International Activist Award; she contributed the US$150,000 (NZ$216,000) prize money to New Zealanders studying at the university.\n\nIn 2021, New Zealand zoologist Steven A. Trewick named the flightless wētā species Hemiandrus jacinda in honour of Ardern. A spokesperson for Ardern said that a beetle (Mecodema jacinda), a lichen (Ocellularia jacinda-arderniae), and an ant (Crematogaster jacindae, found in Saudi Arabia) had also been named after her.\nIn mid-May 2021, Fortune magazine gave Ardern the top spot on their list of world's 50 greatest leaders, citing her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as her handling of the Christchurch mosque shootings and the Whakaari / White Island eruption.\nOn 26 May 2022, Ardern was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Harvard University for contributions that \"shape the world\".\nIn the 2023 King's Birthday and Coronation Honours, Ardern was appointed a Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (GNZM), for services to the State.\n\nPersonal life\nReligious views\nRaised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand, Ardern left the church in 2005 at age 25 because, she said, it conflicted with her personal views, in particular her support for gay rights. In January 2017, Ardern identified as agnostic, saying \"I can't see myself being a member of an organised religion again\". As prime minister in 2019, she met the president of the LDS Church, Russell M. Nelson.\n\nFamily\nArdern is a second cousin of Hamish McDouall, former mayor of Whanganui. She is also a distant cousin of former National MP for Taranaki-King Country Shane Ardern. Shane Ardern left Parliament in 2014, three years before Jacinda Ardern became prime minister.\nArdern's husband is television presenter Clarke Gayford. The couple first met in 2012 when they were introduced by mutual friend Colin Mathura-Jeffree, a New Zealand television host and model, but they did not spend time together until Gayford contacted Ardern regarding a controversial Government Communications Security Bureau bill. Ardern and Gayford were living together when she became prime minister, and on 3 May 2019, it was reported that they were engaged to be married. The wedding was scheduled for January 2022 but was postponed due to an outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. Ardern and Gayford married eventually on 13 January 2024, at Craggy Range Winery near Havelock North in Hawke's Bay.\nOn 19 January 2018, Ardern announced that she was expecting her first child in June, making her New Zealand's first prime minister to be pregnant in office. Ardern was admitted to Auckland City Hospital on 21 June 2018, and gave birth to a girl the same day, becoming only the second elected head of government to give birth while in office (after Benazir Bhutto in 1990). Her daughter's given names are Neve Te Aroha. Neve is an anglicised form of the Irish name Niamh, meaning 'bright'; Aroha is Māori for 'love', and Te Aroha is a rural town west of the Kaimai Range, near Ardern's former home town of Morrinsville.\nAfter growing rumours that Gayford was under police investigation for criminal offences, in 2018 both Ardern and the Police Commissioner Mike Bush took the unusual step of confirming that Gayford was not, and had not been, under any such investigations.\n\nSee also\nList of New Zealand governments\nPolitics of New Zealand\nPaddles (cat), Ardern's former pet cat\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nJacinda Ardern's Archived 2 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine profile on the New Zealand Parliament website\nJacinda Ardern at the New Zealand Labour Party\nAppearances on C-SPAN","title":"Jacinda_Ardern"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The prime minister of New Zealand is the country's head of government and the leader of the Cabinet, whose powers and responsibilities are defined by convention. Officially, the prime minister is appointed by the governor-general, but by convention, the prime minister must have the confidence of the House of Representatives. The prime minister is always a member of parliament.\\nOriginally, prime ministers headed loose coalitions of independents, which were often unstable; since the advent of political parties, the prime minister is usually the leader of the largest party represented in the house. Since 1935, every prime minister has been a member of either the National party or the Labour party, reflecting their domination of New Zealand politics. After the introduction of mixed-member proportional voting in 1996, prime ministers have usually needed to negotiate agreements with smaller parties to maintain a majority in Parliament.\\nThe title of the office was originally \\\"colonial secretary\\\", which was formally changed to \\\"premier\\\" in 1869. That title remained in use almost exclusively for more than 30 years, until Richard Seddon changed it to \\\"prime minister\\\" during his tenure in the office; he used the title officially at the 1902 Colonial Conference.\\nSome historians regard James FitzGerald as New Zealand's first prime minister, although a more conventional view is that neither he nor his successor (Thomas Forsaith) should properly be given that title, as New Zealand did not yet have responsible government when they served. Most commonly, Henry Sewell, who served during 1856, is regarded as New Zealand's first premier. Beginning with Sewell, 42 individuals have so far held the premiership, not including acting prime ministers. Eight prime ministers have held the position for more than one period in office. Richard Seddon, prime minister for thirteen years between 1893 and 1906, held the office for the longest term. The youngest prime minister was Edward Stafford, who assumed office at age 37, and the oldest was Walter Nash, who left office at age 78. Three prime ministers have been women, a count equalled by Iceland, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom, and only surpassed by Finland and Switzerland.\\nThe current prime minister is Christopher Luxon, who assumed office on 27 November 2023.\\n\\nList of officeholders\\nThe parties shown are those to which the heads of government belonged at the time they held office and the electoral districts shown are those they represented while in office. Several prime ministers belonged to parties other than those given and represented other electorates before and after their time in office. A number in brackets indicates the prime minister served a previous term in office.\\n\\nPolitical parties\\n\\nSymbols\\n† Died in office\\n\\nTimeline\\nSee also\\nList of prime ministers of New Zealand by age\\nList of prime ministers of New Zealand by place of birth\\nList of prime ministers of Queen Victoria\\nList of prime ministers of Edward VII\\nList of prime ministers of George V\\nList of prime ministers of Edward VIII\\nList of prime ministers of George VI\\nList of prime ministers of Elizabeth II\\nList of prime ministers of Charles III\\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"List_of_prime_ministers_of_New_Zealand\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Dame Jennifer Mary Shipley (née Robson; born 4 February 1952) is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 36th prime minister of New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. She was the first female prime minister of New Zealand, and the first woman to have led the National Party.\\nShipley was born in Gore, Southland. She grew up in rural Canterbury, and attended Marlborough Girls' College and the Christchurch College of Education. Before entering politics, she worked as a schoolteacher and was involved with various community organisations. Shipley was elected to Parliament at the 1987 election, winning the Ashburton electorate (later renamed Rakaia). When the National Party returned to power in 1990, she was appointed to Cabinet under Jim Bolger. Shipley subsequently served as Minister of Social Welfare (1990–1996), Minister for Women's Affairs (1990–1996), Minister of Health (1993–1996), and Minister of Transport (1996–1997).\\nShipley chafed at the government's slow pace, and in December 1997 convinced her National colleagues to support her as leader. Bolger resigned as Prime Minister rather than face being voted out, and Shipley was elected as his replacement unopposed. She inherited an uneasy coalition with New Zealand First, led by Winston Peters. The coalition was dissolved in August 1998, but Shipley was able to remain in power with the aid of Mauri Pacific, an NZ First splinter group. At the 1999 election, her government was defeated by the Labour Party, led by Helen Clark. Shipley continued as Leader of the Opposition until October 2001. Shipley involved herself with business and charitable interests since leaving politics, and is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders. She was found liable for $9 million for her role in the financial failure of Mainzeal, a construction company.\\n\\nEarly life\\nBorn in Gore, New Zealand, Shipley was one of four sisters. Her father was Rev. Leonard Cameron Robson, a Presbyterian minister. After attending Marlborough Girls' College, she qualified in 1971 as a teacher through the Christchurch College of Education and taught in New Zealand primary schools until 1976. In 1973 she married Burton Shipley and settled in Ashburton.\\n\\nMember of Parliament\\nHaving joined the National Party in 1975, Shipley successfully stood in Ashburton, a safe National seat in the country areas surrounding Christchurch, in the 1987 election. Entering parliament at age 35, she was one of parliament's youngest members.\\n\\nCabinet minister\\nShipley rose quickly in the National caucus. In February 1990, while still in her first term, party leader Jim Bolger named her the party's spokeswoman on social welfare. When Bolger led the National Party to victory in the 1990 general election, Shipley was reelected in Rakaia, essentially a reconfigured Ashburton. She became Minister of Social Welfare, and also served as Minister for Women's Affairs (1990–1996).\\nIn her role as Minister of Social Welfare, Shipley presided over sharp cutbacks to state benefits. Later, when she became Minister of Health in 1993, she caused further controversy by attempting to reform the public health service, introducing an internal market. National won another term at the 1996 election, but was forced into a coalition with New Zealand First. Shipley left the Women's Affairs portfolio and took on several others, including responsibility for state-owned enterprises and transport.\\nIn 1993, Shipley was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.\\n\\nPrime Minister (1997–1999)\\nShipley grew increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with the cautious pace of National's leader, Jim Bolger, and with what she saw as the disproportionate influence of New Zealand First. She began gathering support to replace Bolger in mid-1997. Later that year, while Bolger attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Shipley convinced a majority of her National Party colleagues to back her bid for the leadership. Bolger returned to New Zealand and discovered that he no longer had the support of his party. Rather than face being voted out, he resigned, and Shipley replaced him. As leader of the governing party, she became Prime Minister on 8 December 1997. On 21 May 1998 Shipley was appointed to the Privy Council and became The Right Honourable Jenny Shipley.\\nDespite continued economic growth, the Shipley government became increasingly politically unstable. In particular, the relationship between National and New Zealand First deteriorated. While Bolger had been able to maintain good relations with New Zealand First and with its leader, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, the alliance became strained after Shipley rose to power. Finally, on 14 August 1998, Shipley sacked Peters from Cabinet.\\nShipley was nicknamed \\\"the perfumed steamroller,\\\" when she first became prime minister. During a later interview with Guyon Espiner, Shipley stated that female politicians were labelled differently in the media; she uses the example that male politicians are called bold where female politicians are called vindictive; although she notes that this is an observation, not something that hurts her personally. Shipley's ascension to the leadership marked a shift to the right politically with subtle returns to the neo-liberal policies of the first term of the Bolger government. This was labelled by some commentators (usually critically) as \\\"Jennycide\\\", a portmanteau of \\\"Jenny\\\" and \\\"genocide\\\".\\nShipley, along with the New Zealand Tourism Board, backed the quasi-national emblem of the silver fern on a black background as a possible alternative flag, along the lines of the Canadian flag, but she took pains to publicly dissociate herself from Bolger's support for republicanism. As the debate continued in 1999, the Princess Royal visited New Zealand, and Shipley stated, \\\"I am an unashamed royal supporter, along with many New Zealanders\\\". However, the debate was muted by the controversy surrounding Tourism Board contracts going to the public-relations firm Saatchi & Saatchi, whose World CEO Kevin Roberts, also an advocate of the silver fern flag, was a good friend of Shipley.\\nThe APEC Summit was hosted in Auckland in September 1999. Shipley met with the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, in one of only two state visits to New Zealand by a US President.\\nShipley was the first Prime Minister to attend the gay and lesbian Hero Parade, being the first National Party leader to seek to make electoral overtures to the gay and lesbian voting public. She advocated lowering the alcohol purchase age from 20 to 18 and achieved this in 1999. This was part of her expressed desire to expand the traditional National Party voting base.\\nShipley became a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers.\\n\\nDefeat and resignation\\nShipley led the National Party into the 1999 election, hoping to become the first woman to be elected prime minister in her own right. However, she was defeated by the Labour Party, also led by a woman, Helen Clark. This election was a significant moment in history for New Zealand as it was the first New Zealand election in which the leaders of both major parties were women.\\nShipley served as the Leader of the Opposition until October 2001, when Bill English took over as National Party leader. She retired from Parliament in January 2002.\\nIn the 2003 New Year Honours, Shipley was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services as a Member of Parliament.\\n\\nHealth\\nShipley suffered a heart attack in 2000, leading to an emergency angioplasty procedure. She made modifications to her lifestyle and lost weight, though she was diagnosed with diabetes in 2004. She underwent gastric bypass surgery in late 2007.\\n\\nLife after politics\\nAfter leaving politics, Shipley involved herself with business and charitable interests. In 2007, she joined the financial services firm Source Sentinel, and from 2009 to 2018 was chair of the Genesis Energy Limited board. As of 2012, she was on the board of the New Zealand branch of the state-owned China Construction Bank. She resigned from the Bank's Board after being prosecuted for her role in the collapse of construction company Mainzeal.\\n\\nProsecution for insolvency of Mainzeal\\nIn December 2012, Shipley resigned from the board of directors of Mainzeal Property & Construction (MPCL), which went into receivership on 6 February 2013. At mid-day on 5 February 2013 she was one of four independent directors who resigned from the board of Mainzeal Group Ltd. MPCL and Mainzeal Group Limited are part of the Richina group, controlled and majority owned by Yan Ci Lang (also known as Richard Yan). Mainzeal went into liquidation on 28 February 2013, owing some NZ$110 million. In May 2015, the receiver of Mainzeal, BDO, filed a civil lawsuit against the former Mainzeal directors, including Shipley, for an alleged breach of directors' duties. In February 2019, the High Court of New Zealand found that the Mainzeal directors had breached their duty to avoid reckless trading and assessed their total liability at NZ$36 million, of which Shipley's share was assessed at NZ$6 million. Within a week of the Court delivering its verdict, Shipley resigned from her Chair of the China Construction Bank New Zealand. An appeal against this judgment was filed along with a counter claim brought by the original plaintiffs for a vastly higher award against the Directors. Both appeals failed. In August 2023 New Zealand's Supreme Court upheld the long-contested judgements, determining \\\"“Mainzeal was balance sheet insolvent from 2005, albeit this was not apparent from its financial statements” and ordered the four directors, of whom Shipley was one, to pay $39.8m together with interest, although the liability of Shipley is limited to $6.6m plus interest.\\n\\nHonours\\nShipley accepted redesignation as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit on 14 August 2009, following the reintroduction of titular honours by the Fifth National Government.\\n\\nReality TV Appearances\\nAlso in 2009, Shipley appeared on an episode of the television reality/travel show Intrepid Journeys, where she visited Namibia. She later started a charity to help a school she came across on that trip called the Namibian Educational Trust. \\nShipley chaired Global Women NZ until 2015, and was replaced as Patron of the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre by Graeme Dingle in 2019, and was the New Zealand National Heart Foundation's campaign \\\"Go Red for Women\\\".\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nPrime Minister's Office biography, primeminister.govt.nz; accessed 18 June 2015.\\nProfile, GlobalWomen.org.nz; accessed 18 June 2015.\\nScherer, Karyn (4 February 2008). \\\"The prime of Mrs Jenny Shipley\\\". The New Zealand Herald.\",\n \"title\": \"Jenny_Shipley\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was New Zealand's fifth-longest-serving prime minister, and the second woman to hold that office.\\nClark was brought up on a farm outside Hamilton. She entered the University of Auckland in 1968 to study politics and became active in the New Zealand Labour Party. After graduating she lectured in political studies at the university. Clark entered local politics in 1974 in Auckland but was not elected to any position. Following one unsuccessful attempt, she was elected to Parliament in 1981 as the member for Mount Albert, an electorate she represented until 2009.\\nClark held numerous Cabinet positions in the Fourth Labour Government, including minister of housing, minister of health and minister of conservation. She was the 11th deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 1989 to 1990 serving under prime ministers Geoffrey Palmer and Mike Moore. After Labour's narrow defeat in the 1993 election, Clark challenged Moore for leadership of the party and won, becoming the leader of the Opposition. Following the 1999 election, Labour formed a governing coalition, and Clark was sworn in as prime minister on 10 December 1999.\\nClark led the Fifth Labour Government, which implemented several major economic initiatives including Kiwibank, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and KiwiSaver. Her government also introduced the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004, which caused major controversy. In foreign affairs, Clark sent troops to the Afghanistan War, but did not contribute combat troops to the Iraq War, and ordered deployment to the 2006 East Timorese crisis. She was ranked by Forbes as the 20th-most powerful woman in the world in 2006. She advocated a number of free-trade agreements with major trading partners, including becoming the first developed nation to sign such an agreement with China. After three successive electoral victories, her government was defeated in the 2008 election; Clark resigned as Prime Minister and party leader on 19 November 2008. She was succeeded as prime minister by John Key of the National Party, and as leader of the Labour Party by Phil Goff.\\nClark resigned from Parliament in April 2009 to become the first female head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In 2016, she stood for the position of secretary-general of the United Nations, but was unsuccessful. She left her UNDP administrator post on 19 April 2017 at the end of her second four-year term and was succeeded by Achim Steiner. In 2019, Clark became the patron of the Helen Clark Foundation.\\n\\nEarly life\\nClark was the eldest of four daughters of a farming family at Te Pahu, west of Hamilton, in the Waikato. Her mother, Margaret McMurray, of Irish birth, was a primary school teacher. Her father, George, was a farmer. Clark studied at Te Pahu Primary School, at Epsom Girls' Grammar School in Auckland and at the University of Auckland, where she majored in politics and graduated with an MA (Honours) in 1974. Her thesis focused on rural political behaviour and representation. As a teenager Clark became politically active, protesting against the Vietnam War and campaigning against foreign military bases in New Zealand.\\nClark has worked actively in the New Zealand Labour Party for most of her life. In 1971 she assisted Labour candidates to the Auckland City Council, three of whom were elected. Following this, she stood for the Auckland City Council herself in 1974 and 1977. While generally polling well, she never won a seat, missing out by only 105 votes in the latter.\\nClark was a junior lecturer in political studies at the University of Auckland from 1973 to 1975. In 1974 she sought the nomination for the Auckland Central electorate, but lost to Richard Prebble. She instead stood for Piako, a National safe seat. Clark studied abroad on a University Grants Committee post-graduate scholarship in 1976, and then lectured in political studies at Auckland again while undertaking her PhD (which she never completed) from 1977 until her election to Parliament in 1981. Her father supported the National Party in that election.\\nClark served as a member of Labour's national executive committee from 1978 until September 1988, and again from April 1989. She chaired the University of Auckland Princes Street branch of the Labour Party during her studies, becoming active alongside future Labour politicians including Richard Prebble, David Caygill, Margaret Wilson and Richard Northey. Clark held the positions of president of the Labour Youth Council, executive member of the party's Auckland Regional Council, secretary of the Labour Women's Council and member of the Policy Council. In 1980 she stood as a candidate for the position of junior vice-president. However, on the second day of the party conference, she withdrew her candidacy, allowing union secretary Dan Duggan to be elected unopposed.\\nShe represented the New Zealand Labour Party at the congresses of the Socialist International and of the Socialist International Women in 1976, 1978, 1983 and 1986, at an Asia-Pacific Socialist Organisation Conference held in Sydney in 1981, and at the Socialist International Party Leaders' Meeting in Sydney in 1991.\\n\\nMember of Parliament\\nClark did not contest the 1978 election, but in 1980 she put her name forward to replace long serving MP Warren Freer in the safe Labour seat of Mount Albert. She beat six other contenders including electorate chairman Keith Elliot, former MP Malcolm Douglas and future MP Jack Elder for the nomination.\\nClark was duly elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives in the 1981 general election, as one of eight female members in the 40th Parliament. In winning the Mount Albert electorate in Auckland, she became the second woman elected to represent an Auckland electorate, and the seventeenth woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament. Her first parliamentary intervention, on taking her seat was on 12 April 1982 to give notice, she would move a motion condemning the US Navy's deployment of nuclear cruise missiles in the Pacific Two weeks later in her maiden speech, with unusual emphasis on defence policy and the arms race, Clark again condemned the deployment of cruise, Pershing and SS20 and the global ambitions of both superpowers navies, but claimed the Soviet admirals did not plough New Zealand's waters and expressed particular concern about the expansion of the 1965 memo of ANZUS understanding for the resupply of weapons to New Zealand to include nuclear weapon resupply.\\nDuring her first term in the House (1981–1984), Clark became a member of the Statutes Revision Committee. In her second term (1984–1987), she chaired the Select committee on Foreign Affairs and the Select Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control, both of which combined with the Defence Select Committee in 1985 to form a single committee. In 1983 she was appointed as Labour's spokesperson for Overseas Aid and Disarmament.\\n\\nCabinet minister\\nIn 1987, Clark became a Cabinet minister in the Fourth Labour Government, led by David Lange (1984–1989), Geoffrey Palmer (1989–1990) and Mike Moore (1990). She served as Minister of Conservation from August 1987 until January 1989 and as Minister of Housing from August 1987 until August 1989. She became Minister of Health in January 1989 and took on additional portfolios as Minister of Labour and Deputy Prime Minister in August 1989. As Health Minister, Clark introduced a series of legislative changes that allowed midwives to practice autonomously. She also introduced the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990, a law which restricted smoking in places such as workplaces and schools.\\nAs Deputy Prime Minister, Clark chaired the Cabinet Social Equity Committee and was a member of several other important Cabinet committees, such as the Policy Committee, Economic Development and Employment Committee, and Domestic and External Security Committee.\\n\\nLeader of the Opposition\\nFrom October 1990 until December 1993 Clark held the posts of Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow spokesperson for Health and Labour, and member of the Social Services Select Committee and of the Labour Select Committee. After the National Party won the 1993 general election with a majority of one seat, Clark successfully challenged Mike Moore for the leadership of the parliamentary party. She was particularly critical of Moore for delivering blurred messages during the 1993 election campaign, and accused him of failing to re-brand Labour as a centre-left party which had jettisoned Rogernomics.\\nClark became the Leader of the Opposition on 1 December 1993. She led the Labour Party in opposition to the National-led government of Jim Bolger (1990–1997) and Jenny Shipley (1997–1999). Clark announced her first shadow cabinet on 13 December 1993, but the ousted Moore refused any portfolios. There were frequent changes after several party defections took place during the parliamentary term in the lead up to the new MMP voting system. At one reshuffle, in June 1995, Clark herself took the shadow foreign affairs portfolio.\\nThe Labour Party rated poorly in opinion polls in the run-up to the 1996 general election, and Clark suffered from a low personal approval rating. At one point polls suggested that New Zealand First of Winston Peters would even poll 30% and Labour would be beaten into third place. However, she survived an attempted leadership coup by senior members who favoured Phil Goff. Labour lost the election in October 1996, but Clark remained as Opposition leader. Clark was seen as having convincingly won the election debates which led to Labour doing better than predicted. Shortly before the election she also achieved a rapprochement with Moore (who was previously thinking of setting up his own party) who accepted the foreign affairs and overseas trade portfolios, calming internal tensions.\\nDuring the 1998 Waitangi Day celebrations, Clark was prevented from speaking on the marae by activist Titewhai Harawira in protest over Clark's being allowed to speak in direct contradiction of traditional Māori protocol. The ensuing argument saw Clark being reduced to tears on national television.\\nIn 1999, Clark was involved in a defamation case in the High Court of New Zealand with Auckland orthopaedic surgeon Joe Brownlee, resulting in Clark's making an unreserved apology. The case centred on a press statement issued by Clark criticising Brownlee, triggered by a constituent's complaint over the outcome of a hip replacement. Clark admitted the criticism was unjustified in that the complication suffered by her constituent was rare, unforeseen and unavoidable.\\n\\nPrime Minister (1999–2008)\\nUnder Clark's leadership, Labour became the largest party in parliament from 1999 to 2008. Clark became the second woman to serve as Prime Minister of New Zealand, and the first to have won office at an election. She also served as the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage throughout her premiership. She had additional ministerial responsibility for the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and for Ministerial Services. During her period in office, women held a number of prominent elected and appointed offices in New Zealand, such as the Governor-General, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief Justice—these major offices of state were simultaneously occupied by women between March 2005 and August 2006. As a female head of government, Clark was a member of the Council of Women World Leaders.\\nClark entered office just three years after the adoption of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system, which had produced an unstable National-led government under Bolger and Shipley. Clark negotiated the formation of successive coalition governments. Political scientist Bryce Edwards identified Clark's ability to lead stable governments as her most significant achievement, arguing that her ability to work with a variety of coalition partners—including the Alliance, Jim Anderton's Progressive Party, Green, United Future and New Zealand First—consolidated public support for MMP.\\nClark's particular interests included social policy and international affairs. A strong supporter of nuclear disarmament, Clark pursued a policy of peace-making within the Pacific region. She set herself the task of making New Zealand the first ecologically sustainable nation, describing this as \\\"central to New Zealand's unique national identity\\\". Her government's major policy achievements include the Working for Families package, increasing the minimum wage 5% a year, interest-free student loans, creation of District Health Boards, the introduction of a number of tax credits, overhauling the secondary school qualifications by introducing NCEA, and the introduction of fourteen weeks’ parental leave. Commentators praised Clark (along with Michael Cullen, the Minister of Finance) for overseeing a period of sustained and stable economic growth, with an increase in employment that saw a gradual lowering of the unemployment rate to a record low of 3.6% (in 2005).\\nClark made every attempt to make sure that gender was not an issue in politics. However, Bryce Edwards states that others did. Clark was portrayed as bloodsucking, cold, and humourless. Clark says herself that when her male counterparts spoke in the media, they looked strong and determined, whereas when she portrayed the same characteristics, the media made it to look like she was \\\"tough\\\" and \\\"nagging.\\\"\\nIn 2006 Clark was 20th in Forbes magazine's ranking of the world's 100 most powerful women. By the time she left office in 2008 this had fallen to 56th.\\n\\nFirst term: 1999–2002\\nThe 1999 general election produced a historic moment for New Zealand; for the first time, two women, Clark and Shipley, campaigned against each other as leaders of the country's two major parties. Clark repeatedly stated her desire to \\\"govern alone\\\" rather than as part of a coalition. However, in the lead up to the election, Labour made overtures to the left-wing Alliance. Clark addressed the Alliance's annual conference in August 1998. On polling day Labour returned 49 seats, an increase of 12, ahead of National's 39 seats. The first Clark-led Cabinet linked Labour with the Alliance and supported by the Green Party. Alliance leader Jim Anderton served as Deputy Prime Minister under Clark until 2002. The full ministerial team, and portfolios, was announced on 9 December—12 days after the election—and the new government was sworn in the following day. The coalition partners pioneered \\\"agree to disagree\\\" procedures to manage policy differences. Such procedures lessened the chances of Cabinet becoming publicly divided and running the risk of losing the confidence of the House of Representatives.\\nIn January 2000, the then Police Commissioner, Peter Doone, resigned after The Sunday Star-Times alleged he had prevented the breath testing of his partner Robyn, who had driven the car they occupied, by telling the officer \\\"that won't be necessary\\\". Both Doone and the officer involved denied this happened. Doone sued the Sunday Star-Times for defamation in 2005, but the paper revealed they had checked the story with Clark. She confirmed this, but denied that she had made attempts to get Doone to resign and defended being the source as \\\"by definition I cannot leak\\\". Clark also responded by saying that National supporters had funded Doone's defamation-suit. Opinion on the significance of this incident varied.\\nIn 2000, Labour MP Chris Carter investigated the background of one of Clark's Cabinet colleagues, Māori Affairs Minister Dover Samuels, regarding allegations of historic statutory rape. Ex-convict John Yelash claimed that Carter had approached him to help with the investigation; a claim that Carter denied. Clark backed her MP, referring to Yelash as a \\\"murderer\\\" when he had in fact been convicted of manslaughter, a less serious offence. Yelash sued Clark for defamation, resulting in an out-of-court settlement.\\nIn April 2001, Clark met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin during an official visit to Beijing. Jiang referred to the Prime Minister as an \\\"old friend\\\". He stated that China hoped to \\\"establish bilateral long-term and stable overall cooperative relations [with New Zealand]\\\". Clark strongly supported China's entry into the World Trade Organization.\\n\\n \\nIn March 2002, Clark made her first visit to the United States as Prime Minister. She visited \\\"Ground Zero\\\", the former site of the World Trade Center, where the New York City Police Department presented her with a New Zealand flag that had been recovered from the rubble after the September 11 attacks. On 26 March, Clark visited the Pentagon and Washington, D.C., where she met with American officials, including a private meeting with President George W. Bush. Most of the agenda for Clark's visit focused on the joint counter-terrorism campaign (dubbed the \\\"War on Terror\\\").\\nAs Opposition Leader in 1998, Clark signed her name to a canvas that had been painted on by another artist. The painting was subsequently auctioned to charity. After the act came to light in April 2002, the opposition National Party referred the matter to the Police. A police report found evidence for a prima facie case of forgery, but determined that it was not in the public interest to prosecute Clark.\\nIn June 2002, Clark apologised on behalf of New Zealand for aspects of the country's treatment of Samoa during the colonial era. Clark's apology was made in Apia during the 40th anniversary of Samoa's independence and televised live to New Zealand where Samoans applauded the Prime Minister's gesture.\\nThe Alliance split in 2002 over the Government's commitment of New Zealand troops to the War in Afghanistan, leading to the imminent dissolution of Labour's coalition with that party. Consequently, Clark called for an early election to be held on 27 July. Political opponents claimed that Clark could have continued to govern, and that a snap election was called to take advantage of Labour's strong position in opinion polls. In opinion surveys conducted during the election campaign, Clark scored high approval ratings and was far ahead of other party leaders as \\\"preferred Prime Minister\\\".\\nA major issue during the 2002 election campaign was the end of a moratorium on genetic engineering, strongly opposed by the rival Green Party. The debate was reignited when investigative journalist Nicky Hager published a book, Seeds of Distrust, in which he alleged that Clark's government had covered up a contamination of genetically modified corn plants in 2000. A television interview with John Campbell was terminated by Clark when she was taken by surprise by the allegations, which she claimed to have known nothing about prior to the interview. The affair was dubbed \\\"Corngate\\\" by the media.\\n\\nSecond term: 2002–2005\\nClark won a second term in the 2002 general election—her party increased both its share of the vote and number of seats. Labour subsequently entered into a coalition with Jim Anderton's Progressive Party (a spin-off of the Alliance), with parliamentary confidence and supply coming from United Future, and a good-faith agreement with the Green Party. Michael Cullen, who served as Minister of Finance, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister by Clark, replacing Anderton.\\n\\nI think it's inevitable that New Zealand will become a republic and that would reflect the reality that New Zealand is a totally sovereign-independent 21st century nation 12,000 miles from the United Kingdom\\nA republican, Clark stated in 2002 that she thought it was \\\"inevitable\\\" that New Zealand would become a republic in the near future. Her term in office saw a number of alleged moves in this direction, under her government's policy of building national identity. Examples include the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council in London and the foundation of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, the abolition of titular Knighthood and Damehood honours (restored in 2009), and the abolition of the title \\\"Queen's Counsel\\\" (replaced by \\\"Senior Counsel\\\", restored in 2012).\\n\\nIn 2003, Clark criticised the Invasion of Iraq without an explicit United Nations mandate, and her government opposed New Zealand military action in the Iraq War. Her government did not send combat troops to Iraq, although some medical and engineering units were sent. Clark's foreign policy reflected the priorities of liberal internationalism, especially the promotion of democracy and human rights; the strengthening of the role of the United Nations; the advancement of antimilitarism and disarmament; and the encouragement of free-trade. In March 2003, referring to the US-led coalition's actions in Iraq, Clark told the newspaper The Sunday Star-Times that, \\\"I don't think that 11 September under a Gore presidency would have had this consequence for Iraq.\\\" She later sent a letter to Washington apologising for any offence that her comment may have caused.\\nOn 17 July 2004, a motorcade involving police, Diplomatic Protection Squad, and Ministerial Services staff reached speeds of up to 172 km/h when taking Clark and Cabinet Minister Jim Sutton from Waimate to Christchurch Airport so she could attend a rugby union match in Wellington. The courts subsequently convicted the drivers involved for driving offences, but appeals resulted in the quashing of these convictions in December 2005 and August 2006.\\nClark said that she was busy working in the back seat and had no influence or role in the decision to speed and did not realise the speed of her vehicle.\\nIn November 2004, Clark announced that negotiations with China had commenced for a free-trade agreement, eventually signing a comprehensive agreement in July 2008. It was New Zealand's largest trade deal since the 1983 Closer Economic Relations agreement with Australia.\\n\\nThird term: 2005–2008\\nIn 2005, following that year's general election, Labour and the Progressive Party renewed their coalition, with confidence and supply arrangements with both New Zealand First and United Future in exchange for giving the leaders of those parties ministerial positions outside Cabinet. Greens were excluded from the resulting coalition, due to a refusal by United Future and NZ First to work with the Greens in cabinet. They were, however, able to negotiate a cooperation agreement which saw limited input into the budget and broad consultation on policy. Both co-leaders were appointed as government spokespeople outside cabinet, responsible for Energy Efficiency and for the Buy Kiwi Made campaign. Clark became the first Labour leader to win three consecutive elections. Clark won 66% of her electorate's votes, or 20,918 votes with a 14,749 majority.\\nOn Armistice Day, 11 November 2006, Clark attended a service in Hyde Park, London, where a monument commemorating New Zealand's war dead was unveiled. During her visit she met Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.\\nOn 26 May 2006, Clark ordered a military deployment to the 2006 East Timorese crisis alongside international partners.\\n\\nClark's major overseas visit of her third term was a trip to the United States in March 2007, where she met with George W. Bush in Washington. Despite her strained relationship with the President, they agreed on many issues, including working cooperatively in foreign affairs, commerce and the need for both nations to work toward energy security.\\nOn 8 February 2008, Clark was recognised as the longest-serving leader of the Labour Party in its history (although some uncertainty exists over the exact date when Harry Holland became party leader), having served for 14 years, 69 days. By 26 October 2008 she had passed Holland's longest possible term and her position as longest-serving Labour leader was put beyond doubt.\\nBy the end of her tenure in office, Clark had come to be seen as a divisive figure, going from a Herald-DigiPoll popularity rating of nearly 60% in 2005 to 42% at the time of the 2008 general election. Portrayals of Clark as controlling and manipulative after the 2005 election increased when she abandoned her consensus-managerial approach, such as during the New Zealand foreshore and seabed controversy, and her support of the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Act 2007 (the so-called anti-smacking law). She was accused of having a \\\"nanny state\\\" approach to social issues, a perception captured by the pejorative term 'Helengrad'.\\nLabour had been consistently behind the National Party in opinion polls since 2006, and the gap widened significantly in early 2007. On 5 August 2008 the Treasury announced that the New Zealand economy had entered a recession.\\nClark's personal popularity was eclipsed by John Key soon after the latter's election as National Party Leader in November 2006. In the final media polls prior to the 2008 election Key was ahead of Clark in preferred prime minister polls by eight points in the Fairfax Media Nielsen poll and four points in the One News Colmar Brunton poll. In the 2008 election campaign, Clark attacked the National Party as \\\"insincere\\\" in its promise to maintain many of her government's flagship projects, such as KiwiSaver and Kiwibank.\\nNational overtook Labour as the largest party following the 2008 election. Labour did not have the numbers to ally with smaller parties and no viable path to government; Clark conceded defeat to Key and announced that she was standing down as party leader. On 11 November 2008 Clark was succeeded by Phil Goff as Leader of the Labour Party. In the first Labour Party conference after its defeat Phil Goff acknowledged that Clark's government had become identified with \\\"nanny-state\\\" policies in the public mind, and said that the party wanted to \\\"draw a line under the past and say, yes, we made mistakes, we didn't listen.\\\"\\n\\nReputation and legacy\\nEarly in her career, Clark gained a reputation as a capable advocate of nuclear disarmament and public health policy. As party leader, Clark denounced Rogernomics as \\\"a ghastly period\\\" and won the 1999 election by abandoning its legacy. However, biographer Denis Welch has argued that she did not do enough to repudiate the paradigm created by Rogernomics, instead allowing Labour and National to become \\\"increasingly hard to tell apart\\\" on many issues.\\n\\nClark's government was pragmatic, managerial, concerned with stability, and focused on incremental changes over grand projects. Political scientist Bryce Edwards argues that Clark was never a \\\"conviction politician\\\" and set out to be a \\\"successful\\\" rather than \\\"great\\\" politician, leaving behind a legacy of incremental reforms of New Zealand and good management of the status quo, but no bold ambitions. Likewise, commentator John Armstrong, while praising Clark, describes her as a \\\"technocratic\\\" prime minister \\\"who will be remembered more for her management abilities than a capacity to inspire\\\".\\nIn January 2009, two months after losing office, Clark was voted 'Greatest Living New Zealander' in an opt-in website poll run by The New Zealand Herald. In a close race she received 25 per cent of the vote, ahead of Victoria Cross recipient Willie Apiata at 21 per cent. Then Prime Minister John Key said he was not surprised by the poll, saying \\\"she is well thought of as a New Zealand Prime Minister.\\\"\\nForbes magazine ranked Clark the 22nd most powerful woman in the world in 2016, down from 20th in 2006.\\n\\nPost-prime ministerial career\\nClark was the first defeated Labour Prime Minister to immediately resign the party leadership rather than lead it in Opposition. She served as the shadow foreign affairs spokesperson in the Shadow Cabinet of Phil Goff for several months before retiring from Parliament in April 2009 to accept a position with the United Nations (UN).\\n\\nUnited Nations Development Programme\\nClark became the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on 17 April 2009, and was the first woman to lead the organisation. She was also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues. The New Zealand Government strongly supported her nomination, along with Australia, the Pacific Island nations and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown. She also received the support of the five countries on the bureau of the UNDP board (Iran, Haiti, Serbia, The Netherlands and Tanzania) and was unanimously confirmed by the General Assembly on 31 March. She was sworn in by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 27 April 2009. In this position, Forbes deemed her the 23rd most powerful woman in the world.\\n\\nIn 2013, Forbes upgraded her position to 21st most powerful woman in the world after she was appointed to administer UNDP for a second term and for her potential future as UN Secretary General. She was the only New Zealander to make the list.\\nClark was recognised for her managerial style of leadership. During her tenure, she was an advocate of China's Belt and Road Initiative. She worked to reform the administration and bureaucracy of UNDP, with an emphasis on greater transparency in the organisation. The Publish What You Fund campaign ranked UNDP as the most transparent aid organisation in the world in 2015 and 2016, under Clark's administration.\\nIn February 2015, Clark visited Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to express solidarity with those working to prevent the spread of Ebola.\\nDuring her tenure, the ratio of women to men at UNDP reached 50%, including at the most senior level of the organisation.\\nOn 24 May 2016, a Foreign Policy article alleged that Clark's tenure as Administrator had \\\"left a trail of embittered peers and subordinates\\\", and accused her of \\\"undercutting the UN's promotion of human rights\\\". The article centred on an allegation that her senior staff retaliated against a critical report of the UNDP by forcing out an official who had participated in the investigation. Both the UNDP and Clark have denied the claims.\\nOn 26 January 2017, Clark announced that she would not seek re-election as UNDP Administrator after the completion of her four-year term. She said it had been an \\\"honour and privilege\\\" to have served in the role. She left UNDP on 19 April 2017.\\n\\nUnited Nations Secretary-General selection\\nIn January 2014, a Guardian interview with Clark raised the possibility that she could take over as UN Secretary-General after Ban Ki-moon's retirement in 2016. She did not confirm her interest, but commented: \\\"There will be interest in whether the UN will have a first woman because they're looking like the last bastions, as it were.\\\" She also said in the same interview that: \\\"If there's enough support for the style of leadership that I have, it will be interesting.\\\" In response, Prime Minister John Key said the New Zealand Government would support a bid, but cautioned that it would be a tough task to get the job.\\nOn 4 April 2016, Helen Clark officially submitted her nomination as New Zealand's candidate for the 2016 UN Secretary-General selection. In an interview on the same day, Clark stressed that she was running as the gender-neutral best candidate and not \\\"on the basis of being a woman.\\\"\\nThe UN's role in the Haiti cholera outbreak has been widely discussed and criticised. There has been indisputable evidence that the UN is the proximate cause for bringing cholera to Haiti. Peacekeepers sent to Haiti from Nepal were carrying asymptomatic cholera and they did not treat their waste properly before dumping it into Haiti's water stream. When asked about compensation for victims, Clark has declined to take a position, calling it \\\"legal issues.\\\"\\nAnother issue that received attention during Clark's candidacy was allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers. This gross problem was brought to light after Anders Kompass exposed the sexual assault of children by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic. During the United Nations Secretary General Candidate informal dialogues, Clark said that the UN needed to deal quickly with sexual exploitation and abuse, and gender-based violence by peacekeepers.\\nStraw polls were taken by secret ballot in October 2016. Clark finished fifth place in the sixth poll; her candidacy was effectively vetoed when three of the permanent Security Council members voted against her.\\nClark's bid for Secretary-General is the topic of a documentary film, My Year With Helen, directed by Gaylene Preston, which premiered in February 2018.\\n\\nWorld Health Organization\\nOn 9 July 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) appointed Clark as co-chair of a panel reviewing the WHO's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the response of governments to the outbreak. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) examined how the outbreak occurred and how future pandemics can be prevented. She served in the role alongside former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and of her appointment Clark said she hesitated before accepting because she felt the panel's task was \\\"mission impossible\\\". Clark's appointment to this panel drew criticism from UN Watch's Executive Director Hillel Neuer, who criticised her close ties with the pro-Beijing UN Goodwill Ambassador James Chau and her previous endorsement of Cuba for sending medical personnel abroad. On 11 November, Neuer called on Clark to resign, claiming that her alleged favouritism towards China and the WHO, would affect the investigation into China's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clark responded that she had no ties with China.\\nOn 19 January, the independent panel concluded that Chinese officials could have moved faster in January 2020 to curb the initial COVID-19 outbreak, and criticised the WHO for not declaring an international emergency until 30 January 2020. In the final report published in May 2021, the panel concluded that the pandemic could have been prevented if countries had taken a more proactive approach in February 2020; Clark said \\\"so many countries chose to wait and see\\\".\\n\\nPersonal life\\nClark was brought up as a Presbyterian, attending Sunday school weekly. When she was Prime Minister she described herself as an agnostic.\\nShe married sociologist Peter Davis in 1981, shortly before she was elected to Parliament. Davis had been Clark’s partner for 5 years but she had come under pressure from some Labour members to marry for political purposes, despite her personal reservations about marriage. Davis is currently a professor in medical sociology and was director of COMPASS (Centre of Methods and Policy Application in the Social Sciences) at the University of Auckland.\\nAfter the 1981 elections Clark said: \\\"It was a difficult campaign\\\". In an essay for the book Head and Shoulders in 1984 she said: \\\"As a single woman I was really hammered. I was accused of being a lesbian, of living in a commune, having friends who were Trotskyites and gays...\\\".\\nIn March 2001, Clark referred to National MP Wyatt Creech as a \\\"scumbag\\\" and a \\\"sleazeball\\\" for having raised the issue of a potential conflict of interest involving Davis, who was leading an academic research team studying government health reforms.\\nClark is a keen hiker and mountaineer. In August 2008, an expedition group that included Clark and her husband became stranded on the Two Thumb Range, a spur of the Southern Alps, when their guide (and Clark's friend), Gottlieb Braun-Elwert, collapsed and died from a suspected heart attack.\\n\\nViews and positions\\nSocial media\\nDuring her tenure as UNDP administrator and afterwards, Clark's presence on social media and avid use of Twitter has attracted positive attention in news media. She has called for greater regulation of social media platforms, and supports the Christchurch Call.\\n\\nCannabis reform\\nDuring the 2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Clark publicly supported the \\\"Yes\\\" vote campaign to decriminalise recreational cannabis, arguing that prohibition did not work. She also featured in the \\\"We Do\\\" campaign supporting the proposed \\\"Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill.\\\"\\n\\nIsraeli–Palestinian conflict\\nDuring the 2023 Israel-Hamas War, Clark criticised the decision by New Zealand and several other Western governments to halt their aid contributions to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East) following allegations that several UNRWA workers had participated in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. She said it was \\\"most regrettable that countries have acted in this precipitous way to defund the organisation on the basis of allegations\\\". While Clark acknowledged that the allegations against UNRWA were serious, she said that \\\"defunding the agency without knowing the outcome of the investigation was not the right decision.\\\"\\n\\nAUKUS\\nIn April 2024, Clark criticised the National-led coalition government's interest in associate membership of AUKUS, stating that New Zealand foreign policy towards its Western allies was lurching away from \\\"hitherto bipartisan settings.\\\" She described this shift as \\\"profoundly undemocratic\\\". Clark also said \\\"that New Zealand has worked on a bipartisan basis for decades to balance its economic interests, democratic values, and nuclear-free and independent foreign policy.\\\" She expressed concerns about the country getting drawn into geopolitical games. \\nIn July 2024, Clark joined former National and ACT leader Don Brash in criticising the Government's perceived pro-US shift in New Zealand foreign policy. This came in response to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's remarks that the Government would be more willing to disclose cases of Chinese espionage in New Zealand and participating in AUKUS Pillar 2.\\n\\nAwards and honours\\nFor almost nine years, Helen Clark shouldered both the powers and responsibilities of being Prime Minister confidently and adeptly. That only four other New Zealanders (Seddon, Massey, Holyoake, and Fraser) have held the Office for longer speaks much of Helen Clark's acumen, abilities and judgement.\\nIn 1986, Clark was awarded the annual Peace Prize of the Danish Peace Foundation for her work in promoting peace and nuclear disarmament.\\nIn 1990, Clark received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.\\nIn 1993, Clark was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.\\nIn 2002, she was presented with the Nuclear-Free Future Award, for \\\"installing New Zealand at the forefront of the world political movement to rid the earth of nuclear weapons\\\".\\nIn 2005, the government of the Solomon Islands awarded Clark (with John Howard) the Star of the Solomon Islands in recognition of New Zealand's role in restoring law and order in the Solomon Islands. This award allows her to use the post-nominal letters \\\"SSI\\\".\\nIn January 2008, Clark won the United Nations Environment Programme Champions of the Earth award in recognition of the government's promotion of sustainability initiatives.\\nIn April 2009, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Auckland, her alma mater.\\nIn the 2010 New Year Honours, Clark was appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest honour, for services to New Zealand.\\nShe was recognised as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2013.\\nIn September 2017, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards\\nIn December 2017, she was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.\\nIn June 2024, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of St Andrews, exactly half a century since her graduation.\\nPatronage\\n\\nClark is the patron for The Helen Clark Foundation.\\nClark is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.\\nShe was the patron of the New Zealand Rugby League between 2002 and 2011, and has served as the patron of the Mount Albert Lions rugby league club for over 20 years.\\n\\nIn popular culture\\nIn 1996, Clark guest starred as herself in popular New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. A satirical book, later adapted as a play, titled On the Conditions and Possibilities of Helen Clark Taking Me as Her Young Lover, by Richard Meros, was published by Lawrence and Gibson in 2005. Clark has also guest-starred on bro'Town, the New Zealand animated television series.\\nIn 2020, the Eden Park Trust Board requested the right to stage six concerts a year, without having to seek individual planning permission – a process that had forced it to drop past concert plans. Clark said concerts at Eden Park stadium would \\\"represent a home invasion of noise\\\" and told a planning hearing the bid for six gigs a year should be rejected. Clark lives four streets from the stadium and told the independent planning commission \\\"one's home is one's sanctuary\\\". The former prime minister moved into her home in 1981 when Eden Park was a venue for daytime cricket and rugby.\\n\\nSee also\\nElectoral history of Helen Clark\\nList of Nuclear-Free Future Award recipients\\nPolitics of New Zealand\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nBibliography\\nEast, Roger; Thomas, Richard (2003). Profiles of People in Power: The World's Government Leaders. Psychology Press. ISBN 9781857431261. Archived from the original on 25 November 2017.\\nEyley, Claudia Pond; Salmon, Dan (2015). Helen Clark: Inside Stories. Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-77558-820-7. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2016.\\n\\nFurther reading\\nBoston, Jonathan (2000). Left Turn: The New Zealand general election of 1999. Victoria University Press.\\nBoston, Jonathan; et al. (2004). New Zealand Votes: The 2002 General Election. Victoria University Press. ISBN 9780864734686.\\nClark, Helen (2018). Women, Equality, Power: selected speeches from a life of leadership. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-98854-705-3.\\nEdwards, Brian (2001). Helen: Portrait of A Prime Minister. Auckland: Exisle Publishing. ISBN 978-0-908988-20-4.\\nHarvey, John; Edwards, John (2019). Annette King: The Authorised Biography. Auckland: Upstart Press. ISBN 978-1-988516-37-0.\\nKerr, Allan R. (c. 2006). Helen Clark: Prime Minister of New Zealand (3rd ed.). Masterton, NZ: Capital Letters Pub. ISBN 978-1-877177-57-6. This is a book intended for children.\\nLevine, Stephen and Nigel S. Roberts, eds. (2007). The Baubles of Office: The New Zealand General Election of 2005. Victoria University Press.\\nLevine, Stephen and Nigel S. Roberts, eds. (2010). Key to Victory: The New Zealand General Election of 2008. Victoria University Press.\\nMiller, Raymond; Mintrom, Michael (eds.) (c. 2006). Political leadership in New Zealand. Auckland: Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-86940-358-4. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)\\nRussell, Marcia (1996). Revolution:New Zealand from Fortress to Free Market. Hodder Moa Beckett. ISBN 1869584287.\\nSkard, Torild (2014). \\\"Helen Clark\\\" in Women of Power: Half a century of female presidents and prime ministers worldwide, Bristol: Policy Press. ISBN 978-1-44731-578-0\\nWelch, Denis (2009). Helen Clark: A Political Life. Penguin Books.\\nWilliams, Tony (2006). 101 ingenious Kiwis: how New Zealanders changed the world. Auckland: Reed. ISBN 978-0-7900-1110-3. Helen Clark is profiled in a chapter entitled: \\\"Helen Clark: first elected woman prime minister.\\\"\\n\\nExternal links\\nBiography of the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (2009–2017) Archived 1 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine on UNDP\\nBrief biography on the New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage's 'NZHistory' website\\nRt Hon Helen Clark on Parliament.nz\\nHelen Clark at IMDb\",\n \"title\": \"Helen_Clark\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 3,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( jə-SIN-də ar-DURN; born 26 July 1980) is a former New Zealand politician who served as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023. She was a Labour member of Parliament (MP) as a list MP from 2008 to 2017, and for Mount Albert from 2017 to 2023.\\nBorn in Hamilton, Ardern grew up in Morrinsville and Murupara. She joined the New Zealand Labour Party at the age of 17. After graduating from the University of Waikato in 2001, Ardern worked as a researcher in the office of Prime Minister Helen Clark. She later worked in London as an adviser in the Cabinet Office during Tony Blair's premiership. In 2008, Ardern was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth. Ardern was first elected as an MP in the 2008 general election, when Labour lost power after nine years. She was later elected to represent the Mount Albert electorate in a by-election on 25 February 2017.\\nArdern was unanimously elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party on 1 March 2017, after the resignation of Annette King. Exactly five months later, with an election due, Labour's leader Andrew Little resigned after a historically low opinion polling result for the party, with Ardern elected unopposed as leader in his place. Labour's support increased rapidly after Ardern became leader, and she led her party to gain 14 seats at the 2017 general election on 23 September, winning 46 seats to the National Party's 56. After negotiations, New Zealand First chose to enter a minority coalition government with Labour, supported by the Green Party, with Ardern as prime minister. She was sworn in by the governor-general on 26 October 2017. She became the world's youngest female head of government at age 37. Ardern gave birth to her daughter on 21 June 2018, making her the world's second elected head of government to give birth while in office (after Benazir Bhutto).\\nArdern describes herself as a social democrat and a progressive. The Sixth Labour Government faced challenges from the New Zealand housing crisis, child poverty, and social inequality. In March 2019, in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, Ardern reacted by rapidly introducing strict gun laws, winning her wide recognition. Throughout 2020 she led New Zealand's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, for which she won praise for New Zealand being one of the few Western nations to successfully contain the virus. It is estimated that her government's actions saved as many as 80,000 lives. Ardern moved the Labour Party further to the centre towards the October 2020 general election, promising to cut spending during the remainder of the COVID-19 recession. She led the Labour Party to a landslide victory, gaining an overall majority of 65 seats in Parliament, the first time a majority government had been formed since the introduction of a proportional representation system in 1996.\\nOn 19 January 2023, Ardern announced she would resign as Labour leader. Following the unopposed election of Chris Hipkins as her successor, she resigned as leader of the Labour Party on 22 January and submitted her resignation as prime minister to the governor-general on 25 January.\\n\\nEarly life and education\\nJacinda Kate Laurell Ardern was born on 26 July 1980 in Hamilton, New Zealand. She grew up in Morrinsville and Murupara, where her father, Ross Ardern, worked as a police officer, and her mother, Laurell Ardern (née Bottomley), worked as a school catering assistant. She has an older sister named Louise. Ardern was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and her uncle, Ian S. Ardern, is a general authority in the church. In 1994, she began studying at Morrinsville College, and later she was the student representative on the school's board of trustees. Whilst still at school, she found her first job, working at a local fish-and-chip shop.\\nShe joined the Labour Party at the age of 17. Her aunt, Marie Ardern, a longstanding member of the Labour Party, recruited the teenaged Ardern to help her with campaigning for New Plymouth MP Harry Duynhoven during his re-election campaign at the 1999 general election.\\nArdern attended the University of Waikato, graduating in 2001 as a Bachelor of Communication Studies in politics and public relations, a specialist three-year degree. She took a semester abroad at Arizona State University in 2001. After graduating from university, she spent time working in the offices of Phil Goff and of Helen Clark as a researcher. After a period of time in New York City, United States, where she volunteered at a soup kitchen and worked on a workers' rights campaign, Ardern moved to London, England, in 2006, where she became a senior policy adviser in an 80-person policy unit of the United Kingdom Cabinet Office under prime minister Tony Blair. (She did not meet Blair in person while in London, but later at an event in New Zealand in 2011 she questioned him about the 2003 invasion of Iraq). Ardern was also seconded to the United Kingdom Home Office to help with a review of policing in England and Wales.\\n\\nEarly political career\\nPresident of International Union of Socialist Youth\\nOn 30 January 2008, at 27, Ardern was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) at their world congress in the Dominican Republic for a two-year term until 2010. The role saw her spend time in several countries, including Hungary, Jordan, Israel, Algeria and China. It was mid-way through her presidency term that Ardern became a list MP for the Labour Party. She then continued to manage both roles for the next 15 months.\\n\\nMember of Parliament\\nAhead of the 2008 election, Ardern was ranked 20th on Labour's party list. This was a very high placement for someone who was not already a sitting MP, and virtually assured her of a seat in Parliament. Accordingly, Ardern returned from London to campaign full-time. She also became Labour's candidate for the safe National electorate of Waikato. Ardern was unsuccessful in the electorate vote, but her high placement on Labour's party list allowed her to enter Parliament as a list MP. Upon election, she became the youngest sitting MP in Parliament, succeeding fellow Labour MP Darren Hughes, and remained the youngest MP until the election of Gareth Hughes on 11 February 2010.\\nOpposition leader Phil Goff promoted Ardern to the front bench, naming her Labour's spokesperson for Youth Affairs and as associate spokesperson for Justice (Youth Affairs).\\nShe made regular appearances on TVNZ's Breakfast programme as part of the \\\"Young Guns\\\" feature, in which she appeared alongside National MP (and future National leader) Simon Bridges.\\n\\nArdern contested the seat of Auckland Central for Labour in the 2011 general election, standing against incumbent National MP Nikki Kaye for National and Greens candidate Denise Roche. She lost to Kaye by 717 votes. However, she returned to Parliament via the party list, on which she was ranked 13th. Ardern maintained an office within the electorate while she was a list MP based in Auckland Central.\\nAfter Goff resigned from the Party leadership following his defeat at the 2011 election, Ardern supported David Shearer over David Cunliffe. She was elevated to the fourth-ranking position in his Shadow Cabinet on 19 December 2011, becoming a spokesperson for social development under the new leader.\\nArdern stood again in Auckland Central at the 2014 general election. She again finished second though increased her own vote and reduced Kaye's majority from 717 to 600. Ranked 5th on Labour's list, Ardern was still returned to Parliament where she became Shadow spokesperson for Justice, Children, Small Business, and Arts & Culture under new leader Andrew Little.\\nIn 2014 Ardern was also selected, attended and graduated from the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Forum of Young Global Leaders, founded by Klaus Schwab, which takes place in Switzerland. She remains involved publicly as a part of the Young Global Leaders Alumni Community, and speaks at WEF events.\\n\\nMount Albert by-election\\nArdern put forward her name for the Labour nomination for the Mount Albert by-election to be held in February 2017 following the resignation of David Shearer on 8 December 2016. When nominations for the Labour Party closed on 12 January 2017, Ardern was the only nominee and was selected unopposed. On 21 January, Ardern participated in the 2017 Women's March, a worldwide protest in opposition to Donald Trump, the newly inaugurated president of the United States. She was confirmed as Labour's candidate at a meeting on 22 January. Ardern won a landslide victory, gaining 77 per cent of votes cast in the preliminary results.\\n\\nDeputy Leader of the Labour Party\\nFollowing her win in the by-election, Ardern was unanimously elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party on 7 March 2017, following the resignation of Annette King, who was intending to retire at the next election. Ardern's vacant list seat was taken by Raymond Huo.\\n\\nLeader of the Opposition\\nOn 1 August 2017, just seven weeks before the 2017 general election, Ardern assumed the position of leader of the Labour Party, and consequently became leader of the Opposition, following the resignation of Andrew Little. Little stood down due to the party's historically low polling. Ardern was unanimously confirmed in an election to choose a new leader at a caucus meeting the same day. At 37, Ardern became the youngest leader of the Labour Party in its history. She is also the second female leader of the party after Helen Clark. According to Ardern, Little had previously approached her on 26 July and said he thought she should take over as Labour leader then, as he was of the opinion he could not turn things around for the party, although Ardern declined and told him to \\\"stick it out\\\".\\nAt her first press conference, after her election as leader, she said that the forthcoming election campaign would be one of \\\"relentless positivity\\\". Immediately following her appointment, the party was inundated with donations by the public, reaching NZ$700 per minute at its peak. After Ardern's ascension to the leadership, Labour rose dramatically in opinion polls. By late August, the party had reached 43 per cent in the Colmar Brunton poll (having been 24 per cent under Little's leadership) as well as managing to overtake National in opinion polls for the first time in over a decade. Detractors observed her positions were substantially similar to those of Andrew Little, and suggested that Labour's sudden increase in popularity were due to her youth and good looks.\\nIn mid-August, Ardern stated that a Labour government would establish a tax working group to explore the possibility of introducing a capital gains tax but ruled out taxing family homes. In response to negative publicity, Ardern abandoned plans to introduce a capital gains tax during the first term of a Labour government. Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson later clarified that Labour would not introduce new taxes until after the 2020 election. The policy shift accompanied strident allegations by Minister of Finance Steven Joyce that Labour had an $11.7 billion \\\"hole\\\" in its tax policy.\\nThe Labour and Green parties' proposed water and pollution taxes also generated criticism from farmers. On 18 September 2017, the farming lobby group Federated Farmers staged a protest against the taxes in Ardern's hometown of Morrinsville. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters attended the protest to campaign but was jeered at by the farmers because they suspected he was also in favour of the taxes. During the protest, one farmer displayed a sign calling Ardern a \\\"pretty communist\\\". This was criticised as misogynistic by former prime minister Helen Clark.\\nIn the final days of the general election campaign, the opinion polls narrowed with National taking a slight lead.\\n\\n2017 general election\\nDuring the general election held on 23 September 2017, Ardern retained her Mount Albert electorate seat by a margin of 15,264 votes. Labour increased its vote share to 36.89 per cent while National dropped back to 44.45. Labour gained 14 seats, increasing its parliamentary representation to 46 seats, the best result for the party since losing power in 2008.\\nThe rival Labour and National parties lacked sufficient seats to govern alone and held talks with the Greens and New Zealand First parties about forming a coalition. Under the country's mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system, New Zealand First held the balance of power and chose to be part of a coalition government with Labour.\\n\\nPrime minister (2017–2023)\\nFirst term (2017–2020)\\nOn 19 October 2017, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters agreed to form a coalition with Labour, making Ardern the next prime minister. This coalition received confidence and supply from the Green Party. Ardern named Peters as deputy prime minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. She also gave New Zealand First five posts in her government, with Peters and three other ministers serving in Cabinet. The next day, Ardern confirmed that she would hold the ministerial portfolios of National Security and Intelligence; Arts, Culture and Heritage; and Vulnerable Children; reflecting the shadow positions she held as Leader of the Opposition. Her position as Minister for Vulnerable Children was later replaced with the role of Minister for Child Poverty Reduction, while New Zealand First MP Tracey Martin took on the role of Minister for Children. She was officially sworn in by Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy on 26 October, alongside her ministry. Upon taking office, Ardern said that her government would be \\\"focused, empathetic and strong\\\".\\nArdern is New Zealand's third female prime minister after Jenny Shipley (1997–1999) and Helen Clark (1999–2008). She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders. Entering office aged 37, Ardern is also the youngest individual to become New Zealand's head of government since Edward Stafford, who became premier in 1856 also aged 37. On 19 January 2018, Ardern announced that she was pregnant, and that Winston Peters would take the role of acting prime minister for six weeks after the birth. Following the birth of a daughter, she took her maternity leave from 21 June to 2 August 2018.\\n\\nDomestic affairs\\nArdern promised to halve child poverty in New Zealand within a decade. In July 2018, Ardern announced the start of her government's flagship Families Package. Among its provisions, the package gradually increased paid parental leave to 26 weeks and introduced a $60 per-week universal BestStart Payment for low and middle-income families with young children. The Family Tax Credit, Orphans Benefit, Accommodation Supplement, and Foster Care Allowance were all substantially increased as well. In 2019, the government began the roll-out of a school lunches pilot programme to assist in reducing child poverty numbers; this was then extended to support 200,000 children (about 25 per cent of school rolls) in low decile schools. Other efforts to reduce poverty have included increases to main welfare benefits, expanding free doctor's visits, providing free menstrual hygiene products in schools and adding to state housing stock.\\nHowever, as of 2022 critics say rising housing costs are continuing to cripple families and systemic changes are needed to ensure any gains are lasting.\\nEconomically, Ardern's government has implemented steady increases to the country's minimum wage and introduced the Provincial Growth Fund to invest in rural infrastructure projects. The National Party's planned tax cuts were cancelled, saying instead it would prioritise expenditure on healthcare and education. The first year of post-secondary education was made free from 1 January 2018 and, after industrial action, the government agreed to increase primary teachers' pay by 12.8 (for beginning teachers) and 18.5 per cent (for senior teachers without other responsibilities) by 2021.\\nDespite the Labour Party campaigning on a capital gains tax for the last three elections, Ardern pledged in April 2019 that the government would not implement a capital gains tax under her leadership. However, since then the period for which capital gain on rental properties sold is taxed has increased from five to ten years since purchase.\\nArdern travelled to Waitangi in 2018 for the annual Waitangi Day commemoration; stayed in Waitangi for five days, an unprecedented length. Ardern became the first female prime minister to speak from the top marae. Her visit was largely well received by Māori leaders, with commentators noting a sharp contrast with the acrimonious responses received by several of her predecessors.\\nOn 24 August 2018, Ardern removed Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran from Cabinet after she failed to disclose a meeting with a broadcaster outside of parliamentary business, which was judged to be a conflict of interest. Curran remained a minister outside Cabinet, and Ardern was criticised by the Opposition for not dismissing Curran from her portfolio. Ardern later accepted Curran's resignation. In 2019, she was criticised for her handling of an allegation of sexual assault against a Labour Party staffer. Ardern said she had been told the allegation did not involve sexual assault or violence before a report about the incident was published in The Spinoff. Media questioned her account, with one journalist stating that Ardern's claim was \\\"hard to swallow\\\".\\nArdern opposes criminalising people who use cannabis in New Zealand, and pledged to hold a referendum on the issue. A non-binding referendum to legalise cannabis was held in conjunction with the 2020 general election on 17 October 2020. Ardern admitted to past cannabis use during a televised debate prior to the election. In the referendum, voters rejected the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill by 51.17 per cent. A retrospective article published in a medical journal suggested that Ardern's refusal to publicly back the 'yes' campaign \\\"may have been a decisive factor in the narrow defeat\\\".\\nIn September 2020, Ardern announced that her government had abandoned plans to make tertiary education tuition free.\\n\\nForeign affairs\\nOn 5 November 2017, Ardern made her first official overseas trip to Australia, where she met Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the first time. Relations between the two countries had been strained in the preceding months because of Australia's treatment of New Zealanders living in the country, and shortly before taking office, Ardern had spoken of the need to rectify this situation, and to develop a better working relationship with the Australian government. Turnbull described the meeting in cordial terms: \\\"we trust each other...The fact we are from different political traditions is irrelevant\\\". \\nOn 12 November 2017, Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Ardern announced that the government would continue participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations despite opposition from the Green Party. New Zealand ratified the revised agreement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which she described as being better than the original TPP agreement. \\nArdern attended the 2017 APEC summit in Vietnam, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018 in London (featuring a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II) and a United Nations summit in New York City. After her first formal meeting with Donald Trump she reported that the US president showed \\\"interest\\\" in New Zealand's gun buyback programme. In 2018, Ardern raised the issue of Xinjiang internment camps and human-rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in China. Ardern has also raised concerns over the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.\\nArdern travelled to Nauru, where she attended the 2018 Pacific Islands Forum. Media and political opponents criticised her decision to travel separately from the rest of her contingent, costing taxpayers up to NZ$100,000, so that she could spend more time with her daughter. At a 2018 United Nations General Assembly meeting, Ardern became the first female head of government to attend with her infant present. Her address to the General Assembly praised the United Nations for its multilateralism, expressed support for the world's youth, called for immediate attention to the effects and causes of climate change, for the equality of women, and for kindness as the basis for action.\\nOn 24 September 2019, Ardern met with United States President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting. During the 25-minute meeting, the two leaders discussed various issues including tourism, the Christchurch mosque shooting, and bilateral trade. During the meeting, Trump expressed an interest in New Zealand's gun buy-back scheme. The two leaders had earlier met briefly at the 2017 East Asia Summit, the 2017 APEC Summit, and during an exclusive party following the 2018 UN General Assembly meeting. \\nIn late February 2020, Ardern met Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Sydney. During her visit, she criticised Australia's policy of deporting New Zealanders, many of whom had lived in Australia but had not taken up Australian citizenship, as \\\"corrosive\\\" and damaging to Australia–New Zealand relations.\\n\\nChristchurch mosque shootings\\nOn 15 March 2019, 51 people were fatally shot and 49 injured in two mosques in Christchurch. In a statement broadcast on television, Ardern offered condolences and stated that the shootings had been carried out by suspects with \\\"extremist views\\\" that have no place in New Zealand, or anywhere else in the world. She also described it as a well-planned terrorist attack.\\nAnnouncing a period of national mourning, Ardern was the first signatory of a national condolence book that she opened in the capital, Wellington. She also travelled to Christchurch to meet first responders and families of the victims. In an address at the Parliament, she declared she would never say the name of the attacker: \\\"Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them ... he will, when I speak, be nameless.\\\" Ardern received international praise for her response to the shootings, and a photograph of her hugging a member of the Christchurch Muslim community with the word \\\"peace\\\" in English and Arabic was projected onto the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. A 25-metre (82 ft) mural of this photograph was unveiled in May 2019.\\nIn response to the shootings, Ardern announced her government's intention to introduce stronger firearms regulations. She said that the attack had exposed a range of weaknesses in New Zealand's gun law. Less than one month after the attack, the New Zealand Parliament passed a law that bans most semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles, parts that convert guns into semiautomatic guns, and higher capacity magazines. Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron co-chaired the 2019 Christchurch Call summit, which aimed to \\\"bring together countries and tech companies in an attempt to bring to an end the ability to use social media to organise and promote terrorism and violent extremism\\\".\\n\\nCOVID-19 pandemic\\nOn 14 March 2020, Ardern announced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand that the government would be requiring anyone entering the country from midnight 15 March to isolate themselves for 14 days. She said the new rules will mean New Zealand has the \\\"widest ranging and toughest border restrictions of any country in the world\\\". On 19 March, Ardern stated that New Zealand's borders would be closed to all non-citizens and non-permanent residents, after 11:59 pm on 20 March (NZDT). Ardern announced that New Zealand would move to alert level 4, including a nationwide lockdown, at 11:59 pm on 25 March.\\nNational and international media covered the government response led by Ardern, praising her leadership and swift response to the outbreak in New Zealand. The Washington Post's Fifield described her regular use of interviews, press conferences and social media as a \\\"masterclass in crisis communication\\\". Alastair Campbell, a journalist and adviser in Tony Blair's British government, commended Ardern for addressing both the human and economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.\\nIn mid-April 2020, two applicants filed a lawsuit at the Auckland High Court against Ardern and several government officials including Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield, claiming that the lockdown imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic infringed on their freedoms and was made for \\\"political gain\\\". The lawsuit was dismissed by Justice Mary Peters of the Auckland High Court.\\nOn 5 May 2020, Ardern, her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison and several Australian state and territorial leaders agreed that they would collaborate to develop a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone that would allow residents from both countries to travel freely without travel restrictions as part of efforts to ease coronavirus restrictions.\\nPost-lockdown opinion polls showed the Labour Party with nearly 60 per cent support. In May 2020, Ardern rated 59.5 per cent as 'preferred prime minister' in a Newshub-Reid Research poll—the highest score for any leader in the Reid Research poll's history. The number of lives saved by the response Ardern spearheaded was estimated as up to 80,000 by a team led by Shaun Hendy.\\n\\nSecond term (2020–2023)\\nIn the 2020 general election, Ardern led her party to a landslide victory, winning an overall majority of 65 seats in the 120-seat House of Representatives, and 50 per cent of the nationwide party vote (moreover Labour won the party vote in 71 out of the 72 electorates). She also retained the Mount Albert electorate by a margin of 21,246 votes. Ardern credited her victory to her government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic impacts it has had. \\nIn 2022, domestic popularity for Ardern and her policies fell considerably, with polling on whether people “think the country is going in the right direction” tracking down from a high of 70% in early 2021 to 30% at the end of 2022. The last polls of 2022 had Labour at about 33%, similar to party polling when she first took over in 2017, and her approval rating dropped to 29%.\\n\\nDomestic affairs\\nOn 2 December 2020, Ardern declared a climate change emergency in New Zealand and pledged that the Government would be carbon neutral by 2025 in a parliamentary motion. As part of this commitment towards carbon neutrality, the public sector will be required to buy only electric or hybrid vehicles, the fleet will be reduced over time by 20 per cent, and all 200 coal-fired boilers in public service buildings will be phased out. This motion was supported by the Labour, Green, and Māori parties but was opposed by the opposition National and ACT parties. However, climate activist Greta Thunberg said about Ardern: \\\"It's funny that people believe Jacinda Ardern and people like that are climate leaders. That just tells you how little people know about the climate crisis ... the emissions haven't fallen.\\\"\\nIn response to worsening housing affordability issues, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Megan Woods announced new reforms. These reforms included the removal of the interest rate tax-deduction, lifting Housing Aid for first home buyers, renewed allocation of infrastructure funds (named Housing Acceleration Fund) for district councils, an extension of the Bright Line Test from five to ten years.\\nOn 14 June 2021, Ardern confirmed that the New Zealand Government would formally apologise for the Dawn Raids at the Auckland Town Hall on 26 June 2021. The Dawn Raids were a series of police raids which disproportionately targeted members of the Pasifika diaspora in New Zealand during the 1970s and early 1980s.\\nIn September 2022, Ardern led the nation's tributes following the death of New Zealand's longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Ardern described her as an \\\"incredible woman\\\", and a \\\"constant in our lives\\\". She also described the Queen as a \\\"much admired and respected\\\" monarch. Ardern also stated that republicanism was currently not on the agenda but believed that the country would head in that direction in the future.\\nIn mid-December 2022, Ardern was recorded on a hot mic calling the leader of the ACT Party, David Seymour, an \\\"arrogant prick\\\" during Parliament's Question Time. Since New Zealand parliamentary debates are televised, the comment was aired on television during Question Time. Ardern later texted Seymour to apologise for her comment. The two politicians subsequently reconciled and joined forces to raise NZ$60,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation by auctioning a signed and framed copy of the Prime Minister's remark.\\n\\nCOVID-19 and vaccination programme\\nOn 17 June 2020, Prime Minister Ardern met with Bill Gates and Melinda Gates via a teleconference in a meeting requested by Bill Gates. In the meeting, Ardern was asked by Melinda Gates to \\\"speak up\\\" in support of a collective approach to a COVID-19 vaccine. Ardern said she'd be happy to assist, an Official Information Act request response has shown. A month earlier in May, Ardern's Government had pledged $37 million to help find a COVID-19 vaccine, which included $15 million to CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations) founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum among others, and $7 million to GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), also founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. During the meeting Gates noted this contribution. Ardern had also met the Gateses the year before in New York.\\nOn 12 December 2020, Ardern and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown announced that a travel bubble between New Zealand and the Cook Islands would be established in 2021, allowing two-way quarantine-free travel between the two countries. On 14 December, Prime Minister Ardern confirmed that the New Zealand and Australian Governments had agreed to establish a travel bubble between the two countries the following year. On 17 December, Ardern also announced that the Government had purchased two more vaccines from the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Novavax for New Zealand and its Pacific partners in addition to the existing stocks from Pfizer/BioNTech and Janssen Pharmaceutica.\\n\\nOn 26 January 2021, Ardern stated that New Zealand's borders would remain closed to most non-citizens and non-residents until New Zealand citizens have been \\\"vaccinated and protected\\\". The COVID-19 vaccination programme began in February 2021. An outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in August 2021 prompted the government to enact a nationwide lockdown again. By September, the number of new community infections began to fall again; comparisons were made with an outbreak in neighbouring Australia, which was unable to contain a Delta variant outbreak at the same time.\\nOn 29 January 2022, Ardern entered into self-isolation after she was identified as a close contact of a COVID-19 case on an Air New Zealand flight from Kerikeri to Auckland on 22 January. In addition, Governor-General Cindy Kiro and chief press secretary Andrew Campbell, who were aboard the same flight, also went into self-isolation.\\nDuring a routine school visit by Ardern, protestors gathered outside. As the demonstrators pushed down the school’s drive, Ardern was bundled into a van and driven away, chased by protesters screaming profanities and abuse. The previous month, Ardern’s vehicle was chased and forced on to a curb by anti-vaccination protesters calling her a Nazi and yelling obscenities. Asked about the incident at the time, Ardern said it was “just another day”. \\nOn 14 May 2022, Ardern tested positive for COVID-19. Her partner Gayford had tested positive for COVID-19 several days earlier on 8 May.\\n\\nForeign affairs\\nIn early December 2020, Ardern expressed support for Australia during a dispute between Canberra and Beijing over Chinese Foreign Ministry official Zhao Lijian's Twitter post alleging that Australia had committed war crimes against Afghans. She described the image as not being factual and incorrect, adding that the New Zealand Government would raise its concerns with the Chinese Government.\\nOn 9 December 2020, Ardern delivered a speech virtually at the Singapore FinTech Festival, applauding the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) among New Zealand, Chile and Singapore as \\\"the first important steps\\\" to achieve the regulatory alignment to facilitate businesses.\\nOn 16 February 2021, Ardern criticised the Australian Government's decision to revoke dual New Zealand–Australian national Suhayra Aden's Australian citizenship. Aden had migrated from New Zealand to Australia at the age of six and acquired Australian citizenship. She subsequently travelled to Syria to live in the Islamic State as a ISIS bride in 2014. On 15 February 2021, Aden and two of her children were detained by Turkish authorities for illegal entry. Ardern accused the Australian Government of abandoning its obligations to its citizens and also offered consular support to Aden and her children. In response, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended the decision to revoke Aden's citizenship, citing legislation stripping dual nationals of their Australian citizenship if they were engaged in terrorist activities. Following a phone conversation, the two leaders agreed to work together to address what Ardern described as \\\"quite a complex legal situation\\\".\\nIn response to the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, Ardern stated on 17 May that New Zealand \\\"condemned both the indiscriminate rocket fire we have seen from Hamas and what looks to be a response that has gone well beyond self-defence on both sides.\\\" She also stated that Israel had the \\\"right to exist\\\" but Palestinians also had a \\\"right to a peaceful home, a secure home.\\\"\\nIn late May 2021, Ardern hosted Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a state visit at Queenstown. The two heads of governments issued a joint statement affirming bilateral cooperation on the issues of COVID-19, bilateral relations, and security issues in the Indo-Pacific. Ardern and Morrison also raised concerns about the South China Sea dispute and human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. In response to the joint statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin criticised the Australian and New Zealand governments for interfering in Chinese domestic affairs.\\nIn early December 2021, Ardern participated in the virtual Summit for Democracy that was hosted by US President Joe Biden. In her address, she talked about bolstering democratic resilience in the age of COVID-19 followed by panel discussions. Ardern also announced that New Zealand would contribute an additional NZ$1 million to supporting Pacific countries' anti-corruption efforts, as well as contributing to UNESCO's Global Media Defence Fund and the International Fund for Public Interest Media.\\nIn April 2022, Ardern was banned from entering Russia along with 129 other parliamentarians and senior government officials after the New Zealand Parliament unanimously imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.\\n\\nIn late May 2022, Ardern led a trade and tourism mission to the United States. During her trip, she urged the Biden Administration to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement which the previous Trump Administration had abandoned in 2017. While attending the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Ardern also condemned the Robb Elementary School shooting and advocated stronger gun control measures, citing New Zealand's ban on semi-automatic firearms following the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. On 27 May, Ardern gave the annual commencement address at Harvard University, speaking about gun reform and democracy. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate in law. On 28 May, Ardern signed a memorandum of understanding with Governor of California Gavin Newsom formalising bilateral cooperation between New Zealand and California in climate change mitigation and research.\\nOn 1 June 2022, Ardern met with US President Joe Biden and Vice-president Kamala Harris to reaffirm bilateral relations between the two countries. The two leaders also issued a joint statement reaffirming bilateral cooperation on various issues including the South China Sea dispute, support for Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion, Chinese tensions with Taiwan, and alleged human-rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry official Zhao Lijian accused New Zealand and the United States of seeking to spread disinformation about China's engagement with Pacific Islands countries, interfering in Chinese internal affairs, and urged New Zealand to adhere to its stated \\\"independent foreign policy\\\".\\nOn 10 June 2022, Ardern visited the newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The two leaders discussed a range of issues including Australia's controversial Section 501 deportation policy, Chinese influence in the Pacific region, climate change, and working with Pacific neighbours. In response to Ardern's concerns, Albanese stated that he would explore ways of addressing New Zealand's concerns about the adverse impact of its deportation policies on New Zealanders residing in Australia.\\n\\nIn late June 2022, Ardern attended the NATO's Leader Summit, which marked the first time that New Zealand had formally addressed a NATO event. During her speech, she emphasised New Zealand's commitment to peace and human rights. Ardern also criticised China for challenging international norms and rules in the South Pacific. She also alleged that Russia was conducting a disinformation campaign targeting New Zealand due to its support for Ukraine. In response, the Chinese Embassy defended China's engagement with the South Pacific region, claiming that China was only interested in promoting regional development and did not seek to militarise the region.\\nOn 30 June 2022, Ardern spoke by telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Though Zelensky had earlier invited Ardern to visit Ukraine during her European trade mission, Ardern had declined due to scheduling issues. During the conversation, Ardern reassured Zelensky that New Zealand would continue imposing sanctions on Russia. Zelensky also thanked New Zealand for providing aid to Ukraine and called for assistance in rebuilding Ukraine.\\nIn early August 2022, Ardern led a delegation of New Zealand political leaders, officials, civil society leaders, and journalists including National Party and opposition leader Christopher Luxon, Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni and Pacific Peoples Minister William Sio on a state visit to Samoa to marked the 60th anniversary of Samoa's independence. This visit preceded an earlier visit to New Zealand in June 2022 by Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa. On 2 August, Ardern met with Fiame to discuss issues of concern to bilateral relations including climate change, economic resilience, COVID-19, health and Samoan seasonal workers in New Zealand. Ardern also confirmed that New Zealand would commit NZ$15 million in aid to support Samoa's climate change mitigation efforts and NZ$12m to rebuild Apia's historical Savalalo Market.\\nIn September 2022, Ardern along with her fiancé Clarke Gayford and their daughter Neve attended Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. During the funeral, she wore a traditional Māori cloak designed by Māori fashion designer Kiri Nathan.\\nIn late October 2022, Ardern and Gayford visited New Zealand's Antarctica base Scott Base to mark the research base's 65th anniversary. The Government had already committed NZ$344 million to the redevelopment of Scott base. After Ardern's C-130 Hercules aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force broke down, she and her entourage returned to Christchurch on an Italian C-130 Hercules aircraft.\\nIn mid-November 2022, Ardern attended the East Asia Summit in Cambodia where she condemned the Myanmar military regime's execution of political prisoners and called for consensus in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the East Asia Summit, she met with US President Biden to discuss New Zealand milk company A2 Milk's efforts to supply infant formula to help address the infant formula milk shortage in the United States.\\n\\nOn 30 November, Ardern hosted Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, which marked the first visit by a Finnish head of government to New Zealand. During her visit, the two leaders discussed bilateral trade relations, the global economic situation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and human rights in Iran. During the ensuing press conference, Ardern rebuffed a suggestion by a journalist that the two heads of government had met because they were of a similar age and gender.\\n\\nResignation\\nOn 19 January 2023, at the Labour Party's summer caucus retreat, Ardern announced she would resign as Labour leader and prime minister by 7 February and leave Parliament by the 2023 general election. She cited a desire to spend more time with her partner and daughter and an inability to commit to another four years. Ardern had indicated in November 2022 that she would seek a third term as prime minister.\\nSpeaking to the press during the caucus retreat as she announced her resignation plan, Ardern said, \\\"I know what this job takes and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple. We need a fresh set of shoulders for that challenge.\\\"\\nArdern's announcement prompted reactions from across the New Zealand political establishment. The opposition National and ACT parties' leaders Christopher Luxon and David Seymour thanked Ardern for her service while expressing disagreement with her government's policies. Green Party co-leader James Shaw credited Ardern with fostering a constructive working relationship between their parties while fellow co-leader Marama Davidson praised Ardern for her compassion and determination to promote a \\\"fairer and safer\\\" Aotearoa. Similar sentiments were echoed by the Māori Party's co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, who praised her leadership qualities and contributions to New Zealand society. New Zealand First leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters attributed Ardern's resignation to her government's failure to deliver on promises and targets during the 2020–2023 parliamentary term.\\nProminent New Zealanders, including actor Sam Neill, comedian and writer Michèle A'Court, and Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, expressed gratitude for Ardern's service. Overseas, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and several state leaders paid tribute to Ardern.\\nIn several opinion polls, Ardern's domestic popularity had reached all-time lows as of 19 January 2023, although she denied this would affect the Labour Party's chances of winning the next election.\\nArdern's final event as prime minister was a birthday celebration for Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana, a Māori prophet. At the event, Ardern called her work as the Prime Minister the \\\"greatest privilege\\\" and stated that she loved the country and its people. On 25 January 2023, she was succeeded as prime minister and leader of the New Zealand Labour Party by Chris Hipkins, who had been elected unopposed during the Labour Party leadership election.\\n\\nPost-prime ministerial career\\nOn 4 April 2023 Ardern was announced as a trustee of the Earthshot Prize. Ardern was selected for the post by Prince William, who stated that Ardern had a life-long commitment to supporting sustainable and environmental solutions. According to the Prince, Ardern was one of the first people to encourage him to establish the prize.\\nThat same day, Prime Minister Hipkins appointed Ardern as Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call, which she had established following the Christchurch mosque shootings to combat online extremist content. During her valedictory speech, Ardern called on political leaders and parties in New Zealand to take the politics out of climate change while highlighting her role in getting cross-party support for the passage of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act.\\nArdern accepted dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School for a semester beginning in fall 2023, to serve as the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and as a Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership, where she intends to share and learn leadership and governance skills. She will also work with Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society as its first Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow during that period where she will focus on the study of online extremism.\\nIn mid June 2024, the Center for American Progress Active Fund announced that Ardern would be leading the Field Fellowship programme for training new \\\"emerging leaders.\\\" \\nOn 21 August 2024, Ardern endorsed US Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign. Ardern also spoke at the Global Progress Action Luncheon during the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where she likened Harris' campaign to Labour's campaign during the 2017 New Zealand general election. She also talked about women in politics and positive campaigning.\\n\\nPolitical views\\nArdern has described herself as a social democrat, a progressive, a republican, and a feminist, citing Helen Clark as a political hero. She has described the extent of child poverty and homelessness in New Zealand as a \\\"blatant failure\\\" of capitalism. Asked by reporters to comment on the 2021 Budget, Ardern stated to \\\"have always described myself as a Democratic Socialist\\\", but she does not consider the term to be useful in New Zealand, as it is not commonly used in the political sphere. The leftist magazine Jacobin asserts that, despite identifying as socialist, her government was effectively neoliberal. Referring to New Zealand's distinctive nuclear-free policy, she described taking action on climate change as \\\"my generation's nuclear-free moment\\\".\\nArdern has spoken in support of same-sex marriage, and she voted for the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013 which legalised it. In 2018, she became the first New Zealand prime minister to march in a pride parade. Ardern supported the removal of abortion from the Crimes Act 1961. In March 2020, she voted for the Abortion Legislation Act that amends the law to decriminalise abortion.\\nArdern voted in favour of legalising cannabis in the 2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, though she refused to reveal her position on legalisation until after the referendum had concluded.\\nWith regard to the future of the Māori electorates—a contentious topic in New Zealand politics—Ardern believes the retention or abolition of the electorates (seats) should be decided by Māori, stating, \\\"[Māori] have not raised the need for those seats to go, so why would we ask the question?\\\" She supports compulsory study of the Māori language in schools.\\nIn September 2017, Ardern said she wanted New Zealand to debate removing the monarch of New Zealand as head of state. During her announcement on 24 May 2021 of the appointment of Dame Cindy Kiro as the governor-general, Ardern said she believed that New Zealand would become a republic within her lifetime. She has, however, met regularly with members of the Royal Family over the years and said that, \\\"My particular views do not change the respect that I have for Her Majesty and for her family and for the work that they've done for New Zealand. I think you can hold both views, and I do.\\\" Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Ardern reaffirmed her support for republicanism but stated that official moves towards New Zealand becoming a republic was not \\\"on the agenda anytime soon.\\\"\\nArdern advocates a lower rate of immigration, suggesting a drop of around 20,000–30,000. Calling it an \\\"infrastructure issue\\\", she argues that \\\"there hasn't been enough planning about population growth, we haven't necessarily targeted our skill shortages properly\\\"; however, she wants to increase the intake of refugees.\\nIn foreign affairs, Ardern has voiced support for a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. She condemned the Israeli killing of Palestinians during protests at the Gaza border.\\nFollowing the Supreme Court's landmark Make It 16 Incorporated v Attorney-General ruling in November 2022, Ardern has voiced support for lowering the voting age to 16 years. She announced that the Government would introduce legislation lowering the voting age to 16 years; with such legislation requiring a 75 per cent majority.\\n\\nPublic image\\nArdern was frequently described, often critically, as a \\\"celebrity politician\\\". After becoming the Labour Party leader, Ardern received positive coverage from many sections of the media, including international outlets such as CNN, with commentators referring to a \\\"Jacinda effect\\\" and \\\"Jacindamania\\\".\\nJacindamania was cited as a factor behind New Zealand gaining global attention and media influence in some reports, including the Soft Power 30 index. In a 2018 overseas trip, Ardern attracted much attention from international media, particularly after delivering a speech at the United Nations in New York. She contrasted with contemporary world leaders, being cast as an \\\"antidote to Trumpism\\\". Writing for Stuff, Tracy Watkins said Ardern made a \\\"cut-through on the world stage\\\" and her reception was as a \\\"torch carrier for progressive politics as a young woman who breaks the mold in a world where the political strongman is on the rise. She is a foil to the muscular diplomacy of the likes of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.\\\"\\nA year after Ardern formed her government, The Guardian's Eleanor Ainge Roy reported that Jacindamania was waning in the population, with not enough of the promised change visible. When Toby Manhire, the editor of The Spinoff, reviewed the decade in December 2019, he praised Ardern for her leadership following the Christchurch mosque shootings and the Whakaari / White Island eruption, saying that \\\"Ardern ... revealed an empathy, steel and clarity that in the most appalling circumstances brought New Zealanders together and inspired people the world over. It was a strength of character that showed itself again this week following the tragic eruption at Whakaari.\\\"\\nTowards the end of her tenure Ardern faced decreased levels of popularity domestically and increased levels of criticism from across the political spectrum. Part of the reason was the country's economic downturn in the early 2020s. Ardern, along with several other politicians, experienced abuse from anti-vaxxers, anti-government protestors, and right-wing populist protestors. Conspiracy theorist Richard Sivell contributed to the violent rhetoric in 2021-22 and was convicted of threatening to kill Ardern.\\n\\nHonours\\nArdern was one of fifteen women selected to appear on the cover of the September 2019 issue of British Vogue, by guest editor Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Forbes magazine has consistently ranked her among the 100 most powerful women in the world, placing her 34th in 2021. She was included in the 2019 Time 100 list and shortlisted for Time's 2019 Person of the Year. The magazine later incorrectly speculated that she might win the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize among a listed six candidates, for her handling of the Christchurch mosque shootings. In 2020, she was listed by Prospect as the second-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era. On 19 November 2020, Ardern was awarded Harvard University's 2020 Gleitsman International Activist Award; she contributed the US$150,000 (NZ$216,000) prize money to New Zealanders studying at the university.\\n\\nIn 2021, New Zealand zoologist Steven A. Trewick named the flightless wētā species Hemiandrus jacinda in honour of Ardern. A spokesperson for Ardern said that a beetle (Mecodema jacinda), a lichen (Ocellularia jacinda-arderniae), and an ant (Crematogaster jacindae, found in Saudi Arabia) had also been named after her.\\nIn mid-May 2021, Fortune magazine gave Ardern the top spot on their list of world's 50 greatest leaders, citing her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as her handling of the Christchurch mosque shootings and the Whakaari / White Island eruption.\\nOn 26 May 2022, Ardern was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Harvard University for contributions that \\\"shape the world\\\".\\nIn the 2023 King's Birthday and Coronation Honours, Ardern was appointed a Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (GNZM), for services to the State.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nReligious views\\nRaised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand, Ardern left the church in 2005 at age 25 because, she said, it conflicted with her personal views, in particular her support for gay rights. In January 2017, Ardern identified as agnostic, saying \\\"I can't see myself being a member of an organised religion again\\\". As prime minister in 2019, she met the president of the LDS Church, Russell M. Nelson.\\n\\nFamily\\nArdern is a second cousin of Hamish McDouall, former mayor of Whanganui. She is also a distant cousin of former National MP for Taranaki-King Country Shane Ardern. Shane Ardern left Parliament in 2014, three years before Jacinda Ardern became prime minister.\\nArdern's husband is television presenter Clarke Gayford. The couple first met in 2012 when they were introduced by mutual friend Colin Mathura-Jeffree, a New Zealand television host and model, but they did not spend time together until Gayford contacted Ardern regarding a controversial Government Communications Security Bureau bill. Ardern and Gayford were living together when she became prime minister, and on 3 May 2019, it was reported that they were engaged to be married. The wedding was scheduled for January 2022 but was postponed due to an outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant. Ardern and Gayford married eventually on 13 January 2024, at Craggy Range Winery near Havelock North in Hawke's Bay.\\nOn 19 January 2018, Ardern announced that she was expecting her first child in June, making her New Zealand's first prime minister to be pregnant in office. Ardern was admitted to Auckland City Hospital on 21 June 2018, and gave birth to a girl the same day, becoming only the second elected head of government to give birth while in office (after Benazir Bhutto in 1990). Her daughter's given names are Neve Te Aroha. Neve is an anglicised form of the Irish name Niamh, meaning 'bright'; Aroha is Māori for 'love', and Te Aroha is a rural town west of the Kaimai Range, near Ardern's former home town of Morrinsville.\\nAfter growing rumours that Gayford was under police investigation for criminal offences, in 2018 both Ardern and the Police Commissioner Mike Bush took the unusual step of confirming that Gayford was not, and had not been, under any such investigations.\\n\\nSee also\\nList of New Zealand governments\\nPolitics of New Zealand\\nPaddles (cat), Ardern's former pet cat\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nJacinda Ardern's Archived 2 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine profile on the New Zealand Parliament website\\nJacinda Ardern at the New Zealand Labour Party\\nAppearances on C-SPAN\",\n \"title\": \"Jacinda_Ardern\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"As of May 2024, which female New Zealand Prime Minister was the oldest when they took office?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Helen Clark."},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":681,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"681"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced \"a new stage in the process of European integration\" chiefly in provisions for a shared European citizenship, for the eventual introduction of a single currency, and (with less precision) for common foreign and security policies, and a number of changes to the European institutions and their decision taking procedures, not least a strengthening of the powers of the European Parliament and more majority voting on the Council of Ministers. Although these were seen by many to presage a \"federal Europe\", key areas remained inter-governmental with national governments collectively taking key decisions. This constitutional debate continued through the negotiation of subsequent treaties (see below), culminating in the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon. \nIn the wake of the Eurozone debt crisis unfolding from 2009, the most enduring reference to the Maastricht Treaty has been to the rules of compliance – the \"Maastricht criteria\" – for the currency union.\n\nAgainst the background of the end of the Cold War and the re-unification of Germany, and in anticipation of accelerated globalisation, the treaty negotiated tensions between member states seeking deeper integration and those wishing to retain greater national control. The resulting compromise faced what was to be the first in a series of EU treaty ratification crises.\n\nOverview\nHaving \"resolved to continue the process of creating an ever closer union among the people of Europe\", the Treaty proposes \"further steps to be taken in order to advance European integration\" under seven titles.\nTitle I, Common Provisions, establishes the European Union (EU) on the foundation of the three, already partially merged, European Communities: the European Economic Community (EEC), the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). It confirms among its objectives are \"the introduction of a citizenship of the Union\" common to the nationals of the Member States; \"economic and monetary union, ultimately including a single currency\"; and \"a common foreign and security policy including the eventual framing of a common defence\".\nTitle II, Provisions Amending the Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community, reformulates the EEC as the central \"pillar\" of the Union. It amends the EEC's Treaty of Rome constitution, renaming it the European Community to reflect the Union's broader ambition. Amendments incorporate (as detailed in attached protocols) a staged progression toward monetary union including the price-stability-first criteria for adoption of the single currency and for the operations of the prospective European Central Bank (ECB).\nOther amendments create the office of European Ombudsman, expand the Structural Fund assistance to the poorer EU regions; and broaden Community competencies in education, culture, public health, consumer protection, trans-European networks, industry and the environment.\nIn these and other areas which do not fall within Community's \"exclusive competence\", in accordance with \"the principle of subsidiarity\" action is to be taken only if, \"by reason of the scale or effects\", the objectives cannot be more \"efficiently\" achieved by the Member States themselves.\nIn several of these areas, the Treaty seeks to enhance the \"democratic functioning\" of the institutions by conceding the directly elected European Parliament rights not only of consultation but also of co-decision on some categories of European legislation. It also grants the Parliament the power to confirm (and therefore to veto) the Council's nominations for the European Commission, the Community's executive.\nTitles III and IV amend the treaties establishing the ECSC and Euratom to complete their absorption into the structure of European Community.\nTitle V and VI extend existing intergovernmental consultations on foreign-policy, security and defence matters, and on \"cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs\". In both cases, Member States are to \"inform and consult one another within the Council [of Ministers]\", but otherwise cooperate independently of Community institutions.\nTitle VII, Final Provisions, covers a number of anomalous issues. Provided that all Member States ratify, it rules that the Treaty should come into force on 1 January 1993.\nArticles within the Treaty were referred to by using the letters A to S.\nAnnexed to the Treaty is a Protocol, and an Agreement, on Social Policy. With a view to ensuring that the dynamic of the European single market respect certain minimum social and employment protections, these allow the Council of Ministers to approve relevant proposals from the European Commission on the basis of a qualified majority rather than unanimous consent.\nThe United Kingdom was not a party of the Agreement on Social Policy and secured an \"opt out\" from the protocol. It was to do the same with respect to the obligation to enter the final, single-currency, stage of monetary union (the UK would not have to give up the Pound sterling).\n\nProcedural history\nSignatories\nThe signatory nations were represented by:\n\nMark Eyskens and Philippe Maystadt (Belgium)\nUffe Ellemann-Jensen and Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Denmark)\nRoland Dumas and Pierre Bérégovoy (France)\nAntonis Samaras and Efthymios Christodoulou (Greece)\nGerry Collins and Bertie Ahern (Ireland)\nGianni De Michelis and Guido Carli (Italy)\nJacques Poos and Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg)\nHans van den Broek and Wim Kok (Netherlands)\nJoão de Deus Pinheiro and Jorge Braga de Macedo (Portugal)\nFrancisco Fernández Ordóñez and Carlos Solchaga (Spain)\nDouglas Hurd and Francis Maude (United Kingdom)\nHans-Dietrich Genscher and Theo Waigel (Germany)\nIn consequence of the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Communities during the previous six months of negotiation, the Treaty was signed in the Netherlands, in the city of Maastricht. The twelve members of the European Communities signing the Treaty on 7 February 1992 were Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.\n\nRatification\nThe Treaty noted that it should be \"ratified by the High Contracting Parties in accordance with their respective constitutional requirement\". In the cases of Denmark, France and Ireland this required referendums.\nIn the first Danish referendum, on 2 June 1992, the treaty was rejected by a margin of 50.7% to 49.3%. Concessions secured by the end of year in Edinburgh including, critically, the same exemption secured by Britain from the single currency (Denmark would not have to give up the krone), allowed for a second referendum. On 18 May 1993, the Maastricht Treaty was endorsed by a vote of 56.7%.\nIn Ireland, the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution, allowing the state to ratify the Treaty, was approved in a referendum held on 18 June 1992 with the support of 69.1% of votes cast.\nIn September 1992, a referendum in France narrowly supported the ratification of the treaty, with 50.8% in favour. This narrow vote for ratification in France, known at the time as the 'petit oui', led Jacques Delors to comment that \"Europe began as an elitist project in which it was believed that all that was required was to convince the decision-makers. That phase of benign despotism is over.\"\nIn the United Kingdom parliament ratification did not command a clear majority. In protest against the social-policy opt out, Labour opposed, while \"anti-federalists\" split the governing Conservatives. Prime Minister John Major was able to face down his \"Maastricht Rebels\" only by tying ratification to the survival of the government in a vote of confidence. (Researchers and observers suggest that, in the United Kingdom, the Maastricht Treaty represented \"a critical turning point\" in terms of divisions within the Conservative Party over European integration and the ruling party' ultimate fragmentation in 2016 into Leave and Remain factions).\nIn Germany, the Maastricht Treaty passed the Bundestag on December 2, 1992, with a majority of 543 out of 562, and the Bundesrat with unanimity. The Bundestag was required to amend the Grundgesetz (German Basic Law) to “legalize Germany’s membership in the European Union (Article 23) as well as to install a European Monetary Union (Article 88).” The ratification was delayed by challenges at the German Federal Constitutional Court, the complainants claiming the amendments transferring sovereign competencies to the European Union violated democratic principles (Article 20 and 38(1)) of the Grundgesetz that were unamendable (Article 79(3)); hence the Maastricht Treaty should be inadmissible. The court delivered its judgment on October 12, 1993 ruling the Maastricht Treaty compatible with the Grundgesetz, but provided that the European Union could not endow itself with more powers without the Bundestag’s approval. The court also confirmed its Solange II decision accepting the supremacy of European Court of Justice decisions while retaining the power to review secondary community law as to guarantee basic rights protection in close cooperation with the European Court of Justice. Germany was the last member state to ratify the treaty and it entered into force on November 1, 1993.\n\nCitizenship of the European Union\nFrom the establishment of the European Economic Community in 1957, integrationists argued the free movement of workers was the logical corollary of the free movement of capital, goods and services and integral to the establishment of a common (and later single) European market. In time, the tension between the transferred worker as \"a mobile unit of production\" contributing to the success of the single market, and the reality of the Community migrants as individuals, seeking to exercise \"a personal right\" to live and work in another state for their own, and their families', welfare, asserted itself. The Treaty built on the growing suggestion that there was a Community-wide basis for citizenship rights.\nThe Treaty rules that \"every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union\". This common and parallel citizenship accords the Member State migrants not only the civil right to take up residence and employment, but also, and for the first time, political rights. In a new EU country of residence Member-State nationals have the right to vote, and to stand, in both local and European elections. Unresolved in the Treaty is the question of their access to social rights. Political debate continued as to who should have access to public services and welfare systems funded by taxation.\n\nEconomic and monetary union\nFranco-German agreement\nFrench President François Mitterrand was forced to abandon the centrepiece of his Socialist programme in 1983, a job creating reflation, due to speculation against the franc. Since then, Mitterrand had been committed to drawing Germany into a currency partnership. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in late 1989, Germany sought re-unification. France, the UK, and the rest of Europe expressed their concerns over re-unification. When German Chancellor Helmut Kohl asked for re-unification in 1990, Mitterrand would only accept in the event Germany would abandon the Deutsche Mark and adopt a common currency. Without consulting Karl Otto Pöhl, President of the Bundesbank, Kohl accepted the deal. Despite this win for France, it was widely perceived that the cost of German cooperation was German dictation of the rules for a single currency. The Bundesbank had signalled that Germany's economic success would come before being \"a good european\".\n\nThe ERM crises\nIn the UK, the Maastricht rebellion drew on the experience of Black Wednesday. On 16 September 1992 the British government had been forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), after a failed and costly attempt to keep the pound above its mandated exchange rate limit. Sterling's exit from the ERM was the defining failure of John Major's government; a huge boost to Euro-scepticism; and made currency traders like George Soros rich. The ERM was the centrepiece of the European Monetary System (EMS), set up on voluntary basis in 1978 to reduce the \"barrier\" that exchange-rate volatility presented for intra-Community commerce (and for the management of payments under the Common Agricultural Policy).\nBritain had signed up to the ERM in 1990 as a token of the government's commitment to control inflation (then running at three times the rate of Germany). From the beginning of 1990, high German interest rates, set by the Bundesbank to counteract inflationary impact of the expenditure on German reunification, caused significant stress across the whole of the ERM. By the time of their own ratifications debates, France and Denmark also found themselves under pressure in foreign exchange markets, their currencies trading close to the bottom of their ERM bands.\n\nThe Maastricht criteria\nHaving \"resolved to achieve the strengthening and the convergence and to establish an economic and monetary union including,... a single and stable currency\", the Treaty ruled that \"Member States shall regard their economic policies as a matter of common concern\", and that the obligations assumed should be a matter for \"mutual surveillance.\" Commonly known as the Maastricht criteria, these obligations represented the performance thresholds for member states to progress toward the third stage of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the adoption the common currency (designated at the 1995 Madrid European as the Euro).\nThe four \"convergence criteria\", as detailed in attached protocols, impose control over inflation, public debt and the public deficit, exchange rate stability and domestic interest rates. With limited leeway granted in exceptional circumstances, the obligations are to maintain:\n1. Inflation at a rate no more than 1.5 percentage points higher than the average of the three best performing (lowest inflation) Member States;\n2. a \"budgetary position\" that avoids \"excessive\" government deficits defined in ratios to gross domestic product (GDP) of greater than 3% for annual deficits and 60% for gross government debt;\n3. the exchange rate of the national currency within \"the normal fluctuation margins by the exchange-rate mechanism of the European Monetary System without\nsevere tensions for at least the last two years\"; and\n4. nominal long-term interest rates no more than 2 percentage points higher than in the three Member States with the lowest inflation.\n\nThe European Central Bank mandate\nThese criteria in turn dictated the mandate of the European System of Central Banks comprising the national central banks, but to include the prospective currency-issuing European Central Bank. As envisaged by the Treaty, the ECB replaced its shadow European Monetary Institute on 1 June 1998, and began exercising its full powers with the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999.\nThe Treaty dedicates the EU central banking system to price stability, and gives it \"a degree of independence from elected officials\" greater even \"than that of its putative model, the German Bundesbank\". Whereas the Bundesbank, under article 12 of its constitution, is \"bound to support the general economic policy of the [German] Federal Government\", the obligation of the ECB to \"support the general economic policies in the Community\" is to be \"without prejudice\" to price stability, the Bank's \"primary objective\". It is further conditioned by the express understanding that \"neither the ECB, nor a national central bank, nor any member of their decision-making bodies, shall seek or take instructions from Community institutions or bodies from any Government of a Member State or from any other body.\"\nSeeming to further preclude any possibility of the single-currency banking system being used to regulate European financial markets in support of potentially inflationary policies, the Treaty expressly prohibits the ECB or any Member State central extending \"overdraft facilities or any other type of credit facility\" to \"Community institutions or bodies, central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of Member States\", or the purchase from them debt instruments.\n\nThe Maastricht economic-policy model\nCritics felt that, in limiting the role of the future ECB and euro in national, or Union-coordinated, reflationary policies, Maastricht affirmed what by the late 1980s was the general economic-policy orthodoxy within the Community. This has been described as a \"reversed Keynesianism\": macro-economic policy not to secure a full-employment level of demand, but, through the restrictive control of monetary growth and public expenditure, to maintain price and financial market stability; micro economic policy, not to engineer income and price controls in support of fiscal expansion, but to encourage job creation by reducing barriers to lower labour costs. The commitment to monetary union and the convergence criteria denied member states the resort to currency deflation to ease balance-of-payments constraints on domestic spending, and left labour market \"flexibility\" as the main mean of coping with asymmetric economic shocks.\nThese constraints were to become the focus of political scrutiny and public protest in the new-century European debt crisis. Beginning in 2009 with Greece, the governments of several Euro-zone countries (Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Cyprus) declared themselves unable to repay or refinance their government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks without assistance from third parties. The \"austerity\" they had subsequently to impose as a condition of assistance from Germany and other of their trade-surplus EU partners, raised calls for new arrangements to better manage payment imbalances between member states, and ease the burden of adjustment upon wage-, and benefit-, dependent households. Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis credited the Maastricht criteria with framing of a union of deflation and unemployment.\nTaking issue in defence of the Maastricht criteria, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble argued that \"the old way to stimulate growth will not work.\" There is a real \"moral hazard\" in allowing Member States to accumulate higher debts within the Eurozone – higher debts which, ultimately, have no relationship to higher growth. The Maastricht criteria, he insisted, were correct in placing the onus for growth on \"competitiveness, structural reforms, investment, and sustainable financing\".\n\nForeign and security policy, justice and home affairs\nSet alongside the European Community, the cooperation proposed in the Maastricht Treaty on foreign and security policy, and on justice and home affairs, were characterised in official commentary as the second and third \"pillars\" of the Union. The Treaty, however, proposed no significant departures in these areas. Coordination in foreign and security policy had taken place since the beginning of the 1970s under the name of European Political Cooperation (EPC), which had been first written into the treaties by the 1987 Single European Act. Cooperation on law enforcement, criminal justice, asylum, and immigration and other judicial matters was being pursued under the 1990 Schengen Agreement and Convention.\nThe new provisions called on governments to \"inform and consult one another within the Council of Ministers\", but otherwise continued cooperation on the basis of intergovernmental liaison outside of the EC and its institutions. The West European Union, an until recently moribund club within NATO, is described as \"an integral part of the development of the Union\", and asked it to help \"elaborate and implement decisions and actions of the Union which have defence implications. Yet it is clear that nothing is to be construed as systematically constraining the foreign or defence policies of the individual Member States. \"Failing a Council decision\", which would require unanimity, a Member State is free to take such action as it considers \"necessary\". This, in part, was a concession to United Kingdom which continued to insist on the sufficiency of the North Atlantic alliance (supported by the non-aligned Member States, Ireland and Austria, at the 1997 Amsterdam summit, the UK prevented a merger of the WEU and the EU),\n\nSubsidiarity and co-decision\nAs an implicit presumption subsidiarity may have been considered a check upon the supranational development of the EEC. But in making it an explicit constitutional principle the Maastricht Treaty opened up \"debates about whether this strengthened the states, regions or local government vis-à-vis the EU or vice versa\". Subsidiarity can be read as a federalising principle. For every endeavour it poses the question of whether national or Community policy is the most effective means, and elevates simple utility above any deference to national or local feeling, albeit with a presumption that action will be taken at European level only where national efforts cannot achieve the objective in question.\nSceptics note that the Treaty offers no legally actionable definition of subsidiarity. Rather there are \"a series of tentative indications for Community action in a document full of imprecise concepts: 'sufficiently', 'better achieved', 'what is necessary', 'to achieve the objectives', subjective notions which leave the way wide open for interpretation or practical developments.\" Jacques Santer, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, conceded that consensus around the principle of subsidiarity had been possible only because \"it conceals different interpretations\".\nThe 1992 Treaty may have introduced a more consequential constitutional principle in its promotion \"co-decision\". It introduced procedures that made the European Parliament \"co-legislator with the Council of Ministers\" and have since been developed and extended to nearly all areas where the Council decides on legislation by qualified majority voting. The \"foundations of co-decision in the Maastricht Treaty\" have led to ways to reconcile differences between the Parliament and the Council, formally through a \"conciliation procedure\" and informally through \"trialogues\" involving negotiations between the European Parliament, Council and Commission, which have become standard in most legislative procedures.\n\nAmending Treaties\nIn establishing the European Union the Maastricht Treaty amended the treaties that had established the European Communities in the 1950s. Following the EU accessions of Austria, Finland, and Sweden, it was in turn amended by the treaties of Amsterdam (1997), and Nice (2001). Following the accession of a further twelve states, ten from the former Eastern Bloc – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia – plus Cyprus and Malta, and an aborted Treaty on a European Constitution, the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community (TEC) were more comprehensively revisited. The 2007 Treaty of Lisbon amends both again and renames the TEC as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).\n\nTimeline\nSince the end of World War II, sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty) in an increasing number of areas, in the European integration project or the construction of Europe (French: la construction européenne). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from the European Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of the Schuman Declaration.\n\nSee also\nTreaties of the European Union\nTreaty on European Union\nTreaty on the Functioning of the European Union\n\nNotes\nFurther reading\nExternal links\n\n Works related to Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union at Wikisource\nConsolidated version of the Treaty on European Union at EUR-Lex\nTreaty on European Union, signed at Maastricht on 7 February 1992 – Original version\nMaastricht Treaty (7 February 1992) CVCE\nProposed 1962 treaty establishing a \"European Union\" CVCE\nThe Treaty on European Union – Current consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (in PDF)","title":"Maastricht_Treaty"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Netherlands, informally Holland, is a country located in Northwestern Europe with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. It shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium. The official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. Dutch, English, and Papiamento are official in the Caribbean territories.\nNetherlands literally means \"lower countries\" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with 26% situated below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders, are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. In the Republican period, which began in 1588, the Netherlands entered a unique era of political, economic, and cultural greatness, ranked among the most powerful and influential in Europe and the world; this period is known as the Dutch Golden Age. During this time, its trading companies, the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, established colonies and trading posts all over the world.\nWith a population of over 17.9 million people, all living within a total area of 41,850 km2 (16,160 sq mi)—of which the land area is 33,500 km2 (12,900 sq mi)—the Netherlands is the 33rd most densely populated country, with a density of 535 people per square kilometre (1,390 people/sq mi). Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture, and inventiveness. The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and the nominal capital, though the primary national political institutions are located in the Hague.\nThe Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation (separation of citizens into groups by religion and political beliefs) and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised prostitution and euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919 and was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy has the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet, and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest in Europe. Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the fourth busiest in Europe. Being a developed country, the Netherlands is a founding member of the European Union, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD, and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are in The Hague.\n\nEtymology\nNetherlands and the Low Countries\nThe countries that comprise the region called the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) all have comparatively the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nedre, Nether, Lage(r) or Low(er) (in Germanic languages) and Bas or Inferior (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior. Thus, in the case of the Low Countries and the Netherlands, the geographical location of this lower region is more or less downstream and near the sea, compared to that of the upper region of Germania Superior. The designation 'Low' returned in the 10th-century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, which covered much of the Low Countries.\nThe Dukes of Burgundy used the term les pays de par deçà (\"the lands over here\") for the Low Countries. Under Habsburg rule, this became pays d'embas (\"lands down-here\"). This was translated as Neder-landen in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, Niderlant was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. From the mid-sixteenth century, the \"Low Countries\" and the \"Netherlands\" lost their original deictic meaning.\nIn most Romance languages, the term \"Low Countries\" is officially used as the name for the Netherlands.\n\nHolland\nThe term Holland has frequently been used informally to refer to the whole of the modern country of the Netherlands in various languages, including Dutch and English. In some languages, Holland is used as the formal name for the Netherlands. However, Holland is a region within the Netherlands that consists of the two provinces of North and South Holland. Formerly these were a single province, and earlier the County of Holland, which included parts of present-day Utrecht. The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland a pars pro toto for the entire country.\nMany Dutch people object to the country being referred to as Holland instead of the Netherlands, on much the same grounds as many Welsh or Scottish people object to the United Kingdom being referred to as England. In particular, those from regions other than Holland find it undesirable or misrepresentative to use the term Holland for the whole country, as the Holland region only comprises two of the twelve provinces, and 38% of Dutch citizens. As of 2019, the Dutch government officially has preferred the Netherlands instead of Holland when talking about the country.\nOften Holland or Hollanders is used by the Flemish to refer to the Dutch in the Netherlands, and by the Southern Dutch (Dutch living \"below the great rivers\", a natural cultural, social and religious boundary formed by the rivers Rhine and Meuse) to refer to the Northern Dutch (Dutch living North of these rivers). In the Southern province of Limburg, the term is used for the Dutch from the other 11 provinces. The use of the term in this context by the Southern Dutch is in a derogatory fashion.\n\nDutch\nDutch is used as the adjective for the Netherlands, as well as the demonym. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz, Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning \"popular\" or \"of the people\", akin to Old Dutch Dietsch or Old English þeodisc, meaning \"(of) the common (Germanic) people\". At first, the English language used Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages. Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had the most contact with.\n\nHistory\nPrehistory (before 800 BC)\nThe oldest human (Neanderthal) traces in the Netherlands, believed to be about 250,000 years old, were found near Maastricht. At the end of the Ice Age, the nomadic late Upper Palaeolithic Hamburg culture (13,000–10,000 BC) hunted reindeer in the area, using spears. The later Ahrensburg culture (11,200–9,500 BC) used bow and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC), the world's oldest canoe was found in Drenthe.\nIndigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture (c. 5600 BC), related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture, were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to adopt from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practice of animal husbandry, and between 4300 and 4000 BC agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture (4300–2800 BC) erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe. There was a quick transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture (c. 2950 BC). In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture—related to the Vlaardingen culture (c. 2600 BC)—survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture.\nThe subsequent Bell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BC) introduced metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened new international trade routes, reflected in copper artefacts. Finds of rare bronze objects suggest that Drenthe was a trading centre in the Bronze Age (2000–800 BC). The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC) and later the Elp culture (1800–800 BC), a Middle Bronze Age culture marked by earthenware pottery. The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC).\n\nCelts, Germanic tribes and Romans (800 BC–410 AD)\nFrom 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing the Hilversum culture. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in Western Europe.\nThe deteriorating climate in Scandinavia from 850 BC and 650 BC might have triggered the migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons. The Weser–Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones) extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. These tribes would eventually develop into the Salian Franks. The Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC to the Roman conquest) expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Nordwestblock culture.\n\nThe first author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the geographer Pytheas, who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, \"more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men.\" During the Gallic Wars, the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. Under Augustus, the Roman Empire would conquer the entirety of the modern day Netherlands, incorporating it into the province of Germania Antiqua in 7 BC, but would be repelled back across the Rhine after the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, with the Rhine becoming fixed as Rome's permanent northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. In the first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule, while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry. The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged in the first half of the third century. Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as foederati in Texandria.\n\nEarly Middle Ages (411–1000)\nAfter the Roman government in the area collapsed in roughly the year 406, the Franks expanded their territories into numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul. During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south (modern territory of France and Walloon part of Belgium) eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population. A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in the north (i.e. the southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish, which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch. A Dutch-French language boundary hence came into existence.\nTo the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period Saxons, the closely related Angles, Jutes, and Frisii settled the coast. Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons, but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian. Frisian was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. By the seventh century, a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Traiectum (Utrecht) as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity and established the Archdiocese of Utrecht. However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in 754.\n\nThe Frankish Carolingian empire controlled much of Western Europe. In 843, it was divided into three parts—East, Middle, and West Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject to numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprised territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. Around 850, Lothair I of Middle Francia acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia. When the kingdom of Middle Francia was partitioned in 855, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and subsequently were named Lotharingia. After he died in 869, Lotharingia was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia, the latter comprising the Low Countries that became part of East Francia in 870. Around 879, another Viking expedition led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia, raided the Frisian lands. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that laid the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles was Gerolf of Holland, who assumed lordship in Frisia, and Viking rule came to an end.\n\nHigh Middle Ages (1000–1384)\nThe Holy Roman Empire ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, Gelre, Brabant, and Utrecht were in a state of almost continual war or paradoxically formed personal unions. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch).\nAround 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders, and later Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign.\nAround 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible. The title of Count of Holland was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy to conquer Holland.\n\nBurgundian, Habsburg and Spanish Habsburg Netherlands (1384–1581)\nMost of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule the Low Countries from 1384 to 1581. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region. Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained.\nUnder Habsburg Charles V, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report:\n\nOn more than one occasion men were seen hanging their own brothers, who had been taken prisoners in the enemy's ranks... A Spaniard had ceased to be human in their eyes. On one occasion, a surgeon at Veer cut the heart from a Spanish prisoner, nailed it on a vessel's prow, and invited the townsmen to come and fasten their teeth in it, which many did with savage satisfaction.\nThe Duke of Alba attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were \"burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive\" by his \"Blood Council\" and Spanish soldiers. Bodies were displayed along roads to terrorise the population into submission. Alba boasted of having executed 18,600; this figure does not include those who perished by war and famine.\nThe first great siege was Alba's effort to capture Haarlem and thereby cut Holland in half. It dragged on from December 1572 to the next summer, when Haarlemers finally surrendered on 13 July upon the promise that the city would be spared from being sacked. It was a stipulation Don Fadrique was unable to honour, when his soldiers mutinied, angered over pay owed and the miserable conditions of the campaign. On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios seized Antwerp and subjected it to the worst pillage in the Netherlands' history. The citizens resisted but were overcome; seven thousand were killed and a thousand buildings were torched.\nFollowing the sack of Antwerp, delegates from Catholic Brabant, Protestant Holland and Zeeland agreed to join Utrecht and William the Silent in driving out Spanish troops and forming a new government for the Netherlands. Don Juan of Austria, the new Spanish governor, was forced to concede initially, but within months returned to active hostilities. The Dutch looked for help from the Protestant Elizabeth I of England, but she initially stood by her commitments to the Spanish in the Treaty of Bristol of 1574. When the next large-scale battle occurred at Gembloux in 1578, the Spanish forces won easily. In light of the defeat at Gembloux, the southern states of the Seventeen Provinces distanced themselves from the rebels in the north with the 1579 Union of Arras. Opposing them, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht in which they committed to support each other against the Spanish. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands.\n\nSpanish troops sacked Maastricht in 1579, killing over 10,000 civilians. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II. Against the rebels Philip could draw on the resources of the Spanish Empire. Elizabeth I sympathised with the Dutch struggle and sent an army of 7,600 soldiers to aid them. English forces faced the Spanish in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma in a series of largely indecisive actions that tied down significant numbers of Spanish troops and bought time for the Dutch to reorganise their defences. The war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became de facto colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.\n\nDutch Republic (1581–1795)\nFollowing the declaration of independence, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland entered into a confederation. All these duchies, lordships and counties enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy and was governed by its own administrative body known as the States-Provincial. The confederal government, known as the States General, was headquartered in The Hague and comprised representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe was part of the republic, albeit not considered a province in its own right. Moreover, during the Eighty Years' War, the Republic came to occupy a number of Generality Lands located in Flanders, Brabant and Limburg. These areas were primarily inhabited by Roman Catholics and lacked a distinct governmental structure of their own. They were utilized as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands.\n\nIn the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers. Science, military and art (especially painting) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company established colonies and trading posts all over the world. The Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname). In Asia, the Dutch established a presence in India, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), Formosa (now Taiwan), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima. During the period of Proto-industrialisation, the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire.\nMany economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country. In early modern Europe, it had the wealthiest trading city in Amsterdam, and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as phenomena such as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636–1637, and the world's first bear raider, Isaac le Maire. In 1672 – known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) – the Dutch Republic was attacked by France, England and three German Bishoprics simultaneously, in what would become known as the Franco-Dutch War. At sea, it could successfully prevent the English and French navies from blockading the western shores. On land, however, it was almost taken over by the advancing French and German armies from the east. It managed to turn the tide by inundating parts of Holland.\nFrom 1672 to 1712, the Republic, led by William III of Orange and Anthonie Heinsius would regularly clash with France in what some historians have come to call the Forty Years' War. In the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession, the Republic was at the centre of anti-French coalitions. The Dutch ultimately successfully defended the Spanish Netherlands, established a barrier there, and their troops proved central to the alliance which halted French territorial expansion in Europe until a new cycle began in 1792 with the French Revolutionary Wars. However, the wars left them effectively bankrupt, and inflicted permanent damage on the Dutch merchant navy; while they remained the dominant economic power in the Far East, Britain took over as the pre-eminent global commercial and maritime power. Between 1590 and 1713, the United Provinces consistently possessed one of Europe's largest and most capable armies. However, following the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession, other major powers such as Prussia, Austria, Britain, and Russia significantly expanded their military forces. The Republic struggled to match these developments, and gradually assumed the status of a mid-tier power. However, historians have sometimes overstated the extent of this decline, especially when considering the period up to the 1750s.\n\nBatavian Republic and Kingdom (1795–1890)\nIn the 18th century the Dutch Republic had seen a state of a general decline, with economic competition from England and long-standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the republican Staatsgezinden and the supporters of the stadtholder the Prinsgezinden as main political factions. With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. From 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until November 1813, when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig.\n\nWilliam Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled. The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by the Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess.\nThe Belgian Revolution and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient. The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Enslaved people in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873.\n\nWorld wars and beyond (1890–present)\nThe Netherlands remained neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz forced most of the Dutch army to surrender. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were transported to Nazi extermination camps; only a few survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labour in Germany, civilians who resisted were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS. Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB, the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies. In 1944–45, the First Canadian Army liberated much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day, the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia.\n\nDecolonisation\nIn 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure as a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation. The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao and Dependencies and the European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945. Suriname followed in 1975. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of Benelux and NATO. In the 1950s, the Netherlands became one of the six founding countries of the European Communities, following the 1952 establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community, and subsequent 1958 creations of the European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy Community. In 1993, the former two were incorporated into the European Union.\nGovernment-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de-pillarisation. Students and other youth rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women's rights, sexuality, disarmament and environmental issues. In 2002 the euro was introduced as fiat money, and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Referendums were held on each island. As a result, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were incorporated as special municipalities upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands.\n\nGeography\nThe European Netherlands has a total area of 41,543 km2 (16,040 sq mi), including water bodies, and a land area of 33,481 km2 (12,927 sq mi). The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of 328 km2 (127 sq mi) It lies between latitudes 50° and 54° N, and longitudes 3° and 8° E.\nThe Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population below sea level. The European part of the country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 322 m (1,056 ft) at the Vaalserberg, and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation. Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations.\nMuch of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine (Rijn), the Meuse (Maas) and the Scheldt (Schelde), as well as their tributaries. The south-western part of the Netherlands is a river delta of these rivers, the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta.\nThe European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. These rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their \"Great Rivers\" (de Grote Rivieren). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Lake IJssel, the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language).\n\nGeology\nThe Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and aeolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods.\nAlmost the entire west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary. In the east of the Netherlands, remains are found of the last ice age, which ended approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed moraine forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine remained in the form of a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built on these hills.\n\nFloods\nOver the centuries, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of natural disasters and human intervention.\nOn 14 December 1287, St. Lucia's flood affected the Netherlands and Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the 72 km2 (28 sq mi) Biesbosch tidal floodplains. The huge North Sea flood of February 1953 caused the collapse of several dikes in the southwest Netherlands; more than 1,800 people drowned. The Dutch government subsequently instituted a large-scale programme, the \"Delta Works\", to protect the country against future flooding, which was completed over a period of more than 40 years.\n\nThe impact of disasters was, to an extent, increased through human activity. Relatively high-lying swampland was drained to be used as farmland. The drainage caused the fertile peat to contract and ground levels to drop; groundwater levels were lowered to compensate, causing the underlying peat to contract further. Additionally, until the 19th century peat was mined, dried, and used for fuel, further exacerbating the problem. Even in flooded areas, peat extraction continued through turf dredging.\nTo guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium AD, villages and farmhouses were built on hills called terps. Later, these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called \"waterschappen\" (\"water boards\") or \"hoogheemraadschappen\" (\"high home councils\") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods; these agencies continue to exist. As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. By the 13th century windmills had come into use to pump water. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders.\nIn 1932 the Afsluitdijk (\"Closure Dike\") was completed, blocking the former Zuiderzee (Southern Sea) from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling 2,500 square kilometres (965 sq mi) were reclaimed from the sea.\nThe Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climate change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow.\n\nDelta Works\nAfter the 1953 disaster, the Delta Works was constructed, which is a comprehensive set of civil works throughout the Dutch coast. The project started in 1958 and was largely completed in 1997 with the completion of the Maeslantkering. Since then, new projects have been periodically started to renovate and renew the Delta Works. The main goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in South Holland and Zeeland. This was achieved by raising 3,000 km (1,900 mi) of outer sea-dikes and 10,000 km (6,200 mi) of the inner, canal, and river dikes, and by closing off the sea estuaries of Zeeland. New risk assessments occasionally show problems requiring additional Delta project dike reinforcements. The Delta project is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.\nIt is anticipated that global warming will result in a rise in sea level. The Netherlands is actively preparing for a sea-level rise. A politically neutral Delta Commission has formulated an action plan to cope with a sea-level rise of 1.10 m (4 ft) and a simultaneous land height decline of 10 cm (4 in). The plan encompasses the reinforcement of existing coastal defences like dikes and dunes with 1.30 m (4.3 ft) of additional flood protection. Climate change will not only threaten the Netherlands from the coast, but could also alter rainfall patterns and river run-off. To protect the country from river flooding, another programme is already being executed. The Room for the River plan grants more flow space to rivers, protects the major populated areas and allows for periodic flooding of indefensible lands. The few residents who lived in these so-called \"overflow areas\" have been moved to higher ground, with some of that ground having been raised above anticipated flood levels.\n\nClimate change\nThe Netherlands is already affected by climate change. The average temperature in the Netherlands rose by more than 2 °C from 1901 to 2020. Climate change has resulted in increased frequency of droughts and heatwaves. Because significant portions of the Netherlands have been reclaimed from the sea or otherwise are very near sea level, the Netherlands is very vulnerable to sea level rise.\nThe Netherlands has the fourth largest greenhouse gas emissions per capita of the European Union, in part due to the large number of cows. The Dutch government has set goals to lower emissions in the next few decades. The Dutch response to climate change is driven by a number of unique factors, including larger green recovery plans by the European Union in the face of the COVID-19 and a climate change litigation case, State of the Netherlands v. Urgenda Foundation, which created mandatory climate change mitigation through emissions reductions 25% below 1990 levels. In 2021 CO2 emissions were down 14% compared to 1990 levels. The goal of the Dutch government is to reduce emissions in 2030 by 49%.\n\nNature\nThe Netherlands has 21 national parks and hundreds of other nature reserves. Most of these are owned by Staatsbosbeheer, the national department for forestry and nature conservation and Natuurmonumenten, a private organisation that buys, protects and manages nature reserves. The Wadden Sea in the north, with its tidal flats and wetlands, is rich in biological diversity, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Nature Site. The Eastern Scheldt, formerly the northeast estuary of the river Scheldt was designated a national park in 2002, making it the largest national park in the Netherlands at an area of 370 km2 (140 sq mi).\nPhytogeographically, the European Netherlands is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the European territory of the Netherlands belongs to the ecoregion of Atlantic mixed forests. In 1871, the last old original natural woods were cut down. These woods were planted on anthropogenic heaths and sand-drifts (overgrazed heaths) (Veluwe). The Netherlands had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 0.6/10, ranking it 169th globally out of 172 countries.\nNitrogen pollution is a problem. The number of flying insects in the Netherlands has dropped by 75% since the 1990s.\n\nCaribbean islands\nIn the Lesser Antilles islands of the Caribbean, the territories of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have a constituent country status within the wider Kingdom of the Netherlands. Another three territories which make up the Caribbean Netherlands are designated as special municipalities. The Caribbean Netherlands have maritime borders with Anguilla, Curaçao, France (Saint Barthélemy), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela. The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands enjoy a tropical climate with warm weather all year round.\n\nWithin this island group:\n\nBonaire is part of the ABC islands within the Leeward Antilles island chain off the Venezuelan coast. The Leeward Antilles have a mixed volcanic and coral origin.\nSaba and Sint Eustatius are part of the SSS islands within the Leeward Islands. They are located east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The locals (French, Spanish, Dutch and the locally spoken English) consider them part of the Windward Islands, although in the international English language, the Windward Islands refer to other islands further south. These two islands are of volcanic origin and hilly, leaving little ground suitable for agriculture. The highest point is Mount Scenery, 887 m (2,910 ft), on Saba. This is the highest point in the country and in the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands.\n\nGovernment and politics\nThe Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815 and a parliamentary democracy since 1848. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues. The Netherlands was ranked as the 17th best electoral democracy in the world by V-Dem Democracy indices in 2023 and 9th most democratic country in the world by the Democracy Index (The Economist) in 2022.\nThe monarch is the head of state, at present King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with limited powers due to ministerial responsibility. \n\nThe executive power is formed by the government that includes the monarch and the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the Dutch cabinet. The cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of state secretaries. One to three ministers are ministers without portfolio. The council of ministers is presided over by the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who often is the leader of the largest party of the coalition. The Prime Minister is a primus inter pares, with no explicit powers beyond those of the other ministers. Dick Schoof has been Prime Minister since July 2024, succeeding the longest-serving Prime Minister Mark Rutte.\nThe cabinet is responsible to the bicameral parliament, the States General, which also has legislative powers. The 150 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house, are elected in direct elections on the basis of party-list proportional representation. These are held every four years, or sooner in case the cabinet falls. The provincial assemblies, the States Provincial, are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect the 75 members of the Senate, the upper house, which has the power to reject laws, but not amend them.\n\nPolitical culture\nBoth trade unions and employers organisations are consulted in policymaking in the financial, economic and social areas. They meet regularly with the government in the Social-Economic Council.\nThe Netherlands has a tradition of social tolerance. In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of pillarisation, in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government. Protection for LGBT and abortion rights are enshrined within the Netherlands' foreign aid policy.\nNo single party has held a majority in parliament since the 19th century, and as a result, coalition cabinets had to be formed. Since suffrage became universal in 1917, the Dutch political system has been dominated by three families of political parties: Christian Democrats (currently the CDA), Social Democrats (currently the PvdA), and Liberals (currently the VVD). In November 2023, the right-wing populist Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders was the winner of a general election, securing 37 out of 150 seats. A cabinet was inaugurated in July 2024, and Dick Schoof succeeded Mark Rutte as prime minister.\n\nAdministrative divisions\nThe Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner. All provinces are divided into municipalities (gemeenten), of which there are 342 (2023).\nThe country is subdivided into 21 water districts, governed by a water board (waterschap or hoogheemraadschap), each having authority in matters concerning water management. The creation of water boards pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. The Dutch water boards are among the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. Direct elections of the water boards take place every four years.\nWithin the Dutch town of Baarle-Nassau, are 22 Belgian exclaves and within those are 8 Dutch enclaves.\n\nThe administrative structure on the three BES islands, collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands, is outside the twelve provinces. These islands have the status of openbare lichamen (public bodies). In the Netherlands these administrative units are often referred to as special municipalities.\n\nForeign relations\nThe history of Dutch foreign policy has been characterized by its neutrality. According to the 2024 Global Peace Index, Netherlands is the 18th most peaceful country in the world. Since World War II, the Netherlands has become a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the UN, NATO and the EU.\nThe foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. One of the more controversial international issues surrounding the Netherlands is its liberal policy towards soft drugs.\nThe historical ties inherited from its colonial past in Indonesia and Suriname still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. Many with heritage from these countries now live permanently in the Netherlands.\n\nMilitary\nThe Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in Europe; it was first established in the late 1500s. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Dutch army was transformed into a conscription army. The Netherlands abandoned its neutrality in 1948 when it signed the Treaty of Brussels, and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. The Dutch military was therefore part of the NATO strength in Cold War Europe. In 1983 the (ceremonial) function of commander of chief of the monarch was transferred to the government, which means the monarch (nominal head of state) has no formal military function. In 1996 conscription was suspended, and the Dutch army was once again transformed into a professional army. Since the 1990s the Dutch army has been involved in the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War, it held a province in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and it was engaged in Afghanistan. The Netherlands has ratified many international conventions concerning war law. The Netherlands decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.\nThe military is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix Koninklijke (Royal):\n\nKoninklijke Marine (KM), the Royal Netherlands Navy, including the Naval Air Service and Marine Corps;\nKoninklijke Landmacht (KL), the Royal Netherlands Army;\nKoninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu), the Royal Netherlands Air Force;\nKoninklijke Marechaussee (KMar), the Royal Marechaussee (Military Police), tasks include military police and border control.\nThe submarine service opened to women on 1 January 2017. The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is almost impossible for a woman to become a commando. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs more than 70,000 personnel, including over 20,000 civilians and over 50,000 military personnel.\n\nEconomy\nSince the 16th century, shipping, fishing, agriculture, trade, and banking have been leading sectors of the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has a high level of economic freedom. The Netherlands is one of the top countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report (2nd in 2016), and was ranked the fifth most competitive economy in the world by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2017. The country was ranked the 8th most innovative nation in the world in the 2024 Global Innovation Index down from 2nd in 2018.\nAs of 2020, the key trading partners of the Netherlands were Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, China and Russia. The Netherlands is one of the world's 10 leading exporting countries. Foodstuffs form the largest industrial sector. Other major industries include chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, trade, services and tourism. Examples of international Dutch companies operating in the Netherlands include Randstad, Heineken, KLM, financial services (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank), chemicals (DSM, AKZO), petroleum refining (Shell plc), electronic machinery (Philips, ASML), and satellite navigation (TomTom).\nThe Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 11th in GDP (nominal) per capita. The Netherlands has low income inequality, but wealth inequality is relatively high. Despite ranking 11th in GDP per capita, UNICEF ranked the Netherlands 1st in child well-being in rich countries, both in 2007 and in 2013.\nAmsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX), part of Euronext, is the world's oldest stock exchange and is one of Europe's largest bourses. As a founding member of the euro, the Netherlands replaced (for accounting purposes) its former currency, the \"gulden\" (guilder), on 1 January 1999. Actual euro coins and banknotes followed on 1 January 2002. One euro was equivalent to 2.20371 Dutch guilders. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the United States dollar is used instead. The Netherlands is a \"conduit country\" that helps to funnel profits from high-tax countries to tax havens. It has been ranked as the 4th largest tax haven in the world.\n\nThe Dutch location gives it prime access to markets in the United Kingdom and Germany, with the Port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are international trade, banking and transport. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. Amsterdam is the 5th-busiest tourist destination in Europe, with more than 4.2 million international visitors. Since the enlargement of the EU, large numbers of migrant workers have arrived in the Netherlands from Central and Eastern Europe.\nThe Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States. The economy experienced a slowdown in 2005, but in 2006 recovered to the fastest pace in six years on the back of increased exports and strong investment. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007. The Netherlands is the fourth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.\n\nEnergy\nBeginning in the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered huge natural gas resources. The sale of natural gas generated enormous revenues for the Netherlands for decades, adding, over sixty years, hundreds of billions of euros to the government's budget. However, the unforeseen consequences of the country's huge energy wealth impacted the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy, leading to the theory of Dutch disease. The field is operated by government-owned Gasunie and output is jointly exploited by the government, Royal Dutch Shell, and ExxonMobil. Gas production caused earthquakes which damaged housing. After a large public backlash, the government decided to phase out gas production from the field.\nThe Netherlands has made notable progress in its transition to a carbon-neutral economy. Thanks to increasing energy efficiency, energy demand shows signs of decoupling from economic growth. The share of energy from renewable sources doubled from 2008 to 2019, with especially strong growth in offshore wind and rooftop solar. However, the Netherlands remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels and has a concentration of energy- and emission-intensive industries that will not be easy to decarbonise. Its 2019 Climate Agreement defines policies and measures to support the achievement of Dutch climate targets and was developed through a collaborative process involving parties from across Dutch society. As of 2018, the Netherlands had one of the highest rates of carbon dioxide emissions per person in the European Union.\n\nAgriculture and natural resources\nThe Netherlands' biocapacity totals only 0.8 global hectares per person in 2016, 0.2 of which are dedicated to agriculture. The Dutch biocapacity per person is just about half of the 1.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person available worldwide. In contrast, in 2016, the Dutch used on average 4.8 global hectares of biocapacity - their ecological footprint of consumption. As a result, the Netherlands was running a biocapacity deficit of 4.0 global hectares per person in 2016. The Dutch waste more food than any other EU citizen, at over three times the EU average.\nThe Dutch agricultural sector is highly mechanised, and has a strong focus on international exports. It employs about 4% of the Dutch labour force but produces large surpluses in the food-processing industry and accounts for 21% of the Dutch total export value. The Dutch rank first in the European Union and second worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind only the United States, with agricultural exports earning €80.7 billion in 2014, up from €75.4 billion in 2012. In 2019 agricultural exports were worth €94.5 billion. In an effort to reduce agricultural pollution, the Dutch government is imposing strict limits on the productivity of the farming sector, triggering Dutch farmers' protests.\nOne-third of the world's exports of chilis, tomatoes, and cucumbers go through the country. The Netherlands exports one-fifteenth of the world's apples. A significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports consists of fresh-cut plants, flowers, and flower bulbs, with the Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total.\n\nDemographics\nThe Netherlands had an estimated population of 17,947,406 as of 31 November 2023. It is the 6th most densely populated country in Europe and the 33rd most densely populated country in the world with a density of 424 per square kilometre (1,100/sq mi). Between 1900 and 1950, the country's population almost doubled from 5.1 to 10 million. From 1950 to 2000, the population further increased, to 15.9 million.\nThe fertility rate in the Netherlands is 1.78 children per woman (2018 estimate), which is high compared with many other European countries, but below the rate of 2.1 children per woman required for natural population replacement. The Netherlands has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.7 years. Life expectancy is high in the Netherlands: 84.3 years for newborn girls and 79.7 for boys (2020 estimate). The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, by nationality, with an average height of 1.81 metres (5 ft 11.3 in) for men and 1.67 metres (5 ft 5.7 in) for women in 2009. The average height of young men in the Netherlands increased from 5 feet, 4 inches to approximately 6 feet between the 1850s until the early 2000s.\nThe country has a migration rate of 1.9 migrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The majority of the population of the Netherlands is ethnically Dutch. In 2022, the population was 74.8% ethnically Dutch, 8.3% other European, 2.4% Turkish, 2.4% Moroccan, 2.0% Indonesian, 2.0% Surinamese, and 8.1% others. Some 150,000 to 200,000 people living in the Netherlands are expatriates, mostly concentrated in and around Amsterdam and The Hague, now constituting almost 10% of the population of these cities. Significant minorities in the country include Frisians 700,000, Jews 41,000-45,000 and the Roma and the Sinti 40,000.\n\nAccording to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.8 million foreign-born residents in the Netherlands, corresponding to 11.1% of the total population. Of these, 1.4 million (8.5%) were born outside the EU and 0.43 million (2.6%) were born in another EU Member State. On 21 November 2016, there were 3.8 million residents in the Netherlands with at least one foreign-born parent. Over half the young people in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have a non-western background. Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in South Africa and the United States.\nThe Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of about 8.2 million inhabitants and is the 5th largest metropolitan area in Europe. According to Dutch Central Statistics Bureau, in 2015, 28 per cent of the Dutch population had a spendable income above 45,000 euros (which does not include spending on health care or education).\n\nLanguage\nThe official language of the Netherlands is Dutch, which is spoken by the vast majority of inhabitants. The dialects most spoken in the Netherlands are the Brabantian-Hollandic dialects.\nBesides Dutch, West Frisian is recognised as a second official language in the northern province of Friesland (Fryslân in West Frisian). West Frisian has a formal status for government correspondence in that province. Four other languages are protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The first of these recognised regional languages is Low Saxon (Nedersaksisch in Dutch). Low Saxon consists of several dialects of the Low German language spoken in the north and east of the Netherlands, like Tweants in the region of Twente, and Drents in the province of Drenthe.\nLimburgish is recognised as a regional language. It consists of Dutch varieties of Meuse-Rhenish and is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg. Yiddish and the Romani language were recognised in 1996 as non-territorial languages.\nEnglish has a formal status in the special municipalities of Saba and Sint Eustatius. It is widely spoken on these islands. Papiamento has a formal status in the special municipality of Bonaire.\nThe Netherlands has a long tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Dutch education laws. Some 90% of the total population are able to converse in English, 70% in German, and 29% in French. English is a mandatory course in all secondary schools. In most lower level secondary school educations (vmbo), one additional modern foreign language is mandatory during the first two years. In higher level secondary schools (havo and vwo), the acquisition of two additional modern foreign language skills is mandatory. Besides English, the standard modern languages are French and German, although schools can replace one of these with Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Turkish or Arabic. Additionally, schools in Friesland teach and have exams in West Frisian.\n\nReligion\nForms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the Netherlands for more than 1,200 years, and by the middle of the sixteenth century the country was strongly Protestant (Calvinist). The population was predominantly Christian until the late 20th century. Although significant religious diversity remains, there has been a decline of religious adherence.\nIn 2020, Statistics Netherlands found that 55% of the total population declared itself non-religious. Groups that represent the non-religious in the Netherlands include Humanistisch Verbond. Catholics comprised 19.8% of the total population, Protestants (14.4%). Muslims comprised 5.2% of the total population and followers of other Christian denominations and other religions (like Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism) comprised the remaining 5.1%. A 2015 survey from another source found that Protestants outnumbered Catholics.\nThe southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg have historically been strongly Catholic, and some residents consider the Catholic Church as a base for their cultural identity. Protestantism in the Netherlands consists of a number of churches within various traditions. The largest of these is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), a united church which is Calvinist and Lutheran in orientation. It was formed in 2004 as a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and a smaller Lutheran Church. Several orthodox Calvinist and liberal churches did not merge into the PKN. Although Christianity has become a minority in the Netherlands, it contains a Bible Belt from Zeeland to the northern parts of the province Overijssel, in which Protestant beliefs remain strong. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and the Ascension of Jesus).\nIslam is the second largest religion in the state. The Muslim population increased from the 1960 as a result of large numbers of migrant workers. This included migrant workers from Turkey and Morocco, as well as migrants from former Dutch colonies, such as Surinam and Indonesia. During the 1990s, Muslim refugees arrived from countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan. Since 2000 there has been raised awareness of religion, mainly due to Islamic extremism.\nAnother religion practised is Hinduism, with around 215,000 adherents (slightly over 1% of the population). Most of these are Indo-Surinamese. There are sizeable populations of Hindu immigrants from India and Sri Lanka, and Western adherents of Hinduism-orientated new religious movements such as Hare Krishnas. The Netherlands has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people strongly attracted to this religion, mainly ethnic Dutch people. There are about 30,000 Jews in the Netherlands, though the Institute for Jewish Policy Research estimates range from 30,000 to 63,000, depending on how the number is calculated.\nThe Constitution of the Netherlands guarantees freedom of education, which means that all schools that adhere to general quality criteria receive the same government funding. This includes schools based on religious principles by religious groups (especially Catholic and Protestant). Three political parties in the Dutch parliament, (CDA, and two small parties, ChristianUnion and SGP) are based upon the Christian belief. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus).\nA survey in December 2014 concluded that for the first time there were more atheists (25%) than theists (17%) in the Netherlands, while the remainder of the population was agnostic (31%) or ietsistic (27%). In 2015, a vast majority of the inhabitants of the Netherlands (82%) said they had never or almost never visited a church, and 59% stated that they had never been to a church. Of all the people questioned, 24% saw themselves as atheist, an increase of 11% compared to the previous study done in 2006. The expected rise of spirituality has come to a halt according to research in 2015. In 2006, 40% of respondents considered themselves spiritual; in 2015 this has dropped to 31%. The number who believed in the existence of a higher power fell from 36% to 28% over the same period.\n\nEducation\nEducation in the Netherlands is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. If a child does not have a \"starting qualification\" (HAVO, VWO or MBO 2+ degree) they are still forced to attend classes until they achieve such a qualification or reach the age of 18.\nChildren in the Netherlands attend elementary school from (on average) ages 4 to 12. It has eight grades and the first is facultative. Based on an aptitude test, the eighth grade teacher's recommendation and the opinion of the pupil's parents or caretakers, a choice is made for one of the three main streams of secondary education.\n\nThe VMBO has four grades and is subdivided over several levels. Successfully completing the VMBO results in a low-level vocational degree that grants access to the MBO. The MBO (middle-level applied education) is a form of education that primarily focuses on teaching a practical trade or a vocational degree. With the MBO certification, a student can apply for the HBO. The HAVO has 5 grades and allows for admission to the HBO. The HBO (higher professional education) are universities of professional education (applied sciences) that award professional bachelor's degrees; similar to polytechnic degrees. An HBO degree gives access to the university system. The VWO (comprising atheneum and gymnasium) has 6 grades and prepares for studying at a research university. Universities offer a three-year bachelor's degree, followed by a one or two-year master's degree, which in turn can be followed by a doctoral degree programme.\nDoctoral candidates in the Netherlands are generally non-tenured employees of a university. All Dutch schools and universities are publicly funded and managed with the exception of religious schools. Dutch universities have a tuition fee of about 2,000 euros a year for students from the Netherlands and the EU, and 15,000 euros for non-EU students.\n\nHealthcare\nIn 2016, the Netherlands maintained its position at the top of the annual Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI), which compares healthcare systems in Europe, scoring 916 of a maximum 1,000 points. The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005. On 48 indicators such as patient rights and information, accessibility, prevention and outcomes, the Netherlands secured its top position among 37 European countries for six years in a row.\nThe Netherlands was ranked first in a study in 2009 comparing the health care systems of the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.\nAccording to the Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP), patients have a great degree of freedom from where to buy their health insurance, to where they get their healthcare. Healthcare decisions are made in dialogue between patients and healthcare professionals. Healthcare in the Netherlands is split 3 ways: in somatic and mental health care and in 'cure' (short term) and 'care' (long term). Home doctors (huisartsen, comparable to general practitioners) form the largest part of the first level. Being referred by a member of the first level is mandatory for access to the second and third level. The health care system is in comparison to other Western countries, effective but not the most cost-effective.\nHealthcare is financed by a dual system that came into effect in January 2006. Long-term treatments, especially those that involve semi-permanent hospitalisation, and disability costs such as wheelchairs, are covered by a state-controlled mandatory insurance. In 2009 this insurance covered 27% of all health care expenses. Other sources of health care payment are taxes (14%), out of pocket payments (9%), additional optional health insurance packages (4%) and a range of other sources (4%).\nHealth insurance in the Netherlands is mandatory. Healthcare in the Netherlands is covered by two statutory forms of insurance:\n\nZorgverzekeringswet (ZVW), often called \"basic insurance\", covers common medical care.\nAlgemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten (AWBZ) covers long-term nursing and care.\nWhile Dutch residents are automatically insured by the government for AWBZ, everyone has to buy their own basic healthcare insurance, except those under 18 who are automatically covered under their parents. Insurance companies are obliged to provide a package with a defined set of insured treatments. This insurance covers 41% of all health care expenses. Insurers have to offer a universal package for everyone over 18, regardless of age or state of health – it is illegal to refuse an application or impose special conditions. The funding burden for all short-term health care coverage is carried 50% by employers, 45% by the insured person and 5% by the government. Those on low incomes receive compensation to help them pay their insurance. Premiums paid by the insured are about €135 per month.\n\nTransport\nMobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport.\n\nRoad transport\nThe Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world. The Netherlands has a relatively high uptake of electric vehicles, as the government implemented ambitious policy on both charging infrastructure and tax benefits. As of 2019, the Netherlands hosts approximately 30% of all recharging stations in the European Union. Moreover, newly sold cars in the Netherlands have on average the lowest CO2 emissions in the EU.\n\nPublic transport\nAbout 13% of all distance is travelled by public transport, the majority of which is by train. The Dutch rail network of 3,013 km route is also rather dense. The network is mostly focused on passenger rail services and connects all major cities, with over 400 stations. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on lesser lines, two to four trains per hour on average, and up to eight trains an hour on the busiest lines. The Dutch national train network includes the HSL-Zuid, a high-speed line between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border for trains running from Paris and London, to the Netherlands.\n\nCycling\nCycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport. Almost as many kilometres are covered by bicycle as by train. The Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million bicycles, which makes more than one per capita, and twice as many as the circa 9 million motor vehicles on the road. In 2013, the European Cyclists' Federation ranked the Netherlands and Denmark as the most bike-friendly countries in Europe. Cycling infrastructure is extensive. Busy roads have received some 35,000 km of dedicated cycle tracks, physically segregated from motorised traffic. Busy junctions are often equipped with bicycle-specific traffic lights. There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centres and train stations.\n\nWater transport\nThe Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the largest port outside East Asia, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream. As of 2022, Rotterdam was the world's tenth largest container port. The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. The Volkeraksluizen between Rotterdam and Antwerp are the biggest sluices for inland navigation in terms of tonnage. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, was completed. Amsterdam is Europe's 4th largest port. The inland shipping fleet of the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. Passenger boats in the Netherlands includes a ferry network in Amsterdam, and waterbusses and taxis in Rotterdam.\n\nAir transport\nSchiphol Airport, just southwest of Amsterdam, is the main international airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest airport in Europe by number of passengers. Schiphol is the main hub for KLM, the nation's flag carrier and the world's oldest airline. In 2016, the Royal Schiphol Group airports handled 70 million passengers. All air traffic is international and Schiphol Airport is connected to over 300 destinations worldwide, more than any other European airport. The airport is a major freight hub as well, processing 1.44 million tonnes of cargo in 2020. Smaller international airports are located in or near Eindhoven, Rotterdam, Maastricht and Groningen. Air transport is of vital significance for the Caribbean part of the Netherlands, with all islands having their own airport. This includes the shortest runway in the world on Saba.\n\nCulture\nArt, architecture and philosophy\nThe Netherlands has had many well-known painters. In the Middle Ages Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder were leading Dutch pioneers. During the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch Republic was prosperous and witnessed a flourishing artistic movement. The \"Dutch Masters\", spanning this 17th century era, included Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, and Jacob van Ruisdael. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century included Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondrian.\nLiterature flourished during the Dutch Golden Age, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the poor treatment of the natives in the Dutch colony. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is the most translated book from Dutch. Other important 20th century authors include Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Hella Haasse, Willem Frederik Hermans, Cees Nooteboom and Gerard Reve.\nVarious architectural styles can be distinguished in the Netherlands. The Romanesque architecture was built between 950 and 1250. Gothic architecture was used from about 1230. Gothic buildings had large windows, pointed arches and were richly decorated. Brabantine Gothic originated with the rise of the Duchy of Brabant and spread throughout the Burgundian provinces. Dutch Baroque architecture (1525–1630) and classicism (1630–1700) is especially evident in the west. Other architectural styles are Art Nouveau, Expressionism, De Stijl, Traditionalism and Brutalism.\nErasmus and Spinoza were famous Dutch philosophers. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–95) discovered Saturn's moon Titan, argued that light travelled as waves, invented the pendulum clock, and was the first physicist to use mathematical formulae. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope.\nWindmills, tulips, clogs, cheese, and cannabis have grown to symbolize the Netherlands, especially among tourists.\n\nDutch value system\nThe Dutch are proud of their cultural heritage, rich history in art, and involvement in international affairs. A predominant attitude in the Netherlands is to think of the nation as being \"both tolerant and cosmopolitan.\"\nA Dutch saying indicating their sense of national pride in their reclamation of land from the sea and marshes is \"God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands.\"\n\nDutch manners are open and direct with a no-nonsense attitude—informality combined with adherence to basic behaviour. \"Dealing with the Dutch\" by Jacob Vossestein states: \"Dutch egalitarianism is the idea that people are equal, especially from a moral point of view, and accordingly, causes the somewhat ambiguous stance the Dutch have towards hierarchy and status.\"\nThe Netherlands is one of the most secular countries of Europe, and religion in the Netherlands is generally considered as a personal matter which is not supposed to be propagated in public, although it often remains a discussion subject.\n\nMusic\nThe Netherlands has multiple music traditions. Traditional Dutch music is a genre known as \"Levenslied\", meaning Song of life. These songs typically have a simple melody and rhythm, and a straightforward structure of verses and choruses. Themes can be light, but are often sentimental and include love, death and loneliness. Traditional musical instruments such as the accordion and the barrel organ are a staple of levenslied music, though in recent years many artists use synthesisers and guitars.\nContemporary Dutch rock and pop music (Nederpop) originated in the 1960s, heavily influenced by popular music from the United States and Britain. Bands such as Shocking Blue, Golden Earring, Tee Set, George Baker Selection and Focus enjoyed international success. From the 1980s, more and more pop musicians started working in the Dutch language, partly inspired by the huge success of the band Doe Maar.\n\nCurrent symphonic metal bands Epica, Delain, ReVamp, The Gathering, Asrai, Autumn, Ayreon and Within Temptation as well as jazz and pop singer Caro Emerald are having international success. Metal bands like Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned, Izegrim, Asphyx, Textures, Heidevolk, and Slechtvalk are popular guests at the biggest metal festivals in Europe. Contemporary local stars include pop singer Anouk, country pop singer Ilse DeLange, Limburgish dialect singing folk band Rowwen Hèze, rock band BLØF and duo Nick & Simon.\nEarly 1990s Dutch and Belgian house music came together in Eurodance project 2 Unlimited. Selling 18 million records, the two singers in the band are the most successful Dutch music artists to this day. Tracks like \"Get Ready for This\" are still popular themes of U.S. sports events. In the mid-1990s Dutch language rap and hip hop (Nederhop) came to fruition and has become popular in the Netherlands and Belgium.\nSince the 1990s, Dutch electronic dance music (EDM) gained widespread popularity in the world in many forms. Some of the world's best known dance music DJs hail from the Netherlands, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Dash Berlin, Julian Jordan, Nicky Romero, W&W, Don Diablo, Ummet Ozcan, Headhunterz, Sander van Doorn, and Afrojack; the first four of which have been ranked as best in the world by DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is the world's leading electronic music conference and the biggest club festival for the many electronic subgenres on the planet. The Netherlands has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first edition in 1956, and has won five times.\nIn classical music, Jan Sweelinck is a famous Dutch composer, with Louis Andriessen among the best known contemporary Dutch classical composers. Ton Koopman is a Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. Notable violinists are Janine Jansen and André Rieu.\n\nFilm and television\nSome Dutch films – mainly by director Paul Verhoeven – have received international distribution and recognition, such as Turkish Delight (\"Turks Fruit\", 1973), Soldier of Orange (\"Soldaat van Oranje\", 1977), Spetters (1980), and The Fourth Man (\"De Vierde Man\", 1983). Verhoeven then went on to direct big Hollywood movies like RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), and Basic Instinct (1992), and returned with Dutch film Black Book (\"Zwartboek\", 2006).\nOther well-known Dutch film directors are Jan de Bont, Anton Corbijn, Dick Maas, Fons Rademakers, and documentary makers Bert Haanstra and Joris Ivens. Film director Theo van Gogh achieved international notoriety in 2004 when he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in the streets of Amsterdam after directing the short film Submission.\nDirectors of photography from the Netherlands include Hoyte van Hoytema and Theo van de Sande. Internationally successful Dutch actors include Famke Janssen, Carice van Houten, Rutger Hauer, and Jeroen Krabbé.\nThe Netherlands has a well developed television market, with both multiple commercial and public broadcasters. Imported TV programmes, as well as interviews with responses in a foreign language, are virtually always shown with the original sound and subtitled. Only foreign shows for children are dubbed.\nTV exports from the Netherlands mostly take the form of specific formats and franchises, most notably was the internationally active TV production conglomerate Endemol, founded by Dutch media tycoons John de Mol and Joop van den Ende. Endemol and its subsidiaries created and ran reality, talent, and game show franchises worldwide, including Big Brother and Deal or No Deal. Endemol merged with Shine Group in 2015, and again with Banijay in 2020.\n\nSports\nApproximately 4.5 million of the 16.8 million people in the Netherlands are registered in one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two-thirds of the population between 15 and 75 participate in sports weekly. Football is the most popular team sport, followed by field hockey and volleyball. Tennis, gymnastics and golf are the three most widely engaged in individual sports. Organisation of sports began at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Federations for sports were established, rules were unified and sports clubs came into existence. A Dutch National Olympic Committee was established in 1912.\nThe national football team was runner-up in the World Cup of 1974, 1978, and 2010, and won the European Championship of 1988. Of SI's 50 greatest footballers of all time, Johan Cruyff (#5), Marco van Basten (#19), Ruud Gullit (#25), and Johan Neeskens (#36) are Dutch. The women's national team was runner-up in 2019 World Cup and won the European Championship of 2017. The Netherlands women's field hockey team won 9 out of 15 World Cups. The Netherlands baseball team have won the European championship 24 times out of 33 events. The volleyball national women's team won the European Championship in 1995 and the World Grand Prix in 2007.\nThe Netherlands has won 266 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and 110 at the Winter Olympic Games. Joop Zoetemelk won the 1979 Vuelta a Espana, the 1980 Tour de France, and the 1985 UCI World Championship. Jan Janssen won the 1968 Tour de France, Tom Dumoulin the 2017 Giro d'Italia. Max Verstappen, the youngest Formula 1 driver to make his debut and to win a race, was the first Dutchman to win a Grand Prix and a Formula One World Drivers Championship. Dutch K-1 kickboxers have won the K-1 World Grand Prix 15 times out of 19 tournaments.\n\nCuisine\nDutch cuisine is simple and straightforward, and contains many dairy products. Breakfast and lunch are typically bread with toppings, with cereal for breakfast as an alternative. Traditionally, dinner consists of potatoes, meat, and vegetables. The Dutch diet was high in carbohydrates and fat, reflecting the dietary needs of the labourers whose culture moulded the country. During the twentieth century this diet changed and became more cosmopolitan, with most global cuisines being represented in the major cities. In early 2014, Oxfam ranked the Netherlands as the country with the most nutritious, plentiful and healthy food. Modern culinary writers distinguish between three regional forms of Dutch cuisine: northeast, west and south:\nThe regions in the northeast are the least populated areas of the Netherlands. The late 18th century introduction of large scale agriculture means the cuisine is known for its meats. The relative lack of farms allowed for an abundance of game and husbandry, though dishes near the coastal regions include a large amount of fish. The various dried sausages, belonging to the metworst-family of Dutch sausages are found throughout this region. Smoked sausages are common, of which (Gelderse) rookworst is the most renowned. Larger sausages are eaten alongside stamppot, hutspot, or zuurkool (sauerkraut); whereas smaller ones are eaten as a street food. The provinces are home to hard textured rye bread, pastries and cookies. As a coastal region, Friesland is home to low-lying grasslands, and thus has a cheese production in common with the Western cuisine. Cookies are produced in great number and contain a lot of butter and sugar. The traditional alcoholic beverages are beer (strong pale lager) and Jenever, a high proof juniper-flavoured spirit, that came to be known in England as gin. An exception within the traditional Dutch alcoholic landscape, Advocaat, a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, is native to this region.\nIn the West, the abundance of water and flat grasslands, mean the area is known for its dairy products, which include prominent cheeses such as Gouda, Leyden (spiced cheese with cumin), and Edam (traditionally in small spheres) as well as Leerdammer and Beemster, while the adjacent Zaanstreek in North Holland has since the 16th century been known for its mayonnaise and typical whole-grain mustards. A by-product of the butter-making process, karnemelk (buttermilk), is considered typical for this region. Seafood such as soused herring, mussels, eels, oysters and shrimps are widely available and typical for the region.\nThe Southern Dutch cuisine consists of the cuisines of the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Flemish Region in Belgium. It is renowned for its rich pastries, soups, stews and vegetable dishes. It is the only Dutch culinary region that developed an haute cuisine. Pastries are abundant, often with rich fillings of cream, custard or fruits. Cakes, such as the Vlaai from Limburg and the Moorkop and Bossche Bol from Brabant, are typical pastries. Savoury pastries abound, with the worstenbroodje (a roll with a sausage of ground beef, literally translates into sausage bread) being the most popular. The alcoholic beverage of the region is beer, there are many local brands, ranging from Trappist to Kriek.\n\nSee also\nOutline of the Netherlands\n\nNotes\nReferences\nSources\nExternal links\n\nNetherlands from UCB Libraries GovPubs\nNetherlands at Curlie\nI am Expat – General information about the Netherlands\nNetherlands profile from the BBC News\n Wikimedia Atlas of Netherlands\n Geographic data related to Netherlands at OpenStreetMap\nKey Development Forecasts for the Netherlands from International Futures\nGovernment\n\nGovernment.nl – official Dutch government web site\nStatistics Netherlands (CBS) – Key figures from the Dutch bureau of statistics\n\"Provinces of Netherlands\". Statoids.\nTravel\n\nHolland.com – English website of the Netherlands tourist office\nNetherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions – Organisation responsible for promoting the Netherlands nationally and internationally","title":"Netherlands"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced \\\"a new stage in the process of European integration\\\" chiefly in provisions for a shared European citizenship, for the eventual introduction of a single currency, and (with less precision) for common foreign and security policies, and a number of changes to the European institutions and their decision taking procedures, not least a strengthening of the powers of the European Parliament and more majority voting on the Council of Ministers. Although these were seen by many to presage a \\\"federal Europe\\\", key areas remained inter-governmental with national governments collectively taking key decisions. This constitutional debate continued through the negotiation of subsequent treaties (see below), culminating in the 2007 Treaty of Lisbon. \\nIn the wake of the Eurozone debt crisis unfolding from 2009, the most enduring reference to the Maastricht Treaty has been to the rules of compliance – the \\\"Maastricht criteria\\\" – for the currency union.\\n\\nAgainst the background of the end of the Cold War and the re-unification of Germany, and in anticipation of accelerated globalisation, the treaty negotiated tensions between member states seeking deeper integration and those wishing to retain greater national control. The resulting compromise faced what was to be the first in a series of EU treaty ratification crises.\\n\\nOverview\\nHaving \\\"resolved to continue the process of creating an ever closer union among the people of Europe\\\", the Treaty proposes \\\"further steps to be taken in order to advance European integration\\\" under seven titles.\\nTitle I, Common Provisions, establishes the European Union (EU) on the foundation of the three, already partially merged, European Communities: the European Economic Community (EEC), the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). It confirms among its objectives are \\\"the introduction of a citizenship of the Union\\\" common to the nationals of the Member States; \\\"economic and monetary union, ultimately including a single currency\\\"; and \\\"a common foreign and security policy including the eventual framing of a common defence\\\".\\nTitle II, Provisions Amending the Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community, reformulates the EEC as the central \\\"pillar\\\" of the Union. It amends the EEC's Treaty of Rome constitution, renaming it the European Community to reflect the Union's broader ambition. Amendments incorporate (as detailed in attached protocols) a staged progression toward monetary union including the price-stability-first criteria for adoption of the single currency and for the operations of the prospective European Central Bank (ECB).\\nOther amendments create the office of European Ombudsman, expand the Structural Fund assistance to the poorer EU regions; and broaden Community competencies in education, culture, public health, consumer protection, trans-European networks, industry and the environment.\\nIn these and other areas which do not fall within Community's \\\"exclusive competence\\\", in accordance with \\\"the principle of subsidiarity\\\" action is to be taken only if, \\\"by reason of the scale or effects\\\", the objectives cannot be more \\\"efficiently\\\" achieved by the Member States themselves.\\nIn several of these areas, the Treaty seeks to enhance the \\\"democratic functioning\\\" of the institutions by conceding the directly elected European Parliament rights not only of consultation but also of co-decision on some categories of European legislation. It also grants the Parliament the power to confirm (and therefore to veto) the Council's nominations for the European Commission, the Community's executive.\\nTitles III and IV amend the treaties establishing the ECSC and Euratom to complete their absorption into the structure of European Community.\\nTitle V and VI extend existing intergovernmental consultations on foreign-policy, security and defence matters, and on \\\"cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs\\\". In both cases, Member States are to \\\"inform and consult one another within the Council [of Ministers]\\\", but otherwise cooperate independently of Community institutions.\\nTitle VII, Final Provisions, covers a number of anomalous issues. Provided that all Member States ratify, it rules that the Treaty should come into force on 1 January 1993.\\nArticles within the Treaty were referred to by using the letters A to S.\\nAnnexed to the Treaty is a Protocol, and an Agreement, on Social Policy. With a view to ensuring that the dynamic of the European single market respect certain minimum social and employment protections, these allow the Council of Ministers to approve relevant proposals from the European Commission on the basis of a qualified majority rather than unanimous consent.\\nThe United Kingdom was not a party of the Agreement on Social Policy and secured an \\\"opt out\\\" from the protocol. It was to do the same with respect to the obligation to enter the final, single-currency, stage of monetary union (the UK would not have to give up the Pound sterling).\\n\\nProcedural history\\nSignatories\\nThe signatory nations were represented by:\\n\\nMark Eyskens and Philippe Maystadt (Belgium)\\nUffe Ellemann-Jensen and Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Denmark)\\nRoland Dumas and Pierre Bérégovoy (France)\\nAntonis Samaras and Efthymios Christodoulou (Greece)\\nGerry Collins and Bertie Ahern (Ireland)\\nGianni De Michelis and Guido Carli (Italy)\\nJacques Poos and Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg)\\nHans van den Broek and Wim Kok (Netherlands)\\nJoão de Deus Pinheiro and Jorge Braga de Macedo (Portugal)\\nFrancisco Fernández Ordóñez and Carlos Solchaga (Spain)\\nDouglas Hurd and Francis Maude (United Kingdom)\\nHans-Dietrich Genscher and Theo Waigel (Germany)\\nIn consequence of the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the European Communities during the previous six months of negotiation, the Treaty was signed in the Netherlands, in the city of Maastricht. The twelve members of the European Communities signing the Treaty on 7 February 1992 were Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.\\n\\nRatification\\nThe Treaty noted that it should be \\\"ratified by the High Contracting Parties in accordance with their respective constitutional requirement\\\". In the cases of Denmark, France and Ireland this required referendums.\\nIn the first Danish referendum, on 2 June 1992, the treaty was rejected by a margin of 50.7% to 49.3%. Concessions secured by the end of year in Edinburgh including, critically, the same exemption secured by Britain from the single currency (Denmark would not have to give up the krone), allowed for a second referendum. On 18 May 1993, the Maastricht Treaty was endorsed by a vote of 56.7%.\\nIn Ireland, the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution, allowing the state to ratify the Treaty, was approved in a referendum held on 18 June 1992 with the support of 69.1% of votes cast.\\nIn September 1992, a referendum in France narrowly supported the ratification of the treaty, with 50.8% in favour. This narrow vote for ratification in France, known at the time as the 'petit oui', led Jacques Delors to comment that \\\"Europe began as an elitist project in which it was believed that all that was required was to convince the decision-makers. That phase of benign despotism is over.\\\"\\nIn the United Kingdom parliament ratification did not command a clear majority. In protest against the social-policy opt out, Labour opposed, while \\\"anti-federalists\\\" split the governing Conservatives. Prime Minister John Major was able to face down his \\\"Maastricht Rebels\\\" only by tying ratification to the survival of the government in a vote of confidence. (Researchers and observers suggest that, in the United Kingdom, the Maastricht Treaty represented \\\"a critical turning point\\\" in terms of divisions within the Conservative Party over European integration and the ruling party' ultimate fragmentation in 2016 into Leave and Remain factions).\\nIn Germany, the Maastricht Treaty passed the Bundestag on December 2, 1992, with a majority of 543 out of 562, and the Bundesrat with unanimity. The Bundestag was required to amend the Grundgesetz (German Basic Law) to “legalize Germany’s membership in the European Union (Article 23) as well as to install a European Monetary Union (Article 88).” The ratification was delayed by challenges at the German Federal Constitutional Court, the complainants claiming the amendments transferring sovereign competencies to the European Union violated democratic principles (Article 20 and 38(1)) of the Grundgesetz that were unamendable (Article 79(3)); hence the Maastricht Treaty should be inadmissible. The court delivered its judgment on October 12, 1993 ruling the Maastricht Treaty compatible with the Grundgesetz, but provided that the European Union could not endow itself with more powers without the Bundestag’s approval. The court also confirmed its Solange II decision accepting the supremacy of European Court of Justice decisions while retaining the power to review secondary community law as to guarantee basic rights protection in close cooperation with the European Court of Justice. Germany was the last member state to ratify the treaty and it entered into force on November 1, 1993.\\n\\nCitizenship of the European Union\\nFrom the establishment of the European Economic Community in 1957, integrationists argued the free movement of workers was the logical corollary of the free movement of capital, goods and services and integral to the establishment of a common (and later single) European market. In time, the tension between the transferred worker as \\\"a mobile unit of production\\\" contributing to the success of the single market, and the reality of the Community migrants as individuals, seeking to exercise \\\"a personal right\\\" to live and work in another state for their own, and their families', welfare, asserted itself. The Treaty built on the growing suggestion that there was a Community-wide basis for citizenship rights.\\nThe Treaty rules that \\\"every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union\\\". This common and parallel citizenship accords the Member State migrants not only the civil right to take up residence and employment, but also, and for the first time, political rights. In a new EU country of residence Member-State nationals have the right to vote, and to stand, in both local and European elections. Unresolved in the Treaty is the question of their access to social rights. Political debate continued as to who should have access to public services and welfare systems funded by taxation.\\n\\nEconomic and monetary union\\nFranco-German agreement\\nFrench President François Mitterrand was forced to abandon the centrepiece of his Socialist programme in 1983, a job creating reflation, due to speculation against the franc. Since then, Mitterrand had been committed to drawing Germany into a currency partnership. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in late 1989, Germany sought re-unification. France, the UK, and the rest of Europe expressed their concerns over re-unification. When German Chancellor Helmut Kohl asked for re-unification in 1990, Mitterrand would only accept in the event Germany would abandon the Deutsche Mark and adopt a common currency. Without consulting Karl Otto Pöhl, President of the Bundesbank, Kohl accepted the deal. Despite this win for France, it was widely perceived that the cost of German cooperation was German dictation of the rules for a single currency. The Bundesbank had signalled that Germany's economic success would come before being \\\"a good european\\\".\\n\\nThe ERM crises\\nIn the UK, the Maastricht rebellion drew on the experience of Black Wednesday. On 16 September 1992 the British government had been forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), after a failed and costly attempt to keep the pound above its mandated exchange rate limit. Sterling's exit from the ERM was the defining failure of John Major's government; a huge boost to Euro-scepticism; and made currency traders like George Soros rich. The ERM was the centrepiece of the European Monetary System (EMS), set up on voluntary basis in 1978 to reduce the \\\"barrier\\\" that exchange-rate volatility presented for intra-Community commerce (and for the management of payments under the Common Agricultural Policy).\\nBritain had signed up to the ERM in 1990 as a token of the government's commitment to control inflation (then running at three times the rate of Germany). From the beginning of 1990, high German interest rates, set by the Bundesbank to counteract inflationary impact of the expenditure on German reunification, caused significant stress across the whole of the ERM. By the time of their own ratifications debates, France and Denmark also found themselves under pressure in foreign exchange markets, their currencies trading close to the bottom of their ERM bands.\\n\\nThe Maastricht criteria\\nHaving \\\"resolved to achieve the strengthening and the convergence and to establish an economic and monetary union including,... a single and stable currency\\\", the Treaty ruled that \\\"Member States shall regard their economic policies as a matter of common concern\\\", and that the obligations assumed should be a matter for \\\"mutual surveillance.\\\" Commonly known as the Maastricht criteria, these obligations represented the performance thresholds for member states to progress toward the third stage of European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), the adoption the common currency (designated at the 1995 Madrid European as the Euro).\\nThe four \\\"convergence criteria\\\", as detailed in attached protocols, impose control over inflation, public debt and the public deficit, exchange rate stability and domestic interest rates. With limited leeway granted in exceptional circumstances, the obligations are to maintain:\\n1. Inflation at a rate no more than 1.5 percentage points higher than the average of the three best performing (lowest inflation) Member States;\\n2. a \\\"budgetary position\\\" that avoids \\\"excessive\\\" government deficits defined in ratios to gross domestic product (GDP) of greater than 3% for annual deficits and 60% for gross government debt;\\n3. the exchange rate of the national currency within \\\"the normal fluctuation margins by the exchange-rate mechanism of the European Monetary System without\\nsevere tensions for at least the last two years\\\"; and\\n4. nominal long-term interest rates no more than 2 percentage points higher than in the three Member States with the lowest inflation.\\n\\nThe European Central Bank mandate\\nThese criteria in turn dictated the mandate of the European System of Central Banks comprising the national central banks, but to include the prospective currency-issuing European Central Bank. As envisaged by the Treaty, the ECB replaced its shadow European Monetary Institute on 1 June 1998, and began exercising its full powers with the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999.\\nThe Treaty dedicates the EU central banking system to price stability, and gives it \\\"a degree of independence from elected officials\\\" greater even \\\"than that of its putative model, the German Bundesbank\\\". Whereas the Bundesbank, under article 12 of its constitution, is \\\"bound to support the general economic policy of the [German] Federal Government\\\", the obligation of the ECB to \\\"support the general economic policies in the Community\\\" is to be \\\"without prejudice\\\" to price stability, the Bank's \\\"primary objective\\\". It is further conditioned by the express understanding that \\\"neither the ECB, nor a national central bank, nor any member of their decision-making bodies, shall seek or take instructions from Community institutions or bodies from any Government of a Member State or from any other body.\\\"\\nSeeming to further preclude any possibility of the single-currency banking system being used to regulate European financial markets in support of potentially inflationary policies, the Treaty expressly prohibits the ECB or any Member State central extending \\\"overdraft facilities or any other type of credit facility\\\" to \\\"Community institutions or bodies, central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of Member States\\\", or the purchase from them debt instruments.\\n\\nThe Maastricht economic-policy model\\nCritics felt that, in limiting the role of the future ECB and euro in national, or Union-coordinated, reflationary policies, Maastricht affirmed what by the late 1980s was the general economic-policy orthodoxy within the Community. This has been described as a \\\"reversed Keynesianism\\\": macro-economic policy not to secure a full-employment level of demand, but, through the restrictive control of monetary growth and public expenditure, to maintain price and financial market stability; micro economic policy, not to engineer income and price controls in support of fiscal expansion, but to encourage job creation by reducing barriers to lower labour costs. The commitment to monetary union and the convergence criteria denied member states the resort to currency deflation to ease balance-of-payments constraints on domestic spending, and left labour market \\\"flexibility\\\" as the main mean of coping with asymmetric economic shocks.\\nThese constraints were to become the focus of political scrutiny and public protest in the new-century European debt crisis. Beginning in 2009 with Greece, the governments of several Euro-zone countries (Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Cyprus) declared themselves unable to repay or refinance their government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks without assistance from third parties. The \\\"austerity\\\" they had subsequently to impose as a condition of assistance from Germany and other of their trade-surplus EU partners, raised calls for new arrangements to better manage payment imbalances between member states, and ease the burden of adjustment upon wage-, and benefit-, dependent households. Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis credited the Maastricht criteria with framing of a union of deflation and unemployment.\\nTaking issue in defence of the Maastricht criteria, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble argued that \\\"the old way to stimulate growth will not work.\\\" There is a real \\\"moral hazard\\\" in allowing Member States to accumulate higher debts within the Eurozone – higher debts which, ultimately, have no relationship to higher growth. The Maastricht criteria, he insisted, were correct in placing the onus for growth on \\\"competitiveness, structural reforms, investment, and sustainable financing\\\".\\n\\nForeign and security policy, justice and home affairs\\nSet alongside the European Community, the cooperation proposed in the Maastricht Treaty on foreign and security policy, and on justice and home affairs, were characterised in official commentary as the second and third \\\"pillars\\\" of the Union. The Treaty, however, proposed no significant departures in these areas. Coordination in foreign and security policy had taken place since the beginning of the 1970s under the name of European Political Cooperation (EPC), which had been first written into the treaties by the 1987 Single European Act. Cooperation on law enforcement, criminal justice, asylum, and immigration and other judicial matters was being pursued under the 1990 Schengen Agreement and Convention.\\nThe new provisions called on governments to \\\"inform and consult one another within the Council of Ministers\\\", but otherwise continued cooperation on the basis of intergovernmental liaison outside of the EC and its institutions. The West European Union, an until recently moribund club within NATO, is described as \\\"an integral part of the development of the Union\\\", and asked it to help \\\"elaborate and implement decisions and actions of the Union which have defence implications. Yet it is clear that nothing is to be construed as systematically constraining the foreign or defence policies of the individual Member States. \\\"Failing a Council decision\\\", which would require unanimity, a Member State is free to take such action as it considers \\\"necessary\\\". This, in part, was a concession to United Kingdom which continued to insist on the sufficiency of the North Atlantic alliance (supported by the non-aligned Member States, Ireland and Austria, at the 1997 Amsterdam summit, the UK prevented a merger of the WEU and the EU),\\n\\nSubsidiarity and co-decision\\nAs an implicit presumption subsidiarity may have been considered a check upon the supranational development of the EEC. But in making it an explicit constitutional principle the Maastricht Treaty opened up \\\"debates about whether this strengthened the states, regions or local government vis-à-vis the EU or vice versa\\\". Subsidiarity can be read as a federalising principle. For every endeavour it poses the question of whether national or Community policy is the most effective means, and elevates simple utility above any deference to national or local feeling, albeit with a presumption that action will be taken at European level only where national efforts cannot achieve the objective in question.\\nSceptics note that the Treaty offers no legally actionable definition of subsidiarity. Rather there are \\\"a series of tentative indications for Community action in a document full of imprecise concepts: 'sufficiently', 'better achieved', 'what is necessary', 'to achieve the objectives', subjective notions which leave the way wide open for interpretation or practical developments.\\\" Jacques Santer, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, conceded that consensus around the principle of subsidiarity had been possible only because \\\"it conceals different interpretations\\\".\\nThe 1992 Treaty may have introduced a more consequential constitutional principle in its promotion \\\"co-decision\\\". It introduced procedures that made the European Parliament \\\"co-legislator with the Council of Ministers\\\" and have since been developed and extended to nearly all areas where the Council decides on legislation by qualified majority voting. The \\\"foundations of co-decision in the Maastricht Treaty\\\" have led to ways to reconcile differences between the Parliament and the Council, formally through a \\\"conciliation procedure\\\" and informally through \\\"trialogues\\\" involving negotiations between the European Parliament, Council and Commission, which have become standard in most legislative procedures.\\n\\nAmending Treaties\\nIn establishing the European Union the Maastricht Treaty amended the treaties that had established the European Communities in the 1950s. Following the EU accessions of Austria, Finland, and Sweden, it was in turn amended by the treaties of Amsterdam (1997), and Nice (2001). Following the accession of a further twelve states, ten from the former Eastern Bloc – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia – plus Cyprus and Malta, and an aborted Treaty on a European Constitution, the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community (TEC) were more comprehensively revisited. The 2007 Treaty of Lisbon amends both again and renames the TEC as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).\\n\\nTimeline\\nSince the end of World War II, sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty) in an increasing number of areas, in the European integration project or the construction of Europe (French: la construction européenne). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from the European Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of the Schuman Declaration.\\n\\nSee also\\nTreaties of the European Union\\nTreaty on European Union\\nTreaty on the Functioning of the European Union\\n\\nNotes\\nFurther reading\\nExternal links\\n\\n Works related to Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union at Wikisource\\nConsolidated version of the Treaty on European Union at EUR-Lex\\nTreaty on European Union, signed at Maastricht on 7 February 1992 – Original version\\nMaastricht Treaty (7 February 1992) CVCE\\nProposed 1962 treaty establishing a \\\"European Union\\\" CVCE\\nThe Treaty on European Union – Current consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (in PDF)\",\n \"title\": \"Maastricht_Treaty\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Netherlands, informally Holland, is a country located in Northwestern Europe with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. It shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium. The official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. Dutch, English, and Papiamento are official in the Caribbean territories.\\nNetherlands literally means \\\"lower countries\\\" in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with 26% situated below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders, are the result of land reclamation that began in the 14th century. In the Republican period, which began in 1588, the Netherlands entered a unique era of political, economic, and cultural greatness, ranked among the most powerful and influential in Europe and the world; this period is known as the Dutch Golden Age. During this time, its trading companies, the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, established colonies and trading posts all over the world.\\nWith a population of over 17.9 million people, all living within a total area of 41,850 km2 (16,160 sq mi)—of which the land area is 33,500 km2 (12,900 sq mi)—the Netherlands is the 33rd most densely populated country, with a density of 535 people per square kilometre (1,390 people/sq mi). Nevertheless, it is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products by value, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture, and inventiveness. The four largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. Amsterdam is the country's most populous city and the nominal capital, though the primary national political institutions are located in the Hague.\\nThe Netherlands has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848. The country has a tradition of pillarisation (separation of citizens into groups by religion and political beliefs) and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised prostitution and euthanasia, along with maintaining a liberal drug policy. The Netherlands allowed women's suffrage in 1919 and was the first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001. Its mixed-market advanced economy has the eleventh-highest per capita income globally. The Hague holds the seat of the States General, Cabinet, and Supreme Court. The Port of Rotterdam is the busiest in Europe. Schiphol is the busiest airport in the Netherlands, and the fourth busiest in Europe. Being a developed country, the Netherlands is a founding member of the European Union, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD, and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. It hosts intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are in The Hague.\\n\\nEtymology\\nNetherlands and the Low Countries\\nThe countries that comprise the region called the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) all have comparatively the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nedre, Nether, Lage(r) or Low(er) (in Germanic languages) and Bas or Inferior (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior (nowadays part of Belgium and the Netherlands) and upstream Germania Superior. Thus, in the case of the Low Countries and the Netherlands, the geographical location of this lower region is more or less downstream and near the sea, compared to that of the upper region of Germania Superior. The designation 'Low' returned in the 10th-century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, which covered much of the Low Countries.\\nThe Dukes of Burgundy used the term les pays de par deçà (\\\"the lands over here\\\") for the Low Countries. Under Habsburg rule, this became pays d'embas (\\\"lands down-here\\\"). This was translated as Neder-landen in contemporary Dutch official documents. From a regional point of view, Niderlant was also the area between the Meuse and the lower Rhine in the late Middle Ages. From the mid-sixteenth century, the \\\"Low Countries\\\" and the \\\"Netherlands\\\" lost their original deictic meaning.\\nIn most Romance languages, the term \\\"Low Countries\\\" is officially used as the name for the Netherlands.\\n\\nHolland\\nThe term Holland has frequently been used informally to refer to the whole of the modern country of the Netherlands in various languages, including Dutch and English. In some languages, Holland is used as the formal name for the Netherlands. However, Holland is a region within the Netherlands that consists of the two provinces of North and South Holland. Formerly these were a single province, and earlier the County of Holland, which included parts of present-day Utrecht. The emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, made Holland a pars pro toto for the entire country.\\nMany Dutch people object to the country being referred to as Holland instead of the Netherlands, on much the same grounds as many Welsh or Scottish people object to the United Kingdom being referred to as England. In particular, those from regions other than Holland find it undesirable or misrepresentative to use the term Holland for the whole country, as the Holland region only comprises two of the twelve provinces, and 38% of Dutch citizens. As of 2019, the Dutch government officially has preferred the Netherlands instead of Holland when talking about the country.\\nOften Holland or Hollanders is used by the Flemish to refer to the Dutch in the Netherlands, and by the Southern Dutch (Dutch living \\\"below the great rivers\\\", a natural cultural, social and religious boundary formed by the rivers Rhine and Meuse) to refer to the Northern Dutch (Dutch living North of these rivers). In the Southern province of Limburg, the term is used for the Dutch from the other 11 provinces. The use of the term in this context by the Southern Dutch is in a derogatory fashion.\\n\\nDutch\\nDutch is used as the adjective for the Netherlands, as well as the demonym. The origins of the word go back to Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz, Latinised into Theodiscus, meaning \\\"popular\\\" or \\\"of the people\\\", akin to Old Dutch Dietsch or Old English þeodisc, meaning \\\"(of) the common (Germanic) people\\\". At first, the English language used Dutch to refer to any or all speakers of West Germanic languages. Gradually its meaning shifted to the West Germanic people they had the most contact with.\\n\\nHistory\\nPrehistory (before 800 BC)\\nThe oldest human (Neanderthal) traces in the Netherlands, believed to be about 250,000 years old, were found near Maastricht. At the end of the Ice Age, the nomadic late Upper Palaeolithic Hamburg culture (13,000–10,000 BC) hunted reindeer in the area, using spears. The later Ahrensburg culture (11,200–9,500 BC) used bow and arrow. From Mesolithic Maglemosian-like tribes (c. 8000 BC), the world's oldest canoe was found in Drenthe.\\nIndigenous late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from the Swifterbant culture (c. 5600 BC), related to the southern Scandinavian Ertebølle culture, were strongly linked to rivers and open water. Between 4800 and 4500 BC, the Swifterbant people started to adopt from the neighbouring Linear Pottery culture the practice of animal husbandry, and between 4300 and 4000 BC agriculture. The Funnelbeaker culture (4300–2800 BC) erected the dolmens, large stone grave monuments found in Drenthe. There was a quick transition from the Funnelbeaker farming culture to the pan-European Corded Ware pastoralist culture (c. 2950 BC). In the southwest, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture—related to the Vlaardingen culture (c. 2600 BC)—survived well into the Neolithic period, until it too was succeeded by the Corded Ware culture.\\nThe subsequent Bell Beaker culture (2700–2100 BC) introduced metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze and opened new international trade routes, reflected in copper artefacts. Finds of rare bronze objects suggest that Drenthe was a trading centre in the Bronze Age (2000–800 BC). The Bell Beaker culture developed locally into the Barbed-Wire Beaker culture (2100–1800 BC) and later the Elp culture (1800–800 BC), a Middle Bronze Age culture marked by earthenware pottery. The southern region became dominated by the related Hilversum culture (1800–800 BC).\\n\\nCelts, Germanic tribes and Romans (800 BC–410 AD)\\nFrom 800 BC onwards, the Iron Age Celtic Hallstatt culture became influential, replacing the Hilversum culture. Iron ore brought a measure of prosperity and was available throughout the country. Smiths travelled from settlement to settlement with bronze and iron, fabricating tools on demand. The King's grave of Oss (700 BC) was found in a burial mound, the largest of its kind in Western Europe.\\nThe deteriorating climate in Scandinavia from 850 BC and 650 BC might have triggered the migration of Germanic tribes from the North. By the time this migration was complete, around 250 BC, a few general cultural and linguistic groups had emerged. The North Sea Germanic Ingaevones inhabited the northern part of the Low Countries. They would later develop into the Frisii and the early Saxons. The Weser–Rhine Germanic (or Istvaeones) extended along the middle Rhine and Weser and inhabited the Low Countries south of the great rivers. These tribes would eventually develop into the Salian Franks. The Celtic La Tène culture (c. 450 BC to the Roman conquest) expanded over a wide range, including the southern area of the Low Countries. Some scholars have speculated that even a third ethnic identity and language, neither Germanic nor Celtic, survived in the Netherlands until the Roman period, the Nordwestblock culture.\\n\\nThe first author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the geographer Pytheas, who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, \\\"more people died in the struggle against water than in the struggle against men.\\\" During the Gallic Wars, the area south and west of the Rhine was conquered by Roman forces under Julius Caesar from 57 BC to 53 BC. Caesar describes two main Celtic tribes living in what is now the southern Netherlands: the Menapii and the Eburones. Under Augustus, the Roman Empire would conquer the entirety of the modern day Netherlands, incorporating it into the province of Germania Antiqua in 7 BC, but would be repelled back across the Rhine after the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, with the Rhine becoming fixed as Rome's permanent northern frontier around 12 AD. Notable towns would arise along the Limes Germanicus: Nijmegen and Voorburg. In the first part of Gallia Belgica, the area south of the Limes became part of the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The area to the north of the Rhine, inhabited by the Frisii, remained outside Roman rule, while the Germanic border tribes of the Batavi and Cananefates served in the Roman cavalry. The Batavi rose against the Romans in the Batavian rebellion of 69 AD but were eventually defeated. The Batavi later merged with other tribes into the confederation of the Salian Franks, whose identity emerged in the first half of the third century. Salian Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies. They were forced by the confederation of the Saxons from the east to move over the Rhine into Roman territory in the fourth century. From their new base in West Flanders and the Southwest Netherlands, they were raiding the English Channel. Roman forces pacified the region but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358) when Salian Franks were allowed to settle as foederati in Texandria.\\n\\nEarly Middle Ages (411–1000)\\nAfter the Roman government in the area collapsed in roughly the year 406, the Franks expanded their territories into numerous kingdoms. By the 490s, Clovis I had conquered and united all these territories in the southern Netherlands in one Frankish kingdom, and from there continued his conquests into Gaul. During this expansion, Franks migrating to the south (modern territory of France and Walloon part of Belgium) eventually adopted the Vulgar Latin of the local population. A widening cultural divide grew with the Franks remaining in their original homeland in the north (i.e. the southern Netherlands and Flanders), who kept on speaking Old Frankish, which by the ninth century had evolved into Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch. A Dutch-French language boundary hence came into existence.\\nTo the north of the Franks, climatic conditions improved, and during the Migration Period Saxons, the closely related Angles, Jutes, and Frisii settled the coast. Many moved on to England and came to be known as Anglo-Saxons, but those who stayed would be referred to as Frisians and their language as Frisian. Frisian was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast. By the seventh century, a Frisian Kingdom (650–734) under King Aldegisel and King Redbad emerged with Traiectum (Utrecht) as its centre of power, while Dorestad was a flourishing trading place. Between 600 and around 719 the cities were often fought over between the Frisians and the Franks. In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians were defeated after a series of wars. With the approval of the Franks, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Willibrord converted the Frisian people to Christianity and established the Archdiocese of Utrecht. However, his successor Boniface was murdered by the Frisians in 754.\\n\\nThe Frankish Carolingian empire controlled much of Western Europe. In 843, it was divided into three parts—East, Middle, and West Francia. Most of present-day Netherlands became part of Middle Francia, which was a weak kingdom and subject to numerous partitions and annexation attempts by its stronger neighbours. It comprised territories from Frisia in the north to the Kingdom of Italy in the south. Around 850, Lothair I of Middle Francia acknowledged the Viking Rorik of Dorestad as ruler of most of Frisia. When the kingdom of Middle Francia was partitioned in 855, the lands north of the Alps passed to Lothair II and subsequently were named Lotharingia. After he died in 869, Lotharingia was partitioned, into Upper and Lower Lotharingia, the latter comprising the Low Countries that became part of East Francia in 870. Around 879, another Viking expedition led by Godfrid, Duke of Frisia, raided the Frisian lands. Resistance to the Vikings, if any, came from local nobles, who gained in stature as a result, and that laid the basis for the disintegration of Lower Lotharingia into semi-independent states. One of these local nobles was Gerolf of Holland, who assumed lordship in Frisia, and Viking rule came to an end.\\n\\nHigh Middle Ages (1000–1384)\\nThe Holy Roman Empire ruled much of the Low Countries in the 10th and 11th century but was not able to maintain political unity. Powerful local nobles turned their cities, counties and duchies into private kingdoms that felt little sense of obligation to the emperor. Holland, Hainaut, Flanders, Gelre, Brabant, and Utrecht were in a state of almost continual war or paradoxically formed personal unions. As Frankish settlement progressed from Flanders and Brabant, the area quickly became Old Low Franconian (or Old Dutch).\\nAround 1000 AD, due to several agricultural developments, the economy started to develop at a fast pace, and the higher productivity allowed workers to farm more land or become tradesmen. Towns grew around monasteries and castles, and a mercantile middle class began to develop in these urban areas, especially in Flanders, and later Brabant. Wealthy cities started to buy certain privileges for themselves from the sovereign.\\nAround 1100 AD, farmers from Flanders and Utrecht began draining and cultivating uninhabited swampy land in the western Netherlands, making the emergence of the County of Holland as the centre of power possible. The title of Count of Holland was fought over in the Hook and Cod Wars between 1350 and 1490. The Cod faction consisted of the more progressive cities, while the Hook faction consisted of the conservative noblemen. These noblemen invited Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy to conquer Holland.\\n\\nBurgundian, Habsburg and Spanish Habsburg Netherlands (1384–1581)\\nMost of the Imperial and French fiefs in what is now the Netherlands and Belgium were united in a personal union by Philip the Good in 1433. The House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs would rule the Low Countries from 1384 to 1581. The new rulers defended Dutch trading interests. The fleets of the County of Holland defeated the fleets of the Hanseatic League several times. Amsterdam grew and in the 15th century became the primary trading port in Europe for grain from the Baltic region. Amsterdam distributed grain to the major cities of Belgium, Northern France and England. This trade was vital because Holland could no longer produce enough grain to feed itself. Land drainage had caused the peat of the former wetlands to reduce to a level that was too low for drainage to be maintained.\\nUnder Habsburg Charles V, all fiefs in the current Netherlands region were united into the Seventeen Provinces, which included most of present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of France and Germany. In 1568, under Phillip II, the Eighty Years' War between the Provinces and their Spanish ruler began. The level of ferocity exhibited by both sides can be gleaned from a Dutch chronicler's report:\\n\\nOn more than one occasion men were seen hanging their own brothers, who had been taken prisoners in the enemy's ranks... A Spaniard had ceased to be human in their eyes. On one occasion, a surgeon at Veer cut the heart from a Spanish prisoner, nailed it on a vessel's prow, and invited the townsmen to come and fasten their teeth in it, which many did with savage satisfaction.\\nThe Duke of Alba attempted to suppress the Protestant movement in the Netherlands. Netherlanders were \\\"burned, strangled, beheaded, or buried alive\\\" by his \\\"Blood Council\\\" and Spanish soldiers. Bodies were displayed along roads to terrorise the population into submission. Alba boasted of having executed 18,600; this figure does not include those who perished by war and famine.\\nThe first great siege was Alba's effort to capture Haarlem and thereby cut Holland in half. It dragged on from December 1572 to the next summer, when Haarlemers finally surrendered on 13 July upon the promise that the city would be spared from being sacked. It was a stipulation Don Fadrique was unable to honour, when his soldiers mutinied, angered over pay owed and the miserable conditions of the campaign. On 4 November 1576, Spanish tercios seized Antwerp and subjected it to the worst pillage in the Netherlands' history. The citizens resisted but were overcome; seven thousand were killed and a thousand buildings were torched.\\nFollowing the sack of Antwerp, delegates from Catholic Brabant, Protestant Holland and Zeeland agreed to join Utrecht and William the Silent in driving out Spanish troops and forming a new government for the Netherlands. Don Juan of Austria, the new Spanish governor, was forced to concede initially, but within months returned to active hostilities. The Dutch looked for help from the Protestant Elizabeth I of England, but she initially stood by her commitments to the Spanish in the Treaty of Bristol of 1574. When the next large-scale battle occurred at Gembloux in 1578, the Spanish forces won easily. In light of the defeat at Gembloux, the southern states of the Seventeen Provinces distanced themselves from the rebels in the north with the 1579 Union of Arras. Opposing them, the northern half of the Seventeen Provinces forged the Union of Utrecht in which they committed to support each other against the Spanish. The Union of Utrecht is seen as the foundation of the modern Netherlands.\\n\\nSpanish troops sacked Maastricht in 1579, killing over 10,000 civilians. In 1581, the northern provinces adopted the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence in which the provinces officially deposed Philip II. Against the rebels Philip could draw on the resources of the Spanish Empire. Elizabeth I sympathised with the Dutch struggle and sent an army of 7,600 soldiers to aid them. English forces faced the Spanish in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma in a series of largely indecisive actions that tied down significant numbers of Spanish troops and bought time for the Dutch to reorganise their defences. The war continued until 1648, when Spain under King Philip IV recognised the independence of the seven north-western provinces in the Peace of Münster. Parts of the southern provinces became de facto colonies of the new republican-mercantile empire.\\n\\nDutch Republic (1581–1795)\\nFollowing the declaration of independence, the provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Overijssel, and Gelderland entered into a confederation. All these duchies, lordships and counties enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy and was governed by its own administrative body known as the States-Provincial. The confederal government, known as the States General, was headquartered in The Hague and comprised representatives from each of the seven provinces. The sparsely populated region of Drenthe was part of the republic, albeit not considered a province in its own right. Moreover, during the Eighty Years' War, the Republic came to occupy a number of Generality Lands located in Flanders, Brabant and Limburg. These areas were primarily inhabited by Roman Catholics and lacked a distinct governmental structure of their own. They were utilized as a buffer zone between the Republic and the Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands.\\n\\nIn the Dutch Golden Age, spanning much of the 17th century, the Dutch Empire grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers. Science, military and art (especially painting) were among the most acclaimed in the world. By 1650, the Dutch owned 16,000 merchant ships. The Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company established colonies and trading posts all over the world. The Dutch settlement in North America began with the founding of New Amsterdam in 1614. In South Africa, the Dutch settled the Cape Colony in 1652. Dutch colonies in South America were established along the many rivers in the fertile Guyana plains, among them Colony of Surinam (now Suriname). In Asia, the Dutch established a presence in India, the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), Formosa (now Taiwan), and the only western trading post in Japan, Dejima. During the period of Proto-industrialisation, the empire received 50% of textiles and 80% of silks import from the India's Mughal Empire.\\nMany economic historians regard the Netherlands as the first thoroughly capitalist country. In early modern Europe, it had the wealthiest trading city in Amsterdam, and the first full-time stock exchange. The inventiveness of the traders led to insurance and retirement funds as well as phenomena such as the boom-bust cycle, the world's first asset-inflation bubble, the tulip mania of 1636–1637, and the world's first bear raider, Isaac le Maire. In 1672 – known in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (Disaster Year) – the Dutch Republic was attacked by France, England and three German Bishoprics simultaneously, in what would become known as the Franco-Dutch War. At sea, it could successfully prevent the English and French navies from blockading the western shores. On land, however, it was almost taken over by the advancing French and German armies from the east. It managed to turn the tide by inundating parts of Holland.\\nFrom 1672 to 1712, the Republic, led by William III of Orange and Anthonie Heinsius would regularly clash with France in what some historians have come to call the Forty Years' War. In the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession, the Republic was at the centre of anti-French coalitions. The Dutch ultimately successfully defended the Spanish Netherlands, established a barrier there, and their troops proved central to the alliance which halted French territorial expansion in Europe until a new cycle began in 1792 with the French Revolutionary Wars. However, the wars left them effectively bankrupt, and inflicted permanent damage on the Dutch merchant navy; while they remained the dominant economic power in the Far East, Britain took over as the pre-eminent global commercial and maritime power. Between 1590 and 1713, the United Provinces consistently possessed one of Europe's largest and most capable armies. However, following the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession, other major powers such as Prussia, Austria, Britain, and Russia significantly expanded their military forces. The Republic struggled to match these developments, and gradually assumed the status of a mid-tier power. However, historians have sometimes overstated the extent of this decline, especially when considering the period up to the 1750s.\\n\\nBatavian Republic and Kingdom (1795–1890)\\nIn the 18th century the Dutch Republic had seen a state of a general decline, with economic competition from England and long-standing rivalries between the two main factions in Dutch society, the republican Staatsgezinden and the supporters of the stadtholder the Prinsgezinden as main political factions. With the armed support of revolutionary France, Dutch republicans proclaimed the Batavian Republic, modelled after the French Republic and rendering the Netherlands a unitary state on 19 January 1795. The stadtholder William V of Orange had fled to England. From 1806 to 1810, the Kingdom of Holland was set up by Napoleon Bonaparte as a puppet kingdom governed by his brother Louis Bonaparte. However, King Louis Bonaparte tried to serve Dutch interests instead of his brother's, and he was forced to abdicate on 1 July 1810. The Emperor sent in an army and the Netherlands became part of the French Empire until November 1813, when Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Leipzig.\\n\\nWilliam Frederick, son of the last stadtholder, returned to the Netherlands in 1813 and proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince. Two years later, the Congress of Vienna added the southern Netherlands to the north to create a strong country on the northern border of France. William Frederick raised this United Netherlands to the status of a kingdom and proclaimed himself as King William I in 1815. William became hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg in exchange for his German possessions. However, the Southern Netherlands had been culturally separate from the north since 1581, and rebelled. The south gained independence in 1830 as Belgium (recognised by the Northern Netherlands in 1839 as the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created by decree), while the personal union between Luxembourg and the Netherlands was severed in 1890, when William III died with no surviving male heirs. Ascendancy laws prevented his daughter Queen Wilhelmina from becoming the next Grand Duchess.\\nThe Belgian Revolution and the Java War in the Dutch East Indies brought the Netherlands to the brink of bankruptcy. However, the Cultivation System was introduced in 1830; in the Dutch East Indies, 20% of village land had to be devoted to government crops for export. The policy brought the Dutch enormous wealth and made the colony self-sufficient. The Netherlands abolished slavery in its colonies in 1863. Enslaved people in Suriname would be fully free only in 1873.\\n\\nWorld wars and beyond (1890–present)\\nThe Netherlands remained neutral during World War I, in part because the import of goods through the Netherlands proved essential to German survival until the blockade by the British Royal Navy in 1916. That changed in World War II, when Germany invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. The Rotterdam Blitz forced most of the Dutch army to surrender. During the occupation, over 100,000 Dutch Jews were transported to Nazi extermination camps; only a few survived. Dutch workers were conscripted for forced labour in Germany, civilians who resisted were killed in reprisal for attacks on German soldiers, and the countryside was plundered for food. Although there were thousands of Dutch who risked their lives by hiding Jews from the Germans, over 20,000 Dutch fascists joined the Waffen SS. Political collaborators were members of the fascist NSB, the only legal political party in the occupied Netherlands. On 8 December 1941, the Dutch government-in-exile in London declared war on Japan, but could not prevent the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies. In 1944–45, the First Canadian Army liberated much of the Netherlands. Soon after VE Day, the Dutch fought a colonial war against the new Republic of Indonesia.\\n\\nDecolonisation\\nIn 1954, the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands reformed the political structure as a result of international pressure to carry out decolonisation. The Dutch colonies of Surinam and Curaçao and Dependencies and the European country all became countries within the Kingdom, on a basis of equality. Indonesia had declared its independence in August 1945. Suriname followed in 1975. The Netherlands was one of the founding members of Benelux and NATO. In the 1950s, the Netherlands became one of the six founding countries of the European Communities, following the 1952 establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community, and subsequent 1958 creations of the European Economic Community and European Atomic Energy Community. In 1993, the former two were incorporated into the European Union.\\nGovernment-encouraged emigration efforts to reduce population density prompted some 500,000 Dutch to leave the country after the war. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great social and cultural change, such as rapid de-pillarisation. Students and other youth rejected traditional mores and pushed for change in matters such as women's rights, sexuality, disarmament and environmental issues. In 2002 the euro was introduced as fiat money, and in 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Referendums were held on each island. As a result, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) were incorporated as special municipalities upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. The special municipalities are collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands.\\n\\nGeography\\nThe European Netherlands has a total area of 41,543 km2 (16,040 sq mi), including water bodies, and a land area of 33,481 km2 (12,927 sq mi). The Caribbean Netherlands has a total area of 328 km2 (127 sq mi) It lies between latitudes 50° and 54° N, and longitudes 3° and 8° E.\\nThe Netherlands is geographically very low relative to sea level and is considered a flat country, with about 26% of its area and 21% of its population below sea level. The European part of the country is for the most part flat, with the exception of foothills in the far southeast, up to a height of no more than 322 m (1,056 ft) at the Vaalserberg, and some low hill ranges in the central parts. Most of the areas below sea level are caused by peat extraction or achieved through land reclamation. Since the late 16th century, large polder areas are preserved through elaborate drainage systems that include dikes, canals and pumping stations.\\nMuch of the country was originally formed by the estuaries of three large European rivers: the Rhine (Rijn), the Meuse (Maas) and the Scheldt (Schelde), as well as their tributaries. The south-western part of the Netherlands is a river delta of these rivers, the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta.\\nThe European Netherlands is divided into north and south parts by the Rhine, the Waal, its main tributary branch, and the Meuse. These rivers functioned as a natural barrier between fiefdoms and hence historically created a cultural divide, as is evident in some phonetic traits that are recognisable on either side of what the Dutch call their \\\"Great Rivers\\\" (de Grote Rivieren). Another significant branch of the Rhine, the IJssel river, discharges into Lake IJssel, the former Zuiderzee ('southern sea'). Just like the previous, this river forms a linguistic divide: people to the northeast of this river speak Dutch Low Saxon dialects (except for the province of Friesland, which has its own language).\\n\\nGeology\\nThe Netherlands is mostly composed of deltaic, coastal and aeolian derived sediments during the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods.\\nAlmost the entire west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary. In the east of the Netherlands, remains are found of the last ice age, which ended approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed moraine forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered the eastern half of the Netherlands. After the ice age ended, the moraine remained in the form of a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built on these hills.\\n\\nFloods\\nOver the centuries, the Dutch coastline has changed considerably as a result of natural disasters and human intervention.\\nOn 14 December 1287, St. Lucia's flood affected the Netherlands and Germany, killing more than 50,000 people in one of the most destructive floods in recorded history. The St. Elizabeth flood of 1421 and the mismanagement in its aftermath destroyed a newly reclaimed polder, replacing it with the 72 km2 (28 sq mi) Biesbosch tidal floodplains. The huge North Sea flood of February 1953 caused the collapse of several dikes in the southwest Netherlands; more than 1,800 people drowned. The Dutch government subsequently instituted a large-scale programme, the \\\"Delta Works\\\", to protect the country against future flooding, which was completed over a period of more than 40 years.\\n\\nThe impact of disasters was, to an extent, increased through human activity. Relatively high-lying swampland was drained to be used as farmland. The drainage caused the fertile peat to contract and ground levels to drop; groundwater levels were lowered to compensate, causing the underlying peat to contract further. Additionally, until the 19th century peat was mined, dried, and used for fuel, further exacerbating the problem. Even in flooded areas, peat extraction continued through turf dredging.\\nTo guard against floods, a series of defences against the water were contrived. In the first millennium AD, villages and farmhouses were built on hills called terps. Later, these terps were connected by dikes. In the 12th century, local government agencies called \\\"waterschappen\\\" (\\\"water boards\\\") or \\\"hoogheemraadschappen\\\" (\\\"high home councils\\\") started to appear, whose job it was to maintain the water level and to protect a region from floods; these agencies continue to exist. As the ground level dropped, the dikes by necessity grew and merged into an integrated system. By the 13th century windmills had come into use to pump water. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders.\\nIn 1932 the Afsluitdijk (\\\"Closure Dike\\\") was completed, blocking the former Zuiderzee (Southern Sea) from the North Sea and thus creating the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake). It became part of the larger Zuiderzee Works in which four polders totalling 2,500 square kilometres (965 sq mi) were reclaimed from the sea.\\nThe Netherlands is one of the countries that may suffer most from climate change. Not only is the rising sea a problem, but erratic weather patterns may cause the rivers to overflow.\\n\\nDelta Works\\nAfter the 1953 disaster, the Delta Works was constructed, which is a comprehensive set of civil works throughout the Dutch coast. The project started in 1958 and was largely completed in 1997 with the completion of the Maeslantkering. Since then, new projects have been periodically started to renovate and renew the Delta Works. The main goal of the Delta project was to reduce the risk of flooding in South Holland and Zeeland. This was achieved by raising 3,000 km (1,900 mi) of outer sea-dikes and 10,000 km (6,200 mi) of the inner, canal, and river dikes, and by closing off the sea estuaries of Zeeland. New risk assessments occasionally show problems requiring additional Delta project dike reinforcements. The Delta project is considered by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.\\nIt is anticipated that global warming will result in a rise in sea level. The Netherlands is actively preparing for a sea-level rise. A politically neutral Delta Commission has formulated an action plan to cope with a sea-level rise of 1.10 m (4 ft) and a simultaneous land height decline of 10 cm (4 in). The plan encompasses the reinforcement of existing coastal defences like dikes and dunes with 1.30 m (4.3 ft) of additional flood protection. Climate change will not only threaten the Netherlands from the coast, but could also alter rainfall patterns and river run-off. To protect the country from river flooding, another programme is already being executed. The Room for the River plan grants more flow space to rivers, protects the major populated areas and allows for periodic flooding of indefensible lands. The few residents who lived in these so-called \\\"overflow areas\\\" have been moved to higher ground, with some of that ground having been raised above anticipated flood levels.\\n\\nClimate change\\nThe Netherlands is already affected by climate change. The average temperature in the Netherlands rose by more than 2 °C from 1901 to 2020. Climate change has resulted in increased frequency of droughts and heatwaves. Because significant portions of the Netherlands have been reclaimed from the sea or otherwise are very near sea level, the Netherlands is very vulnerable to sea level rise.\\nThe Netherlands has the fourth largest greenhouse gas emissions per capita of the European Union, in part due to the large number of cows. The Dutch government has set goals to lower emissions in the next few decades. The Dutch response to climate change is driven by a number of unique factors, including larger green recovery plans by the European Union in the face of the COVID-19 and a climate change litigation case, State of the Netherlands v. Urgenda Foundation, which created mandatory climate change mitigation through emissions reductions 25% below 1990 levels. In 2021 CO2 emissions were down 14% compared to 1990 levels. The goal of the Dutch government is to reduce emissions in 2030 by 49%.\\n\\nNature\\nThe Netherlands has 21 national parks and hundreds of other nature reserves. Most of these are owned by Staatsbosbeheer, the national department for forestry and nature conservation and Natuurmonumenten, a private organisation that buys, protects and manages nature reserves. The Wadden Sea in the north, with its tidal flats and wetlands, is rich in biological diversity, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Nature Site. The Eastern Scheldt, formerly the northeast estuary of the river Scheldt was designated a national park in 2002, making it the largest national park in the Netherlands at an area of 370 km2 (140 sq mi).\\nPhytogeographically, the European Netherlands is shared between the Atlantic European and Central European provinces of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the European territory of the Netherlands belongs to the ecoregion of Atlantic mixed forests. In 1871, the last old original natural woods were cut down. These woods were planted on anthropogenic heaths and sand-drifts (overgrazed heaths) (Veluwe). The Netherlands had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 0.6/10, ranking it 169th globally out of 172 countries.\\nNitrogen pollution is a problem. The number of flying insects in the Netherlands has dropped by 75% since the 1990s.\\n\\nCaribbean islands\\nIn the Lesser Antilles islands of the Caribbean, the territories of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten have a constituent country status within the wider Kingdom of the Netherlands. Another three territories which make up the Caribbean Netherlands are designated as special municipalities. The Caribbean Netherlands have maritime borders with Anguilla, Curaçao, France (Saint Barthélemy), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela. The islands of the Caribbean Netherlands enjoy a tropical climate with warm weather all year round.\\n\\nWithin this island group:\\n\\nBonaire is part of the ABC islands within the Leeward Antilles island chain off the Venezuelan coast. The Leeward Antilles have a mixed volcanic and coral origin.\\nSaba and Sint Eustatius are part of the SSS islands within the Leeward Islands. They are located east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The locals (French, Spanish, Dutch and the locally spoken English) consider them part of the Windward Islands, although in the international English language, the Windward Islands refer to other islands further south. These two islands are of volcanic origin and hilly, leaving little ground suitable for agriculture. The highest point is Mount Scenery, 887 m (2,910 ft), on Saba. This is the highest point in the country and in the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands.\\n\\nGovernment and politics\\nThe Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815 and a parliamentary democracy since 1848. The Netherlands is described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by an effort to achieve broad consensus on important issues. The Netherlands was ranked as the 17th best electoral democracy in the world by V-Dem Democracy indices in 2023 and 9th most democratic country in the world by the Democracy Index (The Economist) in 2022.\\nThe monarch is the head of state, at present King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with limited powers due to ministerial responsibility. \\n\\nThe executive power is formed by the government that includes the monarch and the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the Dutch cabinet. The cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of state secretaries. One to three ministers are ministers without portfolio. The council of ministers is presided over by the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, who often is the leader of the largest party of the coalition. The Prime Minister is a primus inter pares, with no explicit powers beyond those of the other ministers. Dick Schoof has been Prime Minister since July 2024, succeeding the longest-serving Prime Minister Mark Rutte.\\nThe cabinet is responsible to the bicameral parliament, the States General, which also has legislative powers. The 150 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house, are elected in direct elections on the basis of party-list proportional representation. These are held every four years, or sooner in case the cabinet falls. The provincial assemblies, the States Provincial, are directly elected every four years as well. The members of the provincial assemblies elect the 75 members of the Senate, the upper house, which has the power to reject laws, but not amend them.\\n\\nPolitical culture\\nBoth trade unions and employers organisations are consulted in policymaking in the financial, economic and social areas. They meet regularly with the government in the Social-Economic Council.\\nThe Netherlands has a tradition of social tolerance. In the late 19th century this Dutch tradition of religious tolerance transformed into a system of pillarisation, in which religious groups coexisted separately and only interacted at the level of government. Protection for LGBT and abortion rights are enshrined within the Netherlands' foreign aid policy.\\nNo single party has held a majority in parliament since the 19th century, and as a result, coalition cabinets had to be formed. Since suffrage became universal in 1917, the Dutch political system has been dominated by three families of political parties: Christian Democrats (currently the CDA), Social Democrats (currently the PvdA), and Liberals (currently the VVD). In November 2023, the right-wing populist Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders was the winner of a general election, securing 37 out of 150 seats. A cabinet was inaugurated in July 2024, and Dick Schoof succeeded Mark Rutte as prime minister.\\n\\nAdministrative divisions\\nThe Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces, each under a King's Commissioner. All provinces are divided into municipalities (gemeenten), of which there are 342 (2023).\\nThe country is subdivided into 21 water districts, governed by a water board (waterschap or hoogheemraadschap), each having authority in matters concerning water management. The creation of water boards pre-dates that of the nation itself, the first appearing in 1196. The Dutch water boards are among the oldest democratic entities in the world still in existence. Direct elections of the water boards take place every four years.\\nWithin the Dutch town of Baarle-Nassau, are 22 Belgian exclaves and within those are 8 Dutch enclaves.\\n\\nThe administrative structure on the three BES islands, collectively known as the Caribbean Netherlands, is outside the twelve provinces. These islands have the status of openbare lichamen (public bodies). In the Netherlands these administrative units are often referred to as special municipalities.\\n\\nForeign relations\\nThe history of Dutch foreign policy has been characterized by its neutrality. According to the 2024 Global Peace Index, Netherlands is the 18th most peaceful country in the world. Since World War II, the Netherlands has become a member of a large number of international organisations, most prominently the UN, NATO and the EU.\\nThe foreign policy of the Netherlands is based on four basic commitments: to Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. One of the more controversial international issues surrounding the Netherlands is its liberal policy towards soft drugs.\\nThe historical ties inherited from its colonial past in Indonesia and Suriname still influence the foreign relations of the Netherlands. Many with heritage from these countries now live permanently in the Netherlands.\\n\\nMilitary\\nThe Netherlands has one of the oldest standing armies in Europe; it was first established in the late 1500s. After the defeat of Napoleon, the Dutch army was transformed into a conscription army. The Netherlands abandoned its neutrality in 1948 when it signed the Treaty of Brussels, and became a founding member of NATO in 1949. The Dutch military was therefore part of the NATO strength in Cold War Europe. In 1983 the (ceremonial) function of commander of chief of the monarch was transferred to the government, which means the monarch (nominal head of state) has no formal military function. In 1996 conscription was suspended, and the Dutch army was once again transformed into a professional army. Since the 1990s the Dutch army has been involved in the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War, it held a province in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, and it was engaged in Afghanistan. The Netherlands has ratified many international conventions concerning war law. The Netherlands decided not to sign the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.\\nThe military is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix Koninklijke (Royal):\\n\\nKoninklijke Marine (KM), the Royal Netherlands Navy, including the Naval Air Service and Marine Corps;\\nKoninklijke Landmacht (KL), the Royal Netherlands Army;\\nKoninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu), the Royal Netherlands Air Force;\\nKoninklijke Marechaussee (KMar), the Royal Marechaussee (Military Police), tasks include military police and border control.\\nThe submarine service opened to women on 1 January 2017. The Korps Commandotroepen, the Special Operations Force of the Netherlands Army, is open to women, but because of the extremely high physical demands for initial training, it is almost impossible for a woman to become a commando. The Dutch Ministry of Defence employs more than 70,000 personnel, including over 20,000 civilians and over 50,000 military personnel.\\n\\nEconomy\\nSince the 16th century, shipping, fishing, agriculture, trade, and banking have been leading sectors of the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has a high level of economic freedom. The Netherlands is one of the top countries in the Global Enabling Trade Report (2nd in 2016), and was ranked the fifth most competitive economy in the world by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2017. The country was ranked the 8th most innovative nation in the world in the 2024 Global Innovation Index down from 2nd in 2018.\\nAs of 2020, the key trading partners of the Netherlands were Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, China and Russia. The Netherlands is one of the world's 10 leading exporting countries. Foodstuffs form the largest industrial sector. Other major industries include chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, trade, services and tourism. Examples of international Dutch companies operating in the Netherlands include Randstad, Heineken, KLM, financial services (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank), chemicals (DSM, AKZO), petroleum refining (Shell plc), electronic machinery (Philips, ASML), and satellite navigation (TomTom).\\nThe Netherlands has the 17th-largest economy in the world, and ranks 11th in GDP (nominal) per capita. The Netherlands has low income inequality, but wealth inequality is relatively high. Despite ranking 11th in GDP per capita, UNICEF ranked the Netherlands 1st in child well-being in rich countries, both in 2007 and in 2013.\\nAmsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX), part of Euronext, is the world's oldest stock exchange and is one of Europe's largest bourses. As a founding member of the euro, the Netherlands replaced (for accounting purposes) its former currency, the \\\"gulden\\\" (guilder), on 1 January 1999. Actual euro coins and banknotes followed on 1 January 2002. One euro was equivalent to 2.20371 Dutch guilders. In the Caribbean Netherlands, the United States dollar is used instead. The Netherlands is a \\\"conduit country\\\" that helps to funnel profits from high-tax countries to tax havens. It has been ranked as the 4th largest tax haven in the world.\\n\\nThe Dutch location gives it prime access to markets in the United Kingdom and Germany, with the Port of Rotterdam being the largest port in Europe. Other important parts of the economy are international trade, banking and transport. The Netherlands successfully addressed the issue of public finances and stagnating job growth long before its European partners. Amsterdam is the 5th-busiest tourist destination in Europe, with more than 4.2 million international visitors. Since the enlargement of the EU, large numbers of migrant workers have arrived in the Netherlands from Central and Eastern Europe.\\nThe Netherlands continues to be one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the five largest investors in the United States. The economy experienced a slowdown in 2005, but in 2006 recovered to the fastest pace in six years on the back of increased exports and strong investment. The pace of job growth reached 10-year highs in 2007. The Netherlands is the fourth-most competitive economy in the world, according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.\\n\\nEnergy\\nBeginning in the 1950s, the Netherlands discovered huge natural gas resources. The sale of natural gas generated enormous revenues for the Netherlands for decades, adding, over sixty years, hundreds of billions of euros to the government's budget. However, the unforeseen consequences of the country's huge energy wealth impacted the competitiveness of other sectors of the economy, leading to the theory of Dutch disease. The field is operated by government-owned Gasunie and output is jointly exploited by the government, Royal Dutch Shell, and ExxonMobil. Gas production caused earthquakes which damaged housing. After a large public backlash, the government decided to phase out gas production from the field.\\nThe Netherlands has made notable progress in its transition to a carbon-neutral economy. Thanks to increasing energy efficiency, energy demand shows signs of decoupling from economic growth. The share of energy from renewable sources doubled from 2008 to 2019, with especially strong growth in offshore wind and rooftop solar. However, the Netherlands remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels and has a concentration of energy- and emission-intensive industries that will not be easy to decarbonise. Its 2019 Climate Agreement defines policies and measures to support the achievement of Dutch climate targets and was developed through a collaborative process involving parties from across Dutch society. As of 2018, the Netherlands had one of the highest rates of carbon dioxide emissions per person in the European Union.\\n\\nAgriculture and natural resources\\nThe Netherlands' biocapacity totals only 0.8 global hectares per person in 2016, 0.2 of which are dedicated to agriculture. The Dutch biocapacity per person is just about half of the 1.6 global hectares of biocapacity per person available worldwide. In contrast, in 2016, the Dutch used on average 4.8 global hectares of biocapacity - their ecological footprint of consumption. As a result, the Netherlands was running a biocapacity deficit of 4.0 global hectares per person in 2016. The Dutch waste more food than any other EU citizen, at over three times the EU average.\\nThe Dutch agricultural sector is highly mechanised, and has a strong focus on international exports. It employs about 4% of the Dutch labour force but produces large surpluses in the food-processing industry and accounts for 21% of the Dutch total export value. The Dutch rank first in the European Union and second worldwide in value of agricultural exports, behind only the United States, with agricultural exports earning €80.7 billion in 2014, up from €75.4 billion in 2012. In 2019 agricultural exports were worth €94.5 billion. In an effort to reduce agricultural pollution, the Dutch government is imposing strict limits on the productivity of the farming sector, triggering Dutch farmers' protests.\\nOne-third of the world's exports of chilis, tomatoes, and cucumbers go through the country. The Netherlands exports one-fifteenth of the world's apples. A significant portion of Dutch agricultural exports consists of fresh-cut plants, flowers, and flower bulbs, with the Netherlands exporting two-thirds of the world's total.\\n\\nDemographics\\nThe Netherlands had an estimated population of 17,947,406 as of 31 November 2023. It is the 6th most densely populated country in Europe and the 33rd most densely populated country in the world with a density of 424 per square kilometre (1,100/sq mi). Between 1900 and 1950, the country's population almost doubled from 5.1 to 10 million. From 1950 to 2000, the population further increased, to 15.9 million.\\nThe fertility rate in the Netherlands is 1.78 children per woman (2018 estimate), which is high compared with many other European countries, but below the rate of 2.1 children per woman required for natural population replacement. The Netherlands has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.7 years. Life expectancy is high in the Netherlands: 84.3 years for newborn girls and 79.7 for boys (2020 estimate). The Dutch are the tallest people in the world, by nationality, with an average height of 1.81 metres (5 ft 11.3 in) for men and 1.67 metres (5 ft 5.7 in) for women in 2009. The average height of young men in the Netherlands increased from 5 feet, 4 inches to approximately 6 feet between the 1850s until the early 2000s.\\nThe country has a migration rate of 1.9 migrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year. The majority of the population of the Netherlands is ethnically Dutch. In 2022, the population was 74.8% ethnically Dutch, 8.3% other European, 2.4% Turkish, 2.4% Moroccan, 2.0% Indonesian, 2.0% Surinamese, and 8.1% others. Some 150,000 to 200,000 people living in the Netherlands are expatriates, mostly concentrated in and around Amsterdam and The Hague, now constituting almost 10% of the population of these cities. Significant minorities in the country include Frisians 700,000, Jews 41,000-45,000 and the Roma and the Sinti 40,000.\\n\\nAccording to Eurostat, in 2010 there were 1.8 million foreign-born residents in the Netherlands, corresponding to 11.1% of the total population. Of these, 1.4 million (8.5%) were born outside the EU and 0.43 million (2.6%) were born in another EU Member State. On 21 November 2016, there were 3.8 million residents in the Netherlands with at least one foreign-born parent. Over half the young people in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have a non-western background. Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in South Africa and the United States.\\nThe Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam in the province North Holland, Rotterdam and The Hague in the province South Holland, and Utrecht in the province Utrecht. The Randstad has a population of about 8.2 million inhabitants and is the 5th largest metropolitan area in Europe. According to Dutch Central Statistics Bureau, in 2015, 28 per cent of the Dutch population had a spendable income above 45,000 euros (which does not include spending on health care or education).\\n\\nLanguage\\nThe official language of the Netherlands is Dutch, which is spoken by the vast majority of inhabitants. The dialects most spoken in the Netherlands are the Brabantian-Hollandic dialects.\\nBesides Dutch, West Frisian is recognised as a second official language in the northern province of Friesland (Fryslân in West Frisian). West Frisian has a formal status for government correspondence in that province. Four other languages are protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The first of these recognised regional languages is Low Saxon (Nedersaksisch in Dutch). Low Saxon consists of several dialects of the Low German language spoken in the north and east of the Netherlands, like Tweants in the region of Twente, and Drents in the province of Drenthe.\\nLimburgish is recognised as a regional language. It consists of Dutch varieties of Meuse-Rhenish and is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg. Yiddish and the Romani language were recognised in 1996 as non-territorial languages.\\nEnglish has a formal status in the special municipalities of Saba and Sint Eustatius. It is widely spoken on these islands. Papiamento has a formal status in the special municipality of Bonaire.\\nThe Netherlands has a long tradition of learning foreign languages, formalised in Dutch education laws. Some 90% of the total population are able to converse in English, 70% in German, and 29% in French. English is a mandatory course in all secondary schools. In most lower level secondary school educations (vmbo), one additional modern foreign language is mandatory during the first two years. In higher level secondary schools (havo and vwo), the acquisition of two additional modern foreign language skills is mandatory. Besides English, the standard modern languages are French and German, although schools can replace one of these with Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Turkish or Arabic. Additionally, schools in Friesland teach and have exams in West Frisian.\\n\\nReligion\\nForms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the Netherlands for more than 1,200 years, and by the middle of the sixteenth century the country was strongly Protestant (Calvinist). The population was predominantly Christian until the late 20th century. Although significant religious diversity remains, there has been a decline of religious adherence.\\nIn 2020, Statistics Netherlands found that 55% of the total population declared itself non-religious. Groups that represent the non-religious in the Netherlands include Humanistisch Verbond. Catholics comprised 19.8% of the total population, Protestants (14.4%). Muslims comprised 5.2% of the total population and followers of other Christian denominations and other religions (like Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism) comprised the remaining 5.1%. A 2015 survey from another source found that Protestants outnumbered Catholics.\\nThe southern provinces of North Brabant and Limburg have historically been strongly Catholic, and some residents consider the Catholic Church as a base for their cultural identity. Protestantism in the Netherlands consists of a number of churches within various traditions. The largest of these is the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), a united church which is Calvinist and Lutheran in orientation. It was formed in 2004 as a merger of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and a smaller Lutheran Church. Several orthodox Calvinist and liberal churches did not merge into the PKN. Although Christianity has become a minority in the Netherlands, it contains a Bible Belt from Zeeland to the northern parts of the province Overijssel, in which Protestant beliefs remain strong. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and the Ascension of Jesus).\\nIslam is the second largest religion in the state. The Muslim population increased from the 1960 as a result of large numbers of migrant workers. This included migrant workers from Turkey and Morocco, as well as migrants from former Dutch colonies, such as Surinam and Indonesia. During the 1990s, Muslim refugees arrived from countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan. Since 2000 there has been raised awareness of religion, mainly due to Islamic extremism.\\nAnother religion practised is Hinduism, with around 215,000 adherents (slightly over 1% of the population). Most of these are Indo-Surinamese. There are sizeable populations of Hindu immigrants from India and Sri Lanka, and Western adherents of Hinduism-orientated new religious movements such as Hare Krishnas. The Netherlands has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people strongly attracted to this religion, mainly ethnic Dutch people. There are about 30,000 Jews in the Netherlands, though the Institute for Jewish Policy Research estimates range from 30,000 to 63,000, depending on how the number is calculated.\\nThe Constitution of the Netherlands guarantees freedom of education, which means that all schools that adhere to general quality criteria receive the same government funding. This includes schools based on religious principles by religious groups (especially Catholic and Protestant). Three political parties in the Dutch parliament, (CDA, and two small parties, ChristianUnion and SGP) are based upon the Christian belief. Several Christian religious holidays are national holidays (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and the Ascension of Jesus).\\nA survey in December 2014 concluded that for the first time there were more atheists (25%) than theists (17%) in the Netherlands, while the remainder of the population was agnostic (31%) or ietsistic (27%). In 2015, a vast majority of the inhabitants of the Netherlands (82%) said they had never or almost never visited a church, and 59% stated that they had never been to a church. Of all the people questioned, 24% saw themselves as atheist, an increase of 11% compared to the previous study done in 2006. The expected rise of spirituality has come to a halt according to research in 2015. In 2006, 40% of respondents considered themselves spiritual; in 2015 this has dropped to 31%. The number who believed in the existence of a higher power fell from 36% to 28% over the same period.\\n\\nEducation\\nEducation in the Netherlands is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. If a child does not have a \\\"starting qualification\\\" (HAVO, VWO or MBO 2+ degree) they are still forced to attend classes until they achieve such a qualification or reach the age of 18.\\nChildren in the Netherlands attend elementary school from (on average) ages 4 to 12. It has eight grades and the first is facultative. Based on an aptitude test, the eighth grade teacher's recommendation and the opinion of the pupil's parents or caretakers, a choice is made for one of the three main streams of secondary education.\\n\\nThe VMBO has four grades and is subdivided over several levels. Successfully completing the VMBO results in a low-level vocational degree that grants access to the MBO. The MBO (middle-level applied education) is a form of education that primarily focuses on teaching a practical trade or a vocational degree. With the MBO certification, a student can apply for the HBO. The HAVO has 5 grades and allows for admission to the HBO. The HBO (higher professional education) are universities of professional education (applied sciences) that award professional bachelor's degrees; similar to polytechnic degrees. An HBO degree gives access to the university system. The VWO (comprising atheneum and gymnasium) has 6 grades and prepares for studying at a research university. Universities offer a three-year bachelor's degree, followed by a one or two-year master's degree, which in turn can be followed by a doctoral degree programme.\\nDoctoral candidates in the Netherlands are generally non-tenured employees of a university. All Dutch schools and universities are publicly funded and managed with the exception of religious schools. Dutch universities have a tuition fee of about 2,000 euros a year for students from the Netherlands and the EU, and 15,000 euros for non-EU students.\\n\\nHealthcare\\nIn 2016, the Netherlands maintained its position at the top of the annual Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI), which compares healthcare systems in Europe, scoring 916 of a maximum 1,000 points. The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005. On 48 indicators such as patient rights and information, accessibility, prevention and outcomes, the Netherlands secured its top position among 37 European countries for six years in a row.\\nThe Netherlands was ranked first in a study in 2009 comparing the health care systems of the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.\\nAccording to the Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP), patients have a great degree of freedom from where to buy their health insurance, to where they get their healthcare. Healthcare decisions are made in dialogue between patients and healthcare professionals. Healthcare in the Netherlands is split 3 ways: in somatic and mental health care and in 'cure' (short term) and 'care' (long term). Home doctors (huisartsen, comparable to general practitioners) form the largest part of the first level. Being referred by a member of the first level is mandatory for access to the second and third level. The health care system is in comparison to other Western countries, effective but not the most cost-effective.\\nHealthcare is financed by a dual system that came into effect in January 2006. Long-term treatments, especially those that involve semi-permanent hospitalisation, and disability costs such as wheelchairs, are covered by a state-controlled mandatory insurance. In 2009 this insurance covered 27% of all health care expenses. Other sources of health care payment are taxes (14%), out of pocket payments (9%), additional optional health insurance packages (4%) and a range of other sources (4%).\\nHealth insurance in the Netherlands is mandatory. Healthcare in the Netherlands is covered by two statutory forms of insurance:\\n\\nZorgverzekeringswet (ZVW), often called \\\"basic insurance\\\", covers common medical care.\\nAlgemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten (AWBZ) covers long-term nursing and care.\\nWhile Dutch residents are automatically insured by the government for AWBZ, everyone has to buy their own basic healthcare insurance, except those under 18 who are automatically covered under their parents. Insurance companies are obliged to provide a package with a defined set of insured treatments. This insurance covers 41% of all health care expenses. Insurers have to offer a universal package for everyone over 18, regardless of age or state of health – it is illegal to refuse an application or impose special conditions. The funding burden for all short-term health care coverage is carried 50% by employers, 45% by the insured person and 5% by the government. Those on low incomes receive compensation to help them pay their insurance. Premiums paid by the insured are about €135 per month.\\n\\nTransport\\nMobility on Dutch roads has grown continuously since the 1950s and now exceeds 200 billion km travelled per year, three quarters of which are done by car. Around half of all trips in the Netherlands are made by car, 25% by bicycle, 20% walking, and 5% by public transport.\\n\\nRoad transport\\nThe Netherlands has one of the densest road networks in the world. The Netherlands has a relatively high uptake of electric vehicles, as the government implemented ambitious policy on both charging infrastructure and tax benefits. As of 2019, the Netherlands hosts approximately 30% of all recharging stations in the European Union. Moreover, newly sold cars in the Netherlands have on average the lowest CO2 emissions in the EU.\\n\\nPublic transport\\nAbout 13% of all distance is travelled by public transport, the majority of which is by train. The Dutch rail network of 3,013 km route is also rather dense. The network is mostly focused on passenger rail services and connects all major cities, with over 400 stations. Trains are frequent, with two trains per hour on lesser lines, two to four trains per hour on average, and up to eight trains an hour on the busiest lines. The Dutch national train network includes the HSL-Zuid, a high-speed line between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgian border for trains running from Paris and London, to the Netherlands.\\n\\nCycling\\nCycling is a ubiquitous mode of transport. Almost as many kilometres are covered by bicycle as by train. The Dutch are estimated to have at least 18 million bicycles, which makes more than one per capita, and twice as many as the circa 9 million motor vehicles on the road. In 2013, the European Cyclists' Federation ranked the Netherlands and Denmark as the most bike-friendly countries in Europe. Cycling infrastructure is extensive. Busy roads have received some 35,000 km of dedicated cycle tracks, physically segregated from motorised traffic. Busy junctions are often equipped with bicycle-specific traffic lights. There are large bicycle parking facilities, particularly in city centres and train stations.\\n\\nWater transport\\nThe Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the largest port outside East Asia, with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream. As of 2022, Rotterdam was the world's tenth largest container port. The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. The Volkeraksluizen between Rotterdam and Antwerp are the biggest sluices for inland navigation in terms of tonnage. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, was completed. Amsterdam is Europe's 4th largest port. The inland shipping fleet of the Netherlands is the largest in Europe. Passenger boats in the Netherlands includes a ferry network in Amsterdam, and waterbusses and taxis in Rotterdam.\\n\\nAir transport\\nSchiphol Airport, just southwest of Amsterdam, is the main international airport in the Netherlands, and the third busiest airport in Europe by number of passengers. Schiphol is the main hub for KLM, the nation's flag carrier and the world's oldest airline. In 2016, the Royal Schiphol Group airports handled 70 million passengers. All air traffic is international and Schiphol Airport is connected to over 300 destinations worldwide, more than any other European airport. The airport is a major freight hub as well, processing 1.44 million tonnes of cargo in 2020. Smaller international airports are located in or near Eindhoven, Rotterdam, Maastricht and Groningen. Air transport is of vital significance for the Caribbean part of the Netherlands, with all islands having their own airport. This includes the shortest runway in the world on Saba.\\n\\nCulture\\nArt, architecture and philosophy\\nThe Netherlands has had many well-known painters. In the Middle Ages Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder were leading Dutch pioneers. During the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch Republic was prosperous and witnessed a flourishing artistic movement. The \\\"Dutch Masters\\\", spanning this 17th century era, included Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, and Jacob van Ruisdael. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century included Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondrian.\\nLiterature flourished during the Dutch Golden Age, with Joost van den Vondel and P. C. Hooft as the most famous writers. In the 19th century, Multatuli wrote about the poor treatment of the natives in the Dutch colony. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is the most translated book from Dutch. Other important 20th century authors include Harry Mulisch, Jan Wolkers, Hella Haasse, Willem Frederik Hermans, Cees Nooteboom and Gerard Reve.\\nVarious architectural styles can be distinguished in the Netherlands. The Romanesque architecture was built between 950 and 1250. Gothic architecture was used from about 1230. Gothic buildings had large windows, pointed arches and were richly decorated. Brabantine Gothic originated with the rise of the Duchy of Brabant and spread throughout the Burgundian provinces. Dutch Baroque architecture (1525–1630) and classicism (1630–1700) is especially evident in the west. Other architectural styles are Art Nouveau, Expressionism, De Stijl, Traditionalism and Brutalism.\\nErasmus and Spinoza were famous Dutch philosophers. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629–95) discovered Saturn's moon Titan, argued that light travelled as waves, invented the pendulum clock, and was the first physicist to use mathematical formulae. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms with a microscope.\\nWindmills, tulips, clogs, cheese, and cannabis have grown to symbolize the Netherlands, especially among tourists.\\n\\nDutch value system\\nThe Dutch are proud of their cultural heritage, rich history in art, and involvement in international affairs. A predominant attitude in the Netherlands is to think of the nation as being \\\"both tolerant and cosmopolitan.\\\"\\nA Dutch saying indicating their sense of national pride in their reclamation of land from the sea and marshes is \\\"God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands.\\\"\\n\\nDutch manners are open and direct with a no-nonsense attitude—informality combined with adherence to basic behaviour. \\\"Dealing with the Dutch\\\" by Jacob Vossestein states: \\\"Dutch egalitarianism is the idea that people are equal, especially from a moral point of view, and accordingly, causes the somewhat ambiguous stance the Dutch have towards hierarchy and status.\\\"\\nThe Netherlands is one of the most secular countries of Europe, and religion in the Netherlands is generally considered as a personal matter which is not supposed to be propagated in public, although it often remains a discussion subject.\\n\\nMusic\\nThe Netherlands has multiple music traditions. Traditional Dutch music is a genre known as \\\"Levenslied\\\", meaning Song of life. These songs typically have a simple melody and rhythm, and a straightforward structure of verses and choruses. Themes can be light, but are often sentimental and include love, death and loneliness. Traditional musical instruments such as the accordion and the barrel organ are a staple of levenslied music, though in recent years many artists use synthesisers and guitars.\\nContemporary Dutch rock and pop music (Nederpop) originated in the 1960s, heavily influenced by popular music from the United States and Britain. Bands such as Shocking Blue, Golden Earring, Tee Set, George Baker Selection and Focus enjoyed international success. From the 1980s, more and more pop musicians started working in the Dutch language, partly inspired by the huge success of the band Doe Maar.\\n\\nCurrent symphonic metal bands Epica, Delain, ReVamp, The Gathering, Asrai, Autumn, Ayreon and Within Temptation as well as jazz and pop singer Caro Emerald are having international success. Metal bands like Hail of Bullets, God Dethroned, Izegrim, Asphyx, Textures, Heidevolk, and Slechtvalk are popular guests at the biggest metal festivals in Europe. Contemporary local stars include pop singer Anouk, country pop singer Ilse DeLange, Limburgish dialect singing folk band Rowwen Hèze, rock band BLØF and duo Nick & Simon.\\nEarly 1990s Dutch and Belgian house music came together in Eurodance project 2 Unlimited. Selling 18 million records, the two singers in the band are the most successful Dutch music artists to this day. Tracks like \\\"Get Ready for This\\\" are still popular themes of U.S. sports events. In the mid-1990s Dutch language rap and hip hop (Nederhop) came to fruition and has become popular in the Netherlands and Belgium.\\nSince the 1990s, Dutch electronic dance music (EDM) gained widespread popularity in the world in many forms. Some of the world's best known dance music DJs hail from the Netherlands, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Dash Berlin, Julian Jordan, Nicky Romero, W&W, Don Diablo, Ummet Ozcan, Headhunterz, Sander van Doorn, and Afrojack; the first four of which have been ranked as best in the world by DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. The Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) is the world's leading electronic music conference and the biggest club festival for the many electronic subgenres on the planet. The Netherlands has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first edition in 1956, and has won five times.\\nIn classical music, Jan Sweelinck is a famous Dutch composer, with Louis Andriessen among the best known contemporary Dutch classical composers. Ton Koopman is a Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. Notable violinists are Janine Jansen and André Rieu.\\n\\nFilm and television\\nSome Dutch films – mainly by director Paul Verhoeven – have received international distribution and recognition, such as Turkish Delight (\\\"Turks Fruit\\\", 1973), Soldier of Orange (\\\"Soldaat van Oranje\\\", 1977), Spetters (1980), and The Fourth Man (\\\"De Vierde Man\\\", 1983). Verhoeven then went on to direct big Hollywood movies like RoboCop (1987), Total Recall (1990), and Basic Instinct (1992), and returned with Dutch film Black Book (\\\"Zwartboek\\\", 2006).\\nOther well-known Dutch film directors are Jan de Bont, Anton Corbijn, Dick Maas, Fons Rademakers, and documentary makers Bert Haanstra and Joris Ivens. Film director Theo van Gogh achieved international notoriety in 2004 when he was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in the streets of Amsterdam after directing the short film Submission.\\nDirectors of photography from the Netherlands include Hoyte van Hoytema and Theo van de Sande. Internationally successful Dutch actors include Famke Janssen, Carice van Houten, Rutger Hauer, and Jeroen Krabbé.\\nThe Netherlands has a well developed television market, with both multiple commercial and public broadcasters. Imported TV programmes, as well as interviews with responses in a foreign language, are virtually always shown with the original sound and subtitled. Only foreign shows for children are dubbed.\\nTV exports from the Netherlands mostly take the form of specific formats and franchises, most notably was the internationally active TV production conglomerate Endemol, founded by Dutch media tycoons John de Mol and Joop van den Ende. Endemol and its subsidiaries created and ran reality, talent, and game show franchises worldwide, including Big Brother and Deal or No Deal. Endemol merged with Shine Group in 2015, and again with Banijay in 2020.\\n\\nSports\\nApproximately 4.5 million of the 16.8 million people in the Netherlands are registered in one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two-thirds of the population between 15 and 75 participate in sports weekly. Football is the most popular team sport, followed by field hockey and volleyball. Tennis, gymnastics and golf are the three most widely engaged in individual sports. Organisation of sports began at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Federations for sports were established, rules were unified and sports clubs came into existence. A Dutch National Olympic Committee was established in 1912.\\nThe national football team was runner-up in the World Cup of 1974, 1978, and 2010, and won the European Championship of 1988. Of SI's 50 greatest footballers of all time, Johan Cruyff (#5), Marco van Basten (#19), Ruud Gullit (#25), and Johan Neeskens (#36) are Dutch. The women's national team was runner-up in 2019 World Cup and won the European Championship of 2017. The Netherlands women's field hockey team won 9 out of 15 World Cups. The Netherlands baseball team have won the European championship 24 times out of 33 events. The volleyball national women's team won the European Championship in 1995 and the World Grand Prix in 2007.\\nThe Netherlands has won 266 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and 110 at the Winter Olympic Games. Joop Zoetemelk won the 1979 Vuelta a Espana, the 1980 Tour de France, and the 1985 UCI World Championship. Jan Janssen won the 1968 Tour de France, Tom Dumoulin the 2017 Giro d'Italia. Max Verstappen, the youngest Formula 1 driver to make his debut and to win a race, was the first Dutchman to win a Grand Prix and a Formula One World Drivers Championship. Dutch K-1 kickboxers have won the K-1 World Grand Prix 15 times out of 19 tournaments.\\n\\nCuisine\\nDutch cuisine is simple and straightforward, and contains many dairy products. Breakfast and lunch are typically bread with toppings, with cereal for breakfast as an alternative. Traditionally, dinner consists of potatoes, meat, and vegetables. The Dutch diet was high in carbohydrates and fat, reflecting the dietary needs of the labourers whose culture moulded the country. During the twentieth century this diet changed and became more cosmopolitan, with most global cuisines being represented in the major cities. In early 2014, Oxfam ranked the Netherlands as the country with the most nutritious, plentiful and healthy food. Modern culinary writers distinguish between three regional forms of Dutch cuisine: northeast, west and south:\\nThe regions in the northeast are the least populated areas of the Netherlands. The late 18th century introduction of large scale agriculture means the cuisine is known for its meats. The relative lack of farms allowed for an abundance of game and husbandry, though dishes near the coastal regions include a large amount of fish. The various dried sausages, belonging to the metworst-family of Dutch sausages are found throughout this region. Smoked sausages are common, of which (Gelderse) rookworst is the most renowned. Larger sausages are eaten alongside stamppot, hutspot, or zuurkool (sauerkraut); whereas smaller ones are eaten as a street food. The provinces are home to hard textured rye bread, pastries and cookies. As a coastal region, Friesland is home to low-lying grasslands, and thus has a cheese production in common with the Western cuisine. Cookies are produced in great number and contain a lot of butter and sugar. The traditional alcoholic beverages are beer (strong pale lager) and Jenever, a high proof juniper-flavoured spirit, that came to be known in England as gin. An exception within the traditional Dutch alcoholic landscape, Advocaat, a rich and creamy liqueur made from eggs, sugar and brandy, is native to this region.\\nIn the West, the abundance of water and flat grasslands, mean the area is known for its dairy products, which include prominent cheeses such as Gouda, Leyden (spiced cheese with cumin), and Edam (traditionally in small spheres) as well as Leerdammer and Beemster, while the adjacent Zaanstreek in North Holland has since the 16th century been known for its mayonnaise and typical whole-grain mustards. A by-product of the butter-making process, karnemelk (buttermilk), is considered typical for this region. Seafood such as soused herring, mussels, eels, oysters and shrimps are widely available and typical for the region.\\nThe Southern Dutch cuisine consists of the cuisines of the Dutch provinces of North Brabant and Limburg and the Flemish Region in Belgium. It is renowned for its rich pastries, soups, stews and vegetable dishes. It is the only Dutch culinary region that developed an haute cuisine. Pastries are abundant, often with rich fillings of cream, custard or fruits. Cakes, such as the Vlaai from Limburg and the Moorkop and Bossche Bol from Brabant, are typical pastries. Savoury pastries abound, with the worstenbroodje (a roll with a sausage of ground beef, literally translates into sausage bread) being the most popular. The alcoholic beverage of the region is beer, there are many local brands, ranging from Trappist to Kriek.\\n\\nSee also\\nOutline of the Netherlands\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nSources\\nExternal links\\n\\nNetherlands from UCB Libraries GovPubs\\nNetherlands at Curlie\\nI am Expat – General information about the Netherlands\\nNetherlands profile from the BBC News\\n Wikimedia Atlas of Netherlands\\n Geographic data related to Netherlands at OpenStreetMap\\nKey Development Forecasts for the Netherlands from International Futures\\nGovernment\\n\\nGovernment.nl – official Dutch government web site\\nStatistics Netherlands (CBS) – Key figures from the Dutch bureau of statistics\\n\\\"Provinces of Netherlands\\\". Statoids.\\nTravel\\n\\nHolland.com – English website of the Netherlands tourist office\\nNetherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions – Organisation responsible for promoting the Netherlands nationally and internationally\",\n \"title\": \"Netherlands\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"What is the capital of the country where the Treaty on European Union was signed?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Amsterdam"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":682,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"682"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Red Stripe is a 4.7% ABV pale lager brewed by Desnoes & Geddes in Jamaica and the Netherlands. It was first introduced in 1928 from a recipe developed by Paul H. Geddes and Bill Martindale. In 1993, Guinness Brewing Worldwide, now Diageo, acquired a controlling interest in Desnoes & Geddes, and took over international distribution in many markets. In 2015, Heineken acquired Diageo's stake and stated it would launch an offer for the shares it did not own.\n\nHistory\nRed Stripe was first produced in the early 1930s by Galena Brewing Company in Galena, Illinois, US. The company sold the recipe to British investors after facing financial troubles. The investors brought the brand and recipe to Jamaica. \nRed Stripe was brewed under license in the UK from Desnoes and Geddes by the Bedford-based brewers, Charles Wells from 1976 until 2014, when Diageo made alternative supply arrangements. For part of the Charles Wells era, they brewed a stronger variant, the 9% ABV Crucial Brew, with branding in red and black. \nIn 1993, 51 per cent ownership in Desnoes & Geddes Limited was purchased by Guinness Brewing Worldwide, now Diageo, an acquisition that significantly increased the international distribution of both Red Stripe and Dragon Stout. A new Red Stripe Light has also been added, which is brewed and bottled in Jamaica and imported by Guinness USA of Stamford, Connecticut.\n\nUnited States\nRed Stripe was first imported to the United States in 1985, with poor initial results. Seeking to mimic the success of Heineken, Red Stripe for export was packaged in green standard 12 U.S. fl oz (355 mL; 12.5 imp fl oz) bottles. American consumers exposed to Red Stripe through their travels to Jamaica, as well as Jamaican expatriates, were reluctant to try the brand in the States since it was not packaged in its distinctive squat brown bottle and painted label. This marketing issue was resolved only to have shipments temporarily suspended in January 1989 due to cannabis smuggling in shipping containers discovered in the Port of Miami. Red Stripe recovered and rode the popularity of dance hall and reggae in the early 1990s to well over a million cases of annual distribution. Red Stripe is a significant sponsor of reggae, ska, and other music events, including the annual Reggae Sumfest hosted in Montego Bay.\nDiageo introduced canned Red Stripe, brewed under contract by Moosehead in New Brunswick, to the United States market in 2009.\nIn the U.S. in 2010, the bottling size was reduced from a typical 12 oz. per serving to 11.2 oz. per serving which is equivalent to the typical metric serving of 0.33 litre.\nIn 2012, Diageo moved production of the U.S. supply of Red Stripe from Jamaica to the U.S., contract-brewed for it by City Brewing Co. of La Crosse, Wisconsin, at its Latrobe Brewing Company facility in Pennsylvania. Desnoes & Geddes still made Red Stripe for Jamaica, Brazil, Canada and Europe.\nLack of consumer acceptance of U.S.-brewed Red Stripe resulted in brewing for the States returning to Jamaica. On 7 September 2016 the company celebrated the shipment of the first container of Red Stripe to be exported to the United States from Jamaica in 4 years. The company said this historic move was core to the company's mission of re-establishing Jamaica as the global hub for the Jamaican brand. \nIt was still being imported to the U.S. in 2023, from Jamaica in bottles, and the Netherlands in kegs and cans.\n\nAdvertising\nIn North America, a television advertising campaign launched in 2001 features Dorrel Salmon playing a comedic take on a Jamaican man, using variations on the catchphrase, \"Hooray, beer!\" In the UK, the advertising campaign plays on the 'easy vibe' of Jamaican Beer, with catchphrases such as \"easy now.\"\n\nSponsorship\nRed Stripe has been an intermittent sponsor of the Jamaica national bobsled team. In February 2018, following turmoil within the Jamaica Olympic women's bobsled team, Red Stripe stepped in at the last minute to sponsor a new bobsled so that the team could compete in the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics as planned.\nOther major sporting sponsorship activities have included a commitment as the Caribbean regional sponsor for the 2007 Cricket World Cup and a J$100 million sponsorship commitment to the Jamaican Football Federation in support of the national team's regional qualifying efforts for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.\nIn 2007, under the guidance of brand manager Jonny Kirkham, Red Stripe initiated a campaign in the UK to support new music by sponsoring events such as the Camden Crawl and The Great Escape festivals, as well as hosting a number of free music events with artists such as The View and The Rifles. Recent work with new bands puts this initiative in direct competition with the likes of Carling as a featured sponsor of the underground music scene. In support of this promotional strategy, the Red Stripe Music Awards were initiated between 2007 and 2010, with the winner of the award receiving featured billing at two music festivals, Blissfields and The Great Escape, and the opportunity to tour with a high-profile act. Winners of the award included The Runners, Ben Howard, Klaus Says Buy The Record, and The Laurel Collective, while judges ranged from musicians such as Guy Garvey, music journalists and brand representatives from Red Stripe. As a result, brand sales grew significantly with Red Stripe becoming available throughout Camden, Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton and in key music venues across the UK. During this period, Red Stripe continued to be the unofficial beer of the Notting Hill Carnival which it has been since 1976.\nWriter and music festival PR Alex Lee Thomson also presented a series of web-based interviews for the brand during their sponsorship periods of Camden Crawl and The Great Escape festivals in the UK, while editing their music-based website.\nRed Stripe sponsors sports talk television program Pardon the Interruption during the summer months, alternating with Guinness. Also recently Red Stripe began sponsoring the International Festival of Thumb Wrestling held annually in Mason City, Iowa. Red Stripe also sponsored Ignite Urban competition along with SUM Entertainment.\nRed Stripe Light has also been announced as the official beer category Major Sponsor for the 2010 Zwack Air Hockey World Championships taking place in July 2010 in Houston, Texas.\n\nSee also\nJamaican cuisine\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nOfficial Jamaican website\nGerman Shop Website\nUS Official Website\nUK Official Website\nRed Stripe Sumfest","title":"Red_Stripe"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Swedish Match AB is a Swedish multinational tobacco company headquartered in Stockholm. The company manufactures snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff, tobacco- and nicotine-free pouch products, chewing tobacco, chew bags, tobacco bits, cigars, matches, lighters, and other fire products with operations in Sweden, Denmark, the United States, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, the Netherlands, and the Philippines. The company's origins can be traced back to 1868, and Ivar Kreuger. Swedish Match has played an important part in Sweden's industrial development.\nIn May 2022, Philip Morris launched a takeover bid for Swedish Match. Despite some shareholder resistance, by late November 2022 Philip Morris had acquired over 90% ownership, allowing it to begin the compulsory purchase of remaining shares and de-list Swedish Match from the stock market.\n\nHistory\nThe operations of Swedish Match originate from two companies: Svenska Tobaksmonopolet, a tobacco monopoly owned by the Swedish state and founded in 1915, and Svenska Tändsticks Aktiebolaget (STAB), a match manufacturing company founded in 1917 by Ivar Kreuger (also known as the ”Match King”) in connection with the acquisition of Jönköpings Tändsticksfabrik. In 1992, the tobacco and lights operations were joined in the Procordia Group. Two years later, they were merged into an independent company named Swedish Match, which became publicly listed in 1996.\nDuring parts of its existence, most recently between 2010 and 2015, the company has been headquartered in the so-called Matchstick Palace, commissioned by Ivar Kreuger in the late 1920s.\n\nSvenska Tändsticks AB (STAB)\nIn 1917, Ivar Kreuger founded Svenska Tändsticks Aktiebolaget (STAB) in Jönköping (also known as \"City of the matches\"). It was a merger between Aktiebolaget Förenade Tändsticksfabriker and Jönköpings & Vulcans Tändsticksfabriksaktiebolag. By expanding through acquisition of government-created monopolies by lending money to the governments, and through mergers with for instance the British match company Bryant and May in 1927, it became the world's largest match manufacturer. A year later, STAB was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. In 1930, the company controlled 60 percent of the world's match production and was the sole owner of match companies in 33 countries.\nFollowing the death of Ivar Kreuger in 1932, the ownership structure in STAB changed and a number of factories were liquidated. During 1938, STAB's share of the world's matchmaking fell to 20 percent. When the match market declined sharply in the 1950s, STAB looked for new business ventures and acquired more than 50 companies between 1968 and 1976.\nIn 1980, Svenska Tändsticks AB changed its name to Swedish Match to create unity throughout the group. In 1988 the company was acquired by Stora AB and was sold two years later to Nederlight. After another two years, Procordia acquired Swedish Match.\n\nAB Svenska Tobaksmonopolet\nIn 1915, the Swedish government founded AB Svenska Tobaksmonopolet and nationalized all Swedish tobacco production plants. The monopoly was introduced in order to give the government funds to finance the country's military defense and a new national pension system.\nDuring the 1960s, the monopoly on production, import and sale of tobacco was abolished in Sweden. Svenska Tobaksmonopolet was converted to a new state-owned company named Svenska Tobaks AB. In 1971, the ownership of the tobacco group was transferred to Statsföretag, the Swedish Sovereign Wealth Fund, which in 1984 was renamed Procordia.\nAs a result of the monopoly being abolished and in order to broaden the market, the Dutch cigar company Elisabeth Bas/La Paz (EBAS), the American tobacco manufacturer Pinkerton Tobacco Company (maker of Red Man, a chewing tobacco brand introduced in the U.S. in 1904) and the Dutch cigar producer Willem II were acquired between 1968 and 1989. In 1989, Procodia was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Volvo acquired part of Procordia in 1990 and became the principal owner together with the Swedish government. To complement the tobacco business, Procordia, in 1992, acquired the match and lighter company Swedish Match from Nederlight.\n\nSwedish Match AB\nIn 1992, the listed company Procordia acquired the match and lighter business named Swedish Match. The operations of Swedish Match were integrated with Procordia United Brands, one of Procordia's business operations, and was renamed Swedish Match to take advantage of international name recognition. In 1994, Swedish Match functioned as an independent company and was later, in 1996, listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm AB and on Nasdaq.\nIn 1999, the company sold its cigarette manufacturing to Austria Tabak but is still active as a distributor of cigarettes on the Swedish market. In the same year, Swedish Match expanded its cooperation with PT. Java Match Factory (Jamafac), the biggest safety matches manufacturer in Indonesia, to a joint venture agreement in order to strengthen its position within lights and matches in Southeast Asia. Jamafac was divested in 2005 and now has a license agreement with Swedish Match to produce matches and distribute Cricket Lighters in Indonesia.\nIn 2009, Swedish Match entered an agreement with Philip Morris International and formed the joint venture company SMPM International, with equal stakes owned by each of the two partners, for exploring and developing new markets for snus and other smokefree tobacco products outside Scandinavia and the United States. The collaboration placed test markets in Tel Aviv, Israel; St. Petersburg, Russia; Taiwan; and nationwide Canada. The joint venture was, however, dissolved in 2015.\nIn 2010, Swedish Match and Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) formed a new company specialized in cigars. Swedish Match brought its entire cigar business (with the exception of U.S. mass market cigars) and pipe tobacco into the new company, while STG transferred all of its tobacco business. The new company took over the name Scandinavian Tobacco Group. Swedish Match became a partner with 49 percent of the company, and the remaining shares were owned by Skandinavisk Holding A/S. In 2016, STG became publicly listed, and Swedish Match sold most of its shares in the company.\n\nIn 2017, Swedish Match acquired V2 Tobacco, a producer of chew bags and snus, and in 2018, Oliver Twist, a producer of tobacco bits. Both companies are Danish and now fully owned by Swedish Match. Also in 2018, Swedish Match bought a 95 percent stake in the Swedish company Gotlandssnus, which produces snus.\nIn 2022, Swedish Match's shares hit record high as Philip Morris International (PMI) closed a $16 billion dollar deal with the company.\nPMI completed the acquisition and eventually delisted Swedish Match.\n\nOperations\nSnus, moist snuff, cigars, chewing tobacco, chew bags, tobacco bits, matches and lighters are the main products made by Swedish Match. The company also sells complementary products, such as razors, batteries and light bulbs, on the Brazilian market.\n\nOrganization\nThe organizational structure consists of three divisions, along with corporate functions.\n\nEurope division\nThe Europe division develops, manufactures, markets and sells snus, nicotine pouches and other smokeless products. The geographic scope is international except North America, with a focus on Europe.\n\nUS division\nThe US Division produces chewing tobacco, cigars, moist snuff and nicotine pouches for the American market. It is also responsible for sales and marketing in the United States.\n\nLights division\nThe Lights division manufactures and markets matches and lighters, with production in Brazil, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Sweden. The main markets are Europe, Asia, Brazil and parts of Africa. The division also sells complementary products, mainly in Brazil.\n\nOperating locations and factories\nSwedish Match operates in eleven countries and has production units in seven of those: Brazil, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sweden and the US. The company has 15 factories.\nThe table below presents an overview of Swedish Match's operations as of 2021: \n\nProduction of matches and lightersThe matches produced by Swedish Match are safety matches and are manufactured in Sweden and Brazil. The entity that produces matches in Sweden, Swedish Match Industries AB, is since 2009 certified according to the Forest Stewardship Council chain of custody standard and the standard for controlled wood. The matches are manufactured according to the European match standards EN 1783:1997.\n40 percent of the production is sold in Europe and 60 percent to Africa, Central America, The Caribbean, Oceania and the Middle East. The Swedish manufacturing facilities are located in Tidaholm and Vetlanda. In Brazil, 95% of the wood consumption for safety matches and matchboxes is from Swedish Match's own plantations. Swedish Match produces lighters in the Philippines, the Netherlands and Brazil.\n\nMarket\nWhile today's Swedish Match still produces matches, the majority of its sales and operating profits comes from its smokeless tobacco products such as snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff and chewing tobacco. In 2021, these smokeless products accounted for 67 percent of sales and 74 percent of Swedish Match's operating profit, whereas matches and lighters accounted for 7 percent of sales and 4 percent of operating profit. Swedish Match's cigars accounted for 26 percent of sales and 23 percent of the operating profit.\nSwedish Match generates most of its sales in Scandinavia and the US(93 percent of company sales in 2021) but also has a significant worldwide presence through its matches and lighters businesses.\n\nSmokefree products\nScandinavia and the US are the primary markets for Swedish Match's smokefree products. The company is market leader in snus in both Sweden and Norway. In 2021, the operating profit for smokefree products (chew bags, tobacco bits, snus, moist snuff, nicotine pouches and chewing tobacco) increased to 5,998 MSEK (5,142 MSEK in 2021).\nThe market for Scandinavian snus and the US moist snuff/snus is approximately 1.745 billion cans per year (345 million cans in Scandinavia and 1.4 billion cans in the US). The snus market in the US is about $175 million, and Swedish Match has about 10 percent of the market.\n\nCigars\nIn 2014, the US cigar market was estimated to more than 5 billion cigars (excluding little cigars) of which Swedish Match produced 1.1 billion sticks of cigars. The cigar market grew 9 percent compared to 2013 in terms of volume. Swedish Match's share was even greater in the recent past, as a series of acquisitions between 1999 and 2010 including General Cigar and Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) which is the world's largest cigar producer and manufactures more than 50 percent of the world's pipe tobacco. Control of major brands such as Macanudo, Punch, Cohiba, CAO and La Gloria Cubana gave Swedish Match nearly 1/3 of the US premium cigar market in addition to its strong position in machine-made cigars. However, in 2014 Swedish Match, having reorganized its premium-cigar businesses under the STG umbrella, spun off STG as a public company. Swedish Match's cigar business is now limited to machine-made mass-production brands such as White Owl and Garcia y Vega.\n\nMatches and lighters\nSwedish Match supplies matches worldwide. The main markets for matches are Europe, Asia and the Americas. For lighters, the most important markets are Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Scandinavia, France and UK. In 2021, 59 billion matchsticks were produced and 325 million lighters. Sales for matches and lighters was 1,338 MSEK (1,149 MSEK in 2020) and the operating profit increased by 0.8 percent to 1,453 MSEK (1,382 MSEK in 2020).\n\nMain brands\nBelow are Swedish Match's main brands along with market information as of 2021:\n\nSwedish Match is also active on the Brazilian market with disposable razors, batteries, light bulbs and toothpicks under the Fiat Lux brand.\n\nMarket position and competition\nIn 2019, cigarettes made up 88 percent of the global tobacco market by value, smokeless products 2 percent and other products, which includes e-cigarettes, 10 percent. Swedish Match is active in the smokeless products category, with several types of smokeless products, as well as in the other products category, with cigars.\n\nIn the United States\nFor nicotine pouches in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in the U.S. market, with 84 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were BAT (Reynolds American) and Altria.\nFor moist snuff in 2019, Swedish Match was number three in the U.S. market, with 8 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were Altria (USSTC) and BAT (Reynolds American).\nFor chewing tobacco in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in the U.S. market, with 41 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were National Tobacco, Swisher, and BAT (Reynolds American).\nFor mass market cigars, excluding little cigars, in 2019, Swedish Match was number two in the U.S. market, with 22 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were Swisher, Altria (Middleton), and Imperial Brands (ITG Brands).\n\nIn Scandinavia\nFor snus in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in both the Swedish and Norwegian markets, with 61 and 55 percent, respectively.\nFor nicotine pouches in 2019, Swedish Match was number two in the Swedish market and number three in the Norwegian market, with 26 and 15 percent, respectively.\nFor snus and nicotine pouches combined in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in both the Swedish and Norwegian markets, with 60 and 49 percent, respectively. In Sweden, the main competitors, in descending order, were Imperial Brands, BAT, and Japan Tobacco International. In Norway, the main competitors, in descending order, were Imperial Brands and BAT.\n\nSwedish Match in the US\nIn the US, Swedish Match produces and distributes the Longhorn, Timber Wolf and Red Man brands of moist snuff. The company also expanded into the United States premium cigar business by purchasing General Cigar Company Inc. (producer of non-Cuban versions of Macanudo, Partagas and Punch) from Edgar Cullman and El Credito Cigar Company (producer of La Gloria Cubana and El Rico Habano) from Ernesto Perez-Carrillo. In October 2010, the company transferred its US premium cigar and European cigar businesses, as well as its pipe tobacco and accessories businesses, to a new company named Scandinavian Tobacco Group, while receiving a 49 percent ownership stake in the new company.\nIn an effort to expand its snus business outside of Sweden and Norway, the company has, since 2009, been selling its Scandinavian market leading brand of snus, General, at tobacco retailers in the US. The distribution of General snus has increased over the years, from being sold in approximately 10,000 stores in 2012 to more than 24,000 stores by the end of 2014.\nFor the US, snus is a relatively new category while the main smokeless category is moist snuff. Moist snuff is made using fermentation. Snus is made using a steam heat process (much like pasteurisation) and is usually placed under the upper lip, which means that spitting is not necessary.\n\nKey people\nSwedish Match's board after the annual general meeting in 2021:\n\nPresident and CEO:Lennart Sundén, 1998–2004Sven Hindrikes, 2004–2008Conny Karlsson (born 1955) is chairman of the board since 2007 and board member since 2006.Lars Dahlgren (born 1970) is president and CEO of Swedish Match since 2008.\n\nOwnership structure\nIn 2021, 78,3 percent of Swedish Match was owned by foreign investors.\n\nSee also\nList of cigar brands\nSnus\nMatches\nLighter\nCricket Lighters\nTobacco industry\nJohn Dalli\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nOfficial website\nSwedish Match Industries","title":"Swedish_Match"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Red Stripe is a 4.7% ABV pale lager brewed by Desnoes & Geddes in Jamaica and the Netherlands. It was first introduced in 1928 from a recipe developed by Paul H. Geddes and Bill Martindale. In 1993, Guinness Brewing Worldwide, now Diageo, acquired a controlling interest in Desnoes & Geddes, and took over international distribution in many markets. In 2015, Heineken acquired Diageo's stake and stated it would launch an offer for the shares it did not own.\\n\\nHistory\\nRed Stripe was first produced in the early 1930s by Galena Brewing Company in Galena, Illinois, US. The company sold the recipe to British investors after facing financial troubles. The investors brought the brand and recipe to Jamaica. \\nRed Stripe was brewed under license in the UK from Desnoes and Geddes by the Bedford-based brewers, Charles Wells from 1976 until 2014, when Diageo made alternative supply arrangements. For part of the Charles Wells era, they brewed a stronger variant, the 9% ABV Crucial Brew, with branding in red and black. \\nIn 1993, 51 per cent ownership in Desnoes & Geddes Limited was purchased by Guinness Brewing Worldwide, now Diageo, an acquisition that significantly increased the international distribution of both Red Stripe and Dragon Stout. A new Red Stripe Light has also been added, which is brewed and bottled in Jamaica and imported by Guinness USA of Stamford, Connecticut.\\n\\nUnited States\\nRed Stripe was first imported to the United States in 1985, with poor initial results. Seeking to mimic the success of Heineken, Red Stripe for export was packaged in green standard 12 U.S. fl oz (355 mL; 12.5 imp fl oz) bottles. American consumers exposed to Red Stripe through their travels to Jamaica, as well as Jamaican expatriates, were reluctant to try the brand in the States since it was not packaged in its distinctive squat brown bottle and painted label. This marketing issue was resolved only to have shipments temporarily suspended in January 1989 due to cannabis smuggling in shipping containers discovered in the Port of Miami. Red Stripe recovered and rode the popularity of dance hall and reggae in the early 1990s to well over a million cases of annual distribution. Red Stripe is a significant sponsor of reggae, ska, and other music events, including the annual Reggae Sumfest hosted in Montego Bay.\\nDiageo introduced canned Red Stripe, brewed under contract by Moosehead in New Brunswick, to the United States market in 2009.\\nIn the U.S. in 2010, the bottling size was reduced from a typical 12 oz. per serving to 11.2 oz. per serving which is equivalent to the typical metric serving of 0.33 litre.\\nIn 2012, Diageo moved production of the U.S. supply of Red Stripe from Jamaica to the U.S., contract-brewed for it by City Brewing Co. of La Crosse, Wisconsin, at its Latrobe Brewing Company facility in Pennsylvania. Desnoes & Geddes still made Red Stripe for Jamaica, Brazil, Canada and Europe.\\nLack of consumer acceptance of U.S.-brewed Red Stripe resulted in brewing for the States returning to Jamaica. On 7 September 2016 the company celebrated the shipment of the first container of Red Stripe to be exported to the United States from Jamaica in 4 years. The company said this historic move was core to the company's mission of re-establishing Jamaica as the global hub for the Jamaican brand. \\nIt was still being imported to the U.S. in 2023, from Jamaica in bottles, and the Netherlands in kegs and cans.\\n\\nAdvertising\\nIn North America, a television advertising campaign launched in 2001 features Dorrel Salmon playing a comedic take on a Jamaican man, using variations on the catchphrase, \\\"Hooray, beer!\\\" In the UK, the advertising campaign plays on the 'easy vibe' of Jamaican Beer, with catchphrases such as \\\"easy now.\\\"\\n\\nSponsorship\\nRed Stripe has been an intermittent sponsor of the Jamaica national bobsled team. In February 2018, following turmoil within the Jamaica Olympic women's bobsled team, Red Stripe stepped in at the last minute to sponsor a new bobsled so that the team could compete in the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics as planned.\\nOther major sporting sponsorship activities have included a commitment as the Caribbean regional sponsor for the 2007 Cricket World Cup and a J$100 million sponsorship commitment to the Jamaican Football Federation in support of the national team's regional qualifying efforts for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.\\nIn 2007, under the guidance of brand manager Jonny Kirkham, Red Stripe initiated a campaign in the UK to support new music by sponsoring events such as the Camden Crawl and The Great Escape festivals, as well as hosting a number of free music events with artists such as The View and The Rifles. Recent work with new bands puts this initiative in direct competition with the likes of Carling as a featured sponsor of the underground music scene. In support of this promotional strategy, the Red Stripe Music Awards were initiated between 2007 and 2010, with the winner of the award receiving featured billing at two music festivals, Blissfields and The Great Escape, and the opportunity to tour with a high-profile act. Winners of the award included The Runners, Ben Howard, Klaus Says Buy The Record, and The Laurel Collective, while judges ranged from musicians such as Guy Garvey, music journalists and brand representatives from Red Stripe. As a result, brand sales grew significantly with Red Stripe becoming available throughout Camden, Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton and in key music venues across the UK. During this period, Red Stripe continued to be the unofficial beer of the Notting Hill Carnival which it has been since 1976.\\nWriter and music festival PR Alex Lee Thomson also presented a series of web-based interviews for the brand during their sponsorship periods of Camden Crawl and The Great Escape festivals in the UK, while editing their music-based website.\\nRed Stripe sponsors sports talk television program Pardon the Interruption during the summer months, alternating with Guinness. Also recently Red Stripe began sponsoring the International Festival of Thumb Wrestling held annually in Mason City, Iowa. Red Stripe also sponsored Ignite Urban competition along with SUM Entertainment.\\nRed Stripe Light has also been announced as the official beer category Major Sponsor for the 2010 Zwack Air Hockey World Championships taking place in July 2010 in Houston, Texas.\\n\\nSee also\\nJamaican cuisine\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nOfficial Jamaican website\\nGerman Shop Website\\nUS Official Website\\nUK Official Website\\nRed Stripe Sumfest\",\n \"title\": \"Red_Stripe\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Swedish Match AB is a Swedish multinational tobacco company headquartered in Stockholm. The company manufactures snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff, tobacco- and nicotine-free pouch products, chewing tobacco, chew bags, tobacco bits, cigars, matches, lighters, and other fire products with operations in Sweden, Denmark, the United States, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, the Netherlands, and the Philippines. The company's origins can be traced back to 1868, and Ivar Kreuger. Swedish Match has played an important part in Sweden's industrial development.\\nIn May 2022, Philip Morris launched a takeover bid for Swedish Match. Despite some shareholder resistance, by late November 2022 Philip Morris had acquired over 90% ownership, allowing it to begin the compulsory purchase of remaining shares and de-list Swedish Match from the stock market.\\n\\nHistory\\nThe operations of Swedish Match originate from two companies: Svenska Tobaksmonopolet, a tobacco monopoly owned by the Swedish state and founded in 1915, and Svenska Tändsticks Aktiebolaget (STAB), a match manufacturing company founded in 1917 by Ivar Kreuger (also known as the ”Match King”) in connection with the acquisition of Jönköpings Tändsticksfabrik. In 1992, the tobacco and lights operations were joined in the Procordia Group. Two years later, they were merged into an independent company named Swedish Match, which became publicly listed in 1996.\\nDuring parts of its existence, most recently between 2010 and 2015, the company has been headquartered in the so-called Matchstick Palace, commissioned by Ivar Kreuger in the late 1920s.\\n\\nSvenska Tändsticks AB (STAB)\\nIn 1917, Ivar Kreuger founded Svenska Tändsticks Aktiebolaget (STAB) in Jönköping (also known as \\\"City of the matches\\\"). It was a merger between Aktiebolaget Förenade Tändsticksfabriker and Jönköpings & Vulcans Tändsticksfabriksaktiebolag. By expanding through acquisition of government-created monopolies by lending money to the governments, and through mergers with for instance the British match company Bryant and May in 1927, it became the world's largest match manufacturer. A year later, STAB was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. In 1930, the company controlled 60 percent of the world's match production and was the sole owner of match companies in 33 countries.\\nFollowing the death of Ivar Kreuger in 1932, the ownership structure in STAB changed and a number of factories were liquidated. During 1938, STAB's share of the world's matchmaking fell to 20 percent. When the match market declined sharply in the 1950s, STAB looked for new business ventures and acquired more than 50 companies between 1968 and 1976.\\nIn 1980, Svenska Tändsticks AB changed its name to Swedish Match to create unity throughout the group. In 1988 the company was acquired by Stora AB and was sold two years later to Nederlight. After another two years, Procordia acquired Swedish Match.\\n\\nAB Svenska Tobaksmonopolet\\nIn 1915, the Swedish government founded AB Svenska Tobaksmonopolet and nationalized all Swedish tobacco production plants. The monopoly was introduced in order to give the government funds to finance the country's military defense and a new national pension system.\\nDuring the 1960s, the monopoly on production, import and sale of tobacco was abolished in Sweden. Svenska Tobaksmonopolet was converted to a new state-owned company named Svenska Tobaks AB. In 1971, the ownership of the tobacco group was transferred to Statsföretag, the Swedish Sovereign Wealth Fund, which in 1984 was renamed Procordia.\\nAs a result of the monopoly being abolished and in order to broaden the market, the Dutch cigar company Elisabeth Bas/La Paz (EBAS), the American tobacco manufacturer Pinkerton Tobacco Company (maker of Red Man, a chewing tobacco brand introduced in the U.S. in 1904) and the Dutch cigar producer Willem II were acquired between 1968 and 1989. In 1989, Procodia was listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Volvo acquired part of Procordia in 1990 and became the principal owner together with the Swedish government. To complement the tobacco business, Procordia, in 1992, acquired the match and lighter company Swedish Match from Nederlight.\\n\\nSwedish Match AB\\nIn 1992, the listed company Procordia acquired the match and lighter business named Swedish Match. The operations of Swedish Match were integrated with Procordia United Brands, one of Procordia's business operations, and was renamed Swedish Match to take advantage of international name recognition. In 1994, Swedish Match functioned as an independent company and was later, in 1996, listed on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm AB and on Nasdaq.\\nIn 1999, the company sold its cigarette manufacturing to Austria Tabak but is still active as a distributor of cigarettes on the Swedish market. In the same year, Swedish Match expanded its cooperation with PT. Java Match Factory (Jamafac), the biggest safety matches manufacturer in Indonesia, to a joint venture agreement in order to strengthen its position within lights and matches in Southeast Asia. Jamafac was divested in 2005 and now has a license agreement with Swedish Match to produce matches and distribute Cricket Lighters in Indonesia.\\nIn 2009, Swedish Match entered an agreement with Philip Morris International and formed the joint venture company SMPM International, with equal stakes owned by each of the two partners, for exploring and developing new markets for snus and other smokefree tobacco products outside Scandinavia and the United States. The collaboration placed test markets in Tel Aviv, Israel; St. Petersburg, Russia; Taiwan; and nationwide Canada. The joint venture was, however, dissolved in 2015.\\nIn 2010, Swedish Match and Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) formed a new company specialized in cigars. Swedish Match brought its entire cigar business (with the exception of U.S. mass market cigars) and pipe tobacco into the new company, while STG transferred all of its tobacco business. The new company took over the name Scandinavian Tobacco Group. Swedish Match became a partner with 49 percent of the company, and the remaining shares were owned by Skandinavisk Holding A/S. In 2016, STG became publicly listed, and Swedish Match sold most of its shares in the company.\\n\\nIn 2017, Swedish Match acquired V2 Tobacco, a producer of chew bags and snus, and in 2018, Oliver Twist, a producer of tobacco bits. Both companies are Danish and now fully owned by Swedish Match. Also in 2018, Swedish Match bought a 95 percent stake in the Swedish company Gotlandssnus, which produces snus.\\nIn 2022, Swedish Match's shares hit record high as Philip Morris International (PMI) closed a $16 billion dollar deal with the company.\\nPMI completed the acquisition and eventually delisted Swedish Match.\\n\\nOperations\\nSnus, moist snuff, cigars, chewing tobacco, chew bags, tobacco bits, matches and lighters are the main products made by Swedish Match. The company also sells complementary products, such as razors, batteries and light bulbs, on the Brazilian market.\\n\\nOrganization\\nThe organizational structure consists of three divisions, along with corporate functions.\\n\\nEurope division\\nThe Europe division develops, manufactures, markets and sells snus, nicotine pouches and other smokeless products. The geographic scope is international except North America, with a focus on Europe.\\n\\nUS division\\nThe US Division produces chewing tobacco, cigars, moist snuff and nicotine pouches for the American market. It is also responsible for sales and marketing in the United States.\\n\\nLights division\\nThe Lights division manufactures and markets matches and lighters, with production in Brazil, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Sweden. The main markets are Europe, Asia, Brazil and parts of Africa. The division also sells complementary products, mainly in Brazil.\\n\\nOperating locations and factories\\nSwedish Match operates in eleven countries and has production units in seven of those: Brazil, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sweden and the US. The company has 15 factories.\\nThe table below presents an overview of Swedish Match's operations as of 2021: \\n\\nProduction of matches and lightersThe matches produced by Swedish Match are safety matches and are manufactured in Sweden and Brazil. The entity that produces matches in Sweden, Swedish Match Industries AB, is since 2009 certified according to the Forest Stewardship Council chain of custody standard and the standard for controlled wood. The matches are manufactured according to the European match standards EN 1783:1997.\\n40 percent of the production is sold in Europe and 60 percent to Africa, Central America, The Caribbean, Oceania and the Middle East. The Swedish manufacturing facilities are located in Tidaholm and Vetlanda. In Brazil, 95% of the wood consumption for safety matches and matchboxes is from Swedish Match's own plantations. Swedish Match produces lighters in the Philippines, the Netherlands and Brazil.\\n\\nMarket\\nWhile today's Swedish Match still produces matches, the majority of its sales and operating profits comes from its smokeless tobacco products such as snus, nicotine pouches, moist snuff and chewing tobacco. In 2021, these smokeless products accounted for 67 percent of sales and 74 percent of Swedish Match's operating profit, whereas matches and lighters accounted for 7 percent of sales and 4 percent of operating profit. Swedish Match's cigars accounted for 26 percent of sales and 23 percent of the operating profit.\\nSwedish Match generates most of its sales in Scandinavia and the US(93 percent of company sales in 2021) but also has a significant worldwide presence through its matches and lighters businesses.\\n\\nSmokefree products\\nScandinavia and the US are the primary markets for Swedish Match's smokefree products. The company is market leader in snus in both Sweden and Norway. In 2021, the operating profit for smokefree products (chew bags, tobacco bits, snus, moist snuff, nicotine pouches and chewing tobacco) increased to 5,998 MSEK (5,142 MSEK in 2021).\\nThe market for Scandinavian snus and the US moist snuff/snus is approximately 1.745 billion cans per year (345 million cans in Scandinavia and 1.4 billion cans in the US). The snus market in the US is about $175 million, and Swedish Match has about 10 percent of the market.\\n\\nCigars\\nIn 2014, the US cigar market was estimated to more than 5 billion cigars (excluding little cigars) of which Swedish Match produced 1.1 billion sticks of cigars. The cigar market grew 9 percent compared to 2013 in terms of volume. Swedish Match's share was even greater in the recent past, as a series of acquisitions between 1999 and 2010 including General Cigar and Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) which is the world's largest cigar producer and manufactures more than 50 percent of the world's pipe tobacco. Control of major brands such as Macanudo, Punch, Cohiba, CAO and La Gloria Cubana gave Swedish Match nearly 1/3 of the US premium cigar market in addition to its strong position in machine-made cigars. However, in 2014 Swedish Match, having reorganized its premium-cigar businesses under the STG umbrella, spun off STG as a public company. Swedish Match's cigar business is now limited to machine-made mass-production brands such as White Owl and Garcia y Vega.\\n\\nMatches and lighters\\nSwedish Match supplies matches worldwide. The main markets for matches are Europe, Asia and the Americas. For lighters, the most important markets are Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Scandinavia, France and UK. In 2021, 59 billion matchsticks were produced and 325 million lighters. Sales for matches and lighters was 1,338 MSEK (1,149 MSEK in 2020) and the operating profit increased by 0.8 percent to 1,453 MSEK (1,382 MSEK in 2020).\\n\\nMain brands\\nBelow are Swedish Match's main brands along with market information as of 2021:\\n\\nSwedish Match is also active on the Brazilian market with disposable razors, batteries, light bulbs and toothpicks under the Fiat Lux brand.\\n\\nMarket position and competition\\nIn 2019, cigarettes made up 88 percent of the global tobacco market by value, smokeless products 2 percent and other products, which includes e-cigarettes, 10 percent. Swedish Match is active in the smokeless products category, with several types of smokeless products, as well as in the other products category, with cigars.\\n\\nIn the United States\\nFor nicotine pouches in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in the U.S. market, with 84 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were BAT (Reynolds American) and Altria.\\nFor moist snuff in 2019, Swedish Match was number three in the U.S. market, with 8 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were Altria (USSTC) and BAT (Reynolds American).\\nFor chewing tobacco in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in the U.S. market, with 41 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were National Tobacco, Swisher, and BAT (Reynolds American).\\nFor mass market cigars, excluding little cigars, in 2019, Swedish Match was number two in the U.S. market, with 22 percent. The main competitors, in descending order, were Swisher, Altria (Middleton), and Imperial Brands (ITG Brands).\\n\\nIn Scandinavia\\nFor snus in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in both the Swedish and Norwegian markets, with 61 and 55 percent, respectively.\\nFor nicotine pouches in 2019, Swedish Match was number two in the Swedish market and number three in the Norwegian market, with 26 and 15 percent, respectively.\\nFor snus and nicotine pouches combined in 2019, Swedish Match was number one in both the Swedish and Norwegian markets, with 60 and 49 percent, respectively. In Sweden, the main competitors, in descending order, were Imperial Brands, BAT, and Japan Tobacco International. In Norway, the main competitors, in descending order, were Imperial Brands and BAT.\\n\\nSwedish Match in the US\\nIn the US, Swedish Match produces and distributes the Longhorn, Timber Wolf and Red Man brands of moist snuff. The company also expanded into the United States premium cigar business by purchasing General Cigar Company Inc. (producer of non-Cuban versions of Macanudo, Partagas and Punch) from Edgar Cullman and El Credito Cigar Company (producer of La Gloria Cubana and El Rico Habano) from Ernesto Perez-Carrillo. In October 2010, the company transferred its US premium cigar and European cigar businesses, as well as its pipe tobacco and accessories businesses, to a new company named Scandinavian Tobacco Group, while receiving a 49 percent ownership stake in the new company.\\nIn an effort to expand its snus business outside of Sweden and Norway, the company has, since 2009, been selling its Scandinavian market leading brand of snus, General, at tobacco retailers in the US. The distribution of General snus has increased over the years, from being sold in approximately 10,000 stores in 2012 to more than 24,000 stores by the end of 2014.\\nFor the US, snus is a relatively new category while the main smokeless category is moist snuff. Moist snuff is made using fermentation. Snus is made using a steam heat process (much like pasteurisation) and is usually placed under the upper lip, which means that spitting is not necessary.\\n\\nKey people\\nSwedish Match's board after the annual general meeting in 2021:\\n\\nPresident and CEO:Lennart Sundén, 1998–2004Sven Hindrikes, 2004–2008Conny Karlsson (born 1955) is chairman of the board since 2007 and board member since 2006.Lars Dahlgren (born 1970) is president and CEO of Swedish Match since 2008.\\n\\nOwnership structure\\nIn 2021, 78,3 percent of Swedish Match was owned by foreign investors.\\n\\nSee also\\nList of cigar brands\\nSnus\\nMatches\\nLighter\\nCricket Lighters\\nTobacco industry\\nJohn Dalli\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nOfficial website\\nSwedish Match Industries\",\n \"title\": \"Swedish_Match\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Which happened earlier: Diageo reducing the volume of Red stripe beer bottles in the US from 12 fl. oz. to 11.2 fl. oz. or Philip Morris making a bid for the company Swedish Match?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"The Red Stripe US bottle volume reduction happened earlier."},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":683,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"683"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Miami Book Fair is an annual street fair and literary festival organized by Miami Dade College. More than 300 national and international authors attend the week-long gathering every year which features pavilions for comics, children, and young adults, among others.\n\nHistory\nMiami Book Fair International, originally known as \"Books by the Bay,\" was founded in 1984 by Miami Dade College President Eduardo J. Padrón, Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan, Craig Pollock of BookWorks, and other local bookstore owners in cooperation with the Miami-Dade Public Library System. The two primary organizers of the inaugural 1984 Book Fair from the Miami-Dade Public Library System were Head of Community Relations Margarita Cano and Wolfsonian campus librarian Juanita Johnson.\nIn 2020, the book fair added virtual content.\n\nCommunity Partners and Sponsors\nFlorida Center for the Literary Arts (FCLA)\nThe Florida Center for the Literary Arts is the parent organization of the Miami Book Fair International. The literary center was conceived to advance the college's literary traditions. A permanent endowment was established with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Full programming began in January 2002.\nAs a department of Miami Dade College, FCLA generates programs to support authors and writing, journalism, play and screen writing, reading and literacy, as well as the Miami Book Fair International. Outreach consist of reading campaigns and book discussions, writing workshops, author presentations, panel discussions, and master classes. The Center collaborates with a number of Florida-based cultural institutions and other partners in order to advance literary initiatives.\n\nEvents\nFestival of Authors\nTypically more than 300 authors from around the world take part in the Fair's international Festival of Authors. Writers come from all over the United States, and in previous years, the Fair has welcomed authors from countries like Argentina, Bosnia, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, England, France, Finland, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, Israel, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Trinidad, and other nations.\n\nEvenings With...Series\nThe Evenings With… series features readings by world-renowned writers every evening for six consecutive festival days. In past years, guest authors have included recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Casa de las Americas Prize, Pushcart Prize, O'Henry Award, National Magazine Award, Commonwealth Prize, MacArthur Fellowship, and Edgar Award.\n\nStreet Fair\nThe three-day outdoor festival gathers hundreds of booksellers and exhibitors from major publishing houses, small presses, scholarly imprints, and foreign publishers. Sellers of used books – including signed first editions, original manuscripts, and other collectibles – also have booths. Millions of books in multiple languages can be found, along with book signings and musical entertainment, during the weekend Fair activity.\n\nComix Galaxy\nComic Galaxy is a Fair program offering information on graphic novels and the comics world, and celebrates their place in United States literary life, as well as their recent rise in popularity and integration into mainstream literature, culture, and even education. A prominent part of Comic Galaxy, The School of Comics is a day-long program that includes six sessions for teachers, librarians, parents, and others who are interested in the format. There also exists training for creators of the genre.\n\nChildren's Alley\nChildren's Alley, tailored for young readers, features storytelling, puppets, theatrical performances, educational games, and hands-on activities. Generation Genius is a program hosting thousands of school-aged children each year. As a part of Generation Genius programming, Miami Book Fair International also offers workshops and presentations to local teachers, librarians, and educators. Programs are provided in cooperation with Miami Art Museum, HistoryMiami, Miami Children's Museum, Miami Science Museum, Early Learning Coalition of Miami Dade/Monroe, and Florida Blue.\n\nIbero-American Authors\nIbero-American Authors is Miami Book Fair International's Spanish Language author program that is presented solely in Spanish or Portuguese. More than 50 authors from various Latin American countries are featured during the eight-days of the Fair. Readings take place every evening during the week and all day during the weekend.\n\nTwilight Tastings and the Kitchen\nMiami Book Fair International also includes as part of its list of events hors d'oeuvre, complimentary cocktails, and nightly entertainment before the weeknight author presentations. The Kitchen combines cooking demonstrations and author readings by featured cookbook authors and chefs in an intimate, culinary setting as they recreate recipes from their books.\n\nLGBTQIA+ Topics\nAuthors writing on LGBTQIA+ topics are represented throughout the festival with titles in fiction, non-fiction, memoir, and erotica. Many who appear are Lambda Award winners or finalists.\n\nMiami Writer's Institute\nCenter for Literature and Theatre faculty, authors, and agents provide workshops pertaining to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and publishing. The Center offers one and three-day workshops, with several taking place in Spanish as well.\n\nRecent-Year Highlights\n2014\nIn 2014, the Miami Book Fair International partnered with the National Book Foundation to provide programming centered around 2014 National Book Award nominees and winners. A sampling of additional authors appearing at Miami Book Fair International 2014 follows:\n\nRobert Baer – \"The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins\"\nRichard Blanco – \"The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood\"\nJohn Cleese – \"So Anyway...\"\nAndy Cohen – \"The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look At A Shallow Year\"\nMichael DeForge – \"Ant Colony\"\nAngela DiTerlizzi – \"Some Bugs\"\nTony DiTerlizzi – \"Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight\"\nSheila E – \"The Beat of My Own Drum: A Memoir\"\nGrace Ellis – \"Lumberjanes\"\nAnnabelle Gurwitch – \"See You Made An Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50\"\nJames W. Hall – \"The Big Finish: A Thorn Novel\"\nBen Hatke – \"The Return of Zita the Spacegirl\"\nKazu Kibuishi – \"Amulet#6\"\nNicholas Kristof – \"A Path Appears\"\nNorman Lear – \"Even This I Get To Experience\"\nBrad Meltzer – \"I Am Rosa Parks\"\nLauren Miller – \"Free to Fall\"\nSusan Minot – \"Thirty Girls: A Novel\"\nGeorge O'Connor – \"If I Had A Raptor\"\nLauren Oliver – \"Rooms: A Novel\"\nAnn Patchett – \"This is the Story of a Happy Marriage\"\nEd Piskor – \"Hip Hop Family Tree Vol 2: 1981-1983\"\nValerie Plame – \"Burned\"\nQuestlove – \"The World According to Questlove\"\nAnne Rice – \"Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles\"\nTavis Smiley – \"Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year\"\nRaina Telgemeier – \"Sisters\"\nJohn Waters – \"Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America\"\nCornel West – \"Black Prophetic Fire\"\nEveline Pierre \"The Secret to Winning Big\"\n\n2013\nTo commemorate 500 years since Juan Ponce de León first landed in Florida, the 30th edition of the Fair celebrated the culture and literature of Spain. Spanish writers and artists shared the language, culture and literature of Spain. A sampling of authors who appeared at Miami Book Fair International 2013 follows: \n\nJeff Abbott – Downfall\nMitch Albom – The First Phone Call from Heaven: A Novel\nReza Aslan – Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth\nPaul Auster – Report From the Interior\nHolly Black – Doll Bones\nStanley Crouch – Kansas City Lighting: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker\nKwame Dawes – Duppy Conqueror: New and Selected Poems\nDelia Ephron – Sister Mother Husband Dog: Etc.\nAna Fuentes – From the Dragon's Mouth: Ten True Stories That Reveal the True China\nNikki Giovanni – Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid\nDoris Kearns Goodwin – The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism\nDr. Carl Hart – High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society\nJohn Heilemann – Double Down: Game Change 2012\nAnjelica Huston – A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York\nAndrew Kaufman – I'm in Miami, Bitch!: The Disappearing Street Art of Wynwood\nGordon Korman – The Hypnotists: Book 1\nDiane Ladd – A Bad Afternoon for a Piece of Cake: A Collection of Ten Short Stories\nWally Lamb – We Are Water: A Novel\nAdam Mansbach – The Dead Run\nChris Matthews – Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked\nD.T. Max – Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace\nTerry McMillan – Who Asked You?\nBrad Meltzer – History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time\nDavid N. Meyer – The Bee Gees: The Biography\nJacquelyn Mitchard – What We Saw at Night\n\n2012\nThe featured country of 2012's Miami Book Fair International was Paraguay. Paraguayan culture was displayed through film, dance, and fine and folkloric arts.\nA sampling of authors who appeared at Miami Book Fair International 2012 follows:\n\nMartin Amis – Lionel Asbo: State of England\nNate Berkus – The Things That Matter\nJustin Cronin – The Twelve\nAline Crumb – Drawn Together: The Collected Works of Aline & R. Crumb\nAndre Debus III – Townie: A Memoir\nJunot Diaz – This is How You Lose Her\nEmma Donoghue – Room\nTim Dorsey – Pineapple Grenade\nCarolina Garcia-Aguilera – Magnolia\nChris Hayes – Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy\nMark Helprin – In Sunlight and In Shadow\nJamal Joseph – Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion & Reinvention\nDaniel Kirk – Library Mouse: A Museum Adventure\nAnne Lamott – Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers\nJessica Martinez – The Space Between Us\nDiana McCaulay – Huracan\nAndrew McCarthy – The Longest Way Home\nChristopher Pike – Witch World\nBill O'Reilly – Killing Kennedy\nLemony Snicket – A Series of Unfortunate Events\nJake Tapper – The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor\nJeffrey Toobin – The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court\nIrvine Welsh – Skagboys\nSherri Winston – President of the Whole Fifth Grade\nTom Wolfe – Back to Blood\n\n2011\nMiami Book Fair International 2011 included demonstrations of Chinese culture and art and discussions of social issues facing contemporary China. An international symposium on Chinese language, culture, and communication was held.\nA sampling of authors who participated in Miami Book Fair International 2011 follows: \n\nDr. Arthur Agatston – The South Beach Wake-Up Call\nTom Angleberger – Darth Paper Strikes Back\nDavid Brooks – The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement\nDan Clowes – The Death-Ray\nJohn Connolly – The Infernals\nBob Edwards – My Life in Radio\nJeffrey Eugenides – The Marriage Plot\nCristina García – Dreams of Significant Girls\nDr. Paul George – Florida's 11th Circuit Court\nLev Grossman – The Magician King\nSandra Gutierrez – The New Southern-Latino Table\nEllen Hopkins – Perfect\nJeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid\nMegan McDonald – Judy Moody, Girl Detective\nMichael Moore – Here Comes Trouble\nElizabeth Nunez – Boundaries\nSusan Orlean – Rin Tin Tin\nChuck Palahniuk – Damned\nChristopher Paolini – Inheritance\nKaren Russell – Swamplandia!\nEsmeralda Santiago – Conquistadora\nJon Scieszka – SPHDZ Book 3\nTouré – Post Blackness\nCalvin Trillin – Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin\nBelle Yang – Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale\n\n2010\nFor the first time this year, the fair dedicated its international space to one country, Mexico, in celebration of the bicentennial of the Central American nation's independence and the centennial of its 1910 revolution. Featured were literary feasts served as fiestas, with author presentations and roundtables on subjects such as Mexican boleros. Ballet performances, art and photography exhibitions, a movie series, and theater performances also honored the country of Mexico.\nThe following is a sampling of authors who participated in Miami Book Fair International 2010 activities: \n\nMaha Akhtar – La Nieta de la Maharaní\nKim Anthony – Unfavorable Odds\nDan Archer – The Honduran Coup: A Graphic History\nAnn Beattie – The New Yorker Stories\nSusanna Daniel – Stiltsville\nEdwidge Danticat – Create Dangerously: Immigrant Artists at Work\nKate DiCamillo – Bink & Gollie\nTony DiTerlizzi – The Search for Wondla\nDave Eggers – Zeitoun\nJonathan Franzen – Freedom\nWillie Geist – American Freak Show: The Completely Fabricated Stories of Our New National Treasures\nJames W. Hall – Silencer\nVicki Hendricks – Florida Gothic Stories\nSebastian Junger – War\nChip Kidd – Shazam!\nHari Kunzru – Writing on the Edge: Great Contemporary Writers on the Frontline of Crisis\nMeghan McCain – Dirty Sexy Politics\nBen Mezrich – The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook\nWalter Mosley – The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey\nBeatriz Rivera – When a Tree Falls\nScott Turow – Innocent\nLisa Unger – Fragile\nJudith Viorst – Lulu and the Brontosaurus\nScott Westerfeld – Behemoth\nSimon Winchester – The Atlantic: Biography of an Ocean\n\n2009\nEnvironmental issues were in the forefront of Miami Book Fair International 2009, from author presentations to green activities to making ecologically sound choices in Fair logistics. The college used native plants on stages as well as entrances. These native plants were then planted in the community to help offset the carbon emissions of the book fair. Miami Book Fair International and MDC's Earth Ethics Institute procured the plants from local nursery. Bike Valet parking service was available to each cyclist, and numerous rethink, reduce, reuse, and, recycle educational programs were promoted.\nThe following is a sampling of authors who appeared at Miami Book Fair International 2009:\n\nLidia Bastianich – Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy\nEdna Buchanan – The Corpse Had a Familiar Face\nMeg Cabot – Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls\nSusie Essman – What Would Susie Say?\nDan Goldman – 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail\nAl Gore – Our Choice\nSenator Bob Graham – America: The Owner's Manual\nHeather Graham – Unhallowed Ground\nJames Grippando – Intent to Kill\nDr. Sanjay Gupta – Cheating Death\nJohn Hodgman – More Information Than You Require\nGwen Ifill – The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama\nSid Jacobson – Che: A Graphic Biography\nWally Lamb – Wishin' and Hopin'\nPeter Lerangis – The 39 Clues\nJonathan Lethem – Chronic City\nTao Lin – Shoplifting from American Apparel\nJeff Lindsay – Dexter By Design\nRalph Nader – Only the Super Rich Can Save Us\nJoyce Carol Oates – Little Bird of Heaven\nIggy Pop – The Stooges: An Authorized and Illustrated Story\nSherman Alexie – War Dances\nLuis Alberto Urrea – Into the Beautiful North: A Novel\nLarry Wilmore – I'd Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts\n\nSee also\nFlorida literature\nBooks in the United States\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website\nThe Center for Literature and Theatre @ Miami Dade College Tumblr Page\nFlorida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College YouTube Page\nMiami Book Fair International History on C-SPAN 2 Book TV\nMajor Book Fairs in the US\nNew York Times Article A Book Fair That Grew, Propelling the Arts in Miami","title":"Miami_Book_Fair_International"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Miami Dade College (MDC) is a public college located in Miami, Florida. Established in 1959, it operates eight campuses and numerous outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. It is the largest institution in the Florida College System. MDC serves a significant number of minority students, particularly Hispanic students, enrolling more than any other institution in Florida.\n\nHistory\nFounded as Dade County Junior College in 1960, MDC began on a high school farm and became desegregated in 1962, opening its doors to students of all races. Over the decades, MDC expanded by launching several campuses, including Kendall, Wolfson, and Hialeah, and established a Medical Center to support students in health programs.\nIn 1973, the college changed its name to Miami-Dade Community College.\nDuring the 1980s, outreach programs were developed to assist the increasing number of Cuban exiles and other immigrants. As state education budgets declined, MDC continued to grow and relied on its foundation to support operations. In the 1990s and 2000s, the college established its Honors College, offering rigorous academic programs across its largest campuses. In 2003, the college changed its name to \"Miami Dade College\" and began offering four-year degree programs.\n\nCampuses\nMiami Dade College operates eight campuses and two outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. The North Campus, established in 1960, focuses on emergency services and entertainment technology programs. Kendall Campus, opened in 1967, is home to MDC's athletic teams and offers community service programs. Wolfson Campus, in downtown Miami, hosts the Miami Book Fair and houses the Culinary Institute. The Medical Campus, opened in 1977, offers nursing and health programs with a simulation hospital. Homestead Campus, built in 1990, features an FAA-approved aviation program. Eduardo J. Padrón Campus specializes in bilingual education and community-focused programs. Hialeah Campus offers English programs and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Management. West Campus in Doral provides innovative programs like the Tesla START program.\n\nAcademics\nMDC offers a wide variety of associate and baccalaureate degrees, as well as vocational and technical certificates. The college is known for its strong programs in liberal arts, nursing, business, allied health professions, and computer information systems. Students can also pursue degrees in newer fields like cybersecurity.\nThe Honors College provides scholarships and specialized curricula for high-achieving students, with opportunities for transfer to prestigious universities, including a partnership with the University of Miami. Dual-enrollment and virtual learning options are available for high school and home-educated students.\n\nAthletics\nMDC participates in the Southern Conference of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and competes in five sports: men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball, with soccer teams being added in 2024. MDC teams have won 35 NJCAA national titles, making it a hub for talented athletes and MLB scouts.\n\nArts and culture\nMDC has an extensive art collection of over 1,600 works, including paintings, sculptures, and installations. The Wolfson Campus hosts the Miami Book Fair International, the largest literary festival in the U.S.\n\nNotable achievements\nIn 2018, MDC was recognized by the Aspen Institute for its focus on economic and social mobility, winning the Aspen Prize.\n\nNotable alumni\nNotable faculty\nJoanna Falco-Leshin, professor of English and Humanities\n\nGallery\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website","title":"Miami_Dade_College"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Kentucky Women Writers Conference had its beginnings in 1979 as a celebration of women writers at the University of Kentucky (UK). That first year featured Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Ruth Stone, Alice Walker, and Ruth Whitman. Since then, it has become the longest-running annual festival of women writers in the US.\nUK History faculty Nancy Dye had suggested using surplus funds from Undergraduate Studies to bring women writers to campus. A 16-member committee from the departments of English, Honors, Undergraduate Studies, and Special Collections, along with members of the Lexington community, produced the conference. In 1984–1985 the conference was directed by UK English faculty Jane Gentry Vance, who later served as Kentucky's Poet Laureate.\nIn 1985–1993, the conference was affiliated with Continuing Education for Women/University Extension and directed by Betty Gabehart. In 1994–1996, the conference was affiliated with the Women's Studies Program and directed by Jan Oaks, faculty in English and Gender and Women's Studies. In 1997, former Conference assistant Patti DeYoung served as director.\nIn 1998, the conference lost university funding when it was unable to find a sponsoring department, and its advisory board established itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Its new home became the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in downtown Lexington, and it was renamed the Kentucky Women Writers Conference. Its director during those years, 1998–2002, was Jan Isenhour, also director of the Carnegie Center, and its work was carried out by a volunteer board.\nIn 2002, President Lee Todd reinstated support for the conference to demonstrate the university's commitment to women's programming and community events. Since then, the Conference leadership has continued cultivating wide community support through many partnerships and the committed efforts of its board and volunteers. UK provides staff salaries, office space, and the majority of KWWC's operating expenses. Financial support from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, LexArts, the Kentucky Arts Council, the Kentucky Humanities Council, businesses, and individual patrons remains critical to our ability to attract writers of the highest caliber.\nDirectors since then have been Brenda Weber (2003) and Rebecca Gayle Howell (2004–2006). Howell launched several free community events that have become signature offerings of the conference, including the Gypsy Slam, the Sonia Sanchez Series, and the Hardwick/Jones keynote reading on mentorship and collaboration. In 2007, Julie Kuzneski Wrinn became Conference director. The 38th annual conference was held September 15–16, 2017 in Lexington, Kentucky.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nOfficial website","title":"Kentucky_Women_Writers_Conference"},{"idx":3,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state's two land-grant universities (the other being Kentucky State University). It is the institution with the highest enrollment in the state, with 32,710 students in the fall of 2022.\nThe institution comprises 16 colleges, a graduate school, 93 undergraduate programs, 99 master programs, 66 doctoral programs, and 4 professional programs. It is classified among \"R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity\". According to the National Science Foundation, Kentucky spent $476.5 million on research and development in 2022, ranking it 61st in the nation.\nThe University of Kentucky has seven libraries on campus. The largest is the William T. Young Library, a federal depository that hosts subjects related to social sciences, humanities, and life sciences collections. Since 1997, the university has focused expenditures increasingly on research, following a compact formed by the Kentucky General Assembly. The directive mandated that the university become a \"Top 20\" public research institution, in terms of an overall ranking to be determined by the university itself, by 2020. Two alumni from the university have won Nobel Prizes.\n\nHistory\nUniversity origins\nIn the early commonwealth of Kentucky, higher education was limited to children from prominent families, disciplined apprentices, and young men seeking entry into clerical, legal, and medical professions. As the first university in the territory that would become Kentucky, Transylvania University was the primary center for education. After a merger it became \"Kentucky University\".\n\nJohn Bryan Bowman was appointed head of the new \"Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky\" (called \"A&M\"), a department of Kentucky University. It received federal support through the Morrill Land-Grant Act in 1865. In 1866 it opened with 190 students and 10 professors, on the campus at Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate. In 1869 James Kennedy Patterson replaced Bowman and the first degree was awarded. In 1876, the university began to offer master's degree programs. In 1878 A&M separated from Kentucky University, which reverted to its original name Transylvania University. For the new school, Lexington donated a 52-acre (210,000 m2) park and fair ground, which became the core of UK's present campus. A&M was initially a male-only institution, but began to admit women in 1880.\nIn 1892, the official colors of the university, royal blue and white, were adopted. An earlier color set, blue and light yellow, was adopted earlier at a Kentucky-Centre College football game on December 19, 1891. The particular hue of blue was determined from a necktie, which was used to demonstrate the color of royal blue.\nOn February 15, 1882, Administration Building was the first building of three to be completed on the present campus. Three years later, the college formed the Agricultural Experiment Station, which researches issues relating to agribusiness, food processing, nutrition, water and soil resources and the environment. This was followed up by the creation of the university's Agricultural Extension Service in 1910, which was one of the first in the United States. The extension service became a model of the federally mandated programs that were required beginning in 1914.\n\nCoeducational school: modern period\nPatterson Hall, the school's first women's dormitory, was constructed in 1904. Residents had to cross a swampy depression, where the now demolished Student Center later stood, to reach central campus. Four years later, the school's name was changed to the \"State University, Lexington, Kentucky\" upon reaching university status, and then to the \"University of Kentucky\" in 1916. The university led to the creation of the College of Home Economics in 1916, and Mary E. Sweeney was promoted from chair of the Department of Home Economics to dean of the college. (Later renamed the College of Human Environmental Sciences, this educational unit was folded into the College of Agriculture in 2003 as the School of Human Environmental Sciences). The College of Commerce was established in 1925, known today as the Gatton College of Business and Economics.\nIn 1929, Memorial Hall was completed, dedicated to the 2,756 Kentuckians who died in World War I. This was followed up by the new King Library, which opened in 1931 and was named for a long-time library director, Margaret I. King.\nOn March 15, 1948, Lyman T. Johnson applied to the University of Kentucky Graduate School for a doctorate degree in the Philosophy of History. Johnson was subsequently denied admission, with the registrar citing the previously passed Day Law. Johnson, citing Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 filed suit against the university for wrongful discrimination and failure to maintain equal learning intuitions. On April 27, 1949, Hiram Church Ford presided over the court case. After one day of testimony, Ford determined that the Commonwealth had failed to establish a graduate school with equal opportunity and educational quality as the graduate students offered to whites. Citing the Fourteenth amendment, Ford ruled that all qualified individuals, regardless of race, be allowed to attend the university's graduate program until an equally academically acceptable institution is established for the use of African Americans. The university's graduate and professional programs became racially integrated in 1949 when Lyman T. Johnson, an African American, won a lawsuit to be admitted to the graduate program. Blacks were not allowed to attend as undergraduates until 1954, following the US Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision.\nIn 1939, Governor Happy Chandler appointed the first woman trustee on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, Georgia M. Blazer of Ashland. She served from 1939 to 1960. In 1962, Blazer Hall was opened as the Georgia M Blazer Hall for Women in tribute to her.\nGround was broken for the Albert B. Chandler Hospital in 1955, when Kentucky Governor Happy Chandler recommended that the Kentucky General Assembly appropriate $5 million for the creation of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and a medical center at the university. This was completed after a series of studies were conducted that highlighted the health needs of the citizens, as well as the need to train more physicians. Five years later, the College of Medicine and College of Nursing opened, followed by the College of Dentistry in 1962.\nNine years after the founding of The Northern Extension Center in Covington, representing the Ashland Independent School Board of Education, Ashland attorney Henderson Dysard and Ashland Oil & Refining Company founder and CEO Paul G. Blazer presented a proposal to President Dickey and the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees for the university to take over the day-to-day operations and curriculum of the Ashland [municipal] Junior College, creating the Ashland Center of the University of Kentucky in 1957. University of Kentucky Extension Centers in Fort Knox (1958), Cumberland (1960), and Henderson (1960) followed.\nIn 1959, the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce opened and began training professionals at the master's and doctoral level for careers in international affairs. \nAuthorized by the Kentucky General Assembly and signed by Governor Bert Combs on March 6, 1962, a mandate was placed upon the University of Kentucky to form a community college system. Two years later, the board of trustees implemented the legislation and established the Community College System, creating centers in Covington, Ashland, Fort Knox, Cumberland, Henderson and Elizabethtown. In 1969, the Patterson Office Tower was completed, currently the tallest building on campus.\n\nIn May 1970, students at the university began protesting the shootings at Kent State University. In response, Governor Louie Nunn deferred to the National Guard in an attempt to disperse the protesters. A ROTC building was destroyed by fire. The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries has 13 oral history interviews with participants in the protests, university officials as well as former governor Nunn. Nine years later, the Singletary Center for the Arts opened, named in honor of former university president Otis Singletary.\n\nContemporary history\nIn 1997, the Kentucky General Assembly reorganized the community college system, withdrawing the university's jurisdiction from all but the Lexington Community College. The other colleges were merged with the Kentucky Technical College system and were placed under a separate board of control.\nOn April 3, 1998, work began on the William T. Young Library, which was the largest university project at the time of completion. The six-level William T. Young Library was constructed on south campus and the largest book endowment among all public university libraries in the country. William T. Young got his fortune from selling his peanut butter company to Procter & Gamble in 1955. Nine years after the completion of the William T. Young Library, on April 13, 2007, an entire city block of neighborhood homes were demolished and ground was broken for the Biological Pharmaceutical Complex Building, the largest academic building in the state of Kentucky, and one of the largest in the United States.\n\nThe Biological Pharmaceutical Complex Building complements the adjacent Biomedical Biological Science Research Building, and is expected to be part of the new university research campus. Other recent announcements include the construction of the new $450 million Albert B. Chandler Hospital, which will was one of the largest projects in the state's history in terms of size and economic impact.\nIn 1997, the Kentucky General Assembly formed a compact with the university. The Top 20 Plan mandates that the University of Kentucky becomes a Top 20 public research university by 2020. According to the compact, states with \"Top 20\" universities feature higher average household incomes, higher education attainments, healthier lives and more financial security. The plan would also spur technological advancements due to university-based research and increase the marketability of the state to investors.\n\nThe plan produced some results,\n\nEnrollment increased.\nThe six-year graduation rate increased from 59.5 percent in 1998 to 61.2 percent in 2007.\nResearch expenditures increased from $124.8 million in 1996 to $297.6 million in 2003. It dipped slightly to $274 million for 2005. It is currently ranked 28th among public universities in sponsored research.\nEndowment increased from $195.1 million in 1997 to $538.4 million in 2005.\nIn 2000, the university launched \"The Campaign for the University of Kentucky\", a $600 million fundraising effort that was used to \"enhance facilities, academic programs, public service, and scholarships.\" It passed that goal and the effort was raised to $1 billion. In March 2007, $1.022 billion was raised, months before the fundraising effort was set to end.\nAs of 2019, The University of Kentucky has an endowment of 1.407 billion. Prior endowments were $831.8 in 2007, $538.4 million in 2005, and $195.1 million in 1997, the rapid increases partially attributed to the \"Top 20\" Plan. Currently, the William T. Young Library book endowment is the largest among public universities in the United States.\nIn 2018, the new Gatton Student Center was opened on North Campus. The 378,000-square-foot facility contains a cinema, several dining facilities, ballrooms, a bookstore, bank, offices, and more.\n\nAcademics\nDepartments\nStudents are divided into 16 colleges, a graduate school, 93 undergraduate programs, 99 master programs, 66 doctoral programs, and 4 professional programs. The University of Kentucky has fifteen libraries on campus. The largest is William T. Young Library, a federal depository, hosting subjects related to social sciences, humanities and life sciences collections. In recent years, the university has focused expenditures increasingly on research, following a compact formed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1997. The directive mandated that the university become a Top 20 public research institution, in terms of an overall ranking to be determined by the university itself, by 2020. The university is ranked tied for 132nd in National Universities and tied for 60th among public universities in the 2020 U.S. News & World Report rankings. According to the U.S. News & World Report 2023 ranking table, UK Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences is ranked 6th in the nation whereas the Graduate School of Medicine (Research) is ranked 64th (tie).\nStudents are divided into several colleges based on their interests and specializations:\n\nCollege of Agriculture, Food and Environment, founded 1908\nCollege of Arts and Sciences, founded 1908\nGatton College of Business and Economics, founded 1925 (originally as the College of Commerce)\nCollege of Communication & Information, founded 1976\nCollege of Dentistry, founded 1962\n\nCollege of Design, founded 1964 (originally as the College of Architecture)\nCollege of Education, founded 1923\nPigman College of Engineering, founded 1918 (through a merger of the original Colleges of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Mines and Metals)\nCollege of Fine Arts, founded 1976\nCollege of Health Sciences, founded 1966 (originally as the College of Allied Health Personnel)\nJ. David Rosenberg College of Law, founded 1908\nCollege of Medicine, founded 1954\nCollege of Nursing, founded 1956\nCollege of Pharmacy, founded 1947 (originally established in 1870 in Louisville)\nCollege of Public Health, founded 2004\nCollege of Social Work, founded 1968\nUniversity of Kentucky Graduate School, founded 1912\nMartin School of Public Policy and Administration\nPatterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce\nOther colleges no longer in existence at the University of Kentucky include the College of Library Science (separating out of the College of Arts & Sciences in 1968 and incorporated in 2003 into what is now the College of Communication and Information) and the College of Home Economics (created in 1916 and whose founding dean was Mary E. Sweeney) now a School of Human Environmental Sciences located within the College of Agriculture.\n\nLewis Honors College\nThe Honors Program at the University of Kentucky began in 1958. It offers interdisciplinary, seminar-style classes of 15–20 students each as well as \"H-section\" classes that accelerate common course offerings such as chemistry, biology, and physics.\nIn October 2015, the University of Kentucky received the largest single gift in its history, $23.5 million from alumnus, longtime donor and successful entrepreneur Thomas W. Lewis and his wife Jan to create the Lewis Honors College.\nThe Lewis Honors College was transitioned from the Honors Program at UK in 2015. From 2017, the Honors Program became the Lewis Honors College. On July 10, 2017, Christian Brady was announced as the inaugural dean of the college. Its headquarters are in Lewis Hall, which also serves as one of several residence halls for Honors College students.\n\nStudent life\nStudents\nThe University of Kentucky strives for a diverse and international student population, with a selective admissions process.\nIn fall 2014, there were 30,000 students enrolled for the first time. This is due in part by the high number of out-of-state students. The percentage mix of students at this time were 62% in state and 38% out-of-state. During this time, the freshman class was recorded at 5,000 students.\n\nStudent government\nThe University of Kentucky Student Government Association (UKSGA) represents all undergraduate, graduate and professional students enrolled at the university in several critical ways. UKSGA exists to increase student influence over academic policy and to provide many helpful, creative and necessary student services. UKSGA also exists to protect and expand student substantive and procedural rights with the university and surrounding municipalities. Finally, UKSGA exists to better represent the student body in relations with faculty, administration, Board of Trustees and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.\nUKSGA includes an Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch.\n\nExecutive Branch: oversees day-to-day operations, manages budget, and facilitates major programs.\nLegislative Branch: includes the Student Senate. There are 46 legislators in this branch. Their goal is to allocate funds, approve presidential appointments, facilitate legislative changes, and represent the larger student voice.\nJudicial: composed of one chief justice and six Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of legislation, handles claims levied against SGA officials, hears any election rules violation complaints and validates election results.\nSeveral of their current programs include:\n\nKentucky Wildcab: a late night transportation service designed to enhance the safety efforts of the university and surrounding community in partnership with UK Transportation.\nWildcat Wardrobe: provides UK students with free professional dress clothing for interviews and jobs\nSafe CATS: provides UK students with a safer way to travel around campus by having SafeCats team members escort students to their destinations on-foot or by golf cart\nStudent Legal Services: free on-site consultation for any legal issue by a local attorney\nChildcare Grants: available for part-time and full-time UK students, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, who need financial assistance for day-care service for their children.\nScholarships\nStudent Organization Funding: General Funding Grants, Club Sports Grants, Service Grants, Academic/Professional Conferences, and Senate Special Projects\nSeveral distinguished student body presidents include Governor Steve Beshear.\n\nTheater\nIn the early twentieth century, a group called The Strollers consisted of performers either studying or employed at the university or nearby. They performed regularly at the Lexington Opera House. In 1910, their first production there was the 1839 historical play Richelieu. At the end of the spring semester in 1918, as World War I was nearing its end, they performed several skits about war life and then projected large photographic images \"showing actual battle scenes\" and the humanitarian work of the Red Cross. University girls dressed as nurses served as ushers.\nThe first theater on UK grounds was the Campus Theater. In 1922, the university bought the Consolidated Baptist Church, a historically black congregation. The church's pastor had been Peter Vinegar. A group of performers and their benefactors, led by Carol M. Sax, raised more money to make the church into a theater, calling it Romany. They performed The Miracle of Sister Beatrice by Maurice Maeterlinck in 1927. In 1928, it was renamed Guignol Theater, after Théâtre du Grand Guignol in Paris, a theater on the Rue Chaptal from 1897 to 1962, housed in a former chapel and with seats for 293. After leaving Lexington, Sax staged Arthur Wilmurt's The Guest Room on Broadway in 1931; it ran for a respectable 67 shows. Eleanor Roosevelt attended opening night of his production of I.J. Golden's Re-Echo in New York in 1934; it ran for only 5 shows. \nFrank C. Fowler was the second director of the Kentucky Guignol; he had received his master's degree from Brown University in 1928 and was hired by UK that same year. He was followed by Wallace Briggs. The fire that gutted UK's Guignol in 1947 is captured on film. In the 1930s and 1940s, one-act plays written by students were performed annually. A new Guignol Theater was opened in the Fine Arts Building in February, 1950 with a production of Medea. Two Blind Mice, a political satire by Samuel and Bella Spewack, followed after Medea. \nDuring the 1950s, plays performed at the Guignol would often go on tour throughout Kentucky in the summer months.\n\nStudent media\nThe Electrical and Computer Engineering Department was the home of one of the earliest college amateur radio stations in the United States, beginning with W4JP that began continuous operation prior to World War I. In 1927, the station was relicensed as 9JL (later W9JL).\nStudents currently run two independent FM stations. The first, 91.3 FM WUKY, is a Triple-A station and was the first university-owned FM radio station in the United States and Kentucky's first public radio station. The operations started on October 17, 1940, as WBKY out of Beattyville, although the station moved five years later to Lexington.\nIn 1971, WBKY was one of the first to carry NPR's \"All Things Considered\" and helped debut National Public Radio, changing its call letters to WUKY in 1989 to better reflect its affiliation with the university. In 2007, it became the first Lexington radio station to broadcast in high-definition digital radio. The second is 88.1 FM WRFL which has been in operation since 1988. WRFL is operated by students and broadcasts live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and features music that is spread across most genres.\nThe campus is also served by the Kentucky Kernel, a student-run, financially independent daily newspaper, with the first issue published in 1915. The official yearbook of the University of Kentucky is the Kentuckian, first published in 1906. The Kentuckian was preceded by at least one previous book, the Echo.\n\nBlack Student Union\nThe University of Kentucky Black Student Union (BSU) was established on February 17, 1968. They were the first organization on campus that was created to support and protect students of color. Their goal was to fight for change on campus for diverse students. They work closely with other organizations on campus such as the Student Activities Board, Student Government Association and various fraternities. Their main mission is to educate the campus community on Black American students and to assist incoming minority students.\nJim Embry, born in Richmond, Kentucky, was the founding member of the organization, as well as, the first elected president. 51 years later, Embry is still fighting for progress in the social injustices and systemic racism on campus.\n\nGreek life\nNineteen sororities and twenty-three fraternities representing over 3,000 students. There are also non-Greek organizations on campus, like Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity and Tau Beta Sigma, a band fraternity. In 2007, the UK paper The Kentucky Kernel unleashed criticism and gained national attention for an editorial cartoon that depicted an African American pledge being auctioned; it was a comment on racial segregation in UK's Greek system. Farmhouse's chapter was suspended in 2021 for four years by the university, after a pledge died while attending a party in the fraternity's house. In 2023, Phi Tau was suspended for misuse of alcohol and other violations of law.\n\nAthletics\nUniversity of Kentucky student-athletes compete as the Wildcats under colors Kentucky blue and white.\nBeginning in the 1890s, students at the A&M scheduled football games with neighboring colleges. In 1902, the women's basketball program began on campus, and the men's team was added one year later. The \"Wildcats\" became associated with the university shortly after a football victory over Illinois on October 9, 1909. The then-chief of the military department, Commandant Carbuiser, stated that the team had \"fought like wildcats.\" The slogan was later adopted by the university, and a costumed mascot debuted in 1976.\nIn 1930, then-high school coach Adolph Rupp was hired as a basketball coach and worked in that capacity for 42 years, retiring 1972. During his tenure, he led the men's basketball team to four NCAA championships in 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1958. The Wildcats later won a fifth championship under Joe B. Hall in 1978, another in 1996 under Rick Pitino and the next under Orlando \"Tubby\" Smith in 1998. In 2007, the University of Kentucky named Billy Gillispie as the head coach of the men's basketball team and on March 30, 2009, the university named John Calipari as the head coach of the Wildcats. Calipari coached the team to its eighth national title in 2012.\nThe university boasts of numerous national championships, with its latest coming in 2012 when the men's basketball team won its eighth national title. UK also boasts of a cross country national team championship (women's, 1988), eight individual championships in gymnastics, an Olympic medalist in track and field, and 24 national championships in cheerleading. (Not an NCAA recognized championship) After defeating number-one ranked Oklahoma 13–7 in the Sugar Bowl under legendary coach Bear Bryant, Kentucky was also a co-national champion for the 1950 season.\n\nThe University of Kentucky Dance team was ranked fifth in the nation in Hip Hop and seventh in Pom in 2015.\nOther athletic programs sponsored at the varsity level include baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country running, football, men's and women's golf, women's gymnastics, the coeducational sport of rifle, men's and women's soccer, women's softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field and women's volleyball. The school also has a popular club-level men's ice hockey team and a rugby program that competes at the Division 1 level.\nThe University of Kentucky football coach is Mark Stoops, named the successor to Joker Phillips, who was the first African American football coach in Kentucky's history.\nNotable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement, convocation and athletic games is the University of Kentucky fight song: On, On, U of K. Additionally, the song Kentucky Fight is played before games.\nIn April 2024, a Title IX sexual violence lawsuit was filed against the University of Kentucky which alleged that there was a \"toxic, sexually hostile environment\" within the university swim program during the time Lars Jorgensen was swim coach between 2013 and 2023. The lawsuit further accused the university of \"complicity\" with Jorgensen and allowed him \"to prey on, sexually harass, and commit horrific sexual assaults and violent rapes against young female coaches and collegiate athletes who were reliant on him.\"\n\nEsports\nUniversity of Kentucky partnered up with South Korean Esport Organisation Gen.G Esports and International Studies Abroad (ISA) to launch an international esports exchange programme in Seoul, South Korea.\n\nCampus\nThe University of Kentucky offers seven main dining facilities, 23 residence halls, and numerous recreation facilities spread between three distinct campuses: north, south, and central. It is also home to more than 250 student-run organizations.\nThe university campus is home to numerous notable structures, such as Main Building, a four-story administration building dating to 1882, which was gutted by fire on May 15, 2001. The Patterson Office Tower is the tallest building on campus.\nThe University of Kentucky once operated 14 community colleges with more than 100 extended sites, centers and campuses under the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, but relinquished control under the Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997. The network of community colleges is now known as the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). Adjoining Lexington Community College, despite the reorganization of the community colleges, remained integrated with the university, but separated from the University of Kentucky in 2004 and became a part of KCTCS; it is now known as Bluegrass Community and Technical College.\nThe College of Engineering currently operates a satellite campus in Paducah, located on the campus of West Kentucky Community and Technical College.\n\nCampus libraries\nThe University of Kentucky is home to seven campus libraries. Among them is the William T. Young Library, which houses a general undergraduate collection and social sciences, humanities, business, biology, and agricultural materials. The library is also a Federal Depository Library and a public library for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.\n\nCampus landmarks\nThe University of Kentucky has several noteworthy landmarks:\n\nKroger Field\nMemorial Coliseum\nMemorial Hall\nSingletary Center for the Arts\nUniversity of Kentucky Art Museum\nUniversity of Kentucky/Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Arboretum\nUniversity of Kentucky Research and Education Center Botanical Garden\nWilliam T. Young Library\n\nNotable faculty\nKimberly W. Anderson, Chemist, Gill Eminent Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associate Dean for Administration and Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering\nJohn Clubbe, expert on Byron, Guggenheim Fellow\nGary Ferland, Astrophysicist\nLori Stewart Gonzalez, speech pathologist and 23rd president of Ohio University\nArthur G. Hunt, American plant and soils scientist\nMilena Minkova, Latinist specializing in Neo-Latin studies and spoken Latin\nMelynda Price, Professor of Law, Director of African American and Africana Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences\nJuan Trigos, composer and conductor\nTerence Tunberg, Latinist specialising in Neo-Latin studies and spoken Latin\nRonald Werner-Wilson (born 1962), Chair of the Family Studies Department and Kathryn Louise Chellgren Endowed Professor for Research in Family Studies\n\nNotable alumni\nThe university has more than 140,246 alumni in the state of Kentucky, 216,737 in the United States, and 1,119 internationally. The University of Kentucky Alumni Association is the primary affiliation for former students and faculty, and is located at the corner of Rose Street and Euclid Avenue. The building, dedicated in 1963, is named for Helen G. King, the first permanent director of the association and a former \"Miss University of Kentucky\". The association also meets at Spindletop Hall, a large mansion along Iron Works Pike, which serves as a central alumni gathering point.\nThe University of Kentucky boasts seven governors, including four former Governors of Kentucky: Steve Beshear, Ernie Fletcher, Paul E. Patton, and Albert \"Happy\" Chandler; Chandler was also a former U.S. Senator, and was the Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1945 to 1951. Rounding out the other seven are the former Governor of Ohio Ted Strickland, former Governor of North Carolina Beverly Perdue, and former Governor of Arkansas Tom Jefferson Terral. Former U.S. Representative Ken Lucas from the commonwealth's fourth congressional district, and current U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell are other government officials that called the university home. Kelly Craft (née Guilfoil), former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and United States Ambassador to Canada, attended the university.\nThe United Methodist Bishop Alfred W. Gwinn also attended the university.\nCarol Martin “Bill” Gatton, an automobile dealer executive, was the donor of the largest gift ever to the university, and is the namesake for the Gatton College of Business and Economics and the Gatton Student Center. Paul Chellgren, Chairman and CEO of Ashland Inc., also attended the university, and is the namesake for Chellgren Hall, formerly known as Woodland Glen I.\nThe university was also the home of Thomas Hunt Morgan, a scientist and winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and William Lipscomb, 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Doris Yvonne Wilkinson was the first African American to graduate from the university as an undergraduate student in 1958, and Joyce Hamilton Berry, a former clinical psychologist, was the first female African American to earn a Ph.D. from UK in 1970. Journalist and Miss USA 2021 Elle Smith, an African American, also attended the university.\nActresses such as Miss Elizabeth, Ashley Judd, and Adunni Ade also attended the university. Randall Cobb, a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers; Josh Hines-Allen, a defensive end for the Jacksonville Jaguars; Anthony Davis, a power forward and center for Los Angeles Lakers; and Derek Bryant, a former outfielder for the Oakland Athletics from 1973 to 1981, are a few sports alumni from the university. Tyrese Maxey is a point guard for the 76ers.\n\nSee also\nEducation in Kentucky\nList of forestry universities and colleges\n\nNotes\nReferences\nFurther reading\nBashaw, Carolyn Terry. “ ‘To serve the people of the state of Kentucky': Sarah Gibson Blanding and the development of administrative skill, 1923–1941.\" Filson Club History Quarterly (1991) 65#2 pp. 281–301. Blanding was the innovative Dean of Women.\nBirdwhistell, Terry L., and Deirdre A. Scaggs. Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880–1945 (University Press of Kentucky, 2020) online\nBirdwhistell, Terry L. \"Divided We Fall: State College and the Normal School Movement in Kentucky, 1880–1910.\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 88.4 (1990): 431–456. online\nCone, Carl B. The University of Kentucky: A pictorial history (University Press of Kentucky, 2014) online.\nEllis, William E. A history of education in Kentucky (University Press of Kentucky, 2011). excerpt; also see complete text online, the major scholarly survey; also see online book review\nGooden, Susan H. \"Tuning the Local Network to a National Channel: Educational Leadership and the College of Education at the University of Kentucky, 1917–27.\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 93.3 (1995): 307–332. online\nGroves, John Russell Jr. \"An examination of major initiatives in campus planning at the University of Kentucky, 1919–1991\" (PhD dissertation, University of Kentucky; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1992. 9233608).\nKaleidoscope University of Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship. Lexington, KY: Office of Undergraduate Research, University of Kentucky, 2002. Print.\nKiesel, Linda Raney. \"Kentucky's land-grant legacy: An analysis of the administration of John Bryan Bowman and James Kennedy Patterson, 1865–1890\" (PhD dissertation, University of Kentucky ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2003. 3074495).\nLaws, Federal and State, Incorporating, Regulating and Endowing State University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky. Lexington, Ky. : University of Kentucky: N.p., 1913. Print.\nMcVey, Frank L. The Gates Open Slowly: A History of Education in Kentucky (1949), older scholarly survey. online\nMorelock, Kolan. Taking the town: Collegiate and community culture in the Bluegrass, 1880-1917 (University Press of Kentucky, 2008) online.\nMoyen, Eric. Frank L. McVey and the University of Kentucky: A progressive president and the modernization of a southern university (University Press of Kentucky, 2011) online.\nNewberry, Anthony L. \"The University of Kentucky community college system: History, current status, and future challenges.\" Community College Journal of Research and Practice 20.6 (1996): 519–538.\nRussell, Mark W. \"Beyond Blue and White: University of Kentucky Presidents and Desegregation, 1941–1987\" (PhD dissertation, . University of Kentucky, 2014) online.\n\nSports\nBaker, S. Zebulon. \" 'On the Opposite Side of the Fence': The University of Kentucky and the Racial Desegregation of the Southeastern Conference.\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 115.4 (2017): 561–610. online\nNelli, Humbert S. \"Herman L. Donovan and the Emergence of 'Big-Time' Athletics at the University of Kentucky.\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 88.2 (1990): 163–182. online\nNelli, Humbert S. The Winning Tradition: A History of Kentucky Wildcat Basketball (1984) online\nNelli, Humbert S. \"Adolph Rupp, the Kentucky Wildcats, and the Basketball Scandal of 1951.\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society' 84.1 (1986): 51–75. online\nStanley, Gregory Kent. Before big blue: Sports at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1940 (University Press of Kentucky, 2014) online.\nStanley, Gregory Kent. \" '... And Not to Make Athletes of Them': Banning Women's Sports at the University of Kentucky, 1902–24.\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 93.4 (1995): 422–445. Fierce debates led in 1924 to ending all varsity competition for women for the next fifty years.\nStanley, Gregory Kent. \" 'Not conducive to the best interests of this institution': President James Kennedy Patterson, the Board of Trustees, and University of Kentucky Athletics, 1890–1910,\" Filson Club History Quarterly (1995) 69#2 pp, 159–170. President Patterson said football was too dangerous and not conducive to moral character. The Board overruled him in response to popular demand.\nPratt, Mike, and Tom Leach. “2010.” Kentucky Basketball: Two Decades Behind the Scenes, University Press of Kentucky, 2021, pp. 49–56. JSTOR,. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website\nUniversity of Kentucky Athletics website\nDigitized images of the University of Kentucky from the Glass plate negative collection, 1898–1918 housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center","title":"University_of_Kentucky"},{"idx":4,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Eli Capilouto (born August 22, 1949) is an American academic. He serves as the 12th president of the University of Kentucky. He was elected president by the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees in 2011, after serving as provost of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Under his leadership, the Commonwealth's flagship and land-grant research university has grown from $2.7 billion to $6.8 billion in total operations and has gained significant momentum in fulfilling its multi-faceted mission of teaching, research, service and health care.\n\nEarly life and education\nCapilouto is a native of Alabama. He obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine and master's degree in epidemiology at UAB. He joined the UAB faculty in 1975. In 1991, Capilouto received a doctorate in health policy and management from Harvard School of Public Health.\n\nAcademic and administrative career\nCapilouto served as dean of the UAB School of Public Health from 1994 to 2001 before he returned to his research and faculty appointment as professor. He was named acting provost in 2002, and he assumed the post permanently in 2005.\nOn May 4, 2011, Capilouto was selected to succeed Lee Todd, Jr., the eleventh president of the University of Kentucky (UK). He was hired under a five-year contract with a base annual salary of $500,000, plus $125,000 in benefits and a possible bonus of up to $50,000.\nDuring his time at UK, Capilouto has been dedicated to enhancing the lives of students and the commonwealth of Kentucky. Under his leadership, UK-PURPOSE (Plan for Unprecedented Research, Purposeful and Optimal Service and Education) was released in 2021 as UK's strategic plan. It prioritizes five principles:\n\nPutting Students First\nTaking Care of Our People\nInspiring Ingenuity\nEnsuring Greater Trust, Transparency and Accountability\nBringing Together Many People; One Community\nCapilouto has led expansionary efforts in improving campus infrastructure, health care, research and the university budget. Since assuming his position, the budget has grown by more than $4 billion. During his tenure, employees have received pay raises nearly every year, and tuition and mandatory fees have increased, on average, below inflation for the past four years. Capilouto is committed to revitalizing the university's campus. Since he arrived, the university has invested $4 billion in infrastructure.\nIn recent years, UK launched UK LEADS (Leveraging Economic Affordability for Developing Success) to retain students who would otherwise have to leave due to financial burdens. This innovative approach to recruitment and retention was awarded the EDGE Commendation for Innovation in Undergraduate Education. Capilouto announced the Kentucky Can Campaign in 2018 which has, in large part, funded this initiative. The Kentucky Can Campaign has raised more than $2.1 billion towards the university's endowment.\nCapilouto has emphasized the university's land-grant mission as vital. In 2020, he established the vice president of land-grant engagement. This effort promotes engagement throughout campus and the state, particularly through its Cooperative Extension Service in all 120 Kentucky counties. The university's commitment to research and discovery grows every year. He designated eight research priority areas (Cancer; Cardiovascular Diseases; Diabetes & Obesity; Energy; Neuroscience; Substance Use Disorder; Diversity and Inclusion; and Materials Science) as a focused attempt to address Kentucky's biggest challenges.\nUnder Capilouto's leadership the university and medical facilities have received many national awards and rankings. In 2023, Forbes ranked UK as the best employer in Kentucky and ranked as the 6th best large employer in the nation. Additionally, in 2023, UK's Markey Cancer Center became the first and only NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the state. Also, UK has been ranked in the top 30 of the Directors’ Cup for 11 straight years (not including 2019–20).\nLeaning on his background in epidemiology and health policy and management, Capilouto in collaboration with the university's provost led the START (Screening, Testing and Tracing, to Accelerate Restart and Transition) Team. They worked intensely to reimagine UK's approach to education, research, service and care amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, the START Team mobilized Kroger Field as a vaccine clinic administering nearly 250,000 doses.\n\nControversy\nIn 2017, the university sued its student newspaper, The Kentucky Kernel, to appeal an open records dispute with the Kentucky Attorney General regarding a sexual harassment case involving students and a faculty member. The judge upheld the appeal, stating that the student records in the case are protected under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The newspaper appealed the decision, and in 2021, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in favor of the student newspaper.\nIn 2020, the university furloughed 1,700 employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Capilouto proposed giving 10 percent of his salary for the 2020–21 academic year to the employee assistance fund established by the university's Department of Human Resources to support the furloughed employees, and it was approved the UK Board of Trustees.\n\nPersonal life\nCapilouto is married to Mary Lynne Capilouto, who is also a Doctor of Dental Medicine and former dean of the School of Dentistry at UAB. After serving as dean from 1997 to 2004, she retired, returned to part-time teaching and practicing dentistry and currently holds the rank of dean emeritus at the school. She engages in a variety of community and philanthropic works.\nThe couple is Jewish and has one daughter, Emily.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nPresident's page at uky.edu","title":"Eli_Capilouto"},{"idx":5,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Madeline Pumeriega is the fifth president of Miami Dade College in Miami, Florida. She is the first female to hold the post.\n\nBiography\nPumariega attended Hialeah High School in Hialeah, Florida. She attended Miami Dade College and University of Central Florida as an undergraduate and received a bachelor's degree from St. Thomas University.\nPumariega began her career at Miami Dade College in 1992 as the Dean of Students Services and later was Dean of Student and Administration Services. In 2011 Pumariega became President of MDC's Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami and held the position for nearly two years. In 2013, Pumariega became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Take Stock in Children, a non-profit. \nIn 2015, Florida Department of Education Commissioner Pam Stewart announced the appointment of Pumariega as Chancellor of the Florida College System. She was the first woman and first Hispanic FCS Chancellor.\nIn 2019, Pumariega was named executive vice president and provost of Tallahassee Community College. She also served as Affiliate Professor of Leadership at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.\nOn November 17, 2020, Pumariega was appointed the fifth president of Miami Dade College. \n\n\n== References ==","title":"Madeline_Pumariega"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Miami Book Fair is an annual street fair and literary festival organized by Miami Dade College. More than 300 national and international authors attend the week-long gathering every year which features pavilions for comics, children, and young adults, among others.\\n\\nHistory\\nMiami Book Fair International, originally known as \\\"Books by the Bay,\\\" was founded in 1984 by Miami Dade College President Eduardo J. Padrón, Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan, Craig Pollock of BookWorks, and other local bookstore owners in cooperation with the Miami-Dade Public Library System. The two primary organizers of the inaugural 1984 Book Fair from the Miami-Dade Public Library System were Head of Community Relations Margarita Cano and Wolfsonian campus librarian Juanita Johnson.\\nIn 2020, the book fair added virtual content.\\n\\nCommunity Partners and Sponsors\\nFlorida Center for the Literary Arts (FCLA)\\nThe Florida Center for the Literary Arts is the parent organization of the Miami Book Fair International. The literary center was conceived to advance the college's literary traditions. A permanent endowment was established with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Full programming began in January 2002.\\nAs a department of Miami Dade College, FCLA generates programs to support authors and writing, journalism, play and screen writing, reading and literacy, as well as the Miami Book Fair International. Outreach consist of reading campaigns and book discussions, writing workshops, author presentations, panel discussions, and master classes. The Center collaborates with a number of Florida-based cultural institutions and other partners in order to advance literary initiatives.\\n\\nEvents\\nFestival of Authors\\nTypically more than 300 authors from around the world take part in the Fair's international Festival of Authors. Writers come from all over the United States, and in previous years, the Fair has welcomed authors from countries like Argentina, Bosnia, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, England, France, Finland, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, Israel, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Trinidad, and other nations.\\n\\nEvenings With...Series\\nThe Evenings With… series features readings by world-renowned writers every evening for six consecutive festival days. In past years, guest authors have included recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Casa de las Americas Prize, Pushcart Prize, O'Henry Award, National Magazine Award, Commonwealth Prize, MacArthur Fellowship, and Edgar Award.\\n\\nStreet Fair\\nThe three-day outdoor festival gathers hundreds of booksellers and exhibitors from major publishing houses, small presses, scholarly imprints, and foreign publishers. Sellers of used books – including signed first editions, original manuscripts, and other collectibles – also have booths. Millions of books in multiple languages can be found, along with book signings and musical entertainment, during the weekend Fair activity.\\n\\nComix Galaxy\\nComic Galaxy is a Fair program offering information on graphic novels and the comics world, and celebrates their place in United States literary life, as well as their recent rise in popularity and integration into mainstream literature, culture, and even education. A prominent part of Comic Galaxy, The School of Comics is a day-long program that includes six sessions for teachers, librarians, parents, and others who are interested in the format. There also exists training for creators of the genre.\\n\\nChildren's Alley\\nChildren's Alley, tailored for young readers, features storytelling, puppets, theatrical performances, educational games, and hands-on activities. Generation Genius is a program hosting thousands of school-aged children each year. As a part of Generation Genius programming, Miami Book Fair International also offers workshops and presentations to local teachers, librarians, and educators. Programs are provided in cooperation with Miami Art Museum, HistoryMiami, Miami Children's Museum, Miami Science Museum, Early Learning Coalition of Miami Dade/Monroe, and Florida Blue.\\n\\nIbero-American Authors\\nIbero-American Authors is Miami Book Fair International's Spanish Language author program that is presented solely in Spanish or Portuguese. More than 50 authors from various Latin American countries are featured during the eight-days of the Fair. Readings take place every evening during the week and all day during the weekend.\\n\\nTwilight Tastings and the Kitchen\\nMiami Book Fair International also includes as part of its list of events hors d'oeuvre, complimentary cocktails, and nightly entertainment before the weeknight author presentations. The Kitchen combines cooking demonstrations and author readings by featured cookbook authors and chefs in an intimate, culinary setting as they recreate recipes from their books.\\n\\nLGBTQIA+ Topics\\nAuthors writing on LGBTQIA+ topics are represented throughout the festival with titles in fiction, non-fiction, memoir, and erotica. Many who appear are Lambda Award winners or finalists.\\n\\nMiami Writer's Institute\\nCenter for Literature and Theatre faculty, authors, and agents provide workshops pertaining to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and publishing. The Center offers one and three-day workshops, with several taking place in Spanish as well.\\n\\nRecent-Year Highlights\\n2014\\nIn 2014, the Miami Book Fair International partnered with the National Book Foundation to provide programming centered around 2014 National Book Award nominees and winners. A sampling of additional authors appearing at Miami Book Fair International 2014 follows:\\n\\nRobert Baer – \\\"The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins\\\"\\nRichard Blanco – \\\"The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood\\\"\\nJohn Cleese – \\\"So Anyway...\\\"\\nAndy Cohen – \\\"The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look At A Shallow Year\\\"\\nMichael DeForge – \\\"Ant Colony\\\"\\nAngela DiTerlizzi – \\\"Some Bugs\\\"\\nTony DiTerlizzi – \\\"Star Wars: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight\\\"\\nSheila E – \\\"The Beat of My Own Drum: A Memoir\\\"\\nGrace Ellis – \\\"Lumberjanes\\\"\\nAnnabelle Gurwitch – \\\"See You Made An Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50\\\"\\nJames W. Hall – \\\"The Big Finish: A Thorn Novel\\\"\\nBen Hatke – \\\"The Return of Zita the Spacegirl\\\"\\nKazu Kibuishi – \\\"Amulet#6\\\"\\nNicholas Kristof – \\\"A Path Appears\\\"\\nNorman Lear – \\\"Even This I Get To Experience\\\"\\nBrad Meltzer – \\\"I Am Rosa Parks\\\"\\nLauren Miller – \\\"Free to Fall\\\"\\nSusan Minot – \\\"Thirty Girls: A Novel\\\"\\nGeorge O'Connor – \\\"If I Had A Raptor\\\"\\nLauren Oliver – \\\"Rooms: A Novel\\\"\\nAnn Patchett – \\\"This is the Story of a Happy Marriage\\\"\\nEd Piskor – \\\"Hip Hop Family Tree Vol 2: 1981-1983\\\"\\nValerie Plame – \\\"Burned\\\"\\nQuestlove – \\\"The World According to Questlove\\\"\\nAnne Rice – \\\"Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles\\\"\\nTavis Smiley – \\\"Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year\\\"\\nRaina Telgemeier – \\\"Sisters\\\"\\nJohn Waters – \\\"Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America\\\"\\nCornel West – \\\"Black Prophetic Fire\\\"\\nEveline Pierre \\\"The Secret to Winning Big\\\"\\n\\n2013\\nTo commemorate 500 years since Juan Ponce de León first landed in Florida, the 30th edition of the Fair celebrated the culture and literature of Spain. Spanish writers and artists shared the language, culture and literature of Spain. A sampling of authors who appeared at Miami Book Fair International 2013 follows: \\n\\nJeff Abbott – Downfall\\nMitch Albom – The First Phone Call from Heaven: A Novel\\nReza Aslan – Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth\\nPaul Auster – Report From the Interior\\nHolly Black – Doll Bones\\nStanley Crouch – Kansas City Lighting: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker\\nKwame Dawes – Duppy Conqueror: New and Selected Poems\\nDelia Ephron – Sister Mother Husband Dog: Etc.\\nAna Fuentes – From the Dragon's Mouth: Ten True Stories That Reveal the True China\\nNikki Giovanni – Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid\\nDoris Kearns Goodwin – The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism\\nDr. Carl Hart – High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society\\nJohn Heilemann – Double Down: Game Change 2012\\nAnjelica Huston – A Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York\\nAndrew Kaufman – I'm in Miami, Bitch!: The Disappearing Street Art of Wynwood\\nGordon Korman – The Hypnotists: Book 1\\nDiane Ladd – A Bad Afternoon for a Piece of Cake: A Collection of Ten Short Stories\\nWally Lamb – We Are Water: A Novel\\nAdam Mansbach – The Dead Run\\nChris Matthews – Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked\\nD.T. Max – Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace\\nTerry McMillan – Who Asked You?\\nBrad Meltzer – History Decoded: The 10 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time\\nDavid N. Meyer – The Bee Gees: The Biography\\nJacquelyn Mitchard – What We Saw at Night\\n\\n2012\\nThe featured country of 2012's Miami Book Fair International was Paraguay. Paraguayan culture was displayed through film, dance, and fine and folkloric arts.\\nA sampling of authors who appeared at Miami Book Fair International 2012 follows:\\n\\nMartin Amis – Lionel Asbo: State of England\\nNate Berkus – The Things That Matter\\nJustin Cronin – The Twelve\\nAline Crumb – Drawn Together: The Collected Works of Aline & R. Crumb\\nAndre Debus III – Townie: A Memoir\\nJunot Diaz – This is How You Lose Her\\nEmma Donoghue – Room\\nTim Dorsey – Pineapple Grenade\\nCarolina Garcia-Aguilera – Magnolia\\nChris Hayes – Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy\\nMark Helprin – In Sunlight and In Shadow\\nJamal Joseph – Panther Baby: A Life of Rebellion & Reinvention\\nDaniel Kirk – Library Mouse: A Museum Adventure\\nAnne Lamott – Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers\\nJessica Martinez – The Space Between Us\\nDiana McCaulay – Huracan\\nAndrew McCarthy – The Longest Way Home\\nChristopher Pike – Witch World\\nBill O'Reilly – Killing Kennedy\\nLemony Snicket – A Series of Unfortunate Events\\nJake Tapper – The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor\\nJeffrey Toobin – The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court\\nIrvine Welsh – Skagboys\\nSherri Winston – President of the Whole Fifth Grade\\nTom Wolfe – Back to Blood\\n\\n2011\\nMiami Book Fair International 2011 included demonstrations of Chinese culture and art and discussions of social issues facing contemporary China. An international symposium on Chinese language, culture, and communication was held.\\nA sampling of authors who participated in Miami Book Fair International 2011 follows: \\n\\nDr. Arthur Agatston – The South Beach Wake-Up Call\\nTom Angleberger – Darth Paper Strikes Back\\nDavid Brooks – The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement\\nDan Clowes – The Death-Ray\\nJohn Connolly – The Infernals\\nBob Edwards – My Life in Radio\\nJeffrey Eugenides – The Marriage Plot\\nCristina García – Dreams of Significant Girls\\nDr. Paul George – Florida's 11th Circuit Court\\nLev Grossman – The Magician King\\nSandra Gutierrez – The New Southern-Latino Table\\nEllen Hopkins – Perfect\\nJeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid\\nMegan McDonald – Judy Moody, Girl Detective\\nMichael Moore – Here Comes Trouble\\nElizabeth Nunez – Boundaries\\nSusan Orlean – Rin Tin Tin\\nChuck Palahniuk – Damned\\nChristopher Paolini – Inheritance\\nKaren Russell – Swamplandia!\\nEsmeralda Santiago – Conquistadora\\nJon Scieszka – SPHDZ Book 3\\nTouré – Post Blackness\\nCalvin Trillin – Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin\\nBelle Yang – Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale\\n\\n2010\\nFor the first time this year, the fair dedicated its international space to one country, Mexico, in celebration of the bicentennial of the Central American nation's independence and the centennial of its 1910 revolution. Featured were literary feasts served as fiestas, with author presentations and roundtables on subjects such as Mexican boleros. Ballet performances, art and photography exhibitions, a movie series, and theater performances also honored the country of Mexico.\\nThe following is a sampling of authors who participated in Miami Book Fair International 2010 activities: \\n\\nMaha Akhtar – La Nieta de la Maharaní\\nKim Anthony – Unfavorable Odds\\nDan Archer – The Honduran Coup: A Graphic History\\nAnn Beattie – The New Yorker Stories\\nSusanna Daniel – Stiltsville\\nEdwidge Danticat – Create Dangerously: Immigrant Artists at Work\\nKate DiCamillo – Bink & Gollie\\nTony DiTerlizzi – The Search for Wondla\\nDave Eggers – Zeitoun\\nJonathan Franzen – Freedom\\nWillie Geist – American Freak Show: The Completely Fabricated Stories of Our New National Treasures\\nJames W. Hall – Silencer\\nVicki Hendricks – Florida Gothic Stories\\nSebastian Junger – War\\nChip Kidd – Shazam!\\nHari Kunzru – Writing on the Edge: Great Contemporary Writers on the Frontline of Crisis\\nMeghan McCain – Dirty Sexy Politics\\nBen Mezrich – The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook\\nWalter Mosley – The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey\\nBeatriz Rivera – When a Tree Falls\\nScott Turow – Innocent\\nLisa Unger – Fragile\\nJudith Viorst – Lulu and the Brontosaurus\\nScott Westerfeld – Behemoth\\nSimon Winchester – The Atlantic: Biography of an Ocean\\n\\n2009\\nEnvironmental issues were in the forefront of Miami Book Fair International 2009, from author presentations to green activities to making ecologically sound choices in Fair logistics. The college used native plants on stages as well as entrances. These native plants were then planted in the community to help offset the carbon emissions of the book fair. Miami Book Fair International and MDC's Earth Ethics Institute procured the plants from local nursery. Bike Valet parking service was available to each cyclist, and numerous rethink, reduce, reuse, and, recycle educational programs were promoted.\\nThe following is a sampling of authors who appeared at Miami Book Fair International 2009:\\n\\nLidia Bastianich – Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy\\nEdna Buchanan – The Corpse Had a Familiar Face\\nMeg Cabot – Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls\\nSusie Essman – What Would Susie Say?\\nDan Goldman – 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail\\nAl Gore – Our Choice\\nSenator Bob Graham – America: The Owner's Manual\\nHeather Graham – Unhallowed Ground\\nJames Grippando – Intent to Kill\\nDr. Sanjay Gupta – Cheating Death\\nJohn Hodgman – More Information Than You Require\\nGwen Ifill – The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama\\nSid Jacobson – Che: A Graphic Biography\\nWally Lamb – Wishin' and Hopin'\\nPeter Lerangis – The 39 Clues\\nJonathan Lethem – Chronic City\\nTao Lin – Shoplifting from American Apparel\\nJeff Lindsay – Dexter By Design\\nRalph Nader – Only the Super Rich Can Save Us\\nJoyce Carol Oates – Little Bird of Heaven\\nIggy Pop – The Stooges: An Authorized and Illustrated Story\\nSherman Alexie – War Dances\\nLuis Alberto Urrea – Into the Beautiful North: A Novel\\nLarry Wilmore – I'd Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts\\n\\nSee also\\nFlorida literature\\nBooks in the United States\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nOfficial website\\nThe Center for Literature and Theatre @ Miami Dade College Tumblr Page\\nFlorida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College YouTube Page\\nMiami Book Fair International History on C-SPAN 2 Book TV\\nMajor Book Fairs in the US\\nNew York Times Article A Book Fair That Grew, Propelling the Arts in Miami\",\n \"title\": \"Miami_Book_Fair_International\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Miami Dade College (MDC) is a public college located in Miami, Florida. Established in 1959, it operates eight campuses and numerous outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. It is the largest institution in the Florida College System. MDC serves a significant number of minority students, particularly Hispanic students, enrolling more than any other institution in Florida.\\n\\nHistory\\nFounded as Dade County Junior College in 1960, MDC began on a high school farm and became desegregated in 1962, opening its doors to students of all races. Over the decades, MDC expanded by launching several campuses, including Kendall, Wolfson, and Hialeah, and established a Medical Center to support students in health programs.\\nIn 1973, the college changed its name to Miami-Dade Community College.\\nDuring the 1980s, outreach programs were developed to assist the increasing number of Cuban exiles and other immigrants. As state education budgets declined, MDC continued to grow and relied on its foundation to support operations. In the 1990s and 2000s, the college established its Honors College, offering rigorous academic programs across its largest campuses. In 2003, the college changed its name to \\\"Miami Dade College\\\" and began offering four-year degree programs.\\n\\nCampuses\\nMiami Dade College operates eight campuses and two outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. The North Campus, established in 1960, focuses on emergency services and entertainment technology programs. Kendall Campus, opened in 1967, is home to MDC's athletic teams and offers community service programs. Wolfson Campus, in downtown Miami, hosts the Miami Book Fair and houses the Culinary Institute. The Medical Campus, opened in 1977, offers nursing and health programs with a simulation hospital. Homestead Campus, built in 1990, features an FAA-approved aviation program. Eduardo J. Padrón Campus specializes in bilingual education and community-focused programs. Hialeah Campus offers English programs and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Management. West Campus in Doral provides innovative programs like the Tesla START program.\\n\\nAcademics\\nMDC offers a wide variety of associate and baccalaureate degrees, as well as vocational and technical certificates. The college is known for its strong programs in liberal arts, nursing, business, allied health professions, and computer information systems. Students can also pursue degrees in newer fields like cybersecurity.\\nThe Honors College provides scholarships and specialized curricula for high-achieving students, with opportunities for transfer to prestigious universities, including a partnership with the University of Miami. Dual-enrollment and virtual learning options are available for high school and home-educated students.\\n\\nAthletics\\nMDC participates in the Southern Conference of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and competes in five sports: men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball, with soccer teams being added in 2024. MDC teams have won 35 NJCAA national titles, making it a hub for talented athletes and MLB scouts.\\n\\nArts and culture\\nMDC has an extensive art collection of over 1,600 works, including paintings, sculptures, and installations. The Wolfson Campus hosts the Miami Book Fair International, the largest literary festival in the U.S.\\n\\nNotable achievements\\nIn 2018, MDC was recognized by the Aspen Institute for its focus on economic and social mobility, winning the Aspen Prize.\\n\\nNotable alumni\\nNotable faculty\\nJoanna Falco-Leshin, professor of English and Humanities\\n\\nGallery\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nOfficial website\",\n \"title\": \"Miami_Dade_College\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Kentucky Women Writers Conference had its beginnings in 1979 as a celebration of women writers at the University of Kentucky (UK). That first year featured Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Ruth Stone, Alice Walker, and Ruth Whitman. Since then, it has become the longest-running annual festival of women writers in the US.\\nUK History faculty Nancy Dye had suggested using surplus funds from Undergraduate Studies to bring women writers to campus. A 16-member committee from the departments of English, Honors, Undergraduate Studies, and Special Collections, along with members of the Lexington community, produced the conference. In 1984–1985 the conference was directed by UK English faculty Jane Gentry Vance, who later served as Kentucky's Poet Laureate.\\nIn 1985–1993, the conference was affiliated with Continuing Education for Women/University Extension and directed by Betty Gabehart. In 1994–1996, the conference was affiliated with the Women's Studies Program and directed by Jan Oaks, faculty in English and Gender and Women's Studies. In 1997, former Conference assistant Patti DeYoung served as director.\\nIn 1998, the conference lost university funding when it was unable to find a sponsoring department, and its advisory board established itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Its new home became the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in downtown Lexington, and it was renamed the Kentucky Women Writers Conference. Its director during those years, 1998–2002, was Jan Isenhour, also director of the Carnegie Center, and its work was carried out by a volunteer board.\\nIn 2002, President Lee Todd reinstated support for the conference to demonstrate the university's commitment to women's programming and community events. Since then, the Conference leadership has continued cultivating wide community support through many partnerships and the committed efforts of its board and volunteers. UK provides staff salaries, office space, and the majority of KWWC's operating expenses. Financial support from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, LexArts, the Kentucky Arts Council, the Kentucky Humanities Council, businesses, and individual patrons remains critical to our ability to attract writers of the highest caliber.\\nDirectors since then have been Brenda Weber (2003) and Rebecca Gayle Howell (2004–2006). Howell launched several free community events that have become signature offerings of the conference, including the Gypsy Slam, the Sonia Sanchez Series, and the Hardwick/Jones keynote reading on mentorship and collaboration. In 2007, Julie Kuzneski Wrinn became Conference director. The 38th annual conference was held September 15–16, 2017 in Lexington, Kentucky.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nOfficial website\",\n \"title\": \"Kentucky_Women_Writers_Conference\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 3,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state's two land-grant universities (the other being Kentucky State University). It is the institution with the highest enrollment in the state, with 32,710 students in the fall of 2022.\\nThe institution comprises 16 colleges, a graduate school, 93 undergraduate programs, 99 master programs, 66 doctoral programs, and 4 professional programs. It is classified among \\\"R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity\\\". According to the National Science Foundation, Kentucky spent $476.5 million on research and development in 2022, ranking it 61st in the nation.\\nThe University of Kentucky has seven libraries on campus. The largest is the William T. Young Library, a federal depository that hosts subjects related to social sciences, humanities, and life sciences collections. Since 1997, the university has focused expenditures increasingly on research, following a compact formed by the Kentucky General Assembly. The directive mandated that the university become a \\\"Top 20\\\" public research institution, in terms of an overall ranking to be determined by the university itself, by 2020. Two alumni from the university have won Nobel Prizes.\\n\\nHistory\\nUniversity origins\\nIn the early commonwealth of Kentucky, higher education was limited to children from prominent families, disciplined apprentices, and young men seeking entry into clerical, legal, and medical professions. As the first university in the territory that would become Kentucky, Transylvania University was the primary center for education. After a merger it became \\\"Kentucky University\\\".\\n\\nJohn Bryan Bowman was appointed head of the new \\\"Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky\\\" (called \\\"A&M\\\"), a department of Kentucky University. It received federal support through the Morrill Land-Grant Act in 1865. In 1866 it opened with 190 students and 10 professors, on the campus at Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate. In 1869 James Kennedy Patterson replaced Bowman and the first degree was awarded. In 1876, the university began to offer master's degree programs. In 1878 A&M separated from Kentucky University, which reverted to its original name Transylvania University. For the new school, Lexington donated a 52-acre (210,000 m2) park and fair ground, which became the core of UK's present campus. A&M was initially a male-only institution, but began to admit women in 1880.\\nIn 1892, the official colors of the university, royal blue and white, were adopted. An earlier color set, blue and light yellow, was adopted earlier at a Kentucky-Centre College football game on December 19, 1891. The particular hue of blue was determined from a necktie, which was used to demonstrate the color of royal blue.\\nOn February 15, 1882, Administration Building was the first building of three to be completed on the present campus. Three years later, the college formed the Agricultural Experiment Station, which researches issues relating to agribusiness, food processing, nutrition, water and soil resources and the environment. This was followed up by the creation of the university's Agricultural Extension Service in 1910, which was one of the first in the United States. The extension service became a model of the federally mandated programs that were required beginning in 1914.\\n\\nCoeducational school: modern period\\nPatterson Hall, the school's first women's dormitory, was constructed in 1904. Residents had to cross a swampy depression, where the now demolished Student Center later stood, to reach central campus. Four years later, the school's name was changed to the \\\"State University, Lexington, Kentucky\\\" upon reaching university status, and then to the \\\"University of Kentucky\\\" in 1916. The university led to the creation of the College of Home Economics in 1916, and Mary E. Sweeney was promoted from chair of the Department of Home Economics to dean of the college. (Later renamed the College of Human Environmental Sciences, this educational unit was folded into the College of Agriculture in 2003 as the School of Human Environmental Sciences). The College of Commerce was established in 1925, known today as the Gatton College of Business and Economics.\\nIn 1929, Memorial Hall was completed, dedicated to the 2,756 Kentuckians who died in World War I. This was followed up by the new King Library, which opened in 1931 and was named for a long-time library director, Margaret I. King.\\nOn March 15, 1948, Lyman T. Johnson applied to the University of Kentucky Graduate School for a doctorate degree in the Philosophy of History. Johnson was subsequently denied admission, with the registrar citing the previously passed Day Law. Johnson, citing Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 filed suit against the university for wrongful discrimination and failure to maintain equal learning intuitions. On April 27, 1949, Hiram Church Ford presided over the court case. After one day of testimony, Ford determined that the Commonwealth had failed to establish a graduate school with equal opportunity and educational quality as the graduate students offered to whites. Citing the Fourteenth amendment, Ford ruled that all qualified individuals, regardless of race, be allowed to attend the university's graduate program until an equally academically acceptable institution is established for the use of African Americans. The university's graduate and professional programs became racially integrated in 1949 when Lyman T. Johnson, an African American, won a lawsuit to be admitted to the graduate program. Blacks were not allowed to attend as undergraduates until 1954, following the US Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision.\\nIn 1939, Governor Happy Chandler appointed the first woman trustee on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, Georgia M. Blazer of Ashland. She served from 1939 to 1960. In 1962, Blazer Hall was opened as the Georgia M Blazer Hall for Women in tribute to her.\\nGround was broken for the Albert B. Chandler Hospital in 1955, when Kentucky Governor Happy Chandler recommended that the Kentucky General Assembly appropriate $5 million for the creation of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and a medical center at the university. This was completed after a series of studies were conducted that highlighted the health needs of the citizens, as well as the need to train more physicians. Five years later, the College of Medicine and College of Nursing opened, followed by the College of Dentistry in 1962.\\nNine years after the founding of The Northern Extension Center in Covington, representing the Ashland Independent School Board of Education, Ashland attorney Henderson Dysard and Ashland Oil & Refining Company founder and CEO Paul G. Blazer presented a proposal to President Dickey and the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees for the university to take over the day-to-day operations and curriculum of the Ashland [municipal] Junior College, creating the Ashland Center of the University of Kentucky in 1957. University of Kentucky Extension Centers in Fort Knox (1958), Cumberland (1960), and Henderson (1960) followed.\\nIn 1959, the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce opened and began training professionals at the master's and doctoral level for careers in international affairs. \\nAuthorized by the Kentucky General Assembly and signed by Governor Bert Combs on March 6, 1962, a mandate was placed upon the University of Kentucky to form a community college system. Two years later, the board of trustees implemented the legislation and established the Community College System, creating centers in Covington, Ashland, Fort Knox, Cumberland, Henderson and Elizabethtown. In 1969, the Patterson Office Tower was completed, currently the tallest building on campus.\\n\\nIn May 1970, students at the university began protesting the shootings at Kent State University. In response, Governor Louie Nunn deferred to the National Guard in an attempt to disperse the protesters. A ROTC building was destroyed by fire. The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries has 13 oral history interviews with participants in the protests, university officials as well as former governor Nunn. Nine years later, the Singletary Center for the Arts opened, named in honor of former university president Otis Singletary.\\n\\nContemporary history\\nIn 1997, the Kentucky General Assembly reorganized the community college system, withdrawing the university's jurisdiction from all but the Lexington Community College. The other colleges were merged with the Kentucky Technical College system and were placed under a separate board of control.\\nOn April 3, 1998, work began on the William T. Young Library, which was the largest university project at the time of completion. The six-level William T. Young Library was constructed on south campus and the largest book endowment among all public university libraries in the country. William T. Young got his fortune from selling his peanut butter company to Procter & Gamble in 1955. Nine years after the completion of the William T. Young Library, on April 13, 2007, an entire city block of neighborhood homes were demolished and ground was broken for the Biological Pharmaceutical Complex Building, the largest academic building in the state of Kentucky, and one of the largest in the United States.\\n\\nThe Biological Pharmaceutical Complex Building complements the adjacent Biomedical Biological Science Research Building, and is expected to be part of the new university research campus. Other recent announcements include the construction of the new $450 million Albert B. Chandler Hospital, which will was one of the largest projects in the state's history in terms of size and economic impact.\\nIn 1997, the Kentucky General Assembly formed a compact with the university. The Top 20 Plan mandates that the University of Kentucky becomes a Top 20 public research university by 2020. According to the compact, states with \\\"Top 20\\\" universities feature higher average household incomes, higher education attainments, healthier lives and more financial security. The plan would also spur technological advancements due to university-based research and increase the marketability of the state to investors.\\n\\nThe plan produced some results,\\n\\nEnrollment increased.\\nThe six-year graduation rate increased from 59.5 percent in 1998 to 61.2 percent in 2007.\\nResearch expenditures increased from $124.8 million in 1996 to $297.6 million in 2003. It dipped slightly to $274 million for 2005. It is currently ranked 28th among public universities in sponsored research.\\nEndowment increased from $195.1 million in 1997 to $538.4 million in 2005.\\nIn 2000, the university launched \\\"The Campaign for the University of Kentucky\\\", a $600 million fundraising effort that was used to \\\"enhance facilities, academic programs, public service, and scholarships.\\\" It passed that goal and the effort was raised to $1 billion. In March 2007, $1.022 billion was raised, months before the fundraising effort was set to end.\\nAs of 2019, The University of Kentucky has an endowment of 1.407 billion. Prior endowments were $831.8 in 2007, $538.4 million in 2005, and $195.1 million in 1997, the rapid increases partially attributed to the \\\"Top 20\\\" Plan. Currently, the William T. Young Library book endowment is the largest among public universities in the United States.\\nIn 2018, the new Gatton Student Center was opened on North Campus. The 378,000-square-foot facility contains a cinema, several dining facilities, ballrooms, a bookstore, bank, offices, and more.\\n\\nAcademics\\nDepartments\\nStudents are divided into 16 colleges, a graduate school, 93 undergraduate programs, 99 master programs, 66 doctoral programs, and 4 professional programs. The University of Kentucky has fifteen libraries on campus. The largest is William T. Young Library, a federal depository, hosting subjects related to social sciences, humanities and life sciences collections. In recent years, the university has focused expenditures increasingly on research, following a compact formed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1997. The directive mandated that the university become a Top 20 public research institution, in terms of an overall ranking to be determined by the university itself, by 2020. The university is ranked tied for 132nd in National Universities and tied for 60th among public universities in the 2020 U.S. News & World Report rankings. According to the U.S. News & World Report 2023 ranking table, UK Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences is ranked 6th in the nation whereas the Graduate School of Medicine (Research) is ranked 64th (tie).\\nStudents are divided into several colleges based on their interests and specializations:\\n\\nCollege of Agriculture, Food and Environment, founded 1908\\nCollege of Arts and Sciences, founded 1908\\nGatton College of Business and Economics, founded 1925 (originally as the College of Commerce)\\nCollege of Communication & Information, founded 1976\\nCollege of Dentistry, founded 1962\\n\\nCollege of Design, founded 1964 (originally as the College of Architecture)\\nCollege of Education, founded 1923\\nPigman College of Engineering, founded 1918 (through a merger of the original Colleges of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Mines and Metals)\\nCollege of Fine Arts, founded 1976\\nCollege of Health Sciences, founded 1966 (originally as the College of Allied Health Personnel)\\nJ. David Rosenberg College of Law, founded 1908\\nCollege of Medicine, founded 1954\\nCollege of Nursing, founded 1956\\nCollege of Pharmacy, founded 1947 (originally established in 1870 in Louisville)\\nCollege of Public Health, founded 2004\\nCollege of Social Work, founded 1968\\nUniversity of Kentucky Graduate School, founded 1912\\nMartin School of Public Policy and Administration\\nPatterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce\\nOther colleges no longer in existence at the University of Kentucky include the College of Library Science (separating out of the College of Arts & Sciences in 1968 and incorporated in 2003 into what is now the College of Communication and Information) and the College of Home Economics (created in 1916 and whose founding dean was Mary E. Sweeney) now a School of Human Environmental Sciences located within the College of Agriculture.\\n\\nLewis Honors College\\nThe Honors Program at the University of Kentucky began in 1958. It offers interdisciplinary, seminar-style classes of 15–20 students each as well as \\\"H-section\\\" classes that accelerate common course offerings such as chemistry, biology, and physics.\\nIn October 2015, the University of Kentucky received the largest single gift in its history, $23.5 million from alumnus, longtime donor and successful entrepreneur Thomas W. Lewis and his wife Jan to create the Lewis Honors College.\\nThe Lewis Honors College was transitioned from the Honors Program at UK in 2015. From 2017, the Honors Program became the Lewis Honors College. On July 10, 2017, Christian Brady was announced as the inaugural dean of the college. Its headquarters are in Lewis Hall, which also serves as one of several residence halls for Honors College students.\\n\\nStudent life\\nStudents\\nThe University of Kentucky strives for a diverse and international student population, with a selective admissions process.\\nIn fall 2014, there were 30,000 students enrolled for the first time. This is due in part by the high number of out-of-state students. The percentage mix of students at this time were 62% in state and 38% out-of-state. During this time, the freshman class was recorded at 5,000 students.\\n\\nStudent government\\nThe University of Kentucky Student Government Association (UKSGA) represents all undergraduate, graduate and professional students enrolled at the university in several critical ways. UKSGA exists to increase student influence over academic policy and to provide many helpful, creative and necessary student services. UKSGA also exists to protect and expand student substantive and procedural rights with the university and surrounding municipalities. Finally, UKSGA exists to better represent the student body in relations with faculty, administration, Board of Trustees and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.\\nUKSGA includes an Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch.\\n\\nExecutive Branch: oversees day-to-day operations, manages budget, and facilitates major programs.\\nLegislative Branch: includes the Student Senate. There are 46 legislators in this branch. Their goal is to allocate funds, approve presidential appointments, facilitate legislative changes, and represent the larger student voice.\\nJudicial: composed of one chief justice and six Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of legislation, handles claims levied against SGA officials, hears any election rules violation complaints and validates election results.\\nSeveral of their current programs include:\\n\\nKentucky Wildcab: a late night transportation service designed to enhance the safety efforts of the university and surrounding community in partnership with UK Transportation.\\nWildcat Wardrobe: provides UK students with free professional dress clothing for interviews and jobs\\nSafe CATS: provides UK students with a safer way to travel around campus by having SafeCats team members escort students to their destinations on-foot or by golf cart\\nStudent Legal Services: free on-site consultation for any legal issue by a local attorney\\nChildcare Grants: available for part-time and full-time UK students, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, who need financial assistance for day-care service for their children.\\nScholarships\\nStudent Organization Funding: General Funding Grants, Club Sports Grants, Service Grants, Academic/Professional Conferences, and Senate Special Projects\\nSeveral distinguished student body presidents include Governor Steve Beshear.\\n\\nTheater\\nIn the early twentieth century, a group called The Strollers consisted of performers either studying or employed at the university or nearby. They performed regularly at the Lexington Opera House. In 1910, their first production there was the 1839 historical play Richelieu. At the end of the spring semester in 1918, as World War I was nearing its end, they performed several skits about war life and then projected large photographic images \\\"showing actual battle scenes\\\" and the humanitarian work of the Red Cross. University girls dressed as nurses served as ushers.\\nThe first theater on UK grounds was the Campus Theater. In 1922, the university bought the Consolidated Baptist Church, a historically black congregation. The church's pastor had been Peter Vinegar. A group of performers and their benefactors, led by Carol M. Sax, raised more money to make the church into a theater, calling it Romany. They performed The Miracle of Sister Beatrice by Maurice Maeterlinck in 1927. In 1928, it was renamed Guignol Theater, after Théâtre du Grand Guignol in Paris, a theater on the Rue Chaptal from 1897 to 1962, housed in a former chapel and with seats for 293. After leaving Lexington, Sax staged Arthur Wilmurt's The Guest Room on Broadway in 1931; it ran for a respectable 67 shows. Eleanor Roosevelt attended opening night of his production of I.J. Golden's Re-Echo in New York in 1934; it ran for only 5 shows. \\nFrank C. Fowler was the second director of the Kentucky Guignol; he had received his master's degree from Brown University in 1928 and was hired by UK that same year. He was followed by Wallace Briggs. The fire that gutted UK's Guignol in 1947 is captured on film. In the 1930s and 1940s, one-act plays written by students were performed annually. A new Guignol Theater was opened in the Fine Arts Building in February, 1950 with a production of Medea. Two Blind Mice, a political satire by Samuel and Bella Spewack, followed after Medea. \\nDuring the 1950s, plays performed at the Guignol would often go on tour throughout Kentucky in the summer months.\\n\\nStudent media\\nThe Electrical and Computer Engineering Department was the home of one of the earliest college amateur radio stations in the United States, beginning with W4JP that began continuous operation prior to World War I. In 1927, the station was relicensed as 9JL (later W9JL).\\nStudents currently run two independent FM stations. The first, 91.3 FM WUKY, is a Triple-A station and was the first university-owned FM radio station in the United States and Kentucky's first public radio station. The operations started on October 17, 1940, as WBKY out of Beattyville, although the station moved five years later to Lexington.\\nIn 1971, WBKY was one of the first to carry NPR's \\\"All Things Considered\\\" and helped debut National Public Radio, changing its call letters to WUKY in 1989 to better reflect its affiliation with the university. In 2007, it became the first Lexington radio station to broadcast in high-definition digital radio. The second is 88.1 FM WRFL which has been in operation since 1988. WRFL is operated by students and broadcasts live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and features music that is spread across most genres.\\nThe campus is also served by the Kentucky Kernel, a student-run, financially independent daily newspaper, with the first issue published in 1915. The official yearbook of the University of Kentucky is the Kentuckian, first published in 1906. The Kentuckian was preceded by at least one previous book, the Echo.\\n\\nBlack Student Union\\nThe University of Kentucky Black Student Union (BSU) was established on February 17, 1968. They were the first organization on campus that was created to support and protect students of color. Their goal was to fight for change on campus for diverse students. They work closely with other organizations on campus such as the Student Activities Board, Student Government Association and various fraternities. Their main mission is to educate the campus community on Black American students and to assist incoming minority students.\\nJim Embry, born in Richmond, Kentucky, was the founding member of the organization, as well as, the first elected president. 51 years later, Embry is still fighting for progress in the social injustices and systemic racism on campus.\\n\\nGreek life\\nNineteen sororities and twenty-three fraternities representing over 3,000 students. There are also non-Greek organizations on campus, like Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity and Tau Beta Sigma, a band fraternity. In 2007, the UK paper The Kentucky Kernel unleashed criticism and gained national attention for an editorial cartoon that depicted an African American pledge being auctioned; it was a comment on racial segregation in UK's Greek system. Farmhouse's chapter was suspended in 2021 for four years by the university, after a pledge died while attending a party in the fraternity's house. In 2023, Phi Tau was suspended for misuse of alcohol and other violations of law.\\n\\nAthletics\\nUniversity of Kentucky student-athletes compete as the Wildcats under colors Kentucky blue and white.\\nBeginning in the 1890s, students at the A&M scheduled football games with neighboring colleges. In 1902, the women's basketball program began on campus, and the men's team was added one year later. The \\\"Wildcats\\\" became associated with the university shortly after a football victory over Illinois on October 9, 1909. The then-chief of the military department, Commandant Carbuiser, stated that the team had \\\"fought like wildcats.\\\" The slogan was later adopted by the university, and a costumed mascot debuted in 1976.\\nIn 1930, then-high school coach Adolph Rupp was hired as a basketball coach and worked in that capacity for 42 years, retiring 1972. During his tenure, he led the men's basketball team to four NCAA championships in 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1958. The Wildcats later won a fifth championship under Joe B. Hall in 1978, another in 1996 under Rick Pitino and the next under Orlando \\\"Tubby\\\" Smith in 1998. In 2007, the University of Kentucky named Billy Gillispie as the head coach of the men's basketball team and on March 30, 2009, the university named John Calipari as the head coach of the Wildcats. Calipari coached the team to its eighth national title in 2012.\\nThe university boasts of numerous national championships, with its latest coming in 2012 when the men's basketball team won its eighth national title. UK also boasts of a cross country national team championship (women's, 1988), eight individual championships in gymnastics, an Olympic medalist in track and field, and 24 national championships in cheerleading. (Not an NCAA recognized championship) After defeating number-one ranked Oklahoma 13–7 in the Sugar Bowl under legendary coach Bear Bryant, Kentucky was also a co-national champion for the 1950 season.\\n\\nThe University of Kentucky Dance team was ranked fifth in the nation in Hip Hop and seventh in Pom in 2015.\\nOther athletic programs sponsored at the varsity level include baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country running, football, men's and women's golf, women's gymnastics, the coeducational sport of rifle, men's and women's soccer, women's softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field and women's volleyball. The school also has a popular club-level men's ice hockey team and a rugby program that competes at the Division 1 level.\\nThe University of Kentucky football coach is Mark Stoops, named the successor to Joker Phillips, who was the first African American football coach in Kentucky's history.\\nNotable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement, convocation and athletic games is the University of Kentucky fight song: On, On, U of K. Additionally, the song Kentucky Fight is played before games.\\nIn April 2024, a Title IX sexual violence lawsuit was filed against the University of Kentucky which alleged that there was a \\\"toxic, sexually hostile environment\\\" within the university swim program during the time Lars Jorgensen was swim coach between 2013 and 2023. The lawsuit further accused the university of \\\"complicity\\\" with Jorgensen and allowed him \\\"to prey on, sexually harass, and commit horrific sexual assaults and violent rapes against young female coaches and collegiate athletes who were reliant on him.\\\"\\n\\nEsports\\nUniversity of Kentucky partnered up with South Korean Esport Organisation Gen.G Esports and International Studies Abroad (ISA) to launch an international esports exchange programme in Seoul, South Korea.\\n\\nCampus\\nThe University of Kentucky offers seven main dining facilities, 23 residence halls, and numerous recreation facilities spread between three distinct campuses: north, south, and central. It is also home to more than 250 student-run organizations.\\nThe university campus is home to numerous notable structures, such as Main Building, a four-story administration building dating to 1882, which was gutted by fire on May 15, 2001. The Patterson Office Tower is the tallest building on campus.\\nThe University of Kentucky once operated 14 community colleges with more than 100 extended sites, centers and campuses under the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, but relinquished control under the Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997. The network of community colleges is now known as the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). Adjoining Lexington Community College, despite the reorganization of the community colleges, remained integrated with the university, but separated from the University of Kentucky in 2004 and became a part of KCTCS; it is now known as Bluegrass Community and Technical College.\\nThe College of Engineering currently operates a satellite campus in Paducah, located on the campus of West Kentucky Community and Technical College.\\n\\nCampus libraries\\nThe University of Kentucky is home to seven campus libraries. Among them is the William T. Young Library, which houses a general undergraduate collection and social sciences, humanities, business, biology, and agricultural materials. The library is also a Federal Depository Library and a public library for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.\\n\\nCampus landmarks\\nThe University of Kentucky has several noteworthy landmarks:\\n\\nKroger Field\\nMemorial Coliseum\\nMemorial Hall\\nSingletary Center for the Arts\\nUniversity of Kentucky Art Museum\\nUniversity of Kentucky/Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Arboretum\\nUniversity of Kentucky Research and Education Center Botanical Garden\\nWilliam T. Young Library\\n\\nNotable faculty\\nKimberly W. Anderson, Chemist, Gill Eminent Professor of Chemical Engineering and Associate Dean for Administration and Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering\\nJohn Clubbe, expert on Byron, Guggenheim Fellow\\nGary Ferland, Astrophysicist\\nLori Stewart Gonzalez, speech pathologist and 23rd president of Ohio University\\nArthur G. Hunt, American plant and soils scientist\\nMilena Minkova, Latinist specializing in Neo-Latin studies and spoken Latin\\nMelynda Price, Professor of Law, Director of African American and Africana Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences\\nJuan Trigos, composer and conductor\\nTerence Tunberg, Latinist specialising in Neo-Latin studies and spoken Latin\\nRonald Werner-Wilson (born 1962), Chair of the Family Studies Department and Kathryn Louise Chellgren Endowed Professor for Research in Family Studies\\n\\nNotable alumni\\nThe university has more than 140,246 alumni in the state of Kentucky, 216,737 in the United States, and 1,119 internationally. The University of Kentucky Alumni Association is the primary affiliation for former students and faculty, and is located at the corner of Rose Street and Euclid Avenue. The building, dedicated in 1963, is named for Helen G. King, the first permanent director of the association and a former \\\"Miss University of Kentucky\\\". The association also meets at Spindletop Hall, a large mansion along Iron Works Pike, which serves as a central alumni gathering point.\\nThe University of Kentucky boasts seven governors, including four former Governors of Kentucky: Steve Beshear, Ernie Fletcher, Paul E. Patton, and Albert \\\"Happy\\\" Chandler; Chandler was also a former U.S. Senator, and was the Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1945 to 1951. Rounding out the other seven are the former Governor of Ohio Ted Strickland, former Governor of North Carolina Beverly Perdue, and former Governor of Arkansas Tom Jefferson Terral. Former U.S. Representative Ken Lucas from the commonwealth's fourth congressional district, and current U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell are other government officials that called the university home. Kelly Craft (née Guilfoil), former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and United States Ambassador to Canada, attended the university.\\nThe United Methodist Bishop Alfred W. Gwinn also attended the university.\\nCarol Martin “Bill” Gatton, an automobile dealer executive, was the donor of the largest gift ever to the university, and is the namesake for the Gatton College of Business and Economics and the Gatton Student Center. Paul Chellgren, Chairman and CEO of Ashland Inc., also attended the university, and is the namesake for Chellgren Hall, formerly known as Woodland Glen I.\\nThe university was also the home of Thomas Hunt Morgan, a scientist and winner of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and William Lipscomb, 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Doris Yvonne Wilkinson was the first African American to graduate from the university as an undergraduate student in 1958, and Joyce Hamilton Berry, a former clinical psychologist, was the first female African American to earn a Ph.D. from UK in 1970. Journalist and Miss USA 2021 Elle Smith, an African American, also attended the university.\\nActresses such as Miss Elizabeth, Ashley Judd, and Adunni Ade also attended the university. Randall Cobb, a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers; Josh Hines-Allen, a defensive end for the Jacksonville Jaguars; Anthony Davis, a power forward and center for Los Angeles Lakers; and Derek Bryant, a former outfielder for the Oakland Athletics from 1973 to 1981, are a few sports alumni from the university. Tyrese Maxey is a point guard for the 76ers.\\n\\nSee also\\nEducation in Kentucky\\nList of forestry universities and colleges\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nBashaw, Carolyn Terry. “ ‘To serve the people of the state of Kentucky': Sarah Gibson Blanding and the development of administrative skill, 1923–1941.\\\" Filson Club History Quarterly (1991) 65#2 pp. 281–301. Blanding was the innovative Dean of Women.\\nBirdwhistell, Terry L., and Deirdre A. Scaggs. Our Rightful Place: A History of Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880–1945 (University Press of Kentucky, 2020) online\\nBirdwhistell, Terry L. \\\"Divided We Fall: State College and the Normal School Movement in Kentucky, 1880–1910.\\\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 88.4 (1990): 431–456. online\\nCone, Carl B. The University of Kentucky: A pictorial history (University Press of Kentucky, 2014) online.\\nEllis, William E. A history of education in Kentucky (University Press of Kentucky, 2011). excerpt; also see complete text online, the major scholarly survey; also see online book review\\nGooden, Susan H. \\\"Tuning the Local Network to a National Channel: Educational Leadership and the College of Education at the University of Kentucky, 1917–27.\\\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 93.3 (1995): 307–332. online\\nGroves, John Russell Jr. \\\"An examination of major initiatives in campus planning at the University of Kentucky, 1919–1991\\\" (PhD dissertation, University of Kentucky; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1992. 9233608).\\nKaleidoscope University of Kentucky Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship. Lexington, KY: Office of Undergraduate Research, University of Kentucky, 2002. Print.\\nKiesel, Linda Raney. \\\"Kentucky's land-grant legacy: An analysis of the administration of John Bryan Bowman and James Kennedy Patterson, 1865–1890\\\" (PhD dissertation, University of Kentucky ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2003. 3074495).\\nLaws, Federal and State, Incorporating, Regulating and Endowing State University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky. Lexington, Ky. : University of Kentucky: N.p., 1913. Print.\\nMcVey, Frank L. The Gates Open Slowly: A History of Education in Kentucky (1949), older scholarly survey. online\\nMorelock, Kolan. Taking the town: Collegiate and community culture in the Bluegrass, 1880-1917 (University Press of Kentucky, 2008) online.\\nMoyen, Eric. Frank L. McVey and the University of Kentucky: A progressive president and the modernization of a southern university (University Press of Kentucky, 2011) online.\\nNewberry, Anthony L. \\\"The University of Kentucky community college system: History, current status, and future challenges.\\\" Community College Journal of Research and Practice 20.6 (1996): 519–538.\\nRussell, Mark W. \\\"Beyond Blue and White: University of Kentucky Presidents and Desegregation, 1941–1987\\\" (PhD dissertation, . University of Kentucky, 2014) online.\\n\\nSports\\nBaker, S. Zebulon. \\\" 'On the Opposite Side of the Fence': The University of Kentucky and the Racial Desegregation of the Southeastern Conference.\\\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 115.4 (2017): 561–610. online\\nNelli, Humbert S. \\\"Herman L. Donovan and the Emergence of 'Big-Time' Athletics at the University of Kentucky.\\\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 88.2 (1990): 163–182. online\\nNelli, Humbert S. The Winning Tradition: A History of Kentucky Wildcat Basketball (1984) online\\nNelli, Humbert S. \\\"Adolph Rupp, the Kentucky Wildcats, and the Basketball Scandal of 1951.\\\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society' 84.1 (1986): 51–75. online\\nStanley, Gregory Kent. Before big blue: Sports at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1940 (University Press of Kentucky, 2014) online.\\nStanley, Gregory Kent. \\\" '... And Not to Make Athletes of Them': Banning Women's Sports at the University of Kentucky, 1902–24.\\\" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 93.4 (1995): 422–445. Fierce debates led in 1924 to ending all varsity competition for women for the next fifty years.\\nStanley, Gregory Kent. \\\" 'Not conducive to the best interests of this institution': President James Kennedy Patterson, the Board of Trustees, and University of Kentucky Athletics, 1890–1910,\\\" Filson Club History Quarterly (1995) 69#2 pp, 159–170. President Patterson said football was too dangerous and not conducive to moral character. The Board overruled him in response to popular demand.\\nPratt, Mike, and Tom Leach. “2010.” Kentucky Basketball: Two Decades Behind the Scenes, University Press of Kentucky, 2021, pp. 49–56. JSTOR,. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nOfficial website\\nUniversity of Kentucky Athletics website\\nDigitized images of the University of Kentucky from the Glass plate negative collection, 1898–1918 housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center\",\n \"title\": \"University_of_Kentucky\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 4,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Eli Capilouto (born August 22, 1949) is an American academic. He serves as the 12th president of the University of Kentucky. He was elected president by the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees in 2011, after serving as provost of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Under his leadership, the Commonwealth's flagship and land-grant research university has grown from $2.7 billion to $6.8 billion in total operations and has gained significant momentum in fulfilling its multi-faceted mission of teaching, research, service and health care.\\n\\nEarly life and education\\nCapilouto is a native of Alabama. He obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine and master's degree in epidemiology at UAB. He joined the UAB faculty in 1975. In 1991, Capilouto received a doctorate in health policy and management from Harvard School of Public Health.\\n\\nAcademic and administrative career\\nCapilouto served as dean of the UAB School of Public Health from 1994 to 2001 before he returned to his research and faculty appointment as professor. He was named acting provost in 2002, and he assumed the post permanently in 2005.\\nOn May 4, 2011, Capilouto was selected to succeed Lee Todd, Jr., the eleventh president of the University of Kentucky (UK). He was hired under a five-year contract with a base annual salary of $500,000, plus $125,000 in benefits and a possible bonus of up to $50,000.\\nDuring his time at UK, Capilouto has been dedicated to enhancing the lives of students and the commonwealth of Kentucky. Under his leadership, UK-PURPOSE (Plan for Unprecedented Research, Purposeful and Optimal Service and Education) was released in 2021 as UK's strategic plan. It prioritizes five principles:\\n\\nPutting Students First\\nTaking Care of Our People\\nInspiring Ingenuity\\nEnsuring Greater Trust, Transparency and Accountability\\nBringing Together Many People; One Community\\nCapilouto has led expansionary efforts in improving campus infrastructure, health care, research and the university budget. Since assuming his position, the budget has grown by more than $4 billion. During his tenure, employees have received pay raises nearly every year, and tuition and mandatory fees have increased, on average, below inflation for the past four years. Capilouto is committed to revitalizing the university's campus. Since he arrived, the university has invested $4 billion in infrastructure.\\nIn recent years, UK launched UK LEADS (Leveraging Economic Affordability for Developing Success) to retain students who would otherwise have to leave due to financial burdens. This innovative approach to recruitment and retention was awarded the EDGE Commendation for Innovation in Undergraduate Education. Capilouto announced the Kentucky Can Campaign in 2018 which has, in large part, funded this initiative. The Kentucky Can Campaign has raised more than $2.1 billion towards the university's endowment.\\nCapilouto has emphasized the university's land-grant mission as vital. In 2020, he established the vice president of land-grant engagement. This effort promotes engagement throughout campus and the state, particularly through its Cooperative Extension Service in all 120 Kentucky counties. The university's commitment to research and discovery grows every year. He designated eight research priority areas (Cancer; Cardiovascular Diseases; Diabetes & Obesity; Energy; Neuroscience; Substance Use Disorder; Diversity and Inclusion; and Materials Science) as a focused attempt to address Kentucky's biggest challenges.\\nUnder Capilouto's leadership the university and medical facilities have received many national awards and rankings. In 2023, Forbes ranked UK as the best employer in Kentucky and ranked as the 6th best large employer in the nation. Additionally, in 2023, UK's Markey Cancer Center became the first and only NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the state. Also, UK has been ranked in the top 30 of the Directors’ Cup for 11 straight years (not including 2019–20).\\nLeaning on his background in epidemiology and health policy and management, Capilouto in collaboration with the university's provost led the START (Screening, Testing and Tracing, to Accelerate Restart and Transition) Team. They worked intensely to reimagine UK's approach to education, research, service and care amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2021, the START Team mobilized Kroger Field as a vaccine clinic administering nearly 250,000 doses.\\n\\nControversy\\nIn 2017, the university sued its student newspaper, The Kentucky Kernel, to appeal an open records dispute with the Kentucky Attorney General regarding a sexual harassment case involving students and a faculty member. The judge upheld the appeal, stating that the student records in the case are protected under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The newspaper appealed the decision, and in 2021, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in favor of the student newspaper.\\nIn 2020, the university furloughed 1,700 employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Capilouto proposed giving 10 percent of his salary for the 2020–21 academic year to the employee assistance fund established by the university's Department of Human Resources to support the furloughed employees, and it was approved the UK Board of Trustees.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nCapilouto is married to Mary Lynne Capilouto, who is also a Doctor of Dental Medicine and former dean of the School of Dentistry at UAB. After serving as dean from 1997 to 2004, she retired, returned to part-time teaching and practicing dentistry and currently holds the rank of dean emeritus at the school. She engages in a variety of community and philanthropic works.\\nThe couple is Jewish and has one daughter, Emily.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nPresident's page at uky.edu\",\n \"title\": \"Eli_Capilouto\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 5,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Madeline Pumeriega is the fifth president of Miami Dade College in Miami, Florida. She is the first female to hold the post.\\n\\nBiography\\nPumariega attended Hialeah High School in Hialeah, Florida. She attended Miami Dade College and University of Central Florida as an undergraduate and received a bachelor's degree from St. Thomas University.\\nPumariega began her career at Miami Dade College in 1992 as the Dean of Students Services and later was Dean of Student and Administration Services. In 2011 Pumariega became President of MDC's Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami and held the position for nearly two years. In 2013, Pumariega became the President and Chief Executive Officer of Take Stock in Children, a non-profit. \\nIn 2015, Florida Department of Education Commissioner Pam Stewart announced the appointment of Pumariega as Chancellor of the Florida College System. She was the first woman and first Hispanic FCS Chancellor.\\nIn 2019, Pumariega was named executive vice president and provost of Tallahassee Community College. She also served as Affiliate Professor of Leadership at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.\\nOn November 17, 2020, Pumariega was appointed the fifth president of Miami Dade College. \\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"Madeline_Pumariega\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Which 2024 college/university president has a degree from Harvard University: the president from the one that organizes the Miami Book Fair or from the one that organizes the Kentucky Women Writers Conference?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Eli Capilouto"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":684,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"684"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The first series of the 2005 revival of the British science fiction programme Doctor Who began on 26 March 2005 with the episode \"Rose\". This marked the end of the programme's 16 year absence from episodic television following its cancellation in 1989, and the first new televised Doctor Who story since the broadcast of the television movie starring Paul McGann in 1996. The finale episode, \"The Parting of the Ways\", was broadcast on 18 June 2005. The show was revived by longtime Doctor Who fan Russell T Davies, who had been lobbying the BBC since the late 1990s to bring the show back. The first series comprised 13 episodes, eight of which Davies wrote. Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young served as executive producers, Phil Collinson as producer.\nThe show depicts the adventures of a mysterious and eccentric Time Lord known as the Doctor, who travels through time and space in his time machine, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s British police box. With his companions, he explores time and space, faces a variety of foes and saves civilizations, helping people and righting wrongs.\nThe first series features Christopher Eccleston as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor, his only series in the role, accompanied by Billie Piper, as his first and main companion Rose Tyler, whom he plucks from obscurity on planet Earth, and to whom he grows increasingly attached. He also travels briefly with unruly boy-genius Adam Mitchell, played by Bruno Langley, and with 51st-century con man and former \"Time Agent\" Captain Jack Harkness, portrayed by John Barrowman. Episodes in the series form a loose story arc, based upon the recurring phrase \"Bad Wolf\", the significance of which goes unexplained until the two-part series finale. Alongside the \"Bad Wolf\" arc, the revived era re-introduces the Doctor as the sole survivor of an event known as the Time War, which the Doctor claims wiped out all of the Time Lords and the Daleks.\nThe series premiere was watched by 10.81 million viewers, and four days after the premiere episode was broadcast, Doctor Who was renewed for a Christmas special as well as a second series. The series was well received by both critics and fans, winning a BAFTA Award for the first time in Doctor Who's history. The approval from Michael Grade, who had previously forced an 18-month hiatus on the show in 1985, and had postponed Doctor Who out of personal dislike on several occasions, was cited as a factor in the show's resurgence. The show's popularity ultimately led to a resurgence in family-orientated Saturday night drama.\n\nEpisodes\nUnlike the classic era of the series that ended in 1989, the plan with the new series was to have each episode as a standalone story, with no serials. Of the thirteen episodes in the series, seven of them followed this format; the remaining six were grouped together into three two-part stories. Also, for the first time since The Gunfighters in the third season, each episode was given an individual title, which was the case with the standalone and two-part stories.\n\nCast\nMain cast\nThe production team was tasked with finding a suitable actor for the role of the Doctor. Most notably, they approached film stars Hugh Grant and Rowan Atkinson for the role. By the time Mal Young had suggested actor Christopher Eccleston to Davies, Eccleston was one of only three left in the running for the role: the other two candidates are rumoured in the industry to have been Alan Davies and Bill Nighy. His involvement in the programme was announced on 20 March 2004 following months of speculation. In the April 2004 issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Davies announced that Eccleston's Doctor would indeed be the Ninth Doctor, relegating Richard E. Grant's Shalka Doctor to non-official status. Russell T Davies revealed that Eccleston asked for the role in an e-mail.\n\nAfter the announcement that the show would be returning, Davies revealed that the new companion would \"probably\" be called Rose Tyler in an edition of Doctor Who Magazine published in November 2003. This name was confirmed in March 2004, and it was announced at the same time that former pop star Billie Piper was being considered for the role. Piper was announced as portraying Rose Tyler on 24 May, a character which fulfilled the role of permanent companion during the series, and was welcomed by fans of the show. Actress Georgia Moffett, daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison and who would later appear as the title role in the fourth series episode \"The Doctor's Daughter\", also auditioned for the role. The original conception of Tyler was slightly different. Paul Abbott was scheduled to write an episode for the series which would have revealed that Rose's entire life had been manipulated by the Doctor in order to mould her into an ideal companion. Davies eventually wrote \"Boom Town\" to replace it when Abbott, after months of development, realised he was too busy to work on the script.\n\nThe first series was Christopher Eccleston's only series in the role of the Doctor. Eccleston's contract was for a single year because at the time it was uncertain whether the show would continue beyond a single revival series. Eccleston's intent to leave was revealed on 30 March 2005, shortly after the broadcast of the first episode. The BBC released a statement, attributed to Eccleston, saying that he had decided to leave because he feared becoming typecast. On 4 April, the BBC revealed that Eccleston's \"statement\" was falsely attributed and released without his consent. The BBC admitted that they had broken an agreement made in January not to disclose publicly that he only intended to do one season. In a 2010 interview, Eccleston revealed that he left the show because he \"didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that [they], the cast and crew, had to work in\", but that he was proud of having played the role.\n\nRecurring and guest cast\nThe character of Adam Mitchell was first conceived, along with Henry van Statten, during Davies' pitch to the BBC, in a story heavily based on Robert Shearman's audio play Jubilee called \"Return of the Daleks\". The production team had always intended for Adam to join the TARDIS after Rose developed a liking for him. To play this role, Bruno Langley was chosen, previously known for his role on Coronation Street as Todd Grimshaw. It was never intended for Adam to be a long-term companion, Davies wanted to show that not everyone is suitable to join the TARDIS crew and dubbed him \"The Companion That Couldn't\", he \"always wanted to do a show with someone who was a rubbish companion\".\nJohn Barrowman appears as Captain Jack Harkness, a character introduced in \"The Empty Child\", where he joined the TARDIS crew for the final five episodes of the series. In naming the character, Davies drew inspiration from the Marvel Comics character Agatha Harkness. Jack's appearances were conceived with the intention of forming a character arc in which Jack is transformed from a coward to a hero, and Barrowman consciously minded this in his portrayal of the character. Following on that arc, the character's debut episode would leave his morality as ambiguous, publicity materials asking, \"is he a force for good or ill?\" Barrowman himself was a key factor in the conception of Captain Jack. Barrowman says that at the time of his initial casting, Davies and co-executive producer, Julie Gardner had explained to him that they \"basically wrote the character around [John]\". On meeting him, Barrowman tried out the character using his native Scottish accent, his normal American accent, and an English accent; Davies decided it \"made it bigger if it was an American accent\". Barrowman recounts Davies as having been searching for an actor with a \"matinée idol quality\", telling him that \"the only one in the whole of Britain who could do it was you\".\nDavid Tennant had been offered the role of the Doctor when he was watching a pre-transmission copy of Casanova with Davies and Gardner. Tennant initially believed the offer was a joke, but after he realised they were serious, he accepted the role and first appeared in the series finale \"The Parting of the Ways\". Tennant was announced as Eccleston's replacement on 16 April 2005. Other recurring characters for the series included Camille Coduri as Rose's mother Jackie Tyler, and Noel Clarke as Rose's boyfriend Mickey Smith. Other actors and television presenters who appeared in the series included Mark Benton, Zoë Wanamaker, Simon Callow, Eve Myles, Penelope Wilton, Annette Badland, David Verrey, Matt Baker, Andrew Marr, Corey Johnson, Simon Pegg, Anna Maxwell-Martin, Tamsin Greig, Shaun Dingwall, Florence Hoath, Richard Wilson, Jo Joyner, Davina McCall, Paterson Joseph, Anne Robinson, Trinny Woodall, and Susannah Constantine.\n\nProduction\nDevelopment\nDuring the late-90s, Davies, a lifelong Doctor Who fan, lobbied the BBC to revive the show from its hiatus and reached the discussion stages in late 1998 and early 2002. His proposals would update the show to be better suited for a 21st-century audience, including the transition from videotape to film, doubling the length of each episode from twenty-five minutes to fifty, keeping the Doctor primarily on Earth in the style of the Third Doctor UNIT episodes, and removing \"excess baggage\" such as Gallifrey and the Time Lords. His pitch competed against three others: Dan Freedman's fantasy retelling, Matthew Graham's Gothic-styled pitch, and Mark Gatiss, Clayton Hickman and Gareth Roberts' reboot, which would make the Doctor the audience surrogate character, instead of his companions.\nIn August 2003, the BBC had resolved the issues regarding production rights that had surfaced as a result of the jointly produced Universal Studios–BBC–Fox 1996 Doctor Who film, leading the Controller of BBC One Lorraine Heggessey and Controller of Drama Commissioning Jane Tranter to approach Gardner and Davies to create a revival of the series to air in a primetime slot on Saturday nights, as part of the BBC's plan to devolve production to its regional bases. By mid-September, they accepted the deal to produce the series alongside Casanova.\n\nWe were told that bringing it back would be impossible, that we would never capture this generation of children. But we did it.\nFollowing Scream of the Shalka, an animated episode which was shown on the Doctor Who website, the 'real' return of Doctor Who was announced on 26 September 2003 in a press release from the BBC.\nDavies voluntarily wrote a pitch for the series, the first time he had done so; he previously chose to jump straight to writing pilot episodes because he felt that a pitch would \"feel like [he's] killing the work\". The fifteen-page pitch outlined a Doctor who was \"your best friend; someone you want to be with all the time\"; the eighteen-year-old Rose Tyler as a \"perfect match\" for the new Doctor; avoidance of the forty-year back story \"except for the good bits\"; the retention of the TARDIS, sonic screwdriver, and Daleks; removal of the Time Lords; and also a greater focus on humanity. His pitch was submitted for the first production meeting in December 2003, with a series of thirteen episodes obtained by pressure from BBC Worldwide and a workable budget from Julie Gardner.\nBy early 2004, the show had settled into a regular production cycle. Davies, Gardner, and BBC Controller of Drama Mal Young took posts as executive producers, although Young vacated the role at the end of the series. Phil Collinson, an old colleague from Granada, took the role of producer. Keith Boak, Euros Lyn, Joe Ahearne, Brian Grant and James Hawes directed the series. Davies' official role as head writer and executive producer, or \"showrunner\", consisted of laying a skeletal plot for the entire series, holding \"tone meetings\" to correctly identify the tone of an episode, often being described in one word—for example, the \"tone word\" for Moffat's \"The Empty Child\" was \"romantic\"—and overseeing all aspects of production. During early production the word \"Torchwood\", an anagram of \"Doctor Who\", was used as a title ruse for the series while filming its first few episodes and on the daily rushes to ensure they were not intercepted. The word \"Torchwood\" was later seeded in Doctor Who and became the name of the spin-off series Torchwood.\nDavies was interested in making an episode that would serve as a crossover with Star Trek: Enterprise, and involve the TARDIS landing on board the NX-01. The idea was officially discussed, but the plans were abandoned following the cancellation of Enterprise in February 2005.\n\nWriting\nThe first series of Doctor Who featured eight scripts by Davies, the remainder being allocated to experienced drama writers and previous writers for the show's ancillary releases: Steven Moffat penned a two-episode story, while Mark Gatiss, Robert Shearman, and Paul Cornell each wrote one script. Davies also approached his friend Paul Abbott and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling to write for the series, but both declined due to existing commitments. Shortly after securing writers for the show, Davies stated that he had no intention to approach writers for the old series; the only writer he would have wished to work with was Robert Holmes, who died in May 1986, halfway through writing his contribution to The Trial of a Time Lord.\nElwen Rowlands and Helen Raynor served as script editors for the series. They were hired simultaneous, marking the first time Doctor Who had female script editors. Rowlands left after the first series for Life on Mars. Compared to the original series the role of the script editors was significantly diminished, with the head writer taking most of those responsibilities. Unlike the original series they do not have the power to commission scripts. Instead, they act as liaisons between the production staff and the screenwriter, before passing their joint work to the head writer for a \"final polish\". Raynor said that the job is not a creative one, \"you are a part of it, but you aren't driving it.\"\nUnder producer Davies, the new series had a faster pace than those of the classic series. Rather than four to six-part serials of 25-minute episodes, most of the Ninth Doctor's stories consisted of individual 45-minute episodes, with only three stories out of ten being two-parters. The thirteen episodes were, however, loosely connected in a series-long story arc which brought their disparate threads together in the series finale. Davies took cues from American fantasy television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Smallville, most notably Buffy's concepts of series-long story arcs and the \"Big Bad\". Also, like the original series, stories often flowed directly into one another or were linked together in some way. Notably, in common only with the seventh and twenty-sixth seasons of the original series, every story of the season takes place on or near Earth. This fact is directly addressed in the original novel The Monsters Inside, in which Rose and the Doctor joke about the fact that all their adventures to date have taken place on Earth or on neighbouring space stations.\nThe stories of the series varied quite significantly in tone, with the production team showcasing the various genres inhabited by Doctor Who over the years. Examples include the \"pseudo-historical\" story \"The Unquiet Dead\"; the far-future whodunnit of \"The End of the World\"; Earthbound alien invasion stories in \"Rose\" and \"Aliens of London\"/\"World War Three\"; \"base under siege\" in \"Dalek\"; and horror in \"The Empty Child\". Even the spin-off media were represented, with \"Dalek\" taking elements from writer Rob Shearman's own audio play Jubilee and the emotional content of Paul Cornell's \"Father's Day\" drawing on the tone of Cornell's novels in the Virgin New Adventures line. Davies had asked both Shearman and Cornell to write their scripts with those respective styles in mind. The episode \"Boom Town\" included a reference to the novel The Monsters Inside, becoming the first episode to acknowledge (albeit in a subtle way) spin-off fiction.\n\nMusic\nMurray Gold composed the music for this series, which was entirely synthesised.\n\nFilming\nPrincipal photography for the series began on 18 July 2004 on location in Cardiff for \"Rose\". The series was filmed across South East Wales, mostly in or around Cardiff. Each episode took about two weeks to film. The start of filming created stress among the production team because of unseen circumstances: several scenes from the first block had to be re-shot because the original footage was unusable; the Slitheen prosthetics for \"Aliens of London\", \"World War Three\", and \"Boom Town\" were noticeably different from their computer-generated counterparts; and, most notably, the BBC came to a gridlock with the Terry Nation estate to secure the Daleks for the sixth episode of the series, to be written by Rob Shearman. After the first production block, which Davies described as \"hitting a brick wall\", the show's production was markedly eased as the crew familiarised themselves. Filming concluded on 23 March 2005. David Tennant, who was cast as Eccleston's replacement, recorded his appearance at the end of \"The Parting of the Ways\" on 21 April 2005 with a skeleton crew. Production blocks were arranged as follows:\n\nRelease\nPromotion\nThe new logo was revealed on the BBC website on 18 October 2004. The first official trailer was released as part of BBC One's Winter Highlights presentation on 2 December 2004 and subsequently posted on the Internet by the BBC. A media blitz including billboards and posters across the UK started early March 2005. Television trailers started showing up on 5 March and radio advertisements started two weeks before the series premiere and ran till the second episode aired. The official Doctor Who website was launched with exclusive content such as games and new Ninth Doctor information.\n\nLeak\nAn early edit of the premiere was leaked onto the Internet three weeks before the scheduled series premiere. This attracted much media attention and discussion amongst fans, and caused interest in the show to skyrocket. The BBC released a statement that the source of the leak appeared to be connected to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which responded by stating that they \"are looking into it. That's all I can say at this point because we don't know exactly what happened. It certainly wasn't done intentionally.\" Asa Bailey, founder of the Viral Advertising Association, said that the BBC hired them for viral marketing strategies, and that he told them \"they should release things before their time\", to create a \"cool factor\". Both the BBC and CBC denied any involvement, but Bailey believes that to be disingenuous, saying that it is \"the best viral advert they could have done\". The leak was ultimately traced to a third-party company in Canada which had a legitimate preview copy. The employee responsible was fired by the company.\n\nBroadcast\n\"Rose\" finally saw transmission on schedule on 26 March 2005 at 7 pm on BBC One, the first regular episode of Doctor Who since Part Three of Survival on 6 December 1989. To complement the series, BBC Wales also produced Doctor Who Confidential, a 13-part documentary series with each episode broadcast on BBC Three immediately after the end of the weekly instalment on BBC One. Both the series and documentary aired for 13 consecutive weeks, with the finale episode, \"The Parting of the Ways\", airing on 18 June 2005 along with its documentary counterpart. Davies had requested that the two first episodes be broadcast back-to-back, but the request was given to the BBC just two weeks before transmission, at which point everything was already set. In some regions, the first few minutes of the original BBC broadcast of \"Rose\" on 26 March were marred by the accidental mixing of a few seconds of sound from Graham Norton hosting Strictly Dance Fever.\nIn the United States, the Sci Fi Channel originally passed on the new series as it found it lacking and believed it did not fit in its schedule, but the network later changed its mind. After it was announced that the first series would start in March 2006, Sci Fi Channel executive vice president Thomas Vitale called Doctor Who \"a true sci-fi classic\", with creative storytelling and colorful history, and was excited to add it to its line up. The network also took an option on the second series. Candace Carlisle from BBC Worldwide found the Sci Fi Channel the perfect home for Doctor Who. Doctor Who finally debuted in the U.S. on the Sci Fi Channel on 17 March 2006 with the first two episodes airing back-to-back, one year after the Canadian and UK showings. The series concluded its initial U.S. broadcast on 9 June 2006.\n\nHome media\nDVD and Blu-ray releases\nThe series was first released in volumes; the first volume, containing the first three episodes, was released in Region 2 on 16 May 2005. The second, with \"Aliens of London\", \"World War Three\", and \"Dalek\", followed on 13 June 2005. \"The Long Game\", \"Father's Day\", \"The Empty Child\", and \"The Doctor Dances\" were released in the third volume on 1 August 2005 and the final three episodes were released in the fourth volume on 5 September 2005.\nThe entire series was then released in a boxset on 21 November 2005 in Region 2. Aside from the 13 episodes it included commentaries on every episode, a video diary from Davies during the first week of filming, as well as other featurettes. The boxset was released in Region 1 on 4 July 2006.\nAll releases are for DVD unless otherwise indicated:\n\n(D) indicates a DVD release for a specific date\n(B) indicates a Blu-ray release\n\nUMD releases\nIn print\nReception\nRatings\n\"Rose\" received average overnight ratings of 9.9 million viewers, peaking at 10.5 million, respectively 43.2% and 44.3% of all viewers at that time. The final figure for the episode, including video recordings watched within a week of transmission, was 10.81 million, making it the third highest for BBC One that week and seventh across all channels. The opening episode was the highest rated episode of the first series. The penultimate episode, \"Bad Wolf\", received the lowest viewers of the series with just 6.81 million viewers. The series also garnered the highest audience Appreciation Index of any non-soap drama on television. Besides the second episode, \"The End of the World\", which garnered a 79% rating, the lowest of the series, all episodes received an AI above 80%. The series finale \"The Parting of the Ways\" was the highest rated episode with an AI of 89%. The success of the launch saw the BBC's Head of Drama Jane Tranter confirming on 30 March that the series would return both for a Christmas Special in December 2005 and a full second series in 2006.\nThe initial Sci Fi Channel broadcasts of the series attained an average Nielsen Rating of 1.3, representing 1.5 million viewers in total. Although these ratings were less than those reached by Sci Fi's original series Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, they reflect a 44% increase in ratings and a 56% increase in viewership over the same timeslot in the second quarter of 2005, as well as increases of 56% and 57% in two key demographics.\n\nCritical reception\nReview aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes offers an 83% approval from 12 critic reviews, and an average rating of 8.6/10.\nIn April 2004, Michael Grade returned to the BBC, this time as the Chairman of the Board of Governors, although this position does not involve any commissioning or editorial responsibilities. Although he had previously disliked the show and imposed an eighteen-month hiatus on it during the Sixth Doctor era, he eventually wrote an e-mail to the Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson in June 2005, after the successful new first series, voicing approval for its popularity. He also declared, \"[I] never dreamed I would ever write this. I must be going soft!\" The revival also impressed former Doctor Sylvester McCoy, who praised Eccleston and Piper as well as their characters, and the pacing of the first episode. His only criticism was about the new TARDIS interior, though he did comment that he was \"also a bit dismayed that more wasn't made of the show's incidental music, which seemed fairly anonymous in the background\".\nRobin Oliver of The Sydney Morning Herald praised Davies for taking \"an adult approach to one of television's most famous characters\" that children would appreciate, and that he reinvented it in a way that would be \"competitive in a high-tech market\". Oliver also wrote that older viewers would find Eccleston \"easily the best time lord since Tom Baker\". Reviewing the first episode, The Stage's Harry Venning hailed it as a \"fabulous, imaginative, funny and sometimes frightening reinvention\" and particularly praised Rose for being an improvement upon previous female companions who were \"fit only to scream or be captured\". However, he found Eccleston to be \"the show's biggest disappointment\" as he looked \"uncomfortable playing fantasy\". Digital Spy's Dek Hogan found the final episode anticlimactic, but overall said that the series was \"excellent Saturday night telly of the kind that many of us thought the BBC had forgotten how to make\". He praised Eccleston's performance and named \"The Empty Child\" and \"The Doctor Dances\" as the best episodes. Arnold T Blumburg of Now Playing gave the series a grade of A−, praising its variety. However, he was critical of Davies' \"annoying tendency to play to the lowest common denominator with toilet humor\", but felt that from \"Dalek\" on the series was more dramatic and sophisticated.\nDVD Talk's John Sinnott rated the first series four and a half out of five stars, writing that it \"keeps a lot of the charm and excitement of the original (as well as the premise), while making the series easily accessible for new viewers\". Sinnott praised the faster pace and the design changes that made it feel \"fresh\", as well as Eccleston's Doctor. However, he felt that Piper only did a \"credible\" job as Eccleston eclipsed her, and said that the writing was \"uneven\" with many of the episodes \"just slightly flawed\". Looking back on the series in 2011, Stephen Kelly of The Guardian wrote, \"Eccleston's Doctor may have had many faults – looking like an EastEnders extra and bellowing \"FANTASTIC!\" at every opportunity being two of them – but he was merely a reflection of a show that, at the time, still didn't know what it wanted to be. The first series of the revived Doctor Who – which featured farting aliens – was a world away from the intelligent, populist science-fiction we know it as now. But then, it is thanks to Eccleston that it got this far at all – a big, respectable name who laid the foundations for Tennant to swag away with the show.\"\nHowever, not everyone was pleased with the new production. Some fans criticised the new logo and perceived changes to the TARDIS model. According to various news sources, members of the production team even received hate mail and death threats. \"The Unquiet Dead\" was criticised by parents, who felt that the episode was \"too scary\" for their young children; the BBC dismissed the complaints, saying that it had never been intended for the youngest of children.\n\nAwards and nominations\nSoundtrack\nSelected pieces of score from the first series, second series, and \"The Runaway Bride\", as composed by Murray Gold, were released on 4 December 2006 by Silva Screen Records. The cues from the first series were re-recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the original music having been created using orchestral samples.\nGold's arrangement of the main theme featured samples from the 1963 original with further elements added: an orchestral sound of low horns, strings and percussion and part of the Dalek ray-gun and TARDIS materialisation sound effects. Included on the album are two versions of the theme: the 44-second opening version, as arranged by Gold, and a longer arrangement that includes the middle eight, after Gold omitted the \"middle eight\" from both the opening and closing credits. Gold has said that his interpretation was driven by the title visual sequence he was given to work around. Often erroneously cited as being the same as the end credits version, this second version is in fact a new arrangement and recording.\n\nReferences\nBibliography\nAldridge, Mark; Murray, Andy (30 November 2008). T is for Television: The Small Screen Adventures of Russell T Davies. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 978-1-905287-84-0.\nRussell, Gary (2006). Doctor Who: The Inside Story. London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-48649-7.\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website\nDoctor Who at IMDb\nDoctor Who at epguides.com","title":"Doctor_Who_series_1"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Skylark was a family of British sounding rockets. It was operational between 1957 and 2005.\nDevelopment of the Skylark begun during the early 1950s at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), which approached the Royal Society with an offer for it to carry scientific experiments. During early 1955, the British government agreed to provide £100,000 to support the programme's operations for four years. Development of the Skylark, initially known as the CTV.5 Series 3, was pursued at a rapid pace, with hopes that initial launches could take place during the latter half of 1956. On 7 April 1956, the existence of the Skylark rocket was publicly revealed under the early name of Gassiot vehicle. Launch facilities were established at the existing Woomera missile range in Australia; the Skylarks were produced in Britain and flown to Australia for final assembly, testing, and launching.\nThe Skylark was first launched on 13 February 1957; the first scientific mission occurred during April 1958, quickly becoming regarded as a valuable platform for various fields of research. The vast majority of launches would be performed from Woomera, although other launch sites would later be used at sites across Europe and South America. The British government opted to terminate its support of the programme in 1977, with responsibility for Skylark being turned over to British Aerospace. It continued to be operated for decades more. The 441st and final launch of the Skylark took place from Esrange, Sweden, on 2 May 2005. Launches had been carried out from various purposes, with some military missions being flown, users extended far beyond the UK to include NASA, the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), and German and Swedish space organizations.\n\nHistory\nDevelopment\nThe origins of the Skylark can be traced back to decisions made in the aftermath of the Second World War. Unlike some powers, the United Kingdom had not opted to immediately proceed with work on long-range rocketry; however, the Ministry of Supply did work on defensive guided weaponry, leading to the arrival of surface-to-air missiles such as the Bloodhound during the 1950s. To conduct these programmes, the ministry developed a series of test missiles for research and development. During May 1953, amid the preparations for a major conference in Oxford on rocket-based exploration of the upper atmosphere, the Ministry of Supply approached the Gassiot Committee of the Royal Society with an offer of using ministry rockets for scientific research. This offer, while positively received, was quickly realised to far exceed what would be affordable to the universities. During February 1954, a group of scientists enthusiastically responded to a closed briefing on a Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) project, the CTV.5 Series 3 rocket (which would later adopt the name Skylark). The CTV series of rockets had originally been used to investigate aerodynamic control of missiles, yet the Skylark was stated to be capable of carrying a payload of 100 lb to an altitude of 200 km (124 mi).\nThe Royal Society promptly approached HM Treasury with a request for £100,000 to fund upper atmospheric rocket research over the course of four years. There was considerable interest in exploring the ionosphere, which was relatively unknown at that time, and Skylark would be a revolutionary tool for its study. During April 1955, following the approval of funding, the research programme formally commenced; roughly half of the £100,000 was spent on the vehicles themselves, while the remainder covered the costs of scientific instruments and technical staff. Various university groups were responsible for the design and construction of the scientific instruments carried, as well as post-mission analysis; all other aspects were the responsibility of the Ministry of Supply. A subcommittee of the Gassiot Committee coordinated the overall programme.\nIn addition to its scientific role, Skylark was also to serve a military purpose, being available to the RAE's research programme, including in the development of ballistic missiles; in return, the RAE provided considerable assistance in the rocket's design, manufacture, preparation, and firing. Numerous RAE personnel were allocated to the Skylark initiative. A relatively ambitious target date for the first launch was set for the summer of 1956 during the International Geophysical Year, necessitating development to be completed in little over a year. Additional support for the Skylark programme was sourced from the Rocket Propulsion Establishment (RPE) at Westcott with the development and testing of the Raven 1 rocket engine.\nOn 7 April 1956, the existence of the Skylark rocket was publicly revealed under the early name of Gassiot vehicle. Even before this announcement, it had been decided that Skylark would be fired from the Woomera rocket range in Australia. While work did proceed at a fast pace on the project, an ignition problem encountered during the RPE's proof testing forced the postponement of the first launch past a November 1956 slot and, partially due to the Woomera's range's closure for Christmas, was delayed until the following year. On 13 February 1957, the Skylark performed its first launch from Woomera; for this initial test flight, it carried no experimental payload save for RAE test instrumentation to monitor the rocket's performance. It was the first long range vehicle to be launched from Woomera.\n\nOperations\nDuring April 1958, scientific use of the Skylark commenced, marking the programme's attainment of true operational status. Unlike the majority of missile/rocket programmes, which would only temporarily be based at Woomera until they matured, Skylark continued to operate at Woomera as its long term home. This arrangement necessitated an international supply chain between Britain and South Australia; early Skylarks were transported by plane, along with a kit of parts that were locally assembled by a mostly Australian workforce. Once assembled, the rockets would be transported a further 270 miles to the actual range for roughly two weeks of final preparation ahead of launching. After multiple rounds of testing, the rocket would be mounted on a trailer and taken to the launch platform, usually two days prior to the launch date; the launch itself was overseen by Australian Weapons Research Establishment personnel from an underground control room at the edge of the concrete apron.\n\nThe pace of launches climbed rapidly in the first four years of the programme; while eight Skylarks were launched in 1958, this rose to 17 during 1961. The good performance record and value of the Skylark programme was recognised by the British government's Advisory Council on Scientific Policy in 1961. Yet, there were figures within the RAE that felt that the overall success rate of the programme of 40% was far beneath that of the rocket itself, which had a 90% success rate; this was speculated to have been due to the somewhat informal administrative process of the programme and a lack of funding. Some funding had been made available for improvements, such as the continuous development of the Raven rocket motor.\nDuring the 1960s, Skylark proved itself to be an excellent platform for space astronomy, possessing the ability to point at the Sun, Moon, or a star. It was used to obtain the first good-quality X-ray images of the solar corona. In 1963 alone, a total of 14 experiments relating to solar physics were conducted using the Skylark. Within the UK national programme, the frequency of Skylark launches peaked at 20 during 1965 (from Woomera), a total of 198 flights took place between 1957 and 1978 alone.\nDuring the mid-1960s, a key improvement in the form of the stabilised payload system was introduced; as Skylark was designed as a fin-stabilised rocket, there was no guidance once outside of the atmosphere, causing the vehicle to tumble and spin. The new stabilisation system used a pair of gyroscopes connected to thermionic amplifiers to appropriately actuate a series of control valves; it was first deployed in 1961 and became routine by the end of the decade. One rejected enhancement around this time was the construction of a second launch platform at Woomera.\nBy February 1967, the tenth anniversary of the Skylark's first launch, 157 launches had been performed, carrying in excess of 300 scientific experiments. The first X-ray surveys of the sky in the Southern Hemisphere were provided by Skylark launches. Multiple Skylarks were used with atypically high precision during September and October 1972 in an effort to locate the optical counterpart of X-ray source GX3+1 by lunar occultation.\nAs early as June 1965, Australia made informal requests to have use of several Skylark launches; these requests were complicated by their informal nature and a lack of budget for such endeavours. Occasionally, Australian scientific experiments were flown on Skylarks being used for RAE tests, as these did not typically make much use of the payload capability. During 1975, the Federal Republic of Germany through the DFVLR (now German Aerospace Center or DLR) agreed with Australia to cooperate on the launch of a Skylark rocket at Woomera for scientific purposes. This launch took place on 14 March 1975. This was followed by three more, launched on 22 February, 13 March 1979, and 24 August 1987.\nSkylarks were constructed in quantity into the late 1970s, up until the British government decided to terminate the programme in 1977, having concluded that future \"low weight\" research would be carried out using NASA's Space Shuttle instead. Furthermore, by the 1970s, sounding rockets in general were facing increasing competition from scientific satellites, which could conduct missions for far longer terms and across a greater geographical range. The Skylark programme was transferred to British Aerospace, who subsequently sold it to Matra Marconi Space. While the number of launches declined substantially during the late 1970s and the 1980s, the scientific payloads being carried by Skylarks were becoming increasingly complex and ambitious. During 1999, Marconi sold the programme to a small private company, Sounding Rocket Services, based in Bristol.\nBeginning in 2018, Skyrora, a British aerospace & launch company, has developed and launched a new series of \"Skylark\" sounding rockets, reviving the name. They have launched from northern Scotland, where Shetland spaceport and Sutherland spaceport are being built, and also from Iceland. They plan to also develop a satellite launch vehicle which will launch from the UK, which will be a first for the country, which previously only launched satellites from Woomera, Australia.\n\nDescription\nThe basic Skylark is 7.6 metres (25 ft) long, 0.44 metres (17 in) in diameter and has a fin span of 0.96 metres (38 in). Booster stages can increase the height to 12.8 metres (42 ft). The original version was propelled by 840 kilograms (1,850 lb) of solid fuel, which enabled 45 kilograms (99 lb) to be launched to an altitude of over 200 kilometres (120 mi). \nImprovements were made to the engine and the use of a booster increased the payload to 200 kilograms (440 lb) in 1960. Skylark 12, from 1976, could lift 200 kilograms (440 lb) to 575 kilometres (357 mi) altitude.\nDue to its small mass and low thrust, the original version of the Skylark had to be launched from a 25 metres (82 ft) tilting tower to overcome the effects of the wind. Later versions only required a simple trailer.\n\nOn display\nSkylark Rockets are on display in the following locations:\n\nUniversity of Leicester, Department of Physics and Astronomy. (Skylark Raven (c. 1957)).\nNational Space Centre in Leicester. (Skylark Goldfinch Raven).\nMullard Space Science Laboratory, Surrey, England. (Skylark 7 (Goldfinch II, Raven XI)).\nRoyal Observatory, Edinburgh, Visitor Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Skylark Nosecone only).\nRocketry Museum, Woomera, Australia (Skylark Nosecone only).\nWoomera Missile Park, Woomera, Australia (Cuckoo, Raven).\nThe Euro Space Center in Belgium (Replica).\nQVMAG, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.\nAerospace Bristol, Filton, Bristol, England.\nIn the possession of Mexborough & Swinton Astronomical Society in South Yorkshire, England.\nSolna strandvag 86, Stockholm, Sweden. (Partly viewable from the waterfront).\nSouth Australian Aviation Museum Port Adelaide, Australia Skylark (Raven), Skylark (Cuckoo, Raven) and Skylark Instrument section.\n\nSee also\nBlack Arrow\nBlack Knight\nBlue Streak (missile)\nSkylark launch tower\nSkyrora Skylark\n\nReferences\nCitations\nBibliography\nBrand, Robin H. (2014). Britain's First Space Rocket – The story of the Skylark (1st ed.). YPD Books. ISBN 978-0-9929896-0-6.\n\nExternal links\n\nSkylark sounding rockets\nBBC News article on final launch","title":"Skylark_(rocket)"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The first series of the 2005 revival of the British science fiction programme Doctor Who began on 26 March 2005 with the episode \\\"Rose\\\". This marked the end of the programme's 16 year absence from episodic television following its cancellation in 1989, and the first new televised Doctor Who story since the broadcast of the television movie starring Paul McGann in 1996. The finale episode, \\\"The Parting of the Ways\\\", was broadcast on 18 June 2005. The show was revived by longtime Doctor Who fan Russell T Davies, who had been lobbying the BBC since the late 1990s to bring the show back. The first series comprised 13 episodes, eight of which Davies wrote. Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young served as executive producers, Phil Collinson as producer.\\nThe show depicts the adventures of a mysterious and eccentric Time Lord known as the Doctor, who travels through time and space in his time machine, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s British police box. With his companions, he explores time and space, faces a variety of foes and saves civilizations, helping people and righting wrongs.\\nThe first series features Christopher Eccleston as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor, his only series in the role, accompanied by Billie Piper, as his first and main companion Rose Tyler, whom he plucks from obscurity on planet Earth, and to whom he grows increasingly attached. He also travels briefly with unruly boy-genius Adam Mitchell, played by Bruno Langley, and with 51st-century con man and former \\\"Time Agent\\\" Captain Jack Harkness, portrayed by John Barrowman. Episodes in the series form a loose story arc, based upon the recurring phrase \\\"Bad Wolf\\\", the significance of which goes unexplained until the two-part series finale. Alongside the \\\"Bad Wolf\\\" arc, the revived era re-introduces the Doctor as the sole survivor of an event known as the Time War, which the Doctor claims wiped out all of the Time Lords and the Daleks.\\nThe series premiere was watched by 10.81 million viewers, and four days after the premiere episode was broadcast, Doctor Who was renewed for a Christmas special as well as a second series. The series was well received by both critics and fans, winning a BAFTA Award for the first time in Doctor Who's history. The approval from Michael Grade, who had previously forced an 18-month hiatus on the show in 1985, and had postponed Doctor Who out of personal dislike on several occasions, was cited as a factor in the show's resurgence. The show's popularity ultimately led to a resurgence in family-orientated Saturday night drama.\\n\\nEpisodes\\nUnlike the classic era of the series that ended in 1989, the plan with the new series was to have each episode as a standalone story, with no serials. Of the thirteen episodes in the series, seven of them followed this format; the remaining six were grouped together into three two-part stories. Also, for the first time since The Gunfighters in the third season, each episode was given an individual title, which was the case with the standalone and two-part stories.\\n\\nCast\\nMain cast\\nThe production team was tasked with finding a suitable actor for the role of the Doctor. Most notably, they approached film stars Hugh Grant and Rowan Atkinson for the role. By the time Mal Young had suggested actor Christopher Eccleston to Davies, Eccleston was one of only three left in the running for the role: the other two candidates are rumoured in the industry to have been Alan Davies and Bill Nighy. His involvement in the programme was announced on 20 March 2004 following months of speculation. In the April 2004 issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Davies announced that Eccleston's Doctor would indeed be the Ninth Doctor, relegating Richard E. Grant's Shalka Doctor to non-official status. Russell T Davies revealed that Eccleston asked for the role in an e-mail.\\n\\nAfter the announcement that the show would be returning, Davies revealed that the new companion would \\\"probably\\\" be called Rose Tyler in an edition of Doctor Who Magazine published in November 2003. This name was confirmed in March 2004, and it was announced at the same time that former pop star Billie Piper was being considered for the role. Piper was announced as portraying Rose Tyler on 24 May, a character which fulfilled the role of permanent companion during the series, and was welcomed by fans of the show. Actress Georgia Moffett, daughter of Fifth Doctor actor Peter Davison and who would later appear as the title role in the fourth series episode \\\"The Doctor's Daughter\\\", also auditioned for the role. The original conception of Tyler was slightly different. Paul Abbott was scheduled to write an episode for the series which would have revealed that Rose's entire life had been manipulated by the Doctor in order to mould her into an ideal companion. Davies eventually wrote \\\"Boom Town\\\" to replace it when Abbott, after months of development, realised he was too busy to work on the script.\\n\\nThe first series was Christopher Eccleston's only series in the role of the Doctor. Eccleston's contract was for a single year because at the time it was uncertain whether the show would continue beyond a single revival series. Eccleston's intent to leave was revealed on 30 March 2005, shortly after the broadcast of the first episode. The BBC released a statement, attributed to Eccleston, saying that he had decided to leave because he feared becoming typecast. On 4 April, the BBC revealed that Eccleston's \\\"statement\\\" was falsely attributed and released without his consent. The BBC admitted that they had broken an agreement made in January not to disclose publicly that he only intended to do one season. In a 2010 interview, Eccleston revealed that he left the show because he \\\"didn't enjoy the environment and the culture that [they], the cast and crew, had to work in\\\", but that he was proud of having played the role.\\n\\nRecurring and guest cast\\nThe character of Adam Mitchell was first conceived, along with Henry van Statten, during Davies' pitch to the BBC, in a story heavily based on Robert Shearman's audio play Jubilee called \\\"Return of the Daleks\\\". The production team had always intended for Adam to join the TARDIS after Rose developed a liking for him. To play this role, Bruno Langley was chosen, previously known for his role on Coronation Street as Todd Grimshaw. It was never intended for Adam to be a long-term companion, Davies wanted to show that not everyone is suitable to join the TARDIS crew and dubbed him \\\"The Companion That Couldn't\\\", he \\\"always wanted to do a show with someone who was a rubbish companion\\\".\\nJohn Barrowman appears as Captain Jack Harkness, a character introduced in \\\"The Empty Child\\\", where he joined the TARDIS crew for the final five episodes of the series. In naming the character, Davies drew inspiration from the Marvel Comics character Agatha Harkness. Jack's appearances were conceived with the intention of forming a character arc in which Jack is transformed from a coward to a hero, and Barrowman consciously minded this in his portrayal of the character. Following on that arc, the character's debut episode would leave his morality as ambiguous, publicity materials asking, \\\"is he a force for good or ill?\\\" Barrowman himself was a key factor in the conception of Captain Jack. Barrowman says that at the time of his initial casting, Davies and co-executive producer, Julie Gardner had explained to him that they \\\"basically wrote the character around [John]\\\". On meeting him, Barrowman tried out the character using his native Scottish accent, his normal American accent, and an English accent; Davies decided it \\\"made it bigger if it was an American accent\\\". Barrowman recounts Davies as having been searching for an actor with a \\\"matinée idol quality\\\", telling him that \\\"the only one in the whole of Britain who could do it was you\\\".\\nDavid Tennant had been offered the role of the Doctor when he was watching a pre-transmission copy of Casanova with Davies and Gardner. Tennant initially believed the offer was a joke, but after he realised they were serious, he accepted the role and first appeared in the series finale \\\"The Parting of the Ways\\\". Tennant was announced as Eccleston's replacement on 16 April 2005. Other recurring characters for the series included Camille Coduri as Rose's mother Jackie Tyler, and Noel Clarke as Rose's boyfriend Mickey Smith. Other actors and television presenters who appeared in the series included Mark Benton, Zoë Wanamaker, Simon Callow, Eve Myles, Penelope Wilton, Annette Badland, David Verrey, Matt Baker, Andrew Marr, Corey Johnson, Simon Pegg, Anna Maxwell-Martin, Tamsin Greig, Shaun Dingwall, Florence Hoath, Richard Wilson, Jo Joyner, Davina McCall, Paterson Joseph, Anne Robinson, Trinny Woodall, and Susannah Constantine.\\n\\nProduction\\nDevelopment\\nDuring the late-90s, Davies, a lifelong Doctor Who fan, lobbied the BBC to revive the show from its hiatus and reached the discussion stages in late 1998 and early 2002. His proposals would update the show to be better suited for a 21st-century audience, including the transition from videotape to film, doubling the length of each episode from twenty-five minutes to fifty, keeping the Doctor primarily on Earth in the style of the Third Doctor UNIT episodes, and removing \\\"excess baggage\\\" such as Gallifrey and the Time Lords. His pitch competed against three others: Dan Freedman's fantasy retelling, Matthew Graham's Gothic-styled pitch, and Mark Gatiss, Clayton Hickman and Gareth Roberts' reboot, which would make the Doctor the audience surrogate character, instead of his companions.\\nIn August 2003, the BBC had resolved the issues regarding production rights that had surfaced as a result of the jointly produced Universal Studios–BBC–Fox 1996 Doctor Who film, leading the Controller of BBC One Lorraine Heggessey and Controller of Drama Commissioning Jane Tranter to approach Gardner and Davies to create a revival of the series to air in a primetime slot on Saturday nights, as part of the BBC's plan to devolve production to its regional bases. By mid-September, they accepted the deal to produce the series alongside Casanova.\\n\\nWe were told that bringing it back would be impossible, that we would never capture this generation of children. But we did it.\\nFollowing Scream of the Shalka, an animated episode which was shown on the Doctor Who website, the 'real' return of Doctor Who was announced on 26 September 2003 in a press release from the BBC.\\nDavies voluntarily wrote a pitch for the series, the first time he had done so; he previously chose to jump straight to writing pilot episodes because he felt that a pitch would \\\"feel like [he's] killing the work\\\". The fifteen-page pitch outlined a Doctor who was \\\"your best friend; someone you want to be with all the time\\\"; the eighteen-year-old Rose Tyler as a \\\"perfect match\\\" for the new Doctor; avoidance of the forty-year back story \\\"except for the good bits\\\"; the retention of the TARDIS, sonic screwdriver, and Daleks; removal of the Time Lords; and also a greater focus on humanity. His pitch was submitted for the first production meeting in December 2003, with a series of thirteen episodes obtained by pressure from BBC Worldwide and a workable budget from Julie Gardner.\\nBy early 2004, the show had settled into a regular production cycle. Davies, Gardner, and BBC Controller of Drama Mal Young took posts as executive producers, although Young vacated the role at the end of the series. Phil Collinson, an old colleague from Granada, took the role of producer. Keith Boak, Euros Lyn, Joe Ahearne, Brian Grant and James Hawes directed the series. Davies' official role as head writer and executive producer, or \\\"showrunner\\\", consisted of laying a skeletal plot for the entire series, holding \\\"tone meetings\\\" to correctly identify the tone of an episode, often being described in one word—for example, the \\\"tone word\\\" for Moffat's \\\"The Empty Child\\\" was \\\"romantic\\\"—and overseeing all aspects of production. During early production the word \\\"Torchwood\\\", an anagram of \\\"Doctor Who\\\", was used as a title ruse for the series while filming its first few episodes and on the daily rushes to ensure they were not intercepted. The word \\\"Torchwood\\\" was later seeded in Doctor Who and became the name of the spin-off series Torchwood.\\nDavies was interested in making an episode that would serve as a crossover with Star Trek: Enterprise, and involve the TARDIS landing on board the NX-01. The idea was officially discussed, but the plans were abandoned following the cancellation of Enterprise in February 2005.\\n\\nWriting\\nThe first series of Doctor Who featured eight scripts by Davies, the remainder being allocated to experienced drama writers and previous writers for the show's ancillary releases: Steven Moffat penned a two-episode story, while Mark Gatiss, Robert Shearman, and Paul Cornell each wrote one script. Davies also approached his friend Paul Abbott and Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling to write for the series, but both declined due to existing commitments. Shortly after securing writers for the show, Davies stated that he had no intention to approach writers for the old series; the only writer he would have wished to work with was Robert Holmes, who died in May 1986, halfway through writing his contribution to The Trial of a Time Lord.\\nElwen Rowlands and Helen Raynor served as script editors for the series. They were hired simultaneous, marking the first time Doctor Who had female script editors. Rowlands left after the first series for Life on Mars. Compared to the original series the role of the script editors was significantly diminished, with the head writer taking most of those responsibilities. Unlike the original series they do not have the power to commission scripts. Instead, they act as liaisons between the production staff and the screenwriter, before passing their joint work to the head writer for a \\\"final polish\\\". Raynor said that the job is not a creative one, \\\"you are a part of it, but you aren't driving it.\\\"\\nUnder producer Davies, the new series had a faster pace than those of the classic series. Rather than four to six-part serials of 25-minute episodes, most of the Ninth Doctor's stories consisted of individual 45-minute episodes, with only three stories out of ten being two-parters. The thirteen episodes were, however, loosely connected in a series-long story arc which brought their disparate threads together in the series finale. Davies took cues from American fantasy television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Smallville, most notably Buffy's concepts of series-long story arcs and the \\\"Big Bad\\\". Also, like the original series, stories often flowed directly into one another or were linked together in some way. Notably, in common only with the seventh and twenty-sixth seasons of the original series, every story of the season takes place on or near Earth. This fact is directly addressed in the original novel The Monsters Inside, in which Rose and the Doctor joke about the fact that all their adventures to date have taken place on Earth or on neighbouring space stations.\\nThe stories of the series varied quite significantly in tone, with the production team showcasing the various genres inhabited by Doctor Who over the years. Examples include the \\\"pseudo-historical\\\" story \\\"The Unquiet Dead\\\"; the far-future whodunnit of \\\"The End of the World\\\"; Earthbound alien invasion stories in \\\"Rose\\\" and \\\"Aliens of London\\\"/\\\"World War Three\\\"; \\\"base under siege\\\" in \\\"Dalek\\\"; and horror in \\\"The Empty Child\\\". Even the spin-off media were represented, with \\\"Dalek\\\" taking elements from writer Rob Shearman's own audio play Jubilee and the emotional content of Paul Cornell's \\\"Father's Day\\\" drawing on the tone of Cornell's novels in the Virgin New Adventures line. Davies had asked both Shearman and Cornell to write their scripts with those respective styles in mind. The episode \\\"Boom Town\\\" included a reference to the novel The Monsters Inside, becoming the first episode to acknowledge (albeit in a subtle way) spin-off fiction.\\n\\nMusic\\nMurray Gold composed the music for this series, which was entirely synthesised.\\n\\nFilming\\nPrincipal photography for the series began on 18 July 2004 on location in Cardiff for \\\"Rose\\\". The series was filmed across South East Wales, mostly in or around Cardiff. Each episode took about two weeks to film. The start of filming created stress among the production team because of unseen circumstances: several scenes from the first block had to be re-shot because the original footage was unusable; the Slitheen prosthetics for \\\"Aliens of London\\\", \\\"World War Three\\\", and \\\"Boom Town\\\" were noticeably different from their computer-generated counterparts; and, most notably, the BBC came to a gridlock with the Terry Nation estate to secure the Daleks for the sixth episode of the series, to be written by Rob Shearman. After the first production block, which Davies described as \\\"hitting a brick wall\\\", the show's production was markedly eased as the crew familiarised themselves. Filming concluded on 23 March 2005. David Tennant, who was cast as Eccleston's replacement, recorded his appearance at the end of \\\"The Parting of the Ways\\\" on 21 April 2005 with a skeleton crew. Production blocks were arranged as follows:\\n\\nRelease\\nPromotion\\nThe new logo was revealed on the BBC website on 18 October 2004. The first official trailer was released as part of BBC One's Winter Highlights presentation on 2 December 2004 and subsequently posted on the Internet by the BBC. A media blitz including billboards and posters across the UK started early March 2005. Television trailers started showing up on 5 March and radio advertisements started two weeks before the series premiere and ran till the second episode aired. The official Doctor Who website was launched with exclusive content such as games and new Ninth Doctor information.\\n\\nLeak\\nAn early edit of the premiere was leaked onto the Internet three weeks before the scheduled series premiere. This attracted much media attention and discussion amongst fans, and caused interest in the show to skyrocket. The BBC released a statement that the source of the leak appeared to be connected to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which responded by stating that they \\\"are looking into it. That's all I can say at this point because we don't know exactly what happened. It certainly wasn't done intentionally.\\\" Asa Bailey, founder of the Viral Advertising Association, said that the BBC hired them for viral marketing strategies, and that he told them \\\"they should release things before their time\\\", to create a \\\"cool factor\\\". Both the BBC and CBC denied any involvement, but Bailey believes that to be disingenuous, saying that it is \\\"the best viral advert they could have done\\\". The leak was ultimately traced to a third-party company in Canada which had a legitimate preview copy. The employee responsible was fired by the company.\\n\\nBroadcast\\n\\\"Rose\\\" finally saw transmission on schedule on 26 March 2005 at 7 pm on BBC One, the first regular episode of Doctor Who since Part Three of Survival on 6 December 1989. To complement the series, BBC Wales also produced Doctor Who Confidential, a 13-part documentary series with each episode broadcast on BBC Three immediately after the end of the weekly instalment on BBC One. Both the series and documentary aired for 13 consecutive weeks, with the finale episode, \\\"The Parting of the Ways\\\", airing on 18 June 2005 along with its documentary counterpart. Davies had requested that the two first episodes be broadcast back-to-back, but the request was given to the BBC just two weeks before transmission, at which point everything was already set. In some regions, the first few minutes of the original BBC broadcast of \\\"Rose\\\" on 26 March were marred by the accidental mixing of a few seconds of sound from Graham Norton hosting Strictly Dance Fever.\\nIn the United States, the Sci Fi Channel originally passed on the new series as it found it lacking and believed it did not fit in its schedule, but the network later changed its mind. After it was announced that the first series would start in March 2006, Sci Fi Channel executive vice president Thomas Vitale called Doctor Who \\\"a true sci-fi classic\\\", with creative storytelling and colorful history, and was excited to add it to its line up. The network also took an option on the second series. Candace Carlisle from BBC Worldwide found the Sci Fi Channel the perfect home for Doctor Who. Doctor Who finally debuted in the U.S. on the Sci Fi Channel on 17 March 2006 with the first two episodes airing back-to-back, one year after the Canadian and UK showings. The series concluded its initial U.S. broadcast on 9 June 2006.\\n\\nHome media\\nDVD and Blu-ray releases\\nThe series was first released in volumes; the first volume, containing the first three episodes, was released in Region 2 on 16 May 2005. The second, with \\\"Aliens of London\\\", \\\"World War Three\\\", and \\\"Dalek\\\", followed on 13 June 2005. \\\"The Long Game\\\", \\\"Father's Day\\\", \\\"The Empty Child\\\", and \\\"The Doctor Dances\\\" were released in the third volume on 1 August 2005 and the final three episodes were released in the fourth volume on 5 September 2005.\\nThe entire series was then released in a boxset on 21 November 2005 in Region 2. Aside from the 13 episodes it included commentaries on every episode, a video diary from Davies during the first week of filming, as well as other featurettes. The boxset was released in Region 1 on 4 July 2006.\\nAll releases are for DVD unless otherwise indicated:\\n\\n(D) indicates a DVD release for a specific date\\n(B) indicates a Blu-ray release\\n\\nUMD releases\\nIn print\\nReception\\nRatings\\n\\\"Rose\\\" received average overnight ratings of 9.9 million viewers, peaking at 10.5 million, respectively 43.2% and 44.3% of all viewers at that time. The final figure for the episode, including video recordings watched within a week of transmission, was 10.81 million, making it the third highest for BBC One that week and seventh across all channels. The opening episode was the highest rated episode of the first series. The penultimate episode, \\\"Bad Wolf\\\", received the lowest viewers of the series with just 6.81 million viewers. The series also garnered the highest audience Appreciation Index of any non-soap drama on television. Besides the second episode, \\\"The End of the World\\\", which garnered a 79% rating, the lowest of the series, all episodes received an AI above 80%. The series finale \\\"The Parting of the Ways\\\" was the highest rated episode with an AI of 89%. The success of the launch saw the BBC's Head of Drama Jane Tranter confirming on 30 March that the series would return both for a Christmas Special in December 2005 and a full second series in 2006.\\nThe initial Sci Fi Channel broadcasts of the series attained an average Nielsen Rating of 1.3, representing 1.5 million viewers in total. Although these ratings were less than those reached by Sci Fi's original series Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, they reflect a 44% increase in ratings and a 56% increase in viewership over the same timeslot in the second quarter of 2005, as well as increases of 56% and 57% in two key demographics.\\n\\nCritical reception\\nReview aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes offers an 83% approval from 12 critic reviews, and an average rating of 8.6/10.\\nIn April 2004, Michael Grade returned to the BBC, this time as the Chairman of the Board of Governors, although this position does not involve any commissioning or editorial responsibilities. Although he had previously disliked the show and imposed an eighteen-month hiatus on it during the Sixth Doctor era, he eventually wrote an e-mail to the Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson in June 2005, after the successful new first series, voicing approval for its popularity. He also declared, \\\"[I] never dreamed I would ever write this. I must be going soft!\\\" The revival also impressed former Doctor Sylvester McCoy, who praised Eccleston and Piper as well as their characters, and the pacing of the first episode. His only criticism was about the new TARDIS interior, though he did comment that he was \\\"also a bit dismayed that more wasn't made of the show's incidental music, which seemed fairly anonymous in the background\\\".\\nRobin Oliver of The Sydney Morning Herald praised Davies for taking \\\"an adult approach to one of television's most famous characters\\\" that children would appreciate, and that he reinvented it in a way that would be \\\"competitive in a high-tech market\\\". Oliver also wrote that older viewers would find Eccleston \\\"easily the best time lord since Tom Baker\\\". Reviewing the first episode, The Stage's Harry Venning hailed it as a \\\"fabulous, imaginative, funny and sometimes frightening reinvention\\\" and particularly praised Rose for being an improvement upon previous female companions who were \\\"fit only to scream or be captured\\\". However, he found Eccleston to be \\\"the show's biggest disappointment\\\" as he looked \\\"uncomfortable playing fantasy\\\". Digital Spy's Dek Hogan found the final episode anticlimactic, but overall said that the series was \\\"excellent Saturday night telly of the kind that many of us thought the BBC had forgotten how to make\\\". He praised Eccleston's performance and named \\\"The Empty Child\\\" and \\\"The Doctor Dances\\\" as the best episodes. Arnold T Blumburg of Now Playing gave the series a grade of A−, praising its variety. However, he was critical of Davies' \\\"annoying tendency to play to the lowest common denominator with toilet humor\\\", but felt that from \\\"Dalek\\\" on the series was more dramatic and sophisticated.\\nDVD Talk's John Sinnott rated the first series four and a half out of five stars, writing that it \\\"keeps a lot of the charm and excitement of the original (as well as the premise), while making the series easily accessible for new viewers\\\". Sinnott praised the faster pace and the design changes that made it feel \\\"fresh\\\", as well as Eccleston's Doctor. However, he felt that Piper only did a \\\"credible\\\" job as Eccleston eclipsed her, and said that the writing was \\\"uneven\\\" with many of the episodes \\\"just slightly flawed\\\". Looking back on the series in 2011, Stephen Kelly of The Guardian wrote, \\\"Eccleston's Doctor may have had many faults – looking like an EastEnders extra and bellowing \\\"FANTASTIC!\\\" at every opportunity being two of them – but he was merely a reflection of a show that, at the time, still didn't know what it wanted to be. The first series of the revived Doctor Who – which featured farting aliens – was a world away from the intelligent, populist science-fiction we know it as now. But then, it is thanks to Eccleston that it got this far at all – a big, respectable name who laid the foundations for Tennant to swag away with the show.\\\"\\nHowever, not everyone was pleased with the new production. Some fans criticised the new logo and perceived changes to the TARDIS model. According to various news sources, members of the production team even received hate mail and death threats. \\\"The Unquiet Dead\\\" was criticised by parents, who felt that the episode was \\\"too scary\\\" for their young children; the BBC dismissed the complaints, saying that it had never been intended for the youngest of children.\\n\\nAwards and nominations\\nSoundtrack\\nSelected pieces of score from the first series, second series, and \\\"The Runaway Bride\\\", as composed by Murray Gold, were released on 4 December 2006 by Silva Screen Records. The cues from the first series were re-recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the original music having been created using orchestral samples.\\nGold's arrangement of the main theme featured samples from the 1963 original with further elements added: an orchestral sound of low horns, strings and percussion and part of the Dalek ray-gun and TARDIS materialisation sound effects. Included on the album are two versions of the theme: the 44-second opening version, as arranged by Gold, and a longer arrangement that includes the middle eight, after Gold omitted the \\\"middle eight\\\" from both the opening and closing credits. Gold has said that his interpretation was driven by the title visual sequence he was given to work around. Often erroneously cited as being the same as the end credits version, this second version is in fact a new arrangement and recording.\\n\\nReferences\\nBibliography\\nAldridge, Mark; Murray, Andy (30 November 2008). T is for Television: The Small Screen Adventures of Russell T Davies. Reynolds & Hearn Ltd. ISBN 978-1-905287-84-0.\\nRussell, Gary (2006). Doctor Who: The Inside Story. London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-48649-7.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nOfficial website\\nDoctor Who at IMDb\\nDoctor Who at epguides.com\",\n \"title\": \"Doctor_Who_series_1\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Skylark was a family of British sounding rockets. It was operational between 1957 and 2005.\\nDevelopment of the Skylark begun during the early 1950s at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), which approached the Royal Society with an offer for it to carry scientific experiments. During early 1955, the British government agreed to provide £100,000 to support the programme's operations for four years. Development of the Skylark, initially known as the CTV.5 Series 3, was pursued at a rapid pace, with hopes that initial launches could take place during the latter half of 1956. On 7 April 1956, the existence of the Skylark rocket was publicly revealed under the early name of Gassiot vehicle. Launch facilities were established at the existing Woomera missile range in Australia; the Skylarks were produced in Britain and flown to Australia for final assembly, testing, and launching.\\nThe Skylark was first launched on 13 February 1957; the first scientific mission occurred during April 1958, quickly becoming regarded as a valuable platform for various fields of research. The vast majority of launches would be performed from Woomera, although other launch sites would later be used at sites across Europe and South America. The British government opted to terminate its support of the programme in 1977, with responsibility for Skylark being turned over to British Aerospace. It continued to be operated for decades more. The 441st and final launch of the Skylark took place from Esrange, Sweden, on 2 May 2005. Launches had been carried out from various purposes, with some military missions being flown, users extended far beyond the UK to include NASA, the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), and German and Swedish space organizations.\\n\\nHistory\\nDevelopment\\nThe origins of the Skylark can be traced back to decisions made in the aftermath of the Second World War. Unlike some powers, the United Kingdom had not opted to immediately proceed with work on long-range rocketry; however, the Ministry of Supply did work on defensive guided weaponry, leading to the arrival of surface-to-air missiles such as the Bloodhound during the 1950s. To conduct these programmes, the ministry developed a series of test missiles for research and development. During May 1953, amid the preparations for a major conference in Oxford on rocket-based exploration of the upper atmosphere, the Ministry of Supply approached the Gassiot Committee of the Royal Society with an offer of using ministry rockets for scientific research. This offer, while positively received, was quickly realised to far exceed what would be affordable to the universities. During February 1954, a group of scientists enthusiastically responded to a closed briefing on a Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) project, the CTV.5 Series 3 rocket (which would later adopt the name Skylark). The CTV series of rockets had originally been used to investigate aerodynamic control of missiles, yet the Skylark was stated to be capable of carrying a payload of 100 lb to an altitude of 200 km (124 mi).\\nThe Royal Society promptly approached HM Treasury with a request for £100,000 to fund upper atmospheric rocket research over the course of four years. There was considerable interest in exploring the ionosphere, which was relatively unknown at that time, and Skylark would be a revolutionary tool for its study. During April 1955, following the approval of funding, the research programme formally commenced; roughly half of the £100,000 was spent on the vehicles themselves, while the remainder covered the costs of scientific instruments and technical staff. Various university groups were responsible for the design and construction of the scientific instruments carried, as well as post-mission analysis; all other aspects were the responsibility of the Ministry of Supply. A subcommittee of the Gassiot Committee coordinated the overall programme.\\nIn addition to its scientific role, Skylark was also to serve a military purpose, being available to the RAE's research programme, including in the development of ballistic missiles; in return, the RAE provided considerable assistance in the rocket's design, manufacture, preparation, and firing. Numerous RAE personnel were allocated to the Skylark initiative. A relatively ambitious target date for the first launch was set for the summer of 1956 during the International Geophysical Year, necessitating development to be completed in little over a year. Additional support for the Skylark programme was sourced from the Rocket Propulsion Establishment (RPE) at Westcott with the development and testing of the Raven 1 rocket engine.\\nOn 7 April 1956, the existence of the Skylark rocket was publicly revealed under the early name of Gassiot vehicle. Even before this announcement, it had been decided that Skylark would be fired from the Woomera rocket range in Australia. While work did proceed at a fast pace on the project, an ignition problem encountered during the RPE's proof testing forced the postponement of the first launch past a November 1956 slot and, partially due to the Woomera's range's closure for Christmas, was delayed until the following year. On 13 February 1957, the Skylark performed its first launch from Woomera; for this initial test flight, it carried no experimental payload save for RAE test instrumentation to monitor the rocket's performance. It was the first long range vehicle to be launched from Woomera.\\n\\nOperations\\nDuring April 1958, scientific use of the Skylark commenced, marking the programme's attainment of true operational status. Unlike the majority of missile/rocket programmes, which would only temporarily be based at Woomera until they matured, Skylark continued to operate at Woomera as its long term home. This arrangement necessitated an international supply chain between Britain and South Australia; early Skylarks were transported by plane, along with a kit of parts that were locally assembled by a mostly Australian workforce. Once assembled, the rockets would be transported a further 270 miles to the actual range for roughly two weeks of final preparation ahead of launching. After multiple rounds of testing, the rocket would be mounted on a trailer and taken to the launch platform, usually two days prior to the launch date; the launch itself was overseen by Australian Weapons Research Establishment personnel from an underground control room at the edge of the concrete apron.\\n\\nThe pace of launches climbed rapidly in the first four years of the programme; while eight Skylarks were launched in 1958, this rose to 17 during 1961. The good performance record and value of the Skylark programme was recognised by the British government's Advisory Council on Scientific Policy in 1961. Yet, there were figures within the RAE that felt that the overall success rate of the programme of 40% was far beneath that of the rocket itself, which had a 90% success rate; this was speculated to have been due to the somewhat informal administrative process of the programme and a lack of funding. Some funding had been made available for improvements, such as the continuous development of the Raven rocket motor.\\nDuring the 1960s, Skylark proved itself to be an excellent platform for space astronomy, possessing the ability to point at the Sun, Moon, or a star. It was used to obtain the first good-quality X-ray images of the solar corona. In 1963 alone, a total of 14 experiments relating to solar physics were conducted using the Skylark. Within the UK national programme, the frequency of Skylark launches peaked at 20 during 1965 (from Woomera), a total of 198 flights took place between 1957 and 1978 alone.\\nDuring the mid-1960s, a key improvement in the form of the stabilised payload system was introduced; as Skylark was designed as a fin-stabilised rocket, there was no guidance once outside of the atmosphere, causing the vehicle to tumble and spin. The new stabilisation system used a pair of gyroscopes connected to thermionic amplifiers to appropriately actuate a series of control valves; it was first deployed in 1961 and became routine by the end of the decade. One rejected enhancement around this time was the construction of a second launch platform at Woomera.\\nBy February 1967, the tenth anniversary of the Skylark's first launch, 157 launches had been performed, carrying in excess of 300 scientific experiments. The first X-ray surveys of the sky in the Southern Hemisphere were provided by Skylark launches. Multiple Skylarks were used with atypically high precision during September and October 1972 in an effort to locate the optical counterpart of X-ray source GX3+1 by lunar occultation.\\nAs early as June 1965, Australia made informal requests to have use of several Skylark launches; these requests were complicated by their informal nature and a lack of budget for such endeavours. Occasionally, Australian scientific experiments were flown on Skylarks being used for RAE tests, as these did not typically make much use of the payload capability. During 1975, the Federal Republic of Germany through the DFVLR (now German Aerospace Center or DLR) agreed with Australia to cooperate on the launch of a Skylark rocket at Woomera for scientific purposes. This launch took place on 14 March 1975. This was followed by three more, launched on 22 February, 13 March 1979, and 24 August 1987.\\nSkylarks were constructed in quantity into the late 1970s, up until the British government decided to terminate the programme in 1977, having concluded that future \\\"low weight\\\" research would be carried out using NASA's Space Shuttle instead. Furthermore, by the 1970s, sounding rockets in general were facing increasing competition from scientific satellites, which could conduct missions for far longer terms and across a greater geographical range. The Skylark programme was transferred to British Aerospace, who subsequently sold it to Matra Marconi Space. While the number of launches declined substantially during the late 1970s and the 1980s, the scientific payloads being carried by Skylarks were becoming increasingly complex and ambitious. During 1999, Marconi sold the programme to a small private company, Sounding Rocket Services, based in Bristol.\\nBeginning in 2018, Skyrora, a British aerospace & launch company, has developed and launched a new series of \\\"Skylark\\\" sounding rockets, reviving the name. They have launched from northern Scotland, where Shetland spaceport and Sutherland spaceport are being built, and also from Iceland. They plan to also develop a satellite launch vehicle which will launch from the UK, which will be a first for the country, which previously only launched satellites from Woomera, Australia.\\n\\nDescription\\nThe basic Skylark is 7.6 metres (25 ft) long, 0.44 metres (17 in) in diameter and has a fin span of 0.96 metres (38 in). Booster stages can increase the height to 12.8 metres (42 ft). The original version was propelled by 840 kilograms (1,850 lb) of solid fuel, which enabled 45 kilograms (99 lb) to be launched to an altitude of over 200 kilometres (120 mi). \\nImprovements were made to the engine and the use of a booster increased the payload to 200 kilograms (440 lb) in 1960. Skylark 12, from 1976, could lift 200 kilograms (440 lb) to 575 kilometres (357 mi) altitude.\\nDue to its small mass and low thrust, the original version of the Skylark had to be launched from a 25 metres (82 ft) tilting tower to overcome the effects of the wind. Later versions only required a simple trailer.\\n\\nOn display\\nSkylark Rockets are on display in the following locations:\\n\\nUniversity of Leicester, Department of Physics and Astronomy. (Skylark Raven (c. 1957)).\\nNational Space Centre in Leicester. (Skylark Goldfinch Raven).\\nMullard Space Science Laboratory, Surrey, England. (Skylark 7 (Goldfinch II, Raven XI)).\\nRoyal Observatory, Edinburgh, Visitor Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland. (Skylark Nosecone only).\\nRocketry Museum, Woomera, Australia (Skylark Nosecone only).\\nWoomera Missile Park, Woomera, Australia (Cuckoo, Raven).\\nThe Euro Space Center in Belgium (Replica).\\nQVMAG, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.\\nAerospace Bristol, Filton, Bristol, England.\\nIn the possession of Mexborough & Swinton Astronomical Society in South Yorkshire, England.\\nSolna strandvag 86, Stockholm, Sweden. (Partly viewable from the waterfront).\\nSouth Australian Aviation Museum Port Adelaide, Australia Skylark (Raven), Skylark (Cuckoo, Raven) and Skylark Instrument section.\\n\\nSee also\\nBlack Arrow\\nBlack Knight\\nBlue Streak (missile)\\nSkylark launch tower\\nSkyrora Skylark\\n\\nReferences\\nCitations\\nBibliography\\nBrand, Robin H. (2014). Britain's First Space Rocket – The story of the Skylark (1st ed.). YPD Books. ISBN 978-0-9929896-0-6.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nSkylark sounding rockets\\nBBC News article on final launch\",\n \"title\": \"Skylark_(rocket)\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"What Doctor Who episode aired on a date closest to the 441st launch of the Skylark rocket?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Dalek"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":685,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"685"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Kodansha Manga Award (講談社漫画賞, Kōdansha Manga Shō) is one of Japan's major manga awards. The event is sponsored by publisher Kodansha. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1977.\n\nCategories\nThe award is currently awarded in three categories: shōnen, shōjo, and general. The awards began in 1977, initially with categories for shōnen and shōjo. The first award for the general category was in 1982, and the first children's category's award was in 2003. The children's category was merged into the shōnen and shōjo categories starting in 2015.\nEach winning work will be honored with a bronze statuette, a certificate, and a prize of 1 million yen (about US$7,500).\n\nRecipients\nSee also\nList of manga awards\n\nReferences\nJoel Hahn. \"Kodansha Manga Awards\". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved March 19, 2008.\n過去の受賞者一覧 : 講談社漫画賞 : 講談社「おもしろくて、ためになる」出版を (in Japanese). Kodansha. Archived from the original on July 25, 2010. Retrieved August 21, 2007.\n\nExternal links\nOfficial website (in Japanese)","title":"Kodansha_Manga_Award"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. The story is set in a world where humanity lives inside cities surrounded by enormous walls due to the Titans, gigantic humanoid creatures who devour humans seemingly without reason. The story centers around Eren Yeager, alongside his childhood friends, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert, whose lives are changed forever after the appearance of a Colossus Titan brings about the destruction of their home town and the death of Eren's mother. Vowing revenge and to reclaim the world from the Titans, Eren, Mikasa and Armin join the Survey Corps, an elite group of soldiers who fight Titans outside the walls.\nThe series began serialization in Kodansha's monthly publication Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in its October 2009 issue and ended in its May 2021 issue. The first tankōbon volume was released in March 2010, and the 34th and final volume was released in June 2021. In North America, the series is published in English by Kodansha USA, that first published the first volume on June 19, 2012, with a three or four-month interval between each release until mid-2013, when subsequent volumes started being released on a monthly basis to catch up faster with the original Japanese releases, which they did at the end of that year, subsequently returning to the previous schedule. The series has also been adapted into an anime television series by IG Port's Wit Studio (seasons 1 to 3) and MAPPA (season 4), with the first episode airing on April 7, 2013, on MBS. The anime is also being streamed by both Funimation and Crunchyroll on their respective websites.\n\nManga\nAttack on Titan\nChapters in the Kodansha USA publications are numbered as episodes.\n\nJunior High\nAttack on Titan: Junior High (進撃!巨人中学校, Shingeki! Kyojin Chūgakkō) is a parody manga written and illustrated by Saki Nakagawa, serialized in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine since its May 2012 issue. The first tankōbon volume was released April 9, 2013, and the eleventh and last was released on August 9, 2016. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, who published the first volume on March 11, 2014 and the fifth and last on July 31, 2018.\n\nBefore the Fall\nAttack on Titan: Before the Fall (進撃の巨人 Before the fall) is a spinoff manga illustrated by Satoshi Shiki, based on the prequel light novel series of the same name written by Ryō Suzukaze. The series has been serialized in Monthly Shōnen Sirius from August 26, 2013 to March 26, 2019, and was collected in seventeen volumes. The first tankōbon volume was released on December 9, 2013 and the last on April 9, 2019. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, who published the first volume on March 11, 2014.\n\nNo Regrets\nAttack on Titan: No Regrets (進撃の巨人 悔いなき選択, Shingeki no Kyojin Kuinaki Sentaku) is a spinoff manga written by Gun Snark and illustrated by Hikaru Suruga, serialized in the Aria magazine from its start in the November 28, 2013 issue to June 28, 2014. The manga is an adaptation of the visual novel of the same name. It focuses on the origin story of Levi, before he was a part of the Survey Corps Special Operations Squad. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, which released both volumes in 2014.\n\nSpoof on Titan\nSungeki no Kyojin (寸劇の巨人, \"Titan Short Skits\") is a comedic yonkoma manga written and illustrated by Hounori, released on Kodansha's Manga Box smartphone and tablet application from December 2013 to December 30, 2014, in both Japanese and English. The first tankōbon volume was published on August 8, 2014, and the second on April 9, 2015.\n\nLost Girls\nA manga adaptation by Ryōsuke Fuji of the light novel of the same name, that began serialization in Kodansha's magazine Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine on August 9, 2015. The series ended in the June 2016 issue of the magazine on May 9, 2016. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, which released the volumes in 2016 and 2017.\n\nNovels\nBefore the Fall\nAttack on Titan: Before the Fall (進撃の巨人 Before the fall) is a light novel written by Ryō Suzukaze and illustrated by Thores Shibamoto. It initially follows the story of Angel, the blacksmith who develops the first prototypes of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, before focusing on a young man who was found as a baby in the stomach of a Titan. Three volumes of Before the Fall were published between December 2, 2011, and June 29, 2012. Vertical licensed the light novels in October 2013 for distribution in English.\n\nHarsh Mistress of the City\nAttack on Titan: Harsh Mistress of the City (進撃の巨人 隔絶都市の女王, Shingeki no Kyojin Kakuzetsu Toshi no Joō) is written by Ryō Kawakami and illustrated by Range Murata. It depicts the aftermath of the fall of Wall Maria first shown at the beginning of the manga. The first volume was published on August 1, 2014 and the second and last on May 1, 2015. Vertical released both volumes in English in 2015.\n\nLost Girls\nAttack on Titan: Lost Girls (進撃の巨人 Lost Girls) is written by Hiroshi Seko. It comprises three short stories featuring Mikasa Ackerman and Annie Leonhart, titled \"Lost in the cruel world\", \"Wall Sina, Goodbye\". It was published in Japan on December 9, 2014, and in North America on June 28, 2016, by Vertical.\n\nGarrison Girl\nGarrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel was written by American author Rachel Aaron and published by Quirk Books on August 7, 2018. It is centered on Rosalie Dumarque, who defies her family to join the military garrison. A Japanese translation by Izuki Kogyoku was published in Japan on April 7, 2019 under the title Attack on Titan: Roses on the Wall.\n\nNotes\nReferences\nExternal links\nOfficial manga website (in Japanese)\nAttack on Titan at Kodansha Comics\nAttack on Titan at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction\nAttack on Titan (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia","title":"List_of_Attack_on_Titan_chapters"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Kodansha Manga Award (講談社漫画賞, Kōdansha Manga Shō) is one of Japan's major manga awards. The event is sponsored by publisher Kodansha. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1977.\\n\\nCategories\\nThe award is currently awarded in three categories: shōnen, shōjo, and general. The awards began in 1977, initially with categories for shōnen and shōjo. The first award for the general category was in 1982, and the first children's category's award was in 2003. The children's category was merged into the shōnen and shōjo categories starting in 2015.\\nEach winning work will be honored with a bronze statuette, a certificate, and a prize of 1 million yen (about US$7,500).\\n\\nRecipients\\nSee also\\nList of manga awards\\n\\nReferences\\nJoel Hahn. \\\"Kodansha Manga Awards\\\". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved March 19, 2008.\\n過去の受賞者一覧 : 講談社漫画賞 : 講談社「おもしろくて、ためになる」出版を (in Japanese). Kodansha. Archived from the original on July 25, 2010. Retrieved August 21, 2007.\\n\\nExternal links\\nOfficial website (in Japanese)\",\n \"title\": \"Kodansha_Manga_Award\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. The story is set in a world where humanity lives inside cities surrounded by enormous walls due to the Titans, gigantic humanoid creatures who devour humans seemingly without reason. The story centers around Eren Yeager, alongside his childhood friends, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert, whose lives are changed forever after the appearance of a Colossus Titan brings about the destruction of their home town and the death of Eren's mother. Vowing revenge and to reclaim the world from the Titans, Eren, Mikasa and Armin join the Survey Corps, an elite group of soldiers who fight Titans outside the walls.\\nThe series began serialization in Kodansha's monthly publication Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in its October 2009 issue and ended in its May 2021 issue. The first tankōbon volume was released in March 2010, and the 34th and final volume was released in June 2021. In North America, the series is published in English by Kodansha USA, that first published the first volume on June 19, 2012, with a three or four-month interval between each release until mid-2013, when subsequent volumes started being released on a monthly basis to catch up faster with the original Japanese releases, which they did at the end of that year, subsequently returning to the previous schedule. The series has also been adapted into an anime television series by IG Port's Wit Studio (seasons 1 to 3) and MAPPA (season 4), with the first episode airing on April 7, 2013, on MBS. The anime is also being streamed by both Funimation and Crunchyroll on their respective websites.\\n\\nManga\\nAttack on Titan\\nChapters in the Kodansha USA publications are numbered as episodes.\\n\\nJunior High\\nAttack on Titan: Junior High (進撃!巨人中学校, Shingeki! Kyojin Chūgakkō) is a parody manga written and illustrated by Saki Nakagawa, serialized in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine since its May 2012 issue. The first tankōbon volume was released April 9, 2013, and the eleventh and last was released on August 9, 2016. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, who published the first volume on March 11, 2014 and the fifth and last on July 31, 2018.\\n\\nBefore the Fall\\nAttack on Titan: Before the Fall (進撃の巨人 Before the fall) is a spinoff manga illustrated by Satoshi Shiki, based on the prequel light novel series of the same name written by Ryō Suzukaze. The series has been serialized in Monthly Shōnen Sirius from August 26, 2013 to March 26, 2019, and was collected in seventeen volumes. The first tankōbon volume was released on December 9, 2013 and the last on April 9, 2019. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, who published the first volume on March 11, 2014.\\n\\nNo Regrets\\nAttack on Titan: No Regrets (進撃の巨人 悔いなき選択, Shingeki no Kyojin Kuinaki Sentaku) is a spinoff manga written by Gun Snark and illustrated by Hikaru Suruga, serialized in the Aria magazine from its start in the November 28, 2013 issue to June 28, 2014. The manga is an adaptation of the visual novel of the same name. It focuses on the origin story of Levi, before he was a part of the Survey Corps Special Operations Squad. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, which released both volumes in 2014.\\n\\nSpoof on Titan\\nSungeki no Kyojin (寸劇の巨人, \\\"Titan Short Skits\\\") is a comedic yonkoma manga written and illustrated by Hounori, released on Kodansha's Manga Box smartphone and tablet application from December 2013 to December 30, 2014, in both Japanese and English. The first tankōbon volume was published on August 8, 2014, and the second on April 9, 2015.\\n\\nLost Girls\\nA manga adaptation by Ryōsuke Fuji of the light novel of the same name, that began serialization in Kodansha's magazine Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine on August 9, 2015. The series ended in the June 2016 issue of the magazine on May 9, 2016. In North America, the series has been licensed in English by Kodansha USA, which released the volumes in 2016 and 2017.\\n\\nNovels\\nBefore the Fall\\nAttack on Titan: Before the Fall (進撃の巨人 Before the fall) is a light novel written by Ryō Suzukaze and illustrated by Thores Shibamoto. It initially follows the story of Angel, the blacksmith who develops the first prototypes of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, before focusing on a young man who was found as a baby in the stomach of a Titan. Three volumes of Before the Fall were published between December 2, 2011, and June 29, 2012. Vertical licensed the light novels in October 2013 for distribution in English.\\n\\nHarsh Mistress of the City\\nAttack on Titan: Harsh Mistress of the City (進撃の巨人 隔絶都市の女王, Shingeki no Kyojin Kakuzetsu Toshi no Joō) is written by Ryō Kawakami and illustrated by Range Murata. It depicts the aftermath of the fall of Wall Maria first shown at the beginning of the manga. The first volume was published on August 1, 2014 and the second and last on May 1, 2015. Vertical released both volumes in English in 2015.\\n\\nLost Girls\\nAttack on Titan: Lost Girls (進撃の巨人 Lost Girls) is written by Hiroshi Seko. It comprises three short stories featuring Mikasa Ackerman and Annie Leonhart, titled \\\"Lost in the cruel world\\\", \\\"Wall Sina, Goodbye\\\". It was published in Japan on December 9, 2014, and in North America on June 28, 2016, by Vertical.\\n\\nGarrison Girl\\nGarrison Girl: An Attack on Titan Novel was written by American author Rachel Aaron and published by Quirk Books on August 7, 2018. It is centered on Rosalie Dumarque, who defies her family to join the military garrison. A Japanese translation by Izuki Kogyoku was published in Japan on April 7, 2019 under the title Attack on Titan: Roses on the Wall.\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nOfficial manga website (in Japanese)\\nAttack on Titan at Kodansha Comics\\nAttack on Titan at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction\\nAttack on Titan (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia\",\n \"title\": \"List_of_Attack_on_Titan_chapters\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"The shonen manga that won the 35th Kodansha Manga Award has how many chapters in its final volume?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"5"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":686,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"686"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. It is the flagship institution of the University of Illinois system and was established in 1867. With over 59,000 students, the University of Illinois is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the United States.\nThe university contains 16 schools and colleges and offers more than 150 undergraduate and over 100 graduate programs of study. The university holds 651 buildings on 6,370 acres (2,578 ha) and its annual operating budget in 2016 was over $2 billion. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also operates a Research Park home to innovation centers for over 90 start-up companies and multinational corporations.\nThe University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among \"R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity\". In fiscal year 2019, research expenditures at Illinois totaled $652 million. The campus library system possesses the fourth-largest university library in the United States by holdings. The university also hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.\nIllinois athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Fighting Illini. They are members of the Big Ten Conference and have won the second-most conference titles. Illinois Fighting Illini football won the Rose Bowl Game in 1947, 1952, 1964 and a total of five national championships. Illinois athletes have won 29 medals in Olympic events. The alumni, faculty members, or researchers of the university include 30 Nobel laureates, 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, two Fields medalists, and two Turing Award winners.\n\nHistory\nIllinois Industrial University (1867–1885)\nThe University of Illinois, originally named \"Illinois Industrial University\", was one of the 37 universities created under the first Morrill Land-Grant Act, which provided public land for the creation of agricultural and industrial colleges and universities across the United States. Among several cities, Urbana was selected in 1867 as the site for the new school. From the beginning, President John Milton Gregory's desire to establish an institution firmly grounded in the liberal arts tradition was at odds with many state residents and lawmakers who wanted the university to offer classes based solely around \"industrial education\". The university opened for classes on March 2, 1868, and had two faculty members and 77 students.\nThe Library, which opened with the school in 1868, started with 1,039 volumes. Subsequently, President Edmund J. James, in a speech to the board of trustees in 1912, proposed to create a research library. It is now one of the world's largest public academic collections. In 1870, the Mumford House was constructed as a model farmhouse for the school's experimental farm. The Mumford House remains the oldest structure on campus. The original University Hall (1871) was the fourth building built; it stood where the Illini Union stands today.\n\nUniversity of Illinois (1885–1977)\nIn 1885, the Illinois Industrial University officially changed its name to the \"University of Illinois\", reflecting its agricultural, mechanical, and liberal arts curriculum.\nDuring his presidency, Edmund J. James (1904–1920) set the policy of building a massive research library. He also laid the foundation for the large Chinese international student population on campus. James established ties with China through the Chinese Minister to the United States Wu Ting-Fang. Class rivalries and Bob Zuppke's winning football teams contributed to campus morale.\nAlma Mater, a prominent statue on campus created by alumnus Lorado Taft, was unveiled on June 11, 1929. It was funded from donations by the Alumni Fund and the classes of 1923–1929.\nThe Great Depression in the United States slowed construction and expansion on the campus. The university replaced the original university hall with Gregory Hall and the Illini Union. After World War II, the university experienced rapid growth. The enrollment doubled and the academic standing improved. This period was also marked by large growth in the Graduate College and increased federal support of scientific and technological research. During the 1950s and 1960s the university experienced the turmoil common on many American campuses. Among these were the water fights of the 1950s and 1960s.\n\nUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1977–present)\nBy 1967, the University of Illinois system consisted of a main campus in Champaign-Urbana and two Chicago campuses, Chicago Circle (UICC) and Medical Center (UIMC), and people began using \"Urbana-Champaign\" or the reverse to refer to the main campus specifically. The university name officially changed to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by 1977 (although the word \"at\" was later dropped for marketing purposes by all U of I System campuses by 2021). While this was a reversal of the commonly used designation for the metropolitan area (Champaign-Urbana), a majority of the campus is located in Urbana. The name change established a separate identity for the main campus within the University of Illinois System, which today includes separate institutions at the University of Illinois Chicago (formed by the merger of UICC and UIMC) and University of Illinois Springfield.\nIn 1998, the Hallene Gateway Plaza was dedicated. The Plaza features the original sandstone portal of University Hall, which was originally the fourth building on campus. In recent years, state support has declined from 4.5% of the state's tax appropriations in 1980 to 2.28% in 2011, a nearly 50% decline. As a result, the university's budget has shifted away from relying on state support with nearly 84% of the budget coming from other sources in 2012.\nOn March 12, 2015, the Board of Trustees approved the creation of a medical school, the first college created at Urbana-Champaign in 60 years. The Carle Illinois College of Medicine began classes in 2018.\n\nPhilanthropy\nOver the last twenty years state funding for the university has fallen. Private philanthropy increasingly supplements revenue from tuition and state funding, providing about 19% of the annual budget in 2012. Notable among significant donors, alumnus entrepreneur Thomas M. Siebel has committed nearly $150 million to the university, including $36 million to build the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science, $25 million to build the Siebel Center for Design, and $50 million to support the renamed Department of Computer Science to become Siebel School of Computing and Data Science. Furthermore, the Grainger Foundation (founded by alumnus W. W. Grainger) has contributed more than $300 million to the university over the last half-century, including donations for the construction of the Grainger Engineering Library. Larry Gies and his wife Beth donated $150 million in 2017 to the shortly thereafter renamed Gies College of Business.\n\nCampus\nThe main research and academic facilities are divided almost evenly between the twin cities of Urbana and Champaign, which form part of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area. Some parts are in Urbana Township.\nFour main quads compose the center of the university and are arranged from north to south. The Beckman Quadrangle and the John Bardeen Quadrangle occupy the center of the Engineering Campus. Boneyard Creek flows through the John Bardeen Quadrangle, parallel to Green Street. The Beckman Quadrangle, named after Arnold Orville Beckman, is primarily composed of research units and laboratories, and features a large solar calendar consisting of an obelisk and several copper fountains. The Main Quadrangle and South Quadrangle follow immediately after the John Bardeen Quad. The former makes up a large part of the Liberal Arts and Sciences portion of the campus, while the latter comprises many of the buildings of the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES) spread across the campus map.\nAdditionally, the research fields of the College of ACES stretch south from Urbana and Champaign into Savoy and Champaign County. The university also maintains formal gardens and a conference center in nearby Monticello at Allerton Park.\nThe campus is known for its landscape and architecture, as well as distinctive landmarks. It was identified as one of 50 college or university \"works of art\" by T.A. Gaines in his book The Campus as a Work of Art. The campus also has a number of buildings and sites on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places including Harker Hall, the Astronomical Observatory, Louise Freer Hall, the Main Library, the Experimental Dairy Farm Historic District, and the Morrow Plots. University of Illinois Willard Airport is one of the few airports owned by an educational institution.\n\nSustainability\nIn 2008, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign became a signatory of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, binding the campus to the goal of carbon neutrality as soon as possible. In 2010, the first Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) was written to chart a path to this goal. The iCAP is a strategic framework for meeting the university's Climate Leadership Commitments to be carbon-neutral by 2050 or sooner and build resilience with its local community. Since then, the iCAP has been rewritten every five years to track the university's progress.\nIn December 2013, the University of Illinois launched the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) on the Urbana-Champaign campus. The institute, under the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, leads an interdisciplinary approach to researching solutions for the world's most pressing sustainability, energy, and environmental needs. In addition, iSEE has engaged students, faculty, staff, and campus leadership in the iCAP process — especially in the areas of zero waste and conservation of energy, food, water, land, and natural resources — as well as sustainability outreach and immersive educational programs.\nIn her remarks on being named Director of iSEE in 2022, Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics Madhu Khanna explained: \"We aim to position campus to play a transformative role in moving us all to a more sustainable future.\"\nIn 2022, new solar and geothermal energy projects, a reduction in water use, and wide-ranging sustainability research helped the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign earn its fifth consecutive gold certification in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). Illinois has consistently achieved gold certification since it began reporting data through STARS in 2013, and the 2022 score was one of its highest to date.\nCurrently, the campus features 27 LEED-certified buildings.\n\nAcademics\nUndergraduate admissions\nThe overall first-year admit rate for 2023 is 43.7%, which differ greatly among UIUC colleges — whereas the overall first-choice admit rate is 34.7%, the Grainger College of Engineering has an admit rate of 22.3%. Certain in-demand majors like Computer Science, including Computer Science + X, of which the program being ranked consistently 5th nationwide can be extremely competitive, with an acceptance rate of less than 6.8% in 2022,\n\n and average freshman ACT composite score of 33.7.\n\nIn 2009, an investigation by The Chicago Tribune reported that some applicants \"received special consideration\" for acceptance between 2005 and 2009, despite having sub-par qualifications. This incident became known as the University of Illinois clout scandal.\n\nAcademic divisions\nThe university offers more than 150 undergraduate and 100 graduate and professional programs in over 15 academic units, among several online specializations such as Digital Marketing and an online MBA program launched in January 2016. In 2015, the university announced its expansion to include an engineering-based medical program, which would be the first new college created in Urbana-Champaign in 60 years. The university also offers undergraduate students the opportunity for graduation honors. University Honors is an academic distinction awarded to the highest achieving students. To earn the distinction, students must have a cumulative grade point average of a 3.5/4.0 within the academic year of their graduation and rank within the top 3% of their graduating class. Their names are inscribed on a Bronze Tablet that hangs in the Main Library.\n\nOnline learning\nIn addition to the university's Illinois Online platform, in 2015 the university entered into a partnership with the Silicon Valley educational technology company Coursera to offer a series of master's degrees, certifications, and specialization courses, currently including more than 70 joint learning classes. In August 2015, the Master of Business Administration program was launched through the platform. On March 31, 2016, Coursera announced the launch of the Master of Computer Science in Data Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. At the time, the university's computer-science graduate program was ranked fifth in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. On March 29, 2017, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign launched their Master's in Accounting (iMSA) program, now called the Master of Science in Accountancy (iMSA) program. The iMSA program is led through live sessions, headed by UIUC faculty.\nSimilar to the university's on-campus admission policies, the online master's degrees offered by The University of Illinois through Coursera also has admission requirements. All applicants must hold a bachelor's degree, and have earned a 3.0 GPA or higher in the last two years of study. Additionally, all applicants must prove their proficiency in English.\nThe University of Illinois also offers online courses in partnership with Coursera, such as Marketing in a Digital World, which focuses on how digital tools like internet, smartphone and 3D printers are changing the marketing landscape.\n\nRankings\nIn the 2021 U.S. News & World Report \"America's Best Colleges\" report, UIUC's undergraduate program was ranked tied for 47th among national universities and tied for 15th among public universities, with its undergraduate engineering program ranked tied for 6th in the U.S. among schools whose highest degree is a doctorate.\nWashington Monthly ranked UIUC 18th among 389 national universities in the U.S. for 2020, based on its contribution to the public good as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service. Kiplinger's Personal Finance rated Illinois 12th in its 2019 list of 174 Best Values in Public Colleges, which \"measures academic quality, cost and financial aid.\"\nThe Graduate Program in Urban Planning at the College of Fine and Applied Arts was ranked 3rd nationally by Planetizen in 2015. The university was also listed as a \"Public Ivy\" in The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (2001) by Howard and Matthew Greene. The Princeton Review ranked Illinois 1st in its 2016 list of top party schools.\nInternationally, UIUC engineering was ranked 13th in the world in 2016 by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the university 38th in 2019; the university was also ranked 48th globally by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in 2020 and 75th in the world by the QS World University Rankings for 2020. The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) has ranked University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the 20th best university in the world for 2019–20.\nUIUC is also ranked 32nd in the world in Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings for 2018.\n\nResearch\nThe University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is often regarded as a world-leading magnet for engineering and sciences (both applied and basic).\nAccording to the National Science Foundation, the university spent $625 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 37th in the nation. It is also listed as one of the Top 25 American Research Universities by The Center for Measuring University Performance. Beside annual influx of grants and sponsored projects, the university manages an extensive modern research infrastructure. The university has been a leader in computer based education and hosted the PLATO project, which was a precursor to the internet and resulted in the development of the plasma display. Illinois was a 2nd-generation ARPAnet site in 1971 and was the first institution to license the UNIX operating system from Bell Labs.\n\nNational Center for Supercomputing Applications\nThe university hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which created Mosaic, the first graphical web browser, the Apache HTTP server, and NCSA Telnet. The Parallel@Illinois program hosts several programs in parallel computing, including the Universal Parallel Computing Research Center. The university contracted with Cray to build the National Science Foundation-funded supercomputer Blue Waters. The system also has the largest public online storage system in the world with more than 25 petabytes of usable space. The university celebrated January 12, 1997, as the \"birthday\" of HAL 9000, the fictional supercomputer from the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey; in both works, HAL credits \"Urbana, Illinois\" as his place of operational origin.\n\nBeckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology\nThe Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology supports interdisciplinary collaborative research in the broad areas of intelligent systems, neuroscience, molecular science and engineering, and biomedical imaging.\n\nCarl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology\nThe Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology supports research in genomics and related areas of biology.\n\nPrairie Research Institute\nThe Prairie Research Institute is located on campus and is the home of the Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, and the Illinois State Archeological Survey. Researchers at the Prairie Research Institute are engaged in research in agriculture and forestry, biodiversity and ecosystem health, atmospheric resources, climate and associated natural hazards, cultural resources and history of human settlements, disease and public health, emerging pests, fisheries and wildlife, energy and industrial technology, mineral resources, pollution prevention and mitigation, and water resources. The Illinois Natural History Survey collections include crustaceans, reptiles and amphibians, birds, mammals, algae, fungi, and vascular plants, with the insect collection is among the largest in North America. The Illinois State Geological Survey houses the legislatively mandated Illinois Geological Samples Library, a repository for drill-hole samples in Illinois, as well as paleontological collections. ISAS serves as a repository for a large collection of Illinois archaeological artifacts. One of the major collections is from the Cahokia Mounds.\n\nResearch Park\nLocated in the southwest part of campus, Research Park opened its first building in 2001 and has grown to encompass 13 buildings. Ninety companies have established roots in research park, employing over 1,400 people. Tenants of the Research Park facilities include prominent Fortune 500 companies Capital One, John Deere, State Farm, Caterpillar, and Yahoo, Inc. Companies also employ about 400 total student interns at any given time throughout the year. The complex is also a center for entrepreneurs, and has over 50 startup companies stationed at its EnterpriseWorks Incubator facility.\nIn 2011, Urbana, Illinois was named number 11 on Popular Mechanics' \"14 Best Startup Cities in America\" list, in a large part due to the contributions of Research Park's programs. The park has gained recognition from other notable publications, such as inc.com and Forbes magazine. For the 2011 fiscal year, Research Park produced an economic output of $169.5M for the state of Illinois.\n\nTechnology Entrepreneur Center\nThe Technology Entrepreneur Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a permanent center established to provide students with resources for their entrepreneurial ideas. The center offers classes, venture and product competitions, and workshops to introduce students to technology innovation and market adoption. \nEvents and programs hosted by the TEC include the Cozad New Venture Challenge, Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship Workshop, Illinois I-Corps, and SocialFuse. The campus-wide Cozad New Venture Challenge has been held annually since 2000. Participants are mentored in the phases of venture creation and attend workshops on idea validation, pitching skills, and customer development. In 2019, teams competed for $250,000 in funding. The Silicon Valley Workshop is a week-long workshop, occurring annually in January. Students visit startups and technology companies in the Silicon Valley and network entrepreneurial alumni from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Students are exposed to technology entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. The trip features corporate leaders, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs in various stages of a startup lifecycle. Illinois I-Corps teaches National Science Foundation grantees how to learn to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and gain skills in entrepreneurship through training in customer discovery and guidance from established entrepreneurs.\nThe program is a collaboration between the Technology Entrepreneur Center and EnterpriseWorks, with participation from the Office of Technology Management and IllinoisVentures. The program consists of three workshops over six weeks, where teams work to validate the market size, value propositions, and customer segments of their innovations.\nSocialFuse is a recurring pitching and networking event where students can pitch ideas, find teammates, and network.\n\nCenter for Plasma-Material Interactions\nThe Center for Plasma-Material Interactions was established in 2004 by Professor David N. Ruzic to research the complex behavior between ions, electrons, and energetic atoms generated in plasmas and the surfaces of materials. CPMI encompasses fusion plasmas in its research.\n\nAccolades\nIn Bill Gates' February 24, 2004, talk as part of his Five Campus Tour (Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Carnegie-Mellon and Illinois) titled \"Software Breakthroughs: Solving the Toughest Problems in Computer Science,\" he mentioned Microsoft hires more graduates from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign than from any other university in the world. Alumnus William M. Holt, a senior vice-president of Intel, also mentioned in a campus talk on September 27, 2007, entitled \"R&D to Deliver Practical Results: Extending Moore's Law\" that Intel hires more PhD graduates from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign than from any other university in the country.\nIn 2007, the university-hosted research Institute for Condensed Matter Theory (ICMT) was launched, with the director Paul Goldbart and the chief scientist Anthony Leggett. ICMT is currently located at the Engineering Science Building on campus.\nThe University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), which recognizes excellence in both individual and institutional achievements, has awarded two awards to U of I.\n\nDiscoveries and innovation\nNatural sciences\nBCS theory – John Bardeen, in collaboration with Leon Cooper and his doctoral student John Robert Schrieffer, proposed the standard theory of superconductivity known as the BCS theory. They shared the Nobel Prize in Physics 1972 for their discovery.\nSweet corn – John Laughnan produced corn with higher-than-normal levels of sugar while he was a professor at the university.\n\nComputer & applied sciences\nILLIAC I – Illinois Automatic Computer, a pioneering computer built in 1952 by the University of Illinois, was the first computer built and owned entirely by a US educational institution. Lejaren Hiller, in collaboration with Leonard Issacson, programmed the ILLIAC I computer to generate compositional material for his String Quartet No. 4.\nILLIAC Suite – is a 1957 composition for string quartet which is generally agreed to be the first score composed by an electronic computer.\nLLVM – compiler infrastructure project (formerly Low Level Virtual Machine). Vikram Adve and Chris Lattner started development as a research assistant and M.Sc. student.\nMosaic – The first successful consumer web browser was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1993.\nNAMD - molecular dynamics simulation code pioneered by Klaus Schulten and colleagues in the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.\nPLATO – Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations was the first generalized computer assisted instruction system. Starting in 1960, it ran on the University of Illinois' ILLIAC I computer. By the late 1970s, it supported several thousand graphics terminals distributed worldwide, running on nearly a dozen different networked mainframe computers. Many modern concepts in multi-user computing were developed on PLATO, including forums, message boards, online testing, e-mail, chat rooms, picture languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multiplayer video games.\nTouchscreens and Plasma displays – developed by Donald Bitzer in the 1960s.\nTalkomatic is an online chat system that facilitates real-time text communication among a small group of people. Created by Doug Brown and David R. Woolley in 1973 on the PLATO System.\nSynchronized Sound-on-film – Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner publicly demonstrated for the first time a motion picture with a soundtrack optically recorded directly onto the film June 9, 1922.\n\nCompanies & entrepreneurship\nUIUC alumni and faculty have founded numerous companies and organizations, some of which are shown below.\n\nStudent life\nStudent body\nAs of spring 2018, the university had 45,813 students. As of 2015, over 10,000 students were international students, and of them 5,295 were Mainland Chinese. The university also recruits students from over 100 countries among its 32,878 undergraduate students and 10,245 graduate and professional students. The gender breakdown is 55% men, 45% women. UIUC in 2014 enrolled 4,898 students from China, more than any other American university. They comprise the largest group of international students on the campus, followed by South Korea (1,268 in fall 2014) and India (1,167). Graduate enrollment of Chinese students at UIUC has grown from 649 in 2000 to 1,973 in 2014.\n\nStudent organizations\nThe university has over 1,000 active registered student organizations, showcased at the start of each academic year during Illinois's \"Quad Day.\" Registration and support is provided by the Student Programs & Activities Office, an administrative arm established in pursuit of the larger social, intellectual, and educative goals of the Illini Student Union. The Office's mission is to \"enhance ... classroom education,\" \"meet the needs and desires of the campus community,\" and \"prepare students to be contributing and humane citizens.\" Beyond student organizations, The Daily Illini is a student-run newspaper that has been published for the community of since 1871. The paper is published by Illini Media Company, a not-for-profit which also prints other publications, and operates WPGU 107.1 FM, a student-run commercial radio station. The Varsity Men's Glee Club is an all-male choir at the University of Illinois that was founded in 1886. The Varsity Men's Glee Club is one of the oldest glee clubs in the United States as well as the oldest registered student organization at the University of Illinois. As of 2018, the university also has the largest chapter of Alpha Phi Omega with over 340 active members.\n\nGreek life\nThere are 59 fraternities and 38 sororities on campus. Of the approximately 30,366 undergraduates, 3,463 are members of sororities and 3,674 are members of fraternities. The Greek system at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a system of self-government. While staff advisors and directors manage certain aspects of the Greek community, most of the day-to-day operations of the Greek community are governed by the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council. A smaller minority of fraternities and sororities fall under the jurisdiction of the Black Greek Council and United Greek Council; the Black Greek Council serves historically black Greek organizations while the United Greek council comprises other multicultural organizations. Many of the fraternity and sorority houses on campus are on the National Register of Historic Places.\n\nStudent government\nU of I has an extensive history of past student governments. Two years after the university opened in 1868, John Milton Gregory and a group of students created a constitution for a student government. Their governance expanded to the entire university in 1873, having a legislative, executive, and judicial branch. For a period of time, this government had the ability to discipline students. In 1883, however, due to a combination of events from Gregory's resignation to student-faculty infighting, the government formally dissolved itself via plebiscite.\nIt was not until 1934, when the Student Senate, the next university-wide student government, was created. A year before, future U of I Dean of Students, Fred H. Turner and the university's Senate Committee on Student Affairs gave increased power to the Student Council, an organization primarily known for organizing dances. A year after, the Student Council created a constitution and became the Student Senate, under the oversight of the Committee on Student Affairs. This Student Senate would last for 35 years. The Student Senate changed its purpose and name in 1969, when it became the Undergraduate Student Association (UGSA). It ceased being a representational government, becoming a collective bargaining agency instead. It often worked with the Graduate Student Association to work on various projects\nIn 1967, Bruce A. Morrison and other U of I graduate founded the Graduate Student Association (GSA). GSA would last until 1978, when it merged with the UGSA to form the Champaign-Urbana Student Association (CUSA). CUSA lasted for only two years when it was replaced by the Student Government Association (SGA) in 1980. SGA lasted for 15 years until it became the Illinois Student Government (ISG) in 1995. ISG lasted until 2004.\nThe current university student government, created in 2004, is the Illinois Student Senate, a combined undergraduate and graduate student senate with 54 voting members. The student senators are elected by college and represent the students in the Urbana-Champaign Senate (which comprises both faculty and students), as well as on a variety of faculty and administrative committees, and are led by an internally elected executive board of a President, External Vice President, Internal Vice President, and Treasurer. As of 2012, the executive board is supported by an executive staff consisting of a Chief of Staff, Clerk of the Senate, Parliamentarian, Director of Communications, Intern Coordinator, and the Historian of the Senate.\n\nResidence halls\nThe university provides housing for undergraduates through 24 residence halls in both Urbana and Champaign. Incoming freshmen are required to live in student housing (campus or certified) their first year on campus. The university also maintains two graduate residence halls, which are restricted to students who are sophomores or above, and three university-owned apartment complexes. Some undergraduates choose to move into apartments or the Greek houses after their first year. There are a number of private dormitories around campus, as well as 15 private, certified residences that partner with the university to offer a variety of different housing options, including ones that are cooperatives, single-gender or religiously affiliated. The university is known for being one of the first universities to provide accommodations for students with disabilities. In 2015, the University of Illinois announced that they would be naming its newest residence hall after Carlos Montezuma also known as Wassaja. Wassaja is the first Native American graduate and is believed to be one of the first Native Americans to receive a medical degree.\n\nLibraries and museums\nAmong universities in North America, only the collections of Harvard are larger. Currently, the University of Illinois' 20+ departmental libraries and divisions hold more than 24 million items, including more than 12 million print volumes. As of 2012, it had also the largest \"browsable\" university library in the United States, with 5 million volumes directly accessible in stacks in a single location. University of Illinois also has the largest public engineering library (Grainger Engineering Library) in the country. In addition to the main library building, which houses numerous subject-oriented libraries, the Isaac Funk Family Library on the South Quad serves the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center serves the College of Engineering on the John Bardeen Quad.\n\nResidence Hall Library System is one of three in the nation. The Residence Hall Libraries were created in 1948 to serve the educational, recreational, and cultural information needs of first- and second-year undergraduate students residing in the residence halls, and the living-learning communities within the residence halls. The collection also serves University Housing staff as well as the larger campus community. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) is one of the Special collections units within the University Library. The RBML is one of the largest special collections repositories in the United States.\nThe university has several museums, galleries, and archives which include Krannert Art Museum, Sousa Archives and Center for American Music and Spurlock Museum. Gallery and exhibit locations include Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and at the School of Art and Design.\nThe Illinois Open Publishing Network (IOPN) is hosted and coordinated by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library, offering publishing services to members of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign community, to disseminate open access scholarly publications.\n\nRecreation\nThe campus has two main recreation facilities, the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) and the Campus Recreation Center – East (CRCE). Originally known as the Intramural Physical Education Building (IMPE) and opened in 1971, IMPE was renovated in 2006 and reopened in August 2008 as the ARC. The renovations expanded the facility, adding 103,433 square feet to the existing structure and costing $54.9 million. This facility is touted by the university as \"one of the country's largest on-campus recreation centers.\" CRCE was originally known as the Satellite Recreation Center and was opened in 1989. The facility was renovated in 2005 to expand the space and update equipment, officially reopening in March 2005 as CRCE.\n\nTransportation\nThe bus system that operates throughout the campus and community is operated by the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. The MTD receives a student-approved transportation fee from the university, which provides unlimited access for university students, faculty, and staff.\nDaily Amtrak trains through Illinois Terminal connect Champaign-Urbana with Chicago and Carbondale, Illinois. This includes the corridor service Illini and Saluki and the long-distance City of New Orleans, which provides a direct route to Memphis, Tennessee; Jackson, Mississippi; and New Orleans, Louisiana southbound, in addition to Chicago northbound.\nWillard Airport, opened in 1954 and is named for former University of Illinois president Arthur Cutts Willard. The airport is located in Savoy. Willard Airport is home to University research projects and the university's Institute of Aviation, along with flights from American Airlines.\n\nSecurity\nThe University of Illinois has a dedicated police department, UIPD, which operates independently from CPD, the department that serves the surrounding Champaign area.\nOn June 9, 2017, Yingying Zhang, a Chinese international student, was abducted and murdered in a case that made national headlines at the time. The university subsequently announced plans to install additional, high-definition, security cameras across the campus.\nOn April 18, 2022, Sayed A. Quraishi, a 23-year old man who had recently graduated from the university, assaulted a Jewish student outside of the campus' Hillel building during an anti-Israel protest organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Quraishi was subsequently charged with a hate crime.\nIn July 2022, the university announced that it was partnering with local businesses to invest $300,000 to combat violent crime in Champaign County.\nIn September 2022, the City of Champaign transferred responsibility for a large swath of Campustown from CPD (Champaign Police Department) to UIPD, claiming that doing so would reduce response times and improve the quality of service. As part of the jurisdictional reforms, the city agreed to pay a substantial portion of the cost to hire seven new officers to patrol the new coverage area.\nViolent crime fell sharply in 2022 compared to the year prior, with shootings and homicides declining by 50 and 47 percent, respectively. The city attributed the decrease in crime to improved staffing levels and the installation of automatic license plate readers.\n\nAthletics\nU of I's Division of Intercollegiate Athletics fields teams for ten men's and eleven women's varsity sports. The university participates in the NCAA's Division I. The university's athletic teams are known as the Fighting Illini. The university operates a number of athletic facilities, including Memorial Stadium for football, the State Farm Center for men's and women's basketball, and the Atkins Tennis Center for men's and women's tennis. The men's NCAA basketball team had a dream run in the 2005 season, with Bruce Weber's Fighting Illini tying the record for most victories in a season. Their run ended 37–2 with a loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the national championship game. Illinois is a member of the Big Ten Conference. Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement and convocation, and athletic games are: Illinois Loyalty, the school song; Oskee Wow Wow, the fight song; and Hail to the Orange, the alma mater.\n\nOn October 15, 1910, the Illinois football team defeated the University of Chicago Maroons with a score of 3–0 in a game that Illinois claims was the first homecoming game, though several other schools claim to have held the first homecoming as well. On November 10, 2007, the unranked Illinois football team defeated the No. 1 ranked Ohio State football team in Ohio Stadium, the first time that the Illini beat a No. 1 ranked team on the road.\nThe University of Illinois Ice Arena is home to the university's club college ice hockey team competing at the ACHA Division I level and is also available for recreational use through the Division of Campus Recreation. It was built in 1931 and designed by Chicago architecture firm Holabird and Root, the same firm that designed the University of Illinois Memorial Stadium and Chicago's Soldier Field. It is located on Armory Drive across from the Armory. The structure features four rows of bleacher seating in an elevated balcony that runs the length of the ice rink on either side. These bleachers provide seating for roughly 1,200 fans, with standing room and bench seating available underneath. Because of this set-up the team benches are actually directly underneath the stands.\nIn 2015, the university began Mandarin Chinese broadcasts of its American football games as a service to its Chinese international students.\n\nMascot\nChief Illiniwek, also referred to as \"The Chief\", was from 1926 to 2007 the official symbol of the University of Illinois in university intercollegiate athletic programs. The Chief was typically portrayed by a student dressed in Sioux regalia. Several groups protested that the use of a Native American figure and indigenous customs in such a manner was inappropriate and promoted ethnic stereotypes. In August 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association expressed disapproval of the university's use of a \"hostile or abusive\" image. While initially proposing a consensus approach to the decision about the Chief, the board in 2007 decided that the Chief, its name, image and regalia should be officially retired. Nevertheless, the controversy continues on campus with some students unofficially maintaining the Chief. Complaints continue that indigenous students feel insulted when images of the Chief continue to be present on campus. The effort to resolve the controversy has included the work of a committee, which issued a report of its \"critical conversations\" that included over 600 participants representing all sides.\n\nNotable alumni and faculty\nNotable University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni include:\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nTwenty-seven alumni and faculty members of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have won a Pulitzer Prize. As of 2019, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni, faculty, and researchers include 30 Nobel laureates (including 11 alumni). In particular, John Bardeen is the only person to have won two Nobel prizes in physics, having done so in 1956 and 1972 while on faculty at the university. In 2003, two faculty members won Nobel prizes in different disciplines: Paul C. Lauterbur for physiology or medicine, and Anthony Leggett for physics.\nThe alumni of the university have created companies and products such as Netscape Communications (formerly Mosaic) (Marc Andreessen), AMD (Jerry Sanders), PayPal (Max Levchin), Playboy (Hugh Hefner), National Football League (George Halas), Siebel Systems and C3.ai (Thomas Siebel), Mortal Kombat (Ed Boon), CDW (Michael Krasny), YouTube (Steve Chen and Jawed Karim), THX (Tomlinson Holman), Andreessen Horowitz (Marc Andreessen), Oracle (Larry Ellison and Bob Miner), Lotus (Ray Ozzie), Yelp! (Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons), Safari (Dave Hyatt), Firefox (Joe Hewitt), W. W. Grainger (William Wallace Grainger), Delta Air Lines (C. E. Woolman), Beckman Instruments (Arnold Beckman), BET (Robert L. Johnson) and Tesla Motors (Martin Eberhard).\n\nAlumni and faculty have invented the LED and the quantum well laser (Nick Holonyak, B.S. 1950, M.S. 1951, Ph.D. 1954), DSL (John Cioffi, B.S. 1978), JavaScript (Brendan Eich, M.S. 1986), the integrated circuit (Jack Kilby, B.S. 1947), the transistor (John Bardeen, faculty, 1951–1991), the pH meter (Arnold Beckman, B.S. 1922, M.S. 1923), MRI (Paul C. Lauterbur), the plasma screen (Donald Bitzer, B.S. 1955, M.S. 1956, Ph.D. 1960), color plasma display (Larry F. Weber, B.S. 1968 M.S. 1971 Ph.D. 1975), the training methodology called PdEI and the coin counter (James P. Liautaud, B.S. 1963), the statistical algorithm called Gibbs sampling in computer vision and the machine learning technique called random forests (Donald Geman, B.A. 1965), and are responsible for the structural design of such buildings as the Willis Tower, the John Hancock Center, and the Burj Khalifa.\nMathematician Richard Hamming, known for the Hamming code and Hamming distance, earned a PhD in mathematics from the university's Mathematics Department in 1942. Primetime Emmy Award-winning engineer Alan Bovik (B.S. 1980, M.S. 1982, Ph.D. 1984) invented neuroscience-based video quality measurement tools that pervade television, social media and home cinema. Structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan earned two master's degrees, and a PhD in structural engineering from the university.\nAlumni have also led several companies, including McDonald's, Goldman Sachs, BP, Kodak, Shell, General Motors, AT&T, and General Electric and others.\n\nAlumni have founded many organizations, including the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Project Gutenberg, and have served in a wide variety of government and public interest roles. Rafael Correa, President of The Republic of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017, secured his M.S. and PhD degrees from the university's Economics Department in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Nathan C. Ricker attended U of I and in 1873 was the first person to graduate in the United States with a certificate in architecture. Mary L. Page, the first woman to obtain a degree in architecture, also graduated from U of I. Disability rights activist and co-organizer of the 504 Sit-in, Kitty Cone, attended during the 1960s, but left six hours short of her degree to continue her activism in New York.\nIn sports, baseball pitcher Ken Holtzman was a two-time All Star major leaguer, and threw two no-hitters in his career. In sports entertainment, David Otunga became a two-time WWE Tag Team Champion.\nEta Kappa Nu (ΗΚΝ) was founded at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the national honor society for electrical engineering in 1904. Maurice LeRoy Carr (B.S. 1905) and Edmund B. Wheeler (B.S. 1905) were part of the founding group of ten students and they served as the first and second national presidents of ΗΚΝ. The Eta Kappa Nu organization is now the international honor society for IEEE as the IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-ΗΚΝ). The U of I collegiate chapter is known as the Alpha Chapter of ΗΚΝ. Lowell P. Hager was the head of the Department of Biochemistry from 1969 until 1989 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1995.\n\nNotes\nReferences\nFurther reading\nHoddeson, Lillian. No Boundaries: University of Illinois Vignettes. (University of Illinois Press, 2004; ISBN 9780252072031)\nJohnson, Jr., Henry C. and Erwin V. Johanningmeier. Teachers for the Prairie: The University of Illinois and the Schools, 1868–1945 (University of Illinois Press, 1972)\nKanfer, Alaina. Illini Loyalty: The University of Illinois. (University of Illinois Press, 2011; ISBN 9780252035005)\nScheinman, Muriel. A Guide to Art at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign, Robert Allerton Park, and Chicago (University of Illinois Press, 1995) online\nSolberg, Winton U. The University of Illinois, 1894-1904: an intellectual and cultural history. (University of Illinois Press, 2000; ISBN 9780252025792) online\nTate, Lex; Franch, John. An Illini Place - Building the University of Illinois Campus. (University of Illinois Press, 2017; ISBN 9780252041112)\nWilliamson, Ann Joy. Black Power on Campus - The University of Illinois, 1965-75. (University of Illinois Press, 2003; ISBN 9780252095801) online\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website \nOfficial website of University of Illinois Athletics\n\"Illinois, University of\" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.\n\"Illinois, University of\" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.","title":"University_of_Illinois_Urbana-Champaign"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles. Hefner extended the Playboy brand into a world network of Playboy Clubs. He also resided in luxury mansions where Playboy Playmates shared his wild partying life, fueling media interest.\n\nEarly life and education\nHefner was born in Chicago, on April 9, 1926, the first child of Glenn Lucius Hefner (1896–1976), an accountant, and his wife Grace Caroline (Swanson) Hefner (1895–1997) who worked as a teacher. His parents were from Nebraska. He had a younger brother, Keith (1929–2016). His mother was of Swedish ancestry, and his father was German and English.\nThrough his father's line, Hefner was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. He described his family as \"conservative, Midwestern, [and] Methodist\". His mother had wanted him to become a missionary.\nHe attended Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School, then served from 1944 to 1946 as a United States Army writer for a military newspaper. Hefner graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a double minor in creative writing and art, having earned his degree in two and a half years. After graduation, he took a semester of graduate courses in sociology at Northwestern University, but dropped out soon after.\n\nCareer\nIn January 1952, Hefner left his job as a copywriter for Esquire after he was denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he took out a mortgage loan of $600 and raised $8,000 from 45 investors (including $1,000 from his mother—\"not because she believed in the venture,\" he told E! in 2006, \"but because she believed in her son\") to launch Playboy, which was initially going to be called Stag Party. The first issue was published in December 1953 and featured Marilyn Monroe from a 1949 nude calendar shoot she did under a pseudonym. That first issue sold more than 50,000 copies, but Monroe was not paid by Playboy or Hefner for the photos. (Hefner never met Monroe, but he bought the crypt next to hers at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in 1992 for $75,000.)\nEsquire magazine rejected Charles Beaumont's science fiction story \"The Crooked Man\" in 1955, so Hefner agreed to publish it in Playboy. The story highlighted straight men being persecuted in a world where homosexuality was the norm. The magazine received angry letters, so Hefner responded, \"If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too.\" In 1961, Hefner watched Dick Gregory perform at the Herman Roberts Show Bar in Chicago, and he hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club. Gregory attributed the launch of his career to that night.\nHefner promoted a bon vivant lifestyle in his magazine and in the television shows that he hosted Playboy's Penthouse (1959–1960) and Playboy After Dark (1969–1970). He was also the chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, the publishing group which operates the magazine.\nOn June 4, 1963, Hefner was arrested for promoting obscene literature after he published an issue of Playboy featuring nude shots of Jayne Mansfield in bed with a man present. The case went to trial and resulted in a hung jury.\nIn the 1960s, Hefner created \"private key\" clubs that were racially diverse. During the civil rights movement in 1966, Hefner sent Alex Haley to interview American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, much to Rockwell's shock because Haley was black. Rockwell agreed to meet with Haley only after gaining assurance that he was not Jewish, although Rockwell kept a handgun on the table throughout the interview. In Roots: The Next Generations (1979), the interview was recreated with James Earl Jones as Haley and Marlon Brando as Rockwell. Haley had also interviewed Malcolm X in 1963 and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966 for the newly established 1962 \"playboy interview\".\n\nIn 1970, Hefner stated that \"militant feminists\" are \"unalterably opposed to the romantic boy-girl society that Playboy promotes\" and ordered an article in his magazine against them.\nIn his later years, Hefner's star dimmed, but he remained a well-known personality, often appearing in cameo roles. In the 1993 The Simpsons episode \"Krusty Gets Kancelled\", Hefner voiced himself. In 1999, Hefner financed the Clara Bow documentary Discovering the It Girl. \"Nobody has what Clara had,\" he said. \"She defined an era and made her mark on the nation\". Hefner guest-starred as himself in the 2000 Sex and the City episode \"Sex and Another City\". In 2005, he guest-starred on the HBO shows Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. He guest-starred as himself in a 2006 episode of Seth Green's Robot Chicken on the late-night programming block Adult Swim. In the 2007 Family Guy episode \"Airport '07\", he voiced himself. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television and made several movie appearances as himself. In 2009, he was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance as himself in Miss March. On his official Twitter account, he joked about this nomination: \"Maybe I didn't understand the character.\"\nBrigitte Berman's documentary Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel was released on July 30, 2010. He had previously granted full access to documentary filmmaker and television producer Kevin Burns for the A&E Biography special Hugh Hefner: American Playboy in 1996. Hefner and Burns later collaborated on numerous other television projects, most notably on The Girls Next Door, a reality series that ran for six seasons (2005–2009) and 90 episodes. Hefner also made a voice-only appearance as himself in the 2011 film Hop.\nIn 2012, Hefner announced that his youngest son Cooper would succeed him as the public face of Playboy.\n\nPersonal life\nHefner was known to friends and family simply as \"Hef\". He married Northwestern University student Mildred (\"Millie\") Williams in 1949. They had a daughter named Christie (b. 1952) and a son, David (b. 1955). Before the wedding, Mildred confessed that she'd had an affair while he was away in the army. He called the admission \"the most devastating moment of my life.\" A 2006 E! True Hollywood Story profile of Hefner revealed that Mildred allowed him to have sex with other women, out of guilt for her own infidelity and in the hope that it would preserve their marriage. The couple divorced in 1959.\nHefner remade himself as a bon vivant and man about town, a lifestyle that he promoted in his magazine and TV shows. He admitted to being \"'involved' with maybe eleven out of twelve months' worth of Playmates\" during some years. Donna Michelle, Marilyn Cole, Lillian Müller, Shannon Tweed, Barbi Benton, Karen Christy, Sondra Theodore, and Carrie Leigh were a few of his many lovers; Leigh filed a $35 million palimony suit against him. In 1971, he acknowledged that he experimented in bisexuality. Also in 1971, he established a second residence in Los Angeles with the acquisition of Playboy Mansion West, and moved there permanently from Chicago in 1975.\nOn March 7, 1985, Hefner had a minor stroke at age 58, whereupon he re-evaluated his lifestyle, making several changes. He toned down the wild, all-night parties, and his daughter Christie took over the operation of Playboy's commercial operations in 1988. The following year, he married Playmate of the Year Kimberley Conrad; they were 36 years apart in age. The couple had sons Marston Glenn (b. 1990) and Cooper (b. 1991). The E! True Hollywood Story profile noted that the Playboy Mansion had been transformed into a family-friendly homestead. He and Conrad separated in 1998, after which she moved into the house next door to the mansion. Hefner filed for divorce from Conrad in 2009 after an 11-year separation, citing irreconcilable differences. He stated that he only remained nominally married to her for the sake of their children, and their youngest child had just turned 18. The divorce was finalized in 2010.\nHefner became known for moving an ever-changing coterie of young women into the Playboy Mansion, including twins Mandy and Sandy Bentley. He dated as many as seven women concurrently. He also dated Brande Roderick, Izabella St. James, Tina Marie Jordan, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson. Madison, Wilkinson, and Marquardt appeared on The Girls Next Door depicting their lives at the Playboy Mansion. In October 2008, all three of them decided to leave the mansion.\nIn January 2009, Hefner began a relationship with Crystal Harris; she joined the Shannon Twins after his previous \"number one girlfriend\" Holly Madison had ended their seven-year relationship. On December 24, 2010, he became engaged to Harris, but she broke off their engagement on June 14, 2011, five days before their planned wedding. The July issue of Playboy reached store shelves and customers' homes within days of the wedding date; it featured Harris on the cover, and in a photo spread as well. The headline on the cover read \"Introducing America's Princess, Mrs. Crystal Hefner\". Hefner and Harris subsequently reconciled and married on December 31, 2012.\nHefner was very distantly related to the 41st and 43rd presidents of the United States, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, respectively. Hefner's brother Keith died at age 87 on April 8, 2016, one day before Hefner's 90th birthday.\n\nPlayboy Mansion\nIn January 2016, the Playboy Mansion was put on the market for $200 million, on condition that Hugh Hefner would continue to work and live in the mansion. Later that year it was sold to Daren Metropoulos, a principal at private equity firm Metropoulos & Company, for $100 million. Metropoulos planned to reconnect the Playboy Mansion property with a neighboring estate that he purchased in 2009, combining the two for a 7.3 acre (3-hectare) compound as his own private residence.\nIn May 2017, Eugena Washington was the last Playmate of the Year to be announced by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion.\n\nPolitics and philanthropy\nHefner debated The Playboy Philosophy with William F. Buckley Jr., on Firing Line in Episode 26, recorded on September 12, 1966.\nThe Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award was created by Christie Hefner \"to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in the vital effort to protect and enhance First Amendment rights for Americans.\"\nHe donated and raised money for the Democratic Party. In 2011, he referred to himself as an independent due to dissatisfaction with both the Democratic and Republican parties. Nonetheless, in 2012, he supported Barack Obama's reelection campaign.\nIn 1978, Hefner helped organize fund-raising efforts that led to the restoration of the Hollywood Sign. He hosted a gala fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion and contributed $27,000 (or 1/9 of the total restoration costs) by purchasing the letter Y in a ceremonial auction.\nHefner stated in a 2000 interview with Playboy, \"It's perfectly clear to me that religion is a myth. It's something we have invented to explain the inexplicable.\" Lee Strobel, a Christian author who interviewed Hefner regarding his theological positions, later described Hefner as having a \"very minimalistic, deistic view of God.\"\nHefner donated $100,000 to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts to create a course called \"Censorship in Cinema\", and $2 million to endow a chair for the study of American film. In 2007, the university's audiovisual archive at the Norris Theater received a donation from Hefner and was renamed to the Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive in his honor.\nBoth through his charitable foundation and individually, Hefner also contributed to charities and other organizations outside the sphere of politics and publishing, throwing fundraiser events for Much Love Animal Rescue as well as Generation Rescue, an anti-vaccinationist campaign organization supported by Jenny McCarthy.\nOn November 18, 2010, Children of the Night founder and president Dr. Lois Lee presented Hefner with the organization's first-ever Founder's Hero of the Heart Award in appreciation for his unwavering dedication, commitment and generosity.\nOn April 26, 2010, Hefner donated the last $900,000 sought by a conservation group for a land purchase needed to stop the development of the vista of the Hollywood Sign. Sylvilagus palustris hefneri, an endangered subspecies of marsh rabbit, is named after him in honor of financial support that he provided.\nThe Barbi Twins, who are among a notable cohort of celebrity Playmates, including Pamela Anderson and Hefner's third wife Crystal Harris, praised the publishing icon for providing centerfolds and extended members of the Playboy family with a platform for activism and advocacy on behalf of animal populations in need.\nHefner supported legalizing same-sex marriage, calling it \"a fight for all our rights. Without it, we will turn back the sexual revolution and return to an earlier, puritanical time.\"\n\nDeath\nHefner died at the Playboy Mansion on September 27, 2017, at the age of 91. The cause was sepsis brought on by an E. coli infection.\nHe is interred at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, in the crypt beside Marilyn Monroe, for which he paid $75,000 in 1992. \"Spending eternity next to Marilyn is an opportunity too sweet to pass up,\" Hefner had told the Los Angeles Times in 2009.\n\nReputation\nSuzanne Moore wrote in The Guardian that Hefner threatened to file a lawsuit against her for calling him a \"pimp\". Defending her position, Moore argued that \"he was a man who bought and sold women to other men\". She further stated that \"part of Hefner's business acumen was to make the selling of female flesh respectable and hip, to make soft porn acceptable.\" Julie Bindel argued in The Independent that Hefner \"caused immeasurable damage by turning porn—and therefore the buying and selling of women's bodies—into a legitimate business.\"\nRobin Abcarian wrote in the Los Angeles Times, quoting Wendy Hamilton, that Hefner \"probably did more to mainstream the exploitation of women's bodies than any other figure in American history,\" adding that he \"managed to convince many women that taking off their clothes for men's pleasure was not just empowering, but a worthy goal in itself.\" She further stated that Hefner \"embodied the aesthetic notion that images of women—and women themselves—exist to please men.\"\nHefner's former girlfriend Holly Madison said that he \"would encourage competition—and body image issues—between his multiple live-in girlfriends. His legacy is full of evidence of the exploitation of women for professional gain.\" Ed Stetzer wrote in Christianity Today that Hefner would have the residence systematically cleaned whenever Christie Hefner visited in order \"to keep the realities from his own daughter\". Stetzer further lamented the consequences of Hefner's role as a \"general\" of the \"sexual revolution\":\n\nIt's hard to fathom that anyone would have known what this would have turned into. Parents growing up today are fighting to keep their children pure. Spouses are fighting to keep their marriages intact. And many enslaved and trapped in the adult entertainment industry have been figuratively and literally stripped not only of their clothes, but their very value as people made in the image of God. If this does not concern us, what will?\nA 12-part television documentary series, Secrets of Playboy, debuted on A&E January 24, 2022, in which Hefner's former male and female employees and partners made claims of systematic sexual misconduct and manipulation, recreational and manipulative drug use, peer pressure, sextortion, blackmail, rape, forced and violent anal sex, sexual assault without consent and/or while victims were in a state of drug-induced stupor or unconsciousness, spying, videotaping without consent, and illegal sex with minors by Hefner and his celebrity friends and guests at the Playboy Mansion and other locations. The PLBY group, now publicly owned, distanced itself from Hefner in a statement released shortly before the first episode was broadcast, saying, \"Today's Playboy is not Hugh Hefner's Playboy. We trust and validate these women and their stories and we strongly support those individuals who have come forward to share their experiences.\"\nIn January 2024, Hefner's widow Crystal, who previously brushed away criticism, wrote a memoir where she alleged she experienced a hostile environment while at the Playboy Mansion, even claiming that she was \"imprisoned\" while there.\n\nDepictions\nThe Amazon original series American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story was released in April 2017. It stars Matt Whelan in the title role, along with Emmett Skilton and Chelsie Preston Crayford. The ten episodes are a combination of interviews, archival footage (including moments found in Hefner's vast personal collection), and cinematic re-enactments that cover the launch of the magazine as well as the next six decades of Hefner's personal life and career. The series was filmed in Auckland.\nIn October 2017, Playboy Enterprises announced that a Hugh Hefner biopic directed by Brett Ratner with the screenplay by Jeff Nathanson was greenlit with Jared Leto rumored to play Hefner. In November 2017, it was indefinitely put on hold following sexual harassment allegations against Ratner, and Leto's representatives stated that reports of him being attached to the film at any point were false.\n\nFilmography\nBooks\nHefner, Hugh Marston (1963). The Playboy Philosophy. HMH Publishing Company.\n\nFurther reading\nMiller, Russell (1985). Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy. London: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-03-063748-3.\nSt. James, Izabella (2006). Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion (Reprint (2009) ed.). Philadelphia: Running Press. ISBN 978-0-7624-3230-1.\nVile, John R.; Hudson, David L.; Schultz, David Andrew (2009). Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. p. 564. ISBN 978-0-87289-311-5.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nHugh M. Hefner Foundation Archived July 5, 2023, at the Wayback Machine\n\"Hef the Politician: Playboy's History in Politics\" Archived July 5, 2023, at the Wayback Machine on Playboy.com\nHugh Hefner at IMDb \nHugh Hefner on Biography.com Archived November 15, 2017, at the Wayback Machine\nHugh Hefner at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television","title":"Hugh_Hefner"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Minyong Kim (Korean: 김민용; sometimes known as Dragon) is an impersonator of Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of North Korea. His impersonation gained attention when he was an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.\n\nImpersonator career\nKim was born in Seoul to a working class family and studied business at the University of Illinois. He first enrolled at the university in 2009, then went back to South Korea for 25 months to complete mandatory military service in the Korean Air Force. He remained in South Korea to work as a teacher and save money, and when he returned to university classes in spring 2013 studied abroad in China which was cheaper for him. In 2014, his Kim Jong Un Halloween costume went viral on Korean social media.\nHe decided to capitalize on his resemblance to Kim Jong Un by gaining weight, buying a black Mao suit, and getting a trapezoidal haircut. Kim told USA Today that he got stopped on the University of Illinois campus more than 100 times per day by people who wanted photos. Several weeks later, he told a reporter the number was \"200 to 300 times per day, usually like 40 to 50 times per hour.\" His reason for impersonating the North Korean leader, he said, is to make people happy.\nKim does not agree with Kim Jong Un's politics but he shares the supreme leader's interest in the Chicago Bulls. Because of Kim Jong Un's divisiveness, Minyong Kim said his parents feared he would be kidnapped or assassinated. He told the Champaign News-Gazette, \"my girlfriend really abhors this... not only hates it, but abhors.\"\nAfter Kim's graduation in late 2015, he began running an agency that prepares South Korean students for school in the United States. His career goal is to expand affordable education options in South Korea.\n\nFilm, television, and advertising\nHis resemblance to Kim Jong Un has earned him roles in movies, commercials, soap operas, and music videos. In April 2015, he and a Barack Obama impersonator named Reggie Brown, who also attended the University of Illinois, appeared in commercial for eNuri, a South Korean online marketplace. In a commercial for an air purifier, he acted like he was creating new weapons to destroy germs in the air. In a 2015 YouTube video made by QPark, Kim walked around New York City in full costume. The video got ten million views in its first two months. In April 2015, Kim appeared on a South Korean talk show to startle North Korean defectors, who were on the show discussing their previous lives under the totalitarian dictatorship.\n\nExternal links\n10 Hours of Walking in NYC as Kim Jong Un, YouTube video.\n\n\n== References ==","title":"Minyong_Kim"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. It is the flagship institution of the University of Illinois system and was established in 1867. With over 59,000 students, the University of Illinois is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the United States.\\nThe university contains 16 schools and colleges and offers more than 150 undergraduate and over 100 graduate programs of study. The university holds 651 buildings on 6,370 acres (2,578 ha) and its annual operating budget in 2016 was over $2 billion. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also operates a Research Park home to innovation centers for over 90 start-up companies and multinational corporations.\\nThe University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among \\\"R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity\\\". In fiscal year 2019, research expenditures at Illinois totaled $652 million. The campus library system possesses the fourth-largest university library in the United States by holdings. The university also hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.\\nIllinois athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Fighting Illini. They are members of the Big Ten Conference and have won the second-most conference titles. Illinois Fighting Illini football won the Rose Bowl Game in 1947, 1952, 1964 and a total of five national championships. Illinois athletes have won 29 medals in Olympic events. The alumni, faculty members, or researchers of the university include 30 Nobel laureates, 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, two Fields medalists, and two Turing Award winners.\\n\\nHistory\\nIllinois Industrial University (1867–1885)\\nThe University of Illinois, originally named \\\"Illinois Industrial University\\\", was one of the 37 universities created under the first Morrill Land-Grant Act, which provided public land for the creation of agricultural and industrial colleges and universities across the United States. Among several cities, Urbana was selected in 1867 as the site for the new school. From the beginning, President John Milton Gregory's desire to establish an institution firmly grounded in the liberal arts tradition was at odds with many state residents and lawmakers who wanted the university to offer classes based solely around \\\"industrial education\\\". The university opened for classes on March 2, 1868, and had two faculty members and 77 students.\\nThe Library, which opened with the school in 1868, started with 1,039 volumes. Subsequently, President Edmund J. James, in a speech to the board of trustees in 1912, proposed to create a research library. It is now one of the world's largest public academic collections. In 1870, the Mumford House was constructed as a model farmhouse for the school's experimental farm. The Mumford House remains the oldest structure on campus. The original University Hall (1871) was the fourth building built; it stood where the Illini Union stands today.\\n\\nUniversity of Illinois (1885–1977)\\nIn 1885, the Illinois Industrial University officially changed its name to the \\\"University of Illinois\\\", reflecting its agricultural, mechanical, and liberal arts curriculum.\\nDuring his presidency, Edmund J. James (1904–1920) set the policy of building a massive research library. He also laid the foundation for the large Chinese international student population on campus. James established ties with China through the Chinese Minister to the United States Wu Ting-Fang. Class rivalries and Bob Zuppke's winning football teams contributed to campus morale.\\nAlma Mater, a prominent statue on campus created by alumnus Lorado Taft, was unveiled on June 11, 1929. It was funded from donations by the Alumni Fund and the classes of 1923–1929.\\nThe Great Depression in the United States slowed construction and expansion on the campus. The university replaced the original university hall with Gregory Hall and the Illini Union. After World War II, the university experienced rapid growth. The enrollment doubled and the academic standing improved. This period was also marked by large growth in the Graduate College and increased federal support of scientific and technological research. During the 1950s and 1960s the university experienced the turmoil common on many American campuses. Among these were the water fights of the 1950s and 1960s.\\n\\nUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1977–present)\\nBy 1967, the University of Illinois system consisted of a main campus in Champaign-Urbana and two Chicago campuses, Chicago Circle (UICC) and Medical Center (UIMC), and people began using \\\"Urbana-Champaign\\\" or the reverse to refer to the main campus specifically. The university name officially changed to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by 1977 (although the word \\\"at\\\" was later dropped for marketing purposes by all U of I System campuses by 2021). While this was a reversal of the commonly used designation for the metropolitan area (Champaign-Urbana), a majority of the campus is located in Urbana. The name change established a separate identity for the main campus within the University of Illinois System, which today includes separate institutions at the University of Illinois Chicago (formed by the merger of UICC and UIMC) and University of Illinois Springfield.\\nIn 1998, the Hallene Gateway Plaza was dedicated. The Plaza features the original sandstone portal of University Hall, which was originally the fourth building on campus. In recent years, state support has declined from 4.5% of the state's tax appropriations in 1980 to 2.28% in 2011, a nearly 50% decline. As a result, the university's budget has shifted away from relying on state support with nearly 84% of the budget coming from other sources in 2012.\\nOn March 12, 2015, the Board of Trustees approved the creation of a medical school, the first college created at Urbana-Champaign in 60 years. The Carle Illinois College of Medicine began classes in 2018.\\n\\nPhilanthropy\\nOver the last twenty years state funding for the university has fallen. Private philanthropy increasingly supplements revenue from tuition and state funding, providing about 19% of the annual budget in 2012. Notable among significant donors, alumnus entrepreneur Thomas M. Siebel has committed nearly $150 million to the university, including $36 million to build the Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science, $25 million to build the Siebel Center for Design, and $50 million to support the renamed Department of Computer Science to become Siebel School of Computing and Data Science. Furthermore, the Grainger Foundation (founded by alumnus W. W. Grainger) has contributed more than $300 million to the university over the last half-century, including donations for the construction of the Grainger Engineering Library. Larry Gies and his wife Beth donated $150 million in 2017 to the shortly thereafter renamed Gies College of Business.\\n\\nCampus\\nThe main research and academic facilities are divided almost evenly between the twin cities of Urbana and Champaign, which form part of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area. Some parts are in Urbana Township.\\nFour main quads compose the center of the university and are arranged from north to south. The Beckman Quadrangle and the John Bardeen Quadrangle occupy the center of the Engineering Campus. Boneyard Creek flows through the John Bardeen Quadrangle, parallel to Green Street. The Beckman Quadrangle, named after Arnold Orville Beckman, is primarily composed of research units and laboratories, and features a large solar calendar consisting of an obelisk and several copper fountains. The Main Quadrangle and South Quadrangle follow immediately after the John Bardeen Quad. The former makes up a large part of the Liberal Arts and Sciences portion of the campus, while the latter comprises many of the buildings of the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES) spread across the campus map.\\nAdditionally, the research fields of the College of ACES stretch south from Urbana and Champaign into Savoy and Champaign County. The university also maintains formal gardens and a conference center in nearby Monticello at Allerton Park.\\nThe campus is known for its landscape and architecture, as well as distinctive landmarks. It was identified as one of 50 college or university \\\"works of art\\\" by T.A. Gaines in his book The Campus as a Work of Art. The campus also has a number of buildings and sites on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places including Harker Hall, the Astronomical Observatory, Louise Freer Hall, the Main Library, the Experimental Dairy Farm Historic District, and the Morrow Plots. University of Illinois Willard Airport is one of the few airports owned by an educational institution.\\n\\nSustainability\\nIn 2008, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign became a signatory of the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment, binding the campus to the goal of carbon neutrality as soon as possible. In 2010, the first Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP) was written to chart a path to this goal. The iCAP is a strategic framework for meeting the university's Climate Leadership Commitments to be carbon-neutral by 2050 or sooner and build resilience with its local community. Since then, the iCAP has been rewritten every five years to track the university's progress.\\nIn December 2013, the University of Illinois launched the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) on the Urbana-Champaign campus. The institute, under the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation, leads an interdisciplinary approach to researching solutions for the world's most pressing sustainability, energy, and environmental needs. In addition, iSEE has engaged students, faculty, staff, and campus leadership in the iCAP process — especially in the areas of zero waste and conservation of energy, food, water, land, and natural resources — as well as sustainability outreach and immersive educational programs.\\nIn her remarks on being named Director of iSEE in 2022, Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics Madhu Khanna explained: \\\"We aim to position campus to play a transformative role in moving us all to a more sustainable future.\\\"\\nIn 2022, new solar and geothermal energy projects, a reduction in water use, and wide-ranging sustainability research helped the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign earn its fifth consecutive gold certification in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). Illinois has consistently achieved gold certification since it began reporting data through STARS in 2013, and the 2022 score was one of its highest to date.\\nCurrently, the campus features 27 LEED-certified buildings.\\n\\nAcademics\\nUndergraduate admissions\\nThe overall first-year admit rate for 2023 is 43.7%, which differ greatly among UIUC colleges — whereas the overall first-choice admit rate is 34.7%, the Grainger College of Engineering has an admit rate of 22.3%. Certain in-demand majors like Computer Science, including Computer Science + X, of which the program being ranked consistently 5th nationwide can be extremely competitive, with an acceptance rate of less than 6.8% in 2022,\\n\\n and average freshman ACT composite score of 33.7.\\n\\nIn 2009, an investigation by The Chicago Tribune reported that some applicants \\\"received special consideration\\\" for acceptance between 2005 and 2009, despite having sub-par qualifications. This incident became known as the University of Illinois clout scandal.\\n\\nAcademic divisions\\nThe university offers more than 150 undergraduate and 100 graduate and professional programs in over 15 academic units, among several online specializations such as Digital Marketing and an online MBA program launched in January 2016. In 2015, the university announced its expansion to include an engineering-based medical program, which would be the first new college created in Urbana-Champaign in 60 years. The university also offers undergraduate students the opportunity for graduation honors. University Honors is an academic distinction awarded to the highest achieving students. To earn the distinction, students must have a cumulative grade point average of a 3.5/4.0 within the academic year of their graduation and rank within the top 3% of their graduating class. Their names are inscribed on a Bronze Tablet that hangs in the Main Library.\\n\\nOnline learning\\nIn addition to the university's Illinois Online platform, in 2015 the university entered into a partnership with the Silicon Valley educational technology company Coursera to offer a series of master's degrees, certifications, and specialization courses, currently including more than 70 joint learning classes. In August 2015, the Master of Business Administration program was launched through the platform. On March 31, 2016, Coursera announced the launch of the Master of Computer Science in Data Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. At the time, the university's computer-science graduate program was ranked fifth in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. On March 29, 2017, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign launched their Master's in Accounting (iMSA) program, now called the Master of Science in Accountancy (iMSA) program. The iMSA program is led through live sessions, headed by UIUC faculty.\\nSimilar to the university's on-campus admission policies, the online master's degrees offered by The University of Illinois through Coursera also has admission requirements. All applicants must hold a bachelor's degree, and have earned a 3.0 GPA or higher in the last two years of study. Additionally, all applicants must prove their proficiency in English.\\nThe University of Illinois also offers online courses in partnership with Coursera, such as Marketing in a Digital World, which focuses on how digital tools like internet, smartphone and 3D printers are changing the marketing landscape.\\n\\nRankings\\nIn the 2021 U.S. News & World Report \\\"America's Best Colleges\\\" report, UIUC's undergraduate program was ranked tied for 47th among national universities and tied for 15th among public universities, with its undergraduate engineering program ranked tied for 6th in the U.S. among schools whose highest degree is a doctorate.\\nWashington Monthly ranked UIUC 18th among 389 national universities in the U.S. for 2020, based on its contribution to the public good as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service. Kiplinger's Personal Finance rated Illinois 12th in its 2019 list of 174 Best Values in Public Colleges, which \\\"measures academic quality, cost and financial aid.\\\"\\nThe Graduate Program in Urban Planning at the College of Fine and Applied Arts was ranked 3rd nationally by Planetizen in 2015. The university was also listed as a \\\"Public Ivy\\\" in The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (2001) by Howard and Matthew Greene. The Princeton Review ranked Illinois 1st in its 2016 list of top party schools.\\nInternationally, UIUC engineering was ranked 13th in the world in 2016 by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the university 38th in 2019; the university was also ranked 48th globally by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in 2020 and 75th in the world by the QS World University Rankings for 2020. The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) has ranked University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the 20th best university in the world for 2019–20.\\nUIUC is also ranked 32nd in the world in Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings for 2018.\\n\\nResearch\\nThe University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is often regarded as a world-leading magnet for engineering and sciences (both applied and basic).\\nAccording to the National Science Foundation, the university spent $625 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 37th in the nation. It is also listed as one of the Top 25 American Research Universities by The Center for Measuring University Performance. Beside annual influx of grants and sponsored projects, the university manages an extensive modern research infrastructure. The university has been a leader in computer based education and hosted the PLATO project, which was a precursor to the internet and resulted in the development of the plasma display. Illinois was a 2nd-generation ARPAnet site in 1971 and was the first institution to license the UNIX operating system from Bell Labs.\\n\\nNational Center for Supercomputing Applications\\nThe university hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which created Mosaic, the first graphical web browser, the Apache HTTP server, and NCSA Telnet. The Parallel@Illinois program hosts several programs in parallel computing, including the Universal Parallel Computing Research Center. The university contracted with Cray to build the National Science Foundation-funded supercomputer Blue Waters. The system also has the largest public online storage system in the world with more than 25 petabytes of usable space. The university celebrated January 12, 1997, as the \\\"birthday\\\" of HAL 9000, the fictional supercomputer from the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey; in both works, HAL credits \\\"Urbana, Illinois\\\" as his place of operational origin.\\n\\nBeckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology\\nThe Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology supports interdisciplinary collaborative research in the broad areas of intelligent systems, neuroscience, molecular science and engineering, and biomedical imaging.\\n\\nCarl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology\\nThe Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology supports research in genomics and related areas of biology.\\n\\nPrairie Research Institute\\nThe Prairie Research Institute is located on campus and is the home of the Illinois Natural History Survey, Illinois State Geological Survey, Illinois State Water Survey, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, and the Illinois State Archeological Survey. Researchers at the Prairie Research Institute are engaged in research in agriculture and forestry, biodiversity and ecosystem health, atmospheric resources, climate and associated natural hazards, cultural resources and history of human settlements, disease and public health, emerging pests, fisheries and wildlife, energy and industrial technology, mineral resources, pollution prevention and mitigation, and water resources. The Illinois Natural History Survey collections include crustaceans, reptiles and amphibians, birds, mammals, algae, fungi, and vascular plants, with the insect collection is among the largest in North America. The Illinois State Geological Survey houses the legislatively mandated Illinois Geological Samples Library, a repository for drill-hole samples in Illinois, as well as paleontological collections. ISAS serves as a repository for a large collection of Illinois archaeological artifacts. One of the major collections is from the Cahokia Mounds.\\n\\nResearch Park\\nLocated in the southwest part of campus, Research Park opened its first building in 2001 and has grown to encompass 13 buildings. Ninety companies have established roots in research park, employing over 1,400 people. Tenants of the Research Park facilities include prominent Fortune 500 companies Capital One, John Deere, State Farm, Caterpillar, and Yahoo, Inc. Companies also employ about 400 total student interns at any given time throughout the year. The complex is also a center for entrepreneurs, and has over 50 startup companies stationed at its EnterpriseWorks Incubator facility.\\nIn 2011, Urbana, Illinois was named number 11 on Popular Mechanics' \\\"14 Best Startup Cities in America\\\" list, in a large part due to the contributions of Research Park's programs. The park has gained recognition from other notable publications, such as inc.com and Forbes magazine. For the 2011 fiscal year, Research Park produced an economic output of $169.5M for the state of Illinois.\\n\\nTechnology Entrepreneur Center\\nThe Technology Entrepreneur Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a permanent center established to provide students with resources for their entrepreneurial ideas. The center offers classes, venture and product competitions, and workshops to introduce students to technology innovation and market adoption. \\nEvents and programs hosted by the TEC include the Cozad New Venture Challenge, Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship Workshop, Illinois I-Corps, and SocialFuse. The campus-wide Cozad New Venture Challenge has been held annually since 2000. Participants are mentored in the phases of venture creation and attend workshops on idea validation, pitching skills, and customer development. In 2019, teams competed for $250,000 in funding. The Silicon Valley Workshop is a week-long workshop, occurring annually in January. Students visit startups and technology companies in the Silicon Valley and network entrepreneurial alumni from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Students are exposed to technology entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. The trip features corporate leaders, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs in various stages of a startup lifecycle. Illinois I-Corps teaches National Science Foundation grantees how to learn to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and gain skills in entrepreneurship through training in customer discovery and guidance from established entrepreneurs.\\nThe program is a collaboration between the Technology Entrepreneur Center and EnterpriseWorks, with participation from the Office of Technology Management and IllinoisVentures. The program consists of three workshops over six weeks, where teams work to validate the market size, value propositions, and customer segments of their innovations.\\nSocialFuse is a recurring pitching and networking event where students can pitch ideas, find teammates, and network.\\n\\nCenter for Plasma-Material Interactions\\nThe Center for Plasma-Material Interactions was established in 2004 by Professor David N. Ruzic to research the complex behavior between ions, electrons, and energetic atoms generated in plasmas and the surfaces of materials. CPMI encompasses fusion plasmas in its research.\\n\\nAccolades\\nIn Bill Gates' February 24, 2004, talk as part of his Five Campus Tour (Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Carnegie-Mellon and Illinois) titled \\\"Software Breakthroughs: Solving the Toughest Problems in Computer Science,\\\" he mentioned Microsoft hires more graduates from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign than from any other university in the world. Alumnus William M. Holt, a senior vice-president of Intel, also mentioned in a campus talk on September 27, 2007, entitled \\\"R&D to Deliver Practical Results: Extending Moore's Law\\\" that Intel hires more PhD graduates from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign than from any other university in the country.\\nIn 2007, the university-hosted research Institute for Condensed Matter Theory (ICMT) was launched, with the director Paul Goldbart and the chief scientist Anthony Leggett. ICMT is currently located at the Engineering Science Building on campus.\\nThe University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), which recognizes excellence in both individual and institutional achievements, has awarded two awards to U of I.\\n\\nDiscoveries and innovation\\nNatural sciences\\nBCS theory – John Bardeen, in collaboration with Leon Cooper and his doctoral student John Robert Schrieffer, proposed the standard theory of superconductivity known as the BCS theory. They shared the Nobel Prize in Physics 1972 for their discovery.\\nSweet corn – John Laughnan produced corn with higher-than-normal levels of sugar while he was a professor at the university.\\n\\nComputer & applied sciences\\nILLIAC I – Illinois Automatic Computer, a pioneering computer built in 1952 by the University of Illinois, was the first computer built and owned entirely by a US educational institution. Lejaren Hiller, in collaboration with Leonard Issacson, programmed the ILLIAC I computer to generate compositional material for his String Quartet No. 4.\\nILLIAC Suite – is a 1957 composition for string quartet which is generally agreed to be the first score composed by an electronic computer.\\nLLVM – compiler infrastructure project (formerly Low Level Virtual Machine). Vikram Adve and Chris Lattner started development as a research assistant and M.Sc. student.\\nMosaic – The first successful consumer web browser was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1993.\\nNAMD - molecular dynamics simulation code pioneered by Klaus Schulten and colleagues in the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.\\nPLATO – Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations was the first generalized computer assisted instruction system. Starting in 1960, it ran on the University of Illinois' ILLIAC I computer. By the late 1970s, it supported several thousand graphics terminals distributed worldwide, running on nearly a dozen different networked mainframe computers. Many modern concepts in multi-user computing were developed on PLATO, including forums, message boards, online testing, e-mail, chat rooms, picture languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multiplayer video games.\\nTouchscreens and Plasma displays – developed by Donald Bitzer in the 1960s.\\nTalkomatic is an online chat system that facilitates real-time text communication among a small group of people. Created by Doug Brown and David R. Woolley in 1973 on the PLATO System.\\nSynchronized Sound-on-film – Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner publicly demonstrated for the first time a motion picture with a soundtrack optically recorded directly onto the film June 9, 1922.\\n\\nCompanies & entrepreneurship\\nUIUC alumni and faculty have founded numerous companies and organizations, some of which are shown below.\\n\\nStudent life\\nStudent body\\nAs of spring 2018, the university had 45,813 students. As of 2015, over 10,000 students were international students, and of them 5,295 were Mainland Chinese. The university also recruits students from over 100 countries among its 32,878 undergraduate students and 10,245 graduate and professional students. The gender breakdown is 55% men, 45% women. UIUC in 2014 enrolled 4,898 students from China, more than any other American university. They comprise the largest group of international students on the campus, followed by South Korea (1,268 in fall 2014) and India (1,167). Graduate enrollment of Chinese students at UIUC has grown from 649 in 2000 to 1,973 in 2014.\\n\\nStudent organizations\\nThe university has over 1,000 active registered student organizations, showcased at the start of each academic year during Illinois's \\\"Quad Day.\\\" Registration and support is provided by the Student Programs & Activities Office, an administrative arm established in pursuit of the larger social, intellectual, and educative goals of the Illini Student Union. The Office's mission is to \\\"enhance ... classroom education,\\\" \\\"meet the needs and desires of the campus community,\\\" and \\\"prepare students to be contributing and humane citizens.\\\" Beyond student organizations, The Daily Illini is a student-run newspaper that has been published for the community of since 1871. The paper is published by Illini Media Company, a not-for-profit which also prints other publications, and operates WPGU 107.1 FM, a student-run commercial radio station. The Varsity Men's Glee Club is an all-male choir at the University of Illinois that was founded in 1886. The Varsity Men's Glee Club is one of the oldest glee clubs in the United States as well as the oldest registered student organization at the University of Illinois. As of 2018, the university also has the largest chapter of Alpha Phi Omega with over 340 active members.\\n\\nGreek life\\nThere are 59 fraternities and 38 sororities on campus. Of the approximately 30,366 undergraduates, 3,463 are members of sororities and 3,674 are members of fraternities. The Greek system at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has a system of self-government. While staff advisors and directors manage certain aspects of the Greek community, most of the day-to-day operations of the Greek community are governed by the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council. A smaller minority of fraternities and sororities fall under the jurisdiction of the Black Greek Council and United Greek Council; the Black Greek Council serves historically black Greek organizations while the United Greek council comprises other multicultural organizations. Many of the fraternity and sorority houses on campus are on the National Register of Historic Places.\\n\\nStudent government\\nU of I has an extensive history of past student governments. Two years after the university opened in 1868, John Milton Gregory and a group of students created a constitution for a student government. Their governance expanded to the entire university in 1873, having a legislative, executive, and judicial branch. For a period of time, this government had the ability to discipline students. In 1883, however, due to a combination of events from Gregory's resignation to student-faculty infighting, the government formally dissolved itself via plebiscite.\\nIt was not until 1934, when the Student Senate, the next university-wide student government, was created. A year before, future U of I Dean of Students, Fred H. Turner and the university's Senate Committee on Student Affairs gave increased power to the Student Council, an organization primarily known for organizing dances. A year after, the Student Council created a constitution and became the Student Senate, under the oversight of the Committee on Student Affairs. This Student Senate would last for 35 years. The Student Senate changed its purpose and name in 1969, when it became the Undergraduate Student Association (UGSA). It ceased being a representational government, becoming a collective bargaining agency instead. It often worked with the Graduate Student Association to work on various projects\\nIn 1967, Bruce A. Morrison and other U of I graduate founded the Graduate Student Association (GSA). GSA would last until 1978, when it merged with the UGSA to form the Champaign-Urbana Student Association (CUSA). CUSA lasted for only two years when it was replaced by the Student Government Association (SGA) in 1980. SGA lasted for 15 years until it became the Illinois Student Government (ISG) in 1995. ISG lasted until 2004.\\nThe current university student government, created in 2004, is the Illinois Student Senate, a combined undergraduate and graduate student senate with 54 voting members. The student senators are elected by college and represent the students in the Urbana-Champaign Senate (which comprises both faculty and students), as well as on a variety of faculty and administrative committees, and are led by an internally elected executive board of a President, External Vice President, Internal Vice President, and Treasurer. As of 2012, the executive board is supported by an executive staff consisting of a Chief of Staff, Clerk of the Senate, Parliamentarian, Director of Communications, Intern Coordinator, and the Historian of the Senate.\\n\\nResidence halls\\nThe university provides housing for undergraduates through 24 residence halls in both Urbana and Champaign. Incoming freshmen are required to live in student housing (campus or certified) their first year on campus. The university also maintains two graduate residence halls, which are restricted to students who are sophomores or above, and three university-owned apartment complexes. Some undergraduates choose to move into apartments or the Greek houses after their first year. There are a number of private dormitories around campus, as well as 15 private, certified residences that partner with the university to offer a variety of different housing options, including ones that are cooperatives, single-gender or religiously affiliated. The university is known for being one of the first universities to provide accommodations for students with disabilities. In 2015, the University of Illinois announced that they would be naming its newest residence hall after Carlos Montezuma also known as Wassaja. Wassaja is the first Native American graduate and is believed to be one of the first Native Americans to receive a medical degree.\\n\\nLibraries and museums\\nAmong universities in North America, only the collections of Harvard are larger. Currently, the University of Illinois' 20+ departmental libraries and divisions hold more than 24 million items, including more than 12 million print volumes. As of 2012, it had also the largest \\\"browsable\\\" university library in the United States, with 5 million volumes directly accessible in stacks in a single location. University of Illinois also has the largest public engineering library (Grainger Engineering Library) in the country. In addition to the main library building, which houses numerous subject-oriented libraries, the Isaac Funk Family Library on the South Quad serves the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences and the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center serves the College of Engineering on the John Bardeen Quad.\\n\\nResidence Hall Library System is one of three in the nation. The Residence Hall Libraries were created in 1948 to serve the educational, recreational, and cultural information needs of first- and second-year undergraduate students residing in the residence halls, and the living-learning communities within the residence halls. The collection also serves University Housing staff as well as the larger campus community. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) is one of the Special collections units within the University Library. The RBML is one of the largest special collections repositories in the United States.\\nThe university has several museums, galleries, and archives which include Krannert Art Museum, Sousa Archives and Center for American Music and Spurlock Museum. Gallery and exhibit locations include Krannert Center for the Performing Arts and at the School of Art and Design.\\nThe Illinois Open Publishing Network (IOPN) is hosted and coordinated by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library, offering publishing services to members of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign community, to disseminate open access scholarly publications.\\n\\nRecreation\\nThe campus has two main recreation facilities, the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) and the Campus Recreation Center – East (CRCE). Originally known as the Intramural Physical Education Building (IMPE) and opened in 1971, IMPE was renovated in 2006 and reopened in August 2008 as the ARC. The renovations expanded the facility, adding 103,433 square feet to the existing structure and costing $54.9 million. This facility is touted by the university as \\\"one of the country's largest on-campus recreation centers.\\\" CRCE was originally known as the Satellite Recreation Center and was opened in 1989. The facility was renovated in 2005 to expand the space and update equipment, officially reopening in March 2005 as CRCE.\\n\\nTransportation\\nThe bus system that operates throughout the campus and community is operated by the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. The MTD receives a student-approved transportation fee from the university, which provides unlimited access for university students, faculty, and staff.\\nDaily Amtrak trains through Illinois Terminal connect Champaign-Urbana with Chicago and Carbondale, Illinois. This includes the corridor service Illini and Saluki and the long-distance City of New Orleans, which provides a direct route to Memphis, Tennessee; Jackson, Mississippi; and New Orleans, Louisiana southbound, in addition to Chicago northbound.\\nWillard Airport, opened in 1954 and is named for former University of Illinois president Arthur Cutts Willard. The airport is located in Savoy. Willard Airport is home to University research projects and the university's Institute of Aviation, along with flights from American Airlines.\\n\\nSecurity\\nThe University of Illinois has a dedicated police department, UIPD, which operates independently from CPD, the department that serves the surrounding Champaign area.\\nOn June 9, 2017, Yingying Zhang, a Chinese international student, was abducted and murdered in a case that made national headlines at the time. The university subsequently announced plans to install additional, high-definition, security cameras across the campus.\\nOn April 18, 2022, Sayed A. Quraishi, a 23-year old man who had recently graduated from the university, assaulted a Jewish student outside of the campus' Hillel building during an anti-Israel protest organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Quraishi was subsequently charged with a hate crime.\\nIn July 2022, the university announced that it was partnering with local businesses to invest $300,000 to combat violent crime in Champaign County.\\nIn September 2022, the City of Champaign transferred responsibility for a large swath of Campustown from CPD (Champaign Police Department) to UIPD, claiming that doing so would reduce response times and improve the quality of service. As part of the jurisdictional reforms, the city agreed to pay a substantial portion of the cost to hire seven new officers to patrol the new coverage area.\\nViolent crime fell sharply in 2022 compared to the year prior, with shootings and homicides declining by 50 and 47 percent, respectively. The city attributed the decrease in crime to improved staffing levels and the installation of automatic license plate readers.\\n\\nAthletics\\nU of I's Division of Intercollegiate Athletics fields teams for ten men's and eleven women's varsity sports. The university participates in the NCAA's Division I. The university's athletic teams are known as the Fighting Illini. The university operates a number of athletic facilities, including Memorial Stadium for football, the State Farm Center for men's and women's basketball, and the Atkins Tennis Center for men's and women's tennis. The men's NCAA basketball team had a dream run in the 2005 season, with Bruce Weber's Fighting Illini tying the record for most victories in a season. Their run ended 37–2 with a loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the national championship game. Illinois is a member of the Big Ten Conference. Notable among a number of songs commonly played and sung at various events such as commencement and convocation, and athletic games are: Illinois Loyalty, the school song; Oskee Wow Wow, the fight song; and Hail to the Orange, the alma mater.\\n\\nOn October 15, 1910, the Illinois football team defeated the University of Chicago Maroons with a score of 3–0 in a game that Illinois claims was the first homecoming game, though several other schools claim to have held the first homecoming as well. On November 10, 2007, the unranked Illinois football team defeated the No. 1 ranked Ohio State football team in Ohio Stadium, the first time that the Illini beat a No. 1 ranked team on the road.\\nThe University of Illinois Ice Arena is home to the university's club college ice hockey team competing at the ACHA Division I level and is also available for recreational use through the Division of Campus Recreation. It was built in 1931 and designed by Chicago architecture firm Holabird and Root, the same firm that designed the University of Illinois Memorial Stadium and Chicago's Soldier Field. It is located on Armory Drive across from the Armory. The structure features four rows of bleacher seating in an elevated balcony that runs the length of the ice rink on either side. These bleachers provide seating for roughly 1,200 fans, with standing room and bench seating available underneath. Because of this set-up the team benches are actually directly underneath the stands.\\nIn 2015, the university began Mandarin Chinese broadcasts of its American football games as a service to its Chinese international students.\\n\\nMascot\\nChief Illiniwek, also referred to as \\\"The Chief\\\", was from 1926 to 2007 the official symbol of the University of Illinois in university intercollegiate athletic programs. The Chief was typically portrayed by a student dressed in Sioux regalia. Several groups protested that the use of a Native American figure and indigenous customs in such a manner was inappropriate and promoted ethnic stereotypes. In August 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association expressed disapproval of the university's use of a \\\"hostile or abusive\\\" image. While initially proposing a consensus approach to the decision about the Chief, the board in 2007 decided that the Chief, its name, image and regalia should be officially retired. Nevertheless, the controversy continues on campus with some students unofficially maintaining the Chief. Complaints continue that indigenous students feel insulted when images of the Chief continue to be present on campus. The effort to resolve the controversy has included the work of a committee, which issued a report of its \\\"critical conversations\\\" that included over 600 participants representing all sides.\\n\\nNotable alumni and faculty\\nNotable University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni include:\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\nTwenty-seven alumni and faculty members of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have won a Pulitzer Prize. As of 2019, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni, faculty, and researchers include 30 Nobel laureates (including 11 alumni). In particular, John Bardeen is the only person to have won two Nobel prizes in physics, having done so in 1956 and 1972 while on faculty at the university. In 2003, two faculty members won Nobel prizes in different disciplines: Paul C. Lauterbur for physiology or medicine, and Anthony Leggett for physics.\\nThe alumni of the university have created companies and products such as Netscape Communications (formerly Mosaic) (Marc Andreessen), AMD (Jerry Sanders), PayPal (Max Levchin), Playboy (Hugh Hefner), National Football League (George Halas), Siebel Systems and C3.ai (Thomas Siebel), Mortal Kombat (Ed Boon), CDW (Michael Krasny), YouTube (Steve Chen and Jawed Karim), THX (Tomlinson Holman), Andreessen Horowitz (Marc Andreessen), Oracle (Larry Ellison and Bob Miner), Lotus (Ray Ozzie), Yelp! (Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons), Safari (Dave Hyatt), Firefox (Joe Hewitt), W. W. Grainger (William Wallace Grainger), Delta Air Lines (C. E. Woolman), Beckman Instruments (Arnold Beckman), BET (Robert L. Johnson) and Tesla Motors (Martin Eberhard).\\n\\nAlumni and faculty have invented the LED and the quantum well laser (Nick Holonyak, B.S. 1950, M.S. 1951, Ph.D. 1954), DSL (John Cioffi, B.S. 1978), JavaScript (Brendan Eich, M.S. 1986), the integrated circuit (Jack Kilby, B.S. 1947), the transistor (John Bardeen, faculty, 1951–1991), the pH meter (Arnold Beckman, B.S. 1922, M.S. 1923), MRI (Paul C. Lauterbur), the plasma screen (Donald Bitzer, B.S. 1955, M.S. 1956, Ph.D. 1960), color plasma display (Larry F. Weber, B.S. 1968 M.S. 1971 Ph.D. 1975), the training methodology called PdEI and the coin counter (James P. Liautaud, B.S. 1963), the statistical algorithm called Gibbs sampling in computer vision and the machine learning technique called random forests (Donald Geman, B.A. 1965), and are responsible for the structural design of such buildings as the Willis Tower, the John Hancock Center, and the Burj Khalifa.\\nMathematician Richard Hamming, known for the Hamming code and Hamming distance, earned a PhD in mathematics from the university's Mathematics Department in 1942. Primetime Emmy Award-winning engineer Alan Bovik (B.S. 1980, M.S. 1982, Ph.D. 1984) invented neuroscience-based video quality measurement tools that pervade television, social media and home cinema. Structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan earned two master's degrees, and a PhD in structural engineering from the university.\\nAlumni have also led several companies, including McDonald's, Goldman Sachs, BP, Kodak, Shell, General Motors, AT&T, and General Electric and others.\\n\\nAlumni have founded many organizations, including the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Project Gutenberg, and have served in a wide variety of government and public interest roles. Rafael Correa, President of The Republic of Ecuador from 2007 to 2017, secured his M.S. and PhD degrees from the university's Economics Department in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Nathan C. Ricker attended U of I and in 1873 was the first person to graduate in the United States with a certificate in architecture. Mary L. Page, the first woman to obtain a degree in architecture, also graduated from U of I. Disability rights activist and co-organizer of the 504 Sit-in, Kitty Cone, attended during the 1960s, but left six hours short of her degree to continue her activism in New York.\\nIn sports, baseball pitcher Ken Holtzman was a two-time All Star major leaguer, and threw two no-hitters in his career. In sports entertainment, David Otunga became a two-time WWE Tag Team Champion.\\nEta Kappa Nu (ΗΚΝ) was founded at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as the national honor society for electrical engineering in 1904. Maurice LeRoy Carr (B.S. 1905) and Edmund B. Wheeler (B.S. 1905) were part of the founding group of ten students and they served as the first and second national presidents of ΗΚΝ. The Eta Kappa Nu organization is now the international honor society for IEEE as the IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-ΗΚΝ). The U of I collegiate chapter is known as the Alpha Chapter of ΗΚΝ. Lowell P. Hager was the head of the Department of Biochemistry from 1969 until 1989 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1995.\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nHoddeson, Lillian. No Boundaries: University of Illinois Vignettes. (University of Illinois Press, 2004; ISBN 9780252072031)\\nJohnson, Jr., Henry C. and Erwin V. Johanningmeier. Teachers for the Prairie: The University of Illinois and the Schools, 1868–1945 (University of Illinois Press, 1972)\\nKanfer, Alaina. Illini Loyalty: The University of Illinois. (University of Illinois Press, 2011; ISBN 9780252035005)\\nScheinman, Muriel. A Guide to Art at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign, Robert Allerton Park, and Chicago (University of Illinois Press, 1995) online\\nSolberg, Winton U. The University of Illinois, 1894-1904: an intellectual and cultural history. (University of Illinois Press, 2000; ISBN 9780252025792) online\\nTate, Lex; Franch, John. An Illini Place - Building the University of Illinois Campus. (University of Illinois Press, 2017; ISBN 9780252041112)\\nWilliamson, Ann Joy. Black Power on Campus - The University of Illinois, 1965-75. (University of Illinois Press, 2003; ISBN 9780252095801) online\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nOfficial website \\nOfficial website of University of Illinois Athletics\\n\\\"Illinois, University of\\\" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.\\n\\\"Illinois, University of\\\" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.\",\n \"title\": \"University_of_Illinois_Urbana-Champaign\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles. Hefner extended the Playboy brand into a world network of Playboy Clubs. He also resided in luxury mansions where Playboy Playmates shared his wild partying life, fueling media interest.\\n\\nEarly life and education\\nHefner was born in Chicago, on April 9, 1926, the first child of Glenn Lucius Hefner (1896–1976), an accountant, and his wife Grace Caroline (Swanson) Hefner (1895–1997) who worked as a teacher. His parents were from Nebraska. He had a younger brother, Keith (1929–2016). His mother was of Swedish ancestry, and his father was German and English.\\nThrough his father's line, Hefner was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford. He described his family as \\\"conservative, Midwestern, [and] Methodist\\\". His mother had wanted him to become a missionary.\\nHe attended Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School, then served from 1944 to 1946 as a United States Army writer for a military newspaper. Hefner graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a double minor in creative writing and art, having earned his degree in two and a half years. After graduation, he took a semester of graduate courses in sociology at Northwestern University, but dropped out soon after.\\n\\nCareer\\nIn January 1952, Hefner left his job as a copywriter for Esquire after he was denied a $5 raise. In 1953, he took out a mortgage loan of $600 and raised $8,000 from 45 investors (including $1,000 from his mother—\\\"not because she believed in the venture,\\\" he told E! in 2006, \\\"but because she believed in her son\\\") to launch Playboy, which was initially going to be called Stag Party. The first issue was published in December 1953 and featured Marilyn Monroe from a 1949 nude calendar shoot she did under a pseudonym. That first issue sold more than 50,000 copies, but Monroe was not paid by Playboy or Hefner for the photos. (Hefner never met Monroe, but he bought the crypt next to hers at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in 1992 for $75,000.)\\nEsquire magazine rejected Charles Beaumont's science fiction story \\\"The Crooked Man\\\" in 1955, so Hefner agreed to publish it in Playboy. The story highlighted straight men being persecuted in a world where homosexuality was the norm. The magazine received angry letters, so Hefner responded, \\\"If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too.\\\" In 1961, Hefner watched Dick Gregory perform at the Herman Roberts Show Bar in Chicago, and he hired Gregory to work at the Chicago Playboy Club. Gregory attributed the launch of his career to that night.\\nHefner promoted a bon vivant lifestyle in his magazine and in the television shows that he hosted Playboy's Penthouse (1959–1960) and Playboy After Dark (1969–1970). He was also the chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, the publishing group which operates the magazine.\\nOn June 4, 1963, Hefner was arrested for promoting obscene literature after he published an issue of Playboy featuring nude shots of Jayne Mansfield in bed with a man present. The case went to trial and resulted in a hung jury.\\nIn the 1960s, Hefner created \\\"private key\\\" clubs that were racially diverse. During the civil rights movement in 1966, Hefner sent Alex Haley to interview American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, much to Rockwell's shock because Haley was black. Rockwell agreed to meet with Haley only after gaining assurance that he was not Jewish, although Rockwell kept a handgun on the table throughout the interview. In Roots: The Next Generations (1979), the interview was recreated with James Earl Jones as Haley and Marlon Brando as Rockwell. Haley had also interviewed Malcolm X in 1963 and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966 for the newly established 1962 \\\"playboy interview\\\".\\n\\nIn 1970, Hefner stated that \\\"militant feminists\\\" are \\\"unalterably opposed to the romantic boy-girl society that Playboy promotes\\\" and ordered an article in his magazine against them.\\nIn his later years, Hefner's star dimmed, but he remained a well-known personality, often appearing in cameo roles. In the 1993 The Simpsons episode \\\"Krusty Gets Kancelled\\\", Hefner voiced himself. In 1999, Hefner financed the Clara Bow documentary Discovering the It Girl. \\\"Nobody has what Clara had,\\\" he said. \\\"She defined an era and made her mark on the nation\\\". Hefner guest-starred as himself in the 2000 Sex and the City episode \\\"Sex and Another City\\\". In 2005, he guest-starred on the HBO shows Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage. He guest-starred as himself in a 2006 episode of Seth Green's Robot Chicken on the late-night programming block Adult Swim. In the 2007 Family Guy episode \\\"Airport '07\\\", he voiced himself. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for television and made several movie appearances as himself. In 2009, he was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance as himself in Miss March. On his official Twitter account, he joked about this nomination: \\\"Maybe I didn't understand the character.\\\"\\nBrigitte Berman's documentary Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel was released on July 30, 2010. He had previously granted full access to documentary filmmaker and television producer Kevin Burns for the A&E Biography special Hugh Hefner: American Playboy in 1996. Hefner and Burns later collaborated on numerous other television projects, most notably on The Girls Next Door, a reality series that ran for six seasons (2005–2009) and 90 episodes. Hefner also made a voice-only appearance as himself in the 2011 film Hop.\\nIn 2012, Hefner announced that his youngest son Cooper would succeed him as the public face of Playboy.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nHefner was known to friends and family simply as \\\"Hef\\\". He married Northwestern University student Mildred (\\\"Millie\\\") Williams in 1949. They had a daughter named Christie (b. 1952) and a son, David (b. 1955). Before the wedding, Mildred confessed that she'd had an affair while he was away in the army. He called the admission \\\"the most devastating moment of my life.\\\" A 2006 E! True Hollywood Story profile of Hefner revealed that Mildred allowed him to have sex with other women, out of guilt for her own infidelity and in the hope that it would preserve their marriage. The couple divorced in 1959.\\nHefner remade himself as a bon vivant and man about town, a lifestyle that he promoted in his magazine and TV shows. He admitted to being \\\"'involved' with maybe eleven out of twelve months' worth of Playmates\\\" during some years. Donna Michelle, Marilyn Cole, Lillian Müller, Shannon Tweed, Barbi Benton, Karen Christy, Sondra Theodore, and Carrie Leigh were a few of his many lovers; Leigh filed a $35 million palimony suit against him. In 1971, he acknowledged that he experimented in bisexuality. Also in 1971, he established a second residence in Los Angeles with the acquisition of Playboy Mansion West, and moved there permanently from Chicago in 1975.\\nOn March 7, 1985, Hefner had a minor stroke at age 58, whereupon he re-evaluated his lifestyle, making several changes. He toned down the wild, all-night parties, and his daughter Christie took over the operation of Playboy's commercial operations in 1988. The following year, he married Playmate of the Year Kimberley Conrad; they were 36 years apart in age. The couple had sons Marston Glenn (b. 1990) and Cooper (b. 1991). The E! True Hollywood Story profile noted that the Playboy Mansion had been transformed into a family-friendly homestead. He and Conrad separated in 1998, after which she moved into the house next door to the mansion. Hefner filed for divorce from Conrad in 2009 after an 11-year separation, citing irreconcilable differences. He stated that he only remained nominally married to her for the sake of their children, and their youngest child had just turned 18. The divorce was finalized in 2010.\\nHefner became known for moving an ever-changing coterie of young women into the Playboy Mansion, including twins Mandy and Sandy Bentley. He dated as many as seven women concurrently. He also dated Brande Roderick, Izabella St. James, Tina Marie Jordan, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson. Madison, Wilkinson, and Marquardt appeared on The Girls Next Door depicting their lives at the Playboy Mansion. In October 2008, all three of them decided to leave the mansion.\\nIn January 2009, Hefner began a relationship with Crystal Harris; she joined the Shannon Twins after his previous \\\"number one girlfriend\\\" Holly Madison had ended their seven-year relationship. On December 24, 2010, he became engaged to Harris, but she broke off their engagement on June 14, 2011, five days before their planned wedding. The July issue of Playboy reached store shelves and customers' homes within days of the wedding date; it featured Harris on the cover, and in a photo spread as well. The headline on the cover read \\\"Introducing America's Princess, Mrs. Crystal Hefner\\\". Hefner and Harris subsequently reconciled and married on December 31, 2012.\\nHefner was very distantly related to the 41st and 43rd presidents of the United States, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, respectively. Hefner's brother Keith died at age 87 on April 8, 2016, one day before Hefner's 90th birthday.\\n\\nPlayboy Mansion\\nIn January 2016, the Playboy Mansion was put on the market for $200 million, on condition that Hugh Hefner would continue to work and live in the mansion. Later that year it was sold to Daren Metropoulos, a principal at private equity firm Metropoulos & Company, for $100 million. Metropoulos planned to reconnect the Playboy Mansion property with a neighboring estate that he purchased in 2009, combining the two for a 7.3 acre (3-hectare) compound as his own private residence.\\nIn May 2017, Eugena Washington was the last Playmate of the Year to be announced by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion.\\n\\nPolitics and philanthropy\\nHefner debated The Playboy Philosophy with William F. Buckley Jr., on Firing Line in Episode 26, recorded on September 12, 1966.\\nThe Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award was created by Christie Hefner \\\"to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in the vital effort to protect and enhance First Amendment rights for Americans.\\\"\\nHe donated and raised money for the Democratic Party. In 2011, he referred to himself as an independent due to dissatisfaction with both the Democratic and Republican parties. Nonetheless, in 2012, he supported Barack Obama's reelection campaign.\\nIn 1978, Hefner helped organize fund-raising efforts that led to the restoration of the Hollywood Sign. He hosted a gala fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion and contributed $27,000 (or 1/9 of the total restoration costs) by purchasing the letter Y in a ceremonial auction.\\nHefner stated in a 2000 interview with Playboy, \\\"It's perfectly clear to me that religion is a myth. It's something we have invented to explain the inexplicable.\\\" Lee Strobel, a Christian author who interviewed Hefner regarding his theological positions, later described Hefner as having a \\\"very minimalistic, deistic view of God.\\\"\\nHefner donated $100,000 to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts to create a course called \\\"Censorship in Cinema\\\", and $2 million to endow a chair for the study of American film. In 2007, the university's audiovisual archive at the Norris Theater received a donation from Hefner and was renamed to the Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive in his honor.\\nBoth through his charitable foundation and individually, Hefner also contributed to charities and other organizations outside the sphere of politics and publishing, throwing fundraiser events for Much Love Animal Rescue as well as Generation Rescue, an anti-vaccinationist campaign organization supported by Jenny McCarthy.\\nOn November 18, 2010, Children of the Night founder and president Dr. Lois Lee presented Hefner with the organization's first-ever Founder's Hero of the Heart Award in appreciation for his unwavering dedication, commitment and generosity.\\nOn April 26, 2010, Hefner donated the last $900,000 sought by a conservation group for a land purchase needed to stop the development of the vista of the Hollywood Sign. Sylvilagus palustris hefneri, an endangered subspecies of marsh rabbit, is named after him in honor of financial support that he provided.\\nThe Barbi Twins, who are among a notable cohort of celebrity Playmates, including Pamela Anderson and Hefner's third wife Crystal Harris, praised the publishing icon for providing centerfolds and extended members of the Playboy family with a platform for activism and advocacy on behalf of animal populations in need.\\nHefner supported legalizing same-sex marriage, calling it \\\"a fight for all our rights. Without it, we will turn back the sexual revolution and return to an earlier, puritanical time.\\\"\\n\\nDeath\\nHefner died at the Playboy Mansion on September 27, 2017, at the age of 91. The cause was sepsis brought on by an E. coli infection.\\nHe is interred at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, in the crypt beside Marilyn Monroe, for which he paid $75,000 in 1992. \\\"Spending eternity next to Marilyn is an opportunity too sweet to pass up,\\\" Hefner had told the Los Angeles Times in 2009.\\n\\nReputation\\nSuzanne Moore wrote in The Guardian that Hefner threatened to file a lawsuit against her for calling him a \\\"pimp\\\". Defending her position, Moore argued that \\\"he was a man who bought and sold women to other men\\\". She further stated that \\\"part of Hefner's business acumen was to make the selling of female flesh respectable and hip, to make soft porn acceptable.\\\" Julie Bindel argued in The Independent that Hefner \\\"caused immeasurable damage by turning porn—and therefore the buying and selling of women's bodies—into a legitimate business.\\\"\\nRobin Abcarian wrote in the Los Angeles Times, quoting Wendy Hamilton, that Hefner \\\"probably did more to mainstream the exploitation of women's bodies than any other figure in American history,\\\" adding that he \\\"managed to convince many women that taking off their clothes for men's pleasure was not just empowering, but a worthy goal in itself.\\\" She further stated that Hefner \\\"embodied the aesthetic notion that images of women—and women themselves—exist to please men.\\\"\\nHefner's former girlfriend Holly Madison said that he \\\"would encourage competition—and body image issues—between his multiple live-in girlfriends. His legacy is full of evidence of the exploitation of women for professional gain.\\\" Ed Stetzer wrote in Christianity Today that Hefner would have the residence systematically cleaned whenever Christie Hefner visited in order \\\"to keep the realities from his own daughter\\\". Stetzer further lamented the consequences of Hefner's role as a \\\"general\\\" of the \\\"sexual revolution\\\":\\n\\nIt's hard to fathom that anyone would have known what this would have turned into. Parents growing up today are fighting to keep their children pure. Spouses are fighting to keep their marriages intact. And many enslaved and trapped in the adult entertainment industry have been figuratively and literally stripped not only of their clothes, but their very value as people made in the image of God. If this does not concern us, what will?\\nA 12-part television documentary series, Secrets of Playboy, debuted on A&E January 24, 2022, in which Hefner's former male and female employees and partners made claims of systematic sexual misconduct and manipulation, recreational and manipulative drug use, peer pressure, sextortion, blackmail, rape, forced and violent anal sex, sexual assault without consent and/or while victims were in a state of drug-induced stupor or unconsciousness, spying, videotaping without consent, and illegal sex with minors by Hefner and his celebrity friends and guests at the Playboy Mansion and other locations. The PLBY group, now publicly owned, distanced itself from Hefner in a statement released shortly before the first episode was broadcast, saying, \\\"Today's Playboy is not Hugh Hefner's Playboy. We trust and validate these women and their stories and we strongly support those individuals who have come forward to share their experiences.\\\"\\nIn January 2024, Hefner's widow Crystal, who previously brushed away criticism, wrote a memoir where she alleged she experienced a hostile environment while at the Playboy Mansion, even claiming that she was \\\"imprisoned\\\" while there.\\n\\nDepictions\\nThe Amazon original series American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story was released in April 2017. It stars Matt Whelan in the title role, along with Emmett Skilton and Chelsie Preston Crayford. The ten episodes are a combination of interviews, archival footage (including moments found in Hefner's vast personal collection), and cinematic re-enactments that cover the launch of the magazine as well as the next six decades of Hefner's personal life and career. The series was filmed in Auckland.\\nIn October 2017, Playboy Enterprises announced that a Hugh Hefner biopic directed by Brett Ratner with the screenplay by Jeff Nathanson was greenlit with Jared Leto rumored to play Hefner. In November 2017, it was indefinitely put on hold following sexual harassment allegations against Ratner, and Leto's representatives stated that reports of him being attached to the film at any point were false.\\n\\nFilmography\\nBooks\\nHefner, Hugh Marston (1963). The Playboy Philosophy. HMH Publishing Company.\\n\\nFurther reading\\nMiller, Russell (1985). Bunny: The Real Story of Playboy. London: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-03-063748-3.\\nSt. James, Izabella (2006). Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion (Reprint (2009) ed.). Philadelphia: Running Press. ISBN 978-0-7624-3230-1.\\nVile, John R.; Hudson, David L.; Schultz, David Andrew (2009). Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. p. 564. ISBN 978-0-87289-311-5.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nHugh M. Hefner Foundation Archived July 5, 2023, at the Wayback Machine\\n\\\"Hef the Politician: Playboy's History in Politics\\\" Archived July 5, 2023, at the Wayback Machine on Playboy.com\\nHugh Hefner at IMDb \\nHugh Hefner on Biography.com Archived November 15, 2017, at the Wayback Machine\\nHugh Hefner at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television\",\n \"title\": \"Hugh_Hefner\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Minyong Kim (Korean: 김민용; sometimes known as Dragon) is an impersonator of Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader of North Korea. His impersonation gained attention when he was an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.\\n\\nImpersonator career\\nKim was born in Seoul to a working class family and studied business at the University of Illinois. He first enrolled at the university in 2009, then went back to South Korea for 25 months to complete mandatory military service in the Korean Air Force. He remained in South Korea to work as a teacher and save money, and when he returned to university classes in spring 2013 studied abroad in China which was cheaper for him. In 2014, his Kim Jong Un Halloween costume went viral on Korean social media.\\nHe decided to capitalize on his resemblance to Kim Jong Un by gaining weight, buying a black Mao suit, and getting a trapezoidal haircut. Kim told USA Today that he got stopped on the University of Illinois campus more than 100 times per day by people who wanted photos. Several weeks later, he told a reporter the number was \\\"200 to 300 times per day, usually like 40 to 50 times per hour.\\\" His reason for impersonating the North Korean leader, he said, is to make people happy.\\nKim does not agree with Kim Jong Un's politics but he shares the supreme leader's interest in the Chicago Bulls. Because of Kim Jong Un's divisiveness, Minyong Kim said his parents feared he would be kidnapped or assassinated. He told the Champaign News-Gazette, \\\"my girlfriend really abhors this... not only hates it, but abhors.\\\"\\nAfter Kim's graduation in late 2015, he began running an agency that prepares South Korean students for school in the United States. His career goal is to expand affordable education options in South Korea.\\n\\nFilm, television, and advertising\\nHis resemblance to Kim Jong Un has earned him roles in movies, commercials, soap operas, and music videos. In April 2015, he and a Barack Obama impersonator named Reggie Brown, who also attended the University of Illinois, appeared in commercial for eNuri, a South Korean online marketplace. In a commercial for an air purifier, he acted like he was creating new weapons to destroy germs in the air. In a 2015 YouTube video made by QPark, Kim walked around New York City in full costume. The video got ten million views in its first two months. In April 2015, Kim appeared on a South Korean talk show to startle North Korean defectors, who were on the show discussing their previous lives under the totalitarian dictatorship.\\n\\nExternal links\\n10 Hours of Walking in NYC as Kim Jong Un, YouTube video.\\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"Minyong_Kim\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"How many years apart did a Kim Jong Un impersonator who was interviewed by USA today, and the man who founded Playboy attend the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"60"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":687,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"687"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Kalkbrenner (German: occupational name for a lime burner) is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:\n\nChristian Kalkbrenner (1755–1806), German bandmaster\nFriedrich Kalkbrenner (1785–1849), German pianist\nFritz Kalkbrenner (born 1981), German musician\nPaul Kalkbrenner (born 1977), German musician\nRyan Kalkbrenner (born 2002), American basketball player","title":"Kalkbrenner"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is\n\nCaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2\nThis reaction can take place at anywhere above 840 °C (1,540 °F), but is generally considered to occur at 900 °C (1,650 °F) (at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 1 atmosphere), but a temperature around 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) (at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 3.8 atmospheres) is usually used to make the reaction proceed quickly. Excessive temperature is avoided because it produces unreactive, \"dead-burned\" lime.\nSlaked lime (calcium hydroxide) can be formed by mixing quicklime with water.\n\nHistory\nPre-pottery Neolithic\nIn plaster, proto-pottery, and mortar\nBecause it is so readily made by heating limestone, lime must have been known from the earliest times, and all the early civilizations used it in building mortars and as a stabilizer in mud renders and floors. According to finds at 'Ain Ghazal in Jordan, Yiftahel in Israel, and Abu Hureyra in Syria dating to 7500–6000 BCE, the earliest use of lime was mostly as a binder on floors and in plaster for coating walls. This use of plaster may in turn have led to the development of proto-pottery, made from lime and ash. In mortar, the oldest binder was mud. According to finds at Catal Hüyük in Turkey, mud was soon followed by clay, and then by lime in the 6th millennium BCE.\n\nLime use in agriculture and coal\nKnowledge of its value in agriculture is also ancient, but agricultural use only became widely possible when the use of coal made it cheap in the coalfields in the late 13th century, and an account of agricultural use was given in 1523. The earliest descriptions of lime kilns differ little from those used for small-scale manufacture a century ago. Because land transportation of minerals like limestone and coal was difficult in the pre-industrial era, they were distributed by sea, and lime was most often manufactured at small coastal ports. Many preserved kilns are still to be seen on quaysides around the coasts of Britain.\n\nTypes of kilns\nPermanent lime kilns fall into two broad categories: \"flare kilns\" also known as \"intermittent\" or \"periodic\" kilns; and \"draw kilns\" also known as \"perpetual\" or \"running\" kilns. In a flare kiln, a bottom layer of coal was built up and the kiln above filled solely with chalk. The fire was alight for several days, and then the entire kiln was emptied of the lime.\nIn a draw kiln, usually a stone structure, the chalk or limestone was layered with wood, coal or coke and lit. As it burnt through, lime was extracted from the bottom of the kiln, through the draw hole. Further layers of stone and fuel were added to the top.\n\nEarly kilns\nThe common feature of early kilns was an egg-cup shaped burning chamber, with an air inlet at the base (the \"eye\"), constructed of brick. Limestone was crushed (often by hand) to fairly uniform 20–60 mm (1–2+1⁄2 in) lumps – fine stone was rejected. Successive dome-shaped layers of limestone and wood or coal were built up in the kiln on grate bars across the eye. When loading was complete, the kiln was kindled at the bottom, and the fire gradually spread upwards through the charge. When burnt through, the lime was cooled and raked out through the base. Fine ash dropped out and was rejected with the \"riddlings\".\nOnly lump stone could be used, because the charge needed to \"breathe\" during firing. This also limited the size of kilns and explains why kilns were all much the same size. Above a certain diameter, the half-burned charge would be likely to collapse under its own weight, extinguishing the fire. So kilns always made 25–30 tonnes of lime in a batch. Typically the kiln took a day to load, three days to fire, two days to cool and a day to unload, so a one-week turnaround was normal. The degree of burning was controlled by trial and error from batch to batch by varying the amount of fuel used. Because there were large temperature differences between the center of the charge and the material close to the wall, a mixture of underburned (i.e. high loss on ignition), well-burned and dead-burned lime was normally produced. Typical fuel efficiency was low, with 0.5 tonnes or more of coal being used per tonne of finished lime (15 MJ/kg).\n\nIndustrial scale production\nLime production was sometimes carried out on an industrial scale. One example at Annery in North Devon, England, near Great Torrington, was made up of three kilns grouped together in an 'L' shape and was situated beside the Torrington canal and the River Torridge to bring in the limestone and coal, and to transport away the calcined lime in the days before properly metalled roads existed.\nSets of seven kilns were common. A loading gang and an unloading gang would work the kilns in rotation through the week.\nA rarely used kiln was known as a \"lazy kiln\".\n\nAustralia\nIn the late 19th and early 20th centuries the town of Waratah in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia produced a majority of the quicklime used in the city of Melbourne as well as around other parts of Gippsland. The town, now called Walkerville, was set on an isolated part of the Victorian coastline and exported the lime by ship. When this became unprofitable in 1926 the kilns were shut down. The present-day area, though having no town amenities as such, markets itself as a tourist destination. The ruins of the lime kilns can still be seen today.\n\n\tLime burning kilns in Australia\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nA lime kiln also existed in Wool Bay, South Australia.\n\n\tLime kiln, Wool Bay\n\nUkraine\nUnited Kingdom\nThe large kiln at Crindledykes near Haydon Bridge, Northumbria, was one of more than 300 in the county. It was unique to the area in having four draw arches to a single pot. As production was cut back, the two side arches were blocked up, but were restored in 1989 by English Heritage.\nThe development of the national rail network made the local small-scale kilns increasingly unprofitable, and they gradually died out through the 19th century. They were replaced by larger industrial plants. At the same time, new uses for lime in the chemical, steel and sugar industries led to large-scale plants. These also saw the development of more efficient kilns.\nA lime kiln erected at Dudley, West Midlands (formerly Worcestershire) in 1842 survives as part of the Black Country Living Museum which opened in 1976, although the kilns were last used during the 1920s. It is now among the last in a region which was dominated by coalmining and limestone mining for generations until the 1960s.\n\n\tLimeburning kilns in Great Britain\n\nOther countries\nModern kilns\nShaft kilns\nThe theoretical heat (the standard enthalpy) of reaction required to make high-calcium lime is around 3.15 MJ per kg of lime, so the batch kilns were only around 20% efficient. The key to development in efficiency was the invention of continuous kilns, avoiding the wasteful heat-up and cool-down cycles of the batch kilns. The first were simple shaft kilns, similar in construction to blast furnaces. These are counter-current shaft kilns. Modern variants include regenerative and annular kilns. Output is usually in the range 100–500 tonnes per day.\n\nCounter-current shaft kilns\nThe fuel is injected part-way up the shaft, producing maximum temperature at this point. The fresh feed fed in at the top is first dried then heated to 800 °C, where de-carbonation begins, and proceeds progressively faster as the temperature rises. Below the burner, the hot lime transfers heat to, and is cooled by, the combustion air. A mechanical grate withdraws the lime at the bottom. A fan draws the gases through the kiln, and the level in the kiln is kept constant by adding feed through an airlock. As with batch kilns, only large, graded stone can be used, in order to ensure uniform gas-flows through the charge. The degree of burning can be adjusted by changing the rate of withdrawal of lime. Heat consumption as low as 4 MJ/kg is possible, but 4.5 to 5 MJ/kg is more typical. Due to temperature peak at the burners up to 1200 °C in a shaft kiln conditions are ideal to produce medium and hard burned lime.\n\nRegenerative kilns\nThese typically consist of a pair of shafts, operated alternately. First, when shaft A is the \"primary\" and B the \"secondary\" shaft, the combustion air is added from the top of shaft A, while fuel somewhat below via burner lances. The flame is top-bottom. The hot gases pass downward, cross to shaft B via the so-called \"channel\" and pass upward to exhaust of shaft B. At same time in both shafts cooling air is added from the bottom to cool the lime and to make exhaust of gases via the bottom of the kiln impossible via maintaining always a positive pressure. The combustion air and cooling air leave the kiln jointly via exhaust on top of shaft B, preheating the stone. The direction of flow is reversed periodically (typically 5–10 times per hour) shaft A and B changing the role of \"primary\" and \"secondary\" shaft. The kiln has three zones: preheating zone on the top, burning zone in the middle, and cooling zone close to the bottom. The cycling produces a long burning zone of constant, relatively low temperature (around 950 °C) that is ideal for the production of high quality soft burned reactive lime. With exhaust gas temperatures as low as 120 °C and lime temperature at kiln outlet in 80 °C range the heat loss of the regenerative kiln is minimal, fuel consumption is as low as 3.6 MJ/kg. Due to these features the regenerative kilns are today mainstream technology under conditions of substantial fuel costs. Regenerative kilns are built with 150 to 800 t/day output, 300 to 450 being typical.\n\nAnnular kilns\nThese contain a concentric internal cylinder. This gathers pre-heated air from the cooling zone, which is then used to pressurize the middle annular zone of the kiln. Air spreading outward from the pressurized zone causes counter-current flow upwards, and co-current flow downwards. This again produces a long, relatively cool calcining zone. Fuel consumption is in 4 to 4.5 MJ/kg range and the lime is typically medium burned.\n\nRotary kilns\nRotary kilns started to be used for lime manufacture at the start of the 20th century and now account for a large proportion of new installations if energy costs are less important. The early use of simple rotary kilns had the advantages that a much wider range of limestone size could be used, from fines upwards, and undesirable elements such as sulfur can be removed. On the other hand, fuel consumption was relatively high because of poor heat exchange compared with shaft kilns, leading to excessive heat loss in exhaust gases. Old fashioned \"long\" rotary kilns operate at 7 to 10 MJ/kg. Modern installations partially overcome this disadvantage by adding a preheater, which has the same good solids/gas contact as a shaft kiln, but fuel consumption is still somewhat higher, typically in range of 4.5 to 6 MJ/kg. In the design shown, a circle of shafts (typically 8–15) is arranged around the kiln riser duct. Hot limestone is discharged from the shafts in sequence, by the action of a hydraulic \"pusher plate\". Kilns of 1000 tonnes per day output are typical. The rotary kiln is the most flexible of any lime kilns able to produce soft, medium, or hard burned as well as dead-burned lime or dolime.\n\nGas cleaning\nAll the above kiln designs produce exhaust gas that carries an appreciable amount of dust. Lime dust is particularly corrosive. Equipment is installed to trap this dust, typically in the form of electrostatic precipitators or bag filters. The dust usually contains a high concentration of elements such as alkali metals, halogens and sulfur.\n\nCarbon dioxide emissions\nThe lime industry is a significant carbon dioxide emitter. The manufacture of one tonne of calcium oxide involves decomposing calcium carbonate, with the formation of 785 kg of CO2 in some applications, such as when used as mortar; this CO2 is later re-absorbed as the mortar goes off.\nIf the heat supplied to form the lime (3.75 MJ/kg in an efficient kiln) is obtained by burning fossil fuel it will release CO2: in the case of coal fuel 295 kg/t; in the case of natural gas fuel 206 kg/t. The electric power consumption of an efficient plant is around 20 kWh per tonne of lime. This additional input is the equivalent of around 20 kg CO2 per ton if the electricity is coal-generated. Thus, total emission may be around 1 tonne of CO2 for every tonne of lime even in efficient industrial plants, but is typically 1.3 t/t. However, if the source of heat energy used in its manufacture is a fully renewable power source, such as solar, wind, hydro or even nuclear; there may be no net emission of CO2 from the calcination process. Less energy is required in production per weight than portland cement, primarily because a lower temperature is required.\n\nOther emissions\nSee also\nList of lime kilns\nList of lime kilns in the United States\nLimepit\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nAn authoritative discussion of lime and its uses (US context)\nLime Kilns at Newport Pembrokeshire West Wales\nMuspratt's mid-19th century technical description of lime-burning and cement\nThe Lime Physical-Chemical Process\nLime Kiln Digital Collection at Sonoma State University Library\nWainmans Double Arched Lime Kiln – Made Grade II Listed Building – 1 February 2005\nDetails & Image: https://web.archive.org/web/20140522012536/http://cowlingweb.co.uk/local_history/history/wainmanslimekiln.asp","title":"Lime_kiln"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Calcium oxide (formula: CaO), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term lime connotes calcium-containing inorganic compounds, in which carbonates, oxides, and hydroxides of calcium, silicon, magnesium, aluminium, and iron predominate. By contrast, quicklime specifically applies to the single compound calcium oxide. Calcium oxide that survives processing without reacting in building products, such as cement, is called free lime.\nQuicklime is relatively inexpensive. Both it and the chemical derivative calcium hydroxide (of which quicklime is the base anhydride) are important commodity chemicals.\n\nPreparation\nCalcium oxide is usually made by the thermal decomposition of materials, such as limestone or seashells, that contain calcium carbonate (CaCO3; mineral calcite) in a lime kiln. This is accomplished by heating the material to above 825 °C (1,517 °F), a process called calcination or lime-burning, to liberate a molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2), leaving quicklime behind. This is also one of the few chemical reactions known in prehistoric times.\n\nCaCO3(s) → CaO(s) + CO2(g)\nThe quicklime is not stable and, when cooled, will spontaneously react with CO2 from the air until, after enough time, it will be completely converted back to calcium carbonate unless slaked with water to set as lime plaster or lime mortar.\nAnnual worldwide production of quicklime is around 283 million tonnes. China is by far the world's largest producer, with a total of around 170 million tonnes per year. The United States is the next largest, with around 20 million tonnes per year.\nApproximately 1.8 t of limestone is required per 1.0 t of quicklime. Quicklime has a high affinity for water and is a more efficient desiccant than silica gel. The reaction of quicklime with water is associated with an increase in volume by a factor of at least 2.5.\nHydroxyapatite's free CaO content rises with increased calcination temperatures and longer times. It also pinpoints particular temperature cutoffs and durations that impact the production of CaO, offering information on how calcination parameters impact the composition of the material.\n\nUses\nThe major use of quicklime is in the basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS) process. Its usage varies from about 30 to 50 kilograms (65–110 lb) per ton of steel. The quicklime neutralizes the acidic oxides, SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3, to produce a basic molten slag.\nGround quicklime is used in the production of aerated concrete such as blocks with densities of ca. 0.6–1.0 g/cm3 (9.8–16.4 g/cu in).\nQuicklime and hydrated lime can considerably increase the load carrying capacity of clay-containing soils. They do this by reacting with finely divided silica and alumina to produce calcium silicates and aluminates, which possess cementing properties.\nSmall quantities of quicklime are used in other processes; e.g., the production of glass, calcium aluminate cement, and organic chemicals.\nHeat: Quicklime releases thermal energy by the formation of the hydrate, calcium hydroxide, by the following equation:\nCaO (s) + H2O (l) ⇌ Ca(OH)2 (aq) (ΔHr = −63.7 kJ/mol of CaO)\nAs it hydrates, an exothermic reaction results and the solid puffs up. The hydrate can be reconverted to quicklime by removing the water by heating it to redness to reverse the hydration reaction. One litre of water combines with approximately 3.1 kilograms (6.8 lb) of quicklime to give calcium hydroxide plus 3.54 MJ of energy. This process can be used to provide a convenient portable source of heat, as for on-the-spot food warming in a self-heating can, cooking, and heating water without open flames. Several companies sell cooking kits using this heating method.\nIt is known as a food additive to the FAO as an acidity regulator, a flour treatment agent and as a leavener. It has E number E529.\nLight: When quicklime is heated to 2,400 °C (4,350 °F), it emits an intense glow. This form of illumination is known as a limelight, and was used broadly in theatrical productions before the invention of electric lighting.\nCement: Calcium oxide is a key ingredient for the process of making cement.\nAs a cheap and widely available alkali. About 50% of the total quicklime production is converted to calcium hydroxide before use. Both quick- and hydrated lime are used in the treatment of drinking water.\nPetroleum industry: Water detection pastes contain a mix of calcium oxide and phenolphthalein. Should this paste come into contact with water in a fuel storage tank, the CaO reacts with the water to form calcium hydroxide. Calcium hydroxide has a high enough pH to turn the phenolphthalein a vivid purplish-pink color, thus indicating the presence of water.\nPaper: Calcium oxide is used to regenerate sodium hydroxide from sodium carbonate in the chemical recovery at Kraft pulp mills.\nPlaster: There is archeological evidence that Pre-Pottery Neolithic B humans used limestone-based plaster for flooring and other uses. Such Lime-ash floor remained in use until the late nineteenth century.\nChemical or power production: Solid sprays or slurries of calcium oxide can be used to remove sulfur dioxide from exhaust streams in a process called flue-gas desulfurization.\nCarbon capture and storage: Calcium oxide can be used to capture carbon dioxide from flue gases in a process called calcium looping.\nMining: Compressed lime cartridges exploit the exothermic properties of quicklime to break rock. A shot hole is drilled into the rock in the usual way and a sealed cartridge of quicklime is placed within and tamped. A quantity of water is then injected into the cartridge and the resulting release of steam, together with the greater volume of the residual hydrated solid, breaks the rock apart. The method does not work if the rock is particularly hard.\nDisposal of corpses: Historically, it was mistakenly believed that quicklime was efficacious in accelerating the decomposition of corpses. The application of quicklime can, in fact, promote preservation. Quicklime can aid in eradicating the stench of decomposition, which may have led people to the erroneous conclusion.\nIt has been determined that the durability of ancient Roman concrete is attributed in part to the use of quicklime as an ingredient. Combined with hot mixing, the quicklime creates macro-sized lime clasts with a characteristically brittle nano-particle architecture. As cracks form in the concrete, they preferentially pass through the structurally weaker lime clasts, fracturing them. When water enters these cracks it creates a calcium-saturated solution which can recrystallize as calcium carbonate, quickly filling the crack. \nThe thermochemical heat storage mechanism is greatly impacted by the sintering of CaO and CaCO3. It demonstrates that the storage materials become less reactive and denser at increasing temperatures. It also pinpoints particular sintering processes and variables influencing the efficiency of these materials in heat storage.\n\nWeapon\nIn 80 BC, the Roman general Sertorius deployed choking clouds of caustic lime powder to defeat the Characitani of Hispania, who had taken refuge in inaccessible caves. A similar dust was used in China to quell an armed peasant revolt in 178 AD, when lime chariots equipped with bellows blew limestone powder into the crowds.\nQuicklime is also thought to have been a component of Greek fire. Upon contact with water, quicklime would increase its temperature above 150 °C (302 °F) and ignite the fuel.\nDavid Hume, in his History of England, recounts that early in the reign of Henry III, the English Navy destroyed an invading French fleet by blinding the enemy fleet with quicklime. Quicklime may have been used in medieval naval warfare – up to the use of \"lime-mortars\" to throw it at the enemy ships.\n\nSubstitutes\nLimestone is a substitute for lime in many applications, which include agriculture, fluxing, and sulfur removal. Limestone, which contains less reactive material, is slower to react and may have other disadvantages compared with lime, depending on the application; however, limestone is considerably less expensive than lime. Calcined gypsum is an alternative material in industrial plasters and mortars. Cement, cement kiln dust, fly ash, and lime kiln dust are potential substitutes for some construction uses of lime. Magnesium hydroxide is a substitute for lime in pH control, and magnesium oxide is a substitute for dolomitic lime as a flux in steelmaking.\n\nSafety\nBecause of vigorous reaction of quicklime with water, quicklime causes severe irritation when inhaled or placed in contact with moist skin or eyes. Inhalation may cause coughing, sneezing, and labored breathing. It may then evolve into burns with perforation of the nasal septum, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Although quicklime is not considered a fire hazard, its reaction with water can release enough heat to ignite combustible materials.\n\nMineral\nCalcium oxide is also a separate mineral species (with the unit formula CaO), named 'Lime'. It has an isometric crystal system, and can form a solid solution series with monteponite. The crystal is brittle, pyrometamorphic, and is unstable in moist air, quickly turning into portlandite (Ca(OH)2).\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nLime Statistics & Information from the United States Geological Survey\nFactors Affecting the Quality of Quicklime\nAmerican Scientist (discussion of 14C dating of mortar)\nChemical of the Week – Lime\nMaterial Safety Data Sheet\nCDC – NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards","title":"Calcium_oxide"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Kalkbrenner (German: occupational name for a lime burner) is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:\\n\\nChristian Kalkbrenner (1755–1806), German bandmaster\\nFriedrich Kalkbrenner (1785–1849), German pianist\\nFritz Kalkbrenner (born 1981), German musician\\nPaul Kalkbrenner (born 1977), German musician\\nRyan Kalkbrenner (born 2002), American basketball player\",\n \"title\": \"Kalkbrenner\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is\\n\\nCaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2\\nThis reaction can take place at anywhere above 840 °C (1,540 °F), but is generally considered to occur at 900 °C (1,650 °F) (at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 1 atmosphere), but a temperature around 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) (at which temperature the partial pressure of CO2 is 3.8 atmospheres) is usually used to make the reaction proceed quickly. Excessive temperature is avoided because it produces unreactive, \\\"dead-burned\\\" lime.\\nSlaked lime (calcium hydroxide) can be formed by mixing quicklime with water.\\n\\nHistory\\nPre-pottery Neolithic\\nIn plaster, proto-pottery, and mortar\\nBecause it is so readily made by heating limestone, lime must have been known from the earliest times, and all the early civilizations used it in building mortars and as a stabilizer in mud renders and floors. According to finds at 'Ain Ghazal in Jordan, Yiftahel in Israel, and Abu Hureyra in Syria dating to 7500–6000 BCE, the earliest use of lime was mostly as a binder on floors and in plaster for coating walls. This use of plaster may in turn have led to the development of proto-pottery, made from lime and ash. In mortar, the oldest binder was mud. According to finds at Catal Hüyük in Turkey, mud was soon followed by clay, and then by lime in the 6th millennium BCE.\\n\\nLime use in agriculture and coal\\nKnowledge of its value in agriculture is also ancient, but agricultural use only became widely possible when the use of coal made it cheap in the coalfields in the late 13th century, and an account of agricultural use was given in 1523. The earliest descriptions of lime kilns differ little from those used for small-scale manufacture a century ago. Because land transportation of minerals like limestone and coal was difficult in the pre-industrial era, they were distributed by sea, and lime was most often manufactured at small coastal ports. Many preserved kilns are still to be seen on quaysides around the coasts of Britain.\\n\\nTypes of kilns\\nPermanent lime kilns fall into two broad categories: \\\"flare kilns\\\" also known as \\\"intermittent\\\" or \\\"periodic\\\" kilns; and \\\"draw kilns\\\" also known as \\\"perpetual\\\" or \\\"running\\\" kilns. In a flare kiln, a bottom layer of coal was built up and the kiln above filled solely with chalk. The fire was alight for several days, and then the entire kiln was emptied of the lime.\\nIn a draw kiln, usually a stone structure, the chalk or limestone was layered with wood, coal or coke and lit. As it burnt through, lime was extracted from the bottom of the kiln, through the draw hole. Further layers of stone and fuel were added to the top.\\n\\nEarly kilns\\nThe common feature of early kilns was an egg-cup shaped burning chamber, with an air inlet at the base (the \\\"eye\\\"), constructed of brick. Limestone was crushed (often by hand) to fairly uniform 20–60 mm (1–2+1⁄2 in) lumps – fine stone was rejected. Successive dome-shaped layers of limestone and wood or coal were built up in the kiln on grate bars across the eye. When loading was complete, the kiln was kindled at the bottom, and the fire gradually spread upwards through the charge. When burnt through, the lime was cooled and raked out through the base. Fine ash dropped out and was rejected with the \\\"riddlings\\\".\\nOnly lump stone could be used, because the charge needed to \\\"breathe\\\" during firing. This also limited the size of kilns and explains why kilns were all much the same size. Above a certain diameter, the half-burned charge would be likely to collapse under its own weight, extinguishing the fire. So kilns always made 25–30 tonnes of lime in a batch. Typically the kiln took a day to load, three days to fire, two days to cool and a day to unload, so a one-week turnaround was normal. The degree of burning was controlled by trial and error from batch to batch by varying the amount of fuel used. Because there were large temperature differences between the center of the charge and the material close to the wall, a mixture of underburned (i.e. high loss on ignition), well-burned and dead-burned lime was normally produced. Typical fuel efficiency was low, with 0.5 tonnes or more of coal being used per tonne of finished lime (15 MJ/kg).\\n\\nIndustrial scale production\\nLime production was sometimes carried out on an industrial scale. One example at Annery in North Devon, England, near Great Torrington, was made up of three kilns grouped together in an 'L' shape and was situated beside the Torrington canal and the River Torridge to bring in the limestone and coal, and to transport away the calcined lime in the days before properly metalled roads existed.\\nSets of seven kilns were common. A loading gang and an unloading gang would work the kilns in rotation through the week.\\nA rarely used kiln was known as a \\\"lazy kiln\\\".\\n\\nAustralia\\nIn the late 19th and early 20th centuries the town of Waratah in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia produced a majority of the quicklime used in the city of Melbourne as well as around other parts of Gippsland. The town, now called Walkerville, was set on an isolated part of the Victorian coastline and exported the lime by ship. When this became unprofitable in 1926 the kilns were shut down. The present-day area, though having no town amenities as such, markets itself as a tourist destination. The ruins of the lime kilns can still be seen today.\\n\\n\\tLime burning kilns in Australia\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\nA lime kiln also existed in Wool Bay, South Australia.\\n\\n\\tLime kiln, Wool Bay\\n\\nUkraine\\nUnited Kingdom\\nThe large kiln at Crindledykes near Haydon Bridge, Northumbria, was one of more than 300 in the county. It was unique to the area in having four draw arches to a single pot. As production was cut back, the two side arches were blocked up, but were restored in 1989 by English Heritage.\\nThe development of the national rail network made the local small-scale kilns increasingly unprofitable, and they gradually died out through the 19th century. They were replaced by larger industrial plants. At the same time, new uses for lime in the chemical, steel and sugar industries led to large-scale plants. These also saw the development of more efficient kilns.\\nA lime kiln erected at Dudley, West Midlands (formerly Worcestershire) in 1842 survives as part of the Black Country Living Museum which opened in 1976, although the kilns were last used during the 1920s. It is now among the last in a region which was dominated by coalmining and limestone mining for generations until the 1960s.\\n\\n\\tLimeburning kilns in Great Britain\\n\\nOther countries\\nModern kilns\\nShaft kilns\\nThe theoretical heat (the standard enthalpy) of reaction required to make high-calcium lime is around 3.15 MJ per kg of lime, so the batch kilns were only around 20% efficient. The key to development in efficiency was the invention of continuous kilns, avoiding the wasteful heat-up and cool-down cycles of the batch kilns. The first were simple shaft kilns, similar in construction to blast furnaces. These are counter-current shaft kilns. Modern variants include regenerative and annular kilns. Output is usually in the range 100–500 tonnes per day.\\n\\nCounter-current shaft kilns\\nThe fuel is injected part-way up the shaft, producing maximum temperature at this point. The fresh feed fed in at the top is first dried then heated to 800 °C, where de-carbonation begins, and proceeds progressively faster as the temperature rises. Below the burner, the hot lime transfers heat to, and is cooled by, the combustion air. A mechanical grate withdraws the lime at the bottom. A fan draws the gases through the kiln, and the level in the kiln is kept constant by adding feed through an airlock. As with batch kilns, only large, graded stone can be used, in order to ensure uniform gas-flows through the charge. The degree of burning can be adjusted by changing the rate of withdrawal of lime. Heat consumption as low as 4 MJ/kg is possible, but 4.5 to 5 MJ/kg is more typical. Due to temperature peak at the burners up to 1200 °C in a shaft kiln conditions are ideal to produce medium and hard burned lime.\\n\\nRegenerative kilns\\nThese typically consist of a pair of shafts, operated alternately. First, when shaft A is the \\\"primary\\\" and B the \\\"secondary\\\" shaft, the combustion air is added from the top of shaft A, while fuel somewhat below via burner lances. The flame is top-bottom. The hot gases pass downward, cross to shaft B via the so-called \\\"channel\\\" and pass upward to exhaust of shaft B. At same time in both shafts cooling air is added from the bottom to cool the lime and to make exhaust of gases via the bottom of the kiln impossible via maintaining always a positive pressure. The combustion air and cooling air leave the kiln jointly via exhaust on top of shaft B, preheating the stone. The direction of flow is reversed periodically (typically 5–10 times per hour) shaft A and B changing the role of \\\"primary\\\" and \\\"secondary\\\" shaft. The kiln has three zones: preheating zone on the top, burning zone in the middle, and cooling zone close to the bottom. The cycling produces a long burning zone of constant, relatively low temperature (around 950 °C) that is ideal for the production of high quality soft burned reactive lime. With exhaust gas temperatures as low as 120 °C and lime temperature at kiln outlet in 80 °C range the heat loss of the regenerative kiln is minimal, fuel consumption is as low as 3.6 MJ/kg. Due to these features the regenerative kilns are today mainstream technology under conditions of substantial fuel costs. Regenerative kilns are built with 150 to 800 t/day output, 300 to 450 being typical.\\n\\nAnnular kilns\\nThese contain a concentric internal cylinder. This gathers pre-heated air from the cooling zone, which is then used to pressurize the middle annular zone of the kiln. Air spreading outward from the pressurized zone causes counter-current flow upwards, and co-current flow downwards. This again produces a long, relatively cool calcining zone. Fuel consumption is in 4 to 4.5 MJ/kg range and the lime is typically medium burned.\\n\\nRotary kilns\\nRotary kilns started to be used for lime manufacture at the start of the 20th century and now account for a large proportion of new installations if energy costs are less important. The early use of simple rotary kilns had the advantages that a much wider range of limestone size could be used, from fines upwards, and undesirable elements such as sulfur can be removed. On the other hand, fuel consumption was relatively high because of poor heat exchange compared with shaft kilns, leading to excessive heat loss in exhaust gases. Old fashioned \\\"long\\\" rotary kilns operate at 7 to 10 MJ/kg. Modern installations partially overcome this disadvantage by adding a preheater, which has the same good solids/gas contact as a shaft kiln, but fuel consumption is still somewhat higher, typically in range of 4.5 to 6 MJ/kg. In the design shown, a circle of shafts (typically 8–15) is arranged around the kiln riser duct. Hot limestone is discharged from the shafts in sequence, by the action of a hydraulic \\\"pusher plate\\\". Kilns of 1000 tonnes per day output are typical. The rotary kiln is the most flexible of any lime kilns able to produce soft, medium, or hard burned as well as dead-burned lime or dolime.\\n\\nGas cleaning\\nAll the above kiln designs produce exhaust gas that carries an appreciable amount of dust. Lime dust is particularly corrosive. Equipment is installed to trap this dust, typically in the form of electrostatic precipitators or bag filters. The dust usually contains a high concentration of elements such as alkali metals, halogens and sulfur.\\n\\nCarbon dioxide emissions\\nThe lime industry is a significant carbon dioxide emitter. The manufacture of one tonne of calcium oxide involves decomposing calcium carbonate, with the formation of 785 kg of CO2 in some applications, such as when used as mortar; this CO2 is later re-absorbed as the mortar goes off.\\nIf the heat supplied to form the lime (3.75 MJ/kg in an efficient kiln) is obtained by burning fossil fuel it will release CO2: in the case of coal fuel 295 kg/t; in the case of natural gas fuel 206 kg/t. The electric power consumption of an efficient plant is around 20 kWh per tonne of lime. This additional input is the equivalent of around 20 kg CO2 per ton if the electricity is coal-generated. Thus, total emission may be around 1 tonne of CO2 for every tonne of lime even in efficient industrial plants, but is typically 1.3 t/t. However, if the source of heat energy used in its manufacture is a fully renewable power source, such as solar, wind, hydro or even nuclear; there may be no net emission of CO2 from the calcination process. Less energy is required in production per weight than portland cement, primarily because a lower temperature is required.\\n\\nOther emissions\\nSee also\\nList of lime kilns\\nList of lime kilns in the United States\\nLimepit\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nAn authoritative discussion of lime and its uses (US context)\\nLime Kilns at Newport Pembrokeshire West Wales\\nMuspratt's mid-19th century technical description of lime-burning and cement\\nThe Lime Physical-Chemical Process\\nLime Kiln Digital Collection at Sonoma State University Library\\nWainmans Double Arched Lime Kiln – Made Grade II Listed Building – 1 February 2005\\nDetails & Image: https://web.archive.org/web/20140522012536/http://cowlingweb.co.uk/local_history/history/wainmanslimekiln.asp\",\n \"title\": \"Lime_kiln\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Calcium oxide (formula: CaO), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term lime connotes calcium-containing inorganic compounds, in which carbonates, oxides, and hydroxides of calcium, silicon, magnesium, aluminium, and iron predominate. By contrast, quicklime specifically applies to the single compound calcium oxide. Calcium oxide that survives processing without reacting in building products, such as cement, is called free lime.\\nQuicklime is relatively inexpensive. Both it and the chemical derivative calcium hydroxide (of which quicklime is the base anhydride) are important commodity chemicals.\\n\\nPreparation\\nCalcium oxide is usually made by the thermal decomposition of materials, such as limestone or seashells, that contain calcium carbonate (CaCO3; mineral calcite) in a lime kiln. This is accomplished by heating the material to above 825 °C (1,517 °F), a process called calcination or lime-burning, to liberate a molecule of carbon dioxide (CO2), leaving quicklime behind. This is also one of the few chemical reactions known in prehistoric times.\\n\\nCaCO3(s) → CaO(s) + CO2(g)\\nThe quicklime is not stable and, when cooled, will spontaneously react with CO2 from the air until, after enough time, it will be completely converted back to calcium carbonate unless slaked with water to set as lime plaster or lime mortar.\\nAnnual worldwide production of quicklime is around 283 million tonnes. China is by far the world's largest producer, with a total of around 170 million tonnes per year. The United States is the next largest, with around 20 million tonnes per year.\\nApproximately 1.8 t of limestone is required per 1.0 t of quicklime. Quicklime has a high affinity for water and is a more efficient desiccant than silica gel. The reaction of quicklime with water is associated with an increase in volume by a factor of at least 2.5.\\nHydroxyapatite's free CaO content rises with increased calcination temperatures and longer times. It also pinpoints particular temperature cutoffs and durations that impact the production of CaO, offering information on how calcination parameters impact the composition of the material.\\n\\nUses\\nThe major use of quicklime is in the basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS) process. Its usage varies from about 30 to 50 kilograms (65–110 lb) per ton of steel. The quicklime neutralizes the acidic oxides, SiO2, Al2O3, and Fe2O3, to produce a basic molten slag.\\nGround quicklime is used in the production of aerated concrete such as blocks with densities of ca. 0.6–1.0 g/cm3 (9.8–16.4 g/cu in).\\nQuicklime and hydrated lime can considerably increase the load carrying capacity of clay-containing soils. They do this by reacting with finely divided silica and alumina to produce calcium silicates and aluminates, which possess cementing properties.\\nSmall quantities of quicklime are used in other processes; e.g., the production of glass, calcium aluminate cement, and organic chemicals.\\nHeat: Quicklime releases thermal energy by the formation of the hydrate, calcium hydroxide, by the following equation:\\nCaO (s) + H2O (l) ⇌ Ca(OH)2 (aq) (ΔHr = −63.7 kJ/mol of CaO)\\nAs it hydrates, an exothermic reaction results and the solid puffs up. The hydrate can be reconverted to quicklime by removing the water by heating it to redness to reverse the hydration reaction. One litre of water combines with approximately 3.1 kilograms (6.8 lb) of quicklime to give calcium hydroxide plus 3.54 MJ of energy. This process can be used to provide a convenient portable source of heat, as for on-the-spot food warming in a self-heating can, cooking, and heating water without open flames. Several companies sell cooking kits using this heating method.\\nIt is known as a food additive to the FAO as an acidity regulator, a flour treatment agent and as a leavener. It has E number E529.\\nLight: When quicklime is heated to 2,400 °C (4,350 °F), it emits an intense glow. This form of illumination is known as a limelight, and was used broadly in theatrical productions before the invention of electric lighting.\\nCement: Calcium oxide is a key ingredient for the process of making cement.\\nAs a cheap and widely available alkali. About 50% of the total quicklime production is converted to calcium hydroxide before use. Both quick- and hydrated lime are used in the treatment of drinking water.\\nPetroleum industry: Water detection pastes contain a mix of calcium oxide and phenolphthalein. Should this paste come into contact with water in a fuel storage tank, the CaO reacts with the water to form calcium hydroxide. Calcium hydroxide has a high enough pH to turn the phenolphthalein a vivid purplish-pink color, thus indicating the presence of water.\\nPaper: Calcium oxide is used to regenerate sodium hydroxide from sodium carbonate in the chemical recovery at Kraft pulp mills.\\nPlaster: There is archeological evidence that Pre-Pottery Neolithic B humans used limestone-based plaster for flooring and other uses. Such Lime-ash floor remained in use until the late nineteenth century.\\nChemical or power production: Solid sprays or slurries of calcium oxide can be used to remove sulfur dioxide from exhaust streams in a process called flue-gas desulfurization.\\nCarbon capture and storage: Calcium oxide can be used to capture carbon dioxide from flue gases in a process called calcium looping.\\nMining: Compressed lime cartridges exploit the exothermic properties of quicklime to break rock. A shot hole is drilled into the rock in the usual way and a sealed cartridge of quicklime is placed within and tamped. A quantity of water is then injected into the cartridge and the resulting release of steam, together with the greater volume of the residual hydrated solid, breaks the rock apart. The method does not work if the rock is particularly hard.\\nDisposal of corpses: Historically, it was mistakenly believed that quicklime was efficacious in accelerating the decomposition of corpses. The application of quicklime can, in fact, promote preservation. Quicklime can aid in eradicating the stench of decomposition, which may have led people to the erroneous conclusion.\\nIt has been determined that the durability of ancient Roman concrete is attributed in part to the use of quicklime as an ingredient. Combined with hot mixing, the quicklime creates macro-sized lime clasts with a characteristically brittle nano-particle architecture. As cracks form in the concrete, they preferentially pass through the structurally weaker lime clasts, fracturing them. When water enters these cracks it creates a calcium-saturated solution which can recrystallize as calcium carbonate, quickly filling the crack. \\nThe thermochemical heat storage mechanism is greatly impacted by the sintering of CaO and CaCO3. It demonstrates that the storage materials become less reactive and denser at increasing temperatures. It also pinpoints particular sintering processes and variables influencing the efficiency of these materials in heat storage.\\n\\nWeapon\\nIn 80 BC, the Roman general Sertorius deployed choking clouds of caustic lime powder to defeat the Characitani of Hispania, who had taken refuge in inaccessible caves. A similar dust was used in China to quell an armed peasant revolt in 178 AD, when lime chariots equipped with bellows blew limestone powder into the crowds.\\nQuicklime is also thought to have been a component of Greek fire. Upon contact with water, quicklime would increase its temperature above 150 °C (302 °F) and ignite the fuel.\\nDavid Hume, in his History of England, recounts that early in the reign of Henry III, the English Navy destroyed an invading French fleet by blinding the enemy fleet with quicklime. Quicklime may have been used in medieval naval warfare – up to the use of \\\"lime-mortars\\\" to throw it at the enemy ships.\\n\\nSubstitutes\\nLimestone is a substitute for lime in many applications, which include agriculture, fluxing, and sulfur removal. Limestone, which contains less reactive material, is slower to react and may have other disadvantages compared with lime, depending on the application; however, limestone is considerably less expensive than lime. Calcined gypsum is an alternative material in industrial plasters and mortars. Cement, cement kiln dust, fly ash, and lime kiln dust are potential substitutes for some construction uses of lime. Magnesium hydroxide is a substitute for lime in pH control, and magnesium oxide is a substitute for dolomitic lime as a flux in steelmaking.\\n\\nSafety\\nBecause of vigorous reaction of quicklime with water, quicklime causes severe irritation when inhaled or placed in contact with moist skin or eyes. Inhalation may cause coughing, sneezing, and labored breathing. It may then evolve into burns with perforation of the nasal septum, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Although quicklime is not considered a fire hazard, its reaction with water can release enough heat to ignite combustible materials.\\n\\nMineral\\nCalcium oxide is also a separate mineral species (with the unit formula CaO), named 'Lime'. It has an isometric crystal system, and can form a solid solution series with monteponite. The crystal is brittle, pyrometamorphic, and is unstable in moist air, quickly turning into portlandite (Ca(OH)2).\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nLime Statistics & Information from the United States Geological Survey\\nFactors Affecting the Quality of Quicklime\\nAmerican Scientist (discussion of 14C dating of mortar)\\nChemical of the Week – Lime\\nMaterial Safety Data Sheet\\nCDC – NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards\",\n \"title\": \"Calcium_oxide\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"In 2024, assuming that their family has been in the same line of work since they took a surname, what is the major use of the product they make if their last name is Kalkbrenner?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Making steel."},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":688,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"688"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Rahul Ligma is a fictional fired Twitter employee, a character played by one of a pair of amateur improvisational actors that pranked multiple major media outlets on October 28, 2022. Ligma, the fictional character's surname, is a reference to the Ligma joke. The spontaneous and intentionally transparent hoax was revealed the same day, after the initial news coverage triggered debate among real Twitter employees about whether or not expected mass layoffs had already started. The Rahul Ligma character next appeared in early November as a recently unemployed FTX employee in the Bahamas. On November 15, Elon Musk, the incoming CEO of Twitter, facetiously offered Ligma and his compatriot their (fictional) old jobs back, and posted a photograph taken with them at Twitter headquarters. Although at least one journalist had publicly apologized for their failure to fact check before reporting the news, several notable media outlets were still oblivious to the running joke, and reported the duo's firing and rehiring as actual news. In social media, the follow-up stunt was widely criticized for lack of sensitivity to actual Twitter employees who had lost their jobs. On November 23, news reports surfaced once again, this time reporting that the actor playing Daniel Johnson had in fact been hired by Twitter for the first time.\n\nBackground\nOn October 28, 2022, many members of the press were present outside Twitter's San Francisco headquarters on the first day that Elon Musk gained control of the social media company. It had been previously reported that mass layoffs were expected in the coming weeks and months. That day, two individuals identifying as \"Rahul Ligma\" and \"Daniel Johnson\" left Twitter's building carrying large cardboard boxes, pretending to be two recently fired employees departing with their belongings. Neither had ever worked for Twitter, but the inventor of the Ligma character regularly exercised in a gymnasium in the same building, and he \"thought it would be really funny\" if he and a friend \"walked out with a [cardboard] box and they fell for it.\"\n\nThe prank\nRahul Ligma, in character, acted dismayed about his firing, telling a group of reporters his concerns about the \"future of their democracy... the future of celebrity conservatorship\" (a Britney Spears reference) and lamenting that \"this wouldn't have happened under Michelle Obama\", while holding up a copy of the former first lady's autobiography. Claiming to be a Tesla owner and a software engineer with Twitter for the past three years, he also identified himself as \"a big fan of clean energy, climate change, even free speech too.\"\n\"Daniel Johnson\", also part of the fictional team of fired data engineers, said he had to leave the interview to \"touch base with my husband and wife\" using a version of the \"My wife's son\" meme.\nAlthough no \"Rahul Ligma\" exists in Twitter's Slack or email system, nor shows up LinkedIn as an employee, multiple news networks reported the fictional names along with statements, photographs, and video of the pranksters as being of actual ex-employees of Twitter. California State Senator Melissa Melendez tweeted at the time, \"This is too funny. Two guys posing as laid-off Twitter employees. They said their names were Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson. Not one reporter thought that was odd. They just ran with the story.\"\nCNBC technology reporter Deirdre Bosa tweeted, \"It's happening. The entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them. They are visibly shaken. Daniel tells us he owns a Tesla and doesn't know how he will make payments.\" The San Francisco ABC News affiliate reported that one \"was terminated during a Zoom meeting\". Based on the visual of the fake employees carrying boxes, two Bloomberg journalists wrote that mass layoffs were already underway at Twitter, but actually it was only top executives that had lost their jobs. Reuters was also among the major media companies fooled by the hoax.\n\nReactions\nAmong Twitter employees, the initial news reports launched a debate about whether or not layoffs had already begun. Later in the day on October 28, Twitter CEO Elon Musk, aware of the joke, continued the crude puns by tweeting about the firing that \"Ligma Johnson had it coming\", along with eggplant and water splash emojis.\nThe Times of India called the Ligma–Johnson hoax \"perfectly-timed\" and \"one of the greatest pranks on the internet.\"\nBlake Shuster wrote for USA Today that the journalists involved were \"duped by real-life trolls\" and \"all it would've taken was 30 seconds to stop and actually do their jobs to avoid the whole news-cycle\". He criticized the journalists for not bothering to search for \"Daniel Johnson\" and \"Rahul Ligma\" before publishing their stories, and remarked, \"it's probably not great that during a time of immense and worrisome change at one of the largest tech platforms...all we're left with is BOFA reporting.\"\nOn October 31, 2022, CNBC's Bosa apologized and told The Daily Beast, \"They got me\" and \"I didn't do enough to confirm who they were\". But NBC, as of December 2022, still had not corrected its October 28 coverage that, \"some Twitter employees appeared to have been let go\".\nThe Rahul Ligma character resurfaced a few weeks later, apparently having relocated along with his \"husband and wife\" to the Bahamas to work for the cryptocurrency platform FTX. But when the company suddenly faced financial collapse, on November 11, 2022, he found himself unemployed once again. Again on video with a cardboard box, this time on a sandy beach, Ligma commented, \"It's really tough, this is my second job in a month\", adding, \"Web2 chewed me up and spit me out, I just really thought Web3 was gonna be different.\"\n\nThe fictional rehiring\nOn November 15, 2022, Musk changed course and apologized for \"firing these geniuses\", jokingly saying it was \"truly one of [my] biggest mistakes\" and offered them their (fictional) jobs back. Calling their October media stunt \"one of the best trolls ever\", Musk publicized a photograph taken with himself along with \"Ligma & Johnson\" at Twitter headquarters. Meanwhile, Newsweek reported that \"there was widespread criticism of Musk for joking about firings when his employees were losing their jobs in the shake-up\", noting that initial reactions were divided among those who thought the prank was \"disrespectful\" and \"cruel to the real employees who were fired\", and those who thought that the joke was \"top-notch\".\nOn November 16, 2022, the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak reported the comic duo's fictional rehiring as an actual news story, continuing to fall for the prank. In a 37-second video, the broadcaster announced, \"After the large scale layoff, Elon is realizing his mistake. He is now calling back fired employees and has shared an image with two who have returned.\" The following day, the Indonesian news website VOI also published the photograph in an article with the caption \"Rahul Ligma, Elon Musk, and Daniel Johnson, are back as a team\".\nIn the November 17, 2022 edition of Rising, co-host Briahna Joy Gray said that the rehiring proved Musk \"actually needs these employees to work for him\" and that \"the employees didn't look so happy in that photograph\" to be back, having been \"fired—prematurely\".\n\nAftermath\nOn November 23, 2022, The Daily Beast reported that Daniel Francis, the actor who played Daniel Johnson in the hoax, had just been hired by Twitter as a software developer, citing a Business Insider article. \nIn a December 2022 article for TechCrunch reflecting on the absurd nature of tech industry news over the past year, Amanda Silberling commented that because \"a herd of reporters did not get the joke\" about Rahul Ligma, she had to explain the \"ligma\" meme on four different podcasts.\nAlso in December 2022, Ligma announced his presidential run in 2024 \"to fight for the rights of laid off workers, polygamists, and men who wear gym shorts outside in November.\"\n\nSee also\nLigma joke\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nAFP News Agency interview excerpt of Ligma & Johnson on YouTube\nAssociated Press archive interview of Ligma & Johnson on YouTube\nArchive of Ligma-Johnson 2024 presidential campaign website","title":"Rahul_Ligma"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Elon Reeve Musk (; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and investor known for his key roles in the space company SpaceX and the automotive company Tesla, Inc. Other involvements include ownership of X Corp., the company that operates the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), and his role in the founding of the Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink, and OpenAI. He is one of the wealthiest individuals in the world; as of August 2024 Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$247 billion.\nMusk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to Maye (née Haldeman), a model, and Errol Musk, a businessman and engineer. Musk briefly attended the University of Pretoria before immigrating to Canada at the age of 18, acquiring citizenship through his Canadian-born mother. Two years later he matriculated at Queen's University at Kingston in Canada. Musk later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania and received bachelor's degrees in economics and physics. He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University, but dropped out after two days and, with his brother Kimbal, co-founded the online city guide software company Zip2. The startup was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999. That same year Musk co-founded X.com, a direct bank. X.com merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal. In October 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion. Using $100 million of the money he made from the sale of PayPal, Musk founded SpaceX, a spaceflight services company, in 2002. \nIn 2004, Musk was an early investor who provided most of the initial financing in the electric-vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (later Tesla, Inc.), assuming the position of the company's chairman. He later became the product architect and, in 2008, the CEO. In 2006, Musk helped create SolarCity, a solar energy company that was acquired by Tesla in 2016 and became Tesla Energy. In 2013, he proposed a hyperloop high-speed vactrain transportation system. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company. The following year Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company developing brain–computer interfaces, and The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company. In 2018 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Musk, alleging that he had falsely announced that he had secured funding for a private takeover of Tesla. To settle the case Musk stepped down as the chairman of Tesla and paid a $20 million fine. In 2022, he acquired Twitter for $44 billion, merged the company into the newly-created X Corp. and rebranded the service as X the following year. In March 2023, Musk founded xAI, an artificial-intelligence company.\nMusk has expressed views that have made him a polarizing figure. He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including COVID-19 misinformation, promoting right-wing conspiracy theories, and \"endorsing an antisemitic theory\"; he later apologized for the last of these. His ownership of Twitter has been controversial because of the layoffs of large numbers of employees, an increase in hate speech, misinformation and disinformation posts on the website, and changes to website features, including Twitter Blue verification.\n\nEarly life and education\nChildhood and family\nElon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa's administrative capital. He is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His mother, Maye (née Haldeman), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in South Africa. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and property developer, who partly owned a rental lodge at the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. Elon has a younger brother, Kimbal, and a younger sister, Tosca. Elon has four paternal half-siblings.\nThe family was wealthy during Elon's youth. Despite both Musk and Errol previously stating that Errol was a part owner of a Zambian emerald mine, in 2023, Errol recounted that the deal he made was to receive \"a portion of the emeralds produced at three small mines.\" Errol was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party and has said that his children shared their father's dislike of apartheid.\nElon's maternal grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman, was an American-born Canadian who took his family on record-breaking journeys to Africa and Australia in a single-engine Bellanca airplane; Haldeman died when Elon was still a toddler. \nElon has recounted trips to a wilderness school (\"veldskool\") that he described as a \"paramilitary Lord of the Flies\" where \"bullying was a virtue\" and children were encouraged to fight over rations.\nAfter his parents divorced in 1980, Elon chose to live primarily with his father. Elon later regretted his decision and became estranged from his father. Elon attended Bryanston High School. In one incident, after an altercation with a fellow pupil, Elon was thrown down concrete steps and beaten severely by the boy and his friends, leading to him being hospitalized for his injuries. Elon described his father berating him after he was discharged from the hospital, saying \"I had to stand for an hour as he yelled at me and called me an idiot and told me that I was just worthless\". Errol denied berating Elon but claimed \"The boy had just lost his father to suicide and Elon had called him stupid. Elon had a tendency to call people stupid. How could I possibly blame that child?\" After the incident, Elon was enrolled in private school.\nElon was an enthusiastic reader of books, later attributing his success in part to having read The Lord of the Rings, the Foundation series, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At age ten, he developed an interest in computing and video games, teaching himself how to program from the VIC-20 user manual. At age twelve, Elon sold his BASIC-based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500.\n\nEducation\nMusk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, Bryanston High School, and then Pretoria Boys High School, where he graduated. Musk was a good but not exceptional student, earning a 61 in Afrikaans and a B on his senior math certification. Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother, knowing that it would be easier to immigrate to the United States this way. While waiting for his application to be processed, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months.\nMusk arrived in Canada in June 1989, connected with a second cousin in Saskatchewan, and worked odd jobs including at a farm and a lumber mill. In 1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.\nTwo years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, where he earned two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in physics, and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the university's Wharton School. Although Musk has said that he earned the degrees in 1995, the University of Pennsylvania did not award them until 1997. He reportedly hosted large, ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition, and wrote a business plan for an electronic book-scanning service similar to Google Books.\nIn 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley: one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which investigated electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage, and another at Palo Alto–based startup Rocket Science Games. In 1995, he was accepted to a graduate program in materials science at Stanford University, but did not enroll. Musk decided to join the Internet boom, applying for a job at Netscape, to which he reportedly never received a response.\n\nBusiness career\nElon Musk has started a number of businesses since 1995, with initial business success and liquidity gained from sales of equity in one business providing the capital for him to start subsequent business enterprises. Musk is widely considered a serial entrepreneur. By the 2020s, several Musk businesses had formed strategic partnerships with some employees playing roles simultaneously in more than one of Musk's companies.\n\nZip2\nIn 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Global Link Information Network, later renamed to Zip2. The company developed an Internet city guide with maps, directions, and yellow pages, and marketed it to newspapers. They worked at a small rented office in Palo Alto, with Musk coding the website every night. Musk and his brother's immigration statuses during this period was described by Musk as a \"gray area\". Eventually, Zip2 obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. The brothers persuaded the board of directors to abandon a merger with CitySearch; however, Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted. Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999, and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share.\n\nX.com and PayPal\nIn March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company with $12 million of the money he made from the Compaq acquisition. X.com was one of the first online banks that was federally insured, and over 200,000 customers joined in its initial months of operation.\nMusk's friends expressed skepticism about the naming of the online bank, fearing it might have been mistaken for a pornographic site. Musk brushed off their concerns, emphasizing that the name was meant to be straightforward, memorable, and easy to type. Additionally, he was fond of the email addresses derived from it, such as \"e@x.com\". Even though Musk founded the company, investors regarded him as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year.\nIn 2000, X.com merged with the online bank Confinity to avoid competition, as the latter's money-transfer service PayPal was more popular than X.com's service. Musk then returned as CEO of the merged company. His preference for Microsoft- over Unix-based software caused a rift among the company's employees, and eventually led Confinity co-founder Peter Thiel to resign. With the company suffering from compounding technological issues and the lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000. Under Thiel, the company focused on the money-transfer service and was renamed PayPal in 2001.\nIn 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk—PayPal's largest shareholder with 11.7% of shares—received $176 million. In 2017, more than 15 years later, Musk purchased the X.com domain from PayPal for its \"sentimental value\". In 2022, Musk discussed a goal of creating \"X, the everything app\".\n\nSpaceX\nIn early 2001, Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars. In October of the same year, he traveled to Moscow, Russia with Jim Cantrell and Adeo Ressi to buy refurbished intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the greenhouse payloads into space. He met with the companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras; however, Musk was seen as a novice and the group returned to the United States without an agreement to purchase Russian launch services. In February 2002, the group returned to Russia to look for three ICBMs. They had another meeting with Kosmotras and were offered one rocket for $8 million, which Musk rejected. He instead decided to start a company that could build affordable rockets. With $100 million of his own money, Musk founded SpaceX in May 2002 and became the company's CEO and chief engineer.\nSpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006. Though the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit, it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA. After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk and his companies to go bankrupt, SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008. Later that year, SpaceX received a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract from NASA for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement. In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft.\n\nWorking towards its goal of reusable rockets, in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 on a land platform. Later landings were achieved on autonomous spaceport drone ships, an ocean-based recovery platform. In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy; the inaugural mission carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload. Since 2019, SpaceX has been developing Starship, a fully-reusable, super-heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to replace the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy. In 2020, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight, the Demo-2, becoming the first private company to place astronauts into orbit and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS. In 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX an $843 million contract to deorbit the ISS at the end of its lifespan.\n\nStarlink\nIn 2015, SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide satellite Internet access, with the first two prototype satellites launched in February 2018. A second set of test satellites, and the first large deployment of a piece of the constellation, occurred in May 2019, when the first 60 operational satellites were launched. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in 2020 to be $10 billion. Some critics, including the International Astronomical Union, have alleged that Starlink blocks the view of the sky and poses a collision threat to spacecraft.\nDuring the March 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Musk sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine to provide Internet access and communication. In October 2022, Musk stated that about 20,000 satellite terminals had been donated to Ukraine, together with free data transfer subscriptions, which cost SpaceX $80 million. After asking the United States Department of Defense to pay for further units and future subscriptions on behalf of Ukraine, Musk publicly stated that SpaceX would continue to provide Starlink to Ukraine for free, at a yearly cost to itself of $400 million. At the same time, Musk refused to block Russian state media on Starlink, declaring himself \"a free speech absolutist\".\nIn September 2023, Ukraine asked for the activation of Starlink satellites over Crimea to attack Russian naval vessels located at the port Sevastopol; Musk denied the request, citing concerns that Russia would respond with a nuclear attack.\n\nTesla\nTesla, Inc., originally Tesla Motors, was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $6.35 million, became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations.\nFollowing a series of escalating conflicts in 2007, and the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Eberhard was ousted from the firm. Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008. A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others. As of 2019, Musk was the longest-tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally. In 2021, Musk nominally changed his title to \"Technoking\" while retaining his position as CEO.\n\nTesla began delivery of the Roadster, an electric sports car, in 2008. With sales of about 2,500 vehicles, it was the first serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan in 2012. A crossover, the Model X was launched in 2015. A mass-market sedan, the Model 3, was released in 2017. In 2020, the Model 3 became the all-time bestselling plug-in electric car worldwide, and in June 2021 it became the first electric car to sell 1 million units globally. A fifth vehicle, the Model Y crossover, was launched in 2020, and in December 2023, became the best-selling vehicle of any kind, as well as the all-time best-selling electric car. The Cybertruck, an all-electric pickup truck, was unveiled in 2019, and delivered in November 2023. Under Musk, Tesla has also constructed multiple lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle factories, named Gigafactories.\nSince its initial public offering in 2010, Tesla stock has risen significantly; it became the most valuable carmaker in summer 2020, and it entered the S&P 500 later that year. In October 2021, it reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion, the sixth company in U.S. history to do so. In November 2021, Musk proposed on Twitter to sell 10% of his Tesla stock, since \"much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance\". After more than 3.5 million Twitter accounts supported the sale, Musk sold $6.9 billion of Tesla stock within a week, and a total of $16.4 billion by year end, reaching the 10% target. In February 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that both Musk and his brother Kimbal were under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for possible insider trading related to the sale. In 2022, Musk unveiled Optimus, a robot being developed by Tesla. In June 2023, Musk met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York City, stating he was interested in investing in India \"as soon as humanly possible\".\n\nSEC and shareholder lawsuits regarding tweets\nIn 2018, Musk was sued by the SEC for a tweet stating that funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private. The lawsuit characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies. Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations. As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $20 million each, and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman but was able to remain as CEO. Shareholders filed a lawsuit over the tweet, and in February 2023, a jury found Musk and Tesla not liable. Musk has stated in interviews that he does not regret posting the tweet that triggered the SEC investigation.\nIn 2019, Musk stated in a tweet that Tesla would build half a million cars that year. The SEC reacted by asking a court to hold him in contempt for violating the terms of the 2018 settlement agreement. A joint agreement between Musk and the SEC eventually clarified the previous agreement details, including a list of topics about which Musk needed preclearance. In 2020, a judge blocked a lawsuit that claimed a tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price (\"too high imo\") violated the agreement. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-released records showed that the SEC concluded Musk had subsequently violated the agreement twice by tweeting regarding \"Tesla's solar roof production volumes and its stock price\".\n\nSolarCity and Tesla Energy\nMusk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. In 2014, Musk promoted the idea of SolarCity building an advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017. It operated as a joint venture with Panasonic until early 2020.\nTesla acquired SolarCity for $2 billion in 2016 and merged it with its battery unit to create Tesla Energy. The deal's announcement resulted in a more than 10% drop in Tesla's stock price; at the time, SolarCity was facing liquidity issues. Multiple shareholder groups filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla's directors, stating that the purchase of SolarCity was done solely to benefit Musk and came at the expense of Tesla and its shareholders. Tesla directors settled the lawsuit in January 2020, leaving Musk the sole remaining defendant. Two years later, the court ruled in Musk's favor.\n\nNeuralink\nIn 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup company, with an investment of $100 million. Neuralink aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI) by creating devices that are embedded in the brain. Such technology could enhance memory or allow the devices to communicate with software. The company also hopes to develop devices with which to treat neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and spinal cord injuries.\nIn 2019, Musk announced work on a device akin to a sewing machine that could embed threads into a human brain. In an October 2019 paper that detailed some of Neuralink's research, Musk was listed as the sole author, which rankled Neuralink researchers. At a 2020 live demonstration, Musk described one of their early devices as \"a Fitbit in your skull\" that could soon cure paralysis, deafness, blindness, and other disabilities. Many neuroscientists and publications criticized these claims, with MIT Technology Review describing them as \"highly speculative\" and \"neuroscience theater\". During the demonstration, Musk revealed a pig with a Neuralink implant that tracked neural activity related to smell. In 2022, Neuralink announced that clinical trials would begin by the end of the year.\nNeuralink has conducted further animal testing on macaque monkeys at the University of California, Davis' Primate Research Center. In 2021, the company released a video in which a Macaque played the video game Pong via a Neuralink implant. The company's animal trials—which have caused the deaths of some monkeys—have led to claims of animal cruelty. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has alleged that Neuralink's animal trials have violated the Animal Welfare Act. Employees have complained that pressure from Musk to accelerate development has led to botched experiments and unnecessary animal deaths. In 2022, a federal probe was launched into possible animal welfare violations by Neuralink. In September 2023, the Food and Drug Administration approved Neuralink to initiate human trials, and it plans to conduct a six-year study.\n\nThe Boring Company\nIn 2017, Musk founded The Boring Company to construct tunnels, and revealed plans for specialized, underground, high-occupancy vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) and thus circumvent above-ground traffic in major cities. Early in 2017, the company began discussions with regulatory bodies and initiated construction of a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 50-foot (15 m) long, and 15-foot (4.6 m) deep \"test trench\" on the premises of SpaceX's offices, as that required no permits. The Los Angeles tunnel, less than two miles (3.2 km) in length, debuted to journalists in 2018. It used Tesla Model Xs and was reported to be a rough ride while traveling at suboptimal speeds.\nTwo tunnel projects announced in 2018, in Chicago and West Los Angeles, have been canceled. However, a tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2021. Local officials have approved further expansions of the tunnel system.\n\nTwitter / X\nMusk expressed interest in buying Twitter as early as 2017, and had questioned the platform's commitment to freedom of speech. Additionally, his ex-wife Talulah Riley had urged him to buy Twitter to stop the \"woke-ism\". In January 2022, Musk started purchasing Twitter shares, reaching a 9.2% stake by April, making him the largest shareholder. When this was publicly disclosed, Twitter shares experienced the largest intraday price surge since the company's 2013 initial public offering. On April 4, Musk agreed to a deal that would appoint him to Twitter's board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company. However, on April 13, Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter, launching a takeover bid to buy 100% of Twitter's stock at $54.20 per share. In response, Twitter's board adopted a \"poison pill\" shareholder rights plan to make it more expensive for any single investor to own more than 15% of the company without board approval. Nevertheless, by the end of the month Musk had successfully concluded his bid for approximately $44 billion. This included about $12.5 billion in loans against his Tesla stock and $21 billion in equity financing.\nTesla's stock market value sank by over $100 billion the next day in reaction to the deal. He subsequently tweeted to his 86 million followers criticism of Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde's policies, which led to some of them engaging in sexist and racist harassment against her. Exactly a month after announcing the takeover, Musk stated that the deal was \"on hold\" following a report that 5% of Twitter's daily active users were spam accounts. Although he initially affirmed his commitment to the acquisition, he sent notification of his termination of the deal in July; Twitter's Board of Directors responded that they were committed to holding him to the transaction. On July 12, 2022, Twitter formally sued Musk in the Chancery Court of Delaware for breaching a legally binding agreement to purchase Twitter. In October 2022, Musk reversed again, offering to purchase Twitter at $54.20 per share. The acquisition was officially completed on October 27.\nImmediately after the acquisition, Musk fired several top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal; Musk became the CEO instead. He instituted a $7.99 monthly subscription for a \"blue check\", and laid off a significant portion of the company's staff. Musk lessened content moderation, including reinstating accounts like The Babylon Bee. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted that Twitter has verified numerous extremists; hate speech also increased on the platform after his takeover.\nIn December 2022, Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in the leadup to the 2020 presidential election. Comments on these internal documents by journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger and others were posted on Twitter as the Twitter Files. Musk and many Republicans alleged the documents showed the FBI had engaged in government censorship by ordering Twitter to suppress a New York Post story about the laptop. Upon review of the documents, Taibbi said he had found no evidence to support the allegation, and Twitter attorneys denied the allegation in a subsequent court filing. The United States House Committee on the Judiciary held hearings on the Twitter Files on March 9, 2023, at which Taibbi and Shellenberger gave testimony.\nIn late 2022, Musk promised to step down as CEO after a Twitter poll posted by Musk found that a majority of users wanted him to do so. Five months later, Musk stepped down from CEO and placed former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino in the position and transitioned his role to executive chairman and chief technology officer.\nOn November 20, 2023, in a U.S. District Court in Texas, X filed a lawsuit stating that Media Matters \"manipulated\" the X platform, in that it used accounts that followed major brands, and \"resorted to endlessly scrolling and refreshing\" the feed until it found ads next to extremist posts.\nThe Wall Street Journal reported in August 2024 that the $13 billion Musk borrowed to buy Twitter \"is now considered the worst deal in merger finance that banks have participated in since the 2008 to '09 financial crisis\", adding that \"the allure of banking Elon Musk, providing capital for him to buy a company, not only would reward them handsomely if things went according to plan\" but \"you can certainly say things have not gone according to plan.\" The Washington Post reported in September 2024 that the company had lost $24 billion in equity value, \"a vaporization of wealth that has little parallel outside the realm of economic or industry-specific crashes, or devastating corporate scandals.\" Two years after the acquisition, Fidelity Investments estimated the value of its stake in X that implied the company had lost 79% of its value.\n\nLeadership style\nMusk is often described as a micromanager and has called himself a \"nano-manager\". The New York Times has characterized his approach as absolutist. Musk does not make formal business plans. He has forced employees to adopt the company's own jargon and launched ambitious, risky, and costly projects against his advisors' recommendations, such as removing front-facing radar from Tesla Autopilot. His insistence on vertical integration causes his companies to move most production in-house. While this resulted in saved costs for SpaceX's rocket, vertical integration (as of 2018) has caused many usability problems for Tesla's internal corporate software.\nMusk's handling of employees—whom he communicates with directly through mass emails—has been characterized as \"carrot and stick\", rewarding those \"who offer constructive criticism\" while also being known to impulsively threaten, swear at, and fire his employees. Musk said he expects his employees to work for long hours, sometimes 80 hours per week. He has his new employees sign strict non-disclosure agreements and often fires in sprees, such as during the Model 3 \"production hell\" in 2018. In 2022, Musk revealed plans to fire 10 percent of Tesla's workforce, due to his concerns about the economy. That same month, he suspended remote work at SpaceX and Tesla and threatened to fire employees who do not work 40 hours per week in the office. He laid off more than 10 percent of the Tesla workforce in early 2024.\nMusk's leadership has been praised by some, who credit it with the success of Tesla and his other endeavors, and criticized by others, who see him as callous and his managerial decisions as \"show[ing] a lack of human understanding.\" The 2021 book Power Play contains anecdotes of Musk berating employees. The Wall Street Journal reported that, after Musk insisted on branding his vehicles as \"self-driving\", he faced criticism from his engineers for putting customer \"lives at risk\", with some employees resigning in consequence.\n\nOther activities\nMusk Foundation\nMusk is president of the Musk Foundation he founded in 2001, whose stated purpose is to: provide solar-power energy systems in disaster areas; support research, development, and advocacy (for interests including human space exploration, pediatrics, renewable energy and \"safe artificial intelligence\"); and support science and engineering educational efforts. \nAs of 2020, the foundation has made 350 donations. Around half of them were made to scientific research or education nonprofits. Notable beneficiaries include the Wikimedia Foundation, his alma mater the University of Pennsylvania, and his brother Kimbal's nonprofit Big Green. From 2002 to 2018, the foundation gave $25 million directly to nonprofit organizations, nearly half of which went to Musk's OpenAI, which was a nonprofit at the time. The Foundation also allocated $100 million of donations to be used to establish a new higher education university in Texas. \nIn 2012, Musk took the Giving Pledge, thereby committing to give the majority of his wealth to charitable causes either during his lifetime or in his will. He has endowed prizes at the X Prize Foundation, including $100 million to reward improved carbon capture technology. \nVox said in February 2021, \"the Musk Foundation is almost entertaining in its simplicity and yet is strikingly opaque\", noting that its website was only 33 words in plain-text. In 2020, Forbes gave Musk a philanthropy score of 1, because he had given away less than 1% of his net worth. In November 2021, Musk donated $5.7 billion of Tesla's shares to charity, according to regulatory filings. However, Bloomberg News noted that all of it went to his own foundation, bringing Musk Foundation's assets up to $9.4 billion at the end of 2021. The foundation disbursed $160 million to nonprofits that year. Reporting by The New York Times found that in 2022, the Musk Foundation gave away $230 million less than the minimum required by law to maintain tax-deductible status, and that in 2021 and 2022 over half the foundation's funds went to causes connected to Musk, his family, or his businesses.\n\nHyperloop\nIn August 2013, Musk announced plans for a version of a vacuum tube train and assigned a dozen engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to establish the conceptual foundations and create initial designs. Later that year, Musk unveiled the concept, which he dubbed the Hyperloop. The alpha design for the system was published in a whitepaper posted to the Tesla and SpaceX blogs. The document scoped out the technology and outlined a notional route where such a transport system could be built between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of $6 billion. The proposal, if technologically feasible at the costs cited, would make Hyperloop travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. Biographer Ashlee Vance noted that Musk hoped Hyperloop would \"make the public and legislators rethink the high-speed train\" proposal current in California at the time and consider more \"creative\" ideas.\nIn 2015, Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop pods, to operate on a SpaceX-sponsored mile-long track, for a 2015–2017 Hyperloop pod competition. The track was used in January 2017, and Musk also announced that the company had started a tunnel project, with Hawthorne Municipal Airport as its destination. In July 2017, Musk said that he had received \"verbal government approval\" to build a Hyperloop from New York City to Washington, D.C., with stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Mention of the projected DC-to-Baltimore leg was removed from The Boring Company website in 2021. The tunnel project to Hawthorne was discontinued in 2022 and is planned to be converted into parking spots for SpaceX workers.\nMobility experts have criticized the Hyperloop concept for potential safety issues, planning complexity, low passenger capacity, and extremely high costs. Jose Gomez-Ibanez, a professor of urban planning and public policy at Harvard, said \"It gives me pause to think that otherwise intelligent people are buying into this kind of utopian vision\".\n\nOpenAI and xAI\nIn December 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence intended to be safe and beneficial to humanity. A particular focus of the company was to democratize artificial superintelligence systems, against governments and corporations. Musk pledged $1 billion of funding to OpenAI. In 2023, Musk tweeted that he had ended up giving a total of $100 million to OpenAI. TechCrunch later reported that, according to its own investigation of public records, \"only $15 million\" of OpenAI's funding could be definitively traced to Musk. Musk subsequently stated that he had donated about $50 million.\nIn 2018, Musk left the OpenAI board to avoid possible future conflicts with his role as CEO of Tesla as Tesla increasingly became involved in AI through Tesla Autopilot. Since then, OpenAI has made significant advances in machine learning, producing neural networks such as ChatGPT (producing human-like text), and DALL-E (generating digital images from natural language descriptions).\nOn July 12, 2023, Elon Musk launched an artificial intelligence company called xAI, which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like ChatGPT. The company hired engineers from Google and OpenAI. Musk obtained funding from investors in SpaceX and Tesla.\n\nTham Luang cave rescue and defamation case\nIn July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a mini-submarine to assist the rescue of children trapped in a flooded cavern in Thailand. Richard Stanton, leader of the international rescue diving team, encouraged Musk to facilitate the construction of the vehicle as a backup in case flooding worsened. However, Stanton later concluded that the mini-submarine would not work and said that Musk's involvement \"distracted from the rescue effort\". Engineers at SpaceX and The Boring Company built the mini-submarine from a Falcon 9 liquid oxygen transfer tube in eight hours and personally delivered it to Thailand. Thai authorities ultimately declined to use the submarine, stating that it wasn't practical for the rescue mission. In March 2019, Musk was one of the 187 people who received various honors conferred by the King of Thailand for involvement in the rescue effort.\nSoon after the rescue, Vernon Unsworth, a British recreational caver who had been exploring the cave for the previous six years and played a key advisory role in the operation, criticized the submarine on CNN as amounting to nothing more than a public relations effort with no chance of success, maintaining that Musk \"had no conception of what the cave passage was like\" and \"can stick his submarine where it hurts\". Musk asserted on Twitter that the device would have worked and referred to Unsworth as a \"pedo guy\". He then deleted the tweets, apologized, and deleted his responses to critical tweets from Cher Scarlett, a software engineer, which had caused his followers to harass her. In an email to BuzzFeed News, Musk later called Unsworth a \"child rapist\" and said that he had married a child.\nIn September, Unsworth filed a defamation suit seeking $190 million in damages. In his defense, Musk argued that \"'pedo guy' was a common insult used in South Africa when I was growing up ... synonymous with 'creepy old man' and is used to insult a person's appearance and demeanor\". During the trial Musk apologized to Unsworth again for the tweet. In December 2019, the jury found in favor of Musk and ruled he was not liable.\n\n2018 cannabis incident\nIn September 2018, Musk was interviewed on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, during which he appeared to smoke a joint. In 2022, Musk said that he and other SpaceX employees had subsequently been required to undergo random drug tests for about a year following the incident, as required by the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 for Federal contractors. In a 2019 60 Minutes interview, Musk had said, \"I do not smoke pot. As anybody who watched that podcast could tell, I have no idea how to smoke pot.\"\n\nMusic\nIn March 2019, Musk, through his own label Emo G Records, released a rap track, \"RIP Harambe\", on SoundCloud. The track refers to the killing of Harambe the gorilla and the subsequent Internet sensationalism surrounding the event. The following year, Musk released an EDM track, \"Don't Doubt Ur Vibe\", featuring his own lyrics and vocals. While Guardian critic Alexi Petridis described it as \"indistinguishable... from umpteen competent but unthrilling bits of bedroom electronica posted elsewhere on SoundCloud\", TechCrunch said it was \"not a bad representation of the genre\".\n\nPrivate jet\nMusk uses a private jet owned by Falcon Landing LLC, a SpaceX-linked company, and acquired a second jet in August 2020. His heavy use of the jets—which flew over 150,000 miles in 2018 alone—and the consequent fossil fuel usage has received criticism.\nMusk's flight usage is tracked on social media through ElonJet. After Musk said that his son X AE A-XII had been harassed by a stalker after the account posted the airport at which his jet had landed, Musk banned the ElonJet account on Twitter, as well as the accounts of journalists that posted stories regarding the incident, including Donie O'Sullivan, Keith Olbermann, and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and The Intercept. Musk equated the reporting to doxxing. Police do not believe there is a link between the account and alleged stalker. Musk later took a Twitter poll on whether the journalists' accounts should be reinstated, which resulted in reinstating the accounts.\n\nCompany towns\nAfter 2020, thousands of acres of land just outside Austin, Texas, were acquired by Musk and his companies with a total value of $2.5 billion. The project to build the company town named Snailbrook in Bastrop County, Texas began in 2021 according to reports by the Wall Street Journal. Musk's then-girlfriend Grimes and Kanye West were involved in the planning. The name \"Snailbrook\" alludes to The Boring Company's stated goal of building a machine that can bore tunnels faster than a snail can move. In 2023 the town had a reported population of 12 people. There are plans to establish a school and a university there.\n\nWealth\nMusk made $175.8 million when PayPal was sold to eBay in October 2002. He was first listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012, with a net worth of $2 billion.\n\nPersonal views and Twitter usage\nMusk credits science fiction writers, particularly Robert A. Heinlein, for inspiring many of his personal views and business ventures, including SpaceX, Grok, and his libertarian inclinations. Since joining Twitter (now known as X) in 2009, Musk has been an active user and has over 163 million followers as of November 2023. He posts memes, promotes business interests, and comments on contemporary political and cultural issues. Musk's statements have provoked controversy, such as for mocking preferred gender pronouns and comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler. \nThe New York Times describes his contributions to international relations as \"chaotic\", and critics of Musk argue that there is a lack of separation between his opinions and his business interests. As CEO of Twitter, Musk emerged as a source of misinformation and right-wing conspiracy theories, for example by suggesting online details about mass murderer Mauricio Garcia's apparent interest in Nazism could have been planted as part of a psyop. Allegations of him being transphobic appeared as well in response to actions taken by Twitter under his guidance. In September 2024, Rolling Stone described him and the platform as the \"biggest purveyors of online misinformation\".\n\nFinance\nMusk said that the U.S. government should not provide subsidies to companies, but impose a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The free market, in his view, would achieve the best solution, and producing environmentally unfriendly vehicles should have consequences. \nTesla has received billions of dollars in subsidies. As of February 2024, Tesla has made $9 billion from government-initiated systems of zero-emissions credits. Tax credits offered in California, at the United States federal level, and by other governments have enabled Tesla's battery electric vehicles to be price-competitive in comparison with internal combustion engine vehicles and facilitated initial consumer adoption of Tesla vehicles. \nMusk, a longtime opponent of short-selling, has repeatedly criticized the practice and argued it should be illegal. Wired magazine speculated that Musk's opposition to short-selling stems from how short sellers have an incentive to find and promote unfavorable information about his companies. In early 2021, he encouraged the GameStop short squeeze.\nIn December 2022, Musk sold $3.6 billion of his stock in Tesla, equal to 22 million shares in the company, despite pledging earlier in the year that he would not sell any additional shares.\n\nTechnology\nMusk has promoted cryptocurrencies and supports them over traditional government-issued fiat currencies. Given the influence of Musk's tweets in moving cryptocurrency markets, his statements about cryptocurrencies have been viewed as market manipulation by some, such as economist Nouriel Roubini. Musk's social media praising of Bitcoin and Dogecoin was credited for increasing their prices. Consequently, Tesla's 2021 announcement, against the backdrop of Musk's social media behavior, that it bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, raised questions. Tesla's announcement that it would accept Bitcoin for payment was criticized by environmentalists and investors, due to the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining. A few months later, in response to the criticism, Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would no longer accept payments in Bitcoin and would not engage in any Bitcoin transactions until the environmental issues are solved.\nDespite The Boring Company's involvement in building mass transit infrastructure, Musk has criticized public transport and promoted individualized transport (private vehicles). His comments have been called \"elitist\" and have sparked widespread criticism from both transportation and urban planning experts, who have pointed out that public transportation in dense urban areas is more economical, more energy efficient, and requires much less space than private cars.\n\nExistential threats\nMusk has been described as believing in longtermism, emphasizing the needs of future populations. Accordingly, Musk has stated that artificial intelligence poses the greatest existential threat to humanity. He has warned of a \"Terminator-like\" AI apocalypse and suggested that the government should regulate its safe development. In 2015, Musk was a cosignatory, along with Stephen Hawking and hundreds of others, of the Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence, which called for the ban of autonomous weapons. Musk's AI stances have been called alarmist and sensationalist by critics such as computer scientist Yann LeCun and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and led the think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation to award Musk its Annual Luddite Award in 2016.\nMusk has described climate change as the greatest threat to humanity after AI, and has advocated for a carbon tax. Musk was a critic of President Donald Trump's stance on climate change, and resigned from two presidential business advisory councils following Trump's 2017 decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.\nMusk has long promoted the colonization of Mars and argues that humanity should become a \"multiplanetary species\". He has suggested the use of nuclear weapons to terraform Mars. He envisioned establishing a direct democracy on Mars, with a system in which more votes would be required to create laws than remove them. Musk has also voiced concerns about human population decline, saying that \"Mars has zero human population. We need a lot of people to become a multiplanet civilization.\" Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council session in 2021, Musk claimed that the supposedly declining birth rate, and consequent population decline, is one of the biggest risks to human civilization. According to anonymous sources inside SpaceX speaking with The New York Times, Musk has repeatedly volunteered his sperm to help colonize Mars. He later denied the claim.\n\nPolitics\nMusk's views are generally described as right-wing and conservative. While previously considered relatively apolitical and moderate, he has since shifted to the right and become more vocal about his views, notably since acquiring Twitter in 2022. He is an outlier among social media executives who typically avoid partisan political advocacy. Musk has shared far-right misinformation and numerous conspiracy theories. Despite this, Musk still describes himself as politically moderate, rejecting the conservative label.\nMusk was a registered independent voter when he lived in California. Historically, he has donated to both Democrats and Republicans, many of whom are in states in which he has a vested interest; however, beginning in the late 2010s, his political contributions have shifted almost entirely to supporting Republicans.\nMusk voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Musk endorsed candidate Andrew Yang and expressed support for his proposed universal basic income. He also endorsed Kanye West's 2020 presidential campaign. He said he voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In May 2022, Musk said that he could \"no longer support\" the Democrats because they are the \"party of division & hate\", and wrote a tweet encouraging \"independent-minded voters\" to vote Republican in the 2022 U.S. elections. That fall he gave over $50 million to Citizens for Sanity, a conservative political action committee that ran advertisements about transgender care and illegal immigration in swing states. He has supported Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, giving $10 million to the campaign in 2023, and hosted DeSantis's campaign announcement on a Twitter Spaces event. In August 2023, Musk suggested Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy should be the vice presidential candidate on the Republican ticket. \nIn July 2024, Bloomberg reported that Musk donated an unknown sum to the pro-Donald Trump America PAC, a super PAC; in a later interview, Musk clarified that he created America PAC. After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Musk wished Trump a speedy recovery and endorsed him for president. In a July 2024 post on X, Musk shared a deepfake video of Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's opponent in the 2024 presidential election, which appeared to show Harris saying she was the \"ultimate diversity hire\" and did not know how to manage the United States. Musk wrote that the video was \"amazing\" and did not reveal that it was edited, despite X prohibiting \"synthetic, manipulated\" content \"that may deceive\". In August 2024, Musk and Trump spoke for over two hours on a livestream on X, in which Musk suggested that Trump create a government efficiency commission which he offered to serve on. Trump said he would \"love\" to have Musk involved and later said he needed Musk's help to eliminate the Department of Education. In October 2024, Musk joined Trump on stage at a campaign rally.\nMusk opposes a \"billionaire tax\", and has argued on Twitter with more left-leaning Democratic politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren. He has raised questions about the Black Lives Matter protests, partially based on the fact that the phrase \"Hands up, don't shoot\" was made up. Musk also promoted a baseless theory relating to the attack of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, but Musk deleted his tweet.\nMusk has praised China and has been described as having a close relationship with the Chinese government, allowing access to its markets for Tesla. After Gigafactory Shanghai produced its first batch of vehicles, Musk thanked the Chinese government and Chinese people while criticizing the United States and its people.: 207–208 In 2022, Musk wrote an article for China Cyberspace, the official publication of Cyberspace Administration of China, which enforces Internet censorship in China. His writing the article was described as conflicting with his advocacy for free speech. Musk later advocated for Taiwan to become a \"special administrative zone\" of China which drew cross-party criticism from Taiwanese lawmakers.\nIn October 2022, Musk posted a Twitter poll and \"peace plan\" to resolve the Russian invasion of Ukraine by allowing Russia to keep the Crimea Peninsula, while Ukraine would adopt a neutral status and drop the bid to join NATO. It was reported that Musk allegedly spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the proposal, which Musk denied. Musk has repeatedly expressed concern that a protracted war between Russia and Ukraine could lead to the use of nuclear weapons and the outbreak of World War III.\n\nIn a YouTube podcast interview on November 10, 2023, Musk criticized Israel's retaliatory actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel–Hamas war, saying that Hamas \"wanted to commit the worst atrocities that they could in order to provoke the most aggressive response possible from Israel.\" He added that \"if you kill somebody's child in Gaza, you have made at least a few Hamas members who will die just to kill an Israeli.\" On November 17, 2023, Musk announced a policy change on the X platform, stating that X users who use terms such as \"decolonization\" and \"from the river to the sea,\" or similar expressions that \"necessarily imply genocide\" of the Jewish people in Israel, will be suspended. Several weeks later, Musk traveled to Israel by visiting the kibbutz Kfar Aza with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which had been part of the aftermath of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and described it as \"jarring.\"\nIn August 2024, Musk criticized UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer amid the riots taking place in that country, saying \"Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?\" Responding to a tweet with footage of the disorder that said the riots were due to the \"effects of mass migration and open borders\", Musk tweeted, \"Civil war is inevitable\". His comments were condemned by Starmer's official spokesman. Musk had previously restored far-right UK activist Tommy Robinson's account (after Robinson had been banned under Twitter's previous owners) and interacted with him on the platform. Musk went on to refer to Starmer as \"two-tier Keir\" and ask, \"Why aren't all communities protected in Britain?\" Musk promoted a conspiracy theory that the UK government was planning to build detainments camps in the Falkland Islands to hold rioters.\nOn September 15, 2024, after the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Musk wrote on X that it was odd that nobody had tried to kill Biden or Kamala Harris. He then deleted the post following widespread condemnation. On September 19, the United States Secret Service announced that the agency was probing the post.\n\nAccusations of antisemitism\nThe Israeli government and several media outlets accused Musk of sowing antisemitism due to his promotion of George Soros conspiracy theories, although some Israeli officials defended Musk and denied that his criticism of Soros constituted antisemitism.\nOn November 15, 2023, Twitter user Charles Weber, who identifies as a Jewish conservative, posted a video from StopJewishHate.org condemning the phrase \"Hitler was right\"; Weber captioned the video: \"To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting 'Hitler was right': You got something you want to say? Why don't you say it to our faces\". In response, a second user posted \"Okay. Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I'm deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is.\" To this second user, Musk replied \"You have said the actual truth.\" Musk further clarified that he doesn't believe that \"all Jewish communities\" hate white people, but specifically took aim at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). He added, \"You [sic] right that this does not extend to all Jewish communities, but it is also not just limited to ADL\".\nThe first tweet was widely regarded as echoing white nationalist sentiments and affirmed another antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews push \"hatred against Whites.\" The following day, Musk made a tweet which critics regarded as supporting white pride. Advertisers distanced themselves from his tweets. \nAt the DealBook Summit on November 29, 2023, after comments from Disney CEO Bob Iger explaining his decision to stop advertising on X after Musk's recent post, journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin questioned Musk about the withdrawal of advertisers. Musk responded, \"I hope they stop. Don't advertise\" and \"If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.\"; Musk singled out Iger, saying \"Hey Bob, if you're in the audience.\" Musk acknowledged to Sorkin that one of his tweets—the one affirming an antisemitic conspiracy theory—was a mistake, saying \"I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and to those who are antisemitic and for that I am quite sorry.\" Musk described his tweet as \"one of the most foolish, if not the most foolish, thing I've done.\"\nIn January 2024, Musk visited the Auschwitz concentration camp with European Jewish Association Chairman Rabbi, conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro and Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev. He also spoke on a conference about rising antisemitism. The New York Times described the trip as a part of an image \"rehabilitation tour.\"\n\nCOVID-19\nMusk was criticized for his public comments and conduct related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He spread misinformation about the virus, including promoting a widely discredited paper on the benefits of chloroquine and claiming that COVID-19 death statistics were inflated.\nIn March 2020, Musk stated, \"The coronavirus panic is dumb.\" In an email to Tesla employees, Musk referred to COVID-19 as a \"specific form of the common cold\" and predicted that confirmed COVID-19 cases would not exceed 0.1% of the U.S. population. On March 19, 2020, Musk predicted that there would be \"probably close to zero new cases in [the U.S.] by end of April\". Politico labeled this statement one of \"the most audacious, confident, and spectacularly incorrect prognostications [of 2020]\". Musk also falsely stated that children \"are essentially immune\" to COVID-19.\nMusk condemned COVID-19 lockdowns and initially refused to close the Tesla Fremont Factory in March 2020, defying the local shelter-in-place order. In May 2020, he reopened the Tesla factory, defying the local stay-at-home order, and warned workers that they would be unpaid, and their unemployment benefits might be jeopardized, if they did not report to work. In December 2022, Musk called for prosecution of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci.\nIn March 2020, Musk promised that Tesla would make ventilators for COVID-19 patients if there were a shortage. After figures like New York City mayor Bill de Blasio responded to Musk's offer, Musk offered to donate ventilators which Tesla would build or buy from a third party. However, Musk ended up buying and donating BiPAP and CPAP machines, which are devices that support respirations of someone able to breathe on their own, rather than the much more expensive and sought-after mechanical ventilator machines that are able to breathe for a patient entirely.\nIn September 2020, Musk stated that he would not get the COVID-19 vaccine, because he and his children were \"not at risk for COVID\". Two months later, Musk contracted COVID-19 but suggested his COVID-19 rapid antigen test results were dubious, as he had been tested four times on the same device with the same nurse but had received equal numbers of positive and negative results. Following this, a postdoctoral fellow at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto explained in a Tweet why this result does not undermine the value of the test, referring to Musk as \"Space Karen\", which then trended on Twitter. In December 2021, Musk said that he and his eligible children had received the vaccine, saying that the science behind the COVID vaccines was \"unequivocal\" but expressing his opposition to COVID vaccine mandates.\n\nPersonal life\nIn 2002, Musk became a U.S. citizen. From the early 2000s until late 2020, Musk resided in California, where both Tesla and SpaceX were founded. He then relocated to Austin, Texas, saying that California had become \"complacent\" about its economic success. While hosting Saturday Night Live in 2021, Musk stated that he has Asperger syndrome, although he has never been medically diagnosed. \nDuring a South African safari in late 2000, he contracted malaria and was then hospitalized in an intensive care unit back in California.\nMusk trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu while preparing for a proposed fight with Mark Zuckerberg. In his leisure time, he plays video games including Quake, Diablo IV, Elden Ring, and Polytopia. Musk has stated he uses prescribed ketamine for occasional depression, while The Wall Street Journal has repeatedly alleged he uses it and other drugs recreationally.\n\nRelationships and children\nMusk has at least 12 children, one of whom is deceased. He met his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, while attending Queen's University in Ontario, Canada; they married in 2000. In 2002, their first child died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 10 weeks. After his death, the couple used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to continue their family; they had twins in 2004 followed by triplets in 2006. The couple divorced in 2008 and shared custody of their children.\nIn 2022, the elder twin officially changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, reflecting her gender identity as a trans woman and using her mother's surname because she no longer wished to be associated with Musk. Musk blamed the estrangement of his daughter on what the Financial Times characterized as \"the supposed takeover of elite schools and universities by neo-Marxists\", and has said that her gender transition is primarily what sparked his drive to \"destroy the woke mind virus\". In a July 2024 episode of Jordan Peterson's podcast, Musk said regarding Vivian that he had \"lost [his] son [sic], essentially\" because of gender-affirming care. He commented: \"You know, they call it deadnaming for a reason. The reason it's called deadnaming is because your son [sic] is dead\", and went on to state that the eldest twin \"is dead, killed by the woke mind virus\". Vivian responded publicly, criticizing Musk for lying about her and the circumstances of her transition; claiming that Musk was \"cold\", \"quick to anger\", \"uncaring and narcissistic”, whose infrequent visits commonly involved him berating her for being feminine.\nIn 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley. They married two years later at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland. In 2012, the couple divorced, before remarrying the following year. After briefly filing for divorce in 2014, Musk finalized a second divorce from Riley in 2016. Musk then dated Amber Heard for several months in 2017; he had reportedly been pursuing her since 2012.\nIn 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes said that they were dating. Grimes gave birth to their son in May 2020. Musk and Grimes originally gave the baby the name \"X Æ A-12\", which would have violated California regulations as it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet, which they then changed to \"“X Æ A-Xii”. They have received criticism for choosing such an impractical and difficult to pronounce name.\nIn December 2021, Grimes and Musk had a second child, a daughter born via surrogacy. Despite the pregnancy, Musk confirmed reports that the couple were \"semi-separated\" in September 2021; in an interview with Time in December 2021, he said he was single. In March 2022, Grimes said of her relationship with Musk: \"I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid.\" Later that month, Grimes tweeted that she and Musk had broken up again. In September 2023 it was reported that the pair had a third child, a son. In October 2023, Grimes sued Musk over parental rights and custody of their eldest son.\nIn July 2022, Insider published court documents revealing that Musk had had twins via IVF with Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, in November 2021. They were born weeks before Musk and Grimes had their second child via surrogate in December. The news \"raise[d] questions about workplace ethics\", given that Zilis directly reported to Musk. Their third child together was born in early 2024 via surrogacy. Also in July 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk allegedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in 2021, leading to their divorce the following year. Musk denied the report. Musk also had a relationship with Australian actress Natasha Bassett, who has been described as \"an occasional girlfriend.\"\n\nLegal matters after 2020\nIn May 2022, Business Insider cited an anonymous friend of an unnamed SpaceX contract flight attendant, alleging that Musk engaged in sexual misconduct in 2016. The source stated that in November 2018, Musk, SpaceX, and the former flight attendant entered into a severance agreement granting the attendant a $250,000 payment in exchange for a promise not to sue over the claims. Musk responded, \"If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light\". He accused the article from Business Insider of being a \"politically motivated hit piece\". After the release of the article, Tesla's stock fell by more than 6%, and Barron's wrote \"...some investors considered key-man risk – the danger that a company could be badly hurt by the loss of one individual.\"\nIn April 2023, the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands sought to subpoena Musk for documents in a lawsuit alleging that JPMorgan Chase profited from Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation. The efforts to subpoena Musk for documents do not implicate him in any wrongdoing and do not seek to have Musk testify under oath.\nMusk's former girlfriend Grimes filed a parental relationship petition in late September 2023 as part of a custody dispute. The petition came a month after Grimes openly accused him in a social media post of blocking her access to the youngest of their three children. On July 27, 2024, Grimes' mother accused Musk of withholding the passports of her grandchildren.\nBen Brody, a 22-year-old Los Angeles-based college graduate, initiated a defamation lawsuit in October 2023 against Musk for over $1 million. He alleged Musk had falsely identified him as a participant \"in a violent street brawl on behalf of a neo-Nazi extremist group\" near Portland, Oregon. According to Brody's complaint, one of Musk's X posts promoted conspiracy theories that \"Ben Brody's alleged participation in the extremist brawl meant the incident was probably a 'false flag' operation to deceive the American public\". The complaint also alleged that Musk's accusations led to Brody and his family being subjected to harassment and threats. In February 2024, Musk was ordered to testify in a deposition for the lawsuit. In the deposition, Musk denied knowing who was suing him and admitted to doing no research on whether his claims were true. Musk attempted to keep the deposition from being made public.\nIn October 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Musk over his refusal to testify a third time in an investigation into whether he violated federal law by purchasing Twitter stock in 2022. Musk claimed the SEC was harassing him. In February 2024, Judge Laurel Beeler ruled that Musk must testify again. \nIn January 2024, Delaware Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled in a 2018 lawsuit that Musk's $55 billion pay package from Tesla be rescinded. McCormick called the compensation granted by the company's board \"an unfathomable sum\" that was unfair to shareholders. In response to the ruling, Musk posted on X: \"Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware.\" A re-ratification shareholders' vote passed in mid-June 2024, though much follow-up litigation is expected, including a lawsuit filed by a Tesla investor beforehand that alleged Musk employed \"coercive tactics\" to move the vote in his favor.\nIn June 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported Musk had a \"romantic relationship\" with a former intern at SpaceX, confirmed with affidavits supplied by the intern's lawyers who also represent Musk, and alleged that he had sexual relations with a woman who directly reported to him there. The article further alleges he also pursued sex with other SpaceX employees, and repeatedly asked an employee who reported directly to him to \"have his babies.\" In the same month, eight ex-employees, the same eight who were previously fired for penning an anti-Musk letter at SpaceX, filed a lawsuit against Musk alleging sexual harassment. \nAlso in June 2024, a former Twitter executive sued Musk for \"cheating\" him and other ousted executives out of $200 million in severance pay.\nIn August 2024, Musk sued advertisers for a boycott of X (formerly Twitter). Later that month, Olympic boxer Imane Khelif filed a lawsuit for cyber harassment against X over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment\", in which Musk was named.\n\nPublic perception\nThough his ventures have been highly influential within their separate industries up to current day, Musk only became a public figure in the early 2010s. He has been described as an eccentric who makes spontaneous and impactful decisions, while also often making controversial statements, contrary to other billionaires who prefer reclusiveness to protect their businesses. Biographer Ashley Vance described people's opinions of Musk as polarized due to his \"part philosopher, part troll\" role on Twitter.\nMusk was a partial inspiration for the characterization of Tony Stark in the Marvel film Iron Man (2008). Musk also had a cameo appearance in the film's 2010 sequel, Iron Man 2. Musk has made cameos and appearances in other films such as Machete Kills (2013), Why Him? (2016), and Men in Black: International (2019). Television series in which he has appeared include The Simpsons (\"The Musk Who Fell to Earth\", 2015), The Big Bang Theory (\"The Platonic Permutation\", 2015), South Park (\"Members Only\", 2016), Young Sheldon (\"A Patch, a Modem, and a Zantac®\", 2017), Rick and Morty (\"One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty\", 2019), and Saturday Night Live (2021). He contributed interviews to the documentaries Racing Extinction (2015) and the Werner Herzog-directed Lo and Behold (2016).\nAwards for his contributions to the development of the Falcon rockets include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Transportation Award in 2008, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Gold Space Medal in 2010, and the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal in 2012. In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate in engineering and technology from Yale University and an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Honorary Membership. Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018. In February 2022, Musk was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.\nTime has listed Musk as one of the most influential people in the world on four occasions: in 2010, 2013, 2018, and 2021. Musk was selected as Time's \"Person of the Year\" for 2021. Then Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that \"Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too\".\n\nNotes and references\nNotes\nCitations\nWorks cited\nFurther reading\nTarnoff, Ben, \"Ultra Hardcore\" (subscription required) (review of Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk, Simon and Schuster, 2023, 670 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXXI, no. 1 (January 18, 2024), pp. 6, 8, 10. \"There is an anti-modern impulse to Musk, a craving for lordship that can't be entirely satisfied within the confines of a capitalist economy. A king doesn't have advertisers or shareholders or customers, and Musk, if he continues on his current trajectory, may very well be abandoned by all three. Aristotle says a good ending should be surprising but inevitable. It's possible to imagine multiple finales for Musk that meet these criteria, but the story always begins the same way. Once upon a time in Pretoria, there was a boy who wanted to be a man.\" (p. 10.)\n\nExternal links\n\nAppearances on C-SPAN","title":"Elon_Musk"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's syndrome or Asperger's, is a term formerly used to describe a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. Asperger syndrome has been merged with other conditions into autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is no longer considered a diagnosis. It was considered milder than other diagnoses which were merged into ASD due to relatively unimpaired spoken language and intelligence.\nThe syndrome was named after the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger, who, in 1944, described children in his care who struggled to form friendships, did not understand others' gestures or feelings, engaged in one-sided conversations about their favorite interests, and were clumsy. In 1994, the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome was included in the fourth edition (DSM-IV) of the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; however, with the publication of DSM-5 in 2013 the syndrome was removed, and the symptoms are now included within autism spectrum disorder along with classic autism and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). It was similarly merged into autism spectrum disorder in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as of 2021.\nThe exact cause of Asperger syndrome is not well understood. While it has high heritability, the underlying genetics have not been determined conclusively. Environmental factors are also believed to play a role. Brain imaging has not identified a common underlying condition. There is no single treatment, and the UK's National Health Service (NHS) guidelines suggest that \"treatment\" of any form of autism should not be a goal, since autism is not \"a disease that can be removed or cured\". According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, while co-occurring conditions might require treatment, \"management of autism itself is chiefly about the provision of the education, training, and social support/care required to improve the person's ability to function in the everyday world\". The effectiveness of particular interventions for autism is supported by only limited data. Interventions may include social skills training, cognitive behavioral therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, parent training, and medications for associated problems, such as mood or anxiety. Autistic characteristics tend to become less obvious in adulthood, but social and communication difficulties usually persist.\nIn 2015, Asperger syndrome was estimated to affect 37.2 million people globally, or about 0.5% of the population. The exact percentage of people affected has still not been firmly established. Autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed in males more often than females, and females are typically diagnosed at a later age. The modern conception of Asperger syndrome came into existence in 1981 and went through a period of popularization. It became a standardized diagnosis in the 1990s and was merged into ASD in 2013. Many questions and controversies about the condition remain.\n\nClassification\nThe extent of the overlap between Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism (HFA – autism unaccompanied by intellectual disability) is unclear. The ASD classification is to some extent an artifact of how autism was discovered, and it may not reflect the true nature of the spectrum; methodological problems have beset Asperger syndrome as a valid diagnosis from the outset. In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published in May 2013, Asperger syndrome, as a separate diagnosis, was eliminated and folded into autism spectrum disorder. Like the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, the change was controversial. Subsequently, it was also not included in the ICD-11, which came into effect in 2022.\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) previously defined Asperger syndrome (AS) as one of the pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which are a spectrum of psychological disorders that are characterized by abnormalities of social interaction and communication that pervade the individual's functioning, and by restricted and repetitive interests and behavior. Like other neurodevelopmental conditions, ASD begins in infancy or childhood, has a steady course without remission or relapse, and has impairments that result from maturation-related changes in various systems of the brain.\n\nCharacteristics\nAs a pervasive developmental disorder, Asperger syndrome is distinguished by a pattern of symptoms rather than a single symptom. It is characterized by qualitative impairment in social interaction, by stereotyped and restricted patterns of behavior, activities, and interests, and by no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or general delay in language. Intense preoccupation with a narrow subject, one-sided verbosity, restricted prosody, and physical clumsiness are typical of the condition, but are not required for diagnosis.\nSuicidal thoughts and behaviors are a serious concern within the autistic population. One study found that adults with Asperger syndrome exhibited suicidal thoughts at 9 times the rate of the general population. Of autistic study participants, 66% had experienced suicidal ideation, while 35% had planned or attempted suicide.\n\nSocial interaction\nA lack of demonstrated empathy affects aspects of social relatability for persons with Asperger syndrome. Individuals with Asperger syndrome experience difficulties in basic elements of social interaction, which may include a failure to develop friendships or to seek shared enjoyments or achievements with others (e.g., showing others objects of interest); a lack of social or emotional reciprocity; and impaired nonverbal behaviors in areas such as eye contact, facial expression, posture, and gesture.\nPeople with Asperger syndrome may not be as withdrawn around others, compared with those with other forms of autism; they approach others, even if awkwardly. For example, a person with Asperger syndrome may engage in a one-sided, long-winded speech about a favorite topic, while misunderstanding or not recognizing the listener's feelings or reactions, such as a wish to change the topic of talk or end the interaction. This social awkwardness has been called \"active but odd\". Such failures to react appropriately to social interaction may appear as disregard for other people's feelings and may come across as rude or insensitive. However, not all individuals with Asperger syndrome will approach others. Some may even display selective mutism, not speaking at all to most people and excessively to specific others.\nThe cognitive ability of children with Asperger syndrome often allows them to articulate social norms in a laboratory context, where they may be able to show a theoretical understanding of other people's emotions; however, they typically have difficulty acting on this knowledge in fluid, real-life situations. People with Asperger syndrome may analyze and distill their observations of social interaction into rigid behavioral guidelines and apply these rules in awkward ways, such as forced eye contact, resulting in a demeanor that appears rigid or socially naïve. A history of failed attempts to establish reciprocal social relationships can cause autistic individuals to isolate themselves and cease attempts to engage; however, autistic people overwhelmingly report a desire for social contact and friendship.\n\nViolent or criminal behavior\nThe hypothesis that individuals with Asperger syndrome are predisposed to violent or criminal behavior has been investigated but is not supported by data. More evidence suggests that children diagnosed with Asperger syndrome are more likely to be victims, rather than offenders.\nA 2008 review found that an overwhelming number of reported violent criminals with Asperger syndrome also had other coexisting psychotic psychiatric disorders such as schizoaffective disorder.\n\nEmpathy\nPeople with an Asperger profile might not be recognized for their empathetic qualities, due to variation in the ways empathy is felt and expressed. Some people feel deep empathy, but do not outwardly communicate these sentiments through facial expressions or language. Some people come to empathy through intellectual processes, using logic and reasoning to arrive at the feelings. People with Asperger profiles may be bullied or excluded by peers, and might as a result be guarded around people, which could appear as lack of empathy. People with Asperger profiles can still be caring individuals; indeed, it is particularly common for those with the profile to feel and exhibit deep concern for individual rights, human welfare, animal rights, environmental protection, and other global and humanitarian causes.\nEvidence suggests that in the \"double empathy problem model, autistic people have a unique interaction style which is significantly more readable by other autistic people, compared to non-autistic people.\"\n\nRestricted and repetitive interests and behavior\nPeople with Asperger syndrome can display behavior, interests, and activities that are restricted and repetitive and are sometimes abnormally intense or focused. They may stick to inflexible routines, move in stereotyped and repetitive ways, preoccupy themselves with parts of objects, or engage in compulsive behaviors like lining objects up to form patterns.\nThe pursuit of specific and narrow areas of interest is one of the most striking among possible features of AS. Individuals with AS may collect volumes of detailed information on a relatively narrow topic such as weather data or star names without necessarily having a genuine understanding of the broader topic. For example, a child might memorize camera model numbers while caring little about photography. This behavior is usually apparent by age five or six. Although these special interests may change from time to time, they typically become more unusual and narrowly focused and often dominate social interaction so much that the entire family may become immersed. Because narrow topics often capture the interest of children, this symptom may go unrecognized.\nStereotyped and repetitive motor behaviors, called stimming, are a core part of the diagnosis of AS and other ASDs. Stims are believed to be used for self-soothing and regulate sensory input. They include hand movements such as flapping or twisting, and complex whole-body movements. These are typically repeated in longer bursts and look more voluntary or ritualistic than tics, which are usually faster, less rhythmical, and less often symmetrical. Stimming may have a connection with tics, and studies have reported a consistent comorbidity between AS and Tourette syndrome in the range of 8–20%, with one figure as high as 80% for tics of some kind or another, for which several explanations have been put forward, including common genetic factors and dopamine, glutamate, or serotonin abnormalities.\nAccording to the Adult Asperger Assessment (AAA) diagnostic test, a lack of interest in fiction and a positive preference towards non-fiction is common among adults with AS.\n\nSpeech and language\nAlthough individuals with Asperger syndrome acquire language skills without significant general delay and their speech typically lacks significant abnormalities, language acquisition and use is often atypical. Abnormalities include verbosity; abrupt transitions; literal interpretations and miscomprehension of nuance; use of metaphor meaningful only to the speaker; auditory perception deficits; unusually pedantic, formal, or idiosyncratic speech; and oddities in loudness, pitch, intonation, prosody, and rhythm. Echolalia has also been observed in individuals with AS.\nThree aspects of communication patterns are of clinical interest: poor prosody, tangential and circumstantial speech, and marked verbosity. Although inflection and intonation may be less rigid or monotonic than in classic autism, people with AS often have a limited range of intonation: speech may be unusually fast, jerky, or loud. Speech may convey a sense of incoherence; the conversational style often includes monologues about topics that bore the listener, fails to provide context for comments, or fails to suppress internal thoughts. Individuals with AS may fail to detect whether the listener is interested or engaged in the conversation. The speaker's conclusion or point may never be made, and attempts by the listener to elaborate on the speech's content or logic, or to shift to related topics, are often unsuccessful.\nChildren with AS may have a sophisticated vocabulary at a young age and such children have often been colloquially called \"little professors\" but have difficulty understanding figurative language and tend to use language literally. Children with AS appear to have particular weaknesses in areas of nonliteral language that include humor, irony, teasing, and sarcasm. Although individuals with AS usually understand the cognitive basis of humor, they seem to lack understanding of the intent of humor to share the enjoyment with others. Despite strong evidence of impaired humor appreciation, anecdotal reports of humor in individuals with AS seem to challenge some psychological theories of AS and autism.\n\nMotor and sensory perception\nIndividuals with Asperger syndrome may have signs or symptoms that are independent of the diagnosis but can affect the individual or the family. These include differences in perception and problems with motor skills, sleep, and emotions.\nIndividuals with AS often have excellent auditory and visual perception. Children with ASD often demonstrate enhanced perception of small changes in patterns such as arrangements of objects or well-known images; typically this is domain-specific and involves processing of fine-grained features. Conversely, compared with individuals with high-functioning autism, individuals with AS have deficits in some tasks involving visual-spatial perception, auditory perception, or visual memory. Many accounts of individuals with AS and ASD report other unusual sensory and perceptual skills and experiences. They may be unusually sensitive or insensitive to sound, light, and other stimuli; these sensory responses are found in other developmental disorders and are not specific to AS or to ASD. There is little support for increased fight-or-flight response or failure of habituation in autism; there is more evidence of decreased responsiveness to sensory stimuli, although several studies show no differences.\nHans Asperger's initial accounts and other diagnostic schemes include descriptions of physical clumsiness. Children with AS may be delayed in acquiring skills requiring dexterity, such as riding a bicycle or opening a jar, and may seem to move awkwardly or feel \"uncomfortable in their own skin\". They may be poorly coordinated or have an odd or bouncy gait or posture, poor handwriting, or problems with motor coordination. They may show problems with proprioception (sensation of body position) on measures of developmental coordination disorder (motor planning disorder), balance, tandem gait, and finger-thumb apposition. There is no evidence that these motor skills problems differentiate AS from other high-functioning ASDs.\nChildren with AS are more likely to have sleep problems, including difficulty in falling asleep, frequent nocturnal awakenings, and early morning awakenings. AS is also associated with high levels of alexithymia, which is difficulty in identifying and describing one's emotions. Although AS, lower sleep quality, and alexithymia are associated with each other, their causal relationship is unclear.\n\nCauses\nHans Asperger described common traits among his patients' family members, especially fathers, and research supports this observation and suggests a genetic contribution to Asperger syndrome. Although no specific genetic factor has yet been identified, multiple factors are believed to play a role in the expression of autism, given the variability in symptoms seen in children. Hundreds of genes have been linked to AS, and these genes play crucial role in a multitude of biological processes, exerting influence over the maturation and functioning of the brain. Evidence for a genetic link is that AS tends to run in families where more family members have limited behavioral symptoms similar to AS (for example, some problems with social interaction, or with language and reading skills). Most behavioral genetic research suggests that all autism spectrum disorders have shared genetic mechanisms. There may be shared genes in which particular alleles make an individual vulnerable, and varying combinations result in differing severity and symptoms in each person with AS.\nA few ASD cases have been linked to exposure to teratogens (agents that cause birth defects) during the first eight weeks from conception. Although this does not exclude the possibility that ASD can be initiated or affected later, it is strong evidence that ASD arises very early in development. Many environmental factors have been hypothesized to act after birth, but none has been confirmed by scientific investigation. These environmental elements can act as independent and significant risk factors, or they can potentially influence pre-existing genetic factors in people who have a genetic predisposition.\n\nMechanism\nAsperger syndrome appears to result from developmental factors that affect many or all functional brain systems, as opposed to localized effects.\nAlthough the specific underpinnings of AS or factors that distinguish it from other ASDs are unknown, and no clear pathology common to individuals with AS has emerged, it is still possible that AS's mechanism is separate from other ASDs.\nNeuroanatomical studies and the associations with teratogens strongly suggest that the mechanism includes alteration of brain development soon after conception. Abnormal fetal development may affect the final structure and connectivity of the brain, resulting in altered neural circuits controlling thought and behavior. Several theories of mechanism are available; none are likely to provide a complete explanation.\n\nGeneral-processing theories\nOne general-processing theory is weak central coherence theory, which hypothesizes that a limited ability to see the big picture underlies the central disturbance in ASD. A related theory—enhanced perceptual functioning—focuses more on the superiority of locally oriented and perceptual operations in autistic individuals.\n\nMirror neuron system (MNS) theory\nThe mirror neuron system (MNS) theory hypothesizes that alterations to the development of the MNS interfere with imitation and lead to Asperger syndrome's core feature of social impairment. One study found that activation is delayed in the core circuit for imitation in individuals with AS. This theory maps well to social cognition theories like the theory of mind, which hypothesizes that autistic behavior arises from impairments in ascribing mental states to oneself and others; or hyper-systemizing, which hypothesizes that autistic individuals can systematize internal operation to handle internal events but are less effective at empathizing when handling events generated by other agents.\n\nDiagnosis\nStandard diagnostic criteria require impairment in social interaction and repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, activities, and interests, without significant delay in language or cognitive development. Unlike the international standard, the DSM-IV-TR criteria also required significant impairment in day-to-day functioning; DSM-5 eliminated AS as a separate diagnosis in 2013, and folded it into the umbrella of autism spectrum disorders. Other sets of diagnostic criteria have been proposed by Szatmari et al. and by Gillberg and Gillberg.\nDiagnosis is most commonly made between the ages of four and eleven. A comprehensive assessment involves a multidisciplinary team that observes across multiple settings, and includes neurological and genetic assessment as well as tests for cognition, psychomotor function, verbal and nonverbal strengths and weaknesses, style of learning, and skills for independent living. The \"gold standard\" in diagnosing ASDs combines clinical judgment with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), a semistructured parent interview; and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), a conversation and play-based interview with the child. Delayed or mistaken diagnosis can be traumatic for individuals and families; for example, misdiagnosis can lead to medications that worsen behavior.\nUnderdiagnosis and overdiagnosis may be problems. The cost and difficulty of screening and assessment can delay diagnosis. Conversely, the increasing popularity of drug treatment options and the expansion of benefits has motivated providers to overdiagnose ASD. There are indications AS has been diagnosed more frequently in recent years, partly as a residual diagnosis for children of normal intelligence who are not autistic but have social difficulties.\nThere are questions about the external validity of the AS diagnosis. That is, it is unclear whether there is a practical benefit in distinguishing AS from HFA or PDD-NOS; different screening tools may render different diagnoses for the same person.\n\nDifferential diagnosis\nMany children with AS are initially misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Diagnosing adults is more challenging, as standard diagnostic criteria are designed for children and the expression of AS changes with age. Adult diagnosis requires painstaking clinical examination and thorough medical history gained from both the individual and other people who know the person, focusing on childhood behavior.\nConditions that must be considered in a differential diagnosis along with ADHD include other ASDs, the schizophrenia spectrum, personality disorders, obsessive–compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder, semantic pragmatic disorder, nonverbal learning disorder, social anxiety disorder, Tourette syndrome, stereotypic movement disorder, bipolar disorder, social-cognitive deficits due to brain damage from alcohol use disorder, and obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD).\n\nScreening\nParents of children with Asperger syndrome can typically trace differences in their children's development to as early as 30 months of age. Developmental screening during a routine check-up by a general practitioner or pediatrician may identify signs that warrant further investigation. The United States Preventive Services Task Force in 2016 found it was unclear if screening was beneficial or harmful among children in whom there are no concerns.\nDifferent screening instruments are used to diagnose AS, including the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale (ASDS); Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ); Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST), previously called the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test; Gilliam Asperger's disorder scale (GADS); Krug Asperger's Disorder Index (KADI); and the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ), with versions for children, adolescents, and adults. None have been shown to reliably differentiate between AS and other ASDs.\n\nManagement\nTreatment attempts to manage distressing symptoms and to teach age-appropriate social, communication, and vocational skills that are not naturally acquired during development. Intervention is tailored to the needs of the individual based on multidisciplinary assessment. Although progress has been made, data supporting the efficacy of particular interventions are limited.\n\nTherapies\nManaging ASD may involve multiple therapies that address core symptoms of the disorder. While many professionals agree that the earlier the professional support the better, there is no combination that is recommended above others. Professional support for ASD varies depending on the individual; it takes into account the linguistic capabilities, verbal strengths, and nonverbal vulnerabilities of individuals.\nMany of those diagnosed with ASD or similar disorders advocate against behavioral therapies, like Applied behavior analysis (ABA) and Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), often as part of the autism rights movement, on the grounds that these approaches frequently reinforce the demand on autistic people to mask their neurodivergent characteristics or behaviors to favor a more 'neurotypical' and narrow conception of normality. ABA has faced a great deal of criticism over the years. Recently, studies have shown that ABA may be abusive and can increase PTSD symptoms in patients. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network campaigns against the use of ABA in autism.\nIn the case of CBT and talking therapies, the effectiveness varies, with many reporting that they appeared 'too self-aware' to gain significant benefit, as the therapy was designed with neurotypical people in mind. In autistic children, specifically, they also report that it is only mildly beneficial in aiding with their anxieties.\nA typical program of professional support generally includes:\n\nApplied behavior analysis (ABA) procedures, including positive behavior support (PBS)—or training and support of parents and school faculty in behavior management strategies to use in the home and school, and social skills training for more effective interpersonal interactions. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network campaigns against the use of ABA in autism;\nCognitive behavioral therapy to improve stress management relating to anxiety or explosive emotions and to help reduce obsessive interests (although this may produce negative impact by demonising special interests) and repetitive routines;\nMedication for coexisting conditions such as major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders;\nOccupational or physical therapy to assist with poor sensory processing and motor coordination; and,\nSocial communication intervention, which is specialized speech therapy to help with the pragmatics and give-and-take of normal conversation.\nOf the many studies on behavior-based early intervention programs, most are case reports of up to five participants and typically examine a few problem behaviors such as self-injury, aggression, noncompliance, stereotypies, or spontaneous language; unintended side effects are largely ignored. Despite the popularity of social skills training, its effectiveness is not firmly established. A randomized controlled study of a model for training parents in problem behaviors in their children with AS showed that parents attending a one-day workshop or six individual lessons reported fewer behavioral problems, while parents receiving the individual lessons reported less intense behavioral problems in their AS children. Vocational training may be important to teach job interview etiquette and workplace behavior to older children and adults with AS, and organization software and personal data assistants can improve the work and life management of people with AS.\nFecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) is an innovative therapy for AS that aims to restore microbial balance in the patient's gastrointestinal tract by introducing healthy fecal microbiota acquired from people with a diverse microbial composition. This approach attempts to reconstruct the patient's gut microbiota by taking into account the intricate interactions between the human gut and the central nervous system via the gut-brain axis (GBA). Any disruption in gut health has been linked to an increased susceptibility to diverse neurodevelopmental disorders.\nIt is vital to remember that research of AS specifically operates upon the out-dated classification of this syndrome as external to ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Similarly, we should also note that ASD is a spectrum and support varies dramatically depending on the individual.\n\nMedications\nNo medications directly treat the core symptoms of AS. Although research into the efficacy of pharmaceutical intervention for AS is limited, it is essential to diagnose and treat comorbid conditions. Deficits in self-identifying emotions or in observing effects of one's behavior on others can make it difficult for individuals with AS to see why medication may be appropriate. Medication can be effective in combination with behavioral interventions and environmental accommodations in treating comorbid symptoms such as anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder, inattention, and aggression. The atypical antipsychotic medications risperidone, olanzapine and aripiprazole have been shown to reduce the associated symptoms of AS; risperidone can reduce repetitive and self-injurious behaviors, aggressive outbursts, and impulsivity, and improve stereotypical patterns of behavior and social relatedness. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, and sertraline have been effective in treating restricted and repetitive interests and behaviors, while stimulant medication, such as methylphenidate, can reduce inattention. In addition, scientists have made a noteworthy finding that oxytocin, a hormone, plays a significant role in shaping human social behavior and the formation of interpersonal connections.\nCare must be taken with medications, as side effects may be more common and harder to evaluate in individuals with AS, and tests of drugs' effectiveness against comorbid conditions routinely exclude individuals from the autism spectrum. Abnormalities in metabolism, cardiac conduction times, and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes have been raised as concerns with antipsychotic medications, along with serious long-term neurological side effects. SSRIs can lead to manifestations of behavioral activation such as increased impulsivity, aggression, and sleep disturbance. Weight gain and fatigue are commonly reported side effects of risperidone, which may also lead to increased risk for extrapyramidal symptoms such as restlessness and dystonia and increased serum prolactin levels. Sedation and weight gain are more common with olanzapine, which has also been linked with diabetes. Sedative side-effects in school-age children have ramifications for classroom learning. Individuals with AS may be unable to identify and communicate their internal moods and emotions or to tolerate side effects that for most people would not be problematic.\n\nPrognosis\nThere is some evidence that children with AS may see a lessening of symptoms; up to 20% of children may no longer meet the diagnostic criteria as adults, although social and communication difficulties may persist. As of 2006, no studies addressing the long-term outcome of individuals with Asperger syndrome are available and there are no systematic long-term follow-up studies of children with AS. Individuals with AS appear to have normal life expectancy, but have an increased prevalence of comorbid psychiatric conditions, such as major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders that may significantly affect prognosis. Although social impairment may be lifelong, the outcome is generally more positive than with individuals with lower-functioning autism spectrum disorders; for example, ASD symptoms are more likely to diminish with time in children with AS or HFA. Most students with AS and HFA have average mathematical ability and test slightly worse in mathematics than in general intelligence. However, mathematicians are at least three times more likely to have autism-spectrum traits than the general population, and are more likely to have family members with autism.\nAlthough many attend regular education classes, some children with AS may attend special education classes such as separate classroom and resource room because of their social and behavioral difficulties. Adolescents with AS may exhibit ongoing difficulty with self-care or organization, and disturbances in social and romantic relationships. Despite high cognitive potential, most young adults with AS remain at home, yet some do marry and work independently. The \"different-ness\" adolescents experience can be traumatic. Anxiety may stem from preoccupation over possible violations of routines and rituals, from being placed in a situation without a clear schedule or expectations, or from concern with failing in social encounters; the resulting stress may manifest as inattention, withdrawal, reliance on obsessions, hyperactivity, or aggressive or oppositional behavior. Depression is often the result of chronic frustration from repeated failure to engage others socially, and mood disorders requiring treatment may develop. Clinical experience suggests the rate of suicide may be higher among those with AS, but this has not been confirmed by systematic empirical studies.\nEducation of families is critical in developing strategies for understanding strengths and weaknesses; helping the family to cope improves outcomes in children. Prognosis may be improved by diagnosis at a younger age that allows for early interventions, while interventions in adulthood are valuable but less beneficial. There are legal implications for individuals with AS as they run the risk of exploitation by others and may be unable to comprehend the societal implications of their actions.\n\nEpidemiology\nFrequency estimates vary enormously. In 2015, it was estimated that 37.2 million people globally are affected. A 2003 review of epidemiological studies of children found autism rates ranging from 0.03 to 4.84 per 1,000, with the ratio of autism to Asperger syndrome ranging from 1.5:1 to 16:1; combining the geometric mean ratio of 5:1 with a conservative prevalence estimate for autism of 1.3 per 1,000 suggests indirectly that the prevalence of AS might be around 0.26 per 1,000. Part of the variance in estimates arises from differences in diagnostic criteria. For example, a relatively small 2007 study of 5,484 eight-year-old children in Finland found 2.9 children per 1,000 met the ICD-10 criteria for an AS diagnosis, 2.7 per 1,000 for Gillberg and Gillberg criteria, 2.5 for DSM-IV, 1.6 for Szatmari et al., and 4.3 per 1,000 for the union of the four criteria. Boys seem to be more likely to have AS than girls; estimates of the sex ratio range from 1.6:1 to 4:1, using the Gillberg and Gillberg criteria. Females with autism spectrum disorders may be underdiagnosed.\n\nComorbidities\nAnxiety disorders and major depressive disorder are the most common conditions seen at the same time; comorbidity of these in persons with AS is estimated at 65%. Reports have associated AS with medical conditions such as aminoaciduria and ligamentous laxity, but these have been case reports or small studies and no factors have been associated with AS across studies. One study of males with AS found an increased rate of epilepsy and a high rate (51%) of nonverbal learning disorder. AS is associated with tics, Tourette syndrome and bipolar disorder. The repetitive behaviors of AS have many similarities with the symptoms of obsessive–compulsive disorder and obsessive–compulsive personality disorder, and 26% of a sample of young adults with AS were found to meet the criteria for schizoid personality disorder (which is characterised by severe social seclusion and emotional detachment), more than any other personality disorder in the sample. However many of these studies are based on clinical samples or lack standardized measures; nonetheless, comorbid conditions are relatively common.\n\nCorrelated characteristics\nResearch indicates that individuals with Aspergers have significantly higher rates of LGBT identities and feelings than the general population. They are also significantly more likely to be non-theistic.\n\nHistory\nNamed after the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger (1906–1980), Asperger syndrome is a relatively new diagnosis in the field of autism, though a syndrome like it was described as early as 1925 by Soviet child psychiatrist Grunya Sukhareva (1891–1981), leading some of those diagnosed with Asperger syndrome to instead refer to their condition as 'Sukhareva's Syndrome', in opposition to Hans Asperger's association with Nazism. As a child, Asperger appears to have exhibited some features of the very condition named after him, such as remoteness and talent in language. In 1944, Asperger described four children in his practice who had difficulty in integrating themselves socially and showing empathy towards peers. They also lacked nonverbal communication skills and were physically clumsy. Asperger described this \"autistic psychopathy\" as social isolation. Fifty years later, several standardizations of AS as a medical diagnosis were tentatively proposed, many of which diverge significantly from Asperger's original work.\nUnlike today's AS, autistic psychopathy could be found in people of all levels of intelligence, including those with intellectual disability. Asperger defended the value of so-called \"high-functioning\" autistic individuals, writing: \"We are convinced, then, that autistic people have their place in the organism of the social community. They fulfill their role well, perhaps better than anyone else could, and we are talking of people who as children had the greatest difficulties and caused untold worries to their care-givers.\" Asperger also believed some would be capable of exceptional achievement and original thought later in life.\nAsperger's paper was published during World War II and in German, so it was not widely read elsewhere. Lorna Wing used the term Asperger syndrome in 1976, and popularized it to the English-speaking medical community in her February 1981 publication of case studies of children showing the symptoms described by Asperger, and Uta Frith translated his paper to English in 1991. Sets of diagnostic criteria were outlined by Gillberg and Gillberg in 1989 and by Szatmari et al. in the same year. In 1992, AS became a standard diagnosis when it was included in the tenth edition of the World Health Organization's diagnostic manual, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). It was added to the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic reference, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), published in 1994.\nHundreds of books, articles, and websites now describe AS and prevalence estimates have increased dramatically for ASD, with AS recognized as an important subgroup. Whether it should be seen as distinct from high-functioning autism is a fundamental issue requiring further study, and there are questions about the empirical validation of the DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria. In 2013, DSM-5 eliminated AS as a separate diagnosis, folding it into the autism spectrum on a severity scale.\n\nSociety and culture\nPeople identifying with Asperger syndrome may refer to themselves in casual conversation as aspies (a term first used in print in the Boston Globe in 1998). Some autistic people have advocated a shift in perception of autism spectrum disorders as complex syndromes rather than diseases that must be cured. Proponents of this view reject the notion that there is an \"ideal\" brain configuration and that any deviation from the norm is pathological; they promote tolerance of neurodiversity. These views are the basis for the autistic rights and autistic pride movements. There is a contrast between the attitude of people with AS, who typically do not want to be cured and are proud of their identity; and parents of children with AS, who typically seek assistance and a cure for their children.\nSome researchers have argued that AS can be viewed as a different cognitive style, not a disorder, and that it should be removed from the standard Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, much as homosexuality was removed. (In 2013 Asperger Syndrome was indeed eliminated as a separate diagnosis in DSM-5.) In a 2002 paper, Simon Baron-Cohen wrote of those with AS: \"In the social world, there is no great benefit to a precise eye for detail, but in the worlds of maths, computing, cataloging, music, linguistics, engineering, and science, such an eye for detail can lead to success rather than failure.\" Baron-Cohen cited two reasons why it might still be useful to consider AS to be a disability: to ensure provision for legally required special support, and to recognize emotional difficulties from reduced empathy. Baron-Cohen argues that the genes for ASD's combination of abilities have operated throughout recent human evolution and have made remarkable contributions to human history.\nBy contrast, Pier Jaarsma and Welin wrote in 2011 that the \"broad version of the neurodiversity claim, covering low-functioning as well as high-functioning autism, is problematic. Only a narrow conception of neurodiversity, referring exclusively to high-functioning autists, is reasonable.\" They say that \"higher functioning\" individuals with autism may \"not [be] benefited with such a psychiatric defect-based diagnosis ... some of them are being harmed by it, because of the disrespect the diagnosis displays for their natural way of being\", but \"think that it is still reasonable to include other categories of autism in the psychiatric diagnostics. The narrow conception of the neurodiversity claim should be accepted but the broader claim should not.\"\n\nReferences\nFurther reading\n\nAutistic Empire, Are you Autistic? Take the test – an online version of the Adult Asperger's Assessment developed by Cohen, S. et al. (2005) (see Woodbury-Smith MR, \"Screening adults for Asperger Syndrome using the AQ: a preliminary study of its diagnostic validity in clinical practice\", in §References).\nHus V, Lord C (August 2014). \"The autism diagnostic observation schedule, module 4: revised algorithm and standardized severity scores\". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 44 (8): 1996–2012. doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2080-3. PMC 4104252. PMID 24590409. A public paper re-calibrating the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule for appropriate assessment of autistic adults, who typically score lower on measures of impairment than autistic children due to compensatory strategies.\nRoyal College of Psychiatrists (2017), Interview Guide for the Diagnostic Assessment of Able Adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorder – based on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R)","title":"Asperger_syndrome"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Rahul Ligma is a fictional fired Twitter employee, a character played by one of a pair of amateur improvisational actors that pranked multiple major media outlets on October 28, 2022. Ligma, the fictional character's surname, is a reference to the Ligma joke. The spontaneous and intentionally transparent hoax was revealed the same day, after the initial news coverage triggered debate among real Twitter employees about whether or not expected mass layoffs had already started. The Rahul Ligma character next appeared in early November as a recently unemployed FTX employee in the Bahamas. On November 15, Elon Musk, the incoming CEO of Twitter, facetiously offered Ligma and his compatriot their (fictional) old jobs back, and posted a photograph taken with them at Twitter headquarters. Although at least one journalist had publicly apologized for their failure to fact check before reporting the news, several notable media outlets were still oblivious to the running joke, and reported the duo's firing and rehiring as actual news. In social media, the follow-up stunt was widely criticized for lack of sensitivity to actual Twitter employees who had lost their jobs. On November 23, news reports surfaced once again, this time reporting that the actor playing Daniel Johnson had in fact been hired by Twitter for the first time.\\n\\nBackground\\nOn October 28, 2022, many members of the press were present outside Twitter's San Francisco headquarters on the first day that Elon Musk gained control of the social media company. It had been previously reported that mass layoffs were expected in the coming weeks and months. That day, two individuals identifying as \\\"Rahul Ligma\\\" and \\\"Daniel Johnson\\\" left Twitter's building carrying large cardboard boxes, pretending to be two recently fired employees departing with their belongings. Neither had ever worked for Twitter, but the inventor of the Ligma character regularly exercised in a gymnasium in the same building, and he \\\"thought it would be really funny\\\" if he and a friend \\\"walked out with a [cardboard] box and they fell for it.\\\"\\n\\nThe prank\\nRahul Ligma, in character, acted dismayed about his firing, telling a group of reporters his concerns about the \\\"future of their democracy... the future of celebrity conservatorship\\\" (a Britney Spears reference) and lamenting that \\\"this wouldn't have happened under Michelle Obama\\\", while holding up a copy of the former first lady's autobiography. Claiming to be a Tesla owner and a software engineer with Twitter for the past three years, he also identified himself as \\\"a big fan of clean energy, climate change, even free speech too.\\\"\\n\\\"Daniel Johnson\\\", also part of the fictional team of fired data engineers, said he had to leave the interview to \\\"touch base with my husband and wife\\\" using a version of the \\\"My wife's son\\\" meme.\\nAlthough no \\\"Rahul Ligma\\\" exists in Twitter's Slack or email system, nor shows up LinkedIn as an employee, multiple news networks reported the fictional names along with statements, photographs, and video of the pranksters as being of actual ex-employees of Twitter. California State Senator Melissa Melendez tweeted at the time, \\\"This is too funny. Two guys posing as laid-off Twitter employees. They said their names were Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson. Not one reporter thought that was odd. They just ran with the story.\\\"\\nCNBC technology reporter Deirdre Bosa tweeted, \\\"It's happening. The entire team of data engineers let go. These are two of them. They are visibly shaken. Daniel tells us he owns a Tesla and doesn't know how he will make payments.\\\" The San Francisco ABC News affiliate reported that one \\\"was terminated during a Zoom meeting\\\". Based on the visual of the fake employees carrying boxes, two Bloomberg journalists wrote that mass layoffs were already underway at Twitter, but actually it was only top executives that had lost their jobs. Reuters was also among the major media companies fooled by the hoax.\\n\\nReactions\\nAmong Twitter employees, the initial news reports launched a debate about whether or not layoffs had already begun. Later in the day on October 28, Twitter CEO Elon Musk, aware of the joke, continued the crude puns by tweeting about the firing that \\\"Ligma Johnson had it coming\\\", along with eggplant and water splash emojis.\\nThe Times of India called the Ligma–Johnson hoax \\\"perfectly-timed\\\" and \\\"one of the greatest pranks on the internet.\\\"\\nBlake Shuster wrote for USA Today that the journalists involved were \\\"duped by real-life trolls\\\" and \\\"all it would've taken was 30 seconds to stop and actually do their jobs to avoid the whole news-cycle\\\". He criticized the journalists for not bothering to search for \\\"Daniel Johnson\\\" and \\\"Rahul Ligma\\\" before publishing their stories, and remarked, \\\"it's probably not great that during a time of immense and worrisome change at one of the largest tech platforms...all we're left with is BOFA reporting.\\\"\\nOn October 31, 2022, CNBC's Bosa apologized and told The Daily Beast, \\\"They got me\\\" and \\\"I didn't do enough to confirm who they were\\\". But NBC, as of December 2022, still had not corrected its October 28 coverage that, \\\"some Twitter employees appeared to have been let go\\\".\\nThe Rahul Ligma character resurfaced a few weeks later, apparently having relocated along with his \\\"husband and wife\\\" to the Bahamas to work for the cryptocurrency platform FTX. But when the company suddenly faced financial collapse, on November 11, 2022, he found himself unemployed once again. Again on video with a cardboard box, this time on a sandy beach, Ligma commented, \\\"It's really tough, this is my second job in a month\\\", adding, \\\"Web2 chewed me up and spit me out, I just really thought Web3 was gonna be different.\\\"\\n\\nThe fictional rehiring\\nOn November 15, 2022, Musk changed course and apologized for \\\"firing these geniuses\\\", jokingly saying it was \\\"truly one of [my] biggest mistakes\\\" and offered them their (fictional) jobs back. Calling their October media stunt \\\"one of the best trolls ever\\\", Musk publicized a photograph taken with himself along with \\\"Ligma & Johnson\\\" at Twitter headquarters. Meanwhile, Newsweek reported that \\\"there was widespread criticism of Musk for joking about firings when his employees were losing their jobs in the shake-up\\\", noting that initial reactions were divided among those who thought the prank was \\\"disrespectful\\\" and \\\"cruel to the real employees who were fired\\\", and those who thought that the joke was \\\"top-notch\\\".\\nOn November 16, 2022, the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak reported the comic duo's fictional rehiring as an actual news story, continuing to fall for the prank. In a 37-second video, the broadcaster announced, \\\"After the large scale layoff, Elon is realizing his mistake. He is now calling back fired employees and has shared an image with two who have returned.\\\" The following day, the Indonesian news website VOI also published the photograph in an article with the caption \\\"Rahul Ligma, Elon Musk, and Daniel Johnson, are back as a team\\\".\\nIn the November 17, 2022 edition of Rising, co-host Briahna Joy Gray said that the rehiring proved Musk \\\"actually needs these employees to work for him\\\" and that \\\"the employees didn't look so happy in that photograph\\\" to be back, having been \\\"fired—prematurely\\\".\\n\\nAftermath\\nOn November 23, 2022, The Daily Beast reported that Daniel Francis, the actor who played Daniel Johnson in the hoax, had just been hired by Twitter as a software developer, citing a Business Insider article. \\nIn a December 2022 article for TechCrunch reflecting on the absurd nature of tech industry news over the past year, Amanda Silberling commented that because \\\"a herd of reporters did not get the joke\\\" about Rahul Ligma, she had to explain the \\\"ligma\\\" meme on four different podcasts.\\nAlso in December 2022, Ligma announced his presidential run in 2024 \\\"to fight for the rights of laid off workers, polygamists, and men who wear gym shorts outside in November.\\\"\\n\\nSee also\\nLigma joke\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nAFP News Agency interview excerpt of Ligma & Johnson on YouTube\\nAssociated Press archive interview of Ligma & Johnson on YouTube\\nArchive of Ligma-Johnson 2024 presidential campaign website\",\n \"title\": \"Rahul_Ligma\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Elon Reeve Musk (; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and investor known for his key roles in the space company SpaceX and the automotive company Tesla, Inc. Other involvements include ownership of X Corp., the company that operates the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), and his role in the founding of the Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink, and OpenAI. He is one of the wealthiest individuals in the world; as of August 2024 Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$247 billion.\\nMusk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to Maye (née Haldeman), a model, and Errol Musk, a businessman and engineer. Musk briefly attended the University of Pretoria before immigrating to Canada at the age of 18, acquiring citizenship through his Canadian-born mother. Two years later he matriculated at Queen's University at Kingston in Canada. Musk later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania and received bachelor's degrees in economics and physics. He moved to California in 1995 to attend Stanford University, but dropped out after two days and, with his brother Kimbal, co-founded the online city guide software company Zip2. The startup was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in 1999. That same year Musk co-founded X.com, a direct bank. X.com merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal. In October 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion. Using $100 million of the money he made from the sale of PayPal, Musk founded SpaceX, a spaceflight services company, in 2002. \\nIn 2004, Musk was an early investor who provided most of the initial financing in the electric-vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors, Inc. (later Tesla, Inc.), assuming the position of the company's chairman. He later became the product architect and, in 2008, the CEO. In 2006, Musk helped create SolarCity, a solar energy company that was acquired by Tesla in 2016 and became Tesla Energy. In 2013, he proposed a hyperloop high-speed vactrain transportation system. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company. The following year Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company developing brain–computer interfaces, and The Boring Company, a tunnel construction company. In 2018 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Musk, alleging that he had falsely announced that he had secured funding for a private takeover of Tesla. To settle the case Musk stepped down as the chairman of Tesla and paid a $20 million fine. In 2022, he acquired Twitter for $44 billion, merged the company into the newly-created X Corp. and rebranded the service as X the following year. In March 2023, Musk founded xAI, an artificial-intelligence company.\\nMusk has expressed views that have made him a polarizing figure. He has been criticized for making unscientific and misleading statements, including COVID-19 misinformation, promoting right-wing conspiracy theories, and \\\"endorsing an antisemitic theory\\\"; he later apologized for the last of these. His ownership of Twitter has been controversial because of the layoffs of large numbers of employees, an increase in hate speech, misinformation and disinformation posts on the website, and changes to website features, including Twitter Blue verification.\\n\\nEarly life and education\\nChildhood and family\\nElon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa's administrative capital. He is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His mother, Maye (née Haldeman), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in South Africa. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and property developer, who partly owned a rental lodge at the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. Elon has a younger brother, Kimbal, and a younger sister, Tosca. Elon has four paternal half-siblings.\\nThe family was wealthy during Elon's youth. Despite both Musk and Errol previously stating that Errol was a part owner of a Zambian emerald mine, in 2023, Errol recounted that the deal he made was to receive \\\"a portion of the emeralds produced at three small mines.\\\" Errol was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party and has said that his children shared their father's dislike of apartheid.\\nElon's maternal grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman, was an American-born Canadian who took his family on record-breaking journeys to Africa and Australia in a single-engine Bellanca airplane; Haldeman died when Elon was still a toddler. \\nElon has recounted trips to a wilderness school (\\\"veldskool\\\") that he described as a \\\"paramilitary Lord of the Flies\\\" where \\\"bullying was a virtue\\\" and children were encouraged to fight over rations.\\nAfter his parents divorced in 1980, Elon chose to live primarily with his father. Elon later regretted his decision and became estranged from his father. Elon attended Bryanston High School. In one incident, after an altercation with a fellow pupil, Elon was thrown down concrete steps and beaten severely by the boy and his friends, leading to him being hospitalized for his injuries. Elon described his father berating him after he was discharged from the hospital, saying \\\"I had to stand for an hour as he yelled at me and called me an idiot and told me that I was just worthless\\\". Errol denied berating Elon but claimed \\\"The boy had just lost his father to suicide and Elon had called him stupid. Elon had a tendency to call people stupid. How could I possibly blame that child?\\\" After the incident, Elon was enrolled in private school.\\nElon was an enthusiastic reader of books, later attributing his success in part to having read The Lord of the Rings, the Foundation series, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At age ten, he developed an interest in computing and video games, teaching himself how to program from the VIC-20 user manual. At age twelve, Elon sold his BASIC-based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500.\\n\\nEducation\\nMusk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, Bryanston High School, and then Pretoria Boys High School, where he graduated. Musk was a good but not exceptional student, earning a 61 in Afrikaans and a B on his senior math certification. Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother, knowing that it would be easier to immigrate to the United States this way. While waiting for his application to be processed, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months.\\nMusk arrived in Canada in June 1989, connected with a second cousin in Saskatchewan, and worked odd jobs including at a farm and a lumber mill. In 1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.\\nTwo years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, where he earned two degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in physics, and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the university's Wharton School. Although Musk has said that he earned the degrees in 1995, the University of Pennsylvania did not award them until 1997. He reportedly hosted large, ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition, and wrote a business plan for an electronic book-scanning service similar to Google Books.\\nIn 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley: one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which investigated electrolytic ultracapacitors for energy storage, and another at Palo Alto–based startup Rocket Science Games. In 1995, he was accepted to a graduate program in materials science at Stanford University, but did not enroll. Musk decided to join the Internet boom, applying for a job at Netscape, to which he reportedly never received a response.\\n\\nBusiness career\\nElon Musk has started a number of businesses since 1995, with initial business success and liquidity gained from sales of equity in one business providing the capital for him to start subsequent business enterprises. Musk is widely considered a serial entrepreneur. By the 2020s, several Musk businesses had formed strategic partnerships with some employees playing roles simultaneously in more than one of Musk's companies.\\n\\nZip2\\nIn 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded Global Link Information Network, later renamed to Zip2. The company developed an Internet city guide with maps, directions, and yellow pages, and marketed it to newspapers. They worked at a small rented office in Palo Alto, with Musk coding the website every night. Musk and his brother's immigration statuses during this period was described by Musk as a \\\"gray area\\\". Eventually, Zip2 obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. The brothers persuaded the board of directors to abandon a merger with CitySearch; however, Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted. Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999, and Musk received $22 million for his 7-percent share.\\n\\nX.com and PayPal\\nIn March 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company with $12 million of the money he made from the Compaq acquisition. X.com was one of the first online banks that was federally insured, and over 200,000 customers joined in its initial months of operation.\\nMusk's friends expressed skepticism about the naming of the online bank, fearing it might have been mistaken for a pornographic site. Musk brushed off their concerns, emphasizing that the name was meant to be straightforward, memorable, and easy to type. Additionally, he was fond of the email addresses derived from it, such as \\\"e@x.com\\\". Even though Musk founded the company, investors regarded him as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year.\\nIn 2000, X.com merged with the online bank Confinity to avoid competition, as the latter's money-transfer service PayPal was more popular than X.com's service. Musk then returned as CEO of the merged company. His preference for Microsoft- over Unix-based software caused a rift among the company's employees, and eventually led Confinity co-founder Peter Thiel to resign. With the company suffering from compounding technological issues and the lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000. Under Thiel, the company focused on the money-transfer service and was renamed PayPal in 2001.\\nIn 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk—PayPal's largest shareholder with 11.7% of shares—received $176 million. In 2017, more than 15 years later, Musk purchased the X.com domain from PayPal for its \\\"sentimental value\\\". In 2022, Musk discussed a goal of creating \\\"X, the everything app\\\".\\n\\nSpaceX\\nIn early 2001, Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars. In October of the same year, he traveled to Moscow, Russia with Jim Cantrell and Adeo Ressi to buy refurbished intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could send the greenhouse payloads into space. He met with the companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras; however, Musk was seen as a novice and the group returned to the United States without an agreement to purchase Russian launch services. In February 2002, the group returned to Russia to look for three ICBMs. They had another meeting with Kosmotras and were offered one rocket for $8 million, which Musk rejected. He instead decided to start a company that could build affordable rockets. With $100 million of his own money, Musk founded SpaceX in May 2002 and became the company's CEO and chief engineer.\\nSpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006. Though the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit, it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA. After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk and his companies to go bankrupt, SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008. Later that year, SpaceX received a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract from NASA for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement. In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft.\\n\\nWorking towards its goal of reusable rockets, in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 on a land platform. Later landings were achieved on autonomous spaceport drone ships, an ocean-based recovery platform. In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy; the inaugural mission carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload. Since 2019, SpaceX has been developing Starship, a fully-reusable, super-heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to replace the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy. In 2020, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight, the Demo-2, becoming the first private company to place astronauts into orbit and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS. In 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX an $843 million contract to deorbit the ISS at the end of its lifespan.\\n\\nStarlink\\nIn 2015, SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites to provide satellite Internet access, with the first two prototype satellites launched in February 2018. A second set of test satellites, and the first large deployment of a piece of the constellation, occurred in May 2019, when the first 60 operational satellites were launched. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in 2020 to be $10 billion. Some critics, including the International Astronomical Union, have alleged that Starlink blocks the view of the sky and poses a collision threat to spacecraft.\\nDuring the March 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Musk sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine to provide Internet access and communication. In October 2022, Musk stated that about 20,000 satellite terminals had been donated to Ukraine, together with free data transfer subscriptions, which cost SpaceX $80 million. After asking the United States Department of Defense to pay for further units and future subscriptions on behalf of Ukraine, Musk publicly stated that SpaceX would continue to provide Starlink to Ukraine for free, at a yearly cost to itself of $400 million. At the same time, Musk refused to block Russian state media on Starlink, declaring himself \\\"a free speech absolutist\\\".\\nIn September 2023, Ukraine asked for the activation of Starlink satellites over Crimea to attack Russian naval vessels located at the port Sevastopol; Musk denied the request, citing concerns that Russia would respond with a nuclear attack.\\n\\nTesla\\nTesla, Inc., originally Tesla Motors, was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $6.35 million, became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations.\\nFollowing a series of escalating conflicts in 2007, and the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Eberhard was ousted from the firm. Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008. A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others. As of 2019, Musk was the longest-tenured CEO of any automotive manufacturer globally. In 2021, Musk nominally changed his title to \\\"Technoking\\\" while retaining his position as CEO.\\n\\nTesla began delivery of the Roadster, an electric sports car, in 2008. With sales of about 2,500 vehicles, it was the first serial production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. Tesla began delivery of its four-door Model S sedan in 2012. A crossover, the Model X was launched in 2015. A mass-market sedan, the Model 3, was released in 2017. In 2020, the Model 3 became the all-time bestselling plug-in electric car worldwide, and in June 2021 it became the first electric car to sell 1 million units globally. A fifth vehicle, the Model Y crossover, was launched in 2020, and in December 2023, became the best-selling vehicle of any kind, as well as the all-time best-selling electric car. The Cybertruck, an all-electric pickup truck, was unveiled in 2019, and delivered in November 2023. Under Musk, Tesla has also constructed multiple lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle factories, named Gigafactories.\\nSince its initial public offering in 2010, Tesla stock has risen significantly; it became the most valuable carmaker in summer 2020, and it entered the S&P 500 later that year. In October 2021, it reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion, the sixth company in U.S. history to do so. In November 2021, Musk proposed on Twitter to sell 10% of his Tesla stock, since \\\"much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance\\\". After more than 3.5 million Twitter accounts supported the sale, Musk sold $6.9 billion of Tesla stock within a week, and a total of $16.4 billion by year end, reaching the 10% target. In February 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that both Musk and his brother Kimbal were under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for possible insider trading related to the sale. In 2022, Musk unveiled Optimus, a robot being developed by Tesla. In June 2023, Musk met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York City, stating he was interested in investing in India \\\"as soon as humanly possible\\\".\\n\\nSEC and shareholder lawsuits regarding tweets\\nIn 2018, Musk was sued by the SEC for a tweet stating that funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private. The lawsuit characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies. Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations. As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $20 million each, and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman but was able to remain as CEO. Shareholders filed a lawsuit over the tweet, and in February 2023, a jury found Musk and Tesla not liable. Musk has stated in interviews that he does not regret posting the tweet that triggered the SEC investigation.\\nIn 2019, Musk stated in a tweet that Tesla would build half a million cars that year. The SEC reacted by asking a court to hold him in contempt for violating the terms of the 2018 settlement agreement. A joint agreement between Musk and the SEC eventually clarified the previous agreement details, including a list of topics about which Musk needed preclearance. In 2020, a judge blocked a lawsuit that claimed a tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price (\\\"too high imo\\\") violated the agreement. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-released records showed that the SEC concluded Musk had subsequently violated the agreement twice by tweeting regarding \\\"Tesla's solar roof production volumes and its stock price\\\".\\n\\nSolarCity and Tesla Energy\\nMusk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. In 2014, Musk promoted the idea of SolarCity building an advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017. It operated as a joint venture with Panasonic until early 2020.\\nTesla acquired SolarCity for $2 billion in 2016 and merged it with its battery unit to create Tesla Energy. The deal's announcement resulted in a more than 10% drop in Tesla's stock price; at the time, SolarCity was facing liquidity issues. Multiple shareholder groups filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla's directors, stating that the purchase of SolarCity was done solely to benefit Musk and came at the expense of Tesla and its shareholders. Tesla directors settled the lawsuit in January 2020, leaving Musk the sole remaining defendant. Two years later, the court ruled in Musk's favor.\\n\\nNeuralink\\nIn 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup company, with an investment of $100 million. Neuralink aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI) by creating devices that are embedded in the brain. Such technology could enhance memory or allow the devices to communicate with software. The company also hopes to develop devices with which to treat neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and spinal cord injuries.\\nIn 2019, Musk announced work on a device akin to a sewing machine that could embed threads into a human brain. In an October 2019 paper that detailed some of Neuralink's research, Musk was listed as the sole author, which rankled Neuralink researchers. At a 2020 live demonstration, Musk described one of their early devices as \\\"a Fitbit in your skull\\\" that could soon cure paralysis, deafness, blindness, and other disabilities. Many neuroscientists and publications criticized these claims, with MIT Technology Review describing them as \\\"highly speculative\\\" and \\\"neuroscience theater\\\". During the demonstration, Musk revealed a pig with a Neuralink implant that tracked neural activity related to smell. In 2022, Neuralink announced that clinical trials would begin by the end of the year.\\nNeuralink has conducted further animal testing on macaque monkeys at the University of California, Davis' Primate Research Center. In 2021, the company released a video in which a Macaque played the video game Pong via a Neuralink implant. The company's animal trials—which have caused the deaths of some monkeys—have led to claims of animal cruelty. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has alleged that Neuralink's animal trials have violated the Animal Welfare Act. Employees have complained that pressure from Musk to accelerate development has led to botched experiments and unnecessary animal deaths. In 2022, a federal probe was launched into possible animal welfare violations by Neuralink. In September 2023, the Food and Drug Administration approved Neuralink to initiate human trials, and it plans to conduct a six-year study.\\n\\nThe Boring Company\\nIn 2017, Musk founded The Boring Company to construct tunnels, and revealed plans for specialized, underground, high-occupancy vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) and thus circumvent above-ground traffic in major cities. Early in 2017, the company began discussions with regulatory bodies and initiated construction of a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 50-foot (15 m) long, and 15-foot (4.6 m) deep \\\"test trench\\\" on the premises of SpaceX's offices, as that required no permits. The Los Angeles tunnel, less than two miles (3.2 km) in length, debuted to journalists in 2018. It used Tesla Model Xs and was reported to be a rough ride while traveling at suboptimal speeds.\\nTwo tunnel projects announced in 2018, in Chicago and West Los Angeles, have been canceled. However, a tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2021. Local officials have approved further expansions of the tunnel system.\\n\\nTwitter / X\\nMusk expressed interest in buying Twitter as early as 2017, and had questioned the platform's commitment to freedom of speech. Additionally, his ex-wife Talulah Riley had urged him to buy Twitter to stop the \\\"woke-ism\\\". In January 2022, Musk started purchasing Twitter shares, reaching a 9.2% stake by April, making him the largest shareholder. When this was publicly disclosed, Twitter shares experienced the largest intraday price surge since the company's 2013 initial public offering. On April 4, Musk agreed to a deal that would appoint him to Twitter's board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company. However, on April 13, Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter, launching a takeover bid to buy 100% of Twitter's stock at $54.20 per share. In response, Twitter's board adopted a \\\"poison pill\\\" shareholder rights plan to make it more expensive for any single investor to own more than 15% of the company without board approval. Nevertheless, by the end of the month Musk had successfully concluded his bid for approximately $44 billion. This included about $12.5 billion in loans against his Tesla stock and $21 billion in equity financing.\\nTesla's stock market value sank by over $100 billion the next day in reaction to the deal. He subsequently tweeted to his 86 million followers criticism of Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde's policies, which led to some of them engaging in sexist and racist harassment against her. Exactly a month after announcing the takeover, Musk stated that the deal was \\\"on hold\\\" following a report that 5% of Twitter's daily active users were spam accounts. Although he initially affirmed his commitment to the acquisition, he sent notification of his termination of the deal in July; Twitter's Board of Directors responded that they were committed to holding him to the transaction. On July 12, 2022, Twitter formally sued Musk in the Chancery Court of Delaware for breaching a legally binding agreement to purchase Twitter. In October 2022, Musk reversed again, offering to purchase Twitter at $54.20 per share. The acquisition was officially completed on October 27.\\nImmediately after the acquisition, Musk fired several top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal; Musk became the CEO instead. He instituted a $7.99 monthly subscription for a \\\"blue check\\\", and laid off a significant portion of the company's staff. Musk lessened content moderation, including reinstating accounts like The Babylon Bee. The Southern Poverty Law Center noted that Twitter has verified numerous extremists; hate speech also increased on the platform after his takeover.\\nIn December 2022, Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in the leadup to the 2020 presidential election. Comments on these internal documents by journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger and others were posted on Twitter as the Twitter Files. Musk and many Republicans alleged the documents showed the FBI had engaged in government censorship by ordering Twitter to suppress a New York Post story about the laptop. Upon review of the documents, Taibbi said he had found no evidence to support the allegation, and Twitter attorneys denied the allegation in a subsequent court filing. The United States House Committee on the Judiciary held hearings on the Twitter Files on March 9, 2023, at which Taibbi and Shellenberger gave testimony.\\nIn late 2022, Musk promised to step down as CEO after a Twitter poll posted by Musk found that a majority of users wanted him to do so. Five months later, Musk stepped down from CEO and placed former NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino in the position and transitioned his role to executive chairman and chief technology officer.\\nOn November 20, 2023, in a U.S. District Court in Texas, X filed a lawsuit stating that Media Matters \\\"manipulated\\\" the X platform, in that it used accounts that followed major brands, and \\\"resorted to endlessly scrolling and refreshing\\\" the feed until it found ads next to extremist posts.\\nThe Wall Street Journal reported in August 2024 that the $13 billion Musk borrowed to buy Twitter \\\"is now considered the worst deal in merger finance that banks have participated in since the 2008 to '09 financial crisis\\\", adding that \\\"the allure of banking Elon Musk, providing capital for him to buy a company, not only would reward them handsomely if things went according to plan\\\" but \\\"you can certainly say things have not gone according to plan.\\\" The Washington Post reported in September 2024 that the company had lost $24 billion in equity value, \\\"a vaporization of wealth that has little parallel outside the realm of economic or industry-specific crashes, or devastating corporate scandals.\\\" Two years after the acquisition, Fidelity Investments estimated the value of its stake in X that implied the company had lost 79% of its value.\\n\\nLeadership style\\nMusk is often described as a micromanager and has called himself a \\\"nano-manager\\\". The New York Times has characterized his approach as absolutist. Musk does not make formal business plans. He has forced employees to adopt the company's own jargon and launched ambitious, risky, and costly projects against his advisors' recommendations, such as removing front-facing radar from Tesla Autopilot. His insistence on vertical integration causes his companies to move most production in-house. While this resulted in saved costs for SpaceX's rocket, vertical integration (as of 2018) has caused many usability problems for Tesla's internal corporate software.\\nMusk's handling of employees—whom he communicates with directly through mass emails—has been characterized as \\\"carrot and stick\\\", rewarding those \\\"who offer constructive criticism\\\" while also being known to impulsively threaten, swear at, and fire his employees. Musk said he expects his employees to work for long hours, sometimes 80 hours per week. He has his new employees sign strict non-disclosure agreements and often fires in sprees, such as during the Model 3 \\\"production hell\\\" in 2018. In 2022, Musk revealed plans to fire 10 percent of Tesla's workforce, due to his concerns about the economy. That same month, he suspended remote work at SpaceX and Tesla and threatened to fire employees who do not work 40 hours per week in the office. He laid off more than 10 percent of the Tesla workforce in early 2024.\\nMusk's leadership has been praised by some, who credit it with the success of Tesla and his other endeavors, and criticized by others, who see him as callous and his managerial decisions as \\\"show[ing] a lack of human understanding.\\\" The 2021 book Power Play contains anecdotes of Musk berating employees. The Wall Street Journal reported that, after Musk insisted on branding his vehicles as \\\"self-driving\\\", he faced criticism from his engineers for putting customer \\\"lives at risk\\\", with some employees resigning in consequence.\\n\\nOther activities\\nMusk Foundation\\nMusk is president of the Musk Foundation he founded in 2001, whose stated purpose is to: provide solar-power energy systems in disaster areas; support research, development, and advocacy (for interests including human space exploration, pediatrics, renewable energy and \\\"safe artificial intelligence\\\"); and support science and engineering educational efforts. \\nAs of 2020, the foundation has made 350 donations. Around half of them were made to scientific research or education nonprofits. Notable beneficiaries include the Wikimedia Foundation, his alma mater the University of Pennsylvania, and his brother Kimbal's nonprofit Big Green. From 2002 to 2018, the foundation gave $25 million directly to nonprofit organizations, nearly half of which went to Musk's OpenAI, which was a nonprofit at the time. The Foundation also allocated $100 million of donations to be used to establish a new higher education university in Texas. \\nIn 2012, Musk took the Giving Pledge, thereby committing to give the majority of his wealth to charitable causes either during his lifetime or in his will. He has endowed prizes at the X Prize Foundation, including $100 million to reward improved carbon capture technology. \\nVox said in February 2021, \\\"the Musk Foundation is almost entertaining in its simplicity and yet is strikingly opaque\\\", noting that its website was only 33 words in plain-text. In 2020, Forbes gave Musk a philanthropy score of 1, because he had given away less than 1% of his net worth. In November 2021, Musk donated $5.7 billion of Tesla's shares to charity, according to regulatory filings. However, Bloomberg News noted that all of it went to his own foundation, bringing Musk Foundation's assets up to $9.4 billion at the end of 2021. The foundation disbursed $160 million to nonprofits that year. Reporting by The New York Times found that in 2022, the Musk Foundation gave away $230 million less than the minimum required by law to maintain tax-deductible status, and that in 2021 and 2022 over half the foundation's funds went to causes connected to Musk, his family, or his businesses.\\n\\nHyperloop\\nIn August 2013, Musk announced plans for a version of a vacuum tube train and assigned a dozen engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to establish the conceptual foundations and create initial designs. Later that year, Musk unveiled the concept, which he dubbed the Hyperloop. The alpha design for the system was published in a whitepaper posted to the Tesla and SpaceX blogs. The document scoped out the technology and outlined a notional route where such a transport system could be built between the Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of $6 billion. The proposal, if technologically feasible at the costs cited, would make Hyperloop travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. Biographer Ashlee Vance noted that Musk hoped Hyperloop would \\\"make the public and legislators rethink the high-speed train\\\" proposal current in California at the time and consider more \\\"creative\\\" ideas.\\nIn 2015, Musk announced a design competition for students and others to build Hyperloop pods, to operate on a SpaceX-sponsored mile-long track, for a 2015–2017 Hyperloop pod competition. The track was used in January 2017, and Musk also announced that the company had started a tunnel project, with Hawthorne Municipal Airport as its destination. In July 2017, Musk said that he had received \\\"verbal government approval\\\" to build a Hyperloop from New York City to Washington, D.C., with stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Mention of the projected DC-to-Baltimore leg was removed from The Boring Company website in 2021. The tunnel project to Hawthorne was discontinued in 2022 and is planned to be converted into parking spots for SpaceX workers.\\nMobility experts have criticized the Hyperloop concept for potential safety issues, planning complexity, low passenger capacity, and extremely high costs. Jose Gomez-Ibanez, a professor of urban planning and public policy at Harvard, said \\\"It gives me pause to think that otherwise intelligent people are buying into this kind of utopian vision\\\".\\n\\nOpenAI and xAI\\nIn December 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence intended to be safe and beneficial to humanity. A particular focus of the company was to democratize artificial superintelligence systems, against governments and corporations. Musk pledged $1 billion of funding to OpenAI. In 2023, Musk tweeted that he had ended up giving a total of $100 million to OpenAI. TechCrunch later reported that, according to its own investigation of public records, \\\"only $15 million\\\" of OpenAI's funding could be definitively traced to Musk. Musk subsequently stated that he had donated about $50 million.\\nIn 2018, Musk left the OpenAI board to avoid possible future conflicts with his role as CEO of Tesla as Tesla increasingly became involved in AI through Tesla Autopilot. Since then, OpenAI has made significant advances in machine learning, producing neural networks such as ChatGPT (producing human-like text), and DALL-E (generating digital images from natural language descriptions).\\nOn July 12, 2023, Elon Musk launched an artificial intelligence company called xAI, which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like ChatGPT. The company hired engineers from Google and OpenAI. Musk obtained funding from investors in SpaceX and Tesla.\\n\\nTham Luang cave rescue and defamation case\\nIn July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a mini-submarine to assist the rescue of children trapped in a flooded cavern in Thailand. Richard Stanton, leader of the international rescue diving team, encouraged Musk to facilitate the construction of the vehicle as a backup in case flooding worsened. However, Stanton later concluded that the mini-submarine would not work and said that Musk's involvement \\\"distracted from the rescue effort\\\". Engineers at SpaceX and The Boring Company built the mini-submarine from a Falcon 9 liquid oxygen transfer tube in eight hours and personally delivered it to Thailand. Thai authorities ultimately declined to use the submarine, stating that it wasn't practical for the rescue mission. In March 2019, Musk was one of the 187 people who received various honors conferred by the King of Thailand for involvement in the rescue effort.\\nSoon after the rescue, Vernon Unsworth, a British recreational caver who had been exploring the cave for the previous six years and played a key advisory role in the operation, criticized the submarine on CNN as amounting to nothing more than a public relations effort with no chance of success, maintaining that Musk \\\"had no conception of what the cave passage was like\\\" and \\\"can stick his submarine where it hurts\\\". Musk asserted on Twitter that the device would have worked and referred to Unsworth as a \\\"pedo guy\\\". He then deleted the tweets, apologized, and deleted his responses to critical tweets from Cher Scarlett, a software engineer, which had caused his followers to harass her. In an email to BuzzFeed News, Musk later called Unsworth a \\\"child rapist\\\" and said that he had married a child.\\nIn September, Unsworth filed a defamation suit seeking $190 million in damages. In his defense, Musk argued that \\\"'pedo guy' was a common insult used in South Africa when I was growing up ... synonymous with 'creepy old man' and is used to insult a person's appearance and demeanor\\\". During the trial Musk apologized to Unsworth again for the tweet. In December 2019, the jury found in favor of Musk and ruled he was not liable.\\n\\n2018 cannabis incident\\nIn September 2018, Musk was interviewed on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, during which he appeared to smoke a joint. In 2022, Musk said that he and other SpaceX employees had subsequently been required to undergo random drug tests for about a year following the incident, as required by the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 for Federal contractors. In a 2019 60 Minutes interview, Musk had said, \\\"I do not smoke pot. As anybody who watched that podcast could tell, I have no idea how to smoke pot.\\\"\\n\\nMusic\\nIn March 2019, Musk, through his own label Emo G Records, released a rap track, \\\"RIP Harambe\\\", on SoundCloud. The track refers to the killing of Harambe the gorilla and the subsequent Internet sensationalism surrounding the event. The following year, Musk released an EDM track, \\\"Don't Doubt Ur Vibe\\\", featuring his own lyrics and vocals. While Guardian critic Alexi Petridis described it as \\\"indistinguishable... from umpteen competent but unthrilling bits of bedroom electronica posted elsewhere on SoundCloud\\\", TechCrunch said it was \\\"not a bad representation of the genre\\\".\\n\\nPrivate jet\\nMusk uses a private jet owned by Falcon Landing LLC, a SpaceX-linked company, and acquired a second jet in August 2020. His heavy use of the jets—which flew over 150,000 miles in 2018 alone—and the consequent fossil fuel usage has received criticism.\\nMusk's flight usage is tracked on social media through ElonJet. After Musk said that his son X AE A-XII had been harassed by a stalker after the account posted the airport at which his jet had landed, Musk banned the ElonJet account on Twitter, as well as the accounts of journalists that posted stories regarding the incident, including Donie O'Sullivan, Keith Olbermann, and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and The Intercept. Musk equated the reporting to doxxing. Police do not believe there is a link between the account and alleged stalker. Musk later took a Twitter poll on whether the journalists' accounts should be reinstated, which resulted in reinstating the accounts.\\n\\nCompany towns\\nAfter 2020, thousands of acres of land just outside Austin, Texas, were acquired by Musk and his companies with a total value of $2.5 billion. The project to build the company town named Snailbrook in Bastrop County, Texas began in 2021 according to reports by the Wall Street Journal. Musk's then-girlfriend Grimes and Kanye West were involved in the planning. The name \\\"Snailbrook\\\" alludes to The Boring Company's stated goal of building a machine that can bore tunnels faster than a snail can move. In 2023 the town had a reported population of 12 people. There are plans to establish a school and a university there.\\n\\nWealth\\nMusk made $175.8 million when PayPal was sold to eBay in October 2002. He was first listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012, with a net worth of $2 billion.\\n\\nPersonal views and Twitter usage\\nMusk credits science fiction writers, particularly Robert A. Heinlein, for inspiring many of his personal views and business ventures, including SpaceX, Grok, and his libertarian inclinations. Since joining Twitter (now known as X) in 2009, Musk has been an active user and has over 163 million followers as of November 2023. He posts memes, promotes business interests, and comments on contemporary political and cultural issues. Musk's statements have provoked controversy, such as for mocking preferred gender pronouns and comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler. \\nThe New York Times describes his contributions to international relations as \\\"chaotic\\\", and critics of Musk argue that there is a lack of separation between his opinions and his business interests. As CEO of Twitter, Musk emerged as a source of misinformation and right-wing conspiracy theories, for example by suggesting online details about mass murderer Mauricio Garcia's apparent interest in Nazism could have been planted as part of a psyop. Allegations of him being transphobic appeared as well in response to actions taken by Twitter under his guidance. In September 2024, Rolling Stone described him and the platform as the \\\"biggest purveyors of online misinformation\\\".\\n\\nFinance\\nMusk said that the U.S. government should not provide subsidies to companies, but impose a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The free market, in his view, would achieve the best solution, and producing environmentally unfriendly vehicles should have consequences. \\nTesla has received billions of dollars in subsidies. As of February 2024, Tesla has made $9 billion from government-initiated systems of zero-emissions credits. Tax credits offered in California, at the United States federal level, and by other governments have enabled Tesla's battery electric vehicles to be price-competitive in comparison with internal combustion engine vehicles and facilitated initial consumer adoption of Tesla vehicles. \\nMusk, a longtime opponent of short-selling, has repeatedly criticized the practice and argued it should be illegal. Wired magazine speculated that Musk's opposition to short-selling stems from how short sellers have an incentive to find and promote unfavorable information about his companies. In early 2021, he encouraged the GameStop short squeeze.\\nIn December 2022, Musk sold $3.6 billion of his stock in Tesla, equal to 22 million shares in the company, despite pledging earlier in the year that he would not sell any additional shares.\\n\\nTechnology\\nMusk has promoted cryptocurrencies and supports them over traditional government-issued fiat currencies. Given the influence of Musk's tweets in moving cryptocurrency markets, his statements about cryptocurrencies have been viewed as market manipulation by some, such as economist Nouriel Roubini. Musk's social media praising of Bitcoin and Dogecoin was credited for increasing their prices. Consequently, Tesla's 2021 announcement, against the backdrop of Musk's social media behavior, that it bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, raised questions. Tesla's announcement that it would accept Bitcoin for payment was criticized by environmentalists and investors, due to the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining. A few months later, in response to the criticism, Musk announced on Twitter that Tesla would no longer accept payments in Bitcoin and would not engage in any Bitcoin transactions until the environmental issues are solved.\\nDespite The Boring Company's involvement in building mass transit infrastructure, Musk has criticized public transport and promoted individualized transport (private vehicles). His comments have been called \\\"elitist\\\" and have sparked widespread criticism from both transportation and urban planning experts, who have pointed out that public transportation in dense urban areas is more economical, more energy efficient, and requires much less space than private cars.\\n\\nExistential threats\\nMusk has been described as believing in longtermism, emphasizing the needs of future populations. Accordingly, Musk has stated that artificial intelligence poses the greatest existential threat to humanity. He has warned of a \\\"Terminator-like\\\" AI apocalypse and suggested that the government should regulate its safe development. In 2015, Musk was a cosignatory, along with Stephen Hawking and hundreds of others, of the Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence, which called for the ban of autonomous weapons. Musk's AI stances have been called alarmist and sensationalist by critics such as computer scientist Yann LeCun and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and led the think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation to award Musk its Annual Luddite Award in 2016.\\nMusk has described climate change as the greatest threat to humanity after AI, and has advocated for a carbon tax. Musk was a critic of President Donald Trump's stance on climate change, and resigned from two presidential business advisory councils following Trump's 2017 decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.\\nMusk has long promoted the colonization of Mars and argues that humanity should become a \\\"multiplanetary species\\\". He has suggested the use of nuclear weapons to terraform Mars. He envisioned establishing a direct democracy on Mars, with a system in which more votes would be required to create laws than remove them. Musk has also voiced concerns about human population decline, saying that \\\"Mars has zero human population. We need a lot of people to become a multiplanet civilization.\\\" Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council session in 2021, Musk claimed that the supposedly declining birth rate, and consequent population decline, is one of the biggest risks to human civilization. According to anonymous sources inside SpaceX speaking with The New York Times, Musk has repeatedly volunteered his sperm to help colonize Mars. He later denied the claim.\\n\\nPolitics\\nMusk's views are generally described as right-wing and conservative. While previously considered relatively apolitical and moderate, he has since shifted to the right and become more vocal about his views, notably since acquiring Twitter in 2022. He is an outlier among social media executives who typically avoid partisan political advocacy. Musk has shared far-right misinformation and numerous conspiracy theories. Despite this, Musk still describes himself as politically moderate, rejecting the conservative label.\\nMusk was a registered independent voter when he lived in California. Historically, he has donated to both Democrats and Republicans, many of whom are in states in which he has a vested interest; however, beginning in the late 2010s, his political contributions have shifted almost entirely to supporting Republicans.\\nMusk voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Musk endorsed candidate Andrew Yang and expressed support for his proposed universal basic income. He also endorsed Kanye West's 2020 presidential campaign. He said he voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In May 2022, Musk said that he could \\\"no longer support\\\" the Democrats because they are the \\\"party of division & hate\\\", and wrote a tweet encouraging \\\"independent-minded voters\\\" to vote Republican in the 2022 U.S. elections. That fall he gave over $50 million to Citizens for Sanity, a conservative political action committee that ran advertisements about transgender care and illegal immigration in swing states. He has supported Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, giving $10 million to the campaign in 2023, and hosted DeSantis's campaign announcement on a Twitter Spaces event. In August 2023, Musk suggested Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy should be the vice presidential candidate on the Republican ticket. \\nIn July 2024, Bloomberg reported that Musk donated an unknown sum to the pro-Donald Trump America PAC, a super PAC; in a later interview, Musk clarified that he created America PAC. After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Musk wished Trump a speedy recovery and endorsed him for president. In a July 2024 post on X, Musk shared a deepfake video of Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's opponent in the 2024 presidential election, which appeared to show Harris saying she was the \\\"ultimate diversity hire\\\" and did not know how to manage the United States. Musk wrote that the video was \\\"amazing\\\" and did not reveal that it was edited, despite X prohibiting \\\"synthetic, manipulated\\\" content \\\"that may deceive\\\". In August 2024, Musk and Trump spoke for over two hours on a livestream on X, in which Musk suggested that Trump create a government efficiency commission which he offered to serve on. Trump said he would \\\"love\\\" to have Musk involved and later said he needed Musk's help to eliminate the Department of Education. In October 2024, Musk joined Trump on stage at a campaign rally.\\nMusk opposes a \\\"billionaire tax\\\", and has argued on Twitter with more left-leaning Democratic politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren. He has raised questions about the Black Lives Matter protests, partially based on the fact that the phrase \\\"Hands up, don't shoot\\\" was made up. Musk also promoted a baseless theory relating to the attack of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, but Musk deleted his tweet.\\nMusk has praised China and has been described as having a close relationship with the Chinese government, allowing access to its markets for Tesla. After Gigafactory Shanghai produced its first batch of vehicles, Musk thanked the Chinese government and Chinese people while criticizing the United States and its people.: 207–208 In 2022, Musk wrote an article for China Cyberspace, the official publication of Cyberspace Administration of China, which enforces Internet censorship in China. His writing the article was described as conflicting with his advocacy for free speech. Musk later advocated for Taiwan to become a \\\"special administrative zone\\\" of China which drew cross-party criticism from Taiwanese lawmakers.\\nIn October 2022, Musk posted a Twitter poll and \\\"peace plan\\\" to resolve the Russian invasion of Ukraine by allowing Russia to keep the Crimea Peninsula, while Ukraine would adopt a neutral status and drop the bid to join NATO. It was reported that Musk allegedly spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the proposal, which Musk denied. Musk has repeatedly expressed concern that a protracted war between Russia and Ukraine could lead to the use of nuclear weapons and the outbreak of World War III.\\n\\nIn a YouTube podcast interview on November 10, 2023, Musk criticized Israel's retaliatory actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel–Hamas war, saying that Hamas \\\"wanted to commit the worst atrocities that they could in order to provoke the most aggressive response possible from Israel.\\\" He added that \\\"if you kill somebody's child in Gaza, you have made at least a few Hamas members who will die just to kill an Israeli.\\\" On November 17, 2023, Musk announced a policy change on the X platform, stating that X users who use terms such as \\\"decolonization\\\" and \\\"from the river to the sea,\\\" or similar expressions that \\\"necessarily imply genocide\\\" of the Jewish people in Israel, will be suspended. Several weeks later, Musk traveled to Israel by visiting the kibbutz Kfar Aza with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which had been part of the aftermath of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, and described it as \\\"jarring.\\\"\\nIn August 2024, Musk criticized UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer amid the riots taking place in that country, saying \\\"Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?\\\" Responding to a tweet with footage of the disorder that said the riots were due to the \\\"effects of mass migration and open borders\\\", Musk tweeted, \\\"Civil war is inevitable\\\". His comments were condemned by Starmer's official spokesman. Musk had previously restored far-right UK activist Tommy Robinson's account (after Robinson had been banned under Twitter's previous owners) and interacted with him on the platform. Musk went on to refer to Starmer as \\\"two-tier Keir\\\" and ask, \\\"Why aren't all communities protected in Britain?\\\" Musk promoted a conspiracy theory that the UK government was planning to build detainments camps in the Falkland Islands to hold rioters.\\nOn September 15, 2024, after the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Musk wrote on X that it was odd that nobody had tried to kill Biden or Kamala Harris. He then deleted the post following widespread condemnation. On September 19, the United States Secret Service announced that the agency was probing the post.\\n\\nAccusations of antisemitism\\nThe Israeli government and several media outlets accused Musk of sowing antisemitism due to his promotion of George Soros conspiracy theories, although some Israeli officials defended Musk and denied that his criticism of Soros constituted antisemitism.\\nOn November 15, 2023, Twitter user Charles Weber, who identifies as a Jewish conservative, posted a video from StopJewishHate.org condemning the phrase \\\"Hitler was right\\\"; Weber captioned the video: \\\"To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting 'Hitler was right': You got something you want to say? Why don't you say it to our faces\\\". In response, a second user posted \\\"Okay. Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them. I'm deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is.\\\" To this second user, Musk replied \\\"You have said the actual truth.\\\" Musk further clarified that he doesn't believe that \\\"all Jewish communities\\\" hate white people, but specifically took aim at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). He added, \\\"You [sic] right that this does not extend to all Jewish communities, but it is also not just limited to ADL\\\".\\nThe first tweet was widely regarded as echoing white nationalist sentiments and affirmed another antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews push \\\"hatred against Whites.\\\" The following day, Musk made a tweet which critics regarded as supporting white pride. Advertisers distanced themselves from his tweets. \\nAt the DealBook Summit on November 29, 2023, after comments from Disney CEO Bob Iger explaining his decision to stop advertising on X after Musk's recent post, journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin questioned Musk about the withdrawal of advertisers. Musk responded, \\\"I hope they stop. Don't advertise\\\" and \\\"If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.\\\"; Musk singled out Iger, saying \\\"Hey Bob, if you're in the audience.\\\" Musk acknowledged to Sorkin that one of his tweets—the one affirming an antisemitic conspiracy theory—was a mistake, saying \\\"I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and to those who are antisemitic and for that I am quite sorry.\\\" Musk described his tweet as \\\"one of the most foolish, if not the most foolish, thing I've done.\\\"\\nIn January 2024, Musk visited the Auschwitz concentration camp with European Jewish Association Chairman Rabbi, conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro and Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev. He also spoke on a conference about rising antisemitism. The New York Times described the trip as a part of an image \\\"rehabilitation tour.\\\"\\n\\nCOVID-19\\nMusk was criticized for his public comments and conduct related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He spread misinformation about the virus, including promoting a widely discredited paper on the benefits of chloroquine and claiming that COVID-19 death statistics were inflated.\\nIn March 2020, Musk stated, \\\"The coronavirus panic is dumb.\\\" In an email to Tesla employees, Musk referred to COVID-19 as a \\\"specific form of the common cold\\\" and predicted that confirmed COVID-19 cases would not exceed 0.1% of the U.S. population. On March 19, 2020, Musk predicted that there would be \\\"probably close to zero new cases in [the U.S.] by end of April\\\". Politico labeled this statement one of \\\"the most audacious, confident, and spectacularly incorrect prognostications [of 2020]\\\". Musk also falsely stated that children \\\"are essentially immune\\\" to COVID-19.\\nMusk condemned COVID-19 lockdowns and initially refused to close the Tesla Fremont Factory in March 2020, defying the local shelter-in-place order. In May 2020, he reopened the Tesla factory, defying the local stay-at-home order, and warned workers that they would be unpaid, and their unemployment benefits might be jeopardized, if they did not report to work. In December 2022, Musk called for prosecution of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci.\\nIn March 2020, Musk promised that Tesla would make ventilators for COVID-19 patients if there were a shortage. After figures like New York City mayor Bill de Blasio responded to Musk's offer, Musk offered to donate ventilators which Tesla would build or buy from a third party. However, Musk ended up buying and donating BiPAP and CPAP machines, which are devices that support respirations of someone able to breathe on their own, rather than the much more expensive and sought-after mechanical ventilator machines that are able to breathe for a patient entirely.\\nIn September 2020, Musk stated that he would not get the COVID-19 vaccine, because he and his children were \\\"not at risk for COVID\\\". Two months later, Musk contracted COVID-19 but suggested his COVID-19 rapid antigen test results were dubious, as he had been tested four times on the same device with the same nurse but had received equal numbers of positive and negative results. Following this, a postdoctoral fellow at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto explained in a Tweet why this result does not undermine the value of the test, referring to Musk as \\\"Space Karen\\\", which then trended on Twitter. In December 2021, Musk said that he and his eligible children had received the vaccine, saying that the science behind the COVID vaccines was \\\"unequivocal\\\" but expressing his opposition to COVID vaccine mandates.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nIn 2002, Musk became a U.S. citizen. From the early 2000s until late 2020, Musk resided in California, where both Tesla and SpaceX were founded. He then relocated to Austin, Texas, saying that California had become \\\"complacent\\\" about its economic success. While hosting Saturday Night Live in 2021, Musk stated that he has Asperger syndrome, although he has never been medically diagnosed. \\nDuring a South African safari in late 2000, he contracted malaria and was then hospitalized in an intensive care unit back in California.\\nMusk trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu while preparing for a proposed fight with Mark Zuckerberg. In his leisure time, he plays video games including Quake, Diablo IV, Elden Ring, and Polytopia. Musk has stated he uses prescribed ketamine for occasional depression, while The Wall Street Journal has repeatedly alleged he uses it and other drugs recreationally.\\n\\nRelationships and children\\nMusk has at least 12 children, one of whom is deceased. He met his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, while attending Queen's University in Ontario, Canada; they married in 2000. In 2002, their first child died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 10 weeks. After his death, the couple used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to continue their family; they had twins in 2004 followed by triplets in 2006. The couple divorced in 2008 and shared custody of their children.\\nIn 2022, the elder twin officially changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, reflecting her gender identity as a trans woman and using her mother's surname because she no longer wished to be associated with Musk. Musk blamed the estrangement of his daughter on what the Financial Times characterized as \\\"the supposed takeover of elite schools and universities by neo-Marxists\\\", and has said that her gender transition is primarily what sparked his drive to \\\"destroy the woke mind virus\\\". In a July 2024 episode of Jordan Peterson's podcast, Musk said regarding Vivian that he had \\\"lost [his] son [sic], essentially\\\" because of gender-affirming care. He commented: \\\"You know, they call it deadnaming for a reason. The reason it's called deadnaming is because your son [sic] is dead\\\", and went on to state that the eldest twin \\\"is dead, killed by the woke mind virus\\\". Vivian responded publicly, criticizing Musk for lying about her and the circumstances of her transition; claiming that Musk was \\\"cold\\\", \\\"quick to anger\\\", \\\"uncaring and narcissistic”, whose infrequent visits commonly involved him berating her for being feminine.\\nIn 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley. They married two years later at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland. In 2012, the couple divorced, before remarrying the following year. After briefly filing for divorce in 2014, Musk finalized a second divorce from Riley in 2016. Musk then dated Amber Heard for several months in 2017; he had reportedly been pursuing her since 2012.\\nIn 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes said that they were dating. Grimes gave birth to their son in May 2020. Musk and Grimes originally gave the baby the name \\\"X Æ A-12\\\", which would have violated California regulations as it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet, which they then changed to \\\"“X Æ A-Xii”. They have received criticism for choosing such an impractical and difficult to pronounce name.\\nIn December 2021, Grimes and Musk had a second child, a daughter born via surrogacy. Despite the pregnancy, Musk confirmed reports that the couple were \\\"semi-separated\\\" in September 2021; in an interview with Time in December 2021, he said he was single. In March 2022, Grimes said of her relationship with Musk: \\\"I would probably refer to him as my boyfriend, but we're very fluid.\\\" Later that month, Grimes tweeted that she and Musk had broken up again. In September 2023 it was reported that the pair had a third child, a son. In October 2023, Grimes sued Musk over parental rights and custody of their eldest son.\\nIn July 2022, Insider published court documents revealing that Musk had had twins via IVF with Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projects at Neuralink, in November 2021. They were born weeks before Musk and Grimes had their second child via surrogate in December. The news \\\"raise[d] questions about workplace ethics\\\", given that Zilis directly reported to Musk. Their third child together was born in early 2024 via surrogacy. Also in July 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk allegedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in 2021, leading to their divorce the following year. Musk denied the report. Musk also had a relationship with Australian actress Natasha Bassett, who has been described as \\\"an occasional girlfriend.\\\"\\n\\nLegal matters after 2020\\nIn May 2022, Business Insider cited an anonymous friend of an unnamed SpaceX contract flight attendant, alleging that Musk engaged in sexual misconduct in 2016. The source stated that in November 2018, Musk, SpaceX, and the former flight attendant entered into a severance agreement granting the attendant a $250,000 payment in exchange for a promise not to sue over the claims. Musk responded, \\\"If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light\\\". He accused the article from Business Insider of being a \\\"politically motivated hit piece\\\". After the release of the article, Tesla's stock fell by more than 6%, and Barron's wrote \\\"...some investors considered key-man risk – the danger that a company could be badly hurt by the loss of one individual.\\\"\\nIn April 2023, the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands sought to subpoena Musk for documents in a lawsuit alleging that JPMorgan Chase profited from Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation. The efforts to subpoena Musk for documents do not implicate him in any wrongdoing and do not seek to have Musk testify under oath.\\nMusk's former girlfriend Grimes filed a parental relationship petition in late September 2023 as part of a custody dispute. The petition came a month after Grimes openly accused him in a social media post of blocking her access to the youngest of their three children. On July 27, 2024, Grimes' mother accused Musk of withholding the passports of her grandchildren.\\nBen Brody, a 22-year-old Los Angeles-based college graduate, initiated a defamation lawsuit in October 2023 against Musk for over $1 million. He alleged Musk had falsely identified him as a participant \\\"in a violent street brawl on behalf of a neo-Nazi extremist group\\\" near Portland, Oregon. According to Brody's complaint, one of Musk's X posts promoted conspiracy theories that \\\"Ben Brody's alleged participation in the extremist brawl meant the incident was probably a 'false flag' operation to deceive the American public\\\". The complaint also alleged that Musk's accusations led to Brody and his family being subjected to harassment and threats. In February 2024, Musk was ordered to testify in a deposition for the lawsuit. In the deposition, Musk denied knowing who was suing him and admitted to doing no research on whether his claims were true. Musk attempted to keep the deposition from being made public.\\nIn October 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Musk over his refusal to testify a third time in an investigation into whether he violated federal law by purchasing Twitter stock in 2022. Musk claimed the SEC was harassing him. In February 2024, Judge Laurel Beeler ruled that Musk must testify again. \\nIn January 2024, Delaware Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled in a 2018 lawsuit that Musk's $55 billion pay package from Tesla be rescinded. McCormick called the compensation granted by the company's board \\\"an unfathomable sum\\\" that was unfair to shareholders. In response to the ruling, Musk posted on X: \\\"Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware.\\\" A re-ratification shareholders' vote passed in mid-June 2024, though much follow-up litigation is expected, including a lawsuit filed by a Tesla investor beforehand that alleged Musk employed \\\"coercive tactics\\\" to move the vote in his favor.\\nIn June 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported Musk had a \\\"romantic relationship\\\" with a former intern at SpaceX, confirmed with affidavits supplied by the intern's lawyers who also represent Musk, and alleged that he had sexual relations with a woman who directly reported to him there. The article further alleges he also pursued sex with other SpaceX employees, and repeatedly asked an employee who reported directly to him to \\\"have his babies.\\\" In the same month, eight ex-employees, the same eight who were previously fired for penning an anti-Musk letter at SpaceX, filed a lawsuit against Musk alleging sexual harassment. \\nAlso in June 2024, a former Twitter executive sued Musk for \\\"cheating\\\" him and other ousted executives out of $200 million in severance pay.\\nIn August 2024, Musk sued advertisers for a boycott of X (formerly Twitter). Later that month, Olympic boxer Imane Khelif filed a lawsuit for cyber harassment against X over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment\\\", in which Musk was named.\\n\\nPublic perception\\nThough his ventures have been highly influential within their separate industries up to current day, Musk only became a public figure in the early 2010s. He has been described as an eccentric who makes spontaneous and impactful decisions, while also often making controversial statements, contrary to other billionaires who prefer reclusiveness to protect their businesses. Biographer Ashley Vance described people's opinions of Musk as polarized due to his \\\"part philosopher, part troll\\\" role on Twitter.\\nMusk was a partial inspiration for the characterization of Tony Stark in the Marvel film Iron Man (2008). Musk also had a cameo appearance in the film's 2010 sequel, Iron Man 2. Musk has made cameos and appearances in other films such as Machete Kills (2013), Why Him? (2016), and Men in Black: International (2019). Television series in which he has appeared include The Simpsons (\\\"The Musk Who Fell to Earth\\\", 2015), The Big Bang Theory (\\\"The Platonic Permutation\\\", 2015), South Park (\\\"Members Only\\\", 2016), Young Sheldon (\\\"A Patch, a Modem, and a Zantac®\\\", 2017), Rick and Morty (\\\"One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty\\\", 2019), and Saturday Night Live (2021). He contributed interviews to the documentaries Racing Extinction (2015) and the Werner Herzog-directed Lo and Behold (2016).\\nAwards for his contributions to the development of the Falcon rockets include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Transportation Award in 2008, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Gold Space Medal in 2010, and the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal in 2012. In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate in engineering and technology from Yale University and an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Honorary Membership. Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018. In February 2022, Musk was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.\\nTime has listed Musk as one of the most influential people in the world on four occasions: in 2010, 2013, 2018, and 2021. Musk was selected as Time's \\\"Person of the Year\\\" for 2021. Then Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that \\\"Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too\\\".\\n\\nNotes and references\\nNotes\\nCitations\\nWorks cited\\nFurther reading\\nTarnoff, Ben, \\\"Ultra Hardcore\\\" (subscription required) (review of Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk, Simon and Schuster, 2023, 670 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXXI, no. 1 (January 18, 2024), pp. 6, 8, 10. \\\"There is an anti-modern impulse to Musk, a craving for lordship that can't be entirely satisfied within the confines of a capitalist economy. A king doesn't have advertisers or shareholders or customers, and Musk, if he continues on his current trajectory, may very well be abandoned by all three. Aristotle says a good ending should be surprising but inevitable. It's possible to imagine multiple finales for Musk that meet these criteria, but the story always begins the same way. Once upon a time in Pretoria, there was a boy who wanted to be a man.\\\" (p. 10.)\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nAppearances on C-SPAN\",\n \"title\": \"Elon_Musk\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's syndrome or Asperger's, is a term formerly used to describe a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. Asperger syndrome has been merged with other conditions into autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is no longer considered a diagnosis. It was considered milder than other diagnoses which were merged into ASD due to relatively unimpaired spoken language and intelligence.\\nThe syndrome was named after the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger, who, in 1944, described children in his care who struggled to form friendships, did not understand others' gestures or feelings, engaged in one-sided conversations about their favorite interests, and were clumsy. In 1994, the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome was included in the fourth edition (DSM-IV) of the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; however, with the publication of DSM-5 in 2013 the syndrome was removed, and the symptoms are now included within autism spectrum disorder along with classic autism and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). It was similarly merged into autism spectrum disorder in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as of 2021.\\nThe exact cause of Asperger syndrome is not well understood. While it has high heritability, the underlying genetics have not been determined conclusively. Environmental factors are also believed to play a role. Brain imaging has not identified a common underlying condition. There is no single treatment, and the UK's National Health Service (NHS) guidelines suggest that \\\"treatment\\\" of any form of autism should not be a goal, since autism is not \\\"a disease that can be removed or cured\\\". According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, while co-occurring conditions might require treatment, \\\"management of autism itself is chiefly about the provision of the education, training, and social support/care required to improve the person's ability to function in the everyday world\\\". The effectiveness of particular interventions for autism is supported by only limited data. Interventions may include social skills training, cognitive behavioral therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, parent training, and medications for associated problems, such as mood or anxiety. Autistic characteristics tend to become less obvious in adulthood, but social and communication difficulties usually persist.\\nIn 2015, Asperger syndrome was estimated to affect 37.2 million people globally, or about 0.5% of the population. The exact percentage of people affected has still not been firmly established. Autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed in males more often than females, and females are typically diagnosed at a later age. The modern conception of Asperger syndrome came into existence in 1981 and went through a period of popularization. It became a standardized diagnosis in the 1990s and was merged into ASD in 2013. Many questions and controversies about the condition remain.\\n\\nClassification\\nThe extent of the overlap between Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism (HFA – autism unaccompanied by intellectual disability) is unclear. The ASD classification is to some extent an artifact of how autism was discovered, and it may not reflect the true nature of the spectrum; methodological problems have beset Asperger syndrome as a valid diagnosis from the outset. In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published in May 2013, Asperger syndrome, as a separate diagnosis, was eliminated and folded into autism spectrum disorder. Like the diagnosis of Asperger syndrome, the change was controversial. Subsequently, it was also not included in the ICD-11, which came into effect in 2022.\\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) previously defined Asperger syndrome (AS) as one of the pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which are a spectrum of psychological disorders that are characterized by abnormalities of social interaction and communication that pervade the individual's functioning, and by restricted and repetitive interests and behavior. Like other neurodevelopmental conditions, ASD begins in infancy or childhood, has a steady course without remission or relapse, and has impairments that result from maturation-related changes in various systems of the brain.\\n\\nCharacteristics\\nAs a pervasive developmental disorder, Asperger syndrome is distinguished by a pattern of symptoms rather than a single symptom. It is characterized by qualitative impairment in social interaction, by stereotyped and restricted patterns of behavior, activities, and interests, and by no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or general delay in language. Intense preoccupation with a narrow subject, one-sided verbosity, restricted prosody, and physical clumsiness are typical of the condition, but are not required for diagnosis.\\nSuicidal thoughts and behaviors are a serious concern within the autistic population. One study found that adults with Asperger syndrome exhibited suicidal thoughts at 9 times the rate of the general population. Of autistic study participants, 66% had experienced suicidal ideation, while 35% had planned or attempted suicide.\\n\\nSocial interaction\\nA lack of demonstrated empathy affects aspects of social relatability for persons with Asperger syndrome. Individuals with Asperger syndrome experience difficulties in basic elements of social interaction, which may include a failure to develop friendships or to seek shared enjoyments or achievements with others (e.g., showing others objects of interest); a lack of social or emotional reciprocity; and impaired nonverbal behaviors in areas such as eye contact, facial expression, posture, and gesture.\\nPeople with Asperger syndrome may not be as withdrawn around others, compared with those with other forms of autism; they approach others, even if awkwardly. For example, a person with Asperger syndrome may engage in a one-sided, long-winded speech about a favorite topic, while misunderstanding or not recognizing the listener's feelings or reactions, such as a wish to change the topic of talk or end the interaction. This social awkwardness has been called \\\"active but odd\\\". Such failures to react appropriately to social interaction may appear as disregard for other people's feelings and may come across as rude or insensitive. However, not all individuals with Asperger syndrome will approach others. Some may even display selective mutism, not speaking at all to most people and excessively to specific others.\\nThe cognitive ability of children with Asperger syndrome often allows them to articulate social norms in a laboratory context, where they may be able to show a theoretical understanding of other people's emotions; however, they typically have difficulty acting on this knowledge in fluid, real-life situations. People with Asperger syndrome may analyze and distill their observations of social interaction into rigid behavioral guidelines and apply these rules in awkward ways, such as forced eye contact, resulting in a demeanor that appears rigid or socially naïve. A history of failed attempts to establish reciprocal social relationships can cause autistic individuals to isolate themselves and cease attempts to engage; however, autistic people overwhelmingly report a desire for social contact and friendship.\\n\\nViolent or criminal behavior\\nThe hypothesis that individuals with Asperger syndrome are predisposed to violent or criminal behavior has been investigated but is not supported by data. More evidence suggests that children diagnosed with Asperger syndrome are more likely to be victims, rather than offenders.\\nA 2008 review found that an overwhelming number of reported violent criminals with Asperger syndrome also had other coexisting psychotic psychiatric disorders such as schizoaffective disorder.\\n\\nEmpathy\\nPeople with an Asperger profile might not be recognized for their empathetic qualities, due to variation in the ways empathy is felt and expressed. Some people feel deep empathy, but do not outwardly communicate these sentiments through facial expressions or language. Some people come to empathy through intellectual processes, using logic and reasoning to arrive at the feelings. People with Asperger profiles may be bullied or excluded by peers, and might as a result be guarded around people, which could appear as lack of empathy. People with Asperger profiles can still be caring individuals; indeed, it is particularly common for those with the profile to feel and exhibit deep concern for individual rights, human welfare, animal rights, environmental protection, and other global and humanitarian causes.\\nEvidence suggests that in the \\\"double empathy problem model, autistic people have a unique interaction style which is significantly more readable by other autistic people, compared to non-autistic people.\\\"\\n\\nRestricted and repetitive interests and behavior\\nPeople with Asperger syndrome can display behavior, interests, and activities that are restricted and repetitive and are sometimes abnormally intense or focused. They may stick to inflexible routines, move in stereotyped and repetitive ways, preoccupy themselves with parts of objects, or engage in compulsive behaviors like lining objects up to form patterns.\\nThe pursuit of specific and narrow areas of interest is one of the most striking among possible features of AS. Individuals with AS may collect volumes of detailed information on a relatively narrow topic such as weather data or star names without necessarily having a genuine understanding of the broader topic. For example, a child might memorize camera model numbers while caring little about photography. This behavior is usually apparent by age five or six. Although these special interests may change from time to time, they typically become more unusual and narrowly focused and often dominate social interaction so much that the entire family may become immersed. Because narrow topics often capture the interest of children, this symptom may go unrecognized.\\nStereotyped and repetitive motor behaviors, called stimming, are a core part of the diagnosis of AS and other ASDs. Stims are believed to be used for self-soothing and regulate sensory input. They include hand movements such as flapping or twisting, and complex whole-body movements. These are typically repeated in longer bursts and look more voluntary or ritualistic than tics, which are usually faster, less rhythmical, and less often symmetrical. Stimming may have a connection with tics, and studies have reported a consistent comorbidity between AS and Tourette syndrome in the range of 8–20%, with one figure as high as 80% for tics of some kind or another, for which several explanations have been put forward, including common genetic factors and dopamine, glutamate, or serotonin abnormalities.\\nAccording to the Adult Asperger Assessment (AAA) diagnostic test, a lack of interest in fiction and a positive preference towards non-fiction is common among adults with AS.\\n\\nSpeech and language\\nAlthough individuals with Asperger syndrome acquire language skills without significant general delay and their speech typically lacks significant abnormalities, language acquisition and use is often atypical. Abnormalities include verbosity; abrupt transitions; literal interpretations and miscomprehension of nuance; use of metaphor meaningful only to the speaker; auditory perception deficits; unusually pedantic, formal, or idiosyncratic speech; and oddities in loudness, pitch, intonation, prosody, and rhythm. Echolalia has also been observed in individuals with AS.\\nThree aspects of communication patterns are of clinical interest: poor prosody, tangential and circumstantial speech, and marked verbosity. Although inflection and intonation may be less rigid or monotonic than in classic autism, people with AS often have a limited range of intonation: speech may be unusually fast, jerky, or loud. Speech may convey a sense of incoherence; the conversational style often includes monologues about topics that bore the listener, fails to provide context for comments, or fails to suppress internal thoughts. Individuals with AS may fail to detect whether the listener is interested or engaged in the conversation. The speaker's conclusion or point may never be made, and attempts by the listener to elaborate on the speech's content or logic, or to shift to related topics, are often unsuccessful.\\nChildren with AS may have a sophisticated vocabulary at a young age and such children have often been colloquially called \\\"little professors\\\" but have difficulty understanding figurative language and tend to use language literally. Children with AS appear to have particular weaknesses in areas of nonliteral language that include humor, irony, teasing, and sarcasm. Although individuals with AS usually understand the cognitive basis of humor, they seem to lack understanding of the intent of humor to share the enjoyment with others. Despite strong evidence of impaired humor appreciation, anecdotal reports of humor in individuals with AS seem to challenge some psychological theories of AS and autism.\\n\\nMotor and sensory perception\\nIndividuals with Asperger syndrome may have signs or symptoms that are independent of the diagnosis but can affect the individual or the family. These include differences in perception and problems with motor skills, sleep, and emotions.\\nIndividuals with AS often have excellent auditory and visual perception. Children with ASD often demonstrate enhanced perception of small changes in patterns such as arrangements of objects or well-known images; typically this is domain-specific and involves processing of fine-grained features. Conversely, compared with individuals with high-functioning autism, individuals with AS have deficits in some tasks involving visual-spatial perception, auditory perception, or visual memory. Many accounts of individuals with AS and ASD report other unusual sensory and perceptual skills and experiences. They may be unusually sensitive or insensitive to sound, light, and other stimuli; these sensory responses are found in other developmental disorders and are not specific to AS or to ASD. There is little support for increased fight-or-flight response or failure of habituation in autism; there is more evidence of decreased responsiveness to sensory stimuli, although several studies show no differences.\\nHans Asperger's initial accounts and other diagnostic schemes include descriptions of physical clumsiness. Children with AS may be delayed in acquiring skills requiring dexterity, such as riding a bicycle or opening a jar, and may seem to move awkwardly or feel \\\"uncomfortable in their own skin\\\". They may be poorly coordinated or have an odd or bouncy gait or posture, poor handwriting, or problems with motor coordination. They may show problems with proprioception (sensation of body position) on measures of developmental coordination disorder (motor planning disorder), balance, tandem gait, and finger-thumb apposition. There is no evidence that these motor skills problems differentiate AS from other high-functioning ASDs.\\nChildren with AS are more likely to have sleep problems, including difficulty in falling asleep, frequent nocturnal awakenings, and early morning awakenings. AS is also associated with high levels of alexithymia, which is difficulty in identifying and describing one's emotions. Although AS, lower sleep quality, and alexithymia are associated with each other, their causal relationship is unclear.\\n\\nCauses\\nHans Asperger described common traits among his patients' family members, especially fathers, and research supports this observation and suggests a genetic contribution to Asperger syndrome. Although no specific genetic factor has yet been identified, multiple factors are believed to play a role in the expression of autism, given the variability in symptoms seen in children. Hundreds of genes have been linked to AS, and these genes play crucial role in a multitude of biological processes, exerting influence over the maturation and functioning of the brain. Evidence for a genetic link is that AS tends to run in families where more family members have limited behavioral symptoms similar to AS (for example, some problems with social interaction, or with language and reading skills). Most behavioral genetic research suggests that all autism spectrum disorders have shared genetic mechanisms. There may be shared genes in which particular alleles make an individual vulnerable, and varying combinations result in differing severity and symptoms in each person with AS.\\nA few ASD cases have been linked to exposure to teratogens (agents that cause birth defects) during the first eight weeks from conception. Although this does not exclude the possibility that ASD can be initiated or affected later, it is strong evidence that ASD arises very early in development. Many environmental factors have been hypothesized to act after birth, but none has been confirmed by scientific investigation. These environmental elements can act as independent and significant risk factors, or they can potentially influence pre-existing genetic factors in people who have a genetic predisposition.\\n\\nMechanism\\nAsperger syndrome appears to result from developmental factors that affect many or all functional brain systems, as opposed to localized effects.\\nAlthough the specific underpinnings of AS or factors that distinguish it from other ASDs are unknown, and no clear pathology common to individuals with AS has emerged, it is still possible that AS's mechanism is separate from other ASDs.\\nNeuroanatomical studies and the associations with teratogens strongly suggest that the mechanism includes alteration of brain development soon after conception. Abnormal fetal development may affect the final structure and connectivity of the brain, resulting in altered neural circuits controlling thought and behavior. Several theories of mechanism are available; none are likely to provide a complete explanation.\\n\\nGeneral-processing theories\\nOne general-processing theory is weak central coherence theory, which hypothesizes that a limited ability to see the big picture underlies the central disturbance in ASD. A related theory—enhanced perceptual functioning—focuses more on the superiority of locally oriented and perceptual operations in autistic individuals.\\n\\nMirror neuron system (MNS) theory\\nThe mirror neuron system (MNS) theory hypothesizes that alterations to the development of the MNS interfere with imitation and lead to Asperger syndrome's core feature of social impairment. One study found that activation is delayed in the core circuit for imitation in individuals with AS. This theory maps well to social cognition theories like the theory of mind, which hypothesizes that autistic behavior arises from impairments in ascribing mental states to oneself and others; or hyper-systemizing, which hypothesizes that autistic individuals can systematize internal operation to handle internal events but are less effective at empathizing when handling events generated by other agents.\\n\\nDiagnosis\\nStandard diagnostic criteria require impairment in social interaction and repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, activities, and interests, without significant delay in language or cognitive development. Unlike the international standard, the DSM-IV-TR criteria also required significant impairment in day-to-day functioning; DSM-5 eliminated AS as a separate diagnosis in 2013, and folded it into the umbrella of autism spectrum disorders. Other sets of diagnostic criteria have been proposed by Szatmari et al. and by Gillberg and Gillberg.\\nDiagnosis is most commonly made between the ages of four and eleven. A comprehensive assessment involves a multidisciplinary team that observes across multiple settings, and includes neurological and genetic assessment as well as tests for cognition, psychomotor function, verbal and nonverbal strengths and weaknesses, style of learning, and skills for independent living. The \\\"gold standard\\\" in diagnosing ASDs combines clinical judgment with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), a semistructured parent interview; and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), a conversation and play-based interview with the child. Delayed or mistaken diagnosis can be traumatic for individuals and families; for example, misdiagnosis can lead to medications that worsen behavior.\\nUnderdiagnosis and overdiagnosis may be problems. The cost and difficulty of screening and assessment can delay diagnosis. Conversely, the increasing popularity of drug treatment options and the expansion of benefits has motivated providers to overdiagnose ASD. There are indications AS has been diagnosed more frequently in recent years, partly as a residual diagnosis for children of normal intelligence who are not autistic but have social difficulties.\\nThere are questions about the external validity of the AS diagnosis. That is, it is unclear whether there is a practical benefit in distinguishing AS from HFA or PDD-NOS; different screening tools may render different diagnoses for the same person.\\n\\nDifferential diagnosis\\nMany children with AS are initially misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Diagnosing adults is more challenging, as standard diagnostic criteria are designed for children and the expression of AS changes with age. Adult diagnosis requires painstaking clinical examination and thorough medical history gained from both the individual and other people who know the person, focusing on childhood behavior.\\nConditions that must be considered in a differential diagnosis along with ADHD include other ASDs, the schizophrenia spectrum, personality disorders, obsessive–compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder, semantic pragmatic disorder, nonverbal learning disorder, social anxiety disorder, Tourette syndrome, stereotypic movement disorder, bipolar disorder, social-cognitive deficits due to brain damage from alcohol use disorder, and obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD).\\n\\nScreening\\nParents of children with Asperger syndrome can typically trace differences in their children's development to as early as 30 months of age. Developmental screening during a routine check-up by a general practitioner or pediatrician may identify signs that warrant further investigation. The United States Preventive Services Task Force in 2016 found it was unclear if screening was beneficial or harmful among children in whom there are no concerns.\\nDifferent screening instruments are used to diagnose AS, including the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale (ASDS); Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ); Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST), previously called the Childhood Asperger Syndrome Test; Gilliam Asperger's disorder scale (GADS); Krug Asperger's Disorder Index (KADI); and the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ), with versions for children, adolescents, and adults. None have been shown to reliably differentiate between AS and other ASDs.\\n\\nManagement\\nTreatment attempts to manage distressing symptoms and to teach age-appropriate social, communication, and vocational skills that are not naturally acquired during development. Intervention is tailored to the needs of the individual based on multidisciplinary assessment. Although progress has been made, data supporting the efficacy of particular interventions are limited.\\n\\nTherapies\\nManaging ASD may involve multiple therapies that address core symptoms of the disorder. While many professionals agree that the earlier the professional support the better, there is no combination that is recommended above others. Professional support for ASD varies depending on the individual; it takes into account the linguistic capabilities, verbal strengths, and nonverbal vulnerabilities of individuals.\\nMany of those diagnosed with ASD or similar disorders advocate against behavioral therapies, like Applied behavior analysis (ABA) and Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), often as part of the autism rights movement, on the grounds that these approaches frequently reinforce the demand on autistic people to mask their neurodivergent characteristics or behaviors to favor a more 'neurotypical' and narrow conception of normality. ABA has faced a great deal of criticism over the years. Recently, studies have shown that ABA may be abusive and can increase PTSD symptoms in patients. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network campaigns against the use of ABA in autism.\\nIn the case of CBT and talking therapies, the effectiveness varies, with many reporting that they appeared 'too self-aware' to gain significant benefit, as the therapy was designed with neurotypical people in mind. In autistic children, specifically, they also report that it is only mildly beneficial in aiding with their anxieties.\\nA typical program of professional support generally includes:\\n\\nApplied behavior analysis (ABA) procedures, including positive behavior support (PBS)—or training and support of parents and school faculty in behavior management strategies to use in the home and school, and social skills training for more effective interpersonal interactions. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network campaigns against the use of ABA in autism;\\nCognitive behavioral therapy to improve stress management relating to anxiety or explosive emotions and to help reduce obsessive interests (although this may produce negative impact by demonising special interests) and repetitive routines;\\nMedication for coexisting conditions such as major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders;\\nOccupational or physical therapy to assist with poor sensory processing and motor coordination; and,\\nSocial communication intervention, which is specialized speech therapy to help with the pragmatics and give-and-take of normal conversation.\\nOf the many studies on behavior-based early intervention programs, most are case reports of up to five participants and typically examine a few problem behaviors such as self-injury, aggression, noncompliance, stereotypies, or spontaneous language; unintended side effects are largely ignored. Despite the popularity of social skills training, its effectiveness is not firmly established. A randomized controlled study of a model for training parents in problem behaviors in their children with AS showed that parents attending a one-day workshop or six individual lessons reported fewer behavioral problems, while parents receiving the individual lessons reported less intense behavioral problems in their AS children. Vocational training may be important to teach job interview etiquette and workplace behavior to older children and adults with AS, and organization software and personal data assistants can improve the work and life management of people with AS.\\nFecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT) is an innovative therapy for AS that aims to restore microbial balance in the patient's gastrointestinal tract by introducing healthy fecal microbiota acquired from people with a diverse microbial composition. This approach attempts to reconstruct the patient's gut microbiota by taking into account the intricate interactions between the human gut and the central nervous system via the gut-brain axis (GBA). Any disruption in gut health has been linked to an increased susceptibility to diverse neurodevelopmental disorders.\\nIt is vital to remember that research of AS specifically operates upon the out-dated classification of this syndrome as external to ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Similarly, we should also note that ASD is a spectrum and support varies dramatically depending on the individual.\\n\\nMedications\\nNo medications directly treat the core symptoms of AS. Although research into the efficacy of pharmaceutical intervention for AS is limited, it is essential to diagnose and treat comorbid conditions. Deficits in self-identifying emotions or in observing effects of one's behavior on others can make it difficult for individuals with AS to see why medication may be appropriate. Medication can be effective in combination with behavioral interventions and environmental accommodations in treating comorbid symptoms such as anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder, inattention, and aggression. The atypical antipsychotic medications risperidone, olanzapine and aripiprazole have been shown to reduce the associated symptoms of AS; risperidone can reduce repetitive and self-injurious behaviors, aggressive outbursts, and impulsivity, and improve stereotypical patterns of behavior and social relatedness. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, and sertraline have been effective in treating restricted and repetitive interests and behaviors, while stimulant medication, such as methylphenidate, can reduce inattention. In addition, scientists have made a noteworthy finding that oxytocin, a hormone, plays a significant role in shaping human social behavior and the formation of interpersonal connections.\\nCare must be taken with medications, as side effects may be more common and harder to evaluate in individuals with AS, and tests of drugs' effectiveness against comorbid conditions routinely exclude individuals from the autism spectrum. Abnormalities in metabolism, cardiac conduction times, and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes have been raised as concerns with antipsychotic medications, along with serious long-term neurological side effects. SSRIs can lead to manifestations of behavioral activation such as increased impulsivity, aggression, and sleep disturbance. Weight gain and fatigue are commonly reported side effects of risperidone, which may also lead to increased risk for extrapyramidal symptoms such as restlessness and dystonia and increased serum prolactin levels. Sedation and weight gain are more common with olanzapine, which has also been linked with diabetes. Sedative side-effects in school-age children have ramifications for classroom learning. Individuals with AS may be unable to identify and communicate their internal moods and emotions or to tolerate side effects that for most people would not be problematic.\\n\\nPrognosis\\nThere is some evidence that children with AS may see a lessening of symptoms; up to 20% of children may no longer meet the diagnostic criteria as adults, although social and communication difficulties may persist. As of 2006, no studies addressing the long-term outcome of individuals with Asperger syndrome are available and there are no systematic long-term follow-up studies of children with AS. Individuals with AS appear to have normal life expectancy, but have an increased prevalence of comorbid psychiatric conditions, such as major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders that may significantly affect prognosis. Although social impairment may be lifelong, the outcome is generally more positive than with individuals with lower-functioning autism spectrum disorders; for example, ASD symptoms are more likely to diminish with time in children with AS or HFA. Most students with AS and HFA have average mathematical ability and test slightly worse in mathematics than in general intelligence. However, mathematicians are at least three times more likely to have autism-spectrum traits than the general population, and are more likely to have family members with autism.\\nAlthough many attend regular education classes, some children with AS may attend special education classes such as separate classroom and resource room because of their social and behavioral difficulties. Adolescents with AS may exhibit ongoing difficulty with self-care or organization, and disturbances in social and romantic relationships. Despite high cognitive potential, most young adults with AS remain at home, yet some do marry and work independently. The \\\"different-ness\\\" adolescents experience can be traumatic. Anxiety may stem from preoccupation over possible violations of routines and rituals, from being placed in a situation without a clear schedule or expectations, or from concern with failing in social encounters; the resulting stress may manifest as inattention, withdrawal, reliance on obsessions, hyperactivity, or aggressive or oppositional behavior. Depression is often the result of chronic frustration from repeated failure to engage others socially, and mood disorders requiring treatment may develop. Clinical experience suggests the rate of suicide may be higher among those with AS, but this has not been confirmed by systematic empirical studies.\\nEducation of families is critical in developing strategies for understanding strengths and weaknesses; helping the family to cope improves outcomes in children. Prognosis may be improved by diagnosis at a younger age that allows for early interventions, while interventions in adulthood are valuable but less beneficial. There are legal implications for individuals with AS as they run the risk of exploitation by others and may be unable to comprehend the societal implications of their actions.\\n\\nEpidemiology\\nFrequency estimates vary enormously. In 2015, it was estimated that 37.2 million people globally are affected. A 2003 review of epidemiological studies of children found autism rates ranging from 0.03 to 4.84 per 1,000, with the ratio of autism to Asperger syndrome ranging from 1.5:1 to 16:1; combining the geometric mean ratio of 5:1 with a conservative prevalence estimate for autism of 1.3 per 1,000 suggests indirectly that the prevalence of AS might be around 0.26 per 1,000. Part of the variance in estimates arises from differences in diagnostic criteria. For example, a relatively small 2007 study of 5,484 eight-year-old children in Finland found 2.9 children per 1,000 met the ICD-10 criteria for an AS diagnosis, 2.7 per 1,000 for Gillberg and Gillberg criteria, 2.5 for DSM-IV, 1.6 for Szatmari et al., and 4.3 per 1,000 for the union of the four criteria. Boys seem to be more likely to have AS than girls; estimates of the sex ratio range from 1.6:1 to 4:1, using the Gillberg and Gillberg criteria. Females with autism spectrum disorders may be underdiagnosed.\\n\\nComorbidities\\nAnxiety disorders and major depressive disorder are the most common conditions seen at the same time; comorbidity of these in persons with AS is estimated at 65%. Reports have associated AS with medical conditions such as aminoaciduria and ligamentous laxity, but these have been case reports or small studies and no factors have been associated with AS across studies. One study of males with AS found an increased rate of epilepsy and a high rate (51%) of nonverbal learning disorder. AS is associated with tics, Tourette syndrome and bipolar disorder. The repetitive behaviors of AS have many similarities with the symptoms of obsessive–compulsive disorder and obsessive–compulsive personality disorder, and 26% of a sample of young adults with AS were found to meet the criteria for schizoid personality disorder (which is characterised by severe social seclusion and emotional detachment), more than any other personality disorder in the sample. However many of these studies are based on clinical samples or lack standardized measures; nonetheless, comorbid conditions are relatively common.\\n\\nCorrelated characteristics\\nResearch indicates that individuals with Aspergers have significantly higher rates of LGBT identities and feelings than the general population. They are also significantly more likely to be non-theistic.\\n\\nHistory\\nNamed after the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger (1906–1980), Asperger syndrome is a relatively new diagnosis in the field of autism, though a syndrome like it was described as early as 1925 by Soviet child psychiatrist Grunya Sukhareva (1891–1981), leading some of those diagnosed with Asperger syndrome to instead refer to their condition as 'Sukhareva's Syndrome', in opposition to Hans Asperger's association with Nazism. As a child, Asperger appears to have exhibited some features of the very condition named after him, such as remoteness and talent in language. In 1944, Asperger described four children in his practice who had difficulty in integrating themselves socially and showing empathy towards peers. They also lacked nonverbal communication skills and were physically clumsy. Asperger described this \\\"autistic psychopathy\\\" as social isolation. Fifty years later, several standardizations of AS as a medical diagnosis were tentatively proposed, many of which diverge significantly from Asperger's original work.\\nUnlike today's AS, autistic psychopathy could be found in people of all levels of intelligence, including those with intellectual disability. Asperger defended the value of so-called \\\"high-functioning\\\" autistic individuals, writing: \\\"We are convinced, then, that autistic people have their place in the organism of the social community. They fulfill their role well, perhaps better than anyone else could, and we are talking of people who as children had the greatest difficulties and caused untold worries to their care-givers.\\\" Asperger also believed some would be capable of exceptional achievement and original thought later in life.\\nAsperger's paper was published during World War II and in German, so it was not widely read elsewhere. Lorna Wing used the term Asperger syndrome in 1976, and popularized it to the English-speaking medical community in her February 1981 publication of case studies of children showing the symptoms described by Asperger, and Uta Frith translated his paper to English in 1991. Sets of diagnostic criteria were outlined by Gillberg and Gillberg in 1989 and by Szatmari et al. in the same year. In 1992, AS became a standard diagnosis when it was included in the tenth edition of the World Health Organization's diagnostic manual, International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). It was added to the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic reference, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), published in 1994.\\nHundreds of books, articles, and websites now describe AS and prevalence estimates have increased dramatically for ASD, with AS recognized as an important subgroup. Whether it should be seen as distinct from high-functioning autism is a fundamental issue requiring further study, and there are questions about the empirical validation of the DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria. In 2013, DSM-5 eliminated AS as a separate diagnosis, folding it into the autism spectrum on a severity scale.\\n\\nSociety and culture\\nPeople identifying with Asperger syndrome may refer to themselves in casual conversation as aspies (a term first used in print in the Boston Globe in 1998). Some autistic people have advocated a shift in perception of autism spectrum disorders as complex syndromes rather than diseases that must be cured. Proponents of this view reject the notion that there is an \\\"ideal\\\" brain configuration and that any deviation from the norm is pathological; they promote tolerance of neurodiversity. These views are the basis for the autistic rights and autistic pride movements. There is a contrast between the attitude of people with AS, who typically do not want to be cured and are proud of their identity; and parents of children with AS, who typically seek assistance and a cure for their children.\\nSome researchers have argued that AS can be viewed as a different cognitive style, not a disorder, and that it should be removed from the standard Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, much as homosexuality was removed. (In 2013 Asperger Syndrome was indeed eliminated as a separate diagnosis in DSM-5.) In a 2002 paper, Simon Baron-Cohen wrote of those with AS: \\\"In the social world, there is no great benefit to a precise eye for detail, but in the worlds of maths, computing, cataloging, music, linguistics, engineering, and science, such an eye for detail can lead to success rather than failure.\\\" Baron-Cohen cited two reasons why it might still be useful to consider AS to be a disability: to ensure provision for legally required special support, and to recognize emotional difficulties from reduced empathy. Baron-Cohen argues that the genes for ASD's combination of abilities have operated throughout recent human evolution and have made remarkable contributions to human history.\\nBy contrast, Pier Jaarsma and Welin wrote in 2011 that the \\\"broad version of the neurodiversity claim, covering low-functioning as well as high-functioning autism, is problematic. Only a narrow conception of neurodiversity, referring exclusively to high-functioning autists, is reasonable.\\\" They say that \\\"higher functioning\\\" individuals with autism may \\\"not [be] benefited with such a psychiatric defect-based diagnosis ... some of them are being harmed by it, because of the disrespect the diagnosis displays for their natural way of being\\\", but \\\"think that it is still reasonable to include other categories of autism in the psychiatric diagnostics. The narrow conception of the neurodiversity claim should be accepted but the broader claim should not.\\\"\\n\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\n\\nAutistic Empire, Are you Autistic? Take the test – an online version of the Adult Asperger's Assessment developed by Cohen, S. et al. (2005) (see Woodbury-Smith MR, \\\"Screening adults for Asperger Syndrome using the AQ: a preliminary study of its diagnostic validity in clinical practice\\\", in §References).\\nHus V, Lord C (August 2014). \\\"The autism diagnostic observation schedule, module 4: revised algorithm and standardized severity scores\\\". Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 44 (8): 1996–2012. doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2080-3. PMC 4104252. PMID 24590409. A public paper re-calibrating the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule for appropriate assessment of autistic adults, who typically score lower on measures of impairment than autistic children due to compensatory strategies.\\nRoyal College of Psychiatrists (2017), Interview Guide for the Diagnostic Assessment of Able Adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorder – based on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R)\",\n \"title\": \"Asperger_syndrome\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"The person who posted a photo with Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson at the headquarters of a social media company claims to have a certain syndrome, despite never receiving a formal diagnosis. Who was this syndrome named after?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Hans Asperger"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":689,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"689"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Emily Jean \"Emma\" Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress and producer. Her accolades include two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2017, she was the world's highest-paid actress and named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.\nStone began acting as a child in a theater production of The Wind in the Willows in 2000. As a teenager, she relocated to Los Angeles and made her television debut in In Search of the New Partridge Family (2004), a reality show that produced only an unsold pilot. After small television roles, she appeared in a series of well-received teen comedy films, such as Superbad (2007), Zombieland (2009), and Easy A (2010), which was Stone's first leading role. Following this breakthrough, she starred in the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) and the period drama The Help (2011), and gained wider recognition as Gwen Stacy in the 2012 superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man and its 2014 sequel.\nStone received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a recovering drug addict in Birdman (2014) and portraying Abigail Masham in The Favourite (2018). The latter marked her first of many collaborations with director Yorgos Lanthimos. She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress, for her roles as an aspiring actress in the romantic musical La La Land (2016) and a resurrected suicide victim in Lanthimos' comic fantasy film Poor Things (2023). She also portrayed tennis player Billie Jean King in Battle of the Sexes (2017) and the title role in Cruella (2021). On television, she starred in the dark comedy miniseries Maniac (2018) and The Curse (2023).\nOn Broadway, Stone has starred as Sally Bowles in a revival of the musical Cabaret (2014–2015). She and her husband, Dave McCary, founded the production company Fruit Tree in 2020, under which they have produced the films When You Finish Saving the World (2022), Problemista (2023), and I Saw the TV Glow (2024).\n\nEarly life\nStone was born on November 6, 1988, in Scottsdale, Arizona, to Jeffrey Charles Stone, the founder and CEO of a general-contracting company, and Krista Jean Stone (née Yeager), a homemaker. She lived on the grounds of the Camelback Inn resort from ages 12 to 15. She has a younger brother, Spencer. Her paternal grandfather, Conrad Ostberg Sten, was from a Swedish family that anglicized their surname to \"Stone\". She also has German, English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry.\n\nAs an infant, Stone had baby colic and cried frequently. She consequently developed nodules and calluses on her vocal cords while she was a child. Stone has described herself as \"loud\" and \"bossy\" while growing up. She was educated at Sequoya Elementary School and attended Cocopah Middle School for sixth grade. Stone did not like school, though once said that her controlling nature meant that \"I made sure I got all A's\". She suffered panic attacks and anxiety as a child, and said they caused a decline in her social skills. Stone underwent therapy but said it was her participation in local theater plays that helped cure the attacks, recalling:\n\nThe first time I had a panic attack I was sitting in my friend's house, and I thought the house was burning down. I called my mom and she brought me home, and for the next three years it just would not stop. I would go to the nurse at lunch most days and just wring my hands. I would ask my mom to tell me exactly how the day was going to be, then ask again 30 seconds later. I just needed to know that no one was going to die and nothing was going to change.\nStone wanted to act since age four; she wanted a career in sketch comedy initially, but shifted her focus to musical theater, and took vocal lessons for several years. Her acting debut, at age 11, came in a stage production of The Wind in the Willows, playing Otter. Stone was homeschooled for two years, during which time she appeared in 16 productions at Phoenix's Valley Youth Theatre—including The Princess and the Pea, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat—and performed with the theater's improvisational comedy troupe. Around this time, she traveled to Los Angeles and auditioned unsuccessfully for a role on Nickelodeon's All That. Her parents later sent her for private acting lessons with a local acting coach, who had worked at the William Morris Agency in the 1970s.\nStone attended Xavier College Preparatory—an all-girl Catholic high school—as a freshman, but dropped out after one semester to become an actress. She prepared a PowerPoint presentation for her parents titled \"Project Hollywood\" (featuring Madonna's 2003 song \"Hollywood\") to convince them to let her move to California to pursue an acting career. In January 2004, she moved with her mother to an apartment in Los Angeles. She recalled, \"I went up for every single show on the Disney Channel and auditioned to play the daughter on every single sitcom\", adding, \"I ended up getting none.\" Between auditions for roles, she enrolled in online high-school classes and worked part-time at a dog-treat bakery.\n\nCareer\nCareer beginnings (2004–2009)\nWhen Stone registered for the Screen Actors Guild at age 16, the name \"Emily Stone\" was already taken, and she briefly went by \"Riley Stone\". She made her television debut as Laurie Partridge on the VH1 talent competition reality show In Search of the New Partridge Family (2004). The resulting show, retitled The New Partridge Family (2004), remained an unsold pilot. After guest-starring in the television shows Medium (2005) and Malcolm in the Middle (2006), she decided to change her stage name to \"Emma\"—chosen in honor of Emma Bunton of the Spice Girls—as she struggled to adapt to the name Riley. She next appeared in Louis C.K.'s HBO series Lucky Louie (2006), and unsuccessfully auditioned to star as Claire Bennet in the NBC science fiction drama Heroes (2007), later calling this her \"rock bottom\" experience. In April 2007, she played Violet Trimble in the Fox action drama Drive, but the show was canceled after seven episodes.\nStone made her feature film debut in Greg Mottola's comedy Superbad (2007), co-starring Michael Cera and Jonah Hill. The film tells the story of two high school students who go through a series of comic misadventures after they plan to buy alcohol for a party. To play Hill's romantic interest, she dyed her hair red. A reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter found her \"appealing\", but felt that her role was poorly written. Stone has described the experience of acting in her first film as \"amazing ... [but] very different than other experiences I've had since then\". The film was a commercial success, and earned her the Young Hollywood Award for Exciting New Face.\n\nThe next year, Stone starred in the comedy The Rocker (2008) as Amelia Stone, the \"straight face\" bass guitarist in a band; she learned to play the bass for the role. The actress, who has called herself \"a big smiler and laugher\", said she found it difficult to play a character whose personality was so different from her own. The film and her performance received negative reviews from critics and was a commercial failure. Her next release, the romantic comedy The House Bunny, performed better at the box office, becoming a moderate commercial success. The film saw her play the president of a sorority, and perform a cover version of the Waitresses' 1982 song \"I Know What Boys Like\". Reviews were generally negative, but Stone was praised, with TV Guide's Ken Fox writing that she \"is well on her way to becoming a star\".\nStone appeared in three films released in 2009. The first of these was opposite Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Michael Douglas in Mark Waters's Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Loosely based on Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, the romantic comedy has her playing a ghost who haunts her former boyfriend. Critical reaction to the film was negative, but it was a modest commercial success. Her most financially profitable venture that year was Ruben Fleischer's $102.3 million-grossing horror comedy film Zombieland, in which she features alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin. In the film, she appeared as a con artist and survivor of a zombie apocalypse, in a role which Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine thought was \"somewhat underwritten.\" In a more positive review, Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph called \"the hugely promising Stone […] a tough cookie who projects the aura of being wiser than her years\". Stone's third release in 2009 was Kieran and Michelle Mulroney's Paper Man, a comedy-drama which disappointed critics.\n\nRise to prominence (2010–2013)\nStone voiced an Australian Shepherd in Marmaduke (2010), a comedy from director Tom Dey based on Brad Anderson's long-running comic strip of the same name. Her breakthrough came the same year with a starring role in Easy A, a teen comedy directed by Will Gluck. Partially based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, the film tells the story of Olive Penderghast (Stone), a high school student who becomes embroiled in a comic sex scandal after a false rumor circulates that she is sexually promiscuous. Stone read the script before the project was optioned for production, and pursued it with her manager while production details were being finalized. She found the script \"so different and unique from anything I'd read before\", calling it \"funny and sweet\". When Stone discovered that the film had begun production, she met with Gluck, expressing her enthusiasm for the project. A few months later, the audition process started and she met again with Gluck, becoming one of the first actresses to audition. The film received positive critical reviews, and Stone's performance was considered its prime asset. Anna Smith of Time Out wrote, \"Stone gives a terrific performance, her knowing drawl implying intellect and indifference with underlying warmth.\" The film was a commercial success, grossing $75 million against its $8 million budget. Stone was nominated for a BAFTA Rising Star Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, and won the MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance.\n\nIn October 2010, Stone hosted an episode of NBC's sketch comedy Saturday Night Live; her appearances included a sketch playing off her resemblance to Lindsay Lohan. Stone called it \"the greatest week of my life\". She hosted again in 2011, appeared in an episode in 2014, and in its 40th anniversary special in 2015. A brief appearance in the sex comedy Friends with Benefits (2011) reunited her with Gluck. She followed this with a supporting role in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) alongside Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Julianne Moore. The film featured her as a law school graduate, and the love interest of Gosling's character. Despite finding \"some inevitable collapses into convention\" in the film, Drew McWeeny of HitFix wrote that Stone \"ties the whole film together\". At the 2012 Teen Choice Awards, she won the Choice Movie Actress – Comedy award for her performance in the film. Crazy, Stupid, Love was a box office success, grossing $142.9 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million.\nDismayed at being typecast as \"the sarcastic interest of the guy\", Stone co-starred with Viola Davis in Tate Taylor's period drama The Help (2011), a film she found challenging. The film is based on Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name and is set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. She met with Taylor to express a desire to work on the film. The director said, \"[Stone] was completely awkward and dorky, with her raspy voice, and she sat down and we got a little intoxicated and had a blast, and I just thought, 'God! God! This is Skeeter.\" She was cast as Eugenia \"Skeeter\" Phelan, an aspiring writer learning about the lives of the African-American maids. In preparation for the part, she learned to speak in a Southern accent and educated herself on the Civil Rights Movement through literature and film. With a worldwide gross of $216 million against a $25 million budget, The Help became Stone's highest-grossing film to that point. The film, and her performance, received positive reviews from critics. Writing for Empire, Anna Smith thought Stone was \"well-meaning and hugely likable\" despite finding flaws in the character. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and won Best Ensemble Cast from the Women Film Critics Circle and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.\nStone turned down a role in the action comedy 21 Jump Street after signing on to Marc Webb's 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man, a reboot of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man series. She portrayed Gwen Stacy, the love interest of the titular superhero (played by Andrew Garfield). Stone returned to her natural blonde hair color for the role, having dyed it red previously. She admitted to having never read the comics, and therefore felt responsible to educate herself about Spider-Man: \"My experience was with the Sam Raimi movies ... I always assumed that Mary Jane was his first love\", adding that she was only familiar with Stacy's character as portrayed by Bryce Dallas Howard in Spider-Man 3. The Amazing Spider-Man was a commercial success and was the seventh highest-grossing film of the year with global revenues of $757.9 million. Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum found Stone to be \"irresistible\", and Ian Freer of Empire was particularly impressed with Stone's and Garfield's performances. At the annual People's Choice Awards ceremony, she was nominated for three awards, including Favorite Movie Actress. Later that year, Stone voiced a role in the crime-based video game Sleeping Dogs, which earned her a Spike Video Game Award for Best Performance by a Human Female.\nStone began 2013 with a voice role in the DreamWorks Animation film The Croods, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. This followed with an appearance in Movie 43, an anthology film which consists of 16 short stories—she played the title role in the segment entitled \"Veronica\". She next starred alongside Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn in Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad (2013), a crime thriller set in Los Angeles during the 1940s. A. O. Scott of The New York Times dismissed the film as \"a hectic jumble of fedoras and zoot suits\", but praised Stone's pairing with Gosling. She expressed a desire to work with Gosling on more projects.\n\nEstablished actress (2014–2017)\nIn 2014, Stone reprised the role of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. She believed that her character did not depend on the film's protagonist, asserting: \"She saves him more than he saves her. She's incredibly helpful to Spider-Man ... He's the muscle, she's the brains.\" Her performance was well received by critics; an Empire reviewer commended her for standing out in the film, writing, \"Stone is the Heath Ledger of this series, doing something unexpected with an easily dismissed supporting character.\" The role won her the Favorite Movie Actress award at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards. Later that year, Stone took on a role in Woody Allen's romantic comedy Magic in the Moonlight, a modest commercial success. A. O. Scott criticized her role, and pairing with Colin Firth, describing it as \"the kind of pedantic nonsense that is meant to signify superior intellect\".\nThe black comedy Birdman, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, was Stone's final film release of 2014. Co-starring Michael Keaton and Edward Norton, it featured her as Sam Thomson, the recovering-addict daughter of actor Riggan Thomson (Keaton), who becomes his assistant. Iñárritu created the character based on his experience with his daughter. Birdman was critically acclaimed, and was the most successful film at the 87th Academy Awards; it was nominated for nine awards, winning four, including Best Picture. The Movie Network deemed it one of Stone's best performances to date, and Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph found her to be \"superb\" and \"tremendous\" in her role, while also highlighting her monologue in the film which he believed to have been \"delivered like a knitting needle to the gut.\" She received Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Award nominations.\n\nFrom November 2014 to February 2015, Stone starred in a revival of the Broadway musical Cabaret as Sally Bowles, taking over the role from Michelle Williams. Deeming it \"the most nerve-racking thing ever\", Stone listened to a French radio station to mentally prepare herself for the role. Marilyn Stasio of Variety was critical of her singing abilities and found her performance to be \"a bit narrow as an emotional platform, but a smart choice for her acting skills, the perfect fit for her sharp intelligence and kinetic energy.\" Both of Stone's 2015 films—the romantic comedy Aloha, and the drama Irrational Man—were critical and commercial failures, and her roles were panned by critics. In Cameron Crowe's Aloha, she played the role of an air force pilot alongside Bradley Cooper, and in Woody Allen's Irrational Man, she played the love interest of Joaquin Phoenix's character, a philosophy professor. The former was controversial for whitewashing the cast, as Stone's character was meant to be of Asian, Hawaiian, and Swedish descent. She later regretted taking part in the project, acknowledging whitewashing as a widespread problem in Hollywood. Despite the backlash, Stone was nominated for Choice Movie Actress – Comedy at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. She also appeared in the music video for Will Butler's single \"Anna\".\nDuring her run on Cabaret, Stone met filmmaker Damien Chazelle, who, impressed with her performance, cast her in his musical comedy-drama La La Land. The project, which marked her third collaboration with Gosling, starred Stone as Mia Dolan, an aspiring actress living in Los Angeles. Stone borrowed several real-life experiences for her character, and in preparation, watched The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. For the film's soundtrack, she recorded six songs. La La Land served as the opening film at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, where it generated critical acclaim and earned Stone the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. It emerged as a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of over $440 million against a production budget of $30 million. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that \"Stone has never been better: superbly smart, witty, vulnerable, her huge doe eyes radiating intelligence even, or especially, when they are filling with tears.\" For her performance, Stone won the Academy, Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA Award for Best Actress.\nStone's sole release of 2017 was Battle of the Sexes, based on the 1973 eponymous match between tennis players Billie Jean King (Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). In preparation, Stone met with King, watched old footage and interviews of her, worked with a dialect coach to speak in King's accent, and drank high-calorie protein shakes to gain 15 pounds (6.8 kg). The film premiered to positive reviews at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, and certain critics considered Stone's performance to be the finest of her career. Benjamin Lee of The Guardian praised her for playing against type, and for being \"strong\" and \"convincing\" in the part. Even so, the film earned less than its $25 million budget. Stone received her fourth Golden Globe nomination for it, and attended the ceremony with King.\n\nFilms with Yorgos Lanthimos and professional expansion (2018–present)\nIn 2018, Stone and Rachel Weisz played Abigail Masham and Sarah Churchill, two cousins fighting for the affection of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), in Yorgos Lanthimos's historical comedy-drama The Favourite. She found it challenging to be an American among an all-British cast, and struggled with mastering her character's accent. The film premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival to critical acclaim. Michael Nordine of IndieWire praised Stone for taking on such a bold role following the success of La La Land, and termed the three lead actresses \"a majestic triumvirate in a period piece that's as tragic as it is hilarious.\" Stone then executive-produced and starred in the Netflix dark comedy miniseries Maniac (2018), directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. It featured Stone and Jonah Hill as two strangers whose lives are transformed due to a mysterious pharmaceutical trial. An admirer of Fukunaga's work, she agreed to the project without reading the script. Judy Berman of Time magazine was impressed with Stone and Hill for their growth as actors since Superbad and noted the complexity in their performances. Stone received her fifth Golden Globe nomination and third Oscar nomination for The Favourite, and additionally earned SAG nominations for both Maniac and The Favourite. That same year, Stone appeared in Paul McCartney's music video for his song \"Who Cares\".\n\nStone reprised her role as Wichita in Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), the sequel to 2009's Zombieland, which received mixed reviews and grossed $125 million worldwide. She narrated the Netflix documentary series The Mind, Explained (2019) and reprised the voice role of Eep in The Croods: A New Age (2020), the sequel to 2013's The Croods. In 2021, Stone played Cruella de Vil (originated by Glenn Close in the previous live-action adaptations) in Craig Gillespie's crime comedy Cruella, a Disney live-action based on the 1961 animation One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Starring opposite Emma Thompson, Stone also served as an executive producer of the film alongside Close. The film was released in US theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access to positive reviews and grossed $233 million worldwide against its $100 million budget. Justin Chang of Los Angeles Times wrote that despite the film's flawed screenplay, Stone was \"wholly committed, glammed-to-the-nines\"; Chang favorably compared it with her performance in The Favourite, adding that she \"nailed every nuance as another lowly young woman turned ambitious schemer\". For Cruella, Stone garnered another Golden Globe nomination.\nIn 2020, Stone and her husband, Dave McCary, launched the production company Fruit Tree. Their first project was the independent film When You Finish Saving the World, which marked Jesse Eisenberg's feature directorial debut. The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, and had modest reviews. The company's next release was the comedy Problemista, directed by Julio Torres. It premiered at the 2023 South by Southwest, and was initially scheduled to be released that year, but was delayed due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Both films were produced in collaboration with A24.\nContinuing her collaboration with Lanthimos, Stone starred in his short film Bleat (2022) and feature film Poor Things (2023). The latter, a fantasy coming-of-age film, is based on the novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray. Stone also produced the film, in which she starred as Bella, a young Victorian woman who is crudely resurrected after her suicide. She found the experience of playing a character liberated of societal pressures to be \"extremely freeing\", and she performed nudity and several sex scenes in it. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Stone \"gorges on it in a fearless performance that traces an expansive arc most actors could only dream about\", and particularly praised her ability to perform physical comedy. Stephanie Zacharek of Time termed her performance \"wonderful—vital, exploratory, almost lunar in its perfect oddness\". Stone next executive produced and starred in the Showtime satirical comedy series The Curse. She played Whitney, an influencer who hosts an HGTV show with her husband. Commenting on her achievements of the year, BBC Culture's Caryn James opined that \"Stone has quickly moved past Hollywood stardom to claim serious artistic credentials\". She received two more Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress for her performances in Poor Things and The Curse, winning for the former. Also for Poor Things, she won her second Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Actress in addition to a Best Picture nomination.\nThe 2024 Sundance Film Festival marked the release of two films produced by Stone for Fruit Tree — the horror film I Saw the TV Glow and Eisenberg's second directorial, A Real Pain. In her fourth collaboration with Lanthimos, Stone played three characters in his absurdist anthology film Kinds of Kindness, which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. She will next star in Ari Aster's contemporary Western film Eddington and in Lanthimos' Bugonia, a remake of the South Korean film Save the Green Planet!.\n\nReception and acting style\nCommenting on her performance in The Help, Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called her \"one of our very best young actresses\". Time's Daniel D'Addario stated in 2015 that Stone \"appears to have fairly limited options\" and choosing roles in independent films by \"less established directors would represent a substantive risk\". Analyzing her on-screen persona, Jessica Kiang of IndieWire noted that Stone \"usually [plays] the approachable, down-to-earth, girl-next-door type, [and] in person she demonstrates many of those qualities too, along with an absolute refusal to take herself too seriously.\" Biographer Karen Hollinger wrote that at the beginning of her career, Stone was often labeled a \"star ingénue\", a perceived limitation she escaped despite not being a classically trained actress as she \"crafted a brilliant career based on performative skills, careful choice of roles and distinctive personality\". In a 2024 analysis of Stone's career trajectory, IndieWire suggested that from breakout roles to acclaimed performances in indie films, Stone is positioned as a potential new movie star in Hollywood's evolving landscape.\nIn 2008, Stone topped Saturday Night Magazine's Top 20 Rising Stars Under 30 and was included in a similar list compiled by Moviefone. LoveFilm placed her on their list of 2010 Top 20 Actresses Under 30, and her performance in Easy A was included in Time's Top 10 Everything of 2010. She appeared in the 2013 Celebrity 100 list, a compilation of the 100 most powerful people in the world, as selected annually by Forbes. The magazine reported that she had earned $16 million from June 2012 to June 2013. That same year, she was ranked first in the magazine's Top 10 Best Value Stars. In 2015, Forbes published that she had become one of the world's highest-paid actresses with earnings of $6.5 million. The magazine ranked her the world's highest-paid actress two years later with annual earnings of $26 million. In 2017, she was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.\nStone has been described as a style icon, with her hair, eyes, and husky voice listed as her trademark features. Vogue credits the actress for her \"sophisticated, perfectly put-together looks\", writing that \"her charisma, both on-screen and off-, has charmed many\" and for her embrace of \"Old Hollywood Glamour\". Bee Shapiro of The New York Times called Stone a \"likable ... spunky, talented, self-deprecating and slightly goofy\" actress who is diverse in her fashion choices. In 2009, she was featured on FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World and Maxim's Hot 100; the latter also placed her on the list on three other occasions—2010, 2011, and 2014. In 2011, she featured on Victoria's Secret's list of \"What is Sexy?\" as the Sexiest Actress. She was mentioned in other media outlet listings that year, including People's 100 Most Beautiful Women, each of FHM's and FHM Australia's 100 Sexiest Women in the World, and Men's Health's 100 Hottest Women. She was ranked sixth on Empire's list of the 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in 2013. Stone was named the best-dressed woman of 2012 by Vogue and was included on similar listings by Glamour in 2013 and 2015, and People in 2014.\n\nPersonal life\nStone moved from Los Angeles to Greenwich Village, New York, in 2009. In 2016, she moved back to Los Angeles. Despite significant media attention, she refuses to publicly discuss her personal life. Concerned with living a normal life, Stone has said she dislikes receiving paparazzi attention outside her home. She has expressed her fondness for her profession, and has cited Diane Keaton as an acting influence, calling her \"one of the most covered-up actresses of all time\". Stone has a close relationship with her family. She says, \"I am blessed with a great family and great people around me that would be able to kick me in the shins if I ever for one minute got lost up in the clouds. I've been really lucky in that sense.\"\nStone dated her Paper Man co-star Kieran Culkin for two years. In 2011, she started dating her Amazing Spider-Man co-star Andrew Garfield for four years. Their relationship was reported in the media with various speculations; the pair refused to speak publicly about it, though they made several appearances together. In 2014, on an occasion in New York City, Stone and Garfield encouraged paparazzi to visit websites that spread awareness of causes such as autism. In 2015, they were reported to have broken up.\nStone met Saturday Night Live segment director Dave McCary on December 3, 2016, while hosting the show. They began dating the following year. On December 4, 2019, they announced their engagement. They married in a private ceremony in September 2020. In January 2021, they were reported to be expecting their first child together. In March 2021, Stone gave birth to their daughter named Louise Jean. As of 2021, the family lives in Austin, Texas. In 2022, Stone sold her house in Malibu, California for $4.425 million, and in 2024, she sold her Los Angeles home for $4 million.\nStone has said she suffers from asthma, which she discovered after having difficulty breathing while filming Easy A. Her mother was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer and cured in 2008. Stone and her mother celebrated by getting tattoos of birds' feet, designed by Paul McCartney, a reference to the Beatles song \"Blackbird\", which she and her mother love. Stone is a supporter of Planned Parenthood, and attended the 2017 Academy Awards wearing a Planned Parenthood pin on her dress.\n\nPhilanthropy\nStone appeared in a Revlon campaign that promoted breast cancer awareness. In 2011, she appeared in a collaborative video between Star Wars and Stand Up to Cancer to raise funds for cancer research. From 2012 to 2014, she hosted the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Revlon Run/Walk, which helps fight women's cancer.\nStone and three other celebrities were present at the 2012 Nickelodeon HALO Awards, a TV special that profiled four teenagers who are \"Helping And Leading Others\" (HALO). She attended the 2014 Earth Hour, a worldwide movement for the planet organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature. In 2015, she was part of a fundraising event in support of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which helps people in the film and television industries with limited or no resources. In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from sexual harassment and discrimination.\n\nActing credits and awards\nAccording to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and the box-office site Box Office Mojo, Stone's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films are Superbad (2007), Zombieland (2009), Easy A (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), The Help (2011), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Birdman (2014), La La Land (2016), Battle of the Sexes (2017), The Favourite (2018), Cruella (2021), and Poor Things (2023).\nStone has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following:\n\n87th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress, nomination, for Birdman (2014)\n89th Academy Awards: Best Actress, win, for La La Land (2016)\n91st Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress, nomination, for The Favourite (2018)\n96th Academy Awards: Best Actress, win, for Poor Things (2023)\n96th Academy Awards: Best Picture, nomination, for Poor Things (2023)\nShe has also been nominated for five British Academy Film Awards: BAFTA Rising Star Award, Best Supporting Actress for Birdman and The Favourite, and Best Actress in a Leading Role for La La Land and Poor Things, winning for the last two. Her other awards include two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for La La Land and Poor Things, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at Venice Film Festival, both for La La Land.\n\nSee also\nList of actors with Academy Award nominations\nList of actors with three or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories\nList of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories\nList of Academy Award records\n\nNotes\nReferences\nLiterary sources\nHollinger, Karen (2022). \"Amy Adams and Emma Stone: Escaping the Ingénue\". In Rybin, Steven (ed.). Stellar Transformations: Movie Stars of the 2010s. Rutgers University Press. pp. 34–52. ISBN 978-1-978818-33-0.\nOwings, Lisa (2014). Emma Stone: Breakout Movie Star. ABDO Publishing Company. p. 22; 33. ISBN 978-1-62968-026-2.\nSchuman, Michael A. (2013). Emma!: Amazing Actress Emma Stone. Enslow Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7660-4113-4.\n\nExternal links\n\nEmma Stone at IMDb \nEmma Stone at the TCM Movie Database \nEmma Stone at the Internet Broadway Database \nEmma Stone at AllMovie\nEmma Stone at Rotten Tomatoes","title":"Emma_Stone"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"While the highest-paid film actors can command multi-million-dollar salaries, actors can potentially earn substantially more by deferring all or part of their salary against a percentage of the film's gross, known within the industry as a \"profit participation\" deal.\n\nHighest earnings for a single production\nSince not all salaries are made public, this is a non-definitive list of actors who have received $30 million or more as compensation for their services in a single production. Occasionally an actor's fee may cover multiple films, and they are included on the list if the films were filmed as a back-to-back production (for example, Keanu Reeves and the Matrix sequels). The figures are given at their nominal value, since earnings from profit-based deals are accumulated over many years, making it unfeasible to adjust for inflation.\n\nForbes publishes yearly lists of the highest-paid actors and actresses based on total earnings from 1 June the previous year to 1 June the current year.\n\nHighest annual earnings\nForbes publishes yearly lists of the highest-paid actors and actresses based on total earnings from 1 June the previous year to 1 June the current year.\n\nSee also\nList of highest-grossing actors\n\n\n== References ==","title":"List_of_highest-paid_film_actors"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Margot Elise Robbie ( MAR-goh ROB-ee; born 2 July 1990) is an Australian actress and producer. Her work includes both blockbuster and independent films, and her accolades include nominations for three Academy Awards, six BAFTA Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017, and Forbes named her the world's highest-paid actress in 2023.\nBorn and raised in Queensland, Robbie began her career in 2008 on the television series Neighbours, on which she was a regular until 2011. After moving to the United States, she led the television series Pan Am (2011–2012) and had her breakthrough in 2013 with Martin Scorsese’s comedy film The Wolf of Wall Street. She achieved wider recognition with starring roles as Jane Porter in The Legend of Tarzan (2016), and as Harley Quinn in the DC Extended Universe films beginning with Suicide Squad (2016).\nRobbie received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of figure skater Tonya Harding in the biopic I, Tonya (2017). This acclaim continued for her performances as Queen Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots (2018), Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and a Fox News employee in Bombshell (2019). The last of these earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Robbie has since starred as an aspiring actress in the period film Babylon (2022) and the titular fashion doll in the fantasy comedy Barbie (2023), which emerged as her highest-grossing release and, as its producer, earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture.\nRobbie and her husband, filmmaker Tom Ackerley, co-founded the production company LuckyChap Entertainment in 2014, under which they have produced several films, including I, Tonya, Promising Young Woman (2020), Barbie, and Saltburn (2023), as well as the Hulu series Dollface (2019–2022) and the Netflix miniseries Maid (2021).\n\nEarly life and education\nMargot Elise Robbie was born on 2 July 1990 in Dalby, Queensland, to Doug Robbie, a former farm-owner and sugarcane tycoon, and Sarie Kessler, a physiotherapist. She is the second youngest of four; older siblings Anya and Lachlan and younger brother Cameron. Her parents separated when she was five. Robbie and her siblings were raised by their single mother and had minimal contact with their father. The family spent the majority of Robbie's upbringing on her grandparents' Currumbin Valley farm in the Gold Coast hinterland. An energetic child, Robbie often put on shows in her house.\nShe was enrolled in a circus school by her mother, where she excelled in trapeze, in which she received a certificate at age eight. In high school, Robbie studied drama at Somerset College. As a teenager, she worked three jobs: she tended a bar, cleaned houses, and worked at Subway. After graduation, with a few commercials and independent thriller films on her résumé, Robbie relocated to Melbourne to begin acting professionally.\n\nCareer\n2008–2012: Early work and Neighbours\nRobbie's first acting roles came when she was in high school. She starred in two low-budget independent thriller films, called Vigilante and I.C.U., both released years later. She described the experience of being on a film set as \"a dream come true\". She made her television debut in a 2008 guest role as Caitlin Brentford in the drama series City Homicide and followed this with a two-episode arc in the children's television series The Elephant Princess, in which she starred alongside Liam Hemsworth.\nWith agent encouragement at the time and as Robbie recalled on The Graham Norton Show, she called FremantleMedia on a daily basis. \"One day, I got put through by accident to the casting director for Neighbours,\" and she said, \"I'm in town working on something.\" The casting director asked how old she was, and she responded \"seventeen.\" She was told, \"We're looking for exactly that, come in and audition\" for the television soap opera Neighbours. In June 2008, she began playing Donna Freedman, a role that was meant to be a guest character, but Robbie was promoted to the regular cast after she made her debut. In her three-year stint on the soap, she received two Logie Award nominations.\nShortly after arriving in America, Robbie landed the role of Laura Cameron, a newly trained flight attendant in the period drama series Pan Am (2011). The series premiered to high ratings and positive reviews but was cancelled after one season due to falling ratings.\n\n2013–2015: Breakthrough\nRobbie next appeared in Richard Curtis' romantic comedy About Time (2013), co-starring Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams. It tells the story of a young man with the ability to time travel who tries to change his past in hopes of improving his future. To play Gleeson's unattainable teenage love interest, she adopted a British accent. The film was a modest commercial success. Robbie's breakthrough came the same year with the role of Naomi Lapaglia, the wife of protagonist Jordan Belfort, in Martin Scorsese's biographical black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street. In her audition for the role, Robbie improvised a slap on co-star Leonardo DiCaprio during a fight scene which ultimately won her the part. The film and her performance received positive reviews; she was particularly praised for her on-screen Brooklyn accent. Critic Sasha Stone wrote of Robbie's performance, \"She's Scorsese's best blonde bombshell discovery since Cathy Moriarty in Raging Bull. Robbie is funny, hard and kills every scene she's in.\" The Wolf of Wall Street was a box office success, grossing $392 million worldwide, making it Scorsese's highest-grossing film to date. Robbie was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer.\n\nShe later said that the fame and attention the movie brought her led her to consider quitting acting, but her mother was philosophical about her profession and explained to her that it was probably too late to quit. She fully understood and stuck with it. With the aim to produce more female-driven projects, Robbie and her future husband, Tom Ackerley, and their respective longtime friends Sophia Kerr and Josey McNamara, started their own production company LuckyChap Entertainment. The company was founded in 2014 and its name was inspired by Charlie Chaplin.\nRobbie appeared in four films released in 2015. The first of these was opposite Will Smith in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's $158.8 million-grossing romantic comedy-drama film Focus. In the film, she played an inexperienced grifter learning the craft from Smith's character; she learned how to pickpocket from Apollo Robbins for the role. Reviews of the film were generally mixed, but Robbie's performance was praised; Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, \"Robbie is wow and then some. Even when Focus fumbles, [she] deals a winning hand.\"\nShe was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 68th British Academy Film Awards. Her next appearance was alongside Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott Thomas in Saul Dibb's war romantic drama Suite Française, a film based on the second part of Irène Némirovsky's 2004 novel of the same name. In the film, she played a woman falling for a German soldier during the German occupation of France during World War II, a role which Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter found \"underwritten\".\nShe followed this with Craig Zobel's post-apocalyptic drama Z for Zachariah opposite Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in her first leading role. Partially based on Robert C. O'Brien's book of the same name, the film follows Ann Burden (Robbie) as she finds herself in an emotionally charged love triangle with the last known survivors of a disaster that wipes out most of civilization. In preparation for the film, Robbie dyed her hair brown and learned to speak in an Appalachian accent. The film received positive reviews, and Robbie's performance was widely praised, with Drew McWeeny of HitFix asserting that \"Robbie's work here establishes her as one of the very best actresses in her age range today.\" Her fourth release of 2015 was a cameo appearance in Adam McKay's comedy-drama The Big Short, in which she breaks the fourth wall to explain subprime mortgages while in a bathtub. The Big Short was a commercial and critical success and Robbie's cameo became a trending topic six years later, in the wake of the GameStop short squeeze, as her explanation provided reference points for what was happening with the GameStop and related stocks.\n\n2016–2018: Worldwide recognition\nIn 2016, Robbie reunited with Ficarra and Requa, playing a British war correspondent in the film adaptation of The Taliban Shuffle, called Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, co-starring Tina Fey and Martin Freeman. Later that year, Robbie took on the part of Jane Porter in David Yates's adventure film The Legend of Tarzan. She was adamant about not losing weight and ensuring the role was not a damsel in distress like in previous Tarzan adaptations. Reviews of the film were generally unfavourable, but Manohla Dargis of The New York Times credited Robbie for \"holding her own\" in her supporting role alongside the all-male cast with Alexander Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson.\nRobbie became the first person to portray DC Comics villain Harley Quinn in live-action when she signed on to David Ayer's 2016 superhero film Suicide Squad alongside an ensemble cast that included Will Smith, Jared Leto and Viola Davis. She admitted to having never read the comics, but felt a huge responsibility to do the character justice and satisfy the fans. Robbie began preparing for the role of the supervillainess six months prior to the film shoot; her schedule consisted of gymnastics, boxing, aerial silk training and learning how to hold her breath underwater for five minutes. She performed the majority of her own stunts in the film. Suicide Squad was a commercial success and was tenth-highest-grossing film of 2016 with global revenues of $746.8 million, and Robbie's performance was considered its prime asset. Writing for Time, Stephanie Zacharek found Robbie to be \"a criminally appealing actress, likable in just about every way\" despite finding flaws in the character and Christopher Orr of The Atlantic called her performance \"genuinely terrific\". At the annual People's Choice Awards ceremony, she won the Favorite Action Movie Actress award and was also awarded the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie.\nIn October 2016, Robbie hosted the season 42 premiere of NBC's late-night sketch comedy Saturday Night Live; her appearances included a parody of Ivanka Trump. The series logged its strongest season premiere ratings in eight years. Robbie collaborated with Domhnall Gleeson in Simon Curtis' Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017), a biographical drama about the lives of Winnie-the-Pooh creator A. A. Milne and his family. The film, and her performance, received modest reviews and was a commercial failure.\n\nHer final release of 2017 and LuckyChap Entertainment's first release was Craig Gillespie's sports black comedy I, Tonya, based on the life of American figure skater Tonya Harding (Robbie) and her connection to the 1994 assault on rival Nancy Kerrigan. In preparation, Robbie met with Harding, watched old footage and interviews of her, worked with a voice coach to speak in Harding's Pacific Northwest accent and vocal timbre at different ages, and underwent several months of rigorous skating instruction with choreographer Sarah Kawahara. I, Tonya premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. James Luxford of Metro deemed it Robbie's best performance to date, and Mark Kermode of The Observer wrote, \"Margot Robbie's performance in this satirical, postmodern tale of the disgraced star is a tour-de-force tornado that balances finely nuanced character development with impressively punchy physicality\". She received numerous accolades for her performance, including nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, all for Best Actress.\nRobbie began 2018 with the voice role of Flopsy Rabbit in Peter Rabbit, an animated comedy from director Will Gluck, which is based on the Beatrix Potter book series. The animated feature was a box office success, grossing $351.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million. Her next two 2018 films—the neo-noir thriller Terminal and comedy-horror Slaughterhouse Rulez—were critical and commercial failures. The historical drama Mary Queen of Scots, directed by Josie Rourke, was her final release of 2018. The film featured Saoirse Ronan as the titular character and Robbie as her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, and it chronicles the 1569 conflict between their two countries. Robbie had initially turned down the role for being \"terrified\" of not living up to the history of portrayals of the Queen. Before each day of shooting, she spent three hours in the make-up chair while a prosthetic nose, painted on boils and blisters were applied. Critics dismissed the film for its screenplay and several historical inaccuracies, but praised the performances of Robbie and Ronan. Yolanda Machado of TheWrap wrote, \"[B]ow down to Ronan and Robbie for taking two legendarily complex characters, [...] and completely owning both roles. Ronan's fiery Mary and Robbie's emotionally complex Elizabeth truly reign divine on screen.\" For her portrayal, Robbie received nominations for a BAFTA Award and for a Screen Actors Guild Award.\n\n2019–present: Established actress and producer\nRobbie's first release of 2019 was the LuckyChap Entertainment production Dreamland, a poorly received period crime thriller set during the 1930s Dust Bowl. She began executive producing the comedy series Dollface, which streamed on Hulu from 2019 to 2022. Robbie was filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's only choice to portray the late actress Sharon Tate in his period film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. With the Tate–LaBianca murders serving as a backdrop, the film tells the story of a fading character actor (DiCaprio) and his stunt double (Pitt) as they navigate New Hollywood in 1969 Los Angeles. Feeling \"an enormous sense of responsibility\", Robbie prepared for the role by meeting Tate's family members and friends, watching all of her films and reading the autobiography by Tate's then-husband, Roman Polanski. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, and was a commercial success with a worldwide gross of $374.3 million. Despite many bemoaning Robbie's lack of lines in the film, Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph highlighted a scene with Robbie in the cinema, which he found to be the film's \"most delightful\" scene.\nAlso in 2019, she starred as Kayla Pospisil, a composite character based on several Fox News employees, in Jay Roach's drama Bombshell. Co-starring Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman, the film recounts stories of various female personnel at the news network and their sexual harassment by the network's chairman Roger Ailes. Robbie based her character's accent on Katherine Harris. The film received positive reviews; Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote, \"Robbie [is] at her best, the arc of her story is so crushing that it stays with you the longest.\" For her performances in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Bombshell, she received two nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and for the latter she received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award; all in the Best Supporting Actress category.\nRobbie began the new decade by reprising the role of Harley Quinn in Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey (2020). Determined to make a female ensemble action film, she pitched the idea for the film to Warner Bros. in 2015. Robbie spent the subsequent three years developing the project under her production company, making a concerted effort to hire a female director and screenwriter. Birds of Prey, along with Robbie's performance, gained generally positive reviews; Ian Freer of Empire wrote that \"the MVP is Robbie, who lends Harley charming quirk and believable menace, hinting at Harley's inner life without reams of dialogue.\" She received two nominations at the 46th People's Choice Awards.\nRobbie served as a producer on Promising Young Woman (2020), a comedy thriller by writer-director Emerald Fennell, starring Carey Mulligan as a woman who seeks to avenge the rape and death of her best friend. The film received acclaim, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2021, Robbie reprised her voice role as Flopsy Rabbit in Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, which received mixed reviews and grossed $153.8 million worldwide. She also made her third outing as Quinn in the standalone sequel The Suicide Squad, written and directed by James Gunn. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was simultaneously released theatrically and on the streaming service HBO Max. Owen Gleiberman praised Robbie's \"delectable performance\" in it. She also served as an executive producer for the Netflix miniseries Maid.\n\nIn 2022, Robbie reprised her role as Donna Freedman for the final episode of Neighbours. She starred alongside an ensemble cast in David O. Russell's period comedy Amsterdam, based on the 1933 Business Plot. The film emerged as a critical and commercial failure. In her second film release of the year, she played Nellie LaRoy, an actress inspired by silent movie star Clara Bow, in Damien Chazelle's comedy-drama Babylon. In preparation, she studied the works of Bow and researched her traumatic childhood. She described LaRoy as \"the most physically and emotionally draining character I've ever played\". The film polarized critics and had poor box office returns, though her performance received praise; Caryn James of BBC Culture opined, \"Robbie's bold, charismatic performance makes Nellie a daring, endlessly spiraling, sympathetic figure\". She received another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, although the underperformance of her two major releases that year led some commentators to brand her as \"box office poison\" at the time.\nIn the following year, Robbie had a single scene in Wes Anderson's ensemble comedy film Asteroid City. Chris Hewitt of the Star Tribune described her \"impassioned acting in her lone scene\" as \"perfectly judged\". The fantasy comedy Barbie, co-starring Ryan Gosling as Ken, was her next film release. As producer, Robbie bought the rights from Mattel for a film about the eponymous fashion doll in 2018. She hired Greta Gerwig to write and direct the film, and took on the title role herself after Gal Gadot declined her offer. In preparation, Gerwig and Robbie watched old Technicolor musicals such as The Red Shoes (1948) and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Variety reported that Robbie earned $12.5 million for the role, the highest for an actress in Hollywood that year. Vulture's Alison Willmore took note of how much Robbie fit the part, and commended her for combining both \"heartbreaking earnestness\" and \"humor\" in her performance. With a worldwide gross of over $1.4 billion, Barbie emerged as Robbie's highest-grossing release. She received further BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for her performance, in addition to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture.\nAlso in 2023, Robbie produced Fennell's second directorial, Saltburn. The 2024 Sundance Film Festival marked the release of her next production, Megan Park's comedy film My Old Ass. Robbie will next star alongside Colin Farrell in Kogonada's film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey and Jacob Elordi in Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights, adapted from the novel.\n\nPersonal life\nDespite significant media attention, Robbie rarely discusses her personal life. Robbie moved from Melbourne to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the early 2010s, having previously shared a flat with Neighbours co-star Ashleigh Brewer. During that period, she became an avid ice hockey fan; she supports the New York Rangers and previously played right wing in an amateur ice hockey league.\nRobbie met British assistant director Tom Ackerley on the set of Suite Française in 2013. In 2014, she moved to London with Ackerley and LuckyChap Entertainment co-founders Sophia Kerr and Josey McNamara. Later that year, Robbie and Ackerley began a romantic relationship. In December 2016, they married in a private wedding ceremony in Byron Bay, Australia. The couple reside in Venice Beach, California. Her pregnancy was confirmed in July 2024.\n\nOther work\nRobbie has been a vocal supporter of human rights, women's rights, gender equality and LGBT rights. Through LuckyChap Entertainment, she and her co-founders focus on promoting female stories from female storytellers, whether it would be writers, directors, producers or all the above. In 2014, she was part of a fundraising event in support of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which helps people in the film and television industries with limited or no resources; she joined the same event on two other occasions, in 2018 and 2020. In 2015, she helped raise $12 million through the BGC Global Charity Day fundraising event, which donates money to different charities around the world. In 2016, Robbie joined other celebrities and UN Refugee Agency staff in a petition aiming to gather public support for the growing number of families forced to flee conflict and persecution worldwide. Later in the year, she joined Oxfam's \"I Hear You\" project, which was designed to amplify the personal stories of the world's most vulnerable refugees and donated more than $50.000 to UNICEF's \"Children First\" campaign, in support of refugee children.\nIn October 2016, while hosting Saturday Night Live, Robbie made a stand for same-sex marriage in her native Australia wearing a T-shirt that read \"Say 'I Do' Down Under\", with a map of the country in rainbow colors. A year later, she joined fellow actor Chris Hemsworth in advocating for the same purpose. In 2018, she pledged to support the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. In April 2021, Robbie was announced as the recipient of the inaugural RAD Impact Award, for inspiring purpose with her philanthropy. She chose to share the prize with Youngcare, a charity she had previously worked with, and therefore an impact donation was made to fund a project benefiting young people with extensive care needs.\n\nPublic image\nRobbie is known for starring in both high-profile, mainstream productions and low-budget independent films, in which she has been able to display both her dramatic and comedic range. \nFor her role in The Wolf of Wall Street, Vanity Fair named her one of its breakthrough actors of 2013. In 2017, she appeared on the annual Forbes 30 Under 30 list, a compilation of the brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers in the world and was included on a similar list compiled by The Hollywood Reporter. That same year, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world; her The Wolf of Wall Street director Martin Scorsese penned the article in the magazine, referring to Robbie as having \"a unique audacity that surprises and challenges and just burns like a brand into every character she plays. [...] Margot is stunning in all she is and all she does, and she will astonish us forever.\" In 2019, Forbes ranked her among the world's highest-paid actresses, with annual earnings of $23.5 million, and The Hollywood Reporter listed her among the 100 most powerful people in entertainment. In 2021, she was named one of the 100 most influential women in entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter. In December 2023, Robbie has been listed in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2023 Women in Entertainment Power 100. In 2024, she was named by Forbes as the world's highest-paid actress in 2023, with earnings of $78 million. \nVogue has named her \"one of the most glamorous starlets\" and she was ranked as one of the best-dressed women in 2018 and 2019 by luxury fashion retailer Net-a-Porter. In 2014 and 2016, she featured on AskMen's Top 99 Women, ranking among the top ten each year. Also in 2016, Robbie was placed at number one on FHM's \"100 Sexiest Women in the World\" list. Since 2016, she has been chosen as the ambassador for brands such as Calvin Klein, Nissan and Chanel. She was the last brand ambassador picked by Karl Lagerfeld before his death in February 2019.\n\nFilmography and awards\nAccording to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Robbie's most positively reviewed films are The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Z for Zachariah (2015), Suite Française (2015), I, Tonya (2017), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Birds of Prey (2020), The Suicide Squad (2021), and Barbie (2023).\n\nReferences\nFurther reading\nPeary, Danny (March–April 2015). \"In conversation with: Margot Robbie\". Local Focus. Actor Spotlight. Filmink. 10 (1): 42–43.\n\nExternal links\n Media related to Margot Robbie at Wikimedia Commons\n Quotations related to Margot Robbie at Wikiquote\nMargot Robbie at IMDb\nMargot Robbie at Rotten Tomatoes","title":"Margot_Robbie"},{"idx":3,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American epic biographical black comedy film co-produced and directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Terence Winter, based on Jordan Belfort's 2007 memoir of the same name. It recounts Belfort's career as a stockbroker in New York City and how his firm, Stratton Oakmont, engaged in rampant corruption and fraud on Wall Street, leading to his downfall. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort; Jonah Hill as his business partner and friend Donnie Azoff; Margot Robbie as his second wife, Naomi Lapaglia; Matthew McConaughey as his mentor and former boss Mark Hanna; and Kyle Chandler as FBI agent Patrick Denham. It is DiCaprio's fifth collaboration with Scorsese.\nDiCaprio and Warner Bros. acquired the rights to Belfort's memoir in 2007, but production was halted due to content restrictions. It was later produced by the independent Red Granite Pictures. The film was shot in New York in late 2012, using mostly 35mm film stock.\nThe film premiered in New York City on December 17, 2013, and was released in the United States on December 25, 2013, by Paramount Pictures. It was the first major American film to be released exclusively through digital distribution. It was a major commercial success, grossing $406.9 million worldwide during its theatrical run, becoming Scorsese's highest-grossing film. However, the film initially received considerable controversy for its moral ambiguity and lack of sympathy for victims, as well as its explicit, graphic sexual content, extreme profanity (with at least 500 uses of the swear word \"fuck\"), depiction of hard drug use, and use of animals during production. The film was initially rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America, but it was shortly appealed for an R rating after Scorsese made slight editorial changes to the film. It set a Guinness World Record for the most instances of swearing in a film. The film's financing became implicated in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad corruption scandal; the U.S. Department of Justice and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigated Red Granite Pictures, and producer Riza Aziz was arrested in 2019. He was discharged in May 2020 on a 1,000,000 Malaysian Ringgit (US$240,000) bail.\nThe film received positive reviews (and some moral censure) from critics and appeared on several \"best of the year\" lists. It was nominated for several awards, including five at the 86th Academy Awards ceremony: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (for DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (for Hill). DiCaprio won Best Actor – Musical or Comedy at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, where the film was also nominated for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy.\n\nPlot\nIn 1987, 22-year-old Jordan Belfort lands a job as a Wall Street stockbroker for L.F. Rothschild, employed under Mark Hanna. He is quickly enticed by the drug-fueled stockbroker culture and Hanna's belief that a broker's only goal is to make money for himself. Jordan loses his job following Black Monday, the largest one-day stock market drop in history after the 1929 stock market crash, and takes a job at Investor's Center, a boiler room brokerage firm on Long Island that specializes in pink sheet penny stocks. He makes a small fortune thanks to his aggressive pitching style and high commissions.\nJordan befriends his neighbor Donnie Azoff, and the two start their own boiler room-styled brokerage company. They recruit Jordan's childhood friends Robbie Feinberg, Alden Kupferburg, Nicky Koskoff, Chester Ming, and Toby Welch, as well as local drug pusher Brad Bonick, all of whom Jordan trains in the art of the \"hard sell,\" and set up the company in an abandoned auto repair shop. Jordan's tactics and salesmanship largely contribute to the success of his pump and dump scheme, in which misleading, positive statements inflate a stock's price so it can be sold at an artificially high price. When the scheme's perpetrators sell their overvalued securities, the price plummets, and those who were conned into buying at the inflated price are left with stock that is suddenly worth much less than they paid for it. To cloak this, Jordan gives the firm the respectable-sounding name of Stratton Oakmont in 1989.\nSoon after, the company becomes immensely successful, moving out of the auto repair shop into a bigger office. An exposé in Forbes, which dubs Jordan \"The Wolf of Wall Street\" – \"a sort of twisted Robin Hood who takes from the rich and gives to himself and his merry band of brokers\" – causes hundreds of ambitious young financiers to flock to the company, thus causing them to move into even bigger offices.\nAs all this is happening, Jordan becomes immensely successful, and slides into a decadent lifestyle of prostitutes and drugs. He has an affair with buxom blonde lingerie designer Naomi Lapaglia, and when his wife Teresa finds out about this, Jordan divorces her and marries Naomi in 1991. Meanwhile, the SEC and the FBI begin investigating Stratton Oakmont.\nIn 1993, Jordan illegally makes $22 million in three hours after securing the IPO of Donnie's childhood friend and women's shoes designer Steve Madden, bringing him and his firm further FBI attention. To hide his money, Jordan opens a Swiss bank account with corrupt banker Jean-Jacques Saurel in the name of Naomi's aunt Emma, who lives in London and thus remains outside the immediate reach of American authorities. He uses Brad's Swiss-Slovenian wife Chantalle and her family, who have European passports, to smuggle the cash into Switzerland.\nDonnie and Brad soon get into a heated argument in public during a money exchange, resulting in Brad's arrest as Donnie escapes. Jordan learns from his private investigator Bo Dietl that the FBI is wiretapping his phones. Fearing for his son, Jordan's father Max advises him to leave Stratton Oakmont and lie low while Jordan's lawyer negotiates a deal to keep him out of prison. In the midst of his farewell speech, Jordan cannot bear to quit and talks himself into staying, to the immense support of his friends and employees.\nIn 1996, Jordan, Donnie, and their wives are on a yacht trip to Italy, when they learn that Emma has died of a heart attack. Jordan proceeds to Switzerland to forge her name and save the account before going to London for the funeral. To bypass the border patrols, he orders his yacht captain Ted to sail to Monaco, but their ship capsizes in a storm. After their rescue, the plane sent to take them to Geneva is destroyed when a seagull flies into the engine; Jordan takes this as a sign from God to address his worsening drug addiction and attempts to sober up.\nIn 1998, Saurel and Koskoff are arrested for an unrelated crime, the former informing the FBI about Jordan as a plea bargain. Since the evidence against him is overwhelming, Jordan agrees to gather evidence from the rest of his colleagues in exchange for leniency. After having sex for the last time, Naomi tells Jordan that she is divorcing him and wants full custody of their daughter and infant son. In a cocaine-fueled rage, Jordan punches Naomi and tries to drive away with his daughter, but crashes his car in the driveway.\nLater, Jordan wears a wire to work and slips a note to Donnie, warning his old partner. However, Donnie betrays Jordan by giving his note to the FBI, who arrest Jordan, before they raid and shut down Stratton Oakmont. Despite breaching his deal, Jordan receives a reduced sentence of 36 months in a minimum security prison for his testimony, and is released in 2000 after serving 22 months. After his release, Jordan makes a living hosting seminars on sales techniques.\n\nCast\nIn addition, cameos and smaller roles include Bo Dietl as himself, the real Jordan Belfort as the Auckland Straight Line host at the end of the film, Stephanie Kurtzuba as Kimmie Belzer, Thomas Middleditch as a Stratton broker whose goldfish is eaten by Donnie for slacking off, Jake Hoffman as Steve Madden, Fran Lebowitz as The Honorary [sic] Samantha Stogel, Edward Herrmann as the voice over the Stratton Oakmont commercial at the beginning of the film, and an uncredited Spike Jonze as Dwayne, the head of the Long Island brokerage firm who introduces Belfort to the world of penny stocks.\n\nProduction\nDevelopment\nIn 2007, DiCaprio and Warner Bros. won a bidding war for the rights to Belfort's memoir The Wolf of Wall Street, with Belfort making $1 million off the deal. Having worked on the film's script, Scorsese was considered to direct the film but abandoned the project to work on Shutter Island (2010). He has said he \"wasted five months of [his] life\" without getting a green light on production dates from Warner Bros. In 2010, Warner Bros. offered the directorial role to Ridley Scott, with Brad Pitt playing Belfort, but the studio eventually abandoned the project.\nIn 2012, the independent company Red Granite Pictures greenlit the project without content restrictions. Soon after, Scorsese came back on board. Red Granite Pictures also asked Paramount Pictures to distribute the film; Paramount agreed to do so in North America and Japan, but passed on the rest of the international market, with Universal Pictures acquiring the film's international distribution rights.\nAccording to Belfort, Random House asked him to tone down or excise the depictions of debauchery in his memoir before publication, especially those relating to his bachelor party, which featured zoophilia, and rampant use of drugs like nitrous oxide; neither the published memoir nor the film contains references to this.\nIn the film, most real-life characters' names have been changed from Belfort's original memoir. Donnie Azoff is based on Danny Porush. The name was changed after Porush threatened to sue the filmmakers. Porush maintains that much of the film is fictional and that Azoff is not an accurate depiction of him. Former Donna Karan Jeanswear CEO Elliot Lavigne does not appear in the film, but an incident recounted in the book, in which Belfort gives Lavigne mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save him from choking to death, is similar to a scene in the film involving Donnie. The FBI agent Patrick Denham is the stand-in for real-life Gregory Coleman, and lawyer Manny Riskin is based on Ira Sorkin. Belfort's first wife, Denise Lombardo, is renamed Teresa Petrillo, and his second wife, Nadine Caridi, is Naomi Lapaglia on-screen. In contrast, Mark Hanna's name remains the same as the LF Rothschild stockbroker who, like Belfort, was convicted of fraud and served time in prison. Belfort's parents Max and Leah Belfort's names remained the same for the film. The role of Aunt Emma was initially offered to Julie Andrews, who declined as she was recovering from an ankle injury, and was replaced by Joanna Lumley. Olivia Wilde auditioned for the role of Naomi, but she was rejected as she was deemed \"too old\" for the role despite DiCaprio being a decade older than her; the role eventually went to Margot Robbie. In January 2014, Jonah Hill revealed in an interview with Howard Stern that he had made only $60,000 on the film (the lowest possible SAG-AFTRA rate for his amount of work), while DiCaprio (who also produced) received $10 million.\n\nFilming\nFilming began on August 8, 2012, in New York City. Hill announced on Twitter that his first day of shooting was September 4, 2012. Filming also took place in Closter, New Jersey, and Harrison, New York. Vitamin D powder was used as the fake substance for cocaine in the film; Hill was hospitalized with bronchitis due to snorting large quantities during filming.\nScorsese's longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who has received seven Academy Award nominations (as well as one win) for Best Film Editing, said the film would be shot digitally instead of on film. Scorsese had been a proponent of shooting on film, but decided to shoot Hugo digitally because it was being photographed in 3D. Despite being filmed in 2D, The Wolf of Wall Street was originally planned to be shot digitally. Schoonmaker expressed her disappointment with the decision: \"It would appear that we've lost the battle. I think Marty just feels it's unfortunately over, and there's been no bigger champion of film than him.\" After extensive comparison tests during pre-production, eventually the majority of the film was shot on film stock, while scenes that used green screen effects or low light (mainly the nighttime scenes) were shot with the digital Arri Alexa camera system. The film contains 400 to 450 VFX shots.\n\nProfanity\nThe film set a Guinness World Record for the most instances of swearing in a motion picture. It uses the word \"fuck\" 506 times, \"cunt\" three times, \"twat\" twice, \"fuckface\" once, and \"prick\" four times, averaging 2.81 profanities per minute. The previous record holders were Scorsese's previous gangster films Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995), which had respectively had 300 and 422 uses of the word; the 1993 film Menace II Society, which had 305 uses; the 1997 British film Nil by Mouth, which had 428; and the 1999 film Summer of Sam at 435. The record has since been broken by Swearnet: The Movie, which uses the word 935 times, but it still holds the record for a major theatrical release.\nThe film's distributor in the United Arab Emirates cut 45 minutes of scenes of swearing, religious profanity, drug use, sex, and nudity, and \"muted\" dialogue containing expletives. The National reported that filmgoers in the UAE believed the film should not have been shown rather than being edited so heavily.\n\nRelease\nTheatrical\nThe Wolf of Wall Street premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 17, 2013, followed by a wide release on December 25. Its original release date of November 15 was pushed back after cuts were made to reduce the runtime. On October 22, it was reported that the film was set for release that Christmas. On October 29, Paramount officially confirmed that the film would release on Christmas Day, with a runtime of 165 minutes. This was changed to 180 minutes on November 25. It was officially rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for \"sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence\". In the United Kingdom, the film received an 18 certificate from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) for \"very strong language, strong sex [and] hard drug use\".\nThe film is banned in Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, and Zimbabwe because of its scenes depicting sex and drugs and excessive profanity, and additional scenes have been cut in the versions playing in India. In Singapore, after cuts were made to a gay orgy scene as well as some religiously profane or denigrating language, the film was passed R21.\nThe release of The Wolf of Wall Street marked a shift in cinema history when Paramount became the first major studio to distribute movies to theaters exclusively in a digital format, eliminating 35mm film entirely. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was the last Paramount production to include a 35mm film version to be shown in theaters.\n\nHome media\nThe Wolf of Wall Street was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 25, 2014. On January 27, 2014, it was announced that a four-hour director's cut would be attached to the home release. Paramount later announced that the home release would feature only the original theatrical version. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was released on December 14, 2021.\n\nReception\nBox office\nThe Wolf of Wall Street grossed $116.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $289 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $406.9 million; it is Scorsese's highest-grossing film.\nIn the United States, the film finished in fifth place in its first weekend with $19.4 million from 3,387 theaters, for a five-day total of $34.2 million. The film made $13.2 million (a drop of 27.9%) and $8.8 million (33%) in its second and third weekends, finishing in fourth place both times.\nIn Australia, it is the highest grossing R-rated film, earning $12.96 million.\n\nCritical response\nOn the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 289 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: \"Funny, self-referential, and irreverent to a fault, The Wolf of Wall Street finds Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio at their most infectiously dynamic.\" Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating \"generally favorable\" reviews.\nPeter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine named The Wolf of Wall Street as the third-best movie of 2013, behind 12 Years a Slave and Gravity. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, \"it is the best and most enjoyable American film to be released this year.\" Richard Brody of The New Yorker called the film \"Olympian\", saying that if it was Scorsese's last film it \"would rank among the most harshly awe-inspiring farewells of the cinema.\" The Chicago Sun-Times's Richard Roeper gave the film a B+, calling it \"good, not great Scorsese\".\nDana Stevens of Slate was more critical, calling the film \"epic in size, claustrophobically narrow in scope.\" Marshall Fine of The Huffington Post argued that the story \"wants us to be interested in characters who are dull people to start with, made duller by their delusions of being interesting because they are high\". Some critics viewed the film as an irresponsible glorification of Belfort and his associates rather than a satirical takedown. DiCaprio defended the film, arguing that it does not glorify the excessive lifestyle it depicts.\nIn 2016, the film was ranked #78 on the BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century list. In 2017, Richard Brody named The Wolf of Wall Street the second-best film of the 21st century so far, behind Jean-Luc Godard's In Praise of Love. In 2019, Brody named The Wolf of Wall Street the best film of the 2010s.\n\nAudience response\nThe film received an average grade of C on an A+ to F scale from audiences surveyed by CinemaScore, the lowest rating of any film opening that week. The Los Angeles Times suggested that the film's marketing may have attracted conservative viewers who expected a more moralistic tone than the film presents.\nChristina McDowell, daughter of Tom Prousalis, who worked closely with Belfort at Stratton Oakmont, wrote an open letter to Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Belfort, criticizing the film for insufficiently portraying the victims of Stratton Oakmont's financial crimes, disregarding the damage done to her family as a result, and giving celebrity status to people (Belfort and his partners, including her father) who do not deserve it.\nSteven Perlberg of Business Insider saw an advance screening of the film at a Regal Cinemas near the Goldman Sachs building with an audience of finance workers. Perlberg reported cheers from the audience at what he considered all the wrong moments, writing, \"When Belfort—a drug addict attempting to remain sober—rips up a couch cushion to get to his secret coke stash, there were cheers.\"\nFormer Assistant United States Attorney Joel M. Cohen, who prosecuted Belfort, criticized both the film and the book on which it is based. He said that he believes some of Belfort's claims were \"invented\": for instance, Belfort \"aggrandized his importance and reverence for him by others at his firm.\" He strongly criticized the film for not depicting the \"thousands of victims who lost hundreds of millions of dollars\", not accepting the filmmakers' argument that it would have diverted attention from the wrongdoers. He deplored the ending—\"beyond an insult\" to Belfort's victims—in which the real Belfort appears, while showing \"a large sign advertising the name of Mr. Belfort's real motivational speaking company\", and a positive depiction of Belfort uttering \"variants of the same falsehoods he trained others to use against his victims\".\n\nTop ten lists\nThe Wolf of Wall Street was listed on many critics' top ten lists for films released in 2013, and was chosen as one of the top ten films of the year by the American Film Institute. Metacritic analysis found the film was the ninth-most mentioned film on \"best of the year\" film rankings and the 22nd-most mentioned on \"best of the decade\" film rankings.\n\nControversies\nUse of animals\nThe Wolf of Wall Street uses animals, including a chimpanzee, a lion, a snake, a fish, and dogs. The chimpanzee and the lion were provided by the Big Cat Habitat wildlife sanctuary in Sarasota County, Florida. The four-year-old chimpanzee Chance spent time with DiCaprio and learned to roller skate in three weeks. The sanctuary also provided a lion named Handsome because the trading company depicted in the film used a lion as its symbol. Danny Porush denied that there were any animals in the office, although he admitted to eating an employee's goldfish.\nIn December 2013, before the film premiered, the organization Friends of Animals criticized the use of the chimpanzee and organized a boycott of the film. Variety reported, \"Friends of Animals thinks the chimp ... suffered irreversible psychological damage after being forced to act.\" The Guardian commented on the increasing criticism of Hollywood's use of animals, writing, \"The Wolf of Wall Street's use of a chimpanzee arrives as Hollywood comes under ever-increasing scrutiny for its employment of animals on screen\". PETA also launched a campaign to highlight mistreatment of ape \"actors\" and to petition for DiCaprio not to work with great apes.\n\n1MDB scandal\nIn 2015, Red Granite Pictures and the film's financing became implicated in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, a major international corruption scandal that began in Malaysia. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) alleged the film was financed by money producer Riza Aziz stole from the Malaysian 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund. Aziz is the stepson of then-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Aziz was arrested in connection with the scandal and pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges in July 2019. According to court filings, a company owned by fugitive businessman Jho Low gave the film's producers a $9 million advance. Low was given a \"special thanks\" in the film's credits.\nThe film is part of a broader investigation into these illicit monetary movements, and in 2016 was named in a series of civil complaints the United States Department of Justice filed \"for having provided a trust account through which hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to the 1MDB fund were illicitly siphoned\". To settle the civil lawsuit, Red Granite Pictures agreed to pay the U.S. government $60 million with no \"admission of wrongdoing or liability on the part of Red Granite\". This settlement was part of a more expansive U.S. effort to seize approximately $1.7 billion in assets allegedly purchased with funds embezzled from 1MDB. In January 2020, Belfort sued Red Granite for $300 million, also wishing to void his rights deal; he said that he would never have sold the rights to Red Granite if he had known how the film was being financed.\nAziz was discharged in May 2020 on a 1,000,000 Malaysian Ringgit (US$240,000) bail.\n\nThematic controversy and debate\nVarious people have criticized the film as materialistic, encouraging greedy behavior, extreme wealth, and advocating for the infamous individuals portrayed in the film. Christina McDowell, whose father, Tom Prousalis, worked in association with Belfort, accused the filmmakers of \"exacerbating our national obsession with wealth and status and glorifying greed and psychopathic behavior\". She emphasized the gravity and significance of Belfort's crimes, saying that Wolf of Wall Street is a \"reckless attempt at continuing to pretend that these sorts of schemes are entertaining, even as the country is reeling from yet another round of Wall Street scandals\".\nAfter DiCaprio defended himself from criticism, Variety journalist Whitney Friedlander called the film \"three hours of cash, drugs, hookers, repeat\" and argued that the film is a \"celebration of this lifestyle\" and implies that short-lived extreme wealth and extraordinary experiences are superior to normal behavior.\nNikole TenBrink, vice president of marketing and membership at Risk and Insurance Management Society, has said the film is a \"cautionary tale of what can happen when fraud is left unchecked\". She describes Belfort's business acumen, his talent in communicating and selling his ideas, and his ability to motivate others as offering \"valuable lessons for risk professionals as they seek to avoid similar pitfalls\".\n\nBelfort's reaction\nBelfort said of the film's depiction of himself and Stratton Oakmont that it did an excellent job at describing the \"overall feeling\" of those years, adding, \"the camaraderie, the insanity, that was accurate\". Of his drug use, Belfort said that his actual habits were \"much worse\" than is depicted in the film and that he was \"on 22 different drugs at the end\".\nBelfort also analyzed the inaccuracies in the film's oversimplification of Stratton Oakmont's gradual transition from advocating for \"speculative stocks\" in order to \"help build America\" to committing crimes. He said he \"didn't like hearing\" overly simplified and blunt depictions of his crimes because \"it made me look like I was just trying to rip people off\". However, Belfort did acknowledge the cinematic benefits of these oversimplifications as \"a very easy way in three hours\" to \"move the audience emotionally\".\n\nNadine Macaluso's reaction\nOn September 28, 2022, Nadine Macaluso, Belfort's ex-wife on whom the character Naomi was based, said that the depiction of Belfort and their relationship was accurate and that she hopes to educate people on signs of domestic abuse and toxic relationships.\n\nAccolades\nThe film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director for Scorsese, Best Adapted Screenplay for Winter, Best Actor for DiCaprio, and Best Supporting Actor for Hill. It was also nominated for four BAFTAs, including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, and two Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. DiCaprio won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.\n\nSoundtrack\nThe film's soundtrack features both original and preexisting music tracks. It was released on December 17, 2013, for digital download. More than 60 songs are used in the film, but only 16 are on the official soundtrack. Among the notable exceptions are original compositions by Theodore Shapiro.\n\nSee also\nThe Wolf of Wall Street (1929 film)\nScam 1992\nThe Big Bull\nBoiler Room (film)\nGordon Gekko\nMicrocap stock fraud\nList of films that most frequently use the word fuck\n\nReferences\nFurther reading\nKring-Schreifels, Jake (December 22, 2023). \"\"There Is No Limit\": The Oral History of the 'Wolf of Wall Street' Minions\". The Ringer. Retrieved September 18, 2024.\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website \nThe Wolf of Wall Street at IMDb \nThe Wolf of Wall Street at AllMovie \nThe Wolf of Wall Street at Box Office Mojo \nThe Wolf of Wall Street at Rotten Tomatoes","title":"The_Wolf_of_Wall_Street_(2013_film)"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Emily Jean \\\"Emma\\\" Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress and producer. Her accolades include two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2017, she was the world's highest-paid actress and named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.\\nStone began acting as a child in a theater production of The Wind in the Willows in 2000. As a teenager, she relocated to Los Angeles and made her television debut in In Search of the New Partridge Family (2004), a reality show that produced only an unsold pilot. After small television roles, she appeared in a series of well-received teen comedy films, such as Superbad (2007), Zombieland (2009), and Easy A (2010), which was Stone's first leading role. Following this breakthrough, she starred in the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) and the period drama The Help (2011), and gained wider recognition as Gwen Stacy in the 2012 superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man and its 2014 sequel.\\nStone received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a recovering drug addict in Birdman (2014) and portraying Abigail Masham in The Favourite (2018). The latter marked her first of many collaborations with director Yorgos Lanthimos. She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress, for her roles as an aspiring actress in the romantic musical La La Land (2016) and a resurrected suicide victim in Lanthimos' comic fantasy film Poor Things (2023). She also portrayed tennis player Billie Jean King in Battle of the Sexes (2017) and the title role in Cruella (2021). On television, she starred in the dark comedy miniseries Maniac (2018) and The Curse (2023).\\nOn Broadway, Stone has starred as Sally Bowles in a revival of the musical Cabaret (2014–2015). She and her husband, Dave McCary, founded the production company Fruit Tree in 2020, under which they have produced the films When You Finish Saving the World (2022), Problemista (2023), and I Saw the TV Glow (2024).\\n\\nEarly life\\nStone was born on November 6, 1988, in Scottsdale, Arizona, to Jeffrey Charles Stone, the founder and CEO of a general-contracting company, and Krista Jean Stone (née Yeager), a homemaker. She lived on the grounds of the Camelback Inn resort from ages 12 to 15. She has a younger brother, Spencer. Her paternal grandfather, Conrad Ostberg Sten, was from a Swedish family that anglicized their surname to \\\"Stone\\\". She also has German, English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry.\\n\\nAs an infant, Stone had baby colic and cried frequently. She consequently developed nodules and calluses on her vocal cords while she was a child. Stone has described herself as \\\"loud\\\" and \\\"bossy\\\" while growing up. She was educated at Sequoya Elementary School and attended Cocopah Middle School for sixth grade. Stone did not like school, though once said that her controlling nature meant that \\\"I made sure I got all A's\\\". She suffered panic attacks and anxiety as a child, and said they caused a decline in her social skills. Stone underwent therapy but said it was her participation in local theater plays that helped cure the attacks, recalling:\\n\\nThe first time I had a panic attack I was sitting in my friend's house, and I thought the house was burning down. I called my mom and she brought me home, and for the next three years it just would not stop. I would go to the nurse at lunch most days and just wring my hands. I would ask my mom to tell me exactly how the day was going to be, then ask again 30 seconds later. I just needed to know that no one was going to die and nothing was going to change.\\nStone wanted to act since age four; she wanted a career in sketch comedy initially, but shifted her focus to musical theater, and took vocal lessons for several years. Her acting debut, at age 11, came in a stage production of The Wind in the Willows, playing Otter. Stone was homeschooled for two years, during which time she appeared in 16 productions at Phoenix's Valley Youth Theatre—including The Princess and the Pea, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat—and performed with the theater's improvisational comedy troupe. Around this time, she traveled to Los Angeles and auditioned unsuccessfully for a role on Nickelodeon's All That. Her parents later sent her for private acting lessons with a local acting coach, who had worked at the William Morris Agency in the 1970s.\\nStone attended Xavier College Preparatory—an all-girl Catholic high school—as a freshman, but dropped out after one semester to become an actress. She prepared a PowerPoint presentation for her parents titled \\\"Project Hollywood\\\" (featuring Madonna's 2003 song \\\"Hollywood\\\") to convince them to let her move to California to pursue an acting career. In January 2004, she moved with her mother to an apartment in Los Angeles. She recalled, \\\"I went up for every single show on the Disney Channel and auditioned to play the daughter on every single sitcom\\\", adding, \\\"I ended up getting none.\\\" Between auditions for roles, she enrolled in online high-school classes and worked part-time at a dog-treat bakery.\\n\\nCareer\\nCareer beginnings (2004–2009)\\nWhen Stone registered for the Screen Actors Guild at age 16, the name \\\"Emily Stone\\\" was already taken, and she briefly went by \\\"Riley Stone\\\". She made her television debut as Laurie Partridge on the VH1 talent competition reality show In Search of the New Partridge Family (2004). The resulting show, retitled The New Partridge Family (2004), remained an unsold pilot. After guest-starring in the television shows Medium (2005) and Malcolm in the Middle (2006), she decided to change her stage name to \\\"Emma\\\"—chosen in honor of Emma Bunton of the Spice Girls—as she struggled to adapt to the name Riley. She next appeared in Louis C.K.'s HBO series Lucky Louie (2006), and unsuccessfully auditioned to star as Claire Bennet in the NBC science fiction drama Heroes (2007), later calling this her \\\"rock bottom\\\" experience. In April 2007, she played Violet Trimble in the Fox action drama Drive, but the show was canceled after seven episodes.\\nStone made her feature film debut in Greg Mottola's comedy Superbad (2007), co-starring Michael Cera and Jonah Hill. The film tells the story of two high school students who go through a series of comic misadventures after they plan to buy alcohol for a party. To play Hill's romantic interest, she dyed her hair red. A reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter found her \\\"appealing\\\", but felt that her role was poorly written. Stone has described the experience of acting in her first film as \\\"amazing ... [but] very different than other experiences I've had since then\\\". The film was a commercial success, and earned her the Young Hollywood Award for Exciting New Face.\\n\\nThe next year, Stone starred in the comedy The Rocker (2008) as Amelia Stone, the \\\"straight face\\\" bass guitarist in a band; she learned to play the bass for the role. The actress, who has called herself \\\"a big smiler and laugher\\\", said she found it difficult to play a character whose personality was so different from her own. The film and her performance received negative reviews from critics and was a commercial failure. Her next release, the romantic comedy The House Bunny, performed better at the box office, becoming a moderate commercial success. The film saw her play the president of a sorority, and perform a cover version of the Waitresses' 1982 song \\\"I Know What Boys Like\\\". Reviews were generally negative, but Stone was praised, with TV Guide's Ken Fox writing that she \\\"is well on her way to becoming a star\\\".\\nStone appeared in three films released in 2009. The first of these was opposite Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Michael Douglas in Mark Waters's Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Loosely based on Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, the romantic comedy has her playing a ghost who haunts her former boyfriend. Critical reaction to the film was negative, but it was a modest commercial success. Her most financially profitable venture that year was Ruben Fleischer's $102.3 million-grossing horror comedy film Zombieland, in which she features alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin. In the film, she appeared as a con artist and survivor of a zombie apocalypse, in a role which Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine thought was \\\"somewhat underwritten.\\\" In a more positive review, Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph called \\\"the hugely promising Stone […] a tough cookie who projects the aura of being wiser than her years\\\". Stone's third release in 2009 was Kieran and Michelle Mulroney's Paper Man, a comedy-drama which disappointed critics.\\n\\nRise to prominence (2010–2013)\\nStone voiced an Australian Shepherd in Marmaduke (2010), a comedy from director Tom Dey based on Brad Anderson's long-running comic strip of the same name. Her breakthrough came the same year with a starring role in Easy A, a teen comedy directed by Will Gluck. Partially based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, the film tells the story of Olive Penderghast (Stone), a high school student who becomes embroiled in a comic sex scandal after a false rumor circulates that she is sexually promiscuous. Stone read the script before the project was optioned for production, and pursued it with her manager while production details were being finalized. She found the script \\\"so different and unique from anything I'd read before\\\", calling it \\\"funny and sweet\\\". When Stone discovered that the film had begun production, she met with Gluck, expressing her enthusiasm for the project. A few months later, the audition process started and she met again with Gluck, becoming one of the first actresses to audition. The film received positive critical reviews, and Stone's performance was considered its prime asset. Anna Smith of Time Out wrote, \\\"Stone gives a terrific performance, her knowing drawl implying intellect and indifference with underlying warmth.\\\" The film was a commercial success, grossing $75 million against its $8 million budget. Stone was nominated for a BAFTA Rising Star Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, and won the MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance.\\n\\nIn October 2010, Stone hosted an episode of NBC's sketch comedy Saturday Night Live; her appearances included a sketch playing off her resemblance to Lindsay Lohan. Stone called it \\\"the greatest week of my life\\\". She hosted again in 2011, appeared in an episode in 2014, and in its 40th anniversary special in 2015. A brief appearance in the sex comedy Friends with Benefits (2011) reunited her with Gluck. She followed this with a supporting role in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) alongside Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Julianne Moore. The film featured her as a law school graduate, and the love interest of Gosling's character. Despite finding \\\"some inevitable collapses into convention\\\" in the film, Drew McWeeny of HitFix wrote that Stone \\\"ties the whole film together\\\". At the 2012 Teen Choice Awards, she won the Choice Movie Actress – Comedy award for her performance in the film. Crazy, Stupid, Love was a box office success, grossing $142.9 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million.\\nDismayed at being typecast as \\\"the sarcastic interest of the guy\\\", Stone co-starred with Viola Davis in Tate Taylor's period drama The Help (2011), a film she found challenging. The film is based on Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel of the same name and is set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. She met with Taylor to express a desire to work on the film. The director said, \\\"[Stone] was completely awkward and dorky, with her raspy voice, and she sat down and we got a little intoxicated and had a blast, and I just thought, 'God! God! This is Skeeter.\\\" She was cast as Eugenia \\\"Skeeter\\\" Phelan, an aspiring writer learning about the lives of the African-American maids. In preparation for the part, she learned to speak in a Southern accent and educated herself on the Civil Rights Movement through literature and film. With a worldwide gross of $216 million against a $25 million budget, The Help became Stone's highest-grossing film to that point. The film, and her performance, received positive reviews from critics. Writing for Empire, Anna Smith thought Stone was \\\"well-meaning and hugely likable\\\" despite finding flaws in the character. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and won Best Ensemble Cast from the Women Film Critics Circle and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.\\nStone turned down a role in the action comedy 21 Jump Street after signing on to Marc Webb's 2012 film The Amazing Spider-Man, a reboot of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man series. She portrayed Gwen Stacy, the love interest of the titular superhero (played by Andrew Garfield). Stone returned to her natural blonde hair color for the role, having dyed it red previously. She admitted to having never read the comics, and therefore felt responsible to educate herself about Spider-Man: \\\"My experience was with the Sam Raimi movies ... I always assumed that Mary Jane was his first love\\\", adding that she was only familiar with Stacy's character as portrayed by Bryce Dallas Howard in Spider-Man 3. The Amazing Spider-Man was a commercial success and was the seventh highest-grossing film of the year with global revenues of $757.9 million. Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum found Stone to be \\\"irresistible\\\", and Ian Freer of Empire was particularly impressed with Stone's and Garfield's performances. At the annual People's Choice Awards ceremony, she was nominated for three awards, including Favorite Movie Actress. Later that year, Stone voiced a role in the crime-based video game Sleeping Dogs, which earned her a Spike Video Game Award for Best Performance by a Human Female.\\nStone began 2013 with a voice role in the DreamWorks Animation film The Croods, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. This followed with an appearance in Movie 43, an anthology film which consists of 16 short stories—she played the title role in the segment entitled \\\"Veronica\\\". She next starred alongside Ryan Gosling and Sean Penn in Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad (2013), a crime thriller set in Los Angeles during the 1940s. A. O. Scott of The New York Times dismissed the film as \\\"a hectic jumble of fedoras and zoot suits\\\", but praised Stone's pairing with Gosling. She expressed a desire to work with Gosling on more projects.\\n\\nEstablished actress (2014–2017)\\nIn 2014, Stone reprised the role of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. She believed that her character did not depend on the film's protagonist, asserting: \\\"She saves him more than he saves her. She's incredibly helpful to Spider-Man ... He's the muscle, she's the brains.\\\" Her performance was well received by critics; an Empire reviewer commended her for standing out in the film, writing, \\\"Stone is the Heath Ledger of this series, doing something unexpected with an easily dismissed supporting character.\\\" The role won her the Favorite Movie Actress award at the 2015 Kids' Choice Awards. Later that year, Stone took on a role in Woody Allen's romantic comedy Magic in the Moonlight, a modest commercial success. A. O. Scott criticized her role, and pairing with Colin Firth, describing it as \\\"the kind of pedantic nonsense that is meant to signify superior intellect\\\".\\nThe black comedy Birdman, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, was Stone's final film release of 2014. Co-starring Michael Keaton and Edward Norton, it featured her as Sam Thomson, the recovering-addict daughter of actor Riggan Thomson (Keaton), who becomes his assistant. Iñárritu created the character based on his experience with his daughter. Birdman was critically acclaimed, and was the most successful film at the 87th Academy Awards; it was nominated for nine awards, winning four, including Best Picture. The Movie Network deemed it one of Stone's best performances to date, and Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph found her to be \\\"superb\\\" and \\\"tremendous\\\" in her role, while also highlighting her monologue in the film which he believed to have been \\\"delivered like a knitting needle to the gut.\\\" She received Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Award nominations.\\n\\nFrom November 2014 to February 2015, Stone starred in a revival of the Broadway musical Cabaret as Sally Bowles, taking over the role from Michelle Williams. Deeming it \\\"the most nerve-racking thing ever\\\", Stone listened to a French radio station to mentally prepare herself for the role. Marilyn Stasio of Variety was critical of her singing abilities and found her performance to be \\\"a bit narrow as an emotional platform, but a smart choice for her acting skills, the perfect fit for her sharp intelligence and kinetic energy.\\\" Both of Stone's 2015 films—the romantic comedy Aloha, and the drama Irrational Man—were critical and commercial failures, and her roles were panned by critics. In Cameron Crowe's Aloha, she played the role of an air force pilot alongside Bradley Cooper, and in Woody Allen's Irrational Man, she played the love interest of Joaquin Phoenix's character, a philosophy professor. The former was controversial for whitewashing the cast, as Stone's character was meant to be of Asian, Hawaiian, and Swedish descent. She later regretted taking part in the project, acknowledging whitewashing as a widespread problem in Hollywood. Despite the backlash, Stone was nominated for Choice Movie Actress – Comedy at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. She also appeared in the music video for Will Butler's single \\\"Anna\\\".\\nDuring her run on Cabaret, Stone met filmmaker Damien Chazelle, who, impressed with her performance, cast her in his musical comedy-drama La La Land. The project, which marked her third collaboration with Gosling, starred Stone as Mia Dolan, an aspiring actress living in Los Angeles. Stone borrowed several real-life experiences for her character, and in preparation, watched The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. For the film's soundtrack, she recorded six songs. La La Land served as the opening film at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, where it generated critical acclaim and earned Stone the Volpi Cup for Best Actress. It emerged as a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of over $440 million against a production budget of $30 million. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that \\\"Stone has never been better: superbly smart, witty, vulnerable, her huge doe eyes radiating intelligence even, or especially, when they are filling with tears.\\\" For her performance, Stone won the Academy, Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA Award for Best Actress.\\nStone's sole release of 2017 was Battle of the Sexes, based on the 1973 eponymous match between tennis players Billie Jean King (Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). In preparation, Stone met with King, watched old footage and interviews of her, worked with a dialect coach to speak in King's accent, and drank high-calorie protein shakes to gain 15 pounds (6.8 kg). The film premiered to positive reviews at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, and certain critics considered Stone's performance to be the finest of her career. Benjamin Lee of The Guardian praised her for playing against type, and for being \\\"strong\\\" and \\\"convincing\\\" in the part. Even so, the film earned less than its $25 million budget. Stone received her fourth Golden Globe nomination for it, and attended the ceremony with King.\\n\\nFilms with Yorgos Lanthimos and professional expansion (2018–present)\\nIn 2018, Stone and Rachel Weisz played Abigail Masham and Sarah Churchill, two cousins fighting for the affection of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), in Yorgos Lanthimos's historical comedy-drama The Favourite. She found it challenging to be an American among an all-British cast, and struggled with mastering her character's accent. The film premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival to critical acclaim. Michael Nordine of IndieWire praised Stone for taking on such a bold role following the success of La La Land, and termed the three lead actresses \\\"a majestic triumvirate in a period piece that's as tragic as it is hilarious.\\\" Stone then executive-produced and starred in the Netflix dark comedy miniseries Maniac (2018), directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. It featured Stone and Jonah Hill as two strangers whose lives are transformed due to a mysterious pharmaceutical trial. An admirer of Fukunaga's work, she agreed to the project without reading the script. Judy Berman of Time magazine was impressed with Stone and Hill for their growth as actors since Superbad and noted the complexity in their performances. Stone received her fifth Golden Globe nomination and third Oscar nomination for The Favourite, and additionally earned SAG nominations for both Maniac and The Favourite. That same year, Stone appeared in Paul McCartney's music video for his song \\\"Who Cares\\\".\\n\\nStone reprised her role as Wichita in Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), the sequel to 2009's Zombieland, which received mixed reviews and grossed $125 million worldwide. She narrated the Netflix documentary series The Mind, Explained (2019) and reprised the voice role of Eep in The Croods: A New Age (2020), the sequel to 2013's The Croods. In 2021, Stone played Cruella de Vil (originated by Glenn Close in the previous live-action adaptations) in Craig Gillespie's crime comedy Cruella, a Disney live-action based on the 1961 animation One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Starring opposite Emma Thompson, Stone also served as an executive producer of the film alongside Close. The film was released in US theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access to positive reviews and grossed $233 million worldwide against its $100 million budget. Justin Chang of Los Angeles Times wrote that despite the film's flawed screenplay, Stone was \\\"wholly committed, glammed-to-the-nines\\\"; Chang favorably compared it with her performance in The Favourite, adding that she \\\"nailed every nuance as another lowly young woman turned ambitious schemer\\\". For Cruella, Stone garnered another Golden Globe nomination.\\nIn 2020, Stone and her husband, Dave McCary, launched the production company Fruit Tree. Their first project was the independent film When You Finish Saving the World, which marked Jesse Eisenberg's feature directorial debut. The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, and had modest reviews. The company's next release was the comedy Problemista, directed by Julio Torres. It premiered at the 2023 South by Southwest, and was initially scheduled to be released that year, but was delayed due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Both films were produced in collaboration with A24.\\nContinuing her collaboration with Lanthimos, Stone starred in his short film Bleat (2022) and feature film Poor Things (2023). The latter, a fantasy coming-of-age film, is based on the novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray. Stone also produced the film, in which she starred as Bella, a young Victorian woman who is crudely resurrected after her suicide. She found the experience of playing a character liberated of societal pressures to be \\\"extremely freeing\\\", and she performed nudity and several sex scenes in it. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Stone \\\"gorges on it in a fearless performance that traces an expansive arc most actors could only dream about\\\", and particularly praised her ability to perform physical comedy. Stephanie Zacharek of Time termed her performance \\\"wonderful—vital, exploratory, almost lunar in its perfect oddness\\\". Stone next executive produced and starred in the Showtime satirical comedy series The Curse. She played Whitney, an influencer who hosts an HGTV show with her husband. Commenting on her achievements of the year, BBC Culture's Caryn James opined that \\\"Stone has quickly moved past Hollywood stardom to claim serious artistic credentials\\\". She received two more Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress for her performances in Poor Things and The Curse, winning for the former. Also for Poor Things, she won her second Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Actress in addition to a Best Picture nomination.\\nThe 2024 Sundance Film Festival marked the release of two films produced by Stone for Fruit Tree — the horror film I Saw the TV Glow and Eisenberg's second directorial, A Real Pain. In her fourth collaboration with Lanthimos, Stone played three characters in his absurdist anthology film Kinds of Kindness, which premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. She will next star in Ari Aster's contemporary Western film Eddington and in Lanthimos' Bugonia, a remake of the South Korean film Save the Green Planet!.\\n\\nReception and acting style\\nCommenting on her performance in The Help, Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called her \\\"one of our very best young actresses\\\". Time's Daniel D'Addario stated in 2015 that Stone \\\"appears to have fairly limited options\\\" and choosing roles in independent films by \\\"less established directors would represent a substantive risk\\\". Analyzing her on-screen persona, Jessica Kiang of IndieWire noted that Stone \\\"usually [plays] the approachable, down-to-earth, girl-next-door type, [and] in person she demonstrates many of those qualities too, along with an absolute refusal to take herself too seriously.\\\" Biographer Karen Hollinger wrote that at the beginning of her career, Stone was often labeled a \\\"star ingénue\\\", a perceived limitation she escaped despite not being a classically trained actress as she \\\"crafted a brilliant career based on performative skills, careful choice of roles and distinctive personality\\\". In a 2024 analysis of Stone's career trajectory, IndieWire suggested that from breakout roles to acclaimed performances in indie films, Stone is positioned as a potential new movie star in Hollywood's evolving landscape.\\nIn 2008, Stone topped Saturday Night Magazine's Top 20 Rising Stars Under 30 and was included in a similar list compiled by Moviefone. LoveFilm placed her on their list of 2010 Top 20 Actresses Under 30, and her performance in Easy A was included in Time's Top 10 Everything of 2010. She appeared in the 2013 Celebrity 100 list, a compilation of the 100 most powerful people in the world, as selected annually by Forbes. The magazine reported that she had earned $16 million from June 2012 to June 2013. That same year, she was ranked first in the magazine's Top 10 Best Value Stars. In 2015, Forbes published that she had become one of the world's highest-paid actresses with earnings of $6.5 million. The magazine ranked her the world's highest-paid actress two years later with annual earnings of $26 million. In 2017, she was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.\\nStone has been described as a style icon, with her hair, eyes, and husky voice listed as her trademark features. Vogue credits the actress for her \\\"sophisticated, perfectly put-together looks\\\", writing that \\\"her charisma, both on-screen and off-, has charmed many\\\" and for her embrace of \\\"Old Hollywood Glamour\\\". Bee Shapiro of The New York Times called Stone a \\\"likable ... spunky, talented, self-deprecating and slightly goofy\\\" actress who is diverse in her fashion choices. In 2009, she was featured on FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World and Maxim's Hot 100; the latter also placed her on the list on three other occasions—2010, 2011, and 2014. In 2011, she featured on Victoria's Secret's list of \\\"What is Sexy?\\\" as the Sexiest Actress. She was mentioned in other media outlet listings that year, including People's 100 Most Beautiful Women, each of FHM's and FHM Australia's 100 Sexiest Women in the World, and Men's Health's 100 Hottest Women. She was ranked sixth on Empire's list of the 100 Sexiest Movie Stars in 2013. Stone was named the best-dressed woman of 2012 by Vogue and was included on similar listings by Glamour in 2013 and 2015, and People in 2014.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nStone moved from Los Angeles to Greenwich Village, New York, in 2009. In 2016, she moved back to Los Angeles. Despite significant media attention, she refuses to publicly discuss her personal life. Concerned with living a normal life, Stone has said she dislikes receiving paparazzi attention outside her home. She has expressed her fondness for her profession, and has cited Diane Keaton as an acting influence, calling her \\\"one of the most covered-up actresses of all time\\\". Stone has a close relationship with her family. She says, \\\"I am blessed with a great family and great people around me that would be able to kick me in the shins if I ever for one minute got lost up in the clouds. I've been really lucky in that sense.\\\"\\nStone dated her Paper Man co-star Kieran Culkin for two years. In 2011, she started dating her Amazing Spider-Man co-star Andrew Garfield for four years. Their relationship was reported in the media with various speculations; the pair refused to speak publicly about it, though they made several appearances together. In 2014, on an occasion in New York City, Stone and Garfield encouraged paparazzi to visit websites that spread awareness of causes such as autism. In 2015, they were reported to have broken up.\\nStone met Saturday Night Live segment director Dave McCary on December 3, 2016, while hosting the show. They began dating the following year. On December 4, 2019, they announced their engagement. They married in a private ceremony in September 2020. In January 2021, they were reported to be expecting their first child together. In March 2021, Stone gave birth to their daughter named Louise Jean. As of 2021, the family lives in Austin, Texas. In 2022, Stone sold her house in Malibu, California for $4.425 million, and in 2024, she sold her Los Angeles home for $4 million.\\nStone has said she suffers from asthma, which she discovered after having difficulty breathing while filming Easy A. Her mother was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer and cured in 2008. Stone and her mother celebrated by getting tattoos of birds' feet, designed by Paul McCartney, a reference to the Beatles song \\\"Blackbird\\\", which she and her mother love. Stone is a supporter of Planned Parenthood, and attended the 2017 Academy Awards wearing a Planned Parenthood pin on her dress.\\n\\nPhilanthropy\\nStone appeared in a Revlon campaign that promoted breast cancer awareness. In 2011, she appeared in a collaborative video between Star Wars and Stand Up to Cancer to raise funds for cancer research. From 2012 to 2014, she hosted the Entertainment Industry Foundation's Revlon Run/Walk, which helps fight women's cancer.\\nStone and three other celebrities were present at the 2012 Nickelodeon HALO Awards, a TV special that profiled four teenagers who are \\\"Helping And Leading Others\\\" (HALO). She attended the 2014 Earth Hour, a worldwide movement for the planet organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature. In 2015, she was part of a fundraising event in support of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which helps people in the film and television industries with limited or no resources. In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from sexual harassment and discrimination.\\n\\nActing credits and awards\\nAccording to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and the box-office site Box Office Mojo, Stone's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films are Superbad (2007), Zombieland (2009), Easy A (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), The Help (2011), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), Birdman (2014), La La Land (2016), Battle of the Sexes (2017), The Favourite (2018), Cruella (2021), and Poor Things (2023).\\nStone has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following:\\n\\n87th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress, nomination, for Birdman (2014)\\n89th Academy Awards: Best Actress, win, for La La Land (2016)\\n91st Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress, nomination, for The Favourite (2018)\\n96th Academy Awards: Best Actress, win, for Poor Things (2023)\\n96th Academy Awards: Best Picture, nomination, for Poor Things (2023)\\nShe has also been nominated for five British Academy Film Awards: BAFTA Rising Star Award, Best Supporting Actress for Birdman and The Favourite, and Best Actress in a Leading Role for La La Land and Poor Things, winning for the last two. Her other awards include two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for La La Land and Poor Things, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at Venice Film Festival, both for La La Land.\\n\\nSee also\\nList of actors with Academy Award nominations\\nList of actors with three or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories\\nList of actors with two or more Academy Awards in acting categories\\nList of Academy Award records\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nLiterary sources\\nHollinger, Karen (2022). \\\"Amy Adams and Emma Stone: Escaping the Ingénue\\\". In Rybin, Steven (ed.). Stellar Transformations: Movie Stars of the 2010s. Rutgers University Press. pp. 34–52. ISBN 978-1-978818-33-0.\\nOwings, Lisa (2014). Emma Stone: Breakout Movie Star. ABDO Publishing Company. p. 22; 33. ISBN 978-1-62968-026-2.\\nSchuman, Michael A. (2013). Emma!: Amazing Actress Emma Stone. Enslow Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7660-4113-4.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nEmma Stone at IMDb \\nEmma Stone at the TCM Movie Database \\nEmma Stone at the Internet Broadway Database \\nEmma Stone at AllMovie\\nEmma Stone at Rotten Tomatoes\",\n \"title\": \"Emma_Stone\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"While the highest-paid film actors can command multi-million-dollar salaries, actors can potentially earn substantially more by deferring all or part of their salary against a percentage of the film's gross, known within the industry as a \\\"profit participation\\\" deal.\\n\\nHighest earnings for a single production\\nSince not all salaries are made public, this is a non-definitive list of actors who have received $30 million or more as compensation for their services in a single production. Occasionally an actor's fee may cover multiple films, and they are included on the list if the films were filmed as a back-to-back production (for example, Keanu Reeves and the Matrix sequels). The figures are given at their nominal value, since earnings from profit-based deals are accumulated over many years, making it unfeasible to adjust for inflation.\\n\\nForbes publishes yearly lists of the highest-paid actors and actresses based on total earnings from 1 June the previous year to 1 June the current year.\\n\\nHighest annual earnings\\nForbes publishes yearly lists of the highest-paid actors and actresses based on total earnings from 1 June the previous year to 1 June the current year.\\n\\nSee also\\nList of highest-grossing actors\\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"List_of_highest-paid_film_actors\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Margot Elise Robbie ( MAR-goh ROB-ee; born 2 July 1990) is an Australian actress and producer. Her work includes both blockbuster and independent films, and her accolades include nominations for three Academy Awards, six BAFTA Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017, and Forbes named her the world's highest-paid actress in 2023.\\nBorn and raised in Queensland, Robbie began her career in 2008 on the television series Neighbours, on which she was a regular until 2011. After moving to the United States, she led the television series Pan Am (2011–2012) and had her breakthrough in 2013 with Martin Scorsese’s comedy film The Wolf of Wall Street. She achieved wider recognition with starring roles as Jane Porter in The Legend of Tarzan (2016), and as Harley Quinn in the DC Extended Universe films beginning with Suicide Squad (2016).\\nRobbie received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of figure skater Tonya Harding in the biopic I, Tonya (2017). This acclaim continued for her performances as Queen Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots (2018), Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and a Fox News employee in Bombshell (2019). The last of these earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Robbie has since starred as an aspiring actress in the period film Babylon (2022) and the titular fashion doll in the fantasy comedy Barbie (2023), which emerged as her highest-grossing release and, as its producer, earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture.\\nRobbie and her husband, filmmaker Tom Ackerley, co-founded the production company LuckyChap Entertainment in 2014, under which they have produced several films, including I, Tonya, Promising Young Woman (2020), Barbie, and Saltburn (2023), as well as the Hulu series Dollface (2019–2022) and the Netflix miniseries Maid (2021).\\n\\nEarly life and education\\nMargot Elise Robbie was born on 2 July 1990 in Dalby, Queensland, to Doug Robbie, a former farm-owner and sugarcane tycoon, and Sarie Kessler, a physiotherapist. She is the second youngest of four; older siblings Anya and Lachlan and younger brother Cameron. Her parents separated when she was five. Robbie and her siblings were raised by their single mother and had minimal contact with their father. The family spent the majority of Robbie's upbringing on her grandparents' Currumbin Valley farm in the Gold Coast hinterland. An energetic child, Robbie often put on shows in her house.\\nShe was enrolled in a circus school by her mother, where she excelled in trapeze, in which she received a certificate at age eight. In high school, Robbie studied drama at Somerset College. As a teenager, she worked three jobs: she tended a bar, cleaned houses, and worked at Subway. After graduation, with a few commercials and independent thriller films on her résumé, Robbie relocated to Melbourne to begin acting professionally.\\n\\nCareer\\n2008–2012: Early work and Neighbours\\nRobbie's first acting roles came when she was in high school. She starred in two low-budget independent thriller films, called Vigilante and I.C.U., both released years later. She described the experience of being on a film set as \\\"a dream come true\\\". She made her television debut in a 2008 guest role as Caitlin Brentford in the drama series City Homicide and followed this with a two-episode arc in the children's television series The Elephant Princess, in which she starred alongside Liam Hemsworth.\\nWith agent encouragement at the time and as Robbie recalled on The Graham Norton Show, she called FremantleMedia on a daily basis. \\\"One day, I got put through by accident to the casting director for Neighbours,\\\" and she said, \\\"I'm in town working on something.\\\" The casting director asked how old she was, and she responded \\\"seventeen.\\\" She was told, \\\"We're looking for exactly that, come in and audition\\\" for the television soap opera Neighbours. In June 2008, she began playing Donna Freedman, a role that was meant to be a guest character, but Robbie was promoted to the regular cast after she made her debut. In her three-year stint on the soap, she received two Logie Award nominations.\\nShortly after arriving in America, Robbie landed the role of Laura Cameron, a newly trained flight attendant in the period drama series Pan Am (2011). The series premiered to high ratings and positive reviews but was cancelled after one season due to falling ratings.\\n\\n2013–2015: Breakthrough\\nRobbie next appeared in Richard Curtis' romantic comedy About Time (2013), co-starring Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams. It tells the story of a young man with the ability to time travel who tries to change his past in hopes of improving his future. To play Gleeson's unattainable teenage love interest, she adopted a British accent. The film was a modest commercial success. Robbie's breakthrough came the same year with the role of Naomi Lapaglia, the wife of protagonist Jordan Belfort, in Martin Scorsese's biographical black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street. In her audition for the role, Robbie improvised a slap on co-star Leonardo DiCaprio during a fight scene which ultimately won her the part. The film and her performance received positive reviews; she was particularly praised for her on-screen Brooklyn accent. Critic Sasha Stone wrote of Robbie's performance, \\\"She's Scorsese's best blonde bombshell discovery since Cathy Moriarty in Raging Bull. Robbie is funny, hard and kills every scene she's in.\\\" The Wolf of Wall Street was a box office success, grossing $392 million worldwide, making it Scorsese's highest-grossing film to date. Robbie was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer.\\n\\nShe later said that the fame and attention the movie brought her led her to consider quitting acting, but her mother was philosophical about her profession and explained to her that it was probably too late to quit. She fully understood and stuck with it. With the aim to produce more female-driven projects, Robbie and her future husband, Tom Ackerley, and their respective longtime friends Sophia Kerr and Josey McNamara, started their own production company LuckyChap Entertainment. The company was founded in 2014 and its name was inspired by Charlie Chaplin.\\nRobbie appeared in four films released in 2015. The first of these was opposite Will Smith in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's $158.8 million-grossing romantic comedy-drama film Focus. In the film, she played an inexperienced grifter learning the craft from Smith's character; she learned how to pickpocket from Apollo Robbins for the role. Reviews of the film were generally mixed, but Robbie's performance was praised; Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, \\\"Robbie is wow and then some. Even when Focus fumbles, [she] deals a winning hand.\\\"\\nShe was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 68th British Academy Film Awards. Her next appearance was alongside Michelle Williams and Kristin Scott Thomas in Saul Dibb's war romantic drama Suite Française, a film based on the second part of Irène Némirovsky's 2004 novel of the same name. In the film, she played a woman falling for a German soldier during the German occupation of France during World War II, a role which Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter found \\\"underwritten\\\".\\nShe followed this with Craig Zobel's post-apocalyptic drama Z for Zachariah opposite Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in her first leading role. Partially based on Robert C. O'Brien's book of the same name, the film follows Ann Burden (Robbie) as she finds herself in an emotionally charged love triangle with the last known survivors of a disaster that wipes out most of civilization. In preparation for the film, Robbie dyed her hair brown and learned to speak in an Appalachian accent. The film received positive reviews, and Robbie's performance was widely praised, with Drew McWeeny of HitFix asserting that \\\"Robbie's work here establishes her as one of the very best actresses in her age range today.\\\" Her fourth release of 2015 was a cameo appearance in Adam McKay's comedy-drama The Big Short, in which she breaks the fourth wall to explain subprime mortgages while in a bathtub. The Big Short was a commercial and critical success and Robbie's cameo became a trending topic six years later, in the wake of the GameStop short squeeze, as her explanation provided reference points for what was happening with the GameStop and related stocks.\\n\\n2016–2018: Worldwide recognition\\nIn 2016, Robbie reunited with Ficarra and Requa, playing a British war correspondent in the film adaptation of The Taliban Shuffle, called Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, co-starring Tina Fey and Martin Freeman. Later that year, Robbie took on the part of Jane Porter in David Yates's adventure film The Legend of Tarzan. She was adamant about not losing weight and ensuring the role was not a damsel in distress like in previous Tarzan adaptations. Reviews of the film were generally unfavourable, but Manohla Dargis of The New York Times credited Robbie for \\\"holding her own\\\" in her supporting role alongside the all-male cast with Alexander Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson.\\nRobbie became the first person to portray DC Comics villain Harley Quinn in live-action when she signed on to David Ayer's 2016 superhero film Suicide Squad alongside an ensemble cast that included Will Smith, Jared Leto and Viola Davis. She admitted to having never read the comics, but felt a huge responsibility to do the character justice and satisfy the fans. Robbie began preparing for the role of the supervillainess six months prior to the film shoot; her schedule consisted of gymnastics, boxing, aerial silk training and learning how to hold her breath underwater for five minutes. She performed the majority of her own stunts in the film. Suicide Squad was a commercial success and was tenth-highest-grossing film of 2016 with global revenues of $746.8 million, and Robbie's performance was considered its prime asset. Writing for Time, Stephanie Zacharek found Robbie to be \\\"a criminally appealing actress, likable in just about every way\\\" despite finding flaws in the character and Christopher Orr of The Atlantic called her performance \\\"genuinely terrific\\\". At the annual People's Choice Awards ceremony, she won the Favorite Action Movie Actress award and was also awarded the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress in an Action Movie.\\nIn October 2016, Robbie hosted the season 42 premiere of NBC's late-night sketch comedy Saturday Night Live; her appearances included a parody of Ivanka Trump. The series logged its strongest season premiere ratings in eight years. Robbie collaborated with Domhnall Gleeson in Simon Curtis' Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017), a biographical drama about the lives of Winnie-the-Pooh creator A. A. Milne and his family. The film, and her performance, received modest reviews and was a commercial failure.\\n\\nHer final release of 2017 and LuckyChap Entertainment's first release was Craig Gillespie's sports black comedy I, Tonya, based on the life of American figure skater Tonya Harding (Robbie) and her connection to the 1994 assault on rival Nancy Kerrigan. In preparation, Robbie met with Harding, watched old footage and interviews of her, worked with a voice coach to speak in Harding's Pacific Northwest accent and vocal timbre at different ages, and underwent several months of rigorous skating instruction with choreographer Sarah Kawahara. I, Tonya premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim. James Luxford of Metro deemed it Robbie's best performance to date, and Mark Kermode of The Observer wrote, \\\"Margot Robbie's performance in this satirical, postmodern tale of the disgraced star is a tour-de-force tornado that balances finely nuanced character development with impressively punchy physicality\\\". She received numerous accolades for her performance, including nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, all for Best Actress.\\nRobbie began 2018 with the voice role of Flopsy Rabbit in Peter Rabbit, an animated comedy from director Will Gluck, which is based on the Beatrix Potter book series. The animated feature was a box office success, grossing $351.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million. Her next two 2018 films—the neo-noir thriller Terminal and comedy-horror Slaughterhouse Rulez—were critical and commercial failures. The historical drama Mary Queen of Scots, directed by Josie Rourke, was her final release of 2018. The film featured Saoirse Ronan as the titular character and Robbie as her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, and it chronicles the 1569 conflict between their two countries. Robbie had initially turned down the role for being \\\"terrified\\\" of not living up to the history of portrayals of the Queen. Before each day of shooting, she spent three hours in the make-up chair while a prosthetic nose, painted on boils and blisters were applied. Critics dismissed the film for its screenplay and several historical inaccuracies, but praised the performances of Robbie and Ronan. Yolanda Machado of TheWrap wrote, \\\"[B]ow down to Ronan and Robbie for taking two legendarily complex characters, [...] and completely owning both roles. Ronan's fiery Mary and Robbie's emotionally complex Elizabeth truly reign divine on screen.\\\" For her portrayal, Robbie received nominations for a BAFTA Award and for a Screen Actors Guild Award.\\n\\n2019–present: Established actress and producer\\nRobbie's first release of 2019 was the LuckyChap Entertainment production Dreamland, a poorly received period crime thriller set during the 1930s Dust Bowl. She began executive producing the comedy series Dollface, which streamed on Hulu from 2019 to 2022. Robbie was filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's only choice to portray the late actress Sharon Tate in his period film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. With the Tate–LaBianca murders serving as a backdrop, the film tells the story of a fading character actor (DiCaprio) and his stunt double (Pitt) as they navigate New Hollywood in 1969 Los Angeles. Feeling \\\"an enormous sense of responsibility\\\", Robbie prepared for the role by meeting Tate's family members and friends, watching all of her films and reading the autobiography by Tate's then-husband, Roman Polanski. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, and was a commercial success with a worldwide gross of $374.3 million. Despite many bemoaning Robbie's lack of lines in the film, Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph highlighted a scene with Robbie in the cinema, which he found to be the film's \\\"most delightful\\\" scene.\\nAlso in 2019, she starred as Kayla Pospisil, a composite character based on several Fox News employees, in Jay Roach's drama Bombshell. Co-starring Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman, the film recounts stories of various female personnel at the news network and their sexual harassment by the network's chairman Roger Ailes. Robbie based her character's accent on Katherine Harris. The film received positive reviews; Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote, \\\"Robbie [is] at her best, the arc of her story is so crushing that it stays with you the longest.\\\" For her performances in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Bombshell, she received two nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and for the latter she received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award; all in the Best Supporting Actress category.\\nRobbie began the new decade by reprising the role of Harley Quinn in Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey (2020). Determined to make a female ensemble action film, she pitched the idea for the film to Warner Bros. in 2015. Robbie spent the subsequent three years developing the project under her production company, making a concerted effort to hire a female director and screenwriter. Birds of Prey, along with Robbie's performance, gained generally positive reviews; Ian Freer of Empire wrote that \\\"the MVP is Robbie, who lends Harley charming quirk and believable menace, hinting at Harley's inner life without reams of dialogue.\\\" She received two nominations at the 46th People's Choice Awards.\\nRobbie served as a producer on Promising Young Woman (2020), a comedy thriller by writer-director Emerald Fennell, starring Carey Mulligan as a woman who seeks to avenge the rape and death of her best friend. The film received acclaim, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2021, Robbie reprised her voice role as Flopsy Rabbit in Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, which received mixed reviews and grossed $153.8 million worldwide. She also made her third outing as Quinn in the standalone sequel The Suicide Squad, written and directed by James Gunn. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was simultaneously released theatrically and on the streaming service HBO Max. Owen Gleiberman praised Robbie's \\\"delectable performance\\\" in it. She also served as an executive producer for the Netflix miniseries Maid.\\n\\nIn 2022, Robbie reprised her role as Donna Freedman for the final episode of Neighbours. She starred alongside an ensemble cast in David O. Russell's period comedy Amsterdam, based on the 1933 Business Plot. The film emerged as a critical and commercial failure. In her second film release of the year, she played Nellie LaRoy, an actress inspired by silent movie star Clara Bow, in Damien Chazelle's comedy-drama Babylon. In preparation, she studied the works of Bow and researched her traumatic childhood. She described LaRoy as \\\"the most physically and emotionally draining character I've ever played\\\". The film polarized critics and had poor box office returns, though her performance received praise; Caryn James of BBC Culture opined, \\\"Robbie's bold, charismatic performance makes Nellie a daring, endlessly spiraling, sympathetic figure\\\". She received another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress, although the underperformance of her two major releases that year led some commentators to brand her as \\\"box office poison\\\" at the time.\\nIn the following year, Robbie had a single scene in Wes Anderson's ensemble comedy film Asteroid City. Chris Hewitt of the Star Tribune described her \\\"impassioned acting in her lone scene\\\" as \\\"perfectly judged\\\". The fantasy comedy Barbie, co-starring Ryan Gosling as Ken, was her next film release. As producer, Robbie bought the rights from Mattel for a film about the eponymous fashion doll in 2018. She hired Greta Gerwig to write and direct the film, and took on the title role herself after Gal Gadot declined her offer. In preparation, Gerwig and Robbie watched old Technicolor musicals such as The Red Shoes (1948) and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). Variety reported that Robbie earned $12.5 million for the role, the highest for an actress in Hollywood that year. Vulture's Alison Willmore took note of how much Robbie fit the part, and commended her for combining both \\\"heartbreaking earnestness\\\" and \\\"humor\\\" in her performance. With a worldwide gross of over $1.4 billion, Barbie emerged as Robbie's highest-grossing release. She received further BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for her performance, in addition to a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture.\\nAlso in 2023, Robbie produced Fennell's second directorial, Saltburn. The 2024 Sundance Film Festival marked the release of her next production, Megan Park's comedy film My Old Ass. Robbie will next star alongside Colin Farrell in Kogonada's film A Big Bold Beautiful Journey and Jacob Elordi in Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights, adapted from the novel.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nDespite significant media attention, Robbie rarely discusses her personal life. Robbie moved from Melbourne to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in the early 2010s, having previously shared a flat with Neighbours co-star Ashleigh Brewer. During that period, she became an avid ice hockey fan; she supports the New York Rangers and previously played right wing in an amateur ice hockey league.\\nRobbie met British assistant director Tom Ackerley on the set of Suite Française in 2013. In 2014, she moved to London with Ackerley and LuckyChap Entertainment co-founders Sophia Kerr and Josey McNamara. Later that year, Robbie and Ackerley began a romantic relationship. In December 2016, they married in a private wedding ceremony in Byron Bay, Australia. The couple reside in Venice Beach, California. Her pregnancy was confirmed in July 2024.\\n\\nOther work\\nRobbie has been a vocal supporter of human rights, women's rights, gender equality and LGBT rights. Through LuckyChap Entertainment, she and her co-founders focus on promoting female stories from female storytellers, whether it would be writers, directors, producers or all the above. In 2014, she was part of a fundraising event in support of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which helps people in the film and television industries with limited or no resources; she joined the same event on two other occasions, in 2018 and 2020. In 2015, she helped raise $12 million through the BGC Global Charity Day fundraising event, which donates money to different charities around the world. In 2016, Robbie joined other celebrities and UN Refugee Agency staff in a petition aiming to gather public support for the growing number of families forced to flee conflict and persecution worldwide. Later in the year, she joined Oxfam's \\\"I Hear You\\\" project, which was designed to amplify the personal stories of the world's most vulnerable refugees and donated more than $50.000 to UNICEF's \\\"Children First\\\" campaign, in support of refugee children.\\nIn October 2016, while hosting Saturday Night Live, Robbie made a stand for same-sex marriage in her native Australia wearing a T-shirt that read \\\"Say 'I Do' Down Under\\\", with a map of the country in rainbow colors. A year later, she joined fellow actor Chris Hemsworth in advocating for the same purpose. In 2018, she pledged to support the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination. In April 2021, Robbie was announced as the recipient of the inaugural RAD Impact Award, for inspiring purpose with her philanthropy. She chose to share the prize with Youngcare, a charity she had previously worked with, and therefore an impact donation was made to fund a project benefiting young people with extensive care needs.\\n\\nPublic image\\nRobbie is known for starring in both high-profile, mainstream productions and low-budget independent films, in which she has been able to display both her dramatic and comedic range. \\nFor her role in The Wolf of Wall Street, Vanity Fair named her one of its breakthrough actors of 2013. In 2017, she appeared on the annual Forbes 30 Under 30 list, a compilation of the brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers in the world and was included on a similar list compiled by The Hollywood Reporter. That same year, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world; her The Wolf of Wall Street director Martin Scorsese penned the article in the magazine, referring to Robbie as having \\\"a unique audacity that surprises and challenges and just burns like a brand into every character she plays. [...] Margot is stunning in all she is and all she does, and she will astonish us forever.\\\" In 2019, Forbes ranked her among the world's highest-paid actresses, with annual earnings of $23.5 million, and The Hollywood Reporter listed her among the 100 most powerful people in entertainment. In 2021, she was named one of the 100 most influential women in entertainment by The Hollywood Reporter. In December 2023, Robbie has been listed in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2023 Women in Entertainment Power 100. In 2024, she was named by Forbes as the world's highest-paid actress in 2023, with earnings of $78 million. \\nVogue has named her \\\"one of the most glamorous starlets\\\" and she was ranked as one of the best-dressed women in 2018 and 2019 by luxury fashion retailer Net-a-Porter. In 2014 and 2016, she featured on AskMen's Top 99 Women, ranking among the top ten each year. Also in 2016, Robbie was placed at number one on FHM's \\\"100 Sexiest Women in the World\\\" list. Since 2016, she has been chosen as the ambassador for brands such as Calvin Klein, Nissan and Chanel. She was the last brand ambassador picked by Karl Lagerfeld before his death in February 2019.\\n\\nFilmography and awards\\nAccording to the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Robbie's most positively reviewed films are The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Z for Zachariah (2015), Suite Française (2015), I, Tonya (2017), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), Birds of Prey (2020), The Suicide Squad (2021), and Barbie (2023).\\n\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nPeary, Danny (March–April 2015). \\\"In conversation with: Margot Robbie\\\". Local Focus. Actor Spotlight. Filmink. 10 (1): 42–43.\\n\\nExternal links\\n Media related to Margot Robbie at Wikimedia Commons\\n Quotations related to Margot Robbie at Wikiquote\\nMargot Robbie at IMDb\\nMargot Robbie at Rotten Tomatoes\",\n \"title\": \"Margot_Robbie\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 3,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 American epic biographical black comedy film co-produced and directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Terence Winter, based on Jordan Belfort's 2007 memoir of the same name. It recounts Belfort's career as a stockbroker in New York City and how his firm, Stratton Oakmont, engaged in rampant corruption and fraud on Wall Street, leading to his downfall. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort; Jonah Hill as his business partner and friend Donnie Azoff; Margot Robbie as his second wife, Naomi Lapaglia; Matthew McConaughey as his mentor and former boss Mark Hanna; and Kyle Chandler as FBI agent Patrick Denham. It is DiCaprio's fifth collaboration with Scorsese.\\nDiCaprio and Warner Bros. acquired the rights to Belfort's memoir in 2007, but production was halted due to content restrictions. It was later produced by the independent Red Granite Pictures. The film was shot in New York in late 2012, using mostly 35mm film stock.\\nThe film premiered in New York City on December 17, 2013, and was released in the United States on December 25, 2013, by Paramount Pictures. It was the first major American film to be released exclusively through digital distribution. It was a major commercial success, grossing $406.9 million worldwide during its theatrical run, becoming Scorsese's highest-grossing film. However, the film initially received considerable controversy for its moral ambiguity and lack of sympathy for victims, as well as its explicit, graphic sexual content, extreme profanity (with at least 500 uses of the swear word \\\"fuck\\\"), depiction of hard drug use, and use of animals during production. The film was initially rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America, but it was shortly appealed for an R rating after Scorsese made slight editorial changes to the film. It set a Guinness World Record for the most instances of swearing in a film. The film's financing became implicated in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad corruption scandal; the U.S. Department of Justice and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission investigated Red Granite Pictures, and producer Riza Aziz was arrested in 2019. He was discharged in May 2020 on a 1,000,000 Malaysian Ringgit (US$240,000) bail.\\nThe film received positive reviews (and some moral censure) from critics and appeared on several \\\"best of the year\\\" lists. It was nominated for several awards, including five at the 86th Academy Awards ceremony: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (for DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (for Hill). DiCaprio won Best Actor – Musical or Comedy at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, where the film was also nominated for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy.\\n\\nPlot\\nIn 1987, 22-year-old Jordan Belfort lands a job as a Wall Street stockbroker for L.F. Rothschild, employed under Mark Hanna. He is quickly enticed by the drug-fueled stockbroker culture and Hanna's belief that a broker's only goal is to make money for himself. Jordan loses his job following Black Monday, the largest one-day stock market drop in history after the 1929 stock market crash, and takes a job at Investor's Center, a boiler room brokerage firm on Long Island that specializes in pink sheet penny stocks. He makes a small fortune thanks to his aggressive pitching style and high commissions.\\nJordan befriends his neighbor Donnie Azoff, and the two start their own boiler room-styled brokerage company. They recruit Jordan's childhood friends Robbie Feinberg, Alden Kupferburg, Nicky Koskoff, Chester Ming, and Toby Welch, as well as local drug pusher Brad Bonick, all of whom Jordan trains in the art of the \\\"hard sell,\\\" and set up the company in an abandoned auto repair shop. Jordan's tactics and salesmanship largely contribute to the success of his pump and dump scheme, in which misleading, positive statements inflate a stock's price so it can be sold at an artificially high price. When the scheme's perpetrators sell their overvalued securities, the price plummets, and those who were conned into buying at the inflated price are left with stock that is suddenly worth much less than they paid for it. To cloak this, Jordan gives the firm the respectable-sounding name of Stratton Oakmont in 1989.\\nSoon after, the company becomes immensely successful, moving out of the auto repair shop into a bigger office. An exposé in Forbes, which dubs Jordan \\\"The Wolf of Wall Street\\\" – \\\"a sort of twisted Robin Hood who takes from the rich and gives to himself and his merry band of brokers\\\" – causes hundreds of ambitious young financiers to flock to the company, thus causing them to move into even bigger offices.\\nAs all this is happening, Jordan becomes immensely successful, and slides into a decadent lifestyle of prostitutes and drugs. He has an affair with buxom blonde lingerie designer Naomi Lapaglia, and when his wife Teresa finds out about this, Jordan divorces her and marries Naomi in 1991. Meanwhile, the SEC and the FBI begin investigating Stratton Oakmont.\\nIn 1993, Jordan illegally makes $22 million in three hours after securing the IPO of Donnie's childhood friend and women's shoes designer Steve Madden, bringing him and his firm further FBI attention. To hide his money, Jordan opens a Swiss bank account with corrupt banker Jean-Jacques Saurel in the name of Naomi's aunt Emma, who lives in London and thus remains outside the immediate reach of American authorities. He uses Brad's Swiss-Slovenian wife Chantalle and her family, who have European passports, to smuggle the cash into Switzerland.\\nDonnie and Brad soon get into a heated argument in public during a money exchange, resulting in Brad's arrest as Donnie escapes. Jordan learns from his private investigator Bo Dietl that the FBI is wiretapping his phones. Fearing for his son, Jordan's father Max advises him to leave Stratton Oakmont and lie low while Jordan's lawyer negotiates a deal to keep him out of prison. In the midst of his farewell speech, Jordan cannot bear to quit and talks himself into staying, to the immense support of his friends and employees.\\nIn 1996, Jordan, Donnie, and their wives are on a yacht trip to Italy, when they learn that Emma has died of a heart attack. Jordan proceeds to Switzerland to forge her name and save the account before going to London for the funeral. To bypass the border patrols, he orders his yacht captain Ted to sail to Monaco, but their ship capsizes in a storm. After their rescue, the plane sent to take them to Geneva is destroyed when a seagull flies into the engine; Jordan takes this as a sign from God to address his worsening drug addiction and attempts to sober up.\\nIn 1998, Saurel and Koskoff are arrested for an unrelated crime, the former informing the FBI about Jordan as a plea bargain. Since the evidence against him is overwhelming, Jordan agrees to gather evidence from the rest of his colleagues in exchange for leniency. After having sex for the last time, Naomi tells Jordan that she is divorcing him and wants full custody of their daughter and infant son. In a cocaine-fueled rage, Jordan punches Naomi and tries to drive away with his daughter, but crashes his car in the driveway.\\nLater, Jordan wears a wire to work and slips a note to Donnie, warning his old partner. However, Donnie betrays Jordan by giving his note to the FBI, who arrest Jordan, before they raid and shut down Stratton Oakmont. Despite breaching his deal, Jordan receives a reduced sentence of 36 months in a minimum security prison for his testimony, and is released in 2000 after serving 22 months. After his release, Jordan makes a living hosting seminars on sales techniques.\\n\\nCast\\nIn addition, cameos and smaller roles include Bo Dietl as himself, the real Jordan Belfort as the Auckland Straight Line host at the end of the film, Stephanie Kurtzuba as Kimmie Belzer, Thomas Middleditch as a Stratton broker whose goldfish is eaten by Donnie for slacking off, Jake Hoffman as Steve Madden, Fran Lebowitz as The Honorary [sic] Samantha Stogel, Edward Herrmann as the voice over the Stratton Oakmont commercial at the beginning of the film, and an uncredited Spike Jonze as Dwayne, the head of the Long Island brokerage firm who introduces Belfort to the world of penny stocks.\\n\\nProduction\\nDevelopment\\nIn 2007, DiCaprio and Warner Bros. won a bidding war for the rights to Belfort's memoir The Wolf of Wall Street, with Belfort making $1 million off the deal. Having worked on the film's script, Scorsese was considered to direct the film but abandoned the project to work on Shutter Island (2010). He has said he \\\"wasted five months of [his] life\\\" without getting a green light on production dates from Warner Bros. In 2010, Warner Bros. offered the directorial role to Ridley Scott, with Brad Pitt playing Belfort, but the studio eventually abandoned the project.\\nIn 2012, the independent company Red Granite Pictures greenlit the project without content restrictions. Soon after, Scorsese came back on board. Red Granite Pictures also asked Paramount Pictures to distribute the film; Paramount agreed to do so in North America and Japan, but passed on the rest of the international market, with Universal Pictures acquiring the film's international distribution rights.\\nAccording to Belfort, Random House asked him to tone down or excise the depictions of debauchery in his memoir before publication, especially those relating to his bachelor party, which featured zoophilia, and rampant use of drugs like nitrous oxide; neither the published memoir nor the film contains references to this.\\nIn the film, most real-life characters' names have been changed from Belfort's original memoir. Donnie Azoff is based on Danny Porush. The name was changed after Porush threatened to sue the filmmakers. Porush maintains that much of the film is fictional and that Azoff is not an accurate depiction of him. Former Donna Karan Jeanswear CEO Elliot Lavigne does not appear in the film, but an incident recounted in the book, in which Belfort gives Lavigne mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save him from choking to death, is similar to a scene in the film involving Donnie. The FBI agent Patrick Denham is the stand-in for real-life Gregory Coleman, and lawyer Manny Riskin is based on Ira Sorkin. Belfort's first wife, Denise Lombardo, is renamed Teresa Petrillo, and his second wife, Nadine Caridi, is Naomi Lapaglia on-screen. In contrast, Mark Hanna's name remains the same as the LF Rothschild stockbroker who, like Belfort, was convicted of fraud and served time in prison. Belfort's parents Max and Leah Belfort's names remained the same for the film. The role of Aunt Emma was initially offered to Julie Andrews, who declined as she was recovering from an ankle injury, and was replaced by Joanna Lumley. Olivia Wilde auditioned for the role of Naomi, but she was rejected as she was deemed \\\"too old\\\" for the role despite DiCaprio being a decade older than her; the role eventually went to Margot Robbie. In January 2014, Jonah Hill revealed in an interview with Howard Stern that he had made only $60,000 on the film (the lowest possible SAG-AFTRA rate for his amount of work), while DiCaprio (who also produced) received $10 million.\\n\\nFilming\\nFilming began on August 8, 2012, in New York City. Hill announced on Twitter that his first day of shooting was September 4, 2012. Filming also took place in Closter, New Jersey, and Harrison, New York. Vitamin D powder was used as the fake substance for cocaine in the film; Hill was hospitalized with bronchitis due to snorting large quantities during filming.\\nScorsese's longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who has received seven Academy Award nominations (as well as one win) for Best Film Editing, said the film would be shot digitally instead of on film. Scorsese had been a proponent of shooting on film, but decided to shoot Hugo digitally because it was being photographed in 3D. Despite being filmed in 2D, The Wolf of Wall Street was originally planned to be shot digitally. Schoonmaker expressed her disappointment with the decision: \\\"It would appear that we've lost the battle. I think Marty just feels it's unfortunately over, and there's been no bigger champion of film than him.\\\" After extensive comparison tests during pre-production, eventually the majority of the film was shot on film stock, while scenes that used green screen effects or low light (mainly the nighttime scenes) were shot with the digital Arri Alexa camera system. The film contains 400 to 450 VFX shots.\\n\\nProfanity\\nThe film set a Guinness World Record for the most instances of swearing in a motion picture. It uses the word \\\"fuck\\\" 506 times, \\\"cunt\\\" three times, \\\"twat\\\" twice, \\\"fuckface\\\" once, and \\\"prick\\\" four times, averaging 2.81 profanities per minute. The previous record holders were Scorsese's previous gangster films Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995), which had respectively had 300 and 422 uses of the word; the 1993 film Menace II Society, which had 305 uses; the 1997 British film Nil by Mouth, which had 428; and the 1999 film Summer of Sam at 435. The record has since been broken by Swearnet: The Movie, which uses the word 935 times, but it still holds the record for a major theatrical release.\\nThe film's distributor in the United Arab Emirates cut 45 minutes of scenes of swearing, religious profanity, drug use, sex, and nudity, and \\\"muted\\\" dialogue containing expletives. The National reported that filmgoers in the UAE believed the film should not have been shown rather than being edited so heavily.\\n\\nRelease\\nTheatrical\\nThe Wolf of Wall Street premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 17, 2013, followed by a wide release on December 25. Its original release date of November 15 was pushed back after cuts were made to reduce the runtime. On October 22, it was reported that the film was set for release that Christmas. On October 29, Paramount officially confirmed that the film would release on Christmas Day, with a runtime of 165 minutes. This was changed to 180 minutes on November 25. It was officially rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for \\\"sequences of strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language throughout, and for some violence\\\". In the United Kingdom, the film received an 18 certificate from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) for \\\"very strong language, strong sex [and] hard drug use\\\".\\nThe film is banned in Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, and Zimbabwe because of its scenes depicting sex and drugs and excessive profanity, and additional scenes have been cut in the versions playing in India. In Singapore, after cuts were made to a gay orgy scene as well as some religiously profane or denigrating language, the film was passed R21.\\nThe release of The Wolf of Wall Street marked a shift in cinema history when Paramount became the first major studio to distribute movies to theaters exclusively in a digital format, eliminating 35mm film entirely. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was the last Paramount production to include a 35mm film version to be shown in theaters.\\n\\nHome media\\nThe Wolf of Wall Street was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 25, 2014. On January 27, 2014, it was announced that a four-hour director's cut would be attached to the home release. Paramount later announced that the home release would feature only the original theatrical version. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was released on December 14, 2021.\\n\\nReception\\nBox office\\nThe Wolf of Wall Street grossed $116.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $289 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $406.9 million; it is Scorsese's highest-grossing film.\\nIn the United States, the film finished in fifth place in its first weekend with $19.4 million from 3,387 theaters, for a five-day total of $34.2 million. The film made $13.2 million (a drop of 27.9%) and $8.8 million (33%) in its second and third weekends, finishing in fourth place both times.\\nIn Australia, it is the highest grossing R-rated film, earning $12.96 million.\\n\\nCritical response\\nOn the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 289 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: \\\"Funny, self-referential, and irreverent to a fault, The Wolf of Wall Street finds Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio at their most infectiously dynamic.\\\" Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating \\\"generally favorable\\\" reviews.\\nPeter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine named The Wolf of Wall Street as the third-best movie of 2013, behind 12 Years a Slave and Gravity. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, \\\"it is the best and most enjoyable American film to be released this year.\\\" Richard Brody of The New Yorker called the film \\\"Olympian\\\", saying that if it was Scorsese's last film it \\\"would rank among the most harshly awe-inspiring farewells of the cinema.\\\" The Chicago Sun-Times's Richard Roeper gave the film a B+, calling it \\\"good, not great Scorsese\\\".\\nDana Stevens of Slate was more critical, calling the film \\\"epic in size, claustrophobically narrow in scope.\\\" Marshall Fine of The Huffington Post argued that the story \\\"wants us to be interested in characters who are dull people to start with, made duller by their delusions of being interesting because they are high\\\". Some critics viewed the film as an irresponsible glorification of Belfort and his associates rather than a satirical takedown. DiCaprio defended the film, arguing that it does not glorify the excessive lifestyle it depicts.\\nIn 2016, the film was ranked #78 on the BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century list. In 2017, Richard Brody named The Wolf of Wall Street the second-best film of the 21st century so far, behind Jean-Luc Godard's In Praise of Love. In 2019, Brody named The Wolf of Wall Street the best film of the 2010s.\\n\\nAudience response\\nThe film received an average grade of C on an A+ to F scale from audiences surveyed by CinemaScore, the lowest rating of any film opening that week. The Los Angeles Times suggested that the film's marketing may have attracted conservative viewers who expected a more moralistic tone than the film presents.\\nChristina McDowell, daughter of Tom Prousalis, who worked closely with Belfort at Stratton Oakmont, wrote an open letter to Scorsese, DiCaprio, and Belfort, criticizing the film for insufficiently portraying the victims of Stratton Oakmont's financial crimes, disregarding the damage done to her family as a result, and giving celebrity status to people (Belfort and his partners, including her father) who do not deserve it.\\nSteven Perlberg of Business Insider saw an advance screening of the film at a Regal Cinemas near the Goldman Sachs building with an audience of finance workers. Perlberg reported cheers from the audience at what he considered all the wrong moments, writing, \\\"When Belfort—a drug addict attempting to remain sober—rips up a couch cushion to get to his secret coke stash, there were cheers.\\\"\\nFormer Assistant United States Attorney Joel M. Cohen, who prosecuted Belfort, criticized both the film and the book on which it is based. He said that he believes some of Belfort's claims were \\\"invented\\\": for instance, Belfort \\\"aggrandized his importance and reverence for him by others at his firm.\\\" He strongly criticized the film for not depicting the \\\"thousands of victims who lost hundreds of millions of dollars\\\", not accepting the filmmakers' argument that it would have diverted attention from the wrongdoers. He deplored the ending—\\\"beyond an insult\\\" to Belfort's victims—in which the real Belfort appears, while showing \\\"a large sign advertising the name of Mr. Belfort's real motivational speaking company\\\", and a positive depiction of Belfort uttering \\\"variants of the same falsehoods he trained others to use against his victims\\\".\\n\\nTop ten lists\\nThe Wolf of Wall Street was listed on many critics' top ten lists for films released in 2013, and was chosen as one of the top ten films of the year by the American Film Institute. Metacritic analysis found the film was the ninth-most mentioned film on \\\"best of the year\\\" film rankings and the 22nd-most mentioned on \\\"best of the decade\\\" film rankings.\\n\\nControversies\\nUse of animals\\nThe Wolf of Wall Street uses animals, including a chimpanzee, a lion, a snake, a fish, and dogs. The chimpanzee and the lion were provided by the Big Cat Habitat wildlife sanctuary in Sarasota County, Florida. The four-year-old chimpanzee Chance spent time with DiCaprio and learned to roller skate in three weeks. The sanctuary also provided a lion named Handsome because the trading company depicted in the film used a lion as its symbol. Danny Porush denied that there were any animals in the office, although he admitted to eating an employee's goldfish.\\nIn December 2013, before the film premiered, the organization Friends of Animals criticized the use of the chimpanzee and organized a boycott of the film. Variety reported, \\\"Friends of Animals thinks the chimp ... suffered irreversible psychological damage after being forced to act.\\\" The Guardian commented on the increasing criticism of Hollywood's use of animals, writing, \\\"The Wolf of Wall Street's use of a chimpanzee arrives as Hollywood comes under ever-increasing scrutiny for its employment of animals on screen\\\". PETA also launched a campaign to highlight mistreatment of ape \\\"actors\\\" and to petition for DiCaprio not to work with great apes.\\n\\n1MDB scandal\\nIn 2015, Red Granite Pictures and the film's financing became implicated in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, a major international corruption scandal that began in Malaysia. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) alleged the film was financed by money producer Riza Aziz stole from the Malaysian 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund. Aziz is the stepson of then-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Aziz was arrested in connection with the scandal and pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges in July 2019. According to court filings, a company owned by fugitive businessman Jho Low gave the film's producers a $9 million advance. Low was given a \\\"special thanks\\\" in the film's credits.\\nThe film is part of a broader investigation into these illicit monetary movements, and in 2016 was named in a series of civil complaints the United States Department of Justice filed \\\"for having provided a trust account through which hundreds of millions of dollars belonging to the 1MDB fund were illicitly siphoned\\\". To settle the civil lawsuit, Red Granite Pictures agreed to pay the U.S. government $60 million with no \\\"admission of wrongdoing or liability on the part of Red Granite\\\". This settlement was part of a more expansive U.S. effort to seize approximately $1.7 billion in assets allegedly purchased with funds embezzled from 1MDB. In January 2020, Belfort sued Red Granite for $300 million, also wishing to void his rights deal; he said that he would never have sold the rights to Red Granite if he had known how the film was being financed.\\nAziz was discharged in May 2020 on a 1,000,000 Malaysian Ringgit (US$240,000) bail.\\n\\nThematic controversy and debate\\nVarious people have criticized the film as materialistic, encouraging greedy behavior, extreme wealth, and advocating for the infamous individuals portrayed in the film. Christina McDowell, whose father, Tom Prousalis, worked in association with Belfort, accused the filmmakers of \\\"exacerbating our national obsession with wealth and status and glorifying greed and psychopathic behavior\\\". She emphasized the gravity and significance of Belfort's crimes, saying that Wolf of Wall Street is a \\\"reckless attempt at continuing to pretend that these sorts of schemes are entertaining, even as the country is reeling from yet another round of Wall Street scandals\\\".\\nAfter DiCaprio defended himself from criticism, Variety journalist Whitney Friedlander called the film \\\"three hours of cash, drugs, hookers, repeat\\\" and argued that the film is a \\\"celebration of this lifestyle\\\" and implies that short-lived extreme wealth and extraordinary experiences are superior to normal behavior.\\nNikole TenBrink, vice president of marketing and membership at Risk and Insurance Management Society, has said the film is a \\\"cautionary tale of what can happen when fraud is left unchecked\\\". She describes Belfort's business acumen, his talent in communicating and selling his ideas, and his ability to motivate others as offering \\\"valuable lessons for risk professionals as they seek to avoid similar pitfalls\\\".\\n\\nBelfort's reaction\\nBelfort said of the film's depiction of himself and Stratton Oakmont that it did an excellent job at describing the \\\"overall feeling\\\" of those years, adding, \\\"the camaraderie, the insanity, that was accurate\\\". Of his drug use, Belfort said that his actual habits were \\\"much worse\\\" than is depicted in the film and that he was \\\"on 22 different drugs at the end\\\".\\nBelfort also analyzed the inaccuracies in the film's oversimplification of Stratton Oakmont's gradual transition from advocating for \\\"speculative stocks\\\" in order to \\\"help build America\\\" to committing crimes. He said he \\\"didn't like hearing\\\" overly simplified and blunt depictions of his crimes because \\\"it made me look like I was just trying to rip people off\\\". However, Belfort did acknowledge the cinematic benefits of these oversimplifications as \\\"a very easy way in three hours\\\" to \\\"move the audience emotionally\\\".\\n\\nNadine Macaluso's reaction\\nOn September 28, 2022, Nadine Macaluso, Belfort's ex-wife on whom the character Naomi was based, said that the depiction of Belfort and their relationship was accurate and that she hopes to educate people on signs of domestic abuse and toxic relationships.\\n\\nAccolades\\nThe film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director for Scorsese, Best Adapted Screenplay for Winter, Best Actor for DiCaprio, and Best Supporting Actor for Hill. It was also nominated for four BAFTAs, including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, and two Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. DiCaprio won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.\\n\\nSoundtrack\\nThe film's soundtrack features both original and preexisting music tracks. It was released on December 17, 2013, for digital download. More than 60 songs are used in the film, but only 16 are on the official soundtrack. Among the notable exceptions are original compositions by Theodore Shapiro.\\n\\nSee also\\nThe Wolf of Wall Street (1929 film)\\nScam 1992\\nThe Big Bull\\nBoiler Room (film)\\nGordon Gekko\\nMicrocap stock fraud\\nList of films that most frequently use the word fuck\\n\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nKring-Schreifels, Jake (December 22, 2023). \\\"\\\"There Is No Limit\\\": The Oral History of the 'Wolf of Wall Street' Minions\\\". The Ringer. Retrieved September 18, 2024.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nOfficial website \\nThe Wolf of Wall Street at IMDb \\nThe Wolf of Wall Street at AllMovie \\nThe Wolf of Wall Street at Box Office Mojo \\nThe Wolf of Wall Street at Rotten Tomatoes\",\n \"title\": \"The_Wolf_of_Wall_Street_(2013_film)\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Emma Stone was the highest paid actress in 2017. How much did breakthrough movie for the highest paid actress 6 years after Emma Stone make in its theatrical run?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"$406.9 million"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":690,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"690"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Office is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as The Office in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as the boss and main character. The two series were broadcast on BBC Two in 2001 and 2002, totalling 12 episodes, with two special episodes concluding the series in 2003. Versions of the original were subsequently made in Germany, the United States, and many other countries.\nThe longest-running version of the series, the American adaptation, ran for nine seasons on the NBC Television Network from 2005 to 2013, with a total of 201 episodes. According to Nielsen Ratings as of April 2019, the American version of The Office was the No. 1 streamed show on Netflix in the United States. A follow-up of the American version was announced in 2024 for release on Peacock; 2024 also saw Amazon Prime Video debut an Australian version of The Office, featuring the franchise's first female lead character.\n\nVersions\nIn addition to those listed below, a Russian language version for Channel One Russia with an initial run of 24 episodes was announced in 2008, but never produced.\n\nCounterparts\nRoles are recorded as of each character's first appearance.\n\nSelected major awards\nBritish version: 2005 Golden Globes for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Ricky Gervais); 2001, 2002 and 2003 British Academy Television Awards for Situation Comedy and Best Comedy Performance (Ricky Gervais)\nAmerican version: 2006 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Steve Carell); 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series; 2007 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series; 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (Greg Daniels); 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (Jeffrey Blitz). For other awards and honors see List of awards and nominations received by The Office (American TV series)\nGerman version: 2006 Grimme Award for Fiction/Entertainment – Series/Miniseries; 2007 Deutscher Fernsehpreis for Best Sitcom and Best Book; 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2012 Deutscher Comedypreis for Best Actor in a Comedy Series (Christoph Maria Herbst).\n\nNotes\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nA comparison of the US, UK, French, and German shows on Slate\nThe Office on Comedy Central Archived 1 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine\nThe Office: A decade around the world","title":"The_Office"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Michael Scott in the NBC sitcom The Office (2005–2011, 2013), and also worked at several points as a producer, executive producer, writer, and director. Carell has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for The Office. He was recognized as \"America's Funniest Man\" by Life.\nCarell gained recognition as a cast member on The Dana Carvey Show in 1996 and as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1999 to 2005. He went on to star in several comedy films, including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) and its 2013 sequel, as well as The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Evan Almighty (2007), Get Smart (2008), Date Night (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), and The Way, Way Back (2013). He also voice acted in Over the Hedge (2006), Horton Hears a Who! (2008) and the Despicable Me franchise (2010–present).\nCarell transitioned his career to taking more dramatic roles including his portrayal of John du Pont in Foxcatcher (2014), which earned him nominations for the Academy Award, the Golden Globe Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He also starred in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), The Big Short (2015), and Battle of the Sexes (2017), the last two earning him his eighth and ninth Golden Globe Award nominations, respectively. Other films include Café Society (2016), Last Flag Flying (2017), Vice (2018), Beautiful Boy (2018), and Asteroid City (2023).\nCarell returned to television as the co-creator of the comedy series Angie Tribeca (2016–2018), which he developed with his wife, Nancy Carell. He starred as morning anchor Mitch Kessler in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show (2019–present), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He also starred in Netflix sitcom Space Force (2020–2022), and the FX on Hulu limited series The Patient (2022). He made his Broadway debut playing the title role in the Lincoln Center Theatre revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya (2024).\n\nEarly life and education\nSteven John Carell was born on August 16, 1962 at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, the youngest of four brothers, and raised in nearby Acton, Massachusetts. His father, Edwin A. Carell (1925–2021), was a mechanical engineer, and his mother, Harriet Theresa (née Koch; 1925–2016), was a psychiatric nurse. Carell's maternal uncle, Stanley Koch, worked with scientist Allen B. DuMont to create improved cathode ray tubes. His father was of Italian and German descent and his mother was of Polish ancestry. His father's surname was originally Caroselli but it was changed to Carell in the 1950s.\nCarell was raised Roman Catholic and was educated at Nashoba Brooks School, The Fenn School, and Middlesex School. He played ice hockey and lacrosse while in high school. He played the fife, performing with other members of his family, and later joined a reenacting group portraying the 10th (North Lincoln) Regiment of Foot. He attributed his interest in history to this, earning a degree in the subject from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, in 1984.\nWhile at Denison, Carell was a member of Burpee's Seedy Theatrical Company, a student-run improvisational comedy troupe, and was a goalie on the school's Big Red hockey team for four years. He also spent time as a disc jockey under the name \"Sapphire Steve Carell\" at WDUB, the campus radio station.\n\nCareer\n1989–2005: Early work and late night\nCarell stated that he worked as a USPS mail carrier in Littleton, Massachusetts, but quit after seven months because his boss told him he was not very good at the job and needed to be faster. Early in his performing career, Carell acted onstage in a touring children's theater company, later in the comedy musical Knat Scatt Private Eye, and in a television commercial for the restaurant chain Brown's Chicken in 1989.\n\nThe Dana Carvey Show (1996)\nIn 1991, Carell performed with Chicago troupe The Second City where Stephen Colbert was his understudy for a time. Carell made his film debut in a minor role in Curly Sue. In spring 1996 he was a cast member of The Dana Carvey Show, a short-lived sketch comedy program on ABC. Along with fellow cast member Colbert, Carell provided the voice of Gary, half of The Ambiguously Gay Duo, the Robert Smigel-produced animated short which continued on Saturday Night Live later that year. While the program lasted only seven episodes, The Dana Carvey Show has since been credited with forging Carell's career. He starred in a few short-lived television series, including Come to Papa and Over the Top. He has made numerous guest appearances, including in \"Funny Girl,\" an episode of Just Shoot Me! Additional screen credits include Brad Hall's short-lived situation comedy Watching Ellie (2002–2003) and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda.\n\nThe Daily Show (1999–2005)\nCarell was a correspondent for The Daily Show from 1999 to 2005, with several regular segments including \"Even Stevphen\" with Stephen Colbert and \"Produce Pete.\"\n\n2004–2013: The Office and comedic roles\nCarell's first major film role was as weatherman Brick Tamland in the 2004 hit comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Struck by Carell's performance in the film, Anchorman producer Judd Apatow approached Carell about creating a film together, and Carell told him about an idea he had involving a middle-aged man who is still a virgin. The result was the 2005 film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which Carell and Apatow developed and wrote together, starring Carell as the title character. The film made $109 million in domestic box office sales and established him as a leading man. It also earned Carell an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance and a WGA Award nomination, along with Apatow, for Best Original Screenplay.\nIn 2005, Carell signed a deal with NBC to star in The Office, a remake of the British TV series of the same name which was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Developed by Greg Daniels this series, shot mockumentary-style, revolves around life at a mid-sized paper supply company. Carell played the role of Michael Scott, the idiosyncratic regional manager of Dunder Mifflin, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Although the first season of the adaptation suffered mediocre ratings, NBC renewed it for another season due to the anticipated success of Carell's film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and the series subsequently became a raging success. Carell won a Golden Globe Award and TCA Award in 2006 for his role in The Office. He received six consecutive Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series nominations for his work in the series (2006–2011). Carell earned approximately US$175,000 per episode of the third season of The Office, twice his salary for the previous two seasons. In an Entertainment Weekly interview, he commented on his salary, saying, \"You don't want people to think you're a pampered jerk. Salaries can be ridiculous. On the other hand, a lot of people are making a lot of money off of these shows.\"\n\nCarell played Uncle Arthur, imitating the camp mannerisms of Paul Lynde's original character, in Bewitched, a TV adaptation co-starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. He also voiced Hammy the Squirrel in the 2006 animated film, Over the Hedge and Ned McDodd, the mayor of Whoville, in the 2008 animated film Horton Hears a Who! He starred in Little Miss Sunshine during 2006, as Uncle Frank. His work in the films Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Bewitched established Carell as a member of Hollywood's so-called \"Frat Pack,\" a group of actors who often appear in films together, that also includes Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Vince Vaughn, Paul Rudd, and Luke Wilson. Carell acted as the title character of Evan Almighty, a sequel to Bruce Almighty, reprising his role as Evan Baxter, now a U.S. Congressman. The film received mostly negative reviews. Carell starred in the 2007 film Dan in Real Life, co-starring Dane Cook and Juliette Binoche. Carell played Maxwell Smart in the 2008 film Get Smart, an adaptation of the TV series starring Don Adams. It was successful, grossing over $230 million worldwide. During 2007, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.\nCarell was allowed \"flex time\" during filming to work on theatrical films. Carell worked on Evan Almighty during a production hiatus during the second season of The Office. Production ended during the middle of the fourth season of The Office because of Carell's and others' refusal to cross the picket line of the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike. Carell, a WGA member, has written two episodes of The Office: \"Casino Night\" and \"Survivor Man.\" Both episodes were praised, and Carell won a Writers Guild of America Award for \"Casino Night.\" On April 29, 2010, Carell stated he would be leaving the show when his contract expired at the conclusion of the 2010–2011 season because he wanted to focus on his film career. However, according to interviews in The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, Carell did not actually plan to leave at the time and was only \"thinking out loud\" during the interview, but after his statement failed to elicit a reaction from NBC, he decided it was best to move on.\n\nIn 2010 Carell starred with Tina Fey in Date Night and voiced Gru, the main character in the Universal CGI film Despicable Me along with Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, and Julie Andrews. He reprised the role in the 2013 sequel Despicable Me 2, the third Despicable Me 3 in 2017, and fourth Despicable Me 4 in 2024. In 2008, Carousel signed a first look deal with Warner Bros. In 2009, his production company Carousel Productions launched a television arm and signed a deal with Universal Media Studios. He has several other projects in the works, including a remake of the 1967 Peter Sellers film The Bobo. He is doing voice-over work in commercials for Wrigley's Extra gum. Carell has launched a television division of his production company, Carousel Productions, which has contracted a three-year overall deal with Universal Media Studios, the studio behind his NBC comedy series. Thom Hinkle and Campbell Smith of North South Prods., former producers on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, were hired to manage Carousel's TV operations.\nHis last episode as a main character, \"Goodbye, Michael,\" aired April 28, 2011, with his final shot showing Michael returning his microphone to the fictional documentary crew, before walking to a Colorado-bound plane to join his fiancée, Holly Flax, in Boulder, Colorado. His final line in this episode, to Pam Beesly, is thus unheard. Although he was invited back for the series finale in 2013, Carell originally declined believing that it would go against his character's arc. Ultimately Carell did reprise the role briefly in the series finale. Also in 2013 Carell acted in the summer coming-of-age comedy The Way, Way Back starring Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, and Allison Janney. Carell was asked about participating in a revival of the series in 2018, during the press day for Welcome to Marwen, Carell told Collider reporter Christina Radish, \"I'll tell you, no... The show is way more popular now than when it was on the air. I just can't see it being the same thing, and I think most folks would want it to be the same thing, but it wouldn't be. Ultimately, I think it's maybe best to leave well enough alone and just let it exist as what it was...I just wouldn't want to make the mistake of making a less good version of it. The odds wouldn't be in its favor, in terms of it recapturing exactly what it was, the first time.\"\n\n2014–2018: Dramatic film roles\nIn 2014, Carell starred in the true crime drama film Foxcatcher alongside Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum in which Carell played the millionaire and convicted murderer John Eleuthère du Pont. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Carell was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor and the Academy Award for Best Actor.\nIn 2015, Carell reprised his role as Gru for a cameo appearance in the film Minions.\nCarell played activist Steven Goldstein in the gay rights drama Freeheld, replacing Zach Galifianakis, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. The film co-stars Julianne Moore, Elliot Page, and Michael Shannon, and was released in October 2015.\nHe followed this with another biographical drama, The Big Short, in which he portrayed banker Steve Eisman, whose name was changed in the film to Mark Baum. Directed by Adam McKay, the film stars Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt, and it was released in December 2015. The film earned Carell a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The following year he replaced Bruce Willis in Woody Allen's Café Society (2016), alongside Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg. The film premiered at the 69th Cannes Film Festival opening the festival. The film's consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads, \"Café Society's lovely visuals and charming performances round out a lightweight late-period Allen comedy whose genuine pleasures offset its amiable predictability.\" In 2017, Carell headlined the biographical comedy-drama Battle of the Sexes, portraying tennis star Bobby Riggs, with Emma Stone co-starring as Billie Jean King. The film earned both Carell and Stone Golden Globe nominations. Carell also starred as Larry \"Doc\" Shepherd in the war comedy-drama film Last Flag Flying directed by Richard Linklater starring Laurence Fishburne and Bryan Cranston. \t\n\nIn 2018, Carell starred in three films. He led the addiction drama Beautiful Boy as real life father David Sheff, whose son Nic (Timothée Chalamet) struggles with drug addiction. He also played Donald Rumsfeld in Adam McKay's political satire, Vice, about the life of former Vice President Dick Cheney (Christian Bale). The film received mixed reviews, and went on to be nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. His third 2018 role was starring as Mark Hogancamp of Marwencol in Robert Zemeckis' Welcome to Marwen. The film received a 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus reading, \"Welcome to Marwen has dazzling effects and a sadly compelling story, but the movie's disjointed feel and clumsy screenplay make this invitation easy to decline.\" The movie was a box office failure, grossing $12.7 million against a budget of around $49 million.\n\n2019–present: Career expansion\nIn 2019, Carell returned to television to star in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show opposite Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. Carell played Mitch Kessler, a morning news show anchor who is struggling to maintain relevance after being fired due to a sexual misconduct accusation. The Morning Show received a two-season order from Apple. The first season premiered in the fall of 2019 and the second season premiered in 2020. For his performance in the first season, Carell was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, his eleventh Emmy nomination overall. Carell had originally signed a one-year deal with Apple to star in the first season only but he signed on to star in the second season in October 2019.\nSince May 2020, Carell also starred in the Netflix workplace comedy series Space Force, based on the proposed space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces: the United States Space Force. Carell created and produces Space Force with Greg Daniels, who created and produced The Office. Carell also wrote the pilot episode with Daniels. The show was renewed for a second season in November 2020. Carell starred in the political comedy film Irresistible, written and directed by Jon Stewart. The film was initially set for a theatrical release in May 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the film was released on Premium VOD and selected theaters on June 26, 2020. In 2022, Carell reprised his role as Gru in the film Minions: The Rise of Gru. He also starred in (and served as executive producer for) FX on Hulu's ten-episode original series The Patient; in that series, Carell portrays a therapist who is imprisoned by a serial killer who wants to resist the urge to kill. Carell replaced Bill Murray, who contracted COVID-19, in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City (2023).\nIn 2023, it was announced that Carell would be making his Broadway debut as the title role in the Lincoln Center revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. The production will be directed by Lila Neugebauer and Carell will star alongside Alison Pill, William Jackson Harper, Alfred Molina, Anika Noni Rose and Jayne Houdyshell.\n\nPersonal life\nOn August 5, 1995, Carell married Saturday Night Live cast member Nancy Walls, whom he met when she was a student in an improv class he was teaching at The Second City Training Center. They have a daughter named Elisabeth Anne (born May 2001) and a son named John (born June 2004).\nCarell and his wife have appeared together in the comedy films The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, as well as the comedy series The Daily Show and The Office. They also co-created the comedy series Angie Tribeca.\nIn February 2009, Carell purchased the Marshfield Hills General Store in Marshfield, Massachusetts.\nIn an interview with 60 Minutes, Carell cited George Carlin, John Cleese, Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, and Peter Sellers as his inspirations for acting and comedy.\nDuring the George Floyd protests, Carell donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which bails low-income individuals out of jail.\n\nFilmography\nFilm\nTelevision\nTheatre\nVideo games\nWeb series\nAwards and nominations\nFor his contributions to the film industry, Carell received the 2,570th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nSteve Carell at the American Film Institute Catalog\nSteve Carell at IMDb \nSteve Carell at the TCM Movie Database","title":"Steve_Carell"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"IF is a 2024 American fantasy comedy drama film written, produced, and directed by John Krasinski. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, Krasinski, and Fiona Shaw with supporting roles done by Alan Kim and Liza Colón-Zayas along with the voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., and Steve Carell. Combining live-action and animation, the film follows a young girl (Fleming) who goes through a difficult experience and begins to see everyone's imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life children have grown up.\nDevelopment of the film began in 2019, with Krasinski set to write and direct and Reynolds attached to star. The rest of the cast joined between October 2021 and January 2022, and filming took place in New York City between August of that year and May 2023. IF was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on May 17, 2024. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $190.3 million worldwide.\n\nPlot\nTwelve-year-old Bea moves into her grandmother Margaret's apartment in New York while her father waits for heart surgery in the same hospital where her mother died of cancer years earlier. One night, Bea sees an unfamiliar creature, following it back to her grandmother's building. \nThe next day, Bea sees it again, accompanied by a man. She follows them to a nearby house where the man, Cal, retrieves a large furry purple creature named Blue. Bea also meets the other creature, a butterfly-like being named Blossom, and faints. \nBea awakens in Cal's apartment where she learns that he has been working with imaginary friends (or IFs) to place them with new children as their original children have grown up and forgotten them. Initially reluctant, she eventually decides to help Cal.\nThe next day, Cal takes Bea to Memory Lane Retirement Home, a retirement community for IFs housed underneath a swing ride in Coney Island where he briefly trips over the invisible IF Keith. An elderly teddy bear and the head of the facility named Lewis inspires her to use her imagination to redesign the facility, much to the chagrin of Cal. Bea tries to match one of the IFs with Benjamin, a young patient at the hospital, but he is unable to see any of them. Lewis suggests to Bea that maybe IFs do not need new kids, but rather to reunite with their old ones. \nTalking with her grandmother, Bea sees a photo of her as a young dancer and recognizes Blossom in the background. Realizing she was her grandmother's IF, she decides to test Lewis' idea. Playing one of her grandmother's records inspires Margaret to dance and she remembers Blossom, instilling Bea with hope. \nFollowing a tip, Bea, Cal, and Blue find Blue's original kid Jeremy, now a grown man trying to launch a business. With Bea's help Jeremy remembers Blue, who gives him the confidence he needs for a business presentation.\nThat evening, Bea arrives at Margaret's who frantically informs her granddaughter that there has been a complication with her father's treatment. Comforted by Cal, Bea says she does not want to say goodbye to her dad, so he suggests she tell him a story instead. \nAt the hospital, Bea tells her father a story about how she was pushing herself to act like a grown-up when she is just a child who still needs her father. He wakes up and they hug. When Bea goes outside his hospital room, she sees that all of the IFs, who had accompanied her to the hospital, are gone.\nReturning to her grandmother's building, Bea goes to thank Cal only to discover that the door to his apartment opens into an old storage room as revealed by the landlady. After her dad is released from the hospital, he and Bea pack up to go home. During this, Bea realizes from an old picture she painted that Cal is actually her own IF, whom she had forgotten after her mother's death. Bea rushes to Calvin's room and thanks him for helping, telling him she will always need him. This allows her to see Cal and the IFs again and they reunite.\nSome time later, Cal continues reuniting the IFs with their original kids, now grown up. Benjamin meets his IF, a cartoonish bespectacled dragon doctor with a cast and crutch. Bea and her father return home, where the latter trips, then says, \"Hey, Keith\".\n\nCast\nCailey Fleming as Bea, a girl who can see IFs\nRyan Reynolds as Cal, Bea's neighbor who can also see IFs\nJohn Krasinski as Bea's unnamed father\nFiona Shaw as Bea's grandmother\nAlan Kim as Benjamin, a boy recuperating in the hospital from his injuries\nLiza Colón-Zayas as Janet, a nurse who watches over Bea's father\nBobby Moynihan as Jeremy, a businessman who was the creator of Blue\nCatharine Daddario as Bea's mother\nBarbara Andres as the Woman Upstairs, the unnamed elderly landlady of the building that Bea's grandmother lives in.\n\nVoices\nSteve Carell as Blue, a large purple monster IF\nPhoebe Waller-Bridge as Blossom, a rubber hose-style butterfly-like IF\nLouis Gossett Jr. as Lewis, an elderly teddy bear IF who runs the Memory Lane Retirement Home\nAwkwafina as Bubble, an IF composed of a bunch of bubbles that can pop and reconstitute themselves\nEmily Blunt as Unicorn, a plush unicorn IF with a pink and green mane\nGeorge Clooney as Spaceman, an astronaut IF\nBradley Cooper as Ice, an IF who resemble an anthropomorphic glass of ice water\nMatt Damon as Flower, an IF who resembles an anthropomorphic sunflower in a plaid suit\nBill Hader as Banana, an anthropomorphic banana IF who works as a water aerobics instructor at the Memory Lane Retirement Home\nRichard Jenkins as Art Teacher, a lay figure IF who works as the art teacher at the Memory Lane Retirement Home\nKeegan-Michael Key as Slime, an IF who resembles a green slime blob\nJohn Krasinski as Marshmallow, an anthropomorphic marshmallow IF whose head is always on fire\nBlake Lively as Octopuss, an anthropomorphic cat IF who wears an octopus costume\nAllyson Seeger as Viola, an anthropomorphic viola IF with sunglasses\nSebastian Maniscalco as Magician Mouse, an anthropomorphic mouse IF who is dressed like a magician\nChristopher Meloni as Cosmo, a detective IF with an obscured face\nMatthew Rhys as Ghost, a crown-wearing ghost IF\nSam Rockwell as Guardian Dog, an anthropomorphic dog superhero IF\nMaya Rudolph as Ally, an anthropomorphic plush alligator IF\nAmy Schumer as Gummy Bear, a large gummy bear IF\nJon Stewart as Robot, an '80s-style toy robot IF in a domed helmet and one large wheel instead of legs\n\nProduction\nIn October 2019, Paramount Pictures outbid Lionsgate and Sony, among other studios, to win the rights to Imaginary Friends, a project developed by John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds, with Krasinski set to write and direct it. In May 2021, Krasinski's Sunday Night Productions and Reynolds's Maximum Effort signed first-look deals with Paramount. In October 2021, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fiona Shaw joined the cast. In January 2022, Steve Carell, Alan Kim, Cailey Fleming, and Louis Gossett Jr. joined the cast, with the film retitled IF. The film reunites Krasinski and Carell, who both starred in The Office (2005–2013) as Jim Halpert and Michael Scott, respectively. In August 2022, Bobby Moynihan was added to the cast. Principal photography began on August 31, 2022, with Janusz Kamiński as cinematographer, and wrapped by early May 2023. Framestore provided the visual effects and animation. Animation director Arslan Elver and VFX supervisor Chris Lawrence worked alongside Krasinski on set and during pre- and post-production. \nThe film's end credits include Brad Pitt as Keith, an invisible IF with no lines, understood to be just offscreen when other characters trip over him. Pitt's credit is a reference to his cameo as Vanisher in Deadpool 2 (2018), co-starring Reynolds. The film is dedicated to Gossett Jr., who died before its release.\n\nMusic\nMichael Giacchino composed the score for the film. The film’s soundtrack includes Tina Turner’s \"Better Be Good to Me\", Nat King Cole's \"L-O-V-E\" and the “Adagio for Spartacus and Phyrigia” from Aram Khachaturian’s Spartacus.\n\nRelease\nTheatrical\nIF was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on May 17, 2024, after its originally scheduled release date of November 17, 2023 was first pushed to May 24, 2024, and then shifted forward by one week.\n\nHome media\nThe film was released on digital platforms by Paramount Home Entertainment on June 18, 2024. It began streaming on Paramount+ on July 9, 2024, and was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on August 13, 2024.\n\nReception\nBox office\nIF grossed $111.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $79.2 million in other territories, for a total of $190.3 million worldwide. Variety estimated the film would need to gross $275 million worldwide in order to break-even.\nIn the United States and Canada, IF was released alongside The Strangers: Chapter 1 and Back to Black, and was originally projected to gross around $40 million from 4,041 theaters in its opening weekend. After making $10.3 million on its first day (including $1.8 million from Thursday night previews), weekend estimates were lowered to $30 million. It went on to debut to $33.7 million, topping the box office. In its second weekend, the film made $16.8 million (a drop of -53%), finishing third behind newcomers Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Garfield Movie. In France, the film made $3.3 million during its opening weekend in 621 cinemas.\n\nCritical response\nOn the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of 202 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads: \"A sweet ode to rediscovering one's inner child, IF largely works as old-fashioned family entertainment despite an occasionally unfocused and unnecessarily complicated plot.\" Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 46 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating \"mixed or average\" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of \"A\" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it an 84% overall positive score, with 64% saying they would definitely recommend it.\nAdrian Horton of The Guardian awarded the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing that it \"checks the boxes\" on the elements of a family-friendly movie, but also noting that it does not \"fully conjure the magic\" of other films in the genre. Another mixed review was published on NPR by Bob Mondello, who wrote that \"mostly the filmmakers detour, decorate and digitize their story rather than telling it, and that doesn't mesh well with the real-world stuff — dad's surgery, for instance, and Bea's wandering all over Brooklyn without her grandma seeming to notice. And yes, I know: IF is a kid-flick, but it still needs grounding. We're in Brooklyn, not Willy Wonkaland.\" RogerEbert.com reviewer Clint Worthington called the film \"a well-intentioned misfire\".\nTomris Laffly of Variety wrote that the movie was \"in desperate need of some coherent world-building\", while praising the performance of Cailey Fleming in the lead role. In a more negative review for The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck criticised the film as \"plagued by significant tonal shifts and pacing issues\".\nNoah Berlatsky of Chicago Reader was even more dismissive, stating, \"IF makes you wish you were watching some other movie. (...) There's a fine line between the whimsical dream logic of Roald Dahl and irritating, incoherent nonsense. Director John Krasinski's new kids film IF is nowhere near that line. Despite the best efforts of the extremely talented child actor Cailey Fleming, IF makes no sense, narratively, emotionally, or visually.\"\nSeveral critics noted the film's sharing some similarities with the Cartoon Network animated series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which itself featured an orphanage that takes care of imaginary friends after their kids outgrow them and they leave after other children adopt them.\n\nNotes\nReferences\nExternal links\nOfficial website \nIF at IMDb \nIF at AllMovie \nIF at Box Office Mojo \nIF at Rotten Tomatoes","title":"IF_(film)"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Office is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as The Office in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as the boss and main character. The two series were broadcast on BBC Two in 2001 and 2002, totalling 12 episodes, with two special episodes concluding the series in 2003. Versions of the original were subsequently made in Germany, the United States, and many other countries.\\nThe longest-running version of the series, the American adaptation, ran for nine seasons on the NBC Television Network from 2005 to 2013, with a total of 201 episodes. According to Nielsen Ratings as of April 2019, the American version of The Office was the No. 1 streamed show on Netflix in the United States. A follow-up of the American version was announced in 2024 for release on Peacock; 2024 also saw Amazon Prime Video debut an Australian version of The Office, featuring the franchise's first female lead character.\\n\\nVersions\\nIn addition to those listed below, a Russian language version for Channel One Russia with an initial run of 24 episodes was announced in 2008, but never produced.\\n\\nCounterparts\\nRoles are recorded as of each character's first appearance.\\n\\nSelected major awards\\nBritish version: 2005 Golden Globes for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Ricky Gervais); 2001, 2002 and 2003 British Academy Television Awards for Situation Comedy and Best Comedy Performance (Ricky Gervais)\\nAmerican version: 2006 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Steve Carell); 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series; 2007 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series; 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (Greg Daniels); 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series (Jeffrey Blitz). For other awards and honors see List of awards and nominations received by The Office (American TV series)\\nGerman version: 2006 Grimme Award for Fiction/Entertainment – Series/Miniseries; 2007 Deutscher Fernsehpreis for Best Sitcom and Best Book; 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2012 Deutscher Comedypreis for Best Actor in a Comedy Series (Christoph Maria Herbst).\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nA comparison of the US, UK, French, and German shows on Slate\\nThe Office on Comedy Central Archived 1 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine\\nThe Office: A decade around the world\",\n \"title\": \"The_Office\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Michael Scott in the NBC sitcom The Office (2005–2011, 2013), and also worked at several points as a producer, executive producer, writer, and director. Carell has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for The Office. He was recognized as \\\"America's Funniest Man\\\" by Life.\\nCarell gained recognition as a cast member on The Dana Carvey Show in 1996 and as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1999 to 2005. He went on to star in several comedy films, including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) and its 2013 sequel, as well as The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Evan Almighty (2007), Get Smart (2008), Date Night (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), and The Way, Way Back (2013). He also voice acted in Over the Hedge (2006), Horton Hears a Who! (2008) and the Despicable Me franchise (2010–present).\\nCarell transitioned his career to taking more dramatic roles including his portrayal of John du Pont in Foxcatcher (2014), which earned him nominations for the Academy Award, the Golden Globe Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He also starred in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), The Big Short (2015), and Battle of the Sexes (2017), the last two earning him his eighth and ninth Golden Globe Award nominations, respectively. Other films include Café Society (2016), Last Flag Flying (2017), Vice (2018), Beautiful Boy (2018), and Asteroid City (2023).\\nCarell returned to television as the co-creator of the comedy series Angie Tribeca (2016–2018), which he developed with his wife, Nancy Carell. He starred as morning anchor Mitch Kessler in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show (2019–present), for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He also starred in Netflix sitcom Space Force (2020–2022), and the FX on Hulu limited series The Patient (2022). He made his Broadway debut playing the title role in the Lincoln Center Theatre revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya (2024).\\n\\nEarly life and education\\nSteven John Carell was born on August 16, 1962 at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, the youngest of four brothers, and raised in nearby Acton, Massachusetts. His father, Edwin A. Carell (1925–2021), was a mechanical engineer, and his mother, Harriet Theresa (née Koch; 1925–2016), was a psychiatric nurse. Carell's maternal uncle, Stanley Koch, worked with scientist Allen B. DuMont to create improved cathode ray tubes. His father was of Italian and German descent and his mother was of Polish ancestry. His father's surname was originally Caroselli but it was changed to Carell in the 1950s.\\nCarell was raised Roman Catholic and was educated at Nashoba Brooks School, The Fenn School, and Middlesex School. He played ice hockey and lacrosse while in high school. He played the fife, performing with other members of his family, and later joined a reenacting group portraying the 10th (North Lincoln) Regiment of Foot. He attributed his interest in history to this, earning a degree in the subject from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, in 1984.\\nWhile at Denison, Carell was a member of Burpee's Seedy Theatrical Company, a student-run improvisational comedy troupe, and was a goalie on the school's Big Red hockey team for four years. He also spent time as a disc jockey under the name \\\"Sapphire Steve Carell\\\" at WDUB, the campus radio station.\\n\\nCareer\\n1989–2005: Early work and late night\\nCarell stated that he worked as a USPS mail carrier in Littleton, Massachusetts, but quit after seven months because his boss told him he was not very good at the job and needed to be faster. Early in his performing career, Carell acted onstage in a touring children's theater company, later in the comedy musical Knat Scatt Private Eye, and in a television commercial for the restaurant chain Brown's Chicken in 1989.\\n\\nThe Dana Carvey Show (1996)\\nIn 1991, Carell performed with Chicago troupe The Second City where Stephen Colbert was his understudy for a time. Carell made his film debut in a minor role in Curly Sue. In spring 1996 he was a cast member of The Dana Carvey Show, a short-lived sketch comedy program on ABC. Along with fellow cast member Colbert, Carell provided the voice of Gary, half of The Ambiguously Gay Duo, the Robert Smigel-produced animated short which continued on Saturday Night Live later that year. While the program lasted only seven episodes, The Dana Carvey Show has since been credited with forging Carell's career. He starred in a few short-lived television series, including Come to Papa and Over the Top. He has made numerous guest appearances, including in \\\"Funny Girl,\\\" an episode of Just Shoot Me! Additional screen credits include Brad Hall's short-lived situation comedy Watching Ellie (2002–2003) and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda.\\n\\nThe Daily Show (1999–2005)\\nCarell was a correspondent for The Daily Show from 1999 to 2005, with several regular segments including \\\"Even Stevphen\\\" with Stephen Colbert and \\\"Produce Pete.\\\"\\n\\n2004–2013: The Office and comedic roles\\nCarell's first major film role was as weatherman Brick Tamland in the 2004 hit comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Struck by Carell's performance in the film, Anchorman producer Judd Apatow approached Carell about creating a film together, and Carell told him about an idea he had involving a middle-aged man who is still a virgin. The result was the 2005 film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which Carell and Apatow developed and wrote together, starring Carell as the title character. The film made $109 million in domestic box office sales and established him as a leading man. It also earned Carell an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance and a WGA Award nomination, along with Apatow, for Best Original Screenplay.\\nIn 2005, Carell signed a deal with NBC to star in The Office, a remake of the British TV series of the same name which was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Developed by Greg Daniels this series, shot mockumentary-style, revolves around life at a mid-sized paper supply company. Carell played the role of Michael Scott, the idiosyncratic regional manager of Dunder Mifflin, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Although the first season of the adaptation suffered mediocre ratings, NBC renewed it for another season due to the anticipated success of Carell's film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and the series subsequently became a raging success. Carell won a Golden Globe Award and TCA Award in 2006 for his role in The Office. He received six consecutive Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series nominations for his work in the series (2006–2011). Carell earned approximately US$175,000 per episode of the third season of The Office, twice his salary for the previous two seasons. In an Entertainment Weekly interview, he commented on his salary, saying, \\\"You don't want people to think you're a pampered jerk. Salaries can be ridiculous. On the other hand, a lot of people are making a lot of money off of these shows.\\\"\\n\\nCarell played Uncle Arthur, imitating the camp mannerisms of Paul Lynde's original character, in Bewitched, a TV adaptation co-starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. He also voiced Hammy the Squirrel in the 2006 animated film, Over the Hedge and Ned McDodd, the mayor of Whoville, in the 2008 animated film Horton Hears a Who! He starred in Little Miss Sunshine during 2006, as Uncle Frank. His work in the films Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Bewitched established Carell as a member of Hollywood's so-called \\\"Frat Pack,\\\" a group of actors who often appear in films together, that also includes Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Vince Vaughn, Paul Rudd, and Luke Wilson. Carell acted as the title character of Evan Almighty, a sequel to Bruce Almighty, reprising his role as Evan Baxter, now a U.S. Congressman. The film received mostly negative reviews. Carell starred in the 2007 film Dan in Real Life, co-starring Dane Cook and Juliette Binoche. Carell played Maxwell Smart in the 2008 film Get Smart, an adaptation of the TV series starring Don Adams. It was successful, grossing over $230 million worldwide. During 2007, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.\\nCarell was allowed \\\"flex time\\\" during filming to work on theatrical films. Carell worked on Evan Almighty during a production hiatus during the second season of The Office. Production ended during the middle of the fourth season of The Office because of Carell's and others' refusal to cross the picket line of the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike. Carell, a WGA member, has written two episodes of The Office: \\\"Casino Night\\\" and \\\"Survivor Man.\\\" Both episodes were praised, and Carell won a Writers Guild of America Award for \\\"Casino Night.\\\" On April 29, 2010, Carell stated he would be leaving the show when his contract expired at the conclusion of the 2010–2011 season because he wanted to focus on his film career. However, according to interviews in The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, Carell did not actually plan to leave at the time and was only \\\"thinking out loud\\\" during the interview, but after his statement failed to elicit a reaction from NBC, he decided it was best to move on.\\n\\nIn 2010 Carell starred with Tina Fey in Date Night and voiced Gru, the main character in the Universal CGI film Despicable Me along with Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, and Julie Andrews. He reprised the role in the 2013 sequel Despicable Me 2, the third Despicable Me 3 in 2017, and fourth Despicable Me 4 in 2024. In 2008, Carousel signed a first look deal with Warner Bros. In 2009, his production company Carousel Productions launched a television arm and signed a deal with Universal Media Studios. He has several other projects in the works, including a remake of the 1967 Peter Sellers film The Bobo. He is doing voice-over work in commercials for Wrigley's Extra gum. Carell has launched a television division of his production company, Carousel Productions, which has contracted a three-year overall deal with Universal Media Studios, the studio behind his NBC comedy series. Thom Hinkle and Campbell Smith of North South Prods., former producers on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, were hired to manage Carousel's TV operations.\\nHis last episode as a main character, \\\"Goodbye, Michael,\\\" aired April 28, 2011, with his final shot showing Michael returning his microphone to the fictional documentary crew, before walking to a Colorado-bound plane to join his fiancée, Holly Flax, in Boulder, Colorado. His final line in this episode, to Pam Beesly, is thus unheard. Although he was invited back for the series finale in 2013, Carell originally declined believing that it would go against his character's arc. Ultimately Carell did reprise the role briefly in the series finale. Also in 2013 Carell acted in the summer coming-of-age comedy The Way, Way Back starring Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, and Allison Janney. Carell was asked about participating in a revival of the series in 2018, during the press day for Welcome to Marwen, Carell told Collider reporter Christina Radish, \\\"I'll tell you, no... The show is way more popular now than when it was on the air. I just can't see it being the same thing, and I think most folks would want it to be the same thing, but it wouldn't be. Ultimately, I think it's maybe best to leave well enough alone and just let it exist as what it was...I just wouldn't want to make the mistake of making a less good version of it. The odds wouldn't be in its favor, in terms of it recapturing exactly what it was, the first time.\\\"\\n\\n2014–2018: Dramatic film roles\\nIn 2014, Carell starred in the true crime drama film Foxcatcher alongside Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum in which Carell played the millionaire and convicted murderer John Eleuthère du Pont. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Carell was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor and the Academy Award for Best Actor.\\nIn 2015, Carell reprised his role as Gru for a cameo appearance in the film Minions.\\nCarell played activist Steven Goldstein in the gay rights drama Freeheld, replacing Zach Galifianakis, who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. The film co-stars Julianne Moore, Elliot Page, and Michael Shannon, and was released in October 2015.\\nHe followed this with another biographical drama, The Big Short, in which he portrayed banker Steve Eisman, whose name was changed in the film to Mark Baum. Directed by Adam McKay, the film stars Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt, and it was released in December 2015. The film earned Carell a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The following year he replaced Bruce Willis in Woody Allen's Café Society (2016), alongside Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg. The film premiered at the 69th Cannes Film Festival opening the festival. The film's consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads, \\\"Café Society's lovely visuals and charming performances round out a lightweight late-period Allen comedy whose genuine pleasures offset its amiable predictability.\\\" In 2017, Carell headlined the biographical comedy-drama Battle of the Sexes, portraying tennis star Bobby Riggs, with Emma Stone co-starring as Billie Jean King. The film earned both Carell and Stone Golden Globe nominations. Carell also starred as Larry \\\"Doc\\\" Shepherd in the war comedy-drama film Last Flag Flying directed by Richard Linklater starring Laurence Fishburne and Bryan Cranston. \\t\\n\\nIn 2018, Carell starred in three films. He led the addiction drama Beautiful Boy as real life father David Sheff, whose son Nic (Timothée Chalamet) struggles with drug addiction. He also played Donald Rumsfeld in Adam McKay's political satire, Vice, about the life of former Vice President Dick Cheney (Christian Bale). The film received mixed reviews, and went on to be nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. His third 2018 role was starring as Mark Hogancamp of Marwencol in Robert Zemeckis' Welcome to Marwen. The film received a 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critical consensus reading, \\\"Welcome to Marwen has dazzling effects and a sadly compelling story, but the movie's disjointed feel and clumsy screenplay make this invitation easy to decline.\\\" The movie was a box office failure, grossing $12.7 million against a budget of around $49 million.\\n\\n2019–present: Career expansion\\nIn 2019, Carell returned to television to star in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show opposite Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. Carell played Mitch Kessler, a morning news show anchor who is struggling to maintain relevance after being fired due to a sexual misconduct accusation. The Morning Show received a two-season order from Apple. The first season premiered in the fall of 2019 and the second season premiered in 2020. For his performance in the first season, Carell was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, his eleventh Emmy nomination overall. Carell had originally signed a one-year deal with Apple to star in the first season only but he signed on to star in the second season in October 2019.\\nSince May 2020, Carell also starred in the Netflix workplace comedy series Space Force, based on the proposed space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces: the United States Space Force. Carell created and produces Space Force with Greg Daniels, who created and produced The Office. Carell also wrote the pilot episode with Daniels. The show was renewed for a second season in November 2020. Carell starred in the political comedy film Irresistible, written and directed by Jon Stewart. The film was initially set for a theatrical release in May 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the film was released on Premium VOD and selected theaters on June 26, 2020. In 2022, Carell reprised his role as Gru in the film Minions: The Rise of Gru. He also starred in (and served as executive producer for) FX on Hulu's ten-episode original series The Patient; in that series, Carell portrays a therapist who is imprisoned by a serial killer who wants to resist the urge to kill. Carell replaced Bill Murray, who contracted COVID-19, in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City (2023).\\nIn 2023, it was announced that Carell would be making his Broadway debut as the title role in the Lincoln Center revival of Anton Chekov's Uncle Vanya at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre. The production will be directed by Lila Neugebauer and Carell will star alongside Alison Pill, William Jackson Harper, Alfred Molina, Anika Noni Rose and Jayne Houdyshell.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nOn August 5, 1995, Carell married Saturday Night Live cast member Nancy Walls, whom he met when she was a student in an improv class he was teaching at The Second City Training Center. They have a daughter named Elisabeth Anne (born May 2001) and a son named John (born June 2004).\\nCarell and his wife have appeared together in the comedy films The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, as well as the comedy series The Daily Show and The Office. They also co-created the comedy series Angie Tribeca.\\nIn February 2009, Carell purchased the Marshfield Hills General Store in Marshfield, Massachusetts.\\nIn an interview with 60 Minutes, Carell cited George Carlin, John Cleese, Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, and Peter Sellers as his inspirations for acting and comedy.\\nDuring the George Floyd protests, Carell donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which bails low-income individuals out of jail.\\n\\nFilmography\\nFilm\\nTelevision\\nTheatre\\nVideo games\\nWeb series\\nAwards and nominations\\nFor his contributions to the film industry, Carell received the 2,570th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nSteve Carell at the American Film Institute Catalog\\nSteve Carell at IMDb \\nSteve Carell at the TCM Movie Database\",\n \"title\": \"Steve_Carell\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"IF is a 2024 American fantasy comedy drama film written, produced, and directed by John Krasinski. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, Krasinski, and Fiona Shaw with supporting roles done by Alan Kim and Liza Colón-Zayas along with the voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr., and Steve Carell. Combining live-action and animation, the film follows a young girl (Fleming) who goes through a difficult experience and begins to see everyone's imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life children have grown up.\\nDevelopment of the film began in 2019, with Krasinski set to write and direct and Reynolds attached to star. The rest of the cast joined between October 2021 and January 2022, and filming took place in New York City between August of that year and May 2023. IF was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on May 17, 2024. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $190.3 million worldwide.\\n\\nPlot\\nTwelve-year-old Bea moves into her grandmother Margaret's apartment in New York while her father waits for heart surgery in the same hospital where her mother died of cancer years earlier. One night, Bea sees an unfamiliar creature, following it back to her grandmother's building. \\nThe next day, Bea sees it again, accompanied by a man. She follows them to a nearby house where the man, Cal, retrieves a large furry purple creature named Blue. Bea also meets the other creature, a butterfly-like being named Blossom, and faints. \\nBea awakens in Cal's apartment where she learns that he has been working with imaginary friends (or IFs) to place them with new children as their original children have grown up and forgotten them. Initially reluctant, she eventually decides to help Cal.\\nThe next day, Cal takes Bea to Memory Lane Retirement Home, a retirement community for IFs housed underneath a swing ride in Coney Island where he briefly trips over the invisible IF Keith. An elderly teddy bear and the head of the facility named Lewis inspires her to use her imagination to redesign the facility, much to the chagrin of Cal. Bea tries to match one of the IFs with Benjamin, a young patient at the hospital, but he is unable to see any of them. Lewis suggests to Bea that maybe IFs do not need new kids, but rather to reunite with their old ones. \\nTalking with her grandmother, Bea sees a photo of her as a young dancer and recognizes Blossom in the background. Realizing she was her grandmother's IF, she decides to test Lewis' idea. Playing one of her grandmother's records inspires Margaret to dance and she remembers Blossom, instilling Bea with hope. \\nFollowing a tip, Bea, Cal, and Blue find Blue's original kid Jeremy, now a grown man trying to launch a business. With Bea's help Jeremy remembers Blue, who gives him the confidence he needs for a business presentation.\\nThat evening, Bea arrives at Margaret's who frantically informs her granddaughter that there has been a complication with her father's treatment. Comforted by Cal, Bea says she does not want to say goodbye to her dad, so he suggests she tell him a story instead. \\nAt the hospital, Bea tells her father a story about how she was pushing herself to act like a grown-up when she is just a child who still needs her father. He wakes up and they hug. When Bea goes outside his hospital room, she sees that all of the IFs, who had accompanied her to the hospital, are gone.\\nReturning to her grandmother's building, Bea goes to thank Cal only to discover that the door to his apartment opens into an old storage room as revealed by the landlady. After her dad is released from the hospital, he and Bea pack up to go home. During this, Bea realizes from an old picture she painted that Cal is actually her own IF, whom she had forgotten after her mother's death. Bea rushes to Calvin's room and thanks him for helping, telling him she will always need him. This allows her to see Cal and the IFs again and they reunite.\\nSome time later, Cal continues reuniting the IFs with their original kids, now grown up. Benjamin meets his IF, a cartoonish bespectacled dragon doctor with a cast and crutch. Bea and her father return home, where the latter trips, then says, \\\"Hey, Keith\\\".\\n\\nCast\\nCailey Fleming as Bea, a girl who can see IFs\\nRyan Reynolds as Cal, Bea's neighbor who can also see IFs\\nJohn Krasinski as Bea's unnamed father\\nFiona Shaw as Bea's grandmother\\nAlan Kim as Benjamin, a boy recuperating in the hospital from his injuries\\nLiza Colón-Zayas as Janet, a nurse who watches over Bea's father\\nBobby Moynihan as Jeremy, a businessman who was the creator of Blue\\nCatharine Daddario as Bea's mother\\nBarbara Andres as the Woman Upstairs, the unnamed elderly landlady of the building that Bea's grandmother lives in.\\n\\nVoices\\nSteve Carell as Blue, a large purple monster IF\\nPhoebe Waller-Bridge as Blossom, a rubber hose-style butterfly-like IF\\nLouis Gossett Jr. as Lewis, an elderly teddy bear IF who runs the Memory Lane Retirement Home\\nAwkwafina as Bubble, an IF composed of a bunch of bubbles that can pop and reconstitute themselves\\nEmily Blunt as Unicorn, a plush unicorn IF with a pink and green mane\\nGeorge Clooney as Spaceman, an astronaut IF\\nBradley Cooper as Ice, an IF who resemble an anthropomorphic glass of ice water\\nMatt Damon as Flower, an IF who resembles an anthropomorphic sunflower in a plaid suit\\nBill Hader as Banana, an anthropomorphic banana IF who works as a water aerobics instructor at the Memory Lane Retirement Home\\nRichard Jenkins as Art Teacher, a lay figure IF who works as the art teacher at the Memory Lane Retirement Home\\nKeegan-Michael Key as Slime, an IF who resembles a green slime blob\\nJohn Krasinski as Marshmallow, an anthropomorphic marshmallow IF whose head is always on fire\\nBlake Lively as Octopuss, an anthropomorphic cat IF who wears an octopus costume\\nAllyson Seeger as Viola, an anthropomorphic viola IF with sunglasses\\nSebastian Maniscalco as Magician Mouse, an anthropomorphic mouse IF who is dressed like a magician\\nChristopher Meloni as Cosmo, a detective IF with an obscured face\\nMatthew Rhys as Ghost, a crown-wearing ghost IF\\nSam Rockwell as Guardian Dog, an anthropomorphic dog superhero IF\\nMaya Rudolph as Ally, an anthropomorphic plush alligator IF\\nAmy Schumer as Gummy Bear, a large gummy bear IF\\nJon Stewart as Robot, an '80s-style toy robot IF in a domed helmet and one large wheel instead of legs\\n\\nProduction\\nIn October 2019, Paramount Pictures outbid Lionsgate and Sony, among other studios, to win the rights to Imaginary Friends, a project developed by John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds, with Krasinski set to write and direct it. In May 2021, Krasinski's Sunday Night Productions and Reynolds's Maximum Effort signed first-look deals with Paramount. In October 2021, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fiona Shaw joined the cast. In January 2022, Steve Carell, Alan Kim, Cailey Fleming, and Louis Gossett Jr. joined the cast, with the film retitled IF. The film reunites Krasinski and Carell, who both starred in The Office (2005–2013) as Jim Halpert and Michael Scott, respectively. In August 2022, Bobby Moynihan was added to the cast. Principal photography began on August 31, 2022, with Janusz Kamiński as cinematographer, and wrapped by early May 2023. Framestore provided the visual effects and animation. Animation director Arslan Elver and VFX supervisor Chris Lawrence worked alongside Krasinski on set and during pre- and post-production. \\nThe film's end credits include Brad Pitt as Keith, an invisible IF with no lines, understood to be just offscreen when other characters trip over him. Pitt's credit is a reference to his cameo as Vanisher in Deadpool 2 (2018), co-starring Reynolds. The film is dedicated to Gossett Jr., who died before its release.\\n\\nMusic\\nMichael Giacchino composed the score for the film. The film’s soundtrack includes Tina Turner’s \\\"Better Be Good to Me\\\", Nat King Cole's \\\"L-O-V-E\\\" and the “Adagio for Spartacus and Phyrigia” from Aram Khachaturian’s Spartacus.\\n\\nRelease\\nTheatrical\\nIF was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on May 17, 2024, after its originally scheduled release date of November 17, 2023 was first pushed to May 24, 2024, and then shifted forward by one week.\\n\\nHome media\\nThe film was released on digital platforms by Paramount Home Entertainment on June 18, 2024. It began streaming on Paramount+ on July 9, 2024, and was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on August 13, 2024.\\n\\nReception\\nBox office\\nIF grossed $111.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $79.2 million in other territories, for a total of $190.3 million worldwide. Variety estimated the film would need to gross $275 million worldwide in order to break-even.\\nIn the United States and Canada, IF was released alongside The Strangers: Chapter 1 and Back to Black, and was originally projected to gross around $40 million from 4,041 theaters in its opening weekend. After making $10.3 million on its first day (including $1.8 million from Thursday night previews), weekend estimates were lowered to $30 million. It went on to debut to $33.7 million, topping the box office. In its second weekend, the film made $16.8 million (a drop of -53%), finishing third behind newcomers Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Garfield Movie. In France, the film made $3.3 million during its opening weekend in 621 cinemas.\\n\\nCritical response\\nOn the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of 202 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads: \\\"A sweet ode to rediscovering one's inner child, IF largely works as old-fashioned family entertainment despite an occasionally unfocused and unnecessarily complicated plot.\\\" Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 46 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating \\\"mixed or average\\\" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of \\\"A\\\" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it an 84% overall positive score, with 64% saying they would definitely recommend it.\\nAdrian Horton of The Guardian awarded the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing that it \\\"checks the boxes\\\" on the elements of a family-friendly movie, but also noting that it does not \\\"fully conjure the magic\\\" of other films in the genre. Another mixed review was published on NPR by Bob Mondello, who wrote that \\\"mostly the filmmakers detour, decorate and digitize their story rather than telling it, and that doesn't mesh well with the real-world stuff — dad's surgery, for instance, and Bea's wandering all over Brooklyn without her grandma seeming to notice. And yes, I know: IF is a kid-flick, but it still needs grounding. We're in Brooklyn, not Willy Wonkaland.\\\" RogerEbert.com reviewer Clint Worthington called the film \\\"a well-intentioned misfire\\\".\\nTomris Laffly of Variety wrote that the movie was \\\"in desperate need of some coherent world-building\\\", while praising the performance of Cailey Fleming in the lead role. In a more negative review for The Hollywood Reporter, Frank Scheck criticised the film as \\\"plagued by significant tonal shifts and pacing issues\\\".\\nNoah Berlatsky of Chicago Reader was even more dismissive, stating, \\\"IF makes you wish you were watching some other movie. (...) There's a fine line between the whimsical dream logic of Roald Dahl and irritating, incoherent nonsense. Director John Krasinski's new kids film IF is nowhere near that line. Despite the best efforts of the extremely talented child actor Cailey Fleming, IF makes no sense, narratively, emotionally, or visually.\\\"\\nSeveral critics noted the film's sharing some similarities with the Cartoon Network animated series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which itself featured an orphanage that takes care of imaginary friends after their kids outgrow them and they leave after other children adopt them.\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nOfficial website \\nIF at IMDb \\nIF at AllMovie \\nIF at Box Office Mojo \\nIF at Rotten Tomatoes\",\n \"title\": \"IF_(film)\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"The lead actor who plays the regional manager of this popular mockumentary sitcom released in 2005 has the same initials as Santa Claus. What is the name of the voice character for Flower in the latest animated film this actor starred in in 2024?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Matt Damon"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":691,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"691"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university in Oxford, Mississippi, with a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and is the state's largest by enrollment.\nThe Mississippi Legislature chartered the university on February 24, 1848, and it admitted its first 80 students. During the Civil War, the university operated as a Confederate hospital and narrowly avoided destruction by Ulysses S. Grant's forces. In 1962, during the civil rights movement, a race riot occurred on campus when segregationists tried to prevent the enrollment of African American student James Meredith. The university has since taken measures to improve its image. The university is closely associated with writer William Faulkner and owns and manages his former Oxford home Rowan Oak, which with other on-campus sites Barnard Observatory and Lyceum–The Circle Historic District, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.\nOle Miss is classified as \"R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity\". It is one of 33 institutions participating in the National Sea Grant Program and also participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Its research efforts include the National Center for Physics Acoustics, the National Center for Natural Products Research, and the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research. The university operates the country's only federally contracted Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved cannabis facility. It also operates interdisciplinary institutes such as the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Its athletic teams compete as the Ole Miss Rebels in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I Southeastern Conference.\nThe university's alumni, faculty, and affiliates include 27 Rhodes Scholars, 10 governors, 5 US senators, a head of government, and a Nobel Prize Laureate. Other alumni have received accolades in the arts such as Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Pulitzer Prizes. Its medical center performed the first human lung transplant and animal-to-human heart transplant.\n\nHistory\nFounding and early history\nThe Mississippi Legislature chartered the University of Mississippi on February 24, 1848. Planners selected an isolated, rural site in Oxford as a \"sylvan exile\" that would foster academic studies and focus. In 1845, residents of Lafayette County donated land west of Oxford for the campus and the following year, architect William Nichols oversaw construction of an academic building called the Lyceum, two dormitories, and faculty residences. On November 6, 1848, the university, offering a classical curriculum, opened to its first class of 80 students, most of whom were children of elite slaveholders, all of whom were white, and all but one of whom were from Mississippi. For 23 years, the university was Mississippi's only public institution of higher learning and for 110 years, its only comprehensive university. In 1854, the University of Mississippi School of Law was established, becoming the fourth state-supported law school in the United States.\nEarly president Frederick A. P. Barnard sought to increase the university's stature, placing him in conflict with the more-conservative board of trustees. The only result of Barnard's hundred-page 1858 report to the board was the university head's title being changed to \"chancellor\". Barnard was a Massachusetts-born graduate of Yale University; his northern background and Union sympathies made his position contentious—a student assaulted his slave and the state legislature investigated him. Following the election of US President Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Mississippi became the second state to secede; the university's mathematics professor Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar drafted the articles of secession. Students organized into a military company called the \"University Greys\", which became Company A, 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment in the Confederate States Army. Within a month of the Civil War's outbreak, only five students remained at the university, and by late 1861, it was closed. In its final action, the board of trustees awarded Barnard a doctorate of divinity.\nWithin six months, the campus had been converted into a Confederate hospital; the Lyceum was used as the hospital and a building that had stood on the modern-day site of Farley Hall operated as its morgue. In November 1862, the campus was evacuated as General Ulysses S. Grant's Union forces approached. Although Kansan troops destroyed much of the medical equipment, a lone remaining professor persuaded Grant against burning the campus. Grant's forces left after three weeks and the campus returned to being a Confederate hospital. Over the war's course, more than 700 soldiers were buried on campus.\n\nPost-war\nThe University of Mississippi reopened in October 1865. To avoid rejecting veterans, the university lowered admission standards and decreased costs by eliminating tuition and allowing students to live off-campus. The student body remained entirely white: in 1870 the chancellor declared that he and the entire faculty would resign rather than admit \"negro\" students. In 1882, the university began admitting women but they were not permitted to live on campus or attend law school. In 1885, the University of Mississippi hired Sarah McGehee Isom, becoming the first southeastern US college to hire a female faculty member. Nearly 100 years later, in 1981, the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies was established in her honor.\nThe university's byname \"Ole Miss\" was first used in 1897, when it won a contest of suggestions for a yearbook title. The term originated as a title domestic slaves used to distinguish the mistress of a plantation from \"young misses\". Fringe origin theories include it coming from a diminutive of \"Old Mississippi\", or from the name of the \"Ole Miss\" train that ran from Memphis to New Orleans. Within two years, students and alumni were using \"Ole Miss\" to refer to the university.\nBetween 1900 and 1930, the Mississippi Legislature introduced bills aiming to relocate, close, or merge the university with Mississippi State University. All such legislation failed. During the 1930s, the governor of Mississippi Theodore G. Bilbo was politically hostile toward the University of Mississippi, firing administrators and faculty, and replacing them with his friends in the \"Bilbo purge\". Bilbo's actions severely damaged the university's reputation, leading to the temporary loss of its accreditation. Consequently, in 1944, the Constitution of Mississippi was amended to protect the university's board of trustees from political pressure. During World War II, the University of Mississippi was one of 131 colleges and universities that participated in the national V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a Navy commission.\n\nIntegration\nIn 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Eight years after the Brown decision, all attempts by African American applicants to enroll had failed. Shortly after the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, James Meredith—an African American Air Force veteran and former student at Jackson State University—applied to the University of Mississippi. After months of obstruction by Mississippi officials, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Meredith's enrollment, and the Department of Justice under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy entered the case on Meredith's behalf. On three occasions, either governor Ross R. Barnett or lieutenant governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. physically blocked Meredith's entry to the campus.\nThe United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held both Barnett and Johnson Jr. in contempt, and issued fines exceeding $10,000 for each day they refused to enroll Meredith. On September 30, 1962, President Kennedy dispatched 127 U.S. Marshals, 316 deputized U.S. Border Patrol agents, and 97 federalized Federal Bureau of Prisons personnel to escort Meredith. After nightfall, far-right former Major General Edwin Walker and outside agitators arrived, and a gathering of segregationist students before the Lyceum became a violent mob. Segregationist rioters threw Molotov cocktails and bottles of acid, and fired guns at federal marshals and reporters. 160 marshals would be injured, with 28 receiving gunshot wounds, and two civilians—French journalist Paul Guihard and Oxford repairman Ray Gunter—were killed by gunfire. Eventually, 13,000 soldiers arrived in Oxford and quashed the riot. One-third of the federal officers—166 men—were injured, as were 40 federal soldiers and National Guardsmen. More than 30,000 personnel were deployed, alerted, and committed in Oxford—the most in American history for a single disturbance.\nMeredith enrolled and attended a class on October 1. By 1968, Ole Miss had around 100 African American students, and by the 2019–2020 academic year, African Americans constituted 12.5 percent of the student body.\n\nRecent history\nIn 1972, Ole Miss purchased Rowan Oak, the former home of Nobel Prize–winning writer William Faulkner. The building has been preserved as it was at Faulkner's death in 1962. Faulkner was the university's postmaster in the early 1920s and wrote As I Lay Dying (1930) at the university powerhouse. His Nobel Prize medallion is displayed in the university library. The university hosted the inaugural Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in 1974. In 1980, Willie Morris became the university's first writer in residence.\nIn 2002, Ole Miss marked the 40th anniversary of integration with a yearlong series of events, including an oral history of the university, symposiums, a memorial, and a reunion of federal marshals who served at the campus. In 2006, the 44th anniversary of integration, a statue of Meredith was dedicated on campus. Two years later, the site of the 1962 riots was designated as a National Historic Landmark. The university also held a yearlong program to mark the 50th anniversary of integration in 2012. The university hosted the first presidential debate of 2008—the first presidential debate held in Mississippi—between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.\nOle Miss retired its mascot Colonel Reb in 2003, citing its Confederate imagery. Although a grass-roots movement to adopt Star Wars character Admiral Ackbar of the Rebel Alliance gained significant support, Rebel Black Bear, a reference to Faulkner's short story The Bear, was selected in 2010. The Bear was replaced with another mascot, Tony the Landshark, in 2017. Beginning in 2022, football coach Lane Kiffin's dog Juice became the de facto mascot. In 2015, the university removed the Mississippi State Flag, which included the Confederate battle emblem, and in 2020, it relocated a prominent Confederate monument.\n\nCampus\nOxford campus\nThe University of Mississippi's Oxford campus is partially located in Oxford and partially in University, Mississippi, a census-designated place. The main campus is situated at an altitude of around 500 feet (150 m), and has expanded from one square mile (260 ha) of land to around 1,200 acres (1.9 sq mi; 490 ha). The campus' buildings are largely designed in a Georgian architectural style; some of the newer buildings have a more contemporary architecture.\n\nAt the campus' center is \"The Circle\", which consists of eight academic buildings organized around an ovaloid common. The buildings include the Lyceum (1848), the \"Y\" Building (1853), and six later buildings constructed in a Neoclassical Revival style. The Lyceum was the first building on the campus and was expanded with two wings in 1903. According to the university, the Lyceum's bell is the oldest academic bell in the United States. Near the Circle is The Grove, a 10-acre (4.0 ha) plot of land that was set aside by chancellor Robert Burwell Fulton c. 1893, and hosts up to 100,000 tailgaters during home games. Barnard Observatory, which was constructed under Chancellor Barnard in 1859, was designed to house the world's largest telescope. Due to the Civil War's outbreak, however, the telescope was never delivered and was instead acquired by Northwestern University. The observatory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The first major building built after the Civil War was Ventress Hall, which was constructed in a Victorian Romanesque style in 1889.\nFrom 1929 to 1930, architect Frank P. Gates designed 18 buildings on campus, mostly in Georgian Revival architectural style, including (Old) University High School, Barr Hall, Bondurant Hall, Farley Hall (also known as Lamar Hall), Faulkner Hall, and Wesley Knight Field House. During the 1930s, the many building projects at the campus were largely funded by the Public Works Administration and other federal entities. Among the notable buildings built in this period is the dual-domed Kennon Observatory (1939).\nTwo large modern buildings—the Ole Miss Union (1976) and Lamar Hall (1977)—caused controversy by diverging from the university's traditional architecture. In 1998, the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation donated $20 million to establish the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, which was the first building on campus to be solely dedicated to the performing arts. As of 2020, the university was constructing a 202,000-square-foot (18,800 m2) STEM facility, the largest single construction project in the campus' history. The university owns and operates the University of Mississippi Museum, which comprises collections of American fine art, Classical antiquities, and Southern folk art, as well as historic properties in Oxford. Ole Miss also owns University-Oxford Airport, which is located north of the main campus.\nNorth Mississippi Japanese Supplementary School, a Japanese weekend school, is operated in conjunction with Ole Miss, with classes held on campus. It opened in 2008 and was jointly established by several Japanese companies and the university. Many children have parents who are employees at Toyota facilities in Blue Springs.\n\n\tCampus of the University of Mississippi\n\nSatellite campuses\nIn 1903, the University of Mississippi School of Medicine was established on the Oxford campus. It offered only two years of medical courses; students had to attend an out-of-state medical school to complete their degrees. This form of medical education continued until 1955, when the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) was established on a 164-acre (66 ha) site in Jackson, Mississippi, and the School of Medicine was relocated there. A nursing school was established in 1956 and since then, other health-related schools have been added. As of 2021, UMMC offers medical and graduate degrees. In addition to the medical center, the university has satellite campuses in Booneville, DeSoto, Grenada, Rankin, and Tupelo.\n\nAdministration and organization\nDivisions of the university\nThe University of Mississippi consists of 15 schools. The largest undergraduate school is the College of Liberal Arts. Graduate schools include a law school, a school of business administration, an engineering school, and a medical school.\n\nAdministration\nThe University of Mississippi's chief administrative officer is the chancellor, a position Glenn Boyce has held since 2019. The chancellor is supported by vice-chancellors who administer areas such as research and intercollegiate athletics. The provost oversees the university's academic affairs, and a dean oversees each school, as well as general studies and the honors college. A faculty senate advises the administration.\nThe board of trustees of the Mississippi State Institutions of Higher Learning is the constitutional governing body that is responsible for policy and financial oversight of the University of Mississippi and the state's other seven public secondary institutions. the board consists of 12 members, who serve staggered nine-year terms and represent the state's three Supreme Court Districts. The board appoints the commissioner of higher education, who administers its policies.\n\nFinances\nAs of April 2021, the University of Mississippi's endowment was $775 million. The university's budget for fiscal year 2019 was over $540 million. Less than 13% of operating revenues are funded by the state of Mississippi, and the university relies heavily on private donations. The Ford Foundation has donated nearly $65 million to the Oxford campus and UMMC.\n\nAcademics and programs\nThe University of Mississippi is the state's largest university by enrollment and is considered the state's flagship university. In 2015, the student-faculty ratio was 19:1. Of its classes, 47.4 percent have fewer than 20 students. The most popular subjects include marketing, education and teaching, accountancy, finance, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration. To receive a bachelor's degree, students must have at least 120 semester hours with passing grades and a cumulative 2.0 GPA.\nThe university also offers graduate degrees such as PhDs and masters of art, science, and fine arts. The university maintains the Mississippi Teacher Corps, a free graduate program that educates teachers for critical-needs public schools.\nTaylor Medals, which were first awarded in 1905, are presented to exceptional students nominated by the faculty. The medals are named in honor of Marcus Elvis Taylor, who graduated in 1871 and are given to less than one percent of each class.\n\nResearch\nOle Miss is classified among \"R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity\". According to the National Science Foundation, the university spent $137 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 142nd in the nation. It is one of the 33 colleges and universities participating in the National Sea Grant Program and participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Since 1948, the university has been a member of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities.\nIn 1963, University of Mississippi Medical Center surgeons, led by James Hardy, performed the world's first human lung transplant, and in 1964 the world's first animal-to-human heart transplant. Because Hardy researched transplantation, consisting of primate studies during the previous nine years, the heart of a chimpanzee was used for the transplant.\nIn 1965, the university established its Medicinal Plant Garden, which the School of Pharmacy uses for drug research. Since 1968, the school has operated the only legal marijuana farm and production facility in the United States. The National Institute on Drug Abuse contracts to the university production of cannabis for use in approved research studies and for distribution to the seven surviving medical marijuana patients grandfathered into the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program. The facility is the only source of marijuana medical researchers can use to conduct Food and Drug Administration-approved tests.\nThe National Center for Physics Acoustics (NCPA), which Congress established in 1986, is located on campus. In addition to conducting research, the NCPA houses the Acoustical Society of America's archives. The university also operates the University of Mississippi Field Station, which includes 223 research ponds and supports long-term ecological research, and hosts the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research and the Mississippi Law Research Institute. In 2012, the university completed Insight Park, a research park that \"welcomes companies commercializing University of Mississippi research\".\n\nSpecial programs\nHonors education at the University of Mississippi, consisting of lectures by distinguished academics, began in 1953. In 1974, this program became the University Scholars Program, and in 1983, the University Honors Program was created and honors-core courses were offered. In 1997, Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale and wife Sally donated $5.4 million to establish the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College (SMBHC), which provides a capstone project—a senior thesis—and endowed scholarships.\nIn 1977, the university established its Center for the Study of Southern Culture with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which is housed in the College of Liberal Arts. The center provides for interdisciplinary studies of Southern history and culture. In 2000, the university established the Trent Lott Leadership Institute, which is named after alumnus and then-US Senate majority leader Trent Lott. The institute was funded with large corporate donations from MCI Inc., Lockheed Martin, and other companies. In addition to leadership initiatives, the institute offers a BA degree in Public Policy Leadership.\nThe Center for Intelligence and Security Studies (CISS) delivers academic programming on intelligence analysis and engages in applied research and consortium building with government, private, and academic partners. In 2012, the United States Director of National Intelligence designated CISS as an Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence (CAE), becoming one of 29 such college programs in the United States. Other special programs include the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence—established jointly by the university and Toyota in 2008—and the Chinese Language Flagship Program (simplified Chinese: 中文旗舰项目; traditional Chinese: 中文旗艦項目; pinyin: Zhōngwén Qíjiàn Xiàngmù). The Croft Institute for International Studies, which was founded in 1998, provides the only international studies undergraduate program in Mississippi.\nThe University of Mississippi is a member of the SEC Academic Consortium, which has since been renamed SECU. The collaborative initiative was designed to promote research, scholarship, and achievement among the member universities in the Southeastern Conference. In 2013, the university participated in the SEC Symposium on renewable energy in Atlanta, Georgia, which was organized and led by the University of Georgia and the UGA Bioenergy Systems Research Institute.\nIn 2021, actor Morgan Freeman and Professor Linda Keena donated $1 million to the University of Mississippi to create the Center for Evidence-Based Policing and Reform, which will provide law-enforcement training and seek to improve engagement between law enforcement and communities.\n\nRankings and accolades\nIn U.S. News & World Report's 2023 rankings, the University of Mississippi was tied for 163rd place among national universities and 88th among public universities. In 2023, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the professional MBA program at the School of Business Administration #72 nationally, and the online MBA program in the top 25. As of 2018, all three degree programs at the Patterson School of Accountancy were among the top 10 accounting programs according to the Public Accounting Report.\nSince 2012, the Chronicle of Higher Education has named the University of Mississippi as one of the \"Great Colleges to Work For\". In the 2018 results, released in the Chronicle's annual report on \"The Academic Workplace\", the university was among 84 institutions honored from the 253 colleges and universities surveyed. In 2018, the university's campus was ranked the second-safest in the SEC and one of the safest in the U.S.\nAs of 2019, the university has had 27 Rhodes Scholars. Since 1998, it has 10 Goldwater Scholars, seven Truman Scholars, 18 Fulbright Scholars, one Marshall Scholar, three Udall Scholars, two Gates Cambridge Scholars, one Mitchell Scholar, 19 Boren Scholars, one Boren fellow, and one German Chancellor Fellowship.\n\nPeople\nStudent body\nAs of the 2023–2024 academic year, the student body consists of 18,533 undergraduates and 2,264 in graduate programs. Around 57 percent of the undergraduate student body were female. As of Fall 2023, minorities composed 23.5 percent of the body. The median family income of students is $116,600, and over half of students come from the top 20 percent. According to The New York Times, the University of Mississippi has the seventh-highest share of students from the economic top-one percent among selective public schools. The median starting salary of a graduate is $47,700, according to US News.\nAlthough 54 percent of undergraduates are from Mississippi, the student body is geographically diverse. As of late 2020, the university's undergraduates represented all 82 counties in Mississippi, 49 states, the District of Columbia, and 86 countries. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student success and satisfaction, is 85.7 percent. In 2020, the student body included over 1,100 transfer students.\n\nFaculty\nAs of the 2020–2021 academic year, there were—excluding those of UMMC—1,092 professors, of whom 424 were tenured. At this time, there were 592 male and 500 female professors.\nWith the early emphasis on classical studies, multiple notable classicists including George Tucker Stainback, Wilson Gaines Richardson, and William Hailey Willis, have held teaching positions at the University of Mississippi. Archeologist David Moore Robinson, who is credited with discovering the ancient city Olynthus, also taught classics at the university. Former Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove was a political science lecturer, and Kyle Duncan was an assistant law professor prior to his appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Landon Garland taught astronomy and philosophy before becoming the first president of Vanderbilt University. Actor James Best, who is best known for his work on The Dukes of Hazzard, was an artist in residence. Robert Q. Marston, director of the National Institutes of Health, served as the dean of the medical school, and Eugene W. Hilgard, considered the father of soil science, taught chemistry at Ole Miss. Other notable scientific faculty include psychologist David H. Barlow and physicist Mack A. Breazeale.\n\nNotable alumni\nIn addition to William Faulkner, notable writers who attended the University of Mississippi include Florence Mars, Patrick D. Smith, Stark Young, and John Grisham. Alumni in film include Emmy Award-winning actor Gerald McRaney and Tate Taylor, director of The Help. Musicians who studied at the university include Mose Allison and Grammy Award-winner Glen Ballard. Athlete graduates include 12-time Grand Slam tennis champion Mahesh Bhupathi, NFL quarterbacks Archie Manning and Eli Manning, New York Yankees catcher Jake Gibbs, and Michael Oher, NFL offensive lineman and subject of the film The Blind Side. Additionally, three Miss Americas and one Miss USA are among the alumni.\nThe University of Mississippi's alumni include five US senators and ten governors. Other public servant graduates include Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justices Sydney M. Smith and Bill Waller Jr., US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes, and Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit. Notable academics include Pomona College president E. Wilson Lyon, Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard professor Thomas K. McCraw, and Mercer University president James Bruton Gambrell. Notable physicians include Arthur Guyton, American Medical Association head Edward Hill, and Thomas F. Frist Sr., co-founder of Hospital Corporation of America. Alumnus William Parsons served as director of NASA's Stennis Space Center and later that of Kennedy Space Center.\n\nAthletics\nThe University of Mississippi's athletic teams participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Southeastern Conference (SEC), Division I as the Ole Miss Rebels. Women's varsity athletic teams at the University of Mississippi include basketball, cross country, golf, rifle, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. Men's varsity teams are baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, tennis, and track and field.\nIn 1893, professor Alexander Bondurant organized the university's football team. As collegiate athletic teams began to receive names, a contest result selected the name \"Mississippi Flood\" in 1929. Due to the lasting harm of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, however, the name was changed to the \"Rebels\" in 1936. The first prime-time telecast of college football was of a 1969 Ole Miss game. The team has won six SEC championships. Major rivals include Louisiana State University and Mississippi State University, which Ole Miss plays against in the Magnolia Bowl and Egg Bowl, respectively. Other rivalries include Tulane and Vanderbilt. Football alumni Archie and Eli Manning, both quarterbacks, are honored on campus with speed limits set to 18 and 10 mph; their respective jersey numbers.\n\nOutside football, Ole Miss baseball has won seven overall SEC championships and three SEC Tournaments. They have played in the Men's College World Series six times, and won the 2022 series. The men's tennis team has won five overall SEC championships and has had one NCAA Singles Champion—Devin Britton. The women's basketball team has won one overall SEC championship. Notable former players include Armintie Price, who holds the SEC record for steals in a game and was the third pick in the 2007 WNBA draft, and Jennifer Gillom, 1986 SEC Female Athlete of the Year and 1988 Olympic Gold Medalist. Men's basketball has won two SEC Tournaments. In 2021, Ole Miss women's golf won its first NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship.\n\nStudent life\nTraditions\nA common greeting on campus is \"Hotty Toddy!\", which is also used in the school chant. The phrase has no explicit meaning and its origin is unknown. The chant was first published in 1926, but \"Hotty Toddy\" was spelled \"Heighty Tighty\"; this early spelling has led some to suggest it originated with Virginia Tech's regimental band, The Heighty Tighties. Other proposed origins are \"hoity-toity\", meaning snobbish, and the alcoholic drink hot toddy.\nOn football game days, the Grove, a 10-acre (4.0 ha) plot of trees, hosts an elaborate tailgating tradition; according to The New York Times, \"Perhaps there isn't a word for the ritualized pregame revelry ... 'Tailgating' certainly does not do it justice\". The tradition began in 1991 when cars were banned from the Grove. Prior to each game, over 2,000 red-and-blue trash cans are placed throughout the Grove. This event is known as \"Trash Can Friday\". Each barrel marks a tailgating spot. The spots are claimed by tailgaters, who erect a \"tent city\" of 2,500 shelters. Many of the tents are extravagant, feature chandeliers and fine china, and typically host meals of Southern cuisine. To accommodate the crowds, the university maintains elaborate portable bathrooms on 18-wheeler platforms known as \"Hotty Toddy Potties\".\n\nStudent organizations\nThe University of Mississippi's first sanctioned student organizations, literary societies the Hermaean Society and the Phi Sigma Society, were established in 1849. Weekly meetings, of which attendance was mandatory, were held in the Lyceum until 1853 and then in the chapel. With the university's emphasis on rhetoric, student-organized public orations on the first Monday of every month were popular. Studies were sometimes canceled so students could attend speeches of visiting politicians such as Jefferson Davis and William L. Sharkey.\nIn the 1890s, extracurricular and nonintellectual activities proliferated on campus, and interest in oratory and the now-voluntary literary societies diminished. Turn-of-the-20th-century student organizations included Cotillion Club, the elite Stag Club, and German Club. In the 1890s, the local YMCA began publishing a list of the organizations in the M-Book. As of 2021, the handbook was still provided to students.\nThe Associated Student Body (ASB), which was established in 1917, is the university's student government organization. Students are elected to the ASB Senate in the spring semester and leftover seats are voted on in open-seat elections in the fall. Senators can represent registered student organizations such as the Greek councils and sports clubs, or they can run to represent their academic school. The University of Mississippi's marching band The Pride of the South performs in-concert and at athletic events. The band was formally organized in 1928, but it existed before that date as a smaller organization led by a student director. A Phi Beta Kappa chapter was established in 2001.\n\nAmenities\nApproximately 5,300 students live on campus in thirteen residence halls, two residential colleges, and two apartment complexes. Students are required to live on-campus during their first year. Within residence halls, students designated as community assistants provide information and resolve issues. In the early 20th century, the university provided cottages for married students. In 1947, Vet Village was constructed to room the surge in World War II veteran applicants.\nThe University of Mississippi provides Oxford University Transit, a shuttle system that is free of charge for students, faculty, and staff. In early 2020, Starship Technologies introduced an automated food delivery consisting of a fleet of 30 robots on campus; it was the first such system of any SEC school.\nOn-campus dining services Catering at UM and the Rebel Market are the only Certified Green restaurants in the state of Mississippi. In 2019, the university opened a 98,000-square-foot (9,100 m2) recreation center containing a gym, indoor climbing wall, basketball courts, and other services.\n\nGreek life\nGreek life at the University of Mississippi comprises 33 organizations and around 8,700 affiliated students. Greek societies at the University of Mississippi are housed along Fraternity Row and Sorority Row, which were constructed in the 1930s with federal funds.\nThe Rainbow Fraternity, which was founded at the University of Mississippi in 1848, was the first fraternity to be founded in the South. Other early fraternities established at the university include Delta Kappa Epsilon (1850), Delta Kappa (1853), Delta Psi (1854), and Epsilon Alpha (1855). By 1900, a majority of University of Mississippi students were members of a fraternity or a sorority. Non-member students felt excluded on campus and tensions between members and non-members escalated. The University Magazine denounced the Greek societies as \"the most vicious institution that has grown up in any college\". In 1902, Lee Russell, a poor student who was rejected by the fraternities, appeared before the board of trustees to criticize the Greek societies. In response, the board threatened to abolish Greek life if non-member students continued to be ostracized. In 1903, rumors Greek-life members and non-member students were preparing to \"meet in combat\" appeared. Multiple state-legislative investigations were held to address the issue. All Greek life at the university was suspended from 1912 to 1926 due to statewide anti-fraternity legislation.\nAs part of a larger crackdown on embarrassing fraternity incidents, Chancellor Gerald Turner ended the traditional Shrimp and Beer Festival in 1984. In 1988, Phi Beta Sigma, a black fraternity, was preparing to move into a house on the all-white Fraternity Row when arsonists burned their house. An alumnus helped purchase another house and Fraternity Row was integrated two months later. In a 1989 incident, fraternity members dropped naked students painted with racist slurs at the historically black Rust College. In 2014, three fraternity members placed a noose and a Confederate symbol on the Meredith statue, and in 2019, fraternity members posed with guns in front of an Emmett Till historical marker.\n\nMedia\nThe first student publication at the University of Mississippi was The University Magazine, which was founded in 1856 and published by the literary societies. The rivalry between the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State originated from an 1895 condemnation by The University Magazine of a Mississippi State publication which had written that the University of Mississippi \"lacked dignity\". The first student newspaper The University Record began publication in 1898; it and the Magazine suffered financially and were suspended in 1902.\nIn 1907, the YMCA and student athletic organization revived the university's newspaper as the Varsity Voice. In 1911, this newspaper was superseded by another student-published newspaper, The Daily Mississippian. The paper is editorially independent and is the only daily college newspaper in the state. The paper is also published online as TheDMonline.com, with supplementary content.\nNewsWatch, which was established in 1980, is a student-produced, live newscast and the only local newscast in Lafayette County. The University of Mississippi owns and operates WUMS 92.1 Rebel Radio, which began broadcasting in 1989; it is one of a few university-operated commercial FM radio stations in the United States.\n\nNotes and references\nNotes\nCitations\nWorks cited\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website","title":"University_of_Mississippi"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and United States Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi after the intervention of the federal government (an event that was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement). Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi. His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights for African Americans. The admission of Meredith ignited the Ole Miss riot of 1962 where Meredith's life was threatened and 31,000 American servicemen were required to quell the violence – the largest ever invocation of the Insurrection Act of 1807.\nIn 1966, Meredith planned a solo 220-mile (350-kilometer) March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi; he wanted to highlight continuing racism in the South and encourage voter registration after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He did not want major civil rights organizations involved. The second day, he was shot by a white gunman and suffered numerous wounds. Leaders of major organizations vowed to complete the march in his name after he was taken to the hospital. While Meredith was recovering, more people from across the country became involved as marchers. He rejoined the march and when Meredith and other leaders entered Jackson on June 26, they were leading an estimated 15,000 marchers, in what was the largest civil rights march in Mississippi. During the march, more than 4,000 African Americans registered to vote, and it was a catalyst to continued community organizing and additional registration.\nIn 2002 and again in 2012, the University of Mississippi led year-long series of events to celebrate the 40th and 50th anniversaries of Meredith's integration of the institution. He was among numerous speakers invited to the campus, where a statue of him commemorates his role. The Lyceum-The Circle Historic District at the center of the campus has been designated as a National Historic Landmark for these events.\n\nEarly life and education\nMeredith was born in 1933 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the son of Roxie (Patterson) and Moses Meredith. He is of African-American, English Canadian, Scots and Choctaw heritage. His family nickname was \"J-Boy\". European traders intermarried with some Choctaw during the colonial period. In the 1830s, thousands of Choctaw chose to stay in Mississippi and become United States citizens when most of the tribe left their traditional homeland for Indian Territory during the federally imposed removal. Those in the state had unions with European Americans and African Americans (some of whom were enslaved), adding to the multi-racial population in the developing territory.\nMeredith completed 11th grade at Attala County Training School (which was segregated as \"white\" and \"colored\" under the state's Jim Crow laws) and completed 12th grade at Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, Florida. He graduated from high school in 1951. Then, Meredith enlisted in the United States Air Force. He served from 1951 to 1960.\nAfterward Meredith attended Jackson State University for two years, achieving good grades.\n\nUniversity of Mississippi\nChallenge to the University\nIn 1961, inspired the day before by U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Meredith started to apply to the University of Mississippi, intending to insist on his civil rights to attend the state-funded university. It still admitted only white students under the state's culture of racial segregation, although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, as they are supported by all the taxpayers.\nMeredith wrote in his application that he wanted admission for his country, race, family, and himself. He said,\n\nNobody handpicked me...I believed, and believe now, that I have a Divine Responsibility... I am familiar with the probable difficulties involved in such a move as I am undertaking and I am fully prepared to pursue it all the way to a degree from the University of Mississippi.\nHe was twice denied admission. During this time, he was advised by Medgar Evers, who was head of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).\nOn May 31, 1961, Meredith, with backing of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, alleging that the university had rejected him only because of his race, as he had a highly successful record of military service and academic courses. The case went through many hearings, after which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Meredith had the right to be admitted to the state school. The state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which supported the ruling of the appeals court.\nOn September 13, 1962, the District Court entered an injunction directing the members of the Board of Trustees and the officials of the University to register Meredith. The Democratic Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, declared \"no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your governor\". The state legislature quickly created a plan. They passed a law that denied admission to any person \"who has a crime of moral turpitude against him\" or who had been convicted of any felony offense or not pardoned. The same day it became law, Meredith was accused and convicted of \"false voter registration,\" in absentia, in Jackson County. The conviction against Meredith was trumped up: Meredith both owned land in northern Mississippi and was registered to vote in Jackson, where he lived. \"Later the clerk testified that Meredith was qualified to register and vote in Jackson [where he was registered].\"\nOn September 20, the federal government obtained an injunction against enforcement of this Act and of the two state court decrees that had barred Meredith's registration. That day Meredith was rebuffed again by Governor Barnett in his efforts to gain admission, though university officials were prepared to admit him. On September 25, Meredith attempted to register again, but Governor Barnett blocked Meredith’s entry to the College Board office. On September 28, the Court of Appeals, en banc and after a hearing, found the Governor in civil contempt and ordered that he be arrested and pay a fine of $10,000 for each day that he kept up the refusal, unless he complied by October 2. On September 29, Lieutenant Governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. (elected Governor on November 5, 1963) was also found in contempt by a panel of the court, and a similar order was entered against him, with a fine of $5,000 a day.\nAttorney General Robert F. Kennedy had a series of phone calls with Governor Barnett between September 27 to October 1. Barnett reluctantly agreed to let Meredith enroll in the university, but secretly bargained with Kennedy on a plan which would allow him to save face.\nBarnett committed to maintain civil order. Robert Kennedy ordered 127 U.S. Marshals as well as 316 deputized U.S. Border Patrol and 97 Federal Bureau of Prisons officers to accompany Meredith during his arrival and registration. On September 29, President Kennedy issued a proclamation commanding all persons engaged in the obstruction of the laws and the orders of the courts to \"cease and desist therefrom and to disperse and retire peaceably forthwith\", citing his authority under 10 U.S.C. § 332, § 333, and § 334 to use the militia or the armed forces to suppress any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.\n\nRioting at the University\nOn September 29, Governor Barnett made a spirited speech at halftime of the Ole Miss-Kentucky football game, firing up the crowd and encouraging people to block Meredith’s entry to the university. He said, in part, \"I love Mississippi! I love her people, our customs ... I love and I respect our heritage.\" The Ole Miss Band waved a large Confederate flag, and the stands were full of students waving Confederate flags. President Kennedy sent federal marshals to Mississippi.\nOn Sunday, September 30, 1962, Governor Barnett called the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, to try to get him to postpone Meredith’s admission to the University. The Attorney General refused. Meredith, accompanied by Mississippi Highway Patrol and 500 federal marshals, moved into his dorm room. Outside the Lyceum building, where Meredith was due to register for classes the next day, a crowd of hostile students formed near the marshals who were protecting the building. At 7:30 p.m., the crowd broke into a riot. The crowd, which numbered 3000, threw bottles and rocks, and the marshals tear-gassed them. More than 300 people were injured in the riot, and two people were killed.\n\nEnrollment\nThe day after the riots, on October 1, 1962, after federal and state forces took control, Meredith became the first African-American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Meredith's admission is regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in the United States.\nMany students harassed Meredith during his two semesters on campus, but others accepted him. According to first-person accounts, students living in Meredith's dorm bounced basketballs on the floor just above his room through all hours of the night. Other students ostracized him: when Meredith walked into the cafeteria for meals, the students eating would turn their backs. If Meredith sat at a table with other students, all of whom were white, the students would immediately get up and go to another table. He persisted through harassment and extreme isolation to graduate on August 18, 1963, with a degree in political science.\n\nEducation and activism\nMeredith continued his education, focusing on political science, at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He returned to the United States in 1965. He attended law school through a scholarship at Columbia University and earned an LL.B (law degree) in 1968\nIn 1966, Meredith organized and led a solo, personal March Against Fear for 220 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, beginning on June 6, 1966. Inviting only black men to join him, he wanted to highlight continuing racial oppression in the Mississippi Delta, as well as to encourage blacks to register and vote following passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which authorized federal oversight and enforcement of rights. Governor Paul Johnson promised to allow the march and provide State Highway Police protection. Meredith wanted blacks in Mississippi to overcome fear of violence.\nDespite a police presence, on the second day, Meredith was shot and wounded by Aubrey James Norvell, a white man whose motives were never determined, and who pleaded guilty at trial. Meredith was quickly taken to a hospital. Leaders of major organizations rallied at the news and vowed to complete the march in Meredith's name. They struggled to reconcile differing goals, but succeeded in attracting more than 10,000 marchers from local towns and across the country by the end.\nNorvell pleaded guilty to battery and assault with intent to kill and was sentenced to five years in prison.\nMeredith suffered from superficial wounds to his neck, legs, head, and right side. He recovered from his wounds, and rejoined the march before it reached Jackson on June 26, when 15,000 marchers entered the city in what had become the largest civil rights march in state history. During the march, more than 4,000 black Mississippians registered to vote. Continued community organizing was catalyzed by these events, and African Americans began to enter the political system again.\n\nPolitical career\nIn 1967, while living and studying in New York, Meredith decided to run as a Republican against incumbent Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a multi-term Democrat, in a special election for the Congressional seat in Harlem. He withdrew from the race and Powell was re-elected. Meredith said later of his campaign, \"The Republican Party [of New York] made me an offer: full support in every way, everything.\" He had full access to top New York Republicans.\nAfter returning to Mississippi in 1972, Meredith entered the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat of Democrat James Eastland, who had been the incumbent for 29 years in what had operated as a one-party state. Following provisions of a new state constitution in 1890 that made voter registration extremely difficult, African Americans had been effectively disenfranchised and the Republican Party had been crippled. Meredith conceded that he had little chance of winning unless Governor George Wallace of Alabama entered the presidential race and split the white vote. As it happened, many Republicans in Mississippi were not enthusiastic about the prospect of Meredith as their nominee, and Gil Carmichael, a businessman from Meridian, was recruited to run against him. Meredith received only 21% of the primary vote against Carmichael.\nAn active Republican, Meredith served from 1989 to 1991 as a domestic adviser on the staff of United States Senator Jesse Helms. Faced with criticism from the civil rights community for working for the avowed segregationist, Meredith said that he had applied to every member of the Senate and House offering his services, and only Helms' office responded. He also wanted a chance to do research at the Library of Congress.\nIn 2002, officials at the University of Mississippi celebrated the 40th anniversary of Meredith's historic admission and integration of the institution with a year-long series of events. Of the celebration, Meredith said,\n\nIt was an embarrassment for me to be there, and for somebody to celebrate it, oh my God. I want to go down in history, and have a bunch of things named after me, but believe me that ain't it.\nHe said he had achieved his main goal at the time by getting the federal government to enforce his rights as a citizen. He saw his actions as \"an assault on white supremacy\". In 2003, he was far more proud that his son Joseph Meredith graduated as the top doctoral student at the university's graduate business school.\n\nLegacy and honors\nIn 2002, the University of Mississippi honored the 40th anniversary of Meredith's admission with numerous events.\nIn 2006, a statue of him was dedicated on campus in his honor.\nIn 2012, the University commemorated the 50th anniversary of the historic admission, featuring a range of speakers, artists, lectures and events during the year.\nThat year Meredith received the Harvard Graduate School of Education 'Medal for Education Impact' and was the school's convocation speaker. Meredith said it was the first award in 50 years he had accepted.\n\nCultural depictions\nIn 2011 miniseries The Kennedys, Meredith was portrayed by Matthew G. Brown in episode five of the series, Life Sentences.\n\nPolitical viewpoint\nA highly independent man, Meredith has identified as an individual American citizen who demanded and received the constitutional rights held by any American, not as a participant in the Civil Rights Movement. There have been tensions between him and leaders of major organizations of the movement. When interviewed in 2002, the 40th anniversary of his enrollment at University of Mississippi, Meredith said, \"Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind.\"\nMeredith was a supporter of the unsuccessful 1967 gubernatorial bid of ex-Mississippi Governor (and avowed segregationist) Ross Barnett, who had been responsible for Meredith's not being allowed at the University of Mississippi, as well as the 1991 gubernatorial campaign of Louisiana State Representative and ex-Klansman David Duke.\nIn a 2002 interview with CNN, Meredith said of his efforts to integrate Ole Miss, \"I was engaged in a war. I considered myself engaged in a war from Day One. And my objective was to force the federal government—the Kennedy administration at that time—into a position where they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen.\"\n\nPersonal life\nOn March 14, 1956, Meredith married Mary June Wiggins. She later worked as a high school English teacher. They had three sons, James, John and Joseph Howard Meredith. Mary June Meredith died of heart failure in December 1979.\nIn 1982, Meredith married Judy Alsobrooks in Gary, Indiana. She had one son, Kip Naylor, from a previous marriage. Jessica Howard Meredith was born to the couple. The couple live in Jackson, Mississippi.\n\nWorks\nIn 1966, his memoir, Three Years in Mississippi, was published by the Indiana University Press.\nHe has self-published several books on politics and society.\n\nSee also\nList of African-American pioneers in desegregation of higher education\nList of civil rights leaders\nSchool integration in the United States\n\nReferences\nBibliography\nBranch, Taylor (1988). Parting the Waters : America in the King Years, 1954–63. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-68742-7.\nMeredith, James (1966). Three Years in Mississippi. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. \nMeredith, James (1995). Mississippi: A Volume of Eleven Books. Jackson, MS: Meredith Publishing.\n\nFurther reading\nBryant, Nick (Autumn 2006). \"Black Man Who Was Crazy Enough to Apply to Ole Miss\". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (53): 60–71. JSTOR 25073538.\nDoyle, William (2001). An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-49969-8.\nEagles, Charles W. (2009). The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0807895597.\nGoudsouzian, Aram (2014). Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. \nHollingsworth, Bradley S. (2020). \"About an Oath: The Mississippi National Guard at the Battle of Ole Miss\". US Army School for Advanced Military Studies.\nIrons, Jenny (2010). Reconstituting Whiteness: The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. Vanderbilt University Press.\nHendrickson, Paul (2003). Sons of Mississippi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40461-9. Contains revealing interviews with Meredith conducted by the author.\nKing, Desmond, and Robert C. Lieberman (2021).\"'The Latter-Day General Grant': Forceful Federal Power and Civil Rights\". Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics 6.3: 529–564.\nMcGee, Meredith Coleman (2013). James Meredith: Warrior and the America That Created Him. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0999322673. OCLC 844940027.\nSchlesinger, Arthur Jr. (2002) [1978]. Robert Kennedy and His Times. New York: First Mariner Books. ISBN 0-618-21928-5.\nStanton, Mary (2003). Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Bust. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-505-4.\nWatkins, James H. (Spring 2016). \"'Returning to Mississippi by Choice' Autobiographical Self-Location and the Performance of Black Masculinity in James Meredith's Three Years in Mississippi\". The Mississippi Quarterly 69.2: 253–276. JSTOR 26483824.\n\nExternal links\n\nUniversity of Mississippi biography (Archive)\nJames Meredith Collection (MUM00293), University of Mississippi, Archives and Special Collections.\nJames Meredith Small Manuscripts (MUM00594), University of Mississippi.]\n\"Mississippi and Meredith remember\", September 30, 2002, CNN\nAssociated Press: \"Meredith ready to move on\"\n\"On this day in History: 1 October 1962\", BBC\nFacsimiles of letters to the Justice Department and Thurgood Marshall, Kennedy Library\nJames Meredith's Letter to the Justice Department February 7, 1961, 02/07/1961 Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, National Archives\nJames Meredith's oral history video excerpts Archived January 9, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, The National Visionary Leadership Project\nAppearances on C-SPAN","title":"James_Meredith"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Gestational hypertension or pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) is the development of new hypertension in a pregnant woman after 20 weeks' gestation without the presence of protein in the urine or other signs of pre-eclampsia. Gestational hypertension is defined as having a blood pressure \ngreater than 140/90 on two occasions at least 6 hours apart.\n\nSigns and symptoms\nNo single diagnostic test currently exists to predict the likelihood of developing gestational hypertension. High blood pressure is the major sign in diagnosing gestational hypertension. Some women with gestational hypertension may present asymptomatic, but a number of symptoms are associated with the condition.\nSymptoms\n\nEdema\nSudden weight gain\nBlurred vision or sensitivity to light\nNausea and vomiting\nPersistent headaches\nIncreased blood pressure\n\nRisk factors\nMaternal causes\n\nObesity\nMothers under 20 or over 40 years old\nPast history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension (particularly gestational hypertension) and renal disease\nPre-existing hypertension\nThrombophilias (anti-phospholipid syndrome, protein C/S deficiency, factor V Leiden)\nHaving donated a kidney\nPregnancy\n\nMultiple gestation (twins or triplets, etc.)\nPlacental abnormalities:\nHyperplacentosis: Excessive exposure to chorionic villi\nPlacental ischemia\nFamily history\n\nFamily history of pre-eclampsia\n\nDiagnosis\nConditions\nThere exist several hypertensive states of pregnancy:\n\nGestational hypertension\nGestational hypertension is usually defined as having a blood pressure higher than 140/90 measured on two separate occasions, more than 6 hours apart, without the presence of protein in the urine and diagnosed after 20 weeks of gestation.\nPre-eclampsia\nPre-eclampsia is gestational hypertension plus proteinuria (>300 mg of protein in a 24-hour urine sample). Severe pre-eclampsia involves a blood pressure greater than 160/110, with additional medical signs and symptoms. HELLP syndrome is a type of pre-eclampsia. It is a combination of three medical conditions: hemolytic anemia, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count.\nEclampsia\nThis is when tonic-clonic seizures appear in a pregnant woman with high blood pressure and proteinuria.\nPre-eclampsia and eclampsia are sometimes treated as components of a common syndrome.\n\nTreatment\nThere is no specific treatment, but is monitored closely to rapidly identify pre-eclampsia and its life-threatening complications (HELLP syndrome and eclampsia).\nDrug treatment options are limited, as many antihypertensives may negatively affect the fetus. ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and direct renin inhibitors are contraindicated in pregnancy as they are teratogenic. Methyldopa, hydralazine, nifedipine, and labetalol are most commonly used for severe pregnancy hypertension.\nThe fetus is at increased risk for a variety of life-threatening conditions, including pulmonary hypoplasia (immature lungs). If the dangerous complications appear after the fetus has reached a point of viability, even though still immature, then an early delivery may be warranted to save the lives of both mother and baby. An appropriate plan for labor and delivery includes selection of a hospital with provisions for advanced life support of newborn babies.\nExercise during pregnancy can help prevent hypertension as it can improve not only health for the mother but also the child. Exercise can regulate the energy needs required during pregnancy while also decreasing inflammation. Regular exercise can also lower the increased stress levels associated with pregnancy.\n\nEvolutionary considerations\nHumans\nGestational hypertension is one of the most common disorders seen in human pregnancies. Though relatively benign on its own, in roughly half of the cases of gestational hypertension the disorder progresses into pre-eclampsia, a dangerous condition that can prove fatal to expectant mothers. However, gestational hypertension is a condition that is fairly rare to see in other animals. For years, it has been the belief of the scientific community that gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia were relatively unique to humans, although there has been some recent evidence that other primates can also develop similar conditions, albeit due to different underlying mechanisms. The underlying cause of gestational hypertension in humans is commonly believed to be an improperly implanted placenta. Humans have evolved to have a very invasive placenta to facilitate better oxygen transfer from the mother to the fetus, to support the growth of its large brain.\n\nOrigins of the placenta\nThe origins of gestational hypertension may lie with the development of humans' hemochorial placenta. A hemochorial placenta optimizes the amount of oxygen and nutrients that can be absorbed into the fetal blood supply, while at the same time ensuring rapid diffusion of wastes away from the fetus. This hemochorial placenta differs from lower primates' epitheliochorial placentae in the way that it allows the fetal tissues to interact directly with the mother's blood. The hemochorial placenta thereby promotes more rapid diffusion to and from the fetal blood supply. \nIn animals with epitheliochorial placentae such as horses and pigs, the greatest resistance to maternal blood flow in the vascular system was found within the placenta. However, in animals with hemochorial placental structures such as rodents and primates, the vascular resistance in the placenta was low, leading scientists to the conclusion that the greatest resistance to maternal blood flow is found elsewhere in the maternal vascular system. The high vascular resistance outside of the placenta leads to higher maternal blood pressure throughout the body.\nThe fetal cells that implant into the uterine wall are known as the trophoblast. The hemochorial placenta bathes the fetal trophoblast in maternal blood by forming lacunae, or lakes, of the mother's blood that surround fetal tissue. The lacunae are filled by the spiral arteries, which means that the mother's blood pressure is the driving force behind the introduction of new blood, which contains both oxygen and food for the fetus, to the system. It is thought that humans need the increased diffusion provided by the hemochorial placenta in order to grow the large brains compared to their body size that distinguish them from other primates.\n\nIncorrect placental implantation\nIt is thought that \"failings\" in normal hemochorial placental structure lead to pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension. The human placenta implants \"earlier, deeper, and more extensively\" into the uterine wall, which can potentially lead to many problems that are found in human pregnancies, but not as much in other animals. Miscarriage and pre-eclampsia are both very rare in other species, but are two of the most common pregnancy-related diseases in humans. The genetic roots of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia are certain, as women with a family history of the condition are three times more likely to develop it when they are pregnant.\nOne of the potential causes of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia is when the trophoblast does not invade far enough into the uterine lining. When the fetus's trophoblast does not fully extend into the uterine wall, the spiral arteries do not become fully converted into low-resistance channels. It has been found that this incomplete conversion of spiral arteries increases the resistance to uterine blood flow during pregnancy, and that this occurrence was associated with gestational hypertension. One potential cause of this incomplete breach of the spiral arteries that leads to gestational hypertension is a mistaken immune response by the maternal tissue, reaction to the alien fetal tissue. Therefore, it is clear that the complication of gestational hypertension has roots in the early implantation of the fetus in the uterine wall, an implantation technique that is unique to humans.\nThe highly invasive placenta that is found in humans is thought to be linked to humans' high circulating levels of the hormones CG and hCG. It has been shown that the higher the levels of these hormones, the deeper the trophoblast's invasion into the uterine wall. Instances of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia have been shown to occur when the invasion of the uterine wall is not deep enough, because of lower CG and hCG levels in the mother.\n\nEvolutionary tradeoff\nDespite these risks for gestational hypertension, the hemochorial placenta has been favored because of its advantages in the way that it aids in diffusion from mother to fetus later in pregnancy. The bipedal posture that has allowed humans to walk upright has also led to a reduced cardiac output, and it has been suggested that this is what necessitated humans' aggressive early placental structures. Increased maternal blood pressure can attempt to make up for lower cardiac output, ensuring that the fetus's growing brain receives enough oxygen and nutrients. The benefits of being able to walk upright and run on land have outweighed the disadvantages that come from bipedalism, including the placental diseases of pregnancy, such as gestational hypertension. Similarly, the advantages of having a large brain size have outweighed the deleterious effects of having a placenta that does not always convert the spiral arteries effectively, leaving humans vulnerable to contracting gestational hypertension. It is speculated that this was not the case with Neanderthals, and that they died out because their cranial capacity increased too much, and their placentae were not equipped to handle the fetal brain development, leading to widespread pre-eclampsia and maternal and fetal death.\nGestational hypertension in the early stages of pregnancy (trimester 1) has been shown to improve the health of the child both in its first year of life, and its later life. However, when the disease develops later in the pregnancy (subsequent trimesters), or turns into pre-eclampsia, there begin to be detrimental health effects for the fetus, including low birth-weight. It has been proposed that fetal genes designed to increase the mother's blood pressure are so beneficial that they outweigh the potential negative effects that can come from pre-eclampsia. It has also been suggested that gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia have remained active traits due to the cultural capacity of humans, and the tendency for midwives or helpers to aid in delivering babies.\n\nRelevance of evolutionary history\nIt is the goal of evolutionary medicine to find treatments for diseases that are informed by the evolutionary history of a disease. It has been suggested that gestational hypertension is linked to insulin resistance during pregnancy. Both the increase in blood sugar that can lead to gestational diabetes and the increase in blood pressure that can lead to gestational hypertension are mechanisms that mean to optimize the amount of nutrients that can be passed from maternal tissue to fetal tissue. It has been suggested that techniques used to combat insulin insensitivity might also prove beneficial to those with gestational hypertension. Measures to avoid insulin resistance include avoiding obesity before pregnancy, minimizing weight gain during pregnancy, eating foods with low glycemic indices, and exercising.\n\n\n== References ==","title":"Gestational_hypertension"},{"idx":3,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Labetalol is a medication used to treat high blood pressure and in long term management of angina. This includes essential hypertension, hypertensive emergencies, and hypertension of pregnancy. In essential hypertension it is generally less preferred than a number of other blood pressure medications. It can be given by mouth or by injection into a vein.\nCommon side effects include low blood pressure with standing, dizziness, feeling tired, and nausea. Serious side effects may include low blood pressure, liver problems, heart failure, and bronchospasm. Use appears safe in the latter part of pregnancy and it is not expected to cause problems during breastfeeding. It works by blocking the activation of β- and α-adrenergic receptors.\nLabetalol was patented in 1966 and came into medical use in 1977. It is available as a generic medication. In 2021, it was the 213th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 2 million prescriptions.\n\nMedical uses\nLabetalol is effective in the management of hypertensive emergencies, postoperative hypertension, pheochromocytoma-associated hypertension, and rebound hypertension from beta blocker withdrawal.\nIt has a particular indication in the treatment of pregnancy-induced hypertension which is commonly associated with pre-eclampsia.\nIt is also used as an alternative in the treatment of severe hypertension.\nLabetalol is useful in the treatment of acute cardiovascular toxicity (e.g. in overdose) caused by sympathomimetics like amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, ephedrine, and pseudoephedrine. Other beta blockers are also used. However, the controversial yet possible phenomenon of \"unopposed α-stimulation\" with administration of selective beta blockers to block non-selective sympathomimetics potentially makes dual alpha-1 and beta blockers like labetalol and carvedilol more favorable for such purposes. The rate of unopposed α-stimulation with selective beta blockers has been reported to be 0.4%, whereas no cases of unopposed α-stimulation have been reported with dual alpha and beta blockers like labetalol.\n\nSpecial populations\nPregnancy: studies in lab animals showed no harm to the baby. However, a comparable well-controlled study has not been performed in pregnant women.\nNursing: breast milk has been shown to contain small amounts of labetalol (0.004% original dose). Prescribers should be cautious in the use of labetalol for nursing mothers.\nPediatric: no studies have established safety or usefulness in this population.\nGeriatric: the elderly are more likely to experience dizziness when taking labetalol. Labetalol should be dosed with caution in the elderly and counseled on this side effect.\n\nSide effects\nCommon\nNeurologic: headache (2%), dizziness (11%)\nGastrointestinal: nausea (6%), dyspepsia (3%)\nCholinergic: nasal congestion (3%), ejaculation failure (2%)\nRespiratory: dyspnea (2%)\nOther: fatigue (5%), vertigo (2%), orthostatic hypotension\nLow blood pressure with standing is more severe and more common with IV formulation (58% vs 1%) and is often the reason larger doses of the oral formulation cannot be used.\n\nRare\nFever\nMuscle cramps\nDry eyes\nHeart block\nHyperkalemia\nHepatotoxicity\nDrug eruption similar to lichen planus\nHypersensitivity – which may result in a lethal respiratory distress\n\nContraindications\nLabetalol is contraindicated in people with overt cardiac failure, greater-than-first-degree heart block, severe bradycardia, cardiogenic shock, severe hypotension, anyone with a history of obstructive airway disease including asthma, and those with hypersensitivity to the drug.\n\nPharmacology\nMechanism of action\nLabetalol is a beta blocker, or an antagonist of the β-adrenergic receptors. It is specifically a non-selective antagonist of the β1- and β2-adrenergic receptors. Labetalol has intrinsic sympathomimetic activity. It is also an antagonist of the α1-adrenergic receptor, and hence is additionally an alpha blocker. The antagonism of the adrenergic receptors by labetalol is competitive against other catecholamines and its actions on the receptors are potent and reversible. Labetalol acts by blocking α- and β-adrenergic receptors, resulting in decreased peripheral vascular resistance without significant alteration of heart rate or cardiac output.\nLabetalol is about equipotent in blocking β1- and β2-adrenergic receptors. The amount of α to β blockade depends on whether labetalol is administered orally or intravenously (IV). Orally, the ratio of α to β blockade is 1:3. Intravenously, α to β blockade ratio is 1:7. Thus, the labetalol can be thought to be a beta blocker with some α-blocking effects. By comparison, labetalol is a weaker β-adrenergic receptor blocker than propranolol, and has a weaker affinity for α-adrenergic receptors compared to phentolamine.\nLabetalol's dual α- and β-adrenergic antagonism has different physiological effects in short- and long-term situations. In short-term, acute situations, labetalol decreases blood pressure by decreasing systemic vascular resistance with little effect on stroke volume, heart rate and cardiac output. During long-term use, labetalol can reduce heart rate during exercise while maintaining cardiac output by an increase in stroke volume.\nLabetalol possesses significant intrinsic sympathomimetic activity (ISA). In particular, it is a partial agonist at β2-adrenergic receptors located in the vascular smooth muscle. Labetalol relaxes vascular smooth muscle by a combination of this partial β2-adrenergic receptor agonism and through α1-adrenergic receptor blockade. Overall, this vasodilatory effect can decrease blood pressure. It was originally reported to lack ISA, but a slight degree of activity was subsequently characterized.\nSimilar to local anesthetics and sodium channel blocking antiarrhythmics, labetalol also has membrane stabilizing activity. By decreasing sodium entry, labetalol decreases action potential firing and thus has local anesthetic activity.\n\nPhysiological action\nThe physiological effects of labetalol when administered acutely (intravenously) are not predictable solely by their receptor blocking effect, i.e. blocking β1-adrenergic receptors should decrease heart rate, but labetalol does not. When labetalol is given in acute situations, it decreases the peripheral vascular resistance and systemic blood pressure while having little effect on the heart rate, cardiac output and stroke volume, despite its α1-, β1- and β2-adrenergic receptor blocking mechanism. These effects are mainly seen when the person is in the upright position.\nLong term labetalol use also has different effects from other beta blockers. Other beta blockers, such as propranolol, persistently reduce cardiac output during exercise. The peripheral vascular resistance decreases when labetalol is first administered. Continuous labetalol use further decreases peripheral vascular resistance. However, during exercise, cardiac output remains the same due to a compensatory mechanism that increases stroke volume. Thus, labetalol is able to reduce heart rate during exercise while maintaining cardiac output by the increase in stroke volume.\n\nPharmacokinetics\nDistribution\nLabetalol is often classified as a beta blocker with low lipophilicity and hence lower potential for crossing the blood–brain barrier and blood–placenta barrier. This in turn may result in fewer effects in the central nervous system as well as a lower risk of neuropsychiatric side effects. Paradoxically however, labetalol actually shows high lipophilicity. In any case, labetalol, in animals including rats, rabbits, and dogs, was found to cross into the brain in negligible amounts, probably for reasons other than low lipophilicity. On the other hand, the drug has been shown to cross the blood–placenta barrier in humans.\n\nChemistry\nThe minimum requirement for adrenergic agents is a primary or secondary amine separated from a substituted benzene ring by one or two carbons. This configuration results in strong agonist activity. As the size of the substituent attached to the amine becomes greater, particularly with respect to a t-butyl group, then the molecule typically is found to have receptor affinity without intrinsic activity, and is, therefore, an antagonist. Labetalol, with its 1-methyl-3-phenylpropyl substituted amine, is greater in size relative to a t-butyl group and therefore acts predominantly as an antagonist. The overall structure of labetalol is very polar. This was created by substituting the isopropyl group in the standard beta blocker structure with an aralkyl group, including a carboxamide group on the meta position, and by adding a hydroxyl group on the para position.\nLabetalol has two chiral carbons and consequently exists as four stereoisomers. Two of these isomers, the (S,S)- and (R,S)- forms are inactive. The third, the (S,R)-isomer, is a powerful α1-adrenergic receptor blocker. The fourth isomer, the (R,R)-isomer which is also known as dilevalol, is a mixed non-selective β-adrenergic receptor blocker and selective α1 blocker. Labetalol is typically given as a racemic mixture to achieve both α- and β-adrenergic receptor blocking activity.\n\nIt is chemically designated in International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) nomenclature as 2-hydroxy-5-[1-hydroxy-2-[(1-methyl-3-phenylpropyl)amino]ethyl]benzamide monohydrochloride.\nThe experimental log P of labetalol is 2.7 to 3.1 and its predicted log P ranges from 1.73 to 3.1. Hence, it has relatively high lipophilicity.\n\nHistory\nLabetalol was the first drug created that combined both α- and β-adrenergic receptor blocking properties. It was created to potentially fix the compensatory reflex issue that occurred when blocking a single receptor subtype, i.e. vasoconstriction after blocking β-adrenergic receptors or tachycardia after blocking α-adrenergic receptors. Because the reflex from blocking the single receptor subtypes acted to prevent the lowering of blood pressure, it was postulated that weak blocking of both α- and β-adrenergic receptors could work together to decrease blood pressure.\n\n\n== References ==","title":"Labetalol"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university in Oxford, Mississippi, with a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and is the state's largest by enrollment.\\nThe Mississippi Legislature chartered the university on February 24, 1848, and it admitted its first 80 students. During the Civil War, the university operated as a Confederate hospital and narrowly avoided destruction by Ulysses S. Grant's forces. In 1962, during the civil rights movement, a race riot occurred on campus when segregationists tried to prevent the enrollment of African American student James Meredith. The university has since taken measures to improve its image. The university is closely associated with writer William Faulkner and owns and manages his former Oxford home Rowan Oak, which with other on-campus sites Barnard Observatory and Lyceum–The Circle Historic District, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.\\nOle Miss is classified as \\\"R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity\\\". It is one of 33 institutions participating in the National Sea Grant Program and also participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Its research efforts include the National Center for Physics Acoustics, the National Center for Natural Products Research, and the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research. The university operates the country's only federally contracted Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved cannabis facility. It also operates interdisciplinary institutes such as the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Its athletic teams compete as the Ole Miss Rebels in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I Southeastern Conference.\\nThe university's alumni, faculty, and affiliates include 27 Rhodes Scholars, 10 governors, 5 US senators, a head of government, and a Nobel Prize Laureate. Other alumni have received accolades in the arts such as Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Pulitzer Prizes. Its medical center performed the first human lung transplant and animal-to-human heart transplant.\\n\\nHistory\\nFounding and early history\\nThe Mississippi Legislature chartered the University of Mississippi on February 24, 1848. Planners selected an isolated, rural site in Oxford as a \\\"sylvan exile\\\" that would foster academic studies and focus. In 1845, residents of Lafayette County donated land west of Oxford for the campus and the following year, architect William Nichols oversaw construction of an academic building called the Lyceum, two dormitories, and faculty residences. On November 6, 1848, the university, offering a classical curriculum, opened to its first class of 80 students, most of whom were children of elite slaveholders, all of whom were white, and all but one of whom were from Mississippi. For 23 years, the university was Mississippi's only public institution of higher learning and for 110 years, its only comprehensive university. In 1854, the University of Mississippi School of Law was established, becoming the fourth state-supported law school in the United States.\\nEarly president Frederick A. P. Barnard sought to increase the university's stature, placing him in conflict with the more-conservative board of trustees. The only result of Barnard's hundred-page 1858 report to the board was the university head's title being changed to \\\"chancellor\\\". Barnard was a Massachusetts-born graduate of Yale University; his northern background and Union sympathies made his position contentious—a student assaulted his slave and the state legislature investigated him. Following the election of US President Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Mississippi became the second state to secede; the university's mathematics professor Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar drafted the articles of secession. Students organized into a military company called the \\\"University Greys\\\", which became Company A, 11th Mississippi Infantry Regiment in the Confederate States Army. Within a month of the Civil War's outbreak, only five students remained at the university, and by late 1861, it was closed. In its final action, the board of trustees awarded Barnard a doctorate of divinity.\\nWithin six months, the campus had been converted into a Confederate hospital; the Lyceum was used as the hospital and a building that had stood on the modern-day site of Farley Hall operated as its morgue. In November 1862, the campus was evacuated as General Ulysses S. Grant's Union forces approached. Although Kansan troops destroyed much of the medical equipment, a lone remaining professor persuaded Grant against burning the campus. Grant's forces left after three weeks and the campus returned to being a Confederate hospital. Over the war's course, more than 700 soldiers were buried on campus.\\n\\nPost-war\\nThe University of Mississippi reopened in October 1865. To avoid rejecting veterans, the university lowered admission standards and decreased costs by eliminating tuition and allowing students to live off-campus. The student body remained entirely white: in 1870 the chancellor declared that he and the entire faculty would resign rather than admit \\\"negro\\\" students. In 1882, the university began admitting women but they were not permitted to live on campus or attend law school. In 1885, the University of Mississippi hired Sarah McGehee Isom, becoming the first southeastern US college to hire a female faculty member. Nearly 100 years later, in 1981, the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies was established in her honor.\\nThe university's byname \\\"Ole Miss\\\" was first used in 1897, when it won a contest of suggestions for a yearbook title. The term originated as a title domestic slaves used to distinguish the mistress of a plantation from \\\"young misses\\\". Fringe origin theories include it coming from a diminutive of \\\"Old Mississippi\\\", or from the name of the \\\"Ole Miss\\\" train that ran from Memphis to New Orleans. Within two years, students and alumni were using \\\"Ole Miss\\\" to refer to the university.\\nBetween 1900 and 1930, the Mississippi Legislature introduced bills aiming to relocate, close, or merge the university with Mississippi State University. All such legislation failed. During the 1930s, the governor of Mississippi Theodore G. Bilbo was politically hostile toward the University of Mississippi, firing administrators and faculty, and replacing them with his friends in the \\\"Bilbo purge\\\". Bilbo's actions severely damaged the university's reputation, leading to the temporary loss of its accreditation. Consequently, in 1944, the Constitution of Mississippi was amended to protect the university's board of trustees from political pressure. During World War II, the University of Mississippi was one of 131 colleges and universities that participated in the national V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a Navy commission.\\n\\nIntegration\\nIn 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Eight years after the Brown decision, all attempts by African American applicants to enroll had failed. Shortly after the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, James Meredith—an African American Air Force veteran and former student at Jackson State University—applied to the University of Mississippi. After months of obstruction by Mississippi officials, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Meredith's enrollment, and the Department of Justice under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy entered the case on Meredith's behalf. On three occasions, either governor Ross R. Barnett or lieutenant governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. physically blocked Meredith's entry to the campus.\\nThe United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held both Barnett and Johnson Jr. in contempt, and issued fines exceeding $10,000 for each day they refused to enroll Meredith. On September 30, 1962, President Kennedy dispatched 127 U.S. Marshals, 316 deputized U.S. Border Patrol agents, and 97 federalized Federal Bureau of Prisons personnel to escort Meredith. After nightfall, far-right former Major General Edwin Walker and outside agitators arrived, and a gathering of segregationist students before the Lyceum became a violent mob. Segregationist rioters threw Molotov cocktails and bottles of acid, and fired guns at federal marshals and reporters. 160 marshals would be injured, with 28 receiving gunshot wounds, and two civilians—French journalist Paul Guihard and Oxford repairman Ray Gunter—were killed by gunfire. Eventually, 13,000 soldiers arrived in Oxford and quashed the riot. One-third of the federal officers—166 men—were injured, as were 40 federal soldiers and National Guardsmen. More than 30,000 personnel were deployed, alerted, and committed in Oxford—the most in American history for a single disturbance.\\nMeredith enrolled and attended a class on October 1. By 1968, Ole Miss had around 100 African American students, and by the 2019–2020 academic year, African Americans constituted 12.5 percent of the student body.\\n\\nRecent history\\nIn 1972, Ole Miss purchased Rowan Oak, the former home of Nobel Prize–winning writer William Faulkner. The building has been preserved as it was at Faulkner's death in 1962. Faulkner was the university's postmaster in the early 1920s and wrote As I Lay Dying (1930) at the university powerhouse. His Nobel Prize medallion is displayed in the university library. The university hosted the inaugural Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in 1974. In 1980, Willie Morris became the university's first writer in residence.\\nIn 2002, Ole Miss marked the 40th anniversary of integration with a yearlong series of events, including an oral history of the university, symposiums, a memorial, and a reunion of federal marshals who served at the campus. In 2006, the 44th anniversary of integration, a statue of Meredith was dedicated on campus. Two years later, the site of the 1962 riots was designated as a National Historic Landmark. The university also held a yearlong program to mark the 50th anniversary of integration in 2012. The university hosted the first presidential debate of 2008—the first presidential debate held in Mississippi—between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.\\nOle Miss retired its mascot Colonel Reb in 2003, citing its Confederate imagery. Although a grass-roots movement to adopt Star Wars character Admiral Ackbar of the Rebel Alliance gained significant support, Rebel Black Bear, a reference to Faulkner's short story The Bear, was selected in 2010. The Bear was replaced with another mascot, Tony the Landshark, in 2017. Beginning in 2022, football coach Lane Kiffin's dog Juice became the de facto mascot. In 2015, the university removed the Mississippi State Flag, which included the Confederate battle emblem, and in 2020, it relocated a prominent Confederate monument.\\n\\nCampus\\nOxford campus\\nThe University of Mississippi's Oxford campus is partially located in Oxford and partially in University, Mississippi, a census-designated place. The main campus is situated at an altitude of around 500 feet (150 m), and has expanded from one square mile (260 ha) of land to around 1,200 acres (1.9 sq mi; 490 ha). The campus' buildings are largely designed in a Georgian architectural style; some of the newer buildings have a more contemporary architecture.\\n\\nAt the campus' center is \\\"The Circle\\\", which consists of eight academic buildings organized around an ovaloid common. The buildings include the Lyceum (1848), the \\\"Y\\\" Building (1853), and six later buildings constructed in a Neoclassical Revival style. The Lyceum was the first building on the campus and was expanded with two wings in 1903. According to the university, the Lyceum's bell is the oldest academic bell in the United States. Near the Circle is The Grove, a 10-acre (4.0 ha) plot of land that was set aside by chancellor Robert Burwell Fulton c. 1893, and hosts up to 100,000 tailgaters during home games. Barnard Observatory, which was constructed under Chancellor Barnard in 1859, was designed to house the world's largest telescope. Due to the Civil War's outbreak, however, the telescope was never delivered and was instead acquired by Northwestern University. The observatory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The first major building built after the Civil War was Ventress Hall, which was constructed in a Victorian Romanesque style in 1889.\\nFrom 1929 to 1930, architect Frank P. Gates designed 18 buildings on campus, mostly in Georgian Revival architectural style, including (Old) University High School, Barr Hall, Bondurant Hall, Farley Hall (also known as Lamar Hall), Faulkner Hall, and Wesley Knight Field House. During the 1930s, the many building projects at the campus were largely funded by the Public Works Administration and other federal entities. Among the notable buildings built in this period is the dual-domed Kennon Observatory (1939).\\nTwo large modern buildings—the Ole Miss Union (1976) and Lamar Hall (1977)—caused controversy by diverging from the university's traditional architecture. In 1998, the Gertrude C. Ford Foundation donated $20 million to establish the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts, which was the first building on campus to be solely dedicated to the performing arts. As of 2020, the university was constructing a 202,000-square-foot (18,800 m2) STEM facility, the largest single construction project in the campus' history. The university owns and operates the University of Mississippi Museum, which comprises collections of American fine art, Classical antiquities, and Southern folk art, as well as historic properties in Oxford. Ole Miss also owns University-Oxford Airport, which is located north of the main campus.\\nNorth Mississippi Japanese Supplementary School, a Japanese weekend school, is operated in conjunction with Ole Miss, with classes held on campus. It opened in 2008 and was jointly established by several Japanese companies and the university. Many children have parents who are employees at Toyota facilities in Blue Springs.\\n\\n\\tCampus of the University of Mississippi\\n\\nSatellite campuses\\nIn 1903, the University of Mississippi School of Medicine was established on the Oxford campus. It offered only two years of medical courses; students had to attend an out-of-state medical school to complete their degrees. This form of medical education continued until 1955, when the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) was established on a 164-acre (66 ha) site in Jackson, Mississippi, and the School of Medicine was relocated there. A nursing school was established in 1956 and since then, other health-related schools have been added. As of 2021, UMMC offers medical and graduate degrees. In addition to the medical center, the university has satellite campuses in Booneville, DeSoto, Grenada, Rankin, and Tupelo.\\n\\nAdministration and organization\\nDivisions of the university\\nThe University of Mississippi consists of 15 schools. The largest undergraduate school is the College of Liberal Arts. Graduate schools include a law school, a school of business administration, an engineering school, and a medical school.\\n\\nAdministration\\nThe University of Mississippi's chief administrative officer is the chancellor, a position Glenn Boyce has held since 2019. The chancellor is supported by vice-chancellors who administer areas such as research and intercollegiate athletics. The provost oversees the university's academic affairs, and a dean oversees each school, as well as general studies and the honors college. A faculty senate advises the administration.\\nThe board of trustees of the Mississippi State Institutions of Higher Learning is the constitutional governing body that is responsible for policy and financial oversight of the University of Mississippi and the state's other seven public secondary institutions. the board consists of 12 members, who serve staggered nine-year terms and represent the state's three Supreme Court Districts. The board appoints the commissioner of higher education, who administers its policies.\\n\\nFinances\\nAs of April 2021, the University of Mississippi's endowment was $775 million. The university's budget for fiscal year 2019 was over $540 million. Less than 13% of operating revenues are funded by the state of Mississippi, and the university relies heavily on private donations. The Ford Foundation has donated nearly $65 million to the Oxford campus and UMMC.\\n\\nAcademics and programs\\nThe University of Mississippi is the state's largest university by enrollment and is considered the state's flagship university. In 2015, the student-faculty ratio was 19:1. Of its classes, 47.4 percent have fewer than 20 students. The most popular subjects include marketing, education and teaching, accountancy, finance, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration. To receive a bachelor's degree, students must have at least 120 semester hours with passing grades and a cumulative 2.0 GPA.\\nThe university also offers graduate degrees such as PhDs and masters of art, science, and fine arts. The university maintains the Mississippi Teacher Corps, a free graduate program that educates teachers for critical-needs public schools.\\nTaylor Medals, which were first awarded in 1905, are presented to exceptional students nominated by the faculty. The medals are named in honor of Marcus Elvis Taylor, who graduated in 1871 and are given to less than one percent of each class.\\n\\nResearch\\nOle Miss is classified among \\\"R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity\\\". According to the National Science Foundation, the university spent $137 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 142nd in the nation. It is one of the 33 colleges and universities participating in the National Sea Grant Program and participates in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program. Since 1948, the university has been a member of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities.\\nIn 1963, University of Mississippi Medical Center surgeons, led by James Hardy, performed the world's first human lung transplant, and in 1964 the world's first animal-to-human heart transplant. Because Hardy researched transplantation, consisting of primate studies during the previous nine years, the heart of a chimpanzee was used for the transplant.\\nIn 1965, the university established its Medicinal Plant Garden, which the School of Pharmacy uses for drug research. Since 1968, the school has operated the only legal marijuana farm and production facility in the United States. The National Institute on Drug Abuse contracts to the university production of cannabis for use in approved research studies and for distribution to the seven surviving medical marijuana patients grandfathered into the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program. The facility is the only source of marijuana medical researchers can use to conduct Food and Drug Administration-approved tests.\\nThe National Center for Physics Acoustics (NCPA), which Congress established in 1986, is located on campus. In addition to conducting research, the NCPA houses the Acoustical Society of America's archives. The university also operates the University of Mississippi Field Station, which includes 223 research ponds and supports long-term ecological research, and hosts the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research and the Mississippi Law Research Institute. In 2012, the university completed Insight Park, a research park that \\\"welcomes companies commercializing University of Mississippi research\\\".\\n\\nSpecial programs\\nHonors education at the University of Mississippi, consisting of lectures by distinguished academics, began in 1953. In 1974, this program became the University Scholars Program, and in 1983, the University Honors Program was created and honors-core courses were offered. In 1997, Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale and wife Sally donated $5.4 million to establish the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College (SMBHC), which provides a capstone project—a senior thesis—and endowed scholarships.\\nIn 1977, the university established its Center for the Study of Southern Culture with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which is housed in the College of Liberal Arts. The center provides for interdisciplinary studies of Southern history and culture. In 2000, the university established the Trent Lott Leadership Institute, which is named after alumnus and then-US Senate majority leader Trent Lott. The institute was funded with large corporate donations from MCI Inc., Lockheed Martin, and other companies. In addition to leadership initiatives, the institute offers a BA degree in Public Policy Leadership.\\nThe Center for Intelligence and Security Studies (CISS) delivers academic programming on intelligence analysis and engages in applied research and consortium building with government, private, and academic partners. In 2012, the United States Director of National Intelligence designated CISS as an Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence (CAE), becoming one of 29 such college programs in the United States. Other special programs include the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence—established jointly by the university and Toyota in 2008—and the Chinese Language Flagship Program (simplified Chinese: 中文旗舰项目; traditional Chinese: 中文旗艦項目; pinyin: Zhōngwén Qíjiàn Xiàngmù). The Croft Institute for International Studies, which was founded in 1998, provides the only international studies undergraduate program in Mississippi.\\nThe University of Mississippi is a member of the SEC Academic Consortium, which has since been renamed SECU. The collaborative initiative was designed to promote research, scholarship, and achievement among the member universities in the Southeastern Conference. In 2013, the university participated in the SEC Symposium on renewable energy in Atlanta, Georgia, which was organized and led by the University of Georgia and the UGA Bioenergy Systems Research Institute.\\nIn 2021, actor Morgan Freeman and Professor Linda Keena donated $1 million to the University of Mississippi to create the Center for Evidence-Based Policing and Reform, which will provide law-enforcement training and seek to improve engagement between law enforcement and communities.\\n\\nRankings and accolades\\nIn U.S. News & World Report's 2023 rankings, the University of Mississippi was tied for 163rd place among national universities and 88th among public universities. In 2023, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the professional MBA program at the School of Business Administration #72 nationally, and the online MBA program in the top 25. As of 2018, all three degree programs at the Patterson School of Accountancy were among the top 10 accounting programs according to the Public Accounting Report.\\nSince 2012, the Chronicle of Higher Education has named the University of Mississippi as one of the \\\"Great Colleges to Work For\\\". In the 2018 results, released in the Chronicle's annual report on \\\"The Academic Workplace\\\", the university was among 84 institutions honored from the 253 colleges and universities surveyed. In 2018, the university's campus was ranked the second-safest in the SEC and one of the safest in the U.S.\\nAs of 2019, the university has had 27 Rhodes Scholars. Since 1998, it has 10 Goldwater Scholars, seven Truman Scholars, 18 Fulbright Scholars, one Marshall Scholar, three Udall Scholars, two Gates Cambridge Scholars, one Mitchell Scholar, 19 Boren Scholars, one Boren fellow, and one German Chancellor Fellowship.\\n\\nPeople\\nStudent body\\nAs of the 2023–2024 academic year, the student body consists of 18,533 undergraduates and 2,264 in graduate programs. Around 57 percent of the undergraduate student body were female. As of Fall 2023, minorities composed 23.5 percent of the body. The median family income of students is $116,600, and over half of students come from the top 20 percent. According to The New York Times, the University of Mississippi has the seventh-highest share of students from the economic top-one percent among selective public schools. The median starting salary of a graduate is $47,700, according to US News.\\nAlthough 54 percent of undergraduates are from Mississippi, the student body is geographically diverse. As of late 2020, the university's undergraduates represented all 82 counties in Mississippi, 49 states, the District of Columbia, and 86 countries. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student success and satisfaction, is 85.7 percent. In 2020, the student body included over 1,100 transfer students.\\n\\nFaculty\\nAs of the 2020–2021 academic year, there were—excluding those of UMMC—1,092 professors, of whom 424 were tenured. At this time, there were 592 male and 500 female professors.\\nWith the early emphasis on classical studies, multiple notable classicists including George Tucker Stainback, Wilson Gaines Richardson, and William Hailey Willis, have held teaching positions at the University of Mississippi. Archeologist David Moore Robinson, who is credited with discovering the ancient city Olynthus, also taught classics at the university. Former Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove was a political science lecturer, and Kyle Duncan was an assistant law professor prior to his appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Landon Garland taught astronomy and philosophy before becoming the first president of Vanderbilt University. Actor James Best, who is best known for his work on The Dukes of Hazzard, was an artist in residence. Robert Q. Marston, director of the National Institutes of Health, served as the dean of the medical school, and Eugene W. Hilgard, considered the father of soil science, taught chemistry at Ole Miss. Other notable scientific faculty include psychologist David H. Barlow and physicist Mack A. Breazeale.\\n\\nNotable alumni\\nIn addition to William Faulkner, notable writers who attended the University of Mississippi include Florence Mars, Patrick D. Smith, Stark Young, and John Grisham. Alumni in film include Emmy Award-winning actor Gerald McRaney and Tate Taylor, director of The Help. Musicians who studied at the university include Mose Allison and Grammy Award-winner Glen Ballard. Athlete graduates include 12-time Grand Slam tennis champion Mahesh Bhupathi, NFL quarterbacks Archie Manning and Eli Manning, New York Yankees catcher Jake Gibbs, and Michael Oher, NFL offensive lineman and subject of the film The Blind Side. Additionally, three Miss Americas and one Miss USA are among the alumni.\\nThe University of Mississippi's alumni include five US senators and ten governors. Other public servant graduates include Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justices Sydney M. Smith and Bill Waller Jr., US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes, and Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit. Notable academics include Pomona College president E. Wilson Lyon, Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard professor Thomas K. McCraw, and Mercer University president James Bruton Gambrell. Notable physicians include Arthur Guyton, American Medical Association head Edward Hill, and Thomas F. Frist Sr., co-founder of Hospital Corporation of America. Alumnus William Parsons served as director of NASA's Stennis Space Center and later that of Kennedy Space Center.\\n\\nAthletics\\nThe University of Mississippi's athletic teams participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Southeastern Conference (SEC), Division I as the Ole Miss Rebels. Women's varsity athletic teams at the University of Mississippi include basketball, cross country, golf, rifle, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. Men's varsity teams are baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, tennis, and track and field.\\nIn 1893, professor Alexander Bondurant organized the university's football team. As collegiate athletic teams began to receive names, a contest result selected the name \\\"Mississippi Flood\\\" in 1929. Due to the lasting harm of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, however, the name was changed to the \\\"Rebels\\\" in 1936. The first prime-time telecast of college football was of a 1969 Ole Miss game. The team has won six SEC championships. Major rivals include Louisiana State University and Mississippi State University, which Ole Miss plays against in the Magnolia Bowl and Egg Bowl, respectively. Other rivalries include Tulane and Vanderbilt. Football alumni Archie and Eli Manning, both quarterbacks, are honored on campus with speed limits set to 18 and 10 mph; their respective jersey numbers.\\n\\nOutside football, Ole Miss baseball has won seven overall SEC championships and three SEC Tournaments. They have played in the Men's College World Series six times, and won the 2022 series. The men's tennis team has won five overall SEC championships and has had one NCAA Singles Champion—Devin Britton. The women's basketball team has won one overall SEC championship. Notable former players include Armintie Price, who holds the SEC record for steals in a game and was the third pick in the 2007 WNBA draft, and Jennifer Gillom, 1986 SEC Female Athlete of the Year and 1988 Olympic Gold Medalist. Men's basketball has won two SEC Tournaments. In 2021, Ole Miss women's golf won its first NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship.\\n\\nStudent life\\nTraditions\\nA common greeting on campus is \\\"Hotty Toddy!\\\", which is also used in the school chant. The phrase has no explicit meaning and its origin is unknown. The chant was first published in 1926, but \\\"Hotty Toddy\\\" was spelled \\\"Heighty Tighty\\\"; this early spelling has led some to suggest it originated with Virginia Tech's regimental band, The Heighty Tighties. Other proposed origins are \\\"hoity-toity\\\", meaning snobbish, and the alcoholic drink hot toddy.\\nOn football game days, the Grove, a 10-acre (4.0 ha) plot of trees, hosts an elaborate tailgating tradition; according to The New York Times, \\\"Perhaps there isn't a word for the ritualized pregame revelry ... 'Tailgating' certainly does not do it justice\\\". The tradition began in 1991 when cars were banned from the Grove. Prior to each game, over 2,000 red-and-blue trash cans are placed throughout the Grove. This event is known as \\\"Trash Can Friday\\\". Each barrel marks a tailgating spot. The spots are claimed by tailgaters, who erect a \\\"tent city\\\" of 2,500 shelters. Many of the tents are extravagant, feature chandeliers and fine china, and typically host meals of Southern cuisine. To accommodate the crowds, the university maintains elaborate portable bathrooms on 18-wheeler platforms known as \\\"Hotty Toddy Potties\\\".\\n\\nStudent organizations\\nThe University of Mississippi's first sanctioned student organizations, literary societies the Hermaean Society and the Phi Sigma Society, were established in 1849. Weekly meetings, of which attendance was mandatory, were held in the Lyceum until 1853 and then in the chapel. With the university's emphasis on rhetoric, student-organized public orations on the first Monday of every month were popular. Studies were sometimes canceled so students could attend speeches of visiting politicians such as Jefferson Davis and William L. Sharkey.\\nIn the 1890s, extracurricular and nonintellectual activities proliferated on campus, and interest in oratory and the now-voluntary literary societies diminished. Turn-of-the-20th-century student organizations included Cotillion Club, the elite Stag Club, and German Club. In the 1890s, the local YMCA began publishing a list of the organizations in the M-Book. As of 2021, the handbook was still provided to students.\\nThe Associated Student Body (ASB), which was established in 1917, is the university's student government organization. Students are elected to the ASB Senate in the spring semester and leftover seats are voted on in open-seat elections in the fall. Senators can represent registered student organizations such as the Greek councils and sports clubs, or they can run to represent their academic school. The University of Mississippi's marching band The Pride of the South performs in-concert and at athletic events. The band was formally organized in 1928, but it existed before that date as a smaller organization led by a student director. A Phi Beta Kappa chapter was established in 2001.\\n\\nAmenities\\nApproximately 5,300 students live on campus in thirteen residence halls, two residential colleges, and two apartment complexes. Students are required to live on-campus during their first year. Within residence halls, students designated as community assistants provide information and resolve issues. In the early 20th century, the university provided cottages for married students. In 1947, Vet Village was constructed to room the surge in World War II veteran applicants.\\nThe University of Mississippi provides Oxford University Transit, a shuttle system that is free of charge for students, faculty, and staff. In early 2020, Starship Technologies introduced an automated food delivery consisting of a fleet of 30 robots on campus; it was the first such system of any SEC school.\\nOn-campus dining services Catering at UM and the Rebel Market are the only Certified Green restaurants in the state of Mississippi. In 2019, the university opened a 98,000-square-foot (9,100 m2) recreation center containing a gym, indoor climbing wall, basketball courts, and other services.\\n\\nGreek life\\nGreek life at the University of Mississippi comprises 33 organizations and around 8,700 affiliated students. Greek societies at the University of Mississippi are housed along Fraternity Row and Sorority Row, which were constructed in the 1930s with federal funds.\\nThe Rainbow Fraternity, which was founded at the University of Mississippi in 1848, was the first fraternity to be founded in the South. Other early fraternities established at the university include Delta Kappa Epsilon (1850), Delta Kappa (1853), Delta Psi (1854), and Epsilon Alpha (1855). By 1900, a majority of University of Mississippi students were members of a fraternity or a sorority. Non-member students felt excluded on campus and tensions between members and non-members escalated. The University Magazine denounced the Greek societies as \\\"the most vicious institution that has grown up in any college\\\". In 1902, Lee Russell, a poor student who was rejected by the fraternities, appeared before the board of trustees to criticize the Greek societies. In response, the board threatened to abolish Greek life if non-member students continued to be ostracized. In 1903, rumors Greek-life members and non-member students were preparing to \\\"meet in combat\\\" appeared. Multiple state-legislative investigations were held to address the issue. All Greek life at the university was suspended from 1912 to 1926 due to statewide anti-fraternity legislation.\\nAs part of a larger crackdown on embarrassing fraternity incidents, Chancellor Gerald Turner ended the traditional Shrimp and Beer Festival in 1984. In 1988, Phi Beta Sigma, a black fraternity, was preparing to move into a house on the all-white Fraternity Row when arsonists burned their house. An alumnus helped purchase another house and Fraternity Row was integrated two months later. In a 1989 incident, fraternity members dropped naked students painted with racist slurs at the historically black Rust College. In 2014, three fraternity members placed a noose and a Confederate symbol on the Meredith statue, and in 2019, fraternity members posed with guns in front of an Emmett Till historical marker.\\n\\nMedia\\nThe first student publication at the University of Mississippi was The University Magazine, which was founded in 1856 and published by the literary societies. The rivalry between the University of Mississippi and Mississippi State originated from an 1895 condemnation by The University Magazine of a Mississippi State publication which had written that the University of Mississippi \\\"lacked dignity\\\". The first student newspaper The University Record began publication in 1898; it and the Magazine suffered financially and were suspended in 1902.\\nIn 1907, the YMCA and student athletic organization revived the university's newspaper as the Varsity Voice. In 1911, this newspaper was superseded by another student-published newspaper, The Daily Mississippian. The paper is editorially independent and is the only daily college newspaper in the state. The paper is also published online as TheDMonline.com, with supplementary content.\\nNewsWatch, which was established in 1980, is a student-produced, live newscast and the only local newscast in Lafayette County. The University of Mississippi owns and operates WUMS 92.1 Rebel Radio, which began broadcasting in 1989; it is one of a few university-operated commercial FM radio stations in the United States.\\n\\nNotes and references\\nNotes\\nCitations\\nWorks cited\\nExternal links\\n\\nOfficial website\",\n \"title\": \"University_of_Mississippi\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"James Howard Meredith (born June 25, 1933) is an American civil rights activist, writer, political adviser, and United States Air Force veteran who became, in 1962, the first African-American student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi after the intervention of the federal government (an event that was a flashpoint in the civil rights movement). Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, Meredith decided to exercise his constitutional rights and apply to the University of Mississippi. His goal was to put pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights for African Americans. The admission of Meredith ignited the Ole Miss riot of 1962 where Meredith's life was threatened and 31,000 American servicemen were required to quell the violence – the largest ever invocation of the Insurrection Act of 1807.\\nIn 1966, Meredith planned a solo 220-mile (350-kilometer) March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi; he wanted to highlight continuing racism in the South and encourage voter registration after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He did not want major civil rights organizations involved. The second day, he was shot by a white gunman and suffered numerous wounds. Leaders of major organizations vowed to complete the march in his name after he was taken to the hospital. While Meredith was recovering, more people from across the country became involved as marchers. He rejoined the march and when Meredith and other leaders entered Jackson on June 26, they were leading an estimated 15,000 marchers, in what was the largest civil rights march in Mississippi. During the march, more than 4,000 African Americans registered to vote, and it was a catalyst to continued community organizing and additional registration.\\nIn 2002 and again in 2012, the University of Mississippi led year-long series of events to celebrate the 40th and 50th anniversaries of Meredith's integration of the institution. He was among numerous speakers invited to the campus, where a statue of him commemorates his role. The Lyceum-The Circle Historic District at the center of the campus has been designated as a National Historic Landmark for these events.\\n\\nEarly life and education\\nMeredith was born in 1933 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the son of Roxie (Patterson) and Moses Meredith. He is of African-American, English Canadian, Scots and Choctaw heritage. His family nickname was \\\"J-Boy\\\". European traders intermarried with some Choctaw during the colonial period. In the 1830s, thousands of Choctaw chose to stay in Mississippi and become United States citizens when most of the tribe left their traditional homeland for Indian Territory during the federally imposed removal. Those in the state had unions with European Americans and African Americans (some of whom were enslaved), adding to the multi-racial population in the developing territory.\\nMeredith completed 11th grade at Attala County Training School (which was segregated as \\\"white\\\" and \\\"colored\\\" under the state's Jim Crow laws) and completed 12th grade at Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg, Florida. He graduated from high school in 1951. Then, Meredith enlisted in the United States Air Force. He served from 1951 to 1960.\\nAfterward Meredith attended Jackson State University for two years, achieving good grades.\\n\\nUniversity of Mississippi\\nChallenge to the University\\nIn 1961, inspired the day before by U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Meredith started to apply to the University of Mississippi, intending to insist on his civil rights to attend the state-funded university. It still admitted only white students under the state's culture of racial segregation, although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, as they are supported by all the taxpayers.\\nMeredith wrote in his application that he wanted admission for his country, race, family, and himself. He said,\\n\\nNobody handpicked me...I believed, and believe now, that I have a Divine Responsibility... I am familiar with the probable difficulties involved in such a move as I am undertaking and I am fully prepared to pursue it all the way to a degree from the University of Mississippi.\\nHe was twice denied admission. During this time, he was advised by Medgar Evers, who was head of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).\\nOn May 31, 1961, Meredith, with backing of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, alleging that the university had rejected him only because of his race, as he had a highly successful record of military service and academic courses. The case went through many hearings, after which the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Meredith had the right to be admitted to the state school. The state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which supported the ruling of the appeals court.\\nOn September 13, 1962, the District Court entered an injunction directing the members of the Board of Trustees and the officials of the University to register Meredith. The Democratic Governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnett, declared \\\"no school will be integrated in Mississippi while I am your governor\\\". The state legislature quickly created a plan. They passed a law that denied admission to any person \\\"who has a crime of moral turpitude against him\\\" or who had been convicted of any felony offense or not pardoned. The same day it became law, Meredith was accused and convicted of \\\"false voter registration,\\\" in absentia, in Jackson County. The conviction against Meredith was trumped up: Meredith both owned land in northern Mississippi and was registered to vote in Jackson, where he lived. \\\"Later the clerk testified that Meredith was qualified to register and vote in Jackson [where he was registered].\\\"\\nOn September 20, the federal government obtained an injunction against enforcement of this Act and of the two state court decrees that had barred Meredith's registration. That day Meredith was rebuffed again by Governor Barnett in his efforts to gain admission, though university officials were prepared to admit him. On September 25, Meredith attempted to register again, but Governor Barnett blocked Meredith’s entry to the College Board office. On September 28, the Court of Appeals, en banc and after a hearing, found the Governor in civil contempt and ordered that he be arrested and pay a fine of $10,000 for each day that he kept up the refusal, unless he complied by October 2. On September 29, Lieutenant Governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. (elected Governor on November 5, 1963) was also found in contempt by a panel of the court, and a similar order was entered against him, with a fine of $5,000 a day.\\nAttorney General Robert F. Kennedy had a series of phone calls with Governor Barnett between September 27 to October 1. Barnett reluctantly agreed to let Meredith enroll in the university, but secretly bargained with Kennedy on a plan which would allow him to save face.\\nBarnett committed to maintain civil order. Robert Kennedy ordered 127 U.S. Marshals as well as 316 deputized U.S. Border Patrol and 97 Federal Bureau of Prisons officers to accompany Meredith during his arrival and registration. On September 29, President Kennedy issued a proclamation commanding all persons engaged in the obstruction of the laws and the orders of the courts to \\\"cease and desist therefrom and to disperse and retire peaceably forthwith\\\", citing his authority under 10 U.S.C. § 332, § 333, and § 334 to use the militia or the armed forces to suppress any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.\\n\\nRioting at the University\\nOn September 29, Governor Barnett made a spirited speech at halftime of the Ole Miss-Kentucky football game, firing up the crowd and encouraging people to block Meredith’s entry to the university. He said, in part, \\\"I love Mississippi! I love her people, our customs ... I love and I respect our heritage.\\\" The Ole Miss Band waved a large Confederate flag, and the stands were full of students waving Confederate flags. President Kennedy sent federal marshals to Mississippi.\\nOn Sunday, September 30, 1962, Governor Barnett called the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, to try to get him to postpone Meredith’s admission to the University. The Attorney General refused. Meredith, accompanied by Mississippi Highway Patrol and 500 federal marshals, moved into his dorm room. Outside the Lyceum building, where Meredith was due to register for classes the next day, a crowd of hostile students formed near the marshals who were protecting the building. At 7:30 p.m., the crowd broke into a riot. The crowd, which numbered 3000, threw bottles and rocks, and the marshals tear-gassed them. More than 300 people were injured in the riot, and two people were killed.\\n\\nEnrollment\\nThe day after the riots, on October 1, 1962, after federal and state forces took control, Meredith became the first African-American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Meredith's admission is regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in the United States.\\nMany students harassed Meredith during his two semesters on campus, but others accepted him. According to first-person accounts, students living in Meredith's dorm bounced basketballs on the floor just above his room through all hours of the night. Other students ostracized him: when Meredith walked into the cafeteria for meals, the students eating would turn their backs. If Meredith sat at a table with other students, all of whom were white, the students would immediately get up and go to another table. He persisted through harassment and extreme isolation to graduate on August 18, 1963, with a degree in political science.\\n\\nEducation and activism\\nMeredith continued his education, focusing on political science, at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He returned to the United States in 1965. He attended law school through a scholarship at Columbia University and earned an LL.B (law degree) in 1968\\nIn 1966, Meredith organized and led a solo, personal March Against Fear for 220 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, beginning on June 6, 1966. Inviting only black men to join him, he wanted to highlight continuing racial oppression in the Mississippi Delta, as well as to encourage blacks to register and vote following passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which authorized federal oversight and enforcement of rights. Governor Paul Johnson promised to allow the march and provide State Highway Police protection. Meredith wanted blacks in Mississippi to overcome fear of violence.\\nDespite a police presence, on the second day, Meredith was shot and wounded by Aubrey James Norvell, a white man whose motives were never determined, and who pleaded guilty at trial. Meredith was quickly taken to a hospital. Leaders of major organizations rallied at the news and vowed to complete the march in Meredith's name. They struggled to reconcile differing goals, but succeeded in attracting more than 10,000 marchers from local towns and across the country by the end.\\nNorvell pleaded guilty to battery and assault with intent to kill and was sentenced to five years in prison.\\nMeredith suffered from superficial wounds to his neck, legs, head, and right side. He recovered from his wounds, and rejoined the march before it reached Jackson on June 26, when 15,000 marchers entered the city in what had become the largest civil rights march in state history. During the march, more than 4,000 black Mississippians registered to vote. Continued community organizing was catalyzed by these events, and African Americans began to enter the political system again.\\n\\nPolitical career\\nIn 1967, while living and studying in New York, Meredith decided to run as a Republican against incumbent Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a multi-term Democrat, in a special election for the Congressional seat in Harlem. He withdrew from the race and Powell was re-elected. Meredith said later of his campaign, \\\"The Republican Party [of New York] made me an offer: full support in every way, everything.\\\" He had full access to top New York Republicans.\\nAfter returning to Mississippi in 1972, Meredith entered the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat of Democrat James Eastland, who had been the incumbent for 29 years in what had operated as a one-party state. Following provisions of a new state constitution in 1890 that made voter registration extremely difficult, African Americans had been effectively disenfranchised and the Republican Party had been crippled. Meredith conceded that he had little chance of winning unless Governor George Wallace of Alabama entered the presidential race and split the white vote. As it happened, many Republicans in Mississippi were not enthusiastic about the prospect of Meredith as their nominee, and Gil Carmichael, a businessman from Meridian, was recruited to run against him. Meredith received only 21% of the primary vote against Carmichael.\\nAn active Republican, Meredith served from 1989 to 1991 as a domestic adviser on the staff of United States Senator Jesse Helms. Faced with criticism from the civil rights community for working for the avowed segregationist, Meredith said that he had applied to every member of the Senate and House offering his services, and only Helms' office responded. He also wanted a chance to do research at the Library of Congress.\\nIn 2002, officials at the University of Mississippi celebrated the 40th anniversary of Meredith's historic admission and integration of the institution with a year-long series of events. Of the celebration, Meredith said,\\n\\nIt was an embarrassment for me to be there, and for somebody to celebrate it, oh my God. I want to go down in history, and have a bunch of things named after me, but believe me that ain't it.\\nHe said he had achieved his main goal at the time by getting the federal government to enforce his rights as a citizen. He saw his actions as \\\"an assault on white supremacy\\\". In 2003, he was far more proud that his son Joseph Meredith graduated as the top doctoral student at the university's graduate business school.\\n\\nLegacy and honors\\nIn 2002, the University of Mississippi honored the 40th anniversary of Meredith's admission with numerous events.\\nIn 2006, a statue of him was dedicated on campus in his honor.\\nIn 2012, the University commemorated the 50th anniversary of the historic admission, featuring a range of speakers, artists, lectures and events during the year.\\nThat year Meredith received the Harvard Graduate School of Education 'Medal for Education Impact' and was the school's convocation speaker. Meredith said it was the first award in 50 years he had accepted.\\n\\nCultural depictions\\nIn 2011 miniseries The Kennedys, Meredith was portrayed by Matthew G. Brown in episode five of the series, Life Sentences.\\n\\nPolitical viewpoint\\nA highly independent man, Meredith has identified as an individual American citizen who demanded and received the constitutional rights held by any American, not as a participant in the Civil Rights Movement. There have been tensions between him and leaders of major organizations of the movement. When interviewed in 2002, the 40th anniversary of his enrollment at University of Mississippi, Meredith said, \\\"Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind.\\\"\\nMeredith was a supporter of the unsuccessful 1967 gubernatorial bid of ex-Mississippi Governor (and avowed segregationist) Ross Barnett, who had been responsible for Meredith's not being allowed at the University of Mississippi, as well as the 1991 gubernatorial campaign of Louisiana State Representative and ex-Klansman David Duke.\\nIn a 2002 interview with CNN, Meredith said of his efforts to integrate Ole Miss, \\\"I was engaged in a war. I considered myself engaged in a war from Day One. And my objective was to force the federal government—the Kennedy administration at that time—into a position where they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen.\\\"\\n\\nPersonal life\\nOn March 14, 1956, Meredith married Mary June Wiggins. She later worked as a high school English teacher. They had three sons, James, John and Joseph Howard Meredith. Mary June Meredith died of heart failure in December 1979.\\nIn 1982, Meredith married Judy Alsobrooks in Gary, Indiana. She had one son, Kip Naylor, from a previous marriage. Jessica Howard Meredith was born to the couple. The couple live in Jackson, Mississippi.\\n\\nWorks\\nIn 1966, his memoir, Three Years in Mississippi, was published by the Indiana University Press.\\nHe has self-published several books on politics and society.\\n\\nSee also\\nList of African-American pioneers in desegregation of higher education\\nList of civil rights leaders\\nSchool integration in the United States\\n\\nReferences\\nBibliography\\nBranch, Taylor (1988). Parting the Waters : America in the King Years, 1954–63. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-68742-7.\\nMeredith, James (1966). Three Years in Mississippi. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. \\nMeredith, James (1995). Mississippi: A Volume of Eleven Books. Jackson, MS: Meredith Publishing.\\n\\nFurther reading\\nBryant, Nick (Autumn 2006). \\\"Black Man Who Was Crazy Enough to Apply to Ole Miss\\\". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (53): 60–71. JSTOR 25073538.\\nDoyle, William (2001). An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-49969-8.\\nEagles, Charles W. (2009). The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0807895597.\\nGoudsouzian, Aram (2014). Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. \\nHollingsworth, Bradley S. (2020). \\\"About an Oath: The Mississippi National Guard at the Battle of Ole Miss\\\". US Army School for Advanced Military Studies.\\nIrons, Jenny (2010). Reconstituting Whiteness: The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. Vanderbilt University Press.\\nHendrickson, Paul (2003). Sons of Mississippi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40461-9. Contains revealing interviews with Meredith conducted by the author.\\nKing, Desmond, and Robert C. Lieberman (2021).\\\"'The Latter-Day General Grant': Forceful Federal Power and Civil Rights\\\". Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics 6.3: 529–564.\\nMcGee, Meredith Coleman (2013). James Meredith: Warrior and the America That Created Him. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0999322673. OCLC 844940027.\\nSchlesinger, Arthur Jr. (2002) [1978]. Robert Kennedy and His Times. New York: First Mariner Books. ISBN 0-618-21928-5.\\nStanton, Mary (2003). Freedom Walk: Mississippi or Bust. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-57806-505-4.\\nWatkins, James H. (Spring 2016). \\\"'Returning to Mississippi by Choice' Autobiographical Self-Location and the Performance of Black Masculinity in James Meredith's Three Years in Mississippi\\\". The Mississippi Quarterly 69.2: 253–276. JSTOR 26483824.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nUniversity of Mississippi biography (Archive)\\nJames Meredith Collection (MUM00293), University of Mississippi, Archives and Special Collections.\\nJames Meredith Small Manuscripts (MUM00594), University of Mississippi.]\\n\\\"Mississippi and Meredith remember\\\", September 30, 2002, CNN\\nAssociated Press: \\\"Meredith ready to move on\\\"\\n\\\"On this day in History: 1 October 1962\\\", BBC\\nFacsimiles of letters to the Justice Department and Thurgood Marshall, Kennedy Library\\nJames Meredith's Letter to the Justice Department February 7, 1961, 02/07/1961 Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, National Archives\\nJames Meredith's oral history video excerpts Archived January 9, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, The National Visionary Leadership Project\\nAppearances on C-SPAN\",\n \"title\": \"James_Meredith\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Gestational hypertension or pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) is the development of new hypertension in a pregnant woman after 20 weeks' gestation without the presence of protein in the urine or other signs of pre-eclampsia. Gestational hypertension is defined as having a blood pressure \\ngreater than 140/90 on two occasions at least 6 hours apart.\\n\\nSigns and symptoms\\nNo single diagnostic test currently exists to predict the likelihood of developing gestational hypertension. High blood pressure is the major sign in diagnosing gestational hypertension. Some women with gestational hypertension may present asymptomatic, but a number of symptoms are associated with the condition.\\nSymptoms\\n\\nEdema\\nSudden weight gain\\nBlurred vision or sensitivity to light\\nNausea and vomiting\\nPersistent headaches\\nIncreased blood pressure\\n\\nRisk factors\\nMaternal causes\\n\\nObesity\\nMothers under 20 or over 40 years old\\nPast history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension (particularly gestational hypertension) and renal disease\\nPre-existing hypertension\\nThrombophilias (anti-phospholipid syndrome, protein C/S deficiency, factor V Leiden)\\nHaving donated a kidney\\nPregnancy\\n\\nMultiple gestation (twins or triplets, etc.)\\nPlacental abnormalities:\\nHyperplacentosis: Excessive exposure to chorionic villi\\nPlacental ischemia\\nFamily history\\n\\nFamily history of pre-eclampsia\\n\\nDiagnosis\\nConditions\\nThere exist several hypertensive states of pregnancy:\\n\\nGestational hypertension\\nGestational hypertension is usually defined as having a blood pressure higher than 140/90 measured on two separate occasions, more than 6 hours apart, without the presence of protein in the urine and diagnosed after 20 weeks of gestation.\\nPre-eclampsia\\nPre-eclampsia is gestational hypertension plus proteinuria (>300 mg of protein in a 24-hour urine sample). Severe pre-eclampsia involves a blood pressure greater than 160/110, with additional medical signs and symptoms. HELLP syndrome is a type of pre-eclampsia. It is a combination of three medical conditions: hemolytic anemia, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count.\\nEclampsia\\nThis is when tonic-clonic seizures appear in a pregnant woman with high blood pressure and proteinuria.\\nPre-eclampsia and eclampsia are sometimes treated as components of a common syndrome.\\n\\nTreatment\\nThere is no specific treatment, but is monitored closely to rapidly identify pre-eclampsia and its life-threatening complications (HELLP syndrome and eclampsia).\\nDrug treatment options are limited, as many antihypertensives may negatively affect the fetus. ACE inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and direct renin inhibitors are contraindicated in pregnancy as they are teratogenic. Methyldopa, hydralazine, nifedipine, and labetalol are most commonly used for severe pregnancy hypertension.\\nThe fetus is at increased risk for a variety of life-threatening conditions, including pulmonary hypoplasia (immature lungs). If the dangerous complications appear after the fetus has reached a point of viability, even though still immature, then an early delivery may be warranted to save the lives of both mother and baby. An appropriate plan for labor and delivery includes selection of a hospital with provisions for advanced life support of newborn babies.\\nExercise during pregnancy can help prevent hypertension as it can improve not only health for the mother but also the child. Exercise can regulate the energy needs required during pregnancy while also decreasing inflammation. Regular exercise can also lower the increased stress levels associated with pregnancy.\\n\\nEvolutionary considerations\\nHumans\\nGestational hypertension is one of the most common disorders seen in human pregnancies. Though relatively benign on its own, in roughly half of the cases of gestational hypertension the disorder progresses into pre-eclampsia, a dangerous condition that can prove fatal to expectant mothers. However, gestational hypertension is a condition that is fairly rare to see in other animals. For years, it has been the belief of the scientific community that gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia were relatively unique to humans, although there has been some recent evidence that other primates can also develop similar conditions, albeit due to different underlying mechanisms. The underlying cause of gestational hypertension in humans is commonly believed to be an improperly implanted placenta. Humans have evolved to have a very invasive placenta to facilitate better oxygen transfer from the mother to the fetus, to support the growth of its large brain.\\n\\nOrigins of the placenta\\nThe origins of gestational hypertension may lie with the development of humans' hemochorial placenta. A hemochorial placenta optimizes the amount of oxygen and nutrients that can be absorbed into the fetal blood supply, while at the same time ensuring rapid diffusion of wastes away from the fetus. This hemochorial placenta differs from lower primates' epitheliochorial placentae in the way that it allows the fetal tissues to interact directly with the mother's blood. The hemochorial placenta thereby promotes more rapid diffusion to and from the fetal blood supply. \\nIn animals with epitheliochorial placentae such as horses and pigs, the greatest resistance to maternal blood flow in the vascular system was found within the placenta. However, in animals with hemochorial placental structures such as rodents and primates, the vascular resistance in the placenta was low, leading scientists to the conclusion that the greatest resistance to maternal blood flow is found elsewhere in the maternal vascular system. The high vascular resistance outside of the placenta leads to higher maternal blood pressure throughout the body.\\nThe fetal cells that implant into the uterine wall are known as the trophoblast. The hemochorial placenta bathes the fetal trophoblast in maternal blood by forming lacunae, or lakes, of the mother's blood that surround fetal tissue. The lacunae are filled by the spiral arteries, which means that the mother's blood pressure is the driving force behind the introduction of new blood, which contains both oxygen and food for the fetus, to the system. It is thought that humans need the increased diffusion provided by the hemochorial placenta in order to grow the large brains compared to their body size that distinguish them from other primates.\\n\\nIncorrect placental implantation\\nIt is thought that \\\"failings\\\" in normal hemochorial placental structure lead to pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension. The human placenta implants \\\"earlier, deeper, and more extensively\\\" into the uterine wall, which can potentially lead to many problems that are found in human pregnancies, but not as much in other animals. Miscarriage and pre-eclampsia are both very rare in other species, but are two of the most common pregnancy-related diseases in humans. The genetic roots of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia are certain, as women with a family history of the condition are three times more likely to develop it when they are pregnant.\\nOne of the potential causes of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia is when the trophoblast does not invade far enough into the uterine lining. When the fetus's trophoblast does not fully extend into the uterine wall, the spiral arteries do not become fully converted into low-resistance channels. It has been found that this incomplete conversion of spiral arteries increases the resistance to uterine blood flow during pregnancy, and that this occurrence was associated with gestational hypertension. One potential cause of this incomplete breach of the spiral arteries that leads to gestational hypertension is a mistaken immune response by the maternal tissue, reaction to the alien fetal tissue. Therefore, it is clear that the complication of gestational hypertension has roots in the early implantation of the fetus in the uterine wall, an implantation technique that is unique to humans.\\nThe highly invasive placenta that is found in humans is thought to be linked to humans' high circulating levels of the hormones CG and hCG. It has been shown that the higher the levels of these hormones, the deeper the trophoblast's invasion into the uterine wall. Instances of gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia have been shown to occur when the invasion of the uterine wall is not deep enough, because of lower CG and hCG levels in the mother.\\n\\nEvolutionary tradeoff\\nDespite these risks for gestational hypertension, the hemochorial placenta has been favored because of its advantages in the way that it aids in diffusion from mother to fetus later in pregnancy. The bipedal posture that has allowed humans to walk upright has also led to a reduced cardiac output, and it has been suggested that this is what necessitated humans' aggressive early placental structures. Increased maternal blood pressure can attempt to make up for lower cardiac output, ensuring that the fetus's growing brain receives enough oxygen and nutrients. The benefits of being able to walk upright and run on land have outweighed the disadvantages that come from bipedalism, including the placental diseases of pregnancy, such as gestational hypertension. Similarly, the advantages of having a large brain size have outweighed the deleterious effects of having a placenta that does not always convert the spiral arteries effectively, leaving humans vulnerable to contracting gestational hypertension. It is speculated that this was not the case with Neanderthals, and that they died out because their cranial capacity increased too much, and their placentae were not equipped to handle the fetal brain development, leading to widespread pre-eclampsia and maternal and fetal death.\\nGestational hypertension in the early stages of pregnancy (trimester 1) has been shown to improve the health of the child both in its first year of life, and its later life. However, when the disease develops later in the pregnancy (subsequent trimesters), or turns into pre-eclampsia, there begin to be detrimental health effects for the fetus, including low birth-weight. It has been proposed that fetal genes designed to increase the mother's blood pressure are so beneficial that they outweigh the potential negative effects that can come from pre-eclampsia. It has also been suggested that gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia have remained active traits due to the cultural capacity of humans, and the tendency for midwives or helpers to aid in delivering babies.\\n\\nRelevance of evolutionary history\\nIt is the goal of evolutionary medicine to find treatments for diseases that are informed by the evolutionary history of a disease. It has been suggested that gestational hypertension is linked to insulin resistance during pregnancy. Both the increase in blood sugar that can lead to gestational diabetes and the increase in blood pressure that can lead to gestational hypertension are mechanisms that mean to optimize the amount of nutrients that can be passed from maternal tissue to fetal tissue. It has been suggested that techniques used to combat insulin insensitivity might also prove beneficial to those with gestational hypertension. Measures to avoid insulin resistance include avoiding obesity before pregnancy, minimizing weight gain during pregnancy, eating foods with low glycemic indices, and exercising.\\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"Gestational_hypertension\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 3,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Labetalol is a medication used to treat high blood pressure and in long term management of angina. This includes essential hypertension, hypertensive emergencies, and hypertension of pregnancy. In essential hypertension it is generally less preferred than a number of other blood pressure medications. It can be given by mouth or by injection into a vein.\\nCommon side effects include low blood pressure with standing, dizziness, feeling tired, and nausea. Serious side effects may include low blood pressure, liver problems, heart failure, and bronchospasm. Use appears safe in the latter part of pregnancy and it is not expected to cause problems during breastfeeding. It works by blocking the activation of β- and α-adrenergic receptors.\\nLabetalol was patented in 1966 and came into medical use in 1977. It is available as a generic medication. In 2021, it was the 213th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 2 million prescriptions.\\n\\nMedical uses\\nLabetalol is effective in the management of hypertensive emergencies, postoperative hypertension, pheochromocytoma-associated hypertension, and rebound hypertension from beta blocker withdrawal.\\nIt has a particular indication in the treatment of pregnancy-induced hypertension which is commonly associated with pre-eclampsia.\\nIt is also used as an alternative in the treatment of severe hypertension.\\nLabetalol is useful in the treatment of acute cardiovascular toxicity (e.g. in overdose) caused by sympathomimetics like amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, ephedrine, and pseudoephedrine. Other beta blockers are also used. However, the controversial yet possible phenomenon of \\\"unopposed α-stimulation\\\" with administration of selective beta blockers to block non-selective sympathomimetics potentially makes dual alpha-1 and beta blockers like labetalol and carvedilol more favorable for such purposes. The rate of unopposed α-stimulation with selective beta blockers has been reported to be 0.4%, whereas no cases of unopposed α-stimulation have been reported with dual alpha and beta blockers like labetalol.\\n\\nSpecial populations\\nPregnancy: studies in lab animals showed no harm to the baby. However, a comparable well-controlled study has not been performed in pregnant women.\\nNursing: breast milk has been shown to contain small amounts of labetalol (0.004% original dose). Prescribers should be cautious in the use of labetalol for nursing mothers.\\nPediatric: no studies have established safety or usefulness in this population.\\nGeriatric: the elderly are more likely to experience dizziness when taking labetalol. Labetalol should be dosed with caution in the elderly and counseled on this side effect.\\n\\nSide effects\\nCommon\\nNeurologic: headache (2%), dizziness (11%)\\nGastrointestinal: nausea (6%), dyspepsia (3%)\\nCholinergic: nasal congestion (3%), ejaculation failure (2%)\\nRespiratory: dyspnea (2%)\\nOther: fatigue (5%), vertigo (2%), orthostatic hypotension\\nLow blood pressure with standing is more severe and more common with IV formulation (58% vs 1%) and is often the reason larger doses of the oral formulation cannot be used.\\n\\nRare\\nFever\\nMuscle cramps\\nDry eyes\\nHeart block\\nHyperkalemia\\nHepatotoxicity\\nDrug eruption similar to lichen planus\\nHypersensitivity – which may result in a lethal respiratory distress\\n\\nContraindications\\nLabetalol is contraindicated in people with overt cardiac failure, greater-than-first-degree heart block, severe bradycardia, cardiogenic shock, severe hypotension, anyone with a history of obstructive airway disease including asthma, and those with hypersensitivity to the drug.\\n\\nPharmacology\\nMechanism of action\\nLabetalol is a beta blocker, or an antagonist of the β-adrenergic receptors. It is specifically a non-selective antagonist of the β1- and β2-adrenergic receptors. Labetalol has intrinsic sympathomimetic activity. It is also an antagonist of the α1-adrenergic receptor, and hence is additionally an alpha blocker. The antagonism of the adrenergic receptors by labetalol is competitive against other catecholamines and its actions on the receptors are potent and reversible. Labetalol acts by blocking α- and β-adrenergic receptors, resulting in decreased peripheral vascular resistance without significant alteration of heart rate or cardiac output.\\nLabetalol is about equipotent in blocking β1- and β2-adrenergic receptors. The amount of α to β blockade depends on whether labetalol is administered orally or intravenously (IV). Orally, the ratio of α to β blockade is 1:3. Intravenously, α to β blockade ratio is 1:7. Thus, the labetalol can be thought to be a beta blocker with some α-blocking effects. By comparison, labetalol is a weaker β-adrenergic receptor blocker than propranolol, and has a weaker affinity for α-adrenergic receptors compared to phentolamine.\\nLabetalol's dual α- and β-adrenergic antagonism has different physiological effects in short- and long-term situations. In short-term, acute situations, labetalol decreases blood pressure by decreasing systemic vascular resistance with little effect on stroke volume, heart rate and cardiac output. During long-term use, labetalol can reduce heart rate during exercise while maintaining cardiac output by an increase in stroke volume.\\nLabetalol possesses significant intrinsic sympathomimetic activity (ISA). In particular, it is a partial agonist at β2-adrenergic receptors located in the vascular smooth muscle. Labetalol relaxes vascular smooth muscle by a combination of this partial β2-adrenergic receptor agonism and through α1-adrenergic receptor blockade. Overall, this vasodilatory effect can decrease blood pressure. It was originally reported to lack ISA, but a slight degree of activity was subsequently characterized.\\nSimilar to local anesthetics and sodium channel blocking antiarrhythmics, labetalol also has membrane stabilizing activity. By decreasing sodium entry, labetalol decreases action potential firing and thus has local anesthetic activity.\\n\\nPhysiological action\\nThe physiological effects of labetalol when administered acutely (intravenously) are not predictable solely by their receptor blocking effect, i.e. blocking β1-adrenergic receptors should decrease heart rate, but labetalol does not. When labetalol is given in acute situations, it decreases the peripheral vascular resistance and systemic blood pressure while having little effect on the heart rate, cardiac output and stroke volume, despite its α1-, β1- and β2-adrenergic receptor blocking mechanism. These effects are mainly seen when the person is in the upright position.\\nLong term labetalol use also has different effects from other beta blockers. Other beta blockers, such as propranolol, persistently reduce cardiac output during exercise. The peripheral vascular resistance decreases when labetalol is first administered. Continuous labetalol use further decreases peripheral vascular resistance. However, during exercise, cardiac output remains the same due to a compensatory mechanism that increases stroke volume. Thus, labetalol is able to reduce heart rate during exercise while maintaining cardiac output by the increase in stroke volume.\\n\\nPharmacokinetics\\nDistribution\\nLabetalol is often classified as a beta blocker with low lipophilicity and hence lower potential for crossing the blood–brain barrier and blood–placenta barrier. This in turn may result in fewer effects in the central nervous system as well as a lower risk of neuropsychiatric side effects. Paradoxically however, labetalol actually shows high lipophilicity. In any case, labetalol, in animals including rats, rabbits, and dogs, was found to cross into the brain in negligible amounts, probably for reasons other than low lipophilicity. On the other hand, the drug has been shown to cross the blood–placenta barrier in humans.\\n\\nChemistry\\nThe minimum requirement for adrenergic agents is a primary or secondary amine separated from a substituted benzene ring by one or two carbons. This configuration results in strong agonist activity. As the size of the substituent attached to the amine becomes greater, particularly with respect to a t-butyl group, then the molecule typically is found to have receptor affinity without intrinsic activity, and is, therefore, an antagonist. Labetalol, with its 1-methyl-3-phenylpropyl substituted amine, is greater in size relative to a t-butyl group and therefore acts predominantly as an antagonist. The overall structure of labetalol is very polar. This was created by substituting the isopropyl group in the standard beta blocker structure with an aralkyl group, including a carboxamide group on the meta position, and by adding a hydroxyl group on the para position.\\nLabetalol has two chiral carbons and consequently exists as four stereoisomers. Two of these isomers, the (S,S)- and (R,S)- forms are inactive. The third, the (S,R)-isomer, is a powerful α1-adrenergic receptor blocker. The fourth isomer, the (R,R)-isomer which is also known as dilevalol, is a mixed non-selective β-adrenergic receptor blocker and selective α1 blocker. Labetalol is typically given as a racemic mixture to achieve both α- and β-adrenergic receptor blocking activity.\\n\\nIt is chemically designated in International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) nomenclature as 2-hydroxy-5-[1-hydroxy-2-[(1-methyl-3-phenylpropyl)amino]ethyl]benzamide monohydrochloride.\\nThe experimental log P of labetalol is 2.7 to 3.1 and its predicted log P ranges from 1.73 to 3.1. Hence, it has relatively high lipophilicity.\\n\\nHistory\\nLabetalol was the first drug created that combined both α- and β-adrenergic receptor blocking properties. It was created to potentially fix the compensatory reflex issue that occurred when blocking a single receptor subtype, i.e. vasoconstriction after blocking β-adrenergic receptors or tachycardia after blocking α-adrenergic receptors. Because the reflex from blocking the single receptor subtypes acted to prevent the lowering of blood pressure, it was postulated that weak blocking of both α- and β-adrenergic receptors could work together to decrease blood pressure.\\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"Labetalol\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"This blood pressure drug commonly used to treat gestational hypertension was patented the same year the first black student at the University of Mississippi was shot."},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Labetalol"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":692,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"692"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Grace's High Falls is a seasonal waterfall in the US state of Alabama, in Little River Canyon National Preserve. The waterfall is Alabama's highest at 133 feet.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\"Graces High Falls Overlook\", National Park Service","title":"Grace%27s_High_Falls"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The following are lists of waterfalls in the world by height, classified into two categories — natural and artificial. Natural waterfalls are further subdivided between overall height and tallest single drop. Each column (Waterfall, Height, Locality, Country) is sortable by using the up/down link in the column headings at the top of each column.\n\nWorld's tallest natural waterfalls\nBy overall height\nThis list consists of waterfalls which are known to have an overall height of at least 600 m (1,969 ft). Underwater falls, such as the 3,505 m (11,499 ft) Denmark Strait cataract, are not included.\n\nBy tallest single drop\nThis list consists of the waterfalls which are known to have a singular individual step with a vertical drop of at least 450 m (1,476 ft).\n\nWorld's tallest artificial waterfalls\nSee also\nList of waterfalls\nList of waterfalls by flow rate\nList of waterfalls by type\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nWorld Waterfall Database: Worlds Tallest Waterfalls","title":"List_of_waterfalls_by_height"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Grace's High Falls is a seasonal waterfall in the US state of Alabama, in Little River Canyon National Preserve. The waterfall is Alabama's highest at 133 feet.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\\"Graces High Falls Overlook\\\", National Park Service\",\n \"title\": \"Grace%27s_High_Falls\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The following are lists of waterfalls in the world by height, classified into two categories — natural and artificial. Natural waterfalls are further subdivided between overall height and tallest single drop. Each column (Waterfall, Height, Locality, Country) is sortable by using the up/down link in the column headings at the top of each column.\\n\\nWorld's tallest natural waterfalls\\nBy overall height\\nThis list consists of waterfalls which are known to have an overall height of at least 600 m (1,969 ft). Underwater falls, such as the 3,505 m (11,499 ft) Denmark Strait cataract, are not included.\\n\\nBy tallest single drop\\nThis list consists of the waterfalls which are known to have a singular individual step with a vertical drop of at least 450 m (1,476 ft).\\n\\nWorld's tallest artificial waterfalls\\nSee also\\nList of waterfalls\\nList of waterfalls by flow rate\\nList of waterfalls by type\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nWorld Waterfall Database: Worlds Tallest Waterfalls\",\n \"title\": \"List_of_waterfalls_by_height\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Little River Canyon National Preserve has three waterfalls, one of which is the tallest in Alabama. How much shorter is Alabama's tallest waterfall than the tallest waterfall in the continental US?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"2,452 ft"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":693,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"693"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Lleyton Hewitt defeated David Nalbandian in the final, 6–1, 6–3, 6–2 to win the gentlemen's singles tennis title at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships. It was his second and last major title, after the 2001 US Open. Hewitt became the first Australian to win the title since Pat Cash in 1987.\nGoran Ivanišević was the reigning champion, but withdrew due to a shoulder surgery. He would not return to Wimbledon until 2004.\nThe tournament was notable for the poor results of the top players. With the exception of Hewitt and world No. 4 Tim Henman, all of the top 17 seeds were eliminated before the fourth round. This granted relatively unknown players an unusually high chance of success, especially as Hewitt and Henman were in the same half of the draw and played each other in the semifinals. In one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history, seven-time champion Pete Sampras was eliminated by George Bastl in the second round, in what would be Sampras' last appearance at Wimbledon. The 1992 champion Andre Agassi suffered a second-round defeat to unseeded Paradorn Srichaphan, while future eight-time champion Roger Federer was defeated in the first round by qualifier Mario Ančić, his last defeat at Wimbledon until the 2008 final, spanning a record-tying five straight Wimbledon titles between 2003 and 2007.\nThis was the last major for 1997 finalist and former world No. 4 Cédric Pioline, losing in the first round to Marat Safin, and the last appearance for 1996 champion Richard Krajicek, reaching the quarterfinals before losing to Xavier Malisse.\n\nSeeds\nClick on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.\nThe original #5 seed Tommy Haas withdrew for personal reasons before the tournament draw was made. All original seeds from 6-32 moved up one place, and a new #32 seed was added.\n\nQualifying\nDraw\nKey\nFinals\nTop half\nSection 1\nSection 2\nSection 3\nSection 4\nBottom half\nSection 5\nSection 6\nSection 7\nSection 8\nReferences\nExternal links\nSource for the draw at Wimbledon.com\n\"Wimbledon 2002 – Singles Draw\". atpworldtour.com. ATP World Tour. Retrieved 23 May 2018.\n2002 Wimbledon Championships – Men's draws and results at the International Tennis Federation","title":"2002_Wimbledon_Championships_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_singles"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Michel Frank Kratochvil (born 7 April 1979) is a former tennis player from Switzerland. He was a member of the Swiss Davis Cup Team between 2000 and 2004 with a singles record 3–9, winning the decider in the first round of the 2003 World Group against Martin Verkerk of Netherlands 1–6, 7–6, 7–6, 6–1. He played doubles alongside Roger Federer in the 2002 Gstaad Open who was the defending champion but lost in the first round this time. He also defeated reigning champion Andre Agassi in the first round 2002 Indian Wells Masters.\n\nATP career finals\nSingles: 2 (2 runner-ups)\nATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals\nSingles: 10 (5–5)\nDoubles: 4 (0–4)\nPerformance timeline\nSingles\nReferences\nExternal links\nMichel Kratochvil at the Association of Tennis Professionals \nMichel Kratochvil at the International Tennis Federation \nMichel Kratochvil at the Davis Cup","title":"Michel_Kratochvil"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Lleyton Hewitt defeated David Nalbandian in the final, 6–1, 6–3, 6–2 to win the gentlemen's singles tennis title at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships. It was his second and last major title, after the 2001 US Open. Hewitt became the first Australian to win the title since Pat Cash in 1987.\\nGoran Ivanišević was the reigning champion, but withdrew due to a shoulder surgery. He would not return to Wimbledon until 2004.\\nThe tournament was notable for the poor results of the top players. With the exception of Hewitt and world No. 4 Tim Henman, all of the top 17 seeds were eliminated before the fourth round. This granted relatively unknown players an unusually high chance of success, especially as Hewitt and Henman were in the same half of the draw and played each other in the semifinals. In one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history, seven-time champion Pete Sampras was eliminated by George Bastl in the second round, in what would be Sampras' last appearance at Wimbledon. The 1992 champion Andre Agassi suffered a second-round defeat to unseeded Paradorn Srichaphan, while future eight-time champion Roger Federer was defeated in the first round by qualifier Mario Ančić, his last defeat at Wimbledon until the 2008 final, spanning a record-tying five straight Wimbledon titles between 2003 and 2007.\\nThis was the last major for 1997 finalist and former world No. 4 Cédric Pioline, losing in the first round to Marat Safin, and the last appearance for 1996 champion Richard Krajicek, reaching the quarterfinals before losing to Xavier Malisse.\\n\\nSeeds\\nClick on the seed number of a player to go to their draw section.\\nThe original #5 seed Tommy Haas withdrew for personal reasons before the tournament draw was made. All original seeds from 6-32 moved up one place, and a new #32 seed was added.\\n\\nQualifying\\nDraw\\nKey\\nFinals\\nTop half\\nSection 1\\nSection 2\\nSection 3\\nSection 4\\nBottom half\\nSection 5\\nSection 6\\nSection 7\\nSection 8\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nSource for the draw at Wimbledon.com\\n\\\"Wimbledon 2002 – Singles Draw\\\". atpworldtour.com. ATP World Tour. Retrieved 23 May 2018.\\n2002 Wimbledon Championships – Men's draws and results at the International Tennis Federation\",\n \"title\": \"2002_Wimbledon_Championships_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_singles\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Michel Frank Kratochvil (born 7 April 1979) is a former tennis player from Switzerland. He was a member of the Swiss Davis Cup Team between 2000 and 2004 with a singles record 3–9, winning the decider in the first round of the 2003 World Group against Martin Verkerk of Netherlands 1–6, 7–6, 7–6, 6–1. He played doubles alongside Roger Federer in the 2002 Gstaad Open who was the defending champion but lost in the first round this time. He also defeated reigning champion Andre Agassi in the first round 2002 Indian Wells Masters.\\n\\nATP career finals\\nSingles: 2 (2 runner-ups)\\nATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals\\nSingles: 10 (5–5)\\nDoubles: 4 (0–4)\\nPerformance timeline\\nSingles\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nMichel Kratochvil at the Association of Tennis Professionals \\nMichel Kratochvil at the International Tennis Federation \\nMichel Kratochvil at the Davis Cup\",\n \"title\": \"Michel_Kratochvil\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"What is the name of the retired Swiss tennis player who made the 4th round of Wimbledon in 2002?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Michel Kratochvil"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":694,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"694"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Eric Jubb (born 17 January 1931), later known as Eric Lamont, is a Canadian former backstroke and freestyle swimmer. He competed in three events at the 1948 Summer Olympics.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nEric Jubb at World Aquatics\nEric Jubb at Olympedia","title":"Eric_Jubb"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 30 and 31 July at the Empire Pool. There were 41 competitors from 19 nations. Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games. The event was won by Wally Ris, returning the United States to the podium in the event after a one-Games absence broke a seven-Games streak. It was the sixth victory for an American in the 100 metre freestyle, most of any nation. Another American, Alan Ford, took silver. Géza Kádas of Hungary earned bronze, the nation's third medal in four Games. Japan's three-Games medal streak in the event ended with no Japanese swimmers competing due to the nation not being invited after World War II.\n\nBackground\nThis was the 10th appearance of the men's 100 metre freestyle. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1900 (when the shortest freestyle was the 200 metres), though the 1904 version was measured in yards rather than metres.\nNone of the seven finalists from the pre-World War II 1936 Games returned. Alex Jany, a teenager from France, was the favorite in the event. The American team, including world record holder Alan Ford, was also strong. Ford had beaten Jany's record a month before the Games.\nCuba, Iceland, India, and Mexico each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 10th appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.\n\nCompetition format\nThe competition used a three-round (quarterfinals, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule was a modification of the one used since 1912, allowing the top swimmers in each race plus one or more wild cards to advance. For this event, the top two in each preliminary heat plus the next four fastest swimmers would advance to the semifinals; the top three in each semifinal plus the next two fastest swimmers would move on to the final. There were 6 heats of between 6 and 8 swimmers, allowing 16 swimmers to advance to the semifinals. The 2 semifinals had 8 swimmers each; 8 advanced to the final.\nThis swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.\n\nRecords\nThese were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1948 Summer Olympics.\n\nWally Ris equaled the Olympic record in the second semifinal with 57.5 seconds, then beat it with 57.3 seconds in the final.\n\nSchedule\nResults\nHeats\nHeat 1\nHeat 2\nHeat 3\nHeat 4\nHeat 5\nHeat 6\nSemifinals\nSemifinal 1\nSemifinal 2\nFinal\nJany led at halfway but fell back into the pack after the turn. Ford led until the 80 metre point, when Ris passed him. Kádas, in a tight race with Ford for second place, crashed into the lane divider just before the end of the race.\n\nResults summary\n\n\n== References ==","title":"Swimming_at_the_1948_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_100_metre_freestyle"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Sachin Nag (Bengali: শচীন নাগ; 5 July 1920 – 19 August 1987) was an Indian swimmer. He won the gold medal in men's 100 m freestyle at the 1951 Asian Games, the first ever gold medal for India at the Asian Games. It remains the only gold medal won by India in Asian Games swimming as of the conclusion of the 2022 Asian Games. He was also a member of the bronze medal-winning Indian teams in the men's 4x100 m freestyle relay and the men's 3x100 m medley relay at the 1951 Asian Games. \nHe competed in the men's 100 m freestyle at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He also competed in the water polo at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. He scored four goals on behalf of India.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nSachin Nag at World Aquatics\nSachin Nag at Olympedia","title":"Sachin_Nag"},{"idx":3,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Ali Ahmed Mustafa Baghdady (Arabic: علي مصطفى بغدادي) (4 December 1922 – 22 January 2005) was the Egyptian Air Force commander from 1969 to 1972. He was also an Olympic swimmer and water polo player, and competed in the London 1948 Olympics. He died in January 2005 due to complications of a stroke.\n\nEarly life and family\nAli Baghdady was born in Cairo, Egypt, to parents Mustafa and Nabaweya. His father ran the Egyptian Post office until the early 1960s. He had three brothers: the late Adli, a prominent judge and deputy minister of justice, the late Ibrahim, the governor of Cairo and intelligence officer, and the late Hassan, an engineer and executive of the Egyptian national sugar factories. His sisters were Nadia, Fayza and Nehal. In 1951 he married Seyada Mashour, and with her he had three sons: Amr, Essam and Tarek.\n\nEducation and military career\nHe attended the Tawfikeya school in Shubra, Cairo, where he gained a baccalaureate degree. He then joined the Military Academy and graduated as an officer in the Egyptian Armed forces. He then joined the Air Force academy and progressed his career as an officer and pilot in the Egyptian Air Force. He served under King Farouk, President Gamal Abdel Nasser and President Anwar Sadat. In 1969 General Baghdady was appointed the Commander of the Egyptian Air Force (while it was part of the United Arab Republic Air Force). In 1972 he was succeeded by Hosni Mubarak (who was later to become president of Egypt) as the Commander of the air force. In October 2016 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant general by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.\n\nSport\nAli Baghdady was Egypt's short distance swimming champion and captain of the national water polo team. He represented his country at the 1948 London Olympics. In the 1970s he was also President of the Egyptian squash association, and later went on to play tennis in the over 40s category.\n\nOlympic participation\nBaghdady participated in the following events at the 1948 Summer Olympics for Egypt:\n\nMen's 100 metres Freestyle - Scored 4th of 6 in Round One Heat Three\nMen's 4 × 200 metres Freestyle Relay - Scored 7th of 7 in Round One Heat Two\n\nArt\nAli Baghdady was a keen artist and carpenter, and was tutored in the 1950s by Italian artist Menotti in oil painting.\n\nReferences\n\nEgyptian Armed Forces - Egyptian Air Force Commander - Maj Gen Ali Mustafa Baghdady","title":"Ali_Mustafa_Baghdady"},{"idx":4,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Warren Boyd (23 December 1926 – 17 December 2018) was an Australian swimmer. He competed in the men's 100 metre freestyle at the 1948 Summer Olympics.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nWarren Boyd at World Aquatics\nWarren Boyd at Olympedia\nWarren Boyd at the Australian Olympic Committee","title":"Warren_Boyd_(swimmer)"},{"idx":5,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Alberto Isaac (18 March 1923 – 9 January 1998) was a Mexican freestyle swimmer and later a film director and screenwriter. He competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics and the 1952 Summer Olympics.\nIn 1969, he directed the documentary film The Olympics in Mexico which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In 1980 he was a member of the jury at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1987, he was a member of the jury at the 15th Moscow International Film Festival.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nAlberto Isaac at World Aquatics\nAlberto Isaac at Olympedia\nAlberto Isaac at IMDb","title":"Alberto_Isaac"},{"idx":6,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Géza Kádas (1926–1979) was a Hungarian swimmer and Olympic medalist. He participated at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay, and a bronze medal in 100 metre freestyle in 1948.\n\n\n== References ==","title":"G%C3%A9za_K%C3%A1das"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Eric Jubb (born 17 January 1931), later known as Eric Lamont, is a Canadian former backstroke and freestyle swimmer. He competed in three events at the 1948 Summer Olympics.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nEric Jubb at World Aquatics\\nEric Jubb at Olympedia\",\n \"title\": \"Eric_Jubb\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 1948 Olympic Games took place between 30 and 31 July at the Empire Pool. There were 41 competitors from 19 nations. Nations had been limited to three swimmers each since the 1924 Games. The event was won by Wally Ris, returning the United States to the podium in the event after a one-Games absence broke a seven-Games streak. It was the sixth victory for an American in the 100 metre freestyle, most of any nation. Another American, Alan Ford, took silver. Géza Kádas of Hungary earned bronze, the nation's third medal in four Games. Japan's three-Games medal streak in the event ended with no Japanese swimmers competing due to the nation not being invited after World War II.\\n\\nBackground\\nThis was the 10th appearance of the men's 100 metre freestyle. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1900 (when the shortest freestyle was the 200 metres), though the 1904 version was measured in yards rather than metres.\\nNone of the seven finalists from the pre-World War II 1936 Games returned. Alex Jany, a teenager from France, was the favorite in the event. The American team, including world record holder Alan Ford, was also strong. Ford had beaten Jany's record a month before the Games.\\nCuba, Iceland, India, and Mexico each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 10th appearance, having competed at each edition of the event to date.\\n\\nCompetition format\\nThe competition used a three-round (quarterfinals, semifinals, final) format. The advancement rule was a modification of the one used since 1912, allowing the top swimmers in each race plus one or more wild cards to advance. For this event, the top two in each preliminary heat plus the next four fastest swimmers would advance to the semifinals; the top three in each semifinal plus the next two fastest swimmers would move on to the final. There were 6 heats of between 6 and 8 swimmers, allowing 16 swimmers to advance to the semifinals. The 2 semifinals had 8 swimmers each; 8 advanced to the final.\\nThis swimming event used freestyle swimming, which means that the method of the stroke is not regulated (unlike backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly events). Nearly all swimmers use the front crawl or a variant of that stroke. Because an Olympic-size swimming pool is 50 metres long, this race consisted of two lengths of the pool.\\n\\nRecords\\nThese were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 1948 Summer Olympics.\\n\\nWally Ris equaled the Olympic record in the second semifinal with 57.5 seconds, then beat it with 57.3 seconds in the final.\\n\\nSchedule\\nResults\\nHeats\\nHeat 1\\nHeat 2\\nHeat 3\\nHeat 4\\nHeat 5\\nHeat 6\\nSemifinals\\nSemifinal 1\\nSemifinal 2\\nFinal\\nJany led at halfway but fell back into the pack after the turn. Ford led until the 80 metre point, when Ris passed him. Kádas, in a tight race with Ford for second place, crashed into the lane divider just before the end of the race.\\n\\nResults summary\\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"Swimming_at_the_1948_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men%27s_100_metre_freestyle\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Sachin Nag (Bengali: শচীন নাগ; 5 July 1920 – 19 August 1987) was an Indian swimmer. He won the gold medal in men's 100 m freestyle at the 1951 Asian Games, the first ever gold medal for India at the Asian Games. It remains the only gold medal won by India in Asian Games swimming as of the conclusion of the 2022 Asian Games. He was also a member of the bronze medal-winning Indian teams in the men's 4x100 m freestyle relay and the men's 3x100 m medley relay at the 1951 Asian Games. \\nHe competed in the men's 100 m freestyle at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He also competed in the water polo at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. He scored four goals on behalf of India.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nSachin Nag at World Aquatics\\nSachin Nag at Olympedia\",\n \"title\": \"Sachin_Nag\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 3,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Ali Ahmed Mustafa Baghdady (Arabic: علي مصطفى بغدادي) (4 December 1922 – 22 January 2005) was the Egyptian Air Force commander from 1969 to 1972. He was also an Olympic swimmer and water polo player, and competed in the London 1948 Olympics. He died in January 2005 due to complications of a stroke.\\n\\nEarly life and family\\nAli Baghdady was born in Cairo, Egypt, to parents Mustafa and Nabaweya. His father ran the Egyptian Post office until the early 1960s. He had three brothers: the late Adli, a prominent judge and deputy minister of justice, the late Ibrahim, the governor of Cairo and intelligence officer, and the late Hassan, an engineer and executive of the Egyptian national sugar factories. His sisters were Nadia, Fayza and Nehal. In 1951 he married Seyada Mashour, and with her he had three sons: Amr, Essam and Tarek.\\n\\nEducation and military career\\nHe attended the Tawfikeya school in Shubra, Cairo, where he gained a baccalaureate degree. He then joined the Military Academy and graduated as an officer in the Egyptian Armed forces. He then joined the Air Force academy and progressed his career as an officer and pilot in the Egyptian Air Force. He served under King Farouk, President Gamal Abdel Nasser and President Anwar Sadat. In 1969 General Baghdady was appointed the Commander of the Egyptian Air Force (while it was part of the United Arab Republic Air Force). In 1972 he was succeeded by Hosni Mubarak (who was later to become president of Egypt) as the Commander of the air force. In October 2016 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant general by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.\\n\\nSport\\nAli Baghdady was Egypt's short distance swimming champion and captain of the national water polo team. He represented his country at the 1948 London Olympics. In the 1970s he was also President of the Egyptian squash association, and later went on to play tennis in the over 40s category.\\n\\nOlympic participation\\nBaghdady participated in the following events at the 1948 Summer Olympics for Egypt:\\n\\nMen's 100 metres Freestyle - Scored 4th of 6 in Round One Heat Three\\nMen's 4 × 200 metres Freestyle Relay - Scored 7th of 7 in Round One Heat Two\\n\\nArt\\nAli Baghdady was a keen artist and carpenter, and was tutored in the 1950s by Italian artist Menotti in oil painting.\\n\\nReferences\\n\\nEgyptian Armed Forces - Egyptian Air Force Commander - Maj Gen Ali Mustafa Baghdady\",\n \"title\": \"Ali_Mustafa_Baghdady\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 4,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Warren Boyd (23 December 1926 – 17 December 2018) was an Australian swimmer. He competed in the men's 100 metre freestyle at the 1948 Summer Olympics.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nWarren Boyd at World Aquatics\\nWarren Boyd at Olympedia\\nWarren Boyd at the Australian Olympic Committee\",\n \"title\": \"Warren_Boyd_(swimmer)\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 5,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Alberto Isaac (18 March 1923 – 9 January 1998) was a Mexican freestyle swimmer and later a film director and screenwriter. He competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics and the 1952 Summer Olympics.\\nIn 1969, he directed the documentary film The Olympics in Mexico which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In 1980 he was a member of the jury at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1987, he was a member of the jury at the 15th Moscow International Film Festival.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nAlberto Isaac at World Aquatics\\nAlberto Isaac at Olympedia\\nAlberto Isaac at IMDb\",\n \"title\": \"Alberto_Isaac\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 6,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Géza Kádas (1926–1979) was a Hungarian swimmer and Olympic medalist. He participated at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics, winning a silver medal in 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay, and a bronze medal in 100 metre freestyle in 1948.\\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"G%C3%A9za_K%C3%A1das\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Who did the Canadian swimmer Eric Lamont compete against in Heat 3 of the freestyle competition that he was older than?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"No one, he was the youngest."},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":695,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"695"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Bonaventure Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah, Georgia. The cemetery's prominence grew when it was featured in the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, and in the subsequent movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, based on the book. It is the largest of the city's municipal cemeteries, containing nearly 160 acres (0.65 km2).\nThe entrance to the cemetery is located at 330 Bonaventure Road. Immediately inside the gates is the large and ornate Gaston Tomb, built in memory of William Gaston, a prominent merchant.\n\nHistory\nThe cemetery is located on the former site of Bonaventure Plantation, originally owned by Colonel John Mullryne. On March 10, 1846, Commodore Josiah Tattnall III sold the 600-acre (2.4 km2) plantation and its private cemetery to Peter Wiltberger. The first burials took place in 1850, and three years later, Peter Wiltberger himself was entombed in a family vault.\nMajor William H. Wiltberger, the son of Peter, formed the Evergreen Cemetery Company on June 12, 1868. On July 7, 1907, the City of Savannah purchased the Evergreen Cemetery Company, making the cemetery public and changing the name to Bonaventure Cemetery.\nIn 1867, John Muir began his Thousand Mile Walk to Florida and the Gulf. In October, he sojourned for six days and nights in the cemetery, sleeping upon graves overnight, this being the safest and cheapest accommodation that he could find while he waited for money to be expressed from home. He found the cemetery breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring and wrote a lengthy chapter upon it, \"Camping in the Tombs\":\n\nPart of the grounds was cultivated and planted with live-oak (Quercus virginiana), about a hundred years ago, by a wealthy gentleman who had his country residence here But much the greater part is undisturbed. Even those spots which are disordered by art, Nature is ever at work to reclaim, and to make them look as if the foot of man had never known them. Only a small plot of ground is occupied with graves and the old mansion is in ruins.\nThe most conspicuous glory of Bonaventure is its noble avenue of live-oaks. They are the most magnificent planted trees I have ever seen, about fifty feet high and perhaps three or four feet in diameter, with broad spreading leafy heads. The main branches reach out horizontally until they come together over the driveway, embowering it throughout its entire length, while each branch is adorned like a garden with ferns, flowers, grasses, and dwarf palmettos.\nBut of all the plants of these curious tree-gardens the most striking and characteristic is the so-called Long Moss (Tillandsia usneoides). It drapes all the branches from top to bottom, hanging in long silvery-gray skeins, reaching a length of not less than eight or ten feet, and when slowly waving in the wind they produce a solemn funereal effect singularly impressive.\nThere are also thousands of smaller trees and clustered bushes, covered almost from sight in the glorious brightness of their own light. The place is half surrounded by the salt marshes and islands of the river, their reeds and sedges making a delightful fringe. Many bald eagles roost among the trees along the side of the marsh. Their screams are heard every morning, joined with the noise of crows and the songs of countless warblers, hidden deep in their dwellings of leafy bowers. Large flocks of butterflies, flies, all kinds of happy insects, seem to be in a perfect fever of joy and sportive gladness. The whole place seems like a center of life. The dead do not reign there alone.\nBonaventure to me is one of the most impressive assemblages of animal and plant creatures I ever met. I was fresh from the Western prairies, the garden-like openings of Wisconsin, the beech and maple and oak woods of Indiana and Kentucky, the dark mysterious Savannah cypress forests; but never since I was allowed to walk the woods have I found so impressive a company of trees as the tillandsia-draped oaks of Bonaventure.\nI gazed awe-stricken as one new-arrived from another world. Bonaventure is called a graveyard, a town of the dead, but the few graves are powerless in such a depth of life. The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord’s most favored abodes of life and light.\n– \"Camping in the Tombs,\" from A Thousand Mile Walk\n\nGreenwich Cemetery became an addition to Bonaventure in 1933.\n\nOperations\nCitizens of Savannah and others may purchase interment rights in Bonaventure.\nThe cemetery is open to the public daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. There is no admission fee.\nAdjacent to Bonaventure Cemetery is the privately owned and newer Forest Lawn Cemetery and Columbarium.\n\nDepartment of Cemeteries\nThe main office of the City of Savannah's Department of Cemeteries is located on the Bonaventure Cemetery grounds in the Bonaventure Administrative Building at the entrance.\n\nBonaventure Historical Society\nThe cemetery became the subject of a non-profit group, the Bonaventure Historical Society, in May 1997. The group has compiled an index of the burials at the cemetery.\n\nBird Girl\nThe cover photograph for the best-selling book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, taken by Jack Leigh, featured an evocative sculpture of a young girl, the so-called Bird Girl, that had been in the cemetery, essentially unnoticed, for over 50 years. After the publication of the book, the sculpture was relocated from the cemetery in 1997 for display in Telfair Museums in Savannah. In late 2014, the statue was moved to a dedicated space in the Telfair Museums' Jepson Center for the Arts on West York Street, in Savannah.\n\nNotable burials\nSamuel B. Adams, interim Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia\nConrad Aiken, novelist and poet\nRobert Houstoun Anderson (1835–1888), 2nd Lieutenant US Army, General CSA Army, Chief of Police City of Savannah\nMiddleton Barnwell, bishop\nEdythe Chapman, actress\nHugh Comer (1842–1900), president of the Georgia Central Railway\nWilliam B. Hodgson (1801–1871), diplomat and scholar. Although he arranged with (and paid) William H. Wiltberger for burial lot 13 of section D, he was interred in lot 19 of the same section. The family of Noble Jones, including his son Noble Wimberly Jones, occupies lot 13.\nAnna Colquitt Hunter (1892–1985), co-founder of Historic Savannah Foundation\nNoble Wimberly Jones (c. 1723–1805), physician and statesman\nJack Leigh, photographer, author\nHugh W. Mercer, Civil War Army officer and Confederate general\nJohnny Mercer, singer/songwriter and great-grandson of Hugh W. Mercer\nJames Neill, actor\nEdward Padelford (1799–1870), businessman for whom Savannah's Padelford Ward is named\nMarie Louise Scudder Myrick (1854–1934), First Female Owner, Editor, Publisher of a Southern US Newspaper (1895), The Americus Times-Recorder\nSonny Seiler (1933–2023), attorney\nJohn Stoddard, president of the Georgia Historical Society and the first president of Evergreen Cemetery Company\nJosiah Tattnall Jr. (1765–1803), Senator, General, and Georgia Governor\nJosiah Tattnall III (1795–1871), Commodore USN, Captain CSA Navy\nEdward Telfair, governor\nMary Telfair, philanthropist and art collector, daughter of Edward\nGeorge Tiedeman, mayor of Savannah\nF. Bland Tucker, Episcopal minister and hymn writer\nJohn Walz (1844–1922), sculptor\nGracie Watson, famous statue at her gravesite, 6 years old\nClaudius Charles Wilson (1831–1863), Civil War Confederate brigadier General\nRosa Louise Woodberry (1869–1932), journalist, educator\nBartholomew Zouberbuhler (1719–1766), early Presbyterian minister\nSpanish–American War veterans from Worth Bagley Camp #10 in Section K. It is the nation's second-largest area dedicated to those killed in the Spanish–American War\n\nGallery\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nBonaventure Historical Society\nPictures from Bonaventure Cemetery\nBonaventure Cemetery at Find a Grave \n Media related to Bonaventure Cemetery at Wikimedia Commons","title":"Bonaventure_Cemetery"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Colonial Park Cemetery (locally and informally known as Colonial Cemetery) is a historic cemetery located in downtown Savannah, Georgia. It became a city park in 1896, 43 years after burials in the cemetery ceased.\nThe cemetery was established in 1750, when Savannah was the capital of the British Province of Georgia, last of the Thirteen Colonies. By 1789 it had expanded three times to reach its current six acres bounded by East Oglethorpe Avenue (to the north), Habersham Street (east), East Perry Lane (south) and Abercorn Street (west). Savannah's primary public cemetery throughout its 103 active years, its previous names have included the Old Cemetery, Old Brick Graveyard, South Broad Street Cemetery, and Christ Church Cemetery.\n\nHistory\nOriginally built as the burial ground for the Christ Church Parish, in 1789 it became a cemetery for Savannahians of all denominations.\nThe Gaston Tomb was built in Colonial Park Cemetery in 1844, but was moved to Bonaventure Cemetery in 1873.\nThe cemetery was closed to burials in 1853, some eight years before the start of the American Civil War, so no Confederate soldiers are interred there. After Union troops occupied Savannah on December 24, 1864, the graveyard became a temporary home to \"several hundred\" Union soldiers. Soldiers allegedly damaged or defaced some of the stone markers (including altering some dates and ages) and sheltered inside vaults, including the Gaston Tomb.\n\nNotable burials\nJohn Berrien (1759–1815), major in the American Revolution (father of John M. Berrien, senator and attorney general)\nArchibald Bulloch (1730–1777), governor of Georgia's Provincial Congress\nSamuel Elbert (1740–1788), Revolutionary soldier and a governor of the state of Georgia\nButton Gwinnett (1735–1777), a signer of the Declaration of Independence\nJames Habersham (1712–1775), acting royal governor of the Province of Georgia (father of John, Joseph and James Habersham Jr.)\nJohn Habersham (1754–1799), member of the Continental Congress (son of James Habersham, brother of Joseph and James Habersham Jr.)\nJoseph Habersham (1751–1815), Postmaster General of the United States under three presidents (son of James Habersham, brother of John and James Habersham Jr.)\n\nEdward Malbone (1777–1807), painter\nLachlan McIntosh (1725–1806), major general in the Continental Army\nWilliam Scarbrough, (1776–1838), sea captain\nMore than 700 victims of Savannah's 1820 yellow fever epidemic are also buried here.\nThe remains of major general Nathanael Greene (1742–1786) reposed in the cemetery's Graham vault between 1786 and 1901, at which point they were reinterred in Johnson Square, along with the remains of his eldest son, George. His remains had shared the vault with those of John Maitland, his arch-rival in the Revolutionary War. Maitland's remains were returned to his native Scotland in 1981.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nA map of the cemetery\nColonial Park Cemetery at Find a Grave","title":"Colonial_Park_Cemetery"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a non-fiction novel by John Berendt. The book, Berendt's first, was published on January 10, 1994, and follows the story of Jim Williams, an antiques dealer on trial for the killing of Danny Hansford. Subtitled A Savannah Story, with an initial printing of 25,000 copies, the book became a New York Times Best-Seller for 216 weeks following its debut and remains one of the longest-standing New York Times Best-Sellers.\nBerendt combined self-witnessed experiences during his time living in Savannah (roughly four years after the shooting) with stories from the preceding years recounted to him by locals; he catches up with proceedings around the book's mid-point. Williams was a free man during Berendt's five years in Savannah. The author took some liberties with his writing, including creating a relationship between Joe Odom and Nancy Hillis.\nThe character Serena Dawes was based on silent-film actress and heiress Helen Avis Drexel, while voodoo priestess Valerie Boles was the inspiration for Minerva.\nThe book was adapted for Clint Eastwood's 1997 film, with several characters' names changed to protect their privacy. Maybe to \"protect the innocent,\" said Sonny Seiler, Williams's attorney. \"Well, I don't know how innocent they were, but he didn't change any of the facts.\" John Lee Hancock wrote the screenplay, after Berendt favored his script over that of Alfred Uhry.\nThe book's title is shared by the title of chapter 18. Berendt dedicated the book to his parents.\n\nBackground\nBerendt gave the finished manuscript to his agent, who enjoyed it but said it was \"too local\" and that no publisher would take a chance on it. She gave the manuscript back to Berendt, who found another agent. Within a week, she had four major publishers bidding for it. Random House were the successful bidders. It was published in January 1994, fourteen months after Berendt finished writing it. They did not change a word of the manuscript.\nIn tone, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is atmospherically Deep South coastal (Savannah, Georgia, and Beaufort, South Carolina) and Southern Gothic, depicting a wide range of eccentric personalities in and around Savannah.\nThe central narrative concerns the shooting of Danny Hansford, a local male prostitute, characterized as \"a good time not yet had by all\" by Prentiss Crowe, a Savannah socialite. The perpetrator was respected antiques dealer Jim Williams, who was also his employer and casual sexual partner. Hansford's death resulted in four murder trials, with the final one ending in acquittal after the judge finally agreed to a change of venue to move the case away from the Savannah jury pool. The book describes Williams' version of the killing, which is that it was in \"self-defense\"—the result of Hansford, who was prone to fits of rage, shooting at Williams with a gun that was on display, and Williams shooting back to protect himself—and not murder, pre-meditated or otherwise, by Williams. The death occurred in Williams' Mercer House home, the ground floor of which is now a museum.\nThe book highlights many other notable Savannah residents, including The Lady Chablis, a local transgender woman, club performer, and entertainer. Chablis provides both a Greek chorus of sorts as well as a light-hearted contrast to the more serious action. Chablis was given a dedicated chapter, as was Emma Kelly, the \"Lady of 6,000 Songs.\"\n\nCharacters and events\nThe book's plot is based on real-life events that occurred in the 1980s and is classified as non-fiction. Because it reads like a novel (and rearranges the sequence of true events in time), it is sometimes referred to as a \"non-fiction novel.\"\n\nAlthough the book's timeline is set to coincide with the entire saga of Jim Williams' arrest and four trials for murder, in reality Berendt did not meet Williams for the first time until March 1982 — six weeks after the millionaire had been convicted of murder and released pending appeal. Two years later, after Berendt had decided he wanted to write a book, Williams agreed to be interviewed by Berendt in jail. \"I might be interested in cooperating with you,\" he told Berendt. \"I really want my story out.\" Berendt flew down to Savannah. \"Jim actually saw very few people in jail. He didn't like to be in such reduced circumstances. He always wanted to be on his own turf, where he could entertain people, and control people.\"\nBerendt did not move to Savannah to collect material for his book until 1985 — after Williams' second conviction. Berendt attended the third and fourth trials. Williams was a free man and living in Mercer House during Berendt's five years in Savannah. \"He was available to me and very cooperative,\" Berendt said in 2015.\n\"When I started the book, I knew about the shooting,\" said Berendt. \"It did not happen in the middle of my being there. But I moved it to the middle of the book so that you could meet everybody in Savannah and get to know Savannah before this shocking event happened.\"\n\"The only fictional character in the book is the narrator, me, until I catch up with myself midway through the book,\" Berendt said in 1995. \"I felt that was a legitimate license to take. The book is 99 percent true and 1 percent exaggeration.\"\nIn the first chapter, Berendt and Williams are interrupted by Hansford's screaming entrance; this happened prior to Williams and Berendt's first meeting in 1982. \"Jim was having drinks with somebody else,\" explains Berendt. \"Jim told me about it and so did somebody else. So I reconstructed it, put myself in there. The first evening in Mercer House is a combination of a lot of stories he told me. Then afterward, I meet all these people — Joe Odom, Chablis, Lee Adler. I met all these people, obviously, after the murder, but they don't impact the murder at all, so I simply put them right after my meeting with Jim, and it seems as though I met them before the shooting and I didn't, but so what? All of those meetings with people were actual meetings. They took place in '85 or later, and they are pretty much verbatim what happened with those people and me.\"\nJim Williams' confession to Berendt before the third trial was recorded on a Dictaphone by the author. \"If [Williams] had not died, I don't know what I would have done, because I'm pretty sure he would not have wanted that in the book.\"\nLee Adler initially shunned Berendt after the book's release, claiming he was misrepresented. \"At first he wouldn't talk to me; now, he shakes my hand,\" said Berendt.\nNancy Hillis, who appears as Mandy Nichols, later explained that, contrary to Berendt's portrayal of her, she did not meet Joe Odom until he had moved from 16 East Jones Street to 101 East Oglethorpe Avenue. She also clarified that there was no romantic relationship between her and Odom, largely because Odom was gay.\nThe person represented by Serena Dawes (based on Helen Avis Drexel) died in 1974, over twenty years before the book's release.\nMinerva is based on Valerie Boles, a root doctor from South Carolina.\nRegarding the high number of eccentric characters in Savannah, Berendt's belief is that it is because gossip was so important during his time in the city. \"People in Savannah gossip more than anywhere else,\" he said. \"What do people gossip about? Other people's behavior. The stranger the behavior, the better the gossip. The person that is being gossiped about knows they are being appreciated and attempts to outdo themself on the strangeness.\"\nIn 2024, Berendt stated that he believed Williams was guilty of murder.\n\nTitle\nThe title alludes to the hoodoo notion of \"midnight,\" the period between the time for good magic (11:30pm to midnight) and the time for evil magic (midnight to 12:30am).\nAlthough Bonaventure Cemetery is the focus in the book, \"the garden of good and evil\" refers principally to the cemetery off Congress Street in Beaufort, South Carolina, where Dr. Louis Buzzard, the husband of Minerva, the folk-magic practitioner who figures in the story, is buried. It is over his grave that Minerva performed the incantations to ensure a more successful result in the retrial for the case of Jim Williams. (The marriage between Minerva and Dr. Buzzard was the invention of John Berendt. Dr. Buzzard was based on Stephen Robinson, who died in 1947, aged 61 or 62.)\n\nCover\nThe Bird Girl statue, designed both as art and as a birdseed holder, was originally located in Bonaventure Cemetery. A Savannah photographer, Jack Leigh, was commissioned to take a photograph for the cover of the book. The cover image became immediately iconic, with author John Berendt calling it \"one of the strongest covers I've ever seen\", and the statue became a popular stop for tourists. Owing to rising concerns about the integrity of the statue and the cemetery's privacy, Bird Girl was relocated in 1997 for display in Telfair Museums in Savannah.\n\nLegacy\nIn 1993, the year before the book's publication, Savannah had five million visitors, who spent almost $600 million during their time in the city. Two years after the book's release, Savannah was seeing a 46% increase in tourism. Twenty years later, the number of visitors to the city had jumped to 12.5 million, spending $2.2 billion. Joseph Marinelli, president of the Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau, does not attribute the city's popularity growth entirely to Midnight, but that it had a significant impact.\nDorothy Kingery, Jim Williams's sister, did not like the book. \"She kept everything hush-hush,\" explained Sonny Seiler, the Williams family attorney, \"but now she lets tourists go through Mercer–Williams House. But they cannot talk about the unpleasantness or what went on in that study on the first floor.\"\nThe story was turned into a musical in 2024 with lyrics and music by Jason Robert Brown and book by Taylor Mac.\n\nAwards\nThe book won the 1995 Boeke Prize and was one of the finalists for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.\n\nAudiobook\nJeff Woodman recorded the audiobook version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. He stated that Berendt's effort, along with that of Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game, was the most challenging to record: \"Especially because all the characters in Midnight have the same damned Savannah accent, so you can't toss in a little North Country to help differentiate them!\" he said in 2010.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\n\"Photos of the first edition of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil\". Mansion Books.\n\"Booknotes interview with Berendt on Midnight\". C-SPAN. August 1997.\n\"Official book site\". RandomHouse.com.","title":"Midnight_in_the_Garden_of_Good_and_Evil"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Bonaventure Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah, Georgia. The cemetery's prominence grew when it was featured in the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, and in the subsequent movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, based on the book. It is the largest of the city's municipal cemeteries, containing nearly 160 acres (0.65 km2).\\nThe entrance to the cemetery is located at 330 Bonaventure Road. Immediately inside the gates is the large and ornate Gaston Tomb, built in memory of William Gaston, a prominent merchant.\\n\\nHistory\\nThe cemetery is located on the former site of Bonaventure Plantation, originally owned by Colonel John Mullryne. On March 10, 1846, Commodore Josiah Tattnall III sold the 600-acre (2.4 km2) plantation and its private cemetery to Peter Wiltberger. The first burials took place in 1850, and three years later, Peter Wiltberger himself was entombed in a family vault.\\nMajor William H. Wiltberger, the son of Peter, formed the Evergreen Cemetery Company on June 12, 1868. On July 7, 1907, the City of Savannah purchased the Evergreen Cemetery Company, making the cemetery public and changing the name to Bonaventure Cemetery.\\nIn 1867, John Muir began his Thousand Mile Walk to Florida and the Gulf. In October, he sojourned for six days and nights in the cemetery, sleeping upon graves overnight, this being the safest and cheapest accommodation that he could find while he waited for money to be expressed from home. He found the cemetery breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring and wrote a lengthy chapter upon it, \\\"Camping in the Tombs\\\":\\n\\nPart of the grounds was cultivated and planted with live-oak (Quercus virginiana), about a hundred years ago, by a wealthy gentleman who had his country residence here But much the greater part is undisturbed. Even those spots which are disordered by art, Nature is ever at work to reclaim, and to make them look as if the foot of man had never known them. Only a small plot of ground is occupied with graves and the old mansion is in ruins.\\nThe most conspicuous glory of Bonaventure is its noble avenue of live-oaks. They are the most magnificent planted trees I have ever seen, about fifty feet high and perhaps three or four feet in diameter, with broad spreading leafy heads. The main branches reach out horizontally until they come together over the driveway, embowering it throughout its entire length, while each branch is adorned like a garden with ferns, flowers, grasses, and dwarf palmettos.\\nBut of all the plants of these curious tree-gardens the most striking and characteristic is the so-called Long Moss (Tillandsia usneoides). It drapes all the branches from top to bottom, hanging in long silvery-gray skeins, reaching a length of not less than eight or ten feet, and when slowly waving in the wind they produce a solemn funereal effect singularly impressive.\\nThere are also thousands of smaller trees and clustered bushes, covered almost from sight in the glorious brightness of their own light. The place is half surrounded by the salt marshes and islands of the river, their reeds and sedges making a delightful fringe. Many bald eagles roost among the trees along the side of the marsh. Their screams are heard every morning, joined with the noise of crows and the songs of countless warblers, hidden deep in their dwellings of leafy bowers. Large flocks of butterflies, flies, all kinds of happy insects, seem to be in a perfect fever of joy and sportive gladness. The whole place seems like a center of life. The dead do not reign there alone.\\nBonaventure to me is one of the most impressive assemblages of animal and plant creatures I ever met. I was fresh from the Western prairies, the garden-like openings of Wisconsin, the beech and maple and oak woods of Indiana and Kentucky, the dark mysterious Savannah cypress forests; but never since I was allowed to walk the woods have I found so impressive a company of trees as the tillandsia-draped oaks of Bonaventure.\\nI gazed awe-stricken as one new-arrived from another world. Bonaventure is called a graveyard, a town of the dead, but the few graves are powerless in such a depth of life. The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord’s most favored abodes of life and light.\\n– \\\"Camping in the Tombs,\\\" from A Thousand Mile Walk\\n\\nGreenwich Cemetery became an addition to Bonaventure in 1933.\\n\\nOperations\\nCitizens of Savannah and others may purchase interment rights in Bonaventure.\\nThe cemetery is open to the public daily from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. There is no admission fee.\\nAdjacent to Bonaventure Cemetery is the privately owned and newer Forest Lawn Cemetery and Columbarium.\\n\\nDepartment of Cemeteries\\nThe main office of the City of Savannah's Department of Cemeteries is located on the Bonaventure Cemetery grounds in the Bonaventure Administrative Building at the entrance.\\n\\nBonaventure Historical Society\\nThe cemetery became the subject of a non-profit group, the Bonaventure Historical Society, in May 1997. The group has compiled an index of the burials at the cemetery.\\n\\nBird Girl\\nThe cover photograph for the best-selling book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, taken by Jack Leigh, featured an evocative sculpture of a young girl, the so-called Bird Girl, that had been in the cemetery, essentially unnoticed, for over 50 years. After the publication of the book, the sculpture was relocated from the cemetery in 1997 for display in Telfair Museums in Savannah. In late 2014, the statue was moved to a dedicated space in the Telfair Museums' Jepson Center for the Arts on West York Street, in Savannah.\\n\\nNotable burials\\nSamuel B. Adams, interim Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia\\nConrad Aiken, novelist and poet\\nRobert Houstoun Anderson (1835–1888), 2nd Lieutenant US Army, General CSA Army, Chief of Police City of Savannah\\nMiddleton Barnwell, bishop\\nEdythe Chapman, actress\\nHugh Comer (1842–1900), president of the Georgia Central Railway\\nWilliam B. Hodgson (1801–1871), diplomat and scholar. Although he arranged with (and paid) William H. Wiltberger for burial lot 13 of section D, he was interred in lot 19 of the same section. The family of Noble Jones, including his son Noble Wimberly Jones, occupies lot 13.\\nAnna Colquitt Hunter (1892–1985), co-founder of Historic Savannah Foundation\\nNoble Wimberly Jones (c. 1723–1805), physician and statesman\\nJack Leigh, photographer, author\\nHugh W. Mercer, Civil War Army officer and Confederate general\\nJohnny Mercer, singer/songwriter and great-grandson of Hugh W. Mercer\\nJames Neill, actor\\nEdward Padelford (1799–1870), businessman for whom Savannah's Padelford Ward is named\\nMarie Louise Scudder Myrick (1854–1934), First Female Owner, Editor, Publisher of a Southern US Newspaper (1895), The Americus Times-Recorder\\nSonny Seiler (1933–2023), attorney\\nJohn Stoddard, president of the Georgia Historical Society and the first president of Evergreen Cemetery Company\\nJosiah Tattnall Jr. (1765–1803), Senator, General, and Georgia Governor\\nJosiah Tattnall III (1795–1871), Commodore USN, Captain CSA Navy\\nEdward Telfair, governor\\nMary Telfair, philanthropist and art collector, daughter of Edward\\nGeorge Tiedeman, mayor of Savannah\\nF. Bland Tucker, Episcopal minister and hymn writer\\nJohn Walz (1844–1922), sculptor\\nGracie Watson, famous statue at her gravesite, 6 years old\\nClaudius Charles Wilson (1831–1863), Civil War Confederate brigadier General\\nRosa Louise Woodberry (1869–1932), journalist, educator\\nBartholomew Zouberbuhler (1719–1766), early Presbyterian minister\\nSpanish–American War veterans from Worth Bagley Camp #10 in Section K. It is the nation's second-largest area dedicated to those killed in the Spanish–American War\\n\\nGallery\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nBonaventure Historical Society\\nPictures from Bonaventure Cemetery\\nBonaventure Cemetery at Find a Grave \\n Media related to Bonaventure Cemetery at Wikimedia Commons\",\n \"title\": \"Bonaventure_Cemetery\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Colonial Park Cemetery (locally and informally known as Colonial Cemetery) is a historic cemetery located in downtown Savannah, Georgia. It became a city park in 1896, 43 years after burials in the cemetery ceased.\\nThe cemetery was established in 1750, when Savannah was the capital of the British Province of Georgia, last of the Thirteen Colonies. By 1789 it had expanded three times to reach its current six acres bounded by East Oglethorpe Avenue (to the north), Habersham Street (east), East Perry Lane (south) and Abercorn Street (west). Savannah's primary public cemetery throughout its 103 active years, its previous names have included the Old Cemetery, Old Brick Graveyard, South Broad Street Cemetery, and Christ Church Cemetery.\\n\\nHistory\\nOriginally built as the burial ground for the Christ Church Parish, in 1789 it became a cemetery for Savannahians of all denominations.\\nThe Gaston Tomb was built in Colonial Park Cemetery in 1844, but was moved to Bonaventure Cemetery in 1873.\\nThe cemetery was closed to burials in 1853, some eight years before the start of the American Civil War, so no Confederate soldiers are interred there. After Union troops occupied Savannah on December 24, 1864, the graveyard became a temporary home to \\\"several hundred\\\" Union soldiers. Soldiers allegedly damaged or defaced some of the stone markers (including altering some dates and ages) and sheltered inside vaults, including the Gaston Tomb.\\n\\nNotable burials\\nJohn Berrien (1759–1815), major in the American Revolution (father of John M. Berrien, senator and attorney general)\\nArchibald Bulloch (1730–1777), governor of Georgia's Provincial Congress\\nSamuel Elbert (1740–1788), Revolutionary soldier and a governor of the state of Georgia\\nButton Gwinnett (1735–1777), a signer of the Declaration of Independence\\nJames Habersham (1712–1775), acting royal governor of the Province of Georgia (father of John, Joseph and James Habersham Jr.)\\nJohn Habersham (1754–1799), member of the Continental Congress (son of James Habersham, brother of Joseph and James Habersham Jr.)\\nJoseph Habersham (1751–1815), Postmaster General of the United States under three presidents (son of James Habersham, brother of John and James Habersham Jr.)\\n\\nEdward Malbone (1777–1807), painter\\nLachlan McIntosh (1725–1806), major general in the Continental Army\\nWilliam Scarbrough, (1776–1838), sea captain\\nMore than 700 victims of Savannah's 1820 yellow fever epidemic are also buried here.\\nThe remains of major general Nathanael Greene (1742–1786) reposed in the cemetery's Graham vault between 1786 and 1901, at which point they were reinterred in Johnson Square, along with the remains of his eldest son, George. His remains had shared the vault with those of John Maitland, his arch-rival in the Revolutionary War. Maitland's remains were returned to his native Scotland in 1981.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nA map of the cemetery\\nColonial Park Cemetery at Find a Grave\",\n \"title\": \"Colonial_Park_Cemetery\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a non-fiction novel by John Berendt. The book, Berendt's first, was published on January 10, 1994, and follows the story of Jim Williams, an antiques dealer on trial for the killing of Danny Hansford. Subtitled A Savannah Story, with an initial printing of 25,000 copies, the book became a New York Times Best-Seller for 216 weeks following its debut and remains one of the longest-standing New York Times Best-Sellers.\\nBerendt combined self-witnessed experiences during his time living in Savannah (roughly four years after the shooting) with stories from the preceding years recounted to him by locals; he catches up with proceedings around the book's mid-point. Williams was a free man during Berendt's five years in Savannah. The author took some liberties with his writing, including creating a relationship between Joe Odom and Nancy Hillis.\\nThe character Serena Dawes was based on silent-film actress and heiress Helen Avis Drexel, while voodoo priestess Valerie Boles was the inspiration for Minerva.\\nThe book was adapted for Clint Eastwood's 1997 film, with several characters' names changed to protect their privacy. Maybe to \\\"protect the innocent,\\\" said Sonny Seiler, Williams's attorney. \\\"Well, I don't know how innocent they were, but he didn't change any of the facts.\\\" John Lee Hancock wrote the screenplay, after Berendt favored his script over that of Alfred Uhry.\\nThe book's title is shared by the title of chapter 18. Berendt dedicated the book to his parents.\\n\\nBackground\\nBerendt gave the finished manuscript to his agent, who enjoyed it but said it was \\\"too local\\\" and that no publisher would take a chance on it. She gave the manuscript back to Berendt, who found another agent. Within a week, she had four major publishers bidding for it. Random House were the successful bidders. It was published in January 1994, fourteen months after Berendt finished writing it. They did not change a word of the manuscript.\\nIn tone, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is atmospherically Deep South coastal (Savannah, Georgia, and Beaufort, South Carolina) and Southern Gothic, depicting a wide range of eccentric personalities in and around Savannah.\\nThe central narrative concerns the shooting of Danny Hansford, a local male prostitute, characterized as \\\"a good time not yet had by all\\\" by Prentiss Crowe, a Savannah socialite. The perpetrator was respected antiques dealer Jim Williams, who was also his employer and casual sexual partner. Hansford's death resulted in four murder trials, with the final one ending in acquittal after the judge finally agreed to a change of venue to move the case away from the Savannah jury pool. The book describes Williams' version of the killing, which is that it was in \\\"self-defense\\\"—the result of Hansford, who was prone to fits of rage, shooting at Williams with a gun that was on display, and Williams shooting back to protect himself—and not murder, pre-meditated or otherwise, by Williams. The death occurred in Williams' Mercer House home, the ground floor of which is now a museum.\\nThe book highlights many other notable Savannah residents, including The Lady Chablis, a local transgender woman, club performer, and entertainer. Chablis provides both a Greek chorus of sorts as well as a light-hearted contrast to the more serious action. Chablis was given a dedicated chapter, as was Emma Kelly, the \\\"Lady of 6,000 Songs.\\\"\\n\\nCharacters and events\\nThe book's plot is based on real-life events that occurred in the 1980s and is classified as non-fiction. Because it reads like a novel (and rearranges the sequence of true events in time), it is sometimes referred to as a \\\"non-fiction novel.\\\"\\n\\nAlthough the book's timeline is set to coincide with the entire saga of Jim Williams' arrest and four trials for murder, in reality Berendt did not meet Williams for the first time until March 1982 — six weeks after the millionaire had been convicted of murder and released pending appeal. Two years later, after Berendt had decided he wanted to write a book, Williams agreed to be interviewed by Berendt in jail. \\\"I might be interested in cooperating with you,\\\" he told Berendt. \\\"I really want my story out.\\\" Berendt flew down to Savannah. \\\"Jim actually saw very few people in jail. He didn't like to be in such reduced circumstances. He always wanted to be on his own turf, where he could entertain people, and control people.\\\"\\nBerendt did not move to Savannah to collect material for his book until 1985 — after Williams' second conviction. Berendt attended the third and fourth trials. Williams was a free man and living in Mercer House during Berendt's five years in Savannah. \\\"He was available to me and very cooperative,\\\" Berendt said in 2015.\\n\\\"When I started the book, I knew about the shooting,\\\" said Berendt. \\\"It did not happen in the middle of my being there. But I moved it to the middle of the book so that you could meet everybody in Savannah and get to know Savannah before this shocking event happened.\\\"\\n\\\"The only fictional character in the book is the narrator, me, until I catch up with myself midway through the book,\\\" Berendt said in 1995. \\\"I felt that was a legitimate license to take. The book is 99 percent true and 1 percent exaggeration.\\\"\\nIn the first chapter, Berendt and Williams are interrupted by Hansford's screaming entrance; this happened prior to Williams and Berendt's first meeting in 1982. \\\"Jim was having drinks with somebody else,\\\" explains Berendt. \\\"Jim told me about it and so did somebody else. So I reconstructed it, put myself in there. The first evening in Mercer House is a combination of a lot of stories he told me. Then afterward, I meet all these people — Joe Odom, Chablis, Lee Adler. I met all these people, obviously, after the murder, but they don't impact the murder at all, so I simply put them right after my meeting with Jim, and it seems as though I met them before the shooting and I didn't, but so what? All of those meetings with people were actual meetings. They took place in '85 or later, and they are pretty much verbatim what happened with those people and me.\\\"\\nJim Williams' confession to Berendt before the third trial was recorded on a Dictaphone by the author. \\\"If [Williams] had not died, I don't know what I would have done, because I'm pretty sure he would not have wanted that in the book.\\\"\\nLee Adler initially shunned Berendt after the book's release, claiming he was misrepresented. \\\"At first he wouldn't talk to me; now, he shakes my hand,\\\" said Berendt.\\nNancy Hillis, who appears as Mandy Nichols, later explained that, contrary to Berendt's portrayal of her, she did not meet Joe Odom until he had moved from 16 East Jones Street to 101 East Oglethorpe Avenue. She also clarified that there was no romantic relationship between her and Odom, largely because Odom was gay.\\nThe person represented by Serena Dawes (based on Helen Avis Drexel) died in 1974, over twenty years before the book's release.\\nMinerva is based on Valerie Boles, a root doctor from South Carolina.\\nRegarding the high number of eccentric characters in Savannah, Berendt's belief is that it is because gossip was so important during his time in the city. \\\"People in Savannah gossip more than anywhere else,\\\" he said. \\\"What do people gossip about? Other people's behavior. The stranger the behavior, the better the gossip. The person that is being gossiped about knows they are being appreciated and attempts to outdo themself on the strangeness.\\\"\\nIn 2024, Berendt stated that he believed Williams was guilty of murder.\\n\\nTitle\\nThe title alludes to the hoodoo notion of \\\"midnight,\\\" the period between the time for good magic (11:30pm to midnight) and the time for evil magic (midnight to 12:30am).\\nAlthough Bonaventure Cemetery is the focus in the book, \\\"the garden of good and evil\\\" refers principally to the cemetery off Congress Street in Beaufort, South Carolina, where Dr. Louis Buzzard, the husband of Minerva, the folk-magic practitioner who figures in the story, is buried. It is over his grave that Minerva performed the incantations to ensure a more successful result in the retrial for the case of Jim Williams. (The marriage between Minerva and Dr. Buzzard was the invention of John Berendt. Dr. Buzzard was based on Stephen Robinson, who died in 1947, aged 61 or 62.)\\n\\nCover\\nThe Bird Girl statue, designed both as art and as a birdseed holder, was originally located in Bonaventure Cemetery. A Savannah photographer, Jack Leigh, was commissioned to take a photograph for the cover of the book. The cover image became immediately iconic, with author John Berendt calling it \\\"one of the strongest covers I've ever seen\\\", and the statue became a popular stop for tourists. Owing to rising concerns about the integrity of the statue and the cemetery's privacy, Bird Girl was relocated in 1997 for display in Telfair Museums in Savannah.\\n\\nLegacy\\nIn 1993, the year before the book's publication, Savannah had five million visitors, who spent almost $600 million during their time in the city. Two years after the book's release, Savannah was seeing a 46% increase in tourism. Twenty years later, the number of visitors to the city had jumped to 12.5 million, spending $2.2 billion. Joseph Marinelli, president of the Savannah Convention and Visitors Bureau, does not attribute the city's popularity growth entirely to Midnight, but that it had a significant impact.\\nDorothy Kingery, Jim Williams's sister, did not like the book. \\\"She kept everything hush-hush,\\\" explained Sonny Seiler, the Williams family attorney, \\\"but now she lets tourists go through Mercer–Williams House. But they cannot talk about the unpleasantness or what went on in that study on the first floor.\\\"\\nThe story was turned into a musical in 2024 with lyrics and music by Jason Robert Brown and book by Taylor Mac.\\n\\nAwards\\nThe book won the 1995 Boeke Prize and was one of the finalists for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.\\n\\nAudiobook\\nJeff Woodman recorded the audiobook version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. He stated that Berendt's effort, along with that of Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game, was the most challenging to record: \\\"Especially because all the characters in Midnight have the same damned Savannah accent, so you can't toss in a little North Country to help differentiate them!\\\" he said in 2010.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\n\\\"Photos of the first edition of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil\\\". Mansion Books.\\n\\\"Booknotes interview with Berendt on Midnight\\\". C-SPAN. August 1997.\\n\\\"Official book site\\\". RandomHouse.com.\",\n \"title\": \"Midnight_in_the_Garden_of_Good_and_Evil\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"I'm a spooky tourist and I'm visiting Savannah, GA. I'm going to visit two of the most well-known cemeteries, what Cemetery in Savannah is famous for being in a book and on a book cover? What was the book? There is another old cemetery downtown I want to visit, I heard epidemic victims were buried there. What epidemic and what years did it take place? How many victims are buried there?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Bonaventure Cemetery, \"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.\" Colonial Park, Yellow Fever; 1820s, estimated 700 victims."},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":696,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"696"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six friends in their 20s and early 30s who live in Manhattan, New York City. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Kauffman, and Crane.\nKauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the working title Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the show to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, including title changes to Six of One and Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends. Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions and Warner Bros. Television.\nThe show ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings; it ultimately reached the number-one spot in its eighth season. The series finale aired on May 6, 2004, and was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fifth-most-watched series finale in television history and the most-watched television episode of the 2000s. Friends received acclaim throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular television shows of all time. The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 for its eighth season. The show ranked no. 21 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and no. 5 on Empire magazine's The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 1997, the episode \"The One with the Prom Video\" was ranked no. 100 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time. In 2013, Friends ranked no. 24 on the Writers Guild of America's 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time, and no. 28 on TV Guide's 60 Best TV Series of All Time. The sitcom's cast members returned for Friends: The Reunion, a reunion special which was released on HBO Max on May 27, 2021.\n\nCast and characters\nMain cast\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nJennifer Aniston as Rachel Green: A fashion enthusiast and Monica Geller's best friend from childhood. Rachel first moves in with Monica in season one after nearly marrying Barry Farber. Rachel and Ross Geller are later involved in an on-again, off-again relationship throughout the series. Rachel dates other men during the series, such as Italian neighbor, Paolo, in season one; Joshua Bergin, a client from Bloomingdale's, in season four; Tag Jones, her assistant, in season seven; and Joey Tribbiani, one of her close friends, in season ten. Rachel's first job is as a waitress at the coffee house Central Perk, but she later becomes an assistant buyer at Bloomingdale's in season three, and a buyer at Ralph Lauren in season five. Rachel and Ross have a daughter named Emma in \"The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two\" at the end of season eight. In the final episode of the series, Ross and Rachel confess their love for each other, and Rachel gives up a dream fashion job at Louis Vuitton in Paris to be with him. Despite her friendliness, she is often self-centered and refuses to take responsibility for her actions.\nCourteney Cox as Monica Geller: The \"mother hen\" of the group and a chef, known for her perfectionist, bossy, competitive, and obsessive-compulsive nature. Monica was overweight as a child. She works as a chef in various restaurants throughout the show. Monica's first serious relationship is with a long-time family friend Richard Burke, who is 21 years her senior. The two maintain a strong relationship for some time until Richard expresses that he does not want to have children. Monica and Chandler, one of her best friends, later start a relationship after spending a night with each other in London in the season four finale, leading to their marriage in season seven and the adoption of twins at the end of the series. A running gag in the show is Chandler's easy-going and humorous nature conflicting with Monica's high-maintenance and compulsive behavior.\nLisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay: A masseuse and self-taught musician. She is usually the rudest member of the group, due to her often sniping comments. As a child, Phoebe lived in upstate New York with her mother, until her mother committed suicide and Phoebe took to the streets. She writes and sings her own strange songs, accompanying herself on the guitar. She has an identical twin named Ursula, who shares few of Phoebe's traits. Phoebe has three serious relationships over the show's run: David, a scientist, in season one, with whom she breaks up when he moves to Minsk on a research grant; Gary, a police officer whose badge she finds, in season five; and an on-and-off relationship with Mike Hannigan in seasons nine and ten. In season nine, Phoebe and Mike break up due to his desire not to marry. David returns from Minsk, leading to the two getting back together, but she eventually rejects him for Mike when both of them propose to her. Phoebe and Mike marry in season ten.\nMatt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani: A struggling actor and food lover who becomes famous for his role on soap opera Days of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray. Joey has many short-term girlfriends. Despite his womanizing and his dim-witted, often ignorant, behavior, Joey is innocent and well-intentioned. Joey often uses the catchphrase pick-up line \"How you doin'?\" in his attempts to win over most of the women he meets. Joey rooms with his best friend Chandler for years, and later with Rachel. He falls in love with Rachel in season eight, but Rachel politely tells Joey that she does not share his feelings. They eventually date briefly in season ten, but after realizing it will not work due to their friendship and Rachel's complicated relationship with Ross, they return to being friends. At the end of the series, he is the only remaining single member of the group, and becomes the main protagonist of the sequel series Joey.\nMatthew Perry as Chandler Bing: An executive in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration for a large, multinational corporation. Chandler hates this job, although it pays well. He attempts to quit during season one but is lured back with a new office and a pay raise. He eventually quits this job in season nine due to a transfer to Tulsa, Oklahoma. He becomes a junior copywriter at an advertising agency later that season. Chandler has a peculiar family history being the son of an erotic novelist mother and a gay, cross-dressing Las Vegas star father. Chandler is known for his sarcastic sense of humor, bad luck in relationships, and tendency to be the butt of all jokes. Despite this, he is still kind and usually serves as the voice of reason in contrast to his more arrogant and selfish friends. Chandler marries Monica, one of his best friends, in season seven, and they adopt twins at the end of the series. Before his relationship with Monica, Chandler dated Janice Hosenstein in season one and subsequently broke up with her many times.\nDavid Schwimmer as Ross Geller: Monica's \"geeky\" older brother, a PhD-carrying palaeontologist working at the American Museum of Natural History, and later a tenured professor of palaeontology at New York University. Ross is involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Rachel throughout the series. He has three failed marriages during the series: Carol Willick, a lesbian who is also the mother of his son, Ben Geller; Emily Waltham, who divorces him after he accidentally says Rachel's name instead of hers during their wedding vows; and Rachel, as the two drunkenly marry in Las Vegas. His divorces become a running joke within the series. Following a one-night stand, he and Rachel have a daughter, Emma, by the end of season eight. They finally confess that they are still in love with each other in the series finale.\nJames Michael Tyler appears as Gunther, a barista at Central Perk, in every season of the show, but is only ever credited as a guest star. Gunther has a mostly secret profound love for Rachel throughout the entire series. At one point he becomes the manager of the coffee house. It is revealed that Gunther speaks Dutch in addition to English, as well as being a former soap opera actor.\nIn their original contracts for the first season, cast members were paid $22,500 per episode. The cast members received different salaries in the second season, beginning from the $20,000 range to $40,000 per episode. Before their salary negotiations for the third season, the cast decided to enter collective negotiations, despite Warner Bros.' preference for individual deals. The actors were given the salary of the least paid cast member. The stars were each paid $75,000 per episode in season three, $85,000 in season four, $100,000 in season five, $125,000 in season six, $750,000 in seasons seven and eight, and $1 million in seasons nine and ten, making Aniston, Cox, and Kudrow the highest-paid TV actresses of all time. The cast also received syndication royalties beginning in 2000 after renegotiations. At the time, that financial benefit of a piece of the show's lucrative back-end profits had only been given out to stars who had ownership rights in a show, like Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby.\nSeries creator David Crane wanted all six actors to be equally prominent, and the series was lauded as being \"the first true 'ensemble' show.\" The cast members made efforts to keep the ensemble format and not allow one member to dominate; they entered themselves in the same acting categories for awards, opted for collective salary negotiations, and asked to appear together on magazine cover photos in the first season. The cast members also became best friends off-screen, so much so that recurring guest star Tom Selleck reported that he sometimes felt left out.\nThe cast remained good friends after the series run, most notably Cox and Aniston, with Aniston being godmother to Cox and David Arquette's daughter, Coco. In the official farewell commemorative book Friends 'Til the End, each separately acknowledged in interviews that the cast had become their family.\n\nEpisodes\nSeason 1\nThe first season introduces the six main characters who live in New York City: Rachel Green, a waitress; professional chef Monica Geller; her paleontologist brother, Ross Geller; free-spirited masseuse Phoebe Buffay; struggling actor Joey Tribbiani; and Ross's college friend, Chandler Bing, whose precise occupation at a corporation is unknown. Rachel arrives at Central Perk, wearing her wedding dress, after leaving her fiancé, Barry, an orthodontist, at the altar. She moves into her high school friend Monica's apartment, and gets a waitress job at Central Perk.\nRoss, who has had a crush on Rachel since high school, often attempts to declare his feelings for her. However many obstacles stand in his way, including his insecurities, Rachel dating an Italian neighbor named Paolo, and the fact that he is expecting a baby with his lesbian ex-wife, Carol, who gives birth to Ben later in the season. Joey never has a steady girlfriend and constantly sleeps with a variety of women. Phoebe is rather odd and complex, mostly due to her mother's suicide when she was a child and having lived on the streets for a time. However, the gang loves her regardless.\nChandler breaks up with his girlfriend, Janice (Maggie Wheeler), only to find himself reconnecting with her throughout the series. Near the end of the season, while Ross is at a paleontology dig in China, Chandler accidentally lets slip that Ross loves Rachel, who then realizes that she also cares for him. The season ends with Rachel waiting at the airport for Ross, who is returning from China.\n\nSeason 2\nRachel greets Ross at the airport only to discover that he has returned with Julie (Lauren Tom), someone he knew from graduate school. Rachel's attempts to tell Ross that she loves him initially mirror his failed attempts in the first season. After he breaks up with Julie for Rachel, friction between them develops when Rachel discovers Ross's list of the cons of dating her. They eventually begin a relationship after Rachel sees an old home video from her and Monica's prom night and realizes Ross was going to stand in for her prom date who nearly stood her up.\nMonica is promoted to head chef at the Iridium restaurant, then gets fired for accepting gifts from a supplier, which is against company policy. Needing money, she is forced to take an embarrassing job as a waitress at a 1950s-style diner. She begins dating Richard Burke (Tom Selleck), a recently divorced family friend who is 21 years her senior. They eventually break up when Monica realizes that Richard, already a father, does not want more children. Joey is cast in a fictional version of the soap opera, Days of Our Lives as neurosurgeon Dr. Drake Ramoray. He moves out of his and Chandler's apartment, forcing Chandler to get a new roommate, Eddie (Adam Goldberg).\nHowever, Eddie is annoying and somewhat deranged. When Joey claims in a soap opera magazine interview that he writes many of his own lines, offending the show's writer, his character is killed off. No longer able to afford his expensive new apartment, Joey moves back in with Chandler, kicking Eddie out in the process. In the season finale, Chandler talks to an anonymous woman in an online chat room. When they agree to meet in person, the woman turns out to be Janice.\n\nSeason 3\nSeason 3 takes on a significantly more serialized format. Chandler and Janice date for several episodes until Joey catches Janice kissing her soon-to-be ex-husband. Not wanting to destroy her family, Chandler urges Janice to go back to her husband, then becomes depressed over the breakup for several episodes. Rachel quits her job at Central Perk and begins working at Bloomingdale's, an upscale department store chain. Ross soon becomes jealous of her colleague Mark and frustrated by Rachel's long work hours. She is tired of his constant jealousy and insecurity, and decides they need a relationship break.\nRoss, hurt and somewhat drunk, immediately sleeps with Chloe, \"the hot girl from the Xerox place,\" causing Rachel to break up with him completely. Although Phoebe initially believes she has no family except her twin sister Ursula (Lisa Kudrow), she learns she has a half-brother, Frank Jr. (Giovanni Ribisi) and discovers her birth mother, Phoebe Abbott (Teri Garr) over the course of the season. Joey falls in love with his acting partner Kate (Dina Meyer), but is jealous of her dating the director of their play. They begin a brief relationship that ends when she takes an acting job in Los Angeles.\nMonica dates millionaire Pete Becker (Jon Favreau), despite her initially not being attracted to him. However, she breaks up with Pete after he is seriously hurt trying to become the Ultimate Fighting Champion and refuses to quit. Phoebe sets Ross up on a date with her friend, Bonnie (Christine Taylor), inciting Rachel's jealousy. She tries sabotaging the relationship by coercing Bonnie to shave her head bald, and eventually admits to Ross that she still has feelings for him. The season closes with Ross having to choose between Rachel and Bonnie.\n\nSeason 4\nIn the season 4 premiere, after Ross breaks up with Bonnie, he and Rachel briefly reconcile after Ross pretends to read a long letter that Rachel wrote for him. However, Ross continues to insist that the two were on a break when he slept with Chloe, so they break up again. Joey dates Kathy (Paget Brewster), a girl that Chandler has a crush on. Kathy and Chandler later kiss, which causes drama between Chandler and Joey. Joey only forgives Chandler and allows him to date Kathy after Chandler spends Thanksgiving in a box as punishment.\nChandler's relationship with Kathy ends after he discovers that she cheated on him due to an argument. Phoebe loses her job as a masseuse after making out with one of her clients and she accompanies Monica, who has become a caterer for hire. They soon start a catering business together but Monica, after negatively reviewing a restaurant, Allesandro's, is offered the position of head chef. Despite initially being pressured by the wrath of her co-workers, Monica eventually asserts her dominance in the kitchen. Phoebe becomes a surrogate for her brother and his wife, Alice (Debra Jo Rupp).\nMonica and Rachel are forced to switch apartments with Joey and Chandler after losing a bet during a quiz game, but manage to switch back by bribing them with Knicks season tickets and a one-minute kiss (off-screen) between each other. After her boss dies, Rachel is demoted to personal shopping and meets and later dates a customer named Joshua (Tate Donovan). Ross begins dating an English woman named Emily (Helen Baxendale), and they quickly get engaged. Rachel struggles to cope and hastily suggests to Joshua that they marry, after which he rejects her. In the season finale, the group, apart from a heavily pregnant Phoebe and Rachel, travel to Ross and Emily's wedding in London. Chandler and Monica sleep together, and Rachel, realizing that she is still in love with Ross, rushes to London to stop Ross and Emily's wedding, but changes her mind when she sees them happy together. While saying his vows, Ross accidentally says Rachel's name at the altar, shocking his bride and the guests.\n\nSeason 5\nRoss and Emily marry, but an angry and humiliated Emily flees the reception. Rachel soon admits her love for Ross, but realizing how ridiculous this is, advises him to work on his marriage to Emily. She develops a crush on her neighbor Danny and they date briefly, until she realizes that he is too close with his sister. Monica and Chandler try to keep their new relationship a secret from their friends. Phoebe gives birth to triplets in the show's 100th episode. She gives birth to a boy, Frank Jr. Jr., and two girls, Leslie and Chandler, the latter of whom was supposed to be a boy, but was later revealed to be a girl.\nAfter weeks of trying to contact her, Emily agrees to reconcile with Ross and move to New York if he breaks off all communication with Rachel. Ross agrees, but later attends a dinner with all his friends, Rachel included. Emily phones Ross, discovers Rachel is there, realizes she does not trust him and ends their marriage. Ross takes out his anger at work, resulting in him being indefinitely suspended from the museum, and he moves in with Chandler and Joey until eventually getting a new apartment across the street from them.\nRachel gets a new job at Ralph Lauren. Phoebe has a brief relationship with a police officer, Gary (Michael Rapaport), after finding his badge and using it as her own. Monica and Chandler go public with their relationship, to the surprise and delight of their friends. They decide to get married on a trip to Las Vegas, but change their plans after witnessing Ross and Rachel drunkenly stumbling out of the wedding chapel.\n\nSeason 6\nIn the season 6 premiere, Ross and Rachel's marriage turns out to be a drunken mistake that neither remembers until the other friends mention it. Ross promises Rachel he will get them an annulment, then secretly does nothing because he cannot face having three failed marriages. By the time Rachel discovers they are still married, an annulment is impossible due to their history; they are forced to get a divorce. After ignoring the numerous signs that they should get married, Monica and Chandler decide to live together, forcing Rachel to move in with Phoebe. Joey gets a new roommate, Janine (Elle Macpherson).\nThey develop feelings for each other and date briefly until Janine criticizes Monica and Chandler, ending the relationship. After Janine moves out, Joey struggles with paying his bills so he takes a job at Central Perk. He soon lands a role on a cable TV series called Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E., starring alongside a crime-fighting robot. Ross gets a teaching job at New York University. He dates Elizabeth (Alexandra Holden), a student, despite it being against university policy. Elizabeth's father, Paul (Bruce Willis), disapproves of Ross but falls for Rachel, and they start dating.\nBoth relationships soon end: Elizabeth is too immature for Ross, and previously reserved Paul opens up emotionally and is more than Rachel can handle. Phoebe and Rachel's apartment catches fire, and Rachel moves in with Joey, while Phoebe stays with Chandler and Monica, though they later switch. While at a museum that has a two-year wait for weddings, Monica puts her name on the reservation list as a joke. When Chandler intercepts the museum's phone call about a cancellation, he panics; however, Chandler has been planning to propose while pretending he may never want to marry.\nWhile dining at a fancy restaurant, Chandler's planned proposal is subverted by Monica's ex-boyfriend Richard Burke, who unexpectedly shows up. Richard later tells Monica he wants to marry her and have children. Monica becomes upset at Chandler, believing his ruse about not wanting to marry. Chandler believes Monica has left him until he comes home to find their apartment decorated with candles and her waiting to propose to him. When she becomes too emotional to continue, Chandler proposes and she accepts.\n\nSeason 7\nThe seventh season mainly follows Monica and Chandler as they plan their wedding amid various problems. Joey's television series, Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E is canceled, but he is offered his old role on Days of Our Lives; the show is retconned with the revelation that Dr. Drake Ramoray has been in a four-year coma and is revived with a brain transplant from another character. Phoebe's repaired apartment now has one large bedroom instead of the original two, so Rachel permanently stays at Joey's. Rachel is promoted at Ralph Lauren and impulsively hires a young assistant, Tag Jones (Eddie Cahill), based on his looks, passing over a more qualified woman. Tag discovers her feelings about him at Thanksgiving dinner, and they begin dating, hiding it from co-workers. However, on her 30th birthday, Rachel ends their relationship, realizing Tag is too young and immature, particularly if she intends to follow her marriage schedule.\nHours before Monica and Chandler's wedding ceremony, Chandler panics and goes into hiding just as Phoebe and Rachel find a positive pregnancy test in Monica and Chandler's bathroom. They assume Monica is pregnant. Ross and Phoebe find Chandler and convince him to return for the ceremony, though he briefly bolts again after overhearing Phoebe and Rachel discussing the pregnancy test. He quickly returns, embracing the idea of fatherhood. After the ceremony, Monica denies she is pregnant; unbeknown to everyone, the positive pregnancy test is Rachel's.\n\nSeason 8\nSeason 8 begins at Monica and Chandler's wedding reception. Phoebe and Monica discover Rachel's pregnancy and persuade her to take another test to confirm it. Phoebe initially claims the test is negative, badly disappointing Rachel, then reveals it is positive, saying Rachel now knows how she really feels about having a baby. Ross is eventually revealed to be the father, and the season revolves around Rachel's pregnancy. Rachel and Ross agree to be co-parents without resuming their romantic relationship; Ross begins dating Mona (Bonnie Somerville), who is Monica's co-worker from Allesandro's.\nJoey takes Rachel out to quell her fears about motherhood, and realizes he has romantic feelings for her. While suppressing his feelings, he encourages Rachel to stay at Ross's apartment so he can be involved in the pregnancy. The arrangement is too much for Mona, and she breaks up with Ross. Joey tells Ross about his feelings for Rachel. Ross initially is angry, then gives his blessing. Joey tells Rachel that he loves her, but she realizes she does not feel the same way, and they remain friends. When Rachel goes into labor, Ross's mother gives him a family heirloom ring and encourages him to propose to Rachel. Ross hesitates, and puts the ring in his jacket, which he later leaves in Rachel's room.\nAfter Monica jokes about having kids, she and Chandler decide to have a baby, starting while they are still at the hospital. After a prolonged labor, during which numerous other expectant mothers, including Janice, are taken to the delivery room, Rachel gives birth to baby Emma. She is left saddened and afraid after Janice later says that Ross may not always be there for her and the baby. When Joey comforts Rachel, the ring falls from Ross's jacket to the floor. Joey kneels to pick it up, and Rachel, believing he is proposing, impulsively says yes. Meanwhile, Ross intends to ask Rachel if she wants to resume their relationship.\n\nSeason 9\nSeason nine begins with Ross and Rachel cohabitating with their daughter Emma, after Joey and Rachel clear up the proposal misunderstanding. Monica and Chandler run into obstacles as they try for a baby: Chandler unknowingly agrees to a work transfer to Tulsa just as Monica is offered a head chef job at a new restaurant, Javu, resulting in Chandler commuting back and forth. After being apart from Monica during Christmas, Chandler quits to pursue a new career in advertising, starting as an unpaid intern at an ad agency, and eventually being hired as a junior copywriter. Monica and Chandler discover they are physically incompatible to conceive and after considering multiple options, decide to adopt.\nPhoebe begins dating Mike Hannigan (Paul Rudd) for most of the season until Mike says that he never wants to marry again. Phoebe dates her ex-boyfriend from season 1, David (Hank Azaria) who plans on proposing to her, but Mike proposes first. Phoebe rejects both proposals but gets back together with Mike, only needing the reassurance that they have a future together. Rachel, believing that her co-worker Gavin (Dermot Mulroney) is trying to steal her job while she is on maternity leave, returns to Ralph Lauren early. She discovers at her birthday party that Gavin has feelings for her. They kiss but do not pursue a relationship due to her history with Ross.\nMeanwhile, Ross, having seen the kiss, retaliates by dating other women. After realizing that her and Ross's living situation is too weird, Rachel and Emma move in with Joey. Rachel develops a crush on him, only to be disheartened when he starts dating Charlie (Aisha Tyler), a new palaeontology professor to whom Ross is attracted. In the finale, the group travels to Barbados for Ross's keynote speech at a conference. Joey and Charlie break up upon realizing they have nothing in common. Joey then learns about Rachel's feelings for him, but says they cannot pursue this because of Ross. However, upon seeing Ross and Charlie kiss each other, he goes to Rachel's hotel room, and the finale ends with them kissing.\n\nSeason 10\nThe tenth season brings several long-running story lines to a close. Joey and Rachel try to contend with Ross's feelings about their relationship, and after disastrous attempts to consummate, decide it is best they remain friends. Charlie breaks up with Ross to get back together with her ex-boyfriend. Mid-season, Joey officiates Phoebe and Mike's wedding outside the Central Perk coffee house after a snow storm paralyzes the city, preventing them and guests getting to the wedding venue. Monica and Chandler are chosen by a pregnant woman named Erica (Anna Faris) to adopt her baby.\nFollowing this, Monica and Chandler prepare to move to a house in the suburbs to raise their family, saddening everyone, particularly Joey, who is coping with all the changes in his life. In the series finale, Erica gives birth to fraternal twins, much to Monica and Chandler's surprise. Rachel is fired from Ralph Lauren after her boss overhears her interviewing for a job at Gucci. She encounters her former Bloomingdale co-worker Mark, who offers her a new job at Louis Vuitton in Paris. Ross, believing Rachel wants to stay, tries bribing Mr. Zelner to rehire her until he realizes Rachel wants to go to Paris. When Rachel says a tearful personal goodbye to everyone except Ross at her going away party, a hurt and angry Ross confronts Rachel, and they end up sleeping together.\nRachel leaves, and Ross – realizing how much he loves Rachel – chases her to the airport. When he reaches her, Rachel says she has to go to Paris. Before the plane takes off, Rachel calls Ross's home phone and leaves a voice mail, apologizing for the way it ended. While speaking, she realizes that she loves him too, and gets off the plane at the last minute. The series ends with all the friends, plus Monica and Chandler's new babies, leaving the empty apartment together for a final cup of coffee at Central Perk. The show ends first with a shot of everyone's keys to Monica and Chandler's apartment left on the counter top, and then pans to a shot of the apartment's purple door.\n\nProduction\nConception\nIt's about sex, love, relationships, careers, a time in your life when everything's possible. And it's about friendship because when you're single and in the city, your friends are your family.\nDavid Crane and Marta Kauffman began developing three new television pilots that would premiere in 1994 after their sitcom Family Album was cancelled by CBS in 1993. Kauffman and Crane decided to pitch the series about \"six people in their 20s making their way in Manhattan\" to NBC since they thought it would fit best there. (Film director and screenwriter Cameron Crowe has asserted that the concept originated with Warner Bros. Television wanting him to make his 1992 movie Singles into a television show. Crowe alleges that when he refused permission, the idea was then taken over by Crane and Kaufman, who changed some details from the premise of the movie while developing the show.)\nCrane and Kauffman presented the idea to their production partner Kevin Bright, who had served as executive producer on their HBO series Dream On. The idea for the series was conceived when Crane and Kauffman began thinking about the time when they had finished college and started living by themselves in New York; Kauffman believed they were looking at a time when the future was \"more of a question mark.\" They found the concept to be interesting, as they believed \"everybody knows that feeling\", and because it was also how they felt about their own lives at the time. The team titled the series Insomnia Cafe and pitched the idea as a seven-page treatment to NBC in December 1993.\nAt the same time, Warren Littlefield, the then-president of NBC Entertainment, was seeking a comedy involving young people living together and sharing expenses after he regretted passing on the Black sitcom Living Single. Littlefield wanted the group to share memorable periods of their lives with friends, who had become \"new, surrogate family members.\" However, Littlefield found difficulty in bringing the concept to life and found the scripts developed by NBC to be terrible. When Kauffman, Crane and Bright pitched Insomnia Cafe, Littlefield was impressed that they knew who their characters were. NBC bought the idea as a put pilot, meaning they risked financial penalties if the pilot was not filmed.\nKauffman and Crane took three days to write the pilot script for a show they titled Friends Like Us. Littlefield wanted the series to \"represent Generation X and explore a new kind of tribal bonding\", but the rest disagreed. Crane argued that it was not a series for one generation, and wanted to produce a series that everyone would enjoy watching. NBC liked the script and ordered the series. They changed the title to Six of One, mainly because they felt Friends Like Us was too similar to the ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine.\n\nCasting\nOnce it became apparent that the series was a favored project at NBC, Littlefield reported that he was getting calls from every agent in town, wanting their client to be a part of the series. Auditions for the lead roles took place in New York and Los Angeles. The casting director shortlisted 1,000 actors who had applied for each role down to 75. Those who received a callback read in front of Crane, Kauffman and Bright. At the end of March, the number of potential actors had been reduced to three or four for each part, and these actors were asked to read for Les Moonves, then president of Warner Bros. Television.\nHaving worked with David Schwimmer in the past, the series creators wrote the character of Ross with him in mind, and he was the first actor cast. Cox wanted to play the role of Monica because she liked the \"strong\" character, but the producers had her in mind to play Rachel because of her \"cheery, upbeat energy\", which was not how they envisioned Monica; after Cox's audition, though, Kauffman agreed with Cox, and she got the role. When Matt LeBlanc auditioned for Joey, he put a \"different spin\" on the character. He played Joey more simple-minded than intended and gave the character heart. Although Crane and Kauffman did not want LeBlanc for the role at the time, they were told by the network to cast him. Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow were cast based on their auditions. Perry and Aniston, both still under contract to other shows that year, were cast days before shooting of the pilot began.\nMore changes occurred to the series's storylines during the casting process. The writers found that they had to adjust the characters they had written to suit the actors, and the discovery process of the characters occurred throughout the first season. Kauffman acknowledged that Joey's character became \"this whole new being\", and that \"it wasn't until we did the first Thanksgiving episode that we realized how much fun Monica's neuroses are.\"\n\nWriting\nIn the weeks after NBC's pick up of Friends, Crane, Kauffman and Bright reviewed sent-in scripts that writers had originally prepared for other series, mainly unproduced Seinfeld episodes. Kauffman and Crane hired a team of seven young writers because \"When you're 40, you can't do it anymore. The networks and studios are looking for young people coming in out of college.\" The creators felt that using six equal characters, rather than emphasizing one or two, would allow for \"myriad storylines and give the show legs.\" The majority of the storyline ideas came from the writers, although the actors added ideas. Although the writers originally planned the big love story to be between Joey and Monica, the idea of a romantic interest between Ross and Rachel emerged during the period when Kauffman and Crane wrote the pilot script.\nDuring the production of the pilot, NBC requested that the script be changed to feature one dominant storyline and several minor ones, but the writers refused, wanting to keep three storylines of equal weight. NBC also wanted the writers to include an older character to balance out the young ones. Crane and Kauffman were forced to comply and wrote a draft of an early episode that featured \"Pat the Cop\" who would be used to provide advice to the other characters. Crane found the storyline to be terrible, and Kauffman joked, \"You know the kids [sic] book, Pat the Bunny? We had Pat the Cop.\" NBC eventually relented and dropped the idea.\nEach summer, the producers would outline the storylines for the subsequent season. Before an episode went into production, Kauffman and Crane would revise the script written by another writer, mainly if something concerning either the series or a character felt foreign. The hardest episodes to write were always \"the first one and the last one of each season.\" Unlike other storylines, the idea for a relationship between Joey and Rachel was decided on halfway through the eighth season. The creators did not want Ross and Rachel to get back together so soon, and while looking for a romantic impediment, a writer suggested Joey's romantic interest in Rachel.\nThe storyline was incorporated into the season; however, when the actors feared that the storyline would make their characters unlikable, the storyline was wrapped up, until it again resurfaced in the season's finale. For the ninth season, the writers were unsure about the amount of storyline to give to Rachel's baby, as they wanted the show neither to revolve around a baby nor pretend there to be none. Crane said that it took them a while to accept the idea of a tenth season, which they decided to do because they had enough stories left to tell to justify the season. Kauffman and Crane would not have signed on for an eleventh season, even if all the cast members had wanted to continue.\nThe episode title format—\"The One ...\"—was created when the producers realized that the episode titles would not be featured in the opening credits, and therefore would be unknown to most of the audience. Episode titles officially begin with \"The One ...\" except the title of the pilot episode and the series finale \"The Last One\". The season 5 episode \"The One Hundredth\" has the alternative title of \"The One With The Triplet\".\n\nFilming\nThe first season was shot on Stage 5 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. NBC executives had worried that the coffee house setting was too hip and asked for the series to be set in a diner, but eventually consented to the coffee house concept. The opening title sequence was filmed in a fountain at the Warner Bros. Ranch at 4:00 am, while it was particularly cold for a Burbank morning. At the beginning of the second season, production moved to the larger Stage 24, which was renamed The \"Friends\" Stage after the series finale.\nFilming for the series began during the summer of 1994 in front of a live audience, who were given a summary of the series to familiarize themselves with the six main characters. A hired comedian entertained the studio audience between takes. Each 22-minute episode took six hours to film—twice the length of most sitcom tapings—mainly due to the several retakes and rewrites of the script.\nAlthough the producers always wanted to find the right stories to take advantage of being on location, Friends was never shot in New York. Bright felt that filming outside the studio made episodes less funny, even when shooting on the lot outside, and that the live audience was an integral part of the series. When the series was criticized for incorrectly depicting New York, with the financially struggling group of friends being able to afford huge apartments, Bright noted that the set had to be big enough for the cameras, lighting, and \"for the audience to be able to see what's going on\". The apartments also needed to provide a place for the actors to execute the actions in the scripts.\nThe fourth-season finale was shot on location in London because the producers were aware of the series' popularity in the UK. The scenes were shot in a studio with three audiences each made up of 500 people. These were the show's largest audiences throughout its run. The fifth-season finale, set in Las Vegas, was filmed at Warner Bros. Studios, although Bright met people who thought it was filmed on location.\n\nSeries finale\nThe series's creators completed the first draft of the hour-long finale in January 2004, four months before its original airing. Crane, Kauffman and Bright watched the finales of other sitcoms to prepare the episode's outline, paying attention to what worked and what did not. They liked the ones that stayed true to the series, deeming the finale of The Mary Tyler Moore Show to be the gold standard. Crane, Kauffman, and Bright had difficulty writing the finale. They did not want to do \"something high concept, or take the show out of the show.\" The most critical parts of the finale were shot without an audience and with a minimum number of crew members. The main cast enjoyed the finale and were confident that the fans would react similarly:\n\nIt's exactly what I had hoped. We all end up with a sense of a new beginning and the audience has a sense that it's a new chapter in the lives of all these characters. \nNBC heavily promoted the series finale, which was preceded by weeks of media hype. Local NBC affiliates organized viewing parties around the U.S., including an event at Universal CityWalk featuring a special broadcast of the finale on an outdoor Astrovision screen. The finale was the subject of two episodes of Dateline NBC, one of which ran for two hours. A one-hour retrospective of clips from previous episodes was shown before the airing of the episode. Following the finale, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was filmed on the set of the Friends' Central Perk coffee house, which featured the cast as guests. The advertising rates for the finale averaged $2 million for 30 seconds of commercial time, breaking the record held by the Seinfeld finale at $1.7 million.\nIn the U.S., 52.5 million viewers watched the finale on May 6, 2004, making it the most-watched entertainment telecast since the Seinfeld finale in 1998. The finale was the fifth most-watched series finale in television history, only behind the finales of M*A*S*H, Cheers, The Fugitive, and Seinfeld, which were respectively watched by 105, 80.4, 78.0 and 76.3 million viewers. The retrospective episode was watched by fewer than 36 million viewers, and the finale was the second most-watched television broadcast of the year in the United States, only behind the Super Bowl. Following the finales of Friends and Frasier, media critics speculated about the fate of the sitcom genre. Opinions varied between a signalling of the end of the sitcom genre, a small decline in the large history of the genre, and a general reduction of scripted television in favor of reality shows.\n\nReunion special\nOn November 12, 2019, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Warner Bros TV was developing a Friends reunion for HBO Max that would feature the whole cast and creators returning. On February 21, 2020, HBO confirmed that the unscripted reunion special, tentatively named \"The One Where They Got Back Together\", was set to be released in May the same year, along with the 236 original episodes of the series. On March 18, 2020, it was announced that the special, which was set to film on the Friends stage on March 23 and 24, had been postponed indefinitely, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2020, Matthew Perry tweeted that the reunion is set to start filming in March 2021. On May 13, 2021, a teaser trailer was released officially announcing Friends: The Reunion also known as \"The One Where They Get Back Together\". The reunion special was released on HBO Max on May 27, 2021.\n\nReception\nCritical reception\nEarly reviews of the series were mixed; the first season holds a Metacritic score of 65 out of 100, based on 24 sampled reviews, indicating \"generally favourable reviews\". Tom Feran of The Plain Dealer wrote that the series traded \"vaguely and less successfully on the hanging-out style of Seinfeld\", while Ann Hodges of the Houston Chronicle called it \"the new Seinfeld wannabe, but it will never be as funny as Seinfeld.\" In the Los Angeles Daily News, Ray Richmond named the series as \"one of the brighter comedies of the new season\", and the Los Angeles Times called it \"flat-out the best comedy series of the new season.\"\nThe Chicago Sun-Times' Ginny Holbert found Joey and Rachel's characters to be underdeveloped, while Richmond commended the cast as a \"likeable youth ensemble\" with \"good chemistry.\" Robert Bianco of USA Today was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him \"terrific.\" He also praised the female leads, but was concerned that Perry's role as Chandler was \"undefined\" and that LeBlanc was \"relying too much on the same brain-dead stud routine that was already tired the last two times he tried it.\" The authors of Friends Like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends thought that the cast was \"trying just a little too hard\"; in particular, Perry and Schwimmer.\nAs the series progressed, reviews became more positive, and Friends became one of the most popular sitcoms of its time. It is now often ranked among the all-time best TV shows. Critics commended the series for having consistently sharp writing and for the chemistry between the main actors. Noel Holston of Newsday, who had dismissed the pilot as a \"so-so Seinfeld wannabe\" in 1994, repudiated his earlier review after rewatching the episode and felt like writing an apology to the writers. Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com thought that the series \"hit its stride\" in the second season. Havrilesky found the character-specific jokes and situations \"could reliably make you laugh out loud a few times each episode\", and the quality of writing allowed the stories to be \"original and innovative.\"\nBill Carter of The New York Times called the eighth season a \"truly stunning comeback.\" Carter found that by \"generating new hot storylines and high-decibel laughs\", the series made its way \"back into the hearts of its fans.\" However, Liane Bonin of Entertainment Weekly felt that the direction of the ninth season was a \"disappointing buzzkill\", criticizing it for the non-stop celebrity guest spots and going into jump the shark territory. Although disappointed with the season, Bonin noted that \"the writing [was] still sharp.\" Havrilesky thought that the tenth season was \"alarmingly awful, far worse than you would ever imagine a show that was once so good could be.\" Friends was featured on Time's list of \"The 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time\", saying, \"the well-hidden secret of this show was that it called itself Friends, and was really about family.\"\nReviews of the series finale were mostly positive. USA Today's Robert Bianco described the finale as entertaining and satisfying and praised it for deftly mixing emotion and humor while highlighting each of the stars. Sarah Rodman of the Boston Herald praised Aniston and Schwimmer for their acting, but felt that their characters' reunion was \"a bit too neat, even if it was what most of the show's legions of fans wanted.\" Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant felt that newcomers to the series would be \"surprised at how laughless the affair could be, and how nearly every strained gag depends on the sheer stupidity of its characters.\" Ken Parish Perkins, writing for Fort Worth Star-Telegram, pointed out that the finale was \"more touching than comical, more satisfying in terms of closure than knee-slappingly funny.\"\n\nIt may have been impossible for any one episode to live up to the hype and expectations built up around the Friends finale, but this hour probably came as close as fans could have reasonably hoped. Ultimately, the two-hour package did exactly what it was supposed to do. It wrapped up the story while reminding us why we liked the show and will miss it.\nIn a 2021 program on ITV, Mr. Bean writer Richard Curtis accused the Friends writers of stealing the joke which involved Joey getting a turkey stuck on his head in \"The One with All the Thanksgivings\" from the 1992 episode \"Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean\". In that episode, Mr Bean got a turkey stuck on his head after losing his watch while stuffing the turkey and put his head in to try to retrieve it. Rowan Atkinson, however, argued that jokes are meant to be stolen, or to inspire.\n\nAwards\nTo maintain the series's ensemble format, the main cast members decided to enter themselves in the same acting categories for awards. Beginning with the eighth season, the actors decided to submit themselves in the lead actor balloting, rather than in the supporting actor fields. The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning six.\nAniston and Kudrow are the only main cast members to win an Emmy, while Cox is the only actor not to be nominated. The series won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2002, receiving nominations in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, and 2003. The series also won an American Comedy Award, one GLAAD Media Award, one Golden Globe Award, three Logie Awards, six People's Choice Awards, one Satellite Award, and one Screen Actors Guild Award.\n\nRatings\nThe table below shows the ratings of Friends in the United States, where it consistently ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings. \"Rank\" refers to how well Friends rated compared to other television series that aired during primetime hours of the corresponding television season. It is shown in relation to the total number of series airing on the then-six major English-language networks in a given season. \"Viewers\" refers to the average number of viewers for all original episodes, broadcast during the television season in the series' regular timeslot. The \"season premiere\" is the date that the first episode of the season aired, and the \"season finale\" is the date that the final episode of the season aired. Following the September 11 attacks, ratings increased 17% over the previous season.\n\nSyndication\nBecause of syndication revenue, Friends continues to generate approximately $1 billion each year for Warner Bros. That translates into about $20 million in annual residuals each for Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, who each get 2% of syndication income for Friends.\nAll episodes became available on Netflix on January 1, 2015, introducing a new generation to the show. UK Friends reruns' ratings in 2015 increased by more than 10% annually. The 2016 reruns' US weekly audience, not including streaming, of 16 million would make it a hit on network television were the show still being produced. In the US, the series has a syndication deal through multiple networks, including Nick at Nite, TBS, and Paramount Network. In July 2019, it was announced that from the beginning of 2020, Friends would not be available on Netflix in the US and instead would be shown on Warner Bros. Discovery's video-streaming service HBO Max, which launched in May 2020.\n\nCultural impact\nAlthough the producers thought of Friends as \"only a TV show\", psychologists investigated the cultural impact of Friends during the series' run. Aniston's hairstyle was nicknamed \"The Rachel\" and copied around the world. Joey's catchphrase, \"How you doin'?\", became a popular part of Western English slang, often used as a pick-up line or when greeting friends. The series also influenced the English language, according to a study by the University of Toronto that found that the characters used the emphasized word \"so\" to modify adjectives more often than any other intensifier. Although the preference had already made its way into the American vernacular, usage on the series may have accelerated the change. Chandler's habit of ending a sentence unfinished for sarcasm also influenced viewers' speech. The show's availability on streaming television—it accounted for 4% of all Netflix views in 2018—gave it a large new Gen Z audience. Kauffman reported that her high school daughter's friends thought that Friends was a new period piece about the 1990s. One young fan described the show as \"aspirational ... [kids hope] that when they're that age ... they'll have those friends\".\nFriends has been credited in helping non-English speaking students to learn the language. A 2012 poll by Kaplan International English Colleges found that more than a quarter (26%) of its students cited the sitcom as the best show for helping them improve their English. Notable individuals who have also said that the sitcom helped them learn English include Liverpool Football Club manager Jürgen Klopp, South Korean band BTS member RM and Belgian professional golfer Thomas Pieters.\nFriends developed an alternative family lifestyle by representing young people who live unconventional domestic lives. It presented the idea that \"all you need are good friends\" and that you can construct families through choice. The audience was able to identify with the program through the troubles seen on weekly episodes. It portrayed a new way of living life and developing relationships which were not normally seen in conventional society. According to a pop-culture expert at the University at Buffalo, Friends is \"one of those rare shows that marked a change in American culture.\" The images of youth and the roles they portray are better defined and represent a lifestyle that centers around creating and sustaining relationships between friends running their own lives and seeking help from each other.\n\nVox stated that Friends had an impact on the creation of other conflictless \"hangout sitcoms\", with groups of adult friends who are funny and have similar character traits. One example of this is How I Met Your Mother, which The Guardian's TV and radio blog noted also shares its setting (Manhattan) with Friends. Other examples include The Big Bang Theory, New Girl, and Happy Endings.\nReaders of TV Guide voted the cast of Friends their Best Comedy cast of all time, ranking at 29% of the votes, beating Seinfeld, which registered 18%. A poll undertaken by 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair named Friends the third-greatest sitcom of all time. In 2014, the series was ranked by Mundo Estranho the Best TV Series of All Time. A 2015 survey by The Hollywood Reporter of 2,800 actors, producers, directors, and other industry people named Friends as their No. 1 favorite show.\nFriends was parodied in the twelfth season Murder, She Wrote episode \"Murder Among Friends\". In the episode, amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) investigates the murder of a writer for Buds, a fictional television series about the daily lives of a group of city friends. The episode was devised after CBS moved Murder, She Wrote from its regular Sunday night timeslot to a Thursday night timeslot directly opposite Friends on NBC; Angela Lansbury was quoted by Bruce Lansbury, her brother and Murder, She Wrote's supervising producer, as having \"a bit of an attitude\" about the move to Thursday, but he saw the plot as \"a friendly setup, no mean-spiritedness.\" Jerry Ludwig, the writer of the episode, researched the \"flavor\" of Buds by watching episodes of Friends.\nProducers of Married... with Children attempted to create a spinoff series called Enemies, which was intended to act as an antithesis to Friends the same way Married... with Children had been an antithesis to family sitcoms such as The Cosby Show. However, the Fox network declined to pick up the series.\n\nCoffee house\nThe Central Perk coffee house, one of the principal settings of the series, is part of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood. People sometimes propose marriage on the couch, and many tourists cry when they sit on it. The coffee house has inspired various imitations worldwide. In 2006, Iranian businessman Mojtaba Asadian started a Central Perk franchise, registering the name in 32 countries. The decor of the coffee houses is inspired by Friends, featuring replica couches, counters, neon signage and bricks. The coffee houses contain paintings of the various characters from the series, and televisions playing Friends episodes. James Michael Tyler, who plays Gunther, the Central Perk manager in the series, attended the grand opening of the Dubai café, where he worked as a waiter.\nCentral Perk was rebuilt as part of a museum exhibit at Warner Bros. Studios and was shown on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in October 2008 when Jennifer Aniston visited the set for the first time since the series finale in 2004. From September 24 to October 7, 2009, a Central Perk replica was on Broadwick Street, Soho, London. The coffee house sold coffee to customers and featured a display of Friends memorabilia and props, such as the Geller Cup from the season three episode \"The One with the Football\". In Beijing, business owner Du Xin opened a coffee shop named Central Perk in March 2010.\n\nIn India, there are six Friends-themed cafes which features many icons from the original TV series, including Chandler and Joey's ugly dog statue, the orange sofa, the purple door of Monica and Rachel's apartment, and Phoebe's pink bicycle. One named Central Perk is in Chandigarh, Kolkata; one named F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Cafe in West Bengal, and the others are in Delhi, Gurgaon; Bhubaneswar, Odisha; and Pune, Maharashtra.\nThere are two Friends themed cafes in Pakistan—one in Lahore, Punjab, known as \"Friends Cafe\" and the other in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa called \"Central Perk\". Both cafes have an iconic couch, a guitar and foosball table, quotes from the show on the walls and episode reruns on a projector. They're planning to have their own Gunther at the bar.\nIn 2016, a Central Perk replica was opened in Outram, Singapore. It is the only Central Perk replica outside of the United States that has been given intellectual property rights by Warner Bros. The café includes feature walls, replicating the walls of the main characters' apartments and memorabilia and props used on the show.\nIn August 2019, Lego launched a Central Perk Lego set to mark the show's 25 anniversary.\n\nDistribution\nBroadcast\nUnited States\nAfter the produced pilot lived up to NBC's hopes, the series premiered with the name Friends on September 22, 1994, in the coveted Thursday 8:30 p.m. time slot. The pilot aired between Mad About You and Seinfeld, and was watched by almost 22 million American viewers. The series was a huge success throughout its run and was a staple of NBC's Thursday night line-up, dubbed by the network as Must See TV. When Crane told reporters in 2001 that the ninth season was a possibility, critics believed that he was posturing and that at least two of the cast members would not sign on for another season. When it was confirmed that Friends would return for a ninth season, the news was mainly about the amount of money—$7 million per episode—that it took to bring the series back for another season.\nAfter year-long expectations that the ninth season would be the series's last, NBC signed a deal in late December 2002 to bring the series back for a final tenth season. The series' creative team did not want to extend negotiations into the next year and wanted to start writing the rest of the ninth-season episodes and a potential series finale. NBC agreed to pay $10 million to Warner Bros. for the production of each tenth-season episode, the highest price in television history for a 30-minute series. Although NBC was unable to bring in enough advertising revenue from commercials to cover the costs, the series was integral to the Thursday night schedule, which brought high ratings and profits to the other television series. The cast demanded that the tenth season be reduced from the usual 24 episodes to 18 episodes to allow them to work on outside projects.\nIn fall 2001, Warner Bros. Domestic Cable made a deal with sister network TBS (both were owned by Time Warner) to air the series in rerun syndication. Warner Bros. Domestic Cable announced that it had sold additional cable rights to Friends to Nick at Nite which began airing in the fall of 2011 (unlike the TBS and broadcast syndication airings, Nick at Nite broadcasts of the series, which began airing as part of a seven-night launch marathon on September 5, 2011, replace the end credit tag scenes with marginalized credits featuring promotions for the series and other Nick at Nite programs). Warner Bros. was expected to make $200 million in license fees and advertising from the deal. Nick at Nite paid $500,000 per episode to air the episodes after 6 pm. ET for six years through fall 2017. In syndication until 2005, Friends had earned $4 million per episode in cash license fees for a total of $944 million.\nComedy Central began airing reruns of Friends in October 2019.\n\nInternational\nHaving already made huge success in the United States, Friends producers decided to air the show in Europe. It premiered in the United Kingdom on April 28, 1995. Season 1 was broadcast until September 1995 on Channel 4 at 9:30 PM on Friday nights, and immediately was a success. The popularity of the show allowed the theme song by the Rembrandts to hit number 3 on the UK Singles Charts in September 1995.\nThe popularity of the show in Britain led to an episode being produced in London at the end of the fourth season, starring British actress Helen Baxendale, who became a leading cast member in seasons four and five during her character's relationship with Ross. The show has since aired on different channels in the UK in their original, unedited international versions prior to their being re-edited for US broadcast and syndication. These versions, with additional footage not seen domestically, have aired on such stations as Channel 4, Sky1, E4, and Comedy Central UK.\nIn September 2011, Friends officially ended on E4 after the channel re-ran the series since 2004. Comedy Central took over the rights to air the program from October 2011. Since 2018 Channel 5 started airing the program. In the Republic of Ireland, each season of the show made its European debut on RTÉ2. After 2004 RTÉ2 began to repeat the series from the start before moving over to TV3 and its digital channel 3e in 2010. As of February 2015, repeats of the show have returned to RTÉ2 while also broadcasting on Comedy Central Ireland.\nSeason 10's finale in the UK, broadcast on May 28, 2004, was on Channel 4. It was broadcast from 9 pm to 10 pm and attracted Friends' largest UK audiences. It attracted almost 10 million viewers, and is currently standing at Number 10 in Channel 4's most-watched shows. Big Brother was moved to 10 pm, which Friends had beaten. Friends got 9.6 million viewers at 9 pm, while Big Brother 5's launch attracted 7.2 million viewers at 10 pm, which is the most-watched premiere on UK TV ever. However, on January 3, 2007, Celebrity Big Brother 5's launch was watched by 7.3 million viewers, and its eviction on January 19, 2007, was watched by 8.7 million viewers.\nFriends has previously aired in Australia on the Seven Network (season 1), Nine Network (season 2–10), Network Ten (2007–09, repeats), Arena, 111 Hits, 9Gem (2012–2018, repeats), and TVHits. It currently airs on 10 Peach and on pay TV channel Comedy, both of which broadcast the high-definition version of the series. The show is broadcast on TV2 in New Zealand.\nIn Canada, the series was broadcast on Global. In later years, it was syndicated on several of its cable sibling networks, including Slice, DTour, and TVTropolis, its previous incarnation. The series is now syndicated to Bell Media owned CTV Comedy Channel.\nIn Latin America, the first seven seasons aired on Sony, and the remaining seasons on Warner. In Brazil, free-to-air networks RedeTV! and SBT also aired a few seasons.\nIn India, the show is broadcast by Comedy Central at various times. It is the most-watched English language show in the country.\nIn the Philippines, the show was originally aired on ABC-5\nfrom 1996 to 2005 and ETC from 2005 to 2014.\nIn Greece, the show was broadcast on Star Channel. In Cyprus, Friends aired on CyBC 2 while reruns air on TVOne.\nIn November 2019 Croatian television broadcaster RTL2 announced that they will be airing Friends, and to this day they are shown every late night\nIn 2022, Bilibili, iQIYI, Tencent Video, and Youku began distributing edited Friends episodes in China. These edited versions of episodes removed most LGBT content, not edited in original Chinese airings. Chinese fans of the show reacted negatively online.\n\nRemaster\nBeginning in March 2012, high definition versions of all 236 Friends episodes were made available to local broadcast stations, starting with the pilot episode. For the remastered episodes, Warner Bros. restored previously cropped images on the left and right sides of the screen, using the original 35 mm film source, to use the entire 16:9 widescreen frame. Because the show was not originally filmed for widescreen, but rather filmed in 4-perf format and protected for 4:3, some cropping problems arise in some shots where information from the top and bottom of the frame is removed, and some expanded shots reveal unintentional artifacts, including set edges, boom mics and body doubles replacing some of the main cast.\nIn early versions of the HD remasters, there were also a few shots, including chroma effects shots, which were sourced from standard-definition videotape sources, as not all of the footage had been located in time for the remaster. The original film sources for these shots were later rescanned for later broadcast and release. These masters had been airing in New Zealand on TV2 since January 2011, and the earlier HD prints continue to air on Comedy Central in the United Kingdom as of 2020. Netflix added all ten seasons of Friends in high definition to its streaming service in the United States in January 2015 before the platform discontinued the series in late 2019.\n\nHome media\nStreaming\nIn October 2014, Warner Bros. chairman and chief executive officer, Kevin Tsujihara, announced that the company had licensed the North American streaming rights of all ten seasons of Friends to Netflix, in a deal said to be worth around $500,000 an episode, or about $120 million in total. The show became available on Netflix from January 1, 2015. The Netflix airings are the versions aired on NBC rather than the longer international versions, as discussed below. The series left Netflix in the US on January 1, 2020, as it began streaming on HBO Max on May 27, 2020. The series left Netflix in Canada for Crave on December 31, 2020.\n\nBlu-ray and DVD\nAll ten seasons have been released on DVD individually and as a box set. Each Region 1 season release contains special features and are presented in their aforementioned original international broadcast versions, although Region 2 releases are as originally aired domestically. For the first season, each episode is updated with color correction and sound enhancement. A wide range of Friends merchandise has been produced by various companies. In September 1995, WEA Records released the first album of music from Friends, the Friends Original TV Soundtrack, containing music featured in previous and future episodes. The soundtrack debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 46, and sold 500,000 copies in November 1995.\nIn 1999, a second soundtrack album entitled Friends Again was released. Other merchandise includes a Friends version of the DVD game \"Scene It?\", and a quiz video game for PlayStation 2 and PC entitled Friends: The One with All the Trivia. On September 28, 2009, a box set was released in the UK celebrating the show's 15th anniversary. The box set contained extended episodes, an episode guide, and original special features.\nWarner Home Video released a complete series collection on Blu-ray on November 13, 2012. The collection does not feature the extra deleted scenes and jokes that were included on prior DVD releases, and are therefore presented in their NBC broadcast versions.\nIn Australia, the original DVD releases were fold out box sets which contained three discs, and released as follows: Season 1 and Season 2 on March 13, 2002, Season 3 and Season 4 on July 9, 2002, Season 5, 6 and 7 on July 29, 2002, Season 8 on March 18, 2003, Season 9 on February 11, 2004, and Season 10 on November 24, 2004. Repackaged sets, slimmed into regular DVD cases also containing three discs were released from 2003 to 2004. Collector's Edition sets were released from September 9, 2003, through to February 1, 2006, these sets contains 4 discs, in fat DVD cases, with extra bonus material.\nOn October 4, 2006, the individual seasons were repackaged into regular DVD case sets and marked as \"Including Brand New Bonus Disc\". Once again each individual season were repackaged with new artwork on March 31, 2010. The first complete series boxset on DVD was released around 2004 or 2005, this was titled 'The One With All Ten Seasons\" and the packaging was a black box with a lift up lid and contains exclusive packaging for all ten seasons.\nThe second complete series boxset was released August 21, 2013 and was a red box which contained the 2010 individual season sets inside. On October 1, 2014, was the 20th Anniversary boxset, this was a white box and contained the same 2010 individual releases inside. On October 7, 2015, another boxset was released 'The One With All Ten Seasons\", the same name used on the original boxset, however this time slimmed down and contains the 2010 individual releases inside. The outer box is open on insert side for the cases to slide in and out, more of a budget release. In 2016, a repackaged 'The Complete Series' Blu-ray boxset was issued, containing the same 10 individual seasons in the original set, however the box is more cut down and is opened on one side, and also does not include the book that contained the episode guide.\nThe entire series will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 24, 2024.\n\nSpin-off\nAfter the series finale in 2004, LeBlanc signed on for the spin-off series, Joey, following Joey's move to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. Kauffman and Crane were not interested in the spin-off, although Bright agreed to executive produce the series with Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan. NBC heavily promoted Joey and gave it Friends' Thursday 8:00 pm timeslot.\nThe pilot was watched by 18.6 million American viewers, but ratings continually decreased throughout the series's two seasons, averaging 10.2 million viewers in the first season and 7.1 million in the second. The final broadcast episode on March 7, 2006, was watched by 7.09 million viewers; NBC cancelled the series on May 15, 2006, after two seasons, leaving eight episodes unaired. Bright blamed the collaboration between NBC executives, the studio and other producers for quickly ruining the series:\n\nOn Friends, Joey was a womanizer, but we enjoyed his exploits. He was a solid friend, a guy you knew you could count on. Joey was deconstructed to be a guy who couldn't get a job, couldn't ask a girl out. He became a pathetic, mopey character. I felt he was moving in the wrong direction, but I was not heard.\n\nSee also\nFriends 'Til the End\nThe Friends Experience\nMusic of Friends\n\nReferences\nFurther reading\nLittlefield, Warren (May 2012). \"With Friends Like These\". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2019.\nArticles concerning the cultural influence of the program:\n\nAllen, Samantha (September 12, 2014). \"The Best Reason to Love 'Friends' Is the One We Never Realized at the Time\". Mic.\nIhnat, Gwen (August 18, 2014). \"How 'Friends' Changed the Sitcom Landscape\". The A.V. Club.\nHarrison, Andrew (September 12, 2014). \"The Hunting of the Snark: Friends, 20 Years On\". New Statesman.\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website \nFriends at IMDb \nFriends on Rotten Tomatoes\nFriends at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television","title":"Friends"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Jennifer Joanna Aniston (née Anastasakis; born February 11, 1969) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004, which earned her Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards. Aniston has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses, as of 2023.\nThe daughter of actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow, she began working as an actress at an early age with an uncredited role in the 1988 film Mac and Me. Her first major film role came in the 1993 horror comedy Leprechaun. She has since starred in a string of successful comedy films such as Office Space (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), We're the Millers (2013), Dumplin' (2018), and Murder Mystery (2019). Aniston also starred in the acclaimed independent films The Good Girl (2002), Friends with Money (2006), and Cake (2014). She returned to television in 2019, producing and starring in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show, for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award.\nAniston has been included in numerous magazines' lists of the world's most beautiful women. Her net worth is estimated as US$300 million, and her box office gross is over $1.6 billion worldwide. She is the recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is the co-founder of the production company Echo Films, established in 2008.\n\nEarly life\nAniston was born on February 11, 1969, in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles to Greek-born actor John Aniston and actress Nancy Dow. One of her maternal great-grandfathers, Louis Grieco, was from Italy. Her mother's other ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, and a small amount of Greek. Her father's ancestry is from the Greek island of Crete. Aniston has two half-brothers: John Melick, her older maternal half-brother; and Alex Aniston, her younger paternal half-brother. Her godfather was actor Telly Savalas, one of her father's best friends.\nHer family moved to New York City when she was a child. Despite her father's television career, she was discouraged from watching television, though she found ways around the prohibition. When she was six, she began attending a Waldorf school. Her parents divorced when she was nine.\nHaving discovered acting at age 11 at the Waldorf school, Aniston enrolled in Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she joined the school's drama society, and where Anthony Abeson was her drama teacher. She performed in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Lorraine Hansberry and Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov.\n\nCareer\n1988–1993: Beginnings\nAniston first worked in off-Broadway productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker's Grave, and supported herself with part-time jobs including work as a telemarketer, waitress and bike messenger. In 1988, she had an uncredited minor role in the critically panned sci-fi adventure film Mac and Me. The next year, she appeared on The Howard Stern Show as a spokesmodel for Nutrisystem, and moved back to Los Angeles.\nHer first regular television role was in the TV series Molloy in 1990, and she appeared in the television adaptation of the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off; both series were quickly canceled. She starred as a teenage summer camp counselor in the made-for-television film Camp Cucamonga (1990), and as a spoiled teenager followed by a vengeful leprechaun in the horror film Leprechaun (1993). A 2014 retrospective from Entertainment Weekly identified Leprechaun as her worst role, and Aniston herself has expressed embarrassment over it.\nAniston also appeared in the two failed television comedy series The Edge and Muddling Through, and guest-starred in Quantum Leap, Herman's Head and Burke's Law.\n\n1994–2004: Friends and worldwide recognition\nDepressed over her four unsuccessful television shows, Aniston approached TV executive Warren Littlefield at a Los Angeles gas station asking for reassurance. As the head of NBC entertainment, he encouraged her to continue acting, and a few months later helped cast her in Friends, a sitcom set to debut on NBC's 1994–1995 fall lineup. The producer wanted Aniston to audition for the role of Monica Geller, but Courteney Cox was deemed more suitable, and Aniston was cast as Rachel Green. She was also offered a spot as a featured player on Saturday Night Live, but turned it down in favor of Friends. She played Rachel until the show ended in 2004, when Aniston took a 15-year hiatus from television save for occasional guest roles.\n\nThe program was a massive hit and Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained worldwide recognition. Her character was especially popular. She received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations (two for Supporting Actress, three for Lead Actress), and won for Lead Actress. She was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and won in 2003 as Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Aniston (along with her female co-stars) became the highest-paid television actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck during the final season of Friends. Her character's relationship with Ross Geller, portrayed by David Schwimmer, was widely popular among audiences; they were frequently voted television's favorite couple in polls and magazines.\nAfter a four-year hiatus, Aniston returned to film work in 1996, when she performed in the ensemble cast of romantic comedy She's the One. Her first starring film vehicle was Picture Perfect (1997), where she played a struggling young advertising executive opposite Kevin Bacon and Jay Mohr. It received mixed reviews and was only a moderate commercial success; but Aniston's performance was more warmly received, with many critics suggesting that she had screen presence. In 1998, she appeared as a woman who falls for a gay man (played by Paul Rudd) in the romantic comedy The Object of My Affection, and the next year she starred as a restaurant waitress in the cult film Office Space.\n\nAniston appeared in the dramedy Rock Star (2001) opposite Mark Wahlberg and Dominic West. She starred in the independent dramedy The Good Girl (2002) as an unglamorous cashier who cheats on her husband. The film was a commercial success in limited release, taking in over $14 million in North America. Film critic Roger Ebert declared it her breakthrough: After languishing in a series of overlooked movies that ranged from the entertaining Office Space to the disposable Picture Perfect, Jennifer Aniston has at last decisively broken with her Friends image in an independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil. It will no longer be possible to consider her in the same way.\nAniston's biggest commercial success in film has been the comedy Bruce Almighty (2003), where she played the girlfriend of a television field reporter (Jim Carrey) offered the chance to be God for one week. With a worldwide box office gross of $484 million, it was the fifth-highest-grossing feature film of the year. Aniston next starred as the old classmate of a tightly wound newlywed in the romantic comedy Along Came Polly (2004) opposite Ben Stiller, which placed number one at the North American box office, earning $27.7 million in its opening weekend; it eventually made $172 million worldwide.\n\n2005–2013: Continued film success\nIn 2005, Aniston appeared as an alluring woman having an affair with an advertising executive in the thriller Derailed, and as an obituary and wedding announcement writer in the romantic comedy Rumor Has It. Both films were moderate box office hits. Aniston took on the role of a single, cash-strapped woman working as a maid in the independent drama Friends with Money (2006), which received a limited release.\nHer next film was the romantic comedy The Break-Up (2006), alongside Vince Vaughn, in which she starred as one half of a couple having a complicated split when both refuse to move out of the pair's recently purchased home. It received mixed reviews but grossed approximately $39.17 million during its opening weekend and $204 million worldwide. The A.V. Club's Keith Phipps gave the film a negative review, stating, \"It's like watching the 'we were on a break' episode of Friends stretched to feature length, and without the blessed relief of commercial breaks or the promise of Seinfeld around the corner.\" CinemaBlend gave the film a positive review stating, \"In an era of formulaic romantic movies that bear no resemblance to reality, The Break-Up offers a refreshing flipside.\"\nIn 2006, Aniston directed the short film Room 10, set in a hospital emergency room and starring Robin Wright and Kris Kristofferson, as part of Glamour's Reel Moments film series. She noted that she was inspired to direct by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who also directed a short film that year. In 2007, Aniston guest-starred in an episode of Dirt—playing the rival of Courteney Cox's character—and in an episode of 30 Rock, playing a woman who stalks Jack Donaghy. For the latter she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.\n\nThe 2008 comedy drama Marley & Me, starring Aniston and Owen Wilson as the owners of the titular dog, set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office sales ever with $14.75 million. It earned a total of $51.7 million over the four-day weekend and placed number one at the box office, a position it maintained for two weeks. The total worldwide gross was $242.7 million. Her next film in wide release, the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You (2009), in which she starred opposite Ben Affleck, grossed $178.8 million globally and ranked number one at the United States box office for its opening weekend. While it received mixed reviews, Aniston, along with Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jennifer Connelly, were praised by critics as standouts in the film.\nAniston appeared as the former wife of a bounty hunter (Gerard Butler) in the romantic comedy action film The Bounty Hunter (2010). The film was panned by critics, with The Hollywood Reporter writing that \"the mishmash ends up as a thoroughly unfunny adult cartoon.\" Nevertheless, it was a box office success, garnering over $130 million worldwide. A lukewarm box office reception greeted her next film, the romantic comedy The Switch (2010), in which she starred with Jason Bateman as a 30-something single woman who decides to have a child using a sperm bank. The film's opening weekend drew what The Hollywood Reporter dubbed \"a dispiriting $8.4 million\". The film received generally mixed reviews, with review site Metacritic showing 13 out of 30 critics delivering a positive verdict.\nIn 2010, Aniston was also a guest star on the season two premiere of ABC's sitcom Cougar Town, playing a psychiatrist. Her announcement that she would appear on Cougar Town garnered excitement and was dubbed her return to television. The A.V. Club wrote, \"[her role] is a funny bit, and it highlights just how much Jennifer Aniston is built to be a TV star.\" In 2011, she starred opposite Adam Sandler as an office manager posing as the wife of a plastic surgeon in the romantic comedy Just Go with It, and played a sexually aggressive dentist in Horrible Bosses. Just Go with It and Horrible Bosses both made over $100 million in North America and $200 million worldwide.\nAniston appeared in the comedy Wanderlust (2012) with Paul Rudd, with whom she acted in The Object of My Affection and also Friends, as a married couple who join a commune after losing their money and deciding modern life is not for them. The script for Wanderlust, bought by Universal Pictures, was produced by Judd Apatow. Wanderlust received positive reviews but was a box office failure, grossing only $21 million worldwide, against a production budget of $35 million. Aniston starred as a struggling stripper who agrees to pose as a wife for a drug deal, with Jason Sudeikis, in We're the Millers (2013). The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was a financial success, grossing $269 million against a budget of $37 million.\n\n2014–present: film roles and return to television\nAniston played the role of a stoic socialite who becomes the target of an ill-planned kidnapping plot in Life of Crime (2014), a film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1978 novel The Switch. The film was released in limited theaters, to positive reviews. Catherine Shoard of The Guardian described her performance as \"endearingly comic\" and Eric Kohn of IndieWire wrote that \"Aniston tops any of her recent performances with a spirited turn that harkens back to her neurotic days on Friends.\" She also reprised her role for Horrible Bosses 2 (2014).\nIn Cake (2014), Aniston starred as an astringent woman named Claire Simmons who struggles with chronic pain. The film received mixed reviews; nonetheless, Aniston's performance was acclaimed, dubbed by some critics as \"Oscar-worthy\". The Toronto International Film Festival called her performance \"heartbreakingly good\", Gregory Ellwood of HitFix stated, \"It's really on most people's radar for being a rare dramatic turn for Jennifer Aniston, and she doesn't disappoint.\" He further stated, \"Aniston makes you believe in Claire's pain. She makes you believe this character is at her lowest point and only she can pull herself out of it. ... It's a complete performance from beginning to end and she deserves the appropriate accolades for it.\" For her performance, Aniston was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress. She was also nominated multiple nominations for its latter seasons.\n\nIn 2015, Aniston starred as a reluctant therapist in the screwball comedy She's Funny That Way, which received mixed reviews and found a limited release in theaters, but her performance was once again noticed. Wesley Morris of Grantland called her \"one of the great screen comedians. ... Most of her scenes here are extraneous, but her vulgarity and tartness are so sharp that the movie needs them. ... This isn't just Aniston having the best stuff. It's her having the most fun with her talent. She's funny in every way.\"\nAniston starred as the recently divorced mother of two children in the romantic comedy Mother's Day (2016), directed by Garry Marshall, and opposite Julia Roberts and Kate Hudson. The film was panned by critics and a moderate commercial success. In 2016, she voiced a workaholic and overprotective mother in the animated film Storks, alongside Andy Samberg and Kelsey Grammer, which was released to mostly positive reviews; it grossed over $183.4 million against a $70 million budget. Her last 2016 film role was that of a frigidly cold head honcho of a company in the comedy Office Christmas Party, directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon and opposite Jason Bateman and Kate McKinnon. It grossed $114.5 million worldwide.\nIn The Yellow Birds, a war drama directed by Alexandre Moors, Aniston portrays the mother of a deceased soldier, alongside Alden Ehrenreich, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston, and Toni Collette. While she said she does not \"normally gravitate toward being in war films\", she made an exception because the film was \"written so beautifully and in such a way [she] had never experienced\". The film, first presented at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, received a video on demand release in June 2018. The Los Angeles Times wrote in its review: \"Toni Collette and Jennifer Aniston as the soldiers' quite different but equally concerned mothers, deliver uniformly naturalistic performances\".\nIn December 2018, Netflix released the musical comedy Dumplin', with Aniston as executive producer and star—marking her first project for a streaming service. That year, she began work on another Netflix project, Murder Mystery, a comedy that reunited her with Adam Sandler, which premiered on June 14, 2019. The two of them reunited for the sequel Murder Mystery 2, which premiered on March 31, 2023.\nAniston made her return to television on November 1, 2019, producing and starring alongside Reese Witherspoon in the Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show. It was her first main television role since the conclusion of Friends in 2004. For its first season, Aniston won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and Best Television Series – Drama as a producer. The series' latter seasons earned her multiple additional nominations at Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG awards.\nShe reunited with her Friends cast mates for an HBO Max unscripted television special titled Friends: The Reunion in May 2021. The special earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) for her producing credit.\n\nIn the media\nWealth\nAniston is one of the world's highest-paid actresses as of 2018. She has been on the Forbes Top Earning Actresses list for 15 years, every year since 2001—and since then also on its Celebrity 100 list (based on \"earnings and fame\"), topping it in 2003. According to Forbes, in October 2007, Aniston was the best-selling celebrity face of the entertainment industry.\nThe magazine estimated her net worth at $110 million in 2007, and $200 million in 2017. It listed her earnings as $19.5 million in 2018.\n\nPublic image\nThe media nicknamed Aniston \"America's sweetheart\" while the actress was starring on Friends. In 2019, Rachel Simon of NBCNews.com said Aniston \"has filled the role of our most beloved celebrity for nearly two and a half decades now, and there are no signs of her being replaced anytime soon\", arguing that few celebrities have maintained the \"America's sweetheart\" title for as long as she has. Aniston has been included in various magazine lists of the world's most beautiful women. In 2005, she became the first GQ (Gentlemen's Quarterly) Woman of the Year. She has frequently appeared on People magazine's annual list of Most Beautiful Women, topping the ranking in 2004 and 2016. She also topped the magazine's Best Dressed List in 2006. She has been a regular on the FHM (For Him Magazine) 100 Sexiest Women in the World list since 1996, most recently ranking at number 79 in 2012. A survey of their patients by two Hollywood plastic surgeons, reported in 2011 by The Daily Telegraph, identified her (alongside Gisele Bündchen and Penélope Cruz) as having one of the most sought-after body shapes. In the same year, readers of Men's Health voted her as the Sexiest Woman of All Time. Men's Health also included her on its 100 Hottest Sex Symbols of All Time list, explaining that \"Her down-to-earth persona makes her seem attainable, ... she makes even pieces of flair look good. She rarely plays the airhead, and she seldom overplays a role: she's funny in a quiet, refreshingly human way. And her all-too-human love life off screen inspires sympathy ... throughout her career Aniston has remained sexy, funny, and unmistakably real.\" Although Aniston disliked the hairstyle she wore during her first two years on Friends, \"The Rachel\" became very popular.\nShe received a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 22, 2012, located at 6270 Hollywood Boulevard. She was ranked third on Forbes' list of the 100 Most Powerful Actresses in Hollywood in 2013.\nIn July 2016, amidst media speculation over whether she was pregnant, Aniston penned an essay for The Huffington Post condemning the \"objectification and scrutiny we put women through\". She asserted: \"We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. [...] We don't need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own 'happily ever after' for ourselves.\" The piece was supported by many celebrities and widely covered in the media.\nAfter years of aversion to social media, Aniston joined Instagram on October 15, 2019, causing the app to \"break\" (for hours the \"follow\" button became inoperable due to an overload of web traffic to her account) with the first picture of the planned Friends cast reunion for HBO Max (whose release was delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). She broke the Guinness World Record for fastest time to reach one million followers on Instagram, by doing so within five hours and sixteen minutes.\n\nPersonal life\nAniston practices Hatha yoga and Budokan karate. In 2014, she spoke of her Transcendental Meditation practice. The following year, she revealed she has dyslexia, which had affected her education and self-esteem, and that after being diagnosed in her twenties, her outlook toward life changed. She stated, \"I thought I wasn't smart. I just couldn't retain anything. Now I had this great discovery. I felt like all of my childhood trauma-dies, tragedies, dramas were explained.\"\nAniston donated to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and took part in a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. She endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.\nAniston does not have any children. In November 2022, she appeared on the cover of Allure for their final print issue. In the accompanying interview, Aniston said she had undergone in vitro fertilization (IVF) to try to have children when she was in her thirties and forties, but the attempts did not result in any pregnancies. She said, \"All the years and years and years of speculation... It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it.\" In July 2024, after comments about \"childless cat ladies\" that Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance made in 2021 went viral, Aniston stated on social media that:\n\nAll I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day (...) I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.\nIn 2023, she disclosed that Adam Sandler's family sends her flowers every year on Mother's Day.\n\nRelationships\nAniston met Brad Pitt in 1998, and their relationship was highly publicized. After two years of dating, they married on July 29, 2000, in a lavish Malibu, California, wedding. For a few years, their marriage was considered a rare Hollywood success. On January 7, 2005, they announced their separation, and finalized their divorce on October 2. During their divorce proceedings, news media speculated that Pitt had been unfaithful to Aniston with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie, with whom he began a relationship soon after the split. In the months following, the public's reaction towards the divorce played out as \"Team Aniston\" and \"Team Jolie\" T-shirts appeared throughout the country. Aniston commented on the divorce in a January 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, stating, \"Nobody did anything wrong... It was just like, sometimes things [happen].\"\nIn 2005, amid reports that their divorce was due to Aniston's refusal to have children with Pitt, Aniston said, \"I've never in my life said I didn't want to have children. I did and I do and I will! ... I would never give up that experience for a career.\" \nAniston said the divorce prompted her to reach out to her mother, Nancy, from whom she had been estranged for nearly a decade. Nancy had talked about her daughter on a television show and written From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir (1999). \nIn 2006, Aniston said she had been devastated by the death of her longtime therapist, whom she credited for helping make her separation from Pitt easier. She said she did not regret her relationship with Pitt, describing it as \"very intense\" and \"a beautiful, complicated relationship\".\nAniston began a relationship with actor, director, and screenwriter Justin Theroux in May 2011. The following January, they purchased a home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles for roughly $22 million. They became engaged on August 10, 2012 and were married on August 5, 2015, at their estate. They separated at the end of 2017.\n\nOther ventures\nAniston has appeared in commercials and music videos throughout her career. After starting on Friends, Aniston and her co-star Matthew Perry shot a 60-minute instructional video for the release of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. The next year she appeared in commercials for L'Oréal hair products.\nUnder a contract with Elizabeth Arden, Inc., Aniston worked for over a year on her first perfume, which was released in July 2010. Original plans called for the perfume to be named \"Lolavie by Jennifer Aniston\", but to avoid confusion with a similarly named perfume, the name was changed to simply \"Jennifer Aniston\". In 2014, she launched her second perfume, named J, followed by Near Dusk (2015), Beachscape (2016), Luxe and Chapter One (both in 2017), Chapter Two (2018), Silver and Solstice Bloom (both in 2020). In 2021, Aniston launched the LolaVie haircare company.\nSince 2007, she has worked in a publicity campaign for the drink SmartWater; on March 7, 2011, she released a YouTube video for SmartWater, Jennifer Aniston Goes Viral, which tripled online interest in the product within 24 hours of its release. In 2012, Aniston co-founded hair care brand Living Proof and also became its spokeswoman. She left when the company was sold to Unilever in 2016. In January 2013, she became the new spokeswoman of Aveeno Skincare. Aniston is paid \"eight figures\" for her endorsement. She became the new face of Emirates airline in 2015, which was reportedly a success. For pharmaceutical company Shire, she appeared in a 2016 campaign raising awareness about chronic dry eye.\nShe appeared in the 1996 Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers music video for \"Walls\", and in Melissa Etheridge's 2001 music video for \"I Want to Be in Love\". She also appeared in a 2005 Heineken commercial.\nAlong with Brad Pitt and Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount Pictures, Aniston founded the film production company Plan B Entertainment in 2002, although she and Grey withdrew in 2005. In 2008, she and producer Kristin Hahn formed Echo Films.\n\nPhilanthropy\nAniston has been a celebrity advocate for numerous charities and received attention for her own donations. She has appeared in television commercials for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, and hosted September 2008's Stand Up to Cancer show. In the \"It Can't Wait\" campaign to free Burma, Aniston directed and starred in a video. She is a supporter of Friends of El Faro, a nonprofit organization that helps raise money for Casa Hogar Sion, an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.\n\nOn April 14, 2007, Aniston received GLAAD's Vanguard Award for her contributions to increased visibility and understanding of the LGBT community. In 2013, she was named the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) ambassador for the Saks Fifth Avenue Key to the Cure campaign, which raises funds for the EIF Women's Cancer Research Fund. In 2015, she supported the Comic Relief, Inc. charity. Other charities that Aniston has publicly supported include Clothes Off Our Back, Feeding America, EB Medical Research Foundation, Project A.L.S., OmniPeace, and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.\nAniston donated $500,000 to Doctors Without Borders, Haitian health care provider Partners in Health and AmeriCares, and also participated in the Hope for Haiti Now telethon. She donated $500,000 to the Red Cross and another $500,000 to the Ricky Martin Foundation in 2017 to help victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.\nAfter being honored by SmartWater in 2016 for her ongoing philanthropic work for St. Jude's, Aniston spoke of the importance of philanthropy in her life to InStyle magazine: \"We live an extremely beautiful, fortunate life being able to do what we get to do for a living. And so it's a way of being able to be in a position to do something for people who are less able. It's something that makes my heart smile.\"\n\nActing credits and awards\nAniston received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Golden Globe Award nominations, and nine SAG Award nominations for her role in Friends. From these, she won one of each. She also garnered a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her guest appearance in 30 Rock, while her performance in Cake earned her nominations at the Golden Globe and SAG awards. Aniston additionally won a SAG Award and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the first season of The Morning Show, and earned multiple nominations at Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG awards for its latter seasons. As a producer, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.\nAccording to review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and the box-office site Box Office Mojo, Aniston's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films are Office Space (1999), The Good Girl (2002), Bruce Almighty (2003), Friends with Money (2006), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), We're the Millers (2013), and Dumplin' (2018).\n\nSee also\nList of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame\n\nReferences\nFurther reading\nMarshall, Sarah (2007). Jennifer Aniston: The Biography of Hollywood's Sweetheart. John Blake. ISBN 978-1844544004.\nLynette, Rachel (2010). Jennifer Aniston. Lucent Books. ISBN 978-1420502350.\nBonner, Mike (2001). Jennifer Aniston. Chelsea House Publications. ISBN 978-0791064658.\n\nExternal links\n\nJennifer Aniston at IMDb\nJennifer Aniston at AllMovie\nJennifer Aniston on Instagram\nJennifer Aniston at Box Office Mojo\nJennifer Aniston at Rotten Tomatoes","title":"Jennifer_Aniston"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Courteney Bass Cox (born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and filmmaker. She rose to international prominence for playing Monica Geller in the NBC sitcom Friends (1994–2004) and Gale Weathers in the horror film franchise Scream (1996–present). Her accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Award, nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is well known for being one of the most beautiful television actresses of the 90s decade and her down to earth personality.\nCox had a recurring role in the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1987–1989), and starred in the FX drama series Dirt (2007–2008), the ABC/TBS sitcom Cougar Town (2009–2015) which she also directed, and the Starz horror comedy series Shining Vale (2022–2023). Her film credits include the action fantasy Masters of the Universe (1987), the comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), the animated comedy Barnyard (2006), the fantasy comedy Bedtime Stories (2008), and the independent drama Mothers and Daughters (2016). \nCox owns the production company Coquette Productions, which she founded with her then-husband, David Arquette. She has directed the television drama film TalhotBlond (2012), the black comedy drama film Just Before I Go (2014), and executive produced the game show Celebrity Name Game (2014–2017).\n\nEarly life\nCox was born June 15, 1964, in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised there. She is a daughter of businessman Richard Lewis Cox (1931–2001) and Courteney Copeland (née Bass; 1934–2020). Cox has two older sisters, Virginia and Dorothy, and an older brother, Richard Jr. Her parents divorced in 1974 and her mother then married businessman Hunter Copeland (uncle to music promoter and business manager Ian Copeland and the Police drummer Stewart Copeland).\nAfter graduating from Mountain Brook High School, Cox left for Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C. (now part of George Washington University), but did not complete her architecture course, opting instead to pursue a career in modeling and acting. Cox has English and Norman ancestry; researching her family tree for the series Who Do You Think You Are?, Cox discovered she was a direct descendant of William the Conqueror and Edward I of England.\n\nCareer\nEarly work\nCox worked at video game publisher Bethesda Softworks briefly in the 1980s. She was chosen from a casting call by director Brian De Palma to appear in the 1984 music video for Bruce Springsteen's \"Dancing in the Dark\", as the young woman pulled onstage at the St. Paul Civic Center to dance with Springsteen. Her early television work includes a starring role as Gloria Dinallo in the short-lived NBC science fiction series Misfits of Science (1985), and guest-starring roles in the ABC comedy-drama series The Love Boat (1986) and the CBS crime drama series Murder, She Wrote (1986). She later had a recurring role as Lauren Miller, the girlfriend of Michael J. Fox's character Alex P. Keaton in the NBC comedy series Family Ties (1987–1989). Cox's early film roles include Masters of the Universe (1987), Cocoon: The Return (1988), and I'll Be Home for Christmas (1988). She also played Jewel Jagger, the tough-as-nails assistant of Larry Burrows (James Belushi), in Mr. Destiny (1990).\n\n1990s: International breakthrough\nIn 1993, Cox co-starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom The Trouble with Larry, alongside Bronson Pinchot and Perry King. The following year, shortly before the debut of the sitcom Friends, Cox starred alongside Jim Carrey in the comedy film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and as Jerry Seinfeld's girlfriend, Meryl, in the Seinfeld episode \"The Wife\".\nIn 1994, Cox was asked to audition for the starring role of Rachel Green on a new sitcom, Friends; she was cast as Monica Geller instead. At first the most famous cast member of the new show, Cox joined Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) for what became her most famous role, lasting for ten seasons until 2004. The series is commonly referred to as one of the greatest of all sitcoms. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2005), Cox (along with her female co-stars) became the highest-paid TV actress of all time, with her US$1 million-per-episode fee for the final two seasons of Friends. Syndication of the series earned Cox and her co-stars an estimated $20 million in annual residuals. In 1995, she was cast in Toad the Wet Sprocket's music video \"Good Intentions\". The song was also featured on the Friends soundtrack. \nBetween seasons five and six, she married David Arquette and consequently changed her name to Courteney Cox Arquette. A joke reference to this is made in the opening credits of the episode \"The One After Vegas\", where the rest of the cast has \"Arquette\" added to their names. The dedication \"For Courteney and David, who did get married\" – a reference to Monica and Chandler's decision not to marry in the episode – appears during the fade out to the tag scene.\nCox received further recognition and critical acclaim for her starring role as reporter Gale Weathers in the high-profile slasher horror film Scream (1996), and its sequels Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 3 (2000). The series is one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed horror franchises of all time. Cox's character was well known for her \"snappy remarks and being brilliantly bossy\". She met her future husband, David Arquette, who played her on-screen love interest, Dwight \"Dewey\" Riley, while filming the first Scream film. Cox also hosted an episode of the variety sketch series Saturday Night Live in July 1995, and appeared in the crime thriller film The Runner (1999).\n\n2000s: Continued success\nCox's major films during this period include the crime drama 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) and the comedy The Shrink Is In (2001). In late 2003, Cox and Arquette produced one season of the reality television series Mix It Up. The lifestyle series, which aired on the WE cable channel, struggled with low ratings and was not renewed for a second season. After the conclusion of Friends, Cox was producer Marc Cherry's first choice to be offered a starring role as Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives, but Cox was unavailable due to her pregnancy and the role later went to Teri Hatcher. A few years later, Cox signed a deal with ABC Studios (formerly Touchstone Television) to star in her own series.\nShe starred in the independent drama film November (2005), which had a limited theatrical release. She had a cameo appearance in the big-budget remake The Longest Yard (2005) as Lena, the girlfriend of Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler), and co-starred with Tim Allen in the critically derided Zoom (2006). Cox voiced Daisy the Cow in the animated film Barnyard (2006). A Friends reunion film was rumored to be in production following the success of Sex and the City (2008), but this was later denied by Warner Bros. and others.\nCox starred as Lucy Spiller, a cynical tabloid editor, in the FX television drama series Dirt, which premiered in 2007. Cox and her then-husband David Arquette were the executive producers of the series. The series was eventually canceled after the second season in 2008. In July 2008, Entertainment Weekly announced that Cox signed on to star in a three-episode arc for the television medical comedy series Scrubs. Also that year, she starred in the fantasy comedy film Bedtime Stories, reuniting with co-star Adam Sandler. She went to executive produce the short drama film The Butler's in Love, directed by David Arquette.\nCox guest-starred in a three-episode story arc on former Friends co-star Lisa Kudrow's web comedy series Web Therapy (2009). Also in 2009, she began her role as the star of the single-camera ABC comedy series Cougar Town, playing a newly single 40-year-old mother on the hunt for new experiences. It is notably Cox's most successful work since Friends, earning her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. The series' third season was set to premiere in November 2011 but moved to February 14, 2012. Cox directed two episodes of the series' fifteen episodes that season. The fourth season premiered on January 8, 2013. The series came to an end on March 31, 2015, after six seasons.\n\n2010s: Directorial debut and expansion\nCox reprised her role as Gale Weathers from the Scream trilogy for the sequel Scream 4. The film was released in theaters on April 15, 2011. She made her directorial debut and had a cameo appearance in a Lifetime television drama film TalhotBlond, which premiered on the network on June 23, 2012. \nIn 2014, Cox directed and produced the black comedy film Just Before I Go, starring Seann William Scott and Elisha Cuthbert. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24, 2014, and it was released in select theaters on April 24, 2015. From 2014 to 2017, she executive produced the syndicated game show Celebrity Name Game, hosted by Craig Ferguson. It ended after three seasons. The series earned her a nomination for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show.\nIn 2016, Cox starred in the independent drama film Mothers and Daughters, alongside Susan Sarandon, Mira Sorvino, and Sharon Stone. The film was released to generally negative reviews on May 6, 2016. In 2019, she created and executive produced the Facebook Watch documentary series 9 Months with Courteney Cox, which focuses on \"people from across the country of various race, religion, and class as they self-document their 9-month journey of pregnancy\". It lasted for three seasons until 2021.\n\n2020s: Current work\nIn 2020, she guest starred in the ABC sitcom Modern Family. Cox reunited with her Friends co-stars for a reunion special titled Friends: The Reunion, which was released on May 27, 2021, on HBO Max. The special earned Cox a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded). In the same year she launched her line of home products, named Homecourt. She also participated in the Celebrity Escape Room special to raise $150,000 for Red Nose Day. \nCox reprised her role as Gale Weathers for the fifth Scream film, which was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The film was released on January 14, 2022, to box office success and positive reviews. Also in 2022, she signed on to star alongside Greg Kinnear in the Starz horror comedy series Shining Vale, from creators Sharon Horgan and Jeff Astrof; she plays Patricia \"Pat\" Phelps, who moves her family \"from the 'crazy' of the city to a large, old house in the suburbs where evil and humor collide.\" \nCox again reprised her role as Gale Weathers for the sixth Scream film, which she also executive produced. The film was released on March 9, 2023, to box office success and positive reviews. Also in 2023, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is set to executive produce and star as Brittany Wagner in the Spectrum Originals adaptation of the documentary series Last Chance U.\n\nPersonal life\nCox dated actor Michael Keaton from 1989 to 1995. Cox married her Scream co-star David Arquette on June 12, 1999, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. The couple have a daughter, born in June 2004. Jennifer Aniston is the godmother. Cox revealed that she suffered from postpartum depression six months after the birth of her child. On October 11, 2010, Cox and Arquette announced that they had separated, although they still maintain a close friendship and ongoing business relationship in Coquette Productions. In June 2012, Arquette filed for divorce after nearly two years of separation from Cox. The divorce became final in May 2013. Cox began dating Snow Patrol band member Johnny McDaid in late 2013. The couple announced their engagement in June 2014. Soon afterward they called off the engagement, but they have remained a couple.\nIn 2020, Cox said that she did not remember much about the episode plots of Friends and that she had begun binge-watching the show. Cox is a practitioner of Budokan karate.\n\nFilmography\nFilm\nTelevision\nMusic videos\nAwards and honors\nAccolades\nHonors\n1995: Honored as the Female Discovery of the Year by the Golden Apple Awards.\n2010: Honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Women's Image Network.\n2010: Honored with the Lucy Award by the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards.\n2023: Honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\n\nNotes\nReferences\nExternal links\nCourteney Cox 1988 Interview with KVUE's Roy Faires about Cocoon: The Return (1988) from Texas Archive of the Moving Image\nCourteney Cox at IMDb\nCourteney Cox at People.com\nCourteney Cox on Twitter \nCourteney Cox on Instagram","title":"Courteney_Cox"},{"idx":3,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( KOO-droh; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the American television sitcom Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004. The series earned her Primetime Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Satellite, American Comedy and TV Guide awards. Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time and is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, spawning her successful film career.\nKudrow initially appeared in a 1989 episode of the hit sitcom Cheers playing a character named Emily. She also starred in several episodes of the show Mad About You (1993) as Ursula, before auditioning and earning the role of Phoebe on Friends; her character on Mad About You was written into the Friends storyline as Phoebe’s twin. In the late 1990s, Kudrow starred in the cult comedy film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and followed it with an acclaimed performance in the comedy/drama The Opposite of Sex (1998), which won her the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. She created, produced, wrote, and starred in the HBO mockumentary series The Comeback, which initially lasted for one season in 2005 but was revived for a critically acclaimed second and final season in 2014. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for both seasons.\nIn 2007, Kudrow received praise for her starring role in the film Kabluey and appeared in the film P.S. I Love You. She produced and starred in the Showtime program Web Therapy (2011–2015), which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She is a producer on the TLC/NBC reality program Who Do You Think You Are, which has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award five times. She currently is a voice actress on the animated series HouseBroken.\nKudrow has also had roles in Analyze This (1999) and its sequel Analyze That (2002), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Bandslam (2008), Hotel for Dogs (2009), Easy A (2010), Neighbors (2014) and its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), The Girl on the Train (2016), The Boss Baby (2017), Long Shot (2019) and Booksmart (2019).\n\nEarly life\nLisa Valerie Kudrow was born in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles on July 30, 1963, the daughter of Nedra, a travel agent, and Lee Kudrow, a doctor who specialized in treating headaches. She has an older sister, Helene, and two brothers, David and Derrick. She was raised in a middle-class Jewish family and had a Bat Mitzvah. She is of Belarusian, German, Hungarian, and Polish Jewish descent. Some of her Belarusian ancestors were from Ilya. Almost all Jews in Ilya were murdered during the Holocaust, including Kudrow's paternal great-grandmother. Her paternal grandmother later left Belarus for Brooklyn, where her father grew up.\nKudrow attended Portola Middle School in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. She graduated from Taft High School in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, which was attended at the same time by rapper Eazy-E and actress Robin Wright. She received her BA in biology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, intending to become an expert on headaches like her father. While breaking into acting, she worked for her father for eight years and earned a research credit on his study on the comparative likelihood of left-handed individuals developing cluster headaches.\n\nCareer\n1989–1994: Pre-Friends\nAt the urging of comedian Jon Lovitz, who was a childhood friend of her brother, Kudrow began her comedic career as a member of The Groundlings, an improv and sketch comedy school in Los Angeles. She has credited Cynthia Szigeti, her improv teacher at The Groundlings, for changing her perspective on acting, calling her \"the best thing that happened, on so many levels\". Briefly, Kudrow joined with Conan O'Brien and director Tim Hillman in the short-lived improv troupe Unexpected Company. She was also the only regular female member of the Transformers Comedy Troupe. She played a role in an episode of the NBC sitcom Cheers. She tried out for Saturday Night Live in 1990, but the show chose Julia Sweeney instead. She had a recurring role as Kathy Fleisher in three episodes of season one of the Bob Newhart sitcom Bob (CBS, 1992–1993), a role she played after taking part in the series finale of Newhart's previous series Newhart. Prior to Friends, she appeared in at least two network-produced pilots: NBC's Just Temporary (also known as Temporarily Yours) in 1989, playing Nicole; and CBS' Close Encounters (also known as Matchmaker) in 1990, playing a Valley girl.\nKudrow was cast as Roz Doyle in Frasier, but the role was re-cast with Peri Gilpin during the taping of the pilot episode. In 2000, Kudrow explained that when rehearsals started, \"I knew it wasn't working. I could feel it all slipping away, and I was panicking, which only made things worse.\" Her first recurring television role was Ursula Buffay, the eccentric waitress on the NBC sitcom Mad About You.\n\n1994–2004: Friends and worldwide recognition\nKudrow, the oldest actor of the main cast, reprised the character of Ursula on the NBC sitcom Friends, in which she co-starred as massage therapist Phoebe Buffay, Ursula's twin sister. Praised for her performance, Kudrow was the first Friends cast member to win an Emmy Award with her 1998 honor as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her starring role as Phoebe on Friends (NBC, 1994–2004). Kudrow received critical acclaim for playing Phoebe. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2005), Kudrow and co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox became the highest paid TV actresses of all time, earning $1 million per episode for the ninth and tenth seasons of Friends. Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time. Phoebe is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, credited with making her the show's second-most famous cast member, after Jennifer Aniston, and for spawning her successful film career. She played Phoebe until the show ended in 2004. The program was a massive hit and Kudrow, along with her co-stars, gained worldwide recognition. Her character, Phoebe, was especially popular. Entertainment Weekly voted Phoebe on Friends as Kudrow's best performance.\nDuring her tenure on Friends, Kudrow appeared in several comedy films such as Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Hanging Up, Marci X, Dr. Dolittle 2, Analyze This and its sequel Analyze That, and dramatic films, such as Wonderland and The Opposite of Sex. She also guest-starred on numerous television series during Friends, including The Simpsons, Hope and Gloria and King of the Hill, and hosted Saturday Night Live.\n\n2004–present: Post-Friends\nFollowing Friends, Kudrow starred as protagonist Valerie Cherish on the single-season HBO series The Comeback (premiered June 5, 2005), about a has-been sitcom star trying for a comeback. She also served as co-creator, writer, and executive producer. Nine years after the original season, HBO revived the series in 2014 for an abbreviated second season. Kudrow received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on The Comeback. Her production company is 'Is or Isn't Entertainment'. Kudrow serves as the executive producer for the U.S. version of the British television series Who Do You Think You Are?, in which celebrities trace their family trees. The subjects of the first series included Kudrow herself, in which it was discovered her great-grandmother was murdered in the Holocaust.\nKudrow co-created an improvised comedy webseries, Web Therapy on Lstudio.com. The improv series, which launched online in 2008, has earned several Webby nominations and one Outstanding Comedic Performance Webby for Kudrow, who plays therapist Fiona Wallice. She offers her patients three-minute sessions over iChat. In July 2011, a reformatted, half-hour version of the show premiered on Showtime, before being cancelled in 2015 after four seasons. Kudrow has guest starred on multiple television series such as Cougar Town, BoJack Horseman, Angie Tribeca, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Scandal.\nKudrow has appeared in multiple comedic films such as Happy Endings, Hotel for Dogs, Easy A, Neighbors and its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Long Shot, and Booksmart. She also appeared in the romantic drama film P.S. I Love You and co-starred in the thriller film The Girl on the Train. In 2020, Kudrow played Hypatia of Alexandria in season 4 episode 12 of The Good Place \"Patty\", and starred as Maggie Naird in the Netflix comedy series, Space Force. She reunited with her Friends cast mates for an HBO Max unscripted television special titled Friends: The Reunion in May 2021. She is currently, along with Mary McCormack, an executive producer of the syndicated game show, 25 Words or Less; sometimes, Kudrow herself is one of the two celebrity guests playing with a contestant on the show.\n\nPersonal life\nKudrow married French advertising executive Michel Stern on May 27, 1995. The couple reside in Beverly Hills, California, and have a son named Julian who was born on May 7, 1998. Kudrow's pregnancy was written into the fourth season of Friends, with her character having triplets as a surrogate mother for her half-brother and his wife. In addition to her Beverly Hills home, Kudrow maintained a penthouse in Park City, Utah, which she sold in April 2017. She revealed in 2019 that she had experienced body dysmorphic disorder while working on Friends.\n\nFilmography\nFilm\nTelevision\nAwards and nominations\nKudrow has been honored with numerous accolades over her career. For her role in the sitcom Friends, she received six nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, winning in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Satellite Award, one American Comedy award, and one TV Guide award.\nIn total, she has received fifteen Emmy nominations, with her most recent nomination in the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, twelve nominations and two wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, one win and eight nominations at the American Comedy Awards, one Golden Globe nomination, one Banff Rockie award, one Blockbuster Entertainment award, one Chicago Film Critics Association nomination, one Chlotrudis award, two Critics' Choice Television nominations, one Dorian award, one Gracie award, one Independent Spirit nomination, one MTV Movie & TV nomination, one National Society of Film Critics nomination, one New York Film Critics Circle award, one Nickelodeon Kids' Choice nomination, one Online Film Critics Society nomination, one People Magazine award, five nominations and one win at the Satellite Awards, three nominations and one win at the Teen Choice Awards, two Streamy nominations, two nominations and one win at the TV Guide Awards, one Viewers for Quality Television nomination and seven nominations and four wins at the Webby Awards.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nLisa Kudrow at AllMovie \nLisa Kudrow at Emmys.com \nLisa Kudrow at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television \nLisa Kudrow at IMDb \nLisa Kudrow on Twitter \nLisa Kudrow on Instagram","title":"Lisa_Kudrow"},{"idx":4,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Matthew Steven LeBlanc (; born July 25, 1967) is an American actor. He garnered global recognition with his portrayal of Joey Tribbiani in the NBC sitcom Friends and in its spin-off series, Joey. For his work on Friends, LeBlanc received three nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards. He has also starred as a fictionalized version of himself in Episodes (2011–2017), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and received four additional Emmy Award nominations. He co-hosted Top Gear from 2016 to 2019. From 2016 to 2020, he played patriarch Adam Burns in the CBS sitcom Man with a Plan.\n\nEarly life\nLeBlanc was born at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. His mother, Patricia (née Di Cillo), was an office manager; his father, Paul LeBlanc, was a mechanic and a veteran of the Vietnam War. His father is of French-Canadian descent and his mother is of Italian ancestry, the daughter of immigrants from Arce, Lazio. He attended Newton North High School, where he graduated in the same year as future comedian Louis C.K. After high school he attended college at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. He dropped out shortly after starting his second semester.\nLeBlanc moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue a career in modeling, but he was told he was too short to be in the industry. His acting career began after a woman invited him to accompany her to an audition, where he ended up getting signed by her manager. Although he had booked commercials and television and film roles before Friends, he was reportedly down to his last eleven dollars before landing the role of Joey Tribbiani.\n\nCareer\n1987–1994: Early career\nLeBlanc first appeared in a 1987 Heinz Tomato Ketchup commercial. In 1988, he starred in the television drama TV 101 for one season. In 1991, he had a recurring role on the hit Fox sitcom Married... with Children. He played Vinnie Verducci, a family friend of protagonist Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) who briefly dates his daughter, Kelly (Christina Applegate). He also guest-starred in the first season of Red Shoe Diaries. LeBlanc starred in two short-lived Married... with Children spin-offs: Top of the Heap (1991) and Vinnie & Bobby (1992).\nHe appeared in two Bon Jovi music videos: \"Miracle,\" from the Young Guns II soundtrack in 1990, and \"Say It Isn't So\" in 2000. He also appeared in videos for Alanis Morissette's single \"Walk Away,\" Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers's \"Into The Great Wide Open\" and Bob Seger's \"Night Moves\".\n\n1994–2006: Friends, Joey and film roles\nLeBlanc found success as the dimwitted but lovable Joey Tribbiani on Friends; he played this character for 12 years — 10 seasons of Friends and two seasons of Joey. Friends was wildly successful, and LeBlanc (along with co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer) gained wide recognition among viewers. This ensemble situation comedy became a major hit for NBC, airing on Thursday nights for ten years.\nFor his performance, LeBlanc received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, three Golden Globe award nominations, and one Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. During this time he also appeared in the films Lookin' Italian (1994), Ed (1996), Lost in Space (1998), Charlie's Angels (2000), and its sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003).\nFollowing the cancellation of Joey, LeBlanc announced that he would be taking a one-year hiatus from acting on television, which eventually turned into five years.\n\n2011–present: Career revival\nFrom 2011, LeBlanc appeared as a fictionalized version of himself in Episodes, a television series about an American remake of a fictional British television series. The series is written by Friends co-creator David Crane and his partner Jeffrey Klarik. At the 69th Golden Globe Awards in 2012, LeBlanc won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a television series, musical, or comedy, and was nominated for an additional four Primetime Emmy Awards.\nIn February 2012, LeBlanc appeared in the second episode of the eighteenth season of Top Gear, where he set the fastest lap time in the \"Star in a Reasonably Priced Car\" segment in a Kia Cee'd. Lapping at 1:42.1, he beat the show's previous record-holder, Rowan Atkinson, by 0.1 seconds. He also appeared in the fourth episode of the nineteenth season to race the New Kia Cee'd, and beat his previous time.\nIn February 2016, the BBC announced LeBlanc had signed on to become one of the new Top Gear hosts, signing a two-year deal later that year. In May 2018, he announced that he was leaving the series in order to spend more time with his family and friends in the US. He and Rory Reid were replaced by new co-hosts Paddy McGuinness and Andrew Flintoff in the twenty-seventh series in October 2018.\nLeBlanc played the lead role in the CBS sitcom Man with a Plan, which began airing in 2016 until it was cancelled in 2020.\n\nPersonal life\nLeBlanc has an extensive interest in cars, and worked as a carpenter before acting. In the mid-1990s, he dated actress Kate Hudson. He married Melissa McKnight, a British-born American model and a divorced single mother of two children, in May 2003. In 1997, they had been introduced to each other by McKnight's friend, Kelly Phillips (wife of actor Lou Diamond Phillips). LeBlanc proposed to her a year later. Their daughter, born in 2004, began suffering seizures at eight months old. By the time she was two years old, the condition, thought to be due to cortical dysplasia, had mostly subsided. LeBlanc and McKnight divorced in October 2006, citing irreconcilable differences.\nLeBlanc met actress Andrea Anders in 2004 while she was co-starring as his friend and eventual love interest on Joey and the pair eventually embarked on a relationship which was confirmed in 2006 following LeBlanc's split from his wife Melissa McKnight. After over eight years as a couple, LeBlanc announced at the start of 2015 that he and Anders had been broken up for several months.\nLeBlanc primarily resides in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.\n\nFilmography\nFilm\nTelevision\nMusic videos\nAwards and nominations\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nMatt LeBlanc at IMDb \nMatt LeBlanc at Rotten Tomatoes \nMatt LeBlanc at Emmys.com \nMatt LeBlanc at TV Guide \nMatt LeBlanc on Instagram","title":"Matt_LeBlanc"},{"idx":5,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Matthew Langford Perry (August 19, 1969 – October 28, 2023) was an American and Canadian actor. He gained international fame for starring as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom Friends (1994–2004). Perry also appeared on Ally McBeal (2002) and received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in The West Wing (2003) and The Ron Clark Story (2006). He played a leading role in the NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–2007), and also became known for his leading film roles in Fools Rush In (1997), Almost Heroes (1998), Three to Tango (1999), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Serving Sara (2002), The Whole Ten Yards (2004), and 17 Again (2009).\nPerry was co-creator, co-writer, executive producer, and star of the ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine, which ran from February to April 2011. In August 2012, he starred as sportscaster Ryan King on the NBC sitcom Go On. He co-developed and starred in a revival of the CBS sitcom The Odd Couple portraying Oscar Madison from 2015 to 2017. He had recurring roles in the legal dramas The Good Wife (2012–2013), and The Good Fight (2017). Perry portrayed Ted Kennedy in The Kennedys: After Camelot (2017) and appeared as himself in his final television appearance, Friends: The Reunion (2021). He voiced Benny in the video game Fallout: New Vegas (2010).\nFor most of his life, Perry suffered from severe addictions to drugs and alcohol. Through his recovery, he became an advocate for rehabilitation and a spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. In 2013, Perry received the Champion of Recovery Award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. In 2022, he released his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. \nIn 2023, Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine use; the following year, five people were charged in connection with helping him acquire lethal doses of the drug.\n\nEarly life and education\nMatthew Langford Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on August 19, 1969. His mother, Suzanne Marie Morrison (née Langford, born 1948), is a Canadian journalist who was press secretary to Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau. His father, John Bennett Perry (born 1941), is an American actor and former model.\nPerry's parents separated when he was a year old, and his mother married Canadian broadcast journalist Keith Morrison. Perry was mostly raised by his mother in Ottawa, Ontario, but he also lived briefly in Toronto and Montreal. He attended Rockcliffe Park Public School and Ashbury College, a boarding school in Ottawa. He had four younger maternal half-siblings—Caitlin, Emily, Will, and Madeline—as well as a younger paternal half-sister named Maria. His siblings \"would stand and applaud\" him for early performances.\nBy the time he was 10, Perry started misbehaving. He stole money, smoked, let his grades slip, and beat up fellow student and future Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. Perry later attributed his behavior to his feeling like a family outsider who no longer belonged, once his mother began having children with Morrison. As Perry wrote, \"I was so often on the outside looking in, still that kid up in the clouds on a flight to somewhere else, unaccompanied.\" At age 14, he began consuming alcohol and, by the time he was 18, was drinking every day. Perry practiced tennis, often for 10 hours per day, and became a top-ranked junior player in Canada with the possibility of a tennis career. But his prospects diminished when he moved from Ottawa, at age 15, to live with his father in Los Angeles, where competition was much tougher.\nAt 15, Perry began studying acting at the Buckley School, a college-preparatory school in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, from which he graduated in 1987. While in high school, he took improvisational comedy classes at L.A. Connection in Sherman Oaks.\n\nCareer\n1979–1993: Early roles\nPerry's first credited role was a small part in 240-Robert in 1979 as a child actor. Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Perry started auditioning for roles. Perry made guest appearances on Not Necessarily the News in 1983, Charles in Charge in 1985, and Silver Spoons in 1986. In 1987 and 1988, he played Chazz Russell in the TV series Second Chance (later called Boys Will Be Boys). Perry made his film debut in 1988 with A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. In 1989, he had a three-episode arc on Growing Pains, portraying Carol Seaver's boyfriend Sandy, who dies in a drunk driving incident.\nPerry was cast as a regular on the 1990 CBS sitcom Sydney, playing the younger brother of Valerie Bertinelli's character. In 1991, he made a guest appearance on Beverly Hills, 90210 as Roger Azarian. Perry played the starring role in the ABC sitcom Home Free, which aired in 1993.\n\n1994–2004: Breakthrough with Friends\nPerry's commitment to a pilot for a sitcom called LAX 2194, set in the baggage handling department of Los Angeles Airport 200 years in the future, initially made him unavailable for a role in another pilot, Six of One, later called Friends. After the LAX 2194 pilot fell through, he had the opportunity to read for a part in Six of One and was cast as Chandler Bing. At the age of 24, he was the youngest member of the main cast. After making the pilot and while waiting for the show to air, Perry spent the summer of 1993 performing at the Williamstown Theater Festival alongside Gwyneth Paltrow.\nFriends was hugely successful, and it made Perry an international celebrity. By 2002, he and his co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer were making $1 million per episode. The program earned him an Emmy nomination in 2002 for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series award. Perry appeared in films such Fools Rush In, Almost Heroes, Three to Tango, The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards, and Serving Sara. In 1995, he and Jennifer Aniston appeared in a 60-minute-long promotional video for Microsoft's Windows 95, released on VHS on August 1.\nFor his performance as Joe Quincy in The West Wing, Perry received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2003 and 2004. He appeared as attorney Todd Merrick in two episodes of Ally McBeal. In 2004, he made his directorial debut and acted in an episode of the fourth season of the comedy-drama Scrubs, an episode which included his father.\n\n2005–2022: Later work\nPerry starred in the TNT movie The Ron Clark Story, which premiered August 13, 2006, and received a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for his performance. From 2006 to 2007, he appeared in Aaron Sorkin's drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Perry played Matt Albie alongside Bradley Whitford's Danny Tripp, a writer-director duo brought in to help save a failing sketch show.\nIn 2006, Perry began filming Numb, a film based on a man suffering from depersonalization disorder. The release was postponed several times, but it was finally released on DVD on May 13, 2008. Perry also appeared on stage in London in David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago. In 2008, Perry starred in the independent film Birds of America. Showtime passed on a pilot called The End of Steve, a dark comedy starring, written, and produced by Perry and Peter Tolan.\nIn 2009, Perry starred in the film 17 Again playing a 37-year-old man who transforms into his 17-year-old self (Zac Efron) after an accident. The film received mixed reviews and was a box-office success. A review on WRC-TV found Perry miscast in his role, emphasizing the disbelief in Efron growing up to resemble Perry, both physically and behaviorally — a sentiment echoed by other critics.\nIn 2009, Perry was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, when he presented Ellen DeGeneres with an Xbox 360 video game console and a copy of the game Fallout 3. The gesture led to game studio Obsidian Entertainment casting him in Fallout: New Vegas as the voice of Benny.\nPerry's new comedy pilot, Mr. Sunshine, based on his original idea for the show, was bought by ABC. He played the lead role as a middle-aged man with an identity crisis. ABC canceled the series after nine episodes in 2011.\n\nIn 2012, Perry starred in the NBC comedy series Go On, written and produced by former Friends writer/producer Scott Silveri. Perry portrayed Ryan King, a sportscaster who tries to move on after the death of his wife through the help of mandatory therapy sessions. In the same year, he guest-starred on the CBS drama The Good Wife as attorney Mike Kresteva. He reprised his role in the fourth season in 2013.\nIn 2014, Perry made his British TV debut in the one-off comedy program The Dog Thrower, which aired on May 1 as part of Sky Arts' Playhouse Presents. He portrayed \"a charismatic man\" who enchanted onlookers by throwing his dog in the air. From 2015 to 2017, Perry starred in, co-wrote, and served as executive producer of a reboot of the sitcom The Odd Couple on CBS. He played Oscar Madison opposite Thomas Lennon as Felix Unger.\nPerry played the lead role in the world premiere production of his play The End of Longing, which opened on February 11, 2016, at the Playhouse Theatre in London. Its limited run proved successful despite mixed reviews. Perry restructured the play and appeared alongside Jennifer Morrison in its second off-Broadway production, which opened at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on June 5, 2017. It closed on July 1 after receiving poor reviews. Years later Perry described the play as \"a personal message to the world, an exaggerated form of me as a drunk. I had something important to say to people like me, and to people who love people like me.\"\nIn March 2017, Perry again reprised his role as attorney Mike Kresteva in The Good Fight, a sequel show to the CBS drama The Good Wife. Later that year, he starred as Ted Kennedy in the mini-series The Kennedys: After Camelot.\nIn May 2021, he participated in the special episode Friends: The Reunion. He was meant to have a role in Don't Look Up, but withdrew in 2020 because of CPR-induced broken ribs. Perry published a memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, in October 2022. It became a bestseller on both Amazon and The New York Times charts.\n\nPersonal life\nPerry held Canadian and American citizenship. He dated Yasmine Bleeth in 1995, Julia Roberts from 1995 to 1996, and Lizzy Caplan from 2006 to 2012. In November 2020, Perry became engaged to literary manager Molly Hurwitz. Their engagement ended in 2021.\nResidences owned at some point by Perry included a condo in Sierra Towers purchased from Elton John, a house in Hollywood Hills, a house in Malibu, and a cottage in Pacific Palisades. In 2017, Perry purchased a condo occupying the top floor of The Century in Los Angeles for $20 million, selling it to Nick Molnar for $21.6 million in 2021, who in turn sold it to Rihanna in 2023. In June 2023, Perry purchased a mid-century modern house in Hollywood Hills.\nPerry had a perfectionist and obsessive personality, spending many hours perfecting his answering machine message. He also believed in God, with whom he had \"a very close relationship,\" calling himself \"a seeker.\"\n\nHealth and addiction\nIn his memoirs, Perry wrote that by the age of 14, he had become an alcoholic. He became addicted to Vicodin after a jet ski accident in 1997, and completed a 28-day rehab program at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation that year. His weight dropped to 128 pounds (58 kg) as he took as many as 55 Vicodin pills per day. In May 2000, at the age of 30, he was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with alcohol-induced pancreatitis.\nWhile Perry said in 2002 that, although he had made an effort not to drink on the set of Friends, he did arrive with extreme hangovers and sometimes would shake or sweat excessively on set. During the later seasons of the series, he was frequently drunk or high on set. His castmates made efforts to help him, even staging an intervention, but were unsuccessful.\nIn February 2001, Perry paused productions of Friends and Serving Sara for two months so that he could enter in-patient rehabilitation for his addictions to Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines, and alcohol. He said later that, due to his substance use disorder, he had no memory of three years of his work on Friends.\nIn 2018, Perry spent five months in a hospital for a gastrointestinal perforation. During the hospital stay, Perry nearly died after his colon burst from opioid abuse. He spent two weeks in a coma and used a colostomy bag for nine months. Upon being admitted to the hospital, doctors told his family that Perry had a 2% chance of survival. He was connected to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine.\nTwo years later, while attending rehab in Switzerland, Perry faked pain to get a prescription for 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone per day and was having daily ketamine infusions. He was given propofol in conjunction with a surgery, which stopped his heart for five minutes. The resulting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) resulted in eight broken ribs. He paid $175,000 for a private jet to take him to Los Angeles to get more drugs. When doctors there refused, Perry spent another $175,000 to take a private jet back to Switzerland. In 2022, he estimated that he had spent $9 million on his addiction, including 14 stomach surgeries, 15 stays in rehab, and therapy twice a week for 30 years and had attended approximately 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.\n\nPhilanthropy and advocacy\nIn July 2011, Perry lobbied the United States Congress as a celebrity spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals in support of funding for drug courts. He received a Champion of Recovery award in May 2013 from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for opening Perry House, a rehab center in his former mansion in Malibu. In 2015, Perry sold the mansion and relocated its services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he launched an apparel line inspired by Friends, with proceeds donated to the World Health Organization's COVID-19 relief fund.\n\nDeath\nOn October 28, 2023, Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles. He was pronounced dead at 4:17 pm that day at the age of 54.\nOn November 3, 2023, Perry's funeral was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles where he was buried. His father, mother, and stepfather attended, as did his five Friends co-stars. The Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush song \"Don't Give Up\" was played; Perry was enamored with the song and referenced it in signed copies of his autobiography, released in part to help people suffering from depression or addiction issues. Following Perry's death, the National Philanthropic Trust established the Matthew Perry Foundation to support people suffering from addiction.\nOn December 15, 2023, Perry's death was revealed to have occurred due to acute effects of ketamine. Other circumstances that contributed to his death included the effects of buprenorphine, drowning, and coronary artery disease. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said in a statement that \n\n...at the high levels of ketamine found in his post-mortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression... ...drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness; coronary artery disease contributes due to exacerbation of ketamine induced myocardial effects on the heart. The ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine's half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less. \nPerry had been receiving ketamine-assisted psychotherapy sessions to treat anxiety at the time of his death, his last known session of which having been the week prior to his death. However, the report stated that the therapy couldn't have resulted in his death. \nIn May 2024, an investigation was opened by the Los Angeles Police Department to determine how Perry obtained the high dose of ketamine that caused his death. On August 15, 2024, indictments and charges were filed against five people: Perry's personal assistant, two doctors, and two drug dealers (including TV director Erik Fleming), alleging involvement in the distribution of ketamine that caused the death of Perry and one other person. Three agreed to plead guilty, with two, Fleming and Perry's former assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, having their guilty pleas entered into court soon after being charged; Iwamasa pled guilty on August 7, 2024, while Fleming would plead guilty on August 8. During a court hearing on August 30, 2024, it was agreed that former doctor Mark Chavez, who had signed a plea agreement but had not yet officially entered it into court, would have his guilty plea accepted, though he will still not officially plead guilty until a later court appearance. Chavez would have his medical license suspended the next month and would officially plead guilty at a court hearing held on October 2, 2024. According to U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, Perry paid the two doctors $55,000 in cash for ketamine in the two months before his death. Iwamasa admitted to obtaining ketamine for Perry and injecting him with the drug, while Fleming admitted to obtaining the ketamine from the supplier and giving it to Iwamasa for Perry to use. Text messages also revealed that the other doctor, who is currently awaiting trial, would purchase the ketamine from Chavez.\n\nActing credits\nFilm\nTelevision\nTheatre\nVideo games\nSpecials\nAwards and nominations\nPublications\nPerry, Matthew (November 1, 2022). Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir. Foreword: Lisa Kudrow. New York: Flatiron Books. ISBN 978-1-250-86644-8. OCLC 1338841699.\n\nNotes\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nMatthew Perry at IMDb\nMatthew Perry at Rotten Tomatoes\nMatthew Perry discography at Discogs\nMatthew Perry on Twitter \nMatthew Perry on Instagram \nInterviewed on \"Q with Tom Power\", CBC, November 22, 2022, audio","title":"Matthew_Perry"},{"idx":6,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2 or 12, 1966) is an American actor, director, comedian, and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom Friends, for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1995. While still acting in Friends, his first leading film role was in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by roles in Kissing a Fool; Six Days, Seven Nights; Apt Pupil (all 1998); and Picking Up the Pieces (2000). He was then cast in the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) as Herbert Sobel.\nSchwimmer began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in theater and speech. After graduation, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company. For much of the late 1980s, he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling, unemployed actor, until he starred in the television movie A Deadly Silence in 1989 and appeared in a number of television roles in the early 1990s, including L.A. Law, The Wonder Years, NYPD Blue, and Monty.\nAfter the series finale of Friends in 2004, Schwimmer branched out into film and stage work. He was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama film Duane Hopwood, and voiced Melman the Giraffe in the animated Madagascar film franchise, acted in the dark comedy Big Nothing (2006), and the thriller Nothing but the Truth (2008). Schwimmer made his West End stage debut in the leading role in 2005's Some Girl(s). He made his Broadway debut in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in 2006. His feature film directorial debut followed in 2007 with the comedy Run Fatboy Run, and the following year he made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in Fault Lines.\nHe has also worked as a director, including many episodes of Friends during his time on the series.\nIn 2016, Schwimmer starred as lawyer Robert Kardashian in The People v. O. J. Simpson, for which he received his second Primetime Emmy Award nomination, this time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.\n\nEarly life\nSchwimmer was born in 1966 in Flushing, Queens, New York City, to attorneys Arthur (born 1941) and Arlene Coleman-Schwimmer (born 1940). His family is Jewish. His grandfather, Al Schwimmer, was founder of Israel Aerospace Industries. He has an older sister named Ellie Schwimmer (born 1965). His family subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where Schwimmer, at 10, had his first acting experience when he was cast as the fairy godmother in a Jewish version of Cinderella. In 1979, Schwimmer went to a Shakespeare workshop given by English actor Sir Ian McKellen in Los Angeles. He recalls being riveted by the experience. Schwimmer then entered a contest in the Southern California Shakespeare Festival three years in a row, winning two first prizes.\nFollowing his mother's successful career as a divorce lawyer, the family moved to Beverly Hills, where Schwimmer attended Beverly Hills High School. His classmates included actor Jonathan Silverman. Schwimmer admitted to feeling like an outsider during his time at the school, recalling, \"When I was there I always felt: 'This is not me, I'm surrounded by people with a different value system. And I just wanted to get out of California.'\" His best subjects were science and math and he originally wanted to become a doctor. Schwimmer enrolled in a drama class, where he appeared in stage productions. Encouraged by his school drama teacher to further his acting, he flew to Chicago for a summer acting program at Northwestern University. He noted that the experience was both \"enlightening and exhilarating\". In 1984, Schwimmer graduated from Beverly Hills High and wanted to go straight into acting, but his parents insisted he go to college first so he would have something to fall back on. Schwimmer enrolled in Northwestern University, where he had attended the summer acting program earlier. He had originally intended on becoming a surgeon, having studied various body systems but eventually decided to pursue acting professionally. At the university, he studied theater and was in an improv group with Stephen Colbert, the No-Fun Mud Piranhas. After graduating in 1988, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater and speech, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company. Subsequently, he returned to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.\n\nCareer\n1989–1994: Early work\nAfter his supporting role debut in the ABC television movie A Deadly Silence (1989), Schwimmer followed this with roles on the legal drama L.A. Law in 1992, and the comedy-drama series The Wonder Years. He made his feature film debut in Flight of the Intruder (1991), had a recurring role as a lawyer-turned-vigilante in NYPD Blue before auditioning, unsuccessfully, for a series pilot called Couples. He landed his first regular series role as the liberal son of a conservative talk show host (Henry Winkler) in the sitcom Monty.\n\n1994–2004: Breakthrough\nIn 1994, Schwimmer was cast as Ross Geller in NBC's situation comedy Friends, a series that revolved around a group of friends who live near each other in Manhattan. He played a hopeless-romantic paleontologist who works at a museum and later becomes a professor at a university. Schwimmer initially turned down the role as Ross, but accepted later. Executive producer Kevin S. Bright said that he had previously worked with Schwimmer, the character of Ross was written with him in mind, and he was the first actor cast. The show debuted on September 22, 1994, and was watched by almost 22 million American viewers. Friends quickly developed a loyal audience, with the show and Schwimmer receiving strong reviews. Much of the Friends success is attributed to the plotline between his character Ross and his on-again-off-again love interest Rachel, which has been described as one of the greatest TV couples of all time by various media outlets. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him \"terrific\". Variety's television reviewer said: \"All six of the principals, especially (Courteney) Cox and Schwimmer, appear resourceful and display sharp sitcom skills\". For this performance, he earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1995.\nSchwimmer starred in his first leading film role in the 1996 romantic comedy film, The Pallbearer with Gwyneth Paltrow. In the film, Schwimmer plays a man asked to deliver the eulogy for a high school friend he cannot remember, and begins an affair with the friend's mother. Critics dismissed The Pallbearer as a poor imitation of the 1967 film The Graduate. Variety's film reviewer complimented the actor, writing that he had enjoyed his performance, stating that he displayed \"a winning, if rather deadpan, personality along with good comic timing\". It also concluded that Schwimmer had a \"promising bigscreen future\". Janet Maslin of The New York Times cited that his first film \"relegates him to a drab role\". When asked why he decided to accept the role, Schwimmer admitted the decision was to \"make an effort to find roles that are as far away from the character of Ross as possible.\" Schwimmer was chosen to play a leading role in the 1997 Men in Black but he turned it down. He later regretted this decision. Ultimately, Will Smith got the role. \nHis next film roles, in 1998, were Kissing a Fool, Six Days, Seven Nights, and Apt Pupil. In Kissing a Fool, a romantic comedy, Schwimmer played Max, a smart-mouthed, but dapper and charming man. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, \"Fans of the sitcom Friends may be surprised by David Schwimmer in Kissing a Fool. [...] Take it from someone who has never seen Friends and comes at Schwimmer with no preconceptions: He does just fine. As a TV sports reporter in Kissing a Fool, he oozes the command and self-satisfaction of a young, successful man.\" The film was critically and financially unsuccessful. In Six Days, Seven Nights, he played the boyfriend of Anne Heche's character. In Apt Pupil, adapted from a novella of the same name by Stephen King, he had a supporting role as a school guidance counselor. \"I was scared of the part\", Schwimmer said, \"but I wanted to be part of the movie\". At the time, he noted it was a \"little frustrating\" that people would typecast him due to his role on Friends. He subsequently appeared opposite Woody Allen and Sharon Stone in Alfonso Arau's straight-to-cable comedy Picking Up the Pieces (2000). \nIn 2001, Schwimmer played Captain Herbert M. Sobel in Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' HBO World War II miniseries Band of Brothers. The television miniseries is based on the book of the same title written by historian and biographer Stephen Ambrose. Although Band of Brothers was met with largely positive reception, Schwimmer's performance was criticized; the BBC News concluded, \"Part of the problem ... may have been the ridiculous fact that Friends favourite David Schwimmer plays the hard and cruel Captain Herbert Sobel. The only thing believable about Schwimmer's acting is when he cowers in the face of true battle. His puppy dog eyes make him appear even more pitiful.\" Later that year he portrayed Yitzhak Zuckerman in the war drama Uprising, based on the true events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.\nIn March 2004, Schwimmer appeared as himself on HBO's comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm. During the lengthy run of Friends, Schwimmer directed ten of the show's episodes. The show's tenth and final season ended on May 6, 2004.\n\n2004–2010: Directing\nIn 2004, Schwimmer was director and executive producer on Nevermind Nirvana, a sitcom about an Indian American family that was not picked up by NBC. After Friends, Schwimmer starred in the 2005 independent drama Duane Hopwood, as the title character, who is an alcoholic whose life is spiraling downward rapidly after a divorce and is looking to turn his life around. The film received ambivalent reviews. Despite the reception, Schwimmer's performance was favored by critics; Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the role was Schwimmer's \"career-transforming performance.\" Duane Hopwood was screened at a special presentation at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Furthermore, in the same year he voiced Melman, a hypochondriac giraffe, in the animated film Madagascar (2005). The Washington Post noted that Schwimmer is particularly appealing as Melman. Despite the mixed response from critics, the film was a commercial success, earning US$532 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest hits of 2005.\nSchwimmer starred on the London stage in May 2005, with Catherine Tate, Lesley Manville, Sara Powell, and Saffron Burrows, in Neil LaBute's Some Girl(s) at the Gielgud Theatre. In the production, he plays a teacher who is ready to settle down and marry, but decides to visit four ex-girlfriends first. For his performance, Schwimmer received critical reviews. The Independent wrote that Schwimmer \"is not called upon to extend his range nearly as far as one might have expected in Some Girl(s). [...] Schwimmer remains bland, competent, and boyish—though not fatally boyish in the manner that appears to have turned these women on.\" However, Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph praised Schwimmer, reporting he \"proves inspired casting. He takes to the stage with ... his endearing gaucheness seems designed to ensure our continued sympathy. Schwimmer mercilessly lays bare his character's opportunism, casual cruelties, and chronic self-deception.\"\nIn 2006, he made his Broadway debut in Herman Wouk's two-act play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Schwimmer played the role of Lieutenant Barney Greenwald in the production, which was directed by Jerry Zaks. In an interview with New York magazine, he revealed that he had wanted to try Broadway, however said \"a couple of things came up that just never quite felt right. Either because I liked the play but wasn't hot on the director, or there was another star attached that I wasn't jazzed about working with.\" He further added that when showed a copy of Wouk's novel \"...I was shocked at how good the writing was.\" His next film role was in the 2006 black comedy Big Nothing, in which he played a bitter, unemployed scientist.\nSchwimmer made his directorial feature debut in the 2007 British comedy film Run Fatboy Run. The film stars Simon Pegg as an out of shape man who signs up for a marathon to convince his former fiancée and five-year-old son that he has turned his life around. When asked why he decided to direct the film, Schwimmer said: \"As a director, I was struck by the challenge that I thought the script presented, which was that it was kind of three films in one. You had some great, big physical comedy, and I thought funny dialogue and characters. And then there was some real emotion to it with the relationship between the father and the son and the romance aspect.\" Run Fatboy Run garnered mixed reception, with the New York Daily News rating it one-and-a-half out of five stars and writing, \"Most disappointing is how Schwimmer—who spent 10 seasons on a sitcom filled with hyperverbal characters—manages to bumble 'Fatboy's' tender moments.\" USA Today, however, was favorable towards Schwimmer, reporting he possesses filmmaking finesse \"having wisely chosen strong comic material for his debut behind the camera.\" For his directorial work, he was nominated for a British Independent Film Award in the category of Best Debut Director.\nOn November 8, 2007, Schwimmer made a guest appearance in the second season of the television series 30 Rock, where he played Greenzo, an NBC environmental mascot. The following year, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Alan Alda, Angela Bassett, and Noah Wyle in the thriller Nothing But the Truth (2008). The movie received generally favorable reviews. The success of Madagascar led Schwimmer to return to the role of Melman in the 2008 sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. The film earned US$603 million at the international box office. Schwimmer took part in directing in-studio segments for Little Britain USA, an American spin-off of the British BBC television series Little Britain. In regard to this, he commented that he had \"a good time directing episodes\" for the show.\nIn October 2008, Schwimmer made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in Fault Lines at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. The production won a mixed review from the Los Angeles Times, which wrote: \"Based on Fault Lines ... we can't really tell whether Schwimmer has much talent as a director. We're surprised he didn't try something more challenging for his debut. If not much else, Schwimmer has encouraged his actors to intense their energy levels and comic timing at all costs\". The New York Post, however, noted that Schwimmer \"knows a thing or two about freewheeling banter ... and for a good while the play crackles with terrific dialogue, expertly delivered\". In February 2009, he returned to theater in a Chicago production of Thornton Wilder's three-act play Our Town as George Gibbs at the Lookingglass Theatre. \"Schwimmer ... turns in a poignant, richly textured and demonstrably heartfelt performance as George Gibbs. I've seen a fair bit of Schwimmer's post-Friends stage work in London and New York, and I've never seen him better\", commented the Chicago Tribune.\nOn August 2, 2009, Schwimmer played himself in the sixth season of the HBO television series, Entourage. In the episode, Ari Gold's (Jeremy Piven) agency tries to steer his career back to television. Schwimmer directed his second feature, Trust, starring Clive Owen and Catherine Keener. The film, a drama, is about a family whose teenage daughter becomes victim of an online sexual predator. Trust premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.\n\n2010–present: Return to television\nOn January 1, 2011, Schwimmer guest-starred on the British comedy series Come Fly With Me starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams, whom he directed in Little Britain USA. The following year, he returned to voice Melman the Giraffe in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. In 2013, Schwimmer appeared as Josh Rosenthal, a mobster who was brought up by the notorious Roy DeMeo and part of the Gambino Family, alongside Michael Shannon in The Iceman.\nIn 2014, Schwimmer was cast as the lead in the ABC comedy pilot Irreversible, playing \"one half of a somewhat eccentric, self-absorbed couple\". In 2016, Schwimmer played Robert Kardashian in the first season of the FX anthology series American Crime Story. He received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his performance. In January 2016, Schwimmer and Jim Sturgess were cast to star in the new AMC crime drama Feed the Beast. The series premiered on June 5, 2016, and aired 10 episodes through August before being canceled. In November 2016, it was announced that Schwimmer would star in his first audio series. Gimlet Media's podcast Homecoming began airing on November 16, 2016.\nIn April 2017, Schwimmer helped adapt the films of Sigal Avin for a US audience. The six short features depict sexual harassment at work by men on women.\nIn 2020, Schwimmer was cast as a main character in the British sitcom Intelligence broadcast on Sky One. In the same year, he was a celebrity reader on CBeebies Bedtime Stories, and was signed as the face of British banking chain TSB.\nSchwimmer featured in Jews Don't Count, a 2022 documentary by British Jewish comedian David Baddiel on the subject of antisemitism. Schwimmer's contribution, in which he said that he has never felt white, was described as \"erudite\" by Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian.\n\nPersonal life\nSchwimmer dated singer-songwriter Natalie Imbruglia in the late 1990s. Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston admitted to having crushes on each other early on while filming Friends during HBO Max's Friends: The Reunion. Schwimmer began a relationship with British artist Zoë Buckman in 2007 and they married on June 4, 2010. Their child Cleo Buckman Schwimmer was born in 2011. The couple announced in April 2017 that they were \"taking some time apart\". They divorced later that year. Schwimmer and his ex-wife are on good terms and continue to co-parent their child amicably. He tends to keep his personal life away from the media to preserve his daughter's childhood.\nSchwimmer primarily lives in East Village, Manhattan. He previously had a loft in Near West Side, Chicago as well as a house in Hancock Park, Los Angeles.\nIn June 2006, Schwimmer won a US$400,000 defamation lawsuit against Aaron Tonken, a former charity fundraiser. Tonken claimed Schwimmer had demanded Rolex watches in order to appear at his own charity event, a claim that Schwimmer had denied.\nSchwimmer is an active director of the Rape Treatment Center in Santa Monica, which specializes in helping victims of date rape and child rape. He has also campaigned for legislation to ban drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB. In November 2011, he gave the Scottish charity Children 1st permission to screen his film Trust to commemorate World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse and Violence against Children.\nIn 2012, he rebutted two longstanding rumors: one that he appeared as a soldier on a train in Biloxi Blues (1988), saying, \"No. I don't know why that's on IMDb, but I never was in that\" (the credit has since been removed), and the other that he is related to dancer Lacey Schwimmer, saying, \"No, not at all. Please set the record straight. I guess it's a natural assumption because we have the same last name, but no. I've never even met her\".\n\nFilmography\nFilm\nTelevision\nDirector/producer\nAwards and nominations\nSee also\nBack Stage West Garland Awards, for his Lookingglass Theatre Company, production of Arabian Nights\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nDavid Schwimmer at IMDb \nDavid Schwimmer on Instagram \nLawrence, Will. \"David Schwimmer: From Central Perk to the East End.\" The Daily Telegraph. August 31, 2007. Accessed June 10, 2009.\nGreenstreet, Rosanna. \"Q&A: David Schwimmer.\" The Guardian. September 8, 2007. Accessed June 10, 2009.\nPratt, Steve. \"New direction.\" The Northern Echo. September 8, 2007. Accessed June 10, 2009.","title":"David_Schwimmer"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six friends in their 20s and early 30s who live in Manhattan, New York City. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Kauffman, and Crane.\\nKauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the working title Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the show to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, including title changes to Six of One and Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends. Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions and Warner Bros. Television.\\nThe show ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings; it ultimately reached the number-one spot in its eighth season. The series finale aired on May 6, 2004, and was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fifth-most-watched series finale in television history and the most-watched television episode of the 2000s. Friends received acclaim throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular television shows of all time. The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 for its eighth season. The show ranked no. 21 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and no. 5 on Empire magazine's The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 1997, the episode \\\"The One with the Prom Video\\\" was ranked no. 100 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time. In 2013, Friends ranked no. 24 on the Writers Guild of America's 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time, and no. 28 on TV Guide's 60 Best TV Series of All Time. The sitcom's cast members returned for Friends: The Reunion, a reunion special which was released on HBO Max on May 27, 2021.\\n\\nCast and characters\\nMain cast\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\nJennifer Aniston as Rachel Green: A fashion enthusiast and Monica Geller's best friend from childhood. Rachel first moves in with Monica in season one after nearly marrying Barry Farber. Rachel and Ross Geller are later involved in an on-again, off-again relationship throughout the series. Rachel dates other men during the series, such as Italian neighbor, Paolo, in season one; Joshua Bergin, a client from Bloomingdale's, in season four; Tag Jones, her assistant, in season seven; and Joey Tribbiani, one of her close friends, in season ten. Rachel's first job is as a waitress at the coffee house Central Perk, but she later becomes an assistant buyer at Bloomingdale's in season three, and a buyer at Ralph Lauren in season five. Rachel and Ross have a daughter named Emma in \\\"The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two\\\" at the end of season eight. In the final episode of the series, Ross and Rachel confess their love for each other, and Rachel gives up a dream fashion job at Louis Vuitton in Paris to be with him. Despite her friendliness, she is often self-centered and refuses to take responsibility for her actions.\\nCourteney Cox as Monica Geller: The \\\"mother hen\\\" of the group and a chef, known for her perfectionist, bossy, competitive, and obsessive-compulsive nature. Monica was overweight as a child. She works as a chef in various restaurants throughout the show. Monica's first serious relationship is with a long-time family friend Richard Burke, who is 21 years her senior. The two maintain a strong relationship for some time until Richard expresses that he does not want to have children. Monica and Chandler, one of her best friends, later start a relationship after spending a night with each other in London in the season four finale, leading to their marriage in season seven and the adoption of twins at the end of the series. A running gag in the show is Chandler's easy-going and humorous nature conflicting with Monica's high-maintenance and compulsive behavior.\\nLisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay: A masseuse and self-taught musician. She is usually the rudest member of the group, due to her often sniping comments. As a child, Phoebe lived in upstate New York with her mother, until her mother committed suicide and Phoebe took to the streets. She writes and sings her own strange songs, accompanying herself on the guitar. She has an identical twin named Ursula, who shares few of Phoebe's traits. Phoebe has three serious relationships over the show's run: David, a scientist, in season one, with whom she breaks up when he moves to Minsk on a research grant; Gary, a police officer whose badge she finds, in season five; and an on-and-off relationship with Mike Hannigan in seasons nine and ten. In season nine, Phoebe and Mike break up due to his desire not to marry. David returns from Minsk, leading to the two getting back together, but she eventually rejects him for Mike when both of them propose to her. Phoebe and Mike marry in season ten.\\nMatt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani: A struggling actor and food lover who becomes famous for his role on soap opera Days of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray. Joey has many short-term girlfriends. Despite his womanizing and his dim-witted, often ignorant, behavior, Joey is innocent and well-intentioned. Joey often uses the catchphrase pick-up line \\\"How you doin'?\\\" in his attempts to win over most of the women he meets. Joey rooms with his best friend Chandler for years, and later with Rachel. He falls in love with Rachel in season eight, but Rachel politely tells Joey that she does not share his feelings. They eventually date briefly in season ten, but after realizing it will not work due to their friendship and Rachel's complicated relationship with Ross, they return to being friends. At the end of the series, he is the only remaining single member of the group, and becomes the main protagonist of the sequel series Joey.\\nMatthew Perry as Chandler Bing: An executive in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration for a large, multinational corporation. Chandler hates this job, although it pays well. He attempts to quit during season one but is lured back with a new office and a pay raise. He eventually quits this job in season nine due to a transfer to Tulsa, Oklahoma. He becomes a junior copywriter at an advertising agency later that season. Chandler has a peculiar family history being the son of an erotic novelist mother and a gay, cross-dressing Las Vegas star father. Chandler is known for his sarcastic sense of humor, bad luck in relationships, and tendency to be the butt of all jokes. Despite this, he is still kind and usually serves as the voice of reason in contrast to his more arrogant and selfish friends. Chandler marries Monica, one of his best friends, in season seven, and they adopt twins at the end of the series. Before his relationship with Monica, Chandler dated Janice Hosenstein in season one and subsequently broke up with her many times.\\nDavid Schwimmer as Ross Geller: Monica's \\\"geeky\\\" older brother, a PhD-carrying palaeontologist working at the American Museum of Natural History, and later a tenured professor of palaeontology at New York University. Ross is involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Rachel throughout the series. He has three failed marriages during the series: Carol Willick, a lesbian who is also the mother of his son, Ben Geller; Emily Waltham, who divorces him after he accidentally says Rachel's name instead of hers during their wedding vows; and Rachel, as the two drunkenly marry in Las Vegas. His divorces become a running joke within the series. Following a one-night stand, he and Rachel have a daughter, Emma, by the end of season eight. They finally confess that they are still in love with each other in the series finale.\\nJames Michael Tyler appears as Gunther, a barista at Central Perk, in every season of the show, but is only ever credited as a guest star. Gunther has a mostly secret profound love for Rachel throughout the entire series. At one point he becomes the manager of the coffee house. It is revealed that Gunther speaks Dutch in addition to English, as well as being a former soap opera actor.\\nIn their original contracts for the first season, cast members were paid $22,500 per episode. The cast members received different salaries in the second season, beginning from the $20,000 range to $40,000 per episode. Before their salary negotiations for the third season, the cast decided to enter collective negotiations, despite Warner Bros.' preference for individual deals. The actors were given the salary of the least paid cast member. The stars were each paid $75,000 per episode in season three, $85,000 in season four, $100,000 in season five, $125,000 in season six, $750,000 in seasons seven and eight, and $1 million in seasons nine and ten, making Aniston, Cox, and Kudrow the highest-paid TV actresses of all time. The cast also received syndication royalties beginning in 2000 after renegotiations. At the time, that financial benefit of a piece of the show's lucrative back-end profits had only been given out to stars who had ownership rights in a show, like Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby.\\nSeries creator David Crane wanted all six actors to be equally prominent, and the series was lauded as being \\\"the first true 'ensemble' show.\\\" The cast members made efforts to keep the ensemble format and not allow one member to dominate; they entered themselves in the same acting categories for awards, opted for collective salary negotiations, and asked to appear together on magazine cover photos in the first season. The cast members also became best friends off-screen, so much so that recurring guest star Tom Selleck reported that he sometimes felt left out.\\nThe cast remained good friends after the series run, most notably Cox and Aniston, with Aniston being godmother to Cox and David Arquette's daughter, Coco. In the official farewell commemorative book Friends 'Til the End, each separately acknowledged in interviews that the cast had become their family.\\n\\nEpisodes\\nSeason 1\\nThe first season introduces the six main characters who live in New York City: Rachel Green, a waitress; professional chef Monica Geller; her paleontologist brother, Ross Geller; free-spirited masseuse Phoebe Buffay; struggling actor Joey Tribbiani; and Ross's college friend, Chandler Bing, whose precise occupation at a corporation is unknown. Rachel arrives at Central Perk, wearing her wedding dress, after leaving her fiancé, Barry, an orthodontist, at the altar. She moves into her high school friend Monica's apartment, and gets a waitress job at Central Perk.\\nRoss, who has had a crush on Rachel since high school, often attempts to declare his feelings for her. However many obstacles stand in his way, including his insecurities, Rachel dating an Italian neighbor named Paolo, and the fact that he is expecting a baby with his lesbian ex-wife, Carol, who gives birth to Ben later in the season. Joey never has a steady girlfriend and constantly sleeps with a variety of women. Phoebe is rather odd and complex, mostly due to her mother's suicide when she was a child and having lived on the streets for a time. However, the gang loves her regardless.\\nChandler breaks up with his girlfriend, Janice (Maggie Wheeler), only to find himself reconnecting with her throughout the series. Near the end of the season, while Ross is at a paleontology dig in China, Chandler accidentally lets slip that Ross loves Rachel, who then realizes that she also cares for him. The season ends with Rachel waiting at the airport for Ross, who is returning from China.\\n\\nSeason 2\\nRachel greets Ross at the airport only to discover that he has returned with Julie (Lauren Tom), someone he knew from graduate school. Rachel's attempts to tell Ross that she loves him initially mirror his failed attempts in the first season. After he breaks up with Julie for Rachel, friction between them develops when Rachel discovers Ross's list of the cons of dating her. They eventually begin a relationship after Rachel sees an old home video from her and Monica's prom night and realizes Ross was going to stand in for her prom date who nearly stood her up.\\nMonica is promoted to head chef at the Iridium restaurant, then gets fired for accepting gifts from a supplier, which is against company policy. Needing money, she is forced to take an embarrassing job as a waitress at a 1950s-style diner. She begins dating Richard Burke (Tom Selleck), a recently divorced family friend who is 21 years her senior. They eventually break up when Monica realizes that Richard, already a father, does not want more children. Joey is cast in a fictional version of the soap opera, Days of Our Lives as neurosurgeon Dr. Drake Ramoray. He moves out of his and Chandler's apartment, forcing Chandler to get a new roommate, Eddie (Adam Goldberg).\\nHowever, Eddie is annoying and somewhat deranged. When Joey claims in a soap opera magazine interview that he writes many of his own lines, offending the show's writer, his character is killed off. No longer able to afford his expensive new apartment, Joey moves back in with Chandler, kicking Eddie out in the process. In the season finale, Chandler talks to an anonymous woman in an online chat room. When they agree to meet in person, the woman turns out to be Janice.\\n\\nSeason 3\\nSeason 3 takes on a significantly more serialized format. Chandler and Janice date for several episodes until Joey catches Janice kissing her soon-to-be ex-husband. Not wanting to destroy her family, Chandler urges Janice to go back to her husband, then becomes depressed over the breakup for several episodes. Rachel quits her job at Central Perk and begins working at Bloomingdale's, an upscale department store chain. Ross soon becomes jealous of her colleague Mark and frustrated by Rachel's long work hours. She is tired of his constant jealousy and insecurity, and decides they need a relationship break.\\nRoss, hurt and somewhat drunk, immediately sleeps with Chloe, \\\"the hot girl from the Xerox place,\\\" causing Rachel to break up with him completely. Although Phoebe initially believes she has no family except her twin sister Ursula (Lisa Kudrow), she learns she has a half-brother, Frank Jr. (Giovanni Ribisi) and discovers her birth mother, Phoebe Abbott (Teri Garr) over the course of the season. Joey falls in love with his acting partner Kate (Dina Meyer), but is jealous of her dating the director of their play. They begin a brief relationship that ends when she takes an acting job in Los Angeles.\\nMonica dates millionaire Pete Becker (Jon Favreau), despite her initially not being attracted to him. However, she breaks up with Pete after he is seriously hurt trying to become the Ultimate Fighting Champion and refuses to quit. Phoebe sets Ross up on a date with her friend, Bonnie (Christine Taylor), inciting Rachel's jealousy. She tries sabotaging the relationship by coercing Bonnie to shave her head bald, and eventually admits to Ross that she still has feelings for him. The season closes with Ross having to choose between Rachel and Bonnie.\\n\\nSeason 4\\nIn the season 4 premiere, after Ross breaks up with Bonnie, he and Rachel briefly reconcile after Ross pretends to read a long letter that Rachel wrote for him. However, Ross continues to insist that the two were on a break when he slept with Chloe, so they break up again. Joey dates Kathy (Paget Brewster), a girl that Chandler has a crush on. Kathy and Chandler later kiss, which causes drama between Chandler and Joey. Joey only forgives Chandler and allows him to date Kathy after Chandler spends Thanksgiving in a box as punishment.\\nChandler's relationship with Kathy ends after he discovers that she cheated on him due to an argument. Phoebe loses her job as a masseuse after making out with one of her clients and she accompanies Monica, who has become a caterer for hire. They soon start a catering business together but Monica, after negatively reviewing a restaurant, Allesandro's, is offered the position of head chef. Despite initially being pressured by the wrath of her co-workers, Monica eventually asserts her dominance in the kitchen. Phoebe becomes a surrogate for her brother and his wife, Alice (Debra Jo Rupp).\\nMonica and Rachel are forced to switch apartments with Joey and Chandler after losing a bet during a quiz game, but manage to switch back by bribing them with Knicks season tickets and a one-minute kiss (off-screen) between each other. After her boss dies, Rachel is demoted to personal shopping and meets and later dates a customer named Joshua (Tate Donovan). Ross begins dating an English woman named Emily (Helen Baxendale), and they quickly get engaged. Rachel struggles to cope and hastily suggests to Joshua that they marry, after which he rejects her. In the season finale, the group, apart from a heavily pregnant Phoebe and Rachel, travel to Ross and Emily's wedding in London. Chandler and Monica sleep together, and Rachel, realizing that she is still in love with Ross, rushes to London to stop Ross and Emily's wedding, but changes her mind when she sees them happy together. While saying his vows, Ross accidentally says Rachel's name at the altar, shocking his bride and the guests.\\n\\nSeason 5\\nRoss and Emily marry, but an angry and humiliated Emily flees the reception. Rachel soon admits her love for Ross, but realizing how ridiculous this is, advises him to work on his marriage to Emily. She develops a crush on her neighbor Danny and they date briefly, until she realizes that he is too close with his sister. Monica and Chandler try to keep their new relationship a secret from their friends. Phoebe gives birth to triplets in the show's 100th episode. She gives birth to a boy, Frank Jr. Jr., and two girls, Leslie and Chandler, the latter of whom was supposed to be a boy, but was later revealed to be a girl.\\nAfter weeks of trying to contact her, Emily agrees to reconcile with Ross and move to New York if he breaks off all communication with Rachel. Ross agrees, but later attends a dinner with all his friends, Rachel included. Emily phones Ross, discovers Rachel is there, realizes she does not trust him and ends their marriage. Ross takes out his anger at work, resulting in him being indefinitely suspended from the museum, and he moves in with Chandler and Joey until eventually getting a new apartment across the street from them.\\nRachel gets a new job at Ralph Lauren. Phoebe has a brief relationship with a police officer, Gary (Michael Rapaport), after finding his badge and using it as her own. Monica and Chandler go public with their relationship, to the surprise and delight of their friends. They decide to get married on a trip to Las Vegas, but change their plans after witnessing Ross and Rachel drunkenly stumbling out of the wedding chapel.\\n\\nSeason 6\\nIn the season 6 premiere, Ross and Rachel's marriage turns out to be a drunken mistake that neither remembers until the other friends mention it. Ross promises Rachel he will get them an annulment, then secretly does nothing because he cannot face having three failed marriages. By the time Rachel discovers they are still married, an annulment is impossible due to their history; they are forced to get a divorce. After ignoring the numerous signs that they should get married, Monica and Chandler decide to live together, forcing Rachel to move in with Phoebe. Joey gets a new roommate, Janine (Elle Macpherson).\\nThey develop feelings for each other and date briefly until Janine criticizes Monica and Chandler, ending the relationship. After Janine moves out, Joey struggles with paying his bills so he takes a job at Central Perk. He soon lands a role on a cable TV series called Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E., starring alongside a crime-fighting robot. Ross gets a teaching job at New York University. He dates Elizabeth (Alexandra Holden), a student, despite it being against university policy. Elizabeth's father, Paul (Bruce Willis), disapproves of Ross but falls for Rachel, and they start dating.\\nBoth relationships soon end: Elizabeth is too immature for Ross, and previously reserved Paul opens up emotionally and is more than Rachel can handle. Phoebe and Rachel's apartment catches fire, and Rachel moves in with Joey, while Phoebe stays with Chandler and Monica, though they later switch. While at a museum that has a two-year wait for weddings, Monica puts her name on the reservation list as a joke. When Chandler intercepts the museum's phone call about a cancellation, he panics; however, Chandler has been planning to propose while pretending he may never want to marry.\\nWhile dining at a fancy restaurant, Chandler's planned proposal is subverted by Monica's ex-boyfriend Richard Burke, who unexpectedly shows up. Richard later tells Monica he wants to marry her and have children. Monica becomes upset at Chandler, believing his ruse about not wanting to marry. Chandler believes Monica has left him until he comes home to find their apartment decorated with candles and her waiting to propose to him. When she becomes too emotional to continue, Chandler proposes and she accepts.\\n\\nSeason 7\\nThe seventh season mainly follows Monica and Chandler as they plan their wedding amid various problems. Joey's television series, Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E is canceled, but he is offered his old role on Days of Our Lives; the show is retconned with the revelation that Dr. Drake Ramoray has been in a four-year coma and is revived with a brain transplant from another character. Phoebe's repaired apartment now has one large bedroom instead of the original two, so Rachel permanently stays at Joey's. Rachel is promoted at Ralph Lauren and impulsively hires a young assistant, Tag Jones (Eddie Cahill), based on his looks, passing over a more qualified woman. Tag discovers her feelings about him at Thanksgiving dinner, and they begin dating, hiding it from co-workers. However, on her 30th birthday, Rachel ends their relationship, realizing Tag is too young and immature, particularly if she intends to follow her marriage schedule.\\nHours before Monica and Chandler's wedding ceremony, Chandler panics and goes into hiding just as Phoebe and Rachel find a positive pregnancy test in Monica and Chandler's bathroom. They assume Monica is pregnant. Ross and Phoebe find Chandler and convince him to return for the ceremony, though he briefly bolts again after overhearing Phoebe and Rachel discussing the pregnancy test. He quickly returns, embracing the idea of fatherhood. After the ceremony, Monica denies she is pregnant; unbeknown to everyone, the positive pregnancy test is Rachel's.\\n\\nSeason 8\\nSeason 8 begins at Monica and Chandler's wedding reception. Phoebe and Monica discover Rachel's pregnancy and persuade her to take another test to confirm it. Phoebe initially claims the test is negative, badly disappointing Rachel, then reveals it is positive, saying Rachel now knows how she really feels about having a baby. Ross is eventually revealed to be the father, and the season revolves around Rachel's pregnancy. Rachel and Ross agree to be co-parents without resuming their romantic relationship; Ross begins dating Mona (Bonnie Somerville), who is Monica's co-worker from Allesandro's.\\nJoey takes Rachel out to quell her fears about motherhood, and realizes he has romantic feelings for her. While suppressing his feelings, he encourages Rachel to stay at Ross's apartment so he can be involved in the pregnancy. The arrangement is too much for Mona, and she breaks up with Ross. Joey tells Ross about his feelings for Rachel. Ross initially is angry, then gives his blessing. Joey tells Rachel that he loves her, but she realizes she does not feel the same way, and they remain friends. When Rachel goes into labor, Ross's mother gives him a family heirloom ring and encourages him to propose to Rachel. Ross hesitates, and puts the ring in his jacket, which he later leaves in Rachel's room.\\nAfter Monica jokes about having kids, she and Chandler decide to have a baby, starting while they are still at the hospital. After a prolonged labor, during which numerous other expectant mothers, including Janice, are taken to the delivery room, Rachel gives birth to baby Emma. She is left saddened and afraid after Janice later says that Ross may not always be there for her and the baby. When Joey comforts Rachel, the ring falls from Ross's jacket to the floor. Joey kneels to pick it up, and Rachel, believing he is proposing, impulsively says yes. Meanwhile, Ross intends to ask Rachel if she wants to resume their relationship.\\n\\nSeason 9\\nSeason nine begins with Ross and Rachel cohabitating with their daughter Emma, after Joey and Rachel clear up the proposal misunderstanding. Monica and Chandler run into obstacles as they try for a baby: Chandler unknowingly agrees to a work transfer to Tulsa just as Monica is offered a head chef job at a new restaurant, Javu, resulting in Chandler commuting back and forth. After being apart from Monica during Christmas, Chandler quits to pursue a new career in advertising, starting as an unpaid intern at an ad agency, and eventually being hired as a junior copywriter. Monica and Chandler discover they are physically incompatible to conceive and after considering multiple options, decide to adopt.\\nPhoebe begins dating Mike Hannigan (Paul Rudd) for most of the season until Mike says that he never wants to marry again. Phoebe dates her ex-boyfriend from season 1, David (Hank Azaria) who plans on proposing to her, but Mike proposes first. Phoebe rejects both proposals but gets back together with Mike, only needing the reassurance that they have a future together. Rachel, believing that her co-worker Gavin (Dermot Mulroney) is trying to steal her job while she is on maternity leave, returns to Ralph Lauren early. She discovers at her birthday party that Gavin has feelings for her. They kiss but do not pursue a relationship due to her history with Ross.\\nMeanwhile, Ross, having seen the kiss, retaliates by dating other women. After realizing that her and Ross's living situation is too weird, Rachel and Emma move in with Joey. Rachel develops a crush on him, only to be disheartened when he starts dating Charlie (Aisha Tyler), a new palaeontology professor to whom Ross is attracted. In the finale, the group travels to Barbados for Ross's keynote speech at a conference. Joey and Charlie break up upon realizing they have nothing in common. Joey then learns about Rachel's feelings for him, but says they cannot pursue this because of Ross. However, upon seeing Ross and Charlie kiss each other, he goes to Rachel's hotel room, and the finale ends with them kissing.\\n\\nSeason 10\\nThe tenth season brings several long-running story lines to a close. Joey and Rachel try to contend with Ross's feelings about their relationship, and after disastrous attempts to consummate, decide it is best they remain friends. Charlie breaks up with Ross to get back together with her ex-boyfriend. Mid-season, Joey officiates Phoebe and Mike's wedding outside the Central Perk coffee house after a snow storm paralyzes the city, preventing them and guests getting to the wedding venue. Monica and Chandler are chosen by a pregnant woman named Erica (Anna Faris) to adopt her baby.\\nFollowing this, Monica and Chandler prepare to move to a house in the suburbs to raise their family, saddening everyone, particularly Joey, who is coping with all the changes in his life. In the series finale, Erica gives birth to fraternal twins, much to Monica and Chandler's surprise. Rachel is fired from Ralph Lauren after her boss overhears her interviewing for a job at Gucci. She encounters her former Bloomingdale co-worker Mark, who offers her a new job at Louis Vuitton in Paris. Ross, believing Rachel wants to stay, tries bribing Mr. Zelner to rehire her until he realizes Rachel wants to go to Paris. When Rachel says a tearful personal goodbye to everyone except Ross at her going away party, a hurt and angry Ross confronts Rachel, and they end up sleeping together.\\nRachel leaves, and Ross – realizing how much he loves Rachel – chases her to the airport. When he reaches her, Rachel says she has to go to Paris. Before the plane takes off, Rachel calls Ross's home phone and leaves a voice mail, apologizing for the way it ended. While speaking, she realizes that she loves him too, and gets off the plane at the last minute. The series ends with all the friends, plus Monica and Chandler's new babies, leaving the empty apartment together for a final cup of coffee at Central Perk. The show ends first with a shot of everyone's keys to Monica and Chandler's apartment left on the counter top, and then pans to a shot of the apartment's purple door.\\n\\nProduction\\nConception\\nIt's about sex, love, relationships, careers, a time in your life when everything's possible. And it's about friendship because when you're single and in the city, your friends are your family.\\nDavid Crane and Marta Kauffman began developing three new television pilots that would premiere in 1994 after their sitcom Family Album was cancelled by CBS in 1993. Kauffman and Crane decided to pitch the series about \\\"six people in their 20s making their way in Manhattan\\\" to NBC since they thought it would fit best there. (Film director and screenwriter Cameron Crowe has asserted that the concept originated with Warner Bros. Television wanting him to make his 1992 movie Singles into a television show. Crowe alleges that when he refused permission, the idea was then taken over by Crane and Kaufman, who changed some details from the premise of the movie while developing the show.)\\nCrane and Kauffman presented the idea to their production partner Kevin Bright, who had served as executive producer on their HBO series Dream On. The idea for the series was conceived when Crane and Kauffman began thinking about the time when they had finished college and started living by themselves in New York; Kauffman believed they were looking at a time when the future was \\\"more of a question mark.\\\" They found the concept to be interesting, as they believed \\\"everybody knows that feeling\\\", and because it was also how they felt about their own lives at the time. The team titled the series Insomnia Cafe and pitched the idea as a seven-page treatment to NBC in December 1993.\\nAt the same time, Warren Littlefield, the then-president of NBC Entertainment, was seeking a comedy involving young people living together and sharing expenses after he regretted passing on the Black sitcom Living Single. Littlefield wanted the group to share memorable periods of their lives with friends, who had become \\\"new, surrogate family members.\\\" However, Littlefield found difficulty in bringing the concept to life and found the scripts developed by NBC to be terrible. When Kauffman, Crane and Bright pitched Insomnia Cafe, Littlefield was impressed that they knew who their characters were. NBC bought the idea as a put pilot, meaning they risked financial penalties if the pilot was not filmed.\\nKauffman and Crane took three days to write the pilot script for a show they titled Friends Like Us. Littlefield wanted the series to \\\"represent Generation X and explore a new kind of tribal bonding\\\", but the rest disagreed. Crane argued that it was not a series for one generation, and wanted to produce a series that everyone would enjoy watching. NBC liked the script and ordered the series. They changed the title to Six of One, mainly because they felt Friends Like Us was too similar to the ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine.\\n\\nCasting\\nOnce it became apparent that the series was a favored project at NBC, Littlefield reported that he was getting calls from every agent in town, wanting their client to be a part of the series. Auditions for the lead roles took place in New York and Los Angeles. The casting director shortlisted 1,000 actors who had applied for each role down to 75. Those who received a callback read in front of Crane, Kauffman and Bright. At the end of March, the number of potential actors had been reduced to three or four for each part, and these actors were asked to read for Les Moonves, then president of Warner Bros. Television.\\nHaving worked with David Schwimmer in the past, the series creators wrote the character of Ross with him in mind, and he was the first actor cast. Cox wanted to play the role of Monica because she liked the \\\"strong\\\" character, but the producers had her in mind to play Rachel because of her \\\"cheery, upbeat energy\\\", which was not how they envisioned Monica; after Cox's audition, though, Kauffman agreed with Cox, and she got the role. When Matt LeBlanc auditioned for Joey, he put a \\\"different spin\\\" on the character. He played Joey more simple-minded than intended and gave the character heart. Although Crane and Kauffman did not want LeBlanc for the role at the time, they were told by the network to cast him. Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow were cast based on their auditions. Perry and Aniston, both still under contract to other shows that year, were cast days before shooting of the pilot began.\\nMore changes occurred to the series's storylines during the casting process. The writers found that they had to adjust the characters they had written to suit the actors, and the discovery process of the characters occurred throughout the first season. Kauffman acknowledged that Joey's character became \\\"this whole new being\\\", and that \\\"it wasn't until we did the first Thanksgiving episode that we realized how much fun Monica's neuroses are.\\\"\\n\\nWriting\\nIn the weeks after NBC's pick up of Friends, Crane, Kauffman and Bright reviewed sent-in scripts that writers had originally prepared for other series, mainly unproduced Seinfeld episodes. Kauffman and Crane hired a team of seven young writers because \\\"When you're 40, you can't do it anymore. The networks and studios are looking for young people coming in out of college.\\\" The creators felt that using six equal characters, rather than emphasizing one or two, would allow for \\\"myriad storylines and give the show legs.\\\" The majority of the storyline ideas came from the writers, although the actors added ideas. Although the writers originally planned the big love story to be between Joey and Monica, the idea of a romantic interest between Ross and Rachel emerged during the period when Kauffman and Crane wrote the pilot script.\\nDuring the production of the pilot, NBC requested that the script be changed to feature one dominant storyline and several minor ones, but the writers refused, wanting to keep three storylines of equal weight. NBC also wanted the writers to include an older character to balance out the young ones. Crane and Kauffman were forced to comply and wrote a draft of an early episode that featured \\\"Pat the Cop\\\" who would be used to provide advice to the other characters. Crane found the storyline to be terrible, and Kauffman joked, \\\"You know the kids [sic] book, Pat the Bunny? We had Pat the Cop.\\\" NBC eventually relented and dropped the idea.\\nEach summer, the producers would outline the storylines for the subsequent season. Before an episode went into production, Kauffman and Crane would revise the script written by another writer, mainly if something concerning either the series or a character felt foreign. The hardest episodes to write were always \\\"the first one and the last one of each season.\\\" Unlike other storylines, the idea for a relationship between Joey and Rachel was decided on halfway through the eighth season. The creators did not want Ross and Rachel to get back together so soon, and while looking for a romantic impediment, a writer suggested Joey's romantic interest in Rachel.\\nThe storyline was incorporated into the season; however, when the actors feared that the storyline would make their characters unlikable, the storyline was wrapped up, until it again resurfaced in the season's finale. For the ninth season, the writers were unsure about the amount of storyline to give to Rachel's baby, as they wanted the show neither to revolve around a baby nor pretend there to be none. Crane said that it took them a while to accept the idea of a tenth season, which they decided to do because they had enough stories left to tell to justify the season. Kauffman and Crane would not have signed on for an eleventh season, even if all the cast members had wanted to continue.\\nThe episode title format—\\\"The One ...\\\"—was created when the producers realized that the episode titles would not be featured in the opening credits, and therefore would be unknown to most of the audience. Episode titles officially begin with \\\"The One ...\\\" except the title of the pilot episode and the series finale \\\"The Last One\\\". The season 5 episode \\\"The One Hundredth\\\" has the alternative title of \\\"The One With The Triplet\\\".\\n\\nFilming\\nThe first season was shot on Stage 5 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. NBC executives had worried that the coffee house setting was too hip and asked for the series to be set in a diner, but eventually consented to the coffee house concept. The opening title sequence was filmed in a fountain at the Warner Bros. Ranch at 4:00 am, while it was particularly cold for a Burbank morning. At the beginning of the second season, production moved to the larger Stage 24, which was renamed The \\\"Friends\\\" Stage after the series finale.\\nFilming for the series began during the summer of 1994 in front of a live audience, who were given a summary of the series to familiarize themselves with the six main characters. A hired comedian entertained the studio audience between takes. Each 22-minute episode took six hours to film—twice the length of most sitcom tapings—mainly due to the several retakes and rewrites of the script.\\nAlthough the producers always wanted to find the right stories to take advantage of being on location, Friends was never shot in New York. Bright felt that filming outside the studio made episodes less funny, even when shooting on the lot outside, and that the live audience was an integral part of the series. When the series was criticized for incorrectly depicting New York, with the financially struggling group of friends being able to afford huge apartments, Bright noted that the set had to be big enough for the cameras, lighting, and \\\"for the audience to be able to see what's going on\\\". The apartments also needed to provide a place for the actors to execute the actions in the scripts.\\nThe fourth-season finale was shot on location in London because the producers were aware of the series' popularity in the UK. The scenes were shot in a studio with three audiences each made up of 500 people. These were the show's largest audiences throughout its run. The fifth-season finale, set in Las Vegas, was filmed at Warner Bros. Studios, although Bright met people who thought it was filmed on location.\\n\\nSeries finale\\nThe series's creators completed the first draft of the hour-long finale in January 2004, four months before its original airing. Crane, Kauffman and Bright watched the finales of other sitcoms to prepare the episode's outline, paying attention to what worked and what did not. They liked the ones that stayed true to the series, deeming the finale of The Mary Tyler Moore Show to be the gold standard. Crane, Kauffman, and Bright had difficulty writing the finale. They did not want to do \\\"something high concept, or take the show out of the show.\\\" The most critical parts of the finale were shot without an audience and with a minimum number of crew members. The main cast enjoyed the finale and were confident that the fans would react similarly:\\n\\nIt's exactly what I had hoped. We all end up with a sense of a new beginning and the audience has a sense that it's a new chapter in the lives of all these characters. \\nNBC heavily promoted the series finale, which was preceded by weeks of media hype. Local NBC affiliates organized viewing parties around the U.S., including an event at Universal CityWalk featuring a special broadcast of the finale on an outdoor Astrovision screen. The finale was the subject of two episodes of Dateline NBC, one of which ran for two hours. A one-hour retrospective of clips from previous episodes was shown before the airing of the episode. Following the finale, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was filmed on the set of the Friends' Central Perk coffee house, which featured the cast as guests. The advertising rates for the finale averaged $2 million for 30 seconds of commercial time, breaking the record held by the Seinfeld finale at $1.7 million.\\nIn the U.S., 52.5 million viewers watched the finale on May 6, 2004, making it the most-watched entertainment telecast since the Seinfeld finale in 1998. The finale was the fifth most-watched series finale in television history, only behind the finales of M*A*S*H, Cheers, The Fugitive, and Seinfeld, which were respectively watched by 105, 80.4, 78.0 and 76.3 million viewers. The retrospective episode was watched by fewer than 36 million viewers, and the finale was the second most-watched television broadcast of the year in the United States, only behind the Super Bowl. Following the finales of Friends and Frasier, media critics speculated about the fate of the sitcom genre. Opinions varied between a signalling of the end of the sitcom genre, a small decline in the large history of the genre, and a general reduction of scripted television in favor of reality shows.\\n\\nReunion special\\nOn November 12, 2019, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Warner Bros TV was developing a Friends reunion for HBO Max that would feature the whole cast and creators returning. On February 21, 2020, HBO confirmed that the unscripted reunion special, tentatively named \\\"The One Where They Got Back Together\\\", was set to be released in May the same year, along with the 236 original episodes of the series. On March 18, 2020, it was announced that the special, which was set to film on the Friends stage on March 23 and 24, had been postponed indefinitely, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2020, Matthew Perry tweeted that the reunion is set to start filming in March 2021. On May 13, 2021, a teaser trailer was released officially announcing Friends: The Reunion also known as \\\"The One Where They Get Back Together\\\". The reunion special was released on HBO Max on May 27, 2021.\\n\\nReception\\nCritical reception\\nEarly reviews of the series were mixed; the first season holds a Metacritic score of 65 out of 100, based on 24 sampled reviews, indicating \\\"generally favourable reviews\\\". Tom Feran of The Plain Dealer wrote that the series traded \\\"vaguely and less successfully on the hanging-out style of Seinfeld\\\", while Ann Hodges of the Houston Chronicle called it \\\"the new Seinfeld wannabe, but it will never be as funny as Seinfeld.\\\" In the Los Angeles Daily News, Ray Richmond named the series as \\\"one of the brighter comedies of the new season\\\", and the Los Angeles Times called it \\\"flat-out the best comedy series of the new season.\\\"\\nThe Chicago Sun-Times' Ginny Holbert found Joey and Rachel's characters to be underdeveloped, while Richmond commended the cast as a \\\"likeable youth ensemble\\\" with \\\"good chemistry.\\\" Robert Bianco of USA Today was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him \\\"terrific.\\\" He also praised the female leads, but was concerned that Perry's role as Chandler was \\\"undefined\\\" and that LeBlanc was \\\"relying too much on the same brain-dead stud routine that was already tired the last two times he tried it.\\\" The authors of Friends Like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends thought that the cast was \\\"trying just a little too hard\\\"; in particular, Perry and Schwimmer.\\nAs the series progressed, reviews became more positive, and Friends became one of the most popular sitcoms of its time. It is now often ranked among the all-time best TV shows. Critics commended the series for having consistently sharp writing and for the chemistry between the main actors. Noel Holston of Newsday, who had dismissed the pilot as a \\\"so-so Seinfeld wannabe\\\" in 1994, repudiated his earlier review after rewatching the episode and felt like writing an apology to the writers. Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com thought that the series \\\"hit its stride\\\" in the second season. Havrilesky found the character-specific jokes and situations \\\"could reliably make you laugh out loud a few times each episode\\\", and the quality of writing allowed the stories to be \\\"original and innovative.\\\"\\nBill Carter of The New York Times called the eighth season a \\\"truly stunning comeback.\\\" Carter found that by \\\"generating new hot storylines and high-decibel laughs\\\", the series made its way \\\"back into the hearts of its fans.\\\" However, Liane Bonin of Entertainment Weekly felt that the direction of the ninth season was a \\\"disappointing buzzkill\\\", criticizing it for the non-stop celebrity guest spots and going into jump the shark territory. Although disappointed with the season, Bonin noted that \\\"the writing [was] still sharp.\\\" Havrilesky thought that the tenth season was \\\"alarmingly awful, far worse than you would ever imagine a show that was once so good could be.\\\" Friends was featured on Time's list of \\\"The 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time\\\", saying, \\\"the well-hidden secret of this show was that it called itself Friends, and was really about family.\\\"\\nReviews of the series finale were mostly positive. USA Today's Robert Bianco described the finale as entertaining and satisfying and praised it for deftly mixing emotion and humor while highlighting each of the stars. Sarah Rodman of the Boston Herald praised Aniston and Schwimmer for their acting, but felt that their characters' reunion was \\\"a bit too neat, even if it was what most of the show's legions of fans wanted.\\\" Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant felt that newcomers to the series would be \\\"surprised at how laughless the affair could be, and how nearly every strained gag depends on the sheer stupidity of its characters.\\\" Ken Parish Perkins, writing for Fort Worth Star-Telegram, pointed out that the finale was \\\"more touching than comical, more satisfying in terms of closure than knee-slappingly funny.\\\"\\n\\nIt may have been impossible for any one episode to live up to the hype and expectations built up around the Friends finale, but this hour probably came as close as fans could have reasonably hoped. Ultimately, the two-hour package did exactly what it was supposed to do. It wrapped up the story while reminding us why we liked the show and will miss it.\\nIn a 2021 program on ITV, Mr. Bean writer Richard Curtis accused the Friends writers of stealing the joke which involved Joey getting a turkey stuck on his head in \\\"The One with All the Thanksgivings\\\" from the 1992 episode \\\"Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean\\\". In that episode, Mr Bean got a turkey stuck on his head after losing his watch while stuffing the turkey and put his head in to try to retrieve it. Rowan Atkinson, however, argued that jokes are meant to be stolen, or to inspire.\\n\\nAwards\\nTo maintain the series's ensemble format, the main cast members decided to enter themselves in the same acting categories for awards. Beginning with the eighth season, the actors decided to submit themselves in the lead actor balloting, rather than in the supporting actor fields. The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning six.\\nAniston and Kudrow are the only main cast members to win an Emmy, while Cox is the only actor not to be nominated. The series won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2002, receiving nominations in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, and 2003. The series also won an American Comedy Award, one GLAAD Media Award, one Golden Globe Award, three Logie Awards, six People's Choice Awards, one Satellite Award, and one Screen Actors Guild Award.\\n\\nRatings\\nThe table below shows the ratings of Friends in the United States, where it consistently ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings. \\\"Rank\\\" refers to how well Friends rated compared to other television series that aired during primetime hours of the corresponding television season. It is shown in relation to the total number of series airing on the then-six major English-language networks in a given season. \\\"Viewers\\\" refers to the average number of viewers for all original episodes, broadcast during the television season in the series' regular timeslot. The \\\"season premiere\\\" is the date that the first episode of the season aired, and the \\\"season finale\\\" is the date that the final episode of the season aired. Following the September 11 attacks, ratings increased 17% over the previous season.\\n\\nSyndication\\nBecause of syndication revenue, Friends continues to generate approximately $1 billion each year for Warner Bros. That translates into about $20 million in annual residuals each for Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, who each get 2% of syndication income for Friends.\\nAll episodes became available on Netflix on January 1, 2015, introducing a new generation to the show. UK Friends reruns' ratings in 2015 increased by more than 10% annually. The 2016 reruns' US weekly audience, not including streaming, of 16 million would make it a hit on network television were the show still being produced. In the US, the series has a syndication deal through multiple networks, including Nick at Nite, TBS, and Paramount Network. In July 2019, it was announced that from the beginning of 2020, Friends would not be available on Netflix in the US and instead would be shown on Warner Bros. Discovery's video-streaming service HBO Max, which launched in May 2020.\\n\\nCultural impact\\nAlthough the producers thought of Friends as \\\"only a TV show\\\", psychologists investigated the cultural impact of Friends during the series' run. Aniston's hairstyle was nicknamed \\\"The Rachel\\\" and copied around the world. Joey's catchphrase, \\\"How you doin'?\\\", became a popular part of Western English slang, often used as a pick-up line or when greeting friends. The series also influenced the English language, according to a study by the University of Toronto that found that the characters used the emphasized word \\\"so\\\" to modify adjectives more often than any other intensifier. Although the preference had already made its way into the American vernacular, usage on the series may have accelerated the change. Chandler's habit of ending a sentence unfinished for sarcasm also influenced viewers' speech. The show's availability on streaming television—it accounted for 4% of all Netflix views in 2018—gave it a large new Gen Z audience. Kauffman reported that her high school daughter's friends thought that Friends was a new period piece about the 1990s. One young fan described the show as \\\"aspirational ... [kids hope] that when they're that age ... they'll have those friends\\\".\\nFriends has been credited in helping non-English speaking students to learn the language. A 2012 poll by Kaplan International English Colleges found that more than a quarter (26%) of its students cited the sitcom as the best show for helping them improve their English. Notable individuals who have also said that the sitcom helped them learn English include Liverpool Football Club manager Jürgen Klopp, South Korean band BTS member RM and Belgian professional golfer Thomas Pieters.\\nFriends developed an alternative family lifestyle by representing young people who live unconventional domestic lives. It presented the idea that \\\"all you need are good friends\\\" and that you can construct families through choice. The audience was able to identify with the program through the troubles seen on weekly episodes. It portrayed a new way of living life and developing relationships which were not normally seen in conventional society. According to a pop-culture expert at the University at Buffalo, Friends is \\\"one of those rare shows that marked a change in American culture.\\\" The images of youth and the roles they portray are better defined and represent a lifestyle that centers around creating and sustaining relationships between friends running their own lives and seeking help from each other.\\n\\nVox stated that Friends had an impact on the creation of other conflictless \\\"hangout sitcoms\\\", with groups of adult friends who are funny and have similar character traits. One example of this is How I Met Your Mother, which The Guardian's TV and radio blog noted also shares its setting (Manhattan) with Friends. Other examples include The Big Bang Theory, New Girl, and Happy Endings.\\nReaders of TV Guide voted the cast of Friends their Best Comedy cast of all time, ranking at 29% of the votes, beating Seinfeld, which registered 18%. A poll undertaken by 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair named Friends the third-greatest sitcom of all time. In 2014, the series was ranked by Mundo Estranho the Best TV Series of All Time. A 2015 survey by The Hollywood Reporter of 2,800 actors, producers, directors, and other industry people named Friends as their No. 1 favorite show.\\nFriends was parodied in the twelfth season Murder, She Wrote episode \\\"Murder Among Friends\\\". In the episode, amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) investigates the murder of a writer for Buds, a fictional television series about the daily lives of a group of city friends. The episode was devised after CBS moved Murder, She Wrote from its regular Sunday night timeslot to a Thursday night timeslot directly opposite Friends on NBC; Angela Lansbury was quoted by Bruce Lansbury, her brother and Murder, She Wrote's supervising producer, as having \\\"a bit of an attitude\\\" about the move to Thursday, but he saw the plot as \\\"a friendly setup, no mean-spiritedness.\\\" Jerry Ludwig, the writer of the episode, researched the \\\"flavor\\\" of Buds by watching episodes of Friends.\\nProducers of Married... with Children attempted to create a spinoff series called Enemies, which was intended to act as an antithesis to Friends the same way Married... with Children had been an antithesis to family sitcoms such as The Cosby Show. However, the Fox network declined to pick up the series.\\n\\nCoffee house\\nThe Central Perk coffee house, one of the principal settings of the series, is part of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood. People sometimes propose marriage on the couch, and many tourists cry when they sit on it. The coffee house has inspired various imitations worldwide. In 2006, Iranian businessman Mojtaba Asadian started a Central Perk franchise, registering the name in 32 countries. The decor of the coffee houses is inspired by Friends, featuring replica couches, counters, neon signage and bricks. The coffee houses contain paintings of the various characters from the series, and televisions playing Friends episodes. James Michael Tyler, who plays Gunther, the Central Perk manager in the series, attended the grand opening of the Dubai café, where he worked as a waiter.\\nCentral Perk was rebuilt as part of a museum exhibit at Warner Bros. Studios and was shown on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in October 2008 when Jennifer Aniston visited the set for the first time since the series finale in 2004. From September 24 to October 7, 2009, a Central Perk replica was on Broadwick Street, Soho, London. The coffee house sold coffee to customers and featured a display of Friends memorabilia and props, such as the Geller Cup from the season three episode \\\"The One with the Football\\\". In Beijing, business owner Du Xin opened a coffee shop named Central Perk in March 2010.\\n\\nIn India, there are six Friends-themed cafes which features many icons from the original TV series, including Chandler and Joey's ugly dog statue, the orange sofa, the purple door of Monica and Rachel's apartment, and Phoebe's pink bicycle. One named Central Perk is in Chandigarh, Kolkata; one named F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Cafe in West Bengal, and the others are in Delhi, Gurgaon; Bhubaneswar, Odisha; and Pune, Maharashtra.\\nThere are two Friends themed cafes in Pakistan—one in Lahore, Punjab, known as \\\"Friends Cafe\\\" and the other in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa called \\\"Central Perk\\\". Both cafes have an iconic couch, a guitar and foosball table, quotes from the show on the walls and episode reruns on a projector. They're planning to have their own Gunther at the bar.\\nIn 2016, a Central Perk replica was opened in Outram, Singapore. It is the only Central Perk replica outside of the United States that has been given intellectual property rights by Warner Bros. The café includes feature walls, replicating the walls of the main characters' apartments and memorabilia and props used on the show.\\nIn August 2019, Lego launched a Central Perk Lego set to mark the show's 25 anniversary.\\n\\nDistribution\\nBroadcast\\nUnited States\\nAfter the produced pilot lived up to NBC's hopes, the series premiered with the name Friends on September 22, 1994, in the coveted Thursday 8:30 p.m. time slot. The pilot aired between Mad About You and Seinfeld, and was watched by almost 22 million American viewers. The series was a huge success throughout its run and was a staple of NBC's Thursday night line-up, dubbed by the network as Must See TV. When Crane told reporters in 2001 that the ninth season was a possibility, critics believed that he was posturing and that at least two of the cast members would not sign on for another season. When it was confirmed that Friends would return for a ninth season, the news was mainly about the amount of money—$7 million per episode—that it took to bring the series back for another season.\\nAfter year-long expectations that the ninth season would be the series's last, NBC signed a deal in late December 2002 to bring the series back for a final tenth season. The series' creative team did not want to extend negotiations into the next year and wanted to start writing the rest of the ninth-season episodes and a potential series finale. NBC agreed to pay $10 million to Warner Bros. for the production of each tenth-season episode, the highest price in television history for a 30-minute series. Although NBC was unable to bring in enough advertising revenue from commercials to cover the costs, the series was integral to the Thursday night schedule, which brought high ratings and profits to the other television series. The cast demanded that the tenth season be reduced from the usual 24 episodes to 18 episodes to allow them to work on outside projects.\\nIn fall 2001, Warner Bros. Domestic Cable made a deal with sister network TBS (both were owned by Time Warner) to air the series in rerun syndication. Warner Bros. Domestic Cable announced that it had sold additional cable rights to Friends to Nick at Nite which began airing in the fall of 2011 (unlike the TBS and broadcast syndication airings, Nick at Nite broadcasts of the series, which began airing as part of a seven-night launch marathon on September 5, 2011, replace the end credit tag scenes with marginalized credits featuring promotions for the series and other Nick at Nite programs). Warner Bros. was expected to make $200 million in license fees and advertising from the deal. Nick at Nite paid $500,000 per episode to air the episodes after 6 pm. ET for six years through fall 2017. In syndication until 2005, Friends had earned $4 million per episode in cash license fees for a total of $944 million.\\nComedy Central began airing reruns of Friends in October 2019.\\n\\nInternational\\nHaving already made huge success in the United States, Friends producers decided to air the show in Europe. It premiered in the United Kingdom on April 28, 1995. Season 1 was broadcast until September 1995 on Channel 4 at 9:30 PM on Friday nights, and immediately was a success. The popularity of the show allowed the theme song by the Rembrandts to hit number 3 on the UK Singles Charts in September 1995.\\nThe popularity of the show in Britain led to an episode being produced in London at the end of the fourth season, starring British actress Helen Baxendale, who became a leading cast member in seasons four and five during her character's relationship with Ross. The show has since aired on different channels in the UK in their original, unedited international versions prior to their being re-edited for US broadcast and syndication. These versions, with additional footage not seen domestically, have aired on such stations as Channel 4, Sky1, E4, and Comedy Central UK.\\nIn September 2011, Friends officially ended on E4 after the channel re-ran the series since 2004. Comedy Central took over the rights to air the program from October 2011. Since 2018 Channel 5 started airing the program. In the Republic of Ireland, each season of the show made its European debut on RTÉ2. After 2004 RTÉ2 began to repeat the series from the start before moving over to TV3 and its digital channel 3e in 2010. As of February 2015, repeats of the show have returned to RTÉ2 while also broadcasting on Comedy Central Ireland.\\nSeason 10's finale in the UK, broadcast on May 28, 2004, was on Channel 4. It was broadcast from 9 pm to 10 pm and attracted Friends' largest UK audiences. It attracted almost 10 million viewers, and is currently standing at Number 10 in Channel 4's most-watched shows. Big Brother was moved to 10 pm, which Friends had beaten. Friends got 9.6 million viewers at 9 pm, while Big Brother 5's launch attracted 7.2 million viewers at 10 pm, which is the most-watched premiere on UK TV ever. However, on January 3, 2007, Celebrity Big Brother 5's launch was watched by 7.3 million viewers, and its eviction on January 19, 2007, was watched by 8.7 million viewers.\\nFriends has previously aired in Australia on the Seven Network (season 1), Nine Network (season 2–10), Network Ten (2007–09, repeats), Arena, 111 Hits, 9Gem (2012–2018, repeats), and TVHits. It currently airs on 10 Peach and on pay TV channel Comedy, both of which broadcast the high-definition version of the series. The show is broadcast on TV2 in New Zealand.\\nIn Canada, the series was broadcast on Global. In later years, it was syndicated on several of its cable sibling networks, including Slice, DTour, and TVTropolis, its previous incarnation. The series is now syndicated to Bell Media owned CTV Comedy Channel.\\nIn Latin America, the first seven seasons aired on Sony, and the remaining seasons on Warner. In Brazil, free-to-air networks RedeTV! and SBT also aired a few seasons.\\nIn India, the show is broadcast by Comedy Central at various times. It is the most-watched English language show in the country.\\nIn the Philippines, the show was originally aired on ABC-5\\nfrom 1996 to 2005 and ETC from 2005 to 2014.\\nIn Greece, the show was broadcast on Star Channel. In Cyprus, Friends aired on CyBC 2 while reruns air on TVOne.\\nIn November 2019 Croatian television broadcaster RTL2 announced that they will be airing Friends, and to this day they are shown every late night\\nIn 2022, Bilibili, iQIYI, Tencent Video, and Youku began distributing edited Friends episodes in China. These edited versions of episodes removed most LGBT content, not edited in original Chinese airings. Chinese fans of the show reacted negatively online.\\n\\nRemaster\\nBeginning in March 2012, high definition versions of all 236 Friends episodes were made available to local broadcast stations, starting with the pilot episode. For the remastered episodes, Warner Bros. restored previously cropped images on the left and right sides of the screen, using the original 35 mm film source, to use the entire 16:9 widescreen frame. Because the show was not originally filmed for widescreen, but rather filmed in 4-perf format and protected for 4:3, some cropping problems arise in some shots where information from the top and bottom of the frame is removed, and some expanded shots reveal unintentional artifacts, including set edges, boom mics and body doubles replacing some of the main cast.\\nIn early versions of the HD remasters, there were also a few shots, including chroma effects shots, which were sourced from standard-definition videotape sources, as not all of the footage had been located in time for the remaster. The original film sources for these shots were later rescanned for later broadcast and release. These masters had been airing in New Zealand on TV2 since January 2011, and the earlier HD prints continue to air on Comedy Central in the United Kingdom as of 2020. Netflix added all ten seasons of Friends in high definition to its streaming service in the United States in January 2015 before the platform discontinued the series in late 2019.\\n\\nHome media\\nStreaming\\nIn October 2014, Warner Bros. chairman and chief executive officer, Kevin Tsujihara, announced that the company had licensed the North American streaming rights of all ten seasons of Friends to Netflix, in a deal said to be worth around $500,000 an episode, or about $120 million in total. The show became available on Netflix from January 1, 2015. The Netflix airings are the versions aired on NBC rather than the longer international versions, as discussed below. The series left Netflix in the US on January 1, 2020, as it began streaming on HBO Max on May 27, 2020. The series left Netflix in Canada for Crave on December 31, 2020.\\n\\nBlu-ray and DVD\\nAll ten seasons have been released on DVD individually and as a box set. Each Region 1 season release contains special features and are presented in their aforementioned original international broadcast versions, although Region 2 releases are as originally aired domestically. For the first season, each episode is updated with color correction and sound enhancement. A wide range of Friends merchandise has been produced by various companies. In September 1995, WEA Records released the first album of music from Friends, the Friends Original TV Soundtrack, containing music featured in previous and future episodes. The soundtrack debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 46, and sold 500,000 copies in November 1995.\\nIn 1999, a second soundtrack album entitled Friends Again was released. Other merchandise includes a Friends version of the DVD game \\\"Scene It?\\\", and a quiz video game for PlayStation 2 and PC entitled Friends: The One with All the Trivia. On September 28, 2009, a box set was released in the UK celebrating the show's 15th anniversary. The box set contained extended episodes, an episode guide, and original special features.\\nWarner Home Video released a complete series collection on Blu-ray on November 13, 2012. The collection does not feature the extra deleted scenes and jokes that were included on prior DVD releases, and are therefore presented in their NBC broadcast versions.\\nIn Australia, the original DVD releases were fold out box sets which contained three discs, and released as follows: Season 1 and Season 2 on March 13, 2002, Season 3 and Season 4 on July 9, 2002, Season 5, 6 and 7 on July 29, 2002, Season 8 on March 18, 2003, Season 9 on February 11, 2004, and Season 10 on November 24, 2004. Repackaged sets, slimmed into regular DVD cases also containing three discs were released from 2003 to 2004. Collector's Edition sets were released from September 9, 2003, through to February 1, 2006, these sets contains 4 discs, in fat DVD cases, with extra bonus material.\\nOn October 4, 2006, the individual seasons were repackaged into regular DVD case sets and marked as \\\"Including Brand New Bonus Disc\\\". Once again each individual season were repackaged with new artwork on March 31, 2010. The first complete series boxset on DVD was released around 2004 or 2005, this was titled 'The One With All Ten Seasons\\\" and the packaging was a black box with a lift up lid and contains exclusive packaging for all ten seasons.\\nThe second complete series boxset was released August 21, 2013 and was a red box which contained the 2010 individual season sets inside. On October 1, 2014, was the 20th Anniversary boxset, this was a white box and contained the same 2010 individual releases inside. On October 7, 2015, another boxset was released 'The One With All Ten Seasons\\\", the same name used on the original boxset, however this time slimmed down and contains the 2010 individual releases inside. The outer box is open on insert side for the cases to slide in and out, more of a budget release. In 2016, a repackaged 'The Complete Series' Blu-ray boxset was issued, containing the same 10 individual seasons in the original set, however the box is more cut down and is opened on one side, and also does not include the book that contained the episode guide.\\nThe entire series will be released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 24, 2024.\\n\\nSpin-off\\nAfter the series finale in 2004, LeBlanc signed on for the spin-off series, Joey, following Joey's move to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. Kauffman and Crane were not interested in the spin-off, although Bright agreed to executive produce the series with Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan. NBC heavily promoted Joey and gave it Friends' Thursday 8:00 pm timeslot.\\nThe pilot was watched by 18.6 million American viewers, but ratings continually decreased throughout the series's two seasons, averaging 10.2 million viewers in the first season and 7.1 million in the second. The final broadcast episode on March 7, 2006, was watched by 7.09 million viewers; NBC cancelled the series on May 15, 2006, after two seasons, leaving eight episodes unaired. Bright blamed the collaboration between NBC executives, the studio and other producers for quickly ruining the series:\\n\\nOn Friends, Joey was a womanizer, but we enjoyed his exploits. He was a solid friend, a guy you knew you could count on. Joey was deconstructed to be a guy who couldn't get a job, couldn't ask a girl out. He became a pathetic, mopey character. I felt he was moving in the wrong direction, but I was not heard.\\n\\nSee also\\nFriends 'Til the End\\nThe Friends Experience\\nMusic of Friends\\n\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nLittlefield, Warren (May 2012). \\\"With Friends Like These\\\". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2019.\\nArticles concerning the cultural influence of the program:\\n\\nAllen, Samantha (September 12, 2014). \\\"The Best Reason to Love 'Friends' Is the One We Never Realized at the Time\\\". Mic.\\nIhnat, Gwen (August 18, 2014). \\\"How 'Friends' Changed the Sitcom Landscape\\\". The A.V. Club.\\nHarrison, Andrew (September 12, 2014). \\\"The Hunting of the Snark: Friends, 20 Years On\\\". New Statesman.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nOfficial website \\nFriends at IMDb \\nFriends on Rotten Tomatoes\\nFriends at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television\",\n \"title\": \"Friends\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Jennifer Joanna Aniston (née Anastasakis; born February 11, 1969) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004, which earned her Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards. Aniston has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses, as of 2023.\\nThe daughter of actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow, she began working as an actress at an early age with an uncredited role in the 1988 film Mac and Me. Her first major film role came in the 1993 horror comedy Leprechaun. She has since starred in a string of successful comedy films such as Office Space (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), We're the Millers (2013), Dumplin' (2018), and Murder Mystery (2019). Aniston also starred in the acclaimed independent films The Good Girl (2002), Friends with Money (2006), and Cake (2014). She returned to television in 2019, producing and starring in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show, for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award.\\nAniston has been included in numerous magazines' lists of the world's most beautiful women. Her net worth is estimated as US$300 million, and her box office gross is over $1.6 billion worldwide. She is the recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is the co-founder of the production company Echo Films, established in 2008.\\n\\nEarly life\\nAniston was born on February 11, 1969, in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles to Greek-born actor John Aniston and actress Nancy Dow. One of her maternal great-grandfathers, Louis Grieco, was from Italy. Her mother's other ancestry includes English, Irish, Scottish, and a small amount of Greek. Her father's ancestry is from the Greek island of Crete. Aniston has two half-brothers: John Melick, her older maternal half-brother; and Alex Aniston, her younger paternal half-brother. Her godfather was actor Telly Savalas, one of her father's best friends.\\nHer family moved to New York City when she was a child. Despite her father's television career, she was discouraged from watching television, though she found ways around the prohibition. When she was six, she began attending a Waldorf school. Her parents divorced when she was nine.\\nHaving discovered acting at age 11 at the Waldorf school, Aniston enrolled in Manhattan's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where she joined the school's drama society, and where Anthony Abeson was her drama teacher. She performed in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Lorraine Hansberry and Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov.\\n\\nCareer\\n1988–1993: Beginnings\\nAniston first worked in off-Broadway productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker's Grave, and supported herself with part-time jobs including work as a telemarketer, waitress and bike messenger. In 1988, she had an uncredited minor role in the critically panned sci-fi adventure film Mac and Me. The next year, she appeared on The Howard Stern Show as a spokesmodel for Nutrisystem, and moved back to Los Angeles.\\nHer first regular television role was in the TV series Molloy in 1990, and she appeared in the television adaptation of the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off; both series were quickly canceled. She starred as a teenage summer camp counselor in the made-for-television film Camp Cucamonga (1990), and as a spoiled teenager followed by a vengeful leprechaun in the horror film Leprechaun (1993). A 2014 retrospective from Entertainment Weekly identified Leprechaun as her worst role, and Aniston herself has expressed embarrassment over it.\\nAniston also appeared in the two failed television comedy series The Edge and Muddling Through, and guest-starred in Quantum Leap, Herman's Head and Burke's Law.\\n\\n1994–2004: Friends and worldwide recognition\\nDepressed over her four unsuccessful television shows, Aniston approached TV executive Warren Littlefield at a Los Angeles gas station asking for reassurance. As the head of NBC entertainment, he encouraged her to continue acting, and a few months later helped cast her in Friends, a sitcom set to debut on NBC's 1994–1995 fall lineup. The producer wanted Aniston to audition for the role of Monica Geller, but Courteney Cox was deemed more suitable, and Aniston was cast as Rachel Green. She was also offered a spot as a featured player on Saturday Night Live, but turned it down in favor of Friends. She played Rachel until the show ended in 2004, when Aniston took a 15-year hiatus from television save for occasional guest roles.\\n\\nThe program was a massive hit and Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained worldwide recognition. Her character was especially popular. She received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations (two for Supporting Actress, three for Lead Actress), and won for Lead Actress. She was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and won in 2003 as Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Aniston (along with her female co-stars) became the highest-paid television actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck during the final season of Friends. Her character's relationship with Ross Geller, portrayed by David Schwimmer, was widely popular among audiences; they were frequently voted television's favorite couple in polls and magazines.\\nAfter a four-year hiatus, Aniston returned to film work in 1996, when she performed in the ensemble cast of romantic comedy She's the One. Her first starring film vehicle was Picture Perfect (1997), where she played a struggling young advertising executive opposite Kevin Bacon and Jay Mohr. It received mixed reviews and was only a moderate commercial success; but Aniston's performance was more warmly received, with many critics suggesting that she had screen presence. In 1998, she appeared as a woman who falls for a gay man (played by Paul Rudd) in the romantic comedy The Object of My Affection, and the next year she starred as a restaurant waitress in the cult film Office Space.\\n\\nAniston appeared in the dramedy Rock Star (2001) opposite Mark Wahlberg and Dominic West. She starred in the independent dramedy The Good Girl (2002) as an unglamorous cashier who cheats on her husband. The film was a commercial success in limited release, taking in over $14 million in North America. Film critic Roger Ebert declared it her breakthrough: After languishing in a series of overlooked movies that ranged from the entertaining Office Space to the disposable Picture Perfect, Jennifer Aniston has at last decisively broken with her Friends image in an independent film of satiric fire and emotional turmoil. It will no longer be possible to consider her in the same way.\\nAniston's biggest commercial success in film has been the comedy Bruce Almighty (2003), where she played the girlfriend of a television field reporter (Jim Carrey) offered the chance to be God for one week. With a worldwide box office gross of $484 million, it was the fifth-highest-grossing feature film of the year. Aniston next starred as the old classmate of a tightly wound newlywed in the romantic comedy Along Came Polly (2004) opposite Ben Stiller, which placed number one at the North American box office, earning $27.7 million in its opening weekend; it eventually made $172 million worldwide.\\n\\n2005–2013: Continued film success\\nIn 2005, Aniston appeared as an alluring woman having an affair with an advertising executive in the thriller Derailed, and as an obituary and wedding announcement writer in the romantic comedy Rumor Has It. Both films were moderate box office hits. Aniston took on the role of a single, cash-strapped woman working as a maid in the independent drama Friends with Money (2006), which received a limited release.\\nHer next film was the romantic comedy The Break-Up (2006), alongside Vince Vaughn, in which she starred as one half of a couple having a complicated split when both refuse to move out of the pair's recently purchased home. It received mixed reviews but grossed approximately $39.17 million during its opening weekend and $204 million worldwide. The A.V. Club's Keith Phipps gave the film a negative review, stating, \\\"It's like watching the 'we were on a break' episode of Friends stretched to feature length, and without the blessed relief of commercial breaks or the promise of Seinfeld around the corner.\\\" CinemaBlend gave the film a positive review stating, \\\"In an era of formulaic romantic movies that bear no resemblance to reality, The Break-Up offers a refreshing flipside.\\\"\\nIn 2006, Aniston directed the short film Room 10, set in a hospital emergency room and starring Robin Wright and Kris Kristofferson, as part of Glamour's Reel Moments film series. She noted that she was inspired to direct by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who also directed a short film that year. In 2007, Aniston guest-starred in an episode of Dirt—playing the rival of Courteney Cox's character—and in an episode of 30 Rock, playing a woman who stalks Jack Donaghy. For the latter she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.\\n\\nThe 2008 comedy drama Marley & Me, starring Aniston and Owen Wilson as the owners of the titular dog, set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office sales ever with $14.75 million. It earned a total of $51.7 million over the four-day weekend and placed number one at the box office, a position it maintained for two weeks. The total worldwide gross was $242.7 million. Her next film in wide release, the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You (2009), in which she starred opposite Ben Affleck, grossed $178.8 million globally and ranked number one at the United States box office for its opening weekend. While it received mixed reviews, Aniston, along with Affleck, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jennifer Connelly, were praised by critics as standouts in the film.\\nAniston appeared as the former wife of a bounty hunter (Gerard Butler) in the romantic comedy action film The Bounty Hunter (2010). The film was panned by critics, with The Hollywood Reporter writing that \\\"the mishmash ends up as a thoroughly unfunny adult cartoon.\\\" Nevertheless, it was a box office success, garnering over $130 million worldwide. A lukewarm box office reception greeted her next film, the romantic comedy The Switch (2010), in which she starred with Jason Bateman as a 30-something single woman who decides to have a child using a sperm bank. The film's opening weekend drew what The Hollywood Reporter dubbed \\\"a dispiriting $8.4 million\\\". The film received generally mixed reviews, with review site Metacritic showing 13 out of 30 critics delivering a positive verdict.\\nIn 2010, Aniston was also a guest star on the season two premiere of ABC's sitcom Cougar Town, playing a psychiatrist. Her announcement that she would appear on Cougar Town garnered excitement and was dubbed her return to television. The A.V. Club wrote, \\\"[her role] is a funny bit, and it highlights just how much Jennifer Aniston is built to be a TV star.\\\" In 2011, she starred opposite Adam Sandler as an office manager posing as the wife of a plastic surgeon in the romantic comedy Just Go with It, and played a sexually aggressive dentist in Horrible Bosses. Just Go with It and Horrible Bosses both made over $100 million in North America and $200 million worldwide.\\nAniston appeared in the comedy Wanderlust (2012) with Paul Rudd, with whom she acted in The Object of My Affection and also Friends, as a married couple who join a commune after losing their money and deciding modern life is not for them. The script for Wanderlust, bought by Universal Pictures, was produced by Judd Apatow. Wanderlust received positive reviews but was a box office failure, grossing only $21 million worldwide, against a production budget of $35 million. Aniston starred as a struggling stripper who agrees to pose as a wife for a drug deal, with Jason Sudeikis, in We're the Millers (2013). The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was a financial success, grossing $269 million against a budget of $37 million.\\n\\n2014–present: film roles and return to television\\nAniston played the role of a stoic socialite who becomes the target of an ill-planned kidnapping plot in Life of Crime (2014), a film adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1978 novel The Switch. The film was released in limited theaters, to positive reviews. Catherine Shoard of The Guardian described her performance as \\\"endearingly comic\\\" and Eric Kohn of IndieWire wrote that \\\"Aniston tops any of her recent performances with a spirited turn that harkens back to her neurotic days on Friends.\\\" She also reprised her role for Horrible Bosses 2 (2014).\\nIn Cake (2014), Aniston starred as an astringent woman named Claire Simmons who struggles with chronic pain. The film received mixed reviews; nonetheless, Aniston's performance was acclaimed, dubbed by some critics as \\\"Oscar-worthy\\\". The Toronto International Film Festival called her performance \\\"heartbreakingly good\\\", Gregory Ellwood of HitFix stated, \\\"It's really on most people's radar for being a rare dramatic turn for Jennifer Aniston, and she doesn't disappoint.\\\" He further stated, \\\"Aniston makes you believe in Claire's pain. She makes you believe this character is at her lowest point and only she can pull herself out of it. ... It's a complete performance from beginning to end and she deserves the appropriate accolades for it.\\\" For her performance, Aniston was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress. She was also nominated multiple nominations for its latter seasons.\\n\\nIn 2015, Aniston starred as a reluctant therapist in the screwball comedy She's Funny That Way, which received mixed reviews and found a limited release in theaters, but her performance was once again noticed. Wesley Morris of Grantland called her \\\"one of the great screen comedians. ... Most of her scenes here are extraneous, but her vulgarity and tartness are so sharp that the movie needs them. ... This isn't just Aniston having the best stuff. It's her having the most fun with her talent. She's funny in every way.\\\"\\nAniston starred as the recently divorced mother of two children in the romantic comedy Mother's Day (2016), directed by Garry Marshall, and opposite Julia Roberts and Kate Hudson. The film was panned by critics and a moderate commercial success. In 2016, she voiced a workaholic and overprotective mother in the animated film Storks, alongside Andy Samberg and Kelsey Grammer, which was released to mostly positive reviews; it grossed over $183.4 million against a $70 million budget. Her last 2016 film role was that of a frigidly cold head honcho of a company in the comedy Office Christmas Party, directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon and opposite Jason Bateman and Kate McKinnon. It grossed $114.5 million worldwide.\\nIn The Yellow Birds, a war drama directed by Alexandre Moors, Aniston portrays the mother of a deceased soldier, alongside Alden Ehrenreich, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston, and Toni Collette. While she said she does not \\\"normally gravitate toward being in war films\\\", she made an exception because the film was \\\"written so beautifully and in such a way [she] had never experienced\\\". The film, first presented at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, received a video on demand release in June 2018. The Los Angeles Times wrote in its review: \\\"Toni Collette and Jennifer Aniston as the soldiers' quite different but equally concerned mothers, deliver uniformly naturalistic performances\\\".\\nIn December 2018, Netflix released the musical comedy Dumplin', with Aniston as executive producer and star—marking her first project for a streaming service. That year, she began work on another Netflix project, Murder Mystery, a comedy that reunited her with Adam Sandler, which premiered on June 14, 2019. The two of them reunited for the sequel Murder Mystery 2, which premiered on March 31, 2023.\\nAniston made her return to television on November 1, 2019, producing and starring alongside Reese Witherspoon in the Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show. It was her first main television role since the conclusion of Friends in 2004. For its first season, Aniston won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and Best Television Series – Drama as a producer. The series' latter seasons earned her multiple additional nominations at Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG awards.\\nShe reunited with her Friends cast mates for an HBO Max unscripted television special titled Friends: The Reunion in May 2021. The special earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) for her producing credit.\\n\\nIn the media\\nWealth\\nAniston is one of the world's highest-paid actresses as of 2018. She has been on the Forbes Top Earning Actresses list for 15 years, every year since 2001—and since then also on its Celebrity 100 list (based on \\\"earnings and fame\\\"), topping it in 2003. According to Forbes, in October 2007, Aniston was the best-selling celebrity face of the entertainment industry.\\nThe magazine estimated her net worth at $110 million in 2007, and $200 million in 2017. It listed her earnings as $19.5 million in 2018.\\n\\nPublic image\\nThe media nicknamed Aniston \\\"America's sweetheart\\\" while the actress was starring on Friends. In 2019, Rachel Simon of NBCNews.com said Aniston \\\"has filled the role of our most beloved celebrity for nearly two and a half decades now, and there are no signs of her being replaced anytime soon\\\", arguing that few celebrities have maintained the \\\"America's sweetheart\\\" title for as long as she has. Aniston has been included in various magazine lists of the world's most beautiful women. In 2005, she became the first GQ (Gentlemen's Quarterly) Woman of the Year. She has frequently appeared on People magazine's annual list of Most Beautiful Women, topping the ranking in 2004 and 2016. She also topped the magazine's Best Dressed List in 2006. She has been a regular on the FHM (For Him Magazine) 100 Sexiest Women in the World list since 1996, most recently ranking at number 79 in 2012. A survey of their patients by two Hollywood plastic surgeons, reported in 2011 by The Daily Telegraph, identified her (alongside Gisele Bündchen and Penélope Cruz) as having one of the most sought-after body shapes. In the same year, readers of Men's Health voted her as the Sexiest Woman of All Time. Men's Health also included her on its 100 Hottest Sex Symbols of All Time list, explaining that \\\"Her down-to-earth persona makes her seem attainable, ... she makes even pieces of flair look good. She rarely plays the airhead, and she seldom overplays a role: she's funny in a quiet, refreshingly human way. And her all-too-human love life off screen inspires sympathy ... throughout her career Aniston has remained sexy, funny, and unmistakably real.\\\" Although Aniston disliked the hairstyle she wore during her first two years on Friends, \\\"The Rachel\\\" became very popular.\\nShe received a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 22, 2012, located at 6270 Hollywood Boulevard. She was ranked third on Forbes' list of the 100 Most Powerful Actresses in Hollywood in 2013.\\nIn July 2016, amidst media speculation over whether she was pregnant, Aniston penned an essay for The Huffington Post condemning the \\\"objectification and scrutiny we put women through\\\". She asserted: \\\"We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. [...] We don't need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own 'happily ever after' for ourselves.\\\" The piece was supported by many celebrities and widely covered in the media.\\nAfter years of aversion to social media, Aniston joined Instagram on October 15, 2019, causing the app to \\\"break\\\" (for hours the \\\"follow\\\" button became inoperable due to an overload of web traffic to her account) with the first picture of the planned Friends cast reunion for HBO Max (whose release was delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). She broke the Guinness World Record for fastest time to reach one million followers on Instagram, by doing so within five hours and sixteen minutes.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nAniston practices Hatha yoga and Budokan karate. In 2014, she spoke of her Transcendental Meditation practice. The following year, she revealed she has dyslexia, which had affected her education and self-esteem, and that after being diagnosed in her twenties, her outlook toward life changed. She stated, \\\"I thought I wasn't smart. I just couldn't retain anything. Now I had this great discovery. I felt like all of my childhood trauma-dies, tragedies, dramas were explained.\\\"\\nAniston donated to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and took part in a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. She endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.\\nAniston does not have any children. In November 2022, she appeared on the cover of Allure for their final print issue. In the accompanying interview, Aniston said she had undergone in vitro fertilization (IVF) to try to have children when she was in her thirties and forties, but the attempts did not result in any pregnancies. She said, \\\"All the years and years and years of speculation... It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it.\\\" In July 2024, after comments about \\\"childless cat ladies\\\" that Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance made in 2021 went viral, Aniston stated on social media that:\\n\\nAll I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day (...) I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.\\nIn 2023, she disclosed that Adam Sandler's family sends her flowers every year on Mother's Day.\\n\\nRelationships\\nAniston met Brad Pitt in 1998, and their relationship was highly publicized. After two years of dating, they married on July 29, 2000, in a lavish Malibu, California, wedding. For a few years, their marriage was considered a rare Hollywood success. On January 7, 2005, they announced their separation, and finalized their divorce on October 2. During their divorce proceedings, news media speculated that Pitt had been unfaithful to Aniston with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie, with whom he began a relationship soon after the split. In the months following, the public's reaction towards the divorce played out as \\\"Team Aniston\\\" and \\\"Team Jolie\\\" T-shirts appeared throughout the country. Aniston commented on the divorce in a January 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, stating, \\\"Nobody did anything wrong... It was just like, sometimes things [happen].\\\"\\nIn 2005, amid reports that their divorce was due to Aniston's refusal to have children with Pitt, Aniston said, \\\"I've never in my life said I didn't want to have children. I did and I do and I will! ... I would never give up that experience for a career.\\\" \\nAniston said the divorce prompted her to reach out to her mother, Nancy, from whom she had been estranged for nearly a decade. Nancy had talked about her daughter on a television show and written From Mother and Daughter to Friends: A Memoir (1999). \\nIn 2006, Aniston said she had been devastated by the death of her longtime therapist, whom she credited for helping make her separation from Pitt easier. She said she did not regret her relationship with Pitt, describing it as \\\"very intense\\\" and \\\"a beautiful, complicated relationship\\\".\\nAniston began a relationship with actor, director, and screenwriter Justin Theroux in May 2011. The following January, they purchased a home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles for roughly $22 million. They became engaged on August 10, 2012 and were married on August 5, 2015, at their estate. They separated at the end of 2017.\\n\\nOther ventures\\nAniston has appeared in commercials and music videos throughout her career. After starting on Friends, Aniston and her co-star Matthew Perry shot a 60-minute instructional video for the release of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. The next year she appeared in commercials for L'Oréal hair products.\\nUnder a contract with Elizabeth Arden, Inc., Aniston worked for over a year on her first perfume, which was released in July 2010. Original plans called for the perfume to be named \\\"Lolavie by Jennifer Aniston\\\", but to avoid confusion with a similarly named perfume, the name was changed to simply \\\"Jennifer Aniston\\\". In 2014, she launched her second perfume, named J, followed by Near Dusk (2015), Beachscape (2016), Luxe and Chapter One (both in 2017), Chapter Two (2018), Silver and Solstice Bloom (both in 2020). In 2021, Aniston launched the LolaVie haircare company.\\nSince 2007, she has worked in a publicity campaign for the drink SmartWater; on March 7, 2011, she released a YouTube video for SmartWater, Jennifer Aniston Goes Viral, which tripled online interest in the product within 24 hours of its release. In 2012, Aniston co-founded hair care brand Living Proof and also became its spokeswoman. She left when the company was sold to Unilever in 2016. In January 2013, she became the new spokeswoman of Aveeno Skincare. Aniston is paid \\\"eight figures\\\" for her endorsement. She became the new face of Emirates airline in 2015, which was reportedly a success. For pharmaceutical company Shire, she appeared in a 2016 campaign raising awareness about chronic dry eye.\\nShe appeared in the 1996 Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers music video for \\\"Walls\\\", and in Melissa Etheridge's 2001 music video for \\\"I Want to Be in Love\\\". She also appeared in a 2005 Heineken commercial.\\nAlong with Brad Pitt and Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount Pictures, Aniston founded the film production company Plan B Entertainment in 2002, although she and Grey withdrew in 2005. In 2008, she and producer Kristin Hahn formed Echo Films.\\n\\nPhilanthropy\\nAniston has been a celebrity advocate for numerous charities and received attention for her own donations. She has appeared in television commercials for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, and hosted September 2008's Stand Up to Cancer show. In the \\\"It Can't Wait\\\" campaign to free Burma, Aniston directed and starred in a video. She is a supporter of Friends of El Faro, a nonprofit organization that helps raise money for Casa Hogar Sion, an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.\\n\\nOn April 14, 2007, Aniston received GLAAD's Vanguard Award for her contributions to increased visibility and understanding of the LGBT community. In 2013, she was named the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) ambassador for the Saks Fifth Avenue Key to the Cure campaign, which raises funds for the EIF Women's Cancer Research Fund. In 2015, she supported the Comic Relief, Inc. charity. Other charities that Aniston has publicly supported include Clothes Off Our Back, Feeding America, EB Medical Research Foundation, Project A.L.S., OmniPeace, and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.\\nAniston donated $500,000 to Doctors Without Borders, Haitian health care provider Partners in Health and AmeriCares, and also participated in the Hope for Haiti Now telethon. She donated $500,000 to the Red Cross and another $500,000 to the Ricky Martin Foundation in 2017 to help victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.\\nAfter being honored by SmartWater in 2016 for her ongoing philanthropic work for St. Jude's, Aniston spoke of the importance of philanthropy in her life to InStyle magazine: \\\"We live an extremely beautiful, fortunate life being able to do what we get to do for a living. And so it's a way of being able to be in a position to do something for people who are less able. It's something that makes my heart smile.\\\"\\n\\nActing credits and awards\\nAniston received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, two Golden Globe Award nominations, and nine SAG Award nominations for her role in Friends. From these, she won one of each. She also garnered a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her guest appearance in 30 Rock, while her performance in Cake earned her nominations at the Golden Globe and SAG awards. Aniston additionally won a SAG Award and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for the first season of The Morning Show, and earned multiple nominations at Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG awards for its latter seasons. As a producer, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.\\nAccording to review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and the box-office site Box Office Mojo, Aniston's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful films are Office Space (1999), The Good Girl (2002), Bruce Almighty (2003), Friends with Money (2006), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011), Horrible Bosses (2011), We're the Millers (2013), and Dumplin' (2018).\\n\\nSee also\\nList of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame\\n\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nMarshall, Sarah (2007). Jennifer Aniston: The Biography of Hollywood's Sweetheart. John Blake. ISBN 978-1844544004.\\nLynette, Rachel (2010). Jennifer Aniston. Lucent Books. ISBN 978-1420502350.\\nBonner, Mike (2001). Jennifer Aniston. Chelsea House Publications. ISBN 978-0791064658.\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nJennifer Aniston at IMDb\\nJennifer Aniston at AllMovie\\nJennifer Aniston on Instagram\\nJennifer Aniston at Box Office Mojo\\nJennifer Aniston at Rotten Tomatoes\",\n \"title\": \"Jennifer_Aniston\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Courteney Bass Cox (born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and filmmaker. She rose to international prominence for playing Monica Geller in the NBC sitcom Friends (1994–2004) and Gale Weathers in the horror film franchise Scream (1996–present). Her accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Award, nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is well known for being one of the most beautiful television actresses of the 90s decade and her down to earth personality.\\nCox had a recurring role in the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1987–1989), and starred in the FX drama series Dirt (2007–2008), the ABC/TBS sitcom Cougar Town (2009–2015) which she also directed, and the Starz horror comedy series Shining Vale (2022–2023). Her film credits include the action fantasy Masters of the Universe (1987), the comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), the animated comedy Barnyard (2006), the fantasy comedy Bedtime Stories (2008), and the independent drama Mothers and Daughters (2016). \\nCox owns the production company Coquette Productions, which she founded with her then-husband, David Arquette. She has directed the television drama film TalhotBlond (2012), the black comedy drama film Just Before I Go (2014), and executive produced the game show Celebrity Name Game (2014–2017).\\n\\nEarly life\\nCox was born June 15, 1964, in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised there. She is a daughter of businessman Richard Lewis Cox (1931–2001) and Courteney Copeland (née Bass; 1934–2020). Cox has two older sisters, Virginia and Dorothy, and an older brother, Richard Jr. Her parents divorced in 1974 and her mother then married businessman Hunter Copeland (uncle to music promoter and business manager Ian Copeland and the Police drummer Stewart Copeland).\\nAfter graduating from Mountain Brook High School, Cox left for Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C. (now part of George Washington University), but did not complete her architecture course, opting instead to pursue a career in modeling and acting. Cox has English and Norman ancestry; researching her family tree for the series Who Do You Think You Are?, Cox discovered she was a direct descendant of William the Conqueror and Edward I of England.\\n\\nCareer\\nEarly work\\nCox worked at video game publisher Bethesda Softworks briefly in the 1980s. She was chosen from a casting call by director Brian De Palma to appear in the 1984 music video for Bruce Springsteen's \\\"Dancing in the Dark\\\", as the young woman pulled onstage at the St. Paul Civic Center to dance with Springsteen. Her early television work includes a starring role as Gloria Dinallo in the short-lived NBC science fiction series Misfits of Science (1985), and guest-starring roles in the ABC comedy-drama series The Love Boat (1986) and the CBS crime drama series Murder, She Wrote (1986). She later had a recurring role as Lauren Miller, the girlfriend of Michael J. Fox's character Alex P. Keaton in the NBC comedy series Family Ties (1987–1989). Cox's early film roles include Masters of the Universe (1987), Cocoon: The Return (1988), and I'll Be Home for Christmas (1988). She also played Jewel Jagger, the tough-as-nails assistant of Larry Burrows (James Belushi), in Mr. Destiny (1990).\\n\\n1990s: International breakthrough\\nIn 1993, Cox co-starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom The Trouble with Larry, alongside Bronson Pinchot and Perry King. The following year, shortly before the debut of the sitcom Friends, Cox starred alongside Jim Carrey in the comedy film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and as Jerry Seinfeld's girlfriend, Meryl, in the Seinfeld episode \\\"The Wife\\\".\\nIn 1994, Cox was asked to audition for the starring role of Rachel Green on a new sitcom, Friends; she was cast as Monica Geller instead. At first the most famous cast member of the new show, Cox joined Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) for what became her most famous role, lasting for ten seasons until 2004. The series is commonly referred to as one of the greatest of all sitcoms. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2005), Cox (along with her female co-stars) became the highest-paid TV actress of all time, with her US$1 million-per-episode fee for the final two seasons of Friends. Syndication of the series earned Cox and her co-stars an estimated $20 million in annual residuals. In 1995, she was cast in Toad the Wet Sprocket's music video \\\"Good Intentions\\\". The song was also featured on the Friends soundtrack. \\nBetween seasons five and six, she married David Arquette and consequently changed her name to Courteney Cox Arquette. A joke reference to this is made in the opening credits of the episode \\\"The One After Vegas\\\", where the rest of the cast has \\\"Arquette\\\" added to their names. The dedication \\\"For Courteney and David, who did get married\\\" – a reference to Monica and Chandler's decision not to marry in the episode – appears during the fade out to the tag scene.\\nCox received further recognition and critical acclaim for her starring role as reporter Gale Weathers in the high-profile slasher horror film Scream (1996), and its sequels Scream 2 (1997) and Scream 3 (2000). The series is one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed horror franchises of all time. Cox's character was well known for her \\\"snappy remarks and being brilliantly bossy\\\". She met her future husband, David Arquette, who played her on-screen love interest, Dwight \\\"Dewey\\\" Riley, while filming the first Scream film. Cox also hosted an episode of the variety sketch series Saturday Night Live in July 1995, and appeared in the crime thriller film The Runner (1999).\\n\\n2000s: Continued success\\nCox's major films during this period include the crime drama 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) and the comedy The Shrink Is In (2001). In late 2003, Cox and Arquette produced one season of the reality television series Mix It Up. The lifestyle series, which aired on the WE cable channel, struggled with low ratings and was not renewed for a second season. After the conclusion of Friends, Cox was producer Marc Cherry's first choice to be offered a starring role as Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives, but Cox was unavailable due to her pregnancy and the role later went to Teri Hatcher. A few years later, Cox signed a deal with ABC Studios (formerly Touchstone Television) to star in her own series.\\nShe starred in the independent drama film November (2005), which had a limited theatrical release. She had a cameo appearance in the big-budget remake The Longest Yard (2005) as Lena, the girlfriend of Paul Crewe (Adam Sandler), and co-starred with Tim Allen in the critically derided Zoom (2006). Cox voiced Daisy the Cow in the animated film Barnyard (2006). A Friends reunion film was rumored to be in production following the success of Sex and the City (2008), but this was later denied by Warner Bros. and others.\\nCox starred as Lucy Spiller, a cynical tabloid editor, in the FX television drama series Dirt, which premiered in 2007. Cox and her then-husband David Arquette were the executive producers of the series. The series was eventually canceled after the second season in 2008. In July 2008, Entertainment Weekly announced that Cox signed on to star in a three-episode arc for the television medical comedy series Scrubs. Also that year, she starred in the fantasy comedy film Bedtime Stories, reuniting with co-star Adam Sandler. She went to executive produce the short drama film The Butler's in Love, directed by David Arquette.\\nCox guest-starred in a three-episode story arc on former Friends co-star Lisa Kudrow's web comedy series Web Therapy (2009). Also in 2009, she began her role as the star of the single-camera ABC comedy series Cougar Town, playing a newly single 40-year-old mother on the hunt for new experiences. It is notably Cox's most successful work since Friends, earning her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. The series' third season was set to premiere in November 2011 but moved to February 14, 2012. Cox directed two episodes of the series' fifteen episodes that season. The fourth season premiered on January 8, 2013. The series came to an end on March 31, 2015, after six seasons.\\n\\n2010s: Directorial debut and expansion\\nCox reprised her role as Gale Weathers from the Scream trilogy for the sequel Scream 4. The film was released in theaters on April 15, 2011. She made her directorial debut and had a cameo appearance in a Lifetime television drama film TalhotBlond, which premiered on the network on June 23, 2012. \\nIn 2014, Cox directed and produced the black comedy film Just Before I Go, starring Seann William Scott and Elisha Cuthbert. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24, 2014, and it was released in select theaters on April 24, 2015. From 2014 to 2017, she executive produced the syndicated game show Celebrity Name Game, hosted by Craig Ferguson. It ended after three seasons. The series earned her a nomination for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show.\\nIn 2016, Cox starred in the independent drama film Mothers and Daughters, alongside Susan Sarandon, Mira Sorvino, and Sharon Stone. The film was released to generally negative reviews on May 6, 2016. In 2019, she created and executive produced the Facebook Watch documentary series 9 Months with Courteney Cox, which focuses on \\\"people from across the country of various race, religion, and class as they self-document their 9-month journey of pregnancy\\\". It lasted for three seasons until 2021.\\n\\n2020s: Current work\\nIn 2020, she guest starred in the ABC sitcom Modern Family. Cox reunited with her Friends co-stars for a reunion special titled Friends: The Reunion, which was released on May 27, 2021, on HBO Max. The special earned Cox a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded). In the same year she launched her line of home products, named Homecourt. She also participated in the Celebrity Escape Room special to raise $150,000 for Red Nose Day. \\nCox reprised her role as Gale Weathers for the fifth Scream film, which was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The film was released on January 14, 2022, to box office success and positive reviews. Also in 2022, she signed on to star alongside Greg Kinnear in the Starz horror comedy series Shining Vale, from creators Sharon Horgan and Jeff Astrof; she plays Patricia \\\"Pat\\\" Phelps, who moves her family \\\"from the 'crazy' of the city to a large, old house in the suburbs where evil and humor collide.\\\" \\nCox again reprised her role as Gale Weathers for the sixth Scream film, which she also executive produced. The film was released on March 9, 2023, to box office success and positive reviews. Also in 2023, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is set to executive produce and star as Brittany Wagner in the Spectrum Originals adaptation of the documentary series Last Chance U.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nCox dated actor Michael Keaton from 1989 to 1995. Cox married her Scream co-star David Arquette on June 12, 1999, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. The couple have a daughter, born in June 2004. Jennifer Aniston is the godmother. Cox revealed that she suffered from postpartum depression six months after the birth of her child. On October 11, 2010, Cox and Arquette announced that they had separated, although they still maintain a close friendship and ongoing business relationship in Coquette Productions. In June 2012, Arquette filed for divorce after nearly two years of separation from Cox. The divorce became final in May 2013. Cox began dating Snow Patrol band member Johnny McDaid in late 2013. The couple announced their engagement in June 2014. Soon afterward they called off the engagement, but they have remained a couple.\\nIn 2020, Cox said that she did not remember much about the episode plots of Friends and that she had begun binge-watching the show. Cox is a practitioner of Budokan karate.\\n\\nFilmography\\nFilm\\nTelevision\\nMusic videos\\nAwards and honors\\nAccolades\\nHonors\\n1995: Honored as the Female Discovery of the Year by the Golden Apple Awards.\\n2010: Honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Women's Image Network.\\n2010: Honored with the Lucy Award by the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards.\\n2023: Honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nCourteney Cox 1988 Interview with KVUE's Roy Faires about Cocoon: The Return (1988) from Texas Archive of the Moving Image\\nCourteney Cox at IMDb\\nCourteney Cox at People.com\\nCourteney Cox on Twitter \\nCourteney Cox on Instagram\",\n \"title\": \"Courteney_Cox\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 3,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( KOO-droh; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the American television sitcom Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004. The series earned her Primetime Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Satellite, American Comedy and TV Guide awards. Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time and is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, spawning her successful film career.\\nKudrow initially appeared in a 1989 episode of the hit sitcom Cheers playing a character named Emily. She also starred in several episodes of the show Mad About You (1993) as Ursula, before auditioning and earning the role of Phoebe on Friends; her character on Mad About You was written into the Friends storyline as Phoebe’s twin. In the late 1990s, Kudrow starred in the cult comedy film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and followed it with an acclaimed performance in the comedy/drama The Opposite of Sex (1998), which won her the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female. She created, produced, wrote, and starred in the HBO mockumentary series The Comeback, which initially lasted for one season in 2005 but was revived for a critically acclaimed second and final season in 2014. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for both seasons.\\nIn 2007, Kudrow received praise for her starring role in the film Kabluey and appeared in the film P.S. I Love You. She produced and starred in the Showtime program Web Therapy (2011–2015), which was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She is a producer on the TLC/NBC reality program Who Do You Think You Are, which has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award five times. She currently is a voice actress on the animated series HouseBroken.\\nKudrow has also had roles in Analyze This (1999) and its sequel Analyze That (2002), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Bandslam (2008), Hotel for Dogs (2009), Easy A (2010), Neighbors (2014) and its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), The Girl on the Train (2016), The Boss Baby (2017), Long Shot (2019) and Booksmart (2019).\\n\\nEarly life\\nLisa Valerie Kudrow was born in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles on July 30, 1963, the daughter of Nedra, a travel agent, and Lee Kudrow, a doctor who specialized in treating headaches. She has an older sister, Helene, and two brothers, David and Derrick. She was raised in a middle-class Jewish family and had a Bat Mitzvah. She is of Belarusian, German, Hungarian, and Polish Jewish descent. Some of her Belarusian ancestors were from Ilya. Almost all Jews in Ilya were murdered during the Holocaust, including Kudrow's paternal great-grandmother. Her paternal grandmother later left Belarus for Brooklyn, where her father grew up.\\nKudrow attended Portola Middle School in the Tarzana neighborhood of Los Angeles. She graduated from Taft High School in the Woodland Hills neighborhood, which was attended at the same time by rapper Eazy-E and actress Robin Wright. She received her BA in biology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, intending to become an expert on headaches like her father. While breaking into acting, she worked for her father for eight years and earned a research credit on his study on the comparative likelihood of left-handed individuals developing cluster headaches.\\n\\nCareer\\n1989–1994: Pre-Friends\\nAt the urging of comedian Jon Lovitz, who was a childhood friend of her brother, Kudrow began her comedic career as a member of The Groundlings, an improv and sketch comedy school in Los Angeles. She has credited Cynthia Szigeti, her improv teacher at The Groundlings, for changing her perspective on acting, calling her \\\"the best thing that happened, on so many levels\\\". Briefly, Kudrow joined with Conan O'Brien and director Tim Hillman in the short-lived improv troupe Unexpected Company. She was also the only regular female member of the Transformers Comedy Troupe. She played a role in an episode of the NBC sitcom Cheers. She tried out for Saturday Night Live in 1990, but the show chose Julia Sweeney instead. She had a recurring role as Kathy Fleisher in three episodes of season one of the Bob Newhart sitcom Bob (CBS, 1992–1993), a role she played after taking part in the series finale of Newhart's previous series Newhart. Prior to Friends, she appeared in at least two network-produced pilots: NBC's Just Temporary (also known as Temporarily Yours) in 1989, playing Nicole; and CBS' Close Encounters (also known as Matchmaker) in 1990, playing a Valley girl.\\nKudrow was cast as Roz Doyle in Frasier, but the role was re-cast with Peri Gilpin during the taping of the pilot episode. In 2000, Kudrow explained that when rehearsals started, \\\"I knew it wasn't working. I could feel it all slipping away, and I was panicking, which only made things worse.\\\" Her first recurring television role was Ursula Buffay, the eccentric waitress on the NBC sitcom Mad About You.\\n\\n1994–2004: Friends and worldwide recognition\\nKudrow, the oldest actor of the main cast, reprised the character of Ursula on the NBC sitcom Friends, in which she co-starred as massage therapist Phoebe Buffay, Ursula's twin sister. Praised for her performance, Kudrow was the first Friends cast member to win an Emmy Award with her 1998 honor as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her starring role as Phoebe on Friends (NBC, 1994–2004). Kudrow received critical acclaim for playing Phoebe. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2005), Kudrow and co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox became the highest paid TV actresses of all time, earning $1 million per episode for the ninth and tenth seasons of Friends. Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time. Phoebe is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, credited with making her the show's second-most famous cast member, after Jennifer Aniston, and for spawning her successful film career. She played Phoebe until the show ended in 2004. The program was a massive hit and Kudrow, along with her co-stars, gained worldwide recognition. Her character, Phoebe, was especially popular. Entertainment Weekly voted Phoebe on Friends as Kudrow's best performance.\\nDuring her tenure on Friends, Kudrow appeared in several comedy films such as Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Hanging Up, Marci X, Dr. Dolittle 2, Analyze This and its sequel Analyze That, and dramatic films, such as Wonderland and The Opposite of Sex. She also guest-starred on numerous television series during Friends, including The Simpsons, Hope and Gloria and King of the Hill, and hosted Saturday Night Live.\\n\\n2004–present: Post-Friends\\nFollowing Friends, Kudrow starred as protagonist Valerie Cherish on the single-season HBO series The Comeback (premiered June 5, 2005), about a has-been sitcom star trying for a comeback. She also served as co-creator, writer, and executive producer. Nine years after the original season, HBO revived the series in 2014 for an abbreviated second season. Kudrow received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on The Comeback. Her production company is 'Is or Isn't Entertainment'. Kudrow serves as the executive producer for the U.S. version of the British television series Who Do You Think You Are?, in which celebrities trace their family trees. The subjects of the first series included Kudrow herself, in which it was discovered her great-grandmother was murdered in the Holocaust.\\nKudrow co-created an improvised comedy webseries, Web Therapy on Lstudio.com. The improv series, which launched online in 2008, has earned several Webby nominations and one Outstanding Comedic Performance Webby for Kudrow, who plays therapist Fiona Wallice. She offers her patients three-minute sessions over iChat. In July 2011, a reformatted, half-hour version of the show premiered on Showtime, before being cancelled in 2015 after four seasons. Kudrow has guest starred on multiple television series such as Cougar Town, BoJack Horseman, Angie Tribeca, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Scandal.\\nKudrow has appeared in multiple comedic films such as Happy Endings, Hotel for Dogs, Easy A, Neighbors and its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Long Shot, and Booksmart. She also appeared in the romantic drama film P.S. I Love You and co-starred in the thriller film The Girl on the Train. In 2020, Kudrow played Hypatia of Alexandria in season 4 episode 12 of The Good Place \\\"Patty\\\", and starred as Maggie Naird in the Netflix comedy series, Space Force. She reunited with her Friends cast mates for an HBO Max unscripted television special titled Friends: The Reunion in May 2021. She is currently, along with Mary McCormack, an executive producer of the syndicated game show, 25 Words or Less; sometimes, Kudrow herself is one of the two celebrity guests playing with a contestant on the show.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nKudrow married French advertising executive Michel Stern on May 27, 1995. The couple reside in Beverly Hills, California, and have a son named Julian who was born on May 7, 1998. Kudrow's pregnancy was written into the fourth season of Friends, with her character having triplets as a surrogate mother for her half-brother and his wife. In addition to her Beverly Hills home, Kudrow maintained a penthouse in Park City, Utah, which she sold in April 2017. She revealed in 2019 that she had experienced body dysmorphic disorder while working on Friends.\\n\\nFilmography\\nFilm\\nTelevision\\nAwards and nominations\\nKudrow has been honored with numerous accolades over her career. For her role in the sitcom Friends, she received six nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, winning in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Satellite Award, one American Comedy award, and one TV Guide award.\\nIn total, she has received fifteen Emmy nominations, with her most recent nomination in the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, twelve nominations and two wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, one win and eight nominations at the American Comedy Awards, one Golden Globe nomination, one Banff Rockie award, one Blockbuster Entertainment award, one Chicago Film Critics Association nomination, one Chlotrudis award, two Critics' Choice Television nominations, one Dorian award, one Gracie award, one Independent Spirit nomination, one MTV Movie & TV nomination, one National Society of Film Critics nomination, one New York Film Critics Circle award, one Nickelodeon Kids' Choice nomination, one Online Film Critics Society nomination, one People Magazine award, five nominations and one win at the Satellite Awards, three nominations and one win at the Teen Choice Awards, two Streamy nominations, two nominations and one win at the TV Guide Awards, one Viewers for Quality Television nomination and seven nominations and four wins at the Webby Awards.\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nLisa Kudrow at AllMovie \\nLisa Kudrow at Emmys.com \\nLisa Kudrow at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television \\nLisa Kudrow at IMDb \\nLisa Kudrow on Twitter \\nLisa Kudrow on Instagram\",\n \"title\": \"Lisa_Kudrow\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 4,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Matthew Steven LeBlanc (; born July 25, 1967) is an American actor. He garnered global recognition with his portrayal of Joey Tribbiani in the NBC sitcom Friends and in its spin-off series, Joey. For his work on Friends, LeBlanc received three nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards. He has also starred as a fictionalized version of himself in Episodes (2011–2017), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and received four additional Emmy Award nominations. He co-hosted Top Gear from 2016 to 2019. From 2016 to 2020, he played patriarch Adam Burns in the CBS sitcom Man with a Plan.\\n\\nEarly life\\nLeBlanc was born at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Massachusetts. His mother, Patricia (née Di Cillo), was an office manager; his father, Paul LeBlanc, was a mechanic and a veteran of the Vietnam War. His father is of French-Canadian descent and his mother is of Italian ancestry, the daughter of immigrants from Arce, Lazio. He attended Newton North High School, where he graduated in the same year as future comedian Louis C.K. After high school he attended college at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. He dropped out shortly after starting his second semester.\\nLeBlanc moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue a career in modeling, but he was told he was too short to be in the industry. His acting career began after a woman invited him to accompany her to an audition, where he ended up getting signed by her manager. Although he had booked commercials and television and film roles before Friends, he was reportedly down to his last eleven dollars before landing the role of Joey Tribbiani.\\n\\nCareer\\n1987–1994: Early career\\nLeBlanc first appeared in a 1987 Heinz Tomato Ketchup commercial. In 1988, he starred in the television drama TV 101 for one season. In 1991, he had a recurring role on the hit Fox sitcom Married... with Children. He played Vinnie Verducci, a family friend of protagonist Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) who briefly dates his daughter, Kelly (Christina Applegate). He also guest-starred in the first season of Red Shoe Diaries. LeBlanc starred in two short-lived Married... with Children spin-offs: Top of the Heap (1991) and Vinnie & Bobby (1992).\\nHe appeared in two Bon Jovi music videos: \\\"Miracle,\\\" from the Young Guns II soundtrack in 1990, and \\\"Say It Isn't So\\\" in 2000. He also appeared in videos for Alanis Morissette's single \\\"Walk Away,\\\" Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers's \\\"Into The Great Wide Open\\\" and Bob Seger's \\\"Night Moves\\\".\\n\\n1994–2006: Friends, Joey and film roles\\nLeBlanc found success as the dimwitted but lovable Joey Tribbiani on Friends; he played this character for 12 years — 10 seasons of Friends and two seasons of Joey. Friends was wildly successful, and LeBlanc (along with co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer) gained wide recognition among viewers. This ensemble situation comedy became a major hit for NBC, airing on Thursday nights for ten years.\\nFor his performance, LeBlanc received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations, three Golden Globe award nominations, and one Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. During this time he also appeared in the films Lookin' Italian (1994), Ed (1996), Lost in Space (1998), Charlie's Angels (2000), and its sequel, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003).\\nFollowing the cancellation of Joey, LeBlanc announced that he would be taking a one-year hiatus from acting on television, which eventually turned into five years.\\n\\n2011–present: Career revival\\nFrom 2011, LeBlanc appeared as a fictionalized version of himself in Episodes, a television series about an American remake of a fictional British television series. The series is written by Friends co-creator David Crane and his partner Jeffrey Klarik. At the 69th Golden Globe Awards in 2012, LeBlanc won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a television series, musical, or comedy, and was nominated for an additional four Primetime Emmy Awards.\\nIn February 2012, LeBlanc appeared in the second episode of the eighteenth season of Top Gear, where he set the fastest lap time in the \\\"Star in a Reasonably Priced Car\\\" segment in a Kia Cee'd. Lapping at 1:42.1, he beat the show's previous record-holder, Rowan Atkinson, by 0.1 seconds. He also appeared in the fourth episode of the nineteenth season to race the New Kia Cee'd, and beat his previous time.\\nIn February 2016, the BBC announced LeBlanc had signed on to become one of the new Top Gear hosts, signing a two-year deal later that year. In May 2018, he announced that he was leaving the series in order to spend more time with his family and friends in the US. He and Rory Reid were replaced by new co-hosts Paddy McGuinness and Andrew Flintoff in the twenty-seventh series in October 2018.\\nLeBlanc played the lead role in the CBS sitcom Man with a Plan, which began airing in 2016 until it was cancelled in 2020.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nLeBlanc has an extensive interest in cars, and worked as a carpenter before acting. In the mid-1990s, he dated actress Kate Hudson. He married Melissa McKnight, a British-born American model and a divorced single mother of two children, in May 2003. In 1997, they had been introduced to each other by McKnight's friend, Kelly Phillips (wife of actor Lou Diamond Phillips). LeBlanc proposed to her a year later. Their daughter, born in 2004, began suffering seizures at eight months old. By the time she was two years old, the condition, thought to be due to cortical dysplasia, had mostly subsided. LeBlanc and McKnight divorced in October 2006, citing irreconcilable differences.\\nLeBlanc met actress Andrea Anders in 2004 while she was co-starring as his friend and eventual love interest on Joey and the pair eventually embarked on a relationship which was confirmed in 2006 following LeBlanc's split from his wife Melissa McKnight. After over eight years as a couple, LeBlanc announced at the start of 2015 that he and Anders had been broken up for several months.\\nLeBlanc primarily resides in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.\\n\\nFilmography\\nFilm\\nTelevision\\nMusic videos\\nAwards and nominations\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nMatt LeBlanc at IMDb \\nMatt LeBlanc at Rotten Tomatoes \\nMatt LeBlanc at Emmys.com \\nMatt LeBlanc at TV Guide \\nMatt LeBlanc on Instagram\",\n \"title\": \"Matt_LeBlanc\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 5,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Matthew Langford Perry (August 19, 1969 – October 28, 2023) was an American and Canadian actor. He gained international fame for starring as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom Friends (1994–2004). Perry also appeared on Ally McBeal (2002) and received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in The West Wing (2003) and The Ron Clark Story (2006). He played a leading role in the NBC series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–2007), and also became known for his leading film roles in Fools Rush In (1997), Almost Heroes (1998), Three to Tango (1999), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Serving Sara (2002), The Whole Ten Yards (2004), and 17 Again (2009).\\nPerry was co-creator, co-writer, executive producer, and star of the ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine, which ran from February to April 2011. In August 2012, he starred as sportscaster Ryan King on the NBC sitcom Go On. He co-developed and starred in a revival of the CBS sitcom The Odd Couple portraying Oscar Madison from 2015 to 2017. He had recurring roles in the legal dramas The Good Wife (2012–2013), and The Good Fight (2017). Perry portrayed Ted Kennedy in The Kennedys: After Camelot (2017) and appeared as himself in his final television appearance, Friends: The Reunion (2021). He voiced Benny in the video game Fallout: New Vegas (2010).\\nFor most of his life, Perry suffered from severe addictions to drugs and alcohol. Through his recovery, he became an advocate for rehabilitation and a spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. In 2013, Perry received the Champion of Recovery Award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. In 2022, he released his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. \\nIn 2023, Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine use; the following year, five people were charged in connection with helping him acquire lethal doses of the drug.\\n\\nEarly life and education\\nMatthew Langford Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on August 19, 1969. His mother, Suzanne Marie Morrison (née Langford, born 1948), is a Canadian journalist who was press secretary to Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau. His father, John Bennett Perry (born 1941), is an American actor and former model.\\nPerry's parents separated when he was a year old, and his mother married Canadian broadcast journalist Keith Morrison. Perry was mostly raised by his mother in Ottawa, Ontario, but he also lived briefly in Toronto and Montreal. He attended Rockcliffe Park Public School and Ashbury College, a boarding school in Ottawa. He had four younger maternal half-siblings—Caitlin, Emily, Will, and Madeline—as well as a younger paternal half-sister named Maria. His siblings \\\"would stand and applaud\\\" him for early performances.\\nBy the time he was 10, Perry started misbehaving. He stole money, smoked, let his grades slip, and beat up fellow student and future Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. Perry later attributed his behavior to his feeling like a family outsider who no longer belonged, once his mother began having children with Morrison. As Perry wrote, \\\"I was so often on the outside looking in, still that kid up in the clouds on a flight to somewhere else, unaccompanied.\\\" At age 14, he began consuming alcohol and, by the time he was 18, was drinking every day. Perry practiced tennis, often for 10 hours per day, and became a top-ranked junior player in Canada with the possibility of a tennis career. But his prospects diminished when he moved from Ottawa, at age 15, to live with his father in Los Angeles, where competition was much tougher.\\nAt 15, Perry began studying acting at the Buckley School, a college-preparatory school in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, from which he graduated in 1987. While in high school, he took improvisational comedy classes at L.A. Connection in Sherman Oaks.\\n\\nCareer\\n1979–1993: Early roles\\nPerry's first credited role was a small part in 240-Robert in 1979 as a child actor. Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Perry started auditioning for roles. Perry made guest appearances on Not Necessarily the News in 1983, Charles in Charge in 1985, and Silver Spoons in 1986. In 1987 and 1988, he played Chazz Russell in the TV series Second Chance (later called Boys Will Be Boys). Perry made his film debut in 1988 with A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. In 1989, he had a three-episode arc on Growing Pains, portraying Carol Seaver's boyfriend Sandy, who dies in a drunk driving incident.\\nPerry was cast as a regular on the 1990 CBS sitcom Sydney, playing the younger brother of Valerie Bertinelli's character. In 1991, he made a guest appearance on Beverly Hills, 90210 as Roger Azarian. Perry played the starring role in the ABC sitcom Home Free, which aired in 1993.\\n\\n1994–2004: Breakthrough with Friends\\nPerry's commitment to a pilot for a sitcom called LAX 2194, set in the baggage handling department of Los Angeles Airport 200 years in the future, initially made him unavailable for a role in another pilot, Six of One, later called Friends. After the LAX 2194 pilot fell through, he had the opportunity to read for a part in Six of One and was cast as Chandler Bing. At the age of 24, he was the youngest member of the main cast. After making the pilot and while waiting for the show to air, Perry spent the summer of 1993 performing at the Williamstown Theater Festival alongside Gwyneth Paltrow.\\nFriends was hugely successful, and it made Perry an international celebrity. By 2002, he and his co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer were making $1 million per episode. The program earned him an Emmy nomination in 2002 for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series award. Perry appeared in films such Fools Rush In, Almost Heroes, Three to Tango, The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards, and Serving Sara. In 1995, he and Jennifer Aniston appeared in a 60-minute-long promotional video for Microsoft's Windows 95, released on VHS on August 1.\\nFor his performance as Joe Quincy in The West Wing, Perry received two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2003 and 2004. He appeared as attorney Todd Merrick in two episodes of Ally McBeal. In 2004, he made his directorial debut and acted in an episode of the fourth season of the comedy-drama Scrubs, an episode which included his father.\\n\\n2005–2022: Later work\\nPerry starred in the TNT movie The Ron Clark Story, which premiered August 13, 2006, and received a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for his performance. From 2006 to 2007, he appeared in Aaron Sorkin's drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Perry played Matt Albie alongside Bradley Whitford's Danny Tripp, a writer-director duo brought in to help save a failing sketch show.\\nIn 2006, Perry began filming Numb, a film based on a man suffering from depersonalization disorder. The release was postponed several times, but it was finally released on DVD on May 13, 2008. Perry also appeared on stage in London in David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago. In 2008, Perry starred in the independent film Birds of America. Showtime passed on a pilot called The End of Steve, a dark comedy starring, written, and produced by Perry and Peter Tolan.\\nIn 2009, Perry starred in the film 17 Again playing a 37-year-old man who transforms into his 17-year-old self (Zac Efron) after an accident. The film received mixed reviews and was a box-office success. A review on WRC-TV found Perry miscast in his role, emphasizing the disbelief in Efron growing up to resemble Perry, both physically and behaviorally — a sentiment echoed by other critics.\\nIn 2009, Perry was a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, when he presented Ellen DeGeneres with an Xbox 360 video game console and a copy of the game Fallout 3. The gesture led to game studio Obsidian Entertainment casting him in Fallout: New Vegas as the voice of Benny.\\nPerry's new comedy pilot, Mr. Sunshine, based on his original idea for the show, was bought by ABC. He played the lead role as a middle-aged man with an identity crisis. ABC canceled the series after nine episodes in 2011.\\n\\nIn 2012, Perry starred in the NBC comedy series Go On, written and produced by former Friends writer/producer Scott Silveri. Perry portrayed Ryan King, a sportscaster who tries to move on after the death of his wife through the help of mandatory therapy sessions. In the same year, he guest-starred on the CBS drama The Good Wife as attorney Mike Kresteva. He reprised his role in the fourth season in 2013.\\nIn 2014, Perry made his British TV debut in the one-off comedy program The Dog Thrower, which aired on May 1 as part of Sky Arts' Playhouse Presents. He portrayed \\\"a charismatic man\\\" who enchanted onlookers by throwing his dog in the air. From 2015 to 2017, Perry starred in, co-wrote, and served as executive producer of a reboot of the sitcom The Odd Couple on CBS. He played Oscar Madison opposite Thomas Lennon as Felix Unger.\\nPerry played the lead role in the world premiere production of his play The End of Longing, which opened on February 11, 2016, at the Playhouse Theatre in London. Its limited run proved successful despite mixed reviews. Perry restructured the play and appeared alongside Jennifer Morrison in its second off-Broadway production, which opened at the Lucille Lortel Theatre on June 5, 2017. It closed on July 1 after receiving poor reviews. Years later Perry described the play as \\\"a personal message to the world, an exaggerated form of me as a drunk. I had something important to say to people like me, and to people who love people like me.\\\"\\nIn March 2017, Perry again reprised his role as attorney Mike Kresteva in The Good Fight, a sequel show to the CBS drama The Good Wife. Later that year, he starred as Ted Kennedy in the mini-series The Kennedys: After Camelot.\\nIn May 2021, he participated in the special episode Friends: The Reunion. He was meant to have a role in Don't Look Up, but withdrew in 2020 because of CPR-induced broken ribs. Perry published a memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, in October 2022. It became a bestseller on both Amazon and The New York Times charts.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nPerry held Canadian and American citizenship. He dated Yasmine Bleeth in 1995, Julia Roberts from 1995 to 1996, and Lizzy Caplan from 2006 to 2012. In November 2020, Perry became engaged to literary manager Molly Hurwitz. Their engagement ended in 2021.\\nResidences owned at some point by Perry included a condo in Sierra Towers purchased from Elton John, a house in Hollywood Hills, a house in Malibu, and a cottage in Pacific Palisades. In 2017, Perry purchased a condo occupying the top floor of The Century in Los Angeles for $20 million, selling it to Nick Molnar for $21.6 million in 2021, who in turn sold it to Rihanna in 2023. In June 2023, Perry purchased a mid-century modern house in Hollywood Hills.\\nPerry had a perfectionist and obsessive personality, spending many hours perfecting his answering machine message. He also believed in God, with whom he had \\\"a very close relationship,\\\" calling himself \\\"a seeker.\\\"\\n\\nHealth and addiction\\nIn his memoirs, Perry wrote that by the age of 14, he had become an alcoholic. He became addicted to Vicodin after a jet ski accident in 1997, and completed a 28-day rehab program at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation that year. His weight dropped to 128 pounds (58 kg) as he took as many as 55 Vicodin pills per day. In May 2000, at the age of 30, he was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with alcohol-induced pancreatitis.\\nWhile Perry said in 2002 that, although he had made an effort not to drink on the set of Friends, he did arrive with extreme hangovers and sometimes would shake or sweat excessively on set. During the later seasons of the series, he was frequently drunk or high on set. His castmates made efforts to help him, even staging an intervention, but were unsuccessful.\\nIn February 2001, Perry paused productions of Friends and Serving Sara for two months so that he could enter in-patient rehabilitation for his addictions to Vicodin, methadone, amphetamines, and alcohol. He said later that, due to his substance use disorder, he had no memory of three years of his work on Friends.\\nIn 2018, Perry spent five months in a hospital for a gastrointestinal perforation. During the hospital stay, Perry nearly died after his colon burst from opioid abuse. He spent two weeks in a coma and used a colostomy bag for nine months. Upon being admitted to the hospital, doctors told his family that Perry had a 2% chance of survival. He was connected to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine.\\nTwo years later, while attending rehab in Switzerland, Perry faked pain to get a prescription for 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone per day and was having daily ketamine infusions. He was given propofol in conjunction with a surgery, which stopped his heart for five minutes. The resulting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) resulted in eight broken ribs. He paid $175,000 for a private jet to take him to Los Angeles to get more drugs. When doctors there refused, Perry spent another $175,000 to take a private jet back to Switzerland. In 2022, he estimated that he had spent $9 million on his addiction, including 14 stomach surgeries, 15 stays in rehab, and therapy twice a week for 30 years and had attended approximately 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.\\n\\nPhilanthropy and advocacy\\nIn July 2011, Perry lobbied the United States Congress as a celebrity spokesperson for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals in support of funding for drug courts. He received a Champion of Recovery award in May 2013 from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for opening Perry House, a rehab center in his former mansion in Malibu. In 2015, Perry sold the mansion and relocated its services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he launched an apparel line inspired by Friends, with proceeds donated to the World Health Organization's COVID-19 relief fund.\\n\\nDeath\\nOn October 28, 2023, Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles. He was pronounced dead at 4:17 pm that day at the age of 54.\\nOn November 3, 2023, Perry's funeral was held at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles where he was buried. His father, mother, and stepfather attended, as did his five Friends co-stars. The Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush song \\\"Don't Give Up\\\" was played; Perry was enamored with the song and referenced it in signed copies of his autobiography, released in part to help people suffering from depression or addiction issues. Following Perry's death, the National Philanthropic Trust established the Matthew Perry Foundation to support people suffering from addiction.\\nOn December 15, 2023, Perry's death was revealed to have occurred due to acute effects of ketamine. Other circumstances that contributed to his death included the effects of buprenorphine, drowning, and coronary artery disease. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said in a statement that \\n\\n...at the high levels of ketamine found in his post-mortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression... ...drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness; coronary artery disease contributes due to exacerbation of ketamine induced myocardial effects on the heart. The ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine's half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less. \\nPerry had been receiving ketamine-assisted psychotherapy sessions to treat anxiety at the time of his death, his last known session of which having been the week prior to his death. However, the report stated that the therapy couldn't have resulted in his death. \\nIn May 2024, an investigation was opened by the Los Angeles Police Department to determine how Perry obtained the high dose of ketamine that caused his death. On August 15, 2024, indictments and charges were filed against five people: Perry's personal assistant, two doctors, and two drug dealers (including TV director Erik Fleming), alleging involvement in the distribution of ketamine that caused the death of Perry and one other person. Three agreed to plead guilty, with two, Fleming and Perry's former assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, having their guilty pleas entered into court soon after being charged; Iwamasa pled guilty on August 7, 2024, while Fleming would plead guilty on August 8. During a court hearing on August 30, 2024, it was agreed that former doctor Mark Chavez, who had signed a plea agreement but had not yet officially entered it into court, would have his guilty plea accepted, though he will still not officially plead guilty until a later court appearance. Chavez would have his medical license suspended the next month and would officially plead guilty at a court hearing held on October 2, 2024. According to U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, Perry paid the two doctors $55,000 in cash for ketamine in the two months before his death. Iwamasa admitted to obtaining ketamine for Perry and injecting him with the drug, while Fleming admitted to obtaining the ketamine from the supplier and giving it to Iwamasa for Perry to use. Text messages also revealed that the other doctor, who is currently awaiting trial, would purchase the ketamine from Chavez.\\n\\nActing credits\\nFilm\\nTelevision\\nTheatre\\nVideo games\\nSpecials\\nAwards and nominations\\nPublications\\nPerry, Matthew (November 1, 2022). Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir. Foreword: Lisa Kudrow. New York: Flatiron Books. ISBN 978-1-250-86644-8. OCLC 1338841699.\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nMatthew Perry at IMDb\\nMatthew Perry at Rotten Tomatoes\\nMatthew Perry discography at Discogs\\nMatthew Perry on Twitter \\nMatthew Perry on Instagram \\nInterviewed on \\\"Q with Tom Power\\\", CBC, November 22, 2022, audio\",\n \"title\": \"Matthew_Perry\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 6,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2 or 12, 1966) is an American actor, director, comedian, and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom Friends, for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1995. While still acting in Friends, his first leading film role was in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by roles in Kissing a Fool; Six Days, Seven Nights; Apt Pupil (all 1998); and Picking Up the Pieces (2000). He was then cast in the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) as Herbert Sobel.\\nSchwimmer began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in theater and speech. After graduation, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company. For much of the late 1980s, he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling, unemployed actor, until he starred in the television movie A Deadly Silence in 1989 and appeared in a number of television roles in the early 1990s, including L.A. Law, The Wonder Years, NYPD Blue, and Monty.\\nAfter the series finale of Friends in 2004, Schwimmer branched out into film and stage work. He was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama film Duane Hopwood, and voiced Melman the Giraffe in the animated Madagascar film franchise, acted in the dark comedy Big Nothing (2006), and the thriller Nothing but the Truth (2008). Schwimmer made his West End stage debut in the leading role in 2005's Some Girl(s). He made his Broadway debut in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in 2006. His feature film directorial debut followed in 2007 with the comedy Run Fatboy Run, and the following year he made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in Fault Lines.\\nHe has also worked as a director, including many episodes of Friends during his time on the series.\\nIn 2016, Schwimmer starred as lawyer Robert Kardashian in The People v. O. J. Simpson, for which he received his second Primetime Emmy Award nomination, this time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.\\n\\nEarly life\\nSchwimmer was born in 1966 in Flushing, Queens, New York City, to attorneys Arthur (born 1941) and Arlene Coleman-Schwimmer (born 1940). His family is Jewish. His grandfather, Al Schwimmer, was founder of Israel Aerospace Industries. He has an older sister named Ellie Schwimmer (born 1965). His family subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where Schwimmer, at 10, had his first acting experience when he was cast as the fairy godmother in a Jewish version of Cinderella. In 1979, Schwimmer went to a Shakespeare workshop given by English actor Sir Ian McKellen in Los Angeles. He recalls being riveted by the experience. Schwimmer then entered a contest in the Southern California Shakespeare Festival three years in a row, winning two first prizes.\\nFollowing his mother's successful career as a divorce lawyer, the family moved to Beverly Hills, where Schwimmer attended Beverly Hills High School. His classmates included actor Jonathan Silverman. Schwimmer admitted to feeling like an outsider during his time at the school, recalling, \\\"When I was there I always felt: 'This is not me, I'm surrounded by people with a different value system. And I just wanted to get out of California.'\\\" His best subjects were science and math and he originally wanted to become a doctor. Schwimmer enrolled in a drama class, where he appeared in stage productions. Encouraged by his school drama teacher to further his acting, he flew to Chicago for a summer acting program at Northwestern University. He noted that the experience was both \\\"enlightening and exhilarating\\\". In 1984, Schwimmer graduated from Beverly Hills High and wanted to go straight into acting, but his parents insisted he go to college first so he would have something to fall back on. Schwimmer enrolled in Northwestern University, where he had attended the summer acting program earlier. He had originally intended on becoming a surgeon, having studied various body systems but eventually decided to pursue acting professionally. At the university, he studied theater and was in an improv group with Stephen Colbert, the No-Fun Mud Piranhas. After graduating in 1988, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater and speech, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company. Subsequently, he returned to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.\\n\\nCareer\\n1989–1994: Early work\\nAfter his supporting role debut in the ABC television movie A Deadly Silence (1989), Schwimmer followed this with roles on the legal drama L.A. Law in 1992, and the comedy-drama series The Wonder Years. He made his feature film debut in Flight of the Intruder (1991), had a recurring role as a lawyer-turned-vigilante in NYPD Blue before auditioning, unsuccessfully, for a series pilot called Couples. He landed his first regular series role as the liberal son of a conservative talk show host (Henry Winkler) in the sitcom Monty.\\n\\n1994–2004: Breakthrough\\nIn 1994, Schwimmer was cast as Ross Geller in NBC's situation comedy Friends, a series that revolved around a group of friends who live near each other in Manhattan. He played a hopeless-romantic paleontologist who works at a museum and later becomes a professor at a university. Schwimmer initially turned down the role as Ross, but accepted later. Executive producer Kevin S. Bright said that he had previously worked with Schwimmer, the character of Ross was written with him in mind, and he was the first actor cast. The show debuted on September 22, 1994, and was watched by almost 22 million American viewers. Friends quickly developed a loyal audience, with the show and Schwimmer receiving strong reviews. Much of the Friends success is attributed to the plotline between his character Ross and his on-again-off-again love interest Rachel, which has been described as one of the greatest TV couples of all time by various media outlets. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him \\\"terrific\\\". Variety's television reviewer said: \\\"All six of the principals, especially (Courteney) Cox and Schwimmer, appear resourceful and display sharp sitcom skills\\\". For this performance, he earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1995.\\nSchwimmer starred in his first leading film role in the 1996 romantic comedy film, The Pallbearer with Gwyneth Paltrow. In the film, Schwimmer plays a man asked to deliver the eulogy for a high school friend he cannot remember, and begins an affair with the friend's mother. Critics dismissed The Pallbearer as a poor imitation of the 1967 film The Graduate. Variety's film reviewer complimented the actor, writing that he had enjoyed his performance, stating that he displayed \\\"a winning, if rather deadpan, personality along with good comic timing\\\". It also concluded that Schwimmer had a \\\"promising bigscreen future\\\". Janet Maslin of The New York Times cited that his first film \\\"relegates him to a drab role\\\". When asked why he decided to accept the role, Schwimmer admitted the decision was to \\\"make an effort to find roles that are as far away from the character of Ross as possible.\\\" Schwimmer was chosen to play a leading role in the 1997 Men in Black but he turned it down. He later regretted this decision. Ultimately, Will Smith got the role. \\nHis next film roles, in 1998, were Kissing a Fool, Six Days, Seven Nights, and Apt Pupil. In Kissing a Fool, a romantic comedy, Schwimmer played Max, a smart-mouthed, but dapper and charming man. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, \\\"Fans of the sitcom Friends may be surprised by David Schwimmer in Kissing a Fool. [...] Take it from someone who has never seen Friends and comes at Schwimmer with no preconceptions: He does just fine. As a TV sports reporter in Kissing a Fool, he oozes the command and self-satisfaction of a young, successful man.\\\" The film was critically and financially unsuccessful. In Six Days, Seven Nights, he played the boyfriend of Anne Heche's character. In Apt Pupil, adapted from a novella of the same name by Stephen King, he had a supporting role as a school guidance counselor. \\\"I was scared of the part\\\", Schwimmer said, \\\"but I wanted to be part of the movie\\\". At the time, he noted it was a \\\"little frustrating\\\" that people would typecast him due to his role on Friends. He subsequently appeared opposite Woody Allen and Sharon Stone in Alfonso Arau's straight-to-cable comedy Picking Up the Pieces (2000). \\nIn 2001, Schwimmer played Captain Herbert M. Sobel in Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' HBO World War II miniseries Band of Brothers. The television miniseries is based on the book of the same title written by historian and biographer Stephen Ambrose. Although Band of Brothers was met with largely positive reception, Schwimmer's performance was criticized; the BBC News concluded, \\\"Part of the problem ... may have been the ridiculous fact that Friends favourite David Schwimmer plays the hard and cruel Captain Herbert Sobel. The only thing believable about Schwimmer's acting is when he cowers in the face of true battle. His puppy dog eyes make him appear even more pitiful.\\\" Later that year he portrayed Yitzhak Zuckerman in the war drama Uprising, based on the true events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.\\nIn March 2004, Schwimmer appeared as himself on HBO's comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm. During the lengthy run of Friends, Schwimmer directed ten of the show's episodes. The show's tenth and final season ended on May 6, 2004.\\n\\n2004–2010: Directing\\nIn 2004, Schwimmer was director and executive producer on Nevermind Nirvana, a sitcom about an Indian American family that was not picked up by NBC. After Friends, Schwimmer starred in the 2005 independent drama Duane Hopwood, as the title character, who is an alcoholic whose life is spiraling downward rapidly after a divorce and is looking to turn his life around. The film received ambivalent reviews. Despite the reception, Schwimmer's performance was favored by critics; Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the role was Schwimmer's \\\"career-transforming performance.\\\" Duane Hopwood was screened at a special presentation at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Furthermore, in the same year he voiced Melman, a hypochondriac giraffe, in the animated film Madagascar (2005). The Washington Post noted that Schwimmer is particularly appealing as Melman. Despite the mixed response from critics, the film was a commercial success, earning US$532 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest hits of 2005.\\nSchwimmer starred on the London stage in May 2005, with Catherine Tate, Lesley Manville, Sara Powell, and Saffron Burrows, in Neil LaBute's Some Girl(s) at the Gielgud Theatre. In the production, he plays a teacher who is ready to settle down and marry, but decides to visit four ex-girlfriends first. For his performance, Schwimmer received critical reviews. The Independent wrote that Schwimmer \\\"is not called upon to extend his range nearly as far as one might have expected in Some Girl(s). [...] Schwimmer remains bland, competent, and boyish—though not fatally boyish in the manner that appears to have turned these women on.\\\" However, Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph praised Schwimmer, reporting he \\\"proves inspired casting. He takes to the stage with ... his endearing gaucheness seems designed to ensure our continued sympathy. Schwimmer mercilessly lays bare his character's opportunism, casual cruelties, and chronic self-deception.\\\"\\nIn 2006, he made his Broadway debut in Herman Wouk's two-act play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Schwimmer played the role of Lieutenant Barney Greenwald in the production, which was directed by Jerry Zaks. In an interview with New York magazine, he revealed that he had wanted to try Broadway, however said \\\"a couple of things came up that just never quite felt right. Either because I liked the play but wasn't hot on the director, or there was another star attached that I wasn't jazzed about working with.\\\" He further added that when showed a copy of Wouk's novel \\\"...I was shocked at how good the writing was.\\\" His next film role was in the 2006 black comedy Big Nothing, in which he played a bitter, unemployed scientist.\\nSchwimmer made his directorial feature debut in the 2007 British comedy film Run Fatboy Run. The film stars Simon Pegg as an out of shape man who signs up for a marathon to convince his former fiancée and five-year-old son that he has turned his life around. When asked why he decided to direct the film, Schwimmer said: \\\"As a director, I was struck by the challenge that I thought the script presented, which was that it was kind of three films in one. You had some great, big physical comedy, and I thought funny dialogue and characters. And then there was some real emotion to it with the relationship between the father and the son and the romance aspect.\\\" Run Fatboy Run garnered mixed reception, with the New York Daily News rating it one-and-a-half out of five stars and writing, \\\"Most disappointing is how Schwimmer—who spent 10 seasons on a sitcom filled with hyperverbal characters—manages to bumble 'Fatboy's' tender moments.\\\" USA Today, however, was favorable towards Schwimmer, reporting he possesses filmmaking finesse \\\"having wisely chosen strong comic material for his debut behind the camera.\\\" For his directorial work, he was nominated for a British Independent Film Award in the category of Best Debut Director.\\nOn November 8, 2007, Schwimmer made a guest appearance in the second season of the television series 30 Rock, where he played Greenzo, an NBC environmental mascot. The following year, he was part of an ensemble cast that included Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Alan Alda, Angela Bassett, and Noah Wyle in the thriller Nothing But the Truth (2008). The movie received generally favorable reviews. The success of Madagascar led Schwimmer to return to the role of Melman in the 2008 sequel, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. The film earned US$603 million at the international box office. Schwimmer took part in directing in-studio segments for Little Britain USA, an American spin-off of the British BBC television series Little Britain. In regard to this, he commented that he had \\\"a good time directing episodes\\\" for the show.\\nIn October 2008, Schwimmer made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in Fault Lines at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York. The production won a mixed review from the Los Angeles Times, which wrote: \\\"Based on Fault Lines ... we can't really tell whether Schwimmer has much talent as a director. We're surprised he didn't try something more challenging for his debut. If not much else, Schwimmer has encouraged his actors to intense their energy levels and comic timing at all costs\\\". The New York Post, however, noted that Schwimmer \\\"knows a thing or two about freewheeling banter ... and for a good while the play crackles with terrific dialogue, expertly delivered\\\". In February 2009, he returned to theater in a Chicago production of Thornton Wilder's three-act play Our Town as George Gibbs at the Lookingglass Theatre. \\\"Schwimmer ... turns in a poignant, richly textured and demonstrably heartfelt performance as George Gibbs. I've seen a fair bit of Schwimmer's post-Friends stage work in London and New York, and I've never seen him better\\\", commented the Chicago Tribune.\\nOn August 2, 2009, Schwimmer played himself in the sixth season of the HBO television series, Entourage. In the episode, Ari Gold's (Jeremy Piven) agency tries to steer his career back to television. Schwimmer directed his second feature, Trust, starring Clive Owen and Catherine Keener. The film, a drama, is about a family whose teenage daughter becomes victim of an online sexual predator. Trust premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.\\n\\n2010–present: Return to television\\nOn January 1, 2011, Schwimmer guest-starred on the British comedy series Come Fly With Me starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams, whom he directed in Little Britain USA. The following year, he returned to voice Melman the Giraffe in Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. In 2013, Schwimmer appeared as Josh Rosenthal, a mobster who was brought up by the notorious Roy DeMeo and part of the Gambino Family, alongside Michael Shannon in The Iceman.\\nIn 2014, Schwimmer was cast as the lead in the ABC comedy pilot Irreversible, playing \\\"one half of a somewhat eccentric, self-absorbed couple\\\". In 2016, Schwimmer played Robert Kardashian in the first season of the FX anthology series American Crime Story. He received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his performance. In January 2016, Schwimmer and Jim Sturgess were cast to star in the new AMC crime drama Feed the Beast. The series premiered on June 5, 2016, and aired 10 episodes through August before being canceled. In November 2016, it was announced that Schwimmer would star in his first audio series. Gimlet Media's podcast Homecoming began airing on November 16, 2016.\\nIn April 2017, Schwimmer helped adapt the films of Sigal Avin for a US audience. The six short features depict sexual harassment at work by men on women.\\nIn 2020, Schwimmer was cast as a main character in the British sitcom Intelligence broadcast on Sky One. In the same year, he was a celebrity reader on CBeebies Bedtime Stories, and was signed as the face of British banking chain TSB.\\nSchwimmer featured in Jews Don't Count, a 2022 documentary by British Jewish comedian David Baddiel on the subject of antisemitism. Schwimmer's contribution, in which he said that he has never felt white, was described as \\\"erudite\\\" by Rebecca Nicholson of The Guardian.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nSchwimmer dated singer-songwriter Natalie Imbruglia in the late 1990s. Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston admitted to having crushes on each other early on while filming Friends during HBO Max's Friends: The Reunion. Schwimmer began a relationship with British artist Zoë Buckman in 2007 and they married on June 4, 2010. Their child Cleo Buckman Schwimmer was born in 2011. The couple announced in April 2017 that they were \\\"taking some time apart\\\". They divorced later that year. Schwimmer and his ex-wife are on good terms and continue to co-parent their child amicably. He tends to keep his personal life away from the media to preserve his daughter's childhood.\\nSchwimmer primarily lives in East Village, Manhattan. He previously had a loft in Near West Side, Chicago as well as a house in Hancock Park, Los Angeles.\\nIn June 2006, Schwimmer won a US$400,000 defamation lawsuit against Aaron Tonken, a former charity fundraiser. Tonken claimed Schwimmer had demanded Rolex watches in order to appear at his own charity event, a claim that Schwimmer had denied.\\nSchwimmer is an active director of the Rape Treatment Center in Santa Monica, which specializes in helping victims of date rape and child rape. He has also campaigned for legislation to ban drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB. In November 2011, he gave the Scottish charity Children 1st permission to screen his film Trust to commemorate World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse and Violence against Children.\\nIn 2012, he rebutted two longstanding rumors: one that he appeared as a soldier on a train in Biloxi Blues (1988), saying, \\\"No. I don't know why that's on IMDb, but I never was in that\\\" (the credit has since been removed), and the other that he is related to dancer Lacey Schwimmer, saying, \\\"No, not at all. Please set the record straight. I guess it's a natural assumption because we have the same last name, but no. I've never even met her\\\".\\n\\nFilmography\\nFilm\\nTelevision\\nDirector/producer\\nAwards and nominations\\nSee also\\nBack Stage West Garland Awards, for his Lookingglass Theatre Company, production of Arabian Nights\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nDavid Schwimmer at IMDb \\nDavid Schwimmer on Instagram \\nLawrence, Will. \\\"David Schwimmer: From Central Perk to the East End.\\\" The Daily Telegraph. August 31, 2007. Accessed June 10, 2009.\\nGreenstreet, Rosanna. \\\"Q&A: David Schwimmer.\\\" The Guardian. September 8, 2007. Accessed June 10, 2009.\\nPratt, Steve. \\\"New direction.\\\" The Northern Echo. September 8, 2007. Accessed June 10, 2009.\",\n \"title\": \"David_Schwimmer\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Of the 6 main cast members of the series Friends, which have appeared in music videos?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Of the 6 main cast members of Friends, Jennifer Anniston, Courtney Cox, and Matt LeBlanc have all appeared in music videos."},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":697,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"697"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank on 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,500 died (figures vary), making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship. Titanic, operated by the White Star Line, carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere in Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada. The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired a lasting legacy in popular culture.\nRMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat upon entering service and the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners built for the White Star Line. The ship was built by the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company in Belfast. Thomas Andrews Jr., the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster. Titanic was under the command of Captain Edward John Smith, who went down with the ship.\nThe first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury. It included a gymnasium, swimming pool, smoking rooms, fine restaurants and cafes, a Victorian-style Turkish bath, and hundreds of opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available to send passenger \"marconigrams\" and for the ship's operational use. Titanic had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, which contributed to the ship's reputation as \"unsinkable\".\nTitanic was equipped with 16 lifeboat davits, each capable of lowering three lifeboats, for a total capacity of 48 boats. Despite this capacity, the ship was scantly equipped with a total of only 20 lifeboats. Fourteen of these were regular lifeboats, two were cutter lifeboats, and four were collapsible and proved difficult to launch while the ship was sinking. Together, the 20 lifeboats could hold 1,178 people — roughly half the number of passengers on board, and a third of the number the passengers the ship could have carried at full capacity (a number consistent with the maritime safety regulations of the era). The British Board of Trade's regulations required 14 lifeboats for a ship 10,000 tonnes. Titanic carried six more than required, allowing 338 extra people room in lifeboats. When the ship sank, the lifeboats that had been lowered were only filled up to an average of 60%.\n\nBackground\nThe name Titanic derives from the Titans of Greek mythology. Built in Belfast, Ireland, in what was then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, RMS Titanic was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners—the lead vessel was RMS Olympic and the final ship in the class was HMHS Britannic. They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Line's fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912. The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in mid-1907 between the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, and the American financier J. P. Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line's parent corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM).\nWhite Star faced an increasing challenge from its main rivals, Cunard Line—which, with the aid of the Royal Navy, had recently launched the twin sister ships Lusitania and Mauretania, the fastest passenger ships then in service—and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Ismay preferred to compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of liners larger than anything that had come before, which would be the last word in comfort and luxury. The new ships would have sufficient speed to maintain a weekly service with only three ships instead of the original four. Olympic and Titanic would replace RMS Teutonic of 1889, RMS Majestic of 1890 and RMS Adriatic of 1907. RMS Oceanic first departed from a new home port in June 1907 along with the Teutonic, Majestic, and the new Adriatic on the Southampton-New York run.\nThe ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilder Harland & Wolff, which had a long-established relationship with the White Star Line dating back to 1867. Harland and Wolff were given a great deal of latitude in designing ships for the White Star Line; the usual approach was for Wilhelm Wolff to sketch a general concept, which Edward James Harland would turn into a ship design. Cost considerations were a relatively low priority; Harland & Wolff were authorised to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a five per cent profit margin. In the case of the Olympic-class ships, a cost of £3 million (approximately £370 million in 2023) for the first two ships was agreed, plus \"extras to contract\" and the usual five per cent fee.\nHarland and Wolff put their leading designers to work designing Olympic-class vessels. The design was overseen by Lord Pirrie, a director of both Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line; naval architect Thomas Andrews, the managing director of Harland and Wolff's design department; Edward Wilding, Andrews's deputy and responsible for calculating the ship's design, stability and trim; and Alexander Carlisle, the shipyard's chief draughtsman and general manager. Carlisle's responsibilities included the decorations, equipment, and all general arrangements, including the implementation of an efficient lifeboat davit design.\nOn 29 July 1908, Harland and Wolff presented the drawings to J. Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line executives. Ismay approved the design and signed three \"letters of agreement\" two days later, authorising the start of construction. At this point, the first ship—which was later to become Olympic—had no name but was referred to simply as \"Number 400\", as it was Harland and Wolff's 400th hull. Titanic was based on a revised version of the same design and was given the number 401.\n\nDimensions and layout\nTitanic was 882 feet 9 inches (269.06 m) long with a maximum breadth of 92 feet 6 inches (28.19 m).\nThe ship's total height, measured from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge, was 104 feet (32 m). Titanic measured 46,329 GRT and 21,831 NRT and with a draught of 34 feet 7 inches (10.54 m) and displaced 52,310 tonnes.\nAll three of the Olympic-class ships had ten decks (excluding the top of the officers' quarters), eight of which were for passenger use. From top to bottom, the decks were:\n\nThe boat deck, on which the lifeboats were housed. It was from here during the early hours of 15 April 1912 that Titanic's lifeboats were lowered into the North Atlantic. The bridge and wheelhouse were at the forward end, in front of the captain's and officers' quarters. The bridge stood 8 feet (2.4 m) above the deck, extending out to either side so that the ship could be controlled while docking. The wheelhouse stood within the bridge. The entrance to the First Class Grand Staircase and gymnasium were located midships along with the raised roof of the First Class lounge, while at the rear of the deck were the roof of the First Class smoke room and the Second Class entrance. Just forward of the Second Class entrance sat the kennels, where the First Class passengers' dogs would stay. The wood-covered deck was divided into four segregated promenades: for officers, First Class passengers, engineers, and Second Class passengers respectively. Lifeboats lined the side of the deck except in the First Class area, where there was a gap so that the view would not be spoiled.\nA Deck, also called the promenade deck, extended along the entire 546 feet (166 m) length of the superstructure. It was reserved exclusively for First Class passengers and contained First Class cabins, the First Class reading and writing room, lounge, smoke room, and Palm Court.\nB Deck, the bridge deck, was the top weight-bearing deck and the uppermost level of the hull. More First Class passenger accommodations were located here with six palatial staterooms (cabins) featuring their own private promenades. On Titanic, the à la carte restaurant and the Café Parisien provided luxury dining facilities to First Class passengers. Both were run by subcontracted chefs and their staff; all were lost in the disaster. The Second Class smoking room and entrance hall were both located on this deck. The raised forecastle of the ship was forward of the bridge deck, accommodating Number 1 hatch (the main hatch through to the cargo holds), numerous pieces of machinery and the anchor housings. Aft of the bridge deck was the raised poop deck, 106 feet (32 m) long, used as a promenade by Third Class passengers. It was where many of Titanic's passengers and crew made their last stand as the ship sank. The forecastle and poop deck were separated from the bridge deck by well decks.\nC Deck, the shelter deck, was the highest deck to run uninterrupted from stem to stern. It included both well decks; the aft one served as part of the Third-Class promenade. Crew cabins were housed below the forecastle and Third-Class public rooms were housed below the poop deck. In between were the majority of First Class cabins and the Second-Class library. \nD Deck, the saloon deck, was dominated by three public rooms—the First-Class reception room, the First-Class dining saloon and the Second-Class dining saloon. The first- and second-class galleys were also located on this deck. An open space was provided for Third Class passengers. First, Second- and Third-Class passengers had cabins on this deck, with berths for firemen located in the bow. It was the highest level reached by the ship's watertight bulkheads (though only by eight of the fifteen bulkheads).\nE Deck, the upper deck, was predominantly used for passenger accommodation for all three classes plus berths for cooks, seamen, stewards and trimmers. Along its length ran a long passageway nicknamed 'Scotland Road', in reference to a famous street in Liverpool. Scotland Road was used by Third Class passengers and crew members.\nF Deck, the middle deck, mainly accommodated Second- and Third-Class passengers and several departments of the crew. The Third Class dining saloon was located here, as was the First Class bath complex, containing the swimming pool and the Turkish bath.\nG Deck, the lower deck, had the lowest portholes, just above the waterline. The first-class squash court was located here along with the travelling post office where letters and parcels were sorted ready for delivery when the ship docked. Food was also stored here. The deck was interrupted at several points by orlop (partial) decks over the boiler, engine and turbine rooms.\nThe orlop decks, and the tank top below that, were on the lowest level of the ship, below the waterline. The orlop decks were used as cargo spaces, while the tank top—the inner bottom of the ship's hull—provided the platform on which the ship's boilers, engines, turbines and electrical generators were housed. This area of the ship was occupied by the engine and boiler rooms, areas which passengers would have been prohibited from seeing. They were connected with higher levels of the ship by two flights of stairs in the fireman's passage; twin spiral stairways near the bow provided access up to D Deck. Ladders in the boiler, turbine, and engine rooms provided access to higher decks in those compartments.\n\nFeatures\nPower\nTitanic propulsion was supplied by three main engines—two reciprocating four-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engines and one centrally placed low-pressure Parsons turbine—each driving a propeller. The two reciprocating engines had a combined output of 30,000 horsepower (22,000 kW). The output of the steam turbine was 16,000 horsepower (12,000 kW). The White Star Line had used the same combination of engines on an earlier liner, Laurentic, where it had been a great success. It provided a good combination of performance and speed; reciprocating engines by themselves were not powerful enough to propel an Olympic-class liner at the desired speeds, while turbines were sufficiently powerful but caused uncomfortable vibrations, a problem that affected the all-turbine Cunard liners Lusitania and Mauretania. By combining reciprocating engines with a turbine, fuel usage could be reduced and motive power increased, while using the same amount of steam.\nThe two reciprocating engines were each 63 feet (19 m) long and weighed 720 tonnes, with their bedplates contributing a further 195 tonnes. They were powered by steam produced in 29 boilers, 24 of which were double-ended and five single-ended, which contained a total of 159 furnaces. The boilers were 15 feet 9 inches (4.80 m) in diameter and 20 feet (6.1 m) long, each weighing 91.5 tonnes and capable of holding 48.5 tonnes of water.\nThey were fuelled by burning coal, 6,611 tonnes of which could be carried in Titanic's bunkers, with a further 1,092 tonnes in Hold 3. The furnaces required over 600 tonnes of coal a day to be shovelled into them by hand, requiring the services of 176 firemen working around the clock. 100 tonnes of ash a day had to be disposed of by ejecting it into the sea. The work was relentless, dirty and dangerous, and although firemen were paid relatively well, there was a high suicide rate among those who worked in that capacity.\nExhaust steam leaving the reciprocating engines was fed into the turbine, which was situated aft. From there it passed into a surface condenser, to increase the efficiency of the turbine and so that the steam could be condensed back into water and reused. The engines were attached directly to long shafts which drove the propellers. There were three, one for each engine; the outer (or wing) propellers were the largest, each carrying three blades of manganese-bronze alloy with a total diameter of 23.5 feet (7.2 m). The middle propeller was slightly smaller at 17 feet (5.2 m) in diameter, and could be stopped but not reversed.\nTitanic's electrical plant was capable of producing more power than an average city power station of the time. Immediately aft of the turbine engine were four 400 kW steam-driven electric generators, used to provide electrical power to the ship, plus two 30 kW auxiliary generators for emergency use. Their location in the stern of the ship meant they remained operational until the last few minutes before the ship sank.\nTitanic lacked a searchlight, in accordance with the ban on the use of searchlights in the merchant navy.\n\nTechnology\nCompartments and funnels\nThe interiors of the Olympic-class ships were subdivided into 16 primary compartments divided by 15 bulkheads that extended above the waterline. The eleven vertically closing watertight doors on the orlop deck could be closed automatically via a switch on the bridge, by a lever next to the door itself, or by an automatic buoyancy mechanism that would activate in the event water reached six feet high in the compartment. There were also several other horizontally closing watertight doors along Scotland Road, and various crew and third class passenger spaces on the G, F, and E decks. These doors required a small key to be placed into a slot on the deck above. Once the key was turned, the watertight door would close. The ship's exposed decking was made of pine and teak, while interior ceilings were covered in painted granulated cork to combat condensation. Standing above the decks were four funnels, each painted in the White Star buff with black tops; only three were functional—the aftmost one was a dummy, installed for aesthetic purposes, and used for providing ventilation to the kitchen, as well as for the First and Second Class smoking rooms. Two masts, each 155 ft (47 m) high, supported derricks for working cargo.\n\nRudder and steering engines\nTitanic's rudder was 78 feet 8 inches (23.98 m) high and 15 feet 3 inches (4.65 m) long, weighing over 100 tonnes. Its size was such that it required steering engines to move it. Two steam-powered steering engines were installed, though only one was used at any given time, with the other one kept in reserve. They were connected to the short tiller through stiff springs, to isolate the steering engines from any shocks in heavy seas or during fast changes of direction. As a last resort, the tiller could be moved by ropes connected to two steam capstans. The capstans were also used to raise and lower the ship's five anchors (one port, one starboard, one in the centreline and two kedging anchors).\n\nWater, ventilation and heating\nThe ship was equipped with waterworks capable of heating and pumping water to all parts of the vessel via a complex network of pipes and valves. The main water supply was taken aboard while Titanic was in port, but in an emergency, the ship could also distil fresh water from seawater. However, this was not a straightforward process as the distillation plant could quickly became clogged by salt deposits. A network of insulated ducts conveyed warm air around the ship with electric fans and First-Class cabins were fitted with additional electric heaters.\n\nRadio communications\nTitanic's radiotelegraph equipment (then known as wireless telegraphy) was leased to the White Star Line by the Marconi International Marine Communication Company, which also supplied two of its employees, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, as operators. The service maintained a 24-hour schedule, primarily sending and receiving passenger telegrams (\"marconigrams\"), but also handling navigation messages including weather reports and ice warnings.\nThe radio room was located on the Boat Deck, in the officers' quarters. A soundproofed \"Silent Room\", next to the operating room, housed loud equipment, including the transmitter and a motor-generator used for producing alternating currents. The operators' living quarters were adjacent to the working office. The ship was equipped with a 'state of the art' 5-kilowatt rotary spark-gap transmitter, with the wireless telegraph call sign MGY, and communication was in Morse code. This transmitter was one of the first Marconi installations to use a rotary spark-gap, which gave Titanic a distinctive musical tone that could be readily distinguished from other signals. The transmitter was one of the most powerful in the world and guaranteed to broadcast over a radius of 350 miles (304 nmi; 563 km). An elevated T-antenna that spanned the length of the ship was used for transmitting and receiving. The normal operating frequency was 500 kHz (600 m wavelength); however, the equipment could also operate on the \"short\" wavelength of 1,000 kHz (300 m wavelength) that was employed by smaller vessels with shorter antennas.\n\nPassenger facilities\nThe passenger facilities aboard Titanic aimed to meet the highest standards of luxury. According to Titanic's general arrangement plans, the ship could accommodate 833 First Class Passengers, 614 in Second Class and 1,006 in Third Class, for a total passenger capacity of 2,453. In addition, Titanic's capacity for crew members exceeded 900, as most documents of the original configuration have stated that the full carrying capacity for passengers and crew was approximately 3,547. The ship's interior design was a departure from that of other passenger liners, which had typically been decorated in the style of a manor house or an English country house.\nTitanic was laid out in a much lighter style similar to that of contemporary high-class hotels—the Ritz Hotel was a reference point—with First Class cabins finished in the Empire style. A variety of other decorative styles, ranging from the Renaissance to Louis XV, were used to decorate cabins and public rooms in First and Second Class areas of the ship. The aim was to convey an impression that the passengers were in a floating hotel rather than a ship. As one passenger recalled, on entering the ship's interior a passenger would \"at once lose the feeling that we are on board ship, and seem instead to be entering the hall of some great house on shore\". Cabins in First Class also contained buttons that, when pressed, would signal for a steward to come to the cabin.\nAmong the more novel features available to first-class passengers was a 7 ft (2.1 m) deep saltwater swimming pool, a gymnasium, a squash court, and a Victorian-style Turkish bath which comprised hot room, warm (temperate) room, cooling-room, and two shampooing (massage) rooms. Complementing the Turkish bath, and within the same area, was a steam room and an electric bath. First-class common rooms were impressive in scope and lavishly decorated. They included a lounge in the style of the Palace of Versailles, an enormous reception room, a men's smoking room, and a reading and writing room. There was an à la carte restaurant in the style of the Ritz Hotel which was run as a concession by the famous Italian restaurateur Gaspare Gatti. A Café Parisien decorated in the style of a French sidewalk café, complete with ivy-covered trellises and wicker furniture, was run as an annex to the restaurant. For an extra cost, first-class passengers could enjoy the finest French haute cuisine in the most luxurious of surroundings. There was also a Verandah Café where tea and light refreshments were served, that offered grand views of the ocean. At 114 ft (35 m) long by 92 ft (28 m) wide, the dining saloon on D Deck, designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll, was the largest room afloat and could seat almost 600 passengers at a time.\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\nThird Class (commonly referred to as steerage) accommodations aboard Titanic were not as luxurious as First or Second Class but were better than on many other ships of the time, where Third Class accommodations consisted of little more than open dormitories in which hundreds of people were confined, often without adequate food or toilet facilities. The White Star Line had long since broken that mould. As seen aboard Titanic, all White Star Line passenger ships divided their Third Class accommodations into two sections, always at opposite ends of the vessel from one another. The established arrangement was that single men were quartered in the forward areas, while single women, married couples and families were quartered aft. In addition, while other ships provided only open berth sleeping arrangements, White Star Line vessels provided their Third-Class passengers with private, small but comfortable cabins capable of accommodating two, four, six, eight and ten passengers. Third Class accommodations also included their own dining rooms, as well as public gathering areas including adequate open deck space. This was supplemented by the addition of a smoking room for men and a general room on C Deck which women could use for reading and writing.\nLeisure facilities were provided for all three classes to pass the time. As well as making use of the indoor amenities such as the library, smoking rooms, and gymnasium, it was also customary for passengers to socialise on the open deck, promenading or relaxing in hired deck chairs or wooden benches. A passenger list was published before the sailing to inform the public which members of the great and good were on board, and it was not uncommon for ambitious mothers to use the list to identify rich bachelors to whom they could introduce their marriageable daughters during the voyage.\nOne of Titanic's most distinctive features was the First Class staircase, known as the Grand Staircase or Grand Stairway. Built of solid English oak with a sweeping curve, the staircase descended through seven decks of the ship, between the boat deck to E deck, before terminating in a simplified single flight on F Deck. It was capped with a dome of wrought iron and glass that admitted natural light to the stairwell. Each landing off the staircase gave access to ornate entrance halls panelled in the William & Mary style and lit by ormolu and crystal light fixtures.\nAt the uppermost landing was a large carved wooden panel containing a clock, with figures of \"Honour and Glory Crowning Time\" flanking the clock face. The Grand Staircase was destroyed during the sinking and is now just a void in the ship which modern explorers have used to access the lower decks. During the filming of James Cameron's Titanic in 1997, his replica of the Grand Staircase was ripped from its foundations by the force of the inrushing water on the set. It has been suggested that during the real event, the entire Grand Staircase was ejected upwards through the dome.\n\nMail and cargo\nAlthough Titanic was primarily a passenger liner, the ship also carried a substantial amount of cargo. Under the designation of Royal Mail Ship (RMS), Titanic carried mail under contract with the Royal Mail (and also for the United States Post Office Department). For the storage of letters, parcels and specie (bullion, coins and other valuables), 26,800 cubic feet (760 m3) of space was allocated. The Sea Post Office on G Deck was manned by five postal clerks (three Americans and two Britons), who worked 13 hours a day, seven days a week, sorting up to 60,000 items daily.\nThe ship's passengers brought with them a huge amount of baggage; another 19,455 cubic feet (550.9 m3) was taken up by first- and second-class baggage. In addition, there was a considerable quantity of regular cargo, ranging from furniture to foodstuffs, and a 1912 Renault Type CE Coupe de Ville motor car. Despite later myths, the cargo on Titanic's maiden voyage was fairly mundane; there was no gold, exotic minerals or diamonds, and one of the more famous items lost in the shipwreck, a jewelled copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, was valued at only £405 (£50,600 today). According to the claims for compensation filed with Commissioner Gilchrist, following the conclusion of the Senate Inquiry, the single most highly valued item of luggage or cargo was a large neoclassical oil painting entitled La Circassienne au Bain by French artist Merry-Joseph Blondel. The painting's owner, first-class passenger Mauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson, filed a claim for $100,000 (equivalent to $2,300,000 in 2023) in compensation for the loss of the artwork. Other intriguing items in the manifest included 12 cases of ostrich feathers, 76 cases of \"Dragon's Blood,\" and 16 cases of Calabashes.\nTitanic was equipped with eight electric cranes, four electric winches and three steam winches to lift cargo and baggage in and out of the holds. It is estimated that the ship used some 415 tonnes of coal whilst in Southampton, simply generating steam to operate the cargo winches and provide heat and light.\n\nLifeboats\nLike Olympic, Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats: 14 standard wooden Harland and Wolff lifeboats with a capacity of 65 people each and four Engelhardt \"collapsible\" (wooden bottom, collapsible canvas sides) lifeboats (identified as A to D) with a capacity of 47 people each. In addition, Titanic had two emergency cutters with a capacity of 40 people each. Olympic carried at least two collapsible boats on either side of the number one funnel. All of the lifeboats were stowed securely on the boat deck and, except for collapsible lifeboats A and B, connected to davits by ropes. Those on the starboard side were odd-numbered 1–15 from bow to stern, while those on the port side were even-numbered 2–16 from bow to stern.\nBoth cutters were kept swung out, hanging from the davits, ready for immediate use, while collapsible lifeboats C and D were stowed on the boat deck (connected to davits) immediately inboard of boats 1 and 2 respectively. A and B were stored on the roof of the officers' quarters, on either side of number 1 funnel. There were no davits to lower them and their weight would make them difficult to launch by hand. Each boat carried (among other things) food, water, blankets, and a spare life belt. Lifeline ropes on the boats' sides enabled them to save additional people from the water if necessary.\nTitanic had 16 sets of davits, each able to handle three lifeboats, unlike what Carslile had hoped. This gave Titanic the ability to carry up to 48 wooden lifeboats. However, the White Star Line decided that only 16 wooden lifeboats and four collapsibles would be carried, which could accommodate 1,178 people, only one-third of Titanic's total capacity. At the time, the Board of Trade's regulations required British vessels over 10,000 tonnes to only carry 16 lifeboats with a capacity of 990 occupants.\nTherefore, the White Star Line actually provided more lifeboat accommodation than was legally required. At the time, lifeboats were intended to ferry survivors from a sinking ship to a rescuing ship—not keep afloat the whole population or power them to shore. Had SS Californian responded to Titanic's distress calls, the lifeboats might have been able to ferry all passengers to safety as planned.\n\nBuilding and preparing the ship\nConstruction, launch and fitting-out\nThe sheer size of the Olympic class vessels posed a major engineering challenge for Harland and Wolff; no shipbuilder had ever before attempted to construct vessels this size. The ships were constructed on Queen's Island, now known as the Titanic Quarter, in Belfast Harbour. Harland and Wolff had to demolish three existing slipways and build two new ones, the largest ever constructed up to that time, to accommodate both ships. Their construction was facilitated by an enormous gantry built by Sir William Arrol & Co., a Scottish firm responsible for the building of the Forth Bridge and London's Tower Bridge. The Arrol Gantry stood 228 feet (69 m) high, was 270 feet (82 m) wide and 840 feet (260 m) long and weighed more than 6,000 tonnes. It accommodated a number of mobile cranes. A separate floating crane, capable of lifting 200 tonnes, was brought in from Germany.\nThe construction of Olympic and Titanic took place virtually in parallel, with Olympic's keel laid down first on 16 December 1908 and Titanic's on 31 March 1909. Both ships took about 26 months to build and followed much the same construction process. They were designed essentially as an enormous floating box girder, with the keel acting as a backbone and the frames of the hull forming the ribs. At the base of the ships, a double bottom 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) deep supported 300 frames, each between 24 inches (61 cm) and 36 inches (91 cm) apart and measuring up to about 66 feet (20 m) long. They terminated at the bridge deck (B Deck) and were covered with steel plates which formed the outer skin of the ships.\nThe 2,000 hull plates were single pieces of rolled steel plate, mostly up to 6 feet (1.8 m) wide and 30 feet (9.1 m) long and weighing between 2.5 and 3 tonnes. Their thickness varied from 1 inch (2.5 cm) to 1.5 inches (3.8 cm). The plates were laid in a clinkered (overlapping) fashion from the keel to the bilge. Above that point they were laid in the \"in and out\" fashion, where strake plating was applied in bands (the \"in strakes\") with the gaps covered by the \"out strakes\", overlapping on the edges. Commercial oxy-fuel and electric arc welding methods, ubiquitous in fabrication today, were still in their infancy. Like most other iron and steel structures of the era, the hull was held together with over three million iron and steel rivets, which by themselves weighed over 1,200 tonnes. They were fitted using hydraulic machines or were hammered in by hand. In the 1990s, material scientists concluded that the steel plate used for the ship was subject to being especially brittle when cold, and that this brittleness exacerbated the impact damage and hastened the sinking. It is believed that, by the standards of the time, the steel plate's quality was good, not faulty, but that it was inferior to what would be used for shipbuilding purposes in later decades, owing to advances in the metallurgy of steelmaking. As for the rivets, considerable emphasis has also been placed on their quality and strength.\nTwo side anchors and a centre anchor were among the last items to be fitted on Titanic before it launched. The anchors were a challenge to make; the centre anchor was the largest ever forged by hand. The head weighed nearly 16 tonnes and the shank another 8. Twenty Clydesdale draught horses were needed to haul the centre anchor by wagon from the Noah Hingley & Sons Ltd forge shop in Netherton, near Dudley, United Kingdom to the Dudley railway station two miles away. It was then shipped by rail to Fleetwood in Lancashire before boarding a ship to Belfast.\nConstructing the ships was difficult and dangerous. Safety precautions were rudimentary at best for the 15,000 men who worked at Harland and Wolff at the time. Much of the work was carried out without safety equipment like hard hats or hand guards on machinery. 246 injuries were recorded during Titanic's construction, including 28 severe injuries, such as arms severed by machines or legs crushed under falling pieces of steel. Six people died on the ship during construction and fitting out, and another two died in the shipyard workshops and sheds. Just before the launch, a worker was killed when a piece of wood fell on him.\nTitanic was launched at 12:15 pm on 31 May 1911 in the presence of Lord Pirrie, J. Pierpont Morgan, J. Bruce Ismay and 100,000 onlookers. Twenty-two tonnes of soap and tallow were spread on the slipway to lubricate the ship's passage into the River Lagan. In keeping with the White Star Line's traditional policy, the ship was not formally named or christened with champagne. The ship was towed to a fitting-out berth where, over the course of the next year, the engines, funnels and superstructure were installed and interior was fitted out.\nAlthough Titanic was virtually identical to the class's lead ship Olympic, a few changes were made to distinguish both ships. The most noticeable exterior difference was that Titanic (and the third vessel in class, Britannic) had a steel screen with sliding windows installed along the forward half of the A Deck promenade. This was installed as a last-minute change at the personal request of Bruce Ismay and was intended to provide additional shelter to First Class passengers. Extensive changes were made to B Deck on Titanic as the promenade space in this deck, which had proven unpopular on Olympic, was converted into additional First-Class cabins, including two opulent parlour suites with their own private promenade spaces. The À la Carte restaurant was also enlarged and the Café Parisien, an entirely new feature which did not exist on Olympic, was added. These changes made Titanic slightly heavier than Olympic and allowed claim to be the largest ship afloat. The work took longer than expected due to design changes requested by Ismay and a temporary pause in work occasioned by the need to repair Olympic, which had been in a collision in September 1911. Had Titanic been finished earlier, the ship might well have missed colliding with an iceberg.\n\nSea trials\nTitanic's sea trials began at 6 am on Tuesday, 2 April 1912, just two days after the fitting out was finished and eight days before departure from Southampton on the maiden voyage. The trials were delayed for a day due to bad weather, but by Monday morning it was clear and fair. Aboard were 78 stokers, greasers and firemen, and 41 members of crew. No domestic staff appear to have been aboard. Representatives of various companies travelled on Titanic's sea trials: Thomas Andrews and Edward Wilding of Harland and Wolff, and Harold A. Sanderson of IMM. Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie were too ill to attend. Jack Phillips and Harold Bride served as radio operators and performed fine-tuning of the Marconi equipment. Francis Carruthers, a surveyor from the Board of Trade, was also present to see that everything worked and that the ship was fit to carry passengers.\nThe sea trials consisted of a number of tests of handling characteristics, carried out first in Belfast Lough and then in the open waters of the Irish Sea. Over the course of about 12 hours, Titanic was driven at different speeds, turning ability was tested, and a \"crash stop\" was performed in which the engines were reversed full ahead to full astern, bringing the ship to a stop in 850 yd (777 m) or 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Titanic covered a distance of about 80 nautical miles (92 mi; 150 km), averaging 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h) and reaching a maximum speed of just under 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h).\nOn returning to Belfast at about 7 pm, the surveyor signed an \"Agreement and Account of Voyages and Crew\", valid for 12 months, which declared the ship seaworthy. An hour later, Titanic departed Belfast to head to Southampton, a voyage of about 570 nautical miles (660 mi; 1,060 km). After a journey lasting about 28 hours, Titanic arrived about midnight on 4 April and was towed to the port's Berth 44, ready for the arrival of passengers and the remainder of the crew.\n\nMaiden voyage\nBoth Olympic and Titanic registered Liverpool as their home port. The offices of the White Star Line, as well as Cunard, were in Liverpool, and up until the introduction of the Olympic, most British ocean liners for both Cunard and White Star, such as Lusitania and Mauretania, sailed from Liverpool followed by a port of call in Queenstown, Ireland. Since the company's founding in 1845, a vast majority of their operations had taken place from Liverpool. However, in 1907 White Star Line established another service from Southampton on England's south coast, which became known as White Star's \"Express Service\". Southampton had many advantages over Liverpool, the first being its proximity to London.\n\nIn addition, Southampton, being on the south coast, allowed ships to easily cross the English Channel and make a port of call on the northern coast of France, usually at Cherbourg. This allowed British ships to pick up clientele from continental Europe before recrossing the channel and picking up passengers at Queenstown. The Southampton-Cherbourg-New York run would become so popular that most British ocean liners began using the port after World War I. Out of respect for Liverpool, ships continued to be registered there until the early 1960s. Queen Elizabeth 2 was one of the first ships registered in Southampton when introduced into service by Cunard in 1969.\nTitanic's maiden voyage was intended to be the first of many trans-Atlantic crossings between Southampton and New York via Cherbourg and Queenstown on westbound runs, returning via Plymouth in England while eastbound. The entire schedule of voyages through to December 1912 still exists. When the route was established, four ships were assigned to the service. In addition to Teutonic and Majestic, RMS Oceanic and the brand new RMS Adriatic sailed the route. When the Olympic entered service in June 1911, the ship replaced Teutonic, which after completing a last run on the service in late April was transferred to the Dominion Line's Canadian service. The following August, Adriatic was transferred to White Star Line's main Liverpool-New York service, and in November, Majestic was withdrawn from service impending the arrival of Titanic in the coming months and was mothballed as a reserve ship.\nWhite Star Line's initial plans for Olympic and Titanic on the Southampton run followed the same routine as their predecessors had done before them. Each would sail once every three weeks from Southampton and New York, usually leaving at noon each Wednesday from Southampton and each Saturday from New York, thus enabling the White Star Line to offer weekly sailings in each direction. Special trains were scheduled from London and Paris to convey passengers to Southampton and Cherbourg respectively. The deep-water dock at Southampton, then known as the \"White Star Dock\", had been specially constructed to accommodate the new Olympic-class liners, and had opened in 1911.\n\nCrew\nTitanic had about 885 crew members on board for the maiden voyage. Like other vessels of the time, Titanic did not have a permanent crew, and the vast majority of crew members were casual workers who only came aboard the ship a few hours before sailing from Southampton. The process of signing up recruits began on 23 March and some were to Belfast, where they served as a skeleton crew on Titanic's sea trials and passage to England in early April.\nCaptain Edward John Smith, the most senior of the White Star Line's captains, was transferred from Olympic to take command of Titanic. Henry Tingle Wilde also came across from Olympic to take the post of chief mate. Titanic's previously designated chief mate and first officer, William McMaster Murdoch and Charles Lightoller, were downgraded to the ranks of first and second officer respectively, and the original second officer, David Blair, was dropped altogether. The third officer, Herbert Pitman, was the only deck officer not a member of the Royal Naval Reserve. Pitman was the second-to-last surviving officer.\nTitanic's crew were divided into three principal departments: Deck, with 66 crew; Engine, with 325; and Victualling, with 494. The vast majority of the crew were thus not seamen but were either engineers, firemen, or stokers, responsible for looking after the engines, or stewards and galley staff, responsible for the passengers. Of these, over 97% were male; just 23 of the crew were female, mainly stewardesses. The rest represented a variety of professions—bakers, chefs, butchers, fishmongers, dishwashers, stewards, gymnasium instructors, laundrymen, waiters, bed-makers, cleaners, and even a printer, who produced a daily newspaper for passengers called the Atlantic Daily Bulletin with the latest news received by the ship's wireless operators.\nMost of the crew signed on in Southampton on 6 April; in all, 699 of the crew came from there, and 40% were natives of the town. A few specialist staff were self-employed or subcontractors, including: five postal clerks who worked for the Royal Mail and the United States Post Office Department, the staff of the First Class À La Carte Restaurant and the Café Parisien, the radio operators (who were employed by Marconi) and the eight musicians, who were employed by an agency and travelled as second-class passengers. Crew pay varied greatly, from Captain Smith's £105 a month (equivalent to £13,100 today) to the £3 10s (£440 today) that stewardesses earned. The lower-paid victualling staff could, however, supplement their wages substantially through tips from passengers.\n\nPassengers\nTitanic's passengers numbered approximately 1,317 people: 324 in First Class, 284 in Second Class, and 709 in Third Class. Of these, 869 (66%) were male and 447 (34%) female. There were 107 children aboard, the largest number of whom were in Third Class. The ship was considerably under-capacity for the maiden voyage and could have accommodated 2,453 passengers—833 First Class, 614 Second Class, and 1,006 Third Class.\nUsually, a high-prestige vessel like Titanic could expect to be fully booked on a maiden voyage. However, a national coal strike in the UK had caused considerable disruption to shipping schedules in the spring of 1912, causing many crossings to be cancelled. Many would-be passengers chose to postpone their travel plans until the strike was over. The strike had finished a few days before Titanic sailed; however, that was too late to have much of an effect. Titanic was able to sail on the scheduled date only because coal was transferred from other vessels which were tied up at Southampton, such as SS City of New York and RMS Oceanic, as well as coal that Olympic had brought back from a previous voyage to New York, which had been stored at the White Star Dock.\nSome of the most prominent people of the day booked a passage aboard Titanic, travelling in First Class. Among them (with those who perished marked with a dagger†) were the American millionaire John Jacob Astor IV† and his wife, Madeleine Force Astor (with John Jacob Astor VI in utero); industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim†; painter and sculptor Francis Davis Millet†; Macy's owner Isidor Straus† and his wife, Ida†; millionairess Margaret \"Molly\" Brown; Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife, Lucy (Lady Duff-Gordon); Lieut. Col. Arthur Peuchen; writer and historian Archibald Gracie; cricketer and businessman John B. Thayer† with his wife, Marian, and son Jack; George Dunton Widener† with his wife, Eleanor, and son Harry†; Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes; Mr.† and Mrs. Charles M. Hays; Mr. and Mrs. Henry S. Harper; Mr.† and Mrs. Walter D. Douglas; Mr.† and Mrs. George D. Wick; Mr.† and Mrs. Henry B. Harris; Mr.† and Mrs. Arthur L. Ryerson; Mr.† and Mrs.† Hudson J. C. Allison; Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson Bishop; noted architect Edward Austin Kent†; brewery heir Harry Molson†; tennis players Karl Behr and Dick Williams; author and socialite Helen Churchill Candee; future lawyer and suffragette Elsie Bowerman and her mother Edith; journalist and social reformer William Thomas Stead†; journalist and fashion buyer Edith Rosenbaum; socialite Edith Corse Evans†; wealthy divorcée Charlotte Drake Cardeza; French sculptor Paul Chevré; author Jacques Futrelle† with his wife May; silent film actress Dorothy Gibson with her mother Pauline; President of the Swiss Bankverein, Col. Alfons Simonius-Blumer; James A. Hughes's daughter Eloise; banker Robert Williams Daniel; the chairman of the Holland America Line, Johan Reuchlin; Arthur Wellington Ross's son John H. Ross; Washington Roebling's nephew Washington A. Roebling II; Andrew Saks's daughter Leila Saks Meyer with her husband Edgar Joseph Meyer† (son of Marc Eugene Meyer); William A. Clark's nephew Walter M. Clark with his wife, Virginia; a great-great-grandson of soap manufacturer Andrew Pears, Thomas C. Pears, with wife; John S. Pillsbury's grandson John P. Snyder and wife Nelle; and Dorothy Parker's uncle Martin Rothschild with his wife, Elizabeth.\nTitanic's owner J. P. Morgan was scheduled to travel on the maiden voyage but cancelled at the last minute. Also aboard the ship were the White Star Line's managing director J. Bruce Ismay and Titanic's designer Thomas Andrews†, who was on board to observe any problems and assess the general performance of the new ship.\nThe exact number of people aboard is not known, as not all of those who had booked tickets made it to the ship; about 50 people cancelled for various reasons, and not all of those who boarded stayed aboard for the entire journey. Fares varied depending on class and season. Third Class fares from London, Southampton, or Queenstown cost £7 5s (equivalent to £900 today) while the cheapest First Class fares cost £23 (£2,900 today). The most expensive First Class suites were to have cost up to £870 in high season (£109,000 today).\n\nCollecting passengers\nTitanic's maiden voyage began on Wednesday, 10 April 1912. Following the embarkation of the crew, the passengers began arriving at 9:30 am, when the London and South Western Railway's boat train from London Waterloo station reached Southampton Terminus railway station on the quayside, alongside Titanic's berth. The large number of Third Class passengers meant they were the first to board, with First and Second Class passengers following up to an hour before departure. Stewards showed them to their cabins, and First Class passengers were personally greeted by Captain Smith. Third Class passengers were inspected for ailments and physical impairments that might lead to their being refused entry to the United States – a prospect the White Star Line wished to avoid, as it would have to carry anyone who failed the examination back across the Atlantic. In all, 920 passengers boarded Titanic at Southampton – 179 First Class, 247 Second Class, and 494 Third Class. Additional passengers were to be picked up at Cherbourg and Queenstown.\n\nThe maiden voyage began at noon, as scheduled. An accident was narrowly averted only a few minutes later, as Titanic passed the moored liners SS City of New York of the American Line and Oceanic of the White Star Line, the latter of which would have been a running mate on the service from Southampton. The ship's displacement caused both of the smaller ships to be lifted by a bulge of water and dropped into a trough. New York's mooring cables could not take the sudden strain and snapped, swinging around stern-first towards Titanic. A nearby tugboat, Vulcan, came to the rescue by taking New York under tow, and Captain Smith ordered Titanic's engines to be put \"full astern\". The two ships avoided a collision by a distance of about 4 feet (1.2 m). The incident delayed Titanic's departure for about an hour, while the drifting New York was brought under control.\nAfter making it safely through the complex tides and channels of Southampton Water and the Solent, Titanic disembarked the Southampton pilot at the Nab Lightship and headed out into the English Channel. The ship headed for the French port of Cherbourg, a journey of 77 nautical miles (89 mi; 143 km). The weather was windy, very fine but cold and overcast. Because Cherbourg lacked docking facilities for a ship the size of Titanic, tenders had to be used to transfer passengers from shore to ship. The White Star Line operated two tenders at Cherbourg: SS Traffic and SS Nomadic (Nomadic is the only surviving White Star Line ship). Both had been designed specifically as tenders for the Olympic-class liners and launched shortly after Titanic. Four hours after leaving Southampton, Titanic arrived at Cherbourg and was met by the tenders where 274 additional passengers were taken aboard (142 First Class, 30 Second Class, and 102 Third Class). Twenty-four passengers had booked a cross-Channel passage only and were left aboard the tenders to be conveyed to shore, a process completed within 90 minutes. At 8 pm, Titanic weighed anchor and left for Queenstown with the weather remaining cold and windy.\n\nAt 11:30 am on Thursday 11 April, Titanic arrived at Cork Harbour on the south coast of Ireland. It was a partly cloudy but relatively warm day, with a brisk wind. Again, the dock facilities were not suitable for a ship of Titanic's size, and the tenders America and Ireland were used to bring passengers aboard. In all, 123 passengers boarded Titanic at Queenstown – three First Class, seven Second Class and 113 Third Class. In addition to the 24 cross-Channel passengers who had disembarked at Cherbourg, another seven passengers had booked an overnight passage from Southampton to Queenstown. Among the seven was Francis Browne, a Jesuit trainee who was a keen photographer and took many photographs aboard Titanic, including one of the last known photographs of the ship. The very last one was taken by another cross-channel passenger, Kate Odell. A decidedly unofficial departure was that of a crew member, stoker John Coffey, a Queenstown native who sneaked off the ship by hiding under mail bags being transported to shore. Titanic weighed anchor for the last time at 1:30 pm and departed on the westward journey across the Atlantic.\n\nAtlantic crossing\nTitanic was planned to arrive at New York Pier 59 on the morning of 17 April. After leaving Queenstown, Titanic followed the Irish coast as far as Fastnet Rock, a distance of some 55 nautical miles (63 mi; 102 km). From there the voyage of 1,620 nautical miles (1,860 mi; 3,000 km) along a Great Circle route across the North Atlantic, reached a spot in the ocean known as \"the corner\", southeast of Newfoundland, where westbound steamers carried out a change of course. Titanic sailed only a few hours past the corner on a rhumb line leg of 1,023 nautical miles (1,177 mi; 1,895 km) to Nantucket Shoals Light when making fatal contact with an iceberg. The final leg of the journey would have been 193 nautical miles (222 mi; 357 km) to Ambrose Light and finally to New York Harbor.\nFrom 11 April to local apparent noon the next day, Titanic covered 484 nautical miles (557 mi; 896 km); the following day, 519 nautical miles (597 mi; 961 km); and by noon on the final day of the voyage, 546 nautical miles (628 mi; 1,011 km). From then until the time of sinking, the ship travelled another 258 nautical miles (297 mi; 478 km), averaging about 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h).\nThe weather cleared as Titanic left Ireland under cloudy skies with a headwind. Temperatures remained fairly mild on Saturday 13 April, but the following day Titanic crossed a cold weather front with strong winds and waves of up to 8 feet (2.4 m). These died down as the day progressed until, by the evening of Sunday 14 April, it became clear, calm, and very cold.\nThe first three days of the voyage from Queenstown had passed without apparent incident. A fire had begun in Titanic's forward most coal bunker (that supplied coal to boiler rooms six and five) approximately 10 days prior to the ship's departure, and continued to burn for several days into its voyage, but passengers were unaware of this situation. Fires occurred frequently on board steamships at the time, due to spontaneous combustion of the coal. The fires had to be extinguished with fire hoses by moving the coal on top to another bunker and by removing the burning coal and feeding it into the furnace. The fire was finally extinguished on 14 April. There has been some speculation and discussion as to whether this fire and attempts to extinguish it may have made the ship more vulnerable to sinking.\nTitanic received a series of warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, but Captain Smith ignored them. One of the ships to warn Titanic was the Atlantic Line's Mesaba. Nevertheless, Titanic continued to steam at full speed, which was standard practice at the time. Although not trying to set a speed record, timekeeping was a priority, and under prevailing maritime practices, ships were often operated at close to full speed; ice warnings were seen as advisories, and reliance was placed upon lookouts and the watch on the bridge. It was generally believed that ice posed little danger to large vessels. Close calls with ice were not uncommon, and even head-on collisions had not been disastrous. In 1907, SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, a German liner, had rammed an iceberg but still completed the voyage, and Captain Smith said in 1907 that he \"could not imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.\"\n\nSinking\nAt 11:40 pm (ship's time) on 14 April, lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the iceberg and the engines to be reversed, but it was too late. The starboard side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline. The hull was not punctured, but rather dented such that the steel plates of the hull buckled and separated, allowing water to rush in. Five of the sixteen watertight compartments were heavily breached and a sixth was slightly compromised. It soon became clear that Titanic would sink, as the ship could not remain afloat with more than four compartments flooded. Titanic began sinking bow-first, with water spilling from compartment to compartment over the top of each watertight bulkhead as the ship's angle in the water became steeper.\n\nThose aboard Titanic were ill-prepared for such an emergency. In accordance with accepted practices of the time, as ships were seen as largely unsinkable and lifeboats were intended to transfer passengers to nearby rescue vessels, Titanic only had enough lifeboats to carry about half of those on board; if the ship had carried the full complement of about 3,339 passengers and crew, only about a third could have been accommodated in the lifeboats. The crew had not been trained adequately in carrying out an evacuation. The officers did not know how many they could safely put aboard the lifeboats and launched many of them barely half-full. Third-class passengers were largely left to fend for themselves, causing many of them to become trapped below decks as the ship filled with water. The \"women and children first\" protocol was generally followed when loading the lifeboats, and most of the male passengers and crew were left aboard. Women and children survived at rates of about 75 per cent and 50 per cent, while only 20 per cent of men survived.\nBetween 2:10 and 2:15 am, a little over two and a half hours after Titanic struck the iceberg, the rate of sinking suddenly increased as the boat deck dipped underwater, and the sea poured in through open hatches and grates: in between that time, the electrical power on board also went out. As the ship's unsupported stern rose out of the water, exposing the propellers, the ship broke in two main pieces between the second and third funnels, due to the immense forces on the keel. With the bow underwater, and air trapped in the stern, the stern remained afloat and buoyant for a few minutes longer, rising to a nearly vertical angle with hundreds of people still clinging to it, before foundering at 2:20 am. It was believed that Titanic sank in one piece, but the discovery of the wreck many years later revealed that the ship had broken in two. All remaining passengers and crew were immersed in water at a temperature of −2 °C (28 °F). Only five who were in the water were helped into the lifeboats, though the lifeboats had room for almost 500 more people.\nDistress signals were sent by wireless, rockets, and lamp, but none of the ships that responded were near enough to reach Titanic before sinking. A radio operator on board SS Birma, for instance, estimated that it would be 6 am before the liner could arrive at the scene. Meanwhile, SS Californian, which was the last to have been in contact before the collision, saw Titanic's flares but failed to assist. Around 4 am, RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene in response to Titanic's earlier distress calls.\nWhen the ship sank, the lifeboats that had been lowered were only filled up to an average of 60%. 706 people survived the disaster and were conveyed by Carpathia to New York, Titanic's original destination, while 1,517 people died.\n\nAftermath of sinking\nImmediate aftermath\nRMS Carpathia took three days to reach New York after leaving the scene of the disaster with a journey slowed by pack ice, fog, thunderstorms and rough seas. Carpathia was, however, able to pass news to the outside world by wireless about what had happened. The initial reports were confusing, leading the American press to report erroneously on 15 April that Titanic was being towed to port by SS Virginian. Late on the night of 15 April White Star reported a message was received saying Titanic had sunk, but all passengers and crew had been transferred to another vessel. Later that day, confirmation came through that Titanic had been lost and that most of the passengers and crew had died. The news attracted crowds of people to the White Star Line's offices in London, New York, Montreal, Southampton, Liverpool and Belfast. It hit hardest in Southampton, whose people suffered the greatest losses from the sinking; four out of every five crew members came from this town.\nCarpathia docked at 9:30 pm on 18 April at New York's Pier 54 and was greeted by some 40,000 people waiting at the quayside in heavy rain. Immediate relief in the form of clothing and transportation to shelters was provided by the Women's Relief Committee, the Travelers Aid Society of New York, and the Council of Jewish Women, among other organisations. Many of Titanic's surviving passengers did not linger in New York but headed onwards immediately to relatives' homes. Some of the wealthier survivors chartered private trains to take them home, and the Pennsylvania Railroad laid on a special train free of charge to take survivors to Philadelphia. Titanic's 214 surviving crew members were taken to the Red Star Line's steamer SS Lapland, where they were accommodated in passenger cabins.\nCarpathia was hurriedly restocked with food and provisions before resuming the journey to Fiume, Austria-Hungary. The crew were given a bonus of a month's wages by Cunard as a reward for their actions, and some of Titanic's passengers joined to give them an additional bonus of nearly £900 (£113,000 today), divided among the crew members.\nThe ship's arrival in New York led to a frenzy of press interest, with newspapers competing to be the first to report the survivors' stories. Some reporters bribed their way aboard the pilot boat New York, which guided Carpathia into harbour, and one even managed to get onto Carpathia before docking. Crowds gathered outside newspaper offices to see the latest reports being posted in the windows or on billboards. It took another four days for a complete list of casualties to be compiled and released, adding to the agony of relatives waiting for news of those who had been aboard Titanic.\n\nInsurance, aid for survivors and lawsuits\nIn January 1912, the hulls and equipment of Titanic and Olympic had been insured through Lloyd's of London and London Marine Insurance. The total coverage was £1,000,000 (£123,000,000 today) per ship. The policy was to be \"free from all average\" under £150,000, meaning that the insurers would only pay for damage in excess of that sum. The premium, negotiated by brokers Willis Faber & Company (now Willis Group), was 15 s (75 p) per £100, or £7,500 (£940,000 today) for the term of one year. Lloyd's paid the White Star Line the full sum owed to them within 30 days.\nMany charities were set up to help the survivors and their families, many of whom lost their sole wage earner, or, in the case of many Third-Class survivors, everything they owned. In New York City, for example, a joint committee of the American Red Cross and Charity Organization Society formed to disburse financial aid to survivors and dependents of those who died. On 29 April, opera stars Enrico Caruso and Mary Garden and members of the Metropolitan Opera raised $12,000 ($300,000 in 2014) in benefits for victims of the disaster by giving special concerts in which versions of \"Autumn\" and \"Nearer My God To Thee\" were part of the programme. In Britain, relief funds were organised for the families of Titanic's lost crew members, raising nearly £450,000 (£56,000,000 today). One such fund was still in operation as late as the 1960s.\nIn the United States and Britain, more than 60 survivors combined to sue the White Star Line for damages connected to loss of life and baggage. The claims totalled $16,804,112 (appr. $419 million in 2018 USD), which was far in excess of what White Star argued it was responsible for as a limited liability company under American law. Because the bulk of the litigants were in the United States, White Star petitioned the United States Supreme Court in 1914, which ruled in its favour that it qualified as an LLC and found that the causes of the ship's sinking were largely unforeseeable, rather than due to negligence. This sharply limited the scope of damages survivors and family members were entitled to, prompting them to reduce their claims to some $2.5 million. White Star only settled for $664,000 (appr. $16.56 million in 2018), about 27% of the original total sought by survivors. The settlement was agreed to by 44 of the claimants in December 1915, with $500,000 set aside for the American claimants, $50,000 for the British, and $114,000 to go towards interest and legal expenses.\n\nInvestigations into the disaster\nEven before the survivors arrived in New York, investigations were being planned to discover what had happened, and what could be done to prevent a recurrence. Inquiries were held in both the United States and the United Kingdom, the former more robustly critical of traditions and practices, and scathing of the failures involved, and the latter broadly more technical and expert-orientated.\nThe US Senate's inquiry into the disaster was initiated on 19 April, a day after Carpathia arrived in New York. The chairman, Senator William Alden Smith, wanted to gather accounts from passengers and crew while the events were still fresh in their minds. Smith also needed to subpoena all surviving British passengers and crew while they were still on American soil, which prevented them from returning to the UK before the American inquiry was completed on 25 May. The British press condemned Smith as an opportunist, insensitively forcing an inquiry as a means of gaining political prestige and seizing \"his moment to stand on the world stage\". Smith, however, already had a reputation as a campaigner for safety on US railroads, and wanted to investigate any possible malpractices by railroad tycoon J. P. Morgan, Titanic's ultimate owner.\nThe British Board of Trade's inquiry into the disaster was headed by Lord Mersey, and took place between 2 May and 3 July. Being run by the Board of Trade, who had previously approved the ship, it was seen by some as having little interest in its own or White Star's conduct being found negligent.\nEach inquiry took testimony from both passengers and crew of Titanic, crew members of Leyland Line's Californian, Captain Arthur Rostron of Carpathia and other experts. The British inquiry also took far greater expert testimony, making it the longest and most detailed court of inquiry in British history up to that time. The two inquiries reached broadly similar conclusions: the regulations on the number of lifeboats that ships had to carry were out of date and inadequate, Captain Smith had failed to take proper heed of ice warnings, the lifeboats had not been properly filled or crewed, and the collision was the direct result of steaming into a dangerous area at too high a speed.\nNeither inquiry's findings listed negligence by IMM or the White Star Line as a factor. The American inquiry concluded that since those involved had followed standard practice, the disaster was an act of God. The British inquiry concluded that Smith had followed long-standing practice that had not previously been shown to be unsafe, noting that British ships alone had carried 3.5 million passengers over the previous decade with the loss of just 10 lives, and concluded that Smith had done \"only that which other skilled men would have done in the same position\". Lord Mersey did, however, find fault with the \"extremely high speed (twenty-two knots) which was maintained\" following numerous ice warnings, noting that \"what was a mistake in the case of the Titanic would without doubt be negligence in any similar case in the future\".\nThe recommendations included strong suggestions for major changes in maritime regulations to implement new safety measures, such as ensuring that more lifeboats were provided, that lifeboat drills were properly carried out and that wireless equipment on passenger ships was manned around the clock. An International Ice Patrol was set up to monitor the presence of icebergs in the North Atlantic, and maritime safety regulations were harmonised internationally through the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea; both measures are still in force today.\nOn 18 June 1912, Guglielmo Marconi gave evidence to the Court of Inquiry regarding the telegraphy. Its final report recommended that all liners carry the system and that sufficient operators maintain a constant service.\nThe way the Titanic sank brought to light serious design issues with the Olympic-class. As a result, the Olympic went through a major refit and design changes for the construction of the Britannic.\nIn August 1912, the liner Corsican struck an iceberg in the Atlantic, severely damaging the bow. However, because the weather was hazy at the time, speed had been reduced to 'dead slow', which limited further damage. While the lifeboats had been deployed, they were not boarded.\n\nRole of SS Californian\nOne of the most controversial issues examined by the inquiries was the role played by SS Californian, which had been only a few miles from Titanic but had not picked up distress calls or responded to signal rockets. Californian had stopped for the night because of icy conditions and warned Titanic by radio, but was rebuked by Titanic's senior wireless operator, Jack Phillips.\nTestimony before the British inquiry revealed that at 10:10 pm, Californian observed the lights of a ship to the south; it was later agreed between Captain Stanley Lord and Third Officer C.V. Groves (who had relieved Lord of duty at 11:10 pm) that this was a passenger liner. At 11:50 pm, the officer watched that ship's lights flash out, as if shutting down or turning sharply, and noted that the port light was visible. Morse light signaled to the ship, upon Lord's order, were made between 11:30 pm and 1:00 am, but were not acknowledged. If Titanic was as far from the Californian as Lord claimed Morse signals would not have been be visible. A reasonable and prudent course of action would have been to awaken the wireless operator and to instruct him to attempt to contact Titanic by that method. Had Lord done so, it is possible he could have reached Titanic in time to save additional lives.\nCaptain Lord had gone to the chart room at 11:00 pm. Second Officer Herbert Stone, now on duty, notified Lord at 1:10 am that the ship had fired five rockets. Lord wanted to know if they were company signals, that is, coloured flares used for identification. Stone said that he did not know and that the rockets were all white. Captain Lord instructed the crew to continue to signal the other vessel with the Morse lamp, and went back to sleep. Three more rockets were observed at 1:50 am and Stone noted that the ship looked strange in the water, as if the ship were listing. At 2:15 am, Lord was notified that the ship could no longer be seen. Lord asked again if the lights had had any colours in them, and he was informed that they were all white.\nCalifornian eventually responded. At around 5:30 am, Chief Officer George Stewart awakened wireless operator Cyril Furmstone Evans, informed him that rockets had been seen during the night, and asked that he try to communicate with any ship. He got news of Titanic's loss, Captain Lord was notified, and the ship set out to render assistance, arriving well after Carpathia had already picked up all the survivors.\nThe inquiries found that the ship seen by Californian was in fact Titanic and that it would have been possible for Californian to aid rescue; therefore, Captain Lord had acted improperly in failing to do so.\n\nSurvivors and victims\nThe number of casualties of the sinking is unclear, because of a number of factors. These include confusion over the passenger list, which included some names of people who cancelled their trip at the last minute, and the fact that several passengers travelled under aliases for various reasons and were therefore double-counted on the casualty lists. The death toll has been put at between 1,490 and 1,635 people. The tables below use figures from the British Board of Trade report on the disaster. While the use of the Marconi wireless system did not achieve the result of bringing a rescue ship to Titanic before it sank, the use of wireless did bring Carpathia in time to rescue some of the survivors who otherwise would have perished due to exposure.\nThe water temperature was well below normal in the area where Titanic sank. It also contributed to the rapid death of many passengers during the sinking. Water temperature readings taken around the time of the accident were reported to be −2 °C (28 °F). Typical water temperatures were normally around 7 °C (45 °F) during mid-April. The coldness of the water was a critical factor, often causing death within minutes for many of those in the water.\nFewer than a third of those aboard Titanic survived the disaster. Some survivors died shortly afterwards; injuries and the effects of exposure caused the deaths of several of those brought aboard Carpathia. The figures show stark differences in the survival rates of the different classes aboard Titanic. Although only 3% of first-class women were lost, 54% of those in third-class died. Similarly, five of six first-class and all second-class children survived, but 52 of the 79 in third-class perished. The differences by gender were even bigger: nearly all female crew members, first- and second-class passengers were saved. Men from the First Class died at a higher rate than women from the Third Class. In total, 50% of the children survived, 20% of the men and 75% of the women.\nThomas Andrews, the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster.\nThe last living survivor, Millvina Dean from England, who, at only nine weeks old, was the youngest passenger on board, died aged 97 on 31 May 2009. Two special survivors were the stewardess Violet Jessop and the stoker Arthur John Priest, who survived the sinkings of both Titanic and HMHS Britannic and were aboard RMS Olympic when the ship was rammed in 1911.\n\nRetrieval and burial of the dead\nOnce the massive loss of life became known, White Star Line chartered the cable ship CS Mackay-Bennett from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to retrieve bodies. Three other Canadian ships followed in the search: the cable ship Minia, lighthouse supply ship Montmagny and sealing vessel Algerine. Each ship left with embalming supplies, undertakers, and clergy. Of the 333 victims that were eventually recovered, 328 were retrieved by the Canadian ships and five more by passing North Atlantic steamships.\nThe first ship to reach the site of the sinking, the CS Mackay-Bennett, found so many bodies that the embalming supplies aboard were quickly exhausted. Health regulations required that only embalmed bodies could be returned to port. Captain Larnder of the Mackay-Bennett and undertakers aboard decided to preserve only the bodies of first-class passengers, justifying their decision by the need to visually identify wealthy men to resolve any disputes over large estates. As a result, many third-class passengers and crew were buried at sea. Larnder identified many of those buried at sea as crew members by their clothing, and stated that as a mariner, he himself would be contented to be buried at sea.\nBodies of passengers of the Titanic were numbered as they were brought aboard. Physical characteristics, clothing, identifying marks, and personal effects were all documented. Personal effects were stored separately, labeled with the same body number, and valuables were locked up by the purser. Without enough material or space to handle bodies and their belongings, the crew had to triage.\nBodies recovered were preserved for transport to Halifax, the closest city to the sinking with direct rail and steamship connections. The Halifax Registrar of Vital Statistics, John Henry Barnstead, developed a detailed system to identify bodies and safeguard personal possessions. Relatives from across North America came to identify and claim bodies. A large temporary morgue was set up in the curling rink of the Mayflower Curling Club and undertakers were called in from all across eastern Canada to assist. Some bodies were shipped to be buried in their home towns across North America and Europe. About two-thirds of the bodies were identified. Unidentified victims were buried with simple numbers based on the order in which their bodies were discovered. The majority of recovered victims, 150 bodies, were buried in three Halifax cemeteries, the largest being Fairview Lawn Cemetery followed by the nearby Mount Olivet and Baron de Hirsch cemeteries.\nIn mid-May 1912, RMS Oceanic recovered three bodies over 200 miles (320 km) from the site of the sinking who were among the original occupants of Collapsible A. When Fifth Officer Harold Lowe and six crewmen returned to the wreck site sometime after the sinking in a lifeboat to pick up survivors, they rescued a dozen males and one female from Collapsible A, but left the dead bodies of three of its occupants. After their retrieval from Collapsible A by Oceanic, the bodies were buried at sea.\nThe last Titanic body recovered was steward James McGrady, Body No. 330, found by the chartered Newfoundland sealing vessel Algerine on 22 May and buried at Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax on 12 June.\n333 bodies of Titanic victims were recovered, which amounted to one in five of the over 1,500 victims. Some bodies sank with the ship while currents quickly dispersed bodies and wreckage across hundreds of miles, making them difficult to recover. By June, one of the last search ships reported that life jackets supporting bodies were coming apart and releasing bodies to sink.\n\nWreck\nTitanic was long thought to have sunk in one piece and, over the years, many schemes were put forward for raising the wreck. None came to fruition. The fundamental problem was the sheer difficulty of finding and reaching a wreck that lies over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) below the surface, where the water pressure is over 5,300 pounds per square inch (37 megapascals), about 370 standard atmospheres. A number of expeditions were mounted to find Titanic but it was not until 1 September 1985 that a Franco-American expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel and Robert Ballard succeeded.\nThe team discovered that Titanic had in fact split apart, probably near or at the surface, before sinking to the seabed. The separated bow and stern sections lie about a third of a mile (0.6 km) apart in Titanic Canyon off the coast of Newfoundland. They are located 13.2 miles (21.2 km) from the inaccurate coordinates given by Titanic's radio operators on the night of the ship's sinking, and approximately 715 miles (1,151 km) from Halifax and 1,250 miles (2,012 km) from New York.\nBoth sections struck the seabed at considerable speed, causing the bow to crumple and the stern to collapse entirely. The bow is by far the more intact section and still contains some surprisingly intact interiors. In contrast, the stern is completely wrecked; its decks have pancaked down on top of each other and much of the hull plating was torn off and lies scattered across the sea floor. The much greater level of damage to the stern is probably due to structural damage incurred during the sinking. Thus weakened, the remainder of the stern was flattened by the impact with the sea bed.\nThe two sections are surrounded by a debris field measuring approximately 5 by 3 miles (8 km × 5 km). It contains hundreds of thousands of items, such as pieces of the ship, furniture, dinnerware and personal items, which fell from the ship while sinking or ejected when the bow and stern impacted on the sea floor. The debris field was also the last resting place of a number of Titanic's victims. Most of the bodies and clothes were consumed by sea creatures and bacteria, leaving pairs of shoes and boots—which have proved to be inedible—as the only sign that bodies once lay there.\nSince its initial discovery, the wreck of Titanic has been revisited on numerous occasions by explorers, scientists, filmmakers, tourists and salvagers, who have recovered thousands of items from the debris field for conservation and public display. The ship's condition has deteriorated significantly over the years, particularly from accidental damage by submersibles but mostly because of an accelerating rate of growth of iron-eating bacteria on the hull. In 2006, it was estimated that within 50 years the hull and structure of Titanic would eventually collapse entirely, leaving only the more durable interior fittings of the ship intermingled with a pile of rust on the sea floor.\n\nMany artefacts from Titanic have been recovered from the seabed by RMS Titanic Inc., which exhibits them in touring exhibitions around the world and in a permanent exhibition at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. A number of other museums exhibit artefacts either donated by survivors or retrieved from the floating bodies of victims of the disaster.\nOn 16 April 2012, the day after the 100th anniversary of the sinking, photos were released showing possible human remains resting on the ocean floor. The photos, taken by Robert Ballard during an expedition led by NOAA in 2004, show a boot and a coat close to Titanic's stern which experts called \"compelling evidence\" that it is the spot where somebody came to rest, and that human remains could be buried in the sediment beneath them. The wreck of the Titanic falls under the scope of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. This means that all states party to the convention will prohibit the pillaging, commercial exploitation, sale and dispersion of the wreck and its artefacts. Because of the location of the wreck in international waters and the lack of any exclusive jurisdiction over the wreckage area, the convention provides a state co-operation system, by which states inform each other of any potential activity concerning ancient shipwreck sites, like the Titanic, and co-operate to prevent unscientific or unethical interventions.\nSubmersible dives in 2019 have found further deterioration of the wreck, including loss of the captain's bathtub. Between 29 July and 4 August 2019, a two-person submersible vehicle that was conducting research and filming a documentary crashed into the wreck. EYOS Expeditions executed the dives. It reported that the strong currents pushed the submersible into the wreck, leaving a red rust stain on the submersible's side. The report did not mention if the Titanic sustained damage.\nIn May 2023, Magellan Ltd., a deep-water seabed-mapping company, announced that they had created a \"digital twin\" of the Titanic, showing the wreckage in a level of detail that had never been captured before. The company created the model from some 715,000 3D images, captured over the course of a six-week expedition in the summer of 2022, using two submersibles, named Romeo and Juliet. They mapped \"every millimetre\" of the wreckage as well as the entire three-nautical-mile (5.6 km) debris field. Creating the model took about eight months.\nOn 18 June 2023, the submersible Titan, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, went missing in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. The submersible, designed to carry five people, was carrying an expedition of tourists to view the wreckage of the Titanic. On 22 June 2023, the operating company announced that they believe the Titan crew were lost at sea after a catastrophic implosion of the submersible, and, six days later, the U.S. Coast Guard announced its discovery of “presumed human remains” consistent with such an implosion found within recovered remnants of the Titan.\nOn 15 July 2024, RMS Titanic Inc. held their first expedition to the wreck in 14 years, with the objective of examining its status in high-resolution photography for future scientific studies, likewise with identifying and searching for on-site artefacts. The expedition also gave tribute to Nargeolet's contributions within the debris field, having made numerous efforts in the preceding years in expanding knowledge over the area; A memorial plaque was placed on the seafloor in his honour. Numerous other uncharted areas within the vicinity were explored as well. Moreover, the event received coverage from the BBC, who interviewed numerous figures involved, such as co-leader David Gallo, who said \"We want to see the wreck with a clarity and precision that's never before been achieved\". Imaging programme chief Evan Kovacs also expressed his optimism in producing distinctly defined resolution, stating that \"If all of the weather gods, the computer gods, the ROV gods, the camera gods – if all those gods align, we should be able to capture Titanic and the wreck site in as close to digital perfection as you can get. You would be able to quite literally count grains of sand\". Furthermore, a magnetometer was utilised to produce metal detection – whether visible or not – for the first time in the history of Titanic expeditions. The expedition was facilitated through an ROV.\n\nLegacy\nSafety\nAfter the disaster, recommendations were made by both the British and American Boards of Inquiry stating that ships should carry enough lifeboats for all aboard, mandated lifeboat drills would be implemented, lifeboat inspections would be conducted, etc. Many of these recommendations were incorporated into the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea passed in 1914. The convention has been updated by periodic amendments, with a completely new version adopted in 1974. Signatories to the Convention followed up with national legislation to implement the new standards. For example, in Britain, new \"Rules for Life Saving Appliances\" were passed by the Board of Trade on 8 May 1914 and then applied at a meeting of British steamship companies in Liverpool in June 1914.\nFurther, the United States government passed the Radio Act of 1912. This Act, along with the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, stated that radio communications on passenger ships would be operated 24 hours a day, along with a secondary power supply, so as not to miss distress calls. Also, the Radio Act of 1912 required ships to maintain contact with vessels in their vicinity as well as coastal onshore radio stations. In addition, it was agreed in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea that the firing of red rockets from a ship must be interpreted as a sign of need for help. Once the Radio Act of 1912 was passed, it was agreed that rockets at sea would be interpreted as distress signals only, thus removing any possible misinterpretation from other ships. In the same year, the Board of Trade chartered the barque Scotia to act as a weather ship in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, keeping a look-out for icebergs. A Marconi wireless telegraph was installed to enable her to communicate with stations on the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland.\nFinally, the disaster led to the formation and international funding of the International Ice Patrol, an agency of the U.S. Coast Guard that to the present day monitors and reports on the location of North Atlantic Ocean icebergs that could pose a threat to transatlantic sea traffic. Coast Guard aircraft conduct the primary reconnaissance. In addition, information is collected from ships operating in or passing through the ice area. Except for the years of the two World Wars, the International Ice Patrol has worked each season since 1913. During the period, there has not been a single reported loss of life or property due to collision with an iceberg in the patrol area.\n\nCultural legacy\nThe story of Titanic has been remembered in history as a tragedy and cautionary tale, particularly because the ship had been considered unsinkable. Titanic has inspired fiction, been the subject of documentaries, and commemorated in monuments for the dead and museum exhibitions. Shortly after sinking, memorial postcards sold in huge numbers together with memorabilia ranging from tin candy boxes to plates, whiskey jiggers, and even mourning teddy bears. The sinking inspired ballads such as \"The Titanic\". Several survivors wrote books about their experiences, but it was not until 1955 that the first historically accurate book – A Night to Remember – was published.\nThe first film about the disaster, Saved from the Titanic, was released only 29 days after the ship sank and had an actual survivor as its star—the silent film actress Dorothy Gibson. This film is considered lost. The British film A Night to Remember (1958) is still widely regarded as the most historically accurate movie portrayal of the sinking. The most financially successful by far has been James Cameron's Titanic (1997), which became the highest-grossing film in history up to that time, as well as the winner of 11 Oscars at the 70th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Cameron.\nThe Titanic disaster was commemorated through a variety of memorials and monuments to the victims, erected in several English-speaking countries and in particular in cities that had suffered notable losses. These included Southampton and Liverpool in England; New York and Washington, D.C. in the United States; and Belfast and Cobh (formerly Queenstown) in Ireland. A number of museums around the world have displays on Titanic; the most prominent is in Belfast, the ship's birthplace (see below).\nRMS Titanic Inc., which is authorised to salvage the wreck site, has a permanent Titanic exhibition at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel and casino in Nevada which features a 22-tonne slab of the ship's hull. It also runs an exhibition which travels around the world. In Nova Scotia, Halifax's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic displays items that were recovered from the sea a few days after the disaster. They include pieces of woodwork such as panelling from the ship's First Class Lounge and an original deckchair, as well as objects removed from the victims. In 2012 the centenary was marked by plays, radio programmes, parades, exhibitions and special trips to the site of the sinking together with commemorative stamps and coins. Royal Mail (whose mail was carried by RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic) issued ten 1st class UK postage stamps, each with the \"crown seal\", to mark the centenary of the disaster.\nIn a frequently commented-on literary coincidence, Morgan Robertson authored a novel called Futility in 1898 about a fictional British passenger liner with the plot bearing a number of similarities to the Titanic disaster. In the novel, the ship is SS Titan, a four-stacked liner, the largest in the world and considered unsinkable; like the Titanic, sinks in April after hitting an iceberg and does not have enough lifeboats.\n\nIn Northern Ireland\nIt took many decades before the significance of Titanic was promoted in Northern Ireland, where it was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast. While the rest of the world embraced the glory and tragedy of Titanic, it remained a taboo subject throughout the 20th century in its birth city. The sinking brought tremendous grief and was a blow to Belfast's pride. Its shipyard was also a place many Catholics regarded as hostile. In the latter half of the century, during a 30-year sectarian conflict, Titanic was a reminder of the lack of civil rights that in part contributed towards the Troubles. While the fate of Titanic remained a well-known story within local households throughout the 20th century, commercial investment in projects recalling RMS Titanic's legacy was modest because of these issues.\nAfter the Troubles and Good Friday Agreement, the number of overseas tourists visiting Northern Ireland increased. It was subsequently identified in the Northern Ireland Tourism Board's Strategic Framework for Action 2004–2007 that the significance of and interest in Titanic globally (partly due to the 1997 film Titanic) was not being fully exploited as a tourist attraction. Thus, Titanic Belfast was spearheaded, along with some smaller projects, such as a Titanic memorial.\nIn 2012 on the ship's centenary, the Titanic Belfast visitor attraction was opened on the site of the shipyard where Titanic was built. It was Northern Ireland's second most visited tourist attraction with almost 700,000 visitors in 2016.\nDespite over 1,600 ships being built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast Harbour, Queen's Island became renamed after its most famous ship, Titanic Quarter in 1995. Once a sensitive story, Titanic is now considered one of Northern Ireland's most revered and uniting symbols.\nIn late August 2018, several groups were vying for the right to purchase the 5,500 Titanic relics that were an asset of the bankrupt Premier Exhibitions. Eventually, Titanic Belfast, Titanic Foundation Limited and the National Museums Northern Ireland joined with the National Maritime Museum as a consortium that was raising money to purchase the 5,500 artefacts. The group intended to keep all of the items together as a single exhibit. Oceanographer Robert Ballard said he favoured this bid since it would ensure that the memorabilia would be permanently displayed in Belfast (where Titanic was built) and in Greenwich. The museums were critical of the bid process set by the Bankruptcy court in Jacksonville, Florida. The minimum bid for the 11 October 2018 auction was set at US$21.5 million (£16.5m) and the consortium did not have enough funding to meet that amount. On 17 October 2018, The New York Times reported that a consortium of three hedge funds—Apollo Global Management, Alta Fundamental Advisers, and PacBridge Capital Partners—had paid US$19.5 million for the collection. At the time of the purchase, the consortium agreed to continued oversight by the court concerning new exploration or salvage expedition must receive approval from NOAA and the court. Further, the purchase price gives Premier's unsecured creditors an 80% recovery.\n\nDiagrams and timeline\nReplicas\nThere have been several proposals and studies for a project to build a replica ship based on the Titanic. A project by South African businessman Sarel Gaus was abandoned in 2006, and a project by Australian businessman Clive Palmer was announced in 2012, known as the Titanic II.\nA Chinese shipbuilding company known as Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd commenced construction in November 2016 to build a replica ship of the Titanic for use in a resort. The vessel was to house many features of the original, such as a ballroom, dining hall, theatre, first-class cabins, economy cabins and swimming pool. Tourists were to be able to reside inside the Titanic during their time at the resort. It was to be permanently docked at the resort and feature an audiovisual simulation of the sinking, which has caused some criticism. As of 2022, however, it was reportedly only 25% complete, and its website and Twitter account are offline.\n\nSee also\nTitanic conspiracy theories\nTitanic in popular culture\nSeamen's Act\nLists of shipwrecks\nThe Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility\n\nComparable disasters\nSS Atlantic, White Star Line ship lost in 1873 with the greatest loss of life for the company before Titanic\nSS Eastland, a ship capsizing in 1915 after being fitted with extra lifeboats\nMS Estonia\nRMS Empress of Ireland\n\nNotes\nReferences\nBibliography\nBooks\nExternal links\n\nRMS Titanic, Inc, exclusive steward of RMS Titanic\nTitanic Historical Society\nRMS Titanic at Curlie\nCollection of Marconigram radio messages related to the Titanic Archived 25 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine\nTitanic collected news and commentary at The Guardian \nNew York Times coverage of the Titanic\n\"Titanic in Black and White\" at Library of Virginia\nRuhlow, Tina (December 2020). \"50 Images From The Titanic You Have To See To Believe\". Reference.com. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020.\nTitanic Footage and Survivors Interviews on YouTube\nTitanic Footage: Leaving Belfast – British Pathé on YouTube\nReferences to the Titanic in European Historic Newspapers\nRare Postcard from the Titanic\nRMS Titanic: Fascinating Engineering Facts on YouTube – Professor William S. Hammack","title":"Titanic"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The 1912 Summer Olympics (Swedish: Olympiska sommarspelen 1912), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad (Swedish: Den V olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, between 6 July and 22 July 1912. The opening ceremony was held on 6 July.\nTwenty-eight nations and 2,408 competitors, including 48 women, competed in 102 events in 14 sports. With the exception of tennis (starting on 5 May) and football and shooting (both starting on 29 June), the games were held within a month with an official opening on 6 July. It was the last Olympics to issue solid gold medals and, with Japan's debut, the first time an official team from an Asian nation participated. Stockholm was the only bid for the games, and was selected in 1909.\nThe games were the first to have art competitions, women's diving, women's swimming, and the first to feature both the decathlon and the new pentathlon, both won by the American Jim Thorpe. Electric timing was introduced in athletics, while the host country disallowed boxing. Figure skating was rejected by the organizers because they wanted to promote the Nordic Games.\nThe United States won the most gold medals (26), while hosts Sweden won the most medals overall (65). These were the final Olympic Games for eight years due to the disruption of the First World War. The next Olympic Games were held in 1920 in Antwerp.\n\nHost selection\nFollowing the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, authorities in Sweden immediately sought to ensure that the next games would be held there. There were two Swedish members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the time, Viktor Balck and Clarence von Rosen. The pair proposed the idea to the Swedish governing bodies of athletics and gymnastics in order to ensure that they backed any potential bid. Support was given by the national associations on 18 April 1909 for a bid to host the Olympics in Stockholm on the basis that suitable financial arrangements could be made. King Gustaf V was petitioned on 6 May 1909 following the publication of preliminary plans for the Stockholm bid that the expected cost of hosting the Games would be 415,000 kronor (£23,050 or $115,250). The Government accepted the petition on behalf of the King and supported the bid.\nOn 28 May, at the meeting of the IOC in Berlin, the Swedish representatives declared that they had full financial support for hosting the next Games in Stockholm. A deal was made with the German IOC representative on the basis that Berlin would host the 1916 Summer Olympics. Pierre de Coubertin spoke at the meeting about his concerns that Sweden should ensure that the Games take place, as he did not want a repeat of the problems with Great Britain hosting the 1908 Games. He also expressed a desire that \"the Games must be kept more purely athletic; they must be more dignified, more discreet; more in accordance with classic and artistic requirements; more intimate, and, above all, less expensive.\" The Games were duly awarded to Sweden to host in Stockholm as the only nominated host city for the 1912 Summer Olympics.\n\nOrganization\nThe news that Stockholm was to host the 1912 Olympics was received with enthusiasm by the Swedish public. The organizing committee took de Coubertin's words to heart, and aimed to achieve an Olympic Games which removed those elements which detracted from earlier Games. The committee was elected in the autumn of 1909, with Balck voted as the President of the committee, and Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf selected as Honorary President. The committee's first meeting took place on 7 October, and on 11 October they delegated the arrangements for the individual branches of sports to the relevant governing bodies in Sweden. There were four exceptions to this, with the game shooting, modern pentathlon and mountain ascents retained by the Olympic committee, and the horse riding competitions being organized by Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland, who was the inspector of the Swedish cavalry. Altogether there were 187 members of these committees.\nThe official invitation to compete in the Games was issued on 18 November 1910 to 27 countries, either directly or through their representative on the IOC. A further 15 countries were to have been invited, but as they had no IOC representatives, the Swedish authorities were unsure how to proceed. Once the organizing committee for the Games received confirmation of the athletic associations in each of the 15 countries, they too were sent invitations. Some 61,800 entry forms were printed for the use of the various nations.\nFree transport was arranged for the invited nations' equipment, and a discount of 50 percent was arranged for competitors and delegates on the state run railway. A daily newspaper which only covered the Olympics was arranged to be published during the Games, in both English and Swedish. Further arrangements were made for the general arrival of visitors in order to entertain them whilst they were not at the Games; a pleasure garden was opened north of the Olympic Stadium, and a series of indoor tennis courts were converted into a restaurant.\n\nVenues\nTwelve sports venues were used in the 1912 Summer Olympics. This marked the first time that more than one venue would be used for the football tournament, which has been the case ever since. Stockholm Olympic Stadium served as one of the equestrian venues for the 1956 Summer Olympics. Råsunda Stadium served as a venue for the 1958 FIFA World Cup and the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup. In the initial bid document it was identified that a new stadium would be needed, initially envisaged as being located in the Östermalm Athletic Grounds. In order to save funds, it was expected that only one of the stadium's stands would be permanent, with the other three made of wood and dismantled following the Games. The cost of that stadium was estimated at 235,000 Kronor. Arrangements were made with the individual national committees to provide the use of Östermalm Athletic Grounds and Traneberg.\nThe cycling road race was held around Mälaren, the third largest lake in Sweden. The water events, including the swimming and the rowing, were held at Djurgårdsbrunnsviken, where a stadium was built. Kaknäs was already used as a shooting range, but alterations were needed to accommodate shooting events. Although it was not used as the Olympic stadium as originally intended, Östermalm hosted the lawn tennis and fencing competitions after a tennis pavilion was moved there from another location.\nFive other locations were considered in addition to the Östermalm Athletic Grounds to locate the Olympic Stadium. The Stockholm Olympic Stadium was built on the site of the former Stockholm Athletic Grounds in order to retain the other locations for other uses during the Games. By placing it to the north of the city, the Olympic Stadium was within the immediate vicinity of other pre-existing sporting venues. Initial funding was given to the sum of 400,000 Kr for a timber stadium but Torben Grut, the architect, also drew up alternative plans for a stone stadium. Following discussions with the Swedish Central Association for the Application of Athletics, it was decided that the stone version should be built, and further funds were made available through a national lottery once guarantees were made that no further funding was to be asked for in order to build the stadium. However it was found that the original estimate for the stone stadium would still be too expensive, and the plans were once more modified in order to simplify the design and reduce costs. An agreement was entered into with a contractor on 2 November 1910 that it would be transferred complete by 25 May 1912.\n\nOpening ceremony\nThe Games of the V Olympiad were opened on 6 July 1912. The Swedish Royal Family left Stockholm Palace at 10:40am, and were received at the Olympic Stadium by members of the IOC. Three thousand competing athletes had already assembled in the nearby Östermalm Athletic Grounds, and began to enter the stadium in alphabetical order by nation according to the Swedish spelling. The Swedish team entered last, but unlike the later tradition, the Greek team did not enter first.\nA hymn was sung, a traditional Swedish chant was conducted and prayers were read first in Swedish and then in English. Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf addressed the King on behalf of the Swedish Olympic Association. King Gustav V then declared the Games officially open by a long speech:\n\nIt is with legitimate joy and pride that we Swedes see athletes from every part of the world gathered here with us. It is a great honour for Sweden that Stockholm has been chosen as the scene of the Fifth Olympiad, and I bid all of you, athletes and friends of athletics, a most hearty welcome to this friendly contest of the nations. May the grand thought that found expression in the Olympic Games in classic times be so held in honour by our age too, that these competitions may become a powerful means to promote the physical health and development of every people. With these words, I herewith declare the Olympic Games of Stockholm opened.\nAfterwards a trumpet fanfare was played and the Crown Prince called for cheers for the King. The athletes in their national groups marching out of the stadium in order ended the ceremony.\n\nEvents\nThe Swedish delegation at the IOC meeting in Berlin on 28 May 1909 had proposed a simple Olympic schedule containing only \"pure\" athletics, swimming, gymnastics and wrestling. However other countries requested that the schedule be more comprehensive, and with that in mind they put forward a further programme at the IOC meeting in 1911 which was met with approval. The sports which were added were the tug of war, cycling, fencing, football, horse riding, lawn tennis, rowing, shooting, skating and yacht racing. The question of adding skating to the programme was discussed once more on 7 February 1910, with the decision being made to drop it from the schedule. It was felt to be unsuitable because it was a winter sport, and it was to be part of the Nordic Games the following year. Boxing was removed from the programme as it was unappealing to the Swedes. Art competitions were considered at a further meeting on 14 February 1910, and were subsequently added to the programme, but now art competitions are no longer regarded as official Olympic events by the International Olympic Committee.\nAs a result, now the 1912 Summer Olympics programme considered composed of 14 sports encompassing 18 disciplines and 102 events. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.\n\nBaseball, glima and Gotland sports were unofficial demonstration sports. This was also the first year art competitions were held at the Olympics.\n\nAthletics\nThe athletic events saw the introduction of a fully automatic timing system developed by R. Carlstedt. It involved attaching electromagnets to chronometers in a system which attached a control lamp to the starting gun for each race. This resulted in the firing of the gun starting a timer which was then stopped by one of the judges at the finishing line. The final of the men's 100 metres was expected to be a mostly American affair, and it ended up with six athletes, only one of whom was not from the United States. It suffered from seven false starts before the athletes finally got away, with Ralph Craig winning the gold medal by 60 centimetres (24 in) in front of second place Alvah Meyer. Donald Lippincott won bronze, 15 cm behind second man.\nKanakuri Shizō, a Japanese marathon runner, went missing during the race. He lost consciousness by heatstroke and a farming family helped him to stop at a party taking place in a villa on the marathon route in order to quench his thirst, then caught a train to Stockholm and left the country the next day. He returned to Japan without notifying race officials. 50 years later, after being invited back by the Swedish authorities, he completed the race with an (unofficial) time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds. Portuguese Francisco Lázaro died from heat exhaustion while running the marathon, the only athlete to die during the running of an Olympic marathon.\nAmerican Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and the newly created decathlon. Thorpe's gold medals were stripped by the International Olympic Committee in 1913, after the IOC learned that Thorpe had taken expense money for playing baseball, violating contemporary Olympic amateurism rules, before the 1912 Games. This moved everyone else up in the rankings. In 1982, the IOC was convinced that the disqualification had been improper, as no protest against Thorpe's eligibility had been brought within the required 30 days, and reinstated Thorpe's medals. The replicas were presented to his children in 1983, 30 years after Thorpe's death. Finally, in 2022, the IOC posthumously declared Thorpe as the sole winner of the pentathlon and decathlon events after extensive consultations with his former competitors' families who said they had always viewed Thorpe as the winner.\nNew Olympic records were set in the majority of track and field events, with only the men's 200 metres, 10 km walk, standing high jump, standing broad jump, hop, step and jump, and the hurdle competitions failing to have new records set. Tell Berna captured a gold for the 3000m and Henry S. \"Harry\" Babcock took gold for the pole vault, setting an Olympic Record at 3.95m. Hannes Kolehmainen was the most successful in setting records at the games, with new Olympic Records set in the 5,000, 10,000 metre and cross country races.\n\nCycling\nThe cycling events at the 1912 Games were limited to a road race around Lake Mälaren, which had already been a successful route for a yearly cycling race. Although not originally in the schedule, several countries requested that track cycling be added; however, the organizing committee stuck by their plans not to build a new track cycling stadium as the only one in Stockholm had been destroyed in order for the Olympic Stadium to be built. In addition, Germany had specifically requested Cycle-Polo and Figure-Cycling to be added to the programme, both of which requests were turned down by the committee.\nIt was decided to hold the road race as a time trial, and to outlaw any non-competitive cyclists acting as pacemakers. Nineteen nations entered 151 athletes into the competition, which was a greater number than expected by the committee. The largest group was from Great Britain, who had entered twelve competitors from England, another twelve from Scotland, and a further nine from Ireland. The race began on 7 July, with the athletes leaving in groups. The first group left at 2am, with the remaining groups leaving at intervals of two minutes. The distance raced was 318 kilometres (198 mi), with South African Rudolph Lewis winning the gold medal in the individual race. Frederick Grubb of Great Britain won the silver medal, and Carl Schutte of the United States won the bronze. However, the average positions of the Swedish team were better than their competitors', and so the Swedish team won the gold medal for the team competition. The silver and bronze medals followed the individual victories, going to Great Britain and the United States respectively – giving Grubb and Schutte a second medal each of the same varieties.\n\nDiving\nAll of the medals in the men's competitions were split between the diving teams of the Swedish and German teams. The men's high dive was a Swedish white out, with Swedish divers taking all three medal positions. Erik Adlerz took the gold medal, and proceeded to take the gold medal for Sweden in the 10 metre platform too. Albert Zürner took the silver for Germany, and Gustaf Blomgren won the bronze medal for Sweden. Another white out occurred in the 3 metre springboard with all three medals going to the German team, with Paul Günther taking gold, Hans Luber in the silver medal position and Kurt Behrens in bronze. A 10-metre platform event also took place for women, with Sweden taking two more medals, Greta Johansson in gold and Lisa Regnell in silver. Great Britain's Isabelle White won the bronze medal. The remaining finalists were all from Sweden.\n\nEquestrian\nEquestrian made its first appearance at a modern Olympics in the 1912 Games. Although competitions involving horse riding had been included in the programme of 1900, this was the first appearance of modern Olympic staples such as dressage, eventing and show jumping. It was expected that the competitors would be military personnel as they would have had the cavalry experience to compete. The competition was split between the military competitions, prize riding and prize jumping.\nIn the military competition, seven countries put forward competitors for the individual and team eventing. Each nation put forward four athletes with the exception of Denmark, which only put forward three. Some of the countries also nominated reserves in addition to their main athletes. The total length of the course was 55 kilometres (34 mi) with the start and finish both in the grounds of the Field Riding Club. The heat was such on the day of the event that competitors lost as much as 4.5 pounds (2.0 kg)in weight. Swede Axel Nordlander won the individual competition, and led the Swedish eventing team to victory as well, earning himself two gold medals. In second place in the individual competition was German Friedrich von Rochow, who also earned a second silver medal as the team from Germany placed second overall. Only the bronze medals were split up between nationalities, with the American team taking the bronze for the team event while Frenchman Jacques Cariou won the individual medal.\nTwo additional countries entered for the dressage, although only Sweden entered the maximum number of competitors. The event resulted in Sweden taking all three medals, with the gold going to Carl Bonde, the silver to Gustaf Adolf Boltenstern and the bronze to Hans von Blixen-Finecke. The individual show jumping competition was the only individual equestrian event at the 1912 Olympics in which Sweden won no medals, with the gold medal instead going to Cariou of the French to add to his bronze medal from the dressage, Rabod von Kröcher taking the silver for Germany, and Emmanuel de Blommaert winning the bronze for Belgium. The team event saw Sweden take another gold medal, with the French team second and the German team, featuring Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, in the bronze medal position.\n\nFencing\nThe foil competition became a full Olympic event, having appeared at the 1908 Games as a demonstration sport. Nedo Nadi and Pietro Speciale of Italy took the gold and silver medals respectively, and Richard Verderber of Austria placed third. There were individual and team events in both épée and sabre. The épée team event saw Belgium take the gold medal and Great Britain and the Netherlands in second and third place respectively. A member of the Belgian team went on to take the individual title as well, with Paul Anspach taking the gold medal. Ivan Joseph Martin Osiier of Denmark took the silver medal, and another Belgian who was not in the team event, Philippe le Hardy de Beaulieu, won the bronze medal.\nThe sabre competition was dominated by the competitors from Hungary, with their team taking the gold medal over Austria and the Netherlands. The individual competition saw a shut out by Hungarian athletes with Jenő Fuchs winning the overall competition, Béla Békessy in second and Ervin Mészáros in third.\n\nFootball\nThirteen countries signalled their intention to enter football teams for the 1912 Olympics. A standard cup tie system was implemented, with the final deciding the gold and silver medallists and a third/fourth position playoff deciding the bronze medal winner. Only FIFA affiliated teams were allowed to take part, with the public draw for the tournament taking place on 18 June 1911. The tournament itself started on 29 June. In the first round Finland defeated Italy 3–2, Austria beat Germany 5–1 and the Netherlands emerged victorious over Sweden 4–3. The team from Great Britain, who had won the gold medal at the 1908 Summer Games, were given a bye to the second round, where they faced Hungary and won 7–0. Finland also won their match, defeating Russia 2–1. Denmark matched the British scoreline, winning 7–0 against Norway, and the Netherlands won against Austria 3–1.\nThe semi final matches pitted Great Britain against Finland, where they won 4–0, and Denmark against the Netherlands, ending in a 4–1 victory for Denmark. The Netherlands won the third/fourth place playoff by the biggest scoreline of the tournament, beating Finland 9–0. Later on the same day the final was played in the Olympic Stadium, where Great Britain retained its gold medal against Denmark in front of 25,000 spectators. Goals from Harold Walden, Arthur Berry and two from Gordon Hoare helped Britain to win by a margin of 4–2.\n\nGymnastics\nThe gymnastic competition at the 1912 Games featured a single individual competition and three team events in addition to a variety of displays by the various teams. The Swedish team naturally won the Gymnastics event of the Swedish system, referred to in the programme as \"Team Competition I\", with fellow Scandinavian teams Denmark and Norway taking the second and third positions. The all around team competition came second, with Italy taking the gold. In addition, one of the Italian team members, Alberto Braglia, won the individual gold for the same event. Louis Ségura of the French team won the individual silver, while another member of the Italian team, Adolfo Tunesi, won the individual bronze. The all around team competition saw Hungary take the silver medal and the team from Great Britain in third place. The final team competition allowed for a free choice of movements and apparatus. This was another all Scandinavian affair, with the Norwegian team emerging victorious, Finland in second and Denmark in the bronze medal position.\n\nModern pentathlon\nModern pentathlon was competed for at the 1912 Games, marking its first appearance in the Olympics. It was for these games that the five events of shooting, swimming, equestrian, fencing and cross country running were decided to make up the pentathlon. The competition was spread out across five days from 7 through to 12 July, ending with the cross country race. Only men participated in the event, although a woman named Helen Preece was briefly enrolled to compete until the organizing committee ultimately denied her entry.\n\nFor the shooting element, each competitor was allowed to bring their own pistol. The American competitor George S. Patton (later better known as the Second World War US Army General) used a Colt revolver, while the Danish competitors preferred the Danish Army service pistol, the Germans and Norwegians used the Luger P08 pistol and the Swedes used a target practice pistol by Smith & Wesson. The shooting part of the competition was won by Gösta Åsbrink, with Georg de Laval and Gösta Lilliehöök in second and third place respectively, all three representing Sweden.\nThe swimming event was three lengths, each of 100 metres (330 ft), with the athletes split into eight heats and times going forward to calculate positions. Ralph Clilverd of Great Britain won this event, with Edmond Bernhardt of Austria in second and de Laval in third. The fencing competition saw each competitor face off against each other. Several opponents were noted for their particular skill in the event with Åke Grönhagen of Sweden coming first with 24 wins, Jean de Mas Latrie of France second with 23, Sidney Stranne of Sweden in third with 21 and Patton of the United States close behind with 20. Thirteen of the competitors cleared the equestrian course without any penalties, with Grönhagen winning the event, Bror Mannström of Sweden in second and de Laval third.\nThe cross country run was over 4,000 metres and started in the Olympic Stadium itself. The event was run as a time trial with competitors leaving one minute apart. As this was the final event, the winning competitors were announced after the race, with Lilliehöök winning the gold medal, Åsbrink taking silver and de Laval, bronze. The highest placed non-Swedish competitor was Patton, who finished fifth.\n\nRowing\nThe rowing events at the 1912 Olympics did not prove popular with the public. This was put down to the \"fatigue\" of the public due to the volume of sporting events. The eight competition was split into heats, with two teams in each heat. The two British crews were lucky not to be drawn against each other, with the team from Leander Club facing New College, Oxford in the final. Leander won by a length with a time of 6:15. The coxed four followed a similar format to the eights, with the German team from Ludwigshafener Ruderverein defeating Britain's Thames Rowing Club in the final.\nThe competition for the coxed four, inriggers was much smaller, with only four nations competing. The Danish team defeated Sweden in the final. The single sculls heats proved controversial with the first round race between Mart Kuusik and Alfred Heinrich being re-run after a protest by Heinrich. In addition, Cecil McVilly was disqualified in the first round after colliding with the boat of Martin Stahnke. Wally Kinnear of Great Britain defeated Polydore Veirman of Belgium in the final, with Kinnear winning the matchup easily.\n\nSailing\nThe yachts for the sailing competition assembled at Nynäshamn on 19 July, along with the other vessels that were to take part in an Olympic regatta. The racing itself started the following day with the 12 metre class. There were only three nations and yachts competing in this event, the hosts Sweden, as well as Norway and Finland. Norway won the gold medal, Sweden the silver and Finland came in last place, winning bronze. The 10 metre class had the same number of countries entering it, although this time Sweden entered two yachts and Russia competed instead of Norway. The Swedish yacht Kitty was the winning vessel, with the Finnish boat in second and the Russians coming third.\nA slightly improved field was featured in the 8 metre class, with four countries entering two yachts each. The medals were awarded to exactly the same nations as the 12 metre class, another all Scandinavian affair. The 6 metre class saw the most diverse field of any of the sailing events at the 1912 Olympics: six countries entered a total of nine yachts. France and Denmark competed in their only sailing event, along with Sweden, sending two yachts each. Those three nations were the successful in the event, with the French yacht Mac Miche taking the gold, the Danish Nurdug II taking silver and the Swedish Kerstin placing third.\n\nShooting\nThere were eighteen shooting events at the 1912 Olympics, of which eight were team events. The competition was split predominantly into three sections: military rifle shooting, shooting with miniature rifles, pistols and revolvers, and clay bird and running deer shooting. The Swedish and American competitors were the most successful at the competition, with seven gold medals each, although Sweden won a total of seventeen medals while the United States team won fourteen. 64-year-old Oscar Swahn, part of the Swedish single shot running deer team, is still the oldest gold medal winner in Olympic history.\n\nSwimming\nIn swimming, Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku won the 100 metre freestyle for the United States, who also saw Harry Hebner win gold in the 100 metre backstroke. The Canadian team also took two gold medals, both by George Hodgson in the 400 and 1,500 metre events. The German swimming team won all three medals in the 200 metre breaststroke, with the gold going to Walter Bathe, who won a further gold in the 400 metre breaststroke. The Australasian team was victorious in the men's relay, with the United States finishing in the silver medal position and Great Britain placing third.\nThe 1912 Games saw the implementation of swimming events for women, with the 100 metre freestyle and 400 metre team relay taking place. Fanny Durack won the individual contest, breaking the world record for the distance in the fourth heat. Her fellow Australian Mina Wylie won the silver medal, and Jennie Fletcher of Great Britain came third to take the bronze medal. The British team had further success in the women's relay, winning the team relay with the German team in second place and the Austrian team in third. Because only four countries entered the relay there were no heats; only a final was held. The United States did not field a women's team. New Olympic Records were set in all swimming events at the 1912 Games.\n\nTennis\nTennis on covered courts was agreed initially for the 1912 Games, with competitions run for gentlemen's singles and doubles, ladies' singles, and mixed doubles. The outdoor tournament was confirmed once the Östermalm Athletic Grounds were completed in late 1911, with the plans modified to have both indoor and outdoor tournaments.\nSix countries sent players for the covered court competitions, with representatives from Sweden, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Australasia, and Bohemia appearing. Included in this lineup was Australasia's only competitor, Anthony Wilding from New Zealand, who was also the reigning Wimbledon gentlemen's champion. The indoor knockout competition started on 5 May, and continued as expected until the semi-final round where Wilding was beaten by Britain's Charles P. Dixon. The British player met Frenchman André Gobert in the final, but Gobert was victorious over the Englishman in straight sets. Wilding took the bronze medal in a playoff against another British player, Arthur Lowe.\n\nThe outdoors tennis competition saw 70 players enter from 12 nations. However, Great Britain did not enter any competitors as the dates of the outdoor competition clashed with the 1912 Wimbledon Championships, despite attempts by the British authorities to convince the Olympic organizing committee to change the dates. Other noted tennis players refused to compete at the Olympics and instead attended Wimbledon. The gold and silver medals in the gentlemen's singles ended up being decided between two South Africans, with Charles Winslow and Harold Kitson playing each other. Winslow won the match and the gold medal, 7–5, 4–6, 10–8, 8–6. The duo also competed as a pair in the gentlemen's doubles and took the gold medal, beating the Austrians Felix Pipes and Arthur Zborzil. Marguerite Broquedis of France defeated Dorothea Koring of Germany in the ladies' singles for the gold medal. In the mixed doubles Koring teamed up with Heinrich Schomburgk to win the gold, the duo defeating Sigrid Fick and Gunnar Setterwall of Sweden in the final.\n\nTug of war\nThe tug of war competition was scheduled to take place between 7 and 12 July, with two matches taking place each day. However, out of the five countries which elected to enter the competition, only two actually appeared. Great Britain arrived for its match against Bohemia, but the opposition team was nowhere to be found. Britain was duly declared the winner. The same thing happened once more for the second match, with the Swedish team, made up of policemen from Stockholm, arriving to find that the Austrian team had not arrived. Sweden was announced as the winners of the match in the Austrians' absence.\nOn the second day of the competition, Great Britain took on Sweden, the only occasion where both teams actually turned up for the bout. The British team were made up of the winners of the gold medal in the same event at the 1908 Games, with the exception of John Sewell and Mathias Hynes. As the British team also consisted of policemen, the bout ended up effectively being between the City of London Police and the Stockholm Police, with the Swedish team winning 2–0. Due to the non-appearance of the team from Luxembourg, that one match ended up being the entire tug of war event at the 1912 Olympics. Sweden was awarded the gold medal and Great Britain the silver.\n\nWater polo\nThe water polo tournament was set up on a modified elimination system as there were six teams entered. The first round saw the British team defeating the Belgian team, Sweden defeating the French team and Austria defeating Hungary. Lots were drawn to determine which match would take place in the second round as there were three teams left in the competition. Great Britain were drawn to face Sweden, who they defeated. Austria automatically qualified for the final against the winner of the Britain-Sweden matchup. Great Britain won the gold medal in the event, defeating Austria 8–0. Playoff matches were then played between each pair of defeated teams in order to decide the second and third places. Sweden and Belgium played off after a further three matches to decide the silver and bronze medal positions, with Sweden emerging victorious 4–2.\n\nWrestling\nThe nations at the 1912 Games entered a total of 267 wrestlers, although the actual competitors who appeared in Sweden were fewer, with 171 actually turning up to compete. Greco-Roman wrestling was the only style of wrestling competed for at the Games. The bouts took place in the open air in an area of the Olympic stadium, with the wrestlers split according to weight into five divisions: featherweight, lightweight, middleweight A (later referred to as middleweight), middleweight B (later referred to as light heavyweight) and heavyweight.\nThe skills of the competitors from Finland were noted in the featherweight competition, with Kaarlo Koskelo taking the gold medal, while German Georg Gerstäcker took silver and a further medal went to Finland with Otto Lasanen taking bronze. The lightweight class drew the most attention from the public, with Emil Väre winning gold after beating all of his opponents by pin rather than by points. Swedish wrestlers Gustaf Malmström and Edvin Mattiasson took the silver and bronze medals respectively. Claes Johanson won Sweden's only gold medal in the middleweight competition, with his fellow finalist from Russia, Martin Klein, retiring before fighting Johanson in the final. This was due to the semi-final match between Klein and Alfred Asikainen of Finland lasting 11 hours and forty minutes, although they took breaks for refreshments every half-hour. Klein was awarded the silver medal and Asikainen the bronze.\nThe light heavyweight competition saw another marathon length match, with the bout between Anders Ahlgren of Sweden and Ivar Böhling of Finland for the gold medal lasting more than nine hours. The match was then declared a draw with both athletes being awarded the silver medal as neither won the match. The bronze medal went to Hungary's Béla Varga, who was defeated by Ahlgren in the semi-final match. Yrjö Saarela of Finland was victorious in the heavyweight competition after having placed second in the light heavyweight event at the 1908 Games. Johan Olin took another medal for Finland with the silver and Søren Marinus Jensen repeated his bronze medal at the 1908 Olympics with another for Denmark.\n\nArt competitions\nThe 1912 Summer Olympics saw the introduction of art competitions at the Summer Olympics. Events were implemented for literature, sculpture, painting, architecture and music. Walter Winans won the gold medal for his sculpture, An American Trotter, which added to his previous gold medal for the running deer (double shot) competition at the 1908 Olympics and the silver medal in the running deer competition in 1912.\nBaron Pierre de Coubertin, President of the IOC and founder of the modern Olympic movement, won the gold medal for literature. He actually entered the competition under the pseudonyms of Georges Hohrod and Martin Eschbach from Germany. With the exception of the sculpture competition, only gold medals were issued. Italian Riccardo Barthelemy won the medal for music with his Olympic Triumphal March, and fellow countryman Giovanni Pellegrini won the gold for painting. The Swiss architects Eugène-Edouard Monod and Alphonse Laverrière shared the gold for their stadium design. The sole silver medal, for sculpture, went to Frenchman Georges Dubois for his Model of the entrance to a modern stadium.\n\nDemonstration sports\nIn the evening of 7 July, demonstrations took place in the Olympic Stadium of sports from the Swedish island of Gotland. These began at 7:30pm with a demonstration of Pärk, a type of tennis with seven players a side. At the same time, at the other end of the stadium, a type of Icelandic wrestling called Glima was demonstrated. Once those displays had concluded, further demonstrations were made of the Swedish sport varpa, similar to quoits, and stångstörtning, a version of the caber toss.\nBaseball was also demonstrated at the Games. A game was played between the United States, the nation where the game was developed, and Sweden, the host nation. The game was held on Monday, 15 July 1912 and started at 10 a.m. on the Ostermalm Athletic Grounds in Stockholm. The Americans were represented by various members of the American Olympic track and field athletics delegation, while the Swedish team was the Vesterås Baseball Club, which had been formed in 1910 as the first baseball club in Sweden. Four of the Americans played for Sweden, as the Swedish pitchers and catchers were inexperienced. One Swede eventually relieved Adams and Nelson, the American pitchers.\nSix innings were played, with the Americans not batting in the sixth and allowing the Swedes to have six outs in their half of the inning. The game was umpired by George Wright, a retired American National League baseball player.\n\nParticipating nations\nTwenty-eight nations competed at the 1912 Games. Egypt participated for the first time, as did Luxembourg, Iceland, Portugal, and Serbia. Japan also made their Olympic debut, marking the first appearance of an Asian country at an Olympic Games. Chile made its first appearance as a national team, with fourteen athletes attending the Games, although it had previously entered one individual at the 1896 Games. This was also the first time that athletes from Armenia had competed in the Olympics, as part of the team from Turkey (the officially recognised name for the Ottoman Empire). Serbia's appearance was the only time it attended an Olympic Games as an independent nation until the 2008 Summer Olympics, almost one hundred years later.\nThe only nation that participated in the previous games in London 1908 but was absent in Stockholm 1912 was Argentina.\nAustria and Hungary competed as two sovereign countries. The polity known as Austria-Hungary is mistakenly considered a single sovereign country, while in reality was two sovereign states in real union with a single monarch who was titled both emperor of Austria and king of Hungary.\nAt the time, Australasia (Australia and New Zealand), Canada and South Africa were all part of the British Empire. Bohemia was part of Austria. Iceland was part of Denmark. Finland was part of Russia. And Egypt was de jure under the control of Turkey, but had been de facto run by the British since 1882.\nThis was the last Olympics that allowed \"private entries\", i.e. individual athletes that were not part of a country's officially selected team. Arnold Jackson was one such private entry; he won the 1500 metres by 0.1 seconds, ahead of an American trio, in what was acclaimed at the time to be \"the greatest race ever run\". His medal is still credited to the United Kingdom, however.\n\nNumber of athletes by National Olympic Committees\nMedal count\nThese are the top 10 nations that won medals at the 1912 Games. The medals themselves included solid gold medals, the last time these were given out.\n\nSee also\nList of IOC country codes\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\n\"Stockholm 1912\". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.\nSwedish Olympic Committee (1913). Erik Bergvall (ed.). The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912 (PDF). Stockholm: Wahlstrom and Widstrand. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-04-10.","title":"1912_Summer_Olympics"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank on 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,500 died (figures vary), making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship. Titanic, operated by the White Star Line, carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere in Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada. The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired a lasting legacy in popular culture.\\nRMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat upon entering service and the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners built for the White Star Line. The ship was built by the Harland and Wolff shipbuilding company in Belfast. Thomas Andrews Jr., the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster. Titanic was under the command of Captain Edward John Smith, who went down with the ship.\\nThe first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury. It included a gymnasium, swimming pool, smoking rooms, fine restaurants and cafes, a Victorian-style Turkish bath, and hundreds of opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available to send passenger \\\"marconigrams\\\" and for the ship's operational use. Titanic had advanced safety features, such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, which contributed to the ship's reputation as \\\"unsinkable\\\".\\nTitanic was equipped with 16 lifeboat davits, each capable of lowering three lifeboats, for a total capacity of 48 boats. Despite this capacity, the ship was scantly equipped with a total of only 20 lifeboats. Fourteen of these were regular lifeboats, two were cutter lifeboats, and four were collapsible and proved difficult to launch while the ship was sinking. Together, the 20 lifeboats could hold 1,178 people — roughly half the number of passengers on board, and a third of the number the passengers the ship could have carried at full capacity (a number consistent with the maritime safety regulations of the era). The British Board of Trade's regulations required 14 lifeboats for a ship 10,000 tonnes. Titanic carried six more than required, allowing 338 extra people room in lifeboats. When the ship sank, the lifeboats that had been lowered were only filled up to an average of 60%.\\n\\nBackground\\nThe name Titanic derives from the Titans of Greek mythology. Built in Belfast, Ireland, in what was then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, RMS Titanic was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners—the lead vessel was RMS Olympic and the final ship in the class was HMHS Britannic. They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Line's fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912. The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in mid-1907 between the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, and the American financier J. P. Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line's parent corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM).\\nWhite Star faced an increasing challenge from its main rivals, Cunard Line—which, with the aid of the Royal Navy, had recently launched the twin sister ships Lusitania and Mauretania, the fastest passenger ships then in service—and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Ismay preferred to compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of liners larger than anything that had come before, which would be the last word in comfort and luxury. The new ships would have sufficient speed to maintain a weekly service with only three ships instead of the original four. Olympic and Titanic would replace RMS Teutonic of 1889, RMS Majestic of 1890 and RMS Adriatic of 1907. RMS Oceanic first departed from a new home port in June 1907 along with the Teutonic, Majestic, and the new Adriatic on the Southampton-New York run.\\nThe ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilder Harland & Wolff, which had a long-established relationship with the White Star Line dating back to 1867. Harland and Wolff were given a great deal of latitude in designing ships for the White Star Line; the usual approach was for Wilhelm Wolff to sketch a general concept, which Edward James Harland would turn into a ship design. Cost considerations were a relatively low priority; Harland & Wolff were authorised to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a five per cent profit margin. In the case of the Olympic-class ships, a cost of £3 million (approximately £370 million in 2023) for the first two ships was agreed, plus \\\"extras to contract\\\" and the usual five per cent fee.\\nHarland and Wolff put their leading designers to work designing Olympic-class vessels. The design was overseen by Lord Pirrie, a director of both Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line; naval architect Thomas Andrews, the managing director of Harland and Wolff's design department; Edward Wilding, Andrews's deputy and responsible for calculating the ship's design, stability and trim; and Alexander Carlisle, the shipyard's chief draughtsman and general manager. Carlisle's responsibilities included the decorations, equipment, and all general arrangements, including the implementation of an efficient lifeboat davit design.\\nOn 29 July 1908, Harland and Wolff presented the drawings to J. Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line executives. Ismay approved the design and signed three \\\"letters of agreement\\\" two days later, authorising the start of construction. At this point, the first ship—which was later to become Olympic—had no name but was referred to simply as \\\"Number 400\\\", as it was Harland and Wolff's 400th hull. Titanic was based on a revised version of the same design and was given the number 401.\\n\\nDimensions and layout\\nTitanic was 882 feet 9 inches (269.06 m) long with a maximum breadth of 92 feet 6 inches (28.19 m).\\nThe ship's total height, measured from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge, was 104 feet (32 m). Titanic measured 46,329 GRT and 21,831 NRT and with a draught of 34 feet 7 inches (10.54 m) and displaced 52,310 tonnes.\\nAll three of the Olympic-class ships had ten decks (excluding the top of the officers' quarters), eight of which were for passenger use. From top to bottom, the decks were:\\n\\nThe boat deck, on which the lifeboats were housed. It was from here during the early hours of 15 April 1912 that Titanic's lifeboats were lowered into the North Atlantic. The bridge and wheelhouse were at the forward end, in front of the captain's and officers' quarters. The bridge stood 8 feet (2.4 m) above the deck, extending out to either side so that the ship could be controlled while docking. The wheelhouse stood within the bridge. The entrance to the First Class Grand Staircase and gymnasium were located midships along with the raised roof of the First Class lounge, while at the rear of the deck were the roof of the First Class smoke room and the Second Class entrance. Just forward of the Second Class entrance sat the kennels, where the First Class passengers' dogs would stay. The wood-covered deck was divided into four segregated promenades: for officers, First Class passengers, engineers, and Second Class passengers respectively. Lifeboats lined the side of the deck except in the First Class area, where there was a gap so that the view would not be spoiled.\\nA Deck, also called the promenade deck, extended along the entire 546 feet (166 m) length of the superstructure. It was reserved exclusively for First Class passengers and contained First Class cabins, the First Class reading and writing room, lounge, smoke room, and Palm Court.\\nB Deck, the bridge deck, was the top weight-bearing deck and the uppermost level of the hull. More First Class passenger accommodations were located here with six palatial staterooms (cabins) featuring their own private promenades. On Titanic, the à la carte restaurant and the Café Parisien provided luxury dining facilities to First Class passengers. Both were run by subcontracted chefs and their staff; all were lost in the disaster. The Second Class smoking room and entrance hall were both located on this deck. The raised forecastle of the ship was forward of the bridge deck, accommodating Number 1 hatch (the main hatch through to the cargo holds), numerous pieces of machinery and the anchor housings. Aft of the bridge deck was the raised poop deck, 106 feet (32 m) long, used as a promenade by Third Class passengers. It was where many of Titanic's passengers and crew made their last stand as the ship sank. The forecastle and poop deck were separated from the bridge deck by well decks.\\nC Deck, the shelter deck, was the highest deck to run uninterrupted from stem to stern. It included both well decks; the aft one served as part of the Third-Class promenade. Crew cabins were housed below the forecastle and Third-Class public rooms were housed below the poop deck. In between were the majority of First Class cabins and the Second-Class library. \\nD Deck, the saloon deck, was dominated by three public rooms—the First-Class reception room, the First-Class dining saloon and the Second-Class dining saloon. The first- and second-class galleys were also located on this deck. An open space was provided for Third Class passengers. First, Second- and Third-Class passengers had cabins on this deck, with berths for firemen located in the bow. It was the highest level reached by the ship's watertight bulkheads (though only by eight of the fifteen bulkheads).\\nE Deck, the upper deck, was predominantly used for passenger accommodation for all three classes plus berths for cooks, seamen, stewards and trimmers. Along its length ran a long passageway nicknamed 'Scotland Road', in reference to a famous street in Liverpool. Scotland Road was used by Third Class passengers and crew members.\\nF Deck, the middle deck, mainly accommodated Second- and Third-Class passengers and several departments of the crew. The Third Class dining saloon was located here, as was the First Class bath complex, containing the swimming pool and the Turkish bath.\\nG Deck, the lower deck, had the lowest portholes, just above the waterline. The first-class squash court was located here along with the travelling post office where letters and parcels were sorted ready for delivery when the ship docked. Food was also stored here. The deck was interrupted at several points by orlop (partial) decks over the boiler, engine and turbine rooms.\\nThe orlop decks, and the tank top below that, were on the lowest level of the ship, below the waterline. The orlop decks were used as cargo spaces, while the tank top—the inner bottom of the ship's hull—provided the platform on which the ship's boilers, engines, turbines and electrical generators were housed. This area of the ship was occupied by the engine and boiler rooms, areas which passengers would have been prohibited from seeing. They were connected with higher levels of the ship by two flights of stairs in the fireman's passage; twin spiral stairways near the bow provided access up to D Deck. Ladders in the boiler, turbine, and engine rooms provided access to higher decks in those compartments.\\n\\nFeatures\\nPower\\nTitanic propulsion was supplied by three main engines—two reciprocating four-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engines and one centrally placed low-pressure Parsons turbine—each driving a propeller. The two reciprocating engines had a combined output of 30,000 horsepower (22,000 kW). The output of the steam turbine was 16,000 horsepower (12,000 kW). The White Star Line had used the same combination of engines on an earlier liner, Laurentic, where it had been a great success. It provided a good combination of performance and speed; reciprocating engines by themselves were not powerful enough to propel an Olympic-class liner at the desired speeds, while turbines were sufficiently powerful but caused uncomfortable vibrations, a problem that affected the all-turbine Cunard liners Lusitania and Mauretania. By combining reciprocating engines with a turbine, fuel usage could be reduced and motive power increased, while using the same amount of steam.\\nThe two reciprocating engines were each 63 feet (19 m) long and weighed 720 tonnes, with their bedplates contributing a further 195 tonnes. They were powered by steam produced in 29 boilers, 24 of which were double-ended and five single-ended, which contained a total of 159 furnaces. The boilers were 15 feet 9 inches (4.80 m) in diameter and 20 feet (6.1 m) long, each weighing 91.5 tonnes and capable of holding 48.5 tonnes of water.\\nThey were fuelled by burning coal, 6,611 tonnes of which could be carried in Titanic's bunkers, with a further 1,092 tonnes in Hold 3. The furnaces required over 600 tonnes of coal a day to be shovelled into them by hand, requiring the services of 176 firemen working around the clock. 100 tonnes of ash a day had to be disposed of by ejecting it into the sea. The work was relentless, dirty and dangerous, and although firemen were paid relatively well, there was a high suicide rate among those who worked in that capacity.\\nExhaust steam leaving the reciprocating engines was fed into the turbine, which was situated aft. From there it passed into a surface condenser, to increase the efficiency of the turbine and so that the steam could be condensed back into water and reused. The engines were attached directly to long shafts which drove the propellers. There were three, one for each engine; the outer (or wing) propellers were the largest, each carrying three blades of manganese-bronze alloy with a total diameter of 23.5 feet (7.2 m). The middle propeller was slightly smaller at 17 feet (5.2 m) in diameter, and could be stopped but not reversed.\\nTitanic's electrical plant was capable of producing more power than an average city power station of the time. Immediately aft of the turbine engine were four 400 kW steam-driven electric generators, used to provide electrical power to the ship, plus two 30 kW auxiliary generators for emergency use. Their location in the stern of the ship meant they remained operational until the last few minutes before the ship sank.\\nTitanic lacked a searchlight, in accordance with the ban on the use of searchlights in the merchant navy.\\n\\nTechnology\\nCompartments and funnels\\nThe interiors of the Olympic-class ships were subdivided into 16 primary compartments divided by 15 bulkheads that extended above the waterline. The eleven vertically closing watertight doors on the orlop deck could be closed automatically via a switch on the bridge, by a lever next to the door itself, or by an automatic buoyancy mechanism that would activate in the event water reached six feet high in the compartment. There were also several other horizontally closing watertight doors along Scotland Road, and various crew and third class passenger spaces on the G, F, and E decks. These doors required a small key to be placed into a slot on the deck above. Once the key was turned, the watertight door would close. The ship's exposed decking was made of pine and teak, while interior ceilings were covered in painted granulated cork to combat condensation. Standing above the decks were four funnels, each painted in the White Star buff with black tops; only three were functional—the aftmost one was a dummy, installed for aesthetic purposes, and used for providing ventilation to the kitchen, as well as for the First and Second Class smoking rooms. Two masts, each 155 ft (47 m) high, supported derricks for working cargo.\\n\\nRudder and steering engines\\nTitanic's rudder was 78 feet 8 inches (23.98 m) high and 15 feet 3 inches (4.65 m) long, weighing over 100 tonnes. Its size was such that it required steering engines to move it. Two steam-powered steering engines were installed, though only one was used at any given time, with the other one kept in reserve. They were connected to the short tiller through stiff springs, to isolate the steering engines from any shocks in heavy seas or during fast changes of direction. As a last resort, the tiller could be moved by ropes connected to two steam capstans. The capstans were also used to raise and lower the ship's five anchors (one port, one starboard, one in the centreline and two kedging anchors).\\n\\nWater, ventilation and heating\\nThe ship was equipped with waterworks capable of heating and pumping water to all parts of the vessel via a complex network of pipes and valves. The main water supply was taken aboard while Titanic was in port, but in an emergency, the ship could also distil fresh water from seawater. However, this was not a straightforward process as the distillation plant could quickly became clogged by salt deposits. A network of insulated ducts conveyed warm air around the ship with electric fans and First-Class cabins were fitted with additional electric heaters.\\n\\nRadio communications\\nTitanic's radiotelegraph equipment (then known as wireless telegraphy) was leased to the White Star Line by the Marconi International Marine Communication Company, which also supplied two of its employees, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, as operators. The service maintained a 24-hour schedule, primarily sending and receiving passenger telegrams (\\\"marconigrams\\\"), but also handling navigation messages including weather reports and ice warnings.\\nThe radio room was located on the Boat Deck, in the officers' quarters. A soundproofed \\\"Silent Room\\\", next to the operating room, housed loud equipment, including the transmitter and a motor-generator used for producing alternating currents. The operators' living quarters were adjacent to the working office. The ship was equipped with a 'state of the art' 5-kilowatt rotary spark-gap transmitter, with the wireless telegraph call sign MGY, and communication was in Morse code. This transmitter was one of the first Marconi installations to use a rotary spark-gap, which gave Titanic a distinctive musical tone that could be readily distinguished from other signals. The transmitter was one of the most powerful in the world and guaranteed to broadcast over a radius of 350 miles (304 nmi; 563 km). An elevated T-antenna that spanned the length of the ship was used for transmitting and receiving. The normal operating frequency was 500 kHz (600 m wavelength); however, the equipment could also operate on the \\\"short\\\" wavelength of 1,000 kHz (300 m wavelength) that was employed by smaller vessels with shorter antennas.\\n\\nPassenger facilities\\nThe passenger facilities aboard Titanic aimed to meet the highest standards of luxury. According to Titanic's general arrangement plans, the ship could accommodate 833 First Class Passengers, 614 in Second Class and 1,006 in Third Class, for a total passenger capacity of 2,453. In addition, Titanic's capacity for crew members exceeded 900, as most documents of the original configuration have stated that the full carrying capacity for passengers and crew was approximately 3,547. The ship's interior design was a departure from that of other passenger liners, which had typically been decorated in the style of a manor house or an English country house.\\nTitanic was laid out in a much lighter style similar to that of contemporary high-class hotels—the Ritz Hotel was a reference point—with First Class cabins finished in the Empire style. A variety of other decorative styles, ranging from the Renaissance to Louis XV, were used to decorate cabins and public rooms in First and Second Class areas of the ship. The aim was to convey an impression that the passengers were in a floating hotel rather than a ship. As one passenger recalled, on entering the ship's interior a passenger would \\\"at once lose the feeling that we are on board ship, and seem instead to be entering the hall of some great house on shore\\\". Cabins in First Class also contained buttons that, when pressed, would signal for a steward to come to the cabin.\\nAmong the more novel features available to first-class passengers was a 7 ft (2.1 m) deep saltwater swimming pool, a gymnasium, a squash court, and a Victorian-style Turkish bath which comprised hot room, warm (temperate) room, cooling-room, and two shampooing (massage) rooms. Complementing the Turkish bath, and within the same area, was a steam room and an electric bath. First-class common rooms were impressive in scope and lavishly decorated. They included a lounge in the style of the Palace of Versailles, an enormous reception room, a men's smoking room, and a reading and writing room. There was an à la carte restaurant in the style of the Ritz Hotel which was run as a concession by the famous Italian restaurateur Gaspare Gatti. A Café Parisien decorated in the style of a French sidewalk café, complete with ivy-covered trellises and wicker furniture, was run as an annex to the restaurant. For an extra cost, first-class passengers could enjoy the finest French haute cuisine in the most luxurious of surroundings. There was also a Verandah Café where tea and light refreshments were served, that offered grand views of the ocean. At 114 ft (35 m) long by 92 ft (28 m) wide, the dining saloon on D Deck, designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll, was the largest room afloat and could seat almost 600 passengers at a time.\\n\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\t\\n\\t\\t\\n\\nThird Class (commonly referred to as steerage) accommodations aboard Titanic were not as luxurious as First or Second Class but were better than on many other ships of the time, where Third Class accommodations consisted of little more than open dormitories in which hundreds of people were confined, often without adequate food or toilet facilities. The White Star Line had long since broken that mould. As seen aboard Titanic, all White Star Line passenger ships divided their Third Class accommodations into two sections, always at opposite ends of the vessel from one another. The established arrangement was that single men were quartered in the forward areas, while single women, married couples and families were quartered aft. In addition, while other ships provided only open berth sleeping arrangements, White Star Line vessels provided their Third-Class passengers with private, small but comfortable cabins capable of accommodating two, four, six, eight and ten passengers. Third Class accommodations also included their own dining rooms, as well as public gathering areas including adequate open deck space. This was supplemented by the addition of a smoking room for men and a general room on C Deck which women could use for reading and writing.\\nLeisure facilities were provided for all three classes to pass the time. As well as making use of the indoor amenities such as the library, smoking rooms, and gymnasium, it was also customary for passengers to socialise on the open deck, promenading or relaxing in hired deck chairs or wooden benches. A passenger list was published before the sailing to inform the public which members of the great and good were on board, and it was not uncommon for ambitious mothers to use the list to identify rich bachelors to whom they could introduce their marriageable daughters during the voyage.\\nOne of Titanic's most distinctive features was the First Class staircase, known as the Grand Staircase or Grand Stairway. Built of solid English oak with a sweeping curve, the staircase descended through seven decks of the ship, between the boat deck to E deck, before terminating in a simplified single flight on F Deck. It was capped with a dome of wrought iron and glass that admitted natural light to the stairwell. Each landing off the staircase gave access to ornate entrance halls panelled in the William & Mary style and lit by ormolu and crystal light fixtures.\\nAt the uppermost landing was a large carved wooden panel containing a clock, with figures of \\\"Honour and Glory Crowning Time\\\" flanking the clock face. The Grand Staircase was destroyed during the sinking and is now just a void in the ship which modern explorers have used to access the lower decks. During the filming of James Cameron's Titanic in 1997, his replica of the Grand Staircase was ripped from its foundations by the force of the inrushing water on the set. It has been suggested that during the real event, the entire Grand Staircase was ejected upwards through the dome.\\n\\nMail and cargo\\nAlthough Titanic was primarily a passenger liner, the ship also carried a substantial amount of cargo. Under the designation of Royal Mail Ship (RMS), Titanic carried mail under contract with the Royal Mail (and also for the United States Post Office Department). For the storage of letters, parcels and specie (bullion, coins and other valuables), 26,800 cubic feet (760 m3) of space was allocated. The Sea Post Office on G Deck was manned by five postal clerks (three Americans and two Britons), who worked 13 hours a day, seven days a week, sorting up to 60,000 items daily.\\nThe ship's passengers brought with them a huge amount of baggage; another 19,455 cubic feet (550.9 m3) was taken up by first- and second-class baggage. In addition, there was a considerable quantity of regular cargo, ranging from furniture to foodstuffs, and a 1912 Renault Type CE Coupe de Ville motor car. Despite later myths, the cargo on Titanic's maiden voyage was fairly mundane; there was no gold, exotic minerals or diamonds, and one of the more famous items lost in the shipwreck, a jewelled copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, was valued at only £405 (£50,600 today). According to the claims for compensation filed with Commissioner Gilchrist, following the conclusion of the Senate Inquiry, the single most highly valued item of luggage or cargo was a large neoclassical oil painting entitled La Circassienne au Bain by French artist Merry-Joseph Blondel. The painting's owner, first-class passenger Mauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson, filed a claim for $100,000 (equivalent to $2,300,000 in 2023) in compensation for the loss of the artwork. Other intriguing items in the manifest included 12 cases of ostrich feathers, 76 cases of \\\"Dragon's Blood,\\\" and 16 cases of Calabashes.\\nTitanic was equipped with eight electric cranes, four electric winches and three steam winches to lift cargo and baggage in and out of the holds. It is estimated that the ship used some 415 tonnes of coal whilst in Southampton, simply generating steam to operate the cargo winches and provide heat and light.\\n\\nLifeboats\\nLike Olympic, Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats: 14 standard wooden Harland and Wolff lifeboats with a capacity of 65 people each and four Engelhardt \\\"collapsible\\\" (wooden bottom, collapsible canvas sides) lifeboats (identified as A to D) with a capacity of 47 people each. In addition, Titanic had two emergency cutters with a capacity of 40 people each. Olympic carried at least two collapsible boats on either side of the number one funnel. All of the lifeboats were stowed securely on the boat deck and, except for collapsible lifeboats A and B, connected to davits by ropes. Those on the starboard side were odd-numbered 1–15 from bow to stern, while those on the port side were even-numbered 2–16 from bow to stern.\\nBoth cutters were kept swung out, hanging from the davits, ready for immediate use, while collapsible lifeboats C and D were stowed on the boat deck (connected to davits) immediately inboard of boats 1 and 2 respectively. A and B were stored on the roof of the officers' quarters, on either side of number 1 funnel. There were no davits to lower them and their weight would make them difficult to launch by hand. Each boat carried (among other things) food, water, blankets, and a spare life belt. Lifeline ropes on the boats' sides enabled them to save additional people from the water if necessary.\\nTitanic had 16 sets of davits, each able to handle three lifeboats, unlike what Carslile had hoped. This gave Titanic the ability to carry up to 48 wooden lifeboats. However, the White Star Line decided that only 16 wooden lifeboats and four collapsibles would be carried, which could accommodate 1,178 people, only one-third of Titanic's total capacity. At the time, the Board of Trade's regulations required British vessels over 10,000 tonnes to only carry 16 lifeboats with a capacity of 990 occupants.\\nTherefore, the White Star Line actually provided more lifeboat accommodation than was legally required. At the time, lifeboats were intended to ferry survivors from a sinking ship to a rescuing ship—not keep afloat the whole population or power them to shore. Had SS Californian responded to Titanic's distress calls, the lifeboats might have been able to ferry all passengers to safety as planned.\\n\\nBuilding and preparing the ship\\nConstruction, launch and fitting-out\\nThe sheer size of the Olympic class vessels posed a major engineering challenge for Harland and Wolff; no shipbuilder had ever before attempted to construct vessels this size. The ships were constructed on Queen's Island, now known as the Titanic Quarter, in Belfast Harbour. Harland and Wolff had to demolish three existing slipways and build two new ones, the largest ever constructed up to that time, to accommodate both ships. Their construction was facilitated by an enormous gantry built by Sir William Arrol & Co., a Scottish firm responsible for the building of the Forth Bridge and London's Tower Bridge. The Arrol Gantry stood 228 feet (69 m) high, was 270 feet (82 m) wide and 840 feet (260 m) long and weighed more than 6,000 tonnes. It accommodated a number of mobile cranes. A separate floating crane, capable of lifting 200 tonnes, was brought in from Germany.\\nThe construction of Olympic and Titanic took place virtually in parallel, with Olympic's keel laid down first on 16 December 1908 and Titanic's on 31 March 1909. Both ships took about 26 months to build and followed much the same construction process. They were designed essentially as an enormous floating box girder, with the keel acting as a backbone and the frames of the hull forming the ribs. At the base of the ships, a double bottom 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) deep supported 300 frames, each between 24 inches (61 cm) and 36 inches (91 cm) apart and measuring up to about 66 feet (20 m) long. They terminated at the bridge deck (B Deck) and were covered with steel plates which formed the outer skin of the ships.\\nThe 2,000 hull plates were single pieces of rolled steel plate, mostly up to 6 feet (1.8 m) wide and 30 feet (9.1 m) long and weighing between 2.5 and 3 tonnes. Their thickness varied from 1 inch (2.5 cm) to 1.5 inches (3.8 cm). The plates were laid in a clinkered (overlapping) fashion from the keel to the bilge. Above that point they were laid in the \\\"in and out\\\" fashion, where strake plating was applied in bands (the \\\"in strakes\\\") with the gaps covered by the \\\"out strakes\\\", overlapping on the edges. Commercial oxy-fuel and electric arc welding methods, ubiquitous in fabrication today, were still in their infancy. Like most other iron and steel structures of the era, the hull was held together with over three million iron and steel rivets, which by themselves weighed over 1,200 tonnes. They were fitted using hydraulic machines or were hammered in by hand. In the 1990s, material scientists concluded that the steel plate used for the ship was subject to being especially brittle when cold, and that this brittleness exacerbated the impact damage and hastened the sinking. It is believed that, by the standards of the time, the steel plate's quality was good, not faulty, but that it was inferior to what would be used for shipbuilding purposes in later decades, owing to advances in the metallurgy of steelmaking. As for the rivets, considerable emphasis has also been placed on their quality and strength.\\nTwo side anchors and a centre anchor were among the last items to be fitted on Titanic before it launched. The anchors were a challenge to make; the centre anchor was the largest ever forged by hand. The head weighed nearly 16 tonnes and the shank another 8. Twenty Clydesdale draught horses were needed to haul the centre anchor by wagon from the Noah Hingley & Sons Ltd forge shop in Netherton, near Dudley, United Kingdom to the Dudley railway station two miles away. It was then shipped by rail to Fleetwood in Lancashire before boarding a ship to Belfast.\\nConstructing the ships was difficult and dangerous. Safety precautions were rudimentary at best for the 15,000 men who worked at Harland and Wolff at the time. Much of the work was carried out without safety equipment like hard hats or hand guards on machinery. 246 injuries were recorded during Titanic's construction, including 28 severe injuries, such as arms severed by machines or legs crushed under falling pieces of steel. Six people died on the ship during construction and fitting out, and another two died in the shipyard workshops and sheds. Just before the launch, a worker was killed when a piece of wood fell on him.\\nTitanic was launched at 12:15 pm on 31 May 1911 in the presence of Lord Pirrie, J. Pierpont Morgan, J. Bruce Ismay and 100,000 onlookers. Twenty-two tonnes of soap and tallow were spread on the slipway to lubricate the ship's passage into the River Lagan. In keeping with the White Star Line's traditional policy, the ship was not formally named or christened with champagne. The ship was towed to a fitting-out berth where, over the course of the next year, the engines, funnels and superstructure were installed and interior was fitted out.\\nAlthough Titanic was virtually identical to the class's lead ship Olympic, a few changes were made to distinguish both ships. The most noticeable exterior difference was that Titanic (and the third vessel in class, Britannic) had a steel screen with sliding windows installed along the forward half of the A Deck promenade. This was installed as a last-minute change at the personal request of Bruce Ismay and was intended to provide additional shelter to First Class passengers. Extensive changes were made to B Deck on Titanic as the promenade space in this deck, which had proven unpopular on Olympic, was converted into additional First-Class cabins, including two opulent parlour suites with their own private promenade spaces. The À la Carte restaurant was also enlarged and the Café Parisien, an entirely new feature which did not exist on Olympic, was added. These changes made Titanic slightly heavier than Olympic and allowed claim to be the largest ship afloat. The work took longer than expected due to design changes requested by Ismay and a temporary pause in work occasioned by the need to repair Olympic, which had been in a collision in September 1911. Had Titanic been finished earlier, the ship might well have missed colliding with an iceberg.\\n\\nSea trials\\nTitanic's sea trials began at 6 am on Tuesday, 2 April 1912, just two days after the fitting out was finished and eight days before departure from Southampton on the maiden voyage. The trials were delayed for a day due to bad weather, but by Monday morning it was clear and fair. Aboard were 78 stokers, greasers and firemen, and 41 members of crew. No domestic staff appear to have been aboard. Representatives of various companies travelled on Titanic's sea trials: Thomas Andrews and Edward Wilding of Harland and Wolff, and Harold A. Sanderson of IMM. Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie were too ill to attend. Jack Phillips and Harold Bride served as radio operators and performed fine-tuning of the Marconi equipment. Francis Carruthers, a surveyor from the Board of Trade, was also present to see that everything worked and that the ship was fit to carry passengers.\\nThe sea trials consisted of a number of tests of handling characteristics, carried out first in Belfast Lough and then in the open waters of the Irish Sea. Over the course of about 12 hours, Titanic was driven at different speeds, turning ability was tested, and a \\\"crash stop\\\" was performed in which the engines were reversed full ahead to full astern, bringing the ship to a stop in 850 yd (777 m) or 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Titanic covered a distance of about 80 nautical miles (92 mi; 150 km), averaging 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h) and reaching a maximum speed of just under 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h).\\nOn returning to Belfast at about 7 pm, the surveyor signed an \\\"Agreement and Account of Voyages and Crew\\\", valid for 12 months, which declared the ship seaworthy. An hour later, Titanic departed Belfast to head to Southampton, a voyage of about 570 nautical miles (660 mi; 1,060 km). After a journey lasting about 28 hours, Titanic arrived about midnight on 4 April and was towed to the port's Berth 44, ready for the arrival of passengers and the remainder of the crew.\\n\\nMaiden voyage\\nBoth Olympic and Titanic registered Liverpool as their home port. The offices of the White Star Line, as well as Cunard, were in Liverpool, and up until the introduction of the Olympic, most British ocean liners for both Cunard and White Star, such as Lusitania and Mauretania, sailed from Liverpool followed by a port of call in Queenstown, Ireland. Since the company's founding in 1845, a vast majority of their operations had taken place from Liverpool. However, in 1907 White Star Line established another service from Southampton on England's south coast, which became known as White Star's \\\"Express Service\\\". Southampton had many advantages over Liverpool, the first being its proximity to London.\\n\\nIn addition, Southampton, being on the south coast, allowed ships to easily cross the English Channel and make a port of call on the northern coast of France, usually at Cherbourg. This allowed British ships to pick up clientele from continental Europe before recrossing the channel and picking up passengers at Queenstown. The Southampton-Cherbourg-New York run would become so popular that most British ocean liners began using the port after World War I. Out of respect for Liverpool, ships continued to be registered there until the early 1960s. Queen Elizabeth 2 was one of the first ships registered in Southampton when introduced into service by Cunard in 1969.\\nTitanic's maiden voyage was intended to be the first of many trans-Atlantic crossings between Southampton and New York via Cherbourg and Queenstown on westbound runs, returning via Plymouth in England while eastbound. The entire schedule of voyages through to December 1912 still exists. When the route was established, four ships were assigned to the service. In addition to Teutonic and Majestic, RMS Oceanic and the brand new RMS Adriatic sailed the route. When the Olympic entered service in June 1911, the ship replaced Teutonic, which after completing a last run on the service in late April was transferred to the Dominion Line's Canadian service. The following August, Adriatic was transferred to White Star Line's main Liverpool-New York service, and in November, Majestic was withdrawn from service impending the arrival of Titanic in the coming months and was mothballed as a reserve ship.\\nWhite Star Line's initial plans for Olympic and Titanic on the Southampton run followed the same routine as their predecessors had done before them. Each would sail once every three weeks from Southampton and New York, usually leaving at noon each Wednesday from Southampton and each Saturday from New York, thus enabling the White Star Line to offer weekly sailings in each direction. Special trains were scheduled from London and Paris to convey passengers to Southampton and Cherbourg respectively. The deep-water dock at Southampton, then known as the \\\"White Star Dock\\\", had been specially constructed to accommodate the new Olympic-class liners, and had opened in 1911.\\n\\nCrew\\nTitanic had about 885 crew members on board for the maiden voyage. Like other vessels of the time, Titanic did not have a permanent crew, and the vast majority of crew members were casual workers who only came aboard the ship a few hours before sailing from Southampton. The process of signing up recruits began on 23 March and some were to Belfast, where they served as a skeleton crew on Titanic's sea trials and passage to England in early April.\\nCaptain Edward John Smith, the most senior of the White Star Line's captains, was transferred from Olympic to take command of Titanic. Henry Tingle Wilde also came across from Olympic to take the post of chief mate. Titanic's previously designated chief mate and first officer, William McMaster Murdoch and Charles Lightoller, were downgraded to the ranks of first and second officer respectively, and the original second officer, David Blair, was dropped altogether. The third officer, Herbert Pitman, was the only deck officer not a member of the Royal Naval Reserve. Pitman was the second-to-last surviving officer.\\nTitanic's crew were divided into three principal departments: Deck, with 66 crew; Engine, with 325; and Victualling, with 494. The vast majority of the crew were thus not seamen but were either engineers, firemen, or stokers, responsible for looking after the engines, or stewards and galley staff, responsible for the passengers. Of these, over 97% were male; just 23 of the crew were female, mainly stewardesses. The rest represented a variety of professions—bakers, chefs, butchers, fishmongers, dishwashers, stewards, gymnasium instructors, laundrymen, waiters, bed-makers, cleaners, and even a printer, who produced a daily newspaper for passengers called the Atlantic Daily Bulletin with the latest news received by the ship's wireless operators.\\nMost of the crew signed on in Southampton on 6 April; in all, 699 of the crew came from there, and 40% were natives of the town. A few specialist staff were self-employed or subcontractors, including: five postal clerks who worked for the Royal Mail and the United States Post Office Department, the staff of the First Class À La Carte Restaurant and the Café Parisien, the radio operators (who were employed by Marconi) and the eight musicians, who were employed by an agency and travelled as second-class passengers. Crew pay varied greatly, from Captain Smith's £105 a month (equivalent to £13,100 today) to the £3 10s (£440 today) that stewardesses earned. The lower-paid victualling staff could, however, supplement their wages substantially through tips from passengers.\\n\\nPassengers\\nTitanic's passengers numbered approximately 1,317 people: 324 in First Class, 284 in Second Class, and 709 in Third Class. Of these, 869 (66%) were male and 447 (34%) female. There were 107 children aboard, the largest number of whom were in Third Class. The ship was considerably under-capacity for the maiden voyage and could have accommodated 2,453 passengers—833 First Class, 614 Second Class, and 1,006 Third Class.\\nUsually, a high-prestige vessel like Titanic could expect to be fully booked on a maiden voyage. However, a national coal strike in the UK had caused considerable disruption to shipping schedules in the spring of 1912, causing many crossings to be cancelled. Many would-be passengers chose to postpone their travel plans until the strike was over. The strike had finished a few days before Titanic sailed; however, that was too late to have much of an effect. Titanic was able to sail on the scheduled date only because coal was transferred from other vessels which were tied up at Southampton, such as SS City of New York and RMS Oceanic, as well as coal that Olympic had brought back from a previous voyage to New York, which had been stored at the White Star Dock.\\nSome of the most prominent people of the day booked a passage aboard Titanic, travelling in First Class. Among them (with those who perished marked with a dagger†) were the American millionaire John Jacob Astor IV† and his wife, Madeleine Force Astor (with John Jacob Astor VI in utero); industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim†; painter and sculptor Francis Davis Millet†; Macy's owner Isidor Straus† and his wife, Ida†; millionairess Margaret \\\"Molly\\\" Brown; Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon and his wife, Lucy (Lady Duff-Gordon); Lieut. Col. Arthur Peuchen; writer and historian Archibald Gracie; cricketer and businessman John B. Thayer† with his wife, Marian, and son Jack; George Dunton Widener† with his wife, Eleanor, and son Harry†; Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes; Mr.† and Mrs. Charles M. Hays; Mr. and Mrs. Henry S. Harper; Mr.† and Mrs. Walter D. Douglas; Mr.† and Mrs. George D. Wick; Mr.† and Mrs. Henry B. Harris; Mr.† and Mrs. Arthur L. Ryerson; Mr.† and Mrs.† Hudson J. C. Allison; Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson Bishop; noted architect Edward Austin Kent†; brewery heir Harry Molson†; tennis players Karl Behr and Dick Williams; author and socialite Helen Churchill Candee; future lawyer and suffragette Elsie Bowerman and her mother Edith; journalist and social reformer William Thomas Stead†; journalist and fashion buyer Edith Rosenbaum; socialite Edith Corse Evans†; wealthy divorcée Charlotte Drake Cardeza; French sculptor Paul Chevré; author Jacques Futrelle† with his wife May; silent film actress Dorothy Gibson with her mother Pauline; President of the Swiss Bankverein, Col. Alfons Simonius-Blumer; James A. Hughes's daughter Eloise; banker Robert Williams Daniel; the chairman of the Holland America Line, Johan Reuchlin; Arthur Wellington Ross's son John H. Ross; Washington Roebling's nephew Washington A. Roebling II; Andrew Saks's daughter Leila Saks Meyer with her husband Edgar Joseph Meyer† (son of Marc Eugene Meyer); William A. Clark's nephew Walter M. Clark with his wife, Virginia; a great-great-grandson of soap manufacturer Andrew Pears, Thomas C. Pears, with wife; John S. Pillsbury's grandson John P. Snyder and wife Nelle; and Dorothy Parker's uncle Martin Rothschild with his wife, Elizabeth.\\nTitanic's owner J. P. Morgan was scheduled to travel on the maiden voyage but cancelled at the last minute. Also aboard the ship were the White Star Line's managing director J. Bruce Ismay and Titanic's designer Thomas Andrews†, who was on board to observe any problems and assess the general performance of the new ship.\\nThe exact number of people aboard is not known, as not all of those who had booked tickets made it to the ship; about 50 people cancelled for various reasons, and not all of those who boarded stayed aboard for the entire journey. Fares varied depending on class and season. Third Class fares from London, Southampton, or Queenstown cost £7 5s (equivalent to £900 today) while the cheapest First Class fares cost £23 (£2,900 today). The most expensive First Class suites were to have cost up to £870 in high season (£109,000 today).\\n\\nCollecting passengers\\nTitanic's maiden voyage began on Wednesday, 10 April 1912. Following the embarkation of the crew, the passengers began arriving at 9:30 am, when the London and South Western Railway's boat train from London Waterloo station reached Southampton Terminus railway station on the quayside, alongside Titanic's berth. The large number of Third Class passengers meant they were the first to board, with First and Second Class passengers following up to an hour before departure. Stewards showed them to their cabins, and First Class passengers were personally greeted by Captain Smith. Third Class passengers were inspected for ailments and physical impairments that might lead to their being refused entry to the United States – a prospect the White Star Line wished to avoid, as it would have to carry anyone who failed the examination back across the Atlantic. In all, 920 passengers boarded Titanic at Southampton – 179 First Class, 247 Second Class, and 494 Third Class. Additional passengers were to be picked up at Cherbourg and Queenstown.\\n\\nThe maiden voyage began at noon, as scheduled. An accident was narrowly averted only a few minutes later, as Titanic passed the moored liners SS City of New York of the American Line and Oceanic of the White Star Line, the latter of which would have been a running mate on the service from Southampton. The ship's displacement caused both of the smaller ships to be lifted by a bulge of water and dropped into a trough. New York's mooring cables could not take the sudden strain and snapped, swinging around stern-first towards Titanic. A nearby tugboat, Vulcan, came to the rescue by taking New York under tow, and Captain Smith ordered Titanic's engines to be put \\\"full astern\\\". The two ships avoided a collision by a distance of about 4 feet (1.2 m). The incident delayed Titanic's departure for about an hour, while the drifting New York was brought under control.\\nAfter making it safely through the complex tides and channels of Southampton Water and the Solent, Titanic disembarked the Southampton pilot at the Nab Lightship and headed out into the English Channel. The ship headed for the French port of Cherbourg, a journey of 77 nautical miles (89 mi; 143 km). The weather was windy, very fine but cold and overcast. Because Cherbourg lacked docking facilities for a ship the size of Titanic, tenders had to be used to transfer passengers from shore to ship. The White Star Line operated two tenders at Cherbourg: SS Traffic and SS Nomadic (Nomadic is the only surviving White Star Line ship). Both had been designed specifically as tenders for the Olympic-class liners and launched shortly after Titanic. Four hours after leaving Southampton, Titanic arrived at Cherbourg and was met by the tenders where 274 additional passengers were taken aboard (142 First Class, 30 Second Class, and 102 Third Class). Twenty-four passengers had booked a cross-Channel passage only and were left aboard the tenders to be conveyed to shore, a process completed within 90 minutes. At 8 pm, Titanic weighed anchor and left for Queenstown with the weather remaining cold and windy.\\n\\nAt 11:30 am on Thursday 11 April, Titanic arrived at Cork Harbour on the south coast of Ireland. It was a partly cloudy but relatively warm day, with a brisk wind. Again, the dock facilities were not suitable for a ship of Titanic's size, and the tenders America and Ireland were used to bring passengers aboard. In all, 123 passengers boarded Titanic at Queenstown – three First Class, seven Second Class and 113 Third Class. In addition to the 24 cross-Channel passengers who had disembarked at Cherbourg, another seven passengers had booked an overnight passage from Southampton to Queenstown. Among the seven was Francis Browne, a Jesuit trainee who was a keen photographer and took many photographs aboard Titanic, including one of the last known photographs of the ship. The very last one was taken by another cross-channel passenger, Kate Odell. A decidedly unofficial departure was that of a crew member, stoker John Coffey, a Queenstown native who sneaked off the ship by hiding under mail bags being transported to shore. Titanic weighed anchor for the last time at 1:30 pm and departed on the westward journey across the Atlantic.\\n\\nAtlantic crossing\\nTitanic was planned to arrive at New York Pier 59 on the morning of 17 April. After leaving Queenstown, Titanic followed the Irish coast as far as Fastnet Rock, a distance of some 55 nautical miles (63 mi; 102 km). From there the voyage of 1,620 nautical miles (1,860 mi; 3,000 km) along a Great Circle route across the North Atlantic, reached a spot in the ocean known as \\\"the corner\\\", southeast of Newfoundland, where westbound steamers carried out a change of course. Titanic sailed only a few hours past the corner on a rhumb line leg of 1,023 nautical miles (1,177 mi; 1,895 km) to Nantucket Shoals Light when making fatal contact with an iceberg. The final leg of the journey would have been 193 nautical miles (222 mi; 357 km) to Ambrose Light and finally to New York Harbor.\\nFrom 11 April to local apparent noon the next day, Titanic covered 484 nautical miles (557 mi; 896 km); the following day, 519 nautical miles (597 mi; 961 km); and by noon on the final day of the voyage, 546 nautical miles (628 mi; 1,011 km). From then until the time of sinking, the ship travelled another 258 nautical miles (297 mi; 478 km), averaging about 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h).\\nThe weather cleared as Titanic left Ireland under cloudy skies with a headwind. Temperatures remained fairly mild on Saturday 13 April, but the following day Titanic crossed a cold weather front with strong winds and waves of up to 8 feet (2.4 m). These died down as the day progressed until, by the evening of Sunday 14 April, it became clear, calm, and very cold.\\nThe first three days of the voyage from Queenstown had passed without apparent incident. A fire had begun in Titanic's forward most coal bunker (that supplied coal to boiler rooms six and five) approximately 10 days prior to the ship's departure, and continued to burn for several days into its voyage, but passengers were unaware of this situation. Fires occurred frequently on board steamships at the time, due to spontaneous combustion of the coal. The fires had to be extinguished with fire hoses by moving the coal on top to another bunker and by removing the burning coal and feeding it into the furnace. The fire was finally extinguished on 14 April. There has been some speculation and discussion as to whether this fire and attempts to extinguish it may have made the ship more vulnerable to sinking.\\nTitanic received a series of warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, but Captain Smith ignored them. One of the ships to warn Titanic was the Atlantic Line's Mesaba. Nevertheless, Titanic continued to steam at full speed, which was standard practice at the time. Although not trying to set a speed record, timekeeping was a priority, and under prevailing maritime practices, ships were often operated at close to full speed; ice warnings were seen as advisories, and reliance was placed upon lookouts and the watch on the bridge. It was generally believed that ice posed little danger to large vessels. Close calls with ice were not uncommon, and even head-on collisions had not been disastrous. In 1907, SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, a German liner, had rammed an iceberg but still completed the voyage, and Captain Smith said in 1907 that he \\\"could not imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.\\\"\\n\\nSinking\\nAt 11:40 pm (ship's time) on 14 April, lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the iceberg and the engines to be reversed, but it was too late. The starboard side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline. The hull was not punctured, but rather dented such that the steel plates of the hull buckled and separated, allowing water to rush in. Five of the sixteen watertight compartments were heavily breached and a sixth was slightly compromised. It soon became clear that Titanic would sink, as the ship could not remain afloat with more than four compartments flooded. Titanic began sinking bow-first, with water spilling from compartment to compartment over the top of each watertight bulkhead as the ship's angle in the water became steeper.\\n\\nThose aboard Titanic were ill-prepared for such an emergency. In accordance with accepted practices of the time, as ships were seen as largely unsinkable and lifeboats were intended to transfer passengers to nearby rescue vessels, Titanic only had enough lifeboats to carry about half of those on board; if the ship had carried the full complement of about 3,339 passengers and crew, only about a third could have been accommodated in the lifeboats. The crew had not been trained adequately in carrying out an evacuation. The officers did not know how many they could safely put aboard the lifeboats and launched many of them barely half-full. Third-class passengers were largely left to fend for themselves, causing many of them to become trapped below decks as the ship filled with water. The \\\"women and children first\\\" protocol was generally followed when loading the lifeboats, and most of the male passengers and crew were left aboard. Women and children survived at rates of about 75 per cent and 50 per cent, while only 20 per cent of men survived.\\nBetween 2:10 and 2:15 am, a little over two and a half hours after Titanic struck the iceberg, the rate of sinking suddenly increased as the boat deck dipped underwater, and the sea poured in through open hatches and grates: in between that time, the electrical power on board also went out. As the ship's unsupported stern rose out of the water, exposing the propellers, the ship broke in two main pieces between the second and third funnels, due to the immense forces on the keel. With the bow underwater, and air trapped in the stern, the stern remained afloat and buoyant for a few minutes longer, rising to a nearly vertical angle with hundreds of people still clinging to it, before foundering at 2:20 am. It was believed that Titanic sank in one piece, but the discovery of the wreck many years later revealed that the ship had broken in two. All remaining passengers and crew were immersed in water at a temperature of −2 °C (28 °F). Only five who were in the water were helped into the lifeboats, though the lifeboats had room for almost 500 more people.\\nDistress signals were sent by wireless, rockets, and lamp, but none of the ships that responded were near enough to reach Titanic before sinking. A radio operator on board SS Birma, for instance, estimated that it would be 6 am before the liner could arrive at the scene. Meanwhile, SS Californian, which was the last to have been in contact before the collision, saw Titanic's flares but failed to assist. Around 4 am, RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene in response to Titanic's earlier distress calls.\\nWhen the ship sank, the lifeboats that had been lowered were only filled up to an average of 60%. 706 people survived the disaster and were conveyed by Carpathia to New York, Titanic's original destination, while 1,517 people died.\\n\\nAftermath of sinking\\nImmediate aftermath\\nRMS Carpathia took three days to reach New York after leaving the scene of the disaster with a journey slowed by pack ice, fog, thunderstorms and rough seas. Carpathia was, however, able to pass news to the outside world by wireless about what had happened. The initial reports were confusing, leading the American press to report erroneously on 15 April that Titanic was being towed to port by SS Virginian. Late on the night of 15 April White Star reported a message was received saying Titanic had sunk, but all passengers and crew had been transferred to another vessel. Later that day, confirmation came through that Titanic had been lost and that most of the passengers and crew had died. The news attracted crowds of people to the White Star Line's offices in London, New York, Montreal, Southampton, Liverpool and Belfast. It hit hardest in Southampton, whose people suffered the greatest losses from the sinking; four out of every five crew members came from this town.\\nCarpathia docked at 9:30 pm on 18 April at New York's Pier 54 and was greeted by some 40,000 people waiting at the quayside in heavy rain. Immediate relief in the form of clothing and transportation to shelters was provided by the Women's Relief Committee, the Travelers Aid Society of New York, and the Council of Jewish Women, among other organisations. Many of Titanic's surviving passengers did not linger in New York but headed onwards immediately to relatives' homes. Some of the wealthier survivors chartered private trains to take them home, and the Pennsylvania Railroad laid on a special train free of charge to take survivors to Philadelphia. Titanic's 214 surviving crew members were taken to the Red Star Line's steamer SS Lapland, where they were accommodated in passenger cabins.\\nCarpathia was hurriedly restocked with food and provisions before resuming the journey to Fiume, Austria-Hungary. The crew were given a bonus of a month's wages by Cunard as a reward for their actions, and some of Titanic's passengers joined to give them an additional bonus of nearly £900 (£113,000 today), divided among the crew members.\\nThe ship's arrival in New York led to a frenzy of press interest, with newspapers competing to be the first to report the survivors' stories. Some reporters bribed their way aboard the pilot boat New York, which guided Carpathia into harbour, and one even managed to get onto Carpathia before docking. Crowds gathered outside newspaper offices to see the latest reports being posted in the windows or on billboards. It took another four days for a complete list of casualties to be compiled and released, adding to the agony of relatives waiting for news of those who had been aboard Titanic.\\n\\nInsurance, aid for survivors and lawsuits\\nIn January 1912, the hulls and equipment of Titanic and Olympic had been insured through Lloyd's of London and London Marine Insurance. The total coverage was £1,000,000 (£123,000,000 today) per ship. The policy was to be \\\"free from all average\\\" under £150,000, meaning that the insurers would only pay for damage in excess of that sum. The premium, negotiated by brokers Willis Faber & Company (now Willis Group), was 15 s (75 p) per £100, or £7,500 (£940,000 today) for the term of one year. Lloyd's paid the White Star Line the full sum owed to them within 30 days.\\nMany charities were set up to help the survivors and their families, many of whom lost their sole wage earner, or, in the case of many Third-Class survivors, everything they owned. In New York City, for example, a joint committee of the American Red Cross and Charity Organization Society formed to disburse financial aid to survivors and dependents of those who died. On 29 April, opera stars Enrico Caruso and Mary Garden and members of the Metropolitan Opera raised $12,000 ($300,000 in 2014) in benefits for victims of the disaster by giving special concerts in which versions of \\\"Autumn\\\" and \\\"Nearer My God To Thee\\\" were part of the programme. In Britain, relief funds were organised for the families of Titanic's lost crew members, raising nearly £450,000 (£56,000,000 today). One such fund was still in operation as late as the 1960s.\\nIn the United States and Britain, more than 60 survivors combined to sue the White Star Line for damages connected to loss of life and baggage. The claims totalled $16,804,112 (appr. $419 million in 2018 USD), which was far in excess of what White Star argued it was responsible for as a limited liability company under American law. Because the bulk of the litigants were in the United States, White Star petitioned the United States Supreme Court in 1914, which ruled in its favour that it qualified as an LLC and found that the causes of the ship's sinking were largely unforeseeable, rather than due to negligence. This sharply limited the scope of damages survivors and family members were entitled to, prompting them to reduce their claims to some $2.5 million. White Star only settled for $664,000 (appr. $16.56 million in 2018), about 27% of the original total sought by survivors. The settlement was agreed to by 44 of the claimants in December 1915, with $500,000 set aside for the American claimants, $50,000 for the British, and $114,000 to go towards interest and legal expenses.\\n\\nInvestigations into the disaster\\nEven before the survivors arrived in New York, investigations were being planned to discover what had happened, and what could be done to prevent a recurrence. Inquiries were held in both the United States and the United Kingdom, the former more robustly critical of traditions and practices, and scathing of the failures involved, and the latter broadly more technical and expert-orientated.\\nThe US Senate's inquiry into the disaster was initiated on 19 April, a day after Carpathia arrived in New York. The chairman, Senator William Alden Smith, wanted to gather accounts from passengers and crew while the events were still fresh in their minds. Smith also needed to subpoena all surviving British passengers and crew while they were still on American soil, which prevented them from returning to the UK before the American inquiry was completed on 25 May. The British press condemned Smith as an opportunist, insensitively forcing an inquiry as a means of gaining political prestige and seizing \\\"his moment to stand on the world stage\\\". Smith, however, already had a reputation as a campaigner for safety on US railroads, and wanted to investigate any possible malpractices by railroad tycoon J. P. Morgan, Titanic's ultimate owner.\\nThe British Board of Trade's inquiry into the disaster was headed by Lord Mersey, and took place between 2 May and 3 July. Being run by the Board of Trade, who had previously approved the ship, it was seen by some as having little interest in its own or White Star's conduct being found negligent.\\nEach inquiry took testimony from both passengers and crew of Titanic, crew members of Leyland Line's Californian, Captain Arthur Rostron of Carpathia and other experts. The British inquiry also took far greater expert testimony, making it the longest and most detailed court of inquiry in British history up to that time. The two inquiries reached broadly similar conclusions: the regulations on the number of lifeboats that ships had to carry were out of date and inadequate, Captain Smith had failed to take proper heed of ice warnings, the lifeboats had not been properly filled or crewed, and the collision was the direct result of steaming into a dangerous area at too high a speed.\\nNeither inquiry's findings listed negligence by IMM or the White Star Line as a factor. The American inquiry concluded that since those involved had followed standard practice, the disaster was an act of God. The British inquiry concluded that Smith had followed long-standing practice that had not previously been shown to be unsafe, noting that British ships alone had carried 3.5 million passengers over the previous decade with the loss of just 10 lives, and concluded that Smith had done \\\"only that which other skilled men would have done in the same position\\\". Lord Mersey did, however, find fault with the \\\"extremely high speed (twenty-two knots) which was maintained\\\" following numerous ice warnings, noting that \\\"what was a mistake in the case of the Titanic would without doubt be negligence in any similar case in the future\\\".\\nThe recommendations included strong suggestions for major changes in maritime regulations to implement new safety measures, such as ensuring that more lifeboats were provided, that lifeboat drills were properly carried out and that wireless equipment on passenger ships was manned around the clock. An International Ice Patrol was set up to monitor the presence of icebergs in the North Atlantic, and maritime safety regulations were harmonised internationally through the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea; both measures are still in force today.\\nOn 18 June 1912, Guglielmo Marconi gave evidence to the Court of Inquiry regarding the telegraphy. Its final report recommended that all liners carry the system and that sufficient operators maintain a constant service.\\nThe way the Titanic sank brought to light serious design issues with the Olympic-class. As a result, the Olympic went through a major refit and design changes for the construction of the Britannic.\\nIn August 1912, the liner Corsican struck an iceberg in the Atlantic, severely damaging the bow. However, because the weather was hazy at the time, speed had been reduced to 'dead slow', which limited further damage. While the lifeboats had been deployed, they were not boarded.\\n\\nRole of SS Californian\\nOne of the most controversial issues examined by the inquiries was the role played by SS Californian, which had been only a few miles from Titanic but had not picked up distress calls or responded to signal rockets. Californian had stopped for the night because of icy conditions and warned Titanic by radio, but was rebuked by Titanic's senior wireless operator, Jack Phillips.\\nTestimony before the British inquiry revealed that at 10:10 pm, Californian observed the lights of a ship to the south; it was later agreed between Captain Stanley Lord and Third Officer C.V. Groves (who had relieved Lord of duty at 11:10 pm) that this was a passenger liner. At 11:50 pm, the officer watched that ship's lights flash out, as if shutting down or turning sharply, and noted that the port light was visible. Morse light signaled to the ship, upon Lord's order, were made between 11:30 pm and 1:00 am, but were not acknowledged. If Titanic was as far from the Californian as Lord claimed Morse signals would not have been be visible. A reasonable and prudent course of action would have been to awaken the wireless operator and to instruct him to attempt to contact Titanic by that method. Had Lord done so, it is possible he could have reached Titanic in time to save additional lives.\\nCaptain Lord had gone to the chart room at 11:00 pm. Second Officer Herbert Stone, now on duty, notified Lord at 1:10 am that the ship had fired five rockets. Lord wanted to know if they were company signals, that is, coloured flares used for identification. Stone said that he did not know and that the rockets were all white. Captain Lord instructed the crew to continue to signal the other vessel with the Morse lamp, and went back to sleep. Three more rockets were observed at 1:50 am and Stone noted that the ship looked strange in the water, as if the ship were listing. At 2:15 am, Lord was notified that the ship could no longer be seen. Lord asked again if the lights had had any colours in them, and he was informed that they were all white.\\nCalifornian eventually responded. At around 5:30 am, Chief Officer George Stewart awakened wireless operator Cyril Furmstone Evans, informed him that rockets had been seen during the night, and asked that he try to communicate with any ship. He got news of Titanic's loss, Captain Lord was notified, and the ship set out to render assistance, arriving well after Carpathia had already picked up all the survivors.\\nThe inquiries found that the ship seen by Californian was in fact Titanic and that it would have been possible for Californian to aid rescue; therefore, Captain Lord had acted improperly in failing to do so.\\n\\nSurvivors and victims\\nThe number of casualties of the sinking is unclear, because of a number of factors. These include confusion over the passenger list, which included some names of people who cancelled their trip at the last minute, and the fact that several passengers travelled under aliases for various reasons and were therefore double-counted on the casualty lists. The death toll has been put at between 1,490 and 1,635 people. The tables below use figures from the British Board of Trade report on the disaster. While the use of the Marconi wireless system did not achieve the result of bringing a rescue ship to Titanic before it sank, the use of wireless did bring Carpathia in time to rescue some of the survivors who otherwise would have perished due to exposure.\\nThe water temperature was well below normal in the area where Titanic sank. It also contributed to the rapid death of many passengers during the sinking. Water temperature readings taken around the time of the accident were reported to be −2 °C (28 °F). Typical water temperatures were normally around 7 °C (45 °F) during mid-April. The coldness of the water was a critical factor, often causing death within minutes for many of those in the water.\\nFewer than a third of those aboard Titanic survived the disaster. Some survivors died shortly afterwards; injuries and the effects of exposure caused the deaths of several of those brought aboard Carpathia. The figures show stark differences in the survival rates of the different classes aboard Titanic. Although only 3% of first-class women were lost, 54% of those in third-class died. Similarly, five of six first-class and all second-class children survived, but 52 of the 79 in third-class perished. The differences by gender were even bigger: nearly all female crew members, first- and second-class passengers were saved. Men from the First Class died at a higher rate than women from the Third Class. In total, 50% of the children survived, 20% of the men and 75% of the women.\\nThomas Andrews, the chief naval architect of the shipyard, died in the disaster.\\nThe last living survivor, Millvina Dean from England, who, at only nine weeks old, was the youngest passenger on board, died aged 97 on 31 May 2009. Two special survivors were the stewardess Violet Jessop and the stoker Arthur John Priest, who survived the sinkings of both Titanic and HMHS Britannic and were aboard RMS Olympic when the ship was rammed in 1911.\\n\\nRetrieval and burial of the dead\\nOnce the massive loss of life became known, White Star Line chartered the cable ship CS Mackay-Bennett from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to retrieve bodies. Three other Canadian ships followed in the search: the cable ship Minia, lighthouse supply ship Montmagny and sealing vessel Algerine. Each ship left with embalming supplies, undertakers, and clergy. Of the 333 victims that were eventually recovered, 328 were retrieved by the Canadian ships and five more by passing North Atlantic steamships.\\nThe first ship to reach the site of the sinking, the CS Mackay-Bennett, found so many bodies that the embalming supplies aboard were quickly exhausted. Health regulations required that only embalmed bodies could be returned to port. Captain Larnder of the Mackay-Bennett and undertakers aboard decided to preserve only the bodies of first-class passengers, justifying their decision by the need to visually identify wealthy men to resolve any disputes over large estates. As a result, many third-class passengers and crew were buried at sea. Larnder identified many of those buried at sea as crew members by their clothing, and stated that as a mariner, he himself would be contented to be buried at sea.\\nBodies of passengers of the Titanic were numbered as they were brought aboard. Physical characteristics, clothing, identifying marks, and personal effects were all documented. Personal effects were stored separately, labeled with the same body number, and valuables were locked up by the purser. Without enough material or space to handle bodies and their belongings, the crew had to triage.\\nBodies recovered were preserved for transport to Halifax, the closest city to the sinking with direct rail and steamship connections. The Halifax Registrar of Vital Statistics, John Henry Barnstead, developed a detailed system to identify bodies and safeguard personal possessions. Relatives from across North America came to identify and claim bodies. A large temporary morgue was set up in the curling rink of the Mayflower Curling Club and undertakers were called in from all across eastern Canada to assist. Some bodies were shipped to be buried in their home towns across North America and Europe. About two-thirds of the bodies were identified. Unidentified victims were buried with simple numbers based on the order in which their bodies were discovered. The majority of recovered victims, 150 bodies, were buried in three Halifax cemeteries, the largest being Fairview Lawn Cemetery followed by the nearby Mount Olivet and Baron de Hirsch cemeteries.\\nIn mid-May 1912, RMS Oceanic recovered three bodies over 200 miles (320 km) from the site of the sinking who were among the original occupants of Collapsible A. When Fifth Officer Harold Lowe and six crewmen returned to the wreck site sometime after the sinking in a lifeboat to pick up survivors, they rescued a dozen males and one female from Collapsible A, but left the dead bodies of three of its occupants. After their retrieval from Collapsible A by Oceanic, the bodies were buried at sea.\\nThe last Titanic body recovered was steward James McGrady, Body No. 330, found by the chartered Newfoundland sealing vessel Algerine on 22 May and buried at Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax on 12 June.\\n333 bodies of Titanic victims were recovered, which amounted to one in five of the over 1,500 victims. Some bodies sank with the ship while currents quickly dispersed bodies and wreckage across hundreds of miles, making them difficult to recover. By June, one of the last search ships reported that life jackets supporting bodies were coming apart and releasing bodies to sink.\\n\\nWreck\\nTitanic was long thought to have sunk in one piece and, over the years, many schemes were put forward for raising the wreck. None came to fruition. The fundamental problem was the sheer difficulty of finding and reaching a wreck that lies over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) below the surface, where the water pressure is over 5,300 pounds per square inch (37 megapascals), about 370 standard atmospheres. A number of expeditions were mounted to find Titanic but it was not until 1 September 1985 that a Franco-American expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel and Robert Ballard succeeded.\\nThe team discovered that Titanic had in fact split apart, probably near or at the surface, before sinking to the seabed. The separated bow and stern sections lie about a third of a mile (0.6 km) apart in Titanic Canyon off the coast of Newfoundland. They are located 13.2 miles (21.2 km) from the inaccurate coordinates given by Titanic's radio operators on the night of the ship's sinking, and approximately 715 miles (1,151 km) from Halifax and 1,250 miles (2,012 km) from New York.\\nBoth sections struck the seabed at considerable speed, causing the bow to crumple and the stern to collapse entirely. The bow is by far the more intact section and still contains some surprisingly intact interiors. In contrast, the stern is completely wrecked; its decks have pancaked down on top of each other and much of the hull plating was torn off and lies scattered across the sea floor. The much greater level of damage to the stern is probably due to structural damage incurred during the sinking. Thus weakened, the remainder of the stern was flattened by the impact with the sea bed.\\nThe two sections are surrounded by a debris field measuring approximately 5 by 3 miles (8 km × 5 km). It contains hundreds of thousands of items, such as pieces of the ship, furniture, dinnerware and personal items, which fell from the ship while sinking or ejected when the bow and stern impacted on the sea floor. The debris field was also the last resting place of a number of Titanic's victims. Most of the bodies and clothes were consumed by sea creatures and bacteria, leaving pairs of shoes and boots—which have proved to be inedible—as the only sign that bodies once lay there.\\nSince its initial discovery, the wreck of Titanic has been revisited on numerous occasions by explorers, scientists, filmmakers, tourists and salvagers, who have recovered thousands of items from the debris field for conservation and public display. The ship's condition has deteriorated significantly over the years, particularly from accidental damage by submersibles but mostly because of an accelerating rate of growth of iron-eating bacteria on the hull. In 2006, it was estimated that within 50 years the hull and structure of Titanic would eventually collapse entirely, leaving only the more durable interior fittings of the ship intermingled with a pile of rust on the sea floor.\\n\\nMany artefacts from Titanic have been recovered from the seabed by RMS Titanic Inc., which exhibits them in touring exhibitions around the world and in a permanent exhibition at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. A number of other museums exhibit artefacts either donated by survivors or retrieved from the floating bodies of victims of the disaster.\\nOn 16 April 2012, the day after the 100th anniversary of the sinking, photos were released showing possible human remains resting on the ocean floor. The photos, taken by Robert Ballard during an expedition led by NOAA in 2004, show a boot and a coat close to Titanic's stern which experts called \\\"compelling evidence\\\" that it is the spot where somebody came to rest, and that human remains could be buried in the sediment beneath them. The wreck of the Titanic falls under the scope of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. This means that all states party to the convention will prohibit the pillaging, commercial exploitation, sale and dispersion of the wreck and its artefacts. Because of the location of the wreck in international waters and the lack of any exclusive jurisdiction over the wreckage area, the convention provides a state co-operation system, by which states inform each other of any potential activity concerning ancient shipwreck sites, like the Titanic, and co-operate to prevent unscientific or unethical interventions.\\nSubmersible dives in 2019 have found further deterioration of the wreck, including loss of the captain's bathtub. Between 29 July and 4 August 2019, a two-person submersible vehicle that was conducting research and filming a documentary crashed into the wreck. EYOS Expeditions executed the dives. It reported that the strong currents pushed the submersible into the wreck, leaving a red rust stain on the submersible's side. The report did not mention if the Titanic sustained damage.\\nIn May 2023, Magellan Ltd., a deep-water seabed-mapping company, announced that they had created a \\\"digital twin\\\" of the Titanic, showing the wreckage in a level of detail that had never been captured before. The company created the model from some 715,000 3D images, captured over the course of a six-week expedition in the summer of 2022, using two submersibles, named Romeo and Juliet. They mapped \\\"every millimetre\\\" of the wreckage as well as the entire three-nautical-mile (5.6 km) debris field. Creating the model took about eight months.\\nOn 18 June 2023, the submersible Titan, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, went missing in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. The submersible, designed to carry five people, was carrying an expedition of tourists to view the wreckage of the Titanic. On 22 June 2023, the operating company announced that they believe the Titan crew were lost at sea after a catastrophic implosion of the submersible, and, six days later, the U.S. Coast Guard announced its discovery of “presumed human remains” consistent with such an implosion found within recovered remnants of the Titan.\\nOn 15 July 2024, RMS Titanic Inc. held their first expedition to the wreck in 14 years, with the objective of examining its status in high-resolution photography for future scientific studies, likewise with identifying and searching for on-site artefacts. The expedition also gave tribute to Nargeolet's contributions within the debris field, having made numerous efforts in the preceding years in expanding knowledge over the area; A memorial plaque was placed on the seafloor in his honour. Numerous other uncharted areas within the vicinity were explored as well. Moreover, the event received coverage from the BBC, who interviewed numerous figures involved, such as co-leader David Gallo, who said \\\"We want to see the wreck with a clarity and precision that's never before been achieved\\\". Imaging programme chief Evan Kovacs also expressed his optimism in producing distinctly defined resolution, stating that \\\"If all of the weather gods, the computer gods, the ROV gods, the camera gods – if all those gods align, we should be able to capture Titanic and the wreck site in as close to digital perfection as you can get. You would be able to quite literally count grains of sand\\\". Furthermore, a magnetometer was utilised to produce metal detection – whether visible or not – for the first time in the history of Titanic expeditions. The expedition was facilitated through an ROV.\\n\\nLegacy\\nSafety\\nAfter the disaster, recommendations were made by both the British and American Boards of Inquiry stating that ships should carry enough lifeboats for all aboard, mandated lifeboat drills would be implemented, lifeboat inspections would be conducted, etc. Many of these recommendations were incorporated into the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea passed in 1914. The convention has been updated by periodic amendments, with a completely new version adopted in 1974. Signatories to the Convention followed up with national legislation to implement the new standards. For example, in Britain, new \\\"Rules for Life Saving Appliances\\\" were passed by the Board of Trade on 8 May 1914 and then applied at a meeting of British steamship companies in Liverpool in June 1914.\\nFurther, the United States government passed the Radio Act of 1912. This Act, along with the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, stated that radio communications on passenger ships would be operated 24 hours a day, along with a secondary power supply, so as not to miss distress calls. Also, the Radio Act of 1912 required ships to maintain contact with vessels in their vicinity as well as coastal onshore radio stations. In addition, it was agreed in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea that the firing of red rockets from a ship must be interpreted as a sign of need for help. Once the Radio Act of 1912 was passed, it was agreed that rockets at sea would be interpreted as distress signals only, thus removing any possible misinterpretation from other ships. In the same year, the Board of Trade chartered the barque Scotia to act as a weather ship in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, keeping a look-out for icebergs. A Marconi wireless telegraph was installed to enable her to communicate with stations on the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland.\\nFinally, the disaster led to the formation and international funding of the International Ice Patrol, an agency of the U.S. Coast Guard that to the present day monitors and reports on the location of North Atlantic Ocean icebergs that could pose a threat to transatlantic sea traffic. Coast Guard aircraft conduct the primary reconnaissance. In addition, information is collected from ships operating in or passing through the ice area. Except for the years of the two World Wars, the International Ice Patrol has worked each season since 1913. During the period, there has not been a single reported loss of life or property due to collision with an iceberg in the patrol area.\\n\\nCultural legacy\\nThe story of Titanic has been remembered in history as a tragedy and cautionary tale, particularly because the ship had been considered unsinkable. Titanic has inspired fiction, been the subject of documentaries, and commemorated in monuments for the dead and museum exhibitions. Shortly after sinking, memorial postcards sold in huge numbers together with memorabilia ranging from tin candy boxes to plates, whiskey jiggers, and even mourning teddy bears. The sinking inspired ballads such as \\\"The Titanic\\\". Several survivors wrote books about their experiences, but it was not until 1955 that the first historically accurate book – A Night to Remember – was published.\\nThe first film about the disaster, Saved from the Titanic, was released only 29 days after the ship sank and had an actual survivor as its star—the silent film actress Dorothy Gibson. This film is considered lost. The British film A Night to Remember (1958) is still widely regarded as the most historically accurate movie portrayal of the sinking. The most financially successful by far has been James Cameron's Titanic (1997), which became the highest-grossing film in history up to that time, as well as the winner of 11 Oscars at the 70th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Cameron.\\nThe Titanic disaster was commemorated through a variety of memorials and monuments to the victims, erected in several English-speaking countries and in particular in cities that had suffered notable losses. These included Southampton and Liverpool in England; New York and Washington, D.C. in the United States; and Belfast and Cobh (formerly Queenstown) in Ireland. A number of museums around the world have displays on Titanic; the most prominent is in Belfast, the ship's birthplace (see below).\\nRMS Titanic Inc., which is authorised to salvage the wreck site, has a permanent Titanic exhibition at the Luxor Las Vegas hotel and casino in Nevada which features a 22-tonne slab of the ship's hull. It also runs an exhibition which travels around the world. In Nova Scotia, Halifax's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic displays items that were recovered from the sea a few days after the disaster. They include pieces of woodwork such as panelling from the ship's First Class Lounge and an original deckchair, as well as objects removed from the victims. In 2012 the centenary was marked by plays, radio programmes, parades, exhibitions and special trips to the site of the sinking together with commemorative stamps and coins. Royal Mail (whose mail was carried by RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic) issued ten 1st class UK postage stamps, each with the \\\"crown seal\\\", to mark the centenary of the disaster.\\nIn a frequently commented-on literary coincidence, Morgan Robertson authored a novel called Futility in 1898 about a fictional British passenger liner with the plot bearing a number of similarities to the Titanic disaster. In the novel, the ship is SS Titan, a four-stacked liner, the largest in the world and considered unsinkable; like the Titanic, sinks in April after hitting an iceberg and does not have enough lifeboats.\\n\\nIn Northern Ireland\\nIt took many decades before the significance of Titanic was promoted in Northern Ireland, where it was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast. While the rest of the world embraced the glory and tragedy of Titanic, it remained a taboo subject throughout the 20th century in its birth city. The sinking brought tremendous grief and was a blow to Belfast's pride. Its shipyard was also a place many Catholics regarded as hostile. In the latter half of the century, during a 30-year sectarian conflict, Titanic was a reminder of the lack of civil rights that in part contributed towards the Troubles. While the fate of Titanic remained a well-known story within local households throughout the 20th century, commercial investment in projects recalling RMS Titanic's legacy was modest because of these issues.\\nAfter the Troubles and Good Friday Agreement, the number of overseas tourists visiting Northern Ireland increased. It was subsequently identified in the Northern Ireland Tourism Board's Strategic Framework for Action 2004–2007 that the significance of and interest in Titanic globally (partly due to the 1997 film Titanic) was not being fully exploited as a tourist attraction. Thus, Titanic Belfast was spearheaded, along with some smaller projects, such as a Titanic memorial.\\nIn 2012 on the ship's centenary, the Titanic Belfast visitor attraction was opened on the site of the shipyard where Titanic was built. It was Northern Ireland's second most visited tourist attraction with almost 700,000 visitors in 2016.\\nDespite over 1,600 ships being built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast Harbour, Queen's Island became renamed after its most famous ship, Titanic Quarter in 1995. Once a sensitive story, Titanic is now considered one of Northern Ireland's most revered and uniting symbols.\\nIn late August 2018, several groups were vying for the right to purchase the 5,500 Titanic relics that were an asset of the bankrupt Premier Exhibitions. Eventually, Titanic Belfast, Titanic Foundation Limited and the National Museums Northern Ireland joined with the National Maritime Museum as a consortium that was raising money to purchase the 5,500 artefacts. The group intended to keep all of the items together as a single exhibit. Oceanographer Robert Ballard said he favoured this bid since it would ensure that the memorabilia would be permanently displayed in Belfast (where Titanic was built) and in Greenwich. The museums were critical of the bid process set by the Bankruptcy court in Jacksonville, Florida. The minimum bid for the 11 October 2018 auction was set at US$21.5 million (£16.5m) and the consortium did not have enough funding to meet that amount. On 17 October 2018, The New York Times reported that a consortium of three hedge funds—Apollo Global Management, Alta Fundamental Advisers, and PacBridge Capital Partners—had paid US$19.5 million for the collection. At the time of the purchase, the consortium agreed to continued oversight by the court concerning new exploration or salvage expedition must receive approval from NOAA and the court. Further, the purchase price gives Premier's unsecured creditors an 80% recovery.\\n\\nDiagrams and timeline\\nReplicas\\nThere have been several proposals and studies for a project to build a replica ship based on the Titanic. A project by South African businessman Sarel Gaus was abandoned in 2006, and a project by Australian businessman Clive Palmer was announced in 2012, known as the Titanic II.\\nA Chinese shipbuilding company known as Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co., Ltd commenced construction in November 2016 to build a replica ship of the Titanic for use in a resort. The vessel was to house many features of the original, such as a ballroom, dining hall, theatre, first-class cabins, economy cabins and swimming pool. Tourists were to be able to reside inside the Titanic during their time at the resort. It was to be permanently docked at the resort and feature an audiovisual simulation of the sinking, which has caused some criticism. As of 2022, however, it was reportedly only 25% complete, and its website and Twitter account are offline.\\n\\nSee also\\nTitanic conspiracy theories\\nTitanic in popular culture\\nSeamen's Act\\nLists of shipwrecks\\nThe Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility\\n\\nComparable disasters\\nSS Atlantic, White Star Line ship lost in 1873 with the greatest loss of life for the company before Titanic\\nSS Eastland, a ship capsizing in 1915 after being fitted with extra lifeboats\\nMS Estonia\\nRMS Empress of Ireland\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nBibliography\\nBooks\\nExternal links\\n\\nRMS Titanic, Inc, exclusive steward of RMS Titanic\\nTitanic Historical Society\\nRMS Titanic at Curlie\\nCollection of Marconigram radio messages related to the Titanic Archived 25 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine\\nTitanic collected news and commentary at The Guardian \\nNew York Times coverage of the Titanic\\n\\\"Titanic in Black and White\\\" at Library of Virginia\\nRuhlow, Tina (December 2020). \\\"50 Images From The Titanic You Have To See To Believe\\\". Reference.com. Archived from the original on 26 December 2020.\\nTitanic Footage and Survivors Interviews on YouTube\\nTitanic Footage: Leaving Belfast – British Pathé on YouTube\\nReferences to the Titanic in European Historic Newspapers\\nRare Postcard from the Titanic\\nRMS Titanic: Fascinating Engineering Facts on YouTube – Professor William S. Hammack\",\n \"title\": \"Titanic\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The 1912 Summer Olympics (Swedish: Olympiska sommarspelen 1912), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad (Swedish: Den V olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, between 6 July and 22 July 1912. The opening ceremony was held on 6 July.\\nTwenty-eight nations and 2,408 competitors, including 48 women, competed in 102 events in 14 sports. With the exception of tennis (starting on 5 May) and football and shooting (both starting on 29 June), the games were held within a month with an official opening on 6 July. It was the last Olympics to issue solid gold medals and, with Japan's debut, the first time an official team from an Asian nation participated. Stockholm was the only bid for the games, and was selected in 1909.\\nThe games were the first to have art competitions, women's diving, women's swimming, and the first to feature both the decathlon and the new pentathlon, both won by the American Jim Thorpe. Electric timing was introduced in athletics, while the host country disallowed boxing. Figure skating was rejected by the organizers because they wanted to promote the Nordic Games.\\nThe United States won the most gold medals (26), while hosts Sweden won the most medals overall (65). These were the final Olympic Games for eight years due to the disruption of the First World War. The next Olympic Games were held in 1920 in Antwerp.\\n\\nHost selection\\nFollowing the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, authorities in Sweden immediately sought to ensure that the next games would be held there. There were two Swedish members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the time, Viktor Balck and Clarence von Rosen. The pair proposed the idea to the Swedish governing bodies of athletics and gymnastics in order to ensure that they backed any potential bid. Support was given by the national associations on 18 April 1909 for a bid to host the Olympics in Stockholm on the basis that suitable financial arrangements could be made. King Gustaf V was petitioned on 6 May 1909 following the publication of preliminary plans for the Stockholm bid that the expected cost of hosting the Games would be 415,000 kronor (£23,050 or $115,250). The Government accepted the petition on behalf of the King and supported the bid.\\nOn 28 May, at the meeting of the IOC in Berlin, the Swedish representatives declared that they had full financial support for hosting the next Games in Stockholm. A deal was made with the German IOC representative on the basis that Berlin would host the 1916 Summer Olympics. Pierre de Coubertin spoke at the meeting about his concerns that Sweden should ensure that the Games take place, as he did not want a repeat of the problems with Great Britain hosting the 1908 Games. He also expressed a desire that \\\"the Games must be kept more purely athletic; they must be more dignified, more discreet; more in accordance with classic and artistic requirements; more intimate, and, above all, less expensive.\\\" The Games were duly awarded to Sweden to host in Stockholm as the only nominated host city for the 1912 Summer Olympics.\\n\\nOrganization\\nThe news that Stockholm was to host the 1912 Olympics was received with enthusiasm by the Swedish public. The organizing committee took de Coubertin's words to heart, and aimed to achieve an Olympic Games which removed those elements which detracted from earlier Games. The committee was elected in the autumn of 1909, with Balck voted as the President of the committee, and Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf selected as Honorary President. The committee's first meeting took place on 7 October, and on 11 October they delegated the arrangements for the individual branches of sports to the relevant governing bodies in Sweden. There were four exceptions to this, with the game shooting, modern pentathlon and mountain ascents retained by the Olympic committee, and the horse riding competitions being organized by Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland, who was the inspector of the Swedish cavalry. Altogether there were 187 members of these committees.\\nThe official invitation to compete in the Games was issued on 18 November 1910 to 27 countries, either directly or through their representative on the IOC. A further 15 countries were to have been invited, but as they had no IOC representatives, the Swedish authorities were unsure how to proceed. Once the organizing committee for the Games received confirmation of the athletic associations in each of the 15 countries, they too were sent invitations. Some 61,800 entry forms were printed for the use of the various nations.\\nFree transport was arranged for the invited nations' equipment, and a discount of 50 percent was arranged for competitors and delegates on the state run railway. A daily newspaper which only covered the Olympics was arranged to be published during the Games, in both English and Swedish. Further arrangements were made for the general arrival of visitors in order to entertain them whilst they were not at the Games; a pleasure garden was opened north of the Olympic Stadium, and a series of indoor tennis courts were converted into a restaurant.\\n\\nVenues\\nTwelve sports venues were used in the 1912 Summer Olympics. This marked the first time that more than one venue would be used for the football tournament, which has been the case ever since. Stockholm Olympic Stadium served as one of the equestrian venues for the 1956 Summer Olympics. Råsunda Stadium served as a venue for the 1958 FIFA World Cup and the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup. In the initial bid document it was identified that a new stadium would be needed, initially envisaged as being located in the Östermalm Athletic Grounds. In order to save funds, it was expected that only one of the stadium's stands would be permanent, with the other three made of wood and dismantled following the Games. The cost of that stadium was estimated at 235,000 Kronor. Arrangements were made with the individual national committees to provide the use of Östermalm Athletic Grounds and Traneberg.\\nThe cycling road race was held around Mälaren, the third largest lake in Sweden. The water events, including the swimming and the rowing, were held at Djurgårdsbrunnsviken, where a stadium was built. Kaknäs was already used as a shooting range, but alterations were needed to accommodate shooting events. Although it was not used as the Olympic stadium as originally intended, Östermalm hosted the lawn tennis and fencing competitions after a tennis pavilion was moved there from another location.\\nFive other locations were considered in addition to the Östermalm Athletic Grounds to locate the Olympic Stadium. The Stockholm Olympic Stadium was built on the site of the former Stockholm Athletic Grounds in order to retain the other locations for other uses during the Games. By placing it to the north of the city, the Olympic Stadium was within the immediate vicinity of other pre-existing sporting venues. Initial funding was given to the sum of 400,000 Kr for a timber stadium but Torben Grut, the architect, also drew up alternative plans for a stone stadium. Following discussions with the Swedish Central Association for the Application of Athletics, it was decided that the stone version should be built, and further funds were made available through a national lottery once guarantees were made that no further funding was to be asked for in order to build the stadium. However it was found that the original estimate for the stone stadium would still be too expensive, and the plans were once more modified in order to simplify the design and reduce costs. An agreement was entered into with a contractor on 2 November 1910 that it would be transferred complete by 25 May 1912.\\n\\nOpening ceremony\\nThe Games of the V Olympiad were opened on 6 July 1912. The Swedish Royal Family left Stockholm Palace at 10:40am, and were received at the Olympic Stadium by members of the IOC. Three thousand competing athletes had already assembled in the nearby Östermalm Athletic Grounds, and began to enter the stadium in alphabetical order by nation according to the Swedish spelling. The Swedish team entered last, but unlike the later tradition, the Greek team did not enter first.\\nA hymn was sung, a traditional Swedish chant was conducted and prayers were read first in Swedish and then in English. Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf addressed the King on behalf of the Swedish Olympic Association. King Gustav V then declared the Games officially open by a long speech:\\n\\nIt is with legitimate joy and pride that we Swedes see athletes from every part of the world gathered here with us. It is a great honour for Sweden that Stockholm has been chosen as the scene of the Fifth Olympiad, and I bid all of you, athletes and friends of athletics, a most hearty welcome to this friendly contest of the nations. May the grand thought that found expression in the Olympic Games in classic times be so held in honour by our age too, that these competitions may become a powerful means to promote the physical health and development of every people. With these words, I herewith declare the Olympic Games of Stockholm opened.\\nAfterwards a trumpet fanfare was played and the Crown Prince called for cheers for the King. The athletes in their national groups marching out of the stadium in order ended the ceremony.\\n\\nEvents\\nThe Swedish delegation at the IOC meeting in Berlin on 28 May 1909 had proposed a simple Olympic schedule containing only \\\"pure\\\" athletics, swimming, gymnastics and wrestling. However other countries requested that the schedule be more comprehensive, and with that in mind they put forward a further programme at the IOC meeting in 1911 which was met with approval. The sports which were added were the tug of war, cycling, fencing, football, horse riding, lawn tennis, rowing, shooting, skating and yacht racing. The question of adding skating to the programme was discussed once more on 7 February 1910, with the decision being made to drop it from the schedule. It was felt to be unsuitable because it was a winter sport, and it was to be part of the Nordic Games the following year. Boxing was removed from the programme as it was unappealing to the Swedes. Art competitions were considered at a further meeting on 14 February 1910, and were subsequently added to the programme, but now art competitions are no longer regarded as official Olympic events by the International Olympic Committee.\\nAs a result, now the 1912 Summer Olympics programme considered composed of 14 sports encompassing 18 disciplines and 102 events. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.\\n\\nBaseball, glima and Gotland sports were unofficial demonstration sports. This was also the first year art competitions were held at the Olympics.\\n\\nAthletics\\nThe athletic events saw the introduction of a fully automatic timing system developed by R. Carlstedt. It involved attaching electromagnets to chronometers in a system which attached a control lamp to the starting gun for each race. This resulted in the firing of the gun starting a timer which was then stopped by one of the judges at the finishing line. The final of the men's 100 metres was expected to be a mostly American affair, and it ended up with six athletes, only one of whom was not from the United States. It suffered from seven false starts before the athletes finally got away, with Ralph Craig winning the gold medal by 60 centimetres (24 in) in front of second place Alvah Meyer. Donald Lippincott won bronze, 15 cm behind second man.\\nKanakuri Shizō, a Japanese marathon runner, went missing during the race. He lost consciousness by heatstroke and a farming family helped him to stop at a party taking place in a villa on the marathon route in order to quench his thirst, then caught a train to Stockholm and left the country the next day. He returned to Japan without notifying race officials. 50 years later, after being invited back by the Swedish authorities, he completed the race with an (unofficial) time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds. Portuguese Francisco Lázaro died from heat exhaustion while running the marathon, the only athlete to die during the running of an Olympic marathon.\\nAmerican Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and the newly created decathlon. Thorpe's gold medals were stripped by the International Olympic Committee in 1913, after the IOC learned that Thorpe had taken expense money for playing baseball, violating contemporary Olympic amateurism rules, before the 1912 Games. This moved everyone else up in the rankings. In 1982, the IOC was convinced that the disqualification had been improper, as no protest against Thorpe's eligibility had been brought within the required 30 days, and reinstated Thorpe's medals. The replicas were presented to his children in 1983, 30 years after Thorpe's death. Finally, in 2022, the IOC posthumously declared Thorpe as the sole winner of the pentathlon and decathlon events after extensive consultations with his former competitors' families who said they had always viewed Thorpe as the winner.\\nNew Olympic records were set in the majority of track and field events, with only the men's 200 metres, 10 km walk, standing high jump, standing broad jump, hop, step and jump, and the hurdle competitions failing to have new records set. Tell Berna captured a gold for the 3000m and Henry S. \\\"Harry\\\" Babcock took gold for the pole vault, setting an Olympic Record at 3.95m. Hannes Kolehmainen was the most successful in setting records at the games, with new Olympic Records set in the 5,000, 10,000 metre and cross country races.\\n\\nCycling\\nThe cycling events at the 1912 Games were limited to a road race around Lake Mälaren, which had already been a successful route for a yearly cycling race. Although not originally in the schedule, several countries requested that track cycling be added; however, the organizing committee stuck by their plans not to build a new track cycling stadium as the only one in Stockholm had been destroyed in order for the Olympic Stadium to be built. In addition, Germany had specifically requested Cycle-Polo and Figure-Cycling to be added to the programme, both of which requests were turned down by the committee.\\nIt was decided to hold the road race as a time trial, and to outlaw any non-competitive cyclists acting as pacemakers. Nineteen nations entered 151 athletes into the competition, which was a greater number than expected by the committee. The largest group was from Great Britain, who had entered twelve competitors from England, another twelve from Scotland, and a further nine from Ireland. The race began on 7 July, with the athletes leaving in groups. The first group left at 2am, with the remaining groups leaving at intervals of two minutes. The distance raced was 318 kilometres (198 mi), with South African Rudolph Lewis winning the gold medal in the individual race. Frederick Grubb of Great Britain won the silver medal, and Carl Schutte of the United States won the bronze. However, the average positions of the Swedish team were better than their competitors', and so the Swedish team won the gold medal for the team competition. The silver and bronze medals followed the individual victories, going to Great Britain and the United States respectively – giving Grubb and Schutte a second medal each of the same varieties.\\n\\nDiving\\nAll of the medals in the men's competitions were split between the diving teams of the Swedish and German teams. The men's high dive was a Swedish white out, with Swedish divers taking all three medal positions. Erik Adlerz took the gold medal, and proceeded to take the gold medal for Sweden in the 10 metre platform too. Albert Zürner took the silver for Germany, and Gustaf Blomgren won the bronze medal for Sweden. Another white out occurred in the 3 metre springboard with all three medals going to the German team, with Paul Günther taking gold, Hans Luber in the silver medal position and Kurt Behrens in bronze. A 10-metre platform event also took place for women, with Sweden taking two more medals, Greta Johansson in gold and Lisa Regnell in silver. Great Britain's Isabelle White won the bronze medal. The remaining finalists were all from Sweden.\\n\\nEquestrian\\nEquestrian made its first appearance at a modern Olympics in the 1912 Games. Although competitions involving horse riding had been included in the programme of 1900, this was the first appearance of modern Olympic staples such as dressage, eventing and show jumping. It was expected that the competitors would be military personnel as they would have had the cavalry experience to compete. The competition was split between the military competitions, prize riding and prize jumping.\\nIn the military competition, seven countries put forward competitors for the individual and team eventing. Each nation put forward four athletes with the exception of Denmark, which only put forward three. Some of the countries also nominated reserves in addition to their main athletes. The total length of the course was 55 kilometres (34 mi) with the start and finish both in the grounds of the Field Riding Club. The heat was such on the day of the event that competitors lost as much as 4.5 pounds (2.0 kg)in weight. Swede Axel Nordlander won the individual competition, and led the Swedish eventing team to victory as well, earning himself two gold medals. In second place in the individual competition was German Friedrich von Rochow, who also earned a second silver medal as the team from Germany placed second overall. Only the bronze medals were split up between nationalities, with the American team taking the bronze for the team event while Frenchman Jacques Cariou won the individual medal.\\nTwo additional countries entered for the dressage, although only Sweden entered the maximum number of competitors. The event resulted in Sweden taking all three medals, with the gold going to Carl Bonde, the silver to Gustaf Adolf Boltenstern and the bronze to Hans von Blixen-Finecke. The individual show jumping competition was the only individual equestrian event at the 1912 Olympics in which Sweden won no medals, with the gold medal instead going to Cariou of the French to add to his bronze medal from the dressage, Rabod von Kröcher taking the silver for Germany, and Emmanuel de Blommaert winning the bronze for Belgium. The team event saw Sweden take another gold medal, with the French team second and the German team, featuring Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, in the bronze medal position.\\n\\nFencing\\nThe foil competition became a full Olympic event, having appeared at the 1908 Games as a demonstration sport. Nedo Nadi and Pietro Speciale of Italy took the gold and silver medals respectively, and Richard Verderber of Austria placed third. There were individual and team events in both épée and sabre. The épée team event saw Belgium take the gold medal and Great Britain and the Netherlands in second and third place respectively. A member of the Belgian team went on to take the individual title as well, with Paul Anspach taking the gold medal. Ivan Joseph Martin Osiier of Denmark took the silver medal, and another Belgian who was not in the team event, Philippe le Hardy de Beaulieu, won the bronze medal.\\nThe sabre competition was dominated by the competitors from Hungary, with their team taking the gold medal over Austria and the Netherlands. The individual competition saw a shut out by Hungarian athletes with Jenő Fuchs winning the overall competition, Béla Békessy in second and Ervin Mészáros in third.\\n\\nFootball\\nThirteen countries signalled their intention to enter football teams for the 1912 Olympics. A standard cup tie system was implemented, with the final deciding the gold and silver medallists and a third/fourth position playoff deciding the bronze medal winner. Only FIFA affiliated teams were allowed to take part, with the public draw for the tournament taking place on 18 June 1911. The tournament itself started on 29 June. In the first round Finland defeated Italy 3–2, Austria beat Germany 5–1 and the Netherlands emerged victorious over Sweden 4–3. The team from Great Britain, who had won the gold medal at the 1908 Summer Games, were given a bye to the second round, where they faced Hungary and won 7–0. Finland also won their match, defeating Russia 2–1. Denmark matched the British scoreline, winning 7–0 against Norway, and the Netherlands won against Austria 3–1.\\nThe semi final matches pitted Great Britain against Finland, where they won 4–0, and Denmark against the Netherlands, ending in a 4–1 victory for Denmark. The Netherlands won the third/fourth place playoff by the biggest scoreline of the tournament, beating Finland 9–0. Later on the same day the final was played in the Olympic Stadium, where Great Britain retained its gold medal against Denmark in front of 25,000 spectators. Goals from Harold Walden, Arthur Berry and two from Gordon Hoare helped Britain to win by a margin of 4–2.\\n\\nGymnastics\\nThe gymnastic competition at the 1912 Games featured a single individual competition and three team events in addition to a variety of displays by the various teams. The Swedish team naturally won the Gymnastics event of the Swedish system, referred to in the programme as \\\"Team Competition I\\\", with fellow Scandinavian teams Denmark and Norway taking the second and third positions. The all around team competition came second, with Italy taking the gold. In addition, one of the Italian team members, Alberto Braglia, won the individual gold for the same event. Louis Ségura of the French team won the individual silver, while another member of the Italian team, Adolfo Tunesi, won the individual bronze. The all around team competition saw Hungary take the silver medal and the team from Great Britain in third place. The final team competition allowed for a free choice of movements and apparatus. This was another all Scandinavian affair, with the Norwegian team emerging victorious, Finland in second and Denmark in the bronze medal position.\\n\\nModern pentathlon\\nModern pentathlon was competed for at the 1912 Games, marking its first appearance in the Olympics. It was for these games that the five events of shooting, swimming, equestrian, fencing and cross country running were decided to make up the pentathlon. The competition was spread out across five days from 7 through to 12 July, ending with the cross country race. Only men participated in the event, although a woman named Helen Preece was briefly enrolled to compete until the organizing committee ultimately denied her entry.\\n\\nFor the shooting element, each competitor was allowed to bring their own pistol. The American competitor George S. Patton (later better known as the Second World War US Army General) used a Colt revolver, while the Danish competitors preferred the Danish Army service pistol, the Germans and Norwegians used the Luger P08 pistol and the Swedes used a target practice pistol by Smith & Wesson. The shooting part of the competition was won by Gösta Åsbrink, with Georg de Laval and Gösta Lilliehöök in second and third place respectively, all three representing Sweden.\\nThe swimming event was three lengths, each of 100 metres (330 ft), with the athletes split into eight heats and times going forward to calculate positions. Ralph Clilverd of Great Britain won this event, with Edmond Bernhardt of Austria in second and de Laval in third. The fencing competition saw each competitor face off against each other. Several opponents were noted for their particular skill in the event with Åke Grönhagen of Sweden coming first with 24 wins, Jean de Mas Latrie of France second with 23, Sidney Stranne of Sweden in third with 21 and Patton of the United States close behind with 20. Thirteen of the competitors cleared the equestrian course without any penalties, with Grönhagen winning the event, Bror Mannström of Sweden in second and de Laval third.\\nThe cross country run was over 4,000 metres and started in the Olympic Stadium itself. The event was run as a time trial with competitors leaving one minute apart. As this was the final event, the winning competitors were announced after the race, with Lilliehöök winning the gold medal, Åsbrink taking silver and de Laval, bronze. The highest placed non-Swedish competitor was Patton, who finished fifth.\\n\\nRowing\\nThe rowing events at the 1912 Olympics did not prove popular with the public. This was put down to the \\\"fatigue\\\" of the public due to the volume of sporting events. The eight competition was split into heats, with two teams in each heat. The two British crews were lucky not to be drawn against each other, with the team from Leander Club facing New College, Oxford in the final. Leander won by a length with a time of 6:15. The coxed four followed a similar format to the eights, with the German team from Ludwigshafener Ruderverein defeating Britain's Thames Rowing Club in the final.\\nThe competition for the coxed four, inriggers was much smaller, with only four nations competing. The Danish team defeated Sweden in the final. The single sculls heats proved controversial with the first round race between Mart Kuusik and Alfred Heinrich being re-run after a protest by Heinrich. In addition, Cecil McVilly was disqualified in the first round after colliding with the boat of Martin Stahnke. Wally Kinnear of Great Britain defeated Polydore Veirman of Belgium in the final, with Kinnear winning the matchup easily.\\n\\nSailing\\nThe yachts for the sailing competition assembled at Nynäshamn on 19 July, along with the other vessels that were to take part in an Olympic regatta. The racing itself started the following day with the 12 metre class. There were only three nations and yachts competing in this event, the hosts Sweden, as well as Norway and Finland. Norway won the gold medal, Sweden the silver and Finland came in last place, winning bronze. The 10 metre class had the same number of countries entering it, although this time Sweden entered two yachts and Russia competed instead of Norway. The Swedish yacht Kitty was the winning vessel, with the Finnish boat in second and the Russians coming third.\\nA slightly improved field was featured in the 8 metre class, with four countries entering two yachts each. The medals were awarded to exactly the same nations as the 12 metre class, another all Scandinavian affair. The 6 metre class saw the most diverse field of any of the sailing events at the 1912 Olympics: six countries entered a total of nine yachts. France and Denmark competed in their only sailing event, along with Sweden, sending two yachts each. Those three nations were the successful in the event, with the French yacht Mac Miche taking the gold, the Danish Nurdug II taking silver and the Swedish Kerstin placing third.\\n\\nShooting\\nThere were eighteen shooting events at the 1912 Olympics, of which eight were team events. The competition was split predominantly into three sections: military rifle shooting, shooting with miniature rifles, pistols and revolvers, and clay bird and running deer shooting. The Swedish and American competitors were the most successful at the competition, with seven gold medals each, although Sweden won a total of seventeen medals while the United States team won fourteen. 64-year-old Oscar Swahn, part of the Swedish single shot running deer team, is still the oldest gold medal winner in Olympic history.\\n\\nSwimming\\nIn swimming, Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku won the 100 metre freestyle for the United States, who also saw Harry Hebner win gold in the 100 metre backstroke. The Canadian team also took two gold medals, both by George Hodgson in the 400 and 1,500 metre events. The German swimming team won all three medals in the 200 metre breaststroke, with the gold going to Walter Bathe, who won a further gold in the 400 metre breaststroke. The Australasian team was victorious in the men's relay, with the United States finishing in the silver medal position and Great Britain placing third.\\nThe 1912 Games saw the implementation of swimming events for women, with the 100 metre freestyle and 400 metre team relay taking place. Fanny Durack won the individual contest, breaking the world record for the distance in the fourth heat. Her fellow Australian Mina Wylie won the silver medal, and Jennie Fletcher of Great Britain came third to take the bronze medal. The British team had further success in the women's relay, winning the team relay with the German team in second place and the Austrian team in third. Because only four countries entered the relay there were no heats; only a final was held. The United States did not field a women's team. New Olympic Records were set in all swimming events at the 1912 Games.\\n\\nTennis\\nTennis on covered courts was agreed initially for the 1912 Games, with competitions run for gentlemen's singles and doubles, ladies' singles, and mixed doubles. The outdoor tournament was confirmed once the Östermalm Athletic Grounds were completed in late 1911, with the plans modified to have both indoor and outdoor tournaments.\\nSix countries sent players for the covered court competitions, with representatives from Sweden, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Australasia, and Bohemia appearing. Included in this lineup was Australasia's only competitor, Anthony Wilding from New Zealand, who was also the reigning Wimbledon gentlemen's champion. The indoor knockout competition started on 5 May, and continued as expected until the semi-final round where Wilding was beaten by Britain's Charles P. Dixon. The British player met Frenchman André Gobert in the final, but Gobert was victorious over the Englishman in straight sets. Wilding took the bronze medal in a playoff against another British player, Arthur Lowe.\\n\\nThe outdoors tennis competition saw 70 players enter from 12 nations. However, Great Britain did not enter any competitors as the dates of the outdoor competition clashed with the 1912 Wimbledon Championships, despite attempts by the British authorities to convince the Olympic organizing committee to change the dates. Other noted tennis players refused to compete at the Olympics and instead attended Wimbledon. The gold and silver medals in the gentlemen's singles ended up being decided between two South Africans, with Charles Winslow and Harold Kitson playing each other. Winslow won the match and the gold medal, 7–5, 4–6, 10–8, 8–6. The duo also competed as a pair in the gentlemen's doubles and took the gold medal, beating the Austrians Felix Pipes and Arthur Zborzil. Marguerite Broquedis of France defeated Dorothea Koring of Germany in the ladies' singles for the gold medal. In the mixed doubles Koring teamed up with Heinrich Schomburgk to win the gold, the duo defeating Sigrid Fick and Gunnar Setterwall of Sweden in the final.\\n\\nTug of war\\nThe tug of war competition was scheduled to take place between 7 and 12 July, with two matches taking place each day. However, out of the five countries which elected to enter the competition, only two actually appeared. Great Britain arrived for its match against Bohemia, but the opposition team was nowhere to be found. Britain was duly declared the winner. The same thing happened once more for the second match, with the Swedish team, made up of policemen from Stockholm, arriving to find that the Austrian team had not arrived. Sweden was announced as the winners of the match in the Austrians' absence.\\nOn the second day of the competition, Great Britain took on Sweden, the only occasion where both teams actually turned up for the bout. The British team were made up of the winners of the gold medal in the same event at the 1908 Games, with the exception of John Sewell and Mathias Hynes. As the British team also consisted of policemen, the bout ended up effectively being between the City of London Police and the Stockholm Police, with the Swedish team winning 2–0. Due to the non-appearance of the team from Luxembourg, that one match ended up being the entire tug of war event at the 1912 Olympics. Sweden was awarded the gold medal and Great Britain the silver.\\n\\nWater polo\\nThe water polo tournament was set up on a modified elimination system as there were six teams entered. The first round saw the British team defeating the Belgian team, Sweden defeating the French team and Austria defeating Hungary. Lots were drawn to determine which match would take place in the second round as there were three teams left in the competition. Great Britain were drawn to face Sweden, who they defeated. Austria automatically qualified for the final against the winner of the Britain-Sweden matchup. Great Britain won the gold medal in the event, defeating Austria 8–0. Playoff matches were then played between each pair of defeated teams in order to decide the second and third places. Sweden and Belgium played off after a further three matches to decide the silver and bronze medal positions, with Sweden emerging victorious 4–2.\\n\\nWrestling\\nThe nations at the 1912 Games entered a total of 267 wrestlers, although the actual competitors who appeared in Sweden were fewer, with 171 actually turning up to compete. Greco-Roman wrestling was the only style of wrestling competed for at the Games. The bouts took place in the open air in an area of the Olympic stadium, with the wrestlers split according to weight into five divisions: featherweight, lightweight, middleweight A (later referred to as middleweight), middleweight B (later referred to as light heavyweight) and heavyweight.\\nThe skills of the competitors from Finland were noted in the featherweight competition, with Kaarlo Koskelo taking the gold medal, while German Georg Gerstäcker took silver and a further medal went to Finland with Otto Lasanen taking bronze. The lightweight class drew the most attention from the public, with Emil Väre winning gold after beating all of his opponents by pin rather than by points. Swedish wrestlers Gustaf Malmström and Edvin Mattiasson took the silver and bronze medals respectively. Claes Johanson won Sweden's only gold medal in the middleweight competition, with his fellow finalist from Russia, Martin Klein, retiring before fighting Johanson in the final. This was due to the semi-final match between Klein and Alfred Asikainen of Finland lasting 11 hours and forty minutes, although they took breaks for refreshments every half-hour. Klein was awarded the silver medal and Asikainen the bronze.\\nThe light heavyweight competition saw another marathon length match, with the bout between Anders Ahlgren of Sweden and Ivar Böhling of Finland for the gold medal lasting more than nine hours. The match was then declared a draw with both athletes being awarded the silver medal as neither won the match. The bronze medal went to Hungary's Béla Varga, who was defeated by Ahlgren in the semi-final match. Yrjö Saarela of Finland was victorious in the heavyweight competition after having placed second in the light heavyweight event at the 1908 Games. Johan Olin took another medal for Finland with the silver and Søren Marinus Jensen repeated his bronze medal at the 1908 Olympics with another for Denmark.\\n\\nArt competitions\\nThe 1912 Summer Olympics saw the introduction of art competitions at the Summer Olympics. Events were implemented for literature, sculpture, painting, architecture and music. Walter Winans won the gold medal for his sculpture, An American Trotter, which added to his previous gold medal for the running deer (double shot) competition at the 1908 Olympics and the silver medal in the running deer competition in 1912.\\nBaron Pierre de Coubertin, President of the IOC and founder of the modern Olympic movement, won the gold medal for literature. He actually entered the competition under the pseudonyms of Georges Hohrod and Martin Eschbach from Germany. With the exception of the sculpture competition, only gold medals were issued. Italian Riccardo Barthelemy won the medal for music with his Olympic Triumphal March, and fellow countryman Giovanni Pellegrini won the gold for painting. The Swiss architects Eugène-Edouard Monod and Alphonse Laverrière shared the gold for their stadium design. The sole silver medal, for sculpture, went to Frenchman Georges Dubois for his Model of the entrance to a modern stadium.\\n\\nDemonstration sports\\nIn the evening of 7 July, demonstrations took place in the Olympic Stadium of sports from the Swedish island of Gotland. These began at 7:30pm with a demonstration of Pärk, a type of tennis with seven players a side. At the same time, at the other end of the stadium, a type of Icelandic wrestling called Glima was demonstrated. Once those displays had concluded, further demonstrations were made of the Swedish sport varpa, similar to quoits, and stångstörtning, a version of the caber toss.\\nBaseball was also demonstrated at the Games. A game was played between the United States, the nation where the game was developed, and Sweden, the host nation. The game was held on Monday, 15 July 1912 and started at 10 a.m. on the Ostermalm Athletic Grounds in Stockholm. The Americans were represented by various members of the American Olympic track and field athletics delegation, while the Swedish team was the Vesterås Baseball Club, which had been formed in 1910 as the first baseball club in Sweden. Four of the Americans played for Sweden, as the Swedish pitchers and catchers were inexperienced. One Swede eventually relieved Adams and Nelson, the American pitchers.\\nSix innings were played, with the Americans not batting in the sixth and allowing the Swedes to have six outs in their half of the inning. The game was umpired by George Wright, a retired American National League baseball player.\\n\\nParticipating nations\\nTwenty-eight nations competed at the 1912 Games. Egypt participated for the first time, as did Luxembourg, Iceland, Portugal, and Serbia. Japan also made their Olympic debut, marking the first appearance of an Asian country at an Olympic Games. Chile made its first appearance as a national team, with fourteen athletes attending the Games, although it had previously entered one individual at the 1896 Games. This was also the first time that athletes from Armenia had competed in the Olympics, as part of the team from Turkey (the officially recognised name for the Ottoman Empire). Serbia's appearance was the only time it attended an Olympic Games as an independent nation until the 2008 Summer Olympics, almost one hundred years later.\\nThe only nation that participated in the previous games in London 1908 but was absent in Stockholm 1912 was Argentina.\\nAustria and Hungary competed as two sovereign countries. The polity known as Austria-Hungary is mistakenly considered a single sovereign country, while in reality was two sovereign states in real union with a single monarch who was titled both emperor of Austria and king of Hungary.\\nAt the time, Australasia (Australia and New Zealand), Canada and South Africa were all part of the British Empire. Bohemia was part of Austria. Iceland was part of Denmark. Finland was part of Russia. And Egypt was de jure under the control of Turkey, but had been de facto run by the British since 1882.\\nThis was the last Olympics that allowed \\\"private entries\\\", i.e. individual athletes that were not part of a country's officially selected team. Arnold Jackson was one such private entry; he won the 1500 metres by 0.1 seconds, ahead of an American trio, in what was acclaimed at the time to be \\\"the greatest race ever run\\\". His medal is still credited to the United Kingdom, however.\\n\\nNumber of athletes by National Olympic Committees\\nMedal count\\nThese are the top 10 nations that won medals at the 1912 Games. The medals themselves included solid gold medals, the last time these were given out.\\n\\nSee also\\nList of IOC country codes\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\n\\\"Stockholm 1912\\\". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.\\nSwedish Olympic Committee (1913). Erik Bergvall (ed.). The Official Report of the Olympic Games of Stockholm 1912 (PDF). Stockholm: Wahlstrom and Widstrand. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-04-10.\",\n \"title\": \"1912_Summer_Olympics\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"In what city were the Summer Olympic Games held in the year the RMS _Titanic_ sank?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Stockholm (Sweden)"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":698,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"698"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Josep Guardiola Sala (born 18 January 1971), commonly known as Pep Guardiola (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈpɛb ɡwəɾðiˈɔlə]), is a Catalan professional football manager and former player from Spain, who is currently the manager of Premier League club Manchester City. Guardiola is the only manager to win the continental treble twice, the youngest manager to win the UEFA Champions League, and he holds the record for the most consecutive league games won in La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League. He is considered to be one of the greatest managers of all time. \nGuardiola was a defensive midfielder who usually played in a deep-lying playmaker's role. He spent the majority of his career with Barcelona, forming a part of Johan Cruyff's Dream Team that won the club's first European Cup in 1992, and four successive Spanish league titles from 1991 to 1994. He captained the team from 1997 until his departure from Barcelona in 2001. Guardiola then had stints with Brescia and Roma in Italy, Al-Ahli in Qatar and Dorados in Mexico. He was capped 47 times for the Spanish national team and appeared at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, as well as at UEFA Euro 2000. He also played friendly matches for Catalonia.\nAfter retiring as a player, Guardiola briefly managed Barcelona B, with whom he won a Tercera División title. He took charge of the first team in 2008. In his first season, he led Barcelona to the continental treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League, becoming the youngest manager to win the latter competition. He was named the FIFA World Coach of the Year in 2011 after leading the club to another La Liga and Champions League double in the 2010–11 season. Guardiola ended his four-year Barcelona stint in 2012 with 14 honours, a club record.\nAfter a sabbatical period, Guardiola joined Bayern Munich in 2013 and won the Bundesliga in each of the three seasons, including two domestic doubles. He left the club for Manchester City in 2016 and guided them to the Premier League title in his second season in charge, breaking numerous domestic records as the team became the first to attain 100 points in a single season. He led City to a domestic treble in 2018–19, their first Champions League final in 2020–21, and their first Champions League title as part of another continental treble in 2022–23.\n\nClub career\n1988–2001: Barcelona\nBorn in Santpedor, Barcelona, Catalonia, Guardiola joined La Masia at age 13 from Gimnàstic de Manresa and rose through the ranks of Barcelona's youth academy for six years, making his debut in 1990 against Cádiz. As Phil Ball writes in Morbo, In his first week at the club, Johan Cruyff turned up unannounced at the Mini Estadi, a venue just down the road from Camp Nou used by Barcelona B. Just before half-time he wandered into the dug-out and asked Charly Rexach, the youth team manager at the time, the name of the young lad playing on the right side of midfield. \"Guardiola – good lad,\" came the reply. Cruyff ignored the comment and told Rexach to move him into the middle for the second half, to play as pivot. It was a difficult position to adapt to and one not used by many teams in Spain at the time. Guardiola adjusted immediately, as Cruyff had suspected he would, and when he moved to the first-team in 1990, he became the pivot of the Dream Team.\n\nGuardiola became a first-team regular in the 1991–92 season, and at only 20 years old was a key component of a side that won La Liga and the European Cup. The Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo heralded Guardiola as the finest player in the world under the age of 21. Cruyff's \"Dream Team\" went on to retain La Liga title in the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons. The side again reached the 1994 UEFA Champions League final, but were beaten 4–0 by Fabio Capello's AC Milan side in Athens. Cruyff left in 1996, with Barcelona finishing fourth in the 1994–95 season and third in the 1995–96 season, but Guardiola retained his position at the centre of Barcelona's midfield.\nIn the 1996–97 season, Barcelona, this time led by Bobby Robson, won three cups: the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de España, and the European Cup Winners' Cup. In 1997, Guardiola was named as Barcelona captain under new manager Louis van Gaal, but a calf muscle injury ruled Guardiola out of most of the 1997–98 season, in which Barcelona won a league and cup double. At the end of the season, Barcelona rejected offers from Roma and Parma (of around 300 million pesetas) for Guardiola. After prolonged and complicated contract talks, he signed a new contract with Barcelona that extended his stay until 2001.\nGuardiola returned to action the following season and Barcelona once again won La Liga. On 8 June 1998, Guardiola underwent surgery to try to resolve his lingering calf injury, which had caused him to miss the 1998 FIFA World Cup for Spain. A largely disappointing 1999–2000 season again ended in surgery, with Guardiola missing the last three months of the season with a serious ankle injury. \nOn 11 April 2001, Barcelona's captain announced his intention to leave the club after 17 years of service. He stated that it was a personal decision and, in part, a response to what he perceived as football heading in a new, more physical, direction. On 24 June 2001, Guardiola played his last match with Barcelona in the final game of the season against Celta Vigo. Guardiola played 479 games in 12 seasons for the first team, winning 16 trophies. At the press conference after the Celta game, he said: \"It's been a long journey. I'm happy, proud, happy with the way people treated me and I have made many friends. I cannot ask for more. I have had many years in the elite. I did not come to make history but to make my own history.\" A number of future Barcelona midfielders, including Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Cesc Fàbregas, have hailed Guardiola as their role model and hero.\n\n2001–2006: Later career\nAfter leaving Barcelona in 2001 at age 30, Guardiola joined Serie A side Brescia as Andrea Pirlo's replacement in the deep-lying playmaker role, where he played alongside Roberto Baggio under manager Carlo Mazzone. Following his stint at Brescia, Guardiola transferred to Roma. His time in Italy, however, was unsuccessful and included a four-month ban for testing positive for nandrolone (he was cleared of all charges in 2009).\nAfter his career with Brescia and Roma, in 2003, Guardiola played in Qatar with Al-Ahli from Doha in the Qatar Stars League. In 2005–06, he turned down offers from a number of European clubs, as he felt his playing career was coming to a close.\nIn 2006, Juan Manuel Lillo was appointed the manager of Mexican club Dorados. Lillo recruited Guardiola to play for the club while he was in managing school in Axocopán, Atlixco, Puebla. Guardiola played with Dorados for six months, but was limited to ten appearances due to injuries, before retiring. He scored one goal for the club.\n\nInternational career\nSpain\nOn 14 October 1992, Guardiola debuted for the Spain national football team in a friendly match against Northern Ireland. The same year, he served as Spain when they won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games. That same year he won the Bravo Award, which recognises the world's best player under the age of 21.\nGuardiola was a member of the Spanish team during the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals, losing 2–1 to Italy. Due to disagreements, he fell out of favour with Spain coach Javier Clemente and missed out on UEFA Euro 1996. Guardiola suffered a career-threatening injury in 1998 which kept him out of the year's World Cup, but later played at Euro 2000, where Spain reached another quarter-final, this time losing to France by the same margin of 2–1. He continued to play in the Spanish midfield until his final appearance on 14 November 2001, in a 1–0 victory in a friendly match against Mexico. Guardiola scored his last international goal against Sweden in a 1–1 friendly draw during his 45th appearance.\n\nCatalonia\nGuardiola has played for and advocated on behalf of the Catalonia football team. Between 1995 and 2005, he played seven friendly matches for Catalonia.\n\nPlayer profile\nStyle of play\nGuardiola was a highly creative, hard-working, nimble, and elegant player, with good anticipation, tactical awareness, and an ability to read the game; throughout his career, he was usually deployed as either a central or defensive midfielder in front of his team's back-line, although he was also capable of playing in more attacking midfield roles. Although he was competent defensively and able to press opponents to break up play and win the ball effectively through his team-work and defensive positioning, he also had a tendency to give away many fouls; as such, and also in part due to his slender physical build, he usually functioned as a deep-lying playmaker in front of the defence, where he excelled courtesy of his technical ability and intelligent, efficient, precise passing game. He would also occasionally drop deeper to act as an additional centre-back in Cruyff's fluid 3–4–3 formation at Barcelona. Despite his lack of notable pace, dribbling ability, aerial prowess, or strong physical or athletic attributes, Guardiola was highly regarded throughout his career for his vision, close control, passing range, positional sense, and calm composure on the ball, as well as his speed of thought, which enabled him to retain possession under pressure and either set the tempo of his team's play in midfield with quick and intricate short first-time exchanges, or switch the play or create chances with longer passes. His role has also been likened to that of a metodista (\"centre-half\", in Italian football jargon), due to his ability to dictate play in midfield as well as assist his team defensively.\nGuardiola was capable of being an offensive threat, due to his ability to make attacking runs or strike accurately from distance; he was also effective at creating chances or shooting on goal from set-pieces. Having served as captain of both Barcelona and the Spanish national side, he also stood out for his leadership throughout his career. Despite his playing ability, he was also known to be injury prone throughout his career.\n\nReception\nGuardiola's playing style, which relied on creativity, technique and ball movement, rather than physicality and pace, inspired several future diminutive Spanish playmaking midfielders, such as Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, and Cesc Fàbregas, with the latter describing him as his \"idol\". Pirlo instead described Guardiola as the \"model\" for the position which he himself occupied deep in midfield. Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta once described Guardiola as \"the best central midfielder in our history.\" Johan Cruyff considered him to be one of the best midfielders of his generation, a view echoed by Richard Jolly of FourFourTwo and Marco Frattino, the latter of whom stated in 2018: \"Twenty years ago, [...] Pep Guardiola was one of the best midfielders in the world.\" In 2001, his agent Josè Maria Orobitg described him as the best in the world at dictating the tempo and rhythm of his team's play.\nMiguel Val of Marca considered Guardiola to be one of the greatest Spanish players of all time, describing him as the \"brains of Barcelona's Dream Team under Johan Cruyff\" in 2020. Federico Aquè described him as one of the best deep-lying playmakers in European football in his prime, while Lee Bushe of 90min.com even included him in his list of \"The Best Deep-Lying Playmakers of All Time\" in 2020.\n\nManagerial career\nBarcelona\nB team\nGuardiola was appointed manager of Barcelona B on 21 June 2007 with Tito Vilanova as his assistant. Under his guidance, the team subsequently won their Tercera División group and qualified for the 2008 Segunda División B playoffs, which the team won, thereby achieving promotion. Barcelona President Joan Laporta announced in May 2008 that Guardiola would be appointed manager of the senior Barcelona squad to replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the 2007–08 season.\n\n2008–09: First season with first team and historic treble\nUpon being appointed, Guardiola made headlines by announcing that stars such as Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto'o were not part of his plans for the coming season, though Eto'o was in the end allowed to remain.\nIn association with Barcelona Director of Sport Txiki Begiristain, several new signings were made by Guardiola – Dani Alves and Seydou Keita arrived from Sevilla; Martín Cáceres from Villarreal by way of Recreativo; Gerard Piqué returned from Manchester United; and Alexander Hleb was signed from Arsenal. Along with the new signings, Guardiola promoted canteranos Sergio Busquets, Pedro and Jeffrén to the first-team squad. In interviews with the press, Guardiola stressed a harder work ethic than before, but also a more personal approach during training and a closer relationship with his players.\nGuardiola's first competitive game as manager was in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, in which Barcelona comfortably beat Polish club Wisła Kraków 4–0 in the first leg at home. They then lost 1–0 in the second leg, but progressed with a 4–1 aggregate victory. Promoted Numancia also defeated Barcelona in the opening matchday of the 2008–09 La Liga, but the team then went on an undefeated streak for over 20 matches to move to the top of the league. Barcelona maintained their spot atop La Liga's table, securing their first league title since 2006 when rivals Real Madrid lost at Villarreal on 16 May 2009. The most important match, however, was on 2 May when they defeated Real Madrid 6–2 at the Santiago Bernabéu. The league title was the second piece of silverware in Guardiola's first season at the club. Earlier, on 13 May, Barcelona won the 2008–09 Copa del Rey, beating Athletic Bilbao 4–1 in the 2009 Copa del Rey final.\nIn the final of the Champions League, Barcelona beat Manchester United 2–0. In doing so, they became the first Spanish club to win the domestic cup, the league, and the European club titles (the treble) in the same season. Guardiola became the youngest man to manage a Champions League winning team, at age 37. The treble-winning season is regarded as one of the club's finest in its history.\n\n2009–10: Six trophies in a calendar year\nGuardiola's second season as manager began with defeats of Athletic Bilbao in the Supercopa de España and Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Super Cup. On 25 September 2009, Barcelona gave him his 50th professional victory, away against Málaga and on 19 December, they were crowned FIFA Club World Cup champions for the first time in their history.\nGuardiola finished the calendar year with a record six trophies, the Spanish League, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup and Club World Cup, becoming the first manager in history to do so. In January 2010, he became Barcelona's longest serving Spanish manager, overtaking the record previously held by Josep Samitier. He agreed to a one-year contract extension to keep him with Barcelona until the end of the 2010–11 season.\nIn February 2010, Guardiola managed his 100th match for Barcelona's first team. His record stood at 71 wins, 19 draws and 10 losses, with 242 goals for and 76 against. On 10 April 2010, he became the first manager in Barcelona's history to beat Real Madrid four times in a row in El Clásico. Barcelona reached the semi-finals of the 2009–10 Champions League, but lost 3–2 on aggregate to José Mourinho's Inter Milan. Despite this, they managed to win their 20th La Liga title with 99 points by beating Real Valladolid 4–0 at home. At the time, this was the highest points total ever gained amongst any of Europe's major leagues. The La Liga title was Guardiola's seventh trophy as manager of the club, tying Ferdinand Daučík for second behind Johan Cruyff and his 11 trophies.\n\n2010–11: Second Champions League title\nOn 21 August, Barcelona beat Sevilla 5–3 on aggregate to win the 2010 Supercopa de España, his second in a row. On 29 November 2010, Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5–0, giving Guardiola five straight wins in El Clásico. On 8 February 2011, Guardiola accepted the club's offer for a one-year deal extension, signing a contract until June 2012.\nOn 11 May 2011, Barcelona won the La Liga title and the club's third in a row after a 1–1 draw with Levante. On 28 May, Barcelona beat Manchester United 3–1 at Wembley in the 2011 Champions League final.\n\n2011–12: Final season\nThe season started with a 5–4 aggregate win over Real Madrid for the Supercopa de España.\nBarcelona won their second trophy of the season on 26 August, beating Porto 2–0 in the 2011 UEFA Super Cup. With the trophy won against Porto, he became all-time record holder of most titles won as a manager at Barcelona, with 12 trophies in only three years. November of the same year saw Guardiola manager his 200th match for Barcelona's first team. His record stood at 144 wins, 39 draws and 17 losses with 500 goals for and 143 against.\nBarcelona ended the 2011 calendar year winning the Club World Cup, beating Brazilian club Santos 4–0 in the final, the widest margin in an Intercontinental Cup/Club World Cup final since changing to a single match format. This was Guardiola's 13th title of only 16 tournaments played. On 9 January 2012, he was named FIFA World Coach of the Year. On his 41st birthday, he led his side to a 2–1 victory over arch-rivals Real Madrid in El Clásico, ensuring that he remained unbeaten against Real Madrid in regular time as a manager. On 21 April, Guardiola conceded the league title to leaders Real Madrid after they beat Barcelona 2–1 and extended their lead in the table to seven points with four matches remaining. \nOn 24 April, a 2–2 draw at home against Chelsea in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final knocked Barcelona out of the competition on a 2–3 aggregate score. That effectively left the team with only the Copa del Rey to play for. Guardiola had faced criticism over his recent tactics and squad selections. On 27 April 2012, he announced he would step down as Barcelona's manager at the end of the 2011–12 season. He had been on a rolling contract that was renewed annually during his tenure as manager. Citing tiredness as the main reason for his decision, he also commented that four years at a club like Barcelona felt like an eternity.\nGuardiola continued to lead Barcelona to wins in the remaining La Liga games of the season, followed by a 3–0 win in the Copa del Rey final. His record of 14 trophies in four seasons has made him the most successful manager in Barcelona's history. Barcelona announced that he would be succeeded by Tito Vilanova, who would begin leading the first team at the start of the 2012–13 season.\n\nSabbatical\nAfter his time at Barcelona came to an end, Guardiola took a year's sabbatical in New York City. On 7 January 2013, he came in third place for the 2012 FIFA World Coach of the Year, behind the winner Vicente del Bosque and runner-up José Mourinho. While at a news conference at the 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or gala in Zürich, Guardiola said: \"I have taken a decision to return to coaching but beyond that no decision has been taken. I don't have a team to go to but I would like to go back to coaching.\"\n\nBayern Munich\n2013–2015: Consecutive Bundesliga titles\nOn 16 January 2013, it was announced that Guardiola would take over as manager of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich after the 2012–13 season, replacing Jupp Heynckes for the following season. He addressed his first press conference at Bayern, on 24 June 2013, in German, and had his first training session two days later. His first official match was the German Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund, with Bayern losing 4–2. His first trophy with Bayern was the 2013 UEFA Super Cup, defeating longtime adversary José Mourinho, who had just returned to manage at Chelsea. Bayern beat ten-man Chelsea in a shoot-out after Manuel Neuer saved Romelu Lukaku's kick.\nIn December 2013, Guardiola won his third Club World Cup after beating Raja Casablanca in Morocco. On 25 March 2014, he led Bayern to their 23rd Bundesliga title by beating Hertha Berlin 3–1 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. With seven matches remaining in the season, it was the earliest the championship had been won in Bundesliga history, breaking the record Heynckes' Bayern had set in the previous season. Guardiola broke Karl-Heinz Feldkamp's record for the longest winning streak to start his tenure at a Bundesliga club. The streak ended at 28 when Augsburg defeated Bayern 1–0 on matchday 29. The streak also ended Bayern's 53–match undefeated streak.\nBayern were drawn against Real Madrid in the semi–finals of Champions League. Bayern lost the first leg 1–0 and the second leg 4–0. The first leg was also Guardiola's first defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu. He finished the 2013–14 season by winning the DFB-Pokal 2–0 in extra–time.\n\nIn the 2014-15 season, Bayern lost the German Super Cup 2–0 to Borussia Dortmund. On 11 March 2015, Bayern defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 7–0, tying their largest win in Champions League history. In Guardiola's 100th match as manager, Bayern defeated Porto 6–1. With the win, Bayern reached their fourth-straight Champions League semi-final. On 28 April 2015, Bayern were knocked out of the German Cup in a penalty shoot-out. Bayern had missed all four of their shots. In his first competitive match against Barcelona, Bayern lost 3–0. Bayern failed to get a shot on target in the match. For the first time in his career, he lost four in a row (including the shoot-out loss).\n\n2015–16: Second domestic double and final season\nThe 2015–16 season started on 1 August 2015 when Bayern lost in a shoot-out to Wolfsburg in the German Super Cup. In the league, Bayern won their first ten matches. The first time they dropped points in the league was on 30 October 2015 in a 0–0 scoreline against Eintracht Frankfurt and their first loss in the league was on 5 December 2015 in a 3–1 scoreline to Borussia Mönchengladbach. In the Champions League group stage, Bayern won Group F, winning five out of the six matches. Bayern's only loss in the Champions League group stage was against Arsenal on 20 October. This was Bayern's first loss in all competitions during the 2015–16 season.\nOn 20 December, Bayern confirmed that Guardiola was leaving the club after his contract expired at the end of the season, with Carlo Ancelotti his replacement for the 2016–17 season.\nOn 3 May 2016, Guardiola's Bayern Munich lost to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals stage, thereby ending his final chance of winning a Champions League title with the Bavarian club. Guardiola's final match was on 21 May 2016, with Bayern defeating Borussia Dortmund in a shootout. He finished with a record of 82 wins, eleven draws and nine losses in the Bundesliga; a record of 14 wins, three draws and no losses in the DFB-Pokal; a record of 23 wins, five draws and eight losses in the UEFA Champions League. He also went a combined two wins, two draws, and two losses in the FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and the German Super Cup. In non–official competitions, he went a combined six wins, one draw, and one loss.\n\nManchester City\n2016–17: Adjustment to England and first season\nOn 1 February 2016, Manchester City signed Guardiola to a three-year contract for the start of the 2016–17 season. Guardiola brought in several significant players in the summer, including midfielders İlkay Gündoğan from Borussia Dortmund and Nolito from Celta Vigo, winger Leroy Sané from Schalke 04 and defender John Stones from Everton. He also controversially replaced long-serving City starting goalkeeper Joe Hart with Claudio Bravo from his former club Barcelona; Hart would never make another appearance for the club.\nOn 13 August 2016, Guardiola earned victory in his first match of the Premier League season, as City defeated Sunderland 2–1. On 11 September, Guardiola won his first Manchester derby as a manager in a 2–1 City victory at Old Trafford; this was also his sixth win against his \"rival\" manager José Mourinho.\nCity were leaders going into the international break, but their form declined thereafter. Manchester City lost to Everton 0–4 on 15 January 2017; this was Guardiola's biggest-ever managerial defeat in a domestic competition. In Europe, City were eliminated in the Champions League round of 16 by Monaco on away goals after a 6–6 aggregate draw. The second leg of the tie was Guardiola's 100th game as a manager in European competition, and he arrived at that mark with the best record of any manager, having earned 61 wins and 23 draws (one draw better than the previous record holder, Guardiola's former manager at Barcelona, Louis van Gaal). Following a loss to Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-finals, Guardiola finished the season without a trophy for the first time in his managerial career.\n\n2017–18: \"Centurions\" and first Premier League title\nGuardiola identified the defensive areas which required improvement for Manchester City in the summer transfer window to challenge for the league title, particularly in the goalkeeper and full-back positions. Due to Bravo's struggles the previous season, Ederson was brought in as the new first-choice goalkeeper. Wing-backs Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker were also signed, while dispensing of all the previous senior full-backs at the club in Aleksandar Kolarov, Gaël Clichy, Bacary Sagna and Pablo Zabaleta. Additionally, Bernardo Silva and Danilo were also acquired from Monaco and Real Madrid, respectively.\nOn 25 February 2018, City won the 2017–18 EFL Cup after beating Arsenal 3–0 in the final, which was Guardiola's first trophy with the club. On 15 April, City were confirmed as 2017–18 Premier League champions following Manchester United's 1–0 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion. After finishing the league season with a record-breaking 100 points, Guardiola signed a new contract with City until 2021.\n\n2018–2020: Domestic treble and Champions League disappointment\nDuring Guardiola's third season as manager, Manchester City signed Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City for a fee of £60 million. On 5 August 2018, City kicked off the season with a 2–0 victory over FA Cup holders Chelsea in the 2018 FA Community Shield.\nOn 24 February 2019, Guardiola's side played Chelsea in the EFL Cup final held at Wembley. The match ended 0–0 after extra time, and Manchester City won 4–3 on penalties to retain the trophy for the second year in a row. On 9 April, City faced Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-finals, held at Tottenham's new stadium. The game ended in a 0–1 defeat for City. The second leg was held at the Etihad Stadium on 17 April, where Guardiola's side beat Tottenham 4–3, with City's last-minute fifth goal having been controversially disallowed. Due to the aggregate score being a 4–4 draw, Tottenham went through to the semi-finals on away goals. On 12 May, Guardiola secured a second consecutive Premier League title. His side finished on 98 points, one point above Liverpool, after a 4–1 victory at Brighton & Hove Albion in the final match of the season. On 18 May, City beat Watford 6–0 in the final of the FA Cup, becoming the first ever men's team in England to win a domestic treble.\nGuardiola made two major acquisitions during the summer transfer window of 2019 in defender João Cancelo from Juventus for £27.4m plus Danilo and midfielder Rodri from Atlético Madrid for a fee of £62.8 million, a club record. These signings meant that the value of the City squad had exceeded €1 billion, becoming the first football club in the world to assemble a squad with this value. On 4 August 2019, City began the season with a penalty shoot-out victory against Liverpool in the Community Shield, claiming the trophy for the second straight year. During the match, Guardiola also became the first Premier League manager to receive a yellow card from the referee. On 1 March, Manchester City beat Aston Villa 2–1 in the 2020 EFL Cup final, winning the competition for a third successive season. City finished second in the 2019–20 Premier League after a spring hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After defeating Real Madrid in the 2019–20 Champions League round of 16, Guardiola's side faced Lyon in the single-elimination quarter-finals on 15 August 2020. City lost the match 1–3 and was eliminated at the quarter-final stage for the third season in a row.\n\n2020–present: Premier League four-peat, Champions League win and continental treble\nThe 2020–21 season saw City's defence greatly improve compared to the last campaign, conceding just one goal in twelve matches played. On 19 November 2020, Guardiola signed a new two-year contract with Manchester City until summer 2023. He won his 500th game as manager after City beat Sheffield United 1–0 at home in the Premier League on 31 January 2021; it was the ninth game City had won in January, becoming the team with the most wins in a single month in the top four tiers of English football since the Football League began in 1888. Following a 3–1 victory over Swansea City in the FA Cup on 10 February, Guardiola's side broke the record for the longest winning run in English top-flight football history, with fifteen straight victories for City in all competitions.\nGuardiola won his third Premier League title on 11 May after Manchester United's home defeat to Leicester City, two weeks after beating Tottenham Hotspur 1–0 in the 2021 EFL Cup final to claim that trophy for the fourth successive time. On 29 May, Manchester City played in the Champions League final for the first time in their history, losing to Chelsea 0–1. Following the match, Guardiola was criticised for his team selection and not starting a defensive midfielder. Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel also admitted that he was surprised not to see midfielder Fernandinho in the City starting line-up.\n\nDuring the summer transfer window of 2021, Manchester City broke the British transfer record by signing Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish for £100m. On 25 September, he surpassed Les McDowall as the manager with the most wins in Manchester City history following their 1–0 away victory over Chelsea in the Premier League. On 22 May 2022, Manchester City won the Premier League with a 3–2 victory over Aston Villa. This was Guardiola's fourth title at the club, placing him second on the list of managers with the most Premier League titles.\nDuring the 2022–23 season, Manchester City won their third consecutive Premier League title, their fifth under Guardiola. On 23 November 2022, Guardiola signed a new two-year contract with Manchester City until summer 2025. On 3 June 2023, the club won their second FA Cup under Guardiola after a 2–1 victory over rivals Manchester United in the final to achieve another domestic double. On 10 June 2023, he led the club to their first Champions League title, and his personal third, after a 1–0 win against Inter Milan in the final, which completed their continental treble.\nOn 16 August 2023, Guardiola won a record-equaling fourth UEFA Super Cup title, also becoming the first-ever manager to win the trophy with three different clubs, as the Mancunian side defeated Sevilla 5–4 on penalties following a 1–1 draw. On 22 December, Guardiola guided City to their first FIFA Club World Cup trophy, as they beat Fluminense 4–0 in the final, and became the first English club to win five titles in a calendar year. With this achievement, Guardiola became the first manager in history to win four FIFA Club World Cup titles. Following the match, Guardiola stated that he \"had the feeling [...] would close the chapter, we won all the titles, there's nothing else to win. I had a feeling the job was done, it was over\".\nMan City's Champions League defence was ended in the quarter finals following a 4–3 loss on penalties after a 4—4 aggregate draw to Real Madrid who Man City beat 5–1 in the semi finals of the previous Champions League which ended Man City's hope of consecutive continental trebles.\nOn 19 May 2024, Man City beat West Ham 3-1 on the final day of the season to win their fourth straight Premier league title after a season long battle against Arsenal and Liverpool, becoming the first English club to win four top flight league titles in a row. A week later, Man City lost the FA Cup Final to Manchester United 2–1 which ended their chance of a consecutive domestic double.\n\nManager profile\nTactics\nAlthough much emphasis is placed on retaining possession of the ball and dictating play, with the intent to have the opposing side's defence chase the ball for extended periods of play, Guardiola's teams are recognised for pressing off the ball. Players press and harry the opposition collectively in an attempt to win back possession of the ball. This collective press is only conducted in the starting third of the opposition's pitch where less space exists and defenders and/or the goalkeeper may not be as good at dribbling or passing the ball as a midfielder.\nAs high pressing became prominent, Guardiola sought to counteract it with goalkeepers and defenders comfortable with controlling the ball and both long and short ball distribution, with goalkeepers such as Victor Valdés and Manuel Neuer also acting as sweeper-keepers at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, rushing off their line to prevent counter-attacks, and playing out from the back. At Manchester City, Ederson routinely played accurate long balls up-field when City were pressed high, at times taking the entire opposition out-of-play and creating 1-on-1 situations for City forwards. To avoid getting caught by long-range passing from City's defensive-third, the opposition defence would cautiously drop deep despite the forward line's high-press, hence creating space in the middle of the pitch.\nGuardiola has stated he tries to constantly evolve his tactics. After learning the style analogous with Total Football under Johan Cruyff, Guardiola was particularly influenced by his time as a player in Mexico under his friend and manager at Dorados, Juan Manuel Lillo. Guardiola also sought help of Marcelo Bielsa to learn from him. His editorials for El Pais during the 2006 World Cup in praise of Luis Aragonés' Spanish side and Ricardo La Volpe's Mexican side reveal the extent of his reverence for possession-based, attacking football, with defenders along with the goal-keeper playing it out from the back, which Guardiola later cited as a major inspiration on multiple occasions. In one of his editorials, he called Zinedine Zidane France's best defender, pointing out how recycling possession in itself is a key defensive tactic, something that Guardiola teams would later become synonymous with. Philipp Lahm, who played for Guardiola at Bayern Munich, pointed out that Guardiola's tactics were majorly \"an offensive Sacchi\", modelled after the Arrigo Sacchi's Milan team of the late 1980s, emphasising fluid movement, quick recoveries, and keeping possession of the ball, which was in sharp contrast to the strictly-defensive Catenaccio–inspired style employed effectively by José Mourinho and later by Diego Simeone; and that Guardiola has evolved his approach that seemingly was now a mix of both those styles. \nTactics employed by Guardiola have been likened to Gegenpressing invented by Ralf Rangnick and used to great effect by Jürgen Klopp. His tactics have influenced approaches of managers such as Maurizio Sarri, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, and Luis Enrique; as well as those of other sports such as rugby. Guardiola admitted that he had to adapt his style to German and English leagues, but his \"football education comes from [Catalunya]\" which is possession-based, and distinct from Gegenpressing. While several pundits have often linked Guardiola's attacking–minded tactics at Barcelona – centred around quick passing, ball possession, movement, a high defensive line, and heavy pressing – to the tiki-taka style employed by the Spanish national side under Aragonés at Euro 2008, Guardiola himself has refuted this claim, and has even been critical of the system, commenting in 2014: \"I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiki-taka. It's so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition's goal. It's not about passing for the sake of it.\"\nGuardiola has been praised by pundits for his flexibility as a coach, and has used several formations throughout his career. At Barcelona, he often used a 4–3–3 formation with inverted wingers and attacking full-backs who would overlap and provide width to the team, as well as a 3–4–3 formation on occasion; he also later used these formations at Bayern Munich and Manchester City. In the 3–4–3 formation, defensive midfielders Sergio Busquets at Barcelona and Xabi Alonso at Bayern Münich would occasionally drop back into the back-line to act as an additional defender; this role was similar to the one Guardiola himself played under Cruyff at Barcelona. At Bayern Münich, he also used full-backs Phillip Lahm and Joshua Kimmich in midfield. Guardiola also began to use a false 9 during his time at Barcelona, fielding Lionel Messi in the centre of the team's attacking line, who would drop deep into midfield to give the team a numerical advantage in the middle of the pitch. At Manchester City, after experimenting with several formations, he used a modern version of the 3–2–2–3 formation during the 2022–23 treble–winning season, which was likened to the past WM formation. He deployed centre-back John Stones in a hybrid defensive and creative role in midfield, which Jonathan Wilson of The Guardian likened to both the libero and wing-half roles in 2023. Guardiola also used inverted full-backs who moved inside to occupy central areas of the pitch, while he also played in a more physical and direct style than in previous seasons, utilising Erling Haaland as a traditional striker.\n\nReception\nConsidered by pundits to be one of the greatest managers of all time, Guardiola is often linked with the successes of the Spanish and German national teams in 2010s, both of whom had many first-team players that were coached by him.\nJürgen Klopp credits Guardiola with building the toughest teams he has ever faced, stating: \"I could say City are the toughest opponent I've ever had but it wasn't much easier when I faced Pep's Bayern [..] We push each other to insane levels.\"\nIn 2017, Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini was critical of Guardiola's philosophy, however, and expressed his belief that the popularisation of possession-based playing styles, associated with Barcelona under Guardiola, and the increasing focus on developing defenders who are comfortable with the ball at their feet from a young age in Italy, had in fact had a negative impact on their overall defensive quality. He commented: \"Guardiolismo [a term he coined for \"the Guardiola way\"] has ruined a generation of Italian defenders a bit – now everyone is looking to push up, defenders know how to set the tone of play and they can spread the ball, but they don't know how to mark.\"\nSeveral of Guardiola's former players, teammates, and coaching staff members, such as Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Luis Enrique, Erik ten Hag, and Mikel Arteta, have pursued coaching careers, and have cited Guardiola as an inspiration.\n\nPersonal life\nGuardiola was born to Dolors and Valentí. He has two older sisters and a younger brother, Pere Guardiola, a football agent. He is an atheist. Guardiola met his wife Cristina Serra when he was 18. They married on 29 May 2014. They have three children named Maria, Màrius and Valentina. \nFollowing his tenure as Barcelona's manager, he stated that he would move to the United States to live in Manhattan, New York, for a year, until he had decided on his future. To prepare for his position as the manager of Bayern Munich, Guardiola studied German for four to five hours each day.\nGuardiola supports the political independence of Catalonia. In 2015, he confirmed that he would participate in the pro-independence coalition, Junts pel Sí, in that year's regional parliamentary election.\nOn 24 May 2023, Guardiola made a cameo appearance in Ted Lasso, in which Ted Lasso's (played by Jason Sudeikis) team, AFC Richmond, play against Manchester City and win. Guardiola gives Lasso a handshake following City's defeat and gives Lasso a word of advice, to which Lasso responds positively. Guardiola reportedly is a fan of the show and enjoys watching it with his wife and daughter.\nGuardiola was one of the 13 sports personalities named in the Pandora Papers published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). He had an account open in the principality of Andorra until 2012, exploiting the tax amnesty that Mariano Rajoy's conservative government had enacted in Spain to regularise his fiscal situation. Until that point, he had not declared the funds held in that account to the Spanish Tax Agency.\n\nCareer statistics\nClub\nInternational\nScores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Guardiola goal\n\nManagerial\nAs of match played 5 October 2024\n\nHonours\nPlayer\nBarcelona B\n\nSegunda División B: 1990–91\nBarcelona\n\nLa Liga: 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1997–98, 1998–99\nCopa del Rey: 1996–97, 1997–98\nSupercopa de España: 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996\nEuropean Cup: 1991–92\nUEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1996–97\nEuropean Super Cup: 1992\nSpain U23\n\nOlympic gold medal: 1992\nIndividual\n\nBravo Award: 1992\nOlympics – Spain Best Player: 1992\nUEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 2000\n\nManager\nBarcelona B\n\nTercera División: 2007–08\nBarcelona\n\nLa Liga: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11\nCopa del Rey: 2008–09, 2011–12\nSupercopa de España: 2009, 2010, 2011\nUEFA Champions League: 2008–09, 2010–11\nUEFA Super Cup: 2009, 2011\nFIFA Club World Cup: 2009, 2011\nBayern Munich\n\nBundesliga: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16\nDFB-Pokal: 2013–14, 2015–16\nUEFA Super Cup: 2013\nFIFA Club World Cup: 2013\nManchester City\n\nPremier League: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24\nFA Cup: 2018–19, 2022–23\nEFL Cup: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21\nFA Community Shield: 2018, 2019, 2024\nUEFA Champions League: 2022–23\nUEFA Super Cup: 2023\nFIFA Club World Cup: 2023\nIndividual\n\nDon Balón Award: 2009, 2010\nMiguel Muñoz Trophy: 2008–09, 2009–10\nOnze d'Or Coach of the Year: 2009, 2011, 2012\nWorld Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year: 2009, 2011\nIFFHS World's Best Club Coach: 2009, 2011, 2023\nUEFA Team of the Year Best Coach: 2008–09, 2010–11\nLa Liga Coach of the Year: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012\nFIFA World Coach of the Year: 2011\nGlobe Soccer Awards Coach Career Award: 2013\nGlobe Soccer Awards Coach of the Century: 2020\nPremier League Manager of the Month: February 2017, September 2017, October 2017, November 2017, December 2017, February 2019, April 2019, January 2021, February 2021, November 2021, December 2021\nPremier League Manager of the Season: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2020–21, 2022–23, 2023–24\nLMA Manager of the Year: 2017–18, 2020–21, 2022–23\nLMA Premier League Manager of the Year: 2017–18, 2020–21, 2022–23, 2023–24\nLeague Managers Association (LMA) Hall of Fame\nUEFA Men's Coach of the Year: 2022–23\nThe Best FIFA Football Coach: 2022-23\n\nDecorations\nGold Medal Royal Order of Sports Merit: 2010\nCatalan of the Year Award: 2009\n\nSee also\nList of La Liga winning managers\nList of Bundesliga winning managers\nList of English football championship-winning managers\nList of FA Cup winning managers\nList of European Cup and UEFA Champions League winning managers\nList of UEFA Super Cup winning managers\n\nNotes\nReferences\nCitations\nBibliography\nExternal links\n\nPep Guardiola on Twitter\nJosep Guardiola manager profile at BDFutbol\nJosep Guardiola – UEFA coaching record (archived) \nJosep Guardiola – UEFA competition record (archived) \nPep Guardiola – FIFA competition record (archived) \nPep Guardiola at National-Football-Teams.com \nPep Guardiola at Olympedia \nJosep Guardiola Sala at Olympics.com","title":"Pep_Guardiola"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"Manchester City Football Club, commonly referred to as Manchester City, Man City or simply City, is a professional football club based in Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894. The club's home ground is the City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester, to which they moved in 2003, having played at Maine Road since 1923. Manchester City adopted their sky blue home shirts in 1894, the first season with the current name. Over the course of its history, the club has won 10 league titles, seven FA Cups, eight League Cups, seven FA Community Shields, one UEFA Champions League, one European Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Super Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup.\nManchester City joined the Football League in 1892, and won their first major honour, the FA Cup, in 1904. The club had its first major period of success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, winning the league title, FA Cup, League Cup, and European Cup Winners Cup under the management of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. After losing the 1981 FA Cup final, Manchester City went through a period of decline, culminating in relegation to the third tier of English football for the only time in their history in 1998. They since regained promotion to the top tier in 2001–02 and have remained a fixture in the Premier League since 2002–03.\nManchester City received considerable financial investment both in playing staff and facilities following their takeover by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan through the Abu Dhabi United Group in August 2008. This started a new era of unprecedented success, with the club winning the FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League in 2012, both their first since the 1960s, followed by another league title in 2014. Under the management of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City won the Premier League in 2018, becoming the only team in the competition history to attain 100 points in a single season. In 2018–19, they won four trophies, completing an unprecedented sweep of all domestic titles in England and becoming the first English men's team to win the domestic treble. This was followed by four consecutive Premier League titles in 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23 and 2023–24, as well as the club's first-ever Champions League final in 2021, which they lost to Chelsea. The 2022–23 season saw Manchester City win their maiden European Cup and complete the continental treble in the process, becoming the second English club to do so. The club is ranked first in the UEFA coefficient standings as of 2023.\nManchester City were listed in the Deloitte Football Money League at the end of the 2022–23 season, making them the football club with the second highest revenue in the world, approximated at €825 million. In 2022, Forbes estimated the club was the sixth-most valuable in the world, worth $4.250 billion. Manchester City are owned by City Football Group Limited, a holding company valued at £3.73 ($4.8) billion in November 2019 and majority-owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group.\n\nHistory\nEarly years and first trophies\nCity gained their first honours by winning the Second Division in 1899; with it came promotion to the highest level in English football, the First Division. They went on to claim their first major honour on 23 April 1904, beating Bolton Wanderers 1–0 at Crystal Palace to win the FA Cup; the Blues narrowly missed out on a League and Cup double that season after finishing runners-up in the league campaign, but they still became the first club in Manchester to win a major honour.: 32 \n\nIn the seasons following the FA Cup triumph, the club was dogged by allegations of financial irregularities, culminating in the suspension of seventeen players in 1906, including captain Billy Meredith, who subsequently moved across town to Manchester United.: 59–65 A fire at Hyde Road destroyed the main stand in 1920, and in 1923 the club moved to their new purpose-built stadium at Maine Road in Moss Side.\nIn the 1930s, Manchester City reached two consecutive FA Cup finals, losing to Everton in 1933, before claiming the Cup by beating Portsmouth in 1934.: 31–33 During the 1934 run, the club broke the record for the highest home attendance of any club in English football history, as 84,569 fans packed Maine Road for a sixth-round FA Cup tie against Stoke City – a record which stood until 2016. The club won the First Division title for the first time in 1937, but were relegated the following season, despite scoring more goals than any other team in the division. Twenty years later, a City team inspired by a tactical system known as the Revie Plan reached consecutive FA Cup finals again, in 1955 and 1956; just as in the 1930s, they lost the first one, to Newcastle United, and won the second. The 1956 final, in which the Blues defeated Birmingham City 3–1, saw City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann continuing to play on after unknowingly breaking his neck.\n\nFirst golden era and subsequent decline\nAfter being relegated to the Second Division in 1963, the future looked bleak with a record low home attendance of 8,015 against Swindon Town in January 1965.: 57 In the summer of 1965, the management team of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison was appointed. In the first season under Mercer, Manchester City won the Second Division title and made important signings in Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell.: 27–36 The 1965-66 season also saw City field a Black player for the first time when Stan Horne made his debut on 22 September 1965 in an away game against Leicester City. Two seasons later, in 1967–68, City claimed the league championship for the second time, beating their close neighbours Manchester United to the title on the final day of the season with a 4–3 victory at Newcastle United.: 37–56 Further trophies followed: City won the FA Cup in 1969 and a year later triumphed in the European Cup Winners' Cup, defeating Górnik Zabrze 2–1 in the 1970 final. This was the club's only European honour until their triumph in the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League. The Blues also won the League Cup that year, becoming the second English team to win a European trophy and a domestic trophy in the same season.\nThe club continued to challenge for honours throughout the 1970s, finishing one point behind the league champions on two occasions and reaching the final of the 1974 League Cup.: 410–420 One of the matches from this period that is most fondly remembered by supporters of Manchester City is the final match of the 1973–74 season against arch-rivals Manchester United, who needed to win to have any hope of avoiding relegation. Former United player Denis Law scored with a backheel to give City a 1–0 win at Old Trafford and confirm the relegation of their rivals.: 70 The final trophy of the club's most successful period of the 20th century was won in 1976, when Newcastle United were beaten 2–1 in the League Cup final.\n\nA long period of decline followed the success of the 1960s and 1970s. Malcolm Allison rejoined the club to become manager for the second time in 1979, but squandered large sums of money on several unsuccessful signings, such as Steve Daley. A succession of managers then followed – seven in the 1980s alone. Under John Bond, City reached the 1981 FA Cup final but lost in a replay to Tottenham Hotspur. The club were twice relegated from the top flight in the 1980s (in 1983 and 1987), but returned to the top flight again in 1989 and finished fifth in 1991 and 1992 under the management of Peter Reid.: 68 However, this was only a temporary respite, and following Reid's departure Manchester City's fortunes continued to fade. City were co-founders of the Premier League upon its creation in 1992, but after finishing ninth in its first season they endured three years of struggle before being relegated in 1996. After two seasons in the First Division, City fell to the lowest point in their history, becoming the second ever European trophy winners to be relegated to their country's third-tier league after 1. FC Magdeburg of Germany.\n\nRecovery and two takeovers\nAfter relegation, the club underwent off-the-field upheaval, with new chairman David Bernstein introducing greater fiscal discipline. Under manager Joe Royle, City were promoted at the first attempt, achieved in dramatic fashion in the Second Division play-off final against Gillingham. A second successive promotion saw City return to the top division, but this proved to have been a step too far for the recovering club, and in 2001 City were relegated once more. Kevin Keegan replaced Royle as manager in the close season, and achieved an immediate return to the top division as the club won the 2001–02 First Division championship, breaking club records for the number of points gained and goals scored in a single season in the process.: 265 The 2002–03 season was the last at Maine Road and included a 3–1 derby victory over rivals Manchester United, ending a 13-year run without a derby win. Additionally, City qualified for European competition for the first time in 25 years via UEFA fair play ranking. In the close 2003–04 season, the club moved to the new City of Manchester Stadium. The first four seasons at the stadium all resulted in mid-table finishes. Former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson became the club's first foreign manager when appointed in 2007. After a bright start, performances faded in the second half of the season, and Eriksson was sacked on 2 June 2008; he was replaced by Mark Hughes two days later.\nBy 2008, Manchester City were in a financially precarious position. Thaksin Shinawatra had taken control of the club the year before, but his political travails saw his assets frozen. Then, in August 2008, City were purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group. The takeover was immediately followed by a flurry of bids for high-profile players; the club broke the British transfer record by signing Brazilian international Robinho from Real Madrid for £32.5 million. There was not a huge improvement in performance compared to the previous season despite the influx of money however, with the team finishing tenth, although they did well to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. During the summer of 2009, the club took transfer spending to an unprecedented level, with an outlay of over £100 million on players Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez, and Joleon Lescott. In December 2009, Mark Hughes – who had been hired shortly before the change in ownership but was originally retained by the new board – was replaced as manager by Roberto Mancini. City finished the season in fifth position in the Premier League, narrowly missing out on a place in the Champions League but qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.\n\nThe second golden era and continued success under Pep Guardiola\nContinued investment in players followed in successive seasons, and results began to match the upturn in player quality. City reached the FA Cup final in 2011, their first major final in over 30 years, after defeating derby rivals Manchester United in the semi-finals, the first time they had knocked their rival out of a cup competition since 1975. The Blues defeated Stoke City 1–0 in the final, securing their fifth FA Cup and the club's first major trophy since winning the 1976 League Cup. On the last day of the 2010–11 season, City beat out Arsenal for the third place, thereby securing qualification directly into the Champions League group stage.\n\nStrong performances continued to follow in the 2011–12 season, including a 5–1 victory over Tottenham at White Hart Lane and a record-equalling 6–1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford, but a poor run of form in the second half of the season left City in second place, eight points behind United with only six games left to play. At this point, United suffered their own loss of form, dropping eight points in the space of four games, while City began a run of successive wins which saw both teams level on points with two games to go. Despite the Blues only needing a home win against Queens Park Rangers, a team in the relegation zone, they fell 1–2 behind by the end of normal time. However, two goals in injury time – the second by Sergio Agüero in the fourth added minute – settled the title in City's favour, making them the first team to win the Premier League on goal difference alone.\nThe following season, City were unable to replicate the previous year's success. After finishing second in the league, eleven points behind Manchester United, and losing the FA Cup final 0–1 to relegated Wigan Athletic, Mancini was sacked. He was replaced by Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini. In Pellegrini's first year in charge, City won the League Cup and regained the Premier League title on the last matchday of the season. The team's league form then slowly declined over the next couple of years, as the Blues finished second in 2014–15 and then dropped to fourth in 2015–16, although the 2015–16 season would see City win another League Cup title and reach the Champions League semi-finals for the first time.\n\nPep Guardiola, former head coach of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, was confirmed to become Manchester City's new manager on 1 February 2016, with the announcement having been made several months before Manuel Pellegrini left his position. Guardiola's first season in Manchester would end trophyless, with the Blues placing third in the league standings, but the following season proved far more successful, as City won the Premier League title with the highest points total in history and broke numerous other club and English league records along the way.\nThis would prove to be the start of a period of unprecedented success for Manchester City under Guardiola. Between the 2017–18 and 2023–24 Premier League seasons, City won six out of possible seven league titles, only finishing second behind Liverpool in the 2019–20 season. Guardiola also guided the Blues to silverware in domestic cup competitions, highlighted by four consecutive League Cup triumphs in 2018–2021. During the 2018–19 season, City completed an unprecedented domestic treble of English men's titles. Apart from winning all three of the major English football tournaments, they also won the Community Shield, the first time any team has ever held all four of England's primary football trophies at the same time. On the continental stage, the club achieved breakthrough in 2020–21, reaching their first-ever Champions League final. In an all-English affair, City lost 0–1 to Chelsea at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto.\n\nThe 2022–23 season turned out to be the greatest in the club's history, as Manchester City won their third consecutive Premier League title, the FA Cup final against rivals Manchester United, and their maiden Champions League title at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul against Inter Milan, thereby assembling a rare feat – the continental treble. The road to the Champions League victory included wins over European giants Bayern Munich, who were defeated 4–1 on aggregate, and Real Madrid, who suffered a 1–5 aggregate loss at the hands of City. The following season saw less success for Manchester City, yet they became the first English men's club to win four consecutive league titles, and prior to that the 2023 UEFA Super Cup and the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup.\nManchester City's era of sustained competitive excellence coincided with charges of breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. In 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that sanctions placed on the club by UEFA were not justified, overturning City's two-year European ban. In 2023, the Premier League announced its own investigation of the allegations levied against Manchester City, charging the club with 115 breaches of its FFP rules up to the 2017–18 season. In 2024, Manchester City initiated legal action against the Premier League. The club claims that the league's Associated Party Transaction rules are unlawful and are seeking damages from the league.\n\nLeague history\nClub badge and colours\nManchester City's home colours are sky blue and white. Traditional away kit colours have been either maroon or (from the 1960s) red and black; however, in recent years several colours have been used. The origins of the club's home colours are unclear, but there is evidence that the club has worn blue since 1892 or earlier. A booklet entitled Famous Football Clubs – Manchester City published in the 1940s indicates that West Gorton (St. Marks) originally played in scarlet and black, and reports dating from 1884 describe the team wearing black jerseys bearing a white cross, showing the club's origins as a church side.: 14–15 The infrequent yet recurrent use of red and black away colours comes from former assistant manager Malcolm Allison's belief that adopting the colours of AC Milan would inspire City to glory. Allison's theory seemingly took effect, with City winning the 1969 FA Cup final, 1970 League Cup final, and 1970 Cup Winners' Cup final in red and black stripes as opposed to the club's home kit of sky blue.\nCity had previously worn three other badges on their shirts, prior to their current badge being implemented in 2016. The first, introduced in 1970, was based on designs which had been used on official club documentation since the mid-1960s. It consisted of a circular badge which used the same shield as the present badge (including a ship, based on the City of Manchester coat of arms), inside a circle bearing the name of the club. In 1972, this was replaced by a variation which replaced the lower half of the shield with the red rose of Lancashire. In 1976, a heraldic badge was granted by the College of Arms to the English Football League for use by City. The badge consisted of the familiar ship above a red rose but on a circular device instead of a shield (blazoned as \"A roundel per fess azure and argent in chief a three masted ship sails set pennons flying or in base a rose gules barbed and seeded proper\").\nOn occasions when Manchester City played in a major cup final, the club wore shirts bearing the City of Manchester coat of arms, as a symbol of pride in representing the city at a major event. This practice originated from a time when the players' shirts did not normally bear a badge of any kind.: 21 The club has since abandoned the practice; for the 2011 FA Cup final, its first in the 21st century, City used the usual badge with a special legend, but the Manchester coat of arms was included as a small monochrome logo in the numbers on the back of players' shirts.\nA new club badge was adopted in 1997, as a result of the previous badge being ineligible for registration as a trademark. This badge was based on the arms of the city of Manchester, and consisted of a shield in front of a golden eagle. The eagle is an old heraldic symbol of the city of Manchester; a golden eagle was added to the city's badge in 1958 (but had since been removed), representing the growing aviation industry. The shield featured a ship on its upper half representing the Manchester Ship Canal, and three diagonal stripes in the lower half symbolised the city's three rivers – the Irwell, the Irk and the Medlock. The bottom of the badge bore the motto \"Superbia in Proelio\", which translates as \"Pride in Battle\" in Latin. Above the eagle and shield were the three stars, added for decorative purposes.\nOn 15 October 2015, following years of criticism from the fans over the design of the 1997 badge, the club announced they intended to carry out a fan consultation on whether to discontinue the current badge and institute a new design. After the consultation, the club announced in late November 2015 the badge would be replaced in due course by a new version which would be designed in the style of the older, circular variants. A design purporting to be the new badge was unintentionally leaked two days early prior to the official unveiling on 26 December 2015 by the IPO when the design was trademarked on 22 December. The new badge was officially unveiled at Manchester City's home match against Sunderland on 26 December.\n\nKit suppliers and shirt sponsors\nKit deals\nPlayers\nFirst-team squad\nAs of 27 August 2024\n\nNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.\n\nEDS and Academy\nThe following players have previously made appearances or have appeared on the substitutes bench for the first team.\n\nNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.\n\nOut on loan\nNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.\n\nRetired numbers\nSince 2003, Manchester City have not issued the squad number 23. It was retired in memory of Marc-Vivien Foé, who was on loan to the club from Lyon at the time of his death on the field of play while playing for Cameroon in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup.\n\nNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.\n\nClub captains\nThis is a list of City's official club captains, who are currently appointed via a vote of players and staff. Other players (vice-captains) have led the team on the pitch when the club captain is not playing or not available. Some players have been made captain on a one-off basis to celebrate or commemorate an event, e.g. Oleksandr Zinchenko captained the team in their 2021–22 FA Cup fifth round tie at Peterborough United in support of his country during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.\n\nPlayer of the Year\nEach season since the end of the 1966–67 season, the members of the Manchester City Official Supporters Club have voted by ballot to choose the player on the team they feel is the most worthy of recognition for his performances during that season. The following table lists the recipients of this award since 2000.\n\nSources:\n\nHalls of Fame\nManchester City Hall of Fame\nThe following former Manchester City players and managers have been inducted into the Manchester City F.C. Hall of Fame, and are listed according to the year of their induction:\n\nNational Football Museum Hall of Fame\nThe following former Manchester City players and managers have been inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame (a.k.a. the National Football Museum Hall of Fame), and are listed according to the year of their induction within the various categories:\n\nPremier League Hall of Fame\nThe following former Manchester City players have been inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame. Inaugurated in 2020, but delayed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hall of Fame is intended to recognise and honour players that have achieved great success and made a significant contribution to the league since its founding in 1992.\n\nScottish Football Museum Hall of Fame\nThe following former Manchester City players and managers have been inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame (a.k.a. the Scottish Football Museum Hall of Fame), and are listed according to the year of their induction within the various categories:\n\nWelsh Sports Hall of Fame\nThe following former Manchester City players have been inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame, and are listed according to the year of their induction:\n\nNon-playing staff\nExecutive\nCoaching\nSource:\n\nNotable managers\nManchester City managers to have won major honours. Table correct as of 5 October 2024\n\nSupporters\nSince moving to the City of Manchester Stadium, the club's average attendances have been in the top six in England, usually in excess of 40,000. Even in the late 1990s, when City were relegated twice in three seasons and playing in the third tier of English football (then the Second Division, now the EFL League One), home attendances were in the region of 30,000, compared to an average of fewer than 8,000 for the division. Research carried out by Manchester City in 2005 estimated a fanbase of 886,000 in the United Kingdom and a total in excess of 2 million worldwide, although since the purchase of the club by Sheikh Mansour, and City's recent achievements, that figure has since ballooned to many times that size.\nManchester City's officially recognised supporters club is the Manchester City F.C. Supporters Club (1949), formed by a merger of two existing organisations in 2010: the Official Supporters Club (OSC) and the Centenary Supporters Association (CSA). City fans' song of choice is a rendition of \"Blue Moon\", which despite its melancholic theme is belted out with gusto as though it were a heroic anthem. City supporters tend to believe that unpredictability is an inherent trait of their team, and label unexpected results \"typical City\". Events that fans regard as \"typical City\" include the club being the only reigning English champions ever to be relegated (in 1938), the only team to score and concede over 100 goals in the same season (1957–58), or the more recent example where Manchester City were the only team to beat Chelsea in the latter's record-breaking 2004–05 Premier League season, yet in the same season City were knocked out of the FA Cup by Oldham Athletic, a team two divisions lower.\nIn the late 1980s, City fans started a craze of bringing inflatable objects to matches, primarily oversized bananas. One disputed explanation for the phenomenon is that in a match against West Bromwich Albion, chants from fans calling for the introduction of Imre Varadi as a substitute mutated into \"Imre Banana\". Terraces packed with inflatable-waving supporters became a frequent sight in the 1988–89 season, as the craze spread to other clubs (inflatable fish were seen at Grimsby Town), with the craze reaching its peak at City's match at Stoke City on 26 December 1988, a game declared by fanzines as a fancy dress party. In 2010, Manchester City supporters adopted an exuberant dance, dubbed The Poznań, from fans of Polish club Lech Poznań that they played in the Europa League. In 2022, Manchester City proposed the release of the Connected Scarf, that would contain a sensor tracking physiological and emotional data of the wearer, for supporters in 2023.\n\nRivalries\nManchester City's biggest rivalry is with neighbours Manchester United, against whom they contest the Manchester derby. Before the Second World War, when travel to away games was rare, many Mancunian football fans regularly watched both teams even if considering themselves \"supporters\" of only one. This practice continued into the early 1960s but as travel became easier, and the cost of entry to matches rose, watching both teams became unusual and the rivalry intensified. A common stereotype is that City fans come from Manchester proper, while United fans come from elsewhere. A 2002 report by a researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University found that while it was true that a higher proportion of City season ticket holders came from Manchester postcode areas (40% compared to United's 29%), there were more United season ticket holders, the lower percentage being due to United's higher overall number of season ticket holders (27,667 compared to City's 16,481). The report noted that since the compiling of data in 2001, the number of both City and United season ticket holders had risen; expansion of United's ground and City's move to the City of Manchester Stadium have caused season ticket sales to increase further.\nOver the last few years, Manchester City has also developed a notable rivalry with Liverpool, currently considered one of the biggest in association football. Though the two clubs had been involved in a title race in the 1976–77 season, Liverpool and City's modern rivalry began in the 2010s, with the Blues beating Liverpool to the 2013–14 title by just two points on the final day of the season. In the final of the 2015–16 League Cup, City defeated Liverpool on penalties after a 1–1 draw. The two clubs met in European competition for the first time in the 2017–18 Champions League quarter-finals, where Liverpool won 5–1 on aggregate, ultimately reaching the final and then winning the competition a year later. In the 2018–19 season, City again won the title on the final day, with the Blues' 98 points and Liverpool's 97 being the third- and fourth-highest Premier League points totals ever. The following season, Liverpool clinched the title, recording 99 points (the second-highest Premier League total ever after Manchester City's 100 in 2017–18) to finish 18 points above runners-up City. The Blues then regained the title in 2020–21 and outgunned Liverpool in another closely-fought title race in 2021–22, to finish with 93 points to Liverpool's 92.\nThe success of the two teams in the 2010s and 2020s has led to the development of a rivalry between Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, the managers of Liverpool and Manchester City, with the two previously having been the respective managers of Der Klassiker rivals Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. At the end of the 2018–19 season, Guardiola described his relationship with Klopp as a \"beautiful rivalry\" and called Klopp's Liverpool team \"the strongest opponents I have faced in my career as a manager\". In September 2019, Klopp hailed Guardiola for being his 'greatest rival ever', after both were nominated for the FIFA Men's Coach of the Year award in 2019, which Klopp ultimately won. In a 2019 survey, City fans answered that Liverpool, and not Manchester United, are the club's biggest rivals.\nManchester City also have long established local rivalries with Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic, and Stockport County, and more recent competitive Premier League rivalries with Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Arsenal.\n\nOwnership and finances\nThe holding company of Manchester City F.C., Manchester City Limited, is a private limited company, with approximately 54 million shares in issue. The club has been in private hands since 2007, when the major shareholders agreed to sell their holdings to UK Sports Investments Limited (UKSIL), a company controlled by former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. UKSIL then made a formal offer to buy the shares held by several thousands of small shareholders.\nPrior to the Thaksin takeover, the club was listed on the specialist independent equity market PLUS (formerly OFEX), where it had been listed since 1995. On 6 July 2007, having acquired 75% of the shares, Thaksin de-listed the club and re-registered it as a private company. By August, UKSIL had acquired over 90% of the shares and exercised its rights under the Companies Act to \"squeeze out\" the remaining shareholders, and acquire the entire shareholding. Thaksin Shinawatra became chairman of the club and two of Thaksin's children, Pintongta and Oak Chinnawat became directors. Former chairman John Wardle stayed on the board for a year, but resigned in July 2008 following Nike executive Garry Cook's appointment as executive chairman in May. The club made a pre-tax loss of £11m in the fiscal year ending 31 May 2007, the final year for which the club published accounts as a public company.\nThaksin's purchase prompted a period of transfer spending at the club, in total around £30 million, whereas over the several previous seasons Manchester City's net spending had been among the lowest in the Premier League. A year later, this investment was dwarfed by an influx of money derived from the club's takeover. On 1 September 2008, Abu Dhabi-based Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited completed the takeover of Manchester City. The deal, worth a reported £200 million, was announced on the morning of 1 September. It sparked various transfer \"deadline-day\" rumours and bids such as the club's attempt to gazump Manchester United's protracted bid to sign Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham Hotspur for a fee in excess of £30 million. Minutes before the transfer window closed, the club signed Robinho from Real Madrid for a British record transfer fee of £32.5 million. The wealth of the new owners meant that, in the summer of 2009, City were able to finance the purchase of experienced international players prior to the new season, spending more than any other club in the Premier League.\n\nCity Football Group\nCreated in the 2013–14 season to manage the global footballing interests of the Abu Dhabi United Group, City Football Group (CFG) is an umbrella corporation owning stakes in a network of global clubs for the purposes of resource sharing, academy networking and marketing.\n\nCFG ownership\nThrough City Football Group, Manchester City owns stakes in a number of clubs:\n\n Melbourne City FC (2014–present)\nOn 23 January 2014, it was announced that Manchester City had partnered with the Australian rugby league franchise Melbourne Storm, purchasing a majority stake in A-League team Melbourne City FC. On 5 August 2015, CFG bought out the Storm and acquired full ownership of the team.\n Yokohama F. Marinos (2014–present)\nOn 20 May 2014, it was announced that Manchester City had partnered with the Japanese Automotive company Nissan to become a minority shareholder in Yokohama based J-League side, Yokohama F. Marinos.\n New York City FC (2015–present)\nOn 21 May 2013, it was announced that Manchester City had partnered with the American baseball franchise the New York Yankees to introduce the 20th Major League Soccer expansion team, New York City FC as its majority shareholder. The club began play in the 2015 Major League Soccer season.\n Montevideo City Torque (2017–present)\nOn 5 April 2017, CFG confirmed the purchase of Uruguayan second division team Montevideo City Torque.\n Girona FC (2017–present)\nOn 23 August 2017, it was announced that CFG had acquired 44.3% of Segunda División (second tier) side Girona FC. Another 44.3% was held by the Girona Football Group, led by Pere Guardiola, brother of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.\n Shenzhen Peng City (2019–present)\nOn 20 February 2019, it was announced that CFG as well as UBTECH and China Sports Capital had acquired Sichuan Jiuniu F.C.\n Mumbai City FC (2019–present)\nCFG was announced as majority stakeholder of Mumbai City FC on Thursday 28 November 2019 after acquiring 65% of the club. Mumbai City is the professional football club based in Mumbai, competing in the Indian Super League.\n Lommel S.K. (2020–present)\nCFG was announced as a majority stakeholder of Lommel S.K. on Monday 11 May 2020, acquiring the majority (unspecified) of the club's shares. Lommel S.K. is a professional football club based in Lommel, competing in the Belgian First Division B (second tier).\n Troyes AC (2020–present)\nOn 3 September 2020, CFG announced that they had purchased the shares of Daniel Masoni, the former owner of Ligue 2 (second tier) club Troyes AC, making them the majority shareholder of the French club.\n Palermo FC (2022–present)\nOn 4 July 2022, Italian Serie B (second tier) club Palermo announced that CFG had acquired an 80% majority stake in their ownership.\n Bahia (2023–present)\nOn 3 December 2022, CFG acquired 90% of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Bahia. The deal was finalised on 4 May 2023.\n\nPartner clubs\nClub Bolívar (2021–present)\nOn 12 January 2021, CFG announced Bolivian club Club Bolívar as its first partner club.\n Vannes OC (2021–present)\nOn 18 February 2021, CFG announced that French Championnat National 2 (tier 4) club Vannes OC would be its second partner club.\n\nStadium\nThe City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester, known as the Etihad Stadium since 2011 for sponsorship reasons, is on a 200-year lease from Manchester City Council to Manchester City. It has been the club's home since the end of the 2002–03 season, when City moved from Maine Road. Before moving to the stadium, the club spent in excess of £30 million to convert it to football use: the pitch was lowered, adding another tier of seating around it, and a new North Stand was constructed. The inaugural match at the new stadium was a 2–1 win over Barcelona in a friendly match. A 7,000-seat third tier on the South Stand was completed in time for the start of the 2015–16 football season, increasing the stadium's capacity to 55,097. A North Stand third tier is in development, potentially increasing capacity to around 61,000.\nAfter playing home matches at five stadiums between 1880 and 1887, the club settled at Hyde Road Football Stadium, its home for 36 years. A fire destroyed the Main Stand in 1920, and the club moved to the 84,000 capacity Maine Road three years later. Maine Road, nicknamed the \"Wembley of the North\" by its designers, hosted the largest-ever crowd at an English club ground when 84,569 attended an FA Cup tie against Stoke City on 3 March 1934. Though Maine Road was redeveloped several times over its 80-year lifespan, by 1995 its capacity was restricted to 32,000, prompting the search for a new ground which culminated in the move to the City of Manchester Stadium in 2003; it was renamed the Etihad Stadium in 2011.\n\nHonours\nBased on trophy count, Manchester City are one of the most successful teams in England. Their thirty-six major domestic, european and worldwide honours rank them fourth on the list of most decorated sides in England, ahead of Chelsea with 34.\nThe club's first major trophy was the 1904 FA Cup, though they had previously won three regional Manchester Cups before that point. Their first top division league title came in the 1936–37 season, with the first Charity Shield won in the following August. City's first League Cup and European trophy both came at the end of the 1969–70 season, the two trophies also constituting the team's first double of any kind. In the 2018–19 season, City became the first team to claim all of the major English trophies available in a single season, winning not just the Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup, but also the Community Shield.\nThe 1970 Cup Winners' Cup victory remained City's only European trophy until their triumph in the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League. They have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League four times overall, losing in 2016, then winning en route to their first-ever final in 2021, losing in 2022, and winning en route to their maiden European Cup title in 2023.\nThey are only the second English club to complete a Continental Treble, in the 2022–23 season; and in 2023–24 became the first English club to win four consecutive league titles.\nManchester City used to hold the record for most second division titles, having won the league on seven occasions. Man City's first victory was in 1898–99, and the most recent in 2001–02. The record was broken by Leicester City after they clinched their eighth title in 2023–24.\n\nDoubles and Trebles\nDoubles\nLeague and FA Cup (2): 2018–19, 2022–23\nLeague Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1969–70\nDomestic treble\nLeague, FA Cup, and League Cup (1): 2018–19\nContinental treble\nLeague, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League (1): 2022–23\n\nClub records\nRecord league victory – 11–3 vs Lincoln City (23 March 1895, most goals scored); 10–0 vs Darwen (18 February 1899, widest margin of victory): 509 \nRecord FA Cup victory – 12–0 vs Liverpool Stanley (4 October 1890): 511 \nRecord European victory – 7–0 vs Schalke 04, UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg (12 March 2019); 7–0 vs RB Leipzig UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg (14 March 2023)\nRecord league defeat – 0–8 vs Burton Wanderers (26 December 1894); 0–8 vs Wolverhampton Wanderers (23 December 1933); 1–9 vs Everton (3 September 1906); 2–10 vs Small Heath (17 March 1893): 509 \nRecord FA Cup defeat – 0–6 vs Preston North End (30 January 1897); 2–8 vs Bradford Park Avenue (30 January 1946): 511 \nRecord European defeat – 0–4 vs Barcelona, UEFA Champions League group stage (19 October 2016)\nHighest home attendance – 84,569 vs Stoke City, FA Cup sixth round (3 March 1934): 524 \nMost league appearances – 561 + 3 sub, Alan Oakes, 1958–76: 155 \nMost European appearances – 59 + 16 sub, Fernandinho, 2013–22\nMost appearances overall – 676 + 4 sub, Alan Oakes, 1958–76: 155 \nMost goals scored overall – 260, Sergio Agüero, 2011–21\nMost goals scored in a season – 52, Erling Haaland, 2022–23: 112 \nRecord transfer fee paid – £100 million to Aston Villa for Jack Grealish, August 2021\nRecord transfer fee received – £82 million, with £64 million upfront and the rest in add-ons, from Atletico Madrid for Julián Álvarez, August 2024.\n\nSee also\nList of Manchester City F.C. managers\nList of Manchester City F.C. players\nList of Manchester City F.C. records and statistics\nList of Manchester City F.C. seasons\nManchester City F.C. in international football\nManchester City W.F.C.\nCity Football Group\n\nReferences\nNotes\nCitations\nExternal links\nOfficial website\n\nIndependent websites\n\nManchester City F.C. on BBC Sport: Club news – Recent results and fixtures\nManchester City at Sky Sports\nManchester City FC at Premier League\nManchester City FC at UEFA","title":"Manchester_City_F.C."},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"City Football Group Limited (CFG) is a British-based holding company that administers association football clubs. The group is owned by three organisations, of which 81% is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi United Group, 18% by the American firm Silver Lake, and 1% by Chinese firms China Media Capital and CITIC Capital. The Abu Dhabi United Group is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates.\nThe group derives its name from Manchester City, its flagship football club, and acts as the club's parent company. CFG also owns stakes in clubs in the United States, Australia, India, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, China, Belgium, France, Italy and Turkey.\n\nHistory\nFounded in 2013, City Football Group is the realisation of a business vision by former Barcelona Economy Vice President Ferran Soriano. Soriano first conceived of the ideal of a global football entity while at the Catalan club, beginning with the creation of Barca-branded overseas academies. Soriano contacted Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber about creating a Barcelona-branded MLS franchise, and the pair progressed as far as looking into several locations to place the team, but ultimately these plans were curtailed when Soriano and seven other members of Barcelona's board chose to resign in protest of then-President Joan Laporta's leadership.\nAfter a four-year break from football management, Soriano was hired in late 2012 to replace Garry Cook as CEO of Manchester City following the latter's resignation. Soriano revived his ambitions of creating a global football business entity, beginning by resuming dialogues with Garber. Their discussions resulted in the announcement of New York City as MLS' 20th expansion side less than one year later in May 2013. In the process of managing the creation of a second football team City Football Group was created, designed to be the holding company to which both Manchester City and NYCFC belonged. CFG expanded at the start of 2014 when it partnered with Rugby league side Melbourne Storm to acquire a controlling stake in A-League franchise Melbourne Heart for 12 million Australian dollars. The club would subsequently be rebranded to Melbourne City, and their badge changed as part of CFG's early attempts to synergise their investments with Manchester City as a brand, and the club's colours would slowly be changed to sky blue with their red-and-white stripes retained as away colours.\nIn the weeks following their purchase of Melbourne City, CFG indicated their intentions of investing in women's football by rebranding Manchester City's female affiliate as Manchester City Women's Football Club, and successfully lobbied for the team to be added to the top tier of the FA Women's Super League, promising to invest in women's football on a scale never before seen in England. Later the following year, CFG would grow again with the purchase of a 20% in Japanese side Yokohama F Marinos, the traditional company team of group sponsor Nissan.\nIn April 2017, after a near three-year pause in its expansion, City Football Group announced the Uruguayan second-tier side Club Atletico Torque, who would later be renamed Montevideo City Torque. Several months later, Torque would be followed in by Spanish second division club Girona, a club with ownership links to incumbent Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.\n2019 saw the beginning of an increase in CFG's activity. The purchase of Chinese third division club Shenzhen Peng City (known as Sichuan Jiuniu F.C. at that time) was followed towards the end of the year by a second venture in Asia, when the group bought a controlling stake in Indian Super League franchise Mumbai City. 2020 similarly would see two club purchases in European football, first of Lommel of Belgium and then of Troyes of France, with both moves notably seeing the purchased clubs rescued from financial difficulties and linked to the economic damages wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same year they would also expand their business interests by taking sole control of US-based five-a-side football business Goals Soccer Centers, a business they had previously invested in, following the near-collapse of the company's owners due to an internal scandal.\nIn March 2022, Dutch second-tier side NAC Breda announced that following an investigation into the best bidders to sell the club's shares, the shareholders of the club had agreed to a sale to CFG. In response, the club's fans held protests both in Breda and also Manchester and Lommel. A month later, a group of shareholders with key voting rights announced that, in light of the backlash, they had elected instead to sell their shares to a local consortium.\n\nPrinciples and interests\nSince its inception, commenters have drawn parallels between City Football Group and Ferran Soriano's ideas spelled out in his 2011 book Goal: The Ball Doesn't Go In By Chance, in which Soriano remarked that the natural evolution of club brands was to expand globally, and that doing so could include the creation of franchise clubs in foreign leagues. His book continued to expound upon the notion that appealing to foreign fans who had no strongly-ingrained non-domestic allegiances was an important facet of business growth of sporting brands, and that giving those fans a domestic side to support alongside and affiliated to their European club could encourage more loyalty from them. This idea would be termed \"Disneyfication\" by Professor Simon Chadwick, an expert in Eurasian sport at Emlyon Business School and himself a confidant of Soriano.\n\nBranding and player development\nEarly growth in the group focused on teams sharing a common identity and an associated brand, which aligned with the traditional identity of Manchester City and was viewed as a key way of helping the Manchester club build up its foreign support. This also matched Soriano's well-reported interest in placing City Football Group as a lynchpin in the opening-up of national markets in which association football has not previously been able to secure a strong presence, through the operation of and investment in franchises in those countries.\nThe first entity to join CFG was the newly created New York City, with the club announcing that they would sport the familiar sky blue kit with white shorts which Manchester City have traditionally been associated with, and the rebranded Melbourne City (originally named Melbourne Heart) similarly switched to sky blue after defeating challenges from fellow A-League club Sydney. With the purchase of Mumbai City and the renaming of Club Atletico Torque to Montevideo City Torque, five teams in the group feature the word \"City\" in their name, and similarly all five wear sky blue kits. NYCFC's circular badge style would also be mimicked by Manchester City, Melbourne City, Mumbai City and Torque. Following from these changes, it was reported that the company's aim was to own a team on each continent with the \"City\" brand in its name. However, they have aggressively defended the City brand such as issuing a cease and desist letter against the Chilean side Santiago City FC for using a club crest similar to Manchester City's.\nDevelopments within Manchester City's academy would ultimately lead to a shift in strategy and focus of the group. Efforts to continue their success in bringing through youth talent led to the buying of promising players in the early teenage years, many of whom would go on to be sold for a large profit. This prompted Soriano and CFG's executive management to change their ambitions to put more emphasis on purchasing smaller clubs in strong existing football markets, with the intention of turning them into specialists centres for acquiring and training future stars from their local areas.\n\nCollaboration between clubs\nOne of the core philosophies of City Football Group since its inception has been the mutual supporting of clubs through combined scouting and player sharing. While virtually all large European clubs operate an international scouting network, financial demands make it impossible to access local knowledge in foreign countries to the same extent as a domestic club could. CFG clubs therefore provide invaluable services to each other by using their own local scouting networks to share information on players between clubs. With their combined knowledge, the group claims to have extensive information on half a million players around the world. Possessing such a network then allows the local clubs to sign players early in their development, safe in the knowledge that the range of clubs CFG owns means that they can be placed at any of a number of sides as their development continues and the need for other challenges arises. The player-sharing element of the City network was first evident with the high-profile transfer of Aaron Mooy from Melbourne City to Manchester City – an early case of utilising the network to support revenue generation – with the 2020–21 season seeing Manchester City send 14 foreign-sourced youth players out on loan, predominantly to other group clubs.\nIn addition to internal player movements, CFG has also sought to foster movements of coaching staff within their network also; among the most notable relocations are French manager Eric Mombaerts, who has worked with Yokohama F. Marinos, Melbourne City and Troyes, Manchester City Women manager Nick Cushing transferring to New York and English coach Liam Manning transferring from the NYCFC academy to take over management of Lommel's first team.\nThe second of CFG's core philosophies regarding club collaboration is on- and off-pitch technical information sharing. Based around the tactics of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola – long coveted for the Manchester job by Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain after their experience working with him in Barcelona – all of City Football Group's clubs are given access to extensive databases of Manchester City's tactics and coaching methods, enabling them all to follow the group directive to use the same style of football, a style occasionally referred to as \"the City Way\". This synergy of tactical style extends beyond their first teams to the academies and women's sections. In addition to this, the clubs also share other information, such as medical, performance monitoring and player management.\n\nInvestment in women's football\nFour of City Football Group's ten clubs sport women's teams, with Montevideo City Torque expected to launch a women's team in 2021 and New York City having previously held discussions about an affiliation with Sky Blue in 2014. In both Manchester and Melbourne, CFG (re)launched new women's sides in 2014 and 2015, promising to invest in women's football in unprecedent ways. In both cities, the women's teams would ultimately be given bespoke facilities which, in contrast to the standard for football clubs, shared training locations with their affiliated men's teams. Similarly, both cities would see returns for their investment, with Manchester City Women repeatedly finishing amongst the top two and winning a series of domestic trophies while Melbourne City's unprecedented investment in Australian women's football – an area which had previously been underfunded and largely forgotten in the country – earned the side plaudits for their forward-thinking and would see their female side crowned Grand Final winners four times in five seasons.\n\nEsports\nLooking to capitalise on the growth of esports, and for City Football Group to be seen as always being at the forefront of innovation, CFG made their first venture into digital gaming in June 2016 when they signed Kieran \"Kez\" Brown to represent Manchester City at FIFA tournaments and fan events, as well as to make digital content for their media profiles.\nOver the following years, CFG expanded their esports footprint as most of their clubs signed players to represent them in FIFA tournaments, with most clubs keeping one PlayStation player and one Xbox player on their books to represent them at all times. By early 2021, CFG would have a total of 16 professional esports players across their various clubs. In 2021, Manchester City became the first CFG club to expand beyond FIFA when they signed Aiden \"Threats\" Mong to represent them in Fortnite tournaments. Unlike the other CFG teams, Manchester City would also go on to create separate esports teams in China and South Korea to compete in Asia-localised tournaments.\nIn addition to having their own esports players, CFG have also collaborated with existing teams. In 2019, Manchester City announced a partnership with FaZe Clan which would see the two run various esports competitions and merchandising lines, as well as allowing City's and FaZe's FIFA players to share facilities and train together. In 2022, CFG announced that it was sponsoring Blue United eFC, in a move which would see Blue United wear CFG-style sky blue shirts at competitive events.\n\nCFG-owned clubs\nUEFA\nManchester City F.C.\n Manchester City W.F.C.\n Girona FC\n Girona FC Femení A\n Palermo F.C.\n Palermo Women\n ES Troyes AC\n Lommel SK\n\nCONCACAF\nNew York City FC\n New York City FC II\n\nAFC\nMumbai City FC\n Melbourne City FC\nMelbourne City Women\n Yokohama F. Marinos\n Shenzhen Peng City F.C.\n\nCONMEBOL\nMontevideo City Torque\n Esporte Clube Bahia\n\nCFG partner clubs\nClub Bolivar\nIt was announced on 12 January 2021 that Club Bolivar had become the first partner club for the group. Club Bolivar is the most successful Bolivian club, having won 30 domestic titles since it was founded in La Paz on 12 April 1925. The owner of the club, Marcelo Claure, is also part of the ownership group of Inter Miami CF alongside David Beckham, as well as being COO of SoftBank Group with Masayoshi Son (CEO of Softbank) as well as Jorge Mas and Jose Mas from MasTec respectively.\nHonours after partnership :\nDivisión de Fútbol Profesional (1): 2022-A\n\nVannes\nIt was announced on 17 February 2021 that French fourth tier side Vannes had become the latest partner club for the group. The two clubs were already linked after Vannes' President Maxime Ray had joined CFG to become a minority shareholder in Troyes as part of the 2020 purchase, though he agreed to have no operational role at Troyes as part of the takeover.\n\nGeylang International\nIt was announced on 1 February 2023 that Singapore Premier League club Geylang International had become the first Southeast Asian partner club for the group. The agreement is set to be an initial, highly targeted collaboration between both entities with the potential to evolve into a broader, more comprehensive strategic partnership in the future.\n\nİstanbul Başakşehir\nIt was revealed on 18 February 2024 that Turkish Süper Lig club İstanbul Başakşehir signed an agreement with the group in order to improve their football strategy, recruitment, scouting and coaching methodology.\n\nBusinesses\nGoals Soccer Centers\nOn 25 July 2017, City Football Group signed a joint venture partnership with Goals Soccer Centres, a 5-a-side football pitch operator, to invest capital into the US operations of the company in order to expand across North America. On 3 February 2020, CFG purchased the remaining 50% to take full ownership of the joint venture – operating under the Americanised name Goals Soccer Centers – following the near-collapse of their partner as a result of historic fraud allegations.\n\nSee also\nManchester City F.C. ownership and finances\n\n\n== References ==","title":"City_Football_Group"},{"idx":3,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment (ADUG; Arabic: مجموعة أبوظبي الاتحاد للتنمية والاستثمار) is a United Arab Emirates (UAE) based private equity company. It is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family and Vice President of the UAE. Leaks of internal documents show that the Abu Dhabi government manages the accounts belonging to ADUG. ADUG insists it is separate from the Abu Dhabi government.\nThe primary interest of the group is its 81% majority ownership of City Football Group, a worldwide organisation most notably controlling Manchester City, Mumbai City, Melbourne City and New York City, as well as several other international football clubs. However, it also holds interests in various other endeavours outside of the sporting world with an extensive property portfolio in the United Arab Emirates and Manchester.\n\nCity Football Group\nThe Group was founded in the summer of 2008, as Sheikh Mansour looked to take over Manchester City Football Club from the former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra and signed off the deal on 1 September 2008, with due diligence completed on 23 September the same year.\nSulaiman Al-Fahim was the public face of ADUG during the initial phase of the takeover - a larger-than-life figure often described as the \"Donald Trump of Abu Dhabi\". On completion of the takeover, Al-Fahim generated considerable attention in the footballing world with promises of grandiose spending plans to capture the world's greatest footballing talents. Although he did bring in the Brazilian Robinho from Real Madrid on the same day on which the takeover was agreed, one week after ADUG took control of the club Al-Fahim was removed from his role to be replaced by Khaldoon al-Mubarak, who remains in position to the present day.\nIn 2011, Manchester City qualified for the Champions League and won the FA Cup, providing the club their first success in over three decades following ADUG's support. In 2012, the club won the Premier League, their first league title in forty-four years.\nFollowing the success of the Manchester club, ADUG began investment into other football clubs. After founding the MLS side New York City and purchasing the A-League franchise Melbourne Heart (shortly afterwards renamed Melbourne City), it was deemed necessary to create a new infrastructure to manage the various worldwide footballing ventures, and to keep them separate from non-footballing business. For this purpose, City Football Group was created in 2014 to oversee all of the teams under their control, acting as holding company not only to the football teams but to several businesses designed to market football services to the wider market. In return, ADUG became the holding company for CFG.\nADUG have diluted their shareholding the City Football Group on two occasions in 2015 and 2019 to the approximate value of £654 million. As of 2020, they own 78% of the City Football Group. Since July 2021, CFG has been managed under Newton Investment and Development LLC, another company wholly owned by Sheikh Mansour.\n\nOther business interests\nADUG also have an extensive property portfolio in the United Arab Emirates and abroad. Aside from Manchester City, ADUG have amassed investments totalling nearly £1 billion in Manchester, mainly in property and higher education sectors. Aside from purchasing assets for their own control, ADUG signed a ten-year partnership with Manchester City Council to revamp the east end of the city - not coincidentally the same area in which Manchester City are based - creating the Manchester Life Development Company in conjunction with the council in order to build 6,000 affordable houses in the area.\n\nCriticism\nAccording to Human Rights Watch, ADUG's investment in Manchester City enabled Abu Dhabi to \"construct a public relations image of a progressive, dynamic Gulf state, which deflects attention from what is really going on in the country\".\nManchester City was accused of receiving £30 million from an unknown figure from the United Arab Emirates, that was supposed to come from the sponsor. The £30 million payments are expected to be one of the 115 Premier League's financial charges against Manchester City. The report also claimed that the payments were actually disguised equity funding that came from the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice president of the UAE.\nAccording to the report, during UEFA disciplinary hearing, the Manchester City’s lawyer named the unknown person as Jaber Mohamed, claiming that he is a businessman providing financial and brokering services in the UAE.\n\nSee also\n\nManchester City F.C. ownership and finances\nCity Football Group\n\n\n== References ==","title":"Abu_Dhabi_United_Group"},{"idx":4,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal, elective monarchy composed of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi as its capital. It shares land borders with Oman to the east and northwest, and with Saudi Arabia to the southwest; as well as maritime borders in the Persian Gulf with Qatar and Iran, and with Oman in the Gulf of Oman. As of 2024, the UAE has an estimated population of over 10 million, of which 11% are Emiratis; Dubai, is the most populous city, and is an international hub. Islam is the official religion and Arabic is the official language, while English is the most spoken language and the language of business.\nThe United Arab Emirates' oil and natural gas reserves are the world's seventh and seventh-largest, respectively. Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the country's first president, oversaw the development of the Emirates by investing oil revenues into healthcare, education, and infrastructure. The country has the most diversified economy among the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In the 21st century, the UAE has become less reliant on oil and gas and is economically focusing on tourism and business. The UAE is considered a middle power. It is also a member of the United Nations, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OPEC, Non-Aligned Movement, World Trade Organization, and BRICS. The UAE is also a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.\nHuman rights organisations consider the UAE substandard on human rights, ranking only 6.06 in the human freedom index, citing reports of government critics being imprisoned and tortured, families harassed by the state security apparatus, and cases of forced disappearances. Individual rights such as the freedoms of assembly, association, expression, and the freedom of the press are severely repressed.\n\nHistory\nAntiquity\nStone tools recovered reveal a settlement of people from Africa some 127,000 years ago and a stone tool used for butchering animals discovered on the Arabian coast suggests an even older habitation from 130,000 years ago. In time lively trading links developed with civilisations in Mesopotamia, Iran and the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley. This contact persisted and became wider, probably motivated by the trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, which commenced around 3,000 BCE. Sumerian sources talk of the Magan civilisation, which has been identified as encompassing the modern UAE and Oman.\nThere are six periods of human settlement with distinctive behaviours in the region before Islam, which include the Hafit period from 3,200 to 2,600 BCE, the Umm Al Nar culture from 2,600 to 2,000 BCE, and the Wadi Suq culture from 2,000 to 1,300 BCE. From 1,200 BCE to the advent of Islam in Eastern Arabia, through three distinctive Iron Ages and the Mleiha period, the area was variously occupied by the Achaemenids and other forces, and saw the construction of fortified settlements and extensive husbandry thanks to the development of the falaj irrigation system.\n\nIslam\nThe spread of Islam to the northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula is thought to have followed directly from a letter sent by the Islamic prophet Muhammad to the rulers of Oman in 630 CE. This led to a group of rulers travelling to Medina, converting to Islam and subsequently driving a successful uprising against the unpopular Sassanids, who dominated the coast at the time. Following the death of Muhammad, the new Islamic communities south of the Persian Gulf threatened to disintegrate, with insurrections against the Muslim leaders. Caliph Abu Bakr sent an army from the capital Medina which completed its reconquest of the territory (the Ridda Wars) with the Battle of Dibba in which 10,000 lives are thought to have been lost. This assured the integrity of the Caliphate and the unification of the Arabian Peninsula under the newly emerging Rashidun Caliphate.\nIn 637, Julfar (in the area of today's Ras Al Khaimah) was an important port that was used as a staging post for the Islamic invasion of the Sasanian Empire. The area of the Al Ain/Buraimi Oasis was known as Tu'am and was an important trading post for camel routes between the coast and the Arabian interior.\nThe earliest Christian site in the UAE was first discovered in the 1990s, an extensive monastic complex on what is now known as Sir Bani Yas Island and which dates back to the seventh century. Thought to be Nestorian and built in 600 CE, the church appears to have been abandoned peacefully in 750 CE. It forms a rare physical link to a legacy of Christianity, which is thought to have spread across the peninsula from 50 to 350 CE following trade routes. Certainly, by the fifth century, Oman had a bishop named John – the last bishop of Oman being Etienne, in 676 CE.\n\nPortuguese era\nThe harsh desert environment led to the emergence of the \"versatile tribesman\", nomadic groups who subsisted due to a variety of economic activities, including animal husbandry, agriculture and hunting. The seasonal movements of these groups led not only to frequent clashes between groups but also to the establishment of seasonal and semi-seasonal settlements and centres. These formed tribal groupings whose names are still carried by modern Emiratis, including the Bani Yas and Al Bu Falah of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Liwa, and the west coast; the Dhawahir, Awamir, Al Ali, and Manasir of the interior; the Sharqiyin of the east coast; and the Qawasim to the north.\nWith the expansion of European colonial empires, Portuguese, English and Dutch forces appeared in the Persian Gulf region. By the 18th century, the Bani Yas confederation was the dominant force in most of the area now known as Abu Dhabi, while the Northern Al Qawasim (Al Qasimi) dominated maritime commerce. The Portuguese maintained an influence over the coastal settlements, building forts in the wake of the bloody 16th-century conquests of coastal communities by Albuquerque and the Portuguese commanders who followed him – particularly on the east coast at Muscat, Sohar and Khor Fakkan.\nThe southern coast of the Persian Gulf was known to the British as the \"Pirate Coast\", as boats of the Al Qawasim federation harassed British-flagged shipping from the 17th century into the 19th. The charge of piracy is disputed by modern Emirati historians, including the current ruler of Sharjah, Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi, in his 1986 book The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf.\n\nBritish expeditions to protect their Indian trade routes led to campaigns against Ras Al Khaimah and other harbours along the coast, including the Persian Gulf campaign of 1809 and the more successful campaign of 1819. The following year, Britain and a number of local rulers signed a maritime truce, giving rise to the term Trucial States, which came to define the status of the coastal emirates. A further treaty was signed in 1843 and, in 1853 the Perpetual Maritime Truce was agreed. To this was added the 'Exclusive Agreements', signed in 1892, which made the Trucial States a British protectorate.\nUnder the 1892 treaty, the trucial sheikhs agreed not to dispose of any territory except to the British and not to enter into relationships with any foreign government other than the British without their consent. In return, the British promised to protect the Trucial Coast from all aggression by sea and to help in case of land attack. British maritime policing meant that pearling fleets could operate in relative security. However, the British prohibition of the slave trade meant an important source of income was lost to some sheikhs and merchants.\nIn 1869, the Qubaisat tribe settled at Khor Al Adaid and tried to enlist the support of the Ottomans. Khor Al Adaid was claimed by Abu Dhabi at that time, a claim supported by the British. In 1906, the British Political Resident, Percy Cox, confirmed in writing to the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan ('Zayed the Great') that Khor Al Adaid belonged to his sheikhdom.\n\nBritish era and discovery of oil\nDuring the 19th and early 20th centuries, the pearling industry thrived, providing both income and employment to the people of the Persian Gulf. The First World War had a severe impact on the industry, but it was the economic depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, coupled with the invention of the cultured pearl, that wiped out the trade. The remnants of the trade eventually faded away shortly after the Second World War, when the newly independent Government of India imposed heavy taxation on imported pearls. The decline of pearling resulted in extreme economic hardship in the Trucial States.\nIn 1922, the British government secured undertakings from the rulers of the Trucial States not to sign concessions with foreign companies without their consent. Aware of the potential for the development of natural resources such as oil, following finds in Persia (from 1908) and Mesopotamia (from 1927), a British-led oil company, the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), showed an interest in the region. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC, later to become British Petroleum, or BP) had a 23.75% share in IPC. From 1935, onshore concessions to explore for oil were granted by local rulers, with APOC signing the first one on behalf of Petroleum Concessions Ltd (PCL), an associate company of IPC. APOC was prevented from developing the region alone because of the restrictions of the Red Line Agreement, which required it to operate through IPC. A number of options between PCL and the trucial rulers were signed, providing useful revenue for communities experiencing poverty following the collapse of the pearl trade. However, the wealth of oil which the rulers could see from the revenues accruing to surrounding countries remained elusive. The first bore holes in Abu Dhabi were drilled by IPC's operating company, Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) Ltd (PDTC) at Ras Sadr in 1950, with a 13,000-foot-deep (4,000-metre) bore hole taking a year to drill and turning out dry, at the tremendous cost at the time of £1 million.\n\nThe British set up a development office that helped in some small developments in the emirates. The seven sheikhs of the emirates then decided to form a council to coordinate matters between them and took over the development office. In 1952, they formed the Trucial States Council, and appointed Adi Al Bitar, Dubai's Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum's legal advisor, as secretary general and legal advisor to the council. The council was terminated once the United Arab Emirates was formed. The tribal nature of society and the lack of definition of borders between emirates frequently led to disputes, settled either through mediation or, more rarely, force. The Trucial Oman Scouts was a small military force used by the British to keep the peace.\nIn 1953, a subsidiary of BP, D'Arcy Exploration Ltd, obtained an offshore concession from the ruler of Abu Dhabi. BP joined with Compagnie Française des Pétroles (later Total) to form operating companies, Abu Dhabi Marine Areas Ltd (ADMA) and Dubai Marine Areas Ltd (DUMA). A number of undersea oil surveys were carried out, including one led by the famous marine explorer Jacques Cousteau. In 1958, a floating platform rig was towed from Hamburg, Germany, and positioned over the Umm Shaif pearl bed, in Abu Dhabi waters, where drilling began. In March, it struck oil in the Upper Thamama rock formation. This was the first commercial discovery of the Trucial Coast, leading to the first exports of oil in 1962. ADMA made further offshore discoveries at Zakum and elsewhere, and other companies made commercial finds such as the Fateh oilfield off Dubai and the Mubarak field off Sharjah (shared with Iran).\nMeanwhile, onshore exploration was hindered by territorial disputes. In 1955, the United Kingdom represented Abu Dhabi and Oman in their dispute with Saudi Arabia over the Buraimi Oasis. A 1974 agreement between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia seemed to have settled the Abu Dhabi-Saudi border dispute, but this has not been ratified. The UAE's border with Oman was ratified in 2008.\nPDTC continued its onshore exploration away from the disputed area, drilling five more bore holes that were also dry. However, on 27 October 1960, the company discovered oil in commercial quantities at the Murban No. 3 well on the coast near Tarif. In 1962, PDTC became the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company. As oil revenues increased, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, undertook a massive construction program, building schools, housing, hospitals and roads. When Dubai's oil exports commenced in 1969, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, was able to invest the revenues from the limited reserves found to spark the diversification drive that would create the modern global city of Dubai.\n\nIndependence\nBy 1966, it had become clear the British government could no longer afford to administer and protect the Trucial States, what is now the United Arab Emirates. British Members of Parliament (MPs) debated the preparedness of the Royal Navy to defend the sheikhdoms. On 24 January 1968, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced the government's decision, reaffirmed in March 1971 by Prime Minister Edward Heath, to end the treaty relationships with the seven trucial sheikhdoms. Days after the announcement, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, fearing vulnerability, tried to persuade the British to honour the protection treaties by offering to pay the full costs of keeping the British Armed Forces in the Emirates. The British Labour government rejected the offer. After Labour MP Goronwy Roberts informed Sheikh Zayed of the news of British withdrawal, the nine Persian Gulf sheikhdoms attempted to form a union of Arab emirates, but by mid-1971 they were still unable to agree on terms of union even though the British treaty relationship was to expire in December of that year.\nFears of vulnerability were realised the day before independence. An Iranian destroyer group broke formation from an exercise in the lower Gulf, sailing to the Tunb islands. The islands were taken by force, civilians and Arab defenders alike allowed to flee. A British warship stood idle during the course of the invasion. A destroyer group approached the island of Abu Musa as well. But there, Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed Al Qasimi had already negotiated with the Iranian shah, and the island was quickly leased to Iran for $3 million a year. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia laid claim to swathes of Abu Dhabi.\nOriginally intended to be part of the proposed Federation of Arab Emirates, Bahrain became independent in August, and Qatar in September 1971. When the British-Trucial Sheikhdoms treaty expired on 1 December 1971, both emirates became fully independent. On 2 December 1971, six of the emirates (Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain) agreed to enter into a union named the United Arab Emirates. Ras al-Khaimah joined later, on 10 January 1972. In February 1972, the Federal National Council (FNC) was created; it was a 40-member consultative body appointed by the seven rulers. The UAE joined the Arab League on 6 December 1971 and the United Nations on 9 December. It was a founding member of the Gulf Cooperation Council in May 1981, with Abu Dhabi hosting the first GCC summit.\n\nPost-Independence period\nThe UAE supported military operations by the US and other coalition states engaged in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan (2001) and Saddam Hussein in Ba'athist Iraq (2003) as well as operations supporting the Global War on Terror for the Horn of Africa at Al Dhafra Air Base located outside of Abu Dhabi. The air base also supported Allied operations during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and Operation Northern Watch. The country had already signed a military defence agreement with the U.S. in 1994 and one with France in 1995. In January 2008, France and the UAE signed a deal allowing France to set up a permanent military base in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The UAE joined international military operations in Libya in March 2011.\nOn 2 November 2004, the UAE's first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, died. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan was elected as the president of the UAE. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan succeeded Sheikh Khalifa as crown prince of Abu Dhabi. In January 2006, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of the UAE and the ruler of Dubai, died, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum assumed both roles.\nThe first ever national elections were held on 16 December 2006. A number of voters chose half of the members of the Federal National Council. The UAE has largely escaped the Arab Spring, which other countries have experienced; however, 60 Emirati activists from Al Islah were apprehended for an alleged coup attempt and the attempt of the establishment of an Islamist state in the UAE. Mindful of the protests in nearby Bahrain, in November 2012 the UAE outlawed online mockery of its government or attempts to organise public protests through social media.\nOn 29 January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the UAE. Two months later, in March, the government announced the closure of shopping malls, schools, and places of worship, in addition to imposing a 24-hour curfew, and suspending all Emirates passenger flights. This resulted in a major economic downturn, which eventually led to the merger of more than 50% of the UAE's federal agencies.\nOn 29 August 2020, the UAE established normal diplomatic relations with Israel and with the help of the United States, they signed the Abraham Accords with Bahrain.\nOn 9 February 2021, the UAE achieved a historic milestone when its probe, named Hope, successfully reached Mars's orbit. The UAE became the first country in the Arab world to reach Mars, the fifth country to successfully reach Mars, and the second country, after an Indian probe, to orbit Mars on its maiden attempt.\nOn 14 May 2022, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was elected as the UAE's new president after the death of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.\n\nGeography\nThe United Arab Emirates is situated in the Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, between Oman and Saudi Arabia; it is in a strategic location slightly south of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital transit point for world crude oil.\nThe UAE lies between 22°30' and 26°10' north latitude and between 51° and 56°25′ east longitude. It shares a 530-kilometre (330 mi) border with Saudi Arabia on the west, south, and southeast, and a 450-kilometre (280 mi) border with Oman on the southeast and northeast. The land border with Qatar in the Khor Al Adaid area is about nineteen kilometres (12 miles) in the northwest; however, it is a source of ongoing dispute. Following Britain's military departure from the UAE in 1971, and its establishment as a new state, the UAE laid claim to Iranian-occupied islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and the Lesser Tunbs, when Iran captured them during the British rule, resulting in disputes with Iran that remain unresolved. The UAE also disputes claim on other islands against the neighboring state of Qatar. The largest emirate, Abu Dhabi, accounts for 87% of the UAE's total area, 67,340 square kilometres (26,000 sq mi). The smallest emirate, Ajman, encompasses only 259 km2 (100 sq mi).\nThe UAE coast stretches for nearly 650 km (404 mi) along the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, briefly interrupted by an isolated outcrop of the Sultanate of Oman. Six of the emirates are situated along the Persian Gulf, and the seventh, Fujairah is on the eastern coast of the peninsula with direct access to the Gulf of Oman. Most of the coast consists of salt pans that extend 8–10 km (5.0–6.2 mi) inland. The largest natural harbor is at Dubai, although other ports have been dredged at Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and elsewhere. Numerous islands are found in the Persian Gulf, and the ownership of some of them has been the subject of international disputes with both Iran and Qatar. The smaller islands, as well as many coral reefs and shifting sandbars, are a menace to navigation. Strong tides and occasional windstorms further complicate ship movements near the shore. The UAE also has a stretch of the Al Bāţinah coast of the Gulf of Oman. The Musandam Peninsula, the very tip of Arabia by the Strait of Hormuz, and Madha are exclaves of Oman separated by the UAE.\n\nSouth and west of Abu Dhabi, vast, rolling sand dunes merge into the Rub al-Khali (Empty Quarter) of Saudi Arabia. The desert area of Abu Dhabi includes two important oases with adequate underground water for permanent settlements and cultivation. The extensive Liwa Oasis is in the south near the undefined border with Saudi Arabia. About 100 km (62 mi) to the northeast of Liwa is the Al-Buraimi oasis, which extends on both sides of the Abu Dhabi-Oman border. Lake Zakher in Al Ain is a human-made lake near the border with Oman that was created from treated waste water.\nPrior to withdrawing from the area in 1971, Britain delineated the internal borders among the seven emirates in order to preempt territorial disputes that might hamper formation of the federation. In general, the rulers of the emirates accepted the British interventions, but in the case of boundary disputes between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and also between Dubai and Sharjah, conflicting claims were not resolved until after the UAE became independent. The most complicated borders were in the Western Hajar Mountains, where five of the emirates contested jurisdiction over more than a dozen enclaves.\n\nBiodiversity\nThe UAE contains the following terrestrial ecoregions: Al Hajar montane woodlands and shrublands, Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert, and Al-Hajar foothill xeric woodlands and shrublands.\nThe oases grow date palms, acacia and eucalyptus trees. In the desert, the flora is very sparse and consists of grasses and thorn bushes. The indigenous fauna had come close to extinction because of intensive hunting, which has led to a conservation program on Sir Bani Yas Island initiated by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in the 1970s, resulting in the survival of, for example, Arabian Oryx, Arabian camel and leopards. Coastal fish and mammals consist mainly of mackerel, perch, and tuna, as well as sharks and whales.\n\nClimate\nThe climate of the UAE is subtropical-arid with hot summers and warm winters. The climate is categorized as desert climate. The hottest months are July and August, when average maximum temperatures reach above 45 °C (113 °F) on the coastal plain. In the Hajar Mountains, temperatures are considerably lower, a result of increased elevation. Average minimum temperatures in January and February are between 10 and 14 °C (50 and 57 °F). During the late summer months, a humid southeastern wind known as Sharqi (i.e. \"Easterner\") makes the coastal region especially unpleasant. The average annual rainfall in the coastal area is less than 120 mm (4.7 in), but in some mountainous areas annual rainfall often reaches 350 mm (13.8 in). Rain in the coastal region falls in short, torrential bursts during the winter months, sometimes resulting in floods in ordinarily dry wadi beds. The region is prone to occasional, violent dust storms, which can severely reduce visibility.\nOn 28 December 2004, snow was recorded in the UAE for the first time, in the Jebel Jais mountain cluster in Ras al-Khaimah. A few years later, there were more sightings of snow and hail. The Jebel Jais mountain cluster has experienced snow only twice since records began.\n\nGovernment and politics\nGovernment\nThe United Arab Emirates is a federal constitutional monarchy made up from a federation of seven hereditary tribal monarchy-styled political units called Sheikhdoms. It is governed by a Federal Supreme Council made up of the ruling Sheikhs of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain. All responsibilities not granted to the federal government are reserved to the individual emirate. A percentage of revenues from each emirate is allocated to the UAE's central budget.\nThe UAE uses the title Sheikh instead of Emir to refer to the rulers of individual emirates. The title is used due to the sheikhdom styled governing system in adherence to the culture of tribes of Arabia, where Sheikh means leader, elder, or the tribal chief of the clan who partakes in shared decision making with his followers. The president and vice president are elected by the Federal Supreme Council. Usually, the Head of the Al Nahyan family, who are based in Abu Dhabi, holds the presidency and the Head of the Al Maktoum family, based in Dubai, the prime ministership. All prime ministers but one have served concurrently as vice president.\nThe federal government is composed of three branches:\n\nLegislative: A unicameral Federal Supreme Council and the advisory Federal National Council (FNC).\nExecutive: The President, who is also commander-in-chief of the military, the prime minister and the Council of Ministers.\nJudicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts.\nThe UAE e-Government is the extension of the UAE federal government in its electronic form. The UAE's Council of Ministers (Arabic: مجلس الوزراء) is the chief executive branch of the government presided over by the prime minister. The prime minister, who is appointed by the Federal Supreme Council, appoints the ministers. The Council of Ministers is made up of 22 members and manages all internal and foreign affairs of the federation under its constitutional and federal law. In December 2019, the UAE became the only Arab country, and one of only five countries in the world, to attain gender parity in a national legislative body, with its lower house 50 per cent women.\nThe UAE is the only country in the world that has a Ministry of Tolerance, a Ministry of Happiness, and a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence. The UAE also has a virtual ministry called the Ministry of Possibilities, designed to find solutions to challenges and improve quality of life. The UAE also has a National Youth Council, which is represented in the UAE cabinet by the Minister of Youth.\nThe UAE legislative body is the Federal National Council which convenes nationwide elections every four years. The FNC consists of 40 members drawn from all the emirates. Each emirate is allocated specific seats to ensure full representation. Half are appointed by the rulers of the constituent emirates, and the other half are elected. By law, the council members have to be equally divided between males and females. The FNC is restricted to a largely consultative role.\nThe United Arab Emirates is an authoritarian federal monarchy. According to the New York Times, the UAE is \"an autocracy with the sheen of a progressive, modern state\". The UAE has been described as a \"tribal autocracy\" where the seven constituent monarchies are led by tribal rulers in an autocratic fashion. There are no democratically elected institutions, and there is no formal commitment to free speech. According to human rights organisations, there are systematic human rights violations, including the torture and forced disappearance of government critics. The UAE ranks poorly in freedom indices measuring civil liberties and political rights. The UAE is annually ranked as \"Not Free\" in Freedom House's annual Freedom in the World report, which measures civil liberties and political rights. The UAE also ranks poorly in the annual Reporters without Borders' Press Freedom Index. The Bertelsmann Transformation Index describes the UAE as a \"moderate monarchy\". The country was ranked 91 out of 137 states and is far below the average scoring for development towards a democracy. According to the 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices, the United Arab Emirates is the third least electoral democratic country in the Middle East.\n\nAdministrative divisions\nThe United Arab Emirates comprises seven emirates. The Emirate of Dubai is the most populous emirate with 35.6% of the UAE population. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has 31.2%, meaning that over two-thirds of the UAE population lives in either Abu Dhabi or Dubai.\nAbu Dhabi has an area of 67,340 square kilometres (26,000 square miles), which is 86.7% of the country's total area, excluding the islands. It has a coastline extending for more than 400 km (250 mi) and is divided for administrative purposes into three major regions. The Emirate of Dubai extends along the Persian Gulf coast of the UAE for approximately 72 km (45 mi). Dubai has an area of 3,885 square kilometres (1,500 square miles), which is equivalent to 5% of the country's total area, excluding the islands. The Emirate of Sharjah extends along approximately 16 km (10 mi) of the UAE's Persian Gulf coastline and for more than 80 km (50 mi) into the interior. The northern emirates which include Fujairah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, and Umm al-Qaiwain all have a total area of 3,881 square kilometres (1,498 square miles). There are two areas under joint control. One is jointly controlled by Oman and Ajman, the other by Fujairah and Sharjah.\nThere is an Omani exclave surrounded by UAE territory, known as Wadi Madha. It is located halfway between the Musandam peninsula and the rest of Oman in the Emirate of Sharjah. It covers approximately 75 square kilometres (29 square miles) and the boundary was settled in 1969. The north-east corner of Madha is closest to the Khor Fakkan-Fujairah road, barely 10 metres (33 feet) away. Within the Omani exclave of Madha, is a UAE exclave called Nahwa, also belonging to the Emirate of Sharjah. It is about eight kilometres (5.0 miles) on a dirt track west of the town of New Madha. It consists of about forty houses with its own clinic and telephone exchange.\n\nForeign relations\nThe United Arab Emirates has broad diplomatic and commercial relations with most countries and members of the United Nations. It plays a significant role in OPEC, and is one of the founding members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The UAE is a member of the United Nations and several of its specialized agencies (ICAO, ILO, UPU, WHO, WIPO), as well as the World Bank, IMF, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Non-Aligned Movement. Also, it is an observer in the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Most countries have diplomatic missions in the capital Abu Dhabi with most consulates being in UAE's largest city, Dubai.\nEmirati foreign relations are motivated to a large extent by identity and relationship to the Arab world. The United Arab Emirates has strong ties with Bahrain, China, Egypt, France, India, Jordan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States.\nFollowing the British withdrawal from the UAE in 1971 and the establishment of the UAE as a state, the UAE disputed rights to three islands in the Persian Gulf against Iran, namely Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb. The UAE tried to bring the matter to the International Court of Justice, but Iran dismissed the notion. Pakistan was the first country to formally recognise the UAE upon its formation. The UAE alongside multiple Middle Eastern and African countries cut diplomatic ties with Qatar in June 2017 due to allegations of Qatar being a state sponsor of terrorism, resulting in the Qatar diplomatic crisis. Ties were restored in January 2021. The UAE recognized Israel in August 2020, reaching a historic Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement and leading towards full normalization of relations between the two countries.\nUAE is the 53rd most peaceful country in the world, according to the 2024 Global Peace Index.\n\nMilitary\nThe armed forces of the United Arab Emirates consist of 44,000 active personnel in the Army, 2,500 personnel and 46 ships in the Navy, 4,500 personnel and 386 aircraft in the Air Force, and 12,000 personnel in the Presidential Guard. In 2022 the country spent US$20.4 billion on defense, which is 4% of its GDP. The UAE is considered to have the most capable military among the Gulf states.\nAlthough initially small in number, the UAE armed forces have grown significantly over the years and are presently equipped with some of the most modern weapon systems, purchased from a variety of western military advanced countries, mainly France, the US, and the UK. Most officers are graduates of the United Kingdom's Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, with others having attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Australia, and St Cyr, the military academy of France. France and the United States have played the most strategically significant roles with defence cooperation agreements and military material provision.\nSome of the UAE military deployments include an infantry battalion to the United Nations UNOSOM II force in Somalia in 1993, the 35th Mechanised Infantry Battalion to Kosovo, a regiment to Kuwait during the Iraq War, demining operations in Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, American-led intervention in Libya, American-led intervention in Syria, and the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen. The active and effective military role, despite its small active personnel, has led the UAE military to be nicknamed as \"Little Sparta\" by United States Armed Forces Generals and former US defense secretary James Mattis.\nThe UAE intervened in the Libyan Civil War in support of General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army in its conflict with the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).\nExamples of the military assets deployed include the enforcement of the no-fly-zone over Libya by sending six UAEAF F-16 and six Mirage 2000 multi-role fighter aircraft, ground troop deployment in Afghanistan, 30 UAEAF F-16s and ground troops deployment in Southern Yemen, and helping the US launch its first airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria.\nThe UAE has begun production of a greater amount of military equipment, in a bid to reduce foreign dependence and help with national industrialisation. Example of national military development include the Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding company (ADSB), which produces a range of ships and is a prime contractor in the Baynunah Programme, a programme to design, develop and produce corvettes customised for operation in the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. The UAE is also producing weapons and ammunition through Caracal International, military transport vehicles through Nimr LLC and unmanned aerial vehicles collectively through Emirates Defence Industries Company. The UAE operates the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon F-16E Block 60 unique variant unofficially called \"Desert Falcon\", developed by General Dynamics with collaboration of the UAE and specifically for the United Arab Emirates Air Force. The United Arab Emirates Army operates a customized Leclerc tank and is the only other operator of the tank aside from the French Army. The largest defence exhibition and conference in the Middle East, International Defence Exhibition, takes place biennially in Abu Dhabi.\nThe UAE introduced a mandatory military service for adult males, since 2014, for 16 months to expand its reserve force. The highest loss of life in the history of UAE military occurred on Friday 4 September 2015, in which 52 soldiers were killed in Marib area of central Yemen by a Tochka missile which targeted a weapons cache and caused a large explosion.\n\nLaw\nThe United Arab Emirates has a federal court system, and the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah also have local court systems. The UAE's judicial system is derived from the civil law system and Sharia law. The court system consists of civil courts and Sharia courts. Sharia courts have exclusive jurisdiction in Muslim family law matters, while civil courts deal with all other legal matters. Since September 2020, corporal punishment is no longer a legal form of punishment under UAE federal law. Under the decree, legal forms of punishment are retribution and blood money payments, capital punishment, life imprisonment, temporary imprisonment, indefinite detention, and fines. Article 1 of the Federal Penal Code was amended in 2020 to state that Islamic Law applies only to retribution and blood money punishments; previously the article stated that \"provisions of the Islamic Law shall apply to the crimes of doctrinal punishment, punitive punishment and blood money.\" Before 2020, flogging, stoning, amputation, and crucifixion were technically legal punishments for criminal offences such as adultery, premarital sex, and drug or alcohol use. In recent history, the UAE has declared its intention to move towards a more tolerant legal code, and to phase out corporal punishment altogether in favor of private punishment. With alcohol and cohabitation laws being loosened in advance of the 2020 World Expo, Emirati laws have become increasingly acceptable to visitors from non-Muslim countries.\n\nSharia courts have exclusive jurisdiction over Muslim family law matters such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. Muslim women must receive permission from a male guardian to marry and remarry. This requirement is derived from Sharia law and has been federal law since 2005. It is illegal for Muslim women to marry non-Muslims and is punishable by law. Non-Muslim expatriates were liable to Sharia rulings on marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance, however, federal law was changed to introduce non-Sharia personal status law for non-Muslims. Recently, the emirate of Abu Dhabi opened a civil law family court for non-Muslims and Dubai has announced that non-Muslims can opt for civil marriages.\nApostasy is a technically capital crime in the UAE, however, there are no documented cases of apostates being executed. Blasphemy is illegal; expatriates involved in insulting Islam are liable for deportation.\nSodomy is illegal and is punishable by a minimum of 6-month imprisonment or a fine or both, but the law does not apply \"except on the basis of a complaint from the husband or legal guardian\", but the penalty may be suspended if the complaint is waived. In 2013, an Emirati man was on trial for being accused of a \"gay handshake\".\nDue to local customs, public shows of affection in certain public places are illegal and could result in deportation, but holding hands is tolerated. Expats in Dubai have been deported for kissing in public. In several cases, the courts of the UAE have jailed women who have reported rape. Federal law in the UAE prohibits swearing on social media.\nDancing in public is illegal in the UAE. In November 2020, UAE announced that it decriminalised alcohol, lifted the ban on unmarried couples living together, and ended lenient punishment on honor killing. Foreigners living in the Emirates were allowed to follow their native country's laws on divorce and inheritance.\n\nHuman rights\nThe state security apparatus in the UAE has been accused of human rights abuses including forced disappearance, arbitrary arrests and torture. The annual Freedom House report on Freedom in the World has listed the United Arab Emirates as \"Not Free\" every year since 1999, the first year for which records are available on their website. Freedom of association is also severely curtailed. Associations and NGOs are required to register with the government; however twenty non-political groups were reportedly operating in the country without registration. All associations have to be submitted to censorship guidelines and all publications have first to be approved by the government. In its 2013 Annual Report, Amnesty International criticized the UAE's poor record on human rights issues; highlighting restrictions of freedom of speech and assembly, the use of arbitrary arrest and torture, and the use of the death penalty.\nThe UAE has escaped the Arab Spring; and since 2011, human rights organizations claim that the government has increasingly carried out forced disappearances. The Arab Organization for Human Rights obtained testimonies from defendants who claimed being kidnapped, tortured and abused in detention centres; they reported 16 methods of torture including beatings, threats with electrocution and denial of medical care. Repressive measures, including deportation, were applied on foreigners based on allegations of attempts to destabilize the country. The issue of sexual abuse among female domestic workers is another area of concern, particularly given that domestic servants are not covered by the UAE labour law of 1980 or the draft labour law of 2007. Worker protests have been suppressed and protesters imprisoned without due process.\nAmnesty International reported that Qatari men have been abducted by the UAE government and allegedly withheld information about the men's fate from their families. According to some organizations, over 4,000 Shia expatriates have been deported from the UAE; including Lebanese Shia families for their alleged sympathies for Hezbollah. In 2013, 94 Emirati activists were held in secret detention centres and put on trial for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government; a relative of a defendant was arrested for tweeting about the trial, and sentenced to 10 months in jail. The latest forced disappearance involves three sisters from Abu Dhabi.\nSara Jacobs held foreign actors, including the UAE, responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. She expressed her views in March 2024 visit to the refugee camps, stating the children in Sudan are living with extensive trauma. The US representative also claimed that the war could be quickly ended if the involvement of countries like the UAE is stopped. Jacobs also said that the US is morally obligated to take measures and stop the arms to the Emirates, until the UAE stops providing weapons to the RSF.\n\nMigrant workers\nMigrant workers in the UAE are not allowed to join trade unions or go on strike. Those who strike may risk prison and deportation, as seen in 2014 when dozens of workers were deported for striking. The International Trade Union Confederation has called on the United Nations to investigate evidence that thousands of migrant workers in the UAE are treated as slave labour.\nIn 2019, an investigation performed by The Guardian revealed that thousands of migrant construction workers employed on infrastructure and building projects for the UAE's Expo 2020 exhibition were working in an unsafe environment. Some were even exposed to potentially fatal situations due to cardiovascular issues. Long hours in the sun made them vulnerable to heat strokes.\nA report in January 2020 highlighted that the employers in the United Arab Emirates have been exploiting the Indian labor and hiring them on tourist visas, which is easier and cheaper than work permits. These migrant workers are left open to labor abuse, where they also fear reporting exploitation due to their illegal status. Besides, the issue remains unknown as the visit visa data is not maintained in both the UAE and Indian migration and employment records.\n\nIn a 22 July 2020 news piece, Reuters reported human rights groups as saying conditions had deteriorated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many migrant workers racked up debt and depended on the help of charities. The report cited salary delays and layoffs as a major risk, in addition to overcrowded living conditions, lack of support and problems linked with healthcare and sick pay. Reuters reported at least 200,000 workers, mostly from India but also from Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nepal, had been repatriated, according to their diplomatic missions.\nOn 2 May 2020, the Consul General of India in Dubai, Vipul, confirmed that more than 150,000 Indians in the United Arab Emirates registered to be repatriated through the e-registration option provided by Indian consulates in the UAE. According to the figures, 25% of applicants lost their jobs and nearly 15% were stranded in the country due to lockdown. Besides, 50% of the total applicants were from the state of Kerala, India.\nOn 9 October 2020, The Telegraph reported that many migrant workers were left abandoned, as they lost their jobs amidst the tightening economy due to COVID-19.\nVarious human rights organisations have raised serious concerns about the alleged abuse of migrant workers by major contractors organising Expo 2020. UAE's business solution provider German Pavilion is also held accountable for abusing migrant workers.\n\nEnvironmental policy\nThe country is a leading oil and gas producer. Its energy consumption per capita is around 370 Gigajoule. \nThe UAE's carbon dioxide emissions per capita are high, ranking sixth among countries globally. \nRecently, it made efforts to make itself more sustainable. Those include:\n\nSetting a target to reduce GHG emissions by 31% in comparison to business scenario by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.\nLaunching a program to make the 3 most emissions-intensive sectors, 40% more energy efficient.\nLaunching some programs related to green building. Retrofitting of 30,000 buildings alone, should cut 1 million tons emissions.\nPromoting public transport and more.\nAccording to official sources, in Dubai, \"the share of mass transport in people’s mobility increased from 6 per cent in 2006 to 20.61 per cent in 2022.\" Together with the USA the country invested 17 billion dollars in sustainable agriculture.\n\nEconomy\nThe United Arab Emirates has developed from a juxtaposition of Bedouin tribes to one of the world's wealthiest states in only about 50 years, boasting one of the highest GDP (PPP) per capita figures in the world. Economic growth has been impressive and steady throughout the history of this young confederation of emirates with brief periods of recessions only, e.g. in the global financial and economic crisis years 2008–09, and a couple of more mixed years starting in 2015 and persisting until 2019. Between 2000 and 2018, average real gross domestic product (GDP) growth was at close to 4%. It is the second largest economy in the GCC (after Saudi Arabia), with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of US$414.2 billion, and a real GDP of 392.8 billion constant 2010 USD in 2018. Since its independence in 1971, the UAE's economy has grown by nearly 231 times to 1.45 trillion AED in 2013. The non-oil trade has grown to 1.2 trillion AED, a growth by around 28 times from 1981 to 2012. Supported by the world's seventh-largest oil reserves and aided by prudent investments coupled with a resolute commitment to economic liberalism and strong governmental oversight, the UAE has witnessed its real GDP increase by more than three times over the past four decades. Presently, the UAE is among the wealthiest countries globally, with GDP per capita nearly 80% higher than the OECD average.\n\nAs impressive as economic growth has been in the UAE, the total population has increased from just around 550,000 in 1975 to close to 10 million in 2018. This growth is mainly due to the influx of foreign workers into the country, making the national population a minority. The UAE features a unique labour market system, in which residence in the UAE is conditional on stringent visa rules. This system is a major advantage in terms of macroeconomic stability, as labour supply adjusts quickly to demand throughout economic business cycles. This allows the government to keep unemployment in the country on a very low level of less than 3%, and it also gives the government more leeway in terms of macroeconomic policies – where other governments often need to make trade-offs between fighting unemployment and fighting inflation.\nBetween 2014 and 2018, the accommodation and food, education, information and communication, arts and recreation, and real estate sectors overperformed in terms of growth, whereas the construction, logistics, professional services, public, and oil and gas sectors underperformed.\n\nBusiness and finance\nThe UAE offers businesses a strong enabling environment: stable political and macroeconomic conditions, a future-oriented government, good general infrastructure and ICT infrastructure. Moreover, the country has made continuous and convincing improvements to its regulatory environment and is ranked as the 26th best country in the world for doing business by the Doing Business 2017 Report published by the World Bank Group. The UAE are in the top ranks of several other global indices, such as the World Economic Forum's (WEF), Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), the World Happiness Report (WHR) and 32nd in the Global Innovation Index in 2024. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), for example, assigns the UAE rank two regionally in terms of business environment and 22 worldwide. From the 2018 Arab Youth Survey the UAE emerges as the top Arab country in areas such as living, safety and security, economic opportunities, and starting a business, and as an example for other states to emulate.\nThe weaker points remain the level of education across the UAE population, limitations in the financial and labour markets, barriers to trade and some regulations that hinder business dynamism. The major challenge for the country, though, remains translating investments and strong enabling conditions into innovation and creative outputs.\nUAE law does not allow trade unions to exist. The right to collective bargaining and the right to strike are not recognised, and the Ministry of Labour has the power to force workers to go back to work. Migrant workers who participate in a strike can have their work permits cancelled and be deported. Consequently, there are very few anti-discrimination laws in relation to labour issues, with Emiratis – and other GCC Arabs – getting preference in public sector jobs despite lesser credentials than competitors and lower motivation. In fact, just over eighty per cent of Emirati workers hold government posts, with many of the rest taking part in state-owned enterprises such as Emirates airlines and Dubai Properties. Western states, including the United Kingdom, were also warned by the Emirati Trade Minister, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, to keep politics separate from trade and the economy, as it dilutes the agreements' main objectives. In 2023, Al Zeyoudi indicated that these countries should \"tone down\" the human and workers' rights provisions in the trade deals, in order to gain greater market access and business opportunities.\nThe UAE's monetary policy stresses stability and predictability. The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) keeps a peg to the US Dollar (USD) and moves interest rates close to the Federal Funds Rate.\nAccording to Fitch Ratings, the decline in property sector follows risks of progressively worsening the quality of assets in possession with UAE banks, leading the economy to rougher times ahead. Even though as compared to retail and property, UAE banks fared well. The higher US interest rates followed since 2016 – which the UAE currency complies to – have boosted profitability. However, the likelihood of plunging interest rates and increasing provisioning costs on bad loans, point to difficult times ahead for the economy.\n\nSince 2015, economic growth has been more mixed due to a number of factors impacting both demand and supply. In 2017 and 2018 growth has been positive but on a low level of 0.8 and 1.4%, respectively. To support the economy the government is currently following an expansionary fiscal policy. However, the effects of this policy are partially offset by monetary policy, which has been contractionary. If not for the fiscal stimulus in 2018, the UAE economy would probably have contracted in that year. One of the factors responsible for slower growth has been a credit crunch, which is due to, among other factors, higher interest rates. Government debt has remained on a low level, despite high deficits in a few recent years. Risks related to government debt remain low. Inflation has been picking up in 2017 and 2018. Contributing factors were the introduction of a value added tax (VAT) of 5% in 2018 as well as higher commodity prices. Despite the government's expansionary fiscal policy and a growing economy in 2018 and at the beginning of 2019, prices have been dropping in late 2018 and 2019 owing to oversupply in some sectors of importance to consumer prices.\nThe UAE has an attractive tax system for companies and wealthy individuals, making it a preferred destination for companies seeking tax avoidance. The NGO Tax Justice Network places them in 2021 in the group of the ten largest tax havens. In 2023, the UAE's legal system fell under international scrutiny, as the members of the British Parliament opened an inquiry into how the foreign business executives are treated in the country, in case of accusations of breaking the law.\n2024 will be the third consecutive year that the UAE holds first place as the world's leading wealth magnet, as 6,700 wealthy migrants are set to move to the country.\n\nVAT\nThe UAE government implemented value-added tax (VAT) in the country from January 1, 2018, at a standard rate of 5%.\nWhile the government may still adjust the exact arrangement of the VAT, it is not likely that any new taxes will be introduced in the foreseeable future. Additional taxes would destroy one of the UAE's main enticements for businesses to operate in the country and put a heavy burden on the economy.\n\nEnergy\nOil and gas production is an important part of the economy of the UAE. In 2018, the oil and gas sector contributed 26% to overall GDP. \nThe UAE leadership initiated economic diversification efforts even before the oil price crash in the 1980s, resulting in the UAE having the most diversified economy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at present. Although the oil and gas sector continues to be significant to the UAE economy, these efforts have yielded great resilience during periods of oil price fluctuations and economic turbulence.\nThe introduction of the VAT has provided the government with an additional source of income – approximately 6% of the total revenue in 2018, or 27 billion United Arab Emirates dirham (AED) – affording its fiscal policy more independence from oil- and gas-related revenue, which constitutes about 36% of the total government revenue. \nThe Barakah nuclear power plant is the first on the Arabian peninsula and expected to reduce the carbon footprint of the country.\nThe UAE has solar generation potential, and its energy policy has shifted due to the declining price of solar. The Dubai Clean Energy Strategy aims to provide 7 per cent of Dubai's energy from clean energy sources by 2020. It will increase this target to 25 per cent by 2030 and 75 per cent by 2050.\nIn 2023, ADNOC and its CEO Sultan Al Jaber closed at least 20 business deals worth nearly $100 billion. The state oil firm was alleged of exploiting the UAE’s COP28 presidency to pursue oil and gas deals. As per leaked documents, Al Jaber’s team targeted 16 nations to lobby firms, delegates or ministers on such deals. ADNOC sought deals with companies from 12 countries, which included 11 of the 16 target nations. Al Jaber and senior ADNOC officials openly discussed deals. COP28 organising teams were excluded from meetings and replaced by ADNOC officials, leaving a closed group that made deals.\n\nTourism\nTourism acts as a growth sector for the entire UAE economy. Dubai is the top tourism destination in the Middle East. According to the annual MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index, Dubai is the fifth most popular tourism destination in the world. Dubai holds up to 66% share of the UAE's tourism economy, with Abu Dhabi having 16% and Sharjah 10%. Dubai welcomed 10 million tourists in 2013.\nThe UAE has the most advanced and developed infrastructure in the region. Since the 1980s, the UAE has been spending billions of dollars on infrastructure. These developments are particularly evident in the larger emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The northern emirates are rapidly following suit, providing major incentives for developers of residential and commercial property.\nThe inbound tourism expenditure in the UAE for 2019 accounted for 118.6 per cent share of the outbound tourism expenditure. Since 6 January 2020, tourist visas to the United Arab Emirates are valid for five years. It has been projected that the travel and tourism industry will contribute about 280.6 billion United Arab Emirati dirham to the UAE's GDP by 2028.\nThe country's major tourist attraction includes the famous Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest tower in the world; The World archipelago and Palm Jumeirah also in Dubai; Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi; Al Hajar Mountains in Fujairah. The uniqueness of the country's natural desert life, especially with the Bedouins, also facilitates the country's tourist industry.\n\nTransport\nDubai International Airport became the busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic in 2014, overtaking London Heathrow.\n\nAbu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, and Ras Al Khaimah are connected by the E11 highway, which is the longest road in the UAE. In Dubai, in addition to the Dubai Metro, The Dubai Tram and Palm Jumeirah Monorail also connect specific parts of the city. There is also a bus, taxi, abra (traditional boat) and water taxi network run by RTA. T1, a double-decker tram system in Downtown Dubai, were operational from 2015 to 2019.\nSalik, meaning \"open\" or \"clear\", is Dubai's electronic toll collection system that was launched in July 2007 and is part of Dubai's traffic congestion management system. Each time one passes through a Salik tolling point, a toll is deducted from the drivers' prepaid toll account using advanced Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. There are four Salik tolling points placed in strategic locations in Dubai: at Al Maktoum Bridge, Al Garhoud Bridge, and along Sheikh Zayed Road at Al Safa and Al Barsha.\n\nA 1,200 km (750 mi) country-wide railway is under construction which will connect all the major cities and ports. The Dubai Metro is the first urban train network in the Arabian Peninsula.\nThe major ports of the United Arab Emirates are Khalifa Port, Zayed Port, Port Jebel Ali, Port Rashid, Port Khalid, Port Saeed, and Port Khor Fakkan. The Emirates are increasingly developing their logistics and ports in order to participate in trade between Europe and China or Africa. For this purpose, ports are being rapidly expanded and investments are being made in their technology.\nThe Emirates have historically been and currently still are part of the Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast to the south via the southern tip of India to Mombasa, from there through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region and the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its rail connections to Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the North Sea.\n\nTelecommunications\nThe United Arab Emirates is served by two telecommunications operators, Etisalat and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (\"du\"). Etisalat operated a monopoly until du launched mobile services in February 2007. Internet subscribers were expected to increase from 0.904 million in 2007 to 2.66 million in 2012. The regulator, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, mandates filtering websites for religious, political and sexual content.\n5G wireless services were installed nationwide in 2019 through a partnership with Huawei.\n\nCompetitiveness\nIn June 2024 it was reported, that the UAE has moved up three place to the 7th place among the top 10 countries in the IMD World Competitiveness. This ranking is issued by the World Competitiveness Centre of the Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland.\n\nDemographics\nAccording to an estimate by the World Bank, the UAE's population in 2020 was 9,890,400. Immigrants accounted for 88.52% while Emiratis made up the remaining 11.48%. This unique imbalance is due to the country's exceptionally high net migration rate of 21.71, the world's highest. UAE citizenship is very difficult to obtain other than by filiation and only granted under very special circumstances.\n\nThe UAE is ethnically diverse. The five most populous nationalities in the emirates of Dubai, Sharjah, and Ajman are Indian (25%), Pakistani (12%), Emirati (9%), Bangladeshi (7%), and Filipino (5%). Immigrants from Europe, Australia, North America make up 500,000 of the population. 250,000 British nationals live in the country. The rest of the population are from other Arab states.\nAbout 88% of the population of the United Arab Emirates is urban. The average life expectancy was 76.7 in 2012, higher than for any other Arab country. With a male/female sex ratio of 2.2 males for each female in the total population and 2.75 to 1 for the 15–65 age group, the UAE's gender imbalance is second highest in the world after Qatar.\n\nLargest cities\nLanguage\nModern Standard Arabic is the national language of the United Arab Emirates. English is the most commonly spoken language, whereas Emirati Arabic, a variety of Gulf Arabic, is spoken natively by Emirati people.\n\nReligion\nIslam is the largest and the official state religion of the United Arab Emirates. The government follows a policy of tolerance toward other religions and rarely interferes in the religious activities of non-Muslims.\nThere are more Sunni than Shia Muslims in the United Arab Emirates, and 85% of the Emirati population are Sunni Muslims. The vast majority of the remainder 15% are Shia Muslims, who are concentrated in the Emirates of Dubai and Sharjah. Although no official statistics are available for the breakdown between Sunni and Shia Muslims among noncitizen residents, media estimates suggest less than 20% of the noncitizen Muslim population are Shia. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is the largest mosque in the country and a major tourist attraction. Ibadi is common among Omanis in the UAE, while Sufi influences exist as well.\nChristians account for 9% of the total population of the United Arab Emirates, according to the 2005 census; estimates in 2010 suggested a figure of 12.6%. Roman Catholics and Protestants form significant proportions of the Christian minority. The country has over 52 churches in 2023. Many Christians in the United Arab Emirates are of Asian, African, and European origin, along with fellow Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. The United Arab Emirates forms part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia and the Vicar Apostolic Bishop Paul Hinder is based in Abu Dhabi.\nThere is a small Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates. Before 2023, there was only one known synagogue in Dubai, which has been open since 2008 and the synagogue also welcomes visitors. Another synagogue, Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue was completed in 2023 as part of the Abrahamic Family House complex in Abu Dhabi. As of 2019, according to Rabbi Marc Schneier of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, it is estimated that there are about 150 families to 3,000 Jews who live and worship freely in the UAE.\n\nSouth Asians in the United Arab Emirates constitute the largest ethnic group in the country. Over 2 million Indian migrants (mostly from the southern states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Coastal Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) are estimated to be living in the UAE. There are currently three Hindu temples in the country. Other religions also exist in the United Arab Emirates, including Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism, Baháʼís and Druze.\nThe UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Abdullah bin Zayed, announced in 2019 the design and construction plan of the Abrahamic Family House, which will serve as an interfaith complex that houses a synagogue, mosque, and a church on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.\n\nEducation\nThe education system through secondary level administered by the Ministry of Education in all emirates except Abu Dhabi, where it falls under the authority of the Department of Education and Knowledge. Public schools are divided into primary schools, middle schools and high schools. The public schools are government-funded and the curriculum is created to match the United Arab Emirates' development goals. The medium of instruction in the public school is Arabic with emphasis on English as a second language. There are also many private schools which are internationally accredited. Public schools in the country are free for citizens of the UAE, while the fees for private schools vary.\nThe higher education system is monitored by the Ministry of Higher Education. The ministry also is responsible for admitting students to its undergraduate institutions. The adult literacy rate in 2015 was 93.8%.\nThe UAE has shown a strong interest in improving education and research. Enterprises include the establishment of the CERT Research Centres and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and Institute for Enterprise Development. According to the QS Rankings, the top-ranking universities in the country are the United Arab Emirates University (421–430th worldwide), Khalifa University (441–450th worldwide), the American University of Sharjah (431–440th) and University of Sharjah (551–600th worldwide). United Arab Emirates was ranked 33rd in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, up from 36th in 2019.\n\nHealth\nThe life expectancy at birth in the UAE is at 76.96 years. Cardiovascular disease is the principal cause of death in the UAE, constituting 28% of total deaths; other major causes are accidents and injuries, malignancies, and congenital anomalies. According to World Health Organization data from 2016, 34.5% of adults in the UAE are clinically obese, with a body mass index (BMI) score of 30 or more.\nIn February 2008, the Ministry of Health unveiled a five-year health strategy for the public health sector in the northern emirates, which fall under its purview and which, unlike Abu Dhabi and Dubai, do not have separate healthcare authorities. The strategy focuses on unifying healthcare policy and improving access to healthcare services at reasonable cost, at the same time reducing dependence on overseas treatment. The ministry plans to add three hospitals to the current 14, and 29 primary healthcare centres to the current 86. Nine were scheduled to open in 2008.\nThe introduction of mandatory health insurance in Abu Dhabi for expatriates and their dependents was a major driver in reform of healthcare policy. Abu Dhabi nationals were brought under the scheme from 1 June 2008 and Dubai followed for its government employees. Eventually, under federal law, every Emirati and expatriate in the country will be covered by compulsory health insurance under a unified mandatory scheme.\nThe country has benefited from medical tourists from all over the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. The UAE attracts medical tourists seeking cosmetic surgery and advanced procedures, cardiac and spinal surgery, and dental treatment, as health services have higher standards than other Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.\n\nCulture\nEmirati culture is based on Arabian culture and has been influenced by the cultures of Persia, India, and East Africa. Arabian and Arabian inspired architecture is part of the expression of the local Emirati identity. Arabian influence on Emirati culture is noticeably visible in traditional Emirati architecture and folk arts. For example, the distinctive wind tower that tops traditional Emirati buildings, the barjeel, has become an identifying mark of Emirati architecture and is attributed to Arabian influence. This influence is derived both from traders who fled the tax regime in Persia in the early 19th century and from Emirati ownership of ports on the Arabian coast, for instance the Al Qassimi port of Lingeh.\nThe United Arab Emirates has a diverse society. Dubai's economy depends more on international trade and tourism, and is more open to visitors, while Abu Dhabi society is more domestic as the city's economy is focused on fossil fuel extraction.\nMajor holidays in the United Arab Emirates include Eid al Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and National Day (2 December), which marks the formation of the United Arab Emirates. Emirati males prefer to wear a kandura, an ankle-length white tunic woven from wool or cotton, and Emirati women wear an abaya, a black over-garment that covers most parts of the body.\nThe earliest known poet in the UAE is Ibn Majid, born between 1432 and 1437 in Ras Al-Khaimah. The most famous Emirati writers were Mubarak Al Oqaili (1880–1954), Salem bin Ali al Owais (1887–1959) and Ahmed bin Sulayem (1905–1976). Three other poets from Sharjah, known as the Hirah group, are observed to have been heavily influenced by the Apollo and Romantic poets. The Sharjah International Book Fair is the oldest and largest in the country.\nThe list of museums in the United Arab Emirates includes some of regional repute, most famously Sharjah with its Heritage District containing 17 museums, which in 1998 was the Cultural Capital of the Arab World. In Dubai, the area of Al Quoz has attracted a number of art galleries as well as museums such as the Salsali Private Museum. Abu Dhabi has established a culture district on Saadiyat Island. Six grand projects are planned, including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Dubai also plans to build a Kunsthal museum and a district for galleries and artists.\nEmirati culture is a part of the culture of Eastern Arabia. Liwa is a type of music and dance performed locally, mainly in communities that contain descendants of Bantu peoples from the African Great Lakes region. The Dubai Desert Rock Festival is also another major festival consisting of heavy metal and rock artists. The cinema of the United Arab Emirates is minimal but expanding.\n\nMedia\nThe UAE's media is annually classified as \"not free\" in the Freedom of the Press report by Freedom House. The UAE ranks poorly in the annual Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders. Dubai Media City is the UAE's main media zone. The UAE is home to some pan-Arab broadcasters, including the Middle East Broadcasting Centre and Orbit Showtime Network. In 2007, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum decreed that journalists can no longer be prosecuted or imprisoned for reasons relating to their work. At the same time, the UAE has made it illegal to disseminate online material that can threaten \"public order\", and hands down prison terms for those who \"deride or damage\" the reputation of the state and \"display contempt\" for religion. Journalists who are arrested for violating this law are often brutally beaten by the police.\nAccording to UAE Year Book 2013, there are seven Arabic newspapers and eight English language newspapers, as well as a Tagalog newspaper produced and published in the UAE.\nNew media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are used widely in the UAE by the government entities and by the public as well. The UAE government avails official social media accounts to communicate with public and hear their needs.\nIn recent years, there has been a notable surge in digital media consumption in the UAE, driven by the widespread use of platforms like Snapchat and TikTok among the younger population. Influencers on these platforms play a significant role in shaping trends and promoting various products and services. The government has also implemented digital initiatives to enhance e-Government services and promote smart city concepts, further demonstrating the UAE's commitment to technological advancements.\n\nCuisine\nThe traditional food of the Emirates has always been rice, fish, and meat. The people of the United Arab Emirates have adopted most of their foods from other West and South Asian countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Pakistan and India. Seafood has been the mainstay of the Emirati diet for centuries. Meat and rice are other staple foods, with lamb and mutton preferred to goat and beef. Popular beverages are coffee and tea, which can be complemented with cardamom or saffron to give them a distinctive flavour.\nPopular cultural Emirati dishes include threed, machboos, khubisa, khameer and chabab bread among others while lugaimat is a famous Emirati dessert.\nWith the influence of western culture, fast food has become very popular among young people, to the extent that campaigns have been held to highlight the dangers of fast food excesses. Alcohol is allowed to be served only in hotel restaurants and bars. All nightclubs are permitted to sell alcohol. Specific supermarkets may sell alcohol, but these products are sold in separate sections. Likewise, pork, which is haram (not permitted for Muslims), is sold in separate sections in all major supermarkets. Although alcohol may be consumed, it is illegal to be intoxicated in public or drive a motor vehicle with any trace of alcohol in the blood.\n\nSports\nFormula One is particularly popular in the United Arab Emirates, and a Grand Prix is annually held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The race takes place in the evening, and was the first ever Grand Prix to start in daylight and finish at night. Other popular sports include camel racing, falconry, endurance riding, and tennis. The emirate of Dubai is also home to two major golf courses: the Dubai Golf Club and Emirates Golf Club.\nIn the past, child camel jockeys were used, leading to widespread criticism. Eventually, the UAE passed laws banning the use of children for the sport, leading to the prompt removal of almost all child jockeys. Recently robot jockeys have been introduced to overcome the problem of child camel jockeys which was an issue of human rights violations. Ansar Burney is often praised for the work he has done in this area.\n\nFootball\nFootball is a popular sport in the UAE. Al Nasr, Al Ain, Al Wasl, Sharjah, Al Wahda, and Shabab Al Ahli are the most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The United Arab Emirates Football Association was established in 1971 and since then has dedicated its time and effort to promoting the game, organising youth programmes and improving the abilities of not only its players, but also the officials and coaches involved with its regional teams. The UAE qualified for the FIFA World Cup in 1990, along with Egypt. It was the third consecutive World Cup with two Arab nations qualifying, after Kuwait and Algeria in 1982, and Iraq and Algeria again in 1986. The UAE has won the Gulf Cup Championship twice: the first cup won in January 2007 held in Abu Dhabi and the second in January 2013, held in Bahrain. The country hosted the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. The UAE team went all the way to the semi-finals, where they were defeated by the eventual champions, Qatar.\n\nCricket\nCricket is one of the most popular sports in the UAE, largely because of the expatriate population from the SAARC countries, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The headquarters of the International Cricket Council (ICC) have been located in the Dubai Sports City complex since 2005, including the ICC Academy which was established in 2009. There are a number of international cricket venues in the UAE, which are frequently used for international tournaments and \"neutral\" bilateral series due to the local climate and Dubai's status as a transport hub. Notable international tournaments hosted by the UAE have included the 2014 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, and three editions of the Asia Cup (1984, 1995 and 2018). Notable grounds include the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium in Sharjah, Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, and Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai.\nThe Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) became a member of the ICC in 1990. The UAE national cricket team has qualified for the Cricket World Cup on two occasions (1996 and 2015) and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup on two occasions (2014 and 2022). The national women's team is similarly one of the strongest associate teams in Asia, notably participating in the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier.\nFollowing the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team, the UAE served as the de facto home of the Pakistan national cricket team for nearly a decade, as well as hosting the Pakistan Super League. The UAE has also hosted one full edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2020 and two partial editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2014 and 2021.\n\nSee also\nList of United Arab Emirates–related topics\nOutline of the United Arab Emirates\n\nNotes\nReferences\nFurther reading\nExternal links\n\nGovernment portal of the United Arab Emirates Archived 24 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine, (U.AE)\nThe World Government Summit – UAE\nThe 2020 World Exposition in UAE\nUnited Arab Emirates. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.\nUnited Arab Emirates web resources provided by GovPubs at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries\nUnited Arab Emirates at Curlie\nUnited Arab Emirates profile from the BBC News.\n Wikimedia Atlas of United Arab Emirates\nWorld Bank Summary Trade Statistics United Arab Emirates\nTimeline of the United Arab Emirates History from Bronze Age to present day","title":"United_Arab_Emirates"},{"idx":5,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The United Arab Emirates is a high-income developing market economy. The UAE's economy is the 4th largest in the Middle East (after Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel), with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$415 billion (AED 1.83 trillion) in 2021-2023.\nThe UAE economy is heavily reliant on revenues from petroleum and natural gas, especially in Abu Dhabi. In 2009, more than 85% of the UAE's economy was based on the oil exports. In 2011, oil exports accounted for 77% of the UAE's state budget. In recent years, there has been some economic diversification, particularly in Dubai. Abu Dhabi and other UAE emirates have remained relatively conservative in their approach to diversification. Dubai has far smaller oil reserves than its counterparts.\nTourism is one of the biggest non-oil sources of revenue in the UAE. A massive construction boom, an expanding manufacturing base, and a thriving services sector are helping the country to diversify its economy. Nationwide, there is currently US $350 billion worth of active construction projects.\nThe UAE is a member of the World Trade Organization and OPEC.\n\nEconomic overview\nUAE has the second-largest economy in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia), with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$414 billion (AED 1.52 trillion) in 2018. A third of the GDP is from oil revenues. The economy was expected to grow 4–4.5% in 2013, compared to 2.3–3.5% over the previous five years. Since independence in 1971, UAE's economy has grown by nearly 231 times to AED1.45 trillion in 2013. The non-oil trade has grown to AED1.2 trillion, a growth of around 28 times from 1981 to 2012.\nThe UAE's economy is one of the most open worldwide, and its economic history goes back to the times when ships sailed to India, along the Swahili coast, as far south as Mozambique.\nThe UAE economy has been ‘inspected’ by international economic institutions on a regular basis, generally receiving good reports on economic developments. International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected UAE's economic growth to increase to 4.5% in 2015, compared to 4.3% in 2014. The IMF ascribed UAE's potentially strong economic growth in World Economic Outlook Report to the increased contribution of non-petroleum sectors, which registered a growth average of more than 6% in 2014 and 2015. Such contribution includes banking, tourism, commerce and real estate. Increase of Emirati purchasing power and governmental expenditures in infrastructure projects have considerably increased.\nInternationally, UAE is ranked among the top 20 for global service business, according to AT Kearney, the top 30 on the WEF \"most-networked countries\" and in the top quarter as a least corrupt country per the TI's corruption index.\nThe government of the United Arab Emirates announced a broad restructuring and merger of more than 50% of its federal agencies, including ministries and departments, in an attempt to deal with and recover from the economic shocks following months-long coronavirus lockdown.\n\nHistorical background\nBefore independence from the United Kingdom and unification in 1971, each emirate was responsible for its own economy. At the time, pearl diving, seafaring and fishing were together the mainstay of the economy, until the development of Japanese cultured pearls and the discovery of commercial quantities of oil. Previous UAE President Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan is credited with bringing the country forward into the 20th century and using the revenue from oil exports to fund all the necessary development. Likewise, former UAE vice-president Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum had a bold vision for the Emirate of Dubai and foresaw the future in not petroleum alone, but also other industries.\nIn the 1980s Dubai's diversification centred around trade and the creation of shipping and logistics centres, notably Port Rashid and the port and Free Zone of Jebel Ali as well as Dubai International Airport, leading to a number of major global plays in shipping, transportation and logistics (DP World, Emirates, DNATA).\n\nRecent history\nThe emergence of Dubai's lively real estate market was briefly checked by the global financial crisis of 2007–8, when Dubai was bailed out by Abu Dhabi. The recovery from the overheated market led to tighter regulation and oversight and a more realistic market for real estate throughout the UAE with many 'on hold' projects restarting. Although the market continues to expand, current market conditions for developers have been characterised as 'tough'.\nAs a result of COVID-19 pandemic, the UAE’s economy shrank by 6.1% in 2020. The country’s account balance dropped to six per cent of GDP in 2020 from 8.5 per cent in 2019 due to the underperformance of both hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon exports mitigated by lower imports.\nIn late 2021, the authority announced that UAE’s banking assets are expected to grow by between 8 per cent and 10 per cent in 2022 as the second-biggest Arab economy continues to recover from the covid-19 pandemic. It was also announced the UAE’s economy might grow at a faster than projected rate, reaching 4.6% in 2022.\n\nData\nThe following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2024 (with IMF estimates between 2022-2028).\n\nExternal trade\nWith imports totaling $273.5 billion in 2012, UAE passed Saudi Arabia as the largest consumer market in the region. Exports totaled $314 billion, making UAE the second largest exporter in the region.\nUAE and India are each other's main trading partners, with the latter having many of its citizens working and living in the former. The trade totals over $75 billion (AED275.25 billion).\nIn 2021, the main export partners of the UAE were India (14.2%), Japan (8.3%), China (mainland) (7.7%), Saudi Arabia (7.5%), Iraq (4.8%), Singapore (4.0%), the European Union (4.0%), Oman (3.8%), Hong Kong (3.4%), and Thailand (3.0%).\nThe main import partners in 2012 were China (17.3%), the European Union (12.1%), India (9.4%), the United States (5.5%), Saudi Arabia (5.2%), the United Kingdom (2.8%), Mali (2.7%), Japan (2.6%), Turkey (2.1%), and Vietnam (2.0%).\n\nDiversification of UAE's economy\nAlthough UAE has the most diversified economy in the GCC, the UAE's economy remains extremely reliant on oil. With the exception of Dubai, most of the UAE is dependent on oil revenues. Petroleum and natural gas continue to play a central role in the economy, especially in Abu Dhabi. More than 85% of the UAE's economy was based on the oil exports in 2009. While Abu Dhabi and other UAE emirates have remained relatively conservative in their approach to diversification, Dubai, which has far smaller oil reserves, was bolder in its diversification policy. In 2011, oil exports accounted for 77% of the UAE's state budget.\nDubai suffered from a significant economic crisis in 2007–2010 and was bailed out by Abu Dhabi's oil wealth. Dubai's current prosperity has been attributed to Abu Dhabi's petrodollars. In 2014, Dubai owed a total of $142 billion in debt. The UAE government has worked towards reducing the economy's dependence on oil exports by 2030. Various projects are underway to help achieve this, the most recent being the Khalifa Port, opened in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi at the end of 2012. The UAE has also won the right to host the World Expo 2020, which is believed to have a positive effect on future growth, although there are some skeptics which mention the opposite.\nOver the decades, the Emirate of Dubai has started to look for additional sources of revenue. High-class tourism and international finance continue to be developed. In line with this initiative, the Dubai International Financial Centre was announced, offering 55.5% foreign ownership, no withholding tax, freehold land and office space and a tailor-made financial regulatory system with laws taken from best practice in other leading financial centers like New York, London, Zürich and Singapore. A new stock market for regional companies and other initiatives were announced in DIFC. Dubai has also developed Internet and Media free zones, offering 100% foreign ownership, no tax office space for the world's leading ICT and media companies, with the latest communications infrastructure to service them. Many of the world's leading companies have now set up branch offices, and even changed headquarters to, there. Recent liberalization in the property market allowing non citizens to buy freehold land has resulted in a major boom in the construction and real estate sectors, with several signature developments such as the 2 Palm Islands, the World (archipelago), Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Lake Towers, and a number of other developments, offering villas and high rise apartments and office space. Emirates (part of the Emirates Group) was formed by the Dubai Government in the 1980s and is presently one of the few airlines to witness strong levels of growth. Emirates is also the largest operator of the Airbus A380 aircraft. As of 2001, budgeted government revenues were about AED 29.7 billion, and expenditures were about AED 22.9 billion. In addition, to finding new ways of sustaining the national economy, the UAE has also made progress in installing new, sustainable methods of generating electricity. This is evidenced by various solar energy initiatives at Masdar City and by other renewable energy developments in parts of the country.\nIn addition, the UAE is starting to see the emergence of local manufacturing as new source of economic development, examples of significant government-led investments such as Strata in aerospace industry, under Mubadala are successful, while there are also small scale entrepreneurial ventures picking up, such as Zarooq Motors in the automotive industry.\nIn August 2020, the Barakah nuclear power plant, the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world, became operational.\nIn its hard push for economic diversification, the UAE had been increasing its presence in Africa. One of the areas of interest had been clean energy, for which Abu Dhabi’s Masdar built infrastructure, including five wind farms in South Africa, a battery energy storage system in Senegal and solar power facilities in Mauritania. Emirati companies were also investing in fossil fuels, where ADNOC purchased 10% stakes in Mozambique’s Rovuma gas basin. UAE’s e& also established a foothold in around 12 countries across Africa. The Emirati companies also entered the mining sector, where Tahnoun bin Zayed’s International Holding Company expressed investment interests in mines in Kenya, Tanzania and Angola. However, certain investments had also been controversial. Tanzanian authorities were alleged of forcing several Maasai off their land for a safari and hunting project of an Emirati firm. A Dubai-based firm, Blue Carbon signed preliminary agreements in Liberia, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, aiming to generate carbon credits. However, it was accused of attempting to acquire millions of hectares of African forests in a greenwashing attempt. Meanwhile, DP World also invested around $3bn into Africa, and is operating ports from Mozambique in the south to Algeria in the north and Angola on the Atlantic. The Emirates had also been alleged of controversial actions in the war zones in Africa, including in Libya and Sudan.\n\nForeign trade\nConcerning foreign trade, UAE's market is one of the world's most dynamic markets worldwide, placed among the 16 largest exporters and 20 largest importers of commodities. The top five of the Main Partner Countries of the UAE in 2014 are Iran (3.0%), India (2.9%), Saudi Arabia (1.5%), Oman (1.4%) and Switzerland (1.2%). As for the top five of UAE suppliers are China (7.4%), United States (6.4%), India (5.8%), Germany (3.9%) and Japan (3.5%).\n\nIn 2014, the United Arab Emirates managed to export 380.4bn dominated by four products which are Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous... (19.8%) Diamonds, whether or not worked, but not mounted... (3.4%) Gold in UAE(3.2%) incl. gold plated with platinum, unwrought...Articles of jewellery and parts thereof, of...(2.8%). In the same year, the United Arab Emirates imported 298.6 bn dominated by five countries which are China (7.4%), United States (6.4%), India (5.8%), Germany (3.9%), Japan (3.5%).\nOn one hand, the United Arab Emirates managed in 2013 to export 17 bn USD services exported in 2013 dominated by travel (67.13%), transportation (28.13%), Government services (4.74%). On the other hand, it imported 63.9 bn USD of services imported services dominated by transportation (70.68%), travel (27.70%) and government services (1.62%).\nIn September 2021, the UAE announced its plans to aggravate its trade ties with other economies, particularly in Asia and Africa. The country indicated that it was looking for inward foreign investments of around $150 billion in the next nine years, that is, by 2030. The Emirates aimed to be one of the world’s ten biggest investment nations. However, it had to face strong competition from its neighbor, Saudi Arabia, creating a broader gap in the once-assumed alliance between the two countries. The Emirati minister of state for foreign trade said, \"Let the Saudis increase the competition. It means the pie is going to be bigger and having a bigger pie means that the UAE share out of this pie is going to be bigger.\"\nThe EU identified that the Emirati firms were involved in direct trade of weapon components to Russia. The EU sanctions targeted two UAE-based companies, I Jet Global and Success Aviation Services, which were exporting dual-use goods. The EU warned that countries that will be used for Russia’s benefit could face a total ban on imports from the EU military and high tech kit. Besides, a trade war with UAE was expected, if it continued trade with Russia.\nThe United Arab Emirates has introduced significant changes to its regulations concerning the promotion and distribution of foreign investment funds within the country. As part of these changes, encapsulated in several decisions by the Securities and Commodities Authority, is that foreign-owned funds can no longer directly advertise or distribute units publicly in the UAE. Instead, these activities are confined to private distribution aimed at Professional Investors and/or Market Counterparties. This shift signifies a strategic move to tighten the circumstances under which foreign funds can interact with UAE-based investors, particularly Retail Customers and Professional Investors, underscoring a push towards a more regulated investment environment.\nThese regulatory updates have also led to changes in the distribution to Professional Investors, as they are now no longer exempt under the Securities and Commodities Authority Rulebook. Only firms licensed by the SCA to conduct the regulated activity of \"Promotion\" are now permitted to promote such funds, and only on a private placement basis. Furthermore, the promotion or distribution of foreign funds to retail investors is outright prohibited, although reverse solicitation from retail investors is not prohibited in itself. All foreign funds to be distributed in the UAE must be registered with the SCA, barring those that can prove documented reverse solicitation.\nThree Emirati companies were found involved in trade of Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products, and were sanctioned by the US State Department in June 2024. One of the companies was Sea Route Ship Management FZE, which engaged in transport of Iranian petrochemical products as the commercial manager of the vessel ASTRA. The other two firms, Almanac Ship Management LLC and Al Anchor Ship Management FZE were involved in transport of Iranian petroleum products as the commercial manager of the vessels BERENICE PRIDE and PARINE respectively.\nIn July 2024, Samco Petroleum Energy FZE, located in Hamriyah Free Zone, was put up for sale for $17.7 million, with a promise to provide a turnkey oil trading operation. The sale emerged amidst the US sanctions imposed on several oil traders in the UAE's free trade zones, particularly Hamriyah, for continuing business with Iran and Russia. In November 2023, OFAC sanctioned a dozen companies in various UAE’s free zones for facilitating the sale of Iranian products in third countries through Sepehr Energy, which is affiliated with Iran's Armed Forces General Staff. In March 2023, more companies operating in the UAE were sanctioned for exporting petrochemical products from Iran’s Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries to India and Southeast Asia. The Emirati authorities were also pushed to halt Russian imports and exports via Dubai.\nIn September 2024, the UAE and Australia agreed on a free trade deal, which was expected to increase investment in Australia’s significant mineral and clean energy sectors. The deal was to eliminate tariffs on imports of over 99% of Australian goods. However, Australian unions criticized the deal, highlighting the UAE's poor human rights and labor record, including modern slavery under the kafala system. Michele O'Neil also expressed concerns regarding the exploitation of migrant workers in the UAE, calling it one of the most repressive regimes with which Australia has entered into a bilateral trade deal.\n\nHuman Resources and Employment\nMany buildings were built primarily by workers from South Asia and East Asia. This is generally because the current generation of UAE locals prefer governmental jobs and not private sector employment. On 17 June 2008, there were about 7,500 skilled workers employed at the Burj Khalifa construction site. Press reports indicated in 2006 that skilled carpenters at the site earned £4.34 a day, and labourers earned £2.84. According to a BBC investigation and a Human Rights Watch report, the workers were housed in abysmal conditions, and worked long hours for low pay. During construction, only one construction-related death was reported. However, workplace injuries and fatalities in the UAE are \"poorly documented\", according to Human Rights Watch.\nIn March 2006 about 2,500 workers, upset over buses that were delayed for the end of their shifts, protested and triggered a riot, damaging cars, offices, computers and construction equipment. A Dubai Interior Ministry official said the rioters caused almost £500,000 in damage. Most of the workers involved in the riot returned the following day but refused to work. Workers at Dubai airport also protested.\n\nEmiratisation\nEmiratisation is an initiative by the government of the UAE to employ more UAE Nationals in a meaningful and efficient manner in the public and private sectors. While the program has been in place for more than a decade and results can be seen in the public sector, the private sector is still lagging behind with citizens only representing 0.34% of the private sector workforce.\nWhile there is general agreement over the importance of Emiratisation for social, economic and political reasons, there is also some contention as to the impact of localization on organizational efficiency. It is yet unknown whether, and the extent to which, employment of nationals generates returns for MNEs operating in the Middle East. Recent research cautions that localization is not always advantageous for firms operating in the region, and its effectiveness depends on a number of contingent factors.\nIn December 2009 however, a positive impact of UAE citizens in the workplace was identified in a newspaper article citing a yet unpublished study, this advantage being the use of networks within the evolving power structures.\nOverall, however, uptake in the private sector remains low regardless of significant investments in education, which have reached record levels with education now accounting for 22.5% – or $2.6 billion – of the overall budget planned for 2010. Multiple governmental initiatives are actively promoting Emiratisation by training anyone from high school dropouts to graduates in a multitude of skills needed for the – essentially Western – work environment of the UAE, these initiatives include Tawteen UAE, ENDP or the Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council.\nThere are very few anti-discrimination laws in relation to labour issues, with Emiratis – and other GCC nationals – being given preference when it comes to employment. Unions are generally banned and workers with any labour issues are advised to be in touch with the Ministry of Labour, instead of protesting or refusing to work. Migrant employees often complain of poor workplace safety and wages based on nationality, although this is being slowly addressed.\nBeyond directly sponsoring educational initiatives, the Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy is funding major research initiatives into Emiratisation through competitive research grants, allowing universities such as United Arab Emirates University or Dubai School of Government to build and disseminate expertise on the topic.\nAcademics working on various aspects of Emiratisation include Paul Dyer[12] and Natasha Ridge from Dubai School of Government, Ingo Forstenlechner[13] from United Arab Emirates University, Kasim Randaree from the British University of Dubai and Paul Knoglinger from the FHWien.\nIn 2020, economy of the United Arab Emirates became vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, witnessing an economic shutdown. Among the Emirates, Dubai was facing extreme situation, where the expat workers were left jobless. Thousands of the Britons working in the city started selling off their possessions to collect money, as the strict visa regulations forced them to return to the UK.\nAccording to an April 2021 report published by the Democracy Centre for Transparency on the Discrimination against foreigners and expatriates living in the UAE versus Emirati citizens, despite labor reforms in the UAE, foreigners and skilled or unskilled migrant workers face discrimination and racialization from the citizens of the country. Foreigners and expatriates are often subjected to discrimination at work concerning promotions and wages, or gender inequality. The findings of the DCT concern the organization as the UAE’s economy largely relies on foreign workers and thus fulfills a crucial international role. The organization demands that the UAE abide by universal human rights principles.\nThe 31st edition of World Report 2021 released by Human Rights Watch reiterates that labour abuses driven by an exploitative kafala system are persistent in the UAE. During the Covid-19 pandemic, migrant workers faced massive unemployment issues and were also left stranded in dire conditions without legal residencies. Also, many migrants suffered wage theft and were unable to pay rent or buy food.\n\nInvestment\nThe stock market capitalization of listed companies in the UAE was valued at $109.9 billion in October 2012 by Bloomberg.\n\nOutward investment\nA investment institutions were created by the government to promote manage investments made by the UAE abroad:\nAbu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)\n\nAbu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC)\nMubadala Development Company (MDC)\nInternational Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC)\nDubai World\nDubai International Capital (DIC)\n\nInward investment\nThe UAE is in the 17th position in term of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). The report says that the UAE competitiveness stems from \"high quality [...] infrastructure\" and \"highly efficient good markets.\"\n\nCorporate Governance Code\nThe Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) introduced a new corporate governance regulation (the Corporate Governance Code), which applies to all joint stock companies and institutions whose securities are listed on Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) in 2009.\n\nBanking\nOn 19 June 2020, rating agency Moody's changed its outlook regarding eight banks in the United Arab Emirates from stable to negative. The change was due to \"the potential material weakening in their standalone credit profiles\", where the UAE's economy was facing additional challenges amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and low oil prices. The eight banks included Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Emirates NBD, HSBC Bank Middle East, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, National Bank of Fujairah, National Bank of Ras al-Khaimah and Mashreq Bank.\nThe Fitch Ratings in its 22 June 2020 report predicted that the Standalone Credit Profiles of UAE-based banks are to possibly weaken in the following year owing to the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and oil price collapse. As per the Fitch report, despite the implementation of timely measures for supporting the economy, the profitability of banks in the UAE are prone to get affected by a lower non-interest income worsened by a controlled business volume, lower interest rates, and higher loan recovery charges. In addition, the asset quality is expected to weaken, too, following the unbearable impact of the economic downturn that all borrowers may not be able to withstand.\n\nReal estate\nThe development in the real estate and infrastructure sectors during the recent year has contributed in making the country a global touristic destination. The contribution of tourism in the Emirati GDP increased from 3% in the mid-1990s to more than 16.5% by the end of 2010. This trend is supported by the huge public investments in touristic projects (47 Billion Dollars per annum) carried mainly to expend airports, increase their capacity, set up new airports and ports.\nThe real estate sector have a positive impact on development, job opportunities, investments and tourism as estate projects were launched to meet the needs of market and the increasing demand for housing and commercial units especially in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.\nThe UAE has about 37% of the region's petroleum and gas industries, chemical industries, energy and water and garbage projects. The UAE's government have been injecting huge funds in tourism and real estate projects, especially in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Al Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi and Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest tower in the world, world central near \"Jebel Ali\" are a point in case of the milestones that have given the UAE its high profile of a global tourist destination. According to 2013–2014 Global Competitiveness Report, the UAE ranked fourth worldwide in terms of infrastructure quality.\nOn 28 November 2020, the Abu Dhabi Media Office announced that the government of United Arab Emirates, ahead of the 49th National Day, granted house loans, land and homes worth $2 billion (7.2 billion dirhams) to their citizens. The package is said to consist 3,099 plots, 2,000 house loans and 601 homes and exempting some families of the deceased citizens and retirees from the repayment of mortgage. The Director General of the Abu Dhabi Housing Society, Basheer Al Mehairbi said the initiative of providing sustainable housing aimed at ensuring a good standard of living for the citizens of the UAE.\n\nReal-estate projects\nSome of the significant real-estate projects are:\n\nBurj Khalifa\nCreek Tower\nMohammed bin Rashid City\nFalcon City of Wonders\nInternational City\nDubai Marina\nJumeirah Beach Residence\nJumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT)\nBusiness Bay\nDubai Hills\nDubai South\nCity Walk\nAl Furjan\nDubai Sports City\nDubai Motor City\nSaadiyat Island\nThe World, the Palms and the Palm (artificial islands)\nDubai Miracle Garden, the world's largest natural flower garden.\nMasdar City, a zero carbon, zero waste city.\nYas Island, in Abu Dhabi, featuring attractions such as Ferrari World,\nYas Marina\n\nFinancial centers\nAmong the most prominent financial centers in the UAE are:\n\nDubai International Financial Center (DIFC), a Dubai-based federal financial free zone\nAbu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international financial centre located on Al Maryah Island\n\nRegional GDP\nData shown are for the year 2023 in nominal numbers.\n\nSee also\nMinistry of Finance (United Arab Emirates)\nEconomy of Dubai\nNational Bonds Corporation PJSC\nList of Free Trade Zones in UAE\nList of largest companies of the United Arab Emirates\nHuman rights in the United Arab Emirates\nIsrael–United Arab Emirates peace agreement\n\nNotes\nReferences\nExternal links\nUAE Economy on the CIA World Factbook\nUnited Arab Emirates Economic Development at Curlie\nGulf Resources United Arab Emirates\nWorld Bank Summary Trade Statistics United Arab Emirates","title":"Economy_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Josep Guardiola Sala (born 18 January 1971), commonly known as Pep Guardiola (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈpɛb ɡwəɾðiˈɔlə]), is a Catalan professional football manager and former player from Spain, who is currently the manager of Premier League club Manchester City. Guardiola is the only manager to win the continental treble twice, the youngest manager to win the UEFA Champions League, and he holds the record for the most consecutive league games won in La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League. He is considered to be one of the greatest managers of all time. \\nGuardiola was a defensive midfielder who usually played in a deep-lying playmaker's role. He spent the majority of his career with Barcelona, forming a part of Johan Cruyff's Dream Team that won the club's first European Cup in 1992, and four successive Spanish league titles from 1991 to 1994. He captained the team from 1997 until his departure from Barcelona in 2001. Guardiola then had stints with Brescia and Roma in Italy, Al-Ahli in Qatar and Dorados in Mexico. He was capped 47 times for the Spanish national team and appeared at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, as well as at UEFA Euro 2000. He also played friendly matches for Catalonia.\\nAfter retiring as a player, Guardiola briefly managed Barcelona B, with whom he won a Tercera División title. He took charge of the first team in 2008. In his first season, he led Barcelona to the continental treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League, becoming the youngest manager to win the latter competition. He was named the FIFA World Coach of the Year in 2011 after leading the club to another La Liga and Champions League double in the 2010–11 season. Guardiola ended his four-year Barcelona stint in 2012 with 14 honours, a club record.\\nAfter a sabbatical period, Guardiola joined Bayern Munich in 2013 and won the Bundesliga in each of the three seasons, including two domestic doubles. He left the club for Manchester City in 2016 and guided them to the Premier League title in his second season in charge, breaking numerous domestic records as the team became the first to attain 100 points in a single season. He led City to a domestic treble in 2018–19, their first Champions League final in 2020–21, and their first Champions League title as part of another continental treble in 2022–23.\\n\\nClub career\\n1988–2001: Barcelona\\nBorn in Santpedor, Barcelona, Catalonia, Guardiola joined La Masia at age 13 from Gimnàstic de Manresa and rose through the ranks of Barcelona's youth academy for six years, making his debut in 1990 against Cádiz. As Phil Ball writes in Morbo, In his first week at the club, Johan Cruyff turned up unannounced at the Mini Estadi, a venue just down the road from Camp Nou used by Barcelona B. Just before half-time he wandered into the dug-out and asked Charly Rexach, the youth team manager at the time, the name of the young lad playing on the right side of midfield. \\\"Guardiola – good lad,\\\" came the reply. Cruyff ignored the comment and told Rexach to move him into the middle for the second half, to play as pivot. It was a difficult position to adapt to and one not used by many teams in Spain at the time. Guardiola adjusted immediately, as Cruyff had suspected he would, and when he moved to the first-team in 1990, he became the pivot of the Dream Team.\\n\\nGuardiola became a first-team regular in the 1991–92 season, and at only 20 years old was a key component of a side that won La Liga and the European Cup. The Italian magazine Guerin Sportivo heralded Guardiola as the finest player in the world under the age of 21. Cruyff's \\\"Dream Team\\\" went on to retain La Liga title in the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons. The side again reached the 1994 UEFA Champions League final, but were beaten 4–0 by Fabio Capello's AC Milan side in Athens. Cruyff left in 1996, with Barcelona finishing fourth in the 1994–95 season and third in the 1995–96 season, but Guardiola retained his position at the centre of Barcelona's midfield.\\nIn the 1996–97 season, Barcelona, this time led by Bobby Robson, won three cups: the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de España, and the European Cup Winners' Cup. In 1997, Guardiola was named as Barcelona captain under new manager Louis van Gaal, but a calf muscle injury ruled Guardiola out of most of the 1997–98 season, in which Barcelona won a league and cup double. At the end of the season, Barcelona rejected offers from Roma and Parma (of around 300 million pesetas) for Guardiola. After prolonged and complicated contract talks, he signed a new contract with Barcelona that extended his stay until 2001.\\nGuardiola returned to action the following season and Barcelona once again won La Liga. On 8 June 1998, Guardiola underwent surgery to try to resolve his lingering calf injury, which had caused him to miss the 1998 FIFA World Cup for Spain. A largely disappointing 1999–2000 season again ended in surgery, with Guardiola missing the last three months of the season with a serious ankle injury. \\nOn 11 April 2001, Barcelona's captain announced his intention to leave the club after 17 years of service. He stated that it was a personal decision and, in part, a response to what he perceived as football heading in a new, more physical, direction. On 24 June 2001, Guardiola played his last match with Barcelona in the final game of the season against Celta Vigo. Guardiola played 479 games in 12 seasons for the first team, winning 16 trophies. At the press conference after the Celta game, he said: \\\"It's been a long journey. I'm happy, proud, happy with the way people treated me and I have made many friends. I cannot ask for more. I have had many years in the elite. I did not come to make history but to make my own history.\\\" A number of future Barcelona midfielders, including Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Cesc Fàbregas, have hailed Guardiola as their role model and hero.\\n\\n2001–2006: Later career\\nAfter leaving Barcelona in 2001 at age 30, Guardiola joined Serie A side Brescia as Andrea Pirlo's replacement in the deep-lying playmaker role, where he played alongside Roberto Baggio under manager Carlo Mazzone. Following his stint at Brescia, Guardiola transferred to Roma. His time in Italy, however, was unsuccessful and included a four-month ban for testing positive for nandrolone (he was cleared of all charges in 2009).\\nAfter his career with Brescia and Roma, in 2003, Guardiola played in Qatar with Al-Ahli from Doha in the Qatar Stars League. In 2005–06, he turned down offers from a number of European clubs, as he felt his playing career was coming to a close.\\nIn 2006, Juan Manuel Lillo was appointed the manager of Mexican club Dorados. Lillo recruited Guardiola to play for the club while he was in managing school in Axocopán, Atlixco, Puebla. Guardiola played with Dorados for six months, but was limited to ten appearances due to injuries, before retiring. He scored one goal for the club.\\n\\nInternational career\\nSpain\\nOn 14 October 1992, Guardiola debuted for the Spain national football team in a friendly match against Northern Ireland. The same year, he served as Spain when they won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games. That same year he won the Bravo Award, which recognises the world's best player under the age of 21.\\nGuardiola was a member of the Spanish team during the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals, losing 2–1 to Italy. Due to disagreements, he fell out of favour with Spain coach Javier Clemente and missed out on UEFA Euro 1996. Guardiola suffered a career-threatening injury in 1998 which kept him out of the year's World Cup, but later played at Euro 2000, where Spain reached another quarter-final, this time losing to France by the same margin of 2–1. He continued to play in the Spanish midfield until his final appearance on 14 November 2001, in a 1–0 victory in a friendly match against Mexico. Guardiola scored his last international goal against Sweden in a 1–1 friendly draw during his 45th appearance.\\n\\nCatalonia\\nGuardiola has played for and advocated on behalf of the Catalonia football team. Between 1995 and 2005, he played seven friendly matches for Catalonia.\\n\\nPlayer profile\\nStyle of play\\nGuardiola was a highly creative, hard-working, nimble, and elegant player, with good anticipation, tactical awareness, and an ability to read the game; throughout his career, he was usually deployed as either a central or defensive midfielder in front of his team's back-line, although he was also capable of playing in more attacking midfield roles. Although he was competent defensively and able to press opponents to break up play and win the ball effectively through his team-work and defensive positioning, he also had a tendency to give away many fouls; as such, and also in part due to his slender physical build, he usually functioned as a deep-lying playmaker in front of the defence, where he excelled courtesy of his technical ability and intelligent, efficient, precise passing game. He would also occasionally drop deeper to act as an additional centre-back in Cruyff's fluid 3–4–3 formation at Barcelona. Despite his lack of notable pace, dribbling ability, aerial prowess, or strong physical or athletic attributes, Guardiola was highly regarded throughout his career for his vision, close control, passing range, positional sense, and calm composure on the ball, as well as his speed of thought, which enabled him to retain possession under pressure and either set the tempo of his team's play in midfield with quick and intricate short first-time exchanges, or switch the play or create chances with longer passes. His role has also been likened to that of a metodista (\\\"centre-half\\\", in Italian football jargon), due to his ability to dictate play in midfield as well as assist his team defensively.\\nGuardiola was capable of being an offensive threat, due to his ability to make attacking runs or strike accurately from distance; he was also effective at creating chances or shooting on goal from set-pieces. Having served as captain of both Barcelona and the Spanish national side, he also stood out for his leadership throughout his career. Despite his playing ability, he was also known to be injury prone throughout his career.\\n\\nReception\\nGuardiola's playing style, which relied on creativity, technique and ball movement, rather than physicality and pace, inspired several future diminutive Spanish playmaking midfielders, such as Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, and Cesc Fàbregas, with the latter describing him as his \\\"idol\\\". Pirlo instead described Guardiola as the \\\"model\\\" for the position which he himself occupied deep in midfield. Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta once described Guardiola as \\\"the best central midfielder in our history.\\\" Johan Cruyff considered him to be one of the best midfielders of his generation, a view echoed by Richard Jolly of FourFourTwo and Marco Frattino, the latter of whom stated in 2018: \\\"Twenty years ago, [...] Pep Guardiola was one of the best midfielders in the world.\\\" In 2001, his agent Josè Maria Orobitg described him as the best in the world at dictating the tempo and rhythm of his team's play.\\nMiguel Val of Marca considered Guardiola to be one of the greatest Spanish players of all time, describing him as the \\\"brains of Barcelona's Dream Team under Johan Cruyff\\\" in 2020. Federico Aquè described him as one of the best deep-lying playmakers in European football in his prime, while Lee Bushe of 90min.com even included him in his list of \\\"The Best Deep-Lying Playmakers of All Time\\\" in 2020.\\n\\nManagerial career\\nBarcelona\\nB team\\nGuardiola was appointed manager of Barcelona B on 21 June 2007 with Tito Vilanova as his assistant. Under his guidance, the team subsequently won their Tercera División group and qualified for the 2008 Segunda División B playoffs, which the team won, thereby achieving promotion. Barcelona President Joan Laporta announced in May 2008 that Guardiola would be appointed manager of the senior Barcelona squad to replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the 2007–08 season.\\n\\n2008–09: First season with first team and historic treble\\nUpon being appointed, Guardiola made headlines by announcing that stars such as Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto'o were not part of his plans for the coming season, though Eto'o was in the end allowed to remain.\\nIn association with Barcelona Director of Sport Txiki Begiristain, several new signings were made by Guardiola – Dani Alves and Seydou Keita arrived from Sevilla; Martín Cáceres from Villarreal by way of Recreativo; Gerard Piqué returned from Manchester United; and Alexander Hleb was signed from Arsenal. Along with the new signings, Guardiola promoted canteranos Sergio Busquets, Pedro and Jeffrén to the first-team squad. In interviews with the press, Guardiola stressed a harder work ethic than before, but also a more personal approach during training and a closer relationship with his players.\\nGuardiola's first competitive game as manager was in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, in which Barcelona comfortably beat Polish club Wisła Kraków 4–0 in the first leg at home. They then lost 1–0 in the second leg, but progressed with a 4–1 aggregate victory. Promoted Numancia also defeated Barcelona in the opening matchday of the 2008–09 La Liga, but the team then went on an undefeated streak for over 20 matches to move to the top of the league. Barcelona maintained their spot atop La Liga's table, securing their first league title since 2006 when rivals Real Madrid lost at Villarreal on 16 May 2009. The most important match, however, was on 2 May when they defeated Real Madrid 6–2 at the Santiago Bernabéu. The league title was the second piece of silverware in Guardiola's first season at the club. Earlier, on 13 May, Barcelona won the 2008–09 Copa del Rey, beating Athletic Bilbao 4–1 in the 2009 Copa del Rey final.\\nIn the final of the Champions League, Barcelona beat Manchester United 2–0. In doing so, they became the first Spanish club to win the domestic cup, the league, and the European club titles (the treble) in the same season. Guardiola became the youngest man to manage a Champions League winning team, at age 37. The treble-winning season is regarded as one of the club's finest in its history.\\n\\n2009–10: Six trophies in a calendar year\\nGuardiola's second season as manager began with defeats of Athletic Bilbao in the Supercopa de España and Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Super Cup. On 25 September 2009, Barcelona gave him his 50th professional victory, away against Málaga and on 19 December, they were crowned FIFA Club World Cup champions for the first time in their history.\\nGuardiola finished the calendar year with a record six trophies, the Spanish League, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup and Club World Cup, becoming the first manager in history to do so. In January 2010, he became Barcelona's longest serving Spanish manager, overtaking the record previously held by Josep Samitier. He agreed to a one-year contract extension to keep him with Barcelona until the end of the 2010–11 season.\\nIn February 2010, Guardiola managed his 100th match for Barcelona's first team. His record stood at 71 wins, 19 draws and 10 losses, with 242 goals for and 76 against. On 10 April 2010, he became the first manager in Barcelona's history to beat Real Madrid four times in a row in El Clásico. Barcelona reached the semi-finals of the 2009–10 Champions League, but lost 3–2 on aggregate to José Mourinho's Inter Milan. Despite this, they managed to win their 20th La Liga title with 99 points by beating Real Valladolid 4–0 at home. At the time, this was the highest points total ever gained amongst any of Europe's major leagues. The La Liga title was Guardiola's seventh trophy as manager of the club, tying Ferdinand Daučík for second behind Johan Cruyff and his 11 trophies.\\n\\n2010–11: Second Champions League title\\nOn 21 August, Barcelona beat Sevilla 5–3 on aggregate to win the 2010 Supercopa de España, his second in a row. On 29 November 2010, Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5–0, giving Guardiola five straight wins in El Clásico. On 8 February 2011, Guardiola accepted the club's offer for a one-year deal extension, signing a contract until June 2012.\\nOn 11 May 2011, Barcelona won the La Liga title and the club's third in a row after a 1–1 draw with Levante. On 28 May, Barcelona beat Manchester United 3–1 at Wembley in the 2011 Champions League final.\\n\\n2011–12: Final season\\nThe season started with a 5–4 aggregate win over Real Madrid for the Supercopa de España.\\nBarcelona won their second trophy of the season on 26 August, beating Porto 2–0 in the 2011 UEFA Super Cup. With the trophy won against Porto, he became all-time record holder of most titles won as a manager at Barcelona, with 12 trophies in only three years. November of the same year saw Guardiola manager his 200th match for Barcelona's first team. His record stood at 144 wins, 39 draws and 17 losses with 500 goals for and 143 against.\\nBarcelona ended the 2011 calendar year winning the Club World Cup, beating Brazilian club Santos 4–0 in the final, the widest margin in an Intercontinental Cup/Club World Cup final since changing to a single match format. This was Guardiola's 13th title of only 16 tournaments played. On 9 January 2012, he was named FIFA World Coach of the Year. On his 41st birthday, he led his side to a 2–1 victory over arch-rivals Real Madrid in El Clásico, ensuring that he remained unbeaten against Real Madrid in regular time as a manager. On 21 April, Guardiola conceded the league title to leaders Real Madrid after they beat Barcelona 2–1 and extended their lead in the table to seven points with four matches remaining. \\nOn 24 April, a 2–2 draw at home against Chelsea in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final knocked Barcelona out of the competition on a 2–3 aggregate score. That effectively left the team with only the Copa del Rey to play for. Guardiola had faced criticism over his recent tactics and squad selections. On 27 April 2012, he announced he would step down as Barcelona's manager at the end of the 2011–12 season. He had been on a rolling contract that was renewed annually during his tenure as manager. Citing tiredness as the main reason for his decision, he also commented that four years at a club like Barcelona felt like an eternity.\\nGuardiola continued to lead Barcelona to wins in the remaining La Liga games of the season, followed by a 3–0 win in the Copa del Rey final. His record of 14 trophies in four seasons has made him the most successful manager in Barcelona's history. Barcelona announced that he would be succeeded by Tito Vilanova, who would begin leading the first team at the start of the 2012–13 season.\\n\\nSabbatical\\nAfter his time at Barcelona came to an end, Guardiola took a year's sabbatical in New York City. On 7 January 2013, he came in third place for the 2012 FIFA World Coach of the Year, behind the winner Vicente del Bosque and runner-up José Mourinho. While at a news conference at the 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or gala in Zürich, Guardiola said: \\\"I have taken a decision to return to coaching but beyond that no decision has been taken. I don't have a team to go to but I would like to go back to coaching.\\\"\\n\\nBayern Munich\\n2013–2015: Consecutive Bundesliga titles\\nOn 16 January 2013, it was announced that Guardiola would take over as manager of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich after the 2012–13 season, replacing Jupp Heynckes for the following season. He addressed his first press conference at Bayern, on 24 June 2013, in German, and had his first training session two days later. His first official match was the German Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund, with Bayern losing 4–2. His first trophy with Bayern was the 2013 UEFA Super Cup, defeating longtime adversary José Mourinho, who had just returned to manage at Chelsea. Bayern beat ten-man Chelsea in a shoot-out after Manuel Neuer saved Romelu Lukaku's kick.\\nIn December 2013, Guardiola won his third Club World Cup after beating Raja Casablanca in Morocco. On 25 March 2014, he led Bayern to their 23rd Bundesliga title by beating Hertha Berlin 3–1 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. With seven matches remaining in the season, it was the earliest the championship had been won in Bundesliga history, breaking the record Heynckes' Bayern had set in the previous season. Guardiola broke Karl-Heinz Feldkamp's record for the longest winning streak to start his tenure at a Bundesliga club. The streak ended at 28 when Augsburg defeated Bayern 1–0 on matchday 29. The streak also ended Bayern's 53–match undefeated streak.\\nBayern were drawn against Real Madrid in the semi–finals of Champions League. Bayern lost the first leg 1–0 and the second leg 4–0. The first leg was also Guardiola's first defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu. He finished the 2013–14 season by winning the DFB-Pokal 2–0 in extra–time.\\n\\nIn the 2014-15 season, Bayern lost the German Super Cup 2–0 to Borussia Dortmund. On 11 March 2015, Bayern defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 7–0, tying their largest win in Champions League history. In Guardiola's 100th match as manager, Bayern defeated Porto 6–1. With the win, Bayern reached their fourth-straight Champions League semi-final. On 28 April 2015, Bayern were knocked out of the German Cup in a penalty shoot-out. Bayern had missed all four of their shots. In his first competitive match against Barcelona, Bayern lost 3–0. Bayern failed to get a shot on target in the match. For the first time in his career, he lost four in a row (including the shoot-out loss).\\n\\n2015–16: Second domestic double and final season\\nThe 2015–16 season started on 1 August 2015 when Bayern lost in a shoot-out to Wolfsburg in the German Super Cup. In the league, Bayern won their first ten matches. The first time they dropped points in the league was on 30 October 2015 in a 0–0 scoreline against Eintracht Frankfurt and their first loss in the league was on 5 December 2015 in a 3–1 scoreline to Borussia Mönchengladbach. In the Champions League group stage, Bayern won Group F, winning five out of the six matches. Bayern's only loss in the Champions League group stage was against Arsenal on 20 October. This was Bayern's first loss in all competitions during the 2015–16 season.\\nOn 20 December, Bayern confirmed that Guardiola was leaving the club after his contract expired at the end of the season, with Carlo Ancelotti his replacement for the 2016–17 season.\\nOn 3 May 2016, Guardiola's Bayern Munich lost to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals stage, thereby ending his final chance of winning a Champions League title with the Bavarian club. Guardiola's final match was on 21 May 2016, with Bayern defeating Borussia Dortmund in a shootout. He finished with a record of 82 wins, eleven draws and nine losses in the Bundesliga; a record of 14 wins, three draws and no losses in the DFB-Pokal; a record of 23 wins, five draws and eight losses in the UEFA Champions League. He also went a combined two wins, two draws, and two losses in the FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and the German Super Cup. In non–official competitions, he went a combined six wins, one draw, and one loss.\\n\\nManchester City\\n2016–17: Adjustment to England and first season\\nOn 1 February 2016, Manchester City signed Guardiola to a three-year contract for the start of the 2016–17 season. Guardiola brought in several significant players in the summer, including midfielders İlkay Gündoğan from Borussia Dortmund and Nolito from Celta Vigo, winger Leroy Sané from Schalke 04 and defender John Stones from Everton. He also controversially replaced long-serving City starting goalkeeper Joe Hart with Claudio Bravo from his former club Barcelona; Hart would never make another appearance for the club.\\nOn 13 August 2016, Guardiola earned victory in his first match of the Premier League season, as City defeated Sunderland 2–1. On 11 September, Guardiola won his first Manchester derby as a manager in a 2–1 City victory at Old Trafford; this was also his sixth win against his \\\"rival\\\" manager José Mourinho.\\nCity were leaders going into the international break, but their form declined thereafter. Manchester City lost to Everton 0–4 on 15 January 2017; this was Guardiola's biggest-ever managerial defeat in a domestic competition. In Europe, City were eliminated in the Champions League round of 16 by Monaco on away goals after a 6–6 aggregate draw. The second leg of the tie was Guardiola's 100th game as a manager in European competition, and he arrived at that mark with the best record of any manager, having earned 61 wins and 23 draws (one draw better than the previous record holder, Guardiola's former manager at Barcelona, Louis van Gaal). Following a loss to Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-finals, Guardiola finished the season without a trophy for the first time in his managerial career.\\n\\n2017–18: \\\"Centurions\\\" and first Premier League title\\nGuardiola identified the defensive areas which required improvement for Manchester City in the summer transfer window to challenge for the league title, particularly in the goalkeeper and full-back positions. Due to Bravo's struggles the previous season, Ederson was brought in as the new first-choice goalkeeper. Wing-backs Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker were also signed, while dispensing of all the previous senior full-backs at the club in Aleksandar Kolarov, Gaël Clichy, Bacary Sagna and Pablo Zabaleta. Additionally, Bernardo Silva and Danilo were also acquired from Monaco and Real Madrid, respectively.\\nOn 25 February 2018, City won the 2017–18 EFL Cup after beating Arsenal 3–0 in the final, which was Guardiola's first trophy with the club. On 15 April, City were confirmed as 2017–18 Premier League champions following Manchester United's 1–0 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion. After finishing the league season with a record-breaking 100 points, Guardiola signed a new contract with City until 2021.\\n\\n2018–2020: Domestic treble and Champions League disappointment\\nDuring Guardiola's third season as manager, Manchester City signed Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City for a fee of £60 million. On 5 August 2018, City kicked off the season with a 2–0 victory over FA Cup holders Chelsea in the 2018 FA Community Shield.\\nOn 24 February 2019, Guardiola's side played Chelsea in the EFL Cup final held at Wembley. The match ended 0–0 after extra time, and Manchester City won 4–3 on penalties to retain the trophy for the second year in a row. On 9 April, City faced Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-finals, held at Tottenham's new stadium. The game ended in a 0–1 defeat for City. The second leg was held at the Etihad Stadium on 17 April, where Guardiola's side beat Tottenham 4–3, with City's last-minute fifth goal having been controversially disallowed. Due to the aggregate score being a 4–4 draw, Tottenham went through to the semi-finals on away goals. On 12 May, Guardiola secured a second consecutive Premier League title. His side finished on 98 points, one point above Liverpool, after a 4–1 victory at Brighton & Hove Albion in the final match of the season. On 18 May, City beat Watford 6–0 in the final of the FA Cup, becoming the first ever men's team in England to win a domestic treble.\\nGuardiola made two major acquisitions during the summer transfer window of 2019 in defender João Cancelo from Juventus for £27.4m plus Danilo and midfielder Rodri from Atlético Madrid for a fee of £62.8 million, a club record. These signings meant that the value of the City squad had exceeded €1 billion, becoming the first football club in the world to assemble a squad with this value. On 4 August 2019, City began the season with a penalty shoot-out victory against Liverpool in the Community Shield, claiming the trophy for the second straight year. During the match, Guardiola also became the first Premier League manager to receive a yellow card from the referee. On 1 March, Manchester City beat Aston Villa 2–1 in the 2020 EFL Cup final, winning the competition for a third successive season. City finished second in the 2019–20 Premier League after a spring hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After defeating Real Madrid in the 2019–20 Champions League round of 16, Guardiola's side faced Lyon in the single-elimination quarter-finals on 15 August 2020. City lost the match 1–3 and was eliminated at the quarter-final stage for the third season in a row.\\n\\n2020–present: Premier League four-peat, Champions League win and continental treble\\nThe 2020–21 season saw City's defence greatly improve compared to the last campaign, conceding just one goal in twelve matches played. On 19 November 2020, Guardiola signed a new two-year contract with Manchester City until summer 2023. He won his 500th game as manager after City beat Sheffield United 1–0 at home in the Premier League on 31 January 2021; it was the ninth game City had won in January, becoming the team with the most wins in a single month in the top four tiers of English football since the Football League began in 1888. Following a 3–1 victory over Swansea City in the FA Cup on 10 February, Guardiola's side broke the record for the longest winning run in English top-flight football history, with fifteen straight victories for City in all competitions.\\nGuardiola won his third Premier League title on 11 May after Manchester United's home defeat to Leicester City, two weeks after beating Tottenham Hotspur 1–0 in the 2021 EFL Cup final to claim that trophy for the fourth successive time. On 29 May, Manchester City played in the Champions League final for the first time in their history, losing to Chelsea 0–1. Following the match, Guardiola was criticised for his team selection and not starting a defensive midfielder. Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel also admitted that he was surprised not to see midfielder Fernandinho in the City starting line-up.\\n\\nDuring the summer transfer window of 2021, Manchester City broke the British transfer record by signing Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish for £100m. On 25 September, he surpassed Les McDowall as the manager with the most wins in Manchester City history following their 1–0 away victory over Chelsea in the Premier League. On 22 May 2022, Manchester City won the Premier League with a 3–2 victory over Aston Villa. This was Guardiola's fourth title at the club, placing him second on the list of managers with the most Premier League titles.\\nDuring the 2022–23 season, Manchester City won their third consecutive Premier League title, their fifth under Guardiola. On 23 November 2022, Guardiola signed a new two-year contract with Manchester City until summer 2025. On 3 June 2023, the club won their second FA Cup under Guardiola after a 2–1 victory over rivals Manchester United in the final to achieve another domestic double. On 10 June 2023, he led the club to their first Champions League title, and his personal third, after a 1–0 win against Inter Milan in the final, which completed their continental treble.\\nOn 16 August 2023, Guardiola won a record-equaling fourth UEFA Super Cup title, also becoming the first-ever manager to win the trophy with three different clubs, as the Mancunian side defeated Sevilla 5–4 on penalties following a 1–1 draw. On 22 December, Guardiola guided City to their first FIFA Club World Cup trophy, as they beat Fluminense 4–0 in the final, and became the first English club to win five titles in a calendar year. With this achievement, Guardiola became the first manager in history to win four FIFA Club World Cup titles. Following the match, Guardiola stated that he \\\"had the feeling [...] would close the chapter, we won all the titles, there's nothing else to win. I had a feeling the job was done, it was over\\\".\\nMan City's Champions League defence was ended in the quarter finals following a 4–3 loss on penalties after a 4—4 aggregate draw to Real Madrid who Man City beat 5–1 in the semi finals of the previous Champions League which ended Man City's hope of consecutive continental trebles.\\nOn 19 May 2024, Man City beat West Ham 3-1 on the final day of the season to win their fourth straight Premier league title after a season long battle against Arsenal and Liverpool, becoming the first English club to win four top flight league titles in a row. A week later, Man City lost the FA Cup Final to Manchester United 2–1 which ended their chance of a consecutive domestic double.\\n\\nManager profile\\nTactics\\nAlthough much emphasis is placed on retaining possession of the ball and dictating play, with the intent to have the opposing side's defence chase the ball for extended periods of play, Guardiola's teams are recognised for pressing off the ball. Players press and harry the opposition collectively in an attempt to win back possession of the ball. This collective press is only conducted in the starting third of the opposition's pitch where less space exists and defenders and/or the goalkeeper may not be as good at dribbling or passing the ball as a midfielder.\\nAs high pressing became prominent, Guardiola sought to counteract it with goalkeepers and defenders comfortable with controlling the ball and both long and short ball distribution, with goalkeepers such as Victor Valdés and Manuel Neuer also acting as sweeper-keepers at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, rushing off their line to prevent counter-attacks, and playing out from the back. At Manchester City, Ederson routinely played accurate long balls up-field when City were pressed high, at times taking the entire opposition out-of-play and creating 1-on-1 situations for City forwards. To avoid getting caught by long-range passing from City's defensive-third, the opposition defence would cautiously drop deep despite the forward line's high-press, hence creating space in the middle of the pitch.\\nGuardiola has stated he tries to constantly evolve his tactics. After learning the style analogous with Total Football under Johan Cruyff, Guardiola was particularly influenced by his time as a player in Mexico under his friend and manager at Dorados, Juan Manuel Lillo. Guardiola also sought help of Marcelo Bielsa to learn from him. His editorials for El Pais during the 2006 World Cup in praise of Luis Aragonés' Spanish side and Ricardo La Volpe's Mexican side reveal the extent of his reverence for possession-based, attacking football, with defenders along with the goal-keeper playing it out from the back, which Guardiola later cited as a major inspiration on multiple occasions. In one of his editorials, he called Zinedine Zidane France's best defender, pointing out how recycling possession in itself is a key defensive tactic, something that Guardiola teams would later become synonymous with. Philipp Lahm, who played for Guardiola at Bayern Munich, pointed out that Guardiola's tactics were majorly \\\"an offensive Sacchi\\\", modelled after the Arrigo Sacchi's Milan team of the late 1980s, emphasising fluid movement, quick recoveries, and keeping possession of the ball, which was in sharp contrast to the strictly-defensive Catenaccio–inspired style employed effectively by José Mourinho and later by Diego Simeone; and that Guardiola has evolved his approach that seemingly was now a mix of both those styles. \\nTactics employed by Guardiola have been likened to Gegenpressing invented by Ralf Rangnick and used to great effect by Jürgen Klopp. His tactics have influenced approaches of managers such as Maurizio Sarri, Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, and Luis Enrique; as well as those of other sports such as rugby. Guardiola admitted that he had to adapt his style to German and English leagues, but his \\\"football education comes from [Catalunya]\\\" which is possession-based, and distinct from Gegenpressing. While several pundits have often linked Guardiola's attacking–minded tactics at Barcelona – centred around quick passing, ball possession, movement, a high defensive line, and heavy pressing – to the tiki-taka style employed by the Spanish national side under Aragonés at Euro 2008, Guardiola himself has refuted this claim, and has even been critical of the system, commenting in 2014: \\\"I loathe all that passing for the sake of it, all that tiki-taka. It's so much rubbish and has no purpose. You have to pass the ball with a clear intention, with the aim of making it into the opposition's goal. It's not about passing for the sake of it.\\\"\\nGuardiola has been praised by pundits for his flexibility as a coach, and has used several formations throughout his career. At Barcelona, he often used a 4–3–3 formation with inverted wingers and attacking full-backs who would overlap and provide width to the team, as well as a 3–4–3 formation on occasion; he also later used these formations at Bayern Munich and Manchester City. In the 3–4–3 formation, defensive midfielders Sergio Busquets at Barcelona and Xabi Alonso at Bayern Münich would occasionally drop back into the back-line to act as an additional defender; this role was similar to the one Guardiola himself played under Cruyff at Barcelona. At Bayern Münich, he also used full-backs Phillip Lahm and Joshua Kimmich in midfield. Guardiola also began to use a false 9 during his time at Barcelona, fielding Lionel Messi in the centre of the team's attacking line, who would drop deep into midfield to give the team a numerical advantage in the middle of the pitch. At Manchester City, after experimenting with several formations, he used a modern version of the 3–2–2–3 formation during the 2022–23 treble–winning season, which was likened to the past WM formation. He deployed centre-back John Stones in a hybrid defensive and creative role in midfield, which Jonathan Wilson of The Guardian likened to both the libero and wing-half roles in 2023. Guardiola also used inverted full-backs who moved inside to occupy central areas of the pitch, while he also played in a more physical and direct style than in previous seasons, utilising Erling Haaland as a traditional striker.\\n\\nReception\\nConsidered by pundits to be one of the greatest managers of all time, Guardiola is often linked with the successes of the Spanish and German national teams in 2010s, both of whom had many first-team players that were coached by him.\\nJürgen Klopp credits Guardiola with building the toughest teams he has ever faced, stating: \\\"I could say City are the toughest opponent I've ever had but it wasn't much easier when I faced Pep's Bayern [..] We push each other to insane levels.\\\"\\nIn 2017, Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini was critical of Guardiola's philosophy, however, and expressed his belief that the popularisation of possession-based playing styles, associated with Barcelona under Guardiola, and the increasing focus on developing defenders who are comfortable with the ball at their feet from a young age in Italy, had in fact had a negative impact on their overall defensive quality. He commented: \\\"Guardiolismo [a term he coined for \\\"the Guardiola way\\\"] has ruined a generation of Italian defenders a bit – now everyone is looking to push up, defenders know how to set the tone of play and they can spread the ball, but they don't know how to mark.\\\"\\nSeveral of Guardiola's former players, teammates, and coaching staff members, such as Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Luis Enrique, Erik ten Hag, and Mikel Arteta, have pursued coaching careers, and have cited Guardiola as an inspiration.\\n\\nPersonal life\\nGuardiola was born to Dolors and Valentí. He has two older sisters and a younger brother, Pere Guardiola, a football agent. He is an atheist. Guardiola met his wife Cristina Serra when he was 18. They married on 29 May 2014. They have three children named Maria, Màrius and Valentina. \\nFollowing his tenure as Barcelona's manager, he stated that he would move to the United States to live in Manhattan, New York, for a year, until he had decided on his future. To prepare for his position as the manager of Bayern Munich, Guardiola studied German for four to five hours each day.\\nGuardiola supports the political independence of Catalonia. In 2015, he confirmed that he would participate in the pro-independence coalition, Junts pel Sí, in that year's regional parliamentary election.\\nOn 24 May 2023, Guardiola made a cameo appearance in Ted Lasso, in which Ted Lasso's (played by Jason Sudeikis) team, AFC Richmond, play against Manchester City and win. Guardiola gives Lasso a handshake following City's defeat and gives Lasso a word of advice, to which Lasso responds positively. Guardiola reportedly is a fan of the show and enjoys watching it with his wife and daughter.\\nGuardiola was one of the 13 sports personalities named in the Pandora Papers published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). He had an account open in the principality of Andorra until 2012, exploiting the tax amnesty that Mariano Rajoy's conservative government had enacted in Spain to regularise his fiscal situation. Until that point, he had not declared the funds held in that account to the Spanish Tax Agency.\\n\\nCareer statistics\\nClub\\nInternational\\nScores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Guardiola goal\\n\\nManagerial\\nAs of match played 5 October 2024\\n\\nHonours\\nPlayer\\nBarcelona B\\n\\nSegunda División B: 1990–91\\nBarcelona\\n\\nLa Liga: 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1997–98, 1998–99\\nCopa del Rey: 1996–97, 1997–98\\nSupercopa de España: 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996\\nEuropean Cup: 1991–92\\nUEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1996–97\\nEuropean Super Cup: 1992\\nSpain U23\\n\\nOlympic gold medal: 1992\\nIndividual\\n\\nBravo Award: 1992\\nOlympics – Spain Best Player: 1992\\nUEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 2000\\n\\nManager\\nBarcelona B\\n\\nTercera División: 2007–08\\nBarcelona\\n\\nLa Liga: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11\\nCopa del Rey: 2008–09, 2011–12\\nSupercopa de España: 2009, 2010, 2011\\nUEFA Champions League: 2008–09, 2010–11\\nUEFA Super Cup: 2009, 2011\\nFIFA Club World Cup: 2009, 2011\\nBayern Munich\\n\\nBundesliga: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16\\nDFB-Pokal: 2013–14, 2015–16\\nUEFA Super Cup: 2013\\nFIFA Club World Cup: 2013\\nManchester City\\n\\nPremier League: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24\\nFA Cup: 2018–19, 2022–23\\nEFL Cup: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21\\nFA Community Shield: 2018, 2019, 2024\\nUEFA Champions League: 2022–23\\nUEFA Super Cup: 2023\\nFIFA Club World Cup: 2023\\nIndividual\\n\\nDon Balón Award: 2009, 2010\\nMiguel Muñoz Trophy: 2008–09, 2009–10\\nOnze d'Or Coach of the Year: 2009, 2011, 2012\\nWorld Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year: 2009, 2011\\nIFFHS World's Best Club Coach: 2009, 2011, 2023\\nUEFA Team of the Year Best Coach: 2008–09, 2010–11\\nLa Liga Coach of the Year: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012\\nFIFA World Coach of the Year: 2011\\nGlobe Soccer Awards Coach Career Award: 2013\\nGlobe Soccer Awards Coach of the Century: 2020\\nPremier League Manager of the Month: February 2017, September 2017, October 2017, November 2017, December 2017, February 2019, April 2019, January 2021, February 2021, November 2021, December 2021\\nPremier League Manager of the Season: 2017–18, 2018–19, 2020–21, 2022–23, 2023–24\\nLMA Manager of the Year: 2017–18, 2020–21, 2022–23\\nLMA Premier League Manager of the Year: 2017–18, 2020–21, 2022–23, 2023–24\\nLeague Managers Association (LMA) Hall of Fame\\nUEFA Men's Coach of the Year: 2022–23\\nThe Best FIFA Football Coach: 2022-23\\n\\nDecorations\\nGold Medal Royal Order of Sports Merit: 2010\\nCatalan of the Year Award: 2009\\n\\nSee also\\nList of La Liga winning managers\\nList of Bundesliga winning managers\\nList of English football championship-winning managers\\nList of FA Cup winning managers\\nList of European Cup and UEFA Champions League winning managers\\nList of UEFA Super Cup winning managers\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nCitations\\nBibliography\\nExternal links\\n\\nPep Guardiola on Twitter\\nJosep Guardiola manager profile at BDFutbol\\nJosep Guardiola – UEFA coaching record (archived) \\nJosep Guardiola – UEFA competition record (archived) \\nPep Guardiola – FIFA competition record (archived) \\nPep Guardiola at National-Football-Teams.com \\nPep Guardiola at Olympedia \\nJosep Guardiola Sala at Olympics.com\",\n \"title\": \"Pep_Guardiola\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"Manchester City Football Club, commonly referred to as Manchester City, Man City or simply City, is a professional football club based in Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894. The club's home ground is the City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester, to which they moved in 2003, having played at Maine Road since 1923. Manchester City adopted their sky blue home shirts in 1894, the first season with the current name. Over the course of its history, the club has won 10 league titles, seven FA Cups, eight League Cups, seven FA Community Shields, one UEFA Champions League, one European Cup Winners' Cup, one UEFA Super Cup and one FIFA Club World Cup.\\nManchester City joined the Football League in 1892, and won their first major honour, the FA Cup, in 1904. The club had its first major period of success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, winning the league title, FA Cup, League Cup, and European Cup Winners Cup under the management of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. After losing the 1981 FA Cup final, Manchester City went through a period of decline, culminating in relegation to the third tier of English football for the only time in their history in 1998. They since regained promotion to the top tier in 2001–02 and have remained a fixture in the Premier League since 2002–03.\\nManchester City received considerable financial investment both in playing staff and facilities following their takeover by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan through the Abu Dhabi United Group in August 2008. This started a new era of unprecedented success, with the club winning the FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League in 2012, both their first since the 1960s, followed by another league title in 2014. Under the management of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City won the Premier League in 2018, becoming the only team in the competition history to attain 100 points in a single season. In 2018–19, they won four trophies, completing an unprecedented sweep of all domestic titles in England and becoming the first English men's team to win the domestic treble. This was followed by four consecutive Premier League titles in 2020–21, 2021–22, 2022–23 and 2023–24, as well as the club's first-ever Champions League final in 2021, which they lost to Chelsea. The 2022–23 season saw Manchester City win their maiden European Cup and complete the continental treble in the process, becoming the second English club to do so. The club is ranked first in the UEFA coefficient standings as of 2023.\\nManchester City were listed in the Deloitte Football Money League at the end of the 2022–23 season, making them the football club with the second highest revenue in the world, approximated at €825 million. In 2022, Forbes estimated the club was the sixth-most valuable in the world, worth $4.250 billion. Manchester City are owned by City Football Group Limited, a holding company valued at £3.73 ($4.8) billion in November 2019 and majority-owned by the Abu Dhabi United Group.\\n\\nHistory\\nEarly years and first trophies\\nCity gained their first honours by winning the Second Division in 1899; with it came promotion to the highest level in English football, the First Division. They went on to claim their first major honour on 23 April 1904, beating Bolton Wanderers 1–0 at Crystal Palace to win the FA Cup; the Blues narrowly missed out on a League and Cup double that season after finishing runners-up in the league campaign, but they still became the first club in Manchester to win a major honour.: 32 \\n\\nIn the seasons following the FA Cup triumph, the club was dogged by allegations of financial irregularities, culminating in the suspension of seventeen players in 1906, including captain Billy Meredith, who subsequently moved across town to Manchester United.: 59–65 A fire at Hyde Road destroyed the main stand in 1920, and in 1923 the club moved to their new purpose-built stadium at Maine Road in Moss Side.\\nIn the 1930s, Manchester City reached two consecutive FA Cup finals, losing to Everton in 1933, before claiming the Cup by beating Portsmouth in 1934.: 31–33 During the 1934 run, the club broke the record for the highest home attendance of any club in English football history, as 84,569 fans packed Maine Road for a sixth-round FA Cup tie against Stoke City – a record which stood until 2016. The club won the First Division title for the first time in 1937, but were relegated the following season, despite scoring more goals than any other team in the division. Twenty years later, a City team inspired by a tactical system known as the Revie Plan reached consecutive FA Cup finals again, in 1955 and 1956; just as in the 1930s, they lost the first one, to Newcastle United, and won the second. The 1956 final, in which the Blues defeated Birmingham City 3–1, saw City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann continuing to play on after unknowingly breaking his neck.\\n\\nFirst golden era and subsequent decline\\nAfter being relegated to the Second Division in 1963, the future looked bleak with a record low home attendance of 8,015 against Swindon Town in January 1965.: 57 In the summer of 1965, the management team of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison was appointed. In the first season under Mercer, Manchester City won the Second Division title and made important signings in Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell.: 27–36 The 1965-66 season also saw City field a Black player for the first time when Stan Horne made his debut on 22 September 1965 in an away game against Leicester City. Two seasons later, in 1967–68, City claimed the league championship for the second time, beating their close neighbours Manchester United to the title on the final day of the season with a 4–3 victory at Newcastle United.: 37–56 Further trophies followed: City won the FA Cup in 1969 and a year later triumphed in the European Cup Winners' Cup, defeating Górnik Zabrze 2–1 in the 1970 final. This was the club's only European honour until their triumph in the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League. The Blues also won the League Cup that year, becoming the second English team to win a European trophy and a domestic trophy in the same season.\\nThe club continued to challenge for honours throughout the 1970s, finishing one point behind the league champions on two occasions and reaching the final of the 1974 League Cup.: 410–420 One of the matches from this period that is most fondly remembered by supporters of Manchester City is the final match of the 1973–74 season against arch-rivals Manchester United, who needed to win to have any hope of avoiding relegation. Former United player Denis Law scored with a backheel to give City a 1–0 win at Old Trafford and confirm the relegation of their rivals.: 70 The final trophy of the club's most successful period of the 20th century was won in 1976, when Newcastle United were beaten 2–1 in the League Cup final.\\n\\nA long period of decline followed the success of the 1960s and 1970s. Malcolm Allison rejoined the club to become manager for the second time in 1979, but squandered large sums of money on several unsuccessful signings, such as Steve Daley. A succession of managers then followed – seven in the 1980s alone. Under John Bond, City reached the 1981 FA Cup final but lost in a replay to Tottenham Hotspur. The club were twice relegated from the top flight in the 1980s (in 1983 and 1987), but returned to the top flight again in 1989 and finished fifth in 1991 and 1992 under the management of Peter Reid.: 68 However, this was only a temporary respite, and following Reid's departure Manchester City's fortunes continued to fade. City were co-founders of the Premier League upon its creation in 1992, but after finishing ninth in its first season they endured three years of struggle before being relegated in 1996. After two seasons in the First Division, City fell to the lowest point in their history, becoming the second ever European trophy winners to be relegated to their country's third-tier league after 1. FC Magdeburg of Germany.\\n\\nRecovery and two takeovers\\nAfter relegation, the club underwent off-the-field upheaval, with new chairman David Bernstein introducing greater fiscal discipline. Under manager Joe Royle, City were promoted at the first attempt, achieved in dramatic fashion in the Second Division play-off final against Gillingham. A second successive promotion saw City return to the top division, but this proved to have been a step too far for the recovering club, and in 2001 City were relegated once more. Kevin Keegan replaced Royle as manager in the close season, and achieved an immediate return to the top division as the club won the 2001–02 First Division championship, breaking club records for the number of points gained and goals scored in a single season in the process.: 265 The 2002–03 season was the last at Maine Road and included a 3–1 derby victory over rivals Manchester United, ending a 13-year run without a derby win. Additionally, City qualified for European competition for the first time in 25 years via UEFA fair play ranking. In the close 2003–04 season, the club moved to the new City of Manchester Stadium. The first four seasons at the stadium all resulted in mid-table finishes. Former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson became the club's first foreign manager when appointed in 2007. After a bright start, performances faded in the second half of the season, and Eriksson was sacked on 2 June 2008; he was replaced by Mark Hughes two days later.\\nBy 2008, Manchester City were in a financially precarious position. Thaksin Shinawatra had taken control of the club the year before, but his political travails saw his assets frozen. Then, in August 2008, City were purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group. The takeover was immediately followed by a flurry of bids for high-profile players; the club broke the British transfer record by signing Brazilian international Robinho from Real Madrid for £32.5 million. There was not a huge improvement in performance compared to the previous season despite the influx of money however, with the team finishing tenth, although they did well to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. During the summer of 2009, the club took transfer spending to an unprecedented level, with an outlay of over £100 million on players Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez, and Joleon Lescott. In December 2009, Mark Hughes – who had been hired shortly before the change in ownership but was originally retained by the new board – was replaced as manager by Roberto Mancini. City finished the season in fifth position in the Premier League, narrowly missing out on a place in the Champions League but qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.\\n\\nThe second golden era and continued success under Pep Guardiola\\nContinued investment in players followed in successive seasons, and results began to match the upturn in player quality. City reached the FA Cup final in 2011, their first major final in over 30 years, after defeating derby rivals Manchester United in the semi-finals, the first time they had knocked their rival out of a cup competition since 1975. The Blues defeated Stoke City 1–0 in the final, securing their fifth FA Cup and the club's first major trophy since winning the 1976 League Cup. On the last day of the 2010–11 season, City beat out Arsenal for the third place, thereby securing qualification directly into the Champions League group stage.\\n\\nStrong performances continued to follow in the 2011–12 season, including a 5–1 victory over Tottenham at White Hart Lane and a record-equalling 6–1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford, but a poor run of form in the second half of the season left City in second place, eight points behind United with only six games left to play. At this point, United suffered their own loss of form, dropping eight points in the space of four games, while City began a run of successive wins which saw both teams level on points with two games to go. Despite the Blues only needing a home win against Queens Park Rangers, a team in the relegation zone, they fell 1–2 behind by the end of normal time. However, two goals in injury time – the second by Sergio Agüero in the fourth added minute – settled the title in City's favour, making them the first team to win the Premier League on goal difference alone.\\nThe following season, City were unable to replicate the previous year's success. After finishing second in the league, eleven points behind Manchester United, and losing the FA Cup final 0–1 to relegated Wigan Athletic, Mancini was sacked. He was replaced by Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini. In Pellegrini's first year in charge, City won the League Cup and regained the Premier League title on the last matchday of the season. The team's league form then slowly declined over the next couple of years, as the Blues finished second in 2014–15 and then dropped to fourth in 2015–16, although the 2015–16 season would see City win another League Cup title and reach the Champions League semi-finals for the first time.\\n\\nPep Guardiola, former head coach of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, was confirmed to become Manchester City's new manager on 1 February 2016, with the announcement having been made several months before Manuel Pellegrini left his position. Guardiola's first season in Manchester would end trophyless, with the Blues placing third in the league standings, but the following season proved far more successful, as City won the Premier League title with the highest points total in history and broke numerous other club and English league records along the way.\\nThis would prove to be the start of a period of unprecedented success for Manchester City under Guardiola. Between the 2017–18 and 2023–24 Premier League seasons, City won six out of possible seven league titles, only finishing second behind Liverpool in the 2019–20 season. Guardiola also guided the Blues to silverware in domestic cup competitions, highlighted by four consecutive League Cup triumphs in 2018–2021. During the 2018–19 season, City completed an unprecedented domestic treble of English men's titles. Apart from winning all three of the major English football tournaments, they also won the Community Shield, the first time any team has ever held all four of England's primary football trophies at the same time. On the continental stage, the club achieved breakthrough in 2020–21, reaching their first-ever Champions League final. In an all-English affair, City lost 0–1 to Chelsea at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto.\\n\\nThe 2022–23 season turned out to be the greatest in the club's history, as Manchester City won their third consecutive Premier League title, the FA Cup final against rivals Manchester United, and their maiden Champions League title at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul against Inter Milan, thereby assembling a rare feat – the continental treble. The road to the Champions League victory included wins over European giants Bayern Munich, who were defeated 4–1 on aggregate, and Real Madrid, who suffered a 1–5 aggregate loss at the hands of City. The following season saw less success for Manchester City, yet they became the first English men's club to win four consecutive league titles, and prior to that the 2023 UEFA Super Cup and the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup.\\nManchester City's era of sustained competitive excellence coincided with charges of breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. In 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that sanctions placed on the club by UEFA were not justified, overturning City's two-year European ban. In 2023, the Premier League announced its own investigation of the allegations levied against Manchester City, charging the club with 115 breaches of its FFP rules up to the 2017–18 season. In 2024, Manchester City initiated legal action against the Premier League. The club claims that the league's Associated Party Transaction rules are unlawful and are seeking damages from the league.\\n\\nLeague history\\nClub badge and colours\\nManchester City's home colours are sky blue and white. Traditional away kit colours have been either maroon or (from the 1960s) red and black; however, in recent years several colours have been used. The origins of the club's home colours are unclear, but there is evidence that the club has worn blue since 1892 or earlier. A booklet entitled Famous Football Clubs – Manchester City published in the 1940s indicates that West Gorton (St. Marks) originally played in scarlet and black, and reports dating from 1884 describe the team wearing black jerseys bearing a white cross, showing the club's origins as a church side.: 14–15 The infrequent yet recurrent use of red and black away colours comes from former assistant manager Malcolm Allison's belief that adopting the colours of AC Milan would inspire City to glory. Allison's theory seemingly took effect, with City winning the 1969 FA Cup final, 1970 League Cup final, and 1970 Cup Winners' Cup final in red and black stripes as opposed to the club's home kit of sky blue.\\nCity had previously worn three other badges on their shirts, prior to their current badge being implemented in 2016. The first, introduced in 1970, was based on designs which had been used on official club documentation since the mid-1960s. It consisted of a circular badge which used the same shield as the present badge (including a ship, based on the City of Manchester coat of arms), inside a circle bearing the name of the club. In 1972, this was replaced by a variation which replaced the lower half of the shield with the red rose of Lancashire. In 1976, a heraldic badge was granted by the College of Arms to the English Football League for use by City. The badge consisted of the familiar ship above a red rose but on a circular device instead of a shield (blazoned as \\\"A roundel per fess azure and argent in chief a three masted ship sails set pennons flying or in base a rose gules barbed and seeded proper\\\").\\nOn occasions when Manchester City played in a major cup final, the club wore shirts bearing the City of Manchester coat of arms, as a symbol of pride in representing the city at a major event. This practice originated from a time when the players' shirts did not normally bear a badge of any kind.: 21 The club has since abandoned the practice; for the 2011 FA Cup final, its first in the 21st century, City used the usual badge with a special legend, but the Manchester coat of arms was included as a small monochrome logo in the numbers on the back of players' shirts.\\nA new club badge was adopted in 1997, as a result of the previous badge being ineligible for registration as a trademark. This badge was based on the arms of the city of Manchester, and consisted of a shield in front of a golden eagle. The eagle is an old heraldic symbol of the city of Manchester; a golden eagle was added to the city's badge in 1958 (but had since been removed), representing the growing aviation industry. The shield featured a ship on its upper half representing the Manchester Ship Canal, and three diagonal stripes in the lower half symbolised the city's three rivers – the Irwell, the Irk and the Medlock. The bottom of the badge bore the motto \\\"Superbia in Proelio\\\", which translates as \\\"Pride in Battle\\\" in Latin. Above the eagle and shield were the three stars, added for decorative purposes.\\nOn 15 October 2015, following years of criticism from the fans over the design of the 1997 badge, the club announced they intended to carry out a fan consultation on whether to discontinue the current badge and institute a new design. After the consultation, the club announced in late November 2015 the badge would be replaced in due course by a new version which would be designed in the style of the older, circular variants. A design purporting to be the new badge was unintentionally leaked two days early prior to the official unveiling on 26 December 2015 by the IPO when the design was trademarked on 22 December. The new badge was officially unveiled at Manchester City's home match against Sunderland on 26 December.\\n\\nKit suppliers and shirt sponsors\\nKit deals\\nPlayers\\nFirst-team squad\\nAs of 27 August 2024\\n\\nNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.\\n\\nEDS and Academy\\nThe following players have previously made appearances or have appeared on the substitutes bench for the first team.\\n\\nNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.\\n\\nOut on loan\\nNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.\\n\\nRetired numbers\\nSince 2003, Manchester City have not issued the squad number 23. It was retired in memory of Marc-Vivien Foé, who was on loan to the club from Lyon at the time of his death on the field of play while playing for Cameroon in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup.\\n\\nNote: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.\\n\\nClub captains\\nThis is a list of City's official club captains, who are currently appointed via a vote of players and staff. Other players (vice-captains) have led the team on the pitch when the club captain is not playing or not available. Some players have been made captain on a one-off basis to celebrate or commemorate an event, e.g. Oleksandr Zinchenko captained the team in their 2021–22 FA Cup fifth round tie at Peterborough United in support of his country during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.\\n\\nPlayer of the Year\\nEach season since the end of the 1966–67 season, the members of the Manchester City Official Supporters Club have voted by ballot to choose the player on the team they feel is the most worthy of recognition for his performances during that season. The following table lists the recipients of this award since 2000.\\n\\nSources:\\n\\nHalls of Fame\\nManchester City Hall of Fame\\nThe following former Manchester City players and managers have been inducted into the Manchester City F.C. Hall of Fame, and are listed according to the year of their induction:\\n\\nNational Football Museum Hall of Fame\\nThe following former Manchester City players and managers have been inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame (a.k.a. the National Football Museum Hall of Fame), and are listed according to the year of their induction within the various categories:\\n\\nPremier League Hall of Fame\\nThe following former Manchester City players have been inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame. Inaugurated in 2020, but delayed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hall of Fame is intended to recognise and honour players that have achieved great success and made a significant contribution to the league since its founding in 1992.\\n\\nScottish Football Museum Hall of Fame\\nThe following former Manchester City players and managers have been inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame (a.k.a. the Scottish Football Museum Hall of Fame), and are listed according to the year of their induction within the various categories:\\n\\nWelsh Sports Hall of Fame\\nThe following former Manchester City players have been inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame, and are listed according to the year of their induction:\\n\\nNon-playing staff\\nExecutive\\nCoaching\\nSource:\\n\\nNotable managers\\nManchester City managers to have won major honours. Table correct as of 5 October 2024\\n\\nSupporters\\nSince moving to the City of Manchester Stadium, the club's average attendances have been in the top six in England, usually in excess of 40,000. Even in the late 1990s, when City were relegated twice in three seasons and playing in the third tier of English football (then the Second Division, now the EFL League One), home attendances were in the region of 30,000, compared to an average of fewer than 8,000 for the division. Research carried out by Manchester City in 2005 estimated a fanbase of 886,000 in the United Kingdom and a total in excess of 2 million worldwide, although since the purchase of the club by Sheikh Mansour, and City's recent achievements, that figure has since ballooned to many times that size.\\nManchester City's officially recognised supporters club is the Manchester City F.C. Supporters Club (1949), formed by a merger of two existing organisations in 2010: the Official Supporters Club (OSC) and the Centenary Supporters Association (CSA). City fans' song of choice is a rendition of \\\"Blue Moon\\\", which despite its melancholic theme is belted out with gusto as though it were a heroic anthem. City supporters tend to believe that unpredictability is an inherent trait of their team, and label unexpected results \\\"typical City\\\". Events that fans regard as \\\"typical City\\\" include the club being the only reigning English champions ever to be relegated (in 1938), the only team to score and concede over 100 goals in the same season (1957–58), or the more recent example where Manchester City were the only team to beat Chelsea in the latter's record-breaking 2004–05 Premier League season, yet in the same season City were knocked out of the FA Cup by Oldham Athletic, a team two divisions lower.\\nIn the late 1980s, City fans started a craze of bringing inflatable objects to matches, primarily oversized bananas. One disputed explanation for the phenomenon is that in a match against West Bromwich Albion, chants from fans calling for the introduction of Imre Varadi as a substitute mutated into \\\"Imre Banana\\\". Terraces packed with inflatable-waving supporters became a frequent sight in the 1988–89 season, as the craze spread to other clubs (inflatable fish were seen at Grimsby Town), with the craze reaching its peak at City's match at Stoke City on 26 December 1988, a game declared by fanzines as a fancy dress party. In 2010, Manchester City supporters adopted an exuberant dance, dubbed The Poznań, from fans of Polish club Lech Poznań that they played in the Europa League. In 2022, Manchester City proposed the release of the Connected Scarf, that would contain a sensor tracking physiological and emotional data of the wearer, for supporters in 2023.\\n\\nRivalries\\nManchester City's biggest rivalry is with neighbours Manchester United, against whom they contest the Manchester derby. Before the Second World War, when travel to away games was rare, many Mancunian football fans regularly watched both teams even if considering themselves \\\"supporters\\\" of only one. This practice continued into the early 1960s but as travel became easier, and the cost of entry to matches rose, watching both teams became unusual and the rivalry intensified. A common stereotype is that City fans come from Manchester proper, while United fans come from elsewhere. A 2002 report by a researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University found that while it was true that a higher proportion of City season ticket holders came from Manchester postcode areas (40% compared to United's 29%), there were more United season ticket holders, the lower percentage being due to United's higher overall number of season ticket holders (27,667 compared to City's 16,481). The report noted that since the compiling of data in 2001, the number of both City and United season ticket holders had risen; expansion of United's ground and City's move to the City of Manchester Stadium have caused season ticket sales to increase further.\\nOver the last few years, Manchester City has also developed a notable rivalry with Liverpool, currently considered one of the biggest in association football. Though the two clubs had been involved in a title race in the 1976–77 season, Liverpool and City's modern rivalry began in the 2010s, with the Blues beating Liverpool to the 2013–14 title by just two points on the final day of the season. In the final of the 2015–16 League Cup, City defeated Liverpool on penalties after a 1–1 draw. The two clubs met in European competition for the first time in the 2017–18 Champions League quarter-finals, where Liverpool won 5–1 on aggregate, ultimately reaching the final and then winning the competition a year later. In the 2018–19 season, City again won the title on the final day, with the Blues' 98 points and Liverpool's 97 being the third- and fourth-highest Premier League points totals ever. The following season, Liverpool clinched the title, recording 99 points (the second-highest Premier League total ever after Manchester City's 100 in 2017–18) to finish 18 points above runners-up City. The Blues then regained the title in 2020–21 and outgunned Liverpool in another closely-fought title race in 2021–22, to finish with 93 points to Liverpool's 92.\\nThe success of the two teams in the 2010s and 2020s has led to the development of a rivalry between Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, the managers of Liverpool and Manchester City, with the two previously having been the respective managers of Der Klassiker rivals Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. At the end of the 2018–19 season, Guardiola described his relationship with Klopp as a \\\"beautiful rivalry\\\" and called Klopp's Liverpool team \\\"the strongest opponents I have faced in my career as a manager\\\". In September 2019, Klopp hailed Guardiola for being his 'greatest rival ever', after both were nominated for the FIFA Men's Coach of the Year award in 2019, which Klopp ultimately won. In a 2019 survey, City fans answered that Liverpool, and not Manchester United, are the club's biggest rivals.\\nManchester City also have long established local rivalries with Bolton Wanderers, Oldham Athletic, and Stockport County, and more recent competitive Premier League rivalries with Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Arsenal.\\n\\nOwnership and finances\\nThe holding company of Manchester City F.C., Manchester City Limited, is a private limited company, with approximately 54 million shares in issue. The club has been in private hands since 2007, when the major shareholders agreed to sell their holdings to UK Sports Investments Limited (UKSIL), a company controlled by former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. UKSIL then made a formal offer to buy the shares held by several thousands of small shareholders.\\nPrior to the Thaksin takeover, the club was listed on the specialist independent equity market PLUS (formerly OFEX), where it had been listed since 1995. On 6 July 2007, having acquired 75% of the shares, Thaksin de-listed the club and re-registered it as a private company. By August, UKSIL had acquired over 90% of the shares and exercised its rights under the Companies Act to \\\"squeeze out\\\" the remaining shareholders, and acquire the entire shareholding. Thaksin Shinawatra became chairman of the club and two of Thaksin's children, Pintongta and Oak Chinnawat became directors. Former chairman John Wardle stayed on the board for a year, but resigned in July 2008 following Nike executive Garry Cook's appointment as executive chairman in May. The club made a pre-tax loss of £11m in the fiscal year ending 31 May 2007, the final year for which the club published accounts as a public company.\\nThaksin's purchase prompted a period of transfer spending at the club, in total around £30 million, whereas over the several previous seasons Manchester City's net spending had been among the lowest in the Premier League. A year later, this investment was dwarfed by an influx of money derived from the club's takeover. On 1 September 2008, Abu Dhabi-based Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited completed the takeover of Manchester City. The deal, worth a reported £200 million, was announced on the morning of 1 September. It sparked various transfer \\\"deadline-day\\\" rumours and bids such as the club's attempt to gazump Manchester United's protracted bid to sign Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham Hotspur for a fee in excess of £30 million. Minutes before the transfer window closed, the club signed Robinho from Real Madrid for a British record transfer fee of £32.5 million. The wealth of the new owners meant that, in the summer of 2009, City were able to finance the purchase of experienced international players prior to the new season, spending more than any other club in the Premier League.\\n\\nCity Football Group\\nCreated in the 2013–14 season to manage the global footballing interests of the Abu Dhabi United Group, City Football Group (CFG) is an umbrella corporation owning stakes in a network of global clubs for the purposes of resource sharing, academy networking and marketing.\\n\\nCFG ownership\\nThrough City Football Group, Manchester City owns stakes in a number of clubs:\\n\\n Melbourne City FC (2014–present)\\nOn 23 January 2014, it was announced that Manchester City had partnered with the Australian rugby league franchise Melbourne Storm, purchasing a majority stake in A-League team Melbourne City FC. On 5 August 2015, CFG bought out the Storm and acquired full ownership of the team.\\n Yokohama F. Marinos (2014–present)\\nOn 20 May 2014, it was announced that Manchester City had partnered with the Japanese Automotive company Nissan to become a minority shareholder in Yokohama based J-League side, Yokohama F. Marinos.\\n New York City FC (2015–present)\\nOn 21 May 2013, it was announced that Manchester City had partnered with the American baseball franchise the New York Yankees to introduce the 20th Major League Soccer expansion team, New York City FC as its majority shareholder. The club began play in the 2015 Major League Soccer season.\\n Montevideo City Torque (2017–present)\\nOn 5 April 2017, CFG confirmed the purchase of Uruguayan second division team Montevideo City Torque.\\n Girona FC (2017–present)\\nOn 23 August 2017, it was announced that CFG had acquired 44.3% of Segunda División (second tier) side Girona FC. Another 44.3% was held by the Girona Football Group, led by Pere Guardiola, brother of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.\\n Shenzhen Peng City (2019–present)\\nOn 20 February 2019, it was announced that CFG as well as UBTECH and China Sports Capital had acquired Sichuan Jiuniu F.C.\\n Mumbai City FC (2019–present)\\nCFG was announced as majority stakeholder of Mumbai City FC on Thursday 28 November 2019 after acquiring 65% of the club. Mumbai City is the professional football club based in Mumbai, competing in the Indian Super League.\\n Lommel S.K. (2020–present)\\nCFG was announced as a majority stakeholder of Lommel S.K. on Monday 11 May 2020, acquiring the majority (unspecified) of the club's shares. Lommel S.K. is a professional football club based in Lommel, competing in the Belgian First Division B (second tier).\\n Troyes AC (2020–present)\\nOn 3 September 2020, CFG announced that they had purchased the shares of Daniel Masoni, the former owner of Ligue 2 (second tier) club Troyes AC, making them the majority shareholder of the French club.\\n Palermo FC (2022–present)\\nOn 4 July 2022, Italian Serie B (second tier) club Palermo announced that CFG had acquired an 80% majority stake in their ownership.\\n Bahia (2023–present)\\nOn 3 December 2022, CFG acquired 90% of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Bahia. The deal was finalised on 4 May 2023.\\n\\nPartner clubs\\nClub Bolívar (2021–present)\\nOn 12 January 2021, CFG announced Bolivian club Club Bolívar as its first partner club.\\n Vannes OC (2021–present)\\nOn 18 February 2021, CFG announced that French Championnat National 2 (tier 4) club Vannes OC would be its second partner club.\\n\\nStadium\\nThe City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester, known as the Etihad Stadium since 2011 for sponsorship reasons, is on a 200-year lease from Manchester City Council to Manchester City. It has been the club's home since the end of the 2002–03 season, when City moved from Maine Road. Before moving to the stadium, the club spent in excess of £30 million to convert it to football use: the pitch was lowered, adding another tier of seating around it, and a new North Stand was constructed. The inaugural match at the new stadium was a 2–1 win over Barcelona in a friendly match. A 7,000-seat third tier on the South Stand was completed in time for the start of the 2015–16 football season, increasing the stadium's capacity to 55,097. A North Stand third tier is in development, potentially increasing capacity to around 61,000.\\nAfter playing home matches at five stadiums between 1880 and 1887, the club settled at Hyde Road Football Stadium, its home for 36 years. A fire destroyed the Main Stand in 1920, and the club moved to the 84,000 capacity Maine Road three years later. Maine Road, nicknamed the \\\"Wembley of the North\\\" by its designers, hosted the largest-ever crowd at an English club ground when 84,569 attended an FA Cup tie against Stoke City on 3 March 1934. Though Maine Road was redeveloped several times over its 80-year lifespan, by 1995 its capacity was restricted to 32,000, prompting the search for a new ground which culminated in the move to the City of Manchester Stadium in 2003; it was renamed the Etihad Stadium in 2011.\\n\\nHonours\\nBased on trophy count, Manchester City are one of the most successful teams in England. Their thirty-six major domestic, european and worldwide honours rank them fourth on the list of most decorated sides in England, ahead of Chelsea with 34.\\nThe club's first major trophy was the 1904 FA Cup, though they had previously won three regional Manchester Cups before that point. Their first top division league title came in the 1936–37 season, with the first Charity Shield won in the following August. City's first League Cup and European trophy both came at the end of the 1969–70 season, the two trophies also constituting the team's first double of any kind. In the 2018–19 season, City became the first team to claim all of the major English trophies available in a single season, winning not just the Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup, but also the Community Shield.\\nThe 1970 Cup Winners' Cup victory remained City's only European trophy until their triumph in the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League. They have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League four times overall, losing in 2016, then winning en route to their first-ever final in 2021, losing in 2022, and winning en route to their maiden European Cup title in 2023.\\nThey are only the second English club to complete a Continental Treble, in the 2022–23 season; and in 2023–24 became the first English club to win four consecutive league titles.\\nManchester City used to hold the record for most second division titles, having won the league on seven occasions. Man City's first victory was in 1898–99, and the most recent in 2001–02. The record was broken by Leicester City after they clinched their eighth title in 2023–24.\\n\\nDoubles and Trebles\\nDoubles\\nLeague and FA Cup (2): 2018–19, 2022–23\\nLeague Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1969–70\\nDomestic treble\\nLeague, FA Cup, and League Cup (1): 2018–19\\nContinental treble\\nLeague, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League (1): 2022–23\\n\\nClub records\\nRecord league victory – 11–3 vs Lincoln City (23 March 1895, most goals scored); 10–0 vs Darwen (18 February 1899, widest margin of victory): 509 \\nRecord FA Cup victory – 12–0 vs Liverpool Stanley (4 October 1890): 511 \\nRecord European victory – 7–0 vs Schalke 04, UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg (12 March 2019); 7–0 vs RB Leipzig UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg (14 March 2023)\\nRecord league defeat – 0–8 vs Burton Wanderers (26 December 1894); 0–8 vs Wolverhampton Wanderers (23 December 1933); 1–9 vs Everton (3 September 1906); 2–10 vs Small Heath (17 March 1893): 509 \\nRecord FA Cup defeat – 0–6 vs Preston North End (30 January 1897); 2–8 vs Bradford Park Avenue (30 January 1946): 511 \\nRecord European defeat – 0–4 vs Barcelona, UEFA Champions League group stage (19 October 2016)\\nHighest home attendance – 84,569 vs Stoke City, FA Cup sixth round (3 March 1934): 524 \\nMost league appearances – 561 + 3 sub, Alan Oakes, 1958–76: 155 \\nMost European appearances – 59 + 16 sub, Fernandinho, 2013–22\\nMost appearances overall – 676 + 4 sub, Alan Oakes, 1958–76: 155 \\nMost goals scored overall – 260, Sergio Agüero, 2011–21\\nMost goals scored in a season – 52, Erling Haaland, 2022–23: 112 \\nRecord transfer fee paid – £100 million to Aston Villa for Jack Grealish, August 2021\\nRecord transfer fee received – £82 million, with £64 million upfront and the rest in add-ons, from Atletico Madrid for Julián Álvarez, August 2024.\\n\\nSee also\\nList of Manchester City F.C. managers\\nList of Manchester City F.C. players\\nList of Manchester City F.C. records and statistics\\nList of Manchester City F.C. seasons\\nManchester City F.C. in international football\\nManchester City W.F.C.\\nCity Football Group\\n\\nReferences\\nNotes\\nCitations\\nExternal links\\nOfficial website\\n\\nIndependent websites\\n\\nManchester City F.C. on BBC Sport: Club news – Recent results and fixtures\\nManchester City at Sky Sports\\nManchester City FC at Premier League\\nManchester City FC at UEFA\",\n \"title\": \"Manchester_City_F.C.\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"City Football Group Limited (CFG) is a British-based holding company that administers association football clubs. The group is owned by three organisations, of which 81% is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi United Group, 18% by the American firm Silver Lake, and 1% by Chinese firms China Media Capital and CITIC Capital. The Abu Dhabi United Group is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates.\\nThe group derives its name from Manchester City, its flagship football club, and acts as the club's parent company. CFG also owns stakes in clubs in the United States, Australia, India, Japan, Spain, Brazil, Uruguay, China, Belgium, France, Italy and Turkey.\\n\\nHistory\\nFounded in 2013, City Football Group is the realisation of a business vision by former Barcelona Economy Vice President Ferran Soriano. Soriano first conceived of the ideal of a global football entity while at the Catalan club, beginning with the creation of Barca-branded overseas academies. Soriano contacted Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber about creating a Barcelona-branded MLS franchise, and the pair progressed as far as looking into several locations to place the team, but ultimately these plans were curtailed when Soriano and seven other members of Barcelona's board chose to resign in protest of then-President Joan Laporta's leadership.\\nAfter a four-year break from football management, Soriano was hired in late 2012 to replace Garry Cook as CEO of Manchester City following the latter's resignation. Soriano revived his ambitions of creating a global football business entity, beginning by resuming dialogues with Garber. Their discussions resulted in the announcement of New York City as MLS' 20th expansion side less than one year later in May 2013. In the process of managing the creation of a second football team City Football Group was created, designed to be the holding company to which both Manchester City and NYCFC belonged. CFG expanded at the start of 2014 when it partnered with Rugby league side Melbourne Storm to acquire a controlling stake in A-League franchise Melbourne Heart for 12 million Australian dollars. The club would subsequently be rebranded to Melbourne City, and their badge changed as part of CFG's early attempts to synergise their investments with Manchester City as a brand, and the club's colours would slowly be changed to sky blue with their red-and-white stripes retained as away colours.\\nIn the weeks following their purchase of Melbourne City, CFG indicated their intentions of investing in women's football by rebranding Manchester City's female affiliate as Manchester City Women's Football Club, and successfully lobbied for the team to be added to the top tier of the FA Women's Super League, promising to invest in women's football on a scale never before seen in England. Later the following year, CFG would grow again with the purchase of a 20% in Japanese side Yokohama F Marinos, the traditional company team of group sponsor Nissan.\\nIn April 2017, after a near three-year pause in its expansion, City Football Group announced the Uruguayan second-tier side Club Atletico Torque, who would later be renamed Montevideo City Torque. Several months later, Torque would be followed in by Spanish second division club Girona, a club with ownership links to incumbent Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.\\n2019 saw the beginning of an increase in CFG's activity. The purchase of Chinese third division club Shenzhen Peng City (known as Sichuan Jiuniu F.C. at that time) was followed towards the end of the year by a second venture in Asia, when the group bought a controlling stake in Indian Super League franchise Mumbai City. 2020 similarly would see two club purchases in European football, first of Lommel of Belgium and then of Troyes of France, with both moves notably seeing the purchased clubs rescued from financial difficulties and linked to the economic damages wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same year they would also expand their business interests by taking sole control of US-based five-a-side football business Goals Soccer Centers, a business they had previously invested in, following the near-collapse of the company's owners due to an internal scandal.\\nIn March 2022, Dutch second-tier side NAC Breda announced that following an investigation into the best bidders to sell the club's shares, the shareholders of the club had agreed to a sale to CFG. In response, the club's fans held protests both in Breda and also Manchester and Lommel. A month later, a group of shareholders with key voting rights announced that, in light of the backlash, they had elected instead to sell their shares to a local consortium.\\n\\nPrinciples and interests\\nSince its inception, commenters have drawn parallels between City Football Group and Ferran Soriano's ideas spelled out in his 2011 book Goal: The Ball Doesn't Go In By Chance, in which Soriano remarked that the natural evolution of club brands was to expand globally, and that doing so could include the creation of franchise clubs in foreign leagues. His book continued to expound upon the notion that appealing to foreign fans who had no strongly-ingrained non-domestic allegiances was an important facet of business growth of sporting brands, and that giving those fans a domestic side to support alongside and affiliated to their European club could encourage more loyalty from them. This idea would be termed \\\"Disneyfication\\\" by Professor Simon Chadwick, an expert in Eurasian sport at Emlyon Business School and himself a confidant of Soriano.\\n\\nBranding and player development\\nEarly growth in the group focused on teams sharing a common identity and an associated brand, which aligned with the traditional identity of Manchester City and was viewed as a key way of helping the Manchester club build up its foreign support. This also matched Soriano's well-reported interest in placing City Football Group as a lynchpin in the opening-up of national markets in which association football has not previously been able to secure a strong presence, through the operation of and investment in franchises in those countries.\\nThe first entity to join CFG was the newly created New York City, with the club announcing that they would sport the familiar sky blue kit with white shorts which Manchester City have traditionally been associated with, and the rebranded Melbourne City (originally named Melbourne Heart) similarly switched to sky blue after defeating challenges from fellow A-League club Sydney. With the purchase of Mumbai City and the renaming of Club Atletico Torque to Montevideo City Torque, five teams in the group feature the word \\\"City\\\" in their name, and similarly all five wear sky blue kits. NYCFC's circular badge style would also be mimicked by Manchester City, Melbourne City, Mumbai City and Torque. Following from these changes, it was reported that the company's aim was to own a team on each continent with the \\\"City\\\" brand in its name. However, they have aggressively defended the City brand such as issuing a cease and desist letter against the Chilean side Santiago City FC for using a club crest similar to Manchester City's.\\nDevelopments within Manchester City's academy would ultimately lead to a shift in strategy and focus of the group. Efforts to continue their success in bringing through youth talent led to the buying of promising players in the early teenage years, many of whom would go on to be sold for a large profit. This prompted Soriano and CFG's executive management to change their ambitions to put more emphasis on purchasing smaller clubs in strong existing football markets, with the intention of turning them into specialists centres for acquiring and training future stars from their local areas.\\n\\nCollaboration between clubs\\nOne of the core philosophies of City Football Group since its inception has been the mutual supporting of clubs through combined scouting and player sharing. While virtually all large European clubs operate an international scouting network, financial demands make it impossible to access local knowledge in foreign countries to the same extent as a domestic club could. CFG clubs therefore provide invaluable services to each other by using their own local scouting networks to share information on players between clubs. With their combined knowledge, the group claims to have extensive information on half a million players around the world. Possessing such a network then allows the local clubs to sign players early in their development, safe in the knowledge that the range of clubs CFG owns means that they can be placed at any of a number of sides as their development continues and the need for other challenges arises. The player-sharing element of the City network was first evident with the high-profile transfer of Aaron Mooy from Melbourne City to Manchester City – an early case of utilising the network to support revenue generation – with the 2020–21 season seeing Manchester City send 14 foreign-sourced youth players out on loan, predominantly to other group clubs.\\nIn addition to internal player movements, CFG has also sought to foster movements of coaching staff within their network also; among the most notable relocations are French manager Eric Mombaerts, who has worked with Yokohama F. Marinos, Melbourne City and Troyes, Manchester City Women manager Nick Cushing transferring to New York and English coach Liam Manning transferring from the NYCFC academy to take over management of Lommel's first team.\\nThe second of CFG's core philosophies regarding club collaboration is on- and off-pitch technical information sharing. Based around the tactics of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola – long coveted for the Manchester job by Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain after their experience working with him in Barcelona – all of City Football Group's clubs are given access to extensive databases of Manchester City's tactics and coaching methods, enabling them all to follow the group directive to use the same style of football, a style occasionally referred to as \\\"the City Way\\\". This synergy of tactical style extends beyond their first teams to the academies and women's sections. In addition to this, the clubs also share other information, such as medical, performance monitoring and player management.\\n\\nInvestment in women's football\\nFour of City Football Group's ten clubs sport women's teams, with Montevideo City Torque expected to launch a women's team in 2021 and New York City having previously held discussions about an affiliation with Sky Blue in 2014. In both Manchester and Melbourne, CFG (re)launched new women's sides in 2014 and 2015, promising to invest in women's football in unprecedent ways. In both cities, the women's teams would ultimately be given bespoke facilities which, in contrast to the standard for football clubs, shared training locations with their affiliated men's teams. Similarly, both cities would see returns for their investment, with Manchester City Women repeatedly finishing amongst the top two and winning a series of domestic trophies while Melbourne City's unprecedented investment in Australian women's football – an area which had previously been underfunded and largely forgotten in the country – earned the side plaudits for their forward-thinking and would see their female side crowned Grand Final winners four times in five seasons.\\n\\nEsports\\nLooking to capitalise on the growth of esports, and for City Football Group to be seen as always being at the forefront of innovation, CFG made their first venture into digital gaming in June 2016 when they signed Kieran \\\"Kez\\\" Brown to represent Manchester City at FIFA tournaments and fan events, as well as to make digital content for their media profiles.\\nOver the following years, CFG expanded their esports footprint as most of their clubs signed players to represent them in FIFA tournaments, with most clubs keeping one PlayStation player and one Xbox player on their books to represent them at all times. By early 2021, CFG would have a total of 16 professional esports players across their various clubs. In 2021, Manchester City became the first CFG club to expand beyond FIFA when they signed Aiden \\\"Threats\\\" Mong to represent them in Fortnite tournaments. Unlike the other CFG teams, Manchester City would also go on to create separate esports teams in China and South Korea to compete in Asia-localised tournaments.\\nIn addition to having their own esports players, CFG have also collaborated with existing teams. In 2019, Manchester City announced a partnership with FaZe Clan which would see the two run various esports competitions and merchandising lines, as well as allowing City's and FaZe's FIFA players to share facilities and train together. In 2022, CFG announced that it was sponsoring Blue United eFC, in a move which would see Blue United wear CFG-style sky blue shirts at competitive events.\\n\\nCFG-owned clubs\\nUEFA\\nManchester City F.C.\\n Manchester City W.F.C.\\n Girona FC\\n Girona FC Femení A\\n Palermo F.C.\\n Palermo Women\\n ES Troyes AC\\n Lommel SK\\n\\nCONCACAF\\nNew York City FC\\n New York City FC II\\n\\nAFC\\nMumbai City FC\\n Melbourne City FC\\nMelbourne City Women\\n Yokohama F. Marinos\\n Shenzhen Peng City F.C.\\n\\nCONMEBOL\\nMontevideo City Torque\\n Esporte Clube Bahia\\n\\nCFG partner clubs\\nClub Bolivar\\nIt was announced on 12 January 2021 that Club Bolivar had become the first partner club for the group. Club Bolivar is the most successful Bolivian club, having won 30 domestic titles since it was founded in La Paz on 12 April 1925. The owner of the club, Marcelo Claure, is also part of the ownership group of Inter Miami CF alongside David Beckham, as well as being COO of SoftBank Group with Masayoshi Son (CEO of Softbank) as well as Jorge Mas and Jose Mas from MasTec respectively.\\nHonours after partnership :\\nDivisión de Fútbol Profesional (1): 2022-A\\n\\nVannes\\nIt was announced on 17 February 2021 that French fourth tier side Vannes had become the latest partner club for the group. The two clubs were already linked after Vannes' President Maxime Ray had joined CFG to become a minority shareholder in Troyes as part of the 2020 purchase, though he agreed to have no operational role at Troyes as part of the takeover.\\n\\nGeylang International\\nIt was announced on 1 February 2023 that Singapore Premier League club Geylang International had become the first Southeast Asian partner club for the group. The agreement is set to be an initial, highly targeted collaboration between both entities with the potential to evolve into a broader, more comprehensive strategic partnership in the future.\\n\\nİstanbul Başakşehir\\nIt was revealed on 18 February 2024 that Turkish Süper Lig club İstanbul Başakşehir signed an agreement with the group in order to improve their football strategy, recruitment, scouting and coaching methodology.\\n\\nBusinesses\\nGoals Soccer Centers\\nOn 25 July 2017, City Football Group signed a joint venture partnership with Goals Soccer Centres, a 5-a-side football pitch operator, to invest capital into the US operations of the company in order to expand across North America. On 3 February 2020, CFG purchased the remaining 50% to take full ownership of the joint venture – operating under the Americanised name Goals Soccer Centers – following the near-collapse of their partner as a result of historic fraud allegations.\\n\\nSee also\\nManchester City F.C. ownership and finances\\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"City_Football_Group\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 3,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment (ADUG; Arabic: مجموعة أبوظبي الاتحاد للتنمية والاستثمار) is a United Arab Emirates (UAE) based private equity company. It is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, member of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family and Vice President of the UAE. Leaks of internal documents show that the Abu Dhabi government manages the accounts belonging to ADUG. ADUG insists it is separate from the Abu Dhabi government.\\nThe primary interest of the group is its 81% majority ownership of City Football Group, a worldwide organisation most notably controlling Manchester City, Mumbai City, Melbourne City and New York City, as well as several other international football clubs. However, it also holds interests in various other endeavours outside of the sporting world with an extensive property portfolio in the United Arab Emirates and Manchester.\\n\\nCity Football Group\\nThe Group was founded in the summer of 2008, as Sheikh Mansour looked to take over Manchester City Football Club from the former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra and signed off the deal on 1 September 2008, with due diligence completed on 23 September the same year.\\nSulaiman Al-Fahim was the public face of ADUG during the initial phase of the takeover - a larger-than-life figure often described as the \\\"Donald Trump of Abu Dhabi\\\". On completion of the takeover, Al-Fahim generated considerable attention in the footballing world with promises of grandiose spending plans to capture the world's greatest footballing talents. Although he did bring in the Brazilian Robinho from Real Madrid on the same day on which the takeover was agreed, one week after ADUG took control of the club Al-Fahim was removed from his role to be replaced by Khaldoon al-Mubarak, who remains in position to the present day.\\nIn 2011, Manchester City qualified for the Champions League and won the FA Cup, providing the club their first success in over three decades following ADUG's support. In 2012, the club won the Premier League, their first league title in forty-four years.\\nFollowing the success of the Manchester club, ADUG began investment into other football clubs. After founding the MLS side New York City and purchasing the A-League franchise Melbourne Heart (shortly afterwards renamed Melbourne City), it was deemed necessary to create a new infrastructure to manage the various worldwide footballing ventures, and to keep them separate from non-footballing business. For this purpose, City Football Group was created in 2014 to oversee all of the teams under their control, acting as holding company not only to the football teams but to several businesses designed to market football services to the wider market. In return, ADUG became the holding company for CFG.\\nADUG have diluted their shareholding the City Football Group on two occasions in 2015 and 2019 to the approximate value of £654 million. As of 2020, they own 78% of the City Football Group. Since July 2021, CFG has been managed under Newton Investment and Development LLC, another company wholly owned by Sheikh Mansour.\\n\\nOther business interests\\nADUG also have an extensive property portfolio in the United Arab Emirates and abroad. Aside from Manchester City, ADUG have amassed investments totalling nearly £1 billion in Manchester, mainly in property and higher education sectors. Aside from purchasing assets for their own control, ADUG signed a ten-year partnership with Manchester City Council to revamp the east end of the city - not coincidentally the same area in which Manchester City are based - creating the Manchester Life Development Company in conjunction with the council in order to build 6,000 affordable houses in the area.\\n\\nCriticism\\nAccording to Human Rights Watch, ADUG's investment in Manchester City enabled Abu Dhabi to \\\"construct a public relations image of a progressive, dynamic Gulf state, which deflects attention from what is really going on in the country\\\".\\nManchester City was accused of receiving £30 million from an unknown figure from the United Arab Emirates, that was supposed to come from the sponsor. The £30 million payments are expected to be one of the 115 Premier League's financial charges against Manchester City. The report also claimed that the payments were actually disguised equity funding that came from the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice president of the UAE.\\nAccording to the report, during UEFA disciplinary hearing, the Manchester City’s lawyer named the unknown person as Jaber Mohamed, claiming that he is a businessman providing financial and brokering services in the UAE.\\n\\nSee also\\n\\nManchester City F.C. ownership and finances\\nCity Football Group\\n\\n\\n== References ==\",\n \"title\": \"Abu_Dhabi_United_Group\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 4,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal, elective monarchy composed of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi as its capital. It shares land borders with Oman to the east and northwest, and with Saudi Arabia to the southwest; as well as maritime borders in the Persian Gulf with Qatar and Iran, and with Oman in the Gulf of Oman. As of 2024, the UAE has an estimated population of over 10 million, of which 11% are Emiratis; Dubai, is the most populous city, and is an international hub. Islam is the official religion and Arabic is the official language, while English is the most spoken language and the language of business.\\nThe United Arab Emirates' oil and natural gas reserves are the world's seventh and seventh-largest, respectively. Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the country's first president, oversaw the development of the Emirates by investing oil revenues into healthcare, education, and infrastructure. The country has the most diversified economy among the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In the 21st century, the UAE has become less reliant on oil and gas and is economically focusing on tourism and business. The UAE is considered a middle power. It is also a member of the United Nations, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OPEC, Non-Aligned Movement, World Trade Organization, and BRICS. The UAE is also a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.\\nHuman rights organisations consider the UAE substandard on human rights, ranking only 6.06 in the human freedom index, citing reports of government critics being imprisoned and tortured, families harassed by the state security apparatus, and cases of forced disappearances. Individual rights such as the freedoms of assembly, association, expression, and the freedom of the press are severely repressed.\\n\\nHistory\\nAntiquity\\nStone tools recovered reveal a settlement of people from Africa some 127,000 years ago and a stone tool used for butchering animals discovered on the Arabian coast suggests an even older habitation from 130,000 years ago. In time lively trading links developed with civilisations in Mesopotamia, Iran and the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley. This contact persisted and became wider, probably motivated by the trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, which commenced around 3,000 BCE. Sumerian sources talk of the Magan civilisation, which has been identified as encompassing the modern UAE and Oman.\\nThere are six periods of human settlement with distinctive behaviours in the region before Islam, which include the Hafit period from 3,200 to 2,600 BCE, the Umm Al Nar culture from 2,600 to 2,000 BCE, and the Wadi Suq culture from 2,000 to 1,300 BCE. From 1,200 BCE to the advent of Islam in Eastern Arabia, through three distinctive Iron Ages and the Mleiha period, the area was variously occupied by the Achaemenids and other forces, and saw the construction of fortified settlements and extensive husbandry thanks to the development of the falaj irrigation system.\\n\\nIslam\\nThe spread of Islam to the northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula is thought to have followed directly from a letter sent by the Islamic prophet Muhammad to the rulers of Oman in 630 CE. This led to a group of rulers travelling to Medina, converting to Islam and subsequently driving a successful uprising against the unpopular Sassanids, who dominated the coast at the time. Following the death of Muhammad, the new Islamic communities south of the Persian Gulf threatened to disintegrate, with insurrections against the Muslim leaders. Caliph Abu Bakr sent an army from the capital Medina which completed its reconquest of the territory (the Ridda Wars) with the Battle of Dibba in which 10,000 lives are thought to have been lost. This assured the integrity of the Caliphate and the unification of the Arabian Peninsula under the newly emerging Rashidun Caliphate.\\nIn 637, Julfar (in the area of today's Ras Al Khaimah) was an important port that was used as a staging post for the Islamic invasion of the Sasanian Empire. The area of the Al Ain/Buraimi Oasis was known as Tu'am and was an important trading post for camel routes between the coast and the Arabian interior.\\nThe earliest Christian site in the UAE was first discovered in the 1990s, an extensive monastic complex on what is now known as Sir Bani Yas Island and which dates back to the seventh century. Thought to be Nestorian and built in 600 CE, the church appears to have been abandoned peacefully in 750 CE. It forms a rare physical link to a legacy of Christianity, which is thought to have spread across the peninsula from 50 to 350 CE following trade routes. Certainly, by the fifth century, Oman had a bishop named John – the last bishop of Oman being Etienne, in 676 CE.\\n\\nPortuguese era\\nThe harsh desert environment led to the emergence of the \\\"versatile tribesman\\\", nomadic groups who subsisted due to a variety of economic activities, including animal husbandry, agriculture and hunting. The seasonal movements of these groups led not only to frequent clashes between groups but also to the establishment of seasonal and semi-seasonal settlements and centres. These formed tribal groupings whose names are still carried by modern Emiratis, including the Bani Yas and Al Bu Falah of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Liwa, and the west coast; the Dhawahir, Awamir, Al Ali, and Manasir of the interior; the Sharqiyin of the east coast; and the Qawasim to the north.\\nWith the expansion of European colonial empires, Portuguese, English and Dutch forces appeared in the Persian Gulf region. By the 18th century, the Bani Yas confederation was the dominant force in most of the area now known as Abu Dhabi, while the Northern Al Qawasim (Al Qasimi) dominated maritime commerce. The Portuguese maintained an influence over the coastal settlements, building forts in the wake of the bloody 16th-century conquests of coastal communities by Albuquerque and the Portuguese commanders who followed him – particularly on the east coast at Muscat, Sohar and Khor Fakkan.\\nThe southern coast of the Persian Gulf was known to the British as the \\\"Pirate Coast\\\", as boats of the Al Qawasim federation harassed British-flagged shipping from the 17th century into the 19th. The charge of piracy is disputed by modern Emirati historians, including the current ruler of Sharjah, Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi, in his 1986 book The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf.\\n\\nBritish expeditions to protect their Indian trade routes led to campaigns against Ras Al Khaimah and other harbours along the coast, including the Persian Gulf campaign of 1809 and the more successful campaign of 1819. The following year, Britain and a number of local rulers signed a maritime truce, giving rise to the term Trucial States, which came to define the status of the coastal emirates. A further treaty was signed in 1843 and, in 1853 the Perpetual Maritime Truce was agreed. To this was added the 'Exclusive Agreements', signed in 1892, which made the Trucial States a British protectorate.\\nUnder the 1892 treaty, the trucial sheikhs agreed not to dispose of any territory except to the British and not to enter into relationships with any foreign government other than the British without their consent. In return, the British promised to protect the Trucial Coast from all aggression by sea and to help in case of land attack. British maritime policing meant that pearling fleets could operate in relative security. However, the British prohibition of the slave trade meant an important source of income was lost to some sheikhs and merchants.\\nIn 1869, the Qubaisat tribe settled at Khor Al Adaid and tried to enlist the support of the Ottomans. Khor Al Adaid was claimed by Abu Dhabi at that time, a claim supported by the British. In 1906, the British Political Resident, Percy Cox, confirmed in writing to the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan ('Zayed the Great') that Khor Al Adaid belonged to his sheikhdom.\\n\\nBritish era and discovery of oil\\nDuring the 19th and early 20th centuries, the pearling industry thrived, providing both income and employment to the people of the Persian Gulf. The First World War had a severe impact on the industry, but it was the economic depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, coupled with the invention of the cultured pearl, that wiped out the trade. The remnants of the trade eventually faded away shortly after the Second World War, when the newly independent Government of India imposed heavy taxation on imported pearls. The decline of pearling resulted in extreme economic hardship in the Trucial States.\\nIn 1922, the British government secured undertakings from the rulers of the Trucial States not to sign concessions with foreign companies without their consent. Aware of the potential for the development of natural resources such as oil, following finds in Persia (from 1908) and Mesopotamia (from 1927), a British-led oil company, the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), showed an interest in the region. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC, later to become British Petroleum, or BP) had a 23.75% share in IPC. From 1935, onshore concessions to explore for oil were granted by local rulers, with APOC signing the first one on behalf of Petroleum Concessions Ltd (PCL), an associate company of IPC. APOC was prevented from developing the region alone because of the restrictions of the Red Line Agreement, which required it to operate through IPC. A number of options between PCL and the trucial rulers were signed, providing useful revenue for communities experiencing poverty following the collapse of the pearl trade. However, the wealth of oil which the rulers could see from the revenues accruing to surrounding countries remained elusive. The first bore holes in Abu Dhabi were drilled by IPC's operating company, Petroleum Development (Trucial Coast) Ltd (PDTC) at Ras Sadr in 1950, with a 13,000-foot-deep (4,000-metre) bore hole taking a year to drill and turning out dry, at the tremendous cost at the time of £1 million.\\n\\nThe British set up a development office that helped in some small developments in the emirates. The seven sheikhs of the emirates then decided to form a council to coordinate matters between them and took over the development office. In 1952, they formed the Trucial States Council, and appointed Adi Al Bitar, Dubai's Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum's legal advisor, as secretary general and legal advisor to the council. The council was terminated once the United Arab Emirates was formed. The tribal nature of society and the lack of definition of borders between emirates frequently led to disputes, settled either through mediation or, more rarely, force. The Trucial Oman Scouts was a small military force used by the British to keep the peace.\\nIn 1953, a subsidiary of BP, D'Arcy Exploration Ltd, obtained an offshore concession from the ruler of Abu Dhabi. BP joined with Compagnie Française des Pétroles (later Total) to form operating companies, Abu Dhabi Marine Areas Ltd (ADMA) and Dubai Marine Areas Ltd (DUMA). A number of undersea oil surveys were carried out, including one led by the famous marine explorer Jacques Cousteau. In 1958, a floating platform rig was towed from Hamburg, Germany, and positioned over the Umm Shaif pearl bed, in Abu Dhabi waters, where drilling began. In March, it struck oil in the Upper Thamama rock formation. This was the first commercial discovery of the Trucial Coast, leading to the first exports of oil in 1962. ADMA made further offshore discoveries at Zakum and elsewhere, and other companies made commercial finds such as the Fateh oilfield off Dubai and the Mubarak field off Sharjah (shared with Iran).\\nMeanwhile, onshore exploration was hindered by territorial disputes. In 1955, the United Kingdom represented Abu Dhabi and Oman in their dispute with Saudi Arabia over the Buraimi Oasis. A 1974 agreement between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia seemed to have settled the Abu Dhabi-Saudi border dispute, but this has not been ratified. The UAE's border with Oman was ratified in 2008.\\nPDTC continued its onshore exploration away from the disputed area, drilling five more bore holes that were also dry. However, on 27 October 1960, the company discovered oil in commercial quantities at the Murban No. 3 well on the coast near Tarif. In 1962, PDTC became the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company. As oil revenues increased, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, undertook a massive construction program, building schools, housing, hospitals and roads. When Dubai's oil exports commenced in 1969, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, was able to invest the revenues from the limited reserves found to spark the diversification drive that would create the modern global city of Dubai.\\n\\nIndependence\\nBy 1966, it had become clear the British government could no longer afford to administer and protect the Trucial States, what is now the United Arab Emirates. British Members of Parliament (MPs) debated the preparedness of the Royal Navy to defend the sheikhdoms. On 24 January 1968, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced the government's decision, reaffirmed in March 1971 by Prime Minister Edward Heath, to end the treaty relationships with the seven trucial sheikhdoms. Days after the announcement, the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, fearing vulnerability, tried to persuade the British to honour the protection treaties by offering to pay the full costs of keeping the British Armed Forces in the Emirates. The British Labour government rejected the offer. After Labour MP Goronwy Roberts informed Sheikh Zayed of the news of British withdrawal, the nine Persian Gulf sheikhdoms attempted to form a union of Arab emirates, but by mid-1971 they were still unable to agree on terms of union even though the British treaty relationship was to expire in December of that year.\\nFears of vulnerability were realised the day before independence. An Iranian destroyer group broke formation from an exercise in the lower Gulf, sailing to the Tunb islands. The islands were taken by force, civilians and Arab defenders alike allowed to flee. A British warship stood idle during the course of the invasion. A destroyer group approached the island of Abu Musa as well. But there, Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed Al Qasimi had already negotiated with the Iranian shah, and the island was quickly leased to Iran for $3 million a year. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia laid claim to swathes of Abu Dhabi.\\nOriginally intended to be part of the proposed Federation of Arab Emirates, Bahrain became independent in August, and Qatar in September 1971. When the British-Trucial Sheikhdoms treaty expired on 1 December 1971, both emirates became fully independent. On 2 December 1971, six of the emirates (Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain) agreed to enter into a union named the United Arab Emirates. Ras al-Khaimah joined later, on 10 January 1972. In February 1972, the Federal National Council (FNC) was created; it was a 40-member consultative body appointed by the seven rulers. The UAE joined the Arab League on 6 December 1971 and the United Nations on 9 December. It was a founding member of the Gulf Cooperation Council in May 1981, with Abu Dhabi hosting the first GCC summit.\\n\\nPost-Independence period\\nThe UAE supported military operations by the US and other coalition states engaged in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan (2001) and Saddam Hussein in Ba'athist Iraq (2003) as well as operations supporting the Global War on Terror for the Horn of Africa at Al Dhafra Air Base located outside of Abu Dhabi. The air base also supported Allied operations during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and Operation Northern Watch. The country had already signed a military defence agreement with the U.S. in 1994 and one with France in 1995. In January 2008, France and the UAE signed a deal allowing France to set up a permanent military base in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The UAE joined international military operations in Libya in March 2011.\\nOn 2 November 2004, the UAE's first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, died. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan was elected as the president of the UAE. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan succeeded Sheikh Khalifa as crown prince of Abu Dhabi. In January 2006, Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister of the UAE and the ruler of Dubai, died, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum assumed both roles.\\nThe first ever national elections were held on 16 December 2006. A number of voters chose half of the members of the Federal National Council. The UAE has largely escaped the Arab Spring, which other countries have experienced; however, 60 Emirati activists from Al Islah were apprehended for an alleged coup attempt and the attempt of the establishment of an Islamist state in the UAE. Mindful of the protests in nearby Bahrain, in November 2012 the UAE outlawed online mockery of its government or attempts to organise public protests through social media.\\nOn 29 January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the UAE. Two months later, in March, the government announced the closure of shopping malls, schools, and places of worship, in addition to imposing a 24-hour curfew, and suspending all Emirates passenger flights. This resulted in a major economic downturn, which eventually led to the merger of more than 50% of the UAE's federal agencies.\\nOn 29 August 2020, the UAE established normal diplomatic relations with Israel and with the help of the United States, they signed the Abraham Accords with Bahrain.\\nOn 9 February 2021, the UAE achieved a historic milestone when its probe, named Hope, successfully reached Mars's orbit. The UAE became the first country in the Arab world to reach Mars, the fifth country to successfully reach Mars, and the second country, after an Indian probe, to orbit Mars on its maiden attempt.\\nOn 14 May 2022, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was elected as the UAE's new president after the death of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.\\n\\nGeography\\nThe United Arab Emirates is situated in the Middle East, bordering the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, between Oman and Saudi Arabia; it is in a strategic location slightly south of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital transit point for world crude oil.\\nThe UAE lies between 22°30' and 26°10' north latitude and between 51° and 56°25′ east longitude. It shares a 530-kilometre (330 mi) border with Saudi Arabia on the west, south, and southeast, and a 450-kilometre (280 mi) border with Oman on the southeast and northeast. The land border with Qatar in the Khor Al Adaid area is about nineteen kilometres (12 miles) in the northwest; however, it is a source of ongoing dispute. Following Britain's military departure from the UAE in 1971, and its establishment as a new state, the UAE laid claim to Iranian-occupied islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and the Lesser Tunbs, when Iran captured them during the British rule, resulting in disputes with Iran that remain unresolved. The UAE also disputes claim on other islands against the neighboring state of Qatar. The largest emirate, Abu Dhabi, accounts for 87% of the UAE's total area, 67,340 square kilometres (26,000 sq mi). The smallest emirate, Ajman, encompasses only 259 km2 (100 sq mi).\\nThe UAE coast stretches for nearly 650 km (404 mi) along the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, briefly interrupted by an isolated outcrop of the Sultanate of Oman. Six of the emirates are situated along the Persian Gulf, and the seventh, Fujairah is on the eastern coast of the peninsula with direct access to the Gulf of Oman. Most of the coast consists of salt pans that extend 8–10 km (5.0–6.2 mi) inland. The largest natural harbor is at Dubai, although other ports have been dredged at Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and elsewhere. Numerous islands are found in the Persian Gulf, and the ownership of some of them has been the subject of international disputes with both Iran and Qatar. The smaller islands, as well as many coral reefs and shifting sandbars, are a menace to navigation. Strong tides and occasional windstorms further complicate ship movements near the shore. The UAE also has a stretch of the Al Bāţinah coast of the Gulf of Oman. The Musandam Peninsula, the very tip of Arabia by the Strait of Hormuz, and Madha are exclaves of Oman separated by the UAE.\\n\\nSouth and west of Abu Dhabi, vast, rolling sand dunes merge into the Rub al-Khali (Empty Quarter) of Saudi Arabia. The desert area of Abu Dhabi includes two important oases with adequate underground water for permanent settlements and cultivation. The extensive Liwa Oasis is in the south near the undefined border with Saudi Arabia. About 100 km (62 mi) to the northeast of Liwa is the Al-Buraimi oasis, which extends on both sides of the Abu Dhabi-Oman border. Lake Zakher in Al Ain is a human-made lake near the border with Oman that was created from treated waste water.\\nPrior to withdrawing from the area in 1971, Britain delineated the internal borders among the seven emirates in order to preempt territorial disputes that might hamper formation of the federation. In general, the rulers of the emirates accepted the British interventions, but in the case of boundary disputes between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and also between Dubai and Sharjah, conflicting claims were not resolved until after the UAE became independent. The most complicated borders were in the Western Hajar Mountains, where five of the emirates contested jurisdiction over more than a dozen enclaves.\\n\\nBiodiversity\\nThe UAE contains the following terrestrial ecoregions: Al Hajar montane woodlands and shrublands, Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert, and Al-Hajar foothill xeric woodlands and shrublands.\\nThe oases grow date palms, acacia and eucalyptus trees. In the desert, the flora is very sparse and consists of grasses and thorn bushes. The indigenous fauna had come close to extinction because of intensive hunting, which has led to a conservation program on Sir Bani Yas Island initiated by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in the 1970s, resulting in the survival of, for example, Arabian Oryx, Arabian camel and leopards. Coastal fish and mammals consist mainly of mackerel, perch, and tuna, as well as sharks and whales.\\n\\nClimate\\nThe climate of the UAE is subtropical-arid with hot summers and warm winters. The climate is categorized as desert climate. The hottest months are July and August, when average maximum temperatures reach above 45 °C (113 °F) on the coastal plain. In the Hajar Mountains, temperatures are considerably lower, a result of increased elevation. Average minimum temperatures in January and February are between 10 and 14 °C (50 and 57 °F). During the late summer months, a humid southeastern wind known as Sharqi (i.e. \\\"Easterner\\\") makes the coastal region especially unpleasant. The average annual rainfall in the coastal area is less than 120 mm (4.7 in), but in some mountainous areas annual rainfall often reaches 350 mm (13.8 in). Rain in the coastal region falls in short, torrential bursts during the winter months, sometimes resulting in floods in ordinarily dry wadi beds. The region is prone to occasional, violent dust storms, which can severely reduce visibility.\\nOn 28 December 2004, snow was recorded in the UAE for the first time, in the Jebel Jais mountain cluster in Ras al-Khaimah. A few years later, there were more sightings of snow and hail. The Jebel Jais mountain cluster has experienced snow only twice since records began.\\n\\nGovernment and politics\\nGovernment\\nThe United Arab Emirates is a federal constitutional monarchy made up from a federation of seven hereditary tribal monarchy-styled political units called Sheikhdoms. It is governed by a Federal Supreme Council made up of the ruling Sheikhs of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain. All responsibilities not granted to the federal government are reserved to the individual emirate. A percentage of revenues from each emirate is allocated to the UAE's central budget.\\nThe UAE uses the title Sheikh instead of Emir to refer to the rulers of individual emirates. The title is used due to the sheikhdom styled governing system in adherence to the culture of tribes of Arabia, where Sheikh means leader, elder, or the tribal chief of the clan who partakes in shared decision making with his followers. The president and vice president are elected by the Federal Supreme Council. Usually, the Head of the Al Nahyan family, who are based in Abu Dhabi, holds the presidency and the Head of the Al Maktoum family, based in Dubai, the prime ministership. All prime ministers but one have served concurrently as vice president.\\nThe federal government is composed of three branches:\\n\\nLegislative: A unicameral Federal Supreme Council and the advisory Federal National Council (FNC).\\nExecutive: The President, who is also commander-in-chief of the military, the prime minister and the Council of Ministers.\\nJudicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts.\\nThe UAE e-Government is the extension of the UAE federal government in its electronic form. The UAE's Council of Ministers (Arabic: مجلس الوزراء) is the chief executive branch of the government presided over by the prime minister. The prime minister, who is appointed by the Federal Supreme Council, appoints the ministers. The Council of Ministers is made up of 22 members and manages all internal and foreign affairs of the federation under its constitutional and federal law. In December 2019, the UAE became the only Arab country, and one of only five countries in the world, to attain gender parity in a national legislative body, with its lower house 50 per cent women.\\nThe UAE is the only country in the world that has a Ministry of Tolerance, a Ministry of Happiness, and a Ministry of Artificial Intelligence. The UAE also has a virtual ministry called the Ministry of Possibilities, designed to find solutions to challenges and improve quality of life. The UAE also has a National Youth Council, which is represented in the UAE cabinet by the Minister of Youth.\\nThe UAE legislative body is the Federal National Council which convenes nationwide elections every four years. The FNC consists of 40 members drawn from all the emirates. Each emirate is allocated specific seats to ensure full representation. Half are appointed by the rulers of the constituent emirates, and the other half are elected. By law, the council members have to be equally divided between males and females. The FNC is restricted to a largely consultative role.\\nThe United Arab Emirates is an authoritarian federal monarchy. According to the New York Times, the UAE is \\\"an autocracy with the sheen of a progressive, modern state\\\". The UAE has been described as a \\\"tribal autocracy\\\" where the seven constituent monarchies are led by tribal rulers in an autocratic fashion. There are no democratically elected institutions, and there is no formal commitment to free speech. According to human rights organisations, there are systematic human rights violations, including the torture and forced disappearance of government critics. The UAE ranks poorly in freedom indices measuring civil liberties and political rights. The UAE is annually ranked as \\\"Not Free\\\" in Freedom House's annual Freedom in the World report, which measures civil liberties and political rights. The UAE also ranks poorly in the annual Reporters without Borders' Press Freedom Index. The Bertelsmann Transformation Index describes the UAE as a \\\"moderate monarchy\\\". The country was ranked 91 out of 137 states and is far below the average scoring for development towards a democracy. According to the 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices, the United Arab Emirates is the third least electoral democratic country in the Middle East.\\n\\nAdministrative divisions\\nThe United Arab Emirates comprises seven emirates. The Emirate of Dubai is the most populous emirate with 35.6% of the UAE population. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has 31.2%, meaning that over two-thirds of the UAE population lives in either Abu Dhabi or Dubai.\\nAbu Dhabi has an area of 67,340 square kilometres (26,000 square miles), which is 86.7% of the country's total area, excluding the islands. It has a coastline extending for more than 400 km (250 mi) and is divided for administrative purposes into three major regions. The Emirate of Dubai extends along the Persian Gulf coast of the UAE for approximately 72 km (45 mi). Dubai has an area of 3,885 square kilometres (1,500 square miles), which is equivalent to 5% of the country's total area, excluding the islands. The Emirate of Sharjah extends along approximately 16 km (10 mi) of the UAE's Persian Gulf coastline and for more than 80 km (50 mi) into the interior. The northern emirates which include Fujairah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, and Umm al-Qaiwain all have a total area of 3,881 square kilometres (1,498 square miles). There are two areas under joint control. One is jointly controlled by Oman and Ajman, the other by Fujairah and Sharjah.\\nThere is an Omani exclave surrounded by UAE territory, known as Wadi Madha. It is located halfway between the Musandam peninsula and the rest of Oman in the Emirate of Sharjah. It covers approximately 75 square kilometres (29 square miles) and the boundary was settled in 1969. The north-east corner of Madha is closest to the Khor Fakkan-Fujairah road, barely 10 metres (33 feet) away. Within the Omani exclave of Madha, is a UAE exclave called Nahwa, also belonging to the Emirate of Sharjah. It is about eight kilometres (5.0 miles) on a dirt track west of the town of New Madha. It consists of about forty houses with its own clinic and telephone exchange.\\n\\nForeign relations\\nThe United Arab Emirates has broad diplomatic and commercial relations with most countries and members of the United Nations. It plays a significant role in OPEC, and is one of the founding members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The UAE is a member of the United Nations and several of its specialized agencies (ICAO, ILO, UPU, WHO, WIPO), as well as the World Bank, IMF, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Non-Aligned Movement. Also, it is an observer in the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. Most countries have diplomatic missions in the capital Abu Dhabi with most consulates being in UAE's largest city, Dubai.\\nEmirati foreign relations are motivated to a large extent by identity and relationship to the Arab world. The United Arab Emirates has strong ties with Bahrain, China, Egypt, France, India, Jordan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States.\\nFollowing the British withdrawal from the UAE in 1971 and the establishment of the UAE as a state, the UAE disputed rights to three islands in the Persian Gulf against Iran, namely Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb. The UAE tried to bring the matter to the International Court of Justice, but Iran dismissed the notion. Pakistan was the first country to formally recognise the UAE upon its formation. The UAE alongside multiple Middle Eastern and African countries cut diplomatic ties with Qatar in June 2017 due to allegations of Qatar being a state sponsor of terrorism, resulting in the Qatar diplomatic crisis. Ties were restored in January 2021. The UAE recognized Israel in August 2020, reaching a historic Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement and leading towards full normalization of relations between the two countries.\\nUAE is the 53rd most peaceful country in the world, according to the 2024 Global Peace Index.\\n\\nMilitary\\nThe armed forces of the United Arab Emirates consist of 44,000 active personnel in the Army, 2,500 personnel and 46 ships in the Navy, 4,500 personnel and 386 aircraft in the Air Force, and 12,000 personnel in the Presidential Guard. In 2022 the country spent US$20.4 billion on defense, which is 4% of its GDP. The UAE is considered to have the most capable military among the Gulf states.\\nAlthough initially small in number, the UAE armed forces have grown significantly over the years and are presently equipped with some of the most modern weapon systems, purchased from a variety of western military advanced countries, mainly France, the US, and the UK. Most officers are graduates of the United Kingdom's Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, with others having attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Australia, and St Cyr, the military academy of France. France and the United States have played the most strategically significant roles with defence cooperation agreements and military material provision.\\nSome of the UAE military deployments include an infantry battalion to the United Nations UNOSOM II force in Somalia in 1993, the 35th Mechanised Infantry Battalion to Kosovo, a regiment to Kuwait during the Iraq War, demining operations in Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, American-led intervention in Libya, American-led intervention in Syria, and the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen. The active and effective military role, despite its small active personnel, has led the UAE military to be nicknamed as \\\"Little Sparta\\\" by United States Armed Forces Generals and former US defense secretary James Mattis.\\nThe UAE intervened in the Libyan Civil War in support of General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army in its conflict with the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).\\nExamples of the military assets deployed include the enforcement of the no-fly-zone over Libya by sending six UAEAF F-16 and six Mirage 2000 multi-role fighter aircraft, ground troop deployment in Afghanistan, 30 UAEAF F-16s and ground troops deployment in Southern Yemen, and helping the US launch its first airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria.\\nThe UAE has begun production of a greater amount of military equipment, in a bid to reduce foreign dependence and help with national industrialisation. Example of national military development include the Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding company (ADSB), which produces a range of ships and is a prime contractor in the Baynunah Programme, a programme to design, develop and produce corvettes customised for operation in the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. The UAE is also producing weapons and ammunition through Caracal International, military transport vehicles through Nimr LLC and unmanned aerial vehicles collectively through Emirates Defence Industries Company. The UAE operates the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon F-16E Block 60 unique variant unofficially called \\\"Desert Falcon\\\", developed by General Dynamics with collaboration of the UAE and specifically for the United Arab Emirates Air Force. The United Arab Emirates Army operates a customized Leclerc tank and is the only other operator of the tank aside from the French Army. The largest defence exhibition and conference in the Middle East, International Defence Exhibition, takes place biennially in Abu Dhabi.\\nThe UAE introduced a mandatory military service for adult males, since 2014, for 16 months to expand its reserve force. The highest loss of life in the history of UAE military occurred on Friday 4 September 2015, in which 52 soldiers were killed in Marib area of central Yemen by a Tochka missile which targeted a weapons cache and caused a large explosion.\\n\\nLaw\\nThe United Arab Emirates has a federal court system, and the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah also have local court systems. The UAE's judicial system is derived from the civil law system and Sharia law. The court system consists of civil courts and Sharia courts. Sharia courts have exclusive jurisdiction in Muslim family law matters, while civil courts deal with all other legal matters. Since September 2020, corporal punishment is no longer a legal form of punishment under UAE federal law. Under the decree, legal forms of punishment are retribution and blood money payments, capital punishment, life imprisonment, temporary imprisonment, indefinite detention, and fines. Article 1 of the Federal Penal Code was amended in 2020 to state that Islamic Law applies only to retribution and blood money punishments; previously the article stated that \\\"provisions of the Islamic Law shall apply to the crimes of doctrinal punishment, punitive punishment and blood money.\\\" Before 2020, flogging, stoning, amputation, and crucifixion were technically legal punishments for criminal offences such as adultery, premarital sex, and drug or alcohol use. In recent history, the UAE has declared its intention to move towards a more tolerant legal code, and to phase out corporal punishment altogether in favor of private punishment. With alcohol and cohabitation laws being loosened in advance of the 2020 World Expo, Emirati laws have become increasingly acceptable to visitors from non-Muslim countries.\\n\\nSharia courts have exclusive jurisdiction over Muslim family law matters such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. Muslim women must receive permission from a male guardian to marry and remarry. This requirement is derived from Sharia law and has been federal law since 2005. It is illegal for Muslim women to marry non-Muslims and is punishable by law. Non-Muslim expatriates were liable to Sharia rulings on marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance, however, federal law was changed to introduce non-Sharia personal status law for non-Muslims. Recently, the emirate of Abu Dhabi opened a civil law family court for non-Muslims and Dubai has announced that non-Muslims can opt for civil marriages.\\nApostasy is a technically capital crime in the UAE, however, there are no documented cases of apostates being executed. Blasphemy is illegal; expatriates involved in insulting Islam are liable for deportation.\\nSodomy is illegal and is punishable by a minimum of 6-month imprisonment or a fine or both, but the law does not apply \\\"except on the basis of a complaint from the husband or legal guardian\\\", but the penalty may be suspended if the complaint is waived. In 2013, an Emirati man was on trial for being accused of a \\\"gay handshake\\\".\\nDue to local customs, public shows of affection in certain public places are illegal and could result in deportation, but holding hands is tolerated. Expats in Dubai have been deported for kissing in public. In several cases, the courts of the UAE have jailed women who have reported rape. Federal law in the UAE prohibits swearing on social media.\\nDancing in public is illegal in the UAE. In November 2020, UAE announced that it decriminalised alcohol, lifted the ban on unmarried couples living together, and ended lenient punishment on honor killing. Foreigners living in the Emirates were allowed to follow their native country's laws on divorce and inheritance.\\n\\nHuman rights\\nThe state security apparatus in the UAE has been accused of human rights abuses including forced disappearance, arbitrary arrests and torture. The annual Freedom House report on Freedom in the World has listed the United Arab Emirates as \\\"Not Free\\\" every year since 1999, the first year for which records are available on their website. Freedom of association is also severely curtailed. Associations and NGOs are required to register with the government; however twenty non-political groups were reportedly operating in the country without registration. All associations have to be submitted to censorship guidelines and all publications have first to be approved by the government. In its 2013 Annual Report, Amnesty International criticized the UAE's poor record on human rights issues; highlighting restrictions of freedom of speech and assembly, the use of arbitrary arrest and torture, and the use of the death penalty.\\nThe UAE has escaped the Arab Spring; and since 2011, human rights organizations claim that the government has increasingly carried out forced disappearances. The Arab Organization for Human Rights obtained testimonies from defendants who claimed being kidnapped, tortured and abused in detention centres; they reported 16 methods of torture including beatings, threats with electrocution and denial of medical care. Repressive measures, including deportation, were applied on foreigners based on allegations of attempts to destabilize the country. The issue of sexual abuse among female domestic workers is another area of concern, particularly given that domestic servants are not covered by the UAE labour law of 1980 or the draft labour law of 2007. Worker protests have been suppressed and protesters imprisoned without due process.\\nAmnesty International reported that Qatari men have been abducted by the UAE government and allegedly withheld information about the men's fate from their families. According to some organizations, over 4,000 Shia expatriates have been deported from the UAE; including Lebanese Shia families for their alleged sympathies for Hezbollah. In 2013, 94 Emirati activists were held in secret detention centres and put on trial for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government; a relative of a defendant was arrested for tweeting about the trial, and sentenced to 10 months in jail. The latest forced disappearance involves three sisters from Abu Dhabi.\\nSara Jacobs held foreign actors, including the UAE, responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. She expressed her views in March 2024 visit to the refugee camps, stating the children in Sudan are living with extensive trauma. The US representative also claimed that the war could be quickly ended if the involvement of countries like the UAE is stopped. Jacobs also said that the US is morally obligated to take measures and stop the arms to the Emirates, until the UAE stops providing weapons to the RSF.\\n\\nMigrant workers\\nMigrant workers in the UAE are not allowed to join trade unions or go on strike. Those who strike may risk prison and deportation, as seen in 2014 when dozens of workers were deported for striking. The International Trade Union Confederation has called on the United Nations to investigate evidence that thousands of migrant workers in the UAE are treated as slave labour.\\nIn 2019, an investigation performed by The Guardian revealed that thousands of migrant construction workers employed on infrastructure and building projects for the UAE's Expo 2020 exhibition were working in an unsafe environment. Some were even exposed to potentially fatal situations due to cardiovascular issues. Long hours in the sun made them vulnerable to heat strokes.\\nA report in January 2020 highlighted that the employers in the United Arab Emirates have been exploiting the Indian labor and hiring them on tourist visas, which is easier and cheaper than work permits. These migrant workers are left open to labor abuse, where they also fear reporting exploitation due to their illegal status. Besides, the issue remains unknown as the visit visa data is not maintained in both the UAE and Indian migration and employment records.\\n\\nIn a 22 July 2020 news piece, Reuters reported human rights groups as saying conditions had deteriorated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many migrant workers racked up debt and depended on the help of charities. The report cited salary delays and layoffs as a major risk, in addition to overcrowded living conditions, lack of support and problems linked with healthcare and sick pay. Reuters reported at least 200,000 workers, mostly from India but also from Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nepal, had been repatriated, according to their diplomatic missions.\\nOn 2 May 2020, the Consul General of India in Dubai, Vipul, confirmed that more than 150,000 Indians in the United Arab Emirates registered to be repatriated through the e-registration option provided by Indian consulates in the UAE. According to the figures, 25% of applicants lost their jobs and nearly 15% were stranded in the country due to lockdown. Besides, 50% of the total applicants were from the state of Kerala, India.\\nOn 9 October 2020, The Telegraph reported that many migrant workers were left abandoned, as they lost their jobs amidst the tightening economy due to COVID-19.\\nVarious human rights organisations have raised serious concerns about the alleged abuse of migrant workers by major contractors organising Expo 2020. UAE's business solution provider German Pavilion is also held accountable for abusing migrant workers.\\n\\nEnvironmental policy\\nThe country is a leading oil and gas producer. Its energy consumption per capita is around 370 Gigajoule. \\nThe UAE's carbon dioxide emissions per capita are high, ranking sixth among countries globally. \\nRecently, it made efforts to make itself more sustainable. Those include:\\n\\nSetting a target to reduce GHG emissions by 31% in comparison to business scenario by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.\\nLaunching a program to make the 3 most emissions-intensive sectors, 40% more energy efficient.\\nLaunching some programs related to green building. Retrofitting of 30,000 buildings alone, should cut 1 million tons emissions.\\nPromoting public transport and more.\\nAccording to official sources, in Dubai, \\\"the share of mass transport in people’s mobility increased from 6 per cent in 2006 to 20.61 per cent in 2022.\\\" Together with the USA the country invested 17 billion dollars in sustainable agriculture.\\n\\nEconomy\\nThe United Arab Emirates has developed from a juxtaposition of Bedouin tribes to one of the world's wealthiest states in only about 50 years, boasting one of the highest GDP (PPP) per capita figures in the world. Economic growth has been impressive and steady throughout the history of this young confederation of emirates with brief periods of recessions only, e.g. in the global financial and economic crisis years 2008–09, and a couple of more mixed years starting in 2015 and persisting until 2019. Between 2000 and 2018, average real gross domestic product (GDP) growth was at close to 4%. It is the second largest economy in the GCC (after Saudi Arabia), with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of US$414.2 billion, and a real GDP of 392.8 billion constant 2010 USD in 2018. Since its independence in 1971, the UAE's economy has grown by nearly 231 times to 1.45 trillion AED in 2013. The non-oil trade has grown to 1.2 trillion AED, a growth by around 28 times from 1981 to 2012. Supported by the world's seventh-largest oil reserves and aided by prudent investments coupled with a resolute commitment to economic liberalism and strong governmental oversight, the UAE has witnessed its real GDP increase by more than three times over the past four decades. Presently, the UAE is among the wealthiest countries globally, with GDP per capita nearly 80% higher than the OECD average.\\n\\nAs impressive as economic growth has been in the UAE, the total population has increased from just around 550,000 in 1975 to close to 10 million in 2018. This growth is mainly due to the influx of foreign workers into the country, making the national population a minority. The UAE features a unique labour market system, in which residence in the UAE is conditional on stringent visa rules. This system is a major advantage in terms of macroeconomic stability, as labour supply adjusts quickly to demand throughout economic business cycles. This allows the government to keep unemployment in the country on a very low level of less than 3%, and it also gives the government more leeway in terms of macroeconomic policies – where other governments often need to make trade-offs between fighting unemployment and fighting inflation.\\nBetween 2014 and 2018, the accommodation and food, education, information and communication, arts and recreation, and real estate sectors overperformed in terms of growth, whereas the construction, logistics, professional services, public, and oil and gas sectors underperformed.\\n\\nBusiness and finance\\nThe UAE offers businesses a strong enabling environment: stable political and macroeconomic conditions, a future-oriented government, good general infrastructure and ICT infrastructure. Moreover, the country has made continuous and convincing improvements to its regulatory environment and is ranked as the 26th best country in the world for doing business by the Doing Business 2017 Report published by the World Bank Group. The UAE are in the top ranks of several other global indices, such as the World Economic Forum's (WEF), Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), the World Happiness Report (WHR) and 32nd in the Global Innovation Index in 2024. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), for example, assigns the UAE rank two regionally in terms of business environment and 22 worldwide. From the 2018 Arab Youth Survey the UAE emerges as the top Arab country in areas such as living, safety and security, economic opportunities, and starting a business, and as an example for other states to emulate.\\nThe weaker points remain the level of education across the UAE population, limitations in the financial and labour markets, barriers to trade and some regulations that hinder business dynamism. The major challenge for the country, though, remains translating investments and strong enabling conditions into innovation and creative outputs.\\nUAE law does not allow trade unions to exist. The right to collective bargaining and the right to strike are not recognised, and the Ministry of Labour has the power to force workers to go back to work. Migrant workers who participate in a strike can have their work permits cancelled and be deported. Consequently, there are very few anti-discrimination laws in relation to labour issues, with Emiratis – and other GCC Arabs – getting preference in public sector jobs despite lesser credentials than competitors and lower motivation. In fact, just over eighty per cent of Emirati workers hold government posts, with many of the rest taking part in state-owned enterprises such as Emirates airlines and Dubai Properties. Western states, including the United Kingdom, were also warned by the Emirati Trade Minister, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, to keep politics separate from trade and the economy, as it dilutes the agreements' main objectives. In 2023, Al Zeyoudi indicated that these countries should \\\"tone down\\\" the human and workers' rights provisions in the trade deals, in order to gain greater market access and business opportunities.\\nThe UAE's monetary policy stresses stability and predictability. The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) keeps a peg to the US Dollar (USD) and moves interest rates close to the Federal Funds Rate.\\nAccording to Fitch Ratings, the decline in property sector follows risks of progressively worsening the quality of assets in possession with UAE banks, leading the economy to rougher times ahead. Even though as compared to retail and property, UAE banks fared well. The higher US interest rates followed since 2016 – which the UAE currency complies to – have boosted profitability. However, the likelihood of plunging interest rates and increasing provisioning costs on bad loans, point to difficult times ahead for the economy.\\n\\nSince 2015, economic growth has been more mixed due to a number of factors impacting both demand and supply. In 2017 and 2018 growth has been positive but on a low level of 0.8 and 1.4%, respectively. To support the economy the government is currently following an expansionary fiscal policy. However, the effects of this policy are partially offset by monetary policy, which has been contractionary. If not for the fiscal stimulus in 2018, the UAE economy would probably have contracted in that year. One of the factors responsible for slower growth has been a credit crunch, which is due to, among other factors, higher interest rates. Government debt has remained on a low level, despite high deficits in a few recent years. Risks related to government debt remain low. Inflation has been picking up in 2017 and 2018. Contributing factors were the introduction of a value added tax (VAT) of 5% in 2018 as well as higher commodity prices. Despite the government's expansionary fiscal policy and a growing economy in 2018 and at the beginning of 2019, prices have been dropping in late 2018 and 2019 owing to oversupply in some sectors of importance to consumer prices.\\nThe UAE has an attractive tax system for companies and wealthy individuals, making it a preferred destination for companies seeking tax avoidance. The NGO Tax Justice Network places them in 2021 in the group of the ten largest tax havens. In 2023, the UAE's legal system fell under international scrutiny, as the members of the British Parliament opened an inquiry into how the foreign business executives are treated in the country, in case of accusations of breaking the law.\\n2024 will be the third consecutive year that the UAE holds first place as the world's leading wealth magnet, as 6,700 wealthy migrants are set to move to the country.\\n\\nVAT\\nThe UAE government implemented value-added tax (VAT) in the country from January 1, 2018, at a standard rate of 5%.\\nWhile the government may still adjust the exact arrangement of the VAT, it is not likely that any new taxes will be introduced in the foreseeable future. Additional taxes would destroy one of the UAE's main enticements for businesses to operate in the country and put a heavy burden on the economy.\\n\\nEnergy\\nOil and gas production is an important part of the economy of the UAE. In 2018, the oil and gas sector contributed 26% to overall GDP. \\nThe UAE leadership initiated economic diversification efforts even before the oil price crash in the 1980s, resulting in the UAE having the most diversified economy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at present. Although the oil and gas sector continues to be significant to the UAE economy, these efforts have yielded great resilience during periods of oil price fluctuations and economic turbulence.\\nThe introduction of the VAT has provided the government with an additional source of income – approximately 6% of the total revenue in 2018, or 27 billion United Arab Emirates dirham (AED) – affording its fiscal policy more independence from oil- and gas-related revenue, which constitutes about 36% of the total government revenue. \\nThe Barakah nuclear power plant is the first on the Arabian peninsula and expected to reduce the carbon footprint of the country.\\nThe UAE has solar generation potential, and its energy policy has shifted due to the declining price of solar. The Dubai Clean Energy Strategy aims to provide 7 per cent of Dubai's energy from clean energy sources by 2020. It will increase this target to 25 per cent by 2030 and 75 per cent by 2050.\\nIn 2023, ADNOC and its CEO Sultan Al Jaber closed at least 20 business deals worth nearly $100 billion. The state oil firm was alleged of exploiting the UAE’s COP28 presidency to pursue oil and gas deals. As per leaked documents, Al Jaber’s team targeted 16 nations to lobby firms, delegates or ministers on such deals. ADNOC sought deals with companies from 12 countries, which included 11 of the 16 target nations. Al Jaber and senior ADNOC officials openly discussed deals. COP28 organising teams were excluded from meetings and replaced by ADNOC officials, leaving a closed group that made deals.\\n\\nTourism\\nTourism acts as a growth sector for the entire UAE economy. Dubai is the top tourism destination in the Middle East. According to the annual MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index, Dubai is the fifth most popular tourism destination in the world. Dubai holds up to 66% share of the UAE's tourism economy, with Abu Dhabi having 16% and Sharjah 10%. Dubai welcomed 10 million tourists in 2013.\\nThe UAE has the most advanced and developed infrastructure in the region. Since the 1980s, the UAE has been spending billions of dollars on infrastructure. These developments are particularly evident in the larger emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The northern emirates are rapidly following suit, providing major incentives for developers of residential and commercial property.\\nThe inbound tourism expenditure in the UAE for 2019 accounted for 118.6 per cent share of the outbound tourism expenditure. Since 6 January 2020, tourist visas to the United Arab Emirates are valid for five years. It has been projected that the travel and tourism industry will contribute about 280.6 billion United Arab Emirati dirham to the UAE's GDP by 2028.\\nThe country's major tourist attraction includes the famous Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest tower in the world; The World archipelago and Palm Jumeirah also in Dubai; Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi; Al Hajar Mountains in Fujairah. The uniqueness of the country's natural desert life, especially with the Bedouins, also facilitates the country's tourist industry.\\n\\nTransport\\nDubai International Airport became the busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic in 2014, overtaking London Heathrow.\\n\\nAbu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, and Ras Al Khaimah are connected by the E11 highway, which is the longest road in the UAE. In Dubai, in addition to the Dubai Metro, The Dubai Tram and Palm Jumeirah Monorail also connect specific parts of the city. There is also a bus, taxi, abra (traditional boat) and water taxi network run by RTA. T1, a double-decker tram system in Downtown Dubai, were operational from 2015 to 2019.\\nSalik, meaning \\\"open\\\" or \\\"clear\\\", is Dubai's electronic toll collection system that was launched in July 2007 and is part of Dubai's traffic congestion management system. Each time one passes through a Salik tolling point, a toll is deducted from the drivers' prepaid toll account using advanced Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. There are four Salik tolling points placed in strategic locations in Dubai: at Al Maktoum Bridge, Al Garhoud Bridge, and along Sheikh Zayed Road at Al Safa and Al Barsha.\\n\\nA 1,200 km (750 mi) country-wide railway is under construction which will connect all the major cities and ports. The Dubai Metro is the first urban train network in the Arabian Peninsula.\\nThe major ports of the United Arab Emirates are Khalifa Port, Zayed Port, Port Jebel Ali, Port Rashid, Port Khalid, Port Saeed, and Port Khor Fakkan. The Emirates are increasingly developing their logistics and ports in order to participate in trade between Europe and China or Africa. For this purpose, ports are being rapidly expanded and investments are being made in their technology.\\nThe Emirates have historically been and currently still are part of the Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast to the south via the southern tip of India to Mombasa, from there through the Red Sea via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region and the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its rail connections to Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the North Sea.\\n\\nTelecommunications\\nThe United Arab Emirates is served by two telecommunications operators, Etisalat and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (\\\"du\\\"). Etisalat operated a monopoly until du launched mobile services in February 2007. Internet subscribers were expected to increase from 0.904 million in 2007 to 2.66 million in 2012. The regulator, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, mandates filtering websites for religious, political and sexual content.\\n5G wireless services were installed nationwide in 2019 through a partnership with Huawei.\\n\\nCompetitiveness\\nIn June 2024 it was reported, that the UAE has moved up three place to the 7th place among the top 10 countries in the IMD World Competitiveness. This ranking is issued by the World Competitiveness Centre of the Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland.\\n\\nDemographics\\nAccording to an estimate by the World Bank, the UAE's population in 2020 was 9,890,400. Immigrants accounted for 88.52% while Emiratis made up the remaining 11.48%. This unique imbalance is due to the country's exceptionally high net migration rate of 21.71, the world's highest. UAE citizenship is very difficult to obtain other than by filiation and only granted under very special circumstances.\\n\\nThe UAE is ethnically diverse. The five most populous nationalities in the emirates of Dubai, Sharjah, and Ajman are Indian (25%), Pakistani (12%), Emirati (9%), Bangladeshi (7%), and Filipino (5%). Immigrants from Europe, Australia, North America make up 500,000 of the population. 250,000 British nationals live in the country. The rest of the population are from other Arab states.\\nAbout 88% of the population of the United Arab Emirates is urban. The average life expectancy was 76.7 in 2012, higher than for any other Arab country. With a male/female sex ratio of 2.2 males for each female in the total population and 2.75 to 1 for the 15–65 age group, the UAE's gender imbalance is second highest in the world after Qatar.\\n\\nLargest cities\\nLanguage\\nModern Standard Arabic is the national language of the United Arab Emirates. English is the most commonly spoken language, whereas Emirati Arabic, a variety of Gulf Arabic, is spoken natively by Emirati people.\\n\\nReligion\\nIslam is the largest and the official state religion of the United Arab Emirates. The government follows a policy of tolerance toward other religions and rarely interferes in the religious activities of non-Muslims.\\nThere are more Sunni than Shia Muslims in the United Arab Emirates, and 85% of the Emirati population are Sunni Muslims. The vast majority of the remainder 15% are Shia Muslims, who are concentrated in the Emirates of Dubai and Sharjah. Although no official statistics are available for the breakdown between Sunni and Shia Muslims among noncitizen residents, media estimates suggest less than 20% of the noncitizen Muslim population are Shia. The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is the largest mosque in the country and a major tourist attraction. Ibadi is common among Omanis in the UAE, while Sufi influences exist as well.\\nChristians account for 9% of the total population of the United Arab Emirates, according to the 2005 census; estimates in 2010 suggested a figure of 12.6%. Roman Catholics and Protestants form significant proportions of the Christian minority. The country has over 52 churches in 2023. Many Christians in the United Arab Emirates are of Asian, African, and European origin, along with fellow Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. The United Arab Emirates forms part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia and the Vicar Apostolic Bishop Paul Hinder is based in Abu Dhabi.\\nThere is a small Jewish community in the United Arab Emirates. Before 2023, there was only one known synagogue in Dubai, which has been open since 2008 and the synagogue also welcomes visitors. Another synagogue, Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue was completed in 2023 as part of the Abrahamic Family House complex in Abu Dhabi. As of 2019, according to Rabbi Marc Schneier of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, it is estimated that there are about 150 families to 3,000 Jews who live and worship freely in the UAE.\\n\\nSouth Asians in the United Arab Emirates constitute the largest ethnic group in the country. Over 2 million Indian migrants (mostly from the southern states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Coastal Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) are estimated to be living in the UAE. There are currently three Hindu temples in the country. Other religions also exist in the United Arab Emirates, including Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Judaism, Baháʼís and Druze.\\nThe UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Abdullah bin Zayed, announced in 2019 the design and construction plan of the Abrahamic Family House, which will serve as an interfaith complex that houses a synagogue, mosque, and a church on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.\\n\\nEducation\\nThe education system through secondary level administered by the Ministry of Education in all emirates except Abu Dhabi, where it falls under the authority of the Department of Education and Knowledge. Public schools are divided into primary schools, middle schools and high schools. The public schools are government-funded and the curriculum is created to match the United Arab Emirates' development goals. The medium of instruction in the public school is Arabic with emphasis on English as a second language. There are also many private schools which are internationally accredited. Public schools in the country are free for citizens of the UAE, while the fees for private schools vary.\\nThe higher education system is monitored by the Ministry of Higher Education. The ministry also is responsible for admitting students to its undergraduate institutions. The adult literacy rate in 2015 was 93.8%.\\nThe UAE has shown a strong interest in improving education and research. Enterprises include the establishment of the CERT Research Centres and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and Institute for Enterprise Development. According to the QS Rankings, the top-ranking universities in the country are the United Arab Emirates University (421–430th worldwide), Khalifa University (441–450th worldwide), the American University of Sharjah (431–440th) and University of Sharjah (551–600th worldwide). United Arab Emirates was ranked 33rd in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, up from 36th in 2019.\\n\\nHealth\\nThe life expectancy at birth in the UAE is at 76.96 years. Cardiovascular disease is the principal cause of death in the UAE, constituting 28% of total deaths; other major causes are accidents and injuries, malignancies, and congenital anomalies. According to World Health Organization data from 2016, 34.5% of adults in the UAE are clinically obese, with a body mass index (BMI) score of 30 or more.\\nIn February 2008, the Ministry of Health unveiled a five-year health strategy for the public health sector in the northern emirates, which fall under its purview and which, unlike Abu Dhabi and Dubai, do not have separate healthcare authorities. The strategy focuses on unifying healthcare policy and improving access to healthcare services at reasonable cost, at the same time reducing dependence on overseas treatment. The ministry plans to add three hospitals to the current 14, and 29 primary healthcare centres to the current 86. Nine were scheduled to open in 2008.\\nThe introduction of mandatory health insurance in Abu Dhabi for expatriates and their dependents was a major driver in reform of healthcare policy. Abu Dhabi nationals were brought under the scheme from 1 June 2008 and Dubai followed for its government employees. Eventually, under federal law, every Emirati and expatriate in the country will be covered by compulsory health insurance under a unified mandatory scheme.\\nThe country has benefited from medical tourists from all over the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. The UAE attracts medical tourists seeking cosmetic surgery and advanced procedures, cardiac and spinal surgery, and dental treatment, as health services have higher standards than other Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.\\n\\nCulture\\nEmirati culture is based on Arabian culture and has been influenced by the cultures of Persia, India, and East Africa. Arabian and Arabian inspired architecture is part of the expression of the local Emirati identity. Arabian influence on Emirati culture is noticeably visible in traditional Emirati architecture and folk arts. For example, the distinctive wind tower that tops traditional Emirati buildings, the barjeel, has become an identifying mark of Emirati architecture and is attributed to Arabian influence. This influence is derived both from traders who fled the tax regime in Persia in the early 19th century and from Emirati ownership of ports on the Arabian coast, for instance the Al Qassimi port of Lingeh.\\nThe United Arab Emirates has a diverse society. Dubai's economy depends more on international trade and tourism, and is more open to visitors, while Abu Dhabi society is more domestic as the city's economy is focused on fossil fuel extraction.\\nMajor holidays in the United Arab Emirates include Eid al Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and National Day (2 December), which marks the formation of the United Arab Emirates. Emirati males prefer to wear a kandura, an ankle-length white tunic woven from wool or cotton, and Emirati women wear an abaya, a black over-garment that covers most parts of the body.\\nThe earliest known poet in the UAE is Ibn Majid, born between 1432 and 1437 in Ras Al-Khaimah. The most famous Emirati writers were Mubarak Al Oqaili (1880–1954), Salem bin Ali al Owais (1887–1959) and Ahmed bin Sulayem (1905–1976). Three other poets from Sharjah, known as the Hirah group, are observed to have been heavily influenced by the Apollo and Romantic poets. The Sharjah International Book Fair is the oldest and largest in the country.\\nThe list of museums in the United Arab Emirates includes some of regional repute, most famously Sharjah with its Heritage District containing 17 museums, which in 1998 was the Cultural Capital of the Arab World. In Dubai, the area of Al Quoz has attracted a number of art galleries as well as museums such as the Salsali Private Museum. Abu Dhabi has established a culture district on Saadiyat Island. Six grand projects are planned, including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Dubai also plans to build a Kunsthal museum and a district for galleries and artists.\\nEmirati culture is a part of the culture of Eastern Arabia. Liwa is a type of music and dance performed locally, mainly in communities that contain descendants of Bantu peoples from the African Great Lakes region. The Dubai Desert Rock Festival is also another major festival consisting of heavy metal and rock artists. The cinema of the United Arab Emirates is minimal but expanding.\\n\\nMedia\\nThe UAE's media is annually classified as \\\"not free\\\" in the Freedom of the Press report by Freedom House. The UAE ranks poorly in the annual Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders. Dubai Media City is the UAE's main media zone. The UAE is home to some pan-Arab broadcasters, including the Middle East Broadcasting Centre and Orbit Showtime Network. In 2007, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum decreed that journalists can no longer be prosecuted or imprisoned for reasons relating to their work. At the same time, the UAE has made it illegal to disseminate online material that can threaten \\\"public order\\\", and hands down prison terms for those who \\\"deride or damage\\\" the reputation of the state and \\\"display contempt\\\" for religion. Journalists who are arrested for violating this law are often brutally beaten by the police.\\nAccording to UAE Year Book 2013, there are seven Arabic newspapers and eight English language newspapers, as well as a Tagalog newspaper produced and published in the UAE.\\nNew media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are used widely in the UAE by the government entities and by the public as well. The UAE government avails official social media accounts to communicate with public and hear their needs.\\nIn recent years, there has been a notable surge in digital media consumption in the UAE, driven by the widespread use of platforms like Snapchat and TikTok among the younger population. Influencers on these platforms play a significant role in shaping trends and promoting various products and services. The government has also implemented digital initiatives to enhance e-Government services and promote smart city concepts, further demonstrating the UAE's commitment to technological advancements.\\n\\nCuisine\\nThe traditional food of the Emirates has always been rice, fish, and meat. The people of the United Arab Emirates have adopted most of their foods from other West and South Asian countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Pakistan and India. Seafood has been the mainstay of the Emirati diet for centuries. Meat and rice are other staple foods, with lamb and mutton preferred to goat and beef. Popular beverages are coffee and tea, which can be complemented with cardamom or saffron to give them a distinctive flavour.\\nPopular cultural Emirati dishes include threed, machboos, khubisa, khameer and chabab bread among others while lugaimat is a famous Emirati dessert.\\nWith the influence of western culture, fast food has become very popular among young people, to the extent that campaigns have been held to highlight the dangers of fast food excesses. Alcohol is allowed to be served only in hotel restaurants and bars. All nightclubs are permitted to sell alcohol. Specific supermarkets may sell alcohol, but these products are sold in separate sections. Likewise, pork, which is haram (not permitted for Muslims), is sold in separate sections in all major supermarkets. Although alcohol may be consumed, it is illegal to be intoxicated in public or drive a motor vehicle with any trace of alcohol in the blood.\\n\\nSports\\nFormula One is particularly popular in the United Arab Emirates, and a Grand Prix is annually held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The race takes place in the evening, and was the first ever Grand Prix to start in daylight and finish at night. Other popular sports include camel racing, falconry, endurance riding, and tennis. The emirate of Dubai is also home to two major golf courses: the Dubai Golf Club and Emirates Golf Club.\\nIn the past, child camel jockeys were used, leading to widespread criticism. Eventually, the UAE passed laws banning the use of children for the sport, leading to the prompt removal of almost all child jockeys. Recently robot jockeys have been introduced to overcome the problem of child camel jockeys which was an issue of human rights violations. Ansar Burney is often praised for the work he has done in this area.\\n\\nFootball\\nFootball is a popular sport in the UAE. Al Nasr, Al Ain, Al Wasl, Sharjah, Al Wahda, and Shabab Al Ahli are the most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time regional champions. The United Arab Emirates Football Association was established in 1971 and since then has dedicated its time and effort to promoting the game, organising youth programmes and improving the abilities of not only its players, but also the officials and coaches involved with its regional teams. The UAE qualified for the FIFA World Cup in 1990, along with Egypt. It was the third consecutive World Cup with two Arab nations qualifying, after Kuwait and Algeria in 1982, and Iraq and Algeria again in 1986. The UAE has won the Gulf Cup Championship twice: the first cup won in January 2007 held in Abu Dhabi and the second in January 2013, held in Bahrain. The country hosted the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. The UAE team went all the way to the semi-finals, where they were defeated by the eventual champions, Qatar.\\n\\nCricket\\nCricket is one of the most popular sports in the UAE, largely because of the expatriate population from the SAARC countries, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The headquarters of the International Cricket Council (ICC) have been located in the Dubai Sports City complex since 2005, including the ICC Academy which was established in 2009. There are a number of international cricket venues in the UAE, which are frequently used for international tournaments and \\\"neutral\\\" bilateral series due to the local climate and Dubai's status as a transport hub. Notable international tournaments hosted by the UAE have included the 2014 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, and three editions of the Asia Cup (1984, 1995 and 2018). Notable grounds include the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium in Sharjah, Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, and Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai.\\nThe Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) became a member of the ICC in 1990. The UAE national cricket team has qualified for the Cricket World Cup on two occasions (1996 and 2015) and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup on two occasions (2014 and 2022). The national women's team is similarly one of the strongest associate teams in Asia, notably participating in the 2018 ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier.\\nFollowing the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team, the UAE served as the de facto home of the Pakistan national cricket team for nearly a decade, as well as hosting the Pakistan Super League. The UAE has also hosted one full edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2020 and two partial editions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2014 and 2021.\\n\\nSee also\\nList of United Arab Emirates–related topics\\nOutline of the United Arab Emirates\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nExternal links\\n\\nGovernment portal of the United Arab Emirates Archived 24 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine, (U.AE)\\nThe World Government Summit – UAE\\nThe 2020 World Exposition in UAE\\nUnited Arab Emirates. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.\\nUnited Arab Emirates web resources provided by GovPubs at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries\\nUnited Arab Emirates at Curlie\\nUnited Arab Emirates profile from the BBC News.\\n Wikimedia Atlas of United Arab Emirates\\nWorld Bank Summary Trade Statistics United Arab Emirates\\nTimeline of the United Arab Emirates History from Bronze Age to present day\",\n \"title\": \"United_Arab_Emirates\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 5,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The United Arab Emirates is a high-income developing market economy. The UAE's economy is the 4th largest in the Middle East (after Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel), with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$415 billion (AED 1.83 trillion) in 2021-2023.\\nThe UAE economy is heavily reliant on revenues from petroleum and natural gas, especially in Abu Dhabi. In 2009, more than 85% of the UAE's economy was based on the oil exports. In 2011, oil exports accounted for 77% of the UAE's state budget. In recent years, there has been some economic diversification, particularly in Dubai. Abu Dhabi and other UAE emirates have remained relatively conservative in their approach to diversification. Dubai has far smaller oil reserves than its counterparts.\\nTourism is one of the biggest non-oil sources of revenue in the UAE. A massive construction boom, an expanding manufacturing base, and a thriving services sector are helping the country to diversify its economy. Nationwide, there is currently US $350 billion worth of active construction projects.\\nThe UAE is a member of the World Trade Organization and OPEC.\\n\\nEconomic overview\\nUAE has the second-largest economy in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia), with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$414 billion (AED 1.52 trillion) in 2018. A third of the GDP is from oil revenues. The economy was expected to grow 4–4.5% in 2013, compared to 2.3–3.5% over the previous five years. Since independence in 1971, UAE's economy has grown by nearly 231 times to AED1.45 trillion in 2013. The non-oil trade has grown to AED1.2 trillion, a growth of around 28 times from 1981 to 2012.\\nThe UAE's economy is one of the most open worldwide, and its economic history goes back to the times when ships sailed to India, along the Swahili coast, as far south as Mozambique.\\nThe UAE economy has been ‘inspected’ by international economic institutions on a regular basis, generally receiving good reports on economic developments. International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected UAE's economic growth to increase to 4.5% in 2015, compared to 4.3% in 2014. The IMF ascribed UAE's potentially strong economic growth in World Economic Outlook Report to the increased contribution of non-petroleum sectors, which registered a growth average of more than 6% in 2014 and 2015. Such contribution includes banking, tourism, commerce and real estate. Increase of Emirati purchasing power and governmental expenditures in infrastructure projects have considerably increased.\\nInternationally, UAE is ranked among the top 20 for global service business, according to AT Kearney, the top 30 on the WEF \\\"most-networked countries\\\" and in the top quarter as a least corrupt country per the TI's corruption index.\\nThe government of the United Arab Emirates announced a broad restructuring and merger of more than 50% of its federal agencies, including ministries and departments, in an attempt to deal with and recover from the economic shocks following months-long coronavirus lockdown.\\n\\nHistorical background\\nBefore independence from the United Kingdom and unification in 1971, each emirate was responsible for its own economy. At the time, pearl diving, seafaring and fishing were together the mainstay of the economy, until the development of Japanese cultured pearls and the discovery of commercial quantities of oil. Previous UAE President Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan is credited with bringing the country forward into the 20th century and using the revenue from oil exports to fund all the necessary development. Likewise, former UAE vice-president Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum had a bold vision for the Emirate of Dubai and foresaw the future in not petroleum alone, but also other industries.\\nIn the 1980s Dubai's diversification centred around trade and the creation of shipping and logistics centres, notably Port Rashid and the port and Free Zone of Jebel Ali as well as Dubai International Airport, leading to a number of major global plays in shipping, transportation and logistics (DP World, Emirates, DNATA).\\n\\nRecent history\\nThe emergence of Dubai's lively real estate market was briefly checked by the global financial crisis of 2007–8, when Dubai was bailed out by Abu Dhabi. The recovery from the overheated market led to tighter regulation and oversight and a more realistic market for real estate throughout the UAE with many 'on hold' projects restarting. Although the market continues to expand, current market conditions for developers have been characterised as 'tough'.\\nAs a result of COVID-19 pandemic, the UAE’s economy shrank by 6.1% in 2020. The country’s account balance dropped to six per cent of GDP in 2020 from 8.5 per cent in 2019 due to the underperformance of both hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon exports mitigated by lower imports.\\nIn late 2021, the authority announced that UAE’s banking assets are expected to grow by between 8 per cent and 10 per cent in 2022 as the second-biggest Arab economy continues to recover from the covid-19 pandemic. It was also announced the UAE’s economy might grow at a faster than projected rate, reaching 4.6% in 2022.\\n\\nData\\nThe following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2024 (with IMF estimates between 2022-2028).\\n\\nExternal trade\\nWith imports totaling $273.5 billion in 2012, UAE passed Saudi Arabia as the largest consumer market in the region. Exports totaled $314 billion, making UAE the second largest exporter in the region.\\nUAE and India are each other's main trading partners, with the latter having many of its citizens working and living in the former. The trade totals over $75 billion (AED275.25 billion).\\nIn 2021, the main export partners of the UAE were India (14.2%), Japan (8.3%), China (mainland) (7.7%), Saudi Arabia (7.5%), Iraq (4.8%), Singapore (4.0%), the European Union (4.0%), Oman (3.8%), Hong Kong (3.4%), and Thailand (3.0%).\\nThe main import partners in 2012 were China (17.3%), the European Union (12.1%), India (9.4%), the United States (5.5%), Saudi Arabia (5.2%), the United Kingdom (2.8%), Mali (2.7%), Japan (2.6%), Turkey (2.1%), and Vietnam (2.0%).\\n\\nDiversification of UAE's economy\\nAlthough UAE has the most diversified economy in the GCC, the UAE's economy remains extremely reliant on oil. With the exception of Dubai, most of the UAE is dependent on oil revenues. Petroleum and natural gas continue to play a central role in the economy, especially in Abu Dhabi. More than 85% of the UAE's economy was based on the oil exports in 2009. While Abu Dhabi and other UAE emirates have remained relatively conservative in their approach to diversification, Dubai, which has far smaller oil reserves, was bolder in its diversification policy. In 2011, oil exports accounted for 77% of the UAE's state budget.\\nDubai suffered from a significant economic crisis in 2007–2010 and was bailed out by Abu Dhabi's oil wealth. Dubai's current prosperity has been attributed to Abu Dhabi's petrodollars. In 2014, Dubai owed a total of $142 billion in debt. The UAE government has worked towards reducing the economy's dependence on oil exports by 2030. Various projects are underway to help achieve this, the most recent being the Khalifa Port, opened in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi at the end of 2012. The UAE has also won the right to host the World Expo 2020, which is believed to have a positive effect on future growth, although there are some skeptics which mention the opposite.\\nOver the decades, the Emirate of Dubai has started to look for additional sources of revenue. High-class tourism and international finance continue to be developed. In line with this initiative, the Dubai International Financial Centre was announced, offering 55.5% foreign ownership, no withholding tax, freehold land and office space and a tailor-made financial regulatory system with laws taken from best practice in other leading financial centers like New York, London, Zürich and Singapore. A new stock market for regional companies and other initiatives were announced in DIFC. Dubai has also developed Internet and Media free zones, offering 100% foreign ownership, no tax office space for the world's leading ICT and media companies, with the latest communications infrastructure to service them. Many of the world's leading companies have now set up branch offices, and even changed headquarters to, there. Recent liberalization in the property market allowing non citizens to buy freehold land has resulted in a major boom in the construction and real estate sectors, with several signature developments such as the 2 Palm Islands, the World (archipelago), Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Lake Towers, and a number of other developments, offering villas and high rise apartments and office space. Emirates (part of the Emirates Group) was formed by the Dubai Government in the 1980s and is presently one of the few airlines to witness strong levels of growth. Emirates is also the largest operator of the Airbus A380 aircraft. As of 2001, budgeted government revenues were about AED 29.7 billion, and expenditures were about AED 22.9 billion. In addition, to finding new ways of sustaining the national economy, the UAE has also made progress in installing new, sustainable methods of generating electricity. This is evidenced by various solar energy initiatives at Masdar City and by other renewable energy developments in parts of the country.\\nIn addition, the UAE is starting to see the emergence of local manufacturing as new source of economic development, examples of significant government-led investments such as Strata in aerospace industry, under Mubadala are successful, while there are also small scale entrepreneurial ventures picking up, such as Zarooq Motors in the automotive industry.\\nIn August 2020, the Barakah nuclear power plant, the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world, became operational.\\nIn its hard push for economic diversification, the UAE had been increasing its presence in Africa. One of the areas of interest had been clean energy, for which Abu Dhabi’s Masdar built infrastructure, including five wind farms in South Africa, a battery energy storage system in Senegal and solar power facilities in Mauritania. Emirati companies were also investing in fossil fuels, where ADNOC purchased 10% stakes in Mozambique’s Rovuma gas basin. UAE’s e& also established a foothold in around 12 countries across Africa. The Emirati companies also entered the mining sector, where Tahnoun bin Zayed’s International Holding Company expressed investment interests in mines in Kenya, Tanzania and Angola. However, certain investments had also been controversial. Tanzanian authorities were alleged of forcing several Maasai off their land for a safari and hunting project of an Emirati firm. A Dubai-based firm, Blue Carbon signed preliminary agreements in Liberia, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, aiming to generate carbon credits. However, it was accused of attempting to acquire millions of hectares of African forests in a greenwashing attempt. Meanwhile, DP World also invested around $3bn into Africa, and is operating ports from Mozambique in the south to Algeria in the north and Angola on the Atlantic. The Emirates had also been alleged of controversial actions in the war zones in Africa, including in Libya and Sudan.\\n\\nForeign trade\\nConcerning foreign trade, UAE's market is one of the world's most dynamic markets worldwide, placed among the 16 largest exporters and 20 largest importers of commodities. The top five of the Main Partner Countries of the UAE in 2014 are Iran (3.0%), India (2.9%), Saudi Arabia (1.5%), Oman (1.4%) and Switzerland (1.2%). As for the top five of UAE suppliers are China (7.4%), United States (6.4%), India (5.8%), Germany (3.9%) and Japan (3.5%).\\n\\nIn 2014, the United Arab Emirates managed to export 380.4bn dominated by four products which are Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous... (19.8%) Diamonds, whether or not worked, but not mounted... (3.4%) Gold in UAE(3.2%) incl. gold plated with platinum, unwrought...Articles of jewellery and parts thereof, of...(2.8%). In the same year, the United Arab Emirates imported 298.6 bn dominated by five countries which are China (7.4%), United States (6.4%), India (5.8%), Germany (3.9%), Japan (3.5%).\\nOn one hand, the United Arab Emirates managed in 2013 to export 17 bn USD services exported in 2013 dominated by travel (67.13%), transportation (28.13%), Government services (4.74%). On the other hand, it imported 63.9 bn USD of services imported services dominated by transportation (70.68%), travel (27.70%) and government services (1.62%).\\nIn September 2021, the UAE announced its plans to aggravate its trade ties with other economies, particularly in Asia and Africa. The country indicated that it was looking for inward foreign investments of around $150 billion in the next nine years, that is, by 2030. The Emirates aimed to be one of the world’s ten biggest investment nations. However, it had to face strong competition from its neighbor, Saudi Arabia, creating a broader gap in the once-assumed alliance between the two countries. The Emirati minister of state for foreign trade said, \\\"Let the Saudis increase the competition. It means the pie is going to be bigger and having a bigger pie means that the UAE share out of this pie is going to be bigger.\\\"\\nThe EU identified that the Emirati firms were involved in direct trade of weapon components to Russia. The EU sanctions targeted two UAE-based companies, I Jet Global and Success Aviation Services, which were exporting dual-use goods. The EU warned that countries that will be used for Russia’s benefit could face a total ban on imports from the EU military and high tech kit. Besides, a trade war with UAE was expected, if it continued trade with Russia.\\nThe United Arab Emirates has introduced significant changes to its regulations concerning the promotion and distribution of foreign investment funds within the country. As part of these changes, encapsulated in several decisions by the Securities and Commodities Authority, is that foreign-owned funds can no longer directly advertise or distribute units publicly in the UAE. Instead, these activities are confined to private distribution aimed at Professional Investors and/or Market Counterparties. This shift signifies a strategic move to tighten the circumstances under which foreign funds can interact with UAE-based investors, particularly Retail Customers and Professional Investors, underscoring a push towards a more regulated investment environment.\\nThese regulatory updates have also led to changes in the distribution to Professional Investors, as they are now no longer exempt under the Securities and Commodities Authority Rulebook. Only firms licensed by the SCA to conduct the regulated activity of \\\"Promotion\\\" are now permitted to promote such funds, and only on a private placement basis. Furthermore, the promotion or distribution of foreign funds to retail investors is outright prohibited, although reverse solicitation from retail investors is not prohibited in itself. All foreign funds to be distributed in the UAE must be registered with the SCA, barring those that can prove documented reverse solicitation.\\nThree Emirati companies were found involved in trade of Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products, and were sanctioned by the US State Department in June 2024. One of the companies was Sea Route Ship Management FZE, which engaged in transport of Iranian petrochemical products as the commercial manager of the vessel ASTRA. The other two firms, Almanac Ship Management LLC and Al Anchor Ship Management FZE were involved in transport of Iranian petroleum products as the commercial manager of the vessels BERENICE PRIDE and PARINE respectively.\\nIn July 2024, Samco Petroleum Energy FZE, located in Hamriyah Free Zone, was put up for sale for $17.7 million, with a promise to provide a turnkey oil trading operation. The sale emerged amidst the US sanctions imposed on several oil traders in the UAE's free trade zones, particularly Hamriyah, for continuing business with Iran and Russia. In November 2023, OFAC sanctioned a dozen companies in various UAE’s free zones for facilitating the sale of Iranian products in third countries through Sepehr Energy, which is affiliated with Iran's Armed Forces General Staff. In March 2023, more companies operating in the UAE were sanctioned for exporting petrochemical products from Iran’s Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries to India and Southeast Asia. The Emirati authorities were also pushed to halt Russian imports and exports via Dubai.\\nIn September 2024, the UAE and Australia agreed on a free trade deal, which was expected to increase investment in Australia’s significant mineral and clean energy sectors. The deal was to eliminate tariffs on imports of over 99% of Australian goods. However, Australian unions criticized the deal, highlighting the UAE's poor human rights and labor record, including modern slavery under the kafala system. Michele O'Neil also expressed concerns regarding the exploitation of migrant workers in the UAE, calling it one of the most repressive regimes with which Australia has entered into a bilateral trade deal.\\n\\nHuman Resources and Employment\\nMany buildings were built primarily by workers from South Asia and East Asia. This is generally because the current generation of UAE locals prefer governmental jobs and not private sector employment. On 17 June 2008, there were about 7,500 skilled workers employed at the Burj Khalifa construction site. Press reports indicated in 2006 that skilled carpenters at the site earned £4.34 a day, and labourers earned £2.84. According to a BBC investigation and a Human Rights Watch report, the workers were housed in abysmal conditions, and worked long hours for low pay. During construction, only one construction-related death was reported. However, workplace injuries and fatalities in the UAE are \\\"poorly documented\\\", according to Human Rights Watch.\\nIn March 2006 about 2,500 workers, upset over buses that were delayed for the end of their shifts, protested and triggered a riot, damaging cars, offices, computers and construction equipment. A Dubai Interior Ministry official said the rioters caused almost £500,000 in damage. Most of the workers involved in the riot returned the following day but refused to work. Workers at Dubai airport also protested.\\n\\nEmiratisation\\nEmiratisation is an initiative by the government of the UAE to employ more UAE Nationals in a meaningful and efficient manner in the public and private sectors. While the program has been in place for more than a decade and results can be seen in the public sector, the private sector is still lagging behind with citizens only representing 0.34% of the private sector workforce.\\nWhile there is general agreement over the importance of Emiratisation for social, economic and political reasons, there is also some contention as to the impact of localization on organizational efficiency. It is yet unknown whether, and the extent to which, employment of nationals generates returns for MNEs operating in the Middle East. Recent research cautions that localization is not always advantageous for firms operating in the region, and its effectiveness depends on a number of contingent factors.\\nIn December 2009 however, a positive impact of UAE citizens in the workplace was identified in a newspaper article citing a yet unpublished study, this advantage being the use of networks within the evolving power structures.\\nOverall, however, uptake in the private sector remains low regardless of significant investments in education, which have reached record levels with education now accounting for 22.5% – or $2.6 billion – of the overall budget planned for 2010. Multiple governmental initiatives are actively promoting Emiratisation by training anyone from high school dropouts to graduates in a multitude of skills needed for the – essentially Western – work environment of the UAE, these initiatives include Tawteen UAE, ENDP or the Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council.\\nThere are very few anti-discrimination laws in relation to labour issues, with Emiratis – and other GCC nationals – being given preference when it comes to employment. Unions are generally banned and workers with any labour issues are advised to be in touch with the Ministry of Labour, instead of protesting or refusing to work. Migrant employees often complain of poor workplace safety and wages based on nationality, although this is being slowly addressed.\\nBeyond directly sponsoring educational initiatives, the Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy is funding major research initiatives into Emiratisation through competitive research grants, allowing universities such as United Arab Emirates University or Dubai School of Government to build and disseminate expertise on the topic.\\nAcademics working on various aspects of Emiratisation include Paul Dyer[12] and Natasha Ridge from Dubai School of Government, Ingo Forstenlechner[13] from United Arab Emirates University, Kasim Randaree from the British University of Dubai and Paul Knoglinger from the FHWien.\\nIn 2020, economy of the United Arab Emirates became vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic, witnessing an economic shutdown. Among the Emirates, Dubai was facing extreme situation, where the expat workers were left jobless. Thousands of the Britons working in the city started selling off their possessions to collect money, as the strict visa regulations forced them to return to the UK.\\nAccording to an April 2021 report published by the Democracy Centre for Transparency on the Discrimination against foreigners and expatriates living in the UAE versus Emirati citizens, despite labor reforms in the UAE, foreigners and skilled or unskilled migrant workers face discrimination and racialization from the citizens of the country. Foreigners and expatriates are often subjected to discrimination at work concerning promotions and wages, or gender inequality. The findings of the DCT concern the organization as the UAE’s economy largely relies on foreign workers and thus fulfills a crucial international role. The organization demands that the UAE abide by universal human rights principles.\\nThe 31st edition of World Report 2021 released by Human Rights Watch reiterates that labour abuses driven by an exploitative kafala system are persistent in the UAE. During the Covid-19 pandemic, migrant workers faced massive unemployment issues and were also left stranded in dire conditions without legal residencies. Also, many migrants suffered wage theft and were unable to pay rent or buy food.\\n\\nInvestment\\nThe stock market capitalization of listed companies in the UAE was valued at $109.9 billion in October 2012 by Bloomberg.\\n\\nOutward investment\\nA investment institutions were created by the government to promote manage investments made by the UAE abroad:\\nAbu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA)\\n\\nAbu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC)\\nMubadala Development Company (MDC)\\nInternational Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC)\\nDubai World\\nDubai International Capital (DIC)\\n\\nInward investment\\nThe UAE is in the 17th position in term of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). The report says that the UAE competitiveness stems from \\\"high quality [...] infrastructure\\\" and \\\"highly efficient good markets.\\\"\\n\\nCorporate Governance Code\\nThe Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) introduced a new corporate governance regulation (the Corporate Governance Code), which applies to all joint stock companies and institutions whose securities are listed on Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) in 2009.\\n\\nBanking\\nOn 19 June 2020, rating agency Moody's changed its outlook regarding eight banks in the United Arab Emirates from stable to negative. The change was due to \\\"the potential material weakening in their standalone credit profiles\\\", where the UAE's economy was facing additional challenges amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and low oil prices. The eight banks included Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Emirates NBD, HSBC Bank Middle East, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, National Bank of Fujairah, National Bank of Ras al-Khaimah and Mashreq Bank.\\nThe Fitch Ratings in its 22 June 2020 report predicted that the Standalone Credit Profiles of UAE-based banks are to possibly weaken in the following year owing to the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and oil price collapse. As per the Fitch report, despite the implementation of timely measures for supporting the economy, the profitability of banks in the UAE are prone to get affected by a lower non-interest income worsened by a controlled business volume, lower interest rates, and higher loan recovery charges. In addition, the asset quality is expected to weaken, too, following the unbearable impact of the economic downturn that all borrowers may not be able to withstand.\\n\\nReal estate\\nThe development in the real estate and infrastructure sectors during the recent year has contributed in making the country a global touristic destination. The contribution of tourism in the Emirati GDP increased from 3% in the mid-1990s to more than 16.5% by the end of 2010. This trend is supported by the huge public investments in touristic projects (47 Billion Dollars per annum) carried mainly to expend airports, increase their capacity, set up new airports and ports.\\nThe real estate sector have a positive impact on development, job opportunities, investments and tourism as estate projects were launched to meet the needs of market and the increasing demand for housing and commercial units especially in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.\\nThe UAE has about 37% of the region's petroleum and gas industries, chemical industries, energy and water and garbage projects. The UAE's government have been injecting huge funds in tourism and real estate projects, especially in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Al Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi and Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest tower in the world, world central near \\\"Jebel Ali\\\" are a point in case of the milestones that have given the UAE its high profile of a global tourist destination. According to 2013–2014 Global Competitiveness Report, the UAE ranked fourth worldwide in terms of infrastructure quality.\\nOn 28 November 2020, the Abu Dhabi Media Office announced that the government of United Arab Emirates, ahead of the 49th National Day, granted house loans, land and homes worth $2 billion (7.2 billion dirhams) to their citizens. The package is said to consist 3,099 plots, 2,000 house loans and 601 homes and exempting some families of the deceased citizens and retirees from the repayment of mortgage. The Director General of the Abu Dhabi Housing Society, Basheer Al Mehairbi said the initiative of providing sustainable housing aimed at ensuring a good standard of living for the citizens of the UAE.\\n\\nReal-estate projects\\nSome of the significant real-estate projects are:\\n\\nBurj Khalifa\\nCreek Tower\\nMohammed bin Rashid City\\nFalcon City of Wonders\\nInternational City\\nDubai Marina\\nJumeirah Beach Residence\\nJumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT)\\nBusiness Bay\\nDubai Hills\\nDubai South\\nCity Walk\\nAl Furjan\\nDubai Sports City\\nDubai Motor City\\nSaadiyat Island\\nThe World, the Palms and the Palm (artificial islands)\\nDubai Miracle Garden, the world's largest natural flower garden.\\nMasdar City, a zero carbon, zero waste city.\\nYas Island, in Abu Dhabi, featuring attractions such as Ferrari World,\\nYas Marina\\n\\nFinancial centers\\nAmong the most prominent financial centers in the UAE are:\\n\\nDubai International Financial Center (DIFC), a Dubai-based federal financial free zone\\nAbu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), an international financial centre located on Al Maryah Island\\n\\nRegional GDP\\nData shown are for the year 2023 in nominal numbers.\\n\\nSee also\\nMinistry of Finance (United Arab Emirates)\\nEconomy of Dubai\\nNational Bonds Corporation PJSC\\nList of Free Trade Zones in UAE\\nList of largest companies of the United Arab Emirates\\nHuman rights in the United Arab Emirates\\nIsrael–United Arab Emirates peace agreement\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\nUAE Economy on the CIA World Factbook\\nUnited Arab Emirates Economic Development at Curlie\\nGulf Resources United Arab Emirates\\nWorld Bank Summary Trade Statistics United Arab Emirates\",\n \"title\": \"Economy_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"The manager Pep Guardiola won the Premier League four years in a row with a football club whose owners are from a country whose main export in 2009 was which raw material?"},"question_decomposition":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Oil. ('Oil' is fine here but related words from the Wikipedia article (link 6) are also acceptable, such as 'petroleum')"},"answer_aliases":{"kind":"list like","value":[],"string":"[]","isConversational":false},"answerable":{"kind":"bool","value":true,"string":"true"}}},{"rowIdx":699,"cells":{"id":{"kind":"string","value":"699"},"paragraphs":{"kind":"list like","value":[{"idx":0,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, held in Jackson Park, was a large water pool representing the voyage that Columbus took to the New World. Chicago won the right to host the fair over several competing cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American architecture, the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image.\nThe layout of the Chicago Columbian Exposition was predominantly designed by John Wellborn Root, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Charles B. Atwood. It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow Beaux-Arts principles of design, namely neoclassical architecture principles based on symmetry, balance, and splendor. The color of the material generally used to cover the buildings' façades, white staff, gave the fairgrounds its nickname, the White City. Many prominent architects designed its 14 \"great buildings\". Artists and musicians were featured in exhibits and many also made depictions and works of art inspired by the exposition.\nThe exposition covered 690 acres (2.8 km2), featuring nearly 200 new but temporary buildings of predominantly neoclassical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from 46 countries. More than 27 million people attended the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world's fairs, and it became a symbol of emerging American exceptionalism, much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom.\nDedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World, the fair served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which had destroyed much of the city in 1871.\nOn October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a world record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 751,026 people. The debt for the fair was soon paid off with a check for $1.5 million (equivalent to $50.9 million in 2023). Chicago has commemorated the fair with one of the stars on its municipal flag.\n\nHistory\nPlanning and organization\nMany prominent civic, professional, and commercial leaders from around the United States helped finance, coordinate, and manage the Fair, including Chicago shoe company owner Charles H. Schwab, Chicago railroad and manufacturing magnate John Whitfield Bunn, and Connecticut banking, insurance, and iron products magnate Milo Barnum Richardson, among many others.\nThe fair was planned in the early 1890s during the Gilded Age of rapid industrial growth, immigration, and class tension. World's fairs, such as London's 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition, had been successful in Europe as a way to bring together societies fragmented along class lines.\nThe first American attempt at a world's fair in Philadelphia in 1876 drew crowds, but was a financial failure. Nonetheless, ideas about distinguishing the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing started in the late 1880s. Civic leaders in St. Louis, New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago expressed interest in hosting a fair to generate profits, boost real estate values, and promote their cities. Congress was called on to decide the location. New York financiers J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and William Waldorf Astor, among others, pledged $15 million to finance the fair if Congress awarded it to New York, while Chicagoans Charles T. Yerkes, Marshall Field, Philip Armour, Gustavus Swift, and Cyrus McCormick, Jr., offered to finance a Chicago fair. What finally persuaded Congress was Chicago banker Lyman Gage, who raised several million additional dollars in a 24-hour period, over and above New York's final offer.\nChicago representatives not only fought for the world's fair for monetary reasons, but also for reasons of practicality. In a Senate hearing held in January 1890, representative Thomas Barbour Bryan argued that the most important qualities for a world's fair were \"abundant supplies of good air and pure water\", \"ample space, accommodations and transportation for all exhibits and visitors\". He argued that New York had too many obstructions, and Chicago would be able to use large amounts of land around the city where there was \"not a house to buy and not a rock to blast\" and that it would be located so that \"the artisan and the farmer and the shopkeeper and the man of humble means\" would be able to easily access the fair. Bryan continued to say that the fair was of \"vital interest\" to the West, and that the West wanted the location to be Chicago. The city spokesmen would continue to stress the essentials of a successful exposition and that only Chicago was fit to fill these exposition requirements.\nThe location of the fair was decided through several rounds of voting by the United States House of Representatives. The first ballot showed Chicago with a large lead over New York, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., but short of a majority. Chicago broke the 154-vote majority threshold on the eighth ballot, receiving 157 votes to New York's 107.\nThe exposition corporation and national exposition commission settled on Jackson Park and an area around it as the fair site. Daniel H. Burnham was selected as director of works, and George R. Davis as director-general. Burnham emphasized architecture and sculpture as central to the fair and assembled the period's top talent to design the buildings and grounds including Frederick Law Olmsted for the grounds. The temporary buildings were designed in an ornate neoclassical style and painted white, resulting in the fair site being referred to as the \"White City\".\nThe Exposition's offices set up shop in the upper floors of the Rand McNally Building on Adams Street, the world's first all-steel-framed skyscraper. Davis' team organized the exhibits with the help of G. Brown Goode of the Smithsonian. The Midway was inspired by the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition, which included ethnological \"villages\".\n\nCivil rights leaders protested the refusal to include an African American exhibit. Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Irvine Garland Penn, and Ferdinand Lee Barnet co-authored a pamphlet entitled \"The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition – The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature\" addressing the issue. Wells and Douglass argued, \"when it is asked why we are excluded from the World's Columbian Exposition, the answer is Slavery.\" Ten thousand copies of the pamphlet were circulated in the White City from the Haitian Embassy (where Douglass had been selected as its national representative), and the activists received responses from the delegations of England, Germany, France, Russia, and India.\nThe exhibition did include a limited number of exhibits put on by African Americans, including exhibits by the sculptor Edmonia Lewis, a painting exhibit by scientist George Washington Carver, and a statistical exhibit by Joan Imogen Howard. Black individuals were also featured in white exhibits, such as Nancy Green's portrayal of the character Aunt Jemima for the R. T. Davis Milling Company.\n\nOperation\nThe fair opened in May and ran through October 30, 1893. Forty-six nations participated in the fair, which was the first world's fair to have national pavilions. They constructed exhibits and pavilions and named national \"delegates\"; for example, Haiti selected Frederick Douglass to be its delegate. The Exposition drew over 27 million visitors. The fair was originally meant to be closed on Sundays, but the Chicago Woman's Club petitioned that it stay open. The club felt that if the exposition was closed on Sunday, it would restrict those who could not take off work during the work-week from seeing it.\nThe exposition was located in Jackson Park and on the Midway Plaisance on 630 acres (2.5 km2) in the neighborhoods of South Shore, Jackson Park Highlands, Hyde Park, and Woodlawn. Charles H. Wacker was the director of the fair. The layout of the fairgrounds was created by Frederick Law Olmsted, and the Beaux-Arts architecture of the buildings was under the direction of Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the fair. Renowned local architect Henry Ives Cobb designed several buildings for the exposition. The director of the American Academy in Rome, Francis Davis Millet, directed the painted mural decorations. Indeed, it was a coming-of-age for the arts and architecture of the \"American Renaissance\", and it showcased the burgeoning neoclassical and Beaux-Arts styles.\n\nAssassination of mayor and end of fair\nThe fair ended with the city in shock, as popular mayor Carter Harrison Sr. was assassinated by Patrick Eugene Prendergast two days before the fair's closing. Closing ceremonies were canceled in favor of a public memorial service.\nJackson Park was returned to its status as a public park, in much better shape than its original swampy form. The lagoon was reshaped to give it a more natural appearance, except for the straight-line northern end where it still laps up against the steps on the south side of the Palace of Fine Arts/Museum of Science & Industry building. The Midway Plaisance, a park-like boulevard which extends west from Jackson Park, once formed the southern boundary of the University of Chicago, which was being built as the fair was closing (the university has since developed south of the Midway). The university's football team, the Maroons, were the original \"Monsters of the Midway.\" The exposition is mentioned in the university's alma mater: \"The City White hath fled the earth, / But where the azure waters lie, / A nobler city hath its birth, / The City Gray that ne'er shall die.\"\n\nAttractions\nThe World's Columbian Exposition was the first world's fair with an area for amusements that was strictly separated from the exhibition halls. This area, developed by a young music promoter, Sol Bloom, concentrated on Midway Plaisance and introduced the term \"midway\" to American English to describe the area of a carnival or fair where sideshows are located.\nIt included carnival rides, among them the original Ferris Wheel, built by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. This wheel was 264 feet (80 m) high and had 36 cars, each of which could accommodate 40 people. The importance of the Columbian Exposition is highlighted by the use of rueda de Chicago (\"Chicago wheel\") in many Latin American countries such as Costa Rica and Chile in reference to the Ferris wheel. One attendee, George C. Tilyou, later credited the sights he saw on the Chicago midway for inspiring him to create America's first major amusement park, Steeplechase Park in Coney Island, New York.\nThe fair included life-size reproductions of Christopher Columbus' three ships, the Niña (real name Santa Clara), the Pinta, and the Santa María. These were intended to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the Americas. The ships were constructed in Spain and then sailed to America for the exposition. The celebration of Columbus was an intergovernmental project, coordinated by American special envoy William Eleroy Curtis, the Queen Regent of Spain, and Pope Leo XIII. The ships were a very popular exhibit.\nEadweard Muybridge gave a series of lectures on the Science of Animal Locomotion in the Zoopraxographical Hall, built specially for that purpose on Midway Plaisance. He used his zoopraxiscope to show his moving pictures to a paying public. The hall was the first commercial movie theater.\nThe \"Street in Cairo\" included the popular dancer known as Little Egypt. She introduced America to the suggestive version of the belly dance known as the \"hootchy-kootchy,\" to a tune said to have been improvised by Sol Bloom (and now more commonly associated with snake charmers) which he had composed when his dancers had no music to dance to. Bloom did not copyright the song, putting it immediately in the public domain.\nAlso included was the first moving walkway or travelator, which was designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee. It had two different divisions: one where passengers were seated, and one where riders could stand or walk. It ran in a loop down the length of a lakefront pier to a casino.\nAlthough denied a spot at the fair, Buffalo Bill Cody decided to come to Chicago anyway, setting up his Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show just outside the edge of the exposition. Nearby, historian Frederick Jackson Turner gave academic lectures reflecting on the end of the frontier which Buffalo Bill represented.\nThe electrotachyscope of Ottomar Anschütz was demonstrated, which used a Geissler tube to project the illusion of moving images.\nLouis Comfort Tiffany made his reputation with a stunning chapel designed and built for the Exposition. After the Exposition the Tiffany Chapel was sold several times, even going back to Tiffany's estate. It was eventually reconstructed and restored and in 1999 it was installed at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art.\n\nArchitect Kirtland Cutter's Idaho Building, a rustic log construction, was a popular favorite, visited by an estimated 18 million people. The building's design and interior furnishings were a major precursor of the Arts and Crafts movement.\nAmong the other attractions at the fair, several products that are well-known today were introduced. These products included Juicy Fruit gum, Cream of Wheat, Cracker Jacks, Shredded Wheat cereal, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, among many others.\n\nAnthropology\nThere was an Anthropology Building at the World's Fair. Nearby, \"The Cliff Dwellers\" featured a rock and timber structure that was painted to recreate Battle Rock Mountain in Colorado, a stylized recreation of an American Indian cliff dwelling with pottery, weapons, and other relics on display. There was also an Eskimo display. There were also birch bark wigwams of the Penobscot tribe. Nearby was a working model Indian school, organized by the Office of Indian Affairs, that housed delegations of Native American students and their teachers from schools around the country for weeks at a time.\n\nRail\nThe John Bull locomotive was displayed. It was only 62 years old, having been built in 1831. It was the first locomotive acquisition by the Smithsonian Institution. The locomotive ran under its own power from Washington, DC, to Chicago to participate, and returned to Washington under its own power again when the exposition closed. In 1981 it was the oldest surviving operable steam locomotive in the world when it ran under its own power again.\nA Baldwin 2-4-2 locomotive was showcased at the exposition, and subsequently the 2-4-2 type was known as the Columbia.\nAn original frog switch and portion of the superstructure of the famous 1826 Granite Railway in Massachusetts could be viewed. This was the first commercial railroad in the United States to evolve into a common carrier without an intervening closure. The railway brought granite stones from a rock quarry in Quincy, Massachusetts, so that the Bunker Hill Monument could be erected in Boston. The frog switch is now on public view in East Milton Square, Massachusetts, on the original right-of-way of the Granite Railway.\nTransportation by rail was the major mode of transportation. A 26-track train station was built at the southwest corner of the fair. While trains from around the country would unload there, there was a local train to shuttle tourists from the Chicago Grand Central Station to the fair. The newly built Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad also served passengers from Congress Terminal to the fairgrounds at Jackson Park. The line exists today as part of the CTA Green Line.\n\nCountry and state exhibition buildings\nForty-six countries had pavilions at the exposition. Norway participated by sending the Viking, a replica of the Gokstad ship. It was built in Norway and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean by 12 men, led by Captain Magnus Andersen. In 1919, this ship was moved to Lincoln Park. It was relocated in 1996 to Good Templar Park in Geneva, Illinois, where it awaits renovation.\nThirty-four U.S. states also had their own pavilions. The work of noted feminist author Kate McPhelim Cleary was featured during the opening of the Nebraska Day ceremonies at the fair, which included a reading of her poem \"Nebraska\". Among the state buildings present at the fair were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas; each was meant to be architecturally representative of the corresponding states.\nFour United States territories also had pavilions located in one building: Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah.\nVisitors to the Louisiana Pavilion were each given a seedling of a cypress tree. This resulted in the spread of cypress trees to areas where they were not native. Cypress trees from those seedlings can be found in many areas of West Virginia, where they flourish in the climate.\nThe Illinois was a detailed, full-scale mockup of an Indiana-class battleship, constructed as a naval exhibit.\n\nGuns and artillery\nThe German firm Krupp had a pavilion of artillery, which apparently had cost one million dollars to stage, including a coastal gun of 42 cm in bore (16.54 inches) and a length of 33 calibres (45.93 feet, 14 meters). A breech-loaded gun, it weighed 120.46 long tons (122.4 metric tons). According to the company's marketing: \"It carried a charge projectile weighing from 2,200 to 2,500 pounds which, when driven by 900 pounds of brown powder, was claimed to be able to penetrate at 2,200 yards a wrought-iron plate three feet thick if placed at right angles.\"\nNicknamed \"The Thunderer\", the gun had an advertised range of 15 miles. On this occasion John Schofield declared Krupps' guns \"the greatest peacemakers in the world\". This gun was later seen as a precursor of the company's World War I Dicke Berta howitzers.\n\nReligions\nThe 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions, which ran from September 11 to September 27, marked the first formal gathering of representatives of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions from around the world. According to Eric J. Sharpe, Tomoko Masuzawa, and others, the event was considered radical at the time, since it allowed non-Christian faiths to speak on their own behalf. For example, it is recognized as the first public mention of the Baháʼí Faith in North America; it was not taken seriously by European scholars until the 1960s.\n\nMoving walkway\nAlong the banks of the lake, patrons on the way to the casino were taken on a moving walkway designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee, the first of its kind open to the public, called The Great Wharf, Moving Sidewalk, it allowed people to walk along or ride in seats.\n\nHorticulture\nHorticultural exhibits at the Horticultural Hall included cacti and orchids as well as other plants in a greenhouse.\n\nArchitecture\nWhite City\nMost of the buildings of the fair were designed in the neoclassical architecture style. The area at the Court of Honor was known as The White City. Façades were made not of stone, but of a mixture of plaster, cement, and jute fiber called staff, which was painted white, giving the buildings their \"gleam\". Architecture critics derided the structures as \"decorated sheds.” The buildings were clad in white stucco, which, in comparison to the tenements of Chicago, seemed illuminated. It was also called the White City because of the extensive use of street lights, which made the boulevards and buildings usable at night.\nIn 1892, working under extremely tight deadlines to complete construction, director of works Daniel Burnham appointed Francis Davis Millet to replace the fair's official director of color-design, William Pretyman. Pretyman had resigned following a dispute with Burnham. After experimenting, Millet settled on a mix of oil and white lead whitewash that could be applied using compressed air spray painting to the buildings, taking considerably less time than traditional brush painting. Joseph Binks, maintenance supervisor at Chicago's Marshall Field's Wholesale Store, who had been using this method to apply whitewash to the subbasement walls of the store, got the job to paint the Exposition buildings. Claims this was the first use of spray painting may be apocryphal since journals from that time note this form of painting had already been in use in the railroad industry from the early 1880s.\nMany of the buildings included sculptural details and, to meet the Exposition's opening deadline, chief architect Burnham sought the help of Chicago Art Institute instructor Lorado Taft to help complete them. Taft's efforts included employing a group of talented women sculptors from the Institute known as \"the White Rabbits\" to finish some of the buildings, getting their name from Burnham's comment \"Hire anyone, even white rabbits if they'll do the work.\"\nThe words \"Thine alabaster cities gleam\" from the song \"America the Beautiful\" were inspired by the White City.\n\nRole in the City Beautiful movement\nThe White City is largely credited for ushering in the City Beautiful movement and planting the seeds of modern city planning. The highly integrated design of the landscapes, promenades, and structures provided a vision of what is possible when planners, landscape architects, and architects work together on a comprehensive design scheme.\nThe White City inspired cities to focus on the beautification of the components of the city in which municipal government had control; streets, municipal art, public buildings, and public spaces. The designs of the City Beautiful Movement (closely tied with the municipal art movement) are identifiable by their classical architecture, plan symmetry, picturesque views, and axial plans, as well as their magnificent scale. Where the municipal art movement focused on beautifying one feature in a city, the City Beautiful movement began to make improvements on the scale of the district. The White City of the World's Columbian Exposition inspired the Merchants Club of Chicago to commission Daniel Burnham to create the Plan of Chicago in 1909.\n\nGreat buildings\nThere were fourteen main \"great buildings\": 17 centered around a giant reflective pool called the Grand Basin. Buildings included:\n\nThe Administration Building, designed by Richard Morris Hunt\nThe Agricultural Building, designed by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead & White\nThe Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, designed by George B. Post. If this building were standing today, it would rank third in volume (8,500,000m3) and eighth in footprint (130,000 m2) on list of largest buildings. It exhibited works related to literature, science, art and music.\nThe Mines and Mining Building, designed by Solon Spencer Beman\nThe Electricity Building, designed by Henry Van Brunt and Frank Maynard Howe\nThe Machinery Hall, designed by Robert Swain Peabody of Peabody and Stearns\nThe Woman's Building, designed by Sophia Hayden\nThe Transportation Building, designed by Adler & Sullivan\nThe Fisheries Building designed by Henry Ives Cobb: 23 \nForestry Building designed by Charles B. Atwood\nHorticultural Building designed by Jenney and Mundie\nAnthropology Building designed by Charles B. Atwood\n\nTransportation Building\nLouis Sullivan's polychrome proto-Modern Transportation Building was an outstanding exception to the prevailing style, as he tried to develop an organic American form. Years later, in 1922, he wrote that the classical style of the White City had set back modern American architecture by forty years.\nAs detailed in Erik Larson's popular history The Devil in the White City, extraordinary effort was required to accomplish the exposition, and much of it was unfinished on opening day. The famous Ferris Wheel, which proved to be a major attendance draw and helped save the fair from bankruptcy, was not finished until June, because of waffling by the board of directors the previous year on whether to build it. Frequent debates and disagreements among the developers of the fair added many delays. The spurning of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show proved a serious financial mistake. Buffalo Bill set up his highly popular show next door to the fair and brought in a great deal of revenue that he did not have to share with the developers. Nonetheless, construction and operation of the fair proved to be a windfall for Chicago workers during the serious economic recession that was sweeping the country.\n\nSurviving structures\nAlmost all of the fair's structures were designed to be temporary; of the more than 200 buildings erected for the fair, the only two which still stand in place are the Palace of Fine Arts and the World's Congress Auxiliary Building. From the time the fair closed until 1920, the Palace of Fine Arts housed the Field Columbian Museum (now the Field Museum of Natural History, since relocated); in 1933 (having been completely rebuilt in permanent materials), the Palace building re-opened as the Museum of Science and Industry. The second building, the World's Congress Building, was one of the few buildings not built in Jackson Park, instead it was built downtown in Grant Park. The cost of construction of the World's Congress Building was shared with the Art Institute of Chicago, which, as planned, moved into the building (the museum's current home) after the close of the fair.\nThe three other significant buildings that survived the fair represented Norway, the Netherlands, and the State of Maine. The Norway Building was a recreation of a traditional wooden stave church. After the Fair it was relocated to Lake Geneva, and in 1935 was moved to a museum called Little Norway in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. In 2015 it was dismantled and shipped back to Norway, where it was restored and reassembled. The second is the Maine State Building, designed by Charles Sumner Frost, which was purchased by the Ricker family of Poland Spring, Maine. They moved the building to their resort to serve as a library and art gallery. The Poland Spring Preservation Society now owns the building, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The third is The Dutch House, which was moved to Brookline, Massachusetts.\nThe 1893 Viking ship that was sailed to the Exposition from Norway by Captain Magnus Andersen is located in Geneva, Illinois. The ship is open to visitors on scheduled days April through October.\nThe main altar at St. John Cantius in Chicago, as well as its matching two side altars, are reputed to be from the Columbian Exposition.\nSince many of the other buildings at the fair were intended to be temporary, they were removed after the fair. The White City so impressed visitors (at least before air pollution began to darken the façades) that plans were considered to refinish the exteriors in marble or some other material. These plans were abandoned in July 1894, when much of the fair grounds was destroyed in a fire.\n\nGallery\nLater criticisms\nFrank Lloyd Wright later wrote that \"By this overwhelming rise of grandomania I was confirmed in my fear that a native architecture would be set back at least fifty years.\"\nAccording to University of Notre Dame history professor Gail Bederman, the event symbolized a male-dominated and Eurocentrist society. In her 1995 text Manliness and Civilization, she writes, \"The White City, with its vision of future perfection and of the advanced racial power of manly commerce and technology, constructed civilization as an ideal of white male power.\" According to Bederman, people of color were barred entirely from participating in the organization of the White City and were instead given access only to the Midway exhibit, \"which specialized in spectacles of barbarous races – 'authentic' villages of Samoans, Egyptians, Dahomans, Turks, and other exotic peoples, populated by actual imported 'natives.'\"\nTwo small exhibits were included in the White City's \"Woman's Building\" which addressed women of color. One, entitled \"Afro-American\" was installed in a distant corner of the building. The other, called \"Woman's Work in Savagery,\" included baskets, weavings, and African, Polynesian, and Native American arts. Though they were produced by living women of color, the materials were represented as relics from the distant past, embodying \"the work of white women's own distant evolutionary foremothers.\"\n\nVisitors\nHelen Keller, along with her mentor Anne Sullivan and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, visited the fair in summer 1893. Keller described the fair in her autobiography The Story of My Life. Early in July, a Wellesley College English teacher named Katharine Lee Bates visited the fair. The White City later inspired the reference to \"alabaster cities\" in her poem and lyrics \"America the Beautiful\". The exposition was extensively reported by Chicago publisher William D. Boyce's reporters and artists. There is a very detailed and vivid description of all facets of this fair by the Persian traveler Mirza Mohammad Ali Mo'in ol-Saltaneh written in Persian. He departed from Persia on April 20, 1892, especially for the purpose of visiting the World's Columbian Exposition.\nPierre de Coubertin visited the fair with his friends Paul Bourget and Samuel Jean de Pozzi. He devotes the first chapter of his book Souvenirs d'Amérique et de Grèce (1897) to the visit. Swami Vivekananda visited the fair to attend the Parliament of the World's Religions and delivered his famous speech Sisters and Brothers of America!. Kubota Beisen was an official delegate of Japan. As an artist, he sketched hundreds of scenes, some of which were later used to make woodblock print books about the Exhibition. Serial killer H. H. Holmes attended the fair with two of his eventual victims, Annie and Minnie Williams.\nBulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov visited the fair and wrote his nonfiction book To Chicago and Back.\n\nSouvenirs\nExamples of exposition souvenirs can be found in various American museum collections. One example, copyrighted in 1892 by John W. Green, is a folding hand fan with detailed illustrations of landscapes and architecture. Charles W Goldsmith produced a set of ten postcard designs, each in full colour, showing the buildings constructed for the exhibition. Columbian Exposition coins were also minted for the event.\n\nElectricity\nThe effort to power the Fair with electricity, which became a demonstration piece for Westinghouse Electric and the alternating current system they had been developing for many years, took place at the end of what has been called the War of the currents between DC and AC. Westinghouse initially did not put in a bid to power the Fair but agreed to be the contractor for a local Chicago company that put in a low bid of US$510,000 to supply an alternating current-based system.\nEdison General Electric, which at the time was merging with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric, put in a US$1.72 million bid to power the Fair and its planned 93,000 incandescent lamps with direct current. After the Fair committee went over both proposals, Edison General Electric re-bid their costs at $554,000 but Westinghouse underbid them by 70 cents per lamp to get the contract. Westinghouse could not use the Edison incandescent lamp since the patent belonged to General Electric and they had successfully sued to stop use of all patent infringing designs. Since Edison specified a sealed globe of glass in his design Westinghouse found a way to sidestep the Edison patent by quickly developing a lamp with a ground-glass stopper in one end, based on a Sawyer-Man \"stopper\" lamp patent they already had. The lamps worked well but were short-lived, requiring a small army of workmen to constantly replace them.: 140 \nWestinghouse Electric had severely underbid the contract and struggled to supply all the equipment specified, including twelve 1,000-horsepower single-phase AC generators and all the lighting and other equipment required. They also had to fend off a last-minute lawsuit by General Electric claiming the Westinghouse Sawyer-Man-based stopper lamp infringed on the Edison incandescent lamp patent.: 142 \nThe International Exposition was held in an Electricity Building which was devoted to electrical exhibits. A statue of Benjamin Franklin was displayed at the entrance. The exposition featured interior and exterior light and displays as well as displays of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope, search lights, a seismograph, electric incubators for chicken eggs, and Morse code telegraph.: 22 \n\nAll the exhibits were from commercial enterprises. Participants included General Electric, Brush, Western Electric, and Westinghouse. The Westinghouse Company displayed several polyphase systems. The exhibits included a switchboard, polyphase generators, step-up transformers, transmission line, step-down transformers, commercial size induction motors and synchronous motors, and rotary direct current converters (including an operational railway motor). The working scaled system allowed the public a view of a system of polyphase power which could be transmitted over long distances, and be utilized, including the supply of direct current. Meters and other auxiliary devices were also present.\nPart of the space occupied by the Westinghouse Company was devoted to demonstrations of electrical devices developed by Nikola Tesla including induction motors and the generators used to power the system. The rotating magnetic field that drove these motors was explained through a series of demonstrations including an Egg of Columbus that used the two-phase coil in the induction motors to spin a copper egg making it stand on end.\nTesla himself showed up for a week in August to attend the International Electrical Congress, being held at the fair's Agriculture Hall, and put on a series of demonstrations of his wireless lighting system in a specially set up darkened room at the Westinghouse exhibit. These included demonstrations he had previously performed throughout America and Europe including using a nearby coil to light a wireless gas-discharge lamp held in his hand.\nAlso at the Fair, the Chicago Athletic Association Football team played one of the first night football games against West Point (the earliest being on September 28, 1892, between Mansfield State Normal and Wyoming Seminary). Chicago won the game, 14–0. The game lasted only 40 minutes, compared to the normal 90 minutes.\n\nMusic\nMusicians\nJohn Philip Sousa′s Band played for the Exposition dedication celebration in Chicago, 10 October through 21 October 1892.\nJoseph Douglass, classical violinist, who achieved wide recognition after his performance there and became the first African-American violinist to conduct a transcontinental tour and the first to tour as a concert violinist.\nSissieretta Jones, a soprano known as \"the Black Patti\" and an already-famous opera singer.\nA paper on African-American spirituals and shouts by Abigail Christensen was read to attendees.\nThere were many other black artists at the fair, ranging from minstrel and early ragtime groups to more formal classical ensembles to street buskers.\n\nScott Joplin, pianist, from Texarkana, Texas; became widely known for his piano playing at the fair.\n\nOther music and musicians\nThe first Indonesian music performance in the United States was at the exposition. The gamelan instruments used in the performance were later placed in the Field Museum of Natural History.\nA group of hula dancers led to increased awareness of Hawaiian music among Americans throughout the country.\nStoughton Musical Society, the oldest choral society in the United States, presented the first concerts of early American music at the exposition.\nThe first eisteddfod (a Welsh choral competition with a history spanning many centuries) held outside Wales was held in Chicago at the exposition.\nA 250-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir competed in the Eisteddfod, taking the second place prize of $1,000. This was the first appearance of the choir outside the Utah Territory.\nOn August 12, 1893, Antonín Dvořák conducted a gala \"Bohemian Day\" concert at the exposition, besieged by visitors including the conductor of the Chicago Symphony, who arranged for performance of Dvořák's American string quartet, just completed in Spillville, Iowa, during a Dvořák family vacation in a Czech-speaking community there.\nAmerican composer Amy Beach (1867–1944) was commissioned by the Board of Lady Managers of the fair to compose a choral work (Festival Jubilate, op. 17) for the opening of the Woman's Building.\nSousa's Band played concerts in the south bandstand on the Great Plaza, 25 May to 28 June 1893.\nThe University of Illinois Military Band conducted by student leaders Charles Elder and Richard Sharpe played concerts twice daily in the Illinois Building 9 June to 24 June 1893. Soloists were William Sandford, euphonium; Charles Elder, clarinet; William Steele, cornet. The band members slept on cots on the top floor of the building.\nOn June 8, 1893, The Exposition Orchestra, an expanded version of the Chicago Symphony conducted by guest conductor Vojtěch I. Hlaváč, played the American premiere of Modest Mussorgsky's A Night on Bald Mountain as part of a concert of Russian folk music.\nA pipe organ containing over 3,900 pipes, one of the largest in the world at the time, was built by the Farrand & Votey Organ Company to the specifications of Chicago organist Clarence Eddy. It was one of the first great organs to rely on electrical connections from its keys to its pipes.\nMusicologist Anna Morsch and composer Charlotte Sporleder presented a program of German music.\nComposer and pianist Anita Socola Specht won the title \"best amateur pianist in the United States,\" although some of the judges told her, \"You are not an amateur, you are an artist!\"\n\nArt\nAmerican artists exhibiting\nPainters\nJapanese art\nJapan's artistic contribution was mainly in porcelain, cloisonné enamel, metalwork and embroidery. While 55 paintings and 24 sculptures came from Japan, 271 of the 290 exhibits in the Palace of Fine Arts were Japanese. Artists represented included Miyagawa Kozan, Yabu Meizan, Namikawa Sōsuke, and Suzuki Chokichi.\n\nWomen artists exhibiting\nThe women artists at the Woman's Building included Anna Lownes, Viennese painter Rosa Schweninger, and many others. American composer Amy Cheney Beach was commissioned by the Board of Lady Managers of the fair to compose a choral work (Festival Jubilate, op. 17) for the opening of the Woman's Building. The Mrs Potts sad-iron system was on display. Ami Mali Hicks' stencil design was selected to adorn the frieze in the assembly room of the Women's Building. Musicologist Anna Morsch and composer Charlotte Sporleder presented a program of German music.\nThe Woman's Building included a Woman's Building Library Exhibit, which had 7,000 books — all by women. The Woman's Building Library was meant to show the cumulative contribution of the world's women to literature.\n\n\"Greatest Refrigerator on Earth\" fire tragedy\nA large Romanesque structure called \"Greatest Refrigerator on Earth\" stored thousands of pounds of the Exposition's food and held an ice-skating rink for patrons. The large structure demonstrated artificial freezing, a recent development, and was planned by architect Franklin P. Burnham. The structure's floor space was 130 by 255 feet and its height reached almost 200 feet. On the evening of July 10, 1893, the \"Greatest Refrigerator on Earth\" caught fire. Two firemen entered, one sliding down a rope and another on a line of hose, and both were trapped in the burning refrigerator. A total of fifteen people died, twelve firefighters and three civilians, in front of a crowd of more than a thousand fairgoers. The only artifact that survived the fire was a twelve-foot copper statue of Christopher Columbus, which was kept as a monument to the men who lost their lives and is kept by the fire museum of Chicago.\n\nNotable firsts\nConcepts\nFrederick Jackson Turner lectured on his Frontier thesis.\nThe Pledge of Allegiance was first performed at the exposition by a mass of school children lined up in military fashion.\nContribution to Chicago's nickname, the \"Windy City\". Some argue that Charles Anderson Dana of the New York Sun coined the term related to the hype of the city's promoters. Other evidence, however, suggests the term was used as early as 1881 in relation to either Chicago's \"windbag\" politicians or to its weather.\n\nCommemorations\nUnited States Mint offered its first commemorative coins: the Columbian Exposition quarter dollar and Columbian Exposition half dollar\nThe United States Post Office Department produced its first picture postcards and Columbian Issue commemorative stamps.\n\nEdibles and potables\nCream of Wheat\nThe brownie was invented by Bertha Palmer for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.\nMilton Hershey bought a European exhibitor's chocolate manufacturing equipment and added chocolate products to his caramel manufacturing business.\nJuicy Fruit gum\nQuaker Oats\nShredded Wheat\nPabst Blue Ribbon\nPeanut butter\nAunt Jemima pancake mix was widely popularized by spokesperson Nancy Green's pancake cooking and story telling performances.\nCracker Jack's new recipe was introduced at the Exposition\nVienna Sausage started selling its frankfurters and sausages near one of the entrances to the Midway Plaisance, just outside the Old Vienna Village. The company later became known as Vienna Beef, famously recognized as \"Chicago's Hot Dog\".\n\nInventions and manufacturing advances\nA device that made plates for printing books in Braille, unveiled by Frank Haven Hall, who met Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan at the exhibit.\nMoving walkway, or travelator\nThe third rail giving electric power to elevated trains led directly to its first continuing US use.\nThe \"clasp locker\", a clumsy slide fastener and forerunner to the zipper was demonstrated by Whitcomb L. Judson\nElongated coins (the squashed penny)\nFerris Wheel\nFirst fully electrical kitchen including an automatic dishwasher\nPhosphorescent lamps (a precursor to fluorescent lamps)\nJohn T. Shayne & Company, the local Chicago furrier helped America gain respect on the world stage of manufacturing\nClark cell as a standard for measuring voltage\nA first prototype of a pressurized aerosol spray, by Francis Davis Millet.\nThe first practical electric automobile, invented by William Morrison.\n\nOrganizations\nCongress of Mathematicians, precursor to International Congress of Mathematicians\nInterfaith dialogue (the Parliament of the World's Religions)\nFirst recorded public mention of the Baháʼí Faith in North America\n\nPerformances\nThe poet and humorist Benjamin Franklin King, Jr. first performed at the exposition.\nBodybuilder Eugen Sandow demonstrated feats of strength, promoted by Florenz Ziegfeld.\nMagician Harry Houdini and his brother Theodore performed their magic act at the Midway.\n\nLater years\nThe exposition was one influence leading to the rise of the City Beautiful movement. Results included grand buildings and fountains built around Olmstedian parks, shallow pools of water on axis to central buildings, larger park systems, broad boulevards and parkways and, after the start of the 20th century, zoning laws and planned suburbs. Examples of the City Beautiful movement's works include the City of Chicago, the Columbia University campus, and the National Mall in Washington D.C.\nAfter the fair closed, J.C. Rogers, a banker from Wamego, Kansas, purchased several pieces of art that had hung in the rotunda of the U.S. Government Building. He also purchased architectural elements, artifacts and buildings from the fair. He shipped his purchases to Wamego. Many of the items, including the artwork, were used to decorate his theater, now known as the Columbian Theatre.\nMemorabilia saved by visitors can still be purchased. Numerous books, tokens, published photographs, and well-printed admission tickets can be found. While the higher value commemorative stamps are expensive, the lower ones are quite common. So too are the commemorative half dollars, many of which went into circulation.\nAlthough not available for purchase, The George Washington University maintains a small collection of exposition tickets for viewing and research purposes. The collection is currently cared for by GWU's Special Collections Research Center, located in the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library.\nWhen the exposition ended the Ferris Wheel was moved to Chicago's north side, next to an exclusive neighborhood. An unsuccessful Circuit Court action was filed against the owners of the wheel to have it moved. The wheel stayed there until it was moved to St. Louis for the 1904 World's Fair.\nThe Columbian Exposition has celebrated many anniversaries since the fair in 1893. The Chicago Historical Society held an exhibition to commemorate the fair. The Grand Illusions exhibition was centered around the idea that the Columbian Exposition was made up of a series of illusions. The commemorative exhibition contained partial reconstructions, a video detailing the fair, and a catalogue similar to the one sold at the World's Fair of 1893.\n\nAcademic views\nHenry Adams wrote in his 1907 Education: “The Exposition denied philosophy ... [S]ince Noah’s Ark, no such Babel of loose and ill-jointed, such vague and ill-defined and unrelated thoughts and half-thoughts and experimental out-cries... had ruffled the surface of the Lakes.”: 128 \nMichel-Rolph Trouillot wrote that the academic aspect of the event was not very important, even though the Harvard Peabody Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and Franz Boas made contributions.: 128\n\nIn popular culture\nThe Exposition is portrayed in the 2017 historical film, The Current War, concerning the competition between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison to establish the dominant form of electricity in the United States.\n1893: A World's Fair Mystery, an interactive fiction by Peter Nepstad that recreates the Exposition in detail.\nAgainst the Day, a fictional novel that takes place during the Exposition during the first act.\nThe Devil in the White City, a non-fiction book intertwining the true tales of the architect behind the Exposition and serial killer H. H. Holmes.\nTimebound, a time travel novel by Rysa Walker, culminates at the Exposition.\nExpo: Magic of the White City, a 2005 documentary film about the Exposition by Mark Bussler.\nThe Exposition served as the setting for Against Odds, a novel by Emma Murdock Van Deventer.\nJimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, a graphic novel set in part at the Exposition\nWonder of the Worlds, an adventure novel where Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain, and Houdini pursue Martian agents who have stolen a powerful crystal from Tesla at the Exposition.\nThe Will of an Eccentric, an adventure novel by Jules Verne. The Exposition is evoked with admiration in the early chapters.\nThe Exposition appears in the season 1 episode \"The World's Columbian Exposition\" of the NBC series Timeless.\nThe Exposition is referenced in Sufjan Stevens's song in his album Illinois, \"Come On! Feel The Illinoise!\", which consists of two parts. Part 1 is titled, \"World's Columbian Exposition\".\nThe Exposition plays a role in the historical novel, Owen Glen, by Ben Ames Williams.\nMystery Train Island, a video game level on Poptropica released in 2011, is based on and is partially set at the Exposition, referred to as the 1893 Chicago World's Fair in the game.\nBioShock Infinite, a 2013 video game. The floating city-state of Columbia was created at the Exposition and toured across the world to promote American exceptionalism.\nThe exposition is a key setting of the novel The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros.\nThe exposition appears in the travel book by Aleko Konstantinov, To Chicago and Back.\nThe young adult novel Fair Weather by Illinois native author Richard Peck takes thirteen-year-old Rosie Beckett and her family from their downstate family farm to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.\nThe Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me, a 2022 video game which was inspired by H. H. Holmes murder castle.\nThe Exposition appears in \"1893\", the third episode of the second season of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) television series Loki (2023). In the episode, Loki and Mobius M. Mobius attend the Exposition in search of Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes, and encounter Victor Timely, a variant of Kang the Conqueror, whose help they need to save the multiverse.\nThe Exposition also appears in the post-credits scene of the MCU film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), which uses footage from Loki despite being released before it.\n\nSee also\nSignal of Peace\nKwanusila\nList of world expositions\nList of world's fairs\nBenjamin W. Kilburn, stereoscopic view concession\nH. H. Holmes, serial killer associated with the 1893 World's Fair\nSt. John Cantius Church (Chicago), whose main altar, as well as its matching two side altars, reputedly originate from the 1893 Columbian Exposition\nSpectacle Reef Light\nWorld's Largest Stove\nWorld's Largest Cedar Bucket\nFairy lamp, candle sets popularized at Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee were used to illuminate an island at the Expo\nSt. Louis Autumnal Festival Association\n\nNotes\nReferences\nFurther reading\nExternal links\n\nExpo 1893 Chicago at Bureau International des Expositions\nThe 1893 World's Fair in Chicago (worldsfairchicago1893.com). A standalone website that covers all aspects of the Exposition\nChicago 1893 is a media project about the Exposition which includes a book, film, and augmented reality\nThe Columbian Exposition in American culture.\nPhotographs of the 1893 Columbian Exposition Archived August 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine\nInteractive map of Columbian Exposition\nThe Story of the Columbian Expo Battleship Illinois Bell\nPresident Benjamin Harrison: Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America Shapell Manuscript Foundation\nThe 1893 World's Columbian Exposition Reading Room.\nRobert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views: Exhibitions 1893. Search results, at New York Public Library Digital Collections\nThe Winterthur Library Overview of an archival collection on the World's Columbian Exposition.\nColumbian Theatre History and information about artwork from the U.S. Government Building.\nPhotographs and interactive map from the 1893 Columbian Exposition from the University of Chicago\nVideo simulations from the 1893 Columbian Exposition from UCLA's Urban Simulation Team Archived August 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine\n1893 Columbian Exposition Concerts\nEdgar Rice Burroughs' Amazing Summer of '93 – Columbian Exposition\nInternational Eisteddfod chair, Chicago, 1893\nPhotographs of the Exposition from the Hagley Digital Archives\nMap of Chicago Columbian Exposition from the American Geographical Society Library\nInteractive Map of the Chicago Columbian Exposition, created in the Harvard Worldmap Platform\nPresident Harrison: Worlds Columbian Exposition Shapell Manuscript Foundation\nGuide to the World's Columbian Exposition Ticket Collection, 1893, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University Archived October 30, 2014, at the Wayback Machine\nGuide to World's Columbian Exposition resources at Field Museum Library\nGuide to the World's Columbian Exposition Records 1891–1930 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center","title":"World%27s_Columbian_Exposition"},{"idx":1,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park. Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, includes works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present curatorial and scientific research.\nAs a research institution, the Art Institute also has a conservation and conservation science department, five conservation laboratories, and Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, one of the nation's largest art history and architecture libraries.\nThe museum's building was constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and, due to the growth of the collection, several additions have occurred since. The Modern Wing, designed by Renzo Piano, is the most recent expansion, and when it opened in 2009 it increased the museum's footprint to nearly one million square feet. This made it the second largest art museum in the United States, after the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. \nThe Art Institute is associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a leading art school, making it one of the few remaining unified arts institutions in the United States.\n\nHistory\n19th century\nIn 1866, a group of 35 artists founded the Chicago Academy of Design in a studio on Dearborn Street, with the intent to run a free school with its own art gallery. The organization was modeled after European art academies, such as the Royal Academy, with Academicians and Associate Academicians. The academy's charter was granted in March 1867.\nClasses started in 1868, meeting every day at a cost of $10 per month. The academy's success enabled it to build a new home for the school, a five-story stone building on 66 West Adams Street, which opened on November 22, 1870.\nWhen the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the building in 1871, the academy was thrown into debt. Attempts to continue despite the loss by using rented facilities failed. By 1878, the academy was $10,000 in debt. Members tried to rescue the ailing institution by making deals with local businessmen, before some finally abandoned it in 1879 to found a new organization, named the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. When the Chicago Academy of Design went bankrupt the same year, the new Chicago Academy of Fine Arts bought its assets at auction.\nIn 1882, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts changed its name to the current Art Institute of Chicago and elected as its first president the banker and philanthropist Charles L. Hutchinson, who \"is arguably the single most important individual to have shaped the direction and fortunes of the Art Institute of Chicago\".: 5 Hutchinson was a director of many prominent Chicago organizations, including the University of Chicago, and would transform the Art Institute into a world-class museum during his presidency, which he held until his death in 1924. Also in 1882, the organization purchased a lot on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street for $45,000. The existing commercial building on that property was used for the organization's headquarters, and a new addition was constructed behind it to provide gallery space and to house the school's facilities.: 19 By January 1885 the trustees recognized the need to provide additional space for the organization's growing collection, and to this end purchased the vacant lot directly south on Michigan Avenue. The commercial building was demolished, and the noted architect John Wellborn Root was hired by Hutchinson to design a building that would create an \"impressive presence\" on Michigan Avenue,: 22–23 and these facilities opened to great fanfare in 1887.: 24 \nWith the announcement of the World's Columbian Exposition to be held in 1892–93, the Art Institute pressed for a building on the lakefront to be constructed for the fair, but to be used by the institute afterwards. The city agreed, and the building was completed in time for the second year of the fair. Construction costs were met by selling the Michigan/Van Buren property. On October 31, 1893, the institute moved into the new building. For the opening reception on December 8, 1893, Theodore Thomas and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed.\n\n20th century\nFrom the early 1900s to the 1960s the school offered with the Logan Family (members of the board) the Logan Medal of the Arts, an award which became one of the most distinguished awards presented to artists in the U.S. Between 1959 and 1970, the institute was a key site in the battle to gain art and documentary photography a place in galleries, under curator Hugh Edwards and his assistants.\nAs director of the museum starting in the early 1980s, James N. Wood conducted a major expansion of its collection and oversaw a major renovation and expansion project for its facilities. As \"one of the most respected museum leaders in the country\", as described by The New York Times, Wood created major exhibitions of works by Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh that set records for attendance at the museum. He retired from the museum in 2004.\n\n21st century\nThe institute began construction of \"The Modern Wing\", an addition situated on the southwest corner of Columbus and Monroe in the early 21st century. The project, designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, was completed and officially opened to the public on May 16, 2009. The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m2) building addition made the Art Institute the second-largest art museum in the United States. The building houses the museum's world-renowned collections of 20th and 21st century art, specifically modern European painting and sculpture, contemporary art, architecture and design, and photography. In its inaugural survey in 2014, travel review website and forum, Tripadvisor, reviewed millions of travelers' surveys and named the Art Institute the world's best museum.\nThe museum received perhaps the largest gift of art in its history in 2015. Collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson donated a \"collection [that] is among the world's greatest groups of postwar Pop art ever assembled\". The donation includes works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Jeff Koons, Charles Ray, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Roy Lichtenstein and Gerhard Richter. The museum agreed to keep the donated work on display for at least 50 years. In June 2018, the museum received a $50 million donation, the largest single announced unrestricted monetary donation in its history. A $75 million donation in 2024 is to go toward a new galley.\n\nCollection\nThe collection of the Art Institute of Chicago encompasses more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world and contains more than 300,000 works of art in 11 curatorial departments, ranging from early Japanese prints to the art of the Byzantine Empire to contemporary American art. It is principally known for one of the United States' finest collection of paintings produced in Western culture.\n\nAfrican Art and Indian Art of the Americas\nThe Art Institute's African Art and Indian Art of the Americas collections are on display across two galleries in the south end of the Michigan Avenue building. The African collection includes more than 400 works that span the continent, highlighting ceramics, garments, masks, and jewelry.\nThe Amerindian collection includes Native North American art and Mesoamerican and Andean works. From pottery to textiles, the collection brings together a wide array of objects that seek to illustrate the thematic and aesthetic focuses of art spanning the Americas.\n\nAmerican art\nThe Art Institute's American Art collection contains some of the best-known works in the American canon, including Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Grant Wood's American Gothic, and Mary Cassatt's The Child's Bath. The collection ranges from colonial silver to modern and contemporary paintings.\nThe museum purchased Nighthawks in 1942 for $3,000; its acquisition \"launched\" the painting into \"immense popular recognition\". Considered an \"icon of American culture\", Nighthawks is perhaps Hopper's most famous painting, and one of the most recognizable images in American art. Also well known, American Gothic has been in the museum's collection since 1930 and was only loaned outside of North America for the first time in 2016. Wood's painting depicts what has been called \"the most famous couple in the world\", a dour, rural-American, father and daughter. It was entered into a contest at the Art Institute in 1930, and although not a favorite of some, it won a medal and was acquired by the museum.\n\nAncient and Byzantine\nThe Art Institute's ancient collection spans nearly 4,000 years of art and history, showcasing Greek, Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian sculpture, mosaics, pottery, jewelry, glass, and bronze and a robust and well-maintained collection of ancient coins. There are around 5,000 works in the collection, offering a comprehensive survey of the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world, beginning with the third millennium B.C. and extending to the Byzantine Empire. The collection also holds the mummy and mummy case of Paankhenamun.\n\nArchitecture and Design\nThe Department of Architecture and Design holds more than 140,000 works, from models to drawings from the 1870s to the present day. The collection covers landscape architecture, structural engineering, and industrial design, including the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier.\n\nAsian art\nThe Art Institute's Asian collection spans nearly 5,000 years, including significant works and objects from China, Korea, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and the Near and Middle East. There are 35,000 objects in the collection, showcasing bronzes, ceramics, jades, textiles, screens, woodcuts, and sculptures. One gallery in particular attempts to mimic the quiet and meditative way in which Japanese screens are traditionally viewed.\n\nEuropean Decorative Arts\nThe Art Institute's collection of European decorative arts includes some 25,000 objects of furniture, ceramics, metalwork, glass, enamel, and ivory from 1100 AD to the present day. The department contains the 1,544 objects in the Arthur Rubloff Paperweight Collection and the 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms–a collection of miniaturized interiors of a 1:12 scale showcasing American, European, and Asian architectural and furniture styles from the Middle Ages to the 1930s (when the rooms were constructed). Both the paperweights and the Thorne Rooms are located on the ground floor of the museum.\n\nEuropean painting and sculptures\nThe museum is most famous for its collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, widely regarded as one of the finest collections outside of France. Highlights include more than 30 paintings by Claude Monet, including six of his Haystacks and a number of Water Lilies. Also in the collection are important works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir such as Two Sisters (On the Terrace), and Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day. Post-Impressionist works include Paul Cézanne's The Basket of Apples, and Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair. At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is another highlight. The pointillist masterpiece, which also inspired a musical and was featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte—1884, is prominently displayed. Additionally, Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River, is an important example of his work. Highlights of non-French paintings of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection include Vincent van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles and Self-portrait, 1887.\nIn the mid-1930s, the Art Institute received a gift of over one hundred works of art from Annie Swan Coburn (\"Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection\"). The \"Coburn Renoirs\" became the core of the Art Institute's Impressionist painting collection.\nThe collection also includes the Medieval and Renaissance Art, Arms, and Armor holdings, including the George F. Harding Collection of arms and armor, and three centuries of Old Masters works.\n\nModern and Contemporary Art\nThe museum's collection of modern and contemporary art was significantly augmented when collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson gifted 40 plus master works to the department in 2015. Pablo Picasso's Old Guitarist, Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River, Constantin Brâncuși's Golden Bird, and René Magritte's Time Transfixed are highlights of the modern galleries, located on the third floor of the Modern Wing. The contemporary installation, located on the second floor, contains works by Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Cy Twombly, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, and other significant modern and contemporary artists.\n\nPhotography\nThe Art Institute did not officially establish a photography collection until 1949, when Georgia O'Keeffe donated a significant portion of the Alfred Stieglitz collection to the museum. Since then, the museum's collection has grown to approximately 20,000 works spanning the history of the artform from its inception in 1839 to the present.\n\nPrints and Drawings\nThe print and drawings collection began with a donation by Elizabeth S. Stickney of 460 works in 1887, and was organized into its own department of the museum in 1911. Their holdings have subsequently grown to 11,500 drawings and 60,000 prints, ranging from 15th-century works to contemporary. The collection contains a strong group of the works of Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya, and James McNeill Whistler. Because works on paper are sensitive to light and degrade quickly, the works are on display infrequently in order to keep them in good condition for as long as possible.\n\nTextiles\nThe Department of Textiles has more than 13,000 textiles and 66,000 sample swatches in total, covering an array of cultures from 300 BC to the present. From English needlework to Japanese garments to American quilts, the collection presents a diverse group of objects, including contemporary works and fiber art.\n\nArchitecture\nThe current building complex at 111 South Michigan Avenue is the third address for the Art Institute. Situated in Grant Park, it was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston to host national and international meetings held in conjunction with the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, as the World's Congress Auxiliary Building, with the intent that the Art Institute occupy the space after the close of the fair.\nThe Art Institute's entrance on Michigan Avenue is guarded by two bronze lion statues created by Edward Kemeys. The lions were unveiled on May 10, 1894, each weighing more than two tons. The sculptor gave them unofficial names: the south lion is \"stands in an attitude of defiance\", and the north lion is \"on the prowl\". When a Chicago sports team plays in the championships of their respective league (i.e. the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup Finals, not the entire playoffs), the lions are frequently dressed in that team's uniform. Evergreen wreaths are placed around their necks during the Christmas season.\nThe east entrance of the museum is marked by the stone arch entrance to the old Chicago Stock Exchange. Designed by Louis Sullivan in 1894, the Exchange was demolished in 1972, but salvaged portions of the original trading room were brought to the Art Institute and reconstructed.\nThe Art Institute building has the unusual property of straddling open-air railroad tracks. Two stories of gallery space connect the east and west buildings while the Metra Electric and South Shore lines operate below. The lower level of gallery space was formerly the windowless Gunsaulus hall, but is now home to the Alsdorf Galleries showcasing Indian, Southeast Asian and Himalayan Art. During renovation, windows facing north toward Millennium Park were added. The gallery space was designed by Renzo Piano in conjunction with his design of the Modern Wing and features the same window screening used there to protect the art from direct sunlight. The upper level formerly held the modern European galleries, but was renovated in 2008 and now features the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries.\nIn September 2024, the museum announced a gift of $75 million for a new gallery building or wing named for benefactors Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed. The gallery is intended to increase space for 19th century, modern, and contemporary art. The design and placement of the new gallery or gallery building are yet to be decided.\n\nLibraries\nLocated on the ground floor of the museum is the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries. The Libraries' collections cover all periods of art, but is most known for its extensive collection of 18th to 20th century architecture. It serves the museum staff, college and university students, and is also open to the general public. The Friends of the Libraries, a support group for the Libraries, offers events and special tours for its members.\n\nModern Wing\nOn May 16, 2009, the Art Institute opened the Modern Wing, the largest expansion in the museum's history. The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m2) addition, designed by Renzo Piano, makes the Art Institute the second-largest museum in the US. The architect of record in the City of Chicago for this building was Interactive Design. The Modern Wing is home to the museum's collection of early 20th-century European art, including Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River, and René Magritte's Time Transfixed. The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection of Surrealist art includes the largest public display of Joseph Cornell's works (37 boxes and collages). The Wing also houses contemporary art from after 1960; new photography, video media, architecture and design galleries including original renderings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Bruce Goff; temporary exhibition space; shops and classrooms; and a cafe. In addition, the Nichols Bridgeway connects a sculpture garden on the roof of the new wing with the adjacent Millennium Park to the north and a courtyard designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol.\nIn 2009, the Modern Wing won at the Chicago Innovation Awards.\n\nSelections from the permanent collection\nOther notable works are in the collection but the following examples are ones in the public domain and for which pictures are available. In 2018, as it redesigned its website, the Art Institute released images of 52,438 of its public domain works, under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.\n\nPaintings\nSculptures\nMore highlights from the collection\nGovernance\nAttendance\nDuring 2009, attendance was around 2 million—up 33 percent from 2008—in addition to a total of approximately 100,000 museum memberships. Despite a 25 percent boost in museum admission fees, the Modern Wing was a major catalyst for a rise in visitor traffic. In 2022, the museum welcomed 1.04 million visitors, an increase of 20 percent from 2021, but still well below 2018 attendance (before the COVID-19 pandemic). It was ranked tenth among the most-visited museums in the United States, and was the sixth most-visited U.S. art museum.\n\nFinances\nAs of 2011, the Art Institute continues to rebuild its $783 million endowment since the recession. In June 2008, its endowment was $827 million. As of 2012, the museum is rated A1 by Moody's, its fifth-highest grade, in part reflecting the museum's pension and retirement liabilities; Standard & Poor's rates the museum A+, fifth-best. In October 2012, the Art Institute sold about $100 million of taxable and tax-exempt bonds partly to shore-up unfunded pension obligations.\nThe $294 million extension in 2009 was the culmination of a $385 million fundraising campaign—roughly $300 million for design and construction and $85 million for the endowment. Around $370 million were raised primarily from private patrons in Chicago. In 2011, the Art Institute received a $10 million gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation to renovate and expand galleries devoted to Greek, Roman and Byzantine art, and to support acquisitions and special exhibitions of that art.\n\nAcquisitions and deaccessioning\nIn 1990, the Art Institute of Chicago sold 11 works at auction, including paintings by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Maurice Utrillo and Edgar Degas, to raise the $12 million purchase price of a bronze sculpture, Golden Bird, by Constantin Brâncuși. At the time, the sculpture was owned by the Arts Club of Chicago, which was selling it to buy a new gallery for its other works. In 2005, the museum sold two paintings by Marc Chagall and Auguste Renoir at Sotheby's. In 2011, it auctioned two Picassos (Sur l'impériale traversant la Seine (1901) and Verre et pipe (1919)), Henri Matisse's Femme au fauteuil (1919), and Georges Braque's Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge) (1938) at Christie's in London.\n\nDirectors\nWilliam M.R. French (1885–1914)\nNewton Carpenter (1914–1916)\nGeorge Eggers (1918–1921)\nRobert Harshe (1921–1938)\nDaniel Catton Rich (1938–1958)\nAllen McNab (1956–1965)\nCharles Cunningham (1965–1972)\nE. Laurence Chalmers (1972–1986)\nJames N. Wood (1980–2004)\nJames Cuno (2004–2011)\nDouglas Druick (2011–2016)\nJames Rondeau (2016–present)\n\nControversy\nManagement of investments dispute\nIn 2002, the Art Institute of Chicago filed suit alleging fraud by a small Dallas firm called Integral Investment Management, along with related parties. The museum, which put $43 million of its endowment into funds run by the defendants, claimed that it faced losses of up to 90% on the investments after they soured.\n\nConstruction disputes\nIn 2010, the year after the opening of its massive Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago sued the engineering firm Ove Arup for $10 million over what it said were flaws in the concrete floors and air-circulation systems. The suit was settled out of court.\n\nDocent program diversity dispute\nIn 2021, the Art Institute ended its unpaid volunteer docents program to move to a paid model. The Chicago Tribune editorial page criticized the Institute's letter announcing the change and the move to a new model, arguing that \"[o]nce you cut through the blather, the letter basically said the museum had looked critically at its corps of docents, a group dominated by mostly (but not entirely) white, retired women with some time to spare, and found them wanting as a demographic.\" The Chair of the Institute's Board of Trustees, Robert M. Levy, responded in a Tribune op-ed supporting the change, and described the Tribune's editorial as having \"numerous inaccuracies and mischaracterizations\", noted that the docent program had already been largely on pause for the past 15 months due to the COVID pandemic, and argued that the decision was not about anyone's identity, it was in keeping with changing modern museum practices around the world.\nFollowing a volunteerism surge in the late 1940s, the program had been created in 1961 to revitalize and expand \"programming for children.\" Among other matters, since 2014 the program had been trying to attract a more diverse socioeconomic perspective set of art-tour guides, given the unpaid time commitment needed.\n\nLooted art\nIn 1996, heirs to Jewish art collectors Louise and Friedrich Gutmann, who died in Nazi concentration camps, sued museum trustee Daniel Searle for the return of the Edgar Degas painting, Landscape with Smokestacks. After years of litigation a settlement was concluded which involved the acquisition of the painting by the Art Institute. A collection of approximately 500 objects from Nepal, India and elsewhere in Asia that was donated to the Art Institute by trustee Marilynn Alsdorf in 1989 was later found to contain several objects that were looted; nine objects have been returned by the museum to Nepal over the years, while some additional items are still being contested. In 2023, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office moved to seize Egon Schiele paintings from several museums on the grounds that they had been looted by the Nazis from Fritz Grünbaum, who was killed in the Holocaust. The paintings included, Russian War Prisoner, a watercolor in the Art Institute. The Art Institute continues to hold the work, as it is contesting the seizure in court. According to its investigation, it acquired the watercolor drawing in 1966 from an American art dealer through a proper provenance from Grünbaum's legal heir, and it also argues that the claim is time-barred because Grünbaum's heirs were aware. In February 2024, the Manhattan District Attorney filed a motion accusing the Art Institute of \"blatantly ignoring evidence of an elaborate fraud undertaken to conceal that the artwork had been looted\". According to The New York Times, the court filing provided detailed evidence that provenance documents provided by the Swiss art dealer Eberhard Kornfeld contained forged signatures or were altered long after he came into possession of the paintings and sold them to other art dealers in the mid-1950s. Court hearings on the matter are expected in 2024.\n\nIn popular culture\nDirector John Hughes included a sequence in the Art Institute in his 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which is set in Chicago. During it, the characters are shown viewing A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Hughes had first visited the institute as a \"refuge\" while in high school. Hughes' commentary on the sequence was used as a reference point by journalist Hadley Freeman in a discussion of the Republican presidential primary candidates in 2011.\nThe paintings used in the 1970 Parker Brothers board game Masterpiece are works held in the Art Institute's collection.\n\nSee also\nAmerican Academy of Art\nBessie Bennett, early 20th century Curator of Decorative Art\nForest Idyll\nList of largest art museums\nList of most-visited museums in the United States\nList of museums and cultural institutions in Chicago\nAlme Meyvis\nVisual arts of Chicago\nLions (Kemeys)\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website \nArt Institute's Impressionistic collection, YouTube\nVirtual tour of the Art Institute of Chicago provided by Google Arts & Culture","title":"Art_Institute_of_Chicago"},{"idx":2,"is_supporting":true,"paragraph_text":"The John Hancock Center is a 100-story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018.\nThe skyscraper was designed by Peruvian-American chief designer Bruce Graham and Bangladeshi-American structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). When the building topped out on May 6, 1968, it was the second-tallest building in the world after the Empire State Building, in New York City, and the tallest in Chicago. It is currently the fifth-tallest building in Chicago and the thirteenth-tallest in the United States, behind the Aon Center in Chicago and ahead of the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. When measured to the top of its antenna masts, it stands at 1,500 feet (457 m). The building is home to several offices and restaurants, as well as about 700 condominiums, and at the time of its completion contained the highest residence in the world. The building was named for John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, a developer and original tenant of the building, which itself was named for the U.S. Founding Father John Hancock. In 2018 John Hancock Insurance, years after leaving the building, requested that its name be removed; the owner is seeking another naming rights deal.\nFrom the 95th-floor restaurant, which closed in late 2023, diners were able look out at Chicago and Lake Michigan. The observatory (360 Chicago), which competes with the Willis Tower's Skydeck, has a 360° view of the city, up to four states, and a distance of over 80 miles (130 km). 360 Chicago is home to TILT, a moving platform that leans visitors over the edge of the skyscraper to a 30-degree angle, a full bar with local selections, Chicago's only open-air SkyWalk, and also features free interactive high-definition touchscreens in six languages. The 44th-floor sky lobby features the highest indoor swimming pool in the United States.\n\nHistory\n20th century\nThe project, which would become the world's second tallest building at opening, was conceived and owned by Jerry Wolman in late 1964. The project was financed by John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company. Construction of the tower was interrupted in 1967 due to a flaw in an innovative engineering method used to pour concrete in stages, that was discovered when the building was 20 stories high. The engineers were getting the same soil settlements for the 20 stories that had been built as what they had expected for the entire 99 stories. This forced the owner to stop development until the engineering problem could be resolved, resulting in a credit crunch. The situation is similar to the one faced during the construction of 111 West Wacker, then known as the Waterview Tower. Wolman's bankruptcy resulted in John Hancock taking over the project, which retained the original design, architect, engineer, and main contractor.\nThe building's first resident was Ray Heckla, the original building engineer, responsible for the residential floors from 44 to 92. Heckla moved his family in April 1969, before the building was completed.\nThe 1988 film Poltergeist III was set at the John Hancock Center and was filmed in early 1987.\n\n21st century\nOn December 10, 2006, the non-residential portion of the building was sold by San Francisco–based Shorenstein Properties for $385 million and was purchased by a joint venture of Chicago-based Golub & Company and the Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds. Shorenstein Properties had bought the building in 1998 for $220 million.\nGolub defaulted on its debt and the building was acquired in 2012 by Deutsche Bank, who subsequently carved up the building. The venture of Deutsche Bank and New York–based NorthStar Realty Finance paid an estimated $325 million for debt on 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2012 after Shorenstein Properties defaulted on $400 million in loans. The observation deck was sold to Paris-based Montparnasse 56 Group for between $35 million and $45 million in July 2012. That same month, Prudential Real Estate Investors acquired the retail and restaurant space for almost $142 million. In November 2012, Boston-based American Tower Corp affiliate paid $70 million for the antennas. In June 2013, a venture of Chicago-based real estate investment firm Hearn Co., New York–based investment firm Mount Kellett Capital Management L.P. and San Antonio–based developer Lynd Co. closed on the expected acquisition of 875 North Michigan Avenue's 856,000 square feet (79,500 m2) of office space and 710-car parking deck. The Chicago firm did not disclose a price, but sources said it was about $145 million. This was the last step in that piecemeal sale process. In May 2016, Hearn Co. announced that they were seeking buyers for the naming rights with possible signage rights for the building.\nHustle up the Hancock is an annual stair climb race up the 94 floors from the Michigan Avenue level to the observation deck. It is held on the last Sunday of February. The climb benefits Respiratory Health Association. The record time as of 2007 is 9 minutes 30 seconds.\nThe building is home to the transmitter of Univision's WGBO-DT (channel 66), while all other full-power television stations in Chicago broadcast from Willis Tower. The City Colleges of Chicago's WYCC (channel 20) transmitted from the building until November 2017, when it departed the air as part of the 2016 FCC spectrum auction.\nOn February 12, 2018, John Hancock Insurance requested that its name and logos throughout the building's interior be removed immediately; John Hancock had not had a naming-rights deal with the skyscraper's owners since 2013. The building's name was subsequently changed to its street address as 875 North Michigan Avenue.\n\nIncidents\nOn November 11, 1981, Veterans Day, high-rise firefighting and rescue advocate Dan Goodwin, for the purpose of calling attention to the inability to rescue people trapped in the upper floors of skyscrapers, successfully climbed the building's exterior wall. Wearing a wetsuit and using a climbing device that enabled him to ascend the I-beams on the building's side, Goodwin battled repeated attempts by the Chicago Fire Department to knock him off. Fire Commissioner William Blair ordered Chicago firemen to stop Goodwin by directing a fully engaged fire hose at him and by blasting fire axes through nearby glass from the inside. Fearing for Goodwin's life, Mayor Jane Byrne intervened and allowed him to continue to the top.\nOn December 18, 1997, comedian Chris Farley was found dead in his apartment on the 60th floor of the building.\nOn March 9, 2002, part of a scaffold fell 43 stories after being torn loose by wind gusts around 60 mph (100 km/h) crushing several cars, killing three people in two of them. The remaining part of the stage swung back-and-forth in the gusts repeatedly slamming against the building, damaging cladding panels, breaking windows, and sending pieces onto the street below.\nOn November 21, 2015, a fire broke out in an apartment on the 50th floor of the building. The Chicago Fire Department was able to extinguish the fire after an hour and a half; five people suffered minor injuries.\nOn February 11, 2018, a fire in a car on the seventh floor required approximately 150 firefighters to extinguish.\nOn November 16, 2018, an express elevator cable broke. Initial reports stated that an elevator with six passengers plunged 84 stories from the 95th to 11th floor. Since express elevators are not accessible from floors within the express zone, a team of firefighters had to break through a brick wall from the parking garage to extricate the passengers, none of whom suffered injuries. Elevators to the 95th/96th floor were closed thereafter pending investigation. Subsequent investigation documented only a controlled descent from the 20th floor to the 11th floor.\nA piece of cladding fell from the building on January 5, 2022.\n\nArchitecture\nOne of the most famous buildings of the structural expressionist style, the skyscraper's distinctive X-braced exterior shows that the structure's skin is part of its \"tubular system\". This is one of the engineering techniques which the designers used to achieve a record height; the tubular system is the structure that keeps the building upright during wind and earthquake loads. This X-bracing allows for both higher performance from tall structures and the ability to open up the inside floorplan. Such original features have allowed 875 North Michigan Avenue to become an architectural icon. It was pioneered by Bangladeshi-American structural civil engineer Fazlur Khan and chief architect Bruce Graham.\nThe interior was remodeled in 1995, adding to the lobby travertine, black granite, and textured limestone surfaces. The elliptical-shaped plaza outside the building serves as a public oasis with seasonal plantings and a 12-foot (3.7 m) waterfall. A band of white lights at the top of the building is visible all over Chicago at night, and changes colors for different events. For example, at Christmas time the colors are green and red. When a Chicago-area sports team goes far in the playoffs, the colors are changed to match that team's colors.\nThe building is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers. It has won various awards for its distinctive style, including the Distinguished Architects Twenty-five Year Award from the American Institute of Architects in May 1999. In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the John Hancock Center was selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois) and was recognized by USA Today Travel magazine, as one of AIA Illinois' selections for Illinois 25 Must See Places.\n\nThe building is only partially protected by a fire sprinkler system, as the residential floors do not have sprinklers. Including its antennas, the building has a height of 1,500 feet (457 m), making it the thirty-third tallest building in the world when measured to pinnacle height.\n\nFeatures\n360 Chicago Observation Deck\nLocated on the 94th floor, 360 Chicago Observation Deck is 875 North Michigan Avenue's horizon observatory. The floor of the observatory is 1,030 feet (310 m) above the street-level below. The entrance can be found on the concourse level of 875 North Michigan Avenue, accessible from the Michigan Avenue side of the building. The observatory, previously named John Hancock Observatory, has been independently owned and operated since 2014 by the Montparnasse 56 Group of Paris, France. The elevators are credited as the fastest in the Western Hemisphere, with a top speed of 1,800 ft/min (20.5 mph; 9 m/s). The observatory boasts more floor space than its direct competitor, Skydeck at the Willis Tower. There is a full bar called BAR 94 which stocks local beer and spirits from Revolution Brewing and KOVAL Distillery. The observation deck also features an open-air \"skydeck\" area.\nThe Observatory elevators of 875 North Michigan Avenue, manufactured by Otis, travel 96 floors at a top speed of 1,800 ft/min (20 mph; 9.1 m/s). It has been said the elevators to the observation deck are the fastest in North America, reaching the 95th floor in 38 seconds if they could run the entire trip at top speed.\nFor several years in the 2010s, during its winter season, the observation deck would feature the \"world's highest skating rink\", with an artificial ice rink being seasonally installed.\nAt one point, observation deck had a mascot named Seemore Miles.\nIn the summer of 2014, 360 Chicago added its TILT attraction. TILT, which requires an additional fee to experience, features a series of floor-to-ceiling windows that slowly tilt outside the building to 30°.\n\n95th floor restaurant and 96th floor bar\nSeparate from its observatory, 875 Michigan Avenue has a restaurant space on its 95th floor and a bar space on its 96th floor. Prior to 1993, the space was occupied by a restaurant named The 95th. From 1993 until 2023, the 95th floor was home to a restaurant named the Signature Room, with the accompanying bar on the 96th floor being called the Signature Lounge. The name alluded to the famous signature of early American figure John Hancock. The restaurant was an upscale establishment that offered patrons scenic views. It enforced a dress code for patrons. It received numerous awards. In April 2023, the restaurant and bar were listed for sale. In September 2023, the Signature Room abruptly ceased operations, with ownership citing \"severe economic hardship\" that they attributed to the impact of the earlier COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nRetail plaza\nThe building features a two-level outdoor plaza along its Michigan Avenue face. The plaza contains retail and dinning tenants. The top level of the plaza is at street level, while the lower level is sunken below the street level.\nCurrent tenants include The Cheesecake Factory and The North Face. Past tenants have included Best Buy.\nThe plaza was originally rectangular in shape. Per the Chicago Tribune, the plaza was modeled after the plaza at New York City's Rockefeller Center. The plaza's design featured a fountain pool that would be turned into an ice rink in colder weather. \nIn 1988, plans were unveiled by the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company (the owners of the building at the time) to replace the plaza with a \"$20 million glass and marble three-story atrium\". One rationale cited by building's management was they claimed that access to the building's ground level was complicated by the need of pedestrians to circumnavigate around the courtyard in order to reach the street-level entrance to the building's lobby. They also cited a belief that the building's entrance was too understated for a building of its level of prominence. This atrium proposal faced backlash from local residents who felt that such an addition would mar the appearance of the landmark building. In 1989, newly-elected mayor Richard M. Daley criticized the proposed atrium and the plans were ultimately abandoned.\nIn 1994, the plaza was renovated, with the sunken portion transforming from its previous rectangular shape to an elliptical shape. In 1999, Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin wrote that this renovation had made the plaza a more \"welcoming\" space. This renovation came after the more dramatic late-1980s renovation plans were abandoned. A further $10 million renovation for the plaza was considered by the building's owners in the mid-2010s which would have added features such as video screens and decorative prisms to the plaza.\n\nParking garage\nHoused within several of the lower levels of the building is a parking garage, which cars enter and depart via a spiral vehicle ramp.\n\nAntennas\nSince its completion, the tower has been topped by two antenna structures. These antenna superstructures support a large number of broadcast antenna equipment. At the time of the tower's completion, both antenna structures were 350 feet (110 metres) in height, and RCA had given the architects of the building an estimate that 700 feet of antenna structure would be required to accommodate all of the city's radio and television stations. In 2002, the eastern antenna tower was extended to a height of 378 feet (115 metres) in order to enable WBBM-TV to add new digital antenna equipment at a height greater than the roof height of the Sears Tower (Willis Tower). Subsequently, the western antenna tower was reduced to a height of 285 feet (87 metres).\nFor a long time, the antenna towers utilized incandescent red lights and a red and white paint scheme to provide a visibility to aviation in compliance with federal regulations. However, in order to forgo the expense and effort of annually reapplying striped paint to the antenna towers, the tower instead installed red strobe lights atop the tower and eliminated the striped paint scheme, as striped paint is not required if structures are topped by such lights.\nA sizable number of television and radio stations utilize the antenna towers. Many stations maintain broadcast equipment on both the John Hancock Center and the Willis Tower's antenna structures in order to have both a primary and backup broadcasting point.\nIn November 2012, Boston-based American Tower Corp affiliate paid $70 million to acquire ownership of the antennas.\n\n44th floor sky lobby\nThe 44th level skylobby is the floor where the building transitions from offices to residential, with offices occupying floors below and residences occupying floors above.\n\nSwimming pool\nOn its 44th floor, the John Hancock Center has a resident swimming pool. The pool area has double-height ceilings. \nThe pool is the highest pool in the United States when measured by distance above ground level.\n\nResident/office tenant grocery store\nOn its 44th floor, the building has a 5,200 square feet (480 m2) grocery store accessible only to apartment residents and office tenants. In 2007, operation of the grocery store was taken over by the local Potash chain of grocery stores. As of February 2023, Potash continues to operate the grocery store.\n\nSee also\nArchitecture of Chicago\nList of buildings and structures\nList of buildings with 100 floors or more\nList of tallest buildings in the world\nList of tallest buildings in Chicago\nList of tallest buildings in the United States\nList of tallest buildings and structures in the world\nList of tallest freestanding structures in the world\nList of tallest freestanding steel structures\n\nFootnotes\nReferences\nThe Cloudbase Chronicles, Life at the Top - An engineers Tale by Harry W. Budge III\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial website\n360 Chicago, formerly Hancock Observatory\n875 North Michigan Avenue on CTBUH Skyscraper Center\n\"875 North Michigan Avenue\". Emporis. Archived from the original on January 19, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)\nJohn Hancock Center at Structurae\nJohn Hancock Center\nSociety of Architectural Historians SAH ARCHIPEDIA entry on John Hancock Center","title":"John_Hancock_Center"}],"string":"[\n {\n \"idx\": 0,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, held in Jackson Park, was a large water pool representing the voyage that Columbus took to the New World. Chicago won the right to host the fair over several competing cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American architecture, the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image.\\nThe layout of the Chicago Columbian Exposition was predominantly designed by John Wellborn Root, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Charles B. Atwood. It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow Beaux-Arts principles of design, namely neoclassical architecture principles based on symmetry, balance, and splendor. The color of the material generally used to cover the buildings' façades, white staff, gave the fairgrounds its nickname, the White City. Many prominent architects designed its 14 \\\"great buildings\\\". Artists and musicians were featured in exhibits and many also made depictions and works of art inspired by the exposition.\\nThe exposition covered 690 acres (2.8 km2), featuring nearly 200 new but temporary buildings of predominantly neoclassical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from 46 countries. More than 27 million people attended the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world's fairs, and it became a symbol of emerging American exceptionalism, much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom.\\nDedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World, the fair served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which had destroyed much of the city in 1871.\\nOn October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a world record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 751,026 people. The debt for the fair was soon paid off with a check for $1.5 million (equivalent to $50.9 million in 2023). Chicago has commemorated the fair with one of the stars on its municipal flag.\\n\\nHistory\\nPlanning and organization\\nMany prominent civic, professional, and commercial leaders from around the United States helped finance, coordinate, and manage the Fair, including Chicago shoe company owner Charles H. Schwab, Chicago railroad and manufacturing magnate John Whitfield Bunn, and Connecticut banking, insurance, and iron products magnate Milo Barnum Richardson, among many others.\\nThe fair was planned in the early 1890s during the Gilded Age of rapid industrial growth, immigration, and class tension. World's fairs, such as London's 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition, had been successful in Europe as a way to bring together societies fragmented along class lines.\\nThe first American attempt at a world's fair in Philadelphia in 1876 drew crowds, but was a financial failure. Nonetheless, ideas about distinguishing the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing started in the late 1880s. Civic leaders in St. Louis, New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago expressed interest in hosting a fair to generate profits, boost real estate values, and promote their cities. Congress was called on to decide the location. New York financiers J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and William Waldorf Astor, among others, pledged $15 million to finance the fair if Congress awarded it to New York, while Chicagoans Charles T. Yerkes, Marshall Field, Philip Armour, Gustavus Swift, and Cyrus McCormick, Jr., offered to finance a Chicago fair. What finally persuaded Congress was Chicago banker Lyman Gage, who raised several million additional dollars in a 24-hour period, over and above New York's final offer.\\nChicago representatives not only fought for the world's fair for monetary reasons, but also for reasons of practicality. In a Senate hearing held in January 1890, representative Thomas Barbour Bryan argued that the most important qualities for a world's fair were \\\"abundant supplies of good air and pure water\\\", \\\"ample space, accommodations and transportation for all exhibits and visitors\\\". He argued that New York had too many obstructions, and Chicago would be able to use large amounts of land around the city where there was \\\"not a house to buy and not a rock to blast\\\" and that it would be located so that \\\"the artisan and the farmer and the shopkeeper and the man of humble means\\\" would be able to easily access the fair. Bryan continued to say that the fair was of \\\"vital interest\\\" to the West, and that the West wanted the location to be Chicago. The city spokesmen would continue to stress the essentials of a successful exposition and that only Chicago was fit to fill these exposition requirements.\\nThe location of the fair was decided through several rounds of voting by the United States House of Representatives. The first ballot showed Chicago with a large lead over New York, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., but short of a majority. Chicago broke the 154-vote majority threshold on the eighth ballot, receiving 157 votes to New York's 107.\\nThe exposition corporation and national exposition commission settled on Jackson Park and an area around it as the fair site. Daniel H. Burnham was selected as director of works, and George R. Davis as director-general. Burnham emphasized architecture and sculpture as central to the fair and assembled the period's top talent to design the buildings and grounds including Frederick Law Olmsted for the grounds. The temporary buildings were designed in an ornate neoclassical style and painted white, resulting in the fair site being referred to as the \\\"White City\\\".\\nThe Exposition's offices set up shop in the upper floors of the Rand McNally Building on Adams Street, the world's first all-steel-framed skyscraper. Davis' team organized the exhibits with the help of G. Brown Goode of the Smithsonian. The Midway was inspired by the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition, which included ethnological \\\"villages\\\".\\n\\nCivil rights leaders protested the refusal to include an African American exhibit. Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Irvine Garland Penn, and Ferdinand Lee Barnet co-authored a pamphlet entitled \\\"The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition – The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature\\\" addressing the issue. Wells and Douglass argued, \\\"when it is asked why we are excluded from the World's Columbian Exposition, the answer is Slavery.\\\" Ten thousand copies of the pamphlet were circulated in the White City from the Haitian Embassy (where Douglass had been selected as its national representative), and the activists received responses from the delegations of England, Germany, France, Russia, and India.\\nThe exhibition did include a limited number of exhibits put on by African Americans, including exhibits by the sculptor Edmonia Lewis, a painting exhibit by scientist George Washington Carver, and a statistical exhibit by Joan Imogen Howard. Black individuals were also featured in white exhibits, such as Nancy Green's portrayal of the character Aunt Jemima for the R. T. Davis Milling Company.\\n\\nOperation\\nThe fair opened in May and ran through October 30, 1893. Forty-six nations participated in the fair, which was the first world's fair to have national pavilions. They constructed exhibits and pavilions and named national \\\"delegates\\\"; for example, Haiti selected Frederick Douglass to be its delegate. The Exposition drew over 27 million visitors. The fair was originally meant to be closed on Sundays, but the Chicago Woman's Club petitioned that it stay open. The club felt that if the exposition was closed on Sunday, it would restrict those who could not take off work during the work-week from seeing it.\\nThe exposition was located in Jackson Park and on the Midway Plaisance on 630 acres (2.5 km2) in the neighborhoods of South Shore, Jackson Park Highlands, Hyde Park, and Woodlawn. Charles H. Wacker was the director of the fair. The layout of the fairgrounds was created by Frederick Law Olmsted, and the Beaux-Arts architecture of the buildings was under the direction of Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the fair. Renowned local architect Henry Ives Cobb designed several buildings for the exposition. The director of the American Academy in Rome, Francis Davis Millet, directed the painted mural decorations. Indeed, it was a coming-of-age for the arts and architecture of the \\\"American Renaissance\\\", and it showcased the burgeoning neoclassical and Beaux-Arts styles.\\n\\nAssassination of mayor and end of fair\\nThe fair ended with the city in shock, as popular mayor Carter Harrison Sr. was assassinated by Patrick Eugene Prendergast two days before the fair's closing. Closing ceremonies were canceled in favor of a public memorial service.\\nJackson Park was returned to its status as a public park, in much better shape than its original swampy form. The lagoon was reshaped to give it a more natural appearance, except for the straight-line northern end where it still laps up against the steps on the south side of the Palace of Fine Arts/Museum of Science & Industry building. The Midway Plaisance, a park-like boulevard which extends west from Jackson Park, once formed the southern boundary of the University of Chicago, which was being built as the fair was closing (the university has since developed south of the Midway). The university's football team, the Maroons, were the original \\\"Monsters of the Midway.\\\" The exposition is mentioned in the university's alma mater: \\\"The City White hath fled the earth, / But where the azure waters lie, / A nobler city hath its birth, / The City Gray that ne'er shall die.\\\"\\n\\nAttractions\\nThe World's Columbian Exposition was the first world's fair with an area for amusements that was strictly separated from the exhibition halls. This area, developed by a young music promoter, Sol Bloom, concentrated on Midway Plaisance and introduced the term \\\"midway\\\" to American English to describe the area of a carnival or fair where sideshows are located.\\nIt included carnival rides, among them the original Ferris Wheel, built by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. This wheel was 264 feet (80 m) high and had 36 cars, each of which could accommodate 40 people. The importance of the Columbian Exposition is highlighted by the use of rueda de Chicago (\\\"Chicago wheel\\\") in many Latin American countries such as Costa Rica and Chile in reference to the Ferris wheel. One attendee, George C. Tilyou, later credited the sights he saw on the Chicago midway for inspiring him to create America's first major amusement park, Steeplechase Park in Coney Island, New York.\\nThe fair included life-size reproductions of Christopher Columbus' three ships, the Niña (real name Santa Clara), the Pinta, and the Santa María. These were intended to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the Americas. The ships were constructed in Spain and then sailed to America for the exposition. The celebration of Columbus was an intergovernmental project, coordinated by American special envoy William Eleroy Curtis, the Queen Regent of Spain, and Pope Leo XIII. The ships were a very popular exhibit.\\nEadweard Muybridge gave a series of lectures on the Science of Animal Locomotion in the Zoopraxographical Hall, built specially for that purpose on Midway Plaisance. He used his zoopraxiscope to show his moving pictures to a paying public. The hall was the first commercial movie theater.\\nThe \\\"Street in Cairo\\\" included the popular dancer known as Little Egypt. She introduced America to the suggestive version of the belly dance known as the \\\"hootchy-kootchy,\\\" to a tune said to have been improvised by Sol Bloom (and now more commonly associated with snake charmers) which he had composed when his dancers had no music to dance to. Bloom did not copyright the song, putting it immediately in the public domain.\\nAlso included was the first moving walkway or travelator, which was designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee. It had two different divisions: one where passengers were seated, and one where riders could stand or walk. It ran in a loop down the length of a lakefront pier to a casino.\\nAlthough denied a spot at the fair, Buffalo Bill Cody decided to come to Chicago anyway, setting up his Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show just outside the edge of the exposition. Nearby, historian Frederick Jackson Turner gave academic lectures reflecting on the end of the frontier which Buffalo Bill represented.\\nThe electrotachyscope of Ottomar Anschütz was demonstrated, which used a Geissler tube to project the illusion of moving images.\\nLouis Comfort Tiffany made his reputation with a stunning chapel designed and built for the Exposition. After the Exposition the Tiffany Chapel was sold several times, even going back to Tiffany's estate. It was eventually reconstructed and restored and in 1999 it was installed at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art.\\n\\nArchitect Kirtland Cutter's Idaho Building, a rustic log construction, was a popular favorite, visited by an estimated 18 million people. The building's design and interior furnishings were a major precursor of the Arts and Crafts movement.\\nAmong the other attractions at the fair, several products that are well-known today were introduced. These products included Juicy Fruit gum, Cream of Wheat, Cracker Jacks, Shredded Wheat cereal, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, among many others.\\n\\nAnthropology\\nThere was an Anthropology Building at the World's Fair. Nearby, \\\"The Cliff Dwellers\\\" featured a rock and timber structure that was painted to recreate Battle Rock Mountain in Colorado, a stylized recreation of an American Indian cliff dwelling with pottery, weapons, and other relics on display. There was also an Eskimo display. There were also birch bark wigwams of the Penobscot tribe. Nearby was a working model Indian school, organized by the Office of Indian Affairs, that housed delegations of Native American students and their teachers from schools around the country for weeks at a time.\\n\\nRail\\nThe John Bull locomotive was displayed. It was only 62 years old, having been built in 1831. It was the first locomotive acquisition by the Smithsonian Institution. The locomotive ran under its own power from Washington, DC, to Chicago to participate, and returned to Washington under its own power again when the exposition closed. In 1981 it was the oldest surviving operable steam locomotive in the world when it ran under its own power again.\\nA Baldwin 2-4-2 locomotive was showcased at the exposition, and subsequently the 2-4-2 type was known as the Columbia.\\nAn original frog switch and portion of the superstructure of the famous 1826 Granite Railway in Massachusetts could be viewed. This was the first commercial railroad in the United States to evolve into a common carrier without an intervening closure. The railway brought granite stones from a rock quarry in Quincy, Massachusetts, so that the Bunker Hill Monument could be erected in Boston. The frog switch is now on public view in East Milton Square, Massachusetts, on the original right-of-way of the Granite Railway.\\nTransportation by rail was the major mode of transportation. A 26-track train station was built at the southwest corner of the fair. While trains from around the country would unload there, there was a local train to shuttle tourists from the Chicago Grand Central Station to the fair. The newly built Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad also served passengers from Congress Terminal to the fairgrounds at Jackson Park. The line exists today as part of the CTA Green Line.\\n\\nCountry and state exhibition buildings\\nForty-six countries had pavilions at the exposition. Norway participated by sending the Viking, a replica of the Gokstad ship. It was built in Norway and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean by 12 men, led by Captain Magnus Andersen. In 1919, this ship was moved to Lincoln Park. It was relocated in 1996 to Good Templar Park in Geneva, Illinois, where it awaits renovation.\\nThirty-four U.S. states also had their own pavilions. The work of noted feminist author Kate McPhelim Cleary was featured during the opening of the Nebraska Day ceremonies at the fair, which included a reading of her poem \\\"Nebraska\\\". Among the state buildings present at the fair were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas; each was meant to be architecturally representative of the corresponding states.\\nFour United States territories also had pavilions located in one building: Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah.\\nVisitors to the Louisiana Pavilion were each given a seedling of a cypress tree. This resulted in the spread of cypress trees to areas where they were not native. Cypress trees from those seedlings can be found in many areas of West Virginia, where they flourish in the climate.\\nThe Illinois was a detailed, full-scale mockup of an Indiana-class battleship, constructed as a naval exhibit.\\n\\nGuns and artillery\\nThe German firm Krupp had a pavilion of artillery, which apparently had cost one million dollars to stage, including a coastal gun of 42 cm in bore (16.54 inches) and a length of 33 calibres (45.93 feet, 14 meters). A breech-loaded gun, it weighed 120.46 long tons (122.4 metric tons). According to the company's marketing: \\\"It carried a charge projectile weighing from 2,200 to 2,500 pounds which, when driven by 900 pounds of brown powder, was claimed to be able to penetrate at 2,200 yards a wrought-iron plate three feet thick if placed at right angles.\\\"\\nNicknamed \\\"The Thunderer\\\", the gun had an advertised range of 15 miles. On this occasion John Schofield declared Krupps' guns \\\"the greatest peacemakers in the world\\\". This gun was later seen as a precursor of the company's World War I Dicke Berta howitzers.\\n\\nReligions\\nThe 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions, which ran from September 11 to September 27, marked the first formal gathering of representatives of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions from around the world. According to Eric J. Sharpe, Tomoko Masuzawa, and others, the event was considered radical at the time, since it allowed non-Christian faiths to speak on their own behalf. For example, it is recognized as the first public mention of the Baháʼí Faith in North America; it was not taken seriously by European scholars until the 1960s.\\n\\nMoving walkway\\nAlong the banks of the lake, patrons on the way to the casino were taken on a moving walkway designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee, the first of its kind open to the public, called The Great Wharf, Moving Sidewalk, it allowed people to walk along or ride in seats.\\n\\nHorticulture\\nHorticultural exhibits at the Horticultural Hall included cacti and orchids as well as other plants in a greenhouse.\\n\\nArchitecture\\nWhite City\\nMost of the buildings of the fair were designed in the neoclassical architecture style. The area at the Court of Honor was known as The White City. Façades were made not of stone, but of a mixture of plaster, cement, and jute fiber called staff, which was painted white, giving the buildings their \\\"gleam\\\". Architecture critics derided the structures as \\\"decorated sheds.” The buildings were clad in white stucco, which, in comparison to the tenements of Chicago, seemed illuminated. It was also called the White City because of the extensive use of street lights, which made the boulevards and buildings usable at night.\\nIn 1892, working under extremely tight deadlines to complete construction, director of works Daniel Burnham appointed Francis Davis Millet to replace the fair's official director of color-design, William Pretyman. Pretyman had resigned following a dispute with Burnham. After experimenting, Millet settled on a mix of oil and white lead whitewash that could be applied using compressed air spray painting to the buildings, taking considerably less time than traditional brush painting. Joseph Binks, maintenance supervisor at Chicago's Marshall Field's Wholesale Store, who had been using this method to apply whitewash to the subbasement walls of the store, got the job to paint the Exposition buildings. Claims this was the first use of spray painting may be apocryphal since journals from that time note this form of painting had already been in use in the railroad industry from the early 1880s.\\nMany of the buildings included sculptural details and, to meet the Exposition's opening deadline, chief architect Burnham sought the help of Chicago Art Institute instructor Lorado Taft to help complete them. Taft's efforts included employing a group of talented women sculptors from the Institute known as \\\"the White Rabbits\\\" to finish some of the buildings, getting their name from Burnham's comment \\\"Hire anyone, even white rabbits if they'll do the work.\\\"\\nThe words \\\"Thine alabaster cities gleam\\\" from the song \\\"America the Beautiful\\\" were inspired by the White City.\\n\\nRole in the City Beautiful movement\\nThe White City is largely credited for ushering in the City Beautiful movement and planting the seeds of modern city planning. The highly integrated design of the landscapes, promenades, and structures provided a vision of what is possible when planners, landscape architects, and architects work together on a comprehensive design scheme.\\nThe White City inspired cities to focus on the beautification of the components of the city in which municipal government had control; streets, municipal art, public buildings, and public spaces. The designs of the City Beautiful Movement (closely tied with the municipal art movement) are identifiable by their classical architecture, plan symmetry, picturesque views, and axial plans, as well as their magnificent scale. Where the municipal art movement focused on beautifying one feature in a city, the City Beautiful movement began to make improvements on the scale of the district. The White City of the World's Columbian Exposition inspired the Merchants Club of Chicago to commission Daniel Burnham to create the Plan of Chicago in 1909.\\n\\nGreat buildings\\nThere were fourteen main \\\"great buildings\\\": 17 centered around a giant reflective pool called the Grand Basin. Buildings included:\\n\\nThe Administration Building, designed by Richard Morris Hunt\\nThe Agricultural Building, designed by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead & White\\nThe Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, designed by George B. Post. If this building were standing today, it would rank third in volume (8,500,000m3) and eighth in footprint (130,000 m2) on list of largest buildings. It exhibited works related to literature, science, art and music.\\nThe Mines and Mining Building, designed by Solon Spencer Beman\\nThe Electricity Building, designed by Henry Van Brunt and Frank Maynard Howe\\nThe Machinery Hall, designed by Robert Swain Peabody of Peabody and Stearns\\nThe Woman's Building, designed by Sophia Hayden\\nThe Transportation Building, designed by Adler & Sullivan\\nThe Fisheries Building designed by Henry Ives Cobb: 23 \\nForestry Building designed by Charles B. Atwood\\nHorticultural Building designed by Jenney and Mundie\\nAnthropology Building designed by Charles B. Atwood\\n\\nTransportation Building\\nLouis Sullivan's polychrome proto-Modern Transportation Building was an outstanding exception to the prevailing style, as he tried to develop an organic American form. Years later, in 1922, he wrote that the classical style of the White City had set back modern American architecture by forty years.\\nAs detailed in Erik Larson's popular history The Devil in the White City, extraordinary effort was required to accomplish the exposition, and much of it was unfinished on opening day. The famous Ferris Wheel, which proved to be a major attendance draw and helped save the fair from bankruptcy, was not finished until June, because of waffling by the board of directors the previous year on whether to build it. Frequent debates and disagreements among the developers of the fair added many delays. The spurning of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show proved a serious financial mistake. Buffalo Bill set up his highly popular show next door to the fair and brought in a great deal of revenue that he did not have to share with the developers. Nonetheless, construction and operation of the fair proved to be a windfall for Chicago workers during the serious economic recession that was sweeping the country.\\n\\nSurviving structures\\nAlmost all of the fair's structures were designed to be temporary; of the more than 200 buildings erected for the fair, the only two which still stand in place are the Palace of Fine Arts and the World's Congress Auxiliary Building. From the time the fair closed until 1920, the Palace of Fine Arts housed the Field Columbian Museum (now the Field Museum of Natural History, since relocated); in 1933 (having been completely rebuilt in permanent materials), the Palace building re-opened as the Museum of Science and Industry. The second building, the World's Congress Building, was one of the few buildings not built in Jackson Park, instead it was built downtown in Grant Park. The cost of construction of the World's Congress Building was shared with the Art Institute of Chicago, which, as planned, moved into the building (the museum's current home) after the close of the fair.\\nThe three other significant buildings that survived the fair represented Norway, the Netherlands, and the State of Maine. The Norway Building was a recreation of a traditional wooden stave church. After the Fair it was relocated to Lake Geneva, and in 1935 was moved to a museum called Little Norway in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. In 2015 it was dismantled and shipped back to Norway, where it was restored and reassembled. The second is the Maine State Building, designed by Charles Sumner Frost, which was purchased by the Ricker family of Poland Spring, Maine. They moved the building to their resort to serve as a library and art gallery. The Poland Spring Preservation Society now owns the building, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The third is The Dutch House, which was moved to Brookline, Massachusetts.\\nThe 1893 Viking ship that was sailed to the Exposition from Norway by Captain Magnus Andersen is located in Geneva, Illinois. The ship is open to visitors on scheduled days April through October.\\nThe main altar at St. John Cantius in Chicago, as well as its matching two side altars, are reputed to be from the Columbian Exposition.\\nSince many of the other buildings at the fair were intended to be temporary, they were removed after the fair. The White City so impressed visitors (at least before air pollution began to darken the façades) that plans were considered to refinish the exteriors in marble or some other material. These plans were abandoned in July 1894, when much of the fair grounds was destroyed in a fire.\\n\\nGallery\\nLater criticisms\\nFrank Lloyd Wright later wrote that \\\"By this overwhelming rise of grandomania I was confirmed in my fear that a native architecture would be set back at least fifty years.\\\"\\nAccording to University of Notre Dame history professor Gail Bederman, the event symbolized a male-dominated and Eurocentrist society. In her 1995 text Manliness and Civilization, she writes, \\\"The White City, with its vision of future perfection and of the advanced racial power of manly commerce and technology, constructed civilization as an ideal of white male power.\\\" According to Bederman, people of color were barred entirely from participating in the organization of the White City and were instead given access only to the Midway exhibit, \\\"which specialized in spectacles of barbarous races – 'authentic' villages of Samoans, Egyptians, Dahomans, Turks, and other exotic peoples, populated by actual imported 'natives.'\\\"\\nTwo small exhibits were included in the White City's \\\"Woman's Building\\\" which addressed women of color. One, entitled \\\"Afro-American\\\" was installed in a distant corner of the building. The other, called \\\"Woman's Work in Savagery,\\\" included baskets, weavings, and African, Polynesian, and Native American arts. Though they were produced by living women of color, the materials were represented as relics from the distant past, embodying \\\"the work of white women's own distant evolutionary foremothers.\\\"\\n\\nVisitors\\nHelen Keller, along with her mentor Anne Sullivan and Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, visited the fair in summer 1893. Keller described the fair in her autobiography The Story of My Life. Early in July, a Wellesley College English teacher named Katharine Lee Bates visited the fair. The White City later inspired the reference to \\\"alabaster cities\\\" in her poem and lyrics \\\"America the Beautiful\\\". The exposition was extensively reported by Chicago publisher William D. Boyce's reporters and artists. There is a very detailed and vivid description of all facets of this fair by the Persian traveler Mirza Mohammad Ali Mo'in ol-Saltaneh written in Persian. He departed from Persia on April 20, 1892, especially for the purpose of visiting the World's Columbian Exposition.\\nPierre de Coubertin visited the fair with his friends Paul Bourget and Samuel Jean de Pozzi. He devotes the first chapter of his book Souvenirs d'Amérique et de Grèce (1897) to the visit. Swami Vivekananda visited the fair to attend the Parliament of the World's Religions and delivered his famous speech Sisters and Brothers of America!. Kubota Beisen was an official delegate of Japan. As an artist, he sketched hundreds of scenes, some of which were later used to make woodblock print books about the Exhibition. Serial killer H. H. Holmes attended the fair with two of his eventual victims, Annie and Minnie Williams.\\nBulgarian writer Aleko Konstantinov visited the fair and wrote his nonfiction book To Chicago and Back.\\n\\nSouvenirs\\nExamples of exposition souvenirs can be found in various American museum collections. One example, copyrighted in 1892 by John W. Green, is a folding hand fan with detailed illustrations of landscapes and architecture. Charles W Goldsmith produced a set of ten postcard designs, each in full colour, showing the buildings constructed for the exhibition. Columbian Exposition coins were also minted for the event.\\n\\nElectricity\\nThe effort to power the Fair with electricity, which became a demonstration piece for Westinghouse Electric and the alternating current system they had been developing for many years, took place at the end of what has been called the War of the currents between DC and AC. Westinghouse initially did not put in a bid to power the Fair but agreed to be the contractor for a local Chicago company that put in a low bid of US$510,000 to supply an alternating current-based system.\\nEdison General Electric, which at the time was merging with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric, put in a US$1.72 million bid to power the Fair and its planned 93,000 incandescent lamps with direct current. After the Fair committee went over both proposals, Edison General Electric re-bid their costs at $554,000 but Westinghouse underbid them by 70 cents per lamp to get the contract. Westinghouse could not use the Edison incandescent lamp since the patent belonged to General Electric and they had successfully sued to stop use of all patent infringing designs. Since Edison specified a sealed globe of glass in his design Westinghouse found a way to sidestep the Edison patent by quickly developing a lamp with a ground-glass stopper in one end, based on a Sawyer-Man \\\"stopper\\\" lamp patent they already had. The lamps worked well but were short-lived, requiring a small army of workmen to constantly replace them.: 140 \\nWestinghouse Electric had severely underbid the contract and struggled to supply all the equipment specified, including twelve 1,000-horsepower single-phase AC generators and all the lighting and other equipment required. They also had to fend off a last-minute lawsuit by General Electric claiming the Westinghouse Sawyer-Man-based stopper lamp infringed on the Edison incandescent lamp patent.: 142 \\nThe International Exposition was held in an Electricity Building which was devoted to electrical exhibits. A statue of Benjamin Franklin was displayed at the entrance. The exposition featured interior and exterior light and displays as well as displays of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope, search lights, a seismograph, electric incubators for chicken eggs, and Morse code telegraph.: 22 \\n\\nAll the exhibits were from commercial enterprises. Participants included General Electric, Brush, Western Electric, and Westinghouse. The Westinghouse Company displayed several polyphase systems. The exhibits included a switchboard, polyphase generators, step-up transformers, transmission line, step-down transformers, commercial size induction motors and synchronous motors, and rotary direct current converters (including an operational railway motor). The working scaled system allowed the public a view of a system of polyphase power which could be transmitted over long distances, and be utilized, including the supply of direct current. Meters and other auxiliary devices were also present.\\nPart of the space occupied by the Westinghouse Company was devoted to demonstrations of electrical devices developed by Nikola Tesla including induction motors and the generators used to power the system. The rotating magnetic field that drove these motors was explained through a series of demonstrations including an Egg of Columbus that used the two-phase coil in the induction motors to spin a copper egg making it stand on end.\\nTesla himself showed up for a week in August to attend the International Electrical Congress, being held at the fair's Agriculture Hall, and put on a series of demonstrations of his wireless lighting system in a specially set up darkened room at the Westinghouse exhibit. These included demonstrations he had previously performed throughout America and Europe including using a nearby coil to light a wireless gas-discharge lamp held in his hand.\\nAlso at the Fair, the Chicago Athletic Association Football team played one of the first night football games against West Point (the earliest being on September 28, 1892, between Mansfield State Normal and Wyoming Seminary). Chicago won the game, 14–0. The game lasted only 40 minutes, compared to the normal 90 minutes.\\n\\nMusic\\nMusicians\\nJohn Philip Sousa′s Band played for the Exposition dedication celebration in Chicago, 10 October through 21 October 1892.\\nJoseph Douglass, classical violinist, who achieved wide recognition after his performance there and became the first African-American violinist to conduct a transcontinental tour and the first to tour as a concert violinist.\\nSissieretta Jones, a soprano known as \\\"the Black Patti\\\" and an already-famous opera singer.\\nA paper on African-American spirituals and shouts by Abigail Christensen was read to attendees.\\nThere were many other black artists at the fair, ranging from minstrel and early ragtime groups to more formal classical ensembles to street buskers.\\n\\nScott Joplin, pianist, from Texarkana, Texas; became widely known for his piano playing at the fair.\\n\\nOther music and musicians\\nThe first Indonesian music performance in the United States was at the exposition. The gamelan instruments used in the performance were later placed in the Field Museum of Natural History.\\nA group of hula dancers led to increased awareness of Hawaiian music among Americans throughout the country.\\nStoughton Musical Society, the oldest choral society in the United States, presented the first concerts of early American music at the exposition.\\nThe first eisteddfod (a Welsh choral competition with a history spanning many centuries) held outside Wales was held in Chicago at the exposition.\\nA 250-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir competed in the Eisteddfod, taking the second place prize of $1,000. This was the first appearance of the choir outside the Utah Territory.\\nOn August 12, 1893, Antonín Dvořák conducted a gala \\\"Bohemian Day\\\" concert at the exposition, besieged by visitors including the conductor of the Chicago Symphony, who arranged for performance of Dvořák's American string quartet, just completed in Spillville, Iowa, during a Dvořák family vacation in a Czech-speaking community there.\\nAmerican composer Amy Beach (1867–1944) was commissioned by the Board of Lady Managers of the fair to compose a choral work (Festival Jubilate, op. 17) for the opening of the Woman's Building.\\nSousa's Band played concerts in the south bandstand on the Great Plaza, 25 May to 28 June 1893.\\nThe University of Illinois Military Band conducted by student leaders Charles Elder and Richard Sharpe played concerts twice daily in the Illinois Building 9 June to 24 June 1893. Soloists were William Sandford, euphonium; Charles Elder, clarinet; William Steele, cornet. The band members slept on cots on the top floor of the building.\\nOn June 8, 1893, The Exposition Orchestra, an expanded version of the Chicago Symphony conducted by guest conductor Vojtěch I. Hlaváč, played the American premiere of Modest Mussorgsky's A Night on Bald Mountain as part of a concert of Russian folk music.\\nA pipe organ containing over 3,900 pipes, one of the largest in the world at the time, was built by the Farrand & Votey Organ Company to the specifications of Chicago organist Clarence Eddy. It was one of the first great organs to rely on electrical connections from its keys to its pipes.\\nMusicologist Anna Morsch and composer Charlotte Sporleder presented a program of German music.\\nComposer and pianist Anita Socola Specht won the title \\\"best amateur pianist in the United States,\\\" although some of the judges told her, \\\"You are not an amateur, you are an artist!\\\"\\n\\nArt\\nAmerican artists exhibiting\\nPainters\\nJapanese art\\nJapan's artistic contribution was mainly in porcelain, cloisonné enamel, metalwork and embroidery. While 55 paintings and 24 sculptures came from Japan, 271 of the 290 exhibits in the Palace of Fine Arts were Japanese. Artists represented included Miyagawa Kozan, Yabu Meizan, Namikawa Sōsuke, and Suzuki Chokichi.\\n\\nWomen artists exhibiting\\nThe women artists at the Woman's Building included Anna Lownes, Viennese painter Rosa Schweninger, and many others. American composer Amy Cheney Beach was commissioned by the Board of Lady Managers of the fair to compose a choral work (Festival Jubilate, op. 17) for the opening of the Woman's Building. The Mrs Potts sad-iron system was on display. Ami Mali Hicks' stencil design was selected to adorn the frieze in the assembly room of the Women's Building. Musicologist Anna Morsch and composer Charlotte Sporleder presented a program of German music.\\nThe Woman's Building included a Woman's Building Library Exhibit, which had 7,000 books — all by women. The Woman's Building Library was meant to show the cumulative contribution of the world's women to literature.\\n\\n\\\"Greatest Refrigerator on Earth\\\" fire tragedy\\nA large Romanesque structure called \\\"Greatest Refrigerator on Earth\\\" stored thousands of pounds of the Exposition's food and held an ice-skating rink for patrons. The large structure demonstrated artificial freezing, a recent development, and was planned by architect Franklin P. Burnham. The structure's floor space was 130 by 255 feet and its height reached almost 200 feet. On the evening of July 10, 1893, the \\\"Greatest Refrigerator on Earth\\\" caught fire. Two firemen entered, one sliding down a rope and another on a line of hose, and both were trapped in the burning refrigerator. A total of fifteen people died, twelve firefighters and three civilians, in front of a crowd of more than a thousand fairgoers. The only artifact that survived the fire was a twelve-foot copper statue of Christopher Columbus, which was kept as a monument to the men who lost their lives and is kept by the fire museum of Chicago.\\n\\nNotable firsts\\nConcepts\\nFrederick Jackson Turner lectured on his Frontier thesis.\\nThe Pledge of Allegiance was first performed at the exposition by a mass of school children lined up in military fashion.\\nContribution to Chicago's nickname, the \\\"Windy City\\\". Some argue that Charles Anderson Dana of the New York Sun coined the term related to the hype of the city's promoters. Other evidence, however, suggests the term was used as early as 1881 in relation to either Chicago's \\\"windbag\\\" politicians or to its weather.\\n\\nCommemorations\\nUnited States Mint offered its first commemorative coins: the Columbian Exposition quarter dollar and Columbian Exposition half dollar\\nThe United States Post Office Department produced its first picture postcards and Columbian Issue commemorative stamps.\\n\\nEdibles and potables\\nCream of Wheat\\nThe brownie was invented by Bertha Palmer for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.\\nMilton Hershey bought a European exhibitor's chocolate manufacturing equipment and added chocolate products to his caramel manufacturing business.\\nJuicy Fruit gum\\nQuaker Oats\\nShredded Wheat\\nPabst Blue Ribbon\\nPeanut butter\\nAunt Jemima pancake mix was widely popularized by spokesperson Nancy Green's pancake cooking and story telling performances.\\nCracker Jack's new recipe was introduced at the Exposition\\nVienna Sausage started selling its frankfurters and sausages near one of the entrances to the Midway Plaisance, just outside the Old Vienna Village. The company later became known as Vienna Beef, famously recognized as \\\"Chicago's Hot Dog\\\".\\n\\nInventions and manufacturing advances\\nA device that made plates for printing books in Braille, unveiled by Frank Haven Hall, who met Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan at the exhibit.\\nMoving walkway, or travelator\\nThe third rail giving electric power to elevated trains led directly to its first continuing US use.\\nThe \\\"clasp locker\\\", a clumsy slide fastener and forerunner to the zipper was demonstrated by Whitcomb L. Judson\\nElongated coins (the squashed penny)\\nFerris Wheel\\nFirst fully electrical kitchen including an automatic dishwasher\\nPhosphorescent lamps (a precursor to fluorescent lamps)\\nJohn T. Shayne & Company, the local Chicago furrier helped America gain respect on the world stage of manufacturing\\nClark cell as a standard for measuring voltage\\nA first prototype of a pressurized aerosol spray, by Francis Davis Millet.\\nThe first practical electric automobile, invented by William Morrison.\\n\\nOrganizations\\nCongress of Mathematicians, precursor to International Congress of Mathematicians\\nInterfaith dialogue (the Parliament of the World's Religions)\\nFirst recorded public mention of the Baháʼí Faith in North America\\n\\nPerformances\\nThe poet and humorist Benjamin Franklin King, Jr. first performed at the exposition.\\nBodybuilder Eugen Sandow demonstrated feats of strength, promoted by Florenz Ziegfeld.\\nMagician Harry Houdini and his brother Theodore performed their magic act at the Midway.\\n\\nLater years\\nThe exposition was one influence leading to the rise of the City Beautiful movement. Results included grand buildings and fountains built around Olmstedian parks, shallow pools of water on axis to central buildings, larger park systems, broad boulevards and parkways and, after the start of the 20th century, zoning laws and planned suburbs. Examples of the City Beautiful movement's works include the City of Chicago, the Columbia University campus, and the National Mall in Washington D.C.\\nAfter the fair closed, J.C. Rogers, a banker from Wamego, Kansas, purchased several pieces of art that had hung in the rotunda of the U.S. Government Building. He also purchased architectural elements, artifacts and buildings from the fair. He shipped his purchases to Wamego. Many of the items, including the artwork, were used to decorate his theater, now known as the Columbian Theatre.\\nMemorabilia saved by visitors can still be purchased. Numerous books, tokens, published photographs, and well-printed admission tickets can be found. While the higher value commemorative stamps are expensive, the lower ones are quite common. So too are the commemorative half dollars, many of which went into circulation.\\nAlthough not available for purchase, The George Washington University maintains a small collection of exposition tickets for viewing and research purposes. The collection is currently cared for by GWU's Special Collections Research Center, located in the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library.\\nWhen the exposition ended the Ferris Wheel was moved to Chicago's north side, next to an exclusive neighborhood. An unsuccessful Circuit Court action was filed against the owners of the wheel to have it moved. The wheel stayed there until it was moved to St. Louis for the 1904 World's Fair.\\nThe Columbian Exposition has celebrated many anniversaries since the fair in 1893. The Chicago Historical Society held an exhibition to commemorate the fair. The Grand Illusions exhibition was centered around the idea that the Columbian Exposition was made up of a series of illusions. The commemorative exhibition contained partial reconstructions, a video detailing the fair, and a catalogue similar to the one sold at the World's Fair of 1893.\\n\\nAcademic views\\nHenry Adams wrote in his 1907 Education: “The Exposition denied philosophy ... [S]ince Noah’s Ark, no such Babel of loose and ill-jointed, such vague and ill-defined and unrelated thoughts and half-thoughts and experimental out-cries... had ruffled the surface of the Lakes.”: 128 \\nMichel-Rolph Trouillot wrote that the academic aspect of the event was not very important, even though the Harvard Peabody Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and Franz Boas made contributions.: 128\\n\\nIn popular culture\\nThe Exposition is portrayed in the 2017 historical film, The Current War, concerning the competition between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison to establish the dominant form of electricity in the United States.\\n1893: A World's Fair Mystery, an interactive fiction by Peter Nepstad that recreates the Exposition in detail.\\nAgainst the Day, a fictional novel that takes place during the Exposition during the first act.\\nThe Devil in the White City, a non-fiction book intertwining the true tales of the architect behind the Exposition and serial killer H. H. Holmes.\\nTimebound, a time travel novel by Rysa Walker, culminates at the Exposition.\\nExpo: Magic of the White City, a 2005 documentary film about the Exposition by Mark Bussler.\\nThe Exposition served as the setting for Against Odds, a novel by Emma Murdock Van Deventer.\\nJimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, a graphic novel set in part at the Exposition\\nWonder of the Worlds, an adventure novel where Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain, and Houdini pursue Martian agents who have stolen a powerful crystal from Tesla at the Exposition.\\nThe Will of an Eccentric, an adventure novel by Jules Verne. The Exposition is evoked with admiration in the early chapters.\\nThe Exposition appears in the season 1 episode \\\"The World's Columbian Exposition\\\" of the NBC series Timeless.\\nThe Exposition is referenced in Sufjan Stevens's song in his album Illinois, \\\"Come On! Feel The Illinoise!\\\", which consists of two parts. Part 1 is titled, \\\"World's Columbian Exposition\\\".\\nThe Exposition plays a role in the historical novel, Owen Glen, by Ben Ames Williams.\\nMystery Train Island, a video game level on Poptropica released in 2011, is based on and is partially set at the Exposition, referred to as the 1893 Chicago World's Fair in the game.\\nBioShock Infinite, a 2013 video game. The floating city-state of Columbia was created at the Exposition and toured across the world to promote American exceptionalism.\\nThe exposition is a key setting of the novel The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros.\\nThe exposition appears in the travel book by Aleko Konstantinov, To Chicago and Back.\\nThe young adult novel Fair Weather by Illinois native author Richard Peck takes thirteen-year-old Rosie Beckett and her family from their downstate family farm to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.\\nThe Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me, a 2022 video game which was inspired by H. H. Holmes murder castle.\\nThe Exposition appears in \\\"1893\\\", the third episode of the second season of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) television series Loki (2023). In the episode, Loki and Mobius M. Mobius attend the Exposition in search of Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes, and encounter Victor Timely, a variant of Kang the Conqueror, whose help they need to save the multiverse.\\nThe Exposition also appears in the post-credits scene of the MCU film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), which uses footage from Loki despite being released before it.\\n\\nSee also\\nSignal of Peace\\nKwanusila\\nList of world expositions\\nList of world's fairs\\nBenjamin W. Kilburn, stereoscopic view concession\\nH. H. Holmes, serial killer associated with the 1893 World's Fair\\nSt. John Cantius Church (Chicago), whose main altar, as well as its matching two side altars, reputedly originate from the 1893 Columbian Exposition\\nSpectacle Reef Light\\nWorld's Largest Stove\\nWorld's Largest Cedar Bucket\\nFairy lamp, candle sets popularized at Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee were used to illuminate an island at the Expo\\nSt. Louis Autumnal Festival Association\\n\\nNotes\\nReferences\\nFurther reading\\nExternal links\\n\\nExpo 1893 Chicago at Bureau International des Expositions\\nThe 1893 World's Fair in Chicago (worldsfairchicago1893.com). A standalone website that covers all aspects of the Exposition\\nChicago 1893 is a media project about the Exposition which includes a book, film, and augmented reality\\nThe Columbian Exposition in American culture.\\nPhotographs of the 1893 Columbian Exposition Archived August 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine\\nInteractive map of Columbian Exposition\\nThe Story of the Columbian Expo Battleship Illinois Bell\\nPresident Benjamin Harrison: Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America Shapell Manuscript Foundation\\nThe 1893 World's Columbian Exposition Reading Room.\\nRobert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views: Exhibitions 1893. Search results, at New York Public Library Digital Collections\\nThe Winterthur Library Overview of an archival collection on the World's Columbian Exposition.\\nColumbian Theatre History and information about artwork from the U.S. Government Building.\\nPhotographs and interactive map from the 1893 Columbian Exposition from the University of Chicago\\nVideo simulations from the 1893 Columbian Exposition from UCLA's Urban Simulation Team Archived August 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine\\n1893 Columbian Exposition Concerts\\nEdgar Rice Burroughs' Amazing Summer of '93 – Columbian Exposition\\nInternational Eisteddfod chair, Chicago, 1893\\nPhotographs of the Exposition from the Hagley Digital Archives\\nMap of Chicago Columbian Exposition from the American Geographical Society Library\\nInteractive Map of the Chicago Columbian Exposition, created in the Harvard Worldmap Platform\\nPresident Harrison: Worlds Columbian Exposition Shapell Manuscript Foundation\\nGuide to the World's Columbian Exposition Ticket Collection, 1893, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University Archived October 30, 2014, at the Wayback Machine\\nGuide to World's Columbian Exposition resources at Field Museum Library\\nGuide to the World's Columbian Exposition Records 1891–1930 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center\",\n \"title\": \"World%27s_Columbian_Exposition\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 1,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park. Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, includes works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present curatorial and scientific research.\\nAs a research institution, the Art Institute also has a conservation and conservation science department, five conservation laboratories, and Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, one of the nation's largest art history and architecture libraries.\\nThe museum's building was constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and, due to the growth of the collection, several additions have occurred since. The Modern Wing, designed by Renzo Piano, is the most recent expansion, and when it opened in 2009 it increased the museum's footprint to nearly one million square feet. This made it the second largest art museum in the United States, after the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. \\nThe Art Institute is associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a leading art school, making it one of the few remaining unified arts institutions in the United States.\\n\\nHistory\\n19th century\\nIn 1866, a group of 35 artists founded the Chicago Academy of Design in a studio on Dearborn Street, with the intent to run a free school with its own art gallery. The organization was modeled after European art academies, such as the Royal Academy, with Academicians and Associate Academicians. The academy's charter was granted in March 1867.\\nClasses started in 1868, meeting every day at a cost of $10 per month. The academy's success enabled it to build a new home for the school, a five-story stone building on 66 West Adams Street, which opened on November 22, 1870.\\nWhen the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the building in 1871, the academy was thrown into debt. Attempts to continue despite the loss by using rented facilities failed. By 1878, the academy was $10,000 in debt. Members tried to rescue the ailing institution by making deals with local businessmen, before some finally abandoned it in 1879 to found a new organization, named the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. When the Chicago Academy of Design went bankrupt the same year, the new Chicago Academy of Fine Arts bought its assets at auction.\\nIn 1882, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts changed its name to the current Art Institute of Chicago and elected as its first president the banker and philanthropist Charles L. Hutchinson, who \\\"is arguably the single most important individual to have shaped the direction and fortunes of the Art Institute of Chicago\\\".: 5 Hutchinson was a director of many prominent Chicago organizations, including the University of Chicago, and would transform the Art Institute into a world-class museum during his presidency, which he held until his death in 1924. Also in 1882, the organization purchased a lot on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street for $45,000. The existing commercial building on that property was used for the organization's headquarters, and a new addition was constructed behind it to provide gallery space and to house the school's facilities.: 19 By January 1885 the trustees recognized the need to provide additional space for the organization's growing collection, and to this end purchased the vacant lot directly south on Michigan Avenue. The commercial building was demolished, and the noted architect John Wellborn Root was hired by Hutchinson to design a building that would create an \\\"impressive presence\\\" on Michigan Avenue,: 22–23 and these facilities opened to great fanfare in 1887.: 24 \\nWith the announcement of the World's Columbian Exposition to be held in 1892–93, the Art Institute pressed for a building on the lakefront to be constructed for the fair, but to be used by the institute afterwards. The city agreed, and the building was completed in time for the second year of the fair. Construction costs were met by selling the Michigan/Van Buren property. On October 31, 1893, the institute moved into the new building. For the opening reception on December 8, 1893, Theodore Thomas and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed.\\n\\n20th century\\nFrom the early 1900s to the 1960s the school offered with the Logan Family (members of the board) the Logan Medal of the Arts, an award which became one of the most distinguished awards presented to artists in the U.S. Between 1959 and 1970, the institute was a key site in the battle to gain art and documentary photography a place in galleries, under curator Hugh Edwards and his assistants.\\nAs director of the museum starting in the early 1980s, James N. Wood conducted a major expansion of its collection and oversaw a major renovation and expansion project for its facilities. As \\\"one of the most respected museum leaders in the country\\\", as described by The New York Times, Wood created major exhibitions of works by Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh that set records for attendance at the museum. He retired from the museum in 2004.\\n\\n21st century\\nThe institute began construction of \\\"The Modern Wing\\\", an addition situated on the southwest corner of Columbus and Monroe in the early 21st century. The project, designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Piano, was completed and officially opened to the public on May 16, 2009. The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m2) building addition made the Art Institute the second-largest art museum in the United States. The building houses the museum's world-renowned collections of 20th and 21st century art, specifically modern European painting and sculpture, contemporary art, architecture and design, and photography. In its inaugural survey in 2014, travel review website and forum, Tripadvisor, reviewed millions of travelers' surveys and named the Art Institute the world's best museum.\\nThe museum received perhaps the largest gift of art in its history in 2015. Collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson donated a \\\"collection [that] is among the world's greatest groups of postwar Pop art ever assembled\\\". The donation includes works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Jeff Koons, Charles Ray, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, Roy Lichtenstein and Gerhard Richter. The museum agreed to keep the donated work on display for at least 50 years. In June 2018, the museum received a $50 million donation, the largest single announced unrestricted monetary donation in its history. A $75 million donation in 2024 is to go toward a new galley.\\n\\nCollection\\nThe collection of the Art Institute of Chicago encompasses more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world and contains more than 300,000 works of art in 11 curatorial departments, ranging from early Japanese prints to the art of the Byzantine Empire to contemporary American art. It is principally known for one of the United States' finest collection of paintings produced in Western culture.\\n\\nAfrican Art and Indian Art of the Americas\\nThe Art Institute's African Art and Indian Art of the Americas collections are on display across two galleries in the south end of the Michigan Avenue building. The African collection includes more than 400 works that span the continent, highlighting ceramics, garments, masks, and jewelry.\\nThe Amerindian collection includes Native North American art and Mesoamerican and Andean works. From pottery to textiles, the collection brings together a wide array of objects that seek to illustrate the thematic and aesthetic focuses of art spanning the Americas.\\n\\nAmerican art\\nThe Art Institute's American Art collection contains some of the best-known works in the American canon, including Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Grant Wood's American Gothic, and Mary Cassatt's The Child's Bath. The collection ranges from colonial silver to modern and contemporary paintings.\\nThe museum purchased Nighthawks in 1942 for $3,000; its acquisition \\\"launched\\\" the painting into \\\"immense popular recognition\\\". Considered an \\\"icon of American culture\\\", Nighthawks is perhaps Hopper's most famous painting, and one of the most recognizable images in American art. Also well known, American Gothic has been in the museum's collection since 1930 and was only loaned outside of North America for the first time in 2016. Wood's painting depicts what has been called \\\"the most famous couple in the world\\\", a dour, rural-American, father and daughter. It was entered into a contest at the Art Institute in 1930, and although not a favorite of some, it won a medal and was acquired by the museum.\\n\\nAncient and Byzantine\\nThe Art Institute's ancient collection spans nearly 4,000 years of art and history, showcasing Greek, Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian sculpture, mosaics, pottery, jewelry, glass, and bronze and a robust and well-maintained collection of ancient coins. There are around 5,000 works in the collection, offering a comprehensive survey of the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world, beginning with the third millennium B.C. and extending to the Byzantine Empire. The collection also holds the mummy and mummy case of Paankhenamun.\\n\\nArchitecture and Design\\nThe Department of Architecture and Design holds more than 140,000 works, from models to drawings from the 1870s to the present day. The collection covers landscape architecture, structural engineering, and industrial design, including the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier.\\n\\nAsian art\\nThe Art Institute's Asian collection spans nearly 5,000 years, including significant works and objects from China, Korea, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and the Near and Middle East. There are 35,000 objects in the collection, showcasing bronzes, ceramics, jades, textiles, screens, woodcuts, and sculptures. One gallery in particular attempts to mimic the quiet and meditative way in which Japanese screens are traditionally viewed.\\n\\nEuropean Decorative Arts\\nThe Art Institute's collection of European decorative arts includes some 25,000 objects of furniture, ceramics, metalwork, glass, enamel, and ivory from 1100 AD to the present day. The department contains the 1,544 objects in the Arthur Rubloff Paperweight Collection and the 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms–a collection of miniaturized interiors of a 1:12 scale showcasing American, European, and Asian architectural and furniture styles from the Middle Ages to the 1930s (when the rooms were constructed). Both the paperweights and the Thorne Rooms are located on the ground floor of the museum.\\n\\nEuropean painting and sculptures\\nThe museum is most famous for its collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, widely regarded as one of the finest collections outside of France. Highlights include more than 30 paintings by Claude Monet, including six of his Haystacks and a number of Water Lilies. Also in the collection are important works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir such as Two Sisters (On the Terrace), and Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day. Post-Impressionist works include Paul Cézanne's The Basket of Apples, and Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair. At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is another highlight. The pointillist masterpiece, which also inspired a musical and was featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte—1884, is prominently displayed. Additionally, Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River, is an important example of his work. Highlights of non-French paintings of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection include Vincent van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles and Self-portrait, 1887.\\nIn the mid-1930s, the Art Institute received a gift of over one hundred works of art from Annie Swan Coburn (\\\"Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection\\\"). The \\\"Coburn Renoirs\\\" became the core of the Art Institute's Impressionist painting collection.\\nThe collection also includes the Medieval and Renaissance Art, Arms, and Armor holdings, including the George F. Harding Collection of arms and armor, and three centuries of Old Masters works.\\n\\nModern and Contemporary Art\\nThe museum's collection of modern and contemporary art was significantly augmented when collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson gifted 40 plus master works to the department in 2015. Pablo Picasso's Old Guitarist, Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River, Constantin Brâncuși's Golden Bird, and René Magritte's Time Transfixed are highlights of the modern galleries, located on the third floor of the Modern Wing. The contemporary installation, located on the second floor, contains works by Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Cy Twombly, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, and other significant modern and contemporary artists.\\n\\nPhotography\\nThe Art Institute did not officially establish a photography collection until 1949, when Georgia O'Keeffe donated a significant portion of the Alfred Stieglitz collection to the museum. Since then, the museum's collection has grown to approximately 20,000 works spanning the history of the artform from its inception in 1839 to the present.\\n\\nPrints and Drawings\\nThe print and drawings collection began with a donation by Elizabeth S. Stickney of 460 works in 1887, and was organized into its own department of the museum in 1911. Their holdings have subsequently grown to 11,500 drawings and 60,000 prints, ranging from 15th-century works to contemporary. The collection contains a strong group of the works of Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya, and James McNeill Whistler. Because works on paper are sensitive to light and degrade quickly, the works are on display infrequently in order to keep them in good condition for as long as possible.\\n\\nTextiles\\nThe Department of Textiles has more than 13,000 textiles and 66,000 sample swatches in total, covering an array of cultures from 300 BC to the present. From English needlework to Japanese garments to American quilts, the collection presents a diverse group of objects, including contemporary works and fiber art.\\n\\nArchitecture\\nThe current building complex at 111 South Michigan Avenue is the third address for the Art Institute. Situated in Grant Park, it was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston to host national and international meetings held in conjunction with the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, as the World's Congress Auxiliary Building, with the intent that the Art Institute occupy the space after the close of the fair.\\nThe Art Institute's entrance on Michigan Avenue is guarded by two bronze lion statues created by Edward Kemeys. The lions were unveiled on May 10, 1894, each weighing more than two tons. The sculptor gave them unofficial names: the south lion is \\\"stands in an attitude of defiance\\\", and the north lion is \\\"on the prowl\\\". When a Chicago sports team plays in the championships of their respective league (i.e. the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup Finals, not the entire playoffs), the lions are frequently dressed in that team's uniform. Evergreen wreaths are placed around their necks during the Christmas season.\\nThe east entrance of the museum is marked by the stone arch entrance to the old Chicago Stock Exchange. Designed by Louis Sullivan in 1894, the Exchange was demolished in 1972, but salvaged portions of the original trading room were brought to the Art Institute and reconstructed.\\nThe Art Institute building has the unusual property of straddling open-air railroad tracks. Two stories of gallery space connect the east and west buildings while the Metra Electric and South Shore lines operate below. The lower level of gallery space was formerly the windowless Gunsaulus hall, but is now home to the Alsdorf Galleries showcasing Indian, Southeast Asian and Himalayan Art. During renovation, windows facing north toward Millennium Park were added. The gallery space was designed by Renzo Piano in conjunction with his design of the Modern Wing and features the same window screening used there to protect the art from direct sunlight. The upper level formerly held the modern European galleries, but was renovated in 2008 and now features the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries.\\nIn September 2024, the museum announced a gift of $75 million for a new gallery building or wing named for benefactors Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed. The gallery is intended to increase space for 19th century, modern, and contemporary art. The design and placement of the new gallery or gallery building are yet to be decided.\\n\\nLibraries\\nLocated on the ground floor of the museum is the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries. The Libraries' collections cover all periods of art, but is most known for its extensive collection of 18th to 20th century architecture. It serves the museum staff, college and university students, and is also open to the general public. The Friends of the Libraries, a support group for the Libraries, offers events and special tours for its members.\\n\\nModern Wing\\nOn May 16, 2009, the Art Institute opened the Modern Wing, the largest expansion in the museum's history. The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m2) addition, designed by Renzo Piano, makes the Art Institute the second-largest museum in the US. The architect of record in the City of Chicago for this building was Interactive Design. The Modern Wing is home to the museum's collection of early 20th-century European art, including Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Henri Matisse's Bathers by a River, and René Magritte's Time Transfixed. The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection of Surrealist art includes the largest public display of Joseph Cornell's works (37 boxes and collages). The Wing also houses contemporary art from after 1960; new photography, video media, architecture and design galleries including original renderings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Bruce Goff; temporary exhibition space; shops and classrooms; and a cafe. In addition, the Nichols Bridgeway connects a sculpture garden on the roof of the new wing with the adjacent Millennium Park to the north and a courtyard designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol.\\nIn 2009, the Modern Wing won at the Chicago Innovation Awards.\\n\\nSelections from the permanent collection\\nOther notable works are in the collection but the following examples are ones in the public domain and for which pictures are available. In 2018, as it redesigned its website, the Art Institute released images of 52,438 of its public domain works, under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.\\n\\nPaintings\\nSculptures\\nMore highlights from the collection\\nGovernance\\nAttendance\\nDuring 2009, attendance was around 2 million—up 33 percent from 2008—in addition to a total of approximately 100,000 museum memberships. Despite a 25 percent boost in museum admission fees, the Modern Wing was a major catalyst for a rise in visitor traffic. In 2022, the museum welcomed 1.04 million visitors, an increase of 20 percent from 2021, but still well below 2018 attendance (before the COVID-19 pandemic). It was ranked tenth among the most-visited museums in the United States, and was the sixth most-visited U.S. art museum.\\n\\nFinances\\nAs of 2011, the Art Institute continues to rebuild its $783 million endowment since the recession. In June 2008, its endowment was $827 million. As of 2012, the museum is rated A1 by Moody's, its fifth-highest grade, in part reflecting the museum's pension and retirement liabilities; Standard & Poor's rates the museum A+, fifth-best. In October 2012, the Art Institute sold about $100 million of taxable and tax-exempt bonds partly to shore-up unfunded pension obligations.\\nThe $294 million extension in 2009 was the culmination of a $385 million fundraising campaign—roughly $300 million for design and construction and $85 million for the endowment. Around $370 million were raised primarily from private patrons in Chicago. In 2011, the Art Institute received a $10 million gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation to renovate and expand galleries devoted to Greek, Roman and Byzantine art, and to support acquisitions and special exhibitions of that art.\\n\\nAcquisitions and deaccessioning\\nIn 1990, the Art Institute of Chicago sold 11 works at auction, including paintings by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Maurice Utrillo and Edgar Degas, to raise the $12 million purchase price of a bronze sculpture, Golden Bird, by Constantin Brâncuși. At the time, the sculpture was owned by the Arts Club of Chicago, which was selling it to buy a new gallery for its other works. In 2005, the museum sold two paintings by Marc Chagall and Auguste Renoir at Sotheby's. In 2011, it auctioned two Picassos (Sur l'impériale traversant la Seine (1901) and Verre et pipe (1919)), Henri Matisse's Femme au fauteuil (1919), and Georges Braque's Nature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge) (1938) at Christie's in London.\\n\\nDirectors\\nWilliam M.R. French (1885–1914)\\nNewton Carpenter (1914–1916)\\nGeorge Eggers (1918–1921)\\nRobert Harshe (1921–1938)\\nDaniel Catton Rich (1938–1958)\\nAllen McNab (1956–1965)\\nCharles Cunningham (1965–1972)\\nE. Laurence Chalmers (1972–1986)\\nJames N. Wood (1980–2004)\\nJames Cuno (2004–2011)\\nDouglas Druick (2011–2016)\\nJames Rondeau (2016–present)\\n\\nControversy\\nManagement of investments dispute\\nIn 2002, the Art Institute of Chicago filed suit alleging fraud by a small Dallas firm called Integral Investment Management, along with related parties. The museum, which put $43 million of its endowment into funds run by the defendants, claimed that it faced losses of up to 90% on the investments after they soured.\\n\\nConstruction disputes\\nIn 2010, the year after the opening of its massive Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago sued the engineering firm Ove Arup for $10 million over what it said were flaws in the concrete floors and air-circulation systems. The suit was settled out of court.\\n\\nDocent program diversity dispute\\nIn 2021, the Art Institute ended its unpaid volunteer docents program to move to a paid model. The Chicago Tribune editorial page criticized the Institute's letter announcing the change and the move to a new model, arguing that \\\"[o]nce you cut through the blather, the letter basically said the museum had looked critically at its corps of docents, a group dominated by mostly (but not entirely) white, retired women with some time to spare, and found them wanting as a demographic.\\\" The Chair of the Institute's Board of Trustees, Robert M. Levy, responded in a Tribune op-ed supporting the change, and described the Tribune's editorial as having \\\"numerous inaccuracies and mischaracterizations\\\", noted that the docent program had already been largely on pause for the past 15 months due to the COVID pandemic, and argued that the decision was not about anyone's identity, it was in keeping with changing modern museum practices around the world.\\nFollowing a volunteerism surge in the late 1940s, the program had been created in 1961 to revitalize and expand \\\"programming for children.\\\" Among other matters, since 2014 the program had been trying to attract a more diverse socioeconomic perspective set of art-tour guides, given the unpaid time commitment needed.\\n\\nLooted art\\nIn 1996, heirs to Jewish art collectors Louise and Friedrich Gutmann, who died in Nazi concentration camps, sued museum trustee Daniel Searle for the return of the Edgar Degas painting, Landscape with Smokestacks. After years of litigation a settlement was concluded which involved the acquisition of the painting by the Art Institute. A collection of approximately 500 objects from Nepal, India and elsewhere in Asia that was donated to the Art Institute by trustee Marilynn Alsdorf in 1989 was later found to contain several objects that were looted; nine objects have been returned by the museum to Nepal over the years, while some additional items are still being contested. In 2023, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office moved to seize Egon Schiele paintings from several museums on the grounds that they had been looted by the Nazis from Fritz Grünbaum, who was killed in the Holocaust. The paintings included, Russian War Prisoner, a watercolor in the Art Institute. The Art Institute continues to hold the work, as it is contesting the seizure in court. According to its investigation, it acquired the watercolor drawing in 1966 from an American art dealer through a proper provenance from Grünbaum's legal heir, and it also argues that the claim is time-barred because Grünbaum's heirs were aware. In February 2024, the Manhattan District Attorney filed a motion accusing the Art Institute of \\\"blatantly ignoring evidence of an elaborate fraud undertaken to conceal that the artwork had been looted\\\". According to The New York Times, the court filing provided detailed evidence that provenance documents provided by the Swiss art dealer Eberhard Kornfeld contained forged signatures or were altered long after he came into possession of the paintings and sold them to other art dealers in the mid-1950s. Court hearings on the matter are expected in 2024.\\n\\nIn popular culture\\nDirector John Hughes included a sequence in the Art Institute in his 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which is set in Chicago. During it, the characters are shown viewing A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Hughes had first visited the institute as a \\\"refuge\\\" while in high school. Hughes' commentary on the sequence was used as a reference point by journalist Hadley Freeman in a discussion of the Republican presidential primary candidates in 2011.\\nThe paintings used in the 1970 Parker Brothers board game Masterpiece are works held in the Art Institute's collection.\\n\\nSee also\\nAmerican Academy of Art\\nBessie Bennett, early 20th century Curator of Decorative Art\\nForest Idyll\\nList of largest art museums\\nList of most-visited museums in the United States\\nList of museums and cultural institutions in Chicago\\nAlme Meyvis\\nVisual arts of Chicago\\nLions (Kemeys)\\n\\nReferences\\nExternal links\\n\\nOfficial website \\nArt Institute's Impressionistic collection, YouTube\\nVirtual tour of the Art Institute of Chicago provided by Google Arts & Culture\",\n \"title\": \"Art_Institute_of_Chicago\"\n },\n {\n \"idx\": 2,\n \"is_supporting\": true,\n \"paragraph_text\": \"The John Hancock Center is a 100-story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018.\\nThe skyscraper was designed by Peruvian-American chief designer Bruce Graham and Bangladeshi-American structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). When the building topped out on May 6, 1968, it was the second-tallest building in the world after the Empire State Building, in New York City, and the tallest in Chicago. It is currently the fifth-tallest building in Chicago and the thirteenth-tallest in the United States, behind the Aon Center in Chicago and ahead of the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. When measured to the top of its antenna masts, it stands at 1,500 feet (457 m). The building is home to several offices and restaurants, as well as about 700 condominiums, and at the time of its completion contained the highest residence in the world. The building was named for John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, a developer and original tenant of the building, which itself was named for the U.S. Founding Father John Hancock. In 2018 John Hancock Insurance, years after leaving the building, requested that its name be removed; the owner is seeking another naming rights deal.\\nFrom the 95th-floor restaurant, which closed in late 2023, diners were able look out at Chicago and Lake Michigan. The observatory (360 Chicago), which competes with the Willis Tower's Skydeck, has a 360° view of the city, up to four states, and a distance of over 80 miles (130 km). 360 Chicago is home to TILT, a moving platform that leans visitors over the edge of the skyscraper to a 30-degree angle, a full bar with local selections, Chicago's only open-air SkyWalk, and also features free interactive high-definition touchscreens in six languages. The 44th-floor sky lobby features the highest indoor swimming pool in the United States.\\n\\nHistory\\n20th century\\nThe project, which would become the world's second tallest building at opening, was conceived and owned by Jerry Wolman in late 1964. The project was financed by John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company. Construction of the tower was interrupted in 1967 due to a flaw in an innovative engineering method used to pour concrete in stages, that was discovered when the building was 20 stories high. The engineers were getting the same soil settlements for the 20 stories that had been built as what they had expected for the entire 99 stories. This forced the owner to stop development until the engineering problem could be resolved, resulting in a credit crunch. The situation is similar to the one faced during the construction of 111 West Wacker, then known as the Waterview Tower. Wolman's bankruptcy resulted in John Hancock taking over the project, which retained the original design, architect, engineer, and main contractor.\\nThe building's first resident was Ray Heckla, the original building engineer, responsible for the residential floors from 44 to 92. Heckla moved his family in April 1969, before the building was completed.\\nThe 1988 film Poltergeist III was set at the John Hancock Center and was filmed in early 1987.\\n\\n21st century\\nOn December 10, 2006, the non-residential portion of the building was sold by San Francisco–based Shorenstein Properties for $385 million and was purchased by a joint venture of Chicago-based Golub & Company and the Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds. Shorenstein Properties had bought the building in 1998 for $220 million.\\nGolub defaulted on its debt and the building was acquired in 2012 by Deutsche Bank, who subsequently carved up the building. The venture of Deutsche Bank and New York–based NorthStar Realty Finance paid an estimated $325 million for debt on 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2012 after Shorenstein Properties defaulted on $400 million in loans. The observation deck was sold to Paris-based Montparnasse 56 Group for between $35 million and $45 million in July 2012. That same month, Prudential Real Estate Investors acquired the retail and restaurant space for almost $142 million. In November 2012, Boston-based American Tower Corp affiliate paid $70 million for the antennas. In June 2013, a venture of Chicago-based real estate investment firm Hearn Co., New York–based investment firm Mount Kellett Capital Management L.P. and San Antonio–based developer Lynd Co. closed on the expected acquisition of 875 North Michigan Avenue's 856,000 square feet (79,500 m2) of office space and 710-car parking deck. The Chicago firm did not disclose a price, but sources said it was about $145 million. This was the last step in that piecemeal sale process. In May 2016, Hearn Co. announced that they were seeking buyers for the naming rights with possible signage rights for the building.\\nHustle up the Hancock is an annual stair climb race up the 94 floors from the Michigan Avenue level to the observation deck. It is held on the last Sunday of February. The climb benefits Respiratory Health Association. The record time as of 2007 is 9 minutes 30 seconds.\\nThe building is home to the transmitter of Univision's WGBO-DT (channel 66), while all other full-power television stations in Chicago broadcast from Willis Tower. The City Colleges of Chicago's WYCC (channel 20) transmitted from the building until November 2017, when it departed the air as part of the 2016 FCC spectrum auction.\\nOn February 12, 2018, John Hancock Insurance requested that its name and logos throughout the building's interior be removed immediately; John Hancock had not had a naming-rights deal with the skyscraper's owners since 2013. The building's name was subsequently changed to its street address as 875 North Michigan Avenue.\\n\\nIncidents\\nOn November 11, 1981, Veterans Day, high-rise firefighting and rescue advocate Dan Goodwin, for the purpose of calling attention to the inability to rescue people trapped in the upper floors of skyscrapers, successfully climbed the building's exterior wall. Wearing a wetsuit and using a climbing device that enabled him to ascend the I-beams on the building's side, Goodwin battled repeated attempts by the Chicago Fire Department to knock him off. Fire Commissioner William Blair ordered Chicago firemen to stop Goodwin by directing a fully engaged fire hose at him and by blasting fire axes through nearby glass from the inside. Fearing for Goodwin's life, Mayor Jane Byrne intervened and allowed him to continue to the top.\\nOn December 18, 1997, comedian Chris Farley was found dead in his apartment on the 60th floor of the building.\\nOn March 9, 2002, part of a scaffold fell 43 stories after being torn loose by wind gusts around 60 mph (100 km/h) crushing several cars, killing three people in two of them. The remaining part of the stage swung back-and-forth in the gusts repeatedly slamming against the building, damaging cladding panels, breaking windows, and sending pieces onto the street below.\\nOn November 21, 2015, a fire broke out in an apartment on the 50th floor of the building. The Chicago Fire Department was able to extinguish the fire after an hour and a half; five people suffered minor injuries.\\nOn February 11, 2018, a fire in a car on the seventh floor required approximately 150 firefighters to extinguish.\\nOn November 16, 2018, an express elevator cable broke. Initial reports stated that an elevator with six passengers plunged 84 stories from the 95th to 11th floor. Since express elevators are not accessible from floors within the express zone, a team of firefighters had to break through a brick wall from the parking garage to extricate the passengers, none of whom suffered injuries. Elevators to the 95th/96th floor were closed thereafter pending investigation. Subsequent investigation documented only a controlled descent from the 20th floor to the 11th floor.\\nA piece of cladding fell from the building on January 5, 2022.\\n\\nArchitecture\\nOne of the most famous buildings of the structural expressionist style, the skyscraper's distinctive X-braced exterior shows that the structure's skin is part of its \\\"tubular system\\\". This is one of the engineering techniques which the designers used to achieve a record height; the tubular system is the structure that keeps the building upright during wind and earthquake loads. This X-bracing allows for both higher performance from tall structures and the ability to open up the inside floorplan. Such original features have allowed 875 North Michigan Avenue to become an architectural icon. It was pioneered by Bangladeshi-American structural civil engineer Fazlur Khan and chief architect Bruce Graham.\\nThe interior was remodeled in 1995, adding to the lobby travertine, black granite, and textured limestone surfaces. The elliptical-shaped plaza outside the building serves as a public oasis with seasonal plantings and a 12-foot (3.7 m) waterfall. A band of white lights at the top of the building is visible all over Chicago at night, and changes colors for different events. For example, at Christmas time the colors are green and red. When a Chicago-area sports team goes far in the playoffs, the colors are changed to match that team's colors.\\nThe building is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers. It has won various awards for its distinctive style, including the Distinguished Architects Twenty-five Year Award from the American Institute of Architects in May 1999. In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the John Hancock Center was selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois) and was recognized by USA Today Travel magazine, as one of AIA Illinois' selections for Illinois 25 Must See Places.\\n\\nThe building is only partially protected by a fire sprinkler system, as the residential floors do not have sprinklers. Including its antennas, the building has a height of 1,500 feet (457 m), making it the thirty-third tallest building in the world when measured to pinnacle height.\\n\\nFeatures\\n360 Chicago Observation Deck\\nLocated on the 94th floor, 360 Chicago Observation Deck is 875 North Michigan Avenue's horizon observatory. The floor of the observatory is 1,030 feet (310 m) above the street-level below. The entrance can be found on the concourse level of 875 North Michigan Avenue, accessible from the Michigan Avenue side of the building. The observatory, previously named John Hancock Observatory, has been independently owned and operated since 2014 by the Montparnasse 56 Group of Paris, France. The elevators are credited as the fastest in the Western Hemisphere, with a top speed of 1,800 ft/min (20.5 mph; 9 m/s). The observatory boasts more floor space than its direct competitor, Skydeck at the Willis Tower. There is a full bar called BAR 94 which stocks local beer and spirits from Revolution Brewing and KOVAL Distillery. The observation deck also features an open-air \\\"skydeck\\\" area.\\nThe Observatory elevators of 875 North Michigan Avenue, manufactured by Otis, travel 96 floors at a top speed of 1,800 ft/min (20 mph; 9.1 m/s). It has been said the elevators to the observation deck are the fastest in North America, reaching the 95th floor in 38 seconds if they could run the entire trip at top speed.\\nFor several years in the 2010s, during its winter season, the observation deck would feature the \\\"world's highest skating rink\\\", with an artificial ice rink being seasonally installed.\\nAt one point, observation deck had a mascot named Seemore Miles.\\nIn the summer of 2014, 360 Chicago added its TILT attraction. TILT, which requires an additional fee to experience, features a series of floor-to-ceiling windows that slowly tilt outside the building to 30°.\\n\\n95th floor restaurant and 96th floor bar\\nSeparate from its observatory, 875 Michigan Avenue has a restaurant space on its 95th floor and a bar space on its 96th floor. Prior to 1993, the space was occupied by a restaurant named The 95th. From 1993 until 2023, the 95th floor was home to a restaurant named the Signature Room, with the accompanying bar on the 96th floor being called the Signature Lounge. The name alluded to the famous signature of early American figure John Hancock. The restaurant was an upscale establishment that offered patrons scenic views. It enforced a dress code for patrons. It received numerous awards. In April 2023, the restaurant and bar were listed for sale. In September 2023, the Signature Room abruptly ceased operations, with ownership citing \\\"severe economic hardship\\\" that they attributed to the impact of the earlier COVID-19 pandemic.\\n\\nRetail plaza\\nThe building features a two-level outdoor plaza along its Michigan Avenue face. The plaza contains retail and dinning tenants. The top level of the plaza is at street level, while the lower level is sunken below the street level.\\nCurrent tenants include The Cheesecake Factory and The North Face. Past tenants have included Best Buy.\\nThe plaza was originally rectangular in shape. Per the Chicago Tribune, the plaza was modeled after the plaza at New York City's Rockefeller Center. The plaza's design featured a fountain pool that would be turned into an ice rink in colder weather. \\nIn 1988, plans were unveiled by the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company (the owners of the building at the time) to replace the plaza with a \\\"$20 million glass and marble three-story atrium\\\". One rationale cited by building's management was they claimed that access to the building's ground level was complicated by the need of pedestrians to circumnavigate around the courtyard in order to reach the street-level entrance to the building's lobby. They also cited a belief that the building's entrance was too understated for a building of its level of prominence. This atrium proposal faced backlash from local residents who felt that such an addition would mar the appearance of the landmark building. In 1989, newly-elected mayor Richard M. Daley criticized the proposed atrium and the plans were ultimately abandoned.\\nIn 1994, the plaza was renovated, with the sunken portion transforming from its previous rectangular shape to an elliptical shape. In 1999, Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin wrote that this renovation had made the plaza a more \\\"welcoming\\\" space. This renovation came after the more dramatic late-1980s renovation plans were abandoned. A further $10 million renovation for the plaza was considered by the building's owners in the mid-2010s which would have added features such as video screens and decorative prisms to the plaza.\\n\\nParking garage\\nHoused within several of the lower levels of the building is a parking garage, which cars enter and depart via a spiral vehicle ramp.\\n\\nAntennas\\nSince its completion, the tower has been topped by two antenna structures. These antenna superstructures support a large number of broadcast antenna equipment. At the time of the tower's completion, both antenna structures were 350 feet (110 metres) in height, and RCA had given the architects of the building an estimate that 700 feet of antenna structure would be required to accommodate all of the city's radio and television stations. In 2002, the eastern antenna tower was extended to a height of 378 feet (115 metres) in order to enable WBBM-TV to add new digital antenna equipment at a height greater than the roof height of the Sears Tower (Willis Tower). Subsequently, the western antenna tower was reduced to a height of 285 feet (87 metres).\\nFor a long time, the antenna towers utilized incandescent red lights and a red and white paint scheme to provide a visibility to aviation in compliance with federal regulations. However, in order to forgo the expense and effort of annually reapplying striped paint to the antenna towers, the tower instead installed red strobe lights atop the tower and eliminated the striped paint scheme, as striped paint is not required if structures are topped by such lights.\\nA sizable number of television and radio stations utilize the antenna towers. Many stations maintain broadcast equipment on both the John Hancock Center and the Willis Tower's antenna structures in order to have both a primary and backup broadcasting point.\\nIn November 2012, Boston-based American Tower Corp affiliate paid $70 million to acquire ownership of the antennas.\\n\\n44th floor sky lobby\\nThe 44th level skylobby is the floor where the building transitions from offices to residential, with offices occupying floors below and residences occupying floors above.\\n\\nSwimming pool\\nOn its 44th floor, the John Hancock Center has a resident swimming pool. The pool area has double-height ceilings. \\nThe pool is the highest pool in the United States when measured by distance above ground level.\\n\\nResident/office tenant grocery store\\nOn its 44th floor, the building has a 5,200 square feet (480 m2) grocery store accessible only to apartment residents and office tenants. In 2007, operation of the grocery store was taken over by the local Potash chain of grocery stores. As of February 2023, Potash continues to operate the grocery store.\\n\\nSee also\\nArchitecture of Chicago\\nList of buildings and structures\\nList of buildings with 100 floors or more\\nList of tallest buildings in the world\\nList of tallest buildings in Chicago\\nList of tallest buildings in the United States\\nList of tallest buildings and structures in the world\\nList of tallest freestanding structures in the world\\nList of tallest freestanding steel structures\\n\\nFootnotes\\nReferences\\nThe Cloudbase Chronicles, Life at the Top - An engineers Tale by Harry W. Budge III\\n\\nExternal links\\n\\nOfficial website\\n360 Chicago, formerly Hancock Observatory\\n875 North Michigan Avenue on CTBUH Skyscraper Center\\n\\\"875 North Michigan Avenue\\\". Emporis. Archived from the original on January 19, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)\\nJohn Hancock Center at Structurae\\nJohn Hancock Center\\nSociety of Architectural Historians SAH ARCHIPEDIA entry on John Hancock Center\",\n \"title\": \"John_Hancock_Center\"\n }\n]","isConversational":false},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"As of August 3 2024, which surviving building of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 sits on the same street as a skyscraper over 1,000 feet tall? 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600 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Olgivanna Lloyd Wright (born Olga Ivanovna Lazović; December 27, 1898 – March 1, 1985) was the third and final wife of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. They first met in November 1924 and married in 1928. In 1932, the couple established Wright's archite... | Who was the building named after on South Forest Avenue, which was built around 1959-1964 and designed by the architect married to Olga Lazovic? | [] | Grady Gammage | [] | true |
601 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Marion Couthouy Smith (1853–1931) was a poet from the United States. She published three books of poetry between 1906 and 1918 and individual poems through the Harper's Magazine, Century Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and The New England Magazine.\n\nBi... | Where did Marion Couthouy Smith publish her books and poems between 1906 and 1918? Which years did each of these magazine companies first start? | [] | Marion Couthouy Smith published her books and poems in Harper's Magazine, Century Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and The New England Magazine. Harpers Magazine was first published in 1850. Century Magazine was published in 1881. The Atlantic was founded in 1857. Lastly, The New England Magazine was first published in 1884. | [] | true |
602 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Aerith Gainsborough (Japanese: エアリス・ゲインズブール, Hepburn: Earisu Geinzubūru), transliterated as Aeris Gainsborough in the English releases of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Tactics, is a character in Square's (now Square Enix) role-playing video gam... | What famous playable video game character is killed in their story for the purpose of creating a huge feeling of emptiness? To give a little help, this character also helps her family out by selling flowers she has grown, she knows and has traveled with a known eco-terrorist leader and also a owner of a bar in the slums. | [] | Aerith Gainsborough. | [] | true |
603 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Gods Must Be Crazy is a 1980 comedy film written, produced, edited and directed by Jamie Uys. An international co-production of South Africa and Botswana, it is the first film in The Gods Must Be Crazy series. Set in Southern Africa, the film sta... | What is the name of the popular vantage point that is featured in the 1980 comedy film "The Gods Must Be Crazy", and which provincial nature reserve is it located in as of 2024? | [] | God's Window in Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve | [] | true |
604 | [
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"paragraph_text": "A Single Man is a 2009 American period romantic drama film based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood. The directorial debut of fashion designer Tom Ford, the film stars Colin Firth, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for hi... | During which year did the actor who played George Falconer in the film A Single Man receive his first Academy Award? Include the name of the film for which he won. | [] | Colin Firth won his first Academy Award in 2011 for The King's Speech. | [] | true |
605 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Nineteen Eighty-Four (also published as 1984) is a dystopian novel and cautionary tale by English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final book completed in his lifetime. Thematically, it c... | How many years before the founding of Google, was George Orwell's book "1984" published? | [] | 49 years. | [] | true |
606 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed \"the Greatest\", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is oft... | How many more knock-outs did Joe Louis have than Muhammad Ali? | [] | 15 | [] | true |
607 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and attractions ... | In the same city of California that is home to Walt Disney Imagineering is a famous retail shopping mall that opened with 1.6 million square feet of retail space. What is the name of that mall? | [] | The Glendale Galleria. | [] | true |
608 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Renče (pronounced [ˈɾeːntʃɛ]; Italian: Ranziano) is a settlement in the lower Vipava Valley in the Municipality of Renče–Vogrsko in the Littoral region of Slovenia.\nThe hamlets of Arčoni, Lukežiči, Martinuči, Mohorini, Merljaki (Mrljaki until 1993),... | The parish church of Renče, Slovenia, is dedicated to two saints. What would be the tropical zodiac sign of someone born on the date of their annual festival? | [] | Cancer | [] | true |
609 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Inter IKEA Systems B.V., trading as IKEA ( eye-KEE-ə, Swedish: [ɪˈkêːa]), is a multinational conglomerate, founded in Sweden but now headquartered in the Netherlands, that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances, decoration,... | What is the name of the river in the city where Ikea's headquarters are? | [] | the Oude Rijn. | [] | true |
610 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal ( JIL-ən-hawl, Swedish: [ˈjʏ̂lːɛnˌhɑːl]; born December 19, 1980) is an American actor who has worked prolifically on screen and stage in a career spanning over thirty years. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of ... | How much did the film in which Jake Gyllenhaal played his second lead role gross in its initial run at the box office? | [] | Donnie Darko grossed $517,375 in its initial run at the box office. | [] | true |
611 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Saltburn is a 2023 black comedy psychological thriller film written, directed, and co-produced by Emerald Fennell, starring Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe and Carey Mulligan. Set in Oxford ... | The actor who played Oliver Quick in Saltburn appeared in a music video for an artist who opened for Taylor Swift during the Latin American leg of the Eras Tour. What is the name of this music video? | [] | Please Please Please | [] | true |
612 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Selatan is the Malay and Indonesian word for south and can be found in topography. \nE.g. \n\nSulawesi Selatan -> South Sulawesi\nSumatera Selatan -> South Sumatra\nSouth Cape (Indonesia)\nLebuhraya Utara-Selatan -> North–South Expressway (Malaysia)"... | In the region known as Sulawesi Selatan, which includes the Selayar Islands, what Austronesian language is predominantly spoken by the local population and how does the name "Sulawesi Selatan" relate to the location of the region? | [] | The predominant Austronesian language spoken in Sulawesi Selatan, including the Selayar Islands, is Makassarese. The name "Sulawesi Selatan" refers to the southern part of Sulawesi. | [] | true |
613 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the principal minister of the crown of His Majesty's Government, and the head of the British Cabinet. \nThere is no specific date for when the office of prime minister first appeared, as the role was not cr... | How many different Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom were there during the first term of Grover Cleveland's presidency, and who were they? | [] | There were two different Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom during Grover Cleveland's first term as president, and they were William Ewart Gladstone and Robert Gascoyne-Cecil. | [] | true |
614 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Pro Football Hall of Fame includes players, coaches, and contributors (e.g., owners, general managers and team or league officials or other non-players) who have \"made outstanding contributions to professional football\". The charter class of se... | Which American high school can boast of an alumnus for whom the following is true: -Was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018 -Played in 13 Pro Bowls -Played his first season of professional football for a team playing their first season in the NFL | [] | Kathleen Senior High School in Lakeland, Florida | [] | true |
615 | [
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"paragraph_text": "This is a list of films produced by and released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner (known as that since 1983, with Never Cry Wolf as its first release) and films released before that under the former name of the parent company, Walt Disney Produc... | Which 1963 Disney film starred the same actress who played a dual role in a Disney film two years earlier about twins who plot to reunite their separated parents? | [] | Summer Magic | [] | true |
616 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Shogi (将棋, shōgi, English: , Japanese: [ɕoːɡi]), also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, chaturanga, xiangqi, Indi... | As of 2024, how many times could the country where shogi was invented fit inside the country where xiangqi was invented? Round to the nearest whole number. | [] | 25 | [] | true |
617 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Australian Poker Championship, commonly known as Aussie Millions, is a series of poker tournaments held at the Crown Casino, in Melbourne, Australia. The Main Event of the series is the Southern Hemisphere's richest poker tournament with a prize ... | How many player entries were in the event that the winner of the 2008 Aussie Millions also won in 2010 at the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker? | [] | 1,240 | [] | true |
618 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who has been serving as the 23rd prime minister of Canada since 2015 and the leader of the Liberal Party since 2013.\nTrudeau was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and attended Coll... | How many votes did the opposition party get in the Brant riding the election before Justin Trudeau was elected Prime Minister? | [] | 16,351 | [] | true |
619 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Fullmetal Alchemist (Japanese: 鋼の錬金術師, Hepburn: Hagane no Renkinjutsushi, lit. \"Alchemist of Steel\") is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. It was serialized in Square Enix's shōnen manga anthology magazine Monthly Sh... | Who was the screenwriter of the first collaboration film between Sunrise and the studio who animates Full Metal Alchemist? | [] | Keiko Nobumoto | [] | true |
620 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (Russian: Анастасия Николаевна Романова, romanized: Anastasiya Nikolaevna Romanova; 18 June [O.S. 5 June] 1901 – 17 July 1918) was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial ... | If Anastasia Romanov had still been alive when the 90s cartoon movie based on her was released, how old would she be? | [] | Duchess Anastasia Romanov would have been 96 years old. | [] | true |
621 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Defenders are a loosely organized team of fictional characters mostly, but not solely, superheroes in the Marvel Universe. For much of their history, there was no official membership. Thus, the Defenders had a reputation as being a non-team, a te... | Only one of the founding members of the superhero team 'The Defenders' was not a doctor. How many letters are in his name? | [] | Five (the name is Namor') | [] | true |
622 | [
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"paragraph_text": "On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John ... | If Alice turned 36 on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated, how old would she be on the day the Berlin Wall fell? | [] | 61 | [] | true |
623 | [
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"paragraph_text": "This is a list of persons reported to have become father of a child at or after 75 years of age. These claims have not necessarily been verified.\n\nMedical considerations\nAccording to a 1969 study, there is a decrease in sperm concentration as men ... | What career was shared by one of the world's oldest fathers, who had a child at the age of 96, and a man who killed his wife, named Nancy, and their son, named Daniel? | [] | professional wrestler | [] | true |
624 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Confucius (孔子; pinyin: Kǒngzǐ; lit. 'Master Kong'; c. 551 – c. 479 BCE), born Kong Qiu (孔丘), was a Chinese philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages, as well as the first teacher in China... | Which two rivers pass through the hometown of a famous Chinese philosopher who was born as Kong Qiu | [] | The Si River and the Yi River pass through Qufu, Confucius' home town. | [] | true |
625 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Song Remains the Same is the live soundtrack album of the concert film of the same name by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. The soundtrack was recorded 27–29 July 1973 and released on 22 October 1976 on Swan Song Records.\n\nOverview\nThe reco... | How much larger was the concert capacity of the venue where Led Zeppelin recorded "The Song Remains the Same" than the venue where AC/DC recorded their first live album? | [] | 16,500 | [] | true |
626 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Five Nights at Freddy's (FNaF) is a video game series and media franchise created by indie game developer Scott Cawthon. The franchise features ten main video games, several spin-off games, novels, and a film adaptation.\nThe video game series follow... | Five Nights at Freddy's initial game release came one day short of the 19 year anniversary of the death of which Grateful Dead band member? | [] | Jerry Garcia | [] | true |
627 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites. The... | One episode title from classic Doctor Who series 12 features the name of a Pentateuch book. Can you tell me which part of this episode had the lowest viewing figures in roman numerals? | [] | III (the answer is Genesis of the Daleks, the 3rd part had the least amount of viewers when broadcast) | [] | true |
628 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Lost Tower (Japanese: 劇場版 NARUTO（ナルト） 疾風伝 ザ・ロストタワー, Hepburn: Gekijōban Naruto Shippūden: Za Rosuto Tawā) is a 2010 Japanese animated action-adventure fantasy film based on Masashi Kishimoto's manga and anime series. It... | Which Naruto characters from before the TV series "Boruto: Naruto the next generation", can perfectly use the Rasengan technique? | [] | Naruto Uzumaki, Minato Namikaze and Jiraiya. | [] | true |
629 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Devon Linton McDonald (born November 8, 1969) is a former professional American football player who played linebacker for three seasons for the Indianapolis Colts and one season for the Arizona Cardinals. McDonald later played for the Tampa Bay Storm... | Twin brothers and former linebackers Ricardo and Devon McDonald were drafted into the NFL in 1992 and 1993, respectively. How many more games did one twin play than the other during their NFL career? | [] | 56 | [] | true |
630 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The 317th Fighter Interceptor Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit, last assigned to Aerospace Defense Command, at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, where it was inactivated on 31 December 1969.\nThe squadron was first activated as th... | How old was the United States Air Force when the 317th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was inactivated, rounded to the nearest year? | [] | 22 years old | [] | true |
631 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Estadio José Martín Olaeta is a football stadium located in the city of Rosario of Santa Fe Province, Argentina. The stadium is owned and operated by C.A. Argentino. It has a capacity of 8,500 spectators and was inaugurated in 1944.\nThe stadium was ... | Who was the Argentinian president who resigned from the position the same year the José Martín Olaeta Stadium was inaugurated? | [] | Pedro Ramírez | [] | true |
632 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Damon Kyle Wayans Sr. (; born September 4, 1960) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, and writer. He performed as a comedian and actor throughout the 1980s, including a year-long stint on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live... | How many days is it from Damon Wayans's first episode as a cast member of Saturday Night Live to Damon Wayans's first episode as a cast member of In Living Color, including the days the first episodes premiered? | [] | 1619 days. | [] | true |
633 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States was cho... | There is a famous Texas city where a Stadium built in 1930 hosted six games for the 1994 World Cup, but only after widening the field and permanently installing natural grass on the playing surface. What was the average (mean) number of attendance for these six games? | [] | 58,692 | [] | true |
634 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The September Declaration (Dutch: Septemberverklaring) is the annual government policy statement of Flanders in the form of a speech by the Minister-President of Flanders to the members of the Flemish Parliament. The Declaration, drafted by the Flemi... | The September Declaration has a rough equivalent in the Netherlands that takes place on the same day every year. In what century was the current name of this day (as of August 2024) chosen? | [] | the 19th century | [] | true |
635 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Connor Andrew McDavid (born January 13, 1997) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Born and raised in Richmond Hill, Ontario, the Oilers selected him first overall in the... | Who was team captain of the team that won the Stanley Cup the year Connor McDavid was born? | [] | Steve Yzerman | [] | true |
636 | [
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"paragraph_text": "This is a list of United Nations Security Council Resolutions that have been vetoed by one of the five permanent members of the Security Council since 16 February 1946.\n\nResolutions\nRepublic of China\nThe lone veto ever cast by the Republic of Chi... | From the date the Soviet Union first used their veto power in the UN security council, how many more years would the then-Soviet leader live? | [] | Seven | [] | true |
637 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Salthill and Monkstown railway station (Irish: Stáisiún Chnoc an tSalainn agus Baile na Manach) serves the areas of Salthill (on the coast) and Monkstown (just inland) in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland.\nIt is situated between Seapoint and Dún Laogh... | How many years had the station that preceded the Salthill and Monkstown railway station on the historic Dublin and South Eastern Railway line been open on Christmas Day of 2005? | [] | 143 years | [] | true |
638 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.\nCharles was born in Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and became heir... | How many countries were part of the commonwealth on the date Prince Charles ascended? | [] | On 8 September 2022, there were 56 countries as part of the Commonwealth. | [] | true |
639 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Softball is a popular variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) permitted. Softball is... | In feet, subtract the diameter of the pitching plate ("rubber") in softball, from the distance between the "points" of the bases in baseball, and multiply that figure by the year that Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe. | [] | 144,596. The distance between the points of bases in baseball is 90 feet, subtract the diameter of the pitching plate in softball (16 feet), to get 74, and multiply that by 1954. | [] | true |
640 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Wizard Island is a volcanic cinder cone which forms an island at the west end of Crater Lake in Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. The top of the island reaches 6,933 feet (2,113 m) above sea level, about 755 feet (230 m) above the average surface o... | What are the sizes of the two islands in Crater Lake in acres? | [] | Phantom Ship is 2.3 acres. Wizard Island is 315.85 acres. | [] | true |
641 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Technicolor is a series of color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.\nDefinitive Technicolor movies using three black-and-white films running through a special camer... | As of August 3rd 2024, which movie using the Technicolor dye-transfer process was the last to win the Academy Award for Best Picture? | [] | The movie using the Technicolor dye-transfer process that was the last to win the Academy Award for Best Picture was "The Godfather Part II." | [] | true |
642 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. He played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) between 1984 and 2003, winning six... | How much older than Michael B. Jordan is Michael Jordan? | [] | 24 years | [] | true |
643 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Cillian Murphy ( KILL-ee-ən; born 25 May 1976) is an Irish actor. His works encompass both stage and screen, and his accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award.\nHe made his professional debut in Enda Wa... | The University that Cillian Murphy attended was founded how many years before he began studying? | [] | 151 years. | [] | true |
644 | [
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"paragraph_text": "1989 is the fifth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 27, 2014, by Big Machine Records. Executive-produced by Swift and the Swedish producer Max Martin, it was Swift's effort to recalibrate her artistic id... | The incorporation of this company happened in the same year titled on Taylor Swift 5th studio album. It was incorporated by a man born in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan that worked with the illustrator who largely designed the original 151 Pokémon. What is “this company”? | [] | Game Freak | [] | true |
645 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The following radio stations broadcast on FM frequency 89.5 MHz:\n\nArgentina\nAmistad in La Verde, Chaco\nCiudad in Coronel Pringles, Buenos Aires\nCiudad in Lobería, Buenos Aires\nCristal in Ingeniero Luiggi, La Pampa\nCNN Radio Rosario in Rosario,... | What is the name of the only Texan radio station on frequency 89.5 FM that is operated by a university, as of the death of Jerry West? | [] | KACU | [] | true |
646 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Elon Musk made $175.8 million when PayPal was sold to eBay in October 2002. He was first listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012, with a net worth of $2 billion. He is the chairman, CEO, and CTO of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO, product archite... | How much money would be left of Elon Musk's net worth in January of 2021, if you subtracted the 2022 average yearly gross salary of 10,000 people, working in the Philippines, written in words? | [] | one hundred eighty-four billion nine hundred fifty-nine million four hundred forty thousand. | [] | true |
647 | [
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"paragraph_text": "George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was a Founding Father of the United States, military officer, and farmer who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Second Continental Congress ... | What city was the capital of the United States on the day that the first president of the United States died? | [] | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | [] | true |
648 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Joel Edward McHale (born November 20, 1971) is an American actor, comedian and television presenter. He is best known for hosting The Soup (2004–2015) and his role as Jeffrey \"Jeff\" Winger on the NBC sitcom Community (2009–2015). He has performed i... | How old was Joel McHale the first time the Philadelphia Waterdogs won the PLL Championship? | [] | Joel McHale was 50 years old. | [] | true |
649 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 (also known as the Convention of London; Dutch: Verdrag van Londen) was signed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands in London on 13 August 1814.\nTh... | If somebody was born on the day the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 was signed, how old would they have been while Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley were performing their Michelson-Morley experiment? | [] | 72 | [] | true |
650 | [
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"title": "Category:Summer_Olympics_in_London"
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"paragraph_text": "The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international mult... | Who won Britain's Got Talent in the same year that London hosted the Olympics for the third time? | [] | Ashleigh and Pudsey | [] | true |
651 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Billboard Hot 100 is a chart that ranks the best-performing singles of the United States. Published by Billboard magazine, the data are compiled by Nielsen SoundScan based collectively on each single's weekly physical sales and airplay. In 2002, ... | What key signature was the song that was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 8, 2002 performed in? | [] | C major | [] | true |
652 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Itanhomi is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in the Southeast region of Brazil.\n\nHistory\nLegend spoke about the existence of an Indian chief named Queiroga. Queiroga is actually a native plant that existed on the banks of Ribeirão fores... | Itanihomi is a municipality in Brazil. What is the state that sits directly south of the state Itanihomi belongs to? | [] | Itanihomi is in Minas Gerais, and the state directly south of this is Sao Paulo. | [] | true |
653 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics were held during the last ten days of the Games. They were due to be held from 31 July – 9 August 2020, at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the games were postponed to 2021, wit... | Which Greek pole vaulter who participated in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo also won gold at the 2015 IAAF Diamond League? | [] | Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou | [] | true |
654 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Istiklal Mosque (Bosnian: Istiklal Džamija) is one of the largest mosques in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was named after Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta, the national mosque of Indonesia, since the mosque was a gift from the Indonesian people and g... | Please consider the following clues and answer the question that follows: 1. This mosque is located in the city dubbed the "Jerusalem of the Balkans." 2, The mosque was commissioned by an authoritarian dictator born in a small village 10 km west of Yogyakarta. Question: What is the height difference between the twin towers of the mosque and its dome? | [] | 21 meters | [] | true |
655 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Feastables is a chocolate and snack brand created by American YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast. In January 2022, Donaldson announced the creation of his company which launched its own brand of chocolate bars called \"MrBeast Bar\". F... | What is the birthday of the basketball player turned wrestler who shares a nickname with the YouTuber who created the brand Feastables? | [] | May 23, 1985 | [] | true |
656 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Michel von Tell (8 October 1980) is a Swiss journalist, consultant and racing driver.\n\nLife\nVon Tell was a professional baseball player in the Swiss NLB league.\nVon Tell studied economics and was active in the financial investment sector. In 2012... | In 2000, Michel von Tell drove a Toyota and placed sixth in an event. Who placed first that same year, and what car were they driving? | [] | Charles Muhanji in a Subaru Impreza WRX | [] | true |
657 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards—first presented in 1977 by the now–Los Angeles chapter of the Women in Film organization—were presented to honor women in communications and media. The awards include the Crystal Award, the Lucy Award, the Doro... | There's an episode of a TV series that was directed by the person who won the 2011 Dorothy Arzner Directors award. The series started in 2005. The season that contains my episode included 20 episodes in total. The episode is one word that starts with an "M." | [] | Miracles | [] | true |
658 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Victory Salute, commonly referred to as the Olympic Black Power Statue, is a monument depicting the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute performed by African-American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The monument consists of two fiberglass statues ... | What is the birth town of the absent athlete from the Victory Salute statue in San Jose, California? | [] | Peter Norman was born in Coburg, Victoria, Australia. | [] | true |
659 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The 5th Cavalry Regiment (\"Black Knights\") is a historical unit of the United States Army that began its service on March 3, 1855, as the Second Cavalry Regiment. On August 3, 1861, it was redesignated as the 5th Cavalry Regiment following an act o... | What is the capacity of the Olympic stadium used during the first Winter Games attended by a tropical nation? This nation was visited by the 5th Cavalry Regiment (US) in 1901. | [] | 17,324 | [] | true |
660 | [
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"paragraph_text": "WWE Hall of Fame (2010) was the event which featured the introduction of the 11th class to the WWE Hall of Fame. The event was produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on March 27, 2010, from the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona. The event to... | In 2010, the WWE Hall of Fame took place in the same stadium as a famous comedy movie done a few years before. Who are the four comedians that starred in this comedy movie? | [] | jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White and Larry the Cable Guy. | [] | true |
661 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and operates in approximately 7... | What year was the first Uber employee born? | [] | 1983 | [] | true |
662 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the principal minister of the crown of His Majesty's Government, and the head of the British Cabinet. \nThere is no specific date for when the office of prime minister first appeared, as the role was not cr... | Which British prime minister of the 1990s had the most children? | [] | Tony Blair | [] | true |
663 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Hiraka Station (平賀駅, Hiraka-eki) is a railway station in Hirakawa, Aomori, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Kōnan Railway Company.\n\nLines\nHiraka Station is served by the Kōnan Railway Kōnan Line, and lies 7.5 kilometers from the nor... | What was the daily average passenger count in 2011 of the first station on the train line that serves Hiraka Train Station in Japan? | [] | 2,851 Passengers | [] | true |
664 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1982, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates elements of alternative rock, funk, punk ... | How many Red Hot Chili Peppers albums were released while Nelson Mandela was in prison? | [] | 4 | [] | true |
665 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Worldwide, the British rock band the Beatles released 12 studio albums (17 in the US), 5 live albums, 51 compilation albums, 36 extended plays (EPs), 17 box sets, 22 video albums and 53 music videos. In their native United Kingdom, during their activ... | How many years after the first album release by The Beatles was the first solo album released by one of its members? | [] | Five years | [] | true |
666 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Friends & Relatives is a compilation album released by Eagle Records and Purple Pyramid (US) in 1999.\nThe album features songs from various artists that have a common linkage to Electric Light Orchestra, such as The Move and Wizzard.\n\nTrack listin... | Who starred in a movie about the subject of a song on the compilation album "Friends and Relatives," and also played themselves on an episode of "Friends"? | [] | Isabella Rossellini | [] | true |
667 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Old Mission Dam is a historic water impoundment structure in Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego, California. It was built in 1803 to impound the San Diego River to provide water for irrigation of the fields associated with Mission San Diego de... | In 1966, the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge became part of the U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). What is another natural site with water added during that year, also located in California? | [] | Lake Merritt | [] | true |
668 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Speedrunning is the act of playing a video game, or section of a video game, with the goal of completing it as fast as possible. Speedrunning often involves following planned routes, which may incorporate sequence breaking and exploit glitches that a... | What was the magnitude of the earthquake that was the catalyst for the charitable U.S. speedrunning marathon that took place in April 2011? | [] | Mw 9.0–9.1 | [] | true |
669 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Lebua at State Tower is an all-suite luxury hotel occupying the 21st to 25th floors of State Tower adjacent to the Chao Phraya River on Silom Road in the Bang Rak District of Bangkok, Thailand. The hotel is managed by Lebua Hotels & Resorts, which al... | What Volkswagen former car model has nearly the same name as a Bangkok rooftop restaurant? The car has one additional letter. | [] | Scirocco (The Bangkok restaurant is called Sirocco) | [] | true |
670 | [
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"paragraph_text": "HMHS Britannic (originally to be the RMS Britannic) () was the third and final vessel of the White Star Line's Olympic class of steamships and the second White Star ship to bear the name Britannic. She was the youngest sister of the RMS Olympic and t... | As of 1st August 2024 The three British Olympic Class ocean liners were manufactured in a city that lies at the mouth of what river? | [] | River Lagan | [] | true |
671 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Tenkodogo is the capital city of Boulgou Province and the Centre-Est Region of Burkina Faso with a population of 61,936 (2019). Tenkodogo is also the capital of the Tenkodogo Mossi Kingdom and considered to be root of all other Mossi Kingdoms, having... | The Mossi King who passed away in Thailand in 2016, would have spoken what language? | [] | Mòoré | [] | true |
672 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Connor Andrew McDavid (born January 13, 1997) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Born and raised in Richmond Hill, Ontario, the Oilers selected him first overall in the... | Which Colombian cyclist was born on the same day as Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid? | [] | Egan Bernal | [] | true |
673 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The politics of the U.S. state of California form part of the politics of the United States. The politics are defined by the Constitution of California.\n\nGovernment\nCalifornia's government consists of three branches: the executive, legislative, an... | From 1924 to August 2024, how many times did Texas's and California's electoral colleges elect the same nominee during the presidential election? | [] | 13 times. | [] | true |
674 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is a loose adaptation of the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which is in turn based on L. Frank Baum... | Who composed the Broadway musical that premiered in 2003 and starred the actress who would later voice Elsa in Disney's Frozen? | [] | Stephen Schwartz | [] | true |
675 | [
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"paragraph_text": "In physics, specifically classical mechanics, the three-body problem is to take the initial positions and velocities (or momenta) of three point masses that orbit each other in space and calculate their subsequent trajectories using Newton's laws of ... | In physics, when speaking of classical mechanics, there is an infamous problem that involves taking the initial positions and velocities of three point masses that orbit each other and attempting to calculate their trajectories. There is no general closed-form solution for this infamous problem. French mathematicians in the 18th century focused on solving this problem in regards to astronomical motion, specifically how the Moon rotates on its apsides. Their work led to a solution using Newton's laws of physics and the Discrete Fourier Transformation (DFT), which ultimately changed how sailors were able to determine longitude at sea. The inventor of the device that would revolutionize naval navigation using these new principles and proofs spent how many years testing and perfecting his work? | [] | 31 years (1730-1761) | [] | true |
676 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spans 513,115 square kilometres (198,1... | What is the country of origin of the football coach with the first initial "P" for the Thailand national men's football team who coached 54 years after the country's name officially changed? | [] | German. | [] | true |
677 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso, (22 October 1890 – 15 June 1970), known as Sir Archibald Sinclair between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a Scottish politician and leader of the Liberal Party.\n\nBackground ... | Archibald Sinclair had an American mom who was a half-sister. The half-sister had a life partner who had a painting of her by Walter Sickert. How many words is the title of that painting? | [] | 5 ( Miss Hudson at Rowlandson House) | [] | true |
678 | [
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"paragraph_text": "This is a record of Argentina's results at the FIFA World Cup. Argentina is one of the most successful teams in the tournament's history, having won three World Cups: in 1978, 1986, and 2022. Argentina has also been runner-up three times: in 1930, 19... | What movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture the same year that Argentina won its first World Cup? | [] | The Deer Hunter | [] | true |
679 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II (May 6, 2013 – July 30, 2022) was a golden retriever dog who served as the second unofficial mayor of Idyllwild, part of the census-designated place of Idyllwild–Pine Cove, California. His deputy mayors, Mitzi and Mikey... | What is the other name, beginning and ending with the letter "d", for the substance, often deployed by means of artillery shells, which was also instrumental in developing a treatment for a condition that dogs of the same breed as Mayor Max II are unusually prone to? | [] | Distilled mustard | [] | true |
680 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The prime minister of New Zealand is the country's head of government and the leader of the Cabinet, whose powers and responsibilities are defined by convention. Officially, the prime minister is appointed by the governor-general, but by convention, ... | As of May 2024, which female New Zealand Prime Minister was the oldest when they took office? | [] | Helen Clark. | [] | true |
681 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced \"a new stage in the process... | What is the capital of the country where the Treaty on European Union was signed? | [] | Amsterdam | [] | true |
682 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Red Stripe is a 4.7% ABV pale lager brewed by Desnoes & Geddes in Jamaica and the Netherlands. It was first introduced in 1928 from a recipe developed by Paul H. Geddes and Bill Martindale. In 1993, Guinness Brewing Worldwide, now Diageo, acquired a ... | Which happened earlier: Diageo reducing the volume of Red stripe beer bottles in the US from 12 fl. oz. to 11.2 fl. oz. or Philip Morris making a bid for the company Swedish Match? | [] | The Red Stripe US bottle volume reduction happened earlier. | [] | true |
683 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Miami Book Fair is an annual street fair and literary festival organized by Miami Dade College. More than 300 national and international authors attend the week-long gathering every year which features pavilions for comics, children, and young ad... | Which 2024 college/university president has a degree from Harvard University: the president from the one that organizes the Miami Book Fair or from the one that organizes the Kentucky Women Writers Conference? | [] | Eli Capilouto | [] | true |
684 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The first series of the 2005 revival of the British science fiction programme Doctor Who began on 26 March 2005 with the episode \"Rose\". This marked the end of the programme's 16 year absence from episodic television following its cancellation in 1... | What Doctor Who episode aired on a date closest to the 441st launch of the Skylark rocket? | [] | Dalek | [] | true |
685 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The Kodansha Manga Award (講談社漫画賞, Kōdansha Manga Shō) is one of Japan's major manga awards. The event is sponsored by publisher Kodansha. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1977.\n\nCategories\nThe award is currently awarded in t... | The shonen manga that won the 35th Kodansha Manga Award has how many chapters in its final volume? | [] | 5 | [] | true |
686 | [
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"paragraph_text": "The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. It is the flagship institution of the Unive... | How many years apart did a Kim Jong Un impersonator who was interviewed by USA today, and the man who founded Playboy attend the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign? | [] | 60 | [] | true |
687 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Kalkbrenner (German: occupational name for a lime burner) is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:\n\nChristian Kalkbrenner (1755–1806), German bandmaster\nFriedrich Kalkbrenner (1785–1849), German pianist\nFritz Kalkbrenner (bor... | In 2024, assuming that their family has been in the same line of work since they took a surname, what is the major use of the product they make if their last name is Kalkbrenner? | [] | Making steel. | [] | true |
688 | [
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"paragraph_text": "Rahul Ligma is a fictional fired Twitter employee, a character played by one of a pair of amateur improvisational actors that pranked multiple major media outlets on October 28, 2022. Ligma, the fictional character's surname, is a reference to the Li... | The person who posted a photo with Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson at the headquarters of a social media company claims to have a certain syndrome, despite never receiving a formal diagnosis. Who was this syndrome named after? | [] | Hans Asperger | [] | true |
689 | [
{
"idx": 0,
"is_supporting": true,
"paragraph_text": "Emily Jean \"Emma\" Stone (born November 6, 1988) is an American actress and producer. Her accolades include two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2017, she was the world's highest-paid actress and named... | Emma Stone was the highest paid actress in 2017. How much did breakthrough movie for the highest paid actress 6 years after Emma Stone make in its theatrical run? | [] | $406.9 million | [] | true |
690 | [
{
"idx": 0,
"is_supporting": true,
"paragraph_text": "The Office is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as The Office in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as the boss and main character. The two series ... | The lead actor who plays the regional manager of this popular mockumentary sitcom released in 2005 has the same initials as Santa Claus. What is the name of the voice character for Flower in the latest animated film this actor starred in in 2024? | [] | Matt Damon | [] | true |
691 | [
{
"idx": 0,
"is_supporting": true,
"paragraph_text": "The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university in Oxford, Mississippi, with a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and is the state's largest by enrollment.\nThe Mississippi Legislat... | This blood pressure drug commonly used to treat gestational hypertension was patented the same year the first black student at the University of Mississippi was shot. | [] | Labetalol | [] | true |
692 | [
{
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"paragraph_text": "Grace's High Falls is a seasonal waterfall in the US state of Alabama, in Little River Canyon National Preserve. The waterfall is Alabama's highest at 133 feet.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\n\"Graces High Falls Overlook\", National Park Service",
... | Little River Canyon National Preserve has three waterfalls, one of which is the tallest in Alabama. How much shorter is Alabama's tallest waterfall than the tallest waterfall in the continental US? | [] | 2,452 ft | [] | true |
693 | [
{
"idx": 0,
"is_supporting": true,
"paragraph_text": "Lleyton Hewitt defeated David Nalbandian in the final, 6–1, 6–3, 6–2 to win the gentlemen's singles tennis title at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships. It was his second and last major title, after the 2001 US Open. Hewitt became the first Australian t... | What is the name of the retired Swiss tennis player who made the 4th round of Wimbledon in 2002? | [] | Michel Kratochvil | [] | true |
694 | [
{
"idx": 0,
"is_supporting": true,
"paragraph_text": "Eric Jubb (born 17 January 1931), later known as Eric Lamont, is a Canadian former backstroke and freestyle swimmer. He competed in three events at the 1948 Summer Olympics.\n\nReferences\nExternal links\nEric Jubb at World Aquatics\nEric Jubb at Oly... | Who did the Canadian swimmer Eric Lamont compete against in Heat 3 of the freestyle competition that he was older than? | [] | No one, he was the youngest. | [] | true |
695 | [
{
"idx": 0,
"is_supporting": true,
"paragraph_text": "Bonaventure Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, east of Savannah, Georgia. The cemetery's prominence grew when it was featured in the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, and... | I'm a spooky tourist and I'm visiting Savannah, GA. I'm going to visit two of the most well-known cemeteries, what Cemetery in Savannah is famous for being in a book and on a book cover? What was the book? There is another old cemetery downtown I want to visit, I heard epidemic victims were buried there. What epidemic and what years did it take place? How many victims are buried there? | [] | Bonaventure Cemetery, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." Colonial Park, Yellow Fever; 1820s, estimated 700 victims. | [] | true |
696 | [
{
"idx": 0,
"is_supporting": true,
"paragraph_text": "Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeB... | Of the 6 main cast members of the series Friends, which have appeared in music videos? | [] | Of the 6 main cast members of Friends, Jennifer Anniston, Courtney Cox, and Matt LeBlanc have all appeared in music videos. | [] | true |
697 | [
{
"idx": 0,
"is_supporting": true,
"paragraph_text": "RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank on 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,50... | In what city were the Summer Olympic Games held in the year the RMS _Titanic_ sank? | [] | Stockholm (Sweden) | [] | true |
698 | [
{
"idx": 0,
"is_supporting": true,
"paragraph_text": "Josep Guardiola Sala (born 18 January 1971), commonly known as Pep Guardiola (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈpɛb ɡwəɾðiˈɔlə]), is a Catalan professional football manager and former player from Spain, who is currently the manager of Premier League club Manc... | The manager Pep Guardiola won the Premier League four years in a row with a football club whose owners are from a country whose main export in 2009 was which raw material? | [] | Oil. ('Oil' is fine here but related words from the Wikipedia article (link 6) are also acceptable, such as 'petroleum') | [] | true |
699 | [
{
"idx": 0,
"is_supporting": true,
"paragraph_text": "The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpie... | As of August 3 2024, which surviving building of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 sits on the same street as a skyscraper over 1,000 feet tall? Give the surviving building's current name. | [] | Art Institute of Chicago | [] | true |
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