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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oussama_Mellouli#:~:text=At%20the%202000%20Olympics%2C%20he%20finished%2043rd%20in%20the%20400%20IM. | Oussama Mellouli | Oussama "Ous" Mellouli (Arabic: أسامة الملولي; born 16 February 1984) is a Tunisian swimmer who competes in the freestyle and medley events. He is a three-time Olympic medalist, is an African record holder, and trains with the USC Trojans team based at the University of Southern California, where he studied as a computer science undergraduate and swam collegiately.
Since returning from an Adderall-related drug ban, Mellouli was the 1500 m freestyle World champion at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships with a winning time of 14:37.28, then the second-best performance of all time. Mellouli was the gold medalist in the 1500 freestyle at the 2008 Olympics, the bronze medalist in the 1500 freestyle at the 2012 Olympics, and the gold medalist in the 10 km marathon swim at the 2012 Olympics. He is the first Olympian to win medals in both the open water and the pool in a single Olympics.
== Early life ==
Born in Tunis, Mellouli left Tunisia at the age of 15 to study and train in France. He enrolled in USC Viterbi School of Engineering in 2003 after graduating from the Lycee Technologique du Rempart in Marseille, France. He swam for the USC Trojans under Head Coach Dave Salo and graduated in 2007 with a computer science bachelor's degree. He is a scholarship holder with the Olympic Solidarity program.
== Swimming timeline ==
== 2000 Sydney Olympics ==
At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia he finished 43rd in the 400 IM.
=== 2001 ===
Mellouli won 1 silver medal in the 400m IM at the 2001 Mediterranean Games, in Tunis, Tunisia.
=== 2003 ===
Mellouli first established himself on the world scene at the 2003 World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, where he won a bronze in the 400m Individual Medley finishing behind László Cseh and a world record performance from Michael Phelps.
=== 2004 ===
At the 2004 Olympics, he finished 5th in the 400 IM, setting the African Record in the process. He further distinguished himself at the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships in Indianapolis, USA, where he won the first international-level gold medal in swimming for Tunisia, in the 400m IM, finishing over a second ahead of second and third-place finishers Robin Francis and Eric Shanteau. Later, at the meet, he would win bronze in the 200m IM.
=== 2005 ===
He was able to better his Athens mark with his bronze medal swim in the 400 IM event at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, Canada. He also won the bronze medal in the 400 freestyle at that same event. He also won three gold medals (800 m freestyle, 400m medley, 200m medley) at the XVth Mediterranean Games in Almería, Spain.
=== 2006 ===
On 1 December 2006, Oussama Mellouli beat Michael Phelps in the 400m IM at the U.S. Open in West Lafayette: Mellouli clocked 4:15.61, ahead of Phelps with 4:18.32. This swim was subsequently placed within Mellouli's 18-month doping ban, and the results nullified, as the drug test where the banned substance was found occurred at this meet (see the section below for further information).
=== 2007 ===
On 19 February 2007, he broke his own African Record in the 200m individual medley for the fourth time since 2003 at the USA Swimming Grand Prix meet, held at the Mizzou Aquatic Center at the University of Missouri. He also set a new African record in the 400 meter individual medley.
On 25 March 2007, he won the silver in the 400 m freestyle (3:45.12) at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. Three days later, on 28 March, he swam to the first Tunisian World Championship in swimming, winning the 800m freestyle in a then African Record of 7:46.95 — one of the top 10 fastest times ever. However, due to his positive drug-testing result from an in-competition test from December 2006 and the 18-month competition ban imposed on him on 11 September 2007 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), retroactive from 30 November 2006 forward, his 2007 World Championships results have been nullified. He was also a finalist in the 400 m individual medley, where he originally finished fourth in 4:11.68.
Following the 11 September 2007 ruling by CAS, Mellouli was not allowed to compete again until mid-2008. Mellouli's results from 2007 have been nullified, per his September 2007 doping suspension, related to his positive test from December 2006 (see the section below).
== 2008 Beijing Olympics ==
Mellouli came into the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China entered two events, the 400m and 1500m freestyle events. In his first event, the 400m free, despite setting a new African record in the final, he could only manage fifth place in a time of 3:43.45. Mellouli would go on to win the 1500m freestyle and set a new African record. In doing so, he became the first African male swimmer to ever win an Olympic gold medal in an individual swimming event (the South African men's 4 × 100 m Free Relay won the event at the 2004 Olympics).
=== 2009 ===
Mellouli won 5 gold medals (200m and 400m individual medley, and 200m, 400m, and 1500m freestyles) at the XVI Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy.
In the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, held in Rome during the summer, Mellouli won a gold medal in the 1500 meter freestyle and two silver medals in the 400 meter freestyle and 800 meter freestyle.
=== 2010 ===
Mellouli won 4 medals ( 1 gold in the 1500 freestyle, 1 silver in the 400 medley, and 2 bronzes in the 200 m freestyle and the 400 m freestyle) at the 2010 FINA Short Course World Championships (25m) in Dubai, UAE.
=== 2011 ===
Mellouli won 16 medals ( 15 gold and 1 silver ) at the 2011 Pan Arab Games in Doha, Qatar.
== 2012 London Olympics ==
Mellouli won 2 medals (1 gold in the 10km marathon and 1 bronze in the 1500m freestyle) at the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London, UK. He became the first person to win medals in the pool and open-water swimming in the same Olympics.
=== 2013 ===
Mellouli won 1 gold medal in the 5km marathon at the 2013 World Championships, in Barcelona, Spain.
=== 2016 Olympics ===
Mellouli participated in two competitions in Rio 2016 Summer Olympics but did not win any medals. In the 1500m freestyle, he came first in his heat with 15:07.78 (considerably slower than his London 2012 Summer Olympics time of 14:40.31) but ranked 21st in the competition and thus did not qualify for the final. He also competed in the 10km marathon, finishing in 12th place with 1:53:06 (+0:00:07 of the gold winner).
=== 2020 Olympics ===
In July 2021, Mellouli had initially decided to withdraw from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to a dispute with the Tunisian federation for alleged forgery since 2017. However, he later announced that he would compete at the Tokyo Games, as the Tunisian Olympic Committee President Mahrez Boussian had promised to settle the dispute.
=== 2021 Olympics ===
On Wednesday, August 4, 2021, Tunisian swimmer Oussama Mellouli finished 20th in the 10 km open water marathon at the Tokyo Olympics. Mellouli was thus unable to earn another medal on his sixth appearance at the Olympic Games.
== 2006 anti-doping rule violation and ban ==
Mellouli tested positive for Adderall, a banned stimulant, during the 2006 U.S. Open, but this only became publicly known after the 2007 World Championships. FINA discovered that Tunisian authorities had known about the result, but had only issued him a warning. FINA referred the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Mellouli admitted taking the drug without a prescription, saying it was to help with academic work. In September 2007, CAS imposed an 18-month ban retroactive to 30 November 2006 and also disqualified all his results from that date through 2007, including at the World Championships.
== Achievements ==
2013 World Championships – 1 gold medal (5 km marathon) and 1 bronze medal (10 k marathon)
2012 Summer Olympics – gold medal (10 km marathon) and bronze medal (1500 m freestyle).
2009 World Championships – 1 gold medal (1500 m freestyle) and 2 silver medals (400 m freestyle, 800 m freestyle)
2008 Summer Olympics – gold medal (1500 m freestyle)
2005 World Championships – bronze medal (400m individual medley and 400m freestyle)
2004 Olympic Games – fifth place (400 m individual medley)
2004 FINA Short Course World Championships – bronze medal (200 m individual medley)
2004 FINA Short Course World Championships – gold medal (400 m individual medley)
2003 World Championships – bronze medal (400 m individual medley)
== See also ==
Tunisia at the 2012 Summer Olympics
== References ==
== External links ==
Oussama Mellouli at World Aquatics
Oussama Mellouli at SwimRankings.net
Oussama Mellouli at Olympics.com
Oussama Mellouli at Olympedia |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_the_International_Space_Station#:~:text=In%20September%201993%2C%20American%20Vice,became%20the%20International%20Space%20Station. | Origins of the International Space Station | The International Space Station programme represents a combination of three national space station projects: the Russian/Soviet Mir-2, NASA's Space Station Freedom including the Japanese Kibō laboratory, and the European Columbus space stations. Canadian robotics supplement these projects.
In the early 1980s, NASA planned to launch a modular space station called Freedom as a counterpart to the Soviet Salyut and Mir space stations. In 1984 the ESA was invited to participate in Space Station Freedom, and the ESA approved the Columbus laboratory by 1987. The Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), or Kibō, was announced in 1985, as part of the Freedom space station in response to a NASA request in 1982.
In early 1985, science ministers from the European Space Agency (ESA) countries approved the Columbus programme, the most ambitious effort in space undertaken by that organisation at the time. The plan spearheaded by Germany and Italy included a module which would be attached to Freedom, and with the capability to evolve into a full-fledged European orbital outpost before the end of the century. The space station was also going to tie the emerging European and Japanese national space programmes closer to the US-led project, thereby preventing those nations from becoming major, independent competitors too.
In September 1993, American Vice-President Al Gore and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin announced plans for a new space station, which eventually became the International Space Station. They also agreed, in preparation for this new project, that the United States would be involved in the Mir programme, including American Shuttles docking, in the Shuttle–Mir Programme.
== Mir-2 ==
The Russian Orbital Segment (ROS or RS) is the eleventh Soviet-Russian space station. Mir ("Peace") and the ISS are successors to the Salyut ("Fireworks") and Almaz ("Diamond") stations. The first MIR-2 module was launched in 1986 by an Energia heavy-lift expendable launch system. The Energia's core stage and boosters worked properly, however the Polyus spacecraft fired its engines to insert itself into orbit whilst in an incorrect orientation due to a programming error, and re-entered the atmosphere. The planned station changed several times, but Zvezda was always the service module, containing the station's critical systems such as life support. The station would have used the Buran spaceplane and Proton rockets to lift new modules into orbit. The spaceframe of Zvezda, also called DOS-8 serial number 128, was completed in February 1985 and major internal equipment was installed by October 1986.
The Polyus module or spacecraft would have served as the FGB, a foundation which provides propulsion and guidance, but it lacks life support. Polyus was a satellite interceptor/destroyer, carrying a 1 megawatt carbon dioxide laser. The module had a length of almost 37 metres (121 ft) and a diameter of 4.1 metres (13 ft), with a mass of nearly 80 t, and included two principal sections, the smallest, the functional service block (FGB), and the largest, the aim module.
In 1983, the design was changed and the station would consist of Zvezda, followed by several 90-tonne modules and a truss structure similar to the current station. The draft was approved by NPO Energia Chief Semenov on 14 December 1987 and announced to the press as 'Mir-2' in January 1988. This station would be visited by the Soviet Buran, but mainly resupplied by Progress-M2 spacecraft. Orbital assembly of the station was expected to begin in 1993. In 1993 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, a redesigned smaller Mir-2 was to be built whilst attached to Mir, just as OPSEK is being assembled whilst attached to the ISS.
== Freedom ==
Approved by then-president Ronald Reagan and announced in the 1984 State of the Union Address, "We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful economic and scientific gain", the proposed Freedom changed considerably.
NASA's first cost assessment in 1987 revealed the "Dual Keel" Station would cost $14.5 billion. This caused a political uproar in Congress, and NASA and Reagan Administration officials reached a compromise in March 1987 which allowed the agency to proceed with a cheaper $12.2-billion Phase One Station that could be completed after 10 or 11 Shuttle assembly flights. This design initially omitted the $3.4-billion 'Dual Keel' structure and half of the power generators. The new Space Station configuration was named Freedom by Reagan in June 1988. Originally, Freedom would have carried two 37.5 kW solar arrays. However, Congress quickly insisted on adding two more arrays for scientific users. The Space Station programme was plagued by conflicts during the entire 1984–1987 definition phase. In 1987, the Department of Defense (DoD) briefly demanded to have full access to the Station for military research, despite strong objections from NASA and international partners. Besides the expected furore from the international partners, the DoD position sparked a shouting match between Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and powerful members of Congress that extended right up to the final Fiscal 1988 budget authorisation in July 1987. Reagan wanted to invite other NATO countries to participate in the US-led project, since the Soviet Union had been launching international crews to their Salyut space stations since 1971. At one point, then-anonymous disgruntled NASA employees calling themselves "Center for Strategic Space Studies" suggested that instead of building Freedom, NASA should take the back-up Skylab from display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington and launch that.
An agreement signed in September 1988 allocated 97% of the US lab resources to NASA while the Canadian CSA would receive 3% in return for its contribution. Europe and Japan would retain 51% of their own laboratory modules. Six Americans and two international astronauts would be permanently based on Space Station Freedom. Several NASA Space Shuttle missions in the 1980s and early 1990s included spacewalks to demonstrate and test space station construction techniques.
=== Kibō ===
The Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), christened Kibō ("hope") in 1999, is Japan's first crewed spacecraft. Kibō consists of a pressurised laboratory dedicated to advanced technology experiments, education and art, a cargo bay, an unpressurised pallet for vacuum experiments in space, a robotic arm, and an interorbital communication system. While the proposed space station was redesigned many times around Kibō, the only significant change has been the placement of its ballistic shielding. Its final position at the front of the station increases the risk of damage from debris. The ESA and NASA, by contrast, both reduced the size of their laboratories over the course of the programme. The Japanese National Space Development Agency (NASDA) formally submitted the JEM proposal to NASA in March 1986, and by 1990 design work began. Constructed in the Tobishima Plant of Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works, by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., Kibō made its way to the Tsukuba Space Center and in 2003 Kibō was shipped, first by river barge and then by ship, to America. In 2010, Kibō won the Good Design Award, a 68-year-old consumer and industry award which identifies the best of Japanese craftsmanship.
In the 1980s Japan was working on the HOPE-X spaceplane, intended to launch on the H-II rocket. Depending on the configuration of the rocket, it would have a mass of between 10 and 20 tonnes, and be able to carry both crew and cargo. It would launch vertically and land horizontally. The programme was terminated by JAXA in 2003 after scale mockup testing.
== Columbus ==
In 1987 the ESA approved the Columbus laboratory. 1988, Europe was working on several space projects including the Columbus module, the Man-Tended Free Flyer (MTFF), and the Polar Platform (PPF), supported by the Ariane 5 rocket and the Hermes spaceplane.
The Columbus Man-Tended Free Flyer (MTFF) was an ESA programme to develop a space station that could be used for a variety of microgravity experiments while serving ESA's needs for an autonomous crewed space platform. The MTFF would be a space station without long term life support, visited by short term crews to replenish and maintain experiments in a Zero-G environment free of vibrations caused by a permanent crew. The project was cancelled after budget constraints caused by German reunification. The Hermes spaceplane is comparable in function to the American and Soviet space shuttles, with a smaller crew of up to 6 (reduced to 3 with ejection seats after the Challenger disaster) and substantially smaller cargo capacity, 4,550 kg, comparable to ISS uncrewed cargo ships.
By 1991 the Columbus and Hermes pre-development activities were good enough to progress into full development, however profound geopolitical changes prompted examining broader international co-operation, in particular with the Russian Federation. ESA Member States approved the complete development of the Attached Pressurised Module (APM) and the Polar Platform (PPF) for Columbus, but the Man-Tended Free-Flyer (MTFF) was abandoned. The Hermes programme was reoriented into the Manned Space Transportation Programme (MSTP), and a three-year period extending from 1993 to 1995 was agreed on to define a future crewed space transportation system in co-operation with Russia, including joint development and use of Mir-2.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/162_Laurentia | 162 Laurentia | 162 Laurentia is a large and dark main-belt asteroid that was discovered by the French brothers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry on 21 April 1876, and named after Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent, an amateur astronomer who discovered asteroid 51 Nemausa.
An occultation by Laurentia was observed from Clive, Alberta on 21 November 1999.
Photometric observations of this asteroid from multiple observatories during 2007 gave a light curve with a period of 11.8686 ± 0.0004 hours and a brightness variation of 0.40 ± 0.05 in magnitude. This is in agreement with previous studies in 1994 and 2007.
== References ==
== External links ==
162 Laurentia at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info
162 Laurentia at the JPL Small-Body Database |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kliment_Voroshilov#:~:text=On%2015%20March%201953%2C%20Voroshilov,Premier%20of%20the%20Soviet%20Union. | Kliment Voroshilov | Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov (Russian: Климент Ефремович Ворошилов ; Ukrainian: Климент Охрімович Ворошилов, romanized: Klyment Okhrimovych Voroshylov), popularly known as Klim Voroshilov (Russian: Клим Ворошилов; 4 February 1881 – 2 December 1969), was a prominent Soviet military officer and politician during the Stalin era (1924–1953). He was one of the original five Marshals of the Soviet Union, the second highest military rank of the Soviet Union (junior to the Generalissimo of the Soviet Union, which was a post only held by Joseph Stalin), and served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the nominal Soviet head of state, from 1953 to 1960.
Born to a Russian worker's family in Ukraine, Voroshilov took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917 as an early member of the Bolsheviks. He served with distinction at the Battle of Tsaritsyn, during which he became a close friend of Stalin. Voroshilov was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1921, and in 1925 Stalin appointed him People's Commissar for Military and Navy Affairs (later People's Commissar for Defence). In 1926, he became a full member of the Politburo. In 1935, Voroshilov was named a Marshal of the Soviet Union.
At the outbreak of World War II, Voroshilov was held responsible for Soviet failures in Finland during the Winter War and was replaced as Defense Commissar by Semyon Timoshenko. Following the German invasion in June 1941, he was recalled and appointed to the State Defense Committee. Voroshilov failed to stop the German encirclement of Leningrad and was again relieved from his command in September 1941.
After the war, Voroshilov oversaw the establishment of a socialist regime in Hungary. Following Stalin's death in 1953, Voroshilov was appointed Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. His fortunes declined during the rise of Nikita Khrushchev and the Supreme Soviet turned against him. He peacefully resigned in 1960, although he came out of retirement in 1966 and re-joined the party. Voroshilov died in 1969 at the age of 88.
== Early life ==
Voroshilov was born in the settlement of Verkhnyeye, Bakhmut uyezd, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire (now part of Lysychansk city in Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine). His father, a former soldier, was employed at different times as a railway worker or miner, and went through periods of unemployment. According to the Soviet Major General Petro Grigorenko, Voroshilov himself alluded to the heritage of his birth-country (Ukraine) and to the previous family name of Voroshylo.
In his published autobiography, Voroshilov described a childhood of extreme hardship, working from the age of six or seven, and receiving frequent beatings from wealthy peasants, which left him with a lifelong aversion to 'kulaks'. He grew up illiterate, until he was able to enroll in a newly opened school in a nearby village, at the age of 12, and received two years' schooling. During his school years, Voroshilov became a close friend and almost a member of the family of Semyon Ryzhkov.
In 1896, he started work in a factory near his home village, where he led a strike in 1899. In 1903, he enrolled in a German owned factory in Luhansk (which was renamed Voroshilov during the Stalin era). There, he joined the Bolsheviks, and acted as a strike leader during the 1905 revolution. In April 1906, he travelled to Stockholm for the Fourth Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), using the provocative pseudonym 'Volodya Antimekov' or Anti-Menshevik. In Stockholm, he shared a room with the delegate from Georgia, Josif Dzhugashvili, later known as Stalin.
In spring 1907, he travelled to London for the Fifth RSDLP Congress. On his return, he was arrested and deported to Arkhangelsk, but in December he escaped and moved to Baku, where Stalin was also active. Arrested again in 1908, he was released from exile in 1912, and for a time worked in an ordnance factory in Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad/Volgagrad).
== Russian Revolution and Civil War ==
Voroshilov was in Petrograd (St Petersburg) during the February Revolution, but returned to Luhansk, where he was chairman of the town soviet, and was elected to the Constituent Assembly. His military career began early in 1918, when he was given command of the Fifth Ukrainian Army, which was made up of a few scattered units, who were driven out of Ukraine by the German army. After a long, hazardous retreat, his group reached Tsaritsyn, where Stalin was posted in summer 1918 as representative of the central party leadership, and where Voroshilov was given command of the Tenth Army. Stalin and Voroshilov led the Red Army's 1918 defense of Tsaritsyn. They also sponsored the creation of the first Red Cavalry unit, commanded by Semyon Budyonny, which was composed chiefly of peasants from southern Russia. In Tsaritsyn, Voroshilov clashed with Leon Trotsky, the People's Commissar for War, who considered him undisciplined and unfit to command an army, and in October 1918 threatened him with court martial. Voroshilov was transferred to Ukraine, as commander of the Kharkiv military district, and later People's Commissar for War in the Ukraine soviet republic. He sided with the 'Military Opposition', who opposed the formation of a centralised army, preferring to rely on local mobile units, and objected to the recruitment into the Red Army of former officers from the Tsarist army. Later, during the Polish–Soviet War, Voroshilov was political commissar with Budienny's First Cavalry.
I
== Interwar period ==
Voroshilov served as a member of the Central Committee from his election in 1921 until 1961. In April 1921, he was appointed commander of the North Caucasus military district. In March 1924, he was promoted to the post of commander of the Moscow military district. In 1925, after the death of Mikhail Frunze, Voroshilov was appointed People's Commissar for Military and Navy Affairs and Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, a post he held until 1934. Despite the high offices he held, Voroshilov appears not to have been part in the inner leadership. In November 1930, the chairman of the Russian government, Sergey Syrtsov, alleged that a "tiny group", which excluded Voroshilov but included nominally much less senior figures such as Pavel Postyshev, was making decisions "behind the back of the Politburo".
His main accomplishment in this period was to move key Soviet war industries east of the Urals, so that the Soviet Union could strategically retreat, while keeping its manufacturing capability intact. Frunze's political position adhered to that of the Troika (Grigory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Stalin), but Stalin preferred to have a close, personal ally in charge (as opposed to Frunze, a "Zinovievite"). Frunze was urged by a group of Stalin's hand-picked doctors to have surgery to treat an old stomach ulcer, despite previous doctors' recommendations to avoid surgery and Frunze's own unwillingness. He died on the operating table of a massive overdose of chloroform, an anaesthetic. Voroshilov became a full member of the newly formed Politburo in 1926, remaining a member until 1960.
Voroshilov was appointed People's Commissar (Minister) for Defence in 1934 and a Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1935.
== The Great Purge ==
During the first of the Moscow trials, in August 1936, Voroshilov was one of four Politburo members who signed the order that appeals for clemency were to be denied and that the defendants were to be executed without delay. He was also of the main speakers at the March 1937 plenum of the Central Committee, which ended with the arrests of Nikolai Bukharin and Alexei Rykov, whom Voroshilov denounced as "renegades".
In the early stages, he seemed to have believed that the purge would not affect the armed forces, and was seemingly unprepared for the arrest of Marshal Tukhachevsky and others in April and May. Voroshilov did not personally share the paranoia towards upper-class elements of the officer corps. He openly declared that the saboteurs in the Red Army were few in number and tried to save the lives of officers like Lukin, who would serve with distinction during the Second World War, and Sokolov-Strakhov, and he was sometimes successful. But on 30 May, he telephoned the commander of the Ukraine military district, Iona Yakir, ordering him to take a train to Moscow for a meeting of the Military Revolutionary Council, knowing that he would be arrested on the way. When the Council met on 1 June 1937, Voroshilov vacated the chair to deliver a report in which he said, apologetically: "I could not believe we would reveal so many and such scoundrels in the ranks of the highest command of our glorious, our valiant Workers' and Peasants' Army."
After that, he played a central role in Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s, denouncing many of his own military colleagues and subordinates when asked to do so by Stalin. He wrote personal letters to exiled former Soviet officers and diplomats such as commissar Mikhail Ostrovsky, asking them to return voluntarily to the Soviet Union and falsely reassuring them that they would not face retribution from authorities. Voroshilov personally signed 185 documented execution lists, fourth among the Soviet leadership after Molotov, Stalin and Kaganovich. He had no problem denouncing officers he disliked such as Tukhachevsky.
Despite taking part in the purging of many "mechanisers" (supporters of wide usage of tanks rather than cavalry) from the Red Army, Voroshilov became convinced that reliance on cavalry should be decreased while more modern arms should receive higher priority. Marshal Budyonny tried to recruit him to his cause of protecting the status of cavalry in the Red Army but Voroshilov openly declared his intention to do the opposite. He praised the army's combined arms warfare capabilities as well as the high quality and ability to take initiative of the officers during the 1936 summer manoeuvers. However he also pointed out issues in the Red Army as a whole in his full report. Among the issues he pointed out were insufficient communication, ineffective staffs, insufficient cooperation between arms, and the rudimentary nature of the command structure in tank units and other modern arms.
When the Great Purge ended, some reforms were undertaken by the high command to reconcile Red Army doctrine (for example deep operations doctrine) with the real state of the Red Army. The politically appointed commanders of the post-purge Red Army saw that the army, especially after the purge, was not suitable to carry out deep operations style warfare. Commanders such as Voroshilov and Kulik were among the instigators of these reforms which positively impacted the Red Army. These commanders themselves turned out not to be able to carry out such operations in practice. Voroshilov and Kulik turned out to be unable to put these reforms into practice. One of these reforms was a reorganization of Red Army field units which accidentally moved Red Army organization to a far less advanced state than it had been in 1936. This reorganization was conceived by Kulik but put into practice by Voroshilov.
When territorial units were abolished Voroshilov noted that among the reasons for disbanding them was inability to train conscripts in the use of modern technology. He had openly proclaimed that the system was inadequate in an era in which imperialist powers (such as Germany) were expanding the capabilities of their armies. The territorial units had been very unpopular, not only with Voroshilov, but with the Red Army leadership a whole. They were hopelessly ineffective: territorial conscript Alexey Grigorovich Maslov noted that he never fired a shot during his training, while it was noted that these units only underwent real training in the one month a year when experienced veterans returned.
== World War II ==
Voroshilov commanded Soviet troops during the Winter War from November 1939 to January 1940 but, due to poor Soviet planning and Voroshilov's incompetence as a general, the Red Army suffered about 320,000 casualties compared to 70,000 Finnish casualties. When the leadership gathered at Stalin's dacha at Kuntsevo, Stalin shouted at Voroshilov for the losses; Voroshilov replied in kind, blaming the failure on Stalin for eliminating the Red Army's best generals in his purges. Voroshilov followed this retort by smashing a platter of food on the table. Nikita Khrushchev said it was the only time he ever witnessed such an outburst. Voroshilov was nonetheless made the scapegoat for the initial failures in Finland. He was later replaced as Defense Commissar by Semyon Timoshenko. Voroshilov was then made Deputy Premier responsible for cultural matters.
Voroshilov initially argued that thousands of Polish army officers captured in September 1939 should be released, but he later signed the order for their execution in the Katyn massacre of 1940.
Between 1941 and 1944, Voroshilov was a member of the State Defense Committee.
After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Voroshilov became commander of the short-lived Northwestern Direction (July to August 1941), controlling several fronts. In September 1941 he commanded the Leningrad Front. Working alongside military commander Andrei Zhdanov as German advances threatened to cut off Leningrad, he displayed considerable personal bravery in defiance of heavy shelling at Ivanovskoye; at one point he rallied retreating troops and personally led a counter-attack against German tanks armed only with a pistol. However, the style of counterattack he launched had long since been abandoned by strategists and drew mostly contempt from his military colleagues; he failed to prevent the Germans from surrounding Leningrad and he was dismissed from his post and replaced by Georgy Zhukov on 8 September 1941. Stalin had a political need for popular wartime leaders, however, and Voroshilov remained as an important figurehead.
== Post war ==
=== Hungary ===
Between 1945 and 1947, Voroshilov supervised the establishment of the socialist republic in postwar Hungary. He attributed the poor showing of the Hungarian Communist Party in the October 1945 Budapest municipal elections to the number of minorities in leadership positions, arguing that it was "detrimental to the party that its leaders are not of Hungarian origin".
=== 1952–1953 Soviet leadership ===
In 1952, Voroshilov was appointed a member of the Presidium of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Stalin's death on 5 March 1953 prompted major changes in the Soviet leadership. On 15 March 1953, Voroshilov was approved as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (i.e., the head of state) with Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party and Georgy Malenkov as Premier of the Soviet Union. Voroshilov, Malenkov, and Khrushchev brought about the 26 June 1953 arrest of Lavrenty Beria after Stalin's death.
One of Voroshilov's responsibilities as chairman of the Presidium was to oversee the appeal review of Soviet death row inmates. Analysis by Jeffrey S. Hardy and Yana Skorobogatov describe his role thus:
"Chairman Voroshilov presided over the meetings and clearly had the most influential voice, but split votes were not uncommon and Voroshilov was sometimes outvoted... Throughout his tenure as Presidium chair, he behaved like someone who believed that one should follow established procedure and not act too quickly in matters of life and death."
Hardy and Skorobogatov indicate that Voroshilov frequently exerted his influence on the committee toward leniency, especially in the case of those who expressed repentance in their appeal documents and those convicted of crimes of passion or under the influence of alcohol; he judged those convicted of political crimes or acts with financial motives more harshly. During his tenure, many individuals sentenced to death had their punishments commuted to prison terms of varying lengths. The authors of the study observe that his successor, Brezhnev, took a noticeably harder line in appeals cases.
However, the contrast between Voroshilov's relatively magnanimous attitude toward pardon cases in the 1950s with his well-documented participation in the deadly purges of the 1930s (as described above) was noted even at the time by Khrushchev, who asked him, "So when were you acting according to your conscience, then or now?"
=== Fall from grace ===
After Khrushchev removed most of the Stalinists like Molotov and Malenkov from the party, Voroshilov's career began to fade. On 7 May 1960, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union granted Voroshilov's request for retirement and elected Leonid Brezhnev chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council (the head of state). The Central Committee also relieved him of duties as a member of the Party Presidium (as the Politburo had been called since 1952) on 16 July 1960. In October 1961, his political defeat was complete at the 22nd party congress when he was excluded from election to the Central Committee.
Following Khrushchev's fall from power, Soviet leader Brezhnev brought Voroshilov out of retirement into a figurehead political post. Voroshilov was again re-elected to the Central Committee in 1966. Voroshilov was awarded a second medal of Hero of the Soviet Union 1968.
== Death ==
During a winter night in 1969, Voroshilov started to feel unwell. His family proposed to call an ambulance immediately, but he adamantly refused. In the morning he put on his military uniform, and after calling a car, he went to the hospital himself, fully decorated. Voroshilov died on 2 December, at the age of 88, and was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, in one of the twelve individual tombs located between the Lenin Mausoleum and the Kremlin wall.
== Personal life ==
Voroshilov was married to Ekaterina Voroshilova, born Golda Gorbman, a Ukrainian Jew from Mardarovka. She changed her name when she converted to Orthodox Christianity in order to be allowed to marry Voroshilov. They met while both were exiled in Arkhangelsk, where Ekaterina was sent in 1906. While both serving on the Tsaritsyn Front in 1918, where Ekaterina was helping orphans, they adopted a four-year-old orphan boy who they named Petya. They also adopted the children of Mikhail Frunze following his death in 1925. During Stalin's rule, they lived in the Kremlin at the Horse Guards.
His personality as it was described by Molotov in 1974: "Voroshilov was nice, but only in certain times. He always stood for the political line of the party, because he was from a working class, a common man, very good orator. He was clean, yes. And he was personally devoted to Stalin. But his devotion was not very strong. However in this period he advocated Stalin very actively, supported him in everything, though not entirely sure in everything. It also affected their relationship. This is a very complex issue. This must be taken into account to understand why Stalin treated him critically and not invited him at all our conversations. At least at private ones. But he came by himself. Stalin frowned. Under Khrushchev, Voroshilov behaved badly."
== Honours and awards ==
=== Soviet Union ===
The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) series of tanks, used in World War II, was named after him. Two towns were also named after him: Voroshilovsk in Donbas (now Alchevsk) Voroshilovgrad in Ukraine (now changed back to the historical Luhansk) and Voroshilov in the Soviet Far East (now renamed Ussuriysk after the Ussuri river), as well as the General Staff Academy in Moscow. Stavropol was called Voroshilovsk from 1935 to 1943.
Hero of the Soviet Union, two times (No. 10840 – 3 February 1956 (in conjunction with his 75th birthday), No. 47 – 22 February 1968 (in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Armed Forces of the USSR))
Hero of Socialist Labour (No. 10268 – 7 May 1960)
Order of Lenin, eight times (No. 880 – 23 February 1935, No. 3582 – 22 February 1938, No. 14851 – 3 February 1941, No. 26411 – 21 February 1945, No. 128065 – 3 February 1951, No. 313410 – 3 February 1956, No. 331807 – 3 February 1961, No. 340967 – 22 February 1968)
Order of the Red Banner, six times (No. 47 – 26 June 1919, No. 629 – 2 April 1921, No. 27 – 3–2 December 1925, No. 5 – 4–22 February 1930, No. 1 – 5–3 November 1944, No. 1–24 June 1948)
Order of Suvorov, 1st class (No. 125 – 22 February 1944)
Order of the Red Banner of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (17 February 1930)
Order of the Red Banner of the Tajik SSR (No. 148 – 14 January 1933)
Order of the Red Banner ZSFSR (25 February 1933)
Jubilee Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army" (22 February 1938)
Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1945)
Medal "For the Defence of Leningrad"
Medal "For the Defence of Moscow"
Medal "For the Defence of the Caucasus"
Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow" (21 September 1947)
Jubilee Medal "30 Years of the Soviet Army and Navy" (22 February 1948)
Jubilee Medal "40 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (17 February 1958)
Jubilee Medal "50 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
Jubilee Medal "Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1965)
Honorary Revolutionary Weapon (1920, 1968)
=== Foreign awards ===
==== Mongolia ====
Hero of the Mongolian People's Republic (29 May 1957)
Order of Sukhbaatar, twice
Order of the Red Banner
Order of the Polar Star
==== Finland ====
Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland (1955)
==== Turkey ====
Honorary citizen of İzmir, November 1933; in İzmir a street was also named after him. In 1951, it was renamed "Plevne Bulvarı".
== See also ==
Bibliography of the Russian Revolution and Civil War
Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union
Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union
Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization
Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s
Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941
Voroshilov Sharpshooter
"Stalin and Voroshilov in the Kremlin," a famous Soviet painting
List of mayors of Luhansk
Soviet cruiser Voroshilov
== References ==
== External links ==
Collection of Soviet songs about Klim Voroshilov
Newspaper clippings about Kliment Voroshilov in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
Official Soviet visit by Kliment Voroshilov to China, 1957: Photo with Chairman Mao [1] |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9odore_Gardelle | Théodore Gardelle | Théodore Gardelle (30 November 1722 – 4 April 1761) was a painter and enameller.
He was born in Geneva, then in the independent Republic of Geneva, where he studied portrait miniature painting. Having acquired its first rudiments, he went to Paris in 1744. There he gained great proficiency in the art. He lived there studying and painting until 1750. Then he returned to his native place and practised his profession for some years. In 1756, he again went to Paris. In 1760, he went to England, where he was executed in Haymarket, London, for murdering his landlady Anne King.
== References ==
== External links ==
Theodore Gardelle, exclassics.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_Marks_(album)#Tour_dates | Beauty Marks (album) | Beauty Marks is the seventh studio album by American singer Ciara. It was released on May 10, 2019, through her own independent label, Beauty Marks Entertainment with distribution from Alternative Distribution Alliance. It is her first album since Jackie (2015). The album was preceded by five singles "Level Up", "Freak Me", "Dose", "Greatest Love" and "Thinkin Bout You".
== Background ==
After the release of her sixth studio album, Jackie (2015), Ciara decided to leave Epic Records in early 2016. Although the album spawned the Platinum-certified single, "I Bet", it failed to make much of a commercial impact, selling only around 160,000 copies worldwide within a three-month period. The singer had planned to further promote the album with a second leg of the Jackie Tour in March 2016, after postponing the dates from November 2015; however, on February 27, 2016, Ciara announced that the remaining dates of the tour had been cancelled and that she'd instead focus on recording her seventh studio album, while expressing that the album would see her undertaking a new musical direction.
On January 27, 2017, it was announced that Ciara had signed a new recording contract with Warner Bros. Records. As a part of the deal, Ciara began working on her seventh studio album and shot a music video for its lead single, "Level Up", in 2017. Ciara quietly departed the label later that year. The departure followed a period of creative tension between the artist and the label, particularly surrounding the release of her empowering single, Level Up. Despite Ciara's passion for the track and its potential to resonate with her fanbase, Warner hesitated to release it, prompting her to take control of her artistic vision.
I had to meet with the new CEO, and I had my game plan. I had this song called 'Level Up.' I had the video for this song as well. I had a whole vision for my project, and I sat down, and I talked to him, to the CEO at that time,” she says. “Like you know, once the meeting was over, and I knew he didn't want to go forward with my project, I was like, this is my chance and I'm going to ask back for my masters...I'm literally going to level up. The record label ended up returning them to Ciara for free.
In 2017, Ciara launched her own record and entertainment company, Beauty Marks Entertainment (BME); the venture was launched for her to follow her own creative direction and release her music on her own terms, with the singer eventually hoping to sign additional artists. BME's first endeavor was the release of the singles "Level Up", "Freak Me", and "Dose" in 2018, while Ciara officially announced its formation on February 7, 2019, at the MAKERS Conference.
On March 28, 2019, Ciara announced that her seventh studio album would be titled Beauty Marks after her label and that it would be released on May 10, 2019. The album was made available for pre-order the following day, along with its fifth single, "Thinkin' Bout You". In speaking on the album's development process, Ciara expressed that she now feels as she did at the start of her career, stating:
I was this young girl excited to be living my dreams and having the best time. I'm back to that phase again.
Ciara revealed that she co-wrote the title track "Beauty Marks" with Skylar Grey.
== Singles ==
"Level Up" was released via digital download and through streaming platforms on July 18, 2018, as the album's lead single, alongside a high-octane music video. The single peaked at 59 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and at 23 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, while its music video inspired the viral "level up dance challenge". Ciara also challenged fans to share three ways that they hoped to "level up" in life in promotion of the single. The song was certified Platinum by the RIAA. With the success of "Level Up", Ciara released the album's second single, "Freak Me", featuring Nigerian rapper, Tekno, less than a month later on August 10, 2018. The single peaked at 22 on the US R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Songs Chart.
"Dose" was released as the album's third single on September 14, 2018, after premiering on ESPN’s Monday Night Football halftime show. The song's music video premiered on October 25, 2018 (Ciara's 33rd birthday). The single peaked at 7 on the US R&B Digital Songs Sales chart. The album's fourth single, "Greatest Love", was released alongside its music video on February 11, 2019, to coincide with Valentine's Day. The single peaked at 21 on the US R&B Digital Songs Sales chart.
"Thinkin Bout You" was released as the fifth single on March 29, 2019, along with the album's pre-order. Its music video premiered that same day. The single peaked at 20 on the US R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Songs Chart.
Ciara released a music video for the album's title track on May 11, 2019 and one for the album's third track, "Set", on June 14, 2019. Despite not being released as a single, the title track peaked at 22 on the R&B Digital Songs Sales chart.
== Critical reception ==
Beauty Marks received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 57, based on 4 reviews. Andy Kellman, writing for AllMusic, noted that Ciara "retreads just about every move she has made before," and praised the ballads for the ballads for "easily prevail[ing] over the up-tempo numbers, not one of which is a match for the singer's previous dancefloor conquests." In his Spin review, Alfred Soto called the album "mediocre", but remarked that "[it] manages to land in the middle of Ciara's discography when boldness is required." Nick Levine rated the album with 3 out of 5 stars, claiming that "[t]hough ‘Beauty Marks’ is rarely innovative, Ciara shows a respectable amount of range throughout the record. During his review for Pitchfork, Eric Torres perceived that "despite a handful of highlights, Beauty Marks is marred by filler, moving between frothy pop-R&B and stale empowerment anthems that leave Ciara's talents largely underused." In a more positive note, Steven J. Horowitz praised the album's themes of happiness and contentment, claiming that they "suit her well, as does her newfound openness. This is the Ciara that we deserve, and that she deserves too."
== Commercial performance ==
The album debuted at number 87 on the US Billboard 200 and number 48 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. As of May 2019, the album has sold over 135,000 equivalent album units globally.
== Track listing ==
All songs were written by Ciara. Additional writers are noted below.
Notes
^[a] signifies a vocal producer, this may be in addition to music production
Sample credits
"Level Up" contains a sample of the composition "Fuck It Up Challenge" by DJ Telly Tell, written by Telly Brown Jr.
"Freak Me" contains a sample of the composition "Before NKO" by Tiwa Savage, written by Tiwatope Savage, Charles Enebeli and Michael Ajereh Collins.
== Personnel ==
Credits for Beauty Marks adapted from Allmusic.
=== Studios ===
Recording locations
Mixing locations
=== Performers and Vocals ===
=== Production ===
=== Technical ===
=== Artwork ===
== Charts ==
== Release history ==
== Beauty Marks Tour ==
The Beauty Marks Tour was the fifth concert tour by American singer Ciara. The tour supported her seventh studio album, Beauty Marks.
=== Background ===
Ciara announced the tour on June 1, 2019, during a performance on Good Morning America.
=== Reception ===
Reviewing the Houston date for the Houston Chronicle, Joey Guerra said that "every song was a renewed blast of energy" and that regardless of whether she was singing her first hits or her newest songs, "it's still an intoxicating sound".
=== Tour dates ===
=== Set list ===
"Dose"
"Set"
"Goodies"
"That's Right"
"Get Up"
"Ride"
"Oh"
"Promise"
"And I"
"Sorry"
"I Bet"
"Like a Boy"
"Girl Gang"
"If"
"Freak Me"
"Ciara to the Stage"
"Like a Surgeon"
"Body Party"
"Thinkin Bout You"
"1, 2 Step"
"Tootsee Roll"
"Level Up"
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascher_H._Shapiro | Ascher H. Shapiro | Ascher Herman Shapiro (May 20, 1916 – November 26, 2004) was a professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He grew up in New York City.
== Early life and education ==
Shapiro was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish Lithuanian immigrant parents. He earned his S.B. in 1938 and an Sc.D. in 1946 in the field of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
== Career ==
After starting at MIT as a laboratory assistant in mechanical engineering, Shapiro was eventually appointed assistant professor at MIT in 1943 where he taught fluid mechanics. A prolific author of texts in his field, his two-volume treatise, The Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Compressible Fluid Flow, published in 1953 and 1954, is considered a classic. His 1961 book Shape and Flow: The Fluid Dynamics of Drag explained boundary layer phenomena and drag in simple, non-mathematical terms. He also founded the National Council for Fluid Mechanics Films (NCFMF), in cooperation with the Educational Development Center. From there, Shapiro was appointed Chair of the Institute's Faculty in 1964-1965 and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering from 1965 to 1974.
In 1962 he demonstrated the Coriolis effect in a bathtub-sized water tank placed in MIT (latitude 42° N). The experiment required extreme precision, since the acceleration due to Coriolis effect is only
3
×
10
−
7
{\displaystyle 3\times 10^{-7}}
that of gravity. The tank was filled, kept static for 24 hours, then drained. The vortex was measured by a cross made of two silvers of wood pinned above the draining hole. It takes 20 minutes to drain, and the cross starts turning only around 15 minutes. At the end it is turning at 1 rotation every 3 to 4 seconds.
Shapiro was elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1952, the National Academy of Sciences in 1967, and National Academy of Engineering in 1974. He was awarded the Benjamin Garver Lamme Award by the American Society of Engineering Education in 1977. He was awarded the Fluids Engineering Award in 1977 and the Drucker Medal in 1999 by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was awarded honorary Doctor of Science in 1978 by the University of Salford and in 1985 by the Technion.
== Books ==
Shapiro, Ascher H., Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Compressible Fluid Flow, Krieger Pub. Co; Reprint ed., with corrections (June 1983), ISBN 0-89874-566-7.
Shapiro, Ascher H., Shape and flow: The fluid dynamics of drag, Anchor Books, 1961.
== References ==
== External links ==
MIT News Office
Boston Globe obituary |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Steinitz | Wilhelm Steinitz | William Steinitz (born Wilhelm Steinitz; May 14, 1836 – August 12, 1900) was a Bohemian-Austrian, and later American, chess player. From 1886 to 1894, he was the first World Chess Champion. He was also a highly influential writer and chess theoretician.
When discussing chess history from the 1850s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz could be effectively considered the champion from an earlier time, perhaps as early as 1866. Steinitz lost his title to Emanuel Lasker in 1894, and lost a rematch in 1896–97.
Statistical rating systems give Steinitz a rather low ranking among world champions, mainly because he took several long breaks from competitive play. However, an analysis based on one of these rating systems shows that he was one of the most dominant players in the history of the game. Steinitz was unbeaten in match play for 32 years, from 1862 to 1894.
Although Steinitz became "world number one" by winning in the all-out attacking style that was common in the 1860s, he unveiled in 1873 a new positional style of play, and demonstrated that it was superior to the previous style. His new style was controversial and some even branded it as "cowardly", but many of Steinitz's games showed that it could also set up attacks as ferocious as those of the old school.
Steinitz was also a prolific writer on chess, and defended his new ideas vigorously. The debate was so bitter and sometimes abusive that it became known as the "Ink War". By the early 1890s, Steinitz's approach was widely accepted, and the next generation of top players acknowledged their debt to him, most notably his successor as world champion, Emanuel Lasker.
Traditional accounts of Steinitz's character depict him as ill-tempered and aggressive, but more recent research shows that he had long and friendly relationships with some players and chess organizations. Most notably from 1888 to 1889 he co-operated with the American Chess Congress in a project to define rules governing the conduct of future world championships. Steinitz was unskilled at managing money and lived in poverty all his life.
== Early life ==
Steinitz was born on May 14, 1836, in the Jewish ghetto of Prague (now capital of the Czech Republic; then in Bohemia, a part of the Austrian Empire). The youngest of tailor Josef-Salomon Steinitz's thirteen sons by his first wife, he learned to play chess at age 12. After studying Talmud in his youth, he began playing serious chess in his twenties, after leaving Prague in 1857 to study mathematics at the Vienna Polytechnic. Steinitz spent two years at the university.
== Chess career (through 1881) ==
Steinitz improved rapidly in chess during the late 1850s, progressing from third place in the 1859 Vienna City championship to first in 1861, with a score of 30/31. During this period he was nicknamed "the Austrian Morphy". This achievement meant that he had become the strongest player in Austria.
=== International debut ===
Steinitz was then sent to represent Austria in the London 1862 chess tournament. He placed sixth, but his win over Augustus Mongredien was awarded the tournament's brilliancy prize. He immediately challenged the fifth-placed contestant, the strong veteran Italian Master Serafino Dubois, to a match, which Steinitz won (five wins, one draw, three losses). This encouraged him to turn professional, and he took up residence in London. In 1862–63 Steinitz scored a crushing win in a match with Joseph Henry Blackburne, who went on to be one of the world's top ten for 20 years, but who had only started playing chess two years earlier. Steinitz then beat some leading UK players in matches: Frederick Deacon and the aforementioned Mongredien in 1863 followed by Valentine Green in 1864. This charge up the rankings had a price: in March 1863 Steinitz apologized in a letter to Ignác Kolisch for not repaying a loan, because while Steinitz had been beating Blackburne, Daniel Harrwitz had "taken over" all of Steinitz's clients at the London Chess Club, who had provided Steinitz's main source of income.
=== Match against Anderssen ===
These successes established Steinitz as one of the world's top players, and he was able to arrange a match in 1866 in London against Adolf Anderssen, who was regarded as the world's strongest active player because he had won the 1851 and 1862 London International Tournaments and his one superior, Paul Morphy, had retired from competitive chess. Steinitz won with eight wins and six losses (there were no draws), but it was a hard fight; after 12 games the scores were level at 6–6, then Steinitz won the last two games.
As a result of this match victory, Steinitz was generally regarded as the world's best player. The prize money for this match was £100 to the winner (Steinitz) and £20 for the loser (Anderssen). The winner's prize was a large sum by the standards of the times, equivalent to about £57,500 in 2007's money.
=== Continued match play success ===
In the years following his victory over Anderssen, Steinitz beat Henry Bird in 1866 (seven wins, five losses, five draws). He also comfortably beat Johannes Zukertort in 1872 (seven wins, four draws, one loss; Zukertort had proved himself one of the elite by beating Anderssen by a large margin in 1871).
=== Gradually improves tournament results ===
It took longer for Steinitz to reach the top in tournament play. In the next few years he took: third place at Paris 1867 behind Ignatz Kolisch and Simon Winawer; and second place at Dundee (1867; Gustav Neumann won), and Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament; behind Anderssen but ahead of Blackburne, Louis Paulsen and other strong players. His first victory in a strong tournament was London 1872, ahead of Blackburne and Zukertort; and the first tournament in which Steinitz finished ahead of Anderssen was the Vienna 1873 chess tournament, when Anderssen was 55 years old.
=== Changes style, introduces positional school ===
All of Steinitz's successes up to 1872 were achieved in the attack-at-all-costs "Romantic" style exemplified by Anderssen. But in the Vienna 1873 chess tournament, Steinitz unveiled a new "positional" style of play which was to become the basis of modern chess. He tied for first place with Blackburne, ahead of Anderssen, Samuel Rosenthal, Paulsen and Henry Bird, and won the play-off against Blackburne. Steinitz made a shaky start, but won his last 14 games in the main tournament (including 2–0 results over Paulsen, Anderssen, and Blackburne) plus the two play-off games – this was the start of a 25-game winning streak in serious competition.
=== Hiatus from competitive chess ===
Between 1873 and 1882 Steinitz played no tournaments and only one match (a 7–0 win against Blackburne in 1876). His other games during this period were in simultaneous and blindfold exhibitions, which contributed an important part of a professional chess-player's income in those days (for example in 1887 Blackburne was paid 9 guineas for two simultaneous exhibitions and a blindfold exhibition hosted by the Teesside Chess Association; this was equivalent to about £4,800 at 2007 values).
==== Chess journalist ====
Instead, Steinitz concentrated on his work as a chess journalist, notably for The Field, which was Britain's leading sports magazine. Some of Steinitz's commentaries aroused heated debates, notably from Zukertort and Leopold Hoffer in The Chess Monthly (which they founded in 1879). This "Ink War" escalated sharply in 1881, when Steinitz mercilessly criticized Hoffer's annotations of games in the 1881 Berlin Congress (won by Blackburne ahead of Zukertort). Steinitz was eager to settle the analytical debates by a second match against Zukertort, whose unwillingness to play provoked scornful comments from Steinitz. In mid-1882 James Mason, a consistently strong player, challenged Steinitz to a match, and accused Steinitz of cowardice when Steinitz insisted the issue with Zukertort should be settled first. Steinitz responded by inviting Mason to name a sufficiently high stake for a match, at least £150 per player (equivalent to £19,083 in 2023), but Mason was unwilling to stake more than £100. Mason later agreed to play a match with Zukertort for a stake of £100 per player, but soon "postponed" that match, writing that "circumstances having arisen that make it highly inconvenient for me to proceed ..."
==== Rivalry with Zukertort ====
Steinitz's long lay-off caused some commentators to suggest that Zukertort, who had scored some notable tournament victories, should be regarded as the world chess champion. As an example, The Chess Player's Chronicle in July 1883 opined that 'Steinitz was, at one time, fairly entitled to the position of champion...He has just taken an inferior place to Zukertort, in a tournament, and for the time being Zukertort, in the opinion of some, becomes champion'. Zukertort, the son of Jewish converts to Protestantism who missionized among Polish Jews, told Steinitz: "You are not a chessplayer, but a Jew".
== Comeback success ==
Steinitz returned to serious competitive chess in the Vienna 1882 chess tournament, which has been described as the strongest chess tournament of all time at that point. Despite a shaky start he took equal first place with Szymon Winawer, ahead of James Mason, Zukertort, George Henry Mackenzie, Blackburne, Berthold Englisch, Paulsen and Mikhail Chigorin, and drew the play-off match.
=== Visits the United States ===
Steinitz visited the United States, mainly the Philadelphia area, from December 1882 to May 1883. He was given an enthusiastic reception. Steinitz played several exhibitions, many casual games, and a match for stakes of £50 with a wealthy amateur. He also won three more serious matches with two New World professionals, Alexander Sellman (Steinitz won both) and the Cuban champion Celso Golmayo Zúpide. The match with Golmayo was abandoned when Steinitz was leading (eight wins, one draw, one loss). His hosts even arranged a visit to New Orleans, where Paul Morphy lived.
=== Return to London ===
Later in 1883, Steinitz took second place in the extremely strong London 1883 chess tournament behind Zukertort, who made a brilliant start, faded at the end but finished three points ahead. Steinitz finished 2½ points ahead of the third-placed competitor, Blackburne. Zukertort's victory again led some commentators to suggest that Zukertort should be regarded as the world chess champion, while others said the issue could only be resolved by a match between Steinitz and Zukertort.
=== Settles in United States ===
In 1883, shortly after the London tournament, Steinitz decided to leave England and moved to New York City, where he lived for the rest of his life. This did not end the "Ink War": his enemies persuaded some of the American press to publish anti-Steinitz articles, and in 1885 Steinitz founded the International Chess Magazine, which he edited until 1895. In his magazine he chronicled the lengthy negotiations for a match with Zukertort. He also managed to find supporters in other sections of the American press including Turf, Field and Farm and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, both of which reported Steinitz's offer to forgo all fees, expenses or share in the stake and make the match "a benefit performance, solely for Mr Zukertort's pecuniary profit".
=== World Championship match ===
Eventually it was agreed that in 1886 Steinitz and Zukertort would play a match in New York, St. Louis and New Orleans, and that the victor would be the player who first won 10 games. At Steinitz's insistence the contract said it would be "for the Championship of the World". After the five games played in New York, Zukertort led by 4–1, but in the end Steinitz won decisively by 12½–7½ (ten wins, five draws, five losses), becoming the first official world champion on March 29. The collapse by Zukertort, who won only one of the last 15 games, has been described as "perhaps the most thoroughgoing reversal of fortune in the history of world championship play."
Though not yet officially an American citizen, Steinitz wanted the United States flag to be placed next to him during the match. He became a US citizen on November 23, 1888, having resided for five years in New York, and changed his first name from Wilhelm to William.
In 1887 the American Chess Congress started work on drawing up regulations for the future conduct of world championship contests. Steinitz actively supported this endeavor, as he thought he was becoming too old to remain world champion – he wrote in his own magazine "I know I am not fit to be the champion, and I am not likely to bear that title for ever".
=== Defeats Chigorin ===
In 1888 the Havana Chess Club offered to sponsor a match between Steinitz and whomever he would select as a worthy opponent. Steinitz nominated the Russian Mikhail Chigorin, on the condition that the invitation should not be presented as a challenge from him. There is some doubt about whether this was intended to be a match for the world championship: both Steinitz's letters and the publicity material just before the match conspicuously avoided the phrase. The proposed match was to have a maximum of 20 games, and Steinitz had said that fixed-length matches were unsuitable for world championship contests because the first player to take the lead could then play for draws; and Steinitz was at the same time supporting the American Chess Congress's world championship project. Whatever the status of the match, it was played in Havana in January to February 1889, and won by Steinitz (ten wins, one draw, six losses).
==== New York 1889 tournament ====
The American Chess Congress's final proposal was that the winner of a tournament to be held in New York in 1889 should be regarded as world champion for the time being, but must be prepared to face a challenge from the second or third placed competitor within a month. Steinitz wrote that he would not play in the tournament and would not challenge the winner unless the second and third placed competitors failed to do so. The tournament was duly played, but the outcome was not quite as planned: Mikhail Chigorin and Max Weiss tied for first place; their play-off resulted in four draws, and Weiss then wanted to get back to his work for the Rothschild Bank, conceding the title to Chigorin. However, the third prize-winner Isidor Gunsberg was prepared to play for the title.
A Steinitz–Gunsberg match was played in New York in 1890 and ended in a 10½–8½ victory for Steinitz. The American Chess Congress's experiment was not repeated, and Steinitz's last three matches were private arrangements between the players.
=== Wins rematch against Chigorin ===
In 1891 the Saint Petersburg Chess Society and the Havana Chess Club offered to organize another Steinitz–Chigorin match for the world championship. Steinitz played against Chigorin in Havana in 1892, and won narrowly (ten wins, five draws, eight losses).
German Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch turned down an opportunity in 1892 to challenge Steinitz in a world championship match, because of the demands of his medical practice.
=== Loses title to Lasker ===
Around this time Steinitz publicly spoke of retiring, but changed his mind when Emanuel Lasker, 32 years younger and comparatively untested at the top level, challenged him. Lasker had been earlier that year refused a non-title challenge by fellow German, Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch, who was at the time the world's most dominant tournament player.
Initially, Lasker wanted to play for $5,000 a side, and a match was agreed at stakes of $3,000 a side, but Steinitz agreed to a series of reductions when Lasker found it difficult to raise the money, and the final figure was $2,000 each, which was less than for some of Steinitz's earlier matches (the final combined stake of $4,000 would be worth about $114,000 at 2016 values). Although this was publicly praised as an act of sportsmanship on Steinitz's part, Steinitz may have desperately needed the money.
The match was played in 1894, at venues in New York, Philadelphia and Montreal, Canada. The 32-year age difference between the combatants was the largest in the history of world championship play, and remains so today. Steinitz had previously declared he would win without doubt, so it came as a shock when Lasker won the first game. Steinitz responded by winning the second, and was able to maintain the balance until the sixth. However, Lasker won all the games from the seventh to the 11th, and Steinitz asked for a one-week rest. When the match resumed, Steinitz looked in better shape and won the 13th and 14th games. Lasker struck back in the 15th and 16th, and Steinitz was unable to compensate for his losses in the middle of the match. Hence Lasker won with ten wins, five losses and four draws. Some commentators thought Steinitz's habit of playing "experimental" moves in serious competition was a major factor in his downfall.
==== Increased tournament activity ====
After losing the title, Steinitz played in tournaments more frequently than he had previously. He won at New York City 1894, and was fifth at Hastings 1895 (winning the first brilliancy prize for his game with Curt von Bardeleben). At Saint Petersburg 1895, a super-strong four player, multi-round-robin event, with Lasker, Chigorin and Pillsbury, he took second place behind Lasker. Later his results began to decline: 6th in Nuremberg 1896, 5th in Cologne 1898, 10th in London 1899.
In early 1896, Steinitz defeated the Russian Emanuel Schiffers in a match (winning 6 games, drawing 1, losing 4).
==== Rematch with Lasker ====
In November 1896 to January 1897 Steinitz played a return match with Lasker in Moscow, but won only 2 games, drawing 5, and losing 10. This was the last world chess championship match for eleven years. Shortly after the match, Steinitz had a mental breakdown and was confined for 40 days in a Moscow sanatorium, where he played chess with the inmates.
== Controversy on the beginning of Steinitz's success ==
There is a long-running debate among chess writers about whether Steinitz's reign as World Chess Champion began in 1866, when he beat Anderssen, or in 1886, when he beat Zukertort. In April 1894 the British Chess Magazine described Steinitz as holding "the chess championship of the world for 28 years". However, there is no evidence that he claimed the title for himself in 1866, although in the 1880s he claimed to have been the champion since his win over Anderssen. It has been suggested that Steinitz could not make such a claim while Paul Morphy was alive. Morphy had defeated Anderssen by a far wider margin, 8–3, in 1858, but retired from chess competition soon after he returned to the US in 1859, and died in 1884. The 1886 Steinitz vs. Zukertort match was the first that was explicitly described as being for the World Championship, but Howard Staunton and Paul Morphy had been unofficially described as "World Chess Champion" around the middle of the 19th century. In fact one of the organizers of the 1851 London International tournament had said the contest was for "the baton of the World's Chess Champion", and in mid-1840s Ludwig Bledow wrote a letter to Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa suggesting they should organize a world championship tournament in Germany. Some commentators described Steinitz as "the champion" in the years following his 1872 match victory against Zukertort. In the late 1870s and early 1880s some regarded Steinitz as the champion and others supported Johannes Zukertort, and the 1886 match was not regarded as creating the title of World Champion, but as resolving conflicting claims to the title. On the other hand George Alcock MacDonnell hailed Joseph Blackburne as "World Champion" for his win in the 1881 Berlin Tournament, George Henry Mackenzie as having "won the Chess Championship of the World" in 1887, and Isidore Gunsberg as "among the champions of the world" following his win at "Bradford Place" in 1888. However, Steinitz regarded G.A. MacDonnell as "one of my bitterest and most untruthful persecutors".
== Personal life ==
Steinitz lived with Caroline Golder (born 1846) in the 1860s, and their only daughter Flora was born in 1866. Flora died in 1888 at the age of 21, and Caroline died in 1892. He married his second wife a few years later, and had two children by her. In 1897 he dedicated a pamphlet to the memory of his first wife and their daughter.
In February 1897, The New York Times prematurely reported his death in a New York mental asylum. Some authors claim that he contracted syphilis, which may have been a cause of the mental breakdowns he suffered in his last years. In the months prior to his death, he spent some time in institutions as a result of his failing mental health. Before his confinement, Steinitz had been attempting to publish an essay calling for the emancipation of Austrian Jews, and Steinitz himself attributed his symptoms entirely to mental fatigue. His chess activities had not yielded any great financial rewards, and he died a pauper in the Manhattan State Hospital (Wards Island) on August 12, 1900, of a heart attack. Steinitz is buried in the Cemetery of the Evergreens in Brooklyn, New York. His second wife and their two young children were still alive at the time of his death.
== Assessment ==
The book of the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, written collectively by the players, described Steinitz as follows:
Mr. Steinitz stands high as a theoretician and as a writer; he has a powerful pen, and when he chooses can use expressive English. He evidently strives to be fair to friends and foes alike, but appears sometimes to fail to see that after all he is much like many others in this respect. Possessed of a fine intellect, and extremely fond of the game, he is apt to lose sight of all other considerations, people and business alike. Chess is his very life and soul, the one thing for which he lives.
=== Influence on the game ===
Steinitz's play up to and including 1872 was similar to that of his contemporaries: sharp, aggressive, and full of sacrificial play. This was the style in which he became "world number one" by beating Adolf Anderssen in 1866 and confirmed his position by beating Zukertort in 1872 and winning the 1872 London International tournament (Zukertort had claimed the rank of number two by beating Anderssen in 1871).
In 1873, however, Steinitz's play suddenly changed, giving priority to what is now called the positional elements in chess: pawn structure, space, outposts for knights, the advantage of the two bishops, etc. Although Steinitz often accepted unnecessarily difficult defensive positions in order to demonstrate the superiority of his theories, he also showed that his methods could provide a platform for crushing attacks. Steinitz's successor as world champion, Emanuel Lasker, summed up the new style as: "In the beginning of the game ignore the search for combinations, abstain from violent moves, aim for small advantages, accumulate them, and only after having attained these ends search for the combination – and then with all the power of will and intellect, because then the combination must exist, however deeply hidden."
Although Steinitz's play changed abruptly, he said he had been thinking along such lines for some years: Some of the games which I saw Paulsen play during the London Congress of 1862 gave a still stronger start to the modification of my own opinions, which has since developed, and I began to recognize that Chess genius is not confined to the more or less deep and brilliant finishing strokes after the original balance of power and position has been overthrown, but that it also requires the exercise of still more extraordinary powers, though perhaps of a different kind to maintain that balance or respectively to disturb it at the proper time in one's own favor.
During his nine-year layoff from tournament play (1873–1882) and later in his career, Steinitz used his chess writings to present his theories – while in the UK he wrote for The Field; in 1885 after moving to New York he founded the "International Chess Magazine", of which he was the chief editor; and in 1889 he edited the book of the great New York 1889 tournament (won by Mikhail Chigorin and Max Weiss), in which he did not compete as the tournament was designed to produce his successor as World Champion. Many other writers found his new approach incomprehensible, boring or even cowardly; for example Adolf Anderssen said, "Kolisch is a highwayman and points the pistol at your breast. Steinitz is a pick-pocket, he steals a pawn and wins a game with it."
But when he contested the first World Championship match in 1886 against Johannes Zukertort, it became evident that Steinitz was playing on another level. Although Zukertort was at least Steinitz's equal in spectacular attacking play, Steinitz often outmaneuvered him fairly simply by the use of positional principles.
By the time of his match in 1890–91 against Gunsberg, some commentators showed an understanding of and appreciation for Steinitz's theories. Shortly before the 1894 match with Emanuel Lasker, even the New York Times, which had earlier published attacks on his play and character, paid tribute to his playing record, the importance of his theories, and his sportsmanship in agreeing to the most difficult match of his career despite his previous intention of retiring.
By the end of his career, Steinitz was more highly esteemed as a theoretician than as a player. The comments about him in the book of the Hastings 1895 chess tournament focus on his theories and writings, and Emanuel Lasker was more explicit: "He was a thinker worthy of a seat in the halls of a University. A player, as the world believed he was, he was not; his studious temperament made that impossible; and thus he was conquered by a player ..."
As a result of his play and writings Steinitz, along with Paul Morphy, is considered by many chess commentators to be the founder of modern chess.
Lasker, who took the championship from Steinitz, wrote, "I who vanquished him must see to it that his great achievement, his theories should find justice, and I must avenge the wrongs he suffered."
Vladimir Kramnik emphasizes Steinitz's importance as a pioneer in the field of chess theory: "Steinitz was the first to realise that chess, despite being a complicated game, obeys some common principles. ... But as often happens the first time is just a try. ... I can't say he was the founder of a chess theory. He was an experimenter and pointed out that chess obeys laws that should be considered."
=== Writings ===
Steinitz was the main chess correspondent of The Field (in London) from 1873 to 1882, and used this to present his ideas about chess strategy. In 1885 he founded the International Chess Magazine in New York City and edited it until 1891. In addition to game commentaries and blow-by-blow accounts of the negotiations leading to his 1886 match with Johann Zukertort and of the American Chess Congress's world championship project, he wrote a long series of articles about Paul Morphy, who had died in 1884. He wrote the book of the 1889 New York tournament, in which he annotated all 432 of the games, and in 1889 he published a textbook, The Modern Chess Instructor.
Steinitz also allegedly wrote a pamphlet entitled Capital, Labor, and Charity while confined at River Crest Sanitarium in New York during the final months of his life.
=== Playing strength and style ===
Statistical rating systems are unkind to Steinitz. "Warriors of the Mind" gives him a ranking of 47th, below several obscure Soviet grandmasters; Chessmetrics places him only 15th on its all-time list. Chessmetrics penalizes players who play infrequently; opportunities for competitive chess were infrequent in Steinitz's best years, and Steinitz had a few long absences from competitive play (1873–1876, 1876–1882, 1883–1886, 1886–1889). However, in 2005, Chessmetrics' author, Jeff Sonas, wrote an article which examined various ways of comparing the strength of "world number one" players, using data provided by Chessmetrics, and found that: Steinitz was further ahead of his contemporaries in the 1870s than Bobby Fischer was in his peak period (1970–1972); that Steinitz had the third-highest total number of years as the world's top player, behind Emanuel Lasker and Garry Kasparov; and that Steinitz placed 7th in a comparison of how long players were ranked in the world's top three. Between his victory over Anderssen (1866) and his loss to Emanuel Lasker (1894), Steinitz won all his "normal" matches, sometimes by wide margins; and his worst tournament performance in that 28-year period was third place in Paris (1867). (He also lost two handicap matches and a match by telegraph in 1890 against Mikhail Chigorin, where Chigorin was allowed to choose the openings in both games and won both.) The Edo rating system that covers the years from 1821 to 1937 places Steinitz 3rd in top peak rating; behind Jose Capablanca and Paul Morphy but ahead of Emanuel Lasker and Alexander Alekhine.
Initially Steinitz played in the all-out attacking style of contemporaries like Anderssen, and then changed to the positional style with which he dominated competitive chess in the 1870s and 1880s. Max Euwe wrote, "Steinitz aimed at positions with clear-cut features, to which his theory was best applicable." However, he retained his capacity for brilliant attacks right to the end of his career; for example, in the 1895 Hastings tournament (when he was 59), he beat von Bardeleben in a spectacular game in which in the closing stages Steinitz deliberately exposed all his pieces to attack simultaneously (except his king, of course). His most significant weaknesses were his habits of playing "experimental" moves and getting into unnecessarily difficult defensive positions in top-class competitive games.
=== Personality ===
"Traditional" accounts of Steinitz describe him as having a sharp tongue and violent temper, perhaps partly because of his short stature (barely five feet) and congenital lameness. He admitted that "Like the Duke of Parma, I always hold the sword in one hand and the olive branch in the other", and under severe provocation he could become abusive in published articles. He was aware of his own tendencies and said early in his career, "Nothing would induce me to take charge of a chess column ...Because I should be so fair in dispensing blame as well as praise that I should be sure to give offence and make enemies." When he embarked on chess journalism, his brutally frank review of Wormald's The Chess Openings in 1875 proved him right on both counts.
His personal correspondence, his own articles and some third-party articles, however, show that he had long and friendly relationships with many people and groups in the chess world, including Ignác Kolisch (one of his earliest sponsors), Mikhail Chigorin, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, Bernhard Horwitz, Amos Burn and the Cuban and Russian chess communities. He even co-operated with the American Chess Congress in its project to regulate future contests for the world title that he had earned.
Steinitz strove to be objective in his writings about chess competitions and games; for example, he attributed to sheer bad luck a poor tournament score by Henry Edward Bird, whom he considered no friend of his, and was generous in his praise of great play by even his bitter enemies. He could poke fun at some of his own rhetoric; for example: "I remarked that I would rather die in America than live in England. ... I added that I would rather lose a match in America than win one in England. But after having carefully considered the subject in all its bearings, I have come to the conclusion that I neither mean to die yet nor to lose the match." At a joint simultaneous display in Russia around the time of the 1895–96 Saint Petersburg tournament, Emanuel Lasker and Steinitz formed an impromptu comedy double act.
Although he had a strong sense of honour about repaying debts, Steinitz was poor at managing his finances: he let a competitor "poach" many of his clients in 1862–63, offered to play the 1886 world title match against Johannes Zukertort for free, and died in poverty in 1900, leaving his widow to survive by running a small shop.
== Competitive record ==
=== Tournament results ===
Sources:
=== Match results ===
Sources:
== Notable games ==
Steinitz vs. Augustus Mongredien, London 1862. Awarded the brilliancy prize at the 1862 London International Tournament.
Adolf Anderssen vs. Steinitz; 13th match game, London 1866. Emanuel Lasker regarded this well-prepared attack as a precursor of the positional approach that Steinitz later advocated.
Johannes Zukertort vs. Steinitz, WCH (9th game of the match) 1886, Queen's Gambit Declined: Vienna. Quiet Variation (D37), 0–1. Steinitz exchanges his powerful centre to create two weak hanging pawns on White's queenside and creates strong pressure against them. Zukertort eventually tries to slug his way out of trouble, but Steinitz wins with a sharp counterattack.
Steinitz vs. Mikhail Chigorin, Havana WCH 1892 (16th game of the match), Ruy Lopez, 1–0. Steinitz weakens Chigorin's pawns, gains superior mobility then forces a pawn promotion with the aid of a little combination.
Steinitz vs. Mikhail Chigorin, Havana WCH 1892 (4th game of the match), Spanish Game: General (C65), 1–0. Positional preparation creates the opportunity for a swift attack leading to mate on the 29th move.
Steinitz vs. Curt von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895, Italian Game: Classical Variation. Greco Gambit Traditional Line (C54), 1–0. A great attacking combination in the old 1860s style. After White's 22nd move, all the white pieces are en prise but Black is lost. The game won the first brilliancy prize of the tournament.
== See also ==
List of Jewish chess players
Steinitz Memorial, a blitz chess tournament held from May 15 to 17, 2020, in honor of Wilhelm Steinitz
Steinitz Variation
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Winter, Edward G. (1981). World chess champions. Pergamon Press. ISBN 978-0-08-024094-7.
Kasparov, Garry (2003). My Great Predecessors, part I. Everyman Chess. ISBN 978-1-85744-330-1.
The Games of Wilhelm Steinitz, ed. Pickard & Son 1995. A collection of 1,022 Steinitz's games with annotations.
Steinitz, primo campione del mondo, Jakov Nejstadt, ed. Prisma 2000. (in Italian)
From Steinitz to Fischer, ed. Sahovski Informator, Belgrade 1976.
Steinitz Chess Champion by Landsberger, McFarland pub.
Steinitz Papers by Soltis, McFarland pub.
The Games of Wilhelm Steinitz, first world chess champion by Sid Pickard (in Algebraic notation) ISBN 1-886846-00-6, Pickard & Son publishers in 1995.
== External links ==
Wilhelm Steinitz player profile and games at Chessgames.com
"Steinitz versus God" by Edward Winter
Wilhelm Steinitz — biography (archived)
Chesscorner bio
Jewish Encyclopedia bio
World Chess Championship Pre-FIDE Events – details of World Championship matches from Steinitz's era |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Payam_ud_Din_Reshi | Baba Payam ud Din Reshi | Baba Rishi c. 1411 – c. 1480; born Payam ud-Din, was a revered 15th-century Sufi saint from Kashmir. Born in 1411 CE in Chander-nau-gaon, near Ganderbal, he was the son of a nobleman serving in the court of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin. Initially living a life of luxury, Baba Reshi experienced a spiritual awakening after observing ants diligently gathering food for the winter, prompting him to contemplate the transient nature of worldly possessions and the importance of the afterlife.
Motivated by this reflection, he renounced his wealth and status, he went to Nund Rishi for guidance and was sent to train with Baba Shukur-ud-Din Wali who told him to get water from Wular Lake to the top of Sharikot Hill for 2 years, after his training with Baba Shukur ud-Din Wali was done, he directed him to go to Sakhi Zain al-Din Wali for further training in Aishmuquam. After completing his spiritual training, Baba Reshi was directed by Sakhi Zain al-Din Wali to move to Ramboh village in Baramulla district, where he dedicated himself to prayer and meditation, attracting followers with his piety and wisdom. He spent the remainder of his life in the forested area near Tangmarg, dying in 1480 CE.
Babareshi is also the name of a village, forest area, tourist and religious place in Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is named after the Sufi saint Baba Payam ud din Reshi.
It is located a few kilometres from Tangmarg and near the hill station Gulmarg.
History
== Shrine ==
Situated at an altitude of about 7,000 feet (2,100 meters), the Ziyarat Baba Reshi shrine is a three-storey monument. It is located near Ramboh village in Baramulla District. Built-in 1480, in Mughal and Persian style, the tomb is named after Baba Payam Uddin. The shrine and its surrounding garden is a tourist attraction as well as a destination for pilgrims visiting the shrine.
=== Roza Sharief Baba Payam Uddin ===
Baba Payam Uddin was a courtier of 15th century Kashmir King Zain-ul-Abidin, and he is said to have given up all his belongings in order to serve the common people. He lived and meditated at this location, which became the site of his tomb and a shrine for his disciples.
This shrine has a big minaret and inside the shrine is the Noor Khwan where the grave of the Sufi saint Lies. It is covered with cloth with Quran embroideries. The Noor Khwan is made of glass and wood carvings.
=== Urs ===
The Urs or the anniversary of Baba Payam ud din Reshi is celebrated annually and people from far off places visit the Shrine on the occasion.
=== Damage by fire ===
On 2 September 1989 the 300-year-old Baba Reshi shrine was gutted in a fire under mysterious circumstances.
The place known as daan that Baba Reshi built in the village Ramboh went ablaze and caused severe damage to several buildings surrounding the shrine causing a huge economic loss to the historic place.
== Accommodations and travel ==
There are accommodations for tourists and pilgrims around the shrine. Each building has a Daan or cooking place where the Kashmiris prepare their meals and everyone traditionally contributes some of it to the Langar (collection Place). The Langar staff distribute the food in charity.
== Transport ==
=== Air ===
The nearest airport from Babareshi is Srinagar International Airport which is at a distance of around 2 hours.
=== Road ===
The area is also connected by road via NH-44 from Narbal via Magam. It is linked with various towns such as Kunzer and Tangmarg by Gulmarg Highway. Srinagar is 55 km (34 mi) away by road from Babareshi.
=== Rail ===
The nearest railway station is the Mazhom railway station.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriano_Garsia#:~:text=Scientific%20career&text=Born%20to%20Italian%20Tunisians%20in,moved%20to%20Rome%20in%201946. | Adriano Garsia | Adriano Mario Garsia (20 August 1928 – 6 October 2024) was a Tunisian-born Italian American mathematician who worked in analysis, combinatorics, representation theory, and algebraic geometry. He was a student of Charles Loewner and published work on representation theory, symmetric functions, and algebraic combinatorics. He and Mark Haiman made the n! conjecture. He is also the namesake of the Garsia–Wachs algorithm for optimal binary search trees, which he published with his student Michelle L. Wachs in 1977.
== Life ==
Born to Italian Tunisians in Tunis on 20 August 1928, Garsia moved to Rome in 1946.
As of 2023, he had 36 students and at least 200 descendants, according to the data at the Mathematics Genealogy Project. He was on the faculty of the University of California, San Diego. He retired in 2013 after 57 years at UCSD as a founding member of the Mathematics Department. At his 90 Birthday Conference in 2019, it was notable that he was the oldest principal investigator of a grant from the National Science Foundation in the country.
In 2012, he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
== Books by A. Garsia ==
Adriano M. Garsia, Topics in Almost Everywhere Convergence, Lectures in Advanced Mathematics Volume 4, Markham Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill., 1970. MR 0261253
Adriano M. Garsia, Martingale inequalities: Seminar Notes on Recent Progress, Mathematics Lecture Notes Series, W. A. Benjamin, Inc., Reading, Mass.-London-Amsterdam, 1973. MR 0448538
Adriano M. Garsia and Mark Haiman, Orbit Harmonics and Graded Representations, Research Monograph, to appear as part of the collection published by the Laboratoire de Combinatoire et d'Informatique Mathématique, edited by S. Brlek, Université du Québec à Montréal.
Adriano M. Garsia and Ömer Eğecioğlu, Lessons in Enumerative Combinatorics, Graduate Texts in Mathematics 290, Springer Nature, Switzerland AG, 2021. ISBN 978-3-030-71249-5. MR 4268536
== References ==
== External links ==
Adriano Garsia at the Mathematics Genealogy Project |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_A._Prather_Award#Recipients | Victor A. Prather Award | The Victor A. Prather Award is an award established by the American Astronautical Society "to promote understanding of high altitude environment on humans." It is awarded to "researchers, engineers and flight crew members in the field of extravehicular protection or activity in space."
The award is in honor of Victor A. Prather, a Naval flight surgeon.
== Recipients ==
Source: American Astronautical Society
1962 – Malcom Davis Ross
1963 – Col. Chuck Yeager
1964 – No award
1965 – Richard S. Johnston
1966 – No award
1967 – No award
1968 – Fred Forbes
1969 – Edward L. Hays and James V. Correale
1970 – Robert E. Smylie and Charles Lutz
1971 – Robert E. Breeding and Leonard Shepard
1972 – Harold I. Johnson
1973 – Walter Guy and Harley Stutesman, Jr.
1974 – Bruce McCandless II and Charles E. Whitsett, Jr.
1975 – David C. Schultz and Harold J. McMann
1976 – Larry E. Bell and Robert M. Bernarndin
1977 – No award
1978 – James W. McBarron II
1979 – Maurice A. Carson and Frederick A. Keune
1980 – No award
1981 – No award
1982 – Wilbert E. Ellis and James M. Waligora
1983 – No award
1984 – Bruce McCandless II
1985 – James D. van Hoften, William F. Fisher, Jerry L. Ross, and Sherwood C. Spring
1986 – Joseph P. Allen
1987 – Joseph J. Kosmo and Hubert C. Vykukal
1988 – Michael Brzezinski
1989 – No award
1990 – Jerry L. Ross
1992 – Kathryn D. Sullivan
1993 – STS-49 Extravehicular Crew: Thomas D. Akers, Pierre J. Thuot, Richard J. Hieb, and Kathryn C. Thornton
1994 – STS-61 Extravehicular Crew: F. Story Musgrave, Thomas D. Akers, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, and Kathryn C. Thornton
1995 – Clifford W. Hess, Scott A. Bleisath, Mark C. Lee
1996 – Willy Z. Sadeh
1997 – Alan M. Rochford
1998 – Guy Severin
1999 – Jerry L. Ross and James H. Newman
2000 – Michael L. Gernhardt
2001 – No award
2002 – G. Allen Flynt
2003 – No award
2004 – No award
2005 – No award
2006 – Scott Crossfield (posthumous) and David Clark (posthumous)
2007 – Curtis A. Stephenson
2008 – Joseph Kittinger
2009 – Joseph A. Ruseckas
2010 – STS-125 EVA Team
2011 – Joseph Kosmo
2012 – Jan Stepanek
2013 – Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos Team
2013 - Award terminated
== See also ==
List of engineering awards
List of medicine awards
List of space technology awards
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristin_Otto | Kristin Otto | Kristin Otto (German pronunciation: [ˈkʁɪstɪn ˈʔɔtoː] ; born 7 February 1966) is a former East German swimmer, becoming Olympic, World and European champion, multiple times. She is most famous for being the first woman to win six gold medals at a single Olympic Games, doing so at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. In long course, she held the world records in the 100 meter and 200 meter freestyle events. Otto was also the first woman to swim the short course 100 meter backstroke in under a minute, doing so at an international short course meet at Indiana University in 1983.
== Career ==
Otto was born in Leipzig, Bezirk Leipzig (present-day Sachsen), East Germany, and began swimming at the age of 11, training in an East German sports academy. At sixteen, she participated in her first world championships, the 1982 World Aquatics Championships, winning the gold medal in the 100 meter backstroke as well as two additional gold medals in the 4×100 m relays with the East German team.
After 1982, Otto changed coaches and began concentrating on other speed strokes. At the following European Championships in 1983, Otto finished second in the 100 meter freestyle, following her fellow East German, Birgit Meineke.
In 1984, Otto set a world record in the 200 meter freestyle. She was expected to win gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, but was unable to compete due to the boycott by 14 Eastern Bloc countries, including East Germany. In 1985 she fractured a vertebra, keeping her from competing for most of the year or to go to the European Championships.
Otto returned to competitive swimming at the 1986 World Championships in Madrid, where she won 4 gold medals (100 m freestyle, 200 m individual medley, 4×100 m medley relay and 4×100 m freestyle relay) and 2 silver medals (50 m freestyle, 100 m butterfly). Her success continued the following year at the 1987 European Championships where she won 5 gold medals.
At the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games she once again was expected to win Olympic gold. She won six gold medals, as well as setting Olympic records in the 50 m freestyle and 100 m butterfly.
Otto retired from swimming in 1989. She currently works as a sports reporter for German television.
She was named the Female World Swimmer of the Year in 1984, 1986 and 1988 by Swimming World. In October 1986, she was awarded a Star of People's Friendship in gold (second class) for her sporting success.
Otto's career was marred by the revelations of widespread performance-enhancing drugs used by East German athletes: former teammate Petra Schneider openly admitted that she had used banned substances. However, Otto stated that she was not aware that she was being doped and she passed all the doping tests during competition, saying: "The medals are the only reminder of how hard I worked. It was not all drugs."
== See also ==
List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women)
List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women)
List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games
List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
== References ==
== External links == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artworks_by_Louise_Bourgeois#Sculpture | List of artworks by Louise Bourgeois | This is a list of individual works of visual art (sculpture, drawings, and paintings) by Louise Bourgeois, sorted by year.
== Sculpture ==
Quarantania (1941). Seven wooden pine elements on a wooden base. 84 3/4 × 31 1/4 × 29 1/4 inches
Paddle Woman (1947). Bronze. 57.75 × 16.25 × 12 inches.
The Three Graces (1947). Bronze, painted white. 81 × 25 × 12 inches.
Persistent Antagonism (1947–1949). Painted wood with metal ring. 68 × 12 × 12 inches. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The Blind Leading the Blind (1947–1949). Bronze, dark patina. 69.25 × 69 × 23 inches.
Untitled (1947–1949). Bronze, painted white and black. 64 × 12 × 12 inches.
Observer (ca. 1947–1949). Painted Wood. 76.5 inches high
Quarantania (1947–1953). Bronze, painted white and blue. 80.5 × 27 × 27 inches.
Sleeping Figure (ca. 1950). Balsa Wood 72.5 × 11.625 × 11.75
Friendly Evidence (ca. 1950). painted wood. 75 inches high
One and Others (1955). Painted and stained wood. 18 5/8 x 20 x 16 7/8 inches
Clutching (1962). Bronze, silver nitrate patina. 12 × 13 × 12 inches.
End of Softness (1967). Bronze, gold patina. 7 × 20.3.75 × 15.25 inches.
Germinal (1967). Bronze, gold patina. 5.625 × 7.375 × 6.25 inches.
Unconscious Landscape (1967–1968). Bronze. 12 × 22 × 24 inches.
Fillette (1968). Latex. Approximately 24 inches long.
Janus in Leather Jacket (1968). Bronze. 12 × 22 × 6.5 inches.
Avenza Revisited II (1968–1969). Bronze, black polished patina. 51.5 × 41 × 75.5 inches.
Le Trani Episode (1971). Bronze, dark patina. 16.5 × 23.125 × 23.25 inches.
Number Seventy-two (The No March) (1972). Marble. 120 × 120 × 84 inches. Storm King Art Center Collection.
Maisons Fragiles (1978). Steel, two units. 84 × 27 × 14 inches & 72 × 27 × 14 inches. Cheim & Read, New York.
Nature Study (1984). Bronze. 47 × 12 × 12 inches.
Nature Study, Eyes (1984). marble, steel and wood. 20 × 45½ × 31½" (50.8 × 115.57 × 80.01 cm). Albright-Knox Art Gallery Collection
She-Fox (1985). Marble. Approximately 6 feet high.
Untitled (Fingers) (1986). Bronze. 4 × 8.5 × 18.5 inches.
Untitled (With Hand) (1989). Pink marble. 31 × 30.5 × 21 inches. Private collection, Jerry Gorovy; New York City.
Curved House (1990). Marble. 14 × 37 × 13 inches. (BOUR-2228) CR# BO.2246.
J'y suis, j'y reste (1990). Pink marble, glass, and metal. 35 × 40.5 × 31 inches. (BOUR-1790) CR# BO.574.
Cove, 1988 (cast 1992). Bronze, 66 x 36 x 20 in. (167.6 x 91.4 x 50.8 cm). Collection Landing, Nasher Sculpture Center.
Cell (Arch of Hysteria) (1992–1993). Steel, bronze, cast iron, and fabric. 119 × 145 × 120 inches. Centro Andaluz de Arte Collection.
Arch of Hysteria (1993). Bronze, polished patina. 84 x 101.5 x 58.5 centimeters.
Helping Hands (Tribute to Jane Addams) (1993) Sculpture Garden - 5 pieces of carved black granite hands that sit on six rough-hewn stone pedestals. Relocated to Chicago Women's Park & Gardens, 1801 S Indiana Ave., Chicago, IL in 2011 | https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/helping-hands-artwork |
Spider (1994). Steel, glass, water, and ink. 44.76 × 77.95 × 64.76 inches. Private collection.
The Nest (1994). Steel. 101 × 189 × 158 inches. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
In and Out (1995). Metal, glass, plaster, fabric, plastic. 83 × 65 × 113 inches. (BOUR-2335) CR# BO.2794.
Spider (1996) Bronze cast with silver nitrate patina. 9 ft. 3 in. x 27 ft. 4 in. x 26 ft. National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden
Untitled (No. 2) (1996). Pink marble on steel base. 26 × 31 × 25 inches. (BOUR-3105) CR# BO.1049. .
"Couple II" (1996), fabric and knee brace. 27 × 60 × 32 inches. Albright-Knox Art Gallery Collection
Eye Benches I, II and III (1996-1997), Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, Washington
Eyes, 1997 (1997), Tjuvholmen Sculpture Park, Oslo, Norway
Pink Days and Blue Days (1997) Steel, fabric, wood, bone, rubber, glass, and mixed media. 117 × 87 × 87 inches
Ears (1998). Pink marble. 39.5 × 28.5 × 72 inches. (BOUR-3424) CR# BO.5179.
Maman (1999). Steel, marble (one unit); bronze, marble (six units). 365 × 351 × 403 inches.
Cell × (Portrait) (2000). Steel, glass, wood, red fabric. 76.75 × 48.25 × 48.25 inches. (BOUR-4278) CR# BO.4201.
Cell XIV (Portrait) (2000). Steel, glass, wood, metal, red fabric. 74 × 48 × 48 inches. (BOUR-4309) CR# BO.4398.
Cell XV (For Turner) (2000). Steel, painted aluminum, mirrors, glass, water, electrical light. 108 × 120 × 68 inches. (BOUR-3259) CR# BO.4399.
Mamelles (2000). Pink marble. 27 × 114 × 29.5 inches. (BOUR-4043) CR# BO.6723.
Temper Tantrum (2000). Pink fabric. 9 × 13 × 20 inches. (BOUR-4284) CR# BO.4216.
Cell XXIV (Portrait) (2001). Steel, stainless steel, glass, wood, fabric. 70 × 42 × 42 inches. (BOUR-4480) CR# BO.5493.
Cell XXV(The View of the World of the Jealous Wife) (2001). Steel, wood, marble, glass, fabric. 100 × 120 × 120 inches. (BOUR-4728) CR# BO.5680.
Rejection (2001). Fabric, lead, steel. 25 × 13 × 12 inches. (BOUR-4588) CR# BO.5497.
Eyes (nine elements) (2001). Williams College Museum of Art.
Seven in a Bed (2001). Fabric, stainless steel, glass, wood. 68 × 33.5 × 34.5 inches. (BOUR-5005) CR# BO.6002.
Untitled (2001). Fabric, steel. 11 × 27 × 21 inches. (BOUR-4746) CR# BO.5686.
Untitled (2001). Blue and purple fabric, steel. 85 × 12 × 12 inches. (BOUR-4731) CR# BO.5687.
Untitled (2001). Rust and tan fabric, steel. 106 × 23 × 16 inches. BOUR-4732) CR# BO.5688.
Untitled (2002). Fabric, steel, wood. 14 × 15 × 6 inches. (BOUR-5386) CR# BO.6766.
Untitled (2002). Tapestry fabric, stainless steel. 74.5 × 15 × 12 inches. (BOUR-5637) CR# BO.7400.
Untitled (2002). Fabric, aluminum. 12 × 12 × 12 inches. (BOUR-5812) CR# BO.7996.
Untitled (2002). Pink marble. 10 × 36.25 × 16.5 inches. (BOUR-5347) CR# BO.8272.
Crouching Spider (2003). Bronze and stainless steel. 106½ × 329 × 247 inches (270.5 × 835.6 × 627.3 cm).
Father and Son (2005). Water, steel, aluminum, bronze. 6 feet tall and 5 feet tall figures in a fountain. Installed in Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, Washington
== Drawings ==
Femme Maison (1947). Ink on paper. 9.92 × 7.09 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 92.4008 .
Spider (1947). Ink, charcoal on tan paper. 11.25 × 7.5 inches. Private collection.
Untitled (1947). Pencil and red ink on tan paper. 11.5 × 9 inches. (BOUR-0839) CR# BO.4721.
Untitled (1947). Ink on tan paper. 11.25 × 8.25 inches. (BOUR-0841) CR# BO.4723.
Untitled (1950). Ink on tan paper. 20.25 × 13 inches. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum
Untitled (1970). Ink and collage on paper. 8.5 × 11 inches. (BOUR-0590) CR# BO.2868.
Naked Jogging (1996). Red ink on paper. 11.625 × 9 inches. (BOUR-5597) CR# BO.8151.
Father and Son (1997). Ink and pencil on paper. 9 × 11.875. (BOUR-5434) CR# BO.6862.
Swing over the Metronome (1997). Ink and crayon on paper. 13 × 10 inches. (BOUR-5873) CR# BO.8163.
Untitled (1997). Ink, watercolor, and pencil on paper. 12 × 9 inches. (BOUR-5883) CR# BO.8165.
Untitled (1997). Double-sided, recto: watercolor, oilstick, and pencil on paper; verso: ink and pencil on music paper. 8.5 × 11 inches. (BOUR-5427) CR# BO.6855.
Untitled (1997). Ink, crayon, pencil, and white out on paper. 11.75 × 9 inches. (BOUR-5614) CR# BO.8156.
Hold My Bones (1998). Pencil and gouache on red paper. 12.75 × 12.75 inches. (BOUR-5879) CR# BO.8164.
J'aime bien mes amis et mon mari (1998). Red ink and pencil on paper. 9 × 12 inches. (BOUR-5607) CR# BO.8154.
Untitled (2002). Red ink and pencil on paper. 12 × 9 inches. (BOUR-5760) CR# BO.7450.
Untitled (2002). Red ink on paper. 9 × 12 inches. (BOUR-5758) CR# BO.7448.
Untitled (2002). Crayon and colored pencil on paper. 12 × 18.75 inches. (BOUR-5786) CR# BO.8157.
Untitled (2002). Red ink and pencil on paper. 9 × 11.625 inches. (BOUR-5556) CR# BO.8138.
Untitled (2002). Red ink and colored pencil on paper. 13.25 × 9.5 inches. (BOUR-5926) CR# BO.8168.
Yes (2004). Soft-ground etching, reworked with watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil: sheet, 22 5/8 × 21 1/2 inches. Edition of 12
Spider Woman (2005). Drypoint: plate, 6 7/8 × 9 1/2 inches; sheet, 13 1/2 × 13 1/2 inches. Edition of 25
Spiral Woman (2006). Double-sided soft-ground etching with watercolor, gouache, crayon, and graphite: plate, 6 × 6 5/8 inches; sheet, 10 13/16 × 14 3/4 inches. Unique
Untitled (1946). Oil, charcoal, and pastel on canvas. 36 × 24.125 inches. (BOUR-2703) CR# BO.1523.
Untitled (1946). Oil and chalk on canvas. 44 × 22 inches. (BOUR-0031) CR# BO.1515.
Regrettable Incident in the Louvre Palace (1947). Oil on canvas. 14.125 × 36 inches. (BOUR-0800) CR# BO.7908.
It Is Six Fifteen (1946–1948). Oil on canvas. 36 × 24 inches. (BOUR-0028) CR# BO.519.
Woman in Process of Placing a Beam in Her Bag (1948). Oil on canvas. 44 × 25.75 inches. (BOUR-0026) CR# BO.1514.
Spider (1994). Watercolor and gouache on paper. 11.5 × 11.75 inches. Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne.
Maternal Man, 2008 Archival dyes on fabric 48 × 32 1/2 in 121.9 × 82.6 cm.
== Paintings ==
== Other ==
The Destruction of the Father (1974). Assemblage.
I do, I undo, I redo (2000). Steel. Installation at Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London.
The Damned, The Possessed and The Beloved (2011). Architectural installation for the Steilneset Memorial monument in Vardø, Norway.
== Notes and references == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio_Flamigni#:~:text=Sergio%20Flamigni%20(born%2022%20October,and%20on%20the%20Italian%20Mafia. | Sergio Flamigni | Sergio Flamigni (22 October 1925 – 10 December 2025) was an Italian politician and writer. A member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), he took part in the Italian Parliament's investigative commissions on the murder of Aldo Moro, the Propaganda Due scandal, and the Italian Mafia.
== Life and career ==
Flamigni was born in Forlì on 22 October 1925. He began his political activity in 1941, as a member of a clandestine group of young anti-fascists in his hometown, and subsequently entered the Communist Party of Italy. In 1943 he was named secretary of the communist youth movement in Forlì and became a member of the party's clandestine committee in the city. He fought as partisan in the Italian resistance movement against the German occupation.
In 1952, Flamigni was appointed secretary of CGIL (Italy's left-wing main trade union) in Forlì, and later he became secretary of the local section of PCI. In 1959, he was elected into the party's national central committee, and in the following year regional coordinator for Emilia-Romagna. He was also a member of the city council of Forlì from 1956 to 1960, and of the provincial council from 1960 until 1964.
Flamigni was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1968, remaining a member until 1979, when he became an Italian Senator. Flamigni worked in the Italian Parliament's commissions on mafia, the kidnapping of Aldo Moro and the Propaganda Due secret lodge, and wrote several books about these arguments.
== Death ==
Flamigni died on 10 December 2025, at the age of 100.
== Works ==
La resistenza in Romagna (with Luciano Marzocchi, 1969)
Sicurezza democratica e lotta alla criminalità (with Malagugini, Perna, Spagnoli, Terracini; 1975)
Gastone Sozzi e il Partito Comunista in Romagna (1980)
La tela del ragno. Il delitto Moro (1988; 5th edition 2003)
Trame atlantiche. Storia della Loggia massonica segreta P2 (1996; second edition 2005)
«Il mio sangue ricadrà su di loro». Gli scritti di Aldo Moro prigioniero delle Br (1997)
Convergenze parallele. Le Brigate rosse, i servizi segreti e il delitto Moro (1998)
Il covo di Stato. Via Gradoli 96 e il delitto Moro (1999)
I fantasmi del passato. La carriera politica di Francesco Cossiga (2001)
La sfinge delle Brigate Rosse. Delitti, segreti e bugie del capo terrorista Mario Moretti (2004)
Dossier Pecorelli (2004)
Le idi di marzo. Il delitto Moro secondo Mino Pecorelli (2006)
Il sequestro di verità. I buchi neri del delitto Moro (with Roberto Bartali, Giuseppe De Lutiis, Ilaria Moroni, Lorenzo Ruggiero; 2008)
== External links ==
Biography at Italian Partisans National Association (in Italian)
Website with the archives collected by Sergio Flamigni on the Moro affair, Propaganda 2 and mafia (in Italian)
Italian Parliament Page
Italian Senate Page
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmolive_Beauty_Box_Theater#:~:text=Palmolive%20Beauty%20Box%20Theater%20was,%2C%20to%20October%206%2C%201937. | Palmolive Beauty Box Theater | Palmolive Beauty Box Theater was an American radio program that featured an operetta or other musical each week from April 24, 1934, to October 6, 1937. It was sponsored by Palmolive soap and produced by Bill Bacher.
Nathaniel Shilkret directed the orchestra through July 1935, for a total of 70 broadcasts. Announcer Tiny Ruffner introduced "the Palmolive Players, with John Barclay as director and leading man." In addition, there were well known guest stars, with Gladys Swarthout appearing frequently.
== Productions ==
Productions included The Chocolate Soldier, Carmen, The Mikado, and Hit the Deck. A complete list of performances through July 1935 is in the archival edition of the Shilkret autobiography. Dunning wrote that the initial run "was a huge success, drawing an estimated 25 million people in its first year and tapering off sharply thereafter." A picture of Shilkret on page 12 of the November 1934 Radio Stars has the caption, "Nathaniel Shilkret, orchestra director of the Palmolive Beauty Box Theatre, the program that ranks first"; and this was the only program the magazine rated as five stars. As of April 1935, Radio Stars ranked the Palmolive Beauty Box as third and rated it four stars. Five broadcasts are in the Shilkret archives, and Hickerson reports that the Christmas 1934 broadcast is also extant.
Shilkret ended 20 years as a RCA Victor musician and executive in New York in mid-1935 to become a musical director and head of the music department at RKO Radio Pictures in Hollywood, thus ending his affiliation with the Palmolive Beauty Box program.
== 1937 finale ==
Al Goodman was the musical director for Palmolive Beauty Box’s remaining two years. The format remained the same, except that in 1937 the length of the show was cut from 60 to 38 minutes, seriously eroding its quality. In 1937, the show switched from NBC Radio to CBS Radio. Jessica Dragonette starred on the show in 1937. Her agreement to appear on the Palmolive program ended her seven-year stint as star of the Cities Service Concerts on NBC and adversely affected her career as a radio star.
== See also ==
The Palmolive Hour (1927-1931)
== References ==
== External links ==
Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs: Palmolive Beauty Box Theater |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson#Early_life | Lyndon B. Johnson | Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963. A Southern Democrat, Johnson previously represented Texas in Congress for over 23 years, first as a U.S. representative from 1937 to 1949, and then as a U.S. senator from 1949 to 1961.
Born in Stonewall, Texas, Johnson worked as a teacher and a congressional aide before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937. In 1948, he was controversially declared the winner in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate election in Texas before winning the general election. He became Senate majority whip in 1951, Senate Democratic leader in 1953 and majority leader in 1954. Senator Kennedy bested Johnson and his other rivals for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination before surprising many by offering to make Johnson his vice presidential running mate. The Kennedy–Johnson ticket won the general election. Vice President Johnson assumed the presidency in 1963, after President Kennedy was assassinated. The following year, Johnson won reelection to the presidency in a landslide, winning the largest share of the popular vote for the Democratic Party in history, and the highest for any candidate since the advent of widespread popular elections in the 1820s.
Johnson's Great Society was aimed at expanding civil rights, public broadcasting, access to health care, aid to education and the arts, urban and rural development, consumer protection, environmentalism, and public services. He sought to create better living conditions for low-income Americans by spearheading the war on poverty. As part of these efforts, Johnson signed the Social Security Amendments of 1965, which resulted in the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Johnson made the Apollo program a national priority; enacted the Higher Education Act of 1965 which established federally insured student loans; and signed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which laid the groundwork for U.S. immigration policy today. Johnson's civil rights legacy was shaped by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Due to his domestic agenda, Johnson's presidency marked the peak of modern American liberalism in the 20th century. Johnson's foreign policy prioritized containment of communism, including in the ongoing Vietnam War.
Johnson began his presidency with near-universal support, but his approval declined throughout his presidency as the public became frustrated with both the Vietnam War and domestic unrest, including race riots, increasing public skepticism with his reports and policies (coined the credibility gap), and increasing crime. Johnson initially sought to run for re-election in 1968; however, following disappointing results in the New Hampshire primary, he withdrew his candidacy. Johnson retired to his Texas ranch and kept a low public profile until he died in 1973. Public opinion and academic assessments of Johnson's legacy have fluctuated greatly. Historians and scholars rank Johnson in the upper tier for his accomplishments regarding domestic policy. His administration passed many major laws that made substantial changes in civil rights, health care, welfare, and education. Conversely, Johnson is heavily criticized for his foreign policy, namely escalating American involvement in the Vietnam War.
== Early life ==
Lyndon Baines Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, near Stonewall, Texas, in a small farmhouse on the Pedernales River. He was the eldest of five children born to Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. and Rebekah Baines. Johnson was not given a name until he was three months old, as his parents could not agree on a name that both liked. Finally, he was named after "criminal lawyer—a county lawyer" W. C. Linden, who his father liked; his mother agreed on the condition of spelling it as Lyndon. Johnson had one brother, Sam Houston Johnson, and three sisters, Rebekah, Josefa, and Lucia. Through his mother, he was a great-grandson of Baptist clergyman George Washington Baines.
Johnson's paternal grandfather, Samuel Ealy Johnson Sr., was raised Baptist and for a time was a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In his later years, Samuel Sr. became a Christadelphian; Samuel Jr. also joined the Christadelphian Church toward the end of his life. Johnson was influenced in his positive attitude toward Jews by the religious beliefs that his family, especially his grandfather, had shared with him.
Johnson grew up poor, with his father losing a great deal of money. Biographer Robert Caro described him as being raised "in a land without electricity, where the soil was so rocky that it was hard to earn a living from it."
In school, Johnson was a talkative youth who was elected president of his 11th-grade class. He graduated in 1924 from Johnson City High School, where he participated in public speaking, debate, and baseball. At 15, Johnson was the youngest in his class. Pressured by his parents to attend college, he enrolled at a "sub college" of Southwest Texas State Teachers College (SWTSTC) in the summer of 1924, where students from unaccredited high schools could take the 12th-grade courses needed for admission to college. He left the school just weeks after his arrival and decided to move to California. He worked at his cousin's legal practice and in odd jobs before returning to Texas, where he worked as a day laborer.
In 1926, Johnson enrolled at SWTSTC. He worked his way through school, participated in debate and campus politics, and edited the school newspaper, The College Star. The college years refined his skills of persuasion and political organization. For nine months, from 1928 to 1929, Johnson paused his studies to teach Mexican–American children at the segregated Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas, 90 miles (140 km) south of San Antonio. The job helped him to save money to complete his education, and he graduated in 1930 with a Bachelor of Science in history and his certificate of qualification as a high school teacher. He briefly taught at Pearsall High School in Pearsall, Texas before taking a position teaching public speaking at Sam Houston High School in Houston.
When he returned to San Marcos in 1965, after signing the Higher Education Act of 1965, Johnson reminisced:
I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American.
== Entry into politics ==
After Richard M. Kleberg won a 1931 special election to represent Texas in the United States House of Representatives, he appointed Johnson as his legislative secretary. This marked Johnson's formal introduction to politics. Johnson secured the position on the recommendation of his father and that of state senator Welly Hopkins, for whom Johnson had campaigned in 1930. Kleberg had little interest in the day-to-day duties of a Congressman, instead delegating them to Johnson. After Franklin D. Roosevelt won the 1932 U.S. presidential election, Johnson became a lifelong supporter of Roosevelt's New Deal. Johnson was elected speaker of the "Little Congress", a group of Congressional aides, where he cultivated Congressmen, newspapermen, and lobbyists. Johnson's friends soon included aides to President Roosevelt as well as fellow Texans such as vice president John Nance Garner and congressman Sam Rayburn.
In 1935, Johnson was hired as Texas state administrator of the National Youth Administration (NYA). The job allowed him to travel around Texas seeking financial sponsors for NYA construction projects. Within six months, 18,000 young Texans were working on roads, parks, schools, and other public buildings. He resigned two years later to run for Congress. A notoriously tough boss, Johnson often demanded long workdays and work on weekends. He was described by friends, fellow politicians, and historians as motivated by lust for power and control. As Caro observes, "Johnson's ambition was uncommon – in the degree to which it was unencumbered by even the slightest excess weight of ideology, of philosophy, of principles, of beliefs."
== U.S. House of Representatives (1937–1949) ==
In 1937, after the death of 13-term congressman James P. Buchanan, Johnson successfully campaigned in a special election for Texas's 10th congressional district, which included Austin and the surrounding Texas Hill Country. He ran on a New Deal platform and was effectively aided by his wife. He served as a U.S. Representative from April 10, 1937, to January 3, 1949. President Roosevelt found Johnson to be a political ally and conduit for information, particularly regarding the internal politics of Texas and the machinations of Vice President John Nance Garner and House Speaker Sam Rayburn. As a member of the House Naval Affairs Committee, Johnson helped plan a huge naval air training base at Corpus Christi, Texas. He also helped establish shipbuilding sites at Houston and Orange, Texas; and a Navy Reserve station in Dallas.
Johnson successfully sponsored many federal projects for his home district. One was a program that provided cheap electricity for farmers under the new Rural Electrification Administration (REA), and he secured approval to complete the hydroelectric Mansfield Dam on the Colorado River near Austin. He also sponsored projects that gave his Texas district soil conservation, public housing, lower railroad freight rates, and expanded credit for loans to farmers. He steered the projects towards contractors he knew, such as Herman and George Brown, who financed much of Johnson's future career.
During this time Johnson maintained a hostile position towards civil rights legislation like almost all other Southern Democrat legislators; voting against anti-lynching legislation, anti-poll tax legislation and the Fair Employment Practice Committee.
=== 1941 U.S. Senate election ===
In April 1941, U.S. Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas died, triggering a special election. Texas law allowed Johnson to run without giving up his House seat. The election had no primaries or runoff, forcing Johnson to compete against multiple Democrats, including Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel.
Johnson campaigned aggressively, emphasizing his ties to President Roosevelt, and initially appeared to be leading. However, after late returns came in, O'Daniel narrowly won by 1,311 votes. In The Path to Power, Johnson biographer Robert Caro argues that the election results were manipulated in O'Daniel's favor by lobbyists from Texas' alcohol industry. O'Daniel was a staunch prohibitionist, and as Governor, he had proposed a bill preventing the sale of alcohol within ten miles of a military base; Caro notes how business interests feared the passing of this bill, as preparations for World War II had brought thousands of young soldiers into the region. To prevent the passing of this bill, lobbyists sought to elect O'Daniel to the Senate to place the "wet" lieutenant governor Coke Stevenson in the governorship, and hence rigged ballots in East Texas, swinging the election in O'Daniel's favor. Johnson ultimately lost by just 0.23% of the vote.
Though defeated, Johnson retained his House seat and political network, including support from South Texas political boss George Berham Parr. When O'Daniel declined to seek re-election in 1948, Johnson prepared for another Senate run, this time carefully managing vote tallies. He would go on to win the 1948 Democratic primary by just 87 votes.
=== Active military duty (1941–1942) ===
Johnson was a member of the U.S. Naval Reserve when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Two days after the attack, he requested an indefinite leave of absence and applied for active duty, making him one of the first members of Congress to volunteer for an active military role.
Johnson was first ordered to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations to assess the production and manpower problems that were slowing the manufacture of ships and planes. In May 1942, he was appointed President Roosevelt's personal representative to the Navy and was sent on a survey mission of the Pacific theater of combat. Stationed in Australia and New Zealand, it was his duty to find the underreported problems facing U.S. troops in the Pacific and report this firsthand information to Roosevelt.
On June 9, 1942, Johnson received the Silver Star from General Douglas MacArthur for gallantry in action during an aerial combat mission over hostile positions in New Guinea. Though accounts differ, Johnson's aircraft, a B-26 bomber, reportedly turned back before reaching the target due to mechanical trouble. Johnson's biographer Robert Caro was quoted as saying "I think that the weight of the evidence at this moment is that the plane was attacked by Zeroes and that he was cool under fire", but also "The fact is, LBJ never got within sight of Japanese forces. His combat experience was a myth."
Johnson served in the Pacific through July 1942. He was released from his military active duty after President Roosevelt recalled all active duty legislators back to Washington, D.C. In addition to the Silver Star, Johnson received the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.
== U.S. Senate (1949–1961) ==
=== 1948 U.S. Senate election ===
In 1948, Johnson again ran for the U.S. Senate and won the general election after being declared winner in a highly controversial Democratic Party primary election against the well-known former governor Coke Stevenson. Johnson drew crowds to fairgrounds with his rented Sikorsky S-51 helicopter, dubbed "The Johnson City Windmill". He raised money to flood the state with campaign circulars and won over conservatives by casting doubts on Stevenson's support for the Taft–Hartley Act (curbing union power). Stevenson came in first in the primary but lacked a majority, so a runoff election was held; Johnson campaigned harder, while Stevenson's efforts slumped due to a lack of funds.
The runoff vote count, handled by the Democratic State Central Committee, took a week. Johnson was announced the winner by 87 votes out of 988,295, an extremely narrow margin. However, Johnson's victory was based on 200 "patently fraudulent" ballots reported six days after the election from Box 13 in Jim Wells County, in an area dominated by political boss George Parr. The added names were in alphabetical order and written with the same pen and handwriting, at the end of the list of voters. Some on this part of the list insisted that they had not voted that day. Election judge Luis Salas said in 1977 that he had certified 202 fraudulent ballots, 200 for Johnson, and two for Stevenson. Robert Caro made the case in his 1990 book that Johnson had stolen the election in Jim Wells County, and that there were thousands of fraudulent votes in other counties as well, including 10,000 votes switched in San Antonio. The Democratic State Central Committee voted to certify Johnson's nomination by a majority of one (29–28). The state Democratic convention upheld Johnson. Stevenson went to court, eventually taking his case before the U.S. Supreme Court, but with timely help from his friend and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, Johnson prevailed on the basis that jurisdiction over naming a nominee rested with the party, not the federal government. Johnson soundly defeated Republican Jack Porter in the general election in November and went to Washington, permanently dubbed "Landslide Lyndon". Johnson, dismissive of his critics, happily adopted the nickname.
=== Freshman senator to majority whip ===
During his two terms in the Senate, Johnson drifted rightward. He felt he had to tread carefully lest he offend politically powerful conservative oil and gas interests in Texas, and in part to curry favor with the chamber's powerful southern chairmen, most notably Senator Richard Russell, Democrat from Georgia and leader of the Southern Caucus within the conservative coalition that dominated the Senate. With Russell's support, Johnson won election as Democratic whip in 1951, serving in this capacity until 1953. While serving as whip, Johnson increased his ability to persuade people to reach agreement.
As a member of the Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Johnson was chairman of the Senate subcommittee that refused the re-nomination of Leland Olds—who was opposed by Texas oil and gas interests—as chairman of the Federal Power Commission (FPC) on the grounds that he had been sympathetic towards communism. As a member of the FPC, Olds had played a key role in the development of federal regulation of the natural gas industry.
President Truman favored federal control of tidelands oil deposits off the Texas coast. Privately, Johnson told friends that he favored federal control, but in public he staunchly defended states' rights. In 1951–52, Johnson helped pass bills granting 47 states control over 3 miles of offshore lands and Texas, 10.5 miles. Truman vetoed the bills, calling them "robbery in broad daylight".
Johnson was appointed to the Senate Armed Services Committee, and became increasingly concerned with the country's military preparedness in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. He became chairman of the Senate Preparedness Investigating Subcommittee, and conducted investigations of defense costs and efficiency. After the Korean War began in 1950, he called for more troops and for improved weapons. Biographer Caro wrote that Johnson was obsessed with having all subcommittee reports be unanimous, maneuvering frequently to gain the backing of all the Republicans. He used his political influence in the Senate to receive broadcast licenses from the Federal Communications Commission in his wife's name.
=== Senate Democratic leader ===
In the 1952 elections, Republicans won a majority in both the House and Senate. In January 1953, Johnson was chosen by his fellow Democrats as Senate Minority Leader; he became the most junior senator ever elected to this position. He reformed the seniority system so that Democratic senators, including freshmen, were more likely to receive a committee assignment that closely aligned with their expertise rather than an assignment based solely on their seniority.
==== Senate Majority Leader ====
In 1954, Johnson was re-elected to the Senate and, with Democrats winning the majority in the Senate, he became majority leader. President Dwight D. Eisenhower found Johnson more cooperative than the Senate Republican leader, William F. Knowland of California. Particularly on foreign policy, Johnson offered bipartisan support to the president.
Historians Caro and Dallek consider Johnson the most effective Senate majority leader ever. He was unusually proficient at gathering information. One biographer suggests he was "the greatest intelligence gatherer Washington has ever known", discovering exactly where every senator stood on issues, his philosophy and prejudices, his strengths and weaknesses, and what it took to get his vote. Bobby Baker claimed that Johnson would occasionally send senators on NATO trips so they were absent and unable to cast dissenting votes. Central to Johnson's control was "The Treatment", described by two journalists:
The Treatment could last ten minutes or four hours. It came, enveloping its target, at the Johnson Ranch swimming pool, in one of Johnson's offices, in the Senate cloakroom, on the floor of the Senate itself – wherever Johnson might find a fellow Senator within his reach.
Its tone could be supplication, accusation, cajolery, exuberance, scorn, tears, complaint, and the hint of threat. It was all of these together. It ran the gamut of human emotions. Its velocity was breathtaking and it was all in one direction. Interjections from the target were rare. Johnson anticipated them before they could be spoken. He moved in close, his face a scant millimeter from his target, his eyes widening and narrowing, his eyebrows rising and falling. From his pockets poured clippings, memos, statistics. Mimicry, humor, and the genius of analogy made The Treatment an almost hypnotic experience and rendered the target stunned and helpless.
In 1956, during the Suez Crisis, Johnson tried to prevent the U.S. government from criticizing Israel for its invasion of the Sinai Peninsula. Along with much of the rest of the nation, Johnson was appalled by the threat of possible Soviet domination of space exploration implied by the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, and used his influence to ensure passage of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, which established NASA. Johnson helped establish the Senate Aeronautical and Space Committee, and made himself its first chairman.
During his tenure as Majority Leader, Johnson did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto, and shepherded the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 to passage—the first civil rights bills to pass Congress since the Enforcement Acts and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 during Reconstruction. Johnson negotiated a middle course between Northern liberal senators and the Southern bloc of senators who had opposed such legislation by removing key enforcement provisions, such as Title III, which authorized the attorney general to initiate civil action for preventive relief in a wide range of civil rights matters. Being a Southerner was seen as an impossible barrier for a presidential candidate and towards the end of his Senate career as well as not signing the Southern Manifesto, he distanced himself further from the Southern Caucus in 1959 by joining the Democrat's Western regional conference.
== Campaigns of 1960 ==
In 1960, Johnson's success in the Senate rendered him a potential Democratic presidential candidate. James H. Rowe repeatedly urged Johnson to launch a campaign in early 1959, but Johnson thought it was better to wait, thinking that Senator John F. Kennedy's candidacy would create a division in the ranks that could then be exploited. Johnson's strategy was to sit out the primaries and to rely on his legislative record as Senate Majority Leader, the support of Southern Democrats, and the favors owed by Democratic senators to him and by Democratic representatives to his close ally Sam Rayburn, the Speaker of the House.
In July 1960, Johnson finally entered the campaign. Johnson's late entry, coupled with his reluctance to leave Washington, D.C., allowed rival John F. Kennedy to secure a substantial early lead in securing support from Democratic state party officials. Johnson underestimated Kennedy's endearing charm and intelligence in comparison to his perceived crude and wheeling-dealing "Landslide Lyndon" style. Caro suggests that Johnson's hesitancy to enter the race resulted from his fear of losing.
Johnson attempted in vain to capitalize on Kennedy's youth, poor health, and failure to take a position regarding McCarthyism. He had formed a "Stop Kennedy" coalition with Adlai Stevenson, Stuart Symington, and Hubert Humphrey, but it proved a failure. Despite Johnson having the support of established Democrats and the party leadership, this did not translate into popular approval. Johnson received 409 votes on the only ballot at the Democratic convention to Kennedy's 806, and so the convention nominated Kennedy. Tip O'Neill was a representative from Kennedy's home state of Massachusetts at that time, and he recalled that Johnson approached him at the convention and said, "Tip, I know you have to support Kennedy at the start, but I'd like to have you with me on the second ballot." O'Neill replied, "Senator, there's not going to be any second ballot."
=== Vice presidential nomination ===
After much discussion with party leaders and others, Kennedy offered Johnson the vice presidential nomination at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel on July 14, the morning after Kennedy was nominated, and Johnson accepted. From that point to the actual nomination that evening, several facts are in dispute, including whether convention chairman LeRoy Collins' had the two-thirds majority required to begin the convention's proceedings. Kennedy's choice of Johnson as his running mate was intended to attract Southern votes. Kennedy was a liberal Bostonian and a Roman Catholic. Johnson was more conservative, a Southerner, and a member of the Disciples of Christ. Nevertheless, labor leaders were unanimous in their opposition to Johnson. AFL-CIO president George Meany called Johnson "the arch-foe of labor", and Illinois AFL-CIO president Reuben Soderstrom asserted Kennedy had "made chumps out of leaders of the American labor movement".
=== Re-election to U.S. Senate ===
At the same time as his vice presidential run, Johnson also sought a third term in the U.S. Senate. According to Robert Caro: Johnson won an election for both the vice presidency of the United States, on the Kennedy–Johnson ticket, and for a third term as senator (he had Texas law changed to allow him to run for both offices). When he won the vice presidency, he made arrangements to resign from the Senate, as he was required to do under federal law, as soon as it convened on January 3, 1961. Johnson was re-elected senator with 1,306,605 votes (58 percent) to Republican John Tower's 927,653 (41.1 percent). Fellow Democrat William A. Blakley was appointed to replace Johnson, but lost a special election in May 1961 to Tower.
== Vice presidency (1961–1963) ==
After the election, Johnson was concerned about the traditionally ineffective nature of his new office and sought authority not allotted to him as vice president. He initially sought a transfer of the authority of Senate majority leader to the vice presidency, since that office made him president of the Senate, but faced vehement opposition from the Democratic Caucus, including members whom he had counted as his supporters.
Johnson sought to increase his influence within the executive branch. He drafted an executive order for Kennedy's signature, granting Johnson "general supervision" over matters of national security, and requiring all government agencies to "cooperate fully with the vice president in the carrying out of these assignments". Kennedy's response was to sign a non-binding letter requesting Johnson to "review" national security policies instead. Kennedy similarly turned down early requests from Johnson to be given an office adjacent to the Oval Office and to employ a full-time staff within the White House. In 1961, Kennedy appointed Johnson's friend Sarah T. Hughes to a federal judgeship. Johnson tried but failed to have Hughes nominated at the beginning of his vice presidency. House Speaker Sam Rayburn wangled the appointment from Kennedy in exchange for support of an administration bill.
With the exception of Kennedy himself, other members of the Kennedy White House were openly contemptuous of Johnson, including the president's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and they ridiculed his comparatively brusque and crude manner. Then Congressman Tip O'Neill recalled that the Kennedy staffers "had a disdain for Johnson that they didn't even try to hide.... They actually took pride in snubbing him."
Kennedy made efforts to keep Johnson busy and informed, telling aides, "I can't afford to have my vice president, who knows every reporter in Washington, going around saying we're all screwed up, so we're going to keep him happy." Kennedy appointed him to jobs such as the head of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities, where Johnson worked with African Americans and other minorities. Kennedy may have intended this to remain a nominal position, but Taylor Branch contends in his book Pillar of Fire that Johnson pushed the Kennedy administration's actions further and faster for civil rights than Kennedy originally intended.
Johnson went on multiple minor diplomatic missions, which gave him some insights into global issues and opportunities for self-promotion. During his visit to West Berlin on August 19–20, 1961, Johnson sought to calm Berliners who were outraged by the building of the Berlin Wall. He also attended Cabinet and National Security Council meetings. Kennedy gave Johnson control over all presidential appointments involving Texas, and appointed him chairman of the President's Ad Hoc Committee for Science.
Kennedy also appointed Johnson Chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council. The Soviets beat the United States with the first crewed spaceflight in April 1961, and Kennedy gave Johnson the task of evaluating the U.S. space program and recommending a project that would allow the United States to catch up or beat the Soviets. Johnson recommended that the United States gain the leadership role by committing to landing an American on the Moon in the 1960s. Kennedy assigned priority to the space program, but Johnson's appointment provided cover in case of a failure.
In August 1963, Johnson was touched by a Senate scandal when Bobby Baker, the Secretary to the Majority Leader of the Senate and a protégé of Johnson's, came under investigation by the Senate Rules Committee for alleged bribery and financial malfeasance. One witness alleged that Baker arranged for the witness to give kickbacks for the Vice President. Baker resigned in October, and the investigation did not expand to Johnson. The negative publicity, however, fed rumors in Washington circles that Kennedy was planning on dropping Johnson from the Democratic ticket in the 1964 presidential election. However, on October 31, 1963, a reporter asked if he intended and expected to retain Johnson on the ticket. Kennedy replied, "Yes to both those questions." There is little doubt that Robert Kennedy and Johnson hated each other, yet John and Robert Kennedy agreed that dropping Johnson from the ticket could produce heavy losses in the South.
== Presidency (1963–1969) ==
=== Succession ===
President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Later that day, Johnson took the presidential oath of office aboard Air Force One. Cecil Stoughton's iconic photograph of Johnson taking the oath of office as Mrs. Kennedy looks on is the most famous photo ever taken aboard a presidential aircraft. Johnson was sworn in by District Court judge Sarah T. Hughes and is to date the only president in U.S. history to be sworn in by a woman.
Johnson was convinced of the need to make an immediate show of transition of power after the assassination to provide stability to a grieving nation. He and the Secret Service, not knowing whether the assassin acted alone or as part of a broader conspiracy, felt compelled to return rapidly to Washington, D.C.; this was greeted by some with assertions that he was in too much haste to assume power. In response to the public demand for answers and the growing number of conspiracy theories, Johnson established a commission headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, known as the Warren Commission, to investigate Kennedy's assassination. The commission conducted research and hearings and unanimously concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination. Although Johnson publicly supported the findings of the Warren Commission, privately he expressed skepticism of its conclusions. In 1967 he told his advisor W. Marvin Watson that he was convinced the CIA was in some way involved in the assassination, and shortly before his death, he told his speechwriter Leo Janos "I never believed that Oswald acted alone, although I can accept that he pulled the trigger".
When Johnson assumed office, he asked the existing Cabinet to remain in place. Despite his notoriously poor relationship with Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy stayed on as Attorney General until September 1964, when he resigned to run for the U.S. Senate. Four of the Kennedy cabinet members Johnson inherited—Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman, and Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz—served until the end of Johnson's presidency. Other Kennedy holdovers, including Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, left office during Johnson's tenure. Although Johnson had no official chief of staff, Walter Jenkins presided over daily operations at the White House. George Reedy, who was Johnson's second-longest-serving aide, assumed the post of press secretary when John F. Kennedy's own Pierre Salinger left that post in March 1964. Horace Busby served primarily as a speechwriter and political analyst. Bill Moyers handled scheduling and speechwriting part-time.
=== Taxation and budget ===
The new president thought it advantageous to quickly pursue one of Kennedy's primary legislative goals—a tax cut. Johnson worked closely with Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia to negotiate a reduction in the budget below $100 billion in exchange for what became overwhelming Senate approval of the Revenue Act of 1964. The act cut individual income tax rates across the board by approximately 20 percent, cut the top marginal tax rate from 91 to 70 percent, and slightly reduced corporate tax rates. Passage of the long-stalled tax cut facilitated efforts to move ahead on civil rights legislation. Despite a period of strong economic growth, heavy spending on the Vietnam War and on domestic programs contributed to a rising budget deficit, as well as a period of inflation that would continue into the 1970s. To counter this, Johnson reluctantly signed a second tax bill, the Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968, which included a mix of tax increases and spending cuts, producing a budget surplus.
=== Civil Rights Act of 1964 ===
On November 27, 1963, Johnson delivered his "Let Us Continue" speech to Congress, saying that "No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the Civil Rights Bill for which he fought so long." The wave of national grief following the assassination gave enormous momentum to Johnson's promise to carry out Kennedy's plans.
Johnson asked Robert Kennedy to spearhead the undertaking on Capitol Hill. This provided adequate political cover for Johnson should the effort fail, but if it were successful, Johnson would receive ample credit. Biographer Caro notes that the bill Kennedy had submitted was facing the same tactics that prevented the passage of civil rights bills in the past: Southern congressmen and senators used congressional procedure to prevent it from coming to a vote. In particular, they held up all of the major bills Kennedy had proposed and that were considered urgent, especially the tax reform bill, to force the bill's supporters to pull it. For Johnson's civil rights bill to reach the House floor for a vote, the president needed to find a way to circumvent Representative Howard W. Smith, the chairman of the House Rules Committee. Johnson used a discharge petition to force it onto the House floor. Facing a growing threat that they would be bypassed, the Rules Committee approved the bill and moved it to the floor of the full House, which soon passed it by a vote of 290–110. Johnson convinced Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield to put the House bill directly into consideration by the full Senate, bypassing the Senate Judiciary Committee and its segregationist chairman James Eastland. Since bottling up the civil rights bill in a committee was no longer an option, the anti-civil rights senators were left with the filibuster as their only remaining tool. Overcoming the filibuster required the support of at least 20 Republicans, who were growing less supportive because their party was about to nominate for president a candidate who opposed the bill. According to Caro, Johnson ultimately could convince Republican leader Everett Dirksen to support the bill that amassed the necessary Republican votes to overcome the filibuster in March 1964; the bill passed the Senate by a vote of 71–29.
Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law on July 2. The act outlawed discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, or sex. It prohibited racial segregation in public accommodations and employment discrimination, and strengthened the federal government's power to investigate racial and gender employment discrimination. The following evening, Johnson told aide Bill Moyers, "I think we may have lost the South for your lifetime – and mine", anticipating a backlash from Southern whites against Johnson's Democratic Party.
=== Great Society ===
By early 1964, Johnson had begun to use the name "Great Society" to describe his domestic program. Johnson's Great Society program encompassed movements of urban renewal, modern transportation, clean environment, anti-poverty, healthcare reform, crime control, and educational reform. To ensure the passage of his programs, Johnson placed an unprecedented emphasis on relations with Congress.
=== 1964 presidential election ===
In Spring 1964, Johnson was not optimistic about his prospects of being elected president. A pivotal change took place in April when he assumed personal management of negotiations between the railroad brotherhood and the railroad industry over the issue of featherbedding. Johnson emphasized to the parties the potential impact upon the economy of a strike. After considerable horse-trading, especially with the carriers who won promises from the president for greater freedom in setting rights and more liberal depreciation allowances from the Internal Revenue Service, Johnson obtained an agreement. This substantially boosted his self-confidence and image.
Robert F. Kennedy was widely considered an impeccable choice for Johnson's vice presidential running mate but Johnson and Kennedy had never liked each other, and Johnson, afraid that Kennedy would be credited with his election as president, consistently opposed the idea. Kennedy was undecided about accepting an offer as Johnson's running mate, knowing that the prospect rankled Johnson. Barry Goldwater's poor polling numbers was perceived as reducing the political significance of Johnson's selection of a running mate. Hubert Humphrey's selection as vice president then became a foregone conclusion and was thought to strengthen Johnson in the Midwest and industrial Northeast. Knowing the degree of frustration inherent in the office of vice president, Johnson put Humphrey through a gauntlet of interviews to guarantee his loyalty. Having made the decision, he kept the announcement from the press until the last moment to maximize media speculation and coverage.
In preparation for the Democratic convention in Atlantic City, Johnson requested the FBI send 30 agents to cover convention activities; the objective of the squad was to inform the White House staff of any disruptive activities. The squad's focus narrowed upon the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) delegation, which sought to displace the white segregationist delegation regularly selected in the state. The squad's activities included wiretaps of Martin Luther King's room and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). From beginning to end, the squad's assignment was carefully couched in terms of the monitoring of disruptive activities that might endanger the president and other high-ranking officials.
Johnson was very concerned about potential political damage from media coverage of racial tensions exposed by a credentials fight between the MFDP and the segregationist delegation, and he assigned Humphrey to manage the problem. The convention's Credentials Committee declared that two MFDP delegates in the delegation be seated as observers and agreed to "bar future delegations from states where any citizens are deprived of the right to vote because of their race or color". The MFDP rejected the committee's ruling. The convention became the apparent personal triumph that Johnson craved, but a sense of betrayal caused by the marginalization of the MFDP would trigger disaffection with Johnson and the Democratic Party from the left; SNCC chairman John Lewis would call it a "turning point in the civil rights movement".
Early in the 1964 presidential campaign, Barry Goldwater appeared to be a strong contender, with strong support from the South, which threatened Johnson's position as he had predicted in reaction to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. However, Goldwater lost momentum as his campaign progressed. On September 7, 1964, Johnson's campaign managers broadcast the "Daisy ad": it portrayed a little girl picking petals from a daisy, followed by a countdown and explosion of a nuclear bomb. The message conveyed was that electing Goldwater risked a nuclear war. Goldwater's campaign message was best symbolized by the bumper sticker displayed by supporters claiming "In your heart, you know he's right". Opponents captured the spirit of Johnson's campaign with bumper stickers that said "In your heart, you know he might" and "In your guts, you know he's nuts". CIA Director William Colby asserted that Tracy Barnes instructed the CIA to spy on the Goldwater campaign and the Republican National Committee to provide information to Johnson's campaign. Johnson won the presidency by a landslide with 61.05 percent of the vote, making it the highest ever share of the popular vote. At the time, this was also the widest popular margin in the 20th century—more than 15.95 million votes—this was later surpassed by incumbent President Nixon's victory in 1972. In the Electoral College, Johnson defeated Goldwater by a margin of 486 to 52. Johnson won 44 states, compared to Goldwater's six. Voters also gave Johnson the largest majorities in Congress since FDR's election in 1936—a Senate with a 68–32 majority and a House with a 295–140 Democratic margin.
=== Voting Rights Act ===
Soon after the 1964 election, civil rights organizations such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) began a push for federal action to protect the voting rights of racial minorities. On March 7, 1965, these organizations began the Selma to Montgomery marches in which Selma residents proceeded to march to Alabama's capital, Montgomery, to highlight voting rights issues and present Governor George Wallace with their grievances. On the first march, demonstrators were stopped by state and county police, who shot tear gas into the crowd and trampled protesters. Televised footage of the scene, which became known as "Bloody Sunday", generated outrage across the country. In response to the rapidly increasing political pressure upon him, Johnson decided to immediately send voting rights legislation to Congress, and to address the American people in a speech before a Joint session of Congress. He began:
I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy. I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause. ... Rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved nation. The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation. For, with a country as with a person, 'what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?'
Johnson and Dirksen established a strong bipartisan alliance in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, precluding the possibility of a Senate filibuster defeating the bill. In August 1965, the House approved the bill by a vote of 333 to 85, and Senate passed the bill by a vote of 79 to 18. The landmark legislation outlawed discrimination in voting, thus allowing millions of Southern blacks to vote for the first time. The results were significant; between the years of 1968 and 1980, the number of Southern black elected state and federal officeholders nearly doubled. In Mississippi, the voter registration rate of African Americans rose from 6.7 percent to 59.8 percent between 1964 and 1967, a reflection of a broader increase in African-American voter registration rates.
After the murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, Johnson went on television to announce the arrest of four Ku Klux Klans men implicated in her death. He angrily denounced the Klan as a "hooded society of bigots," and warned them to "return to a decent society before it's too late". Johnson was the first president to arrest and prosecute members of the Klan since Ulysses S. Grant. He turned to themes of Christian redemption to push for civil rights, mobilizing support from churches. At the Howard University commencement address on June 4, 1965, he said that both the government and the nation needed to help achieve these goals: "To shatter forever not only the barriers of law and public practice but the walls which bound the condition of many by the color of his skin. To dissolve, as best we can, the antique enmities of the heart which diminish the holder, divide the great democracy, and do wrong—great wrong — to the children of God ..."
=== Fair Housing Act ===
The Fair Housing Act, a component of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, outlawed several forms of housing discrimination and effectively allowed many African Americans to move to the suburbs. Johnson submitted a bill to Congress in April 1966 that barred house owners from refusing to enter into agreements on the basis of race; the bill immediately garnered opposition from many of the Northerners who had supported the last two major civil rights bills. Though a version of the bill passed the House, it failed to win Senate approval, marking Johnson's first major legislative defeat. The law gained new impetus after the April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and the civil unrest across the country that followed. The bill passed Congress on April 10 and was quickly signed into law by Johnson.
=== War on poverty ===
In his 1964 State of the Union Address Johnson stated, "this administration today, here and now, declares an unconditional war on poverty in America. Our aim is not only to relieve the symptoms of poverty but to cure it–and above all, to prevent it." During the Johnson administration, national poverty declined significantly, with the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line dropping from 23 to 12 percent.
In August 1964, Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which would create the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to oversee local Community Action Agencies (CAA) charged with dispensing aid to those in poverty. Each CAA was required to have "maximum feasible participation" from local residents, who would design and operate anti-poverty programs unique to their communities' needs. This was threatening to local political leaders who saw CAAs as alternative power structures in their own communities, funded and encouraged by the OEO. In 1967, the Green Amendment gave city governments the right to decide which entity would be the official CAA for their community. The net result was a halt to the citizen participation reform movement.
The Economic Opportunity Act created the Job Corps and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), a domestic version of the Peace Corps. Modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Job Corps was a residential education and job-training program that provided academic and vocational skills to low-income at-risk young people. VISTA deployed volunteers on community projects across the nation to address issues such as illiteracy, inadequate housing, and poor health. By the end of 1965, 2,000 volunteers had signed on. Congress also agreed to Upward Bound, a program that trained low-income students in the skills they needed for college. The act reflected Johnson's belief that the government could best help the impoverished by providing them with economic opportunities. Johnson convinced Congress to approve the Food Stamp Act of 1964, which made permanent the food stamp pilot programs that had been initiated by President Kennedy.
To combat homelessness, Johnson signed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965, which provided rent subsidies for the elderly and disabled, construction of 240,000 housing units, and $3 billion for urban renewal. In September 1965, Johnson would go on to sign legislation that would establish the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to oversee the newly funded housing programs. Providing an additional $1.1 billion for roads, health clinics, and other public works was the Appalachian Regional Development Act, a measure to improve living standards in Appalachia.
Johnson took an additional step in the war on poverty with an urban renewal effort, the "Demonstration Cities Program". To be eligible, a city was required to demonstrate its readiness to "arrest blight and decay and make a substantial impact on the development of its entire city". Johnson requested an investment of $400 million per year totaling $2.4 billion. In late 1966, Congress passed a substantially reduced program costing $900 million, which Johnson later called the Model Cities Program. The New York Times wrote 22 years later that the program was largely a failure.
=== Healthcare reform ===
Johnson's initial effort to improve healthcare was the creation of The Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Strokes (HDCS). These diseases accounted for 71 percent of the nation's deaths in 1962.
In 1965, Johnson turned his focus to hospital insurance for the aged under Social Security. The key player in initiating this program, named Medicare, was Representative Wilbur Mills, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. To reduce Republican opposition, Mills suggested that Medicare be fashioned as three layers: hospital insurance under Social Security; a voluntary insurance program for doctor visits; and an expanded medical welfare program for the poor administered through the states, known as Medicaid. The bill passed the House by a margin of 110 votes on April 8. The effort in the Senate was considerably more complicated, but the Medicare bill passed Congress on July 28. Medicare now covers tens of millions of Americans.
=== Immigration ===
The sweeping Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 reformed the country's immigration system and repealed the National Origins Formula, which had restricted emigration from countries outside of Western Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The annual rate of inflow doubled between 1965 and 1970, and doubled again by 1990, with dramatic increases from Asia and Latin America, including Mexico. Scholars give Johnson little credit for the law, which was not one of his priorities; he had supported the McCarren–Walter Act of 1952, which proved unpopular with reformers.
=== Federal funding for education ===
Johnson, whose own ticket out of poverty was a public education in Texas, believed that education was an essential component of the American dream, especially for minorities. He made education the top priority of the Great Society agenda, with an emphasis on helping poor children. Buoyed by his landslide victory in the 1964 election, in early 1965 Johnson proposed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which would double federal spending on education from $4 billion to $8 billion. The bill quickly passed both houses of Congress by wide margins. ESEA increased funding to all school districts, but directed more money going to districts that had large proportions of students from poor families.
Although ESEA solidified Johnson's support among K–12 teachers' unions, neither the Higher Education Act nor the new endowments mollified the college professors and students growing increasingly uneasy with the war in Vietnam. Johnson's second major education program was the Higher Education Act of 1965, which increased federal money given to universities, created scholarships, gave low-interest loans to students, and established a Teacher Corps. Johnson also established Head Start, an early education program to help prepare children from disadvantaged families for success in public schools. In 1967, Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act to create educational television programs to supplement broadcast networks.
In 1965, Johnson set up the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, to support the study of literature, history, and law, and arts such as music, painting, and sculpture.
=== Transportation ===
In March 1966, Johnson sent to Congress a transportation message which included the creation of a new Transportation Department, comprising the Commerce Department's Office of Transportation, the Bureau of Public Roads, the Federal Aviation Agency, the Coast Guard, the Maritime Administration, the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the Interstate Commerce Commission. The bill passed the Senate after some negotiation over navigation projects; in the House, passage required negotiation over maritime interests and the bill was signed October 15, 1965.
=== Environment ===
During his tenure as president, Johnson signed over 300 conservation measures into law, forming the legal basis of the modern environmental movement. He signed into law the Clean Air Act of 1963, which had been proposed by President Kennedy. The Clean Air Act set emission standards for stationary emitters of air pollutants and directed federal funding to air quality research. In 1965, the act was amended by the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act, which directed the federal government to establish and enforce national standards for controlling the emission of pollutants from new motor vehicles and engines. In September 1964, Johnson signed the Wilderness Act, which established the National Wilderness Preservation System (preserving 9.1 million acres of forestland from industrial development), and signed a law establishing the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which aids the purchase of land used for federal and state parks.
In 1965, First Lady Lady Bird Johnson took the lead in calling for passage of the Highway Beautification Act. The act called for control of outdoor advertising, including removal of certain types of signs, along the nation's growing Interstate Highway System and the existing federal-aid primary highway system. It also required certain junkyards along Interstate or primary highways to be removed or screened and encouraged scenic enhancement and roadside development.
=== Gun control ===
Though Johnson had already introduced a gun control bill on June 6, 1968, after the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson's press secretary Liz Carpenter, in a memo to the president, worried that the country had been "brainwashed by high drama," and that Johnson "need[ed] some quick dramatic actions" that addressed "the issue of violence." In October, Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968, but did not invoke the memory of Robert Kennedy as he had so often done with his brother—an omission historian Jeff Shesol has argued was motivated by Johnson's longstanding contempt for Robert. The measure prohibited convicted felons, drug users, and the mentally ill from purchasing handguns and raised record-keeping and licensing requirements. It also banned mail order sales of rifles and shotguns.
=== Urban riots ===
The nation experienced a series of "long hot summers" of civil unrest during the Johnson years. They started with the Harlem riots in 1964, and the Watts district of Los Angeles in 1965. The momentum for the advancement of civil rights came to a sudden halt following the riots in Watts. After 34 people were killed and $35 million (equivalent to $349.22 million in 2024) in property was damaged, the public feared an expansion of the violence to other cities, and so the appetite for additional programs in Johnson's agenda was lost.
In what is known as the "Long hot summer of 1967", more than 150 riots erupted across the United States. The Boston Globe called it "a revolution of black Americans against white Americans, a violent petition for the redress of long-standing grievances." The Newark riots left 26 dead and 1,500 injured. The Detroit riot resulted in 43 deaths, 2250 injuries, 4,000 arrests, and millions of dollars' worth of property damage. Governor George Romney sent in 7,400 national guard troops to quell fire bombings, looting, and attacks on businesses and police. Johnson finally sent in federal troops with tanks and machine guns. At an August 2, 1967, cabinet meeting, Attorney General Ramsey Clark warned that untrained and undisciplined local police forces and National Guardsmen might trigger a "guerrilla war in the streets," as evidenced by the climate of sniper fire in Newark and Detroit. Snipers created a dangerous situation for both law enforcement and civilians, with shooters often targeting from rooftops and other concealed locations.
Johnson's popularity plummeted as a massive white political backlash took shape, reinforcing the sense Johnson had lost control of the streets of major cities and his own party. The president created the 11-member Kerner Commission to study the causes behind the recurring outbreaks of urban civil disorder, headed by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner. The commission's 1968 report suggested legislative measures to promote racial integration and alleviate poverty and concluded that the nation was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal." According to Press Secretary George Christian, Johnson was unsurprised by the riots, saying: "What did you expect? ... When you put your foot on a man's neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what's he going to do? He's going to knock your block off."
=== Backlash against Johnson (1966–1967) ===
In 1966, the press sensed a credibility gap between what Johnson was saying in press conferences and what was happening in the Vietnam War, which led to less favorable coverage of Johnson and his administration.
By the end of 1966, Democratic Governor Warren E. Hearnes of Missouri warned that Johnson would lose the state by 100,000 votes, despite winning by a margin of 500,000 in 1964. "Frustration over Vietnam; too much federal spending and ... taxation; no great public support for your Great Society programs; and ... public disenchantment with the civil rights programs "had eroded the President's standing, the governor reported. There were bright spots; in January 1967, Johnson boasted that wages were the highest in history, unemployment was at a 13-year low, and corporate profits and farm incomes were greater than ever; a 4.5 percent jump in consumer prices was worrisome, as was the rise in interest rates. Johnson asked for a temporary 6 percent surcharge in income taxes to cover the mounting deficit caused by increased spending. Johnson's approval ratings stayed below 50 percent and, in December 1966, his disapproval rating surpassed his approval rating. In January 1967, the number of his strong supporters had plunged to 16 percent, from 25 percent four months before.
Asked to explain his diminished popularity, Johnson said, "I am a dominating personality, and when I get things done I don't always please all the people." Johnson also blamed the press, saying they showed "complete irresponsibility and lie and misstate facts and have no one to be answerable to", and "the preachers, liberals and professors" who had turned against him.
In the congressional elections of 1966, the Republicans gained three seats in the Senate and 47 in the House, reinvigorating the conservative coalition, which made it more difficult for Johnson to pass additional Great Society legislation. However, Congress ultimately passed almost 96 percent of the administration's Great Society programs.
=== Space program ===
During the Johnson administration, NASA conducted the Gemini crewed space program, developed the Saturn V rocket and its launch facility, and prepared to make the first crewed Apollo program flights. On January 27, 1967, the nation was stunned when the entire crew of Apollo 1 was killed in a cabin fire during a spacecraft test on the launch pad, stopping Apollo in its tracks. Rather than appointing another Warren-style commission, Johnson accepted Administrator James E. Webb's request for NASA to do its own investigation.
Johnson maintained his staunch support of Apollo through Congressional and press controversy, and the program recovered. The first two crewed missions, Apollo 7 and the first crewed flight to the Moon, Apollo 8, were completed by the end of Johnson's term. He congratulated the Apollo 8 crew, saying, "You've taken ... all of us, all over the world, into a new era." On July 16, 1969, Johnson attended the launch of the first Moon landing mission Apollo 11, becoming the first former or incumbent U.S. president to witness a rocket launch.
=== Vietnam War ===
The Vietnam War began in 1955 as Communist forces started operating in South Vietnam. By the time Johnson took office, there were 16,700 American military personnel in South Vietnam. Despite some misgivings, Johnson ultimately came to support escalation of the U.S. role in Vietnam. Like the vast majority of American leaders in the mid-1960s, he was determined to prevent the spread of Communism. Johnson's decision to escalate was also influenced heavily by reputation. Under pressure from pro-war politicians like Barry Goldwater, Johnson feared that if he made the decision to not stand firm in Vietnam he would lose domestic political credibility as well as contribute to a decline in the international reputation of the U.S.
On October 11, 1963, President Kennedy had signed NSAM 263 ordering the withdrawal of 1,000 military personnel by the end of the year following recommendations of the McNamara–Taylor mission report. On November 26, Johnson signed NSAM 273 which reaffirmed the Kennedy administration withdrawal approval and continued support for South Vietnam. In August 1964, ambiguous evidence suggested two U.S. destroyers had been attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although Johnson very much wanted to keep discussions about Vietnam out of the 1964 election campaign, he felt forced to respond to the supposed Communist aggression. He obtained from Congress the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964, giving blanket congressional approval for use of military force to repel future attacks.
Johnson decided on a systematic bombing campaign, which became known as Operation Rolling Thunder, in February 1965 after an attack by Viet Cong guerrillas on Pleiku Air Base, killing eight Americans. The U.S. would continue to bomb North Vietnam until late 1968. In March 1965, McGeorge Bundy called for American ground operations; Johnson agreed and also quietly changed the mission from defensive to offensive operations. On March 8, 1965, 3,500 troops went ashore near Da Nang, the first time U.S. combat forces had been sent to mainland Asia since the Korean War. In June, South Vietnamese Ambassador Maxwell D. Taylor reported that the bombing offensive against North Vietnam had been ineffective and that the South Vietnamese army was outclassed and in danger of collapse. In late July, McNamara and Johnson's top advisors recommended an increase in U.S. soldiers from 75,000 to over 200,000. Johnson agreed but felt boxed in by unpalatable choices. If he sent additional troops he would be attacked as an interventionist, and if he did not, he thought he risked being impeached. By October 1965, there were over 200,000 troops deployed in Vietnam. Throughout 1965, few members of Congress or the administration openly criticized Johnson's handling of the war.
In early 1966, Senator Robert F. Kennedy harshly criticized Johnson's bombing campaign, stating that the U.S. may be headed "on a road from which there is no turning back, a road that leads to catastrophe for all mankind." Soon thereafter, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Senator James William Fulbright, held televised hearings examining the administration's Vietnam policy. In July, polling results indicated that Americans favored the bombing campaign by a five-to-one margin; however, in August a Defense Department study indicated that the bombing campaign was having minimal impact on North Vietnam. By late 1966, multiple sources began to report progress was being made against the North Vietnamese logistics and infrastructure; Johnson was urged to begin peace discussions. English philosopher Bertrand Russell initiated the International War Crimes Tribunal to condemn the American effort. The gap with Hanoi, however, was an unbridgeable demand on both sides for a unilateral end to bombing and withdrawal of forces. Johnson grew more and more anxious about justifying war casualties, and talked of the need for decisive victory, despite the unpopularity of the cause. By the end of 1966, it was clear that the air campaign and the pacification effort had both failed, and Johnson agreed to McNamara's new recommendation to add 70,000 troops in 1967 and the CIA's recommendations to increased bombings against North Vietnam. The bombing escalation ended secret talks being held with North Vietnam, but U.S. leaders did not consider North Vietnamese intentions in those talks to be genuine.
By the middle of 1967 nearly 70,000 Americans had been killed or wounded in the war, which was being commonly described in the news media and elsewhere as a "stalemate." In January and February, probes were made to assess North Vietnamese's willingness to discuss peace, but they fell on deaf ears. Ho Chi Minh declared that the only solution was a unilateral U.S. withdrawal. A Gallup, Inc. poll in July 1967 showed that 52 percent of Americans disapproved of the president's handling of the war, and only 34 percent thought progress was being made. Nonetheless, Johnson agreed to an increase of 55,000 troops, bringing the total to 525,000. In August, Johnson, with the Joint Chiefs' support, decided to expand the air campaign and exempted only Hanoi, Haiphong and a buffer zone with China from the target list. Later that month McNamara told a Senate subcommittee that an expanded air campaign would not bring Hanoi to the peace table. The Joint Chiefs were astounded, and threatened mass resignation; McNamara was summoned to the White House for a three-hour dressing down. Nevertheless, Johnson had received reports from the CIA confirming McNamara's analysis at least in part. In the meantime an election establishing a constitutional government in the South was concluded and provided hope for peace talks.
With the war arguably in a stalemate and in light of the widespread disapproval of the conflict, Johnson convened a group of veteran government foreign policy experts, informally known as "the Wise Men": Dean Acheson, General Omar Bradley, George Ball, McGeorge Bundy, Arthur Dean, C. Douglas Dillon, Abe Fortas, Averell Harriman, Henry Cabot Lodge, Robert Daniel Murphy, and Maxwell D. Taylor. They unanimously opposed leaving Vietnam, and encouraged Johnson to "stay the course." Afterward, on November 17, in a nationally televised address, the president assured the American public, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress." Less than two weeks later, Robert McNamara announced his resignation as Defense Secretary. Behind closed doors, he had begun regularly expressing doubts over Johnson's war strategy, angering the president. He joined a growing list of Johnson's top aides who resigned over the war, including Bill Moyers, McGeorge Bundy, and George Ball. In October, with ever-increasing public protests against the war, Johnson engaged the FBI and the CIA to investigate, monitor, and undermine anti-war activists. In mid-October, there was a demonstration of 100,000 at the Pentagon; Johnson and Dean Rusk were convinced that foreign communist sources were behind the demonstration, but that was refuted in the CIA's findings.
==== Tet Offensive ====
On January 30, 1968, the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army began the Tet Offensive against South Vietnam's five largest cities, including Saigon. While the Tet Offensive failed militarily, it was a psychological victory, definitively turning American public opinion against the war effort. In February 1968, influential news anchor Walter Cronkite of CBS News expressed on the air that the conflict was deadlocked and that additional fighting would change nothing. Johnson reacted, saying "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America". Indeed, demoralization about the war was everywhere; 26 percent then approved of Johnson's handling of Vietnam, while 63 percent disapproved. College students and others protested, burned draft cards, and chanted, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?"
The Tet Offensive convinced senior leaders of the Johnson administration, including the "Wise Men" and new Defense Secretary Clark Clifford, that further escalation of troop levels would not help bring an end to the war. Johnson was initially reluctant to follow this advice, but ultimately agreed to allow a partial bombing halt and to signal his willingness to engage in peace talks. On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced that he would halt the bombing in North Vietnam, while at the same time announcing that he would not seek re-election. He also escalated U.S. military operations in South Vietnam in order to consolidate control of as much of the countryside as possible before the onset of serious peace talks. Talks began in Paris in May, but failed to yield any results. Two of the major obstacles in negotiations were the unwillingness of the United States to allow the Viet Cong to take part in the South Vietnamese government, and the unwillingness of North Vietnam to recognize the legitimacy of South Vietnam. In October 1968, when the parties came close to an agreement on a bombing halt, Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon intervened with the South Vietnamese, promising better terms so as to delay a settlement on the issue until after the election. Johnson sought a continuation of talks after the 1968 election, but the North Vietnamese argued about procedural matters until after Nixon took office.
=== Dominican Republic ===
Like President Kennedy, Johnson sought to isolate Cuba, which was under the rule of the Soviet-aligned Fidel Castro.
In 1965, the Dominican Civil War broke out between the government of President Donald Reid Cabral and supporters of former president Juan Bosch. On the advice of Abe Fortas, Johnson dispatched over 20,000 Marines to the Dominican Republic. Their role was not take sides but to evacuate American citizens and restore order. The U.S. also helped arrange an agreement providing for new elections. Johnson's use of force in ending the civil war alienated many in Latin America, and the region's importance to the administration receded as Johnson's foreign policy became increasingly dominated by the Vietnam War.
=== Soviet Union ===
Though actively engaged in containment in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, Johnson made it a priority to seek arms control deals with Moscow. The Soviet Union also sought closer relations to the United States during the mid-to-late 1960s, partly due to the increasingly worse Sino-Soviet split. Johnson attempted to reduce tensions with China by easing restrictions on trade, but the beginning of China's Cultural Revolution ended hopes of a greater rapprochement. Johnson was concerned with averting the possibility of nuclear war, and he sought to reduce tensions in Europe. The Johnson administration pursued arms control agreements with the Soviet Union, signing the Outer Space Treaty and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and laid the foundation for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. Johnson held a largely amicable meeting with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin at the Glassboro Summit Conference in 1967, and in July 1968 the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, in which each signatory agreed not to help other countries develop or acquire nuclear weapons. A planned nuclear disarmament summit between the United States and the Soviet Union was scuttled after Soviet forces violently suppressed the Prague Spring, an attempted democratization of Czechoslovakia.
=== Surveillance of Martin Luther King ===
Johnson continued the FBI's wiretapping of Martin Luther King Jr. authorized by the Kennedy administration under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Johnson also authorized the tapping of phone conversations of others, including the Vietnamese friends of a Nixon associate.
=== International trips ===
Johnson made eleven international trips to twenty countries during his presidency. He flew five hundred twenty-three thousand miles (841,690 km) aboard Air Force One while in office. His October 1966 visit to Australia sparked demonstrations from anti-war protesters. One of the most unusual international trips in presidential history occurred before Christmas 1967. The President began the trip by going to the memorial for Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt, who was presumed drowned in a swimming accident. The White House did not reveal in advance to the press that the President would make the first round-the-world presidential trip. The trip was twenty-six thousand nine hundred fifty-nine miles (43,386.3 km) completed in only 112.5 hours (4.7 days). Air Force One crossed the equator twice, stopped at Travis Air Force Base, in Honolulu, Pago Pago, Canberra, Melbourne, Vietnam, Karachi, and Rome.
=== 1968 presidential election ===
As he had served less than two years of President Kennedy's term, Johnson was constitutionally eligible for election to a second full term in the 1968 presidential election. Despite Johnson's growing unpopularity, conventional wisdom held that it would be impossible to deny re-nomination to a sitting president. In September 1967 Johnson openly admitted he was considering dropping out of the race for re-election. Johnson won a narrow victory in the New Hampshire presidential primary on March 12, but in a March 31 speech, Johnson shocked the nation when he announced he would not run for re-election by concluding with the line: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president". The next day, his approval ratings increased from 36 percent to 49 percent.
Historians have debated the factors that led to Johnson's surprise decision. Shesol says Johnson wanted out of the White House but also wanted vindication; when the indicators turned negative he decided to leave. Woods writes that Johnson realized he needed to leave in order for the nation to heal. Dallek says that Johnson had no further domestic goals, and realized that his personality had eroded his popularity. His health was not good, and he was preoccupied with the Kennedy campaign; his wife was pressing for his retirement and his base of support continued to shrink. Leaving the race would allow him to pose as a peacemaker. Bennett, however, says Johnson "had been forced out of a reelection race in 1968 by outrage over his policy in Southeast Asia." Johnson may also have hoped that the convention would ultimately choose to draft him back into the race.
Vice President Hubert Humphrey entered the race after Johnson's withdrawal, making the 1968 Democratic primaries a three-way contest between Humphrey, Kennedy, and McCarthy. Kennedy cut into McCarthy's liberal and anti-war base, while also winning the support of the poor and working class. He won a series of primary victories, but was assassinated in June by Sirhan Sirhan, an Arab nationalist. With Johnson's support, Humphrey won the presidential nomination at the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago in late August. Violent police attacks against anti-war protesters in Chicago marred the convention.
Humphrey's polling numbers improved after a September 30 speech in which he broke with Johnson's war policy, calling for an end to the bombing of North Vietnam. In what was termed the October surprise, Johnson announced to the nation on October 31, 1968, that he had ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam", effective November 1, should the North Vietnamese government be willing to negotiate and citing progress with the Paris peace talks.
Republican nominee Richard Nixon won the election.
=== Judicial appointments ===
Johnson appointed Justices Abe Fortas (1965) and Thurgood Marshall (1967) to the Supreme Court of the United States. Johnson anticipated court challenges to his legislative measures in 1965 and thought it advantageous to have a "mole" in the Supreme Court to provide him with inside information, as he was able to get from the legislative branch. Abe Fortas in particular Johnson thought could fill the bill. The opportunity arose when an opening occurred for ambassador to the UN, with Adlai Stevenson's death; Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg accepted Johnson's offer to transfer to the UN position. Johnson insisted on Fortas assuming Goldberg's seat, over Fortas's wife's objection that it was too early in his career. When Earl Warren announced his retirement in 1968, Johnson nominated Fortas to succeed him as Chief Justice of the United States, and nominated Homer Thornberry to succeed Fortas as associate justice. However, Fortas's nomination was filibustered by senators, and neither nominee was voted upon by the full Senate.
== Post-presidency (1969–1973) ==
On Inauguration Day (January 20, 1969), Johnson saw Nixon sworn in, then got on the plane to fly back to Texas. When the front door of the plane closed, Johnson pulled out a cigarette — his first cigarette he had smoked since his heart attack in 1955. One of his daughters pulled it out of his mouth and said, "Daddy, what are you doing? You're going to kill yourself." He took it back and said, "I've now raised you, girls. I've now been President. Now it's my time!" From that point on, he went into a very self-destructive spiral.
After leaving the presidency in January 1969, Johnson went home to his ranch in Stonewall, Texas, accompanied by former aide and speechwriter Harry J. Middleton, who would draft Johnson's first book, The Choices We Face, and work with him on his memoirs, The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963–1969, published in 1971. That year, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum opened on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. He donated his Texas ranch in his will to the public to form the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, with the provision that it "remain a working ranch and not become a sterile relic of the past".
Johnson gave Nixon high grades in foreign policy, but worried that his successor was being pressured into removing U.S. forces from South Vietnam before the South Vietnamese were able to defend themselves. "If the South falls to the Communists, we can have a serious backlash here at home," he warned.
During the 1972 presidential election, Johnson only reluctantly endorsed Democratic nominee George McGovern, a senator from South Dakota; McGovern had long opposed Johnson's foreign and defense policies. Johnson wanted to attend the Democratic National Convention, but was advised not to attend as he would not be welcome. The McGovern nomination and platform dismayed him. Nixon could be defeated, Johnson insisted, "if only the Democrats don't go too far left". Johnson felt Edmund Muskie would be more likely to defeat Nixon; however, he declined to try to stop McGovern receiving the nomination as he felt his unpopularity within the Democratic Party was such that anything he said was more likely to help McGovern. Johnson's protégé John Connally had served as President Nixon's Secretary of the Treasury and then stepped down to head "Democrats for Nixon", a group funded by Republicans. It was the first time that Connally and Johnson were on opposite sides of a general election campaign.
== Personal life ==
=== Marriage and children ===
On November 17, 1934, Johnson married Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor from Karnack, Texas. The two first met after he attended Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. for one semester. During their first date, Johnson asked her to marry him; many dates later, she finally agreed. The wedding was officiated by Arthur R. McKinstry at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in San Antonio. They had two daughters: Lynda Bird in 1944 and Luci Baines in 1947. Johnson gave his children names with the LBJ initials; his dog was named Little Beagle Johnson, and his home was the LBJ Ranch in the Texas Hill Country. His initials were on his cufflinks, ashtrays, and clothes. During his marriage, Johnson had affairs with "numerous" women, including socialite Alice Marsh, who was considered, outside his marriage, his most important relationship.
=== Health ===
On July 2, 1955, at age 46, Johnson, a 60-cigarette-per-day smoker, suffered a near-fatal heart attack, which inspired him to discontinue smoking. Five months later, Johnson's doctors reported he had made "a most satisfactory recovery".
Johnson may have suffered a second heart attack following President Kennedy's assassination, but the diagnosis released to the public was that he had an angina attack.
On November 8, 1965, Johnson underwent surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital to remove his gallbladder and a kidney stone. After the procedure, Johnson's doctors reported that the president had come through the surgery "beautifully as expected." He was able to resume his duties the following day, and he met with reporters a couple of days later to reassure the nation that he was recovering well. Although Johnson was incapacitated during surgery, there was no transfer of presidential power to Vice President Humphrey.
In March 1970, Johnson suffered an attack of angina and was taken to Brooke Army General Hospital in San Antonio. He had gained more than 25 pounds (11 kg) since leaving the White House; he now weighed around 235 pounds (107 kg) and was urged to lose considerable weight. By the summer of 1970, again gripped by chronic chest pains, Johnson lost 15 pounds (6.8 kg) in less than a month on a crash water diet. He had also resumed smoking shortly before Christmas 1971, having not smoked since his near-fatal heart attack in July 1955.
In April 1972, Johnson had another major heart attack while visiting his daughter, Lynda, in Virginia. "I'm hurting real bad", he confided to friends. The chest pains returned nearly every afternoon—jolting pains that left him frightened and breathless. A portable oxygen tank was kept by his bed, and he periodically interrupted what he was doing to lie down and don the mask. He continued to smoke heavily and, although nominally on a low-calorie, low-cholesterol diet, kept to it only intermittently. Meanwhile, he began to experience severe abdominal pains, diagnosed as diverticulosis. His heart condition rapidly worsened and surgery was recommended. Johnson flew to Houston to consult with heart specialist Michael DeBakey, where he learned his condition was terminal. DeBakey found that despite two of Johnson's coronary arteries being in urgent need of a coronary bypass, his heart was in such poor condition that he likely would have died during surgery.
== Death ==
Johnson recorded an hour-long television interview with newsman Walter Cronkite at his ranch on January 12, 1973, in which he discussed his legacy, particularly about the civil rights movement. He was still smoking heavily, and told Cronkite that it was better for his heart "to smoke than to be nervous".
At approximately 3:50 P.M. Central on January 22, 1973, Johnson suffered his final heart attack in his bedroom. He managed to telephone the Secret Service agents on the ranch, who found him still holding the telephone receiver, unconscious and "appear[ing] to be dead". They attempted resuscitation, and Johnson was airlifted in one of his planes to San Antonio International Airport, en route to Brooke Army Medical Center. However, cardiologist and Army colonel George McGranahan pronounced him dead on arrival at the airport at 4:33 P.M. Johnson was 64.
Shortly after the former president was pronounced dead, Johnson's press secretary Tom Johnson (no relation) telephoned Cronkite to tell him. Cronkite was anchoring CBS Evening News live at the moment Johnson reached him, which enabled him to report on President Johnson's death as he received direct information. Nixon mentioned Johnson's death in a speech he gave the day after Johnson died, announcing the peace agreement to end the Vietnam War.
=== Funeral ===
Johnson was honored with a state funeral. Initially, his body lay in repose at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin. Afterwards, Johnson's body was flown to Washington. Texas Congressman J. J. Pickle and former Secretary of State Dean Rusk eulogized him when he lay in state at the Capitol.
The state funeral took place on January 25 at the National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C., where he had often worshiped as president. The service was presided over by President Nixon and attended by foreign dignitaries, led by Eisaku Satō, who had served as Japanese prime minister during Johnson's presidency. Eulogies were given by George Davis, the church's pastor, and W. Marvin Watson, Johnson's last Postmaster General and a longtime advisor.
Later that same day, Johnson was buried in his family's private cemetery in Gillespie County, Texas, near the house in which he was born. Billy Graham officiated the service. He and former Texas governor Connally gave eulogies. Several hundred people were in attendance.
The state funeral, the last for a president until Richard Nixon's in 1994, occurred the same week as Nixon's second inauguration. As Johnson died only two days after the inauguration, various activities surrounding the inauguration were canceled.
== Personality and public image ==
According to biographer Randall Woods, Johnson posed in many different roles:
"Johnson the Son of the Tenant Farmer, Johnson the Great Compromiser, Johnson the All-Knowing, Johnson the Humble, Johnson the Warrior, Johnson the Dove, Johnson the Romantic, Johnson the Hard-Headed Pragmatist, Johnson the Preserver of Traditions, Johnson the Crusader for Social Justice, Johnson the Magnanimous, Johnson the Vindictive or Johnson the Uncouth, LBJ the Hick, Lyndon the Satyr, and Johnson the Usurper".
Johnson had his particular brand of persuasion, known as "The Johnson Treatment". "There was no more powerful majority leader in American history," biographer Robert Dallek writes. Dallek stated that Johnson had biographies on all the senators, knew what their ambitions, hopes, and tastes were and used it to his advantage in securing votes. Another Johnson biographer noted, "He could get up every day and learn what their fears, their desires, their wishes, their wants were and he could then manipulate, dominate, persuade and cajole them." As president, Johnson vetoed 30 bills; no other president in history vetoed so many bills and never had a single one overridden by Congress. He was often seen as an ambitious, tireless, and imposing figure who was ruthlessly effective at getting legislation passed. He typically worked 18- to 20-hour days without a break and had no regular leisure activities. He stood 6 feet 3.5 inches (1.918 m) tall.
Johnson's cowboy hat and boots reflected his Texas roots and love of the rural hill country. From 250 acres (100 ha) of land that he was given by an aunt in 1951, he created a 2,700-acre (1,100 ha) working ranch with 400 cattle. The National Park Service keeps a herd descended from Johnson's and maintains the ranch property.
Biographer Randall Woods argues that Social Gospel themes Johnson learned from childhood allowed him to transform social problems into moral problems. This helps explain his longtime commitment to social justice, and explicitly inspired his foreign-policy approach to Christian internationalism and nation-building. For example, in a 1966 speech he quoted at length from the Social Creed of the Methodist Church, adding "It would be very hard for me to write a more perfect description of the American ideal."
== Legacy ==
Scholars have viewed Johnson through the lens of both his legislative achievements and his lack of success in the Vietnam War. His overall rating among historians has remained relatively steady, and his average ranking is higher than any of the eight presidents who followed him, although similar to Reagan and Clinton. In public polling of presidential favorability of Johnson and the presidents who succeeded him Johnson tends to appear more toward the bottom of lists, typically excepting Donald Trump, George W. Bush and Richard Nixon, and sometimes Gerald Ford.
Historian Kent Germany explains:The man who was elected to the White House by one of the widest margins in U.S. history and pushed through as much legislation as any other American politician now seems to be remembered best by the public for succeeding an assassinated hero, steering the country into a quagmire in Vietnam, cheating on his saintly wife, exposing his stitched-up belly, using profanity, picking up dogs by their ears, swimming naked with advisers in the White House pool, and emptying his bowels while conducting official business. Of all those issues, Johnson's reputation suffers the most from his management of the Vietnam War, something that has overshadowed his civil rights and domestic policy accomplishments and caused Johnson himself to regret his handling of "the woman I really loved — the Great Society."
=== Memorials ===
The Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston was renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973, and the United States Department of Education headquarters was named after Johnson in 2007. The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin was named in his honor, as is the Lyndon B. Johnson National Grassland. Also named for him are schools in Austin and Laredo, Texas; Melbourne, Florida; and Jackson, Kentucky. Interstate 635 in Dallas is named the Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway. The Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac was dedicated in 1976.
Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1980. Texas created a state holiday on August 27 to mark Johnson's birthday, known as Lyndon Baines Johnson Day.
=== Major legislation signed ===
=== Significant regulatory changes ===
1968: FCC creates national emergency number 9-1-1
== Works ==
National Aeronautics and Space Act (1962)
Choices We Face (1969)
The Vantage Point (1971)
== See also ==
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Works cited ===
== Further reading ==
== External links ==
Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library & Museum
Biography on WhiteHouse.gov (courtesy of the White House Historical Association)
United States Congress. "Lyndon B. Johnson (id: J000160)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Appearances on C-SPAN
"Life Portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, November 12, 1999
Lyndon B. Johnson at IMDb
Works by or about Lyndon B. Johnson at the Internet Archive
Works by Lyndon B. Johnson at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Lyndon B. Johnson collected news and commentary at The New York Times
Lyndon Baines Johnson: A Resource Guide (archived 2013) from the Library of Congress
Extensive essays on Lyndon Johnson and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
LBJ — A documentary from the American Experience series produced by PBS (Video no longer available online)
Lyndon B. Johnson: Original Letters & Historical Primary Sources from The Shapell Manuscript Foundation |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryon_Lane | Maryon Lane | Maryon Lane (15 February 1931 – 13 June 2008) was a South African ballet dancer who became well known in Britain as a ballerina of the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet and as a soloist with the Royal Ballet.
== Early life and training ==
Maryon Lane was born as Patricia Mills in Zululand, a district of Natal province (now KwaZulu-Natal) on the Indian Ocean coast of South Africa. When she was about 13 years old, in 1944, her family took her to Johannesburg, in the northern province of Transvaal (now Gauteng). There she studied with the best ballet teachers in the city, including Marjorie Sturman, a specialist in the Cecchetti method, and Reina Berman, who had been trained by the Cecchetti method before switching to the syllabus of the Royal Academy of Dancing (RAD).
In 1946, soon after World War II had ended and peace had returned to Europe, Mills left South Africa and emigrated to the UK, having won an RAD scholarship to attend the Sadler's Wells Ballet School in London. After only a year's tuition there, she was taken into the corps of the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet. It was at this point that she adopted her professional name. The company then included a South African dancer named Patricia Miller, so a name change from Patricia Mills was essential: Maryon Lane, distinctively spelled, was her choice.
== Professional career ==
The Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet was then a small, young troupe founded by Ninette de Valois to nurture dancers and choreographers after the parent company, the Sadler's Wells Ballet, became resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Owing to the need to replenish the depleted roster of leading dancers, Lane rose rapidly through the ranks. By 1948, at age 17, she had been named a principal dancer and was appearing in prominent roles in works by de Valois and Frederick Ashton, the chief choreographer of the company. Petite, with dark hair, a pretty, oval face, and ideal proportions, she possessed a vivid personality, a firm technique, and an innate musicality.
De Valois considered Lane the type of dancer that was most valuable of all: not a great star but a repertory dancer capable of demi-caractère and dramatic work as well as the purely classical.
Throughout her career, Lane was admired for her musicality, attack, and sheer domination of the stage. In repertory works, she displayed great charm in such lighthearted roles as Swanilda in Coppélia, Lise in Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardée, and the title characters in John Cranko's Pineapple Poll and Léonide Massine's Mam'zelle Angot, but she was also effective as the vapid Ballerina in Michel Fokine's Petrushka, as the Betrayed Girl in de Valois's The Rake's Progress, and as the adulterous, runaway Bride in Alfred Rodrigues's Blood Wedding. She was praised for her execution of the notoriously demanding and often unrewarding fairy variations in the prologue to The Sleeping Beauty as well as for her performance as the Princess Aurora, the title role. Her greatest contribution at the time, however, was the part she played in the creation of new ballets, in particular those of the young Kenneth MacMillan.
In 1955, MacMillan cast Lane in a principal role in Danses Concertantes, set to the Stravinsky score and with designs by Nicholas Georgiadis, then also at the beginning of a great career. The success of the ballet was such that de Valois immediately transferred it, and Lane, to the main company at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Lane would finish her performing career there as a solo dancer in 1968.
== Roles created ==
Among the roles that Lane created in new works or productions are the following.
1947. Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Maurice Ravel. Role: principal dancer.
1950. Trumpet Concerto, choreography by George Balanchine, music by Franz Joseph Haydn. Role: principal dancer, with Svetlana Beriosova, David Blair, Elaine Fifield, David Poole, Pirmin Trecu, and corps de ballet.
1951. Casse Noisette (The Nutcracker), choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Role: Crystallized Flower, leader of the corps de ballet in "Waltz of the Flowers."
1953. Somnamabulism, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Stan Kenton, arranged by John Lanchbery. Role: pas de trois with David Poole and Kenneth MacMillan.
1954. Café des Sports, choreography by Alfred Rodrigues, music by Antony Hopkins. Role: Urchin.
1954. Laiderette, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Frank Martin. Role: Clown, dancing an extended pas de deux with David Poole and a pas de trois with Poole and Johaar Mosaval; an all-South African cast.
1955. Danses Concertantes, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Igor Stravinsky. Role: principal dancer.
1955. House of Birds, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Federico Mompou, arranged by John Lanchbery. Role: pas de trois with David Poole and Doreen Tempest.
1955. Madame Chrysanthème, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Alan Rawsthorne. Role: Madame Chrysanthème, at the New York premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House.
1956. Noctambules, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Humphrey Searle. Role: Hypnotist's Assistant, with Leslie Edwards as the Hypnotist, Nadia Nerina as the Faded Beauty, Desmond Doyle as the Rich Man, Anya Linden as the Poor Girl, and Brian Shaw as the Soldier.
1957. The Prince of the Pagodas, choreography by John Cranko, music by Benjamin Britten. Role: Belle Rose.
1958. Ondine, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Hans Werner Henze. Role: dancer in lead couple, with Brian Shaw, of a divertissement with Merle Park, Doreenb Wells, Peter Clegg, Pirmin Trecu, and corps de ballet.
1958. Agon, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Igor Stravinsky. Role: principal dancer.
1961. Diversions, choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, music by Arthur Bliss. Role: a pas de quatre with Svetlana Beriosova, Donald MacLeary, and Graham Usher.
== Personal and later life ==
Lane was married to her Royal Ballet colleague David Blair, with whom she had twin daughters in 1960. In 1961, Blair was promoted to be Margot Fonteyn's regular partner but was soon overshadowed by the arrival of Rudolf Nureyev in 1962. Both Lane and Blair, along with other leading dancers of the company, sank into relative obscurity in the blaze of publicity about the partnership of Fonteyn and Nureyev.
After leaving the Royal Ballet in 1968, Lane occasionally made guest appearances with London Festival Ballet, Ballet Rambert, and her former home company. She found a new vocation, however, as an inspired and inspiring teacher at the London Ballet Centre. She then taught at the Royal Ballet and Ballet Rambert schools and with other companies, schools and seminars.
In middle age, after her husband died in 1976, she went to live in Cyprus, a former British stronghold in the eastern Mediterranean. There she settled in the Greek Cypriot town of Kyrenia, a thriving cultural centre and popular tourist destination on the northern coast of the island, where she founded her own small school, the Maryon Lane Ballet Academy. After some years of teaching local students, she died in 2008, at age 77.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickerman_Hill | Vickerman Hill | Vickerman Hill is a summit located in the Central New York Region of New York located in the Town of German Flatts in Herkimer County, south of Mohawk.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cry_Pretty | Cry Pretty | Cry Pretty is the sixth studio album by American singer and songwriter Carrie Underwood. The album was released on September 14, 2018, as Underwood's first album with Capitol Records Nashville after signing a global deal with Universal Music Group at the start of 2017. The album marked the first co-producing effort by Underwood, who partnered with David Garcia for the record.
The album was met with mostly positive reviews from music critics, and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, making Underwood the first woman to hit the top of the Billboard 200 chart with four country albums. It also achieved the biggest sales week for a country album in more than three years, as well as the biggest sales week for a female artist in 2018. It also debuted at number one in Canada, number four in Australia and charted in several other markets.
The album was supported by four singles: "Cry Pretty", "Love Wins", "Southbound", and "Drinking Alone". To further promote it, Underwood embarked on Cry Pretty Tour 360, which started on May 1 and ended on October 31, 2019.
== Background ==
On April 18, 2018, Underwood released a statement on the album, saying, "At this point in my career, I feel stronger and more creative than ever. I think you can hear that in this new album. It's emotional, it's soulful, it's real, and we also have some fun on there too. I hope everyone loves it as much as I have loved making it." Songwriter and producer David Garcia was selected to co-produce the album with Underwood. Additionally, Cry Pretty marks Underwood's first effort as producer. Although the making of the album had been going on for nearly a year before Underwood's fall and subsequent injuries in 2017, she wasn't able to record vocals for the songs until 2018, due to the damage to her mouth.
Underwood had reserved the track "The Bullet" for several album cycles, finally deciding to release it on the Cry Pretty album. She addressed the intent behind the song, calling it "timely but not political. It doesn't matter what the opinions or feelings are, it just matters that something happened, and it's about the people that are affected by it at the end of the day. I'm just glad I heard this song before anyone else did because I feel like it found its home with us."
Underwood co-wrote the album's title track after having three miscarriages in two years, explaining that, "I would literally have these horrible things going on in my life and then have to go smile and do some interviews or photoshoots." She also addressed the more personal songs on the album, saying, "I feel like I've always been good about writing stories about other people and not so great writing about myself. I felt like through all the ups and downs of last year and the beginning of this year, it was...I had to. That's just what was on my mind and on my heart."
Underwood considers the album her most personal to date, saying, "I feel like this is the most me I've ever had in a project. This is the project that I've had my hands all over the most. It's just something I'm really proud of. I want people to find something that makes them feel something."
== Promotion ==
Underwood performed the title track for the first time at the 53rd Academy of Country Music Awards on April 15, 2018, which was well received by critics. She returned to American Idol on May 13, 2018, to give the second televised performance of "Cry Pretty". She also performed "Spinning Bottles" at the American Music Awards on October 9, 2018. She gave her first live performance of "Southbound" at the 54th Academy of Country Music Awards on April 7, 2019. Underwood performed "Low" from the album on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The album's fourth single, "Drinking Alone," had its debut televised performance at the 53rd Country Music Association awards on November 13, 2019.
=== Singles ===
"Cry Pretty", the first single from the album was released on April 11, 2018. It debuted at number 20 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart, and was the most added song to Country Radio that week. The song topped the Digital Songs chart, becoming Underwood's first song to do so and also debuted at number 48 on the Billboard Hot 100. It peaked at number nine on the Billboard Country Airplay chart and number five on the Hot Country Songs chart. "Love Wins" was released as the second single from the album on August 31, 2018, alongside a lyric video. It debuted at number 90 on the Scottish Singles Chart for the week of September 8, 2018, and number 30 on the US Hot Country Songs chart for the week of September 15, 2018. On September 7, 2018, "End Up with You" was released as a promotional single.
"Southbound" was released as the third single from the album on April 29, 2019. It reached number three on the Billboard Country Airplay chart and number 11 on the Hot Country Songs chart in the US. "Drinking Alone" was released as the fourth single from the album. It impacted country radio on November 4, 2019.
=== Tour ===
On August 8, 2018, Underwood announced The Cry Pretty Tour 360 in support of the album; the first date was May 1, 2019, in Greensboro, North Carolina and the tour concluded on October 31 in Detroit, Michigan, playing 54 shows. Runaway June and Maddie & Tae were the supporting acts of the tour.
== Critical reception ==
Cry Pretty received mostly positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album has an average score of 69, based on eleven reviews.
Giving a rating of three and a half stars out of five, Rolling Stone called Cry Pretty a "modern country album pivoting into pop and R&B without going full Taylor, while also showing the kind of character more mega-stars should aspire to". The songwriting was referred to as "grade-A" and Underwood's voice was deemed "mighty" and "selling even the lesser [songs]". The review also praised Underwood for raising the topic of gun violence in "The Bullet" and "Love Wins", noting that "if Underwood isn't going there, she's at least got the balls to engage the subject in the mainstream, where the conversation needs to happen — while her male peers, no doubt worried about their market share, seem scared to make a peep". Additionally, the review draws favourable similarities to the music of Adele, Kate Bush, Beyoncé, Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss but highlights Sam Hunt, explaining that the "architecture [of the album] is R&B at its core". Markos Papadatos of the Digital Journal praised the album stating "the control Underwood maintains over her voice throughout the album is impeccable. Overall, Carrie Underwood excels on this album as a singer, songwriter, and producer. Cry Pretty is a superb studio effort, and it garners an A rating." The Diamondback reviewed the album favorably, writing "poised and mature, her sixth studio album effortlessly differentiates itself through the masterful lyricism and savvy falsettos that trademark Underwood's undeniable talent, even over a decade after her American Idol win. The organic sense of vulnerability conveyed throughout the entire album leaves the listener with the impression of having just sat down and talked for hours with Underwood herself." The review concluded with the statement "Underwood proves on Cry Pretty that she has strategically maintained her stronghold of country regality, as this album portrays her dynamic evolution not only as a musician, but as a person as well." The Los Angeles Times gave a mixed review, saying, "The singer, no surprise, sets off all kinds of vocal fireworks. But as the painfully familiar images in "Southbound" demonstrate — another pontoon boat? — the songs on "Cry Pretty" (most of which Underwood co-wrote) cast these emotions and experiences in such generalized terms that it's hard to come away with a clear sense of a human in the world."
== Accolades ==
At the 2019 Billboard Music Awards, the album received a nomination for Top Country Album. At the 53rd Annual Country Music Association Awards, the album received a nomination for Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year. At the 47th Annual American Music Awards the album won the award for Favorite Country Album, making Underwood the only artist to receive that award for every album they have released.
== Commercial performance ==
In the United States, Cry Pretty debuted on top of the Billboard 200 with 266,000 album-equivalent units, including 251,000 pure album sales, giving Underwood her fourth number-one album, and making her the first woman to have four number-one country albums on the chart. It is the largest sales week for a country album since Luke Bryan's Kill the Lights in 2015, and the biggest sales week for a female artist in 2018. It also debuted atop the Top Country Albums chart, becoming her seventh consecutive number one album on that chart. The debut of Cry Pretty at number one on the Billboard 200 prompted Underwood to rise from number sixty-one to the top of Billboard Artist 100. It made her the first female country artist to top that chart. It was the seventh best-selling album of 2018 in the United States, with 401,000 copies sold that year. It has sold 534,000 physical copies and a total of 870,000 copies including streaming in the United States as of January 2020. Cry Pretty was certified Gold by the RIAA on October 23, 2018, and Platinum on February 12, 2020.
The album also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart with 28,000 album-equivalent units, giving Underwood her third number-one album in the country. Cry Pretty opened at number four on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart, becoming her third top five album there, while also debuting at number one on the country component chart. It also debuted at number 12 in Scotland and number sixteen on the UK Albums Chart—becoming her third top twenty album in the region.
The album's four singles, "Cry Pretty," "Love Wins," "Southbound," and "Drinking Alone" have all been certified gold or platinum by the RIAA as of August 2021, with streaming included.
== Track listing ==
Track listing and credits adapted from Rolling Stone and the iTunes Store. All songs produced by Carrie Underwood and David Garcia, except "The Champion", produced by Jim Jonsin.
=== Notes ===
"The Champion" bonus track was not included on the LP release.
== Personnel ==
Carrie Underwood – lead vocals, backing vocals (1, 2, 4–8, 10, 11, 12), percussion (11)
Dave Cohen – keyboards (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12), programming (6, 7, 10, 12)
Charlie Judge – keyboards (3, 8), programming (3)
Jason Evigan – keyboards (6), programming (6)
Fred Williams – keyboards (6, 12), programming (6, 12)
Sarah Emily Berrios – programming (8)
Will Weatherly – keyboards (11), programming (11)
Robert Dante – keyboards (13), acoustic piano (13)
David Garcia – acoustic guitar (1, 7, 10), electric guitar (3, 5, 8, 11), keyboards (3–12), programming (3–8, 10, 11, 12), drums (4), backing vocals (4), percussion (11)
Ilya Toshinsky – acoustic guitar (1, 2, 5, 11, 12), bouzouki (2), banjo (5), dobro (5), electric guitar (5), mandolin (5, 10, 12), resonator guitar (6)
Dan Dugmore – pedal steel guitar (1, 3, 6, 8–12)
Tom Bukovac – electric guitar (1,2, 5, 7, 10)
Rob McNelley – electric guitar (1,2, 3, 5–8, 10, 11, 12)
Steve Hinson – pedal steel guitar (2)
Hillary Lindsey – acoustic guitar (3), backing vocals (4, 8, 11)
Bryan Sutton – acoustic guitar (3, 4, 8)
Danny Rader – acoustic guitar (3, 4, 6, 8, 10), electric guitar (3, 4, 8, 12), dobro (6, 7)
Michael Burman – guitar (13)
Bones Owens – guitar (13)
Ben Haggard – acoustic guitar (13)
Jimmie Lee Sloas – bass guitar (1–8, 10, 12)
Chris McHugh – drums (1, 2, 3, 5–8, 10, 12), percussion (1, 11)
Nir Z. – drums (11)
Austin Hoke – cello (9)
Carole Rabinowitz – cello (10, 12)
Kris Wilkinson – viola (10, 12)
Will Hoge – harmonica (5)
David Angell – violin (10, 12)
David Davidson – violin (10, 12), strings arrangements (10, 12)
Holly Williams – backing vocals (2)
Ivey Childers – backing vocals (5)
Jenni Fairbanks – backing vocals (5)
Amanda Luftburrow – backing vocals (5)
Will Hoge – backing vocals (6)
Josh Miller – backing vocals (5)
Dave Barnes – backing vocals (10)
Perry Coleman – backing vocals (10)
Vicki Hampton – backing vocals (10)
Brett James – backing vocals (10)
Wendy Moten – backing vocals (10)
Ludacris – featured rapper (13)
The McCrary Sisters – backing vocals (13)
=== Production ===
David Garcia – producer (1–12), editing (1–12)
Carrie Underwood – producer (1–12), creative director
Jim Jonsin – producer (13), mixing (13)
John Ditty – engineer (1–12), editing (1–12)
John Hanes – engineer (1–12)
Kam Luchterhand – engineer (1–12)
Doug Johnson – mixing (1–12)
Chris Lord-Alge – mixing (1, 3, 8)
Mark Endert – mixing (2, 12)
Serban Ghenea – mixing (4–7, 9, 10, 11)
Niko Marzouca – engineer (13), mixing (13)
Rob Marks – mixing (13)
Adam Chagnon – musical assistance
Nik Karpen – musical assistance
Nate Lowery – production manager
Bethany Newman – art direction
Joshua Sage Newman – art direction
Parker Foote – design
Randee St. Nicholas – photography
Ann Edelbulte – manager
== Charts ==
== Certifications ==
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Norman#:~:text=In%202006%2C%20he%20received%20the,of%20the%20Design%20Research%20Society. | Don Norman | Donald Arthur Norman (born December 25, 1935) is an American researcher, professor, and author. Norman is the director of The Design Lab at University of California, San Diego. He is best known for his books on design, especially The Design of Everyday Things. He is widely regarded for his expertise in the fields of design, usability engineering, and cognitive science, and has shaped the development of the field of cognitive systems engineering. He is a co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, along with Jakob Nielsen. He is also an IDEO fellow and a member of the Board of Trustees of IIT Institute of Design in Chicago. He also holds the title of Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego. Norman is an active Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), where he spends two months a year teaching.
Much of Norman's work involves the advocacy of user-centered design. His books all have the underlying purpose of furthering the field of design, from doors to computers. Norman has taken a controversial stance in saying that the design research community has had little impact in the innovation of products, and that while academics can help in refining existing products, it is technologists that accomplish the breakthroughs. To this end, Norman named his website with the initialism JND (just-noticeable difference) to signify his endeavors to make a difference.
== Early academics ==
In 1957, Norman received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Norman received an M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He received a PhD in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He was one of the earliest graduates from the Mathematical Psychology group at University of Pennsylvania and his advisor was Duncan Luce.
After graduating, Norman took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard University and within a year became a lecturer.
After four years with the Center, Norman took a position as an associate professor in the Psychology Department at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Norman applied his training as an engineer and computer scientist, and as an experimental and mathematical psychologist, to the emerging discipline of cognitive science. Norman eventually became founding chair of the Department of Cognitive Science and chair of the Department of Psychology.
At UCSD, Norman was a founder of the Institute for Cognitive Science and one of the organizers of the Cognitive Science Society (along with Roger Schank, Allan Collins, and others), which held its first meeting at the UCSD campus in 1979.
Together with psychologist Tim Shallice, Norman proposed a framework of attentional control of executive functioning. One of the components of the Norman-Shallice model is the supervisory attentional system.
== Cognitive engineering career ==
Norman made the transition from cognitive science to cognitive engineering by entering the field as a consultant and writer. His article "The truth about Unix: The user interface is horrid" in Datamation (1981) catapulted him to a position of prominence in the computer world. Soon after, his career took off outside of academia, although he still remained active at UCSD until 1993. Norman continued his work to further human-centered design by serving on numerous university and government advisory boards such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He currently serves on numerous committees and advisory boards like at Motorola, the Toyota National College of Technology, TED Conference, Panasonic, Encyclopædia Britannica and many more.
Norman was also part of a select team flown in to investigate the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident.
In 1993, Norman left UCSD to join Apple Computer, initially as an Apple Fellow as a User Experience Architect (the first use of the phrase "User Experience" in a job title), and then as the Vice President of the Advanced Technology Group. He later worked for Hewlett-Packard before joining with Jakob Nielsen to form the Nielsen Norman Group in 1998. He returned to academia as a professor of computer science at Northwestern University, where he was co-director of the Segal Design Institute until 2010. In 2014, he returned to UCSD to become director of the newly established The Design Lab housed at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.
== Awards and honors ==
Norman has received many awards for his work. He received two honorary degrees, one "S. V. della laurea ad honorem" in Psychology from the University of Padua in 1995 and one doctorate in Industrial Design and Engineering from Delft University of Technology. In 2001, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and won the Rigo Award from SIGDOC, the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group (SIG) on the Design of Communication (DOC). In 2006, he received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science. In 2009, Norman was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Design Research Society. In 2011 Norman was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for the development of design principles based on human cognition that enhance the interaction between people and technology.
== Nielsen Norman Group ==
Norman, alongside colleague Jakob Nielsen, formed the Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) in 1998. The company's vision is to help designers and other companies move toward more human-centered products and internet interactions, and are pioneers in the field of user experience design.
== User-centered design ==
In 1986, Norman introduced the term "user-centered design" in the book User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-computer Interaction, a book edited by him and by Stephen W. Draper. In the introduction of the book, the idea that designers should aim their efforts at the people who will use the system is introduced:People are so adaptable that they are capable of shouldering the entire burden of accommodation to an artifact, but skillful designers make large parts of this burden vanish by adapting the artifact to the users.In his book The Design of Everyday Things, Norman uses the term "user-centered design" to describe design based on the needs of the user, leaving aside what he deems secondary considerations, such as aesthetics. User-centered design involves simplifying the structure of tasks, making things visible, getting the mapping right, exploiting the powers of constraint, designing for error, explaining affordances and the seven stages of action. The principles and characteristics outlined in the book are relatable to the field of product design, both in a physical and a digital context.
In his book The Things that Make Us Smart: Defending the Human Attribute in the Age of the Machine, Norman uses the term "cognitive artifacts" to describe "those artificial devices that maintain, display, or operate upon information in order to serve a representational function and that affect human cognitive performance". Similar to his The Design of Everyday Things book, Norman argues for the development of machines that fit our minds, rather than have our minds be conformed to the machine.
On the Revised Edition of The Design of Everyday Things, Norman backtracks on his previous claims about aesthetics and removed the term User-Centered Design altogether. In the preface of the book, he says :The first edition of the book focused upon making products understandable and usable. The total experience of a product covers much more than its usability: aesthetics, pleasure, and fun play critically important roles. There was no discussion of pleasure, enjoyment and emotion, Emotion is so important that I wrote an entire book, Emotional Design, about the role it plays in design.He instead currently uses the term human-centered design and defines it as: "an approach that puts human needs, capabilities, and behavior first, then designs to accommodate those needs, capabilities, and ways of behaving."
== Don Norman Design Award ==
The Don Norman Design Award organization was instituted and the inaugural awards bearing his name were announced on September 13, 2024. The DNDA Summit will be held on November 14 and 15, 2024 in San Diego, California.
== Bibliography ==
He is on numerous educational, private, and public sector advisory boards, including the editorial board of Encyclopædia Britannica. Norman published several important books during his time at UCSD, one of which, User Centered System Design, obliquely referred to the university in the initials of its title. This is a list of select publications.
=== Psychology books ===
Norman, Donald A. (1983). Learning and Memory. W H Freeman & Co. ISBN 0716713004.
Lindsay, Peter H.; Norman, Donald A. (1972). Human information processing: an introduction to psychology. Academic Press.
Norman, Donald A. (1976). Memory and Attention: An Introduction to Human Information Processing. Series in Psychology (2 ed.). John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 0471651370.
Norman, Donald A. (1969). Memory and Attention: An Introduction to Human Information Processing. John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 0471651311.
=== Usability books ===
Norman, Donald A. (2023). Design for a Better World. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262047951.
Norman, Donald A. (2013). The Design of Everyday Things. Revised and expanded. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465050659.
Norman, Donald A. (2010). Living with Complexity. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262014861.
Norman, Donald A. (2007). The Design of Future Things. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465002276.
Norman, Donald A. (2005). Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. Basic Books. ISBN 0465051367.
Norman, Donald A. (1998). The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer Is So Complex, and Information Appliances Are the Solution. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262140652.
Norman, Donald A. (1993). Turn Signals Are The Facial Expressions Of Automobiles. Basic Books. ISBN 9780201622362.
Norman, Donald A. (1993). Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine. William Patrick Book. Basic Books. ISBN 0201626950.
Norman, Donald A. (1988). The Psychology of Everyday Things (1 ed.). Basic Books. ISBN 0465067093.
=== Other publications ===
The Trouble with Unix: The User Interface is Horrid. Datamation, 27 (12) 1981, November, pp. 139–150. Reprinted in Pylyshyn, Z. W., & Bannon, L. J., eds. Perspectives on the Computer Revolution, 2nd revised edition, Hillsdale, NJ: Ablex, 1989.
Direct manipulation interfaces (1985) about direct manipulation interfaces in collaboration with E. L. Hutchins (first author) and J.D. Hollan
User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction (1986) (editor in collaboration with Stephen Draper)
Norman, Donald A. (1994). Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine (CD-ROM for Mac). Voyager Company. ASIN B000CIQ42I. Combining his books, Design of Everyday Things, Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles, Things That Make Us Smart, with various technical reports.
== See also ==
Human action cycle
Human-computer interaction
Human-centered design
User-centered design
Interaction design
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Don Norman at TED
Publications by Donald Norman from Interaction-Design.org
Donald Norman at Userati Archived December 20, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
Video: Franklin Institute Award on Donald Norman from April 2006 by the Franklin Institute
Video: Lecture by Donald Norman on "The Design of Future Things" (at Stanford University, February 2007) on YouTube
Video: Living With Complexity, April 2011 talk at Stanford University
An evening of UX Hacking with Don Norman at Stanford" (Stanford University, December 17, 2013) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_flag | Pride flag | A pride flag is any flag that represents a segment or part of the LGBTQ community. Pride in this case refers to the notion of LGBTQ pride. The terms LGBTQ flag and queer flag are often used interchangeably.
The rainbow flag, which represents the entire LGBTQ community, is the most widely used pride flag. As well as the LGBTQ community as a whole, pride flags can represent various sexual orientations, romantic orientations, gender identities, subcultures, and regional purposes. Some pride flags, however, are not exclusively related to LGBTQ matters, such as the flag for leather subculture.
Numerous communities have embraced distinct flags, with a majority drawing inspiration from the rainbow flag. These flags are often created by amateur designers and later gain traction online or within affiliated organizations, ultimately attaining a semi-official status as a symbolic representation of the community. Typically, these flags incorporate a range of colors that symbolize different aspects of the associated communities.
== Notable examples ==
=== Rainbow ===
Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow pride flag for the 1978 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day celebration. The flag was designed as a "symbol of hope" and liberation, and an alternative to the symbolism of the pink triangle. The flag does not depict an actual rainbow. Rather, the colors of the rainbow are displayed as horizontal stripes, with red at the top and violet at the bottom. It represents the diversity of gays and lesbians around the world. In the original eight-color version, pink stood for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit. A copy of the original 20-by-30 foot, eight-color flag was made by Baker in 2000 and was installed in the Castro district in San Francisco.
Many variations on the rainbow flag exist, including ones incorporating other LGBTQ symbols like the triangle or lambda. In 2018, designer Daniel Quasar created a modified version of the rainbow pride flag, incorporating elements of other flags to bring focus on inclusion and progress. This flag is known as the Progress Pride flag. In 2021, Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK redesigned the Progress Pride flag to incorporate the intersex flag.
=== Aromanticism ===
The aromantic pride flag consists of five horizontal stripes, which are (from top to bottom) green, light green, white, gray, and black. The flag was created by Cameron Whimsy in 2014. The green and light green stripes represent aromanticism and the aro-spectrum. The white stripe represents the importance and validity of non-romantic forms of love, which include friendship, platonic and aesthetic attraction, queerplatonic relationships, and family. The black and gray stripes represent the sexuality spectrum, which ranges from aro-aces (aromantic asexuals) to aromantic allosexuals.
=== Asexuality ===
The asexual pride flag consists of four horizontal stripes: black, gray, white, and purple from top to bottom. The flag was created by an Asexual Visibility and Education Network user standup in August 2010, as part of a community effort to create and choose a flag. The black stripe represents asexuality; the gray stripe represents gray-asexuals and demisexuals; the white stripe represents allies; and the purple stripe represents community.
=== Bisexuality ===
Introduced on December 5, 1998, the bisexual pride flag was designed by activist Michael Page to represent and increase the visibility of bisexual people in the LGBTQ community and society as a whole. Page chose a combination of Pantone Matching System (PMS) colors magenta (pink), lavender (purple), and royal (blue). The finished rectangular flag consists of a broad pink stripe at the top, a broad stripe in blue at the bottom, and a narrow purple stripe in the center.
Page described the meaning of the colors as, "The pink color represents sexual attraction to the same sex only (gay and lesbian), the blue represents sexual attraction to the opposite sex only (straight) and the resultant overlap color purple represents sexual attraction to both sexes (bi)." He also described the flag's meaning in deeper terms, stating "The key to understanding the symbolism in the Bi Pride Flag is to know that the purple pixels of color blend unnoticeably into both the pink and blue, just as in the 'real world' where bi people blend unnoticeably into both the gay/lesbian and straight communities."
Page stated that he took the colors and overlap for the flag from the biangles, overlapping blue and pink triangles that represent bisexuality. The biangles were designed by artist Liz Nania as she co-organized a bisexual contingent for the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1987. The design of the biangles began with the pink triangle, a Nazi concentration camp badge that later became a symbol of gay liberation representing homosexuality. The addition of a blue triangle contrasts the pink and represents heterosexuality. The two triangles overlap and form lavender, which represents the "queerness of bisexuality", referencing the Lavender Menace and 1980s and 1990s associations of lavender with queerness.
=== Gay men ===
Various pride flags have been used to symbolize gay men. Rainbow flags have been used since 1978 to represent both gay men and, subsequently, the LGBTQ community as a whole. Since the 2010s, various designs have been proposed to specifically represent the gay male community, the one shown above being the most common today.
=== Intersex ===
The intersex flag was created by Morgan Carpenter of Intersex Human Rights Australia in July 2013 to create a flag "that is not derivative, but is yet firmly grounded in meaning". The organization describes the circle as:
"unbroken and unornamented, symbolising wholeness and completeness, and our potentialities. We are still fighting for bodily autonomy and genital integrity, and this symbolises the right to be who and how we want to be".
=== Lesbian ===
No single design for a lesbian-pride flag has been widely adopted. However, many popular ones exist.
The labrys lesbian flag was created in 1999 by graphic designer Sean Campbell, and published in June 2000 in the Palm Springs edition of the Gay and Lesbian Times Pride issue. The design involves a labrys, a type of double-headed axe, superimposed on the inverted black triangle, set against a violet background. Among its functions, the labrys was associated as a weapon used by the Amazons of mythology. In the 1970s it was adopted as a symbol of empowerment by the lesbian feminist community. Women considered asocial by Nazi Germany for not conforming to the Nazi ideal of a woman, which included homosexual females, were condemned to concentration camps and wore an inverted black triangle badge to identify them. Some lesbians reclaimed this symbol as gay men reclaimed the pink triangle (many lesbians also reclaimed the pink triangle although lesbians were not included in Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code). The color violet became associated with lesbians via the poetry of Sappho.
The lipstick lesbian flag was introduced by Natalie McCray in 2010 in the weblog This Lesbian Life. The design contains a red kiss in the left corner, superimposed on seven stripes consisting of six shades of red and pink colors and a white bar in the center. The lipstick lesbian flag represents "homosexual women who have a more feminine gender expression", but has not been widely adopted. Some lesbians are against it because it does not include butch lesbians, while others have accused McCray of writing biphobic, racist, and transphobic comments on her blog.
The "pink" lesbian flag was derived from the lipstick lesbian flag but with the kiss mark removed. The pink flag attracted more use as a general lesbian pride flag.
The "orange-pink" lesbian flag, modeled after the seven-band pink flag, was introduced on Tumblr by blogger Emily Gwen in 2018. The colors include dark orange for "gender non-conformity", orange for "independence", light orange for "community", white for "unique relationships to womanhood", pink for "serenity and peace", dusty pink for "love and sex", and dark rose for "femininity". A five-stripes version was soon derived from the 2018 colors.
=== Non-binary ===
The non-binary pride flag was created in 2014 by Kye Rowan. Each stripe color represents different types of non-binary identities: yellow for people who identify outside of the gender binary, white for non-binary people with multiple genders, purple for those with a mixture of both male and female genders, and black for agender individuals.
=== Pansexuality ===
The pansexual pride flag was introduced in October 2010 in a Tumblr blog. It has three horizontal bars that are pink, yellow and blue. "The pink represents being attracted to women, the blue being attracted to men, and the yellow for being attracted to everyone else"; such as non-binary gender identities.
=== Transgender ===
The transgender pride flag was designed by transgender woman Monica Helms in 1999. It was first publicly displayed at a pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona, US, in 2000. It was flown from a large public flagpole in San Francisco's Castro District beginning November 19, 2012, in commemoration of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. The flag represents the transgender community and consists of five horizontal stripes: two light blue, two pink, with a white stripe in the center. Helms described the meaning of the flag as follows:
The stripes at the top and bottom are light blue, the traditional color for baby boys. The stripes next to them are pink, the traditional color for baby girls. The white stripe is for people that are nonbinary, feel that they don't have a gender. The pattern is such that no matter which way you fly it, it is always correct, signifying us finding correctness in our lives.
Philadelphia became the first county government in the United States to raise the transgender pride flag in 2015. It was raised at City Hall in honor of Philadelphia's 14th Annual Trans Health Conference, and remained next to the US and City of Philadelphia flags for the entirety of the conference. Then-Mayor Michael Nutter gave a speech in honor of the trans community's acceptance in Philadelphia.
== Gallery ==
=== Sexual orientation–based flags ===
=== Romantic attraction–based flags ===
=== Gender identity–based flags ===
=== Other flags ===
=== Location-based flags ===
== Unicode ==
The sequence U+1F3F3 🏳 WAVING WHITE FLAG, U+FE0F ️ VARIATION SELECTOR-16, U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER, U+1F308 🌈 RAINBOW produces a rainbow flag emoji 🏳️🌈, but adding more flags has been recommended against and as of 2022, "the Emoji Subcommittee is no longer taking in any proposals for flags of any kind" and proposes to add a pink heart, a light blue heart, and a gray heart emoji to allow many pride flags (as well as sports teams and regional flags) to be represented as sequences of colored hearts.
== See also ==
Disability Pride flag
LGBTQ symbols
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangeet_Natak_Akademi_Award | Sangeet Natak Akademi Award | Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IAST: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognition given to people in the field of performing arts.
In 2003, the award consisted of Rs. 50,000, a citation, an angavastram (a shawl), and a tamrapatra (a brass plaque). Since 2009, the cash prize has been increased to ₹1,00,000. The awards are given in the categories of music, dance, theatre, other traditional arts and puppetry, and for contribution/scholarship in performing arts.
== Award recipients ==
The recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in various categories of performing arts arelisted below:
== Music ==
=== Hindustani music ===
==== Vocal ====
==== Instrumental ====
===== Been/Rudra Veena/Vichitra Veena =====
===== Flute =====
1983 – Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasiya
1986 – Devendra Murdeshwar
1994 – Raghunath Seth
2010 – Nityanand Haldipur
2014 – Ronu Majumdar
2017 – Pt. Rajendra Prasanna
2019 – Chetan Joshi
===== Guitar =====
2005 – Brij Bhushan Kabra
===== Harmonium =====
2000 – Appa Jalgaonkar
2005 – Tulsidas Vasant Borkar
2022 – Dharamnath Mishra
===== Pakhavaj =====
===== Santoor =====
1986 – Shivkumar Sharma
1993 – Bhajan Sopori
2018 – Tarun Bhattacharya
===== Sarangi =====
===== Sarod =====
===== Shehnai =====
1956 – Ustad Bismillah Khan
1985 – Ali Hussain Khan
1989 – Pt. Anant Lal
1996 – Pt. Raghunath Prasanna
2008 – Krishna Ram Chaudhary
2009 – Ali Ahmad Hussain
2017 – Rajendra Prasanna
===== Sitar =====
===== Surbahar =====
1991 – Annapurna Devi
2011 – Pushparaj Koshti
===== Tabla =====
===== Violin =====
=== Carnatic music ===
==== Vocal ====
==== Instrumental ====
===== Clarionet =====
1994 – A. K. C. Natarajan
===== Flute =====
===== Ghatam =====
1988 – Thetakudi Harihara Vinayakram
1995 – Umayalpuram K. Narayanaswamy
2011 – E. M. Subramaniam
2014 – Sukanya Ramgopal
===== Gottuvadhyam =====
1958 – Budaloor Krishnamurthy Shastri
2006 – N. Ravikiran
===== Kanjira =====
2001 – G. Harishankar
===== Mandolin =====
2009 – U. Srinivas
===== Mridangam =====
===== Nadaswaram =====
===== Saxophone =====
2003 – Kadri Gopalnath
===== Thavil =====
1985 – Valangaiman A. Shanmugasundaram Pillai
1988 – Valayapatti A. R. Subramaniam
2001 – Haridwaramangalam A. K. Palanivel
2014 – Thiruvalaputhur T A Kaliyamurthy
2021 – Thanjavur R. Govindarajan
2022 – Vinukonda Subrahmanyam
===== Veena =====
===== Violin =====
=== Creative and experimental music ===
=== Other major traditions of music ===
1996 – Hemanta Kumar Jamatia (Folk and tribal music of Tripura)
2008 – Ningombam Ibobi Singh (Nata Sankirtana, Manipur)
2009 – L. Ibohalmacha Singh (Nata Sankirtana, Manipur)
2010 – M.V. Simhachala Sastry (Harikatha, Tirupathi)
2011 – Gopal Chandra Panda (Odissi Music)
2012 – Bhai Balbir Singh Ragi (Gurbani)
2013 – Bankim Sethi (Odissi Music)
2015 – Hridaynath Mangeshkar (Sugam Sangeet), Prafulla Kar (Sugam Sangeet), Bhupinder Singh (Sugam Sangeet)
2018 – Suresh Wadkar (Sugam Sangeet), Shanti Hiranand (Sugam Sangeet), H. Ashangbi Devi (Nata Sankirtana, Manipur)
2019 – O. S. Arun (Sugam Sangeet), Sharma Bandhu (Sugam Sangeet), D. Uma Maheshwari (Harikatha)
2020 – Anup Jalota (Sugam Sangeet), N. Irabot Singh (Nata Sankirtana)
2021 – Susmita Das (Sugam Sangeet), H. R. Leelavathi (Sugam Sangeet), Kumud Diwan (Thumri)
2022 – Sapam Kullabi Singh (Nata Pung), Sitaram Singh (Sugam Sangeet)
2023 – L. V. Gangadhara Sastry, Sangita Gosain (Oddissi Music)
2023-[Bharat Sharma Vyas(Folk Music-Bihar)
== Dance ==
=== Bharatanatyam ===
=== Chhau ===
=== Creative dance/Choreography ===
=== Kathak ===
=== Kathakali ===
=== Kuchipudi ===
=== Manipuri ===
=== Mohiniattam ===
=== Odissi ===
=== Sattriya ===
=== Other major traditions of dance and dance theatre ===
2007 – Kalamandalam Sivan Namboodiri (Kutiyattam)
2009 – Kala Krishna (Andhranatyam)
2010 – Painkulam Rama Chakyar (Kutiyattam)
2012 – Painkulam Damodara Chakyar (Kutiyattam)
2013 – Srinivasa Rangachariar (Arayer Sevai)
2021 – Kalamandalam Girija (Kutiyattam)
2022 – Karuna Borah (Ankiya Bhaona)
2023 – Perini Prakash (Periniattam)
=== Music for dance ===
== Theatre ==
=== Acting ===
==== From 1952–2003 (language-wise) ====
===== Assamese =====
1961 – Mitradev Mahanta Adhikari
2001 – Girish Chowdhury
2019 - Pranjal Saikia
===== Bengali theatre =====
===== Gujarati theatre =====
===== Hindi theatre =====
===== Kannada =====
===== Malayalam =====
1960 – C. I. Parameswaran Pillai
1965 – V. T. Aravindaksha Menon
1969 – N. N. Pillai
===== Manipuri =====
1991 – Sabitri Heisnam
1997 – R. K. Bhogen
===== Marathi theatre =====
===== Oriya =====
1961 – Samuel Sahu
===== Sanskrit =====
1965 – Krishnachandra Moreshwar "Daji Bhatawadekar"
===== Tamil =====
1959 – Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar
1962 – T. K. Shanmugam
1967 – S. V. Sahasranamam
1992 – Poornam Viswanathan
===== Telugu theatre =====
1961 – Sthanam Narasimha Rao
1963 – Banda Kanakalingeswara Rao
1973 – Kalyanam Raghuramaiah
1986 – Peesapati Narasimha Murty
===== Urdu =====
1963 – Zohra Sehgal
1994 – Uzra Butt
==== From 2004 onwards ====
=== Mime ===
1993 – Jogesh Dutta
2002 – Niranjan Goswami
2009 – Moinul Haque
2018 – Swapan Nandy
2021 – Vilas Janve
2022 – Yumnam Sadananda Singh
=== Direction ===
=== Playwriting ===
Assamese
1986 – Satya Prasad Barua
2003 – Aruna Sarma
Bengali
1968 – Badal Sircar
1969 – Manmatha Ray
1975 – Bijon Bhattacharya
1985 – Manoj Mitra
1991 – Mohit Chattopadhyaya
Dogri
2008 – Narsingh Dev Jamwal
Gujarati
1961 – Prabhulal Dayaram Dwivedi
1971 – C. C. Mehta, Pragji Dossa
Hindi
1965 – Upendra Nath Ashk
1968 – Mohan Rakesh
1977 – Lakshmi Narain Lal
1988 – Dharamvir Bharati
1992 – Surendra Verma
2001 – Bhisham Sahni, D.P. Sinha
2006 – Prabhat Kumar Bhattacharya
2004 – Swadesh Deepak
2007 – Reoti Sharan Sharna
2008 – Mudra Rakshasa
Kannada
1963 – Adya Rangacharya 'Shriranga'
1972 – Girish Karnad
1983 – Chandrashekhara Kambara
1980 – Narasinga Rao Parwathavani
1989 – G. B. Joshi
1997 – H. S. Shivaprakash
Kashmiri
1997 – Moti Lal Kemmu
Malayalam
1979 – G. Sankara Pillai
1983 – Kavalam Narayana Panikkar
1986 – K. T. Muhammed
1997 – N. Krishna Pillai
2009 – Vayala Vasudevan Pillai
Manipuri
2007 – Yumnam Rajendra Singh
Marathi
1958 – B.V. 'Mama' Warerkar
1967 – P. L. Deshpande
1970 – Vijay Tendulkar
1976 – C. T. Khanolkar
1982 – M.G. Rangnekar
1984 – Vasant Shankar Kanetkar
1987 – V.V. Shirwadkar
1989 – Mahesh Elkunchwar
1994 – Satish Alekar
1996 – G.P. Deshpande
2003 – Ratnakar Ramkrishna Matkari
2009 – Shankar Narayan Navre
Mizo
2007 – Lathangfala Sailo
Oriya
1981 – Manoranjan Das
1982 – Biswajit Das
1987 – Gopal Chhotray
Punjabi
1993 – Gursharan Singh
1998 – Balwant Gargi
2010 – Atamjeet Singh
Tamil
1974 – S.D. Sundaram
1999–2000 – Na. Muthuswamy
2004 – Indira Parthasarathy
Telugu
2010 – D. Vizai Bhaskar
==== 2012 onwards ====
2012 – Arjun Deo Charan
2013 – Rameshwar Prem, Pundalik Narayan Naik
2014 – Asgar Wajahat
2018 – Rajiv Naik, Laltluangliana Khiangte
2019 – Hrishikesh Sulabh
2022 – Sohan Lal Kaul
2023 – Asif Ali Haider Khan, Pali Bhupinder Singh
=== Allied Theatre Arts ===
Lighting
1974 – Tapas Sen
1977 – V, Ramamurthy
1989 – G.N. Dasgupta
1994 – Kanishka Sen
1997 – Mansukh Joshi (for scenic design also)
1999–2000 – R.K. Dhingra
2002 – Ashok Sagar Bhagat
2003 – Sreenivas G. Kappanna
2005 – Suresh Bhardwaj
2006 - Gautam Bhattacharya
2011 – Kamal Jain
2019 – Souti Chakraborty
2020 – Raghav Prakash
2022 – Daulat Ram Vaid
2023 – Anoop Joshi, Sandeep Dutta
Scenic Design
1985 – Goverdhan Panchal
1986 – Khaled Choudhury
1988 – Dattatraya Ganesh Godse
1997 – Mansukh Joshi
1999–2000 – Robin Das
2007 – Mahendra Kumar
Costumes/Make-up
1981 – Ashok Srivastava (Make-up)
1990 – Roshan Alkazi (Costume Design)
1999–2000 – Shakti Sen (Make-up)
2001 – Dolly Ahluwalia (Costume Design)
2003 – Anant Gopal Shinde (Make-up)
2004 – Prema Karanth (Costume Design)
2008 – Amba Sanyal (Costume Designing)
2009 – Kamal Arora (Make-up)
2013 – Krishna Borkar (Make-up)
2019 – N.K. Ramakrishna (Make-up)
2020 – M. Purushottam (Costume Design)
Music for Theatre
1999–2000 – Kajal Ghosh, Kamal Tewari
2005 - R. Paramashivan
2009 – Kuldeep Singh
2012 - Murari Roychoudhury
2014 - Amod Bhatt, Amardas Manikpuri (Chhattisgarh)
Stagecraft
1993 – M.S. Sathyu
1995 – N. Krishnamoorthy
2002 – Nissar Allana
2005 – H. V. Sharma
2020 – N. Jadumani Singh
=== Major traditions of theatre ===
2007 – Kolyur Ramachandra Rao (Yakshagana)
2008 – Bansi Lal Khiladi, Khayal (Rajasthan)
2012 – Ghulam Rasool Bhagat (Bhand Pather)
2014 – Manjunath Bhagwat Hostota (Yakshagana)
2015 – Sarojini Nangiaramma (Koodiyattam)
2018 – Bhagawat A. S. Nanjappa (Yakshagana), A. M. Parameswaran Kuttan Chakkiyar (Kutiyattam)
2019 – K. S. Krishanappa (Isai Natakam)
2020 – P. P. Kandaswami (Therukoothu)
2021 – Gunindra Nath Ojah (Music and Direction in Ankiya Bhaona)
2022 – Margi Madhu Chakyar (Kutiyattam)
2023 – Piyal Bhattacharya (Sanskrit Theatre)
=== Other Traditional/ Folk/ Tribal/ Dance/ Music/ Theatre and Puppetry ===
=== Puppetry/ Mime/ Allied arts of traditional forms ===
== Films ==
== Overall Contribution/Scholarship ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Berlinguer | Luigi Berlinguer | Luigi Berlinguer (Italian pronunciation: [luˈiːdʒi berliŋˈɡwɛr]; 25 July 1932 – 1 November 2023) was an Italian jurist and politician. He was a professor at the University of Siena, and also served as the minister of university and research and the minister of education.
== Early life and education ==
Berlinguer was born in Sassari, Sardinia, on 25 July 1932. His brother, Sergio Berlinguer, was a diplomat and politician. They were cousins of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) leader Enrico Berlinguer, who died in 1984. He obtained a law degree from the University of Sassari in 1955.
== Career ==
Berlinguer served as mayor of Sennori. He was the rector of the University of Siena from 1985 to 1993, when he was appointed to the Ciampi Cabinet as minister of universities, science, and technology. He was one of the three former PCI members in the cabinet. He served as the minister of education between 1996 and 2000 in the cabinets led first by Romano Prodi and then by Massimo D'Alema. He was also acting minister of universities, science, and technology from 1996 to October 1998. He was succeeded by Ortensio Zecchino as minister. In addition, he served in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic.
As a member of the Democratic Party, Berlinguer was elected as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2009, sitting as part of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. In the European Parliament, he served as first vice-chair of the committee on legal affairs and as a member of the committee on culture and education beginning in 2009.
== Death ==
Berlinguer died on 1 November 2023, at the age of 91.
== Electoral history ==
Source:
== Awards and honours ==
In 2011, Berlinguer received by the European Parliament the MEP award in the field of culture and education.
Knight Grand Cross Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 27 December 1992.
== See also ==
List of members of the European Parliament for Italy, 2009–2014
== References ==
== External links ==
Media related to Luigi Berlinguer at Wikimedia Commons |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusef_Salaam#Personal_life | Yusef Salaam | Yusef Salaam (born 1974) is an American politician, motivational speaker, and activist currently serving as a member of the New York City Council, representing the city's 9th council district since 2024. A member of the Democratic Party, Salaam, one of the Central Park Five, was wrongly convicted of acting in concert to rape a woman in Central Park in 1989. His conviction was vacated in 2002.
== Early life ==
Salaam was born in 1974 in New York City to Sharonne Salaam. He was born into a Muslim household and raised by a religious grandmother and mother who emphasized faith and spirituality. His mother exposed him and his siblings to books about different countries as well as different languages.
=== Central Park jogger case and conviction ===
On April 19, 1989, Trisha Meili, a woman jogging in Central Park, was assaulted and raped by Matias Reyes. Authorities accused Salaam, Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray and Raymond Santana of assaulting her; the five teenagers—of Black and Latino race—became known as the "Central Park Five," later the "Exonerated Five." At the time, Salaam was 15. The teenagers confessed to assaulting her, but later claimed the confessions were the result of beatings and threats by police officers. Salaam later claimed that police had deprived the teenagers of "food, drink or sleep" for more than a day. All five were convicted in 1990. His conviction was upheld by the Appellate Division, and was again upheld in 1993 by the Court of Appeals of the State of New York. He was released from prison in 1997. His conviction was vacated in 2002 and in 2014 New York City paid $41 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by the Central Park Five.
=== Faith during imprisonment ===
While imprisoned, Salaam deepened his connection to Islam, later stating that his faith helped him endure his sentence and shaped his outlook on justice. In an interview with Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, He states the Quran was his way understanding why he was imprisoned after being falsely accused, understanding the Quran as the manual of life. In this interview he also said when he was imprisoned he would look at parallels between himself and the Quran, like the story of Prophet Yusuf (as) in the Quran. Salaam's grandmother would send him letters too ensure he remembers that are people who love him.
During the interview with Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, Yusef Salaam said he got closer to Allah when he was in prison. Salaam served as the imam of the youth facility for five years. After being transferred to an adult facility, he served as the Qadi (religious judge) of the Muslim community for about a year and a half, and later as the Naib (assistant or deputy leader) before his release.
== Career ==
Following his release in 1997, Salaam worked as a construction worker in an apartment complex in the Mitchell–Lama Housing Program on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. He was fired after the company discovered who he was. Salaam then worked at Weill Cornell Medicine. He has served on the board of the Innocence Project.
In 2021, Salaam considered running for the New York State Legislature, but decided against it due to residency requirements. Salaam moved back to New York City from Georgia in 2022. On February 4, 2023, Salaam announced his candidacy for the 9th City Council District of New York City representing Harlem in the 2023 elections. During the campaign, he was endorsed by Cornel West. He won the Democratic primary on July 5 defeating assemblymembers Inez Dickens and Al Taylor. He was unopposed in the general election and succeeded councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan for a term ending January 1, 2026. He is on the ballot for re-election in November 2025.
In January 2024, Salaam's car, which had Georgia license plates and dark-tinted windows that are illegal in New York, was stopped in Harlem by a New York City police car. When the officer approached his car, Salaam said he was a member of the city council and that he was on city business. He was on a business call with several of his colleagues including City Council member Sandy Nurse, who heard the entire police interaction. He was driving to dinner with his wife and four of his children. Salaam asked why he had been stopped but the officer, on hearing that he was a council member on business, cut off the interaction and walked away saying, "Take care, sir." Officers are not required to give a reason for stopping a car, but Salaam said the police should have done so voluntarily. Critics of Salaam said he smeared the police and used his position to get out of a possible ticket.
In the aftermath of the second 2024 presidential debate, Salaam confronted former president Donald Trump who previously called for Salaam to be executed, but Trump refused to walk back his statements.
== Personal life ==
Salaam is a practicing Muslim. He has ten children, three of whom are stepchildren. In 2016, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from then-president Barack Obama. In 2021, Salaam was awarded the Muhammad Ali Confident Muslim of the Year by the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research.
In film, Salaam is featured in documentarian Ken Burns's film The Central Park Five (2012). He is portrayed as an adult by Chris Chalk and as a child by Ethan Herisse in filmmaker Ava DuVernay's television miniseries When They See Us. In 2022, "Gate of the Exonerated" was dedicated at the northern end of Central Park in honor of Salaam and the other members of the Exonerated Five.
== Electoral history ==
== Selected works ==
Salaam, Yusef (2021). Better, Not Bitter: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice. New York City: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 9781538704981.
Salaam, Yusef (October 12, 2016). "I'm one of the Central Park Five. Donald Trump won't leave me alone". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Kilgannon, Corey (July 9, 2023). "From Cell to City Hall: Candidate's Win Shows Shift in Politics of Crime". The New York Times. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
Taylor, Ericka (May 18, 2021). "One Of The Falsely Accused Central Park Five Tells His Story In 'Better, Not Bitter'". NPR. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
Davies, Dave (May 26, 2021). "Central Park 'Exonerated 5' Member Reflects On Freedom And Forgiveness". Fresh Air. NPR. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
== External links ==
Official website
Yusef Salaam at IMDb
Appearances on C-SPAN |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Play_(horse) | Fair Play (horse) | Fair Play (April 1, 1905 – December 17, 1929) was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who was successful on the track, but even more so when retired to stud. He is best known as the sire of Man o' War, widely considered one of the greatest American racehorses of all time. On the racetrack, Fair Play was known for his rivalry with the undefeated Colin, to whom he finished second in the Belmont Stakes. Later, Fair Play was the leading sire in North America of 1920, 1924 and 1927, and the leading broodmare sire of 1931, 1934 and 1938. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1956.
== Background ==
Fair Play raced as a homebred for August Belmont Jr., who was chairman of The Jockey Club from 1895 until his death in 1924. Belmont became involved in horse racing through his father, in whose honor the Belmont Stakes was named. Belmont purchased a two-year-old colt named Hastings in 1895, who went on to win the Belmont Stakes the following year. Hastings was the leading sire of 1902 and 1908. He was primarily known as a sire of fast, precocious horses but was known to pass on his savage temperament to his offspring in varying degrees.
Fair Play's dam, Fairy Gold, was a stakes winning daughter of Epsom Derby winner Bend Or. In addition to Fair Play, Fairy Gold produced six other stakes winners including Friar Rock, who won the 1916 Belmont Stakes. Her daughters St. Lucre and Golden View also became outstanding producers and the family is still active with descendants such as Dubawi, Dalakhani and Daylami.
Fair Play's grandsire was Spendthrift, whose grandsire was the English Triple Crown champion West Australian. This sire line traces to the Godolphin Arabian.
Fair Play was an attractive golden chestnut horse who stood 15.3 hands (63 inches, 160 cm) at maturity. He was always highly strung, and his behavior completely soured when he was sent to race in England in 1909. Subsequently, he would not allow a rider to exercise him over grass. He was trained by Andrew Jackson Joyner.
== Racing career ==
As a two-year-old, Fair Play finished fourth in his first start and broke his maiden in his second. He then won the Montauk Stakes at Brighton Beach Race Course and the Flash Stakes at Saratoga. He was also second in the Hopeful, Produce, and Matron Stakes, and he finished third in the United States Hotel and Nursery Handicap. He was unplaced in the Futurity Stakes.
Fair Play was considered among the best horses of his generation, though clearly a step behind the great Colin. The competition between these two was covered in Horse Racing's Greatest Rivalries, published by the Eclipse Press in 2008. Colin beat Fair Play three times at age two (in the Futurity, Produce, and Matron Stakes), then beat him again in the Withers Stakes to start his three-year-old campaign. In their final face off in the Belmont Stakes, Colin went out to an early lead but was nearly caught at the wire by Fair Play, who lost by a neck in a blinding rainstorm. They never met again, and Colin retired after one more start.
With two days of rest, Fair Play next entered the Brooklyn Handicap, where he finished second to Colin's stablemate, Celt. He finally won his first start at age three in the Brooklyn Derby before finishing third in the Suburban Handicap.
After a slow start to the season, Fair Play won six of his next nine starts at distances ranging from 10 to 14 furlongs. These included the Coney Island Jockey Club Stakes, where he equaled the track record, the Lawrence Realization, the Jerome Handicap (set track record), the First Special (set new track record of 2:032⁄5 for 10 furlongs), and the Municipal Handicap.
In 1909, racing in New York was shut down due to the Hart–Agnew Executive Liability Act, an anti-gambling bill. Therefore, Joyner relocated to England and took several horses with him, including Fair Play. Although Joyner had a good deal of success overseas, Fair Play did not respond well to the experiment, going unplaced in six starts. Although Belmont contemplated standing Fair Play at stud in France, he was instead returned to America.
== Stud career ==
While successful on the track, Fair Play gained his most fame as a sire. Among his better progeny were:
Man o' War – chosen #1 in the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century
Mad Hatter – 1921 U.S. Champion Older Male Horse
Chance Play – 1927 United States Horse of the Year
Display – 1926 Preakness Stakes winner and sire of champion Discovery
Chance Shot – 1927 Belmont Stakes winner; sire of Belmont Stakes winner Peace Chance
Mad Play – 1924 Belmont Stakes winner
My Play – 1924 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner
Ladkin – 1924 International Stakes No.2 winner
Fairmount – U.S. Hall of Fame steeplechase champion
Following the death of owner August Belmont Jr., in 1924, Fair Play was sold to Joseph E. Widener, proprietor of Elmendorf Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, where he remained until his death on December 17, 1929. Widener, a dedicated horseman, buried Fair Play in the Elmendorf Farm cemetery and erected a nearly life-size bronze statue at the head of his grave.
Fair Play is in the ancestral lineage of practically all modern American thoroughbreds. Man o' War and Discovery were both outstanding sires and the Man o' War sire line is still active today. Discovery was the broodmare sire of Bold Ruler, whose descendants include Secretariat, Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy and multiple classic winners.
== Sire line tree ==
== Pedigree ==
An asterisk before the name means the horse was imported into America.
== See also ==
List of racehorses
== References ==
== External links ==
Fair Play at the United States National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Archived 2006-12-30 at the Wayback Machine |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Croft_(linguist)#:~:text=William%20Croft%20(born%20November%2013,the%20University%20of%20Manchester%2C%20UK. | William Croft (linguist) | William Croft (born November 13, 1956) is an American professor of linguistics at the University of New Mexico, United States. From 1994 to 2005 he was successively research fellow, lecturer, reader and professor in Linguistics at the University of Manchester, UK.
He is the inventor of and advocate for radical construction grammar, which among other things uses box-diagrams to compare and contrast the grammatical features of different natural languages.
William Croft is a member of Save the Redwoods League's Board of Councillors.
== Partial bibliography ==
—— (1991). Syntactic Categories and Grammatical Relations: The Cognitive Organization of Information. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-12090-4.
—— (2001). Explaining language change: an evolutionary approach. Harlow: Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-35677-1.
—— (2001). Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-829954-7.
—— (2003). Typology and Universals. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00499-2.
—— (1990). Typology and Universals. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-36583-3.
——; Cruse, D. A. (2004). Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. ISBN 978-0-521-66770-8.
—— (2012). Verbs: aspect and causal structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-924858-2.
== References ==
== External links ==
Faculty page at the University of New Mexico |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reputation_Stadium_Tour#Awards | Reputation Stadium Tour | The Reputation Stadium Tour was the fifth concert tour and the first all-stadium tour by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, in support of her sixth studio album, Reputation (2017). It began in Glendale, Arizona, United States, on May 8, 2018, and concluded in Tokyo, Japan, on November 21, 2018. The tour encompassed 53 shows and visited 7 countries in total.
The set list consisted mostly of the songs from Reputation and some from Swift's other albums. The stage incorporated prominent snake motifs and imagery as decoration, reflecting the album's concept and Swift's public image. The main stage had a wedge-shaped display resembling a skyscraper under construction and was equipped with elaborate lighting, and two smaller B-stages were used for acoustic “surprise song” performances. The October 6, 2018, show at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was recorded and released as a Netflix original concert film on December 31, 2018; it has since been removed from Netflix for unknown reasons.
Music critics commented that the production evoked Goth subculture and Broadway theatricality, praising the stage design, production, and wardrobe. They lauded Swift's showmanship and interactions with her audience that brought forth an exhilarating yet intimate experience. The Reputation Stadium Tour received 2.88 million attendees and grossed $345.6 million, becoming the highest-grossing US and North American tour upon completion. It was awarded Tour of the Year at the People's Choice Awards, American Music Awards, and iHeartRadio Music Awards.
== Background and development ==
Taylor Swift begаn the promotional cycle for her 2017 studio album Reputation with the release of the lead single "Look What You Made Me Do" on August 24. Concurrently, as reported by Billboard, Swift partnered with Ticketmaster for a "Verified Fan" program to prevent bots and ticket scalpers from purchasing concert tickets. The program, named "Taylor Swift Tix", allowed fans to purchase tickets in advance of the public on-sale by participating in activities such as buying Swift's music, streaming her videos, and engaging in miscellaneous "unique activities" to increase chances of getting a pre-sale access code. Reputation was released on November 10, 2017, to immediate commercial success: within first week of release, it sold over one million copies in the US and two million copies worldwide.
On November 13, 2017, Swift's management announced the first 27 dates across the US of the Reputation Stadium Tour; tickets went on sale to the general public on December 13. On November 27, Swift announced the first three UK dates. Two days later, thanks to overwhelming demand even before pre-sale began, Swift announced nine additional dates—three for the UK, five for the US, and one for Canada. On December 3, Swift announced five dates for Australasia. In January 2018, due to high demand, Swift added second dates in Santa Clara, Landover, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Arlington and third dates in East Rutherford and Foxborough, totaling 40 shows for the tour's North American leg.
On March 1, 2018, Swift officially announced Camila Cabello and Charli XCX as the opening acts for the Reputation Stadium Tour. Cabello was previously speculated as the opening act as the shows for her Never Be the Same Tour did not coincide with Swift's tour dates; Portland's Live 95.5 also announced her in a sweepstake for the concert of June 22, 2018, at Wembley Stadium in London through a since-deleted post on Twitter, one day before Swift confirmed her as the opening act.
On May 7, 2018, the day before the tour kicked off at Glendale, Arizona, Swift invited 2,000 foster and adopted children to a private dress rehearsal. The following day, she announced two shows in Tokyo in partnership with Fujifilm Instax, with Charli XCX as the opening act. In September, Broods was announced as an opening act for the Oceania leg of the tour.
During the shows, Swift performed "surprise songs" as part of an acoustic segment at different concerts. The songs varied by venue and were taken from Swift's back catalog. A streaming-exclusive compilation playlist, Reputation Stadium Tour Surprise Song Playlist, was released to digital music platforms on November 30, 2018. The playlist was certified triple platinum in Brazil.
== Critical reception ==
Media publications and journalists gave the tour rave reviews and many of them deemed it one of the best tours of 2018. The concerts were complimented for Swift's on-stage persona and intimacy with the audience, the versatile set list and the transition between songs, production value, the stripped-down performances and wardrobe choices, with many commentators noting the Gothic visuals and costumes and Broadway theatricality of the show.
Stereogum's Chris DeVille deemed it a "hyper-maximalist" tour and "a perpetual gargantuan flex, a roving musical Infinity War that amplifies everything extra about her persona to an exponential scope" and added that it is designed to be "the biggest spectacle in all of summer entertainment". He also described the tour as "an oversized, high-tech touring Broadway production with a mostly tremendous soundtrack" and concluded that "when discussing the biggest artists of her [Swift's] generation, she's undeniably on the shortlist" and that the singer has ascended to the same "rarefied" tier as the "classic rock deities who've echoed across this venue [the Horseshoe] before her, able to keep commanding stadium status for the rest of her career". Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone named the tour as Swift's "most astounding tour yet" and complimented it for giving "it all the vibe of a mass communion" despite aiming for "maximum stadium-rock razzle-dazzle bombast". He observed the acoustic performances of Swift's fan-favorite deep cuts and dubbed them "a powerhouse performance that made all the different Taylors sound like part of the same story".
The Guardian's Bob Gordon thought that "...Ready for It?" is "an appropriate and compelling opener". He opined that Swift made a "striking entrance" with "no elevation or descent, simply walking out from behind a curtain bathed in brilliant white light, in what was a real 'now I'm here' moment, as Freddie Mercury would once have put it". Awarding the tour five stars, Roisin O'Connor of The Independent lauded the set-list and how it "transitions seamlessly from one song to another, crafted out of some of the best from Swift's canon". Also, she compared the tour to a Broadway show because the stage was "flooded with red lighting and dancers swing from trapeze with all the splendour of a Broadway show". Lydia Burgham of The Spinoff defined the tour's Auckland concert a "theatrical, mega-production that somehow also strips down to raw intimate moments". Commenting on the set list, she noted that Swift "had the crowd aching for more with the commencement of every song, thanks to seamless transitions". Burgham highlighted the intimacy of Swift's acoustic guitar and piano performances that proved Swift remained "integral to her singer-songwriter origins". Burgham summarized her review by stating that "there may not be an artist in this lifetime who quite manages to connect to thousands of people on a rainy night as well as Taylor Swift can – and that's the reputation she will be remembered for".
Variety's Chris Willman wrote that the show "had plenty of fierceness, especially in the early going" but also the "pre-decedent Taylor on the line… the guileless Swift we remember from two or three skins ago", and commended Swift for using her two hours on the stage to "paint a rewardingly holistic picture". Willman believed that, despite the huge production, "we're still left not so much with dragons or defensiveness but in the endearingly earnest presence of pop's most approachable superstar". He further remarked that the acoustic performance of "Dancing with Our Hands Tied" proved that Reputation worked acoustically as well, without the "Max Martin-izing". Randy Lewis of Los Angeles Times wrote that Swift gave "a master class in the constructive use of the modern technology that's allowed her to establish and nurture an exceptionally powerful connection with a massive audience." He underlined the use of light-up bracelets that allowed the attendees "to feel like participants, even collaborators, rather than passive observers" and appreciated the stage's resemblance to "a skyscraper in progress, with six crane-like contraptions stretching up above a wedge-like screen". Lewis summarized the show as "tightly structured for the most part, featuring elaborate production numbers that rely on video projection, eye-popping lighting and pyrotechnics, choreography and precisely coordinated interaction among the star, band, singers and dancers".
Reviewing for V magazine, Greg Krelenstein stated that Swift possesses "a rare gift of turning a stadium spectacle into an intimate setting", with the new persona the singer adopted on Reputation album cycle suiting itself "excellently to a show of this magnitude where she appears larger than life". He thought that Swift fully embraced her vast back catalog and praised her command of the stage—"whether plucking a guitar or leading an army of dancers" that showed that Swift's musical and performance evolution is an "absolute success". Krelenstein concluded that the pop star "delivers in every way to a mesmerized and devoted audience, re-defining what the modern stadium tour can be". Ed Masley of The Arizona Republic wrote that "there were many moments in the course Swift's performance that felt like she was playing to the back rows of the stadium by simply sharing with her fans", while complimenting the tour's production and Swift's connection with the crowd. Jim Harrington of The Mercury News asserted that the singer's vocal work and performance skills have improved over the years, and added that "her game is well-rounded enough that she can excel equally at every different aspect of the show." Chris Tuite of CBS San Francisco wrote: "The only thing more prominent than the singer herself during her current costume-change filled spectacle are the massive, vicious looking snakes that symbolically appear throughout the set." Michael Tritsch of 303 magazine raved that the tour "broke new ground and set the bar high for future stadium tours", burning "its way into the history books".
== Commercial performance ==
=== Ticket sales ===
After four days of sales through the Verified Fan platform and three days of sales to the general public that began December 13, the tour had already grossed $180 million from 33 dates in North America alone. Pollstar reported data supplied by the Gridiron Stadium Network, a consortium of NFL facilities that work together to book concerts at their buildings, which showed at least 35,000 tickets had been sold at ten of the stadiums on the route as of December 18. The tickets sold ranged from 35,419 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh to a high of 48,039 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. With more than 47,000 tickets sold, it was reported the May 12, 2018, date at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara was generating close to $9 million in ticket revenue, which prompted the addition of an extra date.
According to StubHub, the tour is the best-selling female tour in the United Kingdom in 2018.
=== Boxscore ===
The first seven shows of the tour grossed $54 million with 390,000 tickets sold, leading Swift to the top of Billboard's Hot Tours chart in June 2018. She performed to sold-out crowds of 59,157 in Glendale and 107,550 in Santa Clara (over two nights), grossing $7.21 million and $14 million respectively, while the Pasadena shows combined for a gross of nearly $16.3 million and Seattle accounted more than $8.6 million. The concerts in Louisville and Columbus, reported in July 2018, grossed $11.5 million with around 115,000 tickets sold, with the latter city having the highest gross and most tickets sold, with approximately 63,000 tickets and $6.6 million. These concerts led the singer once again to the top of Hot Tours chart.
== Records ==
The tour broke multiple venue attendance and grossing records. The opening show at University of Phoenix Stadium set new venue records in both gross and attendance, topping Metallica's $5.2 million gross from August 2017 by almost $2 million. With 59,157 tickets sold, Swift also broke the attendance record set by One Direction on their Where We Are Tour in 2014 by 2,633 seats. With a $14 million take from 107,550 sold tickets at Levi's Stadium, she topped her own gross and attendance counts set during the 1989 World Tour in 2015. With more than 118,000 fans in attendance at the Rose Bowl, the two-show run earned $16.2 million and set a new gross record for a single headliner at the venue, surpassing U2's 2017 record by over $467,000. Grossing records previously set by U2 as well were broken at Seattle's CenturyLink Field, where she topped their Joshua Tree Tour 2017 gross by $2.4 million, and Denver's Sports Authority Field at Mile High, where she surpassed the $6.6 million gross set by the band in 2011 during their 360° Tour by $1.2 million.
Swift made history by becoming the first ever female artist to headline Dublin's Croke Park twice, with reportedly 136,000 fans in attendance. Similarly, she became the first woman to headline three consecutive nights at MetLife Stadium and Gillette Stadium.
Following the 29th show in North America at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, the tour had grossed $202.3 million in the continent ($191.1 million in the United States and $11.1 million in Canada), thus breaking Swift's own record of the highest-grossing North American tour by a female artist, previously held by the 1989 World Tour, with fewer dates. The tour eventually broke the overall record set by the Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang Tour to become the highest-grossing tour in US and North American history, grossing $266.1 million, besting the Rolling Stones' $245 million gross. The Rolling Stones achieved their then-record from 70 American shows, while Swift did so with just 38 shows. Additionally, the Reputation Stadium Tour holds the Guinness World Record for 2018's highest-grossing tour by a female artist.
=== Honor ===
Mark Dayton, Governor of Minnesota (2011–2019), declared August 31, 2018, as "Taylor Swift Day" in the state in honor of Swift's two shows (August 31 and September 1) at the United States Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. He remarked that "through her personal and honest music, Taylor Swift has energized and inspired not only Minnesotans, but people all over the world, and is a positive influence on her fans through her example of truthfulness, grace, extensive philanthropy, and strength of character".
== Awards ==
== Set list ==
This set list is from the concert on May 8, 2018, in Glendale, Arizona. It is not intended to represent all shows throughout the tour.
=== Surprise songs ===
The following songs were performed by Swift as surprise songs:
=== Notes ===
At the first show in Landover, the second show in Philadelphia, the third show in East Rutherford, the third show in Foxborough, the second show in Minneapolis, the second show in Toronto, and the second show in Tokyo, Swift performed "So It Goes..." in place of "Dancing with Our Hands Tied".
At the second show in Philadelphia, Swift performed "Our Song" and "Wildest Dreams" a cappella after the levitating basket stage used during "Delicate" malfunctioned.
At the second show in East Rutherford, Swift performed "Clean" before the "Long Live" / "New Year's Day" medley.
=== Special guests ===
On select dates, Swift performed a duet with a special guest.
May 18, 2018 – Pasadena: "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" with Shawn Mendes
May 19, 2018 – Pasadena: "My My My!" with Troye Sivan; "Hands to Myself" with Selena Gomez
June 22, 2018 – London: "Slow Hands" with Niall Horan
June 23, 2018 – London: "Angels" with Robbie Williams
July 26, 2018 – Foxborough: "Curious" with Hayley Kiyoko
August 4, 2018 – Toronto: "Summer of '69" with Bryan Adams
August 25, 2018 – Nashville: "Tim McGraw" with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill
October 5, 2018 – Arlington: "The Middle" with Maren Morris
October 6, 2018 – Arlington: "Babe" with Sugarland
== Concert film ==
Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour is a concert film documenting the second performance at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, of the Reputation Stadium Tour. It was released on December 31, 2018, exclusively via Netflix for a limited time.
Swift announced on social media on her birthday, December 13, that the concert film would be released globally in partnership with Netflix on New Year's Eve. It was filmed on the last day of the North American leg of the tour. For their work on the film, Tamlyn Wright and Baz Halpin were nominated in the category "Variety, Reality or Event Special" at the 24th Art Directors Guild Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards. The film left Netflix on December 30, 2023, five years after its original release.
=== Critical reception ===
The film received widespread critical acclaim upon release, with many critics labeling the film as "immortalizing" and "unforgettable". Commentators praised the camerawork from director Paul Dugdale for documenting Swift's "stardom", the crowd's emotions, and the production involved in the concert. Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield wrote that the film "immortalizes her best tour yet" and that the film shows off "the stadium-rocking spectacle without toning down any of her songs' one-on-one emotional intimacy". Describing the Netflix special as "the end of an era", Amanda Petrusich of The New Yorker opined that the film "will soon either be regarded as a museum piece or as a testament to Swift's era-defying longevity".
Billboard's Denis Warner stated that the film "illuminates the singer's power, dedication, and strength as an artist". He further stated that the film "allows you to get more of a feel of the singer as a performer – and experience just how delicately everything is staged" and appreciated Swift for giving "a gorgeous look into her [Swift's] world as one of today's greatest entertainers". Decider's Benjamin Smith called the film as an "intimate document of an impersonal event". He further expanded that Swift "will stand the test of time more than her fellow early 21st century pop queens", stating the reason "Taylor Swift is perhaps the only one who has figured out a way to turn her music into something more than mere pop". Complimenting Swift's connection with her fans, Nardin Saad of Los Angeles Times stated that "the 10-time Grammy-winner's star power is tantamount as evidenced" in the film.
Katie Collins of CNET opined that the film "serves as a reminder that no matter what else happens, Swift's stardom is perennial" and praised the film for "the divine showcase of the costumes, the dancing and especially Swift's own barely-contained effervescent joy at being on stage". She further complimented the camerawork, stating "closeups brought new insights" into the show. Nicholas Hautman of Us Weekly appreciated the camerawork for depicting "the fans hysterically crying and screaming in support of their idol". Writing for Uproxx, Chloe Gilke labelled the film as a "masterful documentation of the magical energy at a pop show" and as "a love letter to the audience at her shows, and to her fans", while stating that the film "honors the sacred joy of her [Swift's] performance that night, and the people who made it happen". She lauded the camerawork for capturing "the massive scope of the production from every angle," and the audio which "is crystal-clear and beautiful, with the crowd quieted down so viewers at home can hear Swift best."
=== Performances ===
Nineteen songs were performed in the following order in the film:
== Tour dates ==
== Personnel ==
Taylor Swift – lead vocals, guitar, piano
Band
Max Bernstein – guitar, keyboard
Matt Billingslea – drums
David Cook - musical director, keyboard
Amos Heller – bass, keyboard bass
Mike Meadows – guitar, keyboard, backing vocals
Paul Sidoti – guitar
Jeslyn Gorman – backing vocals
Kamilah Marshall – backing vocals
Melanie Nyema – backing vocals
Eliotte Woodford – backing vocals
Dancers
Maho Udo - dance captain
Grant Gilmore
Stephanie Mincone
Nadine Olmo
Toshi Davidson
Jake Kodish
Robert Green
Jake Landgrebe
Giuseppe Giofre
Mark Villaver
Christian Owens
Jazz Smith
Gracie Stewart
Maria Wada
Yorelis Apolinario
Christian Hendersen
== Notes ==
== See also ==
List of highest-grossing concert tours by women
List of original films distributed by Netflix
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website Events |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stampacchia_Medal | Stampacchia Medal | The Stampacchia Gold Medal is an international prize awarded every three years by the Italian Mathematical Union (Unione Matematica Italiana – UMI {it}) together with the Ettore Majorana Foundation (Erice), in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of Calculus of Variations and related applications. The medal, named after the Italian mathematician Guido Stampacchia, goes to a mathematician whose age does not exceed 35.
== Prize winners ==
2003 Tristan Rivière (ETH Zürich)
2006 Giuseppe Mingione (University of Parma)
2009 Camillo De Lellis (University of Zurich)
2012 Ovidiu Savin (Columbia University)
2015 Alessio Figalli (The University of Texas at Austin)
2018 Guido De Philippis (International School for Advanced Studies)
2021 Xavier Ros-Oton (ICREA and Universitat de Barcelona)
2024 Maria Colombo (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)
== See also ==
List of mathematics awards
== References ==
== External links ==
European Mathematical Society newsletter with the announcement of the 2012 Stampacchia Medal (pag. 17)
Official Site of the Italian Mathematical Union (UMI)
2015 Stampacchia Medal citation (UMI) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_7 | Vault 7 | Vault 7 is a series of documents that WikiLeaks began to publish on 7 March 2017, detailing the activities and capabilities of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to perform electronic surveillance and cyber warfare. The files, dating from 2013 to 2016, include details on the agency's software capabilities, such as the ability to compromise cars, smart TVs, web browsers including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera, the operating systems of most smartphones including Apple's iOS and Google's Android, and computer operating systems including Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. A CIA internal audit identified 91 malware tools out of more than 500 tools in use in 2016 being compromised by the release. The tools were developed by the Operations Support Branch of the CIA.
The Vault 7 release led the CIA to redefine WikiLeaks as a "non-state hostile intelligence service." In July 2022, former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte was convicted of leaking the documents to WikiLeaks, and in February 2024 sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment, on espionage counts and separately to 80 months for child pornography counts.
== History ==
In February 2017, WikiLeaks began teasing the release of "Vault 7" with a series of cryptic messages on Twitter (Now X), according to media reports. Later on in February, WikiLeaks released classified documents describing how the CIA monitored the 2012 French presidential election. The press release for the leak stated that it was published "as context for its forthcoming CIA Vault 7 series."
In March 2017, US intelligence and law enforcement officials said to the international wire agency Reuters that they had been aware of the CIA security breach which led to Vault 7 since late 2016. Two officials said they were focusing on "contractors" as the possible source of the leaks.
In 2017, federal law enforcement identified CIA software engineer Joshua Adam Schulte as a suspected source of Vault 7. Schulte plead not guilty and was convicted in July 2022 of leaking the documents to WikiLeaks.
On 13 April 2017, CIA director Mike Pompeo declared WikiLeaks to be a "hostile intelligence service." In September 2021, Yahoo! News reported that in 2017 in the wake of the Vault 7 leaks, the CIA considered kidnapping or assassinating Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. The CIA also considered spying on associates of WikiLeaks, sowing discord among its members, and stealing their electronic devices. After many months of deliberation, all proposed plans had been scrapped due to a combination of legal and moral objections. Per the 2021 Yahoo News article, a former Trump national security official stated, "We should never act out of a desire for revenge".
The Vault 7 release led the CIA to redefine WikiLeaks as a "non-state hostile intelligence service." In July 2022, former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte was convicted of leaking the documents to WikiLeaks, and in February 2024 sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment.
== Publications ==
=== Part 1 – "Year Zero" ===
The first batch of documents, named "Year Zero", was published by WikiLeaks on 7 March 2017. Purportedly from the Center for Cyber Intelligence, Year Zero consisted of 7,818 web pages with 943 attachments, more pages than former NSA contractor and leaker Edward Snowden's 2013 NSA release. WikiLeaks had placed Year Zero online in a locked archive earlier in the week, and revealed the passphrase on the 7th. The passphrase referred to a President John F. Kennedy quote, stating that he wanted “to splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds”.
WikiLeaks did not name their source, but said that the files had, "circulated among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive." According to WikiLeaks, the source, "wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons," since these tools raise questions that, "urgently need to be debated in public, including whether the C.I.A.'s hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency."
WikiLeaks attempted to redact names and other identifying information from the documents before releasing them and faced criticism for leaving some key details unredacted. WikiLeaks also attempted to allow for connections between people to be drawn via unique identifiers generated by WikiLeaks. It also said that it would postpone releasing the source code for the cyber weapons, which is reportedly several hundred million lines long, "until a consensus emerges on the technical and political nature of the C.I.A.'s program and how such 'weapons' should be analyzed, disarmed and published." WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed this was only part of a larger series.
The CIA released a statement saying, "The American public should be deeply troubled by any WikiLeaks disclosure designed to damage the Intelligence Community's ability to protect America against terrorists or other adversaries. Such disclosures not only jeopardize US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm."
In a statement issued on 19 March 2017, Assange said the technology companies who had been contacted had not agreed to, disagreed with, or questioned what he termed as WikiLeaks' standard industry disclosure plan. The standard disclosure time for a vulnerability is 90 days after the company responsible for patching the software is given full details of the flaw. According to WikiLeaks, only Mozilla had been provided with information on the vulnerabilities, while "Google and some other companies" only confirmed receiving the initial notification. WikiLeaks stated: "Most of these lagging companies have conflicts of interest due to their classified work with US government agencies. In practice such associations limit industry staff with US security clearances from fixing holes based on leaked information from the CIA. Should such companies choose to not secure their users against CIA or NSA attacks users may prefer organizations such as Mozilla or European companies that prioritize their users over government contracts".
=== Part 2 – "Dark Matter" ===
On 23 March 2017 WikiLeaks published the second release of Vault 7 material, entitled "Dark Matter". The publication included documentation for several CIA efforts to hack Apple's iPhones and Macs. These included the Sonic Screwdriver malware that could use the Thunderbolt interface to bypass Apple's password firmware protection.
=== Part 3 – "Marble" ===
On 31 March 2017, WikiLeaks published the third part, "Marble". It contained 676 source code files for the CIA's Marble Framework. It is used to obfuscate, or scramble, malware code in an attempt to make it so that anti-virus firms or investigators cannot understand the code or attribute its source. According to WikiLeaks, the code also included a de-obfuscator to reverse the obfuscation effects.
=== Part 4 – "Grasshopper" ===
On 7 April 2017, WikiLeaks published the fourth set, "Grasshopper". The publication contains 27 documents from the CIA's Grasshopper framework, which is used by the CIA to build customized and persistent malware payloads for the Microsoft Windows operating systems. Grasshopper focused on Personal Security Product (PSP) avoidance. PSPs are antivirus software such as MS Security Essentials, Symantec Endpoint or Kaspersky IS.
=== Part 5 – "HIVE" ===
On 14 April 2017, WikiLeaks published the fifth part, "HIVE". Based on the CIA top-secret virus program created by its "Embedded Development Branch" (EDB). The six documents published by WikiLeaks are related to the HIVE multi-platform CIA malware suite. A CIA back-end infrastructure with a public-facing HTTPS interface used by CIA to transfer information from target desktop computers and smartphones to the CIA, and open those devices to receive further commands from CIA operators to execute specific tasks, all the while hiding its presence behind unsuspicious-looking public domains through a masking interface known as "Switchblade" (also known as Listening Post (LP) and Command and Control (C2)).
=== Part 6 – "Weeping Angel" ===
On 21 April 2017, WikiLeaks published the sixth part, "Weeping Angel" (named for a monster in the TV show Doctor Who), a hacking tool co-developed by the CIA and MI5 used to exploit a series of early smart TVs for the purpose of covert intelligence gathering. Once installed in suitable televisions with a USB stick, the hacking tool enables those televisions' built-in microphones and possibly video cameras to record their surroundings, while the televisions falsely appear to be turned off. The recorded data is then either stored locally into the television's memory or sent over the internet to the CIA. Allegedly both the CIA and MI5 agencies collaborated to develop that malware in Joint Development Workshops.
=== Part 7 – "Scribbles" ===
On 28 April 2017, WikiLeaks published the seventh part, "Scribbles". The leak includes documentation and source code of a tool intended to track documents leaked to whistleblowers and journalists by embedding web beacon tags into classified documents to trace who leaked them. The tool affects Microsoft Office documents, specifically "Microsoft Office 2013 (on Windows 8.1 x64), documents from Office versions 97-2016 (Office 95 documents will not work) and documents that are not locked, encrypted, or password-protected". When a CIA watermarked document is opened, an invisible image within the document that is hosted on the agency's server is loaded, generating a HTTP request. The request is then logged on the server, giving the intelligence agency information about who is opening it and where it is being opened. However, if a watermarked document is opened in an alternative word processor the image may be visible to the viewer. The documentation also states that if the document is viewed offline or in protected view, the watermarked image will not be able to contact its home server. This is overridden only when a user enables editing.
=== Part 8 – "Archimedes" ===
On 5 May 2017, WikiLeaks published the eighth part, "Archimedes". According to U.S. SANS Institute instructor Jake Williams, who analyzed the published documents, Archimedes is a virus previously codenamed "Fulcrum". According to cyber security expert and ENISA member Pierluigi Paganini, the CIA operators use Archimedes to redirect local area network (LAN) web browser sessions from a targeted computer through a computer controlled by the CIA before the sessions are routed to the users. This type of attack is known as man-in-the-middle (MitM). With their publication WikiLeaks included a number of hashes that they claim can be used to potentially identify the Archimedes virus and guard against it in the future. Paganini stated that potential targeted computers can search for those hashes on their systems to check if their systems had been attacked by the CIA.
=== Part 9 – "AfterMidnight" and "Assassin" ===
On 12 May 2017, WikiLeaks published part nine, "AfterMidnight" and "Assassin". AfterMidnight is a piece of malware installed on a target personal computer and disguises as a DLL file, which is executed while the user's computer reboots. It then triggers a connection to the CIA's Command and Control (C2) computer, from which it downloads various modules to run. As for Assassin, it is very similar to its AfterMidnight counterpart, but deceptively runs inside a Windows service process. CIA operators reportedly use Assassin as a C2 to execute a series of tasks, collect, and then periodically send user data to the CIA Listening Post(s) (LP). Similar to backdoor Trojan behavior. Both AfterMidnight and Assassin run on Windows operating system, are persistent, and periodically beacon to their configured LP to either request tasks or send private information to the CIA, as well as automatically uninstall themselves on a set date and time.
=== Part 10 – "Athena" ===
On 19 May 2017, WikiLeaks published the tenth part, "Athena". The published user guide, demo, and related documents were created between September 2015 and February 2016. They are about a malware allegedly developed for the CIA in August 2015, about a month after Microsoft released Windows 10 with their firm statements about how difficult it was to compromise. Both the primary "Athena" malware and its secondary malware named "Hera" are similar in theory to Grasshopper and AfterMidnight malware but with some significant differences. One of those differences is that Athena and Hera were developed by the CIA with a New Hampshire private corporation called Siege Technologies. During a Bloomberg 2014 interview the founder of Siege Technologies confirmed and justified their development of such malware. Athena malware completely hijacks Windows' Remote Access services, while Hera hijacks Windows Dnscache service. Both Athena and Hera also affect all then current versions of Windows including Windows Server 2012 and Windows 10. Another difference is in the types of encryption used between the infected computers and the CIA Listening Posts (LP). As for the similarities, they exploit persistent DLL files to create a backdoor to communicate with CIA's LP, steal private data, then send it to CIA servers, or delete private data on the target computer, as well as Command and Control (C2) for CIA operatives to send additional malicious software to further run specific tasks on the attacked computer. All of the above designed to deceive computer security software. Beside the published detailed documents, WikiLeaks did not provide any evidence suggesting the CIA used Athena or not.
=== Part 11 – "Pandemic" ===
On 1 June 2017, WikiLeaks published part 11, "Pandemic". This tool is a persistent implant affecting Windows machines with shared folders. It functions as a file system filter driver on an infected computer, and listens for Server Message Block traffic while detecting download attempts from other computers on a local network. "Pandemic" will answer a download request on behalf of the infected computer. However, it will replace the legitimate file with malware. In order to obfuscate its activities, "Pandemic" only modifies or replaces the legitimate file in transit, leaving the original on the server unchanged. The implant allows 20 files to be modified at a time, with a maximum individual file size of 800MB. While not stated in the leaked documentation, it is possible that newly infected computers could themselves become "Pandemic" file servers, allowing the implant to reach new targets on a local network.
=== Part 12 – "Cherry Blossom" ===
On 15 June 2017, WikiLeaks published part 12, entitled "Cherry Blossom". Cherry Blossom used a command and control server called Cherry Tree and custom router firmware called FlyTrap to monitor internet activity of targets, scan for “email addresses, chat usernames, MAC addresses and VoIP numbers" and redirect traffic.
=== Part 13 – "Brutal Kangaroo" ===
On 22 June 2017, WikiLeaks published part 13, the manuals for "Brutal Kangaroo". Brutal Kangaroo was a project focused on CIA malware designed to compromise air-gapped computer networks with infected USB drives. Brutal Kangaroo included the tools Drifting Deadline, the main tool, Shattered Assurance, a server that automates thumb drive infection, Shadow, a tool to coordinate compromised machines, and Broken Promise, a tool for exfiltrating data from the air-gapped networks.
=== Part 14 – "Elsa" ===
On 28 June 2017, WikiLeaks published part 14, the manual for the project entitled "Elsa". Elsa was a tool used for tracking Windows devices on nearby WiFi networks.
=== Part 15 – "OutlawCountry" ===
On 29 June 2017, WikiLeaks published part 15, the manual for project "OutlawCountry". OutlawCountry was a kernel module for Linux 2.6 that let CIA agents spy on Linux servers and redirect outgoing traffic from a Linux computer to a chosen site.
=== Part 16 – "BothanSpy" ===
On 6 July 2017, WikiLeaks published part 16, the manual for project "BothanSpy". BothanSpy was a CIA hacking tool made to steal SSH credentials from Windows computers.
=== Part 17 – "Highrise" ===
On 13 July 2017, WikiLeaks published part 17, the manual for project "Highrise". The Highrise hacking tool, also known as Tidecheck, was used to intercept and redirect SMS messages to Android phones using versions 4.0 through 4.3. Highrise could also be used as an encrypted communications channel between CIA agents and supervisors.
=== Part 18 – "UCL / Raytheon" ===
On 19 July 2017, WikiLeaks published part 18, documents from Raytheon Blackbird Technologies for the "UMBRAGE Component Library" (UCL) project reports on malware and their attack vectors. According to WikiLeaks, it analysed malware attacks in the wild and gave "recommendations to the CIA development teams for further investigation and PoC development for their own malware projects." It mostly contained Proof-of-Concept ideas partly based on public documents.
=== Part 19 – "Imperial" ===
On 27 July 2017, WikiLeaks published part 19, manuals for project "Imperial". Imperial included three tools: Achilles, Aeris and SeaPea. Achilles turned MacOS DMG install files into trojan malware. Aeris was a malware implant for POSIX systems, and SeaPea was an OS X rootkit.
=== Part 20 – "Dumbo" ===
On 3 August 2017, WikiLeaks published part 20, manuals for project "Dumbo". Dumbo was a tool that the Agency used to disable webcams, microphones, and other surveillance tools over WiFi and bluetooth to allow field agents to perform their missions.
=== Part 21 – "CouchPotato" ===
On 10 August 2017, WikiLeaks published part 21, the manual for project CouchPotato. CouchPotato was a tool for intercepting and saving remote video streams, which let the CIA tap into other people's surveillance systems.
=== Part 22 – "ExpressLane" ===
On 24 August 2017, WikiLeaks published part 22, the "ExpressLane" project. These documents highlighted one of the cyber operations the CIA conducts against other services it liaises with, including the National Security Agency (NSA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
ExpressLane, a covert information collection tool, was used by the CIA to exfiltrate the biometric data collection systems of services it liaises with. ExpressLane was installed and run under the cover of upgrading the biometric software of liaison services by the CIA's Office of Technical Services (OTS) agents without their knowledge.
=== Part 23 – "Angelfire" ===
On 31 August 2017, WikiLeaks published part 23, the manual for the project Angelfire. Angelfire was a malware framework made to infect computers running Windows XP and Windows 7, made of five parts. Solartime was the malware that modified the boot sector to load Wolfcreek, which was a self-loading driver that loaded other drivers. Keystone was responsible for loading other malware. BadMFS was a covert file system that hid the malware, and Windows Transitory File System was a newer alternative to BadMFS. The manual included a long list of problems with the tools.
=== Part 24 – "Protego" ===
Protego, part 24 of the Vault 7 documents, was published on 7 September 2017. According to WikiLeaks, Protego "is a PIC-based missile control system that was developed by Raytheon."
== Vault 8 ==
On 9 November 2017, WikiLeaks began publishing Vault 8, which it described as "source code and analysis for CIA software projects including those described in the Vault7 series." The stated intention of the Vault 8 publication was to "enable investigative journalists, forensic experts and the general public to better identify and understand covert CIA infrastructure components." The only Vault 8 release has been the source code and development logs for Hive, a covert communications platform for CIA malware. WikiLeaks published the Hive documentation as part of Vault 7 on 14 April 2017.
In October 2021, a new backdoor based on the Hive source code was discovered being used "to collect sensitive information and provide a foothold for subsequent intrusions." Researchers called it xdr33 and released a report on it in January 2022. The malware targets an unspecified F5 appliance and allowed hackers to upload and download files. It also allowed network traffic spying and executing commands on the appliance.
== Organization of cyber warfare ==
WikiLeaks said that the documents came from "an isolated, high-security network situated inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI) in Langley, Virginia." The documents allowed WikiLeaks to partially determine the structure and organization of the CCI. The CCI reportedly has a unit devoted to compromising Apple products.
The cybersecurity firm Symantec analyzed Vault 7 documents and found some of the described software closely matched cyberattacks by "Longhorn," which it had monitored since 2014. Symantec had previously suspected that "Longhorn" was government-sponsored and had tracked its usage against 40 targets in 16 countries.
=== Frankfurt base ===
The first portion of the documents made public on 7 March 2017, Vault 7 "Year Zero", revealed that a top secret CIA unit used the German city of Frankfurt as the starting point for hacking attacks on Europe, China and the Middle East. According to the documents, the U.S. government uses its Consulate General Office in Frankfurt as a hacker base for cyber operations. WikiLeaks documents reveal the Frankfurt hackers, part of the Center for Cyber Intelligence Europe (CCIE), were given cover identities and diplomatic passports to obfuscate customs officers to gain entry to Germany.
The chief Public Prosecutor General of the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe Peter Frank announced on 8 March 2017 that the government was conducting a preliminary investigation to see if it will launch a major probe into the activities being conducted out of the consulate and also more broadly whether people in Germany were being attacked by the CIA. Germany's foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel from the Social Democratic Party responded to the documents of Vault 7 "Year Zero" that the CIA used Frankfurt as a base for its digital espionage operations, saying that Germany did not have any information about the cyber attacks.
== UMBRAGE ==
The documents reportedly revealed that the agency had amassed a large collection of cyberattack techniques and malware produced by other hackers. This library was reportedly maintained by the CIA's Remote Devices Branch's UMBRAGE group, with examples of using these techniques and source code contained in the "Umbrage Component Library" git repository.
=== False flag conspiracy theories ===
On the day the Vault 7 documents were first released, WikiLeaks described UMBRAGE as "a substantial library of attack techniques 'stolen' from malware produced in other states including the Russian Federation," and tweeted, "CIA steals other groups virus and malware facilitating false flag attacks." According to WikiLeaks, by recycling the techniques of third parties through UMBRAGE, the CIA can not only increase its total number of attacks, but can also mislead forensic investigators by disguising these attacks as the work of other groups and nations. Among the techniques borrowed by UMBRAGE was the file wiping implementation used by Shamoon. According to PC World, some of the techniques and code snippets have been used by CIA in its internal projects, whose result cannot be inferred from the leaks. PC World commented that the practice of planting "false flags" to deter attribution was not a new development in cyberattacks: Russian, North Korean and Israeli hacker groups are among those suspected of using false flags.
A conspiracy theory soon emerged alleging that the CIA framed the Russian government for interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections. Conservative commentators such as Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter speculated about this possibility on Twitter, and Rush Limbaugh discussed it on his radio show. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said that Vault 7 showed that "the CIA could get access to such 'fingerprints' and then use them."
Cybersecurity writers and experts, such as Ben Buchanan and Kevin Poulsen, were skeptical of those theories. Poulsen said the theories were "disinformation" being taken advantage of by Russia and spread by bots. He also wrote, "The leaked catalog isn't organized by country of origin, and the specific malware used by the Russian DNC hackers is nowhere on the list." Robert M. Lee, who founded the cybersecurity firm Dragos, said the "narrative emerged far too quickly to have been organic."
According to a study by Kim Zetter in The Intercept, UMBRAGE was probably much more focused on speeding up development by repurposing existing tools, rather than on planting false flags. Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security told The Intercept that the source code referenced in the UMBRAGE documents is "extremely public", and is likely used by a multitude of groups and state actors. Graham added: "What we can conclusively say from the evidence in the documents is that they're creating snippets of code for use in other projects and they're reusing methods in code that they find on the internet. ... Elsewhere they talk about obscuring attacks so you can't see where it's coming from, but there's no concrete plan to do a false flag operation. They're not trying to say 'We're going to make this look like Russia'."
== Marble framework ==
The documents describe the Marble framework, a string obfuscator used to hide text fragments in malware from visual inspection. Some outlets reported that foreign languages were used to cover up the source of CIA hacks, but technical analysis refuted the idea. According to WikiLeaks, it reached 1.0 in 2015 and was used by the CIA throughout 2016.
In its release, WikiLeaks said "Marble" was used to insert foreign language text into the malware to mask viruses, trojans and hacking attacks, making it more difficult for them to be tracked to the CIA and to cause forensic investigators to falsely attribute code to the wrong nation. The source code revealed that Marble had examples in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Persian.
Analysts called WikiLeaks' description of Marble's main purpose inaccurate, telling The Hill its main purpose was probably to avoid detection by antivirus programs.
Marble also contained a deobfuscator tool with which the CIA could reverse text obfuscation.
Security researcher Nicholas Weaver from International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley told the Washington Post: "This appears to be one of the most technically damaging leaks ever done by WikiLeaks, as it seems designed to directly disrupt ongoing CIA operations."
== Compromised technology and software ==
=== CDs/DVDs ===
HammerDrill is a CD/DVD collection tool that collects directory walks and files to a configured directory and filename pattern as well as logging CD/DVD insertion and removal events.
=== Apple products ===
After WikiLeaks released the first installment of Vault 7, "Year Zero", Apple stated that "many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS," and that the company will "continue work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities."
On 23 March 2017, WikiLeaks released "Dark Matter", the second batch of documents in its Vault 7 series, detailing the hacking techniques and tools all focusing on Apple products developed by the Embedded Development Branch (EDB) of the CIA. The leak also revealed the CIA had been targeting the iPhone since 2008, and that some projects attacked Apple's firmware. The "Dark Matter" archive included documents from 2009 and 2013. Apple issued a second statement assuring that based on an "initial analysis, the alleged iPhone vulnerability affected iPhone 3G only and was fixed in 2009 when iPhone 3GS was released." Additionally, a preliminary assessment showed "the alleged Mac vulnerabilities were previously fixed in all Macs launched after 2013".
=== Cisco ===
WikiLeaks said on 19 March 2017 on Twitter that the "CIA was secretly exploiting" a vulnerability in a huge range of Cisco router models discovered thanks to the Vault 7 documents. The CIA had learned more than a year ago how to exploit flaws in Cisco's widely used internet switches, which direct electronic traffic, to enable eavesdropping. Cisco quickly reassigned staff from other projects to turn their focus solely on analyzing the attack and to figure out how the CIA hacking worked, so they could help customers patch their systems and prevent criminal hackers or spies from using similar methods.
On 20 March, Cisco researchers confirmed that their study of the Vault 7 documents showed the CIA had developed malware which could exploit a flaw found in 318 of Cisco's switch models and alter or take control of the network. Cisco issued a warning on security risks, patches were not available, but Cisco provided mitigation advice.
=== Smartphones/tablets ===
The electronic tools can reportedly compromise both Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems. By adding malware to the Android operating system, the tools could gain access to secure communications made on a device.
==== Messaging services ====
According to WikiLeaks, once an Android smartphone is penetrated the agency can collect "audio and message traffic before encryption is applied". Some of the agency's software is reportedly able to gain access to messages sent by instant messaging services. This method of accessing messages differs from obtaining access by decrypting an already encrypted message. While the encryption of messengers that offer end-to-end encryption, such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal, wasn't reported to be cracked, their encryption can be bypassed by capturing input before their encryption is applied, by methods such as keylogging and recording the touch input from the user.
Commentators, including Snowden and cryptographer and security pundit Bruce Schneier, observed that Wikileaks incorrectly implied that the messaging apps themselves, and their underlying encryption, had been compromised - an implication which was in turn reported for a period by the New York Times and other mainstream outlets.
=== Vehicle control systems ===
One document reportedly showed that the CIA was researching ways to infect vehicle control systems. WikiLeaks stated, "The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations." This statement brought renewed attention to conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Michael Hastings.
=== Windows ===
The documents refer to a "Windows FAX DLL injection" exploit in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. This would allow a user with malicious intent to hide malware under the DLL of another application. However, a computer must have already been compromised through another method for the injection to take place.
== Commentary ==
On 7 March 2017, Edward Snowden commented on the importance of the release, stating that it reveals the United States Government to be "developing vulnerabilities in US products" and "then intentionally keeping the holes open", which he considered highly reckless. On 7 March 2017, Nathan White, Senior Legislative Manager at the Internet advocacy group Access Now, wrote:
Today, our digital security has been compromised because the CIA has been stockpiling vulnerabilities rather than working with companies to patch them. The United States is supposed to have a process that helps secure our digital devices and services — the 'Vulnerabilities Equities Process.' Many of these vulnerabilities could have been responsibly disclosed and patched. This leak proves the inherent digital risk of stockpiling vulnerabilities rather than fixing them.
On 8 March 2017, Lee Mathews, a contributor to Forbes, wrote that most of the hacking techniques described in Vault 7 were already known to many cybersecurity experts. On 8 March 2017, some noted that the revealed techniques and tools are most likely to be used for more targeted surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden.
On 8 April 2017, Ashley Gorski, an American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney called it "critical" to understand that "these vulnerabilities can be exploited not just by our government but by foreign governments and cyber criminals around the world." Justin Cappos, professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at New York University asks "if the government knows of a problem in your phone that bad guys could use to hack your phone and have the ability to spy on you, is that a weakness that they themselves should use for counterterrorism, or for their own spying capabilities, or is it a problem they should fix for everyone?"
On 8 April 2017, Cindy Cohn, executive director of the San Francisco-based international non-profit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said: "If the C.I.A. was walking past your front door and saw that your lock was broken, they should at least tell you and maybe even help you get it fixed." "And worse, they then lost track of the information they had kept from you so that now criminals and hostile foreign governments know about your broken lock." Furthermore, she stated that the CIA had "failed to accurately assess the risk of not disclosing vulnerabilities. Even spy agencies like the CIA have a responsibility to protect the security and privacy of Americans." "The freedom to have a private conversation – free from the worry that a hostile government, a rogue government agent or a competitor or a criminal are listening – is central to a free society".
On 12 May 2017 Microsoft President, Brad Smith, wrote that both NSA and CIA had stockpiled vulnerabilities, which were stolen from them and published on Wikileaks, resulting in security breaches for Microsoft customers. Smith requested, for a second time, a "digital Geneva Convention" which would require governments to report vulnerabilities to vendors.
== See also ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Vault 7 at WikiLeaks
Vault 8 at WikiLeaks
Julian Assange Press Conference and Q&A on CIA/Vault7/YearZero, Thursday 9 March 2017, the official WikiLeaks YouTube channel |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulkerson_Prize | Fulkerson Prize | The Fulkerson Prize for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics is sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Up to three awards of $1,500 each are presented at each (triennial) International Symposium of the MOS. Originally, the prizes were paid out of a memorial fund administered by the AMS that was established by friends of the late Delbert Ray Fulkerson to encourage mathematical excellence in the fields of research exemplified by his work. The prizes are now funded by an endowment administered by MOS.
== Winners ==
1979:
Richard M. Karp for classifying many important NP-complete problems.
Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken for the four color theorem.
Paul Seymour for generalizing the max-flow min-cut theorem to matroids.
1982:
D.B. Judin, Arkadi Nemirovski, Leonid Khachiyan, Martin Grötschel, László Lovász and Alexander Schrijver for the ellipsoid method in linear programming and combinatorial optimization.
G. P. Egorychev and D. I. Falikman for proving van der Waerden's conjecture that the matrix with all entries equal has the smallest permanent of any doubly stochastic matrix.
1985:
Jozsef Beck for tight bounds on the discrepancy of arithmetic progressions.
H. W. Lenstra Jr. for using the geometry of numbers to solve integer programs with few variables in time polynomial in the number of constraints.
Eugene M. Luks for a polynomial time graph isomorphism algorithm for graphs of bounded maximum degree.
1988:
Éva Tardos for finding minimum cost circulations in strongly polynomial time.
Narendra Karmarkar for Karmarkar's algorithm for linear programming.
1991:
Martin E. Dyer, Alan M. Frieze and Ravindran Kannan for random-walk-based approximation algorithms for the volume of convex bodies.
Alfred Lehman for 0,1-matrix analogues of the theory of perfect graphs.
Nikolai E. Mnev for Mnev's universality theorem, that every semialgebraic set is equivalent to the space of realizations of an oriented matroid.
1994:
Louis Billera for finding bases of piecewise-polynomial function spaces over triangulations of space.
Gil Kalai for making progress on the Hirsch conjecture by proving subexponential bounds on the diameter of d-dimensional polytopes with n facets.
Neil Robertson, Paul Seymour and Robin Thomas for the six-color case of Hadwiger's conjecture.
1997:
Jeong Han Kim for finding the asymptotic growth rate of the Ramsey numbers R(3,t).
2000:
Michel X. Goemans and David P. Williamson for approximation algorithms based on semidefinite programming.
Michele Conforti, Gérard Cornuéjols, and M. R. Rao for recognizing balanced 0-1 matrices in polynomial time.
2003:
J. F. Geelen, A. M. H. Gerards and A. Kapoor for the GF(4) case of Rota's conjecture on matroid minors.
Bertrand Guenin for a forbidden minor characterization of the weakly bipartite graphs (graphs whose bipartite subgraph polytope is 0-1).
Satoru Iwata, Lisa Fleischer, Satoru Fujishige, and Alexander Schrijver for showing submodular minimization to be strongly polynomial.
2006:
Manindra Agrawal, Neeraj Kayal and Nitin Saxena, for the AKS primality test.
Mark Jerrum, Alistair Sinclair and Eric Vigoda, for approximating the permanent.
Neil Robertson and Paul Seymour, for the Robertson–Seymour theorem showing that graph minors form a well-quasi-ordering.
2009:
Maria Chudnovsky, Neil Robertson, Paul Seymour, and Robin Thomas, for the strong perfect graph theorem.
Daniel A. Spielman and Shang-Hua Teng, for smoothed analysis of linear programming algorithms.
Thomas C. Hales and Samuel P. Ferguson, for proving the Kepler conjecture on the densest possible sphere packings.
2012:
Sanjeev Arora, Satish Rao, and Umesh Vazirani for improving the approximation ratio for graph separators and related problems from
O
(
log
n
)
{\displaystyle O(\log n)}
to
O
(
log
n
)
{\displaystyle O({\sqrt {\log n}})}
.
Anders Johansson, Jeff Kahn, and Van H. Vu for determining the threshold of edge density above which a random graph can be covered by disjoint copies of a given smaller graph.
László Lovász and Balázs Szegedy for characterizing subgraph multiplicity in sequences of dense graphs.
2015:
Francisco Santos Leal for a counter-example of the Hirsch conjecture.
2018:
Robert Morris, Yoshiharu Kohayakawa, Simon Griffiths, Peter Allen, and Julia Böttcher for The chromatic thresholds of graphs
Thomas Rothvoss for his work on the extension complexity of the matching polytope.
2021:
Béla Csaba, Daniela Kühn, Allan Lo, Deryk Osthus, and Andrew Treglown for Proof of the 1-factorization and Hamilton decomposition conjectures
Jin-Yi Cai and Xi Chen for Complexity of Counting CSP with Complex Weights
Ken-Ichi Kawarabayashi and Mikkel Thorup for Deterministic Edge Connectivity in Near-Linear Time
Source: Mathematical Optimization Society official website.
2024:
Ben Cousins and Santosh Vempala for Gaussian cooling and
O
∗
(
n
3
)
{\displaystyle O^{*}(n^{3})}
algorithms for volume and Gaussian volume
Zilin Jiang, Jonathan Tidor, Yuan Yao, Shengtong Zhang, and Yufei Zhao for Equiangular lines with a fixed angle
Nathan Keller and Noam Lifshitz for The junta method for hypergraphs and the Erdős–Chvátal simplex conjecture
Source: American Mathematical Society official website.
== See also ==
List of mathematics awards
== References ==
== External links ==
Official web page (MOS)
Official site with award details (AMS website)
AMS archive of past prize winners |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya | Anna Politkovskaya | Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (née Mazepa; 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian investigative journalist who reported on political and social events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005). She was found murdered in the elevator of her apartment block in Moscow on 7 October 2006, Vladimir Putin's birthday.
It was her reporting from Chechnya that made her national and international reputation. For seven years, she refused to give up reporting on the war despite numerous acts of intimidation and violence. Politkovskaya was arrested by Russian military forces in Chechnya and subjected to a mock execution. She was poisoned while flying from Moscow via Rostov-on-Don to help resolve the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis, and had to turn back, requiring careful medical treatment in Moscow to restore her health.
Her post-1999 articles about conditions in Chechnya were turned into books several times; Russian readers' main access to her investigations and publications was through Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper that featured critical investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. From 2000 onwards, she received numerous international awards for her work. In 2004, she published Putin's Russia, a personal account of Russia for a Western readership.
On 7 October 2006 (the 54th birthday of Russian president Vladimir Putin), she was murdered in the elevator of her block of apartments, an assassination that attracted international attention. In 2014, five men were sentenced to prison for the murder, but it is still unclear who ordered or paid for the contract killing.
== Early life and education ==
Anna Stepanovna Mazepa was born in New York City in 1958, the daughter of Ukrainian Soviet diplomats at the United Nations, Stepan Fedorovich Mazepa (1927–2006) from Kostobobriv, and Raisa Aleksandrovna (née Novikova; 1929–2021) from Kerch in Crimea. Her father was ethnically Ukrainian and had attended a Ukrainian-language school in Chernihiv before the 1941 Nazi invasion of the USSR. He met her mother at a Russian-language night school in Kerch after the war while serving in the fleet. By 1952, her father was admitted to study at an institute in Moscow, and her parents married there. Her father was appointed to the Ukrainian delegation at the United Nations during the Khrushchev era. He became a founding member of the Special Committee against Apartheid in 1962, and served as its secretary as late as 1974.
Her parents bought an apartment in central Moscow in 1962 and Politkovskaya mostly grew up there. She attended a music school and trained figure skating; according to her mother, she was noted for her frequent use of the local Krupskaya Library. She graduated from Moscow State University's school of journalism in 1980 with a thesis about the poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva. The faculty head at the time was Yasen Zasurskii, a close friend of the Mazepas and their frequent guest in New York. She married fellow student Alexander Politkovsky in 1978; by 1981 they had two children, Ilya and Vera. At first Alexander was better known, joining TV journalist Vladislav Listyev as one of the hosts on the late-night TV-program Vzglyad. Apart from her childhood years, Politkovskaya spent no more than a few weeks outside Russia at any one time, even when her life came under threat. She was a U.S. citizen and had a U.S. passport, although she never relinquished her Russian citizenship.
== Journalistic work ==
=== Beginnings ===
Politkovskaya's initial employment was with Izvestia, the organ of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, in 1982. According to her ex-husband in 2011, it was a brief internship in the mailroom and her only journalistic engagement during the 1980s as he failed to assist her career. In her son's words, until the mid-1990s she "wasn't even a journalist, she was a housewife". Her own later account stated that "Sasha's work ... kept me from doing my own thing". She is said by Politkovsky to have worked temporarily as a cleaner at the Mayakovsky Theatre. However, after the spell at Izvestia she soon held another internship at the Vozdushnyi transport (Воздушный транспорт, the in-house magazine of the Ministry of Civil Aviation), as a reporter and editor of the Aeroflot emergencies and accidents section. As recalled by Politkovsky, her first travel assignment was on the plane crash in Omsk (1984). The correspondent role came with an unlimited air ticket, which enabled her to travel widely across the country and observe Russian society. She was privy to developments in the media sphere through her husband, "Russia's number one television journalist" from 1987 onwards, and shared his political interests. In the 1990 film about the Politkovsky family, she was portrayed as her husband's "assistant". By the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, she experienced threats against their family, which forced her teenage son's exile in London in 1992. She was a columnist for the socio-political newspaper Megapolis-Express, founded in 1990, before it turned into a tabloid serving fake news in September 1994. She was professionally involved in the creative union Eskart – which by 1991 offered advertising services through its partnership with major media outlets, such as the All-Union Radio, the organ of the Ministry of Railways Gudok, Kuranty, Literaturnaya Gazeta, Moskovskiye Novosti, My, Ogoniok, Oktyabr, Sovetskaya Kultura, Stolitsa, and Trud – and in the St Petersburg publishing house Paritet, founded in 1992.
Politkovskaya's career took off with the decline of her husband's influence following the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. From 1994 to 1999, she worked as the assistant chief editor of Obshchaya Gazeta, headed by Yegor Yakovlev, where she wrote frequently about social problems, particularly the plight of refugees. From June 1999 to 2006, she wrote columns for the biweekly Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper with strong investigative reporting that was critical of the new post-Soviet regime from the outset. She published several award-winning books about Chechnya, life in Russia, and Russia under Vladimir Putin, including Putin's Russia.
=== Reports from Chechnya ===
Politkovskaya won awards for her work. She used each of these occasions to urge greater concern and responsibility by Western governments that, after the September 11 attacks on the United States, welcomed Putin's contribution to their "war on terror". She talked to officials, the military and the police and also frequently visited hospitals and refugee camps in Chechnya and in neighboring Ingushetia to interview those injured and uprooted by the renewed fighting.
In numerous articles critical of the war in Chechnya and the pro-Russian regime there, Politkovskaya described alleged abuses committed by Russian military forces, Chechen rebels, and the Russian-backed administration led by Akhmad Kadyrov and his son Ramzan Kadyrov. She also chronicled human rights abuses and policy failures elsewhere in the North Caucasus. In one characteristic instance in 1999, she not only wrote about the plight of an ethnically-mixed old peoples' home under bombardment in Grozny, but helped to secure the safe evacuation of its elderly inhabitants with the aid of her newspaper and public support. Her articles, many of which form the basis of A Dirty War (2001) and A Small Corner of Hell (2003), depict a conflict that brutalized both Chechen fighters and conscript soldiers in the federal army, and created hell for the civilians caught between them.
As Politkovskaya reported, the order supposedly restored under the Kadyrovs became a regime of endemic torture, abduction, and murder, by either the new Chechen authorities or the various federal forces based in Chechnya. One of her last investigations was into the alleged mass poisoning of Chechen schoolchildren by a strong and unknown chemical substance which incapacitated them for many months.
=== Criticism of Vladimir Putin and FSB ===
After Politkovskaya became widely known in the West, she was commissioned to write Putin's Russia (later subtitled Life in a Failing Democracy), a broader account of her views and experiences after former KGB lieutenant colonel Vladimir Putin became Boris Yeltsin's Prime Minister, and then succeeded him as President of Russia. This included Putin's pursuit of the Second Chechen War. In the book, she accused the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) of stifling all civil liberties to establish a Soviet-style dictatorship, but admitted: [It] is we who are responsible for Putin's policies ... [s]ociety has shown limitless apathy ... [a]s the Chekists have become entrenched in power, we have let them see our fear, and thereby have only intensified their urge to treat us like cattle. The KGB respects only the strong. The weak it devours. We of all people ought to know that. She also wrote:
We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance. All we have left is the internet, where information is still freely available. For the rest, if you want to go on working as a journalist, it's total servility to Putin. Otherwise, it can be death, the bullet, poison, or trial—whatever our special services, Putin's guard dogs, see fit.
"People often tell me that I am a pessimist, that I don't believe in the strength of the Russian people, that I am obsessive in my opposition to Putin and see nothing beyond that", she opens an essay titled "Am I Afraid?", finishing it—and the book—with the words "If anybody thinks they can take comfort from the 'optimistic' forecast, let them do so. It is certainly the easier way, but it is the death sentence for our grandchildren."
=== A Russian Diary ===
In May 2007, Random House posthumously published Politkovskaya's A Russian Diary, containing extracts from her notebook and other writings. Subtitled A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia, the book gives her account of the period from December 2003 to August 2005, including what she described as "the death of Russian parliamentary democracy", the Beslan school hostage crisis, and the "winter and summer of discontent" from January to August 2005. Because she was murdered "while translation was being completed, final editing had to go ahead without her help", wrote translator Arch Tait in a note to the book.
"Who killed Anna and who lay beyond her killer remains unknown", wrote Jon Snow, the main news anchor for the United Kingdom's Channel 4 in his foreword to the book's UK edition. "Her murder robbed too many of us of absolutely vital sources of information and contact", he concluded, "Yet it may, ultimately, be seen to have at least helped prepare the way for the unmasking of the dark forces at the heart of Russia's current being. I must confess that I finished reading A Russian Diary feeling that it should be taken up and dropped from the air in vast quantities throughout the length and breadth of Mother Russia, for all her people to read."
== Attempted hostage negotiations ==
Politkovskaya was closely involved in attempts to negotiate the release of hostages in the Moscow theatre hostage crisis of 2002. When the Beslan school hostage crisis erupted in the North Caucasus in early September 2004, Politkovskaya attempted to fly there to act as a mediator, but was taken off the plane, acutely ill due to an attempted poisoning, in Rostov-on-Don (see #Poisoning).
== Access to Russian authorities ==
In Moscow, Politkovskaya was not invited to press conferences or gatherings that Kremlin officials might attend, in case the organizers were suspected of harboring sympathies toward her. Despite this, many top officials allegedly talked to her when she was writing articles or conducting investigations. According to one of her articles, they did talk to her, "but only when they weren't likely to be observed: outside in crowds, or in houses that they approached by different routes, like spies". She also claimed that the Kremlin tried to block her access to information and discredit her:I will not go into the other joys of the path I have chosen, the poisoning, the arrests, the threats in letters and over the Internet, the telephoned death threats, the weekly summons to the prosecutor general's office to sign statements about practically every article I write (the first question being, "How and where did you obtain this information?"). Of course I don't like the constant derisive articles about me that appear in other newspapers and on Internet sites presenting me as the madwoman of Moscow. I find it disgusting to live this way. I would like a bit more understanding.
== Death threats ==
After Politkovskaya's murder, Vyacheslav Izmailov, her colleague at Novaya Gazeta – a military man who had helped negotiate the release of dozens of hostages in Chechnya before 1999 – said that he knew of at least nine previous occasions when Politkovskaya had faced death, commenting "Frontline-soldiers do not usually go into battle so often and survive".
Politkovskaya herself did not deny being afraid, but felt responsible and concerned for her informants. While attending a December 2005 conference on the freedom of the press in Vienna organized by Reporters Without Borders, she said "People sometimes pay with their lives for saying aloud what they think. In fact, one can even get killed for giving me information. I am not the only one in danger. I have examples that prove it." She often received death threats as a result of her work, including being threatened with rape and experiencing a mock execution after being arrested by the military in Chechnya.
=== Detention in Chechnya ===
Early in 2001, Politkovskaya was detained by military officials in the southern mountain village of Khattuni. She was investigating complaints from 90 Chechen families about "punitive raids" by federal forces. She interviewed a Chechen grandmother from the village of Tovzeni, Rosita, who endured 12 days of beatings, electric shocks, and confinement in a pit. The men who arrested Rosita presented themselves as FSB-employees. The torturers requested a ransom from Rosita's relatives, who negotiated a smaller amount that they were able to pay. Another interviewee described killings and rapes of Chechen men in a "concentration camp with a commercial streak" near the village of Khattuni.
Upon leaving the camp, Politkovskaya was detained, interrogated, beaten, and humiliated: "The young officers tortured me, skillfully hitting my sore-spots. They looked through my children's pictures, making a point of saying what they would like to do to the kids. This went on for about three hours." She was subjected to a mock execution using a BM-21 Grad multiple-launch rocket system, then poisoned with a cup of tea that made her vomit. Her tape-records were confiscated. She described her mock execution:
A lieutenant colonel with a swarthy face and dull dark bulging eyes said in a businesslike tone: "Let's go. I'm going to shoot you." He led me out of the tent into complete darkness. The nights here are impenetrable. After we walked for a while, he said, "Ready or not, here I come." Something burst with pulsating fire around me, screeching, roaring, and growling. The lieutenant colonel was very happy when I crouched in fright. It turned out that he had led me right under the "Grad" rocket launcher at the moment it was fired.
After the mock execution, the Russian lieutenant colonel said to her: "Here's the banya. Take off your clothes." Seeing that his words had no effect, he got very angry: "A real lieutenant colonel is courting you, and you say no, you militant bitch."
In 2006, the European Court of Human Rights found the Russian Federation responsible for the forced disappearance of a suspected Ingush militant, Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev. Colonel-General Alexander Baranov, the commander of the Russian Caucasus deployment mentioned by Politkovskaya's camp guide as the one who ordered captured militants to be kept in the pits, was filmed as he ordered Yandiyev to be executed.
=== Poisoning ===
While flying south in September 2004 to help negotiate with those who had taken over a thousand hostages in a school in Beslan (North Ossetia), Politkovskaya fell violently ill and lost consciousness after drinking tea given to her by an Aeroflot flight attendant. She had reportedly been poisoned, with some accusing the former Soviet secret police poison facility.
=== Threats from OMON officer ===
In 2001, Politkovskaya fled to Vienna, following e-mail threats that a police officer whom she had accused of atrocities against civilians in Chechnya was looking to take revenge. Corporal Sergey Lapin was arrested and charged in 2002, but the case against him was closed the following year. In 2005, Lapin was convicted and jailed for the torture and subsequent disappearance of a Chechen civilian detainee, the case exposed by Politkovskaya in her article "Disappearing People". A former fellow officer of Lapin's was among the suspects in Politkovskaya's murder, on the theory that the motive might have been revenge for her part in Lapin's conviction.
=== Conflict with Ramzan Kadyrov ===
In 2004, Politkovskaya had a conversation with Ramzan Kadyrov, then Prime Minister of Chechnya. One of his assistants said to her, "Someone ought to have shot you back in Moscow, right on the street, like they do in your Moscow". Kadyrov echoed him: "You're an enemy. To be shot...." On the day of her murder, said Novaya Gazeta's chief editor Dmitry Muratov, Politkovskaya had planned to file a lengthy story on the torture practices believed to be used by the Chechen security detachments known as Kadyrovites. In her final interview, she described Kadyrov—now president of Chechnya—as the "Chechen Stalin of our days".
== Assassination and investigation ==
Politkovskaya was found dead in the lift, in her block of apartments in central Moscow on 7 October 2006, Putin's birthday. She had been shot twice in the chest, once in the shoulder, and once in the head at close range. There was widespread international reaction to the assassination.
The funeral was held on 10 October 2006 at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in the outskirts of Moscow. Before Politkovskaya was buried, more than one thousand mourners filed past her coffin to pay their last respects. Dozens of Politkovskaya's colleagues, public figures, and admirers of her work gathered at the cemetery. No high-ranking Russian officials could be seen at the ceremony. Politkovskaya was buried near her father, who had died shortly before her.
In May 2007, a large posthumous collection of her articles entitled With Good Reason was published by Novaya Gazeta, and launched at the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow. The event came soon after the birth of Anna's namesake grandchild: Vera's daughter was named Anna in honor of her grandmother. A few months later, 10 men were detained on suspicion of various degrees of involvement in Politkovskaya's murder. Four of them were brought before the Moscow District Military Court in October 2008.
=== First trial, 2008–2009 ===
Three men were charged with directly aiding Politkovskaya's killer, who was allegedly the brother of two of the suspects. There was insufficient evidence to charge the fourth man—an FSB colonel—with the murder, though he was suspected of a leading role in its organization; he stood trial at the same time for another offence. The case was held before a jury (a rare occurrence in Russia) and, after the jurors insisted, was open to the press and public.
On 25 November 2008, it was reported that Politkovskaya's murder might have been ordered by a politician inside Russia. Murad Musayev, a lawyer for the men on trial, told journalists that the case notes—as one of the interpretations of the crime—mentioned that a politician, based in Russia (but not named in those notes), was behind her death.
On 5 December 2008, Sergei Sokolov, a senior editor of Novaya Gazeta, testified in court that he had received information (from sources he would not name) that defendant Dzhabrail Makhmudov was an agent of the FSB. He said Makhmudov's uncle Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, who was serving a 12-year jail sentence for the attempted murder of a Ukrainian businessman, also worked for the FSB.
=== Following the acquittal ===
After all three men were acquitted of Politkovskaya's murder in February 2009, her children Vera and Ilya, their lawyers Karinna Moskalenko and Anna Stavitskaya, and senior Novaya Gazeta editor Sergei Sokolov gave their reaction to the trial at a press conference in Moscow. In his comments on the end of the trial, Andrew McIntosh, Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's Sub-Committee on the Media and Rapporteur on media freedom, expressed frustration at what he perceived to be a lack of progress in investigating the murder, or the inability of the Russian authorities to find her killers:
Two years ago, in its Resolution 1535 (2007), the Assembly called on the Russian Parliament closely to monitor the progress in the criminal investigations regarding the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and hold the authorities accountable for any failures to investigate or prosecute. The closure of the trial yesterday can only be regarded as a blatant failure. I call on the Russian authorities and Parliament to relaunch a proper investigation and shed light on this murder, which undermines not only freedom of expression in Russia, but also its democratic foundation based on the rule of law. There are no excuses for these flawed investigations into murders of politically critical journalists writing against corruption and crime within government, such as the murders of Georgy Gongadze in Ukraine in 2000 and Paul Klebnikov in Moscow in 2004.
Before the trial ended, Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer who had investigated many of the abuses documented by Politkovskaya, was assassinated in Moscow on 19 January 2009. Journalist Anastasia Baburova, who was with Markelov at the time, died later of injuries sustained while trying to intervene.
More closely related to Politkovskaya's work as a journalist was 15 July 2009 murder of Natalia Estemirova. A board member of the Memorial human rights society and one of Politkovskaya's key informants, guides, and colleagues in Chechnya, Estemirova was abducted in Grozny and found dead, several hours later, in the neighboring Republic of Ingushetia.
=== Retrial, 2012 and 2014 ===
On 5 August 2009, the prosecution service's objection to the acquittals in the Politkovskaya trial was upheld by the Supreme Court, and a new trial was ordered.
In August 2011, Russian prosecutors claimed they were close to solving the murder after detaining Dmitry Pavliuchenkov, a former policeman, who they alleged was the principal organizer. In December 2012, Dmitry Pavliutchenkov was found guilty and sentenced to 11 years in a high security penal colony.
In May 2014, five men were convicted of murdering Politkovskaya, including three defendants who had been acquitted in a previous trial. In June 2014 the men were sentenced to prison, two of them, Lom-Ali Gaitukayev and his nephew Rustam Makhmudov, receiving life sentences. It was unclear who ordered or paid for the contract killing.
=== Murder remained unsolved, 2016 ===
In September 2016, Vladimir Markin, official spokesman for the Investigative Committee, included Politkovskaya's killing in a list of the Most Dramatic Crimes in 21st century Russia and claimed that it had been solved. Her colleagues at Novaya Gazeta protested that until the instigator or sponsor of the crime was identified, arrested and prosecuted the case was not closed.
On 7 October 2016, Novaya Gazeta released a video clip of its editors, correspondents, photographers and technical and administrative staff holding text-boards giving details of the case and stating, repeatedly, "The sponsor of Anna's murder has not been found". On the same day deputy chief editor Sergei Sokolov published a damning summary of the official investigation, describing its false turns and shortcomings, and emphasized that it had now effectively been wound up. After the three Makhmudov brothers, Khadjikurbanov and Lom-Ali Gaitukayev were convicted in 2014, wrote Sokolov, the once large team of investigators was reduced to one person and within a year he retired, to be replaced by a lower-ranking investigator. The 2000 killing of Igor Domnikov, another Novaya Gazeta journalist, showed that the perpetrators might be identified (they were convicted in 2008).
The Intercept published a top-secret document released by Edward Snowden with a screenshot of Intellipedia according to which:
(TS//SI/REL TO USA, AUS, CAN, GBR, NZL) Russian Federal Intelligence Services (probably FSB) are known to have targeted the webmail account of the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. On 5 December 2005, RFIS initiated an attack against the account annapolitovskaya@US Provider1, by deploying malicious software which is not available in the public domain. It is not known whether the attack is in any way associated with the death of the journalist.
== Documentary ==
2008, documentary by Masha Novikova Anna, Seven Years on the Frontline; 78 min., the Netherlands.
In 2008, Swiss director Eric Bergkraut made a documentary, Letter to Anna, about Politkovskaya's life and death. It includes interviews with her son Ilya, her daughter Vera, her ex-husband Alexander Politkovsky, and others—such as businessman Boris Berezovsky and filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov.
In 2011, Russian director Marina Goldovskaya made the documentary A Bitter Taste of Freedom, a Swedish-Russian-American co-production. The title refers to an earlier documentary film by the same director, A Taste of freedom (1991) which is about Russian life in the new, post-Soviet reality and features the Politkovsky family. A Bitter Taste of Freedom was shown at the 27th Warsaw International Film Festival where it won the Best Documentary Feature Award. From the festival's program:
She was brave, she was bold, and she was beautiful. In her fearless quest to uncover the wrongdoings of the Russian State, Anna Politkovskaya inspired awe in some and fear in countless others. An investigative journalist for Moscow's liberal Novaya Gazeta, she was the only spokesperson for victims of Putin's government. Hers was a lonely voice, yet loud enough for the entire country to hear. It was too loud. At age 48 she was assassinated for simply doing her job. A documentary about the bravery of the human spirit. As the director says, it "is especially important now, when the world is so full of cynicism and corruption, when we so desperately need more people with Anna's level of courage and integrity and commitment".
=== Biopic ===
Principal production on a biographical film, then entitled Anna, began in 2022, with Maxine Peake playing Politkovskaya and also featuring Jason Isaacs and Ciaran Hinds. Ultimately titled Words of War, it had a limited release that began on May 2, 2025.
== Awards and honours ==
2001: "Golden Pen Prize" of the Russian Union of Journalists
2001: Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism
2002: Norwegian Authors Union Freedom of Expression Prize ("Ytringsfrihetsprisen")
2002: Index on Censorship Award for the "Defence of Free Expression".
2002: PEN American Center Freedom to Write Award
2002: International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award
2003: Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage
2003: Hermann Kesten Medal
2004: Olof Palme Prize (shared with Lyudmila Alexeyeva and Sergei Kovalev)
2004: Vázquez Montalbán Award of International Journalism
2005: Civil Courage Prize (with Min Ko Naing and Munir Said Thalib)
2005: Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media
2006: International Journalism Award named after Tiziano Terzani
2006: World Press Freedom Hero of the International Press Institute
2007: UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize (awarded posthumously for the first time)
2007: National Press Club (United States)/John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award (posthumous)
2007: Geschwister-Scholl-Preis (posthumous)
2007: Democracy Award to Spotlight Press Freedom by the National Endowment for Democracy,
The 2007–2008 academic year at the College of Europe was named in her honour.
=== Anna Politkovskaya Award ===
The international human rights organization RAW in WAR (Reach All Women in War), which focuses on supporting and protecting women human rights defenders working in war and conflict zones, established in 2006 the annual Anna Politkovskaya Award in Politkovskaya's honour. The award recognizes "a woman human rights defender from a conflict zone in the world who, like Anna, stands up for the victims of this conflict, often at great personal risk". Mariana Katzarova, a close friend and a human rights colleague of Politkovskaya, founded RAW in WAR (Reach All Women in WAR) and the Anna Politkovskaya Award in 2006 in London, after working as a journalist and human rights advocate in the war zones of Bosnia, Kosovo and the North Caucasus, including 10 years as the Russia Researcher for Amnesty International.
The award was first given on the first anniversary of Politkovskaya's murder, to her friend and colleague, Chechen activist Natalia Estemirova, who was herself abducted and killed in 2009 in Chechnya.
=== Journalism prize "Anna Politkovskaja" (Ferrara, Italy) ===
There is also a "Journalism-prize Anna Politkovskaja" ("il premio giornalistico Anna Politkovskaja"), which is annually awarded in Ferrara, Italy, by the magazine L'internationale and the comune of Ferrara.
Winners of the Journalism prize "Anna Politkovskaja"
2015: Asif Mohiuddin
== Works ==
Politkovskaia, Anna (2000) Voyage en enfer: Journal de Tchetchenie, Robert Laffont: Paris.
Politkovskaya, Anna (2001) A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya, Harvill: London.ISBN 9781860468971
Политковская, Анна (2002) Вторая чеченская (The Second Chechen War), Zakharov: Moscow.
Politkovskaya, Anna (2003) A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya, translation of Vtoraya chechenskaya, The University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
Politkovs'ka, Anna. "Druha chechens'ka." Trans. I. Andrusiak. Kyiv: Diokor, 2004. (In Ukrainian.)
Politkovskaya, Anna (2004) Putin's Russia, Harvill: London.ISBN 980293316-3
Politkovskaya, Anna (2007) A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia, Harvill Secker: London.ISBN 9781400066827
Политковская, Анна (2007) (With Good Reason), Novaya Gazeta: Moscow. , 989 pp.
Includes all Anna Politkovskaya's finished and unfinished articles for Novaya Gazeta
The Russian title makes grim play of the frequent disbelieving question of victims of the late 1930s Great Terror in the Soviet Union: "But whatever for?!" («За что?!»)
Politkovskaya, Anna (2010) Nothing But the Truth: Selected Dispatches, Harvill Secker: London. ISBN 9781846552397
A 480-page selection from the 2007 volume За что (With Good Reason).
Politkovskaya, Anna (2011) Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches, Melville House Publishing: Brooklyn, New York.ISBN 9781935554400
== See also ==
Alexander Litvinenko
List of journalists killed in Russia
List of unsolved murders (2000–present)
Petra Procházková
Putinism
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Sources ==
Finkelstein, David (2008), "Investigative Journalism: Elena Poniatowska (1932–) and Anna Politkovskaya (1958–2006)", Journalism Practice, 2 (1): 130–134, doi:10.1080/17512780701768576
Jackman, Danielle Ilona (2016), Campaigning for Justice in Dark Times: Politkovskaya's Network and the Lapin Case, PhD thesis: La Trobe University, archived from the original on 11 June 2024
Simon, Scott (2007), Foreword, A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia, by Politkovskaya, Anna, New York: Random House, pp. vii–xv, ISBN 9781400066827
== External links ==
Politkovskaya writing about her Ukrainian descent in preface of the Ukrainian edition of her book The Second Chechen War by Diokor Press (in Ukrainian)
""The Chronicles of Hell" Exhibition dedicated to the memory of Anna Politkovskaya". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2013. by IPVnews
Audio
Anna Politkovskaya readings at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
audio recordings and transcriptions 2004–05 (translated to English, streaming and downloadable audio mp3)
The Writer's Conscience: Remembering Anna Politkovskaya & Russia's Forgotten War, 6 December 2006, CUNY Graduate Center, New York City – audio
Images
Photo report from August 2008 Moscow rally dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's birth (in Russian) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molar_ionization_energies_of_the_elements | Molar ionization energies of the elements | These tables list values of molar ionization energies, measured in kJ⋅mol−1. This is the energy per mole necessary to remove electrons from gaseous atoms or atomic ions. The first molar ionization energy applies to the neutral atoms. The second, third, etc., molar ionization energy applies to the further removal of an electron from a singly, doubly, etc., charged ion. For ionization energies measured in the unit eV, see Ionization energies of the elements (data page). All data from rutherfordium onwards is predicted.
== 1st–10th ionization energies ==
== 11th–20th ionization energies ==
== 21st–30th ionization energies ==
== References ==
Hoffman, Darleane C.; Lee, Diana M.; Pershina, Valeria (2006). "Transactinides and the future elements". In Morss; Edelstein, Norman M.; Fuger, Jean (eds.). The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elements (3rd ed.). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Science+Business Media. ISBN 1-4020-3555-1. (for predictions)
Cotton, Simon (2006). Lanthanide and Actinide Chemistry. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Fricke, Burkhard (1975). "Superheavy elements: a prediction of their chemical and physical properties". Recent Impact of Physics on Inorganic Chemistry. Structure and Bonding. 21: 89–144. doi:10.1007/BFb0116498. ISBN 978-3-540-07109-9. Retrieved 4 October 2013. (for predictions) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_LaLota#:~:text=3%20Personal%20life-,Early%20life%20and%20career,the%20United%20States%20Naval%20Academy. | Nick LaLota | Nicholas Joseph LaLota ( lə-LOH-tə; born June 23, 1978) is an American politician and veteran serving since 2023 as the U.S. representative for New York's 1st congressional district. He is a member of the Republican Party.
== Early life and career ==
LaLota was born on June 23, 1978, and is from Bay Shore, New York. He graduated from St. Anthony's High School and, in 2000, from the United States Naval Academy. He served in the U.S. Navy for eight years, serving three overseas deployments. He earned a Master of Business Administration and a Juris Doctor from Hofstra University. LaLota served as chief of staff to Suffolk County presiding officer Kevin McCaffrey. He also served on the Suffolk Board of Elections as well as a trustee for the village of Amityville, New York.
== U.S. House of Representatives ==
=== Elections ===
==== 2022 ====
LaLota ran for the United States House of Representatives in the first congressional district of New York to succeed Lee Zeldin, who ran for governor of New York. He won the general election on November 8 by defeating the Democratic nominee Bridget Fleming.
On December 27, 2022, LaLota became one of the first Republicans to call for a full House Ethics Committee investigation into the false claims made by his fellow Long Island Republican, representative-elect George Santos. "New Yorkers deserve the truth and House Republicans deserve an opportunity to govern without this distraction", LaLota said. On March 7, 2024, during President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, Santos posted on social media that he planned to run against LaLota in the 2024 Republican primary.
==== 2024 ====
LaLota sought reelection in 2024. He defeated Democratic nominee John Avlon.
=== Tenure ===
LaLota was sworn in on January 7, 2023.
LaLota was one of six Republicans to sign a bipartisan letter spearheaded by centrist House Representatives in which they pledged to respect the results of the 2024 presidential election.
=== Committee assignments ===
For the 119th Congress:
Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government (Vice Chair)
Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies
Committee on Small Business
Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure (Chairman)
Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access
=== Caucus memberships ===
Climate Solutions Caucus
Republican Main Street Partnership
Republican Governance Group
Problem Solvers Caucus
SALT Caucus
For Country Caucus
Long Island Sound Caucus (co-chair)
Shellfish Caucus
== Personal life ==
LaLota married his high school sweetheart, Kaylie, who is a teacher at Northport High School. They have three daughters. LaLota resides in Amityville, New York.
LaLota is Catholic.
== References ==
== External links ==
Congressman Nick LaLota official U.S. House website
Campaign website
Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
Legislation sponsored at the Library of Congress
Profile at Vote Smart
Appearances on C-SPAN |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_Status_Act | Puerto Rico Status Act | The Puerto Rico Status Act, H.R. 2757, was a bill introduced during the 116th United States Congress. The intention of the bill is to grant Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, admission into the Union as a state. The bill was originally introduced in the 116th Congress and was reintroduced as H.R. 1522, on March 2, 2021, in the 117th Congress. It was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources with last action taken on June 16, 2021.
== Background ==
In 1898, following the conclusion of the Spanish–American War, Spain ceded the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico and its surrounding archipelago to the United States. Initially run by the military, from 1900 onwards measures began to be enacted giving the people of Puerto Rico a measure of local civilian government, while bringing the population more within the larger community of the United States. This began with the establishment of the elected House of Delegates in 1900, while in 1902 the post of Resident Commissioner was established. The Resident Commissioner was a non-voting member, similar to other non-voting members of the House of Representatives, intended to represent the interests of Puerto Rico in the United States Congress. However, unlike other territories, Puerto Rico's was not named as a "delegate", as it was argued that such a title gave an implication that the territory was on the road towards becoming a state, which was not guaranteed for possessions obtained as a result of war. In 1917 the Jones–Shafroth Act saw the creation of an elected Senate, as well as granting U.S. citizenship to all Puerto Ricans born after April 25, 1898. In 1947, the Elective Governor Act granted Puerto Rico the right to its own elected governor for the first time, while in 1950 Puerto Rico was granted the right to hold a constitutional convention, with a view to the territory having its own constitution. Approved in a referendum in 1952, the new Puerto Rican constitution changed the status of the territory into that of an unincorporated "Commonwealth". In this context, Puerto Rico is a territory that is controlled by the federal government, but in which the full provisions of the Constitution are not in force.
=== Statehood movement ===
Puerto Rico is the largest of the United States' overseas territories, both in terms of size and population. Its population is about 3 million. Its political status does not allow Puerto Ricans the right to vote for their head of state, or have full representation in the Congress. Becoming a state would allow Puerto Rico full representation, giving it two members of the United States Senate, as well as a number of members of the House of Representatives. The Huntington–Hill method estimates that, were Puerto Rico to become a state, it would be entitled to four seats in the House. Statehood would also give Puerto Rico a number of votes in the electoral college responsible for electing the President. Statehood would also allow Puerto Rico greater access to federal funding programs that states enjoy, an issue that became increasingly apparent following recent natural disasters that affected the island, most notably Hurricane Maria in 2017, the effects of which caused as much as $90 billion worth of damage, with the response of the federal government being heavily criticised.
In 2017, following the success of the pro-statehood Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) in gaining control of the Legislative Assembly, as well as the governorship, Puerto Rico followed the example of Washington, D.C. by appointing a delegation of shadow congresspeople, with two senators and five representatives. The purpose of this delegation, set up by the Puerto Rico Equality Commission, is to lobby the United States Congress over the question of statehood.
A number of referendums were held on Puerto Rico's potential future status, with the first of these taking place in 1967. Since the first, these have seen support for statehood steadily increase, even as the set up of each referendum has altered. Prior to 2019, the most recent was held in 2017, and saw 97% choose statehood as the option. However, this was on a turnout of just over 22%, as a result of a boycott of the vote by many of Puerto Rico's major political parties.
In 2017, Jenniffer González Colón, the non-voting Resident Commissioner, introduced a bill into the House of Representatives requiring the Congress support the holding of a vote on Puerto Rico's status and, in the event of a vote in favor of statehood, that it undertake the necessary preparations, including the amendment or repeal of legislation related to Puerto Rico as a territory, prior to Puerto Rico being admitted by January 3, 2025. This bill was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources, but did not reach a vote on the floor of the House.
In October 2019, a new bill was introduced by José E. Serrano, a Democratic congressman from New York, who was born in Puerto Rico, intended to bring about Puerto Rico's admission. Unlike the previous bill, which had just a single cosponsor, this received a total of 60 cosponsors, including 42 Democrats and 18 Republicans. As with the 2017 bill, it was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, but did not reach a vote in the full House.
== Provisions ==
A corresponding bill, the Law for the Final Definition of the Political Status of Puerto Rico, was introduced in Puerto Rico's Legislative Assembly and approved by both its houses in March 2020. It was through this that the 2020 plebiscite was held, which provided a majority in favor of statehood.
== Popular opinion in Puerto Rico, and the states ==
Although the 2020 plebiscite provided a majority in favor of statehood, there were many articles written since it took place, pointing out that the turnout was a little over 52%, with 623,000 of the 2.3 million registered voters in Puerto Rico voting for statehood. While opinion polls among the population in the United States seem to favor Puerto Rico's admission, support for which has been relatively high since the 1960s, in Puerto Rico itself there is a seemingly higher degree of ambivalence to the idea, based on Puerto Rico's national identity, which may potentially be lost were it to become a full part of the United States. This can be illustrated by the fact that the pro-independence Puerto Rican Independence Party (Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño, PIP) candidate for governor received 14% of the vote in the 2020 election.
Although statehood has formed part of the party platforms of both major parties in the United States, senior figures in the Republican Party publicly indicated their opposition to the admission of Puerto Rico, with Mitch McConnell, the then Senate Majority Leader, saying in 2019 that moves to admit Puerto Rico, as well as Washington D.C., amounted to "full-bore socialism", with both potential new states likely to return perpetual Democratic members of the Senate, and so the Republican majority would oppose the entry of both. This is in spite of evidence that voters in Puerto Rico may well be more conservative than voters in Washington, D.C. – at the time of the 2020 vote, the Governor, Resident Commissioner, Speaker of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives and President of the Puerto Rico Senate, although members of the pro-statehood PNP, also sat as conservative Republicans. Despite the seemingly fixed position of the Senate leadership, legislators of both parties, following the result of the 2020 vote, indicated a willingness to open the debate of Puerto Rico's status in Congress.
== Legislative history ==
As of January 3, 2025:
== See also ==
Puerto Rico statehood movement
2012 Puerto Rican status referendum
Washington, D.C., Admission Act
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_James | Edward James | Edward Frank Willis James (16 August 1907 – 2 December 1984) was a British poet known for his patronage of the surrealist art movement.
== Early life and marriage ==
James was born on 16 August 1907, the only son of William James (who had inherited a fortune from his father, merchant Daniel James) and Evelyn Forbes, a Scots socialite. He was reputedly fathered by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and in his anecdotal reminiscences, recorded in Swans Reflecting Elephants – My Early Years, Edward James also puts forward this hypothesis. In his memoirs he wrote "I was not, I was, in fact, his grandson" saying that it was his grandmother that had an affair with the Prince of Wales. However, there was also popular belief that Forbes was one of the Prince of Wales's mistresses and there was a much-quoted ballad by Hilaire Belloc intimating this at the time.
Edward James had four older sisters: Audrey, Millicent, Xandra, and Silvia. He was educated at Lockers Park School, then briefly at Eton, then at Le Rosey in Switzerland, and finally at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was a contemporary of Evelyn Waugh (Waugh attended Hertford College) and Harold Acton, a fellow student at Christ Church. When his father died in 1912 he inherited the 8,000-acre (3,200 ha) West Dean House estate in Sussex, held in trust until he came of age. He was also left a large sum in trust when his uncle John Arthur James died in 1917.
James's first sponsorship of note was in publishing John Betjeman's first book of poems when at Oxford. He worked with Brian Howard on the Glass Omnibus. After Oxford, James had a brief career as a trainee diplomat at the embassy in Rome. He was asked to send a coded message to London that the Italians had laid the keels for three destroyers, but got the code wrong; the message said "300 destroyers". Shortly after this he was sent "on indefinite leave".
In the early 1930s, James married Tilly Losch, an Austrian dancer, choreographer, actress and painter. He had several productions created expressly for her, the most notable of which was Les Ballets 1933, which included Kurt Weill, Lotte Lenya and George Balanchine. He and Boris Kochno commissioned that year Brecht and Weill's last collaboration, The Seven Deadly Sins, which Balanchine produced, directed and choreographed.
James divorced Losch in 1934, accusing her of adultery with Prince Serge Obolensky, an American hotel executive; her countersuit, in which she made it clear that James was homosexual, failed. James was in fact bisexual. After the divorce, James joined a social set in England which included the Mitford sisters and the composer Lord Berners.
== Surrealism ==
James is best known as a passionate supporter of Surrealism, a movement that evolved from Dada and the political uncertainty and upheaval of World War I and the following years. With a mix of Dada irreverence for the traditional political, religious, and bourgeois values of western civilization that they believed had led the world (and themselves as veterans of the war) to the First World War, the surrealists explored the possibilities that had been opened up by Sigmund Freud regarding the subconscious mind, and the idea of "pure thought", unfiltered and uncensored by political, religious, moral, or rational principles.
He sponsored Salvador Dalí for the whole of 1938 and his collection of paintings and art objects subsequently came to be accepted as one of the finest collections of surrealist work in private hands. He also provided practical help, supporting Dalí for about two years. They collaborated on the Mae West Sofas and Lobster Telephones, which James had installed in his private home near West Dean House.
James appeared in two surrealist paintings, both by Magritte:
Not to Be Reproduced
The Pleasure Principle: Portrait of Edward James
Salvador Dali put James in touch with the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte (1889–1967). James later hosted Magritte for three weeks at his home on 35 Wimpole Street, London in February and March 1937, where Magritte painted a number of gouaches and oils, some of which were new, others were copies of his earlier work. The terms agreed on were that Magritte was to be paid £250 to paint copies or variations of three paintings selected by James from photographs: On the Threshold of Liberty (1929), The Red Model (1935), and The Youth Illustrated (1936) and pay his own travel expenses, while James was to provide a studio space above his garage as well as art supplies and canvases. James intended to install the paintings behind backless mirrors, so as to only be observable in bright light. The new version of The Red Model, painted at James’s request, was a large canvas (72 × 52.5 in.) of higher quality than the original and given a British touch with the addition of a few English coins scattered in the dirt. It is now in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam along with the 1937 version of The Youth Illustrated (79 × 60 in.). Magritte went on to paint at least seven versions of The Red Model. Magritte also enlarged and reformatted the 1937 version of On the Threshold of Liberty (94 × 73 in.), now in the Art Institute of Chicago, from horizontal to vertical to fit the intended installation site for James. In a letter to Louis Scutenaire and Irène Hamoir (February 18, 1937), Magritte wrote "London is a revelation. Of course, I'm only just beginning to discover it. But until now, everything is perfect (of course I don't speak English, but "there's something"). Yesterday evening we went to visit Henry Moore, a charming sculptor, sort of Arp-Picasso..."
In June that year, Magritte painted some portraits of James including Not to be Reproduced and The Pleasure Principle. In the first, James looks into a mirror which shows the back of his head; in the second, James's head is an enigmatic radiating light. Magritte painted Pleasure Principle from photographs of James taken by Man Ray, following Magritte's precise staging instructions. The Pleasure Principle was based on a small ink sketch from the year before, titled Failed Portrait [of Paul Éluard]. In Not to be Reproduced, the book sitting on the mantel is the French edition of Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. James’s art collection included works by Hieronymus Bosch, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Klee, Leonora Carrington, Pavel Tchelitchew, Pablo Picasso, Giacometti, Max Ernst and Paul Delvaux. Most were sold at a well-publicized sale at Christie's two years after his death.
His intellectual interest in surrealism is demonstrated by his sponsorship of Minotaure, a lavish Surrealist magazine published in Paris. His refurbishment of Monkton House, a part of the West Dean Estate, was a Surrealist dream. It was done in collaboration with the pioneering British decorator Syrie Maugham, and has some of the most iconic Surrealist works on display, including the large Mae West Lips Sofa to which Dalí gave the form and colour of the actress's lips, and his Lobster Telephone in white. (The Surrealist tradition at Monkton House was maintained when the interior designer Derek Frost did extensive work to the house and designed more custom pieces of furniture in the late 1980s.) James donated these two items (among others) to the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. James's most fantastic Surrealist creation was a sculpture garden in the Mexican rainforest, "Las Pozas".
== New Mexico ==
In 1940, James stayed in Taos, New Mexico, United States, as a guest of Mabel Dodge Luhan, where he was known for his amusing, clever eccentricity and effeminate manner. In Taos, he met the Hon. Dorothy Brett, an impoverished British aristocrat and painter, who in 1941 sold him nine paintings for $580. He later invited the 70-year-old Brett (as she was known) to return to Britain and reside at West Dean, but she declined.
== Las Pozas ==
Las Pozas ("the Pools") is a garden created by James near the village of Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, more than 2,000 feet (610 m) above sea level, in a subtropical rainforest in the Sierra Gorda mountains of Mexico. It includes more than 80 acres (32 ha) of natural waterfalls and pools interlaced with towering Surrealist sculptures in concrete. Massive sculptures up to four stories tall punctuate the site. The many trails throughout the garden site are composed of steps, ramps, bridges, and narrow winding walkways that traverse the valley walls. Construction of Las Pozas cost more than $5 million. To pay for it, James sold his collection of Surrealist art at auction.
== West Dean ==
In 1964, James gave his English estate, which included West Dean House at West Dean, to a charitable trust. The Edward James Foundation comprises West Dean College, a centre for the preservation of traditional arts and crafts. The college offers both short courses and full-time diploma and master’s degree programs. One of only two professional tapestry weaving studios in the UK and an art gallery are housed at the 6,400-acre (26 km2) estate, which is open to the public through the West Dean Gardens.
West Dean College was set up in 1971 in response to James's vision of establishing "an educational foundation where creative talents can be discovered and developed, and where one can spread culture through the teaching of crafts and the preservation of knowledge that might otherwise be destroyed or forgotten".
Edward James is buried in the St Roche's Arboretum at West Dean, with the simple inscription Edward James 1907 – 1984 Poet. The stone was carved by John Skelton.
== Writings ==
E. James, The Bones of my Hand, privately printed, London 1930.
E. James, The Glass Omnibus, privately printed, London 1934.
E. James, The Gardener Who Saw God, 1937.
E. James, "The Sight of Marble, and Other Poems", Julian Messner (New York), 1941
Edward James wrote a collection of four poems, Sécheresses, and Francis Poulenc set them to music for choir (mixed voices SATB) and piano or orchestra in 1937.
— (1982). Melly, George (ed.). Swans Reflecting Elephants, My Early Years. London: Weidenfeld.
== Portrait sculpture ==
An early marble portrait sculpture of Edward James exists, by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
== Popular culture ==
In a video available on YouTube with the surrealist artist and singer George Melly in 1978, Edward James tells that he believed that his mother was the daughter of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and not his lover as was widely rumoured at the time, see below.
A museum dedicated to Edward James opened its doors in Xilitla on 22 December 2022. Museo Edward James contains a collection of wooden moulds used in the construction of Las Pozas, books written by James, photographs and drawings. It also features a rare painting by James, made under the supervision of his friend, Leonora Carrington. The museum is located across the road from the sculpture garden at Las Pozas.
== References ==
== External links ==
Edward James, Builder of Dreams Archived 2 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine, documentary film by Avery Danziger
Surreal Eden: Edward James & Las Pozas, by Margaret Hooks
West Dean, the Edward James Foundation
"The Secret Life of Edward James" on YouTube 1978 George Melly interviews with Edward James
Virtual tour app of Las Pozas: Steps & Falls available on iTunes store |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_CLR | Honda CLR | The Honda CLR CityFly was introduced in 1998 as a dual purpose motorcycle and is powered by a 49–124 cc (3.0–7.6 cu in) SOHC single-cylinder engine. The machine does not have the same engine as the Honda CG but the engine from the Honda XLR offroad motorcycle. The CLR "CityFly" was discontinued in 2003. Although the motorcycle was launched as a dual purpose machine, it was better known for city use and town use; this was mainly due to the lack of power of the engine.
The Honda CLR received mostly favorable reviews upon release.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleri_Bevan | Teleri Bevan | Welsh broadcaster and author Teleri Bevan (1931–2020; aged 89) was the founding editor of BBC Radio Wales. She was also the author of three nonfiction books including Esmé: Guardian of Snowdonia (2014), a biography of Welsh conservationist Esmé Kirby.
== Early life and education ==
Bevan was born near Aberystwyth in Wales in 1931. She later studied at Bangor University in Bangor, Wales.
== Career ==
=== Journalism ===
Bevan began working for the BBC in 1955, where she acted as a presenter, producer, and editor. In 1978, Bevan was named the first editor of BBC Radio Wales. Her appointment to the role was a source of controversy, with some criticizing her decision to cancel the popular programme Good Morning Wales and replace it with a new morning programme titled AM. However, Bevan eventually increased in popularity.
In 1981, Bevan became the deputy head of programmes, and in 1985, she became the head of programmes for BBC Wales.
Throughout her career, Bevan interviewed a wide variety of influential people, including Tom Jones and Indira Gandhi.
=== Literature ===
After retiring from broadcasting, Bevan began a second career in nonfiction writing. In 2004, Bevan published a memoir of her broadcasting career titled Years on Air: Living with the BBC. Bevan's second book, The Ladies of Blaenwern (2010), told the history of the Welsh musical group The Dorian Trio, and was nominated for the January Book of the Month by the Welsh Books Council. In 2014, she published Esmé: Guardian of Snowdonia, a biography of Welsh conservationist Esmé Kirby.
== Death ==
Bevan died in November 2020.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kashmir#Post-1947 | History of Kashmir | The history of Kashmir is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent in South Asia with influences from the surrounding regions of Central, and East Asia. Historically, Kashmir referred to only the Kashmir Valley of the western Himalayas. Today, it denotes a larger area that includes the Indian-administered union territories of Jammu and Kashmir (which consists of Jammu and the Kashmir Valley), Ladakh, the Pakistan-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and the Chinese-administered regions of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract.
In the first half of the 1st millennium, the Kashmir region became an important centre of Hinduism and later—under the Mauryas and Kushanas—of Buddhism. Later in the ninth century, during the rule of the Karkota Dynasty, a native tradition of Shaivism arose. It flourished in the seven centuries of Hindu rule, continuing under the Utpala and the Lohara dynasties, ending in mid-14th century.
The spread of Islam in Kashmir began during the 13th century, accelerated under Muslim rule during the 14th and 15th centuries, and led to the eventual decline of Kashmiri Shaivism in the region.
In 1339, Shah Mir became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir, inaugurating the Shah Mir dynasty. For the next five centuries, Muslim monarchs ruled Kashmir, including the Mughal Empire, who ruled from 1586 until 1751, and the Afghan Durrani Empire, which ruled from 1747 until 1819. That year, the Sikhs, under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir. In 1846, after the Sikh defeat in the First Anglo-Sikh War, the Treaty of Lahore was signed and upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Raja of Jammu, Gulab Singh, became the new ruler of Kashmir. The rule of his descendants, under the paramountcy (or tutelage) of the British Crown, lasted until 1947, when the former princely state became a disputed territory, now administered by three countries: India, Pakistan, and the People's Republic of China.
== Etymology ==
According to folk etymology, the name "Kashmir" means "desiccated land" (from the Sanskrit: ka = water and shimīra = desiccate). In the Rajatarangini, a history of Kashmir written by Kalhana in the mid-12th century, it is stated that the valley of Kashmir was formerly a lake. According to Hindu mythology, the lake was drained by the great rishi or sage, Kashyapa, son of Marichi, son of Brahma, by cutting the gap in the hills at Baramulla (Varaha-mula). When Kashmir had been drained, Kashyapa asked Brahmins to settle there. This is still the local tradition, and in the existing physical condition of the country, there is some ground for the story which has taken this form. The name of Kashyapa is by history and tradition connected with the draining of the lake, and the chief town or collection of dwellings in the valley was called Kashyapa-pura, which has been identified with Kaspapyros of Hecataeus (apud Stephanus of Byzantium) and Kaspatyros of Herodotus (3.102, 4.44). Kashmir is also believed to be the country meant by Ptolemy's Kaspeiria. Cashmere is an archaic spelling of Kashmir, and in some countries it is still spelled this way.
== Historiography ==
Nilamata Purana (complied c. 500–600 CE) contains accounts of Kashmir's early history. However, being a Puranic source, it has been argued that it suffers from a degree of inconsistency and unreliability. Kalhana's Rajatarangini (River of Kings), all the 8000 Sanskrit verses of which were completed by 1150 CE, chronicles the history of Kashmir's dynasties from earlier times to the 12th century. It relies upon traditional sources like Nilmata Purana, inscriptions, coins, monuments, and Kalhana's personal observations borne out of political experiences of his family. Towards the end of the work mythical explanations give way to rational and critical analyses of dramatic events between 11th and 12th centuries, for which Kalhana is often credited as "India's first historian".
During the reign of Muslim kings in Kashmir, three supplements to Rajatarangini were written by Jonaraja (1411–1463 CE), Srivara, and Prajyabhatta and Suka, which end with Akbar's conquest of Kashmir in 1586 CE. The text was translated into Persian by Muslim scholars such as Nizam Uddin, Farishta, and Abul Fazl. Baharistan-i-Shahi and Haidar Mailk's Tarikh-i-Kashmir (completed in 1621 CE) are the most important texts on the history of Kashmir during the Sultanate period. Both the texts were written in Persian and used Rajatarangini and Persian histories as their sources.
== Palaeolithic ==
At the Lower-Middle Palaeolithic Galander site near Pampore in the Kashmir Valley, remains of the extinct elephant species Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus have been found associated with knapped stone tools produced by archaic humans, with the bones of the elephant suggested to display deliberate fracturing, perhaps produced during the act of butchery. The stone tools exhibit production techniques reminiscent of the Levallois type, and the site is suggested to date to the Middle Pleistocene, around 400-300,000 years ago.
== Early history ==
The earliest Neolithic sites in the flood plains of Kashmir Valley are dated to c. 3000 BCE. Most important of these sites are the settlements at Burzahom, which had two Neolithic and one Megalithic phases. First phase (c. 2920 BCE) at Burzahom is marked by mud plastered pit dwellings, coarse pottery and stone tools. In the second phase, which lasted until c. 1700 BCE, houses were constructed on ground level and the dead were buried, sometimes with domesticated and wild animals. Hunting and fishing were the primary modes of subsistence though evidence of cultivation of wheat, barley, and lentils has also been found in both the phases. In the megalithic phase, massive circles were constructed and grey or black burnish replaced coarse red ware in pottery. During the later Vedic period, as kingdoms of the Vedic tribes expanded, the Uttara–Kurus settled in Kashmir.
In 326 BCE, Porus asked Abisares, the king of Kashmir, to aid him against Alexander the Great in the Battle of Hydaspes. After Porus lost the battle, Abhisares submitted to Alexander by sending him treasure and elephants.
During the reign of Ashoka (304–232 BCE), Kashmir became a part of the Maurya Empire and Buddhism was introduced in Kashmir. During this period, many stupas, some shrines dedicated to Shiva, and the city of Srinagari (Srinagar) were built. Kanishka (127–151 CE), an emperor of the Kushan dynasty, conquered Kashmir and established the new city of Kanishkapur. Buddhist tradition holds that Kanishka held the Fourth Buddhist council in Kashmir, in which celebrated scholars such as Ashvagosha, Nagarjuna and Vasumitra took part. By the fourth century, Kashmir became a seat of learning for both Buddhism and Hinduism. Kashmiri Buddhist missionaries helped spread Buddhism to Tibet and China and from the fifth century CE, pilgrims from these countries started visiting Kashmir. Kumārajīva (343–413 CE) was among the renowned Kashmiri scholars who traveled to China. He influenced the Chinese emperor Yao Xing and spearheaded translation of many Sanskrit works into Chinese at the Chang'an monastery.
The Alchon Huns under Toramana crossed over the Hindu Kush mountains and conquered large parts of western India including Kashmir. His son Mihirakula (c. 502–530 CE) led a military campaign to conquer all of North India. He was opposed by Baladitya in Magadha and eventually defeated by Yasodharman in Malwa. After the defeat, Mihirakula returned to Kashmir where he led a coup on the king. He then conquered of Gandhara where he committed many atrocities on Buddhists and destroyed their shrines. Influence of the Huns faded after Mihirakula's death.
In 659, Sogdia, Ferghana, Tashkent, Bukhara, Samarkand, Balkh, Herat, Kashmir, the Pamirs, Tokharistan, and Kabul all submitted to the protectorate under Emperor Gaozong of Tang.
=== Hindu Dynasties ===
A succession of Hindu dynasties ruled over the region from the 7th-14th centuries. After the seventh century, significant developments took place in Kashmiri Hinduism. In the centuries that followed, Kashmir produced many poets, philosophers, and artists who contributed to Sanskrit literature and Hindu religion. Among notable scholars of this period was Vasugupta (c. 875–925 CE) who wrote the Shiva Sutras which laid the foundation for a monistic Shaiva system called Kashmir Shaivism. Dualistic interpretation of Shaiva scripture was defeated by Abhinavagupta (c. 975–1025 CE) who wrote many philosophical works on Kashmir Shaivism. Kashmir Shaivism was adopted by the common masses of Kashmir and strongly influenced Shaivism in Southern India.
In the eighth century, the Karkota Empire established themselves as rulers of Kashmir. Kashmir grew as an imperial power under the Karkotas. Chandrapida of this dynasty was recognized by an imperial order of the Chinese emperor as the king of Kashmir. His successor Lalitaditya Muktapida lead a successful military campaign against the Tibetans. He then defeated Yashovarman of Kanyakubja and subsequently conquered eastern kingdoms of Magadha, Kamarupa, Gauda, and Kalinga. Lalitaditya extended his influence of Malwa and Gujarat and defeated Arabs at Sindh. After his demise, Kashmir's influence over other kingdoms declined and the dynasty ended in c. 855–856 CE.
The Utpala dynasty founded by Avantivarman followed the Karkotas. His successor Shankaravarman (885–902 CE) led a successful military campaign against Gurjaras in Punjab. Political instability in the 10th century made the royal body guards (Tantrins) very powerful in Kashmir. Under the Tantrins, civil administration collapsed and chaos reigned in Kashmir until they were defeated by Chakravarman. Queen Didda, who descended from the Hindu Shahis of Udabhandapura on her mother's side, took over as the ruler in second half of the 10th century. After her death in 1003 CE, the throne passed to the Lohara dynasty. Suhadeva, last king of the Lohara dynasty, fled Kashmir after Zulju (Dulacha), a Turkic–Mongol chief, led a savage raid on Kashmir in about 1320. His wife, Queen Kota Rani ruled until 1339. She is often credited for the construction of a canal, named "Kutte Kol" after her, diverting the waters of the Jhelum to prevent frequent flooding in Srinagar.
During the 11th century, Mahmud of Ghazni made two attempts to conquer Kashmir. However, both his campaigns failed because he could not take by siege the fortress at Lohkot.
== Muslim rulers ==
=== Prelude and Kashmir Sultanate (1346–1580s) ===
Historian Mohibbul Hasan states that the oppressive taxation, corruption, internecine fights and rise of feudal lords (Damaras) during the unpopular rule of the Lohara dynasty (1003–1320 CE) paved the way for foreign invasions of Kashmir. Rinchana was a Tibetan Buddhist refugee in Kashmir, who had established himself as the ruler after Zulju. Rinchana's conversion to Islam is a subject of Kashmiri folklore. He was persuaded to accept Islam by his minister Shah Mir, probably for political reasons. Islam had penetrated into countries outside Kashmir and in absence of the support from Hindus, who were in a majority, Rinchana needed the support of the Kashmiri Muslims. Shah Mir's coup on Rinchana's successor secured Muslim rule and the rule of his dynasty in Kashmir.
In the 14th century, Islam gradually became the dominant religion in Kashmir. With the fall of Kashmir, a premier center of Sanskrit literary creativity, Sanskrit literature there disappeared. Islamic preacher Sheikh Nooruddin Noorani, who is traditionally revered by Hindus as Nund Rishi, combined elements of Kashmir Shaivism with Sufi mysticism in his discourses. The Sultans between 1354 and 1470 CE were tolerant of other religions with the exception of Sultan Sikandar (1389–1413 CE). Sultan Sikandar imposed taxes on non–Muslims, forced conversions to Islam, and earned the title But–Shikan for destroying idols. Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin (c. 1420–1470 CE) invited artists and craftsmen from Central Asia and Persia to train local artists in Kashmir. Under his rule the arts of wood carving, papier-mâché, shawls and carpets weaving prospered. For a brief period in the 1470s, states of Jammu, Poonch and Rajauri which paid tributes to Kashmir revolted against the Sultan Hajji Khan. However, they were subjugated by his son Hasan Khan who took over as ruler in 1472 CE. By the mid 16th century, Hindu influence in the courts and role of the Hindu priests had declined as Muslim missionaries immigrated into Kashmir from Central Asia and Persia, and Persian replaced Sanskrit as the official language. Around the same period, the nobility of Chaks had become powerful enough to unseat the Shah Mir dynasty.
Mughal general Haidar Dughlat, a member of ruling family in Kashgar, invaded Kashmir in c. 1540 CE on behalf of emperor Humayun. Persecution of Shias, Shafi'is and Sufis and instigation by Suri kings led to a revolt which overthrew Dughlat's rule in Kashmir.
=== Mughals (1580s–1750s) ===
Kashmir did not witness direct Mughal rule until the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar the Great, who took control of Kashmir and added it to his Kabul Subah in 1586. Shah Jahan carved it out as a separate subah (imperial top-level province), with seat at Srinagar. During successive Mughal emperors many celebrated gardens, mosques and palaces were constructed. Religious intolerance and discriminatory taxation reappeared when Mughal emperor Aurangzeb ascended to the throne in 1658 CE. After his death, the influence of the Mughal Empire declined.
In 1700 CE, a servant of a wealthy Kashmir merchant brought Mo-i Muqqadas (the hair of the Prophet), a relic of Muhammad, to the valley. The relic was housed in the Hazratbal Shrine on the banks of Dal Lake. Nadir Shah's invasion of India in 1738 CE further weakened Mughal control over Kashmir.
=== Durrani Empire (1752–1819) ===
Taking advantage of the declining Mughal Empire, the Afghan Durrani Empire under Ahmad Shah Durrani took control of Kashmir in 1752. In the mid-1750s the Afghan-appointed governor of Kashmir, Sukh Jiwan Mal, rebelled against the Durrani Empire before being defeated in 1762. After Mal's defeat, the Durrani engaged in the oppression of the remaining Hindu population through forced conversions, killings, and forced labor. Repression by the Durrani extended to all classes, regardless of religion, and a heavy tax burden was levied on the Kashmiri populace. According to the historian Victoria Schofield: "The names of the Afghan governors who ruled Kashmir are all but forgotten but not their cruelty, which was directed mainly towards the Hindus". Extortion was common and many Kashmiris were sold as slaves to Afghanistan, adds Schofield.
A number of Afghan governors administered the region on behalf of the Durrani Empire. During the Durrani rule in Kashmir, income from the region constituted a large part of the Durrani Empire's revenue. The empire controlled Kashmir until 1819, after which the region was annexed by the Sikh Empire.
== Sikh rule (1819–1846) ==
After four centuries of Muslim rule, Kashmir fell to the conquering armies of the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh of Punjab after the Battle of Shopian in 1819. As the Kashmiris had suffered under the Afghans, they initially welcomed the new Sikh rulers. However, the Sikh governors turned out to be hard taskmasters, and Sikh rule was generally considered oppressive, protected perhaps by the remoteness of Kashmir from the capital of the Sikh Empire in Lahore. The Sikhs enacted a number of anti-Muslim laws, which included handing out death sentences for cow slaughter, closing down the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar, and banning the azaan, the public Muslim call to prayer; these laws were however later repealed by the governor Muhyuddin during the last decade of Sikh rule. Kashmir had also now begun to attract European visitors, several of whom wrote of the abject poverty of the vast Muslim peasantry and of the exorbitant taxes under the Sikhs. High taxes, according to some contemporary accounts, had depopulated large tracts of the countryside, allowing only one-sixteenth of the cultivable land to be cultivated. However, after a famine in 1832, the Sikhs reduced the land tax to half the produce of the land and also began to offer interest-free loans to farmers; Kashmir became the second highest revenue earner for the Sikh empire. During this time Kashmiri shawls became known worldwide, attracting many buyers especially in the west.
Earlier, in 1780, after the death of Ranjit Deo, the kingdom of Jammu (to the south of the Kashmir valley) was also captured by the Sikhs and made a tributary. Ranjit Deo's grandnephew, Gulab Singh, subsequently sought service at the court of Ranjit Singh, distinguished himself in later campaigns and got appointed as the Raja of Jammu in 1820. With the help of his officer, Zorawar Singh, Gulab Singh soon captured for the Sikhs the lands of Ladakh and Baltistan. The notable governors appointed to Kashmir by the Sikh kingdom include Moti Ram, Hari Singh, Kirpa Ram, Mihan Singh and Muhyuddin.
== Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu (Dogra Rule, 1846–1947) ==
In 1845, the First Anglo-Sikh War broke out, and Gulab Singh "contrived to hold himself aloof until the battle of Sobraon (1846), when he appeared as a useful mediator and the trusted advisor of Sir Henry Lawrence. Two treaties were concluded. By the first the State of Lahore (i.e. West Punjab) handed over to the British, as equivalent for (rupees) ten million of indemnity, the hill countries between Beas and Indus; by the second the British made over to Gulab Singh for (Rupees) 7.5 million all the hilly or mountainous country situated to the east of Indus and west of Ravi" (i.e. the Vale of Kashmir). The Treaty of Amritsar freed Gulab Singh from obligations towards the Sikhs and made him the Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir. The Dogras' loyalty came in handy to the British during the revolt of 1857 which challenged British rule in India. Dogras refused to provide sanctuary to mutineers, allowed English women and children to seek asylum in Kashmir and sent Kashmiri troops to fight on behalf of the British. British in return rewarded them by securing the succession of Dogra rule in Kashmir. Soon after Gulab Singh's death in 1857, his son, Ranbir Singh, added the emirates of Hunza, Gilgit and Nagar to the kingdom.
The Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu (as it was then called) was constituted between 1820 and 1858 and was "somewhat artificial in composition and it did not develop a fully coherent identity, partly as a result of its disparate origins and partly as a result of the autocratic rule which it experienced on the fringes of Empire." It combined disparate regions, religions, and ethnicities: to the east, Ladakh was ethnically and culturally Tibetan and its inhabitants practised Buddhism; to the south, Jammu had a mixed population of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs; in the heavily populated central Kashmir valley, the population was overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, however, there was also a small but influential Hindu minority, the Kashmiri brahmins or pandits; to the northeast, sparsely populated Baltistan had a population ethnically related to Ladakh, but which practised Shi'a Islam; to the north, also sparsely populated, Gilgit Agency, was an area of diverse, mostly Shi'a groups; and, to the west, Punch was Muslim, but of different ethnicity than the Kashmir valley.
Despite being in a majority the Muslims were made to suffer severe oppression under Hindu rule in the form of high taxes, unpaid forced labor and discriminatory laws. Many Kashmiri Muslims migrated from the Valley to Punjab due to famine and policies of Dogra rulers. The Muslim peasantry was vast, impoverished and ruled by a Hindu elite. The Muslim peasants lacked education, awareness of rights and were chronically in debt to landlords and moneylenders, and did not organize politically until the 1930s.
== 1947 ==
Ranbir Singh's grandson Hari Singh, who had ascended the throne of Kashmir in 1925, was the reigning monarch in 1947 at the conclusion of British rule of the subcontinent and the subsequent partition of the British Indian Empire into the newly independent Dominion of India and Dominion of Pakistan. An internal revolt began in the Poonch region against oppressive taxation by the Maharaja. In August, Maharaja's forces fired upon demonstrations in favour of Kashmir joining Pakistan, burned whole villages and massacred innocent people. The Poonch rebels declared an independent government of "Azad" Kashmir on 24 October. Rulers of Princely States were encouraged to accede their States to either Dominion – India or Pakistan, taking into account factors such as geographical contiguity and the wishes of their people. In 1947, Jammu and Kashmir's population was "77% Muslim and 20% Hindu". To postpone making a hurried decision, the Maharaja signed a standstill agreement with Pakistan, which ensured continuity of trade, travel, communication, and similar services between the two. Such an agreement was pending with India. Following huge riots in Jammu, in October 1947, Pashtuns from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province recruited by the Poonch rebels, invaded Kashmir, along with the Poonch rebels, allegedly incensed by the atrocities against fellow Muslims in Poonch and Jammu. The tribesmen engaged in looting and killing along the way. The ostensible aim of the guerilla campaign was to frighten Hari Singh into submission. Instead the Maharaja appealed to the Government of India for assistance, and the Governor-General Lord Mountbatten agreed on the condition that the ruler accede to India. Once the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession, Indian soldiers entered Kashmir and drove the Pakistani-sponsored irregulars from all but a small section of the state. India accepted the accession, regarding it provisional until such time as the will of the people can be ascertained. Kashmir leader Sheikh Abdullah endorsed the accession as ad hoc which would be ultimately decided by the people of the State. He was appointed the head of the emergency administration by the Maharaja. The Pakistani government immediately contested the accession, suggesting that it was fraudulent, that the Maharaja acted under duress and that he had no right to sign an agreement with India when the standstill agreement with Pakistan was still in force.
== Post-1947 ==
In early 1948, India sought a resolution of the Kashmir conflict at the United Nations. Following the set-up of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP), the UN Security Council passed Resolution 47 on 21 April 1948. The UN mission insisted that the opinion of people of J&K must be ascertained. The then Indian Prime Minister is reported to have himself urged U.N. to poll Kashmir and on the basis of results Kashmir's accession will be decided. However, India insisted that no referendum could occur until all of the state had been cleared of irregulars.
On 5 January 1949, UNCIP (United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan) resolution stated that the question of the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan will be decided through a free and impartial plebiscite. As per the 1948 and 1949 UNCIP Resolutions, both countries accepted the principle, that Pakistan secures the withdrawal of Pakistani intruders followed by withdrawal of Pakistani and Indian forces, as a basis for the formulation of a Truce agreement whose details are to be arrived in future, followed by a plebiscite; However, both countries failed to arrive at a Truce agreement due to differences in interpretation of the procedure for and extent of demilitarisation one of them being whether the Azad Kashmiri army of Pakistan is to be disbanded during the truce stage or the plebiscite stage.
In the last days of 1948, a ceasefire was agreed under UN auspices; however, since the plebiscite demanded by the UN was never conducted, relations between India and Pakistan soured, and eventually led to three more wars over Kashmir in 1965, 1971 and 1999. India has control of about half the area of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir; Pakistan controls a third of the region, governing it as Gilgit–Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "Although there was a clear Muslim majority in Kashmir before the 1947 partition and its economic, cultural, and geographic contiguity with the Muslim-majority area of the Punjab (in Pakistan) could be convincingly demonstrated, the political developments during and after the partition resulted in a division of the region. Pakistan was left with territory that, although basically Muslim in character, was thinly populated, relatively inaccessible, and economically underdeveloped. The largest Muslim group, situated in the Valley of Kashmir and estimated to number more than half the population of the entire region, lay in Indian-administered territory, with its former outlets via the Jhelum valley route blocked."
The UN Security Council on 20 January 1948 passed Resolution 39 establishing a special commission to investigate the conflict. Subsequent to the commission's recommendation the Security Council, ordered in its Resolution 47, passed on 21 April 1948 that the invading Pakistani army retreat from Jammu & Kashmir and that the accession of Kashmir to either India or Pakistan be determined in accordance with a plebiscite to be supervised by the UN. In a string of subsequent resolutions the Security Council took notice of the continuing failure by India to hold the plebiscite. However, no punitive action against India could be taken by the Security Council because its resolution, requiring India to hold a Plebiscite, was non-binding. Moreover, the Pakistani army never left the part of the Kashmir, they managed to keep occupied at the end of the 1947 war. They were required by the Security Council resolution 47 to remove all armed personnels from the Azad Kashmir before holding the plebiscite.
The eastern region of the erstwhile princely state of Kashmir has also been beset with a boundary dispute. In the late 19th- and early 20th centuries, although some boundary agreements were signed between Great Britain, Afghanistan and Russia over the northern borders of Kashmir, China never accepted these agreements, and the official Chinese position did not change with the communist revolution in 1949. By the mid-1950s the Chinese army had entered the north-east portion of Ladakh.: "By 1956–57 they had completed a military road through the Aksai Chin area to provide better communication between Xinjiang and western Tibet. India's belated discovery of this road led to border clashes between the two countries that culminated in the Sino-Indian war of October 1962." China has occupied Aksai Chin since 1962 and, in addition, an adjoining region, the Trans-Karakoram Tract was ceded by Pakistan to China in 1965.
In 1949, the Indian government obliged Hari Singh to leave Jammu and Kashmir and yield the government to Sheikh Abdullah, the leader of a popular political party, the National Conference Party. Since then, a bitter enmity has been developed between India and Pakistan and three wars have taken place between them over Kashmir. The growing dispute over Kashmir and the consistent failure of democracy also led to the rise of Kashmir nationalism and militancy in the state.
In 1986, the Anantnag riots broke out after the CM Gul Shah ordered the construction of a mosque at the site of a Hindu Temple in Jammu and Gul Shah made an incendiary speech. Hindu-Muslim riots (a reaction to the opening of Babri Masjid to Hindu worshippers) were a national event, taking place in seven other states as well. Following the 1987 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election that were widely perceived to have been rigged, disgruntled Kashmiri youth such as the so-called 'HAJY group' – Abdul Hamid Shaikh, Ashfaq Majid Wani, Javed Ahmed Mir and Mohammed Yasin Malik – joined the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front(JKLF) as an alternative to the ineffective democratic setup that was prevalent in Kashmir. This led to gain in the momentum of the popular insurgency in the Kashmir Valley. The year 1989 saw the intensification of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir as Mujahadeens from Afghanistan slowly infiltrated the region following the end of the Soviet–Afghan War the same year. Pakistan provided arms and training to both indigenous and foreign militants in Kashmir, thus adding fuel to the smouldering fire of discontent in the valley.
In August 2019, the Government of India repealed the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Indian constitution in 2019, and the Parliament of India passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, which contained provisions to dissolve the state and reorganise it into two union territories – Jammu and Kashmir in the west and Ladakh in the east. These changes came into effect from 31 October 2019.
== Historical demographics of Kashmir ==
In the 1901 Census of the British Indian Empire, the population of the princely state of Kashmir was 2,905,578. Of these 2,154,695 were Muslims, 689,073 Hindus, 25,828 Sikhs, and 35,047 Buddhists. The Hindus were found mainly in Jammu, where they constituted a little less than 50% of the population. In the Kashmir Valley, the Hindus represented "only 524 in every 10,000 of the population (i.e. 5.24%), and in the frontier wazarats of Ladhakh and Gilgit only 94 out of every 10,000 persons (0.94%)." In the same Census of 1901, in the Kashmir Valley, the total population was recorded to be 1,157,394, of which the Muslim population was 1,083,766, or 93.6% of the population. These percentages have remained fairly stable for the last 100 years. In the 1941 Census of British India, Muslims accounted for 93.6% of the population of the Kashmir Valley and the Hindus constituted 4%. In 2003, the percentage of Muslims in the Kashmir Valley was 95% and those of Hindus 4%; the same year, in Jammu, the percentage of Hindus was 67% and those of Muslims 27%.
Among the Muslims of the Kashmir province within the princely state, four divisions were recorded: "Shaikhs, Saiyids, Mughals, and Pathans. The Shaikhs, who are by far the most numerous, are the descendants of Hindus, but have retained none of the caste rules of their forefathers. They have clan names known as krams ..." It was recorded that these kram names included "Tantre", "Shaikh", "Bat", "Mantu", "Ganai", "Dar", "Damar", "Lon", etc. The Saiyids, it was recorded, "could be divided into those who follow the profession of religion and those who have taken to agriculture and other pursuits. Their kram name is 'Mir.' While a Saiyid retains his saintly profession Mir is a prefix; if he has taken to agriculture, Mir is an affix to his name." The Mughals who were not numerous were recorded to have kram names like "Mir" (a corruption of "Mirza"), "Beg", "Bandi", "Bach" and "Ashaye". Finally, it was recorded that the Pathans "who are more numerous than the Mughals, ... are found chiefly in the south-west of the valley, where Pathan colonies have from time to time been founded. The most interesting of these colonies is that of Kuki-Khel Afridis at Dranghaihama, who retain all the old customs and speak Pashtu." Among the main tribes of Muslims in the princely state are the Butts, Dar, Lone, Jat, Gujjar, Rajput, Sudhan and Khatri. A small number of Butts, Dar and Lone use the title Khawaja and the Khatri use the title Shaikh the Gujjar use the title of Chaudhary. All these tribes are indigenous of the princely state which converted to Islam from Hinduism during its arrival in region.
Among the Hindus of Jammu province, who numbered 626,177 (or 90.87% of the Hindu population of the princely state), the most important castes recorded in the census were "Brahmins (186,000), the Rajputs (167,000), the Khatris (48,000) and the Thakkars (93,000)."
== Gallery ==
== See also ==
United Nations Security Council Resolution 47
Kashmiriyat
Sharada Peeth
Buddhism in Kashmir
Harsha of Kashmir
List of topics on the land and the people of "Jammu and Kashmir"
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
Primary sources
=== Historiography ===
Ganguly, D.K. (1985), History and Historians in Ancient India, Abhinav Publications, ISBN 978-0-391-03250-7
Ghose, D. K. (1969), "Source-Material for the History of Kashmir (Second Half of the Nineteenth Century)", Quarterly Review of Historical Studies, 9 (1): 7–12
Hasan, Mohibbul (1983), Historians of medieval India, Meenakshi Prakashan, OCLC 12924924
Hewitt, Vernon (2007), "Never Ending Stories: Recent Trends in the Historiography of Jammu and Kashmir", History Compass, 5 (2): 288–301, doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2006.00372.x covers 1846 to 1997
Lone, Fozia Nazir (2009), "From âSale to Accession Deedââ Scanning the Historiography of Kashmir 1846â1947", History Compass, 7 (6): 1496–1508, doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00652.x
Sharma, Tej Ram (2005), Historiography: A History of Historical Writing, Concept Publishing Company, ISBN 978-81-8069-155-3
Sreedharan, E. (2004), A Textbook of Historiography: 500 BC to AD 2000, Orient Blackswan, ISBN 978-81-250-2657-0
Zutshi, Chitralekha (2012), "Whither Kashmir Studies?: A Review", Modern Asian Studies, 46 (4): 1033–1048, doi:10.1017/S0026749X11000345, S2CID 144626260
Zutshi, Chitralekha (2013), "Past as tradition, past as history: The Rajatarangini narratives in Kashmir's Persian historical tradition", The Indian Economic & Social History Review, 50 (2): 201–219, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.893.7358, doi:10.1177/0019464613487119, S2CID 143228373
== External links ==
Baharistan -i Shahi A Chronicle of Medieval Kashmir translated into English Archived 22 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine
Conflict in Kashmir: Selected Internet Resources by the Library, University of California, Berkeley, USA; Bibliographies and Web-Bibliographies list
Kashmir Website with Historical Timeline
Coins of the Kashmir Sultanate (1346–1586)
(in Arabic) "The Great History of the Events of Kashmir" from 1821 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock | James Lovelock | James Ephraim Lovelock (26 July 1919 – 26 July 2022) was an English independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating system.
With a PhD in the chemistry of disinfection, Lovelock began his career performing cryopreservation experiments on rodents, including successfully thawing and reviving frozen specimens. His methods were influential in the theories of cryonics (the cryopreservation of humans). He invented the electron capture detector and, using it, became the first to detect the widespread presence of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere. While designing scientific instruments for NASA, he developed the Gaia hypothesis.
In the 2000s, he proposed a method of climate engineering to restore carbon dioxide–consuming algae. He was an outspoken member of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy, asserting that fossil fuel interests have been behind opposition to nuclear energy, citing the effects of carbon dioxide as being harmful to the environment and warning of global warming due to the greenhouse effect. He wrote several environmental science books based upon the Gaia hypothesis from the late 1970s.
He also worked for MI5, the British security service, for decades. Bryan Appleyard, writing in The Sunday Times, described him as "basically Q in the James Bond films".
== Early life and education ==
James Lovelock was born in Letchworth Garden City to Tom Arthur Lovelock and his second wife Nellie. Nell, his mother, was born in Bermondsey and won a scholarship to a grammar school but was unable to take it up, and started work at thirteen in a pickle factory. She was described by Lovelock as a socialist and suffragist, who was also anti-vaccine, and did not allow Lovelock to receive his smallpox inoculation as a child. His father, Tom, was born in Fawley, Berkshire, had served six months hard labour for poaching in his teens, and was illiterate until attending technical college, later running a bookshop. Lovelock was brought up a Quaker and imbued with the notion that "God is a still, small voice within rather than some mysterious old gentleman way out in the universe", which he thought was a helpful way of thinking for inventors, but he would eventually end up as being non-religious. The family moved to London, where his dislike of authority made him, by his own account, an unhappy pupil at Strand School in Tulse Hill, south London.
Lovelock could not at first afford to go to university, something which he believed helped prevent him from becoming overspecialised and aided the development of Gaia theory.
== Career ==
After leaving school Lovelock worked at a photography firm, attending Birkbeck College during the evenings, before being accepted to study chemistry at the University of Manchester, where he was a student of the Nobel Prize laureate professor Alexander R. Todd. Lovelock worked at a Quaker farm before a recommendation from his professor led to him taking up a Medical Research Council post, working on ways of shielding soldiers from burns. Lovelock refused to use the shaved and anaesthetised rabbits that were used as burn victims, and exposed his skin to heat radiation instead, an experience he describes as "exquisitely painful". His student status enabled temporary deferment of military service during the Second World War. Still, he registered as a conscientious objector. He later abandoned his conscientious objection in the light of Nazi atrocities and tried to enlist in the armed forces but was told that his medical research was too valuable for the enlistment to be approved.
In 1948, Lovelock received a PhD degree at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He spent the next two decades working at London's National Institute for Medical Research. In the United States, he conducted research at Yale, Baylor College of Medicine and Harvard University Medical School.
In the mid-1950s, Lovelock experimented with the cryopreservation of rodents, determining that hamsters could be frozen and revived successfully. Hamsters were frozen with 60% of the water in the brain crystallised into ice with no adverse effects recorded. Other organs were shown to be susceptible to damage.
A lifelong inventor, Lovelock created and developed many scientific instruments, some of which were designed for NASA in its planetary exploration program. While working as a NASA consultant, Lovelock developed the Gaia hypothesis, for which he is most widely known.
In early 1961, Lovelock was engaged by NASA to develop sensitive instruments for the analysis of extraterrestrial atmospheres and planetary surfaces. The Viking program, which visited Mars in the late 1970s, was motivated in part to determine whether Mars supported life, and some of the sensors and experiments that were ultimately deployed aimed to resolve this issue. During work on a precursor of this program, Lovelock became interested in the composition of the Martian atmosphere, reasoning that many life forms on Mars would be obliged to make use of it (and, thus, alter it). However, the atmosphere was found to be in a stable condition close to its chemical equilibrium, with very little oxygen, methane, or hydrogen, but with an overwhelming abundance of carbon dioxide. To Lovelock, the stark contrast between the Martian atmosphere and chemically dynamic mixture of the Earth's biosphere was strongly indicative of the absence of life on Mars. However, when they were finally launched to Mars, the Viking probes still searched (unsuccessfully) for extant life there. Further experiments to search for life on Mars have been carried out by additional space probes, for instance, by NASA's Perseverance rover, which landed in 2021.
Lovelock invented the electron capture detector, which ultimately assisted in discoveries about the persistence of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and their role in stratospheric ozone depletion. After studying the operation of the Earth's sulphur cycle, Lovelock and his colleagues, Robert Jay Charlson, Meinrat Andreae and Stephen G. Warren developed the CLAW hypothesis as a possible example of biological control of the Earth's climate.
Lovelock was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974. He served as the president of the Marine Biological Association (MBA) from 1986 to 1990 and was an Honorary Visiting Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford (formerly Green College, Oxford) from 1994.
As an independent scientist, inventor and author, Lovelock worked out of a barn-turned-laboratory he called his "experimental station" located in a wooded valley on the Devon–Cornwall border in South West England.
In 1988 he made an extended appearance on the Channel 4 television programme After Dark, alongside Heathcote Williams and Petra Kelly, among others.
On 8 May 2012, he appeared on the Radio Four series The Life Scientific, talking to Jim Al-Khalili about the Gaia hypothesis. On the programme, he mentioned how his ideas had been received by various people, including Jonathon Porritt. He also said how he had a claim for inventing the microwave oven. He later explained this claim in an interview with The Manchester Magazine. Lovelock said that he did create an instrument during his time studying causes of damage to living cells and tissue, which had, according to him, "almost everything you would expect in an ordinary microwave oven". He invented the instrument to heat frozen hamsters in a way that caused less suffering to the animals, as opposed to the traditional way, which involved putting red-hot spoons on the animals' chests to heat them. He believed that, at the time, nobody had gone that far and made an embodiment of an actual microwave oven. However, he did not claim to have been the first person to have the idea of using microwaves for cooking.
=== CFCs ===
After developing his electron capture detector, in the late 1960s, Lovelock was the first to detect the widespread presence of CFCs in the atmosphere. He found a concentration of 60 parts per trillion of CFC-11 over Ireland and, in a partially self-funded research expedition in 1972, went on to measure the concentration of CFC-11 from the northern hemisphere to the Antarctic aboard the research vessel RRS Shackleton. He found the gas in each of the 50 air samples that he collected but, not realising that the breakdown of CFCs in the stratosphere would release chlorine that posed a threat to the ozone layer, concluded that the level of CFCs constituted "no conceivable hazard". He later stated that he meant "no conceivable toxic hazard".
However, the experiment did provide the first useful data on the ubiquitous presence of CFCs in the atmosphere. The damage caused to the ozone layer by the photolysis of CFCs was later discovered by Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina. After hearing a lecture on the subject of Lovelock's results, they embarked on research that resulted in the first published paper that suggested a link between stratospheric CFCs and ozone depletion in 1974 (for which Sherwood and Molina later shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Paul Crutzen). Lovelock was sceptical of the CFC–ozone depletion hypothesis for several years, calling the US ban of CFCs as aerosol propellants in the late 1970s arbitrary overkill.
=== Gaia hypothesis ===
Drawing from the research of Alfred C. Redfield and G. Evelyn Hutchinson, Lovelock first formulated the Gaia hypothesis in the 1960s resulting from his work for NASA concerned with detecting life on Mars and his work with Royal Dutch Shell. The hypothesis proposes that living and non-living parts of the Earth form a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism. Named after the Greek goddess Gaia at the suggestion of novelist William Golding, the hypothesis postulates that the biosphere has a regulatory effect on the Earth's environment that acts to sustain life.
While the hypothesis was readily accepted by many in the environmentalist community, it has not been widely accepted within the scientific community as a whole. Among its most prominent critics were the evolutionary biologists Richard Dawkins, Ford Doolittle and Stephen Jay Gould, a convergence of opinion among a trio whose views on other scientific matters often diverged. These (and other) critics have questioned how natural selection operating on individual organisms can lead to the evolution of planetary-scale homeostasis.
In response to this, Lovelock, together with Andrew Watson, published the computer model Daisyworld in 1983, which postulated a hypothetical planet orbiting a star whose radiant energy is slowly increasing or decreasing. In the non-biological case, the temperature of this planet simply tracks the energy received from the star. However, in the biological case, ecological competition between "daisy" species with different albedo values produces a homeostatic effect on global temperature. When energy received from the star is low, black daisies proliferate since they absorb a greater fraction of the heat, but when energy input is high, white daisies predominate since they reflect excess heat. As the white and black daisies have contrary effects on the planet's overall albedo and temperature, changes in their relative populations stabilise the planet's climate and keep the temperature within an optimal range despite fluctuations in energy from the star. Lovelock argued that Daisyworld, although a parable, illustrates how conventional natural selection operating on individual organisms can still produce planetary-scale homeostasis.
In Lovelock's 2006 book, The Revenge of Gaia, he argued that the lack of respect humans have had for Gaia, through the damage done to rainforests and the reduction in planetary biodiversity, is testing Gaia's capacity to minimise the effects of the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. This eliminates the planet's negative feedbacks and increases the likelihood of homeostatic positive feedback potential associated with runaway global warming. Similarly, the warming of the oceans is extending the oceanic thermocline layer of tropical oceans into the Arctic and Antarctic waters, preventing the rise of oceanic nutrients into the surface waters and eliminating the algal blooms of phytoplankton on which oceanic food chains depend. As phytoplankton and forests are the main ways in which Gaia draws down greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, taking it out of the atmosphere, the elimination of this environmental buffering will see, according to Lovelock, most of the Earth becoming uninhabitable for humans and other life-forms by the middle of this century, with a massive extension of tropical deserts. In 2012, Lovelock distanced himself from these conclusions, saying he had "gone too far" in describing the consequences of climate change over the next century in this book.
In his 2009 book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia, he rejected scientific models that disagree with the findings that sea levels are rising and Arctic ice is melting faster than the models predict. He suggested that we may already have passed the tipping point of terrestrial climate resilience into a permanently hot state. Given these conditions, Lovelock expected that human civilisation would be hard-pressed to survive. He expected the change to be similar to the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum when the temperature of the Arctic Ocean was 23 °C.
=== Nuclear power ===
Lovelock became concerned about the threat of global warming from the greenhouse effect. In 2004 he broke with many fellow environmentalists by stating that "only nuclear power can now halt global warming".
In his view, nuclear energy is the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels that can both fulfil the large scale energy needs of humankind while also reducing greenhouse emissions. He was an open member of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy (EFN).
In 2005, against the backdrop of renewed UK government interest in nuclear power, Lovelock again publicly announced his support for nuclear energy, stating, "I am a Green, and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy". Although those interventions in the public debate on nuclear power were in the 21st century, his views on it were longstanding. In his 1988 book The Ages of Gaia, he stated: I have never regarded nuclear radiation or nuclear power as anything other than a normal and inevitable part of the environment. Our prokaryotic forebears evolved on a planet-sized lump of fallout from a star-sized nuclear explosion, a supernova that synthesised the elements that go to make our planet and ourselves.
In The Revenge of Gaia (2006), where he put forward the concept of sustainable retreat, Lovelock wrote: A television interviewer once asked me, "But what about nuclear waste? Will it not poison the whole biosphere and persist for millions of years?" I knew this to be a nightmare fantasy wholly without substance in the real world ... One of the striking things about places heavily contaminated by radioactive nuclides is the richness of their wildlife. This is true of the land around Chernobyl, the bomb test sites of the Pacific, and areas near the United States' Savannah River nuclear weapons plant of the Second World War. Wild plants and animals do not perceive radiation as dangerous, and any slight reduction it may cause in their lifespans is far less a hazard than is the presence of people and their pets ... I find it sad, but all too human, that there are vast bureaucracies concerned about nuclear waste, huge organisations devoted to decommissioning power stations, but nothing comparable to deal with that truly malign waste, carbon dioxide.
In 2019 Lovelock said he thought difficulties in getting nuclear power going again were due to propaganda, that "the coal and oil business fight like mad to tell bad stories about nuclear", and that "the greens played along with it. There's bound to have been some corruption there – I'm sure that various green movements were paid some sums on the side to help with propaganda".
=== Climate ===
Writing in The Independent in 2006, Lovelock argued that, as a result of global warming, "billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable" by the end of the 21st century. The same year he suggested that "we have to keep in mind the awesome pace of change and realise how little time is left to act, and then each community and nation must find the best use of the resources they have to sustain civilisation for as long as they can." He further predicted in 2007 that the temperature increase would leave much of the world's land uninhabitable and unsuitable for farming, with northerly migrations and new cities created in the Arctic; furthermore, he added that much of Europe will have turned to desert and Britain will have become Europe's "life-raft" due to its stable temperature caused by being surrounded by the ocean. He was quoted in The Guardian in 2008 that 80% of humans will perish by 2100, and this climate change will last 100,000 years.
In a 2010 interview with the Guardian newspaper, he said that democracy might have to be "put on hold" to prevent climate change. He continued:
Even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.
Statements from 2012 portrayed Lovelock as continuing his concern over global warming while at the same time criticising extremism and suggesting alternatives to oil, coal and the green solutions he did not support.
In a 2012 interview aired on MSNBC, Lovelock stated that he had been "alarmist", using the words "All right, I made a mistake," about the timing of climate change and noted the documentary An Inconvenient Truth and the book The Weather Makers as examples of the same kind of alarmism. Lovelock still believed the climate to be warming, although not at the rate of change he once thought; he admitted that he had been "extrapolating too far." He believed that climate change is still happening, but it will be felt further in the future. Of the claims "the science is settled" on global warming, he stated: One thing that being a scientist has taught me is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. You can only approach it and hope to get a bit nearer to it each time. You iterate towards the truth. You don't know it. He criticised environmentalists for treating global warming like a religion. It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion. I don't think people have noticed that, but it's got all the sort of terms that religions use ... The greens use guilt. That just shows how religious greens are. You can't win people round by saying they are guilty for putting (carbon dioxide) in the air.
In this 2012 MSNBC article, Lovelock is quoted as saying: The problem is we don't know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn't happened.
The climate is doing its usual tricks. There's nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now.
The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time ... it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising – carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that. In a follow-up interview also in 2012, Lovelock stated his support for natural gas; he favoured fracking as a low-polluting alternative to coal. He opposed the concept of "sustainable development", where modern economies might be powered by wind turbines, calling it meaningless drivel. He kept a poster of a wind turbine to remind himself how much he detested them.
In Novacene (2019), Lovelock proposed that benevolent superintelligence may take over and save the ecosystem and stated that the machines would need to keep organic life around to keep the planet's temperature habitable for electronic life. On the other hand, if instead life becomes entirely electronic, "so be it: we played our part and newer, younger actors are already appearing on stage".
==== Ocean fertilisation ====
In 2007, Lovelock and Chris Rapley proposed the construction of ocean pumps to pump water up from below the thermocline to "fertilize algae in the surface waters and encourage them to bloom". The basic idea was to accelerate the transfer of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the ocean by increasing primary production and enhancing the export of organic carbon (as marine snow) to the deep ocean. A scheme similar to that proposed by Lovelock and Rapley was later developed independently by a commercial company.
The proposal attracted widespread media attention and criticism. Commenting on the proposal, Corinne Le Quéré, a University of East Anglia researcher, said "It doesn't make sense. There is absolutely no evidence that climate engineering options work or even go in the right direction. I'm astonished that they published this. Before any geoengineering is put to work a massive amount of research is needed – research which will take 20 to 30 years". Other researchers claimed that "this scheme would bring water with high natural pCO2 levels (associated with the nutrients) back to the surface, potentially causing exhalation of CO2". Lovelock subsequently said that his proposal was intended to stimulate interest and that research would be the next step, and several research studies were published in the wake of the original proposal. However, these estimated that the scheme would require a huge number of pipes, and that the main effect of the pipes may be on the land rather than in the ocean.
==== Sustainable retreat ====
Sustainable retreat is a concept developed by Lovelock to define the necessary changes to human settlement and dwelling at the global scale to adapt to global warming and prevent its expected negative consequences on humans.
Lovelock thought the time was past for sustainable development and that we had come to a time when development is no longer sustainable. Therefore, we needed to retreat. Lovelock stated the following to explain the concept:Retreat, in his view, means it's time to start talking about changing where we live and how we get our food; about making plans for the migration of millions of people from low-lying regions like Bangladesh into Europe; about admitting that New Orleans is a goner and moving the people to cities better positioned for the future. Most of all, he says, it's about everybody "absolutely doing their utmost to sustain civilization, so that it doesn't degenerate into Dark Ages, with warlords running things, which is a real danger. We could lose everything that way."
The concept of sustainable retreat emphasises a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs with lower levels or less environmentally harmful types of resources.
== Awards and recognition ==
Lovelock was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974. His nomination reads: Lovelock has made distinguished contributions to several diverse fields, including a study of the transmission of respiratory infection, and methods of air sterilisation; the role of Ca and other divalent ions in blood clotting; damage to various living cells by freezing, thawing and thermal shock and its prevention by the presence of neutral solutes; methods of freezing and thawing small live animals; methods for preparing sperm for artificial insemination, which have been of major economic importance.
He has invented a family of ionisation detectors for gas chromatography. His electron capture detectors are the most sensitive that have been made and are universally used on pollution problems for residual halogen compounds. He has many inventions, including a gas chromatograph, which will be used to investigate planetary atmospheres.
His chromatographic work has led to investigation of blood lipids in various animals, including arteriosclerotic humans. He has made a study of detecting life on other planets by analysis of their atmosphere and extended this to world pollution problems.
His work generally shows remarkable originality, simplicity and ingenuity.
Lovelock was awarded a number of prestigious prizes, including the Tswett Medal for Chromatography (1975), the American Chemical Society Award in Chromatography (1980), the World Meteorological Organization Norbert Gerbier–MUMM Award (1988), the Dr A. H. Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences (1990) and the Royal Geographical Society Discovery Lifetime award (2001). In 2006 he received the Wollaston Medal, the Geological Society of London's highest award, whose previous recipients include Charles Darwin. Lovelock was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the study of the Science and Atmosphere in the 1990 New Year Honours and a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) for services to Global Environmental Science in the 2003 New Year Honours.
=== Portraits ===
In March 2012, the National Portrait Gallery unveiled a new portrait of Lovelock by British artist Michael Gaskell, which was completed in 2011. The collection also has two photographic portraits by Nick Sinclair (1993) and Paul Tozer (1994). The archive of the Royal Society of Arts has a 2009 image taken by Anne-Katrin Purkiss. Lovelock agreed to sit for sculptor Jon Edgar in Devon during 2007, as part of the Environment Triptych (2008) along with heads of Mary Midgley and Richard Mabey. A bronze head is in the collection of the sitter, and the terracotta is in the artist's archive.
== Honours ==
=== Commonwealth honours ===
=== Scholastic ===
==== University degrees ====
==== Chancellor, visitor, governor, rector and fellowships ====
==== Honorary degrees ====
=== Memberships and fellowships ===
== Personal life ==
Lovelock married Helen Hyslop in 1942. They had four children and remained married until her death in 1989 from multiple sclerosis. He first met his second wife, Sandy, at the age of 69. Lovelock stated of their relationship: "... you would find the life of me and my wife Sandy to be an unusually happy one in simple beautiful but unpretentious surroundings."
Lovelock turned 100 in 2019. He died at his home in Abbotsbury, Dorset, on his 103rd birthday in 2022, of complications related to a fall.
== Published works ==
== See also ==
Gaianism
== References ==
== Further reading ==
== External links ==
Personal website
EFN website reviewed and approved by Lovelock
James Lovelock collected news and commentary at The Guardian
James Lovelock on the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group website
James Lovelock at IMDb
Portraits of James Lovelock at the National Portrait Gallery, London
Obituary (BBC News Online) at the Wayback Machine (archived 27 July 2022)
Interviews and public lectures
James Lovelock – Scientist Archived 9 February 2013 at archive.today, Christopher Sykes, Web of Stories, 2001
Reflections on meeting James Lovelock at the Wayback Machine (archived 7 March 2006), Creel Commission, 2005
Forum: James Lovelock and "The Revenge of Gaia" at the Wayback Machine (archived 16 June 2008), Michael Krasny, KQED, 2006
Climate change on the living Earth at the Wayback Machine (archived 12 November 2007), Royal Society, 2007
The Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock at the Wayback Machine (archived 7 November 2009), Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone, 2007
Profile of James Lovelock at the Wayback Machine (archived 25 January 2008), David Cayley, Ideas, 2008
Dr. James Lovelock Lecture at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 June 2011), Corporate Knights, 2009
James Lovelock , The Forum, 2009
The Vanishing Face of Gaia at the Wayback Machine (archived 25 March 2009), Tim Radford, RSA Vision, 2009
Life story interview with James Lovelock at the Wayback Machine (archived 30 July 2012), Paul Merchant, Oral History of British Science, 2010
"I promise this story about microwaves is interesting." on YouTube, Tom Scott, 2021 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_Page#Early_life | Elliot Page | Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor, producer, and activist. He is known for his leading roles across Canadian and American film and television, and for his outspoken work as an activist for LGBTQ rights and against discrimination. His accolades include nominations for an Academy Award, three BAFTAS, two Emmys, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award.
Page first came to recognition for his starring role in the television franchise Pit Pony (1997–2000) and his recurring roles in the series Trailer Park Boys (2002) and ReGenesis (2004). His breakthrough came with leading roles in the films Hard Candy (2005) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). He received critical acclaim for portraying the title character in the film Juno (2007), becoming the fourth-youngest nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actress at the time. His subsequent film credits include Whip It (2009), Super (2010), Inception (2010), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Tallulah (2016), and Close to You (2023). In addition, he produced and starred in Freeheld (2015), hosted the Viceland documentary series Gaycation (2016–2017), and directed There's Something in the Water (2019). Page also portrayed Jodie Holmes in the video game Beyond: Two Souls (2013) and Vanya/Viktor Hargreeves in the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy (2019–2024).
Describing himself as a pro-choice feminist, Page has spoken out in favor of the Me Too movement, advocated for abortion rights, has called for the end of military dictatorship in Myanmar, and is also vegan. Page publicly came out as a lesbian in 2014, and that same year, was included in The Advocate's annual "40 Under 40" list. In 2015, he received the Human Rights Campaign Vanguard Award. In 2020, he came out as a trans man and took the name Elliot. In March 2021, he became the first openly transgender man to appear on the cover of Time magazine.
== Early life ==
Page was born on February 21, 1987, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Martha Philpotts, a teacher, and Dennis Page, a graphic designer. He was assigned female at birth and went by his given name, Ellen, prior to transitioning in 2020. Page attended the Halifax Grammar School until grade 10, and spent some time at Queen Elizabeth High School. After graduating from the Shambhala School in 2005, Page spent two years in Toronto, studying in the Interact Program at Vaughan Road Academy, along with close friend and fellow Canadian actor Mark Rendall.
== Career ==
=== Early work ===
Page first acted on camera in 1997 at the age of ten, starring as Maggie Maclean in the CBC Television movie Pit Pony, which later spun off into a television series of the same name that ran from 1999 to 2000. For the television series role, he was nominated for a Gemini Award and Young Artist Award. In 2002, Page starred as Joanie in the film Marion Bridge, which is noted for being his first feature-film role. In the same year, he was cast in the television series Trailer Park Boys in the recurring role of Treena Lahey, which he played for five episodes.
Page had roles in the films Touch & Go and Love That Boy in the early 2000s, and he also starred in the television films Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story and Ghost Cat in the same year. For Ghost Cat, he won the Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Children's or Youth Program or Series. In 2004, Page starred in the drama Wilby Wonderful, for which he won an award at the Atlantic Film Festival and was nominated for a Genie Award. Also in 2004, he had a recurring role in season 1 of the series ReGenesis as Lilith Sandström, daughter of the show's protagonist.
=== 2000s: Breakthrough and acclaim ===
In 2005, Page received recognition for his role in the movie Hard Candy, where he portrayed Hayley Stark, a teenage girl who takes a sexual predator hostage. The film was a critical and commercial success, and he received acclaim for his performance, with USA Today praising him for his role, stating that Page "manages to be both cruelly callous and likable" and gives "one of the most complex, disturbing and haunting performances of the year". For the role, he won the Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress in 2006, among other awards and nominations. Also in 2005, he starred in the British film Mouth to Mouth. In 2006, Page appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) as Kitty Pryde, a girl who can walk through walls. In the previous X-Men movies, the part had been used in brief cameos played by other actors, but never as a main character. The film was a commercial success.
In 2007, he had his widespread breakthrough for his leading role as the title character, a pregnant teenager, in the coming-of-age comedy-drama film Juno. A critical and financial success, the film was widely considered to be one of the best of the 2000s, and Page's performance earned critical acclaim. Film critic A. O. Scott of The New York Times described him as "frighteningly talented ... who is able to seem, in the space of a single scene, mature beyond [his] years and disarmingly childlike", and Roger Ebert said that no other actor had a better performance in 2007 than Page, whose "presence and timing are extraordinary". For his performance, Page was nominated for several awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, a Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress — Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. He also won a Canadian Comedy Award, an Independent Spirit Award, and a Satellite Award for the role, as well as numerous critics awards, including Detroit Film Critics Society, Austin Film Critics Association and Florida Film Critics Circle. Also in 2007, he appeared in The Stone Angel, and led the films An American Crime and The Tracey Fragments, the latter of which also earned him critical acclaim, with the Boston Herald writing that "It is also a further reminder that Page is the real thing. But we knew that already". He won the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a Canadian Film, among other accolades.
In 2008, Page co-starred in the comedy-drama film Smart People, which premiered in January that year at the Sundance Film Festival, and received a mixed response from critics. In the film, he played the overachieving daughter of a college professor. On March 1, 2008, Page hosted Saturday Night Live. On May 3, 2009, he guest starred in "Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh", an episode of The Simpsons, as the character Alaska Nebraska, a parody of Hannah Montana. In September 2009, he starred in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It, as a member of a roller derby team. The film premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and had its wide release on October 2, 2009.
=== 2010s: Rise to prominence ===
In August 2009, Page was cast in the big-budget Christopher Nolan science fiction film Inception, which began filming the same year. The film was released on July 16, 2010, and was a commercial success. It received widespread acclaim from critics, being hailed as one of the best films of the 2010s. Page played Ariadne, an architecture student who is a newcomer to dream espionage. The cast, including Page, earned several accolades, with Page earning nominations from the Saturn Awards and the MTV Awards. He also starred in the 2010 black comedy superhero film Super, which he accepted after seeing the script for the film. The film received mixed reviews, though Page was praised for his performance as a psychopathic teenage sidekick. In January 2010, Page began appearing in a series of advertisements for Cisco Systems, including commercials set in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. That April, the Michael Lander film Peacock featured Page as Maggie Bailey, a struggling young mother. Page noted the film as "one of the boldest screenplays I've come across in my albeit short career; it's a character and story I can throw myself into and exactly the type of movie I love to be a part of".
In April 2011, it was announced that Page would co-star as Monica in the Woody Allen film To Rome with Love, a film told in four separate vignettes; the film was released in 2012. In June 2012, Quantic Dream announced the video game Beyond: Two Souls, in which Page portrays one of the main player characters, Jodie Holmes, through voice acting and motion-capture acting; it was released on October 8, 2013, in North America. The game polarized critics, but Page earned praise for his performance, with GamesTM calling it "truly breathtaking ... Jodie's character is one we've seen before in many films – a troubled child with a gift, haunted by spirits, struggling with growing up", but Page excelled in giving "gravity and warmth" to the character. He was given various awards and nominations for the role, including the British Academy Games Award for Best Performer. In 2013, another video game, The Last of Us, was released. Page accused the production for using his likeness without permission for the character Ellie; the character's appearance was subsequently redesigned to better reflect the actual performer's personality and make the character younger.
In 2013, Page stated that his directorial debut would be Miss Stevens, and would star Anna Faris and be produced by Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz and Doug Wald; the project eventually moved forward without Page, with scriptwriter Julia Hart replacing Page as the director. Also in 2013, he co-starred in Zal Batmanglij's thriller The East, a film inspired by the experiences and drawing on thrillers from the 1970s, and he also starred in Lynn Shelton's Touchy Feely. In 2014, Page reprised his role as Kitty Pryde in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). The film was a major box-office success, and received positive reviews from critics, being noted as one of the best films in the X-Men franchise. Page was praised for his performance and was nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Scene Stealer and the Kids' Choice Award for Female Action Star. In December 2014, Page portrayed Han Solo in a staged reading of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
In 2015, Page starred in and produced the film Freeheld, about Laurel Hester, which was adapted from the 2007 short film of the same name. The film received a mixed response from critics, with review site Rotten Tomatoes writing that "Freeheld certainly means well, but its cardboard characters and by-the-numbers drama undermine its noble intentions". In 2016, Page co-starred in the Netflix film Tallulah as the eponymous character; the film marked his third collaboration with director Sian Heder, and his second collaboration with Allison Janney, both of whom he worked with on Juno. In the film, his character is a young woman who abducts a baby and tries to pass it off as her own. On his acting, The Guardian wrote "...what grounds it are the terrific performances and Heder's rich direction and screenplay". In the same year, he appeared in the film Window Horses and provided the English voice of Rosy in the French film My Life as a Zucchini, the latter of which earned critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
On November 9, 2017, it was announced that Page had been cast in the main role of Vanya (later Viktor) Hargreeves in the Netflix superhero series The Umbrella Academy. The show received positive reviews from critics, and Page was acclaimed for his performance, earning a Saturn Award nomination in 2019 and winning the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor on Television in 2022. After Page came out as transgender, it was revealed that he would continue his role in the show, with Netflix updating Page's name across the service. In March 2022, it was announced that Page's character would return in the upcoming third season and transition to male; the character briefly comes out to his siblings during "World's Biggest Ball of Twine". Gizmodo reported that the change "was very likely done to reflect Page's own transition".
Page headlined the science-fiction film Flatliners, a remake of the 1990 film of the same title which was released in 2017, emerging as a commercial success. Flatliners was panned by critics, although Page and the ensemble cast were praised, with film critic Matt Zoller Seitz writing that "Luna and Page in particular make much stronger impressions than you might expect, given the repetitious and mostly shallow scenarios they're asked to enact ... But the choppy, cliched visuals and the script's superficial approach to the characters' predicaments ultimately undo any goodwill that the actors can generate." Also in 2017, he produced and starred in the film The Cured.
=== 2020s: Expansion and current work ===
In 2019, Page starred in the Netflix miniseries Tales of the City as Shawna Hopkins, which received positive reviews. Page, along with Ian Daniel, directed and produced the documentary There's Something in the Water, which is about environmental racism; the film premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, and was later released on Netflix on March 27, 2020. The film received positive reviews from critics, with The Hollywood Reporter writing that the film, while "made in a standard documentary format that includes a voiceover and a tad too much weepy music", "gets its job done directly enough, underlining a situation that remains dire despite what seems to be a growing level awareness around the country". Page will next have a voice role in the upcoming film Naya Legend of the Golden Dolphin and Robodog.
In August 2021, Page collaborated with Mark Rendall for a music release on Bandcamp. The three-track EP has been described as a "lo-fi bedroom pop adventure" in the press. In August 2021, he signed an overall deal with Universal Content Productions. In September 2021, Page launched a production company, Page Boy Productions, and appointed Matt Jordan Smith to serve as Head of Development and Production. In February 2022, it was announced that Flatiron Books had acquired the publishing rights to Pageboy, a memoir written by Page, for $3 million, with the book set to release in June 2023. The memoir debuted at the top of The New York Times Best Sellers List for Nonfiction.
In October 2022, PageBoy Productions announced the project Backspot with him acting as executive producer. Filming in Toronto on the production wrapped in March 2023. In June 2023, it was reported that he served as a producer, screenwriter and actor on the upcoming drama film Close to You, which had just wrapped filming. Both films premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. Page was praised for his performance in the latter, winning an award at the 2023 Calgary International Film Festival.
As of June 2022, Page was writing a screenplay with his Mouth to Mouth co-star Beatrice Brown. In January 2025, it was announced that Page would be developing a television adaptation of Beyond: Two Souls after his production company acquired the rights from Quantic Dream. Later that same month, it was announced that Page would reunite with Christopher Nolan for The Odyssey (2026).
Page is a signatory of the Film Workers for Palestine boycott pledge that was published in September 2025.
== Personal life ==
=== Sexuality and gender ===
On February 14, 2014, Page came out as a lesbian during a speech at the Human Rights Campaign's "Time to Thrive" conference in Las Vegas. In November 2017, he claimed to have been outed at age 18 by filmmaker Brett Ratner while on the set of X-Men: The Last Stand. This was corroborated by co-star Anna Paquin, who said that she was present when Ratner made the comment. In a lengthy Facebook post, Page expressed gratitude towards people who spoke out against abuse, and expressed frustration at the pattern of those who continued to remain silent on such matters. In 2014, Page was included in The Advocate's annual "40 Under 40" list.
On December 1, 2020, Page came out on social media as a trans man, specifying his pronouns as he and they, and revealed his new name, Elliot. Page explained that his decision to speak openly about his gender identity was partially prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and partially by the anti-transgender rhetoric in politics and the news cycle. GLAAD spokesperson Nick Adams stated that Page "will now be an inspiration to countless trans and non-binary people". Page's former wife, Emma Portner, expressed support for him coming out that same day on her Instagram account, saying she was "so proud" of Page. Netflix tweeted: "So proud of our superhero! We love you Elliot!" Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and various celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres, Miley Cyrus, James Gunn, and Kumail Nanjiani, expressed support for Page after the announcement. That same day, Netflix announced that it would update Page's credits and metadata across all titles to reflect his name. These changes were completed by December 8, 2020.
Page appeared on the cover of the March 29 / April 5, 2021, issue of Time, making him the first openly trans man to do so. He requested that Wynne Neilly photograph him for the cover because he wanted another transgender person to be the photographer. In the featured article, he described himself as queer and non-binary, and revealed that at the time he came out, he had been recovering from undergoing top surgery (subcutaneous mastectomy), a process that he described as "life-saving". Page also revealed that at the age of nine, he first talked about his gender identity: "I felt like a boy ... I wanted to be a boy. I would ask my mom if I could be someday."
=== Relationships and marriage ===
Page had a sexual relationship with Olivia Thirlby during the filming of Juno (2007). He briefly dated Kate Mara, with whom he co-starred in Tiny Detectives (2014) and My Days of Mercy (2017), in 2014.
In 2017, Page and dancer/choreographer Emma Portner revealed that they were in a relationship. In January 2018, Page announced that they were married. They separated in mid-2020, and Page filed for divorce in January 2021; it was finalized in early 2021, though they remain close friends.
In June 2025, Page announced a relationship with actress Julia Shiplett, best known for her role in Overcompensating (2025).
=== Activism and beliefs ===
Page is vegan, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) named him and Jared Leto the Sexiest Vegetarians of 2014. He is an atheist, and once said that religion "has always been used for beautiful things, and also as a way to justify discrimination". In 2008, Page was a self-described pro-choice feminist on abortion rights. He was one of 30 celebrities who participated in a 2008 online advertisement series for US Campaign for Burma, calling for an end to the military dictatorship in Myanmar.
== Filmography ==
=== Film ===
=== Television ===
=== Video games ===
== Awards and nominations ==
For his performance in Juno (2007), Page received several awards and nominations in Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Actress categories, winning three Teen Choice Awards, a Canadian Comedy Award and a Satellite Award, as well as nominations for two British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), an Academy Award (Oscar) and a Golden Globe Award. His roles in the drama films The Tracey Fragments (2007), Freeheld (2015) and Close to You (2023), the sci-fi film Inception (2010), and the superhero works X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and The Umbrella Academy (2019–present) earned him numerous accolades.
Page hosted the television documentary series Gaycation (2016) alongside Ian Daniel, which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He additionally served as a voice and motion capture actor in the video game Beyond: Two Souls in 2013, garnering five award nominations, including a nomination for a British Academy Games Award for Performer in 2014.
== See also ==
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of Canadian Academy Award winners and nominees
List of Canadian actors
List of LGBTQ Academy Award winners and nominees
List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees – Youngest nominees for Best Actress in a Leading Role
List of transgender film and television directors
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Arbuthnot, Leaf (June 30, 2019). "A Life in the Day: the Juno and X-Men actress Ellen Page". The Sunday Times.
== External links ==
Elliot Page at IMDb |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/These_Two_Windows | These Two Windows | These Two Windows is the debut studio album by the American singer Alec Benjamin. It was released by Warner Music on May 29, 2020. It reached number 75 on the Billboard 200.
== Commercial performance ==
On the UK Albums Chart, These Two Windows debuted at No. 52 with 1,677 sales units, marking Benjamin's first entry on that chart.
== Track listing ==
== Charts ==
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley,_Northern_Cape | Kimberley, Northern Cape | Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance because of its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Boer War. The British businessmen Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes in Kimberley, and Rhodes also established the De Beers diamond company in the early days of the mining town.
On 2 September 1882, Kimberley became the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Philadelphia, in the United States, to install electric street lighting. The first stock exchange in Africa was built in Kimberley as early as 1881.
== History ==
=== Discovery of diamonds ===
In 1866, Erasmus Jacobs found a small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River, on the farm De Kalk leased from local Griquas, near Hopetown, which was his father's farm. He showed the pebble to his father, who then sold it. The pebble was purchased from Jacobs' father by Schalk van Niekerk, who later sold it on again. It proved to be a 21.25-carat (4.3 g) diamond, and became known as the Eureka. Three years later, in 1869, an 83.5-carat (16.7 g) diamond, which became known as the Star of South Africa, was found nearby (29°3′S 23°58′E). This diamond was sold by van Niekerk for £11,200, and later resold in the London market for £25,000.
Henry Richard Giddy recounted how Esau Damoense (or Damon), the cook for prospector Fleetwood Rawstorne's "Red Cap Party", found diamonds in 1871 on Colesberg Kopje after he was sent there to dig as punishment. Rawstorne took the news to the nearby diggings of the De Beer brothers, his arrival there sparking off the famous "New Rush", which, as the historian Brian Roberts puts it, was practically a stampede. Within a month, 900 claims were cut into the hillock, which were worked frenetically by two to three thousand men. As the land was lowered, so the hillock became a mine, in time the world-renowned Kimberley Mine.
The Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange Free State and the Griqua leader Nicolaas Waterboer all laid claim to the diamond fields. The Free State Boers in particular wanted the area, as it lay inside the natural borders created by Orange and the Vaal Rivers. Following the mediation that was overseen by the Governor of Natal, the Keate Award went in favour of Waterboer, who placed himself under British protection. Consequently, the territory known as Griqualand West was proclaimed on 27 October 1871.
=== Naming the place: from Vooruitzigt to New Rush to Kimberley ===
Colonial Commissioners arrived in New Rush on 17 November 1871 to exercise authority over the territory on behalf of the Cape Governor. Digger objections and minor riots led to Governor Barkly's visit to New Rush in September the following year, when he revealed a plan instead to have Griqualand West proclaimed a Crown Colony.
Richard Southey would arrive as Lieutenant-Governor of the intended Crown Colony in January 1873. Months passed however without any sign of the proclamation or of the promised new constitution and provision for representative government. The delay was in London, where Secretary of State for the Colonies, John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley, insisted that before electoral divisions could be defined, the places had to receive "decent and intelligible names. His Lordship declined to be in any way connected with such a vulgarism as New Rush and as for the Dutch name, Vooruitzigt … he could neither spell nor pronounce it".
The matter was passed to Southey, who gave it to his Colonial Secretary J.B. Currey. Roberts wrote that "when it came to renaming New Rush, [Currey] proved himself a worthy diplomat. He made quite sure that Lord Kimberley would be able both to spell and pronounce the name of the main electoral division by, as he says, calling it 'after His Lordship'". New Rush became Kimberley by a proclamation dated 5 July 1873.
Digger sentiment was expressed in an editorial in the Diamond Field newspaper when it stated "we went to sleep in New Rush and waked up in Kimberley, and so our dream was gone".
Following agreement by the British government on compensation to the Orange Free State for its competing land claims, Griqualand West was annexed to the Cape Colony in 1877.
The Cape Prime Minister John Molteno initially had serious doubts about annexing the heavily indebted region, but after striking a deal with the Home Government and receiving assurances that the local population would be consulted in the process, he passed the Griqualand West Annexation Act on 27 July 1877.
=== Big Hole and other mines ===
As miners arrived in their thousands the hill disappeared and subsequently became known as the Big Hole (or Kimberley se Gat in Afrikaans), or, more formally, Kimberley Mine. From mid-July 1871 to 1914, 50,000 miners dug the hole with picks and shovels, yielding 2,722 kg of diamonds. The Big Hole has a surface of 17 hectares (42 acres) and is 463 metres wide. It was excavated to a depth of 240 m but then partially infilled with debris reducing its depth to about 215 m. Since then, it has accumulated water to a depth of 40 m, leaving 175 m visible. Beneath the surface, the Kimberley Mine underneath the Big Hole was mined to a depth of 1097 m. A popular local myth claims that it is the largest hand-dug hole on the world, but Jagersfontein Mine appears to hold that record.
The Big Hole is the principal feature of a May 2004 submission that placed "Kimberley Mines and associated early industries" on UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative Lists.
By 1873, Kimberley was the second-largest town in South Africa, with an approximate population of 40,000.
=== Role and influence of De Beers ===
The various smaller mining companies were amalgamated by Cecil Rhodes and Charles Rudd into De Beers, and The Kimberley under Barney Barnato. In 1888, the two companies merged to form De Beers Consolidated Mines, which once had a monopoly over the world's diamond market.
Very quickly, Kimberley became the largest city in the area, partly because of a massive African migration to the area from all over the continent. The immigrants were accepted with open arms, because the De Beers company was in search of cheap labour to help run the mines. Another group drawn to the city for money was prostitutes from a wide variety of ethnicities, who could be found in bars and saloons. It was praised as a city of limitless opportunity.
Five big holes were dug into the earth following the kimberlite pipes, which are named after the town. Kimberlite is a diamond-bearing blue ground that sits below a yellow-coloured soil. The largest, The Kimberley mine or "Big Hole" covering 170,000 square metres (42 acres), reached a depth of 240 metres (790 ft) and yielded three tons of diamonds. The mine was closed in 1914, while three of the holes – Dutoitspan, Wesselton and Bultfontein – closed down in 2005.
=== Second Boer War ===
On 14 October 1899, Kimberley was besieged at the beginning of the Second Boer War. The British forces trying to relieve the siege suffered heavy losses. The siege was only lifted on 15 February 1900, but the war continued until May 1902. By that time, the British had built a concentration camp at Kimberley to house Boer women and children.
=== Amalgamation ===
The hitherto separately administered Boroughs of Kimberley and Beaconsfield amalgamated as the City of Kimberley in 1912.
=== Under apartheid ===
Although a considerable degree of urban segregation already existed, one of the most significant impacts of apartheid on the city of Kimberley was the implementation of the Group Areas Act. Communities were divided according to legislated racial categories: European (White), Native (Black), Coloured and Indian, and legally separated by the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act. Individual families could be split up to three ways (based on such notorious measures as the 'pencil test'), and mixed communities were either completely relocated (as in Malay Camp – although those clearances began before apartheid as such) – or were selectively cleared (as in Greenpoint, which became a 'Coloured' Group Area, its erstwhile-African and other residents being removed to other parts of town).
Residential segregation was thus enforced in a process that saw the creation of new townships at the northern and north-eastern edges of the expanding city. Institutions that were hard hit by the Group Areas Act, Bantu Education and other Acts included churches (such as the Bean Street Methodist Church) and schools (some, such as William Pescod and Perseverance School, moved while the Gore Browne (Native) Training School was closed down). Other legislation restricted the movement of Africans and some public places became 'Europeans Only' preserves in terms of the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act. The Native Laws Amendment Act sought to cleave church communities along racial lines, a law rejected on behalf of all Anglicans in South Africa by Archbishop Clayton in 1957 (in terms of which that aspect of apartheid was never completely implemented in churches such as Kimberley's St Cyprian's Cathedral).
Resistance to apartheid in Kimberley was mounted as early as mid-1952, as part of the Defiance Campaign. Dr Arthur Letele put together a group of volunteers to defy the segregation laws by occupying 'Europeans Only' benches at Kimberley Railway Station, which led to arrest and imprisonment. Later that year, the Mayibuye Uprising in Kimberley, on 8 November 1952, revolved around the poor quality of beer served in the beer hall. The fracas resulted in shootings and a subsequent mass funeral on 12 November 1952 at Kimberley's West End Cemetery. Detained following the massacre were alleged 'ring-leaders' Dr Letele, Sam Phakedi, Pepys Madibane, Olehile Sehume, Alexander Nkoane, Daniel Chabalala and David Mpiwa. Archdeacon Wade of St Matthew's Church, as a witness at the subsequent inquiry, placed the blame squarely on the policy of apartheid, including poor housing, lighting and public transport, together with "unfulfilled promises", which he said "brought about the conditions which led to the riots".
A later generation of anti-apartheid activists based in Kimberley included Phakamile Mabija, Bishop Graham Chadwick and two post-apartheid provincial premiers, Manne Dipico and Dipuo Peters.
Other prominent figures of the struggle against apartheid who had Kimberley connections include Robert Sobukwe, founder of the Pan Africanist Congress, who was banished (placed under house arrest) in Kimberley after his release from Robben Island in 1969. He died in the city in 1978.
Benny Alexander (1955–2010), who later changed his name to Khoisan X and was General Secretary of the Pan Africanist Congress and of the Pan-Africanist Movement from 1989, was born and grew up in Kimberley.
=== Post-apartheid ===
The Northern Cape Province became a political fact in 1994 with Kimberley as its capital. Some quasi-provincial infrastructure was in place from the 1940s, but after 1994, Kimberley underwent considerable development as administrative departments were set up and housed for the governance of the new province. A Northern Cape Legislature was designed and situated to bridge the formerly-divided city. The Kimberley City Council of the renamed Sol Plaatje Local Municipality (see below) was enlarged. A new coat of arms and motto for the city were ushered in.
With the abolition of apartheid previously 'whites only' institutions such as schools became accessible to all, as did suburbs previously segregated by the Group Areas Act. In practice, the process has been one of upward mobility by those who could afford the more costly options, but the vast majority of black people remain in the townships, where poverty levels are high.
Major township residential developments, with RDP housing, were implemented not without criticism concerning quality. There has been an increase in Kimberley's population since urbanization has been spurred on in part by the abolition of the Influx Control Act.
Also, the settlement of Platfontein was added when the !Xun and Khwe community, formerly of Schmidtsdrift and originally from Angola/Namibia, acquired the land in 1996. Most of the newly created community had moved to the new township by the end of 2003.
In 1998, the Kimberley Comprehensive Urban Plan estimated that Kimberley had 210,800 people, representing 46,207 households living in the city.
By 2008, estimates were in the region of 250,000 inhabitants.
==== Renaming ====
The shifts from frontier farm names to digger camp names to the established names of the towns of Kimberley and Beaconsfield, which duly amalgamated in 1912, are outlined above. The only traces of any precolonial settlement within the city's boundaries are scatters of Stone Age artefacts and there is no record of what the place/s might have been called before the first nineteenth century frontier overlay of farm names. It lay beyond the areas occupied by Tswana people in the precolonial period. Sites such as the nearby Wildebeest Kuil testify to a Khoe–San history dating up into the nineteenth century.
In the post-1994 era the Kimberley City Council was renamed the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality after the area it served was expanded to include surrounding towns and villages, most notably Ritchie. Sol Plaatje, the prominent writer and activist, lived for much of his life in Kimberley. Similarly the erstwhile Diamantveld District Council became the Frances Baard District Municipality, with reference to the trade unionist, Frances Baard, who was born in Greenpoint, Kimberley.
== Coats of arms ==
Municipality – The Kimberley borough council assumed a coat of arms in 1878. The arms were registered with the Cape Provincial Administration in December 1964 and at the Bureau of Heraldry in February 1968.
The design was a combination of the Union Jack and the charges from the Cape Colony's coat of arms, with a lozenge to represent the diamond-mining industry : Azure, a cross and saltire superimposed Gules both fimbriated Argent, in chief three bezants Or, each charged with a fleur de lis Azure, and in base three annulets Or; on a lozenge Or, superimposed over the fess point, a lion rampant Gules. The motto was Spero meliora. The arms were depicted on a cigarette card issued in 1931.
The Kimberley divisional council, which administered the rural areas outside the city, registered its own arms at the Bureau in August 1970.
The arms were Per saltire, in chief, barry wavy of six Argent and Azure; in base, Argent, a pale Sable charged with three fusils Argent; dexter, Gules, a shovel and pick in saltire, handles downward, Or; sinister, a staff of Aesculapius, Or. In layman's terms, the shield was divided in four by two diagonal lines, and depicted (1) six silver and blue stripes with wavy edges, (2) a crossed pick and shovel on a red background, (3) a golden staff of Aesculapius, and (4) three silver diamond-shaped fusils on a black vertical stripe on a silver background.
The crest was two crossed rifles in front of an upright sword; the supporters were two kudus; and the motto was "Nitanir semper ad optima".
== Economy ==
Kimberley was the initial hub of industrialisation in South Africa in the late 19th century, which transformed the country's agrarian economy into one more dependent on its mineral wealth. A key feature of the new economic arrangement was migrant labour, with the demand for African labour in the mines of Kimberley and later on the gold fields drawing workers in growing numbers from throughout the subcontinent. The labour compound system, developed in Kimberley from the 1880s, was later replicated on the gold mines and elsewhere.
The city housed South Africa's first stock exchange, the Kimberley Royal Stock Exchange, which opened on 2 February 1881.
On 2 September 1882, Kimberley became the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to install electric street lighting. The only city in the world to so earlier was Philadelphia, in the United States.
The rising importance of Kimberley led to one of the earliest South African and International Exhibitions to be staged in Kimberley in 1892. It was opened by Sir Henry Loch, the then Governor of the Cape of Good Hope on 8 September. It presented exhibits of art, an exhibition of paintings from the royal collection of Queen Victoria and mining machinery and implements amongst other items. The exhibition aroused considerable interest at international level, which resulted in a competition for display space.
South Africa's first school of mines was opened here in 1896 and later relocated to Johannesburg, becoming the core of the University of the Witwatersrand. A Pretoria campus later became the University of Pretoria. In fact the first two years were attended at colleges elsewhere, in Cape Town, Grahamstown or Stellenbosch, the third year in Kimberley and the fourth year in Johannesburg. Buildings were constructed against a total cost of 9,000 pounds with De Beers contributing on a pound for pound basis.
=== Transport ===
==== Aviation ====
South Africa's first school of aviation, to train pilots for the proposed South African Aviation Corps (SAAC), was established in Kimberley in 1913. Known as Paterson's Aviation Syndicate School of Flying, it is commemorated in the Pioneers of Aviation Museum (and replica of the first Compton Patterson Biplane preserved there), situated near to Kimberley airport. In the 1930s Kimberley boasted the best night-landing facilities on the continent of Africa. A major air rally was hosted there in 1934. In the war years Kimberley Airport was commandeered by the Union Defence Force and run by the 21 Flying School for the training of fighter pilots.
Today Kimberley Airport (IATA: KIM, ICAO: FAKM) services the area, with regular scheduled flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg.
==== Railways ====
Work on connecting Kimberley by rail to the cities along the Cape Colony's coastline began in 1872, under the management of the Cape Government Railways. The railway line from Cape Town to Kimberley was completed in 1885, accelerating the transport of both passengers and goods. The railway connected Kimberley with cheaper sources of grain and other products, as well as supplies of coal, so that one of its local impacts was to undercut (mainly African) trade in fresh produce and firewood in Kimberley's hinterland. Another footnote to railway history is its role in the initial rapid spread of the Spanish Influenza epidemic in 1918.
The railway reticulation eventually would link Kimberley with Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, Durban and Bloemfontein. The major junction at De Aar in the Karoo linked early twentieth century lines to Upington (later to Namibia) and to Calvinia. From the 1990s there was a decline in the use of the railways.
Today passenger train services to and from Kimberley are provided by Spoornet's Shosholoza Meyl, with connections south to Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and north to Johannesburg. Luxury railway experiences are provided on the main north–south line by the Blue Train and Rovos Rail. The central railway station of Kimberley is Kimberley railway station.
==== Roads ====
Wagon and coach routes were developed rapidly as the rush for the diamond fields gathered momentum. Two of the major routes were from the Cape and from Port Elizabeth, the nearest maritime port at the time. Contemporary accounts of the 1870s describe the appalling condition of some of the roads and decry the absence of bridges. From the mid-1880s the route through Kimberley and Mafeking (now Mahikeng) became the main axis of British colonial penetration and it was from Kimberley, along that route, that the Pioneer Column for the settlement of Rhodesia set forth in 1890. Today, however, the central arterial route to the north, the N1 from the Cape to Johannesburg, goes via Bloemfontein, not Kimberley.
Kimberley is located at the intersection of the N12 and N8 national roads.
=== Today ===
Today, Kimberley is the seat of the Provincial Legislature for the Northern Cape and the Provincial Administration. It services the mining and agricultural sectors of the region.
==== Tourism ====
The city projects itself as a significant tourist destination, the 'City that Sparkles', boasting a diversity of museums and visitor attractions. It is also a gateway to other Northern Cape destinations including the Mokala National Park, nature reserves and numerous game farms or hunting lodges, as well as historic sites of the region.
==== Conference-hosting ====
Kimberley has hosted significant meetings and conferences, developing a major venue, the Mittah Seperepere Convention Centre, and other conference hosting facilities. Recent gatherings have included the founding meeting of the Kimberley Process (2000) and a follow-up meeting of this organisation in 2013, and the International Indigenous Peoples Summit on Sustainable Development (2002).
== Climate and geography ==
=== Climate ===
Under the Köppen system Kimberley has a semi-arid climate (BSh) courtesy of its dry winters. Summers are long, wet, and long lasting. Winters are short, mild, and dry with chilly nights.
=== Water ===
Kimberley's water is pumped from the Vaal River at Riverton, some 15 km north of the city.
=== Districts/Suburbs/Townships ===
=== Demography ===
According to the 2011 census, the population of Kimberley "proper" was 96,977, while the townships Galeshewe and Roodepan had populations of 107,920 and 20,263 respectively. This gives the urban area a total population of 225,160. Of this population, 63.1% identified themselves as "Black African", 26.8% as "Coloured", 8.0% as "White" and 1.2% as "Indian or Asian". 43.2% of the population spoke Afrikaans as their first language, 35.8% spoke Setswana, 8.7% spoke English, 6.0% spoke isiXhosa and 2.7% spoke Sesotho.
=== Landscapes, urban and rural ===
Kimberley is set in a relatively flat landscape with no prominent topographic features within the urban limits. The only "hills" are debris dumps generated by more than a century of diamond mining. From the 1990s these were being recycled and poured back into De Beers Mine (by 2010 it was filled to within a few tens of metres of the surface). Certain of the mine dumps, in the vicinity of the Big Hole, have been proclaimed as heritage features and are to be preserved as part of the historic industrial landscape of Kimberley.
The surrounding rural landscape, not more than a few minutes' drive from any part of the city, consists of relatively flat plains dotted with hills, mainly outcropping basement rock (andesite) to the north and north west, or Karoo age dolerite to the south and east. Shallow pans formed in the plains.
One of Kimberley's famous features is Kamfers Dam, a large pan north of the city, which is an important wetland supporting a breeding colony of lesser flamingos. Conservation initiatives in the area aim to bring people from the city in touch with its wildlife. In 2012 rising water levels flooded the artificial island built to enhance flamingo breeding, while in December 2013 a local outbreak of avian botulism bacteria resulted in the deaths of hundreds of birds. The island has since re-emerged.
== Local and provincial government ==
The administration of the Crown Colony of Griqualand West (from 1873) was conducted from Government Buildings in Kimberley up until the annexation of the Colony to the Cape in 1880. At the level of local government, separate Borough Councils operated in Kimberley and Beaconsfield up to the time of their amalgamation as the City of Kimberley in 1912. Thereafter a single City Council regulated the affairs of the city, while a Divisional Council administered the surrounding rural district. In the 1980s, in the last days of apartheid, a separate political entity referred to as Galeshewe (with Mankurwane) was brought into existence with its own council.
Post-1994 the Kimberley City Council became the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality while the successor to what had become the Diamandveld Regional Services Council was the Frances Baard District Municipality.
The idea of establishing the Northern Cape as a distinct geographic entity dates from the 1940s but it became a political and administrative fact only in 1994, with Kimberley formally becoming the new province's legislative capital. The provincial legislature initially occupied the old Cape Provincial Administration building at the Civic Centre before moving into a purpose-built Legislature deliberately situated between one of the townships and erstwhile white suburbs. Kimberley is also the seat of the Northern Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa, which exercises jurisdiction over the province.
== Education ==
Education is a major sector in Kimberley's social and economic life.
=== Primary education ===
Kimberley Junior School
St Cyprian's Grammar School
=== Secondary education ===
Adamantia High School
Diamantveld High School
Floors High School
Greenpoint High School
Homevale Secondary High School
HTS Kimberley
Kimberley Boys' High School
Kimberley Girls' High School
Northern Cape High School
St. Boniface High School
Christian Brothers College
William Pescod High School
=== Tertiary education ===
Qualitas Career Academy, (Private college). Offers full-time and part-time studies for students, and corporate training and consulting services for businesses and government departments.
==== Sol Plaatje University ====
The Sol Plaatje University opened in Kimberley in 2014, accommodating a modest initial intake of 135 students. Announcing the name for the university, former President Jacob Zuma mentioned the development of academic niche areas that did not exist elsewhere, or were under-represented, in South Africa. "Given the rich heritage of Kimberley and the Northern Cape in general", Zuma said, "it is envisaged that Sol Plaatje will specialise in heritage studies, including interconnected academic fields such as museum management, archaeology, indigenous languages, and restoration architecture".
==== Defunct tertiary institutions ====
Tertiary education institutions no longer in existence (or absorbed into the above organisational configurations):
Perseverance Teachers' Training College
== Society and culture ==
=== Religion ===
Kimberley, from its earliest days, attracted people of diverse faiths, which are still reflected by practising faith communities in the city. Pre-eminently these are various denominations of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, as well as other faiths. Traditional African beliefs continue as an element in the Zionist Christian Church (ZCC). Kimberley is the seat of the Anglican Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman and also of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley – previously the Apostolic Vicariate of Kimberley in Orange. Other denominations having churches in the city are the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Congregational Church, the Dutch Reformed Church (Afrikaans: Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk), the Baptist Church, the Afrikaans Baptist Church (Afrikaans: Afrikaanse Baptiste Kerk), the Apostolics, Pentecostals. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa was first established in Kimberley.
=== Art, music, film and literature ===
Notable artists from Kimberley include William Timlin and Walter Westbrook, while an artist noted for his depiction of Kimberley was Philip Bawcombe.
Writers from the city or with strong Kimberley links include Diane Awerbuck, Benjamin Bennett, Lawrence Green, Dorian Haarhoff, Dan Jacobson, E P Lekhela, Z.K. Matthews, Sarah Gertrude Millin, Sol Plaatje, Frank Templeton Prince, Olive Schreiner, A.H.M. Scholtz, Sabata-Mpho Mokae.
A notable reggae and rhythm and blues musician from Kimberley is Dr Victor.
=== Museums, monuments and memorials ===
The Big Hole, previously known as the Kimberley Mine Museum, is a recreated townscape and museum, with Big Hole viewing platform and other features, situated next to the Kimberley Mine ("Big Hole"). It houses a rich collection of artefacts and information from the early days of the city.
The McGregor Museum, which celebrated its centennial in 2007, curates and studies major research collections and information about the history and ecology of the Northern Cape, which are reflected in displays at the museum's headquarters at the Sanatorium in Belgravia and nine branch museums.
The William Humphreys Art Gallery.
The Kimberley Africana Library.
Dunluce and Rudd House Museums.
Pioneers of Aviation Museum: In 1913, South Africa's first flying school opened at Kimberley and started training the pilots of the South African Aviation Corps, later to become the South African Air Force. The museum is located on the site of that flying school and houses a replica of a Compton Paterson biplane, one of the first aircraft to be used for flight training. The first female on the African continent to receive her pilot's license, Ann Maria Bocciarelli, was trained at this facility.
Robert Sobukwe's Law Office
The Sol Plaatje Museum is located in the house where Sol Plaatje lived and wrote Mhudi.
Transport Spoornet Museum
Clyde N. Terry Hall of Militaria
Freddie Tate Museum
A heritage tramway was opened in 1985, putting one of Kimberley's historic trams back on the rails.
On the outskirts of Kimberley, on the Barkly West Road, the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre, as well as Nooitgedacht Glacial Pavements. To the south of the city, the Magersfontein Battlefield Museum (see Battle of Magersfontein), while blockhouses can be seen at Modder River.
Memorials include:
The Miners' Memorial, also known as the Diggers' Fountain, located in the Oppenheimer Gardens and designed by Herman Wald. It was built in honour of all the miners of Kimberley. The memorial consists of five life-sized diggers lifting a diamond sieve.
The Honoured Dead Memorial commemorates those who died defending the city during the Siege of Kimberley in the Second Boer War.
The Cenotaph erected originally to commemorate the fallen of World War I, with plaques added in memory of fallen Kimberley volunteers in World War II. There is a memorial dedicated to the Kimberley Cape Coloured Corps who died in the Battle of Square Hill during World War I. Consisting of a gun captured at the battle, it originally stood in Victoria Crescent, Malay Camp, but, post-1994, was moved to the Cenotaph.
The Concentration Camp Memorial remembers those who were interned in the Kimberley concentration camp during the Second Boer War and is located in front of the Dutch Reformed Mother Church.
The Henrietta Stockdale statue, by Jack Penn, commemorates the Anglican nun, Sister Henrietta CSM&AA (her reinterred remains are buried alongside), who petitioned the Cape Parliament to pass a law recognizing nursing as a profession and requiring compulsory state registration of nurses - a first in the world.
The statue of Frances Baard was unveiled by Premier Hazel Jenkins on Women's Day, 9 August 2009.
The Sol Plaatje Statue was unveiled by South African President Jacob Zuma on 9 January 2010, the 98th anniversary of the founding of the African National Congress. Sculpted by Johan Moolman, it is at the Civic Centre, formerly the Malay Camp, and situated approximately where Plaatje had his printing press in 1910–13.
Burger Monument near Magersfontein Battlefield
Cape Police Memorial
Mayibuye Memorial
Rhodes equestrian statue
Malay Camp Memorial
=== Architecture ===
==== Notable religious buildings ====
Dutch Reformed Mother Church Newton is a good example of Stucco architecture in Kimberley. It was declared a National Monument in 1976, now a Provincial Heritage Site.
Kimberley's older Mosques were replaced by newer ones as a result of the Group Areas Act and the forced resettlement of the city's Muslim communities.
Kimberley Seventh-day Adventist Church is a small L-shaped corrugated-iron building and is considered the mother church of Seventh-day Adventists in South Africa. It was declared a National Monument in 1967, now a Provincial Heritage Site.
St Cyprian's Anglican Cathedral was designed by Arthur Lindley of the firm of Greatbatch, the building of the nave being completed in 1908. The remainder of the cathedral was completed in stages, partly under guidance of William M. Timlin (also of the firm of Greatbatch). In 1926 the Chancel was dedicated (and as a World War I memorial); in 1936 the Lady Chapel, Vestry & new organ were added; and in 1961, the tower (a World War II memorial). The cathedral contains notable stained glass windows including works by the Pretoria artist Leo Theron.
St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral.
Synagogue in the Byzantine style designed by D.W. Greatbatch, and based on the synagogue in Florence, Italy.
=== Media ===
==== Newspapers ====
The earliest newspaper here was the Diamond Field, published initially at Pniel on 15 October 1870. Other early papers with the Diamond News and the Independent. The Diamond Fields Advertiser is Kimberley's current daily newspaper, published since 23 March 1878.
The Volksblad, with a free local supplement called Noordkaap, is read by Afrikaans-speaking readers.
==== Radio ====
Two community radio stations were founded in the 1990s:
Radio Teemaneng
XKfm, based in the !Xun and Khwe settlement of Platfontein, outside Kimberley, and broadcasting in the two KhoeSan languages spoken at Platfontein (!Xun and Khwedam)
=== Sport ===
==== Cricket ====
Kimberley has contributed to much of cricket's history having supplied several international players. There was Frank (Nipper) Nicholson, Xenophon Balaskas born in Kimberley to Greek parents and Ken Viljoen, Ronnie Draper and in more recent times Pat Symcox and the Proteas coach Mickey Arthur.
Kimberley hosted a match from the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup. Elsie McDonald was a Springbok bowler.
==== Rugby ====
Frank Dobbin known as Uncle Dobbin was a member of Paul Roos' original Springboks in the tour to the British Isles in 1906/1907. His memory lives in his old colonial-style home in Roper street, bearing a simple brass plaque with the name 'Dobbin'. Later Springboks to wear green and gold included Ian Kirkpatrick, Tommy Bedford and Gawie Visagie, brother of Ammosal-based Springbok flyhalf Piet Visagie.
Kimberley is home to the Griquas rugby team, which has won the Currie Cup four times in 1899, 1911, 1970, and 2025. Ronnie Bauser an ex-mayor of Kimberley were involved in Griquas rugby for 1950–1971.
==== Football ====
Richard Henyekane, South African footballer, is from Kimberley, his younger brother Joseph played for Golden Arrows. Jimmy Tau is from Kimberley.
==== Swimming ====
Karen Muir, born in Kimberley, became in 1965 the youngest person to break a world record in any sport. This age group record stands to this day. She set it in August 1965 at the junior world champions in Blackpool, England, in the 110 metres (360 ft) backstroke at the age of 12. She went on to break many more world records but was denied a role in world swimming when she lost the opportunity to represent her country at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City as a result of South Africa being excluded for its racial apartheid policies. Kimberley also saw a world record broken in the municipal pool that now bears Muir's name. It was Johannesburg's Anne Fairlie who beat Karen Muir and Frances Kikki Caron in a time breaking the world record.
Charl Bouwer, the Paralympic swimmer from South Africa who won gold in the 50m freestyle at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, was born in Kimberley.
==== Athletics ====
Bevil Rudd, Olympic medallist.
==== Skateboarding ====
The first Maloof Money Cup World Skateboarding Championships were held in Kimberley in September 2011 and again in 2012. When the Maloof family sponsorship ended in 2013 the event became known as the Kimberley Diamond Cup.
==== Sporting facilities ====
Griqua Park
De Beers Diamond Oval
Galeshewe Stadium
=== Quotations ===
"Kimberley has had a profound effect on the course of history in Southern Africa. The discovery of diamonds there, more than a century ago, proved to be the first step in the transformation of South Africa from an agricultural into an industrial country. When gold and other minerals were later discovered to the north, there were already Kimberley men of vision and enterprise with the capital and technology to develop the new resources". - H.F. Oppenheimer, 1976. Foreword to Brian Roberts's book, Kimberley, Turbulent City.
Anthony Trollope visited Kimberley in 1877 and was notoriously put off by the heat, enervating and hideous, and the dust and the flies of the early mining town almost drove him mad:
"I sometimes thought that the people of Kimberley were proud of their flies and their dust".
Of the townscape, largely built of sun-dried brick, and of plank and canvas and corrugated iron sheets brought up by ox-wagon from the coast, he remarked:
"In Kimberley there are two buildings with a storey above the ground, and one of these is in the square: this is its only magnificence. There is no pavement. The roadway is all dust and holes. There is a market place in the midst which certainly is not magnificent. Around are the corrugated iron shops of the ordinary dealers in provisions. An uglier place I do not know how to imagine".
A.H.J. Bourne, a former headmaster of Kimberley Boys' High School, returned to the city in 1937, observing that: "The history of Kimberley would appear remarkable to any stranger who could not fail to think that some supermind was behind its destinies. In so short a time it has grown from bare veld".
In the early 1990s, the writer Dan Jacobson returned to Kimberley, where he had grown up in the 1930s, giving a sense of how things had changed:
"The people I had known had vanished; so had their language. That contributed to my ghostlike state. In my earliest years the whites of Kimberley spoke English only; Afrikaans was the tongue of the Cape Coloured people.... Now I was addressed in Afrikaans everywhere I went, by white, black, and Coloured alike".
"Kimberley dull?" asked the Virtualtourist reviewer Catherine Reichardt. "Happily, the answer is a resounding 'No', provided that you have a passion for history - in which case Kimberley has it in spades, and you'll probably need to overnight to fully appreciate its attractions and charms. In many ways, exploring Kimberley and its heritage is like experiencing South African history in microcosm".
== See also ==
== References ==
== External links ==
The Kimberley City Portal - An on-line directory for tourists, travellers and residents of Kimberley. Detailed listings of business, attractions, activities and events with photos, contact information and geo-locations.
"Diamond Mines of South Africa" by Gardner Williams (General manager De Beers), Chapter 15 (25-page history + images). |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Le_Monnier | Eduardo Le Monnier | Eduardo Le Monnier (born Edouard Stanislas Louis Le Monnier; 30 September 1873 in Paris – 14 February 1931 in Buenos Aires) was a French architect recognized for his work in Brazil, Uruguay and mostly in Argentina.
== Education ==
He studied at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris and moved to Brazil in 1894. There he worked on different projects, such as the General Carneiro station in Belo Horizonte and was a professor at the School of Fine Arts in Curitiba.
== Career ==
He arrived in Buenos Aires on 1 November 1896, there he developed most of its projects and concrete works. One of his first works there is the bakery La Burdalesa (Paraná nº 861/9, year 1898, already demolished). In 1901 he revalidated his diploma in the University of Buenos Aires and entered the Central Society of Architects (SCA). In 1902 he finished the Artistic Ironworks Motteau, with remarkable art nouveau style (Avenida Juan de Garay no. 1272, demolished) and later the headquarters of the society of mutual savings La Bola de Nievein Buenos Aires and in Rosario, province of Santa Fe (Cordoba and Laprida streets, year 1906).
He obtained the Municipal Prize for the Best Facade of 1903 for the residence he built for Bartolomé Ginocchio in Lima Street No. 1642. Two years later he received the third prize for the façade of Felix Egusquiza's residence on Libertad Street No. 1394 and in 1907 presided over the SCA. Thanks to these recognitions, different aristocratic families hire him to make his large residences in the Barrio Norte. The most important of these is the Fernández Anchorena Palace, now home to the Apostolic Nunciature, on Avenida Alvear 1637, built between 1907 and 1909. Another house, smaller but also lavish, was built on Avenida de los Incas 3260, where it is still standing.
In the second half of the 1920s, and until the crisis of 1929, there was a great rise of financial institutions in Argentina. All of them built large parent companies in downtown Buenos Aires, which ended up taking the role of financial city that conserves today. Le Monnier was in charge of the headquarters of the Uruguayan Argentine Bank (Avenida Roque Sáenz Peña nº 501, year 1928) and the neighboring buildings of the Bencich brothers, owners of a construction company (Edificio Bencich, Av. Roque Sáenz Peña 615 and Edificio Miguel Bencich , Av. Roque Sáenz Peña nº 614/6).
Eduardo Le Monnier also taught in the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture.
He died in Buenos Aires on 14 February 1931, at the age of 58.
== Major works ==
Bakery "La Burdalesa". Paraná nº 861/9, Buenos Aires (year 1898 ). Demolished
Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Hurlingham (year 1902).
Church of Our Lady of the Carmen, in Ramos Mejía (year 1902).
Church of the Sagrada Familia, in Haedo (year 1902).
Cottage "Tocad", owned by Le Monnier in Bella Vista (ca. 1902). Currently part of the Bella Vista Racing Club.
House of Bartolomé Ginocchio. Lima 1642, Buenos Aires (year 1903). Demolished
Company "The Ball of Snow". Tte. General Juan D. Perón 301, Buenos Aires (year 1904). Demolished
Residence of Felix Egusquiza. Libertad 1394, Buenos Aires (year 1905). Demolished
Office building for "La Bola de Nieve". Peru 167, Buenos Aires (year 1905). Demolished
Church of the Parish San Francisco Solano, in Bella Vista (year 1905).
Guest house "La Oriental". Bartolomé Miter 1840, Buenos Aires (year 1906). Demolished
Residence of Juan A. Fernández and Rosa de Anchorena . Av. Alvear 1637, Buenos Aires (year 1907). Current headquarters of the Apostolic Nunciature.
Company "The Ball of Snow". Cordoba and Laprida, Rosario (year 1906).
Jockey Club. Cordoba and Maipú, Rosario.
Residence of Carolina Ortega de Benítez. Av. Callao 1807, Buenos Aires (year 1907). Demolished
House of Arturo Z. Paz. Santa Fe 1652 to 1662, Buenos Aires (year 1908). Demolished
Head office of the Yacht Club Argentino . Dársena Norte of Puerto Madero , Buenos Aires (year 1913).
Banco Argentino Uruguayo . Av. Roque Sáenz Peña 525, Buenos Aires (year 1925).
Apartment building for "Bencich Hermanos" . Av. Córdoba 801 (corner Esmeralda), Buenos Aires (year 1927).
Miguel Bencich Building. Av. Roque Sáenz Peña 602, Buenos Aires (year 1927).
Building Bencich. Av. Roque Sáenz Peña 615, Buenos Aires (year 1927).
Apartment building for "Bencich Hermanos". Suipacha 1399 (corner Arroyo ), Buenos Aires (year 1927).
Apartment building for "Bencich Hermanos". Tucumán 802 (corner Esmeralda), Buenos Aires (year 1929).
Building of the Secretariat of Cabinet of Chief of Cabinet of Ministers "Building of the INAP". Ave. Roque Sáenz Peña 511 (year 1928)
== Gallery of works ==
== Sources ==
Architect Eduardo Le Monnier, in "Revista de Arquitectura" nº 124. April 1931. SCA and CEA. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabella_spallanzanii | Sabella spallanzanii | Sabella spallanzanii is a species of marine polychaete worms in the family Sabellidae. Common names include the Mediterranean fanworm, the feather duster worm, the European fan worm and the pencil worm. It is native to shallow waters in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. It has spread to various other parts of the world and is included on the Global Invasive Species Database maintained by the IUCN.
The species' name commemorates the 18th-century biologist Lazzaro Spallanzani.
== Description ==
European fan worms grow to a total length of 9 to 40 cm (4 to 16 in) and are usually larger in deep water. They have stiff, sandy tubes formed from hardened mucus secreted by the worm which protrude from the sand, and a two-layered crown of feeding tentacles which can be retracted into the tube. One of the layers forms a distinct spiral. The colour of the tentacles is variable but they are usually banded in orange, purple and white or they may be a uniform pale grey. Various epiphytic organisms settle and grow on the tubes which may be rather wrinkled near their bases.
== Distribution and habitat ==
The European fan worm is native to the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Its range extends from the United Kingdom and Ireland, through France, Spain and Portugal to Italy, Greece and Turkey. It is also known from South America and the southern African Namaqualand coast to Port Elizabeth. It first appeared in Western Australia in 1965 and since then has spread to other parts of southern Australia, and was first seen in New South Wales in 1996. It is regarded as an invasive species in Australia.
It first appeared in New Zealand in 2008 and is regarded as a pest.
It is found at depths down to 30 m (98 ft) and is found in nutrient-rich waters in sheltered locations where there are no strong currents and little wave action. It grows on soft sediments or anchors itself to rocks, mollusc shells, jetties, pontoons or other solid surfaces. It may grow on the hulls of moored boats but does not usually foul vessels that are in frequent use.
== Biology ==
The European fan worm is a filter feeder and feeds on bacteria, zooplankton, phytoplankton and suspended particles of organic matter. Individual worms are either male or female and liberate gametes into the sea. A large female can produce upwards of 50,000 eggs during the breeding season. The larvae are planktonic and settle to the seabed after about two weeks, metamorphosis taking place some ten days later.
== Invasiveness ==
The European fan worm is a rather successful organism whose larvae can easily disperse to new locations. As an invasive species and a filter feeder, it competes with native species and with farmed oysters and mussels for food. Its presence in an area can alter water flows and sedimentation. In seagrass meadows it may grow on and weigh down leaf blades. There may be a reduction in the population of cumaceans, harpacticoid copepods and ostracods in the sediment and an increase in amphipods, barnacles and other species of tube worms on the tubes.
== Uses ==
The European fan worm is able to bioaccumulate bacteria and has a profound effect on the marine bacterial environment. Microbes build up in the worm and are present at much higher concentrations in its tissues than in the surrounding water and this means the worm can be used as a bioindicator. It is efficient at filtering out Vibrio spp. bacteria that are pathogenic to fish and shellfish and can cause foodborne illness in man. It can also potentially be used for remediation of polluted water near sewage outlets.
== References ==
== External links ==
Photos of Sabella spallanzanii in the Sealife Collection |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bust_of_Thomas_Baker#: | Bust of Thomas Baker | The bust of Thomas Baker is a 1638 marble portrait sculpture created by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, with much of the bust undertaken by a pupil of Bernini, probably Andrea Bolgi. It is currently held in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, who purchased the bust in 1921 for 1480 English guineas.
== Subject ==
Baker (1606–58) was High Sheriff of Suffolk in 1657 and connected to the court of Charles I. He may have been indirectly involved in another Bernini bust, carrying the triple portrait of Charles I by Van Dyck to Rome; it was from this portrait that Bernini carved the now-destroyed bust of King Charles.
== See also ==
List of works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
== References ==
== External links ==
Media related to Bust of Thomas Baker (Victoria & Albert Museum) at Wikimedia Commons |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax | Betamax | Betamax (also known as Beta, and stylized as the Greek letter β in its logo) is a discontinued consumer analog videocassette recording format developed by Sony. It was one of the main competitors in the videotape format war against its primary rival, VHS. Betamax was introduced in Japan on May 10, 1975, and launched in the United States later that year.
Betamax was widely regarded, in part due to Sony's marketing, as offering superior picture quality compared to VHS. Its initial β1 speed provided 250 horizontal lines of resolution, compared to VHS's 240 lines, but early Beta tapes were limited to 60 minutes of recording time, making them impractical for recording movies or sporting events. To address this, Sony introduced the β2 speed, which doubled recording time to two hours but reduced resolution, negating its technical advantage.
VHS's commercial success over Betamax was also driven by JVC's strategy of licensing the format broadly, spurring competition and lowering prices among manufacturers. In contrast, Sony initially resisted licensing Beta, limiting its market reach. By the late 1980s, Betamax’s decline was evident, and in 1988 Sony tacitly acknowledged defeat when it announced it would add VHS models to its videocassette recorder (VCR) lineup.
Despite losing the format war, Sony continued producing Betamax recorders until August 2002 and sold blank Beta cassettes until March 2016, marking the end of the format’s commercial lifespan.
== Original version ==
=== Launch and early models ===
The first Betamax VCR introduced in the United States was the LV-1901 model, which included a 19-inch (48 cm) Trinitron television, and appeared in stores in early November 1975. The cassettes contain 0.50-inch-wide (12.7 mm) videotape in a design similar to that of the earlier, professional 0.75-inch-wide (19 mm), U-matic format.
Like the rival videotape format VHS, Betamax has no guard band and uses azimuth recording to reduce crosstalk. According to Sony's history webpages, the name had a double meaning: beta is the Japanese word used to describe the way in which signals are recorded on the tape; and the shape of the lowercase Greek letter beta (β) resembles the course of the tape through the transport. The suffix -max, from the word "maximum", was added to suggest greatness. In 1977, Sony issued the first long-play Betamax VCR, the SL-8200. This VCR had two recording speeds: normal, and the newer half speed. This provided two hours of recording on
the L-500 Beta videocassette. The SL-8200 was to compete against the VHS VCRs, which allowed up to 4, and later 6 and 8, hours of recording on one cassette.
Initially, Sony was able to tout several Betamax-only features, such as BetaScan—a high-speed picture search in either direction—and BetaSkipScan, a technique that allowed the operator to see where they were on the tape by pressing the FF key (or REW, if in that mode): the transport would switch into the BetaScan mode until the key was released. This feature is discussed in more detail on Peep Search. Sony believed that the M-Load transports used by VHS machines made copying these trick modes impossible. BetaSkipScan (Peep Search) is now available on miniature M-load formats, but even Sony was unable to fully replicate this on VHS. BetaScan was originally called "Videola" until the company that made the Moviola threatened legal action.
Sanyo marketed its own Betamax-compatible recorders under the Betacord brand (also casually referred to as "Beta"). In addition to Sony and Sanyo, Beta-format video recorders were manufactured and sold by Toshiba, Pioneer, Murphy, Aiwa, and NEC. Zenith Electronics and WEGA contracted with Sony to produce VCRs for their product lines. The department stores Sears (in the United States and Canada) and Quelle (in Germany) sold Beta-format VCRs under their house brands, as did the RadioShack chain of electronic stores.
=== Industrial and professional usage ===
Sony also offered a range of industrial Betamax products, a Beta I-only format for industrial and institutional users. These were aimed at the same market as U-Matic equipment, but were cheaper and smaller. The arrival of Betacam reduced the demand for both industrial Beta and U-Matic equipment.
For the professional and broadcast video industry, Sony derived Betacam from Betamax. Released in 1982, Betacam became the most widely used videotape format in electronic news gathering, replacing the .75 in (19 mm) wide U-matic tape format. Betacam and Betamax are similar in some ways- early versions of Betacam used the same videocassette shape, used the same oxide tape formulation with the same coercivity, and recorded linear audio tracks in the same location of the tape. However, in the key area of video recording, Betacam and Betamax use completely different on-tape formats.
Betamax also had a significant part to play in the music recording industry, when Sony introduced its pulse-code modulation (PCM) digital recording system as an encoding box/PCM adaptor that connected to a Betamax recorder. The Sony PCM-F1 adaptor was sold with a companion Betamax VCR SL-2000 as a portable digital audio recording system. Many recording engineers used this system in the 1980s and 1990s to make their first digital master recordings. Later models using the same format included the Sony PCM-501ES, PCM-601ES (includes S/PDIF input and outputs) and PCM-701ES.
=== Court case ===
One other major consequence of the Betamax technology's introduction to the U.S. was the lawsuit Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios (1984, the "Betamax case"), with the U.S. Supreme Court determining home videotaping to be legal in the United States, wherein home videotape cassette recorders were a legal technology since they had substantial noninfringing uses. This precedent was later invoked in MGM v. Grokster (2005), where the high court agreed that the same "substantial noninfringing uses" standard applies to authors and vendors of peer-to-peer file sharing software (notably excepting those who "actively induce" copyright infringement through "purposeful, culpable expression and conduct").
== Later developments and offshoots ==
=== HiFi audio upgrade ===
In June 1983, Sony introduced high fidelity audio to videotape as Beta Hi-Fi. For NTSC, Beta HiFi worked by placing a pair of FM carriers between the chroma (C) and luminance (Y) carriers, a process known as frequency multiplexing. Each head had a specific pair of carriers; in total, four individual channels were employed. Head A recorded its hi-fi carriers at 1.38(L) and 1.68(R) MHz, and the B head employed 1.53 and 1.83 MHz. The result was audio with an 80 dB dynamic range, with less than 0.005% wow and flutter.
Prior to the introduction of Beta Hi-Fi, Sony shifted the Y carrier up by 400 kHz to make room for the four FM carriers that would be needed for Beta Hi-Fi. All Beta machines incorporated this change, plus the ability to hunt for a lower frequency pre-AFM Y carrier. Sony incorporated an "antihunt" circuit, to stop the machine hunting for a Y carrier that was not there.
Some Sony NTSC models were marketed as "Hi-Fi Ready" (with an SL-HFR prefix to the model's number instead of the usual SL or SL-HF). These Betamax decks looked like a regular Betamax model, except for a special 28-pin connector on the rear. If the user desired a Beta Hi-Fi model but lacked the funds at the time, he could purchase an "SL-HFRxx" and at a later date purchase the separate Hi-Fi Processor. Sony offered two outboard Beta Hi-Fi processors, the HFP-100 and HFP-200. They were identical except that the HFP-200 was capable of multi-channel TV sound, with the word "stereocast" printed after the Beta Hi-Fi logo. This was possible because unlike a VHS Hi-Fi deck, an NTSC Betamax did not need an extra pair of heads. The HFP-x00 would generate the needed carriers which would be recorded by the attached deck, and during playback, the AFM carriers would be passed to the HFP-x00. They also had a small "fine tracking" control on the rear panel for difficult tapes.
For PAL, however, the bandwidth between the chroma and luminance carriers was not sufficient to allow additional FM carriers, so depth multiplexing was employed, wherein the audio track would be recorded in the same way that the video track was. The lower-frequency audio track was written first by a dedicated head, and the video track recorded on top by the video head. The head disk had an extra pair of audio-only heads with a different azimuth, positioned slightly ahead of the regular video heads, for this purpose.
Sony was confident that VHS could not achieve the same audio performance feat as Beta Hi-Fi. However, to the chagrin of Sony, JVC did develop a VHS hi-fi system on the principle of depth multiplexing approximately a year after the first Beta Hi-Fi VCR, the SL-5200 was introduced by Sony. Despite initial praise as providing "CD sound quality", both Beta Hi-Fi and VHS HiFi suffered from "carrier buzz", where high-frequency information bled into the audio carriers, creating momentary "buzzing" and other audio flaws. Both systems also used companding noise-reduction systems, which could create "pumping" artifacts under some conditions. Both formats also suffered from interchange problems, where tapes made on one machine did not always play back well on other machines. When this happened and if the artifacts became too distracting, users were forced to revert to the old linear soundtrack.
=== SuperBetamax / Hi-Band ===
In early 1985, Sony would introduce a new feature, Hi-Band or SuperBeta, by again shifting the Y carrier—this time by 800 kHz. This improved the bandwidth available to the Y sideband and increased the horizontal resolution from 240 to 290 lines on a regular-grade Betamax cassette. Since over-the-antenna and cable signals were only 300–330 lines resolution, SuperBeta could make a nearly identical copy of live television. However, the chroma resolution still remained relatively poor, limited to just under 0.4 MHz or approximately 30 lines resolution, whereas live broadcast chrominance resolution was over 100 lines. The heads were also narrowed to 29 μm to reduce crosstalk, with a narrower head gap to play back the higher carrier frequency at 5.6 MHz. Later, some models would feature further improvement, in the form of Beta-Is, a high band version of the Beta-I recording mode. There were some incompatibilities between the older Beta decks and SuperBeta, but most could play back a high band tape without major problems. SuperBeta decks had a switch to disable the SuperBeta mode for compatibility purposes. (SuperBeta was only marginally supported outside of Sony, as many licensees had already discontinued their Betamax line.)
=== ED-Beta (Extended Definition Betamax) ===
In 1988, Sony would again push the envelope with ED-Beta, or "Extended Definition" Betamax, capable of up to 500 lines of luma resolution, comparable to then-future DVD quality. In order to store the ~6.5 MHz-wide luma signal, with the peak frequency at 9.3 MHz, Sony used a metal formulation tape borrowed from the Betacam SP format (branded "ED-Metal") and incorporated some improvements to the transport to reduce mechanically induced aberrations in the picture. ED-Beta also featured a luminance carrier deviation of 2.5 MHz, as opposed to the 1.2 MHz used in SuperBeta, improving contrast with reduced luminance noise. Chroma resolution remained unchanged, which made artifacts like color fringing more pronounced. To cancel chroma signal crosstalk, the chroma portion of the signal was delayed by one or two scan lines during playback, smearing the color even more. The chroma delay could be disabled on higher end VCRs by turning on EDIT mode to "reduce editing faults" when dubbing a tape.
Sony introduced two ED decks and a camcorder in the late 1980s. The top end EDV-9500 (EDV-9300 in Canada) deck was a very capable editing deck, rivaling much more expensive U-Matic set-ups for its accuracy and features, but did not have commercial success due to lack of timecode and other pro features. Sony did market ED-Beta to "semiprofessional" users, or "prosumers". As for the EDC-55 "ED CAM" camcorder, the major complaint concerned its low light sensitivity due to the use of two CCDs instead of the typical single-CCD imaging device. ED-Beta machines only recorded in βII and βIII modes, with the ability to play back βI and βIs.
=== Portable equipment and Betamovie camcorders ===
Two-piece portable video systems (those featuring a portable VCR such as Sony's "BetaPak") and a separate camera) soon became available for amateur and low-end video production. To better compete with Super 8 film there was the need for a less cumbersome all-in-one solution, and Sony's was "Betamovie", the first consumer camcorder.
Betamovie used standard-size Betamax cassettes. However, the changes required to miniaturise the mechanism forced the use of non-standard record signal timing. As a result, while the final on-tape recording is – by design – in standard Betamax format and playable on a regular Beta deck, the camcorder itself is record-only, and cannot be used to review or play back footage. (This also effectively restricted Betamovie to those who also owned or had access to the Beta VCRs needed to view recordings).
VHS manufacturers found a different solution to drum miniaturization using standard video signals instead, permitting footage to be reviewed on the camcorder itself, and output to another VCR for editing. This was a huge advantage, as even owners of Beta VCRs could use a VHS camcorder to copy and edit footage to their Beta deck- something not possible with Betamovie.
VHS gained another advantage with VHS-C, which used a miniaturized cassette to make a camcorder smaller and lighter than any Betamovie. Sony could not duplicate the functionality of VHS-C camcorders, and seeing the rapid loss of market share, eventually introduced the Video8 format. Their hope was that Video8 could replace both Beta and VHS for all uses.
SuperBeta and industrial Betamovie camcorders would also be sold by Sony.
== Discontinuation and legacy ==
=== End of production ===
On November 10, 2015, Sony announced that it would no longer be producing Betamax videocassettes. Production and sales ended March 2016 after almost 41 years of continuous production. Third-party manufacturers continue to make new cassettes. While these cassettes are designed for use with the Betacam format, the oxide formulation cassettes are interchangeable with traditional Betamax systems.
Despite the sharp decline in sales of Betamax recorders in the late 1980s and subsequent halt in production of new recorders by Sony in 2002, Betamax, SuperBetamax and ED-Beta are still being used by a small number of people. Even though Sony stopped making new cassettes in 2016, new old stocks of Betamax cassettes are still available for purchase at online shops and used recorders (as well as cassettes) are often found at flea markets, thrift stores or on Internet auction sites. Early format Betacam cassettes—which are physically based on the Betamax cassette—continue to be available for use in the professional media. It is still used by few broadcasters, as it was succeeded by Betacam SP, its digital modifications and more recently by tapeless recording.
=== Legacy ===
The VHS format's defeat of the Betamax format became a classic marketing case study. Sony's attempt to dictate an industry standard backfired when JVC made the tactical decision to forgo Sony's offer of Betamax in favor of developing its own technology. JVC felt that accepting Sony's offer would yield results similar to the U-Matic deal, with Sony dominating.
By 1980, JVC's VHS format controlled 60% of the North American market. The large economy of scale allowed VHS units to be introduced to the European market at a far lower cost than the rarer Betamax units. In the United Kingdom, Betamax held a 25% market share in 1981, but by 1986, it was down to 7.5% and continued to decline further. By 1984, 40 companies made VHS format equipment in comparison with Beta's 12. Sony finally conceded defeat in 1988 when it, too, began producing VHS recorders (early models were made by Hitachi), though it still continued to produce Betamax recorders until 2002.
In Japan, Betamax had more success and eventually evolved into Extended Definition Betamax, with 500+ lines of resolution.
== Technical details ==
=== Comparison with other video formats ===
The heads on the drum of a Betamax VCR move across the tape producing a writing speed of 6.9 or 5.832 metres per second with the drum rotating at 1800 rpm (NTSC, 60 Hz) or 1500 rpm (PAL, 50 Hz), theoretically giving Betamax a higher bandwidth of 3.2 MHz, thus better video quality than VHS. The tape moves at 2 cm/sec (βII, 60 Hz), 1.33 cm/sec (βIII, 60 Hz) or 1.873 cm/sec (50 Hz). The original βI speed was 4 cm/sec.
Below is a list of modern, digital-style resolutions (and traditional analog "TV lines per picture height" measurements) for various media. The list only includes popular formats. Listed resolution applies to luminance only, with chroma resolution usually halved in each dimension for digital formats, and significantly lower for analog formats.
Equivalent pixel resolutions are calculated from analog line resolution numbers:
The somewhat unintuitive analog resolution loss for 16:9 DVD compared to 4:3 DVD arises because analog resolution unit is "lines per picture height". When picture height is kept the same, the same 720 pixels are spread to a wider area in 16:9, hence lower horizontal resolution per picture height.
=== Tape lengths ===
Both NTSC and PAL/SECAM Betamax cassettes are physically identical (although the signals recorded on the tape are incompatible). However, as tape speeds differ between NTSC and PAL/SECAM, the playing time for any given cassette will vary accordingly between the systems. Other unusual lengths were produced from time to time, such as L-410.
For NTSC only, βI is standard speed, βII is 1/2 speed, βIII is 1/3 speed.
== In popular culture ==
In the 1983 David Cronenberg film Videodrome, the character of Max Renn grows an opening in his belly that accepts Betamax videocassettes. The Betamax format was chosen because the cassettes were slightly smaller than VHS cassettes, and thus made the prosthetics easier to construct.
In the 2006 episode of Doctor Who entitled The Idiot’s Lantern, the Tenth Doctor beats the episode’s main enemy and entraps her for all eternity in a videotape he created thirty years too early as the episode is set in 1953. He shrugs off the effect it will have on the timelines as he calls it “just Betamax”.
In the Cowboy Bebop episode "Speak Like a Child", Jet and Spike receive a Beta tape in the mail intended for Faye. Jet and Spike visit a shop in hopes of finding a Betamax player, which they do, but it is subsequently damaged beyond repair by Spike’s impatience with the old device.
In the 2008 Pixar movie WALL-E, WALL-E watches some excerpts of the film Hello, Dolly! on what is presumed to be an old Betamax tape. However close inspection of the shot shows that it is really a BetacamSP cassette, which may be an error on the filmmakers' part.
The Tagalog song "Betamax" by the Filipino band Sandwich from their fifth studio album in 2008 entitled <S> Marks the Spot talks about an era in the Philippines before the advent of the Internet, MP3s, and DVDs, and the only widespread video format was Betamax. Also in the Philippines, Betamax refers to the popular cubed street food made of chicken or pork's blood served in skewers which bear a crude resemblance to Betamax cartridges.
In 2017, in Despicable Me 3, the villain Balthazar Bratt, whose look, culture, accessories and weapons date from the 80's, yells "Son of a Beta max" at his opponent Gru.
In 2019, episode 3, season 1 of Good Omens, a prophecy is mentioned from the book of Agnes Nutter book of prophecies saying: "Do not buy Betamax," and referring to the year 1972.
== See also ==
Betacam – Umatic's replacement. A non-compatible, high-quality standard used by television studios and other professionals
DigiBeta – Betacam's replacement. A non-compatible, digital high-quality standard used by television studios and other professionals
Compact Video Cassette – Competitor product developed by Funai and Technicolor using 1⁄4″ tape format
Peep search – A picture search system pioneered with Betamax and available on most video formats since
U-matic – The predecessor to Betamax, using 3⁄4-inch tape instead of 1⁄2-inch
Video8 – A small form factor tape based upon Betamax technology, using 8 mm tape
Videotape format war - With research firm Enterprise Strategy Group announcing that VHS won over Betamax due to its more open format
== References ==
== External links ==
The Ultimate Betamax Info Guide – covering the Betamax format in the North American market
Mister Betamax – extensive Beta supply site
Betamax PALsite – over 350 pages of Betamax information, running since 1997
The 'Total Rewind' VCR museum – covering Betamax and other vintage formats
The Betamax format in the UK, including technical information on servicing Beta machines Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
"Daily Giz Wiz" Podcast discussing the Betamax
The Rise and Fall of Beta by Marc Wielage and Rod Woodcock
Betamax at the Museum of Obsolete Media |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/216433_Milianleo | 216433 Milianleo | 216433 Milianleo (provisional designation 2009 DM3) is an Aeolia asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) in diameter. It was discovered 19 February 2009, by German amateur astronomer Erwin Schwab using a remote-controlled telescope at Tzec Maun Observatory (H10) in Mayhill, New Mexico, United States. The asteroid was named after the discoverer's son, Milian Leo Schwab.
== Orbit and classification ==
Milianleo is an attributed member of the Aeolia family (508), a small asteroid family that has fewer than 300 known members. The family is named after its parent body and largest member, 396 Aeolia. Milianleo orbits the Sun in the central main asteroid belt at a distance of 2.4–3.1 Astronomical units (AU), completing its orbit once every 4 years and 6 months (1,658 days; semi-major axis of 2.74 AU). It has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 3° with respect to the ecliptic. It was first observed as 2000 GE16 at Lincoln Laboratory ETS in 2000, extending the body's observation arc by 9 years prior to its official discovery at Tzec Maun.
On 25 December 2098, Milianleo is expected to pass 4,449,642 kilometers from the asteroid 704 Interamnia. It will pass it at a relative velocity of 7.12 kilometers per second.
== Physical characteristics ==
Milianleo is likely an X-type asteroid, based on its membership to the Aeolia family. When using a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, it measures approximately 1.6 kilometers in diameter when using an absolute magnitude of 16.5 and an assumed visual geometric albedo of 0.17—these values are derived from the Aeolia family's parent body. As of 2018, no rotational lightcurve of Milianleo has been obtained from photometric observations. The body's rotation period, pole and shape remain unknown.
== Naming ==
This minor planet was named after Milian Leo Schwab, the first-born son of German amateur astronomer and discoverer Erwin Schwab. The naming approval citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 4 October 2009 (M.P.C. 67220).
== See also ==
Cloudcroft Observatory (V29), owned by the Tzec Maun Foundation
== References ==
== External links ==
Asteroid Milianleo, Erwin Schwab
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Google books
Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (215001)-(220000) – Minor Planet Center
216433 Milianleo at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info
216433 Milianleo at the JPL Small-Body Database |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama | Barack Obama | Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president. Obama previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and later worked as a community organizer in Chicago. In 1988, Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School, where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He became a civil rights attorney and an academic, teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. In 1996, Obama was elected to represent the 13th district in the Illinois Senate, a position he held until 2004, when he successfully ran for the U.S. Senate. In the 2008 presidential election, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, he was nominated by the Democratic Party for president. Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate and defeated Republican nominee John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin.
Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for efforts in international diplomacy, a decision which drew both criticism and praise. During his first term, his administration responded to the 2008 financial crisis with measures including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to address the Great Recession; a partial extension of the Bush tax cuts; legislation to reform health care; and the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a major financial regulation reform bill. Obama also appointed Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, the former being the first Hispanic American on the Supreme Court. Obama also oversaw the end of the Iraq War and ordered Operation Neptune Spear, the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, who was responsible for the September 11 attacks. He downplayed Bush's counterinsurgency model by expanding air strikes and making extensive use of special forces, while encouraging greater reliance on host-government militaries. Obama also ordered the 2011 military intervention in Libya to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, contributing to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
Obama defeated Republican opponent Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan in the 2012 presidential election. In his second term, Obama advocated for gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. He took steps to combat climate change by signing the Paris Agreement on climate change and an executive order to limit carbon emissions, and presided over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and other legislation passed in his first term. Obama initiated sanctions against Russia following its invasion in Ukraine and again after Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. He also ordered military intervention in Iraq in response to gains made by ISIL following the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (a nuclear agreement with Iran), and normalized relations with Cuba. The number of American soldiers in Afghanistan decreased during Obama's second term, though U.S. soldiers remained in the country throughout his presidency. Obama promoted inclusion for LGBT Americans, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to publicly support same-sex marriage.
Obama left office in 2017 with high approval ratings both within the United States and among foreign advisories. He continues to reside in Washington, D.C., and remains politically active, campaigning for candidates in various American elections, including in Biden's successful presidential bid in the 2020 presidential election. Outside of politics, Obama has published three books: Dreams from My Father (1995), The Audacity of Hope (2006), and A Promised Land (2020). His presidential library began construction in the South Side of Chicago in 2021. Historians and political scientists rank Obama highly in historical rankings of U.S. presidents.
== Early life and career ==
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the only president born outside the contiguous 48 states. He was born to an 18-year-old American mother and a 27-year-old Kenyan father. His mother, Ann Dunham (1942–1995), was born in Wichita, Kansas, and was of English, Welsh, German, Swiss, and Irish descent. In 2007 it was discovered her great-great-grandfather Falmouth Kearney emigrated from the village of Moneygall, Ireland to the U.S. in 1850. In July 2012, Ancestry.com found a strong likelihood that Dunham was descended from John Punch, an enslaved African man who lived in the Colony of Virginia during the seventeenth century. Obama has described the ancestors of his grandparents as Scotch-Irish mostly. Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr. (1934–1982), was a married Luo Kenyan from Nyang'oma Kogelo. His last name, Obama, was derived from his Luo descent. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on a scholarship. The couple married in Wailuku, Hawaii, on February 2, 1961, six months before Obama was born.
In late August 1961, a few weeks after he was born, Barack and his mother moved to the University of Washington in Seattle, where they lived for a year. During that time, Barack's father completed his undergraduate degree in economics in Hawaii, graduating in June 1962. He left to attend graduate school on a scholarship at Harvard University, where he earned a Master of Arts in economics. Obama's parents divorced in March 1964. Obama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1964, where he married for a third time and worked for the Kenyan government as the senior economic analyst in the Ministry of Finance. He visited his son in Hawaii only once, at Christmas 1971, before he was killed in an automobile accident in 1982, when Obama was 21 years old. Recalling his early childhood, Obama said: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind." He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.
In 1963, Dunham met Lolo Soetoro at the University of Hawaiʻi; he was an Indonesian East–West Center graduate student in geography. The couple married on Molokai on March 15, 1965. After two one-year extensions of his J-1 visa, Lolo returned to Indonesia in 1966. His wife and stepson followed sixteen months later in 1967. The family initially lived in the Menteng Dalam neighborhood in the Tebet district of South Jakarta. From 1970, they lived in a wealthier neighborhood in the Menteng district of Central Jakarta.
=== Education ===
When he was six years old, Obama and his mother had moved to Indonesia to join his stepfather. From age six to ten, he was registered in school as "Barry" and attended local Indonesian-language schools: Sekolah Dasar Katolik Santo Fransiskus Asisi (St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Elementary School) for two years and Sekolah Dasar Negeri Menteng 01 (State Elementary School Menteng 01) for one and a half years, supplemented by English-language Calvert School homeschooling by his mother. As a result of his four years in Jakarta, he was able to speak Indonesian fluently as a child. During his time in Indonesia, Obama's stepfather taught him to be resilient and gave him "a pretty hardheaded assessment of how the world works".
In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham. He attended Punahou School—a private college preparatory school—with the aid of a scholarship from fifth grade until he graduated from high school in 1979. In high school, Obama continued to use the nickname "Barry" which he kept until making a visit to Kenya in 1980. Obama lived with his mother and half-sister, Maya Soetoro, in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Hawaii. Obama chose to stay in Hawaii when his mother and half-sister returned to Indonesia in 1975, so his mother could begin anthropology field work. His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo Soetoro in 1980 and earning a PhD degree in 1992, before dying in 1995 in Hawaii following unsuccessful treatment for ovarian and uterine cancer.
Of his years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered — to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect — became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear." Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind". Obama was also a member of the "Choom Gang" (the slang term for smoking marijuana), a self-named group of friends who spent time together and smoked marijuana.
College and research jobs
After graduating from high school in 1979, Obama moved to Los Angeles to attend Occidental College on a full scholarship. In February 1981, Obama made his first public speech, calling for Occidental to participate in the disinvestment from South Africa in response to that nation's policy of apartheid. In mid-1981, Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and half-sister Maya and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan for three weeks. Later in 1981, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City as a junior, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations and in English literature and lived off-campus on West 109th Street. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1983 and a 3.7 GPA. After graduating, Obama worked for about a year at the Business International Corporation, where he was a financial researcher and writer, then as a project coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group on the City College of New York campus for three months in 1985.
Community organizer and Harvard Law School
Two years after graduating from Columbia, Obama moved from New York to Chicago when he was hired as director of the Developing Communities Project, a faith-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale on Chicago's South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988. He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens. Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute. In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.
Despite being offered a full scholarship to Northwestern University School of Law, Obama enrolled at Harvard Law School in the fall of 1988, living in nearby Somerville, Massachusetts. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year, president of the journal in his second year, and research assistant to the constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe while at Harvard. During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as a summer associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990. Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations, which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father. Obama graduated from Harvard Law in 1991 with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude.
University of Chicago Law School
In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book. He then taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years, first as a lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and then as a senior lecturer from 1996 to 2004.
From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois's Project Vote, a voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.
=== Family and personal life ===
In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations," he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher." Obama has a half-sister with whom he was raised (Maya Soetoro-Ng) and seven other half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family, six of them living. Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham, until her death on November 2, 2008, two days before his election to the presidency. Obama also has roots in Ireland; he met with his Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011. In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He also shares distant ancestors in common with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, among others.
Obama lived with anthropologist Sheila Miyoshi Jager while he was a community organizer in Chicago in the 1980s. He proposed to her twice, but both Jager and her parents turned him down. The relationship was not made public until May 2017, several months after his presidency had ended.
In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed at Sidley Austin. Robinson was assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, and she joined him at several group social functions but declined his initial requests to date. They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992. After suffering a miscarriage, Michelle underwent in vitro fertilization to conceive their children. The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born in 1998, followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), in 2001. The Obama daughters attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the Sidwell Friends School. The Obamas had two Portuguese Water Dogs; the first, a male named Bo, was a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy. In 2013, Bo was joined by Sunny, a female. Bo died of cancer on May 8, 2021.
Obama is a supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and he threw out the first pitch at the 2005 ALCS when he was still a senator. In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the All-Star Game while wearing a White Sox jacket. He is also primarily a Chicago Bears football fan in the NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and rooted for them ahead of their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took office as president. In 2011, Obama invited the 1985 Chicago Bears to the White House; the team had not visited the White House after their Super Bowl win in 1986 due to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team, and he is left-handed.
In 2005, the Obama family applied the proceeds of a book deal and moved from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house (equivalent to $2.6 million in 2024) in neighboring Kenwood, Chicago. The purchase of an adjacent lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor and friend Tony Rezko—attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were unrelated to Obama.
In December 2007, Money Magazine estimated Obama's net worth at $1.3 million (equivalent to $2 million in 2024). Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of $5.5 million—up from about $4.2 million in 2007 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books. On his 2010 income of $1.7 million, he gave 14 percent to non-profit organizations, including $131,000 to Fisher House Foundation, a charity assisting wounded veterans' families, allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments. Per his 2012 financial disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10 million.
=== Religious views ===
Obama is a Protestant Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life. He wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he "was not raised in a religious household." He described his mother, raised by non-religious parents, as being detached from religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person ... I have ever known", and "a lonely witness for secular humanism." He described his father as a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful." Obama explained how, through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand "the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change."
In January 2008, Obama told Christianity Today: "I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that faith gives me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life." On September 27, 2010, Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views, saying:
I'm a Christian by choice. My family didn't—frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers' and sisters' keeper, treating others as they would treat me.
Obama met Trinity United Church of Christ pastor Jeremiah Wright in October 1987 and became a member of Trinity in 1992. During Obama's first presidential campaign in May 2008, he resigned from Trinity after some of Wright's statements were criticized. Since moving to Washington, D.C., in 2009, the Obama family has attended several Protestant churches, including Shiloh Baptist Church and St. John's Episcopal Church, as well as Evergreen Chapel at Camp David, but the members of the family do not attend church on a regular basis.
In 2016, Obama said that he gets inspiration from a few items that remind him "of all the different people I've met along the way", adding: "I carry these around all the time. I'm not that superstitious, so it's not like I think I necessarily have to have them on me at all times." The items, "a whole bowl full", include rosary beads given to him by Pope Francis, a figurine of the Hindu deity Hanuman, a Coptic cross from Ethiopia, a small Buddha statue given by a monk, and a metal poker chip that used to be the lucky charm of a motorcyclist in Iowa.
== Legal career ==
From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago—which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project—and of the Joyce Foundation. He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999. Obama's law license became inactive in 2007.
== Legislative career ==
=== Illinois Senate (1997–2004) ===
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding Democratic state senator Alice Palmer from Illinois's 13th District, which, at that time, spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park–Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn. Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican governor George Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.
He was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the general election, and was re-elected again in 2002. In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary race for Illinois's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority. He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained, and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations. During his 2004 general election campaign for the U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms. Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.
=== 2004 U.S. Senate campaign in Illinois ===
In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U.S. Senate race. He created a campaign committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.
Obama was an early opponent of the George W. Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq. On October 2, 2002, the day President Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War, Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally, and spoke out against the war. He addressed another anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd "it's not too late" to stop the war.
Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun not to participate in the election resulted in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving 15 candidates. In the March 2004 primary election, Obama won in an unexpected landslide—which overnight made him a rising star within the national Democratic Party, started speculation about a presidential future, and led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father. In July 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, seen by nine million viewers. His speech was well received and elevated his status within the Democratic Party.
Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004. Six weeks later, Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan. In the November 2004 general election, Obama won with 70 percent of the vote, the largest margin of victory for a Senate candidate in Illinois history. He took 92 of the state's 102 counties, including several where Democrats traditionally do not perform well.
=== U.S. Senate (2005–2008) ===
Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 3, 2005, becoming the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus. He introduced two initiatives that bore his name: Lugar–Obama, which expanded the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction concept to conventional weapons; and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov, a web search engine on federal spending. On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama—along with Senators Tom Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain—introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008. He also cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.
In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor. In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007.
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military discharges. This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008. He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, which was never enacted but later incorporated in the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010; and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism. Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.
Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works, and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006. In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. He met with Mahmoud Abbas before Abbas became President of the Palestinian National Authority and gave a speech at the University of Nairobi in which he condemned corruption within the Kenyan government. Obama resigned his Senate seat on November 16, 2008, to focus on his transition period for the presidency.
== Presidential campaigns ==
=== 2008 presidential candidacy ===
On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois. The choice of the announcement site was viewed as symbolic, as it was also where Abraham Lincoln delivered his "House Divided" speech in 1858. Obama emphasized issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and reforming the health care system.
Numerous candidates entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. The field narrowed to Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton after early contests, with the race remaining close throughout the primary process, but Obama gained a steady lead in pledged delegates due to better long-range planning, superior fundraising, dominant organizing in caucus states, and better exploitation of delegate allocation rules.
On June 2, 2008, Obama had received enough votes to clinch his nomination. After an initial hesitation to concede, on June 7, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama. On August 23, 2008, Obama announced his selection of Delaware senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate. Obama selected Biden from a field speculated to include former Indiana governor and senator Evan Bayh and Virginia governor Tim Kaine. At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Hillary Clinton called for her supporters to endorse Obama, and she and Bill Clinton gave convention speeches in his support. Obama delivered his acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High stadium to a crowd of about eighty-four thousand; the speech was viewed by over three million people worldwide. During both the primary process and the general election, Obama's campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations. On June 19, 2008, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.
John McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate, and he selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. Obama and McCain engaged in three presidential debates in September and October 2008. On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by McCain. Obama won 52.9 percent of the popular vote to McCain's 45.7 percent. He became the first African-American to be elected president. Obama delivered his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago's Grant Park. He is one of the three United States senators moved directly from the U.S. Senate to the White House, the others being Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy.
=== 2012 presidential candidacy ===
On April 4, 2011, Obama filed election papers with the Federal Election Commission and then announced his reelection campaign for 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website. As the incumbent president, he ran virtually unopposed in the Democratic Party presidential primaries, and on April 3, 2012, Obama secured the 2778 convention delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, Obama and Joe Biden were formally nominated by former president Bill Clinton as the Democratic Party candidates for president and vice president in the general election. Their main opponents were Republicans Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
On November 6, 2012, Obama won 332 electoral votes, exceeding the 270 required for him to be reelected as president. With 51.1 percent of the popular vote, Obama became the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win the majority of the popular vote twice. Obama addressed supporters and volunteers at Chicago's McCormick Place after his reelection and said: "Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties."
== Presidency (2009–2017) ==
=== First 100 days ===
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president took place on January 20, 2009. In his first few days in office, Obama issued executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U.S. military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq. He ordered the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, but Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the required funds and preventing moving any Guantanamo detainee. Obama reduced the secrecy given to presidential records. He also revoked President George W. Bush's restoration of President Ronald Reagan's Mexico City policy which prohibited federal aid to international family planning organizations that perform or provide counseling about abortion.
=== Domestic policy ===
The first bill signed into law by Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits. Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover an additional four million uninsured children. In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy that had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research and pledged to develop "strict guidelines" on the research.
Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first two years of his presidency. He nominated Sonia Sotomayor on May 26, 2009, to replace retiring associate justice David Souter. She was confirmed on August 6, 2009, becoming the first Supreme Court Justice of Hispanic descent. Obama nominated Elena Kagan on May 10, 2010, to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens. She was confirmed on August 5, 2010, bringing the number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to three for the first time in American history.
On March 11, 2009, Obama created the White House Council on Women and Girls, which formed part of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, having been established by Executive Order 13506 with a broad mandate to advise him on issues relating to the welfare of American women and girls. The council was chaired by Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett. Obama also established the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault through a government memorandum on January 22, 2014, with a broad mandate to advise him on issues relating to sexual assault on college and university campuses throughout the United States. The co-chairs of the Task Force were Vice President Joe Biden and Jarrett. The Task Force was a development out of the White House Council on Women and Girls and Office of the Vice President of the United States, and prior to that the 1994 Violence Against Women Act first drafted by Biden.
In July 2009, Obama launched the Priority Enforcement Program, an immigration enforcement program that had been pioneered by George W. Bush, and the Secure Communities fingerprinting and immigration status data-sharing program.
In a major space policy speech in April 2010, Obama announced a planned change in direction at NASA, the U.S. space agency. He ended plans for a return of human spaceflight to the moon and development of the Ares I rocket, Ares V rocket and Constellation program, in favor of funding earth science projects, a new rocket type, research and development for an eventual crewed mission to Mars, and ongoing missions to the International Space Station.
On January 16, 2013, one month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Obama signed 23 executive orders and outlined a series of sweeping proposals regarding gun control. He urged Congress to reintroduce an expired ban on military-style assault weapons, such as those used in several recent mass shootings, impose limits on ammunition magazines to 10 rounds, introduce background checks on all gun sales, pass a ban on possession and sale of armor-piercing bullets, introduce harsher penalties for gun-traffickers, especially unlicensed dealers who buy arms for criminals and approving the appointment of the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for the first time since 2006. On January 5, 2016, Obama announced new executive actions extending background check requirements to more gun sellers. In a 2016 editorial in The New York Times, Obama compared the struggle for what he termed "common-sense gun reform" to women's suffrage and other civil rights movements in American history.
In 2011, Obama signed a four-year renewal of the Patriot Act. Following the 2013 global surveillance disclosures by whistleblower Edward Snowden, Obama condemned the leak as unpatriotic, but called for increased restrictions on the National Security Agency (NSA) to address violations of privacy. Obama continued and expanded surveillance programs set up by George W. Bush, while implementing some reforms. He supported legislation that would have limited the NSA's ability to collect phone records in bulk under a single program and supported bringing more transparency to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).
==== Racial issues ====
In his speeches as president, Obama did not make more overt references to race relations than his predecessors, but according to one study, he implemented stronger policy action on behalf of African-Americans than any president since the Nixon era.
Following Obama's election, many pondered the existence of a "post-racial America". However, lingering racial tensions quickly became apparent, and many African-Americans expressed outrage over what they saw as an intense racial animosity directed at Obama. The acquittal of George Zimmerman following the killing of Trayvon Martin sparked national outrage, leading to Obama giving a speech in which he said that "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago." The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked a wave of protests. These and other events led to the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement, which campaigns against violence and systemic racism toward black people. Though Obama entered office reluctant to talk about race, by 2014 he began openly discussing the disadvantages faced by many members of minority groups.
Several incidents during Obama's presidency generated disapproval from the African-American community and with law enforcement, and Obama sought to build trust between law enforcement officials and civil rights activists, with mixed results. Some in law enforcement criticized Obama's condemnation of racial bias after incidents in which police action led to the death of African-American men, while some racial justice activists criticized Obama's expressions of empathy for the police. In a March 2016 Gallup poll, nearly one third of Americans said they worried "a great deal" about race relations, a higher figure than in any previous Gallup poll since 2001.
==== LGBT rights ====
On October 8, 2009, Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expanded the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. On October 30, 2009, Obama lifted the ban on travel to the United States by those infected with HIV. The lifting of the ban was celebrated by Immigration Equality. On December 22, 2010, Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, which fulfilled a promise made in the 2008 presidential campaign to end the don't ask, don't tell policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and lesbian people from serving openly in the United States Armed Forces. In 2016, the Pentagon ended the policy that barred transgender people from serving openly in the military.
===== Same-sex marriage =====
As a candidate for the Illinois state senate in 1996, Obama stated he favored legalizing same-sex marriage. During his Senate run in 2004, he said he supported civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex partners but opposed same-sex marriages. In 2008, he reaffirmed this position by stating "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage." On May 9, 2012, shortly after the official launch of his campaign for re-election as president, Obama said his views had evolved, and he publicly affirmed his personal support for the legalization of same-sex marriage, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to do so. During his second inaugural address on January 21, 2013, Obama became the first U.S. president in office to call for full equality for gay Americans, and the first to mention gay rights or the word "gay" in an inaugural address. In 2013, the Obama administration filed briefs that urged the Supreme Court to rule in favor of same-sex couples in the cases of Hollingsworth v. Perry (regarding same-sex marriage) and United States v. Windsor (regarding the Defense of Marriage Act).
==== Economic policy ====
On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion (equivalent to $1153 billion in 2024) economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession. The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals. In March 2009, Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, took further steps to manage the 2008 financial crisis, including introducing the Public–Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets, which contains provisions for buying up to $2 trillion in depreciated real estate assets.
Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry in March 2009, renewing loans for General Motors (GM) and Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing. Over the following months the White House set terms for both firms' bankruptcies, including the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat and a reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60 percent equity stake in the company. In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment. He signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", which temporarily boosted the economy.
The Bush and Obama administrations authorized spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury. These guarantees totaled about $11.5 trillion, but only $3 trillion had been spent by the end of November 2009. On August 2, 2011, after a lengthy congressional debate over whether to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011. The legislation enforced limits on discretionary spending until 2021, established a procedure to increase the debt limit, created a Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to propose further deficit reduction with a stated goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years, and established automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as $1.2 trillion if legislation originating with the new joint select committee did not achieve such savings. By passing the legislation, Congress was able to prevent a U.S. government default on its obligations.
The unemployment rate rose in 2009, reaching a peak in October at 10.0 percent and averaging 10.0 percent in the fourth quarter. Following a decrease to 9.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate fell to 9.6 percent in the second quarter, where it remained for the rest of the year. Between February and December 2010, employment rose by 0.8 percent, which was less than the average of 1.9 percent experienced during comparable periods in the past four employment recoveries. By November 2012, the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, decreasing to 6.7 percent in the last month of 2013. During 2014, the unemployment rate continued to decline, falling to 6.3 percent in the first quarter. GDP growth returned in the third quarter of 2009, expanding at a rate of 1.6 percent, followed by a 5.0 percent increase in the fourth quarter. Growth continued in 2010, posting an increase of 3.7 percent in the first quarter, with lesser gains throughout the rest of the year. In July 2010, the Federal Reserve noted that economic activity continued to increase, but its pace had slowed, and chairman Ben Bernanke said the economic outlook was "unusually uncertain". Overall, the economy expanded at a rate of 2.9 percent in 2010.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and a broad range of economists credit Obama's stimulus plan for economic growth. The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2.1 million, while conceding that "it is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package." Although an April 2010, survey of members of the National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in job creation (over a similar January survey) for the first time in two years, 73 percent of 68 respondents believed the stimulus bill has had no impact on employment. The economy of the United States has grown faster than the other original NATO members by a wider margin under President Obama than it has anytime since the end of World War II. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development credits the much faster growth in the United States to the stimulus plan of the U.S. and the austerity measures in the European Union.
Within a month of the 2010 midterm elections, Obama announced a compromise deal with the Congressional Republican leadership that included a temporary, two-year extension of the 2001 and 2003 income tax rates, a one-year payroll tax reduction, continuation of unemployment benefits, and a new rate and exemption amount for estate taxes. The compromise overcame opposition from some in both parties, and the resulting $858 billion (equivalent to $1.2 trillion in 2024) Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 passed with bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress before Obama signed it on December 17, 2010.
In December 2013, Obama declared that growing income inequality is a "defining challenge of our time" and called on Congress to bolster the safety net and raise wages. This came on the heels of the nationwide strikes of fast-food workers and Pope Francis' criticism of inequality and trickle-down economics. Obama urged Congress to ratify a 12-nation free trade pact called the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
==== Environmental policy ====
On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an offshore drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a major sustained oil leak. Obama visited the Gulf, announced a federal investigation, and formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards, after a review by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and concurrent Congressional hearings. He then announced a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory review. As multiple efforts by BP failed, some in the media and public expressed confusion and criticism over various aspects of the incident, and stated a desire for more involvement by Obama and the federal government. Prior to the oil spill, on March 31, 2010, Obama ended a ban on oil and gas drilling along the majority of the East Coast of the United States and along the coast of northern Alaska in an effort to win support for an energy and climate bill and to reduce foreign imports of oil and gas.
In July 2013, Obama expressed reservations and said he "would reject the Keystone XL pipeline if it increased carbon pollution [or] greenhouse emissions." On February 24, 2015, Obama vetoed a bill that would have authorized the pipeline. It was the third veto of Obama's presidency and his first major veto.
In December 2016, Obama permanently banned new offshore oil and gas drilling in most United States-owned waters in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans using the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Act.
Obama emphasized the conservation of federal lands during his term in office. He used his power under the Antiquities Act to create 25 new national monuments during his presidency and expand four others, protecting a total of 553,000,000 acres (224,000,000 ha) of federal lands and waters, more than any other U.S. president.
==== Health care reform ====
Obama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top legislative goal. He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, cap premium increases, and allow people to retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs. His proposal was to spend $900 billion over ten years and include a government insurance plan, also known as the public option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care. It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for pre-existing conditions, and require every American to carry health coverage. The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that offer expensive plans.
On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,017-page plan for overhauling the U.S. health care system, which Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of 2009. After public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009, Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he addressed concerns over the proposals. In March 2009, Obama lifted a ban on using federal funds for stem cell research.
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House. On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of 60–39. On March 21, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, colloquially "Obamacare") passed by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212. Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010.
The ACA includes health-related provisions, most of which took effect in 2014, including expanding Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) starting in 2014, subsidizing insurance premiums for people making up to 400 percent of the FPL ($88,000 for family of four in 2010) so their maximum "out-of-pocket" payment for annual premiums will be from 2 percent to 9.5 percent of income, providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, prohibiting annual coverage caps, and support for medical research. According to White House and CBO figures, the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay would vary depending on their income relative to the federal poverty level.
The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for those in high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies; there is also a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health insurance, unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons. In March 2010, the CBO estimated that the net effect of both laws will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the first decade.
The law faced several legal challenges, primarily based on the argument that an individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance was unconstitutional. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5–4 vote in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the mandate was constitutional under the U.S. Congress's taxing authority. In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby the Court ruled that "closely-held" for-profit corporations could be exempt on religious grounds under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act from regulations adopted under the ACA that would have required them to pay for insurance that covered certain contraceptives. In June 2015, the Court ruled 6–3 in King v. Burwell that subsidies to help individuals and families purchase health insurance were authorized for those doing so on both the federal exchange and state exchanges, not only those purchasing plans "established by the State", as the statute reads.
=== Foreign policy ===
In February and March 2009, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made separate overseas trips to announce a "new era" in U.S. foreign relations with Russia and Europe, using the terms "break" and "reset" to signal major changes from the policies of the preceding administration. Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab satellite TV network, Al Arabiya. On March 19, Obama continued his outreach to the Muslim world, releasing a New Year's video message to the people and government of Iran. On June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt calling for "A New Beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace. On June 26, 2009, Obama condemned the Iranian government's actions towards protesters following Iran's 2009 presidential election.
In 2011, Obama ordered a drone strike in Yemen which targeted and killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American imam suspected of being a leading Al-Qaeda organizer. al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen to be targeted and killed by a U.S. drone strike. The Department of Justice released a memo justifying al-Awlaki's death as a lawful act of war, while civil liberties advocates described it as a violation of al-Awlaki's constitutional right to due process. The killing led to significant controversy. His teenage son and young daughter, also Americans, were later killed in separate U.S. military actions, although they were not targeted specifically.
In March 2015, Obama declared that he had authorized U.S. forces to provide logistical and intelligence support to the Saudis in their military intervention in Yemen, establishing a "Joint Planning Cell" with Saudi Arabia. In 2016, the Obama administration proposed a series of arms deals with Saudi Arabia worth $115 billion. Obama halted the sale of guided munition technology to Saudi Arabia after Saudi warplanes targeted a funeral in Yemen's capital Sanaa, killing more than 140 people.
In September 2016 Obama was snubbed by Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party as he descended from Air Force One to the tarmac of Hangzhou International Airport for the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit without the usual red carpet welcome.
==== War in Iraq ====
On February 27, 2009, Obama announced that combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months. The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010, decreasing troop's levels from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of about 50,000 in Iraq until the end of 2011. On August 19, 2010, the last U.S. combat brigade exited Iraq. Remaining troops transitioned from combat operations to counter-terrorism and the training, equipping, and advising of Iraqi security forces. On August 31, 2010, Obama announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over. On October 21, 2011, President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq in time to be "home for the holidays."
In June 2014, following the capture of Mosul by ISIL, Obama sent 275 troops to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. ISIS continued to gain ground and to commit widespread massacres and ethnic cleansing. In August 2014, during the Sinjar massacre, Obama ordered a campaign of U.S. airstrikes against ISIL. By the end of 2014, 3,100 American ground troops were committed to the conflict and 16,000 sorties were flown over the battlefield, primarily by U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots. In early 2015, with the addition of the "Panther Brigade" of the 82nd Airborne Division the number of U.S. ground troops in Iraq increased to 4,400, and by July American-led coalition air forces counted 44,000 sorties over the battlefield.
==== Afghanistan and Pakistan ====
In his election campaign, Obama called the war in Iraq a "dangerous distraction" and that emphasis should instead be put on the war in Afghanistan, the region he cites as being most likely where an attack against the United States could be launched again. Early in his presidency, Obama moved to bolster U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan. He announced an increase in U.S. troop levels to 17,000 military personnel in February 2009 to "stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan", an area he said had not received the "strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires." He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan, General David D. McKiernan, with former Special Forces commander Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal's Special Forces experience would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency tactics in the war. On December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan and proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date; this took place in July 2011. David Petraeus replaced McChrystal in June 2010, after McChrystal's staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine article. In February 2013, Obama said the U.S. military would reduce the troop level in Afghanistan from 68,000 to 34,000 U.S. troops by February 2014. In October 2015, the White House announced a plan to keep U.S. Forces in Afghanistan indefinitely in light of the deteriorating security situation.
Regarding neighboring Pakistan, Obama called its tribal border region the "greatest threat" to the security of Afghanistan and Americans, saying that he "cannot tolerate a terrorist sanctuary." In the same speech, Obama claimed that the U.S. "cannot succeed in Afghanistan or secure our homeland unless we change our Pakistan policy."
===== Death of Osama bin Laden =====
Starting with information received from Central Intelligence Agency operatives in July 2010, the CIA developed intelligence over the next several months that determined what they believed to be the hideout of Osama bin Laden. He was living in seclusion in a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35 miles (56 km) from Islamabad. CIA head Leon Panetta reported this intelligence to President Obama in March 2011. Meeting with his national security advisers over the course of the next six weeks, Obama rejected a plan to bomb the compound, and authorized a "surgical raid" to be conducted by United States Navy SEALs. The operation took place on May 1, 2011, and resulted in the shooting death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers, computer drives and disks from the compound. DNA testing was one of five methods used to positively identify bin Laden's corpse, which was buried at sea several hours later. Within minutes of the President's announcement from Washington, DC, late in the evening on May 1, there were spontaneous celebrations around the country as crowds gathered outside the White House, and at New York City's Ground Zero and Times Square. Reaction to the announcement was positive across party lines, including from former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
==== Relations with Cuba ====
Since the spring of 2013, secret meetings were conducted between the United States and Cuba in the neutral locations of Canada and Vatican City. The Vatican first became involved in 2013 when Pope Francis advised the U.S. and Cuba to exchange prisoners as a gesture of goodwill. On December 10, 2013, Cuban President Raúl Castro, in a significant public moment, greeted and shook hands with Obama at the Nelson Mandela memorial service in Johannesburg.
In December 2014, after the secret meetings, it was announced that Obama, with Pope Francis as an intermediary, had negotiated a restoration of relations with Cuba, after nearly sixty years of détente. Popularly dubbed the Cuban Thaw, The New Republic deemed the Cuban Thaw to be "Obama's finest foreign policy achievement." On July 1, 2015, President Obama announced that formal diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States would resume, and embassies would be opened in Washington and Havana. The countries' respective "interests sections" in one another's capitals were upgraded to embassies on July 20 and August 13, 2015, respectively. Obama visited Havana, Cuba for two days in March 2016, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to arrive since Calvin Coolidge in 1928.
==== Israel ====
During the initial years of the Obama administration, the U.S. increased military cooperation with Israel, including increased military aid, re-establishment of the U.S.–Israeli Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group, and an increase in visits among high-level military officials of both countries. The Obama administration asked Congress to allocate money toward funding the Iron Dome program in response to the waves of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. In March 2010, Obama took a public stance against plans by the government of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, with the United States being the only nation to do so. Obama supports the two-state solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.
In 2013, Jeffrey Goldberg reported that, in Obama's view, "with each new settlement announcement, Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation." In 2014, Obama likened the Zionist movement to the civil rights movement in the United States. He said both movements seek to bring justice and equal rights to historically persecuted peoples, explaining: "To me, being pro-Israel and pro-Jewish is part and parcel with the values that I've been fighting for since I was politically conscious and started getting involved in politics." Obama expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. In 2015, Obama was harshly criticized by Israel for advocating and signing the Iran Nuclear Deal; Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had advocated the U.S. congress to oppose it, said the deal was "dangerous" and "bad."
On December 23, 2016, under the Obama administration, the United States abstained from United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories as a violation of international law, effectively allowing it to pass. Netanyahu strongly criticized the Obama administration's actions, and the Israeli government withdrew its annual dues from the organization, which totaled $6 million, on January 6, 2017. On January 5, 2017, the United States House of Representatives voted 342–80 to condemn the UN Resolution.
==== Libya ====
In February 2011, protests in Libya began against long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi as part of the Arab Spring. They soon turned violent. In March, as forces loyal to Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya, calls for a no-fly zone came from around the world, including Europe, the Arab League, and a resolution passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. In response to the passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17, the Foreign Minister of Libya Moussa Koussa announced a ceasefire. However Gaddafi's forces continued to attack the rebels.
On March 19, a multinational coalition led by France and the United Kingdom with Italian and U.S. support, approved by Obama, took part in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government's air defense capabilities to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone, including the use of Tomahawk missiles, B-2 Spirits, and fighter jets. Six days later, on March 25, by unanimous vote of all its 28 members, NATO took over leadership of the effort, dubbed Operation Unified Protector. Some members of Congress questioned whether Obama had the constitutional authority to order military action in addition to questioning its cost, structure and aftermath. In 2016 Obama said "Our coalition could have and should have done more to fill a vacuum left behind" and that it was "a mess". He has stated that the lack of preparation surrounding the days following the government's overthrow was the "worst mistake" of his presidency.
==== Syrian civil war ====
On August 18, 2011, several months after the start of the Syrian civil war, Obama issued a written statement that said: "The time has come for President Assad to step aside." This stance was reaffirmed in November 2015. In 2012, Obama authorized multiple programs run by the CIA and the Pentagon to train anti-Assad rebels. The Pentagon-run program was later found to have failed and was formally abandoned in October 2015.
In the wake of a chemical weapons attack in Syria, formally blamed by the Obama administration on the Assad government, Obama chose not to enforce the "red line" he had pledged and, rather than authorize the promised military action against Assad, went along with the Russia-brokered deal that led to Assad giving up chemical weapons; however attacks with chlorine gas continued. In 2014, Obama authorized an air campaign aimed primarily at ISIL.
==== Iran nuclear talks ====
On October 1, 2009, the Obama administration went ahead with a Bush administration program, increasing nuclear weapons production. The "Complex Modernization" initiative expanded two existing nuclear sites to produce new bomb parts. In November 2013, the Obama administration opened negotiations with Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, which included an interim agreement. Negotiations took two years with numerous delays, with a deal being announced on July 14, 2015. The deal titled the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action" saw sanctions removed in exchange for measures that would prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons. While Obama hailed the agreement as being a step towards a more hopeful world, the deal drew strong criticism from Republican and conservative quarters, and from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In addition, the transfer of $1.7 billion in cash to Iran shortly after the deal was announced was criticized by the Republican party. The Obama administration said that the payment in cash was because of the "effectiveness of U.S. and international sanctions." In order to advance the deal, the Obama administration shielded Hezbollah from the Drug Enforcement Administration's Project Cassandra investigation regarding drug smuggling and from the Central Intelligence Agency.
On a side note, the very same year, in December 2015, Obama started a $348 billion worth program to back the biggest U.S. buildup of nuclear arms since Ronald Reagan left the White House.
==== Russia ====
In March 2010, an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about a third. Obama and Medvedev signed the New START treaty in April 2010, and the U.S. Senate ratified it in December 2010. In December 2011, Obama instructed agencies to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries. In August 2013, he criticized Russia's law that discriminates against homosexual people, but he stopped short of advocating a boycott of the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
After Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014, military intervention in Syria in 2015, and the interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, George Robertson, a former UK defense secretary and NATO secretary-general, said Obama had "allowed Putin to jump back on the world stage and test the resolve of the West", adding that the legacy of this disaster would last.
== Post-presidency (2017–present) ==
Obama's presidency ended on January 20, 2017, upon the inauguration of his successor, Donald Trump. The family moved to a house they rented in Kalorama, Washington, D.C. On March 2, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum awarded the Profile in Courage Award to Obama "for his enduring commitment to democratic ideals and elevating the standard of political courage." His first public appearance since leaving the office was a seminar at the University of Chicago on April 24, where he appealed for a new generation to participate in politics. On September 7, Obama partnered with former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush to work with One America Appeal to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in the Gulf Coast and Texas communities. From October 31 to November 1, Obama hosted the inaugural summit of the Obama Foundation, which he intended to be the central focus of his post-presidency and part of his ambitions for his subsequent activities following his presidency to be more consequential than his time in office.
Barack and Michelle Obama signed a deal on May 22, 2018, to produce docu-series, documentaries and features for Netflix under the Obamas' newly formed production company, Higher Ground Productions. Higher Ground's first film, American Factory, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2020. On October 24, a pipe bomb addressed to Obama was intercepted by the Secret Service. It was one of several pipe-bombs that had been mailed out to Democratic lawmakers and officials. In 2019, Barack and Michelle Obama bought a home on Martha's Vineyard from Wyc Grousbeck. On October 29, Obama criticized "wokeness" and call-out culture at the Obama Foundation's annual summit.
Obama was reluctant to make an endorsement in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries because he wanted to position himself to unify the party, regardless of the nominee. On April 14, 2020, Obama endorsed his former vice president, Joe Biden, the presumptive nominee, for president in the presidential election, stating that he has "all the qualities we need in a president right now." In May, Obama criticized President Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling his response to the crisis "an absolute chaotic disaster", and stating that the consequences of the Trump presidency have been "our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before." On November 17, Obama's presidential memoir, A Promised Land, was released.
Obama and his wife attended the inauguration of Joe Biden in January 2021.
In February 2021, Obama and musician Bruce Springsteen started a podcast called Renegades: Born in the USA where the two talk about "their backgrounds, music and their 'enduring love of America.'" Later that year, Regina Hicks had signed a deal with Netflix, in a venture with his and Michelle's Higher Ground to develop comedy projects.
On March 4, 2022, Obama won an Audio Publishers Association (APA) Award in the best narration by the author category for the narration of his memoir A Promised Land. On April 5, Obama visited the White House for the first time since leaving office, in an event celebrating the 12th annual anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act. In June, it was announced that the Obamas and their podcast production company, Higher Ground, signed a multi-year deal with Audible. In September, Obama visited the White House to unveil his and Michelle's official White House portraits. Around the same time, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator for his narration in the Netflix documentary series Our Great National Parks.
In 2022, Obama opposed expanding the Supreme Court beyond the present nine Justices.
In March 2023, Obama traveled to Australia as a part of his speaking tour of the country. During the trip, Obama met with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and visited Melbourne for the first time. Obama was reportedly paid more than $1 million for two speeches.
In October 2023, during the Gaza war, Obama declared that Israel must dismantle Hamas in the wake of the Hamas-led attack on Israel. Weeks later, Obama warned Israel that its actions could "harden Palestinian attitudes for generations" and weaken international support for Israel; any military strategy that ignored the war's human costs "could ultimately backfire."
In July 2024, Obama expressed concerns about Biden's campaign viability after his critically maligned debate performance against former president Trump. On July 21, Biden withdrew his candidacy and swiftly endorsed Vice President Harris right after to run as the Democratic nominee. Obama endorsed Harris alongside his wife Michelle five days later and delivered a speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention formally endorsing her. He joined Harris on the campaign trail in October, traveling to various swing states and emphasizing her record as a prosecutor, senator, and vice president and advocating for increased voter turnout, and his criticisms of Donald Trump and the Republican Party were widely reported by various media outlets. After Trump was declared the winner of the election on November 6, Obama and Michelle congratulated him and Vice President–elect JD Vance while praising the Harris campaign and calling on liberal voters to continue supporting democracy and human rights.
Obama attended the second inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2025.
== Cultural and political image ==
Obama's family history, upbringing, and Ivy League education differ markedly from those of African-American politicians who rose to prominence in the 1960s through their involvement in the civil rights movement. Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough", Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that "we're still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong." Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, remarking: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation." Obama has frequently been referred to as an exceptional orator. During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama delivered a series of weekly video addresses on YouTube.
=== Job approval ===
According to the Gallup Organization, Obama began his presidency with a 68 percent approval rating, the fifth highest for a president following their swearing in. His ratings remained above the majority level until November 2009 and by August 2010 his approval was in the low 40s, a trend similar to Ronald Reagan's and Bill Clinton's first years in office. Following the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011, Obama experienced a small poll bounce and steadily maintained 50–53 percent approval for about a month, until his approval numbers dropped back to the low 40s.
His approval rating fell to 38 percent on several occasions in late 2011 before recovering in mid-2012 with polls showing an average approval of 50 percent. After his second inauguration in 2013, Obama's approval ratings remained stable around 52 percent before declining for the rest of the year and eventually bottoming out at 39 percent in December. In polling conducted before the 2014 midterm elections, Obama's approval ratings were at their lowest with his disapproval rating reaching a high of 57 percent. His approval rating continued to lag throughout most of 2015 but began to reach the high 40s by the end of the year. According to Gallup, Obama's approval rating reached 50 percent in March 2016, a level unseen since May 2013. In polling conducted January 16–19, 2017, Obama's final approval rating was 59 percent, which placed him on par with George H. W. Bush and Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose final Gallup ratings also measured in the high 50s.
Obama has maintained relatively positive public perceptions after his presidency. In Gallup's retrospective approval polls of former presidents, Obama garnered a 63 percent approval rating in 2018 and again in 2023, ranking him the fourth most popular president since World War II.
=== Foreign perceptions ===
Polls showed strong support for Obama in other countries both before and during his presidency. In a February 2009 poll conducted in Western Europe and the U.S. by Harris Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most respected world leader, as well as the most powerful. In a similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the economic downturn.
On October 9, 2009—only nine months into his first term—the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples", which drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures. He became the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the third to become a Nobel laureate while in office. He himself called it a "call to action" and remarked: "I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations".
== Legacy and recognition ==
Obama has been described as one of the most effective campaigners in American history (his 2008 campaign being particularly highlighted) as well as one of the most talented political orators of the 21st century. Historian Julian Zelizer credits Obama with "a keen sense of how the institutions of government work and the ways that his team could design policy proposals." Zeitzer notes Obama's policy successes included the economic stimulus package which ended the Great Recession and the Dodd-Frank financial and consumer protection reforms, as well as the Affordable Care Act. Zeitzer also notes the Democratic Party lost power and numbers of elected officials during Obama's term, saying that the consensus among historians is that Obama "turned out to be a very effective policymaker but not a tremendously successful party builder." Zeitzer calls this the "defining paradox of Obama's presidency".
The Brookings Institution noted that Obama passed "only one major legislative achievement (Obamacare)—and a fragile one at that—the legacy of Obama's presidency mainly rests on its tremendous symbolic importance and the fate of a patchwork of executive actions." David W. Wise noted that Obama fell short "in areas many Progressives hold dear", including the continuation of drone strikes, not going after big banks during the Great Recession, and failing to strengthen his coalition before pushing for Obamacare. Wise called Obama's legacy that of "a disappointingly conventional president".
Obama's most significant accomplishment is generally considered to be the Affordable Care Act (ACA), provisions of which went into effect from 2010 to 2020. Many attempts by Senate Republicans to repeal the ACA, including a "skinny repeal", have thus far failed. However, in 2017, the penalty for violating the individual mandate was repealed effective 2019. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
Many commentators credit Obama with averting a threatened depression and pulling the economy back from the Great Recession. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Obama administration created 11.3 million jobs from the month after his first inauguration to the end of his second term. In 2010, Obama signed into effect the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Passed as a response to the 2008 financial crisis, it brought the most significant changes to financial regulation in the United States since the regulatory reform that followed the Great Depression under Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 2009, Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, which contained in it the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the first addition to existing federal hate crime law in the United States since Democratic President Bill Clinton signed into law the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996. The act expanded existing federal hate crime laws in the United States, and made it a federal crime to assault people based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
As president, Obama advanced LGBT rights. In 2010, he signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act, which brought an end to "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the U.S. armed forces that banned open service from LGBT people; the law went into effect the following year. In 2016, his administration brought an end to the ban on transgender people serving openly in the U.S. armed forces. A Gallup poll, taken in the final days of Obama's term, showed that 68 percent of Americans believed the U.S. had made progress on LGBT rights during Obama's eight years in office.
Obama substantially escalated the use of drone strikes against suspected militants and terrorists associated with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. In 2016, the last year of his presidency, the U.S. dropped 26,171 bombs on seven different countries. Obama left about 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, 5,262 in Iraq, 503 in Syria, 133 in Pakistan, 106 in Somalia, seven in Yemen, and two in Libya at the end of his presidency.
According to Pew Research Center and United States Bureau of Justice Statistics, from December 31, 2009, to December 31, 2015, inmates sentenced in U.S. federal custody declined by five percent. This is the largest decline in sentenced inmates in U.S. federal custody of any president since Jimmy Carter. By contrast, the federal prison population increased significantly under presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Obama's human rights record "mixed", adding that "he has often treated human rights as a secondary interest—nice to support when the cost was not too high, but nothing like a top priority he championed."
Obama left office in January 2017 with a 60 percent approval rating. He gained 10 spots from the same survey in 2015 from the Brookings Institution that ranked him the 18th-greatest American president. In Gallup's 2018 job approval poll for the past 10 U.S. presidents, he received a 63 percent approval rating.
=== Presidential library ===
The Barack Obama Presidential Center is Obama's planned presidential library. It will be hosted by the University of Chicago and located in Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago.
=== Awards and honors ===
Obama received the Norwegian Nobel Committee's Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, The Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education's Ambassador of Humanity Award in 2014, the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2017, and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award in 2018. He was named TIME Magazine's Time Person of the Year in 2008 and 2012. He also received two Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album for Dreams from My Father (2006), and The Audacity of Hope (2008) as well as three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Narrator for Our Great National Parks (2022), Working: What We Do All Day (2023), and Our Oceans (2025). He also won two Children's and Family Emmy Awards. In 2024 he became the first and so far only President from the Democratic Party to win the Sylvanus Thayer Award.
=== Eponymy ===
== Bibliography ==
== See also ==
=== Politics ===
DREAM Act – American legislative proposal on immigration
Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 – American federal law
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 – Legislation changing US immigration law
IRS targeting controversy – 2013 American tax administration scandal
Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012
National Broadband Plan (United States) – Strategic plan to improve internet access
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy – Program office of the U.S. Department of Energy
Social policy of the Barack Obama administration
SPEECH Act – 2010 U.S. law limiting foreign defamation cases
Stay with It
White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy – U.S. government entity
=== Other ===
Roberts Court – Period of the US Supreme Court since 2005
Speeches of Barack Obama
=== Lists ===
Assassination threats against Barack Obama
List of African-American United States senators
List of Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign endorsements
List of Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign endorsements
List of federal political scandals, 2009–17
List of people granted executive clemency by Barack Obama
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
List of things named after Barack Obama
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Bibliography ===
== Further reading ==
== External links ==
=== Official ===
Official website of The Obama Foundation
Official website of the Barack Obama Presidential Library
Official website of Organizing for Action
White House biography
=== Other ===
Column archive at The Huffington Post
Barack Obama on Twitter
United States Congress. "Barack Obama (id: O000167)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Appearances on C-SPAN
Barack Obama at IMDb
Barack Obama collected news and commentary at The New York Times
Barack Obama articles in the archive of the Chicago Tribune
Works by Barack Obama at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Barack Obama at the Internet Archive
Works by Barack Obama at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Barack Obama on Nobelprize.org
Barack Obama at Politifact |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_89_torpedo | Type 89 torpedo | The Type 89 torpedo (development name G-RX2) is a Japanese submarine-launched homing torpedo produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Together with the Harpoon, it replaced the unguided Type 72. Development was done by the Technical Research and Development Institute, a department of the Ministry of Defense, and began in 1970, with the design completed by 1984. After being formally approved in 1989 and named "Type 89", it entered service and is currently carried aboard the Oyashio, and Sōryū-class submarines. It was also carried by the Yuushio and Harushio-class submarines before they were retired from active service in 2006 and 2017 respectively.
It is a wire-guided torpedo that features both active and passive homing modes. Compared to Mk-48 (ADCAP) torpedo, it is slightly longer (6.25 m to 5.79 m) and heavier (1,760 kg to 1,676 kg), but has a smaller warhead (267 kg to 295 kg).
The successor to the Type 89 torpedo was developed under the development name "G-RX6" and officially named Type 18 (ja) in 2018. The Taigei class is equipped with a number of Type 18 torpedoes.
== Specifications ==
Length: 6,250 mm (246 in)
Weight: 1,760 kg (3,880 lb)
Diameter: 533 mm (21.0 in)
Warhead: 267 kg (589 lb)
Speed: 55 knots (102 km/h) maximum possibly 70 knots (130 km/h)
Range: 27 nmi (50 km) at 40 knots (74 km/h), 21 nmi (39 km) at 55 knots (102 km/h).
Operating depth: 900 m
== References ==
=== Bibliography ===
Jane's Underwater Warfare Systems 2006-2007.
== Further reading ==
Friedman, Norman (1991). The Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapons Systems 1991/1992. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-288-5.
Watts, Anthony J., ed. (1997). Jane's Underwater Warfare Systems 1997-1998. Coulsdon, Surrey: Jane's Information Group. ISBN 0-7106-1561-2. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_J._Adams_(Vermont_politician) | Charles J. Adams (Vermont politician) | Charles J. Adams (February 17, 1917 – May 16, 2008) was a Vermont attorney whose career included an interim appointment as Vermont Attorney General.
== Biography ==
Charles Jairus Adams was born in Randolph, Vermont, on February 17, 1917, the son of Charles Bayley Adams and Jeanette (Metzger) Adams. His father served as an Associate Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court from 1949 to 1961. Adams was raised and educated in Waterbury, and graduated from Norwich University in 1939.
Adams joined the United States Army for World War II and served as a captain with the 3rd Armored Division during combat in the European Theater of Operations. On July 5, 1942, he married Mary Ella Tobey of Belmont, Massachusetts; they were married in Leesville, Louisiana, while Adams was stationed at Camp Beauregard prior to his unit's departure for Europe.
In 1951 Adams graduated from the Boston University School of Law and became an attorney, first in Montpelier and later in Waterbury. A Republican in politics, he was active in local government including Waterbury village trustee and president, and member of the town of Waterbury's school board. He was also involved in several civic and fraternal organizations, including the Masons and Shriners, the Norwich University Alumni Association and the Norwich University Cemetery Board of Trustees.
In December 1961, Governor F. Ray Keyser announced that he would appoint Adams as Vermont Attorney General to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Thomas M. Debevoise. Adams assumed the office on January 2, 1962, and served until the end of Debevoise's term in January 1963. He did not run for a full term in 1962, and was succeeded by Charles E. Gibson Jr., who had served as his deputy.
Adams continued practicing law, and later moved to South Burlington. He died on May 16, 2008, at the Vermont Respite House in Williston. He was survived by his daughters Mary Jean Sturgis and Carol Allen.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikini_Atoll#:~:text=Russian%20explorer%20Otto%20von%20Kotzebue,von%20Eschscholtz%2C%20the%20ship's%20naturalist. | Bikini Atoll | Bikini Atoll ( BIK-in-ee or bih-KEE-nee; Marshallese: Pikinni [pʲiɡinnʲi], lit. 'coconut place'), known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 19th century and 1946, is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a 229.4-square-mile (594.1 km2) central lagoon. The atoll is at the northern end of the Ralik Chain, approximately 530 miles (850 km) northwest of the capital Majuro.
After the Second World War, the atoll was chosen by the United States as a nuclear weapon testing site. It would be the site of the fourth nuclear bomb detonation and would go on to be the site of many more tests. The 167 people who lived on Bikini were instructed to leave so the military could test nuclear bombs, a forced relocation. In 1946 they moved to Rongerik, a small island east of Bikini Atoll, but it turned out to have inadequate resources to support the population. The islanders began experiencing starvation by early 1948 and were moved again to Kwajalein Atoll. The United States used the islands and lagoon as the site of 23 nuclear tests until 1958, when it was discovered that the fallout from nuclear testing was much more dangerous than was previously thought. To this day, the Bikini islanders are prohibited from returning home due to nuclear contamination. There are some signs of recovery as the amount of radiation slowly decreases.
In 1972, about 100 residents were voluntarily returned to their home island. But scientists found dangerously high levels of strontium-90 in well water in May 1978, and the residents' bodies were carrying abnormally high concentrations of caesium-137. They were evacuated again in September 1978. The atoll is occasionally visited today by divers and a few scientists, and it is occupied by a handful of caretakers. The people of the atoll, which now number in the thousands, have spread out to other Marshallese islands and the United States. A multi-million dollar trust fund, which had been supporting services for many Bikini inhabitants since the 1980s, was drained in the late 2010s.
In the 21st century, the atoll is a World Heritage Site, remembered for its role in the Cold War and the post-nuclear age. It is noted as an enclave of nature, and the radiation has decreased enough that tourism is possible. However, the lingering radioactive contamination makes it unfit to return from what was expected to be short-term evacuation, especially as it is not recommended to eat plants or wildlife.
== Etymology ==
The island's English name is derived from the German colonial name Bikini given to the atoll when it was part of German New Guinea. The German name is transliterated from the Marshallese name for the island, Pikinni, ([pʲiɡinnʲi]) "Pik" meaning "plane surface" and "Ni" meaning "coconut tree", or surface of coconuts.
== Culture ==
Bikini islanders' traditional lifestyle was based on cultivating plants and eating shellfish and fish. They were skilled boatbuilders and navigators, sailing the two-hulled proa to and from islets around Bikini and other atolls in the Marshall Islands. They were relatively isolated and had developed a society bound by extended family association and tradition. Every lagoon was led by a king and queen, with a following of chieftains and chief women who constituted a ruling caste.
Japan occupied the islands starting in 1914. The islanders worked the copra plantations under the watchful eye of the Japanese, who took a portion of the sales. Chiefs could retain as much as $20,000 per year, and the remainder was distributed to the workers. The Marshall islanders took pride in extending hospitality to one another, even distant relatives.
=== Clothing and dress ===
Men traditionally wore a fringed skirt about 25 to 30 inches (60 to 80 cm) long. Women wore two mats about a yard square each, made by weaving pandanus and hibiscus leaves together and belted around the waist. Children were usually naked. Christian missionaries from Oʻahu arrived in the late 19th century and influenced the islanders' notions of modesty. They introduced a dress for women which was a long, wide, loose-fitting gown with long sleeves and a high neck, intended to cover as much skin as possible. The dress is called wau ([wɑːu]), from the name of the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
It is customary to remove one's shoes or sandals when taking a seat at someone's home. Marshallese women traditionally cover their thighs as well. Women generally wear cotton muʻumuʻus or similar clothing that covers most of the body. Personal health is not often discussed except within the family, and women are especially private about female-related health issues, although they are willing to talk about their breasts.
Marshallese women swim in muʻumuʻus made of a fine polyester that quickly dries. In the capital of Majuro, revealing cocktail dresses are not considered appropriate for both islanders and guests. With the increasing influence of Western media, the younger generation wears shorts, though the older generation equates shorts with loose morals. T-shirts, jeans, skirts, and makeup are making their way to the islands via the media.
=== Land-based wealth ===
The Bikini islanders continue to maintain land rights as the primary measure of wealth.
To all Marshallese, land is gold. If you were an owner of land, you would be held up as a very important figure in our society. Without land you would be viewed as a person of no consequence... But land here on Bikini is now poison land.
Each family is part of a clan (Bwij), which owns all land. The clan owes allegiance to a chief (Iroij). The chiefs oversee the clan heads (Alap), who are supported by laborers (Dri-jerbal). The Iroij control land tenure, resource use and distribution, and settle disputes. The Alap supervise land maintenance and daily activities. The Dri-jerbal work the land including farming, cleaning, and construction.
The Marshallese society is matrilineal and land is passed down from generation to generation through the mother. Land ownership ties families together into clans. Grandparents, parents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, and cousins form extended, close-knit family groups. Gatherings tend to become big events. One of the most significant family events is the first birthday of a child (kemem), which relatives and friends celebrate with feasts and song.
Payments made in the 20th century as reparations for damage to the Bikini Atoll and the islanders' way of life have elevated their income relative to other Marshall Island residents. It has caused some Bikini islanders to become economically dependent on the payments from the trust fund. This dependency has eroded individuals' interest in traditional economic pursuits like taro and copra production. The move also altered traditional patterns of social alliance and political organization. On Bikini, rights to land and land ownership were the major factor in social and political organization and leadership. After relocation and settlement on Kili, a dual system of land tenure evolved. Disbursements from the trust fund were based in part to land ownership on Bikini and based on current land tenure on Kili.
Before the residents were relocated, they were led by a local chief and under the nominal control of the Paramount Chief of the Marshall Islands. Afterward, they had greater interaction with representatives of the trust fund and the U.S. government and began to look to them for support.
In the late 2010s, the islanders pushed for complete control of the trust fund, which was tens of millions of dollars. The same leaders which had pushed for increased control, rang up huge bills in travel expenses, buying real estate, aircraft, and boats. In 2016, the Bikini trust fund stood at $71 million in its last audit, with $4 million have been withdrawn. After leasing control, the account was drained leaving only $4 million by 2020, and $100,000 in 2023. Then with funds depleted, the power and deliveries to Kili were stopped, and salaries were not paid, this led to declaration of emergency, and the Marshallese government had to step in to try to help.
=== Language ===
Most Marshallese speak both the Marshallese language and another language. Some of the languages reflect the nation's history with Germany, Japan, and the United States. Government agencies use Marshallese, though English is very popular also.
== Environment ==
Bikini Atoll is part of the Ralik Chain (for "sunset chain") within the Marshall Islands.
=== Nuclear test site ===
The United States detonated 23 nuclear devices between 1946 and 1958 at seven test sites on the reef, inside the atoll, in the air, and underwater. They had a combined yield of about 77 Mt. The testing began with the Operation Crossroads series in July 1946. The residents initially accepted resettlement voluntarily to Rongerik Atoll, believing that they would be able to return home within a short time. However, Rongerik could not produce enough food, and the islanders starved. They could not return home, so they were relocated to Kwajalein Atoll for six months before choosing to live on Kili Island, a small island one-sixth the size of their home island. Some were able to return to Bikini Island in 1972; however, further testing revealed dangerous levels of strontium-90. They eventually moved to other atolls in the Marshall Islands and the United States, due to problems with this plan.
In 1954, the Castle Bravo nuclear test took place on Bikini Atoll, with a yield of 15 Mt. This nuclear test was only one out of 67 total nuclear tests launched on the surrounding Marshall Islands and reefs. The nuclear radiation and fallout that followed the Castle Bravo test alone was substantial enough to discourage future habitation of the islands. Consequently, Bikini Atoll was subject to initial radioactive testing of soil composition and well water. Nuclear fallout deposits were tested in order to estimate how much area of the island was impacted by radionuclides and caesium-137 specifically. The technology used to measure the estimated amount of nuclear fallout deposit was known as HYSPLIT. This technology used meteorological sciences to model and map out nuclear fallout depositions of caesium-137 on the Marshall Islands. Initial fallout cloud debris, radionuclide particles, and actual caesium-137 particles were all estimated during nuclear testing. This data was then compared with past radiological testing results collected by HYSPLIT to predict total nuclear fallout deposition of caesium-137 on island soil.
The United States government established several trust funds which as of 2013 covered medical treatment and other costs and paid about $550 annually to each individual.
=== Geography ===
Some 46 miles (74 km) northwest of the atoll is Wōdejebato, a probable shield volcano that is connected to it through a submarine ridge.
There are 23 islands in the Bikini Atoll; the islands of Bokonijien, Aerokojlol and part of Namu were destroyed during the nuclear tests. The islands are composed of low coral limestone and sand. The average elevation is only about 7 feet (2.1 m) above low tide level. The total lagoon area is 229.4-square-mile (594.1 km2). The primary home of the islanders was the most northeast and largest islet, Bikini Island, totaling 586 acres (237 ha) and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long.
=== Flora and fauna ===
The islanders cultivated native foods including coconut, pandanus, papaya, banana, arrowroot, taro, limes, breadfruit, and pumpkin. A wide variety of other trees and plants are also present on the islands. After the completion of nuclear tests, the islands of Bikini and Enyu were replanted with coconut trees in a square grid pattern, each 30 ft (9.1 m) apart.
The islanders were skilled fishermen. They used fishing line made from coconut husk and hooks from sharpened sea shells. They used more than 25 methods of fishing. The islanders raised ducks, pigs, and chickens for food and kept dogs and cats as pets. Animal life in the atoll was severely affected by the atomic bomb testing. Existing land species include small lizards, hermit crabs, and coconut crabs. The islands are frequented by a wide variety of birds.
To allow vessels with a larger draft to enter the lagoon and to prepare for the atomic bomb testing, the United States used explosives to cut a channel through the reef and to blow up large coral heads in the lagoon. The underwater nuclear explosions carved large holes in the bottom of the lagoon that were partially refilled by blast debris. The explosions distributed vast amounts of irradiated, pulverized coral and mud across wide expanses of the lagoon and surrounding islands. As of 2008, the atoll had recovered nearly 65% of the biodiversity that existed prior to radioactive contamination, but 28 species of coral appear to be locally extinct.
The radioactive contamination has prevented humans from fishing these grounds, and for that reason, there is an abundance of marine wildlife in the waters around the atoll, much larger than in other parts of the ocean. Coconut crabs are particularly abundant on the island.
=== Climate ===
The islands are hot and humid. The temperature on Bikini Atoll is 27 to 29 °C (81 to 84 °F) year-round. The water temperature is also 27 to 29 °C (81 to 84 °F) all year. The islands border the Pacific typhoon belt. The wet season is from May to December while the trade winds from January through May produce higher wave action.
== Resident and non-resident population ==
During WWII, the atoll had been occupied by Japanese troops, and American naval ships, ground artillery, and B-24 Liberator bombers attacked the island, killing many of the 8,000 soldiers.
When the United States got the islanders to relocate in 1946, 19 islanders lived elsewhere. The 167 residents, comprising about 40 families who lived on the atoll, moved to Rongerik Atoll. The islands were able to produce much less food than they had on Bikini, and there were far fewer fish in the waters. By early 1948, the people were close to starvation. U.S. investigators concluded they must be moved, and they were relocated to Kwajalein Atoll. They were first evacuated to Kwaj, where the islanders lived in tents adjacent to the concrete runway in use by the U.S. Navy for six months while a new and better location was selected. Finally, Kili Island was chosen.
They were moved once again in November 1948 to Kili Island, when the population numbered 184. They were later given public lands on Ejit and a few families initially moved there to grow copra. In 1972, about 100 Bikini islanders returned to live on the atoll after they were reassured that it was safe. They remained for about 6 years until scientists found an 11-fold increase in the caesium-137 body burdens and determined that the island was not safe after all. The 178 residents were evacuated in September 1978 once again.
Since then a number of descendants have moved to Majuro (the Marshall Islands' capital), other Marshall Islands, and the United States. In 1999, there were 2,600 total individuals; 1,000 islanders living on Kiji, 700 in Majuro, 275 on Ejit, 175 on other Marshall Islands or atolls, and 450 in the United States. Of those, 81 were among those who left the atoll in 1946. In 2001, the population of the dispersed islanders was 2,800. By 2013, there were about 4,880 Bikini islanders descended from the original Bikinis, with 1,250 living on Kili Island, 2,150 on Majuro (and 280 on Ejit, an island in Majuro Atoll), 350 on the other Marshall Islands, and 850 in the United States.
As of March 2016, there were 5,400 living Bikini islanders: 800 islanders living on Kili, 2,550 on Majuro, 300 on Ejit, 350 on other Marshall Islands, and 1,400 in the United States and other countries. Of that number, 25 lived on Bikini in 1946. The resident population of the atoll is currently 4–6 caretakers, including Edward Maddison, who lived on Bikini Island from 1985 to 2020. His grandfather was one of the original residents relocated in 1946. He helped the U.S. Department of Energy with soil monitoring, testing cleanup methods, mapping the wrecks in the lagoon, and accompanying visitors on dives. He was also the divemaster of Bikini Atoll Divers. Maddison died in Majuro, Marshall Islands, on March 29, 2020.
== History ==
Humans have inhabited Bikini Atoll for about 3,600 years. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers archaeologist Charles F. Streck Jr., found bits of charcoal, fish bones, shells and other artifacts under 3 feet (0.91 meters) of sand. Carbon-dating placed the age of the artifacts at between 1960 and 1650 BC. Other discoveries on Bikini and Eneu island were carbon-dated to between 1000 BC and 1 BC, and others between AD 400 and 1400 though samples may not have been collected from secure stratigraphic contexts and older driftwood samples may have affected results.
On October 1, 1529, the Spanish ship La Florida, under the command of Álvaro de Saavedra, stopped at a lush atoll, which Saavedra called Los Jardines (English: The Gardens). The atoll may have been Bikini or Enewetak Atoll. The Spaniards went ashore and ate with the islanders. According to an account of the voyage, the feast ended abruptly when the island's chief inquired about the purpose of Saavedra's musket. When Saavedra fired it into the air, the islanders fled.
German-Russian explorer Otto von Kotzebue was the first westerner to have undisputedly seen the atoll during his 1816 and 1817 voyages. He named it Eschscholtz Atoll after Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, the ship's naturalist.
In 1834, the captain of a trading schooner and two of his crew members were killed at Bikini Atoll. Three vessels were sent to search for the captain, and when the Hawaiian brig Waverly discovered evidence of his death, the crew killed 30 Marshallese hostages in retaliation. Bikini and the other northern Marshall Islands had less European contact and settlement than the southern islands, but in the 1870s, several blackbirding ships kidnapped women from the northern islands to sell into sexual slavery in Fiji.
The German Empire annexed the Marshall Islands in 1885. The Germans used the atoll to produce copra oil from coconuts, although contact with the native population was infrequent. The atoll's climate is drier than the more fertile southern Marshall Islands which produced more copra. Bikini islanders were recruited into developing the copra trade during the German colonial period.
=== Japanese occupation ===
Bikini was captured along with the rest of the Marshall Islands by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1914 during World War I and mandated to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations in 1920. The Japanese administered the island under the South Seas Mandate, but mostly left local affairs in the hands of traditional local leaders until the start of World War II. At the outset of the war, the Marshall Islands suddenly became a strategic outpost for the Japanese. They built and manned a watchtower on the island, an outpost for the Japanese headquarters on Kwajalein Atoll, to guard against an American invasion of the islands.
=== World War II ===
The islands remained relatively unscathed by the war until February 1944, when in a bloody battle, the American forces captured Kwajalein Atoll. At the battle's conclusion, there were only five surviving Japanese soldiers left on Bikini, and they chose to die by suicide rather than allow themselves to be captured. This was followed by another difficult fight in the Battle of Eniwetok.
For the U.S., the battle represented both the next step in its island-hopping march to Japan and a significant moral victory, as it was the first time the Americans had penetrated the "outer ring" of the Japanese Pacific sphere. For the Japanese, the battle represented the failure of the beach-line defense. Japanese defenses became prepared in depth, and the battles of Peleliu, Guam, and the Marianas proved far more costly to the U.S. The base became part of the vast US Naval Base Marshall Islands.
=== Residents relocated ===
After World War II, the United States was engaged in a Cold War nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union to build bigger and more destructive bombs.
The nuclear weapons testing at Bikini Atoll program was a series of 23 nuclear devices detonated by the United States between 1946 and 1958 at seven test sites. The test weapons were detonated on the reef itself, on the sea, in the air and underwater with a combined explosive yield of about 77 Mt. Shortly after World War II ended, President Harry S. Truman directed Army and Navy officials to secure a site for testing nuclear weapons on American warships. While the Army had seen the results of a land-based explosion, the Navy wanted to know the effect of a nuclear weapon on ships. They wanted to determine whether ships could be spaced at sea and in ports in a way that would make nuclear weapons ineffective against vessels.
Bikini was distant from both regular sea and air traffic, making it an ideal location. In February 1946, Navy Commodore Ben H. Wyatt, the military governor of the Marshall Islands, asked the 167 Micronesian inhabitants of the atoll to voluntarily and temporarily relocate so the United States government could begin testing atomic bombs for "the good of mankind and to end all world wars." After "confused and sorrowful deliberation" among the Bikinians, their leader, King Juda, agreed to the U.S. relocation request, announcing MEN OTEMJEJ REJ ILO BEIN ANIJ, which translates as "Everything is in God's hands." Nine of the eleven family heads, or alaps, chose Rongerik as their new home.
In February, Navy Seabees helped them to disassemble their church and community house and prepare to relocate them to their new home. On 7 March 1946, the residents gathered their personal belongings and saved building supplies. They were transported 125 miles (201 km) eastward on U.S. Navy landing ship 1108 to the uninhabited Rongerik Atoll, which was one-sixth the size of Bikini Atoll. No one lived on Rongerik because it had an inadequate water and food supply and due to deep-rooted traditional beliefs that the island was haunted by the Demon Girls of Ujae. The Navy left them with a few weeks of food and water which soon proved to be inadequate.
==== Nuclear testing program ====
The weapons testing began with the Operation Crossroads series in July 1946. The Baker test's radioactive contamination of all the target ships was the first case of immediate, concentrated radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion. Chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, the longest-serving chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, called Baker "the world's first nuclear disaster." This was followed by a series of later tests that left the islands of the atoll contaminated with enough radioactivity, particularly caesium-137, to contaminate food grown in the soil.
A third nuclear test called Charlie was called off after the first two. These were the last tests in Bikini Atoll until 1954, when it was chosen as the location for Operation Castle series. The first shot Bravo, had a higher yield then expected to due an unexpected Lithium-7 reaction. This along with freak weather occurrences caused the fallout to spread much further than anticipated, affecting neighbouring atolls and the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryū Maru.
Four more detonations occurred as part of the Castle series, with a combined yield of 46.5 megatons.
In 1956, Operation Redwing was conducted at the Atoll, with six total detonations and a combined yield of 18.2 megatons.
The final round of tests occurred in 1958 as part of the larger Operation Hardtack I. Eleven detonations occurred with a combined yield of 21 megatons.
==== Strategic Trust Territory ====
In 1947, the United States convinced the United Nations to designate the islands of Micronesia a United Nations Strategic Trust Territory. This was the only trust ever granted by the U.N. The United States Navy controlled the Trust from a headquarters in Guam until 1951, when the United States Department of the Interior took over control, administering the territory from a base in Saipan. The directive stated that the United States should "promote the economic advancement and self-sufficiency of the inhabitants, and to this end shall... protect the inhabitants against the loss of their lands and resources..."
Despite the promise to "protect the inhabitants", from July 1946 through July 1947, the residents of Bikini Atoll were left alone on Rongerik Atoll and were starving for lack of food. A team of U.S. investigators concluded in late 1947 that the islanders must be moved immediately. Press from around the world harshly criticized the U.S. Navy for ignoring the people. Harold Ickes, a syndicated columnist, wrote "The natives are actually and literally starving to death." The islanders were moved again, this time to Kwajalein Atoll.
==== Move to Kili Island ====
In January 1948, Leonard Mason, an anthropologist from the University of Hawaii, visited Rongerik Atoll and was horrified at what he found. One resident of Rongerik commented,
We'd get a few fish, then the entire community would have to share this meager amount... The fish were not fit to eat there. They were poisonous because of what they ate on the reef. We got sick from them, like when your arms and legs fall asleep and you can't feel anything. We'd get up in the morning to go to our canoes and fall over because we were so ill... Then we started asking these men from America [to] bring us food... We were dying, but they didn't listen to us.
Mason requested that food be brought to the islanders on Rongerik immediately along with a medical officer. The Navy then selected Ujelang Atoll for their temporary home, and some young men from the Bikini Atoll population went ahead to begin constructing living accommodations. But U.S. Trust Authorities changed their mind. They decided to use Enewetak Atoll as a second nuclear weapons test site and relocated the residents to Ujelang Atoll instead and to the homes built for the Bikini Islanders.
In March 1948, 184 malnourished Bikini islanders were relocated again to Kwajalein Atoll. They were given tents on a strip of grass alongside the airport runway to live in. In June 1948, the Bikini residents chose Kili Island as a long-term home. The extremely small, 200 acres (81 ha) (.36 square miles (0.93 km2)) island was uninhabited and wasn't ruled by a paramount iroij, or king due to its size. It also lacks a coral reef. In June, the Bikini community chose two dozen men to accompany eight Seabees to Kili to begin construction of a village. In November 1948, the residents, now totaling 184 individuals, moved to Kili Island, at 0.36 square miles (0.93 km2), one of the smallest islands in the Marshall Island chain. They soon learned they could no longer fish the way they had on Bikini Atoll. Kili lacked the calm, protected lagoon. Living on Kili Island effectively destroyed their culture that had been based on fishing and island-hopping canoe voyages to various islets around Bikini Atoll. Kili did not provide enough food for the transplanted residents.
==== Failed resettlement ====
After their relocation to Kili, the Bikini residents continued to suffer from inadequate food supplies. Kili is a small island without a lagoon, and most of the year it is exposed to 10 to 20 ft (3.0 to 6.1 m) waves that make fishing and putting canoes out difficult. Starvation ensued. In 1949, the Trust Territory administration donated a 40-foot (12 m) ship for transporting copra between Kili and Jaluit Atoll, but the ship was wrecked in heavy surf while delivering copra and other fruit.
The U.S. Trust Authorities airdropped food onto Kili. The residents had to rely on imported USDA rice and canned goods and had to buy food with their supplemental income.
During 1955 and 1956, ships dispatched by the U.S. Trust Territory continually experienced problems unloading food because of the rough seas around the island, leading to additional food shortages. The people once again suffered from starvation and the shortages increased in 1956. The U.S. suggested that some of the Bikini Islanders move to Jaluit where food was more readily available. A few people moved.
The United States opened a satellite community for the families on public land on Jaluit Atoll, 30 miles (48 km) north. Three families moved there to produce copra for sale and other families rotated living there later on. Their homes on both Kili and Jaluit were struck by typhoons during 1957 and 1958, sinking their supply ship and damaging crops.
==== Return to Bikini Atoll ====
In June 1968, based on scientific advice that the radiation levels were sufficiently reduced, President Lyndon B. Johnson promised the 540 Bikini Atoll family members living on Kili and other islands that they would be able to return to their home. The Atomic Energy Commission cleared radioactive debris from the island, and the U.S. Trust Territory was in charge of rebuilding structures and replanting crops on the atoll. But shortly afterward, the Trust Territory ended regular air flights between Kwajalein Atoll and Bikini Atoll, which seriously impeded progress. Coconut trees were finally replanted in 1972, but the AEC learned that the coconut crabs retained high levels of radioactivity and could not be eaten. The Bikini Council voted to delay a return to the island as a result.
Three extended families, eventually totaling about 100 people, moved back to their home island in 1972 despite the risk. But 3 years later, a team of scientists performed additional tests on the island and its inhabitants. They found some wells were too radioactive for use and determined that the pandanus and breadfruit were also dangerous for human consumption. Urine samples from the islanders on Bikini Atoll showed low levels of plutonium-239 and plutonium-240. As a result, the Bikini community filed a federal lawsuit seeking a complete scientific survey of Bikini and the northern Marshall Islands. Inter-departmental squabbling over responsibility for the costs delayed the work for three years. Then in May 1977 scientists found dangerously high levels of strontium-90 in the well water exceeding the U.S. maximum allowed limits. In June, the Department of Energy stated that "All living patterns involving Bikini Island exceed Federal [radiation] guidelines for thirty-year population doses." Later that year scientists discovered an 11-fold increase in the caesium-137 body burdens in all of the people living on the atoll. In May 1978 officials from the U.S. Department of the Interior described the 75% increase in radioactive caesium-137 found as "incredible".
Women were experiencing miscarriages, stillbirths, and genetic abnormalities in their children. Researchers learned that the coral soil behaved differently from mainland soil because it contains very little potassium. Plants and trees readily absorb potassium as part of the normal biological process, but since caesium is part of the same group on the periodic table, it is absorbed by plants in a very similar chemical process. The islanders who unknowingly consumed contaminated coconut milk were found to have abnormally high concentrations of caesium in their bodies. The Trust Territory decided that the islanders had to be evacuated from the atoll a second time.
The islanders received US$75 million in damages in 1986 as part of a new Compact of Free Association with the U.S. and in 1988, another $90 million to be used specifically for radiological cleanup. In 1987, a few Bikini elders traveled to Eneu Island to reestablish old property lines. Construction crews began building a hotel, docks, and roads on Bikini, and installed generators, desalinators, and power lines. A packed coral and sand runway still exists on Eneu Island. The Bikini Atoll Divers was established to provide income. But in 1995, the council learned that the US Environmental Protection Agency standard required reducing radiation levels to 15 millirems, substantially less than the US Department of Energy standard of 100 millirems. This discovery significantly increased the potential cost of cleanup and stalled the effort.
=== Relocation to Kili Island ===
As a result of the military use of the island and the failed resettlement, the islands are littered with abandoned concrete bunkers and tons of heavy equipment, vehicles, supplies, machines, and buildings. In September 1978, Trust Territory officials finally arrived to relocate the residents. The radiological survey of the northern Marshalls, compelled by the 1975 lawsuit, began only after the residents were removed and returned to Kili Island.
As of 2013, the tiny 0.36 square miles (0.93 km2) Kili Island supported about 600 residents who live in cinderblock houses. They must rely on contributions from a settlement trust fund to supplement what they produce locally. Each family receives one to two boxes of frozen chicken, two to four 51-lb (23 kilogram) bags of flour, and two to four bags of rice 2 to 3 times per year. The islanders operate several small stores out of their homes to supply nonperishable food items like salt, Tabasco, candy, and canned items. A generator provides electricity.
Children attend elementary school on Kili through eighth grade. Toward the end of the eighth grade, students must pass a standardized test to gain admission to attend public high school in Jaluit or Majuro.
Beginning in 2011 the resettled residents of Kili Island began to experience periods of ocean flooding during king tide. The highest point of Kili Island is only 9.8 feet (3.0 m) above sea level. Ocean waves have covered portions of the island at least five times from 2011 to 2015, contaminating the wells on the island. The runway servicing the island is unusable during and after rains and ocean flooding because it becomes extremely muddy. In August 2015, the Bikini Council passed a resolution requesting assistance from US government to modify terms of the Resettlement Trust Fund for the People of Bikini to be used to relocate the population once again, this time outside of the Marshall Islands.
The Trust fund had been fairly stable, but after 2017 increased withdrawals drained it down and in the 2020s a crisis erupted to provide services on Kili.
== Trust funds and failed claims ==
In 1975, when the islanders who had returned to Bikini Atoll learned that it wasn't safe, they sued the United States for $900 billion in USD, demanding a radiological study of the northern islands.
In 1975, the United States set up The Hawaiian Trust Fund for the People of Bikini, totaling $3 million. When the islanders were removed from the island in 1978, the U.S. added $3 million to the fund. The U.S. created a second trust fund, The Resettlement Trust Fund for the People of Bikini, containing $20 million in 1982. The U.S. added another $90 million to that fund to pay to clean up, reconstruct homes and facilities, and resettle the islanders on Bikini and Eneu islands.
In 1983, the U.S. and the Marshall islanders signed the Compact of Free Association, which gave the Marshall Islands independence. The Compact became effective in 1986 and was subsequently modified by the Amended Compact that became effective in 2004. It also established the Nuclear Claims Tribunal, which was given the task of adjudicating compensation for victims and families affected by the nuclear testing program. Section 177 of the compact provided for reparations to the Bikini islanders and other northern atolls for damages. It included $75 million to be paid over 15 years.
The payments began in 1987 with $2.4 million paid annually to the entire Bikini population, while the remaining $2.6 million is paid into The Bikini Claims Trust Fund. This trust is intended to exist in perpetuity and to provide the islanders a 5% payment from the trust annually.
The United States provided $150 million in compensation for damage caused by the nuclear testing program and their displacement from their home island.
On 5 March 2001 after years of deliberations, the Nuclear Claims Tribunal ruled against the United States for damages done to the islands and its people. The NCT awarded Bikini $278 million for loss of land use, finding the actions of the U.S. amounted to a "temporary taking" and made its award based on fair rental value for the period of denied use. The NCT made a further award of $251,500,000 for atoll rehabilitation to restore Bikini "to a safe and productive state."
However, the U.S. Congress has failed to fund the settlement. The only recourse is for the Bikini people to petition the U.S. Congress to fund the payment and fulfill this award. The United States Supreme Court turned down the islanders' appeal of the United States Court of Appeals decision that refused to compel the government to fund their claim. By 2001, of the original 167 residents who were relocated, 70 were still alive, and the entire population has grown to 2,800. Most of the islanders and their descendants lived on Kili, in Majuro, and in the United States.
The Hawaiian Trust Fund for the People of Bikini was liquidated as required by law in December 2006. The value of The Resettlement Trust Fund for the People of Bikini as of 31 March 2013 was approximately $82 million and The Bikini Claims Trust Fund was worth approximately $60 million. In 2006, each member of the trust received about $500 a year. In 2012, the trusts produced about US$6 to $8 million annually in investment income, and the trusts paid out less than US$15,000 per family each year in benefits, with little money left available for cleanup.
Representatives for the Bikini people expect this process to take many years and do not know whether the United States will honor the terms of the Compact of Free Association.
In 2017, after lobbying by the leaders of Bikini, the Trump administration stated that there would be no limits on withdrawals from the main fund and no further audits of the main fund. The mayor of the council that is responsible for the Bikini people, Anderson Jibas, used the fund's assets to buy a plane, construction equipment and two cargo ships. In addition, an apartment complex in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands, and 283 acres of land in Hawaii were purchased. By March 2023, only $100,041 was left in the fund that held $59 million in 2017. The council stopped paying its approximately 350 employees and stopped paying $150 monthly subsistence payments to the 6,800 members of the Bikini community.
By 2023 a state of emergency on Kili was declared, and the Marshallese government had to step in try to remedy the situation. Aid helped restore electricity to the island, which had been shut off after the funds were depleted. Many of the purchases that were made including, real estate, aircraft, and boats have not yielded a return for the Bikini.
The depletion of the bikini islander's trust fund made news across the Pacific region, including New Zealand, and in major US newspapers such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
== World Heritage Site ==
Because the site bears direct tangible evidence of the nuclear tests conducted there amid the paradoxical tropical location, UNESCO determined that the atoll symbolizes the dawn of the nuclear age and named it a World Heritage Site on 3 August 2010.
Bikini Atoll has conserved direct tangible evidence ... conveying the power of ... nuclear tests, i.e. the sunken ships sent to the bottom of the lagoon by the tests in 1946 and the gigantic Bravo crater. Equivalent to 7,000 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb, the tests had major consequences on the geology and natural environment of Bikini Atoll and on the health of those who were exposed to radiation. Through its history, the atoll symbolises the dawn of the nuclear age, despite its paradoxical image of peace and of earthly paradise.
== Visitor access ==
Bikini Atoll is open to visitors aboard vessels that are completely self-sufficient if they obtain prior approval. They must also pay for a diver and two local government council representatives to accompany them. The local representation is required to verify that visitors don't remove artifacts from the wrecks in the lagoon. Extensive research has been conducted to ensure the safety of visitors to the area and to demonstrate the now low levels of radiation in and around Bikini Atoll.
=== Bikini Lagoon diving ===
In June 1996, the Bikini Council authorized diving operations as a means to generate income for Bikini islanders currently and upon their eventual return. The Bikini Council hired dive guide Edward Maddison who had lived on Bikini Island since 1985 and Fabio Amaral, a Brazilian citizen at the time, as head divemaster and resort manager. The tours are limited to fewer than a dozen experienced divers a week, cost more than US$5,000, and include detailed histories of the nuclear tests. The operation brought in more than $500,000 during the season from May to October 2001.
=== On-shore facilities ===
To accommodate the dive program and anglers, the Bikini Council built new air-conditioned rooms with private bathrooms and showers. They included verandas overlooking the lagoon. There was a dining facility that served American-style meals and Marshallese dishes featuring fresh seafood. Only 12 visitors were hosted at one time. Because of the lingering contamination, all fruits and vegetables used for the Bikini Atoll dive and sport fishing operation were imported. In September 2007, the last of Air Marshall Islands' commuter aircraft ceased operations when spare parts could not be located and the aircraft were no longer airworthy. A half dozen divers and a journalist were stranded for a week on Bikini Island. The Bikini islanders suspended land-based dive operations beginning in August 2008. As of 2021, Air Marshall Islands operates one Bombardier DHC-8-100 aircraft and two 19-seat Dornier 228.
=== Liveaboard diving program ===
In October 2010, a live-aboard, self-contained vessel successfully conducted dive operations. In 2011, the local government licensed the liveaboard operator as a provider of dive expeditions on the nuclear ghost fleet on Bikini Atoll. The dive season runs from May through October. Visitors are still able to land on the island for brief stays.
In early 2017, Master Liveaboards announced they would add Bikini Atoll to their list of destinations for technical divers using their vessel Truk Master, with trips to the site commencing in May 2018 having been granted a license by the Bikini Council. In May 2021, as a result of ongoing business evaluation and pent up demand created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Master Liveaboards announced they would be adding an additional vessel alongside Truk Master to operate at Bikini Atoll from 2022 onwards.
Because the lagoon has remained undisturbed for so long, it contains a larger amount of sea life than usual, including sharks, which increases divers' interest in the area. Visibility depth is over 100 feet (30 m). The lagoon is immensely popular with divers and is regarded as among the top 10 diving locations in the world.
Dive visitors receive a history lesson along with the dive experience, including movies and complete briefings about each of the ships, their respective histories, and a tour of the island and the atoll. Divers are able to visit the USS Saratoga (CV-3), the second largest of only three aircraft carriers in the world that are accessible to scuba or closed circuit rebreather divers.
=== Sportfishing ===
Bikini Island authorities opened sport fishing to visitors along with diving. Although the atomic blasts obliterated three islands and contaminated much of the atoll, after 50 years the coral reefs have largely recovered. The reefs attract reef fish and their predators: 30 lb (14 kg) dogtooth tuna, 20 lb (9.1 kg) barracuda, and giant trevally as big as 50 pounds (23 kg). Given the long-term absence of humans, the Bikini lagoon offers sportsmen one of the most pristine fishing environments in the world.
=== Shipwrecks ===
Shipwrecks in the lagoon include the following:
USS Saratoga (CV-3) – aircraft carrier
USS Arkansas (BB-33) – battleship
USS Gilliam (APA-57) – attack transport
USS Carlisle (APA-69) – attack transport
USS Lamson (DD-367) – destroyer
USS Anderson (DD-411) – destroyer
USS Apogon (SS-308) – submarine
USS Pilotfish (SS-386) – submarine
Japanese battleship Nagato – battleship
Japanese cruiser Sakawa – light cruiser
== 21st century habitable condition ==
Due to the nuclear weapon testing, the island was subjected to environmental testing in 1998 by the International Atomic Energy Agency. To validate previous surveys data collected, the agency tested air absorption rates and soil and food radionuclide concentrations.
In 1998, an IAEA advisory group, formed in response to a request by the Government of the Marshall Islands for an independent international review of the radiological conditions on Bikini Atoll, recommended that Bikini Island should not be permanently resettled considering its radiological conditions.
The potential to make the island habitable has substantially improved since then. A 2012 assessment from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that cesium-137 levels were dropping considerably faster than expected. Terry Hamilton, scientific director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's Marshall Islands Dose Assessment and Radioecology Program, reported that "Conditions have really changed on Bikini. They are improving at an accelerated rate. By using the combined option of removing soil and adding potassium, we can get very close to the 15 millirem standard. That has been true for roughly the past 10 years. So now is the time when the Bikinians, if they desired, could go back."
As of 2013, about 4,880 descendants of the original Bikini people live on Kili and other Marshall Islands and some have immigrated to the United States. Bikini Island is currently visited by a few scientists and inhabited by 4–6 caretakers.
The islanders want the topsoil removed, but lack the necessary funding. The opportunity for some Bikini islanders to potentially relocate back to their home island creates a dilemma. While the island may be habitable in the near term, virtually none of the islanders alive have ever lived there. As of 2013, unemployment in the Marshall Islands was at about 40 percent. The population is growing at a four-percent growth rate, so increasing numbers are taking advantage of terms in the Marshall Islands' Compact of Free Association that allow them to live in and work in the United States.
After the islanders were relocated in 1946, while the Bikini islanders were experiencing starvation on Rongerik Atoll, Lore Kessibuki wrote an anthem for the island:
No longer can I stay, it's true
No longer can I live in peace and harmony
No longer can I rest on my sleeping mat and pillow
Because of my island and the life I once knew there
The thought is overwhelming
Rendering me helpless and in great despair.
== In popular culture ==
=== Cinema ===
The documentary Bikini – mon amour by Oliver Herbrich shows the effects of long-term low-level radiation on the population.
The 1962 Italian mondo documentary film Mondo Cane shows the effects of long-term low-level radiation on the wildlife.
The nuclear tests at Bikini, along with the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings, inspired the 1954 Japanese movie Godzilla.
=== Television shows ===
The Nickelodeon animated series SpongeBob SquarePants primarily takes place in Bikini Bottom, which was named after Bikini Atoll and is supposedly situated underneath it.
During a 2015 interview with Tom Kenny, the voice actor for SpongeBob, he was asked about the popular theory that SpongeBob is the result of nuclear testing. He replied, Well, Bikini Bottom is kind of named after Bikini Atoll, you know, where they did nuclear testing decades ago. So... nah, that one. I don't think SpongeBob and his friends are mutations.
In 2024, Rodger Bumpass (voice actor for Squidward) said he also believed the theory was false, but Mr. Lawrence (voice actor for Plankton) said the theory was "absolutely true":That was part of the fun of it, was, how far are we taking that concept? I mean, right at the beginning, when we were sort of developing it in the first season, it was like, 'are we gonna play off of this apocalyptic thing?' Like, 'the whole world is dead except for Bikini Bottom. ... the world upstairs is gone, and this is what's left.'
=== Swimsuit design ===
On 5 July 1946, four days after the first nuclear device (nicknamed Able) was detonated over Bikini Atoll during Operation Crossroads, Louis Réard introduced a new swimsuit design named the bikini after the atoll. Réard was a French mechanical engineer by training and manager of his mother's lingerie shop in Paris. He introduced the new garment to the media and public on 5 July 1946 at Piscine Molitor, a public pool in Paris.
He hired Micheline Bernardini, an 18-year-old nude dancer from the Casino de Paris, to demonstrate his design. It featured string briefs of 30 square inches (200 cm2) of cloth with newspaper-type print and was an immediate sensation. Bernardini received 50,000 fan letters, many of them from men. Réard hoped that his swimsuit's revealing style would create an "explosive commercial and cultural reaction" similar in intensity to the social reaction to 1946 nuclear explosion on Bikini Atoll. Fashion writer Diana Vreeland described the bikini as the "atom bomb of fashion".
Because the bikini exposes a woman's thighs, it violates the Marshall Islanders' modern customs of modesty, whereas cultural taboos regarding women's breasts are less strict on the islands. Marshall Island women swim in their muumuus, which are made of a fine polyester that dries quickly. Wearing a bikini in the Marshall Islands is mainly limited to restricted-access beaches and pools like those at private resorts or on United States government facilities on Kwajalein Atoll within the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.
== Gallery ==
== See also ==
Operation Castle
Operation Ivy
Radio Bikini
Wōdejebato
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Bibliography ===
Niedenthal, Jack, For the Good of Mankind: A History of the People of Bikini and their Islands, Bravo Publishers, (November 2002), ISBN 982-9050-02-5
Wiesgall, Jonathan M, Operation Crossroads: Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll, Naval Institute Press (21 April 1994), ISBN 1-55750-919-0
Stegnar, Peter, Assessing Radiological Conditions at Bikini Atoll and the Prospects for Resettlement Review at Bikini Atoll, IAEA, (1998)
Beck, H. L.; Bouville, A.; Moroz, B. E.; Simon, S. L. (2010). "Fallout deposition in the Marshall Islands from Bikini and Enewetak nuclear weapons tests". Health Physics. 99 (2): 124–142. Bibcode:2010HeaPh..99..124B. doi:10.1097/HP.0b013e3181bbbfbd. PMC 2904645. PMID 20622548.
== External links ==
A Short History of the People of Bikini Atoll
What About Radiation on Bikini Atoll?
Department of Energy Marshall Islands Program: Chronology of nuclear testing, relocation of islanders and results of radiation tests
Annotated bibliography for Bikini Atoll from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
Islanders Want The Truth About Bikini Nuclear Test
Marshall Islands site
Entry at Oceandots.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 23 December 2010)
Everything Marshall Islands Archived 20 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine
Lauren R. Donaldson Collection, served as a radiation monitor for Operation Crossroads; the codename for the first atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. – University of Washington Digital Collection
The Archeology of the Atomic Bomb A Submerged Cultural Resources Assessment of the Sunken Fleet of Operation Crossroads at Bikini and Kwajalein Atoll Lagoons U.S. National Park Service
$59 Million, Gone: How Bikini Atoll Leaders Blew Through U.S. Trust Fund |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalit_Mohan_Sharma#Family_and_early_life | Lalit Mohan Sharma | Lalit Mohan Sharma (12 February 1928 – 3 November 2008) was the 24th Chief Justice of India, serving for 85 days, from 18 November 1992 until 11 February 1993. He was the son of L.N. Sinha, former Attorney General of India.
== Legal career ==
Passed B.A. Hons. (Patna University) in 1946. Passed B.L. (Patna University) in 1948. Enrolled as articled clerk in High Court, Patna in 1949. Started practice in High Court, Patna as an Advocate – 6 February 1950. Enrolled as Supreme Court Advocate – 6 March 1957. Later nominated as Senior Advocate. Took charge (oath) as Judge, Patna High Court on 12 April 1973.
He joined the Supreme Court of India on 5 October 1987 and appointed as Chief Justice of India on 18 November 1992. Over the course of his Supreme Court tenure, Sharma authored 157 judgments and sat on 406 benches.
He retired from the judicial service on 11 February 1993.
== Family and early life ==
Lalit Mohan Sharma was born on 12 February 1928 in the village of Musi (Belaganj, Gaya, Bihar) in a Bhumihar family. His father, Lal Narayan Sinha, was the Attorney General of India during the Prime Minister-ship of Indira Gandhi and Solicitor General of India from 17 July 1972 until 5 April 1977. His son, Justice Partha Sarthy currently serves as a Judge in the Patna High Court.
== Death ==
Sharma died on 3 November 2008 in Patna at his residence following a long illness. He was 80 years old. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.
== References ==
== External links ==
Biography |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Nasrallah | Hassan Nasrallah | Hassan Nasrallah (31 August 1960 – 27 September 2024) was a Lebanese cleric and politician who served as the third secretary-general of Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist political party and militia, from 1992 until his assassination in 2024.
Born into a Shia family in the suburbs of Beirut in 1960, Nasrallah finished his education in Tyre, when he briefly joined the Amal Movement, and afterward at a Shia seminary in Baalbek. He later studied and taught at an Amal school. In 1982, Nasrallah served as a founding member of Hezbollah, which was formed to fight the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, declaring that its confrontation with Israel "should only end when it has been removed from existence". After a brief period of religious studies in Iran, Nasrallah returned to Lebanon and became Hezbollah's leader after his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike in 1992.
Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah acquired rockets with a longer range, which allowed them to strike at northern Israel. Israel withdrew its forces in 2000 after the 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, a decision widely considered in Lebanon to have been due to Hezbollah's attacks. The date of Israeli withdrawal is celebrated as a public holiday in Lebanon. Hezbollah cultivated Nasrallah's media image as a charismatic authority, though this image was later weakened. Hezbollah's role in ambushing an Israeli border patrol unit, leading up to the 2006 Lebanon War, was subject to criticism, though Nasrallah projected the end of the war as a Lebanese and Arab victory.
During the Syrian civil war, Hezbollah fought on the side of the Syrian government (Al Assad) against what Nasrallah termed "Islamist extremists". However, several figures and organizations asserted that Nasrallah was responsible for massacres of Sunni Muslims. Nasrallah also promoted the "Axis of Resistance", an informal coalition of Iran-backed groups focused on opposing Israel and the United States. After the October 7 attacks followed by war, Hezbollah engaged in support of Hamas in ongoing conflict that impacted both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border. On 27 September 2024, Nasrallah was killed when the Israeli air force attacked Hezbollah's Headquarters.
== Early life and education ==
Hassan Nasrallah was born the ninth of ten children into a Shia family in Bourj Hammoud, Matn District (an eastern suburb of Beirut), on 31 August 1960. His father, Abdul Karim Nasrallah, was born in Al-Bazouriyah, a village in Jabal Amel (Southern Lebanon) located near Tyre, and worked as a fruit and vegetables seller. Although his family was not particularly religious, Hassan was interested in theological studies. He attended the al-Najah school and later on, a public school in the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Sin el Fil.
In 1975, the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War forced the family, including Nasrallah, who was 15 at the time, to move to their ancestral home in Bazourieh, where Nasrallah completed his secondary education at the public school in Tyre. There, he briefly joined the Amal Movement, a Lebanese Shia political group.
Nasrallah studied at the Shia seminary in the Beqaa Valley town of Baalbek. The school followed the teachings of Iraqi Shi'ite scholar Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, who founded the Dawa movement in Najaf, Iraq, during the early 1960s. In 1976, at 16, Nasrallah traveled to Iraq where he was admitted into al-Sadr's seminary in Najaf. It is said that Al-Sadr recognized Nasrallah's qualities and Al-Sadr is quoted as saying "I scent in you the aroma of leadership; you are one of the Ansar [followers] of the Mahdi...". Nasrallah was expelled from Iraq, along with dozens of other Lebanese students in 1978. Al-Sadr was imprisoned, tortured, and brutally murdered. Nasrallah was forced to return to Lebanon in 1979, by that time having completed the first part of his study, as Saddam Hussein was expelling many Shias including the future Iranian supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, and also Abbas Musawi.
Back in Lebanon, Nasrallah studied and taught at the school of Amal's leader Abbas al-Musawi, later being selected as Amal's political delegate in Beqaa, and making him a member of the central political office. Around the same time, in 1980, Al-Sadr was executed by Hussein.
== Early activities ==
In 1982, Nasrallah helped organize the group that would become Hezbollah, which was formed initially to repel the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In 1989, Hassan Nasrallah traveled to Qom, Iran, where he furthered his religious studies.
Nasrallah believed that Islam holds the solution to the problems of any society, once saying, "With respect to us, briefly, Islam is not a simple religion including only prayers and praises, rather it is a divine message that was designed for humanity, and it can answer any question man might ask concerning his general and personal life. Islam is a religion designed for a society that can revolt and build a community."
In 1991, Nasrallah returned to Lebanon and the next year replaced Musawi as Hezbollah's leader after the latter was killed by an Israeli airstrike.
== Political career ==
=== Leadership of Hezbollah ===
Nasrallah became the leader of Hezbollah after the Israelis assassinated the previous leader, Musawi, in 1992. During Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah acquired rockets with a longer range, which allowed them to strike at northern Israel despite the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. In 1993, Israel carried out Operation Accountability which resulted in the destruction of much of Lebanon's infrastructure, and Israel claimed the operation was successful. An agreement was eventually reached whereby Israel ended its attacks in Lebanon and Hezbollah agreed to stop attacks on northern Israel.
After a short pause, hostilities resumed. In 1996 Israel launched Operation Grapes of Wrath, blocking important Lebanese harbour cities and bombing a Syrian military base. After 16 days of Israeli attacks in Lebanon, the Israeli–Lebanese Ceasefire Understanding was agreed upon. Again, Hezbollah agreed to stop rocket attacks in exchange for Israel halting its attacks. As in 1993, the peace did not last for long.
In September 1997, Nasrallah's public image changed dramatically with his speech about the news of his eldest son's killing by Israeli forces, along with his visits to other mourning families. Nasrallah's reaction became a media event that "served to bring Lebanese nationals together as a collective" and cast Nasrallah "as an extraordinarily selfless leader and an organic leader with deep roots in popular culture."
In Israel, it was increasingly debated whether the presence of Israeli forces in southern Lebanon was working, since it was clear that the 'security zone' could not stop Hezbollah rockets reaching into Israel. After heavy Israeli casualties in south Lebanon, some Israeli politicians argued that the conflict would only end if Israel withdrew from Lebanon. In 2000, Ehud Barak withdrew Israeli forces from Lebanon. After the Israeli withdrawal, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), which was supported by Israel, was quickly overrun by Hezbollah. Some SLA members escaped to Israel, but many were captured by Hezbollah. That success against Israel greatly increased Hezbollah's popularity within Lebanon and the Islamic world.
As a result, Nasrallah was credited in Lebanon and the Arab world for ending the Israeli occupation of the South of Lebanon, something which has greatly bolstered the party's political standing within Lebanon. Nasrallah played a major role in a complex prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hezbollah in 2004, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners being freed and many human remains, including that of his son, being returned to Lebanon. The agreement was described across the Arab world as a magnificent victory for Hezbollah, and Nasrallah was personally praised for achieving these gains.
A December article in the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat said that command of the organization's military wing was transferred from Nasrallah to his deputy, Na'im Qasim in August 2007. Hezbollah denied the suggestion, declaring it an attempt to "weaken the popularity" of the movement. In October 2008, Hashem Safieddine, his cousin, was assigned to succeed Nasrallah as secretary general of Hezbollah. Widespread protests in Lebanon in October 2019 due to a deepening financial and economic crisis put pressure on the government leaders to resign, including Nasrallah himself.
Under his tenure, Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organization, either wholly or in part, by the United States and other nations, as well as by the European Union. The Arab League designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization in 2016, but as of 2024 no longer views it as one. As of 2015, Russia was rejecting the claims that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, and considered Hezbollah a legitimate sociopolitical organization. As of 2012, China remains neutral, and maintains contacts with Hezbollah.
=== Memorandum of Understanding with Free Patriotic Movement ===
Nasrallah negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding with the Free Patriotic Movement headed by Michel Aoun, the former premier and a Maronite Christian. Aoun described the ten-point MoU in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal published in July 2006. Hezbollah agreed to disarm upon the return of its prisoners and the occupied Shebaa Farms. It also agreed to the pardon and return of fugitive South Lebanon Army (SLA) members.
The Free Patriotic Movement in turn agreed to work for reform of the confessional electoral system of the Parliament of Lebanon and move it in the direction of one man, one vote. Aoun made the point that the political process was in effect disarming Hezbollah without any loss in lives from unnecessary wars.
=== 2006 Lebanon War ===
Following an ambush by Hezbollah in Israeli territory that left three soldiers dead and two abducted, the 2006 Lebanon War started. During the war Israeli bombardments seeking Hezbollah targets caused damage in many parts of Beirut, especially the poorer and largely Shiite South Beirut, which is controlled by Hezbollah. On 3 August 2006, Hassan Nasrallah vowed to strike Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israel's bombardment of Lebanon's capital. "If you hit Beirut, the Islamic resistance will hit Tel Aviv and is able to do that with God's help," Nasrallah said in a televised address. He added that Hezbollah forces were inflicting heavy casualties on Israeli ground troops.
During the conflict, Nasrallah came under intense criticism from Arab countries, including Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Jordan's King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned on 14 July of the risk of "the region being dragged into adventurism that does not serve Arab interests," while the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal called the Hezbollah attacks "unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts." He went further, saying, "These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them."
Nasrallah also came under intense criticism from some in Lebanon. Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and the most prominent leader of the Druze community, spoke out quite forcefully: "Great, so he's a hero. But I'd like to challenge this heroism of his. I have the right to challenge it, because my country is in flames. Besides, we did not agree". Jumblatt is also quoted as saying: "He is willing to let the Lebanese capital burn while he haggles over terms of surrender".
At the end of the 2006 war, Nasrallah's speech solidified his public image as a "charismatic leader in the media age," according to Dina Matar, a scholar of Arab media. The speech made him a "symbol of pan-Arab national heroism" and it included this appeal to the Lebanese nation: Our victory is not the victory of the party... it is not the victory of a party or a community; rather it is a victory for Lebanon, for the real Lebanese people, and every free person in the world... Your resistance, which offered in the 2000 victory a model for liberation, offered in the year 2006 a model for steadfastness; legendary steadfastness and miraculous steadfastness. It is strong proof for all Arabs and Muslims, and all rulers, armies and peoples... The Lebanese resistance provided strong proof to all Arab and Islamic armies...What is known as the "Green Flood" (Al-sayl al-akhdhar) came after the war, according to Iranian-born journalist Amir Taheri. "This refers to the massive amounts of U.S. dollar notes that Hezbollah is distributing among all the citizens that were effected from the war in Beirut and the south. The dollars from Iran are ferried to Beirut via Syria and distributed through networks of militants. Anyone who can prove that his home was damaged in the war receives $12,000, a tidy sum in wartorn Lebanon".
In a TV interview aired on Lebanon's New TV station on 27 August 2006, Nasrallah said that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war: "We do not think, even one percent, that the capture led to a war at this time and of this magnitude. I'm convinced and sure that this war was planned and that the capture of these hostages was just their excuse to start their pre-planned war, but if I had known on July 11... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not".
=== 2008 alleged assassination attempt ===
On 15 October 2008, Iraqi news source Almalaf, reported that Nasrallah had been poisoned the previous week, quoting sources in Lebanon, and that he was saved by Iranian doctors who went to Lebanon to treat him. The sources told the paper that a particularly poisonous chemical substance was used against the Shia militia leader. His medical condition was apparently critical for several days until Iranian doctors came and managed to save his life. Almalaf claimed that the sources believed it was highly likely that the poisoning was an Israeli assassination attempt.
Hezbollah denied that Nasrallah had been poisoned. Lebanese parliament member Al-Hajj Hassan, a member of Hezbollah, said: "This is a lie and a fabrication. It's true that I haven't seen Nasrallah this past week, but he's okay." The Iranian doctors arrived on Sunday at approximately 11:00 pm, apparently on a special military flight. According to Almalaf, officials considered flying Nasrallah to Iran for further treatment.
On 25 October 2008, in an interview with the Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar channel, Nasrallah denied the assassination attempt, accusing the Israelis and Americans of fabricating the story and considering it as part of the ongoing psychological war against Hezbollah that aimed to imply that the party was suffering from internal disputes and assassination plots.
Nasrallah also said that "if research was done on the internet websites posting such unfounded information, it would reveal that they are all being run from that same dark room, and that their aim is to serve American-Israeli interests." He added that at first the organization had considered denying the false information with a written message, "but when the news agencies began to publish it we decided to hold a televised interview, and here I am before you telling you I was not poisoned."
=== Syrian Civil War ===
On 25 May 2013, Nasrallah announced that Hezbollah is fighting in the Syrian civil war on the side of al-Assad government against "Islamist extremists" and "pledged that his group will not allow Syrian militants to control areas that border Lebanon". He confirmed that Hezbollah was fighting in the strategic Syrian town of Qusair on the same side as the Syrian army. In the televised address, he said, "If Syria falls in the hands of America, Israel and the takfiris, the people of our region will go into a dark period."
In July 2014, Nasrallah's nephew was killed fighting in Syria. On 27 September 2024, it was reported that his daughter, Zainab, was killed by an Israeli airstrike, however, that turned out to be false.
== Views on international politics ==
=== Approach to Israel and Anti-Semitism ===
In his anti-Israel statements, Nasrallah has called for the end of the State of Israel, and opposed reconciliation, as the only path to justice." He has also highlighted Israel's nuclear weapons as a security threat.
Despite declaring "death to Israel" and "death to America" in his public appearances, Nasrallah said in an interview to The New Yorker in 2003: "At the end of the road, no one can go to war on behalf of the Palestinians, even if that one is not in agreement with what the Palestinians agreed on." When asked in 2004 whether he was prepared to live with a two-state settlement between Israel and Palestine, he said he would not sabotage what is a "Palestinian matter", but that until such a settlement is reached, he will continue to encourage Palestinian resistance.
Lebanese writer, Amal Saad-Ghorayeb quotes Hassan Nasrallah as saying, "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli." Charles Glass questions the attribution of the quote to Nasrallah, noting that both the footnote in Saad-Ghorayeb's book and her original dissertation instead attribute the quote to an interview she conducted with a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese Parliament, Muhammad Fneish.
In a 1998 speech marking the Day of Ashura, and published in what was Hassan Nasrallah's official website at that time, Nasrallah referred to Israel as "the state of the grandsons of apes and pigs – the Zionist Jews" and condemned them as "the murderers of the prophets." The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), a pro-Israel media watchdog group, MEMRI, and Shaul Shai interpret this language as broadly antisemitic. Nasrallah said in a speech delivered in Beirut and aired on Al-Manar TV on 28 September 2001: "What do the Jews want? They want security and money. Throughout history the Jews have been Allah's most cowardly and avaricious creatures. If you look all over the world, you will find no one more miserly or greedy than they are."
After the signing of the Hebron Agreement in 1998 between the Chairman of the PLO Yasser Arafat and Israel, Nasrallah called for Arafat's assassination saying Palestinian police must come out “like Khaled al-Islambuli" (the assassin of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat) and said that Arafat’s presence on earth is a "disgrace”.
Journalist Badih Chayban in a 23 October 2002 article in The Daily Star wrote that Nasrallah said, "If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide." Charles Glass believes that the quotation was likely a fabrication, citing other published accounts of Nasrallah's speech that had no reference to the anti-Semitic comment, and unconfirmed statements by an unnamed person who Glass said is the editor-in-chief of the Lebanese newspaper which published the quotes, that questioned both the translation and the "agenda of the translator." However, the Nasrallah speech in question is published on Hezbollah's website. Chayban shared the link with Glass, who did not correct his accusations accordingly. Glass also wrote that a Hezbollah spokeswoman, Wafa Hoteit, denied that Nasrallah made the statement. More recently, the relevant excerpt from the speech, along with Arabic transcription and English translation, have been published online.
While reading the party's new political manifesto in 2009, Nasrallah disavowed opposition to Jews, only to Israel: "Our problem with [the Israelis] is not that they are Jews, but that they are occupiers who are raping our land and holy places." Speaking on Al Quds Day on 2 August 2013, Nasrallah said that Israel "is a cancer that must be eradicated."
=== September 11 attacks ===
"What do the people who worked in those two World Trade Center towers, along with thousands of employees, women and men, have to do with war that is taking place in the Middle East?... Therefore we condemned this act—and any similar act we condemn... I said nothing about the Pentagon, meaning we remain silent. We neither favored nor opposed that act... Well, of course, the method of Osama bin Laden, and the fashion of bin Laden, we do not endorse them. And many of the operations that they have carried out, we condemned them very clearly."
=== October 7 attacks ===
While calling for the "liberation" of Jerusalem and mentioning Israel as a "Zionist existence", Nasrallah called the attacks of Hamas on Israel on 7 October 2023 a heroic operation. Nasrallah had said that Hezbollah's missile and drone attacks against northern Israel, which began immediately after 7 October, were carried out in solidarity with the Palestinians.
=== Islamist extremism ===
According to Saudi state-owned Al Arabiya, a video posted on their site is of Nasrallah giving a speech circa 1988 in which he states, "Our plan, to which we, as faithful believers, have no alternative, is to establish an Islamic state... Lebanon should not be an Islamic republic on its own, but rather, part of the Greater Islamic Republic, governed by the Master of Time [the Mahdi], and his rightful deputy, the Jurisprudent Ruler, Imam Khomeini,"
During the 2006 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Nasrallah declared in a speech aired on Al-Manar TV and Al-Jazeera TV that: "If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwā against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Mohammed in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so. I am sure there are millions of Muslims who are ready to give their lives to defend our prophet's honour and we have to be ready to do anything for that."
On 24 February 2012, in a speech in Nabi Sheet for the "remembrance of the fallen martyrs Abbas al-Musawi, Ragheb Harb, and Imad Mughniyah," Hassan Nasrallah said, "I say that the American administration and the American mentality lacks nothing from Satanism. But that kind of behavior and that kind of mistreatment of holy books [referring to the Quran burning incident in Afghanistan in February 2012] and prophets, and the prophets' sanctities, and others' sanctities; this behavior is Israeli and let us say it is Jewish, between quotation marks–now they will say that this is anti-Semitism–[but] the Holy Quran told us about this people: how they attacked their prophets, and how they killed their prophets, and how they affronted their prophets, and how they affronted Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, and how they affronted Mary, peace be upon her, and how they affronted Allah's great messenger Mohammad, May God exalt and bring peace upon him and his family. This [behavior] pattern about affronting holy books, and prophets, and messengers, and sanctities; this is their mentality, and maybe they want to push things more and more toward a religious war worldwide."
=== Palestinian right of return ===
According to the pro-Israeli group CAMERA, Nasrallah said that "The Lebanese refuse to give the Palestinians residing in Lebanon Lebanese citizenship, and we refuse their resettlement in Lebanon. There is Lebanese consensus on this... we thank God that we all agree on one clear and definite result; namely, that we reject the resettlement of the Palestinians in Lebanon." There is broad consensus in Lebanon against the permanent resettlement of Palestinians, due to fears that it could reignite Lebanon's civil war. Likewise, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon consistently favor right of return over Lebanese naturalization.
== Assassination ==
On the evening of 27 September 2024, the Israeli Air Force launched an airstrike on Hezbollah's headquarters in Dahieh, reportedly targeting Nasrallah. At least six people were killed and over 90 injured following the strike, with several missing. The following day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that Nasrallah had died in the strike; Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities later confirmed his death and his body was later found under the rubble. He reportedly died from the toxic fumes he inhaled while under the rubble as he allegedly had not sustained physical wounds. Other sources suggested he had died from blunt force trauma sustained during the attack. Hashem Safieddine was assumed to be his successor but was killed by IDF airstrikes in Dahieh as well. Naim Qassem was elected secretary-general of Hezbollah on 29 October 2024. After his death, Nasrallah was temporarily buried in a secret location to avoid potential Israeli attacks on Hezbollah supporters during his funeral, which took place on 23 February 2025.
The Economist wrote in September 2024 that Nasrallah's death would "reshape" Lebanon and the Middle East in ways which "would have been unthinkable a year ago" and that the next leader of Hezbollah would face the "most precarious moment" in the organization's history owing to Israel's destruction of almost their entire leadership. The Economist felt the Lebanese public perceived the group as "humiliated" and had come to resent their domination of Lebanese politics.
=== Funeral ===
After the ceasefire and partial withdrawal of Israeli forces in Lebanon, a funeral for Nasrallah and Safieddine was held in the capital on 23 February 2025. With an estimate of 450,000 to 1,400,000 attended the funeral, which main event was held at the Camille Chamoun Sports City stadium, many of the attendees were flying the Hezbollah flag and held portraits of Nasrallah and Safieddine. Senior Hezbollah official Ali Daamoush claimed that about 800 personalities from 65 countries would attend the funeral, in addition to thousands of individuals and activists from around the world.
Representatives from Iran, Iraq and Yemen attended the funeral with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the leaders as "two heroes of the resistance" in a speech.
Hours before the funeral began at 13:00 local time, Israeli air forces launched air strikes in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers, and flew low over Beirut. Later Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that Israeli planes were flying over the stadium while the funeral took place to "convey a clear message: whoever threatens to destroy Israel – that will be the end of them".
Nasrallah's body was then buried in Beirut, and Safieddine's in his hometown of Deir Qanoun an-Naher in Southern Lebanon.
== Legacy ==
=== Image ===
By playing a key part in ending the Israeli occupation, Nasrallah became a "national hero" in Lebanon. A New York Times article reported that an Arab politician called him as the "most powerful man in the Middle East" and the "only Arab leader who actually does what he says he's going to do". Al Jazeera compared him to other Arab leaders such as Yasser Arafat and Gamal Abdel Nasser, and leftist revolutionaries like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, while journalist Annia Ciezadlo described him as an "emblem of Islam and Arab pride". Writer and analyst Amal Saad-Ghorayeb said that he is "passionate" but also "plainspoken and practical". American activist Osama Siblani praised Nasrallah as a "great leader" at a 2024 Gaza war protest rally in Dearborn, Michigan.
Nasrallah was often referred to as "al-Sayyid Hassan" (السيد حسن), the honorific "Sayyid" denoting a claim of descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandson Husayn ibn Ali.
However, many Lebanese, especially Sunni Muslims and Christians, were not supportive of Nasrallah. He was often seen as an agent of Iranian interests in the region, as his close ties to Tehran led to perceptions that he prioritized Iranian objectives over Lebanese or Arab interests. Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah had been implicated in numerous assassinations against critics and Lebanese politicians of the March 14 Alliance, and the group has been referred to as a state within a state, serving as Iran's proxy.
Among anti-Assad Syrians, particularly those in areas held by the opposition to Assad such as Idlib, Nasrallah was often despised. Many saw him as being complicit in the atrocities committed by the Assad regime during the Syrian civil war. Following reports of Nasrallah's assassination, jubilant celebrations erupted in parts of Syria, especially among those opposed to the Assad regime.
=== In popular culture ===
Two popular songs were written about Nasrallah during the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War, with vastly different views of the Hezbollah leader: "The Hawk of Lebanon" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and "Yalla Ya Nasrallah", against Nasrallah, in Israel.
In 2007, Lebanese singer Alaa Zalzali composed a tribute song entitled "Ya Nasrallah". Another popular song composed in tribute to him was by Lebanese Christian singer Julia Boutros, called "Ahebba'i", meaning "my loved ones", which was inspired by Nasrallah's words in a televised message he sent to Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon during the 2006 war.
== Personal life ==
Nasrallah married Fatima Mustafa Yassine in 1978. They had four sons and one daughter, namely Mohammad Hadi Hassan Nasrallah, Mohammad Jawad Hassan Nasrallah, Zeinab Hassan Nasrallah, Mohammad Ali Hassan Nasrallah, and Mohammad Mahdi Hassan Nasrallah.
On the night of 12 September 1997, four Hezbollah fighters were killed in an Israeli ambush near Mlikh. One of the dead was eighteen-year-old Muhammad Hadi, Nasrallah's eldest son. Five Lebanese soldiers and a woman were killed in a simultaneous airstrike north of the security zone. The attacks were seen as a response to the operation a week earlier in which twelve Israeli commandos were killed. Nasrallah was quoted as saying on receiving the news of his son's death: "I am proud to be the father of one of the martyrs".
When the IDF released photos of his son's body and offered to exchange it for body parts of those killed in the earlier ambush, Nasrallah responded: "Keep it. We have many more men like Hadi ready to offer themselves to the struggle". There was a seven-day mourning period held in south Beirut, which was attended by an estimated two hundred thousand people daily.
His son's remains were returned to Lebanon in 2004, as part of the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hezbollah where Nasrallah played a major role. According to Syrian opposition media, Nasrallah was a brother-in-law of Hezbollah commander Wissam al-Tawil, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in January 2024.
On 25 May 2024, Hezbollah media said that Nasrallah's mother, Hajja Umm Hassan, had died. Nasrallah's son-in-law Hassan Jaafar al-Qasir was killed by an Israeli strike on 2 October 2024, five days after Nasrallah's assassination.
== See also ==
Bashar al-Assad
Musa al-Sadr
Ali al-Sistani
Nabih Berri
Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah
Iran–Lebanon relations
Ali Khamenei
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Sources ==
Tucker, Spencer C.; Roberts, Priscilla (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History [4 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-842-2.
Young, Michael (2010). The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon's Life Struggle. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-0945-8.
== External links ==
"The Multilingual Website of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah" Updated source of contents related to him in 31 languages. Its archive is being completed from the link below:
"The Multilingual Page of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah" Archived 19 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine
"Hizballah: A Primer", Lara Deeb, 31 July 2006
"Inside the Mind of Hezbollah", Washington Post, 16 July 2006.
Nasrallah: Israel temporary country YNET
"Seyyed Hasan Nasrallah's Autobiography", Ya Lesarat Ol-Hoseyn (Tehran), Federation of American Scientists Intelligence Resource Program, 10 August 2006
=== Speeches and interviews ===
Speech given on 26 May 2008
Interview on 11 August 2007
Interview with Al-Jazeera on 20 July 2006
Speech on 8 August 2006
Speech on 3 August 2006
Speech on 31 July 2006
Speech on 14 July 2006
Speech on 8 March 2005
Interview with Al-Jazeera
The Beirut File: An Interview with Hassan Nasrallah by Mahir Tan (May 2003) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauro_Forghieri | Mauro Forghieri | Mauro Forghieri (13 January 1935 – 2 November 2022) was an Italian mechanical engineer, best known for his work as a Formula One racing car designer with Scuderia Ferrari during the 1960s and 1970s. He is credited with introducing the first designed rear wings to Formula One at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix. He oversaw numerous technical developments during his tenure at Ferrari, including the creation of the 250 GTO and P-series sports racing cars, the Ferrari flat-12 series of engines, Ferrari's first turbocharged engine in the 126 C F1 car, and a prototype semi-automatic transmission in 1979. During Forghieri's tenure with Ferrari, the company won the F1 World Driver's Championship four times and the F1 World Constructors' Championship seven times. After leaving Ferrari in 1987, he worked at Lamborghini and Bugatti then founded the Oral Engineering Group in 1995.
== Early life ==
Forghieri was born in Modena, Emilia-Romagna, on 13 January 1935, the only child of Reclus and Afra Forghieri. His father Reclus, a turner, did war work during World War II for the Ansaldo mechanical workshops of Naples. During this time, Mauro lived primarily with his mother, spending time in Naples, Milan, Modena and Abbiategrasso. After the war, the Forghieri family reunited and returned to Modena, where Reclus began working in the Ferrari workshop in Maranello. Meanwhile, Mauro completed the liceo scientifico and in 1959 obtained a laurea in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bologna.
== Career ==
=== Ferrari ===
Despite his initial interest in aviation design, Forghieri accepted an internship offer from Ferrari, to which he had been introduced by his father. Beginning in spring of 1960, he started an apprenticeship in the engine department. Forghieri began working alongside many engineers involved in Ferrari's early history, including Vittorio Jano, Carlo Chiti and Luigi Bazzi, as well as race director Romolo Tavoni. He also worked alongside Giampaolo Dallara, who joined Ferrari shortly after Forghieri in 1960. Forghieri's early work at the factory involved both racing cars and production road cars.
In 1961, some key figures at Ferrari, including chief designer Carlo Chiti, left to join the breakaway ATS Formula One team, in an event that became known as "the great walkout". Forghieri remained as the only credentialed engineer on staff. Soon after the walkout, Forghieri was personally asked by Enzo Ferrari to begin studying the "full technical questions of the Factory" (Forghieri's words). As he was only 27 years of age at the time, Forghieri received guidance from a few more experienced staff members, including Franco Rocchi, Walter Salvarani and Angelo Bellei. Forghieri was soon appointed technical director for racing cars, a position he would remain in until 1984. His responsibilities included overseeing technical development, managing the technical section during races and collaborating with other Ferrari departments, including the testing department and the drafting department.
Forghieri left his position as technical director in 1984. In January 1985, he began work on the Ferrari 408 4RM concept car. The 408 project was completed in Spring of 1987 and Forghieri departed Ferrari for good shortly after.
==== Notable designs at Ferrari ====
Forghieri was involved to some degree in the development of every racing car produced by the Factory between his hiring after graduation and his departure in 1987.
The sports racing cars designed under Forghieri's supervision included the GT-class 250 GTO, the development of which Forghieri continued after the original team headed by Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini left during the 1961 walkout. Other GT-class cars included competition versions of the 275 GTB and the 330 LMB. Sports prototypes designed by Forghieri's team included the P series and later iterations of the Dino series, starting with the 1965 Dino 166 P. Forghieri stated that the 1967 330 P4 was his favorite out of all the cars he designed.
In 1964, Forghieri designed the V8-powered Ferrari 158, in which John Surtees won the 1964 Formula One World Championship. The 158 and the Ferrari 1512 shared a Forghieri-designed aluminum monocoque chassis, the first use of this technology in a Ferrari F1 car.
Beginning in 1966, Forghieri designed the Ferrari 312 series (consisting of the 312, 312B and 312T Formula One cars and 312P and 312PB sportscars). In 1979, he designed a semi-automatic transmission for the 312T, which was tested by Gilles Villeneuve but never used in competition. This predated the use of a similar system in the 1989 Ferrari 640 F1 car and the introduction of the roadgoing "F1" automated manual transmission in the 1997 F355. In 1979 he began work on Ferrari's first turbocharged engine, which debuted in the 1981 126 C. Under his guidance, Ferrari won the driver's F1 world championship title four times, with John Surtees (1964), Niki Lauda (1975 and 1977), and Jody Scheckter (1979). Ferrari also won the constructors F1 world championship title seven times.
=== Lamborghini and Bugatti ===
In September 1987, Forghieri joined Lamborghini Engineering, a department created by Lee Iacocca, then CEO of Chrysler, who had bought the Emilian car firm Lamborghini.
In that organization, which had ex-Ferrari Daniele Audetto as sports director, Forghieri designed the naturally aspirated Lamborghini 3512 V12 engine, which made its Formula One racing debut at the 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix. The V12 engine was used by the Larrousse/Lola team during the 1989 F1 season. This engine was also used in the 1990 Lotus 102 F1 car.
Following the encouraging performance of the engine, the project of designing a complete F1 car was conceived, thanks to financing by the Mexican businessman Fernando Gonzalez Luna. The newly-formed team was named GLAS F1, from an abbreviation of Gonzales Luna Associates. Former journalist Leopoldo Canettoli was picked to run the team. The car's suspension and gearbox were designed by Forghieri and the bodywork was designed by Mario Tolentino. The first complete car, the GLAS 001, was slated for a debut at the 1990 Mexican GP, but the day before the official presentation to the press, Gonzalez Luna disappeared with a conspicuous amount of money that had been paid by sponsors. Following Luna's disappearance, the car and team remained in financial limbo until the team was purchased by Carlo Patrucco in July 1990. Patrucco created Modena Team (also known as the Lamborghini or "Lambo" team) and the Forghieri/Tolentino-designed car debuted as the Lambo 291 at the 1991 United States Grand Prix.
In 1991, the Lamborghini Engineering department was completely reorganized by Chrysler enterprise and Forghieri was replaced by Mike Royce. In 1992, he became the technical director of the re-emerging Bugatti, where he stayed until 1994. While at Bugatti, Forghieri was involved in the development of the EB 110 and the EB 112.
In 1994, he was called as an expert in the trial relating to the death of driver Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
=== Oral Engineering Group ===
On 1 January 1995, Forghieri co-founded with Franco Antoniazzi and Sergio Lugli the Oral Engineering Group, a mechanical design company. Forghieri was active in company operations, which include design, research and development of automobile, motorcycle, marine and go-kart engines and components. Clients include BMW, Bugatti, and Aprilia. Oral Engineering was commissioned to convert the Ferrari Pinin concept car from a static display into a driveable vehicle.
=== Project 1221 ===
Around 2005, Forghieri joined Project 1221, an Italian automobile company developing a new MF1 sports car, as chief engineer.
== Later life ==
Forghieri was critical of the drag reduction system introduced to Formula One in the 2010s. He was declared an honorary citizen of Modena in 2021.
Forghieri died on 2 November 2022, at the age of 87. Scuderia Ferrari commemorated Forghieri's passing with decals reading "ciao Furia", meaning "goodbye Fury," Forghieri's nickname during his time at Ferrari. These decals were applied to Scuderia Ferrari F1-75 cars at the 2022 São Paulo Grand Prix and 488 GTE cars at the 2022 8 Hours of Bahrain FIA World Endurance Championship race.
== Formula One Championships ==
Forghieri-designed cars won eight World Constructors' and four World Drivers' championships.
== References ==
Buzzonetti, Daniele; Mauro Forghieri (2009). Mauro Forghieri: 30 anni di Ferrari e oltre. Firenze, Italia: Giunti. ISBN 9788809062092. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Mauro Forghieri's autobiography.
Forghieri, Mauro; Buzzonetti, Daniele (2012). La Ferrari secondo Forghieri – dal 1947 ad oggi. Nada. ISBN 978-88-7911-537-7.
== External links ==
Grand Prix History – Hall of Fame, Mauro Forghieri |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War | Gulf War | The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States. The coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.
On 2 August 1990, Iraq, governed by Saddam Hussein, invaded neighboring Kuwait and fully occupied the country within two days. The invasion was primarily over disputes regarding Kuwait's alleged slant drilling in Iraq's Rumaila oil field, as well as to cancel Iraq's large debt to Kuwait from the recently ended Iran–Iraq War. After Iraq briefly occupied Kuwait under a rump puppet government known as the Republic of Kuwait, it split Kuwait's sovereign territory into the Saddamiyat al-Mitla' District in the north, which was absorbed into Iraq's existing Basra Governorate, and the Kuwait Governorate in the south, which became Iraq's 19th governorate.
The invasion of Kuwait was met with immediate international condemnation, including the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 660, which demanded Iraq's immediate withdrawal from Kuwait, and the imposition of comprehensive international sanctions against Iraq with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 661. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and US president George H. W. Bush deployed troops and equipment into Saudi Arabia and urged other countries to send their own forces. Many countries joined the American-led coalition, forming the largest military alliance since World War II. The bulk of the coalition's military power was from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Egypt as the largest lead-up contributors, in that order.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, adopted on 29 November 1990, gave Iraq an ultimatum, expiring on 15 January 1991, to implement Resolution 660 and withdraw from Kuwait, with member-states empowered to use "all necessary means" to force Iraq's compliance. Initial efforts to dislodge the Iraqis from Kuwait began with aerial and naval bombardment of Iraq on 17 January, which continued for five weeks. As the Iraqi military struggled against the coalition attacks, Iraq fired missiles at Israel to provoke an Israeli military response, with the expectation that such a response would lead to the withdrawal of several Muslim-majority countries from the coalition. The provocation was unsuccessful; Israel did not retaliate and Iraq continued to remain at odds with most Muslim-majority countries. Iraqi missile barrages against coalition targets in Saudi Arabia were also largely unsuccessful, and on 24 February 1991, the coalition launched a major ground assault into Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. The offensive was a decisive victory for the coalition, who liberated Kuwait and promptly began to advance past the Iraq–Kuwait border into Iraqi territory. A hundred hours after the beginning of the ground campaign, the coalition ceased its advance into Iraq and declared a ceasefire. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas straddling the Iraq–Saudi Arabia border.
The conflict marked the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the American network CNN. It has also earned the nickname Video Game War, after the daily broadcast of images from cameras onboard American military aircraft during Operation Desert Storm. The Gulf War has also gained fame for some of the largest tank battles in American military history: the Battle of Medina Ridge, the Battle of Norfolk, and the Battle of 73 Easting.
The conflict's environmental impact included Iraqi forces causing over six hundred oil well fires and the largest oil spill in history until that point. US bombing and post-war demolition of Iraqi chemical weapons facilities were concluded to be the primary cause of Gulf War syndrome, experienced by over 40% of US veterans.
== Names ==
The war is also known under other names, such as the Second Gulf War (not to be confused with the 2003 Iraq War, also referred to as such), Persian Gulf War, Kuwait War, or Iraq War before the term "Iraq War" became identified with the 2003 Iraq War (also known in the US as "Operation Iraqi Freedom"). The war was named Umm al-Ma'arik ("mother of all battles") by Iraqi officials. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Gulf War of 1990–1991 is often known as the "First Iraq War".
The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself:
Gulf War and Persian Gulf War are the most common terms for the conflict used within western countries, though it may also be called the First Gulf War (to distinguish it from the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent Iraq War). Some authors have called it the Second Gulf War to distinguish it from the Iran–Iraq War. Liberation of Kuwait (Arabic: تحرير الكويت) (taḥrīr al-kuwayt) is the term used by Kuwait and most of the coalition's Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. Terms in other languages include French: la Guerre du Golfe and Guerre du Koweït (War of Kuwait); German: Golfkrieg (Gulf War) and Zweiter Golfkrieg (Second Gulf War).
=== Operational names ===
Most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the war's operational phases. These are sometimes incorrectly used as the conflict's overall name, especially the US Desert Storm:
Operation Desert Shield was the US operational name for the US buildup of forces and Saudi Arabia's defense from 2 August 1990 to 16 January 1991
Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the airland conflict from 17 January 1991 through 28 February 1991
Operation Desert Sabre (early name Operation Desert Sword) was the US name for the air and land offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations (the "100-hour war") from 24 to 28 February 1991, in itself, part of Operation Desert Storm
Operation Desert Farewell was the name given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwait's liberation, sometimes referred to as Operation Desert Calm
Operativo Alfil was the Argentine name for Argentine military activities
Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict
Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations
Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations and conflict
Operazione Locusta (Italian for Locust) was the Italian name for the operations and conflict
=== Campaign names ===
The US divided the conflict into three major campaigns:
Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
Liberation and Defense of Kuwait for the period 17 January 1991, through 11 April 1991
Southwest Asia Cease-Fire for the period 12 April 1991, through 30 November 1995, including Operation Provide Comfort
== Background ==
Throughout the Cold War, Iraq had been an ally of the Soviet Union, and there was a history of friction between Iraq and the United States. The US was concerned with Iraq's position on Israeli–Palestinian politics. The US also disliked Iraqi support for Palestinian militant groups, which led to Iraq's inclusion on the developing US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in December 1979.
The US remained officially neutral after Iraq's invasion of Iran in 1980, which became the Iran–Iraq War, although it provided resources, political support, and some "non-military" aircraft to Iraq. In March 1982, Iran began a successful counteroffensive (Operation Undeniable Victory), and the US increased its support for Iraq to prevent Iran from forcing a surrender. In a US bid to open full diplomatic relations with Iraq, the country was removed from the US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Ostensibly, this was because of improvement in the regime's record, although former US Assistant Defense Secretary Noel Koch later stated: "No one had any doubts about [the Iraqis'] continued involvement in terrorism ... The real reason was to help them succeed in the war against Iran."
With Iraq's newfound success in the war, and the Iranian rebuff of a peace offer in July, arms sales to Iraq reached a record spike in 1982. When Iraqi President Saddam Hussein expelled Abu Nidal to Syria at the US's request in November 1983, the Reagan administration sent Donald Rumsfeld to meet Saddam as a special envoy and to cultivate ties. By the time the ceasefire with Iran was signed in August 1988, Iraq was heavily debt-ridden and tensions within society were rising. Most of its debt was owed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Iraq's debts to Kuwait amounted to $14 billion. Iraq pressured both nations to forgive the debts, but they refused.
The Iraq–Kuwait border dispute involved Iraqi claims to Kuwaiti territory. Kuwait had been a part of the Ottoman Empire's province of Basra, something that Iraq claimed made Kuwait rightful Iraqi territory. Kuwait's ruling dynasty, the al-Sabah family, had concluded a protectorate agreement in 1899 that assigned responsibility for Kuwait's foreign affairs to the United Kingdom. The UK drew the border between Kuwait and Iraq in 1922, making Iraq almost entirely landlocked. Kuwait rejected Iraqi attempts to secure further provisions in the region.
Iraq also accused Kuwait of exceeding its OPEC quotas for oil production. In order for the cartel to maintain its desired price of $18 per barrel, discipline was required. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait were consistently overproducing; the latter at least in part to repair losses caused by Iranian attacks in the Iran–Iraq War and to pay for the losses of an economic scandal. The result was a slump in the oil price – as low as $10 per barrel ($63/m3) – with a resulting loss of $7 billion a year to Iraq, equal to its 1989 balance of payments deficit. Resulting revenues struggled to support the government's basic costs, let alone repair Iraq's damaged infrastructure. Jordan and Iraq both looked for more discipline, with little success. The Iraqi government described it as a form of economic warfare, which it claimed was aggravated by Kuwait slant-drilling across the border into Iraq's Rumaila oil field. According to oil workers in the area, Iraq's slant drilling claim was fabricated, as "oil flows easily from the Rumaila field without any need for these techniques." At the same time, Saddam looked for closer ties with those Arab states that had supported Iraq in the war. This move was supported by the US, who believed that Iraqi ties with pro-Western Gulf states would help bring and maintain Iraq inside the US' sphere of influence.
In 1989, it appeared that Saudi–Iraqi relations, strong during the war, would be maintained. A pact of non-interference and non-aggression was signed between the countries, followed by a Kuwaiti-Iraqi deal for Iraq to supply Kuwait with water for drinking and irrigation, although a request for Kuwait to lease Iraq Umm Qasr was rejected. Saudi-backed development projects were hampered by Iraq's large debts, even with the demobilization of 200,000 soldiers. Iraq also looked to increase arms production so as to become an exporter, although the success of these projects was also restrained by Iraq's obligations; in Iraq, resentment to OPEC's controls mounted.
Iraq's relations with its Arab neighbors, particularly Egypt, were degraded by mounting violence in Iraq against expatriate groups, who were well-employed during the war, by unemployed Iraqis, among them demobilized soldiers. These events drew little notice outside the Arab world because of fast-moving events directly related to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. However, the US did begin to condemn Iraq's human rights record, including the well-known use of torture. The UK also condemned the execution of Farzad Bazoft, a journalist working for the British newspaper The Observer. Following Saddam's declaration that "binary chemical weapons" would be used on Israel if it used military force against Iraq, Washington halted part of its funding. A UN mission to the Israeli-occupied territories, where riots had resulted in Palestinian deaths, was vetoed by the US, making Iraq deeply skeptical of US foreign policy aims in the region, combined with the reliance of the US on Middle Eastern energy reserves.
In early July 1990, Iraq complained about Kuwait's behavior, such as not respecting their quota, and openly threatened to take military action. On the 23rd, the CIA reported that Iraq had moved 30,000 troops to the Iraq-Kuwait border, and the US naval fleet in the Persian Gulf was placed on alert. Saddam believed an anti-Iraq conspiracy was developing – Kuwait had begun talks with Iran, and Iraq's rival Syria had arranged a visit to Egypt. On 15 July 1990, Saddam's government laid out its combined objections to the Arab League, including that policy moves were costing Iraq $1 billion a year, that Kuwait was still using the Rumaila oil field, and that loans made by the UAE and Kuwait could not be considered debts to its "Arab brothers". He threatened force against Kuwait and the UAE, saying: "The policies of some Arab rulers are American ... They are inspired by America to undermine Arab interests and security." The US sent aerial refuelling planes and combat ships to the Persian Gulf in response to these threats. Discussions in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, mediated on the Arab League's behalf by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, were held on 31 July and led Mubarak to believe that a peaceful course could be established.
During Saddam Hussein's 2003–2004 interrogation following his capture he claimed that in addition to economic disputes, an insulting exchange between the Kuwaiti emir Al Sabah and the Iraqi foreign minister – during which the emir stated his intention to turn "every Iraqi woman into a $10 prostitute" by bankrupting the country – was a decisive factor in triggering the Iraqi invasion.
On the 25th, Saddam met with April Glaspie, the US Ambassador to Iraq, in Baghdad. The Iraqi leader attacked American policy with regards to Kuwait and the UAE:
So what can it mean when America says it will now protect its friends? It can only mean prejudice against Iraq. This stance plus maneuvers and statements which have been made has encouraged the UAE and Kuwait to disregard Iraqi rights ... If you use pressure, we will deploy pressure and force. We know that you can harm us although we do not threaten you. But we too can harm you. Everyone can cause harm according to their ability and their size. We cannot come all the way to you in the United States, but individual Arabs may reach you ... We do not place America among the enemies. We place it where we want our friends to be and we try to be friends. But repeated American statements last year made it apparent that America did not regard us as friends.
Glaspie replied:
I know you need funds. We understand that and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. But we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait ... Frankly, we can only see that you have deployed massive troops in the south. Normally that would not be any of our business. But when this happens in the context of what you said on your national day, then when we read the details in the two letters of the Foreign Minister, then when we see the Iraqi point of view that the measures taken by the UAE and Kuwait is, in the final analysis, parallel to military aggression against Iraq, then it would be reasonable for me to be concerned.
Saddam stated that he would attempt last-ditch negotiations with the Kuwaitis but Iraq "would not accept death."
According to Glaspie's own account, she stated in reference to the precise border between Kuwait and Iraq, "... that she had served in Kuwait 20 years before; 'then, as now, we took no position on these Arab affairs'." Glaspie similarly believed that war was not imminent.
Saddam's foreign minister Tariq Aziz later told PBS Frontline in 1996 that the Iraqi leadership was under "no illusion" about America's likely response to the Iraqi invasion: "She [Glaspie] didn't tell us anything strange. She didn't tell us in the sense that we concluded that the Americans will not retaliate. That was nonsense you see. It was nonsense to think that the Americans would not attack us." Then in a second 2000 interview with the same television program, Aziz said:There were no mixed signals. We should not forget that the whole period before August 2 witnessed a negative American policy towards Iraq. So it would be quite foolish to think that, if we go to Kuwait, then America would like that. Because the American tendency ... was to untie Iraq. So how could we imagine that such a step was going to be appreciated by the Americans? It looks foolish, you see, this is fiction. About the meeting with April Glaspie—it was a routine meeting...She didn't say anything extraordinary beyond what any professional diplomat would say without previous instructions from his government...what she said were routine, classical comments on what the president was asking her to convey to President Bush. He wanted her to carry a message to George Bush—not to receive a message through her from Washington. On 26 July 1990, only a few days before the Iraqi invasion, OPEC officials said that Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates had agreed to a proposal to limit their oil output to 1.5 million barrels (240,000 m3) per day, "down from the nearly 2 million barrels a day they had each been pumping," thus potentially settling differences over oil policy between Kuwait and Iraq.
== Invasion of Kuwait ==
The result of the Jeddah talks was an Iraqi demand for $10 billion to cover the lost revenues from Rumaila; Kuwait offered $500 million. The Iraqi response was to immediately order an invasion, which started on 2 August 1990 with the bombing of Kuwait's capital, Kuwait City.
Before the invasion, the Kuwaiti military was believed to have numbered 16,000 men, arranged into three armored, one mechanized infantry and one under-strength artillery brigade. The pre-war strength of the Kuwait Air Force was around 2,200 Kuwaiti personnel, with 80 fixed-wing aircraft and 40 helicopters. In spite of Iraqi sabre-rattling, Kuwait did not mobilize its force; the army had been stood-down on 19 July, and during the Iraqi invasion many Kuwaiti military personnel were on leave.
By 1988, at the end of the Iran–Iraq war, the Iraqi Army was the world's fourth largest army, consisting of 955,000 standing soldiers and 650,000 paramilitary forces in the Popular Army. According to John Childs and André Corvisier, a low estimate shows the Iraqi Army capable of fielding 4,500 tanks, 484 combat aircraft and 232 combat helicopters. According to Michael Knights, a high estimate shows the Iraqi Army capable of fielding one million troops and 850,000 reservists, 5,500 tanks, 3,000 artillery pieces, 700 combat aircraft and helicopters; it held 53 divisions, 20 special-forces brigades, and several regional militias, and had a strong air defense.
Iraqi commandos infiltrated the Kuwaiti border first to prepare for the major units, which began the attack at midnight. The Iraqi attack had two prongs, with the primary attack force driving south straight for Kuwait City down the main highway, and a supporting attack force entering Kuwait farther west, but then turning and driving east, cutting off Kuwait City from the country's southern half. The commander of a Kuwaiti armored battalion, 35th Armoured Brigade, deployed them against the Iraqi attack and conducted a robust defense at the Battle of the Bridges near Al Jahra, west of Kuwait City.
Kuwaiti aircraft scrambled to meet the invading force, but approximately 20% were lost or captured. A few combat sorties were flown against Iraqi ground forces.
The main Iraqi thrust into Kuwait City was conducted by commandos deployed by helicopters and boats to attack the city from the sea, while other divisions seized the airports and two airbases. The Iraqis attacked the Dasman Palace, the Royal Residence of Kuwait's Emir, Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, which was defended by the Emiri Guard supported with M-84 tanks. In the process, the Iraqis killed Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Emir's youngest brother.
Within 12 hours, most resistance had ended within Kuwait, and the royal family had fled, allowing Iraq to control most of Kuwait. After two days of intense combat, most of the Kuwaiti military were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard, or had escaped to Saudi Arabia. The Emir and key ministers fled south along the highway for refuge in Saudi Arabia. Iraqi ground forces consolidated their control of Kuwait City, then headed south and redeployed along the Saudi border. After the decisive Iraqi victory, Saddam initially installed a puppet regime known as the "Provisional Government of Free Kuwait" before installing his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid as Kuwait's governor on 8 August.
After the invasion, the Iraqi military looted over $1 billion in banknotes from Kuwait's Central Bank. At the same time, Saddam Hussein made the Kuwaiti dinar equal to the Iraqi dinar, thereby lowering the Kuwaiti currency to one-twelfth of its original value. In response, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah ruled the banknotes as invalid and refused to reimburse stolen notes, which became worthless because of a UN embargo. After the conflict ended, many of the stolen banknotes made their way back into circulation. The stolen banknotes are a collectible for numismatists.
=== Kuwaiti resistance movement ===
Kuwaitis founded a local armed resistance movement following the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. The Kuwaiti resistance's casualty rate far exceeded that of the coalition military forces and Western hostages. The resistance predominantly consisted of ordinary citizens who lacked any form of training and supervision.
== Run-up to the war ==
=== Diplomatic means ===
A key element of US political, military and energy economic planning occurred in 1984. The Iran–Iraq war had been going on for five years and both had sustained casualties into the hundreds of thousands. Within President Ronald Reagan's National Security Council concern was growing war could spread beyond the two belligerents. A National Security Planning Group meeting was formed, chaired by then Vice President George H. W. Bush, to review US options. It was determined that the conflict would likely spread into Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, but the US had little capability to defend the region. A prolonged war in the region would induce much higher oil prices and threaten the recovery of the world economy, which was just beginning to gain momentum. In May 1984, President Reagan was briefed on the project conclusions by William Flynn Martin who had served as the head of the NSC staff that organized the study. The declassified presentation can be seen here: The conclusions were: first, oil stocks needed to be increased among members of the International Energy Agency and, if necessary, released early if the oil market was disrupted; second, the US needed to strengthen the security of friendly Arab states in the region; and third, an embargo should be placed on sales of military equipment to Iran and Iraq. The plan was approved by Reagan and affirmed by the G7 leaders headed by the UK's Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, in the 10th G7 summit, held in London in June. The plan was implemented and became the basis for US preparedness to respond to the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1991.
Within hours of the invasion, Kuwait and US delegations requested a meeting of the UN Security Council, which passed Resolution 660, condemning the invasion and demanding a withdrawal of Iraqi troops. On 3 August 1990, the Arab League passed a resolution, which called for a solution from within the league, and warned against outside intervention. Iraq and Libya were the only Arab League states that opposed the resolution for Iraq to withdraw; the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) opposed it as well. Yemen and Jordan – a Western ally which bordered Iraq and relied on the country for economic support – opposed military intervention from non-Arab states. Separately, Sudan, also an Arab League member, aligned itself with Saddam.
On 6 August, Resolution 661 placed economic sanctions on Iraq. Resolution 665 followed soon after, which authorized a naval blockade to enforce the sanctions. It said the "use of measures commensurate to the specific circumstances as may be necessary ... to halt all inward and outward maritime shipping in order to inspect and verify their cargoes and destinations and to ensure strict implementation of resolution 661."
The US administration had at first been indecisive with an "undertone ... of resignation to the invasion and even adaptation to it as a fait accompli" until the UK's prime minister Thatcher played a powerful role, reminding the President that appeasement in the 1930s had led to war, that Saddam would have the whole Gulf at his mercy along with 65% of the world's oil supply, and famously urging Bush "not to go wobbly". Once persuaded, US officials insisted on Iraqi pullout, without any linkage to other Middle Eastern problems, accepting the British view that any concession would strengthen Iraqi influence.
On 12 August 1990, Saddam "propose[d] that all cases of occupation, and those cases that have been portrayed as occupation, in the region, be resolved simultaneously". He called for Israel to withdraw from occupied territories in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, Syria to withdraw from Lebanon, and "mutual withdrawals by Iraq and Iran and arrangement for the situation in Kuwait." He called for a replacement of US troops, that mobilized in Saudi Arabia, with "an Arab force", as long as that force did not involve Egypt. He requested an "immediate freeze of all boycott and siege decisions" and a normalization of relations with Iraq. Bush was strongly opposed to any "linkage" between Iraq's occupation of Kuwait and the Palestinian issue.
On 23 August, Saddam appeared on state television with Western hostages to whom he had refused exit visas. In the video, he asks a British boy, Stuart Lockwood, whether he is getting his milk, and goes on to say, through his interpreter, "We hope your presence as guests here will not be for too long. Your presence here, and in other places, is meant to prevent the scourge of war."
Another Iraqi proposal communicated was delivered to US National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft by an unidentified Iraqi official. The official communicated that Iraq would "withdraw from Kuwait and allow foreigners to leave" provided the UN lifted sanctions, allowed "guaranteed access to the Persian Gulf through the Kuwaiti islands of Bubiyan and Warbah", and allowed Iraq to "gain full control of the Rumaila oil field that extends slightly into Kuwaiti territory". The proposal also "include[d] offers to negotiate an oil agreement with the United States 'satisfactory to both nations' national security interests,' develop a joint plan 'to alleviate Iraq's economical and financial problems' and 'jointly work on the stability of the gulf.'"
On 29 November 1990, the Security Council passed Resolution 678, which gave Iraq until 15 January 1991 to withdraw from Kuwait, and empowered states to use "all necessary means" to force Iraq out of Kuwait after the deadline.
In December 1990, Iraq made a proposal to withdraw from Kuwait provided foreign troops left the region and that an agreement was reached regarding the Palestinian problem and the dismantlement of Israel's and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The White House rejected the proposal. The PLO's Yasser Arafat expressed that neither he nor Saddam insisted that solving the Israel–Palestine issues should be a precondition to solving the issues in Kuwait, though he did acknowledge a "strong link" between these problems.
The US and UK stuck to their position there would be no negotiations until Iraq withdrew, and should not grant Iraq concessions, lest they give the impression Iraq benefited from its military campaign. When US Secretary of State James Baker met with Tariq Aziz in Geneva, for last minute peace talks in early 1991, Aziz reportedly made no concrete proposals and did not outline any hypothetical Iraqi moves.
On 14 January 1991, France proposed that the UN Security Council call for "a rapid and massive withdrawal" from Kuwait along with a statement to Iraq that Council members would bring their "active contribution" to a settlement of the region's other problems, "in particular, of the Arab–Israeli conflict and in particular to the Palestinian problem by convening, at an appropriate moment, an international conference" to assure "the security, stability and development of this region of the world." The proposal was supported by Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and several non-aligned states. The US, UK, and Soviet Union rejected it; US Ambassador to the UN Thomas Pickering stated that the French proposal was unacceptable, because it went beyond Council resolutions on the Iraqi invasion. France dropped this proposal when it found "no tangible sign of interest" from Baghdad.
=== Military means ===
A concern in the Western world was the significant threat Iraq posed to Saudi Arabia. Following Kuwait's conquest, the Iraqi Army was within striking distance of Saudi oil fields. Control of these, along with Kuwaiti and Iraqi reserves, would have given Saddam control over most of the world's oil reserves. Iraq had grievances with Saudi Arabia. The Saudis had lent Iraq 26 billion dollars during its war with Iran, as the Saudis feared the influence of Shia Iran's Islamic revolution on its own Shia minority. After the war, Saddam felt he should not have to repay the loans due to the help he had given the Saudis by fighting Iran. After his conquest of Kuwait, Saddam verbally attacked the Saudis. He argued the US-supported Saudi state was an illegitimate and unworthy guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. He combined the language of the Islamist groups that had fought in Afghanistan with the rhetoric Iran had used to attack the Saudis.
Acting on the Carter Doctrine policy, and out of fear the Iraqi Army could invade Saudi Arabia, Bush announced that the US would launch a "wholly defensive" mission to prevent Iraq from invading Saudi Arabia, under the codename Operation Desert Shield. The operation began on 7 August 1990, when US troops were sent to Saudi Arabia, due also to the request of its monarch, King Fahd, who had called for US military assistance. This "wholly defensive" doctrine was quickly abandoned when, on 8 August, Iraq declared Kuwait to be Iraq's 19th province and Saddam named his cousin, Ali Hassan Al-Majid, as its governor.
The US Navy dispatched two naval battle groups built around the aircraft carriers USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and USS Independence to the Gulf, where they were ready by 8 August. The US sent the battleships USS Missouri and USS Wisconsin. 48 US Air Force F-15s from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, landed in Saudi Arabia and commenced round-the-clock air patrols of the Saudi–Kuwait–Iraq border to discourage Iraqi military advances. They were joined by 36 F-15 A-Ds from the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing at Bitburg, Germany. The Bitburg contingent was based at Al Kharj Air Base. The 36th TFW would be responsible for 11 confirmed Iraqi Air Force aircraft shot down during the war. Two Air National Guard units were stationed at Al Kharj Air Base, the South Carolina Air National Guard's 169th Fighter Wing flew bombing missions with 24 F-16s flying 2,000 combat missions and dropping four million pounds (1,800,000 kilograms; 1,800 metric tons) of munitions, and the New York Air National Guard's 174th Fighter Wing from Syracuse flew 24 F-16s on bombing missions. Military buildup continued, reaching 543,000 troops, twice that used in the 2003 invasion. Much of the material was airlifted or carried to the staging areas via fast sealift ships, allowing a quick buildup. Amphibious exercises were carried out in the Gulf, including Operation Imminent Thunder, which involved the USS Midway and 15 other ships, 1,100 aircraft, and a thousand Marines. In a press conference, General Schwarzkopf stated that these exercises were intended to deceive the Iraqi forces, forcing them to continue their defense of the Kuwaiti coastline.
=== Creating a coalition ===
A series of UN Security Council resolutions and Arab League resolutions were passed regarding Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Resolution 678, passed on 29 November 1990, gave Iraq a withdrawal deadline until 15 January 1991 and authorized "all necessary means to uphold and implement Resolution 660", and a diplomatic formulation authorizing the use of force if Iraq failed to comply.
To ensure the US received economic backing, James Baker went on an 11-day journey to nine countries in September 1990, which the press dubbed "The Tin Cup Trip". The first stop was Saudi Arabia, which had already granted permission to the US to use its facilities. However, Baker believed that Saudi Arabia should assume some of the cost of to defend it. When Baker asked King Fahd for $15 billion, the King agreed, with the promise that Baker ask Kuwait for the same amount. The next day, 7 September, Baker did just that, and the Emir of Kuwait, displaced in a Sheraton hotel outside Kuwait, agreed. Baker moved to enter talks with Egypt, whose leadership he considered "the moderate voice of the Middle East". President Mubarak was furious with Saddam for his invasion, and that Saddam had assured Mubarak that an invasion was not his intention. Egypt received approximately $7 billion in debt forgiveness for providing support and troops for the US-led intervention.
After stops in Helsinki and Moscow to smooth out Iraqi demands for a Middle-Eastern peace conference with the Soviet Union, Baker traveled to Syria to discuss its role with President Hafez Assad. Assad had a personal enmity towards Saddam, as "Saddam had been trying to kill him [Assad] for years." Harboring this animosity and impressed with Baker's initiative to visit Damascus (relations had been severed since the 1983 bombing of US barracks), Assad agreed to pledge up to 100,000 Syrian troops to the coalition. This was a vital step in ensuring Arab states were represented in the coalition. In exchange, Washington gave al-Assad the green light to wipe out forces opposing Syria's rule in Lebanon and arranged for weapons valued at a billion dollars to be provided to Syria, mostly through Gulf states. In exchange for Iran's support for the US-led intervention, the US promised Iran to end US opposition to World Bank loans to Iran. On the day before the coalition ground invasion, the World Bank gave Iran the first loan of $250m.
Baker flew to Rome for a meeting with the Italians in which he was promised the use of military equipment, before journeying to Germany to meet with American ally Chancellor Kohl. Although Germany's constitution (brokered by the US) prohibited military involvement outside Germany's borders, Kohl committed a two billion dollar contribution to the war effort, and further economic and military support of coalition ally Turkey, and the transportation of Egyptian soldiers and ships to the Gulf.
A coalition of forces opposing Iraq's aggression was formed, consisting of forces from 42 countries: Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and US. It was the largest coalition since World War II. A group of Afghan mujahideen soldiers also reportedly joined towards the end of the war. Although they did not contribute forces, Japan and Germany made financial contributions totaling $10 billion and $6.6 billion respectively. Luxembourg provided financial support. US troops represented 73% of the coalition's 956,600 troops in Iraq.
US Army General Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. was designated to be the commander of the coalition forces. The Soviet Union condemned Baghdad's aggression against Kuwait, but did not support the US and allied intervention in Iraq and tried to avert it. Many of the coalition countries were reluctant to commit military forces. Some felt that the war was an internal Arab affair or did not want to increase US influence in the Middle East. In the end, however, many governments were persuaded by Iraq's belligerence towards other Arab states, offers of economic aid or debt forgiveness, and threats to withhold aid.
==== Justification for intervention ====
The US and UN gave public justifications for involvement in the conflict, the most prominent being the Iraqi violation of Kuwaiti territorial integrity. In addition, the US moved to support its ally Saudi Arabia, whose importance in the region, and as a key supplier of oil, made it of considerable geopolitical importance. Shortly after the Iraqi invasion, US Defense Secretary Dick Cheney made the first of several visits to Saudi Arabia where King Fahd requested US military assistance. During a speech in a special joint session of the US Congress given on 11 September 1990, Bush summed up the reasons with the following remarks: "Within three days, 120,000 Iraqi troops with 850 tanks had poured into Kuwait and moved south to threaten Saudi Arabia. It was then that I decided to act to check that aggression."
The Pentagon stated that satellite photos showing a buildup of Iraqi forces along the border were the source of this information, but this was later alleged to be false. A reporter for the St. Petersburg Times acquired commercial Soviet satellite images which showed nothing but empty desert.
Other justifications for foreign involvement included Iraq's history of human rights abuses under Saddam. Iraq was known to possess biological weapons and chemical weapons, which Saddam had used against Iranian troops during the Iran–Iraq War and his own country's Kurdish population in the Al-Anfal campaign. Iraq was known to have a nuclear weapons program; the report about it from January 1991 was partially declassified by the CIA in May 2001.
==== Public relations campaign targeting the public ====
Although the Iraqi military committed human rights abuses during the invasion, the alleged incidents that received the most publicity in the US were fabrications of the public relations firm hired by the government of Kuwait to persuade Americans to support military intervention. Shortly after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the organization Citizens for a Free Kuwait was formed in the US. It hired the public relations firm Hill & Knowlton for about $11 million, paid by Kuwait's government.
Among many other means of influencing US opinion, such as distributing books on Iraqi atrocities to US soldiers deployed, "Free Kuwait" T-shirts and speakers to college campuses, and video news releases to television stations, the firm arranged for an appearance before members of the US Congress in which a young woman identifying herself as a nurse working in the Kuwait City hospital described Iraqi soldiers pulling babies out of incubators and letting them die on the floor. The story helped tip the public and Congress towards a war with Iraq: six Congressmen said the testimony was enough for them to support military action against Iraq and seven Senators referenced the testimony in debate. The Senate supported the military actions in a 52–47 vote. However, a year after the war, this allegation was revealed to be a fabrication. The young woman was found to be a member of Kuwait's royal family and the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the US. She had not lived in Kuwait during the Iraqi invasion.
The details of the Hill & Knowlton public relations campaign, including the incubator testimony, were published in John R. MacArthur's Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War, and came to public attention when an Op-ed by MacArthur was published in The New York Times. This prompted a reexamination by Amnesty International, which had promoted an account alleging even greater numbers of babies torn from incubators than the fake testimony. After finding no evidence to support it, the organization issued a retraction. Bush repeated the incubator allegations on television.
The Iraqi Army did commit well-documented crimes during its occupation, such as the summary execution without trial of three brothers, after which their bodies were stacked and left to decay in a street. Iraqi troops ransacked and looted private homes; one residence was repeatedly defecated in. A resident later commented: "The whole thing was violence for the sake of violence, destruction for the sake of destruction ... Imagine a surrealistic painting by Salvador Dalí". Bush repeatedly compared Saddam Hussein to Hitler.
== Early battles ==
=== Air campaign ===
The Gulf War began with an extensive aerial bombing campaign on 16 January 1991. For 42 consecutive days and nights, the coalition forces subjected Iraq to one of the most intensive air bombardments in military history. The coalition flew over 100,000 sorties, dropping 88,500 tonnes of bombs, which widely destroyed military and civilian infrastructure.
Iraqi anti-aircraft defenses, including man-portable air-defense systems, were surprisingly ineffective against enemy aircraft, and the coalition suffered only 75 aircraft losses in over 100,000 sorties, 44 due to Iraqi action. Two of these losses are the result of aircraft colliding with the ground while evading Iraqi ground-fired weapons. One of these losses is a confirmed air-air victory.
=== Iraqi Scud missile strikes on Israel and Saudi Arabia ===
Iraq's government made no secret that it would attack Israel if invaded. Prior to the war's start, in the aftermath of the failed US–Iraq peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, a reporter asked Iraq's English-speaking Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz: "Mr. Foreign Minister, if war starts ... will you attack Israel?" His response was: "Yes, absolutely, yes."
Five hours after the first attacks, Iraq's state radio broadcast declared that "The dawn of victory nears as this great showdown begins." Iraq fired eight missiles the next day. These missile attacks were to continue throughout the war. Iraq fired 88 Scud missiles during the war's seven weeks.
Iraq hoped to provoke a military response from Israel. The Iraqi government hoped that many Arab states would withdraw from the Coalition, as they would be reluctant to fight alongside Israel. Following the first attacks, Israeli Air Force jets were deployed to patrol the northern airspace with Iraq. Israel prepared to militarily retaliate, as its policy for the previous 40 years had always been retaliation. However, President Bush pressured Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir not to retaliate and withdraw Israeli jets, fearing that if Israel attacked Iraq, the other Arab states would either desert the coalition or join Iraq. It was also feared that if Israel used Syrian or Jordanian airspace to attack Iraq, they would intervene in the war on Iraq's side or attack Israel. The coalition promised to deploy Patriot missiles to defend Israel if it refrained from responding to the Scud attacks.
The Scud missiles targeting Israel were relatively ineffective, as firing at extreme range resulted in a dramatic reduction in accuracy and payload. Two Israeli civilians died as a direct result of the missile attacks. Between 11 and 74 died from incorrect use of gas masks, heart attacks, and incorrect use of the anti-chemical weapons drug atropine. Approximately 230 Israelis were injured. Extensive property damage was also caused, and, according to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Damage to general property consisted of 1,302 houses, 6,142 apartments, 23 public buildings, 200 shops and 50 cars." It was feared that Iraq would fire missiles filled with nerve agents such as sarin. As a result, Israel's government issued gas masks to its citizens. When the first Iraqi missiles hit Israel, some people injected themselves with an antidote for nerve gas. It has been suggested that the sturdy construction techniques used in Israeli cities, coupled with the fact that Scuds were only launched at night, played an important role in limiting the number of casualties from Scud attacks.
In response to the threat of Scuds on Israel, the US rapidly sent a Patriot missile air defense artillery battalion to Israel along with two batteries of MIM-104 Patriot missiles for the protection of civilians. The Royal Netherlands Air Force also deployed a Patriot missile squadron to Israel and Turkey. The Dutch Defense Ministry later stated that the military use of the Patriot missile system was largely ineffective, but its psychological value for the affected populations was high.
Coalition air forces were also extensively exercised in "Scud hunts" in the Iraqi desert, trying to locate the camouflaged trucks before they fired their missiles at Israel or Saudi Arabia. On the ground, special operations forces also infiltrated Iraq, tasked with locating and destroying Scuds – including the ill-fated Bravo Two Zero patrol of the SAS. Once special operations were combined with air patrols, the number of attacks fell sharply, then increased slightly as Iraqi forces adjusted to coalition tactics.
As the Scud attacks continued, the Israelis grew increasingly impatient, and considered taking unilateral military action against Iraq. On 22 January 1991, a Scud missile hit the Israeli city of Ramat Gan, after two coalition Patriots failed to intercept it. Three elderly people suffered fatal heart attacks, another 96 people were injured, and 20 apartment buildings were damaged. After this attack, the Israelis warned that if the US failed to stop the attacks, they would. At one point, Israeli commandos boarded helicopters prepared to fly into Iraq, but the mission was called off after a phone call from US Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, reporting on the extent of coalition efforts to destroy Scuds and emphasizing that Israeli intervention could endanger US forces.
In addition to the attacks on Israel, 47 Scud missiles were fired into Saudi Arabia, and one missile was fired at Bahrain and another at Qatar. The missiles were fired at both military and civilian targets. One Saudi civilian was killed, and 78 others were injured. No casualties were reported in Bahrain or Qatar. The Saudi government issued all its citizens and expatriates with gas masks in the event of Iraq using missiles with warheads containing chemical weapons. The government broadcast alerts and 'all clear' messages over television to warn citizens during Scud attacks.
On 25 February 1991, a Scud missile hit a US Army barracks of the 14th Quartermaster Detachment, out of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, stationed in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 soldiers and injuring over 100. A subsequent investigation found that the assigned Patriot missile battery had failed to engage due to the loss of significance effect in the onboard computer's floating point calculations compounding over 100 hours of consecutive use, shifting the range gate position far enough to lose contact with the Scud during tracking action.
=== Iraqi invasion of Saudi Arabia (Battle of Khafji) ===
On 29 January, Iraqi forces attacked and occupied the lightly defended Saudi city of Khafji with tanks and infantry. The Battle of Khafji ended two days later when the Iraqis were driven back by the Saudi Arabian National Guard, supported by Qatari forces and US Marines. The allied forces used extensive artillery fire.
Both sides suffered casualties, although Iraqi forces sustained substantially more dead and captured than the allied forces. Eleven Americans were killed in two separate friendly fire incidents, an additional 14 US airmen were killed when their AC-130 gunship was shot down by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile, and two US soldiers were captured during the battle. Saudi and Qatari forces had a total of 18 dead. Iraqi forces in Khafji had 60–300 dead and 400 captured.
The Battle of Khafji was an example of how air power could single-handedly hinder the advance of enemy ground forces. Upon learning of Iraqi troop movements, 140 coalition aircraft were diverted to attack an advancing column consisting of two armored divisions in battalion-sized units. Precision stand-off attacks were conducted during the night and through to the next day. Iraqi vehicle losses included 357 tanks, 147 armored personnel carriers, and 89 mobile artillery pieces. Some crews simply abandoned their vehicles upon realizing that they could be destroyed by guided bombs, stopping the divisions from massing for an organized attack on the town. One Iraqi soldier, who had fought in the Iran–Iraq War, remarked that his brigade "had sustained more punishment from allied airpower in 30 minutes at Khafji than in eight years of fighting against Iran."
== Counter reconnaissance for 2nd Armored Division ==
Task Force 1-41 Infantry was a US Army heavy battalion task force from the 2nd Armored Division (Forward). 2nd Armored Division (Forward) included the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, 66th Armor Regiment, and the 4th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment. Task Force 1–41 was the first coalition force to breach the Saudi Arabian border on 15 February 1991, and to conduct ground combat operations in Iraq against the enemy on 17 February 1991. Shortly after arrival in theatre "..the battalion received, for planning, a brigade cross-boundary counter-reconnaissance mission." 1–41 Infantry was assisted by the 1st Squadron, 4th Armored Cavalry Regiment. This joint effort would become known as Task Force Iron. Counter-reconnaissance generally includes destroying or repelling the enemy's reconnaissance elements and denying their commander any observation of friendly forces. On 15 February 1991 4th Battalion of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment fired on a trailer and a few trucks in the Iraqi sector observing American forces.
On 16 February 1991 several groups of Iraqi vehicles appeared to be performing reconnaissance on the Task Force and were driven away by fire from 4–3 FA. Another enemy platoon, including six vehicles, was reported as being to the northeast of the Task Force. They were engaged with artillery fire from 4–3 FA. Later that evening another group of Iraqi vehicles was spotted moving towards the center of the Task Force. They appeared to be Iraqi Soviet-made BTRs and tanks. For the next hour the Task Force fought several small battles with Iraqi reconnaissance units. TF 1–41 IN fired TOW missiles at the Iraqi formation destroying one tank. The rest of the formation was destroyed or driven away by artillery fire from 4–3 FA. On 17 February 1991 the Task Force took enemy mortar fire, but the enemy forces managed to escape. Later that evening the Task Force received enemy artillery fire but suffered no casualties. That same evening the Task Force identified an Iraqi mortar position and engaged it with both direct and indirect fires. The Iraqis continued probing operations against the Task Force for approximately two hours. For the next two days the Task Force observed Iraqi wheeled vehicles and small units move in front of them. Several times Iraqi mortars fired on Task Force 1–41 Infantry positions. On 18 February Iraqi mortar positions continued to conduct fire missions against the Task Force. The Task Force returned fire on the Iraqi positions with artillery fire from 4–3 FA and 1st Infantry Division Artillery. During the Iraqi mortar attacks two American soldiers were wounded. Iraqi reconnaissance elements continued to patrol the area between the Task Force and the 1st Cavalry Division. VII Corps air units and artillery conducted combat operations against Iraqi defensive positions.
== Breach ==
Task Force 1–41 Infantry was the first coalition force to breach the Saudi Arabian border on 15 February 1991 and conduct ground combat operations in Iraq engaging in direct and indirect fire fights with the enemy on 17 February 1991. Prior to this action the Task Force's primary fire support battalion, 4th Battalion of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, participated in a massive artillery preparation. Around 300 guns from multiple countries participated in the artillery barrage. Over 14,000 rounds were fired during these missions. M270 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems contributed an additional 4,900 rockets fired at Iraqi targets. Iraq lost close to 22 artillery battalions during the initial stages of this barrage, including the destruction of approximately 396 Iraqi artillery pieces.
By the end of these raids Iraqi artillery assets had all but ceased to exist. One Iraqi unit that was totally destroyed during the preparation was the Iraqi 48th Infantry Division Artillery Group. The group's commander stated his unit lost 83 of its 100 guns to the artillery preparation. The artillery bombardment was supplemented by Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombing raids and Lockheed AC-130 attacks. AH-64 Apache attack helicopters from the 1st Infantry Division and B-52 bombers attacked the Iraqi 110th Infantry Brigade. Under enemy fire, the 1st and 9th Engineer Battalions marked and proofed assault lanes to secure a foothold in enemy territory and pass the 1st Infantry Division and the 1st Armoured Division forward.
On 24 February 1991 the 1st Cavalry Division fired its artillery against Iraqi artillery units. One artillery mission struck a series of Iraqi bunkers, reinforced by Iraqi T-55 tanks, in the sector of the Iraqi 25th Infantry Division. The same day the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division with the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, 1st Battalion, 32nd Armor, and the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry destroyed Iraqi bunkers and combat vehicles in the sector of the Iraqi 25th Infantry Division. On 24 February 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division rolled through the breach in the Iraqi defense west of Wadi al-Batin and also cleared the northeastern sector of the breach site of enemy resistance. Task Force 3–37th Armor breached the Iraqi defense clearing four passage lanes and expanding the gap under direct enemy fire. Also on 24 February the 1st Infantry Division along with the 1st Cavalry Division destroyed Iraqi outposts and patrols belonging to the Iraqi 26th Infantry Division. The two divisions also began capturing prisoners. The 1st Infantry Division cleared a zone between Phase Line Vermont and Phase Line Kansas. Once the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Battalion, 37th Armor reached the Iraqi rear defensive positions it destroyed an Iraqi D-30 artillery battery and many trucks and bunkers.
Task Force 1–41 Infantry was given the task of breaching Iraq's initial defensive positions along the Iraq–Saudi Arabia border. The 1st Squadron, 4th Armored Cavalry Regiment handled similar responsibilities in its sector of operations. The 1st Infantry Division's 5th Battalion, 16th Infantry also played a significant role clearing the trenches and captured 160 Iraqi soldiers in the process. Once into Iraqi territory Task Force 1–41 Infantry encountered multiple Iraqi defensive positions and bunkers. These defensive positions were occupied by a brigade-sized element. Task Force 1–41 Infantry elements dismounted and prepared to engage the enemy soldiers who occupied these well-prepared and heavily fortified bunkers. The Task Force found itself engaged in six hours of combat in order to clear the extensive bunker complex. The Iraqis engaged the Task Force with small arms fire, RPGs, mortar fire, and what was left of Iraqi artillery assets. A series of battles unfolded resulting in heavy Iraqi casualties and the Iraqis being removed from their defensive positions with many becoming prisoners of war. Some escaped to be killed or captured by other coalition forces. In the process of clearing the bunkers, Task Force 1–41 captured two brigade command posts and the command post of the Iraqi 26th Infantry Division. The Task Force also captured a brigade commander, several battalion commanders, company commanders, and staff officers. As combat operations progressed Task Force 1–41 Infantry engaged at short range multiple dug in enemy tanks in ambush positions. For a few hours, bypassed Iraqi RPG-equipped anti-tank teams, T-55 tanks, and dismounted Iraqi infantry fired at passing American vehicles, only to be destroyed by other US tanks and fighting vehicles following the initial forces.
The 1st Infantry Division's Task Force 2–16 Infantry cleared four lanes simultaneously through an enemy fortified trench system while inflicting heavy casualties on Iraqi forces. Task Force 2–16 continued the attack clearing over 21 km (13 mi) of entrenched enemy positions resulting in the capture and destruction of numerous enemy vehicles, equipment, personnel and command bunkers.
== Ground campaign ==
A 90,000 round artillery preparation fire on Iraqi defensive positions preceded the major ground assault, lasting 2.5 hours. 1st Infantry Division Artillery, which included 4-3 FA battalion, was decisive during artillery combat operations performing multiple raids and fire missions. These combat operations resulted in the destruction of 50 enemy tanks, 139 APCs, 30 air defense systems, 152 artillery pieces, 27 missile launchers, 108 mortars, and 548 wheeled vehicles, 61 trench lines and bunker positions, 92 dug in and open infantry targets, and 34 logistical sites. The ground campaign consisted of three or possibly four of the largest tank battles in American military history. The battles at 73 Easting, Norfolk, and Medina Ridge are well noted for their historical significance. Some consider the Battle of Medina Ridge the largest tank battle of the war. Other sources consider the Battle of Norfolk the largest tank battle of the war and the second largest tank battle in American history. The U.S. Marine Corps also fought the biggest tank battle in its history at Kuwait International Airport. The U.S. 3rd Armored Division also fought a significant battle at Objective Dorset not far from where the Battle of Norfolk was taking place. The U.S. 3rd Armored Division destroyed approximately 300 enemy combat vehicles during this particular encounter with Iraqi forces.
The U.S. VII Corps was the primary combat formation of the coalition forces. It was a formidable fighting force consisting of 1,487 tanks, 1,384 infantry fighting vehicles, 568 artillery pieces, 132 MLRS, 8 missile launchers, and 242 attack helicopters. It had a total troop strength of 146,321 troops. Its primary full strength fighting formations were the 1st Armored Division (United States), the 3rd Armored Division (United States) and the 1st Infantry Division (United States). The 2nd Armored Division (Forward) was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division as its third maneuver brigade. Its Task Force 1-41 Infantry would be the spearhead of VII Corps. In addition, the corps had the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (United States) to act as a scouting and screening force, and two further heavy divisions, the 1st Cavalry Division (United States) and the United Kingdom's 1st Armoured Division, as well as the U.S. 11th Aviation Group. VII Corps fought a number of large battles against Iraqi forces, with some of historic scope and size. Three of the battles at Norfolk, Medina Ridge, and 73 Easting are considered among the largest tank battles in history. By the end of combat operations on 28 February 1991, U.S. VII Corps had driven 260 kilometres (160 mi), captured 22,000 Iraqi soldiers, and destroyed 1,350 Iraqi tanks, 1,224 armored personnel carriers, 285 artillery pieces, 105 air defense systems, and 1,229 trucks.
The primary combat vehicles of the American divisions were the M1A1 Abrams tank and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The primary American artillery system was the self propelled M109 howitzer. The primary American attack helicopter was the Boeing AH-64 Apache (Army) with the Bell AH-1 Cobra (Army and Marines) also being in theatre. The U.S. Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft would distinguish itself during the Gulf War aided by the OH-58D JAATT eyes in the sky. Together they inflicted significant damage on Iraqi ground forces. U.S. A-10 "Warthog" crews would destroy 900 Iraqi tanks, 2,000 other military vehicles and 1,200 artillery pieces during combat operations.
The U.S. Marine Corps was represented by the 1st Marine Division and the 2nd Marine Division. They were supported by the U.S. Army's 2nd Armored Division's Tiger Brigade to provide the Marines with additional armor support. Marine armor units mostly consisted of the older M-60 tank. The 1st Marine Division destroyed around 60 Iraqi tanks near the Burgan oil field without suffering any losses. The 1st Marine Division Task Force Ripper led the drive to the Kuwait International Airport on 27 February 1991. Marine Task Force Ripper destroyed about 100 Iraqi tanks and armored personnel carriers, including T-72 tanks. The division commander Maj. Gen. J.M. Myatt said, "During the first day of combat operations 1st Platoon, D Company, 3rd Tank Battalion destroyed 15 Iraqi tanks". The Marines also destroyed 25 APCs and took 300 prisoners of war. The U.S.M.C. would often encounter the Iraqi 3rd Armored Division in their theater of operations. Once the 1st Marine Division reached Kuwait International Airport they found what remained of the Iraqi 12th Armored Brigade, 3rd Armored Division defending it. The Marines destroyed 30 to 40 Iraqi T-72 tanks which had taken up defensive positions around the airport. The Iraqi 3rd Armored Division losses included more than 250 T-55/62s and 70 T-72 tanks by the end of combat operations. The Iraqi 3rd Armored Division would be totally destroyed. The 2nd Marine Division played a major role repelling the attempted Iraqi invasion of Saudi Arabia which is known as the Battle of Khafji. The 2nd Marine Division also faced heavy resistance during the Battle of Kuwait International Airport. The battle featured the "Reveille Engagement" which went on to become the largest tank battle in United States Marine Corps' entire history. Marine Reserve unit Bravo Company, 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine division was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division. Bravo Company destroyed a total of 119 enemy vehicles and took over 800 POWs by the end of combat operations. The 1st Tank Battalion claimed 50 Iraqi T-55 and T-62 tanks and 25 APCs. The 3rd Battalion claimed 57 T-55s and T-62s along with 5 T-72s, 7 APCs, and 10 trucks. The 8th Battalion destroyed more than three dozen tanks and a number of other vehicles. U.S. Marine Corps armor units would destroy hundreds of Iraqi tanks by the end of combat operations. U.S. Marine Corps tank losses would be light as they suffered the loss of ten M-60 tanks during combat operations.
The United Kingdom was represented by its 1st Armoured Division known as the Desert Rats. The British 1st Armoured Division fielded approximately 176 Challenger 1 tanks. British infantry rode into battle on the Warrior tracked armoured vehicle. It had reasonable armour protection and a 30mm gun. Modified versions of the vehicle included mortar carriers, MILAN antitank systems, and command and control vehicles; and the British possessed a variety of excellent light armoured vehicles built on their FV101 Scorpion chassis. British artillery was primarily American made M109 howitzers (155mm), M110 howitzers (203mm), and M270 MLRS which were compatible with American systems. Their air support consisted of Gazelle helicopters, used for reconnaissance, and the Lynx helicopter which was comparable to the American AH-1 Cobra. The British had their full contingent of engineer, logistics, and medical units.
The British 1st Armoured Division was responsible for protecting the right flank of VII Corps. It was assumed by the Corps' planners the Iraqi 52nd Armored Division would counterattack VII Corps once their penetration into Iraqi defenses was discovered. The British 1st Armoured Division had two brigades (the 4th and 7th) which participated in Operation Granby, the name given to the British military operations during the 1991 Gulf War. The British 1st Armoured Division had traveled 217 miles in 97 hours. The British 1st Armoured Division had captured or destroyed about 300 Iraqi tanks and a very large number of armored personnel carriers, trucks, reconnaissance vehicles, etc. The Desert Rats also destroyed multiple Iraqi artillery positions. The division also took over 7,000 Iraqi prisoners of war including two division commanders and two other general officers. The British 1st Armoured Division destroyed or isolated four Iraqi infantry divisions (the 26th, 48th, 31st, and 25th) and overran the Iraqi 52nd Armored Division in several sharp engagements. The Iraqi 80th Armored Brigade would also fall victim to the British 1st Armoured Division.
Iraq was represented mostly by its own VII Corps and its Jihad Corps. Its most notable participants were its elite Republican Guard Divisions Tawakalna, Medina, Hammurabi, and Adnan. The first three of these had a strength of over 660 tanks, 660 infantry fighting vehicles, and thousands of antitank weapons, self propelled artillery, and other combat systems. The Tawakalna Republican Guard Division was Iraq's most powerful division which included approximately 14,000 soldiers, 220 T-72 tanks, 284 infantry fighting vehicles, 126 artillery pieces, and 18 MLRS. The Iraqi 52nd Armored Division was also a primary participant. It was a powerful division consisting of 245 tanks and 195 armored fighting vehicles. The Iraqi 10th and 12th Armored Divisions were also present. The two divisions formed the foundation of the Jihad Corps. The Iraqi 10th Armored Division was considered the best regular division in the Iraqi Army. It had more modern equipment than the other regular Iraqi units. It was equipped with T-72 and T-62 tanks. The T-62 tank being its primary system. Overall the primary tank of the Iraqi forces was the T-55 tank. The Iraqis fielded them in great numbers. The Iraqis also had elements of two other independent armored brigades in theatre, those being the 50th and 29th Armored Brigades.
Iraq would also field multiple Infantry Divisions.
The Iraqis suffered the loss of over 3,000 tanks and over 2,000 other combat vehicles during these battles against the American-led coalition. It is estimated that Iraqi forces suffered 20,000–50,000 troops killed during combat operations. It is also estimated that over 75,000 Iraqi soldiers were wounded. Between 80,000 and 175,000 Iraqi troops were taken prisoner. Iraqi forces inflicted very minimal damage on Coalition forces.
=== Liberation of Kuwait ===
US decoy attacks by air attacks and naval gunfire the night before Kuwait's liberation were designed to make the Iraqis believe the main coalition ground attack would focus on central Kuwait. For months, American units in Saudi Arabia had been under almost constant Iraqi artillery fire, as well as threats from Scud missiles and chemical attacks. On 24 February 1991, the 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions and the 1st Light Armored Infantry Battalion crossed into Kuwait and headed toward Kuwait City. They encountered trenches, barbed wire, and minefields. However, these positions were poorly defended, and were overrun in the first few hours. Several tank battles took place, but otherwise coalition troops encountered minimal resistance, as most Iraqi troops surrendered. The general pattern was that the Iraqis would put up a short fight before surrendering. However, Iraqi air defenses shot down nine US aircraft. Meanwhile, forces from Arab states advanced into Kuwait from the east, encountering little resistance and suffering few casualties.
Despite the successes of coalition forces, it was feared that the Iraqi Republican Guard would escape into Iraq before it could be destroyed. It was decided to send British armored forces into Kuwait 15 hours ahead of schedule, and to send US forces after the Republican Guard. The coalition advance was preceded by a heavy artillery and rocket barrage, after which 150,000 troops and 1,500 tanks began their advance. Iraqi forces in Kuwait counterattacked against US troops, acting on a direct order from Saddam Hussein himself. Despite the intense combat, the Americans repulsed the Iraqis and continued to advance towards Kuwait City.
Kuwaiti forces were tasked with liberating the city. Iraqi troops offered only light resistance. The Kuwaitis quickly liberated the city despite losing one soldier and having one plane shot down. On 27 February, Saddam ordered a retreat from Kuwait, and President Bush declared it liberated. However, an Iraqi unit at Kuwait International Airport appeared not to have received the message and fiercely resisted. US Marines had to fight for hours before securing the airport, after which Kuwait was declared secure. After four days of fighting, Iraqi forces were expelled from Kuwait. As part of a scorched earth policy, they set fire to nearly 700 oil wells and placed land mines around the wells to make extinguishing the fires more difficult.
=== Initial moves into Iraq ===
The war's ground phase was officially designated Operation Desert Saber. The first units to move into Iraq were three patrols of the British Special Air Service's B squadron, call signs Bravo One Zero, Bravo Two Zero, and Bravo Three Zero, in late January. These eight-man patrols landed behind Iraqi lines to gather intelligence on the movements of Scud mobile missile launchers, which could not be detected from the air, as they were hidden under bridges and camouflage netting during the day. Other objectives included the destruction of the launchers and their fiber-optic communications arrays that lay in pipelines and relayed coordinates to the TEL operators launching attacks against Israel. The operations were designed to prevent any possible Israeli intervention. Due to lack of sufficient ground cover to carry out their assignment, One Zero and Three Zero abandoned their operations, while Two Zero remained, and was later compromised, with only Sergeant Chris Ryan escaping to Syria.
Elements of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Battalion 5th Cavalry of the 1st Cavalry Division of the US Army performed a direct attack into Iraq on 15 February 1991, followed by one in force on 20 February that led directly through seven Iraqi divisions which were caught off guard. On 17 January 1991 the 101st Airborne Division Aviation Regiment fired the first shots of the war when eight AH-64 helicopters successfully destroyed two Iraqi early warning radar sites. From 15 to 20 February, the Battle of Wadi al-Batin took place inside Iraq; this was the first of two attacks by 1 Battalion 5th Cavalry of the 1st Cavalry Division. It was a feint attack, designed to make the Iraqis think that a coalition invasion would take place from the south. The Iraqis fiercely resisted, and the Americans eventually withdrew as planned back into the Wadi al-Batin. Three US soldiers were killed and nine wounded, with one M2 Bradley IFV turret destroyed, but they had taken 40 prisoners and destroyed five tanks, and successfully deceived the Iraqis. This attack led the way for the XVIII Airborne Corps to sweep around behind the 1st Cav and attack Iraqi forces to the west. On 22 February 1991, Iraq agreed to a Soviet-proposed ceasefire agreement. The agreement called for Iraq to withdraw troops to pre-invasion positions within six weeks following a total ceasefire, and called for monitoring of the ceasefire and withdrawal to be overseen by the UN Security Council.
The coalition rejected the proposal, but said that retreating Iraqi forces would not be attacked, and gave 24 hours for Iraq to withdraw its forces. On 23 February, fighting resulted in the capture of 500 Iraqi soldiers. On 24 February, British and American armored forces crossed the Iraq–Kuwait border and entered Iraq in large numbers, taking hundreds of prisoners. Iraqi resistance was light, and four Americans were killed.
=== Coalition forces enter Iraq ===
Shortly afterwards, the US VII Corps, in full strength and spearheaded by the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, launched an armored attack into Iraq early on 24 February, just to the west of Kuwait, surprising Iraqi forces. Simultaneously, the US XVIII Airborne Corps launched a sweeping "left-hook" attack across southern Iraq's largely undefended desert, led by the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized). This movement's left flank was protected by the French Division Daguet. The 101st Airborne Division conducted a combat air assault into enemy territory. The 101st Airborne Division had struck 249 km (155 mi) behind enemy lines. It was the deepest air assault operation in history. Approximately 400 helicopters transported 2,000 soldiers into Iraq where they destroyed Iraqi columns trying to flee westward and prevented the escape of Iraqi forces. The 101st Airborne Division travelled a further 80 to 100 km (50 to 60 mi) into Iraq. By nightfall, the 101st cut off Highway 8 which was a vital supply line running between Basra and the Iraqi forces. The 101st had lost 16 soldiers in action during the 100-hour war and captured thousands of enemy prisoners of war.
The French force quickly overcame Iraq's 45th Infantry Division, suffering light casualties and taking a large number of prisoners, and took up blocking positions to prevent an Iraqi counterattack on the coalition's flank. The movement's right flank was protected by the United Kingdom's 1st Armoured Division. Once the allies had penetrated deep into Iraqi territory, they turned eastward, launching a flank attack against the elite Republican Guard before it could escape. The Iraqis resisted fiercely from dug-in positions and stationary vehicles, and even mounted armored charges.
Unlike many previous engagements, the destruction of the first Iraqi tanks did not result in a mass surrender. The Iraqis suffered massive losses and lost dozens of tanks and vehicles, while US casualties were comparatively low, with a single Bradley knocked out. Coalition forces pressed another 10 km (6.2 mi) into Iraqi territory, and captured their objective within three hours. They took 500 prisoners and inflicted heavy losses, defeating Iraq's 26th Infantry Division. A US soldier was killed by an Iraqi land mine, another five by friendly fire, and 30 wounded during the battle. Meanwhile, British forces attacked Iraq's Medina Division and a major Republican Guard logistics base. In nearly two days of some of the war's most intense fighting, the British destroyed 40 enemy tanks and captured a division commander.
Meanwhile, US forces attacked the village of Al Busayyah, meeting fierce resistance. The US force destroyed military hardware and took prisoners, while suffering no casualties.
On 25 February 1991, Iraqi forces fired a Scud missile at an American barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The missile attack killed 28 US military personnel.
The coalition's advance was much swifter than US generals had expected. On 26 February, Iraqi troops began retreating from Kuwait, after they had set 737 of its oil wells on fire. A long convoy of retreating Iraqi troops formed along the main Iraq–Kuwait highway. Although they were retreating, this convoy was bombed so extensively by coalition air forces that it came to be known as the Highway of Death. Thousands of Iraqi troops were killed. American, British, and French forces continued to pursue retreating Iraqi forces over the border and back into Iraq, eventually moving to within 240 km (150 mi) of Baghdad, before withdrawing back to Iraq's border with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
== End of active hostilities ==
In coalition-occupied Iraqi territory, a peace conference was held where a ceasefire agreement was negotiated and signed by both sides. At the conference, Iraq was authorized to fly armed helicopters on their side of the temporary border, ostensibly for government transit due to the damage done to civilian infrastructure. Soon after, these helicopters and much of Iraq's military were used to fight an uprising in the south. On March 1, 1991, one day after the Gulf War ceasefire, a revolt broke out in Basra against the Iraqi government. The uprising spread within days to all of the largest Shia cities in southern Iraq: Najaf, Amarah, Diwaniya, Hilla, Karbala, Kut, Nasiriyah and Samawah. The rebellions were encouraged by an airing of "The Voice of Free Iraq" on 24 February 1991, which was broadcast from a CIA-run radio station out of Saudi Arabia. The Arabic service of the Voice of America supported the uprising by stating that the rebellion was well supported, and that they would soon be liberated from Saddam.
In the North, Kurdish leaders took American statements that they would support an uprising to heart, and began fighting, hoping to trigger a coup d'état. However, when no US support came, Iraqi generals remained loyal to Saddam and brutally crushed the Kurdish uprising and the uprising in the south. Millions of Kurds fled across the mountains to Turkey and Kurdish areas of Iran. On April 5, the Iraqi government announced "the complete crushing of acts of sedition, sabotage and rioting in all towns of Iraq." An estimated 25,000 to 100,000 Iraqis were killed in the uprisings.
In Kuwait, the Emir was restored, and suspected Iraqi collaborators were repressed. Eventually, over 400,000 people were expelled from the country, including a large number of Palestinians, because of PLO support of Saddam. Yasser Arafat did not apologize for his support of Iraq, but after his death Mahmoud Abbas formally apologized in 2004 on behalf of the PLO. This came after the Kuwaiti government formally forgave the group.
There was some criticism of the Bush administration, as they chose to allow Saddam to remain in power instead of pushing on to capture Baghdad and overthrowing his government. In their co-written 1998 book, A World Transformed, Bush and Brent Scowcroft argued that such a course would have fractured the alliance, and would have had many unnecessary political and human costs associated with it.
In 1992, the US Defense Secretary during the war, Dick Cheney, made the same point:
I would guess if we had gone in there, we would still have forces in Baghdad today. We'd be running the country. We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home.
And the final point that I think needs to be made is this question of casualties. I don't think you could have done all of that without significant additional US casualties, and while everybody was tremendously impressed with the low cost of the conflict, for the 146 Americans who were killed in action and for their families, it wasn't a cheap war.
And the question in my mind is, how many additional American casualties is Saddam [Hussein] worth? And the answer is, not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the President made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.
On 15 March 1991, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah returned to Kuwait, staying at the private home of a wealthy Kuwaiti as his own palace had been destroyed. He was met with a symbolic arrival with several dozen cars filled with people honking their horns and waving Kuwaiti flags who tried to follow the Emir's convoy. According to The New York Times, he faced a population divided between those who stayed and those who fled, a government straining to reassert control and a rejuvenated opposition pressing for greater democracy and other postwar changes, including voting rights for women. Democracy advocates had been calling for restoration of Parliament that the Emir had suspended in 1986.
== Coalition involvement ==
Coalition members included Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. The United States had 700,000 troops.
Germany and Japan provided financial assistance and donated military hardware, although they did not send direct military assistance. This later became known as checkbook diplomacy.
=== Australia ===
Australia contributed a Naval Task Group, which formed part of the multi-national fleet in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, under Operation Damask. In addition, medical teams were deployed aboard a US hospital ship, and a naval clearance diving team took part in de-mining Kuwait's port facilities following the end of combat operations. Australian forces experienced a number of incidents in the first number of weeks of the Desert Storm Campaign including the detection of significant air threats from Iraq as a part of the outer perimeter of Battle Force Zulu; the detection of free sea floating mines and assistance to the aircraft carrier USS Midway. The Australian Task Force was also placed at great risk with regard to the sea mine threat, with HMAS Brisbane narrowly avoiding a mine. The Australians played a significant role in enforcing the sanctions put in place against Iraq following Kuwait's invasion. Following the war's end, Australia deployed a medical unit on Operation Habitat to northern Iraq as part of Operation Provide Comfort.
=== Argentina ===
Argentina was the only South American country to participate in the 1991 Gulf War. It sent a destroyer, ARA Almirante Brown (D-10), a corvette, ARA Spiro (P-43) (later replaced by another corvette, ARA Rosales (P-42)) and a supply ship, ARA Bahía San Blas (B-4) to participate on the United Nations blockade and sea control effort of the Persian Gulf. The success of "Operación Alfil" (English: "Operation Bishop") with more than 700 interceptions and 25,000 nautical miles (46,000 km) sailed in the theatre of operations helped to overcome the so-called "Malvinas syndrome".
Argentina was later classified by the US as a major non-NATO ally due to its contributions during the war.
=== Canada ===
Canada was one of the first countries to condemn Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and it quickly agreed to join the US-led coalition. In August 1990, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney committed the Canadian Forces to deploy a Naval Task Group. The destroyers HMCS Terra Nova and HMCS Athabaskan joined the maritime interdiction force supported by the supply ship HMCS Protecteur in Operation Friction. The Canadian Task Group led the coalition's maritime logistics forces in the Persian Gulf. A fourth ship, HMCS Huron, arrived in-theater after hostilities had ceased and was the first allied ship to visit Kuwait.
Following the UN-authorized use of force against Iraq, the Canadian Forces deployed a CF-18 Hornet and CH-124 Sea King squadron with support personnel, as well as a field hospital to deal with casualties from the ground war. When the air war began, the CF-18s were integrated into the coalition force and provided air cover and attacked ground targets. This was the first time since the Korean War that the Canadian Armed Forces had participated in an offensive. The only CF-18 Hornet to record an official victory during the conflict was an aircraft involved in the beginning of the Battle of Bubiyan against the Iraqi Navy.
=== France ===
The second largest European contingent was from France, which committed 18,000 troops. Operating on the left flank of the US XVIII Airborne Corps, the French Army force was the Division Daguet, including troops from the French Foreign Legion. Initially, the French operated independently under national command and control, but coordinated closely with the Americans (via CENTCOM) and Saudis. In January, the Division was placed under the tactical control of the XVIII Airborne Corps. France also deployed several combat aircraft and naval units. The French called their contribution Opération Daguet.
=== Italy ===
Following the invasion and annexation of Kuwait by Iraq, on September 25, 1990, the Italian Government sent eight multirole fighter bombers Tornado IDS (plus two spare) in the Persian Gulf, belonging to the 6º, 36º and 50º Stormo, which were deployed at the Al Dhafra Air Base, near Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. During the 42 days of war, Italian fighters made 226 sorties for a total of 589 flight hours. The Italian Air Force recorded the loss of a single aircraft in the Gulf War. The use of Italian aircraft as part of the Desert Storm operation represented the first operational employment in combat missions of Italian Air Force aircraft since the end of World War II.
=== United Kingdom ===
The United Kingdom committed the largest contingent of any European state that participated in the war's combat operations. Operation Granby was the code name for the operations in the Persian Gulf. British Army regiments (mainly with the 1st Armoured Division), Royal Air Force, Naval Air Squadrons and Royal Navy vessels were mobilized in the Persian Gulf. Both Royal Air Force and Naval Air Squadrons, using various aircraft, operated from airbases in Saudi Arabia and Naval Air Squadrons from various vessels in the Persian Gulf. The United Kingdom played a major role in the Battle of Norfolk, where its forces destroyed over 200 Iraqi tanks and a large quantity of other vehicles. After 48 hours of combat the British 1st Armoured Division destroyed or isolated four Iraqi infantry divisions (the 26th, 48th, 31st, and 25th) and overran the Iraqi 52nd Armored Division in several sharp engagements.
Chief Royal Navy vessels deployed to the Persian Gulf included Broadsword-class frigates, and Sheffield-class destroyers; other R.N. and RFA ships were also deployed. The light aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea.
Several SAS squadrons were deployed.
A British Challenger 1 achieved the longest range confirmed tank kill of the war, destroying an Iraqi tank with an armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS) round fired over 4,700 metres (2.9 mi)—the longest tank-on-tank kill shot recorded.
== Casualties ==
=== Civilian ===
Over 1,000 Kuwaiti civilians were killed by Iraqis. More than 600 Kuwaitis went missing during Iraq's occupation, and approximately 375 remains were found in mass graves in Iraq. The increased importance of air attacks from both coalition warplanes and cruise missiles led to controversy over the number of civilian deaths caused during Desert Storm's initial stages. Within Desert Storm's first 24 hours, more than 1,000 sorties were flown, many against targets in Baghdad.
In one noted incident, two USAF stealth planes bombed a bunker in Amiriyah, killing 408 Iraqi civilians. Scenes of burned and mutilated bodies were subsequently broadcast, and controversy arose over the bunker's status, with some stating that it was a civilian shelter, while others contended that it was a center of Iraqi military operations, and that the civilians had been deliberately moved there to act as human shields.
The Iraqi government claimed that 2,300 civilians died during the air campaign. A Project on Defense Alternatives study found that 3,664 Iraqi civilians were killed in the conflict.
During the nationwide uprisings against the Ba'athist Iraqi government that directly followed the end of the Gulf War in March and April, an estimated 25,000 to 100,000 Iraqis were killed, overwhelmingly civilians.
A Harvard University study released in June 1991 predicted that there would be tens of thousands of additional Iraqi civilian deaths by the end of 1991 due to the "public health catastrophe" caused by the destruction of the country's electrical generating capacity. "Without electricity, hospitals cannot function, perishable medicines spoil, water cannot be purified and raw sewage cannot be processed,". The US government refused to release its own study of the effects of the Iraqi public health crisis.
An investigation in 1992 by Beth Osborne Daponte estimated about 13,000 civilians were directly killed in the war, while another 70,000 died indirectly from the war's other effects. According to a 1992 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine by researchers known as the International Study Team (IST), child mortality increased threefold as a result of the war, with 46,900 children under the age of 5 dying between January and August 1991. However, these figures have been challenged by a 2017 study published in The BMJ, which stated that the "IST survey probably understated the level of child mortality that prevailed during 1985–1990 and overstated the level during 1991." According to this study, "there was no major rise in child mortality in Iraq after 1990". A report published in 2002 by Medact estimated the total number of Iraqi deaths caused directly and indirectly by the Gulf War to be between 142,500 and 206,000, including 100,000–120,000 military deaths, and 20,000–35,000 civilian deaths in the civil war and 15,000–30,000 refugee deaths after the end of the Gulf war.
Iraq also launched numerous attacks on civilian targets in Israel and Saudi Arabia. A 1991 report by Middle East Watch said that at least one Saudi civilian was killed after they were hit by Iraqi shelling in Riyadh. A disputed number of people were also killed during the Iraqi rocket attacks on Israel.
=== Iraqi ===
A United Nations report in March 1991 described the effect on Iraq of the US-led bombing campaign as "near apocalyptic", bringing back Iraq to the "pre-industrial age." The exact number of Iraqi combat casualties is unknown, but is believed to have been heavy. Some estimate that Iraq sustained between 20,000 and 35,000 fatalities. A report commissioned by the US Air Force estimated 10,000–12,000 Iraqi combat deaths in the air campaign, and as many as 10,000 casualties in the ground war. This analysis is based on Iraqi prisoner of war reports.
According to the Project on Defense Alternatives study, between 20,000 and 26,000 Iraqi military personnel were killed in the conflict while 75,000 others were wounded.
According to Kanan Makiya, "For the Iraqi people, the cost of enforcing the will of the United Nations has been grotesque." General Schwarzkopf talked about "a very, very large number of dead in these units, a very, very large number indeed." The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Les Aspin, estimated that "at least 65,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed". A figure was supported by Israeli sources who speak of "one to two hundred thousand Iraqi casualties." Most of the killing "took place during the ground war. Fleeing soldiers were bombed with a device known as a 'fuel-air explosive.'"
=== Coalition ===
The US Department of Defense reports that US forces suffered 148 battle-related deaths (35 to friendly fire), with one pilot listed as MIA (his remains were found and identified in August 2009). A further 145 Americans died in non-combat accidents. The UK suffered 47 deaths (nine to friendly fire, all by US forces), France nine, and the other countries, not including Kuwait, suffered 37 deaths (18 Saudis, one Egyptian, six UAE and three Qataris). At least 605 Kuwaiti soldiers were still missing 10 years after their capture.
The largest single loss of life among coalition forces happened on 25 February 1991, when an Iraqi Al Hussein missile hit a US military barrack in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 US Army Reservists from Pennsylvania. In all, 190 coalition troops were killed by Iraqi fire during the war, 113 of whom were American, out of 358 coalition deaths. Another 44 soldiers were killed and 57 wounded by friendly fire. 145 soldiers died of exploding munitions or non-combat accidents.
The largest accident among coalition forces happened on 21 March 1991, when a Royal Saudi Air Force C-130H crashed in heavy smoke on approach to Ras Al-Mishab Airport, Saudi Arabia. 92 Senegalese soldiers and six Saudi crew members were killed.
The number of coalition wounded in combat was 776, including 458 Americans.
190 coalition troops were killed by Iraqi combatants, the rest of the 379 coalition deaths were from friendly fire or accidents. This number was much lower than expected. Among the American combat dead were four female soldiers.
==== Friendly fire ====
While the death toll among coalition forces engaging Iraqi combatants was very low, a substantial number of deaths were caused by accidental attacks from other Allied units. Of the 148 US troops who died in battle, 24% were killed by friendly fire, a total of 35 service personnel. A further 11 died in detonations of coalition munitions. Nine British military personnel were killed in a friendly fire incident when a USAF A-10 Thunderbolt II destroyed a group of two Warrior IFVs.
== Aftermath ==
=== Gulf War illness ===
Many returning coalition soldiers reported illnesses following their action in the war, a phenomenon known as Gulf War syndrome (GWS) or Gulf War illness (GWI). Common symptoms reported are chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and gastrointestinal disorder. There has been widespread speculation and disagreement about the causes of the illness and the possibly related birth defects. Researchers found that infants born to male veterans of the 1991 war had higher rates of two types of heart valve defects. Some children born after the war to Gulf War veterans had a certain kidney defect that was not found in Gulf War veterans' children born before the war. Researchers have said that they did not have enough information to link birth defects with exposure to toxic substances.
In 1994, the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs with Respect to Export Administration published a report entitled, "U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual Use Exports to Iraq and their Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the Gulf War". This publication, called the Riegle Report, summarized testimony this committee had received establishing that the U.S. had in the 1980s supplied Saddam Hussein with chemical and biological warfare technology, that Saddam had used such chemical weapons against Iran and his own native Kurds, and possibly against U.S. soldiers as well, plausibly contributing to the GWS.
A 2022 study by Dr. Robert W. Haley of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, et al., of 1,016 U.S. Gulf War veterans found evidence of a causal link between GWS and exposure to low levels of the nerve agent sarin, which was released into the air by coalition bombing of Iraqi chemical weapons facilities. Significantly, the study found an increased incidence of GWS not only among veterans who recounted hearing nerve agent alarms, but also among veterans with the RR or QR (as opposed to the QQ) forms of the PON1 gene, which produces an enzyme that deactivates organophosphates (including sarin) through hydrolysis. By contrast, GWS was inversely associated with higher levels of the type Q isozyme, which is more efficient at breaking down sarin than its type R counterpart. The authors "found that the PON1 genotype and hearing nerve agent alarms were independent and the findings robust to both measured and unmeasured confounding, supporting a mechanistic [gene–environment] interaction. ... Moreover, the change in the combined effect from one category to the next was significantly greater than the sum of the independent effects of the environmental exposure and the genotype".
=== Effects of depleted uranium ===
The US military used depleted uranium in tank kinetic energy penetrators and 20–30 mm (0.79–1.18 in) cannon ordnance. Significant controversy regarding the long term safety of depleted uranium exists, including claims of pyrophoric, genotoxic, and teratogenic heavy metal effects. Many have cited its use during the war as a contributing factor to a number of major health issues in veterans and in surrounding civilian populations, including in birth defects and child cancer rates. Scientific opinion on the risk is mixed. In 2004, Iraq had the highest mortality rate due to leukemia of any country.
Depleted uranium has 40% less radioactivity than natural uranium. Depleted uranium is not a significant health hazard unless it is taken into the body. External exposure to radiation from depleted uranium is generally not a major concern because the alpha particles emitted by its isotopes travel only a few centimeters in air or can be stopped by a sheet of paper. Also, the uranium-235 that remains in depleted uranium emits only a small amount of low-energy gamma radiation. However, if allowed to enter the body, depleted uranium, like natural uranium, has the potential for both chemical and radiological toxicity with the two important target organs being the kidneys and the lungs.
=== Highway of Death ===
In the night of 26–27 February 1991, some Iraqi forces began leaving Kuwait on the main highway north of Al Jahra in a column of some 1,400 vehicles. A patrolling E-8 Joint STARS aircraft observed the retreating forces and relayed the information to the DDM-8 air operations center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. These vehicles and the retreating soldiers were subsequently attacked by two A-10 aircraft, resulting in a 60 kilometres (37 mi) stretch of highway strewn with debris—the Highway of Death. New York Times reporter Maureen Dowd wrote, "With the Iraqi leader facing military defeat, Mr. Bush decided that he would rather gamble on a violent and potentially unpopular ground war than risk the alternative: an imperfect settlement hammered out by the Soviets and Iraqis that world opinion might accept as tolerable."
Chuck Horner, Commander of US and allied air operations, has written:
[By February 26], the Iraqis totally lost heart and started to evacuate occupied Kuwait, but airpower halted the caravan of Iraqi Army and plunderers fleeing toward Basra. This event was later called by the media "The Highway of Death." There were certainly a lot of dead vehicles, but not so many dead Iraqis. They'd already learned to scamper off into the desert when our aircraft started to attack. Nevertheless, some people back home wrongly chose to believe we were cruelly and unusually punishing our already whipped foes.
...
By February 27, talk had turned toward terminating the hostilities. Kuwait was free. We were not interested in governing Iraq. So the question became "How do we stop the killing."
=== Bulldozer assault ===
Another incident during the war highlighted the question of large-scale Iraqi combat deaths. This was the "bulldozer assault", wherein two brigades from the US 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) were faced with a large and complex trench network, as part of the heavily fortified "Saddam Hussein Line". After some deliberation, they opted to use anti-mine plows mounted on tanks and combat earthmovers to simply plow over and bury alive the defending Iraqi soldiers. Not a single American was killed during the attack. Reporters were banned from witnessing the attack, near the neutral zone that touches the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Every American in the assault was inside an armored vehicle.
Patrick Day Sloyan of Newsday reported, "Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Vulcan armored carriers straddled the trench lines and fired into the Iraqi soldiers as the tanks covered them with mounds of sand. 'I came through right after the lead company,' [Col. Anthony] Moreno said. 'What you saw was a bunch of buried trenches with peoples' arms and things sticking out of them.'" However, after the war, the Iraqi government said that only 44 bodies were found. In his book The Wars Against Saddam, John Simpson alleges that US forces attempted to cover up the incident. After the incident, the commander of the 1st Brigade said: "I know burying people like that sounds pretty nasty, but it would be even nastier if we had to put our troops in the trenches and clean them out with bayonets." Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney did not mention the First Division's tactics in an interim report to Congress on Operation Desert Storm. In the report, Cheney acknowledged that 457 enemy soldiers were buried during the ground war.
=== Palestinian exodus from Kuwait ===
A Palestinian exodus from Kuwait took place during and after the Gulf War. During the Gulf War, more than 200,000 Palestinians fled Kuwait during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait due to harassment and intimidation by Iraqi security forces, in addition to getting fired from work by Iraqi authority figures in Kuwait. After the Gulf War, the Kuwaiti authorities forcibly pressured nearly 200,000 Palestinians to leave Kuwait in 1991. Kuwait's policy, which led to this exodus, was a response to alignment of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the PLO with Saddam Hussein.
The Palestinians who fled Kuwait were Jordanian citizens. In 2013, 280,000 Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origin lived in Kuwait. In 2012, 80,000 Palestinians (without Jordanian citizenship) lived in Kuwait.
Saudi Arabia expelled Yemeni workers after Yemen supported Saddam during the Gulf War.
=== Coalition bombing of Iraq's civilian infrastructure ===
In the 23 June 1991 edition of The Washington Post, reporter Bart Gellman wrote:
Many of the targets were chosen only secondarily to contribute to the military defeat of Iraq ... Military planners hoped the bombing would amplify the economic and psychological impact of international sanctions on Iraqi society ... They deliberately did great harm to Iraq's ability to support itself as an industrial society ...
In the Jan/Feb 1995 edition of Foreign Affairs, French diplomat Eric Rouleau wrote:
[T]he Iraqi people, who were not consulted about the invasion, have paid the price for their government's madness ... Iraqis understood the legitimacy of a military action to drive their army from Kuwait, but they have had difficulty comprehending the Allied rationale for using air power to systematically destroy or cripple Iraqi infrastructure and industry: electric power stations (92 percent of installed capacity destroyed), refineries (80 percent of production capacity), petrochemical complexes, telecommunications centers (including 135 telephone networks), bridges (more than 100), roads, highways, railroads, hundreds of locomotives and boxcars full of goods, radio and television broadcasting stations, cement plants, and factories producing aluminum, textiles, electric cables, and medical supplies.
However, the UN subsequently spent billions rebuilding hospitals, schools, and water purification facilities throughout the country.
=== Abuse of Coalition POWs ===
During the conflict, coalition aircrew shot down over Iraq were displayed as prisoners of war on TV, most with visible signs of abuse. Amongst several testimonies to poor treatment, USAF Captain Richard Storr was allegedly tortured by Iraqis during the Persian Gulf War. Iraqi secret police broke his nose, dislocated his shoulder and punctured his eardrum. Royal Air Force Tornado crew John Nichol and John Peters have both alleged that they were tortured during this time. Nichol and Peters were forced to make statements against the war on television. Members of British Special Air Service Bravo Two Zero were captured while providing information about an Iraqi supply line of Scud missiles to coalition forces. Only one, Chris Ryan, evaded capture while the group's other surviving members were violently tortured. Flight surgeon (later General) Rhonda Cornum was sexually assaulted by one of her captors after the Black Hawk helicopter in which she was riding was shot down while searching for a downed F-16 pilot.
=== Operation Southern Watch ===
Since the war, the US has had a continued presence of 5,000 troops stationed in Saudi Arabia – a figure that rose to 10,000 during the 2003 conflict in Iraq. Operation Southern Watch enforced the no-fly zones over southern Iraq set up after 1991; oil exports through the Persian Gulf's shipping lanes were protected by the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet.
Since Saudi Arabia houses Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest sites, many Muslims were upset at the permanent military presence. The continued presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia after the war was one of the stated motivations behind the 11 September terrorist attacks, the Khobar Towers bombing, and the date chosen for the 1998 US embassy bombings (7 August), which was eight years to the day that US troops were sent to Saudi Arabia. Osama bin Laden interpreted the Islamic prophet Muhammad as banning the "permanent presence of infidels in Arabia". In 1996, bin Laden issued a fatwa, calling for US troops to leave Saudi Arabia. In a December 1999 interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai, bin Laden said he felt that Americans were "too near to Mecca" and considered this a provocation to the entire Islamic world.
=== Sanctions ===
On 6 August 1990, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 661 which imposed economic sanctions on Iraq, providing for a full trade embargo, excluding medical supplies, food and other items of humanitarian necessity, these to be determined by the council's sanctions committee. From 1991 until 2003, the effects of government policy and sanctions regime led to hyperinflation, widespread poverty and malnutrition.
During the late 1990s, the UN considered relaxing the sanctions imposed because of the hardships suffered by ordinary Iraqis. Studies dispute the number of people who died in south and central Iraq during the years of the sanctions.
=== Draining of the Qurna Marshes ===
The draining of the Qurna Marshes was an irrigation project in Iraq during and immediately after the war, to drain a large area of marshes in the Tigris–Euphrates river system. Formerly covering an area of around 3,000 km2 (1,200 sq mi), the large complex of wetlands were nearly emptied of water, and the local Shi'ite population relocated, following the war and 1991 uprisings. By 2000, the United Nations Environment Programme estimated that 90% of the marshlands had disappeared, causing desertification of over 7,500 square miles (19,000 km2).
The draining occurred in Iraq and to a smaller degree in Iran between the 1950s and 1990s to clear large areas of the marshes. Formerly covering an area of around 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi), the large complex of wetlands was 90% drained before the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. The marshes are typically divided into three main sub-marshes, the Hawizeh, Central, and Hammar Marshes and all three were drained at different times for different reasons. Initial draining of the Central Marshes was intended to reclaim land for agriculture but later all three marshes would become a tool of war and revenge.
Many international organizations such as the UN Human Rights Commission, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, the Wetlands International, and Middle East Watch have described the project as a political attempt to force the Marsh Arabs out of the area through water diversion tactics.
=== Oil spill ===
On 23 January, Iraq dumped 400 million US gallons (1,500,000 m3) of crude oil into the Persian Gulf, causing the largest offshore oil spill in history at that time. It was reported as a deliberate natural resources attack to keep US Marines from coming ashore (Missouri and Wisconsin had shelled Failaka Island during the war to reinforce the idea that there would be an amphibious assault attempt). About 30–40% of this came from allied raids on Iraqi coastal targets.
=== Kuwaiti oil fires ===
The Kuwaiti oil fires were caused by the Iraqi military setting fire to 700 oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy while retreating from Kuwait in 1991 after conquering the country but being driven out by coalition forces. The fires started in January and February 1991, and the last one was extinguished by November.
The resulting fires burned uncontrollably because of the dangers of sending in firefighting crews. Land mines had been placed in areas around the oil wells, and a military cleaning of the areas was necessary before the fires could be put out. Somewhere around 6 million barrels (950,000 m3) of oil were lost each day. Eventually, privately contracted crews extinguished the fires, at a total cost of US$1.5 billion to Kuwait. By that time, however, the fires had burned for approximately 10 months, causing widespread pollution.
== Cost ==
The cost of the war to the United States was calculated by the US Congress in April 1992 to be $61.1 billion (equivalent to $122 billion in 2024). About $52 billion of that amount was paid by other countries: $36 billion by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states of the Persian Gulf; $16 billion by Germany and Japan (which sent no combat forces due to their constitutions). About 25% of Saudi Arabia's contribution was paid with in-kind services to the troops, such as food and transportation. US troops represented about 74% of the combined force, and the global cost was therefore higher.
=== Effect on developing countries ===
Apart from the impact on Arab States of the Persian Gulf, the resulting economic disruptions after the crisis affected many states. The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) undertook a study in 1991 to assess the effects on developing states and the international community's response. A briefing paper finalized on the day that the conflict ended draws on their findings which had two main conclusions: Many developing states were severely affected and while there has been a considerable response to the crisis, the distribution of assistance was highly selective.
The ODI factored in elements of "cost" which included oil imports, remittance flows, re-settlement costs, loss of export earnings and tourism. For Egypt, the cost totaled $1 billion, 3% of GDP. Yemen had a cost of $830 million, 10% of GDP, while it cost Jordan $1.8 billion, 32% of GDP.
International response to the crisis on developing states came with the channeling of aid through The Gulf Crisis Financial Co-ordination Group. They were 24 states, comprising most of the OECD countries plus some Gulf states: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait. The members of this group agreed to disperse $14 billion in development assistance.
The World Bank responded by speeding up the disbursement of existing project and adjustment loans. The International Monetary Fund adopted two lending facilities – the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) and the Compensatory & Contingency Financing Facility (CCFF). The European Community offered $2 billion in assistance.
== Media coverage ==
US policy regarding media freedom was much more restrictive than in the Vietnam War. The policy had been spelled out in a Pentagon document entitled Annex Foxtrot. Most of the press information came from briefings organized by the military. Only selected journalists were allowed to visit the front lines or conduct interviews with soldiers. Those visits were always conducted in the presence of officers, and were subject to both prior approval by the military and censorship afterward. This was ostensibly to protect sensitive information from being revealed to Iraq. This policy was heavily influenced by the military's experience with the Vietnam War, in which public opposition within the US grew throughout the war's course. It was not only the limitation of information in the Middle East; media were also restricting what was shown about the war with more graphic depictions like Ken Jarecke's image of a burnt Iraqi soldier being pulled from the American AP wire whereas in Europe it was given extensive coverage.
Two BBC journalists, John Simpson and Bob Simpson (no relation), defied their editors and remained in Baghdad to report on the war's progress. They were responsible for a report which included an "infamous cruise missile that travelled down a street and turned left at a traffic light."
Alternative media outlets provided views opposing the war. Deep Dish Television compiled segments from independent producers in the US and abroad, and produced a 10-hour series that was distributed internationally, called The Gulf Crisis TV Project. The series' first program War, Oil and Power was compiled and released in 1990, before the war broke out. News World Order was the title of another program in the series; it focused on the media's complicity in promoting the war, as well as Americans' reactions to the media coverage.
Media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) critically analyzed media coverage during the war in various articles and books, such as the 1991 Gulf War Coverage: The Worst Censorship was at Home.
== Technology and equipments ==
Precision-guided munitions were heralded as key in allowing military strikes to be made with a minimum of civilian casualties compared to previous wars, although they were not used as often as more traditional, less accurate bombs. Specific buildings in downtown Baghdad could be bombed while journalists in their hotels watched cruise missiles fly by.
Precision-guided munitions amounted to approximately 7.4% of all bombs dropped by the coalition. Other bombs included cluster bombs, which disperse numerous submunitions, and daisy cutters, 15,000-pound bombs which can disintegrate everything within hundreds of yards.
Global Positioning System (GPS) units were relatively new at the time and were important in enabling coalition units to easily navigate across the desert. Since military GPS receivers were not available for most troops, many used commercially available units. To permit these to be used to best effect, the "selective availability" feature of the GPS system was turned off for the duration of Desert Storm, allowing these commercial receivers to provide the same precision as the military equipment.
Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) and satellite communication systems were also important. Two examples of this are the US Navy's Grumman E-2 Hawkeye and the US Air Force's Boeing E-3 Sentry. Both were used in command and control area of operations. These systems provided essential communications links between air, ground, and naval forces. It is one of several reasons coalition forces dominated the air war.
American-made color photocopiers were used to produce some of Iraq's battle plans. Some of the copiers contained concealed high-tech transmitters that revealed their positions to American electronic warfare aircraft, leading to more precise bombings.
=== Scud and Patriot missiles ===
The role of Iraq's Scud missiles featured prominently in the war. Scud is a tactical ballistic missile that the Soviet Union developed and deployed among the forward deployed Soviet Army divisions in East Germany.
Scud missiles utilize inertial guidance which operates for the duration that the engines operate. Iraq used Scud missiles, launching them into both Saudi Arabia and Israel. Some missiles caused extensive casualties, while others caused little damage.
The US Patriot missile was used in combat for the first time. The US military claimed a high effectiveness against Scuds at the time, but later analysis gives figures as low as 9%, with 45% of the 158 Patriot launches being against debris or false targets. The Dutch Ministry of Defense, which also sent Patriot missiles to protect civilians in Israel and Turkey, later disputed the higher claim. Further, there is at least one incident of a software error causing a Patriot missile's failure to engage an incoming Scud, resulting in deaths. Both the US Army and the missile manufacturers maintained the Patriot delivered a "miracle performance" in the Gulf War.
== In popular culture ==
The Gulf War has been the subject of several video games including Conflict: Desert Storm, Conflict: Desert Storm II, Gulf War: Operation Desert Hammer, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. There have also been numerous depictions in film including Jarhead (2005), which is based on US Marine Anthony Swofford's 2003 memoir of the same name. The 2016 Bollywood movie Airlift is based on 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait, the evacuation of Indian citizens stranded in Kuwait during the Gulf War.
Gil Scott-Heron's song 'Work for Peace' from the album 'Spirits' was a response to the war.
== See also ==
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Works cited ===
== Bibliography ==
=== Films ===
=== Novels ===
== External links ==
Barbara Walters Interview with General Schwarzkopf, Coalition commander in the Persian Gulf War (Video: ABC, 1991)
Gulf War Discussion from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
Historical Context from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
CBC Digital Archives – The 1991 Gulf War
Master Index of Desert Storm Oral History Interviews Archived 31 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine by the United States Army Center of Military History
Bibliography of the Desert Shield and Desert Storm compiled by the United States Army Center of Military History (via Wayback Machine)
Desert Shield/Desert Storm Photographs Archived 17 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine US Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Persian Gulf War
20th Anniversary of Desert Storm in Photos
Air Force and Air Defense of Iraq before the war (not translated) exact list of the technical details
Liberating Kuwait United States Marine Corps
Friendly-fire Incidents Archived 1 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine – www.gulflink.osd.mil
Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm: Valorous Unit Award Citations by the United States Army Center of Military History |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_County,_Alabama | Baldwin County, Alabama | Baldwin County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Alabama, on the Gulf coast. It is one of only two counties in Alabama that border the Gulf of Mexico, along with Mobile County. As of the 2020 census, the population was 231,767, making it the fourth-most populous county in Alabama. The county seat is Bay Minette. The county is named after the founder of the University of Georgia, Senator Abraham Baldwin.
Baldwin was Alabama's fastest-growing county from 2010 to 2020, with 4 of the top 10 fastest-growing cities in the state in recent years.
The U.S. federal government designates Baldwin County as the Daphne-Fairhope-Foley metropolitan area.
It is the largest county in Alabama by area and is located on the eastern side of Mobile Bay. And the heritage home of The Busbee family(3rd wealthiest land owners in Alabama) currently the patriarch and Director of The Busbee Estate, Jason Busbee directs and controls the 16 different organizations and land holdings in the state. Part of its western border with Mobile County is formed by the Spanish River, a brackish distributary river.
== History ==
Baldwin County was established on December 21, 1809, ten years before Alabama became a state. Previously, the county had been a part of the Mississippi Territory until 1817, when the area was included in the separate Alabama Territory. Statehood was gained by Alabama in 1819.
There have been numerous border changes to the county as population grew and other counties were formed. Numerous armies have invaded during the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War.
In the first days of Baldwin County, the town of McIntosh Bluff on the Tombigbee River was the county seat. (It is now included in Washington County, northwest of Baldwin County.) The county seat was transferred to the town of Blakeley in 1820, and then to the city of Daphne in 1868. In 1900, by an act of the legislature of Alabama, the county seat was authorized for relocation to the city of Bay Minette; however, the city of Daphne resisted this relocation.
To achieve the relocation, the men of Bay Minette devised a scheme. They fabricated a murder to lure the sheriff and his deputy out of the city of Daphne. While the law was chasing down the fictitious killer during the late hours, the group of Bay Minette men stealthily traveled the seventeen miles (27 km) to Daphne, stole the Baldwin County Courthouse records, and delivered them to the city of Bay Minette, where Baldwin County's county seat remains. A New Deal mural, completed by WPA artists during the Great Depression, depicts these events. It hangs in the Bay Minette United States Post Office.
During the American Civil War, 32 men hailing from Baldwin County enlisted with a Union unit mustered in Pensacola, Florida, called the 1st Florida Cavalry Regiment. In 1860, Baldwin County was the least populous of Alabama's 52 counties. Half of the population were enslaved. There was also a large population of Muscogee (Creek) in the northern portion of the county.
During the Cold War, the vice president of Foley-based Gulf Telephone Company, John Mcclure Snook, formed a private militia to resist a potential Communist invasion from the Gulf of Mexico. Due to this militia being armed with automatic weapons from Snook's personal collection, the federal government seized the weapons as part of an order during a 1964 libel proceeding. Although Snook paid the taxes imposed on the manufacture of automatic firearms, he sued for a refund on the basis that his militia served as auxiliary deputies for the Baldwin County Sheriff. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected this argument in a 1971 decision as his militia never performed services where use of those weapons were deemed necessary.
Due to its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, Baldwin County frequently endures tropical weather systems, including hurricanes. Since the late 20th century, the county has been declared a disaster area multiple times. This was due to heavy damages in September 1979 from Hurricane Frederic, July 1997 from Hurricane Danny, September 1998 from Hurricane Georges, September 2004 from Hurricane Ivan, August 2005 from Hurricane Katrina and September 2020 from Hurricane Sally.
=== 2016 flag controversy ===
Baldwin County attracted national attention after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting as the only county in the United States to refuse to lower its flags to half-staff. Both President Obama and Alabama governor Robert Bentley had ordered all flags to be lowered immediately following the attack, which was believed to have specifically targeted the LGBTQ community. Citing the U.S. Flag Code, Baldwin County commissioner Tucker Dorsey stated that while his "heart certainly goes out to the victims and their families," the incident "doesn't meet the test of the reason for the flag to be lowered."
== Geography ==
According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,027 square miles (5,250 km2), of which 1,590 square miles (4,100 km2) is land and 437 square miles (1,130 km2) (21.6%) is water. It is the largest county by area in Alabama and the 12th-largest county east of the Mississippi River. It is larger than the US state of Rhode Island.
=== Central Baldwin ===
Central Baldwin is a colloquial term referring to an area of Baldwin County along Alabama State Highway 59. The area begins at the Interstate 10 exit in Loxley, Alabama including Robertsdale, Alabama and ending with Summerdale, Alabama. The unofficial boundary is generally considered to be the public school district served by Robertsdale High School. The term began to be used by most people in the area with the creation of Central Baldwin Middle School in the late 1990s. Although students in Summerdale attend Elberta High School rather than Robertsdale High School it is generally considered a part of the Central Baldwin region.
Central Baldwin is composed of four municipalities, Robertsdale, Loxley, Summerdale, and Silverhill (the only town that does not contain a section of Highway 59). Three smaller communities: Rosinton, Elsanor, and Seminole are also often included in the region. Robertsdale serves as the "hub" of this region because it is the largest city and consists of many public works buildings. There is also a livestock auction, a large "feed and seed" store, and a rodeo venue to serve the large farmlands of the region. Loxley is becoming a popular location for the expansion of the suburbs from Daphne and Spanish Fort because it is served by an Interstate 10 exit and is almost directly in between the large cities of Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida. Loxley also has a large privately owned farmers' market that is popular among the locals and tourists traveling to the beach.
=== Adjacent counties ===
Monroe County - northeast
Escambia County, Florida - east
Escambia County, Alabama - east
Mobile County - west
Washington County - northwest
Clarke County - northwest
=== Regions ===
North Baldwin
Eastern Shore
Central Baldwin
South Baldwin
Southwest Baldwin
East Baldwin
=== Environmental recognition ===
Two separate areas in Baldwin County have been designated as "Outstanding Alabama Water" by the Alabama Environmental Management Commission, which oversees the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. As of April 2007, only two other areas in Alabama have received what is the "highest environmental status" in the state. A portion of Wolf Bay and 42 miles (68 km) of the Tensaw River in northern Baldwin County have received the designation. Officials believe the "pristine water" will become an important eco-tourism destination.
=== National protected area ===
Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge (part)
== Transportation ==
=== Major highways ===
Interstate 10
Interstate 65
U.S. Highway 31
U.S. Highway 90
U.S. Highway 98
State Route 59
State Route 104
State Route 180
State Route 181
State Route 182
State Route 225
State Route 287
Baldwin Beach Express
=== Airports ===
Bay Minette, 1R8, has a single runway 08/26 that is 5,497'
Fairhope, KCQF, has a single runway 01/19 that is 6,604'
Foley, 5R4, has a single runway 18/36 that is 3,700'
Stockton, Hubbard Landing Seaplane Base HL2 has one water runway that is 6,000’
Gulf Shores, Jack Edwards Airport JKA has two runways, 09/27 at 6,962' and 17/35 at 3,596'
There are numerous private airports and heliports in Baldwin County. Considerable military airspace overlies much of the county and adjacent bay and coastal waters.
Commercial, scheduled service is from Mobile Regional Airport, Mobile Downtown Airport, or Pensacola International Airport.
== Demographics ==
=== 2020 census ===
As of the 2020 census, there were 231,767 people, 93,116 households, and 64,222 families residing in the county. The population density was 145.8 inhabitants per square mile (56.3/km2) There were 124,148 housing units.
=== 2010 census ===
As of the census of 2010, there were 182,265 people, 73,180 households, and 51,151 families residing in the county. The population density was 110 people per square mile (42 people/km2). There were 104,061 housing units at an average density of 54 units per square mile (21 units/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 85.7% White, 9.4% Black or African American, 0.7% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 2.0% from other races, and 1.5% from two or more races. 4.4% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 73,180 households, out of which 28.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.5% were married couples living together, 11.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.1% were non-families. 25.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 2.93.
In the county, the population was spread out, with 23% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 24.4% from 25 to 44, 28.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.46 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $40,250, and the median income for a family was $47,028. Males had a median income of $34,507 versus $23,069 for females. The per capita income for the county was $20,826. 10.10% of the population and 7.60% of families were below the poverty line. 13.10% of those under the age of 18 and 8.90% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
=== 2000 census ===
As of the census of 2000, 21.4% were of American, 12.5% English, 11.4% German and 9.9% Irish ancestry.
In 2000, the largest denominational groups were Evangelical Protestants (with 38,670 adherents) and Mainline Protestants (with 16,399 adherents). The largest religious bodies were the Southern Baptist Convention (with 27,789 members) and the Catholic Church (with 10,482 members).
== Education ==
Baldwin County contains three public school districts. There are approximately 32,500 students in public K-12 schools in Baldwin County. Prior to the 2019–2020 school year, there was only one school district, overseen by the Baldwin County Board of Education. The city of Gulf Shores has since set up its own school system, following a city council vote in 2017. In the spring of 2022, the city council of Orange Beach also voted to breakaway from the county school system.
There are Catholic elementary schools in the county, including Christ the King (Daphne), St. Patrick (Robertsdale) and St. Benedict (Elberta). Beginning in 2016, there is also a Catholic high school, St. Michael Catholic High School, located just east of Fairhope.
Coastal Alabama Community College has several campuses in the county. The United States Sports Academy is a private university focused on sports and located in Daphne.
=== School districts ===
School districts include:
Baldwin County School District
Gulf Shores City School District
Orange Beach City School District - Formed in 2022
== Government ==
Baldwin County was one of the earliest counties in Alabama in which the old-line Southern Democrats began splitting their tickets, even going so far as to vote for Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1956 re-election bid. Today, it is one of the most solidly Republican counties in Alabama. No Republican has failed to win a majority in the county since 1968, when it was easily carried by George Wallace running on a segregationist third-party ticket. The county has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1960.
The county is governed by a four-member county commission, elected from single-member districts. A sheriff, coroner, and revenue commissioner are elected in at-large positions countywide.
The sheriff of Baldwin County is Hoss Mack (R).
The commissioners are as follows:
District 1: James E. Ball (R)
District 2: Joseph Davis III (R)
District 3: Billie Jo Underwood (R)
District 4: Charles F. Gruber (R)
The coroner is Brian Pierce (R) and the district attorney is Robert Wilters (R).
=== Emergency Services ===
The Baldwin County Sheriff's Office is the primary law enforcement agency for unincorporated areas of Baldwin County. The current sheriff is Huey H. Mack, who joined the Sheriff's Office in 1989 as a criminal investigator. The first sheriff, Benjamin Baldwin, was appointed on December 21, 1809.
Several local police departments are the primary law enforcement agencies in their respective jurisdictions, as well as fire protection in Baldwin County is provided by various local fire departments.
Emergency medical services are provided by MedStar, with the exception of some cities, where the local fire department staffs ambulances.
== Media ==
=== Print ===
Robertsdale's The Independent is the primary newspaper read by the locals. The paper focuses on the Central Baldwin region.
== Commerce ==
Most of the businesses in Central Baldwin make a profit from tourists traveling to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach via Highway 59. This region is also where the Baldwin County Fair takes place.
== Communities ==
=== Cities ===
=== Towns ===
=== Census-designated place ===
=== Unincorporated areas ===
=== Ghost town ===
Belle Fontaine
Blakeley
=== County subdivisions ===
The United States Census Bureau divides counties into county subdivisions. In Baldwin County, these are currently in to form of census county divisions. The county's historical subdivisions and their populations in the decennial censuses are as follows:
==== 1870 ====
==== 1880 ====
==== 1890–1900 ====
==== 1910–1950 ====
==== 1960–present ====
== See also ==
National Register of Historic Places listings in Baldwin County, Alabama
Properties on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage in Baldwin County, Alabama
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Baldwin County map of roads/towns (map © 2007 Univ. of Alabama).
Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance
Baldwin County Alabama Genealogy
Baldwin County Alabama Free Census Records
Baldwin County Alabama Archives and Libraries
Baldwin County Alabama Cemeteries
Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism Board
South Alabama Community Website
Baldwin County NOW |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Furtick#:~:text=In%202012%2C%20in%20response%20to,Church%20called%20the%20M1%20Initiative. | Steven Furtick | Larry Stevens Furtick Jr. (born February 19, 1980), known professionally as Steven Furtick, is an American pastor, author, singer, and composer of Elevation Worship. He is the founder and general overseer of Elevation Church, based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
== Early life and education ==
Furtick was born and raised in Moncks Corner, South Carolina, and attended Berkeley High School. At the age of 16, after reading the book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala, he felt called to pastor a church in a major city. He studied at North Greenville University in communication and earned a Bachelor of Arts, then he studied at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and earned a Master of Divinity.
== Ministry ==
In 2004, Furtick served as worship leader at Christ Covenant Church in Shelby, North Carolina, a Baptist Church. In 2006, he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina and founded Elevation Church with seven families and his own. The church had their first service on February 5, 2006.
In 2007, he helped found the music group Elevation Worship as a songwriter and since has been nominated for GMA Dove and Grammy Awards, winning a Grammy for their album, Old Church Basement.
In 2007, he made headlines when his church gave $40,000 to members in envelopes with $5, $20, and even $1,000, telling them to spend it kindly on others.
Furtick speaks at events all over the world including the 2011 Global Leadership Summit hosted by Bill Hybels, the C3 Conference 2012 hosted by Ed Young Jr., the Hillsong Conference 2012 hosted by Brian Houston, and the Presence Conference in 2012 and 2013 hosted by Phil Pringle. Furtick also participated in The Elephant Room 1 and The Elephant Room 2 hosted by James MacDonald. Furtick was named to Oprah's SuperSoul100 list of visionaries and influential leaders in 2016.
In 2012, in response to a need of mentorship for 1,000 students in area schools, Furtick launched an outreach program at Elevation Church called the M1 Initiative. Furtick said, "We have always said we want to be a blessing to our city and support our leaders with a volunteer force they can count on." More than 1,600 members responded and committed to mentoring a child for the 2012–2013 school year.
Furtick has committed to donating 12 percent of Elevation Church's giving to support outreach efforts nationally and globally.
== Public life and media ==
Furtick is a New York Times best selling author. He has also participated in various philanthropic campaigns, donating clothes and furniture to families in need.
In 2013, Furtick declined to answer questions regarding his salary, his tax-free housing allowance, how much he makes from books and speaking fees, and how the church is governed. Elevation has stated that Furtick is generous to the church with the money he receives from writing books—that he arranges for the church to purchase his books directly from the publisher, allowing Elevation to receive the author's discount and keep the money from sales. They have also reported that the publisher pays the church to produce marketing materials to promote Furtick's books. Elevation has confirmed that Furtick's salary is set by a Board of Overseers composed of other megachurch pastors, who vote on his salary based on a compensation study conducted by an outside firm, and that Furtick does not vote on his own salary.
On October 2, 2020, Trinity Broadcasting Network began airing programming from Furtick, replacing the Kenneth Copeland ministries program "Believer's Voice of Victory".
== Bibliography ==
Furtick, Steven (2010). Sun Stand Still: What Happens When You Dare to Ask God for the Impossible. Multnomah Books. ISBN 978-1-60142-322-1.
Furtick, Steven (2012). Greater: Dream Bigger. Start Smaller. Ignite God's Vision for Your Life. Multnomah Books. ISBN 978-1-60142-325-2.
Furtick, Steven (2014). Crash The Chatterbox: Hearing God's Voice Above All Others. Multnomah Books. ISBN 978-1-60142-456-3.
Furtick, Steven (2016). (Un)Qualified: How God Uses Broken People to Do Big Things. Multnomah Books. ISBN 978-1601424594.
Furtick, Steven (2017). Seven-Mile Miracle: Journey Into the Presence of God Through the Last Words of Jesus. Multnomah Books. ISBN 978-160142-922-3.
Furtick, Steven (2024). Do the New You: 6 Mindsets to Become Who You Were Created to Be. Multnomah Books. ISBN 978-154600-682-4.
== Awards and nominations ==
=== GMA Dove Awards ===
=== Grammy Awards ===
== References ==
== External links ==
StevenFurtick.com |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Crump | Diane Crump | Diane Crump (born May 18, 1948 in Milford, Connecticut) is an American jockey and horse trainer. In 1969 Crump was the first woman to ride in a pari-mutuel race in the United States; her participation in the event was so contested that she required a full police escort through the crowds at the Hialeah Park Race Track. She went on to be the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby (in 1970). Crump briefly retired in 1985 to become a horse trainer, but returned to riding and was a professional jockey until retiring in 1999. She now runs an equine sales business.
== Early years ==
Diane Crump was born in 1948 in Milford, Connecticut, the daughter of Walter and Jean Crump. Crump had an early interest in horses, despite living in an area almost void of their presence. She fueled her love for horses through books pictures and art instead, and continued to build upon this passion. When she was a pre-teen her family moved to Oldsmar, Florida, and she began taking riding lessons when she was 13. She begged her parents and created a detailed plan working odd jobs here and there to save money in order to help fund the purchase of her first pony.
== Career accomplishments ==
On February 7, 1969, Crump became the first woman to compete as a professional jockey in a pari-mutuel race in the United States. She rode a horse named Bridle 'n Bit at Hialeah Park Race Track. There was so much hostility to a woman riding in a horse race that she needed a police escort to get to the track, taking her through an angry crowd of shouting people. Crump ultimately finished 9th in the 12-horse race and returned to cheers of support. Crump reflected on that experience, recalling that her excitement surrounding this opportunity enabled her to ignore the toxic environment of the crowd and aggressively negative attitudes of the male jockeys, trainers and owners. Two weeks later, Crump rode her first winning race.
The crowd was just swarming all over me.
They were crazy, up in arms. . .The hecklers were yelling: 'Go back to the kitchen and cook dinner.' That was the mentality at the time. They thought I was going to be the downfall of the whole sport, which is such a medieval thought. I was like: 'Come on people, this is the 1960s!'
Crump was inspired to apply for her jockey's license in the fall of 1968 after the very first woman licensed jockey, Kathryn Kusner, sued the Maryland Racing Commission for the right to be granted a license. Kusner had previously been denied a jockey's license because of her gender and although she won her case in October 1968 and was granted a license, she suffered an injury soon after that prevented her from competing, allowing Crump to step forward and assume the responsibilities of a revolutionary female jockey. While Crump was granted the jockey's license in 1968, she continued to face sexist rules, regulations and personal harassment as she attempted to further her career in horse racing.
Throughout 1968, all female jockeys were being met with aggressive efforts to dissuade their participation in the sport. One of the part owners of Churchill Downs, W.L. Lyons Brown, who Crump was galloping for at the time she was granted her license, requested that Crump not compete in races in Kentucky for fear that it would create too much controversy for Churchill Downs as a track. Female jockey Penny Ann Early attempted to ride at Churchill at that same time, however she was never given the opportunity to compete in the races due to all the male jockeys boycotting her races and causing their cancellations. Two other women had been forced out of horse races they had entered after male jockeys threw rocks at the trailers used as locker rooms by the women and threatened a boycott. The situation changed at Hialeah because the track officials threatened sanctions against the male jockeys.
In 1970, she became the first female jockey to ride in the Kentucky Derby. Crump won the first race on the undercard that day, and then on a horse named Fathom, came in 15th in a 17-horse field in the Derby. By the time she ended her racing career in 1985, she had ridden to 235 wins, though she is officially credited with 228 by Equibase.
While Crump was riding some races in the United States, she was also receiving invitations to ride in Puerto Rico and Venezuela. In the early 1970s Crump competed in a two horse race in Puerto Rico which lacked the same rule structure as American racing. During the race, she realized the male jockey behind her was holding onto her saddle. She then began to hit him with her whip; they spent the rest of the race hitting each other. He then pulled away from her and won the race.
== Injuries ==
On February 1, 1989, Crump suffered a broken leg, ankle and ribs from a riding accident and was hospitalized for ten days. Crump was crushed underneath her horse after it reared up and fell backwards. Her leg was broken in 6 or 7 different places. After being in the hospital she was told by doctors she would never be able to ride again. Crump had several injuries in her career as a jockey but this one was the far most threatening. After this injury, Crump took her time to recover and eventually ride again although all of the injuries she experienced over the years caught up with her which led to her permanent retirement in 1999 when she moved on to training.
== Post-career ==
When Crump retired for a time in 1985, and beginning in 1991 continuously, she worked as a trainer for a small stable of horses at the Middleburg Training Center in Virginia. She resumed race riding in 1992 and rode races through 1998. She retired from racing in 1999. She now runs an equine sales business and lives in Virginia. In 2020, a biography, Diane Crump: A Horse Racing Pioneer's Life in the Saddle, by Mark Shrager, was published by Lyons Press.
== Personal life ==
Crump was married to trainer Don Divine from 1969 to 1987. In 1985 she took her first break from riding, in order to put down roots in one place as her young daughter at the time was about to begin school. At this time she worked as a farm trainer for Calumet farm in Lexington, Kentucky where she stayed for over three years.
In 2025 it was reported that she was diagnosed with glioblastoma.
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sazae-san | Sazae-san | Sazae-san (Japanese: サザエさん) is a Japanese yonkoma manga series written and illustrated by Machiko Hasegawa. It was first published in Hasegawa's local paper, the Fukunichi Shinbun (フクニチ新聞), on April 22, 1946. When the Asahi Shimbun wished to have Hasegawa draw the four-panel comic for their paper, she moved to Tokyo in 1949 with the explanation that the main characters had moved from Kyūshū to Tokyo as well. The first Sazae-san strip run by the Asahi Shimbun was published on November 30, 1949. The manga dealt with everyday life and contemporary situations in Tokyo until Hasegawa retired and ended the series, with the final comic published on February 21, 1974.
As of 1999, the manga had over 86 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. An anime television adaptation by TCJ (later renamed Eiken) began airing in Japan in October 1969 and holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-running animated television series. It has also been adapted into a radio show, theatrical plays and songs.
== Plot ==
In the beginning, Sazae was more interested in being with her horse than dressing up in a kimono and makeup to attract her future husband. Hasegawa was forward-thinking in that, in her words, the Isono/Fuguta clan would embody the image of the modern Japanese family after World War II.
Sazae was a very liberated woman, and many of the early plotlines revolved around Sazae bossing around her husband, to the consternation of her neighbors, who believed that a man should be the head of his household. Later, Sazae became a feminist and was involved in many comical situations regarding her affiliation with her local women's lib group.
Despite the topical nature of the series, the core of the stories revolved around the large family dynamic, and were presented in a lighthearted, easy fashion. In fact, the final comic, in 1974, revolved around Sazae's happiness that an egg she cracked for her husband's breakfast produced a double yolk, with Katsuo remarking about the happiness the "little things" in life can bring.
In current culture, the popular Sazae-san anime is frequently viewed as a nostalgic representation of traditional Japanese society, since it represents a simpler time before many of the changes brought by modern technology. Its social themes, though very liberal at the time of its publication, are evocative of a bygone and nostalgic era.
== Characters ==
=== Isono and Fuguta family ===
Sazae Fuguta (フグ田 サザエ, Fuguta Sazae) (née Isono (磯野))
The main character. Age 24 (27 in the manga). She marries Masuo.
She is a housewife, but occasionally works part-time as a maid for the Yumizu family, a wealthy family in the neighborhood.
She has a unique hair style. This is one of the Victory rolls that were popular at the time Manga was started, and she has maintained this hairstyle since the fad passed.
She is bright, cheerful, and popular in the town with a personality like that of a split bamboo.
Her talkativeness and goofiness are shortcomings, and she is sometimes taken aback by her family, but most of the time she is well-liked by those around her.
Voiced by: Midori Katō
Namihei Isono (磯野 波平, Isono Namihei)
Sazae's father and patriarch of the family. Aged 54.
He is characterized by a single hair on his bald head, and he is very protective of that single hair.
He hates crookedness and can be stubborn, often scolding Sazae and Katsuo, but he also has a compassionate and good-natured side.
He appears to be full of dignity and dignity, but in fact has an unreliable side.
When he scolds, he often says, "Baka-monn!" (馬鹿者!) (It means "Fool!") However, he does not really believe this, and in his heart of hearts, he has a love for his children, wanting them to grow up to be good people. This is also known as a famous line that symbolizes him.
Voiced by: Ichirō Nagai (1969–2014), Chafurin (2014–present)
Fune Isono (磯野 フネ, Isono Fune) (née Ishida (石田))
Sazae's mother. In her 50s (48 in the manga); born in Shizuoka.
She is a stay-at-home mom and proud of her position. She does all the housework and is the epitome of a good wife and wise mother.
She is calm and trusted by all of her family. She is an important behind-the-scenes supporter of the family, mediating domestic disputes.
On the other hand, as a girl she was a tomboy, and this side of her personality is sometimes apparent.
Voiced by: Miyoko Asō (1969–2015), Yorie Terauchi (2015–present)
Masuo Fuguta (フグ田 マスオ, Fuguta Masuo)
Sazae's husband. He is a salaryman in the sales department of a trading company. 28 years old (32 in the manga). Born in Osaka.
After marrying her, they lived together in a rented house, but were advised by the landlord to move out of the house due to misconduct (in his case, trying to remove the fence of the house without permission), and soon moved in with her family.
He is good-natured and timid, which can lead to a loss-making role, and he sometimes says and does things that one might consider black-hearted. However, his gentle and honest nature has earned him the trust of Sazae's family, and he himself lives happily every day surrounded by Sazae's family.
Voiced by: Shinsuke Chikaishi (1969–1978), Hiroshi Masuoka (1978–2019), Hideyuki Tanaka (2019—)
Katsuo Isono (磯野 カツオ, Isono Katsuo)
Sazae's younger brother who is an 11-year-old fifth grader.
He is quick-witted, well-spoken, and has a flattering personality. He knows how to get on in the world and to be good with people. In the manga in 1973, he was sarcastically referred to by Sazae as "the Kissinger of our family". but, he does not do well with schoolwork and refuses to do his homework.
He likes mischief and often suffers under the wrath of Sazae when he accidentally insults other guests in the manner of faux-pas.
He is often scolded by Namihei, usually when he finds out about Katsuo's low test grades and mischief.
His main activities consist of playing baseball and soccer with his friends.
Voiced by: Nobuyo Ōyama (1969–1970), Kazue Takahashi (1970–1998), Miina Tominaga (1998–present)
Wakame Isono (磯野 ワカメ, Isono Wakame)
Sazae's younger sister. Age 9 (7 in the manga). She features a Bob cut.
She is one of the characters whose personalities differ greatly between manga and anime.
In the manga, she is a talkative girl with a noticeably mischievous personality due to her young age.
In the anime, she is a kind honor student. Therefore, her role in the manga is sometimes handled by Tarao, but sometimes, she shows her mischievous nature from the manga.
She likes to study, but is not good at PE. Her main hobbies are reading and fashion.
Voiced by: Yoshiko Yamamoto (1969–1976), Michiko Nomura (1976–2005), Makoto Tsumura (2005–present)
Tarao Fuguta (フグ田 タラオ, Fuguta Tarao)
Masuo and Sazae's 3-year-old son. Usually called Tara-chan (タラ ちゃん).
He is interested in everything and has a curious nature.
While a mostly well-behaved toddler, he can be a bit stubborn.
Sometimes he tries to be selfish and annoys His parents. However, he is a child who can honestly admit and apologize when he knows he is wrong.
In the anime, he is so polite and uses honorifics that it makes it hard to believe he is 3 years old. This is said to reflect the character of Takako Sasuga, who played him from the beginning of the broadcast until her sudden death in 2023.
Voiced by: Takako Sasuga (1969—2023), Rikako Aikawa (2023–present)
Tama (タマ)
The Isono family's pet cat. He hates mice.
Voiced by: ?
=== Isono and Fuguta family's kin ===
Norisuke Namino (波野 ノリスケ, Namino Norisuke)
He is a nephew of Namihei and a cousin of Sazae, Katsuo, and Wakame. Ages 24–26. He works for a newspaper publisher.
He is a cheerful character, an optimist who is always ready to take it easy without worrying about details.
He is also shrewd and has a brazen side, such as entering Isono family's house without telling them and eating the cakes they keep without permission, but he is not a hateful type of person, so he gets a lot out of life.
Voiced by: Ichirō Murakoshi (1969–1998), Tarō Arakawa (1998–2000), Yasunori Matsumoto (2000–present)
Taiko Namino (波野 タイ子, Namino Taiko)
Norisuke's wife. Age is about 22 years old.
She is known as a particularly beautiful woman in the anime and has a demure personality. She also has a strong core and supports Norisuke behind his back like his wife would, and Norisuke cannot resist her.
She is very comfortable with Sazae, who she is close in age with.
Voiced by: Ryoko Aikawa, Masako Ebisu (1969–1979), Emiko Tsukada (1979–2013), Sayaka Kobayashi (2013–present)
Ikura Namino (波野 イクラ, Namino Ikura)
Norisuke and Taiko's son. Age is about one and a half years old.
He is Tarao's friend and only says "chan", "hai", and "babuu".
Voiced by: Reiko Katsura (1969-2025), Sachie Hirai (2025–present)
Isono Mokuzu Minamoto no Sutamina (磯野藻屑源素太皆)
Namihei's Meiji Revolution samurai ancestor. Around the time of the Bon Festival, he haunts Namihei's (or sometimes Katsuo's) dreams.
Voiced by: Ichirō Nagai (1970–2013), Chafurin (2014–present)
Umihei Isono (磯野 海平, Isono Umihei)
Namihei's twin older brother.
Voiced by: Ichirō Nagai (1970–2013), Chafurin (2014–present)
=== Isasaka family ===
Nanbutsu Isasaka (伊佐坂 難物, Isasaka Nanbutsu)
A novelist who lives in the next house over from the Isono family's house.
Voiced by: Sanji Hase (1970–1978), Eken Mine (1985–2002), Atsushi Ii (2002), Yasuo Iwata (2002–2009), Kōtarō Nakamura (2009–2023), Shigeru Ushiyama(2023–present)
Karu Isasaka (伊佐坂 軽, Isasaka Karu)
Nanbutsu's wife. Fune's childhood friend.
Voiced by: ? (1970–1978), Reiko Yamada (1985–2023), ? (1994, 1996), Yui Komazuka (2023–present)
Ukie Isasaka (伊佐坂 浮江, Isasaka Ukie)
Nanbutsu's daughter.
She is one of the characters that Katsuo is secretly in love with.
Voiced by: ? (?), Miho Ochiai (1974), ? (?), Keiko Han (1985–1989), Reiko Katsura (1989), Miina Tominaga (1989–1998), Eriko Kawasaki (1998–present)
Jinroku Isasaka (伊佐坂 甚六, Isasaka Jinroku)
Nanbutsu's son.
Voiced by: ? (1970–1978), Hiroshi Takemura (1985–2023), Manabu Sakamaki(2023–present)
Hachi (ハチ, Hachi)
The Isasaka family's pet dog.
=== Other characters ===
Grandpa Ura-no (裏のおじいちゃん, Ura-no Ojīchan)
An original anime character modeled after a guest character from the manga.
An old man who lives in a house in back of the (ura-no) Isono family's house.
Voiced by: ? (?–1985), Eken Mine (1985–2002), Atsushi Ii (2002–2013), Mitsuru Takakuwa (2013–present),
Grandma Ura-no (裏のおばあちゃん, Ura-no Obāchan)
An original anime character modeled after a guest character from the manga.
Ura-no Grandpa's wife.
Voiced by: ?, Sumiko Shirakawa, Keiko Yamamoto, Reiko Yamada (1990s substitute)
Saburo (三郎, Saburō)
The employee of Mikawaya who makes house calls for food orders.
An original anime character modeled after a guest character from the manga.
Voiced by: Issei Futamata
Rika Nozawa (野沢 リカ, Nozawa Rika)
An original anime character.
One of Tarao's friends.
Voiced by: Reiko Katsura (1969–2025), Taeko Kawata (1997), Sayaka Kitahara (2025–present)
Takeo (タケオ, Takeo)
An original anime character.
One of Tarao's friends.
Voiced by: Sumiko Shirakawa (?), Reiko Yamada (?–2019), Eriko Kawasaki (?), Miina Tominaga (?), Nozomi Mikajiri (2020–present)
Hiroshi Nakajima (中島 博, Nakajima Hiroshi)
An original anime character modeled after a guest character from the manga.
Katsuo's best friend and his classmate.
Voiced by: Sumiko Shirakawa (1969–2015), Rumi Ochiai (2015–present)
Kaori Ozora (大空 カオリ, Ōzora Kaori)
An original anime character.
Katsuo's girlfriend, she is said to be the most beautiful girl in her class.
She is one of the characters that Katsuo is secretly in love with.
Voiced by: ? (1969–?), Reiko Katsura (?–present), Michiko Nomura (1972, 1975), Taeko Kawata (1997)
Hayakawa (早川, Hayakawa)
One of Katsuo's girlfriends.
She is one of the characters that Katsuo is secretly in love with.
Voiced by: ? (?), Reiko Katsura (1975), Keiko Han (1985–1990), Miina Tominaga (1990–1998), Eriko Kawasaki (1998–present),
Hanako Hanazawa (花沢 花子, Hanazawa Hanako)
An original anime character modeled after a guest character from the manga.
One of Katsuo's girlfriends, who has a crush on him. She is the daughter of a real estate agent.
Although Katsuo is bewildered and avoids her ardent approach, they actually tend to get along quite well.
Voiced by: Mitsuko Asō (1971–?), Tikako Akimoto (1971–?), Yoshiko Ōta, Keiko Yamamoto (?–2023), Teiyū Ichiryūsai (2015), Kazue Ikura (2020), Kumiko Watanabe (2023—present)
Tōru Hashimoto (橋本 とおる, Hashimoto Tōru)
An original anime character.
One of Katsuo's best friends.
Voiced by: ? (1971–?), Reiko Yamada (?–present)
Takuma Nishihara (西原 卓磨, Nishihara Takuma)
An original anime character.
One of Katsuo's best friends.
Voiced by: Katsue Miwa (1972–?), Emiko Tsukada (?–2013), Sayaka Kobayashi (2014–present)
Teacher (先生, Sensei)
An original anime character.
Katsuo's teacher.
Voiced by: Hiroshi Ōtake (1969), ? (?), Kaneta Kimotsuki (1971), ? (?), Eken Mine (?–2002), Sanji Hase (?), ? (2002), Ikuya Sawaki (2002–present)
Horikawa (堀川, Horikawa)
An original anime character.
Wakame's boyfriend.
Since the 2010s, he has been described as a psychopathic speaker and has become an Internet meme in Japan. also, He used to be set up by Wakame as secretly liking him, but in recent years Wakame has sometimes made statements that seem to indicate that she dislikes him.
Voiced by: Sumiko Shirakawa (1971–?), ? (?), Emiko Tsukada (?–2013), Sayaka Kobayashi (2014–present)
Suzuko Siota (塩田 スズ子, Shiota Suzuko)
An original anime character.
Wakame's best friend.
Voiced by: Reiko Katsura (?–2022), Sayaka Kitahara (2022–present)
Miyuki (ミユキ, Miyuki)
An original anime character.
One of Wakame's best friends.
Voiced by: Reiko Katsura (?–1990), Miina Tominaga (1990–1998), Eriko Kawasaki (1998–present),
Anago (穴子)
An original anime character modeled after a guest character from the manga.
One of Masuo's co-workers. He has thick lips, which are his charm.
Voiced by: Kazuya Tatekabe (1971−197?), Norio Wakamoto (197?–present)
Kinzō Yumizu (湯水 金蔵, Yumizu Kinzō)
Voiced by: ? (?), Norio Wakamoto
Mikawaya (三河屋, Mikawaya)
The shopkeeper of Mikawaya, a sake shop.
Voiced by: ? (?), Norio Wakamoto (?), Ikuya Sawaki (2019–present)
Kintarō Hanazawa (花沢 金太郎, Hanazawa Kintarō)
An original anime character.
Hanako's father. Boss of the Hanazawa Real Estate Agency.
Voiced by: ? (?), Norio Wakamoto (?–present)
== Media ==
=== Manga ===
The comic strip was published in book form by Shimaisha (姉妹社) from 1946 to 1974, which Machiko ran with her sister, Mariko. In April 1993, this publishing company went out of business and the comic books went out of print. The same year, Asahi Shimbun purchased the right to publish the forty-five paperback volumes. Twelve bilingual (Japanese-English) manga volumes were published by Kodansha between 1997 and 1999 as The Wonderful World of Sazae-San. The volumes were re-released in 2004, and in 2015 another three bilingual manga volumes were released as The Best of Sazae-san. By 1999, it has sold over 86 million copies.Sazae-san won the 8th Bungeishunjū Manga Award in 1962.
=== Anime ===
In October 1969, Fuji Television started an anime series, which is still on the air today and currently in production, making it one of the longest-running scripted TV series in history and the longest-running animated show. The broadcast time is every Sunday from 18:30 to 19:00 and has never been changed since its inception. The format is in the form of three vignettes. The anime series has some characters, like Katsuo's classmates, who have not appeared in Hasegawa's original works.
On September 5, 2013, the anime achieved the Guinness World Record for the "Longest running animated TV series". As of December 2025, there have been over 9,000 episodes aired.
The stories are based on at least one strip of the original manga. Due to the limited number of strips, different episodes are based on the same strips. In addition, the unique culture and events in a typical Japanese household, including the four seasons, will always be reflected in the story.
At the start of the anime, it was a slapstick comedy with references to Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, etc, but within a year the genre shifted towards a family drama. From this point onward, there has been no major change in style for more than 50 years, in either directing, scriptwriting, or character design. Also because of its popularity, a survey conducted by NIPPON RESEARCH CENTER, LTD. (NRC) in 2020 recorded a high recognition rate of 97% for this anime in Japan. For this reason, it is often described as a "national anime" in Japan and is regarded as a symbol of "universality" and "permanence". Whenever a change is made, such as a change in voice actors, there is always a great deal of media coverage, and the anime retains a strong influence on the public.
In recent years, due to the influence of its unchanging style, it is sometimes criticized as being "anachronistic" or a "period piece", due to elements such as the absence of smartphones and convenience stores in the setting even though the time period is the present day. In response to this, the staff stated, "The appeal of this anime is that it depicts scenes of everyday life and universal relationships that can be found in any family. Therefore, we have no plans in the future to incorporate events or items that would change them." However, some things which have come to be considered inappropriate due to changing times, such as smoking and corporal punishment, have been removed or otherwise addressed.
The anime is not well known outside of Japan, as it has never been exported overseas or otherwise developed globally due to the wishes of the rights holders. However, in 2019, the producer said in a conversation that he hopes to be able to expand globally in the future.
As for voice actors, as of 2023, only Midori Katō, who plays Sazae, has never been changed. Katō was recognized by Guinness World Records in 2019 as the "Longest career as a voice actor for the same character of an animated TV series". As of 2008, 40 years after the anime was first broadcast, four of the seven main characters were the original cast members, but in 2014 Ichirō Nagai, who played Namihei, was replaced due to his sudden death at age 82, and the following year Miyoko Asō, who played Fune, was changed to reflect her age at 89. Takako Sasuga, who played Tarao, died suddenly in 2023 at the age of 87 and was replaced.
Starting from 1974, the opening is an introduction to the places that Sazae has traveled to and visited throughout Japan. The settings change approximately every three months. Because of the popularity of the anime, this has come to be viewed by cities as a "cost-effective means of promoting tourism," and since 2000, the program has received approximately 5–10 million yen in aid from prefectures and municipalities wishing to introduce the program.
Since November 1991, after the closing credits and the next episode previews, each show has ended with a janken match between Sazae and the viewers at home, in which Sazae holds up a sign representing one of the appropriate hand gestures. From 1969 until October 1991, Sazae ended each episode by tossing a bean or rice cake in the air and catching it in her mouth. Fuji Television switched to the janken match after doctors at Tohoku University Hospital and the National Center for Child Health and Development raised concerns that children may try to imitate Sazae and potentially choke on food.
The anime series was originally sponsored solely by Toshiba—Later, in 1998, the program expanded to other sponsors, but the association between Toshiba and Sazae-san remained strong. When Toshiba withdrew its sponsorship due to poor management, it was widely covered in the media.
Sazae-san was the last animated television series to use traditional cel animation, although as of April 2009, the opening credits were digital; the series finally switched to fully digital animation in 2013. Despite the series being a hit, Hasegawa stated that she never wanted any merchandise to be made for it, including home video rights, making availability of past episodes, especially those prior to the introduction of the VCR, very rare. Following her death, her request to prohibit older episodes from being released in home media was honored. Despite this, however, Fuji TV made an agreement with Amazon Prime Video as well as other streaming services in December 2018 to release the 1969 and early-to-mid 1970s episodes available on their streaming service. Some episodes from the mid-2000s are also on the service with episodes from the mid 1990s to the 2010s also being available later on.
The Opening Song and Ending Song are original songs sung by Yuko Uno. Since the anime first started airing, the audio itself has not been altered in any way, such as by arrangement, although it was trimmed to fit the length of the sequences during the early years of airing.
There have been two previous suspensions of animation production: the first, for about a month beginning in February 1975, due to the 1970s energy crisis; the second, for about a month beginning in May 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Programming during these periods was handled by rebroadcasting past productions.
In Japan, there is a term called "Sazae-san syndrome" (サザエさん症候群, Sazae-san shōkōgun), which refers to a depressed mood on Sunday night after an episode has finished on television, reminding people that the weekend is coming to an end.
=== Live-action ===
In 1955, a radio station aired a serial drama based on the comic strip.
The same year, a short-lived live-action television series was started, and was aired on what is now TBS.
In November 1965, TBS started a dramatic television series modeled after the comic strip. It aired until September 1967.
In 1979, NHK made a dramatic serial which ran for six months, focusing on the creation of Sazae-san and Machiko Hasegawa in her younger days.
In 2010, Fuji Television debuted a live-action situation comedy series, Sazae-san 2 (サザエさん2), followed the following year with Sazae-san 3 (サザエさん3). The series is patterned after the anime series and uses the same elements, including the theme music and the closing janken match.
=== Commercials ===
In 2008, Glico showed the family in "25 years later" commercials, as adults, for the firm's "Otona Glico" chocolates. The characters were portrayed by Eita (as Tarao Fuguta), Tadanobu Asano (as Katsuo Isono), Rie Miyazawa (as Wakame Isono) and Shun Oguri (as Ikura Namino). In 2017, the characters Sazae and Masao were depicted in a Cup Noodles commercial drawn by Katsuya Kondō.
== See also ==
List of anime series by episode count for a full list of lengthy anime.
Anpanman
Chibi Maruko-chan
Crayon Shin-chan
Doraemon
Nintama Rantarō
Ojarumaru
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Further reading ==
"サザエさんをさがして". Asahi Shimbun. Tokyo.
== External links ==
Sazae-san (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
Sazae-san (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
Sazae-san at IMDb |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Symphony_Association | Kingston Symphony Association | Kingston Symphony Association is a Canadian arts organization in Kingston, Ontario. The organization was formed in 1963 as a managing umbrella organization of several performing art ensembles in Kingston, including the Kingston Symphony and the Kingston Choral Society. The organization currently also manages the Kingston Youth Orchestra, the Kingston Youth Strings, the Kingston Community Strings, and the Kingston Volunteer Committee.
Some of these organizations are not financially self-sustaining, so the association organizes fund-raising events.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown#:~:text=On%202%20October%201978%2C%20Feodor,days%20and%20gave%20a%20speech. | Jonestown | The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name Jonestown, was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, an American religious movement under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 918 people died at the settlement, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and at a Temple-run building in Georgetown, Guyana's capital city. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.
A total of 909 individuals died in Jonestown itself, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, a significant number of whom were injected against their will. Jones and some Peoples Temple members referred to the act as a "revolutionary suicide" on an audio tape of the event, and in prior recorded discussions. The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others, including U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan, by Temple members at Port Kaituma, an act that Jones ordered. Four other Temple members committed murder-suicide in Georgetown at Jones' command.
Terms used to describe the deaths in Jonestown and Georgetown have evolved over time. Many contemporary media accounts after the events called the deaths a mass suicide. In contrast, later sources refer to the deaths with terms such as mass murder-suicide, a massacre, or simply mass murder. Seventy or more individuals at Jonestown were injected with poison, a third of the victims were minors, and armed guards had been ordered to shoot anyone who attempted to flee the settlement as Jones lobbied for suicide.
== Origins ==
The Peoples Temple was formed by Jim Jones in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1955. The movement purported to practice what it called "apostolic socialism." In doing so, the Temple preached that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment – socialism." Jones had held an interest in Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Adolf Hitler from a young age, and would later frequently praise Stalin and Vladimir Lenin as heroes. He was also upset with persecution against the Communist Party USA. In the early 1960s, Jones visited Guyana – then a British colony – while on his way to establishing a short-lived Temple mission in Brazil.
After Jones received considerable criticism in Indiana for his integrationist views, the Temple moved to Redwood Valley, California, in 1965. In the early 1970s, the Temple opened other branches in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and would eventually move its headquarters to San Francisco.
With the move to San Francisco came increasing political involvement by the Temple and the high levels of approval they received from the local government. After the group's participation proved instrumental in the mayoral election victory of George Moscone in 1975, Moscone appointed Jones as the Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority. Increasing public support in California gave Jones access to several high-ranking political figures, including vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale and First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Guests at a large 1976 testimonial dinner for Jones included Governor Jerry Brown, Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally and California Assemblyman Willie Brown, among others.
== Jonestown established ==
=== Selection and establishment of Guyanese land ===
In the fall of 1973, after critical newspaper articles by Lester Kinsolving and the defection of eight Temple members, Jones and Temple attorney Timothy Stoen prepared an "immediate action" contingency plan for responding to a police or media crackdown. The plan listed various options, including fleeing to Canada or to a "Caribbean missionary post" such as Barbados or Trinidad. For its Caribbean missionary post, the Temple quickly chose Guyana, conducting research on its economy and extradition treaties with the United States. In October 1973, the directors of the Temple passed a resolution to establish an agricultural mission there.
The Temple chose Guyana, in part, because of the group's own socialist politics, which were moving further to the left during the selection process. Former Temple member Tim Carter stated that the reasons for choosing Guyana were the Temple's view of a perceived dominance of racism and multinational corporations in the U.S. government. According to Carter, the Temple concluded that Guyana, an English-speaking, socialist country with a government including prominent black leaders, would afford black Temple members a peaceful place to live.
Later, Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham stated that Jones may have "wanted to use cooperatives as the basis for the establishment of socialism, and maybe his idea of setting up a commune meshed with that." Jones thought that Guyana was small, poor and independent enough for him to easily obtain influence and official protection. He proved skillful in presenting the Guyanese government the benefits of allowing the Temple to establish a settlement in the country. One of the main tactics was to speak of the advantages of their American presence near Guyana's disputed border with Venezuela; this idea seemed promising to the Burnham government, who feared a military incursion by Venezuela.
In 1974, after traveling to an area of northwestern Guyana with Guyanese officials, Jones and the Temple negotiated a lease of over 3,800 acres (1,500 ha) of land in the jungle located 150 miles (240 km) west of the Guyanese capital of Georgetown. In 1976, Guyana approved the lease (retroactive to April 1974). The site, located near the disputed border with Venezuela, was isolated and had soil of low fertility. The nearest body of water was seven miles (eleven kilometres) away by muddy roads.
=== Jonestown before mass migration ===
As five hundred members began the construction of Jonestown, the Temple encouraged more to relocate to the settlement. Jones saw Jonestown as both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from media scrutiny. Jones reached an agreement to guarantee that Guyana would permit Temple members' mass migration. To do so, he stated that they were "skilled and progressive," showed off an envelope he claimed contained $500,000 and stated that he would invest most of the group's assets in Guyana. The relatively large number of immigrants to Guyana overwhelmed the government's small but stringent immigration infrastructure in a country where immigrants had outweighed locals. Guyanese immigration procedures were compromised to inhibit the departure of Temple defectors and curtail the visas of Temple opponents.
Jonestown was held up as a benevolent communist community, with Jones stating: "I believe we're the purest communists there are." Jones' wife, Marceline, described Jonestown as "dedicated to live for socialism, total economic and racial and social equality. We are here living communally." Jones wanted to construct a model community and claimed that Burnham "couldn't rave enough about us, the wonderful things we do, the project, the model of socialism." He did not permit members to leave Jonestown without his express prior permission.
The Temple established offices in Georgetown and conducted numerous meetings with Burnham and other Guyanese officials. In 1976, Temple member Michael Prokes requested that Burnham receive Jones as a foreign dignitary along with other "high ranking U.S. officials." Jones traveled to Guyana with Dymally to meet with Burnham and Guyanese Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Willis. In that meeting, Dymally agreed to pass on the message to the U.S. State Department that Guyana wanted to keep an open door to cooperation with the U.S. He followed up that meeting with a letter to Burnham stating that Jones was "one of the finest human beings" and that Dymally was "tremendously impressed" by his visit to Jonestown.
Temple members took pains to stress their loyalty to Burnham's People's National Congress Party. One Temple member, Paula Adams, became romantically involved with Laurence "Bonny" Mann, Guyana's ambassador to the U.S. Jones bragged about other female Temple members he referred to as "public relations women" giving all for the cause in Jonestown. Burnham's wife Viola was also a strong advocate of the Temple.
Later, Burnham stated that Guyana allowed the Temple to operate in the manner it did on the references of Moscone, Mondale and Rosalynn Carter. He also said that, when Deputy Minister Ptolemy Reid traveled to Washington, D.C. in September 1977 to sign the Panama Canal Treaties, Mondale, by this point the U.S. Vice President, asked him, "How's Jim?", which indicated to Reid that Mondale had a personal interest in Jones' well-being.
=== Investigation and mass migration ===
In the summer of 1977, Jones and several hundred Temple members moved to Jonestown to escape building pressure from San Francisco media investigations. Jones left the same night that an editor at New West magazine read to him an article to be published by Marshall Kilduff detailing allegations of abuse by former Temple members. After the mass migration, Jonestown became overcrowded. Jonestown's population was slightly under 900 at its peak in 1978.
=== Jonestown life after mass migration ===
Many members of the Temple believed that Guyana would be, as Jones promised, a paradise or utopia. After Jones arrived, however, Jonestown life significantly changed. Entertaining movies from Georgetown that the settlers had watched were mostly canceled in favor of Soviet propaganda shorts and documentaries on American social problems.
Bureaucratic requirements after Jones' arrival sapped labor resources for other needs. Buildings fell into disrepair and weeds encroached on fields. School study and nighttime lectures for adults turned to Jones' discussions about revolution and enemies, with lessons focusing on Soviet alliances, Jones' crises and the purported "mercenaries" sent by Stoen, who had defected from the Temple and turned against the group.
For the first several months, Temple members worked six days a week, from approximately 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with an hour for lunch. In mid-1978, after Jones' health deteriorated and his wife began managing more of Jonestown's operations, the work week was reduced to eight hours a day for five days a week. After the day's work ended, Temple members would attend several hours of activities in the settlement's central pavilion, including classes on socialism.
Jones compared Jonestown's work schedule to the North Korean system of eight hours of daily work followed by eight hours of study. This also comported with the Temple's practice of gradually subjecting its followers to sophisticated mind control and behavior modification techniques borrowed from Mao Zedong and Kim Il-sung. Jones would often read news and commentary, including items from Radio Moscow and Radio Havana, and was known to side with the Soviets over the Chinese during the Sino-Soviet split.
"Discussion" about current events often took the form of Jones interrogating individual followers about the implications and subtexts of a given news item, or delivering lengthy and often confused monologues on how to "read" certain events. In addition to Soviet documentaries, political thrillers such as The Parallax View (1974), The Day of the Jackal (1973), State of Siege (1972) and Z (1969) were repeatedly screened and minutely analyzed by Jones. Recordings of commune meetings show how livid and frustrated Jones would get when anyone did not find the films interesting or did not understand the message Jones was placing upon them.
Jonestown had a closed-circuit television system, but no one could view anything in the way of film or recorded TV, no matter how innocuous or seemingly politically neutral, without a Temple staffer present to "interpret" the material for the viewers. This invariably meant damning criticisms of perceived capitalist propaganda in Western material, and glowing praise for and highlighting of Marxist–Leninist messages in material from communist nations.
Jones's recorded readings of the news were part of the constant broadcasts over Jonestown's tower speakers, such that all members could hear them throughout the day and night. His news readings usually portrayed the U.S. as a "capitalist" and "imperialist" villain, while casting "socialist" leaders, such as Kim, Stalin and Robert Mugabe in a positive light.
Jonestown's primary means of communication with the outside world was a shortwave radio. All voice communications with San Francisco and Georgetown were transmitted using this radio, from mundane supply orders to confidential Temple business. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cited the Temple for technical violations and for using amateur frequencies for commercial purposes. Because shortwave radio was Jonestown's only effective means of non-postal communication, the Temple felt that the FCC's threats to revoke its operators' licenses threatened Jonestown's existence.
Because it stood on poor soil, Jonestown was not self-sufficient and had to import large quantities of commodities such as wheat. Temple members lived in small communal houses, some with walls woven from Troolie palm, and ate meals that reportedly consisted of nothing more on some days than rice, beans, greens and occasionally meat, sauce and eggs. Despite having access to an estimated $26 million by late 1978, Jones also lived in a tiny communal house, though fewer people lived there than in other communal houses. His house reportedly held a small refrigerator containing, at times, eggs, meat, fruit, salads and soft drinks. Medical problems, such as severe diarrhea and high fevers, struck half the community in February 1978.
Although Jonestown contained no dedicated prison and no form of capital punishment, various forms of punishment were used against members considered to have disciplinary problems. Methods included imprisonment in a 6-by-4-by-3-foot (1.8 m × 1.2 m × 0.9 m) plywood box and forcing children to spend a night at the bottom of a well, sometimes upside-down. This "torture hole", along with beatings, became the subject of rumor among local Guyanese. For some members who attempted to escape, drugs such as Thorazine, sodium pentathol, chloral hydrate, Demerol and Valium were administered in an "extended care unit." Armed guards patrolled the area day and night to enforce Jonestown's rules.
Children were generally surrendered to communal care, and at times were only allowed to see their biological parents briefly at night. Jones was called "Father" or "Dad" by both adults and children. The community had a nursery at which thirty-three infants were born.
For a year, it appears the commune was run primarily through Social Security checks received by members. Up to $65,000 in monthly welfare payments from U.S. government agencies to Jonestown residents were signed over to the Temple. In 1978, officials from the U.S. embassy in Georgetown interviewed Social Security recipients on multiple occasions to make sure they were not being held against their will. None of the seventy-five people interviewed by the embassy stated that they were being held captive, were forced to sign over welfare checks or wanted to leave Jonestown.
=== Demographics ===
African Americans made up approximately 70% of Jonestown's population. 45% of Jonestown residents were black women.
== Events in Jonestown before the arrival of Leo Ryan ==
=== White Night and the Six-Day Siege ===
Jones' paranoia and drug abuse increased in Jonestown as he became fearful of a government raid on the commune, citing concerns that the community would not be able to resist an attack. He made frequent addresses to Temple members regarding Jonestown's safety, including statements that U.S. intelligence agencies were conspiring with "capitalist pigs" to destroy the settlement and harm its inhabitants.
Jones was known to regularly study Adolf Hitler and Father Divine to learn how to manipulate members of the cult. Divine told Jones personally to "find an enemy" and "to make sure they know who the enemy is" as it would unify those in the group and make them subservient to him.
After work, when purported emergencies arose, the Temple sometimes conducted what Jones referred to as "White Nights." During such events, Jones would call, "Alert, Alert, Alert" over Jonestown's tower speakers to call the community together in the pavilion, which was then surrounded by guards armed with guns and crossbows. On several occasions, Jones then gave his followers four options: attempt to flee to the Soviet Union, commit "revolutionary suicide", stay in Jonestown and fight the purported attackers or flee into the jungle.
On at least two occasions during White Nights, after a "revolutionary suicide" vote was reached, a simulated mass suicide was rehearsed. Temple defector Deborah Layton described the event in an affidavit:
Everyone, including the children, was told to line up. As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told. When the time came when we should have dropped dead, Rev. Jones explained that the poison was not real and that we had just been through a loyalty test. He warned us that the time was not far off when it would become necessary for us to die by our own hands.
One drill lasted for six days. Known as the "Six-Day Siege," this ordeal was used thereafter by Jones as a symbol of the community's indomitable spirit. For days on end, frightened settlers ringed the commune, armed with machetes and whatever crude tools would serve as weapons. Surrounding them, Jones claimed, were mercenaries bent on murder, as well as the abduction of Jones' son John Victor Stoen and others. Marceline and others outside of the commune engaged in interminable shortwave radio conversations with Jones, seeking to dissuade him from ordering a mass suicide. The panic reached such a point that an ad hoc evacuation was ordered by Jones, with dozens of settlers hastily loaded onto boats on the George River for a purported exodus to Cuba. Several people fell into the river, suffering injuries. At last, Jones bowed to pressure, and the drill ended. Veterans of the "Siege" were held in high regard in Jonestown, and in numerous addresses Jones tearfully recalled their stoic courage on the "front line."
The Temple had received monthly half-pound shipments of cyanide since 1976 after Jones obtained a jeweler's license to buy the chemical, purportedly to clean gold. In May 1978, a Temple doctor wrote a memo to Jones asking permission to test cyanide on Jonestown's pigs, as their metabolism was close to that of human beings.
=== Stoen custody dispute ===
In September 1977, former Temple members Tim and Grace Stoen battled in a Georgetown court to produce an order for the Temple to show cause why a final order should not be issued returning their five-year-old son, John. A few days later, a second order was issued for John to be taken into protective custody by authorities. The fear of being held in contempt of the orders caused Jones to set up a false sniper attack upon himself and begin the "Six-Day Siege."
Jonestown rallies began to take an almost surreal tone as black activists Angela Davis and Huey Newton communicated via radio-telephone to the settlers, urging them to hold strong against the "conspiracy." Jones made radio broadcasts stating "we will die unless we are granted freedom from harassment and asylum." Reid finally assured Marceline that the Guyana Defence Force would not invade Jonestown.
=== Exploring another potential exodus ===
Following the "Six-Day Siege," despite Reid's assurances, Jones no longer believed the Guyanese could be trusted. He directed Temple members to write to over a dozen foreign governments inquiring about immigration policies relevant to another exodus by the Temple. He also wrote to the State Department, inquiring about North Korea and Albania, then enduring the Sino-Albanian split. In Georgetown, the Temple conducted frequent meetings with the embassies of the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and Yugoslavia. Negotiations with the Soviet embassy included extensive discussions of possible resettlement there. The Temple produced memoranda discussing potential places within the Soviet Union in which they might settle.
Sharon Amos, Michael Prokes, Matthew Blunt, Timothy Regan and other Temple members took active roles in the "Guyana-Korea Friendship Society," which sponsored two seminars on the revolutionary concepts of Kim Il-sung. In April 1978, a high-ranking correspondent of the Soviet news agency TASS and his wife visited Jones. On 2 October 1978, Feodor Timofeyev, the Soviet consul in Georgetown, visited Jonestown for two days and gave a speech. Jones stated before the speech, "For many years, we have let our sympathies be quite publicly known, that the United States government was not our mother, but that the Soviet Union was our spiritual motherland." Timofeyev opened the speech stating that the Soviet Union would like to send "our deepest and the most sincere greetings to the people of this first socialist and communist community of the United States of America, in Guyana and in the world". Both speeches were met by cheers and applause from the crowd in Jonestown.
Following the visit, Temple members met almost weekly with Timofeyev to discuss a potential Soviet exodus. However, Jones eventually had a change of heart, stating that he preferred to stay within the Guyanese borders because of the sovereignty it afforded them.
=== Concerned relatives ===
Meanwhile, in late 1977 and early 1978, the Stoens participated in meetings with other relatives of Jonestown residents at the home of Jeannie Mills, another Temple defector. Together, they called themselves the "Concerned Relatives." Tim Stoen engaged in letter-writing campaigns to the U.S. Secretary of State and the Guyanese government, and traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby for an official investigation. In January 1978, Stoen wrote a white paper to Congress detailing his grievances and requesting that congressmen write to Burnham; ninety-one congressmen, including Leo Ryan, wrote such letters.
On 17 February 1978, Jones submitted to an interview with San Francisco Examiner reporter Tim Reiterman. Reiterman's subsequent story about the Stoen custody battle prompted the immediate threat of a lawsuit by the Temple. The repercussions were devastating for the Temple's reputation, and made most former supporters more suspicious of the Temple's claims that it was the victim of a "rightist vendetta." Still, others remained loyal. On the day after Reiterman's article was published, Harvey Milk – a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who was supported by the Temple – wrote a letter to President Jimmy Carter defending Jones "as a man of the highest character" and stating that Temple defectors were trying to "damage Rev. Jones' reputation" with "apparent bold-faced lies."
On 11 April 1978, the Concerned Relatives distributed a packet of documents, including letters and affidavits, that they titled an "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones" to the Peoples Temple, members of the press and members of Congress. In June 1978, Layton provided the group with a further affidavit detailing alleged crimes by the Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown.
Tim Stoen represented three members of the Concerned Relatives in lawsuits filed in May and June 1978 against Jones and other Temple members, seeking in excess of $56 million in damages. The Temple, represented by Charles Garry, filed a suit against Stoen on 10 July 1978, seeking $150 million in damages.
=== Conspiracism ===
During July and August of 1978, Jones sought the legal services of Mark Lane and Donald Freed, both Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists, to help make the case of a "grand conspiracy" by U.S. intelligence agencies against the Temple. Jones told Lane he wanted to "pull an Eldridge Cleaver" and return to the U.S. after repairing his reputation. In September, Lane spoke to the residents of Jonestown, providing support for Jones' theories and comparing him to Martin Luther King Jr. Lane then held press conferences stating that "none of the charges" against the Temple "are accurate or true" and that there was a "massive conspiracy" against the Temple by "intelligence organizations," naming the CIA, the FBI, and even the U.S. Postal Service. Though Lane presented himself as a disinterested party, Jones was actually paying him $6,000 per month to generate such theories.
=== Jones' declining physical and mental health ===
Jones' health significantly declined in Jonestown. In 1978, he was informed of a possible lung infection, upon which he announced to his followers that he had lung cancer – a ploy to foster sympathy and strengthen support within the community.
Jones was said to be abusing injectable Valium, Quaaludes, stimulants and barbiturates. Audio tapes of 1978 meetings exhibit Jones complaining of high blood pressure, small strokes, weight loss of thirty to forty pounds within the span of two weeks, temporary blindness, convulsions and, in his final month, grotesque swelling of the extremities. During meetings and public addresses, Jones' once-sharp speaking voice often sounded slurred; words ran together or were tripped over. He would occasionally not finish sentences even when reading typed reports over the commune's speaker system.
Reiterman was surprised by the severe deterioration of Jones' health when he saw him in Jonestown on November 17, 1978. After covering Jones for eighteen months for the Examiner, he thought it was "shocking to see his glazed eyes and festering paranoia face to face, to realize that nearly a thousand lives, ours included, were in his hands."
== Leo Ryan visit ==
=== Initial investigation ===
Leo Ryan, who represented California's 11th congressional district, was friends with the father of Bob Houston, a Temple member in California whose mutilated body was found near train tracks on October 5, 1976, three days after a taped telephone conversation with Houston's ex-wife in which leaving the Temple was discussed. Over the following months, Ryan's interest was further aroused by the allegations put forth by Stoen, Layton and the Concerned Relatives.
On November 14, 1978, Ryan flew to Georgetown, along with a delegation that included:
Jackie Speier, Ryan's then-legal adviser;
Neville Annibourne, representing Guyana's Ministry of Information;
Richard Dwyer, Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. embassy to Guyana;
Tim Reiterman, San Francisco Examiner reporter;
Greg Robinson, Examiner photographer;
Don Harris, NBC reporter;
Bob Brown, NBC camera operator;
Steve Sung, NBC audio technician;
Bob Flick, NBC producer;
Charles Krause, Washington Post reporter;
Ron Javers, San Francisco Chronicle reporter;
and Concerned Relatives representatives, including:
Tim and Grace Stoen,
Steve and Anthony Katsaris,
Beverly Oliver,
Jim Cobb,
Sherwin Harris, and
Carol Houston Boyd.
=== Visits to Jonestown ===
==== November 17, 1978 ====
When the Ryan delegation arrived in Guyana, Jones' attorneys Lane and Garry initially refused to allow them access to Jonestown. However, by the morning of November 17, they informed Jones that Ryan would likely leave for Jonestown that afternoon regardless of his willingness. Ryan's party, accompanied by Lane and Garry, came to an airstrip at Port Kaituma, six miles (10 km) from Jonestown, some hours later. Because of lack of room on the plane, only four of the Concerned Relatives – Anthony Katsaris, Beverly Oliver, Jim Cobb and Carol Boyd – accompanied Ryan, Speier and the journalists to Port Kaituma and ultimately to Jonestown. It was felt that the presence of the Stoens would unnecessarily antagonize Jones, and Harris wanted to remain in Georgetown because he hoped to spend time with his daughter Liane, who was staying at the Temple's headquarters there.
Only Ryan, Speier, Lane and Garry were initially accepted into Jonestown, while the rest of Ryan's party was allowed in after sunset. That night, they attended a musical reception in the pavilion. While the party was received warmly, Jones said he felt like a dying man and ranted about government conspiracies and martyrdom as he decried attacks by the press and his enemies. It was later reported – and verified by audio tapes recovered by investigators – that Jones had run rehearsals on how to convince Ryan's delegation that everyone was happy and in good spirits.
Two Temple members, Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, made the first move for defection that night. In the pavilion, Gosney mistook NBC reporter Don Harris for Ryan and passed him a note, reading, "Dear Congressman, Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby. Please help us get out of Jonestown." A child nearby witnessed Gosney's act and verbally alerted other Temple members. Harris brought two notes, one of the Gosney's, to Ryan and Speier. According to Speier in 2006, reading the notes caused her and the congressman to realize that "something was very, very wrong."
Ryan, Speier, Dwyer and Annibourne stayed the night in Jonestown while other members of their party, including the press corps and members of Concerned Relatives, were told that they had to find other accommodations. They went back to Port Kaituma and stayed at a small café.
==== November 18, 1978 ====
In the early morning of November 18, eleven Temple members sensed danger enough to walk out of Jonestown and all the way to the town of Matthew's Ridge, in the opposite direction from the Port Kaituma airstrip. Those defectors included the wife and son of Joe Wilson, Jonestown's head of security. When journalists and members of the Concerned Relatives arrived in Jonestown later that day, Jones' wife Marceline gave them a tour of the settlement.
That afternoon, the Parks and the Bogue families, along with Christopher O'Neal (who was the boyfriend of one of the Parks' daughters) and Harold Cordell (who was living with Mrs. Bogue), stepped forward and asked to be escorted out of Jonestown by the Ryan delegation. When Jones' adopted son Johnny attempted to talk Jerry Parks out of leaving, Parks told him, "No way, it's nothing but a communist prison camp." Jones gave the two families, along with Gosney and Bagby, permission to leave. Before leaving, Gosney was forced to sign a statement stating that he was leaving his four-year-old son behind of his own free will. When Harris handed Gosney's note to Jones during an interview in the pavilion, Jones stated that the defectors were lying and wanted to destroy Jonestown.
After a sudden violent rainstorm started, emotional scenes developed between family members. Al Simon, a Native American Temple member, attempted to take two of his children to Ryan to process the requisite paperwork for transfer back to the U.S. Simon's wife, Bonnie, summoned over the speakers by Temple staff, loudly denounced her husband. Simon pleaded with Bonnie to return to the U.S., but Bonnie rejected his suggestions.
=== Port Kaituma airstrip shootings ===
While most of Ryan's party began to depart on a large dump truck to the Port Kaituma airstrip, Ryan and Dwyer stayed behind in Jonestown to process any additional defectors. Shortly before the dump truck left, Temple loyalist Larry Layton, the brother of Deborah Layton, demanded to join the group. Several defectors voiced their suspicions about Larry's motives.
Shortly after the dump truck initially departed, Temple member Don "Ujara" Sly grabbed Ryan while wielding a knife. While Ryan was unhurt after others wrestled Sly to the ground, Dwyer strongly suggested that the congressman leave Jonestown while he filed a criminal complaint against Sly. Ryan did so, promising to return later to address the dispute. The truck departing to the airstrip had stopped after the passengers heard of the attack on Ryan, and took him as a passenger before continuing its journey towards the airstrip.
The entourage had originally scheduled a nineteen-passenger Twin Otter from Guyana Airways to fly them back to Georgetown. Because of the defectors departing Jonestown, the group grew in number and now an additional aircraft was required. Accordingly, the U.S. embassy arranged for a second plane, a six-passenger Cessna. When the entourage reached the airstrip between 4:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m., the planes had not appeared as scheduled. The group had to wait until the aircraft landed at approximately 5:10 p.m. Then the boarding process began.
Larry was a passenger on the Cessna, the first aircraft to set up for takeoff. After the Cessna had taxied to the far end of the airstrip, he produced a handgun and started shooting at the passengers. He wounded Bagby and Gosney, and tried to kill Dale Parks, who disarmed him after the gun misfired.
Meanwhile, some passengers had boarded the larger Twin Otter. A tractor with a trailer attached, driven by members of the Temple's Red Brigade security squad, arrived at the airstrip and approached the aircraft. When the tractor neared within approximately 30 feet (9 m) of Ryan's party, at a time roughly concurrent with the shootings on the Cessna, the Red Brigade opened fire with handguns, shotguns and rifles while at least two shooters circled the plane on foot. There were perhaps nine shooters whose identities are not all certainly known, but most sources agree that Wilson, Stanley Gieg, Thomas Kice Sr. and Ronnie Dennis were among them. Jones had instructed Larry Layton, as well as those aboard the tractor, to ensure that none of the members of Ryan's party, nor the defectors, were to leave Jonestown.
The first few seconds of the shooting were captured on U-Matic ENG videotape by NBC cameraman Bob Brown, who was killed along with Robinson, Harris and Temple defector Patricia Parks in the few minutes of shooting. Ryan was killed after being shot more than twenty times. Speier, Reiterman, Katsaris, Steve Sung, Richard Dwyer, Charles Krause, Ron Javers, Carolyn Houston Boyd and Beverly Oliver were the nine injured in and around the Twin Otter. After the shootings, the Cessna's pilot, Tom Fernandez, along with the pilot and co-pilot of the Twin Otter, Captain Guy Spence and First officer Astil Rodwell Paul, as well as the injured Bagby, fled in the Cessna to Georgetown. The damaged Twin Otter and the injured Ryan delegation members were left behind on the airstrip.
== Deaths in Jonestown ==
Before leaving Jonestown for the airstrip, Ryan had told Garry that he would issue a report that would describe Jonestown "in basically good terms." Ryan stated that none of the sixty relatives he had targeted for interviews wanted to leave, the fourteen defectors constituted a very small portion of Jonestown's residents, that any sense of imprisonment the defectors had was likely because of peer pressure and a lack of physical transportation and even if 200 of the 900+ wanted to leave, "I'd still say you have a beautiful place here." Despite Garry's report, Jones told him, "I have failed." Garry reiterated that Ryan would be making a positive report, but Jones maintained that "all is lost."
After Ryan's departure from Jonestown towards Port Kaituma, Marceline made a broadcast on Jonestown's speaker system, giving assurances and asking settlers to return to their homes. During this time, aides prepared a large metal tub with grape Flavor Aid (which was misidentified as Kool-Aid), poisoned with diphenhydramine, promethazine, chlorpromazine, chloroquine, diazepam, chloral hydrate and cyanide.
The concoction was prepared with the help of Jonestown's in-house doctor, Larry Schacht, a former methamphetamine addict who got sober with the help of Jones, who subsequently paid for his college education to become a doctor. Schacht had been researching the best ways for a person to die in advance of the foreseen mass suicide. About thirty minutes after Marceline's announcement, Jones made his own, calling all members immediately to the pavilion.
A forty-four-minute cassette tape, known as the "death tape," records part of the meeting Jones called inside the pavilion in the early evening of November 18. When the assembly gathered, referring to the Ryan delegation's journey back to Georgetown, Jones told the gathering:
One of those people on that plane is gonna shoot the pilot, I know that. I didn't plan it but I know it's gonna happen. They're gonna shoot that pilot and down comes the plane into the jungle and we had better not have any of our children left when it's over, because they'll parachute in here on us.
Jones urged Temple members to commit "revolutionary suicide." Such an act had been hypothesized by Jones as far back as the Temple's existence in San Francisco and, according to Jonestown defectors, its theory was "you can go down in history, saying you chose your own way to go, and it is your commitment to refuse capitalism and in support of socialism."
Temple member Christine Miller argued that the Temple should alternatively attempt an airlift to the Soviet Union. Jim McElvane, a former therapist who had arrived in Jonestown only two days earlier, assisted Jones by arguing against Miller's resistance to suicide, stating, "Let's make it a beautiful day" and later citing possible reincarnation. After several exchanges in which Jones argued that a Soviet exodus would not be possible, along with reactions by other Temple members hostile to Miller, she backed down. However, Miller may have ceased dissenting when Jones confirmed at one point that "the congressman has been murdered" after the airstrip shooters returned.
When the Red Brigade members came back to Jonestown after Ryan's murder, Tim Carter, a Vietnam War veteran, recalled them having the "thousand-yard stare" of weary soldiers. After Jones confirmed that "the congressman's dead," no dissent is heard on the death tape. By this point, armed guards had taken up positions surrounding the pavilion. Directly after this, Jones stated that "the Red Brigade's the only one that made any sense anyway," and, "the Red Brigade showed them justice." In addition to McElvane, several other Temple members gave speeches praising Jones and his decision for the community to commit suicide, even after Jones stopped appreciating this praise and begged for the process to go faster.
According to escaped Temple member Odell Rhodes, the first to take the poison were Ruletta Paul and her one-year-old infant. A syringe without a needle fitted was used to squirt poison into the infant's mouth, after which Paul squirted another syringe into her own mouth. Stanley Clayton also witnessed mothers with their babies first approach the tub containing the poison. Clayton said that Jones approached people to encourage them to drink the poison and that, after adults saw the poison begin to take effect, "they showed a reluctance to die."
The poison caused death within five minutes for children, less for babies and an estimated twenty to thirty minutes for adults. After consuming the poison, according to Rhodes, people were then escorted away down a wooden walkway leading outside the pavilion. It is not clear if some initially thought the exercise was another White Night rehearsal. Rhodes reported being in close contact with dying children.
In response to reactions of seeing the poison take effect on others, Jones counseled, "Die with a degree of dignity. Lay down your life with dignity; don't lay down with tears and agony." He also said,
I tell you, I don't care how many screams you hear, I don't care how many anguished cries ... death is a million times preferable to 10 more days of this life. If you knew what was ahead of you – if you knew what was ahead of you, you'd be glad to be stepping over tonight.
Rhodes described a scene of both hysteria and confusion as parents watched their children die from the poison. He also stated that most present "quietly waited their own turn to die" and that many of the assembled Temple members "walked around like they were in a trance." Survivor Tim Carter later suggested that, like a previous practice, that day's lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches may have been tainted with sedatives. The crowd was surrounded by armed guards, offering members the basic dilemma of death by poison or death by a guard's hand. Cries and screams of children and adults are audibly heard on the death tape. As more Temple members died, eventually the guards themselves were called in to die by poison.
Jones was found dead lying next to his chair in the pavilion between two other bodies, his head cushioned by a pillow. His death was caused by a gunshot wound to his left temple that Guyanese Chief Medical Examiner Leslie Mootoo stated was consistent with being self-inflicted.
=== Survivors and eyewitnesses ===
Three high-ranking Temple survivors claimed they were given an assignment and thereby escaped death. Carter and his brother Mike, aged 30 and 20 respectively, and Mike Prokes, aged 31, were given luggage containing $550,000 in U.S. currency, $130,000 in Guyanese currency and an envelope, which they were told to deliver to the Soviet embassy in Georgetown. The envelope contained two passports and three instructional letters, the first of which was to Timofeyev, stating:
Dear Comrade Timofeyev,
The following is a letter of instructions regarding all of our assets that we want to leave to the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Enclosed in this letter are letters which instruct the banks to send the cashiers checks to you. I am doing this on behalf of Peoples Temple because we, as communists, want our money to be of benefit for help to oppressed peoples all over the world, or in any way that your decision-making body sees fit.
The letters included listed accounts with balances totaling in excess of $7.3 million to be transferred to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Prokes and the Carter brothers soon ditched most of the money and were apprehended heading for a Temple boat at Port Kaituma. It is unknown how they reached Georgetown, 150 miles (240 km) away, since the boat had been sent away earlier that day. The brothers were given the task before the suicides began, and soon abandoned it when they realized what was about to happen; Tim Carter desperately tried to search for his wife and son, discovering his son in time to witness him being poisoned, and his wife killing herself in despair. At this point, Carter had a nervous breakdown and was pulled away from the village by his equally distraught brother.
Jones' sons, Stephan, Jim Jr. and Tim, were in Georgetown with Jonestown's basketball team to play in a tournament with the Guyanese national team. In the moments before the suicide, Jones contacted Stephan with orders to "get revenge" on enemies of the Temple in Georgetown before committing suicide themselves. Stephan not only refused to do so but then contacted the Temple's headquarters in San Francisco and told them not to do anything without his permission.
Just before the start of the final meeting in the pavilion, Garry and Lane were told that the community was angry with them and were escorted to a house used to accommodate visitors. According to them, they talked their way past two armed guards and made it to the jungle, before eventually arriving in Port Kaituma. While in the jungle near the settlement, they heard gunshots. This observation concurs with the testimony of Clayton, who, having previously fled into the jungle, heard the same sounds as he was sneaking back into Jonestown to retrieve his passport. Rhodes volunteered to fetch a stethoscope and hid under a building.
Two more people who were intended to be poisoned managed to survive. Grover Davis, aged 79, who was hard-of-hearing, missed the announcement to assemble on the loudspeaker, laid down in a ditch and pretended to be dead. Hyacinth Thrash, aged 76, realized what was happening and crawled under her bed, only to walk out after the poisonings were completed.
=== Medical examinations ===
The only medical doctor to initially examine the scene at Jonestown was Mootoo, who visually examined over 200 bodies and later told a Guyanese coroner's jury of having seen needle marks on at least seventy. However, no determination was made as to whether those injections initiated the introduction of poison or whether they were so-called "relief" injections to quicken death and reduce suffering from convulsions from those who had previously taken poison orally. Mootoo and U.S. pathologist Lynn Crook determined that cyanide was present in some bodies, while analysis of the contents of the vat revealed several tranquilizers as well as potassium cyanide and potassium chloride.
Plastic cups, Flavor Aid packets and syringes, some with needles and some without, littered the area where the bodies were found. Mootoo concluded that a gunshot wound to Annie Moore could not have been self-inflicted, though Moore had also ingested a lethal dose of cyanide.
Guyanese authorities waived their requirement for autopsies in the case of unnatural death. Doctors in the U.S. performed autopsies on only seven bodies, including those of Jones, Moore, Schacht and Carolyn Layton. Moore and Layton were selected among those autopsied, in part, because of the urging of the Moore family, including Rebecca Moore, the sister of the two victims, who was not a Temple member herself.
=== Notes from deceased residents ===
Found near Marceline Jones' body was a typewritten note, dated November 18, 1978, signed by Marceline and witnessed by Moore and Maria Katsaris, stating:
I, Marceline Jones, leave all bank assets in my name to the Communist Party of the USSR. The above bank accounts are located in the Bank of Nova Scotia in Nassau, Bahamas.
Please be sure that these assets do get to the USSR. I especially request that none of these are allowed to get into the hands of my adopted daughter, Suzanne Jones Cartmell.
For anyone who finds this letter, please honor this request as it is most important to myself and my husband James W. Jones.
Moore also left a note, which in part stated: "I am at a point right now so embittered against the world that I don't know why I am writing this. Someone who finds it will believe I am crazy or believe in the barbed wire that does NOT exist in Jonestown." The last line, "We died because you would not let us live in peace," is written in different color ink. No other specific reference is made to the events of the day. Moore also wrote, "JONESTOWN – the most peaceful, loving community that ever existed."
In addition, she stated, "JIM JONES – the one who made this paradise possible – much to the contrary of the lies stated about Jim Jones being a power-hungry sadistic, mean person who thought he was God – of all things." And "His hatred of racism, sexism, elitism, and mainly classism, is what prompted him to make a new world for the people – a paradise in the jungle. The children loved it. So did everyone else."
Found near Carolyn Layton's body was a handwritten note signed by Layton, witnessed by Katsaris and Moore, dated November 18, 1978, stating, "This is my last will and testament. I hereby leave all assets in any bank account to which I am a signatory to the Communist Party of the USSR."
== Deaths in Georgetown ==
In the early evening of November 18, at the Temple's headquarters in Georgetown, Temple member Sharon Amos received a radio communication from Jonestown instructing the members in Georgetown to take revenge on the Temple's enemies and then commit revolutionary suicide. Later, after police arrived at the Georgetown premises, Amos escorted her children, Liane (21), Christa (11) and Martin (10), into a bathroom. Wielding a kitchen knife, Amos first killed Christa and then Martin. Then Liane assisted Amos in cutting her own throat, after which Liane killed herself. Jones' sons Stephan, Tim and Jim Jr. later found the bodies.
== Aftermath ==
At Port Kaituma, Reiterman photographed the aftermath of the airstrip shootings. Dwyer assumed leadership at the scene and, at his recommendation, Larry Layton was arrested by Guyanese police. Dwyer had been grazed by a bullet in his buttock during the shootings. It took several hours before the eleven wounded and others in their party gathered themselves together. Most of them spent the night in the Port Kaituma café. The more seriously wounded slept in a small tent at the airstrip. A Guyanese government plane arrived the following morning to evacuate the wounded.
Five teenage members of the Parks and Bogue families, with one boyfriend, followed the instructions of defector Gerald Parks to hide in the adjacent jungle until help arrived and their safety was assured. Thereafter, that group was lost for three days in the jungle and nearly died. One of them, Thom Bogue, had been wounded in the leg. Guyanese soldiers eventually rescued them.
After escaping Jonestown, Rhodes arrived in Port Kaituma on the night of November 18. That night, Clayton stayed with a local Guyanese family and travelled to Port Kaituma the next morning. Prokes and the Carter brothers were put into protective custody in Port Kaituma; they were later released in Georgetown. Rhodes, Clayton, Garry and Lane were also brought to Georgetown. Prokes died by suicide on March 14, 1979, during a press conference, four months after the Jonestown incident.
914 of the 918 dead, including Jones himself, were collected by the U.S. military in Guyana, then transported by military cargo plane to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, a location that had been used previously for mass processing of the dead from the Tenerife airport disaster. The last shipment of bodies arrived early on the morning of November 27. The base's mortuary was tasked with fingerprinting, identifying and processing the bodies. The base's resources were overwhelmed, and numerous individuals tasked with moving or identifying the bodies suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In many cases, responsibility for cremation of the remains was distributed to Dover area funeral homes.
In August 2014, the never-claimed cremated remains of nine people from Jonestown were found in a former funeral home in Dover. As of September 2014, four of their remains had been returned to next-of-kin, and the remaining five had not. Those five were publicly identified in the hope that family would claim their remains; all five remain unclaimed by family and have been interred at the Jonestown Memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California, along with the remains of approximately half of those who perished on November 18, 1978.
Larry Layton, who had fired a gun at several people aboard the Cessna, was initially found not guilty of attempted murder in a Guyanese court, employing the defense that he was "brainwashed." Acquittal in a Guyanese court did not free Layton, however, who was promptly deported back to the U.S. and arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service upon arrival in San Francisco. Layton could not be tried in the U.S. for the attempted murders of Gosney, Bagby, Dale Parks and the Cessna pilot on Guyanese soil and was, instead, tried under a federal statute against assassinating members of Congress and internationally protected people (Ryan and Dwyer). He was convicted of conspiracy and of aiding and abetting the murder of Ryan and of the attempted murder of Dwyer. Paroled in 2002, Layton is the only person ever to have been held criminally responsible for the events at Jonestown.
The events at Jonestown were covered heavily by the media, and photographs pertaining to it adorned newspaper and magazine covers for months after its occurrence. The Peoples Temple was labeled a "cult of death" by both Time and Newsweek magazines. In February 1979, 98% of Americans polled said that they had heard of the tragedy. George Gallup stated that "few events, in fact, in the entire history of the Gallup Poll have been known to such a high percentage of the U.S. public."
After the deaths, both the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the State Department itself criticized the latter's handling of the Temple. Guyanese political opposition seized the opportunity to embarrass Burnham by establishing an inquest which concluded that the prime minister was responsible for the deaths at Jonestown.
The Cult Awareness Network (CAN), a group aimed at deprogramming members of cults, was formed soon after the deaths at Jonestown. The group, which included Ryan's daughter Patricia, was involved in various personal, social and legal battles with a range of religious organizations, from The Family International and Scientology to David Koresh's Branch Davidians, where they were found to be influential on law enforcement's concerns for children in the eventual Waco siege in 1993. After a slew of legal and fiscal issues, CAN went bankrupt in 1996.
In late February 1980, Al and Jeannie Mills (co-founders of the Concerned Relatives) and their daughter Daphene were shot and killed execution style in their Berkeley, California, home. Eddie Mills, their son, was believed to be involved to the extent that he was arrested in 2005, but charges were not filed against him. The case has not been solved. In 1984, former Temple member Tyrone Mitchell, who had lost both of his parents and five siblings at Jonestown, fired upon students at a Los Angeles elementary school from his second-story window, killing two people and injuring twelve; Mitchell then turned his weapon on himself and committed suicide.
The sheer scale of the event, as well as Jones' socialism, purported inconsistencies in the reported number of deaths, allegedly poor explanation of events related to said deaths and existence of classified documents led some conspiracy theorists to suggest CIA involvement, including a Soviet-published book a decade later. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence investigated the event and announced that there was no evidence of CIA involvement at Jonestown. Others suggested KGB involvement, beyond the attested visits of Soviet diplomatic personnel to Jonestown and the overtures made by Jim Jones to the USSR.
The bodies of over 400 of those who died are buried in a mass grave at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California. In 2011, a memorial to them was erected at the cemetery.
Although Jones used poisoned Flavor Aid, the drink mix was also commonly (mistakenly) referred to as Kool-Aid. This has led to the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid", referring to a person or group holding an unquestioned belief, argument, or philosophy without critical examination.
=== Conspiracy theories ===
According to religious studies scholar Rebecca Moore, "In the twenty-three years since the deaths in Jonestown, conspiracy theories have blossomed in number and sophistication."
In 1979, Joseph Hollinger, a former aide to Ryan, claimed that Jonestown was a "mass mind control experiment" conducted by the CIA. A 1980 newspaper column by Jack Anderson also claimed that the CIA was involved in the massacre, and speculated that Dwyer had ties to the agency. In 1980, an investigation by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence found no evidence of CIA activity in Jonestown.
In 1987, The Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime (1978) (Russian: Гибель Джонстауна – преступление ЦРУ) was published in the Soviet Union, claiming that group members were assassinated by CIA agents and mercenaries to prevent further political emigration from the U.S. as well as suppress opposition to the U.S. regime. Political scientist Janos Radvanyi cites the book as an example of Soviet active measures during the 1980s that "spread both disinformation stories and enemy propaganda against the United States," adding, "It's hard to imagine that anyone could believe so ridiculous a story."
== Former site ==
Now deserted, the compound at Jonestown was initially tended by the Guyanese government following the deaths. The government then allowed its re-occupation by Hmong refugees from Laos for a few years in the early 1980s. The buildings and grounds were looted by local Guyanese but were not taken over because of their association with the mass killing. The buildings were mostly destroyed by a fire in the mid-1980s, after which the ruins were left to decay and be reclaimed by the jungle.
During a visit to tape a segment for the ABC news show 20/20 in 1998, Jim Jones Jr. discovered the rusting remains of an oil drum near the former entrance to the pavilion. Jones recognized the drum, originally adapted for use during meal times, as the drum used for drink mixtures during the White Night exercises, and which he believed was used to hold the beverage mix of poison and grape-flavored punch during the massacre.
In 2003, with the help of Gerry Gouveia, a pilot involved with the Jonestown cleanup, a television crew recording a special for the 25th anniversary of the event returned to the site to uncover any remaining artifacts. Although the site was covered with dense vegetation, the team uncovered a standing cassava mill (possibly the largest remaining structure), the remains of a tractor (speculated to be the same tractor used by the airstrip shooters), a generator, a filing cabinet, a truck near the site of Jones' house, a fuel pump, and other smaller miscellaneous items. Gouveia also led the team to the former site of the pavilion, where they found the remains of a steel drum, an organ, and a bed of daisies growing where the bodies once lay.
In December 2024, it was announced that there were plans to open the old site as a tourist attraction, with the first tourists scheduled to arrive in January 2025, paying $650 per person. The scheme is supported by the Guyanese government. The move to open the Jonestown site for tourism was opposed by several Guyanese figures, including University of Guyana lecturer Neville Bissember and former spokesperson of the Government of Guyana during the Jonestown massacre Kit Nascimento.
== See also ==
Media depictions:
Jonestown: Paradise Lost, a 2007 documentary broadcast on The History Channel
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, a 2006 documentary film
Guyana: Cult of the Damned, a 1979 exploitation film based on the Jonestown tragedy
Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones, a 1980 television movie based on the life of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple
Seconds from Disaster, a documentary television series that covered the events at Jonestown in Season 6, Episode 2 ("Jonestown Cult Suicide")
The Sacrament, a thriller whose plot borrows heavily from the events of Jonestown
Mass suicides:
Heaven's Gate in San Diego, California
Order of the Solar Temple in Canada and Switzerland
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God in Uganda
Puputan, mass ritual suicide in Bali, Indonesia
Malindi cult in Kilifi County, Kenya
Sinasa massacre, mass poisoning and massacre in Davao City, Philippines
Suicide in Guyana
Additional:
List of members of the United States Congress killed or wounded in office
== Citations ==
== General and cited references ==
Hall, John R (1987). Gone from the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0887381249.
Layton, Deborah (1998). Seductive Poison. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0385489843.
Moore, Rebecca (1985). A Sympathetic History of Jonestown: the Moore Family Involvement in Peoples Temple. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0889468603.
Reiterman, Tim; Jacobs, John (1982). Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People. Dutton. ISBN 978-0525241362.
== Further reading ==
Brailey, Jeffrey (1998). The Ghosts of November: Memoirs of an Outsider Who Witnessed the Carnage at Jonestown, Guyana. San Antonio, Texas: J & J Publishers. ISBN 978-0966786804.
Chidester, David (1988). Salvation and Suicide. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253350565.
Dolan, Sean (2000). Everything You Need to Know About Cults. New York: Rosen Pub. Group. ISBN 978-0823932306.
Feinsod, Ethan (1981). Awake in a Nightmare: Jonestown: The Only Eyewitness Account. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0393014310. Based on interviews with Odell Rhodes.
Fondakowski, Leigh (2013). Stories from Jonestown. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0816678082. Based on interviews with survivors and family members.
Galanter, M (1999). Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kahalas, Laurie Efrein (1998). Snake Dance: Unravelling the Mysteries of Jonestown. New York: Red Robin Press. ISBN 978-1552122075.
Kerns, Phil (1978). People's Temple, People's Tomb. Logos Associates. ISBN 978-0882703633.
Kilduff, Marshall; Ron Javers (1978). The Suicide Cult: The Inside Story of the Peoples Temple Sect and the Massacre in Guyana. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0553129205.
Klineman, George; Sherman Butler (1980). The Cult That Died. G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 978-0399125409.
Kohl, Laura Johnston. Jonestown Survivor: An Insider's Look. New York: IUniverse, 2010.
koq (2014). Recordead: The Jonestown Tapes. Kindle Direct Publishing.
Krause, Charles A; Stern, Laurence M; Harwood, Richard (1978). Guyana Massacre: The Eyewitness Account. New York: Berkley Pub. Corp. ISBN 978-0425042342.
Lane, Mark (1980). The Strongest Poison. New York: Hawthorn Books. ISBN 978-0801532061.
Maaga, Mary McCormick (1998). Hearing the Voices of Jonestown. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0815605157.
Mills, Jeannie (1979). Six Years with God: Life Inside Rev. Jim Jones's People's Temple. New York: A&W Publishers. ISBN 978-0894790461.
Moore, Rebecca (1988). In Defense of Peoples Temple. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press.
Naipaul, Shiva (1982). Journey to Nowhere: A New World Tragedy. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. ISBN 978-0140061895. (published in the UK as Black & White)
Reston, James Jr (1981). Our Father Who Art in Hell: The Life and Death of Jim Jones. New York: Times Books. ISBN 978-0812909630.
Scheeres, Julia (2011). A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-1416596394.
Stephenson, Denice (2005). Dear People: Remembering Jonestown. Heyday Books. ISBN 978-1597140027.
Thielmann, Bonnie (1979). The Broken God. Elgin, Ill.: D. C. Cook Pub. Co. ISBN 9780891911807.
Thrash, Catherine; Towne, Marian Kleinsasser (1995). The Onliest One Alive: Surviving Jonestown, Guyana. Indianapolis, Ind: M.K. Towne. ISBN 9780964266612.
Wagner-Wilson, Leslie (2009). Slavery of Faith. New York: Universe.
Wooden, Kenneth. The Children of Jonestown. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981.
Wright, Lawrence. The Sons of Jim Jones. The New Yorker 69, no. 39 (November 22, 1993): 66–89.
Layton, Thomas N; Yee, Min S. In My Father's House. New-York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981.
== External links ==
List of Jonestown massacre victims
Jonestown: Rebuilding my life after surviving the massacre. By Georgina Rannard & Kelly-Leigh Cooper. BBC News. The story of Laura Johnson Kohl. Includes pre-event information & photos.
Alternative considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple, an extensive resource on the topics, sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University
"Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" Archived 26 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, website for the film broadcast on PBS includes video interviews with survivors from 2006.
"The Jonestown Death Tape (FBI No. Q 042) (November 18 1978)", an unofficial web-publishing (digital) of the death tape seemingly made just before and during the mass slaying
"Nightmare in Jonestown". Time. December 4, 1978. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved August 5, 2008., Time magazine cover story, Monday, December 4, 1978
Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown, a 1981 audio documentary produced by NPR (90 minutes)
Jonestown Legacy website run by David Wise, once a pastor of the Los Angeles Branch of the Peoples Temple, but latterly an opponent of Jim Jones.
"The Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy: Primary Source Materials from the U.S. Department of State". Archived from the original on April 28, 1999., the contents of U.S. Government archives on the subject obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. (web-archived copy of the original website, no longer extant; unfortunately the scanned pages are missing)
"The Assassination of Representative Leo J Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy". Archived from the original on March 9, 2011. Retrieved July 13, 2011., excerpt from: Report of a Staff Investigative Group to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, May 15, 1979
"Davisville, 8/4/14: Listening to a survivor, and the story, of Jonestown". Radio interview with Julia Scheeres, author of A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown and Thom Bogue, one of the survivors, KDRT, August 2014.
"Jonestown FBI Files" at Internet Archive
The Downfall of Jim Jones by Larry Lee Litke. Published at The Jonestown Institute. Originally published 1980.
The Black Hole of Guyana:The Untold Story of the Jonestown Massacre by John Judge, 1985
605 Adults 304 Children – 2019 Documentary about Jonestown filmed entirely by The Peoples Temple |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelia_Parker | Cornelia Parker | Cornelia Ann Parker (born 14 July 1956) is an English visual artist, best known for her sculpture and installation art.
== Life and career ==
Parker was born in 1956 in Cheshire, England. Her childhood with a mentally fragile mother and a violent father had a strong influence on her. Her German mother was a nurse in the Luftwaffe during the Second World War; her British grandfather fought in the Battle of the Somme in the First World War.
Parker studied at the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design (1974–1975) and Wolverhampton Polytechnic (1975–1978). She received her MFA from Reading University in 1982 and honorary doctorates from the University of Wolverhampton in 2000, the University of Birmingham (2005), the University of Gloucestershire (2008) and the University of Manchester (2017).
In 1997, Parker was shortlisted for the Turner Prize along with Christine Borland, Angela Bulloch, and Gillian Wearing (who won the prize). She was Honorary Professor at the University of Manchester 2015–2018 and between 2016 and 2019 was Visiting Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was appointed Honorary Fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 2020.
Cornelia Parker's first solo museum exhibition was at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston in 2000. In 2019 she had a survey exhibition at MCA Sydney. A major survey exhibition of her work opened at Tate Britain in May 2022.
She has one daughter, Lily, with her former husband Jeff McMillan, and lives and works in London.
== Work ==
Parker is best known for large-scale installations such as Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991) – first shown at the Chisenhale Gallery in Bow, East London – for which she had a garden shed blown up by the British Army and suspended the fragments as if suspending the explosion process in time. In the centre was a light which cast the shadows of the wood dramatically on the walls of the room. This inspired an orchestral composition of the same name by Joo Yeon Sir.
In contrast, in 1997 at the Turner Prize exhibition, Parker exhibited Mass (Colder Darker Matter) (1997), suspending the charred remains of a church that had been struck by lightning in Texas. Eight years later, Parker made a companion piece "Anti-Mass" (2005), using charcoal from a black congregation church in Kentucky, which had been destroyed by arson. Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson) (1999) is another example of Parker's suspended sculptures, featuring charred remains of an actual case of suspected arson.
The Maybe (1995) at the Serpentine Gallery, London, was a performance piece conceived by Tilda Swinton, who lay, apparently asleep, inside a vitrine. She asked Parker to collaborate with her on the project, and to create an installation in which she could sleep. Swinton's original idea was to lie in state as Snow White in a glass coffin, but through the collaboration with Parker the idea evolved into her appearing as herself and not as an actor posing as a fictional character. Parker filled the Serpentine with glass cases containing relics that belonged to famous historical figures, such as the pillow and blanket from Freud's couch, Mrs. Simpson's ice skates, Charles Dickens' quill pen and Queen Victoria's stocking. A version of the piece was later re-performed in Rome (1996) and then MoMA, New York (2013) without Parker's involvement.
Avoided Object is an ongoing series of smaller works which have been developed in liaison with various institutions, including the Royal Armouries, British Police Forces, Colt Firearms and Madame Tussauds.
Parker has made other interventions involving historical artworks. In 1998 in her solo show at the Serpentine Gallery she exhibited the backs of Turner paintings (Room for Margins) as works in their own right, she wrapped Rodin's The Kiss sculpture in Tate Britain with a mile of string (2003) as her contribution to the 2003 Tate Triennial Days Like These at Tate Britain. The intervention was titled The Distance (A Kiss With String Attached). She re-staged this piece as part of her mid-career retrospective at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, in 2015 and at Tate Britain in 2022.
Subconscious of a Monument (2005) is composed of fragments of dry soil suspended on wires from the gallery ceiling. These lumps are the now-desiccated clay which was removed from beneath the Leaning Tower of Pisa in order to prevent its collapse.
These "avoided" objects have often had their identities transformed by being burned, shot, squashed, stretched, drawn, exploded, cut, or simply dropped off cliffs. Cartoon deaths have long held a fascination for Parker: "Tom being run over by a steamroller or Jerry riddled with bullet holes." Sometimes the object's demise has been orchestrated, or it may have occurred accidentally or by natural causes. According to Parker:They might be 'preempted' objects that have not yet achieved a fully formed identity, having been plucked prematurely from the production line like Embryo Firearms 1995. They may not even be classified as objects: things like cracks, creases, shadows, dust or dirt The Negative of Whispers 1997: Earplugs made with fluff gathered in the Whispering Gallery, St Paul's Cathedral). Or they might be those territories you want to avoid psychologically, such as the backs, underbellies or tarnished surfaces of things."Another example of this work is Pornographic Drawings (1997), using ink made by the artist who used solvent to dissolve (pornographic) video tape, confiscated by HM Customs and Excise.
I resurrect things that have been killed off... My work is all about the potential of materials—even when it looks like they've lost all possibilities.
In 2009, for the opening of Jupiter Artland, a sculpture park near Edinburgh, Parker created a firework display titled Nocturne: A Moon Landing containing a lunar meteorite. Therefore, the moon "landed on Jupiter". The following year Parker made Landscape with Gun and Tree for Jupiter Artland, a nine-metre-tall cast iron and Corten steel shotgun leaning against a tree. It was inspired by the painting Mr and Mrs Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough, where Mr Andrews poses with a gun slung over his arm. The shotgun used in the piece is a facsimile of the one owned by Robert Wilson, one of the founders of Jupiter Artland.
For the Folkestone Triennial in 2011, Parker created The Folkestone Mermaid, her version of one of the popular tourist attractions in Copenhagen, The Little Mermaid. Through a process of open submission, Parker chose Georgina Baker, 38 year old mother of two, Folkestone born and bred. Unlike the idealised Copenhagen version, this is a life-size, life-cast sculpture, celebrating womankind.
To celebrate the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, Parker created Magna Carta (An Embroidery), a hand-embroidered representation of the Wikipedia article on Magna Carta as it was on 15 June 2014, completed in 2015. Embroiderers included members of the Embroiderers Guild, HM prisoners, Peers, MP's, judges, human rights lawyers, a US ambassador and his staff, and various public figures including Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Jimmy Wales, Jarvis Cocker and Doreen Lawrence.
Whilst Magna Carta (An Embroidery) was on display at the British Library, Parker presented One More Time, a Terrace Wires commission for St Pancras International Station, London, co-presented by HS1 Ltd. and the Royal Academy of Arts.
In 2016 Parker became the first female artist to be commissioned to create a new work for the Roof Garden of the Met in New York. Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) is a scaled-down replica of the house from the 1960 Hitchcock film Psycho and was constructed using a salvaged red barn.
Parker continued her work as a curator for the Found exhibition for The Foundling Museum, which incorporated sixty-eight artists from an array of creative disciplines, as well as contributing her own piece, A Little Drop of Gin. This limited-edition print, nicknamed 'mother's ruin', was a photogravure using a 1750s gin glass and droppings of gin. Parker was named Artist of the Year in the 2016 Apollo Awards for her involvement and contributions in the art world.
Parker appeared in the BBC Four television series What Do Artists Do All Day?, a BBC Scotland production, first broadcast in 2013. In the programme she talks about her life and work. In May 2015, Parker was included in the Brilliant Ideas series broadcast by Bloomberg TV in which she reveals her inspirations and discusses some of her best-loved works. In summer 2016, BBC One broadcast "Danger! Cornelia Parker" as part of the TV series Imagine. In autumn 2016 she was included in Gaga for Dada, a programme to mark the 100th anniversary of Dada, presented by Vic Reeves. She also contributed to the BBC Four production Bricks! broadcast on 21 September 2016, marking the 40th anniversary of Carl Andre's sculpture Equivalent VIII, better known as "The Tate Bricks".
On 1 May 2017 Parker was chosen as the official election artist for the 2017 United Kingdom general election; she was the first woman to take on that role.
In 2017, Parker made a series of blackboard drawings with the collaboration of 5- to 10-year-old schoolchildren from Torriano Primary School. The children were asked by the artist to copy out news headlines collected from various UK and US newspapers. "At that age, children have a barely formed view of the news and world affairs—they don't yet have a vote, but the political turmoil unfolding in their young lives will have a profound effect on their futures."
In November 2019 Parker opened her first major retrospective exhibition in Australia at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney for the Tenth Sydney International Art Series.
In May 2022 Parker exhibited 100 artworks at Tate Britain in her largest solo exhibition to date. She showed several of her films, Chomskian Abstract 2007, Made in Bethlehem 2012, War Machine 2015, American Gothic 2016, Left, Right & Centre 2017, Election Abstract 2018, Thatcher’s Finger 2018 and Flag 2022. Tabish Khan, reviewing the exhibition for Culture Whisper, said "Conceptual art can often be seen as abstruse but Cornelia Parker is able to make it accessible and playful, yet she also adds a level of intelligent rigour to her work that challenges us to think about the wider world we live in. It’s precisely what conceptual art should be."
In May 2023, her photograph "Snap" was used as the cover artwork for the Peter Gabriel song "Four Kinds of Horses".
In November 2024, Parker's glass rendition of the chandelier featured in Van Eyck's The Arnolfini Portrait was suspended in the Procuratie Vecchie in St Mark's Square, Venice. This work was created as part of Murano Illumina il Mondo (“Murano Lights Up the World”) and was the first time in living memory that artworks were permitted to be displayed in the colonnade.
== Curatorial ==
In 2011 Parker curated an exhibition titled Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain for the Collections Gallery at the Whitechapel Gallery in London using selected works from the Government Art Collection arranged as a colour spectrum.
For the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2014, Parker curated the Black and White Room which included a number of well-known artists who she thought should be future Royal Academicians.
In 2016, as part of her Hogarth Fellowship at the Foundling Museum, Parker curated a group exhibition titled FOUND presenting works from over sixty artists from a range of creative disciplines, asked to respond to the theme of "found", reflecting on the museum's heritage.
== Honours and recognition ==
In 2010 Parker was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts, London and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours. In 2000, 2005 and 2008 and 2017 she received Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and Gloucestershire and Manchester respectively.
Parker won the Artist of the Year Apollo Award in 2016. Other shortlisted artists were Carmen Herrera, David Hockney, Ragnar Kjartansson, Jannis Kounellis and Helen Marten.
Parker was named the official Election Artist for the 2017 general election in the United Kingdom. In this role she observed the election campaign leading up to the vote on 8 June, and was required to produce a piece of art in response. Parker created two films and a series of 14 photographic works as a result of this commission, which were previewed on BBC Newsnight on 2 February 2018 and made available online via the UK Parliament website prior to an exhibition in Westminster Hall.
She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to the arts.
== Politics ==
In politics, prior to the 2015 general election, she was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas.
== See also ==
Art of the United Kingdom
Book Works
== References ==
== External links ==
Tate: Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View
Tate: Cornelia Parker: Talking Art Cornelia Parker interviewed by writer and curator Lisa LeFeuvre. 31 May 2008
Tateshots: Cornelia Parker's 'Folkestone Mermaid' The artist talks about her work for Folkestone Triennial 2011. 23 June 2011
Sculptor and Artist Cornelia Parker (video)
IMAGINE: DANGER! Cornelia Parker First Broadcast July 2016, the artist discusses her work with Alan Yentob |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Canadian_Open_(tennis) | 1992 Canadian Open (tennis) | The 1992 Canadian Open was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 103rd edition of the Canada Masters, and was part of the ATP Super 9 of the 1992 ATP Tour, and of the Tier I Series of the 1992 WTA Tour. The men's event took place at the National Tennis Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from July 20 through July 26, 1992, and the women's event at the Uniprix Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from August 17 through August 23, 1992.
== Finals ==
=== Men's singles ===
Andre Agassi defeated Ivan Lendl 3–6, 6–2, 6–0
It was Andre Agassi's 3rd title of the year and his 17th overall. It was his 1st Masters title of the year and his 2nd overall.
=== Women's singles ===
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario defeated Monica Seles 6–3, 4–6, 6–4
It was Arantxa Sánchez Vicario's 2nd title of the year and her 8th overall. It was her 1st Tier I title.
=== Men's doubles ===
Patrick Galbraith / Danie Visser defeated Andre Agassi / John McEnroe 6–4, 6–4
=== Women's doubles ===
Lori McNeil / Rennae Stubbs defeated Gigi Fernández / Natasha Zvereva 3–6, 7–5, 7–5
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_92 | British Rail Class 92 | The British Rail Class 92 is a dual-voltage electric locomotive, which can run on 25 kV AC from overhead wires or 750 V DC from a third rail. It was designed specifically to operate services through the Channel Tunnel between Great Britain and France. Eurotunnel indicates the Class 92 locomotive as the reference for other locomotives which railway undertakings might want to get certified for usage in the Channel tunnel.
Locomotives of this type are operated by GB Railfreight/Europorte 2 and DB Cargo UK. In France, a number were also owned and operated by SNCF; these were classified as CC 92000 on French railways.
The Class 92 was intended as a mixed-traffic locomotive both for hauling international freight trains and the ill-fated, never introduced Nightstar passenger sleeper trains though the Channel Tunnel. Since introduction, the fleet was exclusively allocated to freight; however, in March 2015, six locomotives owned by GB Railfreight have begun passenger operations hauling the Caledonian Sleeper on behalf of Serco between London and Scotland, marking the first use of the class in commercial passenger service.
== Design ==
The fleet of 46 locomotives was built by a consortium of Brush Traction and ABB Traction. Parts construction was sub-contracted, with final construction and commissioning being undertaken at Brush's erecting shops at Loughborough between 1993 and 1996. The first unit was produced from 1992 and finished in April 1993.
The bodyshells, of a similar design to Brush's Class 60 diesel locomotives but with a modified front end, were fabricated by Procor Engineering of Horbury and delivered pre-painted in the then-standard Railfreight triple-grey livery. The traction system was provided by ABB and comprises GTO thyristor traction converters and ABB's then-new microprocessor-based MICAS-S2 modular electronic control system. Maximum power is 5 MW (6,700 hp) on 25 kV or 4 MW (5,400 hp) on 750 V; with a tractive effort of 360 kN (81,000 lbf).
The locomotive is fitted with both rheostatic and regenerative braking, in addition to standard Westinghouse air brake equipment. An electrical train bus is fitted to enable two locomotives to work in multiple formation, either double-heading or push-pull train with a Driving Van Trailer or DBSO.
To reduce the possibility of locomotive failure in the Channel Tunnel, most of the electrical systems are duplicated.
== Operations ==
Prior to introduction to service, two locomotives (92001 and 92002) were extensively tested at the Czech Railway's test track at Velim near Kolín. One locomotive was temporarily moved from here to Vienna Arsenal for climatic testing.
The majority of the class are named after European composers and writers.
Prior to the privatisation of British Rail, ownership of the class was split between Railfreight Distribution, European Passenger Services (later Eurostar UK) and SNCF. After privatisation the ownership of the Railfreight Distribution fleet was passed to the English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS, later DB Schenker/DB Cargo UK).
During 2000, Eurostar (UK) offered their seven members of the class (92020, 92021, 92032, 92040, and 92044–92046) for sale, as they were surplus to requirements following the cancellation of Nightstar services. However, no buyer could be found so they were decommissioned and stored at Crewe International electric depot. Five of these locomotives have now been purchased by Eurotunnel to be used by their Europorte 2 rail freight undertaking for short haul rail traffic in France. In July 2011, Europorte 2/Eurotunnel purchased the five remaining locomotives that had belonged to SNCF, bringing Eurotunnel's total up to 16 Class 92s.
In 2009, an upgrade project was undertaken to allow the class to operate on High Speed 1; chiefly by installing TVM signalling. The project received funding from the European Commission and it was anticipated services would begin in early 2010. On 25 March 2011, a Class 92 locomotive ran from Dollands Moor to Singlewell using the TVM-430 signalling system for the first time. A loaded container train ran for the first time on 27 May 2011 and further trials with loaded wagons were planned until the end of June 2011. In July 2011, a trial run of wagons carrying curtain-walled swap bodies built to a larger European loading gauge was run from Dollands Moor to east London. From 11 November 2011, a weekly service using European-size swap bodies has run between Barking, London, and Poland using High Speed 1.
In April 2015, GB Railfreight commenced a contract to haul the Caledonian Sleeper. Class 92s haul it from London Euston to Edinburgh Waverley/Glasgow Central. On 31 March 2015, the first Serco Caledonian Sleeper hauled by 92018 left London Euston for Scotland.
On 18 January 2017, the specially-branded locomotive 92015 hauled the first train of twenty flatcars loaded with 40-foot (12 m) intermodal containers to Ripple Lane, near Barking; thus completing the first direct rail freight service between China and the UK. The train left Yiwu station in eastern China's Zhejiang province on 1 January and covered 7,500 miles (12,100 km).
In 2018, DB Cargo Romania sold their fleet of Class 92s to Russian company Locotech, on the grounds that the weight of the locomotive was too high for the Romanian railway network (6 tonnes heavier than an Electroputere LE 5100, for example). Locotech rented four locomotives to Croatian open-access freight operator Transagent Rail, and these commenced operations in Croatia in September 2018. Three locomotives (92001, 92003, and 92039) were later returned to DB Cargo Romania.
== Liveries ==
All units were originally painted in a simplified version of the sub-sector railfreight livery of two-tone grey livery, but with a dark blue roof; the same shade as used on Eurostar trains.
To reflect their Channel Tunnel role, all were fitted with three O-shaped tunnel logos, each smaller than the next.
Names were mainly blue stickers, but a limited number of locomotives gained cast nameplates.
Only 92031 did not receive a name during construction, however, it did gain one under EWS ownership.
The locomotives were fitted with Crewe Electric depot plaques to reflect their maintenance facility and to reflect ownership; the nine SNCF owned machines had SNCF branding, six Eurostar owned locos had EPS (European Passengers Services) branding, with the rest having standard cast BR arrows under the drivers window reflecting British Rail ownership.
A number of Railfreight Distribution locomotives had "Railfreight Distribution" written along the locomotive side panels with a small RfD logo included.
Following the privatisation of British Rail and the EWS purchase of Railfreight Distribution, the intention was to paint the RfD Class 92s into the EWS gold and dark red colours. In the end, only two locomotives received EWS livery (92001 and 92031). Locomotive no. 92001 had an additional three flags (English, Welsh and Scottish) below the EWS logo on the cabsides, the only one so treated. The rest of the locomotives had a large EWS Logo applied halfway along the side.
Six Class 92s allocated to Eurostar retained their two-tone grey livery, although there had been a plan to repaint these locomotives into Nightstar two-tone green livery. The combination of rail privatisation, technical problems and the growth of "point to point" low cost airlines undermined the Nightstar venture; the project was abandoned before a single revenue-earning service had even begun. The locomotives remained in two-tone grey until they were purchased by Europorte 2 in the 2000s. Europorte applied the designation "Europorte 2" inside a large Eurotunnel-style circle.
Following the takeover of EWS by DB Schenker, most of the fleet of Class 92s will likely move to DB Schenker Red liveries, matching that on previously repainted Class 66s. 92009 was the first locomotive to be outshopped in the new DB Schenker Red livery. The name "Elgar" had been removed and the locomotive was subsequently renamed "Marco Polo" later during August 2011.
In 2009, locomotive 92017 (formerly Shakespeare) was painted into Stobart Rail's blue and white livery and named Bart the Engine.
On 10 March 2011, locomotive 92032 appeared in the new Europorte GB Railfreight livery.
In May 2014, Serco won the franchise to operate Caledonian Sleeper services for fifteen years from 2015, with GBRf to provide traction as part of its franchise bid. In February 2015, 92033 was first to be released from Brush Traction after component refresh and subsequent repaint into a "Midnight Teal" livery. 92006/010/014/018/023/038 have also been painted into this livery, bringing the total number of locomotives now in "Midnight Teal" to seven.
== Fleet ==
== Model railways ==
In 1995, Hornby Railways launched its first version of the BR Class 92 in OO gauge. It has since released a number of models in different livery.
In 2019, Accurascale announced their intention to release a new OO gauge model of the Class 92, with the first examples being available in December 2022.
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Sources ===
Marsden, Colin J.; Fenn, Graham B. (2001). British Rail Main Line Electric Locomotives (2nd ed.). Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 9780860935599. OCLC 48532553.
Morrison, Gavin (2013). AC Electric Locomotives in Colour. Ian Allan. ISBN 9780711035058. OCLC 812686430.
== Further reading ==
Vehicle Diagram Book No. 110 for Electric Locomotives (PDF). Derby: British Railways Board. November 1988. p. 30 – via Barrowmore MRG.
"Class 92s start work on WCML 'Enterprise' trains". RAIL. No. 332. EMAP Apex Publications. 3–16 June 1998. p. 46. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.
"A Class 92 finally works a service passenger train!". RAIL. No. 339. EMAP Apex Publications. 9–22 September 1998. p. 48. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.
== External links ==
SEMG page
Kent Rail |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romer-Simpson_Medal | Romer-Simpson Medal | The Romer-Simpson Medal is the highest award issued by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology for "sustained and outstanding scholarly excellence and service to the discipline of vertebrate paleontology". The award is named in honor of Alfred S. Romer and George G. Simpson.
== Past awards ==
Source: Society for Vertebrate Paleontology
1987 Everett C. Olson
1988 Bobb Schaeffer
1989 Edwin H. Colbert
1990 Richard Estes
1991 no award
1992 Loris S. Russell
1993 Zhou Mingzhen
1994 John H. Ostrom
1995 Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska
1996 Percy Butler
1997 Colin Patterson
1998 Albert E. Wood
1999 Robert Warren Wilson
2000 John A. Wilson
2001 Malcolm McKenna
2002 Mary R. Dawson
2003 Rainer Zangerl
2004 Robert L. Carroll
2005 Donald E. Russell
2006 William A. Clemens
2007 Wann Langston, Jr.
2008 Jose Bonaparte
2009 Farish Jenkins
2010 Rinchen Barsbold
2011 Alfred W. Crompton
2012 Philip D. Gingerich
2013 Jack Horner
2014 Hans-Peter Schultze
2015 Jim Hopson
2016 Mee-mann Chang
2017 Philip J. Currie
2018 Kay Behrensmeyer
2019 Michael Archer
2020 Jenny Clack
2021 Blaire Van Valkenburgh
2022 David W. Krause
== See also ==
List of biology awards
List of paleontology awards
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relojes_Centenario | Relojes Centenario | Relojes Centenario (or Centenario Clocks) is the first manufacturer of monumental clocks in Latin America. It was founded by Alberto Olvera Hernández in the municipality of Zacatlán, Puebla, Mexico as a workshop on the family farm when he was a teenager. His first clock was for the family farm but the next one went to the main church in Chignahuapan, which still functions to this day. The name Centenario was adopted in 1921 to mark the centennial of the end of the Mexican War of Independence. To date, the company has built over 2,000 monumental clocks for churches, government buildings and more as well as repaired Mexican and European built clocks. There are Centenario clocks in most part of Mexico and the company sells abroad as well. In 1993, the company opened a Clock Museum in the upper level of the factory, with both the museum and factory open to the public free of charge.
== Alberto Olvera Hernández ==
Alberto Olvera Hernández was born on March 2, 1892, at the Coyotepec farm outside the town of Zacatlán, Puebla. He showed a mechanical aptitude early fixing and inventing machines, receiving a patent in 1920 a track changer for electric trains. His interest in clocks came when a clock on the chimney of his home broke down and he took it apart to try and fix it. In 1912, at 17 years of age, he began to construct his first monumental clock using junk and wood from the family farm. He then built a clock workshop at the farm where he would work until 1929, with the business of building clocks already successful enough to have a helper and various apprentices.
He moved his workshop to the town of Zacatlán to establish “Relojes Centenario” (Centenario Clocks) which remains in the same place to this day. His work earned him several honors including an “Honor al Mérito” and the “Medalla Xiutec” from the government Zacatlán in 1966. He died in the town in 1980.
== History of the company ==
From 1918 to the present, Olvera Hernández and Centenario has manufactured more than 2,000 which have been installed in churches, municipal palaces, other government buildings, towers, shopping centers, hotels and other places. They have restored and automated more than 600 monumental clocks of European origin. They service clocks in various parts of Mexico, and train locals in the care and maintenance of clocks they install.
The first clock installed outside of the family farm was the clock for the Santiago Apostol Church in Chignahuapan in 1919, which took a year to build. This clock is still working. The next clock was installed in Libres in 1921. The name Relojes Centenario was adopted that same year, the centennial of the end of the Mexican War of Independence. It is the first maker of monumental clocks in Latin America. In 1930, Olvera Hernandez founded his own homestead called La Quinta María where he installed the second workshop of Centenario. The current location in the center of Zacatlán was acquired in 1966, allowing the company to increase production. In 1975, the business became a legal corporation.
The company is currently run by the sons and grandsons of Olvera Hernandez. The current general manager is José Luis Olvera Charolet. Each year, they install between seventy and eighty in locations in Mexico and abroad. There are over 1,500 Centenario clocks in Mexico alone.}
In 1982, the business opened an office in Mexico City in Colonia Tepeyac Insurgentes. In 1986, the company construction the floral clock located in the main square of Zacatlán. It has two faces five meters in diameter controlled by the same mechanism and nine mechanical carillons. This clocks chimes a variety of tunes. The clock is the first of its type and has become a symbol for the town.
In 1993, the clock museum was inaugurated, named after Olvera Hernandez. The gift shop, called the “La Casa del Tiempo” was opened in 2003. In the 2000s, the company experimented with digital chimes including those programmed for funeral songs and “Ave Maria.”
According to general manager José Luis Olvera Charolet, each clock is unique with no two quite the same. One of the most notable clocks by the company is the flower clock in the Parque Hundido in Mexico City, one of the largest in the world, which occupies a space of 78 m2 and has a ten meter wide face. Another clock is that in the Nuestra Señora del Roble basilica in Monterrey, which has four faces of four meters in diameter each. The floral clock in Zacatlán was installed in 1986. It has nine different melodies and which get played depend on the time of year and time of day, playing four times each 24-hour period. The hours of this clock are 6am, 10am, 2pm and 9pm in order not to interfere with the hours of mass. Another clock is in Tulantepec, Hidalgo (near Tulancingo), which chimes the national anthem at 6am and 6pm along with the “Himno Guadalupano” dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. It also has different chimes for each quarter-hour. The clock is completely automated through a system of counterweights. Good monumental clocks have carillons to sound out their chimes. Tunes are chosen by customers usually based on the area's musical traditions as well as personal preferences. One of the clocks installed in Torreón plays La Filomena each hour. The floral clock in Tuxtla Gutiérrez plays the Tuxtla waltz and La Chiapanecas. The clock in Santa Bárbara, a small mining town in Chihuahua, plays Amor Perdido. The company also repairs many of the country's German and French clocks which were installed in the late 19th and early 20th century.
== Clock museum ==
The Museo de Relojería Alberto Olvera Hernández or Alberto Olvera Hernández Clock Museum was founded in 1993 and named after the founder of Centenario Clocks. It contains replica and original timepieces to demonstrate methods of measuring time over history. These include sundials used 2000 BCE, candle “clocks” with markings for hours, and similar timepieces but with oil lamps. There are numerous examples of mechanical clocks. One unique piece is a clock statue of Merlin the magician, whose arms point to the time but only for twelve hours a day. During the night hours, his arms “rest.” Entrance to the factory and museum is free. The museum is reached by walking through the factory, which is open to visitors, who can see all the processes from the smelting of metal to the final test of the completed piece. The museum is connected to the factory floor by a stairwell which has a mural. This mural depicts the relevant life events of Alberto Olvera Hernandez. Olvera Hernandez appears in the center of a ring of icons related to time, and books related to his self training as well as a profile of his wife, Maria Charolet. Below are twelve figures representing his twelve children and well as the violin and mandolin which he played.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Photography_Awards#2015 | International Photography Awards | The International Photography Awards are a group of awards for professional, non-professional and student photographers on a global scale which are awarded annually at the Lucie Awards gala. The winners of the main categories are invited to attend the gala to compete for the main award of International Photographer of the Year, receiving a Lucie statue and a cash prize of $10,000.
== History ==
The International Photography Awards were created by Hossein Farmani as part of the mission of the Lucie Foundation. They were initially presented in December 2003 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California, at the Lucie Awards gala produced by Golden Globe nominee, Michelle Burstin.
In addition to honoring photographers, the Lucie Awards also showcase the finalists and winners of the International Photography Awards (Lucie Foundation's sister-effort) annual photography competition, presenting over $15,000 in cash prizes and two distinct titles: The International Photographer of the Year (given to a professional) and the Discovery of the Year (awarded to a non-professional).
In 2012, the Moving Image Photographer of the Year category was added, where six finalists competed to receive a Lucie statue and $2,500.
== Annual ceremonies and honorees ==
=== 2025 ===
Pro
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – Jonathan Knowles
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Piotr Zbierski
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – Romain Thiery
Book Photographer Of the Year – Autori Multipli
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Abdelrahman Alkahlout
Event Photographer Of the Year – Savadmon Avalachamveettil
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – Julia Fullerton-Batten
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Sho Otani
People Photographer Of the Year – Natasha Pszenicki
Special Photographer Of the Year – Pedro Luis Ajuriaguerra Saiz
Sports Photographer Of the Year – Todd Antony
Non-pro
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – Natalie Vorontsoff
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Yehor Lemzyakoff
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – Mohammad Awadh
Book Photographer Of the Year – Markus Naarttijarvi
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Sebastian Piorek
Event Photographer Of the Year – Yu Ling Ho
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – Marie Sueur
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Ilene Meyers
People Photographer Of the Year – Ilona Schong
Special Photographer Of the Year – Monia Marchionni
Sports Photographer Of the Year – Kohei Kawashima
=== 2024 ===
International Photographer of the Year – Charles Niell Jr. Chaz
Discovery of the Year – Malgorzata Fober
Pro
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – Tom Franks
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Drew Gardner
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – Gleici Rufatto
Book Photographer Of the Year – Sebastian Copeland
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Mustafa Hassona
Event Photographer Of the Year – Charles Niell Jr. Chaz
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – Paul Szimák
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Benjamin Yavar
People Photographer Of the Year – Maryam Firuzi
Special Photographer Of the Year – Dale May
Sports Photographer Of the Year – Peter Muller
Non-pro
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – Andrea Paolini Merlo
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Blake Burton
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – Kiyoshi Karimizu
Book Photographer Of the Year – Yuji Haikal
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Jakub Laichter
Event Photographer Of the Year – Mark Fromson
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – César Guardia Alemañi
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Malgorzata Fober
People Photographer Of the Year – Renee Barron
Special Photographer Of the Year – Yukihito Ono
Sports Photographer Of the Year – Markus Naarttijarvi
=== 2023 ===
Pro
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – Thomas Broening
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Edgar Martins
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – Gang Wang
Book Photographer Of the Year – 93 photojournalists
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Wolfgang Schwan
Event Photographer Of the Year – Nabil West
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – Julia Fullerton-Batten
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Barbara and Maciej Noskowski
People Photographer Of the Year – Allison Hunter
Special Photographer Of the Year – Horst Kistner
Sports Photographer Of the Year – Finn O’Hara
Non-pro
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – Yuliy Vasilev
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Daniela Balestrin
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – Steffen Reichardt
Book Photographer Of the Year – Jan Schölzel
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Or Adar
Event Photographer Of the Year – Thamarong Wanarithikul
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – Bevil Templeton-Smith
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Claudia Gaupp
People Photographer Of the Year – Carlo Marrazza
Special Photographer Of the Year – Daniil Kobizskiy
Sports Photographer Of the Year – Tony Law
=== 2022 ===
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – Jodie Mann
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Lukasz Spychala
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – Ramin Barzegar
Book Photographer Of the Year – Ed Kashi
Deeper Perspective Photographer Of the Year – Paula Bronstein
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Juan Carlos
Event Photographer Of the Year – Alessandro Iasevoli
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – Nils Riedweg
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Lars Beusker
People Photographer Of the Year – Aaron Anderson
Special Photographer Of the Year – Martin Stranka
Sports Photographer Of the Year – James Lightbown
Still in Motion / Video Photographer Of the Year – Sandro Miller
=== 2021 ===
Pro
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – John Huet
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Angélique Boissière
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – Julia Anna Gospodarou
Book Photographer Of the Year – Delphine Blast
Deeper Perspective Photographer Of the Year – Bob Newman
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Mel D. Cole
Event Photographer Of the Year – Chong Kok Yew
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – Mikael Owunna
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Liselotte Schuppers
People Photographer Of the Year – Art Streiber
Special Photographer Of the Year – Howard Schatz
Sports Photographer Of the Year – Andre Magarao
Still in Motion / Video Photographer Of the Year – Shilpa Narayanan
Nature and Astrophotography Of the Year – Gary W. Lopez
Non-pro
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – Antonio Coelho
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Chris Round
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – César Cedano
Book Photographer Of the Year – Sue Park
Deeper Perspective Photographer Of the Year – Joanna Borowiee
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Sharwar Hussain
Event Photographer Of the Year – Brian Wotring
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – Jiale Liu
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Javier Rupérez
People Photographer Of the Year – Elisa Miller
Special Photographer Of the Year – Bernd Schirmer
Sports Photographer Of the Year – Masatoshi Ujihara
Still in Motion / Video Photographer Of the Year – Aitor del Arco
=== 2020 ===
International Photographer of the Year – Julia Fullerton-Batten
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – Mike Dodd
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Paulius Makauskas
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – Jesus M.Chamizo
Book Photographer Of the Year – Sebastian Copeland
Deeper Perspective Photographer Of the Year – Nicolo Filippo Rosso
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Kiran Ridley
Event Photographer Of the Year – Katja Ogrin
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – Chloe Meynier
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Ari Rex
Nature and Astrophotography Of the Year – Gary W. Lopez
People Photographer Of the Year – Brian Hodges
Special Photographer Of the Year – Sawyer Russel
Sports Photographer Of the Year – Howard Schatz
Still in Motion / Video Photographer Of the Year – Iwona Podlasinska
=== 2019 ===
The 18th Annual Lucie Awards were postponed and will be rescheduled.
International Photographer of the Year – Mustafa Hassona
Discovery of the Year – Mikkel Hørlyck
Advertising Photographer Of the Year – Jonathan Knowles
Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year – Snezhana Von Büdingen
Architecture Photographer Of the Year – Evgeny Stetsko
Book Photographer Of the Year – Joey L.
Deeper Perspective Photographer Of the Year – K. M. Asad
Editorial / Press Photographer Of the Year – Mustafa Hassona
Event Photographer Of the Year – Sandro Miller
Fine Art Photographer Of the Year – David Knox
Nature Photographer Of the Year – Tom Putt
People Photographer Of the Year – Evgeny Stetsko
Special Photographer Of the Year – James Ritchie
Sports Photographer Of the Year – Kohei Ueno
Still in Motion / Video Photographer Of the Year – Jean Bérard
=== 2018 ===
The 2018 awards ceremony was held at the Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, in New York City on October 28, 2018.
International Photographer of the Year – Tawny Chatmon
Discovery of the Year – Mohammad Rakibul Hasan
First Place winners in different categories were:
Special – James Rushforth
Advertising, Sandro Miller
Book, Randal Ford
Architecture, Stephan Zirwes
Sports, Divyakant Solanki
Moving image, Emily Kassie
Deeper Perspective, Barry Salzman
People, Tawny Chatmon
Editorial, Rasmus Flindt Pedersen
Event, Mia Collis
Fine Art, Rodd Owen
Nature, Melissa Cormican
=== 2017 ===
The 2017 edition of the Lucie Awards was held at the Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, in New York City on October 29, 2017.
Moving Image Photographer of the Year– Lebohang Kganye
International Photographer of the Year – Alex Telfer
Discovery of the Year – Mariano Belmar
Deeper Perspective of the Year – Giles Clarke
=== 2016 ===
The Lucie Awards in 2016, was held on October 23 at the Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, in New York City.
Moving Image Photographer of the Year -Lily Gilboy
International Photographer of the Year – Marinka Masséus
Discovery of the Year – David Nam Lip LEE
Deeper Perspective of the Year – Andrea Star Reese
=== 2015 ===
For the third year, the 2015 Awards ceremony was held at the Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, in New York City on October 27, 2015.
Moving Image Photographer of the Year – Kerry Payne Stailey
International Photographer of the Year – Maxim Dondyuk
Discovery of the Year – Ville Kansanen
Deeper Perspective of the Year – David Jay
Honorable Mention(s) of the Year – Haider Ali (haidertonight)
=== 2014 ===
The Lucie Awards ceremony in 2014 was held at the Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, in New York City on November 22.
Moving Image Photographer of the Year – Yannick Wegner
International Photographer of the Year – Sandro Miller
Discovery of the Year – Vyacheslav Mishchenko
Deeper Perspective of the Year – K M Asad
=== 2013 ===
The 2013 awards ceremony was held at the Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, in New York City on October 27, 2013.
Moving Image Photographer of the Year – Carson Davis Brown
International Photographer of the Year – Brooks Kraft
Discovery of the Year – Carlotta Cardana
Deeper Perspective of the Year – Ebrahim Noroozi
=== 2012 ===
The 2012 awards ceremony returned to its root, being held at the International Ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the site of the first awards ceremony, in Los Angeles on October 8, 2012.
Moving Image Photographer of the Year – Mark Bramley
International Photographer of the Year – Alinka Echeverría
Discovery of the Year – Viktoria Sorochinski
Deeper Perspective of the Year – Fernando Moleres
=== 2011 ===
The 2011 awards ceremony was held at the Rose Theater, Jazz at the Lincoln Center in New York City on October 24, 2011.
International Photographer of the Year – Majid Saeedi
Discovery of the Year – Anna di Prospero
Deeper Perspective of the Year – Daniel Beltrá
=== 2010 ===
The 2010 awards ceremony was held at the Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York City on October 27, 2010.
International Photographer of the Year – Jim Krantz
Discovery of the Year – Kristina Kostadinova
Deeper Perspective of the Year – Rodney Rascona
=== 2009 ===
The 2009 awards ceremony was held at the Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York City on October 19, 2009.
International Photographer of the Year – Nadav Kander
Discovery of the Year – Elliott Wilcox
Deeper Perspective of the Year – Rachel Papo
=== 2008 ===
The 2008 awards ceremony was held at the Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Center in New York City on October 30, 2008.
International Photographer of the Year – Brent Stirton
Discovery of the Year – John Delaney
Deeper Perspective of the Year – Justin Maxon
=== 2007 ===
The 2007 awards ceremony was held at the Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Center in New York City on October 15, 2007.
International Photographer of the Year – Massimo Mastrorillo
Discovery of the Year – Larry Louie
Deeper Perspective of the Year – Charlie Crane
=== 2006 ===
The 2006 awards ceremony was held at the American Airlines Theater in New York City on October 30, 2006.
International Photographer of the Year – Gerd Ludwig
Discovery of the Year – Ghada Khunji
=== 2005 ===
The 2005 awards ceremony was held at the American Airlines Theater in New York City on October 17, 2005.
International Photographer of the Year – Jim Fiscus
Discovery of the Year – Carol Watson
=== 2004 ===
The 2004 awards ceremony changed location and time of year, held at the American Airlines Theater in New York City on October 18, 2004.
International Photographer of the Year – Timothy White
Discovery of the Year – Marrigje De Maar
=== 2003 ===
The 2003 awards ceremony was the first, held at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California on December 7, 2003.
International Photographer of the Year – Chris Frazer Smith
Discovery of the Year – Robert Vizzini
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cydalima_mysteris | Cydalima mysteris | Cydalima mysteris is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by Edward Meyrick in 1886. It is found on Vanuatu.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equestrian_events_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics | Equestrian events at the 2004 Summer Olympics | Equestrian events at the 2004 Summer Olympics featured three equestrian disciplines: dressage, eventing and jumping. All three disciplines are further divided into individual and team contests for a total of six events.
The Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Centre, on the outskirts of Markopoulo in the Attica region of Greece, hosted the dressage and jumping events while the eventing took place in the nearby Eventing Park.
== Medal table ==
== Medalists ==
== Schedule ==
Equestrian events took place over 14 days, from 14 August to 27 August. Eventing was held on the first five days, while the other two disciplines overlapped for most of the rest of the schedule.
14 August
Eventing - first horse inspection
15 August
Eventing - dressage
16 August
Eventing - dressage
17 August
Eventing - cross country
18 August
Eventing - second horse inspection
Eventing - first round of jumping (used for team jumping portion and individual qualification)
Eventing - individual jumping final
19 August
Dressage - horse inspection
Jumping - training
20 August
Dressage - grand prix
Jumping - first horse inspection
21 August
Dressage - grand prix
22 August
Jumping - first qualifier
23 August
Dressage - grand prix special
24 August
Jumping - second qualifier (first team round)
Jumping - third qualifier (second team round)
Jumping - team jump-off
25 August
Dressage - grand prix freestyle
26 August
Jumping - second horse inspection
27 August
Jumping - final round A
Jumping - final round B
Jumping - jump-off
== Officials ==
Appointment of officials was as follows:
Dressage
Mariëtte Withages (Ground Jury President)
Vincenzo Truppa (Ground Jury Member)
Francis Verbeek-van Rooy (Ground Jury Member)
Wojktek Markowski (Ground Jury Member)
Dieter Schüle (Ground Jury Member)
Beatrice Bürchler-Keller (Ground Jury Member)
Stephen Clarke (Ground Jury Member)
Jumping
Sven Holmberg (Ground Jury President)
José Alvarez de Bohorques (Ground Jury Member)
Francois Ferland (Ground Jury Member)
Leonidas Georgopoulos (Ground Jury Member)
Olaf Petersen (Course Designer)
Leopoldo Palacios (Technical Delegate)
Eventing
Christoph Hess (Ground Jury President)
Angela Tucker (Ground Jury Member)
Cara Whitham (Ground Jury Member)
Albino Garbari (Course Designer)
Michael Etherington-Smith (Technical Delegate)
== References ==
== External links ==
Official result book – Equestrian |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_and_Frank_Schreider | Helen and Frank Schreider | Helen Jane Schreider (née Armstrong; May 3, 1926 – February 6, 2025) and Frank Schreider (January 8, 1924 – January 21, 1994) were American explorers in the mid-20th century, known for traveling by amphibious jeep. National Geographic hired them after their first independent journey from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego (1954–56). They were the first people to travel the length of the Americas solely by means of their own power. They completed six additional expeditions through National Geographic, working freelance at first and later as foreign editorial staff, for fifteen years, from 1956 to 1970. They worked as a team and lived for periods of time in about 50 countries on five continents. Helen and Frank Schreider were known for their ability to write, photograph and film within the cultures they visited. They wrote three books, six major articles for National Geographic, and contributed to nine other books. They also made three separate nationwide speaking tours with their films.
== Early exploration ==
Frank and Helen met at the University of California at Los Angeles, where Frank studied engineering and Helen fine arts. They married in 1947, but it wasn't until February 1951 that they embarked on a belated honeymoon, beginning their life of exploration and adventure. With their German shepherd Dinah they set out in a jeep for a jaunt to South America, but four months later they were back, disillusioned and broke. They had gotten only as far as Costa Rica, where they hit a "wall of mountains," as the Pan American Highway had not yet been completed.
Following this experience, they realized that to bypass the mountains of Costa Rica and the jungles of Panama they would need an amphibious vehicle in order to go by sea when they couldn't get through on land.
In the fall of 1951, Frank found an old rusty World War II amphibious jeep in a junkyard. He began the work to rebuild the engine and to repair the hull, while Helen designed the interior storage and living space.
Before the Schreiders could set off on another venture, they needed to raise money, so before finishing the jeep repairs they left for a two-year job at an air force base in Anchorage, Alaska. While there they expanded their dreams of adventure. They would start their journey at Circle, Alaska, the northernmost town in North America, and they’d travel to the end of Argentina to Ushuaia on the island of Tierra del Fuego, the world's southernmost town. This would be a journey of 20,000 miles.
The Schreiders started their journey from Circle on June 21, 1954, arriving in California a couple of weeks later where they continued to work on the rehabilitation of the amphibious jeep. Months later, christened with a Coke bottle, "La Tortuga," the two-and-a-half ton turtle was born. The craft was successfully launched in a calm bay in Los Angeles – making front-page news in the Los Angeles Times.
On January 1, 1955, they began the next phase of their journey. At the southern end of Mexico the highway gave way to 200 miles of oxcart tracks through thick jungle. Navigating this tangle of trees, vines, boulders and mud, with the help of local people and their machetes, they finally reached the wall of mountains in Costa Rica that had blocked them four years earlier. This time they turned to the coastline to go by sea but there was no calm bay to enter the ocean. They had to launch from the beach into twenty-foot waves, nearly ending their journey before it truly began.
La Tortuga proved to be seaworthy and they entered the Pacific on four occasions and survived four terrifying days in rough ocean water. They were then misled by a friendly fisherman to go inland on a small river to a supposed road, which turned out to be not a road but a railroad. In desperation, they drove 35 miles on the railroad, bouncing along the ties, which almost destroyed La Tortuga. Somehow they survived, got themselves to Panama City where it took Frank six weeks (and considerable expense) to repair La Tortuga.
On May 11 they passed through the Panama Canal, but this was an adventure in itself, with La Tortuga looking like a minnow beside the huge ships. The officer in charge of the Panama Canal Zone, Admiral Miles, tried in vain to dissuade them from entering the Caribbean. In parting, the admiral said that if they made it through the Caribbean to South America and Tierra del Fuego, he would recommend Frank to the Explorers Club.
After the Panama Canal they survived a perilous 300-mile journey on the Caribbean. To escape violent storms they sought refuge on islands inhabited by the San Blas Indians. Initially, these isolated people thought La Tortuga was a sea monster, but upon seeing the Schreiders and Dinah, they treated them with great hospitality. Finally they arrived on dry land in Colombia after a month at sea.
From Colombia they continued through Ecuador, and while in Peru took La Tortuga all the way to the remote ruins of Machu Picchu, where they found it deserted but for themselves. Afterwards, often with no roads to speak of, they traversed Bolivia to Chile, where La Tortuga sailed 50 miles across three interconnected lakes to get to Argentina and proceed to its southern tip.
They then crossed the treacherous Strait of Magellan and finally landed on Tierra del Fuego. From the beach where they landed, a road building crew struggled to help them push and pull La Tortuga through an unfinished road to Ushuaia, finally reaching their goal on January 23, 1956. La Tortuga was the first vehicle to ever arrive on the island on its own power, for which it was issued an Ushuaia license plate #1. Only then were they able to reassure their families and friends back home that they survived their journey. Fortuitously, a few days later, an officer of the Argentine Navy invited them, along with the battered Tortuga, to board a freighter for Buenos Aires, and eventually they arrived back home in California on April 9, 1956.
Frank started writing about their travels while on board the ship and within a few months he completed their book 20,000 Miles South, which Doubleday published in 1957. In addition to their Doubleday contract, they also sold the story to Saturday Evening Post, which ran a five-week serial on their adventure.
During their travels, in addition to photographs, they filmed their journey on a 16 mm Bolex camera. After editing the film on their return, they were booked on a speaking tour throughout the US and parts of Canada. They would stand on stage (with Dinah of course) speaking on microphones, narrating the journey live, while the film played behind them. At one of the first such events at Constitution Hall in Washington DC, Dr. Melville Bell Grosvenor approached them and asked them to work for National Geographic. He wanted them to do more amphibious jeep expeditions to foreign lands.
After their presentation at Constitution Hall, the nationally syndicated columnist, Ed Koterba wrote that "all other travel settings on the surface of this earth must be anti-climactic after the Schreider voyage" and that their amphibious jeep, "La Tortuga," should be placed in the Smithsonian Museum "right along with the Spirit of St. Louis and other dramatic symbols of ‘famous firsts.’"
Shortly after the Schreiders successfully completed their journey, Admiral Milton Miles of the US Navy recommended Frank to the Explorers Club, and on September 17, 1956 Frank was inducted as a member.
== National Geographic expeditions (1957–1961) – The Ganges and Indonesia ==
For their first trip for National Geographic, the Schreiders needed a new jeep. They found a pristine amphibious jeep that had never been used, one that a collector had kept in perfect condition since the war. Tortuga II was quickly ready and became their home as they traversed the Ganges River, through India over a five-month period, during 1957-58. Their lengthy article on the Ganges appeared in National Geographic in 1960. Also, Dr. Melville Bell Grosvenor met them in India during their journey and described their adventures in considerable detail in his report "A message from your Society’s President."
After India, the Schreiders set off on their next expedition, this time, to Indonesia – for a challenging and dangerous 5,000-mile journey by land and sea from Sumatra to East Timor. Aside from the dangers of the journey, they were also subjected to the bureaucracy and military tension gripping the archipelago at this time. Often the beauty of the landscape and people were offset by the arduous task of waiting for permission to travel. The grim soldiers they encountered were in stark contrast to the overall cheerful and welcoming Indonesian people. A detailed account of their thirteen-month odyssey is presented in their book The Drums of Tonkin. In 1990 excerpts from the book were published in Java: A Traveller's Anthology. They also published two major articles on their Indonesia trip in National Geographic, in 1960 and 1961. On their return to the US, they embarked on a speaking tour that included Canada, again narrating their film live from the stage.
== National Geographic expeditions (1962–1970) – The Great Rift Valley, Alexander the Great, Taiwan, the Amazon ==
After their Indonesian expedition, National Geographic hired the Schreiders as full-time staff, and sent them to explore the Great Rift Valley through Africa by Land Rover. Early in their travels they were invited to meet King Hussein of Jordan. Their journey is referred to in several sections of Linda Street's book Veils and Daggers: A Century of National Geographic's Representation of the Arab World. Afterwards, their pace increased, often leaving for the next journey before the last one had been published. From the Great Rift Valley, they went straight into their next expedition which was to follow in the footsteps of Alexander the Great – 24,000 miles – from Greece to India, across the Middle East, again by Land Rover. Years later National Geographic used one of Helen's Alexander assignment photos of an evening desert scene in Iran in their book, National Geographic Photographs: The Milestones. Their next assignment was to survey the situation in Taiwan. In the course of this they interviewed Madam and Chiang Kai-shek in their home where they were living in seclusion.
From nation to nation they traveled, making friends, meeting dignitaries and capturing the beauty and uniqueness of each culture, people, and landscape they encountered.
Their last trip took them to the source of the Amazon River, where they built a wooden boat from an abandoned hull and named her "The Amazon Queen." Their new German shepherd, Balthazar, accompanied the couple as they managed to navigate and map the entire Amazon River, concluding that it was longer than the Nile. Highly enthused, they returned home to the National Geographic headquarters in Washington DC, but they were abruptly told by the head cartographer that he didn't want to see their maps and documents, adding, "Everyone knows the Nile is the longest river in the world" – and they were curtly dismissed. This led to further disillusionment with National Geographic, causing the Schreiders to resign from the company in 1970, the year that their book Exploring the Amazon was published. Years later, in 2007, Brazilian scientists claimed that the Amazon is longer than the Nile and therefore is the longest river in the world. So the Schreiders might have been right after all, 37 years earlier than the team of Brazilian scientists.
Actually, the Schreiders’ achievement had been acknowledged in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1971. It was further authenticated by Lowell Thomas in his April 20, 1970 broadcast: "Helen and Frank Schreider are the first to trace the mighty Amazon from its headwaters to its mouth . . . over four thousand miles to the Atlantic. Their exploits are fascinatingly described in their new book, Exploring the Amazon, published by National Geographic (1970) . . . concluding that the Amazon, not the Nile, is the world’s longest river." Also Elizabeth Fagg Olds in her book Women of the Four Winds states that the explorer Annie Smith Peck found that Schreiders’ book Exploring the Amazon was "helpful as background on the debated question of the river’s source."
== Life after National Geographic (post 1970) ==
After their years at National Geographic, Helen and Frank each followed their own individual careers. At first Frank began as a free-lancer, writing for many magazines, including Time, Look and Sail. Later he joined the U.S. Foreign Service and was sent to Mexico City to work for the United States Information Agency, where he was the editor of Saber, their Spanish-language magazine. Upon retirement he continued his love of sailing, which included crossing the Atlantic in his boat, Sassafras. The Schreiders shared one last adventure together in the fall of 1993 sailing for four months among the Greek islands. Shortly after, in January 1994 Frank suddenly and unexpectedly died of a heart attack while on Sassafras when it was moored at Crete.
After leaving National Geographic, Helen joined the National Park Service as a museum designer. Her first assignment was to design and assemble the Bicentennial Exhibition within the Statue of Liberty. At the official ceremony in 1976 she was congratulated for her work by the French ambassador and later she received the Presidential Design Award from President Ford.
In addition to her Statue of Liberty exhibition, Helen Schreider set up the display of Bicentennial gifts at the White House "for the President to view, and the display at the Great Hall for the nation to see." In recognition of this she received a letter of thanks from the Deputy Special Assistant at the White House and a specially dedicated photo to her of President Ford, signed by him.
In Helen's ensuing work with the National Park Service she planned extensive museum exhibitions at Yellowstone National Park, the Big Hole Battlefield, Nez Perce, Mount Rainier and several other locales.
Although Helen worked with Frank as an explorer and later with the National Park Service, she had actually been an artist first and foremost throughout her life. With a fine arts degree from UCLA, she produced a great many paintings and drawings – many of them were done during her travels with Frank. Her drawings accompanied their photographs throughout their three books and their articles in National Geographic. In her 90s, Helen lived in a retirement community in Santa Rosa, CA, and continued to work as a painter.
Frank had been inducted as a member of the Explorers Club in 1956 but Helen wasn't since this was a club for men only. Eventually, women were also accepted but it wasn't until 2015 – 59 years later – that Helen finally caught up with Frank, becoming a Fellow National, not just a Member of the Explorers Club.
The Explorers Club includes every significant explorer in the world. This includes Robert E. Peary & Matthew Henson (first to the North Pole, 1909), Roald Amundsen (first to the South Pole, 1927), Sir Edmund Hillary (first to the summit of Mt. Everest, 1953), Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin & Michael Collins (first to the surface of the Moon, 1969). By being members of the Club it placed Helen and Frank Schreider in the same league as these and all other major explorers in the world.
As a follow up on Helen's induction to the Explorers Club, Angela Schuster, the editor of the Explorers Journal, published an article "Reflections on the Amazon – in conversation with Helen Schreider" (Summer 2016). Ms. Schuster had arranged for a retired geography professor, John Ryan, and a film producer, Anna Darrah, to conduct an interview with Helen as the basis for her article.
In addition, after Helen's induction into the Explorers Club, Albuquerque TV and newspaper outlets interviewed her.
More than fifty years after the Schreiders' amphibious jeep travels, a group of adventurers led by Richard Coe had planned to travel from London to Sydney, Australia in a large U.S. military amphibious vehicle (to be called Tortuga III) that would have retraced the exact Asia route of the Schreider journey in their Tortuga II. The expedition does not appear to have happened, however.
Helen Schreider died on February 6, 2025, at the age of 98.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckert%E2%80%93Mauchly_Award | Eckert–Mauchly Award | The Eckert–Mauchly Award recognizes contributions to digital systems and computer architecture. It is known as the computer architecture community’s most prestigious award. First awarded in 1979, it was named for John Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly, who between 1943 and 1946 collaborated on the design and construction of the first large scale electronic computing machine, known as ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. A certificate and $5,000 are awarded jointly by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society for outstanding contributions to the field of computer and digital systems architecture.
== Recipients ==
== See also ==
ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture
Computer engineering
Computer science
Computing
List of computer science awards
== References ==
ACM-IEEE CS Eckert-Mauchly Award winners
Eckert Mauchly Award |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countdown_(game_show)#:~:text=The%20programme%20was%20then%20presented,tested%20positive%20for%20COVID%2D19. | Countdown (game show) | Countdown is a British game show involving word and mathematical tasks that began airing in November 1982. It is broadcast on Channel 4 and is most recently presented by Colin Murray, assisted by Rachel Riley with lexicographer Susie Dent. It was the first programme to be broadcast on Channel 4 and 92 series have been broadcast since its debut on 2 November 1982. With more than 8,000 episodes, Countdown is one of Britain's longest-running game shows; the original French version, Des chiffres et des lettres (Numbers & Letters), ran on French television almost continuously from 1965 until 2024.
The two contestants in each episode compete in three game types: ten letters rounds, in which they attempt to make the longest word possible from nine randomly chosen letters; four numbers rounds, in which they must use arithmetic to reach a random target figure from six other numbers; and the conundrum, a buzzer round in which the contestants compete to solve a nine-letter anagram. During the series heats, the winning contestant returns the next day until they either lose or retire with eight wins as an undefeated "Octochamp". The best eight contestants are invited back for the series finals, which are decided in knockout format. Contestants of exceptional skill have received national media coverage and the programme, as a whole, is widely recognised and parodied within British culture.
Countdown was produced by Yorkshire Television and was recorded at The Leeds Studios for 27 years, before moving to the Manchester-based Granada Studios in 2009. Following the development of MediaCityUK, Countdown moved again in 2013 to the new purpose-built studios at Dock10 in Greater Manchester.
== Presenters ==
The programme was presented by Richard Whiteley for 23 years until his death on 26 June 2005. It was then presented by Des Lynam from October 2005 until December 2006, Des O'Connor from January 2007 until December 2008, Jeff Stelling from January 2009 until December 2011 and Nick Hewer from January 2012 until his retirement in June 2021, with Colin Murray standing in for Nick Hewer during part of the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme was then presented by Anne Robinson from June 2021 until July 2022. Murray then returned on 14 July as a stand-in host. On 25 July 2022, it was announced that Les Dennis would guest host the show from 4 to 15 August followed by Jenny Eclair from 16 to 19 August after Murray tested positive for COVID-19.
Guest hosts returned later that year as part of the show's 40th anniversary celebrations, with Floella Benjamin, Richard Coles, Trevor McDonald (for a second time) and Moira Stuart each hosting one week's episodes. Murray was announced as the programme's new permanent host in January 2023.
In the early years, the show had multiple assistant presenters, including Carol Vorderman who was hired for Series 1 and originally appeared as "vital statistician", a role in which she alternated with Dr Linda Barrett until Barrett's departure after Series 2. Letters were placed on the board initially by Cathy Hytner, who was then followed by Karen Loughlin in Series 14 (1987) and Lucy Summers for Series 17 in early 1989. Numbers were originally put up on the board by Beverley Isherwood and this was taken over by Hytner mid-way through Series 3. From the start of Series 18 in July 1989, after Summers left the show, Vorderman began putting up the letters and numbers on a permanent basis. After 26 years, she left the show in December 2008 (at the same time as O'Connor) and was replaced by Rachel Riley who has appeared in the role since January 2009. Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon stood in for Riley from December 2021 to March 2022 whilst Riley was on maternity leave. Dr Tom Crawford, an Oxford and Cambridge university lecturer, stood in for Riley for three weeks in early 2025, making his first appearance on 24 February as the show's first-ever male arithmetician.
Susie Dent first appeared on the show in June 1992 as one of the regularly rotated lexicographers; however, it was not until 2003 that she became a recurring member of the now reduced on-screen team. Since 2005 she is the sole lexicographer on the show and has been credited as a co-presenter since January 2015; in each episode she appears in "Dictionary Corner" alongside a celebrity guest who changes from week to week. The other more notable past lexicographers, that have appeared in more than 100 episodes, include Catherine Clarke, Damian Eadie, Alison Heard, Mark Nyman, Richard Samson, Julia Swannell, Della Thompson, Freda Thornton and Yvonne Warburton.
=== Timeline ===
The timeline below includes all main, co and guest presenters alongside notable past lexicographers as stated above.
== Background and origin ==
Countdown originated from the format of the French game show Des chiffres et des lettres (Numbers and Letters), created by Armand Jammot. The game debuted in September 1965 and initially featured only letters rounds, under the name Le Mot Le Plus Long (The Longest Word), before numbers were introduced to the revised format for its return in January 1972. After watching the programme, Belgian record executive Marcel Stellman brought the format to Britain on the belief it could be popular overseas and proposed his concept for the British version to several networks.
The concept was purchased in 1981 by Yorkshire Television, which, after producing two non-televised pilot episodes, commissioned a full series of eight shows under the title Calendar Countdown, which were broadcast over eight weeks between April and June 1982. Aimed at being a spin-off of their regional news programme Calendar, the programme's host deemed the natural choice for the concept. The spin-off was aired only in the Yorkshire area, with Richard Whiteley earning the nickname of "Twice Nightly Whiteley" because of his daily appearances on both programmes. He was assisted by Cathy Hytner and Denise McFarland-Cruickshanks, who handled the letters and numbers rounds respectively. Both Whiteley and Hytner appeared in the pilot episodes; alongside Robina Sharp, who handled the selection of numbers tiles and operated a one-armed bandit type "fruit machine" to choose the three-digit target, and Angela Garbut as the vital statistician. There was no lexicographer present at this time; they were introduced when the programme went to national television, with Ted Moult appearing in the pilot episodes and throughout the regional series as the celebrity guest. Moult would return as the shows very first Dictionary Corner guest when the programme debuted on Channel 4; however, he only did the first seven episodes and never returned.
By 1982, after an additional pilot episode was made with a refined format – an episode that was never broadcast – the show was bought by Channel 4, a new British television channel set to launch in November 1982, based on the refined concept. While Whiteley and Hytner from the original pilot were retained, the programme was renamed Countdown, and the format was expanded to include additional members in the hosting team, including letters and number experts. It was commissioned to be broadcast four times a week for seven weeks initially, but was such a success that it is still being recommissioned as of 2024.
An additional spin-off to the programme for young contestants was proposed at the time, dubbed Junior Countdown – the concept would be similar in format, but hosted by Gyles Brandreth and Ted Moult – but while a pilot was created, the proposal was abandoned after it was found to be highly flawed.
Countdown was the first programme broadcast by Channel 4 when it launched on 2 November 1982, with Whiteley opening the programme with the line:
As the countdown to a brand new channel ends, a brand new Countdown begins.
== History ==
=== Whiteley tenure ===
Alongside the original cast from Calendar Countdown, the new format of the gameshow led to production staff seeking out further hostesses through advertising in national newspapers for young women to become a member of the programme's cast, with notable conditions about their involvement; in particular, those recruited for calculations found it made clear that as an applicant, their appearance would be less important than their skill as a mathematician. Amongst those recruited, Beverley Isherwood was hired to work alongside Hytner in handling the selection of number and letter tiles respectively, while Linda Barrett and Carol Vorderman were recruited for checking over calculations by contestants in the numbers round. In addition, a lexicographer was also required to form part of the format's "Dictionary Corner" segment, to verify words given by contestants in the letters round (see Letters round rules) and to point out any longer or otherwise interesting words available; such a role was aided by the show's producers, with no assistance from any computer program and accompanied by a celebrity guest for a set period on the programme – contributing words and providing entertainment through anecdotes, puzzles, poems and stories. The role of lexicographer was traditionally occupied by a member of the Oxford University Press or sometimes by a member of the show's production team. Amongst these who have appeared on the programme in "Dictionary Corner" are Nigel Rees, Jo Brand, Martin Jarvis, Richard Digance, Geoffrey Durham, Ken Bruce, Magnus Magnusson, Pam Ayres, Paul Zenon, Jenny Eclair, Al Murray, John Sergeant and Gyles Brandreth.
Over time, the additional hostesses on the programme were dropped by production staff who retained Vorderman and assigned her primarily to handle the selection of letter and number tiles, as well as verifying contestant calculations. The programme frequently rotated between more than thirty different lexicographers all with varying tenures, including Richard Samson and Alison Heard, for each series, until January 2005, when the role was permanently given to Susie Dent, after her debut on Countdown in 1992.
On 26 June 2005, Richard Whiteley died after a failed heart operation. At the time, he had been slowly recovering from pneumonia earlier that year, which had prevented him recording further episodes. His death impacted the show, causing the episode scheduled for that day to be postponed by Channel 4 as a mark of respect, with no episode airing at all. The remaining episodes he had completed were aired after his death, the first of which was preceded by a tearful tribute from Carol Vorderman. After the series' conclusion, Countdown was placed into hiatus from 1 July to determine how to proceed; while the hiatus occurred, no Countdown episode repeats were aired on Channel 4.
=== Post-Whiteley ===
In October 2005, Channel 4 announced that Des Lynam would take over as the main presenter, having previously participated in the celebrity edition (Celebrity Countdown) in April 1998. Lynam's tenure ran until December 2006, whereupon his demanding filming schedule forced him to resign from the programme. Channel 4 proposed reducing his travelling by moving filming from Leeds to a site closer to his residence in Worthing, West Sussex, but viewers reacted angrily to the idea and Lynam decided it would cause considerable disruption for many of the programme's camera crew.
In January 2007, Des O'Connor took over as the main presenter. During his tenure as host, Susie Dent went on maternity leave over the winter of 2007–2008 and Alison Heard temporarily replaced her on the programme until 6 February 2008. By July 2008, both Des O'Connor and Carol Vorderman had announced that they would be leaving by the end of that year after the end of Series 59. While Des O'Connor was forced to leave in order to concentrate on other projects, Carol Vorderman left after her offer to take a 33% salary decrease was rejected and production staff asked her to take a 90% pay cut; her agent stated that staff had told her that the show had survived without Richard Whiteley and could "easily survive without you". Some media reports suggested that the new presenter would be either Rory Bremner, the early favourite or Alexander Armstrong, but both ruled themselves out of the job. At the same time there was speculation that several prominent women, including Anthea Turner, Ulrika Jonsson and Myleene Klass were strong candidates to take over Carol Vorderman's job, but Channel 4 revealed that the role was to be assigned to a previously unknown male or female arithmetician with "charm and charisma".
When Des Lynam became the new presenter after Richard Whiteley's death in 2005, the show regularly drew an average 1.7 million viewers every day; this was around half a million more than in the last few years of Richard Whiteley presenting. The Series 54 final on 26 May 2006 attracted 2.5 million viewers. 3–4 million viewers had watched the show daily in its previous 16:15 slot. The drop in viewing figures following the scheduling change coupled with the show's perceived educational benefits, even caused Labour MP Jonathan Shaw to table a motion in the UK Parliament requesting that the show be returned to its later time. Minor scheduling changes have subsequently seen the show move from 15:15 to 15:30, 15:45, 15:25 and 15:10. As of 2025, it is broadcast at 14:10.
In November 2008, Jeff Stelling was confirmed as the new host, while Oxford maths graduate Rachel Riley was confirmed as Carol Vorderman's replacement. Jeff Stelling remained with the programme until the end of 2011, when his football commitments with Sky Sports forced him reluctantly to leave Countdown. Before his departure, The Apprentice star Nick Hewer was announced as his replacement and he took over as the main presenter when his first episode aired on 9 January 2012. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was announced that Colin Murray (a frequent Dictionary Corner guest) would fill in for Nick Hewer while he spent a period of time in isolation during the UK's second lockdown.
Des O'Connor died on 14 November 2020 after suffering a fall at home the previous week; the episode that aired two days later was dedicated to his memory.
On 7 December 2020, Nick Hewer announced that he would be stepping down as the host of Countdown at the end of Series 83 in Summer 2021. Nick Hewer said it had been "privilege and a pleasure to take the helm of Countdown". It was then announced on 15 February 2021 that Anne Robinson, who first appeared on the show as a guest in Dictionary Corner in 1987, would take over from Nick Hewer at the start of Series 84. Nick Hewer's final show aired on 25 June 2021. On 28 June 2021, Anne Robinson became the show's first female host in its 39-year history. In May 2022, it was announced that she would be leaving the show after just one year with Colin Murray taking over for the majority of Series 86. In total, Anne Robinson recorded 265 episodes, which equates to two full series and the first three weeks of Series 86.
=== Character ===
Countdown quickly established cult status within British television – an image which it maintains today, despite the loss of key presenters. The programme's audience comprises mainly students, homemakers and pensioners, because of the "teatime" broadcast slot and inclusive appeal of its format and presentation. Countdown has been one of Channel 4's most-watched programmes for more than twenty years, but has yet to win a major television award.
On each episode, the prize for defeating the reigning champion (or for claiming the championship when two new contestants compete) is a teapot that is styled to resemble the renowned clock used in each round. Introduced in December 1998, the teapot is custom-made and can only be obtained by winning a game on the programme. Defeated contestants and retiring undefeated champions receive an assortment of Countdown-themed merchandise as a parting gift.
At first, the prize for the series winner was a leather-bound copy of the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary, worth over £4,000. David Acton (winner of Series 31) opted for a CD-ROM version of the dictionaries, not wanting to accept leather-bound books owing to his strict veganism, and donated the monetary difference in the prices to charity. Between 2011 and 2021, the prize consisted of ordinary hardback twenty-one-volume dictionaries, a laptop computer and a lifetime subscription to Oxford Online (replaced by a MacBook Pro laptop by Series 68). The physical dictionaries were discontinued as a prize after Series 83, as they were deemed obsolete. As of Series 54 in 2006, the series champion also receives the Richard Whiteley Memorial Trophy in memory of the show's original presenter.
Runner-up prizes in the finals increased over the years from a £100 book voucher to £250, later to £500 and then £1,000. Beginning with Series 68, the runner-up in the finals wins a laptop.
=== Celebrations ===
The first episode of Countdown was repeated on 1 October 2007 on More4 and also on 2 November 2007 on Channel 4; this was as part of Channel 4 at 25, a season of programmes to celebrate its 25th birthday.
On 2 November 2007, Countdown celebrated its 25th anniversary and aired a special 'birthday episode'. The two players were 2006 winner Conor Travers and 2002 winner Chris Wills. However, for the rounds, VIP guests selected the letters and numbers. Guests included Gordon Brown, Amir Khan and Richard Attenborough. A statement from the French TV network France Télévisions was read out on air by Carol Vorderman to commend Channel 4 on its success of Countdown.
On 26 March 2010, Queen Elizabeth II congratulated Countdown for amassing 5,000 episodes. On 5 September 2014, the programme received a Guinness World Record at the end of its 6,000th show for the longest-running television programme of its kind during the course of Series 71.
In September 2014, Countdown entered the Guinness World Records for the most series of a TV game show broadcast.
== Format ==
Countdown has occupied a daytime broadcast slot since its inception, originally in a 30-minute format. Since 2001, an episode lasts around 45 minutes including advertising breaks. During the normal series, the winner of each game returns for the next day's show. A player who wins eight games is declared an "octochamp" and retires from the programme. At the end of the series, the eight best players (ranked first by number of wins, then by total score if required to break a tie) are invited back to compete in the series finals. They are seeded in a knockout tournament, with the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh and so on. The winner of this knockout, which culminates in the Grand Final, becomes the series champion. Each series lasts approximately six months with approximately 125 episodes.
Approximately every four series, a Champion of Champions tournament takes place. For this, sixteen of the best players to have appeared since the previous Championship are invited back for another knockout tournament. The producer, former contestant Damian Eadie, decides which players to include, but typically the tournament includes the series winners and other noteworthy contestants. Series 33 was designated a "Supreme Championship", in which 56 of the best contestants from all the previous series returned for another knockout tournament. Series 10 champion Harvey Freeman was declared Supreme Champion after beating Allan Saldanha in the final. There are also occasional special episodes, in which past contestants return for themed matches. For example, David Acton and Kenneth Michie returned for a rematch of their Series 31 final, while brothers and former contestants Sanjay and Sandeep Mazumder played off against each other on 20 December 2004.
Since the change to 45-minute episodes, the game has been split into three sections, separated by advertising breaks. The first section contains two letters rounds and one numbers round, the second has two letters rounds and one numbers round followed by the anecdote from the Dictionary Corner guest and then a further two letters rounds and one numbers round, while the last section has two letters rounds, Susie Dent's "Origins of Words" item since September 2007, two further letters rounds, one numbers round and a final "Conundrum" puzzle. With the exception of the Conundrum, the contestants swap control after every round so that each of them has control for five letters rounds and two numbers rounds.
At the end of the first two sections, the host poses a "Teatime Teaser" for the viewers since series 46 in 2001, giving a set of short words and a cryptic clue to a single word that can be anagrammed from them. The solution is revealed at the start of the next section. (Example: Given the words SAD MOODY and the clue "We'll all be sad and moody when this arrives", the solution would be DOOMSDAY.) The length of the Teatime Teaser anagram has varied between seven and nine letters since its introduction.
=== Letters Round ===
The contestant in control chooses between two stacks of face-down letter tiles, one containing vowels (A-E-I-O-U only) and the other consonants, and the assistant reveals the top tile from that stack and places it on the board. This is done nine times and the final grouping must contain at least three vowels and four consonants. The contestants then have 30 seconds to form the longest single word they can, using the nine revealed letters; no letter may be used more often than it appears in the selection. The frequencies of the letters within each stack are weighted according to their frequency in natural English, in the same manner as Scrabble. For example, there are many Ns and Rs in the consonant stack, but very few tiles for rarely used letters such as Q and J. The letter frequencies are altered by the producers from time to time, so any published list does not necessarily reflect the letters used in any particular programme. The two stacks of tiles are not replenished between rounds.
Both contestants write down the words they form, in case they select the same one. After time runs out, the host asks the contestants to declare their word lengths, starting with the contestant who chose the letters. The host then asks the discovered words, starting with the shorter declared length. If one contestant has not written their word down in time, they must state this fact; if both then declare the same length, that contestant must give their word first to prevent cheating. If both contestants state that they have not written their words, the host allows them a moment to do so; this is typically edited out of the final broadcast. The contestant with the longer valid word scores one point per letter, or 18 points if they have used all nine. If the words are identical or of the same length, both contestants score. In the former case, the contestants must show their written words to each other as proof that they are the same. If a contestant is visually impaired, Dictionary Corner will verify the word. Contestants who inaccurately declare the length of their word score zero, even if the word is valid. Each round ends with Dictionary Corner revealing the longest words and/or any unusual ones that can be formed from the available letters, aided by the production team.
Most words which appear in the Oxford Dictionary of English are valid, as well as accepted forms of them that may not be explicitly listed. Examples are:
Common nouns and their plurals
Verbs and their inflections (e.g. "escape", "escaped", "escaping")
Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives (if the adjective is more than one syllable, the form must be explicitly listed)
Plurals of foods specified as mass nouns that may be ordered in restaurants (e.g. "pastas", as in "We'll have two pastas")
Words that are not allowed include:
Terms which are always capitalised, including proper nouns (e.g. "Jane" or "London")
Words spelled with an apostrophe (e.g. "Didn't" or "Wouldn't")
Hyphenated terms
Words that are never used alone (e.g. "gefilte"; only used as part of "gefilte fish")
Since 2002, American spellings of words are not allowed (e.g. "flavour" and "signalled" are allowed, but "flavor" and "signaled" are not). Notably, though, words with the suffix -ize (e.g. "realize") and derived words thereof (e.g. "realizing") are permitted in addition to the corresponding -ise spellings (e.g. "realise"), as the Oxford Dictionary of English regards both as British English spellings per the Oxford spelling convention.
Example:
Contestant One chooses five consonants, then three vowels, then another consonant.
Selection is:
G Y H D N O E U R
Contestant One declares 7, while Contestant Two declares 8.
Contestant One declares younger, but Contestant Two declares hydrogen and scores 8 points. Contestant One does not score.
Dictionary Corner notes greyhound, which would have scored 18 points for using all nine letters.
=== Numbers Round ===
The contestant in control chooses six of 24 shuffled face-down number tiles, arranged into two groups: 20 "small numbers" (two each of 1 to 10) and four "large numbers" of 25, 50, 75 and 100. The contestant decides how many large numbers are to be used, from none to all four, after which the six tiles are randomly drawn and placed on the board. A random three-digit target figure from 100 to 999 is then generated by an electronic machine, known as "CECIL" (which stands for Countdown's Electronic Calculator In Leeds). The contestants have 30 seconds to work out a sequence of calculations with the numbers whose final result is as close to the target number as possible. They may use only the four basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and do not have to use all six numbers. A number may not be used more times than it appears on the board. Division can only be performed if the result has no remainder (i.e., the divisor is a factor of the dividend). Fractions are not allowed and only positive integers may be obtained as a result at any stage of the calculation. As in the letters rounds, both contestants must declare their results and any contestant who has not fully written their calculations down in time must go first if both declare the same result. In addition, both contestants must show their written work to each other if their results and calculations are identical.
The contestant who has declared a result closer to the target is called upon to state their calculations first. Only if they make a mistake or if both contestants are equally close to the target, is the opponent called upon.
Only the contestant whose result is closer to the target scores points: ten for reaching it exactly, seven for being between one and five from the target and five for being within six and ten from the target. Contestants score no points for being more than ten away, if their calculations are flawed or if they take too long to give a solution or after saying they have not written it down. Both score if they reach the same result or if their results are the same distance away. Should neither contestant reach the target exactly, the assistant is called upon to attempt a solution, either immediately or at a later time during the episode.
Example:
Contestant One requests two large numbers and four small numbers.
Selection is:
75 50 2 3 8 7
Randomly generated target is:
812
Contestant One declares 813, while Contestant Two declares 815.
Contestant One is closer and so reveals: 75 + 50 – 8 = 117, and 117 × 7 – (3 × 2) = 813, which scores 7 points for being 1 away. Contestant Two does not score.
Assistant notes: 50 + 8 = 58, and 7 × 2 × 58 = 812, which would have scored 10 points.
In some games, there are many ways to reach the target exactly; the example target above could also be reached by 7 × (75 + 50 + 2 – 8 – 3) = 812. Not all games are solvable, and for a few selections it is impossible even to get within 10, most commonly when a contestant picks six small numbers and the target number is quite large. There is a tactical element in selecting how many large numbers to include. One large and five small numbers is the most popular selection, despite two large numbers giving the best chance of the game being solvable exactly. Selections with zero or four large numbers are generally considered the hardest.
The 24 tiles are laid out in four rows, the topmost of which contains only the four large numbers. The contestant may specify how many tiles to draw from each row, or simply state how many large and small numbers will be used; in the latter case, the assistant draws the tiles randomly. The numbers are usually placed on the board from right to left, starting with the small ones, but have occasionally been displayed in scrambled order. On rare occasions, the contestant has declined to make any choices, in which case the assistant selects the tiles. Unlike the letters round, the pool of tiles is fully replenished after each numbers round.
Example:
Contestant requests one from the top (large), two from the second row (small), and three more from the top (large).
Selection is (in disorder):
50 10 6 25 100 75
A special edition, broadcast on 15 March 2010, for two previous series champions, Kirk Bevins and Chris Davies, used instead of the usual four large numbers, the numbers 12, 37 and two numbers unrevealed for the duration of the show. In a further special broadcast on 16 August 2010 between the Series 59 finalists Charlie Reams and Junaid Mubeen, the other two numbers were revealed to be 62 and 87.
=== Conundrum ===
The final round of the game is the Countdown Conundrum, in which the contestants are shown a combination of two or three words with a total of nine letters. They have 30 seconds to form a single word using all the letters and must buzz in to respond (a bell for the champion and a buzzer for the challenger). Each contestant is allowed only one guess and the first to answer correctly scores 10 points. If a contestant buzzes-in and either responds incorrectly or fails to give any response, they are frozen out and the remaining time is given to the opponent. If neither contestant can solve it, the presenter asks whether anyone in the audience knows the answer and if so, chooses someone to call it out (this practice was stopped temporarily in 2009 to avoid difficulties with camera angles after the studio layout was changed). The Conundrum is designed to have only one solution, but on occasion more than one valid word is found by happenstance (e.g. MISSATTEE can become both ESTIMATES and STEAMIEST). If this happens, any of these results are accepted. On rare occasions, the Conundrum is presented as a single nine-letter word that must be anagrammed into another one (e.g. SMARTENED becoming TRADESMEN).
If the contestants' scores are within ten points of each other going into this round, it is referred to as a "Crucial Countdown Conundrum." Since ten points are at stake, the contestant who solves it (if any) will either win the game or force a tiebreaker. If the scores are tied after the Conundrum, additional Conundrums are played until the tie is broken. There have been several instances in which two Conundrums were used to decide the winner, but only a handful of episodes have required three. There have also been cases when even more Conundrums have been required to provide a winner, but not all have been included in the transmitted programme.
Example:
Conundrum is revealed:
C H I N A L U N G
Contestant One buzzes-in and says launching. This answer is revealed to be correct and Contestant One scores 10 points.
== Evolution ==
The rules of Countdown are derived from those of Des chiffres et des lettres. Perhaps the biggest difference is the length of the round; DCedL's number rounds are each 45 seconds long to Countdown's 30. DCedL also features "duels", in which players compete in short tasks such as mental arithmetic problems, forming two themed words from a set of letters, or being asked to spell a word correctly. Other minor differences include a different numbers scoring system (9 points for an exact solution, or 6 points for the closest inexact solution in DCedL) and the proportion of letters to numbers rounds (10 to 4 in Countdown, 8 to 4 in DCedL).
The pilot episode followed significantly different rules from the current ones. Most noticeably, only eight letters were selected for each letters round. If two contestants offered a word of the same length, or an equally close solution to a numbers game, then only the contestant who made the selection for that round was awarded points. Also, only five points were given for an exact numbers solution, three for a solution within 5, and one point for the closer solution, no matter how far away.
Though the style and colour scheme of the set have changed many times (and the show itself moved to Manchester after more than 25 years in Leeds), the clock has always provided the centrepiece and like the clock music (composed by Alan Hawkshaw), it is an enduring and well-recognised feature of Countdown. Executive producer John Meade once commissioned Alan Hawkshaw to revise the music for extra intensity to introduce at the start of Series 31 in January 1996; after hundreds of complaints from viewers, the old tune was reinstated after just 12 shows.
The original set, known as the Pastel set, was used from its launch in 1982 until Series 17 in early 1989. A new brown wooden set was introduced in Series 18 in July 1989 but remained in use for less than two years. Series 22 from July 1991 saw the introduction of the familiar and long-lived "Wings" set which was used in its original form, a red colour scheme, until 1995. Series 31 in January 1996 saw its colour scheme change to purple and changed again to tangerine at the end of 1999 alongside updated displays for the scores and CECIL. January 2003 saw the set updated to a new pink and purple striped theme with the letters and numbers boards now on separate islands rather than being integrated into the set. Six years later, in January 2009, the set received another redesign with a numerical blue theme and the letters and numbers boards mounted on opposite sides of a single display stand. New modern displays for the scores and the numbers round came in January 2013 while the set received a slight redesign in July 2017 while retaining the blue background which has been used to up to the most recent series. The original clock featured until September 2013, when it was replaced.
Until the end of Series 21, if the two contestants had equal scores after the first conundrum, the match was declared a draw and they both returned for the next show. A significant change in the format occurred in September 2001, when the show was expanded from nine rounds and 30 minutes to the current fifteen rounds and 45 minutes. The older format was split into two halves, each with three letters and one numbers game, plus the conundrum at the end of the second half. When the format was expanded to fifteen rounds, Richard Whiteley continued to refer jokingly to the three segments of the show as "halves". Under the old format, Grand Finals were specially extended shows of fourteen rounds, but now all shows use a fifteen-round format.
The rules regarding which words are permitted have changed with time. American spelling was allowed until 2002 and more unspecified inflections were assumed to be valid.
In September 2007, an "Origin of Words" feature was added to the show, in which Susie Dent explains the origin of a word or phrase she has been researching. This feature follows the eighth letters round, partway through the third section of each episode. The feature was omitted during the time that she was absent for maternity leave and was reinstated upon her return.
When the 15-round format was first introduced in September 2001, the composition of the rounds was different from that used by the programme today. The three sections each had five rounds; four letters rounds and one numbers round in each of the first two sections with three letters rounds, one numbers round and the conundrum in the third section. This meant that there was a slight imbalance, whereby one contestant made the letters sections for six rounds, but had the choice of the numbers selection just once, whereas the other contestant chose letters five times and numbers twice. The Dictionary Corner guest's spot was immediately before the first advertising break and Susie Dent's Origin of Words spot preceded the second numbers game shortly before the second break. The change to the present format was made on 25 March 2013, three weeks into the second section of Series 68, to comply with Channel 4's decision to increase the amount of advertising and to alter the times when they occur during the programme, therefore reducing Countdown's actual show length from 36 to 35 minutes.
== Notable contestants ==
Since the debut of Countdown in 1982, there have been more than 8,500 televised episodes and 91 complete series. There have also been sixteen Champion of Champions tournaments, the most recent in January 2023.
Several of the programme's most successful contestants have received national media coverage. Teenager Julian Fell set a record score of 146 in December 2002. In 2006, 14-year-old Conor Travers became the youngest series champion in the show's history, and 11-year-old Kai Laddiman became the youngest octochamp for 20 years. Conor Travers went on to win the 30th Anniversary Champion of Champions series in March 2013 with a record-equalling top score of 146. On 17 January 2019, in the quarter-final of the 15th Champion of Champions tournament, Zarte Siempre, who eventually won that tournament set a new record score of 150. This record was beaten in May 2019 by Elliott Mellor's score of 152. A new record was set on 29 September 2022 when contestant Tom Stevenson scored 154. This record score of 154 was equalled by contestant Cillian McMulkin on 31 January 2023.
At eight years old, Tanmay Dixit was the youngest player ever to appear on the show, achieving two wins in March 2005. He also received press attention for his offerings in the letters round, which included fannies and farted.
On Christmas Day 1987, Nic Brown set the highest score difference ever achieved in a standard 14-round game, beating Joel Salkin 108–36, a margin of 72 points. Brown also went on to become one of the only two contestants ever to achieve an undefeated 'grand slam' – becoming an Octochamp, winning a series, and winning a Championship of Champions.
In April 2013, Giles Hutchings, a student at Royal Grammar School, Guildford broke the record for the highest octochamp score, amassing 965 points over 8 games. He went on to win Series 68. The record was beaten by Dylan Taylor, who achieved an octochamp score of 974 in August 2013, but he lost the Grand Final of that series. In 2019 the record was beaten by 87 points by teenager Elliott Mellor, who became the first octochamp to break the 1,000-point barrier scoring a total of 1,061 over his eight preliminary games. Echoing Dylan's appearance, Mellor was pipped to the series title, finishing as runner up. Three former contestants have returned to Countdown as part of the production team: Michael Wylie, Mark Nyman (as producer, and occasional lexicographer in Dictionary Corner) and Damian Eadie (the current series producer).
In 1998, sixteen celebrities were invited to play Celebrity Countdown, a series of eight games broadcast every Thursday evening over the course of eight weeks. The celebrities included Whiteley's successor Des Lynam, who beat Siân Lloyd. The highest and lowest scores were posted in the same game when TV's Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall beat wine critic Jilly Goolden 47–9.
Richard Whiteley and Carol Vorderman competed in another special episode on Christmas Day 1997. For this game, the presenter's chair was taken by William G. Stewart, the host of fellow Channel 4 game show Fifteen to One. Susie Dent took over Carol Vorderman's duties, and Mark Nyman occupied Dictionary Corner, accompanied by Magnus Magnusson. The game was close-fought and decided only by the crucial Countdown conundrum mistletoe which Carol Vorderman solved in two seconds, after Richard Whiteley had inadvertently buzzed after one second because when he regularly hosted the show, he hit the button to reveal the conundrum and kept his old habit up.
Contestants who have or had become notable for other reasons include Nuts magazine editor-at-large Pete Cashmore, rugby player Ayoola Erinle, footballers Neil MacKenzie, Clarke Carlisle and Matt Le Tissier, musicians Jon Marsh and Nick Saloman, comedian Alex Horne, noted Irish playwright Peter Sheridan and professional darts referee Kirk Bevins, who won Series 60 and was a quarter-finalist in the 30th Birthday Championship.
== In popular culture ==
Countdown is often referenced and parodied in British culture.
=== Assorted allusions ===
In 1992, Saint Etienne used a sample of the host's lead-in for "today's Countdown Conundrum" as the opening for the track "Stoned to Say the Least".
In the 2002 film About a Boy, protagonist Will Freeman is a regular viewer of Countdown.
The Doctor Who episode "Bad Wolf" (2005) mentions a futuristic version of Countdown, in which the goal is to stop a bomb from exploding in 30 seconds. Countdown was referenced again in a later series in "Last of the Time Lords" (2007), where Professor Docherty expresses a keen fondness for the show and how it "hasn't been the same since Des took over—both Deses.”
Fairport Convention guitarist Simon Nicol titled one of his solo albums Consonant Please Carol, echoing one of the show's catchphrases.
Mentioned in episode one (2012) of series 4 of TV series Misfits.
=== Video game ===
A Countdown video game was released for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii in 2009. There have also been mobile apps of the game released.
=== Outtakes ===
Countdown has also generated a number of widely viewed outtakes, with the letters occasionally producing a word that was deemed unsuitable for the original broadcast. A round in which Dictionary Corner offered the word gobshite featured in TV's Finest Failures in 2001 (the actual episode aired on 10 January 2000), and in one episode from 7 January 1991, contestants Gino Corr and Lawrence Pearse both declared the word wankers. This was edited out of the programme but has since appeared on many outtakes shows. When contestant Charlie Reams declared wankers on 21 October 2008 edition, the declaration was kept in but the word itself was bleeped. Other incidents with only marginally rude words (including wanker, singular) have made it into the programme as they appeared, such as those with Tanmay Dixit referenced above, a clip from a 2001 episode in which the word fart appeared as the first four letters on the board (which also featured on 100 Greatest TV Moments from Hell), and a round where an anagram of the word fucked appeared on the board in the string "A U O D F C K E G", although neither player chose to use the word and Dictionary Corner was able to find two seven-letter words that could have been made from the board's offerings. On 2 February 2017, the board for the letters round was "M T H I A E D H S", and with both players offering sevens, Dictionary Corner found the word "shithead", which was bleeped out in the audio and censored on-screen with the poo emoji.
=== Humour ===
The programme is mentioned in an episode of Irish sitcom Father Ted entitled "The Old Grey Whistle Theft", Still Game (in the episode "Wireless") and is also referenced in the very first episode of Little Britain from 2003. BBC impression sketch show Dead Ringers parodies Countdown numerous times, and another television programme, The Big Breakfast, parodied Countdown in a feature called "Countdown Under". In a sketch "Countdown to Hell" from the comedy show A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Stephen Fry lampooned Richard Whiteley's punning style and Hugh Laurie played one of the contestants, while Gyles Brandreth (played by Steve Steen), presented with the letters "bollocsk", got the (non-)word "sloblock" (supposedly meaning exactly the same as "bollocks"). The show also has a fleeting reference in British sitcom The Office when Chris 'Finchy' Finch attempts to insult temporary worker Ricky when he explains he had a job to pay for his studies. Finchy states that it probably was 'professor in charge of watching Countdown every day', commenting on its student audience, and referring to the fact anyone watching Countdown during its 'hometime' time slot cannot be out at work.
The format of the show has been parodied on Have I Got News for You. In 1999, when Whiteley was a guest, the numbers game was copied along with the clock music and at the end of the show was a conundrum, "PHANIOILS", to which the answer was Ian Hislop. In 2004, when Vorderman was a guest, one of the usual rounds was replaced with a conundrum round based on the week's news. When Vorderman hosted Have I Got News in 2006, one of the rounds was the "Spinning Conundrum Numbers Round", altering the "Spinning Headlines" round by adding a number to a picture relating to the week's news; at the end of the round, the six numbers from the picture were used for a numbers game.
Richard Whiteley was the victim of a practical joke while presenting the show in 1998. The contestants and rounds had been planted as part of a "Gotcha!", a regular prank feature on the light entertainment show Noel's House Party. In the prank, both the two contestants and Dictionary Corner missed the word something from the letters OMETHINGS, and from another selection, both of the contestants declared "I've got diarrhoea" referring to the selection. In the numbers round that followed, the male contestant "answered" the puzzle by concatenating 6, 2, and 3 to make the target of 623. Whiteley did not uncover the joke until House Party presenter Noel Edmonds appeared on the set, having revealed the unusually short conundrum of HOGCAT to be "gotcha" at the end of the programme.
In a 2003 episode of Top Gear, Richard Whiteley participated in the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment. Before Whiteley's lap was shown, presenter Jeremy Clarkson played a game of Countdown with Whiteley, using words such as imin (Mini), sexul (Lexus), nevor lard (Land Rover), mushi bits(Mitsubishi) and pianos shiazu (Hispano-Suiza).
It was also referred to on Harry Hill's TV Burp twice. The first time it was referred to was when "Dev" (Coronation Street) made a sound like Countdown end of thirty seconds time. The second time was when the competition "Where Has The Knitted Character Been This Week?" had the answer "on Rachel Riley's chair".
On 2 July 2010, the game was featured in the series 4 episode "The Final Countdown" of The IT Crowd. Moss stuns everyone, including Jeff Stelling and Rachel Riley (both playing themselves), by declaring that the 9 letter string TNETENNBA is in fact a word. Later, Moss becomes an octochamp and is consequently invited into an underground club named "8+", where he competes in a game of "Street Countdown" as part of a spoof of Boogie Town. The episode featured a cameo from Gyles Brandreth, a regular contributor to Dictionary Corner.
British entertainer Stevie Riks has parodied the show in one of his many YouTube comedy videos.
In an episode from spring 2011, the Blackpool-supporting producer of the show arranged the conundrum PNECRISIS ("priciness"), poking fun at their local rivals Preston North End's relegation from the Championship in the 2010–11 season.
=== Non-canon games ===
The game has also been played on a number of different programmes, notably as the first challenge in "What's Next" on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, featuring the pair versus one of the duo's old head teachers. In 2010, it was played as a shopping task on the final Channel 4 series of Celebrity Big Brother, with a team of housemates competing in the house against the then current champion, Chris Davies, in the Countdown studio via satellite. The housemates failed this task.
== Community ==
In 2008, Charlie Reams, who was runner up of Series 59 in 2008, created a website called Apterous, which allows people to play simulated games of Countdown online. Members of this site are called Apterites. Every series champion since 2008 inclusive has been a member.
Since 2005, Ben Wilson, the champion of Series 46, has organised a Countdown event in Lincoln, abbreviated COLIN. The event usually takes place on a Saturday in January. COLIN is played across three rounds. Players are drawn onto tables of three (if the number of humans participating is not a multiple of three, bots are used). There are three games per round per table - each contestant takes one turn at hosting the game, and two turns as a contestant. In Round 1, tables are allocated randomly. In Rounds 2 and 3, players are allocated tables based on how well they’ve performed up to that point. Afterwards, a final takes place between the two best players (sorted by number of wins and then by number of points). Whoever wins the final is declared the overall winner of the event. Since 2014, a hangover takes place the main day after the main COLIN. The hangover takes place over two rounds. For the hangover, players are allocated one of two teams; there is a White team and a Blue team. In person events have since expanded to other locations (e.g. Bristol, Edinburgh)
Since 2016, most Countdown events have been part of “FOCAL” (Finals of the Co-events Annual League). Players earn points based on how well they have done at their events. The top 8 are invited to a final, where they play against the seven other finalists. Afterwards, a final takes place between the two best players (sorted by number of wins and then by number of points). Whoever wins the final is declared FOCAL Champion.
== Transmissions ==
=== Regular ===
=== Masters ===
=== Celebrity ===
=== Specials ===
== Spin-offs ==
Countdown Masters was a regular feature segment within The Channel Four Daily, throughout its run from 1989 to 1992. It had the same hosts and rules as the standard game but was played in shorter bite-sized chunks. It was abbreviated: for example, the letters were chosen all in one go as "x vowels and y consonants" and there was no celebrity guest in "Dictionary Corner".
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown has comedian Jimmy Carr as host and team captains Jon Richardson and Sean Lock (until his death in 2021) as regular contestants. Susie Dent and Rachel Riley fill their normal roles. It uses similar rules to the standard game, but has a strong comedy element, a reduced number of rounds, and is two against two. It began in 2012 and continues airing new episodes; as of 31 January 2025, 167 episodes of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown have aired.
Celebrity Countdown had celebrities competing on the show without the cast of 8 Out of 10 Cats and with its usual presenters. Only two series have been broadcast; Series 1 in 1998 and Series 2 in 2019–2020. Both series used a modified format and were broadcast in the evening, the second of which was aired on More4.
== See also ==
List of Countdown champions
International versions of Countdown
== Notes ==
== References ==
Countdown: Spreading the Word (Granada Media, 2001) ISBN 0-233-99976-0
== External links ==
Countdown on Channel 4
Countdown at IMDb
Countdown at the BFI's Screenonline
The Countdown Page, results from every game up to 16 December 2011
The Countdown Wiki
An analysis of the game based on a scientific article published at the 2015 Global Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Countdown Solver |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sessh%C5%AB_T%C5%8Dy%C5%8D | Sesshū Tōyō | Sesshū Tōyō (雪舟 等楊; c. 1420 – August 26, 1506), also known simply as Sesshū (雪舟; Japanese pronunciation: [seꜜɕ.ɕɯː]), was a Japanese Zen monk and painter who is considered a great master of Japanese ink painting. Initially inspired by Chinese landscapes, Sesshū's work holds a distinctively Japanese style that reflects Zen Buddhist aesthetics. His prominent work captured images of landscapes, portraits, and birds and flowers paintings, infused with Zen Buddhist beliefs, flattened perspective, and emphatic lines.
Sesshū was born into the samurai Oda family (小田家) and trained at Shōkoku-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan, as a Zen monk. From his early childhood, Sesshū showed a talent for painting and eventually became widely revered throughout Japan as a wise, reputable Zen scholar, and the greatest painter priest of Zen-Shu.
Sesshū worked in a painting atelier whilst training under Tenshō Shūbun (c. 1418–1463). But upon visiting China, his work took on a distinctive Chinese influence, merging Japanese and Chinese styles to develop his individualistic style of Zen paintings. Sesshū's influence on painting was so wide that many schools of art appointed him their founder. Sesshū's most acclaimed works are Winter Landscape (c. 1470s), Birds and Flowers (1420–1506) and Four Landscape Scrolls of the Seasons (1420–1506).
== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
Sesshū Tōyō was born in Akahama (now Sōja City), a settlement in Bitchū Province, which is now a part of the Okayama Prefecture, during the Muromachi period. As a child, Sesshū entered the Buddhist community at the Hofukuji temple in Okayama, Japan. Little is known about Sesshū's early life, but there is a well-known tale that, whilst at Hofukuji Temple, Sesshū's instructor was forced to discipline him by tying him to a temple post. After a few hours passed, Sesshū used his tears as ink to draw a mouse on the wooden floor. The mouse was so realistic that it sprung to life and gnawed at the tight ropes to set him free.
At the age of twelve or thirteen years old, Sesshū entered the Shōkoku-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan, as an acolyte under the head priest of all zen temples, Shunrin Shuto, and eventually became a zen monk. Shōkoku-ji temple held a close relationship with the Muromachi government as the temple's main supporters were a part of the ruling Ashikaga family. Whilst at Shōkoku-ji temple, Sesshū was a pupil of Tenshō Shūbun, who was often regarded as Japan's first great master of ink landscape painting. Sesshū worked under Shūbun for 20 years before leaving Kyoto for a small provincial zen temple in western Japan. Here, he was left free from monastic and political duties to focus on painting.
=== China ===
Funded by a wealthy warrior clan that engaged in trade with China, then ruled by the Ming Dynasty, Sesshū travelled to China in 1467 as a member of a Japanese envoy. He travelled to China for three years, exploring the Chan monasteries, landscapes, and studied professional artists' Chinese paintings, rather than those by literati masters. Here, Sesshū had the opportunity to study traditional Chinese master paintings, learning about their realistic styles. During his travels from Ningbo to Peking, Sesshū felt the vastness of nature, learning from the original references used in Chinese ink painting. This influenced his following work greatly since, before visiting China, Sesshū worked under Shūbun's style. Following Sesshū's three years in China, his familiarity with Chinese landscapes showed in succeeding works as they held a distinct Chinese influence with his developing individualistic style.
=== Return to Japan and death ===
In the last years of Sesshū's life, he visited Masuda, Japan, to study zen whilst painting and creating spiritual gardens called Sesshū's gardens. In 1506, at 87 years old, Sesshū died at Tokoji temple, but his remains were taken to Ikoji temple, subsequently known as Sesshū temple, where they were cremated. Following Sesshū's death, his pupil, Shutoku, inherited his studio, Unkoku-an.
== Paintings and techniques ==
Sesshū's works are predominantly suibokuga, meaning "water and ink paintings". For suibokuga artists, the exclusivity of black ink allowed them to focus on the essential character of the subject since Zen Buddhism stresses material simplicity and sensitivity to the natural world. To create his monochrome paintings in diluted greys and black ink, Sesshū used black sumi, meaning charcoal or soot-based solid ink on paper or silk, thus following the art of sumi-e Some of Sesshū's most acclaimed works include Winter Landscape (c. 1470s), Four Landscape Scrolls of the Seasons (c. 1420 – 1506) and, Birds and Flowers (c. 1420 – 1506), demonstrating his style of flattened space, emphatic outlines, and angular brushstrokes to portray zen beliefs.
=== Winter Landscape (c. 1470s) ===
Following his sojourn in China, Sesshū painted Winter Landscape (c. 1470s) in Japan's rural provinces, demonstrating how Sesshū combined his artistic techniques and zen concepts. Sesshū solely used black sumi ink diluted to shades of grey. Flat, overlapping mountains depict the snowy landscape. Through short, expressive brushstrokes, Sesshū depicts a male figure trekking up a steeped pathway to a barren temple complex, suggesting the arduousness of his journey during the peak of winter. Common to Sesshū's paintings, the single figure is surrounded by a towering landscape that draws on the concept of mono no aware, humankind being present with nature, to create a secluding atmosphere. Throughout the composition, Sesshū uses the shumpo technique, varying the firmness and thickness of outlines to depict three-dimensionality and textures. This modelling is enhanced by the diluted ink washes and rendering using fine lines. In the foreground, the rocks and trees show weighted, dark lines whilst the left distant mountains are outlined against the grey sky with a single brushstroke to capture the moment. The intensity of Sesshū’s work is shown by the sharp, angular brushstrokes in the centre, reflecting Zen Buddhism's influence. Similarly, he uses ink wash for the rolling mist to divide the space between solid and void, mirroring the Taoist metaphysical concept of tension between subjects. This is heightened by the sharp diagonals of the opposing foreground rocks as they bring a sense of inescapable, pent up energy. The background features a single, strong, lightning-like brushstroke that outlines the central cliffs as the tip vanishes into the mist, suggesting transitory moments in time, as believed in Zen Buddhism. Overall, Winter Landscape represents Sesshū's stylistic choices and implementation of Zen Buddhist concepts, notably drawing on Chinese landscapes that symbolised a virtuous man’s dedication to remaining honourable during strenuous moments.
=== Four Landscape Scrolls of the Seasons (c. 1420–1506) ===
Painted at 67 years old, Sesshū Tōyō's Four Landscape Scrolls of the Seasons (c. 1420–1506) depicts the flow of the four seasons whilst reflecting on his experiences with Japanese and Chinese landscapes. Each scroll is composed of two silk strips as the paintings were originally screen panels, but were later arranged on a single kakemono. Despite depicting the seasons sequentially as Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter, the Autumn scroll is distinctively different. From Sesshū's travels, Autumn holds a dominating Chinese stylistic influence. For example, Sesshū's use of the Chinese technique progressive vision, where using several viewpoints creates an image more accurate to one's experience with nature, suggesting a synthesis of time and space. Sesshū's treatment of pine needles aligns with the method of sung-yeh-tien whilst the dotted leaves mirror ku-chiao-tien (black-pepper-dots), which were techniques shared by Chinese artists before Sesshū. Within this painting, Sesshū reduces proportions as the space recedes whilst placing distant objects higher in the composition. This is heightened through atmospheric perspective where Sesshū ambiguously manipulates the line quality and texture for recession. Overall, Four Landscape Scrolls of the Seasons demonstrates Chinese influences on Sesshū's work and his use of space and composition to represent the soul of nature in the landscapes.
=== Birds and Flowers (c. 1420–1506) ===
The influences of Sesshū's studies in China are reflected in two famous hanging scrolls of seasonal landscape paintings of birds and flowers, painted in ink and colour on silk, in the Perry Collection. Sesshū paints assertive rock contours and textures using a wet brush with splitting hairs. This brings a scratchy, rough texture to give the rocks a sense of solidity and tangibility. Such technique can be seen in the Four Landscape Scrolls of the Seasons Autumn and Winter landscapes. As a recurring motif in Sesshū's landscapes, the rock is trapezoidal with two indentations on top. Like in Winter Landscape, Sesshū uses a zigzag, or lighting shape to contribute to the composition's structure. Within this composition, Sesshū flattens space using spatial ambiguities and variations in scale. Sesshū's contrast in scale creates an illusion similar to the Zen notion of zero time and space, where there are no distinctions between past, present or future. Compositionally, there is no distinction between the whole image and the subjects that make it. Sesshū purposefully controls tonal intensities to suggest atmospheric perspective through subtle ink gradations for the mist to evoke poetic autumnal feelings.
== Legacy ==
Sesshū's emphasis on Zen Buddhism, personal interpretation and economical expression in painting was the basis of his legacy for succeeding Japanese artists. Subsequently, his rendering techniques were widely used by sixteenth-century artists, notably those who attended Sesshū's painting schools.
The canonization of Sesshū in Japanese modern art history began "in late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries". This included an incorporation into a new dynamic or system with participation of government officials, academics, and collectors.
== List of selected works ==
=== Landscapes ===
Four Landscape Scrolls of the Seasons (c. 1420–1506)
Winter Landscapes from Landscapes of the Four Seasons (c. 1420–1506); Tokyo National Museum)
Autumn and Winter Landscapes (c. 1470s; Tokyo National Museum)
Short Scroll of Landscapes (c. 1474–1490; Kyoto National Museum)
Long Scroll of Landscapes (Sansui Chokan) (c. 1486; Mori Collection, Yamaguchi, Japan)
Haboku Sansui, "splashed-ink" technique scroll (1495; Tokyo National Museum)
View of Ama-no-Hashidate (c. 1502–1505; Kyoto National Museum)
Landscape by Sesshū
=== Other ===
Portrait of Masuda Kanetaka (1479; Masuda Collection, Tokyo)
Huike Offering His Arm to Bodhidharma (Daruma and Hui K'o) (1496; Sainen-ji, Aichi, Japan)
Flowers and Birds, pair of sixfold screens (undated; Kosaka Collection, Tokyo)
== See also ==
Tenshō Shūbun, similar Muromachi era painter
Suibokuga, painting style adopted by Sesshū
Hasegawa Tōhaku
Buddhism in Japan
Taoism
List of Rinzai Buddhists
== References ==
== External links ==
Media related to Sesshu Toyo at Wikimedia Commons |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselm_Kiefer#Exhibitions | Anselm Kiefer | Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan have played a role in developing Kiefer's themes of German history and the horrors of the Holocaust, as have the spiritual concepts of Kabbalah.
When he was 18, Kieffer set out on a year-long tour to visit places in The Netherlands, Belgium and France which had associations with Van Gogh. Excerpts from the diary that he kept indicate how strongly he was influenced by Van Gogh.
In his entire body of work, Kiefer argues with the past and addresses taboo and controversial issues from recent history. Themes from Nazi rule are particularly reflected in his work; for instance, the painting Margarete (oil and straw on canvas) was inspired by Celan's well-known poem "Todesfuge" ("Death Fugue").
His works are characterised by an unflinching willingness to confront his culture's dark past, and unrealised potential, in works that are often done on a large, confrontational scale well suited to the subjects. It is also characteristic of his work to find signatures and names of people of historical importance, legendary figures or historical places. All of these are encoded sigils through which Kiefer seeks to process the past; this has resulted in his work being linked with the movements New Symbolism and Neo–Expressionism.
Kiefer has lived and worked in France since 1992. Since 2008, he has lived and worked primarily in Paris. In 2018, he was awarded Austrian citizenship.
== Personal life and career ==
The son of a German art teacher, Kiefer was born in Donaueschingen a few months before the end of World War II. His city having been heavily bombed, Kiefer grew up surrounded by the devastation of the war. In 1951, his family moved to Ottersdorf, and he attended public school in Rastatt, graduating high school in 1965. He studied pre-law and Romance languages at the University of Freiburg. However, after three semesters he switched to art, studying at art academies in Freiburg and Karlsruhe. In Karlsruhe, he studied under Peter Dreher, a realist and figurative painter. He received an art degree in 1969.
In 1971 Kiefer moved to Hornbach (Walldürn) and established a studio. He remained in the Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis until 1992; his output during this first creative time is known as The German Years. In 1992 he relocated to France.
Kiefer left his first wife and children in Germany on his move to Barjac in 1992. From 2008 he lived in Paris, in a large house in the Marais district, with his second wife, the Austrian photographer Renate Graf, and their two children. Kiefer and Graf divorced in 2014.
In 2017, Kiefer was ranked one of the richest 1,001 individuals and families in Germany by the monthly business publication Manager Magazin.
Kiefer is the subject of the 3D documentary film Anselm (2023), directed by Wim Wenders.
== Artistic process ==
Generally, Kiefer attributes traditional mythology, books, and libraries as his main subjects and sources of inspiration. In his middle years, his inspiration came from literary figures, namely Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann. His later works incorporate themes from Judeo-Christian, ancient Egyptian, and Oriental cultures, which he combines with other motifs. Cosmogony is also a large focus in his works. In all, Kiefer searches for the meaning of existence and "representation of the incomprehensible and the non-representational."
=== Philosophy ===
Kiefer values a "spiritual connection" with the materials he works with, "extracting the spirit that already lives within [them]." In doing so, he transforms his materials with acid baths and physical blows with sticks and axes, among other processes.
He often chooses materials for their alchemical properties—lead in particular. Kiefer's initial attraction to lead arose when he had to repair aging pipes in the first house he owned. Eventually, he came to admire its physical and sensory qualities and began to discover more about its connection to alchemy. Physically, Kiefer specifically likes how the metal looks during the heating and melting process when he sees many colors, especially gold, which he associates to the symbolic gold sought by alchemists.
Kiefer's use of straw in his work represents energy. He claims this is due to straw's physical qualities, including the color gold and its release of energy and heat when burned. The resulting ash makes way for new creation, thus echoing the motifs of transformation and the cycle of life.
Kiefer also values the balance between order and chaos in his work, stating, "[I]f there is too much order, [the piece] is dead; or if there is much chaos, it doesn't cohere." In addition, he cares deeply about the space in which his works reside. He states that his works "lose their power completely" if put in the wrong spaces.
== Work ==
=== Photography ===
Kiefer began his career creating performances and documenting them in photographs titled Occupations and Heroische Sinnbilder (Heroic Symbols). Dressed in his father's Wehrmacht uniform, Kiefer mimicked the Nazi salute in various locations in France, Switzerland and Italy. He asked Germans to remember and to acknowledge the loss to their culture through the mad xenophobia of the Third Reich. In 1969, at Galerie am Kaiserplatz, Karlsruhe, he presented his first single exhibition "Besetzungen (Occupations)" with a series of photographs of controversial political actions.
=== Painting and sculpture ===
Kiefer is best known for his paintings, which have grown increasingly large in scale with additions of lead, broken glass, and dried flowers or plants. This results in encrusted surfaces and thick layers of impasto.
By 1970, while studying informally under Joseph Beuys at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, his stylistic leanings resembled Georg Baselitz's approach. He worked with glass, straw, wood and plant parts. The use of these materials meant that his art works became temporary and fragile, as Kiefer himself was well aware; he also wanted to showcase the materials in such a way that they were not disguised and could be represented in their natural form. The fragility of his work contrasts with the stark subject matter in his paintings. This use of familiar materials to express ideas was influenced by Beuys, who used fat and carpet felt in his works. It is also typical of the Neo-Expressionist style.
Kiefer returned to the area of his birthplace in 1971. In the years that followed, he incorporated German mythology in particular in his work, and in the next decade he studied the Kabbalah, as well as Qabalists like Robert Fludd. He went on extended journeys throughout Europe, the US and the Middle East; the latter two journeys further influenced his work. Besides paintings, Kiefer created sculptures, watercolors, photographs, and woodcuts, using woodcuts in particular to create a repertoire of figures he could reuse repeatedly in all media over the next decades, lending his work its knotty thematic coherence.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Kiefer made numerous paintings, watercolors, woodcuts, and books on themes interpreted by Richard Wagner in his four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). In the early 1980s, he created more than thirty paintings, painted photographs, and watercolors that refer in their titles and inscriptions to the Romanian Jewish writer Paul Celan's poem "Todesfuge" ("Death Fugue").
A series of paintings which Kiefer executed between 1980 and 1983 depict looming stone edifices, referring to famous examples of National Socialist architecture, particularly buildings designed by Albert Speer and Wilhelm Kreis. The grand plaza in To the Unknown Painter (1983) specifically refers to the outdoor courtyard of Hitler's Chancellery in Berlin, designed by Speer in 1938 in honor of the Unknown Soldier. Between 1984 and 1985, he made a series of works on paper incorporating manipulated black-and-white photographs of desolate landscapes with utility poles and power lines. Such works, like Heavy Cloud (1985), were an indirect response to the controversy in West Germany in the early 1980s about NATO's stationing of tactical nuclear missiles on German soil and the placement of nuclear fuel processing facilities.
By the mid-1980s, Kiefer's themes widened from a focus on Germany's role in civilization to the fate of art and culture in general. His work became more sculptural and involved not only national identity and collective memory, but also occult symbolism, theology and mysticism. The theme of all the work is the trauma experienced by entire societies, and the continual rebirth and renewal in life. During the 1980s his paintings became more physical, and featured unusual textures and materials. The range of his themes broadened to include references to ancient Hebrew and Egyptian history, as in the large painting Osiris and Isis (1985–87). His paintings of the 1990s, in particular, explore the universal myths of existence and meaning rather than those of national identity. From 1995 to 2001, he produced a cycle of large paintings of the cosmos.
Over the years Kiefer has made many unusual works, but one work stands out among the rest as particularly bizarre—that work being his 20 Years of Solitude piece. Taking over 20 years to create (1971–1991), 20 Years of Solitude is a ceiling-high stack of hundreds of white-painted ledgers and handmade books, strewn with dirt and dried vegetation, whose pages are stained with the artist's semen. The word solitude in the title references the artists frequent masturbation onto paper during the 20 years it took to create. He asked American art critic Peter Schjeldahl to write a text for a catalog of the masturbation books. Schjeldahl attempted to oblige but ultimately failed in his endeavor. No other critic would take on the task, so the work has largely faded into obscurity.
He would shock the art world yet again at a dinner party in May 1993. Kiefer and his second wife, Renate Graf, decorated a candlelit commercial loft in New York with white muslin and skinned animals hanging on hooks above a floor carpeted with white sand, and staffed it with waiters dressed as mimes with white-face. A handful of art world elite, such as the likes of Sherrie Levine, were served several courses of arcane organ meats, such as pancreas, that were mostly white in color. Not surprisingly, the guests did not find the meal to be particularly appetizing. A group of NYC nightlife performers including Johanna Constantine, Lavinia Coop, Armen Ra and Flotilla DeBarge were hired to dress in white and mill about the West Village venue, Industria, and Anohni was hired to sing for Kiefer's guests.
Since 2002, Kiefer has worked with concrete, creating the towers destined for the Pirelli warehouses in Milan, the series of tributes to Velimir Khlebnikov (paintings of the sea, with boats and an array of leaden objects, 2004–5), a return to the work of Paul Celan with a series of paintings featuring rune motifs (2004–06), and other sculptures. In 2003, he held his first solo show at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg Villa Katz, Anselm Kiefer: Am Anfang dedicated to a series of new works, centered on the recurring themes of history and myths. In 2005, he held his second exhibition in Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac's Salzburg location, Für Paul Celan which focused on Kiefer's preoccupation with the book, linking references to Germanic mythology with the poetry of Paul Celan, a German-speaking Jew from Czernowitz. The exhibition featured eleven works on canvas, a series of bound books shown in display cases, and five sculptures, including one powerful, monumental outdoor sculpture of reinforced concrete and lead elements, two leaden piles of books combined with bronze sunflowers, lead ships and wedges, and two monumental leaden books from the series The Secret Life of Plants. The exhibition toured to Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris and Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, the following year.
In 2006, Kiefer's exhibition, Velimir Chlebnikov, was first shown in a small studio near Barjac, then moved to White Cube in London, then finishing in the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut. The work consists of 30 large (2 × 3 meters) paintings, hanging in two banks of 15 on facing walls of an expressly constructed corrugated steel building that mimics the studio in which they were created. The work refers to the eccentric theories of the Russian futurist philosopher/poet Velimir Chlebnikov, who invented a "language of the future" called "Zaum", and who postulated that cataclysmic sea battles shift the course of history once every 317 years. In his paintings, Kiefer's toy-like battleships—misshapen, battered, rusted and hanging by twisted wires—are cast about by paint and plaster waves. The work's recurrent color notes are black, white, gray, and rust; and their surfaces are rough and slathered with paint, plaster, mud and clay.
In 2007, he became the first artist to be commissioned to install a permanent work at the Louvre, Paris, since Georges Braque some 50 years earlier. The same year, he inaugurated the Monumenta exhibitions series at the Grand Palais in Paris, with works paying special tribute to the poets Paul Celan and Ingeborg Bachmann.
In 2009 Kiefer mounted two exhibitions at the White Cube gallery in London. A series of forest diptychs and triptychs enclosed in glass vitrines, many filled with dense Moroccan thorns, was titled Karfunkelfee, a term from German Romanticism stemming from a poem by the post-war Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann. In The Fertile Crescent, Kiefer presented a group of epic paintings inspired by a trip to India fifteen years earlier where he first encountered rural brick factories. Over the past decade, the photographs that Kiefer took in India "reverberated" in his mind to suggest a vast array of cultural and historical references, reaching from the first human civilization of Mesopotamia to the ruins of Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War, where he played as a boy. "Anyone in search of a resonant meditation on the instability of built grandeur", wrote the historian Simon Schama in his catalogue essay, "would do well to look hard at Kiefer's The Fertile Crescent".
In Morgenthau Plan (2012), the gallery is filled with a sculpture of a golden wheat field, enclosed in a five-meter-high steel cage. That same year, Kiefer inaugurated Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac's gallery space in Pantin, with an exhibition of monumental new works, Die Ungeborenen. The exhibition was accompanied by a publication with a letter by Anselm Kiefer and essays by Alexander Kluge and Emmanuel Daydé. He continues to be represented by the gallery and participates in group and solo exhibitions at their various locations.
=== Books ===
In 1969 Kiefer began to design books. Early examples are typically worked-over photographs; his more recent books consist of sheets of lead layered with paint, minerals, or dried plant matter. For example, he assembled numerous lead books on steel shelves in libraries, as symbols of the stored, discarded knowledge of history. The book Rhine (1981) comprises a sequence of 25 woodcuts that suggest a journey along the Rhine River; the river is central to Germany's geographical and historical development, acquiring an almost mythic significance in works such as Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungs. Scenes of the unspoiled river are interrupted by dark, swirling pages that represent the sinking of the battleship Bismarck in 1941, during an Atlantic sortie codenamed Rhine Exercise.
=== Studios ===
Kiefer's first large studio was in the attic of his home, a former schoolhouse in Hornbach. Years later he installed his studio in a factory building in Buchen, near Hornbach. In 1988, Kiefer transformed a former brick factory in Höpfingen (also near Buchen) into an extensive artwork including numerous installations and sculptures. In 1991, after twenty years of working in the Odenwald, the artist left Germany to travel around the world—to India, Mexico, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, and the United States. In 1992 he established himself in Barjac, France, where he transformed his 35-hectare studio compound La Ribaute into a Gesamtkunstwerk. A derelict silk factory, his studio is enormous and in many ways is a comment on industrialization. He created an extensive system of glass buildings, archives, installations, storerooms for materials and paintings, subterranean chambers and corridors.
Sophie Fiennes filmed Kiefer's studio complex in Barjac for her documentary study Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow (2010), which recorded both the environment and the artist at work. One critic wrote of the film: "Building almost from the ground up in a derelict silk factory, Kiefer devised an artistic project extending over acres: miles of corridors, huge studio spaces with ambitious landscape paintings and sculptures that correspond to monumental constructions in the surrounding woodland, and serpentine excavated labyrinths with great earthy columns that resemble stalagmites or termite mounds. Nowhere is it clear where the finished product definitively stands; perhaps it is all work in progress, a monumental concept-art organism."
During 2008, Kiefer left his studio complex at Barjac and moved to Paris. A fleet of 110 lorries transported his work to a 35,000 sq ft (3,300 m2) warehouse in Croissy-Beaubourg, outside of Paris, that had once been the depository for the La Samaritaine department store. A journalist wrote of Kiefer's abandoned studio complex: "He left behind the great work of Barjac – the art and buildings. A caretaker looks after it. Uninhabited, it quietly waits for nature to take over, because, as we know, over our cities grass will grow". Kiefer spent the summer of 2019 living and working at Barjac."
== Works ==
Source:
The Second Sinful Fall of Parmenides (Der zweite Sündenfall des Parmenides), 1969. Oil on canvas, 82 5/8 x 98 3/8" (210x250 cm), Private Collection.
You're a Painter (Du bist Maler), 1969. Bound book, 9 7/8 × 7 1/2 x 3/8" (25 x 19 x 1 cm), Private Collection.
Plate I, German Line of Spiritual Salvation, 1975, Deutsche Heilsline, Watercolor on paper, 9 7/16 x 13 3/8" (24 X 34 cm), Private Collection.
Pages from "Occupations" ("Besetzungen"), 1969. From Interfunktionen (Cologne), no. 12 (1975).
Plate 2, Every Human Being Stands beneath His Own Dome of Heaven (Jeder Mensch steht unter seinem Himmelskugel), 1970, Watercolor and pencil on paper, 15 3/4 x 18 7/8", (40 x 48 cm), Private Collection.
Double-page photographic image with foldout from The Flooding of Heidelberg (Die Überschwemmung Heidelbergs), 1969, 11 7/8 × 8 1/2 x 7/8" (30.2 x 21.7 x 2.3 cm) (bound volume), Private Collection.
Double-page photographic images from The Flooding of Heidelberg (Die Überschwemmung Heidelbergs), 1969.
Untitled (Ohne Titel), 1971, Oil on canvas (in two parts), each 86 5/8 x 39 3/8" (220 x 100 cm), Collection of Dr. Gunther Gercken, Lutjensee, West Germany.
Plate 3, Winter Landscape (Winterlandschaft), 1970, Watercolor on paper, 16 15/16 x 14 3/16" (43 x 36 cm), Private Collection.
Plate 4, Reclining Man with Branch (Liegender Mann mit Zweig), 1971, Watercolor on paper, 9 7/16 x 11" (24 x 28 cm), Private Collection.
Plate 5, Fulia, 1971, Watercolor and pencil on paper, 18 11/16 x 14 3/16" (47.5 x 36 cm), Private Collection.
Quaternity (Quaternität), 1973, Charcoal and oil on burlap, 118 1/8 x 171 1/4" (300 x 435 cm), Collection of George Baselitz, Derneburg, West Germany.
Father, Son, Holy Ghost (Vater, Sohn, heiliger Geist), 1973, Oil on burlap, 65 x 61 1/2" (165 x 156 cm), Collection of Dr. Gunther Gerken, Lutjensee, West Germany.
Faith, Hope, Love (Glaube, Hoffnung, Liebe), 1973, Charcoal on burlap, with cardboard, 117 3/8 x 110 5/8" (298 x 281 cm). Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.
Plate 6, Man in the Forest (Mann im Wald), 1971, Oil on muslin, 68 1/2 x 74 7/16" (174 x 189 cm), Private Collection.
Plate 7, Resurrexit, 1973, oil, acrylic and charcoal on burlap, 114 3/16 x 70 7/8" (290 x 180 cm). Collection Sanders, Amsterdam.
Plate 8, Nothung (Notung), 1973, oil and charcoal on burlap, with oil and charcoal on cardboard, 118 1/8 x 170" (300 x 432 cm). Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam.
Plate 10, Germany's Spiritual Heroes (Deutschlands Geisteshelden), 1973, oil and charcoal on burlap, mounted on canvas, 120 7/8 x 268 1/2" (307 x 682 cm). Collection of Barbara and Eugene Schwartz, New York.
Double-page from Heroic Allegories (Heroische Sinnbilder), 1969, photography on cardboard, with pastel and pencil, 26 x 19 5/8 x 4" ( 66 x 50 x 10 cm), Private Collection.
Operation Winter Storm (Unternehmen "Wintergewitter"), 1975, oil on burlap, 47 1/4 x 59" (120 x 150 cm), Private Collection.
The Lake of Gennesaret (See Genezareth), 1974, oil emulsion, and shellac on burlap, 41 1/4 x 67" (105 x 170 cm), Private Collection.
Plate 11, Landscape with Head (Landschaft mit Kopf), 1973, oil, distemper, and charcoal on cardboard, 82 11/16 x 94 1/2" (210 x 240 cm), Private Collection.
Plate 12, Cockchafer Fly (Maikäfer flieg), 1974, oil on burlap, 86 5/8 x 118 1/8" (220 x 300 cm), Saatchi Collection, London.
Plate 13, March Heath (Märkische Heide), oil, acrylic and shellac on burlap, 46 1/2 x 100" (118 x 254 cm), Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
There is Peace upon Every Mountain Peak (Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh!), 1973, watercolor on paper, 12 3/8 x 18 7/8" (31.5 x 48 cm), Private Collection.
Plate 14, Operation Sea Lion I (Unternehmen "Seelöwe"), 1975, oil on canvas, 86 5/8 x 118 1/8" (220 x 300 cm), Collection of Norman and Irma Braman, Miami Beach.
Plate 15, Piet Mondrian- Operation Sea Lion (Piet Mondrian- Unternehmen "Seelöwe"), 1975, thirty-four double-page photographic images, mounted on cardboard and bound, 22 7/16 x 16 1/2 x 2" (57 x 42 5 cm) (bound volume), Collection of Marian Goodman, New York.
Plate 16, March Sand V (Märkischer Sand V), 1977, twenty-five double page photographic images, with sand, oil, and glue, mounted on cardboard and bound, 24 3/8 x 16 5/8 × 3 3/8" (62 x 42 x 8.5 cm) (bound volume), Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Saul, New York.
Double-page photographic images from Hoffmann von Fallersleben auf Helgoland, 1978 (Groningen, 1980), 11 7/8 × 8 1/2 x 1/2" (30.2 x 21.6 x 1.3 cm) (bound volume), Private Collection.
Plate 17, Varus, 1976, oil and acrylic on burlap, 78 3/4 x 106 5/16" (200 x 270 cm), Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Double-page from Germany's Facial Type (Charcoal for 2000 Years) (Das deutsche Volksgesicht [Kohle fur 2000 Jahre]), 1974, charcoal on paper, with woodcut, 22 7/16 x 17 3/4 × 2 3/8" (57 x 45 x 6 cm) (bound volume), Private Collection.
Heliogabalus (Heliogabal), 1974, watercolor on paper, 11 3/4 x 15 3/4" (30 x 40 cm), Collection of Fredrik Roos, Switzerland.
Plate 18, Ways of Worldly Wisdom (Wege der Weltweisheit), 1976–77, oil, acrylic, and shellac on burlap, mounted on canvas, 120 x 196 7/8" (305 x 500 cm), Collection Sanders, Amsterdam.
Plate 19, Ways of Worldly Wisdom- Arminius's Battle (Wege der Weltweisheit-die Hermanns-Schlacht), 1978–80, woodcut, with acrylic and shellac, mounted on canvas, 126 x 196 7/8" (320 x 500 cm), The Art Institute of Chicago.
Plate 20, Stefan!, 1975, watercolor and ball point pen on paper, 8 1/16 x 11 1/4" (20.5 x 28.5 cm), Collection of Johannes Gachenang, Bern.
Siegfried Forgets Brunhilde (Siegfried vergisst Brunhilde), 1975, oil on canvas, 51 1/8 x 67" (130 x 170 cm), Family H. de Groot Collection, Groningen, The Netherlands.
== Exhibitions ==
In 1969, Kiefer had his first solo exhibition, at Galerie am Kaiserplatz in Karlsruhe. Along with Georg Baselitz, he represented Germany at the Venice Biennale in 1980. He was also featured in the 1997 Venice Biennale with a one-man show held at the Museo Correr, concentrating on paintings and books.
Comprehensive solo exhibitions of Kiefer's work have been organized by the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1984); Art Institute of Chicago (1987); Sezon Museum of Art in Tokyo (1993); Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin (1991); Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (1998); Fondation Beyeler in Basel (2001); the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2005); the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. (2006); the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2007). In 2007, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presented an extensive survey of recent work. Several of his works were exhibited in 2009 for the first time in the Balearic Islands, in the museum Es Baluard in Palma de Mallorca. In 2012, the Art Gallery of Hamilton presented some of his paintings. London's Royal Academy of Arts mounted the first British retrospective of the artist's work in September 2014.
In 2007 Kiefer was commissioned to create a huge site-specific installation of sculptures and paintings for the inaugural "Monumenta" at the Grand Palais, Paris. With the unveiling of a triptych – the mural Athanor and the two sculptures Danae and Hortus Conclusus – at the Louvre in 2007, Kiefer became the first living artist to create a permanent site-specific installation in the museum since Georges Braque in 1953.
In 2008, Kiefer installed Palmsonntag (Palm Sunday) (2006), a monumental palm tree and 36 steel-and-glass reliquary tablets in the auditorium-gym of the First Baptist Church of Los Angeles, an enormous Spanish Gothic edifice built in 1927. The room was reconfigured to accommodate the work. Floors were sanded to remove the basketball court's markings, and the wall for the reliquary paintings was constructed inside the space. In 2010 the piece was installed at the Art Gallery of Ontario museum in Toronto, where Kiefer created eight new panels specifically for the AGO's exhibition of this work.
In 2009, the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited Broken Flowers and Grass: Nature and Landscape in the Drawings of Anselm Kiefer, displaying Kiefer’s landscape paintings.
In Next Year in Jerusalem (2010) at Gagosian Gallery, Kiefer explained that each of the works was a reaction to a personal "shock" initiated by something he had recently heard of.
In September 2013, The Hall Art Foundation, in partnership with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, opened a long-term installation of sculpture and paintings in a specifically repurposed, 10,000 square-foot building on the MASS MoCA campus. In 2014, the Foundation landscaped the area surrounding this building in order to present long-term installations of outdoor sculpture. The long-term exhibition—includes Étroits sont les Vaisseaux (Narrow are the Vessels) (2002), an 82-foot long, undulating wave-like sculpture made of cast concrete, exposed rebar, and lead; The Women of the Revolution (Les Femmes de la Revolution) (1992), composed of more than twenty lead beds with photographs and wall text; Velimir Chlebnikov (2004), a steel pavilion containing 30 paintings dealing with nautical warfare and inspired by the quixotic theories of the Russian mathematical experimentalist Velimir Chlebnikov; and a new, large-format photograph on lead created by the artist for the installation at MASS MoCA.
In 2015, the Centre Pompidou, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig hosted a retrospective exhibition in honor of Kiefer's 70th birthday.
In 2016 the Albertina in Vienna dedicated an exhibition to his woodcuts, showing 35 made between 1977 and 2015, with an accompanying catalogue.
In 2017, the Met Breuer presented Provocations: Anselm Kiefer at The Met Breuer, an exhibit of works that spanned his career.
He unveiled his first public art commission in the United States in May 2018, at Rockefeller Center. The Uraeus sculpture was inspired in part by the religious symbols of Egypt and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. It was put on view until 22 July.
From October 18, 2025–January 25, 2026, the Saint Louis Art Museum exhibited Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea, a retrospective of Kiefer’s 60 year career. A catalog accompanied the exhibit.
== Recognition ==
In 1990, Kiefer was awarded the Wolf Prize. In 1999 the Japan Art Association awarded him the Praemium Imperiale for his lifetime achievements. In the explanatory statement it reads:
"A complex critical engagement with history runs through Anselm Kiefer's work. His paintings as well as the sculptures of Georg Baselitz created an uproar at the 1980 Venice Biennale: the viewers had to decide whether the apparent Nazi motifs were meant ironically or whether the works were meant to convey actual fascist ideas. Kiefer worked with the conviction that art could heal a traumatized nation and a vexed, divided world. He created epic paintings on giant canvases that called up the history of German culture with the help of depictions of figures such as Richard Wagner or Goethe, thus continuing the historical tradition of painting as a medium of addressing the world. Only a few contemporary artists have such a pronounced sense of art's duty to engage the past and the ethical questions of the present, and are in the position to express the possibility of the absolution of guilt through human effort."
In 2008, Kiefer was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, given for the first time to a visual artist. Art historian Werner Spies said in his speech that Kiefer is a passionate reader who takes impulses from literature for his work. In 2011 Kiefer was appointed to the chair of creativity in art at the Collège de France.
== Materials ==
Due to the spontaneous nature of his creative process, many of his works have issues regarding stability—a concern shared by collectors, dealers, and curators alike. He acknowledges the issue, but says change is part of the process and that their essence will ultimately stay the same. This idea of transformation has a kind of appeal for Kiefer and thus is featured in many of his works. This fascination for the process may have stemmed from the artist's keen interest in alchemy. He often chooses materials for their alchemical properties—lead in particular being chief among them. In the case of lead, he specifically likes how the metal looks during the heating and melting process when he would see many colors—especially that of gold—which he thought of in a symbolic sense as the gold sought by alchemists. He is also particularly fond of the oxidation of white on lead. He would often try to induce oxidation artificially with the use of acid to speed up the process. Lead was also associated with the alchemical concepts of magic numbers and represented the planet Saturn.
Shellac, another material popular in his work, corresponded to lead in terms of how he felt about its color and energy possibilities. He also liked that while being polished it takes on energy and becomes warm to the touch.
The use of straw in his work is also in part the result of this common theme of energy. Straw again features the color gold and gives off energy, heat, and warmth when burned. This would make way for new creation thus continuing the cycle of life through the transformation process.
== Art market ==
The best selling painting for the artist was The Fertile Crescent (2009), which sold for $3,997,103 at the China Guardian action house, on 3 June 2019. The previous record belonged to the painting To the Unknown Painter (1983), sold by $3,554,500 at Christie's New York, on 11 May 2011, to an American private collector. Previously, it was held by Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom (1999), who had sold by $3,549,350 at Christie's London, on 8 February 2007.
== Collections ==
Kiefer's works are included in numerous public collections, including the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit; the Tate Modern, London; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; and the Albertina, Vienna. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owns 20 of the artist's rare watercolors. Notable private collectors include Eli Broad and Andrew J. Hall.
== See also ==
Holocaust memorial landscapes in Germany
== Bibliography ==
Lauterwein, Andréa (2007). Anselm Kiefer/Paul Celan. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-23836-3.
Kiefer, Anselm; Auping, Michael (2005). Anselm Kiefer. Fort Worth, Tex: Prestel Publishing. ISBN 978-3-7913-3387-8.
Biro, Matthew (1998). Anselm Kiefer and the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-521-59170-6.
Biro, Matthew (5 March 2013). Anselm Kiefer. London [u.a]: Phaidon Press. ISBN 978-0-7148-6143-2.
Danto, Arthur C. (1 January 1997). "Anselm Kiefer". Encounters & Reflections. Berkeley, Calif. London: Univ of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20846-9.
Fiennes, Sophie (2011), Over your cities grass will grow, London: Artificial Eye, OCLC 1043105151
Hoerschelmann, Antonia (2016). Anselm Kiefer. Vienna Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7757-4101-9.
Stewart, Garrett (2010). "Bookwork as Demediation". Critical Inquiry. 36 (3): 410–457. doi:10.1086/653407. ISSN 0093-1896. S2CID 162264154.
== References ==
== External links ==
AnseIm Kiefer Site includes articles, interviews, bibliography and gallery of exhibitions posters. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squire_Boone#:~:text=Squire%20Maugridge%20Boone%20Jr.,younger%20brother%20of%20Daniel%20Boone. | Squire Boone | Squire Maugridge Boone Jr. (October 5, 1744 – August 5, 1815) was an American frontiersman and the younger brother of Daniel Boone. In 1780, he founded the first settlement in Shelby County, Kentucky. The tenth of eleven children, Squire Boone was born to Squire Boone Sr. and his wife Sarah (Morgan) Boone in Berks County, Pennsylvania, at the Daniel Boone Homestead. Although overshadowed by his famous brother, Squire Boone was well known in his day.
== Early life ==
Squire Boone Jr. was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on October 5, 1744, the son of Squire Boone Sr. and Sarah Jarman Morgan. His father was a native of Devon, England. In 1749, he along with his family moved to Rowan County, North Carolina, and lived in the Yadkin Valley. In 1759, aged 15, he was sent back to Pennsylvania to apprentice as a gunsmith under his cousin Samuel Boone. After five years of apprenticeship, he returned to North Carolina. On August 8, 1765, he married Jane Van Cleave, who was of Dutch heritage. Together, the couple had five children.
== Life in Kentucky ==
From 1767 to 1771, he went on several long hunts, with his brother, Daniel, into the Kentucky wilderness. In 1775, Richard Henderson, a prominent judge from North Carolina, hired Daniel Boone to blaze what became known as the Wilderness Road, which went through the Cumberland Gap and into central Kentucky. Squire Boone accompanied his brother and 30 others, assisting in the settlement of Boone's Station (present-day Boonesborough).
In Spring 1779, after the siege of Boonesborough, where Squire had a rifle ball cut out of his shoulder, he moved his family to the settlement at the Falls of the Ohio that would become Louisville. In 1780, he brought 13 families to "Painted Stone", a tract of land in Shelby County, and established Squire Boone's Station there, the first permanent settlement in the county. He was wounded in April 1781 when Indians attacked the fort; complications of the gunshot injury would result in his right arm being an inch and a half shorter than his left.
On September 13, 1781, the settlers abandoned the undermanned station and headed for nearby Linn's Station. Since Squire Boone was still too weak from his injury to make the trip, he stayed behind at the station with his family and one other. The fleeing settlers were attacked in what became known as the Long Run Massacre.
In 1782, he began acting as a land locator for wealthy land speculators who did not want to personally risk living on the frontier. However, due to financial losses in this line of work, he lost his own property, including the station, in 1786 and was forced to settle elsewhere in the county. He served two terms in the Virginia legislature in 1789 and 1790 and was the primary sponsor of a bill to charter the town of Louisville.
== Life in Indiana ==
After attempting to establish a settlement near present-day Vicksburg, Mississippi, and staying with his brother Daniel in Missouri for several years, he eventually settled with his family in Harrison County, Indiana, south of Corydon c. 1804. There, he settled with his four sons and the sons of Samuel Boone. The settlement is in what is now called Boone Township, and it began to flourish early on. Squire Boone personally acquired a large tract of land on the western edge of the township near the cave he and his brother had hid in many years earlier to evade Indians. Boone considered the cave to be sacred and decided that was where he wanted to be entombed.
On his land, Boone carved stone out of a nearby hill to build his home. He carved into the quarry wall various religious and political statements that are still there today. Boone would also build Old Goshen Church, one of the first churches in the state. Boone also became a close friend of Harvey Heth and involved in the local politics of the area as one of the leading citizens. He was Harrison County's Justice of the peace in 1808.
== Death ==
Squire Boone died of congestive heart failure, at age 70, on August 5, 1815, and was buried per his request in the cave on his property in Harrison County, Indiana (see above). The cave was sealed by his sons and his remains were left undisturbed for many years; but in the mid-20th century, relic hunters began taking parts of his coffin and even some of his bones. The cave eventually was brought under local guardianship and became a commercial attraction (Squire Boone Caverns) with guided tours. In 1973, his remains were removed from the cave and placed into a new coffin built by employees of the cave and reburied in a recessed part of the cave, where it resides today, at the end of the tour of Squire Boone Caverns.
== References ==
Jillson, Willard Rouse (July 1942). "Squire Boone, 1744–1815" (PDF). Filson Club History Quarterly. 16 (3). Retrieved December 6, 2011.
Kleber, John E., ed. (2001). "Boone, Squire". The Encyclopedia of Louisville. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-8131-2100-0. Retrieved May 14, 2015.
== External links ==
Squire Boone Caverns |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange-spotted_bulbul | Orange-spotted bulbul | The orange-spotted bulbul (Pycnonotus bimaculatus) is a species of songbird in the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is endemic to Java, Bali and Sumatra.
It favors forest edges and open meadows in montane forests.
== Taxonomy and systematics ==
The orange-spotted bulbul was originally described in the genus Turdus by Thomas Horsfield in 1821. Until 2016, the Aceh bulbul (Pycnonotus snouckaerti) was considered as a subspecies of the orange-spotted bulbul until split by the IOC. Most other authorities have not yet recognized this split.
=== Subspecies ===
Two subspecies are recognized:
P. b. bimaculatus – (Horsfield, 1821): Found on south-western Sumatra, western and central Java
P. b. tenggerensis – (van Oort, 1911): Found on eastern Java and Bali
== Description ==
Up to 20 cm long. It is a dark-colored and active bulbul with a rounded tail.
=== Calls ===
It is a noisy bird, giving out a variety of harsh and loud calls and songs.
== Behaviour and ecology ==
=== Diet ===
It is a frugivore.
=== Reproduction ===
It breeds throughout the year. Nesting occurs year-round, peaking in May. Nests are robust and cup-shaped.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aadat_(album) | Aadat (album) | Aadat is a 2004 studio album by the Pakistani band Jal.
The album features three bonus tracks (Dr. Zeus & Kais Mix) and has an exclusive bonus VCD with all Jal videos.
== Copyright dispute ==
Atif Aslam released his debut solo album Jal Pari after he left the band, which included some songs from Aadat: "Lamhey" (titled as "Bheegi Yaadein" on Jal Pari), "Dil Haarey" (titled as "Ankhon Se" on Jal Pari) and "Rangon Mein" (titled as "Zindagi" on Jal Pari). This led to a dispute between Aslam and Jal about who owned the rights to the songs, as Mumtaz took the dispute to court. However, the final statement from the court went somewhat in favour of both the artists as the songs which were included in both the artist albums were compositions of both Aslam and Mumtaz. However, Aslam was prohibited from using Jal's name and performing the disputed songs. Aslam went on to sing the same songs in India, in fact copying the exact tune of "Woh Lamhey" for the Indian movie Zeher. Later, in a statement Jal the band pardoned Aslam, which finally ended the dispute between the musicians.
== Track listing ==
== Personnel ==
All information is taken from the CD.
Jal
Farhan Saeed – lead vocals
Goher Mumtaz – lead guitar, vocal
Aamir Sheraz – bass guitar
Production
Produced by Zulfiqar Jabbar Khan and Mekaal Hasan
Recorded and mixed at Xth Harmonic Studio, Lahore, Punjab
Guitar sound engineer – Goher Mumtaz
Assisted by Zulfiqar J. Khan
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune_and_Triton | Neptune and Triton | Neptune and Triton is an early sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It is housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London and was executed c. 1622–1623. Carved from marble, it stands 182.2 cm (71.7 in) in height.
== History ==
The marble sculpture group was originally commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Damascenti-Peretti Montalto in 1620, and executed March 1622 to February 1623, serving as a fountain to decorate the pond in the garden of his Villa Peretti Montalto on the Viminal Hill in Rome. The group was placed in the pre-existing oval pool (called the Peschiera or Peschierone), designed by Domenico Fontana in 1579–81.
It was purchased by the Englishman Thomas Jenkins in 1786, from whom it was purchased later that year by the painter Joshua Reynolds. The work had been called "Neptune and Glaucus" following Filippo Baldinucci's biography of the artist, but appears as "Nettvno, e Tritone" in Domenico de' Rossi's engraving (1704), and also later corrected to "Neptune and Triton" following Reynolds' notes.
After Reynolds's death in 1792 it was sold to Charles Anderson-Pelham, 1st Baron Yarborough, who kept it in the garden of his home in Chelsea, London, Walpole House. His descendants moved it in 1906 to their country house, Brocklesby Hall, Lincolnshire. It was bought from the family by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1950, although it had appeared at an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London in 1938.
== Literary reference ==
The scene is thought to be making loose allusions to Neptune and Triton aiding Trojan ships as described, by Virgil, or Ovid or both, together with additional material.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Neptune bids Triton to blow his shell to calm the waves, In Virgil's Aeneid, Neptune calms the waves and afterwards, the nereid Cymothoe and Triton dislodge Aeneas's ships, helped in the effort by Neptune using the trident. But neither passages precisely match and the artist must have patched together a version using other sources.
== Iconography ==
The composition of Bernini's Neptune and Triton consists of Neptune standing astride over Triton; Triton lies in sort of a "crouching" position; the two figures mounted on a large half-shell, which serves as socle.
Neptune aims his trident seawards, while Triton is blowing his conch. The conch was designed to spurt out gushing water, in order that the sculpture could serve as a fountain.
The posture of Neptune's stance, the filling-in of the reverse-V-shaped negative space by another figure (of Triton), were "radical" departures from for Bernini, as it was his "first work in which the silhouette (i.e. block-shape) is broken", and his achievement of "full Baroque freedom", in the words of Rudolf Wittkower. However, Wittkower also qualified that Bernini was yet to attain the dynamism ("the great sweeping movement which animates both David and Pluto [and Daphne] ") in his subsequent works.
=== Neptune ===
Neptune is represented as a "mature bearded", muscular figure of male authority, twisting his torso as he is about to thrust his trident in downward motion towards water. Neptune sports a cloak, but is otherwise naked. His "touseled hair and beard", suggests the storminess in this scene.
Wittkower who subscribed to the view this was a reenactment of Virgil, was satisfied that this gesture was Neptune, with an "angry look towards the water", calming the waves with his trident. John Pope-Hennessy pointed out the defect that Bernini did not include the nereid if he was reenacting Virgil's passage, and suggested a quote from Ovid as basis; it was then counter-argued that this Ovid passage too was defective in failing to mention the trident explicitly. Collier pointed out it was peculiar that Neptune should wear a wrathful expression calming the sea, and suggested a different passage from Ovid where Neptune was in wrath, but this too was flawed as it did not mention Trident.
Collier also remarked that if Virgil was the source, Neptune might not have been waving the trident at the sea, but rather using the instrument to dislodge the ships from the rocks, as stated in the poem. But since Bernini's work failed to hint at any presence of ships, this proposition seemed untenable to him.
As a side-note, it has also been noticed that ends of Neptune's drapery are made to look like a dolphin's head. It has been suggested this pays homage to the classical writing by Ovid, at a different passage that mentions the Neptune and dolphins (but not Triton), as well as to the general Ovidian theme of transformations in the Metamorphosis and other works. Barrow on the other hand perceived light-heartedness in the artistic touch here, which was "evocative of the spirit of Hellenistic Rococo".
=== Triton ===
Triton, Neptune's son, is positioned below Neptune's legs, thrusting himself forward to blow the conch shell. He is noticeably younger, maybe a teenage boy, though also with defined musculature. He blows his shell as a horn to announce that the king of the earth and oceans is approaching. Triton grasps Neptune's leg and ducks his left shoulder between the thighs of Neptune.
Bernini's Triton is double-tailed, simulating the two-legged human, both in this sculpture group and in his later work, the Triton Fountain in Rome.
== Naturalism ==
The naturalism of the figures suggests the artist's intention to elicit an immediate emotional response to the viewer. Neptune's furrowed brow gives a sense of his fierce strength. His stance is set in stone, solidifying his divine power. In contrast, Triton looks somewhat submissive while he is grabbing Neptune's thigh. His face looks to be full of anxiety as if he knows that he should obey whatever Neptune commands him to do. His timid nature and Neptune's dominate presence display the reality of human emotion and brings back the point of Bernini's plan to convey myths coming to life.
Bernini gave the audience the chance to "see" these gods in person; in movement. This was Bernini's first sculpture to " …work where the silhouette is broken, where the climax of a transitory action is given and where the action extends beyond the physical limits". The point of the sculpture is to bring the viewer to face a myth or story to be true and real by its dramatic tension in the body positions and subtle hints at natural life. He was making the myths, rumours and stories an opportunity to be true and demand its viewer to believe in its truth.
== Gallery ==
== See also ==
List of works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
== Explanatory notes ==
== References ==
Notes
Bibliography
== External links ==
Web Gallery of Art
Media related to Nettuno e Tritone (Bernini, 1622) at Wikimedia Commons |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiang_Zhang | Xiang Zhang | Zhang Xiang (Chinese: 张翔; pinyin: Zhāng Xiáng; born December 1963) is a Chinese-American mechanical engineer, currently serving as the 16th president and vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong since July 2018.
Zhang was the inaugural Ernest S. Kuh Endowed Chaired Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States, the director of the National Science Foundation Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center, the director of materials science division, and a senior faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
== Education ==
Zhang received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science from Nanjing University, as well as a Master of Science from the University of Minnesota. He received a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley in 1996.
== Career ==
From 1996 to 1999, he was assistant professor at the Pennsylvania State University and from 1999 to 2004, associate professor and then full professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, before joining the University of California, Berkeley. Zhang is an elected member of the United States National Academy of Engineering and of Academia Sinica, a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America (OSA), American Association for the Advancement of Science and The International Society for Optical Engineering.
Zhang published more than 390 journal papers. His research focuses on materials physics, metamaterials and nano-photonics.
On 15 December 2017, The University of Hong Kong appointed Zhang to the posts of president and vice-chancellor. It was the first time a candidate born and educated to undergraduate degree level in mainland China had been so appointed. He assumed office in July 2018.
== Events ==
On 3 July 2019, in a statement in response to the Storming of the Legislative Council Complex two days earlier, Zhang said that he had been "disheartened by the violence" and that he "would like to condemn such acts". In response to a backlash from some 2,000 HKU students, alumni and staff, he stated on 11 July that he opposed violence "by any party, and at any juncture". Zhang agreed to a request by the HKU Student Union to participate in a forum open to students, staff, alumni and the media.
In April 2021, the Hong Kong University Students' Union criticized Zhang, and said that he was promoting national security education as a "political task" and was "destroying the autonomy of institutions."
In October 2023, Zhang was accused by whistleblowers of potential misconduct, including the purchase of a HK$2 million (US$255,370) BMW vehicle without going through an open tender.
== Academic awards ==
1997 NSF CAREER Award
1998 SME Dell K. Allen Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award
1999 ONR Young Investigator Award
2004 to 2009 Chancellor's Professorship, UC Berkeley
2008 Time Magazine: "Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of the Year" and 50 Best Inventions of the Year"
2009 Rohsenow Lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2011 Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship, Materials Research Society
2011 Miller Professorship, UC Berkeley
2011 Distinguished Visiting Scientist, University of Toronto
2012 William Reynolds Lecturer, Stanford University
2014 Fitzroy Medal
2015 Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award
2016 Max Born Award
2016 Julius Springer Award for Applied Physics
2016 Excellence Award in Scientific Leadership
2017 A. C. Eringen Medal
2017 George W. Pearsall Distinguished Lecturer, Duke University
2017 John R. and Donna S. Hall Engineering Lecturer, Vanderbilt University
2017 John and Virginia Towers Distinguished Lecturer, Michigan Technology University
2019 Physics World: Top 10 Breakthroughs for 2019
2021 SPIE Mozi Award
== Honours ==
1 July 2019: Justice of the Peace
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Rugova | Ibrahim Rugova | Ibrahim Rugova (Albanian pronunciation: [ibɾahim ɾugova]; 2 December 1944 – 21 January 2006) was a Kosovo-Albanian politician, scholar, and writer, who served as the President of the partially recognised Republic of Kosova, serving from 1992 to 2000 and as President of Kosovo from 2002 until his death in 2006. He oversaw a popular struggle for independence, advocating a peaceful resistance to Yugoslav rule and lobbying for U.S. and European support, especially during the Kosovo War.
He founded the political party Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) in 1989. The LDK, which had the support of 90% of the ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo, advocated for Kosovo's independence by peaceful means. The party established a shadow government that provided basic government and social services to the Kosovo Albanian population, including education and health care, in effect creating a parallel state. In May 1992, Rugova was elected President of this parallel state. In March 2002, with a United Nations mission administering Kosovo, he was elected President of Kosovo. He held this position until his death in January 2006, and was posthumously declared a Hero of Kosovo. He is sometimes referred to as Ati Kombit ("Father of the Nation") in Kosovo. He is also referred to as the Gandhi of the Balkans due to his strategy of non-violent resistance.
== Family and early life ==
Ibrahim Rugova was born on 2 December 1944 in Crnce, Istok to a family that is a branch of the Kelmendi Albanian clan. At this time, the majority of Kosovo was unified with Albania (controlled by Benito Mussolini's Italy since 1941, and later by the Germans from 1943). Yugoslav control was re-established towards the end of November 1944 when the area was liberated by the Bulgarian Army and Yugoslav partisans who defeated Albanian collaborators. His father Ukë Rugova and his paternal grandfather Rrustë Rugova were summarily executed in January 1945 by Yugoslav communists. Rugova finished primary school in Istok and high school in Peć, graduating in 1967.
He went to the newly established University of Prishtina, where he was a student in the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Albanian Studies and participated in the 1968 Kosovo Protests. He graduated in 1971 and re-enrolled as a research student concentrating on literary theory. As part of his studies, he spent two years (1976–1977) at the École Pratique des Hautes Études of the University of Paris, where he studied under Roland Barthes. He received his doctorate in 1984. As a student, he participated in a civil rights movement for the Albanians and formally joined the Communist League of Yugoslavia. He was active as a journalist throughout the 1970s, editing the student newspaper Bota e Re ("New World") and the magazine Dituria ("Knowledge"). He also worked in the Institute for Albanian Studies in Prishtina as a research fellow. He published a number of works on literary theory, criticism and history as well as his own poetry. In 1988, he was elected president of the Kosovo Writers Union.
He strongly emphasized the heritage of ancient Dardania, an independent kingdom and later-turned Roman province that included modern-day Kosovo, to strengthen the country's identity and to promote his policy of closer relations with the West.
=== Personal life ===
Rugova was married to Fana Rugova and had three children.
== Presidency ==
As president, Rugova continued to support his non-violent path to independence even as proponents of an armed resistance formed the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to counter increasing Serbian oppression on the ethnic Albanians. In 1998, Rugova secured a second term as president, but was placed at odds with the KLA as the Kosovo War broke out. In 1999, he participated in the failed Rambouillet talks, as a member of the Kosovar delegation, seeking an end to the hostilities. Having resided in the capital Prishtina during his entire presidency, Rugova was taken prisoner by the state authorities after NATO began its U.S.-led aerial campaign against Yugoslav forces in Kosovo. Rugova was exiled to Rome in May 1999 and returned to Kosovo in the summer of that year, shortly after the end of the war.
Rugova remained nominal president of the republic with Bujar Bukoshi as his Prime Minister; meanwhile, Hashim Thaçi, a former KLA commander, had been leading a provisional government since April that year. Effective power, however, was in the hands of the United Nations administration. In 2000, Rugova and Thaçi agreed to relinquish their positions and to work on creating provisional institutions of self-government until Kosovo's final status was decided. Rugova was elected president of Kosovo by the newly formed parliament in 2002 and again in 2005. While his pre-war popularity had certainly diminished, he remained the most powerful leader in the country until his death from lung cancer in 2006.
== Political career ==
The 1980s saw escalating tension within Kosovo with dissatisfaction by Serbs regarding their treatment at the hands of the Kosovan authorities, and resentment from those same authorities towards the lack of powers devolved to them from Belgrade, Yugoslavia's capital. Since 1974, the Socialist Republic of Serbia's local authority had no constitutional rule over Kosovo. In 1989, unilateral measures taken by Serbian President Milošević shattered Kosovo's autonomy by reverting it to its pre-1974 status.
A harsh system was imposed, leading to widespread violations of human rights and the repression of dissenters. An estimated 130,000 Kosovo Albanians were sacked from their jobs and the police in particular were almost completely purged of Albanians. There were numerous reports of extrajudicial beatings, torture and killings, attracting strong criticism from human rights groups and other countries. Kosovo's intellectuals also opposed the changes; Rugova was one of signatories of the "Appeal of 215 Kosovo Intellectuals" against Milošević's decision to change Kosovo's status. After demanding changes to the constitution, he was expelled from the Communist Party.
Rugova entered politics in 1989, when he assumed the leadership of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), a newly formed political party that opposed the nullification of Kosovo's autonomy in the former Yugoslavia. The new party was an overwhelming success and within months, 700,000 people – virtually the entire adult population of Kosovo Albanians – had joined.
Kosovo Albanians boycotted Yugoslav and Serbian elections on the grounds that they would legitimise the Milošević government, and they also questioned its veracity. In May 1992, separate elections were held in Kosovo. Rugova won the first presidential election in the Republic of Kosova, an unrecognised state declared in secret by members of Kosovo's former assembly within Yugoslavia. An underground Kosovo Assembly was founded with Bujar Bukoshi acting as Prime Minister from the safe distance of Germany. The local Serbian government responded by arresting 112 of the 120 members of the assembly and six members of the Kosovo government and charging them with "counter-revolutionary activity."
The LDK established a shadow government and a parallel social system to the Serbian one to provide their own education and health services to the ethnic Albanian population. The shadow government's activities were mostly funded by the overseas Kosovo Albanian diaspora, based primarily in Germany and the United States. However, Rugova's government was recognised officially only by the government of Albania.
In 1991 the Yugoslav wars began following Slovenia and Croatia declaring themselves independent from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. By the summer of 1992, Yugoslavia was fully absorbed with the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, and had no spare military capacity to deal with conflicts elsewhere. Rugova supported Kosovo's independence but strongly opposed the use of force as a means of achieving it, fearing a Bosnia-style bloodbath. He instead advocated a policy of Gandhi-like passive resistance, stating on a visit to London that
The slaughterhouse is not the only form of struggle. There is no mass humiliation in Kosovo. We are organised and are operating as a state. It is easy to take to the streets and to head towards suicide, but wisdom lies in eluding a catastrophe.
The Serbian and Yugoslav governments subjected LDK activists and members to considerable harassment and intimidation, and argued that the shadow government was an illegal organisation. However, they did not try to shut down the LDK completely and they allowed him to travel abroad. It seems likely that Milošević saw Rugova as being useful in averting an uprising in Kosovo. The Yugoslav government would have found such a situation difficult to contain at the same time as supporting simultaneous wars in Croatia and Bosnia.
For his part, Rugova stuck to a hard line throughout the 1990s, rejecting any form of negotiation with Serbia's authorities other than on achieving outright independence of Kosovo. A compromise, or a setback in the eyes of his critics, came in 1996 when he reached an agreement with Serbia over educational facilities, under which the parallel shadow education system would not be integrated with that of Serbia.
=== The slide to war ===
Rugova's strategy of passive resistance attracted widespread support from the Kosovo Albanian population, who had seen the carnage wrought in Croatia and Bosnia and was wary of facing a similar situation. However, the Dayton Agreement of 1995, which ended the Bosnian War, seriously weakened Rugova's position. The agreement failed to make any mention of Kosovo and the international community made no serious efforts to resolve the province's ongoing problems. Radicals among the Kosovo Albanian population began to argue that the only way to break the impasse was to launch an armed uprising, in the belief that this would force the outside world to intervene. They blamed Rugova's policy of non-violence for Kosovo's failure to achieve independence. On 1 September 1996, Rugova and Slobodan Milošević signed the Milošević-Rugova education agreement in an attempt to resolve issues regarding the education of Kosovo Albanian children.
In 1997, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) emerged as a fighting force and began carrying out attacks and assassinations against Serbian civilians, paramilitia and security forces as well as Albanians deemed to be "collaborators". The Serbian response was, as the KLA had predicted, forceful and often indiscriminate. By 1998, the KLA had grown into a full-scale guerrilla army, 100,000 Kosovo Albanians were refugees and the province was in a state of virtual civil war. Rugova was re-elected president in the same year and was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament. However, he was by now clearly being eclipsed by the KLA. This was highlighted in February 1999 when he was passed over in favour of the KLA's political chief Hashim Thaçi, who was chosen by the underground Kosovo Assembly to head the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team in the discussions on the aborted Rambouillet Agreement.
At the end of March 1999, after negotiations at Rambouillet had broken down, NATO launched Operation Allied Force to impose a resolution of the Kosovo War. Rugova spent the first few weeks of the war under virtual house arrest, along with his family, in Pristina. At the start of April 1999, Rugova was forcefully taken to Belgrade, where he was shown on Serbian state television meeting Milošević and calling for an end to the war.
Rugova was allowed to leave Kosovo for temporary exile in Italy in early May 1999, not long before the war ended. He attracted further criticism for his slowness to return to Kosovo – it was not until July that he arrived back in the province. Nonetheless, he received a hero's welcome and returned to political life under the new United Nations administration in Kosovo.
=== Post-war ===
Despite the political damage suffered by Rugova during the war, he soon regained public esteem and won a decisive victory against his political rivals in the KLA. The guerrillas had been welcomed as liberators by Kosovo Albanians but subsequently alienated many by the perception that they were engaging in organised crime, extortion and violence against political opponents and other ethnic groups in Kosovo. When elections were held in Kosovo in October 2000, the LDK won a landslide victory with 58% of the vote. Its nearest rival, Hashim Thaçi's KLA-linked Democratic Party of Kosovo, polled only 27%. On Monday, 4 March 2002, Rugova was appointed president by the Kosovo Assembly. Rugova lived to see the Constitution of Kosovo adopted by a freely elected democratic Parliament.
As the new President of Kosovo – this time formally acknowledged as such by the international community – Rugova continued to campaign for Kosovo's full independence. However, he insisted that it had to be achieved by peaceful means and with the agreement of all parties. He also pursued a policy of very close relations with the United States, as well as with the European Union. His incremental approach was criticised by radicals, but he sought to bring along the supporters of the former KLA; in November 2004, he appointed Ramush Haradinaj, the former commander of the KLA, as Prime Minister. The following month, Rugova was again elected president by the Kosovo Assembly. Nonetheless, he still encountered violent opposition. On 15 March 2005, he escaped —unhurt —an attempted assassination when a bomb exploded in a waste container as his car passed by.
Rugova demonstrated a number of unusual traits during his time as president. He was readily identifiable by the silk neckscarf that he wore as a display of oppression in Kosovo and was known for his habit of giving visitors samples from his rock collection. His presents were carefully graded; the size of a crystal could reflect Rugova's feelings about the outcome of a meeting, prompting diplomats to compare notes afterwards about the size of the rocks presented to them. He was also a chain-smoker, and it may have been this habit that caused his eventual fatal condition.
== Death ==
On 30 August 2005, Rugova left Kosovo and went to the United States Air Force Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany for medical treatment after earlier treatment in Pristina and Camp Bondsteel, the main US base in Kosovo and the second-biggest in Europe. After a week at Landstuhl he returned to Kosovo. On 5 September 2005, he announced that he was suffering from lung cancer, but said that he would not be resigning from the post of president. He underwent chemotherapy, conducted by U.S. Army doctors, at his residence in Pristina but the treatment failed to resolve the cancer. He died four months later, on 21 January 2006. He was buried without religious rites on 26 January at a funeral attended by regional leaders and a crowd estimated to be half a million people.
There have been rumors that Rugova converted to Catholicism just before he died. These rumors have never been confirmed by his family nor other source, and one of his closest associates, Sabri Hamiti, in an essay published on the first anniversary of his death, refuted them. He said that Rugova referred to himself as a ‘symbolic Muslim’. The Chancellor of the Catholic Church of Kosovo, Don Shan Zefi, in an interview for Kosovo's national television, said that there is no evidence of Rugova's conversion to Catholicism or baptism. Zefi denied that he had baptized Rugova. Though he had a state funeral service, the head of the Islamic Community of Kosovo, together with many imams conducted Islamic funeral prayers for Rugova. His grave, located at a hilltop in Prishtina, is oriented perpendicular to Mecca, in accordance with Muslim tradition.
== Books by and about Ibrahim Rugova ==
Prekje lirike, [Lyrical Touches], essays, Rilindja, Pristina, 1971;:
Kah teoria, [Towards Theory], essays, Rilindja, Pristina, 1978;
Bibliografia e kritikës letrare shqiptare 1944–1974, [Bibliography of Albanian Literary Criticism 1944–1974], Instituti Albanologjik, Pristina, 1976 (together with Isak Shema),
Kritika letrare (nga De Rada te Migjeni), [Literary Criticism], anthology with commentary, Rilindja, Pristina, 1979 (together with Sabri Hamiti);
Strategjia e kuptimit, [Strategy of Meaning], essays, Rilindja, Pristina, 1980;
Vepra e Bogdanit 1675–1685, [Bogdani's Oeuvre 1675–1685], monograph study, Rilindja, Pristina, 1982;
Kahe dhe premisa të kritikës letrare shqiptare 1504–1983, [Directions and Premises of Albanian Literary Criticism 1504–1983], monograph study, Instituti Albanologjik, Pristina, 1986;
Refuzimi estetik', [Aesthetic Rejection], essays, Rilindja, Pristina, 1987;
Pavarësia dhe demokracia, [Independence and Democracy], interviews and other occasional pieces, Fjala, Pristina, 1991;
Çështja e Kosovës, [The Kosovo Issue], (together with Marie-Françoise Allain and Xavier Galmiche), Dukagjini, Peć, 1994; translation of the original La question du Kosovo – entretiens avec Marie-Francoise Allain et Xavier Galmiche, Preface de Ismail Kadare, Paris, 1994;
Ibrahim Rugova: “La frêle colosse du Kosovo” , Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, 1999;
Kompleti i veprave të Ibrahim Rugovës në tetë vëllime [Ibrahim Rugova's Oeuvre in eight volumes], Faik Konica, Pristina, 2005.
On the first anniversary of Rugova's death, the Kosovo Presidency published a book entitled President Rugova, with a Preface by President Fatmir Sejdiu (‘The First Statesman of Kosovo’) and a long introduction by Sabri Hamiti (‘Memento for Rugova’). The book collects some of the President's major speeches/addresses as a leader and statesman.
Rugova: Vizioni nacional", a publicistic book by Vehbi Miftari, „AIKD”, 2007
"Rugova: The symbol of independence", a publicistic book by Vehbi Miftari „AIKD”, 2008
"Rugova – mendimi, kultura, politika", a book by Vehbi Miftari, 2010
The Winter Of Great Despair by Jeton Kelmendi
== Honours ==
1995 Peace Prize of Paul Litzer Foundation, Denmark.
1996 Honorary Doctorate of University of Paris VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis, France
1998 Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament.
1998 Homo Homini Award for human rights activism, People in Need
1999 Peace Prize, City of Münster
1999 Honorary Citizen of the Cities of Venice, Milan and Brescia (Italy).
2000 Peace Prize of the Democratic Union of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain.
2003 Prize European Senator of Honour.
2004 Honorary Doctorate of Tirana University.
2006 National Flag Order (posthumously), by President of Albania Alfred Moisiu
2007 Order "Hero of Kosovo" (posthumously), by President of Kosovo Fatmir Sejdiu
2013 R7 Motorway in Kosovo linking with Albania was named after him
== Notes ==
== See also ==
Democratic League of Kosovo
History of Kosovo
Kosovo Liberation Army
Operation Allied Force
== References ==
== Sources ==
Obituaries:
The Economist on Ibrahim Rugova, 26 January 2006
Ibrahim Rugova, The Guardian obituary
Independence leader Rugova given hero's funeral, The Guardian
Kosovo Albanians Mourn Pro-Independence Leader, The New York Times
Ibrahim Rugova, Kosovo Albanian Leader, Is Dead, The New York Times
(in English) "Ibrahim Rugova – Profile", Vreme News Digest Agency No 257, 7 September 1996
San Francisco Chronicle, 22 January 2006
The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Financial Times – 23 January 2006
Kola, Paulin (2003). The Search for Greater Albania. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 978-1-85065-664-7.
Vera Didanović (15 September 2005). "Umeren političar, ekstreman cilj". Vreme. 767.
== Notes ==
== External links ==
Official website of the President of Kosovo
(in Albanian) Book of Condolence Archived 5 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine
(in Albanian) Democratic League of Kosovo
(in Albanian) Assembly of Kosovo
(in Spanish) Extended bio by CIDOB Foundation
Kosovo Albanians mourn lost leader |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Johnston_(model) | Randy Johnston (model) | Randy Johnston (September 25, 1988 – October 11, 2008) was an American model. He was represented by the Ford NY modeling agency and was best known for his starring in the fall 2007 Dior Homme advertising campaign.
Johnston was born in Waterford, Connecticut, United States, of German and English descent. He was a successful model; besides his best known role as the last "Dior Boy", he did an ad campaign for Levi's in 2008 with Rachel Clark and Shannan Click. His last known modeling gig was an appearance in the November 2008 issue of the i-D magazine with Lara Stone. Randy was also a talented musician, and multi-instrumentalist;(drums, bass, guitar) playing in a few Connecticut based indie rock and punk bands. One talented up and coming band, with best friend Jared, called The Electric Noise Act (drumming), and another local band called Soviet Tribe. also providing exciting rhythmic dimension on drums. His favorite book was Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe.
At the time of his death, his hobbies included skateboarding, reading, as well as writing poetry, prose, and sketching. He also had a passion for developing photography of his own; stating that he'd like to be behind the camera professionally, one day. He used TMax400 black and white film. He began to photograph his friends, and his hometown city's architecture. He delighted in sailing boats with his grandfather, camping, and survivalist strategy, He became quite skilled in many areas and crafts.
After a dedicated and sincere attempt at getting off drugs, Johnston relapsed, after three months of sobriety, and died in New London, Connecticut, suddenly on October 11, 2008, around 5pm Eastern Standard Time. He was 20 years old. The cause of death was a drug overdose, which was ruled accidental.
== See also ==
List of deaths from drug overdose and intoxication
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuai | Tuai | Tuai is a village and rural community located around Lake Whakamarino, in the Wairoa District of the Hawke's Bay Region, on New Zealand's North Island.
The local Tuai Power Station was opened in 1929 on the shores of Lake Whakamarino, as part of the Waikaremoana power scheme. Genesis Energy has controlled the power station remotely from Tokaanu power station since the early 2000s.
Artist Doris Lusk depicted the power station in a 1948 painting. She described the power station as a “gothic building in the middle of the wild hills”.
Lake Whakamarino, also known as Tuai Lake, is popular with anglers. It can be used by fly-fishers, and accessed with small unanchored boats.
== Demographics ==
Statistics New Zealand describes Tuai as a rural settlement, which covers 21.99 km2 (8.49 sq mi). It had an estimated population of 230 as of June 2025, with a population density of 10 people per km2. It is part of the larger Maungataniwha-Raupunga statistical area.
Tūai had a population of 222 in the 2023 New Zealand census, an increase of 6 people (2.8%) since the 2018 census, and an increase of 9 people (4.2%) since the 2013 census. There were 108 males and 114 females in 87 dwellings. 1.4% of people identified as LGBTIQ+. The median age was 32.4 years (compared with 38.1 years nationally). There were 63 people (28.4%) aged under 15 years, 42 (18.9%) aged 15 to 29, 90 (40.5%) aged 30 to 64, and 30 (13.5%) aged 65 or older.
People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 25.7% European (Pākehā), 87.8% Māori, and 1.4% Pasifika. English was spoken by 94.6%, Māori by 54.1%, and other languages by 2.7%. No language could be spoken by 2.7% (e.g. too young to talk). The percentage of people born overseas was 6.8, compared with 28.8% nationally.
Religious affiliations were 20.3% Christian, 32.4% Māori religious beliefs, 1.4% New Age, and 1.4% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 40.5%, and 6.8% of people did not answer the census question.
Of those at least 15 years old, 24 (15.1%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 99 (62.3%) had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 45 (28.3%) people exclusively held high school qualifications. The median income was $31,200, compared with $41,500 nationally. 3 people (1.9%) earned over $100,000 compared to 12.1% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was 63 (39.6%) full-time, 21 (13.2%) part-time, and 12 (7.5%) unemployed.
== Marae ==
Te Kūhā Tārewa Marae and Te Poho o Hinekura or Ruapani meeting house is a meeting place of the Tūhoe hapū of Ngāti Hinekura, and the Ngāti Ruapani hapū of Ngāti Hinekura and Tuwai.
In October 2020, the Government committed $1,949,075 from the Provincial Growth Fund to upgrade the marae and 23 other Ngāti Kahungunu marae. The funding was expected to create 164 jobs.
== Education ==
Te Kura o Waikaremoana is a Year 1–8 co-educational state primary school. It is a decile 2 school with a roll of 24 as of July 2025. The school was formed by the merger of Tuai School and Kokako School in 2005. Tuai School was established by 1929 and Kokako School was established between 1896 and 1898.
== Climate ==
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Game_Writing | Nebula Award for Best Game Writing | The Nebula Award for Best Game Writing is one of the Nebula Awards, presented each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy game writing. The Nebula Awards have been described as one of "the most important of the American science fiction awards" and "the science-fiction and fantasy equivalent" of the Emmy Awards. The Game Writing category is the newest category of the Nebulas, which were originally awarded in 1966 solely for printed fiction. The Nebula Award for Best Game Writing has been awarded annually since 2019. The drive to create the Game Writing category was promoted by then SFWA president Cat Rambo after game writers were made eligible for SFWA membership in 2016. According to a statement by SFWA when the category was announced in 2018, it was added to reflect how changes in technology had expanded the media used for science fiction and fantasy storytelling.
To be eligible for Nebula Award consideration, a work must be published in English in the United States. Works published in English elsewhere in the world are also eligible provided they are released on either a website or in an electronic edition. A game is considered by the organization to be "an interactive or playable story-driven work which conveys narrative, character, or story background". Works in this category have no set word count and must have at least one credited writer.
Nebula Award nominees and winners are chosen by members of the SFWA, though the game writers do not need to be members. Works are nominated each year by members in a period around December 15 through January 31, and the six works that receive the most nominations then form the final ballot, with additional nominees possible in the case of ties. Soon after, members are given a month to vote on the ballot, and the final results are presented at the Nebula Awards ceremony in May. Writers are not permitted to nominate their own works, and ties in the final vote are broken, if possible, by the number of nominations the works received.
During the 7 nomination years, 41 games by 121 writers have been nominated. These have primarily been video games, but also include eight books for role-playing game systems and an interactive film. The first year's award was won by Charlie Brooker for the interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch; the second year's award was won by a team of nine writers led by Leonard Boyarsky for the video game The Outer Worlds; the third year's award was won by Greg Kasavin for the video game Hades; the fourth year's award by a team of six writers for the role-playing game Thirsty Sword Lesbians; the fifth year's award by Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin for the video game Elden Ring; the sixth year by a team of 16 writers led by Adam Smith for the video game Baldur's Gate 3; and the seventh year by a team of writers led by Stewart C. Baker for the interactive fiction game A Death In Hyperspace. Eleven writers have been nominated more than once, with Kate Heartfield, and Natalia Theodoridou having three nominations each. Interactive fiction developer Choice of Games has had the most games nominated with a total of nine over six years.
== Winners and nominees ==
SFWA currently identifies the awards by the year of publication, that is, the year prior to the year in which the award is given. Entries with a yellow background and an asterisk (*) next to the writer's name have won the award; the other entries are the other nominees on the shortlist.
* Winners and joint winners
== See also ==
Hugo Award for Best Game or Interactive Work
== References ==
== External links ==
Nebula Awards official site |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bear_(TV_series)#Critical_response | The Bear (TV series) | The Bear is an American comedy-drama series created by Christopher Storer for FX on Hulu. Jeremy Allen White stars as Carmy Berzatto, an award-winning chef who returns to his hometown of Chicago to manage the chaotic kitchen at his deceased brother's Italian beef sandwich shop. The regular cast includes Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, Abby Elliott, Matty Matheson, and Edwin Lee Gibson.
All episodes of the first season were released on FX on Hulu on June 23, 2022; the second season was released on June 22, 2023. In November 2023, the series was renewed for a third season, which was released on June 26, 2024. Ahead of the third-season premiere, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which released on June 25, 2025. The series was renewed for a fifth season in July 2025.
The series has received critical acclaim for its writing, directing, performances, technical quality, and production values. Despite being classified as comedy-drama, the series eschews comedic elements as it progresses into more conflicting psychological drama with accuracy of realism, dysfunctional relationships and workplace tension, exploring its approach to subject matter such as suicide and trauma.
The Bear has received many accolades, including twenty-one Primetime Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Comedy Series) and five Golden Globe Awards (including Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy). The series' continued categorization as a comedy at certain award ceremonies, particularly in later seasons, has generated controversy.
== Premise ==
Talented haute cuisine chef Carmen "Carmy" Anthony Berzatto inherits his family's Italian beef sandwich shop after his older brother, Michael's suicide. He goes home to Chicago to run it, leaving behind his world of working in Michelin-starred restaurants. He is left to deal with his brother's unresolved debts, a rundown kitchen, and an unruly staff, while dealing with his own pain and family trauma.
== Cast and characters ==
=== Main ===
Jeremy Allen White as Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, an award-winning New York City chef de cuisine, who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his late brother Michael's failing Italian beef restaurant, The Original Beef of Chicagoland (more commonly known as "The Beef"); later he converts The Beef to a fine dining restaurant called The Bear.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richard "Richie" Jerimovich, Michael's best friend, the de facto manager of the restaurant; later maître d'hôtel of The Bear.
Ayo Edebiri as Sydney "Syd" Adamu, a talented young chef who joins The Beef as its new sous-chef under Carmy.
Lionel Boyce as Marcus Brooks, The Beef's bread-baker-turned-pastry-chef, spurred on by Sydney and Carmy's mentoring.
Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina Marrero, an acerbic and stubborn line cook who embraces the opportunity to train professionally.
Abby Elliott as Natalie "Sugar" Berzatto, Carmy and Michael's sister, the reluctant co-owner and business manager of The Beef/The Bear.
Matty Matheson as Neil Fak (season 2–present, recurring season 1), a childhood friend of the Berzattos, and sometime handyman for the restaurant.
Edwin Lee Gibson as Ebraheim (season 4, recurring seasons 1–3), a Somali veteran line cook at The Beef who is close with Tina.
=== Recurring ===
=== Guest ===
== Episodes ==
The storyline of The Bear is subdivided into parts marked by onscreen title cards. The Part II title card appears in the first episode of season 2 and the Part III title card appears in the first episode of season 3.
=== Season 1 (2022) ===
=== Season 2 (2023) ===
=== Season 3 (2024) ===
=== Season 4 (2025) ===
== Production ==
Most of the episodes are roughly half an hour, but running time ranges from the 20-minute "Review" of season one to the 70-minute "Bears" of season four.
=== Development ===
FX ordered a pilot for The Bear in March 2021, to be written and directed by series creator Christopher Storer. FX then greenlit the series in October 2021 for a 2022 premiere date. The sandwich shop interior is copied from the Chicago shop Mr. Beef on Orleans Street, in River North. Storer was a frequent patron and is a friend of Christopher Zucchero, the shop's current owner who inherited it from his late father.
In July 2022, the series was renewed for a ten-episode second season. In November 2023, it was renewed for a third season. In March 2024, the series was renewed for a fourth season. Parts of the fourth season were filmed during filming for the third season, with production set to restart in 2025. In July 2025, it was renewed for a fifth season.
=== Notable production staff ===
The Bear's costume designer is Courtney Wheeler. Ally Vickers heads the hair department. The show's culinary producer, responsible for the food of The Bear, is Courtney Storer, sister of creator Chris Storer. The Chicago-based prop master is Laura Roeper, sister of Chicago Sun-Times film critic Richard Roeper. The production designer is Merje Veski. The art director is Lisa Korpan. Eric Frankel heads the set decoration department.
The show's primary cinematographer is Andrew Wehde. A-camera operator Gary Malouf and B-camera operator Chris Dame had both worked with Storer and Wehde on past projects. Scott D. Smith has led the Emmy-winning sound mixing team since the pilot episode. Steve "Major" Giammaria is the supervising sound editor. Evan Benjamin is the sound editor for dialogue. The film editors who cut the episodes are Joanna Naugle and Adam Epstein.
=== Music ===
The Bear has a soundtrack of 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s alternative and mainstream rock classics, chosen by Storer and executive producer Josh Senior. Several songs featured on the show include Chicago-based Wilco with "Spiders (Kidsmoke)", "Impossible Germany", "Via Chicago", and "Handshake Drugs", Radiohead's "Let Down", Van Morrison's "Saint Dominic's Preview", Pearl Jam's "Animal" and "Come Back", Sufjan Stevens' "Chicago", John Mayer's "Last Train Home", Refused's "New Noise", The Breeders' "Saints", Erasure's "A Little Respect", The Replacements' "Bastards of Young", Counting Crows' "Have You Seen Me Lately?", Genesis' "In Too Deep", Nine Inch Nails' "The Day the World Went Away", John Mellencamp's "Check It Out", R.E.M.'s "Oh My Heart", "Strange Currencies" and "Finest Worksong", Weezer's "The Christmas Song", The Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm", Led Zeppelin's "That's the Way", Oasis's "Stay Young" and Taylor Swift's "Love Story (Taylor's Version)", "Long Live (Taylor's Version) and "Style (Taylor's Version)". The show's principal composers are Chicagoans Jeffrey "JQ" Qaiyum and Johnny Iguana, whose instrumentals play primarily over "back of house" scenes.
== Release ==
The Bear premiered on FX on Hulu in the United States on June 23, 2022, and became available internationally in the Star hub on Disney+. The 10-episode second season was released on June 22, 2023. Along with other Hulu content, The Bear became available to stream on Disney+ in the United States via the Hulu hub on December 6, 2023. The third season was released on June 26, 2024. The fourth season was released on June 25, 2025.
== Reception ==
=== Critical response ===
The Bear has received critical acclaim. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the overall series holds a 93% rating. On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the overall series has received a score of 83 out of 100.
==== Season 1 ====
For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 100% based on 82 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Like an expertly confected sandwich, The Bear assembles a perfect melange of ingredients and stacks them for optimal satisfaction—and thankfully keeps the crust-iness for extra flavor." Metacritic gave it a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 24 critic reviews.
The American Film Institute named it one of the ten best television programs of the year. The Guardian named it number one of the best 100 TV shows of 2022 and described it as "the best workplace drama since Mad Men". The Bear appeared in the top ten on numerous publications' "Best of 2022" lists, including first for The A.V. Club, BBC, People, and TVLine, among others.
==== Season 2 ====
On Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 113 critic reviews are positive for the second season. The site's critical consensus reads, "Instead of reinventing the menu, The Bear's second season wisely opts to toss its lovable characters into another frying pan of adversity, lets 'em cook, and serves up yet another supremely satisfying dish." Metacritic assigned it a weighted average score of 92 out of 100 based on 43 critic reviews.
For the second year in a row, the American Film Institute named The Bear one of the ten best television programs of the year. The Bear appeared on many publications' lists of the best TV shows of 2023, including Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and People, among others.
==== Season 3 ====
On Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 104 critics gave the third season a positive review. The website's critics consensus states, "Having set an exceedingly high standard of excellence for itself, The Bear spends its third season simmering, stewing, and giving off an aroma that whets the appetite." The website also reported that the season was "as audacious as ever" and it "still seems to continue delivering compelling and often intense television with performances that are so dependably brilliant that they're not even mentioned in most of the reviews. Instead, at this point in a show's life, it's easier to find faults in its sameness or changes, or in its attempts to repeat or outdo itself." Metacritic assigned it a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 45 critic reviews.
==== Season 4 ====
On Rotten Tomatoes, 85% of 84 critics gave the fourth season a positive review. The website's critics consensus reads, "After simmering for too long, The Bear's fourth season finally turns the heat back up with a renewed sense of urgency, serving a rich meal despite tiresome wait times between courses." Metacritic assigned it a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 40 critic reviews.
=== Accolades ===
==== Genre classification ====
The classification of The Bear as a comedy in certain award ceremonies, specifically the Primetime Emmys, has attracted criticism, given its dramatic style and focus on heavy topics. Proponents of the series' categorization as "comedy" argue that the show unfolds as a dark comedy marked by ridiculous situations and comedic timing, relies on the comedic effect inherent to chaos, is a comedy of errors and is heavily characterized by back-and-forth banter or snark.
In 2024, the series became the most-nominated series in comedy categories at the Emmys with 23 nominations, surpassing 30 Rock which had 22 nominations in 2009. However, it went on to lose the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, which it had been heavily favored to win, to Hacks, with The Hollywood Reporter suggesting that there was an insult among voters over its continued classification as a comedy. In June 2025, Vulture published an article, claiming that "an undercurrent of industry resentment" over the show's lack of comedic content lead to its 2024 Comedy Series Emmy loss.
=== Viewership ===
==== Season 1 ====
The streaming aggregator Reelgood, which monitors real-time data from 5 million users in the U.S. for original and acquired streaming programs and movies across subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services, reported that The Bear was the second-most-streamed program during the week of July 13. It later rose to become the most-streamed program for the week of July 22, before ranking as the seventh most-streamed during the week of July 27. JustWatch, a guide to streaming content with access to data from more than 20 million users around the world, estimated that The Bear was the second most-streamed series in the U.S. during the week ending July 3. It maintained the same position during the week ending July 17. FX announced that the first season of The Bear was the most-watched comedy series in the network's history.
==== Season 2 ====
FX reported that the second season of The Bear was the most-watched season premiere in the network's history. Reelgood calculated that The Bear was the second most-streamed program in the U.S. during the week of June 22. It later rose to first place during the week of June 29. JustWatch reported that The Bear was the most-streamed series in the U.S. during the week ending June 25. Whip Media, which tracks viewership data for the more than 25 million worldwide users of its TV Time app, announced that The Bear was the eighth most-watched streaming original television series of 2023.
==== Season 3 ====
The season 3 premiere of The Bear garnered 5.4 million views in its first four days of streaming, marking the best performance for an FX premiere on Hulu and the most-watched season premiere for any scripted series on the platform. This viewership represents a 24% increase over the season 2 premiere and accounts for streaming on Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ in the U.S., and Disney+ in available international territories. The Bear achieved the third-largest season premiere for Hulu overall and the biggest Hulu on Disney+ premiere since the bundle's launch on March 27. Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on U.S. television screens, calculated that The Bear was watched for 1,233 million minutes from June 24—30. It surpassed its previous peak of 1.01 billion minutes recorded shortly after the premiere of its second season the previous year. JustWatch reported that The Bear was the third most-streamed show in the United States in 2024, while in Canada, it ranked as the second most-streamed show of the year.
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
The Bear at FX
The Bear at Hulu
The Bear at IMDb |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_UCI_Cyclo-cross_World_Championships | 2007 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships | The 2007 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships were held from 27 to 28 January 2007 at the Domenico Savio Park in Hooglede-Gits, Belgium.
== Medal summary ==
== Medal table ==
== External links ==
Official website
Men race report
Under-23 race report
Junior race report
Women race report |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson-Fawcett_Award#:~:text=2012,Andrew%20Fogg | Gibson-Fawcett Award | The Gibson–Fawcett Award is awarded by the Royal Society of Chemistry every two years to recognise outstanding work in the field of materials chemistry. In particular, the emphasis is on the originality and independence of the work carried out. The prize was established in 2008 and is awarded by the Materials Chemistry Division Awards Committee. It can only be given to researchers under age 40. The award was discontinued in 2020.
== History ==
The award is named after Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett, eminent chemists who worked together with Anton Michels on the study of the role of high pressure in chemical reactions. This led to the discovery of polyethylene.
== Winners ==
== See also ==
List of chemistry awards
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/45_Eugenia | 45 Eugenia | 45 Eugenia is a large asteroid of the asteroid belt. It is famed as one of the first asteroids to be found to have a moon orbiting it. It was also the second triple asteroid to be discovered, after 87 Sylvia.
== Discovery ==
Eugenia was discovered on 27 June 1857 by the Franco–German amateur astronomer Hermann Goldschmidt. His instrument of discovery was a 4-inch aperture telescope located in his sixth floor apartment in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was the 45th minor planet to be discovered. The preliminary orbital elements were computed by Wilhelm Forster in Berlin, based on three observations in July, 1857.
The asteroid was named by its discoverer after Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III. It was the first asteroid to be definitely named after a real person, rather than a figure from classical legend.
== Physical characteristics ==
Eugenia is a large asteroid, with a diameter of 214 km. It is an F-type asteroid, which means that it is very dark in colouring (darker than soot) with a carbonaceous composition. Like Mathilde, its density appears to be unusually low, indicating that it may be a loosely packed rubble pile, not a monolithic object. Eugenia appears to be almost anhydrous. Lightcurve analysis indicates that Eugenia's pole most likely points towards ecliptic coordinates (β, λ) = (−30°, 124°) with a 10-degree uncertainty, which gives it an axial tilt of 117°. Eugenia's rotation is then retrograde, rotating backward to its orbital plane.
== Satellite system ==
=== Petit-Prince ===
In November 1998, astronomers at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, discovered a small moon orbiting Eugenia. This was the first time an asteroid moon had been discovered by a ground-based telescope. The moon is much smaller than Eugenia, about 13 km in diameter, and takes five days to complete an orbit around it.
The discoverers chose the name "Petit-Prince" (formally "(45) Eugenia I Petit-Prince"). This name refers to Empress Eugenia's son, the Prince Imperial. However, the discoverers also intended an allusion to the children's novella The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which is about a young prince who lives on an asteroid.
=== S/2004 (45) 1 ===
A second, smaller (estimated diameter of 6 km) satellite that orbits closer to Eugenia than Petit-Prince has since been discovered and provisionally named S/2004 (45) 1. It was discovered by analyses of three images acquired in February 2004 from the 8.2 m VLT "Yepun" at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Cerro Paranal, in Chile. The discovery was announced in IAUC 8817, on 7 March 2007 by Franck Marchis and his IMCCE collaborators. It orbits the asteroid at about ~700 km, with an orbital period of 4.7 days.
== Notes ==
== See also ==
Dactyl and Ida, another asteroid and asteroid moon system catalogued by astronomers
Florence, another dual-moon asteroid confirmed only in September 2017
== References ==
== External links ==
Johnston Archive data
Astronomical Picture of Day 14 October 1999
SwRI Press Release
Orbit of Petit-Prince, companion of Eugenia
14 frames of (45) Eugenia primary taken with the Keck II AO from Dec 2003 to Nov 2011 (Franck Marchis)
45 Eugenia at AstDyS-2, Asteroids—Dynamic Site
Ephemeris · Observation prediction · Orbital info · Proper elements · Observational info
45 Eugenia at the JPL Small-Body Database |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mireya_Moscoso | Mireya Moscoso | Mireya Elisa Moscoso Rodríguez (born 1 July 1946) is a Panamanian politician who served as the President of Panama from 1999 to 2004. She is the country's first and to date only female president.
Born into a rural family, Moscoso became active in the 1968 presidential campaign of three-time president Arnulfo Arias, following and marrying him when he went into exile after a military coup. After his death in 1988, she assumed control of his coffee business and later his political party, the Arnulfista Party (PA). During the 1994 general elections for the presidency, she narrowly lost to the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) candidate Ernesto Pérez Balladares by 4% of the vote. In the 1999 general election, she defeated the PRD candidate Martín Torrijos by 7% to become Panama's first female president.
During her tenure in office, she presided over the handover of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama and the economic downturn that resulted from the loss of US personnel. Hobbled by new spending restrictions passed by the opposition-controlled Legislative Assembly, and her administration's corruption scandals, she had difficulty passing her legislative initiatives. Her popularity declined, and her party's candidate José Miguel Alemán lost to the PRD's Torrijos in the subsequent general elections to succeed her.
== Background ==
Moscoso was born on 1 July 1946 into a poor family in Pedasí, Panama, as the youngest of six children. Her schoolteacher father died when she was ten, and Moscoso began working as a secretary upon completing her high school education. She joined the 1968 presidential campaign of Arnulfo Arias; Arias had already served two partial terms as president, both times being deposed by the Panamanian military. He won the presidency but was again deposed by the military, this time after only eleven days in office.
Arias went into exile in Miami, Florida, in the US, and Moscoso followed, marrying him the subsequent year. She was 23, and he was 67. During this period, Moscoso studied interior design at Miami-Dade Community College. After Arias' 1988 death, she inherited his coffee business. On 29 September 1991, almost two years after the US invasion of Panama that overthrew Manuel Noriega, she became president of her late husband's Arnulfista Party.
Also in 1991, Moscoso married businessman Richard Gruber. The couple adopted a son, Ricardo (born c. 1992). Moscoso and Gruber divorced in 1997.
== Presidential campaigns ==
In 1994, Moscoso ran as the presidential candidate of her deceased husband's Arnulfista Party (PA) in the general election, seeking to succeed PA president Guillermo Endara. Her main rivals were Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) candidate Ernesto Pérez Balladares and salsa singer Rubén Blades, who was then president of the party Papa Egoro. Moscoso and Blades sought to emphasize Pérez Balladares' connection with military ruler Manuel Noriega, broadcasting pictures of the two together, while Pérez Balladares worked to position himself as a successor to military ruler Omar Torrijos, who was regarded as a national hero. Moscoso's campaign, meanwhile, was hindered by public dissatisfaction with the perceived incompetence and corruption of Endara's government. Pérez Balladares ultimately won the election with 33% of the vote, with Moscoso receiving 29% and Blades receiving 17%.
Moscoso was named the PA candidate again in the 2 May 1999, general election. Her main opponent this time was Martín Torrijos, Omar Torrijos' son, named to represent the PRD after the failure of a constitutional referendum that would have allowed Pérez Balladares to run for a second term. Torrijos was selected in part to try to win back left-leaning voters after the privatizations and union restrictions instituted by Pérez Balladares. Moscoso ran on a populist platform, beginning many of her speeches with the Latin phrase "Vox populi, vox Dei" ("the voice of the people is the voice of God"), previously used by Arias to begin his own speeches. She pledged to support education, reduce poverty, and slow the pace of privatization. While Torrijos ran in large part on his father's memory—including using the campaign slogan "Omar lives"—Moscoso evoked that of her dead husband, leading Panamanians to joke that the election was a race between "two corpses". Torrijos allies also criticized Moscoso for her lack of government experience or college degree. However, unlike in 1994, it was now the PRD that was hampered by the scandals of the previous administration, and Moscoso defeated Torrijos with 45% of the vote to 37%.
== Presidency (1999–2004) ==
Moscoso took office on 1 September 1999. Because she was divorced when she assumed the presidency, her older sister Ruby Moscoso de Young served as her First Lady.
Facing a PRD-controlled Legislative Assembly, Moscoso was limited in her ability to make new policy. She was also hampered by strict new restraints Pérez Balladares had passed on spending public money in the final days of his term, targeted specifically at her administration.
On 31 December 1999, Moscoso oversaw the handover of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama under the Torrijos–Carter Treaties. Her government then faced the challenge of cleaning up environmental problems in the Canal Zone, where the US Army had long tested bombs, biological agents, and chemical weapons. Remaining issues included lead contamination, unexploded munitions, and stockpiles of depleted uranium. Though Moscoso fired all of Pérez Balladares' appointments from the Panama Canal Authority and appointed supermarket magnate (and future president) Ricardo Martinelli as its head, the Authority retained its autonomy from her administration. At the same time, Panama's economy began to struggle due to the loss of income from American canal personnel.
Moscoso worked to end Panama's role in international crime, passing new laws against money laundering and supporting tax transparency. The legislation allowed Panama to be removed from international lists of tax havens. Meanwhile, violent crime rose sharply during Moscoso's tenure. In September 2000, under pressure from the US and some Latin American governments, Moscoso's government gave temporary asylum to former Peruvian spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, who had fled Peru after being videotaped bribing a member of its congress.
In December 2000, human remains were discovered at a Panamanian National Guard base, incorrectly believed to be those of Jesús Héctor Gallego Herrera, a priest murdered during the Omar Torrijos dictatorship. Moscoso appointed a truth commission to investigate the site and those at other bases. The commission faced opposition from the PRD-controlled National Assembly, who slashed its funding, and from PRD's president Balbina Herrera, who threatened to seek legal action against the president for its creation. It ultimately reported on 110 of the 148 cases it examined, of which 40 had disappeared and 70 were known to be murdered. The report concluded that the Noriega government had engaged in "torture [and] cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment", and recommended further exhumation and investigation.
During her term, Moscoso was often accused of nepotism for her administrative appointments and faced several corruption scandals, such as the unexplained gift of US$146,000 in watches to Legislative Assembly members. By 2001, her second year in office, Moscoso's approval rating had fallen to 23%, due to corruption scandals and concern for the economy. That year, she attempted to pass a tax reform package through the Legislative Assembly, but the proposal was opposed by both the private sector and organized labor. In 2003, the US ambassador publicly criticized Moscoso for the growth of corruption during her term. By the end of her term, her presidency was "criticized as rife with corruption and incompetence" and "widely regarded as weak and ineffectual".
She was criticized in 2004 when the press revealed that she had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at public expense on luxury clothing and jewelry during her presidency.
Herself barred by the Constitution of Panama from a second consecutive term, Moscoso was succeeded by her former rival Martín Torrijos in the 2004 election. Shortly before leaving office, Moscoso sparked controversy by pardoning four men—Luis Posada Carriles, Gaspar Jiménez, Pedro Remon, and Guillermo Novo Sampol—who had been convicted of plotting to assassinate Cuban president Fidel Castro during a 2000 visit to Panama. Cuba broke off diplomatic relations with the country, and Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez recalled the nation's ambassador. Moscoso stated that the pardons had been motivated by her mistrust of Torrijos, saying, "I knew that if these men stayed here, they would be extradited to Cuba and Venezuela, and there they were surely going to kill them there." Moscoso also issued pardons to 87 journalists for defamation convictions dating back as far as 14 years. On 2 July 2008, all of the 180 pardons Moscoso had issued were overturned as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
== Post-presidency ==
During the Torrijos presidency, Moscoso remained an active member of the opposition. In September 2007, she criticized the appointment as the head of the National Assembly of PRD politician Pedro Miguel González, who was wanted in the US for the murder of US Army sergeant Zak Hernández. In the same year, she joined Endara and Pérez Balladares in lobbying the Organization of American States to investigate the Hugo Chávez government's refusal to renew the broadcasting license of opposition station Radio Caracas Televisión Internacional in Venezuela.
Since leaving office, Moscoso has also served as a member of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Council of Women World Leaders, a network intended "to promote good governance and enhance the experience of democracy globally by increasing the number, effectiveness, and visibility of women who lead at the highest levels in their countries."
== Honors ==
=== Foreign honours ===
Royal House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies:
Knight Grand Cross of the Two Sicilian Royal Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, Special Class
Monaco:
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint-Charles
Taiwan:
Grand Cordon of the Order of Brilliant Jade
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
== External links ==
Biography by CIDOB (in Spanish) |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritesh_Batra | Ritesh Batra | Ritesh Batra (born 12 June 1979) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. Batra's Hindi-language debut feature film The Lunchbox premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the Rail d’Or (Grand Golden Rail). Batra also won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best First Feature Film in 2014. The Lunchbox was the highest-grossing foreign film in North America, Europe and Australia for 2014 grossing over US$25 Million. The film was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language in 2015.
He then directed the English-language film The Sense of an Ending (2017), an adaptation of Julian Barnes’ Booker Prize-winning novel. 2017 also saw the release of Batra's Our Souls at Night on Netflix. Batra's latest film is Photograph, released in 2019.
== Early life and background ==
Ritesh grew up in a middle-class family in Mumbai, India. His father Joginder Batra, worked in the Merchant Navy of India and his mother Manju Kapoor Batra, is a house wife. His elder sister Radhika Batra Shah runs a tea business. Ritesh completed his high school from AVM High School in Mumbai and later went to the United States to complete his higher studies.
Ritesh worked as a consultant at Deloitte after graduating from Drake University, Iowa in Economics. But after three years of working he went back to school to chase his childhood dream of filmmaking. He attended New York University but dropped out of the film school.
== Career ==
Batra began his filmmaking career by writing and directing shorts. His Arab language short Café Regular, Cairo, screened at over 40 international film festivals and won over 12 awards including Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) Best Film at International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and Best Film at German Star of India. Batra was part of the Sundance Screenwriters and Directors lab with his project "Story of Ram" in 2009. He subsequently was made the Time Warner Story Telling Fellow at Sundance Film Festival and Annenberg Fellow at Sundance Film Academy. In 2011 Batra returned to India to make a documentary on the lunchbox delivery system in Mumbai. It was this venture of Batra's which conceptualized his first feature film The Lunchbox (2013). He developed this project through the TorinoFilmLab Framework programme in 2012.
The Lunchbox premiered at the Cannes Critics Week 2013 and won Rail d’Or (Grand Golden Rail). At Cannes the movie prompted a bidding war. Sony Pictures Classic acquired the North American rights to the film. The Lunchbox has been nominated for 33 Awards and won 25 so far. In 2014, Batra founded his own production company PoeticLicense Motion Pictures and is currently developing a slate of films.
== Filmography ==
Short film
The Morning Ritual (2008)
Gareeb Nawaz's Taxi (2010)
Café Regular Cairo (2011)
Masterchef (2013)
Feature film
The Lunchbox (2013)
The Sense of an Ending (2017)
Our Souls at Night (2017)
Photograph (2019)
== Awards ==
Time Warner Storytelling Fellow – Sundance Film Festival
Annenberg Fellow – Sundance Film Institute
The Lunchbox, 2013
(Nominated) "Film not in the English Language" – BAFTA 2015
Rail d’Or (Grand Golden Rail) – Cannes Film Festival
Best First Feature – Toronto Film Critics Association Award
Best Director Award – Odesa International Film Festival
Church of Iceland Award – Reykjavik International Film Festival
Best Screenplay – 7th Asia Pacific Screen Awards
Best Screenplay – Asian Film Academy
Best Screenplay – Asia Pacific Film Festival
Jury Grand Prize – 7th Asia Pacific Screen Awards
Best Screenplay – 7th Asia Pacific Screen Awards
Muhr AsiaAfrica Special Mention – Dubai International Film Festival
Best Film – Amazonas Film Festival, Brazil
Canvas Audience Award – Ghent International Film Festival, Belgium
Audience Award – World Cinema Amsterdam
Best Director – International Festival Young Filmmakers of Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Audience Award – Belfast Film Festival, UK
Best Feature Film – Zagreb Golden Pram Award
Cafe Regular Cairo, 2011
Critics Prize (FIPRESCI) Best Film – International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Jury Special Mention – Tribeca Film Festival
Jury Special Mention – Chicago International Film Festival
Best Short Film – The Warp
Best Short Film – German Star of India
Clipagem Trophy – Kinoforum – Brazil
Honours
Chief guest at 8th Filmsaaz where he was given lifetime membership of the prestigious University Film Club, Aligarh Muslim University.
== References ==
== External links ==
Ritesh Batra at IMDb |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opoku_Ware_II#: | Opoku Ware II | Otumfuo Opoku Ware II (born Jacob Matthew Poku; 30 November 1919 – 26 February 1999) was the 15th Asantehene. He succeeded his uncle Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II on 27 July 1970. He ruled for 29 years until his death in February 1999. He was succeeded by Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II.
== Early life and education ==
The future monarch was born under the name Jacob Matthew Poku in Kumasi the capital of Ashanti, then the Ashanti Protectorate, in 1919 into the Ashanti royal family. At the time, Prempeh I was Asantehene, as the Ashanti Emperor-King is called, before being succeeded by his nephew Prempeh II in 1931. Prempeh II in turn was Opoku Ware II's uncle, making the boy one of several candidates to succeed him, as to be decided by the Queen-mother, or Nana Asantehemaa. After attending Anglican school, Poku went to Adisadel College in Cape Coast. After working in the public sector for a while, in the 1950s, he moved to the United Kingdom to study law at the Middle Temple and was admitted to the bar in 1962.
== Career ==
Then, he worked as a building inspector and later for the Public Works department from 1937 to 1943. After that, he was trained as a surveyor and worked on the Kumasi Traditional Council Hall and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Returning to the Gold Coast now Ghana after being called to the bar in 1962, he worked in the capital Accra first and then set up a firm in Kumasi. Through his success as a lawyer, Poku was able attain a great respect in Ashanti politics. Following the coup that overthrew Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah in 1966, the National Liberation Council military government appointed Poku to their executive board as Commissioner for Communications (equivalent to Minister for Communications) in 1968.
== Reign ==
In 1970, he was named ambassador to Italy, but shortly thereafter his uncle, the King of the Ashanti, Prempeh II, died. Due to his legal and political successes, he was chosen to succeed his uncle and enthroned as the Asantehene. As King, Opoku Ware II maintained a good relationship with Ghana's President Ignatius Acheampong, and later Jerry Rawlings.
He focused on trying to implement the traditional justice of the Ashanti ethnic group, rather than becoming involved in national politics. Much like his predecessors, he rarely appeared in public and usually had a spokesman represent him. When he did appear, he was as tradition demands covered in gold and wore an intricately woven kente cloth.
In 1985 the stool Nkosuostool (Development stool) was created by Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, as a catalyst for development in Kumasi and beyond. Since then the trend of bestowing the title of Nkosuohene or Hemaa on notable people in Ghana has gained prominence.
In August 1995 he marked his silver jubilee celebration representing 25 years of his reign as Otumfuo Asantehene.
== Personal life and death ==
In 1945, he married another member of the royal family, Victoria. In 1996, Opoku Ware II's wife Victoria died. On 26 February 1999, the King himself died. He was given a state and Ashanti cultural funeral spanning four days of ceremonies blending both African and Christian traditions and buried on 25 March 1999 after a month of mourning at the Royal Mausoleum. He was succeeded on 26 April by Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II after a period of mourning. He was survived by his three children Oheneba/Prince Adusei Opoku Ware, Gifty (1950-2018) and Ambassador Princess Leslie Poku.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_Assembly_Building | Vehicle Assembly Building | The Vehicle Assembly Building (originally the Vertical Assembly Building), or VAB, is a large building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, designed to assemble large pre-manufactured space vehicle components, such as the massive Saturn V, the Space Shuttle and the Space Launch System, and stack them vertically onto one of three mobile launcher platforms used by NASA. As of March 2022, the first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket was assembled inside in preparation for the Artemis I mission, launched on November 16, 2022.
At 129,428,000 cu ft (3,665,000 m3), it is the eighth-largest building in the world by volume as of 2022. The building is at Launch Complex 39 at KSC, 149 miles (240 km) south of Jacksonville, 219 miles (352 km) north of Miami, and 50 miles (80 km) due east of Orlando, on Merritt Island on the Atlantic coast of Florida.
The VAB is the largest single-story building in the world, was the tallest building (526 ft or 160 m) in Florida until 1974, and is the tallest building in the United States outside an urban area.
== History ==
The VAB, completed in 1966, was originally built for the vertical assembly of the Apollo–Saturn V space vehicle and was originally referred to as the Vertical Assembly Building. In anticipation of post-Apollo projects such as the Space Shuttle program, it was renamed the Vehicle Assembly Building on February 3, 1965. It was subsequently used to mate the Space Shuttle orbiters to their external fuel tanks and solid rocket boosters. Once the complete space vehicle was assembled on a mobile launcher platform, a crawler-transporter moved it to Launch Complex-39A or 39B.
The building was designed with future expansion in mind but ultimately ended up being larger than NASA would ever need. Initially, during the planning of Kennedy Space Center, as many as five launch pads were proposed, and designs for a six-bay VAB were drawn up. However, as the plans were scaled back to just two launch pads, the VAB was reduced to four bays. The contractors built the VAB to accommodate potential expansion to six bays, but such expansion was never required. In fact, only three bays were ever connected to the crawlerway. Bay 2, located on the west side of the building (farther from the launch pads), saw limited use during the Saturn V era and was eventually converted into a storage area for the Shuttle program.
Before the destruction of Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, NASA installed a sub-roof inside the VAB to deal with falling concrete debris due to the building's age.
The VAB was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2020.
== Construction ==
In 1963, NASA contracted Urbahn Architects to design and build the VAB as part of NASA's effort to send astronauts to the Moon for the Apollo program. Construction began with driving the first steel foundation piles on Aug. 2, 1963. Altogether, 4,225 pilings were driven down 164 feet (50 m) to bedrock with a foundation consisting of 30,000 cubic yards (23,000 m3) of concrete. Construction of the VAB required 98,590 short tons (197,180,000 lb; 89,440,000 kg) of steel. The building was completed in 1966. The VAB is 526 feet (160.3 m) tall, 716 feet (218.2 m) long and 518 feet (157.9 m) wide. It covers 8 acres (32,000 m2), and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet (3,665,000 m3) of space. Located on Florida's Atlantic coast, the building was constructed to withstand hurricanes and tropical storms. Despite this, it has received damage from several hurricanes (see below).
== Capabilities ==
The north end of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) contains four “high bays” designed as enclosed, protected spaces for stacking rocket stages, payloads, and other components vertically on a mobile launcher platform. This configuration mirrors how the rocket will stand on the launch pad. Components and stages typically enter the VAB through the south side, which houses eight "low bays" used for storage and pre-assembly preparations. Platforms in both the high and low bays can be adjusted to provide crews safe access to all parts of the rocket. A 92-foot-wide (28 m) transfer aisle runs the length of the building.
The VAB is equipped with five overhead cranes, including two capable of lifting up to 325 tons, as well as 136 additional lifting devices. These systems enable precise handling and assembly of heavy components. Once the launch vehicle is fully assembled and tested, a crawler-transporter enters the VAB, lifts the mobile launch platform with the attached spacecraft, and transports it to the launch pad.
Each high bay features a massive door—the largest in the world—standing 456 feet (139 m) tall. Each door comprises seven vertical panels and four horizontal panels and takes about 45 minutes to open or close.
To manage internal conditions, the VAB is equipped with air conditioning, including 125 ventilators on the roof and four large air handlers located west of the building. The system provides a combined 10,000 tons of refrigeration (120,000,000 BTU/hr, 35 MW), not to cool the building, but to control moisture. The air inside the building can be completely replaced every hour. When the building's large doors are opened, fog can enter and linger, leading to incorrect but persistent rumors that the VAB generates its own weather or forms clouds.
== Exterior ==
The American flag painted on the building was the largest in the world when added in 1976 as part of United States Bicentennial celebrations, along with the star logo of the anniversary, later replaced by the NASA insignia in 1998. It is 209 feet (63.7 m) high and 110 feet (33.5 m) wide. Each of the stars on the flag is 6 feet (1.83 m) across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and each of the stripes is 9 feet (2.74 m) wide.
Work began in early 2007 to restore the exterior paint on the immense facility. Special attention was paid to the enormous American flag and NASA "meatball" insignia. The work repaired visible damage from years of storms and weathering. The flag and logo had been previously repainted in 1998 for NASA's 40th anniversary.
The most extensive exterior damage occurred during the storm season of 2004, when Hurricane Frances blew off 850 14-by-6-foot (4.3 m × 1.8 m) aluminum panels from the building, resulting in about 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) of new openings in the sides. Twenty-five additional panels were blown off the east side by the winds from Hurricane Jeanne just three weeks later. Earlier in the season, Hurricane Charley caused significant but less serious damage, estimated to cost $700,000 to repair. Damage caused by these hurricanes was still visible in 2007. Some of these panels are "punch-outs", designed to detach from the VAB when a large pressure differential is created on the outside vs. the inside. This allows for equalization, and helps protect the structural integrity of the building during rapid changes in pressure such as in tropical cyclones.
The building has been used as a backdrop in several Hollywood movies including Marooned, SpaceCamp, Apollo 13, Contact, and others.
== Future ==
Originally, after the Space Shuttle was intended to be retired in 2010, the VAB would have been renovated for stacking of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles for the Constellation program; however, the Constellation program was cancelled in 2010. The Space Shuttle itself was retired in 2011, after which NASA temporarily (as early as 2012) offered public tours of the VAB. These tours were temporarily discontinued in February 2014 to allow for renovations to take place.
The NASA FY2013 budget included US$143.7 million for Construction of Facilities (CoF) requirements in support of what is now known as the Artemis program and its vehicles, including the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft. NASA began modifying Launch Complex 39 at KSC to support the new SLS in 2014, beginning with major repairs, code upgrades and safety improvements to the Launch Control Center, Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and the VAB Utility Annex. This initial work is required to support any launch vehicle operated from Launch Complex 39 and will allow NASA to begin modernizing the facilities, while vehicle-specific requirements are being developed.
The VAB could be used to some extent for assembly and processing of any future vehicles using Launch Complex 39, in addition to renovations for SLS capabilities. On June 16, 2015, NASA released an announcement for proposals (AFP) seeking interest in using the VAB High Bay 2 and other complex facilities for commercial use in "assembling, integration, and testing of launch vehicles". This move is in line with the intent to migrate KSC towards acting as a spaceport accessible to both government and commercial ventures.
On April 21, 2016, NASA announced the selection of Orbital ATK (bought by Northrop Grumman as of 2019) to begin negotiations for High Bay 2. The "potential agreement" included an existing mobile launcher platform. NASA subsequently completed the agreement in August 2019 to lease High Bay 2 and Mobile Launcher Platform 3 to Northrop Grumman for use with their OmegA launch vehicle. However, development of OmegA was subsequently cancelled in September 2020. Northrop Grumman had yet to make any modifications to High Bay 2, and were using it for the storage of OmegA hardware. This hardware was scheduled to be removed from the VAB and returned to Northrop Grumman by the end of September 2020.
== Gallery ==
== References ==
== External links ==
Vehicle Assembly Building at Structurae
Vehicle Assembly Building, High Bay and Low Bay at Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
3D model of the building for use in Google Earth Archived 2006-10-19 at the Wayback Machine |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merata_Mita#:~:text=released%20in%202018.-,Death,the%20studios%20of%20M%C4%81ori%20Television. | Merata Mita | Merata Mita (19 June 1942 – 31 May 2010) was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, and writer, and a key figure in the growth of the Māori screen industry. Mita was the first indigenous woman and the first woman in New Zealand to solely write and direct a dramatic feature film Mauri (1988).
== Early life ==
Mita was born on 19 June 1942 in Maketu in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty. She was the third of nine children and had a traditional rural Māori upbringing. She was from the Māori iwi of Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāi Te Rangi.
== Filmmaking career ==
Mita taught at Kawerau College for eight years, where she began using film and video to reach high school students characterised as "unteachable", many of them Māori and Pacific Islander. She learned that the film and video equipment helped her students with their education as it was a form of oral storytelling, where they could express themselves through various art forms, such as drawing and image. This experience led to Mita's interest in filmmaking. She initially started her filmmaking career by working with film crews as a liaison person, with her first documenta. Through these jobs, she discovered that foreign filmmakers had the access to tell the stories of Māori people, where she then decided to become a filmmaker herself. Mita started her technical education by having jobs as a sound assistant and a sound recordist. Over time, people started to take note of her contributions as part of the film crew. The experience eventually led her into a lengthy career in the film and television industry. Later on, she moved to Hawaii in 1990 and taught documentary film making at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
In 1987, Mita debuted with her first feature-length film, Mauri (1988). The film presents a sharp contrast with the mainstream production industry at its time. Opposite to the common settler narratives in New Zealand cinema, Mauri spikes a challenge to the state authority to reinforce their historical commitment to bi-culturalism and honor the Treaty of Waitangi. Its title, meaning cycles of life and spiritual connection to the indigenous land, is a bold statement of the Maori identity that reaffirms cultural soverignty and confronts the white Pakeha audience to learn a new mode of storytelling on screen.
=== Acting ===
Mita played the role of 'Matu' in the New Zealand feature film Utu (1983), which was directed by her husband Geoff Murphy, starred Anzac Wallace, and featured veteran Māori actor Wi Kuki Kaa. She also acted in The Protesters, a teleplay written by Rowley Habib.
== Political activism through Maori filmmaking ==
Mita's filmmaking has been classified as "Fourth Cinema," a term that was made by New Zealand filmmaker, Barry Barclay. "Fourth Cinema" is described as indigenous cinema created by indigenous filmmakers for indigenous audiences. From the inception of the New Zealand film industry up until the 1970s, cinematic portrayals of the Maori were almost exclusively crafted by the male Pakeha, or white European New Zealanders. Maori culture was frequently overlooked and reduced to various myths and fantasies that reflected colonial sentiments of desire for subjugation and control. The 1970s marked a turning point in the nation's history, as the treatment of the Maori came under increasing scrutiny. This shift was partly influenced by the emergence of international movements such as the women's liberation movement, anti-racist movements, and LGBT movements. However, it was primarily driven by the large-scale post-war migration of Māori from their rural and coastal ancestral territories into the Pākehā-dominated urban areas. According to Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, proportions of Maori residents in urban areas had a 37% increase from 1945 to 1966. Moving into these new urban areas made it challenging for many Māori to pass on their cultural traditions to the next generation and consequently, many began to lose their roots and felt pressured to integrate into Pākehā society.
This paved the way for the Māori Renaissance, a transformative movement aimed at expressing the Māori perspective on their challenges and preserving their identity and traditions. Author Stephen Turner writes that the hill in Mita's film Mauri (1988) "[...] has filmic agency. I see it as a central figure and actor, and the vehicle for the 'mauri' (the principle or force of life) of the film's title [...] Fourth Cinema is a medium through which things pass, enabling people and place to be recollected and connected in the viewing experience."
Merata Mita made boldly political films throughout her career as a director and producer. In one of her early interviews, she explicitly expressed the close-knit connection between her personal life and political filmmaking.PL: Most of your films have been about Maori and trade-union struggles, but you don't call yourself a political film-maker ... MM: Well, it's such a narrow definition. I think any aspect of life is political. As soon as you open your mouth you are in the arena of politics, so I've been brought up knowing that being Maori is political, being a woman is political. I don't want to wear an elitist label that removes me from the people I know, the struggles I'm involved with. The things that I film are things that I'm actively involved with, I'm not the detached observer running around with the camera merely observing things. I film the struggles that I've had experience in first-hand, like the Maori land occupations, anti-apartheid and anti-racist struggles, like being a worker in a factory.Mita was determined to make films that were about feminist decolonisation and indigenisation. She made films that represented Māori people and their culture, which were specifically made for Māori audiences. These films were made as a way to encourage young Māori and indigenous filmmakers after viewing these films, which portrayed their people authentically. In 1972, she was a co-director with Ramai Te Miha Hayward of To Love A Māori (1972). An accomplished documentary director and producer for more than 25 years, Mita made landmark documentary films such as Bastion Point: Day 507 (1980), about the eviction of Ngāti Whātua from their traditional land. At the time of the protest, Merata's team was the only media permissioned with filming access from the iwi (tribe), making this a significant case for the Māori control of the image. She also made the feature-length documentary Patu! (1983), about the violent clashes between anti-apartheid protesters and the police during the controversial 1981 South African Springboks rugby tours in New Zealand and Hotere (2001) documented the life and work of well-known Māori artist Ralph Hotere. She also directed the music video Waka for hip-hop artist Che Fu.
== Biographic work ==
In 1998, Mita was the subject of a documentary in the television series, Rangatira: Merata Mita – Making Waves, directed by Hinewehi Mohi.
In October 2014, NZ on Air announced funding for a biographical film, Te Taki A Merata Mita – How Mum Decolonised The Screen, to be directed by her son Heperi Mita, for cinematic release and screening on Māori Television. On 28 November 2018, the documentary was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival in their 2019 programme.
== International influence ==
Mita's influence among indigenous filmmakers internationally was considerable, through film organisations and film festivals in which she mentored, such as the Sundance Film Festival's Native Film Initiative, the National Geographic All Roads Indigenous Film Festival, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's consortium Pacific Islanders in Communications, and through her teaching at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. In 2016, the Merata Mita Fellowship was created by the Sundance Institute for native or indigenous filmmakers globally at any stage of their career or production.
== Recognition and awards ==
Some of Mita's recognition and awards included the Amiens International Film Festival's "MRAP Award" for her documentary, Patu!, in 1983, Rimini Film Festival's "Best Film" for Mauri in 1989, Flaherty Seminar's "Leo Dratfield Award for Commitment and Excellence in Documentary" in 1996, Taos Film Festival's "Mountain Award for excellence, commitment, and innovation" in 1999, the Te Waka Toi, part of the Creative New Zealand Te Tohu Toi Ke – "Making a difference" Award (2009), and the 2010 New Year Honours, when she was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to the film industry. Mita was also nominated for Asia Pacific Screen Awards' "Best Children's Feature Film" with Ainsley Gardiner, Cliff Curtis and Emanuel Michael, for the film, Boy, in 2010, and for Aotearoa Film and Television Awards' "Best Director - Television Documentary" for Saving Grace - Te Whakarauora Tangata in 2011. National Geographic All Roads Festival's "Merata Mita Award" is an annual award that recognises a "Legacy of Outstanding Storytelling" was established in Mita's honour in 2010.
== Personal life ==
Mita had seven children: Rafer, Richard, Rhys, Lars, Awatea, Eruera and Hepi. Her fourth son, Lars, died as an infant at the age of 11 months. Her son Hepi Mita from her longtime relationship with Geoff Murphy produced a documentary Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen on his mother's cinematic legacy which was released in 2018.
== Death ==
Mita died suddenly on 31 May 2010, after collapsing outside the studios of Māori Television.
== Works ==
Mita directed or collaborated on numerous films and television shows, including:
=== Films ===
The Hammer and the Anvil (1979) – Co-director, co-producer
Karanga Hokianga (1979) – Director, co-editor
Bastion Point: Day 507 (1980) – Co-director, co-editor
Kinleith '80 (1981) – Community liaison
Keskidee Aroha (1981) – Co-director, co-producer
The Bridge: A Story of Men in Dispute (1982) – Co-director, Sound
Utu (1983) – Role: Matu, Cultural Advisor
Patu! (1983) – Director, producer
Mauri (1988) – Director, writer, producer
Mana Waka (1990) – Director, sound designer, writer
The Shooting of Dominick Kaiwhata (1993) – Director, Producer
Dread (1996) – Director, writer
Te Paho (1997) – Director, writer
Hotere (2001) – Director, writer, producer
The Land Has Eyes (2004) – Executive Producer
Spooked (2004) – Producer, Second Unit Director, Role: Fred’s wife
Boy (2010) – Co-producer
Saving Grace - Te Whakarauora Tangata (2011) – Director
Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen (2018) – Subject
=== Television shows ===
Women - Māori Women in a Pākehā World (Episode Four) (1977) – Subject
Karanga Hokianga ki o Tamariki (1979) – Director, producer
Koha (1980-1981) – Director Producer
Titiro Mai (1980-1985) – Presenter
One of those Blighters (1982) – Role: Sue
New Streets - South Auckland, Two Cities (1982) – Research
Making Utu (1982) – Subject
Loose Enz - The Protestors – Role: Ru
New Streets - Auckland Fa’a-Samoa (1982) – Research
Koha - Mauri (1987) – Subject
Kaleidoscope - NZ Cinema, the Past Decade (1987) – Subject
Koha - Nga Pikitia Māori (1987) – Subject
Solidarity (1992) – Executive Producer
Witi Ihimaera (1997) – Interviewer, Consultant Producer
Rangatira: Merata Mita - Making Waves (1998) – Project Advisor, Subject
The Magnificent Seven (1998) – Second Unit Director
Frontseat - Series Two, Episode 10 (2006) – Subject
Kete Aronui - Merata Mita (2007) – Subject
50 Years of New Zealand Television: 7 - Taonga TV (2010) – Subject
50 Years of New Zealand Television: 2 - The Whole World’s Watching (2010) – Subject
Taku Rākau e (2010) – Producer
50 Years of New Zealand Television: 1 - From One Channel to One Hundred (2010) – Subject
Hautoa Mā! The Rise of Māori Cinema (2016) – Subject
== External links ==
Chloe Cull, Considering Merata Mita's Legacy, in Love Feminisms, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, 2015
Brannavan Gnanalingam, A Magnificent Salvage: Mana Waka, Lumiere Reader, 2011
Lamche, Pascale; Mita, Merata (1984). "Interview with Merata Mita". Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media (25): pages 2–11. ISSN 0306-7661.
Biography at NZ On Screen
Watch Patu clip at NZ On Screen
Patu! background at the NZ Film Archive
Merata Mita at IMDb
Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen Film (Trailer) – 2018 at NZ On Screen
Sundance Institute. “Sundance Institute Announces New Merata Mita Fellowship For Indigenous Artists and 2016 Recipient.”, 2016
Turner, Stephen (2013). "9. Reflections on Barry Barclay and Fourth Cinema". In Hokowhitu, Brendan; Devadas, Vijay (eds.). The Fourth Eye: Māori Media in Aotearoa New Zealand. University of Minnesota Press. pp.162–178. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt4cggdb.13.
Alice Webb-Liddall, “Merata Mita: the godmother of indigenous film.” The Spinoff, May 2, 2021.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Layton#:~:text=In%201969%2C%20he%20was%20appointed,of%20the%20Sigma%20Chi%20fraternity. | Jack Layton | John Gilbert Layton (July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011) was a Canadian politician and academic who served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2003 to 2011 and leader of the Official Opposition in 2011. He previously sat on Toronto City Council, occasionally holding the title of acting mayor or deputy mayor of Toronto during his tenure as city councillor. Layton was the member of Parliament (MP) for Toronto—Danforth from 2004 until his death.
The son of a Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, Layton was raised in Hudson, Quebec. He rose to prominence in Toronto municipal politics, where he was one of the most prominent left-wing voices on the city and Metropolitan Toronto councils, championing many progressive causes. In 1991, he ran for mayor, losing to June Rowlands. Returning to council, he rose to become head of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. In 2003, he was elected leader of the NDP on the first ballot of the leadership election.
Under his leadership, support for the NDP increased in each election. The party's popular vote almost doubled in the 2004 election, which gave the NDP the balance of power in Paul Martin's minority government. In May 2005, the NDP supported the Liberal budget in exchange for major amendments, in what was promoted as Canada's "first NDP budget". In November of that year, Layton voted with other opposition parties to defeat the Liberal government over the findings of the Gomery Commission. The NDP saw further gains in the 2006 and 2008 elections, in which the party elected 29 and 37 MPs, respectively. His wife, Olivia Chow, was also an MP and has served as the 66th mayor of Toronto since 2023.
In the 2011 election, Layton led the NDP to the most successful result in the party's history, winning 103 seats—making the party the Official Opposition for the first time. Federal support for Layton and the NDP in the election was unprecedented, especially in the province of Quebec, where the party won 59 out of 75 seats.
Layton died on August 22, 2011, after being diagnosed with cancer. Details of the type and spread of the cancer, and the exact cause of death, were not released to the public. Shortly before he died, Layton had nominated Nycole Turmel as interim leader of the NDP and, consequently, of the Official Opposition. Tom Mulcair won the leadership election to succeed him.
== Early life and career ==
John Gilbert Layton was born on July 18, 1950 in Montreal, Quebec, to parents Doris Elizabeth (née Steeves), and Progressive Conservative MP Robert Layton. He was the maternal great-grandnephew of William Steeves, a Father of Confederation, and his grandfather, Gilbert Layton, had served as a minister without portfolio to the government of Quebec's Union Nationale under Premier Maurice Duplessis. Layton was raised in Hudson, a largely Anglophone suburb of Montreal, where he served as the student council president of Hudson High School. He would later credit longtime friend and musician Billy Bryans for having played a role in his student council victory. In his graduating yearbook, Layton wrote as a testament, "I leave to become prime minister."
In 1969, he was appointed as the Quebec Youth Parliament prime minister, holding this position until 1970. That same year, Layton graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with honours in political science and economics, and was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. During his time spent at McGill, Layton's view on politics had been greatly influenced by professor, philosopher and mentor Charles Taylor, so much so that he decided to switch his major from science to arts. Moreover, it was on Taylor's advice that he pursued his studies in Toronto, in order to study under the students of political philosopher C. B. Macpherson at York University. Layton followed pacifism and participated in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.
In a foreword Layton wrote for Canadian Idealism and the Philosophy of Freedom, he explains, "The idealist current holds that human society has the potential to achieve liberty when people work together to form a society in which equality means more than negative liberty, the absolute and protected right to run races against each other to determine winners. Idealists imagine a positive liberty that enables us to build together toward common objectives that fulfil and even surpass our individual goals." Upon reading Canadian Idealism and the Philosophy of Freedom, Layton came to understand himself as part of the intellectual tradition of Canadian idealists.
In 1970, Layton joined the New Democratic Party, and would later cite his influence being from Tommy Douglas voicing opposition to the imposition of the War Measures Act during the 1970 October Crisis. He also moved to Toronto to attend York University, where he received his Master of Arts (MA) in political science in 1972; he would also later receive his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in political science there in 1983 under the supervision of David Bell. In 1974, Layton began his academic career as an educator at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Toronto Metropolitan University), where he taught political science. He also spent time working at York and, from 1978 to 1994, worked at the University of Toronto as an adjunct professor. He also became a prominent activist for a variety of causes. He wrote several books, including Homelessness: The Making and Unmaking of a Crisis and a book on general public policy, Speaking Out.
== Municipal politics ==
While at York and Ryerson, Layton developed close ties with a number of Toronto political figures including John Sewell and David Crombie. He was first elected to Toronto City Council during the 1982 municipal election, in a surprise upset against incumbent Gordon Chong as an underdog. Layton quickly became one of the council's most outspoken members and a leading figure on the left. He was one of the most vocal opponents of the massive SkyDome project, and an early advocate for rights for AIDS patients. In 1984, Layton was fined for trespassing after distributing leaflets at the Toronto Eaton Centre during a strike by Eaton's employees, but the charge was later dismissed on free speech grounds. He was also one of the few opponents of Toronto's bid to host the 1996 Summer Olympics. In 1985, Layton moved to the Metropolitan Toronto Council, in the first direct elections for members of that body. During the 1988 municipal elections, Layton swapped roles with his ally Dale Martin, with Martin moving to Metro and Layton returning to Toronto City Council. Layton won comfortably against former high school teacher Lois MacMillan-Walker. The election was a major victory for Layton as the reformist coalition of which he was the de facto head gained control of city council, the first time in city history a coalition of New Democrats and independents controlled council.
On July 9, 1988, he married Hong Kong-born Toronto District School Board trustee Olivia Chow in a ceremony on Algonquin Island. Their whitewater rafting honeymoon plans had to be abandoned, however, when days before the wedding Layton collided with a newspaper box while bicycling. Chow later joined Layton on the Toronto City Council. She has been a candidate for the federal New Democrats five times, first winning her seat the third time in a close race against Tony Ianno in the 2006 Canadian election, and re-elected in 2008 and 2011. Chow resigned from federal politics in 2014 to run for mayor of Toronto; she placed third. Chow would later be elected mayor in the 2023 mayoral by-election.
Layton and Chow were also the subject of some dispute when a June 14, 1990, Toronto Star article by Tom Kerr accused them of unfairly living in a housing cooperative subsidized by the federal government, despite their high income. Layton and Chow had both lived in the Hazelburn co-op since 1985, and lived together in an $800 per month three-bedroom apartment after their marriage in 1988. By 1990, their combined annual income was $120,000, and in March of that year they began voluntarily paying an additional $325 per month to offset their share of the co-op's Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation subsidy, the only members of the co-op to do so. In response to the article, the co-op's board argued that having mixed-income tenants was crucial to the success of co-ops, and that the laws deliberately set aside apartments for those willing to pay market rates, such as Layton and Chow. During the late 1980s and early 1990s they maintained approximately 30% of their units as low income units and provided the rest at what they considered market rent. In June 1990, the city solicitor cleared the couple of any wrongdoing, and later that month, Layton and Chow left the co-op and bought a house in Toronto's Chinatown together with Chow's mother, a move they said had been planned for some time. Former Toronto mayor John Sewell later wrote in NOW that rival Toronto city councillor Tom Jakobek had given the story to Tom Kerr.
Originally known for coming to council meetings in blue jeans with unkempt hair, Layton worked to change his image to run for mayor in the 1991 civic election. He also started wearing contact lenses, abandoning his glasses, and traded in his blue jeans for suits. In February 1991, Layton became the first official NDP candidate for the mayoralty, pitting him against centrist incumbent Art Eggleton. In a move that surprised many, Eggleton elected not to run again.
Layton was opposed by three right-of-centre candidates: Susan Fish, June Rowlands, and Betty Disero. Right-wing support soon coalesced around former city councillor Rowlands, preventing the internal divisions Layton needed to win office. Layton was also hurt by the growing unpopularity of the provincial NDP government of Bob Rae, and by his earlier opposition to Toronto's Olympic bid. Bid organizer Paul Henderson accused Layton and his allies of costing Toronto the event. Despite this, October polls showed Layton only four points behind Rowlands, with 36% support. However, on October 17, Fish, a former provincial Progressive Conservative cabinet minister who had only 19% support, pulled out of the race, and many of her supporters moved to Rowlands. Layton lost the November 12 election by a considerable margin. However, in the same election Olivia Chow easily won a seat on city council.
In November 1991, Layton co-founded the White Ribbon Campaign of men working to end male violence against women. Layton returned to academia and also founded the Green Catalyst Group Inc., an environmental consulting business. In 1993, he ran for the House of Commons in the riding of Rosedale for the NDP, but finished fourth in the generally Liberal riding. In 1994, he returned to Metropolitan Toronto Council, succeeding Roger Hollander in the Don River ward, and he resumed his high-profile role in local politics; following the "megacity" merger of Metropolitan Toronto into the current city of Toronto, he was again re-elected to Toronto City Council, serving alongside Pam McConnell in a two-member ward. He remained on Toronto City Council until pursuing the leadership of the federal New Democrats. He also came to national attention as the leader of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Federally, he ran again in the 1997 election, this time in the neighbouring riding of Toronto—Danforth, but lost to incumbent Dennis Mills by a wide margin. In June 1999, as chair of Toronto's environmental task force, the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, he was instrumental in the preliminary phases of the WindShare wind power cooperative in Toronto through the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative.
== Leader of the New Democratic Party ==
Layton was elected leader of the NDP at the party's leadership convention in Toronto, on January 25, 2003. Layton won on the first ballot with 53.5% of the vote, defeating Bill Blaikie, Lorne Nystrom, Joe Comartin and Pierre Ducasse. His campaign was focused on the need to reinvigorate the party, and was prominently endorsed by former NDP leader Ed Broadbent.
Layton did not seek election to the House of Commons by running in a by-election, as is the tradition among new party leaders without a seat. Instead, he waited until the 2004 federal election to contest the riding of Toronto—Danforth against Liberal Dennis Mills. With no seat in the House of Commons, he appointed the runner-up, longtime Winnipeg-area MP Bill Blaikie, as parliamentary leader. Although he had no parliamentary seat, Layton was noted for drawing considerable attention from the Canadian mass media. Much of his rhetoric involved attacking the policies of then Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin as conservative, and arguing the ideology of the Liberal Party of Canada had shifted in a more right wing direction. Another focus of Layton's leadership was to focus the party's efforts on Quebec, one of the party's weaker provinces. One of his opponents in the leadership race, Pierre Ducasse, was the first Québécois to run for leader of the NDP. After the race, Layton appointed Ducasse as his Quebec lieutenant and party spokesperson.
The result of Layton's efforts was a strong increase in the party's support. By the end of 2003, the party was polling higher than both the Canadian Alliance or the Progressive Conservatives and it was even suggested that the next election could see the NDP in place as Official Opposition.
=== 2004 election ===
During the 2004 Canadian federal election, controversy erupted over Layton's accusation that Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin was responsible for the deaths of homeless people because he failed to provide funding for affordable housing. While rates of homelessness and homeless deaths increased during the eleven years of Liberal government, the link to Martin's decisions was indirect as affordable housing is a mainly provincial jurisdiction. Layton's charge was defended by some, including the Ottawa Citizen, but most attacked it as inaccurate and negative campaigning. Moreover, the controversy consumed the campaign, overshadowing policy announcements over the next week.
Further controversy followed as Layton suggested the removal of the Clarity Act, considered by some to be vital to keeping Quebec in Canada and by others as undemocratic, and promised to recognize any declaration of independence by Quebec after a referendum. This position was not part of the NDP's official party policy, leading some high-profile party members, such as NDP House Leader Bill Blaikie and former NDP leader Alexa McDonough, to publicly indicate that they did not share Layton's views. His position on the Clarity Act was reversed in the 2006 election to one of support.
Layton also continued his effort to improve his party's standing in Quebec. The NDP ran French-language ads in the province and Layton, who spoke colloquial Québécois French, appeared in them. As early as his leadership campaign, Layton advocated for electoral reform, calling for a referendum to replace the first-past-the-post system with proportional representation. He threatened to use the NDP's clout in the event of a minority government. However, it was dismissed out of hand by the Liberal and Bloc Québécois leaders, as they tend to be favoured by the first-past-the-post system, normally being allocated a greater proportion of seats than the proportion of votes cast for them. Historically, the NDP's popular vote does not translate into a proportional number of seats because of scattered support. This was most opposed by the Bloc Québécois, who usually had the lowest popular vote but nonetheless won many seats because their support was concentrated in Quebec. Despite these problems, Layton led the NDP to a 15% popular vote, its highest in 16 years. However, it only won 19 seats in the House of Commons, two less than the 21 won under Alexa McDonough in 1997, and far short of the 40 that Layton predicted on the eve of the election. However, some potential NDP voters may have voted Liberal to prevent a possible Conservative win. Olivia Chow and several other prominent Toronto NDP candidates lost tight races and Layton won his own seat against incumbent Liberal Dennis Mills by a much narrower margin than early polls indicated.
=== 38th Canadian Parliament ===
With the ruling Liberal Party being reduced to a minority government, revelations of the sponsorship scandal damaging its popularity to the point where both the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois were pressing their advantage for a snap election, the prime minister approached the NDP for its support. Layton demanded the cancellation of proposed corporate tax cuts and called for an increase in social spending. The ensuing compromise in the NDP's favour was protested by the other opposition parties who used it as a pretext to force a non-confidence vote. On May 19, two such votes were defeated and Layton's amendments went on to be passed on its final reading vote on June 23. As a result of this political coup and his apparent civil behaviour in a spitefully raucous parliament, many political analysts noted that Layton gained increased credibility as an effective leader of an important party, becoming the major second choice leader in many political polls – for example, polling second in Quebec after Gilles Duceppe, despite the low polls for his party as a whole in the province.
In mid-November 2005, when Liberal support dropped after the Gomery Commission delivered its first report, Layton offered the prime minister several conditions in return for the NDP's continued support, most notably on the issue of privatization of health care in Canada, where Layton wanted strict provisions for controlling public spending on private health care delivery, saying that without "significant action" on the issue, "Mr. Martin can't count on our support." Martin for his part offered no comment on a meeting held to discuss the issue, only saying that it was a "good meeting", while Layton publicly expressed his disappointment at the outcome. Layton announced he would introduce a motion requesting a February election. However, the Martin government refused to allow the election date to be decided by the opposition. A motion of non-confidence followed, moved by Stephen Harper and seconded by Layton, triggering the 2006 federal election. Layton was working with the Liberal government, but determined he would have a better chance of electoral success by voting against the government and having an election.
==== Coalition attempt with the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives ====
On March 26, 2011, in response to Harper's allegations that a coalition is not a legitimate or principled way to form government, Duceppe stated that Harper had once tried to form a coalition government with the Bloc Québécois and NDP. In 2004 Stephen Harper privately met with Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe and Layton in a Montreal hotel. The meeting that took place between the three party leaders happened two months before the federal election. On September 9, 2004, the three signed a letter addressed to then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, stating,
We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise, this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before exercising your constitutional authority.
On the same day the letter was written, the three party leaders held a joint press conference at which they expressed their intent to co-operate on changing parliamentary rules, and to request that the governor general consult with them before deciding to call an election. At the news conference, Harper said "It is the Parliament that's supposed to run the country, not just the largest party and the single leader of that party. That's a criticism I've had and that we've had and that most Canadians have had for a long, long time now so this is an opportunity to start to change that." However, at the time, Harper and the two other opposition leaders denied trying to form a coalition government. Harper said, "This is not a coalition, but this is a co-operative effort."
One month later, on October 4, Mike Duffy, now a Conservative senator (appointed by Harper), said "It is possible that you could change prime minister without having an election", and that some Conservatives wanted Harper as prime minister. The next day Layton walked out on talks with Harper and Duceppe, accusing them of trying to replace Paul Martin with Harper as prime minister. Both Bloc and Conservative officials denied Layton's accusations.
=== 2006 election ===
With a vote scheduled for January 23, 2006, many New Democrats expected Layton to deliver substantially more seats than he did in 2004. They hoped the NDP would hold the balance of power in a new minority Parliament, so that they could carry additional leverage in negotiating with the governing party. Mike Klander, the executive vice-president of the federal Liberals' Ontario wing, resigned after making posts on his blog comparing Chow to a Chow Chow dog and calling Layton an "asshole".
Through the course of the campaign, Layton attempted to cast himself as the sole remaining champion of universal health care. Some opinion polls showed that Canadians found Layton the most appealing and charismatic of the leaders. Layton repeatedly insisted that "Canadians have a third choice", and urged Liberals to "lend us your vote". Some commentators and pundits mocked Layton for over-using these catchphrases instead of explaining the NDP platform.
The NDP strategy had changed in that they were focusing their attacks on the Liberals rather than in 2004, where they criticized both the Liberals and Conservatives in equal measure, prompting some criticism from Paul Martin. Andrew Coyne suggested that the NDP not only wanted to disassociate themselves from the scandal-ridden Liberals, but also because the Liberals were likely to receive credit for legislation achieved under the Liberal-NDP partnership. The NDP had also lost close races in the 2004 election due to the Liberals' strategic voting. Early in the campaign, NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis had asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to launch a criminal investigation into the leaking of the income trust announcement. The criminal probe seriously damaged the Liberal campaign and preventing them from making their key policy announcements, as well as bringing alleged Liberal corruption back into the spotlight.
Layton's campaign direction also caused a break between him and Canadian Auto Workers union head Buzz Hargrove over the issue of strategic voting. Hargrove preferred a Liberal minority government supported by the NDP and he had earlier criticized Layton for participating in the motion of non-confidence that brought down the Liberal government. Hargrove allied with the Liberals and publicly stated that he "did not like the campaign that Jack Layton was running", criticizing Layton for "spending too much time attacking the Liberals". During the final week of the campaign, knowing that last-minute strategic voting had cost the NDP seats in several close ridings during the 2004 election, Hargrove and Martin urged all progressive voters to unite behind the Liberal banner to stop a Conservative government.
Layton intensified his attacks on the Liberal scandals, pledging to use his minority clout to keep the Conservatives in check. Shortly after the election, the Ontario provincial branch of the NDP revoked Hargrove's party membership because he had violated the party's constitution by campaigning for other parties during an election campaign, though Layton disagreed with this. Hargrove retaliated by severing ties with the NDP at the annual CAW convention. The election increased the NDP's total seats to 29 seats, up from 18 before dissolution. Among the new NDP candidates elected was Olivia Chow, making the two only the second husband-and-wife team in Canadian Parliament history (Gurmant Grewal and Nina Grewal were the first husband-and-wife team in Canadian Parliament after the 2004 federal election). In the end, the NDP succeeded in increasing their parliamentary representation to 29 MPs, though they had significantly fewer seats than the Bloc Québécois (51) or the Opposition Liberals (103).
=== 39th Canadian Parliament ===
At the NDP's 22nd Convention, held on September 10, 2006, in Quebec City, Layton received a 92% approval rating in a leadership vote, tying former Reform Party leader Preston Manning's record for this kind of voting. This record was later broken in 2016 by Elizabeth May of the Green Party of Canada. At the same convention, the NDP passed a motion calling for the return of Canadian Forces from Afghanistan. On September 24, 2006, he met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss the NDP position. After the meeting Layton stated that Canada's role should be focused on traditional peacekeeping and reconstruction rather than in a front line combat role currently taking place.
Layton and his caucus voted to support the new proposed rules for income trusts introduced by the Conservatives October 31, 2006. The short-term result of the tax policy announcement was a loss to Canadian investors of $20 billion, the largest ever loss attributed to a change in government policy.
Layton threatened to move a motion of non-confidence against the government over the "Clean Air Act" unless action was taken to improve the bill and its approach to environmental policy. Prime Minister Harper agreed to put an end to the Parliamentary logjam by sending the bill to a special legislative committee before second reading. He released his proposed changes to the "Clean Air Act" on November 19, 2006.
On June 3, 2008, Layton voted to implement a program which would "allow conscientious objectors ... to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations ... to ... remain in Canada ..." Layton led the NDP to be instrumental in taking action on the peace issue of Canada and Iraq War resisters.
On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it known that he had received private counsel from Layton on the matter of Indian residential schools and the apology to former students of the schools. Before delivering the apology, Harper thanked Layton.
=== 2008 election ===
Layton started off the 2008 federal election campaign with a speech similar to that of US presidential nominee Barack Obama. Layton denied he was trying to draw comparisons with Obama, saying "I mean, I am a lot shorter than he is. He is a brilliant orator. I'm never going to claim to be that. But what I have noticed is that the key issues faced by the American middle class, the working people of the U.S. and their concerns about their families' futures, are awfully similar to the issues that I hear in Canada." Layton said that he has also written to Obama and Hillary Clinton saying that the North American Free Trade Agreement had hurt working people in both countries "and those stories have to be told."
Layton, along with Prime Minister Harper and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe, initially opposed the inclusion of Green Party leader Elizabeth May in the leaders' televised debates. Layton initially said that he was following the rules of the broadcast consortium, while NDP spokesman Brad Lavigne confirmed that Layton had refused to attend if May was present, noting that May had endorsed Liberal leader Stéphane Dion for prime minister, and arguing that her inclusion would in effect give the Liberals two representatives at the debate. Rod Love, former chief of staff to Ralph Klein, suggested that the Greens could potentially cut into the NDP's support. Layton's stance drew criticism from the YWCA, Judy Rebick, and members of his own party. Layton dropped his opposition to May's inclusion on September 10, 2008. "This whole issue of debating about the debate has become a distraction to the real debate that needs to happen", Layton said. "I have only one condition for this debate and that is that the prime minister is there."
In October 2008, Layton posted an online video message speaking out in favour of net neutrality, torrent sites, video-sharing sites, and social-networking sites. In a separate interview he said that increasing corporate control "is very, very dangerous and we have put the whole issue of net neutrality right into the heart of our campaign platform", and that the Internet is "a public tool for exchanging ideas and I particularly want to say that if we don't fight to preserve it, we could lose it." In the end, the NDP gained 8 new seats, taking its tally to 37. This result still left the NDP as Canada's fourth party, behind the Bloc Québécois with 50. The NDP managed to retain Outremont, held by Tom Mulcair, its only seat in the province.
=== 40th Canadian Parliament ===
The 40th session of Parliament began on November 27, 2008, with a fiscal update by the Conservatives that outlined their agenda for the upcoming term. This included a temporary suspension of federal employees' right to strike and a removal of monetary subsidies for political parties. All three opposition parties including the NDP stated that they could not support this position. Layton along with Liberal leader Stéphane Dion and Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe began negotiations to form a coalition that would replace the Conservatives as the government. The three opposition parties planned to table a motion of non-confidence in the House of Commons, and counted on the likelihood that the Governor General Michaëlle Jean, would invite the coalition to govern instead of dissolving parliament and calling an election so soon after the last election.
On December 1, 2008, the three opposition leaders signed an accord that laid down the basis for an agreement on a coalition government. The proposed structure would be a coalition between the Liberals and the NDP, with the New Democrats getting six Cabinet positions. Both parties agreed to continue the coalition until June 30, 2011. The Bloc Québécois would not be formally part of the government but would provide support on confidence motions for 18 months.
Opposition to the proposed coalition developed in all provinces except Quebec. On December 4, 2008, the governor general granted Prime Minister Harper's request to prorogue Parliament until January 26, 2009, at which time Harper had planned to introduce the budget. Dion had since been ousted from the leadership of the Liberals and his successor, Michael Ignatieff, had distanced himself from the coalition.
Layton remained committed to ousting the Harper government, pledging that the NDP would vote against the Conservative budget regardless of what it contained. Layton urged Ignatieff's Liberal Party to topple the Conservatives before the shelf life of the coalition expired; constitutional experts said that four months after the last election, if the government fell, the governor general would likely grant the prime minister's request to dissolve Parliament instead of inviting the coalition.
On January 28, 2009, the Liberals agreed to support the Conservative budget with an amendment, ending the possibility of the coalition, so Layton said "Today we have learned that you can't trust Mr. Ignatieff to oppose Mr. Harper. If you oppose Mr. Harper and you want a new government, I urge you to support the NDP."
In March 2009, the NDP, under Layton's leadership, re-introduced a motion (first passed June 3, 2008) which, if implemented, would allow conscientious objectors to the Iraq War to remain in Canada. The motion again passed March 30, 2009, by 129–125, but it was non-binding. In a leadership review vote held at the NDP's August 2009 federal policy convention, 89.25% of delegates voted against holding a leadership convention to replace Layton. In October 2009, Layton paired up with the Stephen Lewis Foundation to raise money for HIV/AIDS affected families in Africa. As part of the foundation's A Dare to Remember campaign, Layton busked on a busy street corner.
Layton's son, Mike was elected to Toronto City Council in the 2010 city council election.
In early 2011, Layton was featured in an episode of CBC Television's Make the Politician Work.
The Conservative government was defeated in a no-confidence vote on March 25, 2011, with the motion gaining full support of all opposition parties including the New Democrats, after the government was found in contempt of Parliament. It was the first time in Commonwealth history that a government lost the confidence of the House of Commons on the grounds of contempt of Parliament. The no-confidence motion was carried with a vote of 156 in favour of the motion, and 145 against, thus resulting in the prime minister advising a dissolution of Parliament and a federal election.
=== 2011 election and Leader of the Opposition ===
The day after the successful passing of the motion, Layton started the NDP election campaign, first with a speech in Ottawa followed later in the day by an event in Edmonton, Alberta. Questions about Layton's health due to a recent hip surgery were often directed to him during the campaign, with Layton insisting that he was healthy enough to lead. On March 29, 2011, the New Democrats presented their first real campaign promise, a proposal to cap credit card rates to reduce credit card debt.
Unlike the previous election, Layton stated he was in favour of Green Party leader Elizabeth May speaking at the leaders debates, despite the fact that she was once again being discouraged by the Canadian media networks. The NDP also embarked upon the largest advertising campaign in its history, focusing on the Harper government's health care record. He also dedicated the federal election campaign to former Saskatchewan premier Allan Blakeney, who died about halfway through the campaign.
Despite entering the campaign with relatively low poll numbers, the NDP recovered and increased their support significantly after Layton's performance in the leaders debates. In the English-language debate, Layton criticized Michael Ignatieff's poor attendance record in the House of Commons, saying "You know, most Canadians, if they don't show up for work, they don't get a promotion!", to which Ignatieff was unable to respond effectively. The Globe and Mail described Layton's attack as a "knock-out punch" while the Toronto Star stated it was the "pivot in the debate [that] was a turning point in the federal campaign". Layton's New Democrats successfully capitalized on Ignatieff's attendance record in the Toronto area.
On February 4, 2011, Layton attended a rally against usage-based billing in Toronto with MPs Dan McTeague, Olivia Chow, Peggy Nash and others. His attendance at this rally was accompanied by several press releases by the NDP denouncing metered internet usage in Canada.
The NDP surge began in Quebec, with the NDP surprising many observers by surpassing the previously front-running Bloc in Quebec. In Canada overall, the NDP surged past the Liberals to take the second place behind the Conservatives; in Quebec, the NDP took first place. The NDP surge became the dominant narrative of the last week of the campaign, as other parties turned their attacks on the party and Layton.
On April 29, 2011, a retired police officer told the Sun News Network and the Toronto Sun newspaper that in 1996, Layton had been found in a massage parlour when police, looking for underage Asian sex workers, raided the establishment. The police informed Layton of the potentially questionable use of the business and recommended that he avoid it in the future. No charges were filed. The Sun later ran a follow-up piece, in which Toronto city councillor Giorgio Mammoliti criticized Layton. Layton has said there was no wrongdoing in the matter, saying that he simply "went for a massage at a community clinic" and did not return after the police advised him not to. He also referred to the release of the police report as a smear campaign against him. Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe also dismissed the claim. A columnist for the National Post suggested that it was a Liberal insider that leaked the story, although a Liberal Party spokesman denied that they had anything to do with it.
A subsequent Toronto Star column stated that most contributors to online discussions agreed there was a smear campaign against Layton. As for political damage from this story, that same day's update of the Nanos Leadership Index, which assesses public opinion on the Canadian federal leaders' trustworthiness, competence and vision for Canada, saw Layton rise from a score of 80 to a score of 97, surpassing Harper's 88 and Ignatieff's 39. The polling company speculated this improvement is due to strong sympathy by the public for a political candidate they judged as being unfairly maligned. The Toronto Police Service launched an investigation into how official police notes were leaked to Sun Media. Police notebooks are closely guarded and may contain unfounded and unproven allegations. On May 5, 2011, it was announced that no charges would be laid with regards to the leaked information.
Layton appeared on the Radio-Canada talk show Tout le monde en parle on April 3, an appearance that was credited for improving his party's standing among Francophone voters due to his informal Québécois French. The show is the most popular program in Quebec. He was also perceived to have performed well in the televised French-language party leaders' debate on April 13.
In the May 2, 2011, election, Layton led the NDP to 103 seats, more than double its previous high. This was also enough to make the NDP the Official Opposition for the first time. The NDP gains were partly due to a major surge in Quebec as the party won 59 of the province's 75 seats, dominating Montreal and sweeping Quebec City and the Outaouais, although the NDP also won more seats than any other opposition party in the rest of Canada. The NDP had gone into the election with only one seat in Quebec, that of Thomas Mulcair, and had won but a single seat in the province historically (Phil Edmonston in a 1990 by-election). Many of these gains came at the expense of the Bloc, which was reduced to a four-seat rump without official party status in Parliament.
== Family and personal life ==
Layton came from a political family: his maternal great-granduncle, William Steeves, was a Father of Confederation. His great-grandfather, Philip E. Layton, was a blind piano salesman and activist who, in 1908, founded the Montreal Association for the Blind; in the 1930s, he campaigned for disability pensions. Philip was the senior partner in the family business, Layton Bros. Pianos. Layton Pianos had been made in London, England, since 1837, and Philip had emigrated to Montreal at the age of 19. His business, which was opened on Saint Catherine Street in Montreal, continues to operate as Layton Audio. Philip's 1898 composition Dominion March was played at Layton's lying in state.
Layton's grandfather, Gilbert, served in Quebec's Union Nationale government led by Maurice Duplessis as a cabinet minister, later resigning due to the provincial government's lack of support for Canadian participation in World War II. Layton's father, Robert, was initially a member of the Liberal Party as an activist in the 1960s and 1970s, who later switched to the Progressive Conservatives and served as a federal Cabinet minister in the 1980s under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, as well as a member of Parliament.
Layton was raised as a member of the United Church of Canada, and was a member of Bloor Street United Church in Toronto. However, he also sometimes attended services at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, whose pastor, Brent Hawkes, was a longtime NDP activist and a personal friend of Layton's.
In 1969, at age 19, Layton married his high school sweetheart Sally Halford, with whom he had two children: Mike, who served as a Toronto city councillor from 2010 to 2022, and Sarah, who works for the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Layton and Halford's marriage ended in divorce in 1983 after 14 years.
Layton first met Olivia Chow in 1985 during an auction at Village by the Grange, in which Jack was the auctioneer and Olivia was the interpreter for the Cantonese language observers. They had been previously acquainted, however they realized that they were both candidates in the upcoming election and decided to have lunch together to talk about the campaign. Three weeks after the auction, they went on their first date. Olivia's mother did not approve of Layton at first, because of his race as well as him not being a lawyer or doctor. Layton was invited to dinner at the home of Olivia's mother, where they also played mahjong. After the dinner, Layton attempted to thank Olivia's mother in Cantonese, however his incorrect tone had him inadvertently saying, "Thank you for the good sex." Layton stated "My faux pas broke the ice completely. We've been good buddies ever since."
Layton was known for playing music and singing songs at party gatherings. Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason remembered during the three-day board meetings when Layton was running for president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities: "He would gather people together in his hotel room and play the guitar and get everybody singing old folk songs from the 1960s. He just got people involved, just with his personality, not politics."
Layton was a keen Trekkie, having a custom Starfleet uniform made by a tailor. Layton was famously photographed wearing his uniform at a Star Trek convention in 1991.
At the 2005 Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner (typically a satirical event), Layton sent up himself and his party, playing guitar and singing three songs: "Party for Sale or Rent" (to the tune of "King of the Road"), a re-worked version of "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" with different humorous lyrics, and "If I Had Another $4.6 Billion".
== Illness and death ==
On February 5, 2010, Layton announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He noted that his father Robert Layton had the same type of cancer 17 years before and recovered from it. His wife, Olivia Chow, had thyroid cancer a few years before. He vowed to beat the cancer, and said it would not interrupt his duties as member of Parliament or as leader of the NDP.
Following the 2011 federal election, Layton led the party into the first month of the new session of Parliament, as well as attending the NDP Federal Convention in Vancouver. After Parliament rose for the summer, Layton announced on July 25, 2011, that he would be taking a temporary leave from his post to fight an unspecified, newly diagnosed cancer. He was hoping to return as leader of the NDP upon the resumption of the House of Commons on September 19, 2011. Layton recommended that NDP caucus chair Nycole Turmel serve as interim leader during his leave of absence.
Layton died at 4:45 a.m. ET on August 22, 2011, at his home in Toronto. He was 61 years old.
Upon hearing the news, there was a nationwide outpouring of grief, and Governor General David Johnston, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, NDP deputy leader Libby Davies, and the US ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson issued statements praising Layton and mourning his loss. Layton's family released an open letter, written by Layton two days before his death. In it, he expressed his wishes regarding the NDP's leadership in the event of his death, and addressed various segments of the Canadian population.
Layton was accorded a state funeral, which took place between August 25 and 27, 2011, with the final memorial service at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. Layton was the second leader of the Official Opposition to die while in office; the first, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, had been a former prime minister, and had been given a state funeral under the protocol for prime ministers. Layton was the first Official Opposition leader to die for whom a state funeral would not otherwise have been afforded, but Prime Minister Harper made the offer to Layton's widow who accepted. Layton's body was cremated following the funeral. A portion of his ashes was scattered under a jack pine planted on Toronto Island in his honour, with a second portion scattered at the Layton family's plot at Cote St. Charles United Church in Hudson, Quebec. A third portion was scattered under a memorial sculpted by Chow, placed at the Toronto Necropolis Cemetery on the first anniversary of his death.
== In popular culture ==
Layton's life is portrayed in a 2013 television movie entitled Jack, with Rick Roberts portraying Layton and Sook-Yin Lee as Olivia Chow. The cast also includes Wendy Crewson and Erin Karpluk. It was released on March 10, 2013, and aired on CBC Television.
== Electoral history ==
== Legacy and honours ==
The Jack Layton Ferry Terminal in Toronto was renamed in Layton's honour in 2013, on the second anniversary of his death. A bronze statue of Layton riding on a tandem bicycle was installed at the site.
Jack Layton Way in Toronto was named in 2013 (formerly Don Jail Roadway and parking area in front of the old jail). The street was once part of the driveway to the Don Jail and now being transformed as part of the Bridgepoint Health redevelopment in the Toronto neighbourhood of Riverdale; the community is in Layton's former electoral district of Toronto—Danforth. South side of the roadway is Toronto Public Library Riverdale Branch and Hubbard Park (named after William Peyton Hubbard.)
Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), where Layton was a professor for many years, honoured him by creating the Jack Layton Chair in the Department of Politics and Public Administration. The endowment sponsors several events including the annual Jack Layton Lecture series, the Jack Layton Book Club held in conjunction with Ryerson Archives and which holds discussions about various books that are part of the archive's Jack Layton Collection. As well, the chair sponsors the annual Jack Layton School for Leadership, an annual program aimed at building the leadership capacity of leaders and activists working towards social change.
The Broadbent Institute awards an annual Jack Layton Progress Prize to "recognize the person or organization that has created and fielded an exceptional and successful campaign for progressive change."
Parc Jack-Layton in Layton's hometown of Hudson, Quebec, was named in 2012. Previously known as Hudson Marina, the park is located by the shore of Lake of Two Mountains. Layton's widow, Olivia Chow, along with family members and MP Tom Mulcair, attended the renaming ceremony.
A plaque commemorating Layton was unveiled in 2013 in Toronto's Withrow Park in front on an oak tree that was planted in his memory.
The educational organization Learning for a Sustainable Future has established the LSF Jack Layton Award for Youth Action in Sustainability to honour schools that have "responded to community challenges with creativity, responsible citizenship and innovative action".
Toronto's Woodgreen Community Services renamed their seniors' housing building at 1070 Queen Street East, Jack Layton Seniors' Housing in honour of Layton.
The national headquarters of the federal NDP was named the "Jack Layton Building" after him.
On 7 January 2017 he was posthumously awarded Meritorious Service Cross (MSC) by the Canadian Government.
== Selected works ==
Layton, Jack (2000). Homelessness: The Making and Unmaking of a Crisis. Toronto: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-028888-9. OCLC 45045233.
— (2004). Speaking Out: Ideas that Work For Canadians. Toronto: Key Porter Books. ISBN 978-1-55263-577-3. OCLC 53963558.
— (2006). Speaking Out Louder: Ideas that Work For Canadians. Toronto: Key Porter Books. ISBN 978-1-55263-688-6. OCLC 62346602. (revised and expanded edition of Speaking Out: Ideas that Work For Canadians)
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links ==
New Democratic Party – NDP official website
Jack Layton – Parliament of Canada biography |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfaff%27s | Pfaff's | Pfaff's was a drinking establishment in Manhattan, New York City, known for its literary and artistic clientele.
== Description ==
Opened in 1855 by Charles Ignatious Pfaff, the original Pfaff's was modeled after the German Rathskellers that were popular in Europe at the time. Charles Pfaff's beer cellar was located on Broadway near Bleecker Street (before 1862, Pfaff's address was given as 647 Broadway; after 1865, its location was advertised as 653 Broadway) in Greenwich Village, New York City. To enter the beer cellar—which was actually a vaulted ceiling bar and restaurant—its patrons had to go down a set of stairs.
From the mid-1850s to the late 1860s, Pfaff's was the center of New York's revolutionary culture. As writer Allan Gurganus has said, "Pfaff’s was the Andy Warhol factory, the Studio 54, the Algonquin Round Table all rolled into one."
Habitués included journalist and social critic Henry Clapp, Jr., Walt Whitman, author and actress Ada Clare, poet and actress Adah Isaacs Menken, playwright John Brougham, artist Elihu Vedder, pianist and composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (who also had an affair with Ada Clare), actor Edwin Booth, author Fitz Hugh Ludlow, and humorist Artemus Ward. Whitman called Charlie Pfaff "a generous German restaurateur, silent, stout, jolly," as well as "the best selector of champagne in America." Whitman also wrote an unfinished poem about Pfaff's called "The Two Vaults," which included the lines:
...The vault at Pfaffs where the drinkers and laughers meet to eat and drink and carouseWhile on the walk immediately overhead pass the myriad feet of Broadway...
Writer Fitz James O'Brien also wrote an ode to Pfaff's and to the clientele; an annotated copy of these lyrics titled At Pfaff's was pasted by Thomas Butler Gunn into his 1860 diary and can be seen at The Vault at Pfaff's website.
Clapp, considered by many the "King of Bohemia", founded The Saturday Press as New York's answer to the Atlantic Monthly. Started as a literary magazine, The Saturday Press eventually became a countercultural zine "with a mix of poetry, stories, radical politics, and an enthusiastic spirit of personal freedom and sexual openness. Before it folded in 1868, it published numerous poems by Whitman and a short story by Mark Twain. The Saturday Press championed Leaves of Grass, a move that many view as a significant factor in the success of the 1860 edition."
In 1870, Charles Pfaff moved his business up to midtown. Whitman wrote about Pfaff's in Specimen Days after a visit to the restaurateur's newer location many years later:
An hour’s fresh stimulation, coming down ten miles of Manhattan Island by railroad and 8 o’clock stage. Then an excellent breakfast at Pfaff’s restaurant, 24th Street. Our host himself, an old friend of mine, quickly appear’d on the scene to welcome me and bring up the news, and, first opening a big fat bottle of the best wine in the cellar, talk about ante-bellum times, '59 and '60, and the jovial suppers at his Broadway place, near Bleecker Street.
Ah, the friends and names and frequenters, those times, that place. Most are dead - Ada Clare, Wilkins, Daisy Sheppard, O’Brien, Henry Clapp, Stanley, Mullin, Wood, Brougham, Arnold - all gone.
And there Pfaff and I, sitting opposite each other at the little table, gave a remembrance to them in a style they would have themselves fully confirm’d, namely, big, brimming, fill’d-up champagne-glasses, drain’d in abstracted silence, very leisurely, to the last drop."
== Current status ==
The original location at 653 Broadway eventually became an envelope factory. In 1975, it became a disco called Infinity, which was destroyed by fire in 1979. Today, the location is home to a few shops.
In the spring of 2011, a restaurant and bar using the name The Vault at Pfaff's opened at 643 Broadway, near the original Pfaff's location. It too was accessed by descending a set of stairs, which led into a refurbished cellar. The Vault at Pfaff's has since closed. However, in 2024 a new establishment opened, Delmonico's sister establishment TUCCI- New York by Max Tucci. The restaurant serves modern Italian cuisine in an elegant atmosphere with hints of Gilded Age days.
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Mark A. Lause (2009). The Antebellum Crisis & America's First Bohemians. Kent State University Press. ISBN 978-1-60635-033-1.
Hart, James D. (1995). The Oxford Companion to American Literature (with revisions and additions by Phillip W. Leininger) (6th ed.). Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-506548-0.
Whitley, Edward; Weidman, Rob (eds.). "The Vault at Pfaff's – An Archive of Art and Literature by the Bohemians of Antebellum New York". Lehigh University Digital Library. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
Martin, Justin (September 2, 2014). Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America's First Bohemians. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-82226-1.
"Whitman's New York". PBS. Archived from the original on 2009-12-17.
Tucher, Andie (2006). "Reporting for Duty: The Bohemian Brigade, the Civil War, and the Social Construction of the Reporter". Book History. 9: 131–57. doi:10.1353/bh.2006.0013.
== External links == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittosporum_divaricatum | Pittosporum divaricatum | Pittosporum divaricatum is a species of plant in the Pittosporaceae family. It is a New Zealand endemic shrub growing up to 3 metres high. It has densely entangled branches growing in a divaricating form typical of many New Zealand small leaved shrubs.
It exhibits a form of dimorphism with leaves differing in form between the juvenile and adult stages and in the adult leaves where two distinct forms are found. The juvenile leaves are narrowly lanceolate to obovate with margins pinnatifid to dentate. The adult leaves exist in two forms, either entire, or almost so, or deeply lobed or toothed. The flowers are borne singly on the end of shoots. The petal are up to 5mm long and very dark red, often appearing black, subtended by sepals which are 2mm long. The fruits contain between 2 and 6 seeds.
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Academy_of_Design | National Academy of Design | The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition." Membership is limited to 450 American artists and architects, who are elected by their peers on the basis of recognized excellence.
== History ==
The original founders of the National Academy of Design were students of the American Academy of the Fine Arts. However, by 1825 the students of the American Academy felt a lack of support for teaching from the academy, its board composed of merchants, lawyers, and physicians, and from its unsympathetic president, the painter John Trumbull.
Samuel Morse and other students set about forming a drawing association to meet several times each week for the study of the art of design. Still, the association was viewed as a dependent organization of the American Academy, from which they felt neglected. An attempt was made to reconcile differences and maintain a single academy by appointing six of the artists from the association as directors of the American Academy. When four of the nominees were not elected, however, the frustrated artists resolved to form a new academy and the National Academy of Design was born.
Morse had been a student at the Royal Academy in London and emulated its structure and goals for the National Academy of Design. The mission of the academy, from its foundation, was to "promote the fine arts in America through exhibition and education."
In 2015, the academy struggled with financial hardship. In the next few years, it closed its museum and art school, and created an endowment through the sale of its New York real estate holdings. Today, the academy advocates for the arts as a tool for education, celebrates the role of artists and architects in public life, and serves as a catalyst for cultural conversations that propel society forward.
According to the academy, its 450 National Academicians "are professional artists and architects who are elected to membership by their peers annually."
=== Official names ===
After three years and some tentative names, in 1828 the academy found its longstanding name "National Academy of Design", under which it was known to one and a half centuries. In 1997, newly appointed director Annette Blaugrund rebranded the institution as the "National Academy Museum and School of Fine Art", to reflect "a new spirit of integration incorporating the association of artists, museum, and school", and to avoid confusion with the now differently understood term "design".
This change was reversed in 2017.
1825 The New York Drawing Association
1826 The National Academy of The Arts of Design
1828 The National Academy of Design
1997 The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Art
2017 The National Academy of Design
=== Locations ===
The academy occupied several locations in Manhattan over the years. Notable among them was a building on Park Avenue and 23rd Street designed by architect P. B. Wight and built 1863–1865 in a Venetian Gothic style modeled on the Doge's Palace in Venice. Another location was at West 109th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. From 1906 to 1941, the academy occupied the American Fine Arts Society building at 215 West 57th Street.
From 1942 to 2019, the academy occupied a mansion at 1083 Fifth Avenue, near 89th Street; it had been the home of sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington and philanthropist Archer M. Huntington, who donated the house in 1940.
The National Academy of Design shared offices and galleries with the National Arts Club located inside the historic Samuel J. Tilden House, 14-15 Gramercy Park South from 2019 until 2023.
Currently the home of the National Academy of Design is at 519 West 26th Street, 2nd Floor with offices as well as meeting, event and exhibition space.
== Organization and activities ==
The academy is a professional honorary organization, with a school and a museum.
One cannot apply for membership, which since 1994, after many changes in numbers, is limited to 450 American artists and architects. Instead, members are elected by their peers on the basis of recognized excellence. Full members of the National Academy are identified by the post-nominal "NA" (National Academician), associates by "ANA".
== Notable instructors ==
Among the teaching staff were numerous artists, including Will Hicok Low, who taught from 1889 to 1892. Another was Charles Louis Hinton, whose long tenure started in 1901. The famous American poet William Cullen Bryant also gave lectures. Architect Alexander Jackson Davis taught at the academy. Painter Lemuel Wilmarth was the first full-time instructor. Silas Dustin was a curator.
== Notable members ==
== See also ==
American Watercolor Society (located within the National Academy of Design)
Effects of the Great Recession on museums
List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
Virtual tour of the National Academy of Design at Google Arts & Culture |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Moriah_Wilson | Murder of Moriah Wilson | On the night of May 11, 2022, professional cyclist Anna Moriah "Mo" Wilson was fatally shot by Kaitlin Marie Armstrong at a friend's home in Austin, Texas. Armstrong, a yoga instructor and licensed realtor, committed the crime out of jealousy triggered by Wilson's romantic encounter with her on-and-off boyfriend, pro cyclist Colin Strickland. Prior to her conviction, Armstrong had made flight attempts both as a wanted person and as a detainee: she spent 43 days at large until her capture in Costa Rica, where authorities said she had used different names and changed her appearance to set up a new life. Over a year later, she attempted to flee from custody on the eve of her trial.
== Background ==
=== Victim ===
Anna Moriah Wilson was born on May 18, 1996, in Littleton, New Hampshire, the daughter of Eric and Karen (née Cronin) Wilson and the sister of Matthew Wilson. She grew up in Kirby, Vermont. Wilson graduated from Burke Mountain Academy in 2014, and from Dartmouth College in 2019 with a Bachelor of Engineering (BE).
Raised in a family of athletes, Wilson developed a passion for cycling as a young girl. She was a nationally ranked junior skier, but had become a gravel cyclist. Before her full-time career as a professional cyclist, she had worked as a demand planner for Specialized.
=== Perpetrator ===
Kaitlin Armstrong (born November 21, 1987) grew up in Livonia, Michigan. She graduated from Stevenson High School in 2005, then attended Schoolcraft College and Eastern Michigan University. She has been described as a yoga teacher and licensed realtor.
Armstrong was in a relationship with professional cyclist Colin Strickland. They briefly separated in the fall of 2021, by which point Strickland had met Wilson and began a brief romantic relationship with her. Armstrong and Strickland would later reconcile and resume their relationship.
== Death and investigation ==
On May 11, 2022, Wilson was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds "shortly before 10 p.m." at a friend's residence in Austin, Texas, where Wilson had been staying to compete in a race in Hico. Hours before her death, she had gone out with Strickland for a swim at Deep Eddy Pool and afterward ate dinner. Strickland denied ever going inside Wilson's friend's house after dropping Wilson off and was ruled out as a suspect following a police investigation.
An autopsy ruled Wilson's death a homicide, with three gunshot wounds—two in the head and one in the chest—that occurred "after she was already laying supine on the floor," according to a search warrant. Police named Armstrong a person of interest after video surveillance showed her black Jeep Grand Cherokee arriving at the Austin residence moments before the killing. She was taken into custody over an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for theft. Armstrong made no statement to the police when confronted about the video evidence of her vehicle; however, investigators observed she "turned her head and rolled her eyes in an angry manner" when questioned about how Wilson was with Strickland. She was released on a technicality stemming from discrepancies between her date of birth in the police department's database and the one in the warrant.
Police examined Wilson's phone and concluded that she was romantically tied to Strickland while he was still dating Armstrong. Strickland originally denied knowing the victim when first interviewed, but eventually admitted to the relationship and to keeping communication with Wilson hidden from Armstrong, going so far as to delete text messages from Wilson on his phone while saving her phone number under a pseudonym. Armstrong reportedly became aware of the relationship and expressed a strong desire to kill Wilson, telling an anonymous tipster that she "had either recently purchased a firearm or was going to." Strickland revealed he had bought two handguns for Armstrong and himself. Through a search warrant, police recovered two firearms from the house Strickland shared with Armstrong. A spent shell casing from one weapon, a SIG Sauer P365 handgun belonging to Armstrong, yielded a "significant" match with one found in the crime scene. The search warrant also revealed that Armstrong had visited a shooting range with her sister, Christine Armstrong, "to learn how to use a firearm". On May 17, an arrest warrant for first-degree murder was issued for Kaitlin Armstrong.
== Arrest, trial and conviction ==
Armstrong used her sister's passport to fly to Costa Rica. She assumed fake identities and changed her appearance through plastic surgery. U.S. Marshals located her by placing an ad on Facebook looking for a yoga instructor. After spending 43 days at large, Armstrong was apprehended in a hostel in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, on June 29, 2022. In a press conference about Armstrong's capture, the U.S. Marshals said that she had fled to Costa Rica and sought opportunities to teach yoga under a variety of aliases. They observed that her appearance had changed drastically; her hair had been dyed and cut short, her nose had been bandaged, and there was some discoloration around her eyes, which she reportedly said were caused by a surfboarding accident.
Armstrong was arraigned on July 21, 2022, pleading not guilty to the murder charge. She was held on a $3.5 million bond in Travis County Jail. After delays, the case went to trial on October 30, 2023. Armstrong had lost her bid to suppress evidence of her custodial interrogation with the Austin Police Department, which she argued was illegally obtained because she was not apprised of her Miranda warning. A federal charge of Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution against her was provisionally dismissed as well; legal experts said such a motion was "routine" since she had a constitutional right to a speedy trial.
On October 12, 2023, Armstrong escaped from officers who had escorted her to a medical appointment outside of the jail. She was re-apprehended after a brief chase. She was charged with escape causing bodily injury and the charges were later dropped.
On November 16, 2023, after a trial before Judge Brenda Kennedy, Armstrong was found guilty of murder. She was sentenced to 90 years in prison, with eligibility for parole after 30 years. Armstrong filed an appeal, which was denied. She is imprisoned at the Dr. Lane Murray Unit.
== Civil lawsuit ==
On May 6, 2024, Wilson's parents filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Armstrong, seeking $1 million in damages, but they will "ultimately ask that a jury determine the full value and extent of damages." The compensation will cover burial and funeral expenses as well as emotional damages they suffered as a result of Wilson's death. The lawsuit will also prevent Armstrong from profiting financially from her crime. On June 17, 2024, the judge ordered Armstrong to pay $15 million to the Wilson family.
Three days after Wilson's parents filed their wrongful death lawsuit, Armstrong emptied her bank account and transferred her assets to her mother, sister, and Colin Strickland, according to a nationwide asset search. Wilson's family filed another lawsuit against Armstrong's family and Strickland in July 2024 for fraudulent transfer.
== Adaptation ==
On June 15, 2024, Lifetime did a television movie called Yoga Teacher Killer: The Kaitlin Armstrong Story as part of its "Ripped from the Headlines" feature films. The film stars Caity Lotz as Kaitlin Armstrong, Kyle Schmid as Colin Strickland, and Larissa Dias as Moriah Wilson.
== References ==
== External links ==
Ian Parker: A Murder Roils the Cycling World The New Yorker November 7, 2022 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iftikhar_Hussain_Ansari | Iftikhar Hussain Ansari | Iftikhar Hussain Ansari (26 April 1942 – 30 September 2014), widely known among his followers as Moulvi Sahib, was a Kashmiri Shia cleric, politician, businessman and a proponent of the Grand Ashura Procession In Kashmir. Ansari was a Wakil (Representative) of Ayatollah Sistani. He was also the representative of Ruhollah Khomeini.
He was one of the leading Shia clerics in Kashmir and had close relations with multiple other important scholars such as Sayyid Jawad Shahristani, Mohammad Alavi Gorgani and Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani. He studied at Sultanul Madaris Lucknow, as well as Hawza Najaf.
He succeeded his father Muhammad Jawad Ansari as president of the All Jammu and Kashmir Shia Association in Jammu & Kashmir in 1962, a position which he held for life. He was four-time member of Jammu and Kashmir's Legislative Assembly for the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party from Pattan Assembly segment; he was earlier a member of the National Conference and Congress.
In 1978, He along with Abdul Ghani Lone founded the Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference of which his son and brother are now a part.
== Political career ==
Iftikhar Hussain Ansari was a prominent politician known for his four-term tenure as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Pattan Assembly segment in Jammu and Kashmir. He also served as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) for two non consecutive terms. He garnered a substantial following among the Shia community in the state due to his background as a Shia cleric. He had also served as a Minister of the State Government numerous times, holding portfolios like Housing and Urban Development, a department which he is most well known for having revolutionised. Ansari also focused on environmental issues and is remembered for starting a large scale project to clean the Dal Lake.
Ansari's political journey commenced in the 1960s when he entered the realm of public service. In 1973, he was nominated as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) on the ticket of the Indian National Congress. However, during the 1977 elections, he shifted his allegiance to the Janata Party.
Returning to the Indian National Congress fold in the 1980s, Ansari's leadership qualities were recognized, and he was appointed as the leader of the Legislature party in the Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly from 1983 to 1987.
In 1996, he secured a victory in the state legislative assembly elections, once again on a Congress ticket, and subsequently assumed a ministerial role in the National Conference (NC) government, headed by Farooq Abdullah.
Ansari's association with various political parties continued over the years. In 2002, he joined the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) and successfully contested the election from the Pattan Assembly constituency. However, in 2006, he decided to switch to the People's Democratic Party (PDP). Unfortunately, he faced defeat in the ensuing by-election.
In the 2008 elections, Ansari secured a significant win on a PDP ticket, further solidifying his political standing within the state. As of 2014, he was nominated as the party's candidate for the forthcoming assembly elections, reflecting the trust and support he enjoyed within the party ranks. After his death, his son, Molvi Imran Reza Ansari who was earlier the party’s candidate from Zadibal constituency, was nominated as party candidate for Pattan constituency, and won with a landslide achieving the highest victory margin in the J&K Elections 2014.
== Electoral performance ==
== Assassinations ==
Ansari was thrice the target of unsuccessful assassination attempts. In June 2000, Ansari barely escaped the explosion of a landmine while addressing a religious congregation at Gund Khwaja Qasim. The blast killed twelve of his followers. On 1 September 2000, Ansari was injured by an IED explosion that killed two policemen and a driver. Police suspected the Hizbul Momineen, a terrorist organisation led by Mohammad Abbas Ansari and Ghulam Rasool Noori.
== Death ==
Ansari died at his residence in Dar ul Jawad, Qamarwari, Srinagar on the morning of 30 September 2014 after a prolonged liver illness. Ansari had been undergoing specialized treatment in the United States. Various political, religious and social leaders offered condolences. Several hundred thousand people attended his funeral, shops were closed, and all activities were halted in Shia dominated areas, as a final adieu to their beloved leader. People from all spheres, faiths, and backgrounds attended his funeral and, internationally as well condolences were issues. His funeral procession was taken from his residence in Qamarwari to Imambargah Zadibal where Namaz e Jenazah was offered. He was buried in his ancestral graveyard, Baba Mazar, Alamgari Bazar, Zadibal, Srinagar.
== References ==
== External links ==
"IFTIKHAR HUSSAIN ANSARI Srinagar (JAMMU & KASHMIR)". National Election Watch. My Neta. Retrieved 25 April 2013. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSR_J0437%E2%88%924715 | PSR J0437−4715 | PSR J0437−4715 is a pulsar. Discovered in the Parkes 70 cm survey, it remains the closest and brightest millisecond pulsar (MSP) known. The pulsar rotates about its axis 173.68 times per second and therefore completes a rotation every 5.7574 milliseconds. It emits a searchlight-like radio beam that sweeps past the Earth each time it rotates. Until the Gaia mission, it was the most precisely located object outside of the Solar System, recorded in 2008 at 156.3±1.3 parsecs or 509.8±4.2 light-years distant.
This pulsar is distinguished by being the most stable natural clock known and is debatably more stable than man-made atomic clocks. Its stability is about one part in 1015. Two other pulsars, PSR B1855+09 and PSR B1937+21 are known to be comparable in stability to atomic clocks, or about 3 parts in 1014.
PSR J0437−4715 is the first MSP to have its X-ray emission detected and studied in detail. It is also the first of only two pulsars to have the full three-dimensional orientation of its orbit determined.
Optical observations indicate that the binary companion of PSR J0437-4715 is most likely a low-mass helium white dwarf.
The pulsar is about 1.4 solar mass (M☉) and the companion is about 0.25 M☉. The pair revolve around each other every 5.741 days in nearly perfect circular orbits.
== See also ==
Binary pulsar
== References == |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutter_Prize#:~:text=At%20that%20point%20he%20was%20declared%20the%20first,the%20new%20baseline%20was%20set%20to%2017%2C073%2C018%20bytes. | Hutter Prize | The Hutter Prize is a cash prize funded by Marcus Hutter which rewards data compression improvements on a specific 1 GB English text file, with the goal of encouraging research in artificial intelligence (AI).
Launched in 2006, the prize awards 5,000 euros for each one percent improvement (with 500,000 euros total funding) in the compressed size of the file enwik9, which is the larger of two files used in the Large Text Compression Benchmark (LTCB); enwik9 consists of the first 109 bytes of a specific version of English Wikipedia. The ongoing competition is organized by Hutter, Matt Mahoney, and Jim Bowery.
The prize was announced on August 6, 2006 with a smaller text file: enwik8 consisting of 100MB. On February 21, 2020 both the dataset and the total prize pool were expanded by a factor of 10: from enwik8 of 100MB to enwik9 of 1GB; from 50,000 to 500,000 euros.
== Goals ==
The goal of the Hutter Prize is to encourage research in artificial intelligence (AI). The organizers believe that text compression and AI are equivalent problems. Hutter proved that the optimal behavior of a goal-seeking agent in an unknown but computable environment is to guess at each step that the environment is probably controlled by one of the shortest programs consistent with all interaction so far. However, there is no general solution because Kolmogorov complexity is not computable. Hutter proved that in the restricted case (called AIXItl) where the environment is restricted to time t and space l, a solution can be computed in time O(t2l), which is still intractable.
The organizers further believe that compressing natural language text is a hard AI problem, equivalent to passing the Turing test. Thus, progress toward one goal represents progress toward the other. They argue that predicting which characters are most likely to occur next in a text sequence requires vast real-world knowledge. A text compressor must solve the same problem in order to assign the shortest codes to the most likely text sequences.
Models like ChatGPT are not ideal for the Hutter Prize for a variety of reasons, they might take more computational resources than those allowed by the competition (computational and storage space).
== Rules ==
The contest is open-ended. It is open to everyone. To enter, a competitor must submit a compression program and a decompressor that decompresses to the file enwik9 (formerly enwik8 up to 2017). It is also possible to submit a compressed file instead of the compression program. The total size of the compressed file and decompressor (as a Win32 or Linux executable) must be less than or equal 99% of the previous prize winning entry. For each one percent improvement, the competitor wins 5,000 euros. The decompression program must also meet execution time and memory constraints.
Submissions must be published in order to allow independent verification. There is a 30-day waiting period for public comment before awarding a prize. In 2017, the rules were changed to require the release of the source code under a free software license, out of concern that "past submissions [which did not disclose their source code] had been useless to others and the ideas in them may be lost forever."
== Winners ==
== See also ==
List of computer science awards
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website |
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